TFTC: The Laughing Martian God

Next chapter Welcome brave people of the bud growing variety, and to you those lovely people that like to peep in through the windows of the growing world! Welcome to a new episode of "Tales from the Closet: The Laughing Martian God" in partnership with those that light your grows, MARS HYDRO: grow for the future with future technology, from Mars Hydro. Last week the episode was full of shock and drama, the bribed guard had a funky tattoo, then he lost it when melting his own face off, what was that about! Our hero Jobbie still remains in custody without charge, will he ever escape? Will he get back to his plant? Most importantly, what does the Laughing God want? Let's see if we find out in this week's episode! The thing I found about being locked up, isolated and tortured, is the loss of time: not the previous sense of "what days it?" But the actual loss of time, when you suddenly realise that you cannot remember what has just happened, whether by choice or the fact you just don't know. It starts with daydreaming, you fixate on things, a pleasant alternate reality, an enjoyable memory, the fantasy of what you will do when you get out. In the end, you only hurt yourself. I once heard of special forces training, they encouraged participants while being tortured to try and wind up or make angry the torturers, they claimed this was to compromise the interrogator and cause them to make mistakes which will ruin the process. Today I've realised it was for something deeper, to make them engage with the present, to embrace their new reality, to keep them sane. While sitting in my cage my mind wandered, the wanderings my mind went on made my body feel even more confined, made my cell feel smaller, made me resent my present even more. I do not know how my mind worked this out, it was as if my God was whispering secrets of the universe, soothing my troubled soul, bringing me back to reality, A new guard came in, we soon struck up a similar deal where he let me know what was happening to the plant. He had told me that after the last chop the scientists had noticed some yellowing in the leaves, the leaves also had some black spots, the scientists were very concerned: after tests they decided to up its doses of calcium and magnesium, this apparently was helping a lot. Furthermore, they had agreed not to cut her heads off any more, but they would cut away lower and yellowing leaves. The clergy said it was to bring forward new and stronger life, much like clearing out of old household products, to make way for the new, that soon the God will show what rewards come of clearing out to make way for new. Their speech worried me, it was twisting every action to suit their corporate greed! Most people on Mars were little better than slaves, there was a fine line between affording the life they advertised and being indentured to the companies, having to work what they tell you just to be able to eat, then this place, I have seen people passing in the corridors, they take away people's rights in order to legitamise their experiments… experiments they have started performing on me. Since the guard killed himself, they began to care less about any information I had, they just threw me in with the others, so far the experiments have been light, new vaccines were tested on me to test their negative side effects, effects of which there were many, I still shiver thinking of those nights. However, hope still exists, someone is coming. It all happened, the guard cocked his head, like he does when his radio is going, then he ran out. From there I knew it was time, I felt the plant reaching out to me and I smiled. The door slid open and in walked a guard, an officer… No it was Defharo, and a woman dressed as a scientist. I knew it was time to leave, it was my ticket out of here. The woman was beautiful, still with hinted lines of a birth gender that was not her own, she walked with beauty and feline grace that comes from knowledge of the dancing arts, her eyes looking over the rims spoke of dark secrets that created a war of fear and fascination within me. Salvation came with these three as they dressed me as a guard and shepherded me out. We departed ways as I went with defharo and happy: the man dressed as a guard, they were taking me to a safe house in New Los Angeles, as it turns out the detention centre was halfway between New New Old Amsterdam and New Los Angeles. From the safe house I would have a small network of people already set up to help me monitor the plant and wait for an opportunity to save my Laughing God. The safe house was a hidden apartment in the basement of a tower block, it was simple, but far more comfortable than the cell I had spent a long time in. Soon I was introduced to some of the guards and scientists that had been infiltrated into the biodome I had once called home, the dome my plant still lived in. They informed me that the plant had been neglected recently, that the clergy were claiming that it was due to the uprising that the plant was apparently dying. My orders were simple, to feed the plant, to bring it back to life. This was accomplished secretly within hours, however, within those hours we heard that the riots had been disbursed, the media and clergy claimed this was because the people had repented and because of such the plant was again happy, typical correlative bullshit where they create a narrative to frame events which will better their cause. On the news sadly there was another big story, they had claimed that the leader of the resistance, was dead. Thank you funky people of the happy plant, we hope you have enjoyed this week's episode of "Tales from the Closet: The Laughing Martian God" brought to you in partnership with Mars Hydro: get stellar growth with the latest technology. Join us next week when we find out what will happen next! Notes: temperatures and humidity are still remaining stable, the temperature is still little higher than I prefer, but I feel so long as it isn't too high and remains within a narrow enough range things should be okay. The extra cal mag is helping, I've doubled the quantities she gets and there has been far less yellowing. Still want to get a PH reader for da science. There was an issue over the weekend where due to miscommunication the plant did not get watered, she wilted and it was freaking, however, after a quick watering she was back to normal in an hour or two. Next week is flowering, wish me luck! This week I used some art from one of my favourite artists Ken Currie, ofc I edited his work, if you like it check him out.