#following orders

[the-order-reforged]

*A ping lights up on your computer, a message from Evie.*

I need you up in the Blimp. Jones' office. Standard files, but I need another pair of eyes to be sure I don't miss anything. Up for it?

@long-live-evie

[ Order quickly typed up a response as soon as she saw the message. ]

' Of course. I'll be there shortly. '

[pratchettquotes]

Detritus stamped to attention beside Vimes and his salute clanged smartly off his helmet.

"What we doin' now, sir?"

"We can pack up now, I think. All the lads have joined up?"

"Yessir!"

"You told them it wasn't compulsory?"

"Yessir! I said, 'It ain't compuls'ry, you just gotta,' sir."

"Detritus, I wanted volunteers."

"'sright, sir. They volunteered all right, I saw to that."

Terry Pratchett, Jingo

[dabiconcordia]

Following Orders

Yesterday, the sign in the airport read 'Recombobulation Area' after we'd been assessed at the molecular level for explosives, liquids, lethal knitting needles, and the possibility of a hidden blunderbuss

So we sat down and obediently re-established our pocket wealth, tied our shoes, rearranged our molecules, and strapped back on any undetected emotional weapons of self-protection we'd manage to conceal with our taciturn smiles by Katrin Talbot

[bafflement]

Mutterings Of Discontent - Deaged Oz AU

Something shorter for now, since a few of the next posts will be very, very long. And may be on AO3, we'll see.

@zacs-of-rwby you might quite like this one. [Titan Academy is the primary huntsman academy in Atlas, in this AU.]

Copal slammed their scroll down hard enough that it bounced, snarling to themselves. It wasn’t often that General Ironwood pulled rank, especially not at Titan, but when he did, he did it in spades. Two new students, ordering them to take them without even an entrance exam, and what was worse? One of them was underage. It was almost unheard of, for a student to be younger than their normal cut-off of thirteen. Oh, it had happened before, but only if the child was truly extraordinary. Which would be obvious… if they took the entrance exams.

They knew that they were in a unique position in Atlas, both from the point of view of the semi-autonomy and the fact that, by law, they could protect their students from anything, even the General. But protecting them was one thing, refusing to take a child based solely on age was very likely to backfire.

Oh, but Ironwood had known exactly what he was doing, hadn’t he? Asking this of Copal, knowing that there was a past history of younger students. Knowing why. It was manipulation at its finest, but… he wouldn’t be doing this without some sort of a reason. Whatever and whoever these children, Ironwood’s stated wards of all things were… there was a reason.

Normally, they would have been told what it was, but everybody knew the amount of pressure Ironwood had been under lately. With things as they stood, maybe he’d taken the opportunity to try to protect them? It was certainly an idea, even if Copal was certain that there had to be more to this. Protecting his wards, yes, they could certainly see the General doing that. But to go to this sort of length, especially when the younger of the two should probably still been in normal school?

It wasn’t even like the scheduling made sense, either, Part time students were a rarity, an option almost nobody really even knew about, much less took up. But then, of course the General would know about it. Would have to know about it, in the position that he was in. He’d always seemed so impressive to Copal, able to regurgitate any rule at any time, but right now that admiration was definitely tinged with annoyance.

Without the entrance exams, without any way of knowing how the children fought… if they even could, though it wasn’t likely they’d have been worth the trouble had they been entirely untrained. Still though, the idea of James Ironwood with children of his own still seemed ludicrous. Of everybody Copal could never imagine being a parent, he would have topped the list.

Were they his wards, really? Surely, if they’d been his children, he might have looked up the other one? Oh, everybody knew just by looking that one of the first year students was probably an Ironwood, but nobody had ever dared to ask the whys of it. The general had had a sister, once, though she’d been snatched by the same group that had taken Winter Schnee.

… Winter. Wintertip. The names were so similar that, for a second, Copal almost dared to hope that the child might truly be that lost boy. Be Fria’s lost nephew. They’d never actually met Nicholas’ youngest son, but they’d heard the stories. Everybody at Titan had heard the stories. Fria, for all she’d been head of Atlas Academy before Ironwood, had often taken guest lecturing spots at Titan. Apparently the boy had tagged along with her to a few of them. Like everybody else in Atlas that had ever met the child in question, everybody had seemingly fallen in love with the little boy. That charisma, if it had been real as opposed to just the rose tinted glasses that time and distance could place on any memory, might almost explain why Ironwood would be so protective.

Almost. The child would be close to forty by now, if he’d lived at all, which was doubtful. And yet, there were rumours to the contrary. They’d heard several versions, and they couldn’t deny that if Winter had somehow managed to slip through time, then they would certainly be the sort of child the General would want to keep an eye on.

There was no way of knowing though. Not yet, at least. All Copal could do was grit their teeth, bow to their orders and hope. Hope that, by doing their duty, they wouldn’t get a pair of civilian children killed.

[uschi-the-listener]

Imagine

Given that order

Knowing it

Ruins

Lives family childhoods

All of it

And more

Yet

You do it

Is it fun

Is it just a job

Are you sad

Do you feel safe

Do you feel

Anonymous

I would rather die

Than be you

.

[thoughtlessarse]

Obeying orders dulls our sense of moral responsibility, brain scans reveal

A study analyzed the brain activity of military officer cadets and civilians while they were making moral decisions and concluded that the p

A study analyzed the brain activity of military officer cadets and civilians while they were making moral decisions and concluded that the perception of being the author of our actions and their consequences decreases when we follow orders, whether we are civilians or military. Understanding how the brain processes moral responsibility is important because of the implications it can have for ethics, justice, and the psychology of human behavior. Although we can make some decisions freely in our daily lives, a significant part of the choices we make are conditioned by rules established by society or other individuals, which can strongly influence our behaviors. Numerous historical examples and experimental research have shown that restrictions on freedom of choice can lead to behavior that causes serious harm to others. Thus, understanding how people make moral decisions and the neural processes underlying these decisions are critical scientific and societal issues, particularly for a better understanding of wrongdoings.

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[asiansinboots]

Do them now - in public! lol

[mychlapci]

what grocery store are we feeling today guys

tesco

kaufland

lidl

Voting ended onMar 5, 2024