F³ Force of Habit

Connor Reese, as he currently thought of himself, considered the patrons at the table at the far end of the concourse. They looked quite engaged in their conversation, but, frequently, the man with the slightly forked beard would check over his shoulders for potential eavesdroppers.

No chance of casually overhearing them. They may have even set up a short-range privacy field. It would be prudent, and what I would do if I were them. The concourse, is, after all, a public place, and even moderate audio filters are sufficient to isolate their conversation from the rest of the din.

M³ Playing Favorites

            It’s been a while since we’ve visited the line of Abraham, so we’ll pick back up after Abraham as passed, and we have Isaac with his two sons Esau and Jacob. This story is often looked at comically as a disagreement between two brothers, and—according to my students—Jacob is a bit of a jerk for how he treats his brother.

            But as with all things, it’s slightly more complicated than that.

F³ Secret of Success

            The takeout helped with the liquor, but I knew I’d be feeling the effects of the alcohol for hours, still. Kate and Richard sat on my couch, having a long talk. Richard appeared to be actually listening, which I considered progress given his earlier reactions.

M³ The Bad Ending

Red playfully—flirtatiously? —calls out the traits and submits to what will happen in the bed. This is a story about a girl wanting to be sexually active, who voluntarily removes her clothes for the experience. However, it is no less an assault as the story becomes violent. It is no longer a willing sexual encounter between two parties, but a rape. The wolf, then, really is two-faced as both a predator under the guise of someone that Red thought she could trust with such an encounter.

F³ Independent Confirmation

            Kate waltzed in without knocking, as I knew she would. I waved, and the room spun. I hadn’t had anywhere close to what Richard had drunk, but he was already showing off the storm rider metabolism.

M³ Matter of Trust

The disguise of the wolf is almost laughable. So much so that it’s hard to imagine the exchange between Red and the wolf as something to be taken seriously. It’s almost playful, as if Red knew fully well that this was not her grandmother the entire time. So why the deception at all? Why doesn’t the wolf simply eat Red in the forest? That would certainly be the most convenient for the wolf instead of risking Red go somewhere else.

F³ Sing Along

            I didn’t know how many drinks we had, but Richard and I had ended up singing a German drinking song Nikki had taught me. In between verses, he was telling me all about what had happened with the storm riders, Kate abducting him and taking him into the clouds, shooting lightning at him, Reilly throwing him off the cloud and them going into freefall for several minutes.

            “That’s rough, buddy,” I said.

M³ Put to Bed

The story carefully shows a civil conversation with the wolf, who is a known predator of the natural world, and he goes to great lengths to deceive her before devouring her. We have to ask, however, what is Red’s part in this? There is a line within the story in Perrault’s version that is most interesting as the wolf asks Red to “Put the cake and the little pot of butter upon the stool, and come get into bed with me.”

F³ Truth in Advertising

            Flynn looked over the ad, made to look like a government briefing on the latest piece of hardware, mixed with just enough marketing snark to take the dryness out.

Titan Industries Pulsar Cannon

            Normally reserved as a ship-to-ship weapon, pulsar cannons hold a spinning ball of ionized plasma in a magnetic bottle, then hurl it towards an enemy. The ionized particles wreak havoc with ship shields and armor. Miniaturization technology has finally enabled us to create a personal version of this weapon. Just like against ships, the pulsar cannon’s ionized plasma is ideal for use against armored targets, cracking and disrupting powered armors with little effort.