#am interested to see what peony���s new form will look like

[thefederalistfreestyle]

A Student Day at ‘Hamilton’ (ZEALnyc):

[. . .] On the day of the event students begin arriving at the Richard Rodgers Theatre at 9:30 a.m. checking in for the morning session. For this particular student matinee on May 23, the audience was comprised of students from sixteen different high schools (all from the New York City school system), and from which ten have been chosen to perform in front of their peers on the stage of the theater — the same stage where they will see Hamilton later in the afternoon.

I was able to speak with two different groups of students to find out how each of them found their way to Hamilton. First, speaking with Isabel Rambarran and Nicole Nelson from the Manhattan Early College for Advertising, I wanted to find out how much they knew about the show Hamilton prior to working on their project. Isabel said “It all started in our history class. I had only seen billboards (of the show) and stuff and I said ‘yeah, I’m interested.’ I never thought we would get to this point (onstage of the Broadway theater hosting the production). We got an amazing response from our performance at school.” Then Nicole offered her completely opposite experience: “I love musicals. I’ve been to probably over 50 musicals in my lifetime. I’ve seen Hamilton twice before — including the original cast at the Public Theater.”

I then asked how seeing and studying Hamilton affected the way they look at history, with Isabel offering “I feel like Hamilton puts a modern twist on history because not everyone can learn from a textbook, but by coming to a Broadway play it teaches in an understandable way.” Nicole added “It’s a really diverse cast, and coming from a diverse school, I know that we can all benefit from seeing people who look like us on the Hamilton stage, so I think that’s better for us to relate to what they are talking about from 200 years ago.”

Speaking with students from the West Brooklyn Community High School (Leonard Silva, Hector Yanez Rosales and Jesenia “Jessie” Hernandez), they offered their perspective on the experience. Jessie said “[It] started with a history class and then through class we started making creative pieces that were poems or songs or skits, etc.” Hector said “I didn’t even really know about the show until I got this opportunity, but as soon as I started working on the project I have learned so much about it.” When I asked who was responsible for the script of their presentation, they said that it was a group effort by many of their classmates, but Leonard admitted “He (pointing to Hector) did a lot of the writing.”

[. . .] The session begins with a skit by “47” The American Sign Language and English Secondary School voicing anti-establishment sentiments with the words “Trump” and “dirty dump” as part of its rhyme scheme; the audience reacts accordingly.

The presentations continue with a variety of poems and rap, with the students of Dr. Susan S. McKinney Secondary School of the Arts bringing out a drum, trumpet and a euphonium to back up their rapping vocalist (Zanaya Hollis). There is dramatic monologue by Peony Nobrega-Walcott from the High School of Economics & Finance that references black slavery and the “Massa” of Massachusettes harkening back to the form of address used by enslaved ancestors, while students from Robert F. Kennedy Community High School presented a strong assault on the horrors of our present gun control laws in relation to the Second Amendment, incorporating statistics and the realities of what going to school in this current climate of mass shootings is like and the fear and pain that high school students (and younger) are dealing with on a daily basis.

I must say I wasn’t prepared for the affect these student presentations would have on the audience, as well as for myself — someone so far removed from the everyday experience of being a teenager attending an urban metropolitan melting pot institution of learning. The students in this particular audience may not have reflected the “average” NYC student, since each one of them had to study and prepare to prove themselves worthy of taking advantage of this opportunity, but it was heartening to hear their words, have them share their talents, and realize this is our future — America’s future. And to also understand that an artistic work such as Hamilton could be the catalyst for focusing these future leaders to learn from the past and try to avoid previous mistakes, all while hoping to make things better. It was a humbling and awe-inspiring experience to say the least.

[. . .]

The morning’s presentation came to a close and a much needed lunch break began so everyone could clear their heads and prepare for what brought everyone here in the first place — seeing a matinee performance of Hamilton. Flash forward to 1:30 p.m. as the students are assembling back to the theater and taking their seats for the main attraction. Again, the energy in the theater is palpable, and as the house lights dim the show begins. I think I am able to say that this is a day that everyone in that theater will remember for a very long time, if not for the rest of their lives. [. . .]

[storiesbyaya]

Story of A Hero- 23

{First}{Previous}{Mobile}{Next} Jazz was sitting on Will and the twins’ table monday at Lunch. She held a mysterious cardboard box on her lap and, for a moment, Will was confused…

Until he saw the familiar green lightning bolt logo. Instead of confused, he became excited, and nearly bounded over to the box. Jazz grinned at him, but continued to hold it close even as he approached. “So… Weird thing, but my sister came outta her room this morning. She gave me this. Made me promise not to let anyone but you touch what’s in it. And then, she ate breakfast with me and walked me to the bus. I don’t know what this thing is, and I don’t care. But I know you did something, and because of it, I got to see my sister, and hear her laugh and stuff. So whatever this is? You take good care of it.” She spoke with a serious tone, yet also seemed happy. Will was happy for her.

He nodded. “I know you said you don’t care to know, but… that box likely has my parents’ research,” he explained. “Oh,” Jazz said, understanding blooming on her face. She gave him a cheerful smile. “Explains why it’s so important… And why she’d only trust you with it.” Even though she didn’t know Will, as far as Jazz was aware. He held the box with the same care she had. “She trusted you with it, too. I think that’s a good thing?” “I think so too.” Their conversation ended when Percy and Lily arrived. She rejoined her table, and they ate together. It was hard to concentrate through the rest of the day, with the anticipation and fear all welling up at once. What could it contain?

-x-x-x

The box contained an external harddrive, as well as a note, written in green glitter pen. William decided to start with that first.

“Fun fact,” it read “A friend of mine has ‘Anaesthesia Awareness’. Waking up during the herein described procedures caused damage to his Adex. (Read up on subject KX-023) This break is what allowed us to break free.

I believe in you, William.  Let the mistakes of our past become the tools to build a better future.

Tessa Nickols (xxx-xxx-xxxx. Let me know if you need any more help. Give my number to Kat too. I miss that brat.)

PS- For privacy reasons, many names and faces have been redacted. Hope you understand.

PPS- Hard drive password is your sister’s middle name.”

Diana. The password was Diana. William wondered if that was done by Tessa or by his parents, but he only wondered briefly.

The amount of stuff here was… Intimidating. He didn’t even know where to start. He had to take a deep breath and center himself to even try to tackle this. Maybe… weed out the unnecessary stuff? Grant applications. Letters to investors. A bunch of other money related things. That was irrelevant to his studies. It went into a special folder. Just in case. Facility descriptions… As the document began with nothing but maps of the facility, William was going to ignore it, until he noticed that there were several pages. The building only had four floors, if he remembered correctly. There should only be four pages, if it was nothing but maps.

“As this is a foreign field of research, much of our equipment has required upgrades, and some custom equipment has been needed to advance our research.”

The section below the maps continued on, describing what kind of upgrades and changes had been made to existing equipment. It was all incredibly fascinating to William, but one very specific section caught his attention.

It described, in great detail, a special instrument created to measure and observe resonance.

“Tests have revealed that Adex exude a special energy. It has been named “resonance” due to the way it reacts within human subjects. With this, resonance can be observed and measured. This advance has increased the success rate of forced symbiosis to 98.7% Forcing symbiosis with two subjects who’s resonances do not match almost always results in MEIR-Type entities, and/or loss of one or both subjects. Forcing symbiosis with a subject that exudes no resonance at all results in failure 100% of the time.”

“So resonance has… types. And this thing they made shows them in different colors,” he said to himself, and scribbled this fact into a notebook. To his surprise, Imshael hopped onto his desk. “Hello,” they greeted, before curling into a ball near the keyboard. “I want to help.” “You… want to… help?” William repeated, confused. The words themselves were not confusing, but rather the ‘who’ they were spoken by. Even after the first time he’d heard Imshael during training, they’d still stayed so quiet Will almost forgot they COULD speak. “Well, yes. Bayesh and I feel I may have answers to questions you might have. I am, after all, an Adex. You’d assume I would know a few things about myself.” “I think assuming that would be kind of silly. Humans have to learn about their bodies, I’m sure you guys do, too. But...unlike us, there is no school for adex.” “True,” they said, swishing their tail to and fro, “But you learn things with age. Like the fact that resonance’s color matches the color of the adex itself. The color of the thing within you. It also tends to dictate what kind of abilities we will grant. I’ve come to notice white adex mean white light, for instance.” William scribbled that down, and gave her a few small pets as thanks.

Then, he continued to read.

None of it was nearly as interesting as the resonance testing equipment, and most of it made him grumble in disgust. The schematics for Meir containment cells. The dampeners that kept the ‘subjects’ from using their powers. All kinds of resonance sapping weaponry.

“Oh. Hey, maybe that could be useful for… I don’t know, fighting bad guys?” Harley suggested. For a moment, William considered keeping the documents and then sending them to Angel. She’d know what to do with them, and how to make them into weapons that could be used to fight metahumans and meirs without the need for HeroNet. But William turned to Tessa’s letter once more, and sighed. “We promised we’d never let anyone else see this research, Harley. I’m not going to betray Tess’ trust…” William reminded her. Harley looked down, and would probably frown if her muzzle would allow. “Oh. My apologies. Shall I leave?” Imshael asked. William looked down to them, then back to the screen, and then to Harley. “Immy’s technically not another person… They’re an Adex.” While true, William gave a sigh. Technicalities didn’t sit well with him. But he had Tessa’s number, so he decided to ask her.

[Will] Hi Tessa, this is William Kray. We received the hard drive safely, but my father’s Adex wants to help. You said not to let anyone else see what’s on this drive.

[Peony] Oh! A wild Will! Right down to business, I see. Call me Peony, kay? Wow. She answered pretty fast. But Jazz did say that she never left her room, so she likely always had her phone.

[Peony] Would Kat trust this Adex? Knowing who your parents are, I would say there’s no one more trustworthy. But ultimately, I kept this stuff safe FOR your sister.

[Will] Right. Thank you, Peony.

Kat… She wouldn’t be angry if William let Imshael see the data. But she WOULD be angry if it was used to hurt anyone. So, ultimately, Wiliam chose to put a pin in it and continue to read.

He moved on to the folder that contained actual test results.

“KY subjects?” William read out loud. There were twenty entries, but no indication what the KY stood for. William had to examine them, and after a few, he noticed the pattern.

“These are… Older than me. The subjects were all adults… This must be the initial testing for forced symbiosis… Look, this person is deceased,” he pointed out. The other four sets of eyes looked to where he was pointing.

“Of course. Adults can’t fuse with us. The necessary changes can not be done to an already fully formed body. That it took them twenty people to notice,” Imshael grumbled. “Well… I guess… The good news is that they only resorted to using children because nothing else would work… Granted they could have just… Not continued their research on forced fusion.” “Not every question needs to be answered,” Harley agreed. “Like… I don’t actually want to know how many bugs I can fit in my mouth?” While Imshael and Harley continued to list off examples of things they did not need to know the answer to, William skimmed through the rest of the KY files, but they were ultimately more of the same.

He moved on to the KX subjects. Those he knew. “Kx-01 subject. 12 year old female. Volunteer, informed consent (See risk waiver) blah blah…” William read out loud, frowning. “This girl became their first Meir… But they ‘learned a great deal about Meirs, how to contain them, and how to destroy them’ thanks to her… I… Don’t…” William had to step away for a moment. Destroy. They meant kill. Murder. End a life, maybe even two. He couldn’t bear to read about the tests they did on the meir. He closed the file and moved on. More Meirs. More deaths. Some children saved at the cost of their Adex being destroyed. Few successes, until... “This one’s different. KX-14,” Will eventually said, his brow relaxing from the ever deepening frown he’d had previously. “Different how?” Imshael asked. “Successful symbiosis with ANB72… Result, the ability to mimic the abilities of other Adex. KX14’s ability has allowed us to predict the type of abilities an adex will have-”...Basically, this says she’s the reason we know Adex colors correspond to what kind of power they’ll give. She also… ‘claims to see a faint colorful glow’ coming from the Adex.’... She could… See resonance?” Though Harley was wagging her tail enthusiastically,  Imshael showed no sign of interest. Their tail just… swished lazily. “Immy, there’s people who can see Resonance! Isn’t that cool?” he asked, putting his hands near them, but they didn’t move. “I suppose?” they said. William frowned. “You knew already.” “Yes. Sorry. I see you’re excited. I do not mean to detract from your excitement.” Imshael’s apathy aside, William continued, noticing that there was a small note at the end of kx-14’s file. They weren’t the only person to see Resonance, but it took until subject 19 to realize that this phenomena was a real thing and not a stress induced hallucination or something of the sort. From there, there was a lot more successes. 22, however, was an outlier.

Succesful at first, the stress and isolation turned them into a Meir. “Dr. Evergarden decided to use the Meir to test out the powers of successful subjects, beginning project Nightmeir.” It linked to the project, but this William refused to click. He continued.

Kx-023. William picked up Peony’s note and looked again. She’s mentioned this subject, told him to look.

“Subject awoke during procedure. Panic caused a small scuffle until he could be sedated again. No lives lost, but Adex suffered damage. See Incident reports.” And dated later, a note had been added stating :”Subject releases small amounts of Resonance even with Dampeners. Without dampeners, subject can not control his ability and destroys anything he touches. (Re: Request- Wall repair in B2-B wing,)” And a little later still, “Subject experiences blackening of veins in hands (What??) Sent to medical examination immediately, but no medical reasons have been found. He is perfectly healthy. Maybe this is caused by the Adex damage? Continue monitoring.”

William looked back to the floor plan, on an inkling that this wall that needed repairs might be one that resulted in the collapse.

Unfortunately, he realized that he was not an architect and couldn’t really figure it out, so he returned to his reading.

There were few deviations. Meirs, successes… He could tell that it was around there that they’d managed to get the Resonance measuring machine working. Hell, even the number of consenting subjects rose the closer he got to his sister’s number.

There wasn’t much to learn, but he did notice a naming pattern for the Adex, and understood they were named by their color. From there, he compiled a list of Adex colors and their abilities… But there was one strange code he didn’t understand. Some adex codes started with an “A”, but they were few. 14, 24,72…

Wait.

72? 72 was…

Kat!

[samoas]

all flower asks

o okay amaryllis - name an attribute of yourself that you are proud of.- hm. my inability to be fake i just cant do it anemone - describe a time when you felt abandoned or betrayed by someone you loved.- my dad yeeted out of the picture 7 years ago azalea - would you describe yourself as a patient person?- with people and things i care about the most yes, everything else, no begonia - describe anything you see as a “red flag” (something that makes you cautious about a new friend or love interest)- they make jokes about me to me and then get upset if i get upset bird of paradise - do you like hosting parties, or do you prefer to just attend?- just attend. if i tried to throw a party nobody would come lol bluebell - what keeps you humble?- im fucking STUPID bro i cant be arrogant chrysanthemum - describe your idea of a perfect day.- i wake up naturally around 8 am and i dont feel tired. i can get out of bed easily and make my coffee. its cold outside and everything is frosted over. i spend my time writing letters ill never send and listening to soft music spring crocus - describe your favorite childhood memory.- one of my favs is when me and my mom were in the backyard gardening and came across 5 or 6 little snakes. she put them all in a mason jar for me to look at and then she released them in the ditch across the street because i didnt want them to get hurt daffodil - how do you confess your feelings to someone you’re interested in?- just......... say u like them daisy - describe something that gives you hope when things seem bleak.- i met harry styles in a thrift store foxglove - when was the last time you told a lie?- a couple days ago when i told my mom i had eaten gardenia - have you ever had to keep a romance a secret? if so, why and for how long?- oh yeah babey....... ive kept 2- one for 6 months, another for 2 months purple hyacinth - describe a time when you had to apologize to someone- i apologize constantly because im gross hydrangea - how much time do you spend on your appearance each day? - zero. i just make sure theres nothing on my face brush my teeth and go white jasmine - what is something that never fails to make you laugh?- this particular picture of a stretchy dog with absolute orbs for eyes lavender - describe your oldest friendship, and why you think it has lasted so long.- ive been friends with this girl for about 6 years, she was my brothers dads girlfriends daughter (confusing ik) but we became friends when i stayed at the dads house. we both love 1d and bonded a lot thru out parent problems lilac - describe your first relationship or first love.- oof. freshman year, freshly homosexual, first girlfriend, first time even considering a girlfriend. we were officially together for a week and then like kinda together for around 5 months. i really loved that gorl i dont know why. i was hung up on her for over a year after we broke things off. it almost killed me calla lily - what traits do you find beautiful in others? in yourself?- in others, everything really. i hate men but girls are beautiful ive never seen an ugly girl in my life (except for this one girl who has come into work wearing a maga shirt twice) and also honesty and sincerity - in myself, i like my eyes, my lips, and my hands. thats about it, personality is terrible tiger lily - if you had to choose between doing what you love and making very little money, or doing a job you hate and making a lot of money, what would you choose and why?- i would choose little money because knowing myself i cannot do something i dont like well at all and i probably quit my job immediately lotus flower - would you say that you are a spiritual person? if so, what elements of spirituality are important to you?- i like to think that there is some higher power but none in particular. i talk to the stars whenever i see them. i dont know really what im doing but it makes me feel better magnolia - describe your favorite thing to do outdoors.- finding bugs!!!!!!!!!!morning glory - are you an affectionate person? if so, how do you show affection?- most of the time. i like to be touching in some way, even if its just arms touching each other when we sit next to each other pansy - what is the most thoughtful thing that anyone has done for you?- my mom does so many things for me all the time and i just made myself cry thinking about them all lol peony - describe the top three things necessary for a happy life.- financial stability, some form of companionship, and freedom to do things you want petunia - what never fails to make you angry?- terfs red poppy - what tips or tricks do you use to cheer yourself up when you’re down?- i dont. i dissociate instead red rose - describe your ideal date or romantic evening. - walking around the city and talking and stop for coffee and just being togetheryellow rose - do you get jealous easily?- yes but i manage to stifle it so its not really a problem snowdrop - have you ever had a falling out with a friend or family member?- oh god ya. one whole side of my family and also my dad and many, many friends sunflower - do you consider yourself a loyal person? - if you are loyal to me yes sweet pea - describe a difficult goodbye you had to make to a friend or other loved one.- when my uncle died i was supposed to get to call him the day before but they didnt think i needed to and told me he died 3 days after he did. i said goodbye while scattering his ashes in a lake violet - how important is loyalty in friendships and/or relationships?- very very very important. not like "you can only talk to me" loyalty but like, be honest, dont lie, and dont skip out of me u know wisteria - do you like poetry? if so, describe your favorite poem(s).- not a huge poetry person zinnia - do you have any loved ones in your life that you miss and wish you could see? - my uncle, a bunch of old family