#Military Experience in Workforce

[darrenwalleyconsultancy]

Employing a Veteran

Photo by Benjamin Faust I decided to write this article based on the typical behaviour of the new entitled generation or “snowflakes” that are now in the workplace, giving managers like me a hard time. In my current role I am actively employing veterans and demonstrating the terrific benifits. I want to champion the benefits of employing a veteran. To keep things straight, I write this from…

[heirbane]

i think there could be something said re: gaius and his age gap ships but. i'm not educated enough to form a hypothesis

[resurrection-if-game]

re:Surrection is an upcoming interactive fiction game made in choicescript with high stakes slice of life and cyberpunk elements written by username zozopuff

Summary: You’re a bartender at a seedy neon bar on a space station in the not-so distant future of 2141. What the suspicious owner of the bar doesn’t know is that you have a secret – many secrets, really, but the important one would probably be that you’re a government experiment; a corpse brought back to life after an untimely death.

You’ve been sent into the workforce to prove to the researchers back at the facility that you can assimilate into society, resulting in the success of their experiment. They’ve given you a time limit of 30 days. If you can manage not to get fired, end up in jail, or get killed in a bar fight, then you’ll be free! If not, you’ll be another failure and culled.

Oh, and because they fried your brain a little during the reanimation process, you have a proclivity for violence. But you’re sure you’ll be fine. Mostly.

Features:

High stakes slice of life

Play as male, female, or nonbinary

Choose from four different backgrounds: ex-smuggler, ex-military, ex-xenobiologist, ex-salesman – I mean, marketing lead.

Survive 30 days as a bartender in a seedy bar that’s only safe when old Detective Black comes for a drink; and without strangling your shifty coworker (how hard can it be to fry chicken?).

Maybe romance the customer, Wren, (gender selectable) who understands your position quite literally, or what about the scientist who led the project to bring you back to life?

Avoid filling your rage meter and going berserk. Or do.

Each day is slightly randomized so every playthrough would be unique.

The goal is to have a playable demo by the end of May (this is a general shot in the dark) that consists of an introduction and the first 5 days of gameplay. I plan to have a weekly devlog (this helps me keep on track lol). Progress on the demo is: Introduction (finished), Day 1 (~45% finished). I have posted a private playtest of the short introduction to re:Surrection on my patreon under the free membership option if you're interested in seeing how the game is shaping up.

My other work in progress is an adult high fantasy romance adventure game with RPG and dungeon break elements with a workable playtest that you can check out here.

[foldingfittedsheets]

The Daisy story has made me realize I have a piece of advice for my younger followers. When we are in school, those of us who are different, we are often bullied. People are mean to us because of who we are. We patch over those wounds as we go out into the world with our scars.

But when you enter college, the workforce, the military, a food service job, whatever, people are going to be mean to you for an entirely different reason. Not because of who you are but because of what you are. And what you will be is new. New to the team, new to the job.

When you are new to an assimilated group of people working towards a common goal you represent a liability. You are by default not pulling your weight and everyone knows it. You don’t know the rules and the rhythms.

So humans as a collective developed hazing. Across time and cultures people decided to be dicks to newcomers. It’s usually petty suffering inflicted because the core group wants to see what you’re made of. How you’ll handle mishaps and adversity. They need to know if you’re someone they can count on and the fastest way to do that is through aggression.

The biggest mistake you can make in that situation is to automatically assume they’re being mean because of who you are. They might be! People are shitty sometimes! But it’s worth reflection because it’s much more likely that it’s just generalized spite trying to reveal your character. I’m not saying bullying doesn’t happen in work places or that you should put up with people being a dick to you but this is just a phenomena I’ve seen over and over. I’ve been on the receiving end of this in a ton of jobs.

We didn’t dislike Daisy as a person when we pulled our prank. We disliked that we couldn’t count on her. We got yelled at for pizzas that she fucked up, we got yelled at when she was going too slow. We as a team bore the brunt of her ineptitude and so we as a team tried to vent it back to her. Daisy then showed us what she was made of.

What she was made of was just sunshine and buttercups and amazing good temper. We understood then that she needed tasks that weren’t as fast paced but rather customer facing because her positive attitude made up for her lack of hustle.

In my workplace experience food service will almost always haze, retail only sometimes, sales very seldom.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Joyce Vance at Civil Discourse:

Is it really a coup if it doesn’t feel like one? If your day-to-day life hasn’t changed? Can it be a coup if I can still write posts like this? What we’ve seen over the last two weeks and accelerating over the weekend looks like a coup, a hostile, undemocratic takeover of government. Merriam-Webster says a coup is “a sudden decisive exercise of force in politics and especially the violent overthrow or alteration of an existing government by a small group.” No violence so far because this is a coup fueled by tech bros, not the military. But we’re watching the alteration of government happen before our eyes. Historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat calls it “a new kind of coup,” writing in Lucid about Elon Musk’s seeming power sharing with Trump: “And here is where the U.S. 2025 situation starts to look different. The point of personalist rule is to reinforce the strongman. There is only room for one authoritarian leader at the top of the power vertical. Here there are two.” It is unusual, but it is still an effort to use extra-legal, undemocratic practices to radically alter American democracy, undoing the balance of power the Founding Fathers established between the three branches of government by consolidating power in the hands of the presidency as a complacent, Republican-led Congress looks on.

Monday night, Heather Cox Richardson started her nightly column by explaining that if Republicans wanted to do away with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the federal agency the Trump administration suddenly shuttered over the weekend, they could do that legally. Republicans now control the White House and Congress. There is a 6-3 majority of justices appointed by Republican presidents on the Supreme Court. But instead of doing it lawfully, with Congress passing a bill for Donald Trump to sign, Richardson writes, “They are permitting unelected billionaire Elon Musk, whose investment of $290 million in Trump and other Republican candidates in the 2024 election apparently has bought him freedom to run the government, to override Congress and enact whatever his own policies are by rooting around in government agencies and cancelling those programs that he, personally, dislikes.”

Richardson concluded: “The replacement of our constitutional system of government with the whims of an unelected private citizen is a coup. The U.S. president has no authority to cut programs created and funded by Congress, and a private citizen tapped by a president has even less standing to try anything so radical.” So, “coup” is the correct way to label the transformation of government we are living through. But with so much continuing normally, it’s easy to doubt what you’re seeing. Even experiencing it from the perspective of historians who understand this moment through the lens of history, it doesn’t seem quite real.

[...] Why damage the American experiment as we near the celebration of its 250th anniversary? Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy had some thoughts about that as he joined his colleagues outside of USAID’s closed offices on Monday. Suggesting this was not the time to pull punches, he called it a move to benefit the oligarchs who lined the front rows at Trump’s inauguration. “Elon Musk makes billions of dollars based off of his business with China. And China is cheering at [the destruction of USAID]. There is no question that the billionaire class trying to take over our government right now is doing it based on self-interest: their belief that if they can make us weaker in the world, if they can elevate their business partners all around the world, they will gain the benefit.” Senator Murphy also suggested that by closing agencies and cutting back the federal workforce, conservatives could “create the illusion they’re saving money” while they pass giant tax cuts that would benefit “billionaires and corporations.” Sunday night, I called it a coup as well, writing in exasperation that “Musk and his crew of men barely out of their teens haven’t taken an oath to serve, and they are not accountable to the public. They are not a ‘Department’ of anything. They’re a private army that has taken over. Presidents can set up private advisory groups, but they have to function according to the rules, which include transparency. That’s not what’s happening here.” Worse still, there is little reason to believe that what starts in USAID, Treasury, and the FBI won’t continue to spread to other agencies that are in disfavor with Trump and Musk.

This Joyce Vance column lays it all out: Elon Musk’s coup feels like a coup in a lot of senses.

See Also:

The Present Age (Parker Molloy): The Media Is Missing the Story: Elon Musk Is Staging a Coup

Slate: Elon Musk’s Power Grab Is Lawless, Dangerous, and—Yes—a Coup

Tristan Snell: Trump already broke the law 23 times?!

[courtesycalling]

would you happen to have any more headcanons related to octo valley/canyon culture? i’m a very big fan of the way you portray agent 8 and i’m curious about your headcanons for the area that she’s from

Octolings don't experience senescence like ancestral octopuses do, but there's still historically been a high maternal mortality rate for related reasons. Due to this, it's common in many Octo cultures to not be raised by one's own parents. In Octo Valley/Canyon, there is a strongly established and heavily used state foster system. Most of its residents are from parents who were encouraged to prioritize their careers over all else, and the majority of these children are pushed into the military training program. It's statistically likely (though not definite) that Eight was raised here.

Due to long-term birth rate decline, larger & larger amounts of Octarians have been created from limb cuttings to fill out the workforce. The military can't recruit enough women anymore.

Traditional gender roles dictate that women (esp. working class) do physical labor, but it's not necessarily a matriarchal society.

Occupants of the underground Octoling world are fairly diverse in terms of ancestry, but there has been a notable amount of cultural assimilation, especially directly after the end of the war. It's likely that Eight is descended from multiple different groups of Octolings who came from somewhere else originally, and were forced underground a few generations ago. It's also likely that she was raised with no connection to their cultures. If she reconnected to anything, she learned about it from surface-dwellers.

A fair amount of music, dance, fashion, and other artforms on the surface either originated from or were heavily developed by underground-dwelling Octolings. Though this has been especially true recently due to migration, there's always been exchange as things were smuggled across borders.

[8housevenus]

career in astrology

hii everyone, i wanted to talk about where in your birth chart you can see your potential jobs, career, and inflow of money. i will also go over how some of the planets manifest throughout your chart with it.

for starters, you want to look at your midheaven. the sign it is in, and planets you have aspecting it, as well as planets that fall under the 10th house are critically important. your midheaven represents you in the actual work field: 10th house represents the ways we might get there or what specifically speaks to us for our endeavors. check your 2nd house to see viable forms of income, the ways you can attain it, and expectations for your living. 8th house-6th house can also represent work life in terms of 8th (money from others or lended), 6th (work ethic & fixations).

career paths

having aries midheaven, mars in 10th, ascendant trine/conjunct/sextile mars, or mars aspecting the midheaven can make one so driven to have an early start to their career. from personal experience, i know many aries placements that love being successful from an early age. very versatile career options, they love something that they can express their creative style while switching it up as often as can. they can also experience many burn outs and crash outs due to them having more spontaneous bursts of energy rather than consistent prolonged efforts. career paths best for these people would be anything more hands on; military, construction, teacher, social worker, business person, etc. because aries traditionally rules over the head region, these people want to indulge themselves in challenge & help challenge others.

celebrities with aries 10th house: elon musk, franz kafka, angelina jolie, kanye west.

taurus midheaven, venus in 10th, ascendant trine/conjunct /sextile venus, venus aspecting midheaven these people love to make adjustments according to their fashion. they want a career that can show off their etiquette and cleanliness. something about showing themselves off as “perfection” or their arts as perfections makes these people highly intrigued into careers like; cooking/baking, niche businesses, clothing designers, interior designers, artists, singers, and influencers. they have sweet spots for being home made and brought up naturally, they take a while to get to their goals- but they will never lose sight of them.

celebrities with taurus 10th house: jessica alba, blake lively, margot robbie, drake, selena gomez

gemini midheaven, mercury in 10th, ascendant trine/conjunct /sextile mercury, mercury aspecting midheaven would appreciate a lifestyle where they can endlessly express their opinions or concerns on topics. they like having it figured out from a young age. they seem attentive, quick minded, chameleons to the state of the world. they love to communicate everything because they “blend in” so much, they sometimes want to stand out the most. careers that suit these people are; activists/ public speaker, sometimes even temporary jobs resonate better for them, directors, communications, accountant, journalists, authors/illustrators, engineering.

celebrities with gemini in 10th house: kevin hart, brooke shields, kris jenner, madonna.

cancer midheaven, moon in 10th, ascendant trine/conjunct /sextile moon, moon aspecting midheaven makes an individual more emotionally bonded to their careers, they need to do something that coincides with their morals. these people are very receptive in their workforce, willing to give and willing to treat their jobs/careers like it’s their baby. their work really is their life, they want to do careers can genuinely better people; therapist, social worker, nurse, dispatcher, personal assistants, instructors of some field.

celebrities with cancer in 10th house: jimmy carter, leonardo dicaprio, denzel washington, john f kennedy, kendrick lamar.

leo midheaven, sun in 10th, ascendant trine/conjunct/sextile sun, sun aspecting midheaven creates a vibrant person, one who shines through their careers. they must have a career they truly enjoy and can encapsulate their essence. they want to be seen for what they do, and oftentimes they are noticed. they get applause a lot in their jobs, certificates, something where they can make a statement. they would preferably settle in careers that are bold; actors, musicians, public speakers, influencers, athletes.

celebrities with leo in the 10th: janet jackson, katy perry, diego costa, harry styles, diego maradona, lana del rey.

virgo midheaven, mercury in 10th, ascendant trine/conjunct/sextile mercury, mercury aspecting midheaven makes one very peculiar about their field. they like to serve, aid, and assist. many like to do the work that no one else does, it makes them feel productive and extremely useful as they are. usually likes to go for health related, science related, or anything physically related as their careers. this can include; nurse, doctor, surgeon,, scientist, dentistry, athlete, physical therapist. anything where they can contribute to perplexing subjects, they are really drawn to.

celebrities with virgo in 10th house: usian bolt, joe biden, bruce lee, nelson mandela, neymar, thomas edison.

libra midheaven, venus in 10th, ascendant trine/conjunct/sextile venus, venus aspecting midheaven makes a person more inclined to pursue a career with legal systems, politics, anywhere where equity lies. they believe their belief system is their biggest power, their fairness serves as admirability from others, can be very well liked in public space & looked up to. because of the venus influence, they appear very alluring in their careers. seems like naturalists to being effortlessly out there. can also be benefitted from others giving them money simply for little things. careers that libra midheaven can excel in; lawyer, political figure, micro influencer, model, police officer, actress, principals, managers.

celebrities with libra in 10th house: princess diana, ronaldo, kylie jenner, parison hilton, messi, malcolm x.

scorpio midheaven, pluto/mars in 10th, ascendant trine/sextile/conjunct mars or pluto, pluto aspecting ascendant makes an individual go for more darker careers- in the sense that they can dig deep into their and other’s psyche. they want to understand things that are deemed impossible, unsolvable, mysterious. they are drawn in by odds stacked against them. they are motivated by struggle & challenge. one where their path has life & death really coincide. careers that these people are suited for are; detectives, psychologists, analysts for their endeavors, forensic scientist, surgeon, police, psychics.

celebrities with scorpio in 10th: ariana grande, obama, megan fox, nicki minaj, kobe bryant, selena quintanilla, sza.

sagittarius midheaven, jupiter in 10th, ascendant trine/sextile/conjunct jupiter, jupiter aspecting ascendant is somebody who wants to expand in their careers, go further, likely to get a masters or bachelors. education is so important to them, the more they know the better. they love to try new things, new places, meet new people. they can become extremely abundant by their work and want to share some of their wisdom to the world. always want to subliminally teach something. careers for these people that suit them are; pilots, flight attendants, journalist, realtor, religious teacher, priest, social worker.

celebrities with sagittarius in 10th: michael jackson, abraham lincoln, hozier, jenna ortega, deepak chopra, nispey hussle.

capricorn midheaven, saturn in 10th, ascendant trine/sextile/conjunct saturn, saturn aspecting ascendant very determined people, persistent, and resilient to their work. one of the most ambitious to achieve their goals. since they were younger they’ve known that they are destined for making something out of themselves. seen as very serious and intimidating because they feel super protective over their reputation and paths. discipline comes a long way, they might even have to work twice as hard just to be where they are. careers for these people; business owner, corporate, consultant, dentists/surgeons, accountants, financial planners/advisors.

celebrities with capricorn in 10th: rihanna, billie eilish, nikola tesla, jeff bezos, jordan peterson, morgan freeman.

aquarius midheaven, saturn/uranus in 10th, ascendant trine/sextile/conjunct uranus, uranus aspecting ascendant gives one skills and abilities in things that others do not understand or find stressful. aquarius midheaven has a natural interest in difficult areas. they like coming up with different things, extremely innovative and creative. these people leave legacies in their area of interest, inflicting change and making hard things easier to understand is common for them. careers for these people; engineers, computer scientists, activists, mathematicians, -ologists of any kind, designers, transportation, autonomy.

celebrities with aquarius in 10th house: hilary clinton, neil armstrong, amy wine house, jared leto, will smith.

pisces midheaven, neptune in 10th, ascendant trine/conjunct/sextile neptune, neptune aspecting ascendant allows a person to be huge visionaries in their field. they have so many ideas, influx of projects, and they get inspired through absolutely everything. as contemplative as they are, they love leaving their options open. not all those who wander are lost type of vibe. they naturally love to give and it is important that they are at one with their careers. sometimes seems like they are so fit for what they do. it has to be something they feel at peace with or that doesn’t involve too many others; artists, writers, philosophers/psychologists, photographers, spiritualist, architects.

celebrities with pisces in 10th house: lady gaga, adele, van gogh, cher, kamala harris, shakespeare, lebron james.

remember, it is not just your midheaven that represents what you will do in this life, keep in mind of the others things like i stated earlier, also jupiter is very important when we talk about income here. depending on the house it is in will show you how you can attract that money. ex; jupiter in 11h, make money through similar ways an aquarius midheaven might. or they might find that it interests them to go after something that standardly an aquarius midheaven would. 6th house is how we can approach projects. ex; 6th house mars could have an assertive work style, communicative, sharp minded, calculated, determined to duty. 2nd house shows you how you are with money in general, ex; neptune in 2nd can make someone more reckless with spending, giving to others easily, or losing track of budgets. ex,if you have an 8th house mercury persay, you can get money lended a lot by siblings or close relatives, fellow coworkers. (if you have any in particular shoot me a message or comment it down below and i can let you know my inputs on yours).

thank you for reading and like i said if you need any clarification i will be more than happy to clarify!

[morgu3mvp]

Lunnile crumbs!!! These are from back when i did crack or something the hair details were DETAILINGGGGGG

Anyways lore under the cut!!!!

Tw for mentions of death, half-assingly accurate illogical medical procedures and blood (only after the third point), scientific experiments akin to torture (second point and beyond, not explained in depth but still mentioned) you have been warned!!!

What point is this in the timeline?

This is pretty early on in Lunniles life, shes around 14 in these sketches—This is before she met Libitina and before shit hit the fan.

Whats with all the bandages?

The UNRC is bacically hell for orphan Magicis hominibus (Latin for 'Magical people', i changed it to this since its not only magical girls but other genders too!) And Fae—who are all subjected to experiments to try and create a malleable and cheap workforce and military. So Lunnie got a """""little""""" scuffed.

Whats with the collar?

To prevent her and others from going 'rogue'. A 'rogue' subject is a subject that has gone mad and is sick of the torture they are put through, so they get highly aggressive.

How does it work?

The DDP collar (or the Detect Destroy Pacify collar) looks like a regular collar at first glance, but it posses a needle that stabs into the cervical nerves of the subject. This needle is in place to; one—detect any aggression (The needle is a bit too sensitive, so it mistakes anger for aggression. So just being in a pissy mood can get you killed.) And two—serve as an insant method of pacification, since damage to cervical nerves can cause paralysis to certain groups of muscles.

Thats just the needle though! Which does the 'detect' part, what about 'destroy'? Well, see those shard looking things on the fourth image? Those are highly condenced magical energy atoms that take the form of thick, sharp, glass shards. These collars have the ability to pull magical energy straight out of the atmosphere! Magical energy has a similar effect to radiation, so that means that it can take any and all forms of matter (gas, liquid, solid) and like radiation can has long lasting effects to those who are exposed to it for too long.

Anyways, these shards will stab the subject in the neck, taking aim for the carotid arteries which will either cause instant death or the subject to bleed out.

[reading-writing-revolution]

(via The Purge - by Dan Rather and Team Steady - Steady)

Thanks, Republicans. After 36 years of service, this is what I get.

----- One of Trump’s top operatives wants to make government workers miserable. A key Project 2025 author and Trump’s new head of the Office of Management and Budget, Russ Vought has been clear about his ambitions. “We want the bureaucrats to be traumatically affected … We want to put them in trauma.” The man who will likely oversee all federal agencies wants his fellow citizens working for those agencies denigrated and demonized, as well as unemployed. Can you imagine your boss hoping you won’t want to come to work because you’re viewed as a “villain?” Vought used that word. Sounds like the premise for a dystopian novel. But this is all real, all happening right now. The federal government employs more than 2 million people outside of the military. Most of these people are career civil servants who have traditionally kept their jobs regardless of who is in the White House. They are what allows the peaceful transfer of power to occur. Besides the near impossibility of replacing that workforce with each new administration, many of these workers have decades of experience and knowledge that keep the government running smoothly and reduce chances for corruption such as nepotism. Until Trump 2.0. ----- Fuck you if you voted for Trump and decided that my entire career just wasn't living up to your completely uninformed expectations.

[legalkimchi]

Geopolitics is not what you think.

It is interesting to me that how we view issues of global politics and how academics and certain political actors view the issues have such a huge separation.

For instance, when people view the russian invasion of ukraine, they think of a simple power grab, or they don't understand why russia would want to do that.

When i was talking to a friend, who is a geopolitical expert, about the russian war against ukraine, he pulled out a topographical map of europe. Geopolitics is the study of how geography affects politics. it is NOT a general term for international politics.

The easy answer is Russia's need for a warm water port. If you know russia's borders, you would know that all of it's major ports are in the north and they freeze in the winter. They don't have a good port in the black sea that stays unfrozen. Sevastopol is the port in Crimea. While technically Ukrainian territory, it has been controlled by Russia since 2014.

The second point he made was looking at the moutains. See the map above. Then let's look at a map of the warsaw pact

Understanding moutain ranges and how they are defensible, you start to see why NATO and the Warsaw pact involved those specific countries. it creates a natural bottle neck in Germany. This also goes into why Poland gets invaded so much. it is a flat territory without natural boundaries that makes it easy to attack, and if you want your border to be a mountain you have to go through Poland. Without the countries to make up its borders anymore, Russia lacks natural boundaries. Instead of the carpathian mountains, they have simple grassland.

Then you talk to demographers as to why russia is aggressive, you see that since the end of the cold war, russia's death rate has exceeded it's birth rate. this causes a decline in population and a "demographic crisis." the average age in russia is over 40 years old. this stagnation has rippling effects throughout the country. with an older workforce, they don't have a surplus younger generation to pay for the care of the older generation. they are experiencing migration out of the country of individuals with experience and education needed in the country. They are, in short, a nation in panic.

In the international relations field, you see discussions of the lack of political influence. Russia once held a spot as one of two superpowers in the world. a regional giant who's influence shook the way international politics operated. From 1950-1989 there were really only two countries in the world that everyone needed to pay attention to: the Soviet Union and the United States. everyone else was a pawn. There was the First world, the US and her allies, the Second World, the Soviet Union and her allies, and the Third world, the non-aligned nations. (which, by the way, is where that phrase came from. a "third world" country was thought as a country so unimportant, neither the US or USSR cared about you.) in this climate, Russian, who still held what was considered the second most powerful military in the world (though... not so much now) felt they were under appreciated. China was the emerging economic powerhouse.

This is something i went into in my IR video. (as i have an IR background)

What is amazing about all this analysis is that different fields point to different reasons as to why russia invaded. and similar analysis could be done other regions. any conflict can be analyzed in this manner. the disputes in africa are interesting because the easy answer to why there are so many wars in africa is "colonialism." and i think it does make a useful, simplified solution. but it foregoes the other realms of analysis as to why these conflicts are happening.

not sure what made me procrastinate on making a video and writing this out. i needed a break from editing. I hope you found this interesting.

[sudriantraveler]

Rheneas' Return

I’ve been thinking about Rheneas’ return to the Skarloey Railway after his overhaul, and there is a lot to talk about.

First of all, for those who don’t know or maybe just need a reminder, in the RWS Rheneas left the Skarloey Railway for a major overhaul in 1952, having just barely kept the railway running through its darkest hour as its sole working engine since Skarloey was sidelined in 1945.

He was then away from Sodor for 9 years, before finally returning home in 1961.

And he was probably in for a bit of a shock when he returned, because a lot happened in those 9 years.

First of all, the Skarloey Railway was in the middle of a crisis when Rheneas left. Only one engine is operable barely, the track is falling apart, revenue is low to non-existent, and about 90% of the work needed to keep things functioning day-to-day is being done by just two guys.

When Rheneas returns, it's like a completely new railway. Passengers are plentiful, there are new engines and coaches, the railways workforce has grown significantly, and the track actually feels good to run over instead of delivering a sensation of being repeatedly punched in the frames.

The thing is, Rheneas is still on some level probably going to be operating in crisis mode, because that’s all he’s known since about the beginning of the 1930s.

He insists on taking much more work than the other engines. Partly because he enjoy his work and is extremely happy to be home again, but mainly because he’s been having nightmares for the last few years about returning to nothing, and the fact that the railway still exists let alone that it’s actually thriving, is something which he’s having to constantly remind himself is not just a dream.

Then there’s all of the new stuff.

Before Rheneas left it was just him, Skarloey, the four old coaches and the one guard’s van, the numerous trucks, and a modestly sized workforce who Rheneas knew all of the names of. That was it since the railway began in 1865, the only exception being during WW2 when the war department briefly came in with a few of their own engines.

Now though, there are four new engines, several new coaches, and someone’s coming to light Rheneas’ fire in the morning who isn’t Mr. Hugh (keep in mind that in Rheneas' previous experience this usually meant the regular firelighter had either retired or died).

Also apparently the old slate quarry has been entirely taken over by the military and is now completely off limits, and there’s a big metal fence and a bunch of scary looking signs at the entrance, and frankly the whole situation up there just makes Rheneas feel really uneasy.

Needless to say, it takes something of an adjustment period for Rheneas to get used to everything.

I particularly want to talk about Rheneas early dynamic with the new engines, one in particular. You’ll know who when I get there.

To start with, Rheneas at least saw Sir Handel and Peter Sam before he left, so he at least knows they’re on the railway before he returns.

The thing is, his first impression of them was probably the same as Skarloey’s: Peter Sam is excitable and maybe a bit too overeager for his own good, and Sir Handel is bad tempered and takes his anger out on everything around him.

Rheneas probably breathed a sigh of relief when he saw they hadn’t burned the place down in his absence.

After Rheneas returns from overhaul he adjusts to the two former Mid Sodor engines well enough.

Sir Handel is still bad tempered, but he also still does his work regardless of how much he grumbles about it. Plus Peter Sam keeps insisting that Sir Handel does indeed mean well and is just having a hard time adjusting, and given the occasional details the two of them just casually drop about life on the Mid Sodor, Skarloey and Rheneas are inclined to give both of them plenty of time to adjust.

Peter Sam is still very energetic but Rheneas also sees that he’s clearly a hard worker, and the fact that the coaches adore him also helps to make him look pretty good in Rheneas’ eyes.

Rheneas immediately takes a liking to Rusty for much the same reason Skarloey did. They’re hardworking, kind, and their work repairing and maintaining the line makes them seem to the two old engines like an angel sent down by Lady herself.

I fully believe that after years of nothing but bent rails and rotted sleepers, running over an actually good permanent way for the first time after overhaul must have felt like a religious experience to Skarloey and Rheneas.

And then there’s Duncan.

Duncan, as he will happily admit himself, is a plain blunt engine who will rock and roll, and who speaks as he finds.

Sure, he means well, and he’ll pull just about anything… But Rheneas hears the story of him stopping on the viaduct, and is immediately wary of Duncan.

It doesn’t help that, having had the serious responsibility of being the only working engine on the line for an extended period of time, Rheneas has a bit of complex about doing everything himself and see’s anything that happens on the railway as, at least partially, his responsibility.

So Duncan just fully blowing off his responsibility to his passengers and stopping in the middle of the line, something which Rheneas did only once and very much against his best efforts, just feels like a personal insult to Rheneas.

It doesn’t quite register with him that Skarloey has already given Duncan the whole lecture on why that was stupid and how passengers are important.

And Duncan has improved since then. He acknowledges the importance of looking after his passengers and knows to at least keep his complaints out of earshot of them.

The thing is, Duncan is still a plain blunt engine, and passenger etiquette does not come naturally to him. But he’s trying, and quite frankly some of the passengers' complaints just seem ridiculous to him. So what if he rocks and rolls a bit? That's just how he is, and he still gets them to the station on time… usually.

But when Rheneas hears Duncan one night in the shed complaining about a particularly rough journey where there were significant delays and the passengers were really pushing his limits, Rheneas decides that Duncan still hasn’t learned their ways.

Rheneas may also be having a bit of a crisis of questioning just how much the railway still needs him with all of the new engines who are also there now. And what better way to reassure himself that he's still needed than to position himself as a mentor figure.

Duncan, for his part, does in fact respect Rheneas since Skarloey told him how he had saved the railway, and he wants to get along with the guy…

But that becomes increasingly difficult to do when Duncan keep having moments where he’s shunting the yard, minding his own business and doing a pretty alright job… and then he look towards the sheds and see Rheneas watching him like a hawk, looking for any sign that he’s about to mess up somehow.

And on the occasions that Duncan does mess up, however slight, Rheneas is very quick to give his input on what he did wrong and how the whole situation could have been avoided.

Skarloey may be stern, but he at least acknowledges that Duncan is trying his best, and gives him credit when he does well. He at least gives Duncan the respect of treating him like a capable engine.

So Duncan gets along fine with Skarloey… But Rheneas?

Respect him and his efforts to keep the railway running… Sure.

Actually get along with him… Not so much.

This pretty much sums up the dynamic between the two of them.

Until one day…

Duncan is taking the morning train, and one passenger in particular is just being a complete pain in the ass. It’s not just Duncan who’s fed up with him by the time they leave the station, this guy is getting on everyone’s nerves.

But Duncan puts forward his best effort, and maintains his professionalism.

But the guy keeps being a jerk throughout the entire run up the line. Anything goes slightly wrong, and he’s making his grievances known.

Duncan is glad when he doesn’t see him on the platform when he begins the journey back down the line, the man having decided to hike one of the various trails around Skarloey Lake.

When he gets back to Crovan’s Gate, Duncan immediately rolls off to the sheds and starts venting to whoever will listen about the angry passenger.

And right on cue, Rheneas begins his lecture.

Duncan, by this point, has been having a really bad day, and is quite frankly beyond his normal limits. So he just says “Alright then… You know how to deal with passengers, you take the afternoon train”.

So Rheneas does, and all goes well on the up journey. But then he finds Duncan’s passenger at the top station, who is apparently furious that Duncan’s train didn’t wait for him as he went wandering around the lake.

Rheneas tries to point out, very calmly, that there are schedules posted very clearly at every station building, but the man doesn’t listen.

Ok… This is fine.

Rheneas has dealt with his fair share of difficult passengers before, all of them with grace. He can handle this one.

But the journey back down the line doesn’t go smoothly, and all the while the angry passenger is becoming more and more unbearable.

And then, between Glennock and Cros-ny-Cuirn, Rheneas derails.

It wasn’t a particularly bad derailment, and it wasn’t his fault. Just a bad joint in the rails which Rusty and Mr Hugh hadn’t had the chance to fix on their last maintenance run, and which had been worsened by the last few times a train had run over it.

Naturally, the angry passenger is complaining more than ever now, and Rheneas is feeling rather defeated.

It’s Duncan who comes to rescue the train, and Rheneas is surprised but very grateful for the fact that he doesn’t say anything as Rheneas is leavered back onto the rails.

It’s a pretty speedy rerailing too.

Duncan is coupled on infront and the two engines double-head the train the rest of the way home. They get there with no further issues, and most of the passengers are just happy the derailment was sorted out quickly and efficiently, and that they were still able to catch the connecting train.

All except one.

The angry passenger is now just being insulting. Everyone is tired and unhappy, and now they still have to deal with him ranting about what a bad railway this is.

And then Duncan just snaps.

Rheneas never thought he would be happy to hear someone cursing out a passenger…

But Duncan’s tirade in Rheneas’, his own, and the railways defense, is just about the most cathartic thing he’s ever experienced.

Duncan only fully stops after the Thin Controller gets involved, denies the passenger a refund, and watches him storm off out of the station to catch a bus (he had spent so long arguing he had missed the connecting train).

After that, and with one final uttering of good riddance, the two engines shunt the coaches away and go to the sheds for a well deserved rest.

Rheneas see’s Duncan in a new light after that. He still often disagrees with his more grumpy and blunt approach, but he’s finally giving Duncan some space to make mistakes without needless criticism.

Rheneas still insists on the importance of passengers, and treats all of them with respect and high regard…

But he and Duncan have come to an agreement that some of them are just nuisances.

[xshingie]

Excerpts from "Rituals, Runaways, and the Haitian Revolution Collective Action in the African Diaspora" by Crystal Nicole Eddins

Personal Commentary:

Through examining demographic statistics, as well as stuffed full of documented anecdotal events, it paints a vivid portrait and diverse portraits for how escaped slaves had to leverage ingenuity, and creativity to be able to survive.

This book was also extremely insightful to peer into what it might have been like to live in Cap-Francais at the time, especially what a escaped runaway might have lived or how they might have lived in order to avoid detection.

This book also illuminates how different the experience was for men vs women and what unique roles they might have played in shaping the demographics of Le Cap, as well as on the plantation.

I showcase some of the demographics data in this post here.

Demographics, and Skillsets

Men over the age of 16 were the majority of runaways, accounting for nearly 80 percent (or 10,000) of the 12,857 individuals from newspaper runaway advertisements sampled from 1770 - 1790.

Men were also more likely to occupy artisanal labor positions that allowed them a certain amount of latitude during the workday. Skills like coopers, carpenters, shoemakers, fishermen, and other artisans ran errands, apprenticed and were leased by their owner to other plantations, or hired themselves out to earn their own money.

Enslaved African women in Saint-Domingue were overrepresented as field workers and performed the most physically taxing jobs.

While creole and mixed-race enslaved women were likely to be artisanal laborers or were found in the domestic sphere, most Africa born women were under strict surveillance throughout the workday and therefore did not have as much flexibility to travel beyond the plantation.

There is a disproportionately low number of women reflected in the runaway advertisements, with women representing only 14.45 percent or 1,800 out of 12,857.

Children: Plantation inventories show that boys tended to begin work around age eight, tending animals, working as domestics, or working in the field. Girls worked as nurses, domestics, and field hands. Moreau de Saint-Méry observed that creole girls tended to have children at an early age, as young as 11 or 13, which temporarily delayed their entry into the workforce until after their first child was born.

When African women’s children fathered by African or creole men were born in the colony, the children were called creole nègres, or blacks, When an African or creole woman’s child was a product of coerced sexual encounters with white men, the children were born bi-racial mulâtres. If a creole black woman had a child with a mulâtre, then the child was a two-thirds black griffe. Less common were quarterons, those who were one-quarter black.

Methods of Obtaining Freedom: Though a relatively rare occurrence, enslaved creoles could purchase manumission with their labor, and men could join the military and maréchaussée fugitive slave police. Duty in the armed forces was a way for colonial authorities to coopt marronnage, creating an option for legal emancipation. Similarly, mixed-race people described as mulâtres, griffes, and quarterons were few in number among runaways, since as a group they were more likely to be gens du couleur libres rather than enslaved. However, these findings nuance understandings of Saint-Domingue’s free population of color by demonstrating that not all mixed-race people were privileged by their white fathers’ wealth.

Continent-born Africans comprised approximately 62 percent of the runaway population and well over half of these were West Central Africans, which corroborates other historical data that indicate they were the majority regional group in late eighteenth-century Saint-Domingue.

An important part of the knowledge shared among the submerged networks of runaways was where one could hide once leaving the plantation. Sunday markets in the major towns like Cap Français were opportunities for blacks – free, enslaved, and runaways alike – to converge and interact, buying and selling food, exchanging services, and sharing information about issues pertinent to their lives, such as achieving freedom.

Skills and mobility: Most enslaved Africans and African descendants performed hard labor in the fields of sugar, coffee, and indigo plantations – tilling land, cutting cane, tending to animals, etc. However, larger-scale operations, especially sugar plantations, had a wider array of specialized tasks and positions that men mostly occupied, allowing them more daily flexibility than field hands. Select few were artisanal trade laborers or otherwise domestic workers who performed tasks that were specialized, which often allowed them to travel beyond their immediate plantation to run errands, or at times even learn to read and/or write a European language. Seamstresses, midwives, fishermen, hairdressers, shoemakers, carpenters, valets, coopers, sugar boilers, coaches, and commandeurs were just a few of occupationsthat were considered to have a higher rank in the enslaved labor force.

Enslaved artisanal bondspeople in more populated urban areas had contact with people of varying walks of life. Women tended to be seamstresses, hairdressers, and vendors. Merancienne, a creole woman from Martinique, was a seamstress and laundress who fled Le Cap in September of 1767, and was last seen selling eggs and poultry. Another female vendor was 18-year-old Isidore of Kongo, who sold herbs and flowers on the streets of Le Cap and escaped repeatedly in 1770 and 1772. Baptiste, a creole man, was both a hairdresser and a violin player who wore a blue vest and black culottes

Escape and Freedom, and Living Life as an Runaway in Cap Francais (Le Cap)

Free people of color provided refuge to runaways as well, although they risked losing their freedom for doing so. The neighborhood of Petit Guinée in Cap Français was a regular destination for runaways to find housing, lease themselves out for pay, and blend in with the growing population of free people of color. While many free people of color were wealthy slave owners themselves, manumitted slaves of the affranchi class maintained biological and social ties to enslaved people and at times offered them shelter, food, clothing, or work. In June 1786, colonial authorities flogged and hanged a group of maroons, enslaved people, and free blacks accused of theft in the public square of Le Cap; they whipped and sentenced others to the chain gang for forging free passes and renting rooms from a freeman named Larose.

One way runaways reimagined their status and identity was by passing as free. Before retreating from plantations, some runaways who could read or write in French or other European languages – a form of human capital that was valued in the Americas – replicated documents to declare themselves free.

Methods of Disguising or Passing as Free: Others found “fancy” clothing or otherwise disguised themselves to be considered as part of the population of free people of color. intentionality through strategic decision-making and conscious intentions to create lasting change for themselves. They appropriated material goods and technologies through looting horses, mules, or canoes to reach their chosen hideout quickly, or they took money, clothing, or food to consume or to exchange at a market.

The Value of Markets in Exchanging Information and Network of Connections

Le Cap was a rowdy city of 20,000, patrolled by fewer than 20 police officers – leading to the 1785 Chamber of Agriculture report about calendas and other gatherings of slaves.

Not only was enslaved labor exploited for no compensation, enslaved people were prohibited from financially benefitting from other types of economic activity such as trading food, sugarcane, or other commodities.

To counter being dispossessed of any economic autonomy, maroons gravitated to cities and town markets to participate in “market marronnage”. Enslaved people in the areas surrounding Cap Français were exposed to many of the luxuries available in the city, which attracted people from all walks of life, especially during the weekend markets. Urban slaves, African, and mixed-race individuals alike purchased their own freedom and in some instances went on to own businesses and real estate.

The Petit Guinée (“Little Africa”) neighborhood was composed of gens du couleur and affranchis and was a magnet for runaways, enabling them to socialize and rent rooms as they re-fashioned their lives as free people. During a search of Petit Guinée in the early 1780s, police found over 200 runaways.

The complex strata of race, color, status, and class in Le Cap made these kinds of informal economic activities possible. The population density of the city and the ongoing interactions between enslaved people, free people of color, and runaways facilitated connections between them to circumvent colonial structures through rebellions, conspiracies, and other forms of resistance. Both enslaved people and maroons took part in informal trading of wares and illicit expropriation of resources to bolster a sense of economic independence and freedom.

Atlhough Le Cap was the most popular, Neighborhoods like Haut-du-Cap, Providence, Petit-Carenage, and Petite-Guinée or “Little Guinea,” a section of town with a significant enslaved and free black population, appear frequently in the Les Affiches advertisements as suspected havens for runaways living in Le Cap.

Unlike enslaved men who traveled as valets, fishermen, or carpenters, women often did not venture beyond plantations for work-related tasks. Women were not as familiar with the colony’s landscape, in part accounting for their lower numbers as maroons. Instead, some women maroons fled into urban areas where they could participate in formal and informal commercial activities as “market maroons.” They bought and sold provisions, goods, and services, which allowed them economic autonomy and “their own insurgent geographies, fashioning an infrastructure of black freedom . . . where they took up public space, created networks, and forged community.”

Free women of color were already known as entrepreneurs in Port-au-Prince and especially in Le Cap; that maroon women sought to assimilate into these social, geographic and economic spaces “was an open challenge to the racialized and gendered logics of slavery” that mandated enslaved women exclusively perform agricultural and reproductive labor. For example, Marianne, a 23-year-old mixed-race woman, was well known as a vendor at the Le Cap market selling fish, herbs, milk, and fruit. An unnamed Mina woman was often seen around the plantations of Haut-du-Cap selling bread

Code Noir and Regulations of Behavior for Daily Life of Enslaved

In Saint-Domingue and other French colonies, the Code Noir outlined royal dictates for enslaved people’s behavior and the status of their condition.

The Code Noir articulated the economic, social, and political apparatuses that bolstered the subjugation and enslavement of African people while justifying the brute force violence of the colonial plantation enterprise.

Though the Code Noir was in part written with the intention to “protect” the enslaved with guidelines for punishments, enslavers in Saint-Domingue generally disregarded top-down policies from the French crown and exerted physical punishments that exceeded regulations issued by the king.

The Code Noir implemented strict rules that were designed to constrain black people’s everyday behaviors and movements, with the assumption that access to freedom of movement, time, material resources and forms of capital, political power, and the ability to bear arms would contribute to rebellion.

The Code Noir barred enslaved people from congregating with others from different plantations for any purpose without the written permission of their owner, riding horses, or walking on the roads after dark; it prohibited them from carrying weapons in public, and in the aftermath of the Mackandal case, any enslaved person carrying a sword or a machete could face three months in prison.

According to Articles XVIII, XIX, and XXIV of the Code Noir, the enslaved could not sell any sugarcane under any circumstances, could not profit from the sale of commodities or foodstuffs at markets without the slave owner’s permission, and were not allowed to earn income for the trade of subsistence food on their days off.

Slaves belonging to different owners could not congregate for any reason lest they face the whip as a minimum punishment or death at most, since frequent violations would constitute grand marronnage. Owners were prevented from allowing assemblies of slaves and would be fined if held in violation.

The Code Noir’s limitations on enslaved people’s physical movement were also linked to disempowering them economically: slaves were not supposed hold marché de nègres or nègre markets and could not sell sugarcane, fruit, vegetables, firewood, herbs, or any other type of commodity. Their goods could be confiscated and returned to their owner unless they had a ticket from that owner. But given the overwhelming population of Africans and African descendants in Saint-Domingue, these rules were not always upheld or were outright ignored. For example, the marché de nègres were prominent features of city life in both Port-au-Prince and Cap Français. As discussed in Chapter 3, enslaved people were known to congregate in churches, at burial grounds, or on the outskirts of plantations to perform their sacred rituals and other cultural practices.

BEARING ARMS

Enslaved people were barred from carrying weapons in the colony but did so routinely, for instance, carrying mayombo fighting sticks at calenda ritual gatherings or when they were attempting to free themselves. They used work tools such as machetes and sickles, or stole pistols, hunting rifles, and swords

Africans used swords, battleaxes, spears, firearms like muskets, and poison-laced arrows in their fighting styles and would have made effective use of available tools and weapons as maroons and rebels. Sixty-four absconders, mostly Africans and other Atlantic creoles, prepared themselves by illegally carrying some sort of weapon like a gun or a machete, and were considered armed and dangerous.

They empowered themselves with militant actions by bearing arms such as guns, sabers, sickles, and other work tools as they prepared to endure the high-risk action of living in marronnage.

SHIFTING LANDSCAPE OF MAROONAGE POST 1750

Letters sent in 1775 described marronnage as a pervasive problem that had the capacity to undo the colony; one contributing factor cited was the dense, nearly impenetrable mountain ranges into which the maréchaussée and other hunters attempted and often failed to pursue fugitives.

Though Saint-Domingue’s mountains were increasingly occupied by coffee plantations by the mid-eighteenth century, maroons were adept to finding locations that were isolated and difficult to access enough to avoid capture. West Central African runaways especially would have been inclined to turn to the mountains, since the highlands north and south of the Congo River were more densely populated due to the hospitable climate for farming and fishing.

Colonialism also spatialized slavery itself, in that the institution of racialized forced labor was intended to exist singularly in the colonies, not the French mainland. France was thought to have been an entirely free nation regardless of one’s racial identity.

However, even this belief was challenged when in 1777 free people of color from the colonies were banned from entering the home country and claiming citizenship.

Generally speaking, France was a geographical space meant for free whites, and Saint-Domingue was a space designated for enslaved blacks.

By the end of the eighteenth century, the spread of sugar increasingly dominated Saint-Domingue’s landscape in the lowlands and valleys, and coffee plantations in the mountainous highlands.

In 1789, there were nearly 800 sugar plantations, over 3,000 coffee plantations, over 3,000 indigo plantations, and nearly 800 cotton plantations. Sugar plantation sizes were quite large and could cover between 580 and over 900 acres of land. But while sugar was produced in the plains, and the plantation presence expanded horizontally, coffee plantations in the mountains added a vertical dimension to sites of oppression. The looming presence of these plantations and the maréchaussée fugitive slave police operated in a panopticon-like fashion where enslaved people were under seemingly constant surveillance.

In the early eighteenth century, the mountainous towns east of Le Cap were renowned for the threatening presence of armed maroon bands who were known to rob and kill whites and attack plantations.

Another example of maroons’ usage of rival geography included their contentious occupation of mountainous zones that sat along the Saint-Domingue–Santo Domingo border, and their entanglement in geopolitical fights between the French and Spanish. After several decades of fighting, the Spanish finally ceded Saint-Domingue to the French in 1697 with the Treaty of Ryswick and maintained rulership over the island’s eastern two-thirds—the colony of Santo Domingo. Yet the agreement did little to quell rivalry between the French and Spanish crowns, nor struggles over property ownership at the border itself. These localized spats were reflections of inter-imperial competition for control and dominance over the slave trade, the enslaved, sugar production, and territory. For over a century, beginning in the late 1600s, enslaved Africans and maroons leveraged the conflict between the French and the Spanish to their benefit, turning on one empire or the other until the boundary between Saint-Domingue and Santo Domingo was finalized with the 1777 Treaty of Aranjuez.

[witchofthesouls]

So, uh, this little memory just suddenly popped up out of no where and I figured it would serve as good(?) ‘world-building’ material.

So, when I was in my private all-girls Catholic high school (that’s how you know it’s going to be a good story) girls would soak their tampons with vodka to get drunk. Some where more successful than others, but some where also less fortunate when their near fatal encounter of alcohol poisoning and nasty-ass vaginal infections where known throughout school.

My question is; do cybertronians have a similar method of madness like the vodka tampons?

And my second question; did Cybertronian’s have their own version of an all girls catholic school? And if they do, what kind of crazy shit went on there?

I can tell you so much about the crazy shit that went on there; the illegal gambling ring, the bi-curious and lesbi-curious girls who were convinced that they liked/loved another girl and stalked the poor girl, some of the shady male teachers, the secret LGBTQ+ club (which was actually kind of wholesome and I was apart of), the bullying (sweet Jesus was there a lot of bullying and harassment), some nuns were Grade A+ assholes who would wack our hands with rulers and have affairs with some of the male teachers, and there’s was a…uh,…secret orgy/cunnilingus club too.

It was the nineties, what would you expect?

Oh wow. I heard of things in private, religious schools from a friend, but hot damn that's wild!

I did go to a religious university. They had a weekly chapel where classes were suspended and all students were required to attend. I did start a tiny alcohol ring in the dorms. Nothing nefarious or crazy binging, just enough in plastic bottles to use in cooking or sipping for a secret meat meal in the rooms. I came from a time when weed was still illegal, but damn I never thought it would prepare me for smuggling meats into a strictly vegetarian campus.

So going back to the questions:

Cybertronians do have alcoholic goodies for popular sex play. Unlike humans, their reproductive system is a closed loop circulatory-wise, and they don't need to worry about poisoning themselves. But for an experience similar to humans doing stupid things for that drunk-high is the equivalent of a wine enema into their afts. That's because their "asshole" is actually a medical port that has components connected to their pelvis structures; meaning, they can get off really well with that alcoholic enema. Yeah, you don't need to be an expert in alien biology to understand that pouring drugs into a hole that's connected to your nervous system can be a stupid bad idea.

Get ready for a lot of worldbuilding:

Education on Cybertronian is severely restricted to caste due to edicts based on Functionism where frame dictates function in society. Some city-states like Vos and Tarn get away with public schooling by citing it as a necessity component of their citizenship and to the benefit of Cybertron as a whole. Vos stylizes their system as a military academy since Seekers are typically slotted into such hierarchies and citizens are drafted into the Air Force during wartime; whereas Tarn is famous for its factories and mines. Sparkling armature is too fragile for the unstable environment, so keeps the workforce much more docile that the bits too big for the holds are kept away and provides leverage as a union-busting technique. Accidents happen.

There are the old traditions of apprenticeships and mentorships for mecha that catch the attention of a well-established professional. Each decade, the number dwindles as more fees are added such practices, such as "alt-mode exemption for education" and "Form Ed-98A-3432d: Exemption to mentor a student two castes below."

Higher education typically functions as private entities with very high-stakes testing. If a student fails to pass progress exams to move to the next module, then it's game over. There's no retakes or repeats or any sort of second chance. They're permanently expelled from completing education within the city-state.

Because of this, coercion is a common phenomenon, especially to snap up specific connections or talented individuals under the school's domains or their related patrons. Skill was the means of trade among the faculty and students as well as the ability to cultivate it. Money could be both everything and nothing within these facilities; it was as meaningful as the parties in agreement made it. This was a strange world compared to what was outside the walls as it blended all the castes and frames and cultures and reduced it to what a person could bring to a table via their own hands or their future. Make no mistake, it wasn't a utopia. It was a cutthroat arena with deep tensions that were mitigated by the faculty and student council as they all battle to polish diamonds from the rough, force people into cohorts, and seal alliances. If done right, a low-caste sponsered can be taken care of for the rest of their lives or die back on the streets with nothing.

Ratchet managed to get away with his old clinic doing illegal free services by utilizing this strange culture. The relationships he cultivated with his old mentor's ties into their own university as well as Ratchet’s own ties via teaching will cover his tracks and provide some funding as long as he takes in "chosen" medical apprentices to train in such conditions and documents the long-term effects of poverty at those sunless levels. Ratchet was only able to trace a few of his benefactors in his project, Senator Shockwave and Counciler Alpha Trion.

Because it was a different world with so much on and off the books, the really secretive clubs would be the "heretics" with worship to certain Primes, Titans, or Unicron, sex clubs that cater to xeno-related kinks, and those with dysmorphic frames, either by force or assigned (cold construction, lab-grown sentio metallico, or noncon frame overhaul), trying to find themselves without anything set on legal paperwork.

(Knockout took advantage of that.)

[mariacallous]

Over the past two years, more than 20 states have expanded access to state jobs through a simple move: assessing or removing bachelor’s degree requirements. With state, local, and federal governments employing 15% of the U.S. workforce, these actions are of enormous consequence, especially for “STARs,” or workers who are skilled through alternative routes. STARs—who have gained their skills through community college, the military, partial college, certification programs, and, most commonly, on-the-job training—represent over half of the nation’s workforce, and currently occupy approximately 2 million state jobs.

Government leaders see removing bachelor’s degree requirements as critical to meeting their hiring needs and public service delivery obligations. And at a time when states are struggling to fill a high number of open roles, removing these requirements can attract a larger pool of talent.

Many states already have laws or policies that forbid discrimination based on educational attainment. But in practice, hiring patterns have favored degrees, and the composition of the state workforce reflects this. While they comprise half of the workforce, STARs fill only 36% of state jobs—representing a gap of 1 million good state jobs for STARs nationwide.1 The explicit commitment to removing degree requirements is a signal to STARs that they are welcome to apply.

Further, these actions are meant to build a state workforce that reflects the community it serves. Historically, government employment has been used to improve economic equity, providing increased economic opportunities for members of historically disadvantaged groups (notably women and Black workers). In recent decades, however, the bias toward credentialing has resulted in the inadvertent exclusion of STARs, with disproportionate consequences. When a bachelor’s degree is required for a position, employers automatically screen out almost 80% of Latino or Hispanic workers and nearly 70% of Black, veteran, and rural workers. Increased STAR hiring will help correct this inequity.

It is still too early to measure the impact of these changes on hiring behavior, as it will take time while hiring numbers slowly accumulate through job turnover and new positions. Yet we can already see signs that the effort is bearing fruit. In the first quarter of this year, more than 20 states made a yearlong commitment to focus on skills-based hiring through the National Governors Association’s Skills in the States Community of Practice. As one of the lead partners, our organization—Opportunity@Work—supports states through peer learning to prepare and make action plans for the organizational changes needed to implement skills-based practices, which will ultimately improve hiring and advancement outcomes for STARs.

We also see changes in state job postings. We analyzed two years of data on jobs that paid over the national median wage and were posted by all the states that took action to remove degree requirements by April 2023.2 Our findings show that in the 12 months prior to these state actions, 51.1% of roles explicitly listed a bachelor’s degree as a requirement. In the 12 months following, that percentage fell to 41.8%—a nearly 10-point shift. The largest shifts occurred in job postings for roles in management, IT, administration, and human resources—all occupations in which STARs have been underrepresented in the public sector compared to the private sector. For example, in state governments, 69% of general and operations managers hold a bachelor’s degree, while only 45% do in the private sector.3

State leaders view these actions as a critical first step. “We are creating opportunities for everyone, not just those with higher education,” said Melissa Walker of the Colorado Department of Personnel and Administration. “We want to draw on all kinds of experience.” Colorado has pragmatically focused on policy implementation and behavior change; in addition to updates to agency rules and regulations, its executive order focused on a transition to skills-based hiring as the norm for Colorado human resources, including funding for the training of hiring managers and development of a skills-based hiring toolkit. The state’s Department of Personnel and Administration is providing training and resources for human resources teams across state agencies, enabling each to make the necessary changes in their processes and procedures. Resources include a new job description template designed to identify skills—a simple tool that promotes skills-first thinking and behavior change at the hiring manager level.

Culture and systems change both take time. Adjusting common processes and procedures—as well as attitudes and behavior—is challenging, especially in a large, decentralized state government. Yet more than 20 states have begun this hard work. This month, bolstered by these early successes, Opportunity@Work is proud to launch the STARs Public Sector Hub to support these states and others on their skills-based journeys and build the public workforce to meet this moment.

[the-pink-baphomet1861]

any alfred ashford headcanons?

Wow, ok omg someone finally asked. Buckle up time for the insane ramblings of a mad creature with absolutely too much time on their hands. (Sorry it took so long, you know how it can be sometimes.)

Even though he and Alexia had their education start as soon as possible for them, there was a rather short time where they were on about the same level, and Alfred delighted in talking to her about what they were learning. 

Despite not being as smart as Alexia, he still did quite well educationally and managed to graduate university at 21. He did study a lot about biology and chemistry to emulate Alexia, but his favorite classes were actually history, specifically warfare, and social studies. He even did a little creative writing on the side

He’s just as useless as Alexia in the kitchen, however, due to being equally reliant on servants to do it for him. Although he might be slightly better as he’s had more time growing up and living instead of being stuck in a pod for his teenage years

When Alexia was busy studying and Alfred was left with nothing to do, he took to wandering the halls and looking at all the artwork and decorations in the base. He especially liked to stare at the paintings of his ancestors and hearing about their accomplishments, although he eventually grew to resent Veronica specifically due to his father heaping praise on her.

Alfred is a deeply repressed gay man. Ever since he was a child he was told than even feeling heterosexual feelings were a disgusting and immoral thing that only the lower classes fell victim to, so he’s buried his “abnormal” desires deep, to the point where any slight suggestion of these feelings would send him into a frothing rage.

His relationship with Alexander was always tumultuous. At best Alexander was cold and distant, and at worst he was downright hostile towards Alfred, Alexander was just too focused on his goals to ever view him as anything more than a byproduct of the experiment. Eventually Alfred gave up on trying to have a relationship with him and focused solely on Alexia 

Speaking of which, his relationship with her was always something important to him, even when he was just a baby, and it only got more intense as he grew older, to the point that his entire self perception in wrapped up with her. I’m not a huge fan of incest, so I see it more as incredibly bad codependency than anything romantic or sexual.

After Alexia graduated from high school and moved on to university, Alexander thought that it would be a good idea to send Alfred to a boarding school to improve his education. This was a terrible idea. Alfred was incredibly bratty and disobedient towards the teachers and quite antisocial and rude towards the other students. He believed that this was a waste of his time and resented that he was being kept from Alexia. This culminated in his second term where he beat another student bloody for insulting Alexia, Alexander wisely decided to have him privately tutored after that.

When Alexia was working at the Antarctic base as head researcher, Alfred liked to accompany her and help wherever he could, although it really wasn’t all that much help most of the time.

The discovery of their origins caused Alfred to have a huge identity crisis about who he was, why he’d been the failure and if he was even really human. Eventually he settled into the mindset that he was an inferior version of Alexia, and that the only purpose he would have was serving her and her desires. Any hope of Alfred finding a place among others and building other relationships died that day.

After Alexia froze herself, Alfred was appointed as the head of Umbrella’s newest base on Rockfort island, mostly to get him out of the way (real smart, putting a grieving twelve year old in charge of a large military complex). The palace and private residence were both built under his orders using the prisoners as a workforce, and most of his money was spent on his decorations and collections.

His whole situation with the false Alexia was born from his deep feelings of isolation and loneliness, the only person who ever cared about him as a person was gone and he couldn’t form relationships with the other people on Rockfort, so his mind created another version of Alexia to serve as a companion.

This other Alexia is a lot colder towards him personality wise, reflecting his insecurities about not being able to uphold the family name and make Alexia proud of him, and constantly criticizes him for any perceived failures. She is physically represented by a wooden mannequin Alfred keeps in the residence, with Alfred only dressing as her when she needs to get up and do stuff. (I’m not a mental health expert, this is just a dumb headcanon. So take it with a grain of salt.)

Alfred was also in charge of the Antarctic facility, but just because it was his family estate and he inherited it after Alexander’s death.

His mental state slowly deteriorated further and further as the fifteen years went by, to the point that he even forgot about his role to wake up Alexia, believing that she was still with him. So ironically, the attack on Rockfort and Steve and Claire’s escape was the thing that got him back on track.

After falling down the pit, his only thoughts were about Alexia. He believed that she would save him and make everything better, but by the time he had arrived, his body was too damaged to keep going. Both of his legs were completely broken after the fall, he had several puncture wounds in his abdomen and a piece of his ribs had pierced his heart. So the only thing Alexia could do was put him in the cryostasis tube to prepare him for infection with the T-Veronica virus. (This is also once again a request to go look at my art blog.)

Alfred owned a bedazzler gun as a child and once covered half the mansion in tiny plastic gemstones. Alexia was somewhat amused by this incident (and still brings it up from time to time). Alexander was not.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Olivia Troye at Olivia Of Troye Unfiltered:

While Trump's tariffs hammer the economy and dominate the headlines, rightfully capturing attention as Americans watch their 401ks drop, something perilous quietly unfolded in the shadows. A significant shift in the national security apparatus occurred that barely made a blip.  It hardly registered in the mainstream news cycle late last week when General Timothy Haugh was ignominiously removed as dual-hatted Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and Commander of U.S. Cyber Command. Perhaps in the chaos of Trump 2.0, another outstanding leader being ousted is just business as usual. For the ones that did mention it, they pointed out that the action could seriously hurt America’s cyber defenses and make it a lot easier for foreign adversaries to strike our networks. They’re correct. But let me be even clearer about what’s not being talked about: this is not just another reshuffling of power—it's a five-alarm fire for anyone who values their privacy and civil liberties.  And it wasn't just Haugh who was shown the door. Wendy Noble, the highly respected civilian Deputy Director of the NSA, was also reassigned back to the Department of Defense. This wasn't just a firing but a purge of institutional memory, experience, and moral backbone.  Tim Haugh wasn't just any flag officer. He was beloved by his workforce, respected by national security professionals across the political spectrum, and known as much for his integrity and superb leadership skills as for his mission expertise. Haugh's departure leaves a void in one of the most sensitive and consequential roles in government. Whoever fills that vacuum could alter the trajectory of one of our most fundamental American freedoms: the right to privacy.

A Role That Holds Enormous Power

By long-standing tradition, the NSA is led by a uniformed military officer, while the deputy is a civilian. That balance matters. It provides both continuity and civilian oversight of a powerful institution with the ability to monitor global communications—and, yes, potentially, American citizens. Tim Haugh upheld that legacy of integrity. Similarly, with her deep expertise and decades of experience, Wendy Noble brought the kind of institutional knowledge and civilian leadership that protected that balance. But now, with both Haugh and Noble removed in quick succession, we're in uncharted territory. The critical safeguards that these respected leaders maintained have been dismantled, and the Trump administration has shown us what it's capable of when unchecked power meets authoritarian instinct. [...]

Why You Should Care: FISA Section 702

One of the most potent surveillance tools in the national security toolbox is Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). Section 702 allows the NSA and FBI to collect foreign intelligence by targeting non-U.S. persons outside the country. Sounds reasonable on paper. It's a powerful and necessary tool to protect national security—used to thwart terrorists, identify foreign cyber actors, and uncover threats to U.S. interests. But here's the catch: in the course of collecting this foreign data, U.S. persons' communications are often swept up. That's where the controversy begins. This is where procedures, leadership, and the integrity of institutions matter. As a former commander of multiple Air Force and joint intelligence organizations responsible for signals collection, Tim Haugh knew how to protect Americans’ privacy. Yet while 702 is designed to protect us, it can also be exploited to monitor Americans on U.S. soil. Without proper safeguards, it can become a backdoor to domestic surveillance. I've seen the inner workings of this system, and I can tell you that it works when principled leaders are at the helm. But in the wrong hands? It's terrifying.

Remember Trump's Obsession with Wiretaps? Let me remind you of a key moment in Trump's first term. He falsely accused President Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower. It was a baseless claim, thoroughly debunked—even his own Justice Department and the intelligence community found nothing. But Trump's tactic wasn't random. It was a classic projection. Because behind the scenes, while I was working in the White House, very real and deeply disturbing conversations were happening. Trump wanted the Department of Justice to authorize surveillance of personal devices of people he deemed political enemies or leakers. It wasn't paranoia; it was authoritarian yearning. And it was chilling. So when I see Tim Haugh forced out, Wendy Noble removed, Pam Bondi at the helm of the Department of Justice, and Kash Patel—who is currently the Director of the FBI—calling the shots, that's not just concerning. That's a massive, flashing red warning light for the nation. [...]

This Is Bigger Than One Leader

This isn't just about Tim Haugh or Wendy Noble. It's about a pattern of purging competent, principled leaders and replacing them with loyalists who will enthusiastically comply with any order or request, no matter how anathema to our democracy. It's about dismantling the apolitical fabric of our national security institutions. It's about the slow, quiet erosion of freedoms that most Americans assume are protected until they’re not.

The firing of Tim Haugh and the reassigning of Wendy Noble is a major red flag alert for national security.