#but it's basically the scene after scout agreed on the operation | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thetriggeredhappy · 3 years

Note

in the dadspy au, what if jeremy was just going to be an assistant/cook/janitor at the base while his dad was being the mercenary (since spy didnt want him to follow the "career" but didnt want to be separated from him), but then jeremy turned out to be even better than the hired scout so they promote him to that position and spy is not happy with this at all

ok i was gonna put this in the queue to post but im impatient because im happy with this one. only thing i didnt have was spy being upset by this development

(warnings for canon-typical violence, discussion of mercenary-type things, paranoia, alcohol, and exactly one proper fight scene. consider this pg-13)

“Would you prefer the good news first, or the bad news?” Dad asked.

Jeremy looked up at him from where he’d snatched up the sunday comics from his dad’s newspaper and was doodling little hats on the characters while they waited for their food to arrive. “Uh,” he said, “good news first.”

“Alright. The good news is, do you remember that line I’ve been tailing? The one in New Mexico?”

“Uh, yeah,” Jeremy said, then nodded a little more confidently. “Immunity, safehouse, somethin’ like that, right?”

“...Something like that,” Dad agreed carefully, and that made him raise an eyebrow. “It went well, and I think there’s the very real possibility that I’ve all but closed the deal, all they want now is an interview.”

“...Interview, singular,” Jeremy said slowly.

“That’s where the bad news begins. Unfortunately... merde, how to phrase this?” He drew a hand down his face. “They’re fully willing to hire me on, but this is a more... corporate affair than I’m used to. They have rules, stipulations. Long story short, they will not hire you as a mercenary on the basis of your age.”

Jeremy tensed. “What?” he demanded. “That’s stupid, I’m old enough to drive and buy guns and whatever the hell else.”

“But not rent a car, at least in many places in the United States.”

“But—“ he started, and remembered they were in public, and lowered his voice to a hiss, leaning in. “We’re hired killers, thieves, criminals. Do they really think we’re above having fakes? False documentation?”

“Actually, that is one of their requirements,” Dad said dryly, taking a paper from his jacket and consulting it. “I’m not happy about it either, mon lapin, but those are their rules. Already they have slightly bent them for one individual, and already I am on thin ice. But I may have a way to manage this.”

“Yeah?” Jeremy asked, nervous now.

“I know the woman responsible for new hires and managing the team I’ve applied for. She owes me a favor—a fairly hefty one. When I go in for the interview, one of my demands will include you being hired on, not as a mercenary, but for... for custodial purposes, something like that. Cook, janitor, security guard, secretary—whatever job there is that needs doing there, and I am sure that there will be one. Something to allow you to live there. Pay will likely be her stipulation, and the play I hope to make is that really, you’re overqualified for the position and she’s lucky to have someone so competent available, and in the worst case scenario, the pay is still good enough even for just one of us that we will not cut too deeply into the savings.”

The savings. That made Scout blink, because they only ever brought up the savings when—

“You think this could be it?” he asked quietly. “Like, it it?”

A hard exhale, and he leaned his cheek on his hand. “Potentially,” he finally said. “I don’t want to get your hopes up, but the job promises a variety of things. Medical attention available, extremely low levels of danger, and most of all, confidentiality. The only people who will know any name we give them would be the woman in charge of hiring us and their singular medical professional. There is no mode of communication to or from the compound outside of emergency lines to the organization and a single secure payphone located two miles away, there is no civilization within a twenty-five minute drive minimum, and this operation has been going long enough that the local authorities have long since grown used to being paid off, and likely don’t even remember what for anymore. I cash in a few valuable favors and ask this employer to turn a blind eye, we’d have somewhere remote and secure to spend our time after our deaths are faked and once the contract is over, we can start over. No ties to the past.”

“Freedom,” Jeremy marveled.

Silence for a few seconds, broken only by the quiet chatter of the rest of the diner. “I want to warn you, this work may not be glamorous. It may not even be particularly easy. I’m giving you the option of saying no,” Dad said.

“What?! Yes, hell yes, are you joking? To get us to living like normal people? Steady work? Livin’ in one place? Count me in!” he laughed.

“What if the job is something you won’t enjoy? Long hours, boring work?” Dad asked, entirely serious.

“I’m still on board.”

“What if the other people working there are rude to you? Disrespectful?”

“Well most of the people I meet through our job now try to kill us, so really it’s an upgrade.”

“What if there’s no diner nearby?” he asked, and there was a glint of humor in his eye.

“Damn, sorry, that’s the dealbreaker,” he joked right back, and that made him snort, shake his head, greet the waitress as she came back with their coffee and soda and then informed them that their food would be out shortly.

“I’ll ask,” was what Dad said once she was gone again, and that was that, and they started driving to New Mexico two nights later.

“—A warm welcome to our two newest recruits. This is the Spy, and this is the Guard.”

“Guard?” asked one of the men at the table, his accent thick and distinctly Russian. It made Jeremy tense slightly, but he didn’t let it show.

“Night Guard,” Jeremy answered, voice clipped.

“He’s not technically hired on as a mercenary like you all, he won’t be joining you on missions,” the short woman apparently named Miss Pauling (Jeremy was fairly sure it was a fake name) said, hands folded in front of her neatly. “He’s here to work security. Keep an eye out during the night, filter through the camera footage, handle the archiving, things like that.”

“We’re hiring on a civvie now?” asked another man, thick Scottish accent a little harder to digest than the eyepatch and the grenade he was in the process of fiddling with the internal mechanisms of.

“He’s combat ready, and will still be armed. His job is to essentially make sure you’re all safe enough to sleep through the night,” Miss Pauling said.

“I’m not some chump,” Jeremy agreed. “I know my stuff.”

“How old is he?” another man asked, this one in a hardhat with a heavy drawl, looking concerned.

“Twenty, for your information,” Jeremy said, a little sharply, eyes narrowed.

“If you have any other questions, there’ll be time later on. For now, I do need to show our two newest recruits where they’ll be staying,” Miss Pauling cut in.

There was an audible scoff from one of the men at the table, a dramatic rolling of eyes. Jeremy glared at him. He unfolded and refolded his extremely tattoo’d tree-trunk-like arms, tugging the visor of his hat between. “Sorry,” he said, accent thick and distinctly Californian. “I just don’t have the most trust for some scrawny kid in slacks and creep in a ski mask.”

“Scout, don’t start,” Miss Pauling warned.

“Just saying,” this man, apparently called Scout, muttered under his breath regardless.

“Don’t,” she said again, more firmly, and ignored the second eye roll she got for the trouble. “If you two would follow me.”

And they were shown around the base, and Jeremy in particular was shown into a room stuck behind three locked doors, where he found camera feeds and recording equipment. She gave him a basic overview and a thick packet of instructions and policies labelled ‘highly classified’ and a phone number to call if he had any further questions, and a set of hours that were apparently meant to become the new standard for him (with the quiet addendum that if he finished early that was alright, and that technically he could turn in early if two or more members of the team were already awake for the day and he was caught up on the archiving of old tapes).

Then he was left to “get used to the equipment”, which he assumed meant his dad was getting a similar rundown of his job, and it took a pretty quick glance through the packet to understand that clearly this place ran on an extremely secretive and closely monitored series of systems. In the packet, between the sections on camera maintenance and operation hours, were a few sheets detailing what were apparently the movement patterns of the various members of the team, including frequented locations and previously recorded large-scale infractions (mostly on the part of the Soldier, the Medic, the Scout, and one from the Demoman).

He wasn’t the one with the title Spy, but fuck, it seemed like he might as well have it. His entire job wasn’t even necessarily to keep the team safe overnight—he was just meant to watch all of them to make sure nobody was anywhere or doing anything out of the ordinary.

The next time he saw his dad, waiting outside the infirmary to get some sort of physical evaluation, his face was arranged carefully enough that he could tell he’d figured out something was up, too.

“Got your job assignments?” he asked quietly in French, glancing towards the door into the infirmary.

A nod, a glance. “I’m intrigued by the methods used in employee evaluation,” he deadpanned. “Especially the fact that apparently, they’re willing to assign employees for the explicit task of doing them.”

“How often?”

“Weekly.”

“Thorough,” Jeremy deadpanned, and glanced towards the hall at the distant sound of laughter, echoing from somewhere else on the base. “That’s basically mine too.”

There was a long silence, and when Jeremy looked back over, his dad was giving him an almost expectant look, waiting. All he had to offer him was a shrug, which was returned after a moment with a vague shake of the head. “I don’t believe it will be a problem,” his dad said simply. “Not for us, at the very least.”

Jeremy nodded. “Yeah. Uh, anyways, good luck with the… physical, or whatever,” he said, and received a pat on the shoulder before he walked back off down the hall, hoping to figure out what exactly he was supposed to do with an entire room all to himself. He’d almost never had one before.

He was used to time changes and jet lag, to needing to switch his sleep schedule on the regular, but the switch to a straight up night shift was a rough one.

His nine-to-five was actually a ten-to-six, as in 10 PM through 6 AM. This meant that, assuming he managed to get his schedule in order, he’d be able to join in on the team dinners if he woke up early and could eat breakfast with them before he went to bed.

Very quickly he realized that going to dinner and breakfast with the team was going to become a staple part of his routine, because it didn’t take long before he began to feel extremely lonely all of the time. In a dark little room, everyone else asleep, scrubbing through tapes from during the day while half keeping an eye on the live feed from around the base that never showed much of anything, it was brutal. It was suffocating.

It was easy, at least. It didn’t take long before he got efficient at it and could start zoning out, and it wasn’t like he was under much pressure. His was the only room without any cameras in it. Security risk, apparently.  And to be honest, what small amount he and Dad interacted with mercenaries and other criminal types, Jeremy didn’t really tend to like them much. A lot of them were loud and rude and had the potential to turn around and try and kill them whenever they felt like it. He didn’t expect that he’d like the team as much as he did. He especially didn’t expect to like them so much without ever really talking to them.

But watching the camera feeds from throughout the day, seeing what they were up to, they were just... nice people. Soldier out by the dumpsters practicing rocket jumps and wrangling raccoons and apparently trying to learn how to spin a rifle, Pyro’s regular minor explosions in the kitchen while cooking and the surprised and frantic way they cleaned it up every time, the Demoman’s tendency to whistle wherever he went, watching through the feed as they all played cards and argued and jostled each other. They all seemed really nice. Really cool. Really dorky, too, but mostly just really nice and really cool.

And there were a few of them he was less sure about—he couldn’t get eyes on the Medic most of the time, what with the one camera in the Medbay being tilted down at an angle that made it hard to see much of anything but the occasional bird (probably by those same birds). The Heavy tended to just sit and read, and was pretty much silent most of the time otherwise. The Scout tended to leave the base pretty often. And the Sniper didn’t even live on base, he had a van outside that he could only occasionally see movement in when he squinted at the far edge of the camera leading outside. But even then, Heavy and Sniper mostly just seemed quiet, and Medic just seemed busy, and the Scout just seemed like a little bit of a dickhead.

But then one day when Jeremy was at breakfast the Heavy caught him leaning to try to get a look at the cover of the book he was reading, and he blurted that he was just wondering what book was so great that he’d stay up until like four in the morning reading, and then the entire team was gawking at him and asking questions and insisting that it was insane that there was someone actually watching all those cameras, and he shrugged and said there was always supposed to be someone watching the tapes back it was just usually some office worker type a hundred miles away. And they seemed almost... upset with him. And maybe that was fair, it wasn’t like he ever talked to any of them much, mostly he just spent breakfast and dinner half-asleep and listening to their chatter. And Demoman admitted that he’d honestly assumed that Jeremy slept his entire shift, he just always looked so tired at breakfast. There was almost this discomfort. This distrust.

And so, now that the jig was up, he made it a point to say some things to certain members of the team. To tell the Medic that his camera was tilted down so that he couldn’t see most of the room, and to very pointedly say that it was weird how that happened and that he didn’t know why they set it up like that in the first place, but it was really none of his business. Made it a point to warn the Engineer in the morning that the previous night, Soldier had been doing something in the fridge for a while, and to maybe check the labels before he made breakfast. Made it a point to tell the Demoman that the camera in his workshop was right in plain sight, and that if he moved one of his blackboards an inch or two to the left, it would obscure the room a pretty hefty amount. Made it a point to tell the Sniper that the camera on the rooftop seemed to be glitching out, and it’d just sort of lost the tapes of the previous two nights, and that it was really unfortunate since for all he knew there might have been someone ignoring the signs about there being no personnel allowed up there.

In return, he found that Pyro would sometimes make little sparkly notes with smiley faces on them and stick them to the door to the security room. That Sniper started tipping his hat at the camera above the door into the base from the garage. That on occasional drinking nights, the team would suddenly turn and start waving at the camera, laughing the whole way. On one night in particular he could hear through the low-quality and tinny speakers that they were trying to cajole him into leaving the security room for a while to join them for cards, and god, but he wanted to.

And he noticed more things. Soldier walking with a slight limp some days when rocket jumps had rough landings. Being able to count the doves in the infirmary and even tell them apart to some extent through blurry close-ups. The Engineer making it a point to sweep really regularly regardless of what project he was working on.

And then he noticed a weird thing.

It took him a long time to get used to the patterns of hallways, the cameras not really lined up linearly after a while, too many branching paths. He learned to follow progress, to flick from one camera to the next as someone walked around corners. And for a while he thought maybe he wasn’t very good at it.

Until he realized two things. First of all, that in a hallway where he knew there were five doors, he could only see four—apparently the door to Pyro’s room was just barely out of sight of the camera. He only figured it out because one day it swung open wide enough to almost bang against the wall.

And then, when he realized there was somehow that massive blindspot, that there was a corner with a blindspot too. One where that Scout kept disappearing.

He watched a few more times to make sure, and yep. He’d see the Engineer walking around the corner, flick to the next screen, and there he was, continuing down the hallway. And then later that same day, the Scout, walking, and flick to the next camera, and he wasn’t there.

One of the worse parts of the job was that he never got to see Dad anymore, never got to just sort of hang out the way they did all the time when he was growing up, and he knew he would miss it but he didn’t know how much. And he found it was even worse when he had something important to say, doubly so when he had something important to say but no idea if it was actually important.

He tried to bring it up casually, in the like ten minutes of time he ever got alone to talk to Dad. Dad was fighting the kettle trying to make some tea and he was trying to stay awake long enough to figure out how he was going to say this.

“Uh,” he said, and Dad looked at him. “So, uh, what’s the read you’re getting on that Scout guy?”

“Lazy,” Dad shrugged, looked back at the kettle. “Arrogant. He seems to care very little about doing his job correctly and has horrible communication on the field.”

“Right, right,” he nodded, fought a yawn down. “Uh. So like, kind of a dickhead.”

“Indeed,” Dad said, nodding vaguely.

“So uhhh... not the best.”

“Where are you going with this?” Dad asked, arching an eyebrow at him.

“I, I dunno, the guy just likes hanging out in this one blindspot in the cameras, and it’s kinda freaking me out,” Jeremy said, scratching at the back of his neck.

Dad frowned. “Strange. I wasn’t aware that there were any blindspots in the cameras.”

“There’s only a few, and only for pretty small spaces I think? But apparently he just likes hanging out in one of them.” Jeremy scuffed his shoe on the ground, glancing over as voices started echoing down the hall towards them. “Just thought it was weird.”

“I’ll look into it,” Dad muttered, voice quiet, and then raised it again slightly. “I refuse to keep up with sports.”

“C’mon,” Jeremy said, knowing this game well, changing subjects into something more normal as people entered earshot. “I’m not even asking you to keep up with sports, I’m just saying, I’d kill to go to a baseball game right about now.”

“The American Pasttime!” Soldier called from the room over.

“Exactly,” Jeremy agreed, nodding at Soldier as he also entered the kitchen, a half-asleep Demoman in tow.

“Any ghosties or ghoulies on the cameras last night, lad?” Demo had enough energy to ask, blinking blearily at the contents of the fridge.

“Oh, a billion,” Jeremy said.

“Guard!” Soldier barked, the most awake person in the room. “Should these ghost-ghouls appear again, don’t be afraid to point me in their direction! I have significant experience with them already and do not fear the likes of them!”

“Yeah sure,” Jeremy shrugged.

“You’re a champion, Guard,” Demo said with what was either a really disoriented blink or a wink, slugging him on the shoulder and wandering back out into the common room with the entire carton of milk in his other hand. Jeremy gave him a mock-salute that Soldier copied with absolute conviction. He and Dad shared a glance after the two of them left, and Jeremy was the first one to break, snickering under his breath.

“I’ll look into it,” Dad said, and also left the kitchen, and Jeremy nodded and started trying to remember what else he’d been planning on doing before bed.

“So,” Dad said a few days later, materializing next to Jeremy when he was in the middle of his jog and making him almost jump out of his skin, skidding to a stop.

“You’re enjoying that new watch way too much,” Jeremy panted, out of breath and still very much startled.

“Maybe,” Dad said, and he was smiling. “But as I was saying.”

“All you said was ‘so’,” Jeremy pointed out, giving him a look.

“There’s a juvenile joke here about how I’m your father and so of course I say ‘so’, but if you wouldn’t mind it, I did have something important to say, mon lapin,” Dad replied, and Jeremy rolled his eyes hard at the horrible joke and cheesy name, fighting back a smile of his own.

“Go for it,” he said, and took the opportunity to bend and tighten his shoelaces.

“So. Regarding that Scout and his habits. You mentioned he spends time in blind spots of the cameras, oui?” Dad asked.

“Yeah. Keeps, uh, I guess he keeps getting infractions for going off base too much, too. I’ve logged him leaving like three times this week already,” Jeremy nodded.

“Indeed. Well, considering how new we are to the team, I did not want to jump to conclusions, and so contacted Miss Pauling and asked on your behalf for any older records, and I found out something very... intriguing.”

Jeremy looked up at him, blinking. ‘Intriguing’, historically, had always been a very, very bad thing.

“Apparently, it has been two years since they last had a Guard situated on base. The previous one was a much older gentleman, retired from being a full member of the team due to health complications but not entirely ready to part with the company. The previous guard was somewhat strict, and the Scout—the same as we have now—very much disliked the man. He continued acquiring near-constant infractions under the man’s watch for leaving when he was not meant to, so much so that the previous Guard proposed enstating trackers on the team when they went off-base. And before this policy could take hold, the previous Guard left the base one day and did not return, and finally was found dead a state over, one month later.”

Jeremy blinked once, twice. “Holy shit,” he said, and took note of the wary look on his face. “Okay. So we’re thinkin’ the same thing, right?”

“I would assume so. And…” Dad hesitated, moved to fidget with his cufflinks. “And I would not be particularly concerned about this, as I’m confident that you wouldn’t have gotten his attention from what you’ve been up to lately, and therefore wouldn’t be in danger yet should history attempt to repeat itself, but… he’s already taken a disliking to you.”

“What?” he asked, eyebrows shooting up.

“I believe it’s something as simple as some sort of shallow jealousy. Another American on the team, also relatively young, filling the position of someone he disliked previously. He regularly complains about the fact that you don’t need to go do the same job as the rest of us.” Dad shrugged, glanced over at him. “That, combined with the fact that you have somewhat conflicting duties, well, he tends to rather tetchy. He claims that considering he’s meant to be the first line of defense, they shouldn’t also need a guard at night.”

Jeremy had a number of opinions about that, but he stuck to the most relevant ones. “I really don’t like this guy,” he said. “Might be, uh. Worth keeping an eye on.”

“Agreed.” Dad glanced back over his shoulder towards the base, then at his watch. “Enjoy the rest of your run. Don’t forget to eat.”

“Yeah yeah yeah, hit the bricks already, old man,” Jeremy scoffed, waving him off, and Dad rolled his eyes, disappearing again in a cloud of smoke. “You’re gonna be using that thing all the damn time now, aren’t you?”

“Oui,” came a voice from nowhere, and Jeremy huffed a laugh, meandering his way back into the rest of his jog.

Jeremy hummed along to the radio, flicking between cameras on autopilot and wondering when exactly to take his lunch break.

He didn’t face the clock or anything, so he wasn’t sure, but he thought he had a pretty solid rhythm at that point. Click, click, click, between the camera to the road, the camera to the main entrance, and the camera in the hall towards the middle of the building, for about one second each. At just about any time after 11 or 11:30, those were the only three in real time that he needed to keep an eye on, mostly for people coming back late from bar hopping or if Miss Pauling was rolling in on a delivery. All the other cameras he could see out of the corner of his eye, and any movement he’d pick up on pretty quick, even if it was usually just the doves fluttering on the camera to the Medbay. After he cycled through those (and there was almost never anything there) he’d cycle back through to the tape he had in, put it on high speed, and watch it for about two or three minutes, get through a chunk of that time. Mostly he’d just be making sure nobody had been in the base while the team was away ni o(which indeed there never was), so there wasn’t much of a reason to take it off high speed, and the second part of the night would be watching the tapes for the time the team was back on base.

Movement on a camera made him click the pause, and he glanced off to the side. One of the doves had shuffled to face the other direction. He rolled his eyes, looking back at the bigger monitor again and pressing play.

The second half of the night was a little more interesting. He just had to look at the tapes for the time the team was there, check for discrepancies that might point to Dad messing with the disguise technology off-the-clock or the enemy Spy having infiltrated. For the most part things were straightforward, but he at least got to see his teammates up to funny things sometimes. Pyro’s antics were usually entertaining. Soldier he only caught some of, on the basis of him often walking off out of range of the cameras when he went on his excursions. Demo was funny sometimes. Honestly, just seeing the Sniper anywhere but as a fuzzy distant shape was interesting.

Movement on a camera. Same dove. He ignored it. Click, click, click, all three cameras clear, back to the fast-forward of the same empty hallway as before.

He really needed to figure something out, for the Scout. Maybe he and Dad were just being paranoid. It would be insane for him to try to outright kill anyone who inconvenienced him, not to mention reckless, and stupid to boot. Acting like that in their line of work would make him a lot of enemies extremely quickly. It would make more sense for the old Guard disappearing to be unrelated, to be honest.

Yeah. Hell, he barely knew the guy, and here he was assuming he’d straight up whacked a guy for getting a little too on his case about something. Maybe they were wrong.

Movement on a camera. He glanced over and froze outright.

It took him five seconds to come to his senses enough to pause the playback on his screen.

Figures. Shapes. Not at the front entrance, in the hallway, there next to the back way, by the garage. At least three, moving carefully, hard to make out in the darkness.

Okay. Okay, don’t panic, focus.

Jeremy ran through a few things in his head. He’d already done a headcount, the only people he wasn’t sure about were the Sniper and the Medic, but he hadn’t seen the Medic in any of the hallways out of the infirmary. Three figures were two too many to be any of the team, and besides that, they didn’t look like the Medic. Too short to be the Sniper, moving differently. Different clothes.

Three people. He hopped up, rushed over to the wall, yanked open the panel he had there. Three buttons, which he needed to hit in order. The first would send an alert to Miss Pauling, the second to whoever was assigned to be on alert that night, the third would set off the alarm.

He hit the first, hit the second, and hesitated on the third.

Okay. Technically if he didn’t hit that third button, he’d be breaking protocol, which was, according to the manual, ‘grounds for termination’. He was pretty sure that meant a long swim with some concrete shoes. And it was apparently recorded every time he hit these buttons, so they could deduct from his pay on false alerts. So they’d know if he didn’t hit this third button. He needed to think fast.

This was a different button than the alert button. The alert was more subtle, set for just one person. The alarm was throughout the entire base, over every loudspeaker. Louder than a fire alarm. If he hit this one, these intruders would hear that there was an alarm going off. Anyone smart would book it, high tail it the hell out of there. But he still didn’t know where they came from.

There hadn’t been movement on any of the screens, and he looked at the camera feed facing the road already, a few times even. He should’ve seen them. And if they found their way in once, they could do it again.

If he didn’t hit the button, on the other hand, whoever was on alert would wake up and wonder why they’d gotten an alert but the alarm wasn’t going off. If they were clever, which they probably were if they’d lasted this long, they’d come to the security room to see what was up and they could work from there.

He closed the panel again and moved to wait.

A minute later, still no movement from the hallway where most of the rooms were. That was fine, they’d just woken up, and probably needed to get dressed and grab their guns.

Another minute later, no movement, which was fair, they just needed a second to get their bearings. The intruders, meanwhile, were just lurking, slowly making their way down the hall.

Another minute later, no movement, and he opened the panel to press the button again before he continued waiting. Maybe they didn’t hear him the first time.

Another minute later and he took to standing next to the panel, mashing the button rapidly, eyes on the screen where the intruders were passing the kitchen, starting to get pretty far into the building.

Another minute later and he stomped his way into his sneakers, grabbing his flashlight and gun and guard cap from where they were hung on the wall. “Fine, I’ll fucking do it myself,” he grumbled, and carefully shouldered open the door, taking one last glance at the camera before he shut the door behind himself.

He kept his footsteps quiet, squinting into the darkness, waiting for his eyes to finish adjusting as he crept towards where he’d last seen the figures. It was near-silent in the base at night except for the distant, quiet hum of generators and occasional shift of plumbing. It was getting more and more familiar, and he found himself able to tune it out somewhat, instead listening intently for footsteps besides his own, making sure to click the safety off his gun while he was still alone and not when he was close to whoever had decided to break in.

Okay. Dad did this all the time. He could handle this.

He slowed as he approached the corner near the kitchen, peering around as carefully as he could, tugging down the brim of his cap to try and hide any potential shine from his eyes. He caught sight of a vague shape standing near the doorway, hesitating before it crept inside, into the common area.

Not ideal, on the basis of that being their goddamn kitchen, but at least there would be cover.

By the time he managed to sneak up to the doorway, he could make out the sound of vague whispering. It was far enough that it gave him the boldness to peer into the room, and just slightly lit by the glow of the clock on the oven he could see two shapes there in the kitchen, the third lingering nearer to him, there by the table.

Jeremy was only just starting to make a plan, relieved to have the jump on them, when there was the distant sound of a generator humming to life, and all the figures stopped, paused for a moment.

“Fucking spooky here,” one whispered, barely audible.

“Calm down,” another whispered. “What, scared of ghosts?”

Jeremy inhaled, exhaled, shifted onto the balls of his feet and started creeping a little further into the room. If he could just get all three of them to one side, so he wouldn’t need to pivot so much…

“You don’t know, maybe there’s ghosts here,” the first protested, and swore quietly at what sounded like their winging their elbow against the corner of the tale, and Jeremy tried to stick near the wall, managed to creep half-behind one of the chairs, trying to keep his silhouette indistinct. “These guys kill people.”

“So do we,” the third mumbled, moving out of sight in the kitchen, and Jeremy bit down on a swear, starting to inch behind the couch. “Don’t be a coward. And stop making so much noise.”

“You can’t shoot a ghost,” the first pointed out, moving a bit closer to the kitchen, giving the table a wide berth now. “Or punch it.”

“I can try,” the second said, and stopped at the sound of a rustle.

Jeremy held his breath, weight half-balanced against where he’d tried to step, newspaper trapped beneath his foot.

“That one wasn’t me,” the first whispered. There was another, more significant rustle throughout the room, and Jeremy could see a glint as the intruders drew their weapons.

Jeremy inhaled, exhaled, and just barely managed not to swear out loud.

The first one was the closest by, lingering beside the arm of the couch Jeremy was crouched in the shadow of. “Do they have a cat here?” they asked, voice quiet.

The second was approaching into the main room more carefully. From the sound of the footsteps, trying to keep a shoulder closer to the wall, clearly paying more attention to the door. “Are you stupid or something?” was the reply, voice also quiet.

The third didn’t speak, but huffed out a laugh, which was enough to tell Jeremy that he was out of the kitchen.

Jeremy inhaled shakily, exhaled shakily, shifted his grip on his handgun and flashlight, and took a split second to think. Inhaled one more time.

He leapt to his feet, swinging his flashlight like a billy club and clobbering the first figure across the side of the head, sending them tumbling to the ground. From the sound of the impact, a dislocated jaw at the very least. One down.

A shout from the other side of the room, arms moving to try to aim, clearly struggling to see him, but that third figure was in the doorway, silhouetted against the faint light from the oven’s clock, and that was enough to figure out where the head and chest were. He aimed, fired, got what he was pretty sure was the neck considering the brief spray of blood that splattered against the oven, darkening the room completely.

A swear from the second figure, and Jeremy wanted to swear too, because he’d hoped that second figure would be stupid and try and charge him, but now he was ten steps away and didn’t have time to fiddle with and cock the gun again, other hand full with a flashlight and no way to—

Oh, duh.

“Stay where you are,” the second figure ordered, but Jeremy’s eyes were a little better adjusted and besides that, he wasn’t the one talking. He lifted his flashlight and clicked it on.

The second figure cried out, recoiling at the sudden blindingly bright light in what had been near-darkness, and Jeremy had time to finagle his thumb up to cock his gun again, now able to aim with absolute accuracy, this shot connecting with the figure’s head.

He exhaled.

It took Jeremy two minutes to remember to fire a bullet into the chest of the unconscious guy, and another minute for the other mercenaries to start showing up, half-dressed and armed. Dad, presumably to prove a point, showed up pretty close to the middle of the pack almost fully dressed. Jeremy wasn’t entirely sure how long it took before Miss Pauling showed up, but he wasn’t even halfway through their questions by that time.

“Guard, headcount?” she asked before she even bothered saying hello, still wearing her motorcycle helmet and looking more than a little bit miffed.

“Uh,” he said, eyes drawn away from where Medic was assessing the bodies on the kitchen table, “seven present and accounted for. Sniper’s probably out at his van, don’t know about the Scout.”

“Alright. Pyro,” she said, and Pyro stood at attention, bunny slippers squeaking at the movement. “go wake up Sniper and get him in here.”

Pyro nodded, handing their weird unicorn plushie thing to Jeremy as they passed by, giving him a solemn nod before hurrying away.

“Okay. Guard, hit me with a rundown, then,” she said, and shot a glance around the room. “No peanut gallery needed. And Medic, please don’t take them apart too much. I gotta get rid of those later.”

“Uh. Spotted these guys on the cameras, hit the first and second alerts,” Jeremy said.

“And not the third?” she asked pointedly.

“They were, like, right next to the door, and—here’s the thing, Miss P, is I dunno how the hell they got in here,” he said, and there was a general balk from the room. “No, seriously. They didn’t come in on the main road, they were in one of the back hallways by the garage. There’s gotta be a hole in the cameras or something, because I seriously don’t know where they came from. And if they booked it, they’d take whatever vehicle they used to get here, too, and we might not figure it out. Thought I’d just wait for whoever the hell was supposed to be on alert so we could… I dunno, at least see which way they went.”

“Guard,” she admonished, and he shrank a little bit. “That was incredibly reckless. What if nobody had shown up to help you?”

“Uh,” he said, blinked, “but… nobody did show up.”

A pause. She blinked. “What? You’re the one who did that?” she asked, entirely shocked, pointing towards the three bodies on the table.

“Uh, yeah? Isn’t that my job?” he asked carefully, shifting the stuffed animal under his arm.

“No, you’re—you’re just supposed to be the Guard, you’re supposed to watch cameras, not—“ She paused, taking a second to push up her glasses and rub at the bridge of her nose, inhaling, exhaling. “Okay. Points for… going above and beyond, here, but Guard, don’t do that again.”

“Sure thing, Miss P,” he mumbled, tugging on the brim of his guard cap, and sighed to himself as Miss Pauling moved away to try and stop Medic from attempting to covertly steal a few organs from the corpses. Dad clapped him on the shoulder supportively, and that did make him feel a little better. He wasn’t expecting a clap to the other shoulder, and looked up, surprised to see Heavy there, looking just slightly less grim than usual.

“Little Guard man is credit to team,” he said simply, solemnly.

Jeremy straightened up slightly. “Oh. Hey, thanks,” he said. Heavy nodded at him.

“It’s true,” Demo called, and he looked over, got another approving nod. “Really saved the lot of us, lad.”

“I, I mean, hey, it’s… what I’m here for. Or, uh. I thought that was it, anyways,” he shrugged, glancing away. “I mean, yeah, I’m pretty cool, though.”

Dad bumped his arm for the last part, and he snickered. “My question,” Dad continued, doing his best to ignore him, “is primarily regarding who, precisely, was supposed to be present to help Guard with this. Who is meant to be on alert?”

“It’s meant to be Scout, ain’t it?” the Engineer asked from nearby, frowning. A general murmur of agreement. “Could he have slept through it?”

“Heavy doubts this,” Heavy grumbled, looking troubled.

“Why’re we awake?” asked Sniper from the doorway, and various teammates called out a greeting. Sniper seemed half-gone, and completely grumpy, but not as grumpy as Pyro, and not nearly as gone as the man leaning heavily against Pyro’s shoulder.

“Hey,” the Scout managed, grinning, speech garbled, visibly sloppy and unbalanced. “What’s up, guys?”

Groans from parts of the room. “Drinkin’ again, Scout?” the Engineer drawled, visibly irritated.

“That’s my trademark, lad, go on,” Demo laughed, but the enthusiasm wasn’t entirely there.

“Scout,” Miss Pauling said, voice firm in a way that made Jeremy almost flinch in sympathy. “Are you aware that we’ve had a situation here while you’ve been sleeping?”

“Weren’t sleeping,” Sniper murmured, and eyes turned to him. He scratched at the back of his neck. “Came stumbling in ‘round when I was heading in. He was out for the night. Bar, looks like.”  “What?” Jeremy demanded. “Why the fuck didn’t I see him leave on the cameras?”

“Alright,” Miss Pauling said, and Jeremy looked at her. Her expression was hard to read. “It’s possible he went through the back tunnel.”

“Back tunnel?” Jeremy asked, and glanced around. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who hadn’t heard of it.

“For emergencies only. Scout’s the only one who I’ve given a key card to. I have one too. It’s supposed to be used for transporting especially sensitive information, most of the team isn’t supposed to even know it exists. If there’s a gap in the cameras around the back of the building, he might have been using it to… sneak out to go to town, even though he knows he’s already in hot water for leaving the base so much,” Miss Pauling said, glaring at Scout, who was looking increasingly annoyed.

“Whatever, it’s not a big deal,” he protested, scoffing.

“That tunnel is for emergencies only,” Miss Pauling stressed. “I trusted you with the privilege of knowing about it account of having worked here for so long, and you’re using that privilege and key card to mess around?”

“He was coming back from around the front of the building, at least,” Sniper chimed in, and Pyro nodded. “Not that I’d understand the point of sneaking out if he’s going to just walk back in the front door.”

“Key card?” Medic repeated from near the table, eyebrows furrowed.

“Yeah, it’s, it’s a magnetized card, that can be read by a card reader, used like a key,” Miss Pauling explained, deflating a little bit.

His eyebrows furrowed further. “Would it happen to look anything like this?” he asked, picking up a lanyard from the table and holding it up, showing the room the card clipped onto the end of it.

Two beats of silence. “Spy, would you mind?” Miss Pauling asked politely, nodding towards the Scout, who had gone pale.

“Not at all,” Dad said just as politely, and walked over towards the Scout and Pyro, then circled around behind them, and sank a blade into the Scout’s spine. He promptly crumbled to the floor, dead.

“Well. At least that’s that mystery solved,” Miss Pauling sighed, and rubbed at the bridge of her nose again. “Now I’ve gotta block off time tomorrow to get rid of three bodies, and then hopefully that’s the last we’re gonna hear of this or else the Administrator is gonna kill me.”

“What about the Scout?” Heavy rumbled.

“…Scratch that. Four bodies,” she mumbled, face dropping into her hands. “And then I need to find his replacement. Ugh.”

“Can’t imagine you’d need to go far,” Demo said, and Jeremy looked up, and Demo was very obviously tilting a thumb in his direction.

“He’s proven himself to be better at this job,” Dad agreed, shrugging. “And I would say on a bad day he’s still a better runner than the previous Scout on a good one.”

“He can clearly handle a firearm well,” the Engineer noted, looking over one of the bodies.

“And a blunt object,” Medic chimed, just a bit too pleased. “This jaw is almost completely shattered!”

“Okay, okay, fine, sure,” Miss Pauling waved off, one hand still pressed to her face, clearly overwhelmed and tired. “We’ll get his paperwork in tomorrow. Congratulations, you’re the new Scout, any questions? Can the questions wait until morning? Great, thank you. Good night, everyone. Medic, have the bodies in bags for me at least, okay?”

A distracted thumbs up from Medic, and Miss Pauling was groaning, wandering back out of the room, and most of the team followed, yawning amongst themselves. Sniper half-attempted to ask again why the hell any of them were awake, but gave up halfway through. Pyro, for one, made sure to at least retrieve the plushie from Scout’s arms before wandering off, giving him an appreciative pat on the shoulder.

“So,” Dad said, and when he looked over, he was smiling. “A promotion, mon lapin. Congratulations, new Scout.”

“Do I gotta wear that stupid outfit he always wears?” Jeremy asked, entirely serious. His reply was a laugh and a pat on the shoulder before he disappeared in a puff of smoke. “Pops, I’m serious. Do I? Dad!?”

“—So that’s why I figured, y’know, might as well tell you guys,” Jeremy finished rambling, hands in his pockets, continuing down the hallway. “Because… I dunno. I could tell Miss P, but it’s nice having secret stuff, y’know?”

“You think this is how they actually got in?” Demo asked, looking dubious. “Little blind spot in the cameras?”

“Only a couple feet wide, you said?” Sniper grumbled.

“Sounds possible,” Heavy said hesitantly.

“I dunno. Maybe. But if I tell Miss P about it, they’re gonna fix it,” Jeremy shrugged, turning the corner and stopping. “There. I knew it.”

They stopped with him, following his line of sight. “You’re takin’ the piss, mate,” Sniper deadpanned. “You want to tell me he’d been climbing out a window like a teenager?”

Jeremy shrugged, moving to open the window in question. It swung open easily, just large enough to push through with only a little bit of a problem, barely needing to turn his shoulders. “He’s not much bigger than me, and what the hell else would he be doing here?” he pointed out.

“Heavy cannot fit through that window,” Heavy deadpanned.

“Yeah. Sorry, big guy,” Jeremy apologized, leaning back inside and closing it again. “But hey, mystery solved, right?”

“Well, if I ever need windows to climb out of, now I know just the lad for the job,” Demo said, nudging him. “Thanks, Guard. Or, er, Scout. Och, now that’s going to take getting used to, aye? Might just stick to calling you ‘laddie’, laddie.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” he laughed, nudging him right back. And as much as they ribbed him for it, he did see a kind of appreciation there. Just like he’d figured, they seemed to take note of him taking their side and not just Miss Pauling’s.

Now he just needed to switch back over to the day shift.

#father-son bonding au #dad!spy #tf2 #team fortress 2 #shut up me #my fanfiction #everybody talks #really happy with this one even if it took Way Too Fucking Long

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spookybreadstick · 3 years

Note

Hello, bby!!! How are you? Hope you’re well ❤️❤️💙

I was wondering if you could write a little bit about the jobs Slenderman tells proxies to do? - dancing parrot🐦🎶

Hello!! I’m doing the best I can at the moment, we’re getting better bit by bit!

I already sort of answered this here, but it’s not on my masterlist for some reason? Odd because I remembered writing it and I was pretty sure I had it on there, but it’s not. I’ll have to fix that when I update my masterlist in a few days.

Anyway, I can give you a little more insight into what jobs Slenderman has them do!

⚠️ TW for some (mildly) graphic content at the end.... ⚠️

There are five types of jobs that the proxies do....

Cleaning/basic chores

This involves basic run-of-the-mill tasks that Slender doesn’t want to do, to be honest. He usually lets the boys off pretty easily, saving the hard cleaning and other household chores for any punishments that may need to be doled out (ex: really scrubbing the floors/baseboards/hallways/walls, ironing clothes, cleaning out the gutter, landscaping the enormous yard, and other various difficult chores). The everyday/more common chores would include...

Doing the dishes

Doing the laundry (some members do their own, but some prefer to use the communal laundry service)

Vacuuming (they are often crumbs everywhere)

Dusting

Meal planning/prepping (when you live with so many people these are the kind of things you need to think about)

Cooking (this only applies to Hoodie and sometimes Masky, and it’s only when Slender is too busy to cook)

Babysitting Sally sometimes (only applies to Hoodie and Masky)

Polishing Silverware (yes, he likes the silverware to be neatly polished)

Picking up after the other (messy) members of the mansion

Errands

Slender may be able to do many things, but he is unable to go to the grocery store himself. This isn’t a problem for him, as eirfindur don’t eat actual food, but the other members of the mansion do require actual food and you can’t get Pringles or Pop-Tarts out in the woods. So, the proxies serve to access things in town that Slender can’t, including...

Grocery stores

Department stores (BEN might want a new game, LJ may have broken a lamp again, etc)

Meeting with human clients (see the “missions” section for more detail)

On rare occasions, they may need to visit a clothing store if there is something specific in mind, otherwise they just consult Trender. Running errands as a whole is considered a treat for the proxies, and they often make a little day out of it.

Patrol

This is one of the main reasons why Slender has proxies in the first place: for protection. This is what the proxies spend the majority of their days doing, and its really their most important job in Slender’s mind. While “on patrol,” they..

Scout around the forest for anything that looks out of the ordinary, and be sure to report to Slender if something looks very wrong

Keep their eyes out for any humans that wander through and make mental notes of anyone who looks a little too suspicious

Cause distractions, redirect, or try to scare humans off the path if they get uncomfortably close to something they shouldn’t

Clean up various trash and litter as needed

Follow anyone who is overly suspicious home and investigate their intentions.

Missions

This is the other big reason why Slender has proxies. There are also four kinds of missions: Scheduled Missions, Contracted Missions, Scouting Missions, and Emergency Missions.

Scheduled Missions - These are the missions that Slender has to take his time to research and plan out. They often require advance planning and strategy. Luckily these missions don’t occur too often, but it’s often enough. The purpose of these missions is to kill the person that Slender has decided poses too much of a risk to the safety of the woods.

Contracted Missions - These missions are the results of deals that Slender has agreed to. He operates under the name “Richard Harrison” and is something of a modern day mob boss. The proxies meet up with his human clients while Slender deals with other entities/creatures personally. The proxies are the ones who have to kill whoever they have been hired to take out.

Scouting Missions - The missions that occur most often, alongside contracted missions. These are missions that prepare for a scheduled or contracted mission. These involve stalking, stake-outs, and pre-planning a murder. It doesn’t always end like this however. If Slender decides that the person is harmless (if they were a safety concern) or if for some reason Slender has to back out of the deal (if they were a potential contracted killing), then that’s simply the end of it. It’s all about checking the scene out and seeing what they’re dealing with first before any actual action is taken.

Emergency Missions - These are rare, but sometimes it has to happen. When a human is posing too much of a threat, they need to be dealt with. It’s up to the proxies to decide when enough is enough, and they’ll have to take it up with Slender after the fact. It’s a tough balancing act, because if they don’t act and the person gets away with doing too much damage/knowing too much information then they have to face the consequences, but if they do act when it’s not necessary then they have to face those consequences.

“Mopping the Basement”

This is the absolute worst part of the job, and every proxy hates it equally. Nobody likes to do this, but the fact of the matter is that it needs to get done. (TW!!!) This phrase actually refers to the aftermath of a proxy kill. To avoid saying anything really unpleasant (especially with Sally running around), they use this phrase and everyone just knows what it means. The aftermath of a kill usually involves...

Bringing the body to a different location according to Slender’s wishes (sometimes they leave it, sometimes they bury it elsewhere, but they often have to bring it to the basement of the mansion)

If it’s in the mansion then that means it needs to be dismantled and disposed of, through various means.

Usually the kidneys are removed and stored for EJ.

If Slender gives permission to do so, they might store an entire body away in a cooler for EJ (although this is often not the case, since the body is most likely tainted from a bullet or something)

Getting rid of any incriminating evidence (gloves, disposable tools, personal belongings of the victim)

Debriefing with Slender (discussing what happened, what protocol was followed, any issues, is there any security threats, was everything properly handled and disposed of, etc)

So there you have it! The jobs of the proxies (not including training, which is sort of separate from the rest of the workload). Hopefully this answered your question and is useful for future reference on my blog :)

#🐦🎶#dancing parrot #dancing parrot 🦜#dancing parrot anon #creepypasta #proxies #🌲Slenderman🌲#🎭Masky/Tim Wright🎭#❓Hoodie/Brian Thomas❓#🪓 toby rogers 🪓#creepypasta writing #spookybreadstick

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gaawachan · 3 years

Text

Critical Role 126 Discord Convo

Here, my sibling and I talked a bit about Veth, Caleb, the Cerberus Assembly, and Astrid/Wulf in particular (it starts out a bit goofy at first but gets serious): Sibling: Did you see that animatic I sent you, speaking of that scene?

Me: Yes

Sibling: Like, it'd be great to update it with Astrid and Wulf in a mound just behind the 9

Me: Lol, they would have seen the polymorphed worm, too... And the yeti friends... "They... built snowmen in balenpost?"

Sibling: And had to camp out while they disappeared into the wizard tower... the Beau-shaped hole in Balenpost lol

Me: There was a jester one too

Sibling: LOL. Like, a snowman... a snowman with 2 heads

Me: and sad faces

Sibling: One kicked over snowman and two human-shaped holes in the snowbanks. But seriously, there's no way someone isn't aware that Vess is dead. Her window was open, letting the snow come in

Me: Oh, the assembly knows. At the very least, Ludinus, Trent, and the scourgers definitely know. Astrid "thanked" Caleb because she's assuming he killed her, or she wants that to be the case, at least.

Sibling: Veth is totally missing the point. The writing is on the wall, Astrid is using the shit out of Caleb and I think, at the very least it might be an interesting DQ6 moment where when they come back from saving the world, Astrid's already taken Trent's place and they have to deal with it that way.

Me: Yeah, it's very obvious, especially when you consider how Astrid and Caleb have similarities. Like... Astrid's panic attack in the alley reminded me of Caleb's breakdown in Shady Creek Run. Right after the manipulation is over and they're out of sight, they have a breakdown. Tbh... If Caleb were to replace anyone on the assembly, it shouldn't be Trent. It should be Ludinus. Ludinus is the root of the problems in the empire, pretty much everyone is certain at this point that that is the case. The king is evil but seems incompetent/useless.

Sibling: I wonder, honestly, if that'll be the conclusion to the M9? If Caleb's arc will conclude it?

Me: But at the same time I don't want him to be in the assembly; I don't think he WANTS to be.

Sibling: Rewatching the table scene *Veth: (to Wulf) "When the war was a bit more hot... Were you much more busy?" Wulf: "Not any more than yourselves." Veth: "No I mean, were you out on the lines like a soldier?" Wulf: "I'm not much of a frontliner... More of a scout, if you would."* Wulf is totally tailing them. Wulf is absolutely the person they sent after them, I'm certain of it.

Me: Yeah, I figured. There's going to be a confrontation in Eiselcross when they're traveling with Essek, I'm sure of it. That's gonna be rough.

Sibling: No, I know that, but it stuck out to me. I feel like Matt's dropping major hint bombs... ex vs current bf?

Me: I wonder if Essek has MET Wulf before.Sibling: I like Wulf more than Astrid.

Me: Me, too.

Sibling: I think I'll be sad if he gets gravity crushed, but he better not lay a finger... on my butterfinger.

Me: I mean, I feel bad for them both, but the problem is that they can't be trusted with power, and if the Assembly falls, they may try to seize power. Tbh I just don't see them surviving to the end and that's pretty sad.

Sibling: I could see Wulf being turned if the party spent more time on things, seeing as he seems to be more of a piece to be manipulated than a major player himself... but their focus is entirely on Trent and Astrid, which makes me think that he'll be canned.

Me: Actually, I'm not so sure about that Wulf thing. I think he may be harder to reach in some ways. See the thing is... Astrid wants power. That's understandable. But it's not clear if she wants power for necessarily nefarious purposes or if it's just that the life of poverty she led before coupled with how much she's lost drives her to reach for it, and it's not clear what would satisfy her or whether or not she'd be interested in taking her life in a different direction, so that's complicated.

Me: But with Wulf... Wulf's issues are simpler, which I think arguably makes him harder to reach. Wulf and Astrid have both basically shrugged off their parents' deaths at this point, they've both indicated as much in different ways, but Wulf's a servant of the Raven Queen. He can rationalize the death of anything and anyone under her banner. Unlike Astrid, who is motivated by power/ambition, Wulf is the holy soldier... of the death god. That's uh... zealotry.

Me: Worse still, he has religious motivations for going against those who use Dunamancy, which is likely an anathema to the Raven Queen. He was already following her when he was a teenager, because Caleb was looking to see if he had any symbols of her on him when they first reunited. Honestly I really don't think either of them can truly be reached unless Caleb DOES take over the assembly and even then they might do scummy stuff behind his back out of perceived necessity.

Sibling: If his motivations have been so tied up in his religion, it would make it very difficult to reach him, true. But Astrid seems to have invested so much into her ambitions that I wonder if she might try to quiet those talking her out of it. She seems very aware of her actions' consequences, unlike someone like Essek who had ambitions without understanding where his studies would take him. If they're left alive, which I don't think they will be, Caleb's best scenario would be to avoid the assembly as much as possible.

Me: Honestly at this point I feel like the entire government of the Empire needs to be cleared out and replaced, ideally by the Cobalt Soul. Though that would be very controversial, I don't think any other organization can be trusted with filling that vacuum. The Soul is ultimately an international religious organization, but considering they have shown willingness to weed out corruption within their own ranks, it would be interesting if they pooled their resources and had the Empire taken over by a circle of vetted monks instead of corrupt mages, and then have them transition to a democracy eventually.

Sibling: Considering that Matt has reinforced that the Cobalt Soul is attempting to weed out its own corruption, but can't seem to do so for other organizations... I wonder how long it would last. At least they wouldn't have to operate in secret anymore. Maybe that would lift their final restriction?

Me: Well, the thing that really chafes at me with respect to Caleb potentially joining the assembly is that he just DOESN'T FIT THERE. I've thought this before but Caleb would be more at home working for the Cobalt Soul than the Assembly. He's been talking about burning out the rot in the Empire for ages now, and that's basically the goals of the expositors. I wouldn't object to him being involved in the Empire's government... as long as that government did not consist of anything resembling the assembly. A complete restructuring.

Sibling: I mean, you can't really rework the gov unless you're already in a position like Ludinus, but even then, Caleb I still feel like is not the person for that.

Me: But let's be real, ideally he would be the head of the Soltryce Academy... and that's the thing... One of the problems with Wulf and Astrid is that you get the feel that they could rationalize doing anything. And you have to wonder under all that rationalization and manipulation if there is any malice/sadism... there probably is, which sucks because Astrid is actually far better positioned to be an effective politician than Caleb; she's had experience around it for over a decade, she probably knows politics very well. Caleb is earnest and an excellent negotiator but he is not a politician. He would be best off as an ambassador, if I had to pick a political position for him to take.

Sibling: The government does still need to be overthrown for Essek to come hang out with Caleb though, so it must be done.

Me: It must be done. Looping back to Veth/Astrid... Here are some of the posts on Veth's behavior that I've seen. *posts a bunch of links* It's interesting... the Astrid thing. I haven't seen anyone else point this out, but... Veth probably sees Astrid as being Caleb's Yeza. And if Caleb can go back to Astrid and be happy, it's like a test run for her going back to Yeza. Which is pretty messed up. He keeps telling her "Yes, I care for her, but we've both changed" and that's not something Veth wants to think about because it applies to her as well, except that... well, Yeza really hasn't changed. Just her.

Sibling: 1) Ah, skirting her trauma by attempting to address what she sees as Caleb's? Addressing her issues by proxy? Overbearing mom living vicariously through her son...? ... That kind of makes my stomach churn, but I get it. 2) Another revenge perspective. Considering her knee-jerk reaction to kill people who've wronged her family or the party, I think revenge is totally an aspect that has gone unexplored for her. 3) Eugh, the romance still squicks me out, but I understand. Nott was a different person to Veth, she probably had a hope out for returning to her form and going back to Yeza... But I wonder if she thought he wouldn't accept her, and she had Caleb as like... (ew) a backup?

Me: I mean, it's pretty well-established that she has a thing for Caleb. And yeah, her feelings for him are pretty fucked up because of their dynamic up to the point where they went to Felderwin. The CA did wrong her family, and so did Essek, and Veth is very much a vengeance-minded person in a far more straightforward way than Caleb. Most of the others have told Caleb that if he goes after the Assembly, it should be for the right reasons. Interestingly, Veth, Fjord, and Jester don't seem to agree exactly. Jester sees it as a sort of "why not both?" thing. Fjord seems to have no qualms with vengeance at all (unsurprising considering which parts of his past have not yet been resolved, and yet Fjord has never gotten shit for that like Caleb has, and Sabian has done far less harm/damage than Trent). But Veth? Veth sees vengeance as clearcut, something that ought to be pursued and then when it's done, it's done and she's satisfied. It's interesting that the person who Caleb was most attached to at the start of the campaign is also by far the most unhealthy influence on him in the group at this point.

Sibling: I think it's because Fjord hasn't been molded by Sabian. Sabian wronged him, but the more Fjord found out about himself, the less important that seemed. And the more they found out, the more you begin to call into question whether what he did was to get rid of Vandran, an unsavory figure or... something else? Not to mention, Sabian is insignificant, whereas Caleb's abuser is still abusing people to this day. I can see there are major differences between the consequences of either of their revenge quests.

Me: Yes, but that's precisely my point. Sabian is not hugely harmful in comparison to Trent, so it's interesting that people give Caleb shit for being motivated partially by revenge, while Fjord doesn't get any when that's basically his ONLY motivation for tracking down Sabian.

Sibling: Probably because Fjord might get a reason without killing Sabian. Caleb might be walking into a trap, laid out by his peers. I still am of the opinion that killing Trent is a net positive. Just the act of getting rid of him is necessary to stop the cycle. But what comes next is the most important part. Because if Trent is dead when they come back, and Astrid sits in his place... The perpetuation of this cycle won't come to a close.

Me: Yes. I mean, personally? His entire section of the Empire's government should be outright dissolved. It's absolutely revolting. The thing is that it's not just Trent that needs to go; it's his POSITION. That needs to not exist, and I don't see that ever happening so long as Ludinus exists as well. Edit: Well, you basically said what I meant in a different way, lol.

#critical role #critrole #critrole spoilers #critical role spoilers #episode 126 #caleb widogast #astrid beck #eadwulf #veth brenatto #nott the brave #trent ikithon #ludinus da'leth #essek thelyss #cerberus assembly #meta #fjord stone #thisconversationwasallovertheplacehowdoitagthis

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tsarisfanfiction · 3 years

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WIP #56

(Send me a number 1-60 [or a fandom/character I guess] for the corresponding wip) because I’m bored and brain-fried and have too many wips that’ll otherwise never see the light of day.

As requested by @purfectpurple! We’ve got another sequel to a published work this time - Hero, my post-Firebreak fic, with Neil making a comeback.

Rescue Scout Leader Neil was nervous. It had been several months since the savage fire that had threatened his young charges during their quest to complete their forestry badge, and subsequently since his once-in-a-lifetime meeting with International Rescue. Except, it was no longer going to be a once-in-a-lifetime meeting. His impulsive request for International Rescue – International Rescue – to come visit one of their meetings had been spur of the moment, and all but rejected, albeit kindly, but six months later he’d received a call from the man he’d made an utter fool of himself in front of.

In an unusually childish manner, Bee had gleefully recounted every detail of the meeting to the rest of the troupe, with Henry more than happy to fill in the few gaps she left. The pair had shown no mercy, describing his awkward, jerky handshake, stutters, and tomato-red face in a highly exaggerated fashion to their giggling peers. His own peers, the other leaders of the troop, were equally amused. The fact that they’d chosen to use the scene as inspiration for their creativity badge – putting on a short performance with the help of some other children – was the icing on the metaphorical cake, but despite it being entirely at his expense, he couldn’t begrudge them their laughter. Not when the rescue had been a close call, and giving them something to laugh about meant they were less likely to focus on the worst moments.

Scott had been apologetic when he called, somehow finding Neil’s own personal number, and the fact that the leader of International Rescue had his personal number was almost enough to send him back into the feeble, stuttering mess he’d been during their previous conversation, only this time he didn’t have the excuse of two children he was responsible for having just been fished out of the heart of a major forest fire. He’d apologised that it had taken so long to get back to him on the visit, and for almost brushing the idea off – something he claimed was not in the spirit of International Rescue – before suggesting that they could attend an upcoming troop meeting, if convenient.

In fact, he’d gone on to suggest, the operatives of International Rescue had agreed that, if convenient for the troop, they would quite like to give them a tour of the base, provided basic secrecy was maintained.

Neil’s immediate thought had been that not a single Rescue Scout in the world would find that inconvenient, and would shift their entire schedule for half a chance to see a single Thunderbird up close without danger snapping at their heels. He had maintained at least enough operating brain power not to spout that out loud, though, saying that he would put it to the troop leaders. Scott had agreed, telling him just to contact International Rescue once they had an agreement, before ending the call.

As Neil had expected, the moment he told the other leaders of Scott’s proposal they had leaped upon it, astonished at the offer and all in agreement that they’d have to be entirely insane to refuse a tour of International Rescue’s base. And so, after another month of discussion, organising, and praying that International Rescue would not be required for a rescue at the finalised time.

The day had arrived. Neil stood outside the meeting hut in the crisp early morning, cool in a marked change to the environment since the last time he’d met International Rescue. The children had been told to wait inside, but he only had to glance back to see multiple faces pressed to the windows and bodies crammed in the open doorway. Not quite disobeying their instructions, but as close to the large field out the back of their hut as possible.

Their troop was relatively small, only thirty children, and their large field had felt like overkill more than once. Now, it was to be the landing place of Thunderbird Two, set to collect those thirty children and their troop leaders, and everyone was excited while they waited for the craft to arrive. Behind him, Bee and Henry were once again being quizzed on their own meeting, despite having said it all multiple times before. Neil heard the retelling of his own stumbling conversation and immediately tuned it out. Speaking via hologram with various International Rescue operatives, primarily Scott and another young man he’d come to know as John, he had become less likely to freeze up at the sight of them, but there was something different about seeing them in person, and he was hoping that this time, he’d at least appear to keep his cool. No more Neil the Tomato.

A rumble in the sky prompted him to look around, hunting for the source of the noise. The weather was idyllic, cool and crisp but with clear skies that proudly presented the unmistakable silhouette of Thunderbird Two as the gigantic craft approached.

...tbc..?

#thunderbirds are go #thunderbirds are go fanfiction #tsari writes fanfiction #wip excerpt #neil #original character #scott tracy #john tracy #bee #henry #pov oc #thunderfluff

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missluthorwillseeyounow · 4 years

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Pry Open The Cage Bars (You’ll Find Me There)

Saskia x Red Daughter / Supercorp The 100 AU

Father leads her past the cages where dark shapes are huddled. Weapons, that’s what Father says they are. Children taken by the Commander, twisted and broken until there is nothing human left in them.

One of the dark figures in the cages shifts, and Kasnia pauses, her curiosity getting the better of her. She approaches the cage cautiously just as the shadows shift and the dim light reveals a child.

She is smaller than Kasnia, likely younger, and so covered in blood and dirt that it’s almost impossible to tell what color her complexion is. However, Kasnia can see a pair of bright green eyes peering at her from behind matted black curls.

Kasnia doesn’t come closer, afraid of what this ‘weapon’ would do. But she smiles tentatively at the other girl, “Hello.”

The other girl doesn’t respond, and Kasnia wonders if she can speak Trigedasleng. She wonders if the other child can even speak at all. The thought saddens her, and she reaches into her pocket.

Chocolate is her favorite treat, and a rarity. Father so rarely comes to Mt. Weather, but when he does and if he hears Kasnia has been good, he gives her a bar of her favorite chocolate. That makes it even more special to Kasnia.

Carefully, she breaks the chocolate bar in half. When she’s sure the other girl won’t attack her, she reaches through the cage bars and offers half of her chocolate to the little girl in the cage

“It’s my favorite.” Kasnia tells her in Trigedasleng.

“Kasnia!!”

From the end of the dim hallway, Father barks out her name sharply. It startles her, and she drops the chocolate into the dirt inside the cage. “Coming, nontu.”

Kasnia gives the other child an apologetic look before trotting over to Father. He looks at her oddly for a moment, and she shifts uncomfortably under his intense glare. When Father’s back is turned, just before she follows him out the door, she turns and gives the little girl a sad smile and one last little wave.

In the dark of the cages, a small hand picks up the chocolate from the dirt, and green eyes watch the door long after Kasnia leaves.

Basically, this AU was born because Brenda Strong is in both The 100 and Supergirl, and I’m thinking “oh perfect, let’s make Nia Lillian”, so I blame the excellent Miss Strong for this.

This AU actually begins in the Ark. When twins are born in the Ark, one is usually floated, or released into space. It’s considered a necessary measure of survival to conserve oxygen on the Ark, and a warning to those who would keep more than one child.

Twin baby girls are born to Alura and Zor El. To the family, it’s both a blessing and a curse.

Alura, however, refuses to have her second daughter floated, so they built a small capsule that could propel both Zor El and the baby to earth. They have no idea what would be waiting for them there, but it has to be better than the horrible death that she was marked for.

The capsule, by chance, lands in Azgeda territory. Zor El is killed upon impact, but the baby survives.

In Azgeda, Nia is Queen. She rules with an iron fist and maintains power through fear. More than that, she presents herself as a goddess, making her people see her as a diety – someone untouchable and fierce, someone they cannot defy, someone they will kill and die for.

She has two sons, Lex and Roan. Lex was the golden child, and Roan was the screw up

This is younger Lex, because I just cannot see Jon Cryer!Lex as Azgeda

Lex was beginning to come to his own. He had changed his name to Thorul and was amassing a following of Azgeda

He presents himself originally as a sort of rising hero for the Azgeda.

He convinces people that the Azgeda are a wild force of nature that are being restrained by the Coalition that is being forced on them by Lexa. He convinces many of them that they don’t need the Heda.

Queen Nia tolerates this for now because she resents being forced into a treaty with Lexa, and Lex is helping her curry favor with the people, and Nia needs her people on her side. However, she knows they have to stay int he Coalition because its forces are 13 clan-strong and too massive even for the Azgeda to overcome

Not only that, but a problem is threatening her image as a deity. Her husband had a dalliance with a Trikru woman, which resulted in the birth of twin girls. (yeah, this is a little far-fetched, I know, but stay with me)

Nia had her husband killed, and had the mother of his children tracked down and killed too. She had word put out that her husband died in a raid.

Both infants were seized and brought to her. She had them both examined, and found out that one of them was a Nightblood, and the other was not.

Now, Nia already had a Nightblood whom she kept secret in captivity, Ontari. She was trained day and night to be a bloodthirsty psychopath, deliberately isolated from people so she would not develop compassion or loyalty to anyone but her Mistress who fed and clothed her.

So, Nia sent the Nightblood twin, Saskia to be raised in isolation with Ontari. They are kept separately, so that no bond might form between them, and they are pitted against each other to sharpen both their skills.

The other twin, she was going to kill, but Roan stayed her hand before she was able to kill the infant.

“She can be useful to you, my Queen. Your husband is dead, but this, his child, is alive. She will be a symbol of hope for the people. That life is born anew even in Death.”

So the other twin, Lena, is kept in Azgeda with Nia. She’s touted as Nia’s (and her husband’s) daughter, born after her husband’s death, a holy symbol of Nia’s fertility and hope for the future. It adds a Madonna-esque patina to Nia’s image as a fearsome queen-goddess.

Lena grows up in the halls of the Azgeda, with a dominating and controlling Mother, and a brother revered throughout the land as a savior of the Azgeda.

And another brother Roan, who’s rarely home because his mother sends him on scouting missions and assassinations, so he can make himself “useful”

Lena and Roan are not close, the Azgeda regard such bonds as weakness. But there’s a sense of kinship between them – the two runts of the litter that Nia barely tolerates.

Lena knows nothing of her own sister, Saskia, held in captivity in the harshest lands of the Azgeda.

Lena’s brothers, though they rarely visit, are her only source of solace from Nia

Lex, who now calls himself Thorul kom Azgeda, brings home a fascinating piece of machinery – something none of the Azgeda have ever seen, let alone know how to operate – and teaches his bright little sister how to use it. Lena takes to it quickly, not knowing that it was given to Lex by the Mountain People, the enemy (whom he has made a deal with)

Roan always brings Lena back some pelt he got one of his hunts, or some shiny new thing he bartered for from the Trikru, or once a dagger he whittled himself.

Both brothers, though, are not any less culpable for Saskia’s fate.

Lex knows exactly where she’s kept. He doesn’t like her – she’s too unpredictable, too insolent to be malleable. He agrees with his mother that a cage is the best place to keep her

Roan doesn’t know where she is, but the knowledge of her existence eats at him, especially whenever he sees Lena.

He’s the one who eventually frees Saskia, and he gets himself exiled for it (but more on that later)

Now, back to the baby in the capsule that landed in Azgeda territory. She was retrieved by some Azgeda and taken to Lex. At that time, he was making a deal with the Mountain People, and he saw his opportunity in this little sky-girl.

He used her as a bargaining chip, and gave her to the Mountain people to study her blood and anatomy, with the caveat that the baby, whom Lex named Kasnia, wouldn’t be killed, and that he would be able to visit her

Lex’s plan was to study her so he could potentially use her as a weapon. He dictated his terms to the Maunon – that she would be raised in isolation, and that only he and a few select carers could visit her. After all, he had seen it work with Ontari, and he wanted to avoid a possible wild card (like Saskia would later become). So he kept her there in Mt. Weather.

Essentially, she was a lab rat for the Maunon, and an experiment for Lex. He kept her occupied and trained her, and made sure he was the only one who treated her gently. The other Maunon soldiers were brusque toward her, but Lex made sure that they never mistreated her, and made sure that Kasnia knew this was because of his influence.

Lex teaches her Trigedasleng and Azgedasleng. He tells her of the might of the Azgeda, and one day, she hopes to join them.

Saskia and Kasnia met once, when they’re around 8 or 9, before the truth about them was revealed.

Lex took Kasnia along with him to visit the prison where Saskia was kept. Lex was showing her that “the Commander” was an unjust tyrant, and that she was making weapons of children. Since Lex is trying to challenge Lexa’s power as Commander, even though she was the one who united all 12 clans

(see the scene above the cut for Saskia and Kasnia’s first meeting)

Kasnia is so full of questions for Lex about “the little girl in the cage” when they get back to Mt. Weather, and tells him about how she wishes she could see her again, and help her, and be friends with her

And Lex sees that his plan is not going as he’d hoped.

He accuses Kasnia of being “too soft”

“I thought you would be different. I thought I was raising you to be strong, but I see now that your heart is weak too.”

Kasnia’s eyes widen and she suddenly feels her heart drop. She’s disappointed him. “No, nontu! I’m not weak. I am strong like the Azgeda, let me prove it!”

“But you are not Azgeda, yongon. You are not of the earth, but of the skies. You are not like us. Others will seek to use you as a weapon, as a specimen, but I am raising you to be strong, to be a warrior.”

Lex eyes her steadily. “That little girl in the cage is dead now. She was far too broken. The Commander and her people broke her long before you met her. I am raising you to be a strong warrior, so that you may fight against the Commander. So that this will never happen again. So that no other child can be hurt again"

Kasnia’s eyes fill with tears. She wants to cry for the caged little girl, now dead. But she knows Father would take tears as weakness, so she balls her hands into tight, determined little fists instead. “I will be strong, nontu. I will make sure they can never hurt another again!”

Saskia, on the other hand, is still very much alive. And very much enamored.

When Roan frees her from the cages, he delivers her to Lexa so she can be safe with the other Natblida. (this is one of the reasons why Lexa somewhat trusts Roan)

When Saskia’s identity is revealed, it creates an uproar, because tradition demands that Nia be killed for daring to keep a Natblida secret from the Heda

But Lexa wants to keep the Azgeda within the Coalition, and Nia knows that Lexa can wipe her out with the Coalition’s combined forces

So to avoid compromising herself, Nia shifts the blame onto Roan

She spins the tale of Roan discovering that his newborn sister was a Natblida, and stealing her from his Mother and telling her the baby was dead

And Lexa, knowing that this is the only way they can avoid bloodshed between Azgeda and the rest of the Coalition, publicly accepts this story, denouncing Roan

This is why Roan is banished from the Coalition. For his mother, it was punishment for disobeying her and for Lexa, it was a compromise to avoid bloodshed

It’s also why Roan hates Lexa. On the one hand, he understands it. On the other, now he’s banished because of her

Saskia was never a sociopath like Ontari, but she has to relearn how to trust and develop bonds with other people

Lexa is one of the first people she opens up to. She rises through the ranks of the Natblida very rapidly, and she quickly becomes Lexa’s favorite.

Saskia’s compassionate nature begins to come out, with the help of the other Nightbloods

It’s not an easy or a quick process, and it comes with so many trials, but two years afterward, she becomes the Commander’s Second

(This is around the time of the show’s timeline)

She tells Lexa about the meeting

"There was a little girl, Heda. I met her before I met you. Before the Skaikru came. When I was still in the Cage."

They are in Lexa’s quarters where Lexa is teaching Saskia to read. It’s one of Saskia’s favorite things, reading. There are so few books left in the Grounders’ collection after the nuclear war, and Saskia has been so deprived of knowledge that she has all but devoured Lexa’s collection of books.

"She looked like…. Like one of those creatures you showed me in that one book, the beautiful ones with wings. What are they called, angles?”

Lexa smiles softly. “Angels.”

“Sha, Heda,” Saskia nods vigorously. “She looked like an angel. The guards at the Cage talked among themselves about her, the little girl who came from the Sky. Her eyes were so blue like the sky, Heda, that I believed them."

When the Skaikru came down, Lex realized that there were more of them

Lex thought that Kasnia wasn’t actually special and therefore was of no use to him, so he abandoned her in Azgeda territory to die. She grows up feral in Azgeda territory, using the skills Lex taught her to survive until adulthood.

Kasnia believes that Lex died at the hands of the Commander and that’s why he didn’t come for her.

She grows older and stronger, vowing to take revenge on "The Commander” for Lex, for that little girl in the cage who died

The rest of the world has no idea she even exists. The Mountain has fallen. Outside of the Mountain People and Lex, no one knew about Kasnia.

The only other person who saw her was Saskia – when she was a feral prisoner who was shown a small but unforgettable act of kindness by a little girl with golden hair and sky-colored eyes

And there is only one other little girl with gold hair and blue eyes.

Kara and the other Skaikru are eventually integrated into the Grounder culture

Upon Queen Nia’s death at Lexa’s hand, the whole Azgeda clan is thrown into chaos. Lex refuses to bow down to Roan, refuses to acknowledge the Commander’s authority and attempts to take the capital. His attack is foiled with the help of the Skaikru, and he is badly injured by a bomb built by Clark, who is one of the engineers from the Ark. He is taken in by some of his followers (maybe Mercy and Otis), and kept in secret.

For their aid in thwarting Lex, the Skaikru are integrated into the Coalition as the thirteenth clan. With Saskia, Lena and Kara all in Polis at the time, the three girls meet and become friends.

Saskia, seeing her golden-haired “angel”, thinks she’s the same girl who gave her the chocolate.

Except Kara doesn’t remember her.

Kara is enamored by Lena. And Lena, who shares Saskia’s face, is equally enamored by Kara.

Saskia sees this all clearly. They never turn her away or make her feel unwelcome, but the two of them seem to have their own world together that Saskia cannot penetrate, even as they grow older.

Lena eventually has to return with Roan to the Azgeda. Kara stays with the Skaikru, and Saskia stays within Polis to continue her training for when she succeeds Lexa

She rarely sees Kara, but Saskia holds her in her heart as that little girl who showed her the first glimpse of kindness, the first person who taught her that hope was a possibility for someone like her

Even if Kara doesn’t remember it, Saskia does, and she holds it in her heart for both of them.

But Saskia is the Commander now, and there is no place for love in her future. Only duty.

And more than that, she sees how Kara looks at Lena, and how Lena looks back at her. Kara has never looked at Saskia like that. And even though they have the same face, Kara always knows the difference between them. She always knows Lena.

So Saskia distances herself more from Kara. There are greater things expected of her as the new Commander.

It’s for the best, because Saskia knows Kara will never hold her in her heart the way she does Lena.

In the meantime, something stirs in the borders of the Azgeda. A creature that moves with the grace and speed of a deadly silver Snowbird flits between the trees, stealing livestock and supplies, moving south.

Kasnia travels to Polis and begins reconnaissance on The Commander. She’s very careful to keep her distance, to avoid detection. She catches only glimpses of this woman who has been the cause of so much pain and suffering, who took Kasnia’s nontu away from her. But glimpses are enough.

This dark regal figure pretends at nobility when the sword at her hip is stained with the blood of so many.

Kasnia hates her.

Except sharp green eyes catch sight of her (how? She was so careful. She’s a skilled hunter, no prey has ever seen her before she attacks) and Kasnia is pinned by a clear piercing gaze. There is recognition there and perhaps some… confusion?

The din of the public market allows Kasnia to slip away, feeling shaken. It’s not often she has to look her prey in the eye before she kills it.

She decides to lay low, bide her time. The Commander had recognized her somehow (how?) and surely she would be wary and increase security around herself.

Kasnia is so shaken that she doesn’t realize that she’s being followed until she’s on the outskirts of the city. She barely has time to whirl around and drop into a defensive stance when a figure appears from the shadows.

“What are you doing here, Kara?”

___________

By SorrowsFlower

#supercorp #supergirl #the 100 #katie mcgrath #melissa benoist #saskia de merindol #red daughter #kara danvers #kara zor el #lena luthor #supercorp au #brenda strong #i finally managed to put this down #yeah that's as far as i got #saskia x red daughter #my writing

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raretastes · 4 years

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Thoughts on JeArmin ship page Wikia

Recently I been busy with my webtoon, so I forgot about my favorite stuffs in a moment. But whenever I got tired of the works, I recharge my energy with browsing anything about Jearmin. I love some fanfictions, I also love some art works, let’s talk about that next time, because right now I am going to share some thoughts I got when I browsed wikia page of my favorite ship.

I have the urge to share it, because well, I think some of what contains there is a bit exaggerated and can be misleading. Misleading in the way that... when someone is not following AoT and they wondering about JeArmin, and they read the wikia page, I’m pretty sure that person will got the wrong way about how Jean and Armin interacted in manga or anime.

I love Jean-Armin relationship because they both guys.

Yes, because they both are guys

since I cannot screenshot for unknown reason, I will just copy paste what I read from this link .. so, I hope it’s not annoying. Please be reminded that these are personal opinions, and if you annoyed by my personal opinions, or judge me for that, I have no problem. You can add more if you like ;)

okay, here goes!

In the "sudden visitors" OVA Armin is in team with Jean and tries to help him beat Sasha in a cook off. When Armin breaks his leg he is unhappy that he can no longer be of use to Jean.

I had watched this OVA, it was fun, it was great. What I see from this scene is, Armin is a loyal friend, but he has his own moral code and standard. And he is the kind of person who is not supporting any act of cheating, that’s Armin’s integrity.

Yes, Armin did saying that he is unhappy that he cannot help Jean any further. But I had read somewhere, I kinda forget where did I watched or read it (it’s like AOT Junior High or small 4 panel comic about AOT), but it’s about Armin intentionally break his legs off to skip something he didn’t like. So, to me, this scene is about Armin leaving Jean in the most subtle and politest way.

But duh! Breaking your own legs to leave someone? That’s kind of dark, Armin.

On their first scouting mission, Jean admits that Armin used to creep him out, but he has always believed in his abilities.

Yes! I love this scene, to me this scene shown Jean’s quality as a human. Jean was annoyed for Armin being “gay” to Eren, but it doesn’t blur his opinions. This shows how Jean can think logically and clearly. Sometimes when we judged someone bad, everything about them turned bad. Even when they do great things, we would see it as being malicious, Jean is far from that, and he kept believe in Armin more than any other comrades (I’m sure of it).

During the rematch between Eren and Annie, Jean and Armin are seen talking on the rooftop before working together to lead Annie into a trap. In the aftermath of the fight they have a couple scenes together, talking everything over.

That’s correct but... it’s not like they are kissing over there

Armin tries to protect Jean from a titan after he is knocked unconscious during the Scouts' operation to retrieve Eren. On their return back he and Jean are on horseback together.

Yesss!! I love this scene. When I saw this scene, I swore that I will stop following AOT if the author kill Jean.

Armin is probably stronger than we think he is, how he managed to get Jean into horseback behind him remains mystery.

In the cabin, the two of them are shown together when Eren wakes up after remember Ymir and Bertholdt's conversation.

We just treasure every moment Armin and Jean are seeing together, aren’t we?

When Armin and Jean are disguised as Historia and Eren, Jean struggles to watch as one of their captors fondles Armin and makes him cry. Later when Levi instructs Armin to fix the man's gag, Jean does it for him to spare him any more distress.

My favorite scene. Yes, this scene shows them back to back. They got such adventures together. Mikasa was there, spying from the roof and she cares more if Armin’s disguised will be blown out, more than worrying about her childhood friend getting molested. Poor Armin

When Jean is about to be killed by one of Kenny's subordinates Armin shoots her to save his life, despite this going against his morals.

Love this scene also, especially in manga where Armin did looked like a boy with serious killing expression.

Jean and Armin are seen talking to each other and working together on Historia's orphan farm.

oh okay, another scene together... did something happened? Did someone said something sweet during the scene? Or kissing or holding hands perhaps? I haven’t watched this episode, just skip it right to the beast titan war.

Jean seems to place great faith in Armin as shown when he repeatedly turns to him for advice when their situation becomes dire during the Battle of Shiganshina.

In manga, this is heavily shown. But not very much in anime. What I like better about this scene is not about how Jean being dependent to Armin in vibes: “I need you, I am nobody, I can’t do anything, I need you!”,

but instead, this vibes: “I trust you and your command. I know you need time to arrange things, and so I give you your break. Leave the rest to me, I got your back!”

I liked more when Jean took over the command when Armin is being turned down by the situation. Jean spares Armin some time to calmed himself down and helps Armin to avoid fatal mistake he almost made. This part showing how Jean and Armin is similar and can work together in leading and commanding.

Because they both are guys.

When Bertholdt burns Armin, Jean cries at Armin's supposed death and is relieved and emotional at his revival.

no, he wasn’t crying. A drop of tear was seen, but not crying. Jean also did not cry on Marco’s funeral. Sad yes, but emotional no. Big NO. Jean is not easy to drip tears. I watched this and I read this too, anime and manga, Instead Eren is the one who cried, screamed, tantrums, and Mikasa is the most emotional upon Armin’s death (it was a very sad, desperate scream), and Connie was cried. They show more emotion than Jean.

Jean just being stunned as he watched how Armin got burned and like our regular father, nobody seems to know what’s on his mind.

But my best bet is, this is what Jean thinking about when he saw Armin’s burned body :

1. He was stunned because he saw Armin as the savior of humanity, like Levi. A hope for humanity. He is counting on Armin. So when Armin is “dead”, but the war still going, it’s like an empty win. He basically just losing hope for humanity within the walls.

2. If anything about emotional, it’s probably guilt. Perhaps he thought that he forced Armin to think of something and it costs him his life. But judging how Jean is, I don’t think Jean would acting like it’s his responsibility.

but I agree that Jean did feel relieved. Although I disagree about “emotional” because he was actually the least who shown emotion on Armin’s situation. (I’m not including Floch, he is on Erwin side, that’s why)

In Attack on Titan: Junior High!, Jean said, “Maybe I haven’t got a girlfriend because we’re always together.“ which means they always hang out and do that kind of stuff together

I know this scene might exist, but in which episode I can’t remember. But I have to rewatch this because I have to make sure what is the situation when he said that.

Okay that’s all my personal thoughts on Jearmin wikia page.

I was hoping to see more scene between Jean and Armin being partner and all, but it seems like Isayama likes Eremin better. Hey I’m not being discouraging, just like Jean, I’m being honest. If you disagree, then no problem, not everybody loves honesty. :)

#jearmin #jean x armin #armin x jean #attack on titan #shingeki no kyojin

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queersplendent-deactivated · 5 years

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So I'm in a Pathfinder game now

Under a cut for rambling.

[[MORE]]

Background for this is that my GM and I are both autistic, and while he's been running a Marvel Super Heroes game with me for years, he really wanted to run the Kingmaker adventure path, and I was initially the only player signing on. Once it looked like no one else was interested, I rolled up my sleeves and made a party of three characters to run, by myself, simultaneously. You know, as one does. (I've been doing it in the Marvel game forever anyway.)

My sister agreed to play at the last minute, but not only was the module balanced for four characters anyway (the GM planned to tweak as we went for three), but I was already deeply invested in my concepts and had micromanaged lists of equipment, so we just went ahead with me running three characters and them running one.

But the GM also altered Kingmaker, setting it years after the module usually starts, after the "original" adventuring party died on mission and now a new one is being sent. So we're individually traveling to this trading post, having individually signed on with a mercenary company for an excursion into the Stolen Lands. The quest is ostensibly just to kill the bandits there, not to settle the Greenbelt, since that failed spectacularly before.

Drama happens -- Pöl is so taciturn no one realizes she's part of the company when they arrive later and find her covering guard shifts, and Laura gets the usual welcome that tieflings get and threatens to clock someone with a porridge pot. Ismene avoids anything resembling making friends. Xian shows up in the middle of the night without being let in by the guards and causes a scene when discovered in the morning. But whatever, it's fine, all four PCs are there and waiting for the rest of the company to arrive.

This does not occur. Instead a bunch of flashy lights happen, and a huge fuckoff nymph shows up in the sky, and suddenly the Greenbelt is cut off from the outside by a big grey cloud and all the forest critters are strangely mutated, and general fey-related dickery is suspected. The rest of the company will now not arrive, and We're It.

So of course some bandits show up to take over the trading post, having shat a brick when dimensional stuff started and looking for a defensible position.

The bandits are very sorry in short order. Laura, an ex-paladin brawler, begins the fight by scoring a knockout on one guy's horse, at which point he's taken out while prone by Xian, with her 3d6 of sneak attack. Pöl gets a couple with her dueling sword, and Ismene snipes with her crossbow.

Once all five lesser bandits are dead, the bandit leader takes off, pushing his horse for extra speed; Laura mounts a now-riderless bandit horse and nabs Ismene, and they go haring off after the leader at breakneck speed. After being plinked so much he takes a potion, he finally looks like he might escape into the treeline, so Ismene... shoots the horse. This works, and Laura finishes off the bandit. (The horse survived, was given a healing spell, and was walked back to the trading post, where he now is well-tended.)

There's a huge drunken celebration at the trading post, Xian and Ismene do a bardic performance and roll ridiculously high, and things are great. However, the killing of these bandits turns out to have created a time-sensitive issue: the actual bandit commander and most of her better guys are a few days away, and will eventually come looking for her missing men. The party decides to set out the next day to find and clear the camp.

We find the bandits asleep and scout them out, and formulate a plan. See, it turns out that in addition to a brawler, we have one full rogue, one bard-rogue, and one slayer with an emphasis on stealth, so we decide on a nighttime ambush.

Laura is extremely not-sneaky and waits out of visual distance with the tethered horses, wearing a camouflage net and waiting on a signal to let her know if she's needed for abrupt melee; the other three creep up to the bandits' two sentry towers, Ismene hiding in the brush while Pöl and Xian climb nearby trees.

Both bandit sentries are taken out in a single round, unable to alert their fellows, but once kill is too close to the camp and the sound wakes some of them, including the boss lady. She spots Ismene, and shit begins with the piercing whistle that lets Laura know we didn't have time to set up traps or get the rest of them stealthily. Ismene responds to the charging bandit boss by flinging down a vial of oil and a vial of alchemist's fire (generously donated by the first group of highwaymen) as she flees for cover, singeing the boss's face and making her REALLY cranky.

While Pöl tries to distract for Ismene and is quickly surrounded, Laura comes barreling in, ready to start swinging. The bandits decide that no, their boss can handle the literal demon who appeared over by that tree that's on fire, and gang up on Pöl.

Xian is still undetected, having been up the further-out sentry tower, and gets a sneaky kill, then uses Eerie Disappearance to unnerve the bandits; she's secretly a type of kitsune, and her flashing eyes as she vanishes make the bandits think maybe she's a demon also, which concerns them.

The fight is ugly, and near the end Pöl gets dropped to -1. At nearly the same time, the bandit boss is significantly hurting Laura, and Ismene has run over to heal her with a bard spell. Just before the boss lady can knock out Laura, there's Xian again, sneak-stabbing her from behind and dropping her. The rest of the bandits scatter.

We, however, are not content to let them escape, much like before, and take off after them in different directions. Laura gets one, and then goes back to give Pöl a potion; Ismene uses Expeditious Retreat and Xian follows under stealth, as the last two bandits are running the same way. The GM has broken out proper chase rules at this point.

Ismene eventually plinks one to death with her crossbow, but the other is a bit further out, and the terrain is being a bitch to get through. Xian outpaces her by rolling better against the obstacles, but not by much, so Ismene turns a corner to see the last bandit having his throat chewed by a weird-looking fennec fox, whom she is unaware is actually Xian. This bandit takes at least 20 damage and is now dead. Ismene is nonplussed.

After failing to put two and two together, and also failing to find Xian, she collects the bandits' gear and goes back to the camp, where Laura and the now-awake Pöl are repeatedly filling a waterproof bag at a nearby stream to combat the forest fire Ismene started. Xian herself shows up not long after with a story of falling into the river during the chase and getting temporarily swept away, which the rest of us buy because why not, and also because Xian is 4-foot-7 and that could happen.

Fire is put out, and the bandit boss lady is hogtied (since we'd killed the other bandit leader and learned exactly zero of worth from his minions, we have interrogation in mind), we loot the camp and the bodies, and we head back for the trading post.

So the bandit boss lady turns out to be basically a local boogeyman who personally cut off the hand of the guy who runs this trading post, and we just turn up, four days after we'd left on what the whole post assumed was probably a suicide mission, and dump the boss lady at the feet of the guard captain. Everyone wants to buy us drinks.

That's where we are now! We've recovered some of the OG Greenbelt charters and realized that they're probably still good, and it's not like we can leave the Greenbelt now on account of the dimensional nymph fuckery, so this is Our Turf now. We're beginning to outfit the post itself with the bandit treasure we don't need (loot communists ftw), and plan to sink resources into making it a safe-ish place for us to operate from as we begin to map the area and take out more bandits, not to mention look at the 20+ side quests on the bounty board.

We've agreed: for now, our group is called The Company.

Stay tuned! Will Xian cop to being a fox, solving the mystery of why local fauna decided to end that man? Will Ismene pincushion anyone else or will she just go mad with the prospect of power? Will Pöl learn to socialize? Will Laura reveal her stormy ex-paladin past? Most pressing, will the GM give us enough time to make Craft checks next session?

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scabopolis · 5 years

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LV AU Week: Day 1 - “Come Back to Me” / “Always”

So, my life has kind of exploded. And much of it for very good reasons! But with the life explosion, all my delusions of having 7-fully completed AUs has gone up in smoke. I hope to have one or two complete oneshots posted this week, but some of them will also be pseudo-fic that is a hybrid fic-outline situation.

And with that, I present day one!

If you’re not sure what’s going on here, I refer you to my post about Logan x Veronica AU Week. The fun goes through March 14, 2019 so jump in however you’re able whenever you’re able!

Day 1: “Come back to me.” / “Always.”

An AU where Veronica is an FBI agent and has been working for months with her partner, Samantha Davison, on bringing down a drug trafficking ring. They’ve been working on identifying the true head of the operation, a number of puppets setup along the way to distract them, and got a tip about a meeting that the true linchpin was supposed to attend.

They scouted the meetup spot, in Timbuck-nowhere, the night before and setup basic surveillance, but it was likely chosen for the near impossibility of any sort of cell phone signal or an easy spot to setup cameras or sound. They have their car hidden half a mile from the actual meetup spot, one of the only places they could access in the wilderness area.

In the early hours of the morning, going through their pack of hotties like candy, Veronica becomes convinced there’s little chance the meetup is happening. It happens often, a sure tip resulting in nothing, but something about being in actual wilderness more than two hours outside of San Diego makes her feel even more vulnerable and irritated.

Samantha suggests they pack it in and Veronica agrees. They slip out of the car, collecting the few cameras they were able to hide along the way. In the dark and cold, the whole process takes far longer than setting them up did. When they return to the car, putting the equipment in the trunk, they triple check their map to make sure they got them all. Veronica groans when she sees there is one still suspended in a tree. Maybe 18-year old private investigator wouldn’t care, but if the FBI finds they left a $50,000 camera suspended in a tree?

“I’ll go get it,” she tells Samantha. “You stay here, call Agent Price, and I’ll be back by the time you’ve finished briefing him.”

Veronica barely makes it 100 feet from the car when she hears Samantha start the ignition - she doesn’t blame her, heat something they’ve denied themselves for hours - when the force of the explosion propels her forward, shrapnel cutting through her clothes and cutting her skin as she’s knocked to the ground. The wind is knocked out of her but Veronica forces herself to up to her knees and crawls behind a tree.

The confusion and adrenaline are running through Veronica’s veins in equal measure but she knows enough to know they’ve been watched. Someone knew they were here to surveil the meeting and waited until they were out of the car to set the car bomb. Which means there’s a chance they know she wasn’t in the car when the bomb detonated.

Veronica runs, trying to ignore the piece of something caught in the back of her thigh and the throbbing of her head. As her body moves she’s also trying to listen for the sound of someone following her. The faster she tries to make her way through the brambles and branches, the more her head feels like it’s swimming. Her breath starts to come in short gasps and she has to stop running to rest against the trunk of a tree. When she runs again, she falls. And no matter how much she tells herself to get up and to keep moving, she can’t bring herself to listen.

A shadow looms over her and she reaches for her gun, but can’t get her fingers to grasp it.

She hears a, “shh, it’s okay” and then nothing.

Veronica wakes up in a decently comfortable full size bed, completely clothed sans her blazer, and in more physical pain than she’s ever felt. On the nightstand is a sealed bottle of maximum strength acetaminophen and a bottle of water. She throws the covers back and cries out as she sits up, her ribs clearly broken.

One thing is clear, if it was the head of the drug trafficking ring who found her, she’d be dead. So who found her? And where did they bring her?

Those are only the first questions she has. Is she safe? How long was she running before she passed out? Does the FBI know where she is or has the scene of the crime been scrubbed? How does she make contact? Who found her?

The answer to that last question appears to be the first she will have answered as there’s a low knock on her door.

“Agent Mars, are you okay?”

So the person is a ‘he’ and he apparently knows who she is. She takes a deep breath, biting her lip from the pain of both breathing and moving and gets up from the bed, slowly making her way to the door.

When Veronica finally opens the door, it’s to find a relatively tall man about her age patiently waiting for answer. Huh. Not what she expected. Although she hasn’t really even had time to consider what she was expecting.

“Where am I?” she asks.

“My house.”

“Which is where?”

“Hard to say. I’m not exactly within designated city limits.”

She frowns at his relatively dismissive answer and then her frown deepens when she further takes in the man before her. “Do I know you?” / “No.”

“I recognize you from somewhere.” / “Doesn’t mean you know me.”

The man is Logan Echolls. Son of the famed Academy Killer - Aaron Echolls - a one-time academy award winning actor who was sentenced to multiple life sentences after being found guilty of murdering his wife, his mistress (the girlfriend of none other than Logan Echolls), and put his mistresses’ brother and mother in intensive care (the brother survived, the mother did not). Last she’d heard, Logan Echolls was wasting away his fortune and living in obscurity in Iceland. Apparently he’s been in California the whole time, not wasting away his fortune but living in almost complete isolation.

As Veronica heals from her injuries, getting to know Logan in the process, she realizes she is a precarious position: someone tipped the cartel off to her stakeout, leading to Samantha’s death in the process, so even if she had cell service (or a working cell phone) there’s no guarantee she’d be safe. What’s more, if she calls the FBI and lets them know she’s alive, she’ll be bringing them all to Logan’s front door and letting the world know where he is once more.

Who is the leak within the FBI? Who is responsible for Samantha’s death? How will Veronica bring them to justice? And what’s more, who is Logan Echolls, really? And, why does Veronica find the thought of leaving him and going back to her life without him so unappealing?

#lv au week #day 1: come back to me #logan x veronica #vm fanfic #THAT'S RIGHT BITCHES FBI BEAUTY AND THE BEAST AU #that is nowhere near close to ready to post #c: logan echolls #c: veronica mars #p: logan x veronica #otp: the one person #never stories

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manifestoonmoralmanlove · 5 years

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Gormless Ch. 5 - Try to kill my boss? Haha you kids are alright!

A well-meaning friend gave me a book series that is hilariously bad. The first book was Souless and my riffs were entitled brainless. This second book is entitled Changless and these riff are then gormless.

I mean to say I have entitled them gormless! Not that my riffs are dumb, and the effort I spend on them stupid since I’m the only one who enjoys them. HAHA!

The story is SUPPOSED TO be about how a badass lady wearing a rad-looking carriage dress hits baddies with her umbrella and bangs her hot werewolf husband. In reality it’s mostly poor attempts at being witty, flirty, and superior.

For the last book check out the brainless tag.

If you want the TL;DR version but want to read these new riffs anyway?

This story is set in supernatural Victorian steampunk England. Alexia is our NOT LIKE OTHER GIRLS protag. She is a soulless, which means she’s able to negate the abilities of vampires and werewolves by touching them. She’s recently married a big oaf, named Lord Connel Maccon. He’s the manchild in charge of the supernatural police with a zillion dollars and he’s totes super hot too ok. Their relationship is mostly arguments about how Maccon can’t tell her fucking anything. Alexia has also recently become head of ~Soulless affairs~ in Queen Victoria’s government. She has a dumb friend named Ivy, a gay vampire friend named Akeldama, a family who’s evil because they do the same shit as her but while being blonde, and most importantly Alexia is better than everyone cause…cause.

Last time on Gormless:

There’s some mysterious force that’s turning the Vampires and werewolves into humans. Alexia is in charge of figuring out that deal, and she is doing a bad job at it. Her husband is in charge of the Supernatrual Police (BUR) so he’s going to Scotland about it.

There’s a hot werewolf guy into Alexia called Channing and he’s a big jerk. Ivy is getting married to some rich slub, even though she’s in wub with Maccon’s servant Tunstell. Alexia just met a hot lesbian named LeFoux and wants to take her to visit her smart Vampire gay bestie Akeldama.

Chapter 5 – Try to kill my boss? Haha you kids are alright!

This chapter opens up with her seeing Lord Akeldama. Basically they start by inviting Madame LeFoux and just catching up. Turns out Akeldama has not seen the humanization phenomenon before even though he hella old, but his scouts discovered a military ship called the Spanker had people from the Kingair clan aboard who were humanized. We got similar info before, but there’s an implication that the humanization is traveling directly with the people of the Spanker. There’s the implication that it’s moving north, and it has to do with the dead alpha thing.

Something also of slight interest is that Akeldama tried to ~recruit~ Channing back when Channing was human. That Channing, so they say, used to be a charming sculptor and vampires and werewolves were fighting over him. That he went into the military/werewolfism cause it was more ~romantic.~ I think that’s all there just to put Channing back on the table as a love rival.

HE’S BAD RIGHT? BUT LIKE MAYBE NOT ALL BAD?

On one hand they’re fleshing him out. On another hand it reeks of Marty-Stuing and it is not convincing me he deserves another chance.

Well what would make him desirable to you Faps? Put him in an oversized sweater, with glasses, and he’s petting a cat?

Okay okay! My kink is valid and so is the kink for a man-child meathead okay. I just wish my kink was more main-stream gosh.

So Madam LeFoux shows up and there is a brief bit of sassing between Akledama and her before Akeldama has to show off his aethographor. They spend a lot of fucking time on this. I guess this is for the folks into the steampunk aspect but like…I don’t really understand this appeal. It basically boil down to it’s a telegraph machine but it prints letters onto metal with caustic chemicals. It has to be manned at all times, and some old ones need specific ~ Crystalline valve frequensors~ to communicate to one another but Akeldama’s LATEST EDITION doesn’t need it. I am a history nerd and reading about old machines is fascinating because you get to see how the machines have impacted the culture. I also like reading about Sci-Fi technology because either it’s cool to see what people decades ago thought was going to happen, or speculative future possibilities. In theory speculative fiction about an alternate universe’s history could be cool but this machine is just not that far removed from a telegraph machine and sounds like it’s a pain in the ass. But perhaps I’m just so spoiled by the fact that I could get a snapchat of a strange person’s butthole from Australia instantaneously without having to operate a machine the size of a room 24/7. You have not truly enjoyed a stranger from down under’s…down under until you’ve seen it with the leopard ear snapchat filter!

Anyway he gives Alexia a ~ Crystalline valve frequensor~ with his frequency just in case. She puts it in a pocket on her umbrella and it’s like DAMN GIRL WHY DIDN’T YOU LEAD WITH THE FACT THE THING HAS POCKETS? THAT’S WAY COOLER! (Even if impractical for regular umbrellas.)

The three of them part ways, Alexia is planning on taking a dirigible to Scotland in order to face this humanization and save her dumb-fuck husband.

Here we switch point of views to look through Lyall’s eyes. He’s tailing Alexia for reasons and some vampires are sneaking around Lord Akeldama’s place while she was visiting. The vamps almost attack Alexia but Lyall stops them with some pow pow action. The vampires say they were just going to ~test~ Alexia and Lyall is just like haha that’s fine, go home you kids! Also Alexia did not notice any of this.

I mean I’m kinda glad we had a bit o’ action but this was dumb. Lyall just lets these two jackoffs go after they tried to maybe kill/kidnap/whatever his master’s wife. Also he doesn’t tell Alexia she was nearly attacked? Cause drama later on I guess? Fuck this writing! I take back the nice things I said about Lyall! Lyall instead just argues that Alexia shouldn’t go to Scotland. Sure Maccon relies heavily on his superpowers for everything, but not letting him know his powers are going to be suddenly taken away by a mysterious force which maybe out of his blood will definitely be fine. I guess because it’s now Lyall’s policy to make sure everybody around him, whom he attempts to protect with his life, is unaware of the danger around them. Cool, cool.

At least this time when Alexia badgers somebody about something she’s going to do, she’s right that it makes no sense why she shouldn’t. However she unwittingly has to take along a merry batch of fuckers. You’ll hear about them in a bit.

We have a big old scene where Alexia’s mother shows up and is like, “YOUR ONE SISTER IS GETTING MARRIED THE OTHER SISTER IS SO WRACKED WITH JEALOUSY SHE’S MAKING EVERYONE MISERABLE! YOU TAKE HER!”

Oh and there’s this inconsistent writing here where Alexia’s mother is passive aggressively racist toward werewolves and Scots. Yet at the same time there are lines about how pleased Alexia’s mother is that she married a Scottish werewolf. There’s the direct line, “It was a constant source of amazement to Alexia that the only thing she had ever done in her entire life that pleased her mama was marry a werewolf.” I think what the author is trying to say is that Alexia’s mom was happy that Alexia married a rich and powerful man, and LOOKS PAST the fact that he’s a werewolf but still kinda hates werewolves. However they don’t bring up that her mom is impressed with all her money and power. They just keep saying WEREWOLF THIS and WEREWOLF THAT! They made it unnecessarily muddled here and it’s confusing, annoying, and could have been easily fixed.

In Alexia mother’s defense the only thing I’ve seen Alexia do that’s pleased me, is hit that douche werewolf over the head a bunch.

So of course, Alexia’s mother won’t take no for an answer when it comes to her sister. Therefore Alexia is saddled with generic shallow, petty, bitch blonde sister #2. Felicity, the blonde in question, agreed to this, despite hating her sister cause she knew her sister would be surrounded by hunky werewolves. SHE GOTTA GET A HUSBAND NOW TOO! IT’S ALL US LADY FOLKS CARE ABOUT! Due to English custom you can’t just leave your sister in your castle to have wild gangbangs with werewolves all day and night. But I mean, considering the amount of misogyny the 3rd in command is packing? Not leaving her alone there is probably a good idea. (Also I will puke blood if Felicity and Channing become an item.)

Ivy shows up at this time as well cause I mean…Ivy has always been sexually drawn to inconvenient timing. Don’t kink-shame her! When Ivy hears that Tunstell will be going on the Dirigible, she pouts until Alexia just let’s her go along too, cause HAHA WHY NOT AT THIS POINT!?

(A gif of Hillary Clinton laughing and throwing her hands up.)

So she’s taking Angelique (to dress her), Felicity (to be obnoxious in the bitchy way), Ivy (to be obnoxious in the ditsy way), and Tunstell (cause this 90lb actor will protect them all.)

OH BOY WE GOT A SMORGSEBORG OF IMPENDING WACKINESS TO CONTEND WITH! IS THAT EXCITEMENT I HEAR OR THE CRACKING OF MY OWN GRINDING TEETH!?

Say something nice Faps:

Dang I’m having a hard time saying nice things here that aren’t simply just, “Well at least X didn’t happen!”

She uhhh tried to steampunk?

I get a masochistic tickle when Alexia’s family is around. I dislike Alexia so I like seeing her insulted, but the cartoonish villainy of her family is hilarious to me. It’s just so spot-on, the archetypal “BASIC SHALLOW BLONDE BITCH-SLUT TO MAKE PROTAG LOOK BETTER THAN ALL OTHER GIRLS!” However I have yet to see an author fail so spectacularly at differentiating the evil girls from the protag. “I can’t believe all my family cares about is how they look, their social standing, and men!” Huffs Alexia, as she ponders her own romantic dalliances to the king of the Universe, in her new blue carriage dress, which has SHOOK the London fashion world to its VERY CORE!

#gormless #changless #riffing

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hockeyknowitall · 6 years

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Hey! So I tried to get info on my own but somehow I still don't totally get drafts? How they're organized and also I didn't get what an expansion draft is

Sorry it took so long for me to see this.

There are different kinds of drafts and that probably adds to the confusion of them. The most relevant one that you will consistently hear about every year is the NHL Entry Draft so I’ll cover that one first and then touch on expansion drafts.

the NHL entry draft is pretty self explanatory in that its a way for new players to join the league by being picked by teams. This is where teams get their best prospects (usually). There are general trends frm entry drafts like usually the first overall pick will play in the NHL the next year, but defensemen take longer to develop, and sometimes if a draft is strong enough it can extend to the top 10. But also sometimes, certain draft picks are surprises, David Pastrnak for instance was 25th overall, and was the only player from that draft to play in his first eligible season.

The NHL entry draft works because each team is given a position based on the results of the previous season. The teams that do not make the playoffs get put into a lotter system for the first overall pick, and the team with the lowest amount of points has the best chance while the teams that just missed out on the playoffs have the smallest chance for the first overall pick. Then the teams that do make the playoffs essentially get put into order of who was knocked out of playoffs first, given the stanley cup winner the 31st pick. After that, the picks keep repeating. So each round is 31 picks, one for each team. This means that the team with the first overall pick also owns the 32nd overall pick and he team with the 2nd overall pick owns the 33rd overall pick and that repeats for each round up to 7. Now teams can trade picks which is how you end up with some teams not going in the first round at all and other teams going multiple times.

AS far as the players themselves, they are ranked based on scouting and research. There’s a lot of data and whole departments that rank these players. But generaly the first and second overall picks are agreed upon by everyone and sometimes it can go all the way to the top 5 that are pretty much set in stone. But every year there seems to be a player who drops in the draft. This year it was Zadina.

Now, the expansion draft, is only really relelvant right now because the NHL is in a era of expansion. We had Vegas obviously and we’re going to have Seattle in a year or two so that’s why it’s come up a bunch but I wouldn’t expect it to be soemthing to continuously worry about each year. However, it can be confusing.

An expansion draft exists when a new team joins the NHL, and it gives them NHL ready players. In theory a team could just scoop up a bunch of amateur/european league players and just sort of suffer until they get good through trades and the draft. However, that’s terrible business planning. For starters, the league is sustained by the owners of every NHL team, meaning when it expands the other owners are investing in the league so even though their opponents the owners want them to succeed. That’s what an expansion draft does, it ensures a teams success to a larger extent than just letting them fend for themselves.

Expansion drafts change basically every time they’re implemented so it’s hard for me to lay out the format. But generally, a team is given the chance to protect or expose a certain amount of players based on variety of things like position, contracts, age, etc. The expansion team then gets a list of all the players exposed and chooses from them to build a team. It’s not the sort of draft we’re used to seeing with the Entry Draft where a man gets on stage, calls a name, and then a young man is draped in a jersey and a baseball cap. This is done almost entirely behind the scenes, including making the picks. But it still operates in the same way where a department of people combine all sorts of data and research about a specific player to decide whether or not to take them.

Now even though I said these exist to give the expansion team an easier time, it’s not supposed to make them stanley cup final good. An expansion team, is supposed to use the expansion draft to get fringe NHL players, maybe one or two good players and then suck so bad they end up with good draft picks until 5 years later they’re competitive. They’ll have enough notable names to build a following around but still kind of be the pushover of the NHL. Obviously that didn’t happen this year and Vegas showed us all up. Which I thought was amazing.

There are other types of drafts, bu not enough to really go into. Like there are drafts for when a team folds and then there’s the fantasy draft which takes place during the all star game so it’s not real in the sense that theothers are. But in essence the NHL Entry Draft is the main draft that happens every year where teams use picks to add prospects to their organization for the future. And the Expansion draft is put together when a a new team joins the league so that they can have actual Hockey players to play for them.

#draft #entry draft #expansion draft #nhl #Anonymous

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invictus-rp · 3 years

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Team C Infiltration

Setting the Scene: Team A has already begun the front assault on the large stronghold, drawing a number of the Apokolips army's forces out to the main fight. As the halls empty, Steve Rogers instructs that the goal is to search, to try to avoid engagement. Any files, databases, tech, or anything of the like is to be collected. If you must fight, the goal is to do it quietly so as not to sound up any alarms.

Steve Rogers The team was set and everything was in place. He had been half-tempted to allocate one of them over to Dinah's team, but she had promised him that she could handle herself. She had been so certain in the conversation about the mission that he didn't want to undermine her. Besides, she got people out alone. They'd make it. And if they weren't, they could signal for his squad to provide back up.

Crouching in cover, Steve was quick and succinct. "Alright. Keep tight where we can, and remember that we're hoping to avoid discovery. If it goes south, try to contain things. Ultimately, the intel is our objective. We need it at this point if we're going to make a push against Darkseid. Anything we can use, grab it. Better too much or too little."

"Is there a way to scan the area? Figure out if we're walking into virtual trip wires or things like that?" Ted Kord Teddy was more than a little nervous, but this wasn’t his first rodeo and heart condition or not he’d been deemed worth bringing along; he wasn’t going to let these people down. He’d suited up in his new combat gear, a tight fitting t-shirt with the Beetle logo on it, thick work pants with seemingly endless pockets, and a backpack in the shape of a bug that was a robot itself to assist him as needed. After all, there was no guarantee they wouldn’t fight their way out of this.

He listened to Steve go over the objective and nodded, pulling his orange-tinted goggles down. “I’ve got something for that.” He lifted a hand and tapped at a small control panel embedded in his fingerless gloves. His packsack seemed to rumble a little an several black dots flew out, “These are the Puni Possi; my beetle robots no bigger than a pin head, they have cameras and send data to a server so should be able to map the place working together and go undetected.”

“Or if other members can skills that work quicker I could focus on one section? I don’t wanna y’know… step on toes…” his brief moment of confidence gone as quickly as it came. Loki Laufeyson Ah, a team mission. How exciting. Loki had known he was going to be called upon to do things like this when he had offered his assistance to the heroes, but then they would be foolish not to want his expertise and skills. This mission was predicated on stealth and secrecy, after all, which would have been much easier for him to achieve if he had not been saddled with the group of mortals. But Loki had agreed to be (more or less) a team player, so going along with the mortals was unavoidable.

He tried not to chuckle at Rogers' typically noble speech, settling for giving the Soldier a sarcastic salute once the man's back was turned. Loki could easily scan the area with magic, but when the man in the silly bug-themed suit volunteered, he was content to step aside. "No no, you go right ahead, my good man. There is no way that I, a god, would have any more efficient means of checking for traps." Yet his sarcasm belied the real reason he was not offering to do so--his magic was still limited, so Loki thought it better if he focused what power he could on trying to keep their little team relatively concealed. He could not keep them completely hidden, but a little bit of distracting illusion could go a long way to keep anyone trying to discover them busy. "I shall merely do what little I can to offer support to you intrepid liberators." Batman The Captain was susinct in his instruction, something that Bruce found himself approving of. Time was of the essence, their window of opportunity shrinking every moment they spent standing still. His attention shifted to Ted as the man spoke and it was obvious that he was nervous about his tech from the way he backed down without any prompting. The snide remark from Loki had Batman's eyes snapping over, a sour sort of grimace settling onto his face at the unnecessary bragging.

Narcissism, while certainly annoying, was extremely unproductive in their current situation given the circumstances. The urge to check the Asgardian was there, springing up wildly, but he caught himself and held off what remark lay on the tip of his tongue. This wasn't his operation and he wasn't the one in charge. Not here and not today. Silent, he turned to Ted and gave a slight nod as a simple way of deference and turned his gaze away to watch their backs.

Rodgers could lead his team how he wished, and Batman had nothing better in his utility belt than what Ted could offer.

Damian Wayne A short inhale through his nostrils cemented his focus to the task at hand. The briefing from the man leading the charge kept his attention until he opened the conversation for potential ideas. Few served suggestions, but it was the ‘god’ who was compelled to utter a smart remark, earning a tongue click from the teenager. Urges to return the remark, while strong, would be held back by conscious thoughts reminding him of the mission.

“As Batman’s ally, I can attest that those beetles, while slightly grotesque, could prove a valuable asset to the mission,” said Robin, his gaze shifting underneath the confides of his eye mask. “If we are need in more intel, however, I am more than willing to obtain more information undetected from the computers, should they provide any use to us.” Bucky This was familiar. Not the people, necessarily, other than Steve, but a mission, Steve at the head, Bucky providing support and lending his skills. While he was skilled at attack, too, he'd basically been a ghost for decades so it made sense to have him on a stealth mission. He also pretty much insisted on being there if Steve was there so whatever team Steve was heading up, that's where Bucky could be found too.

He stayed quiet for the most part, paying attention to the group conversation but also keeping his eyes and ears open and very aware of their surroundings. He looked over to the bug guy when he mentioned robots, eyebrows raised a little but not commenting until Loki snarked about it and Bucky's eyes got a little steely. "You can do better, do it. If not? Shut up and let him." No one else seemed willing to tell him off so Bucky would, glancing at Steve but not exactly apologetic. Seemed like it needed to happen. The kid vouched for the bug robots and Bucky nodded slightly, figuring enough of them had thrown their support behind Ted for him to go ahead with the scan. Steve Rogers Steve looked up and was about to agree that Ted should scout when Loki spoke. Steve gave him a stern Look, but Bucky was the one who seemed content to call him out. The bats had both go diplomatic. He sighed. "We can kill each other later. This situation is too precarious for petty crap." Meeting Loki's eyes, he waited for an affirmative. "We're all here for a reason. Loki, your illusions can keep us hidden so no one gets a jump on us. That's what you said, right? Ted's tech'll do the scouting." Ted Kord Confidence had never been his strong suit, it only took few words from another, who was a literal god to have his shoulder’s drooping and ready to admit it was a foolish idea. Robin’s, well… somewhat backhanded compliment did make him feel a little better, as did Batman’s nod but he was more grateful than he’d admit to Barnes for standing up for him. Pity he couldn’t do it for himself. Still, not wanting to contribute to, or be the cause of, any more tension, he nodded and rapidly typed some keys to the command board built into his glove.

The tiny robots surged forward, easily finding opening’s to the compound and transmitting their data back. He pulled a small screen from one of his many pockets and a picture began to form. “Some Parademons patrolling, and security systems. These bots can’t disarm them but I could hack into them myself when we’re inside. Though there’ll be some pressure sensitive ground, laser grids and possibly more.” He narrowed his eyes, “Here,” he held the screen up and tapped the further point of it, “My Possi have detectived a lot power going into this space; could be some kind of CPU or data storage?” He shrugged, “There’s a strong possibility what we’re looking for could be there?” Or not cause he often made mistakes and was honestly the weakest link in this mission... But he managed not to blurt that out at least.

Loki Laufeyson He might have had to go on the mission, but that did not mean Loki had to be thrilled about it, and he already had voiced his feelings on doing such a menial task. The other mortals in the strange outfits did not rise to his comment, but the other man did. From what little Loki knew of him, he recalled that he was Rogers' friend. Naturally he would rise to the Soldier's defense. "Hmm, a little testy, are we? Perhaps you might want to calm yourself. We are supposed to be quiet, after all." He did not care if the man in the bug suit performed a scan of the area; he only wanted it made clear that he was lowering himself greatly by assisting them.

Sadly Rogers was right. Despite Loki's feelings, it was not the time or place to prove his superiority. He did not wish to have to deal with Darkseid's forces any more than they did. "Yes, that is correct, Captain," he said, sighing slightly, "I merely would like a little appreciation for how benevolent I am being by assisting this endeavor." Which he was surely not going to get. Unappreciative mortals, really. It seemed the bug man could indeed scan the area, reporting back with an accurate account of what he found. Whatever the power source was, that could well be what they were after. "Oh, well done, well done." He nodded as appreciatively as he could manage, then glanced at the Soldier. "Again, I could retrieve the power source myself, but Valhalla forbid I step on any toes here a second time. Shall I just await instruction, then?" Batman It seemed that both the urge to clip the comment and the realignment of mission priorities was handled by Rodgers and Barnes, although the Asgardian didn't quite seem to grasp the concept of closing his mouth and keeping it shut. There was a tension that settled in Bruce's shoulders and he allowed his frown to edge close against the border of a grimace as he leaned towards Ted to watch the screen over his shoulder. He gave an almost absent nod at the man's assessment, working his jaw as he thought the security systems over- though, more quips caught his attention.

Batman let out a low hum as he turned to face Loki to give him the appreciation he wanted so badly, a dull and irritated frown hinted at across his face. "You showed up to help," he drawled, voice low in the monotone rumble he used so frequently on petty criminals on the streets of Gotham. "Congratulations. Your participation will be appreciated as soon as you apply it constructively. If you have a way to make this mission simpler, by all means, share. This is a team effort, after all- not a measure of individual worth."

That was something Loki needed to grasp. Especially because they were about a minute away from infiltrating an enemy base. Especially because they were about to risk their lives together for the good of the world.

Damian Wayne Alas, it would be the rest of the ‘adults’ to utter their own remarks. A nonchalant hum detracted his focus from such bickering, lest he need to hear the reprimands from the leader of the group. His olive green gaze shifted in Ted’s direction, tilting his head at a slight angle, attempting to catch a glimpse at the screen.

“Laser grids?” mumbled Robin, wrinkling his nose. “Sounds more like basic training to me. Still, I have doubts this is more than just ‘hacking the systems.’ A diversion would be too obvious. It might just be what he expects. I can only hope we’re prepared for what our next action will be.”

Bucky A slight reprimand from Steve but not just directed at him. Someone had to shut the insufferable Asgardian up, though apparently it still didn’t work. Bucky’s eyes flashed with irritation but Batman took this one so Bucky didn’t have to. So he ignored Loki as best he could and focused on the intel Ted was giving them. Sounded pretty standard and the kid seemed to think so, too. “That’ll be it, most likely. Let us know where the pressure plates are, we can take care of the demons.” He looked at Steve again, waiting for the go ahead to move in. He shifted slightly and settled in, armed to the teeth but figuring knives and the arm would be best for stealth. He wished he didn’t feel like he should be wearing a black muzzle and pushed that thought firmly aside. Steve Rogers Steve nodded at the intel that Ted brought up, trying not to roll his eyes at Loki. He knew that he was going to be difficult to work with, but he sorely wished Thor was here to tell him how best to babysit. "We all have our jobs," he said to the other. "You'll get your cookie when we get outta this in one piece."

He couldn't bite down the smirk that came with Batman's response. That was more words than Steve had heard Batman say in the entirety of their time working together. He needed to fix that. Get on making some kind of rapport. He was just so damn busy all the time that things like interpersonal connections tended to fall on the wayside. It was no excuse, though. He simply had to be better. Make time.

Looking to Damian, Steve shook his head. "We should be grateful if that's all we're up against. Things could have been a lot worse." He prayed that it stayed that easy. "Bucky and I will take point. Loki is going to keep us cloaked as best he can, Blue Beetle, Batman, and Robin, I'm relying on you to hack these systems. If we run into trouble, close ranks. We're not here for shock and awe." Setting the Scene: Steve leads the team in. As Ted's Possi picked up, there is a long corridor. A simple engagement of infrared pickups show the lasers and there is a large control panel on the other side of the room. Along the walls are a series of deep holes in the metal--intentional looking. Two corridors break away at the end of the hallway, and footsteps can be heard along each one. Beside the control panel is a door.

Ted Kord All this conflict probably wasn’t the best way to start off a stealth mission. Honestly Loki was like a sup’d up version of Guy Gardner, complete with the green theme. But he wasn’t gonna start anything, especially not without Booster there for him to riff off. But he was grateful to the others for stepping up when he was wilting. Some hero he was supposed to be. He kept his head down, the device up for them to see and let Steve decide on the course of action.

Honestly, he was relieved to be with Bruce and Damian, letting Steve and Bucky take point while they followed in behind them. His Puni Possi were still mapping, making more detailed analysis as well as recording any sounds they heard for later use. When they arrived in the corridor he pulled two small blue beetle shaped devices from one of the many pockets in his pants and held them out, using his other hand to pull his orange goggles down.

“These are translators.” He whispered, “I loaded them up with The Bug’s language database; Kilowog sup’d it up when he visited Guy a few years back.” It should be useful if they encountered any language barriers. “Much as I love my gymnastics, who wants to go get past and hack the laser grid? I’ll head towards the power heavy room? I’ve dealt with alien tech a few times before.” He shrugged, feeling more at ease stating his skills when it was just to Batman and Robin.

Loki Laufeyson A team effort? Loki tried not to make a face of disgust as he glared at the gravely-voiced man in the silly bat suit. Was that supposed to be something reassuring? He disliked being saddled with the mortals; how was he supposed to be glad about having them around to hinder him? Of course Loki was currently hindered by the damper on his magic, so sadly he probably did need the mortals along to...ugh...help. Still, he did not wish to be reminded of this. "Oh forgive me. I was raised to be judged on my own worth and my own worth alone. I am still adjusting to this concept of 'team work.'" A slight lie--Loki knew how to work with a team. He just did not like it.

He wrinkled his nose at Rogers' treatment of him as a child who was begging for a reward. Yes he may have been demanding a reward, but who would not wish for some sort of reward after having to put up with a team of mortals? "Lovely, so I have to keep you all intact now? I certainly wish for something in return for that." At least the mortals all had sorted out their positions. Loki was merely required to keep them as safe as possible. A menial task, and an unsavory one, but he was perfectly capable of performing it.

Once inside the corridor, Loki observed the layout, frowning at the technological barriers. "Ugh, this primitive technology is so bothersome. But fear not, we are as concealed as possible." Upon hearing the footsteps in the distance, he made a slight face. "At least until anyone decides to come make a close inspection." Batman Nothing about Batman's expression shifted as the Asgardian met his gaze, the blank lenses in his cowl as impassive as ever. When Loki had babbled out his excuses, Batman turned to face Rodgers and nodded his head at the man's instruction. As they entered the corridor, he took one of the devices from Ted, turning it over in his hands as a brief examination before looking out across the grid with a tight frown. Potentially dangerous, definitely not to be messed with. With one final assurance from Loki as to their concealment, Batman peered at the gaps in the lasers, calculating the distance across in his head. It would be extremely dangerous to try and sneak across through the gaps- obviously, the intention -although something did catch his eye.

"Robin, lose the cape," he muttered unhooking both his grapple and its spare from his belt. He slid their backs against eachother and once they clicked he turned to his protégé, holding the device out for him to take.

"Fire them simultaneously and they'll make a line you can climb across above the grid." He glanced down the corridor, eyeing the panel and the gap above the lasers. Turning back, he gave a small nod. "I'll boost you."

Damian Wayne Being as he worked under the man’s careful eye for almost eight years, the teen was aware of the other’s calculated intentions. He glanced at the gaps himself, narrowing his gaze underneath his eye mask until he was given orders from Batman.

Confirming the orders with a nod, Robin removed his hooded cape from the front, carefully setting the article aside. He reached for the device presented to him with an acknowledged hum. Using the other’s backside as support, he followed Batman’s direction until they reached the corridor. The aforementioned device remained in his hand, referring back to Batman’s instructions as to where to fire.

“I got it,” he mumbled, paying close attention to his intended target. He kept the device close to his chest once Batman gave him the necessary boost. Soft breaths kept his composure, remembering his usual protocol. A few seconds of concentration gave him the opportunity to press the button on the device, firing the targets as instructed.

Now he needed to reach the grid. Bucky Loki just never shut up, did he? He was still going on and I even after Steve tried to put him in his place, again. “Y’know someone who was really so above all this and better than us wouldn’t have to keep saying it and would just do it.” Bucky couldn’t help at least one more comment directed at the irritating god then resolved to just shut up and do the work.

Steve laid out the plan and Bucky nodded. They all moved in, he and Steve at the front and assessed the situation. He could hear footsteps and the rest look like tech stuff for the others to figure out. Using army hand signals, he communicated with Steve that he’d take the one corridor and Steve could take the other. Best to silence those footsteps before they summoned more. Bucky slipped down his designated hallway silently, looking around a corner to find a patrolling Parademon. Ugly damn things. Waiting until it’s back was turned, Bucky crept up on it and clamped his vibranium hand over it’s mouth then quickly stabbed it in the throat with an all too practiced movement. Catching its weight to lower it slowly to the ground, he kept his hand over it’s mouth until the dying gurgles stopped. As quickly and quietly as possible, he carried it to an out of the way corner and left the body there then kept moving. Might as well make sure these surrounding hallways were clear, though he kept tight to where the team was.

“Got one. Continuing my sweep.” He muttered into the communicator he was wearing to let Steve know what had happened. Steve Rogers Steve sighed. This was going to be even more complicated than he imagined. Loki was difficult to work with, Bucky was so protective of the team, Batman was used to a certain kind of efficiency. They just... had to get things done. They had to do this. "Enough," he said to all of them, voice firm. "We can bicker after we get this done. But I want to win this war and take back our planet. And this is one of the steps to do it. So let's get it done."

He followed Bucky's hand signs, used to collaborating with him and feeling that bittersweet feeling of working with Bucky again. It was familiar, even if he felt guilty that Bucky still had to fight. But he supposed it was just a part of it at this point. They couldn't sit around, even if they might like too. They couldn't afford to avoid this fight.

Taking his hallway, Steve resisted the urge to incapacitate over kill. They couldn't arrest Parademons. He didn't know if they could rehabilitate them. And they were slaughtering countless humans and other occupants of earth. Steve was not really a full kill type of person, but he did what he had to do in war, bringing down two guards with the combination of his shield and hand to hand. "This hall is clear," he advised. "Have we cleared the laser field so Blue Beetle can get into the server room?" Ted Kord Even if he wasn’t as fit as he used to be, by far, he could’ve managed what Robin was doing; hopefully though, he wouldn’t need to and once the lasers were down he’d hack his way what he hoped was the CPU core room and steal everything he could off that mother. He’d even brought multiple of his translators just in case he ran out of space. He watched the pair work seamlessly together and tried to resist the urge to make smalltalk or bad jokes. Instead, he looked down at the small computer of his Possi, continuing to move through the building, recording sound and building a better map; the larger it was the better.

If the apokolips kept their stations half as similar as they did their Parademons, then he could hopefully provide a map for the general layout to make future missions like this easier.

Hearing Steve’s voice come through he reached for his communicator, “Negative on the field. But thirty more seconds I reckon they’ll be across. Once it’s down I’ll make a bee-tle line for the server room,” Okay one bad joke, but he’d avoided the smalltalk! “And take as much as I can.” Maybe he’d leave them with a little something too, he thought, typing more commands into the mini-computer in his glove.

Loki Laufeyson Rogers' friend was still trying to defend him and the rest of the mortals, and while bickering with them was always entertaining to Loki, sadly the Soldier was right. The quicker this was accomplished, the quicker he could be free of their bothersome prattling. "Yes, why don't we all just do our parts then, if we are supposed to be a team. I have already been doing my part in keeping us concealed, after all," he remarked, giving both of them a smug look.

The other mortals were all working at their tasks now, two of them trying to navigate across the laser grid and the one in the bug suit doing...whatever it was he was doing with his tech. And Rogers and his comrade went off to do what they did best--fight. Loki could not resist the urge to roll his eyes, but then he could not complain when someone else did the fighting and left him to do what he was much better at doing--magic and subterfuge. And condescending comments.

"Oh, is that the best line you can come up with? Clearly technology is your forte, and not witty banter." He would have criticized the need for witty banter in this situation in the first place, but then he had been bantering plenty himself, so he decided it was best to leave that out. Instead he focused on strengthening his concealment spell. See, he was doing his part. Damian Wayne The low hum of the lasers left a slight rattling in his ears. Keeping to his front side, Robin advanced forward. The edges of his boots, despite their weight, left little traces of sound, even during his quiet shuffles through the gap. His focus continued, disregarding the distant bickering with a nonchalant eyeroll.

Finally, he stopped as the aforementioned humming grew louder. Tapping the corners of his mask, he paused to further observe his surroundings. Admittedly, there was a skip in his heartbeat. One hand clenched and relaxed against the device given to him by Batman. There was a slight warmth underneath his hands and knees.

It was here.

Reaching into the back pocket of his utility belt, he took a small chip between his gloved fingers. Looking down towards the grid, he found an inconspicuous spot towards the backside. A few more seconds passed for Robin to find his position. He tossed the small chip onto the backside of the grid. The hum began to die down before fading to silence.

"The grid is down,” he mumbled into the communicator. “Keep it short. I’d take five minutes at most to keep the suspicions down.” Bucky Bucky took out one more Parademon after the first then circled back to guard the group. “Hallway clear.” He rolled his eyes at Ted’s pun but he’s take those over Loki’s arrogance and snobbery any day. Steve had put them in their place again so Bucky was just going to ignore Loki for the rest of the mission as best he could.

He’d make it back to the group when the grid went down and nodded at Ted. “You’re on.” Five minutes wasn’t a long time but they could probably get some good information if he worked quick and provided nothing went wrong. Hacking servers was pretty outside of Bucky’s realm of expertise so he’s just keep a close watch for danger and hope Ted did his thing well. Steve Rogers It was going well, meaning that the plan was working. He only hoped things out on the front were going well too. He didn't want any more casualties. Any more losses. They had been through enough, hadn't they? "Blue Beetle, let us know if you can't get in. We'll keep you covered." Ted Kord Teddy watched and tried to contain his nerves watching Robin work; he knew he was capable but he still worried seeing a kid doing something so dangerous. Not that he’d be fool enough to mention it. Once the grid was down Teddy was running forward, wasting no time he pulled another few blue-coloured contraptions from his many pocket and got to work on the door to the server room. It was alien tech to be sure, and it took him a minute to figure out which approach would work. Eventually, he placed a small beetle robot over the control pad, it clamped its legs around it and after about half a minute with Teddy typing away at the keypad on his wrist, the door opened.

“We’re in!” He said into the comm before dashing inside. The place was stacked with servers glowing slightly in the low light. He reached the mother-server and rested his hands over the top of it staring hard through his orange goggles and muttering quietly to himself, diagnosing the system, time needed for downloads and where to port his machines.

“I can hack it,” he spoke into the comms again, despite Bucky, Robin and Batman being close. He began to walk around the room, place more of his palm sized robots onto specific spots of the servers, “I’ll need eight minutes for a complete download. The data will be encrypted but I can hack it later, we don’t have time now.”

Setting the Scene: As the door opens, the back up security begins an alarm and the fixtures in the walls begin to produce a thick gas. More footsteps can be heard at a running pace down either hallway. Finding a way to plug up those holes would be advisable. Get ready for a fight to defend Blue Beetle while he works.

Loki Laufeyson

Amazingly, the mortals seemed to be performing their tasks well. Loki would give them at least that much credit. The lasers were eliminated and the bug man was doing...whatever with this technology. Loki kept the spell up, content to wait while the mortals finished. They were supposed to be about this quickly, after all.

But then an alarm went off, and suddenly there was an outpouring of gas into the space. Loki grimaced. Naturally this would not be that easy, and again naturally, he would have to protect the mortals even more. He could have cast a shield to try and keep the gas out, but that would require more magic than he could spare. Eyeing the holes the gas was pouring out of, Loki decided a quick spell to cover them would suffice to cut off the gas. Waving his hand, he conjured some glowing green disks which affixed to the holes, halting the outpouring of the gas.

"You're welcome," Loki announced, though in regards to the approaching footsteps, he remarked, "But you all better be on your guard, because I cannot protect you from everything." Batman Batman watched Robin with silent, unblinking eyes, as if he could get his son along the line safely with force of will alone. He was on Ted's heels as soon as the grid shut down, handing the cape over to Damian as they passed and giving him an approving nod. He was on edge, knowing their short window of opportunity would leave no time for delay. Ted seemed to have gotten this memo as well, the door sliding open quickly- however, the sudden alarm blaring around them made Bruce grit his teeth. His hand twitched towards the rebreather kept in his belt, though Loki's quick action left the movement unnecessary as the gas flow was staunched.

"You won't have to. Robin, assist Barnes." Batman turned to Loki for a pause before he decided better of it and moved across the room toward the hallway branches in a sprint. He spoke quickly into the comm in his ear, veering in the direction Steve had gone. "Captain, I'm on my way."

If they could hold stall in the hallways before they fell back, the laser grid could possibly be an asset to their cause when reignited. It would hopefully give Ted the time he needed to complete the download. Damian Wayne The screech of the alarms elicited a strong grimace, fighting back the urge to grit his teeth. He mumbled a curse when he was disrupted by a nearby hissing from his perimeter. Swinging his feet to the side, he propelled his body from the top of the grid, grabbing one of the corner with his gloved hand. Reaching into his belt, he grabbed his makeshift gas mask, fitting it over his mouth and nostrils.

Four minutes and fifty-four seconds shy of my prediction. What else is new?

That’s when he heard the hissing grow louder, forcing him to release his grip, using his hands and feet to carefully descend from the crevice where he had climbed from. He broke into a sprint upon hearing Batman’s voice on the other end of his communicator.

“On my way,” he responded, grinning underneath his mask. Without a moment’s hesitation, he continued to make his way towards the other when he reached into one of the crevices in his belt. Finding his Batarang, he slipped it between his fingers.

“Looks like some of us can finally make use of their new utilities.” Bucky Things were going well which meant Bucky should’ve expected something to go wrong. He tries not to be that pessimistic though and just did the work, hoping it would all go as planned. Ted got in and he only needed less than ten minutes. Fair enough…until the alarms went off. Fuck. He could hear the hissing and the footsteps, both of which were a concern. He tried to stay away from the gas only for Loki to cover it up. He gave him a look at the comment. He was just pulling his weight. “Steve, we’re about to have company.” He spoke into the comm as the kid came to join him. Their job was defense now so he stood at the hallway opening that lead to the server room, guarding it.

So much for stealth. To that end, he pulled out a gun as the enemies started appearing and it was on. Steve Rogers Nodding, Steve fell back to settle into a formation with Bucky that felt all too familiar. As they did so, both hallways produced a dozen Parademons with three juggernaut soldiers in strange helmets. Steve had never seen the helmets and he blinked. "On the ready, Batman and Robin. Keep them away from Blue Beetle. We don't need to win, we just need to buy time."

Ted Kord

Teddy was doing his utmost best to ignore all the sounds going on both outside and through their comm. His gaze was fixed on the screen in front of him, alien characters and walls of text flying across the screen and even across the small screen built into his glove. His fingers were azure blurs and he furiously typed on both his own and the Server Room's technology. The small scarab machines he'd attached began to hum as their whirled to life, each one storing more and more data. All the while he muttered to himself, no jokes, no depreciation... no fear for his safety should his team fail. For better or worse his mind was focused only on this task. Loki Laufeyson Wonderful. It seemed they would not avoid a fight after all. Loki was certain that they would have been completely invisible to any enemies if he had been able to conjure a stronger spell of concealment. But now the need for that was gone, for alien creatures and soldiers in helmets were heading their way. So Loki dropped his concealment spell and instead focused what magic he could on creating a few illusory doubles. They would not be as realistic as they normally would, but he assumed the creatures and soldiers would be too dumb to notice that his doubles had a green shimmer to them. Even if they did, hopefully they would still be occupied fighting them. And that would also perhaps give the mortals a little more time, as the Soldier was exhorting them to do.

"I can certainly do that," he said as his daggers appeared in his hands, and his doubles took shape around him, "At least I can have some decent company this time." After all, even being surrounded by illusions of himself was a sight better than all the mortals. Batman "Copy," Bruce huffed in response to Steve's words, picking the pace up. Within moments, Batman was stood to the right of the Captain with a determined set in his shoulders as he studied the adversaries before them. The three new soldiers were concerning, though taking down the Parademons flanking them would be easier seeing as the entire team was familiar with such acts.

Narrowing his eyes, Batman produced a batarang set from his belt and wordlessly hurled two of the weapons at the Parademon who had gotten the closest. The last was flung at high speeds directly into the helmet of the nearest juggernaut in an attempt to knock the thing off.

Damian Wayne From his left side, he could hear the parademons sprinting through the hallways towards his and Bucky’s location. He cast a sharp gaze where he found a few of the aforementioned enemies. With a hard flick, he stuck his Batarang towards one of the parademons. A strong jolt of electricity emitted from the weapon forced the other to his knees.

Steve’s voice on the communicator clarified the priority. Still, Robin kept a slight smirk underneath his mask. One of the larger soldiers made a strong approach towards Robin, reaching for his shoulder. The young apprentice scoffed at the attempt. With the back of the other’s neck briefly exposed, he bent his elbow at a slight angle and slammed hard against the skin.

“I can make do with both,” he said right before he reached back into his utility belt, I’ll save the fanfare until after we complete the objective.” Bucky Great. There were a lot of them because of course there were. Nothing was ever easy. But Steve was there, and Robin, and the priority was to protect Blue Beetle so that's what they'd do. Since stealth wasn't an option anymore, Bucky had his guns out and started firing as soon as the parademons got close. Those big ones with the helmets were new and after picking off a few parademons Bucky made a move on one of the big guys. He fired at it until he was too close then switched to melee, fists and knives with the intention of ripping the damn helmet off if he could. They were probably ugly underneath but at least they'd be less protected. He took some hits but he could as he tangled with one, noting peripherally that the others seems to be doing okay. Part of his attention was focused on Steve but he hardly had to even think about that he just always kept an eye out for him. Ducking under a blow from the big guy again he came up with the vibranium arm and tried to rip the helmet away. He took a body blow and grunted then backed off again. Not quite but he'd keep trying. Setting the Scene: The helmeted soldiers take the assaults which come from Batman, Robin, and the Winter Soldier. The helmet of Bruce's assaulted does not come off, but they seem to stagger back. A sharp and distinctly human sound is heard from Damian's. Bucky's opponent staggers back with the force of the gunshots, but they are not strong enough to pierce the armor accompanying the helmet. As soon as space was put between them, the helmeted opponent raises their hand and begins to murmur something. Around them, strange symbols begin to form, almost as if they are on fire. Single versions of the inscrutable glyphs fly toward Bucky and seem to affect him mentally.

Steve Rogers Watching the team work almost like a well-oiled machine, his eyes sweep the limited battlefield as he watches Batman and Robin at range. Many Lokis filled the area, engaging a number of the assailants. "God, that's a good trick," he said near what he thought was the original Trickster. He swung his shield, connecting hard with a parademon's face as his gaze sought out Bucky down the opposite hall. What he saw had his stomach lurching. Bucky. As if with tunnel vision, Steve slid under one of his attackers to try to force his way down the hall, hurling his shield as soon as he was close enough. It richocheted off the wall before impacting the helmeted assailant in the middle of the chest.

"Don't let them get range on you!" he shouted to the rest of the group. "They're doing something!" Ted Kord Teddy was both relieved and worried he wasn’t part of the madness going on outside the server room. Aside from yells, thumps and the occasional instruction one of the others spoke through the comm he felt isolated; just him and the thick slabs of technology. He typed as quickly as his fingers could go and the beetle robots hmm’d as they worked on their own entry points. Teddy spared a moment while a program was running to swiftly type a few commands into the screen on his glove and a dozen or so golf-ball sized beetle robots shot out of his backpack and zoomed into the hallway.

“I need another five minutes here, I’ve sent the Battle Possi out to help. Whatever’s in here has at least three firewalls and is encrypted to the max; keep them away from the doors so they can’t try destroying the servers.” The hacking would be worthless if they managed to destroy the technology. As he got back to it, the Battle Possi flew towards the enemy soldiers, firing small electrical charges that, despite their size, could pack a wallop if they managed to hit.

𝐋𝐎𝐊𝐈 𝐋𝐀𝐔𝐅𝐄𝐘𝐒𝐎𝐍 At Rogers' surprising compliment, Loki was unable to keep from smirking. "Only the best from a sorcerer of my caliber," he replied. His doubles were keeping several of their attackers occupied, but they would not last long due to the blasted limiting on his magic. Already one had faded away, and Loki had to step in and fight off the creature himself.

The other mortals were doing credibly, but it seemed this fight might not be as simple as it had appeared. At the Soldier's shout, Loki glanced in his direction and saw what he could only assume was some sort of magic coming from one of the helmeted attackers. It was not something he recognized, which bothered him quite a bit, and also made him doubt whether the mortals could hold up against such an attack. "Yes, do stay away," he concurred, "This might well be beyond the rest of you." In truth, Loki was not even sure he could match whatever it was.

And though he was loathe to take orders from any of them, he acquiesced to try and keep the attackers away from the server room doors, as the bug man requested, sending the few of his doubles which remained to distract the attackers in the opposite direction from the doors. "Make it a very quick five minutes, if you please," he added irritably. Batman Bruce's eyes narrowed under his cowl as his weapon glanced off the helmet of their opponent, his attention shifting as he caught sight of Steve rushing through the hall back towards Bucky and Damian. He ground his teeth and tapped out a few mechanical 'marbles' from his belt, throwing them hard at the parademons pestering Loki's magical clones. Upon impact, the small balls exploded with a force meant mainly to disorient rather than harm- hopefully enough to give Loki an advantage.

Swiftly, Batman whirled and unhooked a small, clawed harpoon gun from its spot on his belt and fired it at the parademon nearest to Rodgers, yanking back hard on it when it pierced the armor of the creature and watched as he made his way to his friend. "Beetle, is there anyway to speed it up?" he grunted into the comm, noting the assistance of his Possi with a tight grimace.

Damian Wayne Robin’s stance hardly swayed upon his first advancement. He relaxed his jaw, observing the other’s movements. The strange sound from his opponent, while familiar, did not loosen the tightening grip once he reached the holster of his belt. Grabbing the handle of his sai, he pulled out the blade in a swift motion.

Slow and steady breaths made every effort to keep his composure. He shifted his position to the left of the hallway, his gaze not leaving the other, suspicious of the seemingly human-like noises uttered from their lips. That’s when he heard the voice on the other end give the immediate warning over his communicator. The nearby scattering in the distance indicated another distraction, though not a threatening one on their part.

“Whatever they’re doing, only thing to do is to keep them quiet,” he mumbled, using his free hand to grab his grappling hook from his belt. He raised it over his head, aiming towards the ceiling to propel himself off the floor below them. Bucky The fight is going, which is the best thing that can be said for it. No one’s gotten through to Blue Beetle yet so at least that’s a win. They just have to hold them off a bit longer. All that disappears from Bucky’s head though as a sudden, terribly familiar feeling takes over his mind.

Love=lies, life=death, self=dark side. Freedom is obsolete. Hope has no point.

The words force themselves into his head, insistent, trying to take over and with a yell, Bucky drops. It’s not quite like HYDRA, there’s something stranger to it, but it’s sapping his will, forcing him to go blank. For a moment he’s frozen, terrified of succumbing, hands gripping his head. No, no, no, not again, not after all the work he’s done. The word repeat, insistent, blotting him out, he’s slipping…

NO!

He shouts it in his head, tries to swim against that current, fights. Terrifyingly, it feels like he’s losing but then suddenly it’s gone. Bucky gasps, shaking, unaware of where he is for the moment except that he’s on the ground, the echo of the words still pounding in his mind. Steve Rogers His palm rang with the jolt of the shield returning to his grip. Dropping down by Bucky and throwing the shield up to protect them, Steve grimaced. "I hate to add to the peanut gallery, Beetle, but anything you can do. We're getting clobbered out here." And with Bucky down, they were in just a little more trouble. Though Loki making more and more troops was certainly a hell of an asset. He'd have to talk to him after this, but right now he was worried about the mission... and about Bucky.

"What happened, Buck?" he asked over his shoulder, standing up to clash with the helmeted attacker. "Are you hurt?" Ted Kord ”Working on it.” Teddy said, voice level and he focused less on the sounds from outside and voices in his ear and more on the technology before him. Things seemed to tunnel down and his lips moved silently as he planned and calculated to himself, picking up a wire from the main console and following it around the room to a far corner. He sunk down on one knee and pulled out a small laser cutter. The room was so obviously a data bank it was almost too obvious, could their enemy be smart enough to pull a set up? Massive data that would be useless and unreadable?

He spent a minute burning a circular hole through the case of one data bank and smirked, it had connections within it going to every other bank in the room. This was the main hub of data, the other a decoy. Pulling another data storage bot from his pants he jacked it into the bank and typed away, noticing a much swifter transfer of cleaner looking information transferring. The data hasn’t been too advanced for Kilowog’s improvements to translate; it’d just been gibberish!

“They set us up. I found the real data bank. One more minute and we can get outta here, make sure the exit’s clear.” He began pulling more tech out of his backpack, “I’m gonna blow this data sky-high so they can’t tell what we found and what we didn’t.”

𝐋𝐎𝐊𝐈 𝐋𝐀𝐔𝐅𝐄𝐘𝐒𝐎𝐍 Fighting alongside the mortals was not to Loki's liking, but they did have their uses, such as when the Bat Man sent some small explosive devices to disorient the attackers coming for Loki's doubles. A useful toy, and he deigned to give the man a nod in acknowledgement before he took care of the attackers.

But it was becoming more and more apparent that the ones in the helmets wielded a disturbing amount of power. Rogers' friend was on the ground--without having been physically struck. That did not bode well. Loki did not want to take away any of his limited magical resources, but if he too fell prey to an attack, he would be of no use either. So he made one of the doubles vanish and instead cast a protective spell over himself, as well as over Rogers and his friend who were the nearest ones to him. "Those creatures appear to be using magical attacks," he informed them, "And I cannot protect any of us, not even myself, for very long. Is that bug-suited fool finished yet?"

One more minute, apparently. Loki resisted the urge to roll his eyes, instead fighting off another attacker and also keeping his doubles as near to the doors to the server room as possible. There was no need to worry for their safety in an explosion, after all. Bucky There was someone in front of him, someone familiar…Steve. Bucky sits up slowly and where he is comes back to him but he’s still shaking. Fuck, he didn’t know they could do that. He also didn’t know it would be so damn easy for them to take him that way. “No…but it was in my head.” It’s quiet and the colour has drained from his face as he looks at Steve and belatedly answers his question. He hears that Blue Beetle still needs a minute and they’re still fighting. So Bucky gets up, numbly, puts his back to Steve’s and watches his six. Battle’s not over yet even if Bucky feels like he’s still shaking on the inside, like for a moment he was totally undone. But he puts a blank face on and fights. He’s good at that. Steve Rogers Steve continued the fight, watching the group around him as they held on as much as they could. Fortunately, a minute could seem like hours or it could see like seconds. For their benefit, the former was true today and Steve was thankful for that. He wanted Bucky off the field. He wanted all of them off the field, because he certainly didn't want to go up against these foes unprepared.

He was almost relieved to call the retreat. But now that they had what they came for, he knew the work had only just begun...

#invevent #invictuslibertas #marvel rp #dc rp #mutant rp #dc rpg #marvel rpg

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thefootballlife · 3 years

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Glasgow’s Green and S***e - As Celtic’s season continues to spiral, where do they go from here?

The last time I wrote something on this site was 9 November. Neil Lennon was on the brink. Shane Duffy wasn’t very good. Celtic were paying the price for short term loyalties overwhelming long term strategy.

As I start on this, it’s 16 January and all of those things still apply except a bit worse. In fact, the only difference now is that, amongst much of the Celtic support, anger is turning to apathy.

The reason I revisit it now isn’t because I’ve something worthy to say, it’s because someone actually took the time to email me and ask me to write my take with an outlook onto the medium term. So, here is that take and I hope it’s an interesting one because, more than anything, Celtic’s issues at the moment are in basically every department of the club from the boardroom to the bootroom.

They’re hardly unique in that. But what is unusual is that Celtic have cracked under pressure this time. Even when Ronny Deila was publicly having it out with Kris Commons on a bench in Norway, Celtic still appeared a generally well run club that had their head screwed on. Few would credit the club with that now. The recent communications farce around the Dubai trip is perhaps the greatest example of this - Celtic just plain wouldn’t have had it be such a big deal prior to this season.

What are the individual issues that have beset the club this term?

The first is, of course, recruitment. Up until the first season of Brendan Rodgers, the club maintained a reasonably successful buy low, sell high policy. That’s how the club came about Virgil van Dijk, Stuart Armstrong, Ryan Christie, Fraser Forster, Kristoffer Ajer and many more.

Was it always successful? No. Was the cost of those that didn’t work out lower than the profit on those that did? Definitely. And, to be entirely fair, when Celtic deviated from that policy for certain players, they rarely worked out (Carlton Cole, Tyler Blackett, Derk Boerrigter).

When Brendan Rodgers came in, that policy went because you don’t attract a manager like Rodgers to the club on the pretence of “hey, you’ll get some players to improve that we got on the cheap”. In two years of Ronny Deila, Celtic spent more than £2m on players twice (Scepovic and Simunovic). In the same time of Rodgers, that was four times (Edouard loan being confirmed, Eboue Kouassi, Ntcham, Sinclair) with expensive older players brought in too. In one summer, Celtic essentially changed what the club was about. Rangers did so a year later in bringing in Mark Allen.

This isn’t a criticism of what Celtic did in bringing in Rodgers and reacting with recruitment to match - merely to note that it was a definite change in tack and, what time has shown, is that it wasn’t the right call. The prospects brought in were for more money and from different markets and there didn’t appear to be that much though behind it all - Celtic paid the best part of £2m for Marian Shved, a player whose stats just plain old were unsustainable and whose personality (as shown with issues in Belgium this season) doesn’t appear to have been a fit for the club.

Let’s pause that for a second to talk about how I scout. On my desktop, there’s a spreadsheet. That spreadsheet covers football in the former Yugoslavia and Albania and on there I have about 10-15 players per position that I’m keeping an eye on. They’ve been looked at a lot by me, they’re there on merit, there has been a check on stats to make sure everything underlying backs it up and there’s been a check on social media and news to make sure that there’s nothing there that suggests that the player is a liability. And all of that is alongside contract data, potential values and basically what sort of budgetary information is required. In short, if someone comes and asks me what I think of a player on there, I can provide data, whether I think they’ll be a good fit and, crucially, whether or not they’re actually a realistic target or not. From a club perspective, the reality is that every club should be working three windows out.

The point is this - if I asked Celtic who they’re tracking for Summer 2022, they should know. I know who I’m tracking for it and I’m doing it in my spare time. Other clubs will know too. If you’re a Celtic fan reading, I’d ask if you honestly think that Shane Duffy was tracked for that length of time and if that sort of due diligence outlined above was done on him.

Short term recruitment can work - it is, inevitably, hard work to identify targets and rush them through a vetting process quickly, but it can work. For Rangers, without a doubt it was of help to keep the recruitment process pre-Gerrard in place because the data and groundwork was there. You look at the fees paid in Steven Gerrard’s first window and, save for two players who had fitness issues in Grezda and Murphy, they were all successes. If you asked Rangers who their back-ups were if those players hadn’t come in, you’d note they were all successes also.

Take my word for it, they were.

Celtic’s recruitment policy has changed and the personnel have been more fluid. Does that mean Celtic need a sporting director to provide continuity?

Yes. I’d argue that every club does. Celtic are an outlier in having what is a fairly traditional structure behind the scenes when it comes to clubs their size and having such involvement from the football manager in it. Ideally, you have clear barriers between the commercial bit of the club, the recruitment bit of the club and the coaching bit of the club. Everyone works closely with people they are comfortable working with and someone at the top co-ordinates things to make sure everything is going harmoniously. The CEO should be, in effect, a team leader making sure the money is used efficiently.

Of course, that’s currently Peter Lawwell and you are unlikely to find many Celtic fans behind him, who would generally take him as overpaid and overstayed his welcome. The former is certainly true from any cursory glance at football executive pay, the latter is likely inevitable for anyone, never mind in the light of agreeing to continue with a mid-season trip to Dubai in the middle of a pandemic in the middle of losing a title race by a distance. If nothing else, from the perspective of remaining the best custodian of the club, the best person to ensure shareholders achieve their dividends, Lawwell is having a season that is seriously taking apart his reputation. Lawwell has always been a bit of a pantomime villain who took flak over the cheap policy of the first half of the 2010s and is now taking flak over the splurges of the second half of the decade proving, if nothing else, that being a football executive isn’t the sort of job you want to get into if you have thin skin.

To be fair to Lawwell, if you reduce his job to just the “company” aspects as opposed to the “club” aspects, then any issues this season can probably just have the word “coronavirus” added as an excuse and him given a free pass. The sheer optics of the thing (Dubai, keeping Lennon on after protests) is as much a Dermot Desmond thing as it is a Peter Lawwell thing. After all, if Desmond says Lennon stays, Lawwell is hardly about to go against the man who heats his driveway.

On the pitch, things have been a mess and, to be honest, have been talked about more eloquently and with more data and proof than I could offer. Some of this is standards based - I find it hard to find an explanation how a club renowned for improving goalkeepers, as it did last season, suddenly loses the magic touch and sees an expensive goalkeeping recruit in Barkas (who was a target from the Rodgers days) go so badly wrong so very quickly. You would argue much the same about a defence which is, on paper, perhaps as talented as has been seen at the club at any point look so utterly hapless - in a way, such is the evolution of Neil Lennon as manager from the Strachan disciple of tight football in his first spell to the eventually self-destructive attacking of his Hibs spell. Some of this is no longer being smarter than the smarties - when would you say this season that Celtic have reacted to a situation well? Plan B is often Plan A but a bit more of it - an accusation often labelled at Mark Warburton - and when Celtic do change things, it often looks like it goes all plan nine from outer space. One need only look at the new year game vs Rangers for proof - 60 minutes of being on top without a goal followed by a red card and a collapse. Where in the past, adversity has galvanised this Celtic side and many of these players, this season it merely sticks their heads down further.

The other thing the person who emailed me asked was me to look at the following:

“A sort of stand back view as if the club had brought you in as a consultant to review operations and set out 5 and 10 year targets. “

All the above are the issues to tackle and the why I’d do what I’d do. So, to put out a few bullet points

Hire a young manager with a strong track record of improving players and give them a three year contract (ideally, this’d be Simon Rozman of Rijeka who has seen the past season end any accusation that he couldn’t get it done on the big occasion)

Return to the business model of the Deila era (That period bankrolled and provided a fair portion of the invincibles)

Accept it will take a while (up to three seasons) to return back to the top of domestic football

Coaches may change but the sporting director doesn’t - in short, the on the pitch philosophy should always be the same even if the manager changes

Recruit from markets you can make a profit from (ie NOT BLOODY ENGLAND)

Accept that striking gold from the youth system is essentially random and ensure there is a good pathway from 18-23 for these players to get game time somewhere

Buy Ernest Muci, improve him, make loads of money.

This, of course, has no guarantee of working and will differ for everyone depending on what your own footballing philosophy is. I’m also not including wider decisions that should happen (such as the introduction of Colts into the league system).

Celtic’s issues are, of course, a far cry from the far more serious issues impacting many clubs in Scottish football. Any fan of a club who has wage cuts and the potential for existential peril would surely swap that for Celtic’s problem of merely being a bit crap.

I accept my take on things is a bit different because of the experiences I have and the sort of football I watch. I also accept that a buy low sell high policy around identifying markets and players that can be worked on and turned into very, very good players has an inherently lower strike rate than paying more and getting successful players at prime age but that policy isn’t exactly working at the minute so may as well save money for the same results!

To conclude, if Celtic ask (which they won’t), this is broadly what I’d do.

But it ignores the one key rule of working in football - building relationships. You cannot hope to build a successful outfit without doing the hard yards and speaking to everyone and making a reputation as someone people can do business with. That’s possibly the biggest bridge Celtic need to build - with the fans and with the people who can help across Europe because certain relationships have been neglected and certain relationships have been supplanted.

Design your structure, build your structure and stick to your structure.

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multipleservicelisting · 3 years

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The Impeachment of President Trump: A Preordained Coda to a Presidency

WASHINGTON — Not since the dark days of the Civil War and its aftermath has Washington seen a day quite like Wednesday.

In a Capitol bristling with heavily armed soldiers and newly installed metal detectors, with the physical wreckage of last week’s siege cleaned up but the emotional and political wreckage still on display, the president of the United States was impeached for trying to topple American democracy.

Somehow, it felt like the preordained coda of a presidency that repeatedly pressed all limits and frayed the bonds of the body politic. With less than a week to go, President Trump’s term is climaxing in violence and recrimination at a time when the country has fractured deeply and lost a sense of itself. Notions of truth and reality have been atomized. Faith in the system has eroded. Anger is the one common ground.

As if it were not enough that Mr. Trump became the only president impeached twice or that lawmakers were trying to remove him with days left in his term, Washington devolved into a miasma of suspicion and conflict. A Democratic member of Congress accused Republican colleagues of helping the mob last week scout the building in advance. Some Republican members sidestepped magnetometers intended to keep guns off the House floor or kept going even after setting them off.

All of which was taking place against the backdrop of a pandemic that, while attention has drifted away, has grown catastrophically worse in the closing weeks of Mr. Trump’s presidency.

More than 4,400 people in the United States died of the coronavirus the day before the House vote, more in one day than were killed at Pearl Harbor or on Sept. 11, 2001, or during the Battle of Antietam. Only after several members of Congress were infected during the attack on the Capitol and new rules were put in place did they finally consistently wear masks during Wednesday’s debate.

Historians have struggled to define this moment. They compare it with other periods of enormous challenge like the Great Depression, World War II, the Civil War, the McCarthy era and Watergate. They recall the caning of Charles Sumner on the floor of the Senate and the operation to sneak Abraham Lincoln into Washington for his inauguration for fear of an attack.

They cite the horrific year of 1968 when the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy were assassinated while campuses and inner cities erupted over the Vietnam War and civil rights. And they think of the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, when further violent death on a mass scale seemed inevitable. And yet none of them is quite the same.

“I wish I could give you a wise analogy, but I honestly don’t think anything quite like this has happened before,” said Geoffrey C. Ward, one of the nation’s most venerable historians. “If you’d told me that a president of the United States would have encouraged a delusional mob to march on our Capitol howling for blood, I would have said you were deluded.”

Jay Winik, a prominent chronicler of the Civil War and other periods of strife, likewise said there was no exact analog. “This is an extraordinary moment, virtually unparalleled in history,” he said. “It’s hard to find another time when the glue that holds us together was coming apart the way it is now.”

All of which leaves the United States’ reputation on the world stage at a low ebb, rendering what President Ronald Reagan liked to call the “shining city upon a hill” a scuffed-up case study in the challenges that even a mature democratic power can face.

“The historical moment when we were a model is basically over,” said Timothy Snyder, a Yale historian of authoritarianism. “We now have to earn our credibility again, which might not be such a bad thing.”

At the Capitol on Wednesday, the scene evoked memories of Baghdad’s Green Zone during the Iraq war. Troops were bivouacked in the Capitol for the first time since the Confederates threatened to march across the Potomac.

The debate over Mr. Trump’s fate played out in the same House chamber where just a week earlier security officers drew their guns and barricaded the doors while lawmakers threw themselves to the floor or fled out the back to escape a marauding horde of Trump supporters. The outrage over that breach still hung in the air. So did the fear.

But the shock had ebbed to some extent and the debate at times felt numbingly familiar. Most lawmakers quickly retreated back to their partisan corners.

Updated

Jan. 13, 2021, 9:42 p.m. ET

As Democrats demanded accountability, many Republicans pushed back and assailed them for a rush to judgment without hearings or evidence or even much debate. Mr. Trump’s accusers cited his inflammatory words at a rally just before the attack. His defenders cited provocative words by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Representative Maxine Waters and even Robert De Niro and Madonna to maintain there was a double standard.

That the comparisons were apples and oranges did not matter so much as the prisms through which they were reflected. Mr. Trump sought to overturn a democratic election that he lost with false claims of widespread fraud, pressuring other Republicans and even his vice president to go along with him and dispatching an unruly crowd of supporters to march on the Capitol and “fight like hell.” But his allies complained that he had long been the target of what they considered unfair partisan attacks and investigations.

“Donald Trump is the most dangerous man to ever occupy the Oval Office,” declared Representative Joaquin Castro, Democrat of Texas.

“The left in America has incited far more political violence than the right,” declared Representative Matt Gaetz, Republican of Florida.

The starkly disparate views encapsulated America in the Trump era. At one point, Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the Democratic majority leader, expressed exasperation at the other side’s depiction of events. “You’re not living in the same country I am,” he exclaimed. And on that, at least, everyone could agree.

Mr. Trump offered no defense for himself, choosing to all but ignore the momentous events taking place in the House chamber. After the vote, he released a five-minute video message in which he offered a more expansive denunciation of last week’s violence and disavowed those who carried it out. “If you do any of these things, you are not supporting our movement, you are attacking it,” he said.

Unlike Mr. Trump’s first impeachment for pressuring Ukraine to help tarnish Democrats, some in his party abandoned him this time. In the end, 10 House Republicans joined every Democrat to approve the sole article of impeachment, led by Representative Liz Cheney of Wyoming, the third-ranking Republican. It was a testament to how much the party has changed under Mr. Trump that the Cheney family, once considered ideological provocateurs themselves, emerged in this moment as defenders of traditional Republicanism.

Ten breakaway Republicans were not that many compared with the 197 party members who voted against impeachment. On the other hand, it was 10 more than voted to impeach Mr. Trump in December 2019 — and the most members of a president’s own party to support impeachment in American history.

Other Republicans sought to draw a more nuanced line, agreeing that Mr. Trump bore responsibility for inciting the mob while maintaining that it either did not amount to an impeachable offense or that it was unwise, unnecessary and divisive to pursue just days before President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. takes the oath of office.

“That doesn’t mean the president is free from fault,” Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the Republican minority leader and one of Mr. Trump’s most stalwart allies, said as he spoke against impeachment. “The president bears responsibility for Wednesday’s attack on Congress by mob rioters. He should have immediately denounced the mob when he saw what was unfolding.”

Still, the fealty that so many House Republicans demonstrated for a president who lost re-election and has done so much to damage their own party was striking. “If the overwhelming majority of the elected representatives to one of the two American parties cannot reject the hold of a demagogue even after he overtly schemed to reverse an election and in doing so threatened their very lives, well, we have a long road ahead,” said Frank O. Bowman III, an impeachment scholar at the University of Missouri School of Law.

Brenda Wineapple, the author of “The Impeachers” about President Andrew Johnson’s trial in 1868, said she recognized in Wednesday’s debate some of the arguments made then against conviction — that it would be a bad precedent, that it would only further divide the country.

She also saw another echo, a desire to move beyond the polarizing Johnson to his anticipated successor, Ulysses S. Grant, who like Mr. Biden was seen as a healing figure. “It gives me hope,” she said. “We’ve got to have hope.”

But to the extent that the United States is in need of repair, it is a project that may be overwhelming for any president without a broader consensus across party lines. Mr. Trump may be impeached but he will almost surely finish out the last week of his term and he does not plan to slink away in shame or ignominy as other one-term losers have done, potentially making him a residual force in American life, even if a diminished one.

Moreover, the people who see his defeat as a call to arms remain a force. Security officials are bolstering troops in Washington for Mr. Biden’s inauguration next week, worried about a repeat of the invasion of the Capitol. After Mr. Trump falsely told supporters again and again that the election was stolen, polls suggest that millions of Americans believe him.

“On the eve of the 1940 election, F.D.R. said that democracy is more than just a word — ‘It is a living thing — a human thing — compounded of brains and muscles and heart and soul,’” said Susan Dunn, a historian at Williams College and biographer of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Now, she said, after the events of the last days and years, “we know that democracies are fragile, and the brains and soul of our democracy are at grave risk.”

from Multiple Service Listing https://ift.tt/2XDdRR9

#multiple #service #listing #news #local #business #ads #near #me

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its-filmfixer-blog · 6 years

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Fixing ‘Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice’ (2016)

The goals of this fix are as follows;

1. Use the same basic plot structure of Batman v. Superman to primarily fix the following issues with the original film.

2. Make the finished product primarily a Superman movie.

3. Lex’s plan needs to make sense.

4. Feature more of Superman’s supporting cast.

Click below for the Fix.

The Fix;

The film opens “somewhere in the Indian Ocean.” Several small children go diving near one of the Kryptonian machines that Superman destroyed at the end of ‘Man of Steel.’ They fish out several large rocks and carry them to a man in a business suit standing on the shore. Using a rock hammer, he breaks one of the rocks in half to reveal a glowing, green crystal-like substance.

Flashback to the day of the attack on Metropolis. Bruce Wayne arrives on his private air-field and contacts the head of Wayne Corp’s Metropolis division, Michael Corben, to check on the status of the building’s evacuation. Corben is urged to leave by his son, John, but he refuses, claiming he has something to take care of first. Corben gets on a nearby computer terminal and informs Bruce that he is forwarding all research and plans for “Project Batwing” to Lucius Fox in Gotham. Just as the transfer is completed, Superman and General Zod smash into the building, destroying it and killing Corben. Bruce arrives at the wreckage and finds John Corben with his legs pinned under part of the building. They both look to the sky coldly as Superman and Zod streak across the sky towards their final confrontation.

The opening credits roll over a montage of various news reports detailing the world’s reaction to Superman and the suddenly rare appearances of Batman. Other reports show Bruce Wayne shaking the hand of John Corben, his legs now amputated at the knee, and Senator June Finch becoming the chief anti-Superman voice in Washington.

Eighteen months later, we arrive in a scene of panic as a small town is threatened by heavy flooding. Just when all hope seems lost, several people are rescued by a red and blue blur. A family of survivors on a rooftop look up to the sky and cheer as Superman descends to save them. While Superman checks on the survivors, some of them verbally attack the mayor (there to thank Superman for his help) and claim that he is responsible for the disaster since he cut funding to emergency operations for the town. Superman admonishes the mayor before leaving. In retaliation for the slight, the mayor testifies before Congress that Superman’s existence was the reason for the funding being “diverted,” since “who needs first responders with Superman around?” Senator Finch makes her stance on Superman clear; that she considers him a threat until she is fully convinced otherwise. When asked who she has working on possible solutions, she only smiles.

Finch arrives at LexCorp, a tech company and conglomerate that has become one of the top businesses in the world thanks to their rapid and advanced recovery of Metropolis. We meet Lex Luthor, the young, red-headed CEO of the company, one of the smartest men on Earth and someone who knows it. He is the person Finch has working on the “Superman problem.” He takes her into his research labs and shows off the elements his scouts located from the Indian Ocean. He has already deduced the crystal to be pieces of the Kryptonian’s home world and thus has named the substance “kryptonite.” So far, he and his scientists have discovered three varieties of kryptonite; blue (which seems to have no effect), red (which increases irritation and anger after prolonged exposure), and green (which generates a low level radiation.) Lex demonstrates on the salvaged arm of Zod’s female lieutenant that the green kryptonite can pierce the seemingly invulnerable kryptonian flesh. Finch wants to know how much Luthor wants to create a Superman deterrent, and the scientist demands access to the crashed ship in Metropolis and the body of General Zod.

In Gotham City, Commissioner Gordon meets with Batman on the roof of GCPD. He informs him that several of the low level criminals that have been brought in have no criminal records and show signs of being hypnotized to commit their crimes. Batman seems non-committal and makes a vague promise to look into it. As Batman leaves, Gordon observes that he’s changed since the Kryptonians attacked and he barely sees him anymore. Batman tells him that there are bigger threats now than thieves and muggers.

In a Gotham apartment, we meet Jervis Tetch, a neuroscientist and amateur hypnotist with a fixation of the works of Lewis Carroll. He’s been hypnotizing people off the street and using them to steal for him. He’s counting money and reciting Carroll when he gets a phone call from Metropolis.

Back in Metropolis, Clark Kent and Lois Lane are introduced to their new photographer; James “Jimmy” Olson. The trio gets to know each other as they head for the dedication ceremony for a new Superman statue. The ceremony is sabotaged by the crippled John Corben, who has graffitied the statue with anti-Superman slogans. He publicly blames Superman for his father’s death and is arrested. Clark is shaken and confides in Lois that he’s still trying to make up for not reigning in his powers that day.

While investigating Zod’s ship, Lex discovers and activates a latent AI in the database that identifies itself as the Brain Interactive Construct. When Lex challenges the AI to impress him, the B.I.C. hacks the LexCorp mainframe and solves the issues they’ve been having with a new nano-machine technology. After seeing Corben on the news, Lex bails him out of jail and asks if he’s interested in taking revenge on Superman.

Back in Gotham, Bruce sulks in the Batcave. Alfred pushes him to pursue the hypnosis angle, but Bruce shrugs it off. When Alfred leaves, Bruce returns to watching coverage of Superman.

Back in Metropolis, Clark, Lois, and Jimmy cover a gala to celebrate Lex Luthor’s contributions to the city’s recovery. While trying to conduct an interview, Lois and Senator Finch clash on whether Superman is a positive or negative. Finch notes that Lois seems to be able to talk to Superman whenever she wishes and extends the vicarious invitation for Superman to testify before Congress. Clark finds Bruce Wayne and they have their own conversation. Bruce openly states that Superman could be a bad thing in the long run, while Clark has the same reservations about the Batman. He tells Bruce how relieved he is that Batman seems to be phasing himself out and notes how irritated Bruce becomes.

In the labs below the gala, Lex uses the nano-machines on Corben. The machines quickly go beyond Corben’s legs and begin replacing more of his internal tissues. Corben’s heart gives out from the stress. Lex, at a suggestion from the B.I.C., quickly replaces the dead heart with a generator powered by a chunk of kryptonite. Corben wakes up and notes that he can’t feel anything. Lex says that it’s a temporary side effect and invites him upstairs.

Lex debuts Corben and his new legs as models for a new line of prosthetics. Bruce tries to talk to Corben but is ignored. He mentions to Clark that he hasn’t spoken to him since he left the hospital. He receives a call from Alfred about a hostage situation and rushes out. Lois declares her intent to investigate Senator Finch.

Back in Gotham, Batman arrives at an empty warehouse and finds no hostages. Jervis Tetch appears and plants a miniature hypnosis card in his neck, giving Batman a vision of a world conquered and dominated by Superman. When he comes to, Tetch is gone. Batman returns to the Batcave and decides that all resources will now be devoted to finding a way to stop Superman before the future he saw can come to pass. Hacking into the LexCorp database, he finds files on kryptonite. Several days later in DC, as Corben prepares to testify before Congress, Superman arrives to speak. He and Corben get into a heated altercation that leads to Corben punching Superman in the face… and knocking him across the room. With his new powers revealed, Corben brawls with Superman through the Capital building and across the National Mall. Once Superman gains the upper hand, the kryptonite in Corben’s chest is exposed and weakens him. Before Corben can strike the fatal blow, Luthor arrives and uses a device to render Corben unconscious. He makes a grand show of helping Superman to his feet while the crowd goes wild. Corben is taken back to LexCorp and stored for future use. When Mercy Graves, Lex’s assistant, asks why he didn’t just let Superman be killed, Lex confesses that this was only a test. Lex returns to the ship and, with the B.I.C., begins the process of reanimating Zod’s corpse, using Lex’s own DNA as a trigger.

While watching footage of Superman and Corben battling, Bruce notices the kryptonite and how it affects Superman. Bruce suits up, sneaks into LexCorp, and steals the green kryptonite. On his way out, he encounters Superman. Superman explains that he believes that someone is working against him and he asks Batman to use his detective skills to help him find out who it is. When Batman inquires as to why he’d do that, Superman admits that while he doesn’t necessarily agree with Batman’s methods, he believes that they’re on the same side. Batman disagrees and Superman asks him why. Batman explains the concept of escalation. He tells Superman that when he started operating in Gotham, he only faced the mob and low-level criminals. As the years went by, he began to attract stranger and more dangerous foes. He reasons that Superman’s strength will attract stronger enemies, and worries that Superman will ultimately be corrupted by his own powers. While Superman scoffs at the notion, Batman cryptically warns that he’s watching the Man of Steel for just that very purpose. The two part uneasily, with Superman noting that Batman should trust him “since I didn’t use my powers to see who you really are.”

Lois’ investigations into Senator Finch’s dealings lead her to a link between Finch and Lex Luthor. She and Jimmy confront Lex about his ties to the very anti-Superman senator. Lex explains that what he’s doing is for the benefit of all mankind. Mercy knocks Lois out, but Jimmy barely escapes.

Back in the Batcave, Alfred finds Bruce starting to weaponize the kryptonite. He makes one final plea for sanity, but Bruce angrily declares that Superman must be stopped at any cost. Heartbroken at what Bruce has become, Alfred abandons him. Back at the ship, Lex and the B.I.C. observe the gestating Zod. The B.I.C. warns that if the process is terminated early, the effects could be disastrous. Senator Finch arrives and confronts Lex, suspecting that he intended to have her killed by Corben. Lex laughs the suggestion off and tells her that she’s no use to him dead. Tetch reveals himself and hypnotizes Finch.

Lex brings Lois to the roof of LexCorp and throws her off, summoning Superman. Once Lois has been taken to safety, Superman asks Lex if he’s the one who’s been working against him. Lex stealthily exposes Superman to red kryptonite gas while claiming that it was actually Batman working against him this whole time. Blinded by rage, Superman spies the bat-symbol and blasts off for Gotham.

Batman is waiting, clad in special armor. Using various green kryptonite weapons and tools to even the battlefield, Batman goes toe to toe with the Man of Steel. The two titans do battle across Old Gotham. Superman’s attacks break through Batman’s armor and finally destroy Tetch’s chip with a barely deflected blast of heat vision. His mind suddenly clear, Batman weathers the attack until the effects of the red kryptonite gas wear off. The two quickly deduce that Luthor is behind everything. Superman heads off immediately, while Bruce returns to the Batcave. He finds Alfred waiting and the two reconcile with Alfred revealing the completed Batwing. Bruce dons one of his old costumes and blasts off to Metropolis. Lois has found and convinced Jimmy to join her in investigating the kryptonian ship. They accidently interrupt the resurrection process and escape just as Lex and Tetch arrive. They are confronted by the united Batman and Superman. Lex discloses his entire plan. He intended for Batman and Superman to kill each other, and then release the resurrected Zod to wreak havoc in Metropolis. Using a new power-suit designed by the B.I.C., he would defeat Zod and enshrine himself as Metropolis’ true Superman. Against the B.I.C.’s warnings that the process has been interrupted, Lex completes activates the resurrected Zod. The process has left Zod with chalky, cracked skin and a severely diminished mental capacity. He can barely remember his own name.

Lex: “Well aren’t you bizarre?” Zod: “Bizarre? Zod? Bizarre Zod. Bizarrezod. Bizarrezo. Bizarro! Bizarro!”

Batman tries to use the green kryptonite, but finds it actually strengthens Bizarro. The resurrected kryptonian attacks Superman while Batman pursues Tetch and Luthor. Tetch attempts to plant another device on Batman, but he reverses the attack and uses Tetch’s own tech to overload the chip. Tetch is driven mad and collapses into a laughing, sobbing heap.

Superman and Bizarro battle across the city. Seeing the terrified people, Superman does his best to keep the battle contained to unoccupied areas.

Batman catches Lex and demands to know why the kryptonite didn’t work. When Lex mentions the blue that seemed to have no effect, Batman gets an idea and races back to LexCorp. Bizarro is finally wearing Superman down. As he’s about to strike the killing blow, Lois and Jimmy intervene, drawing his attention. Batman arrives just in time with the blue kryptonite, weakening Bizarro enough that Superman can knock him out. For a moment, Batman considers ended the threat of Bizarro with the mineral, but his morals ultimately win out. Jimmy snaps a picture of the two heroes shaking hands and formally introducing themselves. The headline of the new Daily Planet? “WORLD’S FINEST.”

A montage reveals character fates. Tetch, now calling himself the Mad Hatter, is placed in Arkham Asylum. Lex is arrested but freed when a hypnotized Senator Finch confesses to everything. Superman takes the kryptonian ship and Bizarro to the arctic for safe-keeping. While observing the shell of the only other remaining kryptonian, Superman promises to find some way of helping him.

Back in Metropolis, Superman visits Lex in his office and asks him why he hates him so much.

Lex: “Because you don’t belong here! You’re not human! Your very existence on this planet taints us, pollutes us. You’re stifling our growth as a species! We have grown and evolved for hundreds of thousands of years, and we have done it all without a Superman. I will do what must be done, even if none of THEM can understand. If I have to spend every cent I have, break every oath I’ve ever sworn… if I have to scour the universe to find some way of beating you, then I will do it and I will bring you down! Do you know why? Because I am SUPER. I am super because I wasn’t BORN super. I was born weak, and that makes me strong!”

(Special thanks to Dan Harmon for the main thrust of that monologue)

Superman asks Lex to just confess and save them all a lot of pain. Lex reveals a new ring with a chunk of green kryptonite, assurance that Superman cannot lay a finger on him. After a tense moment, Superman departs, promising to always be there to oppose people like Luthor. The B.I.C., now stored in LexCorp’s database, asks if wearing the ring is wise (due to the radiation.) Lex again brushes off the suggestion. He sits at his desk and asks the B.I.C. if he has any other names. The B.I.C. notes that he was originally called ‘Brainiac.” As Lex remarks that “this looks like the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” he notices a clump of hair falling out of his head.

Batman and Superman have a final chat. Batman reiterates that stronger threats may be coming and the two of them might not be enough. They agree to seek out other heroes, but in the meantime they have each other’s backs. They part as friends, with each revealing their secret identities.

Back in Gotham, Bruce and Alfred share a moment in the Batcave. Alfred hints that his return to the spotlight might have lured back the few uncaptured bad apples. When Bruce asks what he means, Alfred reveals a puzzle box emblazoned with green question marks. They share a smile and get to work.

In Metropolis, Lois tells Jimmy that Superman appreciates his courage and gives him a gift from the Man of Steel; a signal watch to use if Superman is ever needed. Clark, Lois, and Jimmy have a warm moment together before heading out to cover a presentation at S.T.A.R. Labs.

In a mid-credits scene, Brainiac activates himself in Lex’s office and muses about finally being given the opportunity to finish what he started; eliminating the kryptonian race.

In the post-credits, the Mad Hatter is seen ranting in Arkham. As the camera pulls back, it reveals the incarcerated members of Batman’s rogues gallery, all “waking up” and chanting about the return of Batman.

THE END

This gives the DC Cinematic Universe a much more level launching point without throwing every character in the world at us from the very first moment. Wonder Woman is introduced in her own stand-alone film the following year. 2018 sees the release of ‘Man of Tomorrow’ (aka Man of Steel Part 3) and ‘Batman: Arkham Asylum.’

In 2019, we finally see the properly two part Justice League film.

So, did you enjoy this fix? Got comments, either good or ill? Let me know.

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Until the next fix, I’m your friendly Film Fixer reminding you that there’s no such thing as a move that’s beyond repair.

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