#consul typewriter

[typewriter-posts]

[immediatebreakfast]

Out of all things (a lot of things) that happened in this entry, I want to focus on Mina's sudden snap back to her writings just like she was on her first entries. All calm and practical, but still undeniable Mina in the personality of her words.

Mr. Morris took me to the hotel where our rooms had been ordered by telegraph, he being the one who could best be spared, since he does not speak any foreign language. The forces were distributed much as they had been at Varna, except that Lord Godalming went to the Vice-Consul, as his rank might serve as an immediate guarantee of some sort to the official, we being in extreme hurry. Jonathan and the two doctors went to the shipping agent to learn particulars of the arrival of the Czarina Catherine.

This is like a less extreme version of Jonathan's sudden change in writing, but more somber and dreadful. Mina has resigned herself to simply tell events, and signaling any kind of closeness by only mentioning Jonathan by name since the other are either reduced to their last names or titles. A far cry from her energetic journalistic style that is meant to grab your eyes to follow the words through the paper, and the symbol of what Mina has lost the more that burning scar stays on her forehead.

The more Mina writes, the more somber it becomes until she is seeing Jonathan have another panic attack, then Mina decides to maybe do something to help. Her insecurity towards her own problem solving tactics which have been crucial through the whole novel hurts so much to read, moreso when Mina was so sure of her competent abilities before being burned out by the hellish chore of keeping the Count both at bay and in their grasp for information.

However, once Mina decides that she must do something...

I am more than ever sure that I am right. My new conclusion is ready, so I shall get our party together and read it. They can judge it; it is well to be accurate, and every minute is precious.

A ray of pure light pours out of her brain, typewriting and thinking and connecting and analyzing every single piece of information possible until that thematic piece of resistance is solely born out of her fingers. A watsonian conclusion and wake up call for Mina to once again move and run just like she did in the earlier entries, and a doylist explanation of how there are so few places for Dracula to hide except from his castle if he is so lucky to outlive the very woman who he called a wine press.

With grief glimpses of her crushing guilt (Why did I hesitate to write the word?), and the ever present existance of the true horror she has lived to this day ("Oh, my God, what have we done to have this terror upon us!"), the Mina Harker is back on track again. This time with a gun on her hand.

[asimshake77]

Types of document for translating documents

There are several different ways to approach this, including using keywords to find the most accurate translations of a word or phrase into another language. French Consulate Dubai Popular tools like Google Translate, Bing Translate, or Something That Explains It All can also be used for this. This is a good place to start; you can try out different approaches to see which one suits you the best.

There are several different ways to translate documents. Use of a web-based translation service is one of the most widely used approaches. This is the method used by Google Translate, Bing Translator, and Something That Explains It All. This method can be found on the internet and gives you a quick way to translate a document into another language. However, this method can be somewhat time consuming because you must type your documents word-for-word and then translate them into another language.

These methods also require a bit more effort than a web-based translation service and help from french interpreter Abu Dhabi; however, they are more effective than a web-based translation service because they do not use machines to translate your document.

Types of document for translating documents

A document is typically a written, typed or printed piece of paper created for a specific purpose. For example, a document may be a short note or letter to someone or an official document that an organization, such as a business or organization require. Documents are often sent by mail; however, they can also be delivered electronically. Documents may be created by hand, or they may be created with a typewriter or computer. Documents are used for various purposes, such as to inform someone about something, to give someone instructions or to provide details on something.

The following is a list of common documents that are used for various purposes and situations:

• Acknowledgement Letter - This is a letter sent to someone to acknowledge that they did or received something.

• Application Letter - This is written by someone who would like to apply for a job, college admission or another type of position.

• Birth Certificate - This document contains the details of an individual's birth, including the date and time of birth and other information such as the place of birth and parents' names.

• Business Plan - A business plan is a document containing all the information about a business, such as its goals, structure, and history. The plan also includes details on how the business will run and operate. It might also contain financial data, such as how much money the business will need to succeed and how much it will cost to launch it.

• Certificate - A certificate is a paper or document that contains a statement, such as proof of employment or an award for completing a course.

• Contract - A contract is an arrangement between two or more parties. It could be verbal or written. The contract may be used to document the terms of an agreement and can contain details on how the parties involved will carry out their end of the deal.

• Curriculum Vitae (CV) - A curriculum vitae, also known as resume, is a document that describes someone's education and work experience. It is frequently used when making employment applications.

• Death Certificate - This document contains information about a person's death and may include the cause of death, place of death and other information about the deceased individual. In some countries it must be issued by a government agency to legally confirm that the person is dead. In other areas this can be done through religious ceremonies or family members who know of the death event can make statements confirming it occurred.

• Diploma - A diploma is an official paper that certifies that someone has completed courses at college or university, passed exams and received an award for doing so successfully. It typically contains details on what was studied and passed in addition to grades earned during study time. Some diplomas also include information on where degree was earned and when it was awarded to student who completed requirements necessary to earn it successfully.

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[dove-da-birb]

Do it, just do it!!!!

Gonna be a bit before I work on him

Yee; I was stuck between Monet and Gogh but I like Monet more 💕

Typewriter; Consul 1970, from Prauge (super slow to ship but worth it, also $175 and in its original carrying case)

Me, at the dollar store; Okay you came here for a few items-

*sees Monet painting notebooks, and my head does a 360 degree turn*

Rational part of me; Dove, you don't need more notebooks, you already have 35 at home-

Gremlin brain; I DON'T CARE I'M GETTING THE GREEN AND LILAC ONES LOOK AT HOW AESTHETIC THEY ARE!!!!!!!! YOINK!!!!!!!

[stumblingoverchaos]

Went to Darling Amalgamated Retail Emporium (46th & Bloomington) this afternoon to get my hair cut and came home with a Czechoslovakian ultraportable typewriter. D’oh! (I did get my hair cut, tho!)

[myfontz]

20 Exceptional Typewriter Fonts

link

[kidknotek]

hello friend.

[ribbonvibrator]

[khaleesiofalicante]

Jem Carstairs Headcanons

Jem still visits Brother Enoch and his other ‘friends’ at the silent city. Not just because he actually likes and misses them, because sometimes he oddly misses the silent city itself.

Silent brothers actually do play board games in the city of bones. Jem is still the reigning scrabble champion. Brother Enoch has a theory that the annoying welsh boy helped him cheat.

Jem watches a lot of Disney cartoons with his daughter. His favourites are Belle and Prince Eric. 

When Kit started learning Mandarin, Jem decided to speak Kit’s language too. (Um, dad? You texted me ‘Going for a walk with Tessa. You are in charge of Mina. FML.’ What do you think FML means??? It means Farewell My Love, doesn’t it?)

Jem has many belongings from his past that he shares with his children. Mina in particular is fascinated with an antique typewriter she likes to play with all the time. 

Jem likes to cook for his family. Dumpling Thursdays are totally a thing at Cirenworth Hall.

Games nights are also a thing. Even though Jem doesn’t watch any movies, he is incredible at Charades thanks to decades of training. Kit is not very happy about it. 

It is known that Jem plays the violin for his kids. But not many know that he also plays it for Emma, whose father was a violinist too. 

Jem tried to give the shovel talk to Julian, but it turned out to be less threatening and more emotional that Julian almost cried. (Jem! What did you tell me boyfriend? and why is Mark sobbing in the kitchen?)

Jem visits the Shanghai Institute with his family at least once a year. Tessa spends hours in the Celestial Palace and Kit is absolutely in love with the Sunlit Market. 

After Alec became Consul, Jem works with him and the silent brothers on creating treatment and rehabilitation programs for nephilim who struggle with drug addictions and alcoholism since it is something he and his loved ones used to struggle with in the past. 

Jem likes to buy little toys and jewellery for Church. He even bought a collar that says ‘BAMF’. (Apparently it means Beautiful and Mighty Feline!! Isn’t that perfect for Church?)

One of Jem’s favourite chores at home is sweeping the floor. Sometimes he forgets the broom is just a broom and his hands starts to use it as a cane. Tessa has seen him subconsciously practicing some moves.

Kit and Mina are not big fans of classical music. So Jem learned how to play K-POP on the violin. He can play almost every BTS song. 

Jem still visits the London Institute every once in a while. He doesn’t disturb anyone. He just sits on the floor of the training room quietly and softly caressing the pale white scar on his shoulder. 

[kleptonancydrew]

Nancy Drew and Education

So apparently the Clue Crew is full of teachers? Who knew. Well, as a former homeschooled student, current teacher, and (hopefully) future homeschooling parent/teacher I have been planning on integrating the games into lessons for a long time. Below the cut I have just a few of my many ideas (some more fleshed out than others). Feel free to use, adapt, or add your own! 

SCK:

-        Braille

o   How blind/vision impaired people navigate the world

§  How we can make it more accessible for them

o   How do braille books and printers work

-        ASL

o   Memorizing the alphabet and basic signs

§  Build up fluency

o   How HOH/deaf people navigate the world

§  How we can make it more accessible for them  

o   Connections of ASL to other signed languages

§  French Sign Language versus British Sign Language

-        Dangers of gas leaks

o   What to do if you smell or hear gas

-        Inequalities between mens and womens sporting opportunities

o   See Women’s Soccer

-        What are performance enhancing drugs

o   What is the difference between #steroids and the steroids your doctor might prescribe

-        How drug running is a gateway crime

-        Why blackmailing people isn’t good

-        More reasons to never move to Florida

-        Why you shouldn’t go to an actual high school part one

 STFD:

-        Television in NYC

o   Soap Operas

o   How television sets work

o   Role of director

o   Teleprompters

o   Props

o   Agents

-        Theatre in NY

o   Broadway

§  Learn a show

o   Carnegie Hall

-        Dangers in the ways we obsess over celebrities

o   Paparazzi

o   Stalkers

o   Respecting privacy

-        NY taxi system

-        NY regional accents

-        NY as a center for immigration – salad bowl

o   Ellis Island

-        History of NYC

o   Geography of NYC

-        Typewriters

-        Towers of Hanoi

-        Encoding  

-        How to make chocolates (with or without poison)

-        Read along:

o   New York the Novel (Edward Rutherford)

o   The Power Broker

o   All of a Kind Family

 MHM:

-        San Francisco Gold Rush

-        Earthquake and Fires in San Fran

-        Golden Gate Bridge

-        Angel Island

o   Asian (Chinese) Immigration to the USA

-        Chinese Zodiac

-        Fortune telling (and why it’s not okay)

-        Bed and Breakfasts

-        San Francisco today

o   Technology boom

o   Overpriced everything

§  How this hurts established residents

§  Homelessness in San Fran

-        Bandits in the American West

-        Hauntings in American buildings

-        How to remove and install tile

-        Renovations – refurbish something

-        Antiques

o   Visit an antique shop

-        Importance of fire safety

-        How to install lighting fixtures properly

-        How to fix a dumbwaiter

o   How not to be a dumb waiter

-        Tangrams

-        What is the Victorian period

o   Significance of Queen Victoria

- ��      Read Along:

o   Little Brother

o   Paper Son: Lee’s Journey to America

o   Angel Island Gateway to Golden Mountain

 TRT:

-        The French Revolution

o   Marie Antoinette

o   Women and the French Revolution

o   Worldwide effects of the Revolution

o   Historians of the French Revolution

-        Writing history

o   How we can focus on different events in history, how we can be sympathetic to certain people, how we can fulfill different spaces in the historical narrative, criticism of history as a field, entering history as a field

-        Wisconsin Dairy industry

-        Alarm systems and how they work

-        Fingerprinting

-        Elevator safety

-        Ski lifts

o   Skiing

-        Vandalism

-        Taking care of libraries

-        Latitude and longitude

-        Keeping records of good events and bad events

o   Nothing you do will ever stop me from loving you

-        Some people keep different sleep schedules

-        Journalism

-        Making translations  

-        Why France has different holidays – to keep the ski lodges from getting too full

 FIN:

-        History of theatre spaces

-        Use of film at theatres

-        Magicians

o   Houdini

o   Learn a ‘magic’ trick

-        Library of Congress

-        Demolition – wrecking balls

o   What’s involved

-        Plaster casts

-        Historic register of buildings

o   Visit a local historic building

-        Price of concessions and movie tickets today

-        Nickelodeons

-        Celebrity stunts for attention from press

o   Celebrity endorsements

-        Jazz music

o   Dancing

-        Kidnapping stories

o   What to do if someone tries to grab you

-        Rubber vs. electricity

-        Art/artists of the 20s

 SSH:

-        Numbering systems (particularly ones not based on 10)

-        Cultures of South America

o   Maya

§  Cultural understandings

§  Connections to what appears at Beech Hill

o   Aztec

o   Inca

-        Myths of lesser civilizations because of European preconceptions

-        Why do countries have consulates/embassies in other countries

-        What is amnesia and other medical memory issues

-        Provenance and why its important part one

-        Roles and responsibilities within a museum

o   Visit a museum

o   How to be critical of a museum and how knowledge is presented to you

-        Modern art

o   Make your own

o   Visit a modern art museum

-        Periodic Table of Elements

-        Positive and negative molds for casting

 DOG:

-        Prohibition

o   Speakeasys

o   Amendments to constitution

o   Drinking age restrictions

§  Comparison of USA to European countries  

o   Connections to modern drug policies

-        Recognizing and photographing local birds

-        Dangers in the forest – ticks and other pests

-        Why water sources are important

o   Flint water crisis

-        Visit a state park

o   Importance of maintaining public land

-        Alcatraz

-        How to care for dogs

-        Noise pollution

o   Light pollution

 CAR:

-        History of carousels

o   Visit a carousel

-        Lathes

-        Harmonicas

-        Band organs

-        Writing messages with lemon juice and other hidden inks

-        How to iron

o   How not to iron

-        How to make a sundae

-        How amusement park rides are designed

-        Soldering

-        What is parole

o   Welcoming those who have been in prison back to society

o   Problems with the American prison system

§  How it disproportionately affects minority groups

o   What can be done in prison reform

o   Abuses in prison

o   Making mental and spiritual help and guidance more available

o   Making sanitary products available

o   Prison for profit hurts everybody except the prison owner

o   Educational opportunities for those in prison

o   More half-way help

o   Juvenile sentencing reform – more out of system help

o   Respecting humanity of prisoners

o   Ending the death penalty  

-        Depression

o   How to get help

o   How to help others

o   Dealing with loss

DDI:

-        Native peoples of the Pacific Northwest

-        Orcas and other whales

o   Whaling industry in Northwest and Northeast

o   Things whale products were used for

o   Visit natural history museum with whale exhibition

-        Visit an aquarium with a good reputation

o   Problems with places that do not take care of their sea life – particularly large sea life like whales

-        What is a chowder and how is it made

o   Try or make chowder

-        Crabs

o   Restrictions on different types of crabs – what type is local

o   Try a crab dish

-        Importance of different knots  

o   Get some rope and learn how to tie different knots

-        Know the NATO alphabet and letter flags

-        Boating knowledge

o   Go on a boating trip – know the port and starboard sides

-        Learn how to kayak

-        Try to learn how to skip rocks

-        Visit a lighthouse

o   Importance and histories of lighthouses

-        Smuggling – what is it and why does it happen

-        Shanghaiing

-        Chess

 SHA:

-        The continuous oppression and mistreatment of Native Americans

o   From Mayflower to Pocahontas to Trail of Tears to Dakota to DAPL to Reservations to food deserts to voting rights to much much more

§  How to support current Native voices and concerns

o   Why Native Americans are not a costume

o   “Possession” of Native American objects and land

§  Arrowheads and native jewelry

o   Broad overview of regional Native American groups – using their own voices

§  Special focus on local Native American groups

·       Is there a local museum/educational resource that is either Native created or known for respecting Native voices

o   Current Native Americans of note (ex: politicians, activists, artists)

o   While the previous focuses on Native Americans in the modern day USA – also discuss First Nations from Canada and Native Groups from more southern areas

-        Why temperature and pan matters when baking (show what happens in the oven when it goes wrong)

-        Magnets and how different metals react differently to magnets

-        How to take care of a horse and other farm animals

o   Visit a local farm

o   Try horse-riding

-        Dangers of rattle snakes and scorpions

-        Lassos and how to use them

-        Legends of outlaws in the American West

-        Ghost towns  

-        Flower stitches when knitting/crocheting

-        Petrified wood

-        How to make a campfire

-        Picking fruits and veggies when they are ready

-        Flower language

-        Read Along:

o   Native American folk tales  

o   Motorcycles and Sweetgrass

o   Gone Away Lake

o   Black Beauty?

 CUR:

-        Where are the moors

-        Different regional accents within the United Kingdom

-        British foods

-        Latin

o   Learn fun phrases and prayers

-        Ancestry and genealogy

o   Map your own family tree and recognize family crests

o   How adoption has historically been a binding and irrefutable concept for lineage

o   Find places your family lived

o   Leaving a history for your descendants

§  Write a story book for them

o   British Royal Family

§  Why incest is bad

-        Parrots and their intelligence

-        Secret passages in old buildings

-        Alchemy

o   Connections to modern understandings of science  

o   Historical understandings of elements

-        Astrological signs

-        Witch trials

-        Legends of lycanthropy and other monsters

-        Importance of not taking other peoples medicines

-        Runic alphabet

-        Feeding your pets a healthy diet

-        Typing practice

-        How to embrace the idea that home taught students are evil geniuses

-        Forges and melting points of different metals

-        Carnivorous plants

-        Succulents

-        Constellations in different places  

-        Read Along:

o   The Secret Garden

o   The London Eye Mystery

o   Beastly

CLK:

-        Great Depression

o   Causes and effects

o   Who was hurt

o   Who was not hurt

o   Areas of America

§  Dust bowl

o   Famous people and literature

o   Homelessness and poverty

§  Bread lines

§  Soup kitchens

§  Anti-homelessness architecture

§  Connections to mental illness and veterans

§  How we can help those who do not have homes today

-        Early Telephones

-        Shakespeare

-        History of Nancy Drew

o   Mildred Wirt Benson

o   Edward Stratemeyer  

-        Fishing – why different fish respond to different bait

-        Orphanages in the early 20th century

-        Gas prices and accessibility of cars through time

-        How to make pie

-        What is jurisdiction and what is significant about crossing state lines

-        How do banks work

o   Safety deposit boxes

-        Identify theft

-        How to use a sewing machine

o   Sew an item of clothing

-        Mini golf – why and what

-        Mirrors and their usefulness

-        Stamp collections

-         

-        Radios and call signs

o   Comparison to modern internet forms

-        Telegrams

-        Read along:

o   Shakespeare

§  Midsummer Night’s Dream

§  Others

o   Pollyanna

o   Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm

o   The Grapes of Wrath

  TRN:

-        Trains

o   Steam trains

o   Visit a train museum

o   Take a train ride (if not a normal event)

o   Importance of transcontinental railway

o   Trains around the USA today

o   Trains around the world (TGV, bullet train)

-        Abraham Lincoln

-        Mark Twain

-        How to make a good burger (you leave off the PB&J)

-        Slugs

-        Periodic Table of Elements – abbreviations

-        Gemstones

-        History of Mining

o   England (Newcastle upon Tyne)

o   American West

o   Appalachia

o   Company Store

o   Health issues for miners

o   Danger of mines

o   Current issues for mining

-        Dancing the Hurley Burley

-        People who collect creepy dolls

o   History of porcelain dolls

-        Embroidery

o   How to

o   Patterns/symbols

-        General Stores in the American West

o   Sears

-        How to make taffy

-        Find a well maintained and beautiful tomb and research who is entombed

-        Focusing light through a magnifying glass can start a fire

-        Read Along:

o   Murder on the Orient Express

o   Mark Twain books

DAN:

-        All lessons in French

-        How using different ingredients and different amounts of ingredients can affect the outcome of your cookies

-        Paris métro

o   History

o   How to read/follow a métro map

o   RER

-        Montmartre and other Parisian neighbourhoods

-        History of Île de la France and Square de Vert Galant Parc and Pont Neuf

-        WWII and the French Resistance

o   Cross of Lorraine

o   Vichy France

o   Abuses of the French gov’t in this period

-        Paris and the fashion world

-        Beauty standards and the rejection of natural beauty by society

o   Dangers of weight and figure standards

o   You are beautiful as you are

-        Catacombs of Paris

-        Famous French Dishes (from this region)

o   Or Bretagne since I know and like them better

-        The French Café

-        Moulin in France

-        Tea and how hot leaf water can taste so bad but still be good for you

-        Buildings of Baron Haussmann

-        Paris History  

-        Decoders

-        Importance of vitraux historically, culturally, and religiously

-        Read Along:

o   Little Kids

§  Madeline

§  Babar

§  Petit Ours

§  Plume

o   High School

§  Hunchback of Notre Dame

§  Les Mis

§  Dale Van Kley

 CRE:

-        History of Hawai’i and her native people

o   How the USA screwed them over and continues to do so

§  Land colonizing today

o   Listen to voices from Native Peoples

-        Pearl Harbor

o   USS Arizona

-        Native myths and legends

-        Local flora and fauna

-        Surfing

-        How to make bead necklaces

-        Snorkeling

-        Entomology

o   Find some local bugs and identify and observe them

-        Horticulture

o   See if you can graft something

o   Watch a carnation placed in water with food dye

o   Regrow a fruit or veggie from the leftovers

-        Go looking for seashells – see how many complete shells you can find

-        Be aware of pesticides and the dangers they offer

o   Dangers of organic food too

-        Make something with pineapple in it

-        Fishing – different kinds of native fish

-        Volcanos

-        Hula  

  ICE:

-        Wolf sanctuaries – respecting wildlife and their place in the wild and not the domestic

o   What to do if you see a wolf in the real world

-        Fur trapping in Canada history

-        Regions and Capitols of Canada

o   Visit Canada?

-        How the Canadian government works

-        Use of French language in Canada    

o   Unique features of Canadian French  

-        Ice fishing

-        How to cook omelets, salmon, etc.

o   How to not add paprika cause like ew

-        Fossils

-        Radiation

o   Marie Curie

-        How to be a good maid

-        Snowballs/ice balls

-        Ice skating

-        Winter weather safety

-        Avalanches  

-        Saunas

-        Birthmarks

-        Fax machines

-        How to not lie about bird watching

-        Frozen water safety  

-        Modern offenses against First Nations by Canadian Government

  CRY:

-        Culture of the Arawak and Caraïbe

o   Voodoo

-        Mardi Gras in New Orleans

-        Hurricane Katrina and aftermath

-        French Influence

-        Eyes and their parts and functions

-        Teeth and their parts and functions

-        Alligators in the Southern USA and how they are dangerous pests  

-        Graveyards/cemeteries and how to be comfortable in them

o   Modern burial practices

o   Why are they above ground in Louisiana?

o   Places where they are running out of space for the dead

o   Historic violations of final resting places

-        Ventriloquism

-        Lizards and how to care for them

-        Rube Goldberg machines

-        Curio shops

-        Crystal Skulls  

 VEN:

-        International crime

-        Organized crime

-        Scopa

-        Italian basics

o   Learn an Italian aria

-        Italian food

o   Not just spaghetti

-        History of Venice

o   Current issues in Venice

-        Carrier pigeons

-        Micro-dots

-        “Observing the architecture”

-        Try to make gelato (or just get gelato, either way you get gelato)

-        Disguising yourself – put on an outfit and try to get me to not recognize you

-        Picking locks

-        Secret codes

-        Solfege

o   With hand signs

o   Learn a song in solfege

-        Carnivale

-        Learn how the sausage gets made

o   How to deal with food poisoning

-        How to secure your living space against burglars

o   Glass breaks, motion sensors, keypads, magnets, and more

-        Read Along:

o   Heist Society

o   The Prince

o   Merchant of Venice

  HAU:

-        Irish lessons (as much of this in Irish as possible)

o   Why the Irish language is important

-        Geography of Ireland

o   Provinces and counties

-        Irish names

-        Why Ireland has disliked and should dislike the UK

o   Historically

o   Famine

§  Emmigration

o   Easter Rising

o   Troubles

o   Present-Day

-        Importance of alcohol in Ireland

o   Uisce beatha

o   Guinness

§  Guinness world records

-        Irish music

o   Irish instruments

o   Learn some Rebel songs

-        Ogham runes

-        Irish foods

o   Something with lamb, who cares what

-        Don’t use friends for land development

-        Bogs

-        Chemical Reactions

-        Rockets

-        Inventions and secrecy during WWII

-        Religion in Ireland

o   Pagan traditions

o   Christianity

o   Catholic/Protestant tensions

-        Irish wedding traditions

-        How printing presses work

-        Irish castles

-        Sheep sheering/raising sheep

-        Irish legends

o   Fae

o   Leprechauns

-        Don’t drive and talk on the phone

 RAN:

-        Why blackface is problematic? (the fact that this needs to be said is problematic in and of itself)

-        Scuba diving

-        Sailing

-        Bermuda Triangle

-        Bats

-        Primates and their intelligence

o   Problems with animal research

o   Koko

o   Jane Goodall

-        Island resort culture

-        Metal detectors

-        Pirates

o   And the Caribbean

o   Their abuses

o   Different kinds

o   Modern day pirates  

-        How do walkie-talkies work

-        US mistreatment of island territories

-        Read Along:

o   Bloody Jack (Meyer)

 WAC:

-        Edgar Allan Poe

o   Stories

o   Baltimore

-        Piano

-        Victorian Dining traditions

o   How to set a place for fancy dining

o   How to fold napkins

o   Table manners

o   How to serve someone at a fancy dinner

o   How courses might work

o   How to use your silverware  

-        Why you shouldn’t go to an actual high school part two

o   Just fyi – that’s not how uniforms work

§  Have a school inspired dress code for a week

-        Bullying and why you absolutely will not be a bully

o   How to respond to bullying

o   Importance of talking to adults and counseling

-        Logic puzzles

-        Research the founding of a local school

-        Stringed Instruments

-        Plagiarism

o   Turnitin

-        Making sandwiches – like a good deli style sandwich

-        Photography scavenger hunt – make a digital (or physical) yearbook

-        Squirrels

-        Orthographic projection

-        DNA/RNA

-        Saving every major project on three different thumb drives

-        Getting along with roommates

-        States and Capitals

o   Countries and capitals of the world  

 TOT:

-        Tornados

o   Technology used to observe tornados

-        Meteorology

-        Prairie dogs

-        Life on the great plains

-        Great Plains Native Americans

-        Small towns in the Midwest honestly be like that

-        Defensive driving

-        Make a disaster kit

-        Know what to do in various natural emergency situations

o   What is the local alert protocol

o   What do local authorities recommend

-        How to maintain and fix a car

-        How to fix a broken device

-        What is tenure

-        How to budget

o   Go to the grocery store on a strict budget (however much you come in under budget is your candy budget)

-        Read Along:

o   Little House

  SAW:

-        Basic Japanese phrases

o   Learn to count

o   Writing in Japanese

-        Sudoku, nonograms, renograms

-        Japanese ghost legends

-        Japanese culture

o   Tourism

§  Ryokans

o   Space – everything small

o   Politeness/formalities

o   Hot springs/baths

o   Tatami and paper walls

-        Japanese cultural dress

o   Kimonos

o   Lolita? Fashion

-        Japanese names

o   Last name first

o   How to address others in Japan

-        Martial Arts

o   Ninjutsu

§  Traditional tools

-        Japanese tea ceremony

-        Schools in Japan

-        Teaching English as a foreign language

-        Japanese subway/train system

-        Pachinko and Japanese gaming

-        Japanese vending machines

-        Robotic animals

-        Bento

-        Japanese foods

-        Origami

-        How to fake a haunting

 CAP:

-        Basic German phrases

o   How to make a German word

o   Connections of German to English

-        German food favourites

o   Especially cakes

-        Storytelling as a cultural entity

o   How memory has worked differently in different times

-        Glass blowing

-        How castles provided for the local community

-        Bavaria in Germany

o   Cultural dress

-        Glockenspiel

-        How to make board games

-        Monster stories of central Europe

-        How to monitor security camera remotely

-        Read Along:

o   Heidi

ASH:

-        Arson

o   Watching how different accelerants burn a piece of paper

-        All politicians are at least somewhat self-serving

o   But write a letter to a local politician anyway

§  Different ways to contact elected officials, and why some don’t work

-        How to make ice cream

-        How a police investigation works

o   Problems with police departments around the world – specifically USA

o   Ways that police work unfairly targets minorities

§  If Nancy is innocent how many others are

-        How to use matches and lighters safely

-        Why you should not return to the scene of a crime – particularly a fire

-        Making sure smoke detectors work properly and the system is connected

o   We might not go to school but fire drills are still important

-        What is a mass spectrometer

-        Who to call if you’ve been arrested

-        What to do if you get pulled over

-        How the media can skew the truth and make their own narratives

-        Sound mixing

-        Be careful with what you say/post/record

o   Keep receipts and clarify when possible

 TMB:

-        What not to do at an archaeological site

-        Ancient Egyptian History

o   Pantheon, notable figures, relevant events

o   Pyramids, sphinx

o   Pharaohs

-        Modern Egypt

o   Arabic alphabet

-        History of archaeological digs in Egypt

o   Why they’ve been problematic

-        Dangers of the tombs

-        Mummys

o   How they are put together

-        Tomb raiders

-        Importance of water in the desert

-        How to piece together a broken artifact

-        How to gently brush off an artifact

-        There is no such thing as a dictionary for ancient Egyptian

-        Aliens did not build the pyramids

-        Senet

-        Desert life safety

-        How mirrors can be used to light a room

-        Read Along

o   Rick Riordan

 DED:

-        Nikola Tesla

o   All his fun stuff

o   Tesla Coils

-        3-D printing

-        Gummy fingerprints

-        Faraday Cage

-        Basic electric concepts

o   How to build a circuit board

-        Chemical safety

-        How a lab might work

-        Valuing different skills within academia

-        Ultraviolet light

-        How motorcycles work

-        Freelance photography

-        How to use academic databases

 GTH:

-        Slavery in the United States

o   Origins

o   ‘End’

o   Civil War

o   The connection to “southern culture”

o   Continued abuses of Black people in America

§  Importance of recognizing Black voices and what they are saying

§  Listening even when it’s uncomfortable

§  Checking privilege when you have it

o   Jim Crow Laws

-        Plantations

-        Gone With the Wind

o   The good and the bad

-        Civil War spies – female

-        Carbon monoxide poisoning

-        Burned out houses are not a safe space

-        Do not go digging through people’s coffins – rest in PEACE

-        Understanding that your family can be flawed

-        If you don’t want to get married, if you’re not happy in a relationship, end it

-        When a member of your family is sick you take care of them

-        Make a will, just in case your cousin kills you

-        Bachelor and bachelorette parties should feature activities that everyone is comfortable with

-        Read Along:

o   My Last Skirt: The Story of Jennie Hodgers, Union Soldier

 SPY:

-        Scotland and their identity

o   Celtic Nations

o   Independent Scotland

o   Call a Scottish person

-        Unicorns and other mythical creatures in Scotland

-        Scottish food

o   The appetizing parts

-        History of spies

-        Biowarfare

o   Code Orange

o   Other teenage stories dealing with anthrax

o   Current events and concerns

o   Historical biowarfare (smallpox blankets)

-        Ziplining

-        Archery

-        How to bug someone

-        Tartans and plaids

o   Kilts

-        Augmented Reality Glasses

-        Record players

-        How to reset a circuit breaker

-        Read Along:

o   Gallagher Girls

o   Code Orange

o   Little House (Martha)

o   Little Brother (Doctorow)

 MED:

-        Don’t meet your heroes

-        New Zealand

o   Maori culture

-        Survivor style game shows and realism

-        I’m not saying Aliens can’t exist, I’m saying they def aren’t involved here

-        Kayaking

-        Submarines and what they can do

-        Turtles

-        Earthquakes

-        Be careful with rope bridges

  LIE:

-        Provenance and why it’s important part two  

-        Greek art and how it was originally painted vibrantly

o   Abuses of Greek art through the ages

-        The British Museum and the issues with that

-        Greek pantheon

o   Legends and notable figures

o   Religious traditions  

-        Iliad and Odyssey

-        Art forgery

-        How to fire clay pots and pottery

-        Memorizing lines for a play

o   Staging for a play

o   Role of a director

-        Theatre

o   Lights

o   Curtains

o   Fly system

o   Sound

-        Greek alphabet

-        Historical importance of the Greek language and culture

o   Alexander the Great and Hellenization

-        Olympics

o   Historic and modern

-        Greece and the European Union  

-        Make something with pomegranates

-        Read Along:

o   Iliad

o   Odyssey

o   The Thief

o   Percy Jackson  

  SEA:

-        Iceland

o   Culture

§  Naming traditions

o   Language

o   Music

o   Food

-        Shipbuilding

o   Historic and modern ships

-        Ice caving

-        Northern Lights

-        Tides

-        Snowmobiling

-        Poetry

-        What is xenophobia

 MID:

-        Some games just shouldn’t be made

-        American witch trials

o   What actually went down

o   Misconceptions

-        Treating people with albinism as real people

-        Arson is bad

-        Herbal remedies and how they can interfere with modern medicine

-        Witchcraft and how not to

-        Salem MA

-        Ignorance promotes fear and hatred so we do our best to learn about others

[ethanlivemere]

Half-Life²: Anticitizen - Chapter 3

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

_____________________

Chapter 3

Trespass

The true citizen knows that duty is the greatest gift.

The true citizen conserves valuable oxygen.

The true citizen cooperates with his Civil Protection team.

The true citizen’s job is the opposite of slavery.

The Consul’s brief messages echo across the pavement, each one followed by a hollow chime. It has an almost hypnotic effect, as I find myself staring up at the cluster of screens hanging over the intersection. It’s an Orwellian sight to behold: the citizens going about their day while the Consul’s watchful gaze looks down from above.

The true citizen embraces the Universal Union.

I think back to my encounter with the Vortigaunt. It had been a shock to hear English words coming from the mouth of the alien. Its voice was guttural and rough, and it continually made insect-like hissing and clicking sounds, but it spoke English nonetheless. Quite eloquently, even. Vastly different from Black Mesa, where the hisses and clicks had been the only components of their communication. But perhaps the bigger shock in seeing the Vortigaunt was not what it said, but the way it spoke to me. Like I hadn’t killed dozens of its kind in Black Mesa after seeing them slaughter my coworkers. After such hostility, I expected this Vortigaunt to charge up a bolt of green energy and attack me, and my instincts wanted me to reach for a weapon I didn’t have. The last thing I expected was for it to greet me as an ally.

“Your presence gives us hope, Freeman,” it had said. “As you saved my kin in the border world, so shall you save us again on this miserable rock. For now that the lesser master lay defeated, the greater must also fall in time.” Ah, so that’s how it is, I thought. When I killed the Nihilanth, I freed the Vortigaunts from their enslaver, and now they expected me to do the same once more. I remembered the slave camps and factories on Xen, where, for just a brief moment, they didn’t attack me – until the Nihilanth’s Controllers arrived and forced them to fight. They must have realized I was their one hope for freedom. A freedom which, ultimately, was very short-lived.

The Vortigaunt then walked to the contraption that held another one of its kind in its dark liquid. It placed its two-fingered hand against the glass and, despite its alien features, I could see sadness fall across its face. “The Vorti-cells drain power from my kin to support the Combine’s machinery. Those who enter them seldom emerge. The few who do are weakened almost to the point of collapse. Truly, it is a fate far worse than the shackles I bear.” The shackles were different from the ones worn by the Nihilanth-enslaved Vortigaunts. Instead of shining green, they were a dull gray. Their design remained very similar, though. Wrist bracelets, a collar, but also a sort of codpiece that I didn’t remember seeing on the Nihilanth’s slaves. Apparently the Combine deemed it necessary to cover the Vortigaunts’ loins – even though they housed no visible organs of any kind.

The Vortigaunt proceeded to grab a broom from against the wall and told me it had to resume its duty or suffer punishment. It seemed rather ironic, almost comedic even, that an alien race powerful enough to power factories was also being employed to sweep the streets. Recalling the instructions Jeremy had given me, I asked the Vortigaunt if he knew how I could get to the Manhack Arcade, where Barney was supposed to meet me. “Ah,” he responded pensively. “The Manhack Arcade. The hall of the unwitting executioners.” He proceeded to give me clear directions. I was to go to a place he called the Stenographer’s Chasm and then continue in a straight line. I wondered what he meant by ‘unwitting executioners’, but before I knew it, he had already said his goodbyes and disappeared around the corner.

The strange encounter had left me confused and a bit shaken, but I resolutely continued my journey and followed the Vortigaunt’s directions. I had a hard time imagining what this ‘Stenographer’s Chasm’ could be, but I could never have imagined what it turned out to be. An enormous, Combine-modified warehouse consisting of one long room that extended far into the ground, filled with rows of workers perched on stools behind desks, frantically typing on typewriter-like machines. But the stools and desks weren’t on the ground: they were mounted onto single, suspended rails that ran across the room. There were multiple levels of these rails and desks reaching all the way to the ceiling and down into the chasm. The workers had nowhere to go. My guess was that at the end of their shift or when their quota was fulfilled, the rails transported them to a place where they could safely dismount their stools. Until then, they could do nothing but work. I didn’t know what it was they were doing. What kind of paperwork could the Combine have? They didn’t seem like the type to bother with those kinds of things too much. Then again, an intergalactic empire is bound to have some unavoidable paperwork. Probably keeping track of resources and the like.

More disturbing sights awaited me, though. It all began at a building that produced a continuous sound of whirring and chugging, like a giant steam engine. Looking through the window, I saw a black and white tiled hall that was filled with enormous, diagonal pistons moving back and forth. At their base, people were working on the large engines that seemed to drive the pistons. I then realized that the engines weren’t just large, the figures knelt at their base were also small… they were children. Children, no older than twelve, were working on heavy machinery under the watch of Metrocops. And that wasn’t the only factory where children were being forced into labor. A bit further down the street was a smaller brick building that housed a large furnace. More children were stationed at a conveyor belt that lead into the furnace. They took white, ellipsoid objects from barrels and placed them onto the conveyor. They weren’t being burned in the furnace: they reemerged out of the side, attached to the ends of poles, and were transported into another machine. I had seen the white objects before on the brown-robed, flamethrower-wielding beings in the station and on posters that Jeremy had referred to as ‘Cremators’. These were Cremator heads. I tore myself away from the windows and continued my way through the industrial area. I never looked through another window again.

The factories eventually made way for a busier commercial district, which is where I find myself now. It’s the busiest place I’ve seen in this city, apart from the military parade. This must once have been a street with many successful shops, but now most of the display windows stand empty. One of the buildings still in use houses the same ration dispensers I also saw in the station. Another one showcases multiple television screens, all of which display the Combine logo.

“Can you believe it? Free TVs!” says a citizen gazing through the window.

“Don’t get too excited,” his companion replies in a cynical tone. “Those things only have one channel: the Consulcast.” He points over his shoulder at the cluster of screens overhead, where the Consul’s many faces are still naming the values of a true citizen.

But the Consulcast nor the free TVs are the reason why there is so much traffic on this street corner. In fact, I’d wager the Combine strategically placed those here so that as many citizens as possible would be exposed to the propaganda. The real eye-catcher everyone seems to be here for is across the street: the Manhack Arcade. It’s a large building that forms the corner of the street. Completely Combine-made, no recycling of old buildings. The people in the street flock towards the wide entrance on the corner, which is flanked by two Metrocops. Above it hang a number of yellow posters and banners and even more screens, all showing Combine logos and imagery.

I wonder if I should go in. Jeremy told me Barney would meet me at the Manhack Arcade, but it’s unclear if that means outside or inside. It seem risky going into a Combine facility, but it doesn’t seem like the citizens get scanned like they did at the checkpoints, and I could probably slip by the two guarding Metrocops unnoticed by hiding in the crowd.

I wait a little longer, hoping Barney will show himself. The clouds have gotten darker still, and before long a light drizzle starts pouring from the sky. Not only am I not dressed for rainy weather, I also want to avoid getting into too much contact with this water, which, judging from the greenish color of the clouds it originates from, could have all kinds of toxins or undesirable pH values. And so, when an exceptionally dense group of people approaches the entrance to the Arcade, I join them and walk past the Metrocops without either of them giving me a second glance.

Inside is a corridor that leads to the main room. Like the Stenographer’s Chasm, it’s long, tall, and extends down into the ground. Instead of rails with desks and tired workers, this room is filled with catwalks leading to strange machines. Citizens queue in front of them and when it’s their turn, they step onto a pedestal in front of the machines, grab hold of two control handles and lean forward to place their heads in some sort of virtual reality display built into the arcade.

A screen above the player allows bystanders to follow the game. A citizen near me has just started: at first, the screen shows only a grid of red lines in a black void. Then, the grid bends and reshapes itself into a three-dimensional environment that resembles a ruined building. Several humanoid shapes appear in yellow and orange tints, like heat vision, but with a clear red outline to them. The player navigates the environment, seemingly flying, and moves towards the outlined targets. The targets start moving around, trying to evade the player, but eventually he catches up to one. It’s not clear what happens, but when the player bumps into the target, the red outline disappears and a score of one hundred appears in the bottom right corner of the screen. “Ha ha, got one!” the player exclaims. Another nearby player is already at a score of eight hundred, when one of the targets suddenly rushes at him, holding up some kind of long object. The screen goes black and the words ‘GAME OVER’ appear on the screen. “Damn it!” the man shouts. “I was almost at my high score!”

Something’s not right. The way the targets move – it doesn’t look like a video game character. Much too erratic and lifelike. And from what I’ve seen of the Combine so far, I doubt they would put effort into providing ground-breaking AI technology for their panem et circenses. The Vortigaunt’s words echo through my mind: ‘the hall of the unwitting executioners’. I can put two and two together, but I don’t want to. I refuse to believe that what I fear is true. People slaughtering their own, cheering while they do it – and without ever realizing what they did. Or, at least, I deeply hope they don’t.

I don’t want to stay here any longer. Watching these innocent people enjoying the Combine’s twisted games turns my stomach. I have to find Barney. But how can I simultaneously hide from the real Metrocops and try to get Barney to see me?

As I pace through the room, I notice a Metrocop eyeing me. It’s hard to tell with the gas masks, but it seems like his gaze is following me. Is he Barney or a suspicious guard? I try to act inconspicuous and wait for a signal. Suddenly, the Metrocop turns away and walks towards a door. He interacts with the locking mechanism and it opens before him. He throws another prolonged glance in my direction before stepping through, out of sight. I wait. The door doesn’t close behind him. I cautiously make my way to the door. It leads to some sort of backstage corridor, clearly a ‘staff only’ area. I can’t see the Metrocop. I look around the Arcade one last time, but none of the remaining guards seem to notice me, so I enter the corridor. It’s cold and dark, and my footsteps are loud on the metal floor. I arrive in a small room with one of those Combine consoles. The wall is lined with a rack containing dozens of small, deactivated drones whose purpose I can’t discern. I hear the door I entered through close.

“Hey, you!” I hear from one of the neighboring corridors. A Metrocop – the one I followed in here – enters the room. “Do you have your identification?” He menacingly steps towards me. Seems it wasn’t Barney after all. Tough luck. “You are not supposed to be in here. I need to see your identification.”

Well, I seem to have gotten myself into a sticky situation. The Metrocop is trying to drive me into a corner, drawing his stun baton. “Overwatch, restricted incursion in progress in sector 8. Permission to enact civil judgement?” he says to seemingly no one. There’s a short blip and a burst of static following his question. I’m not thrilled about the prospect of ‘civil judgement’, so I decide not to wait until he gets his answer from whoever Overwatch is. I place my hands on my head, feigning surrender, while I scan the exits. The corridor back to the main Arcade hall is sealed and I can’t tell where the others lead, so I’ll have to trust my instincts.

Either the Metrocop has received his permission from Overwatch, or my eyes darting around the room have made him suspicious, because he suddenly swings his stun stick at my head. I try to duck and the blow lands against my elbow, sending a shock through my entire arm as blue sparks fly from the weapon. In response, I kick at his shin as hard as I can. He grunts and loses his balance, and I take the opportunity to dart down the nearest corridor. I hear the Metrocop’s heavy boots give chase behind me as he mumbles a status report to Overwatch. I round a corner, praying I won’t run into a dead end. I see a T junction ahead. Suddenly, I hear a deafening bang behind me, and the sound of a bullet hitting metal. Damn. He has a gun. I have to reach the junction as fast as possible. No time to look which way to go. As the echo of the gunshot fades out, I speed off into the left corridor just before another bullet plunges itself into the wall.

Suddenly, my surroundings open up into a larger room that’s two thirds Combine architecture and one third concrete rubble, remainders of whatever building was here before they installed their Arcade. I could get out through the collapsed walls and floors, but I’d be an easy shot. There’s also what looks like a Combine elevator with a bright red button inside it. I have milliseconds to make a decision. How far behind is he? Can I pull it off?

I slam my fist into the red button, rush back out of the elevator and then dive behind a half-collapsed wall. The doors close and the elevator starts to rise as I flatten myself against the concrete, bent rebar poking into my shoulder. My left arm is numb from the shock of the baton. I hear the Metrocop charging into the room. I hold my breath and pray he falls for my trick. It’s a trick as old as time. He stands still and I wait, my heartbeat ear-deafening.

“Subject is headed for top floor, secure perimeter around elevator.” I have to keep myself from sighing in relief. He isn’t gone yet. In fact, he seems to just stand still in front of the elevator. He must be waiting for the elevator to reach its destination. If he waits for the top floor units to report an empty elevator, my cover is blown.

“Copy,” he says. My functional right hand grabs hold of a loose chunk of concrete near me. I hear him walk a few steps, and then a couple of beeps. “Elevator power disengaged. Heading to your location.” With that, he walks out of the room, and I can finally breathe again. They don’t know the elevator is empty yet. They think they have me trapped in an unpowered elevator. Now to finally get out of here.

Easier said than done, as it turns out. The ruins are a concrete maze, and I constantly have to watch my step. It doesn’t help that the rain that seeps down through the broken ceilings makes everything slippery. The downpour has changed into an outright storm: the water beats down loudly on the concrete and every now and then a roaring thunderclap tears through the sky. Meanwhile, I guess the Metrocops discovered I wasn’t in the elevator after all, because I suddenly hear the cold, disembodied female voice – Overwatch, I assume – echo through the air once more: “Individual, you are charged with anti-civil activities: 63 criminal trespass, 148 resisting arrest, 243 assault on Protection Team. All local Protection units: code alert: locate, contain, prosecute.”

I spot one of the lambdas painted by the resistance group on a pillar. It leads the way down a slope of collapsed floor into a sub-street level area. Knowing the Metrocops are looking for me again, I try to speed up my pace a little while heading down – a mistake. The wet rubble gives way and I lose my footing. The world spins around me as I slide and tumble down the slope. I try to shield my head with my arms. I roll over the floor after reaching the bottom before coming to a stop.

I lie on my back as my surroundings come back into focus. I’m in some sort of underground sewer chamber: I see a ladder on the wall leading up to a manhole cover and there’s a grate in the ceiling through which light and rain pours down in a small waterfall, though the ground I lie on is thankfully dry. I do a quick damage report: my palms are chafed and I’ll undoubtedly have a few bruises, but no lasting damage. I’m lucky I didn’t hit my head on any of the protruding edges of the concrete.

I become aware of a sound, just barely audible over the storm. It sounds like a fire – no, more like a flamethrower. At the same moment, I notice the dancing orange light on the brick wall, and my nostrils are assaulted with the stench of burning flesh. I immediately jolt up. Pain shoots through my back at the sudden movement. I look around and immediately spot the source of the sound: there’s a Cremator standing on the opposite side of the room. The two lanky, leathery-skinned arms sticking out of its brown robe carry a heavy flamethrower which, I notice for the first time seeing one up close, is connected to a spherical fuel tank in the middle of its stomach with a thin tube. ‘Flamethrower’ might be an incorrect word, however. Instead of producing flames, it shoots the green particle jets I also noticed being used to clean trains in the station. It must be some sort of corrosive liquid that only affects organic matter. The source of the orange light on the walls turns out to be a burning pile of charred flesh being sprayed by the Cremator. The flesh is being set ablaze by the green particles, but not only that: where the jets hit the flesh directly, it seems to blacken and disintegrate. Despite the fact that the corpses have turned black as coal and have been turned into an amorphous, ever-shrinking pile, I can still make out just enough to see that these were once people.

The Cremator stops what it’s doing and turns its white, oval head towards me, alerted by my sudden movement. Its tiny, expressionless eyes lock onto me. I hear mechanical breathing from the Cremator’s mouth-tube as it steps closer. It tilts its head like a curious animal before it points the nozzle of its weapon towards me. I could try to run, but I doubt I could get far enough to evade the scorching cloud. I briefly wonder if I should not have moved an played dead. It probably wouldn’t have saved me from being disintegrated.

“Cremator! Stand down!” A Metrocop charges in and stands between me and the Cremator. “This prisoner is property of Civil Protection and is to be transferred to Nova Prospekt for processing.” The Cremator tilts its head again, then turns around and returns to its previous work. The Metrocop turns around to face me. I should be worried, but I’m not. Despite its distortion, I have already recognized his voice. I once again hear the click of the mask detaching and am greeted by Barney’s smug grin. I’ve never been happier to see that stupid grin.

“So Gordon, is this what you call ‘not drawing any attention to yourself’? You’ve got practically every Metrocop in the sector looking for you!” He reaches out and grabs my arm to pull me onto my feet. The numbness from the stun baton is almost gone, though it now hurts from the fall instead. As I rub my elbow, I glance at the Cremator. It seems to be minding its own business, but I don’t feel comfortable hanging around near it much longer, and I wonder if it’s a good idea for Barney to unmask himself and be so friendly with me in its presence. Barney follows my gaze and says “Don’t worry about him, he won’t bother us again. They’re not too bright, these Cremators. Mindless synths. They were made to be janitors, primarily. Destroy biological waste, contain the Xen infestation…” He looks down at the charred corpses grimly. “… clean up after the Civil Protection patrols.” He beckons me and starts walking. “The reason he was about to disintegrate you is because you are not a registered citizen or Combine unit. So to him, you would have to be either a Xenian creature or a very lively corpse. Either way, you were considered ‘unauthorized biological mass’ and had to be disposed of.”

We enter an underground utility tunnel. The sounds of the storm fade away as we follow the cables and pipelines down the dimly lit corridor. “You’re lucky I found you,” Barney remarks. “Those Immolators of theirs can give you a nasty burn. I’m sorry I wasn’t there to meet you at the Arcade, I was held up by unforeseen complications on my shift. I had just gotten back to Dr. Kleiner’s lab when I heard the local CP units go crazy over some guy causing trouble at the Arcade.” He flashes me a smirk. I tell him what happened at the Arcade, with the Metrocop I had thought was him. “You got baited,” he replies. “Some CPs will bait citizens into breaking rules, like trespassing, just so they can enact some civil judgement.”

We march through the underground network in silence for a while before I cautiously bring up Jeremy. Barney sighs sadly and lightly shakes his head. “Yeah, I heard what happened.” He doesn’t say anything for a moment, seemingly choosing his next words carefully. “Listen, Gordon… don’t worry about it, okay? I can probably pull some strings to make sure he turns out okay.” He doesn’t sound all that certain. “Either way, don’t blame yourself. Each of us knows the risk in what we’re doing. We’re all prepared to... go all the way for our cause.” I get an uneasy feeling in my stomach. Barney is being uncharacteristically serious and grim. This is not the same man I knew before Black Mesa. Then again, the same goes for myself.

His face lightens up again and he slips back into his usual grin when we go down a side tunnel with another lambda, at the end of which is a short staircase with a metal door. “Well Gordon, looks like we’re finally here.” He opens the door and the sound of machinery pours out. Not harsh, loud and aggressive, like the Combine factories, but light beeps and clicks over a soft hum. A familiar sound that invites me inside. The sound of science.

_____________________

Consul screens

Stenographer's Chasm

Piston hall

Cremator factory

Manhack Arcade exterior + Citadel

Manhack Arcade interior

Cremator

Underground

And for the first time, there aren't just images for reference, but also sound: here is the original Vortigaunt voice.

As always, really excited to share this new chapter of Anticitizen with you. We've finally reached Kleiner's lab, so from now the story will start picking up pace. And as always, please let me know what you think :)

[typewriter-posts]

[cuebooks]

Why does Alastair have Cortana? James can use a gun. Lucie uses a typewriter. Matthew is constantly drawn and seen with carnations (an old time sign for a man that is into men). Christopher is seen with science tubes and loves science. Grace is seen with swords (the blackthorn sword?). Anna wears top hats. Charles has a law book and wants to be consul. I don’t know what Jesse’s is. And Cordelia has a feather. What is my point?

If everyone is shown with what they use, or some aspect of them or their likes; why does Alastair have Cortana? Is this me over thinking? Or foreshadowing? I’m concerned and confused also what does Cordelia’s feather mean? Why is Cortana not with Cordelia? Can someone explain this?

(Artwork by: Cassandra Jean)

[purplebass]

Dark Light Ch. 6 // Blackdale

I admit I intended to make this a 5 chapter sort of fic. As I have been writing it, though, I got more and more ideas, so it will probably have 10 chapters. I have already outlined it, which means I know what to write.

Couple/Characters: Blackdale, Lucie Herondale and Jesse Blackthorn Rating: T

✨  You can also find it on AO3 ✨

Chapter 1 // Chapter 2 // Chapter 3 // Chapter 4 // Chapter 5

6.

Lucie’s hands turned cold after they were empty. Was that an aftershock of the Mortal Sword? She felt like throwing. She had never been on a ship, but she thought that if she were to travel on one, that would be the sensation she’d feel. She didn’t like it.

“We’ll take our time to deliberate,” the Inquisitor said, and left the room with some of the other members of the Clave. Lucie noticed that Charlotte, who was the Consul, was with them. She spared Lucie a quick glance, filled with worry. She was aware that she couldn’t help her situation either, no matter her position. When they left the room, she dared another look at Jesse. He rose from his chair, and walked towards her.

Her mouth opened in surprise. She had been waiting for that moment for days. The moment she could finally see him. Her family surrounded her before Jesse could come close, and she frowned. He managed a smile behind her, and returned to his place. She thought how sad it was. She was bathed in a circle of affection and love, with her parents assuring her that she hadn’t done anything wrong. She shifted her attention on them not to seem too suspicious, until the Inquisitor and the other members returned and everyone sat down.

The Inquisitor cleared their voice. “We have had a hard time making a decision, but we believe that this is the best solution for this situation,” they said. “We decided to punish Lucie Herondale with two years of exile, starting next week.”

The crowd started talking louder, but Lucie’s ears weren’t working anymore. She froze in her seat.

“Just because she stole a book she never used?” someone asked, and she didn’t know if it was someone from her family. “She didn’t break the law!”

“Silence, please. The law is hard, but it is the law,” the Inquisitor remarked severely. “And the law is the law to everyone. Even our children, Herondale.”

…

It all happened in a blur, and Lucie still hadn’t realized that she would be leaving the Institute in a few hours. They had let her go back with her family, but they had still considered her like a semi-criminal. Tatiana hadn’t been happy about the outcome, and she requested that they stripped Lucie’s marks, and they kicked her to the curb. The Inquisitor stayed neutral, and ordered Tatiana to stay silent, since she had no authority over the Clave’s decision.

She hadn’t dared to look at Jesse after the verdict. Was he satisfied? Was he hurt? He had sided with her when Tatiana first made her accusations, but what if that was a trap to send her away from her family? What if it  was payback? He told her that his mother didn’t love her family because of events from the past, but that was too much, even for her. Was it?

Her father had tried to put a word with the Inquisitor after the verdict, but they were unshakable. They even went as far as to threaten his position as the head of the London Institute. Lucie insisted that he didn’t risk it, and that she had to face the consequences of her actions. She had admitted to her family that she had indeed stolen the book in order to use it. It was half a lie, since it was Grace who had given it to her, but Lucie didn’t want to put her into this. She was already in a tough situation as it was. She would be the only one to face the music.

That she had revived Jesse, that much was true. She was still wondering why the sword had let her outright lie. It wasn’t possible, since the sword pushed the truth out of people. She was thankful for that, at least. If she had uttered another yes , she was sure she would be with mundanes now. She shivered when she thought about the possibility. She would never be able to see her parents anymore. The exile would last two years. What were two years in comparison to a whole lifetime without her loved ones?

She sighed as she arranged her things. “I really wish you didn’t have to do that,” Cordelia said. She had spent the last two days with Lucie. “That woman is insane.”

“She is,” Lucie agreed. “We can’t help it,” she added with resentment, trying not to shed a tear. She had ordered herself she wouldn’t cry in front of the people she loved.

“Do you at least know where they are sending you?”

“I still don’t,” she informed her. “I guess I’ll know when I’ll get there.” She was gloomy as she finished putting everything she needed in her trunk. She decided she wouldn’t bring many books with her, but she wouldn’t leave her typewriter behind. That machine was important for her survival.

“The carriage is here, Lucie,” her mother called from the door, and she and Cordelia exchanged a look.

She would tear up, she knew it. Cordelia enveloped in a tight hug, and started crying. “I will miss you, Lucie. Promise me you’ll write me letters. Can you write, right?”

“Yes, I suppose it’s not against the rules,” she said, and stifled a sob.

The evening before, Lucie’s parents had thrown a celebration in the ballroom so she could say goodbye to her relatives and friends. She was convinced Jesse would come with the Lightwoods, but he didn’t. She didn’t ask about him, although she was tempted to. She had done her best not to cry, but it had been impossible. It would be harder not to weep now.

Lucie told her mother to wait, because she needed to retrieve one last thing, and to wait for her downstairs. Cordelia asked if she wanted company, but Lucie told her friend to go too. She didn’t wonder why, but perhaps, she knew. Lucie wanted to be alone to say goodbye to the Institute too. She had already walked around each room to ingrain the details in her mind. She knew she wouldn’t remember everything. It would cost her to say farewell to the people she loved. That was a bitter price to pay, although she was aware that she had done something wrong. She thought the Clave would have punished her more harshly.

Once she was ready, she went downstairs. Her family was gathered by the door. There was Cordelia, who she considered like a sister, who was already moving to tears, a handkerchief in her hands to wipe her eyes. Her brother James stood by his fiancée’s side, his hand behind her back as to console her. He wasn’t crying, but he had shed his good deal of tears already. Then, there were her parents. Her mother was weeping silently as usual, but she was also grinning. Lucie knew that smile was an encouragement, a way to be positive despite it all. Her father broke down when he saw her. He had always been the emotional type, but she knew that he would be alright.

They all went outside, where a black carriage waited for Lucie. Her uncle Jem was also there, waiting. James helped her trunk in the vehicle, which meant that their time was up.

“I promise that I’ll write a lot,” she said, her voice broken by the tears. “I’ll send pieces of my writing too, so you can read them.”

“We will also write to you, Lucie. Don’t you worry,” Will reassured her.

She hugged each one of them until Jem advised them that they had to go. Lucie and her uncle got in the carriage, and it took off without warning. The last thing she saw was her family trying to hold in tears and behind them, what used to be her home until two minutes ago.

…

We are here, Lucie.

Jem’s voice in her mind woke her up. Her eyes adjusted to the dark outside, and she sat up straighter. She had fallen asleep at some point during the trip. She was exhausted not only because of the journey, but also because she hadn’t stopped crying after she left London. She hadn’t been able to stop herself. Jem’s presence had been reassuring. She knew that even if he couldn’t speak much, he supported her silently. It would have been worse if she had been left alone or with another Silent Brother.

She gathered her skirts and exited the carriage. It was extremely chilly that night, although it was almost summer. She tried to understand where she was, but the night was too dark to take notice of her surroundings. She could make out trees all around.

Jem started walking, and she followed. The driver will bring your trunk inside, he informed her. He walked briskly as usual, while she glanced around.

There were several different noises in this place. Was that an owl? She could smell the scent of leaves after rain too. She had been distracted that she didn’t notice that they had reached the main door. The wood was dark, she suspected it was ebony. She would inspect it the following day, she decided, and added it to the list of things to do to pass the time.

She opened the door, and saw that at least there were a few sources of light inside. The driver had meanwhile taken her trunk there, and she was about to get in, when Jem stopped her.

I’m afraid I must go, uncle Jem said. My duty was just to take you here. I know you will make it, Lucie. I believe in you.

He didn’t give her time to answer, that he started walking away. “Wait, wait,” she hurried after him, and he stopped. “At least, tell me where we are. Please.”

He took several minutes to answer, that Lucie thought he wouldn’t disclose this information. It wasn’t like she would run away.

This is the Cornwall Institute, he replied. And then, without adding more, he left.

…

It was odd. Lucie had written several stories where her main protagonist was alone during some parts of her journey, but she had never known what it meant until now. She waited to take a tour until the morning after she arrived. The Cornwall Institute was small, all black and grey stone, and was deserted save for a cook slash custodian who had the duty of taking care of the property. No one else apparently lived there.

The cook seemed to be taking good care of it, at least. The room she had chosen to occupy was tidy and it didn’t smell like a sewer. The woman told Lucie that she didn’t live at the Institute, and that she would only come to cook and clean, which meant that she would be alone for most of the day. She wanted to cry, and she did. She thought about her family, about her friends. About Jesse. It would be impossible to have news about him from that place. They were still in the British Isles, but not within reach. She couldn’t even escape in order to meet him in secret. She thought that if she hadn’t tried to bring him back, this wouldn’t have happened. And yet, she would have done it again.

She had already written a letter to her family during the first week, and she was writing another one while she waited for the cook to get there, hoping she would have a letter for her. It was barely midday when she heard noises coming from the corridor, and she rose from her chair with the pretense that she had to take a break. The truth was that she wanted to meet the woman so they could talk.

She was about to open her door when she heard a grunt. It didn’t look like it came from a feminine voice, but she might be hallucinating. She grabbed a book from the desk and exited the room. Better safe than sorry.

The door of the room next to hers was open, because the light of the afternoon sun bathed the corridor with brilliant tones. She tried to get in that room when she got there. She wanted to choose her room since she would spend two years there, but the door was locked.

She advanced quietly. The sunlight reflected the shadow of the person inside. She hadn’t hallucinated yet, it seemed. She held the book higher, and she struck the person on the back two or three times to make her point. It was definitely not a woman.

“Who are you?” she asked warily, trying to look confident.

“Thanks for the warm welcome, Lucie.”

She opened her mouth in surprise. “Forget it. I must really be hallucinating,” she shook her head.

“What?”

“No, Lucie. Wait. You hit him with the book,” she told herself, frowning. “He is real. By the angel, Jesse!”

“Yes?”

“You are here.”

“I swear, I’m not a ghost,” he teased her with a smirk.

She couldn’t help herself. She cut the distance between them and she hugged him, inhaling his scent. He smelled like clean clothes and moss. She placed her head on his shoulder, forgetting that they weren’t much acquainted. She was about to detach herself from him, when his arm came about her upper back. He was returning the hug. Being the gentleman boy Lucie had known when he was a ghost, he was trying not to cross the line. The embrace lasted longer than Lucie intended, but he didn’t say anything.

…

Come evening, Lucie believed that Jesse would leave. She still hadn’t asked why he was there. Not that she minded, of course, but she was afraid that he would tell her that he just came for a courtesy visit. They ate lunch and dinner together. It felt so domestic, so heartwarming.

Cath, the cook, she had once worked for his grandparents in London. She told Lucie while they were momentarily alone. She had the perfect occasion to ask him when they decided to take a walk in the flower garden outside of the Institute after they ate their meal. She didn’t see any carriage in view, which meant that he was probably staying.

“It’s a beautiful sunset, isn’t it?” she asked casually.

He glanced at her and smiled. “You can tell that winter is over, and nature is different, yes.”

“I can’t remember I’ve ever seen something like this before,” she commented. “You know London is full of smoke coming from the factories and the chimneys. You can never see the sky as it is, the way you can see it in the countryside.”

“I wouldn’t define this place in the countryside,” he frowned. “We’re closer to the ocean than you really think, Lucie.”

“And how do you know that?” she asked, curious.

“I know because I’ve paid attention while I was coming here,” he replied.

“It was night when I came,” she retorted, and crossed her arms on her chest. Don’t be a petulant child, Lucie. Don’t. She relaxed her arms again. “I couldn’t possibly see.”

“Yes, I understand,” he nodded. “The truth is that I’ve already been here, when I was a child. This place belonged to someone in my family.”

“Does this mean this Institute is yours?”

“You know better than me that Institutes can’t be inherited, Lucie,” he said. “It was just being taken care of by the Blackthorns for generations, but at some point, everyone moved to London and it was left in the care of a guardian.”

She nodded, and looked at the path in front of them. They had reached the gates, and Lucie could finally see that there were three separate roads in front of them. She hadn’t noticed, and she had been here for a week already.

“I still have to explore this place,” she said. “I didn’t feel like walking out of the building,” alone , she wanted to add, but bit her lip. “Since I thought I’d have plenty of time to do that,” she chuckled softly, and looked away for a moment.

“Then we could go see the ocean one of these days,” he proposed, and Lucie’s heart quickened its pace. She smiled widely before she knew. “What do you say?”

She hoped she didn’t look silly. “I say that is a plan.”

Taglist (if you want to be added or removed, send me a PM): @princesslucretia @kit-12 @immortal-enemies @lucian-evander @esa-emery @danieldyers @blackthorn-trash @rinadragomir @fortunesandfables @itsdaughterofthemoon @silvenys@thomastair3 @livvyheronstairs @ holding-infinity-and-a-book @lovelaces

[eurovintage]

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[upsidedown-cats]

A New Life: Chapter One

“The accused stands guilty of all charges stated. The punishment will be a rune stripping, which will be carried out tomorrow morning at 8 o’ clock. The accused may go to the London Institute while she waits, but she will be under constant supervision. You are dismissed.”

The second those words left Inquisitor Bridgestock’s mouth, Lucie was enveloped in hugs from her family and friends. Charlotte actually walked firmly past the inquisitor and pulled her close, a bold move for the Consul. Cordelia’s hand found her’s, and that was the thing that broke Lucie.

Sobbing, she apologized over and over to all of them. “I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I- I didn’t-” Her mother cut her off by raising a hand.

“We know, Lucie. Let us make the best of the little time left with you. Please don’t apologize. Please, just- just come.

Her family led her through the portal to the Institute library, and Lucie would be worried about Jesse, but out of the corner of her eye she saw her uncles Gideon and Gabriel go to him, and she remembered that they were also his uncles. Grace was beside him, and Lucie remembered what Grace had told her yesterday, about James.

“Daisy, I need to talk to someone. I will be right back.” Lucie hurried out of the library, grabbing Grace’s wrist as she pulled her into the hallway too.

Spinning around, Lucie snapped, “I lied for you. I said you weren't involved. You owe me, and you have to-”

“I know. I will. I will tell him, and I will take off the bracelet, I promise.”

“Right now. And tell Charles too.”

Lucie turned to the door, but it opened before she could touch it. Cordelia, her parents, and James were in the doorway.

“You- you’ll need to pack.” Will was openly crying. “We’ll help you.”

Lucie managed a nod, and Grace said something to James, leading him away.

After they started packing, Lucie turned and was surprised to see her mother packing her axes and gear, along with a few other small weapons.

“Mam, what are you doing?”

Tessa turned. “Lucie, being a Shadowhunter is not about runes. You will always be a Shadowhunter, no matter what the Clave says. You won’t be able to Mark yourself, so you’ll have to train extra hard. And be careful. You can’t heal everything with an iratze.”

Lucie threw her arms around her mother. “Thank you. That means a lot.

Before Tessa could reply, there was a clank of metal, and Lucie was surprised to see Jesse setting the Blackthorn sword in the trunk of weapons.

“I hope that’s alright,” he said, looking anxiously at her. “Is there room for my sword?”

“Jesse, what are you doing? You’re not- you’re not leaving with me, are you?”

“Of course I am. I mean, only if you want. Do you not want me to come?”

No, no! Jesse! You won’t be able to see Grace, and you’ve always wanted to be a Shadowhunter-”

“I’d rather be with you than be a Shadowhunter. And- well, I will miss Grace. But she’ll be okay. She’s strong. We’ve already talked about it.”

Lucie made a small noise in the back of her throat and hugged him tightly before pushing him away. “Thank you, Jesse. That- I- thank you. Now go. Go talk to your uncles, and Grace. They’ll want to be with you until-” She broke off, wiping at her eyes, and Jesse smiled and nodded, leaving.

Turning to the others, Lucie was pleased to see that they were smiling., and James even said he’d find some more clothes and gear for Jesse.

In the corner, Cordelia was packing her typewriter into a trunk, along with all her writing and her favorite pens. Tessa had moved on to packing dresses, and Will was tucking her favorite books in with her writing. They’re doing this for me. They’re doing all this for me, and it's my fault. My fault.

-----------------

It was 7:58, and Lucie was shaking. Her family was saying their goodbyes, one by one, telling her that they loved her, telling her that it wasn’t her fault, that she didn’t need to feel guilty, that they didn’t blame her. It didn’t make a difference.

Cordelia’s arms were tight around her. “We never became parabatai.”

“I am glad we didn’t,” Lucie choked out. “If we had been able to do the ceremony, you would be in pain as well, when my marks-” She broke off with a sob, burying her face in her best friend’s shoulder.

A hand on her back made Lucie turn to see her Uncle Jem, and another sob escaped her. Her uncle pulled her into a hug, saying, My dear Lucie, I love you so very much. I wish I could do more, but it is time, then wrapped an arm around her shoulder, guiding Lucie to the center of the room, where the Inquisitor and Magnus Bane were waiting.

Taking a deep breath, Lucie stepped forward and lifted her head, facing the Inquisitor. “Being a Shadowhunter is not about runes. Being a Shadowhunter is about doing the right thing. Perhaps necromancy isn’t the right thing, but I am certain that what you are doing is not. You say that I will not be a Shadowhunter after this? I will always be a Shadowhunter. And I wonder, between the two of us, who is a true Shadowhunter? Who is doing the right thing now?”

She lifted her chin and turned to the crowd of Nephilim watching. Her family were all crying, and Lucie felt a twist in her stomach. She wasn’t only getting her marks stripped and being cut off from her family. Her family was getting cut off from her as well. My fault, my fault, my fault, my fault.

“I am sorry to all of you. I know how painful this will be, and I- I am sorry. But I do not regret it.” Her eyes met Jesse’s, who was standing next to Grace, looking as guilty as Lucie felt. She wanted to reassure him that it wasn’t his fault, that he couldn’t blame himself, but she knew the words wouldn’t feel true to him, just as they wouldn’t feel true to her.

Lucie faced Magnus and Jem. “I am ready.”