#like - why would he look for or assume cooperation with the troop when six ears has so far been his only reliable ally?

[cave-monkey]

Monkey King 2009 Episode 12

Jade Rabbit is the funniest character in this whole show. I will accept argument but you will not win.

The way she just straight tosses Ginseng Fruit once she's done with them, yes, but primarily I am talking about her faces. The look after she casually takes Ginseng Fruit prisoner? Absolute gold. Love it. Also the way she might soften a little but still gives zero ground whatsoever. Oh, you were gathering food for a starving refugee population? How noble! You're still wrong and should feel bad, but in light of this new information you've earned five seconds to grovel for forgiveness.

I love her.

Ginseng Fruit's flair for storytelling makes a comeback and I am here for it. Child was dramatizing for their life so hard they needed a whole other nap after that, and honestly? They earned it. Even made sure to throw in that audience participation. Ginseng Fruit is aiming for pro.

Anyway, back to the program. They're drawing their peaches differently! Huh. Did someone complain about the old style? I never really thought 'peach' when I looked at them, sure, but these new ones are like. Well, they certainly look more like peaches! To be fair! But they're almost so realistic it actually circles back around to looking super weird and sort of off-putting? It might be the coloring not really matching the coloring of anything else. I don't know, maybe they'll grow on me.

Another episode lightly touching on Stone Monkey's flaws and it was really good, actually. Unlike last time, these are less "flaws" that are mostly just products of him trying to survive his environment and more things that make me think, "Oh, yeah, okay. That actually is something he should work on."

The primary ones seem to be 1) a return of his obliviousness toward others' feelings and 2) impulsivity with 3) a dash of 'I'll just do everything by myself'.

Which sort of gets into the Six Ears Situation. Which I thought was really well done this episode. I really like how they're taking care to show why Six Ears - though still definitely going down a concerning path - might be feeling these things and give actual reasons for his growing distance from Stone Monkey. I think the primary example was in the food foraging mission.

Like, nearly from the word go, Stone Monkey doesn't fully grasp the gravity of the situation. This is frustrating for both of them. Stone Monkey, because he doesn't understand why Six Ears is acting so different, and Six Ears, because he feels he can't rely on Stone Monkey, forcing him to go on even higher alert and winding him up that much tighter.

And this is because Six Ears does understand the gravity of the situation. They are in enemy territory and Six Ears is tense. He's a far cry from the kid who was cheerfully helping Stone Monkey fix the peach stores just a couple episodes ago. He wants to get the mission done, get it done right, and go home. For probably the first time since they met, Six Ears doesn't want to play Stone Monkey's games, and Stone Monkey doesn't understand why.

And, honestly, Six Ears is right, is the thing. The peaches? Peaches ripen even off the tree. They're perfectly edible (if not very pleasant) even when they're still very green, so peaches that are just a little green are definitely not that bad. They won't taste as good as a peach left on a tree to fully ripen, but they'll do the job. Six Ears grabbing every peach in range as quickly as possible is absolutely the right thing to do when they need to get in and out quickly, and have so many mouths to feed on top of a need to pad out their stores (specifically so what happens to them later in the episode (they end up trapped and starving in a siege) doesn't happen). Stone Monkey wants to help and do right by the monkeys and give them something nice, but his priorities are off. He doesn't have a sense of urgency and he's not really thinking long-term. He's also not really willing to listen when Six Ears explains. This is a very realistic form of miscommunication and mutual frustration and I love how they wrote it and included it.

I also love Old Monkey King's delight at Jade Rabbit bullying Stone Monkey into teamwork. Man was tickled.

And then later when Stone Monkey throws himself out of the cave to "lead them away", therefore immediately giving away their entire position even though the Demon King was still unsure and preventing them from using that time to better prepare themselves? Even Old Monkey King shouted after him to stop that shit. You know how you have that super laid back guy who is basically never phased by anything and then suddenly they decide to put their foot down and they use that specific voice at three times their normal volume and only a quarter their usual octave and everyone in the vicinity abruptly morphs into wide-eyed scolded children no matter their age?

Right, so I have no idea how Stone Monkey didn't shrivel up on the spot when Old Monkey Kind barked at him. A true superpower.

I gotta say I love Stone Monkey's impulsivity. Any version of a young Sun Wukong just feels so incomplete without it. In this show it's also generally always worked out for him in the past too, so I think this is the first time he's actually messed something up and not been immediately able to fix it? Love that for his character. Sun Wukong should be so competent and capable that he outpaces the development of caution and a true sense for consequences.

And, oh, so now the monkey troops are able to make a stand when their backs are to a wall, huh? No one out here calling for an immediate retreat? Is that so?

Say what you will though, the monkeys continue the trend of a better second showing over the first. They believe in a culture of constant improvement! Old Monkey King is not playing around, either. He hasn't thrown down this hard since Episode 4.

And like Ginseng Fruit's flair for storytelling, Demon King's theater hobby has popped its head back up. He was thrilled to finally be able to use that line. Do you think he's taken the time to mentally sort the monkeys into these opera roles? Who are the painted characters and who gets which face color, buddy? Old Monkey King get his own special category? That's so precious. No, no, don't be shy. I want to hear all your meta.

(But also, show, are you telling me that Iron-Backed Gray Wolf can run sideways on vertical cliff faces but can't balance on a barely shaking branch? Guy, what are you doing.)

Honestly though, this whole battle scene is tense in exactly the right way. Loved it.

*bops Jade Rabbit gently* Stop meta-gaming.

Listen, if Jade Rabbit's going to be accusing anyone of "wanting the acclaim" based solely off their recent actions, Stone Monkey literally gave away their entire position by deciding all on his own to take on an entire army single-handedly, and prefaced this by solemnly-but-resolutely declaring to the king that he was going alone to "lead them away" and then not listening when literally everyone said, "Wait, don't do that."

He wasn't doing it for praise, but you can't say a case couldn't be made that he was. And I'm just saying that, in this particular instance, if anyone feels the need to accuse anyone else of fishing for praise, Six Ears should probably not be the first name that comes to mind. Just. Based on what little has been seen by a certain person's own two eyes. Get out of the script, Jade Rabbit.

(Acclaim is definitely a motivating factor in Six Ears's decision, yes, but the point is how does Jade Rabbit have any reason to know that? Easy! She doesn't! *bangs gavel* case closed defendant found guilty of meta-knowledge)

That said, it was sort of a struggle figuring out Six Ears's motivations here. I almost wrote off his whole plan here as a sort of a contrived event to force the plot along, but I actually think it does make sense. I'm about to ramble a lot, bear with me.

Okay, so Six Ears deciding to quietly stage a surprise attack on the enemy camp at night without input from Old Monkey King or anyone else...doesn't actually fit his character, in most circumstances? At least in my opinion? Since Episode 1, Six Ears has always made sure to declare his intentions/seek permission from at least Old Monkey King before taking on a task, as is typically the proper way to do these things. Just taking off on his own isn't really his MO - that's Stone Monkey's thing, which Six Ears has scolded him for in the past. We should also consider even just the beginning of the episode, where he was definitely taking his enemies seriously and trying to handle the whole mission in as efficient and safe a manner as possible, and also being the first to insist to Stone Monkey that he needs to work together with someone. Six Ears abruptly deciding to underestimate Havoc's army and also go entirely rogue from any authority figure is just...odd.

Unless he doesn't think Stone Monkey was ever punished for his earlier stunt of throwing himself out of the waterfall in front of the whole Demon King army and trying to take them on single-handedly. (Are you still with me? I swear I'm getting to the point.)

This isn't quite correct. Stone Monkey was sort of being punished. Or at least that's how I took it. Old Monkey King's giving him the same unimpressed and doubtful looks he tends to give the four generals. He's not humoring him or favoring him with any extra patience when he defends Six Ears's plan. Stone Monkey takes it like a champ and convinces him anyway, sure, but only after Old Monkey King listens long enough to decide that Stone Monkey learned something beneficial from his mistake after all, and he's mostly a cold wall until he does. Even when he voices approval, it's not exactly warm. He's far and away from the indulgent figure we usually see around the kids. Stone Monkey is in trouble.

But I'm not sure Six Ears would have seen it that way. In his head, it might look like Stone Monkey's recklessness and impulsivity is what they all want. If he's barely gotten a slap on the wrist for a mistake that big, that's almost approval, isn't it?

So! Six Ears's plan makes sense to me if he's trying to be Stone Monkey. It doesn't sit naturally with him, but he's desperate and scared (see all of last episode) and has spent a good chunk of his life chasing Old Monkey King's approval. I can see him trying, even if he knows it's a bad idea. Six Ears's caution and prudence, after all, hasn't benefited him in a single way he actually cares about - it hasn't kept him safe from the Demon King's army and it hasn't kept him in Old Monkey King's esteem (in his view). If he's deliberately ignoring the voice in his head listing why this can't work and he needs to run it by Old Monkey King right now - all the things he would probably want to say to Stone Monkey, if Stone Monkey had tried anything like this - well, Stone Monkey's been just fine without that voice, hasn't he? And so Six Ears buries it. (I actually think that dramatic hesitation when he's being questioned by the guards is just him internally screaming when he realized he'd have to say his dumb plan out loud. RIP kid, make better choices.)

(He still brought people along, though. No amount of pretending to be Stone Monkey will be able to remove Six Ears's better judgement entirely. He's just gotten started. Give him a bit. He needs to work his way up to Stone Monkey's level. Baby steps.)

Also I agree with Stone Monkey that it's not a bad plan, exactly. It's the way Six Ears is trying to execute it that's wrong, not the plan itself. He's right that they need to break the siege as quickly as possible - they have no other options. They have no food and it's not even a day in, and the longer they wait the weaker they'll get. Even doing nothing, it wouldn't be a week before the Demon King's army could just walk right in with no resistance. A well-targeted, hard-hitting attack when they're most likely to be disorganized and slowest to respond is ideal considering their comparatively weaker fighting force. It's a good plan, actually.

The primary issue is that it's severely under-resourced and lacks any degree of cohesion with the larger troop. Old Monkey King, properly alerted to the plan, could have forces on standby in case something goes wrong and they need to provide an escape route, mount a defense of the entryway, or an opportunity to break the Demon King's army otherwise presents itself. They could make sure there are no conflicting operations. Old Monkey King wouldn't suddenly be absent three guards on the main entrance. I mean, hey, we don't even know if those three guys are good for a stealth mission. They could put together an actual team, maybe.

*claps hands* COMMUNICATION COMMUNICATION COMMUNICATION

(A second of silence for Old Monkey King, please, having just finished hammering this lesson home in one kid only to have the other immediately forget it to go sneaking off to single-handedly fight an enemy army.)

(The moment he must realize that these kids have one rational brain cell between them and by giving it to Stone Monkey he may have forcibly evicted it from Six Ears. Like magnets. They cannot both possess impulse control at the same time.)

(Really funny the whole 'kid sneaks off to single-handedly fight an army' thing happened twice in one day though. Literally can't turn your back on them for a single second, huh?)

[echo-three-one]

Chapter 37

Carry On My Wayward Son

The NINE Engines

"Alex"

Site Hotel Bravo - Lab

Kicking the door open, Alex quickly dashed through the squeaky halls while Jack held on to his shoulder for support. The alarms echoed through the facility and everyone else was gone. Whoever was compromised among his teammates must be in a pinch right now, and the best thing the duo could do is plant the charges.

Alex paced through the halls and checked every corner, Jack continued guarding his six and they checked each room for intel. Luckily, they stumbled upon a framed layout of the building.

"Thank Goodness, a goddamn map." Jack sighed and looked at the thing, starting at the huge red star that said "You are Here"

"Any idea where the engine room is?" Alex turned to him, while leaning by the door, his body angled to peek at the hallway.

"Well for starters, this is an engine room." He turned and squinted his eyes in disbelief.

"But it's empty." Alex pondered.

"Shit. They already loaded this one." He continued.

"There are 9 other engine rooms out here. And with 10 engines on a single rocket, this thing was meant to go far." he explained and ran back to Alex.

"The next one's just on the other side of this corridor." He muttered and they immediately kicked open the second engine room.

"Empty. Eight more. Let's get a move on." Alex sighed as they continued kicking more doors and discovering more rooms. It looked like they were all empty.

"Are you thinking what I'm thinking Alex?" Jack asked as they slowly creeped on the stairs down to the lower floor of the facility.

"If you're thinking about Samantha right now, then yes. But I hope you're not because that would be weird." he retorted as the ground shook violently. The two of them felt the heat emanating from the area below them and it didn't bode well for the duo.

"Focus, kid. Now do you see where I'm getting at?" He replied, proving his point. Alex slowly nodded and stepped further down the stairs.

"How can we attach an explosive charge on a whole rocket?"  Alex asked the million dollar question and was greeted with complete silence, other than the sound of their footsteps descending the stairs.

"If only we still have one engine… It could be enough to start a chain reaction of explosives." Jack hummed at the last step. The underground floor was where the rumbling was coming from. From the looks of it, the rocket was about to launch.

The launch grounds were already deserted and Shepherds Research team were already in a sheltered bunker somewhere far away from here. 

"Fuck. How did Shepherd afford this bullshit off radar?" Jack cursed and looked at the towering rocket as it slowly hummed to life.

"There!" Jack pointed at the doors on the other side of the launch room. 

"I trust you could stop those bastards from pushing that button." He nodded. Alex wanted to reason with him and stop his heroic act, because he was living proof that it won't end well for him, but the urgency of the matter at hand made him press on with his orders. It was the only shot they could do it.

"I'll see you on the far side." Alex muttered and Jack nodded, as he assured him that they both will make it out of this one.

Alex thought Jack's task was the hard one, it turns out that his 'stop the launch' mission was harder than he'd expected.

He peeked his head behind the glass of the launch room, as he surveyed three researchers who looked eager for the launch and the three big guys they once met back at the ship. Apparently, they survived the sinking ship part and here they are now.

He could go guns blazing, but the reinforced glass begged to differ. Standard bullets won't penetrate through these kinds of glass even at point blank range.

"Seriously, why do the bad guys always get the good stuff?" He complained, tilting his head to the guards.

The researchers looked unarmed while the big guys wielded AK-47s, which slung across their backs. The smiles on the researcher's faces lit, and that didn't mean well for Alex and his team. He needed to act fast and halt the launch. But he doesn't know how.

They were already mouthing the countdown when Alex knocked on the door and immediately hid. He never expected someone to open the door but he was glad someone did.

A huge blast shattered the room, sending enemies unconscious on the floor, struggling to get up. Alex's eyes focused and looked for the red button but it looked like he was a second to late. The ground shook as smoke billowed from the rocket, covering the whole area with smoke.

Alex knew he had to stay low for oxygen and he did, pressing the button for their comms he tried to alert Jack about the situation.

"Jack! I was too late! We need to get out of this place now! Jack?!" He roared as the loud rumbling noise of the launching rocket filled his ears making him temporarily deaf to any other noise.

He couldn't see the rocket rise up to the sky but he could sense it using the sound of the engine. It was getting away without the bang they were expecting.

"Jack?"

"Run kid! Away from that place!" Jack warned, panting as he did it. Alex quickly got up to his foot and swung his hand, clearing away the smoke as he dashed to the exit.

Halfway through the dark tunnel from which they entered, Alex heard a mighty booming noise, assuming it was the rocket that exploded to pieces. But he had no time to celebrate as the cave started to crumble and collapse just above him.

His elbows and arms sensed the pain of the rocks poking through his shirt as he crawled. 

"Shit." He muttered as he felt the rocks fall from where he came from and his foot felt the heat of the now enclosed area.

"I got ya." Jack caught his hand and pulled him up but his metal leg was already stuck between the rocks, making it hard for him to escape.

"I can't pull you anymore!" Jack yelled and Alex let go of him, as he quickly removed the lock of his metal leg, as Jack pulled him free of the collapsing tunnel.

The two panted heavily and Jack supported Alex as they made their way to the other side of the base and met up with the rest of the squad. They didn't need to tell them how their task ended as it was already evident based on the falling rocket debris from the sky.

Extraction was the hardest part of the trip. With Alex losing his metal leg, he wasn't able to help the heavily injured Ghost and Roach and the weakening Alexandra. He frowned at the view as he sat there by the plane, looking at the pained expression from his comrades. Shepherd was also with them, all tied up and his face was expressionless. Alex's blood boiled at the sight of him, making him want to beat him up for another round, but he knew it wasn't necessary as the man would not cooperate. The former general's defeat was too fresh and he still had little pride to keep information from the team.

With Roach continuously bleeding, Nikolai decided to stop by a small town he once belonged in, the team settled on a small hospital which housed troops whom Nikolai deemed were his allies.

From there, they helped patch up Roach and tried to add more blood in him as he lost a lot. Luckily, he was able to hang on and is now resting.

"Rough day, huh." Soap sighed, sitting beside Alex and crossing his arms as they rested in the Hospital's waiting room. 

"Yeah. I already missed my leg." Alex commented, tapping whatever's left on his thigh, chuckling at how it looked.

"Well, your leg could be replaced, you know. I know a guy. Actually, I'm not supposed to tell this to you yet, but… Samantha kinda asked me for help. Not me technically, but you get the idea." Soap rambled and all Alex did was look at him quizzically.

"Listen. She - OW!" Soap winced in pain as France teasingly pulled his ear.

"I knew you couldn't keep a secret. Okay Alex, what did he spill?" France looked at Alex seriously, and smiled as soon as she realized Alex doesn't know anything.

"You're lucky he didn't catch up on your babbling." France rubbed Soap's hair and smiled, leaving as soon as Price once again asked for her help.

"Hmm.. Seems like she had you on her ropes." Alex teased.

"On the outside." Soap added confidently. Alex didn't bother decoding what that meant, but he was glad they found each other in a situation like this.

"Hey Soap."

"Aye?"

"Do you have international minutes?" 

He nodded and fished his phone from his pocket and handed it to Alex. And after thanking the man, he quickly typed the numbers he memorized and dialed Samantha.

"Hello?" Her voice filled his mind almost automatically. He was indeed smitten by this woman as he smiled goofily on the phone.

"God, I miss that voice so much." Alex exhaled.

"Alex. I miss you too. How are you? Is everyone safe? Are you hurt?" her questions flooded Alex's ears.

"I'm fine Samantha. We had a few injured people but we're fine. We got General Shepherd."

"Oh thank goodness! That's one step closer to ending this war." She excitedly said over the phone.

"I wish I could hug you right now." Alex said out of the blue.

"Yeah. Me too. I'm with John's Mom downtown. We're helping her up with her shopping." she said and he could feel her snickering on the other side.

"Looks like fun!" 

"Yeah. I'm seeing a lot of places here, and all I ever imagined is walking around the place with my arms wrapped on yours." Alex couldn't help but blush at her words.

"I love you." He muttered.

"I love you too. I gotta go, duty calls." She chuckled and hung up the phone, leaving Alex in a dreamy state. 

He fished a small box from his bag and opened it, showcasing a beautiful ring that he'd been keeping for quite a while now.

"When this war is over…" he muttered, looking at Soap who he forgot was beside him all along. But the guy was already peacefully asleep, so he kept his phone with him for a while so as to not disturb the resting soldier.

Next Chapter : The EIGHT-Thirty Appointment

Notification Squad my Beloved

@ricinbach @smokeywhalee @samatedeansbroccoli @enderio @whimsywispsblog @bumblingbee1

[marjaystuff]

Brad Meltzer Interview by Elise Cooper

The Escape Artist

Brad Meltzer

Grand Central Publishing

March 6th, 2018

The Escape Artist by Brad Meltzer once again proves he is the master of secrets.  His books always delve into the hidden stories of the characters and governmental conspiracies.  He has a knack for finding out and then writing about interesting topics that are not widely well-known, incorporating them into a thrilling story.

The book starts off with a bang when one of the passengers jumps out of a plane without a parachute before it crashes to the ground.  It might have received little notice except that one of the passengers was the Librarian of Congress and a good friend of President Orson Wallace. A little tidbit, this is the same President who appeared in Meltzer’s previous series.  

Following the crash Jim “Zig” Zigarowski, a very skilled mortician at Dover Air Force Base, is assigned to perform his magic on the bodies of those who crashed.  He has unique reconstructive talents that has made it possible for families to view the peaceful remains of their lost loved ones. One of the bodies from the plane crash is Nola Brown, a name Zig recognizes immediately, since she saved his daughter, Maggie’s life and lost a portion of her ear in the process. Zig’s sadness turns to surprise after realizing the body in front of him had no ear damage making Zig positive that it was not Nola. Through the investigation Zig uncovers that Nola is the U.S. Army's artist-in-residence, a painter and trained soldier who rushes into battle, making art from war's aftermath and sharing observations about today's wars that would otherwise go overlooked. Together, they uncover a sinister scheme called Operation Bluebook, based on the magician’s Harry Houdini secret way of revealing fake fortune-tellers, separating truth from lies.  Zig and Nola must find who is behind Bluebook before the conspirators can kill them.

Elise Cooper:  What spurred you to base a story around what is done at Dover’s Air Force Base?

Brad Meltzer: Six years ago, as part of a USO trip to entertain the troops in the Middle East I learned about the heroes at Dover.  While there I heard about all these suicides and attempts.  This is one of these things no one wants to talk about, and at Dover I saw how many fallen had come from self-inflicted wounds. This was devastating to me. I also found out some of the biggest cases go there from those who went down on the Space Shuttle to some 911 bodies.  I show Dover as a place full of secrets.

EC:  You made Nola the Army’s artist in residence?

BM:  I was on this military base and saw the Fort Belvior's Museum Support Center, which had a bunch of paintings.  I remember thinking why does the US military and government have all of this art?  I met war artists, ‘the artists in residence,’ and found out since World War I the US Army has a painter on staff who paints scenes.  They can go wherever they want, having a free reign to create their art. For example, they can dilate someone’s eyes to make them look scared. Unlike a video that just captures a moment, they can show a full story.  This is where Nola was born.

EC:  Were the scenes about Dover realistic?

BM:  Yes.  When I went there I saw an insider’s view that was so humbling.  Some of the sculptors and artists could spend fourteen hours rebuilding a cheekbone or someone’s face so that the family can say good-bye properly.  I was told of one case where they rebuilt someone’s hand because the mother wanted to hold it one last time.  

EC:  How would you describe Zig?

BM:  He is named after a real guy who works at Dover.  My Zig is a combination of every single person I met there.  Everyone there has a sense of mission and handles the bodies with dignity, honor, and trust.  I hoped I showed that through the Zig character. In the fiction part of the story Ziggy is broken and lonely.  He has to get out of the crater and get back to life.  A book quote, ‘Just because you are dead, does not mean you are alive.’

EC:  How would you describe Nola?

BM:  She is my favorite character I have ever written.  Even though she is drawn to disaster she fights like a Wolverine.  I will take with appreciation what Harlan Coben wrote about Nola, ‘Not since The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo have you seen a character like this. Get ready to meet Nola.’

EC:  You have an interesting tidbit.  Is it true?

BM:  I assume you are referring to John Wilke who was a friend of Henry Houdini, a magician, and the first head of the US Secret Service.  Over time he turned Houdini’s Bluebook into a full-fledged government program, sneaking undercover agents and troops into key locations.  They became the ultimate observers, hiding in plain sight, just like Houdini’s hidden assistants.  The modern part of what I wrote is fiction, but is based on Houdini’s Bluebook.

EC:  What do you want readers to get out of the book besides good entertainment?

BM:  I want readers to see the real American heroes that we do not know are even there.  The average American knows nothing about Dover.  The country needs heroes like this.  They are the best of the best of us, who works on the best of the best.

EC:  What is your next book?

BM:  It will be a children’s book, titled, I am Neil Armstrong.  Each of my children’s books are a value lesson more so than a history lesson.  This book is about team work with a big emphasis on humility.  I think our children need to be reminded about important values such as being humble.

THANK YOU!!