#straight-up mentions you can enlist and then take courses to get a commission

[enterprise-bee]

my husband and my friends have now both been victim to my latest star trek worldbuilding question: where the fuck are all the petty officers please why is every low-ranked extra an ensign this ship cannot POSSIBLY be staffed with only officers that makes no sense o’brien is a chief petty officer that means there have to be more right like they should be the majority of guys on this ship right where are they ensign is a commissioned rank PLEASE,

[foodieforthoughts]

Sand and Stars - Chapter One

Series Summary: After the water pump being blown up, the insurgents in Baqubah are taking a hold of the food supply to the village. Camp Warhorse is in dire need of reinforcements. It has been eight months of submitting countless requests when the High Command commissions Sergeant Olivia Ross to take her group of men and women and help Captain Syverson and his team to restore a semblance of normalcy. But with the war raging, does it get two hearts closer too?

Pairing: Syverson x OFC x OMC

Word Count: 1750

Warnings: 18+, foul language, some ogling, smut in future chapters

A/N: Thank you again to @thelastsock​ for being my beta. Written from Sy’s perspective and since I am a woman, venturing in the (not) so complex mind of a man. Enjoy!

<Prologue

Title: Chapter One

Syverson watched as everyone in the camp looked at the two Humvees entering through the gates inside the compound. The chopper came flying behind them, hovering over the area they had prepared for it to land.

With arms crossed over his chest, his signature sunglasses covering his eyes, he looked at the chopper, it’s skids gently being placed on the ground. The blast of air from it’s whirring blades, blew dust and sand for which he shielded his face with his hand. The group of soldiers alighted from their vehicles, their smoother than milk skin making Sy snort. Here they were, his Special Forces guys all scruffy and rough, whereas these new arrivals looked like school kids for a photo op.

When the chopper blades stopped spinning, and the pilots hopped down from their cockpit along with the others; Sy walked up to them. He watched as the main pilot spoke to the unit and pulled off their helmet. The swagger of his walk faltered a step when he noticed her lustrous red hair tied in a bun. It was not very often that lady soldiers came down to a warzone like this.

Instinctively, when he saw she was a woman, his eyes travelled to her bottom. Even with the armored vest and her fatigues, the beautiful curve of her body was highlighted when she bent down to lift her bag. She turned to speak to the other pilot, allowing Sy to finally look at her face. Big brown eyes framed by thick eyelashes were set on her heart-shaped face. Her high cheekbones were freckled, spreading to her nose, and her lips looked full and plump.

It was inconsiderate of the Captain to check out a woman in the middle of a raging war, but he had been high and dry for nearly a year. A man has his needs.

“Captain Syverson, sir?” The other pilot addressed him, he was a young man with the signature crew-cut hair and clean shaved like a boiled egg. His duffel bag laid heavily on his shoulder as he clasped the straps with one hand.

“All day,” Sy said, taking off his sunglasses and hooking it at the back of his t-shirt. “Are you Sergeant Ross?”

Sy’s eyes darted to the approaching men and women when he noticed her walking up to them. Soldier from before brought his hand for a handshake towards Sy which he took with a smile.

“I’m Sergeant Schmidt. She is,” he turned to the red-haired beauty, “Sergeant Ross.”

Sy did not want to come off rude or appear like a male chauvinist, but he wasn’t expecting a woman to be commanding a unit. He raised his eyebrows in surprise which she seemed to catch on to.

“You are Sergeant Ross?” He asked, trying but failing to conceal his astonishment.

“All day,” she said with a smug smile, imitating him by repeating what he had said only a moment ago. “Sergeant Olivia Ross, sir.” She held her hand out, Sy’s eyes darting towards her gloved one. He took her hand in his, noting how hers looked small in his large ones, and gave a confident shake.

“Okay,” He cleared his throat looking at the group of twelve new soldiers at his camp, “We prepared a block for y’all.” He started walking towards the other smaller building besides the main wing. Their new arrivals followed behind him, lugging their bags on their shoulders.

“Keeping us separate, I see.” Olivia commented. Sy turned slightly to look behind him at her. She avoided his gaze, but her face looked unimpressed with her lips sealed tight.

Sy chose to not respond. They climbed up the flights of stairs leading up to the living quarters, bypassing their mess hall and a make-shift gym, and reached the doors to adjacent rooms.

“Guys go in there,” he pointed towards one room, “Ladies, over here.” He turned around to face the group. “Night patrols will be assigned, and I need a group to go with my boys to the village in fifteen minutes.” He folded his arms over his chest, looking directly at Olivia. “We need to get a briefing done.”

“I’ll be down in ten, sir.” she curtly nodded. Everyone seemed to understand her annoyance as they glanced at each other. Sy let out a slow breath, choosing to not address her, again.

When he was back in his office, he pulled out the Echo unit file. Pepps had informed him that women were going to be included in the arriving unit, what he had failed to mention though was that it would be led by a woman. A pretty woman with curves.

Syverson shook his head. He grimaced at his own thought. He was not there to ogle at women, he was there on a mission. He quickly read through the contents of the paper. Sergeant Ross, he gathered, was an enlisted soldier, got promoted to a corporal before she took Aviation course and earned herself a position of helicopter pilot. She got promoted to Sergeant after spending time in Afghanistan and was now leading her own unit.

Sy was impressed. He liked women who were strong and capable, but they were also usually trouble. She already looked miffed about the separate living quarters. In Sy’s defense, he had only thought about making it less uncomfortable for the ladies. Wouldn’t have minded if she had stayed right across from mine though.

He rolled his eyes, exasperated at his train of thoughts yet again. His dick was beginning to strain against the fabric of his pants and as he caught a glimpse of her red-hair heading towards his office, he chose to adjust himself. Because sitting with an erection at their first briefing was not on his agenda today.

“Sir?” Olivia asked, standing at the door with her hands behind her back.

Sy nodded for her to enter. He tried to angle himself in his chair so as to hide his bulge from the Sergeant. “Sergeant Ross,” he cleared his throat, placing the papers back in their place.

“I also go by Liv, sir.” Sy could see the confidence in her eyes glimmer when she spoke. She was fierce, he would give her that. The last time Harper had arrived with his men, they had looked weary and tired. But Olivia looked like she could go to war right now if she was asked to.

“And I go by Sy.” He smirked, watching as Liv spared him a smile. “Are your men ready?”

“Yes. They are getting prepped by your men.”

Sy nodded. There was an empty chair right next to where Liv stood, but she had chosen to stand instead. Typical soldiers. He gestured towards the seat with one hand, “You can take a seat.”

“I’m completely fine here, sir.”

He tried desperately to not let his eyes roam over her body. She had changed from her fatigues to the standard military t-shirt with her cargo pants. It was becoming increasingly difficult to not let his inhibitions down. 

He caved.

Sy noted how the fabric stretched over her bosom, curving over her mounds. Her dog tags laid in the valley between her breasts, another silver chain hanging with it. The belt she had cinched at her waist highlighted her figure, making Sy lick his lips. Olivia seemed to be aware of her effect on him, as Sy noticed her fighting a smile.

He coughed and adjusted in his seat as his own soldier came to life again. “Th-the food truck… arrives every week.” He pulled out a map from underneath the table. Spreading it out on his desk, he leaned to point at an ‘X’ marked on it. Olivia took a few steps forward and leaned in too, to understand him better with visualization.

He explained to her the routes they were going to take and the air support they would be needing. All the while she had been standing bent over the table and her face was only a small distance away from him. Sy was aware of their proximity because in this dry desert where all he could smell was gas and sweat, he was getting a whiff of lavender from her.

“What happened to the food trucks from last week? Were you able to get them to the village safely?” Olivia asked. Her eyebrows knitted together in concentration as she looked at the map again.

Sy scratched his beard, looking up to her. “They have set IEDs on the road. We couldn’t even reach the truck. The bastards blew it up as it was turning up the mountain.”

Olivia let out an angry huff and stood up straight. “It’s a good thing we can look from above now.” Sy gave her a nod as she went back to standing with her hands behind her back.

He decided to stand up. In front of him she looked small. Her head barely reached his shoulder and to speak he had to look down. “About the quarters,” he started.

“If I may, sir,” she interrupted him. He gestured at her to speak. “I’m actually thankful for that. Because with your initial surprise at me being a woman and your men looking at us like we are dinner, I’m glad to be staying with the ones I really know.”

“Hey, if you feel vulnerable out here-”

“No sir.” Olivia looked him in the eye. “We are not vulnerable. We do not need you guys to protect us. But we also don’t want to be looked at, like we are for your pleasure.”

Sy understood what she was trying to convey. She hadn’t been fighting a smile earlier. No, she had been fighting a sneer. He clenched his jaw because his mama had raised him to never yell at a woman. He had found her blatant accusation to be rude and being from a higher rank, he could also inflict punishment on her.

But that is not how he worked. And, this was not how he wanted them to start their shared time in this Godforsaken land.

So instead, he decided to be formal. "You are dismissed, Sergeant Ross.” 

The challenge in her eyes was somehow arousing for Sy. She had her head held high, her shoulders squared and her back straight. He watched her with furrowed brows as she turned and walked out the door, the confidence in her steps glaringly evident.

Fiery, Sy thought with a renewed smile creeping up on his lips. Just the way I like them.

Chapter Two>

✨Series Masterlist✨

Tagging:@wanderlustkitkat @michelehansel @stephartrave @yuhsophie @hennerslionhat @henrythickcavill @eldarwen333 @peakygroupie @klaine-92 @thelastsock @indigosaurus @oddsnendsfanfics @viking-raider @cavillliketravel @geralt-of-baevia @achaoticaugust @dancingwendigo @littlefreya @luclittlepond @mansaaay @agniavateira @inlovewithhisblueeyes @henryobsessed @henryfanfics101 @poucinette1333 @ohmygoodie @oolicity @wolvesandhoundshowltogether @asyverson @awhitewolfandhisvibraniumshield

[sithroyal]

MODERN VERSE

VERSE TAG: ;;modern: i look to the stars and it feels like something is missing LOCATION: Varies [thread dependent] AGE: Default is 30 [otherwise, thread dependent]

Basic Information

X. Ben was born to Senator Leia Organa and high profile actor and model Han Solo. Due to their high activity schedules, Ben was left with various babysitters for much of his childhood.  X. When he was ten, he was kidnapped by one of those babysitters and held for ransom. Ben has blocked out much of what happened while he was held by Snoke. Shortly after rescue, Ben was sent to live with his Uncle Luke in New York. (Note: While these memories are repressed, they are responsible for a later depersonalization disorder on top of various anger issues and chronic depression.) X. Growing up after Snoke’s kidnapping was difficult for Ben. He often felt different than his classmates and it was hard for him to make friends. His uncle caught on to this and tries enrolling him into various after school programs. He was often asked not to return due to his anger issues. X. As he got older, Ben expressed a deep desire to move out of his uncle’s house despite having nowhere to go. Seeing his father on television and in movies knowing that he wasn’t around was enough to make him irritable the rest of the day. Sharing his name and being stopped on the street by fans looking for photos only made things worse. X. In order to find something to get his attention, Ben took to technology and developed a fascination with graphics and coding. In freshman year, he started taking band classes. He can play trumpet, piano, and guitar. X. He tried getting in contact with his mother for a good part of his senior year of high school. When neither of his parents showed up for his graduation, he enlisted in the marines. 

X. He tried getting in contact with his mother for a good part of his senior year of high school. When neither of his parents showed up for his graduation, he enlisted in the marines.

X. The day he left for basic training, Ben and Luke had an argument. Luke blamed him for taking off just as Han did and felt that the military wasn’t where Ben should have been going, that he was running away. Ben did nothing to him but he did become quiet enough to absorb what was said. The argument escalated and Ben threw terrible things at his uncle.  It was nothing new. In the process, he shut down and focused on his basic training - started 2008. 

X. Thirteen weeks basic training and no contact with his uncle made Ben flourish. He was one of the top recruits at the time, specializing in ballistic weaponry with melee and hand-to-hand combat as close seconds. While the training was exhausting, he began finding his confidence and backbone. At the same time, he was starkly reminded that he had little to no place in the slowly crafted groups of various other marines. This distance was justified for him in the way that distance would make loss easier later on. He started college soon after. 

X. 2008, E1. Started college in New York as a reserve - two-day monthly and two weeks of annual training.

X. 2010, E3. During a training exercise, he engaged in unusual  tactics to protect him and his men during a mock shoot out where they were pinned on location. First emergence of Kylo Ren in a non combat situation. Due to his quick decisions, Ben was commended by the officers overlooking his training.

X. 2011, E3 (Age 20). Grandmother died. Ben attended the funeral but didn’t speak to his family. All of his belongings were moved from the home and straight to a storage facility in Queens. Ben pays monthly for storage.

X. 2012, E-3 to O-1 (Age 22). Graduated fluent in Arabic and Urdu. Attended a ten week officer training class in Quantico, Virginia. Deployed on active duty near December. Ben was involved in protecting and evacuating civilians during a battle in an Iraqi city. Afterward, he was part of a search and rescue team to recover the injured and the dead.

X. 2014, O-1 (Age 24). From 2014 onward, Ben was deployed to Iran for multiple operations. At one point, he started to rethink his goals. Beginning of Kylo Ren starting to emerge, started brutal interrogation tactics of captured prisoners.

X. 2015, O-1 TO O-2 (Age 25). Promoted from rank O-1 to O-2.

X. Bought his own home and vehicle in New York state. Found out through his uncle that his father knew of him and was keeping an eye on him. Ben didn’t tell his mother but she informed him months later that she already knew. Most of the Solo family knows who he is and what he does. While he doesn’t have a target on his back, they do keep tabs on him. 

X. 2015. Ben was employed by his mother mainly because he was needed for translation assistance as well as his unique but effective interrogation techniques. He was given full reports and was only allowed to translate small pieces at a time for confidentiality sake, but what information was given to him via questioning was unfiltered.

X. 2015-2017. (Verse dependent) 

     (Option 1) - multiple failed attempts at dating men and women alike. Very few could handle his constantly shifting lifestyle. Two girlfriends cheated on him, three boyfriends ghosted him.

     (Option 2) - multiple PTSD induced nightly issues. Sleeps away from his partner to keep them from having to deal with his inability to sleep at normal hours and/or long periods of time. Snappy, irritable, and quite easy to set off. Would never hit his partner conscious but he does have issues where waking may cause him to choke them. Attempts many different therapists and rarely sticks to a single one until the end of 2016 - failed by mid 2017, Kylo Ren scared the therapist by revealing her address, phone number, and threatened to skin her family alive.

X. 2017 O-2 (Age 28). Early in the year, January through May. Ben began making efforts to finish his education on Spanish and Russian, and finished Spanish. Listed the course completion on his files. He went from performing operations to preventing loss of life on the ground by translating messages sent from opposing forces. Begins to feel he has his issue with Kylo under control (except he doesn’t). 

X. 2017 O-2 to O-3 (Age 28). Late in the year, May until early 2018. Promoted to O-3 mid-May. Deployed to Afghanistan again. Captured by enemy forces in early June. Ben remained with them for almost a year before he was freed by a US Air Force pilot (Verse Dependent - Could be any SW Resistance or First Order Pilot.)

X. 2018 (Age 29). Ben spent the majority of the year in recovery. The first few weeks was touch and go but he was allowed out of the hospital within two months time. Because of the various injuries, he not only had to have physical therapy to recover (which he took on easily) but narcotic painkillers to manage his chronic pain. He didn’t allow many people to see him while he was recovering and took to staying at home alone unless friends showed up without mention. Partners were automatically allowed near him but instructed, by him, not to try to coddle him. 

X. His injuries include; the long scar down his face, a bullet wound to his left shoulder, and a near fatal wound to his abdomen.

X. Late 2018. Leia has him reassigned to a position in intelligence.

X. 2019 O-3 to O-4 (Age 29-30). Officially diagnosed with PTSD, depression, and general anxiety disorders. He refused additional  therapy and any medications prescribed to him. Managed to pay his home and vehicle off, does freelance translations in his spare time. He remains at home for the most part and works on his abilities in the backyard, surrounded by a privacy fence. Chewbacca (gift from vuuelo and service dog in training), his dog, remains with him for the most part along with any romantic partners. 

X. As a safety measure, Chewbacca will alert anyone in the home to Ben’s depersonalization disorder acting up. He will bark and growl, then attempt to put himself between the other person and Ben in order to keep Ben from harming them.

X. He has a home in New York City and another in D.C. and frequently travels between the two. Because of his position, he often sees his mother and works with her but rarely speaks to her on a personal level. He hasn’t seen Han much at all since he was young and he actively avoids Luke if he can help it.

Important Note: Due to Ben’s high amount of emotional and mental instability after spending a year as a POW, any romantic relationships may be highly toxic. He does not take medication for his mental conditions and can endanger himself and anyone in his home with him. While Chewbacca will growl at him if ‘Kylo Ren’ is at the forefront, this does not mean that other people in the house will be safe. 

Simplified Military Timeline

Joined up in '08, completed training & was actively a RESERVE by mid-'08

O-1 promotion in 2012; Active Duty, commissioned December O-2 promotion in 2015 O-3 promotion in 2017 O-4 promotion in 2019 Currently Reassigned As: O-4 (Major); MOS 0211 CI/HUMINT or Counter Intelligence and Human Intelligence Specialist

Yearly Salary: $89,524 Monthly: (Before Taxes) $7,460; (After Taxes) $5,068 Vehicle: Jeep Wrangler TJ Sport 03

$2100 monthly bills: electric, internet, cable, water, waste management 50 (every three months), car insurance, car payment, house payment (including insurance) $2968 left || $2568 after food ($100 per week)

Option 1: Possibility of meeting him somewhere in town, likely a coffee shop, grocery store, or walking to and from his office in either area.  Option 2: Working with him or around him. Ben will visibly flinch if called ‘Kylo Ren’ by anyone other than his old unit mates.

Fandoms/AUs that use this verse as a base:

The Walking Dead: ;;twd: until the light finally dies // Fully Customizable - above backstory does not change aside from dates. Given the length of the series itself and the numerous ways Ben could come into the main group, this will require plotting on a person-by-person basis. Resident Evil: ;;RE: this is how you rot // Fully Customizable - above backstory does not change. After hearing that the Umbrella Corporation is reportedly at the root of all issues, Senator Leia Organa petitions for her son to go undercover for them. Plotting available on a person-by-person basis. Day After Tomorrow: ;;DAT: it ended in ice //  Fully Customizable - above backstory does not change. The Silence: ;;the silence: sometimes silence is the best answer // Fully Customizable - above backstory does not change.  Birdbox: ;;birdbox: seeing shouldn't be believing //  Fully Customizable - above backstory does not change. Jurassic Park/World: ;;jurassic: of teeth and scales //  Fully Customizable - above backstory does not change. Movie information only. Ben is hired by the owners of the park to stand in as security detail for the island and the owners themselves.

[jq37]

hey hey hey!! have u seen the new bloodkeep episode, and if so..... thoughts?

**spoilers for avanash and double pants the caged elf and the crown**

(I have another ask that I’m going to use to talk about the airship ambush ep)

Rekha on Fantasy Spelling: “J, apostrophe, O, H, Umlaut, N.”/ “An umlaut over the H???”

I love that this episode starts with them arguing politics with an eagle. Brennan takes every opportunity to start talking philosophy.

“Please don’t call it seed.”

I love than no one calls Leiland by his goth name at all. I don’t even remember what it is right now. He’s just Leiland, the giant mess of a Walmart ringwraith.

So the Vingury show up and everyone makes a point to be as unnatural and creepy as possible for the drama of it all instead of acting natural.

Leiland doing a full of Mice and Men on poor Deckland. That’s just what I was thinking before Matt made the reference.

I think Barbarian is such a fun class for a new player. Not a ton of of complications. Just messing people up.

I wonder what would have happened if they had tried to persuade one of the Vingury into making a sacrifice instead of ambushing Deckland.

OK, what did Deckland do to Leiland? Or vice versa?

Efink Skype calls Maggie’s dad who beats the tar out of Zaul’nazh when he finds out he knocked her up without putting a ring on it. “SHOW ME YOUR HANDS.”

Anyway, lbr. This episode is only important for two reasons: Avanash and Double Pants.

Based on the character image, I thought Avanash was going to be a straight Gollum expy but y’all. Y’all.

Sidenote, since the players know this is a LOTR game, I wonder how much meta-gaming they have to stop themselves from doing. Like, “OK, this is this character so I know they can be corrupted.”

“This dude is full crazy.”

“Oh hey.”

“Don’t make this gesture at him.”

“I guess the only query I would raise here is how are you going to keep my bones.”

The comedic brilliance of Avanash truly is the completely even and normal sentences that melt into complete nonsense. 

“Are you them? What?”

This is just going to turn into me quoting everything Avanash said if I don’t rein it in now. 

“What does this lady think she is? A river? HELP.”

Lilith going off on being sensitive about mental health terminology, even though she’s a full evil general of the magic empire trying to genocide like 3 races. 

“WHAT IS CRAZY ABOUT WANTING YOUR BONES?” I want that on a shirt so bad. 

Everyone just breaks down. No one can handle Avanash. Not even DnD vet Matt who has sat through some insanity. In terms of just pure humor, Avanash is Bren’s best NPC ever. 

Markus’s question about the first five things he would do was a really smart move I think. Like, within this craziness, a very smart PC move. 

Not even Brennan can keep a straight face. “I’m gonna be very clear.” He has to stop to crack up. 

Maggie’s go to move is to just promise people shopping trips. 

Good on Brennan for being such a cool DM. Bargaining for spell slots. Giving Jessa advantage on the pants roll to reward the, “She was a design major” improv. I would love to play at his table. 

And then Leiland going off about child sweatshops. Sohkbar, “That’s where you draw the line?”

Lilith started making the “Where do eagles wear their pants” point and at first I was like, “Girl what?” but then, as she went on, I was like, “Hmm, she might be on to something.” Anyway

DOUBLE PANTS, DOUBLE PANTS, DOUBLE PANTS

Jessa coming in CLUTCH. A 19 and a NAT 20. Top of her class! What a wild roll on such a plot irrelevant thing. I love DnD so much. 

 For such a mercenary guy, Markus is kind of nice. Trying to give Leiland a morale boost last ep. Paying Jessa in this ep and offering to give her a commission for his crew, even though she would have done it for free to help her mom most likely. 

The rest of the party is overseeing this very important plot point and Maggie is like, “Shopping episode!”

I was trying to figure out Efink’s name the other day and I didn’t so to find out in this ep that it’s KNIFE BACKWARDS and I didn’t notice murdered me instantly. 

Also, I spent 2 hours trying to reverse that, “What do you have there?/A knife!/No!” gif  for a post after this ep but tumblr wouldn’t let me post it. But I want you to know that I tried. 

Efink and Lilith’s friendship is so funny to me.

“Stop saying mean things about my friend!”

Also, I forgot to mention before, Stalker getting covered in spiders and being like, “AHHHH. Eh, not so bad.”

“I don’t use this word lightly. This guy is a Goober.”

Brennan’s happy DM face right to the camera set me on edge until the reveal. You never wanna see your DM make that face.

Markus and Leiland have a heart to heart. Leiland lightly flirts with Markus. I am here for it. 

HAMHEAD HAS THE CROWN.

THIS IS WHY YOUR GUARD THE PRISONER YOU GUYS. THERE ARE SO MANY OF YOU.

Pushing Avanash in the lava was in character but I would have kept him around. There are still 3 non-Leiland Vingury. They could hypothetically made another crown. 

Good on Erika for enlisting Stalker’s tracking skills. These PC’s really make use of the story elements to help them out. 

All of the snapping and hand punching and stuff Brennan does is hypnotizing to me. 

Cut back to Maggie who is still shopping. Wild.

Oh, wait. There’s one more important thing in this episode. Maggie using Power Word: Kill on the torture dude.  Like, not the actual spell, but that’s basically what happened. 

“Cool. Maybe next time that will be the first thing out of your mouth instead of your fucking tight five.”

Truly brutal.

I didn’t know dire bats were a thing before now but I love them.

Olag is back because of course he is. 

“THE KICKED DOWN AND MADE THE DOOR HAPPEN.”

“mISTRESS? You asshole!”

“How do you become the villains of the villains?”

Efink being, “Y’all, I can be queen of the good guys and get us all hall passes. We’re good.” She’s selfish but she’s also gonna get everyone out w/ her so there are layers here. 

“GHOSTS ARE OUR THING. THEY’RE SPECIFICALLY MOST OF WHAT WE DO. THAT’S BULLSHIT!”

“You’re a large bird.”/ “You’re a large asshole.”

Efink kills Stalker which is another short sighted move I think but also very in character.

Anyway, they escape on Markus’ ship but are ambushed by his brother’s ship which is the lead in to next ep’s airship battle, which I’ll cover next!

Anyway, very curious about where this story is going to end seeing as we want the PC’s to succeed but a success for them means, like, straight genocide. 

[wanderingmelodies-blog1]

Post-S7 Galaxy Garrison Meta

(aka the meta about ranks and shit that no one wanted)

So as we return to Earth for season seven, we get a lot more information about the Galaxy Garrison and how it works. This prompted quite a few questions on my part, so I sat down and started to think about varying things that we can infer from what we see. This post will contain spoilers, so if you haven’t watched season seven yet, proceed with caution!

In this post, we’ll go into possible ranking structures based on what we see and hear, as well as the varying ways that cadets are possibly trained, and wartime differences. This will focus specifically on the installation that the Paladins were cadets at and thus we see more of, rather than the organization as a whole.

So the ranks we hear for certain are Cadet, Lieutenant, Commander, and Admiral. Captain does not necessarily infer a rank, but rather a position. For example, we see Shiro as the Captain of the Atlas, regardless of what his rank is. Prior to his taking command of the Atlas, we see him called both Lieutenant and Commander, so the likelihood is that he got promoted upon returning to Earth, alive and well. However, the rank in question he’s promoted to? There are actually two possibilities.

Given Shiro’s age, the possibility is that they’re using the rank of “Lieutenant Commander” which is a Naval rank. But it’s entirely possible he is simply a Commander, which would skip him a rank if they were using Naval ranks. However...the fact he was a Lieutenant before leaving Earth brings things into question, because if he was indeed twenty-five, then reaching such a rank at such a young age would have been difficult if not impossible.

On the other side, however, Lieutenant is the first rank in the Army upon completing Officer Training -- Second Lieutenant, to be exact. But...the Army doesn’t have a Commander rank.

So my train of thought currently leads me to believe that they use a ranking structure that combines multiple ranking structures from the modern world, to make things simple. So, my thinking is that the rankings go like this for officers and cadets: Cadet, Second Lieutenant, First Lieutenant, Lieutenant Commander, Commander, Captain, Commodore, various Admiral ranks. 

However, no fighting force, even in a supposedly peaceful planet, will be made entirely of officers. There are also enlisted ranks as well, those who didn’t do officer training, those who signed up straight out of high school and went into the field they wanted to pursue. Now, theoretically one could say we don’t see any proof that this is possible beyond my assumptions based on knowledge of the US Military from limited time enlisted and in training, and random bursts of obsessed research due to writing fanfic and being involved with the Star Trek RP community on Second Life. However...

Right here, we see three separate uniforms. The one Admiral Sonda wears is most likely for Flag Officers -- so Commodore/Admiral, while Iverson and Holt are wearing Commissioned Officer uniforms. Veronica and the guy way in the background? There are a couple possibilities. We are never given any sort of rank for Veronica, or else this would narrow it down (or at least we weren’t that I saw, but I saw the season itself once so far). The possibilities are she is a Warrant Officer (someone with specialized knowledge prior to joining the military), a Non-commissioned Officer (basically, Sergeants and similar ranks), or enlisted (your Privates and Crewmen).

Given she is the one relaying the messages, that she’s the one they’re talking to, I’m inclined to think that she’s an NCO (non-commissioned officer), but we haven’t got anything that proves it one way or the other, especially since they don’t have noticeable rank insignia anywhere. Even when we see Shiro in the flashbacks with Keith initially in training at the Garrison, there isn’t much difference between him and Sam Holt.

The only difference is that he has two golden stripes on his shoulder, while the rest we see all have three stripes. Only among the cadets do we really see differences in rank based on the shoulders -- here later in the same episode we see a single stripe on the Cadets’ uniforms.

While later on we see two stripes with no indication of how much time has passed, and when the Paladins return to Earth, (excepting Shiro) they’re all given the Cadet uniform with two stripes.

Shiro, however, seems to have been promoted around the time that Keith moved up to a two stripe cadet uniform, so there...really is no telling what rank is what anymore.

Even these supposedly senior cadets who are being put into planes, and are the same age as Hunk, Lance, and Keith ought to be (or at least James is) are still at two-stripes, showing a lack of more ranking among the cadets, which isn’t bad necessarily, but is odd, given how long they would be there at that same rank.

Now, away from the ranking system and over to the Garrison itself. It’s obviously a military base and a training location both in one. The kids there are obviously high school to college age, which makes me think it’s likely they have multiple programs they’re training kids in. With the teams and simulations they put together, however, it looks as if they have a focus on space exploration. So the focus is placed on training pilots, communications personnel, and engineers. Often, training bases will have specialties and train specific things. Sometimes there’s more than one for a specific thing, but still there’s typically specializations. There might be others trained at this specific location, but there’s just as much chance that there aren’t.

However, we do see other officers/enlisted running around doing other things. There have to be those who take care of administrative details, medical personnel, there’s mentions of cooks in one of the flashbacks Pidge has in season one, there’s likely other kinds of scientists as well milling around, especially once it’s discovered that yep, there are aliens out there.

Given the ages we’re given for Hunk, Lance, and Keith, and how long we can estimate they were there (since Pidge is an exception to the rule given she did her plot magic to get in), they are literally high school students. However, they’re later on in high school, so they’re likely high school juniors when they start by today’s standards, and they probably take courses that are a mix of what they would’ve taken in high school as well as courses in their chosen field, getting them ahead of the curve. Otherwise, they would likely be twenty-two upon ‘graduating’ and the like.

I do think there’s likely other programs in place at the Garrison, for those who merely want to enlist, and for those who decide to join up after high school to become officers, and those who join and already have a degree. But we don’t see much of anything to prove or disprove that in what we’re given in canon.

However, something that every cadet has to do is physical training. Not like rehabilitation of injured limbs or the like, but training to make sure they’re fit. There aren’t many bigger folk there, but the assumption can be made that everyone there is fit, or close to it, or they wouldn’t be present. Especially once they get into wartime.

Now, for something a tad bit more specific. Shiro’s rank. We hear him called ‘Lieutenant’, ‘Commander’, and ‘Captain’. However, there are a lot of things that are called into question by this. First off, we know he was Lieutenant when he left Earth, based on how Iverson addressed him when they all pulled into the base. However, not too long after, he was addressed as Commander. There are a couple of possibilities here. One -- he was promoted because he would have been in the time he was gone regardless, and thus was moved to Lieutenant Commander or Commander in rank (as both are addressed as Commander for short). Two -- he was promoted despite being gone but not because of it, and the promotion was a wartime promotion, something that normally wouldn’t be done but given the situation, it seemed fitting.

Now, the problem with two is...if Shiro was promoted because of wartime, why weren’t the cadet pilots promoted to officer? Why weren’t the Paladins promoted to officer? It would make sense for them to be promoted to whatever the lowest officer rank is rather than keeping them as cadets.

The only thing I can think possible is that perhaps Shiro borrowed a uniform from someone, but the others got new uniforms, and cadets were still treated pretty damn well and put into situations cadets shouldn’t be in, because it was war and every little bit counted. And they only had spare cadet uniforms.

I honestly hope this little bit is addressed come season eight, but I’m not holding my breath.

Now, back to Shiro’s rank specifically, I think his rank is either Lieutenant Commander or Commander, despite the fact that he is later called Captain. Why? Because, Captain is not just a rank, it’s also a position. He was the Captain of the Atlas, he was directing everyone and acting as such, so when they called him that, they weren’t being little shits -- they were addressing him by what he was doing, and admitting he was the best suited for the job. Sam Holt might or might not outrank him, but he is still going to follow Shiro’s orders, because Shiro is the Captain, he’s effectively the commanding officer of the whole shebang.

I hope that this random burst of thoughts has been helpful to anyone who just wonders about the Garrison -- and I’ll point out these are just my own thoughts on the matter, and nothing in this is strictly canon. This really is more headcanon/meta than anything else.

[forlornmelody]

Sudden Downpour

Rating: T 

Ship: FemShep/Kaidan Alenko

Summary:  The good news is Kaidan Alenko is finally attracted to someone. The bad news is that someone happens to be his commanding officer.

Notes:@commanderduckling requested some rain and warm blankets for fshenko. I went ahead and wrote it for Jane Shep and Demi!Kaidan. Hope you don’t mind. :) Also, this is way longer than a ficlet. I uh...I got carried away. e_e;

Also, my finances took a turn for the better, so I’m officially closing requests/commissions. I need to discuss some things with PayPal, anyway. 

After a brisk, and rather bittersweet mission on Noveria, Shepard had Joker set a course for Earth. Liara needed time to grieve, Shepard needed a goddamn break, the crew needed some shore leave, and well, Kaidan Alenko needed to pick up his sweater.

Kaidan set his wake up call on his omni-tool extra early, just before dawn. No need to face any more of Wrex’s or Ashley’s jibes, and Kaidan needed to feel the crisp Canadian air. He set out in jeans and a long sleeve shirt, and a pair of sneakers. Pulling up his omnit tool as he stepped into the airlock, Kaidan didn’t see the woman already standing inside.

“Oh, hey, Kaidan.” Shepard stood there in a pair of sweats and N7 t-shirt. No surprise.

“Hey. Going for a run?”

“Mmhm.” Shepard chewed her lip for a second, eyeing him. “You know, I could use a jogging partner.”

Kaidan grinned. “Sure. Let me change my clothes real quick.”

The sun had just nudged above the horizon when they left the spaceport. Jane stretched her legs, reaching down to touch her toes. “So….last one across the bridge buys brunch.”

“You’re on.”

Jane Shepard took off.

“Hey!” Kaidan chased after her, laughing with her.

“Too slow, Alenko!” Jane sure moved fast. Kaidan had just managed to catch up with her when they neared the other side of the water, only to be knocked aside with a biotic throw.

“Cheater!” Kaidan balanced himself by pulling towards the opposite rail.

Jane paused a few meters ahead, catching her breath. “Couldn’t let you win, now could I?”

Kaidan pulled up beside her, wiping his brow. “I demand a rematch.”

“You’re on--Hey!” She looked up just in time to see him take off without her.

“Taste your own medicine, Shepard!”

They ran like that for several blocks, until they nearly collapsed. Together they hung off a park bench, wheezing, when the a drop of water landed on Kaidan’s nose. “Uh oh.”

“Shit.” Shepard looked to the west, noticing the dark clouds for the first time. “Storm’s rolled in.”

Kaidan pulled up his omni-tool, making a face. “We’re a good 20 minute run from the Normandy.”

As if the clouds heard him, they unleashed a torrent of rain.

Shepard grabbed Kaidan’s arm, pulling him towards the nearest hotel, and booked a room with a washer and dryer inside. They pulled off their sopping wet clothes as simple as stripping off their armor in the shuttle bay. With both sets of clothes in the dryer, Kaidan handed Shepard one towel and took one for himself.

Toweling her hair, Shepard sighed. “Much better.”

“Totally worth the credits.” Kaidan dried off his arms and legs, running the towel down his chest. Wait a second, was Shepard staring? By the time he looked, Shepard had already shifted to drying off her feet. He must have been imagining things. Shepard would never do something so unprofessional, no matter how badly some of the crew wished otherwise.

“I promise I’ll pay you back.” Shepard wrapped herself in a third towel, laying down on the bed.

“Don’t worry about it, Shepard.” Kaidan tucked his towel around his waist, settling in next to her.

“At least let me buy your next round of drinks.”

“Fine, fine.” Kaidan activated the television with his omni tool, scrolling through tv guide. “Any suggestions?”

Shepard wrapped her arms around her middle. “Could you turn the heat up?”

Kaidan saw goosebumps on her arms. “Sure thing.” Or not. “There’s some glitch with the thermostat. I could call the front desk and--”

“--Don’t worry about it.” Shepard pulled up the covers, deftly sliding underneath. How she managed with a towel around her middle, Kaidan had no idea.

Now that she mentioned it, it was getting a little cold. “Mind if I join you?”

Shepard smiled, though she had trouble meeting his eyes. “Not at all.”

Kaidan maneuvered his way under the blanket, re-wrapping his towel to be on the safe side. All settled, he started scrolling through the program options.

“This is nice.” Shepard murmured softly.

“Definitely beats jogging our soggy asses all the way back the Normandy.”

She broke out laughing. “Sure does.” Kaidan looked over to see Jane Shepard, Sole Survivor of Akuze, chewing her lip. “I mean, the company.” He barely heard the next part. “A lot better than the people I shared hotel rooms back on Earth.”

That stopped him short. “You mean…?”

Jane swallowed hard, fingering a piece of lint on the blanket. “Yeah. I used to turn tricks.” She added quietly. “Before the Alliance, I mean.”

Kaidan thought over his next question carefully. He didn’t want to hurt her, but something about learning about her secrets thrilled him. “But I thought you joined up the moment you left the Reds.”

“And the Reds don’t sell sex.” Jane eyed him, nearly smiling. “Someone’s done their homework.”

Kaidan shrugged. “They were pretty active in Vancouver.”

Jane nodded. “Yeah they were. And you’re right...I don’t usually tell people this, but I didn’t enlist right away after leaving.” She took a deliberate breath. “I didn’t really want to. I hate taking orders.”

“I can see that.” They both laughed.

“I lasted about a week on my own.” Shepard stared through the television screen. “I’d book one session to pay for the hotel room for the night, so I could sleep in the few hours til checkout. I’d turn another to pay for dinner. Anything beyond that I saved for a ticket off planet.”

“What happened?”

Jane shrugged. “Nothing bad. I mean, it wasn’t glamorous.” She cleared her throat. “Most people paying for sex….aren’t the kind you’d want to sleep with.” Casting the piece of lint off the side of the bed, she added. “I guess I didn’t like being on my own. Say what you want about the Reds, but I could at least count on them to watch my back. Until I ran away, that is.”

“And so could the Alliance.”

“Yeah.” Jane grimaced. “Sorry. This wasn’t supposed to turn into another therapy session.”

“I don’t mind.” Kaidan smoothed his hand over the blanket, the television long since forgotten. “I feel like I’m seeing a side of you that no one else does.”

Shepard laughed softly. “You got that right.” She looked up at him, her warm brown eyes glimmering in the low light. “What I meant to say...is you’re a great guy to share a bed with, Kaidan.”

He chuckled. “Not often I’m bed with my commanding officer.”

Jane quirked an eyebrow, leaning devilishly close to his face. “Oh? Have you done this before, Alenko?”

Something about the way she said it--the drop in her voice, the stir off her biotics against his own in such close proximity, the heat of her body next to his, sent a pulse straight down his spine.

Holy shit. He was attracted to her.

Kaidan hadn’t felt this way about anyone, man, woman, or otherwise, in years. He had forgotten what it felt like. Clearing his throat, he answered, “No, this is a first.”

The woman next to him faltered. “Am I being inappropriate?”

Kaidan’s words are out of his mouth before he can stop himself. “Not at all.”

Shit. He was attracted to her.

Why did it have to happen with the last person he should be falling in love with? And Kaidan knew it was love, not just lust. He didn’t know how to feel one without the other.

Shepard smiled, and it made his mind race just that much faster. “Good. I’m far too comfortable to move.” She nestled closer to him, resting her head on his shoulder.

Shit. He was in so much trouble.

[countmohawk]

Pokemon Sun Postgame Recollections *1

In Ultra Sun, we’d just been crowned Champion of the Alolan Pokemon League after dealing with the combined threats of Team Skull, the Aether Foundation and Necrozma.

But what if events had played out a little differently?

Even after having put the games down for about a month, this line still makes me feel a little sad.

Of course, Lillie hasn’t died or anything tragic like that. Rather, in a world where the UR Squad never crossed over into Alola, Lusamine’s obsession with her Ultra Wormhole research eventually led to an unhealthy relationship with Nihilego, culminating in her fusing with one and subsequently falling into a coma when the merger was forcibly broken apart by Nebby. Lillie then decided to take her mother to Kanto in the hopes of finding a cure for the remaining damage from the experience, while simultaneously looking to start her life as a Trainer in a new place.

Anyway, enough about Lillie for now, we have a postgame to cover!

After becoming Champion, we find ourselves back at our house, as per usual for Pokemon games. Opening the door, we are greeted by a strange man, telling us to come to the motel on Akala Island on Route 8. The summons are dubious, but in the end , curiosity wins out over caution, and we enter what was formerly Gladion’s pad!

Well, hello there, Looker! I should have known it would be you.

For those uninitiated into the background lore of some of the more recent titles, the man on the right is Looker, and he’s basically the series’ go-to field agent whenever GameFreak needs to insert a government presence into their games. For example, in Platinum, his debut game, he followed the exploits of Team Galactic, remaining one step behind the team throughout most of the story but eventually catching up to the last remaining Commander at Stark Mountain and taking him off to prison. Pokemon Black and White saw him in a similar role, where after the final confrontation with N, he enlisted the player to help him arrest the rest of the Seven Sages. ...And so on.

This time around, however, Looker appears not to be acting alone. Who’s the lady in black standing next to him, then?

Ah, Looker’s boss, I presume.

To shorten a somewhat lengthy story, Looker and Anabel explain that when Lusamine forced Cosmog!Nebby to open an Ultra Wormhole, a whole bunch of other portals opened up, through which several other Ultra Beasts entered into our world. As Ultra Beasts are potentially very dangerous creatures, it falls on the pair of them to keep the populace safe while learning more about the beasts, if possible.

Thus, the obvious question:

Of course I said yes. It wouldn’t be much of a postgame if I had refused, now would it?

Anabel is delighted to have us aboard, but due to the nature of the job, she requests a battle first, to make sure it won’t be too much for us to handle.

Now, normally I would say something like “and then I proceeded to sweep her team 6-0″ or something, but I should point out something about the level progression here. In vanilla Sun, Kukui, the last fight after the Elite Four, uses a team at roughly level 57. Anabel’s team, by contrast, is in the low 60s - so if you jump straight into this fight directly after becoming Champion, you might have a bit of a hard time. My team was around level 55 after becoming Champion, so before starting the fight, I flew over to Poni Island for an impromptu grinding session, pushing most of my team into the low 60s myself.

With the initiation formally completed, Looker directs us to head for the secret labs at the bottom of Aether Paradise, to meet a contact there for additional information. Obviously this is Wicke, since she’s the highest-ranking member of Aether who isn’t either evil or in a coma.

Before we move on to our government work, however, Wicke offers us something halfway between an apology and an explanation for Lillie’s sudden departure. I’ve written pretty thoroughly about what I think of the ending of Lillie’s arc in vanilla Sun elsewhere, so I’ll leave this topic alone for now.

After Wicke finishes her talk, we can approach her in Secret Lab B.

Since normal Poke Balls have a hard time identifying Ultra Beasts as catchable lifeforms, Lusamine commissioned a new model which would be more suited for use on them. This makes sense, I suppose; the line between Pokemon and Ultra Beast is blurry at best - alien geometries and all that. The Beast Ball’s design, if you look at it in the menu, is very much inspired by the appearance of both the Ultra Wormhole (the blue square patterns) and Cosmog/Cosmoem (the gold bands encircling it).

Our business with Wicke concluded, we have one more stop to make in Aether Paradise before returning to Anabel and Looker’s motel room. Gladion is loitering around in the conservatory, in the same part of the room where we first encountered Nihilego:

In Ultra Sun, we already know about how Professor Mohn disappeared into an Ultra Wormhole and how his disappearance destabilized Lusamine. However, it takes until now for vanilla!Gladion to open up about his disappeared dad. I do like that despite his gruff demeanor, he apparently trusts us enough to tell us basically everything he knows about his family drama.

Oh yeah, and he entrusts us with one more thing, too:

Gladion mentioned there were three Type: Null made in total. One of these, obviously, is his partner Null, now a Silvally. Of the two that remain, he allows us to take one, along with literally a “whole stack” of memory drives to change its type once it evolves.

From Gladion, this is basically the highest of praise. This is also our last interaction with the guy in the game, aside from Title Defense fights at the Elite Four, so it’s fitting that there should be no loose ends between us and him at the end of it.

I may not have mentioned it before, probably because Lillie tends to take front stage whenever the Aether family’s drama gets any screentime, but Gladion gets a surprising amount of character development, all things considered. He doesn’t change in the same way that Lillie changes, per se, but as we learn more about his motivations throughout the game, the initial impression we get of him as a complete edgelord ends up almost turned on its head, while the man himself learns how to defrost around others. He’s still an edgelord, mind you - just not as big of one as it appears.

Because Type: Null was designed to be able to fight the Ultra Beasts as a “beast killer”, I thought it would be appropriate to add it to my team. It’s only Lv40 when we receive it, however, so before we return to the Interpol hut, we have a little bit of training to do to get him caught up and evolved.

Our first stop is actually the GameFreak building in Heahea City on Akala, which I completely missed on my playthrough and had to be told where it was on an online guide. After becoming Champion, we can fight Morimoto, one of the GameFreak employees, once per day.

Morimoto’s team isn’t quite as hard as Anabel’s, but their levels are about the same, so you can’t just walk in and expect a free win. Nonetheless, I did beat him, and in addition to the EXP and money, I was rewarded with the Oval Charm, which increases the likelihood of finding an Egg at the Pokemon Nursery.

The other thing we do is head towards Poni Plains, which was blocked off by an old man but is now accessible due to our Championship status. Just before we can approach him, however, who but Dexio and Sina show up for one more go-around.

I don’t think they ever found whatever it was they were looking for. That said, it’s very convenient that they should bump into me one more time before they leave. That way they can give us a Key Stone and enable Mega Evolution - not that I have any eligible ‘Mons. Still, it’s the thought that counts.

Next time, the hunt for the Ultra Beasts commences in earnest!

[merryfortune]

Golden Experience: Deluxe

Commissioned fic for fanfiction.net user Rarecasionul

Kofi

  The year is 2001. It’s already been three months since the beginning of the Twenty-First Century. In the sci-fi movie “2001: A Space Odyssey”, humans have already travelled all the way to Jupiter, but the truth is far less exciting than a movie. Humans haven’t even been able to return to the Moon since the sixties after all.

  But these travellers aren’t going anywhere too estranged from Earth, but it is quite the distance from their homeland of Japan. Italy is a country of ancient art and complex economics but in later days, it had become quite the vacation spot. But these two are not technically here to sight-see. Landing in Italy, is a seemingly unlikely pair, for the job, embarking upon a bizarre mission under the instructions of Jotaro Kujo.

  An “unlikely pair” consisting of the oddball couple, Koichi Hirose and Yukako Yamagishi.

  The airport bustled. It was a lot more orderly than Koichi and Yukako had expected. It was packed with people and noise emanated from every metre it stretched across but there were defined queues and the like. The couple found it easy to navigate through it all and find a place where they could exchange their money for euros.

  Koichi went up to the counter. Yukako slunk around by his side and examined her nails. She smiled sweetly though and was ready to encourage the clerk into what she considered a fairer deal at a moment’s notice.

  “We need enough taxi money for two thank you, how much will that be?” Koichi asked.

  He thumbed through his wallet and stood on his tip-toes so he could exchange the money. Yukako smiled and by her numbers, they were getting a fair exchange. She was well aware of Italy’s reputation as being a corrupt country and she was ready to challenge such notions if it meant protecting her boyfriend.

  “Thank you.” Yukako mentioned to the clerk before heading off with Koichi.

  The goal of the mission Koichi and Yukako had been enlisted for involved an unknown youth in a photograph. Though saying he was “unknown” was slightly misleading. His connection to the larger context of the photograph is unknown. Some personal details about him, however, were known.

  His name is Haruno Shiobana. He is fifteen years old and male. He is of mixed descent: Japanese through his mother but English through his biological father. He is Italian by his mother’s later marriage to an Italian man. He is currently attending a boarding school and is considered to not be a dependant to his mother or either of his fathers.

  It is Koichi and Yukako’s duty to find him and acquire a DNA sample from him. That is where the mission becomes bizarre.

  For mysterious reasons, Jotaro needs a skin sample from him so he can use resources from the Speedwagon Foundation to do some investigation into his genetic structure.

  Koichi and Yukako, upon learning the goal of this mission, had been reasonably concerned by the raised notion. Ever the enigma, Jotaro deflected their questions and remained vague. He did, however, impress upon them that it was extremely urgent to have this information collected.

  It also seemed odd to them that he would rely upon them over Josuke and Okuyasu for such a mission. He explained to Koichi and Yukako that unlike Josuke and Okuyasu, through Echoes and Love Deluxe, they had a more pliant use than the sheer brute strength present in the powers of Crazy Diamond and The Hand. Their Stands, however, were more applicable in stealth operations and the like thus their presence was more useful over the other two boys.

  It was because of this stealth option present in uses of their Stand that Jotaro remarked upon incredible importance. Koichi and Yukako were not to engage at all with their target: neither in conversation and definitely not in a fight. He deemed Haruno Shiobana as a possibly dangerous character. Part of the mission was to discern if he was friend or foe, so an element of precaution was necessary. A trait neither Josuke or Okuyasu held in great abundance. They were the type to rush in.

  As shallow as it was though, it was when Jotaro explained this mission would be all expenses paid that truly hooked Koichi and Yukako’s interests. They were both unemployed teenagers… adults? They were eighteen nowadays so perhaps that was apter. They would enjoy the opportunity to travel without cost; especially as a couple.

  They were ecstatic at first but then, closer inspection towards the photograph made a strange connection arise. It had been Koichi to notice it – of course, it was Koichi, after all, he had picked out Yukako’s face from many too – but he realised that Jotaro vaguely resembled the boy in the picture. Their biracial features were eerily similar. It begged the question: would Haruno Shiobana bear the star like Jotaro, Josuke, and Joseph?

  Neither Koichi nor Yukako brought this observation up with Jotaro. It seemed rude and invasive. Not to mention, he was already being evasive from both personality and level of confidentiality clearance. So, that was a secret they discussed only in private and now that they arrived, it seemed like it may become relevant.

  The couple, with their money exchanged, decided it was time to catch a taxi. It was a little calmer outside than it was at the airport. Nearby, some voices caught their attention and it was almost like watching a circus sideshow.

  Two police officers, judging by their clothes, were fawning over some youth. He was blonde and performing some sort of parlour trick for them both. The youth had managed to stuff the entirety of his ear inside of itself. It was grotesque; Yukako found herself near gagging at the sight of it. The police officers seemed to love it.

  “Whoa, amazing!”

  “No matter how many times I see it, it makes me sick to my stomach!”

  Yukako made a face to Koichi. “Yeah, it’s pretty gross.” he agreed.

  “Let’s get out of here.” Yukako replied. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”

  A bad feeling that was soon justified. The couple saw the blonde youth slip the police officers a carton of cigarettes. The lid opened slightly and the two saw that it was not packed with cigarettes but rather with money.

  “Thanks for showing us a good time.” One of the men murmured before moving on.

  Koichi gulped. Yukako went on the defensive. Italy was already living up to its reputation.

  The blonde youth turned away from the police officers. He had a familiar face. His eyes lit up when he saw Koichi and Yukako.

  “Did I overhear that you two need a taxi?” he asked. He had a charming, polite voice.

  Yukako crossed her arms and stiffened. “Yes, but we are quite fine waiting for an available one.”

  He shrugged and flaunted a golden smile that matched his golden hair. “Aw, come on, I’ll give you a discount. It’s only my part-time job. How about… eight thousand yen to take you into town?”

  He spoke as though he had magnets on his tongue because he was strangely compelling. He most certainly got Koichi to pause and consider his offer.

  “That’s still too expensive.” Yukako snapped.

  Koichi looked over his shoulder. The official taxis all had queues and were utterly clogged with people.

  “Are you both Japanese?” the youth asked. “You both speak Italian as though natively.”

  “We are very good at learning.” Yukako said.

  Koichi guffawed; thinking about how they had both been written on by Rohan.

  Yukako raised an eyebrow. She could tell Koichi was slowly becoming fond of the idea of this unofficial taxi service. She scrutinised the young man. He looked younger than them both; a good two or three years younger.

  “Are you old enough to be driving people around?” she asked. “You look like a high schooler, is all.”

  “And what about that money…?” Koichi asked. He thought Yukako was right in her suspicions, despite his own temptations.

  “Parking fee.” the youth replied choppily. “And what about one thousand yen? I will drive you into town for one thousand yen; no tip required.”

  “One thousand yen? For both us?” Koichi gasped.

  “Yes.”

  The youth returned to his white car and loitered. He was beginning to look impatient.

  “One thousand yen. Take it or leave it.” he said.

  Koichi stole a glance at Yukako. He picked up their luggage and Yukako relented. The youth smiled and opened up his car for them.

  “Put your luggage in the passenger seat. I’m working without tip so I won’t do it for you.”

  It seemed fair. He got into the driver’s seat. Koichi placed his and Yukako’s things on the passenger seat: one, somewhat large suitcase between them so one had to go on the floor.

  “Okay, take us straight to the hotel at the following location.” Koichi said, firmly as he made sure their belongings would not interfere with the youth’s driving.

  “Of course, I’ll go straight to the hotel.” he said, a dazzling smile to accompany such a declaration. “But without you both.”

  Before Yukako or Koichi could act, the doors slammed shut and locked. The youth drove off. Yukako’s eye began to twitch. Her hair began to stick together in near greasy clumps which was a sign that Love Deluxe was on the cusp of activation. Koichi was terrified, and not just because of her.

  He looked around. Panicked. He saw the policemen from the before. They looked away from him and shuffled off. That was not a parking fee. That was a bribe.

  “Koichi. Honey. We are going to have a very serious talk later.” Yukako said.

  “I understand completely.” Koichi replied.

  The youth chuckled to himself as he sped off. That was, until, something peculiar happened. One moment, the Japanese couple were in the distance. The second moment, Koichi was touching the rear of his car.

  “What?” he sputtered.

  Yukako smiled demurely as her hair began to snake about. The youth did notice such a thing, but it was the murderous look in her eyes which scared him more than her tresses of sentient hair.

  “Don’t underestimate us just because we’re tourists.” Koichi warned.

  The youth got out of the car. His tyres had sunken into cracking asphalt. Koichi was now accompanied by a third figure: an alien-looking humanoid shorter than him.

  “We don’t want hurt you.” Koichi continued.

  “Something I concur.” Yukako added.

  “We will leave you alone so long as you give us our luggage back.” Koichi said.

  The youth glared as he turned around to meet the ones threatening him. His glare was a peculiar expression. Panic or guilt would have been likely expressions for such a youth to wear; for a normal youth to wear but as his glare melted, that was not what was revealed. He didn’t seem to be feeling any of those emotions.

  But rather, he was calm and composed. His expression conveyed a shining serenity. Or at least that’s what Koichi felt. Yukako would likely attest to something more akin to smugness but Koichi didn’t feel that emanate from the youth; as strange as he was.

  Strangely familiar too.

  “Looks like Giorno messed up with engine trouble.”

  He fled as the cops talked about him, as casually as they would talk about the weather.

  “Its what he gets for trying to trick Japanese tourists when he’s half Japanese himself.”

  “Yeah, but no one would guess that Giorno Giovanna’s half Japanese. Not that’s dyeing his hair now. When it was black, you could tell straight away he’s mixed.”

  “I heard he isn’t dyeing it. Says he got it from his white father’s genetics.”

  Strangely familiar like a photograph indeed.

  Koichi took it from his breast pocket and with a panicked expression, he turned to Yukako who had been inspecting the car.

  “Our things are gone.” she said. “All I found in the front seat were like… frog eggs. Gross!”

  “And this just got a lot more complicated... I think that boy’s a Stand user.” Koichi replied as he showed her the photograph. “I think Giorno Giovanna – that boy – is Haruno Shiobana.”

  After all, there is an unwritten rule of fate. Stand users attract other Stand users.

[nancyedimick]

Three sentences worth contemplating

President Trump at the White House in Washington on April 12. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

I am well aware that we have a president who, as even his supporters would surely acknowledge, is less assiduous than most in his use of the English language. I’ve complained about it before and will continue to do so, and I will continue to try as best I can to apply rigorous standards to what President Trump writes and says, because I believe that careful use of our common language is a bulwark against foolishness and evil.

Here are three sentences from recent news reports, all of which are, I predict, destined to become among the more celebrated sentences in U.S. presidential history, and therefore worth taking a closer look at.

Sentence 1. “While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.”

This now-familiar sentence was sentence No. 3 in Trump’s five-sentence letter to FBI Director James B. Comey, relieving the latter of his duties.

To begin with, it rather transparently contradicted the notion, originally advanced by the White House, that Comey’s firing was completely unrelated to the FBI investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 election and possible coordination between officials of the Trump campaign and the Russian government. If Trump was, as he claimed at the time, just following the Justice Department’s recommendation to fire Comey because of the manner in which Comey had conducted the Hillary Clinton email server investigation, of what possible relevance was the reference to whether Trump was under investigation in a separate and unrelated probe? The Justice Department’s supporting memorandum made no mention of the Russia investigation — why was Trump bringing it up?

We now know the answer to that one, of course, courtesy of Trump himself, who has conceded not only that he was “going to fire [Comey] regardless of recommendation,” but that “this Russia thing” was indeed foremost in his mind when he decided to fire Comey. As he put it in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt:

And in fact when I decided to just do it [fire Comey], I said to myself, I said, “You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.” It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.

It also opens Trump up to charges of obstruction of justice. Helen Murillo at Lawfare has analyzed federal obstruction of justice law in detail, and it’s not all that complicated:

Under 18 U.S.C 1505, a felony offense is committed by anyone who “corruptly, or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication influences, obstructs, or impedes or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede the due and proper administration of the law under which any pending proceeding is being had before any department or agency of the United States” …

An accompanying code section, 18 U.S.C. § 1515(b), defines “corruptly” as “acting with an improper purpose” …

As the Department of Justice U.S. Attorneys’ Manual explains, the crime is found on proof of three elements: “(1) there was a proceeding pending before a department or agency of the United States; (2) the defendant knew of or had a reasonably founded belief that the proceeding was pending; and (3) the defendant corruptly endeavored to influence, obstruct, or impede the due and proper administration of the law under which the proceeding was pending.”

If Trump’s “purpose” in firing Comey was to interfere with, or end, an ongoing ongoing investigation, he has committed a federal crime.

This sentence in Trump’s letter was completely unnecessary, and has all of these unpleasant consequences for him. Why did he put it in? And how in heaven’s name could White House Counsel Donald McGahn, whom I assume reviewed the letter — I know Trump is a bit of a loose cannon and all that, but surely he got legal advice from counsel before sending it out — have let him put it in?

A charitable reading (not that I’m feeling terribly charitable toward Trump at the moment) of the sentence might be that it was an inartful and clumsy attempt to say: “I couldn’t possibly be firing you to interfere with your investigation of me, because you’ve told me you’re not investigating me.” But no lawyer worth his salt would let a sentence like this through in a termination letter. Here’s a little free legal advice: If you’re the owner of, say, a grocery store, and you’re firing an employee for some valid reason (poor performance, or bad customer relations) having nothing to do with race or ethnicity, don’t write in your firing letter: “I appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that you don’t think I’m a racist, but nevertheless…” It just looks bad, you know?

So it makes me wonder whether Trump did, in fact, show the letter to McGahn, or whether he sought McGahn’s advice but didn’t follow it. (The third possibility — that McGahn was consulted but raised no objections — is too awful to contemplate.)

But there’s more deconstructing we can do here:

• “While I appreciate you informing me…” This just happens to be a pet peeve of mine. I know it has absolutely nothing to do with the very important questions on the table, but I can’t let it pass. “While” implies duration of time: “While James Comey was giving a talk to FBI agents in Los Angeles, he found out that he had been fired.” “While I was swimming, I got a cramp in my right leg.” Many people, however, use it the way Trump used it here — as a substitute for “although.” (Similarly, many people use “since,” which is also a durational preposition — “Since 1980, the crime rate in the United States has been in a steady decline” — as a substitute for “because” — “Since I had to be at the meeting anyway, I figured I’d try to ingratiate myself with my boss.”) I know this is a battle that has already been lost, and, as I said, it’s not really germane to the larger constitutional issues raised by Trump’s sentence, but it really bothers me.

• “… on three separate occasions …” We’re surely going to be hearing a lot more about these four words. Did the president really ask the FBI director, straight out, whether he was “under investigation”? And that was appropriate because…? And did Comey really answer?! I must say, I find that difficult to believe, though it is possible. As acting FBI director Andrew McCabe testified the other day, it is not standard FBI practice to respond to such a question (though I’m not aware of any specific policy it would have contravened had Comey responded). Comey is scheduled to testify, under oath, next week, and that will help clear this matter up. (It would be nice to think that we might get the president’s views on this under oath as well, but that’s probably asking for too much.) And of course — see Sentence 3 — there might be tape recordings.

• “… under investigation …” One reason I think it’s unlikely that Comey responded to Trump’s question is that it appears to lack definite meaning. What does it mean to be “under investigation”? The FBI’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide defines the “target” of an investigation as someone about whom there exists “substantial evidence linking him or her to the commission of a crime,” and the “subject” of an investigation as a “person whose conduct is within the scope of” an investigation. Which (if either) of them did he mean?

• “… I nevertheless concur … that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau.” Trump’s use of “nevertheless” here strikes me as peculiar. “Nevertheless” overrides a statement pointing in one direction with one that points in the opposite direction:

Although I’ve always thought you were a good guy, I nevertheless concur with the recommendation that you be fired.

Although Smith was a committed pacifist, he nevertheless enlisted immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack.

Although Jones played in an obscure intramural league, he nevertheless came to the attention of major league scouts.

Trump’s sentence, then, can be read to say: “You are not investigating me; because of that, I’d like to keep you on as FBI director; nonetheless, I am going to fire you.”

Sentence 2. “Having concluded those meetings [with senior Justice Department officials] today, I have decided to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any matters related in any way to the campaigns for President of the United States.”

This comes from Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s official statement, on March 2, issued immediately after a story in The Washington Post revealed that Sessions had, notwithstanding his denials under oath during and after his confirmation hearings, indeed met — twice — with the Russian ambassador during the 2016 campaign.

Was Sessions’s involvement in the firing of Comey a violation of the terms of his recusal? Was it, in other words, an “investigation” into a “matter” relating “in any way” to the 2016 presidential campaigns. (Note the use of the plural — “campaigns” — indicating presumably that a matter related to either the Trump campaign or the Clinton campaign — or the Gary Johnson campaign, for that matter — would be off limits to Sessions.)

Surely the Comey firing was a matter related to the 2016 election; Sessions’s recommendation was explicitly based on Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein’s accompanying memo, and Rosenstein’s memo is about nothing other than Comey’s actions during the 2016 campaign.

But Sessions’s recusal only covers “investigations of” matters relating to the 2016 campaign. Was Sessions improperly involving himself in an “investigation” of that matter?

On the one hand, one wouldn’t think that asking the attorney general to evaluate the performance of the FBI director, including his actions during the 2016 campaign, would constitute an “investigation,” particularly at the Justice Department, where “investigation” has a rather carefully considered meaning. Comey wasn’t being “investigated,” Sessions was not “investigating” when he evaluated Comey’s performance as FBI director, and I wouldn’t think that he was obliged to recuse himself when the president asked him for his recommendation.

On the other hand, if Trump’s purpose in firing Comey was to interfere with the Russia investigation — see Sentence 1 — things are not quite so clear. Sessions’s recusal clearly means that he can’t involve himself in that investigation, and consulting about firing the person responsible for that investigation because of the manner in which the investigation is being conducted is surely in the bulls-eye of the prohibition.

Sentence 3. “James Comey better hope that there are no “tapes” of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”

This is from Trump’s tweet on May 12. Even for a president who has said many nasty things — about everything from grabbing women to Mexican immigrants to Rosie O’Donnell — this seems to cross over the line of appropriate commentary. Does Trump have tapes that are relevant to the Russia investigation? I know the Richard Nixon analogy can sometimes be pressed too far, but really. And if he doesn’t have tapes, is he just trying to intimidate a potential witness in that investigation?

And inasmuch as some of our readers here at Volokh Conspiracy seem to have a better understanding of the workings of our president’s mind than I have, can anyone explain why there are inverted commas around “tapes”? I cannot for the life of me figure out what that might mean, or why Trump put them in there. Your thoughts welcome.

Originally Found On: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/05/15/three-sentences-worth-contemplating/

[wolfandpravato]

Three sentences worth contemplating

President Trump at the White House in Washington on April 12. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post)

I am well aware that we have a president who, as even his supporters would surely acknowledge, is less assiduous than most in his use of the English language. I’ve complained about it before and will continue to do so, and I will continue to try as best I can to apply rigorous standards to what President Trump writes and says, because I believe that careful use of our common language is a bulwark against foolishness and evil.

Here are three sentences from recent news reports, all of which are, I predict, destined to become among the more celebrated sentences in U.S. presidential history, and therefore worth taking a closer look at.

Sentence 1. “While I greatly appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that I am not under investigation, I nevertheless concur with the judgment of the Department of Justice that you are not able to effectively lead the Bureau.”

This now-familiar sentence was sentence No. 3 in Trump’s five-sentence letter to FBI Director James B. Comey, relieving the latter of his duties.

To begin with, it rather transparently contradicted the notion, originally advanced by the White House, that Comey’s firing was completely unrelated to the FBI investigation into Russian interference with the 2016 election and possible coordination between officials of the Trump campaign and the Russian government. If Trump was, as he claimed at the time, just following the Justice Department’s recommendation to fire Comey because of the manner in which Comey had conducted the Hillary Clinton email server investigation, of what possible relevance was the reference to whether Trump was under investigation in a separate and unrelated probe? The Justice Department’s supporting memorandum made no mention of the Russia investigation — why was Trump bringing it up?

We now know the answer to that one, of course, courtesy of Trump himself, who has conceded not only that he was “going to fire [Comey] regardless of recommendation,” but that “this Russia thing” was indeed foremost in his mind when he decided to fire Comey. As he put it in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt:

And in fact when I decided to just do it [fire Comey], I said to myself, I said, “You know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story.” It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won.

It also opens Trump up to charges of obstruction of justice. Helen Murillo at Lawfare has analyzed federal obstruction of justice law in detail, and it’s not all that complicated:

Under 18 U.S.C 1505, a felony offense is committed by anyone who “corruptly, or by threats or force, or by any threatening letter or communication influences, obstructs, or impedes or endeavors to influence, obstruct, or impede the due and proper administration of the law under which any pending proceeding is being had before any department or agency of the United States” …

An accompanying code section, 18 U.S.C. § 1515(b), defines “corruptly” as “acting with an improper purpose” …

As the Department of Justice U.S. Attorneys’ Manual explains, the crime is found on proof of three elements: “(1) there was a proceeding pending before a department or agency of the United States; (2) the defendant knew of or had a reasonably founded belief that the proceeding was pending; and (3) the defendant corruptly endeavored to influence, obstruct, or impede the due and proper administration of the law under which the proceeding was pending.”

If Trump’s “purpose” in firing Comey was to interfere with, or end, an ongoing ongoing investigation, he has committed a federal crime.

This sentence in Trump’s letter was completely unnecessary, and has all of these unpleasant consequences for him. Why did he put it in? And how in heaven’s name could White House Counsel Donald McGahn, whom I assume reviewed the letter — I know Trump is a bit of a loose cannon and all that, but surely he got legal advice from counsel before sending it out — have let him put it in?

A charitable reading (not that I’m feeling terribly charitable toward Trump at the moment) of the sentence might be that it was an inartful and clumsy attempt to say: “I couldn’t possibly be firing you to interfere with your investigation of me, because you’ve told me you’re not investigating me.” But no lawyer worth his salt would let a sentence like this through in a termination letter. Here’s a little free legal advice: If you’re the owner of, say, a grocery store, and you’re firing an employee for some valid reason (poor performance, or bad customer relations) having nothing to do with race or ethnicity, don’t write in your firing letter: “I appreciate you informing me, on three separate occasions, that you don’t think I’m a racist, but nevertheless…” It just looks bad, you know?

So it makes me wonder whether Trump did, in fact, show the letter to McGahn, or whether he sought McGahn’s advice but didn’t follow it. (The third possibility — that McGahn was consulted but raised no objections — is too awful to contemplate.)

But there’s more deconstructing we can do here:

• “While I appreciate you informing me…” This just happens to be a pet peeve of mine. I know it has absolutely nothing to do with the very important questions on the table, but I can’t let it pass. “While” implies duration of time: “While James Comey was giving a talk to FBI agents in Los Angeles, he found out that he had been fired.” “While I was swimming, I got a cramp in my right leg.” Many people, however, use it the way Trump used it here — as a substitute for “although.” (Similarly, many people use “since,” which is also a durational preposition — “Since 1980, the crime rate in the United States has been in a steady decline” — as a substitute for “because” — “Since I had to be at the meeting anyway, I figured I’d try to ingratiate myself with my boss.”) I know this is a battle that has already been lost, and, as I said, it’s not really germane to the larger constitutional issues raised by Trump’s sentence, but it really bothers me.

• “… on three separate occasions …” We’re surely going to be hearing a lot more about these four words. Did the president really ask the FBI director, straight out, whether he was “under investigation”? And that was appropriate because…? And did Comey really answer?! I must say, I find that difficult to believe, though it is possible. As acting FBI director Andrew McCabe testified the other day, it is not standard FBI practice to respond to such a question (though I’m not aware of any specific policy it would have contravened had Comey responded). Comey is scheduled to testify, under oath, next week, and that will help clear this matter up. (It would be nice to think that we might get the president’s views on this under oath as well, but that’s probably asking for too much.) And of course — see Sentence 3 — there might be tape recordings.

• “… under investigation …” One reason I think it’s unlikely that Comey responded to Trump’s question is that it appears to lack definite meaning. What does it mean to be “under investigation”? The FBI’s Domestic Investigations and Operations Guide defines the “target” of an investigation as someone about whom there exists “substantial evidence linking him or her to the commission of a crime,” and the “subject” of an investigation as a “person whose conduct is within the scope of” an investigation. Which (if either) of them did he mean?

• “… I nevertheless concur … that you are not able to effectively lead the bureau.” Trump’s use of “nevertheless” here strikes me as peculiar. “Nevertheless” overrides a statement pointing in one direction with one that points in the opposite direction:

Although I’ve always thought you were a good guy, I nevertheless concur with the recommendation that you be fired.

Although Smith was a committed pacifist, he nevertheless enlisted immediately after the Pearl Harbor attack.

Although Jones played in an obscure intramural league, he nevertheless came to the attention of major league scouts.

Trump’s sentence, then, can be read to say: “You are not investigating me; because of that, I’d like to keep you on as FBI director; nonetheless, I am going to fire you.”

Sentence 2. “Having concluded those meetings [with senior Justice Department officials] today, I have decided to recuse myself from any existing or future investigations of any matters related in any way to the campaigns for President of the United States.”

This comes from Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s official statement, on March 2, issued immediately after a story in The Washington Post revealed that Sessions had, notwithstanding his denials under oath during and after his confirmation hearings, indeed met — twice — with the Russian ambassador during the 2016 campaign.

Was Sessions’s involvement in the firing of Comey a violation of the terms of his recusal? Was it, in other words, an “investigation” into a “matter” relating “in any way” to the 2016 presidential campaigns. (Note the use of the plural — “campaigns” — indicating presumably that a matter related to either the Trump campaign or the Clinton campaign — or the Gary Johnson campaign, for that matter — would be off limits to Sessions.)

Surely the Comey firing was a matter related to the 2016 election; Sessions’s recommendation was explicitly based on Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein’s accompanying memo, and Rosenstein’s memo is about nothing other than Comey’s actions during the 2016 campaign.

But Sessions’s recusal only covers “investigations of” matters relating to the 2016 campaign. Was Sessions improperly involving himself in an “investigation” of that matter?

On the one hand, one wouldn’t think that asking the attorney general to evaluate the performance of the FBI director, including his actions during the 2016 campaign, would constitute an “investigation,” particularly at the Justice Department, where “investigation” has a rather carefully considered meaning. Comey wasn’t being “investigated,” Sessions was not “investigating” when he evaluated Comey’s performance as FBI director, and I wouldn’t think that he was obliged to recuse himself when the president asked him for his recommendation.

On the other hand, if Trump’s purpose in firing Comey was to interfere with the Russia investigation — see Sentence 1 — things are not quite so clear. Sessions’s recusal clearly means that he can’t involve himself in that investigation, and consulting about firing the person responsible for that investigation because of the manner in which the investigation is being conducted is surely in the bulls-eye of the prohibition.

Sentence 3. “James Comey better hope that there are no “tapes” of our conversations before he starts leaking to the press!”

This is from Trump’s tweet on May 12. Even for a president who has said many nasty things — about everything from grabbing women to Mexican immigrants to Rosie O’Donnell — this seems to cross over the line of appropriate commentary. Does Trump have tapes that are relevant to the Russia investigation? I know the Richard Nixon analogy can sometimes be pressed too far, but really. And if he doesn’t have tapes, is he just trying to intimidate a potential witness in that investigation?

And inasmuch as some of our readers here at Volokh Conspiracy seem to have a better understanding of the workings of our president’s mind than I have, can anyone explain why there are inverted commas around “tapes”? I cannot for the life of me figure out what that might mean, or why Trump put them in there. Your thoughts welcome.

Originally Found On: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/2017/05/15/three-sentences-worth-contemplating/