#this to an extreme that’s like…..almost alienating to a degree because 99% of the time it’s about fanfic and that inherently means fandom

[gold-wolf-soldier13]

honestly genuinely think a lot of writers here on tumblr have lost the plot more than a little. like if your writing for external validation, ie begging for comments and reblogs or saying kudos/likes mean less, i really believe you need to take a step back and reexamine your relationship with your writing. of course we all love to hear how much someone likes our work- we’re human- but the incessant posting and polling about comments and how “no one comments anymore” is starting to give entitlement. you aren’t owed engagement. just because you’re choosing to put the your work out to the public sphere, whether it’s here on tumblr or ao3 or wattpad or literally anywhere, for free and explicitly for others entertainment doesn’t mean they- the strangers on the internet- owe you anything. they don’t owe you a like, a comment, a reblog, a favorite, a bookmark- they don’t have any obligation to you. if you’re posting and immediately concerned about engagement metrics you’re no better than any tiktok or instagram content creator.

[deadbiwrites]

99 Drunk Balloons

(For @nieladasdenani )

Okay, so look.

Kara’s not, like, a prude when it comes to alcohol. She’s down for sneaking a nip of Alex’s whiskey, if only to laugh at her sister’s indignant squawking when she spots Kara’s plunder. She’s cool to drink ridiculous, fruity nonsense with Nia, and to crack open a beer with Clark after choring (read: heckling him from the porch with Lois) on the farm. She’s especially fond of wine with Lena, the way her eyes get brighter and her laughs louder and her lips wine-stained and irresistible- not that Kara is really all that resistant to those lips, anyway…

So yeah, Kara’s no teetotaler. She can handle her alcohol, no problem.

Obviously.

Alien booze, however… she doesn’t have a ton of experience with that. She’s only ever really tried it the one time, and Mon-El had given her the strongest possible shot (like an asshole), and the resulting awful hangover had kinda soured her to the whole thing.

But Lucy is in town for the night, and she’s managed to smuggle not only herself and Vasquez but a bottle of alien booze out of the desert base, and she’s so proud of herself for it that Kara knows that the gig is up before it’s even cracked open.

 

Lena’s stuck at work, because… something. Kara didn’t- she was paying attention, okay? It’s just that none of the words sounded like real words. But the gist of it was that Lena’s not coming. Which is cool, she’s busy and important and she’s always trying so hard to be everywhere for everyone else that Kara doesn’t have it in her to be upset. Even when it’s, like, super lame.

Ha! Super lame!

“What was that, Kara?” Lucy asks with a devilish grin.

“Nothing. I’m just funny,” Kara informs her, taking another (less than) dainty sip of her drink.

“But are you funny on purpose?” Alex muses.

“Everything I do is on purpose,” Kara sniffs, promptly spilling her drink across the table. A bit fuzzy, but still clear enough to feel the weight of stifled giggles and knowing smirks, Kara rights her empty glass and nods. “See? I was finished with that.”

“Oh my god, she’s wasted,” Nia cackles, delighted.

“I am not!” Kara shouts, instantly shushed by her giggling friends. “I am soberly perfect.” Kara’s brow crinkles, and her head tips to the side. “Oh, wait, no…”

“Oh, honey,” Alex coos at her, pulling Kara snug against her side. Kara briefly considers shrugging her off, but being cuddled is like, her favorite thing in the world, so she decides to roll with it. “Where’s your wife?”

Kara huffs loudly. “She’s not my wife.”

“Not yet,” Lucy says. “What is it, three more weeks?”

“Four,” Kara corrects with what is definitely not her ‘dopey Lena smile’, shut up, Alex. “That’s why she’s stuck at work, I think. Doesn’t wanna worry about stuff before the wedding. Except for, like, the wedding. Hey, d’you think I could get her to do the Cupid Shuffle with me?”

“Only if it’s horizontal,” Lucy says seriously. Kara nods thoughtfully at this.

Alex snorts wine out her nose.

 

The night continues, the drinks keep flowing, and now they’re all laughing and no one seems to really know why, exactly, but they also can’t stop.

Kara’s butt is vibrating, currently, which is at least a small part of why she’s laughing, because it tickles and oh. Oh! It’s her phone! She fishes it out with no small degree of difficulty.

“Kara’s pants! How may I direct your call?” she chirps.

There’s a soft laugh in her ear. “Hey, love. Are you having fun?”

“Lena! We’re having the most fun of anyone! Alex spat wine everywhere, and Nia might be- yup, she’s asleep. Nia! But yes! Hi! Hello! How is your work going?”

Lena snorts. “It was fine, I’m done now, just about to get in the car and head home.”

“Yaaaaaaay!”

“Have you been drinking a little?”

“Nope! I’ve been drinking a lot,” Kara says with a grin.

“Do you want me to come pick you up on my way?”

Kara positively beams. “Heck yeah, please! Vasquez left, and Nia is asleep and Lucy said something about ‘paratrooping’ that made Alex all red and spit more wine…”

Another snort. “Alright, I’m on my way. You’re at Alex’s, right?”

“Yup! Oh hey! I didn’t tell you the best part!”

“What’s that?”

“I get to see you!”

There’s a huff of what Kara knows after several years to be fondness. Or exasperation. Really they’re one and the same, in her experience. “Oh, lord. You’re a flirty drunk, aren’t you?”

“I have no idea! Am I? And is it working, because I would not mind seeing a boob this evening. Would probably really make this night a ten out of ten, for me. Because boobs are great. ‘specially your  boobs. Like, wow.”

“Gross, Kara!” Alex yells, shoving Kara sideways so she flops off of her sister and onto the floor.

“Ow.” Kara turns on her best puppy eyes, though they’re wasted on the non-video call. “Alex hit me.”

“I’m sure she’s sorry.”

Kara hums suspiciously before whisper-shouting, “Are you sorry you hit me?”

“Nope!” Alex says, swatting her on the butt.

“She’s not sorry at all!” Kara gasps. “She hit my butt, and I did not like it! Why do you like that?”

There’s dead silence on all sides before Lucy rolls her head enough to give Alex a shit-eating grin. “You owe me $50.”

“My ears!” Alex wails, immediately grabbing the nearest bottle and upending it into her mouth in the quest for amnesia.

“Okay, so… that just happened. I’m gonna come up to get you, and then we’re gonna go home and I’m gonna not see your sister for a few days. Okay?”

“Okay! She’s mean, anyways.”

“Yes she is.”

***

Lena knew what she was walking into. She’s dealt with drunk people before- she’s been a drunk person, probably with far more regularity than is entirely healthy. She’s handled drunk girlfriends, even.

However.

Drunk Kara is another matter entirely.

 

“Baby!”

This is Lena’s only warning before her arms are fully of a warm, wiggly, very drunk Kryptonian. Lena manages to catch Kara and herself, barely, only stuttering half a step backward at the impact. “Hi there.”

Kara snuggles deeply into her embrace, pressing her face to Lena’s neck and breathing deeply. “Y’smell so nice. How d’you always smell nice?”

Lena coughs, fighting the good fight against the flush creeping up her neck. She ducks her head to the side, smiling sheepishly and giving the still-conscious occupants of the room a wave. “Hello.”

Lucy offers her a lazy half-wave and Alex glares while Nia snores away. “Hey hey, Luthor. Gonna take her home?”

“Well I’m not flyin’, that’s for sure,” Kara laughs, and Lena suppresses the urge to shudder as Kara’s hot breath puffs against her neck.

“Can’t have Supergirl knocking a jetliner out of the sky,” Lena says with a smile. “That’s a lot of paperwork for you.”

Lucy waves that away with a slow grin. “Nah, I’d just make Alex do it.”

Alex, without looking over or breaking the seal of her lips on the bottle, stretches her leg out, plants her foot firmly to Lucy’s side, and shoves hard, sending Lucy flying.

And with Kara now mouthing wetly at her neck and murmuring things in Kryptonian that she’s extremely glad only she can hear, Lena gives them a parting wave and starts to struggle her way down the hall with Kara’s weight heavy against her side.

“How are you so heavy?” she groans playfully, shifting a bit so Kara’s arm is thrown over her shoulder and hers is wrapped snugly around Kara's waist.

Kara pouts at her, the new position preventing her from being able to reach Lena’s neck with her mouth. “You saying I’m fat?”

“I don’t think anyone on Earth could call you fat. You are shockingly heavy for being as thin as you are, though. I wonder if your bone or muscle structure is denser than ours? Or if it’s a result of Earth’s gravity…”

Kara’s pout deepens. “Sounds like you’re calling me fat with science.”

Lena huffs at her affectionately. “Don’t be a brat. Did you have fun?”

Kara’s face lights up. “We had so much fun! We played games, and Nia learned why she shouldn’t play shot poker with Lucy and Alex, and it turns out that Lucy mixes really good drinks with the stuff I drink- d’you think she practiced? I bet she practiced. We should go ask!” Kara turns on her heel, only stopped when she feels Lena tug her backward by a belt loop. She tips her head back until she can see her upside-down girlfriend- nope! Wait! Fiancee! “No?”

“No. Not unless you want to learn what paratrooping is,” Lena chuckles.

Kara’s nose wrinkled. “I prob’ly don’t.”

“Probably not.”

“Can we get balloons? I just- I really think I need to get a balloon, y’know? You ever just really need to have a balloon?”

Lena grins. “I can’t say that I have, but sure. We can stop and get you a balloon.”

“You’re the best fiancée anywhere, ever. And I’d know, ‘cause like, I’ve been to other anywheres and other evers. And yeah, you definitely win the fiancée contest. By a mile. Because nobody else got their fiancée balloons.”

“Deeply impressed that you managed to say fiancée correctly three times when you can’t walk straight.”

“That’s ‘cause it’s fun to say! And fun to think! We’re almost married! That’s nuts! Who said we were allowed?”

Lena pops onto her tiptoes to plant a sound kiss to Kara’s flushed cheek. “We did, I think.”

“Oh, yeah, right. We’re so smart, for doing that. ‘Cause now you’re my fiancée. Which is fun to say. Know what else is fun to say? Balloon. Balloon, balloon, balloon. Y’ever do that thing, where you say a word so many times that it doesn’t even sound like a real word anymore?”

“Synergy. Margins. Quarterly…” Lena laughs as they finally, mercifully reach the elevator. “Pretty much any time I have a board meeting, at least one word sounds made up by the end.”

“That makes sense. Hey! I bet I can be a balloon!”

“What do you- Kara!”

Kara grins down at her, hovering a foot or so off the ground. “This is fun!”

“Kara, you can’t be a balloon right now, what if someone sees you?”

“They’ll think they’re drunk.”

“That only works when they are drunk. Right now the only drunk one is you.”

“’m not drunk, you’re just blurry,” Kara giggles. “Cute blurry.”

Lena hooks her finger through Kara’s belt loop again when she starts to float too high, relieved when it brings her closer. “Can you be a balloon closer to the ground?”

“I dunno, ‘m just a balloon, Lena, duh.”

Lena snorts, tugging her into the elevator when it arrives, resigned to her fate. “You’re a very talkative balloon.”

“Am I being a bad balloon? You gonna pop me?”

Lena raises an eyebrow. “Is this… supposed to be a euphemism?”

“What’s a euphonium?”

“Right, not a euphemism, got it.”

Kara blinks at her, eyes too-bright in that way they get sometimes when she’s overtired (or, apparently, drunk). “Am I annoying you?”

“No more so than usual,” Lena grins. At Kara’s crestfallen look, she pulls her close until she can wrap her in a proper hug. “You’re not being annoying, love, just funny. And I’m really happy that you had such a good time with your friends, especially since I feel so bad about bailing on you last minute. I’ll carry you home any day of the week, Kara Danvers, because I love you.”

“Even when I’m bein’ a balloon?”

“Nobody I’d rather have on the end of my string,” Lena confirms, thumb tracing over the braided metal band of Kara's betrothal bracelet.

Kara nods with a big, goofy smile, pressing a kiss to Lena’s mouth that tastes… not quite like anything Lena’s ever tasted before. Something sweet and sticky and not exactly unpleasant. “Awesome. Love you too. Can we still go get a balloon?”

Lena laughs loud and bright in the tiny, snail’s pace elevator. “We can get you a dozen balloons.”

 

(Kara remembers none of this the next morning, and emerges from their bedroom squinting and questioning the large bouquet of balloons emblazoned with messages ranging from 'It's a Boy!' to 'Get Well Soon!'.

Lena is only too delighted to remind her.)

[thedcdunce]

Zealot

“They seek to complete Project Reunification. Should that happen, the survival of all mankind will be in jeopardy.” - Zealot

Real Name: Lady Zannah

Aliases:

Lucy Blaze

Sister Zealot

Gender: Female

Height: 6′ 0″

Weight: 120 lbs (54 kg)

Eyes: Blue

Hair: White

Race: Kherubim

Powers:

Kherubim Physiology

Dark Sorcery

Abilities:

Master Martial Artist

Weapons Master

Enhanced Intellect

Weaknesses:

Mental Illness

Universe: Wildstorm Universe

Origin: Born a Kherubim Lord from the planet Khera

Citizenship: American

Base of Operations:

Washington D.C.

Halo Building, New York City, New York

Parents: Harmony; mother

Marital Status: Single

Occupation:

Warrior

Majestrix of the Coda

Assassin

Government Operative

Education: Traditional Kherubim Education, Advanced Coda Training

First Appearance: WildC.A.T.s #1 (August, 1992)

Powers

Kherubim Physiology: Zealot is Kherubim, and a Kheribum noble meaning all her abilities are enhanced to various degrees, extremely long-lived, and nearly immortal. Her vocal cords are highly developed allowing a far wider range of tones than what is possible for a human being.

Enhanced Senses: Zealot's senses are more developed than those of earth humans; most notably her sight and hearing. She is easily at human peak as far as her ability to note detailed objects. Her hearing on the other hand is very enhanced. 

Superhuman Stamina: Zealot has a very high level of endurance. Her body and will are so strong, she will continue to try and fight even against overwhelming odds and when pain wracks every portion of her form. As a note, this isn't invulnerability. Simply a very high pain threshold.

Enhanced Durability: As a Kheribum her skin, bones, and muscle tissues are denser and super-hard compared to a normal human. A regular bullet will not adequately harm her.

Accelerated Healing: She can regenerate damaged or destroyed bodily tissue with far greater speed and efficiency than an ordinary human. She can regenerate from anything, even injured tissue, brain cells, missing limbs and organs. Gunshot and stab wounds, cuts, and broken bones can perfectly heal in a few minutes.

Enhanced Immunity: Her body neutralizes all detrimental contaminants making him immune to all poisons, toxins, venom, viruses, bacteria, diseases, disorders, parasites, allergens, and radiations.

Immortality: As a Kheran, Zealot possesses virtual immortality. Her race is extremely long lived and she has been on Earth for literally the whole of human civilization and is showing no sign of growing old anytime soon. She is for all intents and purposes biologically immortal.

Superhuman Agility: Zealot has a level of agility that is quite literally astonishing. Her agility, balance, flexibility, dexterity, and bodily coordination are enhanced to levels that are beyond the natural physical limits of an Olympic gold medalist, with a quickness far beyond norm. She's capable of feats such as vaulting off of walls, going from flips into a vertical stomp, adjusting her rate and direction when in terminal velocity fall and is essentially, well over Olympic level as far as her ability to flip, dodge, dive, spin and move about. This, coupled with her strength and endurance makes her a formidable fighter alone, not to mention fighting skills.

Superhuman Strength: As a Kheran, Zealot is naturally stronger than a normal human, this ability is further compounded by her extreme level of training and abilities as per her status as Coda Majestrix, and level of experience. She can lift/press up to two tons of weight with effort and in addition to this, knows how to best apply her strength.

Dark Sorcery: For one hundred years, Zealot was in service of the weaver of souls Tapestry. During that time, Tapestry attempted to subvert Zealot into her own image. In that time Zealot became a powerful enchantress with skills and powers nearly on the scale of her teacher; along with the potential to be among the most powerful magic users on the planet. Although later Zealot would purge herself of these terrible abilities, powers she would rarely use. Zealot still has a powerful mystical aura and abilities she demonstrated when she faced Tapestry once more.

Telepathic Communication: The ability to project a dreamy vision of flowing white energy; read minds, view and erase memories of others with or without the person's consent.

Teleportation: She can send herself and/or anyone to anyplace she/they wish to visit without any space/time restrictions.

Mystical Blasts: The ability to generate powerful blasts of arcane force.

Matter Reconstruction: The ability to reconstruct matter such as clothes into a different form and appearance.

Mystical Shields: The ability to generate protective shields of magic

Mystical Manipulation: Twists and subvert other magic's cast at her; return energy projections sent to her back to their source without loss of momentum or power.

Abilities

Master Martial Artist: With weapons that are older then some civilizations and a status that placed her as the head of an order of warrior women. Zealot has literally been described as one of, if not the deadliest assassin on the planet. Her fighting abilities are unmatched among the coda, with and without a blade. And she can hold her own against virtually anyone, including those physically better then her, in one on one and even group combat. She is more than a match for the best of the best. Her range of martial arts knowledge spans almost all arts known to man and include the alien fighting arts of the Coda.

Weapons Master: Her skills with weapons mainly focus on the use of bladed weapons such as the Coda Clef blade and the katana blade; as well as the one and two handed sword. She is also an expert marksman. She is skilled in the use of throwing objects, such as daggers and the bladed weapons connected to the back of her armored costume.

Throwing

Firearms

Swordsmanship

Enhanced Intellect

Occultism

Computer Operation

Criminology

Multilingualism

Medicine

Historiography

Interrogation

Intimidation

Tracking

Survival

Surveillance

Weaknesses

Mental Illness: Zealot hides emotions and is prone to obsessive tendencies.

History

Lady Zannah, also known as Zealot, is from the planet Khera, where she was part of one of the leading political and cultural groups known as The Coda. On Earth, she became a prominent member of the WildC.A.T.s.

On Khera

Zannah was one of the few fertile Kherubim and therefore she was picked to mate with Lord Majestros of the other leading faction of Khera, the Pantheon. In this union she gave birth to a daughter named Kenesha. However, because Zannah desired to be a warrior rather then a priestess like other Kherubim mothers, her mother Lady Harmony declared the child dead, took a lover and claimed her as her own. This meant Kenesha was brought up as her sister and Majestros was told the child had died.

Trapped on Earth

Thousands of years ago Zannah became one of the Kherubims who had become stranded on Earth when the explorer ship she was on crash landed after battling a Daemonite warship. It was only due to her lover Stratos that she was able to survive, as he was able to get her into one of the ships rescue pods. Not long after she joined the earth war between Kherubim and the Daemonites who wanted to take the planet over.

Zannah and the other survivors were scattered, but found they could easily hide amongst the human population. The Daemonites, while less humanoid used their powers of possession and shape-shifting to hide amongst the population. It was then that the next few millennia was spent waging a secret war, unknown to average humans.

Founding the Earth-based Coda

Not long after crashing on the planet did Zannah start to train human females in The Coda fighting tradition. She even took part in the Trojan War on the Greek side. The payment she was to receive was the 99 baby girls to add to her new Coda. During the war she helped the warrior Ulysses come up with the idea for the Trojan Horse, for her part she spared the royal family, so the massacre would not affect the women and children. The rest of the Coda would not allow such a betrayal of the tenants she had taught them, even from its own founder. She also further earned their contempt when she refused to kill her ally Artemis in a duel she had won. She was then cast out into exile.

It was during her exile that she came across the witch Tapestry and was forced into being her slave, in return for Kenesha's life being spared. She was a slave for many centuries through which the witch tried to brainwash her into thinking like her, but Zannah stayed true to herself though wasn't completely the same. It was during this time that she was taught dark sorcery by Tapestry, though because of its corrupted nature she would refuse to use it for many years after she had escaped.

Team One

In the 1900s Zannah took the name Lucy Blaze and joined Team One, alongside fellow Kherubim survivors Emp, Majestros, and John Colt. She would form a short lived relationship with John and they have a child, she then gives the child to a Siberian family for the child's protection. The team battle the evil Helspont on the first mission. Helspont is a Daemonite Lord and has formed a group known as the Cabal, made up of post-humans and Daemonites. The Daemonite wanted to destroy all humans using nuclear missiles so the Daemonites could rule the planet. Team One fought him and one of their members Regiment succeeded in destroying the only missile left at the cost of his life. The team disbanded after.

WildC.A.T.s

Years later, now going by the name Zealot, she came into contact with a human male named Cole Cash. Zealot trained Cole in Coda fighting arts but despite his training he still preferred firearms to edged weapons. Cole later took the secret identity of Grifter. The pair would join forces with Lord Emp in gathering half blooded Kherubim to form the WildC.A.T.s.

During her time on the team she again fought Helspont and his followers. This time he wanted to bring Daemonites to Earth, they foiled his plans. When Voodoo joined the team she also trained her in Coda fighting techniques. It was during this time that Zealot would be brought face to face with her old master Tapestry and the group she had hired. The WildC.A.T.s became involved and the battle even caught the attention of Mr. Majestic and Savant.

Zealot later was involved in the discovery of a crashed Kherubim ship, which the team used to travel back to Khera. Khera turned out not to be the utopian society they had thought it to be, even Zealot was confused as her memory was very different then what she had remembered of her homeworld. Zealot learned along with the rest of the team that the war against the Daemonites had ended thousands of years ago, and they were now second class citizens living in slums and ghettos. Zealot's attitude toward the situation strained her relationship with Voodoo. Also the Coda wanted to kill her hoping she would become a martyr for their cause. Zealot was disgusted and along with the rest of the team returned to Earth. Upon returning they found they had been replaced by a new team. The new team was Mr. Majestic, Savant, Ladytron, Max Cash and Tao. However, Tao was revealed to had been manipulating the team into starting a gang war and she almost killed Tao when they attacked him, but Majestic killed him first. However, it was reveal later that Tao staged his death and had a hypnotized shape-shifter Mr. White in his place.

Wildcore

Zealot was recruited by Department PSI to be a part of Wildcore when they had to deal with a group of aliens known as the D'rahn. She gained intel using a alien database, kept by a group of alien exterminators known as the Puritans. She learned that the D'rahn seek to hunt down earth's Kherubim, during the intel gathering, the D'rahn attack the military base killing the Chasers who protect it. The only people to make it out of the base alive are Zealot, the leader of the Chasers Brawl, and the leader of the Puritans, General Grant. Grant turns out to be a Daemonite in disguise and swears his faction's loyalty to the D'rahn, in turn the D'rahn enlighten them and they become more powerful. Wildcore is able to erase all but ten names of the earth-bound Kherubim, though they are not able to save any of the names left over but one. His fiance Alea is enlightened and she joins Wildcore. At the advice from Ferrian, Wildcore sought for Majestic for help, and their sorcerer ally Azrum to go look for Tapestry to get her help. Majestic joins the battle and kills the Typhon of the D'rahn causing them to retreat. Tapestry is found to have imprisoned Azrum and enslaved Zealot, she then reshapes the world, but Ferrian regains his memories and saves them. In the escape the team loses two members and Zealot left the group.

Coda Revisited

Zealot then returns to the WildC.A.T.s. During a mission involving Daemonite tech being used to turn humans into super soldiers in an Irish village, Zealot tries to save a group of children and is mortally shot. After being shot the village was caught in an explosion and the team believed her to be dead. In truth she was in hiding from various Coda factions, whom she was hunting down in secret, and had a one night stand with a drunken Grifter, who then joined her in her quest. F.B.I. agents soon tracked her down and sends Agent Orange, who unbeknownst to them is under Jack Marlowe's control. The Coda also tracked her down and sends Sarin to capture her, Agent Orange and his agents. Zealot was tortured and about to be executed when Ladytron, under Grifter's control, Mr. Dolby, the Beef Boys and C.C. Renozzo are sent after her. They eventually are freed and the Coda and their base were destroyed.

Kherubim Truth

Sometime later Mr. Majestic requested her help after his time-travel adventure revealed a world controlled by the Daemonites. Zealot, Majestic and Desmond go off in search of a ancient Kherubim tech known as a Planet Shaper. They are attacked by Helspont on their journey. Desmond merged with the device and the they find out that the Kherubim grew in power by enslaving species on planets and taking over that world and that Daemonites were a race that fought back against their control. Soon a rogue Kherubim of the Shapers Guild named Javen arrived. He wanted to use the Shaper and remake Earth into a new Khera and use Majestic's DNA to breed a new race of Kherubims. However, he found that Majestic's body was breaking down due to his dimension and time travel and attempted to take their child Savant as the next best thing. During the battle Majestic made Zealot reveal that she was in fact Savant's mother and he was her father. He then went off to stop the Kherubims forces on his own.

Nemesis from the Past

Some time later a Kherubim named Nemesis made an appearance and it was revealed that she was at one time the lover of Majestic and he used his position to get her trained as a member of the Coda despite her being an Adrastea. Later Zealot and Nemesis became rivals and friends, but because of politics Majestic could not continue a relationship with her and was ordered to mate with Zealot. Nemesis was later framed for the death of Coda members by a Brotherhood of the Sword member named Raven and Zealot swore vengeance against Nemesis, not knowing the truth. Sometime in 2005 Zealot caught up with her, who was killing Brotherhood members. Zealot and the WildC.A.T.s attacked her only to lose easily. She was then bested by Mr. Majestic, who took her to the Halo building where the truth was revealed. In ensuring the battle against the brotherhood Zealot, Nemesis and Majestic made peace with each other and fought side by side, and Nemesis in turn risked herself to stop Raven but is saved at the last minute by Majestic.

World's End

Following after Armageddon, Zealot and the rest of the Wildcats fought all manner of mutations and beasts to bring refugees back to the Halo building in Los Angeles for safety. She and her team were repeatedly, violently confronted by a overzealous Majestic, who wanted the building's supplies of Halo Batteries. After a later hostility with Majestic was altogether pacified, he told the Wildcats that he intended to offer them a chance to live on his Hawaiian kingdom. But disallowed some for being "undesirable", in which Zealot was included for lacking the capability to breed since the birth of Savant. When hearing this, Zealot was especially concerned of her daughter and demanded to know from Majestic as to what happened to Savant since she had left for him. Majestic, however, retorted to the fact that their daughter had always been on her own without the truth of her true parents.

After refusing Majestic's offers and the departure of Nemesis and Backlash, Zealot and the Wildcats were later called from help in Hawaii by Backlash and Nemesis who discretely warn of Majestic. Suspicious, Zealot and the Wildcats left for Hawaii on a feign 'visit'. When Majestic left Hawaii with Spartan to Asia, Zealot and Nemesis silently communicated each other through a training session of the problem. She then realized from Nemesis that Majestic had forcefully kept Savant imprisoned as a breeding mare through test tubes in bringing "pure" Kheran heirs. After releasing Savant, Zealot and the others barely escaped and returned to the Halo building where it was under attack by Daemonites. Zealot and Grifter helped in clearing out the invading Daemonites and allowing the building's refugees to board the MIRV, before everyone escape with the destruction of the Halo building.

Zealot and her team later helped John Lynch and Team-7 in stopping her former teammate-turned villain, Tao, who intended to become a god from stealing the powers of Void, Providence and Max Faraday. During the midst of battle against Tao, Zealot and her daughter Savant were sent by Spartan in recruiting Majestic's help. Upon seeing each other, however, Zealot and Majestic briefly fought each other after the later was still outrage over Nemesis' apparent death until Savant clarified them and informed that Tao was at fault for Majestic's behavior and indirectly responsible for Nemesis' death. When Zealot and her allies gained the power of the Creation Equation and subsequently facing her worst fear, in which Zealot was manipulated into trying to kill her own daughter while Majestic tries to prevent them. Following Tao's defeat, Zealot was granted a new and improve version of her costume patterned after her original attire.

When the Wildcats were looking for The High in Colorado, Zealot and the others were summoned to UnLondon by the Authority and offered the chance of leaving Earth on the Carrier. Zealot decided to stay on the planet and soon joined in the conflict against the militant Knights of Khera, which she greatly acknowledged of their notoriety. She and some of Earth's heroes were sent to the North Pole in succeeding to destroying one of the Knights' terraforming machines. After the Knights' defeat, Zealot and Maul decided to leave the Wildcats after hearing Spartan, who became the de facto leader of Earth's superhumans, of unifying Earth which she vehemently disagreed and preferred on training humanity into a defense force.

Following the three month period of Earth's reconstruction, Zealot claimed African nation of Zanzibar as her protectorate. After this, she recruited willing women across Africa into her own Coda army dedicating to her claim of defending Earth from alien threats. Though her Coda is fewer in numbers, Zealot had Jeremy Stone to artificially impregnate some of her volunteers to produce more female warriors through Kheran technology. This, however, cost the lives of some of the volunteers under the experimentation given that the technology are only specifically suited to Kherubims. Zealot was not concerned of this after Jeremy Stone had informed her of this, much to Jeremy's shock. Eventually, Midnighter, who was carefully concerned of Zealot's agenda since her departure from the Wildcats, investigated Zanzibar and learned of the Coda's fatal birthing process. Ultimately, Zealot and Midnighter engaged in single combat. Throughout their fight, the two were evenly matched as they argued back and forth of their flaws in which Zealot struck a chord in Midnighter in being unable to saved his adopted daughter Jenny Quarx. Eventually both combatants were literally grabbing at each others' throats when Maul, who grew tired of the violence and the guilt for cooperating with Zealot's plan, intervened to stop their fight. As he did this, Zealot was about to slice him out of reflex. Immediately, Maul had no time to avoid this and shrunk down at the subatomic level, in which everyone thought he disintegrated. Zealot was shocked of what she had done, but didn't believe that her sword disintegrated him. She was then chided by Midnighter, who points out that not only did she "kill" Maul but also lost him to maintain the machines for the pregnancies. But Zealot just coolly told him that she and the Coda will move elsewhere and continue their mission in protecting Earth, in which Midnighter vowed that he would follow and stop her wherever she went.

Fun Facts

Since Armageddon Zealot had started a sexual relationship with Grifter.

Almost no one in the Wildstorm universe can beat Zealot hand-to-hand skill wise. Backlash and Midnighter come close, yet in the end, Zealot has weapons older than him and her superhuman attributes. With a sword, she has shown herself to be unmatched.

[alisha4real]

Talent Management and the Effect of the Peter Principle

By: Alisha Robert-Novak aka ALISHA4REAL

Every organization of a given type must perform certain functions in order to be profitable. Employers must have the right workforce in order to supply its customers and do its work. For example, key functions of many retail and manufacturing business that provide products and services to customers include production, purchasing, marketing, accounting, sales and customer service personnel. Using such functions as the basis for structuring the organization may, in some instances, have the advantage of efficiency. However, these advantages come with hidden drawbacks, some constraints, and risk.

The Peter Principle is an observation that the tendency in most organizational hierarchies, such as that of a corporation, is for every employee to rise in the hierarchy through promotion and remain employed until they reach a level of respective incompetence. The Peter Principle was laid out by Canadian educational scholar and sociologist, Dr. Laurence J. Peter, in his 1968 book titled "The Peter Principle." Dr. Peter also stated in his book that an employee's inability to fulfill the requirements of a given position that he is promoted to may not be the result of general incompetence on the part of the employee as much as it is due to the fact that the position simply requires different skills than those the employee actually possesses. For example, an employee who is very good at following rules or company policies may be promoted into the position of creating rules or policies, despite the fact that being a good rule follower does not mean that an individual is well-suited to be a good rule creator or enforcer of rules.

This is why talent management plays an important role in the business strategy since it manages one of the important assets of the company—its people. Companies should make the effort to effectively manage the employees to help them develop their skills and capabilities in order to retain them. Talent management is an organization's commitment to recruit, hire, retain, and develop the most talented and superior employees available in the job market. So, talent management is a useful term when it describes an organization's commitment to hire, manage, develop, and retain talented employees.

The field of Talent Management increased in popularity after “McKinsey and Company's 1997 research and the book “The War for Talent” hit the shelves in 2001 and in a period in the U.S. when the article was published by Economic Policy Institute, “The State of Working America 1998-99”, on September 11, 2002, based on “EPI’s flagship book “The State of Working America 1998-99 was released by Cornell University Press on January 1, 1999.”, I found out how this would impact the trajectory of my career for the first time and why I decided to pick the human resource field.

Jobs | Growth down, insecurity up

"The average unemployment rate during the current business cycle has been lower than during any such cycle since 1967-73, with joblessness falling to about 4.5 percent in mid-1998. But even this historic low has not fully restored workers’ sense of job security or reduced the share of workers in contingent and other nonstandard jobs.

·  Displaced workers face difficulties finding new employment, with more than one-third out of work when interviewed one to three years after their displacement. When they do find work, their new jobs pay, on average, about 13 percent less than the jobs they lost, and more than one-fourth no longer have employer-provided health insurance.

·   Work in the 1990s is of an increasingly contingent nature, with almost 30 percent of workers employed in situations that were not regular full-time jobs in 1997.”

Research shows that employing incompetent individuals at the management level is more alienating than being treated poorly and why most companies lose the most talented people. The impact of absentee leadership on job satisfaction outlasts the impact of both constructive and overtly destructive forms of leadership. Constructive leadership immediately improves job satisfaction, but the effects dwindle quickly. Destructive leadership immediately degrades job satisfaction, but the effects dissipate after about six months. In contrast, the impact of absentee leadership takes longer to appear, but it degrades subordinates’ job satisfaction for at least two years. It also is related to a number of other negative outcomes for employees, like role ambiguity, health complaints, and increased bullying from team members. Absentee leadership creates employee stress, which can lead to poor employee health outcomes and talent drain, which then impact an organization’s bottom line.

Dr. Peter summed up the Peter Principle with a twist on the old adage that "the cream rises to the top" by stating that "the cream rises until it sours." In other words, excellent employee performance is inevitably promoted to the point where the employee's performance is no longer excellent, or even satisfactory. According to the Peter Principle, competence is rewarded with the promotion because competence, in the form of employee output, is noticeable and therefore usually recognized. However, once an employee reaches a position in which they are incompetent, they are no longer evaluated based on their output but instead are evaluated on input factors, such as arriving at work on time and having a good attitude. Dr. Peter further argued that employees tend to remain in positions for which they are incompetent because mere incompetence is rarely sufficient to cause the employee to be fired from the position. Ordinarily, only extreme incompetence causes dismissal. I have found this happens mostly in the C-Suite. Those with the most to lose are usually the last ones to leave

Like the provost in this example, the Harvard Law Review published “that many organizations don’t confront absentee leaders because they have other managers whose behavior is more overtly destructive. Because absentee leaders don’t actively make trouble, their negative impact on organizations can be difficult to detect, and when it is detected, it often is considered a low-priority problem. Thus, absentee leaders are often silent organization killers. Left unchecked, absentee leaders clog an organization’s succession arteries, blocking potentially more effective people from moving into important roles while adding little to productivity. Absentee leaders rarely engage in unforgivable bouts of bad behavior, and are rarely the subject of ethics investigations resulting from employee hotline calls. As a result, their negative effect on organizations accumulates over time, largely unchecked.

If your organization is one of the relatively few with effective selection and promotion methods in place, then it may be able to identify effective and destructive leaders. Even if your organization isn’t great at talent identification, both types of leaders are easy to spot once they are on the job. They also produce predictable organizational outcomes: Constructive leadership creates high engagement and productivity, while destructive leadership kills engagement and productivity. The chances are good, however, that your organization is unaware of its absentee leaders, because they specialize in flying under the radar by not doing anything that attracts attention. Nonetheless, the adhesiveness of their negative impact may be slowly harming the company.”

In 2018, economists Alan Benson, Danielle Li, and Kelly Shue analyzed sales workers' performance and promotion practices at 214 American businesses to test the Peter Principle. They found that companies did indeed tend to promote employees to management positions based on their performance in their previous position, rather than based on managerial potential. Consistent with the Peter Principle, the researchers found that high performing sales employees were likelier to be promoted and that they were likelier to perform poorly as managers, leading to considerable costs to the businesses.

Overcoming the Peter Principle was the path I took to get promotions in my career. I made sure that I was adequately trained, managed people at different levels, and received education in my field in the form of a degree and certifications, so that I was always more than qualified for the position that I was applying. Some may disagree with my method but will be impressed at the outcome.

A possible solution to the problem posed by the Peter Principle is for companies to provide adequate skill training for employees receiving a promotion, and to ensure the training is appropriate for the position to which they have been promoted. However, Dr. Peter pessimistically predicted that even good employee training is ultimately unable to overcome the general tendency of organizations to promote employees to positions of incompetence, which he refers to as positions of "final placement." Promoting people at random has been another proposal, but one which does not always create opportunity for success for the company, it increase risk and liabilities, and never sit well with employees.

For more information on how to improve your Talent Management and Acquisitions contact us at www.administrativeresolutionsnetwork.com

Administrative Resolutions Network, BUSINESS TRAINING SESSIONS, can help your organization develop the skills required to maintain business process effectiveness over the long term. Our approach to Business Process Improvement Training can be tailored to your needs by incorporating modules such as the following:

•Basic Process Improvement Concepts

•Analyzing Common Types of Process Mapping

•Facilitating a Process of Marketing and Branding Concepts Workshop

•Identifying Process Improvement Opportunities

•Implementing the Change Management Process

•Monitoring Process Improvement Effectiveness

[livasoar]

Let’s get personal!

1: 6 of the songs/artists/bands you listen to most? Red Hot Chili Peppers, Blink-182, Real Friends, This Wild Life, Gideon & Green Day

2: If you could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be? I want to meet my half-brother, I just don’t know if he would want to meet me.

3: Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 23, give me line 17. “First of all, I told my mom I would never cry when people left the show...”

4: What do you think about most? Too many things.

5: What does your latest text message from someone else say? “What’s happening?”

6: Do you sleep with or without clothes on? With

7: What’s your strangest talent? I don’t think I’ve discovered it yet.

8: Girls… (finish the sentence) rule?; Boys… (finish the sentence)drool?

9: Ever had a poem or song written about you? Yes, I have.

10: When is the last time you played the air guitar? I don’t usually do that.

11: Do you have any strange phobias? Trypophobia; look it up.

12: Ever stuck a foreign object up your nose? Yes, when I was younger

13: What’s your religion? I don’t have one.

14: If you are outside, what are you most likely doing? Walking, observing my surroundings & taking photo’s.

15: Do you prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it? Behind the camera.

16: Simple but extremely complex. Favorite band? I have a favorite band from every genre; not one single favorite. But if I really have to choose, I’d say Real Friends

17: What was the last lie you told? I told my grandma that I didn’t get another tattoo, when I actually did.

18: Do you believe in karma? Indeed.

19: What does your URL mean? It was just an old nickname I had in middle school.

20: What is your greatest weakness; your greatest strength? Greatest weakness, I hate feeling forced or pressured to do something. Greatest strength, having control of things in my life.

21: Who are your celebrity crushes? Jesse McCartney, Taron Egerton & Chloe Grace Moretz 

22: Have you ever gone skinny dipping? Nope

23: How do you vent your anger? I don’t usually get angry a lot, but when I do I cry.

24: Do you have a collection of anything? I used to collect buttons as a kid. Now I collect crystals & rocks.

25: Do you prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online? It depends on who I’m talking to. 

26: Are you happy with the person you’ve become? Most of the time yes; occasionally no.

27: What’s a sound you hate; sound you love? I hate the sound of someone grinding their teeth. I love the sound of food cooking haha!

28: What’s your biggest “what if”? What if I’m just wasting my time again?

29: Do you believe in ghosts? How about aliens? Yes and yes.

30: Stick your right arm out; what do you touch first? Do the same with your left arm. Right arm touches a pillow, left arm touches a table.

31: Smell the air. What do you smell? The roast in the crock pot

32: What’s the worst place you have ever been to? I’m not entirely sure, nothing comes to mind.

33: Choose: East Coast or West Coast? East Coast

34: Most attractive singer of your opposite gender? There are so many! Anthony Del Grosso, Tyler Joseph, MGK, Mod Sun...<3

35: To you, what is the meaning of life? Doing what you want and saying what you feel to create your own happiness, regardless of what that looks like to others.

36: Define Art. An expression of happiness, humor, life, love and everything in between; through every individuals eyes. 

37: Do you believe in luck? Eh, more or less.

38: What’s the weather like right now? 20 degrees and snowing!

39: What time is it? 5:45pm

40: Do you drive? If so, have you ever crashed? I do drive, I haven’t crashed per-say. But one day about a month ago, it started snowing out of nowhere and the roads got really slippery. My car spun completely around and I ended up on the other side of the road in the ditch. 

41: What was the last book you read? “The Summer I Turned Pretty”

42: Do you like the smell of gasoline? Yuck, no. Diesel is fine though

43: Do you have any nicknames? Yes; Liv, Livie & Bee to name a few

44: What was the last film you saw? Underworld: Blood Wars

45: What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had? An almost broken hand?

46: Have you ever caught a butterfly? Yes

47: Do you have any obsessions right now? I’ve always been obsessed with decorating.

48: What’s your sexual orientation? Bisexual 

49: Ever had a rumor spread about you? Yup

50: Do you believe in magic? Oh yes

51: Do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong? Yes I do

52: What is your astrological sign? Virgo

53: Do you save money or spend it? A little bit of both

54: What’s the last thing you purchased? Dinner at Cracker barrel 

55: Love or lust? Love

56: In a relationship? No I am not.

57: How many relationships have you had? 5

58: Can you touch your nose with your tongue? Some days I can, some days I can’t. It’s weird lol

59: Where were you yesterday? Home, my mom’s, America’s Best, Price Chopper and Cracker Barrel.

60: Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you? If there is, I can’t see it.

61: Are you wearing socks right now? Yes

62: What’s your favorite animal? An octopus

63: What is your secret weapon to get someone to like you? I don’t go out of my way to get someone to like me. I just like to be myself and see who comes my way. 

64: Where is your best friend? Living in Florida.

65: Give me your top 5 favorite blogs on Tumblr. I don’t know.

66: What is your heritage? I’m American, my mom is Scottish.

67: What were you doing last night at 12AM? Talking to Eric.

68: What do you think is Satan’s last name? Sawyer

69: Be honest. Ever gotten yourself off? Yeah

70: Are you the kind of friend you would want to have as a friend? I think so.

71: You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss has told you if you are late one more time you get fired. What do you do? You’re nuts if you think that I’d jump in the canal after it. I’m not trying to be a hero. I’d call police and let them take care of it.

72: You are at the doctor’s office and she has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live. a) Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die? b) What do you do with your remaining days? c) Would you be afraid? I would tell my best friend, no one else. I would live everyday as I normally would, I would try to maybe even travel. I don’t think I would be afraid. 

73: You can only have one of these things; trust or love. Trust

74: What’s a song that always makes you happy when you hear it? Ooo there are so many. Hmm... “Out Of Her Mind” - Blink-182 or “One Week” - Barenaked Ladies

75: What are the last four digits in your cell phone number? 8893

76: In your opinion, what makes a great relationship? Trust, openness, communication, honesty and doing everything wholeheartedly 

77: How can I win your heart? Everything in my answer to #76, plus pizza.

78: Can insanity bring on more creativity? In a sense, yes.

79: What is the single best decision you have made in your life so far? Letting go of the things in the past.

80: What size shoes do you wear? Usually 9, depending on the shoe.

81: What would you want to be written on your tombstone? I’m going to be cremated, not buried. But if I did have a tombstone it would probably say something about coffee or pizza!

82: What is your favorite word? Rad

83: Give me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word; heart. “Of Gold”

84: What is a saying you say a lot? “Okie dokie” 

85: What’s the last song you listened to? Santeria - Sublime

86: Basic question; what’s your favorite color? Purple

87: What is your current desktop picture? A purple patterned background

88: If you could press a button and make anyone in the world instantaneously explode, who would it be? Donald Trump

89: What would be a question you’d be afraid to tell the truth on? There aren’t any, there is no point in lying.

90: One night you wake up because you heard a noise. You turn on the light to find that you are surrounded by MUMMIES. The mummies aren’t really doing anything, they’re just standing around your bed. What do you do? Tell them to leave, or offer them some food.

91: You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What is that power? The ability to read minds

92: You can re-live any point of time in your life. The time-span can only be a half-hour, though. What half-hour of your past would you like to experience again? Doing something fun with my grandpa.

93: You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be? Something that happened like 4 years ago, I’m not gonna go into details though.

94: You have the opportunity to sleep with the music-celebrity of your choice. Who would it be? Hm, I don’t know...

95: You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go? I would either go to Florida to visit Jonathon or to England to meet my family on my mom’s side.

96: Do you have any relatives in jail? Not that I’m aware of.

97: Have you ever thrown up in the car? Yepper

98: Ever been on a plane? Yes

99: If the whole world were listening to you right now, what would you say? I don’t have anything to say that I would want the whole world to hear.