#About Galaxy Educational Services

[thegreenlizard]

What makes a military genius

Obi-Wan recognises the most qualified person to lead his battalion is not himself but his commander and acts accordingly.

Could be the same AU as “Not Obi-Wan’s first slave uprising” (where Obi-Wan is presented with a battalion of slave soldiers, says please and thank you, and starts plotting how to take down the slavers).

Jedi are more like diplomats, spies, or special forces, where they have to achieve much with very little. Obi-Wan had learned to use his assets to their fullest, including—and often especially—sentient assets. Or, Obi-Wan recognises the most qualified person to lead his battalion is not himself but his commander, and acts accordingly.

I have this mental image of Obi-Wan meeting his commander and having a discussion, comparing their education and qualifications; recognising that while he’s willing to learn, his learning curve would happen at the expense of the lives of his men; and promptly reassigning duties. Cody ends up with effective command of the 212th; Obi-Wan’s combat role becomes a specialist and his non-combat role a combination of consultant (he does have applicable experience), Republic/Order attaché (slash shield/advocate for his men), and a professional banthashit processor (which allows Cody to do his job as effectively as possible). And that’s how the 212th ends up the most effective battalion in the GAR.

I love the MilitaryGenius!Obi-Wan trope, but soldiers the Jedi are not. This is one solution for how both could be true at the same time (in other words, gimme military genius!Cody). Obi-Wan has the strategic genius to recognise that he has what might be the finest army in the galaxy crippled by poor leadership—and the negotiator’s out of the box genius to figure out a solution for it. His by the book appearance is part an attempt to protect the good thing he has going on and part malicious compliance.

Bonus:

- Obi-Wan in full trooper armour.

- Obi-Wan in full armour is a trooper that doesn’t exist—the “Ghost” of the Ghost Company (i.e. his assigned company).

- I got thinking about different scenarios and when it would be more advantageous to have your Jedi look visibly Jedi for intimidation, distraction, or whatever—and when it would be more advantageous to hide him in plain sight in one of the identical sets of trooper armour. And I thought that if Cody had a Jedi who was willing to let Cody do whatever he wanted with him, that would definitely be one of the uses to make of him. You know, in addition to getting him wear armour, two birds one shot and all that jazz.

- Cody and Obi-Wan also discuss the possibility of making their arrangement public, making it known it’s a clone who’s effectively running the battalion. But for some political osik reason decide no.

- It probably so happens that the finest army in the galaxy is also compromised by the senate’s lengthy decision making process and poor logistics, but that comes later. Although it might already be apparent that some of it will become a problem—soldiers can’t function without support and logistics & I’m pretty sure not all pertinent support was included in the clone order (onboard ship mechanics yes, shipyards no). So you have a fighting force that *on paper* should be easily winning—and when it isn’t, you can blame the Jedi for something they have no power over.

- That being said, we never see what happens to the service corps during the war—they must be pressed into service as support personnel if the whole Order is drafted? So there are Jedi generals (the knights), but also navigators (Exploracorps), healers (MediCorps), supplying & feeding the army (Agricorps), etc. I wonder how much discontent it causes when those services are pressed to war and taken away from the populations they previously serviced? Probably poorer Outer Rim populations, furthering the divide between Core and Outer Rim worlds and pushing more Outer Rim worlds towards the Separatists, worsening the crisis.

- Eventually Obi-Wan’s experience from Melida/Daan comes in handy. Unfortunately, not his experience with leading troops, but his experience with total warfare and breakdown of infrastructure. That’s not something Cody was taught to expect—he was trained with the expectation of at least somewhat functional support. So Cody has a learning curve, but unexpectedly this is something his general knows.

#plot bunny #blanket permission #codywan #space bunnies #not obi-wan’s first slave uprising

[marvelstars]

Shmi & Anakin Skywalker

I really don´t like fics where Shmi is rescued from slavery, quickly gives up Anakin to the Jedi and gets forgotten in the story while Obi-Wan takes care of Anakin as if he always wanted to do so, when in canon he took time to warm up to him and agreed with the Jedi council that he was dangerous, even after Qui-Gon died and he became Anakin´s master, sorry but that´s not Shmi Skywalker or Obi-Wan Kenobi.

Shmi Skywalker brought up a Son on her own and educated him well, supported him well under the duress of slavery. A free Shmi Skywalker would happily keep her Son and see him grow up free and happy like she always wanted, she already took care of him for 9 years despite his force sensitivity while on slavery, she definitely can take care of him to see him become a young adolescent, young man.

The problem and I can definitely be wrong but I see a tendency that for some fans it looks like a happy Shmi/Anakin Skywalker family that stays together is some sort of criticism of the Jedi Order as if Shmi being alive, happy and raising her son isn´t conducive to a Jedi Order that does it´s own thing but the thing is that that was the exact status quo from TPM. The Order raised Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon while Shmi raised her Son for 9 years.

Shmi raised her Son well, Anakin didn´t show emotional problems until he was taken from his mother, growing up with the guilt of abandoning her in an Order that expected him to behave like a temple raised padawan, who didn´t remember his mother and only knew of the code, instead of the 9 year old, good hearted former slave from the outer rim who liked to show his love by acts of service towards others. Like Lucas said at 9 Anakin already showed being a person with Jedi qualities, those qualities came from his mother's upbringing, not for being raised at the temple.

Anakin can perfectly grow up with his mother and develop his already noticeable good qualities because that was his reality, he already behaved as a hero on Tatooine helping when he could and planning to free his people.

This is why I believe that in Anakin´s particular case, considering his circunstances, becoming a temple raised Jedi who endured the guilt of having abandoned his mother to slavery, was the second reason, the first was Palpatine, for his emotional unstability shown in on Episode II even if he keep many of the qualities he had as a child that were developed during his experiences in the war.

This is why for Anakin to fall the narrative had to kill Shmi first and they had to do so in a way where Anakin would be temped by the darkside. Because if the Jedi Order teached Anakin how to use his force skills, the reason why Anakin was a good person who cared for the galaxy and for others, the reason he was able to call on this goodness to get back from the darkside after decades of being buried there, was because of Shmi.

So yes I don´t much care for those fics that forget about Shmi the first second she gives birth to Anakin, that isn´t her or Anakin tbh but for this reason I love when both of them stay together and things are for the better.

#fandom critical #fictional #anakin skywalker #shmi skywalker #rant post #skywalker family #Jedi Order #In this house we respect the Skywalker Matriarch

[binaryeclipse]

The thing about Star Wars is that it's all about cycles. Geoge Lucas highlighted it when he said "it's like poetry, it rhymes". It exists on a micro and macro scale and it often gets Star Wars accused of lazy fan service (and yes, there is some of that to be sure) but when Star Wars gets it right it really gets it right.

You see it so clearly with Anakin and Obi-Wan.

They're represented by the Open Circle, a loop with two ends constantly reaching for each other. Two halves of a single warrior, as the ROTS novelization made famous.

That moment in the fight, when they used their connected hands to push and pull, it wasn't just a fight tactic, it was a metaphorical representation of Anakin trying to pull away and Obi-Wan still trying to reach out, one last time. It's their bond in the Force, which has highly implied by the series to be a dyad.

Circles are representative of unity and the whole. They were known as The Team, a dynamic fighting force. They move as one, a call and an answer. Where you find Kenobi, Skywalker is not far behind. They were shown to experience the same pain, showing implied dyad levels of oneness in the Force. Not only are they constantly reaching, but they also form a closed unit, a circuit through which they feel one another from across the galaxy. They are an orbit around each other, a binary system of two stars like those in Tatooine's sky.

But there is also discord. They do not talk to each other, not on an intimate level. The few times Obi-Wan reaches out to Anakin, Anakin rejects the emotional support. Their circle, no matter how close, has a broken circuit. It is why Obi-Wan, ultimately, is not the one who saves Darth Vader, it is Luke. Anakin cannot accept the love and support of someone who knew him from before.

Finally, circles are also a metaphor for give and take. Obi-Wan trained Anakin, teaching him everything he knew but in turn, he learns from his training of Anakin. Anyone who has been a teacher or an instructor knows, that you learn just as much from your students as you did from your own education.

But it is a broken circle, an open one, because Anakin does not listen, does not internalize Obi-Wan's lessons.

Which makes Anakin's absolving Obi-Wan's guilt at the end so poignant. It's more emotional awareness than we've seen from him in the series. And what is so crucial about this moment is that Obi-Wan responds in kind, though not right away. Obi-Wan leaves that fight, leaves their bond, and accepts that Anakin is dead and he did not kill his friend. He is free of the cycle, slipping through the open circle they represent.

But when Anakin truly does die, in RotJ, Obi-Wan absolves Anakin of his guilt and reunites with him in the Force. And the circle, their circle, which has been broken for so long, two halves constantly reaching... becomes whole.

#obi-wan kenobi series #kenobi series #anakin skywalker #obi-wan kenobi #kenobi spoilers #meta #sorry if this is not coherent i am still on my floor crying from the last episode

[raccoonfallsharder]

Thinking about how Jolie would have reacted to the events in the Holiday Special and laughing 😂

so sorry for my delay holiday-nonnie but the truth is i was planning on writing a non-window one-shot about the holiday special and when i got this ask it kinda fucked me up. so i may not do that but what i will do is tell you this:

⋆꙳•̩̩͙❅*̩̩͙‧͙ Winter Across the Galaxy * ‧͙*̩̩͙❆ ͙͛ ˚₊⋆ [new 12/5]

rocket x f!oc | casual minific | word count: ??

fluffy fluff. smut implied at the end but not explicit. casually written (headcanon-style) && not edited at all so probably riddled with bad autocorrects.

i suspect that in her younger years, the holidays were a very weird time for jo. i imagine that she and her sister each received one very nice, very serviceable gift every christmas, like a new wool coat or a maybe — if their parents were feeling particularly indulgent — some kind of educational game. if there was anything else — a special meal, a small tree or some lights — the girls would be expected to “help,” and not in a fun way.

it wasn’t that jo & gem’s parents didn’t have means. no. everything was very intentional — calculated. they always seemed to believe that their children had been born into the world already spoiled shitty, and it was their job to teach jo & gem not to ever believe they deserved anything.

but jo’s always been a sucker for wonder, for the kind of romance that a person can find in frost-flowers on a window pane, the tender curl of steam on a cup of warm tea, the glow of a million little multicolored lights — whether they’re studding a nighttime neighborhood street under snow, or a far-off planet. at some point early on, she learned that the other kids whose families celebrated christmas had all this excitement and glee around the holidays. she learned about christmas cookies and big family get-togethers and various holiday movies and stockings and santa.

my mom says some kids don’t celebrate Christmas but if you do and you’re good, santa comes, one classmate had confided. he only doesn’t come if you don’t do christmas.

or if you’re bad.

and jo had wanted that. wanted christmas. wanted magic and wonder and closeness.

for gemma.

because even if jolie knew she herself wasn’t always very good, she knew more certainly than anything else in the world that gemma was. and that gemma deserved magic.

so jo got some cheap felt and made like, the saddest ugliest most barely-functional little stocking in the world for her sister, and explained what it was, and they hid it under gemma’s bed. and since the girls shared a room, it was very easy for jo to keep herself awake and sneak out of bed and fill her sister’s stocking with whatever she could afford or make (which wasn’t much, but it was still magic, and the look on gemma’s face every christmas morning was worth jo selling off portions of her home-packed lunches to her classmates or drawing little comics of them for a dollar or two). making magic for her sister made the holidays magic for jo.

after gemma, christmas was never again anything close to merry.

but when kraglin brings it up — and mantis gets the idea to celebrate for pete and the people of knowhere — jolie is more in than she has been on anything since rocket first told her he wanted to fuck her. after all, she has a family now, and what’s more magical than giving magic to her family?

in some ways, it’s the only christmas tradition jolie’s ever had.

although, she promises herself, next time — when there’s more opportunity to prepare — she’s going to make sure they all have stockings.

in the meantime, she’s so fuckin excited to help rocket and cosmo and groot and nebula string up the lights. to prep the snow. she probably coordinates a fuckin last-minute knowhere neighborhood potluck. she listens to bzermikitokolok’s christmas song and she tells him not to change a goddamn thing because it’s perfect. privately, she revels in the fact that she’s pretty sure she can pinpoint exactly which parts were influenced by kraglin, cosmo, and her cranky boyfriend. she loves every word of it and she can’t stop singing it.

there’s really only one line she thinks needs to be clarified before the night’s over.

she also keeps asking where mantis and drax are because it was their idea and she knows mantis is worried about telling pete (i know it must be scary for you, mant, jo had told her, but for what it’s worth, i promise pete will be thrilled; there’s nothing more precious than a sister, i promise) but either nobody knows where they went, or nobody’s telling.

when kevin fucken bacon pops out of that box though, Jo’s like …oh. this fuckin’ makes sense. later she’ll ask them all, why the fuck did no-one ask me — the other resident terran — if this was a good idea?? and the other guardians will shuffle shame-facedly.

but for now, jo and kraglin eventually corner kevin and calm him down. and the truth is, jo knows that later tonight — after some boozy hot chocolate — she’s going to find it all hysterical.

and she does. she and rocket are in their apartment (they have a much more comfortable bed because there’s no way either of them are letting each other sleep on whatever-the-fuck bachelor-rocket has going on in volume three) and she’s lying on her tummy on the comforter, drunkenly giggling and kicking her feet while she watches cosmo and rocket convince a long-suffering groot to stand in as a christmas tree. the shadows are blue and purple velvet, and the multicolored lights are warm and shimmery. everything feels like champagne bubbles, but sweeter and brighter and better. all four of them are wrapped in a golden coziness for the moment, and she’s sure she couldn’t be more happy.

once their friend and their son leave for the night, rocket and jo lay on their back and stare up at the lights that he’s strung through the apartment rafters, because it’s true that rocket has always had a soft spot for pretty things, even if he doesn’t believe he deserves them. they’re lazy and languid and rosy and buttery and content: two little sugar cookies, still half-drunk on whatever was in that cocoa (plus the flask rocket kept swigging from throughout the night).

favorite part? she asks him.

he snickers. your face when kevin bacon happened.

a buzzy giggle escapes her.

yours? he asks.

she hums her data-processing noise. the lights, she says decisively. no, the snow. no, everybody just being together, giving gifts, having fun, sharing food. i’ll make you all stockings for next year, she tells him, and he’s clearly baffled by what she means.

which reminds her.

there’s only one thing she’d change, she tells rocket. one line in bzer’s song she feels the need to clarify.

what? he asks curiously. we got somethin’ wrong?

just one thing, she assures him, lying through her fucking teeth and totally at peace with it. she can’t stop the snorting laughter riding in her throat. you think santa’s gonna shoot missiles at your toes?

rocket shrugs. maybe he’s got some very precise firepower. bet mine’s still better.

it better be, she says dryly, because mistletoe is just a kind of terran plant. like, with berries.

you eat it? rocket asks curiously.

absolutely not, she tells him. you just decorate with it. it’s poisonous.

what the fuck, he deadpans. why the fuck would you decorate with a poisonous—

it’s an old tradition, she cuts in. old folklore and myths. but when two people are standing under it, they’re supposed to kiss.

that’s stupider than santa shooting missiles at your toes, he says flatly. you’re s’posed to make out under poison? how frickin’ romantic.

but jo’s already rolling over on top of him, her chest pressed against his thighs and her forearms planted on either side of his hips.

i’d take any chance i got to kiss you, she tells him. even under threat of poison.

he goes still beneath her, but she doesn’t stop.

i’d hang it all over this apartment.

his eyes get bigger, rounder, christmas-light-red in the dim, warm glow of twinkling colors.

i’d wear it in my hair.

she drops a kiss on his abdomen.

you wouldn’t be able to walk more than a step without me tackling you, she promises, her voice smoky with too much laughter and singing through the night, too much booze and happiness and lust right now. she presses another kiss against him, just a little further south than the first.

i’d kiss you all over —

he reaches out and laces his fingers into a fistful of her hair, letting his claws scrape delicately over her scalp, and tugs her upward.

i lied, he says. santa shooting missiles is way more stupid. you want mistletoe, sugardrop? i’ll get quill to send krags and cosmo to terra and we’ll get you so much fuckin’ mistletoe —

she smiles giddily.

maybe next time, she says. for now, let me just give you a merry christmas.

#rfh asks #window across the galaxy #gotg holiday special #rocket raccoon fanfiction #rocket x jolie #rfh fluff

[moxiebustion]

Anakin Skywalker was a great Jedi.

He was not a good Jedi. Not even remotely.

Same thing you say? No, not really.

It's a bit like the difference between being rich and being wealthy. They sound like they're the same thing, involving the same quantifier (money) but they're not.

Rich is when you have enough. Your job pays well, you own a nice house, a couple of cars, you and your family can save a nest egg and go on some nice holidays and stuff. Your kids have their college tuition paid, you can afford to support an elderly or disabled family member relatively well. Life is good.

But you still have to work. Your partner still has to work. Your kids, while they will be very well educated and have all the advantages, will still need to get a job to survive on their own. You make your money by the sweat of your labours - maybe more than you need, but it's still down to the work of your hands.

Wealthy? Wealthy is where you own such an enormous portfolio of properties, have such a collection of heirloom artefacts, have so many bloated trust funds that you could spend every single one of your living days do nothing and you'd still have enough money to live on and then some. So would your children. And your grandchildren.

The surgeon making six figures a year is rich. They guy that has the entire wing of the hospital the surgeon works in named after him is wealthy.

Which brings us back to Great Jedi versus Good Jedi. They sound the same, with the same quantifier (Jedi), but they're not.

Anakin Skywalker was a Great Jedi in the sense that his deeds would get written about in history books. Helped win a planet's freedom at nine. Mastered a saber at nineteen, in half the time any of his peers took. Apprenticed to the Order's premier negotiator. Was knighted after one-on-one combat with a Sith. Pilot, Warrior, Hero Without Fear - he talked the talk, he walked the walk. He was everything people thought a Jedi should be and was therefore a Great Jedi in the eyes on minds of the galaxy.

He was a complete failure at being a Good Jedi.

The smallest, weakest and most fumble fingered member of the creche was a better Good Jedi than he could even dream of being. The Archivist who had never passed a single saber test ever given to her was a better Good Jedi than him and all his prowess. The elderly old farmer who had spent their entire lives up to their neck in dirt and hadn't been involved in a single galactically vital peace treaty was a better Good Jedi than Anakin Skywalker could even begin to comprehend.

They all wanted it.

They wanted it.

They wanted to be Jedi.

That's not to say they never wanted other things; marriage, or children, or life outside of service. People want things. Even Jedi want things.

But they never wanted anything in the galaxy more than they wanted to be a Jedi. Being a Jedi was the one thing they were willing to give up everything else for. They understood that it was a big commitment, that it would ask a lot of them, and they looked at that choice with their eyes wide open, fully trained and educated onto what it would entail and said yes, this is what I want to be.

(And that's not unhealthy! That's not "repression". Is a priest or a nun repressed? Is an asexual or aromantic repressed? Is anyone who ever got a dream job that took them away from home, kin and country repressed, wrongheaded, brainwashed? Or have they looked at their options, have they been fully informed and educated on what the life they choose will mean for them and everyone around them and decided yes, this lifestyle, which is not like everyone else's, which may even separate me irrevocable from the mainstream, suits me. I don't need or want the rest of it as much as this. This is what I want).

Anakin Skywalker wanted to be a Jedi.

But he didn't want to be a Jedi more than he wanted anything else.

He could swing a lightsaber, he could quote esoteric tenets and philosophies, he could pilot a ship, he could perform a variety of Force techniques, he could more than hold his own in a fight.

None of these make a person a Good Jedi.

You have to want it. You have to want to be a Jedi, above all other things. The talent might make you Great but it's the wanting, the choice, that makes you Good. You have to look at it, all of it, clear eyed, and decide you want it.

And he... didn't.

He just lied and said he did. At first to himself.

And then, knowingly and willfully, to everyone else.

Until he wasn't even a Great Jedi anymore. He wasn't a Jedi at all.

And he still didn't get anything else he wanted either.

#star wars #star wars meta #anakin skywalker #anti anakin skywalker

[ferusaurelius]

Turian Culture Meta - Ferus Style

Yeah so -- ready to descend into crazyland? 

We’re gonna dive into some meta thoughts I have about what sort of cultural educational and military system would produce the interesting client-state relationship between the turian Hierarchy and the Vol Protectorate.

Disclaimer: The opinions of the author (me) are naturally my own and are not intended to argue for or against anyone else’s ideas. This is not even intended to be an interpretation of canon, in point of fact. Canon doesn’t have much to say about things that actually interest me. -shrug-

This is my ‘plausible’ version of conceptual options and social structures that canon either glosses over or fumbles entirely. Because it’s just not interested in these ideas, really ... BUT I AM. :D

If you find any of these concepts compelling? Fantastic, please liberate them! Go and use them in any or all transformative work with or without attribution.

I really Do Not Want to be the only one writing this stuff, so... be welcome!

Full post (long) underneath the cut.

The Situation

The turian Hierarchy makes first contact with the Citadel some 1000 years after the volus have drawn up the Unified Banking Act (300 B.C.E.) and have a thriving economic network of colonies after discovering FTL travel. The volus in point of fact have more than a millennia of advanced experience in working with multi-species ventures and are a pillar of the galactic economy long before the turians finish off their brutal Unification Wars.

If you took just the game’s on-screen hints as fact, none of this is evident in the galaxy by the time Shepard encounters volus on the Citadel. They’re treated as a sort of minor curiosity in comparison to the turian characters -- whether because of the mask, or just because economics is “less interesting” in a AAA-shooter. OH WELL.

Another interesting element is that the volus are “accepted” as a protectorate of the Hierarchy around 700 C.E., shortly after the Krogan rebellions.

To my mind, this is translation for: the Hierarchy’s war economy in the aftermath of the Krogan rebellions would have collapsed without the intervention of volus administrators, economists, logicians, and other bureaucratic types. What the Hierarchy DOES have of a peacetime bureaucracy was likely or nearly entirely trained and reformed by the Vol Protectorate’s extremely professional civil service. Fight a series of wars and warlords in the colonies for around 1000 years while someone else is running the galactic banking system ... and you’re probably woefully behind the curve in that area, just saying.

When you’ve “elevated” one warlike species (the Krogan) and then been surprised that they’ve gone on to aggressively contest the rest of Citadel space, it even seems likely/possible that this was a grand strategic bargain on the part of the Citadel species to avoid the turians becoming a “second” Krogan incident.

A values-driven and rules-based collectivist civil society that managed to transition to a peacetime footing without an accompanying economic collapse would be a much more stable galactic force ... plus you get the opportunity to fill in C-Sec ranks, develop a galactic security fleet (employing turian Dreadnoughts), and use those related tasks and duties to bring turians (an otherwise very militaristic society with a historical doctrine of total war) into better compliance as galactic citizens. In essence: the Vol Protectorate gives the Hierarchy something to protect rather than conquer.

Naturally, turian cultural perspectives on the purpose of the Hierarchy and the relative values of the culture probably run the gamut from the more imperialistic Unification and pre-Unification end of the spectrum to the more socially/galatically communitarian version of the Hierarchy, itself, as a participant in creating civil society within the Milky Way.

When in doubt? I prefer to view individuals on a spectrum or continuum of different possible viewpoints -- and to prefer that a full spectrum of interpretations be available to my characters. So that’s the type of environment I’d use as backdrop for, say, a fic.

Education (Given: The Situation)

Which takes us back to the Hierarchy’s mandatory service culture and boot camp at age 15, with mandatory service from age 15-30.

“Public service” as opposed to private industry is more a matter of organization and aims than it is a limitation of ‘choices.’ Take, for instance, the example of ‘national’ industries owned by a state. Any state-owned enterprise might conceivably count toward ‘public service’ citizen credit. These enterprises could include everything from arts museums and public art projects (ala the Works Projects Administration of Roosevelt Depression-era US policy) to industrial fabricators, dockyards, and other collectively owned and operated institutions.

Note that I also don’t equate state-owned industry to CENTRALLY-PLANNED industry! You might, in a turian society that prizes both individual accountability AND public service, have for instance a federated system of local control within a centrally-organized public works or other department.

Fair warning: this is my professional bureaucrat side talking. There are MANY aspects of infrastructure, particularly public works infrastructure, that are site- and context-dependent. Central planning of these features quite literally doesn’t work outside of administration and funding (which you WANT organized in larger packages if possible, to secure the best possible loan terms). 

I also imagine that a public service-oriented society would work on incorporating the economic fates of its outer colonies into the trading lanes and patterns of the central Hierarchy (in order to secure greater loyalty and collective bargaining power, alongside the Vol Protectorate’s economic management engine).

So what would education in a “man-of-action”/”public service” society look like? I’d think more a system of apprenticeships and practical qualification or on-the-job (OJT) training and certification where available! 

A boot camp experience is usually important both for training in values and standard procedures, so it’s less likely to vary appreciably between any one place and another beyond basics related to climate and environment. I’d expect boot camp training to be purposely standardized -- individual accountability doesn’t necessarily lead me to conclude that turians would be keen to judge themselves on anything other than “demonstrated merit” (and testing would be ONE part, but probably not the most significant -- outside of genuine performance on practical tasks, and the ability to produce measurable results!).

Pre-boot-camp education would likely be designed to expose juveniles to as many professions as possible -- there’s a bit in the codex about the turian respect for “knowing one’s place” and finding a comfortable place where the individual best serves the community (rather than individual prestige or economic gain). This would also track with turians being ‘poor’ entrepreneurs (i.e. less inclined to start their own businesses for profit, or with less opportunity when they’re in State-mandated service) ... and account for some of the distrust of ‘merc-born’ turians who chose to opt out of the traditional Hierarchy structure.

I’d also expect a classical turian education to include emphasis on health, community values, and being able to communicate in a general way with their volus partners/collaborators in areas that are less often viewed as strengths of turian culture (aka: economics and business, anyone?).

If turian culture is truly militaristic and communitarian, both, and formed around a sort of military hierarchy, that society will also be shaped by what doctrine views as effective deployment of force and possible missions and required capabilities In military terms, this would be defined both by a theoretical ‘ideal’ force structure and various desired concepts of operations.

Military Doctrine (Given: The Situation)

So, what capabilities would be valuable for the turian Hierarchy to provide to the galaxy? What are its internal needs? What are the needs of its closest allies and partners?

We already know (or suspect) that Dreadnoughts are one sign of military status. These immense warships are required to secure and hold space stations and other important remote outposts, alongside the smaller cruisers, frigate wolfpacks, and other space Navy-type forces.

We can also consider C-Sec (civil and criminal investigation on the Citadel, security for ports, anti-smuggling operations, etc.) as a separate civil branch and outgrowth of skills are learned and taught within the Hierarchy and something of a stereotypical (and desirable!) turian job outside of Hierarchy space.

Other valuable services provided by the Hierarchy include staffing and operating a force (32 fleets!) large enough to secure not just Hierarchy space but also to protect the Citadel. Turians canonically value combined arms and disciplined maneuver warfare, decentralized command-and-control, and are also the primary military arm and security force for the rest of the galaxy.

In summary: the turians are so good at staffing and maintaining fleets that the rest of the Council species seem to prefer handing these civil functions over to the turians in proportion to their relative expertise and cultural strengths.

All of the above implies that turian culture would need to be an extraordinarily flexible (structurally) society, if individually somewhat set and rigid in expectations and values for fulfilling assigned duties.

I’d believe that assignments, once given, were equivalent to anyone else’s ultimatum! I’d also imagine that turians would find it VERY personally important to seek out roles where they could fulfill all potential assignments to the best of their individual abilities, and that ‘finding’ that place/role in society would be akin to a life path.

Amateurs Study Tactics

A short aside that warfighting ability, alone, at least on an individual level, is a minor strength in comparison to building an effective collaborative combined arms force. The organization required at an individual level? Not much! Just personal training and supply.

Problems mount as soon as the force expands in size, complexity, and desired mission capabilities. I could see volus economists and logicians, as well as military scholars, being the preeminent organizers and administrators of turian force structures. I could see the volus economic influence being a quite effective force multiplier for the turian Hierarchy, in terms of creatively organizing fleets and their sub-units into autonomous mission-capable interchangeable “parts” which all know how to work together and communicate to achieve complex adaptability and integration of vastly different forces, hardware, and weapons systems at a variety of scales (from galactic, to orbital, to low-orbit, to planetside ground).

Which leads us to ...

Professionals Study Logistics

This is just the study of the application of “effective force.” What makes a force effective? It needs to be supplied with personnel and materiel such that it can accomplish its assigned mission -- preserve the capability of the force through the supply of the necessary tools at the right time, alongside the ability to maintain, repair, replace, or rotate those tools as needed.

A force that has been improperly positioned (is too far forward of supply lines, or too far in the rear to be applied at the right time) is by definition an ineffective force. It is unavailable to accomplish the mission.

There’s a long, rich tradition of economists studying the choice behaviors of nations seeking war, the application of deterrence, and the conditions of victory and defeat on a multitude of different battlefields in different historical and cultural contexts. We get just about NONE of this (barring some high-level generalizations) in Mass Effect, proper!

If we did, we might have seen a bit more nuance in illustrating the Vol Protectorate as not just the economic backbone of Citadel space, but also the preeminent experts in military grand strategy and supply. They’re likely the most closely associated Citadel species and have the most experience collaborating with turian systems of organization! The volus would be just as good at turian military history as turians are, if not BETTER observers and critics on the logistics/economics side, in terms of patterns of thinking and history!

At some point I’m going to have to write the “lessons learned” memo on the First Contact War from the point of view of an eminent volus logistician and economist (ala Thomas Schelling).

Because I’m a nerd, and if the FCW was a failure due to logistics and supply errors? You can just BET the volus were kept out of the First Contact loop as a some sort of power play on the part of less-qualified frontline personnel... no, they’re not salty about that, why do you ask?

-

HATE ME YET? Yeah, I can’t stop thinking about this stuff, either ... and now you know why my fanfiction is the way it is. :D

#mass effect meta #turian #volus #apparently i have TOO MANY THOUGHTS #ferus chats #my way of thinking #shrug #jazz hands #it is what it is

[battlekilt]

Your interpretation of Cody and Obi-wans relationship in parallel to Obi-wan and Anakins was something that never really crossed my mind. But now that you say it, it really is a fascinating view on them. I'd read a whole book about it.

In response to this post.

Funny you should say that, Anon. I am currently in the process of writing a rather sizable chunk of a fic, for the purposes of having a lot of it written before it starts going up, and the dynamic between these three are a key element. Though, I have a blorbo—Rex is the main character. These three? Though? They contain some of the most important relationships in his life, so that will be explored, a lot. Especially since the three of them play a large part in what drives the narrative.

I am glad you feel that way, specifically.

No matter what, Cody is, like all Clones, an incredibly young man. Even if we somehow set aside the fact that he was 'born' the year Obi-Wan became Anakin's master, which I don't think is entirely honest to wholly do, and focus on his physical development...

Cody is 'twenty-years' old when he meets Obi-Wan. Cody is functionally, in comparison, a 4-star General.

Let me elaborate further:

In the US Military, there are currently 17 active 4-Star Generals.

To quote Wiki:

There are currently 44 active-duty four-star officers in the uniformed services of the United States: 17 in the Army*, three in the Marine Corps, eight in the Navy, 11 in the Air Force*, two in the Space Force***, two in the Coast Guard, and one in the Public Health Service Commissioned Corps. ARMY** and AF** are bold because it fits the scope of the 3rd System Army, with the 7th Sky Corps is nested within the System Army. Which, fits with the allegorical theme of the GAR being based on the US Military. The Air Force was a nested tactical corps within the US ARMY from its inception in 1933-35 (ask a military historian which date and start an argument), and became a separate and equal element in 1947.

One remarkable note is that the US Army has the most 4-star positions that it has had since WWII. But, I digress.

Much like the US Military is divided regionally, the GAR is divided into the major galactic sectors. Nearly all are under the command of a member of the Jedi High Council, and there were a 1–2 Admirals that were given command for brief periods. All were served by the highest rank achievable by a Clone—Marshal Commander.

That's our sunshine boy. One of the most powerful 12–15 Clones in the whole Grand Army of the Republic.

Under Cody's command, because let's be real, Obi-Wan is there to provide legitimacy, vibe-checks, and familiarity with the galaxy that Cody would not have—having grown up on an isolated world barely connected to the GFFA, there are 250,000 Clone Troopers, with a support personnel corps at about 4x–7x per Clone Trooper, and this is aside from Naval staff and any civilian personnel.

This puts the 3rd System at:

Low: 1,769,472 High: 2,359,296

Let's put this more in perspective.

The current US Military, combined:

Active Duty: 1.4M Total: 2.2M

Alone, the 3rd has more Clones than the Army Reserve, as of 2021. However, in total, would have more personal than the Active Duty on the low estimate, and the total (active+reserve) is still under the highest estimate for the 3rd System Army.

Cody's command is... massive. While I understand that this fits with the galactic scale, that is still... a lot for one person. Yes, I am going to stand by my assessment that Cody would have the most military responsibilities, even in comparison to Obi-Wan. General Kenobi does not have the training that Cody has been given.

Now, let's go into Training VS Experience. Training is the education received: NEARLY all US officers are required to have a higher education—a bachelors degree or above.

(Admittedly, this does get complicated).

To my knowledge, most have all been taught at one of the military schools—West Point, Naval Academy, Air Force Academy, etc. There are some senior military colleges that are also secondary higher academies that some O-10s may have come from. Sorry, I didn't get too far down this one. While there may be exceptions, for the most part... this is going to be typical.

Generals typically have over 20 years of military experience.

30 years.

Developmentally, Cody is a twenty-year-old. 20. 10 * 2. Half of 40.

The lowest commissioned rank in the Army is 2nd Lt. Statically, the average age for all commissioned officers is, on average, in their forties, though a good number of our 2LTs are in their thirties.

Generals are typically in their forties.

This means that Cody is younger than... any officer.

Experience? Life Experience? Outside of education, drills and simulations? None. According to Legends, the Kaminoans barely allowed the RepComm trainers to ever use LiveAmmo. Though, it would be reasonable that by the time Cody would have entered ARC training, he would have been exposed to life-fire practice.

No matter how hard his training was, it was not the same as life-experience in the field. This is where Obi-Wan, one of the few Jedi Masters who has worked with military operations with ANY comfort—which was still very little, really lends himself to his XO.

The Kaminoans are professionals at creating and building... well, professional militaries. They had the help of Jango Fett and other Mandalorian trainers to augment their training. However, for the most part, the Clones were trained using the methodology and educational paradigm the Kaminoans created—though, never on the same scale. This was pure professional military education on an industrial level.

Cody?

Cody may have more training and knowledge than most four-star generals will have in their lifetime, all with the benefit of a wikipedia style swath of information, modern technology to impart that knowledge, and some pretty extensive stimulation. But, what is under Cody's pretty-little-military-cut head? All of it is knowledge that surpasses what most Generals will EVER dream, even if they just stayed in military education.

However.

He is a ten-year-old in a twenty-year-old's body with the brain of AT LEAST two-life-times of military experience.

Impressive, huh?

But, Cody is still... not like you or I.

At the time of Cody's training, it is highly unlikely they left the Kaminoan starsystem. If they did, they did not engage with the galaxy at large. This is a bit like growing up Tatooine.

On the edge of the galaxy, with only the stars to stare up at.

Anakin grew up in a sea of sand. Cody grew up in a... world of seas.

Cody's life experience, the life experience you and I would take for granted, is nonexistent. He could lead an army better than our best Generals could hope for. But, what else has he known?

My parallels are that Obi-Wan purposefully encouraged Anakin to be a sassy menace. He wanted to break that slave-mentality. Luckily, Anakin already showed that he could become a spitfire, even when he was sweet little Ani.

Similarly, I characterize that Obi-Wan did the same for Cody.

Anakin's shackles were the explosive in his body, the ferocity of how slave culture was brutally enforced—fear. However, Anakin knew that he was a slave, and he knew enough of something more.

Cody's shackles are the indoctrination he received from the time of his birth. Unfortunately for fandom at large, Cody is... a much more obedient military man that I think many want to see him. Based on remnants of Legends and the retained canon, no Marshal Commander would be in their position were they not... very obedient—to militant POVs. In fact, in the Disney comics, Cody has... a rather brutal attitude towards deserters—

BTW, in a military, desertion is one of the worst offensive that could be committed against a soldier's oath, that which they swore themselves to... but more importantly... their fellow soldiers.

In contrast, Wolffe is much more forgiving, and advocates for their re-assimilation in the GAR; Cody... disagrees with the fact that the deserters are still alive, and believes they should still be executed by a firing squad.

In season 1, Slick—for whatever reason—becomes a rare voice to call out the circumstances of the Clones. Not only do Rex and Cody recoil at a brother betraying the GAR, the Jedi, and of course... the killing of brothers, but they also scoff at his assertion that they are slaves.

Cut becomes a critical introduction to the slow character development we see Rex go through; Cody unlikely goes through the same because that's just how stories like this work. Just the simple act of asking the questions he gave to Rex set the stage for what happened on Umbara, and even then, Rex struggled to show defiance.

BTW, Fives's actions are fulfilling the duties of an (active) ARC. They are supposed to be more independent, whereas a command-class Clone like Rex may be a trained ARC, but his duties as a CC**** would mean that his prime directive is the cohesion of the command, and to assist in the joint operation between the Clones and the Jedi.

Fast-forward to Order 66 and Cody doesn't hesitate. Yes, it is the chip. However, that was not how ROTS was scripted or filmed. I know this is getting Doylist, but it is relevant. At that time, the Clones knew what was going to happen. They knew that they would eventually turn on the Jedi. Through the story of TCW08, it changes to a Manchurian Candidate concept, and eventually evolves the story of the chips that we know today. As the Doylist context changed, it remains that Cody acted without any pause. This is in line because the highest priority Cody held was always loyalty to the Republic. Loyalty to the REPUBLIC—Not the Jedi, not his brothers, not General Kenobi. Just. The. Republic. A traitor to the Republic is worst than the Separatists.

When the order went out, Cody's brain heard:

Obi-Wan friend. Obi-Wan betrayed Republic. Kill General Kenobi. He is no friend to the Republic—thus—to Cody.

Makes sense to him, especially at the moment. This is conditioning. This is indoctrination. This is militantism in action. The chip wasn't really necessary... it was for the sake of the audience who didn't want to believe that the men we began to care about would ever do this 'willfully,' even though all that mental conditioning and indoctrination would mean that they didn't have a choice... even if they didn't have the chip.

Obviously, by the time you get to TBB, when some Clones begin to question that Manchurian voice in their head, Cody's rationale returns, and so does his critical thinking. We have Cody, a Clone depicted in recent comics with a militant intolerance towards desertion, going AWOL from the Empire—that is HUGE. Was this his fall from grace? His fall to what was his darkside? From one angle, yes. However, it was a fallback into grace, and I like to think that it goes back to two people: Obi-Wan and Rex. We'll continue to focus on Obi-Wan, though.

I like to think that it was the seeds of the Jedi finally germinated, and it was Obi-Wan that planted them within his dear Clone Commander.

Obi-Wan being a one former menace himself—you know, a young man who thought tying two lightsabers to the ends of a rope was a good idea—got himself stuffed into one of the dreaded Jedi Council armchairs. Great, now he HAS to be responsible.

Cody and Anakin are, in many ways, parallels, just not direct. They are often inversions of each other, and together they make a great foil for Obi-Wan in general.

The idea that Obi-Wan saw this INCREDIBLY accomplished, intelligent, "gifted-child" of a Clone Commander and thought... "How do I get him to be a menace?"

I love it. I feel like it is just the thing someone like Obi-Wan Kenobi would do. It makes sense that Obi-Wan would want to help Cody grow beyond the very narrow—but extensive—field of knowledge, all for the express purpose of watching the young man develop into a more rounded individual.

It is also very, very Jedi. It was always the Jedi that were the sole friends of the Clones. So, it makes sense to me that the Jedi would advocate for this sort of well-rounded development. And the Clones? They would sorely need that kind of encouragement.

The Clones were never supposed to have names. They Clones were not individuals. It was the Jedi who told them to paint their units colors. It was the Jedi who TOLD him to pick out names. In Legends, and I think it fits with the remaining printed canon, Cody was actually very apprehensive and skeptical about how much of a good idea it was for the Clones TO develop individuality.

Cody was not bred for the specific purpose of his role—not even for being a CC. (Sorry, fanon)

He was just another Clone. Maybe he got nurtured and natured into a better candidate for a command-class Clone, but in the end? He was randomly chosen. As clarified in recent apocrypha, Cody was just a Clone Captain in the 91st when Obi-Wan found him and was impressed by him.

What made "Just A Clone Captain Cody" stand-out to Obi-Wan? There's plenty of theories that can arise.

In my lore, Alpha-17 recommended Obi-Wan go check out "#2224 in Windu's battalion."

From Captain to Marshal Commander? AHHHH. Someone send help.

Imagine the fine-lined walked poor young Obi-Wan had with Anakin: a former rebellious ginger-child himself, he became a well-behaved rule minder under Qui-Gon. Now he has this older Padawan, who is also a former slave of one of the harshest slave planets we know of. He has to get Anakin to be self-expressive, learn how to act on his own self-agency—AND—he has to also... try and help Anakin assimilate into the Jedi Order.

Take Cody: ten years old, looks twenty, has the knowledge of several lifetimes lived by career military men, who has seen very little of the galaxy.

Keep in mind, Obi-Wan met Jango Fett. He knew just what kind of attitude could lurk under that stony face so like the others, even if he said, "Yes, sir," without hesitation, and followed his orders faithfully.

I don't think Obi-Wan would be able to help himself. It is part of the Jedi Culture to be a positive presence. Unlike Anakin did with the 501st, Obi-Wan purposefully kept himself removed from most Clones; his empathy made it too difficult to ensure their suffering and death, so distance kept him remotely functional. The only two Clones Obi-Wan accepted as friends had been Cody and Rex. Obviously, Rex is an Anakin problem. But, Cody? His young, cloned, new friend? Right there. Right there. That... Jedi compulsion, that ITCH they get, it would gnaw at him. He can't help many others.

The same could have been said for Anakin, who was just freed, but had nowhere else to go—little Ani had no one else. Obi-Wan didn't have the same responsibilities as a fresh Knight as he would as a Jedi Master. He could risk everything and leave the Order to train Anakin if the Jedi won't matriculate him. He risked everything to help this one little boy. Later? He wants to risk everything, again. But now, his everything doesn't belong to him anymore—not even enough to consider leaving the Order. Every Clone death is another slice across him, and even a thousand papercuts will get'cha.

But, he wants to help. He would want to help beyond vibe-checks, lightsaber wielding, crazy feats of Force-enchanted bravery.

He would want to help a person—Cody, the clone so often by his side—become a PERSON in his own right. A young man that everyone else has forgotten IS a young man. I doubt Obi-Wan would ever forget that, like he never forgot that Anakin was a young man.

So, there is that itch. That... Jedi need to just... reach out and help make the galaxy a better place for others. One Clone. Is that too much to ask? Can he be allowed to be a mentor for ONE Clone? If he helped this Clone become more than a faceless soldier, if he helped this Clone have more growth and life experience than just what he was given on Kamino, maybe... Maybe Obi-Wan can imagine that there will be a life after the war. To do that, he wants to help his new friend become a full person—in the hopes of the After the War.

Obi-Wan cannot save everyone. He cannot help everyone.

But maybe...

Maybe, JUST maybe, he can help this one Clone become more of a person, and far... far less of just another number.

Slavery is a hell of a thing, and it comes in many forms. But another face of slavery is indoctrination, which is ultimately the stripping away personhood, so they can be utilized as a tool—sound familiar? Yeah, me too.

I think, Obi-Wan would recognize this about the two young men he cares about. Yes, even Rex, but... this post is about Cody and Anakin.

I went on more about Cody than Anakin because... there's a lot of wonderful meta about Anakin, and I'm not confident enough to try and fill the same niche. I also have so much I could say about how I envision Anakin and Cody get along, and how it might be through Obi-Wan's eyes. I'll just say this: he thinks both his overgrown students are hilarious together, and his tickles him... Ginger. ;)

Anyway, I hope this post finds you, anon, and you get anything from it. At the time of this post, I only have one posted fic. While it doesn't go as deep into this meta, there are some elements in it to get a taste of this characterization/meta. When the bigger version of the AU goes up—who knows. It is currently at 270K+.

Thank you for the engagement!

EDIT: There are MORE points of comparison that I just... couldn't get to. Such as the earliest characterization notes we were given about Cody, right after ROTS came out. (Overly cautious, anxious, but highly competent—I love me some anxiety-riddled people with excess competency. My "Imposter Syndrome" Cody isn't going anywhere, and it helps him lineup with Anakin.)

Side-notes and additional commentary under the cut.

***We don't acknowledge "space force" in this house.

**** Yeah, no, Rex is a CC. I'll fite over this. He is labelled in far more apocrypha as a CC, and it just gets way too complicated to label him a CT when he is in a command-class position. This is one area of new canon I'm just... gonna ignore. I hc that Krell was being a jackass to Rex.

Note: Rex was always a CC until the Umbara episodes. When he was called CT-7567... it was a script terror. I'm ignoring that retcon. There's even books printed as late as 2021 that list him as CC.

#commander cody #obi wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #long post #kilt's clonely meta #kilt's meta #gffa meta #bucket answers #anonymous #bucket's meta

[loquaciousquark]

In early 2020, @mystery-moose decided my cinematic education could no longer be allowed to persist with such egregious holes. He and I and @eponymous-rose and @silksieve and @fistfulofgammarays started a discord server to watch movies every Saturday night, and shortly after came @probablylostrightnow and @servantofclio and @jadesabre301 and @annalyia and @bettydice, and suddenly we had something like bottled lightning held in a jar in our hands.

It couldn't have come at a better time--the pandemic struck about a month later--and what started as a way to expand my our horizons has become a precious thing. We've watched movies together, celebrated birthdays together, and we've traveled together too, to Colorado and Chicago and the Grand Canyon and a half-dozen other little gatherings across the entire country.

It's not an easy thing for a bunch of 30-40+'s to get together every week. But we make the time, rain or shine, only missing one single week where all but one of us were traveling, and the joy it's brought me (along with the knowledge of the greatest movie of all time, Kung Fu Hustle) is comparable to nothing else. Today is our slightly delayed three-year anniversary celebration.

Happy movie night anniversary, ya pineapples!

Complete list of movies watched under the cut.

COMPLETE Parasite — 2/17/20 Hot Fuzz — 2/22/20 Airplane! — 2/22/20 Arrival — 2/29/20 Yojimbo — 3/8/20 The Guard — 3/8/20 The Mummy — 3/14/20 Rush Hour — 3/21/20 Rumble in the Bronx — 3/21/20 Edge of Tomorrow — 3/28/20 What We Do In The Shadows — 3/28/20 Twister — 4/4/20 The Matrix — 4/11/20 Haywire — 4/11/20 Rear Window — 4/18/20 The Grand Budapest Hotel — 4/18/20 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon — 4/24/20 Reign of Assassins — 4/25/20 Operation Condor — 4/25/20 Master and Commander — 5/2/20 Kung Fu Hustle — 5/2/20 GAME NIGHT: Betrayal at House on the Hill — 5/9/20 O Brother, Where Art Thou? — 5/16/20 The Fall — 5/24/20 John Wick — 5/30/20 Spider-Man — 5/30/20 Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse — 6/6/20 John Wick 2 — 6/13/20 John Wick 3 — 6/20/20 Annihilation — 6/27/20 Rebecca — 7/4/20 Commando — 7/4/20 Clue — 7/11/20 The Princess Bride — 7/11/20 The Terminator — 7/18/20 Terminator 2: Judgment Day — 7/18/20 The Old Guard — 7/24/20 The Mark of Zorro — 7/24/20 Seven Samurai — 8/1/20 Speed — 8/8/20 Kung Fu Hustle (again) — 8/8/20 The Fifth Element — 8/15/20 Shin Godzilla — 8/15/20 Murder by Death — 8/22/20 Brick — 8/22/20 Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure — 8/29/20 Bill and Ted’s Bogus Journey — 8/29/20 Bill and Ted Face the Music — 8/29/20 Black Panther — 9/5/20 The Mandalorian, season one — 9/6/20 Blade Runner — 9/12/20 Blade Runner 2049 — 9/12/20 Kiss Kiss Bang Bang — 9/19/20 Shanghai Noon — 9/19/20 Princess Mononoke — 9/26/20 Blazing Saddles — 9/26/20 Army of Darkness — 10/3/20 Shanghai Knights — 10/3/20 Alien — 10/10/20 Aliens — 10/10/20 Young Frankenstein — 10/17/20 Silent Movie — 10/17/20 One Cut of the Dead — 10/24/20 One Cut of the Dead: Mission: Remote! — 10/25/20 The Shining — 10/31/20 The Village — 10/31/20 Castle in the Sky — 11/7/20 Kiki’s Delivery Service — 11/7/20 RoboCop — 11/14/20 Constantine — 11/14/20 Red Cliff I/II — 11/21/20 Eraser — 11/28/20 Jingle All the Way — 11/28/20 Scrooged — 12/5/20 The Long Kiss Goodnight — 12/5/20 Die Hard — 12/12/20 Galaxy Quest — 12/12/20 Muppet Christmas Carol — 12/19/20 Trapped in Paradise — 12/19/20 Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind — 12/26/20 The Shop Around the Corner — 12/26/20 The Mandalorian, season two — 12/27/20-1/1/21 Michael Clayton — 1/2/21 The Thing — 1/2/21 Out of Sight — 1/9/21 Star Trek IV: The One With The Whales — 1/9/21 Inside Man — 1/16/21 Johnny Mnemonic — 1/17/21 The Hunt for Red October — 1/23/21 The Iron Giant — 1/23/21 Rise of the Planet of the Apes — 1/30/21 Premium Rush — 1/30/21 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes — 2/6/21 The Blues Brothers — 2/6/21 War for the Planet of the Apes — 2/13/21 Sense and Sensibility — 2/13/21 Parasite (again) — 2/20/21 HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

Rashomon — 2/27/21 Frequency — 2/27/21 Tron — 3/6/21 Tron Legacy — 3/6/21 Casablanca — 3/13/21 Singin’ in the Rain — 3/13/21 Hard Boiled — 3/20/21 Supercop — 3/20/21 Jaws — 3/27/21 Aquaman — 3/27/21 Nausicaa and the Valley of the Wind — 4/3/21 Godzilla vs Kong — 4/3/21 Kong: Skull Island — 4/10/21 Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby — 4/10/21 Point Break — 4/17/21 Liar Liar — 4/17/21 Mortal Kombat (1995) — 4/24/21 Mortal Kombat (2021) — 4/24/21 Much Ado About Nothing — 5/1/21 Tremors — 5/1/21 Star Trek Beyond — 5/8/21 Dredd —5/8/21 A League of Their Own — 5/15/21 Spirited Away — 5/15/21 Tropic Thunder — 5/22/21 Police Story — 5/22/21 Ocean’s Eleven — 5/29/21 Catch Me If You Can — 5/29/21 Batman (Adam West) — 6/5/21 A Fish Called Wanda — 6/5/21 In the Heights — 6/12/21 Seven Brides for Seven Brothers — 6/12/21 School of Rock — 6/19/21 Horse Feathers — 6/19/21 Love and Monsters — 6/26/21 Duck Soup — 6/26/21 Independence Day — 7/3/21 Men in Black — 7/3/21 All About Eve — 7/10/21 Attack the Block — 7/10/21 Godzilla: Final Wars — 7/17/21 Speed Racer — 7/17/21 The Truman Show — 7/24/21 My Cousin Vinny — 7/24/21 The Mask of Zorro — 7/31/21 Pirates of the Caribbean — 7/31/21 A Knight’s Tale — 8/7/21 The Rocketeer — 8/7/21 The Suicide Squad — 8/14/21 Sing Street — 8/14/21 The Green Knight — 8/21/21 The Scarlet Pimpernel — 8/21/21 Cloud Atlas — 8/28/21 Ocean’s Thirteen — 9/4/21 The Birdcage — 9/4/21 Inception — 9/18/21 Bruce Almighty — 9/18/21 Atomic Blonde — 9/25/21 Signs — 9/25/21 Get Out — 10/2/21 Us — 10/2/21 Tucker and Dale vs Evil — 10/9/21 Shaun of the Dead — 10/9/21 Resolution — 10/16/21 The Endless — 10/16/21 Hocus Pocus — 10/23/21 The Invisible Man — 10/23/21 Bram Stoker’s Dracula — 10/30/21 Sleepy Hollow — 10/30/21 Dune — 11/6/21 Shang Chi and the Etc. — 11/13/21 Hero — 11/13/21 Mr. and Mrs. Smith — 11/20/21 Edge of Tomorrow (repeat) — 11/20/21 Tenet — 11/27/21 Primer — 11/27/21 Back to the Future — 12/4/21 Cowboy Bebop: The Movie — 12/4/21 The Lion in Winter — 12/11/21 Back to the Future Part 2 — 12/11/21 Home Alone — 12/18/21 Back to the Future Part 3 — 12/18/21 The Matrix Reloaded — 12/25/21 Fargo — 1/1/22 Strangers on a Train — 1/1/22 Birds of Prey — 1/8/22 Shazam! — 1/8/22 Howl’s Moving Castle — 1/15/22 Sneakers — 1/15/22 Rocky — 1/22/22 Rocky II — 1/22/22 The Best Years of Our Lives — 1/29/22 The Thin Man — 1/29/22 Groundhog Day — 2/5/22 Finding Forrester — 2/5/22 An Affair to Remember — 2/12/22 Sleepless in Seattle — 2/12/22 Snowpiercer — 2/19/22 (SECOND ANNIVERSARY!)

Stranger Than Fiction — 2/19/22 Moonstruck — 2/26/22 CODA — 3/5/22 Legally Blonde — 3/5/22 West Side Story — 3/12/22 Miss Congeniality — 3/12/22 Turning Red — 3/19/22 Demolition Man — 3/19/22 North by Northwest — 3/26/22 Collateral — 3/26/22 Spider-Man: No Way Home — 4/2/22 The Rock — 4/9/22 Moonstruck (Silk commentary) — 4/9/22 Batman (1989) — 4/16/22 Batman Returns — 4/16/22 The Batman — 4/23/22 Batman v. Superman Colon Dawn of Justice Colon Ultimate Edition — 4/30/22 Apollo 13 — 5/7/22 Jupiter Ascending — 5/7/22 The Martian — 5/14/22 Spy x Family (episode 1-4) — 5/14/22 Everything Everywhere All At Once — 5/21/22 Venom 2 — 5/21/22 Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers (2022) — 5/28/22 (edited) Spy x Family (episode 8) — 5/29/22 To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar — 6/4/22 Fire Island — 6/4/22 Heat — 6/11/22 My Neighbor Totoro — 6/11/22 HIATUS FOR CHICAGO — 6/18/22 RRR — 6/25/22 Spy x Family (episode 12) — 6/25/22 National Treasure — 7/2/22 The Lost City — 7/2/22 Face/Off — 7/9/22 Twin Dragons — 7/9/22 Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes — 7/16/22 Mission: Impossible — 7/16/22 Detective Pikachu — 7/23/22 Crazy, Stupid, Love. — 7/23/22 Fateful Findings — 7/23/22 The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent — 7/30/22 Con Air — 7/30/22 12 Angry Men — 8/6/22 Mr. Smith Goes to Washington — 8/6/22 Prey — 8/13/22 Newsies — 8/13/22 The Godfather — 8/20/22 Analyze This — 8/20/22 Top Gun — 8/27/22 Bridesmaids — 8/27/22 Top Gun: Maverick — 9/3/22 Crazy Rich Asians — 9/3/22 Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol — 9/10/22 Booksmart — 9/10/22 Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation — 9/17/22 The Rescue — 9/17/22 Mission: Impossible - Fallout — 9/24/22 The Descent — 10/1/22 Hocus Pocus 2 — 10/8/22 How to Marry a Millionaire — 10/8/22 Beetlejuice — 10/15/22 Deadstream — 10/15/22 The Birds — 10/22/22 Arsenic and Old Lace — 10/22/22 It Follows — 10/29/22 It — 10/29/22 Godzilla 2000 — 11/5/22 Kung Fu Hustle (third time) — 11/5/22 Terminator: Dark Fate — 11/12/22 The Heroic Trio — 11/12/22 Raise the Red Lantern — 11/19/22 The Artist — 11/19/22 Knives Out (again) — 11/26/22 Muppet Treasure Island — 11/26/22 Titan A.E. — 11/26/22 Pacific Rim — 12/3/22 Hot Fuzz (again) — 12/10/22 Plan 9 From Outer Space — 12/10/22 Elf — 12/17/22 Spirited — 12/17/22 Violent Night — 12/24/22 The Muppet Christmas Carol (complete) — 12/24/22 Glass Onion — 12/31/22 Death on the Nile (1978) — 1/7/23 Who Framed Roger Rabbit? — 1/7/23 NOPE — 1/14/23 Treasure Planet — 1/14/23 Sabrina — 1/21/23 Tarzan — 1/21/23 Twister (happy birthday Meso!) — 1/28/23 Double Indemnity — 1/28/23 Tár — 2/4/23 Atlantis: The Lost Empire — 2/4/23 The Raid: Redemption — 2/11/23 Puss in Boots: The Last Wish — 2/11/23 The Passion of Joan of Arc —2/18/23 The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T — 2/18/23 Dangerous Liaisons — 2/25/23 Moulin Rouge! — 2/25/23

#three years down #and many many many more to go #i love all of you! #<3 #quark rambles #movie night

[cvt2dvm]

Studyblr Intro

Hello Hello!

I'm currently studying for my Veterinary Technician Associates Degree & License and Certified Canine Athlete Specialist (CCAS) certification. I grew up in Vet Med, and am working towards my DVM through a non-traditional path to take over the family practice with minimal student debt.

About Me

Name: Elizabeth (She/Her)

Country: USA

Age: 23

Education: Starting my First Year of CVT Studies after getting my first Associate of Applied Science in Cabinetmaking and Wood Technology

Path: I'm studying for a Veterinary Technology Associates Degree, which will then be followed by a Veterinary Technologist Bachelor's Degree and 6 further night courses at my local community college to meet the criteria to apply to Vet School.

Pets: Olive (Bombay Cat, 9.5 Years, found in the garden, her grandmother is now the clinic reception cat that her breeder had turned loose after a divorce), Chewbacca (Terrier Mix, 7 Years, Born in Rescue and adopted, Addison's Disease, retired service dog and groundhog hunter), Roland (Marshall's Ferret, 3 years, Dumped on my Porch), and Phobos (Belgian Malinois, 18 Months, Rehomed from a bomb dog program at 7 months, Current Multi-Purpose Working Dog in Service, SAR, and Protection Sports)*

Post Schedule: Monday (Original Work and Study Posts), Wednesday (Reblogs), and Friday (Lifestyle) mornings at 07:00 EST, Case Studies on Wednesday Nights at 19:00 EST, Bite Club Content on Saturday at 12:00 EST, and Religious content Sunday Evenings at 20:00 EST.

I am also studying my 4th Language, Japanese currently. English is my first language. I'm conversational in both; Irish (Gaeilge) and Polish (Polski), and my working dog is trained in Greek, which I'll study more in-depth after Japanese fluency.

Disabled: Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome & Hemiplegic Migraines resulting from Post Concussive Syndrome

Goals

Balance my 60hr work weeks with Church, Sport, Fitness, and Educational commitments

Maintain an average of at least 90% in all courses.

Interests

Dog sports, particularly PSA (Protection Sports Association), Nose Work, Mondio Ring, and Dock Diving. I also used to Barn hunt, and hunt small game with my terrier until his retirement.

Fox Hunting, Eventing, & Dressage, but currently away from Equestrian pursuits after the death of my heart horse in January 2023.

Carnivorous Exotics medicine, especially falcons and ferrets, nutrition, and Canine rehabilitation and sports medicine.

Fiber arts, especially knitting, drop-spindle spinning, and hand quilting.

Homesteading/Off-Grid Living

Eco-Conscious Living with a Paleo-Based diet (although I still consume raw & fermented dairy, and I'll post what my version of dirty paleo looks like later)

Hunting, Fishing, Hiking, etc

Fitness for both canine and human athletes

Reverted Episcopalian with universalist leanings, and I thoroughly enjoy liturgical, scriptural, and world religion knowledge sharing, conversation, and debate.

Women's Rights and Women's Gun Rights, & DV Victim Advocacy

Harm Reduction and Addiction Recovery Support

Assisting in developing Girl's, Women's, Youth, Young Adult, and Recovery ministries with my Church community, and Serving on the breakfast ministry.

That's all folks! I look forward to connecting with you all.

*Not All Dogs are suited for multi-purpose work, especially Service and Protection work, it is of utmost importance to consult your veterinarian, trainer, and decoy about your dog's suitability to do both, and it is important to understand that by having a dog that does both you risk loss of function in one or both of these working disciplines with your K9.

As an aside, all images have Alt Text available, all images are my original work, Adobe Lightroom Preset is Pretty In Pink by Addie Overla nee Woost, and additional editing of Photos is Original and unassisted by A.I. Captured On Samsung Galaxy Devices.

#studyspo #studyblr introduction #studyblr #study motivation #study aesthetic #vet med #veterinary #pets #Christian Studyblr #Christian Blogger #Dog Sports #dogblr #vetblr #working dogs #vet tech #Feminine Academia #Pink Academia #photoset #my photos

[maraiheroine]

Growing up in a small coastal town, Nanami Shimizu-Baudelaire always loved the ocean. Even from a young age, she did everything she could to be in the water, and it worked out to be an excellent way for her to exercise too. Her adoptive father Yuze was her biggest supporter and best friend no matter what his reputation was, and he did everything to make her happy, even with his strict ruleset set in place. Finding it hard to make friends her own age growing up though, Nanami relied on her imagination, books and direct to video content to bring comfort and fun to her life. But swimming was everything to her. When it became available to her in school, she signed up to join the swimming team, and was an outstanding competitor in many of the seasonal swimming events then and throughout higher education.

There weren't many disability services in place while Nanami was growing up, but there was a support group for kids in and around the surrounding areas that she began participating in. This is how she first met two very important people in her life; after their first session together, they had already all had nicknames for each other; Loto, Tama, and Nami. On one of the rare times the service sessions involved an excursion, Nami and the other children were taken to an interactive science center. And when they were sat down for a planetarium experience of the galaxy, Nami's world was changed forever. School had always been something Nami was present in, but didn't aim in excelling at. But when she began to learn more about space, she dove in immediately Not even marine biology had taken hold of her attention so quickly.

As she learned more about the branching field of the science, Nami realised it would involve a lot of work for her to really make this a career. So as hard as assignment work and homework was for her, she began focusing on her grades. The competitive swimming was dropped to make time for this choice, but when Nami was finally graduating high school, she could have her pick of astronomy or astrophysics undergrad degrees. The only issue was... the best places were all far, far away from her little world of the port town.

She decided not to take too long to decide. Once Nami had been accepted into her chosen university, there was a serious talk with both her partners and her father before enrolling, and then paperwork was filed, and her bags were being packed. Everything was a blur until Nami sat in her quiet rented apartment, surrounded by boxes of belongings and childhood memorabilia just days before orientation week began. Nami now attends university majoring in astrophysics, trying to find her place in the big, bustling city and keeping up with her studies, while also trying to build her social circle so that she isn't so lonely. But until then, she has her favourite old media to keep her smiling.

#🔱 part of your world ⚬ modern #special guest of dolls gp as namis dad! #expect another dot-point hc post for modern nami soon too

[lgbtmi]

🖍️ CRAYON and 💧 DROPLET for Willow! 🌟 GLOWING STAR and ❤️ RED HEART for Eva! :3

thank u friend!! i love talking about my babies!! (learn more about them by sending emojis if u want!!)

🖍️ CRAYON - what advice would you give to them?

I would love to tell Willow to get out of her own head and start letting people in. She's taken on a lot of problems for the rest of the coterie, and at the same time doesn't trust them enough with the things that are bothering her because she doesn't want to add to their loads. She should also stop being difficult regarding Sasha. Like sure, the guy tried to stake her and threatened her best friend, but he's also hot and he apologised to her so she should stop being difficult and get into his bed already (half joking.)

💧 DROPLET - random angst headcanon

Willow, before her embrace but after she came to Amsterdam for her education, has had multiple close calls with death due to overdoses. She's convinced that, had her two touchstones not interfered, she'd be back in America in a coffin, not undead.

🌟 GLOWING STAR - what do they think about when they look at the night sky? is there someone they want to star gaze with?

Eva loves stargazing. She can't go out during the day anymore, but even when she was living she would often lie awake at night and look at the stars from her window. The night sky symbolises the opportunities in life that she had to miss out on, happening in other galaxies. She'd love to stargaze with Adam, as well as some people who are no longer with her, but she's also too concerned with her image to ask him to go stargazing with her.

❤️ RED HEART - their love language(s)?

Physical touch and quality time, with some words of affirmation mixed in there. Gifts make her uncomfortable, as do most acts of service. She just wants to be near Adam all of the time. Can you blame her?

#sleepknoot #willowtalking #eva-ngelical #my characters #chronicle: amsterdam by night #chronicle: amersfoort after the fall

[ospreyeamon]

general education in the reconstituted sith empire

Education policy for the Force-blind in the Sith Empire is guided by several goals; indoctrination and social cohesion, education and skills, health and wellbeing, and freeing up child-minding family members.

These priorities present incentives to make general education universally accessible and mandatory for all free-born children in the Empire. Age brackets are determined using the unitary Imperial (read Korribani) calendar; children without Force-adept potential are required to be enrolled in general education from their second to seventh years of life (about two and a half to seventeen and a half years old). A person’s eighth year of life – the final one before they reach the age of majority – is usually spent in higher education, work training, military basic training, or a combination of the afore mentioned. General education schools are known as lyceums to distinguish them from the Sith Academies and higher education colleges and technicum.

Indoctrination and social cohesion: State education is the only general education in the Empire. There are no private schools, and any private schools in newly integrated territories are required to integrate into the Imperial state system. Schooling districts are determined by proximity; families’ must enrol their children within their district. They can request a specific lyceum but there is no guarantee that request will be honoured. This is designed to control educational outcomes and build a social solidarity that specifically excludes slaves.

Each school morning begins with the pledge of eternal loyalty to the Emperor who nobly commanded the children of his empire have their education provided for. Criticism of the Emperor is forbidden. Criticism of the Emperor’s orders is forbidden. There are specific units in social science dedicated to the Emperor’s historic achievements and civics dedicated to the wisdom of the Empire’s autocratic governance structure. However, most educational propaganda uses the power of the agenda rather than the power of the outcome; informing students of the existence of bad and undesirable things, people, and ideas in the process of warning them away could backfire if it makes students curious instead.

The curriculum set by the Bureau of Education does not permit deviation from the official narratives regarding Imperial history or the wider goings-on of the galaxy. There are alternate subject units lyceums can choose between – especially in areas like history, astro-geography, and literature – which hypothetically enable lyceums to self-select away from certain topics. The Bureau monitors trends in subject selection, but any action is left in the hands of Imperial Intelligence.

Many things which are external or semi-external in other education systems are internalised in the Imperial one; before/after lyceum care, sports participation, life skill education, school lunches, etc. This gives the Empire more control over those aspects of its children’s lives and learning. Imperials born and raised throughout the Empire share a set of formative school experiences; beloved hiking trips, hated military-grade ration bars, pledging the Emperor’s Grace until it can be sung while too drunk to stand.

Education and skills: The free-born population is its skilled population (on paper, the reality is more complicated). General education is concerned with laying the foundation for both military service and civilian professions. Literacy, numeracy, hard science, social science, LOTS (language other than Standard), physical education, and civics – as well as other practical skills like cookery and mechanics – make up the core curriculum. Arts, crafts, and music are also core study areas but these are provided through a choice in electives.

Because lyceums are not intended to be in competition with each other for students or funding, there is minimal standardised testing in primary and secondary lyceums. Lyceums are prohibited from helping or encouraging their students to study specifically for standardised tests. The Education Bureau doesn’t want parents trying to get their child into the lyceum at the top of the charts, they want them to be happy they received their first pick of the ones in their district. Standardised tests are only meant to confirm that students are learning, not to be an end in and of themselves, and the results are never made public. Tertiary students have their scores directly delivered to the recruitment divisions of the Imperial Military and quaternary educational institutions so that their further education and career paths can be determined.

Not all subjects are formally graded; art and music are effectively sorted by prestige (who gets to play first treble flute or has their painting displayed in the lyceum library) while effort in cookery is ensured by the expectation students eat the products of their lessons. Most elective classes are made up of children from an entire year, rather than a single tercile as is the case for academic subjects, so grading younger and older students directly against each other is considered counter-productive.

Health and wellbeing: It is in the Empire’s interest that its population be in good health for military service, avoiding emergency healthcare budget blowouts, and minimising lost productivity. Nutritious school lunches are provided at all levels of education. Lyceums administer the bulk of the childhood vaccination program. Physical education classes are scheduled at least twice a week across lyceum tiers; variations students cycle through include ball sports, athletics, swimming, dance, obstacle courses, and martial arts.

It has never been in the interests of the Emperor, the Sith, or the wider Empire to drive members of the free-born Force-blind population to the point of snapping. The Imperial Military is rather intended to serve as the long-suffering sane-man to the Sith hierarchy. Dual purpose stress valves for mental wellbeing include arts and crafts electives, daily unstructured free time, and access to a school counsellor who students are encouraged to report any upsetting seditious material they may be exposed to.

The system is also intended to insulate children and parents from financial stress, as well as breed loyalty to the state which funds their education. There is no additional cost for excursions, camps, electives, meals, or before/after lyceum care. A rotating pool of second-hand gear and uniforms is kept by lyceums for students whose families cannot afford to buy them new. Imperial planning laws place all lyceums within easy walking distance of access to public transport which is free for Imperial citizens; urban planning laws require all residential districts contain at least one of each tier of lyceum and that public and social housing units be within half a mile of each lyceum tier.

Freeing up child-minding family members: Lyceum schedules vary by planet because they are based on local calendars rather than the unitary Imperial one, but the primary and secondary core programmes usually cover about 25% of a complete day-night cycle. There are optional before/after lyceum sessions which add another 16.7%; not classes but things like breakfast club in the morning and nap-time, story-time, team-sports and choir in the afternoon. The school lunches cut down on home meal preparation. Placing lyceums near public transport routes and mandating the walkability of residential districts enables children to commute without adult accompaniment once they are old enough; the assumption they will is why tertiary lyceums don’t offer before or after care.

Each year is divided into three terciles, which are in turn divided into three trimesters. New students begin schooling at the beginning of each tercile. Most classes – the core academic, practical, and physical education units – are comprised of students grouped by tercile but electives like sketching are grouped by year, with older students expected to help younger students learn from their example and work together with them on group projects.

The trimesters are divided by two weeks of lyceum holidays that sandwich each state holiday period. Lyceums are also allocated a dozen extra non-school days which can be used for planetary holiday observance or lesson planning but are required to be open for the rest of the year.

Lyceum schedules vary by planetary calendar, being based on local rather than unitary Imperial day length. They do share a general structure however. Primary (2.5 to 7.5 years): before school lyceum (optional) - classes - morning break - classes - lunch & break - classes - afternoon break - classes - after lyceum care (optional). Secondary (7.5 to 12.5 years): before lyceum care (optional) - classes - morning break - classes - lunch & break - classes - after lyceum care (optional). Tertiary (12.5 to 17.5 years): classes - morning break - classes - lunch & break - classes - afternoon break – classes.

Primary education, for a child’s second and third years of life, is the equivalent of kindergarten and Prep. Students are considered too young to be lectured on anything to an impact other than increasing their level of boredom so classes are play based. As much importance is placed on socialisation as memorisation. How to relate to their teachers, their peers, younger and older students. How to work in groups and play in teams; how to lead and how to follow. How to think of themselves as an Imperial.

Secondary education, over the fourth and fifth years of life, can be approximated to elementary school. Secondary schooling is formal where primary is informal. Academic subjects are taught using a lecture-based model. Greater choice in electives in art and music is introduced as students, having been exposed to the varying options in primary lyceum, are assumed to understand what they are choosing between. In their fifth year of life and second year of secondary lyceum students are deemed old enough to be taken on a week-long school camp each tercile to give them the experience of being separated from their families and sleeping together in dormitories while partaking in activities like orienteering, low ropes courses, open fire cooking, and educational nature walks.

Tertiary education, for the sixth and seventh years of life, is something akin to middle school and high school. The school day becomes longer, falling into sync with the general length of a workday in the civilian and logistical branches of state employment. Pressure is placed on students to perform academically to secure their preferred quaternary education placements. The number of weekly PE classes is increased from secondary lyceum to accommodate additional calisthenics, martial arts, and obstacle course running in preparation for future military basic training. School camps become proper camping excursions, with students pitching their own tents and practicing constructing makeshift shelters like lean-tos.

Quaternary education is comprised of the educational options which become available after graduation from tertiary lyceum but before the age of majority when most Imperials begin mandatory state service. It is effectively mandatory because completing the quaternary field and institution application process in the final tercile of tertiary lyceum is compulsory and all Imperial citizens without a Class 1 or 2 medical exemption – even the aliens – are legally required to attend bootcamp in preparation for conscription into the military or the reservist corps.

Quaternary educational institutions include colleges, technicum, registered work-experience providers affiliated with technicum, and the military onboarding and training divisions. Unless you are studying fields which will be made use of during your mandatory state service – like medicine or engineering – for which you are permitted to defer the start of your mandatory service to complete your degree, qualifications are designed to be completable in under a unitary year while studying part-time. Because students are furthering their other studies on top of going through military basic training, quaternary education undertaken prior to mandatory state service is free.

#Meanwhile in a Galaxy Far Far Away #star wars meta #swtor meta #the Sith #the Sith Empire #Reconstituted Sith Empire #star wars the old republic #a wild headcanon appeared #slavery cw

[beatrice-otter]

Fic: Schoolwork

Title: Schoolwork Author: Beatrice_Otter Fandom: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Characters: Jake Sisko & Kasidy Yates Written for: Ericine in Heart Attack Exchange 2023 Rating: K Length: 10k AN: Thank you to sixbeforelunch for the beta, and sovik on the Vulkhansu Discord for information about how long it takes to get from Bajor to DS9. According to secondary canon, Andorians have four sexes (zhen, shen, chan, and than), and these are important enough to be part of their names. On the show, what few times we see an Andorian, they use 'he' or 'she' which does not make sense to me if they genuinely have four sexes. (The show does tell us that Andorian marriage requires groups of four.) So I decided that the Andorian OC appearing in this fic is going to be of the chan sex and that the name of the sex doubles as a pronoun. At AO3. On Squidgeworld. On Ad Astra. On Dreamwidth. On Pillowfort. "So, when are you coming home?" Grampa asked. Jake made a face. "I don't have any plans for a vacation to Earth in the next few months," he said. "There's a lot going on here, and will be for a while. And the Federation News Service doesn't have anybody else on the station—it's a great opportunity, I don't want to miss it." They'd spent half the call so far talking about how busy he was, so he wasn't sure why his grandfather was asking when he was coming home. "I understand all that," Grandpa said with an air of patience. "But I mean, after that. Things will quiet down eventually, or they'll send someone else to cover things. Your father isn't stationed there any longer, and who knows how long it'll be before he gets back from wherever he is? And besides, you're a grown man; you don't have to live out in the far reaches of the galaxy just because it's where Starfleet sent your dad." "I know that," Jake said. If he hadn't been a grown man, he couldn't have stayed on the station when the Federation pulled out. "What's your point?" "I was assuming that you'd want to come home, to Earth," Grandpa said. "You talked about getting a writing fellowship at the Pennington School." "Grandpa, that was years ago," Jake protested. "A lot has changed since then!"

Grandpa waved his hand. "After all you've done, and the things you've published, I'm sure they'd be happy to have you. Or maybe you're interested in journalism school, instead?" "I'm getting some pretty good on-the-job training, and that's more important than anything I'd learn in school," Jake said. "Yes, but in the long run, a degree will do you good," Grandpa said. "You're good at academics, and going to college always helps broaden the mind. If nothing else, it's good to spend time with people your own age." "I think my mind is pretty broad, after all I've seen and done here on DS9," Jake said. "I don't know, maybe I'll see if Bajor has any writing schools or something—they had a really good educational system before the Cardassians, and they've been working to restore it." "You mean you're not even going to consider coming back to Earth?" Grandpa said, voice rising. "To be with your family?" "I have family here," Jake said. "And close friends. If I'm not here, who's going to teach my little sibling how to cook? Kasidy would never move to Earth, her shipping company has too many contacts in this part of space." He frowned. "Did you really think I was going to move back to Earth?" "Yes!" Grandpa said. "The posting to Bajor was only ever supposed to be temporary, of course I thought you'd come home!" Jake thought about that for a few seconds. "I've lived on Deep Space Nine longer than anywhere else I've lived in my life. And if you're talking about Earth … I've never actually lived there. The closest to Earth I've actually lived was Mars, when Dad was stationed at Utopia Planitia. Earth is your home, and Dad's—" although, actually, Dad had made it pretty clear he now considered Bajor his home, but this probably wasn't the time to remind Grandpa of that "—but it's not mine." Grandpa was taken aback. "You know," Jake said, "you could come out here. You did it once, in the middle of a war, no less! It'd be a lot safer now. Besides me, you're going to have another grandchild soon, and Kasidy is even busier than I am, with less reason to go to Earth. Don't you want to meet your grandbaby?" "Of course," Grandpa said. "But a visit isn't the same as having you living nearby." "I know, but Aunt Judith has been the only one of your kids living on the same planet since Uncle Nathan moved to Luna before I was even born," Jake said. "You must be used to it by now." "Used to it, yes," Grandpa said. "Happy with it, never. I thought, with four kids, surely at least one of them will have kids and live on the same planet!" Jake made a face. It wasn't that Grandpa complained about that often—he respected the life decisions of his children, and was proud of all of them—but it was heart-felt and deeply emotional when it did get made. "Don't make that face at me, young man," Grandpa said. "You'll understand what I'm saying if you have children of your own one day. Though at least I hope all of yours will stay on the same plane of existence, even if they do live scattered across the quadrant." "Yeah," Jake said with a sigh. "Me, too." He didn't think the Prophets would take an interest in him or any future children he might have, but what did he know? It wasn't something anybody could have predicted with Dad, either. "And who's going to run the restaurant with me gone?" Grandpa said. This was complaining for the sake of complaining; Jake knew his grandfather well enough to tell. Grandpa was never so happy as when he had something to complain about. And Jake didn't miss the fact that Grandpa was already taking a visit to the station as a done deal. "I can count the number of cooks I'd trust with it on the fingers of one hand … and most of them are busy. And don't suggest your Aunt Judith—even if she didn't have her own life, she's not one of the people I'd trust in my kitchen. Not when the food is being sold with my name on it." Jake shrugged and didn't bother suggesting either of his two uncles. Uncle David lived on Proxima and rarely came to Earth, and Uncle Nathan lived on Luna but couldn't cook to save his life. Normally, Jake enjoyed listening to his grandpa grouse, but the mention of his dad's absence touched a nerve. "If you can't find someone to take over for you, I'm sure it won't kill you or your customers to have the restaurant closed for a month or two." Grandpa grumbled a bit more, and before long, the time was up on the call. …… When there were no ships going through the wormhole—and that happened regularly but infrequently, these days—the view out the windows on the Promenade was much the same as from any portal on a ship or station. A starscape—pretty, but ordinary. "You look lost in thought." Jake smiled and turned to face Colonel Kira. "I was seeing how many Bajoran constellations I could recognize and remember the stories of." "How were you doing?" Kira asked. "I knew more of them when Dad and I were sailing that lightship," Jake said. "Even with all that happened on that trip, there was a lot of time that was pretty quiet. We read Bajoran stories about space and the constellations during some of it." And he'd shown Dad his first real story. Dad had read everything he wrote. Until he joined the Prophets. Kira didn't say anything, just put a hand on his shoulder. Jake appreciated that; there wasn't much anybody could say that hadn't been said. Bajoran or Federation, everybody had an opinion on his Dad, most of them thought they knew what Jake was feeling (or should be feeling), and none of them actually did. "I was just going to get lunch in Quark's," Kira said. "Want to join me?" "Keeping an eye on him?" Jake said, and they made their way down to the lower level. "He has been the perfect picture of a legal and upstanding businessman recently," Kira said. "So naturally you're suspicious." "So naturally I'm suspicious." Kira shrugged. "I haven't even been able to catch him running a betting pool on the next Kai." "That doesn't sound like him," Jake said. "There's a limit to how quiet you can keep something and still pass the word along to your customers, and Quark always errs on the side of more customers." "Exactly!" Kira said as they entered the bar and took a table off to the side. They were a little after the lunch rush, so there was plenty of room and things weren't too noisy. Broik was there to take their order as soon as they sat down. "Colonel Kira! Jake! Always a pleasure to have you here at Quark's. How's Captain Yates doing these days? Has she picked a name?" "She's fine," Jake said. If he said anything more than that, it would be all over the station in ten minutes, and all over the system in half an hour. "I'll have my usual," Kira said, and Jake was grateful for the interruption. Broik turned to her. "One ratamba-and-cheese sandwich, with fried bonja on the side." Jake almost asked for shrimp and grits, and then realized that asking for something his Dad used to cook would only make him miss him more. "I'll have katterpod stew," he said. Dad had tried a few recipes with it, but never gotten something he liked enough to add to the regular cooking rotation. Broik smiled toothily at them and whisked away to the replicators. "Maybe I should be looking for a betting pool on the baby," Kira said. "It wouldn't surprise me," Jake said. "But as long as they don't bother me or Kasidy about it, I really don't care." Kasidy wanted to keep the baby as out of the spotlight as possible, which Jake thought was a good idea, and part of that was not announcing sex or name or due date or any other detail until the baby was born. But discussing any of that here would be as good as announcing everything to Quark, and thus feeding the rumor mill. "So how are things in Ops these days?" Jake asked. "Strictly off the record," Kira said—she always did that, now that he was a regular reporter—"it's all routine. The diplomatic stuff is all handled by people a lot more senior than I am, and neither the Dominion nor the Breen have been making trouble, so we're back to the ordinary stuff. Handling wormhole traffic, cargo ships …" "… keeping Quark in line," Jake said. "Exactly!" Kira said. "It's amazing how quickly things just … went back to normal. It's so different from the end of the Cardassian Occupation." "Bajor was lucky," Jake said. "Neither the station nor the planet suffered much under Dominion rule." "The prophets were looking out for us," Kira said. "Warning us not to join the Federation before the war. Things would have been very different if they hadn't." Every Bajoran over the age of seven knew, from first-hand personal experience, just how bad things could have gotten. The Prophets had shielded them from the Dominion. They hadn't shielded them from the Cardassians before them. "Here we are!" Broik said. "Ratamba-and-cheese sandwich for the lady, and katterpod stew for the gentleman. Can I get you anything else?" "No, we're fine," Kira said. They applied themselves to their meal, and the conversation turned to lighter subjects. Jake recounted his call with Grandpa Joseph. "So now I'm wondering if I should be looking into schools on Bajor," Jake said. "See what kind of programs they have for writing or journalism." Kira shrugged. "I can't advise you there," she said. "It's not something I've ever had any experience with, or even known anybody who did. And before the Occupation my family were artists, artisans, crafters—not the caste that went to university. Pretty much all I can tell you is that our universities are actually one of the sticking points in the negotiations for Federation membership." "Really?" Jake said. "How's that?" He'd been keeping a close eye on the news stories coming out of the Bajoran capital, and none of them had mentioned the universities as anything more than a side issue. "The universities that survived the Cardassians—or which have managed to re-establish themselves since—are prickly and proud of their heritage. They used to be some of the best in the sector, you know." "I did know that," Jake said. "Even the Cardassians sent people to them, before the Occupation." "Exactly," Kira said. "But our ways of doing things don't quite mesh with the Federation educational systems. I don't understand all the specifics, and frankly, some of it seems a bit … petty. They agree on all the major points! But I don't know how long it's going to take them to come to an agreement. I don't think it will hold up the main talks, but it's certainly not helping them along." "Maybe that's something I should look into," Jake said. Much of the negotiations were happening behind closed doors, of course, and there were a couple of Federation journalists covering the talks who had much better chances of getting things out of the Federation negotiators than Jake did, given their experience and connections. But that meant they weren't getting much of the Bajoran perspective on the whole thing. Kira shrugged. "I wouldn't mind something in the Federation news about our side of the story—I know there's grumbling in Starfleet about us, that we backed out of joining before the war and aren't gratefully falling at their feet now." "But Bajor was crucial to the war effort," Jake protested. "The final victory couldn't have happened without you guys. And if you'd resisted earlier, who knows if you would have been in a position to do something once you actually had a shot?" "But we did sit out a lot of the war, while your people were fighting and dying," Kira said. "I don't blame them for it. In their shoes, I'd probably feel the same. But I don't want them taking that resentment out on us when we do join." …… "Do you have any contacts in Bajoran academia?" Jake asked Kasidy the next night. He was cooking jambalaya for dinner, since she was craving spicy food right now and it made him feel closer to Dad. He never cooked when it was just himself—too much effort for one person. "Not really," Kasidy said. She was sitting on the couch watching him cook. "Bajorans train spacers through an apprenticeship system that's separate from the academic aspect—they have sharp distinctions between different types of higher education, and I'm not quite sure where all the differences are or why they divide it up the way they do. Or even what parts of the system are remnants of the way the Cardassians did things, what are from the original Bajoran educational system, and what have been cobbled together in the decade since the Occupation ended. What I care most about is can I trust the dockworkers and maintenance engineers to take care of the Xhosa, and can I get crew I can rely on to help me run her—and so far, I've been really impressed with the training and professionalism I've seen." She shifted and adjusted the pillow behind her. "Why do you ask? Are you thinking about going to school on Bajor?" "No," Jake said absently, skewering a piece of porli to taste it. Porli didn't taste like chicken (though they did look a little bit like chickens when they were alive), but Jake actually preferred the Bajoran bird to the Terran one. "I mean, yes," he said, catching himself, "but that's not why I'm asking. Colonel Kira said something about one of the factors holding up the negotiations for Federation entry this time around is the universities, but none of the reporters covering the talks have mentioned it. I wanted to see if I could find anything, see if there was a story there." "Makes sense, but I can't help you," Kasidy said. "I wondered what the hold-up was—they've been talking about it for years, and last time they got right to the brink of signing, and would have signed if Ben hadn't warned the Bajorans off." "Last time, there was the pressure of the Dominion hanging over everything," Jake pointed out, "and Bajor didn't want to chance an invasion without Federation protection. Maybe there were compromises that were worth it under that kind of pressure, but not if they have some breathing room." "Good point," Kasidy said. "How long is it going to be? You know I love your Jambalaya, but if it's not ready soon I'm going to have to eat this couch." Jake eyed the amount of liquid left to be absorbed by the rice with an experienced eye. "Give it another five minutes? I won't be offended if you replicate a snack, you know; you're eating for two." "I think I can last five minutes," Kasidy said. "But next time, I probably will get a snack, if you really don't mind." "I really don't mind," Jake said. "Maybe I should look through the names and biographical information for the people on the Bajoran negotiating team, see if any of them have worked in a university, and just send a request for an interview out of the blue. It's awkward, if I don't have some sort of an introduction, though; Bajor didn't have a unified tradition of investigative journalism, just a series of newsletters and magazines collecting items of interest for different professions and castes. When I want to interview a Bajoran, I usually have to explain what news media is, first." "I'm sure they'll say yes to an interview from you," Kasidy said. "I'm sure they will, too," Jake said. "But I don't like trading on my Dad's status as Emissary, which is what it really boils down to." "I'm afraid that as long as you live in Bajoran space, that's going to happen whether you want it to or not," Kasidy said. She rubbed her stomach. "I didn't realize how much Dad was insulating me from that aspect of his life, until he wasn't here to do it any more," Jake admitted. "I think people care more about you now that he's with the Prophets, too," Kasidy said. "Most Bajorans will never go through the wormhole, never even come up to the station to see it, and they certainly won't ever see an Orb in person. For a few years, Benjamin was a tangible connection to the Prophets. Now he's gone … but you're still here to be a tangible connection to him. And a reason for him to come back someday." "I hope it's sooner rather than later," Jake said, staring down into the pot. "So do I," Kasidy said. "And between the two of us, I hope we can keep the little one protected from all of that," Jake said. "I'm sure we will," Kasidy said. "You're going to be an excellent big brother, Jake." "Thanks," Jake said. He turned off the stove. "Dinner's ready." Kasidy heaved herself up from the couch and joined him at the table. "Mm! This is so good, Jake," she said as she swallowed her first bite. They talked while they ate, eventually coming around to the subject of the house she and Dad had been planning to build on Bajor. "I just don't know," Kasidy said. "It's a lot of effort, building a house, and it's just far enough from the capital to be inconvenient for business purposes. It might turn into nothing more than a vacation home, and I don't know if that would be worth it. But then I ask myself, wouldn't it be wonderful to have it ready for him when he comes home?" She sighed. "What do you think?" "I think that if Dad wants that house so much, he can come back from the Celestial Temple and build it himself," Jake said. "Until he does, you're the one who'd be living there." He pushed some of the rice around his plate. For all that his Dad had talked about building a place on Bajor, it was hard to imagine him anywhere but the station, or some other Starfleet posting—the house would probably have been a vacation getaway no matter what, somewhere to retire to, not something to live in right away. A symbol of his roots on Bajor, more than a home. Kasidy hadn't been exaggerating how hungry she was, Jake noted; her first helping disappeared before he was even halfway through his plate, and she went back not only for seconds, but thirds. "It's nice to be appreciated," Jake said with a grin as she spooned out a generous helping. "You know how good a cook you are," Kasidy said. "And the baby is a true Sisko—loves those spices!" "Have you decided on a name?" Jake asked. "Not yet." "You don't have much time," Jake pointed out. "I know," Kasidy said with a sigh. "It's just hard, without Ben here to help. We hadn't really talked about names, before he left. Everything was so busy. I was wondering if maybe Joseph would be appropriate?" "I'm sure he'd have liked that, and I know Grandpa would," Jake said. "But Dad already got a chance to name a kid. This baby is his second, but your first. Maybe only! I don't know if you two would consider a second kid even if Dad comes back tomorrow. So you should name it what you want." "I'd like to name it something Benjamin will be happy with when he comes back," Kasidy said. "Yeah, well, if he wanted naming privileges maybe he should have stuck around," Jake said. He knew it hadn't exactly been his Dad's choice, and that whatever had gone down in the Fire Caves, the Pah Wraiths were evil and powerful enough that one person sacrificing themselves to stop their rise was more than worth it. And that the Prophets could have just let him die there; taking him to their plane was better than being dead. At least this way, there was a chance he'd come back. But it still hurt, and Kasidy was one of the few people he felt comfortable complaining to. Kasidy sighed again and changed the subject. "You know, I've had a number of people trying to volunteer to be the baby's nanny?" "A nanny?" Jake asked, wrinkling his nose. "A professional child caregiver who works for only one family, instead of for multiple families in a creche setting," Kasidy said. "I know what it is, I just didn't know they still existed outside of Victorian novels," Jake said. "Apparently they exist on Bajor. In some ways, I'm torn," Kasidy said. "Benjamin and I planned to do it the normal way—take turns staying home when the baby is young, and then put them in a creche while we work once they get a couple of years old. And in some ways, I'd like to do that. But it's a lot more practical with two parents than just one." "And it's also more practical when at least one parent has a stable job," Jake said. "You spend so much time moving around. Not just cargo runs, but also trips to Bajor and back. Without Dad, you're going to have to take the baby with you. And your ship isn't big enough to have a creche." "Exactly!" Kasidy said. "I might as well hire a nanny. I'm just not so sure how to find one on Bajor that isn't doing it just because they want to be closer to the Emissary, or mold the Emissary's child in some way." "Hiring someone from the Federation would prevent that," Jake said. "But then you'd have all the political questions of why you didn't hire a Bajoran, since you live here and work for the Bajoran government." "Not to mention, it seems like an awful lot of hassle," Kasidy said. "One of the managers at the Ministry of Commerce has kids, maybe I'll ask her what she would recommend." "Maybe you can ask who I should be interviewing for the Bajoran perspective on the negotiations, while you're at it," Jake said. …… In the end, Jake got his first contact by looking for academic connections on the negotiating team and sending out an interview request. Nemjon Lelra, Arch-Chancellor of the University of Kenda (the second-most prestigious university on Bajor), Doctor of Philology from the Ilvian University of the River (the most prestigious university on Bajor), Chair of the Institute of Historical Linguistics, and a few other impressive sounding titles that Jake didn't have time to fully research, was happy to grant him an audience. And 'grant an audience' was the right word, Jake thought, as a robed student showed him into Doctor Nemjon's receiving room. It was clearly not an office, nor a conference room, in the Federation sense. It was a large room with windows on three of the walls looking out on the gardens. The fourth wall was intricately carved, with scenes of scholars surrounding the university's emblem. Along that wall was a dais, and on that dais was a table, with Doctor Nemjon sitting in the middle of it, back to the carved wall, reading a PADD. She was an elderly woman, with immaculately styled white hair, deep wrinkles, and the sort of translucent skin the very old sometimes got. She was old enough to remember Bajor before the Occupation, maybe even old enough to have finished her schooling before the Cardassians showed up. She looked up and smiled as the student escorted Jake in. "Ah! Mister Sisko! I have been looking forward to meeting you. How kind of you to wish to share our side of the story." "Doctor Nemjon, it's an honor to meet you," Jake said. "I'm here to try and see that all sides of the story are covered, and I thought you might know the needs and wants of the Bajoran educational system better than anyone else." "Of course," Doctor Nemjon said. "Though I will note that while 'doctor' is not inaccurate, the title that you really should use is Arch-Chancellor." "I'm sorry for getting it wrong, Arch-Chancellor," Jake said. "I'm not very familiar with the titles and honorifics system in Bajoran academia, and I wasn't able to find many resources on the subject. Could your office send me a style guide?" He'd been speaking Bajoran, but he used English for the last, because he didn't know the Bajoran words for it. But the Universal Translator didn't translate it, so it must not be a concept Bajor had. "A what?" Nemjon said. "A document that has a guide to what titles are used, what they mean, and how to address people with them, and how to refer to them in writing if that's different from the way they should be spoken," Jake said. "Oh yes!" Nemjon said. "I believe we have something like that in our orientation packet for foreign students." "Actually, I'd love to see the whole packet, if it wouldn't be too much trouble," Jake said. That would kill two birds with one stone. It would be background for his article and it would be a place to start his research on whether he wanted to go to a Bajoran school. "I'll see that you get it," Nemjon said. She rose and came around the table, stepping down off the dais, robes swirling around her feet. "Now, I researched your Federation news service when the reporters showed up to the negotiations. It does seem to be an effective way of disseminating information, although I'm not sure I care for the way that internal affairs are made public for all the world to see. So I believe I know what to expect." She led the way over to a pair of upholstered chairs by the windows and sat in one, gesturing for Jake to take the other. "Great," Jake said as he sat down. "With your permission, I'll be recording this interview for my notes." Nemjon nodded. Jake tapped the 'record' button on his PADD. "Arch-Chancellor Nemjon, as I said in my interview request, I'm investigating the effect the dispute over academic oversight is having on the negotiations for Federation membership. You're a junior member of the negotiating team, can you explain what your role is?" "Certainly," Nemjon said. "My role is to represent the universities of Bajor, to see that our needs are respected in the negotiations." "What about the other schools of higher education that aren't universities?" Jake asked. "Do they get a seat at the table, or do you represent them, too?" "Schools of higher education?" Nemjon asked. "I'm not quite sure what you mean." "Schools that people go to after completing the basic level of education that all Bajorans are expected to finish," Jake said. Nemjon frowned, thinking that through. "Do you mean trade schools and lower colleges and guild schools?" "Yes," Jake said. "I'm not sure that I'd call what they do 'higher' education, unless the universities are 'highest.' Why should they need a seat at the negotiating table?" she asked. "Of course we are proud of the high quality of education in schools of all levels, but … they don't have the same weight of tradition that universities do. Nor is their work so abstract. The Federation has an excellent educational system, and I'm sure they'll be able to adapt quite well to the Federation system." She tilted her head. "That's actually one of the major sticking points, for the universities. The Federation educational system is very focused on metrics. Tests. Proving, objectively, how much a person knows about a given subject, and then ranking them against other students … and judging the university itself by how well its students do on such tests. Which is all well and good, and some subjects—including things like mechanical skills such as one would learn at a trade school—would do very well with that approach. But university education is, in the Bajoran tradition, quite different. The emphasis is on teaching how to think, not what to think. Especially in disciplines such as philosophy or literature. There is no single right way to be a philosopher or a writer; there is no technique or structure that is universal. And being able to describe the techniques and why they're useful wouldn't tell you anything about a person's ability to use those techniques or the quality of their thought. And it's quite possible for someone to create something that is flawless on a technical level, and has no soul. In fact, computers do it all the time. The aim of a Bajoran university, Mister Sisko, is to teach things that cannot be done by computer. To teach the art of our subjects, not the mere rules of them." "A commendable goal," Jake said. "How does it work in practice?" "Every student has both a professor and a senior student as a mentor," Nemjon said. "They work together to devise a course of study that suits both the student's strengths that should be nurtured, and their weaknesses that should be remedied. There are classes, of course, but also a great deal of individualized instruction with both professors and senior students. And peer study groups and peer critique are both essential parts of the system, as is research for fields in the sciences. When a professor believes a junior student in their care to be ready for promotion to senior student, they present them to the rest of the faculty, who then evaluate the student, and either agree to their promotion or give them areas to concentrate further study in. This happens again when the student is ready to matriculate. The specifics of what is required to progress to senior, and then to matriculate, are left to each department." She wrinkled her nose. "There are no set curriculums that are merely items to check off on a list. No one graduates without being worthy of being called a scholar of Bajor." "What happens when there is a conflict?" Jake asked. "When a mentor is wrong about whether a student is ready or not?" "That happens very rarely," Nemjon scoffed. "Students work with many professors besides their own mentor. When it happens that a professor is reluctant to promote a student for unworthy reasons, the rest of the faculty can exert pressure, and in certain circumstances overrule them. And of course either student or professor may request to sever the mentor relationship at any time, and the student will be taken on by another professor who may evaluate them differently. A student who believes the entire faculty is biased against them can receive an evaluation from a board of professors from other universities. Usually in such cases, the student is merely over-eager and perhaps a bit arrogant. But if they find that the student has been treated unfairly, they have a variety of possible responses, up to and including declaring themselves that the student is ready for promotion or matriculation, and the student's own university must then abide by that decision. But, again, the system very rarely breaks to that extent." Jake wasn't quite sure he believed her; the bit about tailored curriculum sounded great, and when the system worked he could see that it would provide a custom-tailored education to each student. But nothing was perfect. Still, that wasn't what his article was supposed to be about. "So, what's the specific problem with joining the Federation, for your universities? Federation policies don't usually govern internal affairs of schools." "Accreditation," Nemjon intoned. "The Federation wants us to prove—using the sort of metrics they care so much about—that our universities produce a quality education. Oh, we can arrange our own internal affairs, but in order for our scholars to be accepted at the same level as those of existing Federation universities, we would have to alter the degree requirements to fit Federation specifications. Of course I understand that there must be standards—if there aren't, there's no way of telling what schools actually turn produce scholars worthy of the name, and which don't. You can't simply go by reputation and history, because these things do change, unfortunately. And nobody wants people without qualifications to call themselves a university and give out honors people haven't earned so they can inflate their reputation without actual understanding to back it up. But still, there must be a better way to do it." She waved a hand. "The Federation's position on the whole issue is ridiculous. Before the Cardassians invaded, the Federation's university system recognized Bajoran universities as granting degrees of rough equivalence to their own. We have long-standing ties with a number of Federation planets, with regular exchanges of scholars and students, including Vulcan! There are existing reciprocal acknowledgments that should be the basis for our relationships going forward. But under the current terms the Federation is trying to insist upon, Bajoran universities would no longer be recognized unless we alter our curriculum and system of evaluation to fit within the Federation's requirements for university accreditation and degree conferral. Which is simply absurd. If our system was good enough to be accepted by the Federation when it was completely separate, why should it not now be sufficient? And to allow fitness for graduation be determined—even in part—by something so rote as test scores and objective evaluation and number of hours spent in a classroom … the very notion is an insult to our way of instruction. And every seven years we would be examined by Federation examiners to see that we are complying with their regulations and teaching with their pedagogy, not our own." Nemjon continued on, listing other points of contention, but accreditation was the main one. She required little input from him to lay out everything she thought in tedious detail. There were a few places where Jake thought she was wrong about what the practical requirements would mean for her university, and a couple of items he'd have to look up, but Federation stuff was easy to research, so it wouldn't take much time. Skeptical as he was about certain aspects of the Bajoran system, Jake thought it was pretty stupid that the Federation would recognize their worth when they were a foreign planet, and then turn around and not recognize them when they tried to join. He listened to her arguments, asked a few questions for clarification here and there, made notes of things to research further, and when she seemed to be running out of steam, he turned to a more practical question. "So," Jake said. "You've been quite thorough in explaining the reservations you have about the proposed changes to the university system that the Federation negotiating team has included in the current state of the treaty. And on the Bajoran negotiating team, you are a junior member. How much influence do you really have? What would you say are the chances they will override your recommendation and sign the treaty to join the Federation with these requirements in it?" Nemjon narrowed her eyes, slightly, and her lips curved in a slight smile. "Of course, nobody can say for certain, the team is quite large and I am, as you say, a junior member, at least in theory. But I am a member with a specific area of great importance as my sole responsibility. If everything else in the treaty was perfect, with no drawbacks whatsoever, I suppose it's possible they might ignore me. Or if the Dominion were to come charging back through the wormhole, or the Breen showed up on our doorstep with an armada, and we needed Federation protection to survive, then I would change my recommendation. Survival is more important than tradition, after all. But …" she spread her hands, "… under the present circumstances, I would be very surprised." …… Jake got a tour of the university after the interview, from one of the students. It was a lovely campus, though Jake couldn't quite picture himself studying here—everyone wore robes, and he wasn't sure he'd be comfortable in them. They weren't like the robes of Bajoran monks that he was used to; the style of tailoring was quite distinct, and there was a different color scheme, and they had hoods instead of hats. The student gave him a thorough tour of the place and then handed him over to the administrative offices, where they provided him with the foreign student orientation package and several other documents they thought might be useful. Glancing at them, Jake thought they probably would be, and wished they were publicly posted somewhere so he could have read them before the interview. In the Federation, data like this was easily available for everyone, and Starfleet had automatic access to most private or secure databases. Even if Jake, a civilian, couldn't access them, his Dad would help him out if he had a good enough reason for it and the information wasn't too sensitive. Starfleet as a whole might not have access to Bajor's private databases, but Deep Space Nine did, because it was a joint station. But Dad wasn't here to pull up information from him. Jake could have asked Colonel Kira, he supposed. Or Dax. Either would have done it, at least in this case. It just … hadn't occurred to him. He checked the messages on his PADD. There was one from Kasidy: a friend in the Ministry of Transportation had suggested he interview the Arch-Chancellor of a different university, who was apparently an up-and-comer in Bajoran academia, and might have a different perspective. Jake sent a message asking for an interview, and spent the rest of the day in the university's library at a com terminal that had a permanent hookup to the main Federation databases, looking up what the actual policies were for university accreditation and what the existing exceptions were. There were very few Federation policies that didn't have exceptions in specific cases; it was the only way to govern a society that large and diverse. Once he was done with his research, he ate dinner in one of the dining halls at the university—the food was pretty good, for institutional cooking, but it was from a different tradition than the Bajoran food they tended to get on Deep Space Nine, with less meat and more spices. Afterwards, he went to a concert put on by a group of students. It wasn't a style of music he was familiar with, but it was interesting. And he didn't get to go to many concerts; Deep Space Nine's permanent population wasn't big enough to support much in the way of music or theater groups. All in all, it was a good evening. If this was what university was like, he could see himself enjoying it. He got back to his hotel room and found a message from the guy Kasidy's contact had suggested, with an interview the day after next. Jake hadn't been planning on staying on Bajor for that long, but he put the time to good use, getting some of his research and notes into something like a rough draft. …… Chacos University of Lorojha was, in many ways, similar to the University of Kenda. There were the same sorts of buildings (though there were one or two here that had obviously been built under Cardassian rule), with lots of gardens in and around them. People walked around in academic robes, though as he was walking from the train station at the edge of campus to the administration building in the center, he did see a fair number of people in ordinary street clothes instead of robes. He felt a bit less conspicuous. At the administration building, they confirmed that Arch-Chancellor Ruce was indeed expecting him, and he was escorted to an audience hall very similar to that in Kenda. Three walls of windows, one wall of intricate art focused on the university's logo, with a dais and a long table under it, and a few seating arrangements of comfortable chairs scattered around the edges. But Ruce was waiting at one of those, rather than at the dais, and he invited Jake to join him right away. Jake did so, studying the scholar as he did. He hadn't had time to do much research on the man, just what he could dig up in the public records. And what he could dig up was a string of publications he hadn't had time to read, mostly focused on adapting the educational system as a whole to the post-Cardassian world. He'd been cited a lot in a bunch of other papers, too, and seemed to have quite a number of admirers, from what Jake could tell at a glance. He'd won a number of awards, too, both for individual writings and for work on various projects. Arch-Chancellor Ruce Vasun was much younger than Arch-Chancellor Nemjun; he'd been born and grew up during the Occupation. He was a powerfully-built man in his forties, with the scarred hands that told Jake he'd been used to do something hard, heavy, and dangerous under the Cardassians. Jake introduced himself and explained what he was here for. He summarized Nemjun's position, and asked if Ruce had any comment on the issue. Ruce considered this for a few moments before speaking. "Arch-Chancellor Nemjun is a wise and experienced scholar," he said. "And I absolutely agree with her on the value of the system we have now. It allows for us to tailor a course of study precisely to the needs and abilities of each student, and under ideal circumstances, the university is a carefully tended garden that helps the brightest minds on Bajor—and the surrounding sector—to grow and flourish. Certainly, there are many things that we should never compromise." "But?" Jake asked. There was definitely a 'but' coming. "But Arch-Chancellor Nemjun has dedicated the last decade of her life to trying to restore the university system to exactly what it was before the Cardassians came," Ruce said. "And that system, for all its many strengths, had serious flaws as well. For example, I would never have been allowed to attend university, in the old days." "Why not?" Jake asked. "My family belongs to the lowest caste," Ruce said. "Not allowed to own land, not allowed into most jobs or trades requiring any skill, in many cases not allowed to finish even secondary school, but expected to go to work as an adolescent. The Cardassians were terrible, of course; but life for my family didn't actually change all that much. It was only that under the Cardassians, most other Bajorans were suffering, too. And you may say, that's all so long ago, what does it matter that I would never have been allowed to dirty these halls with my presence a century ago. I'm here now, aren't I?" "And what would your response be to that question?" Jake asked, gamely taking the leading question when it was offered to him. This was wonderful. Not only was the whole issue one the Federation hadn't noticed yet, but he had intra-Bajoran disagreement as well. This would be a great article. "I'm here, but how many like me aren't?" Ruce said. He spread his hands. "There is still discrimination. I never personally experienced it—I was considered a brilliant, rising star from the moment I stepped foot on campus—but I saw it happen to others. Constantly. When the most average, unmemorable member of the scholarly caste gets promoted to Senior Student in under three years, and low-caste scholars of ten times their ability get passed over routinely and must take five or six years of study before reaching that same promotion—well. It's quite obvious that for all their noble words about only caring about training people to be their best, they have different expectations and different criteria for people of different castes." "Have you talked with Arch-Chancellor Nemjon about this?" Jake asked curiously. "What does she say about it?" "She tells me I'm a credit to my caste," Ruce said. "And that obviously, if the other low-caste students were as brilliant as I, they would have succeeded, so if they haven't it's proof that they are being treated fairly." He rolled his eyes. Jake winced. "You know, we used to have a caste system on Earth, too." Jake said. "Actually, we had different caste systems in different parts of the planet. But in America, where my family is from, that caste system was based on something called 'race.' Which was a combination of skin color and facial features. My Dad and I are what was called 'Black' in that system. It was the lowest caste. Our ancestors were enslaved, and it was illegal to teach us to read and write. And even after that was outlawed, there was a lot of injustice. I'm not as much of a history buff as my Dad is, but they used to say that sort of thing about us, too. That if we succeeded, we were a credit to our race, and proof that discrimination didn't exist, and if we didn't succeed, it was proof that we weren't worthy and the treatment we received was just." "That's very interesting," Ruce said. "I'd like to learn more. Did your father have any favorite books on the subject? We hear about his work as the Emissary, and as a Starfleet officer, but nothing about Sisko the man. And yet, of course, who he was as a man was what allowed him to do all the great things he did, and, Prophets willing, will continue to do." "I'll go through his library and see," Jake said. He smiled. Dad had always felt caught between his human heritage and Starfleet, and his role as the Emissary. People on either side of the species divide only ever saw half of him. It would be good to change that, in some small way. "Thank you!" Ruce said. "I don't have as much time to read for pleasure as I would like, but reading things outside my field of study is so important for spiritual and mental nourishment." "You're welcome," Jake said, and tried to drag the interview back on track. He probably shouldn't have derailed it like that. "So are you in favor of the Federation system being imposed on Bajoran universities? After all, with more weight on grades and objective evaluations, and less weight on how professors feel about their students, surely there would be less room for prejudice to affect someone's course of study." Ruce shook his head. "I'm not naïve enough to think that professors with a bias against their low-caste students will grade them on the same metric they grade their high-caste students," he said. "Outside of tests on facts memorized, any evaluation has room for mis-assessment. And rote memorization has little place in a Bajoran university. Having to put a number value on an essay's quality won't make someone miraculously more just in appraisal of its merits. It will only teach them to better justify their biases. And if all you care about are a bare recitation of facts, well, a computer can do that better than any living being." "So what do you think should be done?" Jake asked. "Oh, I have a lot of ideas about that," Ruce said. "Though whether any of them will be practical once we join the Federation will depend on a great many other factors. But! My first suggestion would be that any time a student of a low caste is to be evaluated, at least one academic from their caste should be on the panel of professors. If there isn't one at that particular university, they can bring in one from another university. It's something we do in other cases when a student might not be judged fairly, for one reason or another—a feud between their family and one or more of the professors of their university is the most traditional reason, but there are others." Jake wanted to hear more about such feuds, but that wasn't what his story was about, so he didn't ask a follow-up about that. Instead, he asked about other ideas for improving Bajor's higher education, and what Ruce thought about the Federation's system. …… Once the interview was done, Ruce walked him back to the train station personally. "I did look you up, Mr. Sisko," he said as they strolled down a tree-lined path. "And you are an excellent writer, but I notice you haven't attended university yourself. Which is curious, because I understand the Federation puts almost as much stock in education as Bajor does." "I always assumed I'd go, and probably will sooner rather than later," Jake said. "But then life kinda got in the way." "It does that, yes," Ruce said. "Have you ever thought about attending school on Bajor?" "Yeah," Jake said. "And it'd be very convenient, and you have a lot of schools with really great writing programs, which is great. But right now, I'm already working in the field. I'm a journalist, and I like doing it, and I don't want to stop doing it or take time off. And Bajor doesn't have journalism as a field, so you don't have it as a course of study that I've found." "We don't," Ruce confirmed. "And you don't have provisions for part time study or distance learning, so it would be hard to continue working as a journalist and go to school at the same time," Jake said. "On the other hand, if I go back to school on Earth, I definitely couldn't keep reporting on Bajoran matters, and that's where all my knowledge and contacts are. There are a lot of journalists on Earth—I'd be a small fish in a big pond. Here, I'm the leader in the field." He hadn't mentioned any of this to Grandpa or Kasidy, or even Dad before he joined the Prophets, because he knew what they'd say: that was short-term thinking, he had the rest of his life to be a journalist, and education was important. But he had the rest of his life for education, too. And he didn't want to leave the field and go get a degree, only to find out when he got back that others had taken his spot and he'd have to start from the bottom again. Ruce hummed. "You know, the great benefit of the Bajoran system—the lack of a set curriculum that so distresses the Federation—is that we can tailor a course of study to a particular student's interests and skills," he pointed out. "And when we don't have the particular expertise needed here, we do collaborate with other universities on other planets. The Vulcan Academy of Arts and Social Wisdom is particularly receptive to long-term partnerships. We just had a student matriculate who had two mentors: one on the faculty here, and one at the Vulcan Academy. I believe she took some of her classes over subspace, and worked closely with her Vulcan mentor over subspace, though they never met in person. We might not know journalism, but we know writing, and we could find a mentor at a Federation university for the things specific to your field." "That sounds amazing," Jake said. "I never thought of that." "Why would you?" Ruce said. "But it is a possibility, and having read your essay 'Nor the Battle to the Strong,' I think you would do very well with Doctor Zaje as your mentor." "I'll consider it," Jake said as they arrived at the train station. "Safe journeys, Mr. Sisko," Ruce said. "I hope we meet again." "Likewise, Arch-Chancellor," Jake said. …… Jake spent the train ride back to the capital organizing his notes from the second interview and figuring out how to re-arrange the article to accommodate them. He got so engrossed in work that he forgot to eat on the train, and had to grab something quick and greasy in the station to eat on the way to the large Cardassian-built office building where most of the ministers had their offices. He got a five minute interview with the head of the negotiating team—five minutes was all he needed to get a quote from the article—and then to a hotel room where he finished a rough draft of the article, sent it off to a few Federation universities to see if they had any comment on it, and collapsed into bed. The next morning he checked his messages: most had either not replied yet or sent back a polite 'no comment.' The Vulcan Academy of the Arts and Social Wisdom, however, had a long response from the head of their interplanetary collaboration unit. Jake skimmed it. It was fairly long-winded (unsurprising), but it didn't come down on either side of the issue. The interesting thing it pointed out, however, was that the basic Federation evaluation criteria and guidelines for higher education had been hammered out at the Founding and largely ignored thereafter. It reflected a four-way compromise between Humans, Vulcans, Andorians, and Tellarites … and every other planet that entered later had been shoehorned in willy-nilly, on the assumption that the Federation system was the best way to do things. It ended by saying that perhaps the Federation system was due for a reappraisal. Jake didn't have room for the whole thing in his article, but he summarized the most important bit and added the closest thing to a short, pithy quote in the whole response. Maybe he could get his editor to include it as a sidebar. After an hour of writing and editing, the article was in much better shape. Jake could fuss with it more—he could always fuss with his writing more, he sometimes got stuck in edit mode, chasing the impossibility of perfection—but he had an appointment. He had an actual press conference to attend this morning. They weren't a Bajoran tradition, so he'd only rarely been to them; but the Federation Ambassador was having a question and answer session with the three Federation journalists covering the talks, and it was open to anybody, and Jake was going. …… The press conference was in an ordinary room in the Ministry building, a small room with no windows, that could have been on the station. It had that same vibe of "Cardassian aesthetics, with Bajoran and Federation elements to lighten it up." The podium with the Federation seal only added to the effect. Jake recognized the three Federation civilians already in the room as the journalists covering the talks. They glanced over at him, but showed no interest, continuing to talk amongst themselves. Well, he supposed this was normal for them. They'd been here for months, the talks were stalled, and every week someone on the Federation staff gave a press conference about what had been accomplished (or not accomplished) that week. Lately it hadn't been very much. Jake was lucky; the job of talking to the press was rotating between the Ambassador and his two top aides. And today, it was Ambassador Eshes ch'Shratis chanself. The ambassador was right on time. Chan walked briskly into the room with a PADD in his hand and took chans place at the podium with the ease of long habit. Chan was wearing a yellow suit that was of a color fashionable on Bajor right now, and which contrasted nicely with chan's blue skin. Eshes scanned the room and blinked when chan saw Jake, but went right into chans prepared speech. Apparently nothing of note had been accomplished that week, but chan was adept at saying nothing at great length. At last it was time for questions. The other reporters had a few—nothing terribly interesting, because nothing interesting had happened—which the ambassador answered at just as great a length as chan's initial speech. Jake kept raising his hand, but chan called on him only after answering questions from the three reporters chan knew. "Jake Sisko, Federation News Service," Jake said, when he was called on. "Ambassador, what is your position on the Bajorans dragging out the negotiations because of the university issue? Is there room for compromise with Federation educational standards?" "University issue?" Ambassador Eshes said, squinting at him. "What university issue?" "Bajor is extremely proud of its universities," Jake explained. "They've put a lot of effort into restoring them after the Cardassians left, and the professor on the Bajoran negotiating team—Arch-Chancellor Nemjan Lelra of the University of Kenda—is absolutely opposed to the imposition of Federation-style academic metrics onto the Bajoran universities. And the rest of the team is listening to her. That's one reason things have stalled. What do you think about the issue?" "I have a great deal of respect for Doctor Nemjan," Ambassador Eshes said. Not, Jake noticed, enough respect to have learned her proper title. "And certainly, we have had many discussions about how best to handle the issue of university accreditation and the standards required for various degrees," Eshes went on. "But it hasn't been affecting the rest of the negotiations. Things have stalled based on a variety of other factors, which I have just finished explaining." "That's not what Minister Jekkuk said, when I asked him about it," Jake said, speaking quickly before Eshes could list all the factors (again). "When did you speak to the Minister?" Eshes asked. Chans antennae quivered but didn't quite draw back. "Yesterday, after the close of negotiations," Jake said. "Would you like to hear what she said?" "Yes, please," Eshes said. Jake had the audio clip cued up and ready to go. He set his PADD's speakers to max and hit play. Minister Jekkuk's voice filled the room. "The issue of university governance is not the only issue at stake, of course; but it is the most serious one on which no fruitful discussion has been possible. Federation intransigence on this issue, so core to our peoples' history and tradition, has certainly caused me to reconsider the benefits of Federation membership. If they treat our great wisdom-leaders thus when they are negotiating, how badly will they treat them—and the rest of us—once we have joined?" The clip ended, and the room was silent. Eshes stared at him, antennae low. "Any comment, Ambassador?" Jake asked. "No," Eshes said, and walked out of the room. The other reporters went a bit nuts. …… "How'd you get Jekkuk to talk?" the Tellarite journalist demanded. They'd calmed down, a bit, after that first rush when they'd been asking so many questions at the same time that Jake couldn't hear any of them. "I asked," Jake said. "You're the Emissary's son, aren't you? Nepotism." He snorted derisively. "Maybe a little," Jake said. "But I think it was more that I started with Arch-Chancellor Nemjun, and asked for the Minister's comment after I'd already talked with her. And used the right title. 'Doctor' isn't inaccurate—it's just lesser, and less formal. And unlike the Federation, Bajorans have different words for different types of doctorates, and the universities are stuck up that their degrees are more prestigious than degrees from the other schools that the Federation also calls doctorates. So being called a Doctor in Bajoran—using the correct word—is informal but not bad. Calling her 'doctor' in Federation Standard, in Bajoran eyes, is demoting her to the status of someone who went to a trade school or something. I've got a whole information packet on stuff like that, if you want it." "Yes, please," the Betazoid said. "Why isn't that publicly posted anywhere? I knew the Bajorans got prickly whenever she was addressed, but I didn't know why. It's not like anyone was trying to insult her." Jake shrugged. "It wasn't publicly posted anywhere, but I asked her university and they gave me the information packet they give new students from off-world, and that's part of it. I don't know why nobody said anything." "So what tipped you off?" the human reporter asked. "Colonel Kira, commander of Deep Space Nine, gets the Bajoran government's internal reports," Jake said. "She mentioned the issue, and I took it from there." "A good friend to have," the Betazoid said. "What other friends have you made while researching this subject?" Jake opened his mouth, closed it, and opened it again. "You're reporters, aren't you?" he said. "Get your own sources." The human laughed. "I like you, Jake Sisko. Will you be around for drinks tonight?" "Nah," Jake said. "My shuttle back to the station leaves in three hours." "He swoops in, scoops the lot of us, and swans back out without even having a drink," the Tellarite said. "Next time, you watch yourself, I'll be scooping you." "You can try," Jake said. …… Jake found a café and ate lunch while adding Ambassador Eshes' 'no comment.' Then he found a public comm terminal and sent his article off to the Federation News Service. He got to the shuttleport in time to buy a ticket for the late-afternoon shuttle to the station, and settled into his seat. The trip took almost six hours—the ancient shuttle, stuffed to the gills with passengers and cargo, was not as fast as a runabout, and Bajor's current place in its orbital cycle took it far from the station. Jake used the time to poke through his father's history library. He found some about racial categories and history in the United States that he thought Arch-Chancellor Ruce would like, and a general primer on Earth history for background, but hesitated before sending them. Should he send a clean copy, or one with his father's notes included? In some ways, he wanted someone to see his father as the man who read history, not the Emissary. But there was no guarantee that anyone else would see what Jake saw in those notes. Ruce seemed nice, but … Jake didn't know him well enough. He sent the books clean, without the notes. …… Kasidy was off on a cargo run when he reached the station, so the Sisko quarters were empty and echoing. Jake holed up in his bedroom and checked his messages—and found to his dismay that his article had been rejected. He called up his editor, and got the night-shift editor instead. "Nobody in the Federation cares about Bajoran academics," the night-shift editor said. "It's about the negotiations for Bajoran entry," Jake said. "And there are a lot of people who care about that. The academics is why the talks have been stalled for so long." "Are you sure about that?" "Did you even read it?" Jake demanded. "I've got the university Arch-Chancellor on the negotiating team saying that they're not going to sign a treaty she's not happy with unless the Dominion comes boiling through the wormhole again, and Minister Jekkuk basically said she was right! And I've got a comment from the Vulcan Academy of Arts and Social Wisdom on the whole thing." "Fine, I'll take another look." "Do that," Jake insisted. "There were other reporters around when I asked Ambassador Eshes for a comment, I'd rather the story gets published before one of them files a story on the issue." …… Once the call was over, Jake wandered out into the living room to get dinner from the replicator. He didn't take his food back to his room, because that would only highlight that Dad wasn't here. In the Sisko home, meals were eaten together whenever possible, and even when it was not, you ate properly at the table. The last time he'd been so alone in his quarters, it had been during the Dominion occupation of the system. But Dad had been alive and corporeal then, just on the other side of the sector, doing his best to come back and retake the system. There was no Dominion, now, hanging over everything. Jake didn't have to worry about saying or doing the wrong thing and being executed as an example. Which meant he had more time to notice how empty things were. Jake ate his dinner, and thought about Ruce's offer of a custom-designed journalism degree. And spending a few years on that beautiful, tree-lined campus. It sounded a lot more attractive now than it had when he was in the middle of chasing down people to interview and getting to ambush an ambassador with questions he wasn't expecting. …… "That was a great article, Jake," Nog said the next day over lunch. Jake had been reading in an out-of-the-way corner of the Promenade, preferring the hustle and bustle to the tomb-like quiet of the Sisko quarters. Nog had spotted him and dragged him to the Replimat for lunch. "Thank you," Jake said. "What was your favorite bit?" Nog shrugged. "I think it's that you clearly laid out the benefits and drawbacks of both the Federation system and the Bajoran one, so people can draw their own conclusions about what they think about them," he said. "And what would have to change to make Bajor fit the current Federation system as-is. It really showed what's at stake." "Good," Jake said. "I worked hard on that bit." "I would have talked more about who profits from the current systems, and how," Nog said. "Nobody profits," Jake said. "The Federation doesn't work like that." "Benefits, then," Nog said. "Not all profits are financial." "True." Jake shrugged. It was a good point, and he'd keep it in mind for the future. "I think it's all a stupid fuss over nothing, anyway," Nog said, "but if the Bajorans think it's important enough to hold up the negotiations, it's worth paying attention to." "Yeah," Jake said. "Arch-Chancellor Nemjon made it sound like the Federation system was completely unreasonable, but we've got a lot of good schools ourselves." "From your article, it seems like Bajoran universities aren't very … practical," Nog said. "Not like Starfleet, which balanced theory with training on how to handle real-life problems. A little dose of having to apply their high-minded rhetoric to something a little more concrete might be good for them." "What's higher education like on Ferenginar?" Jake asked. "Expensive," Nog said. "And the quality varies—if you're not paying through the ear, you're probably not getting very good teachers. And they don't tend to spend much time at all on theoretical stuff, unless it's necessary to understand something that might turn a profit. I could never have afforded a school worth going to on Ferenginar, and I wouldn't have learned as much about myself and the galaxy, anyway." "So you liked Starfleet Academy?" Jake asked. "There were good parts and bad parts," Nog said. "It was a lot harder being the only Ferengi there than it was being the only Ferengi kid on the station. But it helped me grow and learn about who I am and how I relate to the people around me, and what I care about, in addition to the stuff about engineering and piloting and combat and how to handle first contact." Jake hummed thoughtfully. Nog's comm badge chirped. "Nog here," he said. "Lieutenant, I'm sorry to bother you at lunch, but there's been an accident on the docking ring," the Ops officer on duty said. "No casualties, but it's messed up all our docking and cargo transshipping schedules, and you're needed to sort things out." Nog sighed. "I'll be right there," he said. "Can we do something this evening?" Jake asked. "Maybe something on the holosuites?" Nog grimaced. "I'd love to, but I have a double shift," he said. "One of my people is sick, and another had a family emergency and had to leave, and we're still not back at pre-War staffing levels yet so we don't have coverage for emergencies. Hopefully things will calm down soon." "All right," Jake said, disappointed. "Well, good luck." …… Kassidy was gone for almost two weeks this time, and Jake spent the time writing a few other articles—mostly puff pieces—and responses to comments on the university article. There were four different editorials on the subject of Federation university accreditation in major news outlets by the end of the week, which was a much stronger response than Jake had gotten to any of his articles since the war had ended. Grandpa sent a message with congratulations on the article, and complaints that arranging travel to Bajor was almost as complicated now as it had been with a war on. The proposed visit was now a certainty, but it might take a while, because his grandfather was going to stop by Proxima to visit Uncle David first. When Jake wasn't working, he read books from his father's library. He'd sorted them by which ones he hadn't already read, and then by which ones had the most comments. Dad had been a very well-read man, and Jake found them all interesting. It helped him feel a little closer to his father, but it didn't help the quarters feel any less lonely. "How was your cargo run?" Jake asked when Kasidy got back. "It's always good to be out among the stars, with no other concerns than running the ship," Kasidy said. "Congratulations on the article, by the way." "Thanks," Jake said. "It seems to have touched a nerve. I've actually gotten a request to appear on a panel discussion about it." "Did you accept?" Kasidy asked. "Are you kidding?" Jake said incredulously. "Everything I know on the subject ended up in the article. I'm not exactly an expert on Bajoran education, just the only person who asked the right questions to the right people." "Don't sell yourself short," Kasidy said. "That's probably the most important thing a journalist can do, I'd think." "I'm not selling myself short," Jake said. "I'm just saying that knowing what questions to ask is not the same thing as knowing enough on the subject to talk intelligently about it on a panel discussion. I've never even been to university." "Is that something you're interested in?" Kasidy asked. "Your dad said something about a school back on Earth, after the war was over?" Jake rolled his eyes. "Not you too. Grandpa wants me to come back to Earth for college. I don't want to give up being a reporter now that I've got my foot in the door. And if Dad does come back in a year—or yesterday, whatever that means—I'd rather be closer when he shows up."  He paused. "Actually, I've been thinking about going to school on Bajor. They don't have journalism programs, but they do customized courses of study and they've got some really good writing programs. And because they focus more on individualized learning than on taking set classes, it'd be easy to make time for reporting." "Sounds like it's right up your alley," Kasidy said. …… The next day they spent working together in the living room. Jake had a bunch of PADDs spread out around him on the couch, and Kasidy took over the table with her paperwork. "You don't usually spend this much time on administrative stuff in a single day," Jake noted that afternoon. "I wasn't able to get as much done during the run as I usually would, and we're shipping out again tomorrow," Kasidy said absently without looking up. "Tomorrow?" Jake said. "But you just got back!" "And in a few months I'll be taking a year of parental leave," Kasidy said. "I've got a great crew, but there's some things I like doing myself, and there's a lot to do to get ready." She was right, of course, but that didn't make the thought any easier. Jake sighed. Kasidy looked up, frowning. "Is something wrong, Jake?" "These quarters are really empty with both you and Dad gone, is all," Jake said. "Ah," Kasidy said. She sat back in her chair. "I noticed the same thing, when you left for Bajor for your article. But I had a cargo run to make, and the ship really hasn't changed since before the war, so it felt very homey." "I've thought about asking for quarters of my own, but space is at a premium on the station," Jake said. With the war ended and trade with the Gamma Quadrant resumed (even on a limited basis), the station was a very busy place. "You could probably get something if you really wanted, but you might have to trade on your Dad's status as Emissary," Kasidy said. "And it didn't help that Nog was really busy and didn't have time to hang out," Jake said. "That's actually one of the reasons that university on Bajor sounds so good right now—a different setting, but close enough I could still visit the station pretty easily, and see you and the baby and hang out with Nog. And enough work to keep me really busy." Kasidy considered this. "I think you'd do well in university, and a change of environment might be good for you," she said. "But also, you'll get more out of it if you're going to school because you want it, not because you're trying to escape from something else." "I just don't know where else I'd go, on Bajor," Jake said. "I know I don't want to live on Earth, like Grandpa wants me to." "There's the house," Kasidy said. "The construction crew is going to be breaking ground next month. You could go and keep an eye on the whole process, and then move in when it's done." "You're going ahead with it?" Jake said, cocking his head." Kasidy shrugged. "I love your father, but I'm not going to put my life on hold waiting for him. Being able to go outside and play outdoors is good for babies and small children. And I could do with a change, myself—and even after I'm done with parental leave, I don't have to base myself here on the station. I don't trade through the wormhole very often, so for most things being based on Bajor itself would be at least as handy. I live here because it's where Ben was stationed. But he's not, any longer." "Yeah," Jake said. He thought about that for a bit. "I think … I wouldn't mind helping build the house, but I wouldn't want to live there. For me, it'd feel like … like I was just treading water, waiting for Dad to come back. I don't want to put my life on hold, either." "He wouldn't want that, for either of us," Kasidy said. "Would going to university feel like you were moving forward?" "I think it would," Jake said. "I really think it would."

#fanfiction #fanfic #star trek #deep space nine

[catnerdenby]

I rlly enjoy drawing my Megatron w markers.

Also, de's an hercules beetle. I also have a colored version of her, but it's dark so I can't take it. Lots of purples and yellows though.

I was inspired by Armada Megatron a lot when making hir. Y'know, the horns. But he's also EXTREMELY manipulative and intelligent in my fan-continuity. She's also a dad to an adopted daughter ^^ Gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss am I 'rite??

I have so many thoughts regarding him and Optimus and Starscream and her daughter and- GHURRRRRGHHH.

On another note, my friend said that Starscream's marker version was ugly because the blue eyes were too similar to the green, so I made a version of him in gray as well. And yes, he does have a blue tongue actually. And Megatron has a red one.

Megatron and Optimus' relationship in my continuity is really obsessive on Megatron's side. There's also a phrophercy that Megatron decided to interpret as Optimus would bring about his fall. Optimus is just the messenger.

I want to tell ya'all the entire story, but I'm trying to keep characters separated here, so yeah.

Megatron is a zero-to-hero guy. Started from the bottom, made his way to the top, but forgot his goal along the way.

His life began in the slums of Iacon, where xe happened to do many odd jobs. He was known for being reliable, smart, and quiet, so it was no wonder that people from the upper castes also started using his services. It was mainly guard or delivery duties, but there were some more interesting ones in there too.

An assassination. They wanted her to assassinate someone. They wanted them to kill someone. Of course vi did it. Xer was getting paid for it after all! That's how he first got zir first 'taste of blood'.

Those jobs were becoming more and more popular, and he had gathered enough shanix to rent an apartment and pay for their education. Politics had always interested hir, after all.

Eventually getting rid of bots wasn't just for money. It was to nab new positions, manipulate someone else more controllable in those places...

By that point, vi had quite a network. But it wasn't enough. Ze wanted more. New planets, galaxies. All for the betterment of Cybertron, as she said.

Practically all of Cybertron was under his claws, but a small rebellion had begun rising up. Their ideas became more and more popular, and they called themselves Autopods.

The situation only grew larger, until there was a full-blown civil war between the Autopods and the Deceoticons, as they were labeled by the Autopods.

Cybertron was running out of energon, so Megatron with himself in the lead went out to look for new sources of Energon, while the Autopods did their best to survive and also stop Megatron from stripping planets of the sunstance.

That's howvthey ended up on Earth, where they reakize to their horror, that there, they are the tiny ones.

@drill-teeth-art was the one that inspired me to make this fan-continuity and they have a really cool style as well! I love how the drawings look on paper, with the markers and all, which is how I gathered enough courage myself to try markers. Big thanks!

#transformers #megatron #transformers fan continuity #traditional illustration #starscream #fan continuity

[emmaofnormandy]

~The salvation of the sinner: a queen and her knight [a world where there’s no Thomas Seymour]~ [part II]

Anakin appreciated the early hours in the morning as all the household had not awaken yet and he was found all by himself. The first thing he did was to make sure the Sudeley castle and it’s surroundings were deprived of an threats. After that, he broke his fast. By the time he was wide awake, sun began rising and he was meditating in the gardens.

Much to his dismay, Anakin found in himself sentiments that, though he always knew they were there somehow, he thought to have prevailed over them. But every now and then he dreamed about death, the sweet invitation of the dark side to prevent it. It could be anyone he dared to care for: his best friend and mentor Obi-Wan Kenobi, his Padawan Ahsoka Tano, the former queen of England...

What?

Anakin opened his eyes, his heartbeat suddenly going faster than what usually was. Why’d he care for his mistress? It’s been only a few weeks ever since he came to her service and he was always apart of the household, knowing his place, despite Katheryn’s attempts in making him feel welcome and a part of it. Sometimes, he engaged in small talks to her and the lady Elizabeth, her stepdaughter, but Anakin preferred to be distant. Eventually, she ceased her attempts in being friendly. They were now just... formal to each other.

It was for the best.

He could see an attachment on her part, aware she felt attracted to him. But then... there were the nights she was scared, frightened and haunted by her nightmares. Anakin remembered how once he thought she was under attack or something similar. 

I felt a disturbance in the Force.

He quickly dressed in his dark robes and, holding his lightsaber by his right hand, entered the queen’s privychambers only to see she was having a bad dream. But Anakin noticed her eyes filled with tears, her red-ish hair all loose and a complete mess... the nightgown so tight to her body, and he thought he could see her breasts.

A sight he now tried to sweep out of his mind. How could he desire her? Yes, she possessed a beauty that no lady Senator, Duchess or Queen Anakin ever came accross in the Galaxy could’ve been blessed to. Her laughters restaured anyone’s peace, and could he deny her a smile when she glanced at him with a gentleness that very few in her station was gifted?

But that night he held her tight against his chest, feeling the desperation as she clung onto him. As if she feared for her life. Anakin could see all of her life through a blink of an eye: her birth, her education, her roles as wife, stepmother, lady and... Queen of an entire realm. He could see the fear ignating in her bones as she was told the King desired her. He could see the moment she bursted into tears, wishing she’d never come to him. 

He also saw the moment Katheryn Parr was greeted by Henry VIII, the king of England, the sovereign who held absolute power and who, Anakin could swear, might as well had been a Darth Sith in his lifetime. He was cruel, egoistic and had sent two wives to death for absolutely no reason other than his paranoias. 

Anakin saw the conspiracy to remove Katheryn of her place as queen and the moment desperation came to her eyes, the possibility she might face death and how could she save herself by not risking her reputation. She bent her pride and went to the king, doing what he wanted her to do: to submit to his will. She was spared. The conspiracies had not the same luck.

But the Jedi Knight could also see other shades Katheryn did not permit people to see. His eyesight went far beyond the roles the former queen tied herself to. He saw the darkness that existed beneath all her suffering: her ambitions, her ideals of Protestantism, how she enjoyed having power in her hands when she was left regent of England.

In truth, was I any more different than she is?

However fast those minutes were when he held her close in the moments where trauma came uninvinted, Anakin realized they were so much alike than he thought.

***

“I thought I’d find you there”, Katheryn finally showed up at the depth of the gardens far from her household’s sight.

She was having her hair loose again in the manner of a Tudor lady, though. She thought she deserved that. But, because of her station, Katheryn was dressed in a silk purple gown with details embroidered in red. There were pearls in it too. Because it was cold, the sleeves of the gown were very warm in the inside.

So there she was, outdoors, looking for her knight. In truth, she felt she was in need of a companionship. There were moments that being around her ladies were not enough. 

Or mayhaps I’d grown used to his presence.

Thirty days after their arrival at Sudeley Castle, and a week after the nightmare event--one of the kind she’d rather forget--, Katheryn knew she might be playing with fire as she came to find him in his favorite spot. Her heart race, but she ignored it. She convinced herself it was after his friendship she came for. Nothing else. 

“I do not think I’d go somewhere else, Your Majesty”, Anakin did not open his eyes. But he thought wise to keep his mind focused in the present. He’d hate to think that the fact she was on his mind sort of brought her to him.

“Majesty”, she repeated the title to which he addressed her; and a snort came out of her lips. “I am not a queen for a few months now. How many times should I tell to address me by the name I was given at birth?”

Anakin chuckled softly. 

“As many as possible, my lady. I must not forget my position.” He opened his eyes at last and saw her walking around him before finding a seat beneath a pomerade. 

“What position? If anything I’ll tell you whether you are being appropriated or not”, she said maliciously. “But do not fret. I assure you I’d never send you to the block. Looks like we are in peace for the moment.”

The Jedi could not help a smirk himself.

“Peace? I hear your country is at war against the Scots again.”

Katheryn waved her hand in a dismissively gesture.

“They are /always/ at war, Master Skywalker. Every now and then. I do not think there was a monarch who did not try to subdue our neighbours.” She sighed. “But peace will come eventually. Edward is not of warlike type like his father was.”

Anakin was not a judge of boy kings characters so he silenced himself. 

“Well, I can tell you are not very fond of politics, are you?”

“These are not my expertise field, no, I’m afraid.” And he added: “I am a man of actions.”

“Does the quietude bore you, my lord?”

Their eyes met and this time Anakin felt weakened by how those red-ish lips twirled a smirk. 

“I will reserve my right to be silent”, said he.

She laughed. Oh how long had it been since she was brought to genuine laughters?

“Why’s that?”

“Because, ma’am, I fear I’d sound too bold for your ears.” Anakin left his meditation position and moved to where she was sitting. “You are a queen, after all. I must behave accordingly.”

Katheryn rolled her eyes, but gave in to a smile. They were closer now than before, and she found out how much she was enjoying it.

“Is it my obligation to remind you constantly I am no longer a queen, Master Skywalker?” Before he had the chance to respond, she changed topics. “I would like to know about you. Where’d you come from? How did you end up being a well trained knight? Does the knighthood you are tied to oblige you to make vows? So many questions I know, but you should be aware by now I am always inquiring...”

Anakin felt the lingering of her gaze upon him as he looked away, rather unsure how to tell the story. But he decided he’d tell partially the truth. The Jedi Order was a secretive order, though it was often mistaken by an Order of Knights that came from the Templars. Barely people knew how, in fact, it was the other way around. Or so told him Obi-Wan.

So that way, Anakin told her how, as an orphan, he was found in the sands of a realm close to Spain by his master Obi-Wan Kenobi and how deeply connected he was to the Order of Knights. In this conversation, inevitable scars came out and Katheryn could tell there were dark parts of him beneath all the kindness and light-chuckles as he shared bits of his stories with his superior here and there.

She could see he saw himself as a sort of sinner who, each time he went to fight other people’s battles, thought to deserve to suffer any physical punishment. The scar he earned after fighting for the Emperor was a clear sign of that. Finally, as he finished talking, Katheryn took his hand to hers and said:

“By what you told me, I can tell that the order of knighthood you are bound to is mistaken to one thing.”

Anakin never thought to hear such a thing and the confusion in his face made it clear. But Katheryn smiled before continuing:

“We are all made of dark and light within. When darkness overcomes the light, however, is the moment our Lord is asking us to examine our conscience. That is the precise time where we should ask ourselves: is this the true path I should follow? Does this speak truth to my heart and reason to my mind? Otherwise, how else are we expected to find this balance your order praises? You cannot reach light without finding darkness in the way. It is not by defeating it that you’ll become a better master, but by embracing it and accepting it is part of who you are. So that is how you’ll master yourself and faith will speak it by itself.”

They fell quiet after a few moments and stared deeply into each other’s eyes. It was when, in a subtle and soft gesture, Anakin took her hand into his. Somehow he felt listened. Believed. Trusted. He felt seen. And as Katheryn held his hand in return, intertwining their fingers, she blushed under his gaze.

She felt loved for the very first time in her lifetime...

(to be continue)

#Anakin Skywalker #Master Skywalker #Master Jedi #Master Anakin Skywalker #Darth Vader #Lord Vader #Hayden Christensen #Star Wars #Star Wars crossover #Star Wars imagine #Anakin Skywalker x reader #Anakin Skywalker fan fiction #Katheryn Parr #Katherine Parr #Catherine Parr #Queen of England #Queen Katherine #Queen Katheryn #Queen Catherine #Henry VIII #Tudor dynasty #Dowager queen of England #tudor fiction

[lady-stormbraver]

I posted 2,012 times in 2022

That's 1,044 more posts than 2021!

53 posts created (3%)

1,959 posts reblogged (97%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@kyber-hearts

@brown-little-robin

@lovesodeepandwideandwell

@starcrier

@swinging-stars-from-satellites

I tagged 1,364 of my posts in 2022

Only 32% of my posts had no tags

#in a galaxy far far away - 88 posts

#looking for lovely - 73 posts

#batfam - 60 posts

#kenobi spoilers - 52 posts

#snadger.gif - 42 posts

#jason todd - 41 posts

#encanto - 35 posts

#oc: violetta - 34 posts

#humans - 27 posts

#kenobi - 24 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#deeply kind characters are compelling to me and i think it's because it's so hard and so antethical to what much of the world calls strength

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

okay mutuals, y’all have convinced me: I’m watching Free Guy. will update!

21 notes - Posted July 29, 2022

#4

nobody asked for this, but y’all should know that Sleeping At Last - Instrumentals is an absolutely lovely study vibes Spotify playlist. it’s gotten me through many a coffee shop homework and midnight study session over the years.

plus— the quietly hopeful and ethereal vibes of all sleeping at last songs. so calming and peaceful. 10/10 would recommend for all your light, dark, or light-in-the-dark academia needs.

68 notes - Posted July 11, 2022

#3

May I,,, offer you another chapter in these trying times?

A rough summary:

Bruno: Hola Casita :)

Casita: *smacks him upside the head with a tile*

72 notes - Posted January 2, 2022

#2

if you are in education, therapeutic services, or any form of childcare...

please,

please,

please

don’t give up on a child just because their challenging behaviors are scary and draining.

don’t give up on a child just because it seems like they’re not communicating with you.

don’t give up on a child just because they have greater (or different) needs than the other kids.

don’t give up on a child just because the work is hard.

and for the love of all that is good, don’t give up on the child on their FIRST DAY in a brand new environment with communication barriers.

no child is unreachable! no child is incapable!

but you have to give them TIME to become accustomed to New Things and New People, and you have to give them TIME to learn and grow in the areas you see needs-- especially if they don’t understand how to communicate with you yet, oh my gosh.

look, i get it. i really do. i know it’s hard. i know it’s exhausting. i know you’re crawling towards the weekend and feeling defeated.

but if this child was your child, wouldn’t you want someone to be in their corner?

wouldn’t you want someone to, at the very least, give them a fighting chance?

if you care about children, and i believe you do, then you have to be willing to do the hard work. you have to be willing to try all the resources you’ve got before throwing in the towel. you just HAVE to.

yes, the work is hard. yes, the days are long. but it is worth it.

your words and choices now will impact so much of how they see themselves in the future.

please, please be careful with these precious souls.

107 notes - Posted August 25, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

hey!!

i don’t know who needs to hear this, but being gentle with yourself is not admitting defeat!!

choosing to:

1.) take a step back from doing all the things while running yourself ragged and

2.) focus instead on doing fewer things in a healthier manner

…is actually really rad and wise of you!!!

it is perfectly okay to take your time!!

you haven’t failed. and you don’t have to be perfect. nobody is holding you to this standard but you, dear one.

you are free to just breathe, and be, and grow at your own pace.

and we’ll make it. i promise. 🤍

136 notes - Posted September 21, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #aww i love that the people I reblog most from are friends old and new 🤍 #pfft cracking up at my top ten tags though #over 40 jason posts what EVEN #called OUT #it’s been a good year to be dumpster raccoons with you all :)