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mostlysignssomeportents · 4 years ago

Text

20 years a blogger

It's been twenty years, to the day, since I published my first blog-post.

I'm a blogger.

Blogging - publicly breaking down the things that seem significant, then synthesizing them in longer pieces - is the defining activity of my days.

https://boingboing.net/2001/01/13/hey-mark-made-me-a.html

Over the years, I've been lauded, threatened, sued (more than once). I've met many people who read my work and have made connections with many more whose work I wrote about. Combing through my old posts every morning is a journey through my intellectual development.

It's been almost exactly a year I left Boing Boing, after 19 years. It wasn't planned, and it wasn't fun, but it was definitely time. I still own a chunk of the business and wish them well. But after 19 years, it was time for a change.

A few weeks after I quit Boing Boing, I started a solo project. It's called Pluralistic: it's a blog that is published simultaneously on Twitter, Mastodon, Tumblr, a newsletter and the web. It's got no tracking or ads. Here's the very first edition:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/02/19/pluralist-19-feb-2020/

I don't often do "process posts" but this merits it. Here's how I built Pluralistic and here's how it works today, after nearly a year.

I get up at 5AM and make coffee. Then I sit down on the sofa and open a huge tab-group, and scroll through my RSS feeds using Newsblur.

I spend the next 1-2 hours winnowing through all the stuff that seems important. I have a chronic pain problem and I really shouldn't sit on the sofa for more than 10 minutes, so I use a timer and get up every 10 minutes and do one minute of physio.

After a couple hours, I'm left with 3-4 tabs that I want to write articles about that day. When I started writing Pluralistic, I had a text file on my desktop with some blank HTML I'd tinkered with to generate a layout; now I have an XML file (more on that later).

First I go through these tabs and think up metadata tags I want to use for each; I type these into the template using my text-editor (gedit), like this:

<xtags>

process, blogging, pluralistic, recursion, navel-gazing

</xtags>

Each post has its own little template. It needs an anchor tag (for this post, that's "hfbd"), a title ("20 years a blogger") and a slug ("Reflections on a lifetime of reflecting"). I fill these in for each post.

Then I come up with a graphic for each post: I've got a giant folder of public domain clip-art, and I'm good at using all the search tools for open-licensed art: the Library of Congress, Wikimedia, Creative Commons, Flickr Commons, and, ofc, Google Image Search.

I am neither an artist nor a shooper, but I've been editing clip art since I created pixel-art versions of the Frankie Goes to Hollywood glyphs using Bannermaker for the Apple //c in 1985 and printed them out on enough fan-fold paper to form a border around my bedroom.

As I create the graphics, I pre-compose Creative Commons attribution strings to go in the post; there's two versions, one for the blog/newsletter and one for Mastodon/Twitter/Tumblr. I compose these manually.

Here's a recent one:

Blog/Newsletter:

(<i>Image: <a href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:QAnon_in_red_shirt_(48555421111).jpg">Marc Nozell</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en">CC BY</a>, modified</i>)

Twitter/Masto/Tumblr:

Image: Marc Nozell (modified)

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:QAnon_in_red_shirt_(48555421111).jpg

CC BY

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

This is purely manual work, but I've been composing these CC attribution strings since CC launched in 2003, and they're just muscle-memory now. Reflex.

These attribution strings, as well as anything else I'll need to go from Twitter to the web (for example, the names of people whose Twitter handles I use in posts, or images I drop in, go into the text file). Here's how the post looks at this point in the composition.

<hr>

<h1>20 years a blogger</h1><xtagline>Reflections on a lifetime of reflecting.</xtagline>

See that <img> tag in there for frnklogo.jpg? I snuck that in while I was composing this in Twitter. When I locate an image on the web I want to use in a post, I save it to a dir on my desktop that syncs every 60 seconds to the /images/ dir on my webserver.

As I save it, I copy the filename to my clipboard, flip over to gedit, and type in the <img> tag, pasting the filename. I've typed <img src="https://craphound.com/images/ CTRL-V"> tens of thousands of times - muscle memory.

Once the thread is complete, I copy each tweet back into gedit, tabbing back and forth, replacing Twitter handles and hashtags with non-Twitter versions, changing the ALL CAPS EMPHASIS to the extra-character-consuming *asterisk-bracketed emphasis*.

My composition is greatly aided both 20 years' worth of mnemonic slurry of semi-remembered posts and the ability to search memex.craphound.com (the site where I've mirrored all my Boing Boing posts) easily.

A huge, searchable database of decades of thoughts really simplifies the process of synthesis.

Next I port the posts to other media. I copy the headline and paste it into a new Tumblr compose tab, then import the image and tag the post "pluralistic."

Then I paste the text of the post into Tumblr and manually select, cut, and re-paste every URL in the post (because Tumblr's automatic URL-to-clickable-link tool's been broken for 10+ months).

Next I past the whole post into a Mastodon compose field. Working by trial and error, I cut it down to <500 characters, breaking at a para-break and putting the rest on my clipboard. I post, reply, and add the next item in the thread until it's all done.

*Then* I hit publish on my Twitter thread. Composing in Twitter is the most unforgiving medium I've ever worked in. You have to keep each stanza below 280 chars. You can't save a thread as a draft, so as you edit it, you have to pray your browser doesn't crash.

And once you hit publish, you can't edit it. Forever. So you want to publish Twitter threads LAST, because the process of mirroring them to Tumblr and Mastodon reveals typos and mistakes (but there's no way to save the thread while you work!).

Now I create a draft Wordpress post on pluralistic.net, and create a custom slug for the page (today's is "two-decades"). Saving the draft generates the URL for the page, which I add to the XML file.

Once all the day's posts are done, I make sure to credit all my sources in another part of that master XML file, and then I flip to the command line and run a bunch of python scripts that do MAGIC: formatting the master file as a newsletter, a blog post, and a master thread.

Those python scripts saved my ASS. For the first two months of Pluralistic, i did all the reformatting by hand. It was a lot of search-replace (I used a checklist) and I ALWAYS screwed it up and had to debug, sometimes taking hours.

Then, out of the blue, a reader - Loren Kohnfelder - wrote to me to point out bugs in the site's RSS. He offered to help with text automation and we embarked on a month of intensive back-and-forth as he wrote a custom suite for me.

Those programs take my XML file and spit out all the files I need to publish my site, newsletter and master thread (which I pin to my profile). They've saved me more time than I can say. I probably couldn't kept this up without Loren's generous help (thank you, Loren!).

I open up the output from the scripts in gedit. I paste the blog post into the Wordpress draft and copy-paste the metadata tags into WP's "tags" field. I preview the post, tweak as necessary, and publish.

(And now I write this, I realize I forgot to mention that while I'm doing the graphics, I also create a square header image that makes a grid-collage out of the day's post images, using the Gimp's "alignment" tool)

(because I'm composing this in Twitter, it would be a LOT of work to insert that information further up in the post, where it would make sense to have it - see what I mean about an unforgiving medium?)

(While I'm on the subject: putting the "add tweet to thread" and "publish the whole thread" buttons next to each other is a cruel joke that has caused me to repeatedly publish before I was done, and deleting a thread after you publish it is a nightmare)

Now I paste the newsletter file into a new mail message, address it to my Mailman server, and create a custom subject for the day, send it, open the Mailman admin interface in a browser, and approve the message.

Now it's time to create that anthology post you can see pinned to my Mastodon and Twitter accounts. Loren's script uses a template to produce all the tweets for the day, but it's not easy to get that pre-written thread into Twitter and Mastodon.

Part of the problem is that each day's Twitter master thread has a tweet with a link to the day's Mastodon master thread ("Are you trying to wean yourself off Big Tech? Follow these threads on the #fediverse at @[email protected]. Here's today's edition: LINK").

So the first order of business is to create the Mastodon thread, pin it, copy the link to it, and paste it into the template for the Twitter thread, then create and pin the Twitter thread.

Now it's time to get ready for tomorrow. I open up the master XML template file and overwrite my daily working file with its contents. I edit the file's header with tomorrow's date, trim away any "Upcoming appearances" that have gone by, etc.

Then I compose tomorrow's retrospective links. I open tabs for this day a year ago, 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 15 years ago, and (now) 20 years ago:

http://memex.craphound.com/2020/01/14

http://memex.craphound.com/2016/01/14

http://memex.craphound.com/2011/01/14

http://memex.craphound.com/2006/01/14

http://memex.craphound.com/2001/01/14

I go through each day, and open anything I want to republish in its own tab, then open the OP link in the next tab (finding it in the @internetarchive if necessary). Then I copy my original headline and the link to the article into tomorrow's XML file, like so:

#10yrsago Disney World’s awful Tiki Room catches fire <a href="https://thedisneyblog.com/2011/01/12/fire-reported-at-magic-kingdom-tiki-room/">https://thedisneyblog.com/2011/01/12/fire-reported-at-magic-kingdom-tiki-room/</a>

And NOW my day is done.

So, why do I do all this?

First and foremost, I do it for ME. The memex I've created by thinking about and then describing every interesting thing I've encountered is hugely important for how I understand the world. It's the raw material of every novel, article, story and speech I write.

And I do it for the causes I believe in. There's stuff in this world I want to change for the better. Explaining what I think is wrong, and how it can be improved, is the best way I know for nudging it in a direction I want to see it move.

The more people I reach, the more it moves.

When I left Boing Boing, I lost access to a freestanding way of communicating. Though I had popular Twitter and Tumblr accounts, they are at the mercy of giant companies with itchy banhammers and arbitrary moderation policies.

I'd long been a fan of the POSSE - Post Own Site, Share Everywhere - ethic, the idea that your work lives on platforms you control, but that it travels to meet your readers wherever they are.

Pluralistic posts start out as Twitter threads because that's the most constrained medium I work in, but their permalinks (each with multiple hidden messages in their slugs) are anchored to a server I control.

When my threads get popular, I make a point of appending the pluralistic.net permalink to them.

When I started blogging, 20 years ago, blogger.com had few amenities. None of the familiar utilities of today's media came with the package.

Back then, I'd manually create my headlines with <h2> tags. I'd manually create discussion links for each post on Quicktopic. I'd manually paste each post into a Yahoo Groups email. All the guff I do today to publish Pluralistic is, in some way, nothing new.

20 years in, blogging is still a curious mix of both technical, literary and graphic bodgery, with each day's work demanding the kind of technical minutuae we were told would disappear with WYSIWYG desktop publishing.

I grew up in the back-rooms of print shops where my dad and his friends published radical newspapers, laying out editions with a razor-blade and rubber cement on a light table. Today, I spend hours slicing up ASCII with a cursor.

I go through my old posts every day. I know that much - most? - of them are not for the ages. But some of them are good. Some, I think, are great. They define who I am. They're my outboard brain.

#pluralistic

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mbti-and-academia · 4 years ago

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INTJ vs INTP cognitive mechanics - an analysis based on an observation

With study of the cognitive functions I'm finally starting to recognize what INTJness actually feels like.

The other day, I was going through a programming tutorial as part of a larger book on the functional programming style. I was modifying the example slightly to produce a different output, and suffice it to say it wasn't working. I called on my INTP, who is doing the same tutorial, to see if they could figure it out.

Basically, my approach was trying to "tap into" my Ni, looking over the script from a zoomed-out perspective and getting a feel for where the problem might be. I get the general feeling that the second half of a certain function isn't working. I test this assumption, I was right - so now I try to narrow down in my mind where it "seems off", and come to a vague conclusion that it's probably the order of execution. I test this assumption. It works. The example is now working as expected. I don't have a clear, 100% understanding of why exactly the order of the statements was causing the particular bug, but I move on, because I realize that this kind of error is more of a general silly-mistake in how I wrote the algorithm, and isn't something instrumental to the greater goal - which is understanding the mechanics of the functional style.

My INTP friend, in contrast, looks at the script not from a zoomed-out perspective, but goes through the logic, one step at a time, analyzing exactly what each statement does and the effects it has - and how the result should look at each point in time, and why, until they figure out exactly what was wrong and why. They didn't just get a vague intuitive understanding of how to fix it and move on, they understood in detail how every single component interplays with every other, why the statement execution must be in this order for the algorithm to work, and all the other ways changing the order of the statements would affect the output. They have understood all the mechanics of the algorithm through pure logic, and it took them much longer to move on than it did for me - but unlike me, who was doing the problem for its general purpose within the goal of understanding functional programming, they felt that understanding the algorithm (which on its own is not related to functional programming at all, and is just a modified sort algorithm), was something they wanted to understand all the components of, regardless of whether it is meaningful to the purpose of the assignment.

This felt like a very illustrative moment in understanding the differences between how INTP and INTJ approach problem-solving. Of course, as INTJ I am also compelled to learn the mechanics of all sorts of things, even those irrelevant to the overarching goal of whatever the book or the tutorial or class or the thing I am studying is right now - but I would tend to note them and set them aside for later to learn, as something separate from the process. I went back over the sort algorithm with a more Ti approach myself later, after I had grasped the concepts in the chapter I was working on, and was ready to take a break. The first "goal" was gaining an understanding of the concepts in that chapter of the tutorial, and I did not allow myself to be distracted from this purpose - but when it was done I went back to the algorithm I got wrong and Ti-ed my way through the logic, step by step. But this happened in a separate process from doing the tutorial, and a separate timeline - I didn't allow the "working on this chapter" timeline to fork into the subprocess of working out this unrelated algorithm error for any longer than it absolutely needed to.

For my INTP friend, however, following this unrelated tangent - right then and there, in the middle of the process of understanding the chapter and in the same timeline - was something perfectly natural. It was natural for them to make many "deep forks" in the path to understanding the chapter, almost so much so that they may not even make it through to the end of the chapter, and instead get lost in the study of the forks and tangents along the way. As an INTJ I just could not do this - I would feel very mentally unsettled about this.

I feel the INTP approach with Ti/Ne is very thorough but incremental and undirected in its understanding; the Ni/Te approach of the INTJ is a lot less thorough, and more "overarching" - focused more on setting up the "skeleton" or the inner structure of the framework first, and then filling it out with details - and being always painfully conscious of the shape of the path one is following. Almost as if there is always this voice nagging you that this item may be irrelevant right now, come back to it later. It is like an architect trying to capture the overallness, or a writer trying to synthesize the outline of the entire story out of thin air first, and then refining all the generalities and fleshing them out. The coherent whole comes first, and is always there and always something one is deeply conscious of, and driven by. It is like the INTJ is going through every process with a general (usually not very detailed) map or compass that they follow, always internally tugging them back to North, whereas INTP is wandering through all the nooks and crannies of the landscape without a map or a compass, and seeing what kind of fascinating mental discoveries they have on the way. They may have a purpose in mind, but it can be diverted away from indefinitely and come back to later, if there are more interesting paths to explore on the way - whereas for the INTJ the interesting paths will be noted and come back to later, as it would feel "wrong" in a fundamental way to divert away from the purpose.

I still have a difficult time figuring out how Ni worked the way it did - I suppose part of it is that I already have a decent amount of programming experience, and was able to subconsciously extract a deep pattern from what I had experienced before, without knowing where exactly I had seen this before or what it was based on. My intuition was like a synthesis of patterns I had extracted before - like a deep-learning algorithm "figuring things out" from intermediate representations. This may be why it required a lot of Se input and Ti-type analysis in the very start of my programming study before I could begin to "grasp" it, as it served to "feed" my Ni with raw materials and structures to synthesize patterns and meta-patterns from, and later synthesize hunches like this. So now I can often "feel" the way to solve something, without explicitly working through the logic.

Naturally everyone who gains proficiency or experience in some field finds themselves doing this - as humans we are equipped with all the cognitive functions, after all - but as an INTJ it is my first instinct to do this to everything, and is my most visceral response to a problem - and the impulse to analyze with Ti usually comes later, as a conscious decision. As far as I understand it, for my INTP friend it was the opposite - the first response to a new concept or a problem is to analyze it and all its components and understand every small piece of the mechanics - even if they get an Ni "hunch" about what is wrong, they tend to not trust it as much, and the impulse to analyze is first and foremost.

Just some rambling observations on Ti and Ni mechanics.

#mbti #intj #intp #intj things #cognitive functions #jungian functions #introverted intuition #introverted thinking #psychoanalysis

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iffeelscouldkill · 4 years ago

Text

Mission Log: REDACTED

A/N: Now that Yuletide reveals are revealed, I can go ahead and own this fic I wrote for the awesome Mousek for Yuletide! It’s quite long (14,999 words), so I’m not going to post the whole thing here, just enough to give people a flavour and lure them to AO3 for the rest.

This fic is written in an “audio narrative” format, in the same style as the From the Archives ficlets if you’ve read those. Slightly spoilery warning (skip over this to remain unspoiled but please read if you’re concerned about potential triggers): this fic features people’s memories being modified (though not completely irreversibly) without their consent.

Enjoy, friends!

Summary: Canon divergence AU from mid-episode 9. Instead of executing Plan B, the Rumor crew learns about a top-secret Regime project that is being carried out at ADVANCE Labs - and that the fate of the crew of the Iris is not what they thought it had been.Violet Liu goes in undercover, posing as a member of the lab team. But can she undo what the Regime has done to the crew and free them - without losing herself in the process?

Read on AO3!

---

“This is Agent McCabe. Two weeks have now passed since our last update. Based on the continued lack of audio input via this swarm of Strain H, we can assume that the crew of the Rumor have acted on the intel given to them by the insurgents, Thasia and Violet Liu, and successfully cured themselves of the VCN nanocloud infection.

“As a result, pending further developments in this case, the Strange Case of Starship Iris is now considered closed. Footage from the case remains available in the archives and can be accessed on request by submitting form B7-081 with a superior’s signature.

“My thanks to Major General Frederick, Agents Bauman and Cross, and the specialists at Procyon, as well as Junior Agent Goodman for their assistance in this case. Long live the Republic.”

SYSTEM: E.L.L.A.

USERNAME: EMILY CRADDOCK

ACCESSING RECENT DRAFTS... YOU HAVE ONE RECENT DRAFT. COMPOSED 26 JULY 2191.

REVIEWING DRAFT...

“Hey, it’s me. I just wanted to check in and say that I’m fine, I’m safe and I passed the background checks without any problems. I kept thinking the whole time that someone from the intake process would recognise me, but – none of them seemed familiar, and I guess I wasn’t either. Just a very small cog in the vast machine of the Reg- the Republic. God, I’ve got to get used to saying that again.

“I’m all settled in in my apartment – it’s twice the size of my room on the Rumor, but I can’t help thinking how much I miss that space.” Quiet laughter. “And you all. I… guess I’ll talk to you soon. I’ll have more to update you with tomorrow, after I start work at the lab. And I’ll be able to let you know whether our intel was good.

“Until then… Violet Liu out.”

“This is uh, lab report 05, week two? Analyst Brannon reporting on behalf of Gamma Team at ADVANCE.

“Over the past few days, our lab has continued work on synthesizing the NDMA proteins, and Specialists Chang and Yeboah report that they have made some positive advancements in this area. We have provisionally moved up the timeline for the first round of testing with this in mind, though Specialist Yeboah cautions that we need to monitor how the new proteins react with other molecules in the solution first, and then with the blood cell samples.

“A new member also joined our team today – specialist Huang. I wasn’t aware that we’d actually been hiring for our vacancy, but uh, she seems very qualified? A little over-qualified, even. In addition to her qualification from Brightwell she has extensive experience with this type of lab work, which makes us lucky to have her as part of the team. She’s joined Analyst Vázquez and Assistant Hudson in their work on the histone deacetylases.

“My specialism is in a completely different area, and I’m pretty sure our work histories have never overlapped, but – she seems familiar somehow. Except she said she was based on Mars up until six months ago, and I’ve been working on New Jupiter since… uh…

“Sorry – lost my train of thought for a minute there. I’ve been getting these persistent headaches… I think it’s all that poring over modelling data. Though I never get them while I’m working, so maybe they’re delayed-onset headaches? Heh. It could be the lab lighting; I might ask Supervisor Kaaka if we can swap out the bulbs for a lower wattage.

“Uh, anyway. This is Analyst Brannon signing off. Long live the Republic.”

ACCESSING RECENT DRAFTS... YOU HAVE ONE RECENT DRAFT. COMPOSED: 27 JULY 2191.

REVIEWING DRAFT...

“Hey, it’s me. Oh my god… oh my god, I can barely process what’s been happening. I was going to send this message as soon as I got back to my apartment, and instead I’ve just been sitting and staring into space because it’s just so… surreal…

“They’re alive. They’re all just… alive and working in a lab at ADVANCE on New Jupiter.

“I mean, we haven’t ruled out the possibility of highly advanced duplicates, but why would the Repub- the Reg- the IGR go to all that trouble? The simplest explanation - even if it still sounds pretty far-fetched - is that they're the same crew.

“Brian, if you’re listening to this – Alvy's alive. I know I didn’t work with him that long but I’m sure, I’m so sure it's really him. But it’s like Thasia and Other Violet said – none of them remember who they were, or their real names. Everyone here calls him Analyst Brannon – Michael Brannon.

“We’re not working very closely together, but I found an excuse to go over to his workstation and introduce myself, and – it seemed like he recognised me. I’m gonna try and find ways to talk to him – the real Alvy Connors is still in there, Brian, I’m sure of it.

“Is there anything you want me to… ask him? Maybe a question that only he would know the answer to?

“Sorry, I don’t have much more time – the IGR has listening devices planted throughout every Republic-issued apartment; everywhere except the bathroom. Even they have to draw the line somewhere. I scanned it, and it’s clean, but if I remember right there are still sensors that will activate if you go above a certain noise, light or heat, threshold – y’know, in case anyone takes it upon themselves to… build a bomb in here or something. And I don’t want the bugs outside to pick up what I’m saying, which is why I’m whispering.

“But I can’t stay in here too long, or they’ll get suspicious, so – I’m fine, and so far I haven’t messed up or called the Republic the Regime or anything in earshot of anyone. And no-one has recognised me. Well, except for Alvy, maybe.

“I’m still trying to figure out what exactly they’re working on, here. If you’re going to go to the trouble of staffing a lab with the crew of an… of an exploded space ship, it must be important, right? Or maybe not. Maybe it’s just a test, to see how well they assimilate.

“I’ll let you know when I know more. Until then… stay safe. I will too. Violet Liu out.”

ACCESSING RECENT DRAFTS... YOU HAVE ONE RECENT DRAFT. COMPOSED: 27 JULY 2191.

REVIEWING DRAFT...

“Hi, Liu. It’s me.

“I’ll keep this to the point, since I know you probably don’t have much time to spend playing back these messages. We’re all fine here. Kind of in a holding pattern, since there’s not much to do until we hear more from you or from Thasia and the other Violet, but it’s not too bad.

“Jeeter’s really happy, by the way, since he listened to your message. I mean, I think he’s still – processing – because he thought Connors was dead, he even wrote to his parents, and now we find out he’s alive, but not… y’know. Not Connors any more.

“But he’ll be fine. Krejjh is helping, which means the two of them are being even more nauseating then they usually are, and that’s saying something.

“Anyway. Listen, I know you want to try and get through to Connors, but… just be careful, okay? None of us, including Jeeter, wants you to get hurt or – worse – on the off chance that we might be able to bring him back. We always knew it was gonna be a long shot.

“Tripathi said to tell you the same, by the way. Well, she said it in a more… Tripathi… way, but the idea was the same. Find out what you can, but don’t get caught. We can’t afford to lo- to mess this up.

“Okay, I should go. Arkady Patel out.”

“This is lab report 06, week three. Analyst Brannon reporting on behalf of Gamma Team at ADVANCE.

“Since my last report, we have introduced the synthesized NDMA proteins to the solution and tested their interactions with samples representing different blood types. Six out of eight of the samples produced expected results, but two of the samples produced some unexpected interactions with the AB type blood cells, which warrants further testing and study.

“Specialist Huang, Analyst Vázquez and Assistant Hudson are progressing with their work on the histone deacetylases, which should be ready to introduce in the next phase of the solution, pending resolution of the AB blood cell issue.

“Okay, what else… Oh, Specialist Huang is integrating well with the team. She and I have had a couple of conversations, though our second one was unfortunately cut short when my headache started up again. Maybe I should bring it up with Dr. Starling…

“Damn it. Is that the time? I was supposed to go for my treatment a half hour ago – damn it, damn it.

“Uh… I should probably redact that from the final report. This is Analyst Brannon, signing off. Long live the Republic.”

ACCESSING RECENT DRAFTS... YOU HAVE ONE RECENT DRAFT. COMPOSED: 30 JULY 2191.

REVIEWING DRAFT...

“Hey guys, it’s me again. Violet. It feels kind of nice to use my own name for a change instead of being called ‘Specialist Huang’ all the time… I almost forgot to react to it once, though luckily Vázquez thought I was just focused on my work.

“Not a whole lot to report still – I’m still trying to figure out what it is the Regime is doing in these labs. It’s something to do with DNA methylation and synthesized NDMA proteins – well, I won’t bore you with the science, but why would the IGR be working on that? Could be they’re trying to develop a neural enhancer, but for what? I haven’t ruled out the possibility of there being some kind of link to the nanobots, but no-one here has mentioned nanites, and there are no nanotech specialists working in the lab.

“They keep us very siloed, too. I know what I’m working on, or at least what I have to do, but I don’t know why, and none of the people I work directly with seems to know what we’re developing here. Just something about a solution and blood cell samples. We might not even be the only lab working on this, which means I’ll have to find another way to get at the bigger picture.

“I spoke to Alvy a couple times – I was careful, Arkady, don’t worry. We didn’t manage to talk for long anyway – people don’t socialise much here. I’d kind of forgotten what it was like to work in this kind of environment, where no-one trusts anyone or lets their guard down, because people will backstab each other for the slightest thing. Maybe they had a professional disagreement, or don’t get along, or they wanted to get the credit for the other person’s work. It doesn’t take much of an insinuation to get someone transferred or – worse.

“Nothing’s happened, not yet, and it’s still nowhere near as bad as that student internship I did during the war. But it feels… tense, almost hair-trigger. I think I heard we’re having an inspection later on this week.

“Anyway, Alvy – I didn’t get to talk to him for very long, not just because of the environment, but because he had this headache come on the second time we talked. I’m not sure if it means anything – he said he gets them often. Brian, do you… remember him saying anything about that before?

“He seems a little different to the way I remember him on the Iris – a little more serious, less laid-back, though he’s still the friendliest person on the team. I didn’t… get to know him under the best circumstances, so I’m not sure if that’s due to the memory wipe or not.

“He also mentioned that he’s been seeing a doctor for these treatments – they all have. It could just be something to do with the away shuttle explosion, some kind of recovery program – there was an explosion, even if it didn’t really kill anyone, and Alvy’s got these – support struts in one of his legs, I think they’re carbon fibre. He walks with a slight limp sometimes.

“It could be nothing, but I feel like it might be worth digging into? Arkady, are you able to poke around in ADVANCE’s systems a bit, see if you can find anything that resembles medical reports?

“I’d better go. I brought my makeup bag in here as a cover for taking a bit longer – I don’t even know if the IGR has cameras in these apartments, but better to be safe than sorry – but there’s only so long you can take to put on the bare minimum I wear.

“Send me a message when you can. Violet Liu, out.”

ACCESSING RECENT DRAFTS... YOU HAVE ONE RECENT DRAFT. COMPOSED: 30 JULY 2191.

REVIEWING DRAFT...

“Hey, Liu. Good instincts on the medical treatment thing. I didn’t spot anything like that in my initial sweep of the system when I forged your interview and acceptance records, but I wasn’t on the lookout for it either.

“There’s a limit to what I can access without jacking directly into ADVANCE’s mainframe computer or piggybacking on their local network, but I’ll dig around as much as I can.” Jokingly: “ Worst comes to worst, we could always send Jeeter in with an earpiece and make him pose as a computer technician.

“Oh, also, Jeeter says he doesn’t remember Alvy ever mentioning any kind of migraines or head pain. Apparently he’d go on these all-night coding benders and then sleep for two hours and be completely fine the next morning. Maybe it caught up to him, but – well, I’m not gonna jump to any conclusions. I’ll see what I can find in the medical records.

“Also – be careful with the inspection, okay? Your ID will hold up, Campbell doesn’t skimp on the quality, and you look different enough from the physical description they have on file, but those Regime higher-ups will ask some weird shit to catch you out.

“You’ve got the comm if you need us for anything. Just… keep your head down.

“Arkady Patel, out.”

ACCESSING RECENT DRAFTS... YOU HAVE ONE RECENT DRAFT. COMPOSED: 31 JULY 2191.

REVIEWING DRAFT...

“Hey, Liu, listen. You were right. There’s something weird going on with these treatments.

“I managed to track down the medical records for the whole crew. Wasn’t easy, but I’ll save the tales of my security-defying exploits for another time. Anyway, I managed to hack into an account belonging to someone called Dr. Starling. They were brought onto ADVANCE’s payroll on June 1st – two days before the away shuttle exploded.

“There are files for all of them, and the scientific stuff doesn’t mean much to me, but from what I can tell, they’re monitoring them all for signs of what Starling calls ‘leakage’ – memories from their previous lives. Five of the other crew members have reported experiencing head pains, and it’s not a physical injury – Starling seems to think the pain is set off by them thinking back beyond a certain point, or being reminded of something from their past life. They upped the frequency of the ‘treatments’ to try and counter it, but so far it hasn’t worked.

“I think that’s what they’re for, the treatments – they’re keeping the crew’s memories suppressed. Which means, if they can be interfered with somehow…

“Bad news is, I can’t get into the scheduling system, not without access to the local network. But in Starling’s notes it says that Alvy was meant to come in for a treatment earlier today- well, yesterday technically, since it’s after 3am. But he didn’t show. So maybe you could get through to him.

“Obviously, don’t blow your cover, but if Alvy’s been getting these headaches a lot, it could mean he’s trying to remember? You said he got a headache when you guys talked – what were you talking about?”

A stifled yawn. “Shit, I’d better sleep, Sana wanted me to help encrypt some intel to send to Thasia and the other Violet Liu first thing in the morning. I’ll talk to you later. Arkady Patel out.”

ACCESSING RECENT DRAFTS... YOU HAVE ONE RECENT DRAFT. COMPOSED 31 JULY 2191.

REVIEWING DRAFT...

“Arkady, you’re a genius! Oh my god, I could kiss you.

“I’ve only skimmed the records you copied, but they make references to a solution that sounds a lot like the one we’re developing in the lab. What if that’s the answer? What if that’s what the IGR is having the crew develop, another version of the treatment – maybe one that’s more permanent…

“…Oh god, that’s so dark. They’re having the crew work on erasing their own memories. It’s so inhuman, so – exactly what the IGR would do.

“–I have to go, I’ve got work in half an hour, but – this really helps. And I’ll try to talk to Alvy today, see if he seems any different after his missed treatment. Violet Liu out.”

ACCESSING RECENT DRAFTS... YOU HAVE ONE RECENT DRAFT. COMPOSED: 31 JULY 2191.

REVIEWING DRAFT...

“You, uh—” The sound of awkward throat-clearing. “You are welcome. Yeah. Like I said, it’s uh, it’s what I do! So, no, uh thanks required. Though if you wanted to, I—

“Shit, I’ve gotta go, Sana needs me. Uh, Arkady Patel out.”

Read the rest here!

#fic #TSCOSI #The Strange Case of Starship Iris #Yuletide #Yuletide fic #mission fic #Violet Liu #Arkady Patel #Alvy Connors #RJ McCabe #Vikady #I really enjoyed writing the dorky Violet/Arkady interactions in this fic #I mean I really enjoyed writing all of this #but especially that aspect #also please ignore the sciencey jargon #though I've been told by someone who is more sciencey than I am that it is not bad jargon #it took me way too long to come up with 😂 I wanted it to be vaguely plausible #but it's not necessary to understand the fic

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biostudyblog · 5 years ago

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Molecular Genetics

DNA has not always been the accepted building block of genes and inherited material. Until the 1950′s, this role was believed to be filled by proteins.

The Search For Inheritable Material

In 1927, Griffith discovered bacterial transformation, which is the ability of bacteria to change their genetic makeup by absorbing foreign DNA molecules from other bacterial cells and incorporating the DNA into their own.

Then, in 1944, Avery, MacLeod, and McCarty published their findings that the molecule that Griffith’s bacteria was transferring was DNA.

In 1952, Hershey and Chase proved that it was DNA and not proteins that were the molecules of inheritance. They tagged bacteriophages (viruses that target bacteria) with radioactive isotopes, tagging the protein coat and DNA with different materials. They discovered that when the bacteria were infected with the virus, it was only the radioactive isotope they had tagged the DNA with that showed up.

Rosalind Franklin continued work started by Maurice Wilkins, and by carrying out X-ray crystallography analysis of DNA, found that DNA was a helix. Unfortunately, although her work was the essential backbone to Watson and Crick’s later discovery that DNA is a double helix, she didn’t get credit and was not named in the Nobel Prize.

Meselson and Stahl proved Watson and Crick’s hypothesis that DNA replicates in a semiconservative fashion. In order to prove this, they cultured bacteria in containing heavy nitrogen. They then moved them into a container with light nitrogen. The bacteria could replicate and divide once, and the new bacterial DNA had one heavy strand and one light strand, proving their hypothesis correct.

Structure of DNA

DNA is a double helix and looks like a twisted ladder

DNA has two complementary strands running in opposite sides from each other.

It’s a polymer with repeating units called nucleotides.

Each nucleotide has a 5 carbon sugar (deoxyribose), a phosphate molecule, and a nitrogenous base

There are four possible nitrogenous bases: The purines adenine, and guanine, and the pyrimidines thymine and cytosine. A goes with T and C goes with G.

The nucleotides of opposite chains are bound by hydrogen bonds.

DNA Replication in Eukaryotes

DNA replication is the process of making a perfect replica of the original DNA strand. Semi-conservative replication shows that the two new molecules of DNA have one old strand and one new strand.

Replication occurs during interphase

DNA polymerase catalyzes the replication of new DNA. It also proofreads each new DNA strand, fixing errors to minimise mutations.

DNA unzips at the hydrogen bonds connecting its two strands.

Each strand of DNA serves as a template for the new strand, based on the base-pairing rules.

Every time DNA replicates, some nucleotides on the end are lost. To prevent this from causing a problem, their DNA has nonsense repeating nucleotide sequences called telomeres.

Structure of RNA

RNA is a single-stranded helix.

It is a polymer, like DNA made of repeating units of nucleotides

It has ribose, a phosphate and a nitrogenous base

RNA does not have Thymine. Instead, it has Uracil. A pairs with U, C pairs with G.

There are 3 kinds: mRNA (messenger RNA) tRNA (transfer RNA) and rRNA (ribosomal RNA)

mRNA: Carries messages from DNA in the nucleus to the cytoplasm during protein synthesis. The nucleotides on mRNA are called codons.

tRNA: Carries amino acids to the mRNA to form a polypeptide. They have triplet nucleotides that are complementary to those of mRNA. These are called anticodons.

rRNA: Is structural. Makes up the ribosome, along with proteins

Protein Synthesis

There are 3 main steps to protein synthesis: transcription, RNA processing, and translation.

Transcription

Transcription is the process where DNA makes RNA. It is facilitated by RNA polymerase and takes place in the nucleus. The triplet codes on DNA are transcribed into codon sequences in the mRNA.

If the sequences in DNA triplets is: AAA TAA CCG GAC

The codons will look like this: UUU AUU GGC CUG (remember RNA does not have Thymine)

RNA Processing

After transcription, the initial transcript is processed and edited by enzymes, who remove introns (noncoding sequences of RNA). The remaining exons are pieced back together to form the final transcript. The now shorter mRNA leaves the nucleus

Translation of mRNA Into Protein

Translation is the conversion of mRNA into an amino acid sequence.

It occurs in the ribosome. Amino acids in the cytoplasm are carried by tRNA to the codons of the mRNA strand according to the base-pairing rules (think of it as trying to put a puzzle together.)

Some tRNA molecules can bind to two or more codons. For example, there are 4 separate sequences who code for the single amino acid: Serine.

Gene Regulation

Cells are not constantly synthesizing all the peptides it can make, as otherwise, the excess proteins would harm the bodies homeostasis. What this means is that the cells need to be able to turn their genes off sometimes. While this process is not well understood in humans, in bacteria it is a much more simple process, and much better understood.

The operon is the key to gene regulation. It is a cluster of functional genes, along with the “switches” that turn them on and off. There are two kinds. The Lac or inducible operon is normally turned off until it is actively triggered by something in the environment. The other is the repressible operon, which is always turned on unless it is actively turned off.

On the operon, there is the promoter. This is the binding site of RNA polymerase. RNA polymerase always needs to bind to DNA before transcription happens, so the promoter is the equivalent of an on the switch. There is also the operator, which is the binding site for the repressor, which turns of the Lac operon. The TATA box helps RNA polymerase bind to the promoter

Mutations

Mutations are changes in genetic material. They are spontaneous and random. They can be caused by mutagenic agents, toxic chemicals, and radiation. They are often given a bad name, however, they are essential for natural selection.

Point Mutation

A point mutation is the most simple form of a mutation. It is a base pair substitution, where one nucleotide becomes another. The effects of this can be seen when trying to read a sentence.

THE FAT CAT SAW THE DOG ------ THE FAT CAT SAW THE HOG

The change isn’t too dramatic, and the sentence is still legible, albeit having a different meaning

Insertion and Deletion

Insertion and deletion cause much more dramatic changes. They occur when one nucleotide is lost, or an extra nucleotide is added to the sequence. These are also known as frameshift mutations.

Insertion:

THE FAT CAT SAW THE DOG --- TTH EFA TCA TSA WTH EDO G

Deletion:

THE FAT CAT SAW THE DOG--- HEF ATC ATS AWT HED OG

Chromosome Mutations

I went over chromosome mutations more in detail in my classical genetics post, so I’ll do a brief overview of some terms here.

Aneuploidy is a condition where someone has an abnormal number of chromosomes. Someone who is intersex is an aneuploid because of a chromosomal mutation that gave them an abnormal number of sex chromosomes.

The condition of having more chromosomes than average is called polyploidy. People with down syndrome are polyploids. More specifically, they have trisomy-21, meaning instead of 2 chromosome 21′s, they have 3.

These mutations are caused by nondisjunction when homologous pairs do not separate properly during meiosis.

It is important to know that chromosomal mutations do not always have disastrous effects. People with aneuploidy still live extremely fulfilled lives, and some don’t just learn to live, become happy with how they were born.

The Human Genome

A genome is an organism’s genetic material. The human genome contains around 3 billion base pairs of DNA and 20,000 genes. 97% of that DNA does not code for protein production. Some of this DNA are regulatory sequences controlling gene expression, some are pseudogenes, which are former genes which accumulate over time. DNA is still very elusive, and scientists learn new things about it every day. Maybe one day, a scientist will read this blog, shaking his head at how wrong we were today.

Genetic Engineering and Recombinant DNA

Recombinant DNA is the act of taking DNA from two sources and combining them into one cell. This is the foundation of genetic engineering and biotechnology. Two pieces of this massive subject are gene therapy and environmental cleanup. The hope with gene therapy is that scientists may figure out how to insert functioning genes into humans to replace their nonfunctioning ones. Success could mean a cure for cystic fibrosis and sickle cell anaemia. Along with this, microbes could be engineered to decontaminate harmful chemicals at mining sites. GMO’s could be modified

However, the safety of genetic engineering. GMO’s, in particular, have become a major talking point. One major concern is that GMO’s will accidentally be introduced to the wild which could have major impacts on the ecosystems surrounding farmland.

Restriction Enzymes

Restriction enzymes are essential for scientists who work with DNA. They cut DNA at recognition sequences or sites. They are referred to as molecular scissors. The pieces of DNA that result from the cuts are called restriction fragments.

Gel Electrophoresis

Gel electrophoresis is the act of separating large molecules of DNA based on their rate of movement through an agarose gel in an electric field. The smaller the molecule of DNA, the faster it travels. Before being placed in the gel, the DNA is prepared with restriction enzymes, providing small enough molecules for the scientists to work with.

Polymerase Chain Reaction

Discovered in 1985, a PCR is a cell free, an automated technique that rapidly copies or amplifies DNA. This is great for forensic science, where small pieces of DNA can be expanded, and then compared.

#genetics #molecular genetics #chemistry #DNA #RNA #rosalind franklin #watson and crick #biotechnology #gel electrophoresis #genetic engineering #recombinant dna #studyblr #biology #biology studyblr #SAT subject test #sat biology

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thearkhound · 5 years ago

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Yuzo Koshiro interview (January 1993)

The following is a translation of an interview between video game composer Yuzo Koshiro (of Streets of Rage and Ys fame) and journalist Akira Yamashita that was published in the January 1993 issue of Micom BASIC Magazine. Koshiro himself was actually a contributor to Micom BASIC, writing for their “Game Music Corner” series of articles under the pen name YK-22 during his high school days before being employed by Nihon Falcom as a composer and as a result, Yamashita knew Koshiro before he became a famous, hence the sense of familiarity between the two throughout the interview.

Akira Yamashita: Even though we are always playing Street Fighter II together and talking to each other on the phone, we have to act a bit formal here (laughs). Let's proceed to our interview. Yuzo Koshiro: Please don't be too harsh on me. (laughs) Yamashita: What have your activies lately? Koshiro: The Bare Knuckle 2 [aka Streets of Rage 2] album will be released on January 21 next year [1993]. I'm also composing the music for the Sega CD version of Eye of the Beholder. I was entrusted to do it in timr for the Yusei Sega World event [a promotional event that was held on December 6, 1992 to commemorate the release of Sonic The Hedgehog 2 in Japan] on time, so I wrote it while crying like a baby. Yamashita: This is the first time you have done music for a CD-ROM game. Was it all done by yourself? Koshiro: Not really. It was split evenly between myself and another employee of my company Ancient [Motohiro Kawashima]. Yamashita: By employee, you mean... Koshiro: He's an employee who is capable of composing and playing music like myself. He already did music for the Game Gear version of Batman Returns and The G.G. Shinobi II: The Silent Fury, and he did around three tracks for Streets of Rage 2. He also worked on GAGE, a game for the NEC PC-9801. Yamashita: You were able to form a wonderful new studio like this on your home alongside the development room of your company. What is your intention with this studio? Koshiro: One reason is that videogames in the future will be made primarily on CD-ROMs, so I had a desire to support the format. Another reason is that I want to compose music that is not gaming-related, so having a studio is an essential point if you're a musician. Yamashita: An essential point? Koshiro: Yes. The sound quality and tone of CDs made up to now are usually determined by engineers. When working with the NEC PC-8801 or the Super NES, you could modify the programs and create sounds to your own sastisfaction. If you're not involved until the very end, you won't get the sounds you truly want to express. Yamashita: As I've expected, you like to be involved with everything until it reaches the ears of the listeners. Koshiro: That's right. I don't want other people to mess with my sound during the mixing or mastering stages. That's why I decided (to make my own studio). Yamashita: Although it's a different profession, there were many times when a manuscript I've submitted would be altered in print and I would discover changes that altered my intended meaning. It was pretty bad that I didn't get to proof-read the edits someone else would make. Koshiro: That's the feeling that I had. I want to prevent that sort-of thing when I'm credited as composer.

Yamashita: As of this writing, the amount of video game software released within a year exceeds over a 1000 titles and along with that, all sorts of game music has been produced as well. Since you've been in the forefront of the industry since the beginning, what do you think of the latest in gaming music? Koshiro: I'm don't listen to much of it. I feel like I'm stepping on something here, but to put it bluntly, everything that could be done with Japanese music has been done. In terms of instrumental music, gaming music is not that much different from (other forms of) Japanese music in general. Yamashita: It seems game companies are trying to compete over who can attract composers from the general music industry to compose game music. Koshiro: That's right... But among those kind of composers, the only one who has successfully crossed over into the game music industry is Mr. Koichi Sugiyama [composer for the Dragon Quest series]. Yamashita: As someone who got his start in the field of gaming music, you said you wanted to compose music unrelated to video games. Do you have concrete plans for such aspirations? Koshiro: I'm planning of composing such music alongside another composer. Such things cannot be done halfheartedly. Yamashita: A lot of fans of your music have been wondering when are you going to do a live show. Is there anything you could say about that? Koshiro: That's going to be unlikely. Since gaming music is composed specifically for videogames, it's already completed when it's programmed into the hardware's sound source. That's why I don't like arranged music. However, I think a better idea to start with a different approach and compose completely different music using a synthesizer. When you arrange game music, you end up being forced to add a lot of force and it ends up ruining the original balance. Yamashita: Unfortunately for your fans, that means they can only hear your music in games. Koshiro: That's right. If I’m going to perform live, I will have to do something different. Perhaps it has to be in a form removed from the framework of gaming music. Yamashita: So how will you distribute your work on game music in the future? Koshiro: I'm still going to compose game music myself, but I want to gradually increase the rate in which I compose other types of music, such as by mentoring newer composers or entrusting my work to other staff members. But I feel that what you can do with game music has been exhausted to some extent with the current available hardware. Yamashita: You've said that you wanted to challenge yourself in making mainstream music, which is an industry you’ve never set foot on before. Koshiro: There are quite a few things I would like to do if that was the case. Wouldn’t it be nice if I succeeded? Yamashita: By the way, you once said that you wanted to write music for Miho Nakayama. Koshiro: That would be fun. (laughs) Yamashita: If I had your talents, I would definitely do so. (laughs) By the way, you have composed music in various genres, but which genre is the one you want to finally narrow down? Koshiro: It's pretty difficulty to say. There's a part of me that feels there's potential in the house genre, but I also want to do classical-style film scores. Yamashita: When it comes to fitting the scene, film scores and game soundtrack are pretty similar in that sense. Koshiro: That's right. Hopefully there will be more Japanese composers who can write music for Hollywood movies. There really aren't that many. Yamashita: So your ultimate goal is to make film score for Hollywood? Koshiro: Well, that's probably a bit too grandiose. But I hope such a composer will come further after us. Until then, I will compose something that will surprise people who have never listened to my game music. Please look forward to it.

Koshiro adjusting the sounds of his music during the mastering stages in his studio. There’s also an NEC PC-8801 in the corner of the room.

Koshiro and Yamashita competing against each other in a dual-monitor Street Fighter II Champion Edition cabinet in Ancient’s development room. The game was used for reference by Ancient during the development of Streets of Rage 2. According to Yamashita, Koshiro is a skilled Zangief player.

#yuzo koshiro #akira yamashita #Micom BASIC Magazine #interview #Streets of rage #Actraiser

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thecomposerthatwaspromised · 6 years ago

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Game of Thrones soundtrack retrospective: Season 1

First, a ordering of the tracks by their themes.

House Stark’s theme – 5 4 tracks: "Goodbye Brother", "Winter Is Coming", "Kill Them All" (+ the main theme in the last seconds), "Victory Does Not Make Us Conquerors", "King of the North"

House Targaryen’s themes – 5 tracks:

Dany & Drogo’s love theme : "Love in the Eyes", "When the Sun Rises in the West"

Dany’s theme : "Fire and Blood", "Finale"

Viserys’ :"A Golden Crown"

Conspiracy’s (it will be Petyr’s after S3) – 4 tracks: "A Raven from King's Landing", "A Bird Without Feathers", "Await the King's Justice", "Black of Hair"

Main theme – 3 4 tracks: "The Kingsroad", "Game of Thrones", "Jon’s Honor", “Victory Does Not Make Us Conquerors"

House Baratheon’s theme – 3 tracks : "The King's Arrival", "You'll Be Queen One Day", "You Win or You Die"

[Edit:] Honor’s theme - 2 tracks: "Black of Hair", Victory Does Not Make Us Conquerors”

Night‘s Watch theme - 2 tracks: "The Wall", "Jon’s Honor"

Arya’s theme – 2 tracks : "The Pointy End", "Things I Do for Love"

Dothraki’s theme : "To Vaes Dothrak"

White Walkers’ theme : "North of the Wall"

And these have no themes I could recognize : "The Assassin's Dagger", "Small Pack of Wolves"

We can see that in the first season it’s the Starks’ theme that dominates the album with 5 occurrences. Daenerys’ theme is also established very early in the season but doesn’t really shine until the last episode. The main theme can also be heard in a lot of tracks, some time it’s quite subtle so I might have missed some occurrences. The track "Game of Thrones" is used for most of the end credits of S1, in the later season we have new music more often. Maybe because Djawadi was hired 10 weeks before the show airs.

Some themes signification are also not set, like the conspiration will become Littlefinger’s in S3 (fitting since we can hear it when Cat receives the letter from her sister saying that the Lannisters murdered Jon Arryn (lol) or when Cat arrests Tyrion because of LF’s infos), or Arya’s theme is played before Jaime pushes Bran.

RD talks a bit of the earlier seasons here (interview from April 2013) :

THR: Does each character have their own theme?

Djawadi: One of the first things we discussed was: How can we make this score cohesive without trying to capture every character too on the nose, because they overlap so much? We have a Stark theme, but we did not introduce the Lannister theme until the second season with “The Rains of Castamere” song, with lyrics based on the book. Theon [Alfie Allen] had no theme in the first season, but in the second we decided, OK now it’s time he gets his own theme. Now in the third season, we have so many themes established, we can do lighter or darker versions. We have an “Honor” theme and a “Conspiracy” theme when they’re trying to conspire against each other. For the fire lady Melisandre [Carice van Houten] it’s almost like a hybrid of a string instrument with some kind of -- not really a flute. You can’t put your finger on it and say what that sound is.

THR: How do you develop the themes?

Djawadi: I like to fall into the story and just dream about what it is, and it leads me to create music that puts me in the place. The synthesizers don't jump out at you, but they really work well. I literally play each instrument on the keyboard -- the timpani, then I go back to the beginning and play the string line, and then the piano. I layer all these tracks one after the other. There are various synthesizers, you tweak the knobs and modify the sound of it, let them become part of the sound palette I create. At the beginning of each project I like to create a palette of sound for that particular project. And the producers get used to it -- they’ll say, “This should be Theon’s scene, and north of the Wall we should have glassy sound and have the bells come back.” I get to be a big kid, I can make stuff up all day. It’s fun!

THR: Parts of the score seem very minimal. Are you influenced by new music?

Djawadi: Definitely. Daenerys’ theme is very minimal in the beginning, because she plays such an insignificant role. We planted the theme in the first two episodes and it doesn’t even strike you so much that, "Oh, that's her big tune." And then it just grows and grows.

I don’t know what is this honor theme is talking about lol, maybe it’s what will become Arya’s, idk. [Edit:] It’s the theme we heard when Cat leaves Ned in KL + at some more points in S1, in S2 in becomes Brienne’s theme.

Now to finish this first post, 3 of my fav tracks – obviously I love "King of the North" and "Finale" but I think there’s the most famous from S1 so it won’t be these :

"The King's Arrival" : it’s the first big track heard in the show and I love how medieval it sounds

"Small Pack of Wolves" : especially the part that starts at 0:35

"Game of Thrones" : for the rhythm

youtube

#Game of Thrones #Ramin Djawadi #got meta #S1 #share your fav tracks from S1 !#Daennerys Targaryen #Arya Stark

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ladylynse · 6 years ago

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Anyone who knows me from FF.net remember, years ago, when I said I was debating writing a sequel to my Danny Phantom fic Confessions and possibly tying it into Complications so I could pretend those all happened in the same universe? The fact that I never decided whether I should officially tie it in is one of the reasons this sequel stalled, but here’s the start of it.

All Maddie did was look at the ghost files on the computer; she didn’t expect to learn so much--or be reminded of just how little she knew.

It wasn’t very often that Maddie was home alone. Usually, Jack was with her or Jazz was up in her room, studying or doing homework. But both her husband and daughter were out with her son, doing something she never would have dreamed they would be doing even a month earlier: they were out patrolling. Ghost hunting.

Target practice, Danny had called it. Jazz had improved since she’d started helping him, he’d said, but Jack still needed to work on his aim. “I shouldn’t be safer floating in one spot than flying around,” Danny had pointed out. “And let’s face it. I’m better off staying right where I am when Dad’s shooting at me.”

But it wasn’t just target practice. It wasn’t just patrolling. It wasn’t just hunting together, giving Danny and Jazz a chance to bond with their father. They’d needed to make a statement: that the Fentons had decided to support Danny Phantom. Working with him was their way of getting the public to accept it.

They hadn’t waited until a major ghost attack to start working with Danny. Jack had been too eager to hunt ghosts with his son, and Maddie hated the thought of aiming an ectogun at Danny, even if it was for practice. So, whenever they turned up at the scene of a ghost attack before Danny had taken care of the threat, they focused on fighting the hostile ghost. They left Phantom alone.

There was still a bit of a show each time. Danny always reminded them, loudly, that he was the good guy. But it was more for the benefit of bystanders than a reminder to them to resist the urge to shoot at a ghost. Because Phantom, at least in her eyes, was no longer just a ghost.

He was her son.

He always would be, and she’d never stop loving him.

They’d managed to get most of their weapons to ignore Danny’s ecto-signature. The Ghost Gabber was a strange exception, for instance, and Danny refused to test a ‘supposedly modified Fenton Peeler’, as he put it. Maddie couldn’t blame him, really. But she made sure she kept a non-modified Fenton Finder on hand and, at Danny’s request, a Fenton Thermos. Three, in fact, all to be stored in different places.

He’d never explained that request, though it wasn’t for lack of her asking.

She’d even opened her mouth to ask Jazz once and received only a significant look and a deliberate shake of the head in return. The intent had been clear: don’t ask. Don’t push it. If she knew, she wasn’t going to say. It was up to Danny and Danny alone. They weren’t to force him to say anything to them.

It was as much Jazz’s reaction as Danny’s actions that made Maddie suspect that the Fenton Thermoses were indeed being kept for a deliberate reason rather than merely for simple caution. That just made her worry more, of course. There was so much that Danny had told them, but so much more he hadn’t….

She found it hard. She wanted to protect Danny, but she couldn’t do that when she didn’t know what sort of danger he was in half the time. And as much as he had proven that he could protect himself, that he could protect her more than she could protect him, she couldn’t stop worrying.

Maddie smiled wryly. That must be how Jazz felt. How she and Jack hadn’t picked up on the increase in Jazz’s protectiveness of her little brother was beyond her. In retrospect, she knew that the signs had been there; she could recognize them now.

Of course, she could also now recognize the reason for Jazz’s fierce defense of Phantom.

It was quiet in the lab; she was so used to the soft hum of machinery in the background that she hardly heard it. Maddie took a sip of her coffee and grimaced. It had gone cold. A shame, since it was rare that she allowed herself the luxury of food or drink the lab, even though Jack had no such misgivings and it was he who usually encouraged her to fill her favourite mug.

“Perhaps I’m too sentimental for a scientist,” Maddie murmured, knowing her occasional inability to separate her emotions from her work was one of the reasons it had taken her so long to believe the truth about her son. She placed the ‘World’s Best Mom’ mug on the countertop. It was one Danny and Jazz had proudly presented her with on Mother’s Day the year Danny had been five. They’d pooled their allowances and picked it out, filling it with little trinkets they’d made. According to Jack, they’d also bought a few candies to put in it, but those had been gone before they’d made it back home.

To this day, she wasn’t entirely convinced that her children were the reason for the disappearance of the sweets.

Maddie smiled. She might not have Jack’s confession, but she knew his sweet tooth wasn’t restricted to fudge. A double batch of cookies didn’t always make two days in her house, particularly if they were one of her kids’ favourite kinds. Especially now; she hadn’t had much time to bake of late, and her cookies had become a rare commodity.

No, that wasn’t quite true. She’d had time; she simply hadn’t spent it baking. Instead, she’d worked with Jack to ensure all of their inventions were safe for Danny. She’d watched the news channels and listened to the radio to monitor ghost attack reports more fervently than before. She’d turned her attention to ways to help Danny combat problems he might encounter in the future, brainstorming everything from smaller, more inconspicuous ghost containment devices to chemical formulas that could counteract potential pregnancy complications arising from Danny’s unique DNA��something that would be infinitely easier if Danny would simply let her take a few samples. Until he did that, she couldn’t so much as begin to genotype his DNA and identify ecto-markers that could be useful if he ever ran into any complications in his own life, like a ghost-related disease such as the ecto-acne that plagued Vlad.

And she’d debated, over and over, how to get more information out of her son.

She’d questioned Danny frequently now. Not about anything major; just small things. Who he had fought tonight. Whether he’d gotten injured. If he’d started his homework. Why he hadn’t called them in to stop the ghost so he could study for his upcoming math test.

She hoped to start getting more things out of him. Tactical information, perhaps, like the fighting styles of each of the ghosts he faced regularly. Something he would be comfortable with answering. It would be easier to move from those questions to the more difficult ones. How he had coped after the accident and how he had learned to control his powers, for instance.

Those still weren’t the questions she wanted to ask, of course. She’d gotten a few reasons for her son’s more questionable actions as Phantom from Jazz’s scrapbook, but a jotted note did nothing to really explain anything. Hypnotized? Framed? By whom? She couldn’t just accept that it had happened and leave it in the past. Someone had tried to use her son, had tried to turn everyone against him. She couldn’t just…. She needed answers.

There were so many things Danny kept from them. She’d given him ample opportunity to talk to her, but he ignored every opening. He’d change the subject. He’d suddenly remember he had homework to do or, more often, that he’d promised to meet up with Sam and Tucker somewhere. He’d come up with any excuse he could to avoid talking about it.

She didn’t want to push too hard too soon, for fear that he’d soon find reason to avoid talking to her at all.

Maddie breathed a soft sigh. She’d been sitting in front of the computer, just thinking, for far too long. When she’d first come down here, hands wrapped around a steaming cup of coffee, she’d thought she could turn her focus to the latest FentonWorks invention in development. The Fenton Spectre Binder had been pushed off to one side in favour of the Fenton Freeze Ray—“To look at once we get the kinks of this baby,” Jack had said, proudly patting the prototype for his latest brainchild. Despite the fact that Jack had insisted on taking the prototype for a trial run, she knew it could stand a good deal more refining.

Jack had originally intended to call it the Fenton Phantom Freeze, until Danny and Jazz had heard the name and immediately forbade him from ever saying that again. “It’s not a secret if you practically announce it to the entire town,” Jazz had argued. “Danny doesn’t need you to hand out any more clues than he already does!”

Danny, in the end, had been the one to suggest the Phantom Freeze be renamed the Freeze Ray. “It’s basically an ectogun that shoots out stuff that’ll temporarily turn ectoplasm to ice, right? I mean, it won’t stop time, but it should still be pretty cool if you can get it to work.”

They had never dreamed of suggesting that Danny act as a test subject for them, but his input had moved their research along considerably. He had offered to give them some spectral ice—something he hadn’t realized was any different from regular ice until she’d studied it and informed him of its differing properties. By using the product of his ice powers as a guide, she had been working on synthesizing a chemical that would freeze when it came in contact with a ghost’s ectoplasmic structure. Jack was refining the design for the gun and, she suspected, trying to discover how much pressure the liquid could withstand before the weapon would either explode in the user’s hand or simply freeze up and not fire.

It was thinking about Danny’s reaction to the Freeze Ray that had led her to thinking about Danny himself. Danny, and his secret, and everything she still didn’t know. Shortly after Jack had first announced his idea, Danny had told her, in passing, that he was good friends with the ghost who had taught him to keep his ice powers under control.

“Klemper?” she’d guessed, remembering that this was the ice ghost’s oft-repeated request, but he’d doubled over laughing.

“Frostbite,” he’d managed at last. “He’s the leader of the ghosts in the Far Frozen. I’ll introduce you guys sometime.”

She’d never even heard of the Far Frozen, but then again, she could count the places in the Ghost Zone that she had heard of on one hand. Even now, after a month of off-handed references from Danny, she felt she knew very little. She knew the reason, of course. Even after the Spectre Speeder had been finished, she and Jack had never ventured into the Ghost Zone. The only time she’d been there was the time the entire town had been transported there, essentially held hostage by a terrible ghost.

It was another time Danny had yet to tell them about.

There was no single reason that she hadn’t begun to explore the Ghost Zone. She and Jack had long ago agreed that it would be too dangerous to take the kids—ironic, really, since Danny and his friends had begun mapping the Ghost Zone because of the frequency of their travels there and that map had given her more knowledge of the Ghost Zone than she’d gained before. The danger, however vague, had felt real enough to them as ghost hunters to be wary. It was one thing to fight ghosts in the Real World, but quite another to fight the ghosts in their own territory, even if they intended to do no more than defend themselves from attack.

She’d been making…preparations��for when she and Jack made their first trip into the Ghost Zone.

Just in case.

But there was also the fact that there had never been a good time to venture off into the Ghost Zone when they were unsure of how long the journey would take, the fact that Jack always seemed to be thinking up new modifications for the Speeder, the fact that the ghosts might take advantage of their absence from Amity Park….

There was reason enough to put the trip off again and again, but Maddie now felt that she’d been trying to find one more excuse not to go, even if she couldn’t pinpoint the reason for the avoidance.

Maddie glanced at the computer again, at the three accounts on it—hers and Jack’s, Danny’s, and Jazz’s, though Jazz preferred to use her own computer—and wondered, just for a moment, if she’d always felt that they didn’t know enough about the ghosts themselves to venture into unknown enemy territory.

“Collaborating with Danny Phantom will give you an instant insight into almost every ghost that you’ve seen in Amity Park,” Jazz had told them. “Danny keeps his own files.”

Danny didn’t have his own computer. He’d never earned it, and he’d never saved enough to buy one.

If he had electronic files—which was likely, considering he was friends with Tucker—they would be here, on their shared lab computer.

Maddie hesitated for a moment, then clicked on Danny’s account. He’d never told them not to look, and Jazz wouldn’t have informed them of the existence of his files if Danny was keen on keeping them a secret. She’d forgotten about them at first, and she knew her son well enough to know that he had likely forgotten that they hadn’t seen them.

Maddie stared at the blinking cursor in the password box for a moment.

She knew her son.

She wasn’t sure if he had yet accepted some of the things she, along with almost everyone else, knew about him.

Slowly, Maddie typed a name into the password box and hit enter. INCORRECT PASSWORD glared back at her, so she tried again. Capitals and space, like last time, but this time, the full name. The name that would be used for the signatures, when the time came, for she was sure it would.

This time, the screen loaded, and Maddie smiled. “I’m proud of you, Danny,” she said quietly. “Perhaps you aren’t so clueless after all. Just nervous, like your father was.”

Maddie found Danny’s files in a folder on his desktop. She found the ghost files, as he called them, to be surprisingly organized, and she couldn’t help but wonder if Jazz had had a hand in their creation. Of course, Danny would be more likely to keep something like this organized than, unfortunately, his room or his schoolwork. To him, they were more important, and if something happened, if someone other than him needed to access the files, they needed to be navigable.

Maddie started reading the files, skimming them over rather than taking the time to absorb their full detail. She wanted to know who her son had faced down, who he had beaten, all without her knowing, and she wanted to know who his allies were. Who she could trust, if she really needed to.

The files were alphabetized, and it became all too clear that there were many ghosts she had never heard of. Amorpho? Aragon? The first one she recognized was the Box Ghost, and he wasn’t even the first of the ‘B’s.

Danny had more ghosts on file than she had ever seen in Amity Park.

He had more details in each file than she and Jack had managed to garner collectively.

And, for some inexplicable reason, he had some of them locked down.

Tightly.

She could understand perfectly well that Danny would have met more ghosts and discovered more about them. She wasn’t particularly happy with the idea, since she knew most of his encounters had probably been unpleasant ones, resulting in fights of which he undoubtedly would never want her to know the details. She could understand why he had his own file encrypted and password protected and otherwise locked to her. She was even sure he had only called it Phantom, D., in case she or Jack had stumbled upon it before he had confessed his secret to them, despite the fact that they were both well aware that he was calling himself ‘Danny Phantom’.

Still, judging by the number of subfiles she could ascertain it contained…. It had to be more than just a description of his powers.

But she respected Danny’s privacy, at least in this instance, and after a half-hearted attempt at guessing the password for the folder, she’d moved on.

It was when she came upon the second—and last, she suspected—file that was locked up so tightly that it was undeniably Tucker’s work that she knew she would be having a talk with Danny when he got back.

She’d seen enough of his fights to know that Plasmius, V., was not only the true name of the Wisconsin Ghost, but also that he was one of the strongest enemies Phantom—her own son—had ever faced. Their fights ended in draws or with one party or the other conceding, just for a time, than there was a clear victor. If Plasmius was Danny’s enemy, quite possibly his arch-enemy, then she wanted to know as much about him as possible. They could even design a weapon for Danny to use against him, if it would help.

But she couldn’t even think of personalizing the weaponry, specifically targeting Plasmius’s ecto-signature, when she didn’t know any more about him what he’d looked like, the places he’d haunted, and the fact that, for some inexplicable reason, he wanted her son.

Plasmius didn’t want to destroy Danny Phantom. He didn’t see her son like a trophy as the hunter ghost Skulker did. But it was as if her son was the ghost’s obsession, which did not make sense when accounts of the Wisconsin Ghost predated the day of Danny’s accident. The day of Phantom’s creation.

It had to be something else. There was some reason that she couldn’t find, a reason she suspected, by the unopenable file, that Danny already knew.

Jazz’s words from that day a month ago flitted through her mind once more, as they had so many times since she’d first heard them. The unfinished question that was proof enough that Jazz still knew so much more about Danny and his secret—his secrets—than she. “You’re not even going to tell them about…?”

Perhaps this was it. Perhaps this was the end of the question. You’re not even going to tell them about Plasmius?

Danny’s answer, at the time, had been simple: “Not yet.”

Not then, but perhaps now.

Because secrets…. Secrets had a way of coming between people, when important things were kept from those dearest to you. And she didn’t want to see Danny hurt at the hands of Plasmius, not when she might be able to do something to help him. He wasn’t alone anymore. She and Jack weren’t hunting him down, and even the Red Huntress—though if Danny knew her identity, he was being tight-lipped about it, too—seemed to have accepted that Phantom wasn’t about to destroy the town.

But Plasmius’s actions, true to form for the ghost that he was, hadn’t changed.

“I hope you’ll tell us what’s going on, Danny,” Maddie whispered. “This is too important to keep secret.”

2XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

“Did you have fun, sweetie?”

Danny drained his glass of water, set it on the counter, and looked at his mother, who was sitting at the table. Jazz had already gone upstairs and Jack down to the lab, the former to study and the latter to tweak the Freeze Ray, which hadn’t done well in its first field test. Well, it hadn’t done well considering it was supposed to freeze ectoplasm instead of create so much friction when discharging that sparks flew. But he somehow got the feeling that wasn’t what Maddie was getting at.

“Uh, yeah?” Danny could hear the uncertainty in his own voice, brought on more from the clear unease in Maddie’s stance than anything else, and when he wasn’t called on it, he knew something was wrong.

Well, something was wrong or she’d found out something that unsettled her. She was on edge, at any rate. She didn’t look a whole lot better now than she had when she’d been on the trail of his secret. And if he could see that….

“Mom, is anything wrong?”

Maddie sighed softly and tucked a stray auburn lock behind her ear. “I think we need to talk,” she said.

Danny’s gut twisted unpleasantly in a way it hadn’t for a while around his parents. “What’d I do?” he asked, pulling out a chair and sitting down beside her. He should’ve known that she’d wanted to talk when he’d seen her sitting at the table, waiting for him, not so much as a notepad or file of blueprints in front of her.

“Oh, you didn’t do anything, honey,” came the immediate reassurance.

Despite the words, Danny felt his insides take another cruel twist. Then what? Ghosts were his first thought, but Maddie Fenton was used to dealing with ghosts. It was hard to find a ghost-related situation that would have his mother looking like she did, where she didn’t know what to do. She’d already faced the worst she could—finding out that her own flesh and blood could now technically be classified as an ectoplasmic entity—so there was no reason for her to look like—

Oh.

Oh, crud.

He didn’t want to go there yet.

Danny’s mouth went dry. “Mom, what were you doing while we were out?” He was pretty sure he had everything even remotely related to Danielle buried, but he’d been hoping to have a little more time to figure out how to best dig that skeleton up—and ideally track down where Dani had gone off to—before he said anything, but now….

Maddie stretched out her hand, found his, and squeezed. This did nothing to help Danny’s racing heart. “I didn’t think you’d object to my reading your ghost files.”

Danny shifted in his seat. “I don’t,” he said, “but….” Some of those files were locked for a reason. Who knew his mother could hack stuff better than Tucker? He hadn’t even thought the Guys in White would be able to get into all of his files if they confiscated the computer.

Maddie sighed. “I’m sorry, Danny. I should have waited.”

“No, it’s fine,” Danny said immediately. “It’s just….” How was he supposed to explain Dani? How could he explain Dani? He didn’t even know where she was, and that ate at him more than anything else.

He should have bitten the bullet a long time ago. Told his parents about her—about him—when she had first turned up. But he’d known how much she’d needed to get away from Vlad and everything he represented, get away from him and all his influence, and find her own self. He’d thought…. He’d made excuses, talked himself into thinking that letting her go was the best thing for her, when in reality, it had only been the best thing for him.

It was selfish. He was selfish. Danielle wasn’t old enough to live on her own, especially if he considered her actual age rather than her physiological and mental one; she shouldn’t have to fend for herself, and that’s what he’d let her do. She was…. She was his responsibility, and he hadn’t even opened his mouth to say she should stay with him.

All because he didn’t want to face his parents.

Vlad being in town definitely didn’t help matters.

“Mom,” Danny said slowly, “I think I know what this is about.”

Maddie was looking at him earnestly, the worry clear in her eyes. “I don’t want to push you into telling me,” she said quietly, “but I think it’s for the best if I know more about the situation. I might be able to help.”

Considering he was going to propose Danielle live with them once she’d had her fill of roaming and they figure out how to come up with her background story and the appropriate papers after the fact, he was definitely going to need her help. And probably Tucker’s. And Sam’s. And Jazz’s, if only for the transition.

“I didn’t know how to tell you,” Danny admitted.

“Just start at the beginning,” his mother said, tightening her grip on his hand for a few seconds. “Once I understand why he’s after you, I’ll be able to help you defend yourself.”

Wait.

What?

“Once you understand why who’s after me?” Danny asked, pulling his hand out of Maddie’s grasp and staring blankly at her.

He was both relieved and ashamed that this wasn’t about Danielle.

It was a few seconds before Maddie answered, and in that time, Danny saw what she was thinking displayed clearly on her face. There were still more secrets. Secrets she hadn’t uncovered yet. Things he was deliberately keeping from her. This wasn’t it, and he still didn’t trust her enough to tell her everything.

But Maddie Fenton was quick to hide her dismay—heartbreak, the little voice in Danny’s mind corrected—and, keeping her face carefully blank as she studied him, said, “Plasmius. The Wisconsin Ghost.”

She didn’t ask what he’d thought she’d been getting at.

She didn’t want to push him too hard.

That just made him feel even more terrible than he already did, really. Keeping his secret from them had been hard enough. Keeping everyone else’s secret from them when they already knew his was even harder. Only this time, they weren’t pushing. They were letting him keep it. Even though they knew that, if he was keeping it a secret, they probably wouldn’t like the truth—despite being convinced they should know it.

Of course, the subject of Vlad wasn’t a whole lot better than Danielle, even without considering they were connected. Danny swallowed. “Plasmius is, um, kinda a, uh….”

“Danny.” His mother’s voice was gentle. “I just want to help you. Please, let me.”

“It’s a long story,” Danny managed weakly.

Maddie’s face fell. “And you aren’t ready to tell it,” she concluded.

“It’s just….” He’d have to tell them sometime. He just wasn’t sure now was the right time.

How long could he use that excuse?

Latching onto something Valerie had once said to him, Danny offered one more point to make his case: “It’s complicated.”

He could see the unspoken response in his mother’s expression: But if you’d just let me, I’d help you make sense of it.

Danny took a breath and let it out slowly. “You’ve probably noticed,” he said carefully, “that the Wisconsin Ghost isn’t still in Wisconsin.”

Maddie didn’t say anything. She just sat quietly at the table, waiting. Waiting, and watching him, and listening to every word he was willing to tell her.

She wanted to help him, and she didn’t understand the half of it, and he wasn’t entirely sure he wanted her to understand.

Sure, it would cement her view that Vlad’s a creep. She’d see him for the fruitloop that he was. His dad would finally understand that his old college buddy wasn’t his friend and didn’t deserve to be treated as such. Vlad wouldn’t be able to pull any more stunts to try to work himself deeper into their lives.

Frankly, Danny would be happy if he never saw Vlad again.

But this…. He wasn’t sure he could say it like this. True, he found it hard to find any sympathy for Vlad, but his dad would be crushed. There had to be a better way to go about this.

He needed Jazz.

He hadn’t said anything for a while, and Maddie took this as an opportunity to prompt him. “He fixated on you when we brought you and Jazz along to our college reunion, didn’t he?”

Close enough. “That was the first time I met him….”

Maddie bit her lip. “I didn’t know, sweetie. Your…. After your accident, I’d attributed the increase in ecto-activity to the Fenton Ghost Portal.” She hesitated. “The other ghosts don’t usually seek you out, do they?”

Besides Vlad? Sure they did. Skulker. Walker. The list could go on, but Maddie didn’t need to know that. “Not all of them,” Danny said after a moment. “I mean, even in Wisconsin, the Dairy King only really showed himself to me because I needed help.”

Maddie didn’t so much as raise an eyebrow, meaning she remembered the name from his files. Instead, she asked, “How often do you need help?”

Right. He shouldn’t have admitted that. “Plasmius surprised me, that’s all. Besides, you should know now that the Dairy King isn’t the only friendly ghost out there.”

“Honey, I’m not sure you should—”

“It’s okay, Mom. Honest. It’s nothing I can’t handle.”

#danny phantom #phanfiction #fanfiction #dp fanfiction #dp fic #dp fanfic #my writing #ladylynse #lynse's random WIPs #dp snippet #snippets #dp wip

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signetofworlds · 6 years ago

Text

Master of Light (An introduction)

“I can shake now and I can show

I can go where no one else goes Check your head now and hold on tight It's surfin' time with the master of light”

-David Wyndorf, Master of Light

It’s been quite a long time since I’ve put pen to paper, in part because I’ve gotten so used to dictation over the aeons. Most likely, you wouldn’t understand the strange pidgin language which I’ve synthesized from the tongues of a thousand worlds, the bizarre and nonlinear dialect with which I compose my dictation. That said, this form of communication facilitates not only coherency but also prudence, as I am forced by the medium to place down my words one at a time. A priest of Lissala once told that this forced hesitation and leisurely taste makes writing the most enlightened form of communication, and while I personally disagree I can understand how a Thassilonian politician would come to think that way (of course, the clarity of his writings proved insufficient to save his civilization from debauchery).

My preferred title is Coeus, as it was given to me by an individual for whom I have nothing but fond memories. I was seven years old when I was first exposed to the magical workings often referred to as the arcane, and this eventually led to my first encounter with representatives of the Elder Gods at age 14. These higher entities fascinated me, guiding my endeavors until after many grueling years I learned to harness a fragment of the strange energies which Yog-Sothoth, the Gate, the Key, the Pattern which binds all that shall ever exist, utilizes in his infinite existence.

Beyond the age of 34, I have ceased to keep track of my passing years, for relativity makes age a rather difficult figure to properly calculate. My infallible memory (a most useful gift from my patron) ensures that I could determine my exact age to the very second if ever I desired, but such tedium has eluded me for the entirety of my existence and will likely continue to elude me so long as there is universe to explore.

You may call me a pilgrim, an individual with a mission far greater than myself for which I trek all of existence. I have no true ambitions of my own, for an individual of my age and experience has come to recognize the trivialities of every worldly goal as well as every vain pursuit of enlightenment. My purpose lies in my work, gathering the knowledge of the universe in the unique implement which Yog-Sothoth has provided me: The Signet of Worlds.

The many-metaled gem which I wear on my left hand is perhaps the greatest repository of lore and experiences in the entire multiverse, a catalog of every planet I have travelled to, every civilization I have seen, every technology I have witnessed the use of, every stratagem I have observed, and every use of magic I have privy to. Up until now, I have filled its infinite memory banks privately, refusing to disgorge even the tiniest fragment of knowledge from its depths. Now, however, my ancient and addled mind has dubbed the universe worthy of a few of my signet’s secrets.

As much as I wish to provide a detailed record of events, I am but one man, hardly important in this infinite multiverse. In fact, I do my best to avoid exerting too much of my will on the flow of history, for I lack to rigor to hold any sort of empire together or to warp the fundamental forces of reality in a manner that pleases me.

Here, I offer my accounts of the small fraction of multiverse that I am capable of understanding for your enjoyment. That said, I envision that the first thing many of you will ask about are the limits of my own abilities and the Signet’s. As I am already sharing a variety of dangerous lore with you all, I feel that this question can be indulged.

COEUS CR 24/MR 6 Human Cleric of Yog-Sothoth (Ecclesitheurge) 1/Wizard (Chronomancer) 1/Investigator (Portal Seeker) 1/Mystic Theurge 10/Grand Unifier 7*/Hierophant 6

Medium Humanoid (human, mythic) Init +13 Senses Aura Sight, Darkvision 60 ft, Detect Magic See Beyond, See Invisibility, Perception +33 DEFENSE AC 38 touch 23, flat-footed 32 (+6 dex, +9 armor, +6 natural, +5 deflection, +2 insight) hp 240 (2d8+18d6+141) Fort +19, Ref +20, Will +28; extra +3 vs mind-affecting effects Defensive Abilities Forewarned +1, Freedom of Movement, Knowledge is Power, Life Bubble, Mind Blank, Nine Lives, DR 10/adamantine Immune Aging, Disease, Divination, Insanity Space 5 feet Reach 5 ft Speed 30 feet, Fly 40 feet (good) Melee +13 Ranged +14 Special Attacks Blessing of the Faithful, Channel Positive Energy 1d6 (11/day, DC 18), Channel Power, Combined Spells (9th), Form Blending, Form Fluidity, Indistinguishable Power, Inspiration +1d6 (18/day), Inspired Spell, Mythic Power (15/day, surge +1d8), Spell Synthesis, Temporal Pool (18 points, Forewarned, Rewind), Wild Arcana

Diviner Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st, concentration +18)

20/day-Prescience

Domain Spell-Like Abilities (CL 1st, concentration +18)

20/day-Door Sight

20/day-Recall

Investigator Extracts Prepared (CL 1st)

1st-Adjuring Step, Detect Secret Doors, Disguise Self, Heightened Awareness, Identify, Tears to Wine Cleric Spells Prepared (CL 18th, concentration +37, DC 27+spell level, 28+spell level for conjuration spells)) 9th—Astral Projection, Energy Drain, Gate, Miracle, Summon Monster IX, World Wave

8th—Dimensional Lock, Discern Location, Greater Planar Ally, Moment of Prescience, Nine Lives, Phasic Challenge, Summon Monster VIII 7th—Contact Entity IV, Ethereal Jaunt, Greater Scrying, Greater Teleport, Memory of Function, Quickened Prayer, Resurrection 6th—Find the Path, Greater Dispel Magic, Heal, Modify Memory, Quickened Alter Summoned Monster, Source Severance, Summon Laborers, Summon Monster VI 5th—Army Across Time, Break Enchantment, Commune, Fickle Winds, Life Bubble, Locate Gate, Plane Shift, Siphon Magic, True Seeing

4th—Blessing of Fervor, Death Ward, Divination, False Future, Foretell Failure, Freedom of Movement, Master’s Escape, Summon Monster IV, Wall of Bone 3rd—Animate Dead, Channel Vigor, Detect Anxieties, Detect Desires, Dispel Magic, Magic Vestment, Obscure Object, Protection from Energy, Speak with Dead 2nd—Ancestral Communion, Enthrall, Grace, Ironskin, Lesser Restoration, Locate Object, Silence, Stalwart Resolve, Visualization of the Mind 1st—Air Bubble, Deathwatch, Detect the Faithful, Divine Favor, Expeditious Retreat, Hide from Undead, Obscuring Mist, Sanctuary, Shadow Trap, Shield of Faith 0 (at will)—Create Water, Detect Magic, Mending, Read Magic

Domains: Knowledge (Memory Subdomain) (Primary Domain), Travel (Exploration Subdomain)

Wizard Spells Prepared (CL 18th, concentration +37, DC 27+spell level, 28+spell level for conjuration spells) 9th—Foresight, Mage’s Disjunction, Maze of Madness and Suffering, Shapechange, Time Stop, Wish

8th—Antipathy, Greater Planar Binding, Mind Blank, Polymorph Any Object, Prediction of Failure, Quickened Dimension Door, Temporal Stasis 7th—Control Construct, Greater Arcane Sight, Limited Wish, Mage’s Magnificent Mansion, Particulate Form, Spell Turning, Waves of Exhaustion 6th—Antimagic Field, Borrowed Time, Cold Ice Strike, Contingency, Greater Illusion of Treachery, Ice Crystal Teleport, Legend Lore, Unwilling Shield 5th—Commune with Texts, Contact Other Plane, Dominate Person, Fabricate, Magic Jar, Mirage Arcana, Overland Flight, Permanency, Wall of Force

4th—Akashic Communion, Confusion, Dimension Door, Dimensional Anchor, Enervation, Horrific Doubles, Locate Creature, Mad Sultan’s Melody, Stoneskin 3rd—Aura Sight, Displacement, Harrowing, Haste, Ice Spears, Protection from Chaos, See Beyond, Slow, Suggestion, Tongues 2nd—Aboleth’s Lung, Alter Self, Blood Transcription, Create Treasure Map, Detect Thoughts, Glitterdust, Invisibility, Spell Gauge, Web 1st—Anticipate Peril, Feather Fall, Grease, Magic Missile, Mount, Shield, Silent Image, Songbird, Technomancy, Unseen Servant 0 (at will)—Arcane Mark, Ghost Sound, Mage Hand, Prestidigitation

School Specialization: Divination (Foresight) Opposed Schools: Enchantment, Evocation

STATISTICS Str 21, Dex 23, Con 25, Int 44, Wis 26, Cha 27 Base Atk +8; CMB +30; CMD 47 Feats Augment Summoning, Compatible Forces*, Dual PathM (Archmage), Evolved Summoned Monster, Extra Path AbilityM x2, Heighten Spell, Metamagic Amplification*, Quicken Spell, Sacred Summons, Scribe Scroll, Spell Focus (Conjuration), Technologist, Unusual Methodology* (Cleric, Intelligence rather than Wisdom) Skills Appraise +40, Bluff +36, Diplomacy +36, Disable Device +10, Disguise +31, Escape Artist +10, Fly +19, Heal +12, Knowledge (all) +42, Linguistics +40, Perception +33, Sense Motive +36, Spellcraft +40, Sleight of Hand +10, Stealth +34, Use Magic Device +31 Languages Aklo, Truespeech, and numerous other languages which I have not bothered to completely tabulate here. SQ Amazing Initiative, Beyond Morality (Mythic Adventures version), Bonded Object (Signet of Worlds), Domain Mastery, Ecclesitheurge’s Vow, Enduring Blessing (Freedom of Movement), Harmonious Mage, Hunt Portal, Legendary Item x3 (Signet of Worlds, Eternal Bond, Everlasting, Legendary Fortification, Metamagician, Perfect Surge, Powerful, Rejuvenating, Returning x2, Undetectable) Combat Gear Ambrosia x5, Annihilation Spectacles, Belt of Physical Perfection +6, Boots of Teleportation, Bracelet of Bargaining, Gloves of the Commanding Conjurer, Greater Maximize Metamagic Rod, Greater Quicken Metamagic Rod, Handy Haversack x10, Headband of Mental Superiority +6, Highwayman’s Cape, Nectar of the Gods x4, Persistent Metamagic Rod, Robe of the Archmagi, Ring of Energy Dampening, Scarlet and Green Cabochen Ioun Stone, Signet of Worlds, Steel-Mind Cap, Thanatopic Metamagic Rod, Torc of Truespeech, Tunic of Careful Casting 845k

Active Spells (Sp) My statblock above treats me as already having cast the following spells upon my person: Stoneskin, See Invisibility, Shield of Faith, Ironskin, Magic Vestment, Moment of Prescience, Mind Blank, Overland Flight, Nine Lives, See Beyond, Soul Vault, Life Bubble, Heightened Awareness, Spell Turning (10 levels), and Foresight. The reason for this is that I have made many of these spells permanent upon myself or at least am not so stupid as to venture out into the absurdly dangerous multiverse without a proper index of precautionary measures.

Exceptional Stats (Ex) My ability scores were generated using 25 points, and I possess substantial wealth which far exceeds the arsenal of the rare individuals who rival my abilities. In addition, I have enhanced all of my ability scores by 5 using the Wish spell. These modifications increase my total CR by 2.

Immortal (Su) I have lived far beyond any human’s normal lifespan. I gains the +3 bonus to my Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma scores for having lived beyond venerable age, yet I do not take penalties to my physical ability scores. I am immune to disease and to all forms of madness (including confusion effects and feeblemind).

Mythic Contingencies (Sp) In the event any misfortunes befall me, I have prepared contingencies which activate under the following conditions.

If I wink with my right eye, I am affected by a Mythic Globe of Invulnerability spell which negates non-mythic spells of up to 7th level

If I wink with my left eye, I am affected by a Restoration spell

If I ever stop tapping my right big toe for longer than one minute (a tendency which I perform even in my sleep), I am immediately recalled to one of my concealed sanctuaries as per Word of Recall

Finally, if I am affected by an compulsion effect, the effect is immediately dispelled as per Greater Dispel Magic.

Abilities marked with a * appear in the book Adepts of the Inward Eye. The rest can be found on d20pfsrd

SIGNET OF WORLDS

Aura: overwhelming all; CL: 20th

Slot: ring; Weight .5 lbs.

DESCRIPTION

This bauble has kept me alive for more lifetimes than I can be bothered to count, and acts a reservoir for the tremendous lore I have collected. The Signet of Worlds functions as a spellbook which contains every spell I have ever encountered, and any character capable of preparing spells from a spellbook can use the Signet of Worlds to prepare them as if from a spellbook. The Signet of Worlds can be presented in place of using any material or focus components used in casting a spell (this includes even expensive material components). A character who prepares spells using the Signet of Worlds is also considered to know the Mythic versions of all spells prepared using the Signet. In addition, the wearer of the Signet of Worlds can take 20 on any intelligence-based skill checks they make. New spells can be scribed into the Signet using the same method as scribing spells into a spellbook.

DESTRUCTION

The Signet of Worlds can be destroyed by speaking the verbal components of every spell contained within the signet in a perverse and primordial dialect of Aklo. Afterwards, the signet must be exposed directly to the Azathoth, at which point it would explode in a surge of arcane power.

At the very least, that’s what I’ve been able to intuit about its destruction.

NOTE:

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writingatthecrossroads · 8 years ago

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Teaching Methods

(Methods Section 2)

Across the contexts I’ve described in the past three post I work to illuminate the wealth of opportunity well-developed writing skills can afford a diverse individual. I demonstrate the value of writing by teaching experimentation, advanced critical thinking about the relationship between the disciplines and society at large, evaluation of texts, the translation of analysis into writing, awareness of written genres and, finally, how to effectively apply genres in different contexts and disciplines to achieve the author’s desired effect. To teach these writing skills I employ research-based pedagogies that are built upon Genette’s (1981; 1997) theory of transtextuality, Vygotsky’s (1978) concept of zones of proximal development, and the student-centered, dialogic pedagogy that is advocated by Freire (1970) and Bakhin (2004). In this post, I will describe the theoretical foundations of my teaching strategies, how those theories manifest in practice and how those practices shifted from context to context.

The Collective Unconscious and Genre

Half the work I do with students is teaching them to decode genres so they can write for specific contexts and audiences. I agree with Bruffee when he argues “traditional classroom learning” has rendered diverse students “unprepared (24)” to tackle advanced academic writing “in the first place” because traditional approaches focus on covering up student differences instead of providing a means to effectively communicate their uniqueness to diverse groups of people. One difference that is covered up during instruction are the varied levels of genre awareness students bring to the classroom and how that awareness is informed on an individual level by students’ cultural backgrounds. Among compositionists, I partially agree with Friedman (1993; cited by Devitt,2004 ) when she argues against explicitly teaching genre because the endeavor could fall into rote mechanical practices and would fail to address the totally of genres simply because it is impossible for an individual teacher to understand and convey every aspect of all genres. However, I also partially agree with Devitt who, in response to Freedman and others, who argues ignoring students’ genre use and failing to describe it makes genres a part of the hidden curriculum (Devitt citing Christie, 1985). Devitt concludes, “If we teach a genre explicitly, we will inevitably teach it incompletely, but students will understand more about it than they would have if we had taught them nothing about it at all”(p.341).

In this research and my teaching, I built upon these two seemingly conflicting perspectives by coming to the conclusion that as a teacher I do not have to completely teach genres because students already have a great deal of genre knowledge, whether consciously or subconsciously. The trick is to bring genre knowledge to the forefront of students’ minds and to get them to meta-cognitively think about the knowledge they already possess in regards genres. This realization addresses issues of impossibility and the dangers of rote practice because it opens space for students to access their own funds of knowledge (Moll, 1992) and gives more possibilities for students to add to their funds of knowledge through collaborative learning that works within students’ zone of proximal development (Vygotsky, 1978).

I take a layered approach to understanding genre and how culture influences they way they are perceived. First, I strive to transcend the cultural, the sexual and the racial by tapping into our most basic human understanding of genre. The most primal genres, like the lyric poem, the argument, the epic journey are a part of humanity’s collective unconscious as defined by Carl Jung. The genres and the archetypes they contain form the base upon which our individual and culture derived understandings of genre build upon, which is why genre knowledge is mostly intuitive, unconscious and extremely difficult to teach. Thus instead of starting with a genre and trying to transmute my understanding of genre to students’ minds, I use the Socratic method to get students to articulate and compile as many aspects of a genre as we can in a group setting.

After those understandings are articulated, then I invite students to share their cultural and experience-based perspectives on a genre so we can understand how genres change and act across contexts and cultures. I encourage students to compare those understandings with their classroom colleagues. Sometimes students come to different understandings and decide to stick with their own. More often than not, they integrate their colleagues' understandings if those ideas dovetail with their own. Once the group has reached some modicum of consensus on what constitutes a genre, we then discuss how society’s expectations dictate how the writing that is embedded in a particular genre will “act” when it is released to an audience. Discussing how a genre acts “in the wild (Soliday, 2011)” helps students have the foresight to preemptively modify their language or structure to meet the needs of audience expectation while getting their messages across.

Trans-textualism and Critical Thinking

Once students feel comfortable with framing their messages in a particular genre I use a transtextual pedagogic approach that encourages students to think critically about their text, the texts they are using as resources, and how the texts on their topic interacts in relationships that ultimately shape how the subject at hand is perceived in academia and society at large. According to Gérard Genette transtextuality is defined as “textual transcendence of the text” or ”all that sets the text in a relationship, whether obvious or concealed, with other texts” (1981; 1997). In Genette’s typography of writing those relationships can be:

1. Intertextual, the simultaneous presence of more than one text within a text.

2. Paratextual, the relationship between the text its surrounding text.

3. Metatextual, the criticism of the ideas in one text that is embedded in another text.

4. Architextual, the generic positioning of a text as indicated by the title. For the purposes of this project, I build on Genette’s definition of architextuality by including the generic positioning of a text as indicated by the genre markers embedded within the text.

5. Hypertextual, which is the extension of a text by a following text or, in the context information technology, text that leads a reader to another text.

Students and I uncover the relationships texts have with one another through in class or one one one discussions. During those discussions, the students and I make webs of connections between ideas and the rhetoric surrounding those ideas across disciplines. Though I never explicitly define Genette’s topography for students (I always fear talking about it will come across as discipline-specific mumbo-jumbo to students), in general, students are usually able to pick up on how texts influence other texts and how those texts influence the writing they create.

For example, when the McNair scholars initially approach the GRE analytic writing task they view it as just a standardized test with an arbitrary prompt that doesn’t mean anything in real life. Throughout the course of my class, I work with students to see how the textual problems in the GRE (and other standardized tests) are informed by other text. Revealing that information unveils the real writing task students face- synthesizing the rhetoric about an issue based on all those texts to develop their own arguments about the issue at hand in their writing. Once they gain that understanding they are able to see the GRE writing prompt is not just an exercise that tests how well a student does at taking tests. Gradually the students come to realize the skill it takes to synthesize multiple texts to develop a novel argument during the GRE writing section is a skill they will use every day in graduate school.

Take this Issue task prompt for example:

A nation should require all of its students to study the same national curriculum until they enter college.

Write a response in which you discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the recommendation and explain your reasoning for the position you take. In developing and supporting your position, describe specific circumstances in which adopting the recommendation would or would not be advantageous and explain how these examples shape your position.

This prompt, like the others in the GRE Issue Topic Pool, comes off a little opaque for the uninitiated student. It is easy for a student who doesn’t have insider knowledge about how writing prompts are crafted to fall into the trap of taking an either/or approach (either it is good for all students to study the same curriculum or not) when drafting their response. At best, a student who takes a simple dualistic approach to GRE prompts in the form of the standard five paragraph essay will score a 4.

I have students take a step back from simply diving into the prompt to avoid falling into the dichotomy trap. I push students to question every aspect of the prompt so they can come to understand who wrote the prompt and why they would write it. In class, I invite students to imagine what type of person would create this small piece of text. They’re always shocked to find out these types of writing prompts are not computer generated or written by some distant, unimaginable “testing experts.” Verbal portions of writing tests are typically written and scored by writing nerds like yours truly. Knowing what kinds of people write the test makes it easier for students to imagine what kind of mindset manifested the prompt.

Once students begin to understand the ghost in the machine of the test, I ask students what they think “the word nerd friends in the parallel universe of standardized testing” are trying to get at with this prompt. I ask them if there is anything in history, literature or current events that could inform the creation of this prompt. Once we’ve had an extensive discussion, I show them other texts that have a clear relationship to the prompt we’re examining using digital resources. In the case of this prompt, I usually show students the Common Core Curriculum, the PISA exam that sparked the creation of the Common Core, information on No Child Left Behind, background information on the people who created the Common Core, debates in the news about the curriculum and instances in history where a national curriculum was instituted for better or for worse (Nazi Germany anyone?). We talk about the relationships and the dialogues between those texts and how this testing prompt is prompting test takers to engage in the dialogues surrounding national curriculum.

By the end of this exercise, students come to realize the prompt is not pulled from outer space. and the word nerds are not trying to stump them. The people who have drafted these prompts write them with the expectation that test takers read the newspaper every once in a while to get informed about the issues happening in the world around them. Moreover, they expect test takers to have ideas of their own that they are able to expound upon. The underlying assumption is individuals who aspire to attend graduate school are not critical thinkers and responders. In short, every prompt on the GRE writing portion is a gimmie because they are based on widely available texts. Once students get that understanding, it is easier for them to investigate, compile and critically analyze texts that relate to the topics on the GRE. Moreover, once students master this skill, it is easier for them to replicate the strategy of understanding the perspective of individuals who draft writing prompts (their professors) and respond to those prompts in a sophisticated manner for their other classes.

The resulting outcome from the transtextual pedagogies I have used in my teaching is students come away with intertextual and metatextual understanding of texts across genres and context. Students develop sophistication of written message and their ego strength, two variables Emig (1971) identified that affect the length and nature of students’ writing process, as they relate to drafting a sophisticated argument that takes into consideration all of the rhetorical information students have knowledge of on a particular subject. Once students can define for themselves how texts are in conversation with each other, it makes it easier for them to enter those conversations.

“Teaching” Genre and Style Experimentation

To transform Genette’s expanded theory of transtextualism into a viable pedagogy, I balanced that theory with the experimental grammar pedagogy that is advocated by Bakhin (2004). Bakhtin’s (2004) research on grammar focused dialogic pedagogy emphasizes style and device development as a way of moving past focusing on grammar mechanics and puts emphasis on developing sophisticated messages that are grammatically correct. Bakhtin begins his argument with the following:

“One cannot study grammatical forms without constantly considering their stylistic significance. When grammar is isolated from semantics and stylistic aspects of speech, it inevitably turns into scholasticism.”

Bakhtin goes on to argue Russian teachers, and, in turn, their students, are typically trained in the most cursory way on the interplay between grammar and stylistics. After asserting grammatical forms must be thought of in terms of their “expressive potential (p. 13)”, not simply mechanics, Bakhtin claims language teachers give generalized instructions like, for example, limiting the repetition of the word “that (p.14)” and to select forms that sound the best in the sentence. Bakhtin concludes, “such answers are inadequate, and, furthermore, essentially incorrect” (p.15). Bakhtin claims the outcome of this instruction is as students progress through schooling, their lively personalized style shifts to an impersonalized, clichéd, “colorless (p.23)” bookish style that mimics what they perceive to be academic writing. This shift is a crystallization of the student fear that any sense of style will corrupt their work. Students write for the eyes, not intonation and gesture, yet their put upon erudition, unfortunately, is the sign of a “half-educated writer (p.24),” not of a writer with a sophisticated message.

Instead, Bakhtin proposes a dialogic pedagogy in which students experiment with reconstructing sentences from model texts as a group. During this process, students manipulate the sentences in multiple ways so they can see how the meaning and style of a sentence shifts with each sentence’s iteration and to make clear grammatical changes can be more than a “simple mechanical process.” After this type of experimentation, students are encouraged to incorporate this practice into their writing under the guidance of an instructor.

Morrell (2004) asserts the type of pedagogy Bakhtin advocates can be a vehicle of engagement for “teachers, as transformative intellectuals” (p.90) when working with diverse students. I concur with Morrell, which is why I’ve made student experimentation in writing a focal point of my teaching. Instead of using model texts as Bakhtin advocates, students used drafts of their own text to experiment on. During the editing phase of student writing, I had students read their texts aloud so they could hear the voice they were projecting in their writing. Once students could hear what they were projecting, students edited their work and experimented with sentences based on what sounded most effective to them while integrating their voices.

What helped this experimental process was the contexts that I worked in were low stakes, meaning students received credit but they were not evaluated through grading. Students evaluated their own performance based on the completion of their projects, the goals they had for their own writing and whether they felt their messages were adequately conveyed to their respective authentic audiences. Self-evaluation opened up space for students to experiment more with their writing because they were not writing to meet the requirements of their professor (me). They were writing for their own growth. My only requirement was students ensured their writing clearly articulated what they wanted to convey and that it be turned in on time.

Students ended up presenting me with ideas of things they wanted to do with their writing and rhetoric. Together we would discuss the myriad of options they could use to meet their goals. Some of those approaches were generated by me but the bulk of the approaches were defined by what the students wanted to see in their work and their ideas on how to make those rhetorical moves happen. For the most part, I highlighted the well-executed parts of the text that project their voice and messages with strength and effectiveness in my feedback in addition to pointing out problematic portions of the text. Students would then take their pieces and “try out” some of the moves they developed themselves, some moves I suggested and moves we hashed out together. Finally, students selected the rhetorical moves they thought worked best for their projects and I would evaluate the work, again, solely based on message clarity and whether it was turned in on time.

Morell (2004) argues that the type of pedagogy Bakhtin advocates requires a different type of assessment than what we are used to. However, Morell does not provide a definitive way to go about conducting that assessment. In building on Morell’s assertion, I believe a dialogic pedagogy demands the evaluation of the writing resulting from that pedagogy requires dialog as well. Aside from evaluating the students as their teacher, for the purposes of this research, I evaluated student writing development by measuring their level of engagement with the process (Did they make appointments with me? Did they complete the writing tasks we agreed to? Did they ask me or their peers writing questions?), whether their writing behaviors changed during that process, whether they developed more skill in describing how their writing process went. I also assessed the students based on their own satisfaction with the process and their satisfaction levels with their finished products. As you can guess, I spent a lot of one on one time working with students throughout and after their writing process to perform these assessments. That said, the conversations I had with students one on one influenced group discussions because the engaged students brought their new knowledge to the group. The group, in turn, built more knowledge from the group discussions, so even students who were not highly engaged gained more writing skill by interacting with the students who were more committed.

Freire’s Dialogic Classroom

It is clear in the teaching practices I described above the dialogic classroom strategies that are advocated by Freire (1970) are interwoven into every teaching strategy I use. Although I advocate explicit writing instruction, the explicit ideas that are discussed in class arise from student knowledge and experience. I play the part of group discussion facilitator and a more experienced colleague. I may be viewed as an “expert” by students, but I remind them they are experts in their own knowledge as well. I am there to “fill in the gaps” so to speak of some of the blind spots they may have about writing. They are also there to point out my blind spots and tell me when I am missing something so we can investigate the answers together. Taking a democratic approach where all the participants (including my teaching colleagues) contribute knowledge and hold one another accountable in a respectful manner gives rise to a safe space that is not only accepting of students diverse backgrounds but is dynamic in that it integrates students’ cultural knowledge and lived experiences into the task at hand- boosting students linguistic dexterity.

The teaching practices that result from the integration of these theories:

1. Exposes students to diverse types of texts, literary practices, rhetorics and registers through reading & writing to promote student linguistic dexterity.

2. Encourages students to make comparisons between genres.

3. Teaches students how to critically examine texts.

4. Provides the space for students to practice writing varied genres and literary devices.

5. Teaches students to metacognitively transfer the skills learned from one genre to another to improve writing skills.

6. Empowers students with methods they can use to teach themselves new writing skills long after instruction has ceased.

But Wait, There’s More...! Context Specific Teaching Strategies

The 10 Step Method for Building Vocabulary

Having the skill to building a high-level vocabulary was of vital importance to the McNair scholars. They needed that skill to best the GRE and to take with them to graduate school where they’d have to learn sophisticated, discipline-specific language. Before I got the instructor position I had developed a vocabulary strategy to help diverse students because the students I previously worked with consistently reported vocabulary development as their number one writing challenge in postsecondary school.

In composition studies, it has been well documented that entering the various academic disciplines requires the acquisition of discipline-specific registers or vocabulary. Blumner (1990) stresses the crucial role discipline-specific language plays in a scholar’s academic success. He asserts gaining mastery over the peculiarities of a discipline’s register is a prerequisite for “acceptance into the academic community (p.35). Bean (2001) and Goshert (2011) suggest dictionary and context review strategies (Bean, p.138. Goshert, p. 63) are adequate approaches students can utilize to meet this prerequisite.Yet these approaches are not in line with the discoveries researchers in cognitive psychology and linguistics have uncovered over the past twenty years about the nature of vocabulary acquisition in native speakers and second language learners. Linguists Herman and Nagy (1987) assert dictionaries provide insufficient background information on complex words. Studies in both fields indicate in order to master new terms, vocabulary must be presented numerous times to students while embedded within contexts to create webs of meaning and understanding (Webb, 2007; Pressley, Levin and McDaniel, 1987; Jenkins, Stein and Wysock, 1984). Blumner echoes these linguists and cognitive scientists when he argues students need multiple opportunities to try out different registers without judgment. He goes on to suggest writing centers a place to try on different discourses, which led me to focus on crafting a fast way to teach students how to teach themselves new vocabulary.

When I created the 10 Step Strategy, I wanted to combine vocabulary building with developing research skills while tapping into literacies outside of textual literacies. I transferred techniques I learned from literary criticism and poetry analysis to the academic context and condensed those methods into ten quick steps. To integrate a research component within the strategy, I made steps 1,2, 3, 5, and 6 research based so students would have to practice digging into information on the internet and in libraries to create their own word contexts, not just have contexts handed to them by the teacher.

Step 1,word deconstruction, also provides students with the opportunity to tap into their prior knowledge and “chunk (Bransford, Brown and Cocking, 2000, p.32)” that information into their word root schema if they know a ranges of roots, prefixes, and suffixes as I did when I first encountered the word panopticon. In general, I made the assumption students would have limited knowledge of word roots and would have to look up the roots of some words. I stress “some” here because when I did three workshops with diverse students in 2012 and 2013 to test the pedagogies in this dissertation, some students knew the root of “opti” and others knew “pan.” When students pooled their knowledge, they got really close at guessing the definition without me saying a thing. In this research, I found students can pool their knowledge of roots more often if they have the opportunity to regularly deconstruct words in groups.

Steps 4 and 9 rely on visual literacy to help students who learn through images rather than words while step 7 taps into students�� orality. Typically, teaching steps one through nine strategy takes 7-10 minutes. What usually makes this pedagogy a longer lesson is drawing word maps based on the connections students make in relation to the word. In addition to connecting instances of the word’s usage in real life through maps, I have students extend their word maps into word families that integrate other words that have the same roots, prefixes, and suffixes as the word they are trying to learn. In every run of teaching this strategy, word maps always sparked lively critical discussions among students because the maps connect the word’s academic definition to phenomenon outside of the academy. Students reported this strategy is extremely helpful overall when they struggle to comprehend vocabulary from their disciplines because when the words are extracted from a wall of words and into maps that are coupled with pictures, the student encodes the target word and other words into their long-term memory with chunking.

Writing in Practice, Not Just Discussion

Another strategy I swear by is making students write in class. Yes, I make them. I don’t invite them to write like I do with other exercises. Writing in class is required because students have the tendency to do their writing at the last minute if they do it at all. For some students, my class has no teeth because I can’t punish their lack of work through grades. Instead of punishing them by giving them an F, I make them perform under my watchful eye. It’s easy to intellectualize writing in classroom discussion especially for students who talk a good game. It’s harder to put what we’ve intellectualized into practice in the moment.

To mitigate the issues all talk and no action students experience, I dedicated in-class writing time throughout the quarter. After that writing period, students talk about their writing process and review each other’s writing at the end of class. Discussing a piece after writing puts students in the hot seat. It forces the students who have been in avoidance about their work to face their shortcomings. It also gives all the students the opportunity to figure out what they’re doing right so they can replicate those strategies. Finally, they get knowledge about what their classmates are doing well so they can build on their successful practices. Together we go through the cycle of writing so we can see we all have the same “writer woes” of being burnt out on our topic, hitting writing walls, untangling sentences/ideas and, finally, feeling the exuberance of completing a solid draft.

During classroom writing time, I also write. Working in front of students models what real, planned, incremental writing looks like. Modeling incremental writing demonstrates the difference in quality between planned writing in a group context and writing a draft all alone at 5 am the morning the paper is due. Working through the motions of scheduled incremental writing teaches students self-discipline in writing and helps them break bad habits.

While there are other strategies I use with students depending on the circumstances, the strategies I describe above are the bulk of the work I did with the students who participated in Aggie Voices, McNair Scholars, and the Diversity Forum. In the following posts, I will describe the results of my investigations in those contexts and conclude with an analysis of how student voice shifts based on student trust, comfort within a context and student self-confidence in their own discipline specific knowledge.

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valkyrie-echo · 7 years ago

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Project Echo, Part 2: Chapter 26 (Despair and Deception)

Part 2 Summary: A new enemy surfaces with a team of the Avengers’ greatest foes, hand-picked for their destruction. Meanwhile, Inessa’s pre-Hydra past begins to surface, casting doubt on where her loyalties truly lie.

Chapter 26: Despair and Deception

No one spoke as they packed, the feeling of despair was overwhelming in the tower. Even knowing Morris might be forming a death squad couldn't help them much if they couldn't find the bastard. In this case it was almost a guarantee whoever went on defensive would lose. Inessa, without much to pack, spent hours with her mind half in the shadows, looking for any sign of their enemy or anymore beacons from Project Helius. She couldn't trust even the shadows with something like that on the loose. No amount of searching turned up results.

Was Pryor her enemy, assigned by Morris? Could Project Helius' resurrection be a part of all this? Neither answer explained what was happening, or what any of them could do to stop Cul Borson.

After a long, tense discussion they elected to let Inessa bring them to Clint's farm via the Valley. As useful as the jet may be in battle, there was no way to guarantee their mysterious archer wouldn't be able to destroy that too. They had to assume he was on equal tech footing with Clint, but with how things were progressing superiority was likely.

They needed Tony, but not long after being locked up it was like whatever happened to turn him against his principles went into overdrive. He was now convinced the others were working against him, trying to edge him out of his own life. Steve had him moved from a crafts room to his apartment once all the electronics were removed, but he practically devolved. He was almost feral, twitched uncontrollably, and was obsessed with making more and more devices to control Inessa. Steve allowed him a box of crayons to draw plans out on the walls with after they caught him trying to gnaw at his own wrist to use blood as ink.

Inessa didn't know what to do to help him. Tony's madness only kept growing, and it had to be a result of Pryor's manipulation. She convinced Steve to keep them at the tower an extra day, if anything happened at the farm she could have them there in seconds. Inessa couldn't tell them about Pryor without losing that precious new trust the Avengers placed in her, but she couldn't do anything to help Tony either. There had to be actual psychics that SHIELD knew of, someone who could undo whatever manipulation was raging out of control, but how to tell the Avengers they needed it?

Bucky too was on edge, but for a very different reason. He couldn't stop thinking of what happened in the Hydra base. It felt good to pay back some of what Hydra had forced him to dish out- better than he was probably supposed to admit. It made him feel righteous, powerful, in-control and not at the mercy of anyone. It felt the same when he killed Dimitri Aristov, Nikolai Ryker, whoever that creep thought he was. No, Bucky corrected his thoughts, it felt better. While he had Aristov tied up and broke him bone by bone, he was constantly worried about Inessa seeing him from a shadow he might have missed illuminating, or of the Avengers somehow tracking his location. When he fought with Inessa it was honest, brutal, vengeance. For both of them.

Is it possible to be addicted to killing? He told himself it was just Hydra, but if it wasn't wrong to kill organized evil, was it really wrong to kill unorganized evil? A mugger on the street could do just as much harm to a life- he saw it on the news every day. Maybe the others were wrong for refusing to see it- just how many people the world would be better off without.

Bucky squashed the line of thought as soon as he realized where it was taking him. He didn't want to be some rabid killer, he wanted to be a hero. He'd always wanted to be a hero. If he let Hydra change that- even if it ended up working against them- then they won in the end. He had to be the Avengers definition of "good", just to spite his enemies. Even if it was frustrating as hell.

His vision still haunted him- the Avengers dead, the Tower destroyed, Sam coming to kill her- being so invested in seeing her death that he was ready and willing to shoot her through him. Inessa didn't know about it, everyone agreed that wouldn't be a good idea, in case knowing somehow pushed her in that direction. He doubted the others were still thinking about what he'd told them, but he knew firsthand that the dream tried to tell him something- someone needed him to know.

There were too many layers, too many things lining up that demanded his attention, and Bucky had a feeling that was the plan. Keep the Avengers attention divided. The visions, the team forming against them, Project Helius- three missions, three mysteries, but which one was the real threat? "Where's Inessa?" maybe she could shine some light on the devices she'd seen in the Japanese base- all he knew was that it was keeping soldiers hidden and somehow touching the device supercharged her own abilities. Perhaps the key to their salvation was Helius- max out Inessa's power then set her loose to find this Morris guy.

"Miss Inessa is in the armory," JARVIS chimed. "Based on my analysis of her fighting techniques and style I have synthesized a protective uniform for her should the need arise."

It was like a lead weight fell on Bucky's shoulders. He wanted to run from his room on the third floor all the way to the armory, but for some reason his feet weren't working quite right. They were going too slow. In his vision he'd seen her in a modified combat suit, something that looked like a cross between Natasha's tactical suit and Clint's archer duds.

She doesn't have the neck implant anymore, he told himself, that part of the dream is already wrong. He needed Inessa to be strong- to not turn into the killer his dream showed. That was how he could fight Hydra- by keeping her from the same slope he was slipping down. Bucky stopped at the door to the armory and wiped his sweating palms on his shirt before punching in the code to open the door.

Inessa was out of the locker area and inspecting the suit in a mirror- Bucky couldn't be happier. The weight vanished as soon as he saw the suit- it looked just like Natasha's, but with the coloring changed to black with silver accents. There was thinner fabric over the crook in her elbow and her shoulders, but it couldn't have been further from what he'd seen. He didn't even realize he was grinning until Inessa shot him a frown. "Sorry," he covered the smile, "Nice suit. Decide on a weapon yet?"

"Those," Inessa pointed to a case on the bench behind her, "Steve doesn't want to rely on these in case Morris has the signal," she held up a hand, the silver in her eyes flashed brighter, and long, shadowy talons appeared.

Bucky opened the case and his smile returned, "Perfect." two long, curved daggers with forked hilts. The only vaguely resembled the other weapons, the scythe-axe hybrid weapons, "Do you want to spar later? Try fighting in the suit?"

"No," Inessa said quickly, "I want to fight Steve." Of course, fighting with me and fighting me are two different things. She isn't ready for that yet. He held no hard feelings, he was just relieved.

"I'm sure it'll be great," the world was going to hell, but he could cross one thing off his To Worry About list- the visions weren't playing any part in the impending fight. "I'll just get back to-" he quickly excused himself to give her time to get used to her uniform- not that he hoped she would have to don it anytime soon. Bucky smiled to himself again and went to find the others.

"Thank you, JARVIS," Inessa turned back to the mirror once Bucky was gone, "it's nice, but what about the suit I designed?"

"I have fabricated that as well," a panel slid down to reveal the other uniform, "however, it does not have the same safety features as the one you are currently wearing."

"It'll be easier to move in though," Inessa put a hand out to touch the rough, durable fabric, "speed might be more important." The other suit was entirely black. Her eyes would give her away in any shadow if she opened the door too far, but the suit she had on might give her away much sooner- it was too bright with all of the silver decorations. This one was simple- the pants looked like those Steve, Sam, and Bucky wore, the top was reinforced with Kevlar plating, but the sleeves were only the width of two or three fingers, her shoulders would be free to swing without resistance. To make up for the limited protection of the shirt she would have upper arm guards made of thick, reinforced leather and forearm guards that were a dark, dull metal. She could catch blades with her arms without losing versatility in the joints. Finally, there were black fingerless gloves, studded at each knuckle to protect her hands and damage her enemies a bit more.

Bucky isn't the only one with dreams. The only difference was that Inessa didn't believe them for an instant- though it didn't mean there wasn't a tip to be taken from the little glimpse into the future. "JARVIS, what do we have in the way of scythes?"

Chapter 27: Filling the Ranks

#my writing #marvel #avengers

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mun-neet · 7 years ago

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My RWBY OC, because I feel like putting her here.

Reference Image (shown below)

Name: Tempera Arcenciel

Color Naming Rule: -Tempera is a type of paint. -"Arc-en-ciel" is a French word meaning "rainbow.”

Nickname(s): "Temp" Species: Human. Occupation: Huntress, freelance artist. Alignment: Chaotic Good.

Location: Haven Academy.

Team: N/A Height: 5'7”

Weight: Undisclosed (lightweight). Appearance: Bright blue eyes. Fair skin. Somewhat frail build. Tempera dresses in an overblown manner meant to grab people's attention, with an eye-hurting amount of pink, white, and smaller amounts of other bright colors. Oversized light pink gloves that give more control and dexterity than they let on; she wears them on most occasions. A pair of leggings of a shade of pink slightly lighter than her shirt, and light brown loafers. Her hair is interesting; her hair is not naturally a rainbow spectrum; ordinarily, it’s a three-stripe pattern of red, green, and blue. She has a lot of trouble getting her hair to look "just so," since she dyes each colored section of hair individually, waiting for each section to dry before starting another one in order to prevent blending. She's very fussy about it, and won't stand to have even a single drop of dye in the wrong place. Thanks to this, her morning routine can take hours. Her scarf is her favorite accessory, primarily because she sewed the rainbow bits on herself. Weapon: Achromatopsia (Greek for “color blind”)

A light silver staff modeled after a huge paintbrush. It’s about five feet long. Much like a paintbrush, the tip is capped with long, thin filaments that serve the same function as the hairs on a regular paintbrush, albeit on an obviously larger scale. A small, palette-shaped control panel for quick selection is inlaid into the "grip" of the staff - in other words, it's just stuck into the side. Tempera can basically wield her brush however she wants to, since there's no real standard for fighting with a giant silver paintbrush. Alternatively, she can rotate the chambers manually. The staff also features a rotating, ten-slotted chamber to allow for on-the-fly switching between different paint types.That’s one slot for each color in the ROYGBIV spectrum, plus two for black and white; the tenth slot is kept blank and serves as the “safety” for the weapon.

Achromatopsia can be used as a bludgeoning weapon or as a conduit for her Semblance, but more so the latter. When used as a conduit, the Dust-paint coagulates on the tip of the “brush” and she fights by “painting” as if using...well, a giant paintbrush. The Dust lingers in the air briefly after she swings the staff if she swings at open air. She can also paint surfaces with it, in which case the Dust-paint takes effect on contact. Her attack speed is a little on the slow side, but that is to be expected-- painting is, after all, an art that requires time and finesse, so it can’t be rushed.

Personality: Whimsical, cheerful, constantly in her own little world. Always trying to keep herself entertained. Tempera has a very vivid imagination, which works well with her Semblance. Perhaps because of her imagination, she's incredibly superstitious: she is a fervent believer in ghosts and spirits. Possesses an incredibly creative and inquisitive mind; excellent at logic puzzles. She's prone to making jokes or quips whenever an opportunity arises, and she isn't afraid to deliver a witty riposte to anyone who tries to challenge her in that department. No verbal filter; she says whatever’s on her mind, regardless of social appropriateness or whether or not people want to hear it. She's easily distracted, and often zones out in class thinking about this or that.

Semblance: Color Change. (Type: Active Semblance)

Initially, the ability to change the color of things may sound like an incredibly underpowered Semblance, but Tempera makes the best of it with its deceptively wide variety of utility. The paint she carries is specially-made paint - it’s around 50% dust by mass. The formula for the other 50% is her own custom paint blend, since no run of the mill store-bought paint works well enough. She carries more than enough paint on her person at all times; she carries both blank (uncolored) paint and colored paint; that way, she's always ready for anything. If she's in a pinch, she can synthesize more "blank paint" by drawing from her own Aura, but she only does this if she's absolutely out of options.

The paint has various effects, depending on the color of the paint and the Dust that was used to make it. Red paint (red Dust) is the obligatory area control. It bursts into flames the second it contacts the ground. Like petroleum jelly, only it doesn't stick to people like Petroleum Jelly does. This is the "art" of war. Green paint (green Dust, or mixed blue and yellow Dust, either one works) creates currents of wind that'll rotate individuals in a circular tornado pattern. Orange paint (mixed red and yellow Dust) becomes solid earth that can act as a bridge or as a barrier to soak up attacks/projectiles. White paint turns into a glossy substance that reflects projectiles. Violet becomes a poisonous marsh; a tar pit that spews toxic fumes and slows down anyone unfortunate enough to step in it, in addition to the toxins which weaken their Aura — the toxins aren't strong enough to inflict death, however. Blue is a water-like fake wall which appears real, but is actually pass-through. Indigo becomes an icy surface on contact with the ground, making movement difficult. It can also be used to counteract Red paint if the latter is used wrongly, and vice versa. Black paint is a dark void that robs the gift of sight from anyone inside of it. It also can't be seen through from the outside, so it can be used to mask activity. However, if the enemy thinks to do so, they can also use this to their advantage, since she can't see what's going on on the other side of it any better than they can. It will override all other paints. The color black does not discriminate between friend and foe - it sees only color, color that it wishes to blot out. Yellow paint creates a magnetic field where it is spread. It weighs down certain metal equipment in its area of effect, pulling it to the ground -- naturally, this excludes Temp's Achromatopsia staff, but anyone wearing heavy metal armor had best be careful, lest they be weighed down and immobilized.

Likes: Painting, drawing, coloring. Art in general. Looking at art. Thinking of art. Doodling in class. Doodling at home. Doodling on the train. Doodling. Did I mention she loves art? Pulling pranks. Talking to people. Talking in general. Sweets (especially candy (especially candy corn)). Dislikes: Fancy dinners. Lectures. Studying. Homework. Work. Awkward silences. Having her pencil break mid-drawing and the resulting smudge messing stuff up.

Stats:

Attack Power: B (Not the best, not the worst. Lots of ways to get things done, though.)

Defense: D- (Yeah, no. She's about as durable as a wet napkin. She does what she can to stay out of the line of fire.)

Speed: B (More or less average. Nothing to write home about.)

Intelligence: A- (Temp is a pretty smart cookie. She likes to think up unusual ways to get things done, even if a simpler route might be more convenient. But hey, where's the fun in “simple”?)

Versatility: A++ (“Versatile” does not even begin to describe the tactical wunderkind that is Tempera Arcenciel. An arsenal jam-packed with all kinds of utility makes her an unpredictable opponent and a valuable ally.)

Overall Rating: B+ (She’s competent in a combat situation, but her Semblance gears her towards a more support-oriented role. She does better when there are allies around that she can assist.) Random little character quirks that don’t fit anywhere else: -She doesn't understand the concept of greyscale. -Temp actually has a favorite color, contrary to what one would expect. (Note: it's cerulean blue.) -An excellent pastry chef. She makes especially good sugar cookies. -The best at checkers. -She didn't join Haven for the glory, or to make friends or out of any particular desire to fight the Grimm or any of the standard stuff. As an artist at heart, Tempera believed that the image of a school-ful of students fighting against unholy creatures of the night would make for a fantastic painting. However, since schoolwork will be schoolwork and Grimm wait for no one, she's biding her time and waiting for the golden opportunity to present itself. In the meantime, though, she's still having lots of fun fighting the Grimm and interacting with other Havenites.

-Temp sleeps face down. She's gotta have at least three pillows -- two to sleep on, one to hug as a sort of safeguard against nightmares -- before she can get to sleep.

-She's highly protective of Achromatopsia, and cares for the staff as if it were her child. Every day, she polishes it until it shines. Her routine is “don’t stop polishing until I can see my reflection in it.”

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Author’s Notes:

HOO BOY, where to start with this one...

The idea for Tempera came to me out of 50% creative spark and 50% defiance. I thought to myself, “Why should I name my character after just one color? Y’know what, no, screw that -- I’m gonna name her after ALL OF THE COLORS!!”

Tempera Arcenciel is inspired by -- drumroll, please -- a bottle of tempera paint. Don’t give me that look; if Roman Torchwick can be inspired by a candle, Tempera can be inspired by paint.

That said, I invite you to judge me! Tell me what ya’ll think of Tempera. If there’s anything that you think could be fixed or modified or whatever, do let me know. I’d love to hear what y’all think!

#RWBY side of Tumblr #RWBY #RWBY oc #rwby original character #FNDM #rwby fndm #*shrieks*#Tempera Arcenciel

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kiss-my-freckle · 8 years ago

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S3 Blacklisters

Blacklisters: Season Three

The Troll Farmer, Bo Chang

No. 38 Apprehended

Liz: You said the plan was to wait, that it was impossible to cross the perimeter. Red: Waiting was an option when we had somewhere to wait. Now we don’t. We need to contact the Troll Farmer. Liz: And I don’t know who that is. Red: The Troll Farmer uses social media to conduct highly coordinated disinformation campaigns on behalf of governments, lobbyists, corporations, crime syndicates, and on occasion, a humble fugitive. He’s mastered the art of information warfare by creating events, virtual hoaxes designed to piggyback on real public anxiety. He activates hundreds of fake accounts to post thousands of tweets, creating the appearance of, say, a terrorist attack in Paris that served as cover for an art heist. He doctors screenshots from news outlets to report an ebola outbreak in Atlanta in order to drive up the stock of a drug company developing a cure. The Troll Farmer is much more than a rumor monger. The events he creates appear to be real and provoke a very real response. Smoke manufactured to draw the cameras away from the real fire.

Marvin Gerard

No. 80 Still At Large

Red: Marvin Gerard was one of the most respected defense attorneys on the Eastern seaboard. Perfect wife, perfect job, perfect, all of it. Save for his son Timothy. Quiet boy. Fell in with some bad eggs, it seems. Disciplinary issues, troubles at school, drug abuse. Timothy was getting a steady supply of amphetamines from his mother’s shrink– Ritalin, Adderall. She constantly bullied the boy. Marvin and his wife separated. He fought for custody, contacted police, social services. But his wife was the princess in a very prominent and powerful legal dynasty, so no action was ever taken. Timothy remained in her sole custody. Her abuse worsened. Convinced he had no other option, Marvin kidnapped the boy. They tracked him down, of course. Returned the child to his mother. Marvin was disbarred, convicted, and incarcerated. Liz: And what happened to his son? Red: A year later, Timothy hung himself. He was 15.

Eli Matchett

No. 72 Apprehended

Red: What do you know about Verdiant Industries, Lizzy? Liz: Nothing. Red: They’re the world’s largest agribusiness. They sell seeds. More to the point, genetically engineered seeds. In fact, they’re the single largest manufacturer of genetically engineered seeds on Earth, and not just any seeds. Corn, soy, the crops at the very foundation of our food economy. Liz: I’ve read about this. Modifying the DNA of the seed itself, teaching it to create a protein that kills common pests that would eat it. Red: Yes, and those seeds are very expensive. Most small farmers can’t afford them. Many of them have been driven out of business. And when people feel their homes and livelihoods threatened, violence is never far behind. A few days ago, a Verdiant facility was attacked by a group of small farmers who call themselves Los Segadores, men determined to kill Verdiant before it kills them. Liz: Damaging one building will hardly kill Verdiant. Red: They did more than damage a building, Lizzy. They stole data, a cache of proprietary files detailing how Verdiant modifies its corn genome. That’s a trade secret worth billions of dollars. You and I are gonna take those files from the men who stole them. Liz: Assuming we could do that, why would we? Red: Verdiant launders money for the Cabal. Hundreds of millions of dollars a year. If we get those files, we have leverage over Verdiant. We have leverage over Verdiant, we have leverage over the Cabal.

Liz: Looks like Costa was copying Verdiant documents and feeding them to Matchett and his crew. He kept this ledger to keep track of the documents he stole. Red: He’s got internal memos here tracking some development project called Genesis. Liz: He was sending them to a feed store in Wilson Park? Wait, wait, look. We can’t just go charging in there. We had a hard enough time handling the Cabal when the FBI was backing us, let alone hunting us down.

Hanover: My God. You’re Raymond Reddington. Red: And you’re Susan Hanover. Chief Technology Officer at Verdiant Industries. And corporate shill for the Cabal. Come on. Why don’t we let the boy play? Red: I have some bad news, Susan. The virus you helped Eli Matchett create has been contained. Hanover: I don’t know what you’re talking about. Red: Oh, I think you do. See, I thought Eli Matchett was Verdiant’s greatest enemy. I assumed he left Los Segadores because he wanted to be even more radical, but that’s not true, is it, Susan? The truth is he was co-opted by your company. You paid him to attack that facility. You wanted him to steal that data. Hanover: That’s outrageous. Red: Oh, well, we certainly agree on that. You provided him with everything he needed, including the scientist who synthesized the virus. Hanover: Okay. That’s enough. Red: Sit down, Susan. Let’s not make a scene in front of the boy. Hanover: This virus you’re talking about. Why would we do that? Why destroy our own product? Red: Perhaps you were willing to create this disease because you already possess the cure. It’s ingenious. Hire a madman to unleash a catastrophic threat, and then wait just long enough for the world to panic. Hanover: Why would we do that? Red: For the money, Susan. So you and your company could come rushing in with a new product at the perfect time, a seed immune to the devastating scourge and available, of course, at a much higher price. Hanover: You can’t prove that. Red: Oh, but I can. I know about the Genesis project. By now, so do the FBI. At the risk of sounding immodest, I’m on their Most-Wanted list. Number one with a bullet. They came here looking for me. Unfortunately for you, what they found were dozens of internal Verdiant documents which will lead them to your warehouse in Silver Ridge, and I don’t need to tell you what they’ll find inside. A stockpile of new seed waiting to be sold to a desperate world on the verge of calamity. You would’ve made a fortune and looked like heroes in the process. Hanover: I knew Matchett was a mistake. Red: Never met the man. Wouldn’t judge him too harshly, though. He seized his chance to terrify the world, shine one glorious spotlight on the dangers of planting the same seed in fields all over the globe. Progress. It’s a bitch. Hanover: What do you want? Red: I came here to ask you to deliver a message to your friend, the Director. This is only the beginning, and I won’t stop until his own people realize that their only way forward is to exonerate Elizabeth Keen and to leave the Director to me. Please. Tell him I’m coming.

The Djinn, Nasim (Nasir) Bakhash

No. 43 Apprehended

Red: Aram. We’re looking for a woman who calls herself The Djinn. A matchmaker of sorts, who pairs clients with what they most desire– greed, lust, revenge. They say she can make any fantasy come true.

Aram: The kidnap and rape of a British princess. The mauling death of a big-game poacher locked in a lion’s cage. The vivisection of a drug dealer while he was eaten alive. According to Mr. Reddington, these are not random acts of perverse cruelty. Each was a revenge fantasy, planned and provided by a woman known only as The Djinn.

Nasim: I know who you are. Red: And I know who you are, Nasim. What a beautiful name. It means “breeze” in Farsi. But you weren’t born Nasim. You were born Nasir– “the victorious.” How ironic. But a boy. A perfectly healthy boy. Nasim: I don’t know what you’re talking about. Liz: Alice told us the story. We know you’re The Djinn. Red: And this must be your father. The butcher. Tell me, Bahram, was it so horrific to discover that your 19-year-old son, your eldest son, was gay? So horrific that you forced him against his will to go under the knife, change his gender, to give you a daughter instead of your son, who is gay? Bantam: Clerics accept– People can get trapped in the body of the wrong sex. The law says– Nasim: I wasn’t trapped. I liked my body. I liked men. Bahram: I wanted to protect you, Nasim. They could have killed you. Red: For being gay. They’re so homophobic that being gay is a hideous crime, but chopping off a man’s penis isn’t? Honestly, is it just me, or is the human race, armed with religion, poisoned by prejudice, and absolutely frantic with hatred and fear, galloping pell-mell back to the dark ages? Who on earth is hurt by a little girl going to school or a child being gay? Let’s be frank, Bahram. You didn’t change your son to protect him. You changed him because he disgusted you. Bahram: That’s not true. Nasim: You violated my body without consent. You sliced out my identity and discarded it as waste. You cursed me to live the rest of my life as a second-class citizen, despite being a firstborn son.

Arioch Cain, Blair

No. 50

Liz: The Cabal– they found us. Red: Worse. Liz: What could be worse than that? Red: Not what, who. Wendigo. Liz: Wendigo? Who’s that? Red: The myth of a nameless assassin. And he’s coming for you. Liz: This Wendigo, if he doesn’t work for the Cabal, who does he work for? Red: No one. He’s not for hire. Wendigo is the embodiment of vigilante justice. He identifies, hunts, and kills targets he deems unfit for society. Some believe he’s ex-special ops because his presence is felt but never seen. Whatever his history, apparently, you’ve caught his attention.

Ressler: Several of Wendigo’s killings are cold cases on the Bureau’s radar. El Malo Grande headed the Mejia cartel out of Guatemala. He was killed while living under an alias in Madrid. Jose Perez, exiled Angolan dictator, was murdered while hiding out in Brasilia. Samar: Maybe they’re cold because no one mourns their loss. They’re despicable thugs. Aram: Any known aliases? Ressler: No. Aram: The only hit on our forensics database is this. Ressler: Both kills were made using a homemade projectile fired from some kind of improvised firearm. Samar: Handcrafted weapons, homemade bullets used in homicides.The list can’t be that long. Ressler: Have it compiled by the time I get back from getting my ass kicked at the Presidential Commission

Blair: I’m the one who wants you dead. Red: On the couch. Liz: You need to take me off that site. Blair: No! Blair's father: What site?! What the hell is going on? What are you people doing here? Blair: She ruined everything. Liz: This isn’t a game! People are trying to kill me! Blair's father: Blair, what are they talking about? Blair: What you wanted. How many times have you said that you wanted her dead, that you wanted the person who killed mom to die? Red: The Orea bombing. Your mother died in the Orea bombing. Blair: Look at her. Her name was Sharon. Did you know that before you blew her up? Blair's father: Blair, honey, whatever they’re telling you to do – Blair: No! Dad, no. Liz: I am so sorry, but I had nothing to do – Blair: You killed her! Red: No, she didn’t. It’s understandable that you would think she did, – but she didn’t. Blair: You’re wrong. Liz: Take it down, Blair, before more innocent people die. Blair: My mom was innocent. Liz: I lost my mom when I was a little girl. I know how you feel. Blair: You don’t. Liz: I still think about her every day – what we might talk about, what her voice might sound like. I promise you, I had nothing to do with your mother’s death. I will do whatever it takes to find the people responsible. But I can’t do anything until you take me off that site. Thank you. Blair, I’m gonna get the people that killed your mother.

Sir Crispin Crandall

No. 86 Deceased

Red: Lizzy, what do you know about Andras Halmi? Liz: The French economist? Red: Belgian. He’s an econometrician. He develops economic models using regression analysis and game theory. One of the world’s greatest minds. And he’s been abducted. Liz: What does that mean to us? Red: Andras Halmi is the Director’s most trusted advisor. And has information that is critical to our plan. At first, I thought it might be a random abduction. But thát appears not to be the case as another elite econometrician went missing in Paris 10 days ago. Liz: Another? How many are there? Red: It’s a small group. Too small to be a coincidence. In the last six months, two acclaimed geneticists have gone missing, two prize-winning civil engineers. Always a man and a woman. Someone is building an ark, Lizzy, and populating it with some of the most brilliant minds of our time. But, to clear your name we need to find Andras Halmi. And to find Andras Halmi, we have to find that ark.

Zal Bin Hasaan, Shahin Navabi

No. 31 Status Unknown

Red: Agent Navabi. May I assume you’re aware of the recent abductions? Samar: Me and every agent in the building. Red: Perhaps. But they don’t share the same personal investment that you have in today’s events. Samar: And why is that? Red: Because you and I both know that Lazarum Systems International is providing technical expertise to Israel’s missile-defense shield. They’re encrypting software for the Iron Dome. Whoever took those contractors is an enemy of Israel. Samar: That’s a long list. Red: Let me shorten it – Zal Bin Hasaan. Imagine The man who’s killed more Mossad agents than any other assassin in history, right here on American soil. Samar: That’s not possible. Red: That’s what you thought in Cairo. He was right behind you, and you didn’t know it. That mistake cost your partner his life and put you in an Egyptian I.C.U. But back then, you were missing one critical element that would have made all the difference – me. Samar: What exactly are you suggesting? Red: That we combine our efforts. We both want Hasaan. I’ll be in touch.

Red: Tell me what’s happening. Samar: It’s my brother. They’re calling him Hasaan. Red: I’m sorry, Samar. I’m getting to the truth a little too late. Samar: The Lazarum hostages have all been executed. I don’t understand. If my brother is Hasaan, why would he risk an attack like this? Red: For the list – The list of Mossad agents and their informants working around the world to find and execute Hasaan. Samar: That list is I.S.O.O. secure. It’s not available electronically. There’s only a hard copy. Red: Where? Samar: The covert source record room. Red: If that’s where the list is, that’s where Hasaan is going. In a few minutes, half the federal agents in Washington will have that building surrounded. Your only job for now is to stay alive.

Kings of the Highway: Cash, Jilly, T-Bone, Pablo, Jasper

No. 108 Deceased/Apprehended

Red: Let me see if I can guess how this works.You grab hapless motorists, drain their ATM accounts, max out their credit cards, and dump them by the side of the road. Money or your life. You’re highwaymen. “KOTH” Knights? Kings Of The Highway. How romantic.

The Director, Peter Kotsiopulos

No. 24 Deceased

Red: The Director needed permission to have me killed. And he only got it by convincing others that I didn’t have the Fulcrum. That was a costly mistake. And now members of the Cabal will be exposed as a result of investigations. His own people are questioning his leadership. We need to capitalize on that by wreaking such havoc on the Cabal that they will choose to exonerate you and sacrifice the Director.

Mr. Gregory Devry

No. 95 Deceased

Red: What do you know about Shell Island? Liz: Never heard of it. Red: The Shell Island retreat is the pet name for an assembly of affiliated criminal organizations. Liz: I’m sorry, wait. Are you giving me a case? Red: You look surprised. Liz: I thought maybe after all we’ve been through the past three months that you might want to take a break. I mean, aren’t you exhausted? Red: Your past three months have been what my life has been like for the past 25 years. I’m often exhausted. The Shell Island retreat is a ritual that dates back to the roaring ’20s. The de facto master of ceremonies is Marcus Caligiuri, next in line to Espen Van Der Merwe, but to assume leadership in the Pater Dei group, the world’s oldest and largest weapons dealer. The leaders of the Bratva, the Yakuza, and assorted international cartels. They gather when they are presented with a problem so difficult, it can only be resolved by enemies working together. Liz: And where is this Shell Island? Red: There is no Shell Island. It’s just a name. The actual location of the meeting is always a closely guarded secret. Liz: I’d have thought you would’ve been invited. Red: Howard Jasnoch. He’s a competitor of mine. He’s arranged transport for the individual who called the meeting. Liz: And who is that? Red: I don’t know. What I do know is if he’s called a meeting and the members are gathering, he’s a very big fish. Whatever is troubling him, whatever has caught the attention of these men is critical. No less than an existential threat. These meetings are infrequent, Lizzy, making this a very rare opportunity. Follow this fish, and you can net the entire school.

Red: He’s a probe. Cooper: When we brought him in, he was in possession of classified data. Red: I’m not interested in the data he has. I’m interested in the data he’s looking for, about me and my relationship with this task force. Samar: The manhunt exposed your relationship to Liz. Red: Yes, people are talking about whether I’m cooperating with the FBI. Rumors are swirling. And whoever he is, he was sent to determine whether those rumors are true.

Liz: What was his name? Red: Gregory Devry. Liz: Were you close? Red: Gregory was a dear friend and a brilliant grifter. He made a good living conning con men. Short of George Sanders, I can think of no one I’d rather have pretend to be me. Liz: But you killed him. Red: Gregory had terminal stomach cancer. So at his request, I euthanized him. Liz: You manufactured a doppelganger to reclaim your reputation. Red: I have many contingency plans in place. This was one.

The Vehm, Cardinal Richards

No. 132 Deceased/Apprehended

Red: Edward Weston was an associate of mine. His murder remains unsolved – the cause of his burns, a mystery until now. William Dowd, found under the 14th Street bridge this morning sprinkled with burning lead. Aram: Uh, the marks and use of lead are consistent with a medieval device subtly called a lead sprinkler. The device is used to shower victims with molten lead, or in the case of Mr. Dowd, to pour it into his mouth, causing serious inner burns and eventual death.

Red: The Holy Vehm – a vigilante group that operated in the Germanic regions of Europe during the Middle Ages. The Vehmic Court was sanctioned by the Emperor and directed by the Archbishop to punish sinners. Liz: What sins did these two commit? Red: Well, in the 15th Century, the Vehm meted out justice for heresy and witchcraft. But today, who knows? During the height of their power, they killed thousands. If I’m correct and the Vehm has been resurrected, there’s no telling how many victims you’ll be looking at. Cooper: Aram, see what cold cases you can find with even a remotely similar MO. Ressler, Navabi, find Dowd’s wife. See what she knows.

Red: Like you, I’m a sinner– an envious one, I might add, as my transgressions are not nearly as divine as the ones you’ve been guilty of during the years you’ve been associated with the Vatican Bank. Cardinal: I’m afraid you were misinformed. I did work with the Bank to bring an end to an unfortunate era of waste and corruption. Red: Ah. Generally speaking, I’m not a huge fan of the incorruptible, but your new pontiff? He is not your father’s holy father. He has an undeniable decency, which you sorely lack. Yes. At his instruction, you helped to root out corruption so that the Vatican Bank would no longer be in the money-laundering business, but to paraphrase Aristotle, corruption abhors a vacuum. So you moved right in. You and your little band of eunuchs. Kudos on that, by the way. Gathering sick men, tricking them into thinking they’re killing pedophiles when, in fact, they’re killing money launderers whose business you covet? Cardinal: The Vehm cleanse the world of God’s mistakes. Their other targets are necessary sacrifices for the good of the holy church. Red: No sin in murder or money laundering, so long as it serves our Father here on Earth or you.

Alistair Pitt

No. 103 Deceased

Red: Have you ever heard of the promnestria? Liz: No, is he here, too? Red: It’s a term the Ancient Greeks used to describe a matchmaker– a negotiator. In this case, a man who brings together warring crime families through mutual self-interest, leverage, or violence if necessary. Liz: My mother– was she still alive when I was placed with Sam? Red: Yes. Liz: Why did she do it? Red: I let myself in because the situation is urgent. On Wall Street, a well-planned merger can return a windfall profit. Criminal enterprises are no different. The promnestria convinces sworn enemies that there is more profit in friendship. In return, he gets a percentage of the new venture. He only surfaces when he sees an opportunity for enormous financial gain. And I’m afraid he has resurfaced to unite two very lethal enemies. Liz: How did my mother die? Red: As I said, the matter is urgent.

Red: I bought this flat four years ago. So that some day I could bring you here to the scene of your crime. Josephine Molire. Now, listen. Josephine’s father was the most prolific criminal arms dealer in Eastern Europe. But for all his success, he had a problem, an enemy. An aggressive and lethal competitor named Stockwell. Alistair Pitt: I had nothing to do with what happened to that poor girl– Red: Yes, you did. Perhaps not directly, but very much by your hand. You arranged a marriage. The youngest Molire daughter to the only Stockwell son– a burgeoning psychopath with a long and troubling history of violence. To guarantee peace and profit for all, you arranged her marriage to this man. Pitt: Please. Don’t. Don’t do this. Red: I held her in my arms and watched the life disappear from her eyes. You destroyed a creature more beautiful than you could ever comprehend.

Lady Ambrosia

No. 77 Deceased

Red: Once upon a time, there lived a woman in the woods. She was neither purely evil, nor purely good. She gathered unwanted children and gave them a home in which to stay. She promised them they’d live forever and a day. She changed them into colors, so beautiful, so bold. Liz: She cared for them so sweetly, they never grew old. Red: You know it. Liz: Lady Ambrosia. Ugh. Always creeped me out. I’m more of a Wizard of Oz fan. You just can’t beat a farm girl in great shoes. Red: Every culture has their version of a mythic creature who takes children. The Germans have Der Grossmann, the Mexicans– La Llorona. But there are whispers that Lady Ambrosia is not a myth, that there’s a real woman out there– takes unwanted children and raises them with the promise of eternal youth. This little boy turned up out of nowhere yesterday, and I wonder if Lady Ambrosia played any part in his disappearance. Liz: Missing children turn up. Red: He wasn’t missing. He died four years ago. And he’s not the first.

Red: Anya Patinka– where is she? Lady: Who the hell are you? Red: Her fairy godmother. I hear it’s her birthday. We’ve come to celebrate. It’s been some time since freshman English, but I seem to recall that fairy tales about abandonment, death, and witches are supposed to allow children to deal with their fears in symbolic terms, but there’s nothing symbolic about this place. You’re a real witch. Lady: I don’t know who you are, but if you don’t get off my property right now, I’ll call the police. Red: I believe they’re already on their way. While we’re waiting, how about I tell you a story? It’s about a mother, her two sons, and a canoeing accident. Lady: You’ve talked to Noah. Red: The family lived by a river. The boys often took a canoe out to fish. One day, the canoe tipped. Inexplicably, the elder son, the golden child, the champion swimmer, drowned, while the younger, the lesser child, survived. The way Noah tells it, you allowed Theo to believe it was his fault, that he was the reason his brother died, that he would have been better off dead. Lady: They could have died together, beautiful and innocent. Theo would have been spared all this. Red: By “this,” you mean the horror of being different. Is that why you kill them? Lady: I save them. Red: From what? Lady: I make sure the damaged ones don’t grow up to be outcasts like Theo– hated, pitied. No one loves an outcast. Red: Not even his mother? Lady: I couldn’t send my son away, but when I look at him, I see what these children shouldn’t be and what they won’t be because I see the life I save them from. Theo: I’m ugly. Red: From where I sit, there’s only one ugly person in the room, and it’s certainly not you, Theo. Dembe: She’s breathing. She’ll be okay. Red: Excellent. We must be going. Theo, you are entitled to as much as anyone– happiness, joy, a mother’s love.

Drexel

No. 113 Apprehended

Liz: Why are we at an art exhibit? Red: Because Roberta Smith at the Times said it was worth a look. And it seemed like a fitting spot to introduce our next adventure. You’re looking at a crime-scene photo. It appeared online a few hours ago, along with a breaking-news bulletin about the murder of Randy Brenner at his new home in Richmond. The local police are flummoxed. It obviously wasn’t your typical home invasion or burglary gone wrong. It wasn’t a crime of passion. It is, in fact, to one somewhat disturbed individual, quite literally a work of art. Those who know of his existence call him Drexel. Considers himself a performance artist. And like most performance artists, his work is a form of social commentary. Liz: Most performance artists don’t kill people in service of their work. Red: Last winter, he murdered the owner of one of the largest CAFOs in Europe. Liz: CAFO? Red: A Controlled Animal Feeding Operation. Hung the owner up on a hook like the cattle they butcher. Liz: A little heavy-handed. Red: Drexel does not employ subtlety to get his point across. His work shows up in unexpected locations… sometimes only for a few hours. Liz: This man has fans? People support him? Red: Yes. A small-but-rabid following. Death as entertainment. Drexel makes them feel part of something– an underground protest movement. Liz: And how do you know Drexel killed Randy Brenner? Red: Because he’s advertising it.

Red: You know, I’ve often considered my love of art, and I realized it’s not just the art– it’s the artist. I like art a lot, but I love artists. I love the stories behind their work… The characters. Lopping off ears… Rankling the establishment with paintings of soup cans… Often boldly revealing themselves to our keen observation and insight, our scrutiny. What a marvelous thing, the courage to create. Though I must say, nothing about your work strikes me as courageous. It seems self-indulgent, petulant. Like a tantrum from a child who’s just realized that the world can be a dark and unfair place. Drexel: I’m– I’m not interested in your opinions of my work. An artist’s job is to speak. Red: And this latest manifesto? Beginning with the murder of Randy Brenner. What is it that you feel so compelled to say? Drexel: You have no idea what he was doing, do you?

The Caretaker

No. 78 Apprehended

Red: Are you aware that a gentleman in your State Department has been murdered in Beijing Liz: Yes. Fished out of the Hai river. Red: His name was Russell Pritchard. Murdered by the Chinese as payback for the assassination of a Chinese official, Zhang Lau. Liz: How? Red: With the help of Addison Wen, an extremely powerful Chinese-American businessman. While Zhang Lau was in town visiting the UN, Mr. Wen invited him to a dinner party at his home. That night, Zhang Lau is poisoned by agents that Mr. Wen agreed to let the State Department place on his serving staff. That agreement, it seems, was recorded by Addison Wen himself. He knew once the murder was committed, he’d be considered a loose end by your government. Liz: He wanted insurance that the government wouldn’t kill him. Red: Precisely. Which brings us to our next blacklister. They call him The Caretaker, a secret keeper– documents, recordings, photos. The caretaker maintains an impenetrable safe-deposit vault for criminals, governments, captains of industry, and he only releases those secrets according to one’s specific instructions. Liz: So, in Addison Wen’s case, that recording was leverage. He probably didn’t want in released unless he was murdered or arrested for the poisoning of Zhang Lau. Red: I agree. And yet, my sources tell me Addison Wen is very much alive and was in no danger of prosecution, which means something has gone terribly wrong. The integrity of The Caretaker’s operation is the only thing preventing thousands of closely guarded secrets from being exposed, secrets that implicate powerful and dangerous people.

Caretaker: My wife and unborn child died a few months before. I was out for a drive, and I saw her crossing the street. She tripped. Her father. Her father– mean. Drunk. He started beating on her. I got out, went over to him to explain, “She’s just a little girl.” A beautiful little girl. Words were exchanged. He took a swing at me. I moved in in self-defense. He went down… hard. As he lay there bleeding, I felt a little hand in mine. She just took it. Like she was saying, “Thank you.” We walked back to the car. She got in willingly. And we left. Left.

Mr. Solomon, Matias

No. 32 Still At Large

Red: 72 hours ago, Matias Solomon escaped from custody while being transferred to a holding facility. Liz: How does that happen? Red: The official story is he overpowered a guard, wrestled away his gun, and managed to kill the entire transport team before vanishing like the proverbial will-of-the-wisp. Liz: And the unofficial story? The Cabal? Red: Apparently not, considering all of the dead men were assets of the Cabal. Yesterday, Solomon reached out to an associate of mine… a man with a very specialized field of expertise. Solomon was inquiring about the storage and transport of tactical nuclear weapons, which would be troubling enough on its own, but coupled with the fact that your Air Force is scheduled to transport just such a weapon down the New Jersey Turnpike, I’m afraid your wedding plans will have to wait, Lizzy. Liz: Is that what this is really about? Getting me to delay my wedding? Red: This is about preventing Matias Solomon from getting his hands on a nuclear weapon. Liz: I’ll take it to the task force. Red: I was hoping you’d say that.

The Artax Network

No. 41

Aram: Alright, whoever was after Agent Keen hacked into a telecom hub. The servers in that basement were sifting data intercepted from the fiber optic cables. Samar: Sifting it and sending it where? Aram: I don’t know. Once they realized we’d figured out what they were doing, they pulled the plug and… and severed all communications. Ressler: But we know what they were looking for… Keen. They were watching her. Aram: Right. Yes. Watching and listening through private security cameras… traffic cams. Cooper: Someone was watching the attack on the church, in real time. Ressler: She never stood a chance. They were following her the whole time. Cooper: And you have no idea where this information was being sent? Who was tracking her? Aram: I’m tracing the packet routes, but it’s… it’s gonna take time. What I do know is that uh, Agent Keen wasn’t the only person they were monitoring. Uh, they were intercepting cell and CCTV footage out of the Warwick Hotel in Midtown, along with voice and Internet traffic out of something called the uh, Global Financial Council. Cooper: How is that connected to Keen? Aram: I don’t know. It’s… There’s so many pieces to sort through. It’s… This is the sort of thing Mr. Reddington would just see without even blinking.

Aram: I’m not looking for a needle. We need the whole haystack. And if I’m right, it’s the Artax Network. Cooper: What is that? Aram: It’s an old telecom project to provide data coverage to every corner of the Earth through a network of 73 satellites. Anyway, the company went bankrupt and the project was abandoned. Samar: But the 73 satellites are still out there. Cooper: You think our target is using them? Ressler: Is there any way to confirm that the network’s still active? Aram: Well, I’ve just gained access to a relay station, and I am about to lock onto one of the satellites. If it’s in use, the data will be encrypted, but… we’ll know if it’s active. Okay. Here we go.

Susan Hargrave, Scottie

No. 18 Still At Large

Red: Are you? A former Cabal operative led the assault that resulted in her death… Matias Solomon. You bungled his execution. He works for Halcyon now. I want him, and I want Scottie Hargrave. Laurel: I despise Halcyon. They’re powerful, arrogant, and unchecked, but our government depends on them. Red: Your government. Not mine. Give Halcyon a call, Laurel. Inform them that you have a job that requires their immediate attention. Laurel: I’m a National Security Advisor to the President. I don’t have the authority nor the discretion to act on my own. Red: That’s nonsense. If Henry Kissinger taught us anything, it’s that the National Security Council has tremendous latitude in both advising the President and shielding him. You do many things he doesn’t want to know about. And I can tell you the President doesn’t want to know about what I have in store for Halcyon. Laurel: The Cabal disavowed Solomon and made peace with Keen. We had nothing to do with this. Red: Elizabeth Keen was well hidden from the demons of her past until you went after her, until you told the world she was Masha Rostova. You put a target on her back and invited someone to take a shot. Do not try my patience, Laurel. On this topic, I have perilously little of it. Laurel: What’s the job?

Alexander Kirk aka Constantin Rostov

No. 14 "Alexander Kirk is gone, and he won’t be back.”

Red: Alexander Kirk is the alias of an oligarch who made a fortune after the fall of the Soviet Union buying mining operations for pennies on the dollar. In 2002, he went into hiding after falling out of favor with the Kremlin. He owes his survival to some of the world’s most powerful politicians whose careers he secretly bankrolls. But Alexander Kirk is the man responsible for Elizabeth’s death. He hired Susan Hargrave to abduct her, which is why we need to work with Hargrave to find him.

#redtimestories

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