#fort clinch

[weihnachten]

Canopy road.

[bluevett22]

[letsgetrowdy43]

In a sea of people—

Quinn Hughes x reader

Request: Can we get Quinn’s gf gets hurt ( bruised cheek, bloody nose, or getting pushed while watching a Canuck’s game by a crazy fan from the opposing team) resulting in Canuck’s fan knowing who she is… trying to defend her and it results in a brawl. And Quinn gets super worried trying to get to you. (I changed it a little bit, sorry for that)

!! In this we are going to pretend Canucks in the future are Playoff contenders (consider this me manifesting) !!

Canucks fans were pretty mild when it came to rowdy crowds but the moment the boys began their playoff push it was as if a switch was flipped. This was the game that decided their fate if they stopped Buffalo from receiving a single point in regulation then they would clinch a wild-card position, making their first playoff appearance since the bubble.

Quinn's long-term girlfriend sat in the crowd alongside her best friend, Anna, opting out of a reserved box, wanting to get the full experience, a few rows away from the glass.

It had all been calm, the crowd on the edge of their seats as the boys on the ice fought for their lives, the score was 1-0 in favour of the Canucks, and the crowd was anxiously waiting. There were five minutes remaining in regulation, and you could see the Sabre's beginning to grow agitated, as well as the Canucks starting to grow restless at the thought that they could possibly be in the playoffs, as long at they just held down the fort for just five more minutes.

One of Buffalo's power forwards took a slap shot right at Demko, resulting in Quinn throwing his entire body in front of the net and taking the shot right in the ribs causing the entire crowd to hop up and cheer.

Y/n on the other hand stood up hand over her mouth, "Did he get up, I can't see him?" she said slightly panicked unable to see him over the giant of a man standing in front of her, blocking the view of her possibly injured boyfriend. Anna who sat next to her grinned at the panic in her best friend's voice, "he's fine Y/n, he's already up and they're doing a faceoff," she mused, nudging the relived girl in the ribs as everyone around them began to sit back in their seats.

A minute was left on the clock and Demmer was on shut-out watch, Y/n had practically bitten all of her nails off as she watched the timer count down to ten seconds, the Canucks still in possession of the puck, passing it back and forth between each other and they waited out the buzzer. Finally, the final buzzer sounded, meaning that the boys had done it, they were in the playoffs.

Y/n and Anna jumped to their feet, holding each other and jumping as they squealed. "Oh my god, you know what this means?" Anna asked as she grinned. "What?" "You get one of those wag jacket thingys," Y/n's jaw dropped as her friend grinned.

That's when all hell broke loose, the crowd was up and in a frenzy, celebrating and screaming as the team made a circle on the ice to give a thank-you speech to the fans. Y/n had been trying to listen as her boyfriend took the mic and skated to middle ice to give the end-of-season speech.

The people surrounding the girls were very much hammered and very much rowdy, the guy next to Anna rammed right into her and knocked the much smaller girls onto the ground. The man behind them started arguing with the guy who pushed them over, "Watch what you're doing!" he yelled out catching the guy's attention, and the two of them got into a verbal fight that soon turned a little physical.

The two girls laughed as they stood up off the ground, "that's gonna leave a bruise," Anna joked as she ran over the tender spot on her hip, "oh fuck, Y/n," she said pulling her friend up off the floor to examine the cut that spread across her cheek, and a little too close to her eye. "I caught the arm of the chair with my eye," she said teary-eyed as she tried to blink away the tears, laughing at how stupid they both must've looked.

Her friend tried to get out of the aisle to get the cut cleaned up but they were stuck surrounded by drunk fans either cheering or fighting in the crowd.

Quinn was in the midst of his speech when he saw an uproar in the section where Y/n had been sitting, his face breaking out into a look of confusion and concern as he turned to the bench full of officials to get the attention of the staff, trying to direct it to the mob-like crowd that was unfolding. The words of his practised speech stopped as he got distracted, looking for his girlfriend in the crowd, "Is someone not dealing with that?" he asked the bench into the mic to get his point across. He received a stern look as he looked back at the rest of the crowd, "anyways, thank you for an amazing season full of support, It's an honour to play for you guys, and we will continue that honour into the playoff, thank you!" he smiled as he and the others skated towards the bench.

His smile fell as he was pulled aside by one of the officials, "Do you realize what you just did there?" "Tried to create a safe environment," he feigned innocence with a shrug as he walked to the dressing room in search of his phone to call his girlfriend.

The two girls sat calmly in the midst of the commotion, laughing as they watched Quinn on the jumbotron, a worried look on his face during the remainder of his speech. Security showed up the second Quinn pointed out what was taking place. And within the next following minutes, Y/n's phone was ringing in her pocket, a smile on her face.

"Are you okay?" his voice filled with concern. "I'm ecstatic, you're going to the playoffs baby!" she mused as the weight lifted off of his shoulders at the sound of her voice. He laughed at the use of the nickname, "I just gotta shower and do media I'll be out in like twenty minutes, Sound good?" "All good, love you, bye," she grinned at her friend as she walked to the bathroom.

She cleaned up the gash across her cheek and then bid her friend goodbye as she waited for Quinn to get out of doing media.

He left the changing rooms with a big grin on his face, he had finally done it, and after years of trying to help the team get to the playoffs all of the hard work had finally paid off. He whisked her up into a hug when she was talking to another wife on the team, unsuspecting as she laughed at the surprise contact, "Sorry, I'm stealing her for a second," he said as he pulled her away to have her all to himself.

She laughed as he spun her around and kissed her quickly, PDA wasn't a normal thing for Quinn but the high from adrenaline had him loving all over her. His thumb ran over her cheek as he kissed her again and again, a hiss leaving her mouth as he brushed over the cut. Quinn pulled away with furrowed brows, finally seeing the gash across her face, "I thought you said you were fine?" he inspected her face. "I'm fine, I promise!"

"What happened?" he said taking her by the hand and pulling her through the crowd of people to find one of the on-duty medics. She rolled her eyes at his dramatic antics, "Someone pushed Anna into me and I fell into the arm of the chair, I'm not concussed, it's not that big of a deal!" He handed her over to the care of one of the team medics who patched her up nicely, disinfecting the cut and putting a bandage on it for safe measures.

"All better?" he grinned. "I was fine before," she shrugged as he placed a kiss on the side of her head, a fake scowl on her face. "I get worried when shit like that happens, just be happy I didn't figure out a way to jump the glass to save you," he grinned.

"Can we please stop talking about it," she stopped in her tracks to look at him with a pleading look. "Let's talk about playoffs," she grinned, "Or the celebration I'm gonna give you when we get home," she teased making his face go red, taking her by the hand and pulling her in the direction of the exit.

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I hate this :) but it'll do

[fannyyann]

Tkachuk tells NHL.com how change in approach lifted game for Panthers

Forward no longer playing it safe, becomes ultimate clutch player in Florida

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – There was a time in Matthew Tkachuk’s life when he played it safe. It’s hard to remember now, hard to get that image out of your head, the one where he is crushing opponents and taking over Stanley Cup Playoff games and literally walking off the ice after scoring a game-winning goal in the fourth overtime of Game 1 of the 2023 Eastern Conference Final. 

It’s hard to remember there was a before. 

But there was.

Once upon a time, like most mortals, Tkachuk didn’t want to make a mistake. He didn’t want to be blamed. He didn’t want to err, to let down his teammates, the fans, himself. It was a time when he wasn’t quite as confident, wasn’t quite as assured -- if that can be believed -- when he didn’t know that, for him, safe was the riskiest play of all. 

“I think maybe earlier in my career, being a young player, not wanting to be the guy that made the mistake, [I] maybe played a little bit safe in the high-pressure situations,” Tkachuk said. “Just trying to play it smart and, honestly, safe’s a perfect word for it. 

“And then a couple years ago, I was like, why not make the play when nobody else wants to try to attempt it because they’re too nervous [about] what bad’s gonna happen? And I’ve seemed to go the other way, in the extreme other way, and that’s seemed to work the last few years.”

Tkachuk pinpoints it exactly, to 2021-22, his final season with the Calgary Flames, before the trade, before he landed in South Florida and became a genre-crossing star, before he helped propel the Panthers to the Stanley Cup Final last season. 

“I was like, ‘Why not?’” Tkachuk said. “Why wouldn’t you want to be the guy that can make that right play at the last minute of the game or whatever? … I’m like, I’m capable, I feel like I’m a good enough player where I can be confident in myself no matter what the situation is. And that’s just kind of kept going.”

The Panthers and Tkachuk will need it to keep going, as they head to the playoffs having hit a tough skid of late. The Panthers, who are set to face the Boston Bruins at TD Garden on Saturday (3:30 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, TVAS), are 3-6-1 in their past 10 games, including a 6-0 win against the Ottawa Senators on Thursday. 

They are second in the Atlantic Division, four points behind the Bruins, having clinched a playoff spot on March 28, a far cry from last season when the Panthers clinched with a single game remaining on their schedule. They then fell behind 3-1 in the best-of-7 first-round series against the Bruins. That was when they -- and Tkachuk -- came roaring back to force a Game 7. To win that Game 7. 

“I knew what he could bring on a stage like that, but I don’t think the whole rest of the world knew what he could do,” brother and Senators captain Brady Tkachuk said. “So for him to show what he was all about is pretty cool. And I think he’s got another level to his game.”

Paul Maurice thinks he knows why. 

The Panthers coach has seen a handful of players in his career who are elite, who might even rise to the level of potential Hockey Hall of Fame players. And when he’s viewing them, he notes something, something that seems to be common to all of them.

“I watch them and they have a higher expectation of the result,” Maurice said. “And the analogy I used [was] when that guy goes in and buys a suit, he expects it to fit right and it’s going to look good. He has an expectation of the result. 

“With Matthew, it seems to me, it’s tied, there’s four minutes [left], he’s excited about that situation because he has a really high expectation that something good’s going to happen because over the course of his life, that’s exactly what’s happened. It wasn’t a lottery. It’s just he’s gone out and made it happen, so he wants to and believes it can. 

“I never sensed any arrogance on him. I truly have not. It’s not like, hey, give me the puck, I’m the shooter. He just thinks when he hits the ice, it could happen, and his life has told him that it could happen. So why wouldn’t you enjoy the hell out of that?”

Oh, and he is. 

Not only has South Florida been a revelation for Tkachuk, so too has the team, which has entered into the top echelon of the NHL. He has figured out himself and his game, not only that he can -- and will -- come up big in the biggest of moments, but that he can also adjust to fit what the team requires, mold his game to the situation. 

Asked if he is a chameleon, he readily agrees. 

Especially in the playoffs. 

“I look at those types of playoff games differently,” Tkachuk said. “Like some people if they’re not producing, they’re not doing too much to help their team, whereas one of the good things that I’m able to do is recognize what my team needs out of me on that particular night or that particular shift. 

“There are some nights when offense comes second and all I’m trying to do is run around, be physical, try to forecheck and try to gain my team momentum like that. Even if teams are keying in on me or really focusing on me, there’s ways to make an impact.”

No one can argue with that. The Bruins still bear the scars -- some literal, some figurative -- of what Tkachuk did to them in the playoffs last spring. 

In the final four games of the first-round series, Tkachuk had eight points (four goals, four assists) to help them win the best-of-7 series. 

Boston forward Trent Frederic, who traces his understanding of Tkachuk back to basement games as kids in St. Louis, said that he thinks that, likely, had Tkachuk not been on the Panthers, the Bruins would have advanced. 

But he was. They didn’t. And now it’s not hard to believe that many teams are uninterested in seeing the Panthers on the opposing bench in the playoffs, in seeing Tkachuk on the opposing bench. 

Before a cracked sternum forced him to miss the fifth and final game of the last season’s Cup Final, Tkachuk had 24 points (11 goals, 13 assists), including four game-winning goals, in 20 playoff games. 

“So the playoffs, I think the one quote, he’s a [expletive] gamer, that’s how I feel about him in the playoffs last year. And I know it’s profane, but it’s also very specific words, it’s exactly the way I feel about him,” Maurice said. “Sometimes the words just fit. Sometimes they’re casual and you swear too much. Sometimes I do. But that is how I -- a [expletive] gamer. He comes up with the biggest plays time and time again. And his energy level to be able to play at that level, that was specific to the hockey. 

“This year, I’ve gotten to watch what an incredible leader he is.”

He sees it on the bench, in the exhortation of his teammates, in his calming of them, in his barking at them. He sees it when he brought a friend and his two kids into the dressing room after a game in Detroit, when Tkachuk paused in his postgame showering routine to sign a jersey, to take a picture, to get Carter Verhaeghe out of the shower to sign the other jersey. 

“I don’t even blame players who don’t sign,” Maurice said. “But he doesn’t have to do that, and he does that consistently. … It’s not fake. It’s not showy. I think he understands the responsibility that he has and he takes care of it.”

There are so many responsibilities heaped on Tkachuk now. 

He is a leader on the ice and off it. He is the second-leading scorer, with 83 points (24 goals, 59 assists), the top chirper and certainly the most talked about player on the Panthers. And he is ready, once again, to receive that pressure. He is ready for the playoffs. He is ready for the eyes and the lights and all that comes with it.

“I enjoy it,” Tkachuk said. “I think that the high intense games and the rivalry games and the, just like the intense part of the games that some guys might not feel too confident or comfortable, I seem to thrive in them and I love those moments.”

There will be no shortage of those moments in the waning days of the season, in the start of the playoffs, as the Panthers attempt to replicate their Cinderella run to the Final last season -- without the Cinderella part. 

Because much like the Panthers, who have been at or near the top of the NHL all season, there will be no surprises when it comes to Tkachuk. He is known, now. Known for stealing games, for coming up big in the biggest moments, for never, ever playing it safe. 

And when the pressure comes, as it will, he will be right there. 

“Knowing him, that’s going to make him go to another level,” Brady Tkachuk said. “And I think for him, he’s going to love, not the spotlight, but the opportunity that comes from that and what he’s going to be able to do with that. He gets better when the pressure is higher.”

[shannonselin]

Detail of “The Death of Napoleon” by Charles de Steuben. Arthur Bertrand is peeking over Napoleon’s left arm.

Napoleon was fond of all the children in his entourage on St. Helena, but Arthur Bertrand (born on January 17, 1817) became his favourite. Glimpses of the two of them provide an amusing contrast to the often formidable portrait of Napoleon as Emperor.

One day, the Emperor wanted to have the noisy company of Countess Bertrand’s children at lunch. Saint-Denis told me the luncheon had gone very well, but that towards the end they started throwing bread balls at each other. The Emperor had taken the youngest on his knees, and was kissing and teasing him as he was pulling at his ears.

When Napoleon insisted that Arthur's sister Hortense have her ears pierced in an outdoor operation, Arthur was greatly alarmed.

He clinched [sic] his fists, and stamped with indignation, declaring that he would not allow his sister to be hurt. ‘You little rogue,’ said Napoleon, ‘if you are not quiet, I will have your ears bored also. Come, be obedient.’

In January 1821 Napoleon had a seesaw installed in the Longwood billiard room. Napoleon at first claimed it was a swing to amuse the children. He then admitted it was for his own use, to get more exercise. General Henri Bertrand recounts:

Arthur Bertrand went to see the Emperor, who showed him the seesaw and told him that it was a gun. Afterwards he and the Grand Maréchal got up on it to amuse the child. Napoleon had been on it for a quarter of an hour in the morning and didn’t feel any the better for it.

In the best-known vignette, Napoleon gives Arthur a pony. This was recounted by Napoleon’s first valet, Louis-Joseph Marchand.

A city resident had come to Longwood riding a small pony, and Arthur…asked the Emperor to buy it for him. As he spoke only English, the Emperor told him in that tongue: ‘Come at noon.’ But as was his habit, he went back inside, leaving the children to continue their games, got undressed and soon fell asleep. I was leaving the Emperor’s bedroom quietly when the fort cannon announced the hour of noon, and in the bathroom I found young Arthur fighting with Noverraz to enter the Emperor’s bedroom. I feared my refusal would make him cry and awaken His Majesty: I therefore made him understand that the Emperor was sleeping, and if he agreed to be good, I would let him enter and wait for His Majesty to awaken. ‘Yes,’ he answered; I took him by the hand, he went near the bed where the Emperor was resting, saw he was sleeping, then sat on the rug and stayed with me almost an hour, playing alone and noiselessly. When the Emperor awoke, he was quite surprised to find him there: ‘There you are, Arthur, what do you want, my boy?’ ‘You tell me gun fire.’ I was not aware of the promise made to him. ‘What does he say?’ the Emperor asked. ‘He is telling Your Majesty that he told him to come back when the gun went off.’ ‘Take him to Montholon, to find out what he wants.’ At that very moment, Count de Montholon was announced at the Emperor’s bedroom; he learned that during lunch he had told the child to come at noon, and he would buy him the little pony. ‘Gun fire’ was the cannon announcing that hour, and he came to claim the promise made to him. ‘Indeed! What a memory,’ said the Emperor, ‘is the horse still there?’ Count de Montholon, who had discussed the price with the owner, assured him it was. ‘But,’ said the Emperor, caressing the child and embracing him, ‘do you have any money?’ ‘Yes, I have two dollars.’ ‘That is not enough.’ ‘Papa give everything!’ ‘But Papa Bertrand has no money.’ ‘I have plenty gold.’ ‘Will you be good?’ ‘Yes.’ “How much does he want for this horse?’ the Emperor asked General Montholon. ‘Fifty louis [1000 francs], Sire.’ ‘Give this boy 1,200 francs,’ the Emperor said to me. I went upstairs to get the money that was locked up in a bag. The child was four years old, and on seeing me arrive, he held out his pinafore to catch the money. ‘You won’t be able to carry it.’ ‘Yes, yes.’ I put the money gently in his pinafore to test his strength. He turned rapidly and, accompanied by Count de Montholon, he went to purchase the horse he wished to buy. Riding his horse, and held up by Count de Montholon, he came back almost immediately to the Emperor’s door, to thank His Majesty. Later on, having fallen from the horse, he no longer wanted it and switched back to his burro, a much quieter mount and more responsive to his wishes. The horse was given to Napoleon Bertrand, the eldest of the children, who sometimes accompanied the Emperor when his mother rode in the carriage with him.

For more about Arthur and his family, see "Napoleon and Arthur Bertrand."

[thecreaturecodex]

Siktempora, Triumph

Image © Paizo Publishing. Accessed at Archives of Nethys here

[The triumph siktempora might be my favorite of that flavor of outsider. Look at how smug he is! What a jerk.]

Siktempora, Triumph CR 14 LN Outsider (extraplanar) This creature resembles a small humanoid with four arms and too many joints in their legs. They wear a robe of gold and various medals and badges. Their face is locked into a triumphant grin, never adjusting or changing expression.

Triumph siktemporas are created on the Dimension of Time as reflections of great emotional satisfaction for a job well done. Anything from winning a war to successfully removing a particularly onerous splinter can theoretically spawn a triumph siktempora. They travel the planes in search of victories, as they see their sense of purpose in always striving to win or die trying. Athletics competitions and pitched battles are natural habitats for a triumph siktempora, but they may also intervene in legal battles or other contests of skill. Triumph siktemporas believe in following the rules of a competition very strictly, and go out of their way to punish cheaters and those who manipulate luck.

A triumph siktempora fights with their fists and feet rather than with teeth or claws or manufactured weapons (although they will engage in weapon duels if challenged). They are fond of combat maneuvers, especially against single targets, and are skilled wrestlers despite their small size. Although their facial expressions rarely change, they can add a thrust of emotional energy to their smug grins that literally harms their opponents psychically. Triumph siktemporas are somewhat disdainful of creatures without naturally rapid healing, like themselves, and often go out of their way to harass anyone healing themselves or others.

A triumph siktempora typically stands about three feet tall, and may be mistaken for halflings or gnomes. They rarely disguise themselves intentionally, unless entering a masquerade or other costume contest.

Triumph Siktempora      CR 14 XP 38,400 LN Small outsider (extraplanar, lawful, siktempora) Init +9; Senses darkvision 60 ft., Perception +25 Aura cheaters never prosper (50 ft., Will DC 23)

Defense AC 29, touch 20, flat-footed 24(+1 size, +1 dodge, +4 Dex, +4 insight, +9 natural) hp 189 (18d10+90); fast healing 15 Fort +16, Ref +15, Will +10 DR 10/good or orichalcum; Immune disease, mind-influencing effects, pain, poison

Offense Speed 60 ft., air walk Melee unarmed strike +27/+22/+17/+12 or +25/+25/+20/+20/+15/+15/+10 (2d6+8) Special Attacks burst of uncanny speed, clinch victory, pugilist training, winning smile Spell-like Abilities CL 14th, concentration +19 Constant—air walk At will—temporal jaunt 1/day—plane shift (self only)

Statistics Str 26, Dex 18, Con 20, Int 19, Wis 19, Cha 21 Base Atk +18; CMB +25 (+27 disarm, grapple, trip); CMD 40 (42 vs. disarm, grapple, trip) Feats Combat Reflexes,Dodge, Improved Disarm, Improved Grapple, Improved Trip, Improved Unarmed Strike (B), Mobility, Power Attack, Step Up, Spring Attack, Whirlwind Attack (B) Skills Acrobatics +21 (+33 when jumping), Climb +29, Diplomacy +23, Heal +22, Intimidate +23, Knowledge (planes) +25, Perception +25, Perform (any one) +26, Sense Motive +25, Swim +29 Languages Aklo (cannot speak); telepathy 300 ft.

Ecology Environment any land (Dimension of Time) Organization solitary, pair or ceremony (3-6) Treasure incidental

Special Abilities Burst of Uncanny Speed (Su) On the first round of combat, a triumph siktempora moves as if it were affected by a haste spell. It can use Whirlwind Attack on this first round of combat as a standard action, making one melee attack or combat maneuver at its highest base attack bonus against each opponent within reach. Cheaters Never Prosper (Su) A creature gaining a luck bonus to any die rolls, or gaining a reroll from luck effects (such as the Luck domain or the fortune hex) within 50 feet of a triumph siktempora must make a DC 23 Will save or be staggered for 1 round. The save DC is Charisma based. Clinch Victory (Su) A triumph siktempora can make an attack of opportunity against any creature taking an action to heal itself, even if that action (like a channel energy or using a wand) does not normally provoke attacks of opportunity. Pugilist Training (Ex) A triumph siktempora gains Improved Unarmed Strike as a bonus feat. It deals damage with its unarmed strikes, and gains access to the flurry of blows ability, as if it were a monk with character levels equal to its Hit Dice. Temporal Jaunt (Sp) As a standard action, a triumph siktempora can vanish into the time stream, reappearing in another location. This ability functions as dimension door (so a typical triumph siktempora can jaunt up to 960 feet), but the siktempora can take other actions that round after reappearing, and the destination must be in a location the siktempora could reach normally by walking. Temporal jaunts are not true teleportation—the siktempora simply travels to a later point in the time stream—so the ability can be used in areas that bar teleportation effects; however, in such areas a siktempora can travel only a distance equal to its speed. Temporal Sense (Ex) A siktempora can sense all the possible futures of the coming seconds. This grants it an insight bonus on its Initiative checks and to its Armor Class equal to its Wisdom bonus (+5 for the typical triumph siktemporas). Winning Smile (Su) As a standard action, a triumph siktempora can flash a smile at an enemy within 15 feet. The creature targeted takes 10d6 points of damage, and all of its attacks deal nonlethal damage against the siktempora for the next round. A successful DC 23 Will save halves the damage and negates the nonlethal damage effect. This is a mind-influencing emotion effect, and the save DC is Charisma based.

[zeroaddzero]

Bruce Springsteen photographed by Danny Clinch. Fort Monmouth, NJ, 1999.

[bearterritory]

#3 Bears Repeat As NCAA Regional Champions

Cal Records Highest Postseason Team Score Ever To Advance To NCAA Championships

Golden Bears Easily Dispatch Stanford to Win Regional

BERKELEY – 198 never looked so great.

The No. 3 California women's gymnastics team went over the 198 mark for the fifth time this season and first time in four meets Sunday, punching its ticket to the NCAA Championships by winning an NCAA regional for the second year in a row with a 198.275 at Haas Pavilion.

The Golden Bears recorded their highest postseason score ever in the process while also tying their fourth highest score ever in any meet.

"These meets are tight. Everybody is good," Cal co-head coach Justin Howell said. "Our overarching goal all year long has been to compete on the final night of the national championship. But we put that aside and didn't talk about it – we focused on our own gymnastics and being at our best. I'm incredibly excited and grateful to have the opportunity to compete for a national championship."

The Bears rose to as high as No. 2 in the national rankings this season, which included a breathtaking string of performances where they set the program record for team score in three straight meets. Cal went over the 198 mark four times in a row, during which they clinched the first outright regular season conference championship in program history.

Cal had been under 198 in each of the past three meets – including Friday's regional semifinal and last month's Pac-12 Championships when it finished third – but the Bears had their fans beside themselves with the show they put on Sunday, easily outdistancing Stanford's 197.575 to cruise to the regional championship.

"We took a little look in the mirror after Pac-12s and had a really productive team meeting," Howell said. "We got some really good feedback from the team and tried to implement it into our training. We wanted to figure out what was different at Pac-12s and make sure it didn't happen again."

Junior All-American Mya Lauzon became the first Cal women's gymnast ever to win the individual all-around title at a regional with a 39.750 – which is also tied for the third highest score ever in program history at a single meet. Her performance included a perfect 10 on vault – the Bears' first 10 in any event in the postseason and the first on vault in Lauzon's career.

Cal began Sunday's regional final on the balance beam and finished the first rotation tied for the lead with Denver. The Bears then put on a breathtaking performance on the floor exercise, with all six gymnasts recording a 9.8 or better – including a 9.975 by sophomore All-American eMjae Frazier.

Cal then moved on to vault where Lauzon helped the Bears record their highest postseason score ever in the event and tied for second highest at any meet in program history with a 49.500. By the time the Bears rounded out the meet on the uneven bars, the party was in full effect in Berkeley and Cal ended with a flourish with a 49.675 – once again setting a program benchmark for the postseason.

"Competing at home in a regional was an incredible feeling," Howell said. "Our fans were absolutely amazing on both nights. They've been building toward this moment just as much as we have. We really felt that tonight."

The NCAA Championships are April 18-20 at Dickies Arena in Fort Worth, Texas.

[allycat75]

Important events that actually took place on September 9th and were in no way a figment of a sad, delusional man and his advisors' imagination in order to continue a nefarious and daft lie.

1543- Mary Stuart, at 9 months old, is crowned Queen of Scots

1675- New England colonies declare war on Wampanoag Indians

1753- 1st steam engine arrives in North American colonies

1776- Congress officially renames the country as the United States of America (from the United Colonies)

1817- Alexander Twilight, probably first African American to graduate from a US college, receives BA degree at Middlebury College

1836- Ralph Waldo Emerson publishes his influential essay "Nature" in the US, outlining his beliefs in transcendentalism

1850- California becomes a state

1880- President Rutherford B. Hayes visits San Francisco

1888- Easter Island / Rapa Nui in the Pacific is annexed by Chile

1892- Edward Emerson Barnard at Lick Observatory discovers Amalthea, Jupiter's 5th moon

1904- Boston Herald again refers to NY baseball club as Yankees, when it reports "Yankees take 2," Yankee name not official till 1913

1908- Orville Wright makes 1st 1-hr airplane flight, Fort Myer, Virginia

1908- Russia annexes part of Poland

1911- 1st European post delivered by air (Hendon to Windsor, England)

1921- Guatemala, Honduras and San Salvador agree to Central American Union

1922- Turkish troops take the Greek-held Anatolian city of Smyrna during the Greco-Turkish War

1926- National Broadcasting Company created by Radio Corporation of America

1936- New York Yankees beat Cleveland Indians, 12-9 at League Park to clinch AL pennant on the earliest date in history

1939- Nazi army reaches Warsaw

1942- Compulsory work for women, children and old males in Batavia

1944- Allied forces liberate Luxembourg

1945- 1st "bug" in a computer program discovered by Grace Hopper, a moth was removed with tweezers from a relay & taped into the log

1950- 1st use of TV laugh track by "The Hank McCune Show" in the US

1951- 1st broadcast of soap opera "Love of Life" on CBS-TV

1955- Don Zimmer, hits 4,000th Dodger home run

1956- Elvis Presley appears on "The Ed Sullivan Show" for the 1st time

1957- US President Eisenhower signs 1st civil rights bill since Reconstruction

1960- Pakistan ends India's run of 6 consecutive Olympic field hockey gold medals with a 1-0 win over their sub-continent rivals at the Rome Games

1963- Alabama Governor George Wallace served a federal injunction to stop orders of state police to bar black students from enrolling in white schools

1965- LA Dodgers future Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Sandy Koufax throws his 4th career no-hitter and first perfect game in a 1-0 win over the Chicago Cubs at Dodger Stadium

1966- The National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act signed into law by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson, 1st federal safety standards for vehicles and roads

1967- 1st successful Test flight of a Saturn V

1969- The Official Languages Act comes into force in Canada - making English and French the country's official languages (replaced 1988 by new Official Languages Act)

1971- Apple Records releases John Lennon's second solo studio album, "Imagine" in US; it tops the charts in US, UK, Australia, and 3 other countries

1972- West German equestrian rider Liselott Linsenhoff follows her dressage teams gold in Mexico City with the individual dressage title at her home Olympics in Munich

1975- Paul McCartney & Wings begin their "Wings Over The World" tour in Southampton, England; 65 concerts in Europe, Australia, Canada, and United States, runs through October of 1976

1978- Ayatollah Khomeini calls for an uprising in the Iranian army

1979- 31st Emmy Awards: "Taxi"; "Lou Grant"; Ron Leibman & Ruth Gordon win

1983- Radio Shack announces their color computer 2 (Coco2)

1985- President Reagan orders sanctions against South Africa, targeting apartheid

1987- Larry Bird of the Celtics begins an NBA free throw streak of 59

1987- Gary Hart admits on "Nightline" to cheating on his wife

1990- George H. W. Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev meet in Helsinki & urge Iraq to leave Kuwait

1990- Liberia president Samuel K Doe is captured by Mr Johnson's forces

1991- Mike Tyson indicted for rape of Desiree Washington

1993- Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization exchange letters of mutual recognition

2010- A court in the Philippines orders Imelda Marcos to repay the government almost $280,000 for funds taken from the National Food Authority by Ferdinand Marcos in 1983

2012- Armenia wins the 40th FIDE Chess Olympiad

2015- Apple unveils the iPad Pro and iPhone 6S in San Francisco

2015- Queen Elizabeth II becomes Great Britain's longest-reigning monarch at 63 years and seven months, beating the previous record set by her great-great-grandmother, Queen Victoria

2017- Egyptian archaeologists announce the discovery of a 3,500-year-old tomb of a goldsmith and his family in Draa Abul-Naga, Egypt

2018- CBS chief Les Moonves departs the company after six more women make allegations of sexual abuse in "The New Yorker"

2019- Poet John Milton's own copy of Shakespeare's First Folio of 1623 has survived with his annotations according to scholar Jason Scott-Warren in Philadelphia library, could be world's most important modern literary discovery

2020- San Francisco Bay area blanketed by dark orange skies and smoke due to California wildfires

2021- Tom Brady becomes first player in NFL history to start 300 regular season games as he guides Tampa Bay Buccaneers to an opening day 31-29 win at home to Dallas Cowboys

ALL of these are more important than something that never happened on this day.

[ausetkmt]

Hurricane Michael unearths hidden history at ‘Negro Fort’ where 270 escaped slaves died – ASALH – The Founders of Black History Month

https://asalh.org/hurricane-michael-unearths-hidden-history-at-negro-fort-where-270-escaped-slaves-died/

PROSPECT BLUFF — Two hundred years ago, a post overlooking the Apalachicola River housed what historians say was the largest community of freed slaves in North America at the time.

Hurricane Michael has given archaeologists an unprecedented opportunity to study its story, a significant tale of black resistance that ended in bloodshed.

The site, also known as Fort Gadsden, is about 70 miles southwest of Tallahassee in the Apalachicola National Forest near the hamlet of Sumatra.

British lived at Prospect Bluff with allied escaped slaves, called Maroons, who joined the British military in exchange for freedom, along with Seminole, Creek, Miccosukee and Choctaw tribe members.

The Negro Fort, which was built on the site by the British during the War of 1812, became a haven for escaped slaves. Inside, 300 barrels of gunpowder were stored, and defended by both women and men.

More:The Negro Fort: a haven for escaped slaves that fell to deadliest cannon shot in U.S. history

Wary of the group of armed former slaves in Spanish Florida living so close to the United States border, U.S. soldiers began to attack. On July 27, 1816, U.S. forces led by Colonel Duncan Clinch ventured down the river and fired a single shot at the fort’s magazine. It exploded, killing 270 escaped slaves and tribes people who were inside. Those who survived were forced back into slavery.

Managed by the U.S. Forest Service, which purchased it in the 1940s, the site has been preserved as a National Historic Landmark and park. Because of that, it was never excavated for artifacts, except in 1963 by Florida State University, mainly to identify structural remains.

“It’s a really intriguing story. There’s so much new ground there that historians of the past never really got into,” said Dale Cox, a Jackson County-based historian.

In an ironic way, Hurricane Michael has changed that — an isolated upsideof the devastating storm.

The October Category 5 hurricane caused extensive damage to the site, toppling about 100 trees. Most of the debris has been cleared, but under the remaining massive roots, archaeologists began this month to dig and sift through the soil, uncovering small artifacts and documenting archaeological features revealed by the upturned trees.

The effort is funded by a $15,000 grant awarded from the National Park Service and is in partnership with the Southeast Archaeological Center.

"The easy, low-hanging fruit is European trade ware that dates to that time period. But when you have ceramics that were made by the locals, it's even more unique and special," said U.S. Forest Service Archaeologist Rhonda Kimbrough. "For one thing, there's not much of it, and we don't have a whole lot of historical records other than the European view from what life in these Maroon communities was like."

So far, Kimbrough and others have found bits of Seminole ceramics, shards of British black glass and gun flint and pipe smoking fragments. They’ve also located the area of a field oven, a large circular ditch that surrounds a fire pit.

The fort was recently inducted into the National Park Service’s Underground Railroad Network to Freedom.

"It’s like connecting the sites, pearls on a string," said Kimbrough, "because these sites, even though they’re spread all over the place, they’re connected by one thing, which is resistance to slavery."

It's been a slow process of sifting through Census records, which are private for 72 years before release, international archives of Great Britain as well as Spanish archives in Cuba. But Cox is on a quest to name as many as possible.

The people who lived in the Maroon community were very skilled, he said. Many were masons, woodworkers, farmers. They tended the surrounding melon and squash fields, but little is known precisely about their day-to-day lives.

The area has always been ideal for settling, given its higher elevation and clearings amid the river's mostly swampy perimeter, said Andrea Repp, a U.S. Forest Service archaeologist. Prior to European occupation, the site was sacred to natives and was named Achackweithle, which resembles the words for "standing view" in Creek, according to the Florida Geological Survey.

Shack, 76, is a descendant of Maroons. His great great grandfather escaped a North Carolina plantation, married a part-Native American woman and settled in Marianna. He remembers his grandmother's stories about the Prospect Bluff community. 

"I remember her telling us about the 'Colored Fort' and all the colored folk who died," he said. "A lot of black history wasn't taught. A lot of our history is lost, and some of it we won't get back. I'm glad that there's a renewed interest in capturing the history that I thought was lost."

[tobiasdrake]

That questioning provided little in the way of concrete answers but gave us something to work with. Let's fire up my favorite Forte and get another angle on this killing.

We're back at the scene of discovery. Victim's been dead for eight hours. First thing to check out is, of course, the victim's body. That's the biggest thing we couldn't see from the present.

Do his hands look waterlogged? They look waterlogged to me.

Which backs up the idea that the room was half-filled with water when he drowned.

Still not that much water, though. So how he drowned in it remains a mystery.

We still haven't proven relevancy to our case. It's possible this is something that was done to this door at some other point in time.

But we should consider the possibility that the door had to be sealed up, to retain the floodwater. Interior rooms are not, by nature, designed to seamlessly transform into makeshift swimming pools.

It'd be easy to conclude that these are signs of a struggle. But I'm gonna say that these are signs of a flood. Pretty sure most of this stuff floats, so it wouldn't remain stationary if the room was half submerged.

If you look behind the cart, you can even see the flood line is a bit above the cart. Enough that the supplies might bob away.

What we expected to find. Smashed tanks, flooded floor, dead fish. Nothing unusual about those elements we've thoroughly gone over already.

Which could potentially make this our avenue of escape, if the killer was on the scene when it happened.

It also hinders the flood theory. Why wouldn't the victim simply open the door and let the water out? Then again, that may have been the trap.

If the servant was here in the room at the time of the murder then the Servant becomes the only reasonable suspect. Jeryn and Tetra have alibis.

Opening the door probably is how the makeshift swimming pool was undone. Of course, the water line is above the tanks, and we don't know how long the water was in here. The fish could have easily left their tanks during that time.

Maybe that's why the tanks were smashed. There was no getting them back into the tanks at that point and the killer needed a way to explain why they were out.

With weird elements like this, sometimes it pays to not ask "Why would the killer want to do that?" but rather "Why did the killer have to do that?"

If it seems like the killer did something totally weird and unnecessary then that probably means they'd get screwed if they didn't. Nobody lingers at a crime scene without cause.

Like the door tape, we don't know that this is relevant to the crime. But it's certainly weird. I was hoping we'd get something a bit more smoking gun, but no dice.

They're proof of the makeshift swimming pool.

What'd you find, girl? Is it a piece of evidence? It sure looks like a piece of evidence. It looks like a blue hose that might have been in the vent pouring water into the room at the time of the murder. Who's a good girl? You are! Yes, you are!

Y'all, I think the Forever Rain is the murder weapon. Jackpot fist pump!

You're sitting on a DME fortune and your dog's favorite toy is a knot made of blue hose? She should be drowning in squeaky things.

This is more reason why I think Tetra's clear of any suspicion. This hose knot is probably the murder weapon. If Tetra was the one to use it, she wouldn't be volunteering all of this information.

The better question is, where do you get your hoses from? This isn't exactly the sort of thing you expect to see wealthy heiresses playing with.

Holy shit, we're actually bothering with proper evidence handling. Don't want to contaminate the hose knot. Uh. Any more than Sugar's saliva and teeth already have.

Halara is the most detective out of any detective in this game.

With two suspects and nothing clinching the case, no less. The Servant seems the more suspect of the two, due to their lack of alibi and the use of a rubber hose for the murder. But Jeryn isn't clear either, as he has a potential motive and equal access to the tools of the crime.

We know the makeshift pool was the mechanism of Pops's death. But. How. If the door was taped to waterproof the room then it would have had to have happened after he came in, right? If he opened the taped door, it would ruin the seal.

After dinner, Pops must have come in here. The killer would have had to knock him out, then rig the room to begin flooding and leave him to drown in the flooding room. Which is such an unwieldy way to kill someone. What if he regained consciousness?

Ugh, this is not coming together.

I'm stunned that Halara needed to explain this to Yakou and Tetra. This may be the most obvious contradiction in mystery history.

They had to destroy the fish tanks. Though why they smashed this one too, I'm not sure. Maybe they had no choice. If its fish had swam the coop during the flood, they might have felt it was more dangerous to leave it filled but empty than to smash it.

That sounds like a smoking gun to me. He could have rigged the rain gutters to pour into the vent.

We should investigate those rain gutters next. If we can find evidence that they're rigged the way we suspect, we can nail Jeryn on this.

Yakou, you have no idea how much they've found. Don't go pre-judging before Halara's presented their final case.

ACE. DETECTIVE.

He is not blowing smoke. That is a well-earned title. And possibly in more ways than one.

[terrors-and-tables]

As a way to give this blog some purpose, and give myself something to do, I’ve decided to start writing out my RPG musings in my spare time. I’ve been slowly working on a campaign setting for several years now, and it’s become a little creative space for me to hammer out a hypothetical kitchen sink to throw my fantasy ideas in. I’ll probably end up using it for a Pathfinder game (where I’ll finally get to use Spheres of Power/Might, and maybe even Guile), but I’ve thought about running it with an OSR game as well. Who knows, maybe I’ll run it over several different systems. Without further ado, here’s the first installment!

Post #1: The Ottoguard

This idea was created using Ultimate Engineering, the most recent (and final) Pathfinder product for Spheres of Might from Drop Dead Studios. I contributed a bit to the playtesting and had a great time, and its author spent two years fine tuning it, so if you're interested, go support them and take a look. At the time of writing, it should also be on the SoP wiki any day now.

In the core of the setting, the city of Scalmoor treats scientific advancement like its own fom of magic. They build marvelous contraptions of steel and glass, whether powered by tightly wound clockworks or by burning coal and spewing black smoke. In this city, the law is kept by those with the most money to build the biggest toys, and one such toy is the Ottoguard.

Standing at eight feet tall, an Ottoguard is a hollow sort of mechanical construct, but bears no magic or animating consciousness like a golem. Instead, a trained fighter pilots it, wearing it as a sort of incredibly heavy armor that carries itself. Ottoguards don’t do all of the policing, usually accompanied by a few regular guards who can do things like fit into buildings, move obstacles aside, bully civilians up close and personal, and so on and so forth.

Ottoguard CR 1 XP 400 Human Warrior 3 LN Medium Humanoid (Human) Init +2; Perception +5

Defense

AC 17; Touch 12; Flat-Footed 15; (+2 Dex, +5 Chainmail) 21 HP (3d10+6) Fort +5 Ref +3; Will +3

Offense

Speed 20ft. Space 5ft; Reach 5ft Melee Sap +4 (1d6+1 nonlethal) Ranged Light Crossbow +5 (1d8/19-20) Special Attacks Snag (Swift action, render target battered as melee touch attack)

Statistics

Str 13, Dex 15, Con 14, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 8 Base Atk ; CMB ; CMD ( vs. trip) Feats Extra Combat Feat Skills Craft (Technology) +6, Intimidate +5, Perception +5, Sense Motive +5; Racial Modifiers Languages Common SQ Gear: Mwk Chainmail, Light Crossbow, Longsword, Large Crossbow, MwK Large Sap, Potion of CLW, 8 gold pieces, 13 silver pieces. Martial Tradition: Mechaguard* Martial Talents (2 talents from progression, 1 talent from feat)

Equipment Sphere: Bounty Hunter’s Tools Armor Training Tinker Sphere: Transportation Package Mechanical Arsenal Transportation Mastery Wrestling Sphere: (Constrictor Drawback) Hammerlock Clinch Strike

Those stats above are for if our unlucky Ottoguard pilot is caught… off-guard. They’re there to represent what’s inside the fantastic mech and what he’s trained to do in a fight, particularly specializing in nonlethal capture- even when fully kitted out he’s here to apprehend criminals, not brain them. The crossbows are just for emergencies. So let’s break down what he’s capable of as a third level warrior, namely his talents:

His Equipment Sphere talents are there solely for proficiencies, for the Sap and for medium/heavy armor. The Athletics Sphere lets him run pretty quick (five times his speed in medium armor, at a hundred feet per round)- he won’t be able to outrun most people, but he won’t fall too far behind either. Tinker is much more complex, opening up an entire subsystem, but the bulk of why it’s there is to build and maintain his precious Ottoguard, with Mechanical Arsenal allowing him to outfit it with custom-crafted plate-mail for free, and Transportation Mastery allowing him to make an immersive cockpit that responds to his movements with a complicated array of levers and pulleys. Wrestling is there so that he can tackle a criminal and, if needed, beat them unconscious. It’s alright though, because even if it’s scaled up to be sized for an ogre, a lead rod wrapped in leather will still deal nonlethal damage.

Mechanoid Statistics: 4th level Mechanoid N Large Construct Init +2; Perception +5

Defense AC 24; Touch ; Flat-Footed ; (+9 Full Plate, +1 Dex, -1 size, +5 NA) 27 HP (3d10+12) Fort +5; Ref +3; Will +3 Defensive Abilities ; Immune Construct Traits

Offense

Speed 20ft. Space 10ft; Reach 10ft Melee MwK Large Sap +8 (1d8+5, Nonlethal) Ranged MwK Large Light Crossbow +5 (2d6/19-2) Special Attacks Snag (Swift action, render target battered as melee touch attack)

Statistics

Str 20, Dex 14, Con --, Int 10, Wis 14, Cha 8 Base Atk +3; CMB +9; CMD 21 Feats -- Skills Perception +5, Sense Motive +5, Intimidate +5; Racial Modifiers SQ 6 Upgrades (Arms, Legs, Cover*, Focused Design (+2 Str), Immersive Cockpit, Armor Slot, Alternate Size) *Free upgrade Gear MwK Large Sap, MwK Light Crossbow,

The Ottoguard, while piloted, can benefit from its pilot’s skills, feats, saving throw bonuses, base attack bonuses, et cetera, while keeping its own physical ability scores, armor class, and better weaponry, while also having its own pool of hit points. The pilot isn’t totally sequestered, however, and some parts of him are still visible, even if they’re behind hatches or a visor, and he may be attacked separately from the Ottoguard- though he benefits from Cover, gaining a +4 bonus to Armor Class.

An Ottoguard isn’t cheap, of course, but by the rules of Ultimate Engineering, Project Materials (for things such as mechanoids) may be acquired freely with time and successful crafting checks (DC 15 for 50 gold worth of material, +50 for each increase of 5, gathered over the course of 4 hours per check), meaning that by carefully sourcing and repurposing parts, the Ottoguard may be constructed from scratch by its pilot for free. This process of assembly and subsequent maintenance are drilled into pilots’ heads from day one. At a cost of 500gp for the average Ottoguard (100 per level, +200 for being large size), and about 100gp of Project Materials being acquired per day, this means an Ottoguard can be fully constructed in a week’s time (not counting the weekend of course). If in a proper settlement and in a real emergency, 500 gold pieces can be paid outright to acquire exactly what is needed almost immediately, after which construction of the Ottoguard takes 1 hour. All of this means that while Ottoguards are probably extremely similar on the outside (serving as somewhere between uniforms and police vehicles, they probably should), a pilot knows their machine inside and out, and there may be differences in the internal construction.

Ottoguard Adventure Hooks

1. A pilot’s Ottoguard has been stolen, likely to be reverse engineered by some enterprising criminals.

2. A pilot has been found guilty of illegally modifying his Ottoguard with blades, flame projectors, and stronger leg actuators. After causing several fires and deaths, he’s gone on the run with his new death machine.

3. A chaotic druid has caused trees and vines to grow over all of the city’s Ottoguards overnight, and has ruined the Ottoworks. With the city’s strongest defenders disabled, and Scalmoor’s stingy oligarchy unwilling to fund that many replacements immediately, the city is in shambles!

4. A mad tinker wizard has stolen the blueprints for the Ottoguards, creating one with an integrated Artificial Intelligence. It’s been going on its own patrols, blending in perfectly and disappearing before it can be apprehended. What is its purpose?

*New Martial Tradition

Mechaguard Equipment Sphere: Bounty Hunter’s Tools Armor Training Tinker Sphere: Transportation Package Wrestling Sphere: (Constrictor Drawback) Hammerlock

Inspirations:

FantasyNameGenerators is a wonderful site, and I used it to come up with the name Scalmoor

Appleseed (the 1988 OVA) is what really inspired this idea, bringing that movie's Landmates into a technologically advanced fantasy setting

[bluevett22]

[whatevergreen]

An ill elderly disabled woman becomes among the latest victims of the police (and so called "healthcare"):

"The Knoxville Police Department released footage Thursday of several officers’ interaction with Lisa Edwards, the 60-year-old woman who died in custody.

Police officials said that the four officers involved are still on administrative leave, as an internal investigation is still ongoing. That investigation will determine whether the officers violated police policy, according to communications manager Scott Erland.

Edwards was taken into custody for refusing to leave Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center. She had come to the medical center the day before, complaining of abdominal pain and being diagnosed with constipation at Blount Memorial Hospital. After spending the night at the medical center, she was discharged around 7 a.m. on Feb. 5.

After she refused to leave, hospital security called police to have her evicted from the property. The responding officer decided to take her into custody after speaking with her. He, along with several other officers, then tried to put her into a police wagon, but decided it was too high off the ground for Edwards, who was in a wheelchair, to get into.

From there, the officers called in a patrol car, which they loaded Edwards into. On the way to a detention center, the officer in the patrol car responded to a reckless driver. While he was stopped, he noticed that Edwards had become unresponsive, and an ambulance took her back to Fort Sanders. From there, Edwards was placed on life support before she died.

An investigation by the DA’s office found that Edwards died of a stroke, clearing the officers of any criminal charges. (are you kidding me?!)

That DA investigation also found that Edward had been having multiple health issues leading up to her interaction with the police, including a previous stroke." ...

The video footage is appalling, they left her flailing practically on the ground, in nothing but hospital clothing that barely covers her, in cold temperatures while making remarks about how she was faking her health problems. They even offered her a cigarette after she repeatedly stated she had breathing problems.

She died of a stroke because of serious hospital and police negligence and mistreatment.

A wanted poster doing the rounds on twitter:

The hospitals responsible:

Fort Sanders Regional, 1901 Clinch Ave, Knoxville, TN 37916, and

Blount Memorial Hospital, 907 E Lamar Alexander Pkwy, Maryville, TN 37804

The police and hospital staff must be held accountable.

[lboogie1906]

When the British evacuated Florida in the spring of 1815, they left a well-constructed and fully-armed fort on the Apalachicola River in the hands of their allies, about 300 African Americans and 30 Seminole and Choctaw Indians. News of “Negro Fort” attracted as many as 300 Black fugitives and 30 Choctaw Indians who settled in the surrounding area.

Under the command of an African American man named Garson and a Choctaw chief (whose name is unknown), the inhabitants of Negro Fort not only protected the community. The heavily armed fort became a symbol of Black Independence and a threat to the slave system.

In March of 1816, under mounting pressure from Georgia slaveholders, General Andrew Jackson petitioned the Spanish Governor of Florida to destroy the settlement. At the same time, he instructed Major General Edmund P. Gaines, commander of the military forces “in the Creek nation,” to destroy the fort and “restore the stolen negroes and property to their rightful owners.”

On July 27, 1815, the US military launched an all-out attack under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Duncan Clinch, with support from a naval convoy commanded by Sailing Master Jairus Loomis.

Ashot from the American forces entered the opening to the Fort’s powder magazine, igniting an explosion that destroyed the fort and its occupants.

Garson and the Choctaw chief, among the few who survived the carnage, were handed over to the Creek, who shot Garson and scalped the chief. Other survivors were returned to slavery.

Fort Gadsden was constructed over the site of the ruins of Negro Fort. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence

[pat-the-togorian]

Pat's Febu-Whump Day 3: Muzzled

Why did it have to be around my jaw… and my neck…

The collar and its cold metal muzzle clinched my breathing, and rubbed the patched fur around the scar on my chin the wrong way. I labored for each breath, and making any audible noise would have been excruciating. My chains were a great deal heavier than everyone else’s. 

This wasn’t how I’d imagined my first command mission would play out whatsoever. 

The pirates knocked us forward with their staffs, one by one forcing Clones and Jedi Padawans alike into cramped, dingy cells. 

“No, not him,” Barked their commander, gesturing to me. “Put him in the Hole. We don’t want him eating the others,” he joked darkly, to chuckles from his comrades. “Or getting damaged and lowering his price. I’m sure he’ll fetch many Credits for us!” The men chorused with laughter and glee at all the money that would surely come into their bloodied hands. 

“The Hole” was a deeper, round cell with a boarded ceiling at the floor level of everyone else’s. The implication was clear—lowest of the low. First to get washed away by a freak desert flood, and the first to feel anything else that spilled. I grimly wondered why I was here due to my alleged high price, but I guessed this was also the most secure cell. 

They opened the hatch at the top and knocked me over. I landed on my face, the muzzle’s impact against the floor busting open my chin again. They burst out laughing anew at my muffled, pained moan. 

What felt like days passed, though I couldn’t imagine it would take Aheka and the rest of the Battalion that long to find my detachment. 

This is just great… 

It’s not like my position was obvious, and I didn’t imagine any of our captured Clones would tell them where I went. And worse, while the pirates appraised me to be of high value, Clones would get no such special treatment. They were a Credit for a dozen, all over the Galaxy. Some pirates just executed their captive Clones if business wasn’t tight. 

They don’t have any reason to save me, and I can’t even yell for help, I catastrophized, the grating muzzle and tight collar making my panic all the worse. Maybe if I could get over my fear of the Clones, we’d have communicated better and none of us would be here! I berated myself. 

Of course, they found us eventually. At the moment we were late to return from our reconnaissance sweep, Master Aheka had called for full mobilization, and I heard the rumbling of thousands of approaching footfalls and vehicles through the resonance of the ground before the pirates knew what hit them. I felt a stirring of hope that I would have done anything to keep alive. 

As our forces drew closer and I heard the opening salvos of the fort’s defense, I lost the spark. The hope of a rescue turned into the poisonous fear of every second. Would they find me? Would the Clones speak up for me? That is, if they even saw where the Hole was… 

By the time the Troopers burst through the door and blasted the locks off of the cells of their compatriots, I wasn’t just muzzled. The muzzle had won. As the liberators and captives laughed and jostled and downplayed how bad the experience was, I stayed silent and accepted my fate.

“Master, they took Pat that way!” It was the most beautiful Clone voice I had ever heard. And the next thing I knew, an apoplectic Sinvulkt slashed through the top of the Hole with her usual flourish and leapt down, drawing me into a feathery embrace as fast as she could. She looked all the angrier to see my chin bleeding, just where it had bled when she found me the first time. 

Without another word, she slashed off all the chains and the horrible collar and muzzle, and I spent at least five minutes pulling in the most wonderful breaths of air I could remember. But even after my breathing had slowed, I didn’t speak as she led me out into the light, one wing wrapped protectively around me. 

When I hadn’t spoken for several more hours, she stared at me in concern and softly but distraughtly asked me, “Why didn’t you call for help?” 

“I-I was muzzled,” I excused. “But… You fixed that,” I finished, feeling immense gratitude, but deciding not to say anything more.

@febuwhump

@formeralleycat