#she was my first warden in 2010 and i maybe love her most out of all the ocs I've made for da

[myfandomincolor]

Trying to just draw some nice Brosca x Zevran smut and my tablet battery is rudely dying

[leggywillow]

for the meme: bethany and carver hawke! :D

MY SPECIAL ANGELS <3 <3

Carver:

First impression: Okay, so I was active on the Bioware forums well before DA2's release and this actually inspired me to see what old posts I could dig up (do not recommend btw). I can officially find documentation of me being EMBARRASSINGLY thirsty as far back as November 2010. I wrote a drabble on the forum shipping him with my Tabris before the game released, lol, so ultimately my first impression (i.e, gonna latch on immediately) stuck. I did assume he was going to be a lot sweeter/less prickly/honestly blander than he turned out to be. I was expecting more of a himbo.

Impression now: He's my most special boy. Better than what I'd expected, which was a pleasant surprise. He is so full of conflict all the time, and I love it. He is delightfully prickly and also a big dumb jock and it’s the best.

Favorite moment: The scene where Carver and Hawke argue about Bethany stands out as one of my favorite video game moments, period. It was a moment that just reflected Carver's character so well: he's rash and temperamental, and he's hurting so badly as he struggles to find a new path for himself and cope with Bethany's death, he feels trapped and is stifling, he still loves his family fiercely, etc.

Idea for a story: I am actually getting around to writing all of my ideas! I finished my first Warden Carver/Warden Surana fanfic (shameless plug Never Free) which is mostly about an assassination plot against my Surana but also fills in the gaps of what Carver was up to during Act 2 of DA2, which I always love to think about. I've also always wanted to expand upon the Legacy DLC and give Hawke and Carver more chances to talk about their parents and Bethany (which I am also finishing up now: Failed Attempts at Simpler Lives shameless plug #2). I've ALSO always wanted to write about what happens to him in the immediate aftermath of Dragon Age 2, and how he reacts to finding out that Hawke was left in the Fade in Inquisition. I WILL GET THERE.

Unpopular opinion: Hmm, well, I hate the templar path for him? I've come up with better reasons to justify my dislike, but the real reason is that my taste for tragedy has weird limits and it makes me too sad to think that he gets addicted to lyrium. I don't really know how unpopular that is, though. Maybe a better answer is that my boy is BEEFY. He is built like a brick shithouse, and I hate when people draw him too lean.

Favorite relationship: His relationship to Hawke is the easy canon answer. She drives him crazy, she's irritating as hell, she's his best friend, he looks to her for leadership, he wants to shove her into a mud puddle, he would tear apart a burning city to make sure she's safe. Shipwise, obviously, it's my personal pet ship which is Carver hooking up with the Hero of Ferelden and Surana specifically. He HAS to get with a mage, he just HAS to, it's too delicious.

Favorite headcanon: He's incredibly Fade-sensitive, though he can't use magic directly. He can feel the Fade being manipulated around him and how in ways that most non-mages really can't fathom. For example, he can tell when Hawke is about to throw a fireball and he needs to get the hell out of the way versus she's about to cast a buff on him. He just attributes this to a lifetime of training with a mage father and two mage siblings rather than any innate ability. When it's pointed out to him that, no, this is pretty unusual, he just kinda scoffs and says anybody could figure it out if they tried hard enough.

Bethany:

First impression: Unfortunately I can't trace my Bethany opinions back to a series of embarrassing forum posts in 2010/2011. I think my first impression is what everyone's is: that Bethany is a sweetheart baby sister, a pure cinnamon roll.

Impression now: She's more complicated than the above. She's still a ray of sunshine, still kind and thoughtful, but she also carries so much anger and guilt. She feels just as trapped in a life she doesn't want as Carver does. Even more so, because at least Carver can hope to escape his circumstances: Bethany can't stop being a mage.

Favorite moment: ALL of her banters with Isabela. I adore their relationship more than anything.

Idea for a story: I wouldn't mind a story about her leaving Kirkwall after DA2 and ending up in Ferelden with the rebel mages. I would REALLY love a story where she meets a Ferelden noble (maybe a Cousland Warden?) who just falls hopelessly and madly in love with her and ultimately Bethany becomes a teyrna or arlessa or something. Give my girl the fairy tale she used to read about as a lonely child in Lothering.

Unpopular opinion: I can’t think of anything direct, though maybe my preference for a Mage Hawke worldstate (which means Bethany dies) could count?

Favorite relationship: The relationship between the twins haunts the narrative, to me at least. I picture each twin considering the other their better half and something irreplaceable is missing once they're gone. I am also a little bit obsessed with Bethany/Isabela ever since the banter that Isabela sends her naughty books in the Circle.

Favorite headcanon: That she allows herself to be caught and taken to the Circle. She surely would have heard that Bartrand's expedition returned to the city and probably believed Hawke to be dead. In a world where Hawke isn't a mage, Bethany has spent her whole life feeling guilty for what her family has gone through to protect her. Then both of her siblings die, and taking care of Leandra has fallen onto Bethany's shoulders. I think she has enough quiet self-loathing to believe that the best way to keep her mother safe is to remove the riskiest, most volatile thing from her life: Bethany herself. Plus Bethany is just tired of running, tired of hiding, and tired of feeling so very alone.

[swampgallows]

why do you like garrosh so much pt. 2

to expand a little bit (okay a lot) on anon’s question (which, again, I could do until i typed the skin off my fingers), i will EMBARRASSINGLY ADMIT that i have a 40k+ word ffffaaaannn fiiiiccctiioonnn ive been writing for almost a year now that delves into a lot of my ~headcanon~ and self-indulgence regarding garrosh and his character. i began writing it in the first place to try to identify what my feelings were about him, just stream of consciousness as most of my writing goes. but it got longer and longer, and i tried to make it in reference to a second person, to an amorphous “you”. from there it became a reader-insert story for cathartic garbage (or catharbage as i endearingly refer to it) with about ten different notepad docs dedicated to it and its many drafts. one of these docs is a series of notes to further attempt to analyze my own thinking. the contents are below. es muy largo (over 2k words, plus a 500 word chatlog).

AUTHOR'S NOTES: I had begun playing World of Warcraft in late 2005 and quit in early 2009, just before the release of The Secrets of Ulduar/the Argent Tournament (Patch 3.1.0, released April 2009). Most of my playtime occurred while I was in high school, and upon my first year of college/university I felt I needed to close that chapter of my life and move on.

I kept zero tabs on the goings-on of WoW or those who still played. Something about dragons, goblins, canon pandaren. I was slaving my way through college, mental illness, and abusive relationships (if I had to grade my quality of Self during this time, I’d say it was hovering around the low-C, high-D range).

In September of 2014, I started a new job, had long finished college, and escaped my abusers. Inevitably I returned to Azeroth, and thus a new chapter of my life began.

The culture shock was jarring, to say the least.

Not only was I flooded with a deluge of high school memories, obsolete items (hunter ammo, anyone?), and a friends list like a graveyard (some names legitimately of the deceased), I had to play catch-up for two and a half expansions and five solid years' worth of content. I jumped haphazardly throughout the zones, surveying the damage from the Cataclysm (atop my flying mount!), exploring old raids, and leveling my then-capped 80 main to 90 in preparation for the new Draenor. 

Polar Bear Syndrome took hold in the form of Garrosh Hellscream. He was everywhere and nowhere all at once, name-dropped constantly but tangibly elusive, yet I didn't for the life of me piece together who that was (no thanks to that atrocious, beady-eyed Cataclysm model). Apparently he was the new Warchief ("where is Thrall?!" became a growing concern) but it took a skim through WoWWiki to realize this warmongering bigot was, apparently, the same Overlord of the Warsong Offensive in Borean Tundra that I recalled from many years ago; the "same Garrosh that spent half his life crying into a campfire in Outland", quoth WoWhead user TGFseb15.

I spent over a year trying to digest this character shift. On top of everything else, due to some sleep aids I was trying out at the time, the “Polar Bear” sightings of Garrosh extended into my dreams. I did hours of reading and research, questions becoming insurmountable rather than answered. How did this happen? Why was he like this? Why is he showing up in my dreams? Of course, all this racking of my brain resulted in more dreams, more conundrums. 

In October 2016 I began writing this story in lieu of being able to talk to the man (orc?) himself and ask, "Dude, WTF happened?". In attempting to reconcile my feelings, I had to sacrifice my wishful thinking for who and what the <Son of Hellscream> from all those years ago had become, and accept what had drawn me to him initially: his instability and his depression.  

Garrosh's core character, from all that I can gather, is that he is unstable and miserable. From start to finish, Garrosh is miserable. It is the only way I can imagine the descent of a fearful, suicidal orphan into the fully hardened numbness and apathy and hatred of a genocidal sociopath.

However, I am not attempting to garner any sympathy for Warchief Hellscream (or even the Overlord Hellscream of the Wrath era). My wish fulfillment and "head canon" extends only as far as my attempts to rationalize the myriad conflicting storylines Garrosh was subject to throughout the years and unify them into one semi-coherent character. 

I love that Garrosh was canonically chronically ill as a child (I was too); I love that he was (is?) mentally ill (I was/am too); I love that Garrosh is one of the major canon explorations of the less-than-glorious ramifications of war on an individual level, as memorable to me as the quest for Mankrik's wife. 

When I first played through Burning Crusade ten years ago, I thought his presence was an Easter egg, a callback to those who had played through Warcraft 3 and remember Grom’s sacrifice to ask themselves, “What about those who remember life before the demon blood? Is Grom truly a hero, or is he simply repaying a debt?” (As many a comedian have put it, there is applause for recovery; there is no applause for never having been an addict.)

And to have Grommash’s son, of all potential critics, take the brunt of that, was a bold and interesting consideration. On top of everything it reconnected Thrall to his family: his true name, his biological grandmother, and his “nephew” Garrosh (although by all accounts Garrosh cannot possibly be younger than Thrall). But it also introduced a kind of storyline that I hadn’t seen previously in WoW: we didn’t get a quest to lead Garrosh from the village and make his death look like an accident; we didn’t challenge him for leadership; we didn’t stage a coup; we didn’t even accept the role of Mag’hari chieftain when he offered it to us (unlike our veneration in Ogri’la). Everyone asked you to simply do what Garrosh, “The Impotent Leader”, could not. He was incompetent, but he was protected. He, like everyone else in his village, is doing his best to survive in spite of his affliction, be it physical or mental destitution.

I remember thinking he was Geyah’s son/grandson until the reveal that Garad was her husband, and Durotan her son. Yet from her quest text she had so much faith in Garrosh that I was convinced they were related, especially because he had no faith in himself.

There are three pieces of quest text that have stuck out to me and remain lodged in my brain over the years, paraphrased as follows:

• “Curse you, and curse your ancestors! Only blood can cool my rage, so if that is your wish then... Throw yourself into the heart of the Skullsplitters in the east. [...] May he tear off your limbs and leave you to rot and be eaten by carrion.” — Speaking with Gan’zulah, a defunct quest part of the Saving Yenniku questline • “If you are ever captured by Legion, tell them ‘Xar il romath da tidesbi.’ They will kill you instantly for insulting their god, sparing you intolerable torture or worse.” — Commander To’arch, Hellfire Peninsula [I once posted this line in a creepypasta thread on /x/ circa 2007 lmao] • “Everyone is proud. Proud that we may live to see another winter. But beyond that, what is there? Maybe you should lead this clan, [Arete]. Maybe then I will be allowed to die when the Greatmother passes. Allowed to finally erase the shame of my family name. I long for such peace.” — The Inconsolable Chieftain, [now] penultimate quest in the Garadar questline

You see where I'm going with this.

The only other quest I can think of that stirred such morbid anguish in me comparable to Garrosh’s was the starting quest in Tirisfal Glades where you collect duskbat wings/pelts to stitch into blankets for Gretchen Dedmar, who is succumbing to the chill of Mindlessness/reverting to Scourge. Until WotLK, the motif of “hopelessness” was not one I had personally seen much of in WoW, despite playing a Forsaken. There were sad, sentimental moments. But moments of failure, of bleak resignation, were few and far between. And the most that I did find were in reference to the Scourge or major events that had already occurred (Stratholme, the Sundering, etc.). 

Garrosh and Mankrik’s problems were domestic; pedestrian, almost, like gathering the cactus apples in Razor Hill or disrupting the love triangle of trolls at Swamprat Post. Most of all, they were personal. Mankrik wanted his wife to come home safe. Garrosh does not want to turn out like his father. Mankrik must defend his home from angry quilboar and marauding centaur. Garrosh must defend his village from invading ogres while resisting the urge to off himself for the sake of his people.

And, again, because I main a Forsaken, my WotLK starting zone was Howling Fjord (this is also what I played in the LK beta). I must have done the Borean Tundra quests in a blur because I have no memory of them from that time period, other than Kalu’ak dailies, DEHTA quests, and Saurfang and Garrosh’s conversation in the foyer of Warsong Hold. [Note: I have very little memory of 2009-2010 for other reasons. Reasons much like The Inconsolable Chieftain. And by that I mean suicidal depression. HAHA.] Other than that, I gave Garrosh little to no concern during my few months of WotLK. I saw that Blizzard had carried Garrosh over from the portal to Azeroth to assist in Northrend, and I took it in the same type of stride as “Oh, how nice of them to include this Easter egg for the players. The orc we saved followed Thrall into Azeroth." I had also, apparently, missed the mak’gora.

But it's not as if I had forgotten about Garrosh; I did work my way to becoming exalted with the Mag'har during Burning Crusade to earn a talbuk, and I spent countless hours outside Garadar fishing up and cooking poached bluefish for my raiding boyfriend at the time. “Trading kandi with ogres” was how I referred to grinding obsidian warbeads for rep. And every time I went past the campfire to Warden Bullrok to turn them in, I would /hug Garrosh (and stick around for the Thrall event, should it have been ongoing). 

And Garrosh did not forget about me, either. 

Do not think that I have forgotten what you did for my people in Nagrand, [Arete]. Hellscream never forgets. For that I am indebted to you and it is why I give you this chance now: run. Leave this place and never look back. Return to your home and say a prayer for the dying. (x)

Garrosh apparently talked a lot of big game in WotLK, but I did not bear any witness to it before quitting. I had barely made it into Sholazar Basin and did not touch Icecrown, the Storm Peaks, or Wintergrasp. So the way I interpreted this opening statement from Hellscream was him admitting to me, his friend, someone that he knew he could trust, who knew him as he was before, that he was afraid. After all of Thrall’s encouragement, and Garrosh getting the confidence to leave his village and give himself to the Horde, feeling his namesake redeemed, feeling a future was possible, Garrosh was still terrified. “You got roped up in my business once before, and I am thankful it worked out for the both of us. But I got myself into this mess and I cannot have you bail me out again.” He took a leap in a rogue moment of assurance and then, upon settling back into his depressive median, steps back and thinks, “I have made a terrible mistake.” (>when youre feeling good and make plans >when those plans actually arrive and you have to be social)

This is further heightened by Garrosh’s response to the player if they have not completed the quest chain:

A hero of the Horde, eh? <Garrosh sniffs at the air around you.> Fear... <Garrosh spits.> You won't last long. (x)

He himself is most definitely afraid. But he does not trust you, so this is how he tells you. He accuses you. He affirms this aloud, for himself, passing the blame to you. Anyone would fear standing at the Lich King’s doorstep, most certainly an orc who has known starvation and disease and death and shame, but also blue skies and white clouds and bright sunshine.

The red of Durotar was dismal enough. The gray endless death is even more difficult to bear.

And so, this is the mindset and place where my story begins: after Burning Crusade, after the first mak’gora with Thrall, after the summit in the comics, after clawing their way through the kvaldir and erecting Warsong Hold, but before Garrosh and Saurfang’s conversation, and before the rest of the Horde reinforcements (the players) arrive. I wanted to capture that tenuous period of Garrosh’s ego boost having only barely thrust him out of his dysthymic doldrums, still wrestling with his twenty-plus years of self-resentment, still trying neurotypicality (for lack of a better word) on for size like a garment in need of tailoring. Garrosh yearns to run with the pack but is a coyote among wolves.

This is the Garrosh I knew and remembered. So when I came back to Azeroth... well, you know the rest.

==============

Valkosk - 01/17/2017 It was Garrosh first command experience where he was trying to prove himself amongst his war seasoned clan that he had the brutal edge needed to command the Warsong or Blizzard's writing team didn't think about over arching storyline for their individual heroes. Might be that second one. Keelhaul - 01/17/2017 All he did in Warsong Hold was turtle. He literally brags about it. Arete - 8:52 PM

Keelhaul - 2:43 PM Boreal Tundra Garrosh to player: "I hate you. I'm ignoring everybody who wants to help/needs our help. Later, I'll send you on a suicide mission." Borean Tundra Saurfang to player: "Ignore Garrosh, he's being a bitch again. Here is how you can help us, and also there are others you can probably help in the other room. Later, I'll go behind Garrosh's back to save you from death." Saurfang is the true hero of the Warsong Offensive. Seriously, every quest in that zone comes down to "we need to clean up Garrosh's mess" or "Garrosh is refusing to do anything productive, so we need to go help _ ourselves."

SOURCE? cause garry told ME to go home & pray for my family because he loves me

Keelhaul - 9:05 PM [links the Foolish Endeavors quest dialogue]

Arete - 9:13 PM wtf is a flenser is varidus an elite? is that why you say he sends you to your death alone? or do other npcs call it a suicide mission? i gotta get my characters up to 70 so i can play through the wotlk campaigns again its been almost 10 years since i did saurfang is such a good dad omg

Keelhaul - 9:17 PM You deliver him intelligence some of the Forsaken spies died to deliver, basically saying that a Necrolord is found and such-and-such place. They ask Garrosh for help, he says "I'm just going to send you." The one Forsaken agent spying on him is stunned to learn that you're the only one coming to help, so he moreorless just assumes you're both going to die. The fight begins, and it's immediately obvious that you can't win. The boss stuns both of you, tells an assistant to take you away. The assistant reveals himself as Saurfang, and then basically carries you for the whole fight.

Arete - 9:18 PM damn saurfang is such a fuckin bro garry trusts me because i am strong

Keelhaul - 9:20 PM He's a tool to everyone who didn't see him as a bitch in Nagrand. :stuck_out_tongue:

Arete - 9:21 PM fuckin yikes!!! he was a lil bitch but i was too some of us were beginning our descents into mental illness alongside Garrosh <Son of Hellscream> in Garadar :sob: i mean there's no denying he's a piece of shit idiot post-wotlk he's an incorrigible racist asshole in pandaria it really sucked fo rme to find a character i identified with 10 years prior had been taken down the route he was i had quit wow before the release of ulduar & came back in WoD because i heard there would be new models. i knew nothing about the new xpac storyline or anything that had transpired past black temple so IMAGInE MY SURPRISE WHEn A CHARACTER I THOUGHT WAS JUST An EASTER EGG FOR OnE OF THE MOST MEMORABLE QUESTLInES In ALL OF TBC IS REVEALED TO LITERALLY BE A GEnOCIDAL FASCIST DICTATOR "hey things worked out well for hellscream!!! maybe, despite my depression, things can work out for me too!" 'HAHA nOOOOO BITCH' its just so sad, like what a shame :frowning: im still tryna cope

[end log]

[theconservativebrief]

RALEIGH, N.C. – The warm voice answering your 800-VISITNC call will gladly mail you the 174-page Official 2018 Travel Guide, a North Carolina road map, or brochures about Civil War sites, AMTRAK connections or wineries. She can also field detailed questions about whitewater rafting, kayaking, ski slopes, fairs, cultural festivals or events in the state’s 100 counties.

She has been trained to handle all variety of inquiries coming to the Visitor Call Center, and is not a fly-by-night phone jockey: She will be there for a while.

The two crews who answer seven incoming lines – including “511” roadside emergency calls – are all inmates of the N.C. Correctional Institution for Women, the largest women’s penitentiary in the state. Some will be here for life.

Proven track record

The 30-acre prison on the southeast outskirts of Raleigh, near Interstate 40, looks like a scruffy, low-slung college laced in cyclone fencing topped with concertina wire. It has a permanent population of about 1,700 inmates, ages 16 to 89, and also processes 200 to 240 women per month who are entering the North Carolina penal system.

Those doing time here wear color-coded uniforms: yellow (pre-trial protected custody), fuchsia (new arrival), teal (minimum security), purple (medium and close-watch security) or burgundy (death row).

In the back of the buzzer-entry administration building, a monitored door leads to a breezeway and a gatehouse where security is tighter than at many international airports – an electronic walk-through and item-basket X-ray, plus wand and pat-down.  A guided walk through a series of security fences leads to a pair of trailers; one processes outgoing tourist mailings, the other is where the phone staff works. The operation includes 30 inmates plus supervisors.

A guided walk through a series of security fences leads to a pair of trailers; one processes outgoing tourist mailings, the other is where the phone staff works. (Photo: John Bordsen)

Prison grounds have inmate-tended lawns and plantings. License plates bearing the state’s “First in Flight” motto are manufactured in one building. But according to Teresa Smith, the call center’s onsite supervisor for the Department of Commerce, her station is the most desirable inmate workplace. “At $1 to $3 per day, it is the best-paying prison job and is in one of the few air-conditioned and carpeted workplaces.“

Those chosen to field calls are screened for education level and people skills. Training in state history and tourism marketing is comprehensive and ongoing. These inmates will work well over their long hauls: All wear purple uniforms.

The program began in the 1980s, when tourism inquiries were handled by state employees or an imperfect computer system. The proposed fix was prison labor. Inmates could learn telemarketing skills, operating costs would be minimal and callers could get desired information from a live person.

The program worked like gangbusters. Interim warden Herachio Haywood gets calls from counterparts in other states about it. ”Some states have tried to launch comparable initiatives,” he says, “but those haven’t worked out.”

The North Carolina model involves unique collaboration between the departments of Commerce, Public Safety and Transportation.

 In 2017, the Visitor Call Center answered more than 95,000 calls and fulfilled 769,000 phoned requests for maps and brochures. Four days before Hurricane Florence was scheduled to pummel the Carolina coast, the center expanded its 8-to-8 operating hours for the emergency, handling calls from seaside residents and visitors seeking to flee inland and for others who wanted to cancel or adjust plans and reservations.

Any day, questions that can’t be answered by staffers are referred to state or local agencies most likely to have the requested information. Some calls can be handled in 30 seconds, others take 30 minutes to resolve.

Call and response

The call center itself looks like a low-key telemarketing office, a row of back-to-back computer stations for eight to 10 inmates on one of two shifts. Space for manuals are on shelves above each screen. The walls are covered with iconic North Carolina photos of the Outer Banks, mountain vistas, forests and skyscrapers. The room also holds racks of tourist brochures; at the end of the computer bank is a Kids Corner display of “Flat Stanley” cut-outs and letters from children in places like Salinas, California, or the grade-schoolers in North Pole, Alaska, seeking mailed information.

The phones are incoming-only. The computers are only linked to N.C. Tourism sites and databases, with information updated by in-state tourism groups and agencies. A classroom in the call center double-wide is used for inmate training by the area’s Wake Technical Community College.

Throughout the year, staffers from the state-operated visitor centers come to provide updates. Reps from city, county and regional tourist agencies do the same. An annual highlight for call center workers is the December update by the appreciative northeast North Carolina counties, members of whom always bring a barbecue truck and in turn watch a play that call center inmates stage for them.

Phones are staffed every day except Christmas.

Three inmates were asked to share their insights.

“On a slow day, I might get a dozen calls. Last night, I handled 40 from the Outer Banks,” says Kim. Either way, she says, “I feel like I’m in an office and not in a cage. It’s a real job, and I’m making a difference by helping people.”

She has been working in the call center six years. Her most memorable call: “It was from an elderly lady who said, ‘My husband and I drove down from Ohio and we’re trying to get to Dollywood (in Tennessee), but we’re lost and I don’t know where I am.’ I told her, ‘Just stay on the road and tell me what the next sign is that you see.’ The call took a half hour, but I helped get them where they wanted to go.”

Kim is serving a sentence of about 17 years.  If she could go anywhere in North Carolina right now, “I would like to see the Dale Chihuly glass display that’s at the Biltmore (in Asheville). It actually lights up at night.”

And where would the inmates answering tourist calls like to go? “I would like to see the Dale Chihuly glass display that’s at the Biltmore (in Asheville). It actually lights up at night,” says Kim, who works at the call center during her prison sentence. (Photo: Biltmore.com)

Aamber will be working at the call center for two years as of December. “I love to help people, and I get a sense of community with people on the outside,” she says.

It’s also an education. “I’ve learned a lot about the fall leaves. As a kid I didn’t appreciate the fall color and had no clue about the mountains, the Blue Ridge Parkway and other places where you can really see it.”

If she could head anywhere, it would be Asheville. “There are buskers, live music and antique shops – a real arts vibe with a Southern twist. I’d also go there for the quiet life, a cabin where I could walk outside and be inspired by the mountains.”

Her sentence ends in 2027. She’s hoping for early release in 4 ½ years.

Janet has worked at the call center for two years, and the open-ended questions are often the hardest to handle. “Those are the ones where the caller might say something like, ‘Give me some dates for when I have a 5-year-old for the weekend.  Maybe for a treasure hunt.’”

Some callers, Janet says, over-share – “It’s like taxi cab confessions. We get those a lot of time, like someone saying, ‘My mom is dying in Wilmington. … ‘

“People are not used to talking to a real person, and If I’m able to help in a way, that’s wonderful. It’s giving back to a society we wronged. It’s emotional rehabilitation but also it has a weird irony: I am a prisoner telling people how to travel.”

All in all, “It helps me stay in pace with society. It helps avoid ‘prison brain rot.’ “

There’s a seasonal rhythm to the calls, Janet notes. “In fall, calls are about leaves in Asheville and elsewhere in Western North Carolina. Winter is about renting log cabins and getting away. And right before Christmas, people ask about Santa trains in the mountains. Calls are also localized for out-of-state people returning home, like ‘What will there be to do in Lumberton?’

“Summer might be when we get the highest volume of calls. It’s all about beaches and families scouting university towns in advance of the fall semester.”

Where would she go?

“Onslow County has an island that’s good for shelling – an island with nobody there that has pretty shells. I’d have to count that as a dream place.”

Janet is serving a life sentence.

NASCAR Hall of Fame: With over 73% of motorsports employees working in the Charlotte area, it is no wonder that the city is also home to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Since its opening on May 11, 2010, the hall usually sees 170,000 visitors, or more, per year. Led by the design of executive architect Pei Cobb Freed & Partners, this 390,000-square-foot building is home not only to the Hall of Fame but also NASCAR Digital Media, NASCAR’s licensing division and their video game licensee Dusenberry Martin Racing. The Hall of Fame itself is home to multiple artifacts, hands-on exhibits, a 278-person state-of-the-art theater and the Hall of Honor. The building features a stainless-steel möbius that wraps around the exterior of the structure and specialized exhibition lighting. Flickr/Nick Ledford

via The Conservative Brief