Editing Blue Heron Institute (section)

==History==
The Institute was founded by [[Alexander Belanger]], [[Rad Ray Sunshine]], [[Ms Durocher]] and some others (Mr. Bristow and Mr. Musser), after they met at the site of a [[Deus ex Machina]] and defeated it together. It was named after one of the forms the god-thing projected.<ref>“Years ago, there was something on the horizon that clouded my Sight.  It recurred as an image.  A teenage boy dressed as a king, sitting in a chair with water running over him, repeating the same nonsense phrases over and over again.  If I gutted a bird and pulled out its entrails for a simple fortune telling, I could find papers in the guts, with the phrases on it.  It was… obnoxious.  I traveled from Toronto to Winnipeg, met with other Practitioners who had run into the same problem, some of your parents, as a matter of fact.  A company that managed and experimented with server architecture had rented out three floors of its building to a startup and had unwittingly played host to a group of technomancers trying to get users to engage with rituals they’d programmed.  They abandoned their work, killed by Witch Hunters or run off by Others, and their work was deleted.  As Raymond Sunshine would be sure to tell you, however, deleted does not mean gone.  Just as you can pull something out of your trash bin on your desktop, their work was still there, gradually taking form, reaching out into the rest of the servers in the building until it could become a small god.  After that, it started expanding out, until it was interfering with my Sight. [...] It had taken over the building and the running of the company that managed the servers.  Within was a world of its own that would take a month to cross.  I went to deal with it, and ran into someone else who was doing the same.  A young lady who would be best described as being very interested in the most vast and uncontrolled parts of conventional practice,”  He indicated Mrs. Durocher.  “She had already contacted a colleague of hers from a previous errand, a man who was just then achieving notoriety for his first practitioner-facing website.”  He indicated Raymond Sunshine. [...] Together with Mr. Bristow and Mr. Musser, we annihilated the god, shared out its power, and we drank together that night.  For Mr. Sunshine, Mrs. Durocher, and myself, it sparked a close friendship that has lasted ever since.  One of the things I hold most important about that experience was the epiphany I had, during that night of conversation and light drinks.  It wasn’t the power that I was happiest with -and I was as power hungry as they come- but the moments I had been with other practitioners and felt purpose and felt like we were all better for those deals.  Better informed, and we all know having the right information makes us strong.  Dealing with other practitioners makes us safer, better equipped, stronger, and more capable of covering our weaknesses.  That epiphany would eventually lead to us starting the Blue Heron Institute alongside Mr. Bristow, Mr. Musser, and others.  We named it after one of the faces the god in the machine had worn.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/09/01/leaving-a-mark-4-5/ excerpt] from [[Leaving a Mark 4.5]]</ref>  Alexander drew on favours from his family to help set it up.<ref>Alexander had the institute in part 
because he’d bartered with family, getting the power as a kind of loan 
to get it started, then bartering again to get the good words, 
references, and contacts to bring people in.

If Alexander’s distant nephew got in any real trouble here, it disrupted that whole engine. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/07/11/stolen-away-2-z/ excerpt] from [[Stolen Away 2.z]]
</ref> Bristow was originally the principal.<ref name=":5">A heavyset man who wasn’t much taller than Lucy was entered through 
the front door.  He began exchanging a whispered conversation with 
Alexander, a vaguely angry look on his face.  He looked… it was hard to 
pin down.  Red-faced and blotchy, but in a way that looked permanent.  
Like he’d been lightly boiled and had scarred over.  His hair was parted
 and shiny with hair product.

“That’s Bristow,” a girl said.

“Who’s Bristow?” Avery asked.

“He came up yesterday, in the introduction speech,” Lucy commented.

“Ex-headmaster,” Jessica murmured.

It looked like he hadn’t give up on the teaching idea altogether.  On
 top of being short, wide, blotchy, and looking perpetually angry, 
Bristow was very <em>tweed</em>.  Like a professor.  You didn’t keep dressing that way unless it was integral to your identity.

Lucy could remember what they’d learned from Miss about how Alexander
 had taken the school.  Planting a demesne here and tying it to the 
school, so he had more claim to the school.  She imagined that if she 
were Mr. Bristow, she’d be pretty upset at being ousted, let alone if he
 knew that it had happened that way.  - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/ excerpt] from [[Leaving a Mark 4.6]]
</ref>

In 2014, there was an incident where someone thanked the kitchen brownies and served as a lightning-rod for all the karmic debt to them.<ref>She couldn’t express gratitude, or the brownies would turn on her.  
With the one-sided arrangement, a karmic debt was accrued, but there 
were always rules.  The faerie-adjacent brownies might strike a deal, 
like never ever watching them work.  When a hapless, curious individual 
finally did, they would be blinded.  The more the debt, the worse the 
fate.

The last incident with the kitchen brownies had been six years ago.  
Just over two thousand days and nights of breakfasts and dinners 
provided without a disruption of the arrangement.  At this point, the 
person who crossed the brownies would probably not be allowed to die, as
 the karmic debt came to roost. - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/07/11/stolen-away-2-z/ excerpt] from [[Stolen Away 2.z]]
</ref>

Alexander took over the position of Principal after the summer of 2016, aided by his claiming of a [[Demesne]] there and swearing oaths that helped cement his role as a teacher.<ref name=":5" /><ref>“On August ninth, two thousand and sixteen, you received permission 
to set up a demesnes on school grounds,” Verona said.  “Claiming a place
 of power for yourself.  At the start of the ensuing term, you found 
your way to the role of headmaster and chief instructor.”

“Helped,” Lucy added, “by the fact that you made promises and deals, 
tying your demesnes to the school.  You stated your intent to use your 
place of power and the associated building to serve, educate the young 
practitioners of western Ontario.  You were not specific about 
dues-paying members.” - [https://palewebserial.wordpress.com/2020/07/18/out-on-a-limb-3-2/ excerpt] from [[Out on a Limb 3.2]]
</ref>

Ray Sunshine spent a few years prior to 2020 engaging less with the school, serving only as a guest lecturer, but he returned to serving as one of the core staff in the summer of 2020.<ref name=":4" />


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== Trivia ==
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