#by a robot breaking their desk in half with psychic powers

[untilenglandisnomore]

PadMay 2021 – Day 2: How should Padmé be remembered?

(rocks up a week late with a chai latte) Played fast and loose with the word “should” here and ended up thinking a lot about Imperial propaganda.

Summary: Imperial Supreme Commander Darth Vader is sent to investigate accusations of a university lecturer spreading treasonous Rebel propaganda. A class on the life and work of Naboo’s former Queen Amidala brings back painful memories.

As far as punishments go, it would appear on the face of it that Darth Vader had lucked out. Being sent to assist the ISB might be painfully boring but at least it wasn’t painful. It seemed almost incongruous to the Emperor’s rage at his apprentice, once again, letting the Rebels slip through his fingers.

Vader knew better. Pain, he was used to. Pain, he could tolerate. Wasting his skills and time on pointless political suppression, investigating academics for spreading Rebel lies irked him immensely. The Emperor’s way of reminding him that he was replaceable, disposable.

And to rub salt in his wounds, he was commanded to investigate the faculty at the University of Theed. To be mere clicks away from his beloved’s final resting place was a pointed twist of the knife.

The quicker he got it over with, the quicker he could get back to hunting down the Rebels, so the Sith pushed all thoughts of her out of his mind.

Or at least, that was his intention. Begrudgingly, he followed the ISB Agent into the lecture hall. The Agent was to lead the interrogation, Vader was there to provide leverage.

The class had already started. Fifty pairs of eyes turned on them and the lecturer stopped abruptly.

“Can I help you?” she asked, a strong voice despite the fear spiking through her blood at the sight of Vader.

The Agent gave her shark-tooth smile. “Agent Elliot, ISB. We’ll just be sitting in your lecture today. Making sure everything is up the standards of our great Emperor.”

The way he cocked his head towards Vader made it clear it was not a request.

The lecturer stiffened. “What does education have to do with security?” she asked.

“Sedition,” said the Agent, “is a crime.”

She gave them a flat look. “Fine. Take a seat. Be sure to let us know when the truth runs up against the Emperor’s delicate sensibilities,” she snarked.

Vader felt a brief bit of surprise at her insolence and then almost amused. He really did not like Agent Elliot. There was something about the steel in her eye that made him wonder if all the Naboo were just like that.

They stood at the back of the hall, Elliot pointedly taking notes on his datapad, and Vader glowering, and the lecturer got back to her class.

“Okay hopefully you’ve all read chapters five, nine and ten on the Invasion of Naboo and the Clone Wars.”

There was some half-hearted murmuring across the room. The lecturer rolled her eyes.

“Come on guys. Fine. Does anyone in this room not know who Queen Amidala was?”

There was a smattering of laughter and snorts of disbelief.

Darth Vader didn’t hear the lecturer’s reply because what was left of his body went numb and a distant ringing filled up his ears. He stood frozen as the lecturer set up a holoprojector and suddenly it was her. Her face, lit up and larger than life before his eyes. Her voice breaking through the ringing in his ears and bouncing around his skull.

“Like so many of the people that we tell ourselves we're here to serve, Teckla lives in a district that rarely has electricity and running water as a result of the war.”

Vader could feel his heart stop in his chest. His mind went completely blank. He watched, as if from a very far distance, as the holoprojector floated up off the desk, crumpled up like a piece of flimsi, and then shattered into dust.

Stillness fell over the room as all the students and the lecturer stared at the spot where the holoprojector had sat seconds prior.

The lecturer seemed to recover first, giving herself a little shake and pointedly not looking at Vader.

“Well,” she said, “I’ve got printed copies of this speech on flimsi,” she handed out sheets for students to pass around while they started to whisper to each other, furtive glances in Vader’s direction.“So everyone take a couple of minutes to read the speech and take some notes.”

The students followed their instructions as the lecturer awkwardly scooped up the remains of her holoprojector and deposited them into a bin.

“Okay,” she said at last, “what does this speech tell us about the Clone Wars?”

A handful of students raised their hands, the lecturer pointed to a bothan girl, one of the few non-humans in the class.

“The war was causing lots of suffering and the Senate weren’t doing a good job stopping it. This is why the Emperor had to take over, to ensure peace.”

The lecturer glanced over at where Agent Elliot was standing and didn’t try to hide the roll of her eyes.

“I suppose it could be interpreted that way. Senator Amidala spoke out against corruption in the Senate many times.”

“She didn’t support the war,” said another student, a human boy, “doesn’t that make her a Separatist?”

“And she signed the bill asking the Emperor to hand power back to the Senate. Isn’t that treason?” added his friend.

Another disdainful eye roll in the ISB Agent’s direction as the lecturer trotted out the party line through gritted teeth.

“Senator Amidala was a close, personal friend of the Emperor. The Emperor supports democracy and free speech, but order had to be restored after the war. Senator Amidala was a great leader and surely would have supported the Empire had she lived long enough to see the excellent things it has achieved.”

“Professor?” another student put up her hand. “I was going to do my paper on Senator Amidala and the days around the rise of the Empire but there’s hardly any sources? Should I pick another topic? Do you know how she died?”

Genuine curiosity broke through the lecturer’s stony façade but as she opened her mouth to answer, she yelped and jumped back as her entire desk broke in half.

She stared at the desk. She stared at the rows of students gaping in shock. She stared at Vader.

Her eyes narrowed minutely at the Sith and then, apparently throwing all caution and good sense to the wind, she continued her answer.

“It’s a matter of some… contention,” she started slowly. “Senator Amidala was last seen at her home on Coruscant several hours after the formation of the Empire. She took her personal ship, and left Coruscant. There’s no further sources on where she was or what happened to her.”

The lecture hall felt very cold all of a sudden. Despite the ominous feeling in her gut, the lecturer continued.

“Official Imperial sources reported her death as an act of terrorism by a Jedi. They claim she died a martyr for the Empire.”

“And you don’t think that’s true?” asked a student. It was a fair question. The disbelief was clear in her tone.

The lecturer glanced over again to Vader and the Agent. She shrugged.

“Without any evidence to the contrary, it might as well be true. I think her actions as Queen and as Senator tell us exactly what Amidala would have thought of the Empire.” She ignored the twitch of the Agent’s brow at her tone, and pointed to a student. “Yes, Ilya.”

The class continued, moving on to discuss the boring, political, parts of the Clone Wars which Vader, for one, had no desire to relive.

None of it was new to him anyway, so he allowed himself to zone out the class, gingerly picking through the whirlwind of his thoughts.

Her. Somehow of all the days, of all the classes, they were discussing her.

He briefly mused on whether it was the Force, or his own cursed bad luck. Or, more cynically, if this was engineered by his Master, as part of his punishment.

They remembered her, quoted her speeches and still respected her as a leader, as Queen and as Senator. And yet they knew nothing about her.

They didn’t know that her laughter was musical when she was happy, and a graceless snigger when he made a particularly lewd joke. They didn’t know how the air in a room seemed to change when she walked into it, like all the atoms had ceased moving. Or how it changed again, when she spoke, always uncompromising and direct, like static electricity crackled between her sentences. They didn’t know all the good she could have done. Would have done.

He had robbed the galaxy of her blinding, beautiful presence. She was the only good thing left and he killed her and it was all his fault.

A blaring alarm shook him out of his reverie as students started to pack up their bags and awkwardly file out the door past him, shooting him apprehensive glances as they went.

The girl from before, who had asked… who had asked about that, was loitering behind to approach her teacher.

“Um,” she started, “so what should I do my paper on? So many of the books in the library have been taken out by the new censorship laws, it’s so hard to find good sources.”

The lecturer flashed her student a smile. “It just so happens that the Senator Amidala’s father used to work at this university, he’s an old friend and he dropped off some of the Senator’s old memoirs.”

She went to her bag and pulled out a datapad. “It’s all been copied to the holonet, and,” she rolled her eyes in Vader’s direction, once again demonstrating a remarkable lack of fear for her life, “edited to remove anything that could be interpreted as anti-Imperial. There’s lots of good anecdotes from her time as Senator, and a fair few political essays.”

They started to talk further about the student’s paper but Vader wasn’t listening, his legs moving before he was fully conscious of it, coming to a stop in front of the lecturer and snatching the datapad from her hand. She gave him an unimpressed glare and he was suddenly overcome with a need to explain himself.

“The ISB will need to review this,” he said stiffly, “for evidence.” He abruptly turned on his heel and walked out the room, nearly running over Agent Elliot in the corridor.

“Other than her having an attitude problem, there’s not much to go on here, she’s not distributing illegal material as far as we can see,” said the Agent. “What’s that?” He asked, pointing to the datapad in Vader’s hand.

“Nothing that concerns you,” replied Vader, and stalked away in a flurry of black fabric and disdain.

It wasn’t until he was back in his chambers aboard the Executor that he dared take out the datapad again, too often surrounded by nosy Imperial officials and gossipy stormtroopers.

He flicked it to a random page and at the first line he read, let out a snort of amusement, the sound odd and distorted through his vocoder.

“In a democracy, citizens have a duty to stand up against tyranny. In order to benefit from the rights and freedoms that democracy brings, citizens have an obligation to be vigilant against the rise of authoritarianism.”

This, thought Vader, was definitely not Imperial approved material. Distantly, he wondered if he should report it, this incendiary material was on the holonet, anyone could read it.

People would know what she thought. More would remember her as a traitor.

He preferred to imagine that he could have convinced her, that she would have come to see that the Empire was necessary. But. He quietly knew the truth. She was stalwart in her beliefs and a hell of a lot more stubborn than he was.

She would have been proud to be labelled a traitor by this Empire. She would hate to be remembered as a martyr for it.

She always did have the last word, Vader thought dryly, resolving to conveniently forget about the memoirs being on the holonet, and settled onto a chair to read every word she had written.

[poetrybooksya]

MARKED BY FATE 'UNREALITY' by Ingrid Seymour | ARC STREET TEAM REVIEW/BLOG TOUR

Marked by Fate: A Young Adult Fantasy and Science Fiction Collection Publication date: October 24th 2017 Genres: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Young Adult

Marked by Fate is now enhanced with Augmented Reality! Read, Watch, Listen. The new ultimate reading experience! Step into adventure with Marked By Fate; the ultimate reading experience. Be immersed in twenty-six fantasy & science fiction worlds with state of the art Augmented Reality technology. Read, listen, and watch bonus content inside to bring the characters and story to life around you. Enjoy the added features of this special edition, which allow you to enjoy bonus content right from your reading device. See character artwork. Listen to your story’s soundtrack. Watch book trailers and bonus videos. Experience behind the scenes like never before, thanks to Augmented Reality technology. Immersive Fantasy™; bringing fantasy worlds to life. 25 COMPLETE SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY NOVELS BY 26 BESTSELLING AUTHORS. PLUS, A SPECIAL BONUS NOVELLA. Embark on fantastic journeys through magical realms, dystopian lands, and faraway galaxies in this exciting collection of fantasy & science fiction novels brought to you by some of today’s hottest authors. Encounter werewolves, robots, angels, time travelers, shifters, and more in this action-packed box set that will leave you breathless. Authors: Kristin D. Van Risseghem Rhonda Sermon Kelly St. Clare Raye Wagner Ednah Walters Erin Hayes Siobhan Davis Jamie Thornton Debra Kristi Sarah K. L. Wilson Hilary Thompson Ingrid Seymour Jeanne Bannon Melle Amade Lena Mae Hill C.J. Anaya Jackson Dean Chase D. L. Armillei Emily Martha Sorensen Amalie Jahn Dionne Lister J.L. Weil Alisha Klapheke Angela Fristoe Meg Cowley Brandon Barr

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Welcome to Marked By Fate: An interactive Immersive Fantasy™reading experience! The authors of Marked By Fate are thrilled to share this ground-breaking novel with you! Think Harry Potter and Kindle in Motion. Moving, singing books,and all the excitement of a truly enriched reading experience. We call it Immersive Fantasy™, because that’s what it does. It draws you into our stories and brings our worlds to life! The titles in Marked By Fate use this revolutionary technology to bring you the best reading experience of your life. How does Immersive Fantasy™ work? Immersive Fantasy™ utilizes what’s known as Augmented Reality (AR). Using a smart phone/device, you can scan secret cues in the stories, and extra AR content will pop up on your device, streamed direct from the cloud (internet connection required). See amazing, exclusive character artwork. Watch video content.Listen to the soundtrack whilst you read. Discover behind the scenes with the authors in bonus content. Would you like to try it? Then keep reading! You have already downloaded the Immersive Fantasy edition of Marked By Fate, and you just need to bring the magic to life. The simple instructions overleaf will help you easily access this astonishing new world of fantasy that will delight your every sense. Start your Immersive Fantasy™ adventure today! Immersive Fantasy™ Instructions Getting set up These three steps are crucial to ensure you can access the AR content. 1.On your smart phone or tablet, download the Aurasma app from your app store. 2.Login to the app, and register your account. 3.Search for the user ‘MarkedByFate’, and click follow. Accessing the Immersive Fantasy™ Augmented Reality content Follow these steps carefully to access the AR content. Additional help can be found on the Aurasma help desk. 1.Read and enjoy the story, and watch for clues to the AR content. These will appear in the form of images with a symbol next to them, denoting the type of AR content. Content viewable includes images (camera icon), videos (movie clip icon), or music (music icon). 2.You will need one device/format to read on, and a smart device to access the AR content. 3.When you spot an Immersive Fantasy™ clue, open the Aurasma app on your smart device.(Navigate to the viewfinder screen if the app does not automatically do this.) 4.Centre your viewfinder on the trigger image. Make sure to include all of the trigger image in the screen. You can view the content vertically/in portrait or horizontally/in landscape. 5.The app will display the AR content in the form of an image overlay, video overlay,or music overlay, as denoted by the symbol next to the image. 6.Enjoy!You can zoom in and out and tilt your camera to fully explore each piece of content. Make sure you have your sound turned on so you can listen to the video and audio content! You will have to continue focusing on the content to keep listening to music/watching videos/viewing images. 7.It might take a little practice – don’t worry if you struggle on your first try. Troubleshooting What to try if it won’t work. 1.No AR content is popping up: have you registered an Aurasma account,and followed ‘MarkedByFate’? You must do this to access the content. 2.No AR content is popping up: have you made sure all of the trigger image is in your viewfinder? 3.No AR content is popping up on my kindle/e-ink device: please adjust your device screen brightness. If the screen is too bright or too dim, the image cannot be recognised by the app. 4.I can’t hear any sound: check the icon. Only video/music AR content has sound. 5.I can’t hear any sound, and it should be playing some: please ensure your volume is not muted,and turned up. 6.The content keeps disappearing: ensure you keep the viewfinder focused on the trigger image so that the AR content will remain overlaid on your screen.If you move too far away from the trigger image, the AR content will disappear.Activate it again by re-scanning the trigger image. 7.Can I access the eBook and the AR content on the same device? No. Aurasma uses your device camera, so you will have to read the book on a difference device to the device you are using Aurasma with. 8.It’s just not working – I’ve tried everything: Please refer to the Aurasma help files,and contact their help desk if you are still having issues. Whilst extensive testing has been performed to ensure maximum device compatibility, regrettably not all devices may be compatible. Best compatibility will be found on pixel based screens with good brightness levels.

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Review

Unreality was both fascinating and a bit of a disappointment at the same time. I thought Meadow's psychic powers were interesting enough, with how when she got into her visions to find context clues --- what she calls 'bygones' --- that led to finding Kristie's body in the woods. It didn't read like an extensive, elaborate ability, like say, Eleven from Stranger Things. But Meadow's abilities focused on using them like how a detective uses evidence and hard work to get what they want. She had also used her abilities to discover her mother's murder as a child, which I can't imagine how terrifying and awful that feels. That was why she had built a protective wall around herself not to use her abilities unless absolutely necessary. The Good...Meadow and Nicolas! Book Relationship Goals!  One thing I did like was the relationship between Meadow and her best friend Nicolas. Their slow-burn love story, going from friends to lovers, was possibly the most heartwarming I've ever read. Now granted, Meadow had started looking at Nicolas a certain way a few chapters in, but when he'd finally confessed his feelings for her...it was so sweet!! That scene killed me because Meadow's mind was half-focused on the information she'd found in his room about her powers and finding Brianna. But I was screaming outloud, "Girl!!! Forget about your missing friend right now and focus on this amazing best dude of color who loves you FOR YOU!!" But then, she'd admitted her feelings back later on, and my heart burst. Also, she had noticed certain things about him, like how he doesn't like being called "Nico" or "Nic". Their whole relationship was just so touching and wonderful. The Bad...Meadow basically had to work around her loved ones in order to find and save her friend from danger. One thing I didn't like was how her Uncle George, cousin Leonardo, and her father were so adamant on her not using her abilities to find her friend Brianna, who goes missing. I really did not like how every male is telling Meadow how she should be when she’s the MOST POWERFUL ONE of them all. She has the best power out of all of them --- her father knows of her powers, but he himself does not have them, I think they skipped a generation; Leonardo also has these psychic abilities, but his is more focused on persuasion/compulsion. I didn't think Uncle George had abilities of his own, but he too knows about his niece and son's. But anyway, I still didn't like how Meadow basically had to work around her loved ones in order to find and save her friend from danger. If she wasn't going to learn her abilities from her family who knows the world itself, how was she supposed to learn? Leonardo had taught her some things, but I didn't find him very reliable since his powers are based on persuasion and not visions. Another thing that creeped me out was how Leonardo claimed to see Meadow. I got the feeling that he had maybe liked her as more than family (they're cousins), but that only looked hella creepy and weird, given that they're family. There could have been some kind of incest going on, if Ingrid Seymour could have taken it there. But just the fact that Leonardo had kept pestering Meadow to stay away from Nicolas, I sensed a lot of jealousy from him, which was both creepy and borderline obsessive. The Ending...WHUT... 

And that ending...what in the world was that??! It basically ended with Leonardo, Meadow and Nicolas fighting and hang-gliding in the air, Meadow knocked Leonardo out with a rock, with Leonardo's body disappearing. The police couldn't find the body, so they just let Meadow's dad out of jail, Uncle George goes through an easy trial to get life in prison? Huh?! So there's no hint that Leonardo could come back? What if he does come back? Will Meadow's powers become more controlled and stronger? We need answers! This is a short story part of an anthology, so I don't think there will be a companion series or book coming soon. However, I'd be interested to know about what the future holds for Meadow, Nicolas, her father, and Leonardo. Final Verdict: Good but wanted more.

All in all, this was a very good read, but I wish some things were executed and explained more, to make the story come to a full circle. It was pretty character-driven, so if you're into going into the supernatural world that's more internal than external, this would be a good one for you. I have not read the rest of the Marked by Fate anthology box set, but if it's any good, please let me know so we can discuss.  Are you on the Unreality ARC Review tour? What did you think of this short story from Marked by Fate? Leave comments below!

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