The Particle

Because we're all a part of everything.

Chosen fate

By Bhargavi




Sometimes I forget I’m not in my world anymore. This is some paranormal, magical, house of little horrors, isn’t it?





Alright, I’ve thought it over and there isn’t much I can do. Technically speaking, I’m only one person (Am I a person? Do people have health bars?), and I have no weapons, help, or experience in close range combat. I would have no hope against an enemy if they did leave that room. I’d get beaten up to the point there I couldn’t move- I’m straying off again, aren’t I?

Honestly, none of this explains my decision to help the creature escape from behind the door. This is just a gut feeling I can’t seem to go against. Perhaps I’m just lonely and having someone (or something) else could be beneficial. Anyway, despite all the signs saying I’d lose a fight, that’s only in the possibility that I’ll have to battle for my life. What if the creature behind the door is here to help me? There’s no surety, but what can I say? I’m willing to take the chance.

I start in the direction of the rooms, with slow steps. Mentally, I’ve made my decision, but something’s still slowing me down and asking me to rethink everything. I can’t tell what is, but I’m not going to let it stop me. I speed up my steps, and stop right outside the door the noise seems to be coming from. Ah… it’s much quieter now. Can this thing sense my presence or something?

It takes me a second to realise everything’s changed. In the place where five rooms stood in a U formation with one at the centre and two on either side, the shape has shifted to some kind of irregular shape. Where five uniform, bright red painted doors stood, there are now multicoloured glass doors that seem impossible to see through. How? The whole infrastructure of this side of the house has shifted completely… is that even supposed to be possible?

Ah, I sometimes forget I’m not in my world anymore. This is some paranormal, magical, house of little horrors, isn’t it?

I should just give up on trying to understand what’s happening. The door I’m standing in front of has large blobs of different colours covering its surface, but mostly twisted purple ones that fade into black, with a dull matte black door handle with a single keyhole for a skeleton key. I wonder what that means. Does purple have some sort of symbolic meaning? I close my eyes, and take a deep breath, and try to focus on what’s behind the door. Whatever loud noise was coming has slowed to calm scraping at the door; much like a dog would do, waiting for its human to come home from outdoors. Maybe it’s a little pet to keep me company here? That would be nice. Somehow, I don’t think it is. I don’t know, maybe another gut feeling. There’s been too many of those today already, I’m sick of it.

I’m not sure how exactly to help bring the door down. Do I try to kick it down or something? Oh, something’s glowing over my head again. I tilt my neck and strain upwards to see what the words read now. Everything’s the same, except the words ‘POWERUPS: ALL EQUIPPED” shifts to a bright yellow ‘POWERUPS: SUPER STRENGTH’. Whoa, is this because I thought about kicking the door down, and now I have super strength to do that? That’s so cool!

With my newfound energy, I attempt to knock down the door by kicking it. Though it shudders from the force I used, it doesn’t leave even the smallest of cracks in the glass. Seriously, did these guys manufacture bulletproof glass for this? Ah, well then. Brute force isn’t the way. What else do we have?

Oh. The key.

I whip the key out from my pocket, the same old one, and jam it into the door’s keyhole and jerk around hastily. This has to work, right?

I don’t even notice that the sound stopped entirely after my first attack on the door.

The door miraculously opens, and swings inward with force. I just freeze for a second, and realise how dumb my idea really was. What did I just do? What if there’s a monster waiting somewhere to kill me? I’m too lost in questions to realise there’s nothing behind the door, but I see it opens up into a much larger room than the one I had woken up in. I walk in and pull my arms around myself, the only form of protection I have right now.

I turn a corner, and I hear someone yelling right into my ear. Wait, what? A person? I yell right back in surprise, until both of us look at each other then stop to catch our breath. The person in front of me is a good three inches taller than me, and she’s decked out in some ancient-looking Nordic armour studded with pale yellow gemstones, that covers her from neck down till her toes, leaving nowhere for her to possibly gain an injury in battle. Her voluminous blonde hair stretches from her head all the way to her elbows, and with her bright blue eyes and incredible facial structure, she might be the most gorgeous person I’ve ever seen.

“Who- who are you? What’s your name?’ I ask slowly and carefully, so as to not potentially anger her. She looks powerful enough to end me with no effort at all.

I never get to hear her voice. Instead, a bubble pops up over her head with something written inside of it.

‘im xXPhoenixX, who ru?’

xXPhoenixX? I can’t tell if that’s an exotic new name or just plain strange. What are people even naming their kids these days?

Another bubble popped up. ‘whats ur name?’

It takes me a second to realise I have absolutely no idea what my name is. The realisation strikes like a brick wall, but I have no time to even think it over. A huge white box pops up in front of me before I can think of anything.

“Enter Username: ____________”


Author’s note: An extra long chapter this time to make up for the previously short one~ This edition they’re less of options and more of suggestions, what do you think our character’s username should be? Reach out to us on Instagram, Twitter , Discord, eMail or our comment section below to share your ideas and thoughts about the story with us!









Art

By paddy, guest featuring:Shiva









Chronicles of Joy: epilogue

By Sriram




Perhaps, someday, another hero, or maybe even the same one...



Since Joy and the other gods lost the battle, there has not been peace anywhere in the world. Evil rules through her tyranny. Without the king of the gods, the world is plunged into chaos. Confidence serves as the enforcer of rules made by Evil, whipping those who mutiny and rebel. She makes those who disobey her rules starve and go mad by hunger and thirst. Moral has been named the acting king of the gods. But there are not many gods to be king of. Most of them have mutinied and gone over to the dark side, serving the queen, Evil. Only Moral’s wife and son stay with him to support him. The world as we knew it has perished. Perhaps, someday, another hero, or even the same one, will restore peace and tranquillity to the world.

Tune in the next edition to read the sequel of The Chronicles Of Joy!

The End









Photography

By Vedika & Jyotsna









Why trumpets are one of the coolest instruments in an Orchestra

By Aadhav




Mutes are the coolest part of a trumpet. There are 3 kings of mutes the “straight”, “cup” and the “wow wow”.



Although they come in different sizes and lenghts, trumpets are a key instrument to any classical orchestra. For example take Shostakovitch’s Overture in A major, which starts with several trumpets; booming in harmony. This is just one of the several pieces where a trumpet is the leading instrument in the orchestra.

Trumpets sounds are produced by a mouthpiece; without which the trumpet would just be a big brass tube. This mouthpiece has a shallow cup shaped opening against which the players must adjust the air pressure and shape of the lips to adjust the note. The overall pitch of the instrument can be altered by turning a slide, which changes the length of the instrument.

After playing for a while the sound can become gurgly because the player’s breath condenses into the trumpet forming drops of saliva. Disgusting isnt it! But all the player needs to do is to is press a water key which allows the saliva to drip out.

The bell of the trumpet basically acts as an amplifier and produces the full tone we expect to hear from the trumpet. However this can be changed using mutes

Mutes are the coolest part of a trumpet. There are 3 kings of mutes the “straight”, “cup” and the “wow wow”. The wow wow mute is often used in jazz performances because it produces a funny wow wow sound during their performances.

To further understand trumpets better please listen to like mentioned above Shostakovitch’s Overture in A major and Haydn’s Concerto for the trumpet in E flat.

Thank you for reading this and I hope you enjoyed it.









3am brain factory produce

By Paddy




Once in a while I wonder if there’s still an insect corpse in my lung from the time I inhaled a mosquito.



Mayflies are weird- like they only live 24 hours and that makes me wonder- is their perception of time different from ours or are they really the gods of yolo?

Mosquitoes are really annoying, like when you’re almost asleep and a mosquito starts buzzing right next to your ear and when they suck your blood and transmit diseases- One time when I was in 5th grade I accidentally inhaled a mosquito and every once in a while I wonder if there’s still an insect corpse in my lung- sometimes I really wonder if their existence is important to the world.

I feel like I have a love hate relationship with autocorrect- on one side it helps the errors I make when I type on my phone because I’m trash at phone typing but then it also corrects the spelling mistakes which were meant to be there- so I turned off autocorrect- it’s not that bad actually.

It’s been one week since I tried fixing my sleep schedule and I got 7 hours but I’m more sleepy if not sleepier than what I was

I write a brief of my thoughts for 3am brain factory on my notes app because it’s easier to start my laptop or write it down on paper because it’s dark at night and when I mean brief I mean 3 or 4 words- So I wrote ‘apple juice phone racist’ all as a sentence and I have no idea what 3am me meant by that-

Personally I don’t believe in superstitions and I’m fine with people believing in them as long as they don’t force me to agree with it too- But I do have to wonder, is believing in the ‘black cats are bad luck’ one being racist but towards cats- and one of my friends asked “what if a cat’s grey, or half black and half white, does it mean it’s half bad luck half good luck”. Come to think of it most of these are based off of conversations I’ve had with people-

What’s a monogram-

If today is today and tonight is tonight then why is yesterday night not yesternight- English is weird

Phones are dumb

I wrote that out of spite because I couldn’t type and my phone kept falling on my face phones aren’t dumb- and I hate when my phone falls on my face-

That’s all I have for this edition see you in edition 12









Music

By Aadhav, recommendations from everyone on the team







Puzzles

By Bhargavi

Let's suppose you need to measure out exactly 4 liters of water.

But, of course, you have a problem. You have two containers each 3 and 5 liters in volume respectively.

Each container has no other marking except for the fact that it only provides its known volume. Using a running tap to fill them how would you measure out exactly 4 liters?









Creatures unheard of

By Varsha









The '800s : the first message

By Aravind




I tried to wake up, but I couldn't.



“Ouch. My legs hurt.” Said Amber as we were shifted to another location in the maze.

“Adam.“ Said Leo. “How- How did you know we would be moved across the maze when I threw the weed?”

“I think the maze thought we were marking our path, and shifted us elsewhere like previously. Also, ouch. I’m bleeding. Do you have anything which could help?”

“Hmm... let me examine our wounds.”

After some time, he handed Amber and I a vial of something which he told us to apply on our wounds. He told us that we were infected with poison (the name was too long to remember) and that applying what he gave us would heal it.

WHOOOPS! There’s a catch! Why wouldn’t there be one? Did you expect medicine to have no side effects? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. You were wrong.

The antidote stopped the burning sensation immediately, but guess what? Now, the world kept spinning around, and everything got blurry.

Then I puked. Yes, the side effect was both nausea and dizziness. Very handy for fighting monsters, right?

“Leo, what is going o- “was the last thing I said before I blacked out.

“Adam- Adam, are you okay?”

Everything was blurry. I tried to wake up, but I couldn’t.

“Adam! Wake up! “

“ADAM!”

To be continued in edition 12…









Meet the particle team!

Varsha: Our amazing comic illustrator! She finds inspiration in the small, vague details hidden in the world, and incorporates them into her everything.
Jyotsna: The first to introduce the bob obsession, she’s the peacekeeper (I see you hunger games fans), is on the tranquil side of our team, and writes stellar articles.
Aadhav: our talented pianist! He loves anything musical, from singing to of course, playing the piano. He loves sports too, and is an avid Agatha Christie fan.
Moukthika: Our Artist! Her art skills are next level - Even buzzfeed agrees that she’s artsy and she cooks really well.
Bhargavi: She’s our editor and personal kpop spammer; expert at burning toast. She’s also everyone’s (self proclaimed) favourite unnie.
Vedika: The one team member who’s up before the sun with a smile, she’s our motivator. She’s a part of our photography gang, and contributes art and articles every other edition too!
Aravind: Fellow youtube animator addict, he's known to be talkative and lighten the mood anywhere he goes! He contributes both articles and stories.
Paddy: known by the name ‘Evil.’, he’s our evil, chaotic teammate. He’s the inventor of a language we’re proud to use. He talks equally as often as Favorite Unnie, and is the author of the regular section, 3 am brain factory produce.
Sriram: A voracious reader with his interest in a variety of genres, his fingers can do magic with both pen and brush. He loves cooking and eats cricket for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
Anhiti: The youngest here, she makes the website for the particle. Famous for convincing us to save the reefs – budding artist and author. (Don’t tell her, but she’s basically kpop spammer #2.)


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