#because not only does it absolutely DESTROY most computers. it also makes the face rigging like INSANELY uncanny valley when lip syncing

[jounalentrie202]

I really don't like how aeris looks in the remake? Like there's just something about her facial proportions are kinda uncanny for me. I think it's how small and pouty her mouth and lips are. Like girl relax your lips you're gonna strain your muscles if you're constantly pursing them! Like the constantly tiny mouth with pouting lips and big sad doe eyes and worried brows don't actually look cute girl!!! Relax your face muscles it's more than just your jaw that you need to worry about clenching!!!!!!

[shitihaveheardatwork]

See You In Hell, Bratz Passion 4 Fashion: Diamondz!

Contrary to the opinions of many of my peers, I think weeding is awesome and I love it. There’s little I find more satisfying than an item of obviously low quality with no demand whatsoever coming into my attention and having the privilege of removing it from circulation.

Just to be entirely clear, we’re not talking about “extreme” or “controversial” content. I’ve had that conversation done to death a thousand classroom-polarizing times before. We’re talking about cheap. We’re talking about cash-grab. We’re talking about no artistic, cultural, spiritual, or even material value.

We’re talking about Bratz Passion 4 Fashion; Diamondz.

Some personal history first: I’m old enough that my last big toy phase before I reached the special level of adolescence where you have to openly condemn everything you once held dear as a child was Bionicles. I had the black bionicle from every generation up until that point, as well as a complete set of those little rolly-polly guys with the stretchy necks. I don’t know what they were called and I couldn’t be bothered to look it up for this lil micro-essay here.

What’s important is that they were cool. They did action-y stuff, I felt smart putting them together.

Waaaay Cooler, Smarter, Action-y, and REAL than my sister’s interests! Polly Pocket? Dumb! Pre-bronification MLP? Barf! Bratz? How fake can you get? Those were just shallow pieces of plastic made by toy companies. Not like my precious bionicles. So cool. So adult. So smart.

Then I watched the first Bionicle movie when it was on TV and realized I too was a cog in an elaborate toy commercial scheme. Something clicked in my horny mushy pre-teen brain, and I put away all my old favorite toys forever. It was now time to be shitty and elitist about intangible concepts instead, a hobby I’d keep until my early 20′s. But in addition to a change in hobbies, I also started to be a little bit less shit to my sister about her toys.

This confession out of the way, I don’t think my sister would have stopped me from throwing this DVD directly into the trash. My sister didn’t become a high-fallutin’ working-class intelligentsia asshole like her big brother, and we have nothing comparable in terms of media taste, but I think she would support me 100% if I told her I sent this DVD straight to hell. In fact I might call her later just to confirm. This disk was bad, is the moral of my story.

It took six paragraphs, but let’s talk about Day 3 on the job!

It was just me and Lisa today. I’ve upgraded from liking Lisa to absolutely loving working with Lisa. We talked everything from how her kids are doing to politics (she brought up Tr#mps latest satire-destroying phone call) to video-gaming to the history of animation. I genuinely like talking to her and it’s a shame she’s just filling in. If a job opens up at her branch, I’d apply for it, no question.

My boss Wallace, “Yer dad”-level queerphobe and Ron Swanson-esque libertarian, was putting out a metaphorical fire at another branch and I didn’t have to deal with him at all.

I did my opening routine. Checking the drop box, collecting the pull list, putting together holds, refiling returned materials, preparing ILL material, checking my work email, and the like. I was done with it all in about 90 minutes, with 4 hours left to go on my shift.

Wallace had told me to fill the time with anything I can qualify as “professional development” the week before, so I spent some time reading articles on the ALA website and googling “anarcho-librarianism” just to see what would happen. I found an abandoned blog and a twitter.

Then I remembered oh shit. I have to make a twitter don’t I

I don’t like twitter. I’ve tried to use it. I don’t get it. I’m too old to learn a new app. It’s impossible.

And yet I must. That’s where The Discourse is happening. That’s where the minds in my field are saying things. If I’m taking my career seriously, if I want to get a grip on the currents in my profession, I have to bite that checkmarked bullet. Stand by for updates on my professional twitter.

I got bored of being on the ALA site and ran out of productive things to google, and decided to look around the building for abandoned projects and mysteries to solve. It didn’t take long to find one, when I found a cart in the work room with a pile of DVDs in paper sleeves.

“Scratched” a post-it note on top said.

I asked Lisa if she knew how long these had been here, and she confirmed that they were in fact a hold-over from the previous staff that had left in a mass exodus some months before.

Well cool, I thought. I’ll see if these are too fucked up to play.

Commence with an hour of consuming children’s media, a few seconds of a minute at a time. I was fortunate that the work computers both had CD drives AND VLC media player! Thank you, past cool supervisor who put VLC on the work machines! Good call!

So I “watched” a few Dora The Explorers, a Care Bears film, that Trolls movie, Hotel Transylvania, and a Barbie horse adventure film, watching a few seconds before skipping a minute ahead to see if it would choke and skip.

See here’s the thing about scratched CDs. They’re weird. You can have a CD that’s fucked up completely (looking at you, my copy of Rollercoaster Tycoon 1) that still somehow plays fine like it just came out of the box. Sometimes scratches will seem totally superficial but goof up just enough microscopic binary that no machine will touch it. All these DVDs were ugly as sin, but that didn’t mean they were broken did it?

And it turns out a lot of them worked fine. That’s how I ended up watching Bratz Passion 4 Fashion: Diamondz which, unfortunately, played fine.

As I put the disk into the drive I remembered my sister’s participation in the Bratz toy craze. As an adult, a real one not the one I told myself I was at 13, I told myself that I might have a bias against this content, to just check the disk and not get judgy about what might be a kids favorite movie.

I uh... I failed to do that. BUT IT’S OK BECAUSE MY BIAS IS TOTALLY JUSTIFIED AND MY JUSTIFICATION IS RIGHT HERE

If you didn’t or don’t want to click the link, it’s a scene where the Bratz Diamonds are about to head out on some sort of fashion trucking marathon/race. Like any proper racer, the blonde at the wheel has a white-knuckle grip on the wheel, has just put their rig in gear, and in proper high-octane fashion, puts on a knowing smirk.

Except the smirk is, well... the animators just stretched the lips across the face further. I can’t do it justice, you just have to watch it, but I’ve done better animating just by pan-and-scanning around Windows Movie Maker.

This... isn’t content anybody needs. But I’m a librarian. I’m sworn to access. So the question becomes, does anyone want it?

I had to know, I had to know, how much circulation has this gotten? When was the last time this disk was in the hands of anybody at all besides me?

I popped it into Evergreen and behold: 15 check-outs since 2006 when it was released. No checkouts in the last 2 years.

I asked Lisa the proper procedure for removing something from the catalog, and in only a moment the deed was done. The case was repurposed, the disk trashed, the DVD cover recycled. It was time to go. I’d spent my remaining hours quasi-consuming children’s media.

I placed most of what I’d watched in a new pile, which I labeled “SCRATCHED BUT WORK FINE.” I placed one lone Barbie horse movie in a different pile labeled “SCRATCHED AND DOES NOT WORK.”

I felt like I’d accomplished something. I turned off the lights and I went home.

[luckyspike]

Adventures in America, Ch. 6 - In which Adam learns about the formation of shelf clouds (literally, this is not a metaphor)

and this chapter took so long because in order for adam to learn about the formation of shelf clouds i had to learn about the formation of shelf clouds

thank you to wikipedia, and the 5 hours of meteorology youtube videos i watched, as well as the many, many hours of storm chasers i watched

reminder that this fic is not on AO3 yet bc tbh i want to finish it first but here’s the link to the other chapters

or follow this link to my fanfiction tag

ch 1 | ch 2 | ch 3 | ch 4 | ch 5

-

Four-thirty in the morning, and it was still dark. Generally, Adam wasn’t a fan of getting up before the sun, but generally, Adam was not hunting tornadoes. He rolled out of bed the minute the alarm went off, silenced it, and moved to turn on the light. Lucky beat him to it.

“You ready?” the other boy asked, dark eyes bright and eager. “You ready to go?”

“Absolutely.”

They threw on clothes - whatever they could find - and stuffed the few things they’d actually unpacked back into their bags. Adam paused only to send a text to his friends - ‘Day 1, here we go!’ - before he and the other student walked quickly into the parking lot, their excitement poorly-disguised. They arrived at the truck and stopped. It was dark. Rachael and Noel were absent. Lucky frowned, and looked at his phone.

“Oh. We’re early.” He dropped his bag to the ground, and sat on the asphalt next to it. “Oh well, better early than late.”

“Sure,” Adam agreed, leaning back against the truck and wondering if maybe the extra 15 minutes of sleep might have been worth it. He sighed and looked around. In Tadfield, the streets would have been empty at this hour. But in Austin, by the airport, cars came and went. At a lower volume, certainly, than they might in a few hours, but still, the road was not deserted by any stretch of the imagination. He wondered, distantly, where all those people might be going. 

“Hey, Adam.” Lucky held up his phone. “You wanna do a snap?”

“Oh, selfie? Yeah, sure.” He crouched down next to the other boy, Lucky beaming through his beard and Adam holding up a peace sign while his blonde hair spilled over his face and shoulders. It probably would have been a good picture, had it not been so dark that the only discernible thing was two dark shadows crouched in front of a slightly reddish shadow that may have, with better lighting, looked like a truck. Undeterred, Lucky nodded approvingly and captioned it ‘day 1 fuckers!’ before sending it off, presumably to a group of friends. 

“I should probably take another one for my parents and stuff, too.” This was done as a selfie only, Adam standing back up to look to the east instead, watching the sky turn purple with dawn. Although Adam didn’t like to look over anybody’s shoulder, he did note that the caption on the second photo was a tamer ‘Bright and early for storm chasing day 1!’. He smiled. 

“Your parents are cool with this, huh?”

“Eh.” Lucky shrugged. “My dad is. He’s like super stereotypical masculine dude - his only concern was that I didn’t plan on taking a gun with me.” He rolled his eyes, while Adam tried not to look too shocked. Well, that was America for you. “My mom was kind of worried, but like, we always watched those storm chaser shows when I was a kid, so I think she’s excited too. She told me to send a ton of pictures.” He looked up, over his shoulder, to Adam. “Yours?”

Adam shrugged a shoulder. “They felt like it was a good opportunity, they just felt it was maybe more dangerous than needed but … eh.” He laughed. “I was more worried about my godfathers trying to stop me, but they just let me go.” He frowned. “Which is kind of weird, actually, ‘cause they seemed really worried at first, but I did tell them it was really not that dangerous, so I guess they believed me.”

Lucky was watching him with a puzzled expression. “I don’t have any godparents. Well, I mean, not that I’ve stayed in touch with. I think my parents picked some of their friends or something. But you know yours?” He thought about it. “Was your family really religious or something?” And then he winced. “Yikes, actually, that’s really personal. Sorry, don’t feel obligated.”

“Nah, it’s fine. I mean … kind of.” He snorted. “It’s weird, but I guess we’re kind of religious in a way. They taught me a lot about religion, anyway, but like, I dunno.” He shook his head. “I was heading for trouble when I was younger, and that’s sort of when they started hanging around more, I think at first to help me? But now they’re just kind of cool weird uncles.”

Lucky nodded appreciatively. “Nice.” He picked up a stone from the parking lot and chucked it, idle and bored. “I learned most of my religion from, uh, well, we had a nanny and a gardner until I was like, eight, and it was mostly them.” He laughed. “So weird, honestly - the gardner was like, a monk, I swear to God, and my nanny was actually like, a literal Satanist, like pentagrams and the whole thing, but they ended up getting married after they retired together.” Adam frowned. That was … odd. “Nanny used to like, tell me to destroy all lesser humans and stuff, and then she’d hand me off to the gardner for a few hours and he’d be like all into love of all living things or whatever.” Oh, she. Adam relaxed. A little.

Very strange.

“Up and at ‘em, eh, boys?” Noel’s voice rang across the parking lot, loud and clear even over the steadily-increasing airport traffic. “Excited for the first day?”

Adam nodded and Lucky said, “Yeah!” Rachael, tagging behind, laden with camera bags and an oversize travel mug, offered up a weak and drowsy smile. “Lots of driving on the agenda today, guys. Hopefully will get us into position to see some stuff this afternoon. But first -” she wagged the mug in the air, “we need to find a Dunkin.”

Lucky made a face. “You’re a Dunkin devotee?”

“What’s your brand?” She was packing her things into the bed of the truck, and Adam and Lucky followed suit. “Please don’t say Starbucks.”

“... Well.”

She sighed and laid her hand on his shoulder. “So I have to teach you more than just storm chasing this trip, I guess. It will be my cross to bear.” The truck started up, and Rachael brandished her mug like a sleepy knight charging into battle. “To Dunkin.” She trod around to the front passenger seat, and Lucky laughed, shutting the bed cover and heading to his seat. 

Adam waited until they were in the truck and on the road before he asked, “What’s Dunkin?” He thought it over, trying to remember where he’d seen the name before. Online, certainly, but in relation to … what?

“Oh.” Rachael was watching him in the rearview mirror. “Oh, Adam. Oh, you sweet, summer child.” She turned around, slinging her arm across Noel’s shoulders. “Do you drink coffee? Or tea?”

“Both.” He considered it. “Coffee’s nice in the morning.”

“Dunkin Donuts has the best coffee in the world. Hands down, best.”

“Sometimes they burn it,” Noel said, already flinching away from the playful slap she aimed at his shoulder. “I said sometimes! Not every time!”

“Never. They never do.” She looked to her phone, where a GPS was chirping out directions to the nearest Dunkin. “I will convince you boys by the end of this session that Dunkin coffee is superior to any other coffee, and not to be unappreciated.” She sighed. “It is better than Starbucks, mark my words.” Lucky hummed, uncertain. “What’s your preferred brand, Adam?”

He thought about it. “Uh, well. I dunno. Costa is what we have in town, and that’s pretty good, but I don’t think there’s any of them over here. Starbucks is okay, I guess, in a pinch, but my godfather makes the best coffee.” He shrugged. “He’s super into it.”

Rachael nodded. “Oh, well, obviously home-brew rigs are going to beat out chain places every time.”

“She does make an amazing cup of coffee,” Noel agreed.

“But no, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Costa.” Rachael looked thoughtful. “I’ll have to try it some day. I’ve always wanted to visit the UK, so I’ll put it on my list of things to do for that trip!”

Adam laughed. “There are definitely better things to do in England than go to Costa. If you’re serious about going, I can give you a list of stuff if you’d like.”

Noel turned into a parking lot, and Rachael yawned. “Ah, sorry. Yes, I’m definitely going to take you up on that. But first, coffee. You alright taking the first leg driving, Noel?”

“As always!” He hopped out and waited for the rest of the party to join. “The donuts are also fairly good here, so if you guys want breakfast this will probably be our stop. They have sandwiches an’ all that, too.”

“I do like their hashbrowns,” Lucky added, half a step behind Adam, hands in his pockets. “You have to have a donut though, Adam. Just to try one. It’s like … I mean, America runs on Dunkin.” He laughed. “Or at least that’s what their commercials say.”

Ultimately, Adam selected a donut for breakfast, as well as a cup of coffee. He debated getting the hashbrowns as well, but on reflection it seemed likely that this would not be his only opportunity to eat at Dunkin, and he decided to save it for another day. Rachael paid for him - “The first hit is free,” she said solemnly - and they took their leave.

The coffee was pretty good, Adam thought, sipping at it on the way back to the truck. Maybe a little too sweet. But good. Wouldn’t be the worst thing to drink for the next six weeks, anyway. He assured Rachael he thought it was delicious, and they loaded back into the truck.

Rachael spent the first portion of the drive north looking at her computer, studying the weather maps, and drinking her coffee. She and Noel talked in low voices about where to go - maybe a bit more east? Or stay westward? - and the truck rolled on. Adam, a stranger in America, watched the desert of Texas go by, pink and gold in the dawn and then bright and brown in the harsh light of day. Lucky, in spite of drinking his coffee faster than anybody probably should, was asleep within the first hour, leaned against the window with a string of drool running from the corner of his mouth. Adam considered taking a photo of him on Lucky’s own phone - it was laid on the seat between them, idle - but decided against it, instead pulling out a book about supercell formation and other weather patterns, and starting to read.

Rachael and Noel switched drivers after a few hours, stirring Lucky from his nap. With the students more awake, and no driving duties at hand, Noel took the opportunity to talk Lucky and Adam through the weather tracking software on the laptop, and discussed what they were looking for. “You want to see a big, cool system meeting with some warm air where there’s a lot of moisture,” he explained. “So here’s the barometric pressures as they stand now, and the current radar. Either of you have an idea of where we should go for ideal storm tracking?” Adam and Lucky, each with their own notebooks, did their level best to calculate the possible and likely movements of the systems. Adam considered his work and, eventually, penciled in a careful ‘x’ over a part of the map where it appeared two states met on the north side of the Oklahoma panhandle. Lucky had already finished his own calculations, and they passed their notebooks forward. 

“Alright, let’s see here.” Noel turned around, one notebook in each hand and laptop open in front of him, comparing each of their calculations to his own model. Adam shifted nervously. He was pretty sure with the jet stream so far south, they wouldn’t need to go as north as Lucky had calculated, but then again he hadn’t been confident about the low-pressure area … “Both good maps,” Noel concluded at last. “But I think today we’re going to end up closer to Adam’s.” He turned back to them, smiling, and passed the notebooks back. “Partially because we won’t be able to get that far into Kansas without losing daylight, sorry Lucky, but I don’t know … we’ll have to see. Time will tell.”

“Part of storm chasing,” Rachael added in, “is guesswork. Doesn’t matter how good your models are, doesn’t matter how correct your math’s been, the weather always seems to end up surprising us. It’s part of what makes it fun! And scary, sometimes.”

“Oh, which reminds me: safety briefing.” Noel turned around, suddenly serious as the grave. Adam nodded attentively, shutting his notebook and folding his hands on top of it. “We’ll go through some of Rachael’s lightning equipment afterwards, because eventually you two are going to be doing a lot of work with that, but we need to talk safety.” He sighed and rubbed his neck. “It’s not all fun and photos out here. Let’s talk the anatomy of a storm. Lucky, you first, go over what you know about inflow and outflow, and why that’s important.”

The safety “briefing” actually lasted an entire 3 hours which, honestly, Adam appreciated. They discussed the anatomy of a supercell, the places where you were more likely to get caught off-guard by a rain-wrapped tornado, the places where lighting is more likely to be active, where and how hail forms, and how to best stay safe while studying storms. Noel showed and taught them about the ‘bear’s cage’, and made it very clear that for the most part they would be avoiding that portion of the storm, as neither Noel nor Rachael had a death wish. At the conclusion of his briefing, they stopped for lunch - fast food, which Adam viewed as a particular treat, not having much selection in Tadfield - and switched drivers again.

As they entered the Great Plains region, Adam was taken aback by just how flat everything was. Miles and miles stretched out on either side, level and grassy in the places where it wasn’t level and covered with farmland. Cows - so many cows - grazed and stood and slept and stared at the highway, sometimes, and although Rachael’s instruction on lightning and atmospheric electrical activity was truly interesting, Adam found his mind wandering. 

“Adam?” he was startled from his reverie and study of the plains of the Texas panhandle by Lucky. He turned to find both the other student and Rachael smiling at him. 

He blushed. “Oh, sorry.”

Rachael shrugged. “Don’t worry. It’s a lot of information. We’re probably a few hours out yet, too - are you tired? We can take a break and you can have a nap. We have you both at our mercy for the next six weeks anyway, right?”

Adam laughed. “Yeah. I might nap. Uh, if that’s okay, I mean.” Rachael waved a hand, the universal gesture of ‘go ahead’. Lucky nodded too, slouching back against the seat and stuffing a bundled-up sweatshirt between his head and the window. He was asleep in minutes, eyelids fluttering as he dreamed. Adam leaned up against the window, too, wishing he’d had the foresight to pull a sweatshirt or something out of his own luggage as a makeshift pillow. Still, even without, he found a comfortable position between the headrest and the side of the cab, and drifted off to the sound of the road beneath the truck. 

He wasn’t sure how long he slept, but he didn’t dream, and when he woke up, it was because Lucky was nudging his shoulder. “Hey, dude. We’re getting there: look!”

“Whazz?” Adam blinked, bleary, and then remembered what he was doing. He focused his eyes, rubbed a bit of sleep from them, and looked to Rachael, or at least her shoulder. Her laptop was open on her lap, Baron running. Although he could only see her face in profile, she didn’t look happy.

“Check out the clouds,” Lucky said, pointing across the back seat and out of Adam’s window. “Look. Cumulonimbus.”

Noel glanced out of the window at the clouds. “Yep, for sure. Capped, though. How’s the radar looking, Rachael?”

“Not great,” she replied, glumly. “Honestly it looks like … I hate to say it, but it looks like it might fall apart.” She ran a hand over her hair, pulling a few dark strands loose from her already-messy ponytail. “It just isn’t hanging together like we want it to be.” Turning in her seat, she set the laptop on the center console, the better to show the students in the back seat what she was looking at. “You see this line of storms here? Ideally, I would have liked to see them consolidate more, but they’re spreading out into a squall line.” She pointed to one of the still-consolidated blobs on the radar. “That’s going to be a low-precipitation system, but it might be a good one to see for your first day.” She scowled as she zoomed out. “Look at that - the storms to the east look much better.”

Noel shook his head. “That’s the business, unfortunately. And things might change - you get hooks in squall lines, sometimes.”

“Well, I didn’t want to start these guys out on a bust day.” She studied the radar again after pulling the laptop back onto her knees. “I guess this looks somewhat favorable here, up by Sturgis. No hook, though.” She sighed. “Still might get some lightning and hail, though. You guys want to practice a little with the lightning equipment?”

Adam nodded eagerly. He was disappointed, a little, that the storm was falling apart, but still, a big storm and some lightning would be exciting. Maybe hail. The biggest hail he’d ever seen wasn’t even pea-sized, but he’d seen videos and photos of much larger and he figured it might be cool to see that in person. Providing the windscreen didn’t shatter. He’d seen videos of that, too. He also, he considered, might not want to be out in the hail, setting up monitoring equipment, especially if it was very large.

“Alright. Onwards to Sturgis, then.”

They arrived in Sturgis in the mid-afternoon, moving from blue skies and fluffy cumulonimbus clouds into a giant wall of white and gray. “Shelf clouds,” Rachael said, tracing across the front of the cloud formation. “Adam - what’s the difference between shelf and wall clouds? They look similar, but they’re not the same thing, yes?”

“Right.” He answered slowly, deliberately, making sure he responded as accurately as possible. “Shelf clouds typically form at the front of a storm line, where wall clouds are usually at the back. The shelf cloud is usually because the uh … The downdraft -” Rachael nodded encouragingly, “- Right, the downdraft at the leading edge of the storm cuts under the warm, moist air and forces it up which makes it have the wall shape.”

“Right! Good start for description of a shelf cloud. So a wall cloud - ?”

“Is … is due to uh, en, uh …” He flapped a hand, as if grasping for the word. “En-something, um …”

“Entrainment.” Rachael nodded. “Yeah, that’s right, good start, keep going.”

“Okay so entrainment is when the warm, moist air gets drawn up and like, starts to push out the colder air. And then the warm air continues to gather moisture and condenses into a cloud. It usually happens really quick, and in supercells wall clouds usually rotate due to the mesocyclone.” He was on firmer footing there - he hadn’t done all that reading on supercells that morning for nothing. “Usually they’re under the rain-free base of the storm, not on the leading edge.”

“Right!” She turned back to the windscreen and gestured to the clouds ahead of them. “So these are shelf clouds. They’re still in the distance a little, but what should we expect as we get closer, Lucky?”

“Gusty winds,” the other student answered quickly. “As the cold downdraft shoots forward over the warm air.”

“Right. And what will the clouds look like?”

That was tougher. “If it’s very strong winds,” he said slowly, after a break for thought, “then uh, like the clouds will be kind of messy at the leading edge, and there might be scud along the ground, right?”

“Yep. In really strong storms you can get straight-line winds, vortices along the ground, and gustnados. Which are not tornadoes, right?” She grinned as the boys in the back seat each fixed her with looks of varying puzzlement. “Yes? Either of you know the difference between a gustnado and a tornado?” Neither did, and Rachael was more than happy to explain. Adam diligently took a few notes - outflow, not inflow, and straight line winds versus cyclonic activity - and let Lucky read them over his shoulder. 

“I’m not sure I really understand straight-line winds,” Adam said, when she’d finished her explanation. “I’ve read about them, but can you explain more what -”

“Yeah, for sure!” She continued on, going through the details of a straight-line wind, and how that might be more likely in a squall line than a supercell. Noel would chip in on occasion as well, although for the most part he drove deliberately, watching the clouds, taking measures of the surrounding roads and towns, and following the highways to some nebulous destination. Rachael would add a direction to him mid-lecture sometimes, after consulting Baron, and then would return to the rapt students with more information.

“This is a lot of information,” she added at the end of her lecture. “I’m glad you’re taking notes, but I don’t think many people could remember all of this after one day. We’ll go through it a few times over the weeks, alright?”

“Perfect,” Lucky said, a little glassy-eyed. “Adam, do you mind if I copy your notes? I left my notebook in my bag.”

“Yeah, no problem.”

Noel pulled over on the main highway, as if arriving in some predetermined destination that only he knew, and put the truck into park. “Seems as good a place as any to wait for it to roll in, huh?”

“Not a soul around.” Rachael kicked her door open and jumped to the dusty ground outside. “Great place to practice with the lightning instruments. And we can hang out in the car and watch the storm, as long as it’s safe, yeah?”

Adam and Lucky were already hopping out of the car and headed toward the back gate. Under Rachael and Noel’s tutelage, they set up two of Rachael’s field instruments - a high-speed camera station and a small portable weather monitoring station - and fixed them into the ground with spikes. “Not any good if you can’t find your data-gathering instruments,” Rachael laughed. “Learned that one the hard way early on.”

“Before she met me,” Noel added, and she rolled her eyes. “First chase with me and I asked her ‘so you just let the tornadoes take your high-speed cameras every time?’ and she stared at me like I had three eyeballs all of a sudden.”

“I only ever lost one to a direct hit,” she grumbled, crossing her arms over her chest and then, suddenly, wrapping them around herself more tightly. A cold breeze, no, a cold gust blew toward them, kicking up the dust and tossing it into their eyes. “Yep, there’s the gust. In the car, guys, unless you want to experience hail first-hand.”

Two minutes later, and Adam found himself wincing in solidarity with the truck as marble-sized hail hammered the roof and the windscreen. “We use special glass,” Noel shouted to them, over the noise. “It still breaks sometimes, but I have a guy that puts it in for us when we need it.” Lightning forked across the sky, and a blink later a crack of thunder split the air. Lucky jumped, right hand clenched on the door handle and left wrapped tight around his phone, forgotten. “You get that?”

“I don’t think it was a clear shot.” Rachael had her window rolled down as far as she could without letting in undue amounts of hailstones, her camera pointed out toward what had thus far been the most active part of the storm. “Working on it.”

“She can sell these shots,” Noel shouted. “Honestly, taking students and stuff is a good steady source of income, but sometimes the lightning shots are what makes a season for us.”

“No pressure or anything.” Rachael leaned back as the hail pinged off the side of the truck and into her neck. “I dunno, I think there’s too much hail and rain here.”

“You wanna move? We could run east and see if we could get ahead of it.”

She shook her head in response. “Nah, not today. Let’s wait for the worst to pass and then we’ll grab the instruments. The remote might’ve got something.” She didn’t look away from the storm, but she called, “How you two doing? You’re awfully quiet.”

“This is wicked,” Adam said loudly, over the hail, wide-eyed and watching the storm surge around the truck. It almost looked like snow on the road, the hail was falling so heavy and fast. Lucky, still glancing at the lightning shooting through the sky above, had recovered from the shock of the thunder enough to bring his phone up and start taking video. Adam, prompted by that, pulled his own phone out and started recording. “Marble-sized hail,” he explained to the video. “Just outside of Sturgis, Oklahoma.” He’d have to send it to the group when he got back on wi-fi, he resolved, before he stopped the recording and tucked his phone back into his pocket. Definitely the whole extended family of The Them - the core four and the rest of the Nahpocalypse crew - and his sister. He would decide whether or not his parents should see it later. 

-

When the message dinged onto Crowley’s phone late that night, he and Aziraphale studiously watched Adam’s video of the hail and the storm. “Well, he doesn’t sound afraid,” Aziraphale said. “That’s good.”

“What’s he got to be afraid of?” Crowley reclined his seat and took his phone with him, swapping from the video to some game or another. “Hail wasn’t even that big. We’ve been through bigger storms than that.”

“Not while avoiding miracles,” Aziraphale replied, testily. He had not enjoyed the storm. Crowley hadn’t either, but only because the demon had spent the majority of the time threatening the 4-Runner that if it dared allow the windshield to crack, there would be absolutely horrific repercussions. Aziraphale had had to cut him off when he’d started getting into really descriptive methods of car torture. 

Crowley made a noise of vague disagreement. “There were loads of humans out in it. Weren’t even scared.”

“Because they don’t know better.”

“Or because there wasn’t anything to be worried about.”

Aziraphale relented, slightly. He sat back in his seat, watching the motel across the street with disinterest. The red truck in the parking lot shone in the light. “And you didn’t sense anything evil about it?”

“Not in the slightest.” The music from the game paused. “Why? You get anything?”

Aziraphale frowned, and shook his head. “Not … exactly. But I’m uneasy about this whole thing, Crowley. Not just the weather, bad as that is, but … something feels wrong.” He crossed his legs. “I can’t put a name to it, exactly, but there’s just a strange feeling about all of this.”

“Yeah, two kids you like a lot are in a truck chasing tornadoes. Gives me a weird feeling too, angel.” He propped a foot on the steering wheel and crossed his other ankle over it. “S’called anxiety, not sure you’re familiar with it.”

“I’ve known you for 6000 years, of course I’m familiar with anxiety.”

“That was unfair.” Crowley sniffed, only theatrically offended, and the game resumed. “I have a condition.”

“Which I am familiar with, my dear demon. You’ve made my point.” He waved a hand. “Either way, that’s not the feeling I’m talking about. It’s … Well, it’s almost like we’re being watched. But I don’t sense any goodwill, and you said you’re not sensing any hatred or anger, so?” He made a vague gesture, and then settled his elbow on the windowsill, chin in his hand. “It’s a bit hard to describe.”

Crowley looked to him over the rims of his glasses. “You know, now that you brought it up, I’ve noticed it too. Just thought it was being out of England, though. Or a demon thing.” He shifted in his seat. “We’ll have to pay attention tomorrow.”

“Yes. Yes, quite.” He glanced sidelong at Crowley. “You don’t notice it now, though?”

“There’s a cow about 600 yards that way staring at the road,” Crowley said, pointing to the west. “Only thing watching us around.” Aziraphale hummed a noise of agreement, and settled back. “Do you ever get bored of your games?” he asked, at length, gingerly sliding the seat back and propping his feet on the dashboard. The 4-Runner’s engine purred and the fuel gauge needle, which had been on ‘E’ since early that morning, fluttered. Crowley glared at the radio. “Don’t you start that. Bad enough the Bentley loves him.”

“Jealous?”

“Possibly slightly.” Crowley tapped the phone screen a few times, and then groaned. “‘Course I get bored of this stuff. But, you know.” He let his head fall back. “Can’t read, didn’t pick an audiobook yet, and I’m not interested in the thing you’re reading right now, sorry.” He unpaused the game. “I’ve got a few podcasts but, eh, you probably wouldn’t like them. Suppose I could get out some headphones,” he considered, after a moment. 

“What’s a podcast?” Aziraphale asked, hands folded on his stomach.

Crowley looked at him, eyebrows raised, although he wasn’t sure why he was surprised. Aziraphale had yet to even get a mobile, and his technological comfort zone didn’t go much past 1945. “Like a … ah, like a radio show? Can be about anything. Educational, entertaining, unsolved mysteries, ah … interviews …”

The angel looked intrigued. “Like a radio play, you said?”

“Some of ‘em, yeah.”

“Let’s try it.”

The game paused again. “Really, Aziraphale? Go on, I know you’d rather read your … what’s it called? Mainlander? The one with the time travel lady, right?”

“Outlander, yes.”

“Right. You can read your book, I’ll put headphones on if I feel like listening -”

Aziraphale pouted. “But I’d like to listen to one.”

The demon looked dubious of this assertion. “Really? You’re serious?”

“You like them, don’t you?”

“Yeah.”

“Then pick one you’d think I’ll like and we’ll listen together.” Crowley looked shocked. Aziraphale sighed, and reached across the center console, hand outstretched. Comfortably, Crowley slid his into it. “You listened to me read an entire Outlander book, even though you hated it -”

“I didn’t hate -”

“Let’s try a podcast, Crowley.” He squeezed the demon’s hand. “You like the funny ones, I’m sure.”

Crowley watched him for a minute, as if waiting for the other shoe to drop, and then cautiously, closed his game and flipped to a different app. “If you’re sure.” He chewed his lip. “And, uh, yeah. I prefer the funny ones.” He considered the options, squinting at the enlarged print on the screen over the tops of his glasses. “Right. What’re you in the mood for? Murder, dungeons and dragons, advice, ah … no, that’s technology, you wouldn’t like that one, ah, oh, and history.”

Aziraphale’s eyebrows had gone up when Crowley had started listing the options. “I thought you said you preferred the funny ones.”

“I did do, yeah.”

“Murder?”

“It’s a comedy murder podcast.” Crowley caught a glimpse of his expression, and snorted. “It works but we can skip that.”

Aziraphale pursed his lips. “Hm. What kind of history?”

“American, mostly.”

“Do that one.”

“Right.” He tapped something on the screen, and then handed the phone to Aziraphale. “Pick a title that looks interesting. Just tap on it when you want it, and then tap the little triangle in the bottom left.” There were a few quiet minutes while the angel browsed, and then he grinned. “Do you have any idea what ‘whalesplosion’ might be about?”

“At a guess,” Crowley sighed, “an exploding whale?”

“I suppose we’ll find out. I wonder how it relates to American history.”

“Never paid as much attention to America,” Crowley agreed, adjusting himself in the seat to hold Aziraphale’s hand more comfortably, while the other laboriously hit ‘play’ on the podcast. The 4-Runner, which had never linked its bluetooth capabilities with Crowley’s phone, and indeed hadn’t really wanted to, nevertheless did so, projecting ‘You’re listening to the Dollop on -’ over the top-of-the-line speakers* with beautiful crystal clarity.

[*Which it hadn’t had, until Crowley had sat in it.]

Twenty minutes later, and Aziraphale and Crowley both were laughing, exchanging incredulous looks, and wordlessly agreeing that they really should be paying more attention to America. And that they would certainly be choosing a second episode at the conclusion of the first one.

-

Now with Chapter 7!

[rekkingcrew]

The Drax Krieger Files: The Fortress Pt 2 (Mystery Solved!)

This is a summary of me DMing one on one for Drax.

(part one is here)

Fresh off having to sign a gauntlet of non-disclosure agreements about “the incident” from his corporate employers, Drax returns to his office with Nu and asks his secretary bot if there are any messages. (Player destiny point) There is one, and it’s important!

The message is from Patch. Drax tells Nu he’s taking a shower to get some privacy while he listens. In the shower he listens to a long, rambling, apologetic message that can be summarized as follows: Patch knows he’s working on something now, and he isn’t sure he should be taking this outside of the mercenary company, but he wants to hire Drax for a missing person’s investigation. He has a batchmate clone he invited into Violet Sun, and they haven’t arrived yet. It’s been a couple of weeks. No one has seen them. Drax towels off and he and Nu get to working to scan the footage. The other investigators have had longer to look, but Drax’s search is directed and that’s helping make up for some time.

Specifically, he’s looking at Tripwire and Patch’s entrances and exits from the secure second ring (the other three Violet Sun guards are non-clone humans). He notices two important things. First, Patch never appears in the log. Every time he goes through the scan it reads him as Tripwire. Second, Tripwire exits more times than he enters by one. Looking at the odd grouping, video from the outer ring shows Tripwire, as Eyel described him, speaking on a com and walking out to meet with someone. The room he walks through has a number of people milling about, many of them clones in similar armor. You could be forgiven for missing that he never comes back, especially since, when the alarms sound, he’s there, emerging from the second ring with Patch, gun drawn, looking for whoever shot his boss. Zooming in on the footage of “Tripwire” leaving, Drax is able to discern two things- this person is not wearing Tripwire’s modded armor, and what’s in his blaster holster isn’t a blaster. It’s a piece of something bigger. A review of earlier video footage allows them to determine there’s no time during the meeting the second Tripwire could have entered, but checking the security records, Drax learns Tripwire was the inspector Violet Sun sent to check things out, arriving alone after the Hutt and Corpsec inspectors. With minimal security because no one important was there, he was able to spoof the security system and stay inside the second ring (continued investigation here would have shown that the assassin and Tripwire worked together at the inspection, and Tripwire even made a point of talking to the employee on duty and then visibly leaving while his accomplice stayed, unobserved, but that was a detail it would have cost some time to pursue).

Drax sets Nu to find and analyze everything she can about the Violet Sun, while he makes some calls. As she is, among other things, a corporate business robot, she’s able to find all of their public contracts (legal) and also hack into their company accounts (illegal). The money flowing from the first to the second matches for a long time, then there is a decline in contracts with the money declining commensurately. Then the contracts keep declining, but the money makes a sharp increase and keeps going up. They also recently, before Vadst’s death, accepted one more contract that’s going to require a lot of them to leave within the next couple of hours. Drax calls up a money launderer he knows (using a class skill in which a successful roll requires the DM to give him one free clue). The money launderer is currently in the process of shredding documents in preparation for a long vacation, but he gives Drax one vital piece of information: Violet Sun maintains a second, smaller, completely off the books facility. He gives Drax an address in a warehouse district not far from the spaceport.

Drax calls Queen and offers to trade her information for the duros kid. Queen tells him it had damn well better be good information. When Drax gives her the facility address she laughs in his face. “I know where the facility is, Kreiger. It’s where Desjilic put that specialist.” She doesn’t know what specialty the specialist was, because her bosses have decided she didn’t need to. She tells him not to bother her again unless he’s got something useful.

Drax curses. Of course the Hutts are in on whatever’s going on with Violet Sun.

With limited time to find Tripwire, Drax singles in on a mercenary bar near their main base. It’s frequented by Violet Sun members all the time, and even if Tripwire isn’t there, someone who knows him well will be. He gives Nu the address and they get in to drive.

In the car, he gets that call he’s been waiting for from Selvin, who demands to know where Drax got this sample. Drax tells him it doesn’t matter, but he needs to talk fast. Selvin explains that the sample wasn’t stable; it degraded quickly, but it’s an absolutely revolutionary regenerative agent. He was able to apply it to a biopsy and speed grow almost a whole new organ. He opines excitedly that if this compound was stabilized, it would be able to save so many lives. (He does not say, make so much money, but Drax knows it). He also says that the base biotechnology here is like nothing he’s seen since the war: specifically it’s Caminoan.

He reminds Drax the Caminoans are incredibly proprietary about their boitechnology and if this is stolen Caminoan tech, it’s a big problem. Drax tells him not to worry and hangs up. And this is where Drax figures it out, because aside from Camino, the universe has one large repository of Caminoan biotechnology: inside the bodies of the clones. If he wasn’t sure from Selvin’s analysis, Patch’s missing clone is damning evidence. Vadst provided the clones, Kadjah provided the specialist, Bol’lan bought the product, and when Tripwire found out what they were doing, he and his accomplice killed them all. (These conclusions are a combination of player problem solving and good rolls to direct Drax’s intuition). With no one else who seemed to know what the meeting was about, that leaves one involved part he needs to tie up loose ends on.

Drax tells Nu to give a new address to the driver, they’re going to the second facility.

At the facility, they’re greeted with inept blaster rifle fire. The specialist has barricaded himself inside and is shooting at anyone he doesn’t know, because he’s worked out that all his bosses are dead and there’s a very good chance he’s next. Drax attempts to open up a secondary entrance to the underground parts of the facility, rather than taking him on in a frontal assault. While he’s unable to do so, his efforts get the specialist to stop shooting long enough to ask who they are (failure with a triumph). Drax explains himself and introduces Nu. The specialist says he wants passage out of Hutt space and he wants to take all his research notes. Drax says all right and Nu very quickly agrees. The specialist unbars the door and begins frantically packing. The specialist is a ill kept Utapaun with “property of Desjilic” tattooed in Huttese on the left side of his face. He’s not technically a slave, but the cartel has made it very hard for him to go anywhere else.

Nu starts to interface with the specialist’s datapads. The specialist says “hey, no, what are you doing,” and the thing that Drax has been waiting to happen happens. Her hands turn to knives, but Drax is able to get a shot in on her before she impales the specialist, and, seeing him as the larger threat, she turns to attack Drax. One consolation he has is that he knows that since they reached the facility, she has not transmitted information.

Shedding her robe, Nu unfolds into a seven foot assassin droid. She’s fast and incredibly deadly, and when Drax throws up an armored forearm to stop a hit, her claws go right through his plating. Whatever she’s made of, it’s insanely tough. Additionally, the crossfire has already destroyed some of the research. Drax manages to retreat far enough to throw an ion grenade, which misses Nu, falling down the stairs behind her and destroying more of the computers below. For most of the fight he’s in retreat, trying to stay out of her range in the small space of the lab, with the specialist taking ineffectual pot shots at Nu whenever she isn’t right on top of Drax. Nu nearly corners him at one point, but he manages to roll away and bring up his gun faster than she’s expecting. She lunges and his next shot cleaves a laser path across her center mass. He’s able to retrieve a black box memory core from her sparking corpse. 

The specialist is still alive, and it occurs to Drax to wonder why that is. Tripwire had plenty of time to plan killing Vadst and this guy was the next logical target. The only conclusion he can come to is that Tripwire didn’t know where this facility actually was.

That’s when he hears the rifle blast take out the driver. The car had a tracker on it (DM dark side destiny point some time ago) and Drax did not notice (player roll).

Drax tells the specialist to get to the basement and hide, and puts in a quick call to Queen to get here as fast as she can. He peeks out, expecting Tripwire and his accomplice, but sees only one clone, so well hidden he almost missed him. Stealth has never been Tripwire’s specialty, so Drax assumes he’s the accomplice and starts talking (and rolls a triumph). The clone confirms he’s the assassin and agrees with Drax’s rundown of events. His name is Ghost. Drax says the only thing he can’t figure out is the weapon and Ghost removes a gauntlet to show a cybernetic arm; one piece of the gun was in his blaster holster the other was attached to his body, rigged by Tripwire so they could be assembled and fired. Drax comments that Tripwire was kind of a shit when he knew him, but it seems like he’s really matured into a leader who takes care of his people. Ghost’s reply is “anything for a brother.”

Ghost is alone and he’s wearing Tripwire’s custom armor. He’s taken every conceivable precaution to pass as Tripwire if he gets caught, presumably so the real Tripwire can get away. (Other lines of investigation might have revealed Ghost has, in fact, stunned Tripwire and packed him up on the departing ship in order to take the fall for him).

Ghost tells Drax he knows him by reputation. He doesn’t actually want to kill him, and he believes Drax will keep their secret, so if Drax will just step out of the way and let him kill the specialist, Drax is free to go. Drax says he can’t do that. Though he doesn’t explain himself, he’s hoping to trade the specialist to Queen for the hostage Duros kid; he’s running low on cards to keep her from killing him. Ghost says to Drax, “don’t try to stop me, you know what I am.”

Drax figures the fight is inevitable, so he kicks it off himself. “You’re vat grown trash,” he replies, “and they boil you down into medicine.”

That does it, and now it’s a gun fight. There’s an exchange of fire. Both of these men are excellent soldiers. Drax lands a hit that takes out Ghost’s rifle, and he swears and retreats behind the car to assemble the gun arm he used to take out everyone at the Fortress. Drax knows enough from seeing the effects of the weapon to guess it isn’t going to be accurate except at close range, but it’s strong enough that accuracy isn’t quite as big a factor as usual. Drax throws a grenade to give himself some cover and dashes out of the door to a second location where he can line up a clean shot. When Ghost pops back up again, he shoots the door where Drax was, obliterating it. Drax catches him in the side with a clean shot, but he’s still up. He’s a clone soldier and they’re very tough. Ghost sees where Drax is, but he also sees Drax isn’t between him and the specialist anymore, and he takes off at a dead run for the facility, sliding into it and out of Drax’s line of fire. Drax swears and pursues. He’s not able to shoot Ghost but he is able to grapple him so that he can’t shoot the specialist, and once he’s got a hold on him, he pulls out a knife and tries for melee while maintaining the hold. Ghost’s gun arm makes him deeply ineffective in a fight where an opponent is inside the space between him and the barrel, and after a brief try he gives up on fighting Drax and focuses on throwing him off. He manages to do so and gets his gun up against the cowering specialist’s chest.

And Drax shoots him through the back of the neck.

When Queen arrives with her thugs and her hostage in tow, looking like something out of Mad Max, Drax says he’ll trade the specialist for the kid. Queen says he’ll have to do better than that. He gives her a nearly accurate version of the plot, except he tells her the body below belongs to Tripwire and that the missing clone Patch asked him to find was the accomplice. He says Nu killed the latter, and was trying to kill the specialist, steal the data, and cut the Hutts out of the deal. He tosses her head out to Queen. Queen can tell he’s not giving the whole picture, and she lets him stew on that for a minute, but it’s enough to satisfy her employers, and she says this plus the specialist earns him the Duros kid. They exchange prisoners and Drax books the kid a shuttle flight out of Hutt Space. He takes from the kid’s hostage account the balance of what NuTech would have paid him after his retainer, and sets him up with someone who can forge him a new identity.

NuTech call him. They haven’t heard from Nu. Drax says she’s dead. There’s a pause and they say they still want the report. They remind him he’s signed nondisclosure agreements. He hangs up on them in disgust.

He writes a heavily edited report and refuses to accept money from them. He makes a copy of Nu’s memories as blackmail material if they ever come after him and melts down the original, then he leaves. He wants to spend some time just not being on Nar Shaddaa anymore. He flies aimlessly around space. He gets an invitation from an old associate to come and celebrate a recent success and a possible new job, but Drax is in no mood for celebration and he doesn’t acknowledge the call. He gives up on going through his datapad bit by bit to erase pictures of his past, and simply blasts it out the airlock.

[cogentranting]

Oliver Queen as a Slytherin: A Character Study

When asked what Hogwarts house I believed Oliver Queen to be in I very adamantly declared him to be Slytherin. I was asked to explain my reasoning and (with the editing and co-authorship of @emeraldoliverqueen) I wrote this absurdly long exploration of Oliver and his character as a Slytherin. (These are my own thoughts and interpretations- I’m not trying to fight anyone; you’re free to imagine him/write him in whatever house you prefer)

These are the traits that the Harry Potter wiki listed for Slytherin: Resourcefulness. Cunning. Ambition. Determination. Self-Preservation. Fraternity. Cleverness.  And if those don't describe Oliver I don't know what does.

Resourcefulness- the ability to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties.

He made a bow from materials found entirely within his hotel room. He rigged together a booby trap in the middle of a jungle. He devises weapons on the fly. He may have come back to his city and have billions of dollars at his disposal to help him on his quest, but his origins are on a deserted island where his resourcefulness sustained him.  

Cunning- skill in achieving one's ends by deceit (aka lying)

He came up with a plot to get himself arrested so that he could have someone else pose as him in order to throw the police off his trail. He dug up information and used it to blackmail Amanda Waller. He came up with a ploy to destroy the League of Assassins from the inside. He planned the ruse to get Sara Slade and himself onto the Amazo. Plans and strategies are his strong suit. Here we could also include, Oliver’s impressive skill at lying (he manages to convince virtually everyone that he is something he’s not for years. And he beat a lie detector test.).

Ambition-  a strong desire to do or to achieve something, typically requiring determination and hard work; desire and determination to achieve success.

admittedly not one of his more notable traits in that he doesn’t really seek success for it’s own sake. However, he is the mayor, was a CEO, was high-ranking Bratva member, was the head of the League of Assassins and also has a zeal he puts into perfecting different skills. So there is some element of ambition present in those things, because he rises to the top of everything he does. And of course, there is the incredibly ambitious endeavor that is Oliver’s crusade- the sheer size of the tasks he sets for himself speaks of his ambition. The idea that he would hold himself accountable for saving a city, and punish himself for failing (running away after the Undertaking) indicates his ambition.  

Determination- the process of establishing something exactly, typically by calculation or research.; firmness of purpose; resoluteness

His name is Oliver Stubborn Queen. Stephen Amell described stubbornness as Oliver’s superpower. Oliver’s sheer force of will is what propels him through most of his experiences. His determination is part of why he’s so able to resist torture (Oliver NEVER breaks under torture- except with Prometheus, but that was on a special psychological level and didn’t involve endangering anyone else). It’s why he’s able to endure so much. It’s why he is able to achieve such skill and physical fitness. It’s why he butts heads with literally everyone. And it’s why he is able to accomplish so much more than anyone thinks he’s capable of. Also think of his dedication to the list and his evolving crusade.Think of how absolutely impossible it is to dissuade Oliver from this course he has set for himself, either through arguments (Diggle, on multiple occasions but the Claybourne incident in particular) or through harm to him (Oliver going out to chase down the Count while still being affected by Vertigo). Once Oliver has set himself a purpose he does not back down.

Self Preservation- the protection of oneself from harm or death

This one is unusual because it’s very present, but it’s also paired with self-loathing and suicidal tendencies. However, this only makes his sense of self preservation even more evident. Because it’s undeniable that Oliver fights hard to survive- in his ten years there were countless times when he could have given up, or should have died and he kept going and made it out. Oliver’s inclination of self preservation is so strong that for ten years it has managed to overcome those suicidal thoughts even in the face of the number of impossible situations he’s been in. Consider the fact that he survived his five years through sheer force of will. A few specific moments stand out: Oliver breaks his own hand to get free and stop Slade from killing him when they first meet; Tatsu claims that his “will to live” is what saved him on the mountaintop;  digging the bullet out of his own stomach; undergoing a week of torture and then still stabbing Kovar in the hand and trying to fight his way out; his suspicious nature, especially in instances such as when he finds the guy in the cave claiming to be shipwrecked and chooses to leave him, and with Andy.

Fraternity- the state or feeling of friendship and mutual support within a group.

The list of Oliver's "brothers": Tommy, Diggle, Anatoly, Slade, if you want to take Barry on to that even though he's never verbally identified Barry that way. Oliver loves his bromance. In fact, Oliver is all about family. From his mile-high prioritization of Moira and Thea, to the found families he creates everywhere he goes (the island, hong kong, team arrow etc.).  That sense of brotherhood and that form of love is something Oliver can’t go long without, and that’s why he almost always has at least one close friend he refers to as his brother.  

Cleverness- the quality of being clever; ingenuity or shrewdness.

Arrow has a pretty common mystery element and puts a lot of focus on Oliver’s detective skill- piecing together clues, discerning motives, tracking people down. His sense of humor, when he shows it, is sort of clever dry sarcasm. He has an extraordinary skill with languages. Tactics are his specialty. He’s good at figuring out how machines work (fixing the plane radio). He rigged a computer system to help him when he worked solo. Oliver’s extremely intelligent and most of that veers toward the clever and cunning classifications.

Slytherin is also associated with tradition and family names. Oliver is from Old money- an established family name with wealth and power (btw, Thea, Moira and Robert are ALL Slytherin- it’s why Merlyn relates to them more than to Tommy, who is decidedly NOT a Slytherin). His idea of honoring the dead is also a somewhat tradition oriented mindset. His choice of weapons (bows and arrows and swords) could also be considered traditionalist.

The Slytherin wiki page also talks about how they make strong leaders, and that is something I strongly associate with Oliver. (I’ve talked about it before, here)

The biggest thing however is that Oliver (and all the Queens) is defined by a ruthless pursuit of his goals. “whoever I am, I'm someone who will do whatever, whatever it takes to save my sister.” “he had you and he was gonna hurt you. There was no choice to make.” “To live I had to make myself more than what I was, to forge myself into a weapon.” “There's no length that I will not go to to avenge Laurel. To stop Darhk from ever hurting anyone again.” “Do you remember what you told me? It takes a monster to kill a monster.” “To do what I do, Barry, takes conviction. But more often than not is the will to do what's ugly.” “There are people in the world who deal only in extremes. And it would be naive to think that anything less than extreme measures will stop them.” What sets Oliver apart is his moral pragmatism, his willingness to cross lines, the fact that if you stand in his way he WILL destroy you. And that’s ALL Slytherin all the way.

Here’s an additional Slytherin description that seems to sum up Oliver pretty well:

Slytherins are usually ambitious, goal based learners, who can be very perfectionistic. They can be resourceful, subtle, charming, self-reliant, and adaptable. Just because they’re not loyal in the same way Gryffindors are doesn’t mean they’re not loyal people- they’re just extremely selective about who they are loyal to; which is usually a very small amount of people who they know they can trust and confide in, and they are usually extremely passionate and caring towards this small group. They also feel great deals of respect for people they feel are deserving of respect. (http://unicornachos.tumblr.com/post/46241425124/diffusing-some-hogwarts-house-stereotypes)

What about the other houses though? How does Oliver compare to their key characteristics?

Ravenclaw- Intelligence, wit, wisdom, creativity, originality, individuality, acceptance.

Oliver is certainly intelligent. I have a whole ongoing soapbox about how smart Oliver is and how it never gets acknowledged. Note that: it never gets acknowledged. That’s important. Because there is a reason Oliver isn’t often thought of as being one of the smart characters (and why characters will make comments calling him dumb “you’re very handsome but not especially bright)- Oliver doesn’t have a particular inclination toward the pursuit of knowledge or a value for intelligence/knowledge in and of itself, and those things are defining Ravenclaw qualities. It’s for this reason that Oliver never did well in school- the knowledge itself was not interesting to him. For Oliver, intelligence is a tool to achieve his ends; his intelligence is channeled into a goal- getting off the island by fixing a plane radio, using computers to steal from Adam Hunt, learning a language to survive whatever country he’s trapped in, memorizing ARGUS tactical maneuvers etc. His intelligence craves utility much more so than someone like Felicity, or Nate, or Caitlin. This pushes it away from a Ravenclaw trait more towards the Slytherin sortings of “cunning’ and “resourcefulness”. And really it all falls back under the purview of Oliver’s ‘by whatever means necessary’ mentality- sometimes “whatever it takes” is torture, sometimes it’s learning a new language in under a year. Oliver has wit- his humor is defined by snark and dryness. But the fact that it only makes rare appearances keeps it from being a defining trait of his, and indicates that it’s not of particularly high value to him. Oliver isn’t a character I would define as creative- creativity is defined by imaginativeness, which is never something highlighted in Oliver, and original ideas. Oliver has plenty of original ideas, but creativity has a strong artistic connotation, something Oliver does not demonstrate. Rather his more inventive ideas lean toward tactics and strategy, something related to resourcefulness- again, a Slytherin trait.  Likewise, originality/individuality is not something Oliver actively cultivates- he’s original and unique as a person because everyone is and he’s by no means a conformer. But rather than coming from a desire to be original or exercise his individuality, Oliver’s contrast with others comes from ambition. Acceptance can have many different definitions/connotations but Ravenclaw definitions seem to put an emphasis on accepting eccentricities. Oliver is not un-accepting… but neither is his acceptance clearly shown. While Oliver is very adaptable and will work with all sorts of people, there are a number of people whose eccentricities he meets with clearly expressed annoyance, especially when first meeting them (Cisco in 3x08, Curtis at various points but 4x17 particularly, Ray in 3x18, Kara in Legends 2x07, Barry at various points). As to Oliver’s wisdom, that’s a contentious point. Many would argue that Oliver is not wise at all, he makes terrible decisions and never learns from his mistakes. (I would not be one of those people). Others would say that Oliver has a lot of experience to offer and gives strong advice. I would argue that while Oliver’s experience has lead to him becoming much stronger at giving advice, his practicality and comfort operating in morally gray areas, as well as his extensive trauma, cost him the moral viewpoint that would be needed to truly be considered wise.

Hufflepuff- Dedication, Hard Work/Unafraid of toil, Fair play, Patience, Kindness, Tolerance, Loyalty

Dedication comes very close to Oliver’s “determination” trait so in most instances it is present, however, dedication could also be applied to relationships and there you run into the issues of Oliver’s cheating in his younger years. Oliver is also very hard-working (won’t stop until he drops from exhaustion type of hardworking). But that’s where Oliver’s Hufflepuff traits end. Hufflepuff’s value fair play- fair play doesn’t particularly interest Oliver. He’s a no holds barred fighter, his primary tools for accomplishing things are fear, intimidation and pain. He’ll sever your tendons to end a fight, physically intimidate you in an argument, keep countless secrets, torture an innocent man for the greater good, use any trick he thinks of to win. Fairness is not something Oliver considers. Hufflepuffs are patient. Oliver is patient in accomplishing a task, but not when dealing with other people. Watch the scene in 5x02 where he berates the recruits after Rene messes up. Watch him get frustrated with Barry in Flash 2x08. Even consider the way that he charges off to climb the elevator shaft in 5x20. Kindness. No. Oliver is not kind. He’s good, with a big heart and a lot of love. But that’s not the same thing. He can be kind, to the people he cares about, but in general he is not a kind person. Oliver has a temper, Oliver is very blunt, Oliver is often focused on his goal to the point of neglecting the emotional needs of others. Oliver shot three different mentees with arrows to teach them a lesson, Oliver has yelled at every single member of Team Arrow and most members of Team Flash. Oliver has gotten frustrated and made several different grown men cry. He’s not kind. Tolerance really depends on which definition. Go back and look at what I have to say about “acceptance” and adjust as necessary. And loyalty. Oliver is loyal… until he’s not. He’s loyal until he cheats on you with your sister. Or until he feels he needs to lie about something or do something alone. Or until you do something that makes him feel he can’t trust you- and his trust issues are substantial so there’s a lot that can do that. But mostly just consider that Hufflepuff is most commonly defined as being the friendly, cheerful house. And Oliver Queen is most commonly referred to as brooding, dark, and “doesn’t play well with others”. To the extent that the woman he was dating made a joke about how an alternative version of Oliver might be “agreeable”.

And Gryffindor (the one that more people probably sort him into)- Bravery/nerve/daring/courage, chivalry, recklessness/impulsivity (not listed but very commonly associated with them)

Oliver certainly does share some traits of this house-. However, Oliver isn’t actually what I would call chivalrous. Chivalry is defined by being courteous and gallant- Oliver is more often blunt, cold and pragmatic. He isn’t given to large gestures and when he is charming, it isn’t with the same nobility that chivalry implies. Secondly, though many people deny it, Oliver is not impulsive. Occasionally he acts impulsively, in times of duress or anger or fear. But in general, most of his behavior is very controlled, very calculated. He’s the planner of the Arrowverse. He’s the strategist. He’s the one who spent years planning his crusade. He’s the one who researched his team members before telling them anything. He’s the one who taught Barry to case a situation before rushing in. He’s the one who insists on having a plan before a confrontation, the one who wants all the information before deciding whether or not to trust someone. Nor would I describe Oliver as arrogant. Confident, yes. Arrogant is defined by overestimating one’s abilities. In his younger days Oliver may have been a touch arrogant. But now Oliver’s confidence is simply awareness of his oft-proven skill. Oliver knows what he’s capable of (a lot) and has confidence to match. Gryffindors are also often thought of as self-righteous, which is defined as “characterized by a certainty, especially an unfounded one, that one is totally correct or morally superior.” And Oliver is quick to praise the morality of others (whether they are deserving or not)- Thea, Laurel, Diggle, Felicity, even someone like Moira. And not just praise what a good person they are, but tell them how much better they are than him. He’ll call himself a monster, talk about being “beyond redemption”, or “broken.” He can be made to believe that he is undeserving of any kind of love, that he is poisonous to the people around him. It took years of working as a superhero before anyone could convince Oliver to see himself as a hero. Oliver is sometimes proud, it’s not unusual for him to think he’s smarter than someone else, or to think they’re naive. But most of the time he does not believe that he is a good person, let alone better than others. He’s not self-righteous.  

And Oliver is without a doubt brave (daring/courageous- Gryffindor’s trait list is a bunch of synonyms) but this trait is rarely emphasized. In its place the narrative focuses on his toughness and determination- his passion and willingness to do whatever it takes. The emphasis on his willingness to sacrifice rather than bravery in and of itself. And Bravery is rarely a trait that Oliver expresses any particular value for. It’s rare that he praises something like that. What’s more, Oliver’s bravery is not a trait unto itself. His bravery comes naturally from all that is Slytherin in him. It comes from his cunning, resourcefulness and skill which he is acutely aware of to the degree that he doesn’t have to fear anything.It comes from a passionate sense of fraternity. A loyalty to his brothers (and any family, biological or otherwise, that he claims) which supersedes everything else. And most of all it comes from his single-minded determination, ambition and ‘whatever it takes’ mindset which will not let anything stand in the way of him accomplishing his goal- not even fear. (And, unfortunately there is also an aspect where some of what might be considered bravery is actually disregard for his own life- what is there to fear when you’ve embraced pain and the possibility of death?). Oliver’s bravery is result, not a cause.

[That being said, there is a decent chance that, were he in the books, Oliver would get sorted into Gryffindor. Because there is a tendency for Harry Potter to treat bravery as a trump-card trait- it doesn’t matter how many of your other traits line up with another house, if you’re brave, you’re Gryffindor. It’s like the golden snitch of character traits- if you have it, everything else is irrelevant. And that’s something that happens in practice but in theory shouldn’t happen. It’s the tendency which turns four equally valid houses and personality types, into the Protagonist House, the Antagonist House, aaaannnnddd everybody else. And it’s a tendency that I think Rowling actively tried to counteract further down the road (hence, Newt Scamander). So I don’t accept Oliver’s bravery as overriding all his prominent Slytherin traits.]

In the end, I think that the qualities that most distinguish him from other characters (characters like Diggle, Barry, Ray, or even Felicity) are very much Slytherin traits. His key characteristics, the ones that really define him and his style of heroics, are his cunning, his determination, and his ruthless pursuit of goals. And those are all Slytherin.

Plus…. Come on guys. Green.

TL;DR-- Oliver is a Slytherin because he is cunning, resourceful, stubborn, ambitious, and always has a plan which he will be ruthless in executing.

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #147: Crisis on Other-Earth

May, 1976

Which is, of course, a riff on DC’s Crisis on Earth-Whatever type stories. Where superheroes cross universes to team up. Or fight, in this case. Because Marvel.

A good cover that feels like it fits into that whole Crisis on Earth-Whatever type story. Really tries to hook you in. Serpent Crown? War Against the World? Squadron Sinister (no they’re explicitly not the Squadron Sinister, they’re the Squadron Supreme but they are acting kinda sinister grah)? The rest of the Avengers holding the line so Wanda can escape with the crown? Tell me more.

Last time: the Avengers Captain America (not technically on the team right now), Iron Man, the Vision, Scarlet Witch, Beast (on a trial membership), and Hellcat (Patsy Walker doing a ride-along, found a supersuit and went hells yes I want to be a superhero) were investigating the sinister Brand Corporation when they were captured by the Squadron Supreme (thinly-veiled parodies of the Justice League FROM ANOTHER UNIVERSE). The Avengers busted out, escaped some missiles, and prepared to fight the Squadron again when Roxxon president Hugh Jones sent both teams back to the Squadron’s world.

And that’s where we pick back up.

Dr. Spectrum wastes no time getting the ‘donneybrook’ started, blasting the Avengers with his Power Prism. But Iron Man shoves Hellcat and Beast out of the way and takes the attack.

Hellcat is the second into the fray, jump kicking Hyperion right in the face and then dodging his reprisal punchies, musing how the suit has heightened her natural athleticism.

Also good on you, Patsy, for immediately picking the biggest person and kicking him in the face. You’ll go far in this biz, kid. Then you’ll die. Then you’ll come back to life again. And then you’ll get your own book where you start a superpowered temp agency.

The Whizzer proves that superspeed is only as good as the user by rushing straight at Iron Man and getting repulsored for his lack of tactics.

And Vision shoves a hand right through Lady Lark, intangible pain style, to take her out of the fight. Lady Lark is kind of a glass cannon. Her sonic song is pretty OP but she’s not that hard to knock out.

Golden Archer takes exception to Vision hurting his ‘bird’ but then Cap throws his mighty shield and it hits him in the stomach so he kinda has to yield.

And Scarlet Witch makes good of her recent powerup by using scarlet witchcraft to turn Dr. Spectrum’s Power Prism against him.

But then the military arrives. Army helicopters, tanks and troops, oh my! Even Airforce Whichever One Is The Helicopter.

(Sadly Hellcat’s daring ‘Kick the Superman-Ersatz in the face’ strategy did not end well, with Hyperion putting the literal squeeze on Hellcat and also Beast who joined her at some point)

Because of Different Universe, the president of these United States is Nelson Rockefeller. And he’s wearing the Serpent Crown DUN DUN DUN!

Even though its an incredibly powerful and dangerous artifact, it still makes for an absolutely ridiculous hat.

Cap recognizes the Serpent Crown from Captain America and the Falcon #181 where the Serpent Squad used it on Hugh Jones (Roxxon President) so they could use his oil rig to raise Lemuria from the sea. Lemuria being some Atlantis type dealie and the crown being from there and also EVIL. Luckily, Nomad And Definitely Not Captain America, stopped their schemes.

The takeaway is that the crown is bad news. Which Vision reads loud and clear and immediately ghosts.

Just intangibles right behind President Rockefeller and swipes the crown from him. And then tosses the arcane obscenity to Scarlet Witch.

She threatens to destroy it if the president doesn’t call off his goony goons. Which he does. Sort of desperately. And allows the Avengers to run off with the crown while everyone glares at them impotently.

After they’ve gone, President Rockefeller does a cross-universal psychic telephone call.

Because here is the thing: the thing is this: all Serpent Crowns are the same Serpent Crown and they’re all manifestations of the single nethermind. So anyone that wears a crown in whatever universe becomes the crown’s servant forever, linked with whoever else wore the crown in whatever universe.

Pretty terrifying for a gaudy hat.

So Rockefeller reaches out to contact Hugh Jones (Roxxon President) who is at the moment doing damage control over all those missiles that exploded the roof of the Brand facility.

But apparently having actual missiles launch through your roof doesn’t merit more than a verbal reprimand because Colonel Buzz Baxter just promises that they’ll put better controls on their next missiles and the police leave just like that.

This world is corrupt.

Interestingly, the narration makes a point that in the Squadron World, bereft as it is of a Nixon, nobody could suspect that a president is up to no good. Even though he wears a snake crown in public.

Meanwhile, some sunbathers have their rays blocked by Vision and Iron Man flying overhead. Even though they were sunbathing, they are apparently up on current events and recognize the two as some of the ‘aliens’ that were rioting downtown and go to report it.

Meanwhile again at street level, all the not as cool kids who can’t fly are just trundling along. Scarlet Witch, Cap, Hellcat, and Beast.

Although. Beast has been an ape, a lion, a horse-faced lion, and an ape again. Maybe his random mutations through mammalia will make him into a bat. And then he can be a beautiful blue flying garbage man.

I digress. It’s practically all I do aside from synopsizing in an irreverent manner.

Scarlet Witch has been probing the crown with her witch senses, I guess. Knowing instinctively not to put it on, its evil power is still wearing on her. Like a One Ring. Or <insert corruptive evil artifact of choice here>.

But she has determined that this particular corruptive evil artifact has crowned the heads of all the Squadron’s world’s major conglomerates at one time or another. And with its mesmerizing power, banded them all together psychically to take control of the government and big business.

Hence why Rockefeller is president, since his family is as big business in this world as in the 616 (and our world).

But the Avengers get so involved in this conversation about how there was no big moment when evil took control, just a gradual change-over, that they don’t notice Wanda has collapsed, and just walk on without her.

Vision notices though because of course he does.

Meanwhile and actually meanwhile for a change, the Current West. Thor, Hawkeye, Moondragon, and Two-Gun Kid arrive back in the present. Hawkeye even found his shirt again at some point.

While Two-Gun marvels that the Current West looks just the same as the Old West, Hawkeye Explains. The reason he’s leaving the Avengers this time is because while he was in the past, he realized he really dug the western scene. And being a bow-and-arrow man will make more sense out here than in Manhattan, Hawkeye claims. He’s not quitting though. He just won’t be around. But if they really need him, give him a call.

I think he just wants to play cowboy for a while longer.

Anyway, he and Two-Gun head off to catch some wild cayuses.

And Moondragon wants to Real Talk with Thor.

BUT WHOOPS SCENE IS CHANGING OH WELL

While the rest of the Avengers walked on, Vision swooped down to check on Wanda Witch. And the Serpent Crown really is like a One Ring or a horcrux because Wanda starts shouting at Vision that he’s a cold, unfeeling computer that never cared about her.

To his credit, Vision realizes immediately that this is the crown’s influence and suggests that maybe he take it for a while to reduce the burden slash influence on her.

She doesn’t take kindly to him trying to take her precioussss so she blows him up and runs off, intending to return to the president.

Meanwhile, Hyperion slums it with Golden Archer and Lady Lark. Just casually sauntering like non-flying people do. What a lark, if you’ll forgive the expression, Lady Lark. One leg in front of the other, how zany.

What isn’t zany is Lady Lark and Golden Archer having a big relationship fight. Time and place, guys. Time and place. It kind of darkly foreshadows some tragic stuff that happens in the Squadron Supreme maxi-series though.

Hyperion just doesn’t understand Earth’s courting rituals but reassures himself that as the Earth’s most powerful superhero, it’s impossible for him to become interested in women.

Which again kind of darkly foreshadows some stuff from the maxi-series, where Hyperion’s evil duplicate kills Wonder Woman-ersatz’s husband because he wants to be with her.

Geez. Knowing what happens in that maxi-series makes a lot of earlier appearances of the Squadron that tiniest bit harder to read.

Okay. So the takeaway is that the Squadron are people with their own problems and are not cackling mustache twirling supervillains.

And also that Hyperion runs smack dab into Scarlet Witch just when he’s talking about his disinterest in women. Just the woman they were looking for and such.

Except Vision was right behind her and he is pissed.

And now its time to show that Vision has one of the most effective powersets in Marvel comics, at least whenever he’s not being instantly taken out by cape devices so he won’t single-handedly solve everything forever.

Hyperion rushes in, peeved that Vision copped that tone with him.

And bounces off Vision who had switched to his high density form.

He then goes intangible so that Golden Archer’s detonation arrow flies right through him.

Lady Lark goes to sing but Vision just Solar Beams her, knocking her out.

So Golden Archer uses his ultra-sonic siren arrow (which is kind of like having Lady Lark in convenient arrow form as far as her actual participation in fights goes). The ultra-sonics stun Vision long enough for Hyperion to CRUMP him with a light pole. And then wrap it around him to tie him up.

Meanwhile, ‘a greater war is being waged’ as the Scarlet Witch has a battle of wills against the evil consciousness behind the Serpent Crown as it tries to get her to don that crown.

As Hyperion ties up Vision, he comments that he used this against his archenemy Burbank (Not-Luthor. Because he’s much more hirsute) the first time they fought and that he has always considered it one of his best.

Vision just deadpans “How wonderful” (which I think is his version of ‘cool story bro’) and floats down into the ground, out of the pretzeled streetlight. BECAUSE DENSITY CONTROL!

And then he pops up and Solar Beams Golden Archer.

Its Super Effective.

Because, yes. I do have to make that joke every time.

Hyperion is pretty fed up by this point. Or really, at every point of this encounter. And he gives a pretty neat badass boast while BLAM! and BOM!ing Vision around.

Unfortunately, Vision counters with his own badass boast. And he who boasts last boasts best, probably.

Hyperion: “You -- humbled me, Avenger -- something no man or creature has ever done -- or will ever do -- a second time! I AM HYPERION -- sent to Earth to become its greatest champion -- more powerful than the crashing surf -- able to fly, to see thru walls, bend titanium with my bare hands! I am invincible -- invulnerable!”

Vision: “Are you, Hyperion? Even when you face -- THE UNEARTHLY POWERS OF THE VISION?! There is no material object I cannot enter -- and disrupt!”

And down goes Hyperion.

Lady Lark has recovered her senses by this point. And sort of rolls her eyes at the men telling her to stay out of the fight, men that at this point have fallen like rag dolls.

She goes to do the one thing that she do. But Wanda punches her in the back of the head.

The narration even sort of bemoans Lady Lark’s lot in life.

Poor Lady Lark! It’s always a gamble with her super-power: will she sing her song of inevitable victory--? --Or will her opponents silence her first, and save themselves?

Anyway, Scarlet Witch is back to herself, obviously. Either that or the crown really doesn’t like Lady Lark for some reason.

But, no. She’s back in full control over her facilities.

Some part of her refused to submit to the Serpent Crown’s mental coercion. Either the inner strength of a true witch or her mutant soul or maybe being a stubborn cuss.

Vision proposes that instead it was love because that’s the kind of romantic fool Vision is, despite his computer brain and logics. He just really believes in the power of love over ancient evil crowns.

And then they kiss.

Which will get the Scarlet Vision (I personally like the ship name ‘Seeing Red’) fans hype.

And like the past several many pages of action scene didn’t even happen, Vision offers again to carry the evil crown. He doubts that it can influence his beep boop robot mind but even if it can, LOVE WILL SAVE HIM!

Also, they just walk off leaving Hyperion, Golden Archer, and Lady Lark lying unconscious in the street. But what are brightly primary colored costumes for if not to prevent people from accidentally running you over when you’re lying unconscious in the road?

And that’s how Vision soloed Superman, Green Arrow, and Black Canary.

Next time, the rest of the Avengers get their chance to fight some ersatzes some more.

Hey, follow me @essential-avengers, why not? Its the dedicated side-tumblr just for this liveblog. Send me Avengers questions or share your own thoughts on the issues I’ve been covering!

[victoriajohnson-posts-blog]

Let’s get real.

Long (1)

“  Her life took a shocking turn on the afternoon of Feb. 14, when 17 students and teachers died in a mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. González was in the auditorium attending a class when the fire alarm went off. Students spilled onto the campus to find SWAT teams swarming and authorities screaming, “Code Red!” González and her classmates were rushed back into the auditorium, where they took cover on the floor between the folding seats. Holding the hands of friends on either side of her, González focused on keeping those around her calm as many began frantically searching the internet for any news that could explain what was unfolding on their campus.

“I didn’t know what was going on,” recalls González. “I didn’t want to go on my phone to check and see if anything was real because I was in a complete state of denial,” she tells me in her first-ever solo magazine interview. It wasn’t until days later that she would learn the full extent of the tragedy, when she read a story in the Miami Herald and saw the names of all the students and faculty members who had died.

Just three days after the massacre, González mustered remarkable resilience and courage when she transformed her anguish and heartbreak into unabashed activism. She delivered an impassioned speech at a gun control rally in Fort Lauderdale, calling “B.S.” on President Trump, other politicians and the NRA for not tightening gun laws that could prevent “the hundreds of senseless tragedies that have occurred.” Her speech was broadcast nationally, and her name began trending on Twitter that afternoon. She created the @Emma4Change handle to promote stricter gun laws, and along with other Parkland survivors she founded March for Our Lives, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization pushing for stricter gun laws and registering young voters.  “  https://variety.com/2018/politics/features/emma-gonzalez-parkland-interview-1202972485/

Long (2)

   “My father was a teacher and ran a girls’ school in our village. I loved school. But everything changed when the Taliban took control of our town in Swat Valley. The extremists banned many things — like owning a television and playing music — and enforced harsh punishments for those who defied their orders. And they said girls could no longer go to school.

In January 2008 when I was just 11 years old, I said goodbye to my classmates, not knowing when — if ever — I would see them again. I spoke out publicly on behalf of girls and our right to learn. And this made me a target. In October 2012, on my way home from school, a masked gunman boarded my school bus and asked, “Who is Malala?” He shot me on the left side of my head.I woke up 10 days later in a hospital in Birmingham, England. The doctors and nurses told me about the attack — and that people around the world were praying for my recovery.   “  https://malala.org/malalas-story

Long (3)

“   So what are animal rights activists – and should you maybe be one, too? Let’s dive deep into this subject and figure out what animal activism really means for people who love animals.What Are Animal Rights Activists?An animal rights activist is someone who believes in justice for all animals. They don’t condone animal testing, factory farming, and other systemic mistreatment of animals, nor do they believe in using harsh animal training methods or other pursuits that cause animals pain or discomfort. A key concept is in the name – rights. Animal rights activists recognize much higher rights for animals to exists and live than the current society in general does, and they work to change this.Most animal rights activists are either vegetarian or vegan, and many consider themselves environmental activists, as well. Their primary goal is to end speciesism and create a world in which humans and other animals can live with one another in peace and without one species dominating another.   “  https://sentientmedia.org/animal-rights-activists/

Short (1)

      “   The current political climate has provided Martinez with an ample number of causes to protest and reasons to fight. The Earth Guardians represent a mindset not reflected or supported by the current executive branch, making their representation crucial for environmental well-being, as well as the future of tomorrow’s youths. While their actions will not replace those in executive positions, it requires the work of relentless non governmental organizations to demand and incite change. In recent months, Martinez has been vocal about a number of issues such as the fight in Standing Rock, North Dakota. Not only has Donald Trump pushed forward with plans to finish the pipeline while ruining sacred lands but he also made clear his intentions to rid of eco-driven legislation such as Barack Obama’s Clean Power Plan.   “   https://www.scu.edu/environmental-ethics/environmental-activists-heroes-and-martyrs/xiuhtezcatl-martinez.html

Short (2)

“  Since September, blazes have killed at least 30 people, destroyed over 2,000 homes and burnt through 10 million hectares of land - an area almost the size of England.

The crisis has been exacerbated by record temperatures, a severe drought and climate change.

'Need to remain vigilant' On Monday, Victoria's Premier Daniel Andrews said recent rain had proved "very helpful" to bushfire-affected communities.

But he added that storms had also hindered some fire- fighting efforts, and caused a landslide on a highway.

"Ultimately, we need to remain vigilant. It's 20 January - the fire season is far from over," Mr Andrews told reporters.

Mr Andrews said there was still a "massive fire edge" of more than 1.5 million hectares from blazes which had flared up in the state's east on New Year's Eve.”   https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-51170994

Short (3)

“   In 2010, Mougin enlisted a French computer-aided design (CAD) company, Dassault Systèmes, to use the latest satellite tracking and computer modelling to test the idea of a trans-Atlantic tow: a 3D-scan of a real seven-million-tonne iceberg, and the previous year’s weather data and sea currents, produced a computer model of a theoretical tow from Newfoundland to Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. “The model was using one very powerful oil rig towing tug, about 6,000 horsepower, far more powerful than the tugs available in the 1970s and 80s”, says Wadhams. Other technological upgrades in the intervening years included live satellite tracking, and an insulating fabric mesh or “geo-textile skirt” – all 3km of it – designed by Mougin to wrap around the iceberg to reduce the melt-rate. The same material is used on ski slopes in the Alps to stop snow from melting. After fitting the ‘skirt’, the tug would tow the iceberg using a large fishing trawl net.  “  https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20180918-the-outrageous-plan-to-haul-icebergs-to-africa

Short (4)

“   US President Donald Trump has decried climate "prophets of doom" in a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, where sustainability is the main theme.He called for a rejection of "predictions of the apocalypse" and said America would defend its economy.Mr Trump did not directly name the teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg, who was in the audience.Later, she excoriated political leaders, saying the world "in case you hadn't noticed, is currently on fire".Environmental destruction is at the top of the agenda at the annual summit of the world's decision-makers, which takes place at a Swiss ski resort. In his keynote speech, Mr Trump said that it was a time for optimism, not pessimism, in a speech that touted his administration's economic achievements and America's energy boom.Speaking of climate activists, he said: "These alarmists always demand the same thing - absolute power to dominate, transform and control every aspect of our lives."   “  https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51189430

Small (1)

“   Ayakha Melithafa, 17

Ayakha lives in the village of Eerste River on the outskirts of Cape Town, South Africa. Her mother works as a farmer in the Western Cape, where droughts and severe water shortages have threatened her livelihood. These changes prompted Ayakha to act. As part of the African Climate Alliance and the Project 90 by 2030 initiative, Ayakha is mobilizing support for low-carbon development and a just energy transition in her country. In 2019, Ayakha and 15 other children around the world submitted a petition to the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child to hold five of the world’s leading economic powers accountable for inaction on the climate crisis.   “  https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/the-teenage-change-makers-at-davos-2020/

Small (2)

“   Fionn Ferreira, 18

Fionn grew up on a remote island in West Cork, a seaside region in southern Ireland. Fionn spent his childhood creating science projects and paddling around the coasts of Ireland with his kayak. Through his passion for the outdoors, he witnessed the effects of microplastic pollution on the environment. When Fionn was in high school, he invented a new method of extracting microplastics from the water using his own version of ferrofluid, a liquid developed by NASA. Fionn introduced the concept at the 2019 Google Science Fair, where he won the competition for his methodology to remove microplastics from water.  “  https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/the-teenage-change-makers-at-davos-2020/

Small (3)

“  Salvador Gómez-Colón, 17

Salvador Gómez-Colón When Hurricane María devastated Puerto Rico in 2017, Salvador was told his community faced the prospect of no power or electricity for at least a year. In response, he created the “Light and Hope for Puerto Rico” campaign to distribute solar-powered lamps, hand-powered washing machines and other supplies to more than 3,100 families on the island. Salvador continues to support the implementation of smart energy systems in Puerto Rico and has launched the “Light and Hope for the Bahamas” humanitarian initiative. Salvador was named one of TIME Magazine’s 30 Most Influential Teens of 2017 and received the President’s Environmental Youth Award from the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the Diana Award for social humanitarian work in 2019.  “  https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/01/the-teenage-change-makers-at-davos-2020/