#Delaware Class

[lonestarbattleship]

USS North Dakota (BB-29) at anchor, circa 1918.

[blackgirlsreverything]

Facebook: Tamon Frisby

[lesbiacnh]

it’s supposed to snow and be gross all day tomorrow but i wanna go to the gym and thrift and go for a walk😭 i have a little bit of school work to catch up on and i wanna revise my notes for a test that’s coming up at the end of the month. but i wanna go outside first omg

[sevdidntdie]

@amtrak-official

Our class may take a simulation in DC, but we’re debating the costs of either taking Amtrak or the local line from Perryville (MD). Any ideas?

[truths89]

My AmeriKKKa

We are a colony of capitalist exploitation Indebted citizens of a democratized nation

Currently, we are experiencing a life standard demotion Controlled demolition provides subtle commotion

The Ponzi scheme that is our economic system Is fond of mutation and the cultivation of a new ecosystem

How history repeats itself with new structures While the nation-state sinks along with its infrastructures

[kooldewd123]

one of the funniest underrated parts of animorphs to me is the fact that time travel is a surprisingly common plot point, and yet it kinda gets glossed over because it almost never factors into the story in a way that actually matters. like. jake dies crossing the delaware but gets better on a technicality. there were aliens on earth at the same time as the dinosaurs but the asteroid got them too. time travel is a known phenomenon that the andalites have studied, but we don’t actually get any explanation for it because ax was distracted in class that day. everyone went back in time 24 hours and then died and forgot everything. two separate members of the main cast are different varieties of time anomalies and really the only effect it has on them is tobias getting over his family issues. jake is shown a prophetic vision of a world where the yeerks win and we just never get an explanation for what the fuck that was about. every time time travel is brought up, it contradicts at least one other time travel plotline. this is the series that taught me to never take time travel seriously in fiction and i can’t thank it enough for that. this is hilarious.

[integratedittraining]

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[chainmail-butch]

A Speech For the Colonist.

It is my opinion that communist movements within the US fail because they refuse to address decolonization.

It is my further opinion that the contradiction between colonizer and colonized supercedes the contradiction of class. The Native American Nations are colonized, Black people are colonized, Hispanic people are colonized. Colonization is the key to white supremacy and white supremacy is the key to class within the United States and Canada.

If you talk to most white communists about decolonization within the United States you'll get things like, "Well, decolonization will come with the revolution because we'll give the people the autonomy and resources they need to care for their communities." This is the exact same rhetoric that alienated black revolutionaries from the American Communist Party in the 60s. "Under communism every worker will have what he needs and be able to give according to his means, so we don't need to worry about race."

Comrade, we do. We do need to worry about race. We cannot simply wish a reality away because in our minds Everyone Will Be White in a communist society.

We need to acknowledge the fact that every single White Person within the United States, and the rest of the Americas for that matter, is a colonist. Our institutions are colonial. Our industry is colonial. Our cities are colonial. Our infrastructure is colonial. Our lawns are colonial. Every single aspect of our lives has its roots in colonization.

We still plunder the earth like we're sending silver and timber back to England and Spain.

By pretending that we are not colonists we make it impossible to address the ways in which we colonize. By ignoring the ways in which we colonize we fail to address the ways in which we are imperialist. By failing to address our imperialism we fail address capitalism.

We are colonists. Pretending that this isn't the case doesn't make it any less reality.

You'll acknowledge the fact that we live on stolen land but would you hand Seattle back to the Duwamish? Would you cede Delaware back to the Lenape? Would you take up arms, and then lay them down to a nation of people that are unlike you? Would you take up arms and lay them down again for a nation of people that you might not agree with politically? Have you confronted your fear that they would treat you just like we treat them?

For that matter, how have you addressed your conception of Black Nationalism? Any white communist will tell you that Nationalism as a concept is counter-revolutionary but how do you address the fact that there is an entire race of people who were ripped from their homes and forced to colonize another land? The solution certainly isn't Liberia, which is itself a colonial exercise.

How do you address the fact that any black person will tell you that a nation created for and by black americans would be a pretty good deal in their book? How do address the fact that our colonial nation isn't their nation and they know it? What do you do? Do you call them reactionary? Do you tell them that their desire for a home of their own is because we orphaned their ancestors and that they need to get over it?

Comrade, these are the questions you need to answer. You need to listen to the people we have colonized and you need to really observe our material conditions.

We live with the unique situation that, as a result of a vicious and often ignored genocide, the colonizers are the majority ethnic group within the colonized land. White people make up 57% of this country. And unlike other colonized regions, there's no France for us to return to. There's no England, there's no Belgium, there's no Netherlands, there's no Spain. The working class white is stuck here. It's up to us to address our own reality and to understand that, ultimately, no way and no how can we be the face of revolution within the united states.

No white led communist movement will prosper because, even now, we still have too much to lose. Our people will never start the fight as we are now. Understand that.

[dagwolf]

Recent viral images of Southwest agents getting yelled at and crying have resurfaced a valuable lesson about the nature of our economic system that’s worth examining this holiday season: the deliberate, built-in ways corporate “customer service” is set up to not only shield those on the top of the ladder—executives, vice presidents, large shareholders—but pit low-wage workers against each other in an inherently antagonistic relationship marked by powerlessness and frustration. It’s a dynamic we discussed in “Episode 118: The Snitch Economy—How Rating Apps and Tipping Pit Working People Against Each Other,” of the Citations Needed podcast I co-host, but I feel ought to be expanded on in light of recent events. Watching video after video, reading tweet after tweet, describing frustrated stranded holiday travelers yelling at Southwest Airlines workers, and hearing, in turn, accounts of airline workers and airport staff breaking down crying, is a good opportunity to talk about how none of this is natural or inevitable. It is a choice, both in corporate policy and government regulation. 

There are three main ways capital pits workers against each other in the relationship we call “customer service”:

1. Snitch economy. As discussed in Citations Needed Ep. 118, we are provided with more and more apps, websites, and customer surveys to effectively do the job of managing for management—free of charge, of course. Under the auspices of “empowering” the consumer, we are told to spy on our low-wage servants and gauge the quality of their servitude with stars, tips, and reviews. Uber, DoorDash, Fiver, Grubhub—a new “gig economy” has emerged that not only misclassifies workers as freelancers to pay them less, but hands over the reins of management to the consumer directly. This necessarily increases the antagonism between working-class consumers and the workers they are snitching on. 

2. Automation. Increasingly, even getting to the bottom rung employee to yell at is difficult. Under the thin pretense of Covid, increased labor power has exploded the use of automated technology that creates a frustrating maze to get a simple problem solved or task accomplished. Don’t go to the register, instead download the app and order. Scan the QR code, don’t wait on hold, go to our website and engage a series of automated prompts and maybe you can solve your problem. More and more consumers are being pushed away from humans onto automated systems we are told will “save us time,” but instead exist solely to save the corporation labor costs. So, by the time the average consumer does finally work their way to seeing a human, they are annoyed, frustrated, and angry at this faceless entity and more willing to take it out on someone making $13 an hour. 

One recent visit to Houston’s George H.W. Bush airport portended our obnoxious “automated” future. To cut down on unionized airport labor, all the restaurants use QR codes and require you to order food and drinks for yourself. Per usual, it’s sold as an exciting new technology that’s somehow good for consumers, but really the basic technology is 30 years old. It’s just a screen—the same ones restaurants have had for decades. The only thing that’s changed is the social conditioning of having you do all your own ordering and menu navigation. The waiter hasn’t been replaced by an iPad, they’ve been replaced by you. Invariably, it’s clunky and annoying and reduces the union jobs that airport construction is said to provide to justify soliciting public dollars. The only winner is a faceless corporation with a Delaware LLC and its shareholders living in a few counties in Connecticut and Texas.

Automation not only annoys and adds labor burdens to the customer, there is also evidence that it is a significant contributor to income inequality. A November 2022 study published in the journal Econometrica looked at the significantly widening income gap between lesser and more educated workers over the past 40 years. It found that ​​“automation accounts for more than half of that increase,” as summarized by MIT News. “This single one variable … explains 50 to 70 percent of the changes or variation between group inequality from 1980 to about 2016,” said MIT economist Daron Acemoglu, co-author of the study. Whether or not, under a different economic system, automation could be a force for good is a debate for another day. But what is clear is that, while both consumers and workers are harmed by this trend, there is a significant want of solidarity between them. 

3. Deliberate understaffing. This is a major culprit in this week’s Southwest Airlines meltdown. In parallel with the increased use of forced automation, cost-cutting corporations, facing increased labor power, are gutting staffing to its bare bones and hoping their corporate competitors doing the same will lead to a shift in consumer’s willingness to put up with substandard service and conditions, and overall bullshit. “We apologize for the wait,” the automated phone prompt tells us. Of course a machine cannot be contrite, so the effect is both surreal and grating: You’re not fucking sorry, you don’t exist. You're a recording. But now, who am I yelling at? 

...

[lonestarbattleship]

USS North Dakota (BB-29) underway, circa early 1910s.

Naval History and Heritage Command: NH 73775

[todaysdocument]

Happy Constitution Day! 

Can’t make it to the National Archives Building in person? Check out the hi-res scans in our catalog:

Record Group 11: General Records of the United States Government Series: The Constitution of the United States

Image description: Zoomed-in portion of the first page of the U.S. Constitution, including the words “We the People.” 

Transcription: 

We the People of the United States in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Article. I.

Section.1. All Legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Section.2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State shall have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous Branch of the State Legislature.

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained the Age of twenty-five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen.

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians not taxed, three fifths of all other Persons. The actual Enumeration shall be be made within three Years after the first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to chuse three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode-Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, New-York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, Virginia ten, North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three.

When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.

The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Officers; and shall have the sole Power of Impeachment.

Section.3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years; and each Senator shall have one Vote.

Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators of the first Class shall be vacated at the Expiration of the second Year, of the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every second Year; and if Vacancies happen by Resignation, or otherwise, during the Recess of the Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies.

No Person shall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen.

The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.

The Senate shall chuse their other Officers, and also a President pro tempore, in the Absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the Office of President of the United States.

The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments. When sitting for that Purpose, they shall be on Oath or Affirmation. When the President of the United States is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside: And no Person shall be convicted without the Concurrence of two thirds of the Members present.

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States: but the Party convicted shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.

Section.4. The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such Meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by Law appoint a different Day.

Section.5. Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members, and a Majority of each shall constitute a Quorum to do Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and maybe authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such Manner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide.

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.

Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to time publish the same, excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment require Secrecy; and the Yeas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall, at the Desire of one-fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal.

Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, without the Consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other Place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.

Section.6. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.

No Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time; and no Person holding any Office under the United States, shall be a Member of either House during his Continuance in Office.

Section.7. All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments as on other Bills.

Every Bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it becomes a Law, be presented to the President of the

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Lulu Merle Johnson

Lulu Merle Johnson was pioneer in education and the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. in the state of Iowa. Born on September 14, 1907 in Gravity, Iowa to Jeanette (Burton) and Richard Johnson, her mother was the daughter of freed slaves, and her father, who was formerly enslaved, owned and operated his own barbershop. The family were the only Black residents in the town and were highly respected.

Johnson’s family moved to eastern Iowa when she was entering her senior year. In 1925, she graduated from Clinton High School, where she was captain of the girls’ basketball team. After graduation, Johnson enrolled at the State University of Iowa (now the University of Iowa). Out of over 2,000 students, there were only 64 Black students–14 women and 50 men. University housing was segregated, so Johnson and the other Black students had to reside in off-campus housing.

Lulu Johnson obtained all three of her degrees from the University of Iowa. She earned a Bachelor of Arts in history in 1929, followed one year later by a master’s. Throughout the 1930s, Johnson worked on a doctorate in American history. She received support from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Johnson, a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, challenged the university’s racial structure. As an undergraduate, she insisted on sitting in front row seats assigned to white students in her political science class. As a graduate student, she protested the university’s pool policies. All University of Iowa students were required to pass a swimming test. The university was willing to let Johnson as well as the other Black students waive the test in order to keep them out of the pool, so they would not have to drain and refill it for the white students. Johnson and the other students informed their instructor that they would attend class at 5:00 am and take the swimming test, making the pool unusable for the remainder of the school day. Her action ended the university’s racially-discriminatory pool policy.

In 1941, Lula Merle Johnson became the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D. at the University of Iowa. Her thesis was “The Problem of Slavery in the Old Northwest, 1787-1858.” She held academic appointments at a number of HBCU’s, including Talladega University in Alabama; Tougaloo College in Mississippi; Florida A&M; and West Virginia State College.  In 1952, she accepted a position at Cheyney State College in Pennsylvania, where she was a history professor and dean of women. Dr. Johnson retired from Cheyney State as the director of the Department of Social and Behavioral Science.  She moved to Millsboro, Delaware and spent the remainder of her life traveling with her partner, Eunice Johnson. She died on October 18, 1995, at the age of 88.

In 2018, the Graduate College at the University of Iowa established the Lulu Merle Johnson Fellowship, which provides funding and support for Ph.D. students from underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups. On June 24, 2021, the Johnson County (Iowa) Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to change the county’s name to Lulu Merle Johnson County. The county was originally named for Vice President Richard M. Johnson (1837-1841), a slaveholder who never resided in Iowa and claimed credit for killing Shawnee Chief Tecumseh during the War of 1812. Lulu Merle Johnson County is only the second in the nation named after an African American. (The other is Martin Luther King County in Washington.) The University of Iowa, where Lulu Johnson received her education, is the county seat of Johnson County.

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/people-african-american-history/lulu-merle-johnson-1907-1995/

[justpeaxchy]

(please just listen to this song while reading..)

Explosions could be heard from the other side of the gym as everyone trained. Izuku knew today was specifically meant for their quirks and figuring out what techniques they could use against enemies but in this case it was against everyone in class 1-A.

Today's training was just a bit different. If someone was able to beat another student with their quirk then they would move on to another person, making their way to the top of the class for a "final battle." Bakugou was being painfully obvious about the situation that he was going to win, his yelling was always somewhere around the area for everyone to hear.

Izuku, however, didn't expect to be partnered up with someone he didn't talk to as much. You were on the quieter side when it came to socializing, which meant he never got the chance to fully have a conversation with you. He managed to get through with todoroki but you were just a little difficult to come across.

He nervously watched as you stretched your arm nonchalantly. It was as if you weren't a tad bit worried about who you were facing, making him a little sour. You could've at least acknowledged him.

"So.. l/n. I-"

"I don't think this is meant for small talk, izuku."

The sudden use of his first name made him freeze in the spot, giving you the opportunity to attack him. Your quirk gave you an easy advantage to a lot of things. Being able to make something completely still, whether in air or on the ground, and stop one's quirk from completely working. He knew you were a threat in this situation.

Izuku barely managed to hop out of the way from your attack, your fingers grazing his clothing. He tried figuring out what your next move was, not knowing if you would do a surprise attack of some sorts. He often saw you training but never had the chance to fight you head on. Out of everyone in the class he only had a little knowledge about your quirk besides knowing what it was.

He swiftly moved out the way again when you released a rope-like string from your gloves, similar to sero's. He figured that must have been another advantage for you. If you were able to capture him like that you would easily be able to win.

So he made sure that didn't happen.

He charged at you and jumped up to avoid the same ropes you released, aiming his fingers in your direction for a straight attack using 'Delaware smash.' To his relief it caught you off guard and you stumbled backwards on the floor, quickly catching yourself again. He took the opportunity to land directly next to you.

"L/n, are you alright?" He calmed down the power surging through him and gently reached out his hand for yours, not noticing the way your eyes glowed with mischief.

"Yea, totally.." You unexpectedly kicked him off balance, literally swiping him off his feet as he crashed on the floor with a grunt. Your hands darted to his figure and immediately made him stay in place. He felt his quirk stop working in only a matter of seconds, leaving him panicked and in a vulnerable situation. He didn't know how to break out of his state, and you had the nerve to chuckle at him.

"Sometimes I think you're too nice." You kneeled down at his level and examined his face, noticing the discomfort and worry. You never got a good chance to look at him and his features. Oh boy, were you missing out on something. You blinked, realizing that he was pretty mesmerizing. What caught your attention the most was his eyes. Even then it looked like they glowed.

Probably because they were - literally.

You hadn't noticed he broke out of the state you put him in and he grabbed your arm, swinging you down on the floor in his place. Now it was your time to panic. You forgot that you can't be distracted or else your quirk will fade out as if nothing happened. How stupid. You grimaced at the male who now held your arm in place at a rather painful angle.

"Don't be too distracted now, y/n."

Your eyes widened at the sudden change of attitude. Not only that, but calling you by your first name? You tried your best to hide the embarrassment that was creeping up on you.

"Using first names now are we?" You smirked and kicked him off with unexpected strength, sending him tripping on his feet. He summoned back his power as green electricity sparked around him and he spoke, taking quick breaths in as if he just ran a marathon, "Yea, but if I remember correctly you talked to me like that first."

You rolled your eyes and aimed your hands at him while he was still catching his breath, getting ready to capture him with the ropes. "Keep talking, pretty boy."

Without any hesitation you released the ropes at an alarmingly fast rate, signaling izuku. What you didn't expect was for him to swiftly grab it and harshly pull, making you trip on your own feet this time and stumble towards him. You screamed from the shock spreading through your body and izuku somehow managed to tangle you in your own "weapon."

He let a smirk spread across his lips and pride practically screamed from his expression. "Not so fast." A small breath of laughter escaped his mouth as he watched your face slowly morph into one that held anxiousness. He muttered out the words so only you could hear, "Got you."

You tried speaking but no words were able to form, not knowing he had this sort of attitude to him. Thankfully, Aizawa called it quits for this round for everyone, leaving you the one who lost.

Izuku gently let go of the ropes that entangled you and scratched the back of his neck. "S-sorry if I went too hard on you. You fought very well..!" He searched your eyes for anything that signaled you were truly hurt and needed a nurse. "Let's talk some other time, yea?"

"Deku! Get over here it's your turn to fight me." Bakugou's hands sparked with explosions as he waited for him impatiently, completely ignoring who he was with.

"Coming, kacchan!" He shook his head and ran towards the angry blonde. Your words from earlier echoed in the back of his mind even as he tried to get rid of them.

'Keep talking, pretty boy.'

For some odd reason, izuku felt the need to fight extra hard against bakugou for the eyes of someone that day. He wasn't going to admit that it was you though.

✓

A/n: I told you I would write something for that picture I found. Ugh. Sorry if it was bad but I had to do it 💀. If you want the picture I'm talking about it's somewhere on my page, shouldn't be too long ago because I haven't posted anything else since then🫠.

[pub-lius]

Hello, recently you answered an ask about how Hamilton reacted to the Hamilton-Madison fallout, and one of the things you said was "These men were very crucial figures in American law, which shows that, unlike men like Jefferson, he [Hamilton] was very selective in who he chose to associate with when it came to his work."

Was Jefferson particularly indiscriminate when it came to finding collaborators, or was Hamilton particularly selective (or a little bit of both)? Could you provide some examples for this contrast?

hello first of all, the structure of your ask had me literally salivating screaming crying on the floor because this is such a wonderfully structured ask and it is the perfect formula to get an in depth response bc there’s so much i could talk about here. i love you. anyway-

Let's break this down to each dude. First, the worst dude, Thomas "freak" Jefferson. Jefferson's political career began when he joined the House of Burgesses, which, as the name implies, is a house of Burges (its a legislature). His first major publication was A Summary View of the Rights of British America, a Revolutionary work of literature that called King George III a cunt in formal language, was done entirely by himself, and it was rejected by his contemporaries for being too radical. This gained him a reputation for being a blue haired liberal.

Source: The American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans (book 2)

Jefferson would go on to write The Causes and Necessity of Taking up Arms with John Dickinson in July, 1775 to, yk, explain the causes and necessity of taking up arms against the British. John Dickinson was a very well known politician, being a member of the Continental Congress and one of the elite group of Americans who had the chance to be educated in England. Both Jefferson and Dickinson were known revolutionary voices, despite the differences of opinion that would arise between them in the following debate on independence. They were also both members of the Second Continental Congress.

Source: American Battlefield Trust, Delaware Historical and Cultural Affairs

The question of why Jefferson worked with Dickinson is most relevant to this ask. And the answer, in my opinion, is just because it was convenient. The Continental Congress was the best- "best"- men of each state coming together to represent their respective homelands. Dickinson and Jefferson most likely had conversations about the subject they would go on to write about, and decided to write it down and publish it for public benefit. We'll come back to this later.

Okay, now the elephant in the room: the Declaration of Independence. I find this subject so boring so bear with me. Jefferson was chosen by the Declaration committee (consisting of John Adams, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, Robert Livingston, and Roger Sherman) as he was already known as a Revolutionary writer and one of the best educated of them. He wrote the original draft on his own- well, technically- and then it was edited by the rest of the committee, and then by the rest of Congress.

Oh, but Henry! You said technically! Why? Well, dear reader, I'll tell you, be patient, jesus fucking christ. Jefferson highly based the Declaration off of Richard Henry Lee's resolution calling for independence in the Continental Congress, but mainly off of the philosophies of John Locke. That famous phrase we all know was almost word-for-word the writings of John Locke. I even once wrote an essay on how Jefferson essentially plagiarized John Locke in my sophomore government class.

"We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness..." -Thomas Jefferson, Declaration of Independence, July 4, 1776

Source: my pocket Declaration/Constitution LMAO i really busted that out like an absolute nerd

"All mankind... being all equal and independent, no one ought to harm another in his life, health, liberty or possessions." -John Locke, Second Treatise on Government, 1690

Source: brainyquote.com and a suspicious PDF of excerpts that I narrowly avoided a virus while accidentally downloading

I think that the Declaration is a pretty good example of how Jefferson, and 18th century American government, usually performed. This famous document was created by committee, and through education on 17th century philosophy. There were not multiple men working on the original draft of this, and the men who did work on it were not selected by Jefferson, and his major works are almost entirely attributed to him alone. He'd go onto write other historical documents such as Notes on Virginia and Anas (which are a more interesting and complex document) in this same form.

Source: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, Founders Online

He did consult with other men when it came to information and intelligence on political enemies later in his political career. These men were mostly hyper-relevant Democratic Republicans, who tended to be rich, southern landowners (aka slaveholders), at least those who associated with Jefferson. The most iconic of these were, of course, James Madison and James Monroe. Jefferson frequently consulted them, and Monroe (allegedly) gave Jefferson copies of the documents Hamilton showed to him to prove he had not been speculating with James Reynolds, but had actually been sleeping with his wife.

Source: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, The Three Lives of James Madison by Noah Feldman

To summarize, Jefferson was not necessarily indiscriminate with who he associated with, and he didn't even really work that much with other men on his major writings. However, we can see a definitive pattern of Jefferson only really associating with other members of his class, neither below or above him. And this just very simply makes sense. Jefferson, as did the rest of the 18th century, believed that there shouldn't be any cross contamination between the social classes. He also believed that the only really smart people were in his class. And he wasn't aggressive about this, it's just a passive belief due to the way society was structured.

UNTIL!

Alexander Hamilton was literally opposite to Jefferson in every sociocultural way. In Jefferson's eyes he was an ambitious upstart who rose through the ranks, defying the social order that kept society from collapsing.

You'll hear a lot of people say that in forming America, the Founding Fathers had undone this rigid social class system, but that really isn't true. The class system in Europe was entirely different than the one that developed in America, but it still definitely existed in some form. Without the court system, America formed a loose sort of aristocracy that depended on land ownership and/or success in the mercantile business. In Europe, you'd see members of the clergy having their own class, but in America, it was entirely based on wealth, and less on birthright, but if your parents were not wealthy, the only way you could become wealthy was by getting in on some kind of get-rich-quick scheme, like owning a plantation or being a lawyer.

What made Hamilton different from this was that Jefferson, and other enemies, could literally watch in real time as he rose through the ranks. He could see him go from a captain in the artillery, known for his bravery in the New York campaign (someone who would eventually be forgotten), to Washington's aide-de-camp (okay... but he'll probably still fade into obscurity), to a member of the Confederation Congress (oh! well, okay, but that doesn't particularly mean anything, this is probably the highest he'll get), to the only New York delegate in town for the Constitutional Convention and the only person from New York to sign it (well that'll get him in the history books...), to the FIRST SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY OF THE NEW US GOVERNMENT (WHAT THE FUCK HOW DID HE FUCKING DO THAT WHAT THE FUCK GET HIM OUT).

Source: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

So, let's talk about Hamilton's political career now, specifically through tracking his writings.

One thing the musical gets right is that Hamilton DEFINITELY utilized anonymous pamphlet publishing throughout his political career. And these are some of my favorite documents ever. From A Farmer Refuted to The Monitor to The Publius Letters to Pacificus, Hamilton absolute served irreparable cunt in all of these writings, and there are more than what I've listed, I just haven't finished my chronological list of Hamilton's published works.

"I'll use the press, / I'll write under a pseudonym, you'll see what I can do to him [Jefferson]." -Alexander Hamilton in Hamilton by Lin Manuel Miranda

Source: Blumenthal Performing Arts

All of these anonymous publishings had some things in common that I've used to categorize them:

A target (usually a person he didn't like and thought was immoral)

A core lesson (typically a political stance he was taking at the time that he wanted to defend and garner support for publically)

A newspaper publisher that was symbolic or strategically important in some way (either an enemy newspaper, and up-and-coming newspaper, an old friend's newspaper, etc.)

multiple editions

2-3 coauthors/beta readers

Almost each one of these publications follows this pattern, though number 5 tends to be the least common among all of them. But, since his college days, Hamilton would ask for his friends' input on his writings (whether or not he accepted their advice is not confirmed). Before he would give his college-era speeches, he would consult with the small debate group he and his friends made before he gave those speeches. When he was writing The Publius Letters, he most likely consulted with his lover, John Laurens, on the subject matter, as Laurens had close connections with congress, and the target (number 1 on the above list) was Samuel Chase, a congressman who had basically scammed soldiers out of food, causing many to starve for a prolonged period.

Source: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, John Laurens and the American Revolution by Gregory D. Massey

Like Jefferson, Hamilton had his magnum opus, and the influence of others played a major role in defining the document. Hamilton would ask other men, including William Duer, and Gouverneur Morris to write this document, but ultimately settled on John Jay and James Madison. This was, of course, The Federalist.

William Duer was related to Hamilton by marriage, as they married a set of cousins. Duer was educated in England and worked for the East India Company, which gave him a very good resume to be one of Hamilton's coauthors. However, the two submissions Duer made for The Federalist were rejected. Gouverneur Morris was a blue-blooded politician who gave the most speeches at the Constitutional Convention, a whopping 173. He spoke multiple languages and had been educated at King's College, which is now the ivy league Columbia. Morris was too busy to contribute to the project.

John Jay was the first coauthor selected. He had been the main draftsman of the New York State Constitution, a negotiator of the Treaty of Paris (1783), and was another alumni of King's College. He later became the first chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, and negotiate a treaty with Great Britain. Hamilton often called on him in regards to political matters, and the two were close, lifelong allies. Jay only wrote five of the 85 Federalist essays, because he was hit in the head with a fucking brick during the Cadaver Riots.

Source: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

The other principal author of The Federalist was James Madison. James Madison, in my opinion, was the most qualified to write The Federalist, despite his later delusions about the Constitution (which were largely the result of Jefferson's influence on his opinion but that's neither here nor there). James Madison was educated at what was considered the greatest educational institute in 18th century America: Princeton (then called the College of New Jersey). Madison was the reason Hamilton wasn't able to take an expedited course to his degree, because Madison had attempted to finish his four year education in two years, and had a nervous breakdown... fun fact...

But, still, he got his law degree from Princeton, and was in several legislatures, including the Virginia Governor's council where he met Jefferson. And of course, he was the author of the Virginia Plan, which was the foundation of the US Constitution of 1787. His notes on the Constitutional Convention are the most complete set of notes, and he was there every fucking day. So yeah, James Madison knew the Constitution pretty well, even if he eventually cared too much about states' rights to recognize what was blatantly written in the Constitution, and maintained that viewpoint until his presidency.

Source: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow, The Three Lives of James Madison by Noah Feldman

The Federalist was not as evenly divided between the authors as Hamilton intended, since he could not shut the fuck up, but that's not the point. The point is that the men he sought to be his coauthors had several things in common: they attended prestigious educational institutions and had long histories of Revolutionary work. Reading of these men's person histories reads like you're going through a company's qualifications for their employees. Because it almost was except they weren't getting paid. Hamilton sought out these men based on their qualifications, and, as you can see by William Duer's rejected submissions, he had a high standard that they had to fit for him to affix his name next to theirs (which he didn't do until the weeks leading up to his death because he knew he was gonna die but that's a topic for another time).

I KNOW THIS IS LONG BUT IM STILL FUCKING GOING BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU GIVE ME THE CHANCE TO ANSWER COMPLEX QUESTIONS ABOUT HISTORY INSTEAD OF THE SAME FOUR SHIT SUBJECTS THAT EVERY HISTORIAN COVERS IN THEIR BOOKS THANK YOU OKAY

This pattern of finding qualified contributors to his works continued throughout his life. Now, idk if you know this, but Hamilton was actually planning another The Federalist-style publication right before his death and i am LITERALLY SO EXCITED TO TALK ABOUT THIS

Hamilton told his visiting friend James Kent that he wanted to look through all of history and analyze government and the various forms it took throughout all of written history. Mirroring The Federalist, he intended to invite six to eight authors, including John Jay, Gouverneur Morris, Rufus King, John M. Mason, and James Kent. He thought that each of these men would write about the subjects in which they specialized (Kent on law, Mason on theological history, etc.) Hamilton would be in charge of writing a synthesis on the previous volumes.

"The conclusions to be drawn from these historical reviews he intended to reserve for his own task and this is the imperfect scheme which then occupied his thoughts." -Chancellor James Kent

Source: Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow

As you can imagine, these additional dudes followed the pattern shown above for Hamilton's qualifications for his coauthors, especially for a project this big. I mean, if this could have happened, it would have been literally incredible. I did the calculations, and it would have taken Hamilton five years after 1804 to get rid of all of his debts. If he had lived for that length of time, he could have started on this project, and alleviated the debts that later plagued his family. But that ties into my other theories on Hamilton's death, and that is just too weighty of a subject to get into in a post that's already this long.

To wrap this all up, the conclusion we can draw here is really just related to the class differences between Hamilton and Jefferson. Alexander Hamilton was not bound by a lack of social mobility in the 18th century, since he completely decimated that concept by his existence, which allowed him to view his co-contributors more objectively and more selectively. He handpicked those who he worked closely with based on their qualifications and their experience. His categorization of their abilities in that last example shows that he specifically sought them to speak on subjects they were most acquainted with.

Jefferson, on the other hand, didn't have that kind of social mobility, nor did he desire it. Jefferson stuck with his peers, who were mostly all lawyers of the same religion and political beliefs. While I'm not saying Hamilton was going around and writing alongside Democratic Republicans, he certainly didn't pick those he worked with based on like-mindedness or status. He chose them entirely on the basis of their revolutionary resumes, and that is really the difference we see in these two men's respective political careers. Was that the reason Jefferson was president and Hamilton wasn't? Definitely not. Was that the reason they didn't get along? Well, it certainly didn't make them like each other. Does it make Hamilton smarter? No, surprisingly. Do I like Hamilton more because of this? No comment.

I know this is lengthy, but I've literally been brewing up historical theory in my head for the past six months without having any outlet for it besides ranting at my parents and scribbling in the margins of Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (as you can tell by my sources). I genuinely cannot say how much I appreciate this kind of question, because it not only gets me thinking, but it allows me to remember why I got into history in the first place, and why I want to spend the rest of my life educating people on the wonderous world of pussy politics between middle aged men that are so decomposed, the matter that made up their bald ass heads is probably in your drinking water (have fun thinking about that). Anyways, thank you for the ask and I hope you got enough examples :3

[fountainpenguin]

I am back on my Kick Buttowski: Suburban Daredevil nonsense and I have to say, no canon ship will ever hit me in the way that Kendall/Ronaldo did.

I am so incredibly in love with the vibe that is "Two absolute NERDS are head over heels for each other and go out of their way to do nice things for each other" - supporting each other in presentations, remembering each other's birthdays, arranging dinner for each other, covering for the other in front of the principal, gasping in horror when the other gets in trouble - "but as time passes, the viewer gets to watch the slow unraveling of one of them secretly falling out of love with the other but not being emotionally ready to admit it yet." That is incredible.

I adore the K/R ship because it lasted so long and it was never considered a big deal. It was just "Yeah, they're dating. They do dating people things. Literally no one is jealous of them and no one ruins their social life. Keep scrolling." It was mainly in the background and they were adorably obsessed with each other up until they weren't. And again, that was that. No explosive break-ups, they were just... sweethearts.

Ronaldo gushing over Kendall's Halloween presentation instead of going trick-or-treating is my everything. He adores her.

Diagnosed with loving his girlfriend disease.

They are a TEAM!! Do not separate them!!

The "show, don't tell" between them with the way they behave is fantastic. Kendall went spelunking for cave sap so her boyfriend would have a nice birthday present AND she took him out to dinner. Ronaldo brings her "educational chocolates." He writes poems for her in binary code. He supports his girl during class elections even when she's frustrated and snippy with him.

He went to her Delaware Awareness Month party. He brought a sign that said "I've been to Dover." He came back for Poster Awareness Month. He's so supportive and she's so silly. Kendall's wild and she seems like she should be the "popular girl" trope but she is actually just a massive nerd who likes algebra and stocks and I love her.

I love Ronaldo hiding in a cabinet and Kendall spinning her wheels to distract the principal so he won't get busted for sneaking into the office. Ronaldo went out of his way to be nice to his rival and learn new skills so he could impress her. They're so good.

They are not even main characters and we still got scenes of them being adorable, as a treat. Kendall literally calls him "the dark one." That's hilarious. They lean together and whisper in the hallway like goofballs. Then they scamper off to hide in the AV closet with papers covered in doodles and poems, being romantic little NERDS!!

This scene's funny because they weren't even holding hands a few seconds ago- they just grabbed for each other when they realized they weren't alone. Apparently the canon is that they were a thing for a while before this episode and I think that's beautiful. Just... out there living their best off-screen lives. Love that for them.

imo we need more media that plays puppy love relationships with all the adorable sweetness of potentially being endgame even if they're NOT intended to be endgame. I'd like to see more kids' cartoons showing that it's okay to have a good time with someone else, and you don't have to grow up to marry the first person you dated... It's okay to consider your options... It's okay to date and have fun and explore your feelings and like people and then go your separate ways and not be endgame. I wish I had more of that.

I've binged Kick Buttowski multiple times- it's a good pick-me-up and it's one of my silly faves. I really like the character relationships in it. It's got a down-to-earth contemporary vibe despite being all about action. It has one of the truest "We really are best friends who support each other through everything" friendships I've ever seen. It's got pathetic noodle rich boy Gordie. It's got Mouth, king of the shopping mall after-hours. It's got Emo Kid who's... Emo Kid. It's got Brad and Brianna... It's got Ronaldo/Kendall... They're all hilarious.

It's got Kick learning to respect his identity as Clarence the caring big brother as much as his identity of Kick the daredevil. It's got Kick protecting Ronaldo for a week because Kick's his understudy who desperately does not want to be Romeo in the school play. It's got the line "Let's go down to Foreshadow Park! Somehow I knew we'd all end up there." It's got the bee of the month club sending free samples in the mail, when will I ever be this funny.

It's goofy and fun to watch and that's why it's this week's Recommendation Wednesday <3

[hannahmanderr]

DannyMay Day 16 - Fangs

Words: 2,122 (FFN)

Summary: A few student interns at DALV notice some odd things about Mr. Masters. The reactions vary, to say the least. (inspired by a prompt borrowed from @danphanwritingprompts: A few student interns at DALV notice some odd things about Mr. Masters. Like hell they’re gonna call him out though; this is the only paid internship in the county)

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“Hey, have you guys noticed anything… weird about Mr. Masters?” Tariq asked as he slid into his cafeteria seat. The other four interns at the table looked up.

Dylan was the first to speak up. “Not really,” she said, looking back down at her lunch. “But I haven’t really seen him much. They’ve had me practically locked in those server rooms downstairs since the data breach last week.”

“They should just hire you at this point,” Linh-Nhu said as she began to peel an orange. “You’re basically doing the work of a full-time employee anyway.”

“I’m just glad this is a summer stint. I’d be a dead girl walking if I had to deal with this on top of classes.”

“Wait, wait,” Tariq interrupted. “That data breach, wasn’t it that weird ghost with the mullet that attacked last week?”

Dylan sighed and picked at her fried rice absently. “Unofficially? Yes. Officially? Apparently no. Something about having to deal with PR and all, since random CEOs from California apparently don’t buy the whole idea of ghosts in the first place.”

“You had better not be insinuating anything about Mr. Masters,” Marc said hotly, unfazed by Dylan’s woes. “Especially if you don’t have evidence to back it up!”

“Whoa, man, take it easy,” Tariq said. He raised his hands in a placating gesture. “Who said I was insinuating anything? I’m just curious is all.”

“I did overhear him talking to someone named Maddie over the phone the other day,” Linh-Nhu offered. “I don’t know what they were talking about, I was just passing by his office, but I was just confused because I could’ve sworn Mary-Claire said that Maddie was his cat.”

“He’s filthy rich,” Dylan said, pointing with her fork. “Rich people always do wacky things like talking to their cats on the phone.”

Tariq shook his head. “Nah, I’m not talking that kind of weird. I mean more like, physical things you’ve noticed about him.”

Marc slammed his water bottle onto the table with a little more force than was probably necessary. “Nope! Nuh-uh,” he said, wrinkling his nose into a look of disdain. “We should not be having this conversation in the first place! Do you realize how much trouble we’ll get in if someone overhears us?”

“Please, no one pays attention to the interns of all people,” Dylan retorted. She flipped her long brown ponytail over her shoulder. “I should know. My supervisor keeps calling me Diane. Any time I tell him it’s Dylan, he thinks I’m talking about the other Dylan, and he quit three weeks ago to move to Dallas.”

“Katarana, you haven’t said anything,” Tariq said, panning his eyes to the fifth and final member of their little intern group. “Have you seen anything weird going on with Mr. Masters?”

Katarana was still staring at Tariq with wide eyes. “No way,” she whispered. Then, with much more energy, “You’ve seen it too?”

“Seen what?”

She turned her head to Linh-Nhu, who had asked the question. “Vlad Masters is freaky,” she told the table. “We’re talking major freaky vibes.”

“Will you stop?” Marc hissed. “We cannot be talking about our boss like this!”

Dylan shrugged. “Free country, bro. What’s he gonna do to us?”

“Oh, hmm, I don’t know, how about fire us from one of the most prestigious internships in the country?”

She just grinned impishly. “And go back to Delaware, where I don’t have to worry about some dumb ghost thing interrupting my commute? Or try and steal all my cereal boxes again? Sign me up.”

“Marc, just shush for a minute, I wanna hear what Kat has to say,” Tariq said, flapping a hand dismissively at Marc. The latter drew his thick eyebrows together in a deep frown.

Katarana met each of their eyes in turn. “They say you can hear him talking in his office to other people, but when you open the door, he’ll be all alone. And others will swear up and down that the room will literally get hotter when he walks into a room, especially if he’s in a mood.”

Tariq scoffed. “Yeah, the same thing happens with my mom when she finds my dad’s sports magazines lying around all willy nilly. Come on, I’m looking for the juicy stuff here! I wanna see if any of you saw what I saw.”

“Your dad still gets actual, physical sports magazines? Like, in the mail?” Dylan said, eyebrows raised in disbelief.

“I’m being serious here!” Katarana insisted, completely ignoring Dylan’s comment. “Jarvis told me the thermostat was reading 80 after a conference call gone wrong.”

“Wait.” Linh-Nhu frowned as she tried to process the information. She’d grown quiet and serious just within the past minute. “Am I the only one here from Amity Park?”

“I mean, I literally just got done talking about going back to Delaware, sooo…” Dylan shoveled a forkful of rice into her mouth.

“Not me,” Tariq said. “I basically go to school in the middle of a cornfield in Iowa. And honestly, I thought I was applying to the main branch for DALV in Madison.”

“I told them I was good with either,” Katarana said, shrugging. “Anything to get out of freaking Texas.”

“I haven’t lived in Amity Park, but I’ve basically been close enough,” Marc told the group. “Grand Rapids. About an hour or so north of here.”

“Bro, in what universe is an hour up the road ‘close enough’?” Tariq asked.

Linh-Nhu simply nodded. “So none of you have experience with ghosts,” she said. It was a statement, not a question. “Because if you did, you would know that Katarana’s claims are absolutely plausible.”

“What?” Marc screeched. “There is no way someone can heat a room just by entering it! Especially our boss, who gave us these jobs, need I remind you!”

“Says the guy who tried to say he pretty much lived here,” Dylan muttered under her breath.

“Wait, seriously?” Katarana said to Linh-Nhu. “I mean, not that I didn’t believe it was possible, but it has to do with ghosts?”

Linh-Nhu hesitated. “Possibly,” she conceded, “but not for certain. Here, it’s a well known fact that ghosts tend to have an effect on their immediate external environment, especially in times of heightened emotion or power. Most make it colder - especially a ghost such as Phantom - but there have been known to be some who can make the environment warmer instead.”

“How do you know all this?” Tariq asked. His eyes shone with a curious thirst, and accusation was nowhere to be found in his tone.

Linh-Nhu blushed. “I graduated from Casper High. It turned into a hotspot for ghost activity during my senior year,” she explained. “Plus I, um, might have sat in on one of Dr. Fenton’s public lectures. Or… more than one.”

“So you’re saying Vlad Masters is a ghost?” Katarana breathed. Dylan whistled, impressed.

“Oh, no! Nothing like that, of course. But… it’s certainly possible that ghost activity could be involved.”

“Both of you!” Marc seethed. “If you don’t quit making false accusations against Mr. Masters, I’m going to report you!”

“She literally just got done saying she wasn’t making any accusations!” Dylan said, gesturing towards Linh-Nhu, who had hidden her face behind her dark hair. “Like what is your deal, man? Why go so aggro all of a sudden?”

“Well, excuse me for having a sense of preservation about this internship!” he shot back. “Do you know how hard I worked to get here in the first place? This is one of the most competitive internships in the country! I had to go through a lot to make sure I got this job!”

“We all worked hard to get here,” Katarana said as she folded her arms across her chest. “Doesn’t make you any more special than the rest of us.”

“Can we go back to the part where Mr. Masters is potentially involved in some ghost crap?” Tariq whined. “I wanna tell you what I saw!”

“No one’s stopping you,” Dylan said. “Well, other than Marc apparently.”

Marc had buried his head into his arms. “We’re so getting fired,” he moaned, his voice muffled by his sweater.

Katarana practically glommed onto Tariq. “Do you have proof he’s a ghost or something?” she asked with her eyes gleaming in excitement.

“Alright, alright,” he said. He moved his arms in the universal ‘quiet down’ movement. “Gather ‘round, kids, ‘cause you won’t believe what I saw him do earlier.”

“I don’t know. You have to have a pretty open mind to live in Amity Park,” Linh-Nhu muttered quietly, the hints of an amused smile on the corners of her lips.

“Okay, so I’m in the copy room, right? Trying to un-jam one of the printers after it ate my reports. In walks Mr. Masters, and he’s on the phone going on about some deal with the S. Culcar client. He’s like, super up in arms about it all for some reason, and it literally gets to the point where he growls into the phone!” Tariq said, waving his arms theatrically.

“Growled? Like, a dog or something?” Dylan asked through another mouthful of her rice.

“Yeah, basically! It was so weird, but it wasn’t even the weirdest thing!”

“Because things can get weirder than a business mogul growling at one of his clients?” Dylan deadpanned.

“Oh, they absolutely can,” Tariq said with the air of someone trying to create a mystery. He took a long, dramatic swig from his Dr. Pepper before continuing. “He keeps getting angry, something about a failure to find someone, or something, I don’t know. But anyway, he yells something, and he’s got his teeth all bared and stuff, like he was seriously channeling a dog or something. And I look over, just cause he’s being so loud and stuff, and he’s literally got fangs showing.”

The table was silent for a long moment. “Wait, hang on,” Katarana said, waving her hands. “You’re telling me Mr. Masters has fangs? Like he’s some sort of lion?”

“Yes! Exactly!” Tariq exclaimed with a vigorous nod. Clearly, he was waiting for a different sort of response.

“You know, some people just have really sharp canines,” Marc said, apparently interested enough in the conversation to temporarily get past his resistance to it in the first place. “Are you sure it wasn’t just that?”

“Nuh-uh. These things were bonafide fangs, all long and stuff and poking into his lip and everything!”

“Do ghosts even have fangs?” Dylan asked. “I thought they were supposed to be all gooey and stuff inside. Or something, anyway. I guess the two ghosts from last week weren’t super gooey.” 

“Ghosts can present in a number of different ways,” Linh-Nhu said, re-launching into her teacher voice. “Many are humanoid, like Technus and Phantom - the two from the ‘data breach’ you’re talking about. Some are more blob-like, others are more like animals. Really, they can take any form, as far as I’m aware.”

“Oh! Oh! What about that thing they can do where they can possess people?”

Linh-Nhu hummed. “I don’t know if that would necessarily alter a person’s appearance. Usually the ghost takes over the person from the inside to avoid detection. I don’t know much else about that, though. I suppose there were a number of students and teachers who were possessed during that first major ghost attack, but they didn’t show any physical signs, I think.”

“So then he is a ghost?” Tariq asked.

“I still think we need to wait to make calls like this until we have certain proof,” Marc said, his chin propped up on his arms lying on the table. “I might not be from here, but I’ve been here long enough to see that one couple, the… Fontaines? Finleys? I’m not sure. Either way, I don’t want to lose my job and find myself on the wrong end of one of those guns.”

“But if he’s a ghost, or possessed by one - whatever - shouldn’t we tell someone?” Katarana frowned. “Like the one ghost kid who stopped Techno-babble or whoever it was.”

Linh-Nhu laughed lightly. “I’d be impressed if you could track him down. He’s a slippery one.”

Dylan suddenly slammed her hands on the table, startling the other four interns. “I got it!” she shouted. Her voice drew the attention of a few other employees sitting nearby.

“Think about it!” she continued. “Those fancy suits, the whole white-hair-at-the-age-of-40 thing, now the literal fangs and have you seen how pale that man is? There’s an obvious answer: Vlad Masters is a vampire!”

The table fell into a stunned silence again.

“Well, at least he’s a vampire who pays his interns,” said an utterly defeated Marc, letting his head fall back into his arms.