"Ok guys, what have you got for me?" I ask as the group gathers round.
"His name is Robert Emerson," Nikolas says. "No one, not even Miss Merton, knows where he came from. He showed up two days after Ms. Lloyd was fired."
*******************************
"According to the records Jess and I borrowed from the principals office he's from LA. His cover letter said he's been a teacher for almost ten years but was looking for a school where he could make an individual difference with students. He figured that a tiny high school in Iowa was a great place to get that kind of experience." Jay chimed in as he flipped through the papers in the brown folder in his lap. Jess was nestled into his side pointed out things in the file as he spoke.
"He just happens to pick a school that's full of kids who spend their nights training to be in the FBI and CIA? He just happens to end up at a school that never, ever, hires from the outside, except that they're in a bind right now? He just happens to arrive days after a valued teacher is fired for leaking private school information? He just happens to teach world history, the same subject as the fired teacher? And he just happens to be from a huge city, making verifying his identity a complicated task?" I could tell that Aly could and would go on for hours, so I held up a hand.
"Those are all good questions Aly, but I think the most important question is why are we the only ones asking these questions? We all know that all the teachers are, or at least were, FBI or CIA, so why do they not seem concerned?" I asked to no one in particular.
The group gathered around me looked at each other and started thinking. Jess and Jay whispered quietly to each other. Aly started writing furiously in the notebook that was never far from her fingers. Nikolas opened up his computer and started typing. Frank glanced at me and nodded towards Miss Merton's office. I glanced over to see her sitting at her desk grading papers. I nod back. Without saying a word we get up and walk to her office. Miss Merton looks up as we enter the classroom. I close the door behind me and Frank steps in front of it, guarding without a word.
"What's up Melody?" Miss Merton indicated the chair in front of her desk and I sat down.
"We're concerned about Mr. Emerson. You know how this school works, and it worries us that no one is questioning his acceptance as a teacher here."
"Why would that concern you? Mr. Emerson seems perfectly qualified as a World History teacher, and I'm sure that the Principal wouldn't have allowed anyone to work here without approval." Miss Merton returned to grading her papers and seemed to consider the conversation finished, but I wasn't done.
"That's what I want to believe, but that's not the evidence right in front of me. Ms. Lloyd was a good teacher, and a loyal agent from what I've read. I can't imagine her selling secrets of any kind, but it seems like no one questioned that either."
"Ms. Lloyd had us all fooled I'm afraid. In fact, if something she sold hadn't been leaked to NBC we might never have found out at all. The trail to connect her to the information was buried quite deep. She wouldn't even admit to it in the end, she was so committed." I stared at Miss Merton, didn't she hear the words she was saying? Didn't she feel, in her gut, that something was off?
It became obvious that I wasn't going to get anywhere with her, so I nodded to Frank and we went back and joined the rest of the group at the courtyard table. As soon as we sat down everyone leaned close. I watched Nikolas scout around the courtyard to make sure no one was looking or listening before he began speaking. He laid his tablet in the middle of the table and typed on his laptop as he spoke.
"I really think that Romans had the best ideas about conquering nations..." Nikolas blathered on about Roman history, but although we responded from time to time, none of us were really listening. Instead we were glued to the tablet screen, reading the words that scrolled there as Nikolas typed. It turned out that there was no record, in LA or anywhere else, of a teacher named Robert Emerson. The credentials on his resume were good fakes, but they were still fake. There was a dummy teacher set up everywhere he claimed, but with some digging Nikolas was able to discover that not a single actual person could back up the computer files. It was obvious that Emerson was a fake.
More than that, though, it appeared that he might have been behind the firing of Ms. Lloyd. It turned out he was in possession of much of the information she supposedly stole, and a barely there computer code showed that he would have been able to take that from her and leave a false trail. It also showed that he recently transferred money to Ms. Lloyd's account. Nikolas reminded us that it didn't mean she was innocent, because they could just be working together. By passing around the keyboard we exhausted all the information each of us had recovered. Eventually we had enough. I took the tablet and lead the way to the principal's office.
"As you can see, Mr. Granger, despite what anyone has lead you to believe, Mr. Emerson is not what he claims to be." I said after laying out all the information in front of the principal. I expected him to look shocked, or horrified, or, at the very least, embarrassed, but instead he just smiled.
"Congratulations Alpha Team, you've completed your first test. The CIA would be happy to welcome you all as recruits."
Thursday, May 31, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
May 30th
Today is Meg's birthday! That's pretty much the only worthwhile thing I can discuss. I guess I could mention that I had another day of work, and I'm still in training at Guest Services, but really that all pales in comparison to Meg's birthday. It's her day, I should really talk about her.
When I got off work today, I snatched up Meg and we went to hang at Universal. We briefly considered running errands or doing something productive, but it was Meg's birthday, so in the end we forgot all responsibility and just had a ton of fun. We kicked it off by wandering around the parks. Step one; snag Meg a Happy Birthday button. Then it was off to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to ride Dragon Challenge (twice), race through the castle and ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, and of course drink our fill of Butterbeer. We managed to get next to each other in the single rider's line on Spiderman (I think the grouper saw Meg's birthday button and took pity on us). I was actually pleased with the way they revamped Spiderman. It's a little more CG movie than animated cartoon show, but I decided that I'm alright with that. Of course we had to ride Cat in the Hat, just to see Sara and Chris. Sara was at unload and even wished Meg a happy birthday over their comm system.
Once we'd had Sara fix we had to run over to Universal Studios and partake in our favorite rides. We used the power of Meg's birthday button to get three rides on Revenge of the Mummy. We screamed, spoke along with the dialogue, and then laughed hysterically during all of them. By then we were fully riding our Butterbeer sugar high, which meant it was time for some Men in Black action. We managed to sneak three rides on that as well, thanks to some very awesome attractions attendants. I beat Meg every time, even her birthday couldn't convince me to go easy on her. The tourists in the car with us were pretty impressed by our scores, the attendant who helped us ride again was less impressed.
Once we had our fill of theme park rides and theme park food we ventured out into City Walk. We made a decision to play mini golf. Meg and I are fantastic at mini golf, assuming that mini golf works like all other sports and the goal is to get the highest score. We're also assuming that knocking your ball into the bushes surrounding the track is much more important than hitting it into that tiny little hole on the green. Keeping all those rules in mind, Meg and I are the best at mini golf. We ended up playing the alien course and laughed ourselves silly taking pictures and climbing on things. We started counting the number of times we went off course (gotta get those bonus points you know). After stunning everyone at the course with our incredible mini golf skills, it was time to move on to Meg's house for the real festivities.
At Meg's we were met by balloons, Chris, Sara, a pile of cards and presents, and cheesecake. We giggled, laughed, and made funny faces while Jill took pictures. We chatted entirely too much, and by the time that Jill was able to wrangle us up and get us to the table for presents and cheesecake it was already quite late. Meg opened her presents, and quite enjoyed them. She got a card that has cats meowing the Happy Birthday Song, and it entertained us to no end. I probably opened the card to play the song fifteen times over the course of the evening, and it never got old. At least, it never got old for me, you'd have to ask the others about their personal opinions. Then we ate some cheesecake, which is not my favorite, but I tried to enjoy it for Meg's sake.
After her birthday celebration ended I came home and realized that despite the late hour I should probably go ahead and write these 750 words. Of course I still have fifty words to go and I've pretty much exhausted my discussion of Meg's birthday. I haven't done much else with my life lately. May ends in a few days, so I'll have to start making those June goals. Maybe on Monday I'll update you on how May goals went and what my June goals are.
Until tomorrow.
When I got off work today, I snatched up Meg and we went to hang at Universal. We briefly considered running errands or doing something productive, but it was Meg's birthday, so in the end we forgot all responsibility and just had a ton of fun. We kicked it off by wandering around the parks. Step one; snag Meg a Happy Birthday button. Then it was off to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter to ride Dragon Challenge (twice), race through the castle and ride Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey, and of course drink our fill of Butterbeer. We managed to get next to each other in the single rider's line on Spiderman (I think the grouper saw Meg's birthday button and took pity on us). I was actually pleased with the way they revamped Spiderman. It's a little more CG movie than animated cartoon show, but I decided that I'm alright with that. Of course we had to ride Cat in the Hat, just to see Sara and Chris. Sara was at unload and even wished Meg a happy birthday over their comm system.
Once we'd had Sara fix we had to run over to Universal Studios and partake in our favorite rides. We used the power of Meg's birthday button to get three rides on Revenge of the Mummy. We screamed, spoke along with the dialogue, and then laughed hysterically during all of them. By then we were fully riding our Butterbeer sugar high, which meant it was time for some Men in Black action. We managed to sneak three rides on that as well, thanks to some very awesome attractions attendants. I beat Meg every time, even her birthday couldn't convince me to go easy on her. The tourists in the car with us were pretty impressed by our scores, the attendant who helped us ride again was less impressed.
Once we had our fill of theme park rides and theme park food we ventured out into City Walk. We made a decision to play mini golf. Meg and I are fantastic at mini golf, assuming that mini golf works like all other sports and the goal is to get the highest score. We're also assuming that knocking your ball into the bushes surrounding the track is much more important than hitting it into that tiny little hole on the green. Keeping all those rules in mind, Meg and I are the best at mini golf. We ended up playing the alien course and laughed ourselves silly taking pictures and climbing on things. We started counting the number of times we went off course (gotta get those bonus points you know). After stunning everyone at the course with our incredible mini golf skills, it was time to move on to Meg's house for the real festivities.
At Meg's we were met by balloons, Chris, Sara, a pile of cards and presents, and cheesecake. We giggled, laughed, and made funny faces while Jill took pictures. We chatted entirely too much, and by the time that Jill was able to wrangle us up and get us to the table for presents and cheesecake it was already quite late. Meg opened her presents, and quite enjoyed them. She got a card that has cats meowing the Happy Birthday Song, and it entertained us to no end. I probably opened the card to play the song fifteen times over the course of the evening, and it never got old. At least, it never got old for me, you'd have to ask the others about their personal opinions. Then we ate some cheesecake, which is not my favorite, but I tried to enjoy it for Meg's sake.
After her birthday celebration ended I came home and realized that despite the late hour I should probably go ahead and write these 750 words. Of course I still have fifty words to go and I've pretty much exhausted my discussion of Meg's birthday. I haven't done much else with my life lately. May ends in a few days, so I'll have to start making those June goals. Maybe on Monday I'll update you on how May goals went and what my June goals are.
Until tomorrow.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
May 29th
Naturally the group decided to ignore my brilliant plan to defeat the bandits. In fact, I was lucky that I was even able to convince them to stay and fight at all. In the end I won out, but rather than a sneaky infiltration the group decided to go charge in, weapons drawn, and screw the consequences. Granted, it's not a strategy I have much objection to, as it had been my strategy for myself from the beginning, but I wasn't sure it was the best idea.
We charged in like mad men, and that seemed to startle the bandits enough that we were actually able to slice through a good number of them immediately. As soon as they recovered from their shock the bandit King immediately ran away. Figuring the others could handle the lieutenants, I chased after him, as did Dread Pirate Roberts. We managed to follow the Bandit King back into a corner of the cavern and had him up against the wall, but just as I was about to step in for a killing blow he reached into his pocket and suddenly disappeared, leaving his clothing, armor, and belongings behind in a pile. The idea that he teleported somewhere naked intrigues me, although I'm also suspicious that perhaps he simply changed into a rat or other small creature that I didn't notice.
When we returned to the rest of the group we found that they had managed to kill the other bandits and we'd gathered a nice pile of loot. Foxface, with his two bags of holding, offered to hold onto the items and money. I have little desire for riches, but I wonder if it was an act of stupidity on the side of those who care about money to agree with his offer. There were some nice magical items and I claimed some hide armor for myself. Two magical golden scimitars inlaid with gems were particularly intriguing and I can't wait to find out what they can do. I let Foxface keep them for now though.
We set up camp outside of the cave, and passed an uneventful night. In the morning we piled and burned the bandit bodies before heading out to continue our quest. Ariella informed us that Zog, an orc wizard who is an old friend of hers, lived in the next town. He would know the most about the artifact that we were seeking. The axe that I got from Kough speaks to me again, promising that I can rely on him to help me if I need it. I try not to let everyone else know that I have a talking weapon.
When we reach the town the gated are closed and white flags are flying. We bang on the gate and try to gain admittance. The guards say that they are closed up because there have been goblin attacks and they aren't allowing anyone in. We show the Mayor's Seal, and convince them to change their mind. After we get in Milk almost blows it all by saying some truly rude things, but they agree to let him stay when Ariella offers to keep watch on him. The guards apologize for keeping us outside, but say that the goblins have stopped so many of their supply runs that they barely have enough food for their own people. Remembering the stilts and crude weapons at the bandit camp I ask the guards if anyone has actually seen a goblin. They say no, the goblins usually attack at night.
I offer to deal with their "goblin" problem and Dread Pirate Roberts offers to help (for a price). The leader of the town agrees and offers us a cart and a farmer to drive it. We head back to the bandit camp to get the supplies while everyone else heads off to meet with Zog. We find the camp ransacked and the body of one of the lieutenants missing. It appears that whoever ransacked the camp (the Bandit King perhaps?), was looking for something. I follow his trail, but it goes in the opposite direction, back the way we originally came. Dread Pirate Roberts eventually convinces me to leave that and just take the supplies back to town. We return, get out reward, and then meet with the others who are waiting for us outside of Zog's tower.
It turns out that they had a rougher time that we did. When they went to Zog's tower they found blood leaking from under the door and the ground floor was filled with dead and dismembered goblin servants. Zog's voice boomed out "You've invaded my home", and he seemed quite upset. On the second floor they found his two apprentices brutally killed and displayed. Ariella realizes that something is really wrong and when they find a summoning circle on the third floor she puts two and two together and realizes that there's a succubus loose in the tower. That was the point that they all decided to leave the tower and wait for us to return.
We travel through the tower again. It's even more gruesome than they described it. It appears that the succubus not only ripped the goblins to shreds, but she might be feasting on them as well. One apprentice has his skull cut open and his brain scooped out and the other is disemboweled, hung from the ceiling, and arranged into strange shapes. When we finally reach the third floor Ariella, Rouge, and Dread Pirate Roberts band together to deactivate the summoning circle, meaning that if we can banish the succubus she can't come back. Then we head up to the fourth floor.
We charged in like mad men, and that seemed to startle the bandits enough that we were actually able to slice through a good number of them immediately. As soon as they recovered from their shock the bandit King immediately ran away. Figuring the others could handle the lieutenants, I chased after him, as did Dread Pirate Roberts. We managed to follow the Bandit King back into a corner of the cavern and had him up against the wall, but just as I was about to step in for a killing blow he reached into his pocket and suddenly disappeared, leaving his clothing, armor, and belongings behind in a pile. The idea that he teleported somewhere naked intrigues me, although I'm also suspicious that perhaps he simply changed into a rat or other small creature that I didn't notice.
When we returned to the rest of the group we found that they had managed to kill the other bandits and we'd gathered a nice pile of loot. Foxface, with his two bags of holding, offered to hold onto the items and money. I have little desire for riches, but I wonder if it was an act of stupidity on the side of those who care about money to agree with his offer. There were some nice magical items and I claimed some hide armor for myself. Two magical golden scimitars inlaid with gems were particularly intriguing and I can't wait to find out what they can do. I let Foxface keep them for now though.
We set up camp outside of the cave, and passed an uneventful night. In the morning we piled and burned the bandit bodies before heading out to continue our quest. Ariella informed us that Zog, an orc wizard who is an old friend of hers, lived in the next town. He would know the most about the artifact that we were seeking. The axe that I got from Kough speaks to me again, promising that I can rely on him to help me if I need it. I try not to let everyone else know that I have a talking weapon.
When we reach the town the gated are closed and white flags are flying. We bang on the gate and try to gain admittance. The guards say that they are closed up because there have been goblin attacks and they aren't allowing anyone in. We show the Mayor's Seal, and convince them to change their mind. After we get in Milk almost blows it all by saying some truly rude things, but they agree to let him stay when Ariella offers to keep watch on him. The guards apologize for keeping us outside, but say that the goblins have stopped so many of their supply runs that they barely have enough food for their own people. Remembering the stilts and crude weapons at the bandit camp I ask the guards if anyone has actually seen a goblin. They say no, the goblins usually attack at night.
I offer to deal with their "goblin" problem and Dread Pirate Roberts offers to help (for a price). The leader of the town agrees and offers us a cart and a farmer to drive it. We head back to the bandit camp to get the supplies while everyone else heads off to meet with Zog. We find the camp ransacked and the body of one of the lieutenants missing. It appears that whoever ransacked the camp (the Bandit King perhaps?), was looking for something. I follow his trail, but it goes in the opposite direction, back the way we originally came. Dread Pirate Roberts eventually convinces me to leave that and just take the supplies back to town. We return, get out reward, and then meet with the others who are waiting for us outside of Zog's tower.
It turns out that they had a rougher time that we did. When they went to Zog's tower they found blood leaking from under the door and the ground floor was filled with dead and dismembered goblin servants. Zog's voice boomed out "You've invaded my home", and he seemed quite upset. On the second floor they found his two apprentices brutally killed and displayed. Ariella realizes that something is really wrong and when they find a summoning circle on the third floor she puts two and two together and realizes that there's a succubus loose in the tower. That was the point that they all decided to leave the tower and wait for us to return.
We travel through the tower again. It's even more gruesome than they described it. It appears that the succubus not only ripped the goblins to shreds, but she might be feasting on them as well. One apprentice has his skull cut open and his brain scooped out and the other is disemboweled, hung from the ceiling, and arranged into strange shapes. When we finally reach the third floor Ariella, Rouge, and Dread Pirate Roberts band together to deactivate the summoning circle, meaning that if we can banish the succubus she can't come back. Then we head up to the fourth floor.
Monday, May 28, 2012
May 28th
It's time for Miscellaneous Mondays! That means you're stuck here reading whatever I feel like writing, and it could be ANYTHING. Well, technically I suppose you aren't stuck, you can click away any time you want. I just like to hope you find yourself drawn in by my intriguing prose and then you stay to read a riveting post on a subject I haven't even decided on yet. I know that this is a false hope, and that likely you have already clicked to a new page and never even made it to these words, which is a bummer because the post is about to get awesome...or I'm just lying to you.
Quite honestly I'm incredibly tired and I'm finding it hard to keep my eyes open. I just want to curl up and go to sleep, which wouldn't actually be a bad thing, but it is a little early for that. I'm afraid that if I fall asleep now I'll wake up before tomorrow and then I'll be tired at work tomorrow. Speaking of work, I had day four of training today, and it was just as awesome as the other three days. I feel like I'm really understanding the process and I can't wait to actually start working. Of course there are still six days of training before they push me out of the nest to fly (or fall) on my own. I'm hoping that I can fly.
Then I came home, unpacked my stuff from work, and sat down to get my daily YouTube watching out of the way. I'm completely caught up on all my subscriptions and that makes me incredibly happen. I love commenting on videos in a timely manner, making video responses, and getting inspired to make videos of my own. I've actually made four videos this month (two for my personal channel and two for my collab channel), and I have another video shot that is just gonna take some editing time. I'm hoping to get around to it before June starts. It's nice to feel like part of the YouTube community again. I have fun doing it, and I think I forgot that for awhile.
I'm also thinking seriously about food, but I know that if I eat I won't be as sleepy and I really should get some sleep. My nose is all stuffy and I've been sneezing almost constantly so I think rest would be recommended. Of course then there's the fact that my stomach is going to growl just a little, and that isn't good either. I might have to settle for a light snack to hold me over till the morning. Of course my snacky foods are all in the mostly unhealthy category, not that I'm trying to eat totally healthy, but it's always a bummer to only eat something unhealthy.
I still have almost three hundred words to write and my exhausted brain is having trouble coming up with ideas. I suppose I could write some flash fiction. I make no promises or apologies when it comes to the quality of the piece I'm about to write for you.
**************
"Grab it, quick!" Jilly reached out lightening fast and caught the teddy bear as it plummeted towards the bedroom floor. Jamie looked over the edge of the top bunk and sighed in relief.
"You have to be more careful, Jamie." Jilly said as she leaned out of her bunk and reached the bear up to Jamie's waiting hands. He hugged the bear securely to his chest.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." Jamie said. He lay down on his bed and hung his head over the edge to look as his sister. Jilly had a pile of books spread out in front of her and was taking notes on a sleek silver tablet. She patted the top of Jamie's head.
"I know you didn't mean to, buddy. But I might not be here next time, so you're gonna have to make sure to keep everything on your bed or in your drawers." She motioned to the dresser that was hooked to the wall by his bed, positioned to be easily reachable from when he lay now.
"Someday I want to play on the floor." Jamie said with a bit of a pout. Jilly looked at the laser grid on their bedroom floor, created to slice and dice anything that landed there. Then she looked back at the schematics and layouts on her tablet.
"Someday, Jamie, you will."
Quite honestly I'm incredibly tired and I'm finding it hard to keep my eyes open. I just want to curl up and go to sleep, which wouldn't actually be a bad thing, but it is a little early for that. I'm afraid that if I fall asleep now I'll wake up before tomorrow and then I'll be tired at work tomorrow. Speaking of work, I had day four of training today, and it was just as awesome as the other three days. I feel like I'm really understanding the process and I can't wait to actually start working. Of course there are still six days of training before they push me out of the nest to fly (or fall) on my own. I'm hoping that I can fly.
Then I came home, unpacked my stuff from work, and sat down to get my daily YouTube watching out of the way. I'm completely caught up on all my subscriptions and that makes me incredibly happen. I love commenting on videos in a timely manner, making video responses, and getting inspired to make videos of my own. I've actually made four videos this month (two for my personal channel and two for my collab channel), and I have another video shot that is just gonna take some editing time. I'm hoping to get around to it before June starts. It's nice to feel like part of the YouTube community again. I have fun doing it, and I think I forgot that for awhile.
I'm also thinking seriously about food, but I know that if I eat I won't be as sleepy and I really should get some sleep. My nose is all stuffy and I've been sneezing almost constantly so I think rest would be recommended. Of course then there's the fact that my stomach is going to growl just a little, and that isn't good either. I might have to settle for a light snack to hold me over till the morning. Of course my snacky foods are all in the mostly unhealthy category, not that I'm trying to eat totally healthy, but it's always a bummer to only eat something unhealthy.
I still have almost three hundred words to write and my exhausted brain is having trouble coming up with ideas. I suppose I could write some flash fiction. I make no promises or apologies when it comes to the quality of the piece I'm about to write for you.
**************
"Grab it, quick!" Jilly reached out lightening fast and caught the teddy bear as it plummeted towards the bedroom floor. Jamie looked over the edge of the top bunk and sighed in relief.
"You have to be more careful, Jamie." Jilly said as she leaned out of her bunk and reached the bear up to Jamie's waiting hands. He hugged the bear securely to his chest.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to." Jamie said. He lay down on his bed and hung his head over the edge to look as his sister. Jilly had a pile of books spread out in front of her and was taking notes on a sleek silver tablet. She patted the top of Jamie's head.
"I know you didn't mean to, buddy. But I might not be here next time, so you're gonna have to make sure to keep everything on your bed or in your drawers." She motioned to the dresser that was hooked to the wall by his bed, positioned to be easily reachable from when he lay now.
"Someday I want to play on the floor." Jamie said with a bit of a pout. Jilly looked at the laser grid on their bedroom floor, created to slice and dice anything that landed there. Then she looked back at the schematics and layouts on her tablet.
"Someday, Jamie, you will."
Sunday, May 27, 2012
May 27th
Today I decided to once again take a photo and write a story about the character. Here is the picture I chose.
It's been twenty years since I saw my home land. Twenty years since my family and the court gathered to celebrate my 5th birthday party. Twenty years since the raiders, lead by Ulrich the Liver Eater, burst into the throne room and slaughtered my father. Twenty years since I watched them drag my mother, screaming and crying, onto the feast table so the entire court could watch Ulrich prove how much of a man he was. Twenty years since they lined up the knights of my father's court and beheaded them one by one. Twenty years since the raiders took the sobbing ladies of the court and divided them up. Twenty years since my brother Avery, all of twelve at the time, shoved me out the passage behind the throne and told me to run to the stables. Twenty years since Jinto, the stable boy, shoved me and a bunch of other kids into a wagon and fled the town.
Everything else I know about that day I heard from Adele, one of the serving girls in my father's court. She was serving tables that day, and at thirteen she wasn't of much interest to the raiders. After Avery shoved me out of the room he apparently rallied the squires and pages in a last ditch effort to fight off the raiders. They managed to take down five raiders and Avery cut open Ulrich's face before he was slain. After that the raiders threw the bodies in the fire and forced the women to join them in finishing my birthday feast. Adele said that sometime during the feast my mother took a knife and slit her own throat, she would rather die than be with Ulrich.
Adele actually staying in the castle for a few months, helping some of the ladies smuggle other people to the Island that Jinto had taken me to. Eventually she was caught and only some quick work on the part of my mother's lady in waiting allowed her to escape with her life. I can't express to her how thankful I am that she saved so many, yet she is always wracked with guilt that she couldn't save more. She's actually why I'm doing this, so Adele doesn't have to feel guilty anymore.
Here on the island they call me The Winter Princess, after all my father was The Winter King, but I've never been sure what to think about the title. I was five when Ulrich and the raiders took over my father's kingdom, I've lived most of my life in exile, not as a Princess. Still, it's a title I bear with pride, pride for my father and mother, and for my brave older brother. And today I will prove that I'm deserving of that title. When we arrived on the island twenty years ago the oldest of us, Jinto, was only seventeen. Since that terrible day we've been training and studying.
Today is that the day that all changes. To celebrate my twenty-fifth birthday I'm going to take back Winter Kingdom. My army of orphaned children are ready for battle. This is what we've trained for. We've studied the raiders, we have spies in their kingdom, surviving ladies from my father's court. They've told us that Ulrich and his men have gotten lazy. It's been over ten years since they had to fight any of the neighboring kingdom. They are not ready for what we are bringing their way. Ulrich will pay for what he did to my family, for what he did to all our families. He sits on my father's throne believing his is king of everything, but he had no right to that crown.
The trip across the narrow sea was simple, and making our way to the castle was much easier than expected. It turned out that most of the peasants weren't too happy with the way they were being treated by Ulrich and his raiders. They were more than happy to help the orphaned warriors of the realm sneak up to the castle. I stood before the doors of the castle I'd been born in, surrounded by the bodies of the dozen or so guards that had already crossed our path. We were an unstoppable force, trained, focused, and filled with vengeance. I turned to regard the force behind me, they looked up at me with fierce determination, and almost as one they nodded.
I turned and shoved open the castle door.
It's been twenty years since I saw my home land. Twenty years since my family and the court gathered to celebrate my 5th birthday party. Twenty years since the raiders, lead by Ulrich the Liver Eater, burst into the throne room and slaughtered my father. Twenty years since I watched them drag my mother, screaming and crying, onto the feast table so the entire court could watch Ulrich prove how much of a man he was. Twenty years since they lined up the knights of my father's court and beheaded them one by one. Twenty years since the raiders took the sobbing ladies of the court and divided them up. Twenty years since my brother Avery, all of twelve at the time, shoved me out the passage behind the throne and told me to run to the stables. Twenty years since Jinto, the stable boy, shoved me and a bunch of other kids into a wagon and fled the town.
Everything else I know about that day I heard from Adele, one of the serving girls in my father's court. She was serving tables that day, and at thirteen she wasn't of much interest to the raiders. After Avery shoved me out of the room he apparently rallied the squires and pages in a last ditch effort to fight off the raiders. They managed to take down five raiders and Avery cut open Ulrich's face before he was slain. After that the raiders threw the bodies in the fire and forced the women to join them in finishing my birthday feast. Adele said that sometime during the feast my mother took a knife and slit her own throat, she would rather die than be with Ulrich.
Adele actually staying in the castle for a few months, helping some of the ladies smuggle other people to the Island that Jinto had taken me to. Eventually she was caught and only some quick work on the part of my mother's lady in waiting allowed her to escape with her life. I can't express to her how thankful I am that she saved so many, yet she is always wracked with guilt that she couldn't save more. She's actually why I'm doing this, so Adele doesn't have to feel guilty anymore.
Here on the island they call me The Winter Princess, after all my father was The Winter King, but I've never been sure what to think about the title. I was five when Ulrich and the raiders took over my father's kingdom, I've lived most of my life in exile, not as a Princess. Still, it's a title I bear with pride, pride for my father and mother, and for my brave older brother. And today I will prove that I'm deserving of that title. When we arrived on the island twenty years ago the oldest of us, Jinto, was only seventeen. Since that terrible day we've been training and studying.
Today is that the day that all changes. To celebrate my twenty-fifth birthday I'm going to take back Winter Kingdom. My army of orphaned children are ready for battle. This is what we've trained for. We've studied the raiders, we have spies in their kingdom, surviving ladies from my father's court. They've told us that Ulrich and his men have gotten lazy. It's been over ten years since they had to fight any of the neighboring kingdom. They are not ready for what we are bringing their way. Ulrich will pay for what he did to my family, for what he did to all our families. He sits on my father's throne believing his is king of everything, but he had no right to that crown.
The trip across the narrow sea was simple, and making our way to the castle was much easier than expected. It turned out that most of the peasants weren't too happy with the way they were being treated by Ulrich and his raiders. They were more than happy to help the orphaned warriors of the realm sneak up to the castle. I stood before the doors of the castle I'd been born in, surrounded by the bodies of the dozen or so guards that had already crossed our path. We were an unstoppable force, trained, focused, and filled with vengeance. I turned to regard the force behind me, they looked up at me with fierce determination, and almost as one they nodded.
I turned and shoved open the castle door.
Saturday, May 26, 2012
May 26th
Forget ranting, it's another week of raves. I'm not sure if it's because I'm so happy at my new Universal job, because I cleaned up my home and feel better, because I'm doing well on goals, or because the weather is warm and that makes me happy, but I'm just in WAY to good of a mood to waste time ranting about anything.
Of course part of the reason that I'm so happy is because I spent basically the entire day at Disney's Hollywood Studios celebrating Star Wars weekends 2012. I realize that today is about raving, but my entire experience was one big ball of complete awesomeness, so I'm just going to outline it for you.
I arrived at the entrance to that park around 6:30am, cause I like to torture myself, and because I wanted to get in line for autograph tickets to meet Ashley Eckstein. It bears mentioning that the park wasn't scheduled to open until 8am, but that didn't stop there from already being a rather large crowd outside the gates when I arrived. The ended up opening around 7:30, but despite waiting an hour I was never bored. There were plenty of people to talk to and the 501st along with Disney did an pretty incredible welcome before they opened the doors.
Once they let us in I ran around to ride the normal Hollywood Studios attractions, starting with Toy Story Midway Mania. That ride is notorious for having an epically long wait and the fastpasses usually run out by noon at the latest. I managed to ride three times in the early morning, which is pretty lucky. Then I rode the Rockin' Rollercoaster and the Tower of Terror. After that it was on to a couple of trips through Star Tours, and all that before 10:30am.
On my way between the rides I took some time to stop off and see some of the character meet & greet spots. I didn't wait in line for anyone, wasn't keen on getting my picture taken, and certainly didn't feel it was worth the wait. That said, I did repeatedly visit those stations all day to make sure I'd gotten video/pictures of all of the characters. I think I did a pretty decent job, but I'll have to go back to make sure. And, naturally, I made a stop at the Star Wars Weekend store (called the Darth Mall) to get the special event pin and a name tag that has my name on it in Aurebesh.
Aside from the meet & greet sessions I also had a chance to go see a couple of special shows. There was a special behind the scenes show about Clone Wars featuring three of the voice actors. I actually have barely watched Clone Wars, but despite that fact I found the show fascinating. It was really interesting to learn about how they film the cartoon and how the voice acting itself works. I've always been fascinated with the way that TV shows and movies are made, so this little trip behind the scenes was incredibly interesting to me. It also made me realize that I really do need to start watching the Clone Wars, so I'll be looking into that before I go to Celebration.
The other show I attended starred James Arnold Taylor (the voice of Obi-Wan in Clone Wars) and was basically a show about his journey and talents voice acting. He talked about how he started to get interested in voice acting watching cartoons when he was young and explained what it is about voices that makes them sound the way they do. He gave tips on becoming a voice actor and working on your own voices. The entire thing was very funny and inspiring. AND he did ALL the different voices in the show which added up to well over 100 different characters. He went through and entire web of celebrity/character impersonations, and I was completely in awe of what I heard come out of his mouth. All of them were SO spot on! I laughed incredibly hard during that show and jumped to my feet when the time for applause finally arrived. After all the voice actor in the tiny padded room with the microphone doesn't get a lot of chances at a standing ovation.
When I had some time to kill I saw the normal Hollywood Studios stunt car show, watched Muppet Vision 3D, tried out for the American Idol Experience (didn't make it) and played in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids set. I also went on a few of the rides again just for the heck of it. The last adventure of the evening was showing up for my autograph from Ashley Eckstein. She is the voice of Ahsoka Tano in the Clone Wars, but more importantly to me she runs Her Universe, which is a site that makes nerdy things for girls. I've always found her incredibly inspiring because she worked her way up and jumped on the opportunities that were presented to her. I was excited to meet her in person and when she turned out to be friendly and lovely I was even happier.
After that I was pretty much wiped out, and decided it was time to head home. I'd already done an incredible amount and felt very happy about the way I spent my day. Even more than the shows or character meets or the merch I bought, what made the day awesome was the people. I met and interacted with a TON of people today, whether I rode rides next to them or waited with them in line for shows or met them as I was running around Honey I Shrunk the kids. Everyone I met was lovely and I had a complete blast just smiling and enjoying life.
May the Force be with you, always.
Of course part of the reason that I'm so happy is because I spent basically the entire day at Disney's Hollywood Studios celebrating Star Wars weekends 2012. I realize that today is about raving, but my entire experience was one big ball of complete awesomeness, so I'm just going to outline it for you.
I arrived at the entrance to that park around 6:30am, cause I like to torture myself, and because I wanted to get in line for autograph tickets to meet Ashley Eckstein. It bears mentioning that the park wasn't scheduled to open until 8am, but that didn't stop there from already being a rather large crowd outside the gates when I arrived. The ended up opening around 7:30, but despite waiting an hour I was never bored. There were plenty of people to talk to and the 501st along with Disney did an pretty incredible welcome before they opened the doors.
Once they let us in I ran around to ride the normal Hollywood Studios attractions, starting with Toy Story Midway Mania. That ride is notorious for having an epically long wait and the fastpasses usually run out by noon at the latest. I managed to ride three times in the early morning, which is pretty lucky. Then I rode the Rockin' Rollercoaster and the Tower of Terror. After that it was on to a couple of trips through Star Tours, and all that before 10:30am.
On my way between the rides I took some time to stop off and see some of the character meet & greet spots. I didn't wait in line for anyone, wasn't keen on getting my picture taken, and certainly didn't feel it was worth the wait. That said, I did repeatedly visit those stations all day to make sure I'd gotten video/pictures of all of the characters. I think I did a pretty decent job, but I'll have to go back to make sure. And, naturally, I made a stop at the Star Wars Weekend store (called the Darth Mall) to get the special event pin and a name tag that has my name on it in Aurebesh.
Aside from the meet & greet sessions I also had a chance to go see a couple of special shows. There was a special behind the scenes show about Clone Wars featuring three of the voice actors. I actually have barely watched Clone Wars, but despite that fact I found the show fascinating. It was really interesting to learn about how they film the cartoon and how the voice acting itself works. I've always been fascinated with the way that TV shows and movies are made, so this little trip behind the scenes was incredibly interesting to me. It also made me realize that I really do need to start watching the Clone Wars, so I'll be looking into that before I go to Celebration.
The other show I attended starred James Arnold Taylor (the voice of Obi-Wan in Clone Wars) and was basically a show about his journey and talents voice acting. He talked about how he started to get interested in voice acting watching cartoons when he was young and explained what it is about voices that makes them sound the way they do. He gave tips on becoming a voice actor and working on your own voices. The entire thing was very funny and inspiring. AND he did ALL the different voices in the show which added up to well over 100 different characters. He went through and entire web of celebrity/character impersonations, and I was completely in awe of what I heard come out of his mouth. All of them were SO spot on! I laughed incredibly hard during that show and jumped to my feet when the time for applause finally arrived. After all the voice actor in the tiny padded room with the microphone doesn't get a lot of chances at a standing ovation.
When I had some time to kill I saw the normal Hollywood Studios stunt car show, watched Muppet Vision 3D, tried out for the American Idol Experience (didn't make it) and played in the Honey I Shrunk the Kids set. I also went on a few of the rides again just for the heck of it. The last adventure of the evening was showing up for my autograph from Ashley Eckstein. She is the voice of Ahsoka Tano in the Clone Wars, but more importantly to me she runs Her Universe, which is a site that makes nerdy things for girls. I've always found her incredibly inspiring because she worked her way up and jumped on the opportunities that were presented to her. I was excited to meet her in person and when she turned out to be friendly and lovely I was even happier.
After that I was pretty much wiped out, and decided it was time to head home. I'd already done an incredible amount and felt very happy about the way I spent my day. Even more than the shows or character meets or the merch I bought, what made the day awesome was the people. I met and interacted with a TON of people today, whether I rode rides next to them or waited with them in line for shows or met them as I was running around Honey I Shrunk the kids. Everyone I met was lovely and I had a complete blast just smiling and enjoying life.
May the Force be with you, always.
Friday, May 25, 2012
May 25th
Today finished day three of training, and I still love my new job just as much as I did two days ago. I can't wait to continue training and start my actual job. Of course today isn't supposed to me about my job, Friday is for reviews, so let's talk about something.
WARNING!!! This review might contain spoilers.
On Monday I watched the movie Thor. Obviously this movie has been out for awhile, but I hadn't seen it yet. I decided to watch it because my two weeks are ending on Avengers (meaning I can use my gift certificate to go to the movie for free), and everyone told me I needed to see the other videos first. I saw both Iron Mans and Captain America so the only hole in my repertoire was Thor, and now I've seen it as well.
The movie was actually better than I was expecting, a feeling I've experienced with all of the recent Marvel hero movies. I feel that they've really stepped up their game to show audiences that comics and cartoons are NOT the same thing. The action and scripts are always fantastic and I felt that Thor was the same.
Luckily for Thor, most audiences have at least a vague idea of Norse Mythology, so they weren't in need of a long voice over that explained the back story. They told the history as the told the story and it weaved together quite well. I've never read a single Thor comic, seen any show, and I know nothing about Marvel's version of Thor, and yet I didn't feel lost at all. That is the beauty of these Marvel movies, they explain everything so well that you don't feel like the loser who never read the comics. Of course there are probably plenty of Easter eggs for the avid comic fans, but I don't know what they are.
The movie's basic story line is that Odin (king of the Norse gods, who are actually aliens) is entering Odin sleep and needs one of his sons (Thor or Loki) to take over as king for the time he will be sleeping. Thor is the warrior, the fighter with the short temper. Loki is the magic user, the trickster, the cunning one who gets what he wants sneakily. Odin is best known for defeating the frost giants (another alien race), and they travel between the worlds via a bridge (which can also take them to Earth). At the moment that Thor is meant to be named the next king the frost giants attack! They are stopped, but it also stops the ceremony to name Thor.
Naturally, Thor gets angry and wants to chase down the frost giants and kill them for daring to come his home. Odin tries to convince him that starting a war over the actions of what could be a few rogue agents is not a kingly decision, but Thor refuses to listen and insolently insists that as king he wants to declare war. At that moment Odin reminds him that he's NOT king, and decides that he perhaps shouldn't be king. Thor is upset and childish enough that he takes his friends and Loki and goes to the frost giant planet anyway. They nearly get killed before Odin rescues them, at which point he strips Thor of his powers and sends him and his hammer to exile on Earth.
The rest of the movie is Thor meeting up with humans and learning the value of thinking before acting. He also learns the value of caring for others and realizes the price that a war can have. He also finds love because it wouldn't be a true super hero movie if he didn't find a normal girl to fall for. Meanwhile back on his home planet it's revealed that Loki is the one who let the frost giants in cause he wants to be king (shocker I know), so then there's his battle there and Thor's issues on Earth and then everything comes together and ends with Thor destroying the planet bridge so he can't return to his love on Earth. Of course it wouldn't be a Marvel movie without the end credit clip that hints at Avengers.
The acting in this movie was great, just the right mix of honest and exaggerated so that it seemed genuine. The writing was smart and witty (which is a requirement for me), and the plot, while predictable, didn't seem contrived. I highly enjoyed that the movie held a balance between action and drama, and the ending (before the end credit clip) left just enough questions that they can easily make a sequel. I'd give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. If you like superheros, rent Thor.
WARNING!!! This review might contain spoilers.
On Monday I watched the movie Thor. Obviously this movie has been out for awhile, but I hadn't seen it yet. I decided to watch it because my two weeks are ending on Avengers (meaning I can use my gift certificate to go to the movie for free), and everyone told me I needed to see the other videos first. I saw both Iron Mans and Captain America so the only hole in my repertoire was Thor, and now I've seen it as well.
The movie was actually better than I was expecting, a feeling I've experienced with all of the recent Marvel hero movies. I feel that they've really stepped up their game to show audiences that comics and cartoons are NOT the same thing. The action and scripts are always fantastic and I felt that Thor was the same.
Luckily for Thor, most audiences have at least a vague idea of Norse Mythology, so they weren't in need of a long voice over that explained the back story. They told the history as the told the story and it weaved together quite well. I've never read a single Thor comic, seen any show, and I know nothing about Marvel's version of Thor, and yet I didn't feel lost at all. That is the beauty of these Marvel movies, they explain everything so well that you don't feel like the loser who never read the comics. Of course there are probably plenty of Easter eggs for the avid comic fans, but I don't know what they are.
The movie's basic story line is that Odin (king of the Norse gods, who are actually aliens) is entering Odin sleep and needs one of his sons (Thor or Loki) to take over as king for the time he will be sleeping. Thor is the warrior, the fighter with the short temper. Loki is the magic user, the trickster, the cunning one who gets what he wants sneakily. Odin is best known for defeating the frost giants (another alien race), and they travel between the worlds via a bridge (which can also take them to Earth). At the moment that Thor is meant to be named the next king the frost giants attack! They are stopped, but it also stops the ceremony to name Thor.
Naturally, Thor gets angry and wants to chase down the frost giants and kill them for daring to come his home. Odin tries to convince him that starting a war over the actions of what could be a few rogue agents is not a kingly decision, but Thor refuses to listen and insolently insists that as king he wants to declare war. At that moment Odin reminds him that he's NOT king, and decides that he perhaps shouldn't be king. Thor is upset and childish enough that he takes his friends and Loki and goes to the frost giant planet anyway. They nearly get killed before Odin rescues them, at which point he strips Thor of his powers and sends him and his hammer to exile on Earth.
The rest of the movie is Thor meeting up with humans and learning the value of thinking before acting. He also learns the value of caring for others and realizes the price that a war can have. He also finds love because it wouldn't be a true super hero movie if he didn't find a normal girl to fall for. Meanwhile back on his home planet it's revealed that Loki is the one who let the frost giants in cause he wants to be king (shocker I know), so then there's his battle there and Thor's issues on Earth and then everything comes together and ends with Thor destroying the planet bridge so he can't return to his love on Earth. Of course it wouldn't be a Marvel movie without the end credit clip that hints at Avengers.
The acting in this movie was great, just the right mix of honest and exaggerated so that it seemed genuine. The writing was smart and witty (which is a requirement for me), and the plot, while predictable, didn't seem contrived. I highly enjoyed that the movie held a balance between action and drama, and the ending (before the end credit clip) left just enough questions that they can easily make a sequel. I'd give it 3.5 out of 5 stars. If you like superheros, rent Thor.
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