[2453] "Follow their own pursuits."

[imaginaryfriend]

Sounds like the parents are just trying to spread the blame around if blame need be spread.

[wies]

Interesting, the discussion shifted from Tony to more general ground.

Also, by Anja's standards Tony is doing parenting superbly. I wonder if it is something the Court demands from the present parents? It has narratively functioned as a distance between children and parents in lots of ways, now I think of it.

[imaginaryfriend]

It's said that children grow up when the parents aren't there. It's also said that kids growing up too fast is a bad thing.

[jda]

"seems as you do", said Idra, a moment before stripping naked and dipping on the sea
"like coming to the sea and not enjoying it!", she shouted to them, while swimming away for a while.

[flowsthead]

*shrug* It's very different in different cultures around the world. I don't think there is one best way to parent. People manage whether they are in England or Japan or anywhere else. I tend to think it's less about whether the parents are super involved, but whether the child has a good support network, which can be the parents/family or it can be other things like school/friends/greater community. In some ways I think adults in Western countries have really poor support networks, especially as compared to their kids. Although I am not religious, I tend to think this is one area in which religious communities have an advantage, which is giving the adults in the community a good support network. Of course, depending on the support you need, religion may not be the right thing you need.

[TBeholder]

Apr 12, 2021 7:06:24 GMT wies said:

I wonder if it is something the Court demands from the present parents? It has narratively functioned as a distance between children and parents in lots of ways, now I think of it.

Maybe it's not demanded as such, but Donlans have "school teacher's kids in the same school" problem, so they would naturally try to avoid "helicopter" style hard and lean toward this other extreme point.
And parents who live at the Court and are not teachers are likely to be borderline mad scientists, absorbed in their own pet projects wedged in between whatever they do for the Court. So it just happens.

[imaginaryfriend]

Mild Speculation: The Court schooling is designed to produce graduates that fulfill staff needs the Court predicts it will face in the future. The fanciful dorms adapt students to living in spaces that they might otherwise have difficulty with, or at least weed out those who won't be able to adapt. They've got the Doc's simulations for building group cohesion and as a fun supplement for phys ed. They've got more lab (double) classes than standard, and some students get electives in mediumship and combat skills, but they seem to rely on the basic lecture format for most subjects.

Anthony is a notable exception among parents (as far as we readers know) for fighting the current and taking Antimony out of the standard apartments and placing her into an isolation module her own spacious single-occupant space. If not for his value to the Court I'm not sure he could have arranged that, particularly if she hadn't been cheating and blowing off detentions, but I am forced to wonder how much control the parents actually have over what their kids are taught and how.

[silicondream]

Apr 12, 2021 7:06:24 GMT wies said:

Interesting, the discussion shifted from Tony to more general ground.

I'd say that's happened several times in this chapter, vindicating Tony a little more each time. When the perspective shifts from "Look at how he treats her!" to "Well, how should he treat her given their circumstances? How would we treat her in his position? Come to think of it, how are we treating her?", many of his actions become harder to criticize.

Also, by Anja's standards Tony is doing parenting superbly. I wonder if it is something the Court demands from the present parents?

Expects, at least. If anything, Donald and Anja are unusually clingy with Kat by Court standards; I don't think we've seen any other students interacting with their parents at all, except on holiday. Have Janet and the Headmaster even met each other on panel?

It has narratively functioned as a distance between children and parents in lots of ways, now I think of it.

Which is a common element in children's fantasy. Child protagonists have to blunder into some conflict, with real dangers to them if they fail to resolve it correctly, and with inadequate support that forces them to unleash their amazing powers/skills/character strengths. Any sane parent would try to prevent all this, so the parents have to be distanced by some circumstance: death, disability, abduction, a Very Important Mission Elsewhere, going crazy or turning evil, etc.

Surma's distanced by her death, and her illness throughout Annie's childhood. Tony's distanced by his social disability, and by the fact that his entire life is a series of Very Important Missions.

In a lot of ways, I think Tony is the most normal parent in the main cast, or is trying to be. Everyone else expects Annie to inherit her dead mother's heroic mantle and charge off into peril. Tony's the guy going, "Wait, can we just get her mother back? And solve this parenthood-equals-death curse she's under? And let her finish school properly, and stop these unsupervised meetings with assorted supernatural beings who periodically try to kill or enslave her? Can we at least try to make sure a long and semi-normal life is even an option for my daughter?"

Except he's Tony, so he doesn't usually say all that, he just clenches his fists and makes it his current Very Important Mission.

[blahzor]

imaging living with your parents..the horrors

[pyradonis]

Apr 12, 2021 9:21:07 GMT silicondream said:

Expects, at least. If anything, Donald and Anja are unusually clingy with Kat by Court standards; I don't think we've seen any other students interacting with their parents at all, except on holiday. Have Janet and the Headmaster even met each other on panel?

No, but Bud commented that Mr. Llanwellyn would "go crazy" if he knew Janet is together with William, so we can reasonable infer that he takes an interest in his daughter's life.
We should take into account, though, that most of the other students have a) much, much less screen time than Annie and Kat, and b) many have their parents living outside of the Court, like Paz (who we have seen visit her family in the side comic "Traveler"), which is par the course as far as I understand boarding schools.

Funny thing is, I was about to write that to me, Anja and Donald seemed way too relaxed with what they let Kat do. Leaving your children their freedom, supporting them growing up to be independet persons, OK, sure. But letting your 12-year-old daughter fly into a deadly place (the ravine) alone, on a self built flying machine? Leaving your 15-year-old daughter in a destroyed war zone? They seem to be VERY convinced of Kat's abilities...

[fia]

Yeahhh I have to say, growing up in Mexico, I'm siding with Idra. I cannot IMAGINE as a parent shipping my kid off for over half the year to a boarding school in perpetuity. It's a good children's lit trope but not very defensible. I have a friend or two who got shipped off and it was fairly traumatic, even as bad as their parents were. Uprooted from friends, family, your culture... Cared for by people that are caring for dozens of others... For college, it makes sense. Grade school? No way.

It's not that parents are always good but instead that everyone else might be worse, or at least, not as concerned for your particular kid as you are as a parent. The Court may be looking after the kids but the Court doesn't love the kids. Presumably their parents do?

I don't think a parent has to be a helicopter or be there every hour to be a good parent. But I do think at least living with your kid and feeding them at home at least once a day is sensible. Talking over food is a good way to connect and check in if they're older and busier and more independent. But not even doing that? Why? Why be a parent then?

I'm glad Tony and Annie are sharing a home even if they're still figuring out how to communicate. Maybe Kat's relationship and physical proximity to her parents is such that it's secure and happy even without that. But Annie lost a mom and Tony lost a spouse. They need each other.

For other kids, I don't know their arrangements, but hopefully Paz's case and Eglamore's case is rare.

[imaginaryfriend]

Apr 12, 2021 11:14:09 GMT fia said:

...The Court may be looking after the kids but the Court doesn't love the kids. Presumably their parents do?
...I don't think a parent has to be a helicopter or be there every hour to be a good parent. But I do think at least living with your kid and feeding them at home at least once a day is sensible. Talking over food is a good way to connect and check in if they're older and busier and more independent. But not even doing that? Why? Why be a parent then?

Short answer: Because they want the kids to bond with people there and be socialized there because it will be "better."

Long answer: The private school I went to wasn't a boarding school and I was the broke-ass scholarship kid anyway so I don't know firsthand but the impression I got was that people of my (lower) socioeconomic status sent their kids to such places so they could make "friends" aka contacts. At my level it was still a couple degrees removed from the real Somebodies but yeah, there were a few people in my grade who got sportscars for birthday gifts and franchises as graduation presents. Others took orders and one dude I used to crack dirty jokes with in the cafeteria at lunch is now a judge. And that is small potatoes.

If someone was really interested in their kid(s) climbing the ladder they'd send them to where the people with political power (or fortunes equivalent to same) send their kids. Even without specific instructions the kids will fall into a pecking order based on who's the biggest Somebody and make connections that will be useful later on. And this is a two-way street because the Somebodies are also looking for their kids to make friends who will later be useful subordinates in whatever needs doing down the road, as well as rubbing elbows with each other and sorting themselves out. With those loyal peeps at the core a bigger circle can be formed later with maybe less-loyal but more-disposable people as the need arises. And this access and the opportunities it brings is in some people's opinions worth losing the family time and bonding.

[edit] I should mention that this is not necessarily a bad way of doing things, in fact it may be a necessary way humans organize themselves in society, but there is a trade-off regarding family vs. the greater society. What I dislike about how the Court does things is how nebulous an organization it seems to be; if things are done openly and chain-of-command is clear then people can be held to account for their decisions (or praised/rewarded as appropriate) and when rules get bent or broken there can be procedures in place to remedy things. When gray areas multiply the opportunities to do shady things in them also multiply. Who decides who does what job? People in the Court get what they "need" but who decides what they need? Or when they get rewards? The only clear-cut example of a decision being made by the Court that I can think of is Jan's dad deciding to go with Smitty over Antimony for Court medium. Did he have the authority to make the decision because he's the headmaster? Or was it left to him by someone else? Otherwise, decisions seem to come down from some mysterious higher echelon which Jon may or may not be an important part of. Consequences from disobeying the Court's collective will seem to vary greatly and that makes me think that there are different sets of rules for different people, or worse no rules whatsoever and the important people just do whatever they want. How do you hold someone to account if you don't even know who is really in charge? Who watches all the money that the Court makes from dealing with external entities, or manages their other assets? Lots and lots of questions... [/edit]

So, though it may be bias on my part, I think what Anja means by "freedom" is she wants Kat to be seen as useful to the Court and make useful allies, and thus be able to choose what she wants to do more often than not.

[speedwell]

Court kids have always lived apart from their parents during term. I don't know what everyone's getting worked up about, really. There is undoubtedly some adult proctoring behind the scenes, like Bud and Lindsey.

Otherwise, the Court functions much like certain South Sea Island tribes where, after actual infancy, the kids are left to socialise together apart from the adults until inducted into formal adulthood. A Western Enlightenment paradigm often clashes with what makes the Islander arrangement work. I'm not ruling out a certain amount of hip, postmodern "unschooling" and "free range childhood" elements in play at the Court, either.

Psychologically, all this could simply be an expression of the age-old separation between teens and adults, and Anja could be precisely on the mark in respecting the fledgling wish to "go it alone" (and, not incidentally, the adult wish to self-actualise without the human pets clinging to the apron strings all the time). I mean, Court kids are not going to experience poverty and they're still sheltered culturally and the adults are there if wanted.

[silicondream]

Apr 12, 2021 10:04:11 GMT pyradonis said:

Funny thing is, I was about to write that to me, Anja and Donald seemed way too relaxed with what they let Kat do.

Yeah, "clingy" was probably the wrong word. I was thinking more about their emotional and social availability--but as you mention, that might just be because they live and work nearby, and because Kat's a main character. And because she's chosen to go into their field, I suppose.

[Per]

Apr 12, 2021 7:13:50 GMT jda said:

"seems as you do", said Idra, a moment before stripping naked and dipping on the sea
"like coming to the sea and not enjoying it!", she shouted to them, while swimming away for a while.

Donald looked at his etheric watch. "Isn't this the favoured frolicking hour of the giant carnivorous sea worms?" he spoke. "Sigh, I'll go get her," sighed the burly-bearded gym teacher and wode out into the waves. "You can go back and start digging Paz out." Jones wasn't listening. She had spotted a rare Pokémon further down the

[todd]

I suspect that the Court's style of parenting owes a lot to the children there being the "next generation of 'mad scientists'"; their primary function is to ensure new recruits to continue the project, thanks to the Court's big goal (apparently to explain the ether scientifically instead of "It just is") being multi-generational. They're therefore trying to subtly steer them into the right mentality for the job. (I wonder if, for example, the Court's attitude towards rule-breaking seems to be "Don't get caught rule-breaking" rather than "Don't break the rules" - you want to make certain that, when they grow up, they'll be good at covering up the Court's darker and shabbier acts of the "murder Jeanne and her lover, then turn them into enslaved ghosts" variety.)

[pyradonis]

Apr 12, 2021 12:05:01 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

Apr 12, 2021 11:14:09 GMT fia said:

...The Court may be looking after the kids but the Court doesn't love the kids. Presumably their parents do?
...I don't think a parent has to be a helicopter or be there every hour to be a good parent. But I do think at least living with your kid and feeding them at home at least once a day is sensible. Talking over food is a good way to connect and check in if they're older and busier and more independent. But not even doing that? Why? Why be a parent then?

Short answer: Because they want the kids to bond with people there and be socialized there because it will be "better."

Long answer: The private school I went to wasn't a boarding school and I was the broke-ass scholarship kid anyway so I don't know firsthand but the impression I got was that people of my (lower) socioeconomic status sent their kids to such places so they could make "friends" aka contacts. At my level it was still a couple degrees removed from the real Somebodies but yeah, there were a few people in my grade who got sportscars for birthday gifts and franchises as graduation presents. Others took orders and one dude I used to crack dirty jokes with in the cafeteria at lunch is now a judge. And that is small potatoes.

If someone was really interested in their kid(s) climbing the ladder they'd send them to where the people with political power (or fortunes equivalent to same) send their kids. Even without specific instructions the kids will fall into a pecking order based on who's the biggest Somebody and make connections that will be useful later on. And this is a two-way street because the Somebodies are also looking for their kids to make friends who will later be useful subordinates in whatever needs doing down the road, as well as rubbing elbows with each other and sorting themselves out. With those loyal peeps at the core a bigger circle can be formed later with maybe less-loyal but more-disposable people as the need arises. And this access and the opportunities it brings is in some people's opinions worth losing the family time and bonding.

So, though it may be bias on my part, I think what Anja means by "freedom" is she wants Kat to be seen as useful to the Court and make useful allies, and thus be able to choose what she wants to do more often than not.

Ah, "networking". Getting to know people just because the connections can be useful later. The thought alone is enough to make me retch.

Apr 12, 2021 13:05:31 GMT todd said:

I wonder if, for example, the Court's attitude towards rule-breaking seems to be "Don't get caught rule-breaking" rather than "Don't break the rules".

I think that's practically a given. There are different hints that the Court not only deliberately employs multiple layers of surveillance and expects or wants the more obvious ones to be circumvented, but also doesn't care about rule breaking as long as its longtime goals are not endangered. (See "Faraway Morning" for example.)

[ysenfrown]

Apr 12, 2021 9:21:07 GMT silicondream said:

In a lot of ways, I think Tony is the most normal parent in the main cast, or is trying to be. Everyone else expects Annie to inherit her dead mother's heroic mantle and charge off into peril. Tony's the guy going, "Wait, can we just get her mother back? And solve this parenthood-equals-death curse she's under? And let her finish school properly, and stop these unsupervised meetings with assorted supernatural beings who periodically try to kill or enslave her? Can we at least try to make sure a long and semi-normal life is even an option for my daughter?"

Except he's Tony, so he doesn't usually say all that, he just clenches his fists and makes it his current Very Important Mission.

I think this is definitely Tony's failing & blessing as a parent—he's extremely long-sighted, but doesn't pay perhaps as much attention to the present. (See: Brinnie trying to Date That and Tony, instead of being like, a pretty girl wants to date me now, why not see where this goes, instead gets extremely worked up about what the implications are of Brinnie wanting to date him, and what it would mean for him to date her, etc., etc.—it really makes it so that Surma seems like an outlier for getting him to live in the moment regardless of what would happen when Jimmy Jim Jims finds out about their relationship.) 

So like, instead of Tony going, "What does my daughter need now? A parent in her life?" he goes very much like, "What will my daughter need? To be able to have children without dying, to get her mother back..." 

Heart's in the right place, but makes him seem like a massive dingus when Annie's suffering in the moment and he's AWOL. I think good parenting is able to address both of those, ideally, but then Donny & Anja might be at fault as well, for being seemingly-oblivious to Kat's breakdown over the dual Annies. That being said, we have no idea how Tony treats Annie now—maybe now that she's conjoined again and moving on from Surma he can continue opening up to her?

Apr 12, 2021 10:17:56 GMT -4 pyradonis said:

Ah, "networking". Getting to know people just because the connections can be useful later. Just the thought makes me retch.

it's extremely funny to me to think of gunnerkrigg court and networking. I guess Janet's the closest they've all got to the seat of power? But gross indeed. 

(Side note: how the heck do y'all quote multiple people in the same passage? am dumb.) 

[ctso74]

How does one raise "mad scientists"/"magic users", so they'll network and grow to be productive?

[imaginaryfriend]

Apr 12, 2021 15:16:08 GMT ctso74 said:

How does one raise "mad scientists"/"magic users", so they'll network and grow to be productive?

I think the Court is probably doing a good job on that front. Actually, they may have done such a good job they've already reached their end goal.

(waits for the Omega Device to rise up from the center of the lake like the Legion of Doom fortress)

[hp]

Is that beach bordering the sea? Or is it around the lake? Is GK on the coast?

[bedinsis]

Apr 12, 2021 16:05:04 GMT hp said:

Is GK on the coast?

Yes.

[flowsthead]

Apr 12, 2021 15:34:11 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

Apr 12, 2021 15:16:08 GMT ctso74 said:

How does one raise "mad scientists"/"magic users", so they'll network and grow to be productive?

I think the Court is probably doing a good job on that front. Actually, they may have done such a good job they've already reached their end goal.

(waits for the Omega Device to rise up from the center of the lake like the Legion of Doom fortress)

I do think they need to finish whatever they are planning soon though. The Court has done a good job of separating out people with similar interests. The fact that both That Guy and Anthony distrust the Court but are unaware of each other's distrust of the Court is a major point in the Court's favor. Anja seems like she believes in the Court first. It makes sense, the Court has done a lot to take them in, especially those that felt like outsiders everywhere else.

On the other hand, I don't think the new generation feels the same way, and they talk to each other much more often. Annie, Kat, Parley, and Andrew would pretty clearly take their own side before the Court's and their awareness of the Jeanne issue predisposes them against the Court. Zimmy and Gamma are much more likely on Annie's side than the Court's. Jack could probably be counted on as well. Jones is largely a neutral party, but if push came to shove I imagine she would also side with the Annie/Kat duo. Winsbury's group is a bit more unclear. I don't think they know much about what Annie/Kat have been up to, and so they might take the Court's side just from ignorance. Paz is Kat first, obviously, but the fact that she believes whatever rumors are around about Annie despite knowing so much from Kat means she is not a certainty either.

It's still a huge difference from Surma's days.

[shadow3]

It's interesting to see an intelligent discussion among the adults in this comic, about the quirks of the societies from which they hail.

I also want to say that I want to see Jim and Idra get married, because I'm super curious about how the wedding ceremony would be arranged, given the differences in their cultures.

[Gemminie]

Thoughts about this page:

An interesting symmetric arrangement in the first panel, setting up the page's conversation. The men on the outside, the women one step in, Jones in the middle. James has his arms crossed, while Don's holding Anja's hand. Idra brings up the fact that it's good for a "young lass like Annie's" father to be present in her life. And then she shifts to the fact that she sees it as odd that the Court's kids are all so far from their parents. Kat's an unusual case, since her parents are teachers; most kids are far from their families, what with GC acting as a boarding school. Annie is now in the same boat as Kat – a parent who's a teacher, and living with him as well (I get the impression that Kat doesn't live with her parents, but they're not far).

Idra and Anja wade in the ocean a bit, and as they do, they talk about this subject. Anja's a mother, though, and it doesn't seem that Idra is. We've never seen her family that we know of. Anja says that "we" want Court children to be independent, though I'm not sure whom she's speaking for. But Idra wonders what good that does – Idra, whose family we've never seen, who survived for months in caverns under the Forest, eating wisps, wonders what good it does to teach children to be independent. I suspect she's just curious as opposed to really challenging Anja here.

Anja says that when they grow up independent, they can live full lives of their own choosing, and the last time we heard about living a full life, we were with the Norns.

I think Idra in the next panel is again just playing around, because obviously the children get lots of influence from their parents before they go off to school – during their most formative years, too.

James gently defends the Court way of doing things, saying it's just different – Idra agrees, looking at him with an odd little smile. Why am I thinking that she's talking about what they do in bed? And why am I getting shades of this guy?

[mturtle7]

Apr 12, 2021 11:14:09 GMT fia said:

Yeahhh I have to say, growing up in Mexico, I'm siding with Idra. I cannot IMAGINE as a parent shipping my kid off for over half the year to a boarding school in perpetuity. It's a good children's lit trope but not very defensible. I have a friend or two who got shipped off and it was fairly traumatic, even as bad as their parents were. Uprooted from friends, family, your culture... Cared for by people that are caring for dozens of others... For college, it makes sense. Grade school? No way.

Haha, I was just thinking of Mexican vs. American families as a really good example of the kind of cultural difference Idra is talking about. Not directly - I'm pretty sure we both have fairly similar expectations of underage kids staying with their parents - but I remember talking with a Mexican friend of mine about how it's way more normal in Mexico for people to stay with their parents even when they become adults, while here there's a really really strong expectation that you're supposed to move out into your own place by that point. I think England might have a bit of a similar cultural difference, considering the strong tradition of boarding schools that isn't really present here in the Americas...especially in the upper classes and with men, it's just more common in general to have a traditional attitude of "kids should be left to deal with their problems on their own, to toughen up and build character." I'm sort of conflicted on whether or not it's ok for me to judge these kinds of differences...kids being sent of to boarding school seems about as unimaginable to me as a 30-year-old living with their parents, but in both cases that might just be a result of my own cultural bias! On the other hand, things are changing in all our countries so those traditional attitudes are less common, so maybe it's a moot point? I dunno.

[todd]

Apr 12, 2021 15:34:11 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

(waits for the Omega Device to rise up from the center of the lake like the Legion of Doom fortress)

Though there, I believe, the similarity ends; as I've mentioned before, I don't think that the Court's plans for the Omega Device (despite its doomsday weapon"-evocative name; what were they thinking when they called it that?) are super-villainy at all. I see them as not the kind of mad scientists out for world domination, but the kind of mad scientists who are so excited about the big discoveries they're making or about to make that they haven't noticed the troubling side effects....

[Runningflame]

I wonder whether Gillitie Wood has any coastline. If not, this may be the first time Idra has seen the ocean.

Apr 12, 2021 9:21:07 GMT silicondream said:

It has narratively functioned as a distance between children and parents in lots of ways, now I think of it.

Which is a common element in children's fantasy. Child protagonists have to blunder into some conflict, with real dangers to them if they fail to resolve it correctly, and with inadequate support that forces them to unleash their amazing powers/skills/character strengths. Any sane parent would try to prevent all this, so the parents have to be distanced by some circumstance: death, disability, abduction, a Very Important Mission Elsewhere, going crazy or turning evil, etc.

... And very occasionally, you get a story where the parents aren't dead, aren't distant or evil, and the kids are still involved in the adventure--maybe because they're all thrown into danger together, and maybe because the challenge is too big for the parents to face alone. I love stories that manage to pull that off.

Apr 12, 2021 12:05:01 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

Others took orders...

It took me a minute to realize you're talking about religious orders (right?). My first thought was "Welcome to Wendy's, may I take your order?"--which is not the kind of occupation you're talking about.

Apr 12, 2021 15:07:45 GMT ysenfrown said:

(Side note: how the heck do y'all quote multiple people in the same passage? am dumb.)

Not at all--it isn't very intuitive. Instead of the Quote button, click the gear button and choose Select Post. Repeat for all the posts you wish to quote, and then click Reply at the bottom of the page (you don't have to type anything in the box). The posts you selected will all be quoted, and you can add your reply after each of them.

Apr 12, 2021 17:04:46 GMT flowsthead said:

Annie, Kat, Parley, and Andrew would pretty clearly take their own side before the Court's and their awareness of the Jeanne issue predisposes them against the Court. Zimmy and Gamma are much more likely on Annie's side than the Court's. Jack could probably be counted on as well. Jones is largely a neutral party, but if push came to shove I imagine she would also side with the Annie/Kat duo. Winsbury's group is a bit more unclear. I don't think they know much about what Annie/Kat have been up to, and so they might take the Court's side just from ignorance. Paz is Kat first, obviously, but the fact that she believes whatever rumors are around about Annie despite knowing so much from Kat means she is not a certainty either.

... And Red and Ayilu would be the Court's loyal front-line soldiers.  Good points, though. I wonder if the Court has any reservations about the loyalty of their medium.

[Gemminie]

Apr 12, 2021 23:51:14 GMT todd said:

Apr 12, 2021 15:34:11 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

(waits for the Omega Device to rise up from the center of the lake like the Legion of Doom fortress)

Though there, I believe, the similarity ends; as I've mentioned before, I don't think that the Court's plans for the Omega Device (despite its doomsday weapon"-evocative name; what were they thinking when they called it that?) are super-villainy at all. I see them as not the kind of mad scientists out for world domination, but the kind of mad scientists who are so excited about the big discoveries they're making or about to make that they haven't noticed the troubling side effects....

Omega, as the last letter of the Greek alphabet, is often used as a symbol for endings, but not necessarily the end of the world; it could just be the Court's symbol for the ultimate goal of all their research, the end result of all their projects, or the finish line of their figurative race.

[imaginaryfriend]

Apr 12, 2021 23:51:14 GMT todd said:

Apr 12, 2021 15:34:11 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

(waits for the Omega Device to rise up from the center of the lake like the Legion of Doom fortress)

Though there, I believe, the similarity ends; as I've mentioned before, I don't think that the Court's plans for the Omega Device (despite its doomsday weapon"-evocative name; what were they thinking when they called it that?) are super-villainy at all. I see them as not the kind of mad scientists out for world domination, but the kind of mad scientists who are so excited about the big discoveries they're making or about to make that they haven't noticed the troubling side effects....

I'm sure the plan to become god(s) will work out great.  

My point is that the people of the Court are bubbled. Paz has relatives she visits sometimes, the Donlans go on vacations, kids probably have online buddies, but largely the loyalties of the kids who grew up in the Court are with other people who live/work in the Court. The Court is where their families are and where all their stuff is. The Court is what they consider normal. The Court takes care of them and provides for them. Success in life is pleasing the Court higher-ups. Failures or rule-breaking may result in banishment (but there are lots of holding cells if needed)...

So... When they're tasked to build that mass-driver on the moon to shield the Earth from asteroids, make a giant magnet in an undersea base, finalize a plan to deal with overpopulation, they don't have a lot of troubling alternate perspectives to sort through. And maybe people who aren't in the Court could be viewed dispassionately using statistics to solve those troublesome problems they can't manage themselves.

Apr 13, 2021 1:08:23 GMT Runningflame said:

Apr 12, 2021 12:05:01 GMT imaginaryfriend said:

Others took orders...

It took me a minute to realize you're talking about religious orders (right?). My first thought was "Welcome to Wendy's, may I take your order?"--which is not the kind of occupation you're talking about.

Yes. I don't keep in touch with anyone from high school but I know through the grapevine some went on to wear the dog collar and one of those is now the head of a congregation. And he is also a dude who I used to crack dirty jokes with in the cafeteria at lunch.

If any one of them ever had to get a point-of-sale terminal job I'm sure their families would quickly hide them away somewhere (with the possible exception of if they're just covering at the store they own/manage).