#New Tech Odessa High School

[gigijb1969]

Rockets 2025, Friday, May 2, Central Texas/Stonewall Weather Delayed Launch Report

[nickthetoony]

MG 1/100 RGM-79 GM (Clara Hart Use)

Pilot lore under the cut.

This lightly customized blue colored GM was the personal unit of Warrant Officer Clara Hart, assigned to her from before the Attack on Jaburo all the way up to the conclusion of the war during Operation Star One. Aside from its blue color scheme this GM was functionally identical to other GM units. As a commander unit, it sported two beam sabers rather than the standard one, which Officer Hart would dual wield in battle against many opponents.

21-Year-Old Clara Hart was born in California and throughout her early childhood developed a fascination with machines, a fascination she would eagerly share with her parents who supported and encouraged her interest in spite of their general ignorance to tech. At age 18 she was accepted into the Berkeley Engineering program and worked her way through an undergraduate degree, a privilege she had earned by largely eschewing social interactions for most of her high school career.

All this would be for nothing however, when Zeon declared war on the Earth Federation and made landfall on Earth with their state of the art Zaku mobile suits, eventually reaching California. 

During the war, Hart was drafted into the effort against Zeon initially as a mechanic, helping maintain the tanks and fighter craft of the Federation ground forces. Due to the strong Zeon presence in the continent, Hart’s life became one of extreme stress and pressure, not the least of which due to the death of her father earlier during the invasion. 

After the battle of Odessa and Federation Mobile Suits began to retake North America, Clara’s unit was assigned several early production GMs, though the pilot for one of them was unexpectedly killed in a Zeon ambush. Short on manpower with a new pilot not expected to arrive, Clara was forced to sortie in the GM despite her inexperience.

In spite of her lack of confidence and training, Clara proved an adequate MS pilot, particularly excelling in melee combat with a beam saber, and even participated in the defense of Jaburo. During this battle she would earn her title as the “Gouf-Slayer” after fighting four Goufs and destroying three at the cost of heavy damage to her unit. After this battle, Clara would be promoted to Warrant Officer and assigned as the leader of a mobile suit squadron.

Clara and her unit would join the attacks on Solomon and Jaburo aboard the Salamis Class Ship “Bloomington”. It was during this period that Clara’s GM would gain its blue paint scheme, inspired by the Goufs Clara had destroyed back on Jaburo. 

Despite Clara’s embarrassment at the color scheme, her squadmates insisted it was good for morale, and moreover the rest of her squad had already adopted the blue color scheme anyway. It was also during this time that Clara would reunite with the Gouf pilot that had escaped her, Sophia Fos, (now piloting a Rick Dom), and striking up a rivalry with her.

At the Battle of A Baoa Qu, Clara performed admirably even against the high performance Gelgoogs, taking advantage of both her GM’s agility and adaptability to survive the battle. It was during this battle that Clara and her squadmates would meet Sophia Fos in combat for the last time, a fight that ended rather anticlimactically after Fos quickly betrayed her squadmates and surrendered, the woman realizing that Zeon was on it’s way out and that there was no more point in fighting.

After the war, despite gaining some limited notoriety for her skills as a pilot, Clara quickly resigned from the Federation Military and completed her engineering education. In 0081, Clara and her mother moved to the Von Braun city on the moon where she gained employment as a designer for mobile construction workers under the Kalvis Heavy Machinery company. The company would eventually be bought out by Anaheim Electronics, and some of its designers (including Clara) poached for a new MS Development branch. During her time here, Clara would meet with Sophia Fos in civilian life this time, the other woman now working as a test pilot for AE. After a turbulent few months of the most dysfunctional courting their coworkers had ever seen, Clara and Sophia would officially (if not publicly) begin a relationship, with Clara cruelly subjecting her mother to the pain of knowing Sophia Fos when the latter woman moved in with them a year later. 

(To her dismay, Clara’s mother and Fos would get along quite well.)

During the Gryps War, while neither Clara nor Sophia would officially join with the AEUG, they did contribute to the construction, testing, and fielding of several of the organization's key machines.

Clara Hart was a “neurotic, panicky” woman, wracked with anxiety who nevertheless seemed to be driven by a primal urge to survive. She was often described by her squadmates as being fairly quiet and introverted, though taking her role as a leader with appropriate seriousness and care for those under her command, and becoming deeply saddened at the loss of her comrades in battle. 

Her romance with Fos was sparked by an emotional break three years in the making when the more cavalier carefree woman insisted on “loosening her up”, an effort which ended with a fist fight outside a bar where Clara quickly became a sobbing mess in spite of her position both on top off and punching Fos repeatedly in the face, a dam breaking which finally resulted in her seeking therapy and forming a genuine connection to Sophia who was not (as one would expect) now terrified of her.

Clara Hart

Sophia Fos

picrew link

[inscribed-in-asteroids]

AN: Took a while but here’s chapter six! Make sure to reblog and like, or leave comments and kudos on AO3, which is still the best place to read it.

Title: The Ripple Effect

Characters: Hordak and Entrapta, feat. Glimmer, Bow, Aurora and Eon (OCs)

Rating: M (for smut)

                                            Repairing Harm Done

Hordak walks through the center of their new home away from home. Entrapta and he share their enjoyment of space, and going on adventures with her has been some of the greatest years of his life; however, Beast Island has been transformed into a multicultural landscape, where anyone could come here if they wanted, and stay here if they chose. While Odessa has been away with her friends, they opted to expand the lodgings here to accommodate growing numbers. Talon and he weren’t the only ones with children, and even without offspring, his siblings were finding life partners, and to add on top of that, visitors from nearby planets come to Etheria as well and, sometimes, like it so much they wish to remain.

Upon this realization, they made an organization to discuss blueprints, schedules and funding for such a project. The funding was no issue: Glimmer and Bow were more than happy to aid them, and have visited the island several times now to see what else was needed. It wasn’t necessarily money they needed, either, as everything on Beast Island was based on a trade system and very loosely; they have utilized the technology on the island well, and created elaborate new machines for daily living. Glimmer and Bow, simply put, love being involved. They offer their expertise, Bow on his own inventions and Glimmer with her magic, but they were enthusiastic to be present at all.

He notes his brothers above him in the trees, connecting large trunks with man-made bridges, where a community of apartments will be launched high above them. The groves are to be interconnected this way, allowing for more freedom of development and making use of every inch of the island, eventually establishing long pathways that will join all shores of the island. This will be the new dwelling place for many of the citizens on Beast Island, while the area he’s moving through will serve as the marketplace, with recreational centers, hospitals, schools and restaurants lined throughout the ground floor. They have been constructing it for a while, but high demand has allowed for a speedier process to take place. Underground it will be primarily used for laboratories, as he and Odessa have the largest ones. It’s also their excavation site for First Ones tech, which they still continue to find more than twenty years later, the deeper into the earth they go; it’ll also serve as their mausoleum, for when those days come.

Animals chirp in the branches, shadows moving along his frame. Looking up, he meets the eyes of his brothers hammering boards into place, and they wave down at him. Being in a good mood, he waves back—

A sharp pang goes up his shoulder. Wincing in surprise, Hordak holds his hand up for a moment. Confused, he shakes off the sensation and continues toward the direction of his residence. Opening the door, Hordak steps inside.

“Entrapta? I’ve returned,” Hordak announces.

No answer.

She must be out. Maybe he’ll go check up on Emily and Imp. The latter has been growing, which came as a surprise to everyone. No one believed Imp could actually get bigger. It’s about the time Imp needs to have tests run to check if he’s still healthy as his body develops, Hordak muses, beginning to climb up the steps—

His legs suddenly lock, and they buckle, causing him to sprawl on the floor. His palms and knees slam into the hard stone, sending waves of pain up his frame. Another shortly follows, stabbing through his body. And it’s never one type of stab—it’s sharp, a knife slashing through; or painfully dull, akin to being jabbed with a worn, flat spear. It may not cut, but it’s relentless. And he can’t ever tell which is worse.

Trying to stand, he finds himself unable to. He pushes up with his hands, and the pain stings up his nerves, all the way to his neck.

Hordak lets out a breath of shock, of anger, of fear.

No.

No no no no no no no—

He looks down at his hands, and the color recedes—the blue drains, melting from elbow down, streaks forming along his wrist, and he can feel them weaken at the shoulder.

Hordak yells out loud, hunched over from the agony, watching as his forearms split in two without warning right down the middle until they’re merely the width of bone within the muscles thinning blood flow slowing unable to move or feel or sense or know why—

Hordak lets out a cry of shock, jolting himself up. Breathing hard, he turns to his right. Moonlight cuts through the dark of his bedroom, the blinds never being tightly sealed enough for his liking. But for once, he’s relieved to see it.

His head falls into his hands, and he breathes in. Breathes out. He withdraws to look at them. His forearms show no signs of disease, stark in the dim room. His shoulders move as they should, and he rotates them to be sure. He claws the air with his fingers, two quick movements. Then he lets them go toward his palm, slowly, pinky first as the rest follow, moving in synchronicity. He repeats this motion four more times, and none of them hurt.

Entrapta shifts beside him, her arm reaching out for his body. Automatic. When she finds only the pillow, Entrapta opens her eyes. She props herself up on an elbow, reaching out to touch her husband.

“Hordak? Are you okay?”

Blinking, Hordak turns to look at her. Her hair is loose about her body, draping across her shoulders in long strands. She doesn’t wear clothes to bed, finding it more comfortable. She followed his example on that one. After decades of being in pain, he didn’t want to be constricted as he slept. It reminded him too much of how often he had to be bound in place by something or another to keep from falling apart. His body was attached by sinew and muscle, like anyone else, but it never felt like that. It always felt like one small gesture would render him incapacitated, and his shoulders would fall from their sockets.

Entrapta sits up, touching the small of his back, “Did you have a bad dream?”

Hordak sighs, “I… did.”

Entrapta brushes the side of his face, “Do you want to talk about it?”

Hordak reaches up to take her hand in his, “It… It was the usual dream.”

Sidling next to him, Entrapta lays her head on his shoulder, “I know. It’s scary.”

He lets out a breath, unable to disagree. Adora had fixed him, permanently, in that other lifetime. Horde Prime wouldn’t allow something defective in his midst, so his body had been healed at the expense of his mind’s free will. But when Adora expelled Prime out, he was released from the confines of both mental and physical anguish.

He knows this.

His body has not known that pain in many, many years.

But there are days when he’s walking, sitting, breathing, and his thoughts turn to anxiety. Anxiety about the day, the moment, when his body will fail him again. He exercises every day, relishing in the activity he had been denied. The strength and power and agility that he long forgot about and wishes to keep. He makes sure to have that routine set out for himself, to have those thoughts at bay, to stop worrying him. He recalls how nervous he’d been when Odessa had been born—to have his daughter in his arms, and he would panic about the pain coming back and he can’t grab her in time before she collapses onto the floor and she dies. In a second, just like that.

Pulling his knees up, Hordak stretches his arms out onto them, giving a heavy sigh.

Entrapta rotates a bit, brushing his hair out.

“Entrapta?”

“Yes?”

“Can you check?”

Without further question, Entrapta moves forward, inspecting his back first. She notes the perfect coloration of his body, from neck to fingertip. Drawing aside the covers, she makes similar mental notes from his hips down to his feet. She looks up at him, smiling, “You’ve never looked better!”

Hordak sighs, relieved.

Entrapta lays her cheek on his forearm, “And I do mean that.”

He meets her eyes, and she wiggles her eyebrows.

Hordak laughs, allowing the anxiety to leave him, “You’re a pervert.”

Entrapta’s grin widens, “Can you blame me?”

Hordak leans forward to kiss her forehead. And she tilts her head back so their mouths can touch. Her hand caresses the side of his cheek, and he relaxes.

“I didn’t mean to wake you up,” he whispers, after a good while.

“Don’t worry about it,” Entrapta says. She pushes him onto his back, brushing her thumb along his mouth. “You’re not alone, you know.”

Hordak nods, staring up at the ceiling. Entrapta lays next to him, and she taps her chest.

Without a word, he turns, burying his face into her collarbone. Warm and inviting.

Her hands play with his hair, humming quietly. Stroking her fingertips down his neck, careful of the port located there. Entrapta doesn’t stop until he’s taking measured breaths, long and deep; once he does, only then does she fall back asleep.

                                                              -

Hordak steps out into the bright outdoors. Everything is in place. From the new construction in the trees, to the bustling shoppers around him, and, below, he knows Imp and Emily are taking ownership of Odessa’s lab while she’s away, as they tend to when she’s absent. Her friends are missed as well, and he will admit to himself, it’s good for her to have them.

Tristan’s general apathy tends to keep him anchored, but it lifts away as soon as he knows she’s back home, becoming more involved and energetic. Hydrangea’s eagerness to keep peace always stays in place, but she defers to Odessa’s knowledge and skill more often than with anyone else. Hordak knows that there could be no better allies to his daughter than those two.

They’ve been her friends since childhood, and they gravitated toward one another in a manner he found interesting. Despite being born a clone, he knows who he is, and he tends to keep to himself, save for Entrapta’s presence. His brothers tend to be more gregarious, which baffled him at first on how willing they were to interact with Etherians, and he surmised that, even among replicas, he stands out as incredibly reclusive. There are a few who took to his more stern and introverted nature, of course, he isn’t unique to averting social events, but he continues to have the shortest temper, if pushed enough, and is withdrawn. Talon is one of those individuals to match it, as he tends to be around his wife alone, but he doesn’t mind the spotlight, and that’s their difference.

Hordak’s gotten better at being around others, but he finds it exhausting after a while. Entrapta says that’s okay, and she wouldn’t change that about him and has outright stated to prefer it. Large groups are only ‘fun’ to watch, not be part of.

Odessa, meanwhile, enjoyed company, and Tristan was the first person she brought home. Hydrangea and Odessa liked each other very much, which delighted Entrapta and Scorpia; however, Tristan’s addition caught them by surprise. Mermista wasn’t the warmest woman when it came to who associated with her son. Hordak knows that his actions from the past were to blame, but she hasn’t done anything to damage his child’s relationship with her companion, so he says nothing.

Hydrangea’s mother, Perfuma, is no different, though she tends to have a lenient grip. Which he knows is due to her bohemian attitude, rather than an acceptance of Odessa. She wouldn’t stifle her child, as she has asserted that children should be allowed to do as they please and grow up how they will. It’s not a sentiment he disagrees with—he gave Odessa all the freedom she wanted. Entrapta was the one to spoil her, and he took on the disciplinarian role, for when it needed to be done, but overall, he and his wife encouraged Odessa’s desire to do what she wanted. Sometimes, her strong personality could be overpowering for others, but she’s not a bad person.

Despite what others may think.

“How are you doing, hon?” Entrapta asks, getting up to his level.

“I’m doing fine,” he responds. “Did you need something from me?”

“No,” Entrapta smiles. “You always ask that.”

“Ask what?”

“If people need something from you.”

He pauses in his tracks, “Do I?”

“You usually ask that when I’m looking at you, or wondering how you are,” Entrapta states. “And when I say people, I mean just me. You don’t do it with others.”

Hordak looks at the ground, silent.

“That’s not a problem, Hordak! It’s an observation,” Entrapta assures him.

He doesn’t question it further, for now.

“Oh, hi, guys!” Entrapta says.

Hordak faces behind him, finding Glimmer and Bow waving at him. For a flash of a second, he’s stricken with concern, but remembers that they’re supposed to be here today. That must be why they were in his dream, and it has nothing to do with premonitions of impending doom.

“Hey! Hope we’re not late,” Bow says.

“You’re right on time!” Entrapta replies.

Glimmer smiles, “Good! I hope you don’t mind—we brought Aurora today.”

Hordak looks past them, their daughter standing near the portal. Utterly disinterested. Without thinking, he says to Glimmer, “Was it wise to bring her?”

She looks at him, surprised, before waving her hand and laughing, “Oh, Hordak, she’s fine! She’s a big girl. Aurora, come here please!”

Aurora’s expression belies her unwillingness to be present, a polite smile on her face.

He doesn’t want to be rude— Well, that’s not true, he wants to be rude. It just isn’t prudent. Aurora isn’t a person who tends to be engrossed in what’s going outside of her social circle.

Glimmer looks up at Hordak, “I brought her because as future queen, she needs to participate in what’s happening throughout Etheria. You and I are working on this together, so I figured she would benefit from learning how things work with other kingdoms outside of a council meeting!”

Hordak nods in understanding. Makes sense.

Entrapta looks at Aurora, “Hello!”

“Thank you for welcoming me,” Aurora curtsies.

“What’s first on the agenda?” Bow asks.

Entrapta laughs, “We’ll go up into the trees first! We’ve designed a mode of transportation that takes us all to the top!”

Hordak silently walks behind the group. Entrapta leads them to a lift that operates when people enter into the rectangular container, made of nearby materials, predominantly the wood and bark of trees, as they’re the sturdiest thing at the moment. It’s in its rudimentary stage, Entrapta explains, and hopefully it will be changed into solid metal soon, since they didn’t want to waste resources at once. They had to see if it worked first, and they needed to design a glass case to hold it. All of them are elevated toward the top, allowing them a view of everything below.

Glimmer looks over the side of the box, “Wow, where did you come up with the idea?”

“Remember Horde Prime’s ship? He had this sort of thing aboard. We figured it would help get people around easier,” Entrapta says.

“So, you took the contraption of someone deplorable and used it for yourself?” Aurora asks.

“Yep!” Entrapta says.

Glimmer stares at her child, and Bow’s brows rise an inch.

Hordak’s arms remain folded, glaring at the back of Aurora’s head. Not liking her tone.

She doesn’t approve of it. And while he may not like owing Prime anything, it isn’t conducive to advancement as a group to ignore advantages simply because it came from a heinous individual. Good people have bad ideas, and bad people have good ideas, it depends on how it’s used.

“I don’t see how this is sensible of your time,” Aurora says.

Entrapta laughs, “Not everyone can teleport like you and your mom! We have people who can’t jump and climb the way we can.”

Aurora gives a delicate sniff, unimpressed with the explanation.

Glimmer claps her hands together, “Well, I think it’s a phenomenal idea. Prime was a monster, but his ship was incredible.”

“Mama—” Aurora begins.

Bow points at the distant grove, “Oh, look, pookas! Aurora, these were the animals that I met with Adora while looking for Entrapta.”

“The very things that would’ve eaten you all, and my grandpa, alive. You don’t say,” Aurora dryly answers.

“They’re friendly now!” Entrapta corrects, hair morphing into a hand with a forefinger pointed up.

Aurora grimaces when a pooka chitters at her, stepping away.

Hordak comes forward, unable to deal with it any longer, “Perhaps, it would be better for Aurora if she went and explored on her own. There is a plethora of activity in the market, and the main thing we would all be discussing is infrastructure.”

Bow turns to him, “Oh, I don’t think it’s necessary for her to leave.”

Glimmer nods, his suggestion more than welcome, “Actually, he might be right. Sweetie, why don’t you go down and check things out?”

“Thank you, I will,” Aurora says, giving another polite smile. With that, she teleports to the ground.

Entrapta yells over the side, “Byyyeeee!”

Bow and Glimmer share a long glance at one another. Aurora is a pleasant young woman, and now at eighteen, she should be engaging with more outside of Bright Moon. Neither Glimmer or Bow could imagine not wanting to go out of their comfort zone, whether it’s irritating or boring. But Aurora had never been quite as easy with ventures toward the unfamiliar.

Aurora is a creature of habit and routine, so she tends to stick with people that she knows, which is why they gave Marlena and Clawdeen the day off, both to allow Aurora to expand her horizons on her own, while giving their goddaughters well-deserved rest. Adora and Catra serve, too, as Aurora’s respective godparents, for they had all promised to be the guardians of each other’s children. And it’s why they decided, when Aurora asked if she could visit her extended family on the outskirts of the Whispering Woods, they pushed her to join them on this trip to Beast Island.

Aurora’s behavior since arrival was troubling Glimmer; she’s sure it wasn’t obvious, but her daughter radiated displeasure. Aurora is normally so genteel, with impeccable manners, which were inherited from Angella, and nurtured more by Bow and his relatives. Glimmer, even as she gets older, could never get rid of her fire to engage with every little aspect of life as much as she could. There was so much to do and see and experience, and she likes to believe that Aurora’s the same, even with her personality being softer than her own: mellow, caring, even shy. She knows her daughter is a good person.

Everyone always says so.

Bow and Entrapta have gone ahead, chatting animatedly about inventions and the latest in revolutionary designs. Addressing Hordak, Glimmer murmurs, “I’m sorry about Aurora.”

Hordak looks at her, “I don’t see the need for an apology. She doesn’t have to hide her disdain.”

Glimmer pokes him lightly in the arm, teasing, “Why? Because you’re the same?”

“Exactly,” Hordak replies, giving a light chuckle.

Sighing, she holds up her face with her hand, “Still, I don’t know why she’s upset today. I know kids don’t like to be with their parents after a certain age, and want to be with their friends—I was definitely that way—but I thought maybe she would have fun, you know? Engaging with the people, the mix of culture. Beast Island is so grand now!”

“I’m glad to hear you approve of what we’ve accomplished thus far,” Hordak says.

“That lift contraption is useful, but nothing will ever overshadow the day we got indoor plumbing in the palace.”

Hordak smiles, letting himself relax in the easy conversation.

                                                              -

Aurora walks through the throng of individuals bustling around. She didn’t expect so… many clones. She knows this is one preferred habitation, along with the kingdom of Dryl, and they are sporadic in other parts of Etheria. But to have so many of them present is a sight to behold.

She doesn’t approach any of the shops, but watches closely. Etherians, too, are wandering from stall to stall, store to store, and she ponders why any of these citizens would want to leave their kingdoms. Do their leaders not provide enough for them that they feel the need to come to a place still in development? She has heard of Beast Island’s many, many changes from childhood to adulthood, but she doesn’t see the appeal of coming to a location that isn’t as established as the rest of Etheria. New Chelicerata is an exception, since restoring a ruined kingdom isn’t a simple task, and that was in no part thanks to the Horde destroying the land and water.

To add on top of that, Aurora notes the strange carts being driven around the area. Compact metal transportation vehicles that are hovering above the ground, or whizzing through the canopy. An invention from Entrapta, no doubt. She tends to be the mind behind the majority of the designs. Those cannot possibly be safe.

Aurora treads lightly along the ground, a little dash of levitation magic that she’s been practicing. A gaggle of children, both Etherian and mixed, run past her, and she sidesteps out of the way. None of them are paying attention to where they’re running, almost doing the same to a couple of people. She quietly shames their parents for not teaching them respect better.

“Hey! You all have to slow down!”

She recognizes the voice, stopping in her tracks.

“Aww, but we wanna run!” chime youthful voices of reckless abandon.

Her eyes shift back and forth from either side, not risking looking behind herself, wondering if she can slip into a nearby building.

“You want to run? Go that way into the woods and return after a while. Whoever’s fastest wins and gets bragging rights.”

“What if one of us gets lost?”

For a moment, she wonders if she could master the invisibility spell this very second—

“Your parents didn’t tell you, but that’s the price of being fools running around without a care: you didn’t get to learn map reading. It’s a curse, so it’s inevitable you’ll die in the jungle.”

The children laugh, “What? No way!”

As the conversation turns to protest, Aurora darts behind a wall, letting out a breath. Crisis averted.

“You know, I heard that if you run like mad back to your homes, and don’t get lost, the curse is lifted! But you can only try when the moon’s half full.”

A gasp comes from one of the children, “Oh my gosh! It’s half full tonight!”

“I guess you kids better practice for this evening!”

Aurora peers around the corner, listening to the children fall for the outlandish lies, while unable to see anyone.

She’s startled when the next sound is that of quick steps coming her direction, darting past her—

Instinctively, she teleports, narrowly avoiding collision with a child. She closes her eyes and sighs.

Why can’t she go home?

“Aurora? What are you doing here?”

She tenses.

She didn’t plan where she’d wind up.

Slowly, Aurora tilts back her head, giving her signature smile, “Eon. I didn’t expect to see you.”

Peering down, Eon quirks a single brow, “You didn’t expect to see me where my family is? Do you not know how visitation works?”

Aurora withdraws, realizing with embarrassment how her head had been resting on his chest. He stands there, nonchalant, several stacks of flour levitating above his palm. He wears Mystacoran attire, deep, noble colors of purple with the usual white or gold accents replaced with his signature black.

Standing out as much as her, if she’ll admit anything. She attends any event wearing dresses, colored soft pink with whites trimming her sleeves and the hem of her skirt. She smoothes out her outfit, looking at the fabric, “I know how visitation works. Normally, you’re locked up in your room.” She side-eyes him. “Doing nothing to better yourself.”

Eon gives a cocky grin, “At least I don’t fake being busy to drown out the monotony enveloping my life.”

Decorum be damned, Aurora’s expression turns mocking, “I happen to like monotony. Schedules keep things together.”

“Another way of declaring you’re uptight,” Eon retorts, sauntering past her.

Aurora emits a light scoff, teleporting beside him, “I am not uptight! I appear that way to the lethargic. It wouldn’t hurt you to make an effort.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Your Highness,” Eon replies, spinning on the ball of his foot and giving a small bow with his head. “I forgot that commoners like myself need your example to show us how we could improve ourselves.”

Aurora tosses back her hair, “That’s part of being a princess—leading by example.”

Eon rolls his eyes, continuing his path, “Of course. I wouldn’t want to contradict you.”

“But I would contradict you,” Aurora replies. “I don’t understand why you’re carrying the sacks like that.”

“Like what?”

“Magic isn’t something to do menial tasks with. Did your muscles atrophy from being bedridden?”

“I happen to enjoy using my magic for all my needs,” Eon says. “If it makes things easier, why not do it?”

Aurora shakes her head.

“So, what are you on the island for? Did your family finally admit you were found among the beetles, and that’s why you have those wings?”

“Are you insinuating I’m a pest?” she questions, annoyed, folding her arms.

“Beetles happen to serve a very good purpose,” Eon tells her. “I wouldn’t imply such malicious concepts about you.”

Aurora gives him a pointed glare, “If you must know, I happen to be tagging along with my parents. They wanted to check on how construction is going for your people.”

“Ah. That’s nice,” he says, sincere.

“For you, maybe.”

Eon resumes being distant, “Well, I thank you for showing you care. Your presence graces us.”

“I suppose this will do as I’m waiting for them to be done,” she replies, looking around with annoyance.

Eon stops in front of his destination, setting the cargo carefully on the ground. He waves at an uncle, who nods his thanks before continuing to help a customer.

“Why don’t you take it inside?” Aurora asks.

“They know where it is.”

“It’s nicer to put it inside,” Aurora insists.

Eon grunts in annoyance. Levitating them back up, he goes around the corner. He halts, turning to her, hiking a thumb in his new direction, “Are you coming?”

Blinking, Aurora glances behind him. “This job doesn’t require two people.”

Eon leaves the sacks floating, pivoting around, “If you’re going to make demands of me, the least you can do is watch me do it.”

“But—”

He gestures to the building, “Would you rather loiter outside this public establishment?”

Aurora concedes, following him to the back door. She supposes it’s better than being out in the open.

                                                             -

Hordak lets his mind wander as his companions take rein of the conversation.

The nightmare threw him off more than he’d care to admit. He has had this sort of dream before, however, he was shaken to his core with this one. It was the most vivid he had ever experienced, and an aspect of slumber he’d care to not go through again.

Bow and Glimmer head to a group of his brothers who are in the midst of adding beams together.

He took it upon himself to take a break in a home that was under development. It needs a little more work left, but it’s otherwise complete and ready for furnishing. No one will bother him here.

Entrapta looks into the house, noticing his posture. He’s staring out a window that overlooks the trees, the drop going straight down, hands behind his back. His thinking position. She swings over to where he stands, closing the door behind her, “Are you still holding up?”

Hordak’s brow twitches. He doesn’t tell her that it’s a poor choice of words, because he knows he’s a little more sensitive to this matter than usual.

But Entrapta touches his shoulder, “Oh, I’m sorry! I meant to ask if you’re fine.”

“That is not something you need to concern yourself with. They’re mere words.”

“Words that are insensitive,” Entrapta replies. He doesn’t give a reply. She sits on her hair, gazing right at him. Unmoving.

Hordak’s eyes flick over to her for a second. He continues to stare straight ahead. “Entrapta, you needn’t apologize or feel responsible.”

“I believe you when you say that,” Entrapta says, not removing her eyes from his features. Suddenly, she gives a bashful smile, “I just care about you.”

Heart twinging, Hordak stiffens. He knows that her concern is sincere, and he appreciates it. He raises a hand to her cheek, brushing it, “I know.”

Entrapta flushes, his gaze intense. She can’t help but look down then, soft giggles leaving her lips. His finger traces the shell of her ear, and a shudder snakes along her spine. Body growing warm from the attention. He always knew how to make her feel special. After Prime’s defeat, Hordak had layers of emotion to sift through. He had been angry for many years, and she knows there’s parts of that residual rage underneath the calm. But one aspect of his nature that blossomed was a sensitivity that left her speechless. Hordak doesn’t believe it, but he can be very romantic by simply being honest with her.

“Hordak,” Entrapta whispers, touching his hand.

He tilts his head, “Yes?”

“You know I love you,” she says.

“Yes, I do,” Hordak replies, surprised. “And I love you too.”

Entrapta gives a breathy laugh, turning her face into his palm, hiding. She peers up at him with one eye, “Really?”

“More than you could comprehend,” Hordak tells the truth.

“Aww!” she coos, pressing his hand into her cheek, slightly muffled as she buries her face into his palm again.

A light blush tints his face, and he gives a soft laugh, “Entrapta, what’s this about? Are you upset that you cannot help me with my problem?”

“A little,” Entrapta holds his hand in hers, kissing the inside of his wrist. “I don’t know what to do sometimes, and I don’t know if me being around helps at all.”

“You’re a great help,” he assures her, thumb stroking her cheekbone. “Don’t doubt your affect on me.”

Entrapta grins, “I know some of the ways I affect you, silly!”

Hordak steps closer, smile widening along his lips, teeth flashing. His voice lowers, “Do you?”

“I like to think so,” Entrapta teases, wrapping her arms around his shoulders, fingers moving into his hair.

Her lips touch his, and he pulls her close. Her body curves against his, and even after decades of being near her, he’s always amazed at how she feels. Hand angled behind her head, his other one shifts down her back, sliding down her thigh.

Entrapta moans into his mouth, and she realizes that she’s been wanting to do this all day. His breathing grows ragged, moans interspersed with her name, sounds that she never gets tired of, because he only makes them with her.

Hordak pushes her against the wall, and he feels her hair slacken through her frame. Her legs wrap around his waist, allowing herself to be held up by his hands. Entrapta gives a soft groan, pulling him close. Her mouth caresses his neck, causing his body to shiver. Her hands glide down his back, grazing over exposed skin.

His hand snakes up her frame, and angles between her legs. Against the fabric, he begins to rub her clit, and Entrapta gasps in welcome surprise. Grinding against his fingers, she gives a small bite to his ear lobe, hot breath tickling his skin.

Hordak presses harder with his fingers, and he knows she’s growing damp. He captures her mouth with his, swallowing a moan she emits, flushed and excited. She grins against his chin, giving a small chuckle.

Encouraged, Hordak stops petting her. He looks at her, “Entrapta, remove your clothes.”

“Ooooh!” Entrapta does as he says, discarding everything but her shirt.

With ease, he lifts her back up, pushing her securely upon the wall and placing her legs over his shoulders. He has no hesitation as he leans in, breathing in, and glides his tongue up slick folds, rubbing over the clit with the end of his tongue.

Entrapta gasps, closing her eyes in pleasure. His tongue moves slowly, taking his time. It moves through the sides, around, teasing the clit, but never going in. Entrapta’s hands caress his hair, brushing through dark blue locks. His moans vibrate into her skin, mouth burning hot on burning flesh.

Hordak’s tongue suddenly darts in, and Entrapta’s back arches, mouth parting open. Groaning deep in her throat, Entrapta’s fingers grip his hair harder. Hordak pushes her legs further aside, nails digging into tender skin. He pulls away, giving her a brief glance, as his teeth graze along the delicate skin of her inner thigh.

“Hordak…” Entrapta whispers.

“Hmm?” he hums, mouth covering her clit, sucking hard.

Her moan escapes in a staccato, trembling. Biting her lower lip, Entrapta forgets what she’s supposed to ask. Lost in the sensation of his mouth on her clit, tongue dragging along swollen lips. His fingers squeeze the sensitive flesh of her backside, his ears twitching when she says his name. Soon, she’s soaked, unable to think or speak, overcome by physical touch. His arms, once the most obvious area of his defect, don’t waver from the weight, keeping her steady without qualm.

She would love him no matter his appearance, but she’s happy that he has the body he lost before. It brought him so much pain and agony, leaving him enraged and bitter. Entrapta would watch him suffer every day in the Fright Zone, even with her modifications. He felt inadequate, pathetic and alone. She would never think of him this way—he was the most brilliant mind and kindest heart she’d ever met, valuing her for who she was. Loving her despite her own imperfections. She never gave a thought to her physical appearance. What she always worried about was how her mind, her personality, her feelings would be perceived.

He accepted all of it.

And she wants to help him overcome whatever fears remain in him. That the imperfections of his body wouldn’t ever be the only thing of him she’d accept—it would be the doubts, the worries, the anger. He was her friend and husband. He, and he alone, would always be enough.

The heat in her stomach spreads throughout her body. Growing feverish, sweat shining on her skin, her toes curl into his back. Hordak’s ministrations are relentless, breaths muffled as his tongue moves back in, deeper than before, making circular motions within her body.

Shaking with incredible force, it bowls Entrapta forward, clamping her hand over her mouth. Eyes shut closed, brows knitting together, she trembles from the orgasm rocking through her every nerve and muscle. Slowly, her eyelids open, finding him staring up at her.

“Wow…”

Hordak smiles, pleased at such a reaction.

As he wipes up his chin, Entrapta brushes aside his hair, tugging strands over his temple. “Oh... I remembered what I was going to ask…”

“Yes?”

“I was going… to ask… if you think anyone will notice us gone…”

“Perhaps. But I don’t believe there’s a problem, so long as we begin going back now.”

Entrapta gives a gentle pat to his shoulders, and he sets her down. Beginning to dress, she grins, “I think this house is ruined.”

“Nonsense,” Hordak returns, waving a hand. “We need only open a window.”

Cackling wildly, Entrapta leaps up into his arms, nuzzling his neck, “You’re so bad!”

Hordak kisses her cheek, “I try.”

“I can be bad too,” Entrapta says, leering down at his groin.

“I don’t think we have the time,” Hordak replies, arm wrapping around her waist. “As favorable as that outcome would be.”

“Awww… You don’t want to make an attempt?”

“I believe, unfortunately, we have been gone long enough to arouse suspicion.”

“That’s an understatement,” Entrapta replies, wiggling her eyebrows, hand stroking over his clothes. “We definitely can’t hide that.”

A boyish grin and light blush changes his normally stoic demeanor. The expression staggers her mind to a halt, mystifying her on the rare moments it occurs. He’s so pretty...

“Entrapta?” he asks, smile still in place.

Finally recalling what needs to be done, Entrapta moves toward the door, grinning, “I’ll go on ahead, okay? You take your time!”

He nods, and she blows him a kiss that he, on reflex, pretends to catch.

Squealing at his playful attitude, Entrapta bounces out the door.

Hordak hears her voice grow distant, and he notes the faint replies from their friends. Hordak looks back out the window, catching his reflection in the glass. He looks down at his arm, touching it where he can remember missing bone and sinew. He takes in a breath, feeling the air move through his nose, into his chest. The power in his body undeniable.

It’s an odd feeling. Being afraid of nothing.

                                                             -

Aurora follows Eon throughout the market. He, apparently, was needed today. His magic lent significant help to his people, restoring broken objects, fixing machinery, and taking deliveries to several places. She won’t admit it, but it was a welcome relief from simply milling about by herself. Granted, these are tasks servants would be doing, but it made her feel normal, like she was accomplishing objectives at Bright Moon.

Eon looks down at her, “Don’t you have other places to be?”

“If I did, I would’ve left,” Aurora replies.

“Are you bored?”

“No, not at all,” she shakes her head. A little surprised she means it, too.

Eon takes her word for it. He hadn’t expected her to trail after him the entire time, and he would catch her standing by, occasionally offering unwanted critique, but he wasn’t going to argue with her. Early on, he certainly did. But the day has been long and he’s hoping to rest soon. She always does what she wants.

“Are you almost done?” Aurora asks.

“Yes,” he replies. “This is my last spot.”

Aurora looks at the sparse appearance, not even a sign put outside. Eon opens the door, singing its soft chime, and Aurora steps in after him. She’s struck to find rows of jewelry arranged along the four walls, painted navy blue, with cases planted into the middle of the floor. Though empty, they are meant for future displays.

Eon heads over to the case closest to the back door, tapping a bell resting on top.

Aurora joins him, “Is anyone present?”

“Should be,” Eon replies, turning around to face the front. He puts his hands in his pockets. “It’s not an issue if no one is—I can come back later.”

Aurora peers at the glass case, looking at dazzling necklaces, bracelets and rings aligned on vermilion velvet stands. She didn’t expect a store of this magnitude on Beast Island. The quality of the items are beautiful, with delicate designs.

Eon watches her from the corner of his eye. Her expression is intrigued, perusing the case with calm interest. He closes his eyes, waiting for the merchant to arrive. He listens to the faint tread of Aurora’s feet on the ground, the soft tap of her fingers on the surface of glass. He lets his mind wander in peace, glad to have a moment to himself.

Aurora eventually returns to his side, “Are you sure they’re here?”

“Yes,” he answers, not opening his eyes. “If you prefer, you can go find your parents.”

Aurora turns around, skirt slightly shifting about her feet. She stares up at Eon, debating whether to take him up on the suggestion or not. Her parents might be done, but if they’re not, she wouldn’t be able to leave again as smoothly as before. Staring at each side of the room, she says, “This is rude.”

“Uh-huh.”

“This wouldn’t happen in Bright Moon.”

Eon gives an exasperated sigh, “No, of course not. Nothing bad ever happens in Bright Moon.”

She ignores it or doesn’t hear. Aurora boasts, crossing her arms, “Right! Glad you see it my way.”

“Your Highness,” Eon scoffs, turning to face her. “If everyone could see things your way, we’d have a greater need for service animals.”

She blinks, “Why is that?”

“Everyone would be blind,” Eon answers.

Aurora says, tone clipped, “Oh, what would you know?”

“A lot more than you,” Eon replies, feeling vigor return.

“I doubt you possibly could!” Aurora’s head tilts at an arrogant angle. “The only thing you’ve proven today is that you make an excellent mule.”

Feigning injury, Eon clutches his chest, “Ah! You hurt me. But I could’ve sworn that you were fine with loyal, hard-working creatures. Unless that only matters when it’s useful to you.”

Aurora crosses her arms, huffing quietly.

Eon has known Aurora his entire life. Aurora has proven time and again that she has an elitism that tends to push her away from most people. Her parents are open-minded, cheerful individuals, and together they tend to liven any situation. Aurora can be charming, but she lacks sincerity. While not brash, her keeping an absurd distance from the folks around them during his errands proved that she was around him because he was the one thing she knew, rather than any intention toward actual civility.

Aurora inspects her shoulder, finding a loose thread. She points at it, and it dissolves in the air.

“I thought magic wasn’t a toy,” he says, taunting.

“This isn’t the same,” she snaps.

Before Eon can retort, the door opens behind them. The two turn around and find a woman standing there. Full-figured, with brown hair, hazel eyes and pale skin, the merchant is dressed in Bright Moon garb. Silver arm bands go up to mid-forearm, and she removes a light blue cape to hang on a coat rack.

“Eon, hello! I’m sorry to have kept you waiting. My meeting ran late.”

“No worries. I thought as much,” Eon replies.

The woman stares at Aurora for a moment, stunned, then smiles, “Your Highness! Welcome to my shop.”

Returning the warm greeting, Aurora nods at her, “Hello, I’m pleased to meet you. What’s your name?”

“Minette, Your Highness. If I may ask, what are you doing on Beast Island?”

“Royal duties,” Aurora gives a dainty laugh. “It’s been lovely!”

“I’m glad to hear that!” Minette says, walking over to a desk.

Eon bends down, giving Aurora a deadpan stare.

Aurora shoos him back, returning it with a glare.

“So!” Minette begins, causing the two to stand upright before she can notice. “Eon, I was wondering if you could help me with something.”

“What is it?”

With an excited skip in her step, Minette returns to the chair behind the larger collection of jewelry, “I needed a model for some of my jewelry, and using you would be really helpful!”

“Really? That’s it?” he asks, a bit surprised. “I don’t need to patch a hole in your roof or magic up boxes?”

“Sorry! I understand if you’d prefer to do those things instead,” Minette jokes.

Eon takes his seat, a little relieved that this is the easiest job he’s had today. Aurora sits in a chair nearby, crossing her right ankle under her left, hands in her lap.

“Your Highness, you can scoot closer,” suggests Minette.

Eon gives Aurora a brief glance.

“No, thank you, I’m comfortable where I am,” Aurora says.

“Nonsense! You can try anything on too!”

Aurora is about to decline when Eon rises to his feet and stands behind his seat. He indicates to it with a quick motion of his head, and Aurora elects to accept it. He pushes the chair under her, before levitating the one she’d been in next to it.

Minette smiles, bringing out her first batch, “How is Nyxia?”

“She’s doing well,” he informs her. “She’s likely in a meeting herself.”

“Your mother isn’t usually doing business with other people, correct?”

Eon peruses the jewelry that she places out on the table. Picking up a silver-banded ring, a crimson gem laid in its intricate center, he says, “I suppose she isn’t. But she will occasionally meet up with someone. I think she had to discuss matters with the council on Mystacore.”

“No doubt causing a stir of some sort,” Aurora adds, slipping a white bracelet onto a delicate wrist.

Eon glances at her, “You would know how to do that, wouldn’t you?”

Aurora gives a demure grin, “Whatever do you mean?”

“Playing coy only works on the dim, Aurora," he tells her with a smirk. "But I don’t blame you for being outside of familiar company that you think it’d work on me.”

“Ha ha.”

Minette watches with curious fascination, beaming at them, “You two must be good friends.”

Aurora and Eon turn to her at the statement.

“Am I wrong?” Minette asks, unsure now.

Aurora gives an awkward smile, a little odd on her lips, “Oh, it’s not that! We’ve known one another for years.”

“For how long, if I may ask?”

“A long, long time,” Eon replies, trying on a bracelet as well, shining black. “My mother knows her aunt.”

“Ohh, I see! I wasn’t aware that you knew the royal family, Eon.”

“Not many do,” he answers.

“How do you know Eon?” Aurora returns the question to the other woman.

“He lived near me at Bright Moon,” Minette explains. “I was a resident of the complexes there.”

“Really?” Aurora asks, shocked. “Why did you move here?”

“I always liked to engage in the unusual,” Minette tells her. A happy smile grows on her face, “It was delightful having Eon move in next door. I had become acquainted with his family when they would visit, and they informed me that my designs might strike a chord with a different crowd too, so I decided to set up shop outside of Bright Moon. I’m going to live here permanently, but I’ll be keeping my place over there to be in touch with my family.”

“Oh, I see…”

Minette notes the slight change in Aurora’s disposition. She sets down a narrow container on the table, “Do not misunderstand, Your Highness! Eon and I had been neighbors for a good few years, and he talked to me about the changes occurring on Beast Island. It seemed like a good opportunity to try my business out here too and build a second location. I grew up in Bright Moon, of course, but a change of pace now and again doesn’t hurt, right? I love my home, but knowing that Beast Island had potential was exciting!”

Eon gives Aurora a brief glance, “Surely, you understand what she means.”

Aurora goes quiet, not wanting to look at him. The two enter a chit chat that doesn’t involve her, to which she finds relief. She doesn’t fully… understand Minette’s motivations. He, unfortunately, is correct. An overachiever herself, Aurora can comprehend pushing toward her goals. But her ties to her home are so valuable, that she can’t help but feel a little slighted that a subject of hers decided that it was better to live here, in an underdeveloped metropolis. She can’t disconnect that success is tied to her kingdom and all its facets. It figures that Eon would be capable of convincing someone that, an idea they’d never considered before, might be what they want. He was always good at that.

It has been… ages since they’ve been in each other’s presence. They don’t interact often, but when they do it can be rather... tense. Tense is how she describes her relationship with Eon. His personality is both sardonic and frigid, which can lead to frustrating discussions. He has been more than pleasant thus far—even with his tendency to argue with her. She attempts to be cordial when she can, but she finds his quips to cut to the quick bothersome.

Then he does things like hold out chairs for her, or open doors and allow her to enter first, and she’s a little confused how someone can hold her with contempt and yet high enough esteem to do favors.

Maddening is also how it can be expressed being around Eon.

Aurora’s curiosity rises when Minette pulls out another box, dark and smooth, with a simple crescent moon latch on the front.

“These are my latest earrings!” Minette says, opening it. An array of different sets are revealed, but Aurora’s eyes hone in on a simple pair: pink tear-drop shaped earrings, not looking like anything special, but they have a soft sheen to their color that’s appealing.

“Your Highness, you seem taken with these,” Minette pulls them out. “Would you care to try them on?”

“Oh! Um, yes, thank you,” Aurora holds them in her hands, delicately pinning each one through her earlobes. Minette places a mirror in front of her, and Aurora discovers that she not only finds them pleasing, but she’s enchanted by it. They dangle as she moves her head, and she smiles. Genuine and delighted. “These are beautiful.”

“Thank you!” Minette turns to Eon. “And what about you?”

Eon stares at Aurora, and he pulls himself out of his reverie before Aurora can turn to face him. He looks down at the velvety interior, checking the selection. He does find his eyes trained on a similar pair, but in lovely lavender rather than the rosy pink she chose, their diameter wider a bit at the tip before becoming more rounded at the bottom by comparison as well. He picks it up, staring at it for a moment.

“Try them on, try them on!” encourages Minette.

Eon does as she says, and he checks the mirror too. He gives a light chuckle, the side of his mouth tilting up, “You do know how to win a man over.”

Minette claps her hands excitedly, “Good! Do you two like them enough to get them?”

Aurora nods, beaming, “Yes, absolutely!”

“Yes, I definitely want them,” Eon begins. He reaches for his pocket, “How much is this, Minette?”

“Eon, you silly boy,” the older woman giggles. “Consider them a gift from me to the both of you, hm?”

Aurora waves a hand, “Oh, that’s sweet of you, but you should be paid for your work!”

Eon nods in agreement, taken aback, “It doesn’t feel right to have them handed over. I can pay for Aurora’s set as well.”

Aurora, a little flattered despite herself, coos, “Aww, really?”

“Yes, really,” he answers.

Minette wags a finger, “Ah-ah-ah! I won’t hear of it. It really is my way of saying thanks to Eon for helping out today and times past; and Your Highness, I’d be honored if you wore them!”

Grinning, Eon shrugs, reclining in his seat, “Well, who am I to turn down a free present?”

“Thank you very much, Minette,” Aurora says. She looks at the mirror again, enjoying herself for the first time today.

                                                            -

Glimmer stands next to Entrapta, looking over a couple of blueprints that the engineer created with a team of clones. The day has passed with little event, and Glimmer was glad about that. She addresses Entrapta, “How is Odessa, by the way? Will she be home soon?”

Entrapta nods, widening her smile, “Yes! She will be home in a month.”

“Ooh, that’s exciting!” Glimmer says. “I bet you’ve missed her.”

“I knooooow!” Entrapta flips in place through the air. “I told her if she found anything interesting to bring it back!”

“Where did she go again?”

“She went to visit our family in Inicos. It’s a long journey, but the return trip is much shorter.”

Glimmer nods, then glances at Hordak. She leans in, whispering, “Do you think Hordak is excited?”

Entrapta picks up the cue, and whispers back, “Yes! Hordak doesn’t show it, but he misses our baby too.”

“That’s so cute!” Glimmer says.

“I know!”

From where he stands, Hordak’s ears twitch a little, looking over his shoulder at the women. They simply wave at him, and he resumes conversation with Bow.

Glimmer turns her attention toward the darkening sky. It’ll be about time to head back to the castle. She’s been enjoying herself since she’s arrived. Even with all the experience she has now, she cannot help but feel unsettled when she’s in the palace for too long, and it has been an overdue time in regards to going out. Beast Island may not be what individuals think of for relaxation and enjoyment, but without all the technology trying to kill you, it’s fun. Bow can attest to that.

The sound of the elevator is familiar by now that none of them turn to it. But a moment later, Glimmer hears, “Hi, Mama!”

She looks over Entrapta’s shoulder, and she rises to greet her daughter, “Aurora! Hi, honey. Did you have a good time?”

The princess gives a delicate shrug of her shoulders, “I suppose.”

“Are those earrings?” Glimmer asks, pointing to her ears. “You didn’t have them on before.”

Aurora touches one, “Oh, yes! Do you like them?”

“I adore them! They’re such a compliment to your face—” begins Glimmer, when her eyes slide over to the left. She lets out a loud gasp, “Eon!”

Eon continues his strides, giving a salute with his hand, “Hello.”

Glimmer, despite being dwarfed by the younger man, teleports over the remaining four feet and crushes him to her. “Oh my gosh, how’ve you been?”

“Not broken,” he remarks.

“Oh, I know you’re fine!” Glimmer laughs, releasing him. She holds his wrists in her hands, appraising him. “By the moon, you’ve gotten tall.”

Eon brushes his hair from his face, grinning down at her, “Thank you, it’s genetics.”

Entrapta bounces over, giving him an affectionate pat on the back, “And your strict diet!”

“That too,” he agrees. “I’d kill to have a slice of cake.”

“Were you with Aurora just now?” Bow asks, walking over to them with Hordak.

“She accompanied me all day,” Eon informs the couples. “She performed good samaritan duties.”

Glimmer can’t help her astonishment. She looks at Aurora, “Really?”

“He happened to be walking by, that’s all,” Aurora explains. “He worked, I watched.”

Bow holds his daughter by the shoulder, pulling her to him, giving her a happy shake, “You learned a thing or two though, didn’t you?”

“Sure, Papa.”

Eon leans down to Glimmer, “You know, she actually got dirt on her.”

“For once, huh?” Glimmer jests back.

Flushing, Aurora crosses her arms, “Mama, please…”

Hordak turns to Bow, “Will you three be returning to Bright Moon now?”

Bow nods, “Since Aurora is here, and it’s getting late, we likely should.”

Glimmer turns to the clone family, “Would any of you be interested in coming back and having dinner? The cooks don’t mind that!”

Entrapta shakes her head, “As much as I’d like to ask for tiny food from your chefs, Hordak and I have a previous engagement to attend to, so we’ll have to say no!”

Hordak nods at them, “Perhaps another time.”

“Got it!” Glimmer says, looking up at Eon. “What about you? You can have that slice of cake with us!”

“I got something to finish up here, but thank you, Your Majesty.”

“Eon, please, it’s Glimmer!”

“Sorry, Glimmer.”

Bow adds, “You should come by the next time you’re around!”

“Thank you,” Eon says, glancing at Aurora. “I’ll consider it some time.”

After a few more pleasantries, Eon bids farewell first. Hordak and Entrapta accompany the family to the portal about halfway before they veer off to their own place.

Glimmer stares up at her husband, “This was a great outing, wasn’t it?”

Bow stretches his arms toward the sky, “You bet! It’s good to get out of the stuffy meetings now and then.”

Aurora purses her lips, “I think we could’ve gone home sooner.”

Glimmer looks at her daughter, “Didn’t you have fun with Eon?”

“I had as much fun as one could while watching someone do menial labor,” Aurora replies.

“It’s good to get out regardless,” Bow says.

“I did always like that boy,” Glimmer tells them.

Aurora sighs, not understanding how he can win her parents over. He can be charming, to be sure, and he surprised her today by how useful he was to others. Even thoughtful. But he doesn’t have anything else going for him. She finds it to be a lucky thing that he enjoys being distant from her too.

Today was a fluke.

After all, he is a clone’s son.

                                                             -

Entrapta holds Hordak to her chest, brushing his hair as he falls asleep, “Did you have fun earlier today?”

“In the house or with our friends?”

“Both!”

Hordak smiles at her. His fingers slide up to touch her face, “I did enjoy myself.”

Entrapta leans forward, kissing the bridge of his nose. She puts their foreheads together, “Are you sure you don’t want me to do anything?”

“You can return the favor to me later,” Hordak says. “I’m comfortable.”

Entrapta continues petting his scalp, finding that she is also in a cozy position, and maybe they will just have more fun tomorrow. She yawns, voice getting drowsy, “Are you happy Odessa is coming soon?”

“Yes, I am,” he replies. “There’s much to discuss with her.”

“There is…”

Hordak’s eyes drift to his wife’s collarbone. Breathing in the scent of her skin, Hordak pulls her closer. His thoughts begin to pick up in the quiet of the room. Churning. Once his mind finds something to think about, he can have as much a difficult time letting it be as Entrapta could. And their daughter was, for better or worse, the same.

He asks, with unusual hesitation, “Is Odessa keeping something from me? She has a strong wanderlust, and she enjoys visiting family but... she doesn’t feel like herself. When she left, it seemed as if she was unsure of how to approach me. That she didn’t want to inform me of any event she experienced. Am I imagining it?”

She doesn’t answer.

“Entrapta?”

The question receives light snores as a response.

Sighing, Hordak kisses the column of her throat before settling into her chest, unable to stop thinking of his dream from earlier. The sense of unease he has balled in his chest.

He is curious what this odyssey would entail for his daughter and her friends.

And he is worried what the outcome may be.

[movedtooh-westly]

Heyo, your ocs are so interesting! I already love them. Do you have a story line for the characters? What are some facts about them? Have a good day and don't forget to drink lots of water :)

Okay for starters, thanks for the ask! hope you’re well too! it makes me happy when people are interested in whatever i’m working on :D (it’s a long post, strap in)

A general plot to the story (mind you, it’s still in it’s early stages of being created):

Alinsky Cross, a dangerous combination between a kleptomaniac and a genius, is a master at orchestrating large scale tests and thefts, stealing items like priceless objects and large sums of money. However, he becomes increasingly confident and lets his guard down during a specific heist. The people he was stealing from were called the American Artefact Collection Committee (AACC). The AACC were able to pinpoint who stole their most prized artefact (which is a little acorn-looking thing with origins that are not human, dubbed ‘tenebrarius’), as Alinsky underestimated their security. However, they ruled out the possibility of Alinsky being the thief and instead, captured his father, Ernst Cross, in retaliation. Alinsky is unaware that it was the AACC who captured him or that it was even his fault to begin with. After about a year since Ernst’s abduction, Alinsky starts to explore different methods of finding him. Running out of new and successful ways, he turns to more mythological ideas. While Alinsky believes it was natural for his brain to wander into hypothetical territory, his actual influence came from a connection to the magic world he is unaware of. 

This magic 6th sense came from an encounter with a demon (which are part of the magic world) when he was barely five. He escaped it, only suffering a scratch on his left hand. wounds inflicted from Faefolk to humans leave the human with a connection to the magic world, which is why Alinsky can sort of sense magical presences. 

This leads him into capturing Esther Snowe, a member of the Faefolk council, in exchange for the secrets to fairy technology. Ernst is brought home a year after Esther is released with the tech, but the reunion isn’t a happy one. 

Facts about the characters: 

My main character lineup consists of 

Alinsky Cross

Bear (Harding Dietrich)

Esther Snowe (Elf)

Farley Coven (Harpy)

Odessa Dew (Elf)

Elisabeth Cavey (Dwarf)

Rooney Pelph (Centaur)

I’ve made a post about Alinsky already here. It has some general info and fun facts about the gremlin boy.

Bear is a martial-artist and had been training since he could walk, basically. When he graduated, he pursued an education in becoming a butler, before becoming bored and instead ending up on the wrong side of the law. He was employed by gangs and other underground companies as a tank or bodyguard. Bear also worked as a contract-killer for a while before deciding it wasn’t for him and instead used his 30s to travel the globe. He was finally employed by Ernst and Vivian Cross before Alinsky was born and the three became rather close friends. When Alinsky was born, Bear became his personal bodyguard. He’s a big softie but that’s usually only revealed after you get through the walls of blank faces and reserved nature. 

Bear facts: 

He used to be in a swing band (he played BARITONE SAX)

Bear likes to bake and can make one mean quiche

Bear is a big fan of ABBA 

Esther Snowe is the Elf Representative in the Council. She is one of 13 Reps (each corresponding with a Fairy race) and the only female to become a member in five centuries. She was apart of the FAE (Federal Army and Enforcement, hehe) and had actually made lieutenant before she quit. She had witnessed the death of some civilians and believed they were her fault and she found it easier just to run. She couldn’t properly let go, however, and often visits her old friends during breaks and stuff. Esther was a role model for aspiring members of parliament and her unexpected abduction was pretty tough on her. Esther is an optimistic and strong individual with a fighter’s spirit and one hell of a social butterfly.  

Esther facts:

Esther likes to collect knives and is quite skilled in knife combat

She’s scared of small spaces

Esther makes little pompoms just for fun

Farley Coven is the FAE’s technical person. They had upgraded the interfaces, tools and gadgets to their liking and it’s pretty much useless to try and use it without their help. Farley is a big fan of human TV shows and often watches famous sitcoms during work. They had been a bit of a nerd during their schooling years but had really come to grow on the FAE’s troops and atmosphere, especially since Dew is such a joy to tease. Farley is a cool and relatable individual with too many jokes and not enough time. 

Farley facts:

Farley is incredibly smart but likes to hide their intelligence under a laid-back facade

They have that ✨shrimp posture✨

Friends is definitely their favourite sitcom (they also probably watch buzzfeed unsolved tbh)

Odessa Dew (or just Dew, Commander, your highness, etc) is the Commander of the FAE’s 1st precinct. She’s a skilled fighter and takes a lot of pride in her job. Dew’s first job option was a teacher but found herself rather unfit for teaching (i.e she might have thrown a kid across the room). She’s well respected and is part of the family in the FAE. Dew specialises in retrieval missions and loves field action. she also may have a small crush on Esther but we repress that stuff don’t we . Dew’s a tough and enthusiastic person but has that that “i would fistfight god behind the 7eleven” energy. 

Dew facts:

Dew has a hoarding problem with plants

She likes watching sports

Her and Farley are best buds, even if she won’t admit it

Elisabeth Cavey is a competitive digger, which is a popular sport among the burrowing races of the fairies (e.g. gnomes, dwarfs). It’s mostly a hobby but she’s gained some popularity in the recent years. Elisabeth had started out wanting to become a nomad and live on the surface but had decided to become a sport star while she was in senior school. She’s pretty competitive but rather shy and spends her spare time gardening. Elisabeth is also quite sensitive and has a tendency to take things personally. 

Elisabeth facts:

She has totally thought of just bailing and living secretly on the surface

With help, she pirates human novels to read

Like Dew, Elisabeth is also a plant hoarder

Rooney Pelph is a national racer and competes in races and obstacle courses. He’s very hyper and barely sits still. He doesn’t really sleep much either. Rooney is a big fan of games (like tag and whatnot) and dreams of playing with others his age, but centaurs usually give up on games once they hit 60. Rooney is also a big fan of video games but due to his stardom, doesn’t really get to do much gaming. He’s quite a calculated individual and is a deep thinker but is pretty bad at converting his thoughts into words. 

Rooney facts:

i totally didn’t name him after the headmaster from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

He’s a big fan of feminine clothing! he loves frills especially :J

Rooney will consume entire cans of mints in under an hour. 

if you got this far, great job. hope you enjoyed my ramblings. my inbox is always open if you have any questions about my OCs, story or anything else :]

[luliputu-blog]

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[hitchell-mope]

Hypothetical titles for season fourteen of 88

In the walls. Season premiere. Part one. Interspersed with Sidney and Findlay on a much needed vacation. Lucia deals with strange sounds coming from within the walls of the Oberon Hotel.

The raccoon man of suite 10j. Season premiere. Part two. Having found her hotels squatter. Lucia teams up with Jacob to get the man emancipated from his abusive wife. Guest starring Keanu Reeves as the eponymous raccoon man

Malpractice. Findlay offers moral support to Dr Corsica (returning guest star Audra McDonald) when a routine surgery ends in tragedy

M&M. Dr Corsica goes through a Morbidity and Mortality conference to see wether she was truly at fault for her patients death.

Inconsequential. Skipper has a dream where he’s Sherlock Holmes, Findlay is Watson (complete with moustache and war induced limp) and the Christensen’s are all the same Moriarty.

Black white grey orange blue. Drummond gets a teaching trial at Van Buren. For his first class. He gives a lecture on morality and ethics using a case from the week before

Stereotypes. The team works a case at Wilmington High School involving an intergrade pregnancy pact that some of the teachers might have known about

Rumspringa. Gideon’s approached by a young Amish man for help with getting back to his community lest he be shunned.

You’re a good man grim reaper. Andy steps in for his uncle Derek Christensen (returning guest star Daniel Radcliffe) who has taken a sabbatical from his job as grim reaper.

The mother ship. Chambers drops by Fifth Avenue intent on asking for captaincy of the Wilmington’s lead cruise liner. And Jones is intent on denying him

Star crossed. Drummond and Odessa perform damage control when Zoey Anne dregs up the dead and buried rivalry between Findlay and Jacob

Espionage. Midseason finale. Part one. Wand Tech mogul, Mordecai Simmons, guest star Jesse Eisenberg, enlists Drummond’s help to find out wether his brother Mortimer, Josh Groban, is embezzling from him or not

Embezzlement. Midseason premiere. Past two. Having found out that Mortimer is in fact embezzling, the team sets up a sting to capture him.

Diametrically opposed opposites. Andy suffers a power outburst after spending too much time near Jesse. Which ends up having some incredibly bloody consequences.

Legitimate. Jones comes under fire from the conservative community when he publicly backs President DuPont’s plan to make of age consensual prostitution a legitimate profession. Guest starring Amy Acker as President DuPont.

The documentary. Carrie Hislop (returning guest star Julia Louis Dreyfus) plans to make a documentary on how people have been coping since the Botticelli Comet. Unfortunately for her. She chooses the five families as the subject. WARNING: this episode contains frequent instances of censored language.

The real housewives of New York. Following in from the disastrous documentary. Findlay is offered a tv gig and ropes in Delaney, Winnifred and Kimberly for help

Drag. Two interests literally collide as a drag car race Sidney and Jonah were going to crashes into a drag queen show Findlay and Barnaby were going to

Just cause. Jacob had deal with his corrupt cousin Marissa at a time that’s emotionally sensitive for him. Drummond babysits Skipper and Oswald’s son Theo. Delaney locks Zoey in the panic room after one crack too many. Thornton gets an unwelcome surprise visit from his ex stepcousin Renee. Jonah develops a juvenile crush on Deucalion and Kimberly’s 22 year old son son, Lysander. Guest starring Cathy Ang as Marissa Spratt, Emma Roberts’s as Renee Ullman and Bellamy Young as Jacob’s mother Adelaide Spratt. First appearance of Milo Manheim as Lysander Wilkins.

The sixth family of New York. Findlay petitions Jones to induct the Christensen’s into the Inner Circle on Fifth Avenue

Proxy. Findlay is recruited by Princess Rani’s lawyer to ask Emerson Davenport’s permission for Rani to propose to Aimee. Guest starring Dani Harmer as Harriet Downey, Rhianne Barreto as Rani Burton, Auli’i Cravalho as Aimee Davenport and Chris Pratt as Emerson Davenport

A day at the zoo. Findlay and Sidney are forced onto the sidelines when members of PETA release all the animals at Central Park Zoo. With Barnaby and Jonah still inside.

The list. Season finale. Part one. Thornton’s team investigate serial murders involving a married couple who kill the names on each others Freebie lists

Hits and Mrs. Season finale. Part two. Lucia and Alabaster go undercover to catch the Freebie Fellers.

[gordonwilliamsweb]

12,000 Square Miles Without Obstetrics? It’s a Possibility in West Texas

The message from Big Bend Regional Medical Center was stark: The only hospital in a sparsely populated region of far West Texas notified local physicians last month that because of a nursing shortage its labor and delivery unit needed to temporarily close its doors and that women in labor should instead be sent to the next closest hospital — an hour’s drive away.

That is, unless the baby’s arrival appears imminent, and the hospital’s unit is shut down at that point. In that case, a woman would deliver in the emergency room, said Dr. Jim Luecke, who has practiced 30-plus years in the area.

But that can be a tough call, he added. Luecke described his concerns for two patients, both nearing their due date, who had previously given birth, boosting the chance of a faster delivery. “They can go from 4 centimeters dilated to completely dilated within a few minutes,” said the family physician, who estimates he’s delivered 3,000 babies.

Some pregnant women already travel an hour and a half or longer to reach the 25-bed Big Bend Regional in Alpine, said Dr. Adrian Billings, another family physician who delivers babies there. “Now to divert these ambulances at least another 60 miles away, it’s asking for more deliveries to happen en route to the hospital, and potentially poor maternal or neonatal outcomes.”

Luecke can’t recall a time when the obstetrics unit at Big Bend Regional has closed.

But it’s happening in other parts of the state: Ten rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies in the past five years or so, leaving 65 out of 157 that still do, according to the Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals.

Hiring and retaining rural nurses has become even more challenging amid the pandemic as nurses have been recruited to work in urban covid-19 hot spots and sometimes don’t return to their communities, said John Henderson, chief executive officer at TORCH. More recently, some Texas hospitals have offered signing bonuses of $10,000 or more as they jockey for nurses, he said. “Covid has caused a resetting of market rates and a reshuffling of nurse staffing.”

The circumstances at Big Bend Regional, which serves a 12,000-square-mile area (about the size of Maryland), illustrates the ripple effects of potentially losing obstetric services across a broader region. The hospital, owned by Quorum Health Corp., serves a swath that extends southwest to the Mexican border and includes Big Bend National Park as well as the communities of Presidio and Candelaria. The nearest hospital, the 25-bed Pecos County Memorial in Fort Stockton, is 68 miles northeast of Alpine.

As of late July, Big Bend Regional’s obstetrics services remained in flux, with the unit closed for four- and five-day stretches, said Billings. Physicians have been told that the unit would typically remain open only Monday morning through Thursday morning of each week until more nurses arrive, he said.

The staffing crisis highlights the need for more state and national efforts to train rural nurses and other clinicians, Billings added. “The big concern that I have is that, if we don’t fix this, this could be the beginning of a rural maternity care desert out here in the Big Bend.”

The hospital, which delivered 136 babies last year, said it is “working feverishly to ensure adequate staffing levels in the coming weeks,” recruiting to fill 10 nursing positions in the labor and delivery unit, according to a statement to KHN. “When our hospital is on diversion for elective OB patients, we communicate in advance with nearby emergency transport services and acute care providers to ensure continuity of care,” the statement said.

Kelly Jones of Alpine, who worried she was having contractions, couldn’t get anyone to pick up the phone for a few hours at Big Bend’s unit in mid-July. She decided to drop off her son at a friend’s house and head to the hospital.

Jones, who is nearly full term, knew the unit had been closed a few days earlier that month but didn’t realize that closures were still occurring. “I went in and said, ‘I think I’m in labor.’ They were like, ‘Well, you can’t go into labor and delivery because they’re closed. So we’re going to take you to the ER.’” In the end, medical personnel determined she wasn’t going to deliver that day and she went home.

Since the hospital first alerted doctors last month, the unit has been on diversion July 5-9, July 14-18 and then again July 22 until Sunday, July 25, according to Billings. Efforts were being made to recruit nurses from Odessa, 150 miles away, to fill in, but the outcome was uncertain, Billings said.

Luecke scheduled an induction for one patient for July 26, when her pregnancy would be at 39 weeks — a week short of full term — and the unit was scheduled to be open. “We are trying to induce them [women] on the days that they [the hospital’s unit] are open,” he said.

Jones, who is being cared for by another physician, is scheduled for induction Aug. 2, at 39 weeks. “For a while, I was not sleeping. I was really stressed. I was panicking about every scenario,” said the 30-year-old, whose pregnancy was initially considered high risk because her son had been born prematurely.

But Jones felt better once her induction date was set. And what if the baby arrives sooner and the unit is closed? She’s been told to go to the ER, to be taken from there by ambulance to the local airport and flown to Fort Stockton.

Malynda Richardson, director of emergency medical services for the town of Presidio, which sits along the Mexican border about 90 miles from Alpine, said its first responders transport more than two dozen women with pregnancy-related issues each year, most of them in labor, including an average of two who deliver en route. First responders, including paramedics, are not typically trained to assess a woman’s cervix for dilation, making it more difficult to gauge imminent delivery, she said.

Also, when responders drive an additional two to three hours round trip to reach Fort Stockton, that affects the Presidio community, which can reliably staff only one ambulance, Richardson said. “What happens when we do have that transport [of a woman in labor] and have to go to Fort Stockton and then we have somebody else down here having a heart attack and we don’t have an ambulance available?”

Rural obstetrics units require far more nurses than doctors to remain open, so diverting women elsewhere in the short term makes sense, said Dr. Tony Ogburn, who chairs the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine. “If you don’t have trained nurses there, it doesn’t matter if you have a physician that can do a C-section or do a delivery; you can’t take care of those patients safely,” he said.

Registered nurses who work in labor and delivery have completed specialized training, such as how to read a fetal heart monitor, so a nurse from the ER or another hospital unit can’t easily step in, Billings said. “It’s kind of like having a small football team or a small soccer team and not being able to pull from the bench,” he said.

Billings said he’s reached out to Dr. Michael Galloway, who chairs the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Odessa and has been helping coordinate efforts to recruit nurses from that city. But even if Odessa nurses agree to pick up some shifts at Big Bend Regional, they are likely a stopgap solution, said Billings, who questions how long they’d be willing to work so far away from home.

Luecke believes Big Bend Regional administrators are doing everything they can to improve nurse staffing. But, like Billings, he’s worried that these July temporary closures could become longer-term.

“We are hoping August will be a different situation,” Luecke said. “But it’s pretty iffy right now.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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12,000 Square Miles Without Obstetrics? It’s a Possibility in West Texas published first on https://nootropicspowdersupplier.tumblr.com/

[stephenmccull]

12,000 Square Miles Without Obstetrics? It’s a Possibility in West Texas

The message from Big Bend Regional Medical Center was stark: The only hospital in a sparsely populated region of far West Texas notified local physicians last month that because of a nursing shortage its labor and delivery unit needed to temporarily close its doors and that women in labor should instead be sent to the next closest hospital — an hour’s drive away.

That is, unless the baby’s arrival appears imminent, and the hospital’s unit is shut down at that point. In that case, a woman would deliver in the emergency room, said Dr. Jim Luecke, who has practiced 30-plus years in the area.

But that can be a tough call, he added. Luecke described his concerns for two patients, both nearing their due date, who had previously given birth, boosting the chance of a faster delivery. “They can go from 4 centimeters dilated to completely dilated within a few minutes,” said the family physician, who estimates he’s delivered 3,000 babies.

Some pregnant women already travel an hour and a half or longer to reach the 25-bed Big Bend Regional in Alpine, said Dr. Adrian Billings, another family physician who delivers babies there. “Now to divert these ambulances at least another 60 miles away, it’s asking for more deliveries to happen en route to the hospital, and potentially poor maternal or neonatal outcomes.”

Luecke can’t recall a time when the obstetrics unit at Big Bend Regional has closed.

But it’s happening in other parts of the state: Ten rural hospitals have stopped delivering babies in the past five years or so, leaving 65 out of 157 that still do, according to the Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals.

Hiring and retaining rural nurses has become even more challenging amid the pandemic as nurses have been recruited to work in urban covid-19 hot spots and sometimes don’t return to their communities, said John Henderson, chief executive officer at TORCH. More recently, some Texas hospitals have offered signing bonuses of $10,000 or more as they jockey for nurses, he said. “Covid has caused a resetting of market rates and a reshuffling of nurse staffing.”

The circumstances at Big Bend Regional, which serves a 12,000-square-mile area (about the size of Maryland), illustrates the ripple effects of potentially losing obstetric services across a broader region. The hospital, owned by Quorum Health Corp., serves a swath that extends southwest to the Mexican border and includes Big Bend National Park as well as the communities of Presidio and Candelaria. The nearest hospital, the 25-bed Pecos County Memorial in Fort Stockton, is 68 miles northeast of Alpine.

As of late July, Big Bend Regional’s obstetrics services remained in flux, with the unit closed for four- and five-day stretches, said Billings. Physicians have been told that the unit would typically remain open only Monday morning through Thursday morning of each week until more nurses arrive, he said.

The staffing crisis highlights the need for more state and national efforts to train rural nurses and other clinicians, Billings added. “The big concern that I have is that, if we don’t fix this, this could be the beginning of a rural maternity care desert out here in the Big Bend.”

The hospital, which delivered 136 babies last year, said it is “working feverishly to ensure adequate staffing levels in the coming weeks,” recruiting to fill 10 nursing positions in the labor and delivery unit, according to a statement to KHN. “When our hospital is on diversion for elective OB patients, we communicate in advance with nearby emergency transport services and acute care providers to ensure continuity of care,” the statement said.

Kelly Jones of Alpine, who worried she was having contractions, couldn’t get anyone to pick up the phone for a few hours at Big Bend’s unit in mid-July. She decided to drop off her son at a friend’s house and head to the hospital.

Jones, who is nearly full term, knew the unit had been closed a few days earlier that month but didn’t realize that closures were still occurring. “I went in and said, ‘I think I’m in labor.’ They were like, ‘Well, you can’t go into labor and delivery because they’re closed. So we’re going to take you to the ER.’” In the end, medical personnel determined she wasn’t going to deliver that day and she went home.

Since the hospital first alerted doctors last month, the unit has been on diversion July 5-9, July 14-18 and then again July 22 until Sunday, July 25, according to Billings. Efforts were being made to recruit nurses from Odessa, 150 miles away, to fill in, but the outcome was uncertain, Billings said.

Luecke scheduled an induction for one patient for July 26, when her pregnancy would be at 39 weeks — a week short of full term — and the unit was scheduled to be open. “We are trying to induce them [women] on the days that they [the hospital’s unit] are open,” he said.

Jones, who is being cared for by another physician, is scheduled for induction Aug. 2, at 39 weeks. “For a while, I was not sleeping. I was really stressed. I was panicking about every scenario,” said the 30-year-old, whose pregnancy was initially considered high risk because her son had been born prematurely.

But Jones felt better once her induction date was set. And what if the baby arrives sooner and the unit is closed? She’s been told to go to the ER, to be taken from there by ambulance to the local airport and flown to Fort Stockton.

Malynda Richardson, director of emergency medical services for the town of Presidio, which sits along the Mexican border about 90 miles from Alpine, said its first responders transport more than two dozen women with pregnancy-related issues each year, most of them in labor, including an average of two who deliver en route. First responders, including paramedics, are not typically trained to assess a woman’s cervix for dilation, making it more difficult to gauge imminent delivery, she said.

Also, when responders drive an additional two to three hours round trip to reach Fort Stockton, that affects the Presidio community, which can reliably staff only one ambulance, Richardson said. “What happens when we do have that transport [of a woman in labor] and have to go to Fort Stockton and then we have somebody else down here having a heart attack and we don’t have an ambulance available?”

Rural obstetrics units require far more nurses than doctors to remain open, so diverting women elsewhere in the short term makes sense, said Dr. Tony Ogburn, who chairs the department of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley School of Medicine. “If you don’t have trained nurses there, it doesn’t matter if you have a physician that can do a C-section or do a delivery; you can’t take care of those patients safely,” he said.

Registered nurses who work in labor and delivery have completed specialized training, such as how to read a fetal heart monitor, so a nurse from the ER or another hospital unit can’t easily step in, Billings said. “It’s kind of like having a small football team or a small soccer team and not being able to pull from the bench,” he said.

Billings said he’s reached out to Dr. Michael Galloway, who chairs the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center in Odessa and has been helping coordinate efforts to recruit nurses from that city. But even if Odessa nurses agree to pick up some shifts at Big Bend Regional, they are likely a stopgap solution, said Billings, who questions how long they’d be willing to work so far away from home.

Luecke believes Big Bend Regional administrators are doing everything they can to improve nurse staffing. But, like Billings, he’s worried that these July temporary closures could become longer-term.

“We are hoping August will be a different situation,” Luecke said. “But it’s pretty iffy right now.”

KHN (Kaiser Health News) is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues. Together with Policy Analysis and Polling, KHN is one of the three major operating programs at KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation). KFF is an endowed nonprofit organization providing information on health issues to the nation.

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This story can be republished for free (details).

12,000 Square Miles Without Obstetrics? It’s a Possibility in West Texas published first on https://smartdrinkingweb.weebly.com/

[kevrocksicehouse]

Nick Nolte starred in North Dallas Forty, one of the best and most cynical football movies. A few other films with an irreverent look at America’s real national pastime.

The Freshman. D: Fred C. Newmeyer and Sam Taylor (1925). A nerd (Harold Lloyd) tries to become the Big Man on Campus at a university described as “A football stadium with a college attached” in this freewheeling silent slapstick look at college sports.

Horse Feathers. D: Norman Z. McLeod. (1932). Moving on from slapstick to sheer anarchy with the Marx Brothers who send up corrupt coaches (Groucho: “My boy, get in there and play like you did in the last game. I’ve got five dollars bet on the other team.”) Inspirational speeches (Groucho “Boys if you can’t beat that bunch of half-witted goofs” “Dad, you’re talking to the wrong team.” “I know I am, but our team wouldn’t listen to me!”) and the game itself where Harpo scores the winning touchdown in a horse-drawn garbage can.

The Best of Times. D: Roger Spottiswoode (1986). In this satire of football-mania, Robin Williams is a banker in a small town who fourteen years ago dropped the ball in a crucial game against their high school’s arch-rival. He gets the idea to replay the game with the original players.  Hilarity really does ensue.

Any Given Sunday. D: Oliver Stone (1999). A look at back-office politics on a fictional Miami team that has just suffered key midseason player injuries, centers on the conflict between a thirty-year veteran coach (Al Pacino) and the team’s new owner (Cameron Diaz) and involving an egocentric third-string quarterback (Jamie Foxx) an unethical team doctor (James Woods) and a tech-savvy offensive coordinator with an eye on Pacino’s job, all directed by Stone in his trademark overheated style. Turns out it’s a good fit for the subject.

Friday Night Lights. D: Peter Berg (2004). Billy Bob Thornton is the coach of The Permian Panthers, an Odessa Texas team in this unsentimental depiction of high school football that later spawned an excellent TV series by the same name. Whether the team wins or loses counts, but not as much as what the game does for (and to) its players.

[gigijb1969]

Rockets 2025, Thursday, May 1, Central Texas/Stonewall Launch Report

Rockets 2025, Central Texas/Stonewall Edition, began today. The original schedule listed 20 rockets for today launched by 6 schools. Of those, 19 were successfully tested today. All were good flights, some lacked deployment of chutes. Quite a few were successfully recovered, though some will need to be searched for tomorrow while retrieving new launches. The site took on a new look this year as…

[itsfinancethings]

Lori Alhadeff is haunted by the fact that she did not send her 14-year-old daughter to school with a bulletproof backpack. The mother of three had wanted to buy one but never got around to it. By Feb. 14, 2018, it was too late. Her first child, Alyssa, was fatally shot trying to hide under a classroom table at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. “I wish to this day that I did give that protection to Alyssa. It could have saved her life,” Alhadeff says. “Obviously, I regret that.”

After the massacre, which killed 16 others, Alhadeff bought bulletproof backpacks for her two sons, who are now 14 and 12. “I have peace in my heart for my two boys, at least, that I’m doing everything in my power to protect them,” says Alhadeff, who won’t let her sons go to school without the backpacks.

With more than 69 people killed so far in mass shootings in the U.S. in 2019, thousands of Americans like Alhadeff are seeking security through an explosion of products marketed to those scared of being shot or of losing loved ones to gun violence. Backpacks that double as shields are sold by major department stores, including Home Depot and Bed, Bath & Beyond. There are bulletproof hoodies for children as young as 6; protective whiteboards and windows; armored doors and anchors designed to keep shooters out of classrooms; and smart cameras powered by artificial intelligence that alert authorities to threats. In Fruitport, Mich., officials are building a $48 million high school specially designed to deter active shooters, with curved walls to reduce a shooter’s line of sight, bulletproof windows and a special locking system.

In 2017, U.S. schools spent at least $2.7 billion on security systems, and that’s on top of the money spent by individuals on things like bulletproof backpacks, the IHS Markit consulting firm reported. Five years ago, in 2014, the figure was about $768 million, IHS said. But school shootings haven’t decreased in frequency, and critics of the growing industry in bullet-resistant items say the only beneficiaries of these so-called security measures are the people making money off of them.

“These companies are capitalizing on parents’ fears,” says Shannon Watts, a mother of five who founded the gun control advocacy group Moms Demand Action following the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre that killed 20 first-graders and six educators.

In September, as students were returning to school, Sandy Hook Promise, a gun violence prevention nonprofit led by family members of Sandy Hook victims, released a video that used biting satire to highlight the bulletproof industry and the country’s failure to prevent mass shootings. It shows cheerful children returning for classes and using their new clothes and back-to-school supplies to save themselves and others from a shooter. One boy shows off his new skateboard, then uses it to smash a window and escape; a girl demonstrates how her new socks can be used to tie a tourniquet; another uses her jacket to lock a set of double-doors. The message is clear: these shootings should be prevented before kids get to the point of using tube socks to save classmates from bleeding to death.

Survive the school year with these must-have #BackToSchool essentials. https://t.co/9KgxAQ0KGz This PSA contains graphic content related to school shootings & may be upsetting to some viewers. If you feel this subject matter may be difficult for you, you may choose not to watch. pic.twitter.com/5ijYMtXRTy

— Sandy Hook Promise (@sandyhook) September 18, 2019

But with efforts at gun control legislation stalled as the Senate refuses to take up a House-passed bill that would require background checks for private gun sales, even critics of the booming security industry concede it’s unlikely to slow down. “There’s not a parent in the country who isn’t worried that their child will be the next victim of gun violence,” Watts says.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 330 mass shootings—in which at least four people other than the shooter were injured or killed—so far this year in the United States. This summer alone, 31 people were killed in back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio and another 10 died in attacks in Gilroy, Calif. and Odessa, Texas. In the aftermath of each tragedy, companies saw striking growth in profits. “It’s a business fueled by fear,” says Sean Burke, president of the School Safety Advocacy Council, which works with school districts and police departments.

TuffyPacks, an online retailer selling ballistic shields that are inserted into backpacks, reported up to a 500% increase in sales after the shootings in El Paso and Dayton in early August, which coincided with back-to-school shopping season. “Every time shootings occur, we see spikes in sales,” says TuffyPacks CEO Steve Naremor, 63, of Houston, Texas, who insists his company’s $129 inserts are no different from other safety equipment, like fire extinguishers and bicycle helmets. Guard Dog Security, a competing company that sells bulletproof backpacks that weigh up to 4.5 pounds and can cost up to $299, couldn’t keep up with the orders. “They were selling out faster than we could get it back in stock,” says Yasir Sheikh, its 34-year-old CEO. Sheikh—who like Naremor declined to disclose revenue figures—launched his company in 2009 but didn’t see a huge demand until Sandy Hook.

The demand that follows mass shootings prompted Vy Tran, 25, to quit her job and use $100,000 in savings and retirement funds to start selling homemade bulletproof hoodies. Her company, Wonder Hoodie, began as a side business, which she launched after her next-door neighbor, a mother of two, was shot dead in their Seattle neighborhood during an attempted robbery in 2016.

Panicked after the killing, Tran says she searched online for body armor to protect her mother and younger brother, but the products she found were either too expensive or too heavy. So Tran, a health and safety consultant, decided to make them herself, using Kevlar that she ordered online. Tran was making an average of one or two hoodies a week until 58 people were killed at a Las Vegas music festival on Oct. 1, 2017 in the worst mass shooting in modern history. Sales spiked, and there were suddenly 10 to 15 requests pouring in every day.

Courtesy: Vy TranVy Tran in one of her bulletproof Wonder Hoodies

“I couldn’t keep up with the orders,” says Tran, who hired a team to help her. Wonder Hoodie has since fulfilled almost 1,000 orders for hoodies that cost up to $600 and weigh up to 9 pounds.

It’s not just young and new CEOs leaping into the growing field of gun safety products, and the merchandise isn’t all body armor. Chris Ciabarra and Lisa Falzone of Austin, Texas, launched Athena Security, a smart camera system, after they sold their first tech startup for $500 million in 2017. Athena’s software detects 900 different types of guns and can send an alert and video feed to law enforcement if it senses a threatening movement, like someone pointing a gun, according to Ciabarra. More than 40 schools, malls and businesses in the U.S. use Athena’s software, which charges $100 a month for each camera it monitors. Since schools and malls typically have 100 cameras building-wide, Athena could make more than $100,000 a year monitoring just one school. The weapons detection program has been installed in one of the two New Zealand mosques where a suspected white supremacist opened fire in March, killing 51 worshippers. After the massacre, New Zealand’s prime minister banned assault weapons. But that’s not likely to happen in the United States, says Ciabarra. Even presidential candidates during the fourth Democratic debate Tuesday night couldn’t seem to agree on how to manage assault weapons. Rep. Beto O’Rourke and South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg clashed on the best way to get the weapons off the streets, whether by banning the sale of assault weapons or also instating mandatory buyback programs.

“We’re not going to change the law and forbid guns. It’s not going to happen,” Ciabarra says. “People will have weapons.”

Jason Connolly—AFP/Getty ImagesAA teacher takes part in an active shooter drill during a firearms course for teachers and administrators in Commerce City, Colorado on June 28, 2018.

When Mike Lahiff, a former Navy Seal, launched ZeroEyes, a competing gun-detection system based in Philadelphia, he and his team of fellow veterans saw it as a continued service to the country. Lahiff, a 38-year-old father of four, hopes the U.S. will find a way to reduce gun violence and put him out of business. “If the active shooter problem goes away, and that’s the end of the company, then great,” he says, “that’s a win for me.”

***

While mass tragedies spark surges in sales, most of the bulletproof products on the market today, including backpacks and hoodies, would not withstand the force of the assault-style weapons commonly used in high-casualty attacks. Killers used assault-style weapons in the Sandy Hook and Parkland school shootings, as well as in El Paso and Dayton. The products would, however, protect against most handguns—the weapon of choice in the majority of U.S. gun murders in 2018, according to newly released FBI data. Handguns were used in nearly 65% of the roughly 10,000 gun murders that year, while rifles were used in about 3% of the cases, statistics show.

But spending hundreds of dollars on a hoodie or backpack is not a viable option for many people, particularly those living in lower-income neighborhoods plagued by gun violence. In St. Louis, for example—which has the highest murder rate among major cities in the nation, according to FBI data—more than 65,000 people are living below poverty, and the median household income is about $44,000, according to estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau. Even across the nation, many Americans are not prepared to handle a sudden expense of $400 or more, like replacing a broken car engine or visiting an emergency room without insurance, according to a recent report by the Federal Reserve. Nearly 30% would have to borrow or sell something to pay for the expense, and 12% would not be able to cover the expense at all, the report says.

NICHOLAS KAMM—AFP/Getty ImagesBulletproof whiteboards and backpack inserts at the Hardwire factory in Pocomoke City, Maryland, on March 1, 2018.

Bulletproof products may make consumers feel safer, but they may be putting people in more danger, according to school safety experts like Michael Dorn, a former police chief for the Bibb County School District in Georgia who’s now the executive director of Safe Havens International, a nonprofit that advises schools on security. Dorn worries that in a shooting situation, students with bulletproof backpacks may expose themselves to greater risk by standing in place and holding up their packs for protection instead of running away. “A focus on the armor could result in death because people don’t focus instead on things they need to do like lock a door,” says Dorn.

The products may also be distracting officials and parents from focusing on long-term solutions to gun violence, like adequate training and stronger gun laws, critics say. School districts investing in these products are doing so, in many cases, knowing they’re not real fixes, according to Ken Trump, a school safety expert and president of the consulting firm National School Safety and Security Services. “They rely on the hardware, the technology, the gadgets, so they can focus less on the human side,” he says.

Researchers have found some evidence that so-called red flag laws, which allow courts to take guns away from potentially dangerous people, may help stop mass shootings. A recent study by the University of California Davis School of Medicine cited 21 cases in which such a law in California was used to help prevent potential mass shootings in the state. The measure exists in 16 other states and Washington, D.C.

Rather than buy body armor or conduct active shooter training drills, school officials and parents should focus more on early intervention strategies, including student-threat assessments and better student supervision, according to gun control advocates and safety experts. Dorn, who has an 11-year-old son, says he wouldn’t let his child carry a bulletproof product to school, even if it was free. “I teach him how to be alert and react rather than rely on something that’s so statistically unlikely to do any good,” he says.

Alhadeff knows the backpacks she bought for her sons are only the last layer of protection. To improve safety in other ways, she launched a national nonprofit, Make Our Schools Safe, and won a seat on the local school board, where she’s pushed for legislation to make schools safer. In February, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy enacted “Alyssa’s Law,” named for Alhadeff’s daughter, which requires every public elementary and secondary school in the state to install a silent panic alarm button. When pressed, the alarm would immediately alert local law enforcement, reducing emergency response times. On Oct. 4, a bipartisan version of the bill was introduced in Congress.

“Before the shooting, my biggest fear was whether my children would do well on their tests,” Alhadeff says. “It’s sad and unfortunate that our society has come to this.”

[rolandfontana]

How the Media Abets ‘Fame-Seeking’ Mass Shooters

Media coverage of mass shooters feeds their urge for fame and notoriety, according to a study published in Aggression and Violent Behavior.

Half of the 10 most widely covered mass shootings since 1999 were perpetrated by individuals classified as “fame-seekers,” measured by their actions both before and after the incidents, according to the study co-authored by Jason R. Silva, an assistant professor at William Paterson University; and Emily Ann Greene-Colozzi, a doctoral candidate at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Blaming the “symbiotic relationship” between mass media and mass shooters, the study argued that news outlets’ “efforts to satiate the public’s fascination with violence (by) reporting …sensational and violent forms of homicide,” is exploited by so-called “fame-seekers” wielding guns.

The authors said that their research, which found an apparent “media bias toward perpetrators who actively seek out fame,” suggests “the media is not responding to the characteristics of the event itself, like casualties or location, but is instead devoting attention to fame-seekers, at least in part, because of the fame-seeking behaviors they exhibit before and during the attack.”

The authors identified 45 cases out of the 308 incidents of mass shootings between 1996 and 2018 that they categorized as “fame-seeking.” Five of the ten most widely covered incidents since the 1999 Columbine High School shooting were perpetrated by individuals who wanted media attention, they found.

“Fame-seeking mass shooters are differentiated from other mass shooters by their explicit desire for infamy,” they wrote, noting that the media is quick to take the bait.

“The media has been providing sensational coverage to mass shooters for decades, [but] only recently has the general public become aware of the ramifications of this attention,” the study said.

The researchers found that “96 percent of fame-seeking mass shooters received at least one mention in the New York Times, compared to about 74 percent of their [non-fame seeking] counterparts.”

“In fact, the Columbine, Sandy Hook, Tucson, Virginia Tech, and the Orlando shooters received 38 percent of all the articles dedicated to all mass shootings from 1966 to May 2018,” the study added.

The authors offered the example of the May 2018 Santa Fe, Tx high school shooting, which left 10 dead and 13 wounded. Just before the event, the shooter posted a photo on Facebook with the message, “BORN TO KILL.”

Within hours of the attack, his name and face were seen by the public around the world.

Photos of the shooter surfaced afterwards, showing him in a black trench coat similar to the “iconic attire” the Columbine shooters wore.

The fame-seeking perpetrators identified in the study were overwhelmingly young white males (80 percent) targeting schools. In addition, they often perceived themselves as victims.

The study found that these shooters were more likely to use multiple weapons (often obtained illegally), and exhibited signs of mental illness (66.7 percent), grandiose behaviors (86.7 percent), narcissism, and suicidal tendencies (42.2 percent).

Silva suggested their urge to revenge real or perceived social rejection and isolation motivated a compulsion to make their acts as widely known as possible.

With the number of “fame-seeking” shooters growing since the turn of the century, the authors said it was time for the media to acknowledge its role.

“In many ways, the media controls both what issues the public views and how this information is framed,” they wrote, suggesting that the press “can help to discourage copycats and fame-seekers through anonymized narratives.”

But it isn’t certain that such forbearance will work.

After a September 2019 shooting in West Texas, Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke refused to provide the name of the gunman on live television.

“I’m not going to give him any notoriety for what he did,” Gerke told the Associated Press.

Nevertheless, within minutes, Twitter lit up, circulating his name like wildfire. Twitter users accessed the information easily from the Odessa Police Department’s Facebook page.

In this era of a saturation of social media and around-the-clock news, it’s “next to impossible to keep a lid on such information,” the Associated Press concluded.

Nevertheless, the study warned that the concentrated amount of media attention obtained by perpetrators leaves the impression that the press is reinforcing their initial motivations, and paves the way for “copycat” actions.

“While the ‘No Notoriety‘ campaign and ‘Don’t Name Them’ movement have been vital for reducing attention to perpetrators — and focusing on victims — there is still a need for further….responsible reporting of mass shootings,” the researchers wrote.

The full study, Fame-seeking Mass shooters in America: Severity, Characteristics, and Media Coverage can be downloaded here.

Andrea Cipriano is a staff writer for The Crime Report.

How the Media Abets ‘Fame-Seeking’ Mass Shooters syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/

[gigijb1969]

Rockets 2024, Friday, May 3, Central Texas/Stonewall Weather Weary Launch Report

[itsfinancethings]

October 18, 2019 at 06:00AM

Lori Alhadeff is haunted by the fact that she did not send her 14-year-old daughter to school with a bulletproof backpack. The mother of three had wanted to buy one but never got around to it. By Feb. 14, 2018, it was too late. Her first child, Alyssa, was fatally shot trying to hide under a classroom table at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. “I wish to this day that I did give that protection to Alyssa. It could have saved her life,” Alhadeff says. “Obviously, I regret that.”

After the massacre, which killed 16 others, Alhadeff bought bulletproof backpacks for her two sons, who are now 14 and 12. “I have peace in my heart for my two boys, at least, that I’m doing everything in my power to protect them,” says Alhadeff, who won’t let her sons go to school without the backpacks.

With more than 69 people killed so far in mass shootings in the U.S. in 2019, thousands of Americans like Alhadeff are seeking security through an explosion of products marketed to those scared of being shot or of losing loved ones to gun violence. Backpacks that double as shields are sold by major department stores, including Home Depot and Bed, Bath & Beyond. There are bulletproof hoodies for children as young as 6; protective whiteboards and windows; armored doors and anchors designed to keep shooters out of classrooms; and smart cameras powered by artificial intelligence that alert authorities to threats. In Fruitport, Mich., officials are building a $48 million high school specially designed to deter active shooters, with curved walls to reduce a shooter’s line of sight, bulletproof windows and a special locking system.

In 2017, U.S. schools spent at least $2.7 billion on security systems, and that’s on top of the money spent by individuals on things like bulletproof backpacks, the IHS Markit consulting firm reported. Five years ago, in 2014, the figure was about $768 million, IHS said. But school shootings haven’t decreased in frequency, and critics of the growing industry in bullet-resistant items say the only beneficiaries of these so-called security measures are the people making money off of them.

“These companies are capitalizing on parents’ fears,” says Shannon Watts, a mother of five who founded the gun control advocacy group Moms Demand Action following the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre that killed 20 first-graders and six educators.

In September, as students were returning to school, Sandy Hook Promise, a gun violence prevention nonprofit led by family members of Sandy Hook victims, released a video that used biting satire to highlight the bulletproof industry and the country’s failure to prevent mass shootings. It shows cheerful children returning for classes and using their new clothes and back-to-school supplies to save themselves and others from a shooter. One boy shows off his new skateboard, then uses it to smash a window and escape; a girl demonstrates how her new socks can be used to tie a tourniquet; another uses her jacket to lock a set of double-doors. The message is clear: these shootings should be prevented before kids get to the point of using tube socks to save classmates from bleeding to death.

Survive the school year with these must-have #BackToSchool essentials. https://t.co/9KgxAQ0KGz This PSA contains graphic content related to school shootings & may be upsetting to some viewers. If you feel this subject matter may be difficult for you, you may choose not to watch. pic.twitter.com/5ijYMtXRTy

— Sandy Hook Promise (@sandyhook) September 18, 2019

But with efforts at gun control legislation stalled as the Senate refuses to take up a House-passed bill that would require background checks for private gun sales, even critics of the booming security industry concede it’s unlikely to slow down. “There’s not a parent in the country who isn’t worried that their child will be the next victim of gun violence,” Watts says.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been more than 330 mass shootings—in which at least four people other than the shooter were injured or killed—so far this year in the United States. This summer alone, 31 people were killed in back-to-back mass shootings in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio and another 10 died in attacks in Gilroy, Calif. and Odessa, Texas. In the aftermath of each tragedy, companies saw striking growth in profits. “It’s a business fueled by fear,” says Sean Burke, president of the School Safety Advocacy Council, which works with school districts and police departments.

TuffyPacks, an online retailer selling ballistic shields that are inserted into backpacks, reported up to a 500% increase in sales after the shootings in El Paso and Dayton in early August, which coincided with back-to-school shopping season. “Every time shootings occur, we see spikes in sales,” says TuffyPacks CEO Steve Naremor, 63, of Houston, Texas, who insists his company’s $129 inserts are no different from other safety equipment, like fire extinguishers and bicycle helmets. Guard Dog Security, a competing company that sells bulletproof backpacks that weigh up to 4.5 pounds and can cost up to $299, couldn’t keep up with the orders. “They were selling out faster than we could get it back in stock,” says Yasir Sheikh, its 34-year-old CEO. Sheikh—who like Naremor declined to disclose revenue figures—launched his company in 2009 but didn’t see a huge demand until Sandy Hook.

The demand that follows mass shootings prompted Vy Tran, 25, to quit her job and use $100,000 in savings and retirement funds to start selling homemade bulletproof hoodies. Her company, Wonder Hoodie, began as a side business, which she launched after her next-door neighbor, a mother of two, was shot dead in their Seattle neighborhood during an attempted robbery in 2016.

Panicked after the killing, Tran says she searched online for body armor to protect her mother and younger brother, but the products she found were either too expensive or too heavy. So Tran, a health and safety consultant, decided to make them herself, using Kevlar that she ordered online. Tran was making an average of one or two hoodies a week until 58 people were killed at a Las Vegas music festival on Oct. 1, 2017 in the worst mass shooting in modern history. Sales spiked, and there were suddenly 10 to 15 requests pouring in every day.

Courtesy: Vy TranVy Tran in one of her bulletproof Wonder Hoodies

“I couldn’t keep up with the orders,” says Tran, who hired a team to help her. Wonder Hoodie has since fulfilled almost 1,000 orders for hoodies that cost up to $600 and weigh up to 9 pounds.

It’s not just young and new CEOs leaping into the growing field of gun safety products, and the merchandise isn’t all body armor. Chris Ciabarra and Lisa Falzone of Austin, Texas, launched Athena Security, a smart camera system, after they sold their first tech startup for $500 million in 2017. Athena’s software detects 900 different types of guns and can send an alert and video feed to law enforcement if it senses a threatening movement, like someone pointing a gun, according to Ciabarra. More than 40 schools, malls and businesses in the U.S. use Athena’s software, which charges $100 a month for each camera it monitors. Since schools and malls typically have 100 cameras building-wide, Athena could make more than $100,000 a year monitoring just one school. The weapons detection program has been installed in one of the two New Zealand mosques where a suspected white supremacist opened fire in March, killing 51 worshippers. After the massacre, New Zealand’s prime minister banned assault weapons. But that’s not likely to happen in the United States, says Ciabarra. Even presidential candidates during the fourth Democratic debate Tuesday night couldn’t seem to agree on how to manage assault weapons. Rep. Beto O’Rourke and South Bend, Ind. Mayor Pete Buttigieg clashed on the best way to get the weapons off the streets, whether by banning the sale of assault weapons or also instating mandatory buyback programs.

“We’re not going to change the law and forbid guns. It’s not going to happen,” Ciabarra says. “People will have weapons.”

Jason Connolly—AFP/Getty ImagesAA teacher takes part in an active shooter drill during a firearms course for teachers and administrators in Commerce City, Colorado on June 28, 2018.

When Mike Lahiff, a former Navy Seal, launched ZeroEyes, a competing gun-detection system based in Philadelphia, he and his team of fellow veterans saw it as a continued service to the country. Lahiff, a 38-year-old father of four, hopes the U.S. will find a way to reduce gun violence and put him out of business. “If the active shooter problem goes away, and that’s the end of the company, then great,” he says, “that’s a win for me.”

***

While mass tragedies spark surges in sales, most of the bulletproof products on the market today, including backpacks and hoodies, would not withstand the force of the assault-style weapons commonly used in high-casualty attacks. Killers used assault-style weapons in the Sandy Hook and Parkland school shootings, as well as in El Paso and Dayton. The products would, however, protect against most handguns—the weapon of choice in the majority of U.S. gun murders in 2018, according to newly released FBI data. Handguns were used in nearly 65% of the roughly 10,000 gun murders that year, while rifles were used in about 3% of the cases, statistics show.

But spending hundreds of dollars on a hoodie or backpack is not a viable option for many people, particularly those living in lower-income neighborhoods plagued by gun violence. In St. Louis, for example—which has the highest murder rate among major cities in the nation, according to FBI data—more than 65,000 people are living below poverty, and the median household income is about $44,000, according to estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau. Even across the nation, many Americans are not prepared to handle a sudden expense of $400 or more, like replacing a broken car engine or visiting an emergency room without insurance, according to a recent report by the Federal Reserve. Nearly 30% would have to borrow or sell something to pay for the expense, and 12% would not be able to cover the expense at all, the report says.

NICHOLAS KAMM—AFP/Getty ImagesBulletproof whiteboards and backpack inserts at the Hardwire factory in Pocomoke City, Maryland, on March 1, 2018.

Bulletproof products may make consumers feel safer, but they may be putting people in more danger, according to school safety experts like Michael Dorn, a former police chief for the Bibb County School District in Georgia who’s now the executive director of Safe Havens International, a nonprofit that advises schools on security. Dorn worries that in a shooting situation, students with bulletproof backpacks may expose themselves to greater risk by standing in place and holding up their packs for protection instead of running away. “A focus on the armor could result in death because people don’t focus instead on things they need to do like lock a door,” says Dorn.

The products may also be distracting officials and parents from focusing on long-term solutions to gun violence, like adequate training and stronger gun laws, critics say. School districts investing in these products are doing so, in many cases, knowing they’re not real fixes, according to Ken Trump, a school safety expert and president of the consulting firm National School Safety and Security Services. “They rely on the hardware, the technology, the gadgets, so they can focus less on the human side,” he says.

Researchers have found some evidence that so-called red flag laws, which allow courts to take guns away from potentially dangerous people, may help stop mass shootings. A recent study by the University of California Davis School of Medicine cited 21 cases in which such a law in California was used to help prevent potential mass shootings in the state. The measure exists in 16 other states and Washington, D.C.

Rather than buy body armor or conduct active shooter training drills, school officials and parents should focus more on early intervention strategies, including student-threat assessments and better student supervision, according to gun control advocates and safety experts. Dorn, who has an 11-year-old son, says he wouldn’t let his child carry a bulletproof product to school, even if it was free. “I teach him how to be alert and react rather than rely on something that’s so statistically unlikely to do any good,” he says.

Alhadeff knows the backpacks she bought for her sons are only the last layer of protection. To improve safety in other ways, she launched a national nonprofit, Make Our Schools Safe, and won a seat on the local school board, where she’s pushed for legislation to make schools safer. In February, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy enacted “Alyssa’s Law,” named for Alhadeff’s daughter, which requires every public elementary and secondary school in the state to install a silent panic alarm button. When pressed, the alarm would immediately alert local law enforcement, reducing emergency response times. On Oct. 4, a bipartisan version of the bill was introduced in Congress.

“Before the shooting, my biggest fear was whether my children would do well on their tests,” Alhadeff says. “It’s sad and unfortunate that our society has come to this.”

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‘Fame-Seeking’ Mass Shooters Get the Attention They Want: Study

Media coverage of mass shooters feeds their urge for fame and notoriety, according to a study published in Aggression and Violent Behavior.

Half of the 10 most widely covered mass shootings since 1999 were perpetrated by individuals classified as “fame-seekers,” measured by their actions both before and after the incidents, according to the study co-authored by Jason R. Silva, an assistant professor at William Paterson University; and Emily Ann Greene-Colozzi, a doctoral candidate at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.

Blaming the “symbiotic relationship” between mass media and mass shooters, the study argued that news outlets’ “efforts to satiate the public’s fascination with violence (by) reporting …sensational and violent forms of homicide,” is exploited by so-called “fame-seekers” wielding guns.

The authors said that their research, which found an apparent “media bias toward perpetrators who actively seek out fame,” suggests “the media is not responding to the characteristics of the event itself, like casualties or location, but is instead devoting attention to fame-seekers, at least in part, because of the fame-seeking behaviors they exhibit before and during the attack.”

The authors identified 45 cases out of the 308 incidents of mass shootings between 1996 and 2018 that they categorized as “fame-seeking.” Five of the ten most widely covered incidents since the 1999 Columbine High School shooting were perpetrated by individuals who wanted media attention, they found.

“Fame-seeking mass shooters are differentiated from other mass shooters by their explicit desire for infamy,” they wrote, noting that the media is quick to take the bait.

“The media has been providing sensational coverage to mass shooters for decades, [but] only recently has the general public become aware of the ramifications of this attention,” the study said.

The researchers found that “96 percent of fame-seeking mass shooters received at least one mention in the New York Times, compared to about 74 percent of their [non-fame seeking] counterparts.”

“In fact, the Columbine, Sandy Hook, Tucson, Virginia Tech, and the Orlando shooters received 38 percent of all the articles dedicated to all mass shootings from 1966 to May 2018,” the study added.

The authors offered the example of the May 2018 Santa Fe, Tx high school shooting, which left 10 dead and 13 wounded. Just before the event, the shooter posted a photo on Facebook with the message, “BORN TO KILL.”

Within hours of the attack, his name and face were seen by the public around the world.

Photos of the shooter surfaced afterwards, showing him in a black trench coat similar to the “iconic attire” the Columbine shooters wore.

The fame-seeking perpetrators identified in the study were overwhelmingly young white males (80 percent) targeting schools. In addition, they often perceived themselves as victims.

The study found that these shooters were more likely to use multiple weapons (often obtained illegally), and exhibited signs of mental illness (66.7 percent), grandiose behaviors (86.7 percent), narcissism, and suicidal tendencies (42.2 percent).

Silva suggested their urge to revenge real or perceived social rejection and isolation motivated a compulsion to make their acts as widely known as possible.

With the number of “fame-seeking” shooters growing since the turn of the century, the authors said it was time for the media to acknowledge its role.

“In many ways, the media controls both what issues the public views and how this information is framed,” they wrote, suggesting that the press “can help to discourage copycats and fame-seekers through anonymized narratives.”

But it isn’t certain that such forbearance will work.

After a September 2019 shooting in West Texas, Odessa Police Chief Michael Gerke refused to provide the name of the gunman on live television.

“I’m not going to give him any notoriety for what he did,” Gerke told the Associated Press.

Nevertheless, within minutes, Twitter lit up, circulating his name like wildfire. Twitter users accessed the information easily from the Odessa Police Department’s Facebook page.

In this era of a saturation of social media and around-the-clock news, it’s “next to impossible to keep a lid on such information,” the Associated Press concluded.

Nevertheless, the study warned that the concentrated amount of media attention obtained by perpetrators leaves the impression that the press is reinforcing their initial motivations, and paves the way for “copycat” actions.

“While the ‘No Notoriety‘ campaign and ‘Don’t Name Them’ movement have been vital for reducing attention to perpetrators — and focusing on victims — there is still a need for further….responsible reporting of mass shootings,” the researchers wrote.

The full study, Fame-seeking Mass shooters in America: Severity, Characteristics, and Media Coverage can be downloaded here.

Andrea Cipriano is a staff writer for The Crime Report.

‘Fame-Seeking’ Mass Shooters Get the Attention They Want: Study syndicated from https://immigrationattorneyto.wordpress.com/