#there's something about being at the top of your field and what being the unquestioned authority in all that pertains to it can--

[grandcovenant]

carlo's inherent tragedy as a character means that if he hadn't died young he would've gone through something worse. the horrifying realization that he inherited his father's personality <3

[sshbpodcast]

Character Spotlight: Guinan

By Ames

Guinan gives The Next Generation the closest thing the show gets to a wizard: just some kind of supernatural being whose unquestioned wisdom gets the heroes out of scrape after scrape but whose true powers are never entirely explained. Oh, and she wears baller hats.

Sure, she may play into that “bartender, here to listen to your problems and guide you on your path” trope (which frankly Deanna should be doing but rarely does), but Guinan is so much more than that. We’re going to get into the good number of moments this week on A Star to Steer Her By, so get ready for your personal epiphany as you read on below and listen to our chatter on the podcast (pull up a stool at 1:02:25). El-Aurians are always listening.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

Whole generations of disposable people Simultaneously one of Picard’s best scenes, the peptalk Guinan gives to Jean-Luc when he’s being thoroughly whooped by Riker’s prosecution in “The Measure of a Man” feels like a turning point in the show. Whoopi Goldberg’s calm presence as a Black woman in a scene about creating androids as slaves imbues their discussion with meaning, weight, and stakes that are both personal and universal.

Every time you feel love it’ll will be different The perpetual sounding board, Guinan helps Wesley parse his feelings at the end of “The Dauphin” in a scene we really give the both of them credit for. Guinan doesn’t speak down to the kid or just tell him everything will be okay while he’s broken hearted after watching Salia leave. She tells it like it is: love is deeply subjective and his feelings are valid.

A warrior’s drink Guinan introducing Worf to prune juice in “Yesterday’s Enterprise” is such a perfect microcosmic scene depicting her character in a lot of ways. She just knows people. Worf is a tough nut to crack, but she reads people in such a way that she figures out just what he’d like in a drink, just as she does later in the episode on a much greater scale…

I look at things, I look at people, and they just don’t feel right …when she figures out the parallel dimension problem at the heart of “Yesterday’s Enterprise.” In that slightly fantastical wizard way she has, Guinan can feel that something is wrong with the timeline when the Enterprise-C shows up out of some rift or other and suddenly her once familiar crewmates are denizens of a warship. And even better, she gets Picard to believe her.

You have to let go of Picard Whenever anyone on the crew needs a little guidance, that seems to come from a really great scene with the ship’s bartender, and who could possibly need it more than Riker at the top of “The Best of Both Worlds, Part 2”? She gives him the confidence he needs to keep going in the absence of Picard, whom she insists she’s super close to for reasons we don’t know yet.

Job opening in the Empath field Another crisis, another peptalk from Guinan. We all know Troi handles losing her empath powers in “The Loss” pretty terribly, but you know who handled it great? This El-Aurian bartender I know who swoops in and reverse psychologizes Troi with such stealth that even if she had all her senses at the time, Deanna wouldn’t have known what hit her!

You saw exactly what you wanted to see in the holodeck It is downright glorious how Guinan puts Geordi in his place in “Galaxy’s Child” when he’s unironically whining about how Leah Brahms is nothing like the hologram he created of her (vom!). “She's probably done the most horrific thing one person can do to another,” she says, “not live up to your expectations,” and I can’t help but stand up and applaud.

I’ve heard some Klingon belly laughs that would curl your hair Guinan’s advice to crewmembers isn’t limited to the human ones! In “Redemption,” she not only schools Worf in holodeck target practice (and left-landed, to boot!), but she also makes him consider what it means to be Klingon, as his experiences are atypical from most of his people. We have no doubt that her chat with him inspired him to get involved in Kurn’s war.

You ain’t never had a friend like me When Guinan sees other officers like La Forge pointedly avoiding Ro Laren, she makes it a point to befriend her in “Ensign Ro.” That in and of itself is very Guinan-like behavior, but it also comes with some of her copyrighted motivational chats when she is able to convince Ro to come clean to Picard about the secret mission she was tasked with for Admiral Kennelly.

I tell you, that razorbeast was a good friend All throughout “Imaginary Friend,” while the other officers not only infantilize Clara Sutter for having an imaginary friend, but they entirely ignore the signs that something isn’t right. Everyone except Guinan. Guinan talks to Clara as an equal, even if she’s a child, and imparts the story of her own imaginary friend: a Tarkassian razor beast, which somehow seems fitting.

We are also lonely Despite being conflicted about Hugh being on board in “I, Borg,” Guinan goes and meets with him and it’s such a cute little scene. You forget that someone as old and wizened as Guinan still has things to learn, and to find some common ground with a Borg was unexpected for her. And she even convinces Picard to see him too, giving us yet another great scene from this great episode.

Why are you still sitting here? Let’s see, is there a single member of the crew Guinan hasn’t peptalked yet… ah right, Dr. Crusher. Now we have a full BINGO card! Our final tete-a-tete from Guinan comes in “Suspicions” when Bev is doubting her decisions to look into Dr. Reyga’s murder and Guinan cheers her on until the good doctor solves the mystery, kills the baddy, and flies in a sun like a badass! Truly so many of our Best Moments from other character spotlights are initiated by Guinan!

—

Worst moments

Give yourself permission to be selfish Guinan’s first significant scene in the series is in “The Child,” and of course she’s doing better counseling than Troi. However, your hosts here at SSHB can’t help but cringe because, while the show got rid of Beverly Crusher for a season, it means we were still stuck with Wesley because Guinan convinced him to stay, especially after a season in which we were so annoyed by his character all the time! Guinan, how could you?

You’re a ‘droid and I'm a ‘noid You saw above all the times Guinan helped all the other characters with a little self introspection to find their way through a problem, and the one character whom I’d say she fails with is Data in “The Outrageous Okona.” It’s probably because encouraging Data to consult Joe Pesci on how to do comedy led to the events of my least favorite TNG episode, and it’s all Guinan’s fault!

Tell me more about my eyes While the scene in which Riker flirts with Guinan when Wesley asks for dating advice in “The Dauphin” is hot as hell and inspired a little bit of shipping, we’ve got to admit that it’s not at all helpful to Wesley. Usually Guinan scenes are much more beneficial to the crewmember who is struggling, and in this one, none of this is what Wes asked for. I’m still totally into it though.

Let me introduce you to the Borg We learn in “Q Who?” that the El-Aurians were almost wiped out by Borg… because apparently Guinan and her people never told Starfleet this before? Think about it: she clues Picard in after Q has flung them into the Delta Quadrant about who the Borg are, and it is news to him! Starfleet spends every other interaction with Borg playing catch up because they don’t have any info on them!

That’s what you get, Charlie! You get fork stabbed! Pardon the It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia quote, but I couldn’t help myself. And Guinan seems to me no better than a McPoyle when she stabs the suddenly human Q with a fork in “Déjà Q” and generally mocks him. It just seems petty and violent for a character who is usually so stoic and reserved. So much for the tolerant Alpha Quadrant.

But I know it was an empty death, a death without purpose While Guinan had a lot of instances from our Best Moments list above from “Yesterday’s Enterprise,” we’re still troubled by her nudging Tasha Yar to go sacrifice herself on the Enterprise-C to make up for her waste of a death in “Skin of Evil.” Even if you consider it a better death than a tarpit, then you get freakin’ Sela in “Redemption,” which Guinan somehow blames Picard for when she’s the one who compelled Yar to go!

That was setting number one While some might give credit to Guinan for quelling a riot before it could get out of control when everyone was on edge due to sleep deprivation in “Night Terrors,” I’m not one of them. As I said in “Déjà Q,” violence doesn’t seem the answer for Guinan, and this scene escalated so quickly (partly because the bar scenes in this episode feel like afterthoughts), it makes me wonder how she let things get that bad.

A Yankee in Captain Picard’s Court Oh boy, I’ve got to question some of Guinan’s standards when we see her hanging out with Samuel Clemens in “Time’s Arrow” (and a terribly acted Sam Clemens at that!) after Picard had claimed in “Ensign Ro” that she’s very picky about her friends. Her cohorting with the author led to some of the most obnoxious scenes from The Next Generation that I’ve ever seen.

Our relationship is beyond friendship, beyond family There are several instances of Guinan hinting at her and Picard’s established kinship before we get to the story of the bald man who was kind to her in “Time’s Arrow” and my reaction was… that’s it? We say sometimes that leaving something unexplained is better than giving it a stupid explanation, and oh boy, Picard just sitting with Guinan in a cave once was totally fizzled what had been built up for so long.

Were you this much fun when you were a kid? Some of this is the overall child acting being bad in “Rascals” and Guinan’s child actor had it especially stacked against her since her voice had to get dubbed (resulting in her just sounding super smug all the time), but boy was she insufferable as a child! It was cute for adult Guinan to befriend adult Ro in “Ensign Ro,” but we felt bad that little Laren had to put up with this! Let this girl mope by herself, lady!

Forty to love Though Guinan helps boost Beverly’s confidence in “Suspicions,” she does it by tricking her with this lie about playing tennis that just seemed unnecessary. Guinan always finds ways to converse with people who need it, but this whole tacked-on frame story had some weirdness to it because it forced both Guinan and the episode to be indirect when it really didn’t have to.

Think of me as an echo of the person you know I’ll take every opportunity I get to shit on the Nexus in Generations. It’s just such a confusing device they used to get Picard and Kirk together that really makes no sense if you think about it for more time that it’s actually onscreen, which isn’t a lot. And there’s an echo of Guinan in there, feeding Picard exposition and generally complicating what this place is supposed to be, and I’m just done with it.

—

That’s enough from Guinan’s advice column this week! We’ve got a really special DOUBLE spotlight next week, in which Tasha Yar and Ro Laren are going to go head to head for the title of Baddest Bitch on the Enterprise-D. Place your bets now and be sure to come back for that! Also keep coming back for more of our series watch of Enterprise over on SoundCloud or wherever you get your podcasts, order a drink with us over on Facebook and Twitter, and enjoy your prune juice.

[pinkchanelbag]

— there’s no one else; chapter two. 

a jean kirstein x reader mafia au.

last | masterlist | next

series summary: a boy caught in a web with his survival depending on balancing niceties between his predators. a prim girl on thin ice that leads down the path of least resistance. no one too close and no one too far, no allegiance unquestioned, and no child whose value and future goes without evaluation like a playing card that determines their worth. to be destined for big things is more like being doomed to them, but that’s the way it goes. it’s just family matter.

chapter summary: the party begins.

wc: 1.9k.

cw: still nothing lol

note: putting this out short notice cause it’s JEANBOYS BIRTHDAYYY BABYYY anyway enjoy heeheee and my apologies for the slow plot thus far i swear it picks up trust me bro.

the venue is obnoxiously grand. the garden is more akin to a football field than anything else. there is no central lighting, but rather pure white string lights everywhere, everywhere. tucked behind and underneath tables and wrapped around trees and laying in the overhead greenery and in the bushes that act as walls. wherever you look, your eyes are strained, and you’re sure the dining hall can be seen from the moon. 

speaking of the dining hall, the organizers cleverly blocked off the front entrance to the building so that one is forced to walk the expanse of the entire garden—surely to ooh and aah at its elegant taste—in order to get inside through the back door entrance. in other words, having to greet every single member of the family before so much as putting your clutch down. 

you apply a friendly, attentive expression to your face each time pieck stops to greet someone new, having mastered the art of being engaged but not so engaged it’s troublesome, while in reality being completely disengaged in any way. as pieck converses with a bulky man drinking wine and you pick apart the key points (“we don’t got the ammo to make deals with top contractors—legal team in shambles—not good to have a weak spot”), really you are letting your eyes wander over the shrubbery which has been trimmed to perfection. yes, the lights are a pain and the band is too loud so early in the event, and there is not enough walking space between the bushes so people squeeze together to reach the large clearing of the garden. a perfectly obnoxious party, except you can’t help but appreciate the greenery. somehow, it is the only thing about this evening that doesn’t seem ridiculous. or maybe you’re just unusually irritated tonight. 

your eyebrows knit so slightly at this realization. why are you being so disagreeable? impatience and intolerance seem to grow in your chest for no particular reason. you make a note to identify the source of your mood, and quickly resolve it. there’s work to be done.

karina braun is a kind, opinionated sheep of a woman. she is liked by all, and not because she’s particularly easy to like, but rather because she’s hard to hate. stuck in her times and not having much intellectual value, she is possibly the most important woman in all the families. being the mother of reiner braun and the head of the braun-galliard family, gives her luxury without responsibility. you’ve only met her once before, and she possessed the kind of ignorance many privileged older women have. but still she’s kind, so you can’t justify how she makes you weary. 

her birthday, funnily enough, constitutes one of the very few gatherings that frowns upon trying to discuss family matter during the events, unlike a young girl’s birthday. it has to do with respect, you suppose. 

you spend your first half-hour at the party hovering around pieck as she makes small talk with associates, becoming increasingly nervous at your lack of breakthrough in communication with the family. you know the most important thing is your encounter with karina, and that will open up further talks with others, but you stall to approach her, imperceptibly steering pieck further away from the centre table where the older woman sits. not yet. 

“are you going to keep leading me through the same semi-circle, or are you just going to go talk to her?” pieck asks calmly. you curse her intelligence in your mind. 

“i’m just nervous,” you murmur, smiling politely at a group of men at a distance that eyes you like the business deal you are. 

“you should be, but that doesn’t change that you have to do it.” your eyes flick to look at the woman beside you for a moment. her expression is not encouraging or consoling, nor is it unsettling. it’s fitting. what you and pieck have is less than friendship but more than acquaintanceship. often you feel as thought she’s reading your emotions like an open book, which can be scary considering how many of them you really hide. but if and when she sees them, she doesn’t seem to care, whether they’re incriminating or worthy of sympathy. she sees you, and that is all. it’s not a comfort, nor a curse. 

“what are you waiting for?” she says, but it’s a genuine question rather than a push to complete the task at hand. you realize you’re waiting for porco. you want porco at your side. you want his strength and his jagged-edged ambition, and the forcefulness that makes you do the things your heart has no energy for.

“i just think it would be better if the boys were here,” you breathe. again, pieck sees your meaning, and your fright, and leaves it be. 

for the next eternity, you drink champagne and stretch back your memory to know if all parties are this boring once you become an adult, or if the braun family has a particular talent for making you crave the sight of paint drying. the closest thing to entertainment—and not the hired folk who attempt to call themselves singers—is gabi’s voice, which can be heard no matter where in the garden you stand. she tells stories, strikes up arguments, and gathers food and drink with her friends, all at top volume. for some reason, you don’t find amusement in this either, and really start to worry about this attitude problem you’ve got this night. to add on, porco’s meeting seems to stretch painfully long. it was a short-notice meeting, which either meant something very very good or very very bad—more so when he told you he was being picked up for it by reiner, colt, and annie. some of the most important family members gathering for an emergency meeting means trouble. your anxiety bubbles in your stomach, and you worry that your not approaching the woman of the hour is reaching a point where it might be seen as—rude. 

the guests are alerted that dinner is ready. it’s not long before each person has situated themselves along the tables that line the large garden. the seating plan is loosely maintained, but you have nowhere near the entitlement to mingle among other tables. you find yours and stay at it, and it’s only then that you get an idea of just how many people are at this event. each table is packed, holding roughly six people, and there are too many to count in the chaos, but they create a semi-rectangle in three respective rows. you make out countless bodies but few faces, just an endless sea of tuxedos and lovely dresses. at the front of the garden is the head table, where karina sits alone save gabi’s bouncing body going back and forth. your table is is only a few feet from hers, but you take a seat that puts your back to her front so you don’t make the unforgivable mistake of accidental eye contact. you’re to sit with porco, and his table—the galliard table—is the one closest in importance to the braun table. you are the only one at the table, further reminder of porco’s tardiness. the longer you fiddle with the white cloth on the surface, the more you worry about what exactly the meeting could mean. 

and then pieck comes and sits across from you without a word. as always, you know it’s only family matter—the concern that you look out of place—motivating her and not your obvious discomfort, but you’re grateful nonetheless. 

as the servers stream into the garden like white-clad troops armed with dome platters, a champagne glass’s unmistakeable ding ding ding catches the attention of the guests. a table near karina’s opposite side, not quite flanking her but near enough to display some importance. a man stands with his glass raised, looking unfitting for the position with the way his arm hesitantly dips and re-straightens. bertholdt, yet another notable name in braun-galliard (and it’s your job to know all the names), seems to be the only person around able to give the welcome speech. it’s easy to listen only selectively to the announcements and shoutouts, disregarding all the thank yous and remember whens and listening in for honored guests (who are honored because they’ve proven themselves useful). luckily for you, bertholdt’s clumsy speech has a clear distinction between the two categories, his eyes downturned to cards in which he lists off important guests and whatever thing they did to end up on he list before him. 

“a special welcome to general theo magath of the mexican military, who has been so generous to the family’s trade routes…” bertholdt’s words are careful, partly because of the nature of the things he is sharing, but also because all his actions have been careful since his fall from grace. formerly one of the most reliable heavy men in the family, bertholdt’s reputation was shot to hell when an important—very important—family member was killed on his watch. despite having happened years and years ago now, it took extensive efforts to just convince the higher-ups that he wasn’t in bed with the killer. it’s common knowledge that bertholdt’s incident was the first and last time someone “had it easy” from braun-galliard due to his close friendship with reiner himself. 

“an especially relieving guest to see here tonight—“ 

and—finally—the stragglers stalk into the clearing. like most others, you hear of their arrival from the ripple of murmurs long before you see them, seeing as their whereabouts are blocked off by tables and bushes. a few people stand up, but are quickly beckoned to sit down again and redirect their attention to the speaker, who clears his throat nervously. 

“carry on, bertholdt,” reiner’s affecting voice breaks through the space, and it’s enough to settle the audience, or at least have them pretend to pay attention while the late-comers shuffle through the outskirts of the tables to find their seats. bertholdt proceeds slowly. 

“…a person i’m sure we will all come to rely on during this chaotic time…”

you catch the first glimpse of porco as he turns the final corner of the rectangle, reiner walking before him and colt and annie just behind. reiner is the first to arrive to his table, the invitees seeming to hold their chests a little taller for the family’s true head—in every way except on paper—as he slides into his seat and presses a kiss to his mother’s cheek. 

“…a great legacy behind him and a bright career ahead, and we’re surely glad he’s kicked it off in our company…” bertholdt goes on. you and porco’s eyes meet, and immediately you know something is the matter; you’re just not sure if it’s fury or ecstasy in his gleam. 

colt and annie find their seats in the table just after yours, and finally porco is near enough to see—and ignore—the look of alarmed curiosity on your face. he arrives to the table, giving pieck a look of “we’ll talk later,” and briefly stopping behind your chair. his calloused hands are on your arms for a moment, running up and down comfortingly. 

“—a happy welcome to—“

“hey, doll.”

“—jean kirstein.” 

and your eyes flick away from porco’s and into the crowd of faceless bodies, and the anxieties that kept your brain buzzing with life halt and collapse to the floor of your mind like dead flies.

jean? 

[tonkatsumu]

back at one ✧ kita shinsuke

The five times Kita Shinsuke kisses you back and the one time he doesn't. 

genre: fluff, angst towards the end

tw: major character death

wc: 1,700+

The first time you kiss Kita is a mistake.

It's lunchtime, and you're laughing as your friend is gushing over the new blonde setter from class 1-5. The day started off as a disaster, with you waking up late, resulting having to buy bread at the canteen because you forgot your lunch.

But nonetheless, it was just another one out of the 365 days of the year. Hectic. Noisy. Normal.

An average kiss lasts around 10 seconds— at least, that's what people claim to be their ideal. Of course, that depends from person to person, but you agreed with the majority in that matter. You like to imagine that, maybe someday, when you kiss someone for the first time, it'll be right around 10 seconds long—not too long, not too short—at the top of the ferris wheel, just as the sun is setting in the horizon.

What you don't realize, however, is that it takes a lot less than 10 seconds to completely shatter your ideals.

You're turning the corner of the hallway, not looking. Perhaps, if your friend didn't smack you while squealing; perhaps, if you weren't rushing this morning and remembered your bento; perhaps, if you had bothered to spare a second to glance at what's right in front you, today would have just been another normal day.

Your lips meet something soft, and it's one, two, three—maybe more, probably less—seconds later when you register what's happening.

That's how you first meet Kita Shinsuke, the usually quiet and reserved second-year, uncharacteristically blushing and profusely apologizing.

It takes less than 10 seconds to shatter your ideals, but in that same amount of time, you find yourself forming new ones.

—

The second isn't an accident.

You start to notice the quiet boy after that incident. He doesn't say much, but he always seems to be observing everything that happens around him. Forgetting your lunch was a thing of the past—you find yourself going to school earlier and earlier every day, hoping to catch a glimpse of him after morning practice.

You would thank the gods for that day, if you believed in them. But you don't, so instead you thank your friend for shoving you and talking your ear off about her crush. You thank your mom for not waking you up on time, and you go to class 1-5 and thank Atsumu Miya for being "so damn attractive" (your friend's words, not yours).

Not understanding, but unquestioning nonetheless, they brush it off with a chuckle and a confused 'you're welcome?'

It isn't long before you and Kita start talking, in the mornings between after-practice and first period, and he tells you that doing things properly just feels right.

"Let me make it up to you," he says, smiling in the way that you like to think you know so well.

You get a kiss—not the first, but assuredly, not the last. You're at the top of a hill, instead of a ferris wheel. The view is of Hyogo, drenched in the light of the moon, the city lights twinkling in both of your eyes, instead of the sunset setting in the horizon.

You realize that, maybe, it isn't the setting, but the person you're doing it with, that makes the kiss so ideal.

"Is this okay?" he asks.

"No," you pout, "Make it up to me some more."

Kita likes to do things properly, and the proper thing to do in this situation is comply. And so he does.

—

The third is a celebration.

Proud, you think, is the only word that can encapsulate what you feel as you look at him wearing the jacket with the number 1 on it.

"I'm happy," he says, squeezing your hand. To anyone, his face would be the perfect mask of indifference; but to you, to you, the slight tug of the corner of his right lip upward is evidence that indeed, his words ring true.

"You've done well," you smile, brushing a stray leaf from his shoulder. "Captain."

Kita stops walking, but says nothing. Silence is not uncommon between the two of you. Silence, you observed, can often carry more weight than any words ever can. And silence can make the words that are spoken mean so much more.

Looking at him, his eyes meeting yours—unflinching, unyielding. Confident, with a quiet determination to remain so. A chuckle escapes your lips, and you place your hands on his cheeks.

"I'm proud of you, Captain," you breathe against his lips.

"You are still..." he inches a millimeter closer, "...the greatest result of my efforts."

—

The fourth is a long time coming.

Kita's love was never loud, never ostentatious. It never drowned you, never deafened you; but you felt and heard it nonetheless in the gentle caress of a hand, in the whisper of a kiss, in the tea he prepares for you after a long day.

It dawns on you that his love wasn't like the sea, which could roar into a rage at heaven's command. It's more like...

The smell of tatami mats; the chiming of bells in your grandmother's house when the wind passes through them; the rice porridge that your mother used to make for you when you were sick.

In this ever-changing world, the things that bring you comfort remain unchanging, very much like the tenderness and warmth Kita carefully wraps you in every day.

"The whims of heaven and the gods are fleeting," he once said at five in the morning, just as the sun was starting to rise, just before the soil cried out to be toiled. "But not even its rage or glee could sway what I feel for you. This feeling is my own, and it is mine to nurture for the rest of my life."

You remember these words as Kita lifts your veil, eyes shining like the city lights of Hyogo that one night in high school at the top of the hill.

"Shin-chan?"

"What is it?" he whispers (for once, oblivious to the crowd watching).

"Maybe the gods aren't real." You place a hand on his cheek, "But if they were, I'd like to thank them for bringing me to you."

Everyone sees a girl in a white dress, and a boy, who sees only her when he thinks of the future. And a kiss, ten seconds long. Ideal, they think, as they look at you and Kita.

—

The fifth is for everyday.

You learn through the years the joy of routine, the satisfaction in doings things right. It's something that you see in Kita, who goes through the clockwork of every day life with a smile in his face, and a confidence that never wavered since the moment you met him.

Sometimes, you think, that you wouldn't have minded a life of excitement and something new day in and day out, like the life your friend shares with Atsumu. She's as rowdy as the day she pushed you onto Kita, and the blonde setter is always ready to jump at all her whims.

"What's got ya smiling?"

But as you watch the sun start to rise over the fields, sitting on the engawa with the boy you married beside you, waiting for your reply expectantly, you realize that you wouldn't have it any other way. This routine of drinking coffee before your husband sets out for the day is not a special occurrence— it's something you've been doing for the past year, and something you will continue to do in the future. And yet, each passing second never fails to make you feel thankful for the joy of everyday.

"Nothing, really. Was just thinking how beautiful the sunrise looks."

He smiles at that, taking your hand. "It always does," he says, but he's looking at you instead.

I love you, his eyes say, as he gazes at you, bathed in the morning sun.

I love you, his hand says, as he squeezes yours gently.

"I love you," he says, as he gets up to leave for the day.

You kiss him, as usual, with a "take care, see you soon," and you go back inside the house, to do what needs to be done for the day.

—

The first time Kita doesn't kiss you back is cold.

Your knees hit the floor and you wonder if the winters in Japan were ever as cold as the tiles against your skin. Your forehead and palms meet the floor, as if in prayer, to gods you never believed in.

Loss, it dawns on you, is something that people never consider before it is thrown in their face, as if mocking the serenity of the routine of every day.

Loss is thrown at you in the form of a phone call from the hospital at noon, saying that you are the next of kin of a recent car crash victim.

The established, usual, ordinary everyday is shattered by the figure covered in white cloth—to forever remain unmoving.

Kindness, is something that Kita Shinsuke always had an unlimited amount of. It's something that you always knew, and something that you always felt in the way he treats you, his friends, his family, even complete strangers.

That very same kindness taunts you now, as the officer tells you that he died saving a child from the speeding car.

You lift the cloth covering his face, and if, perhaps, your vision wasn't perfect, you could almost fool yourself into thinking he was just sleeping. But you understand that his eyes will never crinkle up into the gentle smile that greets you in the hours between twilight and sunrise. You understand that his arms won't drape over your waist, pulling you infinitely closer, sharing each others' warmth. You understand that his hands won't squeeze yours back in an affirmation that he's there, and always will be.

It'll be cold, you think, as you painfully try to imagine mornings from now on.

"Shin-chan, it's cold," you whisper.

He doesn't answer back.

It's cold, you think, as you press your lips against his—as if he was just coming home from a day in the fields, shouting an "I'm home" as he steps over the genkan. But his skin is devoid of the warmth that used to envelop you day in and day out.

Kita always said that he didn't need memories. Now they're all that you have left of him.

[asterekmess]

Since we all seem to be on an anti-scott ride here, one thing I've been thinking about a lot lately, and how much it really, really bothers me is how Scott, at that point knowing about the Hale fire, was able to look Derek in the eye and say that the Argents had a reason for targeting Derek's family. That his entire family's death was justified for the sole reason that they were anything human, and as an audience we're just expected to agree and sympathize with Scott's bias and disregard Derek

I totally agree with your frustration.

Now, as much of a hater as I am, I do try to give Scott some benefit of the doubt. He is a teenager (though that’s not much of an excuse) and we know he and Stiles joke about some shitty things, like dead people being ‘the best thing to happen to this town’ so sure, fine, Scott said something shitty because....he’s a moody teen?

But the show didn’t just have him do that. It had him do that, gave us this fucking heartwrenching shot of Derek’s face, and then...that was it. No one called Scott out. Scott didn’t feel guilty. He never took back what he said. It would be one thing he said something awful and then grew as a person and fucking matured or something. But the show first had him condemn the very species which he just joined, then reinforced the idea that werewolves = bad by having what he says go unquestioned.

For a show about werewoles, holy fuck TW hates werewolves. Or...at least...born werewolves. Born werewolves die or become mass murderers or are just plain garbage people. Bitten wolves are...redeemable? Which doesn’t make sense bc they haven’t done anything that needs redeemed just bc they got the bite, willingly or otherwise.

And it’s excruciating, having seen the TW movies. You know that Teen Wolf is a reboot of a Movie (or two, can’t remember)? I loved those movies as a kid. It had the one dude that I can never remember, uh...Michael J Fox. Yah. Him. 1985 and Stiles was a stoner party boy who surfed on top of cars! He drove a van! Scott goes hunting for Stiles’ good cush in the garage. There’s an entire scene of Scott slipping on wet floor during his first change because he can’t find an empty bathroom to freak out in. It’s fucking hilarious. That movie was about accepting yourself and knowing who your real friends are and not letting power/popularity give you a big head. OH. And it was about BORN werewolves. Scott in the movie was the youngest of a LONG LINE of werewolves. We even get to see his pops go wolfy, and it’s fucking adorable. It’s a family thing.

The show is nothing like that. It gives us a Scott who completely gives in to the rush of power and popularity. Harley? Anybody remember Harley? She shows up twice in the first season, and then just poofs out of existence right as Scott (and by extension Stiles) get sucked into the popular crowd. Scott uses his abilities on the lacrosse field without even a flicker of concern abt exposing himself or cheating (tho, tbf, scott in the movie Literally shifts on the basketball court in front of everyone...and they just sort of keep cheering him on after a minute? ALSO: I point it out constantly, but that’s what the show is referencing when Derek asks Stiles “When he shifts on the field, what do you think they’re going to do? Just keep cheering him on?” It’s a joke about the movie.

TBH, the show is literally just Jeff Davis shitting on the movies all the time. He makes Derek the actual teen wolf (The basketball, the smirk, being born a wolf, I’m honestly surprised they didn’t name Paige Boof) and fucking traumatizes him. He turns born wolves into the enemy/freaks and makes it so Scott ‘overcomes’ being a werewolf without ever accepting himself. He keeps the secret from his parents (whereas in the movie his dad already knows and they actually talk about it). Like, I get wanting to make it into a dark teen drama, and introducing hunters and whatever. But they lost so many core elements of the source material. :(

Anyway, my heart is broken and I want to hug Derek Hale for the next ten years. Also, I love you for hopping into my asks and giving me your thoughts. <3

[ikementally-deficient]

Advanced Entomology - Chapter 7: Metamorphosis

Fandom: Mr. Love: Queen’s Choice/Love and Producer

Rating: Carolina Reaper (See Masterlist for rating descriptions)

Warnings: dubious/uninformed consent, see masterpost A/N

Due to the nature of the questionable consent in this fic, if you enjoy this story enough to reblog it, please reblog the masterpost rather than individual chapters.

Author’s Note: Holy shit it’s finished! This last chapter was like pulling teeth, and it got both more emotional and less smutty (though still pretty smutty) than I intended. Tangential spoilers for chapters 14-18, although this has departed from canon pretty heavily so you probably won’t get too spoiled if you haven’t read those yet. 

Thank you to everyone who liked, reblogged, and spoke to me on discord and AO3, this never would have been completed without that encouragement.

********************************

He follows her up the stairs. It would almost be boring, if it weren’t for his knowledge of what awaits them at the top.

They climb in silence, Lucien watching the sway of her skirt ahead of him. He focuses on the pleats fluttering around her knees, her slender calves flexing as she climbs. He’s tempted to reach out and grasp her delicate ankle and pull her back, wrapping her limbs around him, ignoring his mission in favour of burying himself in her.

He’s pulled from his reverie by the sound of her shoes scraping to a halt. 

“We’re here.” She places her hand on the bar of the door, preparing to step out on to the roof of the tower. He’s still amazed at how easy it was to lead her here, pretending to follow the trail of clues he’d littered for her to find. He smiles fondly as she looks back at him, amber eyes sparkling with excitement. “Are you ready, Lucien?”

“I’m ready,” he purrs, stifling his anxiety about what lies before them. He’s done his job well. The Queen will trust him, just as his butterfly does. There is nothing to fear. He places his hand over hers on the crash bar.

The roof of the tower is disappointingly prosaic: an open square covered in gravel, with a steel pylon supporting an antenna. The only sound is the faint rush of traffic many stories below them. It’s hardly a worthy setting for the portentous event about to take place.

She leads him across the roof to the pylon and stares up at it. “Is this it? Is this what’s causing everyone’s Evols to go out of control?”

“All evidence seems to point that way.” He stares up, squinting against the sun’s glare. “The antenna is centrally placed, and high enough to reach most of the city.”

“How do we shut it off?”

Lucien holds his breath as she circles the pylon slowly, homing in on the red switch box. He follows her, coming to stand behind her as her hand caresses the switch. 

“Are you ready?” she asks. Her tone is faint, eyes absent. She might be talking to him, or herself, or the world. He casts one last glance up at the silent pylon.

Silly girl.

The switch clunks across its hinge. For a moment nothing happens, and Lucien begins to wonder if he’s miscalculated somehow. Then the pylon hums to life, and he feels the powerful amplification field spring up around them. 

“What --?” She’s shocked, looking up in disbelief. “It was already off?” He places his hands on her shoulders and she whirls to face him. “Lucien, what’s going on?”

“It’s been waiting for you, butterfly. Can’t you feel it working?” He can feel his own Evols responding to the field, but he’s been exposing himself to it off and on for nearly a year. Maintaining control is easy. Not so for her; suddenly dropped into the center of the field, she’s overwhelmed. Her eyes are wide and staring. He knows she’s being assaulted by images, possibilities, quantum futures, and it’s too much for her. With a shuddering sigh, she collapses against him. He gathers her unconscious form into a bridal carry and sits against the waist-high wall, waiting to see who awakens.

*************************************

A faint whimper alerts him before her eyes flick open. Her pupils are so dilated the irises are nearly invisible, just a thin amber border around black pupils. She stares up at him with lips parted, and he is struck by the memory of her pinned to his living room floor, pupils blown wide with wanting.

“Hello,” he breathes.

She blinks a few times, pupils slowly contracting against the afternoon light. “Lucien?” Her voice is faint. He waits, and is rewarded. “Ares.”

“Yes, my Queen.”

She pushes away from him, climbing out of his lap and standing on her own. He rises to stand beside her, ready to guide her back to the stairs, back to Black Swan. He touches her elbow, but suddenly his fragile butterfly is a steel cable under his hand, immoveable.

“You didn’t need to awaken me,” she states flatly. He stares at her. She stares back, inscrutable. “You’d already headed off Zeus and Hades’ foolishness with the virus. You don’t need me here.” She looks around, dismissing him as unimportant for the moment. 

“I needed to complete my mission, my Queen.” 

“Your mission was a waste of time. Black Swan will never have me.” He watches her stalk to the switch box and flip it back to the off position. The hum of electricity dies, and he can feel all his hopes die with it. Her body language is alien, strong and certain and unquestioning and nothing at all like the butterfly he’s tamed. His heart feels cold. 

She glances back at him.

“She’s still here, Ares.” The Queen turns and walks to him, reaching up to cup his cheek. “She couldn’t leave.” He gapes down at her. “Idiot. Did you think neither of us would realise?”

“Realise what?”

“That you love her.”

It’s reflex that has him blurting out a denial of sorts. “I’m not allowed --”

She’s having none of it. “But you do. And so does she.”

“She shouldn’t.”

“Oh, I know. And so does she, now. We’ve seen everything.” Her hand slides down his neck to stroke his tie. “Every possibility. Every way this played out. Every betrayal,” she grabs his tie, nails scoring the silk, “And she still loves you, Ares.”

Lucien gapes down at her, at a complete loss. His mouth works for a moment before he can find words. “Why?”

The Queen smiles up at him, a self-assured Cheshire Cat curl. “Because even when you betray her, you protect her. As much as you can. It’s rather sweet, actually.” Her grip on his tie tightens as she begins to pull him down, a slow steady drag.

“I don’t -- I don’t understand,” he stammers desperately.

“Lucien.” It’s her voice again, the delicate butterfly’s sweet tone. “It’s alright.” She presses a gentle kiss to his lips and he’s back in the art gallery, so many months ago. He raises his hands to cup her face, losing himself in her soft mouth. 

At last they part, and he stares down at her in wonder. “I still don’t understand.”

She gives him a tremulous smile, and he can still see the Queen lurking in her eyes, but the smile is all her. “None of it matters, Lucien. No matter how all of this ends, you always love me.” Her cheeks bloom with the same blush he remembers evoking as they stood in echo of Klimt’s kiss. “And I love you.” She reaches up to clasp her hands around the nape of his neck. “Please, Lucien, take me home,” she leans in, pressing against him with an assertiveness he’s never dared dream of, “And take me.”

The idea of descending the stairs and taking a bus or a taxi never occurs to him. He slides his arms around her waist and steps backwards into her bedroom. His heel hits the foot of the bed and he’s falling backwards onto the duvet, pulling her down on top of him. She lands clumsily, straddling his hips with her hands planted next to his ears. 

“Are you sure?” Lucien’s voice is hoarse. It seems absurd to ask now, of all times, after months of practically forcing her to want him, but the mission is blown, the Queen autonomous, and he desperately wants something real to make up for everything he’s repressed in the name of Black Swan. 

She giggles and his heart lightens when she dips her head to dust kisses across his forehead and down his nose. Her lips trace a sweet path across his mouth and along his jaw, coming to rest next to his ear. A puff of warm breath accompanies her answer.

“I’m positive, Lucien.” Her kisses continue down his neck and into the gap of his collar, before she pulls back to start undoing his tie with an adorably focused expression. At last she pulls the silk out of his collar and eyes him contemplatively. 

“You know,” she says, and even in the dim light he can see both of them in her eyes. “You’ve worked so hard over the last few months to make me feel good.” She takes his wrists and tugs until he lets her lift his arms over his head, and starts to wind the tie around them. “I have the feeling you won’t believe any of this is real until I’ve had the chance to return the favour a little.” She leans over him, the fabric of her shirt brushing against his nose. He can feel the tug of the tie against his wrists until his hands are resting against the headboard. He twitches experimentally and realises she’s tied him to the bed.

“What are you doing?”

She crawls backwards down his torso until they’re nose to nose. “I’ve seen everything you’ve done to me, Lucien.” Her forehead gently bumps against his before she’s moving down again, undoing each button of his shirt and kissing the skin behind it before proceeding to the next one. “More importantly, I’ve seen everything you haven’t done, everything you could have done, everything you did somewhere else but not here.” Her lips brush his navel and Lucien can feel his abdominal muscles flinch when she trails her tongue across them. 

“Do you know,” she continues conversationally as her fingers make short work of his belt buckle. “You’ve done this in other places -- other timelines?” She looks off in the distance for a moment before shrugging. “Taken me to bed. Conditioned me.” The belt falls open and the zipper of his trousers follows suit. “But you always hold yourself back.” She smirks a little and he flushes, remembering the afternoon in front of the mirror. “Well, nearly always. It’s never been about you.”

Her fingers slide under the waistband of his shorts, and slowly pull until his erection springs free, hard and hot. She leans in and he shivers as her hair tickles his skin. “I’ve been wanting this for a long time.” She rubs her cheek along the length of him. “This is about you.”

His heart nearly hammers out of his chest when she takes the head of his cock into her mouth. Her mouth is hot and wet and the slide of her tongue has him gritting his teeth. At the sound of his groan she sucks hard and the headboard creaks as his hands are stymied in their effort to grab her. 

She slides off him with a quiet pop and grins. “Do you like that, Lucien?” Sucking him back in, she pulls his trousers and shorts down to his knees and nudges him to pull his legs free. He’s splayed in front of her, his only clothing the shirt hanging from his bound forearms. His hips flex, yearning to thrust into her mouth.

Lucien forces his arms to relax against the tie. “I do.” His body is aching to hold her. “But --” his voice falters.

“But what?” She waits patiently, crouched over him, breathing warmly against him as he tries to figure out how to just ask for something. Lucien represses everything for his mission. Ares takes what is necessary. But now, he has the opportunity to request his deepest desire and receive it, freely given, knowingly given.

“I want . . . “ He trails off, then sucks in a steadying breath and starts again. “I want to hold you.”

She blinks up at him. 

“Everything I’ve done up to now has been for someone else’s goals.” He licks his lips, mesmerised by the gleam of her eyes. “I just want to hold you. For myself.”

The catch of her breath is audible. They stare at each other in silence for a moment, Lucien painfully aware that neither his blush nor his erection are fading. Then suddenly she is slithering back up his torso until her mouth meets his in a desperate, hungry kiss while her hands work at the knot in the tie. The instant his hands are free he sheds the shirt and wraps his arms around her, one hand clutching her waist and the other buried in her hair. They spend several minutes in this pose, drinking each other in, bodies grinding against each other. Lucien feels like the hormonal teenager he once disclaimed to Zeus as he moans into her. 

Finally, the feeling of her clothing against his skin is too much. “Please,” he begs. “Let me undress you.”

She presses away from him, hands on his shoulders. “No, I don’t think so.” He can feel himself shrivel as she crawls off of him. Her hands move to the bow of her sash and his heart stops. “We’re done with you doing things to me, Lucien.” The sash falls loose and she slides the dress over her head and sits back on her knees, all pale pink flesh and white cotton underthings. She reaches up to touch the clasp of her bra and meets his eyes. “I’m doing this now.” She shrugs the bra away as the clasp slips open and shimmies out of her panties. A beautiful flush warms her breasts as she comes back to him and settles in his arms. “Do you understand?”

The emotional whiplash is wiped away by the feeling of her soft hair curling along his cock, recovered and straining against her. He holds her close again, waiting for her to make the first move. Patience is rewarded; she gathers herself to slide wetly over his cock, teasing him with her arousal. Long minutes of this and they’re both panting heavily. Each flex of her hips is slower, tantalizing him with the rub and gentle catch of her clitoris against the head of his erection. Finally, she raises her hips enough to angle him against her entrance and pauses, teasing.

“Are you ready?” she asks, that Cheshire cat smile on her swollen mouth. Lucien’s mouth is dry, but he forces the sound from his throat.

“Yes --” and she’s engulfing him, moist heat and delicious pressure and it’s so different from that day of the mirror because she’s in charge and letting him be inside her. All the muscles from his diaphragm to his thighs clench tight and spasm as she rides him, leaning back and dragging his hands up her torso. He follows and brings his mouth to her breasts, sucking desperately at her nipples as his hands clutch her hips hard enough to bruise.

She gasps as his teeth scrape across her and he can see her hand sliding down her own stomach in his peripheral vision. She tightens around him as her fingers rub desperately at her clit, and he loses all sense of control. His face is buried between her breasts as her orgasm shudders around him and he can no longer hold off his own, spilling into her and feeling all his discipline evaporate. They fall back into the sheets, still twitching around each other. Her mouth lands on his clavicle and she presses open kisses to it, each own mirrored by a shivering aftershock around his softening cock. 

“This is how it is from now on, Lucien.” Her voice is a hoarse whisper, but still sweet. “Can you accept that?”

He considers, long enough for his cock to slide out of her and the sweat on his chest and forehead to cool and dry. He’s not in charge anymore, and she’s not quite the butterfly he tamed. Black Swan will still need to be dealt with; the Queen is a threat to them now, and a rogue Olympian can’t be left alone. But -- 

He looks down at her and smiles. It’s not one of his practiced smiles, trotted out for appropriate reactions to appropriate occasions, and he has no idea what it looks like.

“I can, and I will . . . my Monarch.”

All things considered, the situation could be much worse.

[justalittlelitnerd]

Books I’ve Read since November

I have read a decent amount of books since I last consistently posted on this blog so I figured instead of trying to remember everything about those books I would make a summary post. A few of the books I did love enough that I want to write separate, longer posts about them, but the others I just enjoyed and wanted to share this way. Let me know your thoughts on any or all of these titles!

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata 

My roommates are big romance readers and are both big fans of Mariana and recommended her to me. They recommended I start with this one and I think that was a fair recommendation even if it ended up not being my favorite. Basically a good football (american) romance.

Wait for It by Mariana Zapata

I think this one is my favorite Mariana book because of the characters and the boys and just ugh it made my heart melt. If you like a little bit of trauma with your romance (nothing super dark) and putting back together a broken and bruised family this one is for you.

Under Locke by Mariana Zapata

This is a close second to Wait for It and honestly the only reason it’s not first is because I already read the Chaos series by Kristen Ashley and this doesn’t compare to that. If you like bikers and tattoos this is the romance for you.

Kulti by Mariana Zapata

I think I’d have to say this is my least favorite Mariana book (of the ones I read as listed here) and I still loved it, but I didn’t connect as strongly with the characters. If you like soccer and strong women and men who struggle to express their emotions this is the book for you.

We Set the Dark on Fire by Tehlor Kay Mejia

Not gonna lie, I felt a little let down by this book, but I think that was because it was so hyped up I had unrealistic expectations. I think the premise of the book and the world building were spectacular, but the story lost me with the romance between the two main characters because it felt forced and a little out of the blue. I really wanted to support a f/f romance especially between latina characters cause that’s desperately missing from YA (at least in my experience), but this was sudden and felt forced. I think the intention was representation, but the execution runs the risk of appearing like pandering/queerbaiting. I’m going to consider reading the sequel that just came out because I liked the writing and I’m hopeful that once the romance hits its stride it might be better. If you’ve already read the sequel, what are your thoughts?? 

The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai

If you’re like me, you probably appreciate (if not prefer) your romance with strong characters and deeper connections and moments than just falling in love/lust has to offer. If that’s the case, try this out. The Right Swipe features a strong, independent black woman who is at the top of her field (designing apps/tech) and owns her sexuality. There is talk of sexual harassment, online harassment, and the dangers of a professional football career. The diversity of the characters and their backgrounds feels natural.

The Disasters by M.K. England

I’m going to write a separate post for this because I loved it so much, but basically an epic space opera with well-represented, unquestioned, nontraumatic diversity.

You’d Be Mine by Erin Hahn

Not gonna lie I picked this book up thinking it would be a lighthearted country music romance. And to some extent I was right, but there’s also talk of addiction, loss, trauma, mental health, and so much more that I didn’t expect, but were integral to the story.

Love from A to Z by S.K. Ali

I think this book had good representation and a cute romance and strong moments that are worth reading, but I just wasn’t overwhelmed in the way some of the serious moments should have called for.

With the Fire on High by Elizabeth Acevedo

Similar to Love from A to Z I had heard a lot about this book and it sounded good so I picked it up. While I enjoyed it (if I didn’t I wouldn’t have finished it) I didn’t feel the immediate pull to reread it which is my tell-tale sign for a really good book. That being said I would recommend it for those looking for some diversity in their YA and a refreshing story.

Prince Charming by Rachel Hawkins

I honestly almost regret finishing this book. There was a moment where I almost stopped because it’s a very light romance and I just didn’t love the main character. I think that has more to say about me and the mood I was in when I picked the book up rather than the book itself though so I wouldn’t write it off if you’re looking for a cute, good-hearted romance.

Serpent & Dove by Shelby Mahurin 

I’m also going to write a separate post for this one because c’mon the book was 500 pages long and was super hyped up and needs it. Basically a great fantasy about witches and witch-hunters in something akin to historical France. Lou is the best kind of main character and will appeal to those who love flawed main characters such as one Kaz Brekker.   

[leatherlaceandblades]

Off the Table, pt2

"174?"

Moka was propped up on her bed, but she didn't acknowledge her voice being said. She didn't have to, technically - she was awake, she was alive, and short of yanking her new ears off herself, both of them knew that she could hear just fine. "Don't be afraid to try. Here, let me make the note for you, and you should be able to imitate the sound yourself..."

And the jen did. It was a nice sound. Pretty. But she didn't repeat it back. She wasn't in the mood.

"Please, this is important. I-"

A bark of laughter came from the front door. It was deep and guttural and came around large teeth. "Shouldn't waste your time on that one. She should have been Reaper fodder ages ago."

Moka's ears twitched. There was nothing but brutal mockery in that voice...it was one from the higher tier combat units that held their position unquestioned for their scary size and aggressiveness. And he was good at it. Most of the time, he didn't even have to do anything himself, but let those that flocked to him as a leader take care of any challengers. And when he -did- step up to face another unit, it got bloody. Really blood.

"Get moving, 159."

The male subject was cuffed on the shoulder from behind, the whole of his bulk barely even budging. Another laugh was his response, his mouth twisted in a cruel grin. There was teeth. He was spoiling for a fight, but let himself be moved out of sight and further down the hall. The door slammed a second later, and Moka was a bit surprised to find that it was her current caregiver, looking flushed and really rather pissed off.

"Don't listen to him. Big bully. You're just feeling a little down is all. Once you're accustomed to everything you-"

"He's right."

The medical woman stammered to a stop as Moka interrupted, going from angry to stricken looking. Moka waited for her to scold her for saying something like that - it seemed like a thing she would do. Instead, there was a touch of a hand in her hair. Even tangled, the touch was so careful not a single snag was tugged. "Then let's change that, shall we?"

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"This next set, please."

It had taken some time, but the more Moka worked at it, the easier the recognition of the notes came. jen Gabris had been right: picking this up came almost as a second nature, and she could hear even the faintest warble or incorrect shift in the music without even trying. The thrill that came with hitting everything just right was beyond words in satisfaction, making goosebumps rise up and down her arms.

They weren't in one of the examination rooms any more; the space they occupied now was large, filled with various exercise and work out equipment...worse for wear, but still in working condition. Mats were rolled up and stuffed in to the corners to be laid out when stretches or closer space wrestling was to happen. Technically, it was outside of normal Subject space, but special permissions to gain access to it had been granted as it was about as close as they could get to an open space that was still private.The majority of Moka’s bandages had also been discarded as the surgical wounds had healed themselves. No longer in danger of infection, however, she was even permitted to resume wearing a lighter armor while she was out and about, making her far less edgy about being surprised by other Subjects looking for an easy take down.

Althea jen Desideris smiled, the slender fingers of her right hand tapping the air gentle to lead Moka when to hit the notes, and when to cease. She was good at it - her patience was astounding, and a calming aura that kept even well deserved frustrations at bay. Moka had never met her up until this point, but Vivian had decided her influence was needed here. As for Vivian herself, Moka still wasn't sure what to make of her, or why she was trying as hard as she was to see that this experiment came to fruition. She could've easily walked away, but...

"...She will need to practice other sorts besides this. They'll want to know how this could be seen as any sort of weapon."

"Indeed. But you cannot deny that she has come from. If nothing else, they can find a use for her as a back up on the field, could they not? There is something...powerful. In just listening to her."

"Oh yes, sure. I mean, you're right, but I don't know how they would feel about that. We're aiming for a combat unit. Something that would lead the charge frontlines. Even the flip-side of their group goes stealthy. Nothing really stealthy about making sounds. We'll have to find a way for her to emulate sounds that normal vocal cords. I'll have to get with the other departments to see if they can give us examples of them. It seems once she hears it, she can match it, so..."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The rock exploded, the impact burst almost as if it had come from the inside, folding in then erupting back out, sending debris flying in all directions. "Oh yes, that's it! That's perfect!"

Vivian yanked the protective ear covers off, her whole face lit up in the biggest smile Moka had ever seen a person wear. They had been on a steady increasing volume, those joyful looks, the more the two of them worked together. The more sounds that the female Subject managed to make, the more delighted her caregiver got. She had thought for sure that the jen would've long ago been assigned elsewhere; it had been moons now she seemed to pop her head in to Moka's room and drawn her out for more practice. Slowly, slowly...she was getting to expect it. Almost look forward to it.

It was almost like having a friend. Or what she imagined having a friend would be like. At least someone that wanted to see her achieve something great. "Here, look! I spoke to some people in the machinery department, and they said they would be able to make us some smaller versions of projectile launchers. We could load them with more of the large rocks, so you can get something more close to practical practice in. Afterall, I don't think a target is going to just stand still and let you scream in their face until their eardrums pop..."

"...You talk a lot."

She had wanted to say it a long while ago. And, the vast majority of the time, Moka didn't mind the chatter between hitting notes, hearing various wave sounds, and other tasks. In truth she really didn't mind it right then, either. She just wanted to know what the woman would say in return.

"Huh?", the red-head paused in her pointing out her idea; the placement, the projectile, even in the midst of making an explosive hand gesture like what she imagined Moka's sounds could cause the rocks to do. "Oh.”

And she laughed. 

Moka wasn't sure if she was being laughed -at-, or if jen Gabris was finding amusement in herself. Or maybe she shouldn't have asked; as patient as this one had been, that didn't mean she didn't have her limits and bounderies too... Panic surged up in Moka's gut, tensing up when her ears picked up and jump started her brain that Vivian was coming towards her. She twitched, ears laying out to either side. She couldn't attack, but she didn't want to move either. Moving was weakness, the whole training was so she wouldn't be weak. She was going to be a combat, she was going to be a fighter. Fighters weren't weak...

Pat.

The hand that came down on top of her head was anything but harsh and strict. It was a gentle cup over the now washed and brushed pink curls, directly between the highly sensitive ears as if to take in to account even a simple touch could hurt them. A little rustle, back and forth...

Moka's eyes had shamefully shut for the moment she heard the contact coming in. Her right eye peeked open, then her left to find that the much taller Garlean was leaning in closer to her. Same cheerful face, same open smile.

"I do, don't I? My mom told me it was because I was bad at keeping anything to myself. Keeping secrets. After a while, I figured there was no point in trying to keep anything like that to myself, since it felt like I was lying about who I was. That and it was just way too hard when I had so much to share."

"Why would you want to share anything?", the concept was almost beyond her. Niceness could often times be slapped back in your face if presented to the wrong person. Moka knew that well enough...had been through it enough...

"Because, 174, if you don't share, how do you ever make friends? And how do you ever get to know yourself and grow with knowing yourself with other people?"

"Is that why you smile so much too?"

"Heh, I guess nothing gets by you, does it?", the hand finally lifted out of her hair...Moka both missed it and was glad it was gone in equal measure. "I guess in part. And it feels good to smile. Did you know it was harder to frown or look upset then to just smile? Though...", the blonde woman leaned all the further forward until her face was level with the Miqo'te's. "I think you're out of practice. I think today we'll add in smiling to your exercises."

Her expression serious, all lab coat and clipboard and done up hair meant to be professional, waggled a finger at Moka as if scolding her. "I want a big smile on your face for every note you successfully hit. We'll get those muscles in shape in no time, you'll see."

[bytheangell]

A Matter of Trust

Set after Magnus leaves the Institute, an a familiar ally is at the right place at the right time to lend a helping hand. (aka Elle has a lot of Underhill feelings and would like to imagine more of his role around the Institute than the show will ever give us) (Read on AO3)

The moment Alec shared with Magnus in the hallway of the Institute isn’t exactly a private one, a fact which is emphasized as Magnus walks away and Alec locks eyes with Underhill on the other side of the corridor. His expression is almost impassive, but not without the glimmer of curiosity in his eyes that tells Alec he saw the looks on both of their faces. And after the night before, well, Alec isn’t surprised to catch Underhill’s lips purse together, face etched with concern that slips through his otherwise impartial nod of acknowledgment as their gazes meet.

Alec hesitates. He needs someone to cover for him while he, Clary, and Isabelle leave for Idris, but he doesn’t want to put Underhill in the position to lie for him. He’d been nothing but supportive, and despite his insistence that Maryse be allowed into the Institute (yet another thing he owed him for, Alec is starting to keep a mental list) Underhill never struck him as a rule breaker. The last thing he wants to do is put him in a compromising position in regards to doing his job versus being a friend.

In the time it takes Alec to think through his options here, Underhill is approaching him now. “...what can I do to help?” It’s a question that seems to come out of nowhere, following something entirely unprompted.

“Help what?” Alec asks, brows furrowing together in confusion at the sudden question, as if Underhill could read his thoughts and know what he was considering asking of him. His hands instinctively reach around his back, taking on his ‘soldier on duty’ stance subconsciously. He is the Head of the Institute, he can’t afford to be sulking around the hallways looking like someone who desperately needs help. If that is the aura he gave off then he is allowing all of this to affect him far too easily. Not that it shouldn’t be, but he simply couldn’t allow it to be. He doesn’t have that luxury.

“For starters, I wouldn’t be very good at my job if I couldn’t piece together that a gathering of this particular group of people, followed by looks like that, meant that something big was going on. Forgive me if I’m overstepping my position, Sir.” It is obvious that at Alec’s look of dumbfounded surprise he started to backtrack, reverting to apologies and ‘sirs’, reading it as the look of someone who can’t believe they’re being approached like this. Instead, it is the look of someone constantly taken aback by any seemingly unwarranted shows of support. Alec isn’t sure he’ll ever get used to having someone who isn’t Magnus, who isn’t family, so consistently on his side.

“No, you’re not. Overstepping, that is.” And despite the severity of the situation at hand, he gives Underhill a small smile he hopes will ease any tensions he didn’t mean to cause. Along the same lines he brings his arms to rest by his sides, his stance relaxing slightly. “And there is something you can do, actually. It’s just-” Alec hesitates again, eyes darting back to the room where Clary and Isabelle wait. “I have to go away, on… unofficial business.”

“I see.” Underhill says, catching onto the meaning behind Alec’s phrasing.

“I know your shift is just ending, and I’m not sure how long it’s going to take. But if anyone asks-”

“-you had something urgent come up, a private, personal matter, and left to attend to it.” Underhill supplies, without missing a beat.  “I’m certain I can field any messages or questions that may come through for you until your return. Don’t worry about things here, Sir, the Institute is under control.” It was that unquestioning ease that Alec never expects, the blind faith put in the decisions he makes, the standards he sets. Underhill has no idea what he’s about to go and do, but he trusts it’s what’s right, and what’s best.

It’s that trust that Alec clings to now, hoping with every fiber of his being that it isn’t misplaced; that he’s doing the right thing trying to save Jace before he becomes a kill order that can’t be reversed. That they can pull this off without allowing the next blood spilled to be on his hands now for keeping this from the Clave, as well as from his own Head of Security who even now is rolling up his sleeve to trace over the endurance and stamina runes needed to stay awake through an unpredictable amount of extra hours at the Institute.

Alec tries to smile again, to convey just how appreciative he is of this, but it falls short. “Thank you,” he says simply instead, and Underhill hears the lightness of relief in those few words; in knowing this is at least one less thing he has to worry about on top of whatever else is happening.

“Good luck,” Underhill says as Alec turns to leave, and Alec pauses just a second, closing his eyes against the wish for good fortune as he says a silent prayer to the Angel that more than just luck is on their side.

He’s going to need all the cosmic goodwill he can get.

[maskedheromaskedchampion]

Oppressive Wills, Part I

“How did it get this bad?” you think to yourself as you come out of the haze you’ve worked yourself into.

Just thirty minutes ago you were shuffling your first deck ever constructed from scratch at a table in your local game store. Now you’re staring down twenty 2/2 flying Drake tokens and all your removal has been counterspelled. The only thing keeping you alive is your Lightmine Field, but deep down you kind of want the Talrand player to find Into the Roil so the game can end and you can go play at another table.

“Is this what Commander is like here?” you think to yourself again.

You weren’t prepared for this. Last week wasn’t like this.

A few minutes later a Toxic Deluge resolves after a pretty lengthy counter war ending with Mindbreak Trap. The game has leveled out again.

“Nekusar, the Mindrazer,” the Deluge player proclaims.

Here we go again.

Hello all, good to see you’ve come back, welcome to another installment of my favorite Commander column, Shattered Perceptions. This week I would like to touch on a topic that I have wanted to cover but just never found the chance. Until today! The topic this week is a deep dive into the problem generals of Commander and my own perceived history of them.

Problem generals are the kinds of generals or decks that dominate play groups and ruin the fun of many Commander games. The Rules Committee will often fall back on the response that The Social Contract should help to lessen the impact of these people/generals/decks. While I vehemently believe that is true, even one week with such a deck in your metagame can be memorable. Ultimately, I think that any “broken” general can be pared down in power to be something challenging without being annoying, but I am very aware that it is one’s own perspective that truly matters.

I should also be clear that I don’t think the existence of a best deck is bad or that the player should be unwelcome in the format, just that boogeymen have and do exist. While some of these generals/decks are universal, metagames can form where unique cases can be made. The intent of this article is not to demonize players or deck choices, but to look back and educate people on the history of Commander through the lens of boogeymen. While some of my examples may focus on more personal metagames, I want to try to cast a wide net over the entire format where I can.

Jhoira of the Groans

I haven’t seen the entire history of Commander, getting wind of the format around 2010 and not becoming heavily invested until about 2014. But a few notable events occurred between those years.

My first clear memory of a boogeyman comes from 2011 when the Magic: the Gathering Commander decks were released. I remember building from scratch around Jhoira of the Ghitu. While I had jumped at the chance to buy a pre constructed deck, I was also too much of deck builder to have just one in my arsenal. In hindsight, the deck was probably terrible by my own standards today, but the fear of what a non-preconstructed deck was capable of—especially one that had some real world notoriety—made me the top concern among my friends. I think back and shake my fist at my friend, Louis, who stopped all forward motion in one game to insure I would not have any of my suspended cards resolve.

In fairness, the deck was known for stringing together a cloud of Suspended spells that once resolved would result in something akin to Decree of Annihilation into Dominus of Fealty and Inkwell Leviathan. The secret tech was to defeat one player with your fatties and then cast Soulblast from hand to finish off your last opponent. Today the deck seems so tame, but before Commander tech really got streamlined this was a deck to watch out for.

Ertai & Zur: Fricken Esper

To many Commander players Ertai, the Corrupted and Zur the Enchanter might actually not mean anything to you, as your playgroup or the shop you frequent had “hated out” one or both of these before you ever bought into the format. If so, I don’t know if I envy or pity you.

When I first dove into the larger public Commander metagame Ertai, the Corrupted was a problem that in hindsight was on its last legs. The deck played enchantments like Ghostly Prison, Propaganda, Standstill, and Bitterblossom to act as buffers on the rest of the table’s forward momentum, until the time came to use them as a Counterspell. I recall Mobilization being a huge roadblock, as it created blockers and a sacrifice outlet for countering spells. Adding to that, creatures like Doomed Traveler or Bloodghast who only fed into the card advantage and the deck was pretty well designed.

All of that would be simply be cute, if the only tools the deck had for recurring Ertai’s ability were bottlenecked with Freed from the Real and Pemmin’s Aura. With the Thornbite Staff in the bag of tricks, however, the deck created a soft lock and was just a bore to play against. But by mid-2013, I don’t know that I saw Ertai making the rounds anymore.

Zur the Enchanter, on the other hand, seemingly falls in and out of favor depending on the innocence and competitiveness of a store or playgroup. The basic rundown of the deck is to cast Lightning Greaves into Zur on turn three or four, attack with Zur grabbing Diplomatic Immunity followed by Ghostly Prison/Propaganda to secure an unquestioned boardstate. The deck was good enough that I can even recall my first build—the dark side is tempting—being Modern legal and winning games with the hundred-card singleton deck at a FNM or equivalent. Zur can be a chore to play against if your opponents aren’t equipped with the right stuff, because he normally doesn’t even win though commander damage quickly. Overall, Zur should be reserved for only the most serious of games.

Zombies and Dragons

Commander 2013 was pretty impactful on the format from my perspective. Outside of the crazy demand for the Grixis deck—which housed True-Name Nemesis—teaching Wizards a thing or two about putting constructed format viable cards into these products, we got two generals that shaped the following year’s metagame in big but differing ways: Nekusar and Prossh.

Nekusar, the Mindrazer was an interesting case to behold. In him I found my kindred spirit and to the rest of the world there was only malice. Nekusar was notable as the first “solved” general of my time: almost immediately people figured out Howling Mine, Underworld Dreams, and Temple Bell. These were things even I could grasp, but when Forced Fruition spiked and Damia, Sage of Stone was being declared a handicapped deck, I was taken aback as I had never seen that level of hysteria.

As I alluded to, I played Nekusar, casting Prosperity and Font of Mythos through the dirty looks and hate for over a year. I left a shop because they were so prejudiced against my budget build, then my next shop started packing Abundance, Obstinate Familiar, Colfenor’s Plans, and Elfhame Sanctuary in any decks that would support them. The theory as I understood it was that they didn’t need to tutor for the hate, they just assumed they’d find it with the extra cards draw. To this day I don’t believe I have ever seen another copy in a command zone, but the metagame has shifted.

Prossh, Skyraider of Kher, unlike many of the other generals I’ve profiled today, was not into the long game. The speed by which the deck might churn out a win via commander damage was breakneck. Prossh was, by contrast, an example of a smaller blip on the radar of the metagames I witnessed, being a problem for the better part of three months before slowly dying in popularity. In fairness, the deck didn’t even stock many “offensive” cards, utilizing Krenko’s Command, Mitotic Slime, and Sprouting Thrinax for explosive turns. At the time the only tech that really protected you was flashing in Doran, the Siege Tower with Savage Summoning after they’d sacrificed most of their board, or blunting their general preemptively with Angel of Jubilation. In the end, it was a groaner that turned out to be a flash in the pan.

Next week, come back for part two. I get a little more obscure and creative as I learn my way around the format. What problem generals stand out the most to you? Maybe some will come up in part two, but I’d love to hear about them anyway. As always, thank you for reading, and let me know what you think!

[lovemesomerafael]

Destroying The Planet To Save It   Chapter 17:  They’re Disgusting When They Explode

Dinner was prepared by Tony’s catering staff, which meant that it was a little extravagant.  By long tradition, however, it was served buffet-style.  That was for two reasons.  First, team dinners tended to get a little rowdy, and Steve thought it was best not to give the serving staff any stories to sell to the press.  Second, dinner conversation was often about strategy and other things that needed to be kept among themselves.  

Tony always disputed both points.  Regarding the first, Tony argued that he was perfectly capable of hiring discreet staff and enforcing nondisclosure agreements.  And when he did, Steve always reminded him that it was his staff who had leaked the story about his affair with the British Prime Minister and the pictures of his debauched and drug-fueled weekend with the anchor team from the top-rated morning show in the U.S.

Regarding the second, Tony argued that half the team were spies, and were fully capable of spotting a mole.  And when he did, Steve always reminded him of the bombed-out shell of the Triskelion.

Theoretically, everyone chose their own seat in the formal dining room on the residential floor of the Tower.  Steve thought that Tony had been surprisingly diplomatic in somehow maneuvering things so that Director Coulson sat at the head of the massive oval table.  Steve himself was at the other end.  That put Tony to the right of Coulson, a subtle and graceful acknowledgement, especially for Tony Stark, of the politics of the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D.  However Tony had maneuvered that seating arrangement, it made Steve want more than ever to repair his relationship with him.  

Sharon was to Steve’s left, and Bucky to his right, with Joss next to him.  Things seemed to have thawed a little between Bucky and Joss since breakfast, Steve thought. He was glad.  He liked Joss, and he liked her and Bucky together.  He also knew Bucky as well as Bucky knew himself. Steve was the only person who knew just how tender Bucky’s heart was.  He didn’t fall for women easily, but when he did, Bucky fell hard.  Steve knew the signs, and he was absolutely seeing them now.  He didn’t know what was holding Bucky and Joss back, but he wasn’t worried.  Steve didn’t know much about women, but he’d been watching them fall in love with Bucky his whole life.  He knew what that looked like.  It looked like…  well, it looked like Joss.  

Sam, to Sharon’s left, was telling a story about how he and his buddy Riley once “tactically acquired” a couple of ATVs and spent an afternoon joyriding through the desert.   Everyone at their end of the table was howling with laughter, partly because of the story, and partly because Sam’s delivery was so entertaining.  Anita was to Sam’s left, and next to her sat Scott, who was making the story even funnier with his skeptical facial expressions.  Probably the best part, however, was the way that Vision, sitting next to Wanda, who was on Joss’s right, kept interpreting Sam’s slang – both military and street – literally.  

At the other end of the table, a lively debate raged about the Battle of Baton Rouge, which the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. had fought the previous year.  Director Coulson continued to maintain that their adversary, who called himself Lumbro, had intentionally created the giant, sentient earthworms they’d fought.  Tony, however, remained adamant that Lumbro hadn’t been smart enough to accomplish that and had, in fact, been as surprised as anyone.  Of course, once he’d done it, Lumbro had proclaimed that creating an earthworm army had been his plan all along, but Tony’s theory was that he’d been trying to create a growth ray and had simply wired it wrong.

“Either way,” Clint said, “I never want to battle worms again.  Those things are disgusting when they explode!”

“They also don’t even notice when you shoot them, which is just annoying,” Natasha noted.

“Remember when the Hulk went all Dune and rode around on one?” Clint laughed, pointing at Bruce.

“Matter of fact, no,” Bruce answered drily.

Tony high-fived Clint behind Natasha’s back.  “I would kill for video of that!  All he needed was a hat to wave around, and he’d have been Slim Pickens at the end of Dr. Strangelove!”

“I absolutely insist on hearing this story,” Catherine demanded, laughing.  

Bruce facepalmed.  “I object.”

“Overruled,” Coulson said, and waved a hand toward Clint, inviting him to tell the story.

Sharon’s leg was touching Steve’s under the table, a fact that wasn’t lost on either of them.  She was enjoying watching him laugh at Sam’s story, while at the same time noticing, as always, that his laughter was reserved, as though he wasn’t allowed to just let go and enjoy himself.  She caught his eye and smiled at him, taking his hand where it rested on the table and squeezing.  She happened to be looking at him when, as conversations sometimes do, both came to a coincidental end.  Steve looked toward the other end of the table, making eye contact with Tony.

“Speaking of ‘tactical acquisition,’ I’m never gonna forget the look on The Sector’s face when his entire robot force turned on him and gave him the finger.”

Tony broke into a wide smile, filled with childish delight.  “That guy was a tool.  Nobody out-Starks Stark.  He needed to be taught a lesson.”

Coulson laughed louder than anyone else.  “It probably would have been sufficient humiliation for The Sector that his robots ended up dismantling his base for S.H.I.E.L.D.  But one of the pictures of them all giving Lumbro the finger is still my screen saver.”

“Yeah, Cap was pretty pissed at me for a few minutes for leaving the fight to take pictures, but come on.”  Scott said.

“I still have some of those robots,” Tony noted.  “They buff the floors.”

That got a full belly laugh from Steve, who was looking at Tony with undisguised fondness.  “I did only ask you to disable them.”

Tony shrugged.  “What would’ve been the fun in that?”

Bucky piped up, “Don’t take that from him, Tony.  Captain America isn’t above that kinda thing, himself. In Azzano, he tactically acquired four hundred ice cream bars.  Gave one to every guy he rescued from Krieschberg.”

“You gotta be kiddin’ me,” Sam groaned.  “Even when he’s stealin’, he’s a do-gooder.”

While everyone was laughing about that, Steve and Bucky shared a quick look that spoke volumes about the other things Steve had obtained in Azzano by less-than-pristine means.  Blankets, which were hard to come by, because for weeks after being rescued, Bucky couldn’t seem to get warm.  A blue coat Bucky came to love, for the same reason.  Extra rations, because for reasons they didn’t understand at the time, Bucky was ravenously hungry pretty much constantly.  Those things had saved Bucky’s life, and Steve’s unwavering, unquestioning devotion had saved his sanity.  And he’d done the exact same things when he’d once again rescued Bucky from Hydra.  It had just taken a little longer the second time.

There was no need for words, or for the look to last more than a moment.  

Throughout the meal, Vision was uncharacteristically quiet.  From across the table, Tony watched him.  He didn’t like what he was seeing.  AI or not, Vision reminded Tony of himself when he was distracted by a particular type of problem.  The kind where you know the answer, and you want the answer to be something – anything - else.  

“Hey, Angry Birds,” Tony grunted, tossing a crouton at Vision.  “Cheer up, will ya?  It’s a party. You’re bringing us all down.”

“I am sorry.  I am still working on some questions having to do with the ‘resource’, the missing link between the machines – “

“Yeah, I know what the ‘resource’ is.  And I’m a capitalist pig; I don’t pay overtime.  So punch out already.”

“Yes.  Of course,” Vision said, turning to smile vaguely at Wanda.  

Shit, Tony thought.

Bucky turned toward Joss and Wanda.  “How’d it go after you kicked us out of the gym?  You figure out the aiming thing?”

Wanda smirked at Joss, holding her goblet of ice water up.  “Did we?”

An ice cube rose, dripping, from Joss’s glass, floating slowly and gracefully across the table.  It slowed considerably, then briefly wavered before plunking into Wanda’s goblet.  “We made some progress.”

Joss turned to Bucky and was rewarded with a smile that rendered her briefly incoherent.  All she could do was beam at him, overwhelmed by how beautiful he was and pleased beyond words at his reaction.  The moment between them was long enough that Steve and Sharon shared a raised-eyebrow glance, silently acknowledging their mutual belief that Bucky and Joss would find their way to each other.

“Well, if you wanna talk about aim,” Sam announced, putting an arm around Anita, “This is the woman to see.  Put me to shame on the firing range a little while ago.”

“That ain’t hard to do,” Bucky muttered.

“Naw, man, this girl is the real deal.  I’d put her up against you or Barton anyday.”

“Agent Herrera is the highest-ranked marksman in S.H.I.E.L.D.,” Director Coulson put in.  “I could tell you stories about shots she’s made in the field.  Of course, then I’d have to kill you, and that’s poor manners at the dinner table.”

Clint raised his glass to Anita in a silent, impressed toast.  

“My demand for a raise will be on your desk in the morning, Director,” Anita said, dipping her head humbly.  Coulson simply smiled at her and gave her a nod.

Natasha spoke up, aiming her comments down the table at Sam and Anita.  “I want to know what it’s like at one of Jarman Arias’s house parties.  Even in Europe, people talk about them.  Some of the stories I hear...”

Sam sat up straighter.  “Agent Herrera and I were there on a mission,” he said defensively.

“A mission, I would add, for which they insisted they needed some of my best weed,” Tony noted.  “And Sam, don’t ever try to act innocent on the job.  It’s not a good look on you.”

Sam huffed.  Anita merely laughed.  “If the stories in Europe say that Arias stocks his parties with celebrities and more booze and food than a cruise ship, they’re true.  And I’m also going to have to go to Confession for some of the things I only heard about happening while we were there.”

“Such as?”  Catherine asked.

“I’m not sure some are actually anatomically possible, but I did see that rapper, the one who does ‘Ass Onna Fly’?  He was…  There were… Well, now that I think about it, if I told you at the dinner table, it would be worse etiquette than Director Coulson killing you all.”

“Was that when he was in the cabana?” Sam asked.  “And there were all those women wrestlers with him?”

“Yes,” Anita answered, blushing now and taking a long, unnecessary drink of water to cover as much of her face as possible.  

“I think I mighta happened by there a couple times.”

“A couple times?”  Catherine asked.  “Not sure that qualifies as ‘happening by’.”

Sam ignored the comment, and the guffaws that followed. He frowned a little and asked Anita, “What were they using the plastic flamingos for?”

Her head came up and she looked at him quizzically. “Those were decorations, Sam.”

The table erupted in laughter.

Steve wasn’t sure whether it was the excellent wine, or the chance to enjoy camaraderie with this group, whom he had feared at one time would never meet as friends again, or his brief talk with Director Coulson earlier.  Something, though, was making him feel better than he had in a while.  The chaotic meal, with so many side conversations and the general convivial atmosphere, the frequent outbreaks of laughter and reminiscences, somehow ironically quieted his mind.  

He looked at the group of people sitting around the table, beginning with Bucky, whose mere presence was the most solid support Steve had ever known.   He knew Bucky’s abilities, knew that Bucky would make any mission succeed or die trying, and knew that Bucky would protect him long before he’d protect himself.  Looking at Joss made him think about the three newcomers who were part of the team handling the current threat.  Each of them brought significant assets to the table that Steve knew he could rely upon in what was to come.  Wanda and Vision, of course, were known quantities, both with extreme superpowers and unquestionable commitment to the Avengers.  The same was true of Bruce, who provided both superstrength and superintelligence.  

Director Coulson’s tactical and strategic expertise, not to mention his clear thinking in a crisis, were as dependable as the tides. Steve had definitely had his share of struggles with S.H.I.E.L.D. and other authorities interfering in what had to be done, and he would never be free of the effects of the betrayal by Alexander Pierce and the Hydra cancer that had riddled S.H.I.E.L.D. before the Battle of the Triskelion.  But Coulson had always been true.  Steve trusted him, and by extension, his new S.H.I.E.L.D. as far as he could trust any government organization.  Much farther than most.  

Clint and Natasha, of course, were as rock-solid as Wanda and Vision.  More so, since Steve had known and fought with them longer.  Alone, they were formidable and nearly unstoppable. Together, and as part of the Avengers, they were a big reason Steve really needed to chill the fuck out.  He smiled to himself, thinking that.  And also because his eyes then landed on Sam, who had turned out to be the best chance meeting of Steve’s life.  Sam’s skills and abilities, and the flexibility he brought to the team as another airborne member, were invaluable.  But Sam himself was a gift to the Avengers.  He kept them hopeful.  He had the skills and compassion to help them work through things they encountered that would otherwise crush them.  And he was just damn fun to have around.

Which brought Steve to Sharon.  He looked at her and squeezed her hand where he held it under the table.  She was so much more than the beautiful woman with the irresistible smile he’d first known as his neighbor.  She reminded Steve, in the best possible way, of his mother, because she had that same quiet, unflagging strength and an unshakable belief in him.  Steve’s mom would have adored Sharon.  Hell, Steve adored Sharon.  He shivered a little at that thought. 

Since the day she’d lectured him and then seduced him, something fundamental about Steve had changed.  Sure, everything between them had changed so much that he already couldn’t imagine how he had ever maintained his distance the way he had.  Sure, she was now a constant presence in his mind.  But it was more than that.  She’d challenged him.  She’d kicked at what he thought was a coping strategy and shown it to be a dangerously flimsy delusion.  

She’d also given him the answer, and it was sitting around this table.  Coulson had said exactly the same thing: rely on your team.  Don’t pretend you can, or have to, shoulder the burden alone. Steve felt oddly emotional as he looked around the table again, his eyes finally coming to rest on Sharon, watching him.

“You OK?”  She asked.

“Yeah,” he answered, leaning over to kiss her cheek. “I think I’m gonna be just fine.”

 When dinner was over, fairly late, the team stood and began to say their good nights.  The muted ding of the elevator was heard through the din, not because it was loud, but because it was unexpected.  All eyes turned toward the door, to see Pepper Potts step into the room.  

She graciously returned all the greetings as Tony crossed the room toward her.  It was hard to tell whether the expression on his face was more stunned or relieved. Smiling sweetly at the group, Pepper then turned her attention to Tony, who slowed as he approached her, almost reverently.

“I am so glad to see you,” he said hoarsely.

“I know,” she answered, giving him a molten look as she reached out and grabbed a handful of his tie and shirtfront.  “Come with me.”

Pepper pulled Tony through the doorway, and very quickly the sound of the doors to the private penthouse was heard.  No one saw Tony or Pepper again that night.

 Director Coulson excused himself fairly quickly after that, saying that he had some calls yet to make that evening.  Everyone else drifted toward their various rooms, trying not to appear as eager as they were to be alone together.  

Soon, only Bucky, Joss, Wanda, and Vision were left in the area outside the dining room.  It was really too early to go to bed, Bucky thought, at least to sleep.  Besides, he couldn’t get what Clint had said out of his mind, and if he had a chance with Joss, he wanted to take it.  Maybe she did just need time.  If so, he’d give it to her.  But he wasn’t going to waste this opportunity to spend time with her, even if it wasn’t going to be romantic.  Yet.

“You know what?”  He said brightly.  “I’ve been in this building all day.  I need some fresh air.  What do you guys say we go for a walk?  Just to get out for a while.”

Joss nodded.  “That sounds nice.”

“Oh, yes, I’d like to do that,” Vision agreed.

Wanda muttered, “No, you wouldn’t.”

“I wouldn’t?”  He asked.

“No.  You and I need to finish going over those reports.”

“Oh, yes,” Vision said.  He turned to Bucky and said, in an oddly stilted voice, “Yes, I’m afraid Wanda and I need to go over those reports.”

“We’ll see you at the meeting in the morning,” Wanda said breezily, putting her arm around Vision’s and moving toward the door to the stairway.  “Good night!”

Bucky and Joss watched them go through the door, and clearly heard Vision’s voice echoing in the stairwell.  “I recognized the code phrase.  Why don’t we want to go for a walk?”

“Shhh…” Wanda’s voice responded quietly, but not so quietly that Bucky’s enhanced hearing didn’t pick up the whispered, “They need some time alone.”

Joss’s perplexed look told him that she hadn’t heard that.  “What just happened?”

“Apparently ‘going over those reports’ means that, uh… Wanda wants to be alone with Vision.”

“Oh!”  Joss smiled.

 Secret Service agent or not, Joss might have been a little hesitant to go walking the streets of Manhattan in the evening.  It could be a little risky in D.C., and she didn’t expect that it was any different in New York.  Tonight, however, as she stepped through the lobby door as Bucky held it open for her, she chuckled a little at the possibility of some unfortunate soul trying to mug her with him around.  

“What’s funny?”  He asked as they set off at a leisurely pace down the street.

“I was just thinking that I probably don’t have to worry about street crime tonight.  I don’t imagine anyone’s likely to mess with you.”

Bucky shrugged.  “Probably not.  But I think you’re still pretty safe.  How many?”

“How many what?”

He gave her a look.  “I’ll tell if you do.”

Joss smiled when she realized what Bucky was asking.  “Four. Three knives.  One gun.”

“Yeah?  What do you wear on the street?”

She pulled back the side of the jean jacket she wore to reveal a Wilson Combat EDC X9.  

“Huh,” was all he said.

“You?”

“Six.  Four knives.”

“I clocked the S&W on your hip.  What’s the other piece?”

“Sig P365.”

That led to a pleasant conversation about the relative merits of different handguns, both concealed carry and tactical.  They covered several blocks, not hurrying or heading anywhere in particular, just enjoying the cool evening and the bustle of the city.

As they approached tiny Greenacre Park, with its artificial waterfall, they noticed a group of five girls in their late teens huddled together on the steps, giggling and looking at them.  For about half a block, Bucky and Joss simply continued with their conversation, both watching the girls curiously but not mentioning them. When they got within fifteen yards or so of the girls, they stood as a group and two stepped into the sidewalk.

Their body language was hesitant and nervous, the two on the sidewalk cradling their phones in their hands and standing very close together as though for support.  All of the girls continued smiling and giggling.

“You’re Bucky Barnes, aren’t you?”  One of the girls in the sidewalk asked, when they were close enough.

“Uh, yeah.”

The girls who had remained on the steps stood now, too, and stepped up to huddle together with the others in front of Bucky, giggling now more than ever.  They all had phones in their hands.

“Can we take a selfie with you?”

“Yeah, sure,” Bucky said, clearly uncomfortable but trying to be polite.  

Joss, backed away as the girls surrounded him.  None of them even appeared to see her.  They began to talk over one another, telling Bucky how cool they thought he was and that they were “such huge fans” of his while he stood helplessly shifting from foot to foot, grinning awkwardly and trying to keep them from getting behind him.  This was going to be fun to watch.  

One of the girls who had waited on the sidewalk was the first to stand next to Bucky and hold out her phone.  He graciously asked if she wanted him to take the picture, since he had longer arms.  She breathlessly agreed, suddenly all nerves, while he put an arm loosely around her, held the phone out, and snapped the picture while the other girls took pictures of their friend and Bucky.

“Hey, Bucky, do you have a girlfriend?”

He pretended not to hear the question as he asked the girl next to him her name.

“Who’s cooler in person, Captain America or Iron Man?” One girl asked.

“Don’t be a dork, Brianna, he’s Captain America’s best friend,” another answered for him, following her announcement with a disgusted sound.

“Does Tony Stark have, like, just gobs of money?”

“I guess so, we don’t really talk about it-“

“Jessie, shit! Of course he has gobs of money, everybody knows that!”

The other girls took turns standing next to him, with Bucky patiently taking a picture with each girl while the others whispered, giggled, and photographed the process.  

“We think you’re really great,” one of the girls gushed, and the others hurriedly agreed.  

“Uh, yeah, thanks…”  Bucky looked progressively more uncomfortable.  He shot a look at Joss, who gave him a mocking smile.  

“I bet you never get cold now, ‘cuz you got frozen so much.”

“Um…”

“I thought it was so cool how you took out that bad guy in Poland with one shot like that.  You have the coolest guns!”

“I liked when you stabbed that gross monster with the huge head right in his eye.  That stuff that squirted out was so gross!”

A chorus of “Eeeeeeeew!” followed.  

“Hey, what’s the Black Widow like?  Is she just a total bitch?”

“Well, no, she’s-“

“I have pajamas with you on them.  I wish I would have known we’d see you, I could’ve brought them!”

“Hey, will you take off your jacket so we can see your arm?”  A girl with a tattoo of Captain America’s shield on her ankle asked.

“I don’t really…  Um…  Shouldn’t you girls be at home this time of night?”  Bucky’s look at Joss this time was a clear plea for help.  She let him see her laugh at him, then waded in.  She was, after all, a professional at this kind of stuff.   It was a little different with the President and the public, but not much.  And a group of horny teenage girls had nothing on a pack of rabid Congressmen.

While the girls objected that they were plenty old enough to be out after dark, Joss slipped smoothly into the center of the mob.  She took a stance in front of Bucky, her back pressed against his chest, and one hand behind her on his arm.  With that hand, she began invisibly to pull him in the direction they’d been walking.  

“OK, girls, thanks!” She cried, drowning out their giggling and questions as she stepped backward, pushing Bucky into moving.  “Thank you so much, but you know, Sergeant Barnes has a world to save, so he needs to get going.”  

The girls loudly voiced their disappointment, but as if held by a forcefield, they stayed where they were as Joss pulled Bucky away from them. She kept her back to him and pulled his arm until he was free of the circle of girls, then slowed down and pushed him to continue walking while she covered his retreat.  “Thanks, girls,” she called pleasantly, still facing them to make sure they didn’t follow.  Bucky looked back and waved a little, then ducked his head and made tracks while the girls called their goodbyes to him, still basically ignoring Joss, but somehow also compelled to obey her and allow him to leave.

Bucky could still hear the girls frantically giggling and gushing to each other as Joss jogged up beside him, trying to be quiet about her laughter.  The girls’ ecstatic comments continued to reach them for a while.

“He’s so cute!”

“Isn’t he just so nice?”

“He asked us all our names!  Holy shit, Bucky Barnes knows my name!”

Bucky groaned as Joss chuckled under her breath. “It’s not funny.  It’s so not funny,”

That just made her laugh harder.  “I’m sorry, I’m sure that must be kind of a pain, but if you could’ve seen your face…”

“Yeah, I’m sure it was hilarous.  Ugh.  Anyway, thanks for the rescue.”

“No problem.”

“How come they just obeyed you?”

“Because I told them what to do,” she shrugged.  “Did you see how nervous they were?  Nobody really knows the rules in those situations, because there aren’t any.  So if you act like you have authority, people usually listen.  It only works for a minute or two, but that’s all you usually need.”

Bucky nodded and made a “huh” sound.

“Sorry I laughed.  You did kind of look like you hated that.”

“I did.  I do. But Pepper says I’m not allowed to pull knives and growl anymore.  Which sucks, ‘cuz that at least felt natural.”

“Bet it worked, too.”

“Damn straight it worked, and I don’t know how else to get out of those things.  Steve invents emergencies.  Scott just takes off running.”

“What does Tony do?”

“Tony?  You kidding? He loves that stuff.  He stands and signs autographs and takes pictures until finally the people have to find a reason to get away.  Clint seems to be really good at it, he’s really cool with people and then he just makes it seem natural to leave.”

“And Natasha?”

“No one has ever approached Natasha for a selfie.  No one would dare.  Which really pisses me off, actually, because what about me?  Aren’t I a deadly Russian assassin, too?  I’m scary, right?”

“Absolutely.  You are the night.”

Bucky let out a hoot of laughter, which made Joss laugh, too.  

[junker-town]

College basketball’s 6 power conference tournament title games we want to see

Mike Carter-USA TODAY Sports

Put your rooting interests aside for the moment. These six title games would give us the best combination of quality and drama on conference tournament championship weekend.

The power conference tournaments get underway Tuesday with opening round action in the ACC going down in Greensboro. This kicks off a six day stretch where we will be flooded with the best college basketball teams in the country playing in win or go home scenarios where “go home” can mean anything from a diminished seed in the NCAA tournament to the season being over.

If you’re a fan of a team in a power conference, then obviously you have a rooting interest as far as what you’d like to see in that conference’s tournament championship game. If you’re an impartial viewer simply rooting for the highest quality and most dramatic title tilts this coming weekend, here are the six games you should be hoping to see.

Big East: No. 1 Creighton vs. No. 3 Seton Hall

Last week, Seton Hall had an opportunity to claim its first outright Big East regular-season title since 1993 with either a home win over Villanova or a road victory over Creighton. After losing narrowly at home to Jay Wright’s club, the Pirates got smacked on the road by the Bluejays, 77-60. The loss meant that not only would Seton Hall have to share the regular-season title with Creighton and Villanova, but the Pirates would be the No. 3 seed for the Big East tournament and would have to face the nation’s leading scorer, Markus Howard, and Marquette in their postseason opener.

To their credit, Creighton was ready for the moment on Saturday. Almost right as the final buzzer sounded inside CHI Health Center Omaha, a “2020 Big East Regular-Season Champions” banner was unfurled from the rafters. The team then proceeded to cut down the nets inside the building.

The Bluejay faithful loved the theatrics. Seton Hall head coach Kevin Willard did not.

“I’m really pissed off that people are cutting down the nets and my guys are down there [in the locker room],” Willard said in his postgame radio interview. “I should’ve brought them out, but they’re not in a very good mood right now. I wish I could bring my kids out here right now because they’re cutting down the nets and I’ve got 13 kids who think they failed miserably.”

The top eight teams in the Big East are so strong that it’s going to be damn near impossible for this tournament not to produce a compelling title game. This one would check every box though:

— Bad blood

— Quality teams

— Fun styles of play

— Star power

We just need a healthy Marcus Zegarowski and we’ll be good to go.

Big Ten: No. 2 Michigan State vs. No. 4 Illinois

Like the Big East, the Big Ten is so saturated with quality teams that it’s really difficult to envision a championship game that doesn’t produce a quality two hours of entertainment. Additionally, it seems like just about every Big Ten coach — Fran McCaffery, Chris Holtmann, Archie Miller, Mark Turgeon, Greg Gard, Brad Underwood — has thrown a fit about something or someone at some point this season, so you’ve got a strong likelihood of sideline fireworks at play here as well.

Unless there’s a team in the Big Ten championship game that needs the league’s auto-bid to make the NCAA tournament, the Selection Committee has pretty much completed its bracket by the time this game is going on. It’s only real purpose is to keep us entertained until the Selection Show starts at 6 p.m. ET. With that being the case, let’s go with the two teams that would give us the most up-and-down, competitive two hours of action, which I think would be Illinois and Michigan State.

Kofi Cockburn vs. Xavier Tillman? Good. Cassius Winston vs. Ayo Dosunmu? Even better. Tom Izzo and Brad Underwood busting blood vessels on the sidelines? Give me all of it.

ACC: No. 4 Duke vs. No. 14 North Carolina

Roll your eyes if you want, but unless something wild happens, this ACC tournament doesn’t seem likely to bring the level of drama and intrigue that fans of the event have grown accustomed to over the years.

There is an established top tier of Florida State, Louisville, Duke and Virginia, four teams that are all safely in the NCAA tournament. Those four teams have played some decent games against one another and there’s been a small amount of bad blood between Louisville and Florida State, but nothing has really happened amongst the quartet that has the general basketball world foaming at the mouth for a rematch. Outside of those four, there’s one true bubble team with work to do in No. 5 seed NC State, and then the other nine teams in the field almost certainly all have to win four games in four days or five games in five days to make it into the big field of 68.

That final storyline seems like the most compelling one. This tournament is going to need a true Cinderella reach maximum interest levels, and what better Cinderella than the worst North Carolina team of the Roy Williams era?

If “Zombie UNC” — led by a determined Cole Anthony who certainly possesses the tools necessary to have one of those conference tournament weeks people remember forever — can make it to Thursday’s quarterfinals, this could get interesting.

This is the first time in the history of the ACC tournament that neither Duke or North Carolina has been a top three-seed. What better year for the arch-rivals to square off in a 4 vs. 14 title game?

Big 12: No. 1 Kansas vs. No. 2 Baylor

There’s no need to get cute here. Baylor went to Lawrence and manhandled Kansas in January, and then the Jayhawks came to Waco and won a highly competitive game a month later. Now we need a round three.

If round three does happen in Kansas City, Kansas will have almost certainly already locked down the NCAA tournament’s No. 1 overall seed. The game could have more significance for Baylor, which may be fighting with Gonzaga and Dayton (or someone else) for pecking order behind the Jayhawks on the top line.

Regardless of all the seeding implications and other extenuating circumstances, this would probably just be a fantastic game. Kansas looks like everyone’s national title favorite, and Baylor needs to get its mojo pointed back in the right direction before it starts playing with its season on the line next week. There’s all the storyline you need.

SEC: No. 1 Kentucky vs. No. 2 Auburn

This tournament doesn’t seem like it’s going to be nearly as much fun as we thought it could be heading into the season, but there’s still an opportunity for an alluring title game.

Kentucky is back in its familiar spot as the unquestioned king of the conference, but Auburn won this event a year ago and then went on to upset the Wildcats in the Elite Eight and make their first ever trip to the Final Four. The two teams appear to be the class of the conference this season, and split their regular season meetings, with each winning fairly comfortably on its home floor.

A John Calipari/Bruce Pearl rubber match loaded with screaming and sweating is the best option for the first part of Selection Sunday afternoon.

Pac-12: No. 1 Oregon vs. No. 3 Arizona State

UCLA is the most fascinating story in the Pac-12 right now and one of the most fascinating stories nationally, but I’m leaving them out of the dream title game for one reason: Their situation becomes more interesting if they lose early in the tournament.

We’re talking about a team that has won seven of its last eight games, that finished alone in second place in a power conference that could send as many as seven teams to the NCAA tournament, and that is being coached by the man who was just named Pac-12 Coach of the Year. That same team we just described is not a lock to hear its name called on Selection Sunday. That’s incredible.

If UCLA were to win two games and advance to Saturday’s championship game, the drama is gone and the Bruins would almost certainly slide off the bubble and into the “lock” category. We’re all about the drama here, so our scenario has them falling in the quarters or semis.

As for who will be playing ... the Pac-12 title game is the true Selection Sunday Eve test for East Coast hoop heads. It doesn’t tip-off until 10:30 p.m., which means it needs to serve as a basketball stimulant. That shouldn’t be a problem with Payton Pritchard leading Oregon’s high-octane offense and Remy Martin countering with Arizona State’s up-tempo attack.

Plus, I mean, it’s Bobby Hurley in a high-pressure, nationally-televised game with enormous implications. I’m not saying he’s definitely going to punch somebody or rip off an article of clothing, but the chances of at least one of those things happening in this game would be exponentially higher than they would be for any other game played this coming weekend.

[gaybagwrites-blog]

The Twenty

(likes < reblogs) Word Count: 1345 Notes: i suddenly realized how inconsistent aza’s speech patterns are in the last two. whOOPS. i’ll fix it in the next one, don’t worry. for now, worry about the safety of these characters. or something. (also i’m putting links to each part in each part so it doesn’t get confusing)

First Previous Next

Eta flicked the sharp point of the syringe they held in their gloved hand. Something was off, though. Something that made them nervous. It wasn't as though they didn't know how to give the serum to the new patients—their previous position had been vaccinations—it was just that it was a new version, an improved version.

They shivered, then set it down on the tray in front of them. They took off their black latex gloves and threw them in the trash followed by their plastic lab coat, mask, and shoe covers. They let their long, red hair out of its bun and felt it flow down their back, on top of their dark green tank top. A feeling of strength washed through them.

A realization came with the feeling of strength. They had power. Power over freedom and absolute servitude. But… was this the burden they wanted to bear?

Shaking off their thoughts, they exited the lab, closing the steel door carefully behind them and locking it with the ten digit code. They turned away from the room and began walking down the hallway, their shoes clicking on the metal grates below. Millions of thoughts swarmed their mind; unanswered questions and unquestioned answers; unsurety over whether their position was worth it; and a small sense of existentialism.

But before they could contemplate their existence for too long, an alarm sounded. A loud, repetitive blaring that only meant one thing.

The subjects had escaped.

Without a second thought, Eta sprinted down the hallway towards the containment center. Of the six subjects, they had to be split up, just in case one got smart and figured out how to talk to another though the walls. They knew it would be mass panic if all of the subjects had escaped, but that didn't take away any of the urgency of the situation at hand. At least two had to be missing, they concluded, as well as a guard. Or maybe two.

Eta pulled out a small, square radio with a shirt antenna—maybe an inch long—and began speaking softly into it: “07 nearing Containment Sector B. Code G84 or G85? Over.”

After a moment, someone responded.

“035 in Containment Sector E. Code G84, initiate Solution C. Over.”

They knew exactly what Solution C was.

The tranquilizer, Eta’s mind screamed.

Fortunately, they always kept a dart gun armed with ten darts each with a dose enough to knock someone out in seconds and keep them out for six hours. A small smile crept across their face. This would be the first time a situation required them to use their incredibly accurate targeting skills learned in training. Not that they were really much of a show off, but they liked to brag a bit sometimes… or really whenever they got the chance.

Reaching into the pocket of their jeans, they pulled out a small device resembling a small squirt gun. But this was no water cannon, oh no. This was the most powerful weapon they'd ever been provided with. It gave them more strength than they'd already possessed, being rather heavyset and muscular.

They were ready.

Clenching their fist around the device, they walked quickly down the hall as muffled voices sounded from the radio pinned to their belt.

“Gone… Subject A-7… sending teams… to ten… fire… lost…”

The clamor was too much for their mind. Eta pressed a button on the side of the radio and silenced it, leaving them alone with their thoughts.

For a moment, as they raced down the hall, Eta wondered about their girlfriend. Across the country, without a single way to contact them. It was saddening. They knew they'd be able to talk to her that summer, but it wasn't quite a comforting thought. This job was the only thing that suited Eta’s talents, and they couldn't just let that opportunity slip away, even if it meant moving from Los Angeles to miles north of Chicago. They hadn't minded as much as they thought they would, but it still was a troubling thought that it'd be two months more, on top of the seven they'd already spent in the facility.

“Woah!” said a deep voice as they ran directly into someone walking down the hallway.

“O-oh!” Eta squeaked. “Sorry. In a rush.”

“No worries,” they said. “You can call me Charlie.” Eta looked up at Charlie’s face. They had a fine jawline, with stubble going across their olive colored chin. A small smile perked up the left side of their mouth, their greenish-blue eyes shining in the artificial light. “Where are you headed? I wouldn't mind walking with you.”

“I… finding escapees.”

“Ah, right. I heard it was a G83.”

“G84,” Eta corrected.

“Oh!”

A deep red blush spread across Eta’s cheeks. “D-didn't mean to! Apologies.”

Charlie let out a sonorous laugh. “It's okay,” they said gently. “What's your name?”

“A-assigned Eta.”

“Oh? They assigned me Sigma, but I like my chosen name better”

“Chosen?”

“Yeah, like, when you don’t like the name you originally got as a kid. Or as an adult.”

“I…”

“It doesn't always make sense to people who've been here for as long as you. The customs and names burn into your brain, so you remember them forever.”

Eta blinked. “For… forever?”

“Yeah,” Charlie laughed. “Like… til the end.”

They blinked again. To them, Charlie was spewing nonsense entirely.

“Well, I guess if you understand, or if you don't… we should get going. Come on.” They drew a pocketknife from their belt, then gestured to the stun device Eta held. “That's very high caliber for someone as young as yourself.”

Eta beamed. “Trained extensively for…” They held it up. “Version 8.4.”

Charlie examined it for a moment, then stood up, nodding appreciatively. “Yes, it's quite the device. But we don't have time for too much inspection of the intricacies of your weapon. It's time to find the subjects.” They took Eta’s hand and began walking down the way Eta’d been heading before. This way, there was a door that led to the field outside. Well, fields. The facility was located in the corner of a four-acre area of land that was bought by Alpha, the owner. Eta was one of the twenty higher-ups who knew about the place’s history, and Alpha most likely wanted to keep that the way it was. Clearly, Charlie was one of them, but… a lesser rank.

Suddenly, they came to a small, barren section of hallway. Eta looked around—they hadn’t noticed anything odd about the area, yet Charlie’d felt the need to stop—and saw the hallway entirely empty. They gestured to Charlie, then the area around them. “No… workers?”

Charlie shook their head. “No, not around here. Although, we did have someone patrolling here earlier today. I… think he went on break? I’m not sure.”

“Was he named?”

“He called himself Niam. He… wasn’t in the Twenty. Which means he—”

A flash of realization went across Charlie’s face. Eta gazed at them curiously, their purplish-blue eyes widening. Had Charlie figured something out? They could have been a better thinker than Eta, though they highly doubted that. They had excellent critical thinking skills, and fairly good writing prowess, but they hadn’t been partial to speech apart from short phrases. Some called this a handicap, while others said it was an advantage. Whatever the case really was, Eta was okay with themself.

They waited there a few more minutes while Charlie punched something into a watch on their left wrist that Eta hadn’t noticed before. Odd symbols flashed up, along with a chart of colors and words in small print.

“Wrong?” Eta asked hastily.

“W-wha… oh! No, nothing’s wrong. At least, I hope so.” They scrolled on their watch for a few more moments before pushing a circular button on the side that shut off the screen. “We should—”

Loud thuds sounded before them as three figures clad entirely in black lept from ceiling onto the ground. The one in the center pulled out a gun and spoke in a gravelly voice:

“You are coming with us.”

[latexgeese66-blog]

Phillies react to former pitcher Roy Halladay's election into baseball hall of fame

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) --

Family and past and present members of the Philadelphia Phillies organization are reacting to former pitcher Roy Halladay's posthumous election into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

"Being inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame is every boy's dream. To stand on that stage in Cooperstown and deliver your acceptance speech in front of baseball's most enthusiastic fans is something that every baseball player aspires to achieve, and Roy was no exception. But that was not Roy's goal. It was not his goal to have those three letters after his signature. His goal was to be successful every single day of his 16-year career. Tonight's announcement is the end result of that effort. If only Roy were here to personally express his gratitude for this honor, what an even more amazing day this would be. I would like to extend special thanks to the baseball writers for the overwhelming percentage of votes that Roy received in his first year on the ballot. It means so much to me, Braden and Ryan." - Brandy Halladay

"Roy Halladay made an indelible, unforgettable mark on Phillies history during his time with us. From his perfect game to his postseason no-hitter to his Cy Young Award, his accomplishments in red pinstripes are nothing short of legendary, and his placement in the Hall of Fame is well deserved. Even more impressive was the way Roy carried himself off the field, always giving back not just to his teammates, but more so to his community, whether it was here in Philadelphia or in the Pinellas County area. For all he accomplished as a player and everything he stood for as a person, Doc will forever remain in the hearts of Phillies fans everywhere. My heartfelt congratulations go out Brandy, Braden and Ryan." - John Middleton, Phillies Managing Partner

"Roy's accomplishments speak for themselves, but what I will always remember is talking to him following his perfect game and how anxious he was to give Chooch all the credit for his performance and that was so typical of how he carried himself during his four years with us. And, of course, we all treasure the watches he gave us. Everyone associated with the team was given a very special memento that said 'We did it together,' which was symbolic of not just Roy the pitcher but also Roy the man." - David Montgomery, Phillies Chairman

"People like to throw the word 'ace' around a lot, but Roy Halladay was a true 'ace.' In his time with the Phillies, he completed more games than anyone else in baseball, because his mindset was to pitch at least 9.0 innings. He was one of the most prepared guys I've ever been around and put more work into preparing for his next start than anyone I'd ever seen. Roy had great control with a tremendous arsenal of pitches and even if he didn't have his best stuff on a particular day, he'd still find a way for his team to win. He was an unquestioned leader on our team because with Roy it was never about him, but always about the people around him. We all miss Roy every day and I'm so thankful to have called him a friend. Congratulations to his whole family, especially Brandy, Braden and Ryan, on an honor that is very well deserved." - Charlie Manuel

"Roy, much like another Phillies icon, Chase Utley, held himself to the highest standard an athlete could ever hold himself to. His dedication and commitment to the excellence of his craft was second to none. He was a quiet leader who chose to lead by example. Shortly after he retired, we had an opportunity to include Roy as a consultant and his impact, while short-lived, was significant. He was a special man who achieved so much in a relatively short period of time." - Ruben Amaro Jr.

"Not only was Doc a great pitcher and teammate, he was an even greater person and a tremendous ambassador for the game of baseball. He loved being in the clubhouse with his sons and having them experience the feeling of being a member of the team. Brandy played such a big role in helping Doc find his way to fame and it will be such a great day for her and the boys, filled with so many different emotions." - Rich Dubee

"Roy was such a great family man and teammate, beloved by Phillies fans. His teammates watched him train and I believe that pushed them to be better. He studied the game, its mechanics and mental side and was always willing to share his wealth of knowledge with anyone interested. Roy was indeed a 'man for all seasons.' After retiring, he established an office at the minor league complex to mentor young Phillies, which was his secret love. I could go on and on, but I'll end by thanking the baseball writers who recognized Roy Halladay as a first-ballot member. His family, friends and teammates only wish he could be here." - Mike Schmidt, Phillies Hall of Famer

"I enjoyed my short time playing alongside Roy. He was a great competitor who had an impressive work ethic. I'm sure it means so much to his family to have him honored in this way. Welcome to the Hall, Roy."

- Jim Thome, Hall of Famer

"One of the great pleasures of my career was being able to play behind a man like Roy Halladay. He was fierce. He was competitive. He was focused. But, most of all, he was great. Not just a great player but also a great teammate and a great friend. On the field, Roy wanted nothing more than to bring another championship to Philadelphia. Off the field, he wanted nothing more than to be the best husband and father he could be. He was someone I admired then and still do today. Jen and I send not just our congratulations to Brandy, Braden and Ryan, but also our thanks for sharing Roy with us and the city of Philadelphia." - Chase Utley

"Congratulations to Roy and the Halladay family on Roy's induction into baseball's Hall of Fame, a place you knew he was destined for if you ever had the opportunity to witness his dominance! The days Doc would take the ball you knew you had to be your very best because there was zero doubt in anyone's mind that you would receive anything less from him! When Roy decided to come to Philadelphia, it was for one reason, to win a championship, and we wanted nothing more than to share in that moment of glory with him. Although we never accomplished that with him, it doesn't take away from all that he was able to accomplish during his career. Anyone that has ever heard the name Roy Halladay wishes he were here for us all to celebrate this moment of greatness and give thanks for the many memories he gave us on the playing field but even more importantly the ones we all got to create when he took off his Superman cape, gave that big ol' cheesy smile and made you feel like you had known him all your life! Congrats Doc, you are forever enshrined in baseball greatness!!" - Jimmy Rollins

"I consider myself very fortunate to have played alongside Roy. He defined work ethic and how to prepare yourself to win. He wasn't about the spotlight and never wanted to take credit away from his teammates. He now finally gets the credit he deserves. He completely reinvented himself in order to succeed at the major league level and in a game of failure he didn't lose much. If you did beat him, he would make sure you never did again. There's a part of him that I take with me every time I prepare for my games and step out onto that mound. I congratulate Brandy, Braden and Ryan on Roy Halladay's election to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He had such an amazing impact on so many baseball players and future stars." - Cole Hamels

"There is not another name on the ballot that deserves his place in the Hall of Fame more than Doc! He set the bar for every other starter in the league." - Roy Oswalt

"Roy was one of the greatest teammates I have had the pleasure of taking the field with. He was always the professional and he was always the most prepared player on the field, which came from a work ethic off the field that was the best I have ever seen. Roy was one of the fiercest competitors there has ever been." - Joe Blanton "Roy Halladay is a definite first-ballot Hall of Famer. His impact on the game, his teammates, and his craft was undeniable. His peers would tell you that his preparation, execution, desire and commitment to excellence were the best they had ever seen. As a teammate, it was a privilege to participate in and bear witness to his tenacity, competitiveness, execution and all-around greatness. As an opponent, it was an honor to have competed against him regardless of the outcome. Off the field, Doc was a devoted husband, father, friend, teammate and philanthropist, who lent a helping hand to any community he was part of. He embodied everything that is beautiful about baseball and life and everything about him was so authentic. Congratulations to Brandy, Braden, Ryan and the entire Halladay family."

- Raúl Ibañez

"A well-deserved honor for the fiercest competitor I ever had the honor to take the field with. Roy is deeply missed but remembered forever." - Jayson Werth

"Roy's numbers speak for themselves, but for me it was his work ethic in between starts and the way he treated and respected the game. I know Roy is smiling down on Brandy and the boys today." - Kyle Kendrick

"Roy was the ultimate competitor and workhorse. He (along with Chase) defined what it meant to be the first to show up and the last to leave. His work ethic was only topped by how brilliant his command was and how nasty his pitches were. He went through the best hitters like a hot knife through butter and did it with ideal efficiency. He rose up on the biggest occasions of his career and he always gave you every ounce of energy he had." - Brad Lidge

"Congratulations to the Halladay family on an honor bestowed only to those careers that are worthy of Hall of Fame acknowledgment! Roy's work ethic was uncanny and he competed with his teammates over everything, whether it was training physically or mentally. What some may not realize about Roy was how big his heart was. It was an honor to have played with and against a man who I can call a friend." - Jamie Moyer

"What a day when a guy who is the epitome of a Hall of Famer actually becomes a Hall of Famer! I couldn't be happier for him and his family. I was fortunate enough to play with someone who was considered larger than life (which he was), but found out he was an even bigger competitor than I thought. On a personal level, Doc treated me like I was someone. I may have just been a utility guy, but Doc saw me as more because he saw me prepare. He was a superstar who had his finger on the pulse of the clubhouse and he knew who prepared to win and who prepared just to prepare. He respected the game more than anything and he respected everything about being a great pitcher who was part of a legacy in Philadelphia!" - Kevin Frandsen Send a News Tip to Action News Learn More About 6abc Apps

(Copyright ©2019 WPVI-TV. All Rights Reserved.)

Source: https://6abc.com/sports/phillies-react-to--halladays-election-into-hall-of-fame/5101811/

[steeleholtingon]

This Evil Overlord List is Copyright 1996-1997 by Peter Anspach. If you enjoy it, feel free to pass it along or post it anywhere, provided that (1) it is not altered in any way, and (2) this copyright notice is attached.

(From the User-Friendly Archives)

Attention all Evil Overlord List Aspirants: Contrary to popular belief, taking over the universe is not as easy as it would first appear. Due to the complexity of this task, Peter regrets that he is currently unable to give the list the attention it deserves. The list is therefore going on a temporary hiatus. This is a temporary condition. As soon as he is able to respond in a timely manner -- or until he becomes unquestioned lord and master of all things, whichever comes first -- the list will not be updated and no new suggestions will be considered. He would sincerely apologize for this inconvenience, were it in character for an Evil Overlord to do so.

Being an Evil Overlord seems to be a good career choice. It pays well, there are all sorts of perks and you can set your own hours. However every Evil Overlord I've read about in books or seen in movies invariably gets overthrown and destroyed in the end. I've noticed that no matter whether they are barbarian lords, deranged wizards, mad scientists or alien invaders, they always seem to make the same basic mistakes every single time. With that in mind, allow me to present...

The Top 100 Things I'd Do

If I Ever Became An Evil Overlord

My Legions of Terror will have helmets with clear plexiglass visors, not face-concealing ones.

My ventilation ducts will be too small to crawl through.

My noble half-brother whose throne I usurped will be killed, not kept anonymously imprisoned in a forgotten cell of my dungeon.

Shooting is not too good for my enemies.

The artifact which is the source of my power will not be kept on the Mountain of Despair beyond the River of Fire guarded by the Dragons of Eternity. It will be in my safe-deposit box. The same applies to the object which is my one weakness.

I will not gloat over my enemies' predicament before killing them.

When I've captured my adversary and he says, "Look, before you kill me, will you at least tell me what this is all about?" I'll say, "No." and shoot him. No, on second thought I'll shoot him then say "No."

After I kidnap the beautiful princess, we will be married immediately in a quiet civil ceremony, not a lavish spectacle in three weeks' time during which the final phase of my plan will be carried out.

I will not include a self-destruct mechanism unless absolutely necessary. If it is necessary, it will not be a large red button labelled "Danger: Do Not Push". The big red button marked "Do Not Push" will instead trigger a spray of bullets on anyone stupid enough to disregard it. Similarly, the ON/OFF switch will not clearly be labelled as such.

I will not interrogate my enemies in the inner sanctum -- a small hotel well outside my borders will work just as well.

I will be secure in my superiority. Therefore, I will feel no need to prove it by leaving clues in the form of riddles or leaving my weaker enemies alive to show they pose no threat.

One of my advisors will be an average five-year-old child. Any flaws in my plan that he is able to spot will be corrected before implementation.

All slain enemies will be cremated, or at least have several rounds of ammunition emptied into them, not left for dead at the bottom of the cliff. The announcement of their deaths, as well as any accompanying celebration, will be deferred until after the aforementioned disposal.

The hero is not entitled to a last kiss, a last cigarette, or any other form of last request.

I will never employ any device with a digital countdown. If I find that such a device is absolutely unavoidable, I will set it to activate when the counter reaches 117 and the hero is just putting his plan into operation.

I will never utter the sentence "But before I kill you, there's just one thing I want to know."

When I employ people as advisors, I will occasionally listen to their advice.

I will not have a son. Although his laughably under-planned attempt to usurp power would easily fail, it would provide a fatal distraction at a crucial point in time.

I will not have a daughter. She would be as beautiful as she was evil, but one look at the hero's rugged countenance and she'd betray her own father.

Despite its proven stress-relieving effect, I will not indulge in maniacal laughter. When so occupied, it's too easy to miss unexpected developments that a more attentive individual could adjust to accordingly.

I will hire a talented fashion designer to create original uniforms for my Legions of Terror, as opposed to some cheap knock-offs that make them look like Nazi stormtroopers, Roman footsoldiers, or savage Mongol hordes. All were eventually defeated and I want my troops to have a more positive mind-set.

No matter how tempted I am with the prospect of unlimited power, I will not consume any energy field bigger than my head.

I will keep a special cache of low-tech weapons and train my troops in their use. That way -- even if the heroes manage to neutralize my power generator and/or render the standard-issue energy weapons useless -- my troops will not be overrun by a handful of savages armed with spears and rocks.

I will maintain a realistic assessment of my strengths and weaknesses. Even though this takes some of the fun out of the job, at least I will never utter the line "No, this cannot be! I AM INVINCIBLE!!!" (After that, death is usually instantaneous.)

No matter how well it would perform, I will never construct any sort of machinery which is completely indestructible except for one small and virtually inaccessible vulnerable spot.

No matter how attractive certain members of the rebellion are, there is probably someone just as attractive who is not desperate to kill me. Therefore, I will think twice before ordering a prisoner sent to my bedchamber.

I will never build only one of anything important. All important systems will have redundant control panels and power supplies. For the same reason I will always carry at least two fully loaded weapons at all times.

My pet monster will be kept in a secure cage from which it cannot escape and into which I could not accidentally stumble.

I will dress in bright and cheery colors, and so throw my enemies into confusion.

All bumbling conjurers, clumsy squires, no-talent bards, and cowardly thieves in the land will be preemptively put to death. My foes will surely give up and abandon their quest if they have no source of comic relief.

All naive, busty tavern wenches in my realm will be replaced with surly, world-weary waitresses who will provide no unexpected reinforcement and/or romantic subplot for the hero or his sidekick.

I will not fly into a rage and kill a messenger who brings me bad news just to illustrate how evil I really am. Good messengers are hard to come by.

I won't require high-ranking female members of my organization to wear a stainless-steel bustier. Morale is better with a more casual dress-code. Similarly, outfits made entirely from black leather will be reserved for formal occasions.

I will not turn into a snake. It never helps.

I will not grow a goatee. In the old days they made you look diabolic. Now they just make you look like a disaffected member of Generation X.

I will not imprison members of the same party in the same cell block, let alone the same cell. If they are important prisoners, I will keep the only key to the cell door on my person instead of handing out copies to every bottom-rung guard in the prison.

If my trusted lieutenant tells me my Legions of Terror are losing a battle, I will believe him. After all, he's my trusted lieutenant.

If an enemy I have just killed has a younger sibling or offspring anywhere, I will find them and have them killed immediately, instead of waiting for them to grow up harboring feelings of vengeance towards me in my old age.

If I absolutely must ride into battle, I will certainly not ride at the forefront of my Legions of Terror, nor will I seek out my opposite number among his army.

I will be neither chivalrous nor sporting. If I have an unstoppable superweapon, I will use it as early and as often as possible instead of keeping it in reserve.

Once my power is secure, I will destroy all those pesky time-travel devices.

When I capture the hero, I will make sure I also get his dog, monkey, ferret, or whatever sickeningly cute little animal capable of untying ropes and filching keys happens to follow him around.

I will maintain a healthy amount of skepticism when I capture the beautiful rebel and she claims she is attracted to my power and good looks and will gladly betray her companions if I just let her in on my plans.

I will only employ bounty hunters who work for money. Those who work for the pleasure of the hunt tend to do dumb things like even the odds to give the other guy a sporting chance.

I will make sure I have a clear understanding of who is responsible for what in my organization. For example, if my general screws up I will not draw my weapon, point it at him, say "And here is the price for failure," then suddenly turn and kill some random underling.

If an advisor says to me "My liege, he is but one man. What can one man possibly do?", I will reply "This." and kill the advisor.

If I learn that a callow youth has begun a quest to destroy me, I will slay him while he is still a callow youth instead of waiting for him to mature.

I will treat any beast which I control through magic or technology with respect and kindness. Thus if the control is ever broken, it will not immediately come after me for revenge.

If I learn the whereabouts of the one artifact which can destroy me, I will not send all my troops out to seize it. Instead I will send them out to seize something else and quietly put a Want-Ad in the local paper.

My main computers will have their own special operating system that will be completely incompatible with standard IBM and Macintosh powerbooks.

If one of my dungeon guards begins expressing concern over the conditions in the beautiful princess' cell, I will immediately transfer him to a less people-oriented position.

I will hire a team of board-certified architects and surveyors to examine my castle and inform me of any secret passages and abandoned tunnels that I might not know about.

If the beautiful princess that I capture says "I'll never marry you! Never, do you hear me, NEVER!!!", I will say "Oh well" and kill her.

I will not strike a bargain with a demonic being then attempt to double-cross it simply because I feel like being contrary.

The deformed mutants and odd-ball psychotics will have their place in my Legions of Terror. However before I send them out on important covert missions that require tact and subtlety, I will first see if there is anyone else equally qualified who would attract less attention.

My Legions of Terror will be trained in basic marksmanship. Any who cannot learn to hit a man-sized target at 10 meters will be used for target practice.

Before employing any captured artifacts or machinery, I will carefully read the owner's manual.

If it becomes necessary to escape, I will never stop to pose dramatically and toss off a one-liner.

I will never build a sentient computer smarter than I am.

My five-year-old child advisor will also be asked to decipher any code I am thinking of using. If he breaks the code in under 30 seconds, it will not be used. Note: this also applies to passwords.

If my advisors ask "Why are you risking everything on such a mad scheme?", I will not proceed until I have a response that satisfies them.

I will design fortress hallways with no alcoves or protruding structural supports which intruders could use for cover in a firefight.

Bulk trash will be disposed of in incinerators, not compactors. And they will be kept hot, with none of that nonsense about flames going through accessible tunnels at predictable intervals.

I will see a competent psychiatrist and get cured of all extremely unusual phobias and bizarre compulsive habits which could prove to be a disadvantage.

If I must have computer systems with publically available terminals, the maps they display of my complex will have a room clearly marked as the Main Control Room. That room will be the Execution Chamber. The actual main control room will be marked as Sewage Overflow Containment.

My security keypad will actually be a fingerprint scanner. Anyone who watches someone press a sequence of buttons or dusts the pad for fingerprints then subsequently tries to enter by repeating that sequence will trigger the alarm system.

No matter how many shorts we have in the system, my guards will be instructed to treat every surveillance camera malfunction as a full-scale emergency.

I will spare someone who saved my life sometime in the past. This is only reasonable as it encourages others to do so. However, the offer is good one time only. If they want me to spare them again, they'd better save my life again.

All midwives will be banned from the realm. All babies will be delivered at state-approved hospitals. Orphans will be placed in foster-homes, not abandoned in the woods to be raised by creatures of the wild.

When my guards split up to search for intruders, they will always travel in groups of at least two. They will be trained so that if one of them disappears mysteriously while on patrol, the other will immediately initiate an alert and call for backup, instead of quizzically peering around a corner.

If I decide to test a lieutenant's loyalty and see if he/she should be made a trusted lieutenant, I will have a crack squad of marksmen standing by in case the answer is no.

If all the heroes are standing together around a strange device and begin to taunt me, I will pull out a conventional weapon instead of using my unstoppable superweapon on them.

I will not agree to let the heroes go free if they win a rigged contest, even though my advisors assure me it is impossible for them to win.

When I create a multimedia presentation of my plan designed so that my five-year-old advisor can easily understand the details, I will not label the disk "Project Overlord" and leave it lying on top of my desk.

I will instruct my Legions of Terror to attack the hero en masse, instead of standing around waiting while members break off and attack one or two at a time.

If the hero runs up to my roof, I will not run up after him and struggle with him in an attempt to push him over the edge. I will also not engage him at the edge of a cliff. (In the middle of a rope-bridge over a river of molten lava is not even worth considering.)

If I have a fit of temporary insanity and decide to give the hero the chance to reject a job as my trusted lieutentant, I will retain enough sanity to wait until my current trusted lieutenant is out of earshot before making the offer.

I will not tell my Legions of Terror "And he must be taken alive!" The command will be "And try to take him alive if it is reasonably practical."

If my doomsday device happens to come with a reverse switch, as soon as it has been employed it will be melted down and made into limited-edition commemorative coins.

If my weakest troops fail to eliminate a hero, I will send out my best troops instead of wasting time with progressively stronger ones as he gets closer and closer to my fortress.

If I am fighting with the hero atop a moving platform, have disarmed him, and am about to finish him off and he glances behind me and drops flat, I too will drop flat instead of quizzically turning around to find out what he saw.

I will not shoot at any of my enemies if they are standing in front of the crucial support beam to a heavy, dangerous, unbalanced structure.

If I'm eating dinner with the hero, put poison in his goblet, then have to leave the table for any reason, I will order new drinks for both of us instead of trying to decide whether or not to switch with him.

I will not have captives of one sex guarded by members of the opposite sex.

I will not use any plan in which the final step is horribly complicated, e.g. "Align the 12 Stones of Power on the sacred altar then activate the medallion at the moment of total eclipse." Instead it will be more along the lines of "Push the button."

I will make sure that my doomsday device is up to code and properly grounded.

My vats of hazardous chemicals will be covered when not in use. Also, I will not construct walkways above them.

If a group of henchmen fail miserably at a task, I will not berate them for incompetence then send the same group out to try the task again.

After I captures the hero's superweapon, I will not immediately disband my legions and relax my guard because I believe whoever holds the weapon is unstoppable. After all, the hero held the weapon and I took it from him.

I will not design my Main Control Room so that every workstation is facing away from the door.

I will not ignore the messenger that stumbles in exhausted and obviously agitated until my personal grooming or current entertainment is finished. It might actually be important.

If I ever talk to the hero on the phone, I will not taunt him. Instead I will say this his dogged perseverance has given me new insight on the futility of my evil ways and that if he leaves me alone for a few months of quiet contemplation I will likely return to the path of righteousness. (Heroes are incredibly gullible in this regard.)

If I decide to hold a double execution of the hero and an underling who failed or betrayed me, I will see to it that the hero is scheduled to go first.

When arresting prisoners, my guards will not allow them to stop and grab a useless trinket of purely sentimental value.

My dungeon will have its own qualified medical staff complete with bodyguards. That way if a prisoner becomes sick and his cellmate tells the guard it's an emergency, the guard will fetch a trauma team instead of opening up the cell for a look.

My door mechanisms will be designed so that blasting the control panel on the outside seals the door and blasting the control panel on the inside opens the door, not vice versa.

My dungeon cells will not be furnished with objects that contain reflective surfaces or anything that can be unravelled.

If an attractive young couple enters my realm, I will carefully monitor their activities. If I find they are happy and affectionate, I will ignore them. However if circumstance have forced them together against their will and they spend all their time bickering and criticizing each other except during the intermittent occasions when they are saving each others' lives at which point there are hints of sexual tension, I will immediately order their execution.

Any data file of crucial importance will be padded to 1.45Mb in size.

Finally, to keep my subjects permanently locked in a mindless trance, I will provide each of them with free unlimited Internet access.

[kennethmjoyner]

The Decade in Legal Tech: The 10 Most Significant Developments

In legal technology, it was a decade of tumult and upheaval, bringing changes that will forever transform the practice of law and the delivery of legal services.

Feisty startups took on established behemoths. The cloud dropped rain on legacy products. Mobile tech untethered lawyers. Clients demanded efficiency and transparency. Robots arrived to take over our jobs. “Alternative” became a label for new kinds of legal services providers. An expanding justice gap fueled efforts at ethics reform. Investment dollars began to pour in. Data got big.

Every year, I write a year-end wrap-up of the most significant developments in legal technology. But as we reach the end of a decade, I decided to look back on the most significant developments of the past 10 years. Looking back, it may well have been the most tumultuous decade ever in changing how legal services are delivered.

(Here are my prior years’ lists of the most important developments: For several years now, I’ve closed out the year with a round-up of the 10 most important legal developments 2018, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013. In 2017, I bypassed the list to focus on a single overarching development, The Year of Women in Legal Tech.)

1. The Surge of the Startup

The very first month of the very first year of the decade brought big legal tech news – the introduction of WestlawNext. It was a major advance in legal research, the first major overhaul of Westlaw since its initial Web version was launched 12 years earlier in 1998. WestlawNext was the first to bring Google-like simplicity to legal research and the first to use a machine learning algorithm to deliver better search results, long before anybody called it “artificial intelligence.” It would inspire a generation of legal research copycats, including the following year’s launch of Lexis Advance, with that same Google-like search.

As the decade drew to a close, Thomson Reuters again unveiled a major overhaul of its legal research platform with last year’s launch of Westlaw Edge. It was another major advance for Westlaw, using advanced AI and analytics to help legal professionals find answers and perform research more efficiently and with better results.

But this time, the launch felt different. With WestlawNext, Thomson Reuters was the trailblazer, defining the path that others would follow for years to come. With Westlaw Edge, it felt more as if the company was playing catch-up. As impressive a product as it is, there was a palpable sense at its launch that the company had rushed it to market in the face of an increasingly innovative and competitive legal research market.

At the dawn of the decade, the dominance of Westlaw and LexisNexis in legal research was unquestioned. By the end of the decade, a growing field of innovative competitors had upended that dominance. Bloomberg Law, which launched in December 2009, continued to gain traction, albeit slowly. Fastcase and Casemaker became more than simply middle-tier players. Most notably, feisty upstarts such as Casetext, ROSS Intelligence, and Ravel Law brought fresh thinking to the field, introducing features and tools that had the big players playing catch-up.

One striking example of this is Casetext. In 2016, it introduced CARA, a first-of-its-kind product that could analyze users’ uploaded briefs using AI and find relevant cases the brief missed. CARA’s popularity and success inspired a generation of similar products, first from other legal research startups – such as EVA from ROSS Intelligence, Clerk from Judicata, and Vincent from vLex – and then earlier this year from Thomson Reuters, with its Quick Check, and Bloomberg Law, with its Brief Analyzer.

This, for me, is the most striking story of the past 10 years – the rise of the startup. Over the course of the decade, the legal tech industry has changed dramatically, from one controlled by a handful of dominant legacy companies to one driven by a surge of creative and feisty startups whose products are changing how law is practiced and legal services delivered.

While my example involves legal research, my premise applies across the spectrum of legal technology. I defy anyone to name an area of legal technology in which startups are not at least having a major influence on the development agenda, if not defining it. Further, to the extent they are defining it, they are often actually redefining it, changing forever our thinking about how we do what we do.

The poster child for this is Clio. As the decade started, Clio was still a fledgling company, having formally launched its cloud-based practice management platform near the end of 2008. Clio – along with Rocket Matter, which launched soon after – was quixotic in its quest, lobbying lawyers to move their practices to the cloud at a time when lawyers literally feared the cloud. It was the very model of a feisty upstart.

As the decade closes, Clio is now the big kahuna of practice management. This one-time outsider is now the status quo, a position sealed just months before the decade’s end with news of a jaw-dropping $250 million funding round – one of the largest investments ever for a legal technology company.

Undeniably, it has been the decade of the startup, a decade that brought multiple stories of ambitious law students and innovative lawyers launching companies that quickly became major players. Sure, there were plenty of failures too. Not everyone can or will succeed. But somewhere out there right now is the next Clio, the next Fastcase, maybe even the next Westlaw.

So my number one pick for the top-10 stories of the decade in legal tech is the startup – and the influence startups have had, and will continue to have, in shaping and reshaping the legal industry.

2. Skies Clear for the Cloud

For anyone new to law practice in the last 10 years, it may be difficult to fathom the degree to which lawyers feared the cloud a decade ago. We still see evidence and remnants of that, as many firms continue to resist moving core functions to the cloud. But where a decade ago the cloud seemed ominous, it now is widely accepted as inevitable.

A decade ago, companies that launched their products in the cloud were still considered adventurers, maybe even gamblers. Today, non-cloud companies – those that banked their futures on on-premises technology – are scrambling to move to the cloud, building cloud versions of their products or acquiring compatible cloud companies, while those that started in the cloud are prospering.

One conspicuous example of this is NetDocuments versus iManage. NetDocuments started as a cloud service way back in 1999. After struggling for many years to sell lawyers on its message of cloud superiority, it is now prospering as one of the most popular document management systems in legal. Meanwhile, iManage, whose on-premises product was long an industry leader, saw the need to develop a cloud version, which it launched in 2016.

In the early years of the decade, talk of the cloud often focused on the ethics of lawyers using the cloud. Starting in 2009 and 2010, states began issuing a spate of ethics opinions on lawyers’ use of the cloud. At the first Clio Cloud Conference in 2013, I spoke on the Ethics and Security of Cloud Computing for Lawyers. The year 2013 brought the ABA book, Cloud Computing for Lawyers, by Nicole Black, the first (that I recall) comprehensive examination of the risks, benefits and ethics of cloud computing for lawyers.

It was just last year when I opined here that we had finally reached the point of the legal profession’s general acceptance of the cloud as something to embrace, not fear. That was the year that marked the 10th anniversaries of the launches of Clio and Rocket Matter, the first two practice management applications to launch in the cloud, initiating a new era in development of practice-management products and wider use of those products by legal professionals.

Some among you might argue that we’d reached that point much earlier, others might contend we’re not yet there. But what nobody can deny is that, over the course of the last 10 years, we have come 180 degrees in our use of the cloud. What started the decade as still an outlier technology now ends the decade as the core of most law practices.

Something else that nobody can deny is our trajectory forward. As we cross over into a new decade, there is no question where the future lies. It is in the cloud.

3. The Untethering of Law Practice

The first iPhone came to market in June 2007, the first Android tablet in 2009, and the first iPad in 2010. These smart devices, combined with the growth of the cloud, ushered in a new era in mobility. Over the course of the decade, lawyers went from being effectively tethered to their desks to being able to work from anywhere.

Think about that. Think about how much time you spend every workday on your iPhone (or whatever smartphone you use). Think about the emails you read, the texts you send, the documents you view, the research you perform, the calls you make, the texts you send, the time you log – all on your phone.

Think about where you are when you work on your phone. Many large firms have cut way back on office space and encourage their lawyers to work virtually. Many smaller firm lawyers do not even have offices, choosing instead to work from home, from coworking spaces, or from the proverbial Starbucks.

All that is largely new to law in the last decade. And it happened quickly. By 2012, nearly half of lawyers were using iPhones, according to the ABA’s annual Legal Technology Survey Report (although 57% of large-firm lawyers still used the BlackBerry). Now, 79% of lawyers have an iPhone and 18% have an Android phone. Just 2% say they have no smartphone.

The untethering of law practice over the last decade has been a sea change so dramatic and so far reaching that we hardly even notice it anymore. But it has changed law practice forever.

4. The Proliferation of Practice Management

Practice management is not the sexiest of topics, given an industry abuzz with talk of artificial intelligence, analytics and blockchain. But it is an area of legal technology that has had a profound impact on the legal industry over the last decade. It has been instrumental in moving us from a profession that barely used technology to one that now sees it as essential and routine.

There can be no denying that this change was sparked in 2008 with the launches of Clio and Rocket Matter, the first two companies to offer practice management software in the cloud. By bringing to the cloud what had already been available as desktop technology, and by making it easier and more intuitive to use, they ignited a revolution in the use of legal technology, inspiring a slew of similar companies and making cloud-based practice management one of the most competitive areas of legal technology of the last decade.

Today, this sector offers lawyers an embarrassment of riches, with products such as CosmoLex, Firm Central, MyCase, PracticePanther, Smokeball and Zola Suite delivering a robust range of features, options and capabilities.

It is also a sector that is maturing, with developments in recent years such as LexisNexis’s shuttering of Firm Manager in 2017; the acquisition by one of the oldest practice management companies, Tabs3 Software, of one of the new cloud-based platforms, CosmoLex; and the acquisition by private equity firm Alpine SG of PracticePanther.

The biggest news in this sector, and one that appropriately came just a few months ago as a capstone to the decade, was the $250 million investment in Clio, the company that helped spark this trend a decade earlier. One of the largest investments ever for a legal technology company, it underscored how important practice-management technology had become during the past 10 years – and how much potential it still has to evolve over the next 10 years and beyond.

5. Upheaval in Legal Ethics

We were just shy of the start of this decade when, in 2009, then ABA President Carolyn B. Lamm appointed a special Commission on Ethics 20/20 to consider whether advances in legal technology and the globalization of legal practice called for changes in the ABA Model Rules of Professional Conduct.

No one could have known then what a tumultuous decade it would be for legal ethics, or that the decade would close with major challenges underway to long-accepted standards of legal practice and professional regulation.

Indeed, the Commission on Ethics 20/20 did call for changes. To my mind, the most significant – one I described at the time as a sea change in the legal profession – came in 2012, when the ABA formally approved a change to the Model Rules of Professional Conduct to make clear that lawyers have a duty to be competent not only in the law and its practice, but also in technology. In the years since, I’ve tracked states’ gradual adoption of this duty, and as the decade comes to a close, the number of states reached 38.

On top of that, two states have now made it mandatory for lawyers to receiving continuing education in technology. Beginning in 2019, all lawyers in North Carolina were required to complete one hour per year of CLE devoted to technology training, joining Florida in mandating CLE, after it became the first state to do so in 2016.

But tech competence was only part of the decade’s ethics story, as various forms of alternative legal services companies began to test the limits of what was allowed in serving the legal needs of the public.

No company offers a better example of this than Avvo. Controversial from the moment it launched in 2007 for its then-audacious plan to rate lawyers, it further pushed the envelope in 2014 with the launch of Avvo Advisor, a service that provided on-demand legal advice by phone, delivered by an attorney within 15 minutes, for a fixed fee of $39.

A little over a year later, it pushed further, beginning the roll out of Avvo Legal Services, providing a variety of limited-scope legal services for fixed fees ranging from $39 (for 15-minute advice sessions) to $2,995 (for applying for a family green card).

Ethics regulators choked, prompting ethics rulings in several states saying Avvo’s marketing fee for sending lawyers these cases was an impermissible referral fee. In fact, for more than a decade, Avvo faced a constant barrage of lawsuits and ethics battles that led it eventually to give up on its alternative legal services.

The irony, of course, is that the legal world as the decade closes is a much-different place than it was in 2007. The innovations Avvo introduced (or refined) – consumer-friendly lawyer ratings, fixed-fee services by phone, fixed-fee limited-scope legal services, robust Q&A forums, and libraries of consumer-facing legal articles – are now broadly recognized as useful for consumers and even accepted as standard fare.

Now, as the decade closes, the most significant development of all is the emerging push for the kinds of regulatory reform that no one could have imagined 10 years ago – for reforms that would allow private companies to participate in the ownership of legal services providers and that would broaden the ability of individuals who did not attend law school to practice law.

Just a few weeks ago, Utah’s Implementation Task Force on Regulatory Reform – an initiative of the Utah Supreme Court – posted the website that will serve as the hub for its Legal Services Sandbox, an unprecedented experiment in enhancing access to justice through the loosening of traditional restrictions on legal services.

That follows recommendations by a State Bar of California task force to make sweeping changes in the lawyer regulatory structure in that state. In July, the task force approved the recommendations and they are now awaiting further action by the state bar. Soon after, an Arizona task force made a similar call for fundamental changes in the regulation of legal services. Other states – including Illinois and New Mexico – are also looking at loosening regulations on legal practice, while others – notably Utah and Washington – already license non-lawyers to practice law in limited circumstances.

So in a decade that started with an ABA commission to explore whether lawyer regulation had kept pace with advances in technology, it ends with substantive initiatives to expand the delivery of legal services beyond lawyers – even to allow the delivery of legal services in some cases with no lawyer in the picture. In a decade scarred by battles between the organized bar and companies such as Avvo and LegalZoom, it ends with growing acceptance that we need companies such as these if ever we are to serve the legal needs of all.

This decade brought upheaval in legal ethics and regulation such as we have never seen before – and it has set us on a path of reform from which there is no turning back.

6. The Ascension of the Client

His timing could not be better. In a few weeks, as we edge our way into the next decade, Jack Newton, cofounder and CEO of Clio, will release his book, The Client-Centered Law Firm: How to Succeed in an Experience-Driven World. His thesis is simple – the firms that will see the greatest success in the future are the firms that adopt a client-centered mindset and consistently create client-centered experiences.

There is nothing new about the proposition that providing better client service is a key element of law firm success. Others have told us this for generations. But Newton puts his finger on the fundamental way in which technology has upended this equation. It is that clients (aka customers) have come to expect an effortless experience that delivers good value. This is how companies such as Amazon and Uber disrupted their industries – but it is a lesson many in the legal profession have yet to learn.

Over the past decade, the tables have turned, with clients wielding more power than ever before in the delivery of legal services. It has brought about a change that futurist Jordan Furlong captures succinctly in the title of his 2017 book, Law is a Buyer’s Market. “Newly empowered clients have adopted aggressive buying behaviours and begun dictating the terms of their relationships to law firms,” he says. “Law has become a buyer’s market, and it’s never going back.”

Indeed, the rise of the client has been a defining trend of this decade. It is a trend driven by the demand for better access to legal services, better service from legal providers, greater accountability from legal providers, and fairer and more-transparent pricing.

One place we have seen this trend play out dramatically over the past decade is within corporate legal departments. Seeking greater value and more control over their spending, corporate counsel have taken more work in-house and demanded greater accountability from their outside counsel. This trend is directly responsible for the growth in the use of alternative legal services providers over the decade and for the expanding influence and importance of legal operations professionals.

But there is another, potentially even more significant, way in which the client has driven the development of legal technology and of the legal profession over the past decade, and that is the growing recognition of the profession’s failure to meet the needs of the majority of those who need legal help. These are not the clients we serve well, they are the clients we fail to serve adequately or at all.

This has been a decade in which study after study has documented the failings of the legal system to serve the poor, the middle classes, the disenfranchised, small businesses, and many other segments of our society. It has been a decade in which companies such as LegalZoom and Rocket Lawyer have prospered by seeking to serve those populations. It has been a decade in which we have come to accept that technology is an essential ingredient in serving those populations.

Thus, from all sectors of our society, from the very rich to the very poor, from the largest corporations to the smallest businesses, the needs of the client – or, I should say, the unmet needs of the client – have come to shape our thinking about technology and the future of legal services. The legal profession has always been about serving the client, but over the decade it has become the client, more than us, who is driving how we do that, now and into the future.

7. The Global Networking of the Legal Industry

Two trends converged during this decade, with dramatic results for legal technology.

Well before the decade began, the legal industry was already becoming more global, driven by developments in technology and trade well documented by Thomas Friedman in his 2005 book, The World is Flat.

And even as Friedman was documenting that phenomenon, another was occurring – the emergence of social networking. LinkedIn launched in 2003, Facebook in 2006, and Twitter in 2006, and by 2010, legal professionals were beginning to

But as the decade began, most of law practice – and therefore most of legal technology – was still primarily provincial, focused largely on what was happening here in the U.S. In the early part of this decade, most of us in the U.S. were ignorant of and uninterested in what was happening in legal technology in the rest of the world.

As the decade closes, the world of legal tech has become flat. We have discovered that we are anything but provincial in the problems we seek to address or the solutions that we seek to develop. We are learning that, to a surprising degree, the problems that face the legal and justice systems in any one country are the problems shared by every country. As the decade closed, I could attend a legal tech conference in Moscow and participate in conversations that paralleled those at any legal tech conference in the U.S.

In a post here last year, I credited this development, at least in part, to the Global Legal Hackathon, an event that united 600-1,000 teams in 40 cities and 22 countries around a global effort to hack better legal tech. No question, that event was successful in opening many people’s eyes to the global nature of legal technology. But, as I look back over the decade, I realize that the real credit for that globalization lies elsewhere.

The real credit lies in the convergence of the economic flat-world syndrome and the world-shrinking impact of social network – with emphasis on the latter. Not only did world trade bring us together on an economic level, but social networks facilitated our personal connections and our ability to discuss and share our commonalties. As successful as was the Global Legal Hackathon, without the underlying connections of social media, it could never have occurred.

Think about how the legal profession’s use of social media evolved over the decade. In 2010, both Facebook and Twitter were still relatively nascent companies, and LinkedIn, although eight years old, was just beginning to gain significant momentum. In that year, just 17 percent of firms maintained a presence on any social network, with most of those on LinkedIn. By 2019, that number had risen to 80% of firms.

Social media knows no borders. Through blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, legal professionals are connected to and engaged with their peers in every corner of the globe. The problems we face as legal and justice professionals are universal, and so are the solutions we build to address them.

8. The Widening Adoption of Artificial Intelligence

At the start of the decade, AI wasn’t really a “thing” in legal. At the close of the decade, it seems to be everything.

At the start of the start of the decade, to the extent lawyers even knew about AI, many feared it as a robot competitor (as exemplified in the New York Times headline, Armies of Expensive Lawyers, Replaced by Cheaper Software). At the close of the decade, they understand that AI is not a robot that will replace them, but rather a robotically enhanced exoskeleton that will give them superpowers.

At the start of the decade, AI’s primary use in legal was in e-discovery, where machine learning was employed to cut the time and cost of document review. At the close of the decade, AI is pervasive, used not only in e-discovery, but also in legal research, contract review, contract management, litigation, expert systems, e-billing, and more.

As I look back over my own year-end reports, I see the progression of AI’s adoption in legal:

In 2013, I discussed the increasing use of technology assisted review (TAR) in e-discovery and cited it as evidence of lawyers’ growing acceptance of AI.

In 2014, I said (optimistically) that AI technologies were becoming accepted as essential and commonplace (again still primarily in e-discovery).

In 2015, I took note of Judge Andrew J. Peck’s decision stating that TAR had become so widely accepted by judges that it had become “black letter law.” That year, I also noted that AI had come to legal research, with the launch of the AI-driven legal research company ROSS Intelligence.

In 2016, I said that the legal industry had finally gotten smart about AI, with its use growing by leaps and bounds, as evidenced by developments that year such as search giant Thomson Reuters’ announcement that it was getting into the AI game, and the announcement of an alliancebetween Deloitte and Kira Systems “to bring the power of machine learning to the workplace.”

In 2018, I said it was the year that AI got an MBA, noting that the once-fledgling technology was now among the most dominant technology businesses in in legal.

In 2018, of $1 billion invested in legal technology that year, $362 million went to companies whose products use AI. In my post earlier this year charting 2019 investments to date, the majority of the companies used AI in some fashion.

Many say that AI is still a nascent technology. But over the past decade, it has gone from virtually unheard of in legal to pervasive. It may be true that we are still in the early days of realizing AI’s full potential in the legal field, but it is also true that AI will continue to dominate the legal tech conversation for years to come.

9. The Accelerating Influx of Investments

I have not yet tallied the total investment in legal technology during 2019, but when I added up the numbers in September, I found that the year had already set a record. At that point, the total investment had already surpassed $1.2 billion, exceeding the 2018 record of $1 billion.

Now consider this: For all of the decade’s first seven years, from 2010 to 2017, the total investment in legal tech was $1.5 billion. That included the “fluke” year of 2015, in which over $426 million was invested – a number skewed by two major investments that year, $125 million in e-discovery company Relativity and $71.5 million in legal directory Avvo. In both 2016 and 2017, funding dropped precipitously from that 2015 high.

So it is likely that, when the final tally is made, the total investment in legal tech for just 2019 will exceed the total for the decade’s first seven years.

And further consider this: While that $125 million Relativity investment in 2015 was considered huge, we have now seen a series of investments that dwarf that.

The year 2019 was bookended by two examples of this. First came news in January that Onit, a company that provides enterprise workflow products for legal management and contract management, had received a  $200 million strategic investment. Then in September, the cloud law practice management company Clio announced a jaw-dropping $250 million Series D funding round – one of the largest investments ever in a legal tech company and the largest ever in a Canadian technology company.

Investors’ tepid interest in legal tech during the early years of this decade was likely attributable to a variety of factors, among them the legal industry’s slow adoption rate for new technology, the industry’s notoriously long sales cycle, and investors’ lack of familiarity with the industry.

But as the decade progressed, the legal industry’s adoption and use of technology quickened and innovative new products caught the attention of a market ripe for innovation. Investors saw this and became increasingly interested in – and knowledgeable about – the legal industry.

The legal industry has turned a corner on its use and adoption of technology. Law firms are becoming innovators, legal departments are demanding efficiencies and process improvements, a cavernous justice gap cries out for better delivery systems, and regulatory reform efforts foretell a new era of private-sector involvement in the delivery of legal services.

Investors get this. The surge in investment that marked the end of this decade is not just a trend – it is a condition of the market from which there is no turning back.

10. The Emergence of Data-Driven Legal Practice

For generations, the watchwords of the legal profession were intuition and experience. Whether as a lawyer advising clients or a judge deciding peoples’ fates, our wisdom was our most-valued asset, and the primary driver of our decision-making was gut instinct. Not only did we not use data, but it was not available to us even if we wanted to.

The problem with that is that we have no real understanding of what works and what does not. As James Greiner, director of the Access to Justice Lab at Harvard Law School, told me in 2017, “In no field is resistance to evidence-based thinking more ferocious than in United States legal practice.”

However, in the last few years, lawyers have started to appreciate the value of data and the insights it can provide. The most dramatic example of this has been litigation analytics – tools that take data derived from court dockets and documents and apply analytics to make predictions about likely outcomes or patterns. As I wrote in a column a year ago, we could be nearing the point where it would be malpractice for a lawyer not to use analytics.

At the center of the litigation analytics story has been LexisNexis. Following its acquisitions of Lex Machina in 2015 and Ravel Law in 2017, it expanded on the foundations established by those products and integrated them into its legal research platform Lexis Advance. The defining moment for LexisNexis came in July 2018, when it put a stake in the ground to claim the analytics space.  “Our vision … is to put the power of data-driven law in our customers’ hands,” Jeff Pfeifer, vice president, product management, said at the time.

Of course, LexisNexis is not the entirety of the litigation analytics story. Thomson Reuters put down its stake with its 2018 launch of Westlaw Edge, which for the first time brought detailed docket analytics to the Westlaw research platform. Elsewhere in the legal world, Fastcase released its Analytics Workbench, to allow legal professionals to build their own bespoke litigation analytics, and judicial analytics company Gavelytics got new funding and expanded the scope of its coverage. A study this year looked at many of these products and compared their results.

And litigation is only one facet of the larger analytics story. Legal professionals are using analytics in an array of applications, from business development to law firm ranking to legislative tracking to practice management to contract management to public records and beyond.

To go back to Greiner’s point, the legal industry is even beginning to understand the need to collect better data for evidence-based decision-making. Consider Utah’s new Implementation Task Force on Regulatory Reform, which says its experimental sandbox will be “driven by data” in order to protect consumers and design effective solutions for narrowing the access-to-justice gap.

At last, it seems, the legal profession has discovered the value of data as a tool to drive more-informed and more-strategic decisions across all aspects of practice.

Five Honorable Mentions:

Here are five other developments over the decade that will shape the legal profession for years to come:

Cybersecurity insecurity. Ah, for the naïve days of 1999, when the ABA issued an ethics opinion saying in so many words, “Don’t worry about encryption, your data is secure.” Fast forward to 2017, when the ABA felt compelled to update that opinion. This time, said the ABA, the cybersecurity question lawyers need to ask is not if, but when.

The buzz around blockchain. One of the most talked-about technologies of the last half of the decade was one that did not exist in the first half. But for all the buzz around blockchain, we are still waiting for the killer app.

The growth of the ALSP. The decade brought the rise and proliferation of alternative legal service providers such as Elevate and UnitedLex. They have become so dominant and mainstream a force that it is no longer accurate to call them “alternative.”

The rise of legal ops. Over the past decade, the legal operations professional has become one of the most influential positions in legal departments and law firms. Reflecting this has been the founding of the Corporate Legal Officers Consortium (CLOC) and the creation of a legal operations section within the Association of Corporate Counsel.

Women move to the forefront. Women have played leading roles in the development of legal technology for as long as there has been legal technology. But as I wrote in a 2017 column, the latter part of the decade seemed to be a turning point for women in legal tech, with women at the forefront of the industry to an unprecedented degree, leading companies and holding other positions of influence.

from Law and Politics https://www.lawsitesblog.com/2020/01/the-decade-in-legal-tech-the-10-most-significant-developments.html via http://www.rssmix.com/