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historia-vitae-magistras · 11 months

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The Danegeld Axe

Part Four: Assets

First Installment: Here. Last Installment: Here. Current Installment: You are here! Next Installment: Here.

Author's note: Inspired by the 1950s short story "The Man Who Came Early" by Poul Anderson. This installment of the Viking-time-travel au sees government employees being stupid, Matthew Williams being less stupid and Arthur Kirkland finally snapping.

21st Century Washington DC Diplomatic Security Service

"Does the name Kirkland mean anything to you?"

"Costco brand home goods?" He grinned and slid a cup of shitty coffee to his executive branch counterpart. “Yeah, some aquaintance of my primary asset.”

“He’s your asset’s father, as far as anyone can tell.”

“Is that how they’re related? Huh. Good to know. The name has come up here and there.”

“Didn’t they tell you?”

“They don’t tell me shit. Everyone knows this is a cushy post. Keep the genius on board and try to keep his tinkering budget below world-ending for a couple of years. Do that, get one of the prestige posts overseas. Boom, career made. Jones hasn’t done anything but cooperate since I got here. What else did I need to know?”

“Yeah, well, he’s a well-connected genius. The father is old world money. And I mean old. The kind of money that's been bulking up interest since the crusades.”

"Jesus. Why do you ask?"

"He got wind you were looking for his other kid before he went missing."

“Matthew Williams was old European money? You’re not serious. He did grass with homeless guys in Stanley Park and drove a 78 Chevy. Everyone knows Alfred has got the brains and business sense.”

"As best anyone can tell, Alfred was probably conceived in Kirkland's navy days.”

Corcoran snorted. “Half of Boston is a Fleet Week baby.”

“Not an English fleet week, baby. No one knows. Williams was probably from Halifax or Arctic Command, maybe. No one knows their mother, if she's even the same one. They don’t live like old money, but the Kirklands spend way too much time around Downing Street to be nobodies, though.“

"There are more than one?”

“Three brothers at least. Unconfirmed but suspected sister somewhere in the mix.”

"So?"

"So tread carefully is all I'm saying. You’ve just lost his other kid on the ISS. And he’s bound to find out eventually.”

“I did what?”

British Embassy Washington D.C.

“What did you find?” Arthur sprang to his feet as soon as Matthew passed through the door. He hadn’t even gotten the fucking key out of the door before his father sprung on him.

“Nothing. Not a fucking thing. His place is in its usual state when he’s up there.” Complete chaos. Matt pressed his fingers into his temple, and the executive office and the state department were completely normal. Everything is normal. Nothing looks wrong. No one said anything. Nothing on the computers, nothing in the records.”

"Is your access still that high?”

“Of course not,” Matt snorted. “As far as the US government knows, I’ve been dead for about a year. I just use Alfred’s third set of back-ups.”

“How on earth—”

“Last time I took a northwoods sabbatical.”

“You mean the last time you had a mental breakdown and spent three months in the woods eating possum liver?"

“I prefer racoons thank you, and…” Matthew rubbed the back of his neck, preparing for the backlash. “Well, that was the second to last time.”

“What?” His father’s face was instantly furious and even more worrying, his father was concerned. “Matthew!”

He wasn’t having it. Not today. “I’m fine. I’m not the one missing from this mortal fucking plane. Point is, as far as the US government is concerned, I don’t exist.”

His father’s brain was working, his worry between Matthew standing before him and his firstborn clearly in conflict. Not on his face, never on his face, but Matthew knew what the slight flex of one hand meant. Alfred won. He always won. “And there’s no chance of them noticing? All that you’ve been doing?”

“What do you think?” Matthew snapped as he collapsed in a chair, and as fast as his temper had flared, it was gone. He pinched the bridge of his nose and exhaled, feeling sick where there’d been a fire a moment ago. “Sorry.”

Arthur approached gently. “You didn’t sense anything?”

“Nothing.” He pressed his palms into his eyes. “Not a fucking thing. I woke up two nights ago feeling like this and it hasn’t changed.” The sick, cold feeling was back. It was like missing organs, or his skin, or half of himself. Maybe more than half of himself.

“You should sleep. You haven’t since I arrived.”

“I can’t sleep! I need answers.”

“We can’t get answers if you collapse on me. And we will get answers.” Matt hadn’t cried so far, but Arthur pushed his hair off his face and tapped him under the jaw in that affectionate ‘chin up, lad’ sort of way, and he couldn’t stop himself. His eyes itched, but he would not cry. Instead, he buried his face in his father’s shoulder, pressing his forehead hard enough to hurt. It was pathetic. He was grown. But he couldn't bring himself to care. Alfred was lost, and his entire body felt so wrong, with only his frosted fields and forests and none of the blast of noise and life that was his brother.

“You know what? Fuck this. I brought your good knife. Let's get answers.”

#the ask box || probis pateo #my writing || cacoethes scribendi #arthur || stone set in the silver sea #matthew || my country is winter #the dangeld axe to grind: the viking age time travel au

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rubyvroom · 2 years

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What Do Cops Do?

I spent a few minutes trying to figure out how to excerpt from this essay on Alex Pareene’s substack, but in the end I think I have to just post the whole goddamn thing:

Lots of very smart (and even more not-so-smart) people have tried, over the years, to answer the question of what cops are for—whether they exist to keep us safe, to fight crime, to protect property, to enforce racial hierarchies, etc. I pose a simpler question: What do cops do?

Having spent many years observing cop behavior, reading news about cops, and occasionally even asking them for help, I have come to a pretty simple but comprehensive answer: They do what is easy, and avoid what is difficult. Seen through that rubric, much cop behavior suddenly becomes much more explicable.

Of all the improbable things about accused subway shooter Frank James’s last hours of freedom, the weirdest is how easy it is to imagine James still on the run, today, if he’d decided to do almost anything differently. Learning that he phoned in a tip on himself from a McDonald’s, and then that he eventually got tired of waiting there and left, was a sort of sublime punchline to the entire comic manhunt, in which New York City’s enormous and well-funded police department failed at basically every moment to stop or capture a dangerous criminal who literally told them where he was. Then, a few weeks later, another guy shot and killed a person on the Q. The shooter did so at what I’d consider, strategically, the worst time and place to kill someone on the Q: while it crossed the Manhattan Bridge, giving everyone on board both the time and ability to phone the police and have them ready to apprehend him the moment the train arrived in Manhattan. But when the train pulled into Manhattan, rest assured, the police were (according to one unconfirmed eyewitness) on the wrong platform. That shooter might still be on the lam, too, if he hadn’t turned himself in, an act the city authorities and a fame-seeking pastor with connections to the mayor apparently almost sabotaged.

In between those two shootings, and also before and after them, the NYPD busied itself with clearing homeless encampments. In the denouement to the subway shooting fiasco, the police arrested the panhandler into whose cup the second shooter deposited his gun, for illegal firearms possession. This is my thesis in action: It is difficult to prevent a random shooting. It is difficult to find a gunman. It is difficult to arrest an armed man. It is very easy to arrest an unhoused person.

Alexander Sammon just wrote a piece for the Prospect asking why the police are so bad at their jobs, based on their dismal “clearance” (arrests) rates and even more dismal conviction rates. The semi-glib leftist response is that they aren’t. They’re doing exactly what we pay them for. But even judged by their own cruel standards the police are extraordinarily lazy and incompetent. A study summarized by sociologist Brendan Beck in Slate earlier this year made a convincing case that more officers were associated mainly with more misdemeanor arrests. That is, the unimportant shit. It is nice to imagine that additional police spending will go to an army of Columbos solving the trickiest crimes. We are currently doing this experiment, with the real police, in real life, and it is proving that they are spending the money on throwing the belongings of homeless people into dumpsters.

It is easier to arrest a child for stealing chips than it is to apprehend an armed adult shooter. It is easier for several dozen police officers to arrest two unarmed people than it is for a cop to stop any single armed person. It is easier for hundreds of cops to kettle a largely unarmed left-wing protest than it is for an entire department to stop any armed right-wingers from entering a government building. It’s easier to clear homeless encampments than it is to investigate sexual assault. It’s easier to coerce confessions than it is to solve crimes. It’s easier to try to pull a guy over than it is to offer any sort of help when he crashes his car. It’s easier to arrest a mango vendor in the subway than to stop someone from bringing a gun into the subway. It’s easier to arrest a fifth grader than it is to save one’s life.

It is far easier to do “crowd control”—to restrain a panicking parent, perhaps—than it is to enter a room currently occupied by a psycho with a semiautomatic rifle.

#ACAB

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jcmarchi · 5 months

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Russians Reportedly Have Issues Because of Their Own Landmines - Technology Org

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/russians-reportedly-have-issues-because-of-their-own-landmines-technology-org/

Russians Reportedly Have Issues Because of Their Own Landmines - Technology Org

Landmines are designed to slow down the advance of the opposing forces. They do inflict damage, of course, but their main objective is to make the enemy doubt their every movement.

In just over a year of war, Ukraine has become the most mine-littered country in the world. In fact, there are so many landmines all over the place that the Ukrainian counterattack has stopped and the Russians themselves find it difficult to maneuver.

A sign in Ukraine warning locals that the area might be contaminated with landmines. Image credit: U.S. Department of State via Wikimedia

Minefields are constructions of military engineering. There are many principles that need to be followed to construct an effective minefield. One of the most important ones is mapping.

Normally, every mine will be marked on a map. Also, safe passages will be mapped and sometimes even marked out. This is important to avoid inflicting damage in friendly fire incidents. Mapping minefields requires a lot of care and responsibility, but it is an unbelievably important job.

Roman Svitan, a Ukrainian military expert, pilot-instructor and reserve colonel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, said that the Russian forces in Ukraine do not receive maps of their own minefields. They simply don’t exist. And this, of course, poses a great danger to the Russians – they often run over their own landmines. The same exact landmines that were placed to slow down the Ukrainian advance, which they actually do successfully.

“No one provides them with any maps of their own minefields. They simply don’t exist,” said the military expert.

According to Svitan, it is normally possible to pass through a minefield only on the designated passages, but you need to know where they are. Sometimes a minefield is created by one unit and then positions are manned by completely different soldiers, which makes the situation very precarious, because there are no maps.

Russians are putting landmines everywhere out of fear, said Svitan. Mines on top of mines, and more mines next to them. When units are rotated or reinforcements arrive, these minefields become dangerous for the Russians themselves, who have no maps or plans.

According to Svitan, the lack of minefield plans can also be used to reinforce the belief of Russian soldiers that they do not have an option to retreat. “They are brought to a place, left, and told: “You can’t go anywhere, because everywhere around there are mines. There are no minefield maps. Sit in your positions,” the military expert added.

Of course, it needs to be said that this information is unconfirmed. However, Russian forces have demonstrated time and again that they do not have the appropriate training or the attention to detail. Also, there have been many confirmed incidents when Russian soldiers died on their own landmines.

Written by Povilas M.

Source: Tsn.ua

You can offer your link to a page which is relevant to the topic of this post.

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spacetimewithstuartgary · 6 months

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Starquakes could explain mystery signals

Fast radio bursts, or FRBs, are an astronomical mystery, with their exact cause and origins still unconfirmed. These intense bursts of radio energy are invisible to the human eye, but show up brightly on radio telescopes. Previous studies have noted broad similarities between the energy distribution of repeat FRBs, and that of earthquakes and solar flares. However, new research at the University of Tokyo has looked at the time and energy of FRBs and found distinct differences between FRBs and solar flares, but several notable similarities between FRBs and earthquakes. This supports the theory that FRBs are caused by “starquakes” on the surface of neutron stars. This discovery could help us better understand earthquakes, the behavior of high-density matter and aspects of nuclear physics.

The vastness of space holds many mysteries. While some people dream of boldly going where no one has gone before, there is a lot we can learn from the comfort of Earth. Thanks to technological advances, we can explore the surface of Mars, marvel at Saturn’s rings and pick up mysterious signals from deep space. Fast radio bursts are hugely powerful, bright bursts of energy which are visible on radio waves. First discovered in 2007, these bursts can travel billions of light years but typically last mere thousandths of a second. It has been estimated that as many as 10,000 FRBs may happen every day if we could observe the whole sky. While the sources of most bursts detected so far appear to emit a one-off event, there are about 50 FRB sources which emit bursts repeatedly.

The cause of FRBs is unknown, but some ideas have been put forward, including that they might even be alien in origin. However, the current prevailing theory is that at least some FRBs are emitted by neutron stars. These stars form when a supergiant star collapses, going from eight times the mass of our sun (on average) to a superdense core only 20-40 kilometers across. Magnetars are neutron stars with extremely strong magnetic fields, and these have been observed to emit FRBs.

“It was theoretically considered that the surface of a magnetar could be experiencing a starquake, an energy release similar to earthquakes on Earth,” said Professor Tomonori Totani from the Department of Astronomy at the Graduate School of Science. “Recent observational advances have led to the detection of thousands more FRBs, so we took the opportunity to compare the now large statistical data sets available for FRBs with data from earthquakes and solar flares, to explore possible similarities.”

So far, statistical analysis of FRBs has focused on the distribution of wait times between two successive bursts. However, Totani and co-author Yuya Tsuzuki, a graduate student in the same department, point out that calculating only the wait-time distribution does not take into account correlations that might exist across other bursts. So the team decided to calculate correlation across two-dimensional space, analyzing the time and emission energy of nearly 7,000 bursts from three different repeater FRB sources. They then applied the same method to examine the time-energy correlation of earthquakes (using data from Japan) and of solar flares (using records from the Hinode international mission to study the sun), and compared the results of all three phenomena.

Totani and Tsuzuki were surprised that, in contrast to other studies, their analysis showed a striking similarity between FRBs and earthquake data, but a distinct difference between FRBs and solar flares. Totani explained: “The results show notable similarities between FRBs and earthquakes in the following ways: First, the probability of an aftershock occurring for a single event is 10-50%; second, the aftershock occurrence rate decreases with time, as a power of time; third, the aftershock rate is always constant even if the FRB-earthquake activity (mean rate) changes significantly; and fourth, there is no correlation between the energies of the main shock and its aftershock.”

This strongly suggests the existence of a solid crust on the surface of neutron stars, and that starquakes suddenly occurring on these crusts releases huge amounts of energy which we see as FRBs. The team intends to continue analyzing new data on FRBs, to verify that the similarities they have found are universal. “By studying starquakes on distant ultradense stars, which are completely different environments from Earth, we may gain new insights into earthquakes,” said Totani. “The interior of a neutron star is the densest place in the universe, comparable to that of the interior of an atomic nucleus. Starquakes in neutron stars have opened up the possibility of gaining new insights into very high-density matter and the fundamental laws of nuclear physics.”

TOP IMAGE....Data on earthquakes was taken from Japan’s Kanto region (including Tokyo and Narita) and Izumo in the Chugoku region (north of Hiroshima). Black dots represent the epicenters of earthquakes recorded between May 6,2010, and December 31, 2012. CREDIT ©2023 T. Totani & Y. Tsuzuki

LOWER IMAGES....The researchers analyzed the time and energy distribution of FRB and earthquake events, and by plotting the aftershock likelihood as a function of time lag, they found that the two are very similar. CREDIT ©2023 T. Totani & Y. Tsuzuki

#science #space #astronomy #physics #news #nasa #esa #astrophysics

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zhupacheco97 · 9 months

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The Large Halving: Bitcoin Miners Put Together For Token Rewards Reduction

To further discover mining profitability, use a mining calculator, such because the one Etherscan(opens in a new tab)↗ offers. There’s a new model of this page but it’s solely in English proper now. The unconfirmed steadiness represents the quantity of mined Ether which is ready for confirmation from MinerGate's servers. When selecting the very best Ethereum miners, we wanted to cowl both greater and decrease budgets.

Several decentralized functions have already found success. As more folks start constructing upon the platform that Ethereum has created, we should see even larger results. Also, do not forget that “free Ethereum mining programs” don't exist. Almost all mining swimming pools charge a minimum of a 1 % developer fee. Some of the advantages you'll get pleasure from should you select BFGMiner are its capability to mine many crypto cash concurrently and hash on its well-known mining algorithms such as SHA256D and Scrypt. It also provides fan speed management, full monitoring, and integrated overclocking. The shift from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake will reduce energy consumption sharply—and depart some expensive know-how searching for new uses. All these operating systems are simply pre packaged distributions of Ubuntu that lets you mine simply. On all these OS you presumably can select and run different miners like T-Rex, GMiner, ETHminer, Lol Miner and Phoenix Miner. Currently you may have miners like T-Rex, GMiner, Lol Miner and Phoenix Miner. Mining at $5 per day is less enticing, and $2 per day or much less appears fairly awful. And yet, from August 2018 up until July 2020, Ethereum mining with 100MH/s would have netted less than $2 per day. This is as a end result of mining has become more aggressive with decrease margins – forcing miners to scale back costs. https://penzu.com/p/4776b9df849ccda5 is hit the toughest because of they've large overheads like advertising spends and legal prices. In our newest analysis, we discovered that cloud mining suppliers had been charging 184% for a similar hashrate than home-made solutions. Wolfie Zhao, head of analysis at TheMinerMag, the analysis arm of mining consultancy BlocksBridge, mentioned net earnings will flip negative for many BTC miners with much less environment friendly operations. Bitcoin halvings prior to now have been followed by major bull runs, the latest was in 2020 with a 560% surge within the value of the world’s biggest cryptocurrency. Our Linux-based mining OS is filled with superior options and tools to help you optimize your mining efficiency. If you experience crashes or instability, you will need to tweak the voltages and/or clocks more. The ETH transaction charges will not go to miners however as a substitute get turned to digital ash by being sent to an handle nobody can entry. While supporters of EIP-1559 argue that it will benefit everyone because the reduction in provide will improve demand (and, in turn, price), not all miners see it that method. Rival mining pools have come to totally different conclusions, with some supporting it and others denouncing it. The main driver of this revenue is Ethereum’s suite of so-called decentralized finance (DeFi) functions. This Ethereum mining app pays real money or Bitcoins for mining cryptocurrency. The word mining originates in the context of the gold analogy for cryptocurrencies. Gold or precious metals are scarce, so are digital tokens, and the only way to enhance the entire volume in a proof-of-work system is through mining. In proof-of-work Ethereum, the one mode of issuance was through mining. If this sounds like something that would curiosity you, then Miner-Server is the Ethereum Mining Software for you. The program gives you a pockets and likewise permits you to view the history of blocks, create contracts, and switch funds between totally different addresses. The authentic builders additionally release free-of-bugs updates continuously. As you possibly can see, with out Ethereum Mining, the community would start malfunctioning immediately.

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lisa-campaverno · 3 years

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We were told to make moodboards so here’s my take on the mysterious Departments of Unconfirmed Existence

Yes I know it wasn’t part of the options, but my dumb brain only realized that once I was done and I was out of glue 🥲

Oh well I still like it so here you go @avernotownship haha

(I don’t own any of the pictures used in the moodboard obviously, I only did the drawing of the polaroid and edited some of the pictures to fit the aesthetic)

Edit :

I’ve noticed this post from last year is getting attention and I don’t know if people check my pinned post before reblogging/liking it so I’ll just say that some fucked up shit was actually going on within averno that I didn’t know about and if you want more information about it and what exactly happened you’re free to check this link

https://exverno.carrd.co/

(tumblr doesn’t let me put it as a link because there’s already a picture, but it’s also in my pinned post, and someone put the link in the comments)

#camp averno 2021 #campaverno2021 #averno #averno township #moodboard #department of unconfirmed existence #due #camp averno #exverno

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unofficialdueblog · 3 years

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meet by the ponds at midnight, there shall be much puddle eating

can i bring koolaid powder to flavor the puddles please?

#due #averno #koolaid #cryptidcore #weirdcore #gremlincore #goblincore #swampcore #corvidcore #strange #a new school #department of unconfirmed existence

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yarn-dragon · 3 years

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May I present, the ANS departments as DND classes

DCD: Bard or Artificer

DLH: Wizard

DUE: Rouge

DCM: Monk

DDL: Warlock

DHP: Warlock or Cleric

DHS: Artificer

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phthaloblue-png · 3 years

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“The world will spin and the color will fade And we'll be reduced to a spectrum of gray But no one can force us to see it that way The two of us together can make our own shades”

“Be my color, SuperNova”

Over and Out, Averno

Made with Canva

(last post in a four part series. check my blog for more OaO designs!)

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elliotofmakinstuff · 3 years

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Cabin Terra head cannons

-Instead of coffee we drink honeysuckle nectar, at least we used to until we noticed that the bees were sad. Then we started making our own

-There are skylights in the ceiling that open when it rains, so the moss floor and flowers get watered

-The bees never sting terra campers, but they do sting those who are mean to us

-We have a worm bin for food scraps. We use the worm poop as fertilizer

-Anything thats meant to stay dry is stores in waterproof sets of drawers

-The cabin smells like a forest after a rainstorm

-Any mushroom that grows in the cabin is safe to eat

-Edible flowers, need I say more?

-The excess honey that the bees make are turned into candies

-Pet raccoon

-Dirt under everyones fingernails

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emilyaverno · 3 years

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DUE stimboard! Made mostly for myself, since I know we all have… complicated… feelings about Averno nowadays. I just hope that one day we can reclaim it entirely.

#DUE #department of unconfirmed existence #averno township #averno #a new school #stimboard #if anyone wants credit #Please let me know #i have no idea where these gifs came from #stim #stimming

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singing-not-sleeping-beauty · 3 years

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Averno Moodboards// ANS: Department of Unconfirmed Existence

#averno #avernotown #moodboard #my moodboards #aesthetic #a new school #department of unconfirmed existence #cryptidcore #spooky

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coswintercabin · 3 years

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Averno Hcs

I’ve been gone from this blog for a whopping four months so I figured what better way to apologize for my absence then by talking about some of my headcanons for all of Averno!

There are no DHP classes on any of the main pagan holidays (Litha, Imbolc, etc)

The most popular theory about the Averno gossip girl is in that they are one of the students in DCM

It’s said that you can hear the DHS raves going on even during the day

It is a DLH tradition to have the freshmen memorize the locations of the different sections of the library

DCD students put up at least one new art installation every school year, recently as a prank they put a giant bee sculpture on the quad???

There’s a white board in the DUE common room where they keep track of the cryptids they have documented and which ones are (sadly) fake

Similarly, DCM students have a corkboard for popular theories about the headmaster

DDL students are fluent in at least three languages by the time they finish their freshman year

DCM has a club-turned-podcast where they discuss, and occasionally solve, cases

While the garden is mainly maintained by DCD students, if you help in the garden from time to time you’re allowed to take some of plants for your own uses

If Dolores likes you enough, she’ll give you a slice of your favorite pie for free on your birthday

All of the professors understand Dreamspeak but every year some student finds that out the hard way

Freshman in DHS only receive help through the maze their first week and after that they are supposed to have the way through memorized.

The cats in the library were all named by DLH students so they all have cute nicknames like Al or Cas that come from names like Aloysius and Cassiopeia

The medical students of DHP somehow are the most unhealthy people at campus between constantly eating at the Skyline diner and never getting enough sleep, they are Suffering

Not a single school year goes by without the Destruction students of DCD almost causing SERIOUS harm to the garden yet, besides the Great Ruin of 86, the garden has not actually been hurt.

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whensparksfly--a-dcdue-fanfic · 3 years

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why hello there, remember me?

So camp is starting soon and I'm very excited. I'm also maybe planning something when sparks fly related. And while you may not necessarily have to have read this fanfic, it'll give you context (also I want you to read this, so there).

This has all been a very long winded way of telling you I'm gonna be reposting this fic on to AO3 leading up to camp.

2 Chapters a day, let's do this

#department of creation and destruction #a new school #averno #department of unconfirmed existence #dcdue #when sparks fly #averno fanfic #hint hint #things have also been edited #stuff has been added #a whole plot point has been revamped #what not #so even if you've read this already #maybe you wanna read it again

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lonestargazerwithaflowercrown · 4 years

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GHOST BUSTERS!

@avernotown

#averno #department of unconfirmed existence

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diannaavernoans · 4 years

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𝗗𝗵𝘀: I regret buying you that blender

𝗗𝘂𝗲: *sipping toast* why?

#averno #a new school #department of lost histories #dcd #goatman #bittersummer #dlh #department of dead languages #department of hidden sequences #dhs #due #department of unconfirmed existence #department of creation and destruction

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