#action but without exposing himself. id like to see that and it would be great

[bidisaster-peanut-romano]

sorry if the formatting is bad but do you think that Tad has a chance of becoming clique leader? 

Although Derby would likely make the Bif leader once he graduates, it’s up for interpretation who Bif will appoint as his second in command and who'd be the leader thereafter.

Tad's attempts to become the leader appears to be through manipulating Derby and creating distrust amongst the other preps.

'I got Derby's number, they'll see'

'Derby might not be so happy with Bif after I have a chat with him.'

'I only have to work in getting people to distrust one another even more'

It's unclear if Derby or Bif are aware of Tad's plans, but it seems like Derby trusts Tad enough to delegate jobs to him, as suggested by Tad's grooming dialogue.

'Okay! Derby wants me to give who the run-around today?'.

That being said, I doubt Derby or Bif would ever make Tad leader since Tad’s nouveau riche, though Tad could create a mutiny amongst the preps, building upon their growing distrust. Although this quote may not be reflective of the clique overall, there already appears to be a degree of mistrust within the clique, with Justin saying 'It's hard to develop real friendships at Bullworth. Everyone's just using each other.'

Aside from creating a mutiny, Tad could try to find some blackmail on Derby and Bif that he could use to strongarm them into giving him the position as leader. One of Tad's quote says 'Ever sneak into Crabblesnitch's office at night?' ,which may imply that Tad has tried sneaking in at night to maybe find dirt on Derby, Crabblesnitch's or the other preps that he could use to further his plans

holding you gently. i love this ask + the formatting is Just Perfect

i love your reasoning, and thinking about it blackmailing could be a strategy he'd use. i think justin's quote says also a lot abt that environment the preps grow up in in general- i know that the "the rich are superficial and are in pain bc they can have no deep relationships yadda yadda" argument in media is usually a mere way of demolishing the shiny golden life almost as a distraction from the privileges they hold, but. it's still not completely untrue, esp from what we can gather from the game?? parker has multiple audios in which he talks about girls who we can understand only use him for the pretty gifts and stuff. or bryce who literally says "making it in the real world means a lot of backstabbing".

like, in bullworth in general but especially among the preps trust is. really not something they value much. and especially not as much as their position, their elevated position in the society. i think that one thing that they also have, to deepen this thing, is their family. and i don't mean that only in the "people who live in the same house" way, or "people who have generated me"; we're talking about the honor of a lineage, so to say. like the dignity that is in their very dna. this is exactly the reason why they marry between cousins and why cheating is so particularly despised in these mentality- by mixing with some other family, one is tainting the blood of the whole lineage, so to speak????

each kid carries in themselves the weight of their whole lineage, one might say; therefore, one of them being shamed means the whole lineage carrying that shame and. that is the one thing they really cannot afford.

tad, though? im pretty sure he's the first generation to be born from an incest. he only knows these dynamics because he sees them from the outside and because he's very much looked down on for that. but i agree that he totally see how potentially fragile that is; and especially because we're talking about harringtons. it's heavily implied throughout the game that they basically run bullworth, they have their hands and their money almost everywhere. derby can't afford the smallest slip up.

and bif is his champion. i'll admit that i tend to think of bif as a senior too, same year as derby; but i also think thats much better for them lmao. like, im not so sure bif would be a good leader?? to me he looks boastful, instinctually violent (he's canonically one trouble away from suspension) and mostly he's not nearly as intelligent as derby - which is not a lot, admittedly; derby is a born politician, tbh, he knows exactly what to say to have people hanging from his lips (many preps talk about derby complimenting them, and i honestly think it's less from a place of sincerity and more aboutj making sure they trust and follow him), and has a great balance between authority and reliability.

so yeah. mostly i think he considers bif his pride in the ring; he's his gladiator, bif's victories are derby's victories too and he trusts fully bif's physical performance. diametrically, though, obviously, bif's failures are derby's failures too; see how bestially angry he was when bif lost at the end of boxing challenge. it's more than simple disappointment or broken trust; it's "you failed and you dishonored yourself and me", "me" meaning "harrington". like, you see how each of them is much bigger than themselves? the preps i swear.

anyways as we were saying that's a great leverage, and relying on blackmail could very well be a strategy. I DIDN'T CONNECT THE DOTS WITH THE CRABBLESNITCH'S OFFICE THING BUT IT WORKS???? the main probem with tad methinks is that he... is very much excluded from the systems, you might say?? especially because. yknow mostly with the spencers as family i think the bullworth elite is formally polite tbf, because. they do have the money and the company after all.

but high school kids can be really fucking mean towards outsiders. while i don't think anyone is really straight-up mean to his face, but i do think there's some level of... exclusion from the group, let's say. like gord for example is always chatting with tad so it's not a personal problem against him, as much as a sense of. "you're not one of us". plus, don't ask me why but... i do think that the run-around thing from derby is less truth and more an attempt at making they (himself?) think he does have an important role in the clique too, after all; or at least, he gives to it a much bigger importance that it really has. like, maybe that's just my "i was a kid with a phone in the 2010s" mentality but im not sure that having derby's number is that big of a deal, for a prep.

the mutiny might also be an idea. especially because without derby... you're really missing a charismatic head, y'know. whether it's bif, or justin or - as i usually think - gord, for how entitled, rich or captivating as they might be, all of them lack the political social skills we mentioned when talking abt derby. and without a leader like that, snatching the reins of the clique from each other isn't really hard. especially for someone as astute and subtle as tad, who has learned to be extremely receptive and able to grab the slightest handhold to climb up like his life depends on it.

there's only one thing that i fear terribly; bc, you know. i do get that it was only there to make sure gary ruined jimmy's day another day, but. i have a feeling in the back of my head that they were kinda trying to tell you that. tad is kind of... gullible? that he somehow is easily swayed from following one plan, especially when his insecurities are used to doubt him. his first reaction at knowing jimmy had insinuated that he was inbred had him laying out his whole family situation, and he really isn't famous for keeping secrets about himself. and i'm pretty sure that's a response to accusations in a sense that, if he has no secrets, he has nothing to hide.

it's almost a way of making sure he has nothing to lose, you see. so i have half a feeling that he is stuck in a cycle of planning to gain something, unconsciously knowing that succeeding would mean having something to lose, fear of losing that something, self-sabotaging until he can no longer follow along with that plan, realizing he's worthless, aspiring to have success; and so forth, if that makes sense.

it doesn't mean of course that he doesn't have a thousand plans. i wouldn't exclude the idea that he has in mind strategies involving both blackmail and mutiny. but pretty much like a sisyphus paradox, he always finds himself back at the bottom when an inconvenience occurs to block his path. and even if he was somehow able to become leader, which!! to answer your real question, is in fact possible, i have many doubts that he would be able to hold that title for long. a) for the anxiety of losing that we mentioned before, b) because, while being a good manipulator, he, again, isn't as charismatic and unapologetically confident like derby was, quite the contrary; at worst, he'd be tyrannical, at best, he'd be a weak leader. c) once the throne is unstable like that, it might not be so hard to find a way to dethrone him- maybe another mutiny, even. with what we've said before, what would actually keep the others from throwing away a nouveau riche who mistrusts even his own shadow?

it hits me hard everytime that i think about it that... i really think tad's ambition has less to do with getting on top for the sake of it and more with him just needing to feel like he's worth something, and in the social environment he's in, climbing the pyramid is the best way to get that. but staying on top is dangerous, and requires others' trust to, at least, accept you on there, and i don't think tad is really trusted enough by his peers to be stable. i mean, would they trust a kid who literally took advantage of mistrust to take that place?

so, to summarize, and im sorry i ranted so long!! i do think there's a chance for him to become leader, once derby is gone; but, unless he does something absolutely extraordinary that conquers them all (maybe something concerning the greasers?), i doubt he has the potential to hold that place much long

[quazartranslates]

Welcome to the Nightmare Game II - CH36

**This is an edited machine translation. For more information, please [click here]**

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

-----

Chapter 36: Star Death Reality Show (XIX) {cw: gore}

After being preached to about gods, Lara was silent and did not dare to talk to Qi Leren as they walked.

Qi Leren’s heart was still thinking about Dr. Lu and Du Yue, and at that time he was silent. After cutting off the power supply in the underground laboratory, he had returned to the laser corridor. Although the door to the corridor was open, Dr. Lu and Du Yue were gone. Outside this door was Jing Siyu's basement, where there were traces of fighting. Qi Leren guessed that someone had entered the basement whom Dr. Lu had judged to be a threat. It was not clear which side won, but both sides had left the scene, and it was indistinguishable whether they had returned to the surface or entered the underground research institute.

Earlier, he had entered the underground research institute, but Dr. Lu and Du Yue had been locked out. These two people must have been looking for ways to enter the underground research institute everywhere, and they also met Lara and the others. Later, Dr. Lu had used his talent of "treasure hunting expert" and found another ID card, so he opened the door.

It was already 11 o'clock on the fourth night. According to the amphioctopus’s parasitic tendencies, except Xue Jiahui who was killed by Qi Leren, the remaining three amphioctopuses may or may not have finished one round of parasitism. Now, the total number of amphioctopuses should be between three to six.

The larval body had no fighting power, and could even be eaten by other octopuses in a competitive state, so the enemies he needed to face at present were only three mature octopuses.

Qi Leren quietly caught a glimpse of Lara. On the way to Lara's house, he had been ready to face two octopuses at the same time, because Xue Jiahui had been infected the previous night. After one day, the octopus in her body had matured. On the third night, she should have infected one person. Qi Leren felt that Lara, who had been taking care of her, was the most suspect.

However, when he sneaked into Laura's house and overheard her and Xue Jiahui's speech, he temporarily ruled out Laura's suspicion and just killed Xue Jiahui on the spot. But if Laura wasn't parasitic, who would it be?

"Who has seen Xue Jiahui in the last day?" Qi Leren asked.

"Jing Siyu, Jing Sixue, and Francis," Lara said, her face turned white. "Do you mean..."

"Were any of them in your room between 8:00 and midnight last night?" Qi Leren asked, roughly calculating when the octopus would have become parasitic.

"...Francis. He had come many times, mainly to see me... I... I asked him to take care of Xue Jiahui..." Lara's face became pale and almost ghostly.

The two walked in the snow, and only their footsteps and breathing were left in the quiet space between heaven and earth. Lara swallowed saliva hard and asked in a hoarse voice: "Has he already..."

Qi Leren nodded his head.

The cold wind blew and froze the tears that had just flowed out of her eyes. Lara covered her face and breathed hard, and the exhaled hot air was frozen into a white mist amidst the snow and ice. She was shaking, and even a temperature-regulating suit could not warm her frozen heart at the moment.

Qi Leren was taken by Lara's emotional state, and he couldn't help feeling sorry for her. But her strength is beyond Qi Leren’s imagination. In less than a few minutes, she calmed down, and only her reddish eyes exposed her heart.

"I see, if he really becomes a monster, I... I... I will... I will," Lara resolutely said.

Qi Leren thought, and thought, and thought.

What if it was him? Could he make a decision like Lara’s?

"You don't have to make a decision now. You’ll never know your choice until that moment," Qi Leren said to Lara, as if he were talking to himself.

No one could easily make such a difficult choice. No matter how many plans there are before things happen, it’s not necessarily rationality that makes people decide. Maybe the righteous would become deserters, but the cowardly would become heroes, who knows?

In the extremely bright night, two people who didn't need additional lighting arrived at Annie's house smoothly. The lights inside were off, but Qi Leren didn't dare to take it lightly. Mark was the first person to be parasitized, and the second was Xue Jiahui. On the third day, one of the two victims was Francis and the other was Annie. Aware of the terrible amphioctopus, she had still cooperated with Mark, the parasitized person. Her position was not innocent.

Whether she was parasitized or not, breaking into Annie's house was bound to be a great risk. If the octopus in her body had matured, Qi Leren couldn't think of a good way to catch her by surprise.

"Take this, you hide. If you hear me call your name from inside, throw this into the window and then run away." Qi Leren gave Lara a hand grenade, which had been taken from the institute, and instructed her on how to use it.

Lara was uneasy: "Can you handle it?"

Qi Leren showed that kind of sage-like smile again, paving the way for his "miracle": "Don't worry, God will bless me."

Although Qi Leren's expression and tone at this time was very confident, it still couldn't completely reassure Lara. After all, she had witnessed the "Apostle of God" being hit on the back by an exploded door not long ago, which seriously damaged his credibility. Laura looked at Qi Leren full of worries, hoping that the injury wouldn’t affect his combat effectiveness.

Qi Leren was stressed by Lara's gaze, so he had to jolt himself into taking action. He turned to look for the window he had used to sneak into Annie's house last time. The last time, they had a hard time climbing up, but after his near-death breakthrough in the laser corridor, Qi Leren felt that he could climb in by himself without help.

Indeed, Qi Leren was as agile as a cat, climbing the notches on the outer wall, and the strength in his arms easily supported his body, pulling himself up the wall to climb to the window sill on the second floor and sneak into this quiet house.

The room was dark, and the light outside the window wasn’t enough to illuminate it. However, after the shell was broken, Qi Leren's eyesight was significantly enhanced, and he could see the environment clearly. There was no one in the room, so he quietly opened the door, holding the revolver in both hands, and walked forward against the wall.

Annie seldom left her house, but at this time she was most likely looking for the next parasitic prey. Whether she was here or not, she would surely come back.

Qi Leren quickly searched the second floor of the house. Annie wasn’t here, so he came to the first floor again and still found nothing.

Now there were only two possibilities. She was out foraging, or she was in the basement.

But if he wanted to enter the basement, it was too dangerous to crawl down the pipe. He didn't forget how he had ambushed Annie when she had climbed down the pipe before.

Qi Leren was caught in a dilemma. Although waiting could give him an answer, he didn't have much time to delay here. He would continue to look for Dr. Lu and Du Yue.

Let's go to the attic, Qi Leren thought. He found the hidden ladder on the second floor’s ceiling and entered the attic.

That special floor panel in the attic was there, just lift it up...

With a "click" sound, the floor was suddenly pushed and lifted from the inside. Annie suddenly was crouched there. Qi Leren’s mind raced—should he throw a bomb immediately or test the waters first?

Panic broke out in two very different creatures at the same time. Annie screamed, and Qi Leren dove to the ground, but didn’t forget to pull out his gun and pull the trigger to shoot—Bang! Bang!

Three consecutive shots hit the nearby target. Annie's beautiful head had been blown into a broken watermelon. Without the command of her brain, she failed to support her body. She immediately fell into the pipe and fell back down to the basement. However, Qi Leren knew that it was not dead, its brain was only broken. For it, this is just like a hermit crab that has lost its temporary residence. Its vitality was tenacious enough and its fighting capacity was amazing.

Qi Leren almost held his breath. He took out a grenade and threw it into the pipe, and then ran away, squatting in the corner with his head in his hands.

After an earth-shattering noise, the whole house shook a few times, and then everything was silent again.

You must be dead now, right? Qi Leren guessed that this hand grenade should be enough to kill the octopus. If Mark was down there, it would be a perfect double kill.

Qi Leren waited on it for ten minutes before returning to the pipe’s opening that led to the basement, looking down. It was dark and silent below. He hesitated for a moment, making sure he didn't have the tracking camera on, then he took out a long rope from the item bar and tied it, and stepped on the iron ladder that had become fragile after the explosion.

It was dark in the basement, and in this unlit environment, you couldn't see anything without turning on the lights. Qi Leren smelled the hot and smoky air after the explosion, and reached out and touched the handgun in his pocket…

The Rain-Day Laundry skill hadn’t cooled down after the laser corridor, and it was impossible for it to give him an early warning. But in this deep-sea darkness, Qi Leren's intuition screamed in his mind, danger! Danger! Danger!

At this moment, the reaction forced on him by Chen Baiqi torture made Qi Leren fall to the ground, and something heavy flew over his head and slammed against the wall.

It wasn’t dead yet! Qi Leren’s mind screamed. S/L hadn't cooled down yet. In this case, he had only one life!

Darkness was obviously not an obstacle to the amphioctopus. It started to attack relentlessly in the darkness. Even if his intuition was sensitive again, being passive right now would make him lose. Qi Leren turned on his flashlight and threw it out. Only by this light did he see around.

Needless to say, the octopus that had broken free from its human shell was waving its tentacles freely, grabbing up the rubble on the ground and throwing it at Qi Leren. It didn't rush up to attack because it was kind, but because after the explosion, a huge rock was pressing down more than half of its body, making it unable to move.

Looking at the immobile enemy in front of him, Qi Leren was greatly relieved. He got up from the ground and easily avoided the stones it threw. After the light came on, its crazy attack with only two tentacles seemed to be like a child’s unreasonable protest.

It seems that my luck is really good this time, Qi Leren thought, aiming the revolver at the monster that had once lived in Annie's body, and he fired three shots. The monster was dying, and dark brown mucus flowed all over the floor, but its vitality was still tenacious, almost like an immortal monster.

When the bullet chamber was empty, Qi Leren had to stop and load the revolver while walking around and dodging the stones thrown at him. He even had the leisure to think about where Mark had gone.

Did it go out to find a new host? Originally, he had thought that Mark would continue to dig out the stones here and aim to quickly clear the passage so it could enter the underground research institute.

.....So this was already done.

Qi Leren stepped forward, circumvented the obstacles, and looked deep into the basement. The channel that had been blocked by collapsed stones had been pried open, revealing a hole more than one meter wide. Qi Leren was frightened, and he suddenly understood why He Yi hadn’t turned off the power in time when he left the laser corridor—because he had met a difficult opponent.

And at this moment, the opponent was standing at the end of the hole, holding a single rocket launcher powerful enough to blow the basement to ruins!

-----

[<<< Previous Chapter | Table of Contents | Next Chapter >>>]

[feminaexlux]

Dragon, Viper, Tiger

Tossing my hat back in the ring for @lovebugs-and-snakecharmers AU sprint challenge!. I went with the Thief/Heist AU since I’d been kicking this idea around for a while.

I gave myself an arbitrary editing deadline of 6pm so I hope it both makes sense and reads alright, but shrugs

Hope you enjoy! Find on AO3 here :)

⁂

Viper was sometimes glad he had a longer running gait than the woman on his tail only a few meters behind. He put his long legs to use and leapt up onto a couple of filing cabinets, scrambled up to the bare industrial support beams of the so called modern office building he’d broken into, and jumped over the dividing wall via the exposed ceiling.

Post-Modern styled offices just lent themselves so well to the good old B&E.

The wiring crisscrossing through the exposed ceiling allowed him to occasionally cut the telecommunication lines in his hasty exit, which was great in trying to prevent any of the security cameras from tracking him. If he also took out the internet lines that was just an added bonus, since that’d probably slow down anyone trying to access the proprietary blueprint he pilfered. He just needed to buy some time.

He probably could have gotten out a few minutes ago since he already had the memcube in his pocket, but this was really the only opportunity he had to see Officer MDC in action. Oh, nice, there she was, waiting for him in her combat stance at his specified exit point. Even at 5 foot nothing she’d landed him on his ass waaaay too many times, but honestly he loved the challenge of facing her. She always had new tricks up her sleeve.

But so did he, with some of the info that Tiger kept leaving him. Like, for instance, even if MDC had gotten the EMP disruption lace installed in her gloves, it could easily be counteracted and redirected by the additional aluminum alloy mesh Dragon had added as the inner lining to his wetware, so the memcube wouldn’t be completely fried if MDC did manage to land a hit (and she usually did). The only problem was trying to find where to ground the pulse… But the priority order was, as ever, keeping his identity safe, then getting the payload, then trying to escape unscathed. Paris PD’s Special Circumstances wasn’t ever going to figure out his identity (unless he died), nor would they get to know that the same general producer for their own tech was his boss (unless he died).

Viper didn’t relish the idea of dying, so he’d been doing his best at avoiding that particular outcome. He’d done well so far, even if he did come out of MDC encounters with more bruises and scars than when he went in. He had landed in front of Marinette and smiled. She rolled her eyes at him. And before he knew it, she had launched herself at him with her classic opener: a roundhouse kick to his solar plexus.

⁂

Viper slid underneath the food truck and unlatched a hidden panel, hauling himself through the opening feet first as quietly as he could. He toed the hatch closed behind him but caught it with his fingers before it made impact. He couldn’t give up the game now by being loud, that’d be so, so lame. He heard the gravel get scraped below his temporary entombment and he knew it was Marinette. She felt at the truck’s undercarriage and probed for any particular weaknesses or different materials and he heard her muffled voice as she worked with her TIKKI AI to scan any infrared signals and find any potential structural modifications done to the vehicle.

Here’s to hoping that Markov did its job correctly, he thought. Otherwise they’d be out of a job… and a food truck.

A few minutes later he heard her curse and slam an open palm against the undercarriage in frustration. “I know you’re in here, Viper!” she yelled.

“Ma'am?” He heard another voice chime in. “Why are you under our truck?”

⁂

A very cramped 3 hours later after a thorough inspection and nearly complete teardown of the food truck, Viper finally popped the floor panel and took in some fresh air. Well, relatively fresh, it smelled like greasy food all around him. The truck was already on the highway, having been released from the PD’s temporary impounding for being present at the scene and potentially housing a wanted criminal. The scans came up with nothing, the truck’s workers came up clean through the ID system, the truck’s visit and movements were tracked and scheduled and above board.

The actual food truck owners were unaware of his presence, which was just the way he liked it. He stretched his legs out a bit after being folded up into such a tiny space for so long. It was the sole disadvantage of having long legs, but he was the best in class at his job for all the contortion required. Plus he wasn’t claustrophobic like Tiger was. Speaking of… he checked his watch.

ur late, asshole

cg again? u simp

special 4u 0xdeadbeef

Oooof course. He could always count on his sister for ribbing on his infatuation with Cafe Girl, their codename for Marinette. He took one last relatively fresh breath of air and went back into hiding, sealing the latch shut. He listened for the engine knock signature: 4, 5, 1, 4, 2, 5, 5, 6, opened the bottom panel, dropped onto the street with his camouflage on, and kicked the panel closed before the truck took off. A bus drove over him and he hitched a ride, holding on underneath for 4 blocks, then rolled into the gutter drain.

⁂

It was a pretty quiet evening at Cafe Orriko, a cozy little cafe that had some steadfast regulars. One of Luka’s favorite hangouts due to the owners letting him lounge around and play his acoustic without complaint. There’d been another reason Luka loved this particular cafe, though.

Nathaniel heard the door chime and looked up, smiling at the newcomer. “Hey welcome to–oh hey Mar–oh shit MARC WE HAVE A CODE PINK!” There was a hastily tossed pillow from Marc that Nathaniel covered with a tea towel and passed to Marinette. She pulled up the pillow to her face and screamed into it for a good 20 seconds. Nath grimaced. “Bad day?”

She lowered the pillow. “Stupid fucking Viper I swear I will rip him in half and tear him to fucking shreds once I finally get my hands on him!”

Luka chuckled, having stopped playing his guitar when he noticed that Marinette had come in. “Careful, sounds like he might like that,” he winked.

“Uuuuugh,” Marinette groaned. “Thank you, Nath. Just… just gimme my usual, please.” She looked pretty dejected this time, handing back the pillow and tea towel, walking to Luka’s couch, and plopping down next to him. “Please, Luka, could you play me something soothing?”

“Anything for you,” he said, starting up an easy tune. “I know you can’t talk a lot about your work, but… what went wrong today?”

“Nnng, just… just I knew where he was and we still didn’t get him. He’s like a fucking ghost, he just… disappears! Poof!” She usually discussed what was already covered on the nightly news broadcasts, just to be safe.

“Then he’s pretty good,” Luka said neutrally enough, but hid a smirk behind a cough when Marinette gave him the stink eye.

“He only needs to fail once,” Marinette huffed. “He can’t always have luck on his side.” Marc came by with her salted caramel hot chocolate. “Thanks, Marc,” she sighed, relaxing a little bit as she took a sip of the steaming hot drink.

Luka set a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. “You’ll get him one day, I know it.”

“I’d still have my work cut out for me. I have to find the Dragon after him,” Marinette groaned again. “And Adrien’s still obsessed with that stupid Fencer lady so he’s no help.” Marinette shut her eyes tight and shook her head. “But enough about that. How are you, Luka? I’m glad I was able to run into you today.”

Luka wasn’t going to mention that she’d already run into him earlier as the one and only Viper. “It was going alright, but it’s better now that you’re here,” he smiled. Marinette blushed a little and smiled back, nudging his shoulder with hers. “Sorry about your rough day though,” he added quickly.

Marinette shrugged. “It’s work. It’s… it’s so weird what the Syndicate goes for, it’s not even like… anything really valuable? I swear they’re doing it just to mess with us and wreak havoc.”

“You haven’t figured out a pattern?” Luka asked. Marinette made a zipping motion across her mouth. “Oh, right. Sorry.”

She shrugged again. “No more talk about work, please. I’d just… like to hear you play, if that’s alright?”

“Yeah, no problem,” he chuckled.

She closed her eyes as he started playing the guitar again, something soft and pleasant that reminded him of her. She leaned her head against his shoulder while he played and he felt his heart beating faster.

One day, when the jig was up, he’d love to take her out for dinner. Assuming, of course, that he hadn’t been torn to pieces by her hands.

[night-time-writing]

Robin Can Sing?

https://archiveofourown.org/works/27827248

Word Count: 2,189

Summary: The Young Justice team finds out that Robin can sing.

           The team was absolutely exhausted after their mission. It was supposed to be an easy stake out, just sit, watch, and report, no big deal, right? But of course, it never works out like that.

            They were watching a group of illegal weapons dealers. They had the same pattern. They would set up, find a buyer, and after the deal they would pack up and move locations. Every time they were reported all evidence was gone before the police could arrive. So, the team was tasked with gathering evidence to give the police. However, as they were watching the client showed up earlier than expected. The team then chose to jump in, knowing if they didn’t the dealers would be packed up and gone before the police could get there. Of course, on top of having to deal with a couple dozen, heavily armed people, against the six of them, it was also pouring rain. So, by the time they finished and got back to the cave, they were all battered, bruised, and covered in a thick layer of mud.

            When they were finally back at the cave and done giving the mission report to a very unhappy Batman, though to be fair Batman was never happy, everyone headed directly for the showers. All except Wally and Robin. Wally ran off with a pocket knife that he stole from one of the goons that tried to pull it out on him as a last resort, to add to his souvenir collection before heading to the showers himself. Robin went to the kitchen and poured himself a bowl of cereal since he  had to wait for the others to finish their showers before he was able to take his. That way he could take off his mask and not worry about anyone figuring out his secret ID.

            By the time Robin was done with his cereal, the rest of the team, now clean and no longer in there costumes, started to filter into the communal area in order to hangout and relax after the mission.

            Wally walked over to Robin, bumping his shoulder lightly. “Showers all yours Rob, I think we left you some hot water.” Wally joked.

            “Wow thanks, how considerate of you.” Robin rolled his eyes, turning to fully face his best friend after placing his bowl in the sink. “I am forever in your debt.”

            Wally laughed and his antics as Robin bowed slightly at Wally before walking away with a little chuckle.

            When Robin got to the showers the first thing he did was lock the door, just to be safe. He then took off his mask, no longer having to worry about his secret ID. He then grabbed a towel and put it close to the shower. He left his clean clothes in his locker so that they would stay clean and dry. Then he was finally able to get out of his dirty costume and step into the nice hot water to get rid of all the dirt he was caked in.

            Once he was finally under the water, he began to relax. It felt so good to let the hot water wash away the blood and mud, exposing the extent of his injuries, which weren’t that bad, just a few cuts and burns from the grenades the goons threw at him. He would need to bandage himself up after his shower, but he couldn’t bring himself to care. The hot water was relaxing his aching muscles, making him feel so much better.

            As he was scrubbing soap into his hair, he started humming the tune to one of his and Wally’s favorite songs. He then started to sing the words, like he often did back at the manor with no one else but Bruce and Alfred to hear him.

                                                           …

            Artemis realized while she was sitting on the couch that she had left her bow in the ship, in her hurry to take a shower she forgot to put it away. So, Artemis excused herself to go and put it where it belonged before she forgot to do so. She stopped midway to the hanger, getting distracted by singing.

            The voice was soft, but she could hear it clearly. It was coming from the boy’s showers, and it didn’t take a genius to figure out that it must have been Robin singing. But, what made her stop was just how good it was. It surprised Artemis that he was such a good singer, considering that she knew that he had been fighting crime since he was nine. She doubted that between school and being Batman’s sidekick, and the young justice team, that he had much time for anything else but training. Artemis barely had time to sit down with her mother, let alone practice singing. Robin also didn’t seem like the kind of person to sing, or perhaps Artemis was just associating Robin with Batman more so then she should.

            As she stood there, listening to him he started to sing louder. He was definitely getting more into the song. She found it quite enjoyable to listen to, and just continued to stand in the hall, her bow long forgotten.

            Back in the commons, Wally was getting worried that it was taking Artemis so long, so he decided to go bug her. He got up from the couch and headed for the hanger, on his way out he called out a promise to be back for cookies and that M’gann should make an extra batch. He was surprised to find Artemis just standing in the middle of the hallway. However, as he approached her, he could hear the singing coming from the showers.

            Wally already knew that Robin could sing. Whenever the two of them hangout as just Wally and Dick instead of Kid Flash and Robin, the radio was usually on and Dick often sang along to whatever caught his interest. Wally liked to listen to Dick sing, but he also liked to tease the younger boy. So, Wally decided to stay and listen with Artemis, just to see what would happen if Dick caught them standing outside once he was done. Wally walked over to the wall, and without saying anything to Artemis, leaned against the wall and listened with her.

            The next person to come looking was Kaldur. It didn’t take long for him to get worried, since M’gann was making cookies, and Wally never missed a chance to try and sneak cookie dough while she was making it. However, he also knew that Wally was easily distracted, so he didn’t make a big deal about it, deciding to investigate on his own.

            He was very surprised to find both Wally and Artemis standing outside the boys showers, not saying anything to each other. He walked over to them and went to ask them what they were doing. Before he could get the words out, Wally lifted his finger to his mouth, signaling for Kaldur to be quiet. Kaldur was confused, but complied with Wally’s wishes. Kaldur then listened to his surroundings, which is when he heard the singing. It was definitely nice to listen to, but it didn’t explain why it gave both his team mates pause. In order to better understand he decided to join them in listening to the singing, and leaned against the wall.

            As Kaldur listened he found himself relaxing to the sound. It was nice to listen to and the voice was very smooth. He found himself feeling a bit more at peace the longer he listened.

            ‘Perhaps this is why’ Kaldur thought to himself. ‘It’s just so relaxing.’

             M’gann and Connor got really worried when Kaldur didn’t return. Kaldur wasn’t easily distracted and should have just gone to check on Wally and Artemis and then come straight back. So, the two of them left to go and find their missing friends, only to find them all standing quietly outside the boy’s shower room.

            M’gann was the first to really notice the singing, and she understood. The beautiful singing was drifting into the hallway from the showers, where she knew Robin was currently. It was kind of surprising to learn that he had such a nice voice. Sure, he wasn’t as up tight and stone faced as Batman, as a matter fact, Robin was constantly making jokes and playing with words. Based on Robin's personality, it was surprising that he would be singing, it was just that he seemed like someone that couldn’t carry a tune. Or perhaps that was just M’gann trying to find something he was bad at. A person who was both a great fighter and extremely smart needed to be bad at something, for example, Batman was horrible with people, but Robin on the other hand was quite good with people.

            Connor had heard the singing before he could even see his team mates, but it didn’t mean anything to him. Once he did find his team mates, and could guess that the singing is probably what gave them pause, he didn’t understand why it would have.

            “Why are you all just standing out here?” he asked.

            “We are listening, Connor” M’gann answered. “Doesn’t it sound so nice?”

            “I guess, but what’s the big deal?” Connor was still confused, M’gann’s explanation didn’t help in clearing any of his confusion.

            “I think everyone’s just surprised that Robin can sing so well, he just doesn’t seem like the type” Artemis supplied, and M’gann quickly agreed.

            Connor frowned, he still didn’t get it. Why would Robin being able to sing cause all of his team mates to stop outside the showers to listen? However, before he could ask more questions the door in front of them opened to reveal and equally confused, wet Robin.

            While they were talking, they didn’t notice the singing had stopped and the water turned off. Robin had heard talking outside the door as soon as the water was off. He then quickly got dressed and went to investigate.

            Robin looked around at them, very confused by their presence. But before he could ask them why they were there, they all realized they were caught and rushed off. M’gann mumbling something about the cookies in the oven. Their actions confused Robin further. Robin watched as his friends all headed back to the commons. Wally stopped midway down the hall, turning around as sending a knowing smirk towards Robin. Robin shook his head at their confusing behavior before heading back into the showers so that he could patch himself up before heading back to his friends.

            Robin decided that his friends must have heard him singing to himself. However, Robin couldn’t figure out why they were all crowded outside the door. Wally made a little bit of sense, he liked to tease the younger boy when he got carried away and started belting out the lyrics to songs they heard on the radio. But Robin could not figure out why the others would have been there. Unless Wally made them, but that still didn’t make sense.

            After Robin was all done cleaning up, he walked back to the commons and found the team sitting around the TV, except for M’gann who was pulling cookies out of the oven. Robin walked over to an open chair and plopped himself down before turning to question the group.

            “So… does anyone want to tell me why you guys were all crowded outside the showers?”

            “Nah, I’m good, but thanks for asking.” Wally joked. Robin just rolled his eyes.

            “I don’t know why." Connor supplied, shrugging slightly.

            “Well everyone got distracted by your singing. It’s quite nice to listen to.” Kaldur answered.

            Robin frowned. “Everyone gathered outside the door while I was showering, because you like my singing?”

            “I stopped because I was surprised that you can sing, but the more I think about it, the more I’m not sure why it surprised me. You're good at everything. Is there anything your bad at?” Artemis asked.

            “I don’t know what you mean. I’m bad at a lot of things.” Robin was even more confused now.

            “Really? Like what? Because your good at fighting, acrobatics, your extremely smart good with people, actually funny, and apparently a good singer.” Artemis moved to fully look at robin, and held up a finger for every item she listed.

            Robin was shocked. He didn’t know how to respond to that. “I can’t cook to save my life” was all he could come up with while Artemis was staring him down.

            Wally snorted. “That’s true, never eat Robin’s food.” Wally’s face contorted into a look of disgust at the thought of Robin’s cooking. He then shook his head, as if to get rid of the memory. Everyone laughed at his reaction.

            “Cookies are done” M’gann announced, carrying a couple plates over to the group, setting them on the coffee table.

            “Yes!” Wally exclaimed and then proceeded to shove several cookies into his mouth at once. “Hey, how ‘bout we watch a movie and chill after that mission?”

            Everyone agreed happily before Artemis and Wally started arguing over what movie to watch.

request for @eurovisionfan12

[new2otomelol]

Maid to the Rescue - A KBTBB Fanfic

I have not posted in a looong time, but miss it! I will be going back, fixing some of my older posts (fix my writing, lol) I’m still not a great writer and being a teacher takes a lot of work, but this is a nice escape from the world every once in a while. This is for one of the awesome people that have read my stuff and liked it (a thousand thank yous!)

This story is developing and this is the first part. I don’t own the rights to Kissed by the Baddest Bidder, Voltage does. This is a fanfic for fun!

It has been a year since that fateful day in the lobby. God, my life was so different back then. I was always at the beck and call of “the boys” as I called them. My saviors as well as my proverbial pains in the rear. There are times I miss them, and others when I wish we could have all met under different circumstances.

You see, more than a year ago I use to be a maid at a famous hotel called the Tres Spades. A hotspot in Tokyo and one of the many business ventures of my former supposed boyfriend, Eisuke Ichinomiya.

My life was put in danger more times than what I would’ve liked during our pretend relationship; a situation that also opened up backlash from some of the employees at the hotel. Eisuke decided he didn’t want to see me suffer and thus ended our affair in grand-fashion in front of the staff and clients. This gesture alone successfully put an end to relentless bullying in less than a few seconds. 

Even though I completely understood the situation and told myself countless of times that I was fine, it still hurt.  Eisuke and I had gotten close during our time together and even felt like barriers he had put up were beginning to cease. But enough was enough, I was tired of being labeled “plain,” “stupid,” and other things by people. I wanted to feel like a person of worth that could stand on her own two feet. I took Eisuke’s breakup announcement as my chance to run and do what I have always neglected to do, self-care and growth.

That day, I stood up my co-worker on a date, packed my bags with only my essential needs, emptied my savings jar and fled. I tried to be smart about it, ditched my identity, left the money Eisuke had deposited in account untouched, destroyed my phone, you name it.  I knew the boys would eventually seek me out, but I needed time.

I had made a friend  through Chisato who helped me create a new identity and assisted me with finding a small place to live in that was well hidden. Eventually, Gage, as he called himself, had me join a few of his friends. Together we formed a small “gang” of sorts. Our activities may have not always been on the legal side of things, but they are just and necessary. 

We have become a family and enjoy working with each other, but I know that eventually I have to go back to my old life and start anew. I’m no longer that shy girl who followed others blindly and gave up so much of herself. I’m strong, in fact, I always was; I just never could find the time to build my confidence. Those days are gone and I’m ready for what I must face.

I wipe the sweat off my brow as I wait on top of this old, dilapidated roof and stare at my computer screen. Enough reminiscing, time for action. “Siren! It’s time!” I hear the command through my earpiece and enter a code in the computer. “Entered, security systems are down, including firewall. Lucy, begin download.” I give the command and hear “roger!” from my friend Lucy. A beeping sound goes off on my computer 2 minutes later and I know our time is up. “Alright everyone, it’s 2:00 a.m. and as planned they have caught on. My location has been made, initiating cleanup sequence, let’s roll!”

I pull a tab on my computer that I had installed to a small little bomb, which I had put together and crafted into my laptop’s hard drive earlier in the day. My 20 second countdown begins as I reconnect my harness to the rope and slide down to another rooftop across the way. I enter the stairs through the roof access and quickly make my way down. Through the windows of the stairwell. I can see dark figures running towards the building I just had been in. Goodbye jerks! I’m gone and out of sight.

I take dark alley ways and finally make it to my scooter and drive away. I’ve gotten so used to the adrenaline rush of it all that I don’t panic anymore. A few minutes later I make it to the warehouse with all the others. 

“Siren! Great job girl! We got the assholes!” Gage comes up to me and high fives me as I dismount my scooter. I take off my helmet and breathe in the air, letting that wonderful feeling of accomplishment settle in.

“I can’t believe that we were able to pull it off this time! Did Lucy download all the files we needed?” I ask and Gage smiles widely, “that and more my friend. We found that the company has a connection to a crazy cult-like organization called AID. We will unleash the company’s doings to the media and let that fire start and take over. We have finally avenged Nyx!” He starts to do his little victory dance around my scooter as the rest of the gang shows up.

Nyx is a fellow member of ours that had been employed by a major corporation. She was great at her job and handled the accounting for her employer. Unfortunately, the corporation went under new leadership and things went awry quickly. Looking for a scapegoat, they shifted the blame on our friend that we refer to as “Nyx” and she was arrested and charged. Tonight, we took the information we needed to clear her name and set her free.

We all move to the day room area and  take a beer in celebration relaxing on our old worn-out couch. “Siren, I think it’s time for you to also clear your name and face your destiny.” Gage whispers to me as he takes a seat next to me. Of course, the others pick up what we are talking about and quickly get excited. “Yes Siren! It’s time for you to conquer your love!” Lucy states happily. I laugh and throw a pillow at her from the couch. “I know, I know and I feel ready to go back and face it all; but remember, I must do it on my own." 

We continue to talk about plans that we’ve all made since we got to the sanctuary.  Gage is  a computer programming specialist and professor in real life. He took us in, taught us everything we know about computers, hacking, etc. Some of us in the group specialize in other things and so we learned from each other how to fight (thanks to "Net”), weaponry (thanks to “Lucy), languages (thanks to "Nikia”) and the hotel industry/customer relations, thanks to yours truly.

We’ve kept our names a secret from each other in order to teach ourselves to protect our identities. Not once have we ever revealed our real names, except to the professor, Gage. 

Each one of us had a rough patch in life and ended up here. Once we solve our past issues and restore our names, we move on with our lives with the promise to help others along the way. A “pay it forward” if you will.

After an hour of celebrating we begin to head out to go home and rest. Gage taps me on the shoulder and asks me to stay behind to talk. “Lisa, listen, it’s been a year for you already and I agree with the rest of the family, it’s time for you to face your past.” I had a feeling he wouldn’t let the topic slide. “I know Gage, and trust me, I’ve been working on it.” Gage smiles and motions for me to follow him to the kitchen area where he makes some coffee for the both of us. “I’m sure you have researched your friends plenty and have prepared." 

"Yes, I sure have. With the information from tonight, not only do we have evidence to free Nyx, but I have evidence to help out one of my friends and expose some of the corruption in his workplace. I also have found some other information about my ‘ex’ that tells me there is danger up ahead.” Gage sits back and sighs. “Oh sweetheart, there’s so much going on with each one of those men. In fact, I just found out something…” he’s cut off by the sound of the ringer coming from my burner phone. I gasp and look at the professor. “Answer it, quickly!”

Chisato’s ID appears on the screen and I immediately pick up. “Siren! Listen to me please. They’re all gone. Eisuke, Mamo, Baba, Soryu and Ota. We all thought they were on a trip, but it’s been two days!” The news hit me like a cold shower. “Chisato, please, calm down. I’ll be there tomorrow afternoon. Take the chip out of that phone, break it and the phone and throw it away. Don’t worry.” The call ends abruptly and I take a deep breath and look at Gage.

“Told you Lisa, it’s time. Do you know who you are up against?” Without a doubt I do. I feel my blood rush and my fists tighten. “Gage, I can do it. The masked man, AID, many of these people that the guys have come up against have one person in common, the Prime Minister.” Gage smiles and leans forward holding my hands. “We’ll help you with the evidence to take him down. Your friends won’t see the connection because they’re dealing with the middle-man again.” “Gage, I don’t want to get any of you in trouble…” he pats my hands. “Lisa, you know we’ll be completely anonymous when releasing the information and helping you. We’ll all be worried about you going in to the line of fire, but you’re the most skilled in sneaking around and fighting. I know you can do this!” The professor stands up, gives me a kiss on the forehead and puts up our empty coffee cups.

“Gage, I can’t ever begin to pay you back for everything you’ve done for me. Thank you, thank you so incredibly much for taking me under your tutelage and helping me grow.” I bow to him and he laughs. “Lisa, you’ve helped many people while being in this group and this isn’t goodbye dear. I may be in my 50’s, but I’m not dying yet.” I laugh and attack him with a hug. “No one will die, I’ll make sure of it.”

He pats my back and releases me from the hug. “Okay sweetheart, go get some rest and get ready, tomorrow is another day!” ************************************ Back in Tokyo…. “Eisuke! Wake up, come on! Shake it off! Damn this shit!” Soryu curses as he struggles against his tight restraints. “S…Sor… what the fuck is going on?” States Baba as he begins to wake up from his drug induced stupor. “I don’t know, but it looks like we were all drugged at the party and here we are. Who the fuck could havd done this?”

“Maybe it was one of your gang rivals Sor” said Ota as he licked his dry lips and shook his head in an effort to re-stabilize his sight. “Not one of mine; this is not their typical ammo.” Rustling noises come from one of the corners of their dark enclosure. “Nah kid, at this stage, it could be either Baba or Eisuke’s enemies. What the actual fuck did they give us? My head is 'bout to rip the fuck open!” Groans come from the center of the room as Eisuke comes to. “What the fuck?” Soryu rolls his eyes, “we just established that part. Do you have any bad deals going on right now? Anything we should know?” Eisuke shakes his head and tries to re-moisturize his dry mouth. “The usual. Maybe that masked freak is at it again? Whoever it is, I wasn’t anticipating this, and usually I can see it a mile away. This is bigger.”

“For sure it wasn’t me. I’ve been in France for a month” said Baba. “Well, whoever the fuck it is, they have a flair for the dramatic. They should have just taken us out of the equation if they were able to get all of us.” stated Eisuke. The lights turned on and the mens’ eyes sting with the introduction of the harsh brightness. “So you are awake, perfect! I’ll notify the boss soon.” Said a man with a familiar voice as he entered the large warehouse area. The men re-adjust their sight and look upon their captor. “I called it! Masked dude it is!” said Ota. “Oh buddy, I’ve been nothing but a pawn in this and will continue to be to fulfill my boss’s every desire. Unfortunately, he’s been a busy body, so I will entertain you until he’s ready. Continue to enjoy your accommodations men, you’re here for the long haul.” The man laughs and quickly walks away leaving the bidders in their metal chairs with what seems to be mechanized handcuffs, the likes they had never seen before.

[madelainesvixens]

Title: Masked ID

Ship: Veronica Lodge + Sweet Pea (Sweet Vee)

_______________

Sweet Pea loved Halloween.

As a kid, it was the only holiday he ever was looking forward to. He loved to scare Toni and other Serpents with creepy masks, fake knives and red syrup.

One time, Fangs almost peed his pants. It was hilarious.

Needless to say, when Veronica announced him that they'd be having a Halloween party at La Bonne Nuit, he was thrilled.

For the past two weeks, Veronica and him had worked on the decors, making plans and ordering online a bunch of accessories and props that would transform the beauty of the old age casino into an epic spooky dream.

''Don't go too gore with the decors, mi amor. We don't want to scare the clients away,'' Veronica reminded him, seeing him eyeing a headless prop on the computer screen.

Sweet Pea rolled his eyes. ''Halloween is supposed to be scary, Veronica,'' he countered, scrolling down the page and stealing Veronica's laptop from the bed to type something. ''We need a smoke machine. Can we have that?''

The raven haired girl hesitated, not quite getting her boyfriend's ideas. ''Eh, I guess...''

''Yes!'' Sweet Pea exclaimed, pumping his fist excitedly.

She chuckled, looking at him with fond eyes. It was so rare of him to get this excited over events - or anything, really -, it was cute.

Almost as cute as the time he had stayed behind to help her clean up at La Bonne Nuit. There had been some misunderstandings between a Serpent and a Bulldog a couple months ago and, as expected, a punch had been thrown and resulted into a fight. Reggie had been quick to break it up with the help of Sweet Pea, but there was some damages made. Broken glass, blood stains and else. After everyone had left, the raven haired girl had been surprised to see that Sweet Pea was still there, a broomstick in hand, sweeping glass shards from the floor.

That night was also the same night she had invited him over at the Pembrooke - for drinks, she said. Needless to say, not much drinks were drank that night, but a lot of sultry kisses were exchanged as they fell on Veronica's bed.

Smiling at the memory, Veronica put her head on his shoulder as he searched online, the soft burnt red flannel rubbing against her cheek.

''Do you have a costume in mind for Halloween?'' Sweet Pea asked. ''PLease tell me it's not some sexy animal or I'll vomit on your expensive carpet.''

She scrunched her nose. ''My costume is picked. And, don't worry. I'm not think kind of girl, but I'm offended you thought so of me. I'm a Lodge, I have class.''

A low laugh rumbled from Sweet Pea's stomach as he shook his head. ''What is it?''

''It's a secret,'' Veronica proudly informed. ''I think you'll like it.''

Her lips twisted into a confident, malicious smile and Sweet Pea grinned, leaning down to kiss her.

''Consider me intrigued.''

.

Dressed in her mini dress and feathery black wings, Veronica stood in the middle of La Bonne Nuit, admiring the spooky makeover she and Sweet Pea had given to the place. It was almost unrecognizable under all those spiderwebs, decors and props. She was very proud of their work.

Who knew Sweet Pea was great at decorating?

The stage had been turned into a jail cell with creepy props and strobe lights, the bar was covered in spiderwebs and all glasses had been replaced by halloween themed ones to go with the ambiance.

She had just finished writing down the special menu of the night on the blackboard when her phone screen lit up across the bar. Veronica put her chalk down and went to grab her phone when the lights flickered in the basement, making her frown.

Must be a power overload from all the lights and decors, she assumed. The place is old.

She reached for the device and read the screen: Masked ID. Her frown deepened. Who could this be? Her father? Prisons have masked numbers, right? Why would he call her though?

''Hello?'' she answered, curiosity and confusion in her tone.

No response.

''Hello?'' she repeated.

Still no response.

With a sigh, Veronica hung up, thinking it was some prank à la Scream - kids do that these days - when someone grabbed her from behind, causing her to let out a high pitched scream, her phone dropping on the floor.

Pop was upstairs, running the diner and Veronica was hoping he'd hear her and come down. Being a pacifist, Pop probably wouldn't fight her attacker from lack of defense knowledge, but he could call the cops.

Before Veronica could scream out for help again, any sound she thought of making was muffled by her attackers hand as he held her firmly against his chest.

A red light flashed in the young Lodge's mind, refusing to let whoever was attacking her go without a fight.

Since getting exposed to her father's mobster life, Veronica had learned how to defend and protect herself from possible harm.

She still didn't know how to fire a gun like her mom, but Veronica Lodge was not a damsel in distress. She knew how to fight back, and this was the perfect time to put her knowledge into action.

Rapidly studying her situation, she tried to jab her attacker with her elbows and free herself, causing them to get tangled into some spiderwebs and witch props, startling her attacker for a few seconds before he steadied himself, giving her barely enough time to escape.

She made a run for the stairs, praying that she wouldn't slip in her high heels boots but, just as she was about to reach the first stair, she screamed as a gloved hand pulled her back and pressed her against the wall, giving her full sight of her attacker's cult mask and blue mechanic cover-all.

''What do you want? Let go of me!'' Veronica demanded, voice steady and firm despite how scared she was.

She tried to reach up to remove his mask, but he grabbed her hands and secured them in his fist, preventing her from revealing his identity.

He didn't say anything, he just pressed his body against hers and, for a fraction of second, Veronica thought she was about to get raped. Her heart was beating fast behind her chest, getting flashbacks from her night with Nick St. Clair.

She opened her mouth to scream again, being closer to the door this time and having a better chance for Pop to hear her distress, but her breath caught in her throat, feeling something cool touching her neck. A blade.

Veronica stilled and gulped, terror flashing through her eyes.

A familiar laugh filled the air, giving away the identity of the masked asshole she called her boyfriend. She narrowed her eyes and hit his chest and shoulder, not holding back. ''You're such an asshole, Sweet Pea! Good Lord, never do that again...''

He removed his Michael Myers mask, revealing a big grin. ''You should've seen your face! You looked terrified,'' Sweet Pea pointed, still laughing.

She shouldn't have expected any less of him. He was an horror fanatic, after all. He even dressed up as his favorite slasher protagonist.

Veronica gave him a stern look, raising her arms. ''Of course I was! I thought someone was going to murder me. I had all the rights to be scared.''

Sweet Pea rolled his eyes. ''It wasn't even a real blade...'' She crossed her arms and he sighed, knowing what she was waiting for. ''I'm sorry...that I didn't get this on video.''

She swatted his chest and he pulled her into his hold, going in for a hug of forgiveness, but stopped mid-way, taking notice of her outfit. He had no idea what she was dressed as, maybe some bat or maybe that girl from Black Swan. What he knew was that she looked fucking hot in this fitted dress, hugging her in all the right paces.

Holding her at arm length, Sweet Pea glancing up and down. ''Fuck. You're going to be the death of me, Veronica Lodge,'' the Serpent declared, capturing his bottom lip with his teeth as he ran his hand on Veronica's sides, following the curve of her body. 

A fierce grin formed on Veronica's lips, cocking a perfectly plucked eyebrow. She took a step forward and closed the space between them, the tall one's cologne filling her nose. Sweet Pea's breath hitched as he leaned down, following her as she leaned in for a kiss but, just before her lips touched his, she abruptly dodged them, bringing her lips are next to his ear instead.

''I'm warning you,'' she said, her breath blowing on the shell of his ear as she spoke. ''If you take this knife to my bedroom, I'm going to be the one pointing it at you.''

Taking advantage of Sweet Pea's distraction to reach for the fake knife in his back pocket, stepping back to wiggle it between them.

A smirk formed on his lips. ''Noted.''

[argentdandelion]

Juni Cortez is a Callous Little Fool

Author Patreon - Author Ko-Fi

In Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, Juni Cortez, retired kid superspy, learns his sister Carmen is held captive by the Toymaker, an evil ex-operative banished to cyberspace. To save Carmen and stop the Toymaker’s schemes, he enters the Toymaker’s game, the mega-popular virtual-reality video game Game Over.

When Juni enters the game, he meets three beta testers: cool guy Rez, smart guy Francis, and tough, strong guy Arnold, who eventually choose to help him upon believing he’s “The Guy”, a figure who can help them reach the supposedly unwinnable final level of the game. Later on, the OSS, a superspy agency, offers to send in one person to help him. Juni chooses his grandpa (Valentin), once a superspy himself who had been paraplegic and wheelchair-bound for 30 years. The recurring opponent Demetra later joins their group, evasively offering her “intuition” along with the others’ brains, coolness, and strength.

But when he meets Rez, Francis, and Arnold in the “real world” near the end of the film, they don’t look as they do in the game. To this, Juni looks at them scornfully and says, "Reality check.”

Juni Cortez is a callous little fool.

Evidence

Very soon after Valentin enters the game, he gets a power-up, “Mega Legs”, which not only restores his long-lost ability to walk, but gives him incredible jumping ability and a shiny, armor-covered superheroic physique. Valentin’s great strength and mobility prove very handy for Juni and the group, and Juni turns to him for advice multiple times.

Near the end of the game, Valentin is reluctant to leave for the real world. In Game Over, he can walk and run, and Juni looks at him like he's "some kind of super hero", but in the real world, he'll be confined to a wheelchair. He agrees to go back in Juni promises him he'll look at Valentin no differently than in the game, for, even though he'll be in a wheelchair, on the inside Valentin feels like "this" (presumably a superheroic figure).

Section 2: Programmers

One level, the group knows some programmers are around; Francis describes them as "the braniacs who wrote the book for the game". As they’ll bounce them back to Level 1 to catch them as a consequence of earlier cheating, the group scatters to avoid them. However, they find Juni after he and Demetra consult a forbidden map of the whole game. The programmers menacingly taunt Juni, instantly making him lose one of his lives as they taunt him. Scared, Juni calls out for his grandpa:

Programmers: "Listen to that, E-Dawg. 'The Guy' is calling his grandpa.[Sarcastically] I'm so scared." "What's he gonna do? Drool on us?" (Valentin dramatically steps in from behind and picks them up by the scruffs of their necks) Valentin: "You are programmers? Let's see what you really look like."

Francis scans them to reveal their real appearances, showing 1980s-Microsoft-employee-style dorks. Valentin deems them "very unimpressive" and Rez snarkily calls them "computer nerds".1

Section 3: Demetra

Demetra was Juni’s opponent in a robot arena, and later tried to stop him, twice, in the Mega Race. (i.e., the world’s most intense game of Virtual Reality Mario Kart) Later, she joins the group, offering her “intuition”. When one of the game’s challenges pit Juni and Arnold against each other for the group to progress, with the loser being removed from the game, Juni fares poorly. Demetra swaps herself with Juni, sacrificing herself so Juni can go rescue his sister.

The beta testers try to “kill” (make him lose all his game lives) Juni and his sister, out of the belief Juni is “The Deceiver”, a figure in the game who tricks players and keeps them from getting to Level 5 and its “untold riches”. When they change their minds and enter Level 5, Demetra soon re-appears. Carmen confidently states Demetra isn’t real, slicing through her to expose her as just a hologram. She’s the Deceiver, an AI whose purpose was to hinder them. Juni doesn’t share Carmen’s scorn. It turns out Demetra had developed a crush on Juni, and helps them all to escape as the Toymaker tries to trap them in the game.

Juni Cortez Neglecting the Evidence

In the real world, the spy agency tracks down Rez, Francis, and Arnold from their email addresses and brings them in front of Juni. Juni still looks pretty cool as pudgy-faced preteens go, but, shockingly, the beta testers look nothing like they do in real life. Francis has no glasses and has a biker jacket, Rez looks like a 1980s Microsoft-employee-style dork, and Arnold has glasses.

Juni: “What happened to Francis the Brain, Arnold the Strong, and Mr. Cool?” Francis: “Well, in the real world, I'm not that smart.” Arnold: “I'm not strong." Rez: “I’m not cool.”

To this, Juni just looks at them with an expression that morphs from shock, to bafflement, and then scorn, and dissmissively says: "Reality check." (When his grandpa is within earshot, no less)

One might want to cut Juni some slack; he's 12, at most. Yet, Juni Cortez says this even though he’s seen Francis being smart (reading through the tech manual and reporting on it), Arnold being strong (catapulting another player out of a car, attacking him, being acknowledged as the “strongest player”) and Rez being cool. (being unflappable and leading the other two) Worse, he says this despite knowing Demetra was more than her programming...and despite just having promised his grandpa he would look at him no differently in the real world even when confined to a wheelchair.

Admittedly, they did try to “kill” (in a video game sense) him and Carmen before reaching Level 5, out of the belief Juni was The Deceiver. They were also initially unfriendly to him, telling him to get to the next level in a way that was effective but made him lose a life, and only agreed to follow him and help him upon proving he was “The Guy” in the very dangerous Mega Race. On the other hand, the previous film shows he already holds his grandpa in high regard, and though Demetra was twice his opponent, her actions weren’t any worse than someone showing off skill in a competitive video game. (e.g., Mario Kart or Street Fighter)

Valentin’s reluctance to leave Game Over parallels that of a real person: Ibelin Redmoore. (or, rather, Mats Steen).2 Mats Steen had Duchenne muscular dystrophy, a fatal genetic disorder that rendered him slumping, atrophied, and wheelchair-bound, a la the physicist Stephen Hawking. He found solace in the massively multi-player game World of Warcraft, where everyone saw him as his avatar/alter-ego, the handsome detective nobleman Ibelin Redmoore.

A friend of his in World of Warcraft, Kai Simon, said at his funeral:

"I met Mats in a world where it doesn't matter a bit who you are, what kind of body you have, or how you look in reality, behind the keyboard.”

Had Juni known Ibelin Redmoore...what would he have said?

(Trivia: Originally, I was going to write something about Spy Kids 3D, appropos of nothing, as an April Fool's Day joke earlier this year. This is just the rewritten version of the nearly-complete joke update.)

Which, in retrospect, is a ridiculous thing to say. He and the others love video games so much they're beta testers for a new virtual-reality video game in 2003, before video games were as "mainstream" and respected as they are now. Indeed, one could call Francis a nerd for his brainy mannerisms and glasses. Though...knowing Rez looks similar to one of the programmers in real life, perhaps he says this out of self-hating insecurity? ↩︎

Source: The BBC. ↩︎

[omfgtrump]

Tale of Two Viruses: Part 33

Guess what? The Don didn’t win the Nobel Peace prize. It was a tough decision. The U.N., who The fly took residence on Pence’s hair like it was an Airbnb.helped feed 100 million people around the world, or The Don, whose heinous response to the pandemic continues to increase the number of Americans with food insecurity? He also planned to cut food stamps to 700,00 people, but decided to reverse course, due to heavy opposition and a decision by a federal judge. Just another example of the world’s lack of appreciation of The Don.

As predicted in my last piece, The Don emerged from his battle with Covid-19 more emboldened than ever. The NY Times reported that he said, he would fake a frail walk at first, then open the shirt to reveal the iconic “S” insignia to demonstrate he was strong and free of the coronavirus, a superhero for the ages. Here is what he said when he left the hospital:

“Don’t let it dominate you. Don’t be afraid of it,” Trump said in a recorded video message. “We’re going back, we’re going back to work. We’re going to be out front. Don’t let it dominate your lives. Get out there, be careful.”

I thought Superman was supposed to protect people, not give them license to do things that could harm them. Where’s kryptonite when you need it?

The Don learned so many things about the virus, and promised us that he would reveal his wisdom to the American people. And what were these wise words he uttered while standing on the balcony of the White House? “It’s going to disappear. It is disappearing.”

While the virus continues to ravage our country and as cases rise throughout much of the country, The Don declared himself immune. And since he is now cured and immune what’s the worry as only he matters.

Pivoting from the virus, he tried to distract us by ranting and raving that Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden should go to jail! Methinks there is a case of major projection going on here, as if The Don loses the election, it is he who will be going to jail.

His desperate antics keep peeling away voters and he can see the handwriting on the wall. (Now there’s a wall I can get behind!) If Biden goes to jail, then he won’t have to run against him and can run against the “Monster,” Kamala Harris. Me thinks there is a case of projection going on here, as we all know who the monster is.

The real monster suddenly decided that he wouldn’t support any relief package for Americans who are hurting from the impact of the virus. In particular, the monster wants no relief for all the blue states that don’t love him. (He then changed his mind because is precious stock market went down, not because he gives two shits about anyone’s suffering.)

The real monster did not condemn an attempted kidnapping of Michigan Governor, Whitman, by White Supremacists. All he could say is that she didn’t thank him for “his FBI” who thwarted the plot- an FBI that he has demeaned and undermined throughout his presidency.  Let’ slow that down: A governor of our country is the subject of a kidnapping and his response is to feel aggrieved that she didn’t thank him. Rumor has it that he was disappointed in the botched mission. “Man, those Boogaloo Boys need to get their act together,” he lamented to one of the few people left in the White House who would go near him, fearing infection.

He is a monster because he is even incapable of protecting those that do stand by him, unconcerned that he is exposing them to a deadly virus.

And then we have the fly that decided to hangout on Mike Pence’s head during the debate with Kamala, the “Monster.”

Have you ever seen a fly just sit on top of someone’s head for so long? It was like Pence’s head was the fly’s Airbnb. After all, besides booking a place in a mound of dog shit, Pence’s perfectly coifed silver hair was a pretty good choice. Given Pence’s passivity and capacity for acquiescence in putting up with The Don’s amoral actions, the fly hit the jackpot. When does a fly get a chance to sit on a human’s head without being swatted at, shooed away?  If you looked closely, you could see the fly putting on some white goop: the fly had read in the amenities section of the Airbnb that anything black was frowned upon. When asked to rate its experience, the fly gave it a big thumb’s up. “Just loved the spot, like sleeping on silk sheets.  Just wish I didn’t have to try to hide my blackness.”

The fly went on:

“But there was a great view of a beautiful black human that I stared at the entire time. At one point I debated taking off and flying over to her, but she seemed strong and powerful and maybe wouldn’t have been so happy having me nesting in her hair. I heard her say: “they’re coming for you.” (Referring to taking away pre-existing conditions.) Then I heard him say: The president was right. She is such a monster… a monster, a monster.’ “

I was aghast and outraged. Immediately, I changed my Airbnb rating to the lowest number. This man was the monster and this president, whoever he was, was even more of a monster. Here was this poised, warm, brilliant black woman outshining this white guy. In America, that stuff is not supposed to happen. The only way for the white guy to tolerate her superiority was to make her into an evil monster. I had enough. I flew off his head and went right over to her and buzzed in her ear and said: ‘This idiot thinks you are a monster.’ She smiled and said: ��Maybe I should do what any monster worth its weight would do: Eat him. And with those words in my ear, I flew away.”

from WordPress https://ift.tt/3nQQU98 via IFTTT

[evaandnonotlikewalle]

Pirates Have More Fun

His hair is thinning in the back. I never noticed that before. Odd, isn’t it, how I can wake up to that man every day for twenty-three years and not notice how his hair looks in the back? Now, he is turned away from me, and the light from the window makes the room look more sterile, if that is even possible. The hospital gown exposes his back and I can see the faint curve of his spine. I bite my nails and stare at the expanse of his shoulders and the dimples at the base of his neck where his vertebrae begin.

           “How is he doing?” a deep voice whispers from behind me. I turn around and see his ID badge flashing at me nearly as bright as his smile. I had forgotten how bright that smile was.

           “Fine. He’s just sleeping. Been doing it all morning.”

           “You shouldn’t do that,” he orders with a barely hidden smirk.

           “What?” I blurt.

           “Bite your nails. It only ruins them.”

           I pull my hand away from my face, realizing I had been talking through my fingers this whole time. My nails are now jagged and the polish is chipping away.

           “Then again,” he continues, walking toward the bed, “I told you that all the time back in the day. You didn’t listen then and it looks like my words still have yet to resonate with you.”

           “I’m afraid they haven’t. It’s a bad but permanent habit.”

           He picks up the clipboard hanging from the end of the bed and examines it. He squints at it, wrinkles gathering at the corner of his eyes.

           “The nurse came in about an hour ago and replaced his IV,” I inform him.

“I can see that, right here, actually,” he says pointing the paper with his pen.

“Of course!”

I begin to chew at my nails again and tuck my legs under me. “Of course. Of course you can,” I mumble into my hand.

He nods his head, looks at me once, and puts the chart back. “Well, his surgery is scheduled for tomorrow morning. So, the nurses will be in and out prepping him for that. As for me, I’ll come before he goes in tomorrow. Expect me around eight. Until then, have a good day.”

           He walks past, but not without gently squeezing my hand as it rests limply on the arm of the chair.

           “No need to be nervous,” he assures me with a slow grin.

He leaves and I am left with Michael breathing deeply in sleep. He doesn’t move for hours, only sighing every half hour or so. I sit and read the novel that everyone at the office had been recommending but I never got the chance to start. As I read, his soft snoring scores the action on the page and an itch begins in my feet. Soon the itch travels to my legs and finally to my scalp. I stare at his balding head, biting the insides of my cheeks to the point of bleeding. I dig my toes into the soles of my shoes and slam the book down on the ground beside me.

           I shuffle over so I can see his face and lean in close. He is still breathing heavily and living with him for twenty-three years, I know he isn’t roused from sleep easily.

“Michael, I swear, if this surgery somehow goes wrong, I might…” I chide with a whisper and stare at the ceiling. I notice a spider, black and quick, crawling toward the window. Just before it reaches the window pane it diverts and scuttles into the corner where a small web has been made.

           I sit and read until visiting hours are over. I could stay overnight and keep him company but I don’t think I could take being here anymore. The suffocating quiet of this room while he struts through the hospital halls gnaws at me and makes me squirm. I have to leave; I just have to. I kiss Michael’s balding head and sigh a goodbye. Heading for the elevator, he is suddenly there walking down the hall, tormenting me with his kind smile and cheerful hello’s to those who pass him. I stand there for a moment and just watch him in action. He spots me and stops almost immediately.  

           “Hi, there! Heading out?” he asks.

           “Yeah, appears so,” I reply, shrugging my winter-jacketed shoulders and turning my gaze slightly away, pretending as if I wasn’t staring.

           “I just have to say, you look just as you did when I left for school,” he marvels.

           Tucking my hair behind my ears, “God, I hope not. I had mascara running down my face and my hair was bigger than Dolly Parton’s.”

           He laughs, but it doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “Yeah, sorry about that, again,” he sighs.

He shakes his head slightly and smiles once again, “Well, let’s just say you look fantastic. You really do. I’m not putting you on.” He waves his hands and shakes his head fervently. He stares down at me and just grins. I almost wish he would stop. Almost.

           “Thank you.” I can’t bring my eyes to look at his face. Already I can feel the color rising in my cheeks.

           “We should catch up some time. Over coffee, maybe?”

           I can barely contain myself, my calm façade melting away onto the tile floor, “Sure. I would love that.”

           “Good. I don’t know what I would have done if you had said no,” he chuckles to himself. “We’ll arrange it after surgery, then.”

           “Sounds great. Well, good night, Sam,” I say as I fumble to grab my gloves from my pocket, unable to look away from him face, expecting him to take it back, expecting this to be some sort of dream.

           “Yeah. Good night, Marianne.” Hurriedly, he leans down and pecks my cheek. I immediately blush. If that didn’t wake me up, then surely this must be real. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

           “Good night,” I repeat loudly as I nearly run into the open elevator. I shuffle into my spot in the cramped space and peek from under my brow as the doors close. He smiles and gives a half-wave.

           When I reach the car and buckle up, I nearly forget to turn on the heat. The flushing of my face is making my sweat lightly under my coat. During the drive home, every song is either too loud or too soft, so I turn it off and drive the half hour home in silence. This time, this silence is absolute bliss; just the sound of the old engine revving away and the tires spinning over the flattened and salted snow.

I get home and check the voicemail; Mom and Dad say the kids are angels and should visit more often. I stare at the kitchen pantry for a while and roll my eyes at the abundance of not-quite-good-enough food, so I opt out of making myself a decent meal and stuff potato chips and dip into my face while I watch television. The blaring of the actor’s voices and the brightness of the screen soon give me a headache and I decide to go to bed early.

I change into my oh-so-sexy pajamas of an old sorority t-shirt and sweatpants and stagger into the bathroom, covering my eyes from the overhead lights. After teeth brushing and make-up removing, I close my eyes and exit the bathroom, only to nearly slip on Evan’s toy dagger that came with his pirate Halloween costume. I pick it up, staring into the plastic rubies and graze my fingers along the silver carvings. I juggle it between my hands and shake my head. I run my hand along the dull plastic and imagine it slicing the skin of my palm with fearful ease, blood dripping onto the polished hardwood. I cock an eyebrow and stick the dagger into the gap between my pants and hip while swaggering into the bedroom. I observe the empty room, turning in a slow 360, and grin. I whip the dagger out and point it at an invisible foe.

“I have you now, sir!” I cry into the empty space. “You cannot escape!”

I chase the foe around the room with jabs and grunts, finally pinning him to the bed under my weight. His imaginary head rests on Michael’s pillow and sneers up at me, daring me to make the final move. I glare at him and plunge the dagger into the pillow, cackling.

“You thought I couldn’t do it! You thought I couldn’t do it, you smug idiot! But I did! Haha! I did!”

I stare at the pillow, feathers poking out of the hole I’ve made. I pull out the dagger and stare at it once again. The plastic rubies glint at me, and I begin to sob, my body convulsing with gasps. I sob into the torn pillow and smother my face in his scent. I think of coffee and blood transfusions, gagging on my tears and memories. I can’t help but hope, hope for the worst. Is it awful if I were to hope? Is it terrible to hope for such things? I lie there, head buried in his pillow, expecting to dream of sword fights and sea chanteys, and as I drift to sleep, I finger the dagger’s cold, hard plastic and dub myself Captain Mantis.

[hellyeahheroes]

Looking Back at 2016- Best Supporting Series

While you can cast your votes for Hell Yeah Teen Superheroes Awards 2016, I’ll be taking look back at the year behind us and see what would be my picks for the listed categories, as well as musing in general about books in each. Today we’ll take a look at series about adult characters, who had used young heroes in supporting roles.

This year, in general, was full of books that were fitting in that group. While Marvel had only few such titles, DC got on the roll with Rebirth, where suddenly it seemed like every book about an adult went “Doesn’t he have a sidekick?”. Duke Thomas was used heavily in both Batman’s books, Jonathan Kent in Superman’s, Emiko Queen in Green Arrow, Wally West in Flash… you get my point. Quite frankly that was the best way for DC to go, considering one of the goals of DC Rebirth was to reestablish a sense of legacy and history that have been lost with the dawn of the New 52.Not to mention family being one of its central themes. As such it was really hard to narrow this down to those few titles that I felt deserve the most recognition. Again, these are my personal picks and if you feel that I’ve missed something, feel free to argue… or cast your own votes in the awards proper.

The first title I want to mention is one that seems to be getting the least attention. Published under DC’s Young Animal imprint, Cave Carson has a Cybernetic Eye had only just started, with three issues released in 2016. However, said issues were undeniably a blast. Gerard Way’s brand of weird combined with cartoony, retro style of Michael Avon Oeming, managed to create something that has a feel similar to Venture Bros (especially with Wild Dog, who would probably fit on Venture Bros pretty well), only less interested in taking apart the tropes of classic comics and cartoons in favor of just enjoying them. Cave Carson, one of the most obscure DC characters ever (they’ve literally picked him because he had the smallest entry on “Who is Who in DC Universe?”) not only must confront his past and stop people who want to tarnish his legacy for profit (or more nefarious goals) but also repair relationship with his teenage daughter, Chloe. It’s the stranded, but still able to be mended bond between those two that provides a sense of normalcy between everything weird the book is throwing at us and Wild Dog’s antics. I put it on my list to also represent those few books that started to late (Nova vol.7, which would also qualify as a solo/shared book, depending on how you look at it) or introduced teen character too late (Power Man & Iron Fist, whose last two issues of 2016 added Alex Wilder to the cast) to really have a winning chance in voting, but deserve acknowledgment.  

The next title that needs to be recognized for what is it stands on the opposite end of the spectrum. Firmly grounded in real life and tackling real problems, Captain America: Sam Wilson is one of the most controversial titles of 2016. Which occurs in a way that I cannot help, but find really ironic. Sam Wilson tries to be Captain America for the people, who doesn’t shy away from talking about a different subject and sharing his views. And media made him into their favorite punching bag. Conservatives are lambasting him constantly, accusing of “dividing this country” for taking side…which usually means taking a side they don’t agree with. Helping with hacker Whisperer to expose S.H.I.E.L.D. illegal facility to detain supervillains without a trial? “He aids traitors against the government!” Taking down a bunch of racist hunting down immigrants on the borders to sell them as subjects to a guy who is in equal parts Doctor Moreau and Joseph Mengele? “He is attacking good citizens keeping our borders safe!” Going after corrupt supervillain corporation that was backing those racists? “He is destroying honest business and all work positions it created!” Trying to intervene in a conflict between Americops, who are basically police brutality incarnate and citizens of Harlem they’re beating up for minor offenses? “He is attacking our protectors and aiding criminals and thugs!” And at the same time, he cannot really win either. When he tried to resolve the problem with Americops peacefully it escalated into a brawl and teenage superhero Rage accusing him of selling out. Nobody talks about the moments he succeeds, but everyone brings up the slightest misstep, big or small or not even a bad move at all, unless you can spin it as such. And the irony comes in the fact that this is exactly the treatment the book has gotten from the audience. Fox News went apeshit over Sam beating racists on the borders. Lurk through Spacebattles or 4chan or any other site and you’ll see endless legions of manchildren whining about how corporate supervillain Viper is an obvious Trump parody or how Nick Spencer claims all cops are evil. At every step, this book is lambasted for lacking nuance subtlety or moral ambiguity as if any of those things were needed here. And yet people who should be talking about this book only pay attention to it when they can bash it as well. Yes, I’m talking here about last week’s issue with “SJWs parody” (by the way, one time the book took a jab at liberals in 2016? Turned out to be a robot and ploy by Hydra. So maybe give a guy a benefit of doubt?). I’m sorry, but when was this entire publicity when the book introduced new Falcon, who is a Latino-American illegal immigrant who likes leaving food and water on most dangerous routes from Mexico to America? When it was when he made an issue about Misty Knight hunting down a criminal who was using robots to make sex tapes of superheroines to ruin their reputation? When it was when Sam Wilson made a speech at Jim Rhodes’ funeral, about how much of an inspiration to black community he was? Oh right, everyone were too busy over the fact that Sam had a meeting with Black Panther, Storm, Luke Cage, Monica Rembeau, Misty Knight and Nick Fury Jr. before the funeral, either accusing the title of being racist to show so many black superheroes know each other or accusing it of being racist because, and I quote, “Tony should be there!”. It makes me sad this title gets so little love, despite how often and unapologetically it speaks against current problems and isn’t afraid of siding against the system or the “centrism” it’s now being accused of supporting. And because of prominent roles played by Falcon, Rage and during Standoff also Kobik, it qualifies here and deserves a recognition.

The next title on the list caused much less controversy. In fact, it’s being celebrated by pretty much everyone interested. Deathstroke. A triumphant return of legendary Christopher Priest to the comics mainstream after 9 years long absence, that fixes the unholy sea of shit that the New 52 was for Slade, Rose and Joey Wilson. Not everything it does is flattering to the characters – Jericho, for example, is trying to get back into the closet, something that has already been pointed out to be clearly caused by his daddy issues. But this is also why the book is allowed to get away with it. It’s an unapologetic portrayal of Slade as a destructive force who damages everyone he touches, whenever he wants or not and it explores both the impact he had on Rose and Joey as well as their complicated relationships. At the same time it is possibly only comics in the big two that is doing a serious, gritty (and I mean here real gritty, not the “GUN! MURDER! FIGHTS! SEX!” misunderstood gritty that comics tried to do since the 90s) mix of military drama and spy thriller as it examines Slade’s past and how it constantly comes back to haunt him and his family. The book is great at juggling many plotlines and tones, so one moment we can have a serious military story about Slade, followed by Rose kicking asses to lighter moments with Joey.

While Captain America: Sam Wilson was lambasted by the media and Deathstroke was allowed quiet existence with well-deserved critical acclaim, our next book is somewhere between them. Undeniably a critics’ darling, it had caused some backlash over the treatment of at least one character. The Vision. Dark, depressing tale of Vision and his newly-created family that mixes a heavy drama with psychological horror in science fiction dressing. The book focuses heavily on the family, as they struggle to salvage as much of the crumbling normality they’ve built. Because of it I had a hard time deciding whenever to qualify this book here or as an ensemble title (as even the title can be read in two ways). But in the end, even when he doesn’t do much at given issue, Vision is the one the emotional weight revolves around. It’s his obsession with normalcy and emotional neglect, that contribute to Virginia’s progressively worsening mental state, which also impacts Vin and Viv. It’s only with the addition of Victor Mancha, Vision’s more human brother, that we can realize how damaged Vision himself is. Of course, the controversial treatment of Victor by this book was something we’ve been discussing several times by now and I had to establish my position on the issue more than once. I still feel that the direction the book has taken Victor in id not ruin the character and had potential, which is why I find the decision to kill him to be one big disappointment in an otherwise excellent title. Despite that one blunder, however, Vision remains one of the best titles of the year. Among many good titles helped put Tom King’s name on the map, while also having an unusual, beautiful art by Gabriel Walta.

And finally the last book in this category and also the one I think I’ve enjoyed the most. Superman. Alongside its sister series, Action Comics, the book establishes return of pre-Flashpoint Superman as a prominent figure in DC Universe, while also exploring a completely new direction. Superman is now not only married to Lois, but they also have a son. Young Jon Kent is a fun character, who is learning about responsibilities that come with his powers and legacy of being the son of Superman. Of course he is lucky enough to have Clark and Lois, who are fantastic parents. Clark, or Superdad as fans came to call him, proves to be a loving father, who understands how hard it is to grow up with superpowers, so he tries to ease this for Jon as much as he can. Together they visit Dinosaur Island in heartwarming tribute to late Darwyn Cooke and punch evil Kryptonian robot in the face. Not to mention how Clark and Bruce put their sons in a boot camp to teach them some teamwork. Even when the book lacked Jon’s presence, as was the case in the last story of 2016, Supermonster, it still managed to emphasize on him and how important he and Lois are to Superman. It did so by contrasting Clark and Lois’ love with a relationship between Frankenstein and his Bride, whose marriage fell apart after the death of their son. The book establishes Superman as a family man and in doing so reveals a whole new field of stories to tell about the same Man of Steel, that many people have called boring for years.

So, these are my picks for the best titles with teen heroes in a supporting role of 2016. Do you think I’ve missed something or something didn’t deserve the praise? Tell me in comments and reblogs. And remember you can vote in for the awards, by sending my asks, fan mails and submissions.

[watchmanis216]

Obama, Soros, and Looney Left “in the trenches”

We knew Obama would be back. Now just like Swarzeneggar  saying “I’ll be back” in his popular Terminator movie; we have four more years of Barack Obama. Somewhere in the back allies of D.C. dark shadowy characters from beyond the grave are plotting the next moves of the two term Democrat and unlicensed American citizen; Barack ‘The Hussein’ Obama. A shadowy personage himself who is lawless, Barack Obama did more to harm America than any other president.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

“Man, once surrendering his reason, has no remaining guard against absurdities the most monstrous, and like a ship without rudder, is the sport of every wind. With such persons, gullibility, which they call faith, takes the helm from the hand of reason and the mind becomes a wreck.” –Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Smith, 1822

Continue in post to view special related video between Rush Limbaugh and Chris Wallace

Obama, Soros, and Looney Left “in the trenches”

Yet everyone in the movies from Holly to Bollywood loved Barack, or so it seemed. Well, not everyone surely! Talk shows loved him. CNN anchors swooned and cried at his presence. Then when he left and successor Attila the hun “Hilleeeerrrryyy” did not win, all hell broke loose.

Psa 37:34-40 (34)  Wait on the LORD and keep his way, and he shall exalt thee to inherit the earth; when the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it. (35)  I have seen the wicked in great power and spreading himself like a green bay tree. (36)  Yet he passed away, and, behold, he was not: I sought him, but he could not be found. (37)  Mark the perfect, and behold the upright, for the end of each one of them is peace. (38)  But the rebels were destroyed all together; the wicked were cut off in the end. (39)  But the salvation of the righteous is the LORD; he is their strength in the time of trouble. (40)  And the LORD helped them and delivers them; he shall deliver them from the wicked and save them because they wait in him.

So now from the dark recess of his office in DC this former President will plot through his “shadow government” ways to stop Donald Trump from unwinding his myriad of New world order and communist orders he signed into law over the course of eight years. Still in the White House are some of his minions, and in the structures of the D.C. offices and bureau’s are more of Obama’s minions. All with liberals, Mexicans, Homosexuals, Lesbians, and many other Obama supporters who plan on pushing their agenda down the throats of America.

Rush Limbaugh exposed Obama’s ‘shadow government’ that is working to hurt and undermine President Trump. Chris Wallace asked him about it.

“You also use a phrase which I have to say that I only heard for the first time in the last couple of weeks, “the deep state.” And that’s the notion that there’s an Obama shadow government embedded in the bureaucracy that is working against this new president. I think that some folks are going to think that’s right on and some folks will think it’s awfully conspiratorial,” said Chris Wallace

To Hell with “Make America Great Again”, these people are anti-capitalist, anti-constitutionalist, and definitely don’t like any thought of closing borders. They want to be just like the E.U. and the U.K., overrun with refugees who molest their women, murder, and want to bring worldwide Islamic control to the places they live. Even if they may not want this, the push for open borders like Obama and like the E.U., will do just that; bring America down!

Simply Put the left wing courts, left wing media, and the left wing Obama supporters left in the White House and in the Government itself are all out to sabotage Donald Trumps Presidency. Backed by Soros and the Obama machines, both of which support thousands of other left wing groups, the fight in on for the fundamental backbone of this nation!

It would be a good laugh if this were not really happening. Even today on Presidents day, no rest for the proverbial “wicked” as they go about their protests against Trump. It doesn’t matter that Trump had a rally of his own in Florida where thousands of his followers stood in a crowded hanger to listen to the President. It doesn’t matter that this President won, a fact that now we know the extra votes that Hillary received were from “Illegals”. Although the Dem’s deny this, we know that “Up to 2 million non-citizens were registered to vote”.  Something the Democratic party has pushed time and again during national elections, howbeit quickly and under the radar.

Now that Spring is almost here and Summer is not too far off, the battle is not going to end soon. The Obama and Soros led minions intend to demonstrate throughout the year. The first big push I believe will be in the spring as soon as they can get on the streets in nice weather.

It doesn’t do any good to let their anti-American demonstrations bother you. The fact is, from these leftists we have a one sided voice. They don’t mind hearing their own voice speaking out but they despise the conservatives and the so called “Ultra conservatives” and do not think any of these have a right to a voice. Neither do they like others who may disagree with them. We have seen their violence, burning, thug tactics beating up Trump supporters, and in all this they violate what America is about. They push violence. They push an agenda that is violent in nature and makes enemies out of all peace loving Americans.

For all Trump Supporters, your voice is needed to stand tall and tough. But the real issue is for Donald Trump to actually get some action done on his border and immigration push, his Obamacare repeal, and many other issues.

As for Obama and Soros, they are not American; surely not in the same camp of belief as many Americans who look on the original founding fathers as True Americans. They do not agree with nor like the US constitution but will use it for their agendas. Let me repeat this so you understand; “They do not like the nation, the founding fathers, and the fact that this was a major Christian nation”.  The fight for the soul of America is on! For the most part through Obama, much has been done both by him and the democrats to bring their version of an open America to fruition. We have seen Obama’s America. The people spoke and the many who voted Trump in, from Democrats to Republicans and many in between all did not like what Barack did to this nation.

The generation of young who follow Obama and Soros, being led to destroy with violent protests issue forth their challenges. They never understood nor learned who we really are!

“Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence.” —Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution, 1833

WIBR/WARN Radio and Christian Ministry “Heralding the Truth of Gods’ Word!

Obama, Soros, and Looney Left “in the trenches” An in-depth Biblical commentary, writing from the WIBR/WARN Radio by The Watchman Dana Glenn Smith Listen to the WIBR/WARN Radio with the Watchman and Co-Hosted by Tower, see schedule that follows.

Alert: Attention the Battle we Face

Be sure to check out the latest “The Battle We Face” a endtime focus for Remnant Believers in Jesus Christ!

Check out Warn Radio TV!

Check out Western Garden Survivalist TV!

Be sure to visit our 7 Garden Tips for the Apocalypse page!

Be sure to visit the Writers Life Blog www.danaglennsmith.com

“Heralding the Truth of God’s’ Word!”

“Life Expression in its simplest form is simply life in words”

Visit our website:  www.danaglennsmith.com

Also do not forget this! Hints, tips, lifestyle Gardening; Do not miss our Visit Gardening lifestyles Page, Video, and slides!

WIBR/WARN Radio is an end time, preaching, teaching, advocacy, and warning agency heralding in the second coming of Jesus Christ to this earth. We cover many news items on the persecuted church and are advocates for those being persecuted overseas. About WIBR/WARN Radio page here WIBR/WARN Websites are www.warn-usa.com, www.warn-radio.com, www.wingswatchman.org and have been combined into one large resource depository which can be heard worldwide.Hear us Worldwide: Info Here! Proclaiming The ‘Truth’ found in the Word of God. Biblical, indepth, prophetic, pulling no punches regarding God’s Word . Visit the ‘Writers Life’ Blog www.danaglennsmith.com on DanaGlennSmith.com

About WIBR/WARN Radio page here

Don’t miss this: America’s Takedown: Soros four step plan to destroy the nation Related posts to America’s Takedown and the Soros Machine

So, They Didn’t Get their Way but left Wing Media is Thrashing in Hate!

Sweeping the Mean Streets “Liberal Bigotry in action”

Electoral College and the Popular vote ‘Keeping dishonesty at Bay’

  Visit WIBR/WARN Archives

A Vast resource of Christian teachings based on Gods Word following the Apostolic teachings given to them by Yeshua, Jesus Christ

Find The Warn-USA Archives here

Find The WingsWatchman.org Archives here Obama, Soros, and Looney Left “in the trenches”

Covering the World this is WIBR/WARN Radio

Warn Radio Blog

Global News RSS Headlines

About WIBR/WARN Radio page here Obama, Soros, and Looney Left “in the trenches”

Origins: Experience, Dedication, and Anointing

Many years ago we started out in college broadcasting over our college transmitter. Then we broadcast into 150 nations over World Harvest Shortwave Radio and World Wide Christian Radio

Today, we are still moving forward with the gospel. We are the Watchman Institute of Biblical Research and the Watchman Alert Radio network.

Obama, Soros, and Looney Left “in the trenches”

WIBR/WARN Current Broadcasts

  Thursdays  6:30-9:30 pm mst Remnant Battle Lines

Remnant Battle Lines on WIBR/WARN Radio 6:30 pm mst Thursdays

Obama, Soros, and Looney Left “in the trenches”

Fridays 6:30-8:00 pm mst Sound the Shofar

Sound the Shofar Fellowship on WIBR/WARN Radio Fridays 6:30 pm mst

“They Overcame by the Blood of the Lamb, the Word of their Testimony, and they Loved not their lives unto the death!” Revelation 12:11 Obama, Soros, and Looney Left “in the trenches”

Obama, Soros, and Looney Left “in the trenches” Obama, Soros, and Looney Left "in the trenches" We knew Obama would be back. Now just like Swarzeneggar  saying "I'll be back" in his popular Terminator movie; we have four more years of Barack Obama.

[entergamingxp]

DOOM Eternal is Bigger, Badder, and a Hell of a Lot of Fun

January 21, 2020 10:00 AM EST

With refined gameplay and a deeper focus on story, DOOM Eternal kicks all kinds of ass and looks like a worthy follow-up to its predecessor.

When DOOM revitalized the classic shooter series in 2016, the response that it was met with was about as subtle as the game itself. Backed by blaring heavy metal music and punching demons in the face, id Software’s reboot of the franchise was met with critical acclaim and commercial success, as it reimagined what a retro-style arena shooter could look like in the current gaming landscape.

That, of course, looked like one of the boldest, loudest, and brashest shooters to come along during this generation. It’s still hard to shake off the fact that DOOM was one of the best-playing shooters of the last several years, and it effortlessly blended an old school shooter mentality with fast-paced gameplay, gorgeous visuals, and a memorable, over-the-top campaign.

That kind of praise puts a lot of weight onto the shoulders of its upcoming sequel, DOOM Eternal. At a glance, DOOM Eternal looks and plays a lot like its predecessor. But looking under the hood and after playing a few hours of the game myself, it’s easy to tell that a lot of work has gone into making this long-awaited sequel even bigger, louder, and bolder than ever before. And yes; the music still kicks ass.

“DOOM Eternal has made enhancements and changes to make its fast-paced, relentless gameplay feel even more fast-paced and relentless.”

At a preview event in New York City, I was able to play through about the first three hours of the single-player campaign in DOOM Eternal. With this being the first time that I was playing the game for myself (after we previously played the game at E3 last year), I only had some vague ideas of what to expect from how Eternal would build on the success of its 2016 predecessor. After going through the first 2-3 levels of the campaign, I came away with the same sense of pumped-up energy that I had from playing the previous game; in fact, probably tenfold.

In nearly every way, DOOM Eternal has made enhancements and changes to make its fast-paced, relentless gameplay feel even more fast-paced and relentless. The core ideas of 2016’s DOOM had players constantly on the offensive and being aggressive. In Eternal, that push and pull of staying on your toes and taking demons head on has been expanded immensely. DOOM Eternal wastes little to no time in having you slice up and blast demons in the face, and right from the get-go, it establishes the rule that you have to keep moving or die.

Part of that comes from the fact that DOOM Eternal’s new setting and locations allow for an expanded range of player mobility and enemy types. As we’ve seen in its previous trailers, DOOM Eternal brings the chaos and reign of Hell’s demons to Earth, as its starting locations move you through a futuristic city that is gradually turning into…well, Hell on Earth. Compared to the corridors of the Mars space colony in 2016’s DOOM, in DOOM Eternal the shift in location to Earth not only makes for a huge change in visuals and setting, but also in gameplay and combat.

My first few hours of playing DOOM Eternal gave me a greater sense of how the game feels more varied in its environments and how these larger areas open up its exceptional combat even more. From the first 2-3 levels of DOOM Eternal alone, I moved through the hellish landscape of one of Earth’s major cities, a demonic castle, and a snow-ridden cultist research base without skipping a beat; each location was even more exciting than the last. Somehow, DOOM Eternal manages to make Hell look gorgeous, and the variety in the first few areas alone only made me wonder what the rest of the game has in store for players.

Though the larger environments may be an adjustment for some players, after the first few minutes of playing DOOM Eternal I felt that the shift to these more open spaces felt just as natural as the confined areas of its predecessor. To me, DOOM Eternal felt like it strikes just the right balance of level design and area size between id’s most high-profile recent releases, DOOM and Rage 2. In Rage 2, I especially felt that the level design was perhaps a bit too big combined with its DOOM-like gameplay, but Eternal seems to have justified its expanded scope with its plethora of new demons to fight and the Doom Slayer’s new abilities.

DOOM was already a challenging enough game on its own terms, and yet DOOM Eternal amplifies that difficulty even further by throwing far more enemies at you at a time. In a way, this creates the effect of DOOM Eternal feeling almost as much like a puzzle or resource management game as much as it feels like the hell-bent first-person shooter that it is. Because of this emphasis on prioritizing which enemies to take out first, I always went into each combat scenario looking at the group of enemies I was facing and planning the best way to take them out. Whether it was facing a horde of smaller demons or a few larger enemies like Cacodemons, Hell Knights, or Arachnotrons, figuring out how to maneuver between these enemies and taking them out efficiently is part of the fun of DOOM Eternal’s frenetic combat.

“Figuring out how to maneuver between these enemies and taking them out efficiently is part of the fun of DOOM Eternal’s frenetic combat.”

The core gameplay loop of DOOM remains intact where players have to both be aggressive and resourceful at the same time by prioritizing which enemies to take on first. In Eternal, that has been expanded even more as there can easily be over a dozen enemies that you have to take on at a time, making it crucial to target specific enemies first so that you can crush the rest of the remaining demons in the fight.

With the higher amount of enemies that you’ll have to fight at a time, DOOM Eternal also expands on the range of weapons and abilities that players have at their disposal. In that regard, Eternal gives players a ton to work with, from the number of returning DOOM weapons like the Shotgun and Plasma Rifle to a range of new equipment like the Flame Belch and Blood Punch. Aside from sounding utterly ridiculous, the Flame Belch and Blood Punch especially offer some new ways of thinking strategically in combat to not only take down groups of enemies, but to acquire power-ups and health items in the process. Likewise, the chainsaw returns as another vital part of your arsenal to recover health and power-ups, aside from just feeling incredibly satisfying to rip through a demon in half.

The heart-racing feel of DOOM Eternal’s gameplay is heightened even further with the introduction of a new battle damage system that gradually has bits and pieces of the demons you’re fighting literally torn away with each blow. Seeing chunks of flesh being torn off a Hell Knight with Shotgun blasts or a Cacodemon with its guts exposed after a Rocket Launcher explosion brought just that extra level of detail and gruesomeness to the combat, especially when combined with the return of Glory Kills. There were several moments while playing DOOM Eternal where I just laughed at how over-the-top the Glory Kills could be, and I mean that in the best way possible. In that same way, nearly everything in DOOM Eternal has just been amped up to a slightly more ridiculous and fun degree, all for the better.

“id Software is bringing a bit more depth to what players are encountering in their fight to save Earth from the forces of Hell.”

The combat in DOOM Eternal is arguably the series’ best yet, and the fact that id Software has layered so many enhanced mechanics and tweaks without taking away from the pulse-pounding action that the series is known for is a magnificent feat. That especially goes for the new mobility options that the Doom Slayer has to complement the series’ gunplay, such as a new dash ability to quickly dodge attacks and being able to climb up walls and surfaces. While some of these mechanics took some getting used to when applied to its more platforming-heavy segments, which felt a bit uneven at times, DOOM Eternal still feels like it is in the running as one of the best-playing shooters of this generation alongside Destiny.

While I expected DOOM Eternal to look and feel as good as its predecessor, what I didn’t expect from my time playing was the fact that its story would have such a deeper emphasis and focus. I won’t get ahead of myself and say that DOOM Eternal’s story is going to be the next The Last of Us by any means, but with this sequel id Software is bringing a bit more depth to what players are encountering in their fight to save Earth from the forces of Hell.

Though DOOM Eternal has players jumping right into the action pretty much from the beginning, over the course of the demo several new characters involved with the origins of the demonic threat are introduced to expand the world and lore of DOOM. Even the Doom Slayer himself takes some of the spotlight in what I played from the game to develop further as a character and less as a Walking Death Machine. Of course, the storytelling is still completely ridiculous and tongue-in-cheek in the way that DOOM is, without question, but the fact that id is layering some extra depth among all the carnage is commendable in its own right while still keeping DOOM as DOOM.

“DOOM Eternal is a pure, unfiltered spectacle through the lens of a nightmarish heavy metal concert.”

While three hours with DOOM Eternal was plenty of time to get a great feel for its gameplay and what direction that the story is heading in, somehow three hours still didn’t feel like enough and only left me wanting more. From top to bottom, id Software has taken what made DOOM such a successful reimagining of an iconic series and somehow amplified it even further. The gunplay still feels fantastic, the range of weapons and abilities at your disposal is even greater, and DOOM Eternal is even more of a visual powerhouse to behold than its predecessor. If anything, DOOM Eternal is a pure, unfiltered spectacle through the lens of a nightmarish heavy metal concert, and it’s one of the only times that I might suggest that someone should go to Hell as a good thing.

DOOM Eternal will release for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Google Stadia on March 20, 2020, with a Nintendo Switch version to arrive down the line.

January 21, 2020 10:00 AM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/01/doom-eternal-is-bigger-badder-and-a-hell-of-a-lot-of-fun/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=doom-eternal-is-bigger-badder-and-a-hell-of-a-lot-of-fun

[writingguide003-blog]

Top writers choose their perfect crime

New Post has been published on https://writingguideto.com/must-see/top-writers-choose-their-perfect-crime/

Top writers choose their perfect crime

Crime fiction is now the UKs bestselling genre. So which crime novels should everyone read? We asked the writers who know …

On Beulah Height by Reginald Hill Val McDermid

This is the perfect crime novel. Its beautifully written elegiac, emotionally intelligent, evocative of the landscape and history that holds its characters in thrall and its clever plotting delivers a genuine shock. Theres intellectual satisfaction in working out a plot involving disappearing children, whose counterpoint is Mahlers Kindertotenlieder. Theres darkness and light, fear and relief. And then theres the cross-grained pairing of Dalziel and Pascoe. Everything about this book is spot on.

Although Hills roots were firmly in the traditional English detective novel, he brought to it an ambivalence and ambiguity that allowed him to display the complexities of contemporary life. He created characters who changed and developed in response to their experiences. I urge you to read this with a glass of Andy Dalziels favourite Highland Park whisky.

Insidious Intent by Val McDermid is published by Sphere.

The Damned and the Destroyed by Kenneth Orvis Lee Child

My formative reading was before the internet, before fanzines, before also-boughts, so for me the best ever is inevitably influenced by the gloriously chanced-upon lucky finds, the greatest of which was a 60 cent Belmont US paperback, bought in an import record shop on a back street in Birmingham in 1969. It had a lurid purple cover, and an irresistible strapline: She was beautiful, young, blonde, and a junkie I had to help her! It turned out to be Canadian, set in Montreal. The hero was a solid stiff named Maxwell Dent. The villain was a dealer named The Back Man. The blonde had an older sister. Dents sidekicks were jazz pianists. The story was patient, suspenseful, educational and utterly superb. In many ways its the target I still aim at.

The Midnight Line by Lee Child is published by Bantam.

Bleak House by Charles Dickens Ian Rankin

Does this count as a crime novel? I think so. Dickens presents us with a mazey mystery, a shocking murder, a charismatic police detective, a slippery lawyer and a plethora of other memorable characters many of whom are suspects. The story has pace and humour, is bitingly satirical about the English legal process, and also touches on large moral and political themes. As in all great crime novels, the central mystery is a driver for a broad and deep investigation of society and culture. And theres a vibrant sense of place, too in this case, London, a city built on secret connections, a location Dickens knows right down to its dark, beating heart.

Rather Be the Devil by Ian Rankin is published by Orion. Siege Mentality by Chris Brookmyre is published by Little, Brown.

The Hollow by Agatha Christie Sophie Hannah

This is my current favourite, in its own way just as good as Murder on the Orient Express. As well as being a perfectly constructed mystery, its a gripping, acutely observed story about a group of people, their ambitions, loves and regrets. The characters are vividly alive, even the more minor ones, and the pace is expertly handled. The outdoor swimming pool scene in which Poirot discovers the murder is, I think, the most memorable discovery-of-the-body scene in all of crime fiction. Interestingly, Christie is said to have believed that the novel would have been better without Poirot. His presence here is handled differently he feels at one remove from the action for much of the time but it works brilliantly, since he is the stranger who must decipher the baffling goings on in the Angkatell family. The murderers reaction to being confronted by Poirot is pure genius. It would have been so easy to give that character, once exposed, the most obvious motivation, but the contents of this killers mind turn out to be much more interesting

Did You See Melody by Sophie Hannah is published by Hodder.

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier SJ Watson

SJ Watsno

I first came to Rebecca, published in 1938, with one of the most recognisable first lines in literature, not knowing exactly what to expect. That it was a classic I was in no doubt, but a classic what? I suspected a drama, possibly a romance, a book heavy on character but light on plot and one Id read and then forget. How wrong I was.

It is a dark, brooding psychological thriller, hauntingly beautiful, literature yes, but with a killer plot. I loved everything about it. The way Du Maurier slowly twists the screw until we have no idea who to trust, the fact that the title character never appears and exists only as an absence at the heart of the book, the fact that the narrator herself is unnamed throughout. But, more importantly, this thriller is an exploration of power, of the men who have it and the women who dont, and the secrets told to preserve it.

Second Life by SJ Watson is published by Black Swan.

Mystic River by Dennis Lehane James Lee Burke

To my mind this is the best crime novel written in the English language. Lehane describes horrible events with poetic lines that somehow heal the injury that his subject matter involves, not unlike Shakespeare or the creators of the King James Old Testament. Thats not a hyper-bolic statement. His use of metaphysical imagery is obviously influenced by Gerard Manley Hopkins. Mystic River is one for the ages.

Robicheaux by James Lee Burke is published by Orion.

The Expendable Man by Dorothy B Hughes Sara Paretsky

Author Sara Paretsky for Arts. Photo by Linda Nylind. 15/7/2015.

Today, Hughes is remembered for In a Lonely Place (1947) Bogart starred in the 1950 film version. My personal favourite is The Expendable Man (1963). Hughes lived in New Mexico and her love of its bleak landscape comes through in carefully painted details. She knows how to use the land sparingly, so it creates mood. The narrative shifts from the sandscape to the doctor, who reluctantly picks up a teen hitchhiker. When shes found dead a day later, hes the chief suspect, and the secrets we know hes harbouring from the first page are slowly revealed.

Hughess novels crackle with menace. Like a Bauhaus devotee, she understood that in creating suspense, less is more. Insinuation, not graphic detail, gives her books an edge of true terror. Shes the master we all could learn from.

Fallout by Sara Paretsky is published by Hodder.

Killing Floor by Lee Child Dreda Say Mitchell

What is it about any particular novel that means youre so engrossed that you miss your bus stop or stay up way past your bedtime? A spare, concise style that doesnt waste a word. A striking lead character who manages to be both traditional and original. A plot thats put together like a Swiss watch. Childs debut has all these things, but like all great crime novels it has the x-factor.

In the case of Killing Floor that factor is a righteous anger, rooted in personal experience, that makes the book shake in your hands. Its the story of a military policeman who loses his job and gets kicked to the kerb. Jack Reacher becomes a Clint Eastwood-style loner who rides into town and makes it his business to dish out justice and protect the underdog, but without the usual props of cynicism or alcohol. We can all identify with that anger and with that thirst for justice. We dont see much of the latter in real life. At least in Killing Floor we do.

Blood Daughter by Dreda Say Mitchell is published by Hodder.

The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler Benjamin Black (John Banville)

The Long Goodbye is not the most polished, and certainly not the most convincingly plotted, of Chandlers novels, but it is the most heartfelt. This may seem an odd epithet to apply to one of the great practitioners of hard-boiled crime fiction. The fact is, Chandler was not hard-boiled at all, but a late romantic artist exquisitely attuned to the bittersweet melancholy of post-Depression America. His closest literary cousin is F Scott Fitzgerald.

Philip Marlowes love and surely it is nothing less than love for the disreputable Terry Lennox is the core of the book, the rhapsodic theme that transcends and redeems the creaky storyline and the somewhat cliched characterisation. And if Lennox is a variant of Jay Gatsby, and Marlowe a stand in for Nick Carraway, Fitzgeralds self-effacing but ever-present narrator, then Roger Wade, the drink-soaked churner-out of potboilers that he despises, is an all too recognisable portrait of Chandler himself, and a vengefully caricatured one at that. However, be assured that any pot The Long Goodbye might boil is fashioned from hammered bronze.

Prague Nights by Benjamin Black is published by Viking.

Love in Amsterdam by Nicolas Freeling Ann Cleeves

Although Nicolas Freeling wrote in English he was a European by choice an itinerant chef who roamed between postwar France, Belgium and Holland, and who instilled in me a passion for crime set in foreign places. He detested the rules of the traditional British detective novel: stories in which plot seemed to be paramount. Love in Amsterdam (1962) is Freelings first novel and it breaks those rules both in terms of structure and of theme.

It is a tale of sexual obsession and much of the book is a conversation between the suspect, Martin, whos been accused of killing his former lover, and the cop. Van der Valk, Freelings detective, is a rule-breaker too, curious and compassionate, and although we see his investigative skills in later books, here his interrogation is almost that of a psychologist, teasing the truth from Martin, forcing him to confront his destructive relationship with the victim.

The Seagullby Ann Cleeves is published by Pan.

Laidlaw by William McIlvanney Chris Brookmyre

I first read Laidlaw in 1990, shortly after moving to London, when I was aching for something with the flavour of home, and what a gamey, pungent flavour McIlvanneys novel served up. A sense of place is crucial to crime fiction, and Laidlaw brought Glasgow to life more viscerally than any book I had read before: the good and the bad, the language and the humour, the violence and the drinking.

Laidlaws turf is a male hierarchy ruled by unwritten codes of honour, a milieu of pubs and hard men rendered so convincingly by McIlvanneys taut prose. His face looked like an argument you couldnt win, he writes of one character, encapsulating not only the mans appearance but his entire biography in a mere nine words.

This book made me realise that pacey, streetwise thrillers didnt have to be American: we had mean streets enough of our own. It emboldened me to write about the places I knew and in my own accent.

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov Laura Lippman

Im going to claim Lolita for crime fiction, something I never used to do. But it has kidnapping, murder and its important to use this term rape. It also has multiple allusions to Edgar Allan Poe and even hides an important clue well, not exactly in plain sight, but in the text of, yes, a purloined letter. And now we know, thanks to the dogged scholarship of Sarah Weinman, that it was based on a real case in the United States. (Weinmans book, The Real Lolita, will be published later this year.)

Dorothy Parker meant well when she said Lolita was a book about love, but, no its about the rape of a child by a solipsistic paedophile who rationalises his actions, another crime that is too often hidden in plain sight. Some think that calling Lolita a crime novel cheapens it, but I think it elevates the book, reminds us of the pedestrian ugliness that is always there, thrumming beneath the beautiful language.

Sunburn by Laura Lippman is published by Faber.

The Moving Target by Ross Macdonald Donna Leon

Ross Macdonald, an American who wrote in the 60s and 70s, has enchanted me since then with the beauty of his writing and the decency of his protagonist, Lew Archer. I envy him his prose: easy, elegant, at times poetically beautiful. I also admire the absence of violence in the novels, for he usually follows Aristotles admonition that gore be kept out of the view of the audience. When Archer discovers the various wicked things one person has done to another, he does not linger in describing it but makes it clear how his protagonist mourns not only the loss of human life but also the loss of humanity that leads to it.

Macdonalds plotting is elegant: often, as Archer searches for the motive for todays crime, he unearths a past injustice that has returned to haunt the present and provoke its violence. His sympathy for the victims is endless, as is his empathy for some of the killers.

The Temptation of Forgiveness by Donna Leon is published by William Heinemann.

The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins Nicci French

http://www.theguardian.com/us

[sabrinajulie]

Divorce and Medical Practice Owners in Utah

This case in Domestic Relations involved a divorce that had been litigated for 10 years. One of the disputes revolved around the valuation of the husband’s orthopedic practice. In particular, the valuation of the receivables was disputed. Both experts used the fair market value standard and both placed great emphasis on the value of the receivables.

The husband valued the receivables using records from 1999. The wife’s expert used the value of receivables in 1998. The husband claimed that the wife’s expert did not use the most recent financial information. However, according to the court, the husband did not provide the most recent receivable information to the wife, nor did the husband have his expert testify, instead relying on an affidavit authenticating the contents of the report. The Appeals Court also noted discrepancies in the 1999 records and the differences in information he provided to the two experts, and used this to support it’s finding that the Wife’s expert opinion was more credible.

In general, the trial Court found the husband’s expert report less credible and the Appeals Court found no abuse in relying on the wife’s expert’s testimony and report.

Traditionally, valuations are performed at a particular time and as of a valuation date. This case really emphasizes the importance of the two sides agreeing on a common valuation date. Had they agreed that 1998 was the valuation date, the issue of timely data, and discrepancies would never have occurred. The case also shows how the court’s perceived failure to disclose can backfire on the party who has the information advantage, normally the owner spouse.

Finally, the exceptional period in delay from filing to final trial, points out the cost of multiple valuations which can be avoided with a fixed valuation date. Experts are not usually required to update their reports except at an additional cost. Dating the valuation as close to the divorce as possible can avoid the cost of updating the report, but may not reflect the valuation realities of the marital assets.

The relevant date is when the parties effectively terminated the marriage, either by separate living arrangements, or by filing for separation or divorce. This approach acknowledges that divorces sometimes take time, but the delay in the court decision should not affect the value of the marital property at the time of divorce. This approach would eliminate the cost of updating the report since any updates would be irrelevant, baring unusual changes in circumstances. If there were unusual circumstances, the effect could be introduced at trial without a complete revaluation.

Utah Supreme Court Puts Limits on Free Attorneys for Contempt of Court

  On October 24, 2017, the Supreme Court decided that while an indigent parent may have an attorney for a hearing to decide whether they are in contempt of court or not, once they are found in contempt he or she may lose their free attorney. When a person is found in contempt, the court makes orders regarding what must be done to “purge” their contempt, or else face jail time. The court may set a date for the person on contempt (“contemn or””) to come back to court and either prove that they have purged their contempt or go to jail

In Liming v Damos, the Supreme Court decided:

A hearing to determine whether a contemnor has purged himself of civil contempt (a “purge” hearing) is a civil proceeding; and

The Due Process Clauses of the Utah and United Statues Constitutions do not guarantee an indigent parent the right to appointed counsel at a civil contempt purge hearing.

The Supreme Court said that a purge hearing is civil in nature if the original contempt sanction was civil.

In this case, the Commissioner recommended that Mr. Liming be found in contempt for failing to pay his child support, and that he be sentenced to 30 days in jail, with the term suspended as long as he paid his full monthly child support and arrearage payments, and complied with other conditions for one year. The contempt would then be considered purged as long as Mr. Liming remained in compliance. The Judge adopted the Commissioner’s Decision.

Not quite a year later, the Athens County Child Support Enforcement Agency filed a motion to impose the sentence for Mr. Liming’s failure to comply with the seek-work program, to report employment changes to the agency, and to pay child support. The court held a hearing, and Mr. Liming requested a public defender, and the court denied his request. The court found that he had failed to comply with the conditions of the court’s purge order, and Mr. Liming was sentenced to 10 days of his 30 day sentence, with the remaining 20 suspended on the condition that he fully comply with the conditions of the purge order for one year. Mr. Liming appealed the court’s decision.

The Fourth District Court of Appeals said that the original contempt hearing was civil in nature, and enforcing the sentence did not change the purge hearing to a criminal action. This can be confusing – how can it be a civil matter when a person is facing jail time? Contempt is it’s own animal. It is said that a person who is facing contempt has the keys to his own prison. All he has to do is comply with the court’s order, and the threat of jail time is gone.

Mr. Liming argued that it was impossible for him to pay his child support. He argued that the trial court was obligated to determine whether it was impossible for him to pay his child support. The Supreme Court of Utah said that while inability to pay is a defense to contempt, the burden of proof is on the person asserting the defense. The court said there is a presumption of ability to pay from the fact that there is an order to pay, and because Mr. Liming did not object to the original order. In addition, Mr. Liming did not offer any evidence of inability to pay at his hearing to impose the suspended sentence.

Free Consultation with Divorce Lawyer in Utah

If you have a question about divorce law or if you need to start or defend against a divorce case in Utah call Ascent Law at (801) 676-5506. We will help you.

Ascent Law LLC8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite CWest Jordan, Utah 84088 United StatesTelephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

More Divorce Information

Utah Divorce Jurisdiction

Common Misconceptions Regarding the Divorce Process in Utah

Bankruptcy and Your Second Mortgage

Special Needs Trusts In Salt Lake City

How to Protect Assets

What a Car Accident Lawyer Says

from Michael Anderson http://www.ascentlawfirm.com/divorce-and-medical-practice-owners-in-utah/

from Top Rated Utah Lawyer https://topratedlawyer.wordpress.com/2018/03/25/divorce-and-medical-practice-owners-in-utah/

[sabrinajulie]

Sexual Abuse and Assault

William Estell was being prosecuted on multiple counts of forcible sodomy, sexual abuse, and aggravated sexual abuse of a child in two different Utah cases. He pleaded guilty, and expressed remorse in the courtroom, as documented by commentary in KSL news. Estell’s actions have met public dismay since 2008, when he was sentenced to 93 days in jail for a misdemeanor count of sexual battery. But the case most recently prosecuted by Utah attorneys to receive attention speculates that his perpetration of abuse could go back as many as 20 years.

UTAH ATTORNEYS ON WHEN SYSTEM FAILS

Estell’s remorse seemed genuine enough to his sister (present on the day of his sentencing in court) but she worries about his safety and well-being in his 25-year prison sentence. “Prison isn’t a place for people with mental disabilities,” she said. 41-years-old, Estell is himself a victim of repeated sexual abuse at the hands of his father, leading to problems in his adult life and his own illegal actions. The sentencing judge commented on the situation before the court, saying, “This sentence is appropriate for the crime that has been committed, but I understand you were the victim. There was a tremendous breakdown in the system and that led to other victims.”

Utah attorneys prosecuting cases of sexual abuse and assault, especially of children, have a mountainous task ahead of them. Testimony from children is notoriously difficult to obtain – but not because of their traumatic experiences and sudden immersion into the monstrously intimidating adult world of courtrooms, gavels and technical names for private parts. Forced to recount their experience to obtain justice, children often shy away from the task that makes them feel re-traumatized and more vulnerable, which is something Estell knew well. The perpetrator selected his victims carefully, one of the Utah attorneys Coral Rose-Sanchez reported; he chose boys who spoke English as a second language, who were poor and whose parents knew little or nothing about navigating the legal system. With the deck stacked against them already, many of Estell’s victims didn’t even attempt to speak out or press charges, and for those who did, at least one had enough of a negative experience when law enforcement didn’t take the abuse report seriously that the family’s mistrust of the legal system has deepened. Another of Estell’s victims is in jail in another state for criminal activity, and still another struggles with depressive episodes around his sexual activity which he links to his abuse.

But it’s not only Estell’s victims that the system has failed to protect. As the judge acknowledged, it was Estell himself and his own prolonged experiences of sexual abuse as a child. Utah attorneys working in a court of law to right the wrongs of generations of abuse may find the situation more complex and more heartbreaking than anticipated, and society may find its own dark secrets continue to be hidden away in the mouths of children who are too traumatized to speak up. This is an age-old problem with no clear answers.

Free Consultation with a Criminal Defense Lawyer

When you need help from a criminal defense lawyer, call Ascent Law for your free consultation (801) 676-5506. We want to help you.

Ascent Law LLC8833 S. Redwood Road, Suite CWest Jordan, Utah 84088 United StatesTelephone: (801) 676-5506

Ascent Law LLC

4.9 stars – based on 67 reviews

Recent Posts

Child Support and parental Relocation

SEC Charges Pastor with Defrauding Retirees

Family Legal Advice Utah

Collections and Bankruptcy

Contract Drafting Basics

Grounds for Divorce in Utah

from Michael Anderson http://www.ascentlawfirm.com/sexual-abuse-and-assault/

from Top Rated Utah Lawyer https://topratedlawyer.wordpress.com/2018/03/17/sexual-abuse-and-assault/