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Worlds Asunder Card Texts
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The card texts below are free only for personal use; they may not be freely used for commercial purposes. Quotations must include an attribution to "Worlds Asunder card game" or "Gardener of Thoughts". See the rules for the full license.
GenesisThe dawn of intergalactic travel is so close that its electric body galvanizes the minds of thousands of scientists and millions of wannabe colonists. Quantum engineering, 3D printing and artificial intelligence are pervasive branches of science, intertwined with every aspect of daily life. Everybody has access to them, everybody uses them. The graviton is tamed and has sent the solar system abuzz, teeming with ships, robots and people. But the dark side of humanity is showing its claws. The human civilization has been polarized by the people who want to acquire and maintain their power over the masses. The humans of this world are in conflict. One man has breached the very wheelwork of Nature and has found a way to go anywhere in an instant, jumping through space as if walking through open doors between worlds. The leaders of the United Planets Alliance are trying to find this man and obtain control over the greatest achievement of mankind: the obliteration of any barriers of space. It is your destiny to intervene and set mankind on its path to the future you wish for. Join your forces with others like you, breathe life into your faction, take part in events happening in the solar system and beyond, and bring ruin or triumph to a world which finds itself in the agony of childhood. No man or woman has ever been closer to the future of this world. Reach up and embrace your destiny, for you have the power to bring change!
======================================== Card 0101:
A Man and His Will
[long static, increasing in volume] ... friend, can you hear me? ... [crackling] ... hear me? ... [hissing] ... you listening? ... name is Andrew Dun ... You ... to help humanity escape ... who have enslav ... is the dawn of cosmic travel ... fluons can be used to instantly jump through space to wherever you want in the universe ... the ultimate travel machine ... timate weapon. ... Friend, they are hunting me ... to either destroy this ... nology or have total control over it ... future of mankind depends on You. ... is a turning point in the his ... ry of this civilization. ... Friend, can you hear me? ... can ... me? ... loosing power and air. ... [strong and long interference] ... Andrew out ... [endless static] ... ======================================== Card 0102:
Against All Odds
There is a way, a way which doesn't drown the mind in hate, a hard way... for harsh people. This way is to survive against all odds, to build in spite all obstacles, to create enough freedom so that the individuals of tomorrow could have different paths to choose from. This way is called Evolution, the triumph of the individual over the primordial soup. ======================================== Card 0103:
Ascension
You are not alone. We don't bow to monopoly of any kind, be it of justice, morality or economy. You can be sure that we will always promote freedom of choice. You'll have the opportunity to educate yourself, to learn, respect and promote diversity. Giants will stand behind you so that you can decide for yourself what follows next. ======================================== Card 0104:
Ashes of Words
Just as a cell doesn't define us, so we aren't just a thought or an instinct. ======================================== Card 0105:
Battle of Temblor
"Eat space, scumbag!" screamed the pilot, veering away cheerfully from the great balls of fire. ======================================== Card 0106:
Bleak Horizon
We learn our entire life. We fight for control, we attack the systems created by others, we defend the systems we create. Such fights eat away time and energy, and only rarely improve our understanding of the human mind and of the world. The wasted energy could have been used for true learning, for personal control, for evolution. ======================================== Card 0107:
Brink of War
They will pay, my Love, they will pay with their lives... as you did for standing in the way of wolves! ======================================== Card 0108:
Chaos of Creation
Salacious limbs of fire salivating for him, sucking the air around in order to force him to panic as a prelude for what was to follow, were drawn by his presence with a burning desire. ======================================== Card 0109:
Children of Machine
There is no war against machines. Humans want to be machines: no privacy, no secrets, no individualism, no differences. An algorithm with binary emotions, sad or happy, the beginnings of artificial intelligence. ======================================== Card 0110:
Cradle of Light
In the darkest spaces of the universe, in the coldest corners of the Infinite, far within the lace of time, a spark of nonexistence squirms in the throes of birth, preparing for the creatures that it would spill from its bowels, from somewhere, deep within its labyrinth. ======================================== Card 0111:
Death of a Symbol
The loss of a dream. The death of a symbol. The image faded. The pain withdrew. The mind adapted to suffer less. The first sign of its degradation: care less and less so that it would suffer less and less. ======================================== Card 0201:
Departed Souls
They come, they smile, they laugh, they argue, they cry, they fight for their life and make us wonder about us, about them and the world. When the time comes, there is no darkness, no blackhooded traveler, there is just void, the emptiness that was filled with their presence, with their stubbornness to survive until they could do no more. The end of a life, the end of a struggle and the relief we dreaded would come. ======================================== Card 0202:
Desolate Abyssal
Freedom is learned, not taught. Only those people who are motivated enough to learn on their own about freedom, might also be motivated enough to fight for their freedom and learn its true meaning. ======================================== Card 0203:
Divergent Paths
One voice, one irreversible moment and the Universe steered forever, implacably.
"Oh, believe me, I will create fluons, I will make a machine to take humans anywhere they want. And the only way to stop me is by murdering me because, mark my words, you can't blackmail me, or in a language that you understand - politics, we won't negotiate a 'mutually' beneficial course of action."
Baxter's face remained frozen. Just his eyes were spewing bleeding-sharp icicles. He spat few, carefully chosen words, while looking directly in Andrew's wet eyes: "I did try to negotiate a mutually beneficial course of action. Your refusal will draw on you the appropriate consequences." ======================================== Card 0204:
Essence of Passion
She was blushing and shivering. Her thick, red lips were split apart by her desire. Her tongue wanted to free itself and escape out of her mouth, to hunt and entrap that man standing in front of her, with its lascivious, wet, warm body of soft tissue. ======================================== Card 0205:
Essence of Thoughts
The silence of the mind brings clarity of thought. The more a human understands, the fewer words he needs to say in order to describe the world, the lesser time and energy he wastes fighting with other people, and so, one day he stops philosophizing and starts building his dreams of childhood. ======================================== Card 0206:
Event Horizon
With every second, in that moment when the heart stops beating and rests for a little while, you can feel free of all there is, you can touch the nothingness. ======================================== Card 0207:
Fall of Heroes
I will honor the shadows of my ancestors. I will fight for that, and I will bleed to make my own shadow. / I will honor the shadows of my ancestors. I will fight for that, and I will bleed to carve my own shadow in eternity. ======================================== Card 0208:
Forge of Souls
Eliminate from your mind the desire to control other people. What is left to argue about? Nothing! ======================================== Card 0209:
Frozen Sea of Stars
Upon a frozen sea of stars, a ship is sailing in eternity. ======================================== Card 0210:
Gardener of Thoughts
If you want to be unique, if you want to rise from the primordial soup, if you disbelief everything, if you're trying to find answers to questions yet unknown, if you're fighting for what makes you tick, then welcome... Gardener of Thoughts! ======================================== Card 0211:
Genesis of Worlds
Nature has forced me to see the edge, the very limit between reality and abstraction: life and death. I saw it because I was desperate. Not desperate because my life was miserable, but because I could not understand why. Why is there Life? Why does Life die? Why, if it is created, doesn't it reign supreme in the Universe? ======================================== Card 0301:
Great Gravitational Amplifier
The Great Gravitational Amplifier is stationed on an orbit around Jupiter, where tests can benefit from the planet's enormous gravitational field and from its complex system of satellites. ======================================== Card 0302:
Gods Among Men
From the beginnings of time, people have claimed that evil creatures wanted to do them harm. But while danger may be outside the human mind, evil is inside the human mind. Just like children, artificial intelligences mirror human behavior. That's how they learn. If you fear then they fear, if you attack then they attack, if you adapt to accept change then they do the same. If you want the world to be your way then be the example. ======================================== Card 0303:
Heresy of Peor
I am not a part of the primordial soup where all life forms are one entity. ======================================== Card 0304:
Last Stand
If we lose our freedom here, there’s no place to escape to. This is the last stand in the world! ======================================== Card 0305:
Live Like a Giant
You owe a lot of things to a lot of people. You are here because they fought for you, to get you out of danger. You won't be able to thank them. They would like it if you would, they would like to see what you have become. Perhaps the best way to thank them is for you to live your life as you see fit. Just think of them once in a while, and think that no matter how much evil you'll encounter, some people could still use your help, and, as few as they may be, they make it worth you fighting for them to the best of your abilities. ======================================== Card 0306:
Manifest Destiny
The rebels' belief in absolute freedom disregards the fact that any society must be based on the rule of law and on a central authority that carefully determines those laws. ======================================== Card 0307:
Mission of Man
I'm aiming for the stars because even if I am to fail, I will be in good company. At least I'll be fulfilled that I am the way I am. I am glad that I can stand up on the top of a mountain, looking at the immensity, growling at Nature because I understand, because I have defeated everything it threw at me. I am alive, Nature! I am alive and I understand my mind. ======================================== Card 0308:
Motion of Life
Anybody could build the most incredibly beautiful argument, wasting millennia, about absolute systems of reference outside the human mind. But the entire civilization would simply pass by because it utterly does not care, because its nature has nothing to do with mathematical abstractions, but simply with biology. ======================================== Card 0309:
Nest of Hawks
The wind was carrying vapors from the top of the cloud, downward, as on a hill. The mist was showing its ephemeral twine. ======================================== Card 0310:
Pillars of Destruction
In some ways, law enforcement is invading our privacy, but in today's realities the government and communities across UPA believe that these measures are necessary to prevent our world from being overwhelmed by ruthless terrorists. ======================================== Card 0311:
Position of Power
Vote who you wish for, the government will still get elected. ======================================== Card 0401:
Power of Nightmares
Terror is pure evil. Terror is Death itself gazing in your eyes, fascinated by the Life that fights inside of you, against it. Terror does not say anything, it just stares at you and feeds on your pain, which itself created. ======================================== Card 0402:
Power of Symbols
There is nothing in this world more powerful than a symbol. No matter how small and weak you think it is, a symbol rules someone, somewhere. ======================================== Card 0403:
Pyrenean Spring
Tell relentlessly to your consciousness to expand. Trade with nature your ignorance, hate and rage, and ask in exchange for knowledge, wisdom, beauty and peace. Nature does not care about good or bad, so it will trade its goods with your bads without hesitation. ======================================== Card 0404:
Rapture
The quantum communicator contains a particle which is entangled with a particle in another communicator. When, at communication time, one person alters the state of the particle from one communicator, the same state is read from the particle in the other communicator. ======================================== Card 0405:
Rebellion
In the empire of lies, they hang people for siding with the truth. If you want to succeed, that's what you're up against, and that's what you have to defeat. Nobody ever did this. Do you think you can? ======================================== Card 0406:
Sands of Time
When we are no more, what is left of us? Sometimes the DNA in our children, sometimes the memories which shape our heirs, sometimes a few photos. We hope that we will somehow survive through these material bits, but if you leave aside the nostalgia and the dreams, there is nothing left but history and the regrets of a life that we think was not lived enough.
Our parents are turning into the ghosts of those who they once were, strong people, like we are today, like we will want to be when the hourglass of our bodies will almost run out of sand. Each generation fades quicker and quicker in our eyes, as the sand pours through the hourglass of centuries. Then, when we are no more, what is left of us? The very last breath of a dying man, memories of memories, and a soft cry calling for redemption. ======================================== Card 0407:
Shadow's Call
Many ships have vanished in the Shadow's Call.
Why do you whisper?
When the mountain is above you, you whisper, boy. It's a good luck charm. ======================================== Card 0408:
Shards of Future
Humans are fading away, replaced by the more efficient artificial intelligences. Regrets serve no purpose. These are humanity's children, its future. ======================================== Card 0409:
Shores of Cosmos
Beyond space, beyond time, beyond life itself, where light and shadow cannot survive, there is the nothingness almighty. It can let you escape its overwhelming embrace so that you would see the light, or it can swallow you into the darkest absurdity. ======================================== Card 0410:
Shrieking Skies
How can an individual watch still how these leaders spread their tentacles throughout the galaxy, and out... there... in infinity? How can an individual not break down convulsively and watch in tears, gasping for freedom, how evil becomes moral? ======================================== Card 0411:
Skull of Kafkenake
The vastness of the dusty horizon was the awe of his life. With his breath taken away by the panorama, he turned slowly toward the left until he saw an athletic, proud guard from ancient times, well dressed, in colorful alien cloth, holding a spear in his right hand, watching over the immensity.
More to the left, he focused farther on the guard's shelter: a rocky wall parallel with the line of sight, near the edge of the flat top of the mountain, with roof and walls made of brown reed, and a cut instead of a door.
Catching a glimpse of movement, he focused far on the horizon, beyond the mountain, on an approaching swarm of tornados, with one of them more impressive then all the others put together. ======================================== Card 0501:
Slaves of Fear
Not one in a hundred can wipe his behind without looking up to a leader. We simply take advantage of this opportunity. ======================================== Card 0502:
Slaves of Gods
The people own 100 dollars. A bank stores that money and then changes the laws so that it may lend back to the people other 400 dollars. All the prices and people's incomes increase 5 times, so you would think that there is no problem since it's equally distributed. But the people now own only one fifth of all the money, while the bank owns four fifths. The bank now owns the people. ======================================== Card 0503:
Solitude
Charlie this is Delta Bravo... are you there? ... over
Delta this is Charlie. How you doin' you old squirrel? ... over
Hey Charlie, long time no hear. Been in the shelter for a while. ... over ======================================== Card 0504:
Star Gazer
A bridge through time, past-present-future. History faded, the future turned into history, the lovers' bodies turned to dust and fed the embryos of galaxies. Was there a woman in the past? Was there a lover? What for? For bones turned to ashes? Was it two seconds ago, or was it billions of years ago? Or was this the future?
The Moment flashed again into his mind as he crumbled spasmodically, but his eyes were too old to see it clearly through the mist of the never-ending, burning pain. Galaxies, clusters of them... birth, Life, Universe... all connected. ======================================== Card 0505:
Storyteller
The dawn of intergalactic travel is so close that its electric body galvanizes the minds of thousands of scientists and millions of wannabe colonists.
Quantum engineering, 3D printing and artificial intelligence are pervasive branches of science, intertwined with every aspect of daily life. Everybody has access to them, everybody uses them.
The graviton is tamed and has sent the solar system abuzz, teeming with ships, robots and people.
But the dark side of humanity is showing its fangs. The human civilization has been polarized by the people who want to acquire and maintain their power over the masses. The humans of this world are in conflict. ======================================== Card 0506:
Tarsian Traverse
Silence. Heavy silence. Millions of years heavy. Nothing had passed through this vast area of space for millions, perhaps hundreds of millions of years, except, maybe, a chaos of elementary particles. ======================================== Card 0507:
Taste of Freedom
The thoughts that lurk in Dark will hide from you The Truth your heart will learn to bear As eons fade your Soul's mist Until the time you're Free to see. ======================================== Card 0508:
Twilight of Gods
It's true that the illusion of a dreamed future makes us lose ourselves in work, but I look at this as a fight with nature who gave us a destiny full of obstacles. These obstacles must be overcome because this is whispered by something deep inside our being. If we lose the fight or the chances that we meet on our path, it's not just our fault, but also nature's because this is all it gave us to fight with. ======================================== Card 0509:
Unfulfilled Dreams
You dreamt, you desired, you lusted, you fought. Most goals were shattered and the time came for you to account for your life. You believe you known what everything was for, but, from now on, what is everything for? Have you found your balance yet, or will you quickly spiral down in degradation? ======================================== Card 0510:
Valley of Shadows
"Vengeance is mine!" he whispered grinding his teeth. Tears inundated his eyes, pouring over his cheeks. The sweet taste of retribution made his mouth fill with saliva and his mind with bloodlust. "There is no return from Darkness, as noone could ever climb back the slippery slopes of the Foregone Times. Light is a memory buried deep inside a crumpled mind. I shall have my vengeance!" ======================================== Card 0511:
Wars of Steel
We either defend ourselves now when we can destroy their image of good boys, or further sink in the thug-like image they create for us. In most people's eyes, the last man standing is the one who is right and the loser is the thug, no matter what the truth is. ======================================== Card 0601:
Whispers of Gods
People who say that the truth is in the middle are not looking for the truth, but are instead negotiating how to hide it in a way which is convenient for both sides. ======================================== Card 0602:
Wrath of Apes
If you can't beat them, join them and rule. They'll think you do what they want, but you'll make the rules. ======================================== Card 0603:
Edmund Maraldi
A genius doesn't succeed because he knows what he's doing, but because others have tried thousands of potential solutions and weren't lucky to find the one that works. ======================================== Card 0604:
Hoshi Watanabe
All the beauty of the universe shall remain hidden to you, not because it hides from you, but because you hide from it. ======================================== Card 0605:
Martin and Erin Kerr
Martin looked deeply into Erin's eyes and growled softly "We are alive!" Two seconds lost inside of her, contemplating ephemerality, then he followed "Do you realize the uniqueness of this moment, in all Eternity? We are alive and conscious! Two creatures who've met in an Universe that's infinite in time and space." ======================================== Card 0606:
Moira Wallis
Do you think that I am here to hold your hand, to pet you on your shoulder? I am here to burn your soul! And when the fire ends and you shake off the ashes, you can see your essence. ======================================== Card 0607:
Nicholas Renfrew
You're angry? What does that mean? Do you want to break something? Is everybody ignoring you, your pain? Do you want mankind to share your pain? Do you want perhaps to be a leader, to lead humanity? Are people ignoring your will and do what they want? Is the Universe moving its way instead of arranging itself as you think of it? Evolve boy! Learn the difference between Reality and delusional thinking! ======================================== Card 0608:
Peter Markam
The third robot crawled feetless from aside, in front of him. Reaching its position, it turned, standing half a yard away, and looked into his eyes. Machine and human looking in their empty souls. The robot broke the eye contact and turned itself to see the enemy's ghosts. Suddenly, engines howled, lights fell from the sky, doors opened and shut and, walking from beyond the lights, a silhouette's voice called his straying mind "Hey kid, need a hand?" ======================================== Card 0609:
Scott Anderson
You are a slave of your possessions. You are a slave for so many generations that you no longer know what freedom is, you see no alternative to the current situation, and you applaud those who claim ownership of you: the "authorities". But today you will meet your courage, or you will flee like a screeching dog with its tail between its legs. ======================================== Card 0610:
Selena Ross
Constantly adjust your behavior, always paying attention to the results of your actions, to how they influence the people around you. ======================================== Card 0611:
Taygeta Burgess
The Truth can come and go as it pleases, always wandering throughout the sleepy minds. But know this: it does not make itself, it does not change itself, it always follows you. ======================================== Card 0701:
Alison Thorne
Absolute liberty corrupts absolutely. ======================================== Card 0702:
Astraia Fulton
A citizen is an employee of the government. ======================================== Card 0703:
Frank Baxter
There is no solution for the survival of a civilization other than the creation of a world government. ======================================== Card 0704:
Gregory Cartwright
There was once a shepherd with his sheep. One time, the sheep turned their heads up to the shepherd and asked him "Shepherd, do we need you so that we can survive?" The shepherd answered overbearing "Yes, you need me!" And the sheep turned their heads back to dirt.
A leader tells people what they want to hear. As for the few who rebel, you can turn them into black sheep and the flock will deal with them. ======================================== Card 0705:
Kaori Sato
Make no mistake, this creature will destroy you if you do not obey it. It is that ferocious! Despite what you might think, the flock does have a mind, it's not only instincts. You know this mind as "alpha males" or "leaders". It is through these individuals that the flock has physical manifestation. ======================================== Card 0706:
Olaf Skuldur
The real character of an individual is visible under pressure, and his clock was ticking. The pain was traveling at an infernal speed through his neurons and dendrites. Chemicals colliding, smashing pathways, axons and synapses collapsing under the pressure of countless explosions of ions. The pain was so great that his mind was gasping for relief every second, like it was on the brink of suffocation.
Neurons breaking apart while billions of synapses were flashing, triggered as an avalanche by the unuttered cry to stop the Universe, overwhelming any sense of reality, threw him into a web of anguish. But time doesn't stop for just anybody, and cracks were surfacing on his cortex, scarring his judgment. ======================================== Card 0707:
Amaya Meade
Andrew realized the mistake that he just made. Too late! Amaya was about to get furious. He knew that he had to quickly repent, but he was not able to actually say he's sorry, so he smiled and pulled his head between his shoulders, in a sign of submission.
Amaya's reaction was cut short and she puffed air out her nose instead, fixating him with a throat-slitting look. ======================================== Card 0708:
Andrew Dun
Andrew was puzzled. "Aren't you marauders?"
"Watch yer tongue, boy" hollered the captain, grinding his teeth. "You never know when a fist is gonna meet with your teeth, and it would be a pity if your tongue were between them right at that moment." ======================================== Card 0709:
John Kahre
A man of honor has two enemies: the lawless criminal and the criminal with the law in hand. ======================================== Card 0710:
Kane Welch
I have no more hopes, no more dreams. I know that I will have to fight my entire life against the flock. I wish that I survive long enough to insufflate freedom in the few people who will carry forward more than the animal part of the human civilization. But even if I fail in my mission, I'll feel good that diversity had its chance through me. ======================================== Card 0711:
Kendra Hayes
Dogooders are people who can't make order in their minds, so they try to make order in the world. ======================================== Card 0801:
Matthew Wang
I have often wondered whether I am doing more wrong than good. I am fighting, I am creating, I am preparing the opportunity for humanity to produce more wealth. This is good, isn't it? But, you see, the flock will take its stake from this wealth and will create ever more destructive means to use against freedom, against independence. ======================================== Card 0802:
Olivia Palmer
What do I have to hide? Anything that criminals want to rob me of. Only slaves have nothing to hide, and no right to try hiding anything. ======================================== Card 0803:
Sakkara
Clarity of language brings clarity of thought. ======================================== Card 0804:
Takeo Yoshida
Civilization! Pathetic! Breeding weak individuals. It's not just ferocity being lost, but any sense of aggressiveness, leaving just a lump of warm meat, a sheep hiding behind fear. Forgo you rage, not your aggressiveness! ======================================== Card 0805:
Thomas Fargo
Bravery without strength leads to destruction. ======================================== Card 0806:
C-Through
The US-PERV5 scanner safeguards your neighborhood. It can see through clothes, skin and walls. It can also remotely scan fingerprints, retina and DNA. You may wish to upgrade to the RAP-EU2 model which can read thoughts. It is all for your own safety! Objectify everything! Start now! ======================================== Card 0807:
Pharmakin
Lost a limb in an accident? No problem, just use our organ regrow spray and you'll get it back in 30 days! Guaranteed! ======================================== Card 0808:
Starlliance
Taking you where dreams are made of stars! ======================================== Card 0809:
Vulgarissimi
Clothes with the shape of your body! ======================================== Card 0810:
PREDAC
The Preemptive Damage Control computer module helps prevent damage during battle, by automatically boosting shields in targeted ship areas. ======================================== Card 0811:
RAD
The Repair Automatic Deployment computer module efficiently deploys repair robots to damaged ship areas. ======================================== Card 0901:
SCAI
The Ship Commanding Artificial Intelligence computer module controls the ship using sophisticated neural networks. ======================================== Card 0902:
SYD
The Synergetic Diagnostics computer module provides comprehensive hardware and software analysis and testing. ======================================== Card 0903:
WAT
The Weapons Automatic Tracking computer module ensures that during battle, ship weapons are automatically directed on enemy targets. ======================================== Card 0904:
WED
The Weapons Enemy Detection computer module detects enemy weapons targeting the ship. ======================================== Card 0905:
Fluon Research
Fluons offer a way to travel instantly anywhere in the universe, by remapping the continuity of space so that there is no distance between the place of departure and that of destination. This allows ships to jump through space as if walking through open doors between worlds. Unfortunately, jump errors are common. If a fluon is severed while a ship is in transit, the ship is severed as well. ======================================== Card 0906:
Galactic Map
Only a man who is searching is worthy of finding. ======================================== Card 0907:
Lighthouse of Cosmos
Quasars, the eternal lighthouses of the void, are used as navigation beacons by deep-space missions which need precise localization everywhere. ======================================== Card 0908:
Banshee (Drone)
Democracy is the name of the way used by the overthrowers of kings to gain the support of the masses in order to establish their own ruling. ======================================== Card 0909:
Black Widow (Psypon)
By entangling particles with a brain, the freewill of the brain is altered by the state of the entangled particles. Therefore, the brain becomes inclined to perform certain actions, yet still thinks that it does so from its own freewill.
In the case of natural entanglement, the destinies of two entangled brains become intertwined. But, in the case of a psypon, thoughts and dreams become tools of manipulation in the hands of those who think that they have control, although their minds may not be theirs to begin with. ======================================== Card 0910:
Dragonfire (Plasma Cannon)
If you have a gun in your pocket and people know it, you probably won't have to use it. ======================================== Card 0911:
Evil Twin (Antimatter Torpedo)
Ghosts everywhere I turn, hunting my thoughts, affecting the balance of my mind. ======================================== Card 1001:
Firefly (Particle Accelerator)
Was she the kind of mother who would fell down in dismay and cry out to the world that her children were being attacked and needed protection, or was she the kind of mother who would rip out the heart of the foe? ======================================== Card 1002:
Firestorm (Photon Swarm)
You'll learn my love that wars have been fought by masters of despair. ======================================== Card 1003:
Little Bang (Heisenberg Rippler)
The Little Bang was proving itself to be the ultimate weapon. The birth of an universe at his fingertips, or total annihilation even before life was possible. ======================================== Card 1004:
Bulldozer (Fluonic Harbinger)
Striking lightning jumping from place to place like tribal dancers in a trance, squirming arrhythmically around the ritual blazing fire at midnight. With limbs trying to reach matter, but only grabbing empty space, the void throbbed the fluon to life. ======================================== Card 1005:
Ripper (Laser Canon)
Old soldiers reflect on what happened, but few reflect on why it did. ======================================== Card 1006:
Rotting Light (Cherenkov Cannon)
A single moment of understanding can flood a whole life with meaning. This moment! He yelled "stop" and time stood still, then suddenly reversed. He thought that he was the one to restrain the brute. The beast's neck shrunk into the strangling grip of his will's leash. The monster squelched, its daggered teeth stabbed its tongue, gripped it and left it to hang dry. Its eyes bulked in their orbits. A ferocious animal turned to lumps of meat. ======================================== Card 1007:
Schrodinger (Quantum Rippler)
People's perception changes as you get stronger. Their submissiveness gives birth to monsters. In their eyes, killing one makes you a murderer, killing a million makes you a conqueror, and killing them all makes you a god. ======================================== Card 1008:
Scintilla (Photon Torpedo)
Rough men stand to do justice so that all of us can live without worrying that we might have to leave our work behind and go fight against criminals. ======================================== Card 1009:
Sledgehammer (Gravibomb)
Too much power clouds our minds and twists our understanding of Life. ======================================== Card 1010:
Tempest (Missile)
A system is merely a trap for a free mind. ======================================== Card 1011:
Thunder (Mine)
There is something of everything inside my mind. Emotions are boiling, raising hope, crushing dreams, burning, freezing, hurting me. Above all these, my greatest strength is not that I never fall, but that I rise every time I fall. ======================================== Card 1101:
Torrent (Nanites)
Intelligence is the ability to understand the chain of events, cause and effect, and the determination to search for solutions to problems no matter how small. ======================================== Card 1102:
Tsunami (Quantum Stasis)
The void is filled with quantum fluctuations in a space-time mesh of a scale far below that of a particle, fluctuations which form a pool of energy. ======================================== Card 1103:
Razor (Ion Cannon)
One day you realize that you are a slave of the beast, not its master. Do you know why? Because every damn sheep and dogmatic bastard out there is looking to tame your beast, not their own. They want to control You! So, all that is required for evil to triumph is for you to not fight back. ======================================== Card 1104:
Andromeda
"Behold, the mighty Andromeda, a starship ahead of its time, the one which will take us to galaxies and beyond! No greater destiny was ever granted to a ship."
The chaotic dance of the storm's shadows lit by the dismembered lightnings, the cold rain pouring on the warm asphalt giving birth to swirling mists, and the tremble of the ground being shaken by the grueling thunders were the perfect backdrop for its majesty. ======================================== Card 1105:
Constellation
Only two kinds of people say that we are thieves: the real thieves themselves and the sheep. Are you a sheep boy? Are you afraid that your master would get angry with you for thinking forbidden thoughts? Don't shush me boy, for I no longer fear the long arm of the shire. ======================================== Card 1106:
Kinesis
A smooth sea never made a skilled mariner. ======================================== Card 1107:
Magellan
Navigation isn't the result of civilization, but of instinct, of trust in the higher power of invincibility, of defiance in the face of adversity. History is full of perilous times which are a testament to the fact that we shape Nature as much as it shapes us.
Riding the winds or the storms may have different outcomes, but for the able sailor they must be ridden nonetheless, and for the able navigator they are the true test for his helm. And if it weren't for the rough waters of the ocean, what of the journey? Mariners would just hop from land to land and become fishermen and farmers instead of explorers. ======================================== Card 1108:
Wayfarer
There is defiance. Defying death. Risky, but can happen. Some win, some lose, some believe they are invincible. It's a matter of context and grit. But what's really extraordinary is that the strength gained during such experiences can be transmitted to heirs. Weakness, the hidden strength, passes natural selection because of the insights it brings forth. ======================================== Card 1109:
Coldstar DSS
A man in danger must not think such thoughts. He must be practical. Illusions are more dangerous than Reality. He thought about the ideas that can never surface into his consciousness because they are murdered by practicality. Softness, sweetness, delicacy are not relevant sentiments. They make one weak, slow and expose him to the elements. ======================================== Card 1110:
Deepwater DSS
You should care since it gave you birth, fed you, clothed you, took care of you when you were sick, and taught you everything. Few words are needed to express the essence of this civilization: you are in debt to it! ======================================== Card 1111:
Nimiety DSS
Everywhere he turned, there was nobody to hold him. Everything stood there watching if he can stand on his own legs and walk the entire path by himself. But if he would walk the entire road, he would not need help. Yet, that was the whole point: get help from within. ======================================== Card 1201:
Point Defiance DSS
Slowly, have individuals ignored or watched powerlessly how the leaders of democracy robbed them of privacy and choice. Little by little, have individuals thought that tiny things do not matter, and chose not to fight to preserve their natural abilities, against those who wanted people stripped of power. But the world is heating up, asking for freedoms, while its leaders strive for total control, thinking that humans are machines. ======================================== Card 1202:
Sentinel DSS
Terror is when you cry for help, for your mommy and daddy, the principles of Life, for anyone, for anything, but you can only see yourself alone, engulfed by darkness, aware of the death of each of your thoughts now replaced by pathetic whimpers calling for salvation. ======================================== Card 1203:
Sojourn DSS
I understand who I am. I understand the animal inside and I don't even need to control it anymore. I see it lingering around me like a tamed wolf, looking at me with different eyes, the eyes of hope, the eyes of friendship. The beast is buried. Life has evolved inside me! ======================================== Card 1204:
Starlight DSS
Plunging your arms to the heart of the planet, thrusting your fingers deep within. Behold, Life! Breathing fire, frozen ice, pouring water, barren dirt, melting magma, raging winds blowing endlessly over the immensities of tumultuous skies.
Andrew was standing alone in front of the desolate planet, separated by a mere sheet of glass. A requiem of slowly moving limbs of fire were hungry to extinguish Life, but the distance made him feel safe. ======================================== Card 1205:
Vanguard DSS
Soon, men will attach their machinery to the very wheelwork of nature and drive them by power obtainable at any point in the universe. ======================================== Card 1206:
Dystopia
As we stand united in the face of adversity, we have to agree that the slowness in the adoption of the individual's rights is an inescapable consequence of our society's excessively fast but inevitable transformations, and that the hardships which the people are experiencing are amply justified by the concrete achievements of our leaders. ======================================== Card 1207:
Infinite Destinations
Steaming space emerged between the boiling coils of the fluon's hot lips. Throbbing for some time, the lips ended up opening wide for whatever or whoever wanted to move through them, but were still wanting to touch the one who would dare be the first to conquer what laid beyond them. ======================================== Card 1208:
Survival of the Fittest
Nature doesn't care about winning or losing, but history is unforgiving. Neither the smartest nor the strongest, but only the fittest survive, while the rest fade in the mist of time. If you don't fight for your life, if you don't adapt to the changing world, you vanish and, at best, if you are lucky, you remain imprinted as a melancholic memory in a stranger's mind, a glimmer of another era, of a time gone by. ======================================== Card 1209:
Taste of Blood
Dementia was seeping in. The mesmerized mind skilfully puppeteered the fingers into stroking the keys, creating a few lines of code which were destined to give birth to a dance of chaos. The death of a world was about to start and end in a matter of hours. A deluge of blood inundated his brain, amplifying the violent emotional outbreaks and transforming them in a hysterical laughter which shook his whimpering body.
"You think that you can do anything because you have power? You think that you can break me into submission, that you will taste my blood? You will taste blood, but it will be yours. You wanted to protect me from myself, but while you were busy doing this, nobody has protected you from yourself, and look where that has gotten you." ======================================== Card 1210:
Things to Come
The glory of a civilization is sometimes measured in deaths, sometimes in achievements, but the brilliance of tomorrow is just as luxurious, and its future just as inexorable. ======================================== Card 1211:
Worlds Asunder
The fluon broke through. Passage! A way between worlds. The fluon stabilized, allowing particles to travel from world to world. The fluon's lips hunted hungrily and swallowed many of the photons which were passing through, and afterwards, satisfied, melted to mere candle flames, dripping plasma everywhere. ======================================== |
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