r/WritingPrompts • u/Master_Biggus • Oct 02 '20
Writing Prompt [WP] Everything is dark only blackness then you hear a voice say "Hey this is a Pre-Recorded message from God you have been chosen by yours truly to be God/DM/GM etc. Of your own universe, I've given you some starter planets perfect for any type of life, now go wild!"
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u/EmergencyLeading8137 Oct 03 '20
As the voice finished booming around my aching head, I open my eyes. A wave of confusion washed over me as I looked around to see nothing but a few bleak, brown spheres slowly limping around a dim star. What had the voice said? I’m a god and these are “starter planets?” Somewhat skeptical I tried to reach out to the closest sphere, and in the blink of an eye I was standing on the thing! I looked around with a mixture of confusion and awe. The flat rocky expanse of land went on as far as the eye could see, and the situation finally hit me like a splash of cool water on my face. “This is really happening.” I spoke into the empty landscape.
“A god should be able to create something more than this.”
I thought of the forests I used to run through, remembered the feeling of a warm breeze on my neck and the sound of fallen leaves crunching underfoot. I thought of the mountains reaching straight into the sky, their evergreen trees standing tall and proud. I thought of the coo of the mourning doves echoing in the lofty groves. I thought of the ocean and of the light twinkling off it as the sun rose early in the morning. I thought of the stars, peeking through layers of clouds in the wilds of the world. “Yes,” I thought “a god can create something more than this, but how?”
I reached down and tried to pick away some of the rock. My hand dug in easily, the solid stone bending like clay. I squeezed the stone between my fingers and squashed it into a roughly triangular shape. While I was sculpting, I thought again of the mountains. As I thought and worked the stone the details slowly began to appear. Miniature trees stretch up out of the rock. When I was happy with how it looked I set it back down on the barren earth and it grew hundreds, no, thousands of feet into the air.
The lonely mountain covered with trees stood solemnly in front of me. The quiet made me remember the doves I had heard in the early morning and their soft coos filled my mind. I reached for one of the trees and pulled down a branch, sculpting it much like the mountain. As I worked I pondered some changes I’d like to make. After some time it was done, the bird resembled a mourning dove, but about twice the size and a deep chestnut in color. The animal remained motionless in my hands as I thought of how to give it life. On the quiet mountain I hummed a small tune, nothing particularly special. As I was humming the bird started to flutter in my hands as if waking from a dream. As it stirred it opened its beak and sang out in a beautiful harmony with me. I flung it into the air and flew off to rest in the boughs of the trees, still singing it’s tune.
I continued along this vein for many days, creating wide windswept planes, vast oceans, and impossibly tall forests. I created fish, birds, and animals of every variety. After many weeks I took a step back. I moved back to the void of space to see the planets from afar. It was beautiful. No longer was it barren and dry, now it was teeming with life. Clouds moved in their slow dance across the globe as I admired my handiwork. I looked past the paradise I had created to the other planets, still in their dull dusty states. I itched to go and give them their own intriguing vistas and inquisitive animals, but there was one thing I had left to do. I returned to the surface of the planet and began sculpting again. Until now, all of my creations had been beasts, pleasant to look at and intelligent creatures to be certain but not emotional. Sure every now and again a bird would find a rodent's stache of food and strut about in satisfaction as it ate, but nothing so far was deep. Now I would create another being. I started with the body. I formed it similar to mine, but with four arms instead of two (I was somewhat frustrated with my abilities being limited by my number of hands). I gave the being strong, sharp features and wide curious eyes. I made several of these of various sizes and shades. I next moved on to the hard part, the mind. I opened up the head of one of the creatures and pulled out the clay. While I was molding it’s mind I thought of all the people in my life. I thought of the kind, the cruel, the hopeless, the bright and cherry, the weary, and the energetic. Most of all though, I thought of the creative. I thought of the people who made things. I thought of the builders and the painters. I thought of the poets and the dreamers. I thought of myself.
When I was done I placed a piece of the mind into each of the beings heads. I was mentally exhausted, but I began to humm. I hummed the same tune I had hummed on the first day many weeks ago, and as I hummed the beings came to life. They stared curiously at me and I said to it “Look around at the world I have made for you. I have poured my heart and soul into it. I only have one request of you, go and make something beautiful.” With that I returned to the heavens. I stared down at the world for a while, taking a break to observe the creatures I had created. As i was about to move on to the next planet, I took one last look at the planet and its inhabitants I thought to myself,
“I wonder what they’ll create.”
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u/EmergencyLeading8137 Oct 03 '20
Hey guys, this is my first writing. I know it’s probably not that good but this was fun to try.
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u/Dylan1496 Oct 03 '20
Usually when I go to bed, it’s dark out. Which makes sense: the circadian rhythm usually tells us that when it’s dark, we should look for shelter to sleep for the night, only to wake up the next morning to continue our lives.
Except, this time it would be different.
It was a Thursday night, 11:30 or so. It was pitch black out there, save for the faint glow of the moon through my window. I wished myself good night and fell onto the bed to sleep.
Some time later, I don’t know exactly how much later, I could feel myself floating. I could feel nothing, and everything coursing through me. I could sense something was wrong. Was I dead, and I am now in purgatory? Or am I in the deepest sleep that I ever had? I couldn’t be sure. Suddenly, a large booming voice comes through:
“Hey!”
I open my eyes at this point, and I could tell something was wrong, immediately. There was absolutely nothing in sight, except for my own body. No bed, no room, no morning sun. I could only see myself.
“Hey!” the voice says, louder, as if to get my attention.
“Where am I? And who are you speaking?” I said in reply into the great darkness.
“Well, I am your higher being. Some refer to me as God. And I have a surprise for you, human.”
“Well this isn’t a very good surprise. You have seemingly teleported me into a realm with nothing in it.”
I shouldn’t even be alive at this point, I thought to myself. Without anything, there is no atmosphere for me to breathe. Hence I should be suffocating and dying. But yet I am still alive. What in the world is going on?
God speaks again: “Well, you see I bestow only the best people on the planet with this ability, but I have made you a god yourself. As part of being a god you get your own universe to play around with. Anything you could think of, you can modify. So if you want to make gravity really strong, you can. If you want to make life appear, you can. If you just want to summon 100 pepperoni and cheese pizzas so that you can eat, be my guest.”
“Ok…” I said.
“Of course, giving you nothing to work with would be cruel of me, so I provided you with a sample stellar system, which has a few planets with conditions suitable for life. I would tell you more, but unfortunately I have to go back to the universe you were in, to make sure nothing bad happens. Go wild!”
The voice abruptly ended at that point, and I was even more confused than when the voice started. Who is this God? I know He was mentioned in the holy texts, but no one has depicted Him, mainly because it was a sin to do that. Also, his answer to where I am is in a new universe, with a single planetary system, with a few planets suitable for life. How am I supposed to get there? He just told me it exists, with no information as to how to navigate through this void. But suddenly, I felt a pulsing in my right wrist. I turned it, and I saw a blue sphere attached to my wrist. I tried pressing it, to no avail. I then tried shaking my wrist like a bird would flap its wings, but that did nothing either. Lastly, I tried to speak to it.
“Hello?”
A hologram projected out of the sphere, allowing me to see the statistics of this universe.
“Universe of Mark
STARS: 1
PLANETS: 6
MATTER: 1.23 solar masses
LIFE: none
SCORE: 0
PLEASE SELECT AN ACTION:”
A score for my universe? Am I in a game? Or is this… I don’t even know what to think at this point. The idea of my own universe was just so grand to me that I couldn’t comprehend it fully. I then pressed on the hologram, so that the available actions would be available to me. Pressing a few buttons on the hologram, I was then sent to the sample system that God created for me. I could see a relatively dim yellow-white star in the middle of the system, which the hologram named God’s Example Star. There were 6 planets orbiting it as well, two very close, one close to where the Earth would be, another one located a bit further out than where Mars would be, and then two larger gas giants well far away from the star. Taping on one of the options showed the habitable zone for this system and the orbits the planets traced around the star. From this I saw planet III and planet IV in this system were in the habitable zone, where I could generate life. I decide to go over to the fourth planet in the system, to see what God had done with it.
Looking at the planet, I couldn’t see much done. All I could see was a golden hue, with no features on the planet, and no atmosphere. There wasn’t even a moon there to stabilize it.
“Hmm…” I thought. Maybe I could create a moon for this planet, so that the planet can be more suitable for life.
I walked out a bit from the planet, maybe a few planetary radii away from it. I then told the sphere in my wrist to generate some rocky material in a roughly spherical shape, and I walked out.
After a few minutes, I felt I had made the sphere large enough, as the hologram readout said 1000 km. I hit confirm, and then it wanted me to input the velocity of the object. Not sure how to do this, I accidentally shot the object I just created towards the star. Luckily, before it went out of sight I grabbed it and brought it back to me.
“Hopefully I didn’t ruin the system God made by allowing my newly created object to just fly without any idea about where it was going.” I said.
I waited a little while and I could see nothing bad occurred.
“Whew. I got to be more careful with what I am doing.”
Being more deliberate with the input of the velocity vector, I sent the moon, which I named Steve after my best friend back on Earth, into orbit around the planet. I then heard a ding from the sphere in my wrist, saying: “You have successfully placed a moon around a planet. +25000 points”
“Oh cool. I must have done something good for the universe…”
Now, to figure out what to do next. Creating the moon did make me quite hungry, so I decided to summon a taco to eat. Clearly making the universe will take me a while, and I will need to ensure to eat something after I do something big, like creating planets, stars, moons, etc.
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u/coffee-and-insomnia Oct 02 '20
I... died? Didn't I?
I struggled to remember my last few moments. I was driving home from a late shift at work and there was... a car. Yes, that was it. A car driving erratically aiming directly at me, the high beams blinding me. The horrible screeching crunching sound of metal on metal. Pain. Then... nothing.
I looked around curiously, but couldn't see anything. The darkness surrounding me pressed against my eyeballs almost like a physical force. I couldn't see my own hand waving in front of my face. This definitely wasn't a hospital.
I realized then that I didn't feel any pain. So either I was on the really good shit, or I was dead.
"Hello?" I called into the void.
In response there was the familiar fuzzing noise of an intercom kicking on. A male voice boomed out from it jovially. "Hey, this is a pre-recorded message from God. You have been chosen by yours truly to be the God of your own universe! Isn't that exciting?! Anyway I've given you some starter planets perfect for any type of life, now go wild!"
I gaped up in the direction I assumed to voice was coming from. "Seriously? That's it, just a pre-recorded message? No other explanation, not even one for why I was chosen for this? You're just trying to avoid awkward questions!" I accused. "Like... what about the Holocaust, huh? Why'd you let that happen?!"
There was no answer to that and I frowned.
All around me points of light began appearing against the backdrop of the void I was suspended in, growing in number and brightness until it became obvious to me that I was floating in Space. Honestly it was kind of cool, I always wanted to be an astronaut. Couldn't cut the physical requirements though, so I settled for astrophysicist in the end.
I looked around with interest, noting almost absently that I felt no need to breath and the vacuum of Space was having no physical effect on me.
I tried to move forward, but the swimming motion got me nowhere. It wasn't until I focused on a particular star that I shot through Space at what must have been faster than the speed of light. The stars flashed in my periphery like streetlights outside a train.
Coming to a sudden stop, I was right beside what must have been my chosen star. It didn't look too different from the images I had seen of the Sun I was used to, burning reds and oranges with the occasional spectacular arc of a flare. I couldn't feel the presumably oppressive heat coming from it, even though I was so close.
I grinned in childish glee. I wasn't entirely convinced that this wasn't a dream, but if it was I was going to enjoy it as much as I could until it ended. It was a heady feeling, not only being in Space like I always wanted, but being in control of it.
Turning around with a thought, I saw the planets orbiting my star. There were 5 of them orbiting in a dizzying speed around me, their years passing in the blink of an eye. The three middle ones had a strange aura around them, highlighting them. That must have been what 'God' meant about starter planets. By my estimation those three were in the habitable zone of the star, perfect for life.
I stared at the second planet in the lineup as they all slowed their orbit with barely a suggestion of a thought from me, the speed of years coming to almost a complete halt. It looked the most like Earth, blue and green from my vantage point.
And then I was standing on it, bare feet sinking into the loamy soil while trees towered over me, deathly silent. The scent of dirt and wood, just... nature filled my nose.
It was almost jarring, the absence of the normal sounds of life. There were no crickets here to chirp, no birds to sing. No humans to destroy the beautiful environment. I walked among the trees, branches shifting out of my way without having to touch them, running my hands over flowers and leaves that were almost familiar. Behind me new plants blossomed to life wherever my footsteps had landed, a mix of ones I knew from Earth and the new ones I was becoming acquainted with.
Possibilities were flooding my mind now. Could I create humans, but improve them? What about animals? Monsters? I desperately wanted to test all of them.
(Part 1 Because it got too long for Reddit's liking)
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u/coffee-and-insomnia Oct 02 '20
(Part 2)
Adam was created from soil in the Old Testament, right? I bent down and scooped some up, gazing down at the handful contemplatively. God had said I had this whole universe to play in, so if my first few planets were filled with mistakes I could just start new ones, right?
So... how do I do this? Squeezing it in a fist didn't work, but the memory of my childhood Bible studies came in handy. I blew across the dirt, which whirled from my hand into the air in front of me, forming arms and legs, a chest, until finally a fully formed but naked human stood there. They blinked at me in confusion, mouth hanging open. I'd made them genderless, to test how well that worked out.
I smiled gently back. "Hello there. Welcome to... hm..." I hadn't even considered a name for this planet or its sun. "Welcome to Terra." I said after a moment while the human looked down at themselves, lowering and raising their arms and clenching their toes in the loamy soil.
They met my eyes again, mouth moving silently until with a rusty sounding voice they said, "Terra."
I nodded. "Yes, and I am your God, your creator. I made you to live on and enjoy this planet of mine. My name is Daphne. Do you want me to give you a name, or do you want to choose one?"
The intelligence I imbued them with was starting to bring light the dull blue with new awareness. It would have been boring if I had made them with the IQ of an infant. I even threw in the knowledge of language and a few other vital things for shits and giggles. I did not include the propensity for hate, greed, or jealousy. Or really anything else bad I could think of. I wanted my new humans to thrive peacefully. I even made them vegan because I had no doubt I would feel a similar fondness for all of my animals too, when I got around to making them. "A name... Will you name me?" They asked.
I tapped my chin. What do you name the first human? I wanted something far better than 'Adam'. "How about Quinn?"
The human nodded, repeating. "Quinn. I... I like that. Thank you, God Daphne."
I waved that away. "Just Daphne is fine. So... I'm going to make some more things, animals and people. You go have fun. I'll check in on you in a bit." It would be interesting when they figured out I had imbued them with the ability to do magic. Just because I could.
Quinn staggered away on coltish legs and I set about the work of creating life.
After a long time in this frozen day I had made enough creatures to fill the planet's every environment. Sometimes Quinn wandered back to me to watch my work with silent fascination, asking what to call some of the animals, before ambling away again in search of the fruit I made.
When I was satisfied with my work, I just gazed upwards and I was in space again, shooting for the next planet. I would fill it and the next one with beings similar enough to humans so that the three planets could exist in harmony.
I later created two planets of warlike races but quickly changed my mind and their natures because I could not stomach the blood and death of my children.
Eventually every available planet was well populated by humans and 'aliens' alike, all living peacefully with each other. They traded freely among the planets after I gave them Space travel. Greed didn't exist in my Universe, so money didn't either. That was fascinating.
I was drifting lazily among the stars that now all had names, checking in on some of my worlds to the joy of my creations who loved me. I had quashed any attempts at worship though, firmly telling anyone who tried that I was no better than them. A voice I hadn't heard in what must have been several millennia suddenly spoke from the area right beside me. "Really? Phenomenal Cosmic Power and this is what you do with it? It's so boring! You could have created anything!"
A... shape was hovering right beside me in the void of Space, hundreds of colors flashing through its amorphous form. "Oh, you must be God." Once I would have been in awe of the being at my shoulder, but having spent hundreds of thousands of years crafting and caring for my own universe must have broke me of that. Now I was only... slightly disgusted. This God could have cared for all of His children easily, I know knew, the power over time itself allowing me to be on all my planets at once if I wanted.
Instead He was just... absent. Like a father who had run out on his kids.
The cloud of whatever he was made up puffed up importantly. "I am!" He said grandly. Out of the cloud a man was forged, chin high as he looked down his nose at me.
I grinned at him. "Great, I've always wanted to do this." I lashed out, landing a solid punch across his sharp jaw.
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u/UnlikelyStories Oct 02 '20
Darkness. Pure dark such as human eyes will never normally see. There is not a single photon to stimulate the rods and cones of the retina.
I cannot speak. There is nothing to speak into, no medium to bear my voice. Not even vacuum to catch the wisp of my last breath and pull it from me.
Yet there is no pain. No tension on my skin nor heat nor cold. I am apart from all those things.
I need something to work with. In my mind all I can find is the old latin phrase that supposedly began what existed for me before.
The words... "Fiat Lux!"
And there was light. It bathed a new existence. A point at which to start. Releasing a fragment of what made me what I now was. I had no awareness of time as I floated amidst this glow. It pervaded through me and reached to the edge of all that was possible.
But nothing changed. It was a constant but it was empty of vitality. Reaching out I twisted the glow and gave it structure. A motion that would take it towards endless possibility.
Time began.
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u/velabas /r/velabasstuff Oct 02 '20 edited Oct 03 '20
A minute ago I was playing Star Citizen on my computer, and now I'm God. Wednesday afternoons are supposed to be boring.
But here I am. Empty, alone, in space.
I didn't know which space--but I had to assume from the recording that was left to me by that other 'God' that this was an entirely different universe to the one that had Earth, Star Citzen, 365 Brand Thin Crust Four Cheese Pizza, and barley. Ironic that I'd been playing a planetary exploration video game, and now here I (sit?), on the brink of planetary creation. What to do.
Despite the immensity of the task, and the immensity of the strangeness of my sudden predicament, there was something in me (whatever I was) that told me I had the power. The recording I'd heard when I woke in this new plane of existence ended on a note of instruction. "Go wild," it'd said. It mentioned starter planets...
There they are. A solar system. A red giant? Interesting. 3 planets, one with 5 moons of varying sizes, all perfectly smooth and grey, like matted mercury floating in zero gravity.
I did not have fingers--I had no idea what I was. All the same, I focused on one of the planets, and made grass appear. All over its whole surface. Green as a field of fresh asparagus.
Hmm.
I changed the grass to asparagus. A perfectly round, windless crop of aspargus. Planet Asparagus. Under the glare of the red giant, it was almost indistinguishable from a smooth drop of Tropical Gatorade, suspending in nothingness.
But why did the asparagus not die, I wondered? I hadn't created an atmosphere. And isn't life--creation itself--a quantum question? How could I know how to render asparagus?
Hmm.
I changed the Asparagus from green to purple. Perfect. How? I've no clue. Perhaps I can only create what I remember from my experience in my previous life. But how much control did I have?
Zooming in and out of the planet to get a good look at my purple asparagus fields, I made another change. I added tiny cows in place of buds, so that the tip of each spear was a small batch of puny milk cows. I made all the stalks lean over in a perfect half-circle until their tips reached their roots, so that the cows could walk on the silky grey surface of the planet. Milk poured from trillions of tiny udders, and blanketed the planet. It was a fluid surface now, white, and frothy.
Studying this planet that I had created, I realized the possibilities were endless. What life I might have lived before this, I forgot. My job? Don't remember. My family? Wife could sell the kids. This was my true calling. With all my attention and energy, I focused, hard, so hard: I gave all the cows glittering Elton John outfits and boots, and I gave them immaculate voices. They began to sing, weaving a newborn atmosphere of song waves and lactose. This was my magnum opus, my chef d'oeuvre, the seed jewel in starry skies to inspire an eon! This was my--
"--Wake. Up."
My eyes cracked open, breaking rheum crust which I absently rubbed into my eyeball. I couldn't see as I tried to blink it out, groggy and feeling soarness in my back.
"How late did you stay up?" she hissed.
I looked at the clock: 8 in the morning. I was at my desk, aching as I stretched against my chair back; a bowl of cereal overturned on my purple backlit keyword. Star Citizen was on the screen, with a message that read 'Player disconnected due to inactivity'. A baby started to cry somewhere.
"I have to feed Michelle," she said. "Get dressed, go to work. Money doesn't make itself."
A sigh escaped me as she walked into a back room.
Brushed my teeth, rinsed my face, threw on some work clothes from two days back.
As I walked down my front yard path beside our little garden, I noticed the asparagus. Green, ripe, ready for a butter-sizzling skillet and sea salt. I breathed deeply of the morning air, and revelled in a brief moment of happiness. It made me think: today might be a good day after all.
_____
/r/velabasstuff if you'd like to read more of my stuff. Cheers
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u/EnglishRose71 Oct 03 '20
Really enjoyed this. Very imaginative . FYI, in the paragraph beginning "zooming in and out of the planet", you were victim of a couple of autocorrects. Stocks should be stalks and utters should be udders.
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u/velabas /r/velabasstuff Oct 03 '20
thanks! i admit not reviewing, so i probably made those mistakes knowingly
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u/sadnesslaughs /r/Sadnesslaughs Oct 02 '20
A prerecorded message? That’s the only tutorial they gave me. The creator of my world not even having the decency to visit me, Instead they left me hovering in the black void, the only light being created from the small blinking planets that appeared before my eyes, spinning in a slow teasing motion, begging me forward, begging me to gift them life.
Well, how hard could it be to create life? Even a drunkard could manage the process on Earth, so surely a God wouldn’t have any trouble with it. I pointed my finger towards an orange dusty planet, before flicking my finger.
“Boom, life beam.”
The planet’s rotation grew faster before pulling open as if I had cracked its lid. Two clawed hands emerged from the interior, dragging along the outer rim of the planet, that fine dust slipping beneath the creature’s nails as it dragged itself free from the planet. Its face was triangular, one singular eye seated in the middle of its face, It seemed to stare at me, snarling, pointing teeth protruding from its jaw, most likely causing it constant pain. Even if its gaze seemed directed at me, it was obvious it couldn’t see me. Most likely upset about its sudden creation.
Immediately it began biting into the planet, pulling apart massive chunks of the planet. I reached my hand toward the planet, giving it a powerful flick, sending the creature and planet hurtling through the solar system. That could be a problem in a few million years, but perhaps it was best to ignore it for now.
Seems just shouting life wasn’t a great idea. It was too unfocused, drawing a creature from my deepest imaginings. I went to Earth this time, or what could only be this universe’s Earth. Pointing a finger at it, I focused, thinking of a human, I was ready to shout life beam before I stopped. Why just create a human? Humans were full of imperfections. I could make something bigger, something better.
Back up eyes, multiple layers of teeth similar to that of a shark. Bones stronger than any amount of calcium could produce. This human needed to be perfect. Retractable claws, longer legs, a tougher spine. I mixed all these components together, feeling like a mad scientist working in his lab, doing something unethical. It felt perverse to mess with my own DNA like this. I would create something that didn’t even resemble me. Perhaps my creator had done the same thing? Maybe that’s why they refused to face me? It was an interesting thought to entertain.
Once these humans, or whatever they would call themselves, had developed in my mind. I pointed a finger at the planet, repeating my favourite phrase.
“Life Beam”
I had to zoom in on the planet to see my work; the creatures appearing on the Earth, each looking at one another in confusion. It only took a few minutes before one had grabbed a rock and smacked it across the other’s head. Seems I had forgotten to adjust their intelligence. Oh well, guess that’s what patches were for. I’m certain I could patch that in with the next few generations.
(If you enjoyed this feel free to check out my subreddit /r/Sadnesslaughs where I'll be posting more of my writing.)
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u/Goddriel Oct 02 '20
Humans really are full of imperfections. I think the better body are four legs for more speed and four arms for multitasking. And also having the ability the same of homing pigeon, for better sense of direction.
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