Burarth and friends, stay away.
Sorry for the vague title, I will now provide further details.
The party is heading to a tiny village next session to investigate some weird events that have been happening lately, namely recurrent earthquakes that have been growing in intensity and very abnormal behavior by pets and farm animals, including the disappearance of some.
The reason for these is that a cult of druids is performing a long ritual in the catacombs hidden under the village, to resurrect a dragon that once protected this region and ended up petrified in these catacombs but an ancient mage when humans migrated here for the first time.
I already have a couple of things in mind to allude to this dragon: the village is called Dragon's Tail, it has a bronze statue of a dragon's tail as a memento to this dragon (the tip of the dragon's tail is actually enclosed in the bronze), and of course the elder people of the village will have heard and believe in the legend of the dragon that used to protect this region and the ancient mage who defeated it. However, I'm a bit lost as to how my players can reach the conclusion that there's something going on under the village, in some catacombs that the more recent plants of the village would not even show... I know they will ask around, use detect magic, detect good and evil, etc, but I am not sure how to sprinkle clues around that when pieces together lead to the desired conclusion...
I would also like to run this as a sort of times event, where the earthquakes start getting more and more intense as the ritual progresses, and if the party doesn't find it and stop it in time, the dragon will be successfully resurrected and be a problem later.
Anyway, apologies for the long text, I appreciate anyone reading and commenting, thank you!

Parade
Holly and Grove’s tree outfits were well received, earning second only to Waveria and Pike’s pool tarp couture outfits.
Training
Holly and Grove threw axes side by side, and apparently had agreed to ally the night before. Waveria swam in the pool and threw a trident, while Pike worked with rope and fish hooks.
Meanwhile Henna and Jerry (both 2) threw spears, and Janina and Helios (both 2) used swords. Intel and Gene (both 3) hid in the electrical station, while Gianna (5) and Decatur (6) worked in the camouflage station. Hemma and Roy (both 8) worked on sewing armor, while Anne (9) and Julian (10) sparred with machetes. Lilibet (11) worked in the plant station, while Jedediah (12) worked in the medical station.
Assessments
Waveria threw tridents and scored a 7, while Pike showed a display on how to easily tie up another tribute using a fish hook and rope. Holly and Grove threw axes with strong precision and scored 7s.
Other strong scores included Janina scoring a 9, Helios scoring a 10, and Jedediah scoring an 8.
Weaker scores included Intelle, Hemma, and Lilibet at the bottom of the pack scoring 3s.
Odds
Waveria was given odds of 6 to 1, while Holly and Grove had odds of 7 to 1. Pike had odds of 10 to 1.
Interviews
Euphemia Demigloss wore a golden dress in honor of District 2’s victory the previous year.
When it was Waveria’s turn, she spoke of wanting to win for her sister, and to prove that the BlueStar family could produce victors.
Pike talked about being an expert with rope and fishhooks, and how he hoped to win.
Holly explained that she wanted to be a table maker, but being a victor would be just as good.
Grove said that his ax skills were strong, and he looked forward to proving this in the arena.
Game Maker Juliana Ricci was interviewed next, and she gave her clue word, which this Games was “space.”
Tube Rooms
The next morning the tributes were dressed and flown to the arena, and had their trackers placed in their arms halfway through. They were taken to their tube rooms upon arrival.
Steward visited Waveria first, and gave her a hug and wished her luck. He then visited Pike, and told him to find a place to hide.
Mahogany visited Holly first, and wished her luck, and when he visited Grove, it became apparent that Mahogany thought Grove was more likely to win when he said this to the young man, hugging him.
Once all 24 tributes were in their tubes, they rose up into the arena.

I have a group of people targeting me and it involves those websites when you Google your phone number. The ones with the string of names and a .ru or something else domain.
I worked with someone who wanted me gone. They are involved in drugs, prostitution, identity theft, laundering, and other things. Here's a little back story.
I lived in Arizona up until 23, where I left to go live in North Carolina. When I came back, things were fine at first. I got a job from my friend at a pizza place and people there were friendly. After a while I started noticing strange things at work and where I lived. I lived with a group of people I knew since I was young, so I trusted them.
It started when my roommates were up til 3am tapping on pipes and stomping on the floor. I didn't think much of it but it kept happening. My FOCUS was caught. I didn't bother asking them, because it seemed trivial since I slept there in a loft for cheap. It started to get worse.
I noticed my boss was bringing up topics relevant only to me and my closest friends, the people I lived with. He started to have my focus too. I asked my best friend if he told him anything, and he denied it. Nobody else could have known these things and told my boss about them except my best friend. It became unsettling how he strung together my life experiences throughout the day. Bringing up seizures and broken ankles and other things from my childhood.
I noticed one of my roommates, who I didn't know almost at all, was starting to speak louder and say things relevant to me then say "I'm going to bury this guy".
At one point, my boss started getting more people involved and speaking in a weird way so that I would pay more attention to their words. Phrasing things strangely and swapping words around. I started to become really paranoid when conversations would carry over. I would be at work talking with my boss, then get an Uber home, and the Uber driver would pick up the conversation where me and my boss left off. So on the day he brought up seizures (I asked him if he had experience with them, he said no) then the Uber driver brought them up immediately as I got in the car. It was as if there was a constant communication happening about me. They all started to carry over between home, work, and the commute inbetween. I never felt like I was having a new conversation. It all started to blend and it felt like my life was being picked apart.
I remember trying to learn how they were speaking so I could communicate. I realize now that what they were doing was setting up a dialogue that only they understood, so I would think I'm talking like everyone else but they're picking apart my words. At one point I didn't feel safe and tried to get my boss to leave me alone by getting police involved. What happened the next day was a line drawn in front of the shop door, two holes (insinuating shots) in the window next door and police tape covering an area with nothing to actually cover. The police did eventually look around, but it didn't amount to anything. I've tried communicating this to as many people I know. Only two who live out of state told me that it sounds like I needed to leave and find safety. Everyone else who I knew brushed it off.
Fast forward, I confronted my friends and my boss about all this. They denied everything. They kept saying they have no idea what I'm talking about. They have no clue what I mean. It got worse when they started moving my things around. They took my electronics or water bottles and would place them in strange spots. I'd leave a room, come back and something would be different. Near one of the peaks, I accused my best friend exactly of what he was doing and he said "if I'm doing that, I'm sorry". I'm not sure what to make of that.
I can't remember why, but I decided to Google my phone number. I saw a bunch of .ru and .tr sites with various names. I could click on those sites and it would take me to a long list of numbers and names. After I spoke to the police, I no longer had access to these sites. They became redirects to phonesear.ch websites. I suspect there is a whitelist or blacklist to access these sites. I've seen the sites brought up before and people suspect criminal activity, but I believe it's more than that.
People started to insinuate that I'd be stabbed, shot, drugged, or hurt in some way. I became a paranoid mess. I had to leave that job and I moved in with family. It didn't get any better. The way my family was talking was like how everyone at work and at my other place was talking. There were moments though I could break through and get them to speak coherently. Other people I didn't know would have normal dialogue too, so I know it wasn't just me mishearing everyone.
The taps and stomps I mentioned earlier that my roommates were doing, I now believe were intentional. I noticed that there were a lot of bird calls nearby in the area. Separate and rhythmic from actual bird sounds. There was a pattern to them. My focus was drawn again. I started to notice more of a cricket or chirping noise at night. I thought maybe some bugs or something had gotten in the house so I would ignore it.
One night I heard something that froze me. I heard "do you think he noticed" in a whisper. It was dead quiet outside and everyone was asleep. I wasn't able to sleep and kept listening for more. I was pacing around the kitchen trying to figure out where it came from. I heard that chirping noise again and because I couldn't sleep, decided to investigate.
I walked next to an outlet in the wall, and realized the sound was coming from that direction. I couldn't see anything, a bug or otherwise in the cabinets or behind anything. Going outside and the noise stopped. I knew something was inside somewhere.
This happened multiple nights in a row, me looking for something making this noise. As I was looking one night, I heard another whisper "what's he looking for". I responded, I can't remember what I said, but the chirping stopped and I heard ringing in my ears. I heard a faint "did he hear us".
I couldn't understand what was happening, my body went into some kind of shock and I got cold. I went to lay down and calm myself. I didn't believe I had heard that. After a few moments with myself to assess my mental health, I decided to let it go for the night. The chirps started again, softer but faster. A higher pitch frequency.
One night, I remember looking up at my grandparents ceiling and seeing a thin line with a small strip just behind the surface. It looked like a wire. I thought it was strange, but I kept it in the back of my head. Eventually the chirping stops, or I thought it did. What the chirping did was pull my focus further in. I started to notice stranger things. One night I saw someone walking through our backyard. Another night, there were people out front behind cars making those same bird calls from earlier. It was obvious something was being communicated to me. I heard someone audibly outside say "come here". I quickly looked out the window and saw their feet underneath and behind a truck. One of the neighbors said "he knows you're there."
Paranoia had turned into self defense and investigation when I realized I was being targeted and nobody was trying to help. I tried reporting this to the FBI, however it isn't easy to get someone out here. I also can't trust local law enforcement.
The people after me have become more blatant with their communication and I'm going to share with you how. The tapping, the strange way they formed sentences, the chirps, the frequency of them increasing, was all a way for them to pull my focus for the next part.
That wire I thought I saw in the ceiling, did in fact turn out to be a wire. When the chirping eventually got so fast and high pitched, I noticed it was coming from more than one location. There were almost hot spots for this high pitch ringing.
I'm having trouble explaining this next part, but I'm doing my best. If you have a high enough frequency pitch, then it leaves a ringing in your ears. Now, if you couple that with someone's speech, then that ringing will carry their voice throughout the ring and further into your ears.
How I know that what is in the ceiling is a wire, is because one night I heard the frequency coming from that exact spot. I stabbed in the ceiling and the high pitch noise stopped. I didn't feel tense anymore. However, the ringing in my ears said "what did he just do?" I decided to respond, again not remembering what I said being too freaked out, but they replied "oh he gets it"
There have been wires planted in my grandparents home. People are using sound frequencies in the town I live in to communicate and/or kill. I know my family is part of it, they constantly wear noise cancelling ear pieces and speak like the people who are after me. They are either part of this and want me gone or are being used. I am unsure which. I know they're being spoken to tho. I can hear the same voices from the wire coming from their ear pieces. I've tried going up in the attic, but the floor boards are removed and any attempt to get up there is stopped by my family who is always home.
I've tried going late at night, but I hear someone say my mom's name and that she needs to get her son, then she comes out to scold me. I've found at least 12 hot spots, with some of them being inside things like light fixtures that I can't get to without going up to the attic. The ones in the ceiling, I've stabbed and they stopped emitting any pitch.
I've tried communicating because I know they hear me and they know I can hear them. They've said that they're hear to kill, they've said they were hear to pay me, they said it's all a joke and none of it is real, and they said they're rich assholes who are playing God (their words)
I've done a few things. I've tried tracking what frequency they're using. It just keeps getting higher tho. I've recorded with my shotgun mic to try and pickup any audio interference, I can vaguely make out what they're saying in some of the recordings. I baited it one night by recording, saying I was going to make a sandwich and then hearing in the recording them talking about it. Right now I have scattered evidence, don't know who to get it to or where to even focus. All of the audio high pitch feels like both an attack and distraction from their business, since the audio is much harder to explain.
I know this is bigger than just where I worked because at another job I had, they were all focusing on me, talking in the same strange way, and I caught how they were using that business. It was a thrift shop, and I would see the same product donated and sold constantly. It was a money laundering spot. What's worse is I believe I saw them scouting for a young woman. I saw an older man taking someone's photo with one of my coworkers intentionally stopping behind her in order to mark her.
At the very beginning of the thread I mentioned those strange sites when you Google your phone number. These are a collection of personal info about who you are. The numbers and names correlate to your patterns throughout the day. It's how they keep track of you and move you around. Ever since I've been targeted, I've been googling everyday because even tho I can't get on the site, the search results still show and change. Right now I have a bunch of "untitled" which means they've discovered some new behavior pattern I'm doing (which is intentional on my end to track).
What I need right now is a suggestion on who I can get out here, who I can get this info to, because this feels much larger than I initially thought. I'm not entirely sure where to go from here. It's not exactly easy explaining all this to someone over the phone or online, I feel like I need someone physically here to see what I mean. I believe I am the target of some kind of sonic warfare because of what I saw. They know I know because I confided in my friends, who I didn't know were part of it.

Ok so this is my official head cannon for TOH timeline.
Long ago, the human realm and the demon realm lived in harmony. Humans and demons could travel between worlds as desired and there were no witches yet. Titans mostly remained in the demon realm, but collectors remained mostly in the human realm. Overtime, collectors become know as “gods” to the humans who remained in the human realm, causing the beginnings of the various religions we see today.
One day, the collectors decided that they to become gods of the demon realm as well. They were successful with some groups (such as the titan hunters). But, the titans would not allow them to harm their followers. So began he great titan-collector war. To protect as many humans as possible, the titans closed off the doorways between the two realms. Any humans that were trapped in the demon realm were granted a bile sack by the titans for their own protection, creating witches. This is why witches have such a strong resemblance to humans and always worship the titans, while the collector worshipers are never seen using magic but also resemble humans.
As the war raged on, some witches and demons seemed an escape from the violence. So, they invented the portal doers to travel between realms. This allowed small groups of witches and demons to seek refuge in the human realm. However, they weren’t welcomed with open arms. In fact, the sprouted the birth of witch and demon hunters.
Once the war came to an end, word began to spread to those hiding in the human realm. So, many began to seek a way back to the demon realm to escape the violence of the witch hunters. That is how the portal in old gravesfield was built. Now witches and demons can once more freely travel between worlds, although most chose not to. After some time, Evelyn was one of the few that travelled between realms and she fell in love. This led to Bellos’ origin story, where he discovered the portal in old gravesfield and entered the demon realm.
We all know what happens from here. Bellos takes over, covenns, day of unity, luz and the gang, yadda yadda yadda.
Now for the events after the show. It’s been quite some time that the gang has been in college. King knows almost all of his glyphs and Luz is practically master at them and string bean. One day, while Luz is just going about her day, the collector comes to visit. The collector explains that he has spent all this time attempting to come to a truce among the other collectors. However thing did not go as planned and they are instead on the verge of a full-blown war. A war among the collectors would destroy both the human and demon realms. The collector asks Luz for help in preventing the war. Luz agrees and they plan to meet up the next day.
In the meantime, Luz goes to recruit the help of the rest of the gang in this adventure. However, one by one, she sees how happy all of her friends are with their current lives. She feels guilty for pulling them away from their happiness back into having the fate of the world on their shoulders, like they did with Bellos. So, she decides not to inform them about the current situation.
The next day she meets up with the collector, alone. The collector is concerned about her choice, but trusts Luz. So, they go to the collectors to attempt to make peace. But it doesn’t go as planned, and the collectors are instead insulted that a human thought she could resolve any of this. This resulted in both Luz and the collector being imprisoned, after the collectors chose to seek mercy since one was a pathetic human and the other was a child.
After a few days, Amity, Hunter, Willow, Gus, King, and Camilla begin to worry that they haven’t heard from Luz. So they all meet up and begin to search for her. They search all her favorite places and her dorm room, but there’s not a single clue. As the sit outside watching the sunset, discussing what to do next, the sky suddenly turns red. Small flaming meteors begin to rain down. They cause the the ground and plants to catch fire. The group run for cover inside their school, helping anyone they see take cover as well.
As the group is helping everyone take cover, Amity looks up at the sky and sees stars. She calls the group over, and they conclude that they are looking at hundreds of collectors. Seeing no other choice, they decided to take a bold action. And, it paid off. They successfully isolate and restrain a single collector (with a lot of help from king). They attempt to interrogate him. What’s going on? What are you doing? Where is Luz? But, the collector will only say one thing:
“Collectors live long, We watch things pass. To preserve, To observe, We must amass, What flies what swims, Be it predator or prey, Seal them up so they may never fade. But should they meddle in our affairs, We’ll clean the planet and scorch the air.”
The group concludes that Luz must have tried to do something to prevent this. (Cue why didn’t she tell us rant). Nevertheless, they come up with a plan. Amity and Gus use Gus’s illusion magic to get into the collectors’ prison, while the rest stay back to protect everyone. There they find Luz and the collector locked up, and free them. They have a heartfelt moment of never doing anything alone blah blah blah. Then they return to the others.
By the time they return Eda, Lilith, and hooty have joined the group. Together they try to come up with a plan. Upon doing research, they found that the human realm was created milenias ago using titan magic. This is why titan blood is required to move between realms. They decide that the only solution is for king to to create a new realm for the collectors. But, king is not powerful enough. So they use the ✨power of friendship✨ to help create the new realm. And, the are successful. The lock the collectors in this new realm, with the collector having access to move between realms. And the collectors will remain trapped there, until the collector can get them to change their mindset.
Everyone lives happily ever after the end. Thank you for coming it my Ted talk.

"Happiness comes from a perception of life. Life is a pursuit of singular moments, experiences and sacrifices. It is the limitations of this perception that make those moments possible. For such a limitation a sacrifice must be made, a sacrifice towards a perception of death."
Raanu was the boy who read these words out-loud to his mom and dad. He was in the hospital bed when he read aloud the last speech bubble in his comic book stack. He had read the entire series of Silver Swordsman, knew every adventure as though they were his own. His parents had denied him comic books, especially violent and strange ones like Silver Swordsman. They didn't understand the giant robots and mutants and suicidal immortals of the future. It was all very frightening and disturbing content and they had not let him have such stories.
That had changed when they discovered he had a rare malignancy in his heart that would result in his death within months. Raanu was not afraid. He told his parents that since he was going to die it would make sense to let him read comic books, even Silver Swordsman. In fact, it was the Silver Swordsman comics he was most interested in.
The stories began with the boy Raanu sitting by the water with his friend: a giant robot named Unit Three-Sixteen. Raanu was the youngest human on the planet, or one of the youngest. In the future everyone lived forever and it was rare for new people to be born. New people, children, were especially interesting and cared for by the other immortals. Thus, in a world attended by some mere hundreds of giant robots with super powers, Raanu was accompanied by his very own, personal giant robot.
He asked the robot about things like war and death, things that had become obsolete before the advent of the giant robots. In all of its wisdom it could do no more than define such things. Then people came to where Raanu and the giant robot were sitting. Across the water was a temple that controlled the flow of energy in their world. Energy generated by human emotions. As long as the world had existed in tranquility and harmony there was no pain or suffering of any kind.
Raanu and his giant robot watched as the people went into the temple and used its power to obliterate themselves. The lethean energies flowed outward and corrupted the giant robots. Only Unit Three-Sixteen was unaffected, because of its exact proximity when it all started. Unit Three-Sixteen was hit the hardest with the blast of awful energy and was knocked out by it and left with its emotitronics intact, more-or-less. The others of its race did not fare so well. The other empathicals rampaged and the horror escalated as they fed on the new and horrible energy from the humans.
It was Raanu who stood up to the machines and he died a hero. His sacrifice and courage activated Unit Three-Sixteen. The surviving humans made a weapon for the last of their defenders. Thus it became Silver Swordsman, as it did what had to be done. Of the entire giant race, only one remained, for that one had killed all of its own kind in defense of the humans. And for its efforts it became a symbol of oppression and destruction, as it now stood in place of all of its kind.
That was just the first issue of Silver Swordsman. His parents had originally confiscated it and forbade him to read any more. He was an obedient child and did not defy his mother or father. Even when his thoughts made him daydream of the story, he wished away his imaginings, and focused on schoolwork.
At night when his parents left the hospital he would lay awake and thank God he was dying. He no longer had to eat his vegetables, he no longer had to do any schoolwork and he got to read all of the Silver Swordsman comics. His parents hated the books he was reading but he loved them and so they allowed it.
As he dreamed: he went to the places he had seen in the stories. So vivid and full of color and detail. The amount of adventure and action was almost overwhelming. There were many passages with strange ideas in them, the thoughts and musings of the characters, so that he often had to ask his father what was meant.
At first, his father was very guarded about speculating on the meaning of the aggregate of concepts that the books frequently struggled with. Characters had very strange ideas about death, gratitude, love, time, regret, courage, justice, perseverance, immortality, healing, warfare and truth. In short, the heroes rejected the common understanding of all of these things and replaced them with strange new definitions.
Raanu's father, Mukherjee, was a philosophical man. On one hand he put his business first so that he could provide for his family. Otherwise, Mukherjee valued wisdom and understanding and was willing to ruminate to discover the truth about something.
He paid attention to his son's understanding of the characters and their world. In the context of the stories, everything they believed made perfect sense. To his son the characters appealed for a more careful perception of one's own life. To enter the world of Silver Swordsman was to realize that life is so precious and that the struggle to survive is what appraises the value of one's life.
After one hundred and thirty one issues the series ended. It ended with the last humans standing on the precipice of the universe in the path of an implacable force. Death was certain for the characters and Silver Swordsman. They had battled all throughout the stories against increasingly impossible adversaries. Then, as the quest neared completion, it was certain that all would be obliterated anyway, in the end.
It was confusing and scary and disturbing. The entire comic book series was, in fact, quite depressing. One by one the heroes all fell against enemies that could not be defeated. Even Silver Swordsman could barely stand against the villains and was usually beaten down rather than victorious.
Mukherjee asked the man at the comic book store about Silver Swordsman comics. What he was told made it all the more frightening. The reason the comics had ended was because the lead writer was now deceased. He was diagnosed with a rare malignancy in his heart and he had walked out into a cold Christmas night and sat down in the frost to die. This was all known to the guy at the comic book store, yet the comics themselves held a unique status among fans.
Silver Swordsman comics were already rare at the time they were published. Mukherjee had to pay a small fortune for the whole series. The comic book guy had asked him why he was so interested. He explained that these comics were an oddity. They were extremely violent and creepy and filled with strange ideas about how people should perceive their lives. Mukherjee looked at him and asked:
"Is all of that different from other comic books?" He asked.
"The opposite of other comic books. Of fiction, in-general, sir." The comic book guy explained carefully. "Comic books should make you happy, laugh, thrilled and make you want more. Silver Swordsman, isn't it just this guy's weird ideas? It deals heavily with suicide and he actually killed himself. I wouldn't let my kids read this stuff, I don't even want to read this stuff."
"My son is reading these books." Mukherjee said soberly. "They make him happy."
To this the man decided to respond professionally and to make no further comments. Another man in the comic book store walked over with Wonder Woman Volume Three. He knew Mukherjee's family and said:
"That man's son is Raanu and he is dying." The friend of Mukherjee said.
"Everyone who reads Silver Swordsman finds some personal connection to it." The comic book guy recalled.
The snow was falling outside his hospital window. Raanu sighed and opened issue seventy-one. There was something he wanted to check on. He had noticed that the darkness, named Umbraeon, was already creeping across the sky in the background before Svetlana waded into the Pool Of Time. This meant that there was more to Umbraeon's arrival. Raanu had suspected that Umbraeon was always growing before anyone had noticed. He had thought that in some silent and hidden corner of the story: the most terrifying and formidable opponent of-all was growing all-along.
Encouraged to search for more clues he did so. He discovered that in some panels the characters seemed to be speaking directly to him. He read those ones with greater care. They were instructing him to do as they did, to seek the places where the silence had taken form, to find and annihilate the shadows where they were growing like a cancer. His eyes widened as he realized and said out-loud:
"It's real."
And he grinned. In these stories, death was no more powerful than lies or pain, had no more authority than gratitude or justice. In the world of Silver Swordsman, death was an idea, an illusion. If the stories were all true then that meant that they were right about death. Which meant he need not die in vain.
Mukherjee saw that his son had not slept. While his wife had gone to get lunch he asked his son:
"Have the comics kept you awake?" He asked patiently.
"Yes, father!" Raanu said excitedly. "The comics are real! The stories are all true!"
"No." Mukherjee said. "They were written by a man who was sick. The truth of those stories is all sickness."
"Who is he father? Is he sick like me?" Raanu asked.
"He got sick just like you. He chose to let himself die. I am afraid of what his words are doing to you." Mukherjee was honest with his son.
"His words have taught me that death is not worth fearing. That it is more important to embrace the moment of life. He has taught me that when it ends, all that matters is what we left behind, what we did to make the world better while we were here. That it is evil to live a life of self-indulgence. That it was such an evil that will destroy the world if we do not change our ways. When I read these stories, father, it is like a mirror. It is like it is with you, talking to my own father about life and death, about stories and truth." Raanu explained without hesitation. He had learned much from the books. Mukherjee's fears were slaughtered by the shining sword of his son's beautiful words. The father began to cry in front of his son and then he apologized.
Of all the monsters and villains in the stories only one could be held responsible like a father. Svetlana's long lost father Arvil. He was a very important villain because he had promoted ignorance of both his family and his people. He was not a singular villain but rather the sum of his society. He was a famous poet and it was he that had started the group of people that had killed themselves and sparked the end of their world.
Raanu told his own father just how much he loved and appreciated him. He knew that his own father was the opposite of the character he had in mind. Mukherjee was the enemy of ignorance and he would do anything to protect his family or save his people. The boy wished that somehow his own father's face would appear in the stories to somehow guide the last surviving heroes and Silver Swordsman to a happier destiny. Maybe in the end they could save the universe from ultimate destruction. Raanu knew that is not how the story was supposed to end, but looking at his own father it felt possible.
A month later it was Christmas and a sort of darkness stood like a black hole in the sky. The street lights flickered and the trees twisted off the snow and wandered in search of robots to devour. Marauders shed their humanity to steal immortality and feathered dragons tore the snow filled skies. In a fever he could only recall his favorite moments, grinning and laughing. He would turn and tighten only to see his mom and dad watching and he would relax and smile for them.
It was snowing on Christmas night after his parents left. Raanu had grown very weak, but his unfading smile bore his parents to their rest. Silver Swordsman stood in terrible vigil over the boy like an angel.
"When it is time...to the Temple take me." Raanu told Silver Swordsman. "I must set things right in your world. I have a job to do there."
"I know, my boy. It is almost time." Silver Swordsman towered over him in the hospital room: time and space becoming less relevant with each passing moment. The whole place seemed to stretch to fit the giant robot and the snow was swirling everywhere, inside and out.
Then a kind of silence, a sort of stillness seemed to be holding it all as a snowglobe. There in his hospital bed lay his remains. He looked at them, at the stack of comics next to his body. Then he turned and saw that the wall was as though he were looking up out of water at a blue sky. He went into this, and the light left the room behind, and went with him, and it was him, he was the light.
He sat looking at his reflection in the still waters he had gone through to be here. The ground was level in all directions and the great Temple Of Humanity stood across from him where he sat at the Pool Of Time. Beside him was the giant robot Unit Three-Sixteen.
"I knew that this would happen. As soon as I died I came here. This is where I am supposed to be. I was just there to know why." Raanu stood up and proclaimed.
"Died?" Unit Three-Sixteen asked.
"That's right, you don't know anything about death yet." Raanu puzzled out-loud. He suddenly realized he was in issue number one of Silver Swordsman, the absolute beginning of everything. With a worried look he glanced over and saw that the Cyclists were coming. It wasn't too late to put a stop to everything bad that was going to happen.
"Those people plan to die inside the Temple Of Humanity. They will release a lot of negative anima at once. It will be the end of GAIA. The world will know nothing more than hunger and suffering and you will be the last of your kind." Raanu told Unit Three-Sixteen frantically.
"I can feel your fear, Raanu. What do I do?" Unit Three-Sixteen worried. It knew something was dreadfully wrong with the scene.
"Get me to them, quickly!" Raanu commanded. The giant robot obeyed him and lifted him to its shoulder and strode to the Temple Of Humanity. Raanu was placed on the path of the Cyclists to confront them.
"You should not be here, Raanu. You are just a child, you cannot understand." Arvil told the boy. He and the rest of the first wave of Cyclists stood in robes of patterns in black and white and many wore comedy or tragedy masks of opposing shades.
"I understand exactly what you are about to do. I've seen what happens, the world ends because of you. People hate you after this." Raanu pointed at them each.
"You don't know what it is like to live the way we have, for so long. It becomes meaningless. We need this, we need a final experience." Shatia spoke up in her high voice. She took off her mask and beheld her descendant. Like a little prince, she mused.
"What you are doing will destroy the world. I have had this final experience already. It only taught me that we are all meant for more, meant to do more, say more and feel more than we do. We live in ignorance, forging our own darkness and our own silence. You have made a death for yourselves in your minds and now you intend to inflict it on everyone." Raanu, like his father, could say the truth to someone without cowardice.
"How? How can you stand there and stop us?" Arvil felt his ancient resolve weakening. As a poet, it broke his heart to hear the plain truth. It was like a gleaming sword, cutting through the nonsense that he and his followers had invented.
"I will die over and over again, it seems, until this moment is dragged out into the light of day. There is a darkness behind every panel, a silence behind every period and a shadow over everyone's head. I know, I went back and read it all again to be sure. It was here all-along. It started at the very beginning with the very shadows you are casting now. By the end, only enough light is left in all the universe for one of the last people to say one last thing. Then it all goes to darkness and death, forever." Raanu recalled vividly.
"You would have us turn back. Go back to unending misery?" Shatia asked her great-nephew. She was one of the youngest among the Cyclists.
"Both are choices. One of these choices, I have explained, is a path that will start with your deaths and never end until the whole universe is dead." Raanu nodded.
"We have a right to die." Arvil protested.
"Svetlana meets you in the future, in the past before this happens, but she never finds out why you wrote Argosy, your most famous poem." Raanu was not afraid of Arvil's cowardice. He knew the man better than he knew himself.
Arvil willingly recited his poem to avoid the explanation:
"See now this plain of spoil,
Where cowed all Mans' toil,
To sit bemused without,
Thoughts belabored in drought,
So forth she clings to East,
Or North she turns to least,
But never strays her heart,
Not fallen since the start,
And plants her seed of truth,
The sun rises as proof,
Sacred words she has kept,
How the mighty have wept."
"So what does it mean? This?" Raanu tried not to smile when he saw he had broken the character Arvil. Arvil fell to his knees as he realized he had become the enemy of his own truth. It had not occurred to him until he was confronted with the truth laid bare and obvious. There was no shadow to hide his feelings within. Death would never be an escape from his self loathing, it would only be the proof of it. He himself became the mighty one weeping at the end.
"What have I done?" He tore off his robes and flung them away. He turned on his followers and screamed a damnation upon them for standing behind him. He walked through them and left them there. Without him, many of them did the same. Some left with their masks still on, unwilling to reveal who they were.
Raanu stood there alone with his giant robot. The Temple Of Humanity was operating at low power and the surge of excitement from the boy made the empathicals all around the world stand up and chuckle happily. The giant robots were genius artisans and sculptors and architects that had sat in boredom and decline for too long. Renewal lit them up with vitality and inspiration.
Overcome with a sense of purpose and triumph: he laughed.

Parade
Sabina and Atticus were close to winning first, but the scarecrow outfits of Michetta and Milton ended up winning first.
Training
Sabina worked in the spear station while Atticus worked in the sword station. Michetta worked with scythes, while Milton hid in the cultivation station.
Meanwhile Via and Nolan (both 1) threw knives, while Nica (3), revealed to be the twin sister of Nisa from the previous Games. stayed in the electrical station. Wateria and Reid (both 4) swam in the pool together. Ron (5) worked in the explosives station, while Verona and Derry (both 6) camouflaged themselves into a wall. Balsara (7) climbed trees, while Cameo (8) worked in the sewing station. Dina and Denis (both 10) worked with machetes, while Rosalia (11) hid in the plant station, and Bodhi (12) worked in the medical station.
Assessments
Sabina was reported to have scored a 9 for spear throwing, while Atticus scored a 10 for sword fighting a peacekeeper. Michetta scored a 7 for using a scythe, while Milton scored a weak 4 for explaining about how to cultivate wheat.
Other strong scores included Dina and Denis, who scored 8s alongside Via and Ron. The weakest scores went to Nica and Rosalia, who both scored a 3.
Odds
Sabina had odds of 4 to 1, while Atticus had odds of 3 to 1. Michetta had odds of 6 to 1, while Milton had odds of 20 to 1.
Interviews
This year, Plutaria Snow was replaced by the peppier and younger Euphemia Demigloss, a blonde young lady who wore a silver dress, and was only nineteen.
Sabina wore a gold dress, and Euphemia joked that they both looked like models. Sabina explained that she wanted to prove that younger volunteers could win the Games.
Atticus wore a gold suit, and talked about how he was excited to win, and give District 2 another victor.
Michetta wore a beige dress, and talked about how she was excited to represent District 9, and hopefully pull out a win.
Milton was a bit shy and did not talk much, but luckily Euphemia spoke enough for two.
Game Maker Juliana Ricci gave her clue, which this Games was “shore”.
Tube Rooms
The next morning, the tributes were flown by hovercraft to the arena, and had their trackers implanted into their arms. Once at the arena, they were taken to their tube rooms.
Horus visited Sabina first, and told her that he had won with unusual circumstances, and that she could do the same. He then visited Atticus, and embraced him, wishing him the best of luck.
Miller visited Milton first, simply wishing him luck, before entering Michetta’s tube room and giving her a big hug, wishing her luck and telling her to take a backpack and run.
Once all 24 tributes were in their tubes, they rose up into the arena.