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Chena
Jun. 14th, 2026 07:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ranunculusI went to Napa this weekend to judge and had a good time. Chena had a much better time. Donald and I were camping with my friend Christy. Christy has a new puppy, a 4 month old Anatolian Shepherd / Lab / Mastiff named Hope. At my April event she was half Chena's size. Now she is a lanky, awkward ball of white fluff and is only a few pounds lighter than Chena. Hope and Chena had a wonderful time playing together.
This morning Hope started chewing on a tattered remnant of a chew stick. She abandoned it, Chena picked it up. Hope wanted it back. Christy, who was monitoring the situation, got Hope a new chew. Hope took it politely but thought it was much more fun to try to get the old stick back... Chena groweled halfheartedly at her a couple of times and then ignored the puppy who sat down on Chena's butt. A few minutes later this was the view:( Pics )
This morning Hope started chewing on a tattered remnant of a chew stick. She abandoned it, Chena picked it up. Hope wanted it back. Christy, who was monitoring the situation, got Hope a new chew. Hope took it politely but thought it was much more fun to try to get the old stick back... Chena groweled halfheartedly at her a couple of times and then ignored the puppy who sat down on Chena's butt. A few minutes later this was the view:( Pics )
Daily Happiness
Jun. 14th, 2026 08:08 pmtorachan1. Carla bought some peaches the other day and I was ready to be disappointed with them as I have been with all the other stone fruit I've tried so far this year but these were actually good! Nice flavor and texture. So hopefully that means we're properly into stone fruit season now.
2. The other day Carla heard about this upscale international market called Epicurious Gourmet that's in North Hollywood, so we went and checked it out today. It is indeed very high end and fancy, but they had a lot of neat stuff and we did buy a few things.
3. They open at eleven, so we were there right around lunchtime and I figured I'd look around and see what was nearby that we might want for lunch and found a place that was shown on the map with a pizza symbol, but when I clicked on it turned out to be an Armenian place that sells both shawarma and similar stuff like that as well as regular American style pizza, but they also have an Armenian flatbread that is sort of pizza like, with lots of cheese and two runny eggs on top and the picture hooked me so we went there. Carla got a shawarma and I got the flatbread and both were delicious (though each was a meal for two, so we have lots of leftovers).
That's a pat of butter melting on there!
3. I finally got that new Ikea shelf finished today and rearranged some furniture in the garage to make room for it. Now Carla has a proper record shelf, but we also have more shelves for other stuff, as it's way more space than she needs for records now (and hopefully ever lol). There's still room for maybe one more shelf in there, as well as a corner shelf between the CD shelves, but it's really coming together. I also moved a standing lamp from the living room out there since we never use it in the living room since getting the overhead lamp put in and Carla would like a standing lamp for reading rather than turning the full room lights on (especially since they are prone to flickering).
4. We had some frozen already cooked hamburger patties from a time a while back when Carla grilled up a bunch of burgers and then froze them for easy meals. These ones turned out to be really small after cooking and kind of got a bit overdone, so they've been sitting in the freezer and not getting eaten, but Carla had the idea of using them to make chopped cheese sandwiches, so that's what we did for dinner and it worked so well! We still have enough patties to make a couple more sandwiches later this week, too, and I'm looking forward to that.
5. Molly's hard at work getting her fur all over the sheet after I just changed it lol.
New shelf
2. The other day Carla heard about this upscale international market called Epicurious Gourmet that's in North Hollywood, so we went and checked it out today. It is indeed very high end and fancy, but they had a lot of neat stuff and we did buy a few things.
3. They open at eleven, so we were there right around lunchtime and I figured I'd look around and see what was nearby that we might want for lunch and found a place that was shown on the map with a pizza symbol, but when I clicked on it turned out to be an Armenian place that sells both shawarma and similar stuff like that as well as regular American style pizza, but they also have an Armenian flatbread that is sort of pizza like, with lots of cheese and two runny eggs on top and the picture hooked me so we went there. Carla got a shawarma and I got the flatbread and both were delicious (though each was a meal for two, so we have lots of leftovers).
That's a pat of butter melting on there!
3. I finally got that new Ikea shelf finished today and rearranged some furniture in the garage to make room for it. Now Carla has a proper record shelf, but we also have more shelves for other stuff, as it's way more space than she needs for records now (and hopefully ever lol). There's still room for maybe one more shelf in there, as well as a corner shelf between the CD shelves, but it's really coming together. I also moved a standing lamp from the living room out there since we never use it in the living room since getting the overhead lamp put in and Carla would like a standing lamp for reading rather than turning the full room lights on (especially since they are prone to flickering).
4. We had some frozen already cooked hamburger patties from a time a while back when Carla grilled up a bunch of burgers and then froze them for easy meals. These ones turned out to be really small after cooking and kind of got a bit overdone, so they've been sitting in the freezer and not getting eaten, but Carla had the idea of using them to make chopped cheese sandwiches, so that's what we did for dinner and it worked so well! We still have enough patties to make a couple more sandwiches later this week, too, and I'm looking forward to that.
5. Molly's hard at work getting her fur all over the sheet after I just changed it lol.
New shelf
(no subject)
Jun. 14th, 2026 10:01 pmskygiantsI've been meaning to read one of Bora Chung's short story collections, but instead I read her novel Red Sword (translated by Anton Hur) because this is the one that came into my house via my wife's library pulls. I found it striking, unsettling, minimalist and strongly visual in a way that immediately conjured up the sense for me of a particular kind of animated film -- in my mind, it's that kind of unsettling rotoscope animation, mostly black-and-white with flashes of bright signifying color.
The protagonist of Red Sword is a prisoner on a spaceship who has been brought to an alien planet with numerous other prisoners to do battle in a war that she doesn't understand. The planet is strange and white; the aliens are strange and white; big black birds fly overhead, and they're strange too. The prisoners haven't been given guns, but the people holding the prisoners don't seem fully aware that the protagonist's sword is a weapon as well. So: she has her sword. She has a lover, who dies in the first few pages. She has comrades; a pair of lesbians that she knows only as Indigo Skirt and Light Green Skirt, and an older man who seems drawn to her for reasons neither of them quite understand, but as things they don't understand go that one's pretty far down the list and gets further all the time as weirder things continue to occur. And she has memories of her childhood, a home she used to have, and hopes to have again.
The first portion of the book is mostly just a desperate struggle for survival, caught between the incomprehensible aliens on one hand and the equally incomprehensible force of their captors on the other, and then on the third hand the incomprehensible landscape of an incomprehensible planet. Then things get weirder. The book has things to say about constructed identity, the nature of the self, and the nature of big horrible systems; the arbitrary and unilateral nature of oppression under imperialism. The prose is very clear, very sparse, with a kind of deliberate simplicity that lays bare the confusion and horror of the whole situation: if you don't know or don't like what's happening, it's not on account of the way it's been told.
I don't know that I enjoyed the book, per se, but I think it will linger with me. The part that stuck with me most is when ( spoilers here )
The protagonist of Red Sword is a prisoner on a spaceship who has been brought to an alien planet with numerous other prisoners to do battle in a war that she doesn't understand. The planet is strange and white; the aliens are strange and white; big black birds fly overhead, and they're strange too. The prisoners haven't been given guns, but the people holding the prisoners don't seem fully aware that the protagonist's sword is a weapon as well. So: she has her sword. She has a lover, who dies in the first few pages. She has comrades; a pair of lesbians that she knows only as Indigo Skirt and Light Green Skirt, and an older man who seems drawn to her for reasons neither of them quite understand, but as things they don't understand go that one's pretty far down the list and gets further all the time as weirder things continue to occur. And she has memories of her childhood, a home she used to have, and hopes to have again.
The first portion of the book is mostly just a desperate struggle for survival, caught between the incomprehensible aliens on one hand and the equally incomprehensible force of their captors on the other, and then on the third hand the incomprehensible landscape of an incomprehensible planet. Then things get weirder. The book has things to say about constructed identity, the nature of the self, and the nature of big horrible systems; the arbitrary and unilateral nature of oppression under imperialism. The prose is very clear, very sparse, with a kind of deliberate simplicity that lays bare the confusion and horror of the whole situation: if you don't know or don't like what's happening, it's not on account of the way it's been told.
I don't know that I enjoyed the book, per se, but I think it will linger with me. The part that stuck with me most is when ( spoilers here )
(no subject)
Jun. 14th, 2026 10:18 pmflemmingsWoke in grey darkness, so good, I can go back to sleep for a few more hours. Checked clock anyway and ut was 11:15. Thus was inside all day while outside poured and rumbled, and finished most if the alcohol in the house. Thus diem perdidi, and what of it?
Texted with bro who'd promised to come round some six weeks ago and didn't. Says he still needs to grab stuff from the basement. Then suggested we go out to dinner now they have the cottage money, and I suggested Le Paradis' half price Monday, and he said he'd hake a reservation for tomorrow. Only turns out everyone else likes half-price Mondays-- which I'm not even sure are still a thing-- so we're going next Monday instead. Pity. The state of the Everything has me down and I could do with some company.
May have to see my doctor which I don't want to, because it's an 80 buck cab ride there and back. But there's a rash on my left leg that itches infernally, and burns if I scratch it. My eczema cream calms it some but I'm not sure it's eczema. If only one were allowed to go to the convenient walk-in clinic up the street for minor stuff like this but no, if you have a PCP, your doctor gets dinged every time you use a walk-in. Way to solve the doctor shortage, DoFo. Your departure cannot be soon enough.
Texted with bro who'd promised to come round some six weeks ago and didn't. Says he still needs to grab stuff from the basement. Then suggested we go out to dinner now they have the cottage money, and I suggested Le Paradis' half price Monday, and he said he'd hake a reservation for tomorrow. Only turns out everyone else likes half-price Mondays-- which I'm not even sure are still a thing-- so we're going next Monday instead. Pity. The state of the Everything has me down and I could do with some company.
May have to see my doctor which I don't want to, because it's an 80 buck cab ride there and back. But there's a rash on my left leg that itches infernally, and burns if I scratch it. My eczema cream calms it some but I'm not sure it's eczema. If only one were allowed to go to the convenient walk-in clinic up the street for minor stuff like this but no, if you have a PCP, your doctor gets dinged every time you use a walk-in. Way to solve the doctor shortage, DoFo. Your departure cannot be soon enough.
three steps forward two steps back
Jun. 14th, 2026 09:31 pmthe_siobhanThe last two weeks in bullet points:
Several more bags of stuff cleared out of the house
Got the basement lights fixed
Sent in a request for some paperwork from the city that will hopefully help resolve outstanding permits numbered 1-4. Paid for said paperwork. Wrong paperwork was received. Have now sent a new request to a different department in the city. Fingers are crossed. Toes are crossed. Eyes are probably crossed too.
Sent photos sent to city's urban forestry department to hopefully resolve outstanding permit number 5.
Put together some boxes of excess kitchenwares for the ex to take to their new place when they move.
Replaced the filter on the air conditioner so I could turn it on when the weather got hot. No "on" was achieved. Spent a couple of hours fiddling with it before I gave up. Left a message for the tech to come check it out.
Went with dad and wife to new condo to take measurements and plan for move. Purged several shelves worth of expired jars. Packed two (2) boxes.
Came home to discover a shelf in my office had torn itself off the wall and dumped it's contents all over the floor. One of my gargoyles didn't make it.
I am having a glass of wine and going to bed. I will clean up the damage tomorrow.
Several more bags of stuff cleared out of the house
Got the basement lights fixed
Sent in a request for some paperwork from the city that will hopefully help resolve outstanding permits numbered 1-4. Paid for said paperwork. Wrong paperwork was received. Have now sent a new request to a different department in the city. Fingers are crossed. Toes are crossed. Eyes are probably crossed too.
Sent photos sent to city's urban forestry department to hopefully resolve outstanding permit number 5.
Put together some boxes of excess kitchenwares for the ex to take to their new place when they move.
Replaced the filter on the air conditioner so I could turn it on when the weather got hot. No "on" was achieved. Spent a couple of hours fiddling with it before I gave up. Left a message for the tech to come check it out.
Went with dad and wife to new condo to take measurements and plan for move. Purged several shelves worth of expired jars. Packed two (2) boxes.
Came home to discover a shelf in my office had torn itself off the wall and dumped it's contents all over the floor. One of my gargoyles didn't make it.
I am having a glass of wine and going to bed. I will clean up the damage tomorrow.
Labels and linguistics
Jun. 14th, 2026 06:26 pmpetrea_mitchellIndex, A History of the explains how scrolls were labeled in Ancient Greece:
For the Romans, the tag was an index. Which leads to this:
In order to identify a scroll without having to unroll it, a small parchment tag-- essentially a name label-- would be glued to the roll so that it stuck out, displaying the author and title of the work. It was known as a sittybos, or more commonly sillybos (whence our word syllabus, which we use to describe the contents of a course, just as a sillybos indicates the contents of a scroll).
For the Romans, the tag was an index. Which leads to this:
Meanwhile, we may quibble over whether the Latin indices or the Anglicized indexes is the correct plural in English, but at least history has not plumped for the Greek: sillyboi.
Disclosure Day
Jun. 14th, 2026 08:38 pmlikeadeuceI didn't think this movie had a very good story (though the action scenes and performances were good); but I kind of need fic about all the things I didn't understand.
If this had come out in the 80s there would be a novelization that AT LEAST GAVE the charscterx some backstory.
can the child within my heart rise above?
Jun. 14th, 2026 07:12 pmmusesfoolIt was very exciting to watch the Knicks win the NBA championship last night with another wild 4th quarter comeback! My brother's kids went to one of the watch parties and put me on alert that if they couldn't get home, they were planning to come here to sleep, and I said of course! And then I did not hear from them again, so at 2 am, I went to bed.
I woke up this morning and texted to make sure they got home all right, and when they didn't respond, I checked in with my brother, who told me that the subways had been shut down (I had not read or heard the news), so they ended up going to one of my nephew's friend's apartment to sleep before getting home this morning. But they said they had a good time and it looked like people were mostly being cool while celebrating from what I saw.
The parade is on Thursday! I am no longer one to stand in a crowd for several hours, so I have no intention of going, but I think it's gonna be super cool.
In other news, I was doing one of my every-so-often checks to see if there was a publishing date for Alecto the Ninth yet and I ended up on the Locked Tomb subreddit, which is fine - there is some cool meta there - but I have tried to consciously repress that Muir was in Homestuck fandom, and posts there always remind me, and I do not wish to know anything more about Homestuck than I already do, which is almost nothing. And there is still no release date for AtN. Sigh.
*
I woke up this morning and texted to make sure they got home all right, and when they didn't respond, I checked in with my brother, who told me that the subways had been shut down (I had not read or heard the news), so they ended up going to one of my nephew's friend's apartment to sleep before getting home this morning. But they said they had a good time and it looked like people were mostly being cool while celebrating from what I saw.
The parade is on Thursday! I am no longer one to stand in a crowd for several hours, so I have no intention of going, but I think it's gonna be super cool.
In other news, I was doing one of my every-so-often checks to see if there was a publishing date for Alecto the Ninth yet and I ended up on the Locked Tomb subreddit, which is fine - there is some cool meta there - but I have tried to consciously repress that Muir was in Homestuck fandom, and posts there always remind me, and I do not wish to know anything more about Homestuck than I already do, which is almost nothing. And there is still no release date for AtN. Sigh.
*
(no subject)
Jun. 14th, 2026 04:09 pmolivermossTrash clean up is one thing, but brush clearing in a heatwave is a very stupid thing for me to sign up for. But...
Grab your gardening gloves & come join us for a day of brush removal in Section 114 of our cemetery! This is an area of our cemetery that was lost to time for many years until a map confirming it's existence was discovered in 2017
Yeah, so I spent my morning helping clear brush to prepare the area for ground penetrating radar to help map the area. One reason for the mapping, is that there are bodies that shouldn't be there. ( various trigger warnings )
And OH, OH! The people who work for the cemetery/mausoleum there, they haven't been to Portland Mausoleum because they are newer to the area and weren't around when it was more accessible, but also they are like... suspicious of people working for other mausoleums? They've taken badly to them even asking to take a look around. There is like drama between the non-profit and for-profit mausoleums? Man, if I hadn't gotten involved in this clean up stuff I might have missed all this.
So, I am sending one of the mausoleum employees a link to the Librarians episode filmed in Portland Mausoleum so she can see the inside. I could also send my own pics, but I mentioned to her about a TV show filmed in there and she was curious.
I am definitely going to be spending some time down there, learning more and also walking all of it. Not until the heat breaks, though.
Grab your gardening gloves & come join us for a day of brush removal in Section 114 of our cemetery! This is an area of our cemetery that was lost to time for many years until a map confirming it's existence was discovered in 2017
Yeah, so I spent my morning helping clear brush to prepare the area for ground penetrating radar to help map the area. One reason for the mapping, is that there are bodies that shouldn't be there. ( various trigger warnings )
And OH, OH! The people who work for the cemetery/mausoleum there, they haven't been to Portland Mausoleum because they are newer to the area and weren't around when it was more accessible, but also they are like... suspicious of people working for other mausoleums? They've taken badly to them even asking to take a look around. There is like drama between the non-profit and for-profit mausoleums? Man, if I hadn't gotten involved in this clean up stuff I might have missed all this.
So, I am sending one of the mausoleum employees a link to the Librarians episode filmed in Portland Mausoleum so she can see the inside. I could also send my own pics, but I mentioned to her about a TV show filmed in there and she was curious.
I am definitely going to be spending some time down there, learning more and also walking all of it. Not until the heat breaks, though.
June 14 - A protag you just don't click with
Jun. 14th, 2026 05:43 pmsenmutSo, I am hoping I am not in the minority here, wherein I have several fictional worlds I love, but the main protag is meh? Not the character I click the strongest with. If you have such, please share.
I could take the easy way and say "Miles Vorkosigan" but I don't need the essays on why I Am Wrong, LOL.
(seriously, please don't)
HP doesn't count because I never could with the books, and I have been told many times how wrong the movies are.
So I will give you my oldest, longest running 'no really I am here for everyone else' canon.
Luke Skywalker. Yes, I know it is a coming of age journey with him. Yes, he is SUPPOSED to be annoying in IV, whiny in V, and just starting to be worth watching in VI, but even as an adult... I watch it for everyone else. Do you know when I finally fell in love with Luke Skywalker?
Somewhere in Heir to the Empire. Thank you, Mr. Zahn, for realizing the Farmboy as an actual adult with goals and focus that wasn't just about his evil dad and Force ghosts. And now, perhaps, you all understand a little better why Luke was AGAIN my least favorite protag (even if he was secondary) in the Sequels.
I could take the easy way and say "Miles Vorkosigan" but I don't need the essays on why I Am Wrong, LOL.
(seriously, please don't)
HP doesn't count because I never could with the books, and I have been told many times how wrong the movies are.
So I will give you my oldest, longest running 'no really I am here for everyone else' canon.
Luke Skywalker. Yes, I know it is a coming of age journey with him. Yes, he is SUPPOSED to be annoying in IV, whiny in V, and just starting to be worth watching in VI, but even as an adult... I watch it for everyone else. Do you know when I finally fell in love with Luke Skywalker?
Somewhere in Heir to the Empire. Thank you, Mr. Zahn, for realizing the Farmboy as an actual adult with goals and focus that wasn't just about his evil dad and Force ghosts. And now, perhaps, you all understand a little better why Luke was AGAIN my least favorite protag (even if he was secondary) in the Sequels.
Fic: "Another One of Her Plans" continuation
Jun. 14th, 2026 05:26 pmsenmutAO3 LINK | Unfolding the Plan (3561 words) by Merfilly
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars: The Clone Wars [2008] - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex/Ahsoka Tano
Characters: CT-7567 | Rex, Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi
Additional Tags: Ensemble Cast, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Time Travel Fix-It
Summary:
After the stated rest period, in which the elder Ahsoka Tano was amused by the roil of emotions through camp, the Jedi met with the time-traveling Force User. Captain Rex the elder gathered Bly, his younger self, and Wolffe to go have their own meeting. He was relieved that Wolffe was the one backing Plo on this campaign; he'd never had a strong rapport with Jag, who had been out of a different city than Tipoca.
"The first point of order for you Jedi," Fulcrum began, "is that your officers are going to be protected from an eventual Sith plan by my Captain. You may feel a momentary pain in your temple if you are that well connected to themā¦ and certainly some emotional confusion."
To their credit, the Jedi all sharpened and even made aborted motions in the direction of where the officers had gone.
"Explain."
Of course it was Snips, sharp and still unfettered by the weight of the Rebellion on her shoulders, that had snapped out that single word, but Fulcrum thought each of the others was thinking it.
"Simply put, the Sith engineered the perfect army for us, made certain they would embed themselves in our psychesā¦ and placed a hidden path for them to be subverted fully. A device to render their wills non-existent, save to follow the orders given to them."
Fulcrum met each and every set of eyes, impressing on them the depth of her grief for losing the men she had seen as her clan to protect. "My Captain knows an individual solution that allows him to destroy its ability to function in a very small radius. We never had a chance, or resources, to find a mass fix.
"And just to make this easier because of names, his code is Leverage, as mine is Fulcrum."
"I do not see how that man would be able to effect an order that would make it past all of their flash-trained loyalty to the Republic," Plo offered, suspecting the answer, but needing it drawn into the open, even as he 'listened' for the others.
"That's because the Sith-spit on the Seppie side is merely the apprentice," Fulcrum said. "The Master has been ensconced in power within the Republic for decades, steadily gathering as many pieces of this dejarik game as he wished."
"You know who he is!" Anakin said, eyes shining with his need to end this war, to protect his men and those he cared for.
Fulcrum let her features reflect the sadness she felt for this moment. "I do, Anakin. But I think we need to come back to that once we have the men actually safe from the trap."
"It's the nightmare," Snips said slowly. "The device, it's why they have the nightmare? Which meansā¦ they were trained for it, but deep in their subconscious?"
"Yes."
The exasperated breath from Aayla, the flex of Plo's appendages, and even Anakin's glare in the direction of his padawan said all three knew of the disturbance in the mens' sleeping patterns, but only Snips had ever been able to get the truth of it from them.
"How many men survived? How manyā¦ Jedi?" Aayla asked, and Fulcrum shook her head.
"I had reason to believe Master Yoda survived. I eventually found another who was a padawan-commander when the order was given. There were rumors through the galaxy, and intel I compiled said some of the rumors had been grounded in fact butā¦ they were eventually killed.
"As to the men, there were a very few that were not affected for varying reasons. And before the Empire could fully take them from me, I and others did cut some of them out, restore them to themselves." She dropped her eyes, a long moment of silence in place for the ones she had failed before she continued. "I did not find the correct way to protect them from memory, and a few died free before I knew how best to handle them."
Plo's mask actually beeping at him for forgetting to draw a breath was right over the squeak of Anakin's leather glove as he clenched the mechanical hand tightly.
"So what are you advising us to do now?" Anakin asked, once he'd mastered the storm of emotions.
"We need an intact chip, we need it sliced, we need a mass fix," Fulcrum said. "After that, I can work with those most aware of the movement of power on Coruscant to lay a web of investigation to trap the Sith there. While those of you that are better leaders than political investigators hold the Separatists back."
"All due respect, but my former Master and I have the most Sith-hunting experience," Anakin said, balking at the implication he could not be part of the endgame.
"Then use that. Find Dooku. Keep him from following his master's plans," she said firmly. "If you can get me a location on Ventress, I can remove her from the war, possibly turn her toward ending Dooku as well."
"I hardly think we need to ally to an enemy like her," Plo said, speaking for himself and Anakin and Snips in that moment.
Fulcrum considered, then inclined her head. "So be it. I will not make an effort to help her be a better legacy to Knight Ky Narec, if that is your choice, given she was pushed into the Dark by losing her teacher on the world he was lost at."
Rex would probably have chastised her to hear her fight that dirty, called her on pulling a bit of revenge for the girl she had been, betrayed by the Council into the Trial for her life. She didn't care; she needed the Jedi to stop thinking so narrowly.
The blow landed as squarely as she had intended. "Iā¦ if word of her position can be found, it will be relayed," Plo agreed.
"You will not reveal the true Sith until the men are safe?" Anakin asked, to be sure, scowling at Ventress having been brought up.
"I cannot, not if I finally have the chance to make good on the promise your padawan and myself made before we even knew their names."
"To make it better, and take care of them, that it would be okay some day," Snips said softly, before she turned to her master. "You said you'd listen to her."
"Yeah, Snipsā¦ and I've been in this military setup long enough to understand OpSec. Okay then, we wait on that part."
Fulcrum felt the request of her partner before she just turned to the door of the tent, disengaging the lock by use of the Force. Her Captain led in the other three vod'e, all of whom looked sick and hopeful all at once.
"We need our medics taken care of, and it needs to be done somewhere not under our equipment," Wolffe pronounced. "Presuming she told you?"
"Elek, ad," Plo said firmly. "I likely have the best ability to arrange that first, as I do need to resupply at my home world."
"Our next resupply is through Naboo," Aayla said, full of quiet respect for that system having offered its facilities to handle such things.
"We just didā¦" Anakin said ruefully. "But I can give you a message for SabĆ©, their Minister of Information," he added for his friend. "Given I think we need to bring back a surgidroid for the medic just in case we need more chips to test.
"Still doesn't solve the 501st's issue, when you all know I have got to get a chip to work on for myself."
"Send Kix, Jesse maybeā¦ with my young self there to our homeworld," Fulcrum suggested. "I can stay with your unit and fill in to help steady Vasq and Coric."
"Elek!" Snips said, lighting up. "My mother has access and ability, and we can tell Kix it's so he can download a full Togruta medical text as well as get pointers!"
Fulcrum saw the flickers of emotion in Anakin, wondered at them, but she had to take things one at a time. She hadn't deliberately engineered it to get him away from the others, and yet the Force knew that was the best path.
"It sounds as if we have a plan," Bly said firmly. "We don't have a solid slicer in our unit, being more for assault and defense."
"Have Knight Swan's unit join yours once you have a chip," Plo said. "I will make certain her senior command is aware of the need."
"I would have thought you'd want her with you, but thank you, Master," Aayla said.
"I will have another Sentinel join me, discreetly, so that we are working this from several angles. The first one to actually slice itā¦ needs to reach for me mentally. I will be listening. As this cannot go on comms." Plo looked at each of them. "I will not fail the men in this."
"None of us will," Aayla averred, meeting her Commander's eyes.
"Then let us see if this campaign is really at an end and get moving," Wolffe said gruffly, already getting his helmet back on.
Fulcrum smiled, just a little, as each set of Jedi-and-vod moved to do just that, with Rex coming up behind her.
"How did it go? I kept them focused on me enough that my warning was enough to let them focus past the connections," she told her husband.
"Wolffe was enraged, but like we knew, he didn't have one anymore. Helped me steady Bly and my other self."
"Alright. Now, we let the Jedi figure the chip outā¦ and move forward once we have a path."
"What aboutā¦"
"Once younger me is dispatched on her mission, then you and I will tackle that part."
Before Fulcrum could even go look for Anakin, once Snips and Kix and Jesse were gone, the Jedi showed up at the cabin she and her Rex were sharing. Rex was not present, having gone to mingle among the men, answer questions that he could, and other ways of integrating into the 501st all over again.
"Wasn't expecting you," Fulcrum said with half a smile, moving to let him come in.
"Haven't been able to sleep well since the news about the chip," Anakin admitted. "Because my brain keeps circling around how it could be possible. How that order could ever work. Who could give it unilaterally."
The sweaty, nervous look he was letting Fulcrum see told him they had come early enough for Anakin to help save himself. With a quiet, wordless sense of apology to her mate for not letting him be part of this, she reached for both of his hands and drew him to sit on the bed beside her.
"You already know, and you keep rejecting it. Because it can't be possible, right? He's your friend, has been there when the Jedi failed you, and so on?"
Anakin flinched, but that in itself confirmed things.
"I'm rightā¦ but even saying it, even trusting youā¦ I want to hurt you for making me think it, and that? That's not me."
"No it's not," Fulcrum agreed, leaving out the one time they had come to blows once the Sith won. That was never going to happen. "You won't be able to go near Coruscant, once we work past the barriers he placed," she warned.
"We'll make that as short a time as we can, if you can help me be free," Anakin said, squeezing with his flesh hand on hers. "Kind of feel like a woman who broke time can manage whatever this isā¦ but the things you learn about me ā "
She freed the hand from his cybernetic one and covered his lips with a single finger. "You'll be seeing the things I did, and ordered, in the name of trying to fight the Sith. And even if I am your elder, I'm wise enough to know that both of us were too young to be in some of the situations we were placed in.
"We have too much power, too many temptations, and ā¦ we are just mortal beings who sometimes fail."
Anakin considered that, and she shifted her hand to lay it along his cheek, which he pushed into.
"I feel strange, trusting you, but you're here," and he tapped his forehead, above her hand, "like Snips, and that's not something I think can be faked."
"No. I don't think so either. I'm trying hard to curb my connections, which are hers, and I have far more reason to shut myself off from the Jedi she trusts, but never you. I was part of your endgame, though not in the way that piece of filth probably wanted me to be," Fulcrum admitted. "I don't want any of what happened to befall your current padawan, in addition to my dedication to preventing the Empire from ever being formed."
Anakin shuddered, nuzzled at her hand once, then drew himself back. "Okay, let's beat a Sith at one of his traps, so I can focus on the major one."
"Gladly, Skyguy."
She opened herself to the Force, felt him instinctively follow her, and they spiraled into one another to defeat the years of compulsions in his mind.
Rex slipped back in to find 'Soka cradling Anakin along her side. He slipped out of his gear quietly, noting when Anakin looked over, tensed, and then was soothed back into resting.
"Care if I take the far side, sir?" Rex asked, not liking how vulnerable his general felt, not when Fives and his younger self both were shards of broken glass in response to whatever had happened in here.
"I could go," Anakin mumbled.
"Or you could actually get some sleep, protected by two people who have only ever loved and respected you," Fulcrum said firmly.
"Sounds good," Anakin agreed at her tone, and Rex laid behind the taller man, arranging himself to be a comfortable leaning spot rather than obtrusive.
"When did the two of youā¦ you know."
Rex chuckled. "Seems that 'Soka knew all along we were meant, but it was Mandalore, the last campaign."
"Kind of like you knew she was for you," Fulcrum said softly. "But neither of us were mature enough until that campaign to even think about thingsā¦ and the galaxy going to hell was a good reason to decide it was time."
"I can see that." Anakin let his eyes close again. "Don't know how they're tackling things nowā¦ but Snips seems to be dead set on nothing having changed."
"Which means the me of this time will ignore it and never say a word, until things are settled," Rex agreed. "Best they can choose to do, in my opinion."
Fulcrum gave a small snort. "She's not going to stop chasing experience with the girls while she waits, but why should she? She's risking her life daily; only fair she can get a few perks."
"Never noticed people that way, but can't argue," Anakin agreed, before yawning, and all three of them quieted to get the rest they truly needed.
Bly had not brought up his feelings since the strange shared campaign, but that didn't mean he wasn't thinking on them. When Bultar Swan and Thrust showed up, Bly took it upon himself to follow Leverage's guidance and be the one to render his chip inert.
He had to dodge the aborted fist thrown his way for the 'attack', but then Thrust's mind caught up.
"How did a droid popper affect me in my headā¦ unless there's hardware in there?"
Bly chuckled. "Could've done with you thinking a little faster, vod, but elek. You and your general are here to figure the damned things out, because we don't have a solid slicer." He paused a moment. "Still trying to get her to notice?"
Thrust blinked at the shift in subject, then gave a half-hearted nod.
"Keep at it, Thrust. The way we found out about these chips is pretty holo-novel stuff, but seeing a Jedi claim her captain as her partner in everything, and him pretty much showing it at every step? Gave me a bit of hope. Wolffe and Rex both saw it too, and several of our units."
Thrust grinned. "Tell me everything, then take me to where I can get to work breaking these chips wide open!"
Bly matched that grin; if they could eliminate the nightmare as a possibility, then they were all going to work harder on making those solid connections with their Jedi, now that they had seen it could really happen.
It was a race to the wire, or so Fulcrum felt as word reached the 501st that the endgame had begun. She had felt something trying to occlude her ability to predict with the Force what next step was needed. The Sith had become aware of her, probably because she'd detoured to go help Asajj end the apprentice's life.
"Stop fretting and be still," her husband growled, working on changing the bandages from that fight.
"Kenobi asked Anakin to join him on a trip to Coruscant, and you want me to be still?"
Rex paused, meeting her eyes. "You protected him. Have faith in your own work like I do. You said yourself that Plo Koon and the Sentinel he worked with had already started the investigation, having figured it out the same as Anakin did."
"Which means they need their best fighters on deck, just in case," she said with a sigh. "I should be there."
"You're lucky you are conscious, and the pair of us of this time need some backup if the Seppies decide to push when chaos breaks out."
"Why are you always so logical?" she asked, but she smiled.
"You are too, when it's not your heart in the middle of it all." He started working on the next wound, and sighed. "The witch did good by you; this one could have cost you badly."
"Yeahā¦ I think I've got peace with her, as I had in our history. With less murder even."
Rex grunted at that; he could think of several battles the witch would have been at after this point, and she was out of the picture now.
"Nothing to do but wait, and heal, 'Soka."
"Hmm, and fix my armor."
They both laughed at that, looking at the mangled mess of it she had brought back.
Obi-Wan sat in one med-chair, watching the last refinements of the cybernetic hand be made, while Anakin tweaked his own in the other med-chair, having been less satisfied with the results from the original repair.
"At least you didn't get stabbed in the leg this time?" Anakin offered, eyes actually showing life and amusementā¦ much as the old training bond was lighter than Obi-Wan had expected.
"I would have gladly taken a leg wound if it had kept more of the men out of harm's way," Obi-Wan said, but he did give a small smile. "I really need to meet this Fulcrum, if she managed to settle you so well to this grave betrayal."
Anakin snorted. "I think the Council will be meeting her soon enough, Obi-Wan. She's got some advice for the Order as a whole. But you? I think it's her partner, Leverage, who will have the most words for you. Given, oh, the small matter of you and Cody sneaking around and pretending to just be a good command team."
Obi-Wan coughed, staring at his former padawan, even as he was so relieved they were in a med facility that was not the Temple!
"I don't think you get to say a word. And I do hope she is able to get free of duty soon enough for you to meet with her before heading back out."
Anakin got the softest smile on his face, now that he wasn't hiding his relationship from his brother/best friend/teacher. "Yeah, well a Senator and a Jedi have a lot of pull. But if you and Cody actually were to be open, it might help a lot of people. Given what seeing Fulcrum and Leverage did for Bly, from what I heard."
Obi-wan turned that over in his head, and his eyebrows rose. "AAYLA?!"
Anakin nodded, grinning a little. "Seems Bly hadn't wanted to make his choice clear enough, because they all thought we Jedi couldn't take that step at all."
That made Obi-Wan stroke his beard, and then he nodded, before the med droid closed the access panel to let him test his control of the new hand. "I don't think he or I really want to make a fuss, but I'll tell him a statement is needed."
"Good."
There was Maul to find, Death Watch to contain, Separatist leaders to negotiate withā¦ but Fulcrum thought things might just settle back from the edge of destruction for a while.
More, it was going to happen with a few better understandings in place, as Jedi and Vod'e explored the benefit of having someone to lean into, fully.
"Not bad, for an ex-Jedi and her captain, hmm?" she asked her husband, standing behind him with her arms around his shoulders, watching foot traffic around the Temple.
"Not bad for one of your plans at all," he said, before they headed down to throw their ideas around with the current Council on how to move forward.
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Star Wars: The Clone Wars [2008] - All Media Types, Star Wars: Rebels
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: CT-7567 | Rex/Ahsoka Tano
Characters: CT-7567 | Rex, Ahsoka Tano, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi
Additional Tags: Ensemble Cast, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Time Travel Fix-It
Summary:
Fulcrum and Leverage start helping usher in the changes needed to save everyone... and let his brothers find happiness with their Jedi.
Unfolding the Plan
After the stated rest period, in which the elder Ahsoka Tano was amused by the roil of emotions through camp, the Jedi met with the time-traveling Force User. Captain Rex the elder gathered Bly, his younger self, and Wolffe to go have their own meeting. He was relieved that Wolffe was the one backing Plo on this campaign; he'd never had a strong rapport with Jag, who had been out of a different city than Tipoca.
"The first point of order for you Jedi," Fulcrum began, "is that your officers are going to be protected from an eventual Sith plan by my Captain. You may feel a momentary pain in your temple if you are that well connected to themā¦ and certainly some emotional confusion."
To their credit, the Jedi all sharpened and even made aborted motions in the direction of where the officers had gone.
"Explain."
Of course it was Snips, sharp and still unfettered by the weight of the Rebellion on her shoulders, that had snapped out that single word, but Fulcrum thought each of the others was thinking it.
"Simply put, the Sith engineered the perfect army for us, made certain they would embed themselves in our psychesā¦ and placed a hidden path for them to be subverted fully. A device to render their wills non-existent, save to follow the orders given to them."
Fulcrum met each and every set of eyes, impressing on them the depth of her grief for losing the men she had seen as her clan to protect. "My Captain knows an individual solution that allows him to destroy its ability to function in a very small radius. We never had a chance, or resources, to find a mass fix.
"And just to make this easier because of names, his code is Leverage, as mine is Fulcrum."
"I do not see how that man would be able to effect an order that would make it past all of their flash-trained loyalty to the Republic," Plo offered, suspecting the answer, but needing it drawn into the open, even as he 'listened' for the others.
"That's because the Sith-spit on the Seppie side is merely the apprentice," Fulcrum said. "The Master has been ensconced in power within the Republic for decades, steadily gathering as many pieces of this dejarik game as he wished."
"You know who he is!" Anakin said, eyes shining with his need to end this war, to protect his men and those he cared for.
Fulcrum let her features reflect the sadness she felt for this moment. "I do, Anakin. But I think we need to come back to that once we have the men actually safe from the trap."
"It's the nightmare," Snips said slowly. "The device, it's why they have the nightmare? Which meansā¦ they were trained for it, but deep in their subconscious?"
"Yes."
The exasperated breath from Aayla, the flex of Plo's appendages, and even Anakin's glare in the direction of his padawan said all three knew of the disturbance in the mens' sleeping patterns, but only Snips had ever been able to get the truth of it from them.
"How many men survived? How manyā¦ Jedi?" Aayla asked, and Fulcrum shook her head.
"I had reason to believe Master Yoda survived. I eventually found another who was a padawan-commander when the order was given. There were rumors through the galaxy, and intel I compiled said some of the rumors had been grounded in fact butā¦ they were eventually killed.
"As to the men, there were a very few that were not affected for varying reasons. And before the Empire could fully take them from me, I and others did cut some of them out, restore them to themselves." She dropped her eyes, a long moment of silence in place for the ones she had failed before she continued. "I did not find the correct way to protect them from memory, and a few died free before I knew how best to handle them."
Plo's mask actually beeping at him for forgetting to draw a breath was right over the squeak of Anakin's leather glove as he clenched the mechanical hand tightly.
"So what are you advising us to do now?" Anakin asked, once he'd mastered the storm of emotions.
"We need an intact chip, we need it sliced, we need a mass fix," Fulcrum said. "After that, I can work with those most aware of the movement of power on Coruscant to lay a web of investigation to trap the Sith there. While those of you that are better leaders than political investigators hold the Separatists back."
"All due respect, but my former Master and I have the most Sith-hunting experience," Anakin said, balking at the implication he could not be part of the endgame.
"Then use that. Find Dooku. Keep him from following his master's plans," she said firmly. "If you can get me a location on Ventress, I can remove her from the war, possibly turn her toward ending Dooku as well."
"I hardly think we need to ally to an enemy like her," Plo said, speaking for himself and Anakin and Snips in that moment.
Fulcrum considered, then inclined her head. "So be it. I will not make an effort to help her be a better legacy to Knight Ky Narec, if that is your choice, given she was pushed into the Dark by losing her teacher on the world he was lost at."
Rex would probably have chastised her to hear her fight that dirty, called her on pulling a bit of revenge for the girl she had been, betrayed by the Council into the Trial for her life. She didn't care; she needed the Jedi to stop thinking so narrowly.
The blow landed as squarely as she had intended. "Iā¦ if word of her position can be found, it will be relayed," Plo agreed.
"You will not reveal the true Sith until the men are safe?" Anakin asked, to be sure, scowling at Ventress having been brought up.
"I cannot, not if I finally have the chance to make good on the promise your padawan and myself made before we even knew their names."
"To make it better, and take care of them, that it would be okay some day," Snips said softly, before she turned to her master. "You said you'd listen to her."
"Yeah, Snipsā¦ and I've been in this military setup long enough to understand OpSec. Okay then, we wait on that part."
Fulcrum felt the request of her partner before she just turned to the door of the tent, disengaging the lock by use of the Force. Her Captain led in the other three vod'e, all of whom looked sick and hopeful all at once.
"We need our medics taken care of, and it needs to be done somewhere not under our equipment," Wolffe pronounced. "Presuming she told you?"
"Elek, ad," Plo said firmly. "I likely have the best ability to arrange that first, as I do need to resupply at my home world."
"Our next resupply is through Naboo," Aayla said, full of quiet respect for that system having offered its facilities to handle such things.
"We just didā¦" Anakin said ruefully. "But I can give you a message for SabĆ©, their Minister of Information," he added for his friend. "Given I think we need to bring back a surgidroid for the medic just in case we need more chips to test.
"Still doesn't solve the 501st's issue, when you all know I have got to get a chip to work on for myself."
"Send Kix, Jesse maybeā¦ with my young self there to our homeworld," Fulcrum suggested. "I can stay with your unit and fill in to help steady Vasq and Coric."
"Elek!" Snips said, lighting up. "My mother has access and ability, and we can tell Kix it's so he can download a full Togruta medical text as well as get pointers!"
Fulcrum saw the flickers of emotion in Anakin, wondered at them, but she had to take things one at a time. She hadn't deliberately engineered it to get him away from the others, and yet the Force knew that was the best path.
"It sounds as if we have a plan," Bly said firmly. "We don't have a solid slicer in our unit, being more for assault and defense."
"Have Knight Swan's unit join yours once you have a chip," Plo said. "I will make certain her senior command is aware of the need."
"I would have thought you'd want her with you, but thank you, Master," Aayla said.
"I will have another Sentinel join me, discreetly, so that we are working this from several angles. The first one to actually slice itā¦ needs to reach for me mentally. I will be listening. As this cannot go on comms." Plo looked at each of them. "I will not fail the men in this."
"None of us will," Aayla averred, meeting her Commander's eyes.
"Then let us see if this campaign is really at an end and get moving," Wolffe said gruffly, already getting his helmet back on.
Fulcrum smiled, just a little, as each set of Jedi-and-vod moved to do just that, with Rex coming up behind her.
"How did it go? I kept them focused on me enough that my warning was enough to let them focus past the connections," she told her husband.
"Wolffe was enraged, but like we knew, he didn't have one anymore. Helped me steady Bly and my other self."
"Alright. Now, we let the Jedi figure the chip outā¦ and move forward once we have a path."
"What aboutā¦"
"Once younger me is dispatched on her mission, then you and I will tackle that part."
Before Fulcrum could even go look for Anakin, once Snips and Kix and Jesse were gone, the Jedi showed up at the cabin she and her Rex were sharing. Rex was not present, having gone to mingle among the men, answer questions that he could, and other ways of integrating into the 501st all over again.
"Wasn't expecting you," Fulcrum said with half a smile, moving to let him come in.
"Haven't been able to sleep well since the news about the chip," Anakin admitted. "Because my brain keeps circling around how it could be possible. How that order could ever work. Who could give it unilaterally."
The sweaty, nervous look he was letting Fulcrum see told him they had come early enough for Anakin to help save himself. With a quiet, wordless sense of apology to her mate for not letting him be part of this, she reached for both of his hands and drew him to sit on the bed beside her.
"You already know, and you keep rejecting it. Because it can't be possible, right? He's your friend, has been there when the Jedi failed you, and so on?"
Anakin flinched, but that in itself confirmed things.
"I'm rightā¦ but even saying it, even trusting youā¦ I want to hurt you for making me think it, and that? That's not me."
"No it's not," Fulcrum agreed, leaving out the one time they had come to blows once the Sith won. That was never going to happen. "You won't be able to go near Coruscant, once we work past the barriers he placed," she warned.
"We'll make that as short a time as we can, if you can help me be free," Anakin said, squeezing with his flesh hand on hers. "Kind of feel like a woman who broke time can manage whatever this isā¦ but the things you learn about me ā "
She freed the hand from his cybernetic one and covered his lips with a single finger. "You'll be seeing the things I did, and ordered, in the name of trying to fight the Sith. And even if I am your elder, I'm wise enough to know that both of us were too young to be in some of the situations we were placed in.
"We have too much power, too many temptations, and ā¦ we are just mortal beings who sometimes fail."
Anakin considered that, and she shifted her hand to lay it along his cheek, which he pushed into.
"I feel strange, trusting you, but you're here," and he tapped his forehead, above her hand, "like Snips, and that's not something I think can be faked."
"No. I don't think so either. I'm trying hard to curb my connections, which are hers, and I have far more reason to shut myself off from the Jedi she trusts, but never you. I was part of your endgame, though not in the way that piece of filth probably wanted me to be," Fulcrum admitted. "I don't want any of what happened to befall your current padawan, in addition to my dedication to preventing the Empire from ever being formed."
Anakin shuddered, nuzzled at her hand once, then drew himself back. "Okay, let's beat a Sith at one of his traps, so I can focus on the major one."
"Gladly, Skyguy."
She opened herself to the Force, felt him instinctively follow her, and they spiraled into one another to defeat the years of compulsions in his mind.
Rex slipped back in to find 'Soka cradling Anakin along her side. He slipped out of his gear quietly, noting when Anakin looked over, tensed, and then was soothed back into resting.
"Care if I take the far side, sir?" Rex asked, not liking how vulnerable his general felt, not when Fives and his younger self both were shards of broken glass in response to whatever had happened in here.
"I could go," Anakin mumbled.
"Or you could actually get some sleep, protected by two people who have only ever loved and respected you," Fulcrum said firmly.
"Sounds good," Anakin agreed at her tone, and Rex laid behind the taller man, arranging himself to be a comfortable leaning spot rather than obtrusive.
"When did the two of youā¦ you know."
Rex chuckled. "Seems that 'Soka knew all along we were meant, but it was Mandalore, the last campaign."
"Kind of like you knew she was for you," Fulcrum said softly. "But neither of us were mature enough until that campaign to even think about thingsā¦ and the galaxy going to hell was a good reason to decide it was time."
"I can see that." Anakin let his eyes close again. "Don't know how they're tackling things nowā¦ but Snips seems to be dead set on nothing having changed."
"Which means the me of this time will ignore it and never say a word, until things are settled," Rex agreed. "Best they can choose to do, in my opinion."
Fulcrum gave a small snort. "She's not going to stop chasing experience with the girls while she waits, but why should she? She's risking her life daily; only fair she can get a few perks."
"Never noticed people that way, but can't argue," Anakin agreed, before yawning, and all three of them quieted to get the rest they truly needed.
Bly had not brought up his feelings since the strange shared campaign, but that didn't mean he wasn't thinking on them. When Bultar Swan and Thrust showed up, Bly took it upon himself to follow Leverage's guidance and be the one to render his chip inert.
He had to dodge the aborted fist thrown his way for the 'attack', but then Thrust's mind caught up.
"How did a droid popper affect me in my headā¦ unless there's hardware in there?"
Bly chuckled. "Could've done with you thinking a little faster, vod, but elek. You and your general are here to figure the damned things out, because we don't have a solid slicer." He paused a moment. "Still trying to get her to notice?"
Thrust blinked at the shift in subject, then gave a half-hearted nod.
"Keep at it, Thrust. The way we found out about these chips is pretty holo-novel stuff, but seeing a Jedi claim her captain as her partner in everything, and him pretty much showing it at every step? Gave me a bit of hope. Wolffe and Rex both saw it too, and several of our units."
Thrust grinned. "Tell me everything, then take me to where I can get to work breaking these chips wide open!"
Bly matched that grin; if they could eliminate the nightmare as a possibility, then they were all going to work harder on making those solid connections with their Jedi, now that they had seen it could really happen.
It was a race to the wire, or so Fulcrum felt as word reached the 501st that the endgame had begun. She had felt something trying to occlude her ability to predict with the Force what next step was needed. The Sith had become aware of her, probably because she'd detoured to go help Asajj end the apprentice's life.
"Stop fretting and be still," her husband growled, working on changing the bandages from that fight.
"Kenobi asked Anakin to join him on a trip to Coruscant, and you want me to be still?"
Rex paused, meeting her eyes. "You protected him. Have faith in your own work like I do. You said yourself that Plo Koon and the Sentinel he worked with had already started the investigation, having figured it out the same as Anakin did."
"Which means they need their best fighters on deck, just in case," she said with a sigh. "I should be there."
"You're lucky you are conscious, and the pair of us of this time need some backup if the Seppies decide to push when chaos breaks out."
"Why are you always so logical?" she asked, but she smiled.
"You are too, when it's not your heart in the middle of it all." He started working on the next wound, and sighed. "The witch did good by you; this one could have cost you badly."
"Yeahā¦ I think I've got peace with her, as I had in our history. With less murder even."
Rex grunted at that; he could think of several battles the witch would have been at after this point, and she was out of the picture now.
"Nothing to do but wait, and heal, 'Soka."
"Hmm, and fix my armor."
They both laughed at that, looking at the mangled mess of it she had brought back.
Obi-Wan sat in one med-chair, watching the last refinements of the cybernetic hand be made, while Anakin tweaked his own in the other med-chair, having been less satisfied with the results from the original repair.
"At least you didn't get stabbed in the leg this time?" Anakin offered, eyes actually showing life and amusementā¦ much as the old training bond was lighter than Obi-Wan had expected.
"I would have gladly taken a leg wound if it had kept more of the men out of harm's way," Obi-Wan said, but he did give a small smile. "I really need to meet this Fulcrum, if she managed to settle you so well to this grave betrayal."
Anakin snorted. "I think the Council will be meeting her soon enough, Obi-Wan. She's got some advice for the Order as a whole. But you? I think it's her partner, Leverage, who will have the most words for you. Given, oh, the small matter of you and Cody sneaking around and pretending to just be a good command team."
Obi-Wan coughed, staring at his former padawan, even as he was so relieved they were in a med facility that was not the Temple!
"I don't think you get to say a word. And I do hope she is able to get free of duty soon enough for you to meet with her before heading back out."
Anakin got the softest smile on his face, now that he wasn't hiding his relationship from his brother/best friend/teacher. "Yeah, well a Senator and a Jedi have a lot of pull. But if you and Cody actually were to be open, it might help a lot of people. Given what seeing Fulcrum and Leverage did for Bly, from what I heard."
Obi-wan turned that over in his head, and his eyebrows rose. "AAYLA?!"
Anakin nodded, grinning a little. "Seems Bly hadn't wanted to make his choice clear enough, because they all thought we Jedi couldn't take that step at all."
That made Obi-Wan stroke his beard, and then he nodded, before the med droid closed the access panel to let him test his control of the new hand. "I don't think he or I really want to make a fuss, but I'll tell him a statement is needed."
"Good."
There was Maul to find, Death Watch to contain, Separatist leaders to negotiate withā¦ but Fulcrum thought things might just settle back from the edge of destruction for a while.
More, it was going to happen with a few better understandings in place, as Jedi and Vod'e explored the benefit of having someone to lean into, fully.
"Not bad, for an ex-Jedi and her captain, hmm?" she asked her husband, standing behind him with her arms around his shoulders, watching foot traffic around the Temple.
"Not bad for one of your plans at all," he said, before they headed down to throw their ideas around with the current Council on how to move forward.
Weekend reading
Jun. 14th, 2026 05:34 pmtroisoiseauxFinished the Damon Runyon collection Guys and Dolls and Other Writings! To be honest, I mostly skimmed through his Early/Other Fiction, which lacked a certain something (like... good writing...), but at least his much better Broadway Stories made up like 70% of the collection, and his 1920s-30s trial reportingā including coverage of Al Capone's 1931 trial for tax evasion and the 1933 Senate investigation of J.P. Morgan Jr., also for tax evasion, presented back-to-backā was also interesting; it, along with some of his Occasional Prose, offered a bit of insight into his Broadway Stories: the "Mindy's restaurant" that often appears in his stories is presumably a nod to the "Lindy's restaurant" mentioned in the context of the 1929 murder of gangster Arnold Rothstein... who, per a short Wikipedia rabbit hole, appears as "the Brain" in several of Runyon's short storiesā and has also been pointed to as his inspiration for Nathan Detroit?ā and also shows up in The Great Gatsby as Meyer Wolfsheim. The more you know! My one nit to pick with this collection was that it presented the stories without date/context, but it turns out all of this information was included in an "annotations" section at the end, so complaint retracted. ĀÆ\_(ć)_/ĀÆ
Media Roundup: Pre-Trip Reading
Jun. 14th, 2026 02:09 pmforestofgloryIām leaving for a short trip soon and I thought it would be nice if I could finish up some of the massive pile of library books I have sitting around before then, seeing as I donāt want to take them with me. I didn't read as much of the pile as I hoped but I did make some progress!
Many of these are nominees for this year's Eisner Awards, since I looked at those and put in holds for the ones that seemed interesting recently.
Vern, Custodian of the Universe by Tyrell WaitersāGraphic novel about Vern, who having lost his job moves home to Florida where it turns out his grandma has gotten him a job at a weird tech company. This was fun and zanny. Thereās multiverse travel and kinda trippy art to go with it. The story is a bit didactic but I really liked the message so that worked for me.
This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki and Nicole GouxāThis a murder mystery set at an all girls school in the 80s. (It took me an embarrassingly long time to notice it wasnāt contemporary) Our main character is a recent transfer student who doesnāt fit in. I really liked this, the characters were compelling, the mystery was interesting, and the ending felt just right
Globetrotters: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's World Tour by Julian Voloj and Julie RocheleauāThis graphic novel is inspired by real historical events ā that I knew basically nothing about before reading this! All I knew was that Nellie Bly was a pioneering woman journalist. The subtitle makes it sound like Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland were traveling together but actually they were racing to see who could get around the world the fastest! I was totally riveted!
Content note: period typical sexism and racism
Detective Beans: Adventures in Cat Town by Li ChenāThe second Detective Beans book, about Beans the adorable detective kitten. This one is a collection of shorter stories, my favorite was the last one with the bear and the moon!
Hello Sunshine by Keezy YoungāThis is hard to talk about. It's a graphic novel about a group of friends who are looking for one of their friends who is missing, possibly dead. (They are all teens) its kinda creepy, but also kind of heartwarming? Anyways I enjoyed it a lot!
Many of these are nominees for this year's Eisner Awards, since I looked at those and put in holds for the ones that seemed interesting recently.
Vern, Custodian of the Universe by Tyrell WaitersāGraphic novel about Vern, who having lost his job moves home to Florida where it turns out his grandma has gotten him a job at a weird tech company. This was fun and zanny. Thereās multiverse travel and kinda trippy art to go with it. The story is a bit didactic but I really liked the message so that worked for me.
This Place Kills Me by Mariko Tamaki and Nicole GouxāThis a murder mystery set at an all girls school in the 80s. (It took me an embarrassingly long time to notice it wasnāt contemporary) Our main character is a recent transfer student who doesnāt fit in. I really liked this, the characters were compelling, the mystery was interesting, and the ending felt just right
Content notes are spoilerish
Homophobia, underage sex, death of a teenGlobetrotters: Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland's World Tour by Julian Voloj and Julie RocheleauāThis graphic novel is inspired by real historical events ā that I knew basically nothing about before reading this! All I knew was that Nellie Bly was a pioneering woman journalist. The subtitle makes it sound like Nellie Bly and Elizabeth Bisland were traveling together but actually they were racing to see who could get around the world the fastest! I was totally riveted!
Content note: period typical sexism and racism
Detective Beans: Adventures in Cat Town by Li ChenāThe second Detective Beans book, about Beans the adorable detective kitten. This one is a collection of shorter stories, my favorite was the last one with the bear and the moon!
Hello Sunshine by Keezy YoungāThis is hard to talk about. It's a graphic novel about a group of friends who are looking for one of their friends who is missing, possibly dead. (They are all teens) its kinda creepy, but also kind of heartwarming? Anyways I enjoyed it a lot!
Global Swearword, Local Ideologies.
Jun. 14th, 2026 07:42 pm![[syndicated profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/feed.png){kind=small}
languagehat_feedHow could I not post Hsi-Yao Su’s “Global Swearword, local ideologies: The Re-semiotization and indexical field of Fuck in Taiwan” (Language & Communication, July 2026; open access)?
Abstract
This study examines how the English swearword fuck is taken up in Taiwanāa context where English functions as a foreign languageāby analyzing metapragmatic commentaries on a controversial moment in which a prominent actress uttered fuck during her acceptance speech at a major awards ceremony. While swearing in official settings, especially by a woman, is conventionally viewed as inappropriate, public reactions to this incident were mixed, with a majority supportive. Drawing on Christie’s (2013) discursive-pragmatic approach to swearing and on the linguistic-anthropological and sociolinguistic notions of indexical order (Silverstein, 2003), indexical field (Eckert, 2008), and language ideological assemblage (Kroskrity, 2010), the analysis identifies multiple, and at times conflicting, indexical associations in the metapragmatic discourse: fuck as inappropriate/vulgar, genuine/authentic, cosmopolitan/sophisticated, performative/professional, gendered, and class-oriented. These associations function as micro-instantiations of broader ideological regimes of moral order, gender propriety, cosmopolitanism, and affective performance. By linking micro-level evaluations to a heterogeneous yet traceable ideological assemblage, the study shows the analytic value of a language ideological perspective for socio-pragmatics research and demonstrates how global linguistic hierarchies are re-semiotized through local moral and affective dynamics.
The “controversial moment” is utterly charming:
When Ying-Hsuan Hsieh, an acclaimed actress in Taiwan, received the [Golden Bell] Best Actress award, she began her acceptance speech in Mandarin Chinese, Taiwan’s national language, as expected. However, because she had been nominated for two roles, she mistakenly thanked the wrong production team. Realizing her error mid-speech, she exclaimed āfuckā in English before restarting her acknowledgements in Mandarin. The incident was uncensored in the live broadcast, and Hsieh later apologized on Facebook to āall the parentsā for not being a good role model. Public responses to the incident were mixed but largely supportive, which is particularly intriguing given that both swearing in public (especially in a high-profile event) and by a woman are stereotypically considered inappropriate in Taiwan and cross-culturally.
I’m delighted by the largely supportive response, and this is the kind of scholarship I can get behind unreservedly.
der herr der ernte geht und sammelt garben uns ein, die starben
Jun. 14th, 2026 07:44 pmwychwoodWe trekked up to Manchester with choir yesterday, which is always an interesting experience. The BBC Phil is very different from our orchestra, and because they exist primarily to perform for radio broadcasts rather than making their income by selling concert tickets, the hall is often pretty empty - but not yesterday, which was about 90% full, I think.
The vast majority of our concerts are with our own orchestra, and the BBC Phil is the only other one we work with regularly enough to start to get to know them a bit by sight. Their lead cello has always been rather Byronic; he's now rather less so than formerly, partly because his hair is thinning and therefore less dramatically swoopy, but I did leave the building to find him outside smoking in a leather jacket, so he's clearly still fully committed to the bad boy lifestyle.
( orchestra demographics )
The audience was very enthusiastic! which is always nice. We got a bigger cheer than the orchestra or the soloists, which always seems a bit mean when the orchestra play for ninety minutes and we only sing for ten, but it's true that we get the best bits of the piece, so... And now back to work and next weekend is very nearly free, except for (nooooo) my reaudition for choir, the highlight of every two-year period.
The vast majority of our concerts are with our own orchestra, and the BBC Phil is the only other one we work with regularly enough to start to get to know them a bit by sight. Their lead cello has always been rather Byronic; he's now rather less so than formerly, partly because his hair is thinning and therefore less dramatically swoopy, but I did leave the building to find him outside smoking in a leather jacket, so he's clearly still fully committed to the bad boy lifestyle.
( orchestra demographics )
The audience was very enthusiastic! which is always nice. We got a bigger cheer than the orchestra or the soloists, which always seems a bit mean when the orchestra play for ninety minutes and we only sing for ten, but it's true that we get the best bits of the piece, so... And now back to work and next weekend is very nearly free, except for (nooooo) my reaudition for choir, the highlight of every two-year period.