About us

Mission

The mission of Cleveland Academy for Reintegrating Destroyers and Submarines (CARDS) is to provide young second generation Kansen a safe environment to integrate into and learn the skills needed to survive in the modern world.

Why our service is vital

Second generation destroyers and submarines (most of those with riggings laid down between 1930 and 1950) are in a unique position.

Unlike first generation Kansen, second generation riggings gave their operators the anti-aging properties associated with Kansen to this day. However, unlike third generation and later Kansen, the limitations of second generation destroyer riggings required much younger operators than their cruiser, carrier, and battleship counterparts.

Because they were sent to war as children and had their development halted, the operators that were lucky enough to reach retirement often had severe mental health issues and lacked the tools they needed to integrate into peacetime society. Retired second generation destroyer and submarine operators were more likely to commit sucide and significantly more likely to die in accidents than operators of other riggings.

Of Kansen that lived to retirement, only 32% of second generation destroyer and submarine operators survived to witness The Great Revival, compared to 71% of second generation operators of other classes and 87% of third generation and later operators.

Kansen operators brought back by The Great Revival suffer from varying degrees of retrograde amnesia. This amnesia was disproportionately severe in the biologically younger operators. Destroyer and submarine operators often only remember their basic biographical information and a small handful of memories from before the revival (often the most traumatic ones). This essentially wiped them of most skills and lived experiences, setting them even further back.

Program

CARDS' six year program is specifically tailored to young rigging operators brought back by The Great Revival. Operators in the program are not only given the equivalent education of attending a four year high school, but they also receive vocational training and counseling from professional psychologists to help them reintegrate into society. We also provide the following:

Housing, transport, and a comprehensive meal plan

Financial literacy courses

A wide variety of supervised field trip opportunities.

Internship opportunities for those wishing to enter the workforce after graduation

Opportunity to earn credit recognized by universities across Vermont and the CUNY/SUNY system. This is provided in addition to traditional AP credit opportunities.

Resume, cover letter, and university application assistance, available to all alumni post graduation.

Daily shuttle service into the Montpelier-Barre area and weekly shuttles to Burlington and Albany, NY available for 4th, 5th and 6th year students.

5th and 6th year students live off of campus and are given a stipend to pay for housing, food, and utilities to prepare them for living on their own. Students earlier in the program may qualify if deemed mature enough.

Multiple sports teams (including but not limited to, field/ice hockey, lacrosse, softball, track and field, and esports) that compete with local public school teams.

A wide variety of clubs, with the opportunity for students to start their own.

On campus agricultural, horticultural, and ecological training facilities.

Access to clinical trials aimed at improving the lives of young rigging operators.

Our program is available free of cost to all former American Kansen operators left in a pre-adulthood developmental state. Former operators from nations in NATO and key NATO allies are also welcome, though tuition and relocation fees may be charged. Some governments will cover these fees. See the Enrollment page for more details.

History

As people migrated to the US Northeast, the Montpelier metropolitan area grew rapidly. As the population increased, there was a need to build a new middle and high school for students from surrounding towns to replace an existing combined campus in East Montpelier. Because of strict zoning laws, the old East Montpiler campus was left in a state of limbo for several years as the town decided what to do with it.

Two former Kansen operators and WWII veterans (Cleveland CL-55 and Montpiler CL-57) saw the need for a program to take care of the influx of destroyers that came back through The Great Revival. Immediately after the revival, they petitioned to turn the old campus into a facility to reintegrate the revived operators. After two years of petitioning, their proposal was approved. Funding and a taskforce were allocated to renovate the campus.

Unfortunately during renovation, Cleveland passed away in an automobile accident. The academy was renamed in her honor.

CARDS opened in 2061 and we're approaching our 5th anniversary of operation. CARDS is currently led by principal Montpiler and her sister, vice principal Denver.

Contact

To apply for enrolment, see our Enrollment page.

To donate to our academy, see our Donations page.

All other inquiries should be directed through our Contact Us page.


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"Ugh…"

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Click

Kimberly rolled over in her bed, burrowing deeper into her pile of blankets. The ominous red glow of her alarm clock was the only light source in the room. She shoved the battery operated alarm clock up against the guardrail of her top bunk bed, shivering as the cold air invaded her foxhole of bedding and assaulted her back.

Below her she heard movement. "Come on, Kimberly. You know it's unhealthy to snooze". Mullany turned her phone's flashlight on as she sat on the side of her mattress on the bottom bunk.

Kimberley grimaced at the bright light. "It's unhealthy to expect people to wake up this early".

"Does it really only take a two week vacation to throw your sleep schedule off kilter?"

"Yes".

"You've been waking up at six thirty almost daily for three and a half years now!"

Kimberly groaned.

Mullany sighed. "Is there something I could do to make you less grouchy?"

"Give me fifteen more minutes," Kimberly mumbled.

"Fine. It's an even day so I shower first anyway. But once I'm done, you're getting out of bed".

As soon as Mullany left the room, Kimberley's eyes closed as if her eyelids were magnetic. She pulled a pillow closer to her chest and squeezed it as she felt her body slowly sink back into her mattress. Her mind wandered wildly, thoughts progressively becoming less coherent.

Then she snorted back awake as she felt a gentle shove on her shoulder.

"Alright, snooze time over"

"I said fifteen minutes"

"It's been fifteen minutes."

Kimberly rolled over and squinted at the alarm clock.

6:46

Kimberly sighed, squinting as Mullany flicked the light switch on. She threw her blankets off her and grimaced as the cold, dry air attacked every square inch of exposed skin. She sat up straight and slid off the side of the bed, landing with a thud.

Mullany stepped aside as Kimberly walked past her. "I know you're never hungry when you first wake up, but would you like me to make you an omelet to kick off the semester? ''

Kimberly scooped a stack of clothes she prepared the night before off the top of her dresser. "No thank you," she mumbled quietly.

"Alright. If you change your mind, let me know".

"Pardon me," Kimberly walked past Mullany again, across the small hallway and into the small bathroom.

Despite the frigid conditions of her room, the bathroom always managed to be colder. The window was always jammed open just the tiniest bit. It was Kimberley's daily ritual to try to close that final eighth of an inch, and every time the window taunts her. Today, she spent an extra moment staring into the black void of the woods beyond the backyard, shivering intensely as she noticed a new set of deer tracks that were barely visible thanks to the warm glow from the house's windows.


"I see you're trying the new pants I got you for Christmas," Mullany observed as she set a plate with an omelet and toast on the counter.

"They're heavy, so hopefully that means warmer".

"An omlet will warm you up".

Kimberly sighed.

"The pan's still hot…."

"No thank you".

"Do you at least have a granola bar or something with you if you get hungry at school?"

"Yeah, packed one last night".

"Good. Make sure you eat it".

"Why do you care so much?"

"Because you're my best friend and virtually my third sister. It's normal to care for the ones we love".

Still groggy, Kimberly couldn't think of a graceful response. Instead, she waited for Mullany to turn her back to fall sideways on the couch and turn on the TV.

In navy tradition, ships of the same class were considered sisters. When traditional warships were scrapped in favor of Kansen, this tradition remained.

For the heavier classes of ships, this was a little more literal. The riggings would only properly interface with people who had highly specific genes, and the heavier the rigging, the more specific the genes had to be. It made sense that if you were one of the few volunteers they could find that could interface with a 50,000 ton battleship rigging, it was very likely your sisters or cousins could as well.

The 2,500 ton Fletcher class rigging was less picky. This was fortunate, as it was impossible to find 175 potential volunteer operators that were closely related to each other.

Of course, some of the Fletcher class operators were related to each other. Mullany had originally enlisted with her older sister, Abner Read, and her fraternal twin, Hoel.

Kimberly, on the other hand, enlisted on her own. Her sisterhood with the rest of the Fletcher class was more metaphorical. The Navy drilled that metaphor into her head with all their might, but there still existed a boundary between metaphor and biology. Sometimes Kimberly begrudged the boundary. She often felt like the odd one out living with Mullany and her sisters.

"Mulaaaanyyy," a voice whined from the end of the hallway. "I can smell you burning toast, what the hell do you have the toaster set to?"

Other times, she was grateful that the boundary was there.

"It's at five," Mullany called back.

"Why do they even make toasters that go up to six if four is going to char the bread".

"It's called toast for a reason. Do you want toast, or do you just want warm bread?"

"Do you want toast or do you want a pile of ash?". The owner of the voice walked out of the short hallway and noticed Kimberly laying on the couch. "Good morning, Kimberly".

Kimberly flopped from her side to her back to look at the honey blonde girl that greeted her. The girl's build was similar to that of Mullany's, though a little shorter. "Mornin' Hoel," Kimberly mumbled back.

"How's the weather looking?"

"Cold". Kimberly twisted her head to look back at the TV screen. "Toasty high of 27 degrees, looks like more snow tomorrow".

"Hoel, would you please go check on Abner?" Mulany asked from the kitchen. "We have to leave for the bus in five minutes and I haven't seen her yet".

"She told me she's calling in sick today".

"She seemed just fine yesterday".

"She's fine, she just doesn't want to go in today".

Mullany sighed. "Well I suppose that's her decision to make. I assume you're still carpooling in with your friends, seeing how you're still in your pajamas?"

"Yep," Hoel took a seat at the counter and pulled the plate with an omelet towards her.

The toaster popped. Mullany pulled the charred collection of carbohydrates that once resembled two pieces of bread out and scraped a little bit of butter on each one. She bit into one with a loud crunch.

The unpleasant noise prompted Kimberley's spaced out eyes to finally focus on the clock in the bottom corner of the morning news broadcast. It suddenly dawned on her that she needed to collect her things for the school day.

With a groan, she got off the couch and meandered to the door to the basement stairwell. She robotically opened it and sighed as she descended into the cold, dark abyss in front of her. At the bottom of the stairwell, she flicked on the lights and located her pile of books and papers littered across a spare sofa left there by their landlord. Kimberly lazily stuffed the books into her backpack, threw on the puffy winter coat strewn on the floor, and trudged her way back upstairs.

Mullany noticed her as she walked back into the living room. "Ready?" she asked while she flung her own backpack over her shoulder.

"Yeah".

"Then let's go".


Kimberly fought hard to catch extra sleep on the bus. She made some progress while it was still dawn, but resigned herself to wakefulness as the sun finally poked over the horizon, shining straight into her eyes. The chatter from other students got louder as the bus transitioned from rural forests and farmland to the gentrified Winooski River.

CARDS shared buses with the local school system. Although many of the apartments they passed were served by other bus routes, they did stop at a five-over-one at the base of the hill CARDS was on.

The usual public school students boarded the bus, the lucky first few in line claiming the last sets of totally unoccupied seats and leaving the rest to double up.

Kimberly absent-mindedly stared out the window. She and Mullany sat far enough back that usually no one would bother to double up with them. However today, she was taken out of her day dream by a light jingle bell.

"Can I sit here?"

Kimberly turned to see Hamman, who was wearing a bell collar and a green knit sweater with a chibi version of her face on the front. She refused to make eye contact with Kimberly.

"Sure," Kimberly responded.

With a humph, Hamman plopped herself next to Kimberly.

"I thought you were still living in the on-campus dorms".

"We were, but we got… 'adopted'". Hamman's explanation was filtered through her signature aggravated embarrassment.

"Adopted?"

Hamman's sister, Sims, poked her head over the seat in front of them. She was also wearing a collar and a knit sweater, although her sweater was blue. "Yorktown wants to be our mother so we live with her now".

"Oh, so that's how you can afford to live there on your stipend," Kimberly noted.

"Yeah she's really spoiling us. We don't need a stipend".

"Did Yorktown make those sweaters?" Mullany asked from across the bus' Central aisle.

"She sure did!"

"She did an amazing job"

"I know". Sims returned to a proper sitting position and leaned up against the high school student she sat with. He slowly scratched the top of Sims' head and she purred in response.

Kimberly, curious, slowly reached out to Hamman, who was looking away.

Hissss

Kimberly quickly retracted her arm. "Sorry".

The bus soon pulled up to the school at the top of the hill. In a ritual practiced almost daily for years, the bus' air brakes hissed, the CARDS students stood up, and the bus door squeaked open.

As she stood up, Kimberly noticed Sims hugging the boy she was sitting next to before filing into the bus' central aisle. Kimberly followed Hamman into the aisle. "Is your sister and that guy…" Kimberly started to ask.

"Is my sister and that guy what?" Hamman grumpily asked back.

"...Are they like a thing?"

"Why are you so nosey?" Hamman complained

"I was just curious!"

"What, did you have a crush on him?"

"No! I don't even know his name!"

"Did you have a crush on her?"

"No! I was just curious".

"Yes we are dating," Sims interrupted.

"Sims!" Hamman squawked.

"What? Why are you so weird about this kind of stuff?"

The two sisters continued their quarrel as they stepped off the bus. Kimberly slowly unboarded after them, shivering violently as she hit the barrier of cold air at the entrance of the warm bus.

Mullany followed her, almost leaping off the bus and splashing the mix of slush and blue ice melting crystals that covered the path between the bus ramp and the school's entrance. She trotted a few steps to get to Kimberly's side and leaned close to her ear. "Do you have a crush on Sims?" she asked quietly.

"No!"

Mullany returned to her normal speaking voice. "Alright. Remember if you need someone to talk to, I'm here".

"Thanks". Kimberly calmed down as they entered the building. Though not quite as warm as the bus, it was much warmer than the frigid wastes that lay outside. The transition allowed her to leave her flustered state and re enter her typical morning grumpiness as the loud squeaks of winter boots on tile flooring echoed throughout the school's main atrium.

"I'll see you in the library". Mullany split off from the group of girls from the bus.

Kimberly walked up the main atrium stairs to the school's second floor. She walked slowly to minimize the squeaks from her boots, though it probably didn't make that much of a difference.

She sighed as she reached her locker. After trying a couple of times to open it, she conceded that she forgot the combination over the month-long break. "Guess I'll have to carry my coat with me". Kimberly set down her backpack and unzipped her coat, and tied the coat to her waist, revealing her favorite cyan hoodie. She then slung her backpack back over her shoulder and headed for the library.

In the library, Mullany had taken up her usual spot between Twining, an old friend of theirs, and Foxhound, who was recently appended to the friend group after the Royal Navy handed responsibility over her to CARDS. Mullany and Twining were playing a trading card game against each other while Foxhound was working on a comic she started last semester. The three were engaged in a lively conversation about an old TV show.

Kimberly quietly took a seat across the table from Mullany. She pulled her school issued laptop out of her bag and logged in to check her school email. After finding nothing important, she opened up a blank spreadsheet and stared blankly into it.

"What lunch period do you have?"

Kimberly snapped out of her daze. "What?"

Twining repeated her question. "What lunch period do you have this semester?"

"Oh… one".

"Dang. How about you Foxhound?"

"Two," Foxhound responded.

"Well it looks like you're all alone this semester, Kimberly".

Mullany chimed in. "I think Hoel said she has period one lunch".

"But doesn't she usually ride off somewhere with the other Taffy Three girls?"

The school bell rang.

"I'm sure Kimberly will figure something out". Mullany collected her cards off the table and secured her deck with a rubber band.

Kimberly closed her laptop and stood up. "I'll see you guys around, I'm off to homeroom".

The other three girls were still scrambling to put their various materials away. "See you later," Mullany responded.


"Kimberly! First to homeroom like always". Ranger gleefully remarked.

"Yep". Kimberly yawned as she entered the classroom. The lights were off, but the room was more than sufficiently lit by the light reflecting off the snow outside.

"I've always wondered, how do you get here so quickly?"

"I just walk straight here from the library. I don't understand how everyone else is so slow".

"How was winter break?"

"Cold".

"Hey, enjoy the snow while we still have it".

"I'll try". Kimberly took a seat at a table near the window.

"Hey, Albacore!" Ranger shouted at another student entering the classroom. "How was the break?"

Kimberly brought her laptop out again. She stared back into the empty space. It took considerable effort to keep her lead eyelids open. Eventually, she gave in.

"Kimberly!"

"What‽"

"Still tired from break?" Ranger asked.

"Yeah".

"If you need to nap during lunch, this room is always open to you".

"Thank you, I'll keep that in mind".