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starr-fall-knight-rise · 3 years

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Emp-ire “Anti-Alliance.”

So my schedule at work has been really weird lately, so I apologize for the weird posting schedule and if things seem a little cramped. I am trying to keep upon my posting, but it has been rather difficult recently.

I hope you all enjoy :)

He hadn’t thought that Spartans were normally meant for stealth with their red cloaks, bright red feathers, and pockmarked golden shields, but he had been wrong before. The ground below them was rocky even as they ducked and dodged through the large boulder field that marked the edge of a wide white salt flat.

From a distance it wouldn’t have looked all that interesting accept for familiar pockmarks in the ground, which he recognized to be evidence left behind from the landing struts of shuttles. His head was still reeling over the idea that there was any sort of Anti-GA resistance. Yeah he knew there were the isolationists and others who did not agree with their cooperation with alien lifeforms, but the idea that people would go to such lengths as to sell weapons to each other was nearly mind boggling.

He would have understood if the government were at all…. Oppressive, and granted there had been a few times when the GA hadn’t gotten it right, especially when it came to the whole LFIL business, but things had been rectified, and there were good relations all across the galaxy. Is only other thought is that maybe the people blamed the GA for the invasion of Earth, though how that could have been called an invasion was beyond him.

Most of the Burg had died within the first few minutes of landing on the planet, and there had only been one reported casualty in the entirety of Mericanda, that being a frail old lady who had seen the Burg from a distance and died of a heart attack related to shock, which he hardly thought counted.

Things were going good for them. In the history of humanity things had honestly never been better, so why someone would want to go and screw that up was beyond him.

But you couldn’t make everyone happy.

He slid into place next to James, the king of Sparta, and Xanthia, the queen, A they poked their heads over the rocks.

James had pulled off his helmet and handed it to Xanthia as he peered over the rock.

“What are we doing here?” Adam muttered as he glanced between a set of rocks and towards the deserted salt field. His bare knee ached from where he knelt on the partial gravel. The leather skirts may have been nice for the mediteranian climate, but he still missed wearing pants. He switched to his other knee, the fake one, so he might be more comfortable.

“My operatives in Athens recently sent me a report detailing this as the place where the anti-alliance ships have been landing.”

“Spies? But that doesn’t seem-”

“Not very Spartan of me? Well Adam, just because we took some inspiration from Ancient sparta doesn’t mean we do everything exactly like they did, besides Spartans were at war far more often than us?”

“Speaking of which, do you guys actually fight anyone?”

“Under GA law, we generally don’t, but the Anti-alliance scumbags work outside the law, and based on some of their actions, which have in the past included slave trafficking, I have taken it upon myself to dispatch a few of them. And no one has gone to the government about my activities because if they did, they would have to explain what they were doing in the first place.’

He gripped his spear tighter, ‘And as technical royalty, I am allowed, by law, mind you to police my own planet.”

Ramirez had schooted up next to them crouched low, using his spear to help him crawl over the rocks.

James nodded to him and he nodded back.

“What are you planning on doing.”

“Well, first of all, since you are here, I want to give you proof of what I have been saying all along, and then maybe you will understand better what is going on here. I want you to see that I’m not just some kind of tyrant trying to get rid of people who disagree with me.” he pointed towards the salt flat, “I really believe that these people need to be removed, but It would take a lot off my conscience if you knew that as well.”

Queen Xanthea raised her head, lips pressing together slightly.

Adam had a feeling that even if he did agree, the queen wasn’t likely to stop anytime soon.

The troop of spartan soldiers crouched behind the rocks with a stiff breeze blowing through them.

Adam had grown immune to mild temperature discomfort since his training had begun, and barely even noticed the early morning chill that rolled over him. Glancing out the corner of his eye, he noticed Ramirez and another one of the young spartans crouching close together, almost touching, sharting body heat.

He shook his head slightly.

Leave it to Ramirez to land a fling with a Spartan.

He turned his head back to the salt field, and was surprised to find movement on the far side.

The Spartans grew very quiet as they watched across the open plante to where a group of people had just emerged from the rocks.

A few of them were dressed like simple athenians in their tunics or togas, but there were a few more dressed in flight suits, looking very out of place on the Grecian landscape. Adam cocked his head trying to hear better, and watched as the king of the Spartains tilted his head and pressed into the skin below his ear.

Adam forgot that the Spartan King also had a military grade translation implant and data chip installed just like everyone else.

And also that he had one too, and therefore could amplify the sound.

He followed the Spartain’s lead and was just able to pick up the tail end of a conversation.

“We are moving them to the market on A1-36.”

“The GA has presence there don’t they/”

“It’s just a supply waystop for them, they don’t actually go in.”

“You know how the GA feels about slave trade.”

“I don’t give a flying fuck what the GA thinks about the slave trade, without it we wouldnt be able to pay the damn Kree.” He snorted, “Little bastards upped their price after the war, and now we are having to pay them double for being involved.”

“Why are we even doing this? We haven’t gotten anywhere, too small time to really even make a dent.”

Their leader turned to glower at them, “All big operations started out small-time. Now shut the hell up, and stop bitching. We have work to do.”

There was a roaring in the sky overhead, and the group turned their eyes up towards the great blue vastness as they watched a silver distortion roll like a hazy wave through the atmosphere. Adam didn’t even realize what it was until the shuttle touched down, and noted the reflective skin covering it’s hull.

It was a pretty clever if low-budget trick, though they didn’t need anything more high-tech on a planet that didn’t really seem to use technology in the first place.

The door to the shuttle hissed open, and a group of men stepped out dressed in black flight suits.

A few of them carried weapons, though the vast majority of them were armed with only batons.

While the distribution of firearms was common on earth, and an estimated 65% of the population owned one for personal use, the ability to get your hands on a human grade firearm in space was a little harder.

The GA had strict regulations on the movement of weapons through intergalactic airspace, and you had to have permits out the ass to even own one.

However, since when did laws ever stop criminals?

He doubted that any of these men actually had a permit, which was an arrestable violation to begin with, though he had more than enough probable cause to arrest these men anyway.

He stayed put however, and waited for the scene to unfold before them as the group of men stepped down onto the salt, their boots crunching against the ground looking around nervously at the rocks.

If these men had had any REAL military equipment on them, their shuttle would have been able to detect the heat signatures of the company of Spartans crouched in the rocks, but even so, no one had noticed them, and they wanted with bated breath as the group of men met up with each other.

“Parked her in low orbit, sir.”

“Good, then let's get things going before anyone has the chance to notice. The damned Neo-Spartan bastards have been giving me trouble. I have had to change shuttle sites three times in the past month. I have a feeling those assholes have spies with the Athenians, though I can’t prove anything.”

“There are no spies, that’s not how the spartans work.” One of the Athenians piped in.

The man turned to look at the speaker, “Then your men are just Fucking incompetent because how else do the spartans seem to know where we are at every turn.” He kicked at the salt sending up a wave of white flecks into the air, “The Damned Spartan King and his and his stupid skirt-wearing, oily, dog shagging bastards showing up every damn time I try to do anything around here.”

The group stood around watching as their leader threw his little fit.

Behind the stones, the skit-wearing oily bastards grinned a little at each other.

Adam bared his teeth.

He already didn’t like this guy, though the man didn’t exactly make it difficult to hate him.

“Whatever, just get them on the dam shuttle so they aren’t my problem anymore. All the wining and complaining and bitching. You were stupid enough to get caught now they can suffer the consequences.”

Adam had met psychopaths in the past, and even though the last one had totally tried to kill him, he was still pretty sure he liked that one better. This guy was much, much worse.

He talked too much.

And that was coming from Adam, the kind of talking too much.

His hand tightened around the shaft of his spear as he moved into position with the other spartans.

The kind nodded back towards the rest of the group, and then quietly engaged the shielding over the metal faces of their shiels. They had spears and the enemy had bullets, not that that would matter once they got within stabbing range, but until ten, it was a good idea to have some cover.

There was a soft shuffling from the other side of the valley, and a group of chained prisoners were walked out onto the salt. Most of them were alien, Tesraki, and Finnari, but a few of them were human. Adam’s stomach clenched as he noted that most of the human prisoners were wide eyed young women.

His teeth ground together in anger, and beside him he could feel the tensing of muscles from the other Spartans as they responded similarly.

James cracked his knuckles and Xanthia pulled her short sword.

That was an odd thing about her, she didn’t seem all that interested in the use of spears, but he HAD seen her use her two short swords before, and boy was it a sight.

These men were in for a wold of hurt.

Adam looked to James who nodded back at him.

This was clearly enough proof for them.

The Spartan’s shifted as one unit to the balls of their feet, pulling out their spears and adjusting their shields on their left arms.

Adam scooted up next to James on his left, and Ramirez covered Adam’s left in return.

Their shields hummed softly with the faint blue pusing of the shields.

James raised his spear, and the men waited on bated breath as the prisoners were brought out further onto the salt. The men with guns were turned away, their focus pulled to the chained prisoners who whimpered pitifully as they were dragged over the salt.

James thrust his spear into the air.

The men did not let out a war cry like they had practiced on so many occasions before, but they went running as silently as possible at full tilt across the salt, keeping in tight formation with each other as they did.

The prisoners noticed them first, and then the gunman allerted to their rapid approach by the clattering of shields and spears. They turned with shocked expressions on their faces just in time to be bowled to the ground by a wave of bodies and metal.

Adam rammed into one of the gunmen hearing the subsonic crack of the rifle as a bullet tore into the salt near his feet. He slammed the man to the ground with his shield. And then raise it just in time to deflect another bullet. Before he could take care of the next man, Xanthia was already there. The cything of her sword caught the man in the wrist completely severing his hand, then she kicked him hard in the chest causing him to fly back over the stone. Blood pooled in crimson puddles against the white salt as the group of Spartans hurried to surround the cowering prisoners.

Adam put his back to them and crouched low behind his shield spear at the ready.

He looked around in the confusion, and saw the slimy little rat running the operation as he clawed his way up the nearest incline and away from the fighting.

He bared his teeth in anger, before turning to shout to someone to take care of him, but it was just at that moment that a horn blast somewhere in the distance.

The group of them turned to look…. As a wave of Athenian soldiers came roaring over the hill.

***

“SHIELDS!” He heard James shout, and crouched down, interlocking the large round shield with the men on his left and right. Behind him, Ramirez was suddenly at his shoulder spear at the ready. Another man behind him locked a shield in palace over Adam’s.

At their backs, the mall group of prisoners cowered together in fear as they were surrounded by the spartan shield wall.

“BRACE1” James shouted, and Adam dug his sandals into the dirt.

The first wave of Athenian soldiers crashed against them, and the shield wall racked back absorbing the impact.

“PUSH!” Came the shout and with a heave of his legs and his back Adam slammed the shield forward pushing the Athenian soldiers back a good two feet, a few of them stumbled to the ground. He opened the shield just enough for Ramirez to lunge forward, stabbing outward at the first line of Athenian soldiers catching one in the stomach before pulling back behind the shield wall.

They turtles up again as the Athenians slammed against them one more time, and again they held, Throwing them back with a powerful push which sent them sprawling to the ground.

The Athenian line broke.

WIth screams and cries of fear the scattered as the Spartans broke from their shield wall and charged into the frey.

Adam and Ramirez roared out together.

Adam clobbered one of the Athenians with his shield knocking him to the ground for Ramirez to finish off. He thrust his spear forward and waist height, impaling one man straight through the stomach and out his back. The Athenian looked almost surprised as he was thrown to the ground, a hole torn straight through him.

Adam had no time to think about what he had just done, as he stepped over the man’s body to meet another.

This time his spear caught the man in the throat. He knocked the body to the side, and use the reverse end of his spear to turn and take a man who had been sneaking up behind Ramirez.

Blood painted the white ground red as the short pitched battle came to a head.

James and Xanthia fell into step beside Ramirez and Adam and together they washed through the battlefield like a tidal wave of destruction. Adam caught one man’s swords on the haft of his spear, and james darted in, taking the man between the ribs with the point of his own weapon. Behind them Xanthai and Ramirez held their backs, chasing the enemy away from the cowering prisoners.

Adam took a cut high on his cheek feeling warm blood run in slow trickles down his face to drizzle onto his collarbone.

The shield protected his unarmed torso as he roared into another line of men batting them back.

After all the raining he had done with the spartans, these men were barely worth a match, especially since he had trained in the spear against creatures with four arms instead of two.

An athenian charged at him, and he ducked low, catching them in the upper legs and waist with his shield before heaving with his legs and back, sending them up and over his head with a wail and straight into Ramirez’s spear.

He was surrounded by at least three men in the second moment.

One was blocked with his shield, one with his spear, and he kicked the other directly in the chest sanding him spinning backward and away.

He plowed painfully into the ground.

Adam ducked to the side as the man’s sword cut past his arm, cutting his friend in the thigh. He let the spear drop through his hands, caught it near the end and drew the spike right into the man’s face.

There was a brutal crack but he didn’t stop to look as he spun, pulled back his spear, catching it on the balance point in the middle and threw it with unerring accuracy into the chest of the second man no ten feet away.

He fell to the ground sputtering as Adam ran forward and tore the spear from his chest.

He spun, but there was no one there to fight.

Lowering his spear, he stopped to look around at the carnage and blood that drenched the ground.

The Spartans were finishing off the Athenians who had attacked them and Adam lifted his head to find Xanthia dragging the rat from back down the hill. He had a horrible gash across his face, and was bleeding profusely down his front. Adam tried not to look at the bodies that littered the ground below his feet and hurried to join James ashe marched forward,

Xanthia threw the man to the ground, and Adam and James both stepped over the body as he lay in the dirt.

“Been a hot minute since I last saw you.” James said casually as he bent don to look the rat in the eye.

The man snarled at him.

James shook his head, and then pointed at Adam, “Do you know this man?”

He turned his head to look up at Adam. At first there was no recognition, and then his eyes widened in shock and horror.

“Exactly, now the GA knows about your little group, and sanctioned what we have done here today. You have taken slaves which is the highest offence of the GA. You attacked A GA officer, and I would continue adding to the list, but we might be here all day.”

The man just stared at him with his cold dark eyes.

James leaned a little closer spear in one hand.

A cry of pain broke through their little conversation, and they all turned to look in that direction unconsciously.

Adam gave the credit to his mechanical eye for catching the movement.

The rat had taken the opportunity and launched forward drawing a small blade from his belt, aimed straight at James’s throat. Adam, reacting as fast as he could dove forward, shoving James out of the way.

He staggered and hit the ground. The little blade missed its mark but impeded itself high in Adam’s shoulder.

His adrenaline was pumping so hard that he barely even noticed as he turned and slugged the rat in the face. He hit the ground, eyes rolled back in his head. Xanthia reacted only a moment after him. Her swords to the man’s throat but he was already incapacitated.

James turned over into an upright sitting position, staring back at Adam with a look of surprise.

Adam glanced down at his shoulder, and here the small two inch knife was sticking.

It would have been devastating had the man had caught James in the throat, but as it was Adam would probably only need a few stitches.

Xanthia kicked the man in the ribs, and he grunted in pain.

James slowly stood, “You saved my life.”

Adam shrugged, “You would have done the same.” he rested his spear over his shoulder, “Either way, I will want to make a call to the GA and let them know what happened. This is a bit more serious than I had expected.’

James nodded in agreement.

***

Adam and Ramirez stood at the edge of the dock watching as the boat slowly drifted into position.

A group of Spartans stood around them.

Ramirez was off saying goodby to his “friend” and Adam was standing with Xanthia and James.

“It was a pleasure to fight with you, Admiral. It’s a real pity that we can’t keep you and your Marine longer.”

He nodded in agreement, “I wish we could stay as well.” He clasped the other man’s hand, “Keep in touch, it would be a pleasure to fight with you again, plus, I have a couple of aliens I think you would like to meet.”

James smiled, “Any alien that trained you how to fight like that would be welcome.”

He paused and then, Dropped the shield from his arm.

He held his spear and shield out to Adam, “Here, take these.”

Adam looked at him in surprise, at the well worn haft of the spear, and the dented golden metal of the shield, “I, but your weapons…”

“I can fight with any spear and shield, but you saved my life. Maybe one day, these will save yours and we can call each other even.”

The boat docked.

Ramirez walked over to stand with Adam and together the two of them stepped onto the deck.

Behind them the spartans raised their weapons punching them into the air three times with matching shouts as the King of Sparta saluted them.

Ramirez and Adam saluted back as the rowers began to pull the boat away from the dock.

He was going to miss those men and women.

But now he had to leave, with the knowledge that the anti-alliance was out there.

Hopefully at least, there would be men like the Neo-spartans and their king to keep men like that at bay.

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mego42 · 3 years

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207 Discussion Q’s

shout out and thank you to @pynkhues for putting these together even though she wasn’t gonna be here this week

1. What was your favourite scene of the episode? Tell us why!

obvs the dubby but underrated fav is Ruby and Jane in the closet, idk exactly why but I am starved for the families interacting with each other content (screw the timeline, the most unrealistic aspect of this show is that they aren’t constantly in and out of each other’s houses with ben and sara continually being called on to babysit) so this little snippet makes me levitate

2. Was there any scene that missed the mark for you? And if so, how?

the annie and noah scenes for sure. I mostly feel betrayed bc I really liked them the first time I watched (i have a lot of built in affection for sam huntington let me live) and now I’m like BEGONE FOUL BETRAYER and feel pre-emptive fatigue over annie’s taste in men and how that’s not going to get better any time soon

3. I know time does not exist in the Good Girls universe (or in reality anymore), but let’s start with a timeline question! The implication of the opening montage is that a bit of time has past since Beth strongarmed the partnership with Rio at the end of 2.06. How long do you think it’s been? And more importantly, what do you think these early days of their partnership looked like?

I tend to lean towards at least 2 months, maybe more based on:

the number of shoeboxes and how many times Beth’s shown making a closet deposit

how lived in their annoyance over Beth’s dividing her time and Rio pushing back feels

the implication (at least how i read it) that Rio’s annoyance stems from having to track Beth down which presumably implies they’d grumbled their way into a semi-functional working relationship prior (supported by their ease with each other in 208) and if the montage has only been a month, that would be a maximum of 4 meetings and I don’t particularly think that’s enough time for them to get over being extremely prickly with each other

the fact that Beth goes to Rio for help when Jane’s missing (again, to me implies a longer period of time to get over some of their antagonism than a max of 4 meets)

I imagine their initial partnership went something like Beth being a smug brat about forcing her way in, Rio being deliberately unhelpful and trying to force her to admit she’s in over her head (while still keeping enough of an eye on things that his money isn’t jeopardized), Beth stubbornly refusing to and finding ways to rise to the occasion, Rio being grudgingly impressed, Beth being annoyed with herself for how pleased she is over that. Lather, rinse, repeat until they’ve worn a cantankerous but bizarrely comfortable groove into each other.

meanwhile, Mick, Annie and Ruby are absolutely disgusted by everything happening in front of their eyes.

4. The first scene between Ruby and Turner in this episode is a really dynamic one! It’s pretty clear that Ruby’s afraid of Turner, but what do you think Turner thinks of Ruby?

I think he sees a big cartoon canister labeled "Beth Boland Bait"

5. Taking the kids to the drop was a pretty big mistake! What do you think Beth should’ve done in this instance? Do you think saying no again to Rio was an option?

CALLED BEN OR SARA FOR A BABYSITTING ASSIST. For fucks’ sake.

And yeah, I think she could’ve said no to Rio but he would’ve kept her cut of that drop and, even worse, would’ve been able to hold the fact that she didn’t deliver that one time over her head forever more.

6. The krav maga teacher offers some sage advice telling Dean to not order the hit and instead just divorce his wife, haha. Do you think that he thought the baby hitmen would come through for Dean? Or do you think he was deliberately setting Dean up to get robbed?

I choose to believe the krav maga teacher knew exactly what kind of an idiot Dean was and set him up because the dude clearly had at least two brain cells to rub together and anyone with two brain cells to rub together would never get tangled up in a murder plot with Dean standing on the street corner telling random bystanders in detail how he wants to kill the guy that fucked his wife what do you mean established means and motive Boland.

7. During Ben and Annie’s tense conversation, Ben tells Annie that she’s hard to keep track of - she’s parent mom, cool mom, sketchy mom. In a lot of ways, this feels like a parallel to Ruby talking to Beth in the last episode and calling her ‘drug Beth, gun Beth, human trafficking Beth’. What do you make of this? And how do you think it relates to the show’s themes?

I defer to @foxmagpie’s answer because I like it a lot.

8. The scene with the girls in the house! Tell me all your thoughts please!!!

I love this scene a lot

Beth’s channeling Rio in general but also specifically in 201 you will never ever change my mind

Sometimes I lie awake at night wishing Rio had seen it

Prayer circle that he sees a version of it in s4

Can you imagine the nightmare level of boner he would get? The sheer narcissism!!

Ruby’s obvious wish for new friends is The Most Valid

I really love the main drug den guy, I love Blake Shields’s energy, it makes the scene crackle, and I wish they’d bring him back purely bc he’s gr9

9. Annie meets Noah in this episode! What do you think of their introduction to one another? And how would you rate Noah on the scale of ‘Garbage Annie Love Interests’?

at least he’s not her therapist I guess

10. Beth has two pivotal and emotionally revealing fights this episode - one with Dean and the other with Rio. How do these fights compare? And what do you think they tell us about her respective relationship with them?

UUUNNNNNFFFFFFFF

I L O V E how hard the show goes on Dean’s obsession with Beth and Rio as the primary source of his angst

the fact that he’s trying to rope Stan into murder while looking for Jane who isn’t even MISSING but Dean had NO IDEA bc instead of giving a shit he went straight to HOW CAN THIS BE THAT GUY’S FAULT

I love how clearly they delineate that it isn’t about Beth but specifically about someone else ~*~taking~*~ Beth from him and how emasculated that makes him feel (something something something the storyline opens with the krav maga guy choking him out and then telling him to divorce her and Dean being like I reject your rational and logical solution bc it doesn’t punish the man who touched my property, idk i have a half baked thought there but i can’t pull it out of my brain)

and then it’s all underscored how little Dean’s worried about Beth and her safety by him bringing her work up specifically as a gotcha (which, unless I’m forgetting something, is p much the only context Dean ever brings it up in besides maybe the sit down fight but that’s again, about Beth acting out vs genuine concern)

Meanwhile, this is contrasted with:

Beth flipping tf out at the mere suggestion Rio would ever hurt her children, showing how deeply and instinctively she trusts him in regards to her children aka what’s been established as her Most Important Priority over and over (in the same breath that she rips into Dean for losing Jane in the first place)

which is doubled down on her immediately going to Rio for help

and he is FURIOUS at her, but the thing he leans hard on isn’t how she could have jeopardized the business deal (aka his money, what’s been established as his Most Important Priority over and over) but how she jeopardized herself and how badly she can fuck up if she doesn’t take this seriously

putting himself in a vulnerable position (presumably burning a connect, letting on that Beth means something to him beyond business) to look out for Beth’s emotional well-being

And then, just to drive it home a little further, @sothischickshe pointed out the Beth and Rio fight over Beth’s self preservation is directly paralleled with Stan freaking out at Ruby over the IA stuff because he’s worried about her and I had to go and stare at a blank wall for a few minutes to calm down.

anyway, draw your own conclusions.

11. Ruby takes Jane being missing as an opportunity to try and find evidence on Beth for Turner and, in the process, finds Jane too. How do you think this scene captures Ruby’s moral dilemma? And do you think it’s a satisfying turning point in the Ruby-Turner arc?

I struggle a lot with the Turner and Ruby plot specifically because I HATE that Turner’s ruthlessly leaning on Ruby as the weak link but I’m also ferociously attracted to him so I’m less bothered by it than I feel like I should be so mostly I just try not to think about any of it.

Idk, I see it in some ways as a continuation of Ruby’s fight with Beth and Annie in s1 where Annie said she isn’t blood. They put Ruby on the outside but when push comes to shove, Ruby still puts the two of them above her own family. As far as I’m concerned, Annie still owes Ruby a massive apology for that. Beth I let off the hook a little because by the end of the season she’s ready to turn herself in to make it all go away for all of them (I think, unless I’m misremembering, which is entirely possible bc I don’t think I’ve ever rewatched all of 213)

12. RIO GETS BETH THE DUBBY!! That’s it, that’s the question. Please discuss.

I think a lot about how the gesture is so baldly honest neither one of them can face it either at all (Rio) or without taking a shot first (Beth) which, now that I’ve typed it out, is also an interesting flip of their general MO bc under normal circumstances I’d put Rio down as the one that, of the two of them, is more willing to face stuff whereas Beth’s the one that hides from it.

#gg rewatch #gg 2x07 #gg related #shut up meg

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vios-rockland-corner · 4 years

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RoR Article 2: Help Callum

To make things easier on myself, I’m splitting up my thoughts on the Rumors of Rockland second article. I already gave an overview of this game. Here, I’ll cover whatever random thoughts and observations I had for the events that occur when you choose to help Callum.

[Major spoilers below for Rumors of Rockland Article 2]

First surprise here, Callum can actually hold his own. Have to admit, wasn’t really expecting that (dude kind of looked sickly in older sprites). Well honestly, I wasn’t exactly expecting the MC to be capable of driving off the drunk dudes themselves unless they were going to threaten to call 911. More like…I didn’t know what to expect. Since it was now 2-on-2, was the MC suddenly going to start throwing down? I just didn’t see it happening. No, turns out Callum was quite capable of taking these guys out by himself.

What I love about this though is that the minute the MC enters the scene, Callum actually goes into protection mode. He may genuinely have not been afraid of these guys from the start and thought it was even funny to see them riled up. He’s initially holding back his laughter when the two guys are initially antagonizing him and only got a little serious when they brought Whesker’s name up. Between the first two articles, Callum’s now shown concern for people like Avery, Whesker and the MC. The MC isn’t even someone he’s close to yet. Maybe I’m calling this a little too early, but Callum might just be a nice and well-meaning guy. There are certainly a lot of dangerous characters in Rockland, but so far nothing to suggest anything sinister about Callum whatsoever.

Getting back to the scene, I kind of found it adorable that the MC rushing in flips a switch for Callum. It was like he was going, “Hey, woah woah woah. These guys are a joke, but seriously I don’t want anyone getting hurt now.” So his playtime had to end. Otherwise, he seems like he’s pretty goofy and relaxed most of the time.

By the way, who else took a good look at that CG of Callum giving a good kick? If you look in the background, you can actually see the silhouette of a person. SOMEONE saw that whole altercation go down, but didn’t interrupt. We can’t be sure though if the MC hadn’t been there, if this person would have come down to assist Callum instead. Might not have been someone concerned about Callum (just watching out of curiosity). In the “Do Nothing” path, Callum does not even mention what happened outside when he goes to talk to Avery (but he doesn’t act frazzled at all).

A curious thing about the silhouette though is that it’s very reminiscent of the drawings seen in the “Nightmare Realized” teaser game for the Misfits. Coincidence? We do even see Sydney show up in the “Do Nothing” path. Was he the one watching and came to help out Callum if the MC doesn’t help in anyway? Sydney did mention helping his friends, but whether that’s related to Callum or something else, I’m not sure. Callum is Quill’s brother, but we don’t have evidence yet that Sydney and Callum are friends with one another.

Moving on, it seems Callum is quite similar to Quill when it comes to being very chatty and dropping names like crazy. Must be a Willow thing (wonder if the parents are like that too). Callum gives you a lot of interesting information though, but it differs vastly depending on what person you’re most interesting in asking about.

If you ask about Sergio, you learn that the town is basically run by the IRISH MAFIA. That…explains a whole lot. Prior to this, I had theorized that some of the crime syndicates may have some pull with finances and politics of Rockland when I was trying to think about how the Professionals could operate for so long without repercussions. I believe this might sum it up pretty well. It’s kind of funny how normal Callum treats the matter too. I mean, I appreciate that the mafia aren’t racists and try to keep some order (mafia is indeed ORGANIZED crime). That’s always nice. Still…it is a mafia. Not only does that mean that people in Rockland might not want to get a swelled head for justice around these parts, but crime is still crime. We don’t know yet what kind of illegal activities the mafia does yet. Could be just a lot of theft and forgery. Or perhaps there is a lot of murder and human trafficking behind the scenes.

This also explains why a lot of the characters in Rockland have Irish accents. Before these games, I knew a couple of the characters like Trevor and Roy were Irish. Apparently Whesker has an accent too. I genuinely just thought it was just a foreign type the creators’ favored. But there’s actually more meaning to having numerous Irish characters in Rockland now. It also means if you come across someone in Rockland with an Irish accent…maybe do your best to stay on their good side. Just in case.

Wait a minute…Roy is Irish (or at least he was)…That either could be just a coincidence, or there might be something interesting later down the road about that. Is he linked to one of the Irish mafia families in anyway? If so, did he cut ties and is in opposition? Or is he actually still part of that group too? If it’s the latter, that would mean the police force in Rockland IS under the mafia’s thumb too. We won’t know this I think until much later though. Like I said, could also just be a coincidence that he’s Irish (if he still is). Not all Irish people know each other. It’s more likely though in such a small and tight nit town like Rockland.

If you ask about Scarlet, then you just get some fun image in your head of family gatherings for holidays. Cute but what I really want to focus on here is that BEASTKIN ARE OFFICIALLY MENTIONED IN GAME FOR THE FIRST TIME! I know there are probably several people who are excited about that. It’s officially our first supernatural element introduced if you don’t include the Zeitgeist demo. Now we don’t know a lot about beastkin, just that they’re around. Both Scarlet and Foal are beastkin, but you probably wouldn’t be able to tell Foal is one at a quick glance. They can have tails (though unfortunately some had their tails cut off), but we don’t know what other kind of physical aspects usually manifest. With Foal, she has darker skin and white hair. The darker skin isn’t really a giveaway, but the white hair might be. I had figured she just dyed it or something, but it’s possible that’s her natural hair color.

If you’re trying to make a beastkin OC for Rockland, not much I could say yet for what is fair game in canon. Just tails and possible hair color at the moment can give their beast status away. We don’t know anything about abilities yet. I feel like we’re also going to be focusing on the more human elements of Rockland for the most part. The beastkin are around, but not the main theme here. Still nice to know it’s an existing element though.

If you ask about Jett, you learn Callum and Avery play music. On the website, the Callum and Avery are indeed listed under “The Band” section. This was more foreshadowing I believe for a future “Battle of the Bands” themed game. Fun, but not much else I feel I need to comment on here.

After talking with Callum so long, I can’t be certain to say you gain full friendship status with him in this route, but you’re definitely on some pretty good terms now. Avery probably appreciates hearing that you went to help Callum, but otherwise he’s more occupied with his troubled thoughts in this situation rather than getting to know you better. You probably have earned good points with Avery here, but not nearly as much as if you do the “Get Help” route where you get much more conversation time with him.

Since you let Callum go after Avery though, Foal seemed to appreciate the choice and you get some positive interaction with her. So points earned there too.

In the end, choosing to help Callum yourself gets you in good with Callum of course, and a slightly better reputation with Avery and Foal. Not bad. I can’t be certain if you’ve earned brownie points as well from the person who was watching in the CG because I don’t know if they were looking out for Callum’s safety or just looking for a show.

#Rockland #Rumors of Rockland #RoR #runawayoutlaw #rottenbonethief #Callum Willow #Rockland Games

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elianabwrites · 4 years

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100 Days of Posting

Hello Everyone! I know I have been gone for a long time with so many “I’m Back!” posts with no follow through but with this challenge I am going to try to get back into a posting schedule! Now, for my version of the 100 Day challenge I am going to have a few different topics to touch up on since I have so much time in a day to be productive. I will be posting about my writing, and I am still working on the same fantasy series that I have been for years and I’ll talk more about my process with that below! I will also touch upon my hobbies, interests, and interesting topics I am learning about in school. I’m not one to shy away from what other people think are controversial topics and I hope to open up conversations on here! Also, I will be posting about the day before so as to incorporate the entire day into my post and share the most that I can. If you want to do the challenge with me (please do, I would love to hear about what you’re learning/interested in) then please tag your posts with #EB100DaysChallenge and I will do my best to check up on them every day and interact with the community!

If you don’t feel liking reading the whole thing at least reply with your thoughts/experiences/etc!

What forms of media do you like best? Which ones help you get motivated and why?

For my witches - What called you to your craft and how did you get started? What type of witch are you? and what do you wish the general public knew about witchcraft/Wicca/etc?

If you’re writing a book or series what are some blocks you faced and how did you overcome them?

What is your story about? Brag about it please!

How do you envision your scenes? Do you share any of my ways of imagining and connecting with them?

What are you majoring/minoring/ studying right now? Why did you choose that particular field of study? and what is the most interesting thing you have learned recently and how do you feel about it?

Day 1 of 100 - 04/08/2020

Today was such a low energy day and since my sleeping pattern has been so messed up recently I am up at all hours of the night and sleeping all day. Between public health issues and politics I have been so very distracted and have been having a hard time getting into my school work, writing projects, hobbies, and other interests.

I’m breaking down this post into these topics:

Miscellaneous & Media

Writing

MISCELLANEOUS & MEDIA

Because of all of this I took most of the day to relax and recharge. I watched Madam Secretary on Netflix (for the 400th time) and listened to some of my favorite albums and songs (Hamilton was definitely in there) and cuddled with my dog. What are some of your favorite forms of media? I love Madam Secretary because it really reflects a lot of what I want to do in my career and I simply love the main character and her family. As for Hamilton, well, not to sound cliche but I really relate to the main character because I feel like I’m always writing (~non-stop~) and I think I have a revolutionary, humanistic way of looking at the world which I believe he had as well. Anyway, I usually try to use these forms of media to get into my school work and personal interests.

I’ve also been getting into learning about witchcraft, not the fantastical version, but rather the spiritual practice. Although not all witches/witchcraft are Wicca it is an example of a belief system that practices it. I am not even a baby witch in my opinion because my journey has only just begun but the thing I find I love most about witchcraft so far is that it is really based on learning. You learn about herbs and the earth, you learn new spells and different forms of magick, there is so much history and diversity to uncover - It is just amazing! Also, the inclusiveness is so refreshing considering as a member of the LGBT community I find it hard to fit in other belief systems.

WRITING

Okay, so, like, I have no excuses. I kind of suck at actually writing this book of mine but it is okay because I have not given up yet (well, I have but I always come back to it!).

If you don’t know, or don’t remember because let’s be honest its been at least 3000 years, I am writing a series that I have been referring to as Blood Will Run. I have been rather stuck in the plotting and world building stages but I am hoping to finally, FINALLY, move on to drafting it in its entirety soon.

I would consider myself a rather reflective person and naturally have thought and reflected far too much about why I have been so stagnant in my writing and I came to these conclusions:

I have been so caught up in writing the perfect story, with the perfect characters, writing devices, syntax, plot, etc.

I have been too focused on reading and researching any and all writing advice I can find.

I have lost the feeling of my story and, like many writers have been discovering lately, I think I have been forcing myself into being a plotter when I think I would be far happier as a partial discovery writer, at least for my first draft.

I want my series to mean something, similar to Fahrenheit 451, Harry Potter, 1984, and Catcher in the Rye to name a few. This is, of course, a tall almost unattainable order which is very discouraging.

So, in an attempt to reclaim my story from my incredibly high standards I am returning to my old way of writing, even though I am deeply embarrassed by it. I am going to imagine my scenes, act them out from my characters different points of view, and write without thinking of how it could be better. Although, because I am trying to write a series I need to do a little more plotting (aahhh I hope I don’t fall into the plotting trap again) so as to understand where each of my books start and end and the pace that they necessitate. I’ll write more details and such about my story in my next post so stay tuned if you’re interested!

Also, if anyone needs help with plotting I love working out plot lines, backstories, and everything related to world building! Send me a message, if there’s enough people maybe we can start a little group!

SCHOOL

I know, I know. School is not everyone’s favorite thing to talk about but I am the biggest nerd and I love it so so SOOO much! I am going into my Junior year of college and am studying criminal justice with a concentration in international and transnational crimes. I absolutely love my major and reading my textbook is as fun as reading Percy Jackson was when I was younger. I chose this major because I hope to one day work for an organization such as UNICEF, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Rescue Committee or anything along those lines. I have always had a need to help people, specifically children and at an international level.

Recently, I have learned that the United States is the only country within the UN member states that has not ratified the UN Convention of the Rights of a Child which is the most comprehensive human rights treaty in the world. Also, in the United States victims of child human trafficking are often those under the governments purview such as foster children as well as children that have slipped through the cracks of society and are homeless and hungry. Although the topics can be rather depressing I love learning about it because it means I am one step closer to, and a little more capable of, and more passionate about helping the world in whatever way I can. I am also very interested in learning about different cultures and how to help them without enforcing my own way of life upon them as a means to further develop their society. Every day I worry about and diligently work against perpetuating the infamous white savior complex and hope that I can avoid it in my future professional pursuits.

I really love talking about schools, majors, minors, and everything related to college so if anyone out there needs any advice or just wants a non-judgmental sounding board for ideas my messages are open to you!

I think I’ll wrap it up here as I’m not too confident with writing posts like this yet. I hope I wasn’t to terribly boring and that at least someone read to this part of the post and if not than I suppose I have 99 more days to entice you to read past my title. I hope you are all happy and healthy and staying inside as much as possible!

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the-only-way-21 · 5 years

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The once great country of America.

Ever since I was little I was told about how amazing of I country I lived in, especially for a woman. I have come to notice that America has never been great. We have racism, sexism, human sex trafficking, pedophilia, child marriages and other forms of hate and crime in this country. This country at some point might have been the greatest in comparison to others, but we're falling apart, fast. We are the most divided we have ever been because we can't stay quiet and listen to one another. We try shouting over people who hold opinions we don't agree with, we try hurting the people who are different from us, and we don't take the time to sit back and listen. I'm not very old mind you, but growing up I noticed the lack of colored people in the small town I grew up in. The ones I did see weren't treated the best and I didn't understand why for a very long time. I also didn't understand why my new grandpa put his hand in my pants while I was trying to sleep at night. I didn't realize the signs for either of these things because no one told me. No one informed the little children of the world that they were going to watch the world burn because the growns ups were at the "big kids table" and the children shouldn't be apart of the conversation. I always frustrated me, being told I was just "too young to understand". What is that even suppose to mean? I might not be an adult yet but that doesn't mean I shouldn't be informed of things going on. It's like not talking to your kid about sex trafficking cause it's "scary". Well it's not suppose to he pleasant, and you should talk to them about that. Children aren't dumb but if you don't inform them of things they may just end up in the wrong hands. Anyway, I never understood either of those two things specifically, until the first semester of middle school. We had our first actual sex ed class where they told us about pregnancies, your private bits, which no one was suppose to touch, and sexually transmitted diseases. When I found out I had been sexually assaulted it actually didn't bother me. For some reason my dads mental abuse towards me and my brother had made me uncaring about the things that happened to me. It was normal to me to get hurt by the adults in my life, the male ones anyway, so what did it matter how it's done. What he did never hurt me and it still doesn't. I found out my father was a racist at a young age whenever a young African American man was walking out of a store and my dad threw a snide remake, calling him a "Filthy n*****". He also was a rapist. I didn't find out until after I moved in with my mom. She told me that he use to force her to have sexual relations with him. They were married but she kept trying to tell him no, that she didn't want to do that but he wouldn't listen. From the short time that I've been on this planet I have learned that no matter where you are all hell can break loose. This isn't the land of the free, it's the land of the divided and broken. We the people, the women, children and men of America all want a country of peace and of love, but we can't have that if we are divided into groups cause of sexuality, race, gender, etc... If we ever want to see some type of change in this country we need to come together as one; The American people. Sorry for this rant.

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faithandsurrender · 5 years

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July 31, 2019

Today was a great day. I can’t believe it’s the last day of July and that we’re just a few hours away from August.

Before bed last night, I remembered that I made plans for coffee in the morning. I was a tad irritated with myself for making plans on my only day off, but then I realized that I only work 20 hours a week. I should be making plans before starting school in less than a month.

I met up with an old friend of mine, Rachel, who I have been friends with since middle school. She got married in college and after graduation, she and her husband became missionaries. For their first year of being missionaries, the Lord led them to China (talk about living in obedience). Being a Christian in China is one of the boldest, most obedient things I believe anyone can do. In China, the practice of religion continues to be tightly controlled by the government; people are persecuted if they are discovered to be Christians. So sad, right? Anyway, after their year in China, they became missionaries in Germany. Rachel and her husband told me all about the ministry work they do and the organization they are partnered with. God has put it on their hearts to work in anti-human trafficking. With only 2% of Germany being of Christian faith, the Lord has used Rachel and her husband there so incredibly. They’re currently back in the United States because they’re expecting a baby, but they’ll be back in Germany at the turn of the year. It was wonderful catching up and hearing about how God has worked in their lives. Before leaving, I asked them if I could pray for them, and that concluded our coffee date. I pray the Lord knows my desire for a husband who is a solid, healthy spiritual leader. It was so encouraging to see them live out their lives for Christ - in such bold ways, too. That’s what it’s all about.

I made my way home and wanted to rest for the afternoon. I planned on staying in bed for several hours and reading Love Does. A relaxing afternoon on my day off was exactly what I wanted, but it was the exact opposite of what I ended up doing. Again, my mom is in the Philippines right now and so I’ve been at home with two boys. My dad and brother do squat when it comes to doing chores around the house so I took it upon myself to clean the house because it was long overdue. I swept, vacuumed, emptied and loaded the dishwasher, completely reorganized the pantry, changed the soap in the bathrooms and kitchen, sorted the mail on the table and completely cleared the clutter that was on the table, and lit candles to make our entire home smell good. All while my brother napped and my dad watched TV. I also intended on cleaning my entire room from top to bottom (it isn’t horribly messy right now, but it isn’t nearly as clean as it should be or as I want it to be). But, I only work four hours tomorrow and decided to clean my space tomorrow so I could lay in bed, read, and relax before meeting up with my friend Megan at 5PM. I even squeezed in a 20-minute nap.

I woke up around 4PM to get ready and at 4:40 headed out to meet up with my sweet friend. Megan and I have known one another for two years and this was the first time we actually made plans to hang out. We met in the fall of 2017 when we signed up for the same life group on Tuesday nights through our church, and we even attended the same church gathering on Sunday evenings. A year ago, we even started Re:Generation on the same Monday night. So for the last couple of years, we’ve seen each other consistently on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday evenings. It seems silly to have known someone for two years and see them so frequently, yet not really know them on a personal level. So, tonight, we finally broke the ice. We knew the basics about each other, what we went to school for (in undergrad) and what we are going to school for now, how many siblings each other has, a decent understanding of each other’s story (discovered through life group and Re:Generation), but that was pretty much it. Tonight we got to know more about one another and it was really refreshing. I opened up with some of my struggles and it was really nice talking to someone who could relate to a lot of what I was going through. She similarly struggles with singleness, trusting others, feelings of unworthiness and insecurity. Having gone through Re:Generation together has helped us with these troubles and has also emphasized the fact that we are not alone in our struggles. Walking with Christ has helped us both recognize the importance of living in community and I’m so grateful that God used our church to bring us together as friends. We even have a plan to go hiking in Yosemite next weekend! Before we realized, over two hours had gone by. As I stood up to say our goodbyes, she asked if there is anything she can be keeping in prayer for me. I love this sweet friend of mine, she is a blessing. We sat back down for another fifteen minutes, shared prayer requests, and prayed for each other. Then we walked out together and said our goodbyes in the parking lot.

Got home around 7:30 and decided to call it a day. No, again, I didn’t make it to the gym. I actually really need to get on it now because it’s been a few days. For weeks, I'd been doing so good and in the last several days I have just been too lazy. But tonight, I got into my comfy clothes, put on some Netflix, cuddled with my dog some, and currently am typing away with Friends playing in the background. Just checked my phone and it’s past midnight, time sure did get away from me tonight. Time to answer the journaling prompt and head to bed.

There were a few highlights of my day. Busting my booty and cleaning the entire house was one. I felt so accomplished and proud of myself for adulting so well. The cherry on top of my day is a given, though - being able to spend time with good friends and having fellowship with them. It was so wonderful having Christ-centered conversations with Christ-hearted people; these are people who pour into me and who God really uses in my life. The best part of each get-together was wrapping up with prayer. I’ve got to say, I don’t think there’s anything that can beat that. That’s love.

#faithandsurrenderpost

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keptin-indy · 7 years

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Dresden Files: Salem 11

The GM included a little background detail in a description and the party got hung up on it for half the session. Conan’s backstory is explained to the party. I can stop censoring some of Baz’s bluebooking motives finally (not that I was being particularly subtle in the first place). Conan makes Bad Decisions.

Previous installments

The witchhunters evidently realized their address for Baz was out of date, as the group noticed strangers hanging around the Rowland Estate who would leave as soon as they were approached. The exception to this was a street-preacher with a sign saying that witches were going to hell, etc, etc who took up more or less permanent residence on Baz’s front lawn and got frequently trolled in various ways for his troubles (Eunice with theology, Baz with aggressive friendliness, Adler with...Adler). Otherwise, things were suspiciously quiet around town and Baz called up the Winters to see why. The faeries said that the so-called monsters union had poached most of their less powerful members and also the rawhead the group had fought before, so they were down on strength and hadn’t been doing much because of it. As long as nothing was happening, Baz tried to study the House of Seven Gables like the Gatekeeper had advised, but didn’t find anything other than how much he hated the place.

Just in time for the holiday party season, Lord Oberon took up residence at a little farm outside of town and the group decided to pay their respects to his court. Conan asked if he should wear a suit to the meeting with the fairy lord and also Lord Oberon, to Baz’s exasperation. As was traditional, Baz brought baked goods to the meeting, which was outdoors even in December, the fields locked in an eternal bubble of summer while beautiful people and little children frolicked picturesquely. The group was formally presented to Lord Oberon, King of the Fae (really) and Conan nervously asked if the kids were actual mortal children that he was going to see on missing posters. Oberon told him that they were indeed mortal children, but there were unlikely to be posters of them, as he had found them cold, lost, and alone, and he had offered them a new home, should they choose to come. Setting that aside for the moment, Baz welcomed Oberon to Salem and told him about the gatherings at Hamilton Hall as well as Neutral Grounds (Oberon said he preferred to drink milk, so Adler introduced him to the concept of lattes). With the formalities done, Baz and Conan talked to the children and Conan wrote down their names to look up in the missing persons database. Adler turned into an anteater and rambled around the snooty courtiers to prove that he was the snootiest of all. Evelyn expressed concern over a faerie court not being a good place for kids to grow up, but Adler pointed out that it only gave them unrealistic expectations if they were “released back into the wild”. Eunice thought their parents should join the Summer Court to raise them. Unsure what to do about the kids in an immediate sense, the group went back to town to check in on who these kids were and what their home situations had been like before making any decisions. Conan found missing persons reports for two of the five children, one from a home that was almost certainly abusive, the other from parents who were in and out of shelters. Eunice and Adler argued back and forth about whether a broken home or inhuman creatures would be better at raising children, with Eunice coming down hard on the side of “children are the property of their parents” which made everyone really feel for Evelyn’s childhood. She wasn’t entirely without sympathy for abused children, however, and suggested they tell Oberon that he could steal children who had already been trafficked on the basis that faeries would still be better than whatever they were being sold into. Conan thought faerie vigilantism was a bad idea and Baz told him he’d already made a similar arrangement with the Winter Court, which did not make Conan feel any better about it. Adler took it upon himself to turn into a small child and spread some additions to the interesting network of kid culture and belief systems that have nothing to do with adults, namely that they should travel in groups and always head somewhere warm if they got lost or else they’d disappear in the night. Conversely, if they wanted to get out of a bad situation, then they should get lost somewhere cold. Eventually he told Baz about this, but not Conan or Eunice, who he viewed as being on the wrong side of this issue.

The group asked for another meeting with Oberon specifically to talk about the kids and Baz flailed around trying to find a politic way to present what the group had settled on re: not selling unwanted children to the Winter Court or anyone else who might eat them and not letting them come to harm otherwise, but Eunice stepped in and told Oberon that if he was claiming the kids as his, that meant it was his responsibility to look after them, as this was one of the rules of the community and he had agreed to abide by the local behavioral expectations while he was there. Oberon took this very well, as hospitality rules were important to the fae, but cautioned that he had no hold on them once they grew to adulthood (which, by faerie standards, was 13). This seemed reasonable to the party, who would be sure to re-orient any kids who aged out back into the mortal world. Baz did suggest counter-stealing kids from child traffickers, while Conan was more on board with making sure the kids who did stay with Oberon were given some kind of education. Evelyn asked for and received permission to check in on the kids regularly. A couple of days later, Baz got a worried call from one of the Witches who was known to be an oracle that Oberon had contracted her to do tarot readings to determine which kids he had access to would turn out to be the most useful or interesting, as he was no longer allowed to sell the boring ones for food. Eunice ghosted over to the parents they’d been able to track down and told them that their children were safe and living in the land of eternal summer, which was probably not comforting at all.

The city-wide Formori ward was registering notably less cultist activity, which Evelyn thought was probably related to the monsters union possibly working with the Formori instead, so they didn’t have to telepathically enslave cultists. Previous attempts at investigating the Formori hadn’t turned up much, but now that they had a real live policeman, Baz asked Conan what he would do. Conan said RICO charges, which wasn’t terribly helpful, but he did look into who owned the bar where they’d met Ryan and tailed a couple of known members. It turned out the bar belonged to the local mob, which was not known to be clued-in, and the members they could identify were surprisingly well-behaved and happy. Adler got a couple more recruitment visits as his new monster alter-ego and also as his normal identity. Ryan knew that Adler was a known associate of the Warden, but what curious “how much of a monster” he really was and if he’d like to explore that with them. The only requirement for membership was loyalty and they wouldn’t even make him kill anyone he didn’t want to; instead they’d work with him to find out what kind of mayhem he did want to cause and only send him to do those tasks, as they believed in tailoring their services to each individual member. When questioned about their ultimate goals, Ryan said they were aiming to destroy the status quo that had oppressed the monstrous for so many years and put themselves on top for once. In the short-term, however, he encouraged members to just do whatever they wanted, as that would probably be disruptive enough as it was. Adler of course told Baz, who said that he agreed with their point about the treatment of monsters, if only they were less destructive about it. Conan thought he could get some information from his dad about what monsters in Boston were actually causing trouble (e.g. who he’d been punching lately), but his sister picked up the phone instead and old him off rather than give him any information. The others were curious about this family of self-proclaimed monster hunters and Conan explained that once every generation, a child would be born with superhuman strength, speed, and toughness and charged to defend mortals from things that would prey upon them. However, the magic was sexist and only went to the firstborn male in the generation, which his older sister was incredibly angry about. Adler asked if he was required to hunt monsters, and, if so, if doing it in video game format counted enough. Conan said he was pretty sure he didn’t need to hunt Adler but that Rowan, his sister, might try to fight him on principle. Baz pointed out that she tried to fight everyone anyway but that he really should take everyone out to the bar regardless, so then Conan had to explain the family pub, O’Connell’s. Adler also wanted to know if his family indiscriminately fought all monsters and reminded Conan that he was friends with some now, so maybe he should tell his family not to go after them, even Eunice. The bantering between Baz and Conan continued for a while, as they turned out to have known each other a shockingly long time: they met when Conan punched Baz literally across the playground in school and had been close friends ever since. Conan threatened to tell Adler embarrassing stories from Baz’s rebellious teen years, which Adler was very interested in. [Baz tracked down Evelyn on his own and told her he needed adult advice and couldn’t ask his mother about it. The core of his problem was that he was interested in “someone” who was non-human and seemed to be entirely adult, but chronologically-speaking, they were only 8 years old and he wasn’t sure if this made him a bad person. Evelyn said that the person she was pretty sure he meant seemed mature by whatever the standards of their species were, but that he really should be asking them how they felt about that kind of an age gap.]

The group also went back to the House since Baz hadn’t made any headway on it himself. Eunice did some library research and compared the glowing eyes to a ringing phone that would keep on going until someone picked it up, and considering the vague aura of greed the place generated, that would probably be sooner rather than later. Conan privately wondered if really wanting the Outsider to just stay inside the House and not make deals with anyone else was enough of a desire to count as an offer and was surprised to feel the metaphysical equivalent of a handshake before all the creepiness in the House suddenly stopped. He told Baz he might have accidentally solved the problem or he might have made it worse.

#Dresden Files: Salem #actual play #livejournal replacement #game

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awaylaughing · 1 year

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I posted 413 times in 2022

That's 120 more posts than 2021!

31 posts created (8%)

382 posts reblogged (92%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@mikkeneko

@quilleth

@robinade

@rebloggingistheenemy

@darth-snuggles

I tagged 413 of my posts in 2022

#i laughed okay - 65 posts

#about me - 56 posts

#memery and prophecy - 38 posts

#the more you know - 32 posts

#the assorted works of middle earth - 23 posts

#awaylaughing writes - 21 posts

#critical role - 17 posts

#this is the sort of quality content i signed up for - 15 posts

#vtm night road - 15 posts

#dragon age - 14 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#i'd share stuff about amen but he's lurking in the corner of my brain brandishing a knfe and hissing about how i better keep my mouth shut

My Top Posts in 2022:

2 years late with some VtM Night Road Courier HCs because I'm late to everything, always (spoilers for Night Road I guess but also it's been two years). This is very long and doesn't even begin to cover my myriad thoughts lol

Echo is a Ravnos and despite a very shady past with very immoral things (trafficking and luring migrants to their death, eek) she’s got very high humanity. Turns out how kind she is to others is directly tied to how kind she is to herself, and she was not very nice to herself for the ten years spanning from 1997 to 2007.

Is insanely loyal to her BMW3 and kept it in tip top shape the whole way through. Made Dove swear to keep it safe. Dove agreed but thought it was stupid to be so attached to such a cheap car.

Echo's Cajun from Louisiana. As she was raised by her adoptive mother who was rather older than usual, French is actually still her native language and since she was home schooled she was educated in it too, up until she was 13 and her mother died anyway.

Despite this, most people think she's from some southwester urban centre, but when she's distracted she slips into being the good little Cajun that she really is.

Related, more than once she had to stop herself from saying "cher" once she got more comfortable with Lettow. She's not *that* brazen. Has definitely used it on Riga though, more than once and long before Lettow indicated he too had some feelings and wasn’t just humouring her.

Also calls her lobo cher. His name is Rocket and he’s the bestest boy and genuinely got her through some very rough times.

Echo is a siren feeder because the lonely little Ravnos craves connection so very badly. To say her relationship with sex is complicated is an understatement and Julian telling her she could honeypot Lettow really upset her quite a lot.

Speaking of Lettow, Echo's Ravnos and so her decision to openly flirt with him from the word go seems borderline suicidal. Gangrel do not like Ravnos and she knows it; Camarilla do not like Ravnos and she also knows that, pretty much nothing could be worse than a Gangrel Elder and Prince then, you'd think. But her clan compulsion is tempting fate, basically, so Echo was less actually thirsting and more pushing to see how far she could go before he smacked her down.

Given she ended up getting on the plane with him, the answer is "unlikely to ever stop her actually". Getting on the plane is also somewhat a case of her compulsion at play, her and Lettow had not at that point had an actual conversation about their relationship in light of the Aila stuff and their expectations, but also it's because she did not side with the Camarilla in the end, she just chose Lettow. With no real friends in Tuscon and no ghouls or anything she wasn't leaving much behind after she perma-friend-dumped Julian. And on top of all that, she just wanted to be there for Lettow when he was doing something hard and lonely.

Plus she’s always wanted to travel outside the Americas.

She is a bit worried thought as Echo has one dot in strength and zero dots in anything combat related. I can only imagine her sitting on the sidelines while Lettow's doing Gehenna Stuff cheering him on (while sitting on a cooler of Invidica Caul's fancy blood because the beau needs the best in this trying time and Caul owes her). Which should actually work, if the fact her playing cheerleader helped in both the Reremouse and Donati fights is anything to go by.

5 notes - Posted November 7, 2022

Welp guess I need to give VM another try

6 notes - Posted May 31, 2022

The full art || and the fic by @jamcake-muses and @awaylaughing for this year's @tolkienrsb

Pairing: Elwing/Earendil, implicit Tuor/Idril Characters: Elwing, Earendil, and a whole host more! Words: 12 594 Summary: Elwing and Earendil, from the not so incidental beginning all the way to an end, if not the end.

Rated teen, No Archive Warnings Apply but it's the first age of Middle-Earth so you know what that means

7 notes - Posted September 10, 2022

Okay but Purvan Suul has muddy boots, a cool wolf, and morals...I love him

23 notes - Posted May 31, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

I was able to commission @harumeau for my main Wayfarer, Saraia "Sai" Sero, from @idrellegames and I've been grinning widely since I got it!

The Rona days were a bit rough, as you can see from Sai's expression and the visible mending, but the process to get here on my end was very smooth and lovely at least. I think she's probably worried about finding the Chalice, and she's out in the rain to hide her worries from Aeran. And to escape the smell in Oleander's.

68 notes - Posted July 28, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #lol am such a small time blogger #anyway sai deserves top spot #what a great gal and hana's art deserves all the views

4 notes · View notes

biofunmy · 5 years

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In 2011, Jeffrey Epstein Was A Known Sex Offender. Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, And Sergey Brin Shared A Meal With Him Anyway

BuzzFeed News; Getty Images

In March 2011, a group of technology executives gathered in a private dining room at an upscale Italian restaurant in downtown Long Beach, California, for a meal and some conversation. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Google cofounder Sergey Brin, and others were all in town for TED, the annual conference with the slogan “ideas worth spreading.” They were among friends at an annual event called the “billionaires’ dinner,” without a retinue of handlers and hangers-on.

Yet when the event was later immortalized online, at least one infamous individual was missing from the names of the masters of the universe who had gathered for the evening: the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

This elite dinner, and another similarly select gathering that Epstein attended later that year, were both organized by the New York literary agent John Brockman, whose exclusive intellectual club, called Edge, seems to have played a role in Epstein’s efforts to regain credibility and influence in circles of the rich and powerful. At the time, he was less than two years removed from finishing a 13-month prison term in a Florida state jail for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.

A leaked email obtained by BuzzFeed News also suggests that Epstein separately pursued ties with Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates.

The months following Epstein’s release from prison would be crucial for the disgraced financier as he began his reacclimation to the upper-crust social circles he had occupied before his arrest. In late 2010, Epstein reportedly hosted a dinner for celebrities and Prince Andrew at his Upper East Side mansion, and by the next year he was once again mingling with Brockman, an über networker among the elite of tech, science, and Wall Street.

With a goal to “seek out the most complex and sophisticated minds, put them in a room together, and have them ask each other the questions they are asking themselves,” Brockman’s Edge Foundation had previously welcomed Epstein as a patron to the sciences.

Before his 2006 arrest, Epstein attended at least three Edge billionaires’ dinners and was mentioned in a write-up on the Edge website of the 2004 event.

In the early 2000s, the Edge dinners were a place to be seen by members of the digerati and attended by reporters from several media outlets. In 2011, after Epstein had been released from a Florida jail, it was an exclusive gathering, dominated by tech industry leadership. A gallery of photos taken at the event by Nathan Myhrvold, formerly Microsoft’s chief technology officer, named 20 guests, including just one media representative: New York Times columnist David Brooks.

Epstein wasn’t named in the photos posted on the Edge website, but he appears in the background of a snap of Zack Bogue, a venture capitalist and husband of Marissa Mayer, then a vice president at Google. (The New York Times mentioned this photo in passing in its July story about Epstein’s reentry into powerful social circles after his release from jail.)

edge.org / Via edge.org

Jeffrey Epstein, far right, pictured at the 2011 Edge billionaires’ dinner.

Other photos show the participants mingling before or after taking their seats. Also present were Bezos; Musk; Brin; Salar Kamangar, then CEO of YouTube; Mayer, who the following year left Google to become CEO of Yahoo; and Anne Wojcicki, Brin’s then-wife and CEO of genetic testing startup 23andMe.

This was not the first time that some of these tech titans had rubbed shoulders with Epstein at Brockman’s billionaires’ dinners: Bezos and Brin — along with fellow Google cofounder Larry Page — are listed on the Edge website as attending in 2004, and the Amazon CEO was at the 1999 event, both of which Epstein also attended.

Despite Epstein’s notoriety following his conviction, multiple attendees present at the small gathering in 2011 stated they did not know him then, or do not remember his presence now.

“I did not know Jeffrey Epstein was there,” said Bogue, who was photographed sitting three places away from the ex-convict financier at the 2011 event. “I don’t think I spoke to him at that dinner. I don’t believe I have ever met him, either at that dinner or anytime else.”

Through a spokesperson, Bogue’s spouse, Mayer, said she did not recall seeing Epstein at the dinner. That sentiment was echoed by Craig Mundie, another dinner attendee, who served as Microsoft’s chief strategy and research officer until 2014. Mundie said in an email that he had been invited by Brockman and had no recollection of meeting Epstein at the event.

Myhrvold, another former Microsoft executive, sent a statement to BuzzFeed News denying any “knowledge of or any involvement in the various crimes that Mr. Epstein is accused of committing” or financial connections to his money management business.

“Back in the day Epstein was a regular at TED conferences and he was a large donor to basic scientific research, so while Nathan knew him and has socialized with him, that’s exactly where their association ends,” his spokesperson said.

Brooke Hammerling, a communications and public relations specialist who deals with high-profile tech executives, did not attend the dinner but said she had been long aware of Brockman’s events around TED. She said it was hard to believe that executives of high profile companies would go in blind to an intimate dinner, particularly when many have staff who prepare them ahead of time with briefing books on who will be attending events.

“If you’re the CEO of a publicly traded company, your responsibility is to be prepared and not to have any surprises,” she said.

Brooks, the New York Times columnist and the only journalist photographed at the event, said he had not heard of Epstein in 2011 and only learned of the financier and his past following the Miami Herald’s investigation last year. He too had been invited by Brockman, but said he was not aware of who would be attending the dinner, and was “surprised” at its “high powered group of people.”

A Tesla spokesperson declined to answer queries about the event and instead questioned BuzzFeed News’ “journalistic integrity.”

Brin and Bezos did not respond to BuzzFeed News’ inquiries. Kamangar and Wojcicki also did not reply to emails requesting comment.

Epstein attended a second exclusive Edge event in July 2011, held over a weekend at a winery in St. Helena, California. There, he mingled with a handful of leading scientists and several science journalists, plus wealthy power brokers including Sean Parker, former president of Facebook, and Nicholas Pritzker, a venture capitalist and former CEO of the Hyatt Development Corporation. Pritzker’s venture firm has invested in Uber, Tesla, and SpaceX and he is now on the board of vaping startup Juul Labs.

video-player.buzzfeed.com / Via edge.org

Jeffrey Epstein, wearing glasses to the right, seated next to Nicholas Pritzker, listens to musician and virtual reality pioneer Jaron Lanier ask a question of mathematical biologist Martin Nowak.

The meeting was billed as a “master class” on the science of human nature. Participants got a preview of Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker’s book The Better Angels of Our Nature, on the decline of violence in human societies, released a few months later. Epstein was captured on video sitting next to Pritzker and laughing as Martin Nowak, who received $6.5 million from Epstein in 2003 to launch his Program for Evolutionary Dynamics at Harvard, explained how sexual reproduction generates “noise” in models of the evolution of cooperative behavior.

video-player.buzzfeed.com / Via Edge.org

Jeffrey Epstein, wearing glasses to the right, seated next to Nicholas Pritzker, laughs at Martin Nowak’s comment about sexual reproduction.

“Sean does not have a specific recollection of that event,” a spokesperson for Parker told BuzzFeed News. “He did not meet Jeffrey Epstein at that time, but he also would not have been aware of who he was in 2011.”

A spokesperson for Pritzker told BuzzFeed News by email: “He has no memory of having any knowledge prior to the event of the identity of any attendee including Mr. Epstein and if Mr. Pritzker was seated next to Mr. Epstein at the small gathering, it would have been purely coincidental. There were discussions among the attendees as a group on the subjects presented, but Mr. Pritzker does not recall any specific conversations with Mr. Epstein.”

In 2009, Brockman had also suggested that “science philanthropist” Epstein should be invited to another exclusive event, the Science Foo Camp, organized by tech book publisher Tim O’Reilly and held annually at Google’s headquarters in Mountain View, California.

“O’Reilly does its own due diligence on anyone recommended,” Marsee Henon, program manager for O’Reilly Media, told BuzzFeed News by email. “As a result, Jeffrey Epstein was never invited to an O’Reilly Foo Camp.”

Since Epstein’s arrest in July this year on charges of sex trafficking, Brockman has declined to answer questions about Epstein and his own role in assisting the sex offender’s return to elite society. He did not respond to queries from BuzzFeed News about the two 2011 events. The financier’s profile was this year quietly removed from the Edge website, together with the pages for the 1999 and 2000 billionaires’ dinners, listed on Epstein’s profile.

edge.org / Via web.archive.org

Jeffrey Epstein talks to Nathan Myhrvold, formerly Microsoft’s chief technology officer, at the 2000 billionaires’ dinner.

Those pages are saved on the Internet Archive, however. And less obvious links to Epstein, including the photo from the 2011 billionaires’ dinner, the reference to his presence at the 2004 event, and video from the 2011 master class, remain on the Edge website.

While Brockman was an important networker for Epstein, the disgraced financier apparently had his own contacts with another huge player in the tech industry: Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates. Last Friday, in a searing report on Epstein’s links with the MIT Media Lab, a hub for innovation in digital media, the New Yorker revealed an email indicating that Epstein in 2014 had “directed” a donation of $2 million from Gates to the lab.

A May 2013 email from physicist Lawrence Krauss, former head of the Origins Project at Arizona State University, also suggests ties between Epstein and Gates. (Epstein helped fund Krauss’s project at Arizona State, which brought together well-known scientists, intellectuals, and celebrities for public debates and other events.)

In the email, obtained by BuzzFeed News, Krauss invited hedge fund billionaire James Simons to attend a workshop on the origins of money being organized by Epstein at Arizona State. Krauss claimed that Gates, Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, and Lawrence Summers, formerly president of Harvard and Treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, had already been brought on board by Epstein.

Simons declined the invitation, and the workshop ultimately didn’t take place.

“Bill never committed to attend that event,” a source close to Gates told BuzzFeed News. “This is another example of how Epstein tried to associate himself with Bill.”

Gates, who was chairman of Microsoft until 2014, faced questions about his ties to Epstein last month after his former science adviser, Boris Nikolic, was named by Epstein as a backup executor for his will, signed two days before he killed himself in a federal detention center in Manhattan. Also last month, CNBC reported that Gates held a meeting in 2013 with Epstein to discuss ways to increase philanthropic giving.

“Epstein was introduced to Bill Gates as someone who was interested in helping grow philanthropy,” a spokesperson for Gates told BuzzFeed News by email. “Although Epstein pursued Bill Gates aggressively, any account of a business partnership or personal relationship between the two is simply not true. And any claim that Epstein directed any programmatic or personal grantmaking for Bill Gates is completely false.”

“Richard did not agree to an event at the University for this date – nor was he on board for this,” a spokesperson for Branson told BuzzFeed News by email.

While Epstein may have sought access to elite circles to rehabilitate his image, it is less clear that the rich and famous wanted to be publicly associated with him.

A manager at the Italian restaurant that hosted the 2011 billionaires’ dinner in Long Beach said she dealt directly with Brockman and was the only one allowed to check people in for the “hush hush” event. She wasn’t even allowed to save the list of attendees.

“After the event, they took the guest list and shredded it,” she said.

Sahred From Source link Science

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bisoroblog · 6 years

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What’s So Different About High Tech High Anyway?

Walking onto a High Tech High campus is like entering a workshop. Our tour guide, sophomore Caroline Egler, pointed out classrooms that supposedly housed physics or humanities or biology, but most students weren’t in those rooms. They were in the hallways working on projects, huddled around computers together, or even working at desks elevated 8 feet above the ground so they towered over the floor. Students seem to be working with purpose, even if it’s not immediately obvious what they’re doing. The scene is chaotic, but not out of control.

It’s not always like this, Egler assured us, a group of education journalists visiting as part of the Education Writers Association’s Rethinking the American High School seminar. Students at this campus of the San Diego-based charter network seemed more frantic than usual because they were rushing to finish projects they’d been working on all semester, she said. They’d be exhibiting their work to real-world audiences at the end of the week.

‘All of this is stuff students are researching and learning about, but it’s all integrated into this project, rather than being this cold, removed, isolated content that we study for a while and then we move on to the next thing.’Russell Walker, Humanities teacher at High Tech High

Each student had to develop a physical product to represent their learning over the semester; they planned to exhibit their work at the Mexican border in coordination with Mexican students they had been working with over Skype since the class began.

Egler explained that she was making a podcast — complete with original music composed by a classmate — about differing views on President Trump’s proposed border wall with Mexico. Other students in her class were exploring topics like drug trafficking and sexual harassment; the only requirement was that the project relate to the border. It was a shared project between Spanish and humanities classes.

These kinds of community-grounded events are part of what High Tech High calls real-world work. The learning and its products are displayed not just to teachers, students or even parents, but to a larger community of experts. That gives school assignments more relevance — the work actually matters to the world.

The other thing visitors immediately notice about the school is the incredible work hanging from ceilings, lining the walls, and built into the hallways. Photographs, a bridge to nowhere, self-portraits, full-size boats, weather balloons, robots — beautiful work is celebrated at the school and its constant presence reminds students of the high expectations their teachers set for them.

The High Tech High network mostly operates on the California per-pupil funding formula, but it chooses to allocate its money very differently from many other school systems. High Tech High School doesn’t have a football team, a library or textbooks, all pricey areas where the school saves some money. It also offers few class choices to students; for the most part, students take classes that satisfy the University of California’s A-G requirements. And many teachers have dual credentials, allowing them to teach multiple subjects or combine subjects.

Boat-making is a favorite High Tech High project. (Katrina Schwartz)

But what seems like a lack of choice in classes isn’t as limiting as one might think. The charter network’s schools are built around four essential design principles: equity, personalization, authentic work and collaborative design. While those guiding principles are at the heart of every class, there’s a lot of variety in every other way. And students are encouraged to pursue ideas they’re passionate about, which allows for some of the choice they might otherwise lack.

For example, Aaron Price is in the same humanities-Spanish class as Caroline Egler. He built a data logger that he attached to a weather balloon and used it to measure CO2 levels at the border. He was part of a team investigating shared environmental concerns in the U.S.-Mexico border region. Price’s physical work product was more technical, but he also wrote and published a research paper, as well as a website with his findings. It’s almost like Egler with her political podcast and Price with his weather balloon are in two different classes. That’s what personalization looks like at High Tech High schools, and it’s why students don’t mind that the course catalog is limited.

The charter network accepts students through a lottery that randomly takes a certain number of students from every ZIP code in San Diego. Since the city, like many others, has many neighborhoods that are racially and ethnically isolated, this ensures the student body reflects San Diego’s population.

SS learn about blood types, heredity and codominance of traits by typing themselves- one of the most engaging labs of the year! @hightechhigh #labscience #shareyourlearning #deeperlearning #biology pic.twitter.com/bVGGuHCC2F

— KalleApplegatePalmer (@palmer_kalle) January 25, 2018

Personalization is achieved in part by keeping class sizes small; teachers have the opportunity to get to know students and their passions well. They can adapt projects to students’ interests, and push individuals to do their best work.

“It is not students all sitting in front of computers doing a self-paced math program,” said Larry Rosenstock, founding principal and CEO of High Tech High. “It is not finding the right pace or right technique to get this inert content to each student.”

Instead, personalization at High Tech High is a partnership between the teacher and student to find an authentic project that genuinely motivates students to produce meaningful work. And, because teachers’ schedules are arranged so they see fewer students at a time, they can push the young people they work with to reach individual goals.

“It means you and the student are going to work together to design something that’s going to be academically relevant to what you’re trying to teach them, but also personally meaningful to the student,” said Russell Walker, an 11th-grade history teacher. He designs the broad strokes of the project, but students take it in many different directions.

“I would say it is criminal negligence if you’re not doing that in project-based learning,” Walker said. “Because if you’re saying, ‘Here’s this project and you’re all going to make the same thing,’ that’s not really very interesting. They’ll just copy what you did.”

Involving S voice into the development of a project provides expert insight, valuable information, and creative solutions! We invite Ss into our work to give them voice and standing…How do you engage Ss in the process of planning and learning? pic.twitter.com/WmnPaE5eg7

— Edrick Macalaguim (@EdrickMac) January 3, 2018

During the fall semester, Walker collaborated with a biology teacher on a semester-long project about space colonization. Students were tasked with thinking through what they’d need to sustain life off earth, and along the way they learned about DNA, cell replication, physiological systems in the body, ecosystems and more.

“It’s all the stuff you would normally do in a biology class,” Walker said, “but it’s applied in a way that students are interested in learning and applying it.”

For the history side of things, students had to decide what kind of society they would build on their space colony. To do that, they read political theory and philosophers from the Enlightenment. Students discussed the mistakes of colonialism, and covered a broad swath of history as they worked to create something better on their new planet.

“All of this is stuff students are researching and learning about, but it’s all integrated into this project, rather than being this cold, removed, isolated content that we study for a while and then we move on to the next thing,” Walker said.

Walker used to teach Advanced Placement environmental science at a high school in Los Angeles, where he taught 150 students each day and was expected to help as many as possible pass the AP test. He said the experience left him feeling uninspired as a professional and drained of his creativity because he spent hours handling the minutiae of lesson planning and grading.

Now, Walker says he works with 48 students (although some High Tech High teachers see between 50-100 students in core classes). His time as an educator is spent researching to prepare a great project, experimenting with the tasks for students, meeting one-on-one with students, providing critique and feedback on their work, and generally engaging with students around ideas.

@hightechhigh beautiful school, ethos and people! John, thanks again for the tour! pic.twitter.com/xLbGCwDIdd

— Nicholas Pattison (@CubedSTEM) January 12, 2018

“As a teacher, it’s way more fun and interesting to work here,” Walker said. “And I think a lot of teachers who are burned out or losing hope on the way things are running could benefit from shifting to [project-based learning].”

Another High Tech High teacher, Mike Strong, agreed that one of his favorite things about the school is the autonomy it offers him. Teachers are treated as professionals and are allowed to be creative, he said. That’s a tall order, and can be exhausting, but it’s much more exciting. And when teachers are given autonomy, they tend to transfer it to students as well.

Egler said her teachers trust her — something she’s come to expect.

“Teachers trust that if they put [students] outside of the class and let them go, that the students are going to be diligent and get to work,” she said.

If a particular student fails to live up to her end of the bargain, or is flagrantly disrespectful, the teacher can take away privileges. The school doesn’t give detentions and only rarely suspends or expels students, according to Egler. Instead, students will have a conversation with the teacher about their behavior and will be asked to think of a way to make amends.

Mark Aguirre, a ninth-grade humanities teacher, sees a lot of students who don’t think they like school, but when they’re 14, there’s still a chance to convince them that they’re wrong. He admits it doesn’t work for every kid, and some do leave, but he’s been teaching at High Tech High since 2001 and says he firmly believes it works for most students.

“You have to convince them that what we’re doing has value by coming up with something interesting for them to do,” he said.

Aside from the small class sizes, autonomy, project-based curriculum, freedom to design classes based on loose themes, and expectation that students will create work that experts will want to evaluate, High Tech High is different from the conventional high school in other ways. Students aren’t tracked, and there are no AP classes. All students can opt into honors-level work, which comes with a few different requirements but doesn’t separate them into a different section. Crucially, students decide whether they want to be on the honors track two to three weeks into the semester, which gives tentative students the opportunity to try out honors-level work before committing.

“My first instinct was that honors students should read more or different books than the non-honors students,” said Randy Scherer, who used to teach English at the school, but now directs the High Tech High Graduate School’s professional development program to support other project-based-learning teachers.

He soon realized that only kids who already loved reading were signing up for honors. That didn’t seem fair; he realized he was just padding the GPAs of kids who would read anyway. Instead he defined honors as “adding knowledge to the world that did not exist,” such as by building Wikipedia pages and writing books, for example.

“We’re trying to be creatively compliant,” Scherer said. “We have to do something so people will recognize it. But we really want everyone to be in honors.”

The charter network has skillfully pushed boundaries while making sure its students aren’t disadvantaged when they apply to college, according to Scherer. After nearly 20 years, they’ve got a good reputation, which gives them more wiggle room with the state.

“Some of the practices we push on students, like reflection, teachers do that as well,” said teacher Mike Strong about working at a charter network like High Tech High. “There’s constant critique and revision for even things like how we have meetings.”

That can become exhausting, but it’s also what keeps the school from regressing to the mean, one of Larry Rosenstock’s biggest fears.

What’s So Different About High Tech High Anyway? published first on https://dlbusinessnow.tumblr.com/

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perfectzablog · 6 years

Text

What’s So Different About High Tech High Anyway?

Boat-making is a favorite High Tech High project. (Katrina Schwartz)

— KalleApplegatePalmer (@palmer_kalle) January 25, 2018

— Edrick Macalaguim (@EdrickMac) January 3, 2018

“It’s all the stuff you would normally do in a biology class,” Walker said, “but it’s applied in a way that students are interested in learning and applying it.”

@hightechhigh beautiful school, ethos and people! John, thanks again for the tour! pic.twitter.com/xLbGCwDIdd

— Nicholas Pattison (@CubedSTEM) January 12, 2018

Egler said her teachers trust her — something she’s come to expect.

“Teachers trust that if they put [students] outside of the class and let them go, that the students are going to be diligent and get to work,” she said.

“You have to convince them that what we’re doing has value by coming up with something interesting for them to do,” he said.

“We’re trying to be creatively compliant,” Scherer said. “We have to do something so people will recognize it. But we really want everyone to be in honors.”

That can become exhausting, but it’s also what keeps the school from regressing to the mean, one of Larry Rosenstock’s biggest fears.

What’s So Different About High Tech High Anyway? published first on https://greatpricecourse.tumblr.com/

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benchgenderstudies · 7 years

Text

The Prophet from Shady Places

by Michael Bench

//A prose written to Cops and the Public by a Gender Anthropologist and Cannabis Pundit. When certain bad guys behind badge get all wound up, cray- cray and need that time out.. something for them to de-escalate on//

---------------------------------------------------------

Ask a prophet from shady places about the world

they'll tell you the perils of thieving

before the nonthief’s mind blooms a reason of positive reward.

I got a problem with cops to take up with other cops.

Its not NWA lyrics

Cops B is not Cops A. A does not equal B.

Cops B are down south: TX,CO,AZ,UT

Cops B been helping themselves to Quasimormon runaways

They on the roadside trying not to get raped the first time,

not get married a second time before their 15th birthday

These southern quasimormons have loyalty feuds under the bright bright sun

It's really bright and sunny in those states

its so sunny and bright that if the god of jesus couldn't see

girls being raped while in bondage unprotected TIS OF THEE

That he'd not be perfect even for a son of a bitch.

There's low hanging fruit here, Cops.

Looky map wise like the pains of Samweis,

Worried Frodo is looking for a crib and not a ring.

To a middle east and middle south confederate region

Bible belts and bible whistles

and bible thumpers who've written every word in it

Jesus doesn't speak to them for they'd molest him too

Make him say silly things unbelievable if he has any room in his mouth

to get a word out. To sound in message like he used to.

Two hostile regions getting lots of sun and no service.

There's two imaginative sources of prophets

yammering about a visions of dehydration

no wonder you felt like it was the end of the world

Some more water, drown your spinning mind

Get some more water , lose the divinity.

All these bad visions a collected page vice robbing a girl of her decency

A bunch of males each region trafficking girls, like they're the only humans in it.

To each other, to someone else. Elders of the quasimormon portapotty, compound size;

Suffer the gluttony, pride and lust so openly

No version of an assembly of Jesus's words even edited would protect them

The cops in texas and arizona , and utah, and perhaps other states..

They turn these girls back to the cult.

Some they turn around themselves first .

There is no religious fence against protecting the children

If in the name or mild margindoodle of Jesus ink selfie

associated to any religion, protect the children.

Neither cops of these states, sheriffs, parish leaders

nor anyone else in eased vision seems to be practicing that angle of the faith

The direct angle. Most so certain well lit angle

That if this universe had any association

of a very creation story spun by the jews and christians..

A very hot hand would reach down from the sky from the hot sun

pinning this world flat on a the rack of justice

And strip the identity of this mormon or lesser mans face right off their skull

Along with associated pains long past due.

*Ashen piles.have you sympathy for them, Cop A?Cob B?

Dirt among the white race is being ignored by white cops.

Some bad news that can be made good.

I personally would like each of these

gated community rapist mormons branded with a Swastika

to assure their head is in the game.

2 ft x 2ft, on their back. Every "elder". taking wives instead of meeting wives.

Protect and Serve doesn't necessarily sound like protect the children.

Its like Ragu, its in there. and if I were to believe a

father , son and holy spook have a place in the clouds,

that still isn't the commandments of Jesus that said

'love those as I loved you" and " protect the children , you stupid mothfekkers".

In fact.. Jesus has a much better record teaching humanity than the sky god managed,

If all that literary fraud were set aside,

I'd rather quote myself " protect the children, stupid mothfekkers",( to the cult)

address it to the states of the south where the bible belt is allegedly tightest.

And the deep south Middle east where religion ,child abuse, teen rape is a traffic pattern

Its really bright out in the sun. Don't discount,

An overheated brain is a damaged brain.. leaving the more animalian more leash ..

to make a stupid man sound worse and then spermaspaz a bundle of kids

with pregnancies he can't raise on the alotments of hours per day.

Not even in the risen Jesus's own jewy backyard does he save the youth.

but its really bright outside and should a god hear all these people's worship

not doing a thing to protect his children.Often its in his name

So if two or three people are gathered in his name

is he god taking part in the gang rape of the kids too?

Cop Group A , there's a racial thing going on about drugs,

If you check the records, these hurt and traumatized girls

white girls, get on the drugs and strip afterwards. If they escape

Traumatized and wanting freedom in their own terms

Cop Group A , getting heavy on the politician's non relatives

Your supervisor is too much a bitch to have your back,

it’s a new job task environment

When the governors son gets caught banging a 16 year old

A Cop supervisor needs insulation

when musts of prosecution

prosecute ranks of the city council families.

Keep it in the paper, See who you are, whitey.

Its not tidy. among your own extremists,

in the south, in the bright bright sun

they do such tormenting deeds of power over their young girls

its like they think they were the god..

or what they'd do from the power of the throne either way.

So how many wives does the god of jesus have?

Abraham, Adam .. At most two.

These antisocial desert creatures are holed up in their own lies

Nurturing the children is no verb of mormons; the hardliners are labeled.

made to fear the apocalyptic outside world.

It’s a blaspheme to expect the apocalypse, did you know this?

Doubting Thomas is a taken gig. Observe the creation and be thankful. Nothing else.

When the end is called for , the doubted faith is admitted, when worshippers want more.

Even the type of more that calls to protect the children from mormon cult rapists.

The book of Jesus; new testament doesn't cover the polygamists.

Unlimited wives is not the spectre of rightful unlimited hardship

Protecting and being friendly to the little children isn't going on.

Members trying to escape a faith, a marketing failure

The likes of Warren Jeffs due a lesson he won't forget.

Since they don't follow Jesus's word before..

they must follow him in no uncertain terms later

Up the cross three days , Crucifixion can skate the 8th amendment

for this one certain cause.

Quasi mormons and the remainder of the child rape cults

by Jesus's name must learn to follow.

Normally the Romans just leave the body up on the post.

Traditional values also must win out for displaying faith.

The gluttony for sex by herding , not pickup lines or practiced suave

a lazy old man not earning his dick parking.

Lower than the van drivers Putting effort into a convincing abduction lure.

The quasimormon reads his reasoning from a book.

The religious heatstroke garble is too popular.

A heatstroke a lonely man shares to his friends, to a crowd

For an excuse to feel important again.

He wandered town to town

Named himself a prophet when the last place booted his ass.

From the desert , needing water , he says he had a vision

So his last occupation of ____crime whatever___

doesn't have to get much inquiry.

Everybody loves a hermit.. even the liars that are robbers.

Until the shroud comes off, Touring the neighborhoods

giving the leaders and townsfolk unease

Too tired to rebel and too annoyed to be a cog.

Too fearful to be a disobediant child of men

His god wouldn't protect from the

ill leadership of other men

hoarding a good life for themselves

Without faith at all.

Without faith , Only social morality One group of cops

will take down the allies of child trafficking cults

Theres only two groups.

The majority and the minority.

If the minority is the responsible party to

bust the quasimormon compounds;

I hope its not because the majority are too dick humbled by

their own parking in the prostitutes of the process less visible.

The children can't be blamed when staking them into the ground like outdoor dogs

Expect "god made the grass green and the ground brown" will last 18 years for appeal?,

It Will not last; So not to expect grounds for beating.

Beatings, rapes, throat slashing, molesting and armed guards

Cemeteries have better public relations.

But the living dead walk anyway, birthed into fear for living away from the cult

Translated: parents who train their children to live in their basement.

The secular world doesn't see how obvious a zombie

conversion from human quasimormon polygamy has attempted.

Mind that Weed produced a better man than mormons did

Mind that Cannabis users are calling on cops right now ,

to pick up the attention toward family values.

A better society than jesus would herd.

A better tangible benefit than praying.

And a more successful relationship with truth than the American Government relating to the risks of tobacco, grounds of foreign war, and monogamy modeled by exemptions with power. There are no forecasts remaining for the will of the individual is the specific determination if human kind puts the next generation before its own libido.

Its about what the book says a religion is, not a man's translation

there's a lot more translation than praying going on

As if anyone worthy to hear a plea of their parish exists

or responsible enough to prevent its own worshippers from hurting each other.

A god so lazy he won't even say

" listen shit for brains, if you allow the elders to impregnate-rape your 10yr daughter in the name of jesus, she's not going to be a willing christian. Her body and mind is not ready for a nurturing task"

I says”

Where's the work schedule, god?

You've been absent and fired a long time ago.

Now it’s a deed of enslavement to the White Race officially.”

I didn't make it up. Its been going on.. now admit

Freedom of religion is not freedom to rewrite a religion..

Lets get that solid.

#It_Takes_An_AmericanStoner_To_Set_A_Nation_Aright

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