#worked as a contractor for is firing basically all contractors

[darehearts]

me signing on after 48 hrs of radio silence  :  does anyone.......  remember me  ?!  hEWWO....... ?!?1  🤧

[theghostkingisdead]

The anti-ecto acts confuse me so much. How do they even work? How were they passed? How on earth do the remain a secret?

They’re acts, so they had to have been passed by congress. You’re telling me a minimum of 543 people learned about the existence of ghosts and nobody said anything about it? Be real.

543 congresspeople, plus their aids and secretaries and families? That information leaks fast, if not before the act passes then definitely afterwards. And once somebody says something it won’t go ignored by the general public. The US government just admitted ghosts are real? That’s getting national news coverage even if it was bunk.

Laws are public works. They aren’t sealed documents, literally anyone is allowed to look at them.

Also there’s the matter of enforcing them. Who are the GIW? A branch of the FBI? The military? The acts probably outline methods of enforcing them, which means even if they aren’t brought up by name whatever department they work for has to be mentioned.

A law gets passed allowing private military contractors to open fire on US civilians on US soil? Even if it specifies nonlethal force (assuming ecto-weapons don’t hurt humans) and even if they work around the civilian problem by renouncing ecto-entities as us citizens…

They’re still going to catch massive flack for using unknown chemicals in densely populated civilian areas. Humanitarian and Environmentalist groups will be all over this shit so fast.

Anyway I’m running out of steam, but I’m basically convinced that codifying the anti-ecto acts into law is the stupidest thing the GIW could’ve done. Because yeah now you have power, but now everyone knows what you’ve been doing and you’re under official scrutiny. They should’ve just done what the government always does - act without telling anyone and then deny deny deny when people rightly accuse you.

[ns-imagines]

Nikto никто

Nikto Character Introduction

If you find yourself drooling over possessive and obsessive!Ghost or König lemme introduce you to Nikto…

SFW [ all cannon information ]

Word Count: TBA its a lot

Warnings: Disorder mention; Torture mention; dissociative disorder mentioned;

A/N: Lemme talk to you for a moment…

My new masked crush. Heart and coochie go brrrrrrrrrrrrr

Post has not been checked for grammar corrections / Not requested :D

Cannon Information:

Nikto (Neeek-toe) is a Operator in Spetsnaz for the Allegiance faction which is within the KorTac Organization. Basically hes a contractor for the contractors. Its cannon that he has facial scarring which is why he wears a mask. Not a turn off for me ah ha ha

So he isn’t necessarily a good guy like the 141 guys (even though now they’re considered war criminals I suppose) but he’s also not a bad guy. In summary, man does what he gets hired to do.

Anyways, after going AWOL in October 2022 from the Russian contracting military group he resurfaced in June 2023 (also the introduction of his character in the game). He resurfaced being the leader of a military group which was overtaking the Dutch city of Vondel.

On the Official Wiki he is only given two paragraphs of biography. You can read it here -> https://callofduty.fandom.com/wiki/Nikto

Also mentioned on the page [ for the COD Mobile universe ] is that theres cannon beef between Ghost and Nikto!! Yes, you heard me right. So on the wiki it is mentioned that Nikto was working for a guy named Templar. Whom is betrayed and killed by Ghost. Then when Ghost went after everyone else in the helicopter he shot Nikto. It was thought that Nikto died from the shot but he didnt….

Nikto reappears when he takes a group of people hostage and records a video explaining that the world has failed them and has left people like (Nikto) to beg and then fight over the scraps. Price (yes Price) tries to convince Nikto to let the hostages go and to basically chill out but Nikto wins by blowing up the building. With the hostages inside.

Okay maybe he has beef with all of 141… and is kinda a bad guy I can change him

SO then time passes and Nikto reappears again seeking a gun deal with a dude named Gunzo. Gunzo asks Nikto “why a man wanted on every continent, doesnt have guns” this pisses Nikto off. Nikto replies with “i dont need guns” then proceeds to buy the guns from Gunzo. Then Nikto gasses the fuck out of Gunzo and his men with Nova Gas. Nikto explains to Gunzo that the world is failing blah blah. He then goes on to brag about how he doesnt need a gas mask to breath like everyone else because hes that edgy and then he just executes Gunzo. We can fix him

Nikto disappears again only to reappear flying a F-85B Bullshark and leading a military riot. He then orders a attack on Prices convoy (video below) and basically down their helicopter. In the video below you can see small arms fire, an RPG, and then a finishing shot. Which was shot by Nikto’s aircraft. Okay maybe he is bad, we can fix him ?

Which you can watch here -> https://youtu.be/dDaCTCu82t0

In game bio from MW, CODM, and MW2

It is referenced in his bio MW and CODM that he has acute dissociative disorder. Which according to WebMD

“Dissociative disorders involve problems with memory, identity, emotion, perception, behavior and sense of self. Dissociative symptoms can potentially disrupt every area of mental functioning. Dissociation is a disconnection between a person’s thoughts, memories, feelings, actions or sense of who he or she is.”

Which is explained to be from when he was tortured by Mr. Z. That event is also where he got his facial scarring from. Although he is Russian; in current MW2 timeline his nationality and language is [ REDACTED ]. I was looking around on the internet for why and Reddit believes its due to current world current events/tension. Rewording to: we can accept and love him. I dont think we can fix him.

I don’t expect this post to get a lot of attention but for those who like it my requests are fully open ❤️

i will definitely be posting more Nikto content and what I think Nikto looks like and how he acts.

Thank you for reading! -Kiv

[copperbadge]

Hey Sam, this came across my feed on twit and I wondered if you’d heard about it at all? :(

https://www.reddit.com/r/duolingo/comments/18sx06i/big_layoff_at_duolingo/

Direct link for the curious. Short version, a post on Reddit reported that Duolingo laid off a "large percentage" of its staff, replacing them with AI. I hadn't heard about it, but I knew there were reports about Duolingo trimming its offerings and losing a lot of goodwill after revamping itself a year ago; they've been public about their use of GPT-4 AI starting last March, and it was a tentpole of this year's annual convention, so I was aware of that as well.

The Reddit post is by a former Duolingo contractor, who also shares their severance letter, which is terse to say the least. They state that of their four-person team, two people were let go, with the others left to "babysit the AI". They say that they're a translator and that the people who remained were recast as "curators" for AI translation.

But the post is also not otherwise sourced. So here is everyone's periodic reminder that if the only source is Reddit and Reddit isn't citing other sources, you need to dig a little.

All journalistic sources I've seen (that aren't paywalled, like the Bloomberg article most of them cite) are visibly using the Reddit post as their entre, but also state that the percentage of contractors who were let go is about 10%. That's 10% of contract workers, not 10% of all staff, although admittedly I don't know how many people Duolingo employs, contract or otherwise. 10% is a meaningful chunk, but Duolingo has said that the contractors were let go because their projects had wrapped. While company reps state that this all could be related to the use of AI, they've also said that it's not a 1:1 replacement.

Mind you, the company isn't offering much in the way of backing that up, either.

So there are a couple of issues. Some workers probably were let go simply because their work was finished; the Reddit user doesn't seem to be one of those. We are still seeing that at least some of these jobs were replaced by AI, which is undoubtedly a harbinger of things to come. We don't know what impact this will have on the app. We don't know what kind of work the majority of those people were doing. There's a thread in the Reddit post about whether the voices are now "AI voices" but there's no citation to back up the idea either. They definitely aren't doing AI voice generation for the Latin, where one of the voice actors has a nice voice and also a very loud pet bird.

There is a bigger issue of contract work in the digital and translation industries in the first place; a lot of these people should have been full employees and would have had more protection from this if they had been. Translators have also been brutally devastated by machine/AI translation, which is its own issue. But these are separate and much larger problems that are in no way unique to Duolingo.

I don't like taking this stance because I feel like I'm defending both Duolingo and AI, which isn't my goal. My goal is to remind people that if you see a single source offering a vague statement, you should fact-check. 10% is likely a lot of people but it's not "a huge percentage". We have no real numbers on who was fired, just this person on Reddit saying they're a translator and they were let go. Do I believe them? Absolutely, I have no reason not to and the basic gist is backed up by statements from Duolingo. Do I trust this person's intel? Not especially, after the loud axe-grinding noises they made while posting. Do I trust Duolingo, whose goal is to make money and not look bad while doing it? Not especially either, simply from the standpoint of "the bigger the company the more they're likely to screw you".

But the point is we don't have good data, and this is a complicated and nuanced issue involving a lot of different factors. So either you have to let it go on past, or you have to be prepared to dig a little deeper than a person posting to Reddit about getting laid off.

In any case, Duolingo is one of the few activities that brings me joy right now (I know, I'm working on the issue) and is the only language learning structure that has ever actually worked for me, so despite the new intel and despite the fact that I know a lot of people think of Duolingo's revamp the way I think of Tumblr's new dash, I'm going to keep on with it.

(Plus I paid up for a year, so I might as well at least use it until the year runs out and then reassess.)

[thatdisasterauthor]

Hey! I've been curious about is how air support/planes are coordinated for fighting wildland fires. It seems like most of them are contracted from... Someone...? But generally the sources I've been able to find have been pretty unclear on how it's organized/how the system works. I was wondering if you had any insight/good places to start reading?

If there's ever anything you want to know about Wildland Firefighting, the Red Book is where you want to go! Here's the 2024 version, and you can always find it by googling "Wildland Firefighting Red Book." It might not have ALL the answers, but it's a chonky document and will have a lot.

Now, as to your specific question, yes, a lot of wildland planes are contracted from private companies. There are some federally owned planes, though, and some various state owned ones.

All wildland resources, planes and otherwise, are organized through a system called "Interagency Resource Ordering Capability," or IROC. And I do mean all resources. Every wildland firefighter in the country is listed in this database, every engine, every plane, every portapotty contractor we have deals with. IROC is used to track what everyone is doing, where everyone is going, and what is needed where.

Last summer on my district we had two SEATs, an Air Attack, and a LAT on contract with us, and a Type 3 helicopter. That meant those resources were on our district ALL THE TIME. They were ours and we got first dibs on using them. But sometimes we'd have other planes that were stationed with us but weren't ours. Maybe an extra SEAT, or another LAT, and we had some Smokejumpers with us too so their plane was always around. Those resources that weren't assigned to us were usable by us, but they could (and did) easily get pulled elsewhere depending on need. We could also pull things from other districts if WE needed it.

So let's say a big fire kicks off, and we send out all OUR planes. But maybe it's not enough, maybe we need more. So I'd mosey on into IROC and create a request for what we need, then that would get passed up the chain to land on the IROC portal of whoever might have said resource available. If it is indeed available, wherever it is available from will send it out. If it isn't, they'll say sorry and send it back.

The exact rules for how resources can be moved around and pulled from one incident to another depends on if they're a local, state, or federal resource. But there's other considerations as well such as protecting life vs. protecting just property vs. protecting just land. Really depends, and sometimes it's just a judgement call. Usually it will be the incident commander who makes the initial request, since they're the ones on the ground and familiar with conditions. They'll then pass it to dispatch and dispatch will handle it from there, escalating to higher ups if needed for tricky judgement calls. (Other times we'll make the call ourselves because sir, you do not need three VLATS for a two acre fire that's just creeping...)

When it comes to if you'll actually GET the plane or other resource you ask for, a big part of that is the preparedness level. The levels are 1-5 with one being "we have tons of resources to share so you'll probably get whatever you want" to five being "everybody's busy so you're probably not going to get anything you ask for, good luck."

Aaaand. Yeah. Basically the answer is "intricate computer system that coordinates everything in the entire country and thus takes fucking forever to load anything."

[whencyclopedia]

Napoleon's Italian Campaign

The Italian campaign of 1796-1797, waged by a young Napoleon Bonaparte, was a decisive campaign in the French Revolutionary Wars (1792-1802). It led to the defeat of Austria, the beginning of French control of northern Italy, and the end of the war, but most importantly, it launched Bonaparte himself to new heights of fame and power.

The War of the First Coalition, the first of the Revolutionary Wars, had been ongoing since 1792, fought between the French Republic and a coalition of anti-French powers. Yet most of the fighting had taken place in Flanders and Germany, leaving the Italian front as more of a sideshow. Upon taking command of the Army of Italy in March 1796, Bonaparte would make the Italian theater the most important operation in the war, stunning all of Europe as he beat every Austrian army sent against him and redrew the map of northern Italy. His brilliant campaign led Austria to sue for peace and end the war in October 1797 and made Bonaparte one of the most influential men in France.

To Destiny

On 27 March 1796, General Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in Nice to take command of the French Army of Italy. It had been a whirlwind of a month for the young general, who had received the command on 2 March, only seven days before marrying the attractive Joséphine de Beauharnais. Joséphine was the former mistress of Paul Barras, a member of the French Directory and one of the most powerful men in France, leading to rumors that Bonaparte had only received his command as a favor from Barras to his old paramour. Yet, by this point, Bonaparte had already built a reputation in the French army, having distinguished himself at the Siege of Toulon in 1793 and by crushing the royalist revolt of 13 Vendemiaire in 1795. Whatever the true reasons for his appointment, Bonaparte left for the front after a honeymoon of only 48 hours; as a wedding gift, he left his bride with a golden medallion inscribed with the words 'To Destiny'.

Upon arriving at Nice, General Bonaparte's first order of business was to hold a troop inspection. He was met with a ragged, demoralized force on the point of mutiny. The men were starving and malnourished, given only meager rations provided by corrupt contractors who charged extortionate prices. They lacked the most basic supplies; muskets, bayonets, and uniforms were all rare commodities, and entire battalions went without shoes. The army had not been paid for months, and when pay did arrive, it was in the form of the nearly worthless banknotes called mandats territoriaux, which was all the practically destitute French Directory could provide. Disease, desertion, and battlefield casualties had whittled the army down from an initial strength of 106,000 men in 1792, to only 37,600 men and 60 guns in March 1796, with no new replacements on the way. Bonaparte had his work cut out for him.

Bonaparte was also introduced to his officers, many of whom would become major players in the Napoleonic story. Bonaparte's chief of staff was Alexandre Berthier, an administrative genius whose ability to work 20-hour days and keep up with Bonaparte's rapid-fire orders kept the army's staff running like clockwork. The division commanders included Jean Sérurier, a gloomy general with 34 years of experience in the old Royal Army; Pierre Augereau, a former mercenary, dancing master, and duelist, who once killed an officer over an insult; and André Masséna, a talented general whose appetites for loot were only matched by his lust for women. Other soon-to-be famous officers under Bonaparte's command included Joachim Murat, Jean-Andoche Junot, Jean Lannes, Barthélemy Joubert, and Auguste Marmont. As David G. Chandler notes, "rarely had such a galaxy of military talent served together at one time and place" (57).

At first, these officers were unimpressed with their new commander-in-chief. At only 26, the short and wiry Bonaparte "looked more like a mathematician than a general", and the pleasure he took in showing off the portrait of his new wife made him seem juvenile. The generals would soon realize they had underestimated him. Immediately, Bonaparte reorganized the commissariat and threatened the venal contractors. He recalled the cavalry from winter quarters and quietly secured a loan of 3 million francs from Genoese financiers. He reintroduced discipline by disbanding mutinous battalions and court-martialing two officers for singing anti-revolutionary songs. Within days, Bonaparte had won the respect of his subordinates; as Masséna famously remarked, Bonaparte "donned his general's cap and seemed to grow by two feet" (Roberts, 75).

Bonaparte next tried to win over the rank-and-file soldiers, promising them the victories and riches that had hitherto only been afforded to their comrades in Germany and Flanders:

Soldiers! You are hungry and naked; the government owes you much but can give you nothing. The patience and courage you have displayed among these rocks are admirable, but they give you no glory-not a glimmer falls upon you. I will lead you into the most fertile plains on earth. Rich provinces, opulent towns, all shall be at your disposal ... soldiers of Italy! Will you be lacking in courage or endurance?

(Chandler, 53)

It was a bold promise, especially for a general who was yet to lead an army into battle. On 10 April, five days before Bonaparte intended to launch his campaign, he received word that 53,000 Austrian and Piedmontese troops were already bearing down upon him. The time had come for Bonaparte to meet his destiny.

Continue reading...

[captainsophiestark]

End of the Line

Anakin Skywalker x Reader

Masterlist - Join My Taglist!

Written for my personal fic writing challenge for 2024, Sophie's Year of Fic! Featuring a new fic being posted every Friday, all year long :)

Fandom: Star Wars

Summary: Anakin and his SO have a chaotic date night - and really, when dating Anakin, what other kind could there be?

Word Count: 1,051

Category: Fluff, Humor

Putting work into an AI program without permission is illegal. You do not have my permission. Do not do it.

A beam of light whizzed over my head from where I hunkered behind cover, almost nailing me right in the forehead. I grit my teeth and readied my weapon. That marked my opponent's tenth shot, meaning he'd need to let his gun recharge before he could fire again. Time to make my move.

"Alright, that's it! Your bloodline ends here!" I shouted at the top of my lungs before popping up from my cover behind the couch. I saw a flash of shaggy brown hair as my boyfriend, Anakin Skywalker, scrambled for cover of his own across the living room.

I raised my light gun—a blaster that literally just fired light, usually used by children for tag games but tonight employed by Anakin and I—and raced across the room after him.

I fired the entire time I ran, keeping Anakin from popping up his head. It left me with just one shot by the time I got to him, but one shot was all I needed.

I rounded the corner of my favorite cushy chair and fired at my boyfriend, right on target to hit him square in the chest. That is, until my light beam stopped in mid-air.

My eyes darted up to Anakin's to find him grinning, one hand extended the way he did sometimes to use the Force and the other still holding his newly-recharged blaster. I narrowed my eyes, but before I could say anything, he fired a shot of his own that hit me in the chest.

"You cheater!" I yelled, ignoring the explosion of light still glowing against my shirt. Anakin rolled to the side and dropped his hand, letting what would've been the perfect shot streak past him and into the far wall of our apartment. I scowled.

"You never said no Force," Anakin replied, getting to his feet with an entirely too satisfied smirk. He offered a hand to me, but I didn't take it.

"Mmm, I'm pretty sure I specifically said 'No Jedi bullshit' right before we started this thing."

Anakin grinned at me as I got to my feet and faced him.

"Exactly. No Jedi bullshit. Lots of people have a connection to and use the Force."

I closed my eyes and took a long, deep, dramatic breath. When I opened them again, Anaking was still watching me with a self-satisfied smirk.

"You've been spending too much time with politicans, trying to sell me on a loophole like that."

"As opposed to bounty hunters?"

I snorted and rolled my eyes. "You and I both know that's not what I do."

"I know. It's just fun to watch your face scrunch up."

I reached out and hit Anakin in the chest, but my heart wasn't in it. We'd first met because I'd been at the top of my class with the GAR, before they'd switched primarily to clones, and the Jedi had needed an extra, well-trained hand on short notice. Now, I basically worked as a contractor for the Republic. I'd continued to help the Jedi regularly, especially, and I'd gotten close with many of them. But Anakin more than anyone else.

"So. Rematch?" Anakin asked, raising an eyebrow and holding his light blaster up. I smiled.

"As much fun as it would be to beat you in a No-Force rematch-" Anakin scoffed and raised an eyebrow, but I just ignored him. "-we already spend too much of our time around blasters. How about we order some of our favorite foods and find a good holo to watch?"

Anakin smiled, soft and genuine, and let the hand with his blaster fall back to his side.

"Yeah. I guess we can-"

He got cut short when I brought my hand up as fast as lightning, my recharged blaster now ready to go. I levelled it at his chest, pausing just long enough to give him a grin and register the absolute shock on his face before pulling the trigger.

A bright light exploded across Anakin's chest, making the front half of his shirt about five shades lighter. I cackled.

"Ha, now we're even! Call that a tie and let's get some pizza."

Anakin shook his head at me, but he was grinning all the same.

"You're ruthless. And that was incredibly sneaky of you."

I just gave him a wink.

"You know you love it, Skywalker. It's why you love me."

He snorted, but came close enough to wrap his arms around me and pull me into this chest, too.

"I do love you. Sneaky cheater in competition and all."

"Aww, babe."

Anakin and I shared a laugh and a smile before leaning into a soft, sweet kiss. Since he was a Jedi, we couldn't just do stuff like this whenever and wherever we wanted. Which meant I knew not to take a single moment alone with him for granted.

"So, now that my title's been defended, do you want to follow through on that pizza and some holos?" I asked.

"We could do that. Or..."

"Or?"

Anakin grinned, a familiar troublemaker spark in his eye that I loved. I grinned right back.

"Instead of holos or a rematch, we could team up to go wreak some havoic on Obi-Wan and Ahsoka. Play a few rounds absolutely destroying them, and then disappear somewhere nice together where they can't find us."

"I like the way you think, Skywalker. Do the Jedi or the Force or whatever say anything about soulmates?"

"I don't think so... Why?"

"Because I'm pretty sure you're mine. Get your blaster ready and let's go have some fun."

I started to head for the door, but Ani's strong arm around my waist pulled me quickly back into a searing kiss. I let my free hand come up to tangle in his hair and kissed him back, hard, until we were both finally forced to come up for air.

"Okay," Anakin said, slightly breathless and with a smile on his face. "Now we can go wreak some havoic."

I laughed as I took Anakin's hand, a little giddy as I pulled him towards the oor. We really made the perfect pair, to the occasional detriment of our friends, whether or not they actually knew we were a pair. Hopefully, we could get through this war together, and find our way to a happy ending on the other side.

And until then, we'd just find as many happy moments together like this as we could.

****************

Everything Taglist: @rosecentury @kmc1989

[lightsaber-dorphin]

Jedi Order Bureaucratic Structure

I’ve been working for a while on worldbuilding the inner workings of the Jedi Order. Below is a flowchart of the administrative bodies, their duties, and any other admin bodies they oversee. More details on each below the cut.

These are different groups involved in running the Jedi Order. For different roles within the Jedi, see my Jedi Order Corps and Subdivisions.

High Council: (Finance, bylaws, PR, major trials)

Determines the budget(s)

Relations with the Senate

Only body that can expel members

Librarian's Assembly: (Ensures knowledge is available to Jedi)

Fund academic researchers (many Jedi researchers work directly for the assembly)

Archives: (Run the Archives & research)

Host academic conferences

Protect important artifacts

Run basically directly by the Librarian's Assembly

Department of Classes: (Adult education)

Organize all classes that aren't geneds

Set criteria for certifications/ degrees

Help members get degrees from external organizations

Council of Reassignment: (Oversees transfers & is Jedi CPS)

New Initiate paperwork

Transfers between corps and/or branches

Helps members leave the Order

Checks the CoFK when necessary

Padawanship paperwork filed here (crèchemasters sign off, padawan signs off, check master for red flags/ not allowed to take apprentice, sometimes mind healer signs off)

Council of Justice: (Attourneys & internal justice system)

Try & punish cases committed by Jedi & internal to the Jedi Order

Mediate interpersonal disputes

Lawyers for the Order

Cannot expel members

Council of Outreach: (Manages outposts & patrols)

Assigns Jedi to satellite locations or watchfolk posts

Hires other outpost staff

Ships supplies to & from outposts

Tracks the locations of missions & sends Vanguards to areas that haven't been visited recently

Council of Temple Maintenance: (Oversees internal services and temple upkeep)

In charge of the cleaning droids

Coordinates trash & recycling with Coruscant government

Has the occasional member who can do specialized maintenance (ex. plumber, electrician)

Volunteers sign up to fix things

Hires outside contractors when there isn't a Jedi with the necessary skills

Assigns Jedi to living quarters

Interior decor

Delegates chores such as taking out the trash, mopping, dusting, etc.

Padawans and initiates are often assigned these chores as punishments

Kitchenmasters: (Mess halls)

Make & serve food in the mess halls

Label the food with which species can eat it

Order food supplies

Supervise initiate clans helping in the kitchens

Quartermasters: (Distribute supplies & manage finances)

Bulk-order supplies for the Order

Provide mission allotments

Desk operators help members pick up supplies

Accounting

Transport Office: (Run the hangar bay & speeder pool)

Responsible for the Order's vehicles

Mechanics

Vehicles are checked in & out like a library for cars & ships

Hire external staff when there aren't enough Jedi

Temple Guard: (Security & emergency response)

Guard against exterior threats to the temple

Security during criminal situations

Really good at sensing danger to temple inhabitants

First responders (fire & police-- MedCorp handles EMS)

Change lightbulbs and smoke detector batteries

Odd jobs on behalf of the CoTM

Uses the lore by Adsecula in "Nameless"

Council of Reconciliation: (Central hub of Jedi outreach & diplomacy)

All aid requests go through them

Sets mission objectives

Approve or deny aid/ mission requests

Reviews behavior of Jedi on missions when there are issues

Mission Consignment: (Assign Jedi to approved missions)

Desk jockeys

Not officially divided by type of mission/ Jedi role needed, but missions will be passed to people who are more familiar with the experts required

Organizes specifics for missions such as transportation and housing

Council of First Knowledge: (Runs Initiate & Padawan dorms, clans, & childhood education)

Initiate clans members live together with their crèchemasters rotating out night shifts

Padawans & Senior Initiates live in individual rooms in designated halls with some crèchemasters living in each hall

Department of Seekers: (Regulates conduct of Seekers)

Create regulates for what Seekers can & cannot do & how they should act

Investigate reported misconduct by Seekers

Crèche: (Organizes care for Initiates)

Sort Initiates into clans

Run events/ field trips/ etc.

Set educational standards

see my post about Living Quarters in the Jedi Temple

Department of Primary Classes: (Classroom education for younglings)

Standard elementary school operation stuff

Provides the general education classes all Jedi take as younglings

Circle of Healers: (Sets certification requirements)

Certified to train medical professionals for a variety of degrees

Determines when Jedi have fulfilled requirements for medical certifications

Sets the qualifications for Force-specific medical degrees

Halls of Healing: (Healthcare within the Order & internal outreach)

Like a local hospital but also has general practitioners

IRB: (Reviews research for ethical concerns)

Institutional Review Board

"Under FDA regulations, an Institutional Review Board is group that has been formally designated to review and monitor biomedical research involving human subjects. In accordance with FDA regulations, an IRB has the authority to approve, require modifications in (to secure approval), or disapprove research. This group review serves an important role in the protection of the rights and welfare of human research subjects."

IRB for the entire Order, not just the MedCorps

[transmutationisms]

could you elaborate more on your analysis on class in academia? especially the thing about TAs being capable of being class traitors. found your post very intriguing and would like to engage more in this topic

most grad students are not independently wealthy, which is why we pay for school by taking positions as teaching assistants (TAs) or research assistants (RAs). these positions are in turn the actual reason why the school admits grad students in the first place: it's cheaper to pay our stipends, which are often below poverty-line wages, than it would be to hire more faculty. grad students are increasingly responsible for teaching, grading, lab work, and research. depending on how nice our advisors and professors are, we might get co-authorship for some of these efforts, or some lines on our CVs. what we often do not get is legal designation as employees: generally we are classified as students or as ambiguous in-between categories, which means we don't get standard labour protections like sick days, and we can be fired expelled at will. in the us, this also results in ambiguity over basic questions like whether the school is allowed to simply stop paying our stipends if we go on strike: if we're not employees, we're not protected by labour law even in jurisdictions that do protect a worker's right to strike. the grad school experience is largely defined by the labour laws in your jurisdiction, by the culture in your department, and by your relationship with your advisor, who is either tenured or tenure-track and thus has far more job security than you do. advisors have tremendous power over their grad advisees, a situation that makes us easy to abuse or simply to economically exploit (this latter is a particular issue in stem fields where your advisor is also your PI, and being a grad student also entails being a lab employee).

despite all this, grad students frequently have absolutely horrendous class solidarity: for example, our unionisation efforts (when we can even get our shit together enough to push for a union at all!) often ignore non-academic staff, who form a critical part of the academy and are just as exploited as we are, if not often more. grad students also have a deeply nasty habit of trying to emulate our professors in the way we interact with undergrads: condescending to them, trying to make their lives harder, refusing to make allowances for students struggling with deadlines or workload for any reason. often grad students see ourselves as 'temporarily embarrassed professors' rather than as what we are: a very low rung on the academic ladder, most of whom will never land a professorship because statistically, there simply aren't enough of those positions. again, remember that the university is incentivised to hire more grad students and grant more phds than 'the market' needs, because the institution is relying on us as a source of cheap labour. in some fields, a phd can lead to a lucrative industry job (pharmaceutical companies, military contractors, &c); in others, it can lead to several years of underpaid post-docs followed by unemployment or 'under-employment'.

whereas a tenured or TT professor often has a group of employees grad students working under them (typically this is grant-funded), contingent or adjunct faculty work on a semesterly or yearly basis and are paid much less, protected much less, and subject to being let go any time the university reviews their contract. adjuncts are another popular way to reduce labour costs, and, like grad students, are becoming increasingly used to replace tenured roles. some departments have been gutted to the point where they run almost entirely on adjunct and grad student labour at this point. you might think adjuncts and grad students would therefore make natural allies in struggles for better work conditions and compensation. however, adjuncts are still more than capable of being abusive or just assholeish to grad students, and both grad students and adjuncts are difficult to organise because of overwork, fear of losing what professional status they do have, and the fact that adjuncts are often forced to work at multiple institutions at the same time, or to hop between institutions frequently. in cases where serious labour coalitions do start to arise, a university will often offer superficial concessions to adjuncts and/or grad students, like a one-time pay increase (which is not something most grad students receive on a yearly basis, which means in real terms our stipends are usually actually decreasing over time).

anyway, to return to undergrads: in the academy's propaganda self-perception, it is a force for cultural enlightenment and individual self-betterment. undergrads are, then, paying for the privilege of receiving education, here configured as a gift bestowed upon the masses to create an uplifted citizenry and an enlightened society. this is, of course, horseshit. the university is conservative in both structure (resembling a medieval guild, eg the tenure system and the entire structure of grad school-as-apprenticeship) and mission (serving as a class barrier system that enforces and ideologically justifies social stratification through the granting of limited and expensive professional credentials). most undergrads are not wealthy, and many are going into debt for their degrees, which are presented as tickets to future jobs and economic security. it's a system that promises a select few the opportunity to become part of the ruling class rather than the exploited one, and that itself generates massive profits for its upper-level administrators (presidents, deans, and so forth). so yea when grad TAs try to act like tenured profs by treating undergrad students like shit i will call them class traitors lmao

[animentality]

Oh my GOD, the drama that's going on at my work...

So as some of you know, I've been getting bullied by my boss, let's call her Margaret because she's like Margaret Thatcher.

A Grade A bitch.

So Margaret will give me instructions that are wildly unclear, contradictory, or vague.

I'll give you an example.

We have a project that's basically comparing policy guidance from across different federal agencies with our own, so that we can incorporate their best language into our department's policy documents.

I wrote up a word document with policy analyses for all of our chosen examples.

Margaret said, I don't like this. I can't use it. I can't read it. Change it to Microsoft excel and make it like a checklist.

So I'm like alright, makes sense, my bad.

I do that.

She then complains that it's too much like a checklist and what she wanted was a detailed analysis that she could use.

Also that she can't read excel spreadsheets because there are..."too many words."

...

So. Yeah. Too many words, huh?

So I'm like...ok...but I already did that.

And she says, no you didn't, also I asked you to focus on finishing your analyses of all the departments, not to worry about the format. The format doesn't matter.

But here's the thing right.

The FORMAT MATTERS.

SHE LITERALLY TOLD ME TO CHANGE IT BECAUSE OF HOW MUCH THE FORMAT MATTERS.

And she's starting to go off and she's beginning to yell at me here...in front of any entire team of people...and I just had to cut her off, because if I don't, she's just gonna rant at me for an hour and then hang up and neither of us will have what we want, ie, she won't have the product she's imagining (which doesn't exist apparently bc she contradicted her own wishes), and I won't have the guidance I need to make the product.

So I interrupt her and say I already did that. The analysis is done. Now it's just the format that matters.

Now, she's very angry about the interruption, because she CONTINUES to just bulldoze right over me and keep talking...

And my supervisor, let's call her Sarah, then explodes and says, "Let him talk! He's trying to explain to you what he did and you're not letting him defend himself!"

And audience.

Fellow countrymen...

I would kill for Sarah, I really would.

I was so happy to have someone speak up for me.

But anyway.

So we finish the meeting, although it's very icy and very angry.

And then Sarah calls me immediately.

And she says oh my god I'm so sorry about that, what was that BS?

And I'm like...I'm like so happy to have someone on my side that I just say thank you for standing up for me there.

And she goes into this wild ass, amazing rant and she DISHED, BOYS AND GALS AND NONBINARY PALS.

APPARENTLY, Margaret has bullied every single contractor she's EVER had.

The guy she keeps telling me to defer to?

She tried to FIRE HIS ASS like a month ago.

The guy she keeps saying is like a godsend because he's sooo helpful?

She tried to fire him in his first month.

She was also apparently so hated at her last office that she had to leave because she wasn't getting any respect. She's been shunted all over the department because no one can stand working with her.

She has such poor interpersonal skills and fails so hard at communicating that she literally has clashed with every single member of her team.

And she hates me because I'm harder to bully.

Because I know what the fuck I'm talking about and I don't let her beat me down with her backwards ass contradictory logic.

And here's the spicy drama...

Apparently when Sarah interrupted her earlier...she literally texted HER BOSS, let's call her Laura...to complain that Sarah and I are "working together" and "conspiring" against her.

because "Kai was contradicting himself and when I tried to call him out on it, he INTERRUPTED me and then Christine ENCOURAGED him to and I just thought you should know."

And I find that really fucking funny.

Because she complained to her boss...who immediately sent THAT SCREENSHOT TO THE SAME PERSON SHE WAS COMPLAINING ABOUT.

So YEAH Margaret. We ARE conspiring against you.

But you don't have any allies, as evidenced by the fact that complaining to your boss literally made her roll her eyes and say ah Margaret is at it again...to the same person that Margaret is bitching about.

Anyway.

Totally insane.

Sarah told me, you're very professional and reasonable and sweet, and honestly, I feel protective of you because you're the youngest member of the team and I know that working with Margaret might make you feel like you never want to work again...but you're honestly very good at your job and I won't let Margaret fire you...

And I was really floored by the show of loyalty...

I also laughed because she said, I don't mind taking the heat from Margaret. What's she gonna do, fire me? (She doesn't work for Margaret and is sort of lateral to her position anyway).

I'd like to see her try.

And anyway.

Anyway that was the beginning of my crazy day.

Honestly I'm just smiling.

I've never had a supervisor stick up for me as much as Sarah and I'd love to keep working for her...it's just a shame if she can't keep me from being fired by the madwoman that leads our team.

I hope she'll let me know if Margaret decides to fire me because I dared using Microsoft excel in her presence again...

I'm so sorry that when you work for the government, you sometimes have to read things...

So sorry. But what do you want me to do about it?

Why hire a writer if you're scared of reading?

[karadin]

While you were sleeping ...

Two plane crashes in two days create the largest amount of fatalities in the US in more than twenty years

In DC a passenger plane collided with a US military helicopter, 67 people were killed.

Trump blamed Diversity and Inclusion polices under Democratic administrations for the accident, and refused to go to the site of the crash as it was 'just water'. However the current hiring practices for air traffic controllers were put in place when Trump was President.

A small private medical plane crashed in Philadelphia, killing all on board and injuring people on the ground.

Elon Musk forced the Head of the FAA out of office, as this individual was prosecuting Musk for accidents involving Musk's company SpaceX

Trump shut down the Aviation Security Advisory Committee last week as well as firing the Transportation Secretary, and put a freeze on all government hires when he was inaugurated, which left the DC tower with only one air traffic controller at the time of the accident instead of two.

Trump plans to put 25% tariffs on our allies Canada and Mexico and a 10% tariff on China (additional) as of Feb 1,

which is tanking the stock market and guaranteed to raise prices if trade wars begin

The a top Treasury official, having served in a non partisan fashion for 30 years is retiring in protest over Elon Musk seeking access to all federal monies through The Bureau of Fiscal Service

This secure system processes Social Security and Medicare benefits, federal salaries, payments to government contractors, grants, and tax refunds, among it's purview. Only a small number of career officials control Treasury’s payment systems. Experts do not know why Musk would need this level of access.

ELON MUSK LOCKS FEDERAL EMPLOYEES OUT OF THEIR ACCOUNTS

Workers at the Office of Personnel Management, have had their access to department data revoked. They lost access to the Enterprise Human Resources Integration database, which includes the dates of birth, Social Security numbers, appraisals, home addresses, pay grades, and length of service of government workers.

“We have no visibility into what they are doing with the computer and data systems, There is no oversight. It creates real cybersecurity and hacking implications.”

Trump changed the email system so that every single federal worker could be contacted with one email. all 13,000 employees of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, were flooded with explicit spam emails on Thursday.

The federal gov system email no longer has a basic form of security. Trump admin is now being sued for the lack of privacy for all federal employees

Trump has fired all prosecutors at the DOJ who were linked to investigations of Jan 6th insurrection, despite the fact they were only following the direction of their bosses. The prosecuters might file a class action lawsuit.

Trump fired the Head of the Consumer Protection Agency

which among it's numerous investigations held Wall Street accountable for cheating hard-working families and prevented the de-banking of Americans across the country

FEDERAL EMPLOYEES ARE NOT TAKING TRUMP'S FALSE 'BUYOUT' which has led to a begging email from Trump, the President has no authority and no budget to pay employees for not working.

Trump is telling federal employees to remove any pronouns from their email signatures

Governor J.B. Pritzker of Illinois is blocking any January 6 rioters pardoned by Donald Trump from working for the state, other states may follow suit.

Trump has gutted the National Labor Relations Board and moves to invalidate labor agreements with federal workers

Thousands of agents with the FBI are facing reivews, possible loyalty tests and terminations

ELON MUSK has put his employees into the General Services Administration which controls public buildings, he's taking their proprietary public-paid tech and planning to sell off government real estate.

REMEMBER, THE OFFICE OF DOGE WAS SUPPOSED TO BE 'ADVISORY' NOT LET LOOSE TO CONTROL THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT, ONLY CONGRESS CAN SET THE BUDGET AND DIRECT SPENDING, ALL OF THESE ACTIONS ARE ILLEGAL.

SEEYOU IN COURT

[f0point5]

I fully support the Jos Hate Brigade coming after the Ocons, also what is up with Anthony Hamilton👀👀 i am honestly getting irritated with people acting like Jos is the devil incarnate, completely ignoring how Max seems to have a pretty good relationship with him (and that radio message telling him how proud he is of him was actually so sweet)

Anthony Hamilton remortgaged his house, and quit his full time job in IT (I believe to be a contractor) to manage Lewis’s karting career. All this while he had a wife and other kids to support.

Nowhere near as bad as Ocon’s parents because while Lewis likes to insinuate that he crawled out of the gutter like a Victorian street urchin, the Hamiltons by all accounts, were a middle class family (owned property, Anthony worked a steady, skilled job). Him quitting his job didn’t mean he didn’t have income, as far as I’m aware. Contracting work pays a lot more than fixed income, you are just able to take breaks in between contracts and have a more flexible schedule, and he had the skills to return to full time work if he wanted. So not as far as betting his family’s future but still..pretty sure Lewis was about 9 at this point.

Also, he managed Lewis’s career for a long time. He was the meddling parent. Lewis eventually fired him in I think 2010. It came out that Anthony had misled Lewis over a deal that had lost him a lot of money (around 20 million if I remember right), which Anthony tried to conceal because he thought he could fix it. Lewis fired him and they then weren’t speaking, but Anthony publicly claimed that Lewis owed him about 4 million for his services as a manager. Lewis said last year that having his dad as his manager meant his dad basically wasn’t able to be an emotional available father to him.

All that, and I believe that Anthony was the one who contacted Christian about a red bull seat last year without Lewis knowing, because he’s still a meddler.

He just seems like he lived through Lewis. He gives interviews saying nothing good ever happened to him (bro you’ve been married twice and have two kids…rude) but it did for Lewis, and how driving for Ferrari was always his dream for Lewis. He also just has that same “life was oh so tough for me poor me” vibe that he seems to have forced on his son. It’s crystal clear he was the pushiest of dads, which don’t get me wrong, you need in order for a kid to be successful, but to choose to be a manager rather than a father when it matters…is he your son or your product?

Idk, he’s giving Jos Verstappen, and not in a good way. Lewis talking about his experience with his dad and comparing it to Max’s the other week in the press was the only time I was like, “yes king speak”. And to be fair he was very respectful. But he point blank said he knew how unhelpful it was when the lines get blurred.

On the Max note, I always say Jos wouldn’t get the wrap he does if more people knew what it takes to get a kid to this less of sport. Jos made his mistakes 100% but you won’t get your kid to F1 by being the perfect parent. Also, Jos did a lot wrong but you can see he probably did more right. People overlook how rare it is to be able to have the relationship he has with Max. To be Max’s age, with Max’s achievements, and his resources, and still want Jos around that much and for them to be that close, that doesn’t come from a relationship with no positives. People act like Jos was tough on Max 100% of the time, but if he wasn’t emotional present, Max wouldn’t want him around all the time, in a personal capacity. He has said many times that he calls Jos for advice on personal stuff. The fact that Max’s favourite song is still the one he used to listen to in the van with Jos on their way to Italy speaks volumes. And for all his “Verstappen 2.0” shit, it’s clear that he appreciates Max as a son. And he seems to have a good relationship with his other kids. (My controversial theory is that he is a soft girl dad but that’s a whole other thing). But yeah basically I think he is over-roasted by people who don’t really understand the industry of high performing kids.

[girlactionfigure]

*ISRAEL REALTIME* - "Connecting the World to Israel in Realtime"

❗️SUICIDE DRONE FROM IRAQ… at the Golan Heights, fired by an Iraqi based Iranian Shia Militia.  “Exposives-laden” drone crashed and was located by IDF troops.

❗️3 SUICIDE DRONES from LEBANON… fell in open areas of Mt. Dov.

▪️LEBANON… Hezbollah announces it fired 30 Katyusha rockets at Kiryat Shmona.  Hezbollah launched about 150 rockets, PGMs and anti-tank missiles at IDF positions and towns in the north of the country yesterday.

▪️MORE WAR POLITICS… the argument grows.  Says Min. of National Security MK Ben Gvir: “My disagreement with (National Unity leader) MK Benny Gantz is much deeper than the extension of the term of office of the Prison Commissioner.

The same commissioner who conducted negotiations with Hamas to whom I told her that my policy was the opposite. Who gave positive terms to Kotier, a prisoner from a crime family, and I forbade her and told her that it was terrible, who hid entire events from me, as was the case in Ramonim prison when she told me that there were tensions in the wing and in the end it turned out that they tried to murder a warden.

My dispute with MK Gantz is over the fact that he is in favor of fueling Hamas and I oppose this, he is in favor of giving humanitarian aid without any conditions, and I say humanitarian for humanitarian.”

(Amit Segal) Gantz withdrew from the compromise he agreed to today after the cabinet meeting. Part of the plan is to come up with excuses even though the war will last for many months per the chief of staff last night and despite Gantz’s commitment to stay until the end of the war.  The next excuse will be the 2024 budget. It's all a show to escape from committing to stay until the end of the war.

▪️JUDICIAL REAONSABLE-NESS DECISION LEAKS… this would be an earthquake if not for the war.  High Court overturns the Knesset Basic Law: Judicial Reasonableness:

(1) It’s unreasonable for the Knesset to require the court to control their reasonableness unless by broad agreement, not a narrow coalition.

(2) An exemption is given for the full high court only, and by not making the reasonableness a blanket standard by giving the high court full panel more flexibility, it became unreasonable.

(3) Two of the judges in the decision are past their required retirement date, without them it would be a 7-6 decision allowing, with them it is an 8-7 decision overturning.

To summarize:  Former High Court Lead Judge Hayut is going to cancel a basic law on the pretext that it was accepted "by a narrow majority”.

The court says: The writing of the judgment has not yet been completed. We take unauthorized leaks very seriously and will not address it. The judgment will be published after its writing is completed.

▪️ARAB WORKERS TRY TO POISON CHILDREN?  Central district police officers detained 3 gardening workers in a city for questioning, on suspicion of spraying pesticide on playground equipment in the park (with the intent to poison the children).

▪️RELATED: ARAB WORKERS AUTHORIZED?  Sahar Saad, chairman of the Palestinian Workers Association:  "Israel has issued ten thousand work permits to Palestinians in the field of construction. These permits are limited by time of day for the work - from five in the morning to five in the evening. They allow the entry of workers from Judea-Samaria in Israeli territory. They will come into effect on Jan. 6, 2024.  The Israeli contractor ordering the work will guarantee the pick up of the workers from the checkpoint.

[balaasaaa]

I’m such a sucker for Office Job Aus but with Zhongchi specifically, I like to think that Zhongli doesn’t really like Childe, maybe not at first.

(cw: Implied age gap, boss/employee, dub-con)

Zhongli would be an esteemed contractor or something idk, and Childe a mere office assistant. Childe’s personality is a bit more juvenile compared to Zhongli, but he gets the job done so Zhongli keeps him around.

Given Childe’s personality, Zhongli doesn’t get along with him. He’s too…wild. Like an eager flame that’s so used to it’s own heat it doesn’t realize it can burn. Witty sarcasm and out of pocket jokes are just a part of his charm, as much as people may be put off by them.

Childe is polite, he can be, but Zhongli prefers someone with more tranquility…someone who doesn’t use their mouth as often as that sly ginger.

Playful banter is still a part of their work day, not that Zhongli initiates any of it. Childe likes to tease, and he can be a bit of a flirt, especially with his superior…which wasn’t much appreciated, not by Zhongli (or a small number of people who had eyes for the head contractor)

Maybe Childe would get bored one day…his dull office job wouldn’t do it for him. So he starts to humour office rivalries here and there, pay more attention to the people who don’t like him. And eventually, a couple of bitter comments. No big deal, right? Maybe things escalate..fights now, from glares and passive aggression here and there, to a dance of scathing insults. Eventually, most people in the office take issue with the simple assistant.

Zhongli can’t have this, obviously. A good office can’t run without order, so something must be done. He had scolded Childe a couple of times, and was on the verge of firing him (which was a shame because despite his attitude, he was a competent assistant). Nothing he did ever worked, and it almost seemed that sometimes, Childe was doing all this to get his attention. He wanted to find himself in Zhongli’s office, getting told off.

One day, maybe the office goes out for drinks, and Childe, in his drunken frenzy, comes onto Zhongli. Inappropriate touching at first, until Childe is basically propositioning him, asking the man to show him a good time.

As much as Zhongli isn’t appealed by Childe’s personality, he couldn’t deny the man was physically appealing. Softer skin…round eyes. His eyelashes almost made him look girly…

The cogs start turning in his head, and he realizes that he could use this to his advantage. Childe wanted him bad, like an animal in heat.

He takes Childe’s chin in between his fingers, delicately craning his head to face him, and tells Childe that he’ll fuck him, as long as he behaves in the workplace. If he’s a good boy at work, they can have all the sex he wants, today, tomorrow, for however long he wants. No fighting with his colleagues, no unnecessary drama.

Childe agrees before he could even think about it. They have sex that night, and then Childe comes to work the next day and he acts with more restraint, leaving Zhongli pleased. And when Childe is good, Zhongli fucks him.

Just a rough idea…I haven’t figured out anything beyond that o.O

[befuddled-calico-whump]

T$$ Military AU (summary)

(just the basic scenario; I'll edit this post if I get more ideas :) )

×~×~×

In a timeline where the US is involved in a head-on conflict with the fictional country of Ebarus, Joy and Jericho are soldiers stationed near the country's border, and Benji is a civilian contractor deployed with them. Despite the ongoing war, things are pretty uneventful at their base, and mid-tour, Benji is transferred to another unit, as his skills aren't currently needed.

One day, the unit is ambushed while patrolling a defended border, and Joy and Jericho are taken prisoner.

Their captors are after secrets about their base, and also want to use them as propaganda. The two are interrogated separately, but give up nothing, and when they're reunited to be questioned together, they initially frustrate their captors by joking around and acting like they're not taking the situation seriously.

The mood changes when their interrogator shows them a video of a beaten, terrified Benji reading off a list of demands. Joy says it's illegal to treat him that way since he's just a civilian, and their interrogator claims he was caught spying, and therefore lost any protection he would have received.

The pair agree to cooperate in exchange for his safety, but manage to convince most of the Ebarian officials that they don't know anything new about the base.

Convinced they're hiding something but unable to hurt them directly due to having an ongoing propaganda campaign with them (and y'know, it's unlawful), their interrogator tries to intimidate them through another captive: Hunter, a scout who's also been accused of spying. To further the effect, they remove Benji from the shared cell, saying they'll hurt him if the pair tries to stop Hunter's “interrogation”.

They can only watch as he's brutally beaten, but when he's tied to the cell bars to be whipped, Jericho wraps his arms around him to shield his back. This technically isn't stopping the interrogation, but the interrogators take it as an opportunity to hurt Jericho, since they can (factually) claim that he put himself in front of the whip, and it wasn't their intention to harm him.

Wanting to put the prisoners to work, the officials enlist J&J to assist in developing new surveillance drones, since that’s something that plays to both of their skillsets. They know the technology will be used against their side in the fight, but with Hunter and Benjis’ safety constantly under threat, they have no choice but to play along. Mistakes or attempts at sabotage are punished through the other prisoners.

One day, Hunter reports hearing a new prisoner further inside the compound. Jericho tries to learn more, and eventually discovers that it's a downed pilot named Kaius. Worried that he's also being tortured as a suspected spy, Jericho threatens to destroy the blueprints they have so far if the guards can't prove that Kaius is as alive and unharmed as they insist he is.

To get him to stand down, the guards throw Kaius into the cell, now shared by all five of them. In an effort to weaken their resolve, the officials restrict the amount of food and supplies going into the cell, saying they'll feed the military members, but not the spies. Since Kaius was unable to prove his rank and allegiance due to his plane and documents being destroyed, he's also labelled as a spy.

Conditions are getting pretty bad, and it seems like the guards are just having fun hurting the supposed “spies” at this point. By now the group knows they don't have a high chance of being rescued. If they want everyone to survive, they'll need to find a way to break out.

The escape plan starts in the workshop where the drone development is taking place. Joy sets the place on fire using some of the robotics components, creating a distraction and allowing Jericho to overpower one of the guards and take his weapons. They then make a beeline for the cell and release the others. When a group of guards tries to stop them, Jericho stands in front of the group, telling the guards that he and Joy are the only ones who know how to build the drone now that the workshop is destroyed, and if they kill them, all that work will be lost.

Not wanting to risk upsetting their bosses, the guards let them pass.

Escape is slow going. Hunter can barely walk, and Kaius needs to be carried due to a broken leg, but eventually they make it to a large vehicle bay and steal an entire tank. (Joy is pleased)

They spend about a week getting out of enemy territory, moving slow and careful to avoid being spotted, and struggling to survive with a lack of supplies and heavily wounded allies.

Eventually though, all five of them make it to a friendly camp, safe and alive.

[ridiasfangirlings]

Darker Than Black au for K?

Imagine AU where the clans are instead groups of Contractors who all have different goals, like S4 believes Contractors gained their abilities in order to keep the peace for normal humans, Homra believes their powers should be used to live freely and protect those who slip through the cracks of society, Timeless Palace tries to hide the existence of Contractors and superpowers, while jungle wants to create a world where everyone becomes a Contractor and there are no more normal humans. The Sword of Damocles is like a manifestation of power that certain very strong Contractors have, the payment for using their powers is that the Sword will become more damaged each time. As such the Kings have to be careful in their use, like imagine Kokujouji despite being the strongest King almost never uses his actual full power while Mikoto just continues to recklessly use his to protect the people he cares about even though he knows that each time his Sword becomes closer and closer to falling. 

I like the idea that the members of their organizations all have similar powers too, like a lot of the Homra guys have fire-based powers. Imagine Kusanagi’s remuneration is to make cocktails, he even has like a little portable kit he brings along on missions so he can whip something up as needed after a fight. Totsuka’s only ability is to calm others, like a touch by him helps regulate the mood of the person he touches. He’s the only one who can help Mikoto stabilize his mood and abilities, but the price is that Totsuka loses years off his theoretical lifespan every time he uses it — the ‘theoretical’ part though is what makes it hard to track, what he loses is that basically if he was fated to die when he’s’x’ years old every time he uses the power it’s ‘x-1,’ so it’s not like he’s just starting at assuming he’d live to 90 and subtracting from there, he has no way to know when he’ll die. When he finally gets killed by rogue contractor Colorless Totsuka just smiles bitterly as he calls Kusanagi, knowing there’s nothing he can do because he’s used his contract too many times. Anna is a Doll who they rescue from a research facility where Contactor Mizuchi was trying to find new ways to create like the ‘ultimate’ powerful Doll, and due to being experimental Anna shows more emotions than normal Dolls do.

Yata and Fushimi are Contractors who awakened in middle school, Yata has fire powers and Fushimi can like turn anything he touches into a deadly projectile. Imagine Fushimi’s remuneration being something like ‘must eat a vegetable,’ so even though he likes having powers he hates using them and Yata’s always teasing him about it. Yata’s remuneration is to loudly and sincerely praise someone, so when they first awaken and are working together Yata of course is always yelling that Saruhiko is amazing. Once they join Homra though Yata is always praising Mikoto instead, which is one of the things that leads Fushimi to join S4 instead. While at S4 there are rumors that Fushimi’s become a Doll, because he’s even more emotionless than a normal Contractor, but anyone who’s seen him fight Yata Misaki knows that can’t be true because that’s the only time Fushimi will show emotions (and then imagine there’s something similar to what happens in canon with Fushimi having to infiltrate jungle at some point, and when Yata comes to save him Yata uses his powers and then confidently yells ‘Fushimi Saruhiko is amazing,’).