#agent norton

[southern-sighthound]

d..davey norton w/ any prompt or anyone in your head 🥹👉👈

hes so underrated!! thanks for asking for this <33

coffee coloured canvas because it just felt right

[jodians]

the fbi was going through the craziest shit in the 90s like what the hell do you mean they needed to use an insanely dangerous cannibal for information to catch a serial killer who is murdering innocent families for his becoming of a god that is possessed by a dragon, then having to use him AGAIN to catch another serial killer who is murdering girls (including a senator’s daughter) to wear their skin as a suit while some other girl died under mysterious circumstances while other people are getting abducted by aliens and being terrorized by the paranormal while ALSO across the country, there’s a satanist who is possessing dolls and using a former nurse to kill more families???

[prim42]

[electroratio]

i love you coa4 i REALLY really love you coa4.

[sharpchinsimp]

Baby looks so vulnerable when everyone hates him..

Now facts about Wrap up mission that cannot be ignored:

Dave is the only one not aiming at Steve. He tries to save this hotheaded silly bastard, despite Steve's threats against him.

And he knew for sure that Steve had first fled the gunfight, and then he was safe and alive, which means that they most likely contacted each other more than once during and after the incident. "Haines went the other way. He's probably out" "I'll try to control him. That's if we get out of here alive" "He's our wounded hero right now"

And he also seems to be driving Agent ULP and the other IAA agent away from injured Steve. This is a very small and fast animation but you can notice this if you slow down the cutscene.

Aaand of course, that moment when Dave says "I gotta cozy up to him, calm him down" and "I'll get close to him and I'll try to control him". I need this missed scene in 4k, okay? (Btw, in russian translation it sounds literally like.. uh.. "I'll take him BY THE SCRUFF OF THE NECK and I'll try to control him" ?????? Well, Davey's methods are really un-fking-orthodox…)

[jokest3r]

Shot through the heart (fatally) and he's to blame ❤️‍🩹

Introducing "Blue" / "Norton" Shark, sole (begrudging) heir to the Shark fortune as well as budding Nepo baby psychopath I play as my GTAO PC !

[reuels]

Rogue Agent (2022) dir. Adam Patterson, Declan Lawn

[superdooby]

I LOVE MEN 🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭

They so silly and goofy ☺️🤞🏼

[worldmusicandcinema]

[galacticlamps]

actually ascension needs its own post since that's the one with the most details to speculate over and im starved for soho talk so i will talk to myself if need be

First the cover again, because I kinda can't get over it:

my only thing is that I had been hoping we might get Lizbeth on a cover again since she's never been on one of the boxsets before, despite being the 2nd person credited on all 4 of them (even if that's just alphabetical, still, she's the only one of the four main characters who never makes the cover)

But letting that go...

I know we already kinda knew the brief for this one but damn I didn't expect it to go quite this hard. Maybe that's just because the Parasite & Ashenden covers were (comparatively) similarish to each other and I was so pleased with Unbegotten's, and then got so used to it as the placeholder for Ascension while they kept postponing it, I wasn't expecting anything this colorful or detailed or with what I can't help but register as Fun New Outfits even though these are still like, pretty damn basic as far as costumes go. Still, it's a different vibe from everyone in suits and trenchcoats on every cover, technically. (Oh the woes of being an audio fan such that two characters owning sweaters actually does qualify as new information)

On top of just being visually delightful though, I know we knew religion was gonna be a fairly big part of this one, but I didn't actually expect to get quite this much of it - though I'm glad of it for a number of reasons. The BF twitter already made the ineffable joke so I don't have to, but also yeah I did very much spend all of season 2 episode 4 of good omens half convinced Samuel Barnett & Dervla Kirwan were about to pop up around any given corner (if you will go around being gay supernatural and horrible at your messy bureaucratic jobs in midcentury soho then I'm sorry, this is where my brain's gonna go) - so, fuel to that fire. But in terms of actual important things, at least one of my Soho wishes looks to be being granted because we have a Rev Edward Folgate on the cast list, which must mean we're finally meeting Norton's father, even if his mother & brother don't appear (which they could, technically, I've definitely seen BF not list all the doublings on their cast tabs before). Religion, domesticity, and the nuclear family are all things that absolutely fascinate me when it comes to Norton's character, so getting any amount of story involving his father & his church is something I've been actively hoping for for a long time now.

(I will say I'm a tiny bit bummed Saffron Coomber isn't on the cast list to play Mia again, but I kinda figured she wasn't going to be since Greg Austin's Armitage, who's making his first recurring appearance after originating in Unbegotten, was listed ever since the boxset was announced - presumably if she was also returning, that would've been handled in the same way. But since Unbegotten ended with Lizbeth and Mia going on a date, I still held out hope. Who knows though, maybe things did go well for them and Lizbeth just has a better work/life balance than Norton so she can date someone without them getting dragged into every scifi plot. I know that's not a very common accomplishment for any Torchwood agent, but a gal can hope)

At this point I know I'm completely in the realm of speculation & even wishful thinking, but I'm really really hoping we get some more clues as to Norton's overall timeline in this one, and I have a feeling that even if there's nothing as direct as dates given, the events of a plot like this one are going to heavily influence my personal interpretation of it.

To say that life & death are major themes for the soho crew feels wildly reductive, but even by Torchwood's standards and taking into account its origins as a piece of media with Jack Harkness & his newfound immortality at the heart of it, the living/dead status of this bunch has always been fantastically up in the air to me. Obviously Ghost Mission introduced Norton as kind of a ghost before revealing more obvious ghostly characters later on to which the title might have been referring, but his being from the past did beg the question of his survival into Torchwood's present era all the same, which Outbreak later alludes to much more directly, and his habit of showing up via hologram in multiple stories only further obfuscates any certainty we might have about where & when he definitely can be said to be alive and well. Then you've got Lizbeth and Gideon both being effectively 'brought back to life' via paradoxes that prevented them ever having died in the first place. Again, they are very very far from being the only Torcwhood characters this happens to (for a sprawling EU, it's really rather impressive how often & in how many different ways Torchwood as a whole manages to circle back to being about like. chaotic undead queers at the end of every day. though I suppose that consistency is part of why I keep falling in love with its different iterations again and again). That's without even getting into the question of Norton's dubious fate in God Among Us - and I say dubious because I know some people take that to be his ultimate death, but I personally think that reading something as vague as that as having any kind of finality rather goes against the spirit of this whole world/series, not just because I want him to live. (There are obviously other ways to make him survive/reappear, but I don't see this as a River Song scenario where we can safely assume one of his earlier-released adventures had to happen at the end of his personal timeline). But wherever God Among Us falls for him, he does very much meet God in it - or at least, a god, since the sentinel in Unbegotten is also described as a god of sorts, and even if he doesn't ultimately have the status of the god Jacqueline King is playing there, Unbegotten is still full to bursting with ghosts/undead/came back wrong/echo characters to continue underscoring that life/afterlife theme.

So all things considered, even allowing for the fact that we know Norton's twin hobbies are lying about himself and abusing time travel to suit his own ends/ever-shifting alliances, I find it difficult to believe we could get through a whole 6-part boxset about religion & death without something providing some kind of compelling evidence about where this adventure fits in among his other run-ins with apocalypses and gods and ghosts and dead-but-still-here characters/creatures, so I'm very much looking forward to any further exploration on that front.

And lastly, and least intellectually, I really want to know what the hell 20th-century Torchwood's obsession with Reginalds is. Reading through the cast list, I had to do two separate doubletakes over the character 'Sir Reginald Peebles' - firstly, because I had Reginald Rigsby on the brain, this being Soho (and the other Troughton brother being so active on BF's releases for this same month) - and secondly, because reading this in conjunction with the announcement for the July monthly adventure in which the new main Torchwood guy of the 20s is apparently called Sir Reginald Dellafield, there was a brief moment where I took that monthly release to be a tie-in with Ascension. I don't expect it to be, but damn. was it really so popular a name?

anyways, catch me thinking about those stained glass windows for the next couple months I guess (and knowing Torchwood Soho, for a long long time after it comes out as well lol)

[ilovewhiteroses]

Think Twice Before You Create Us

Pairing: The Corinthian vs. The Agents (OCs)

Genre: Horror, Fantasy, Drama

Warnings: horror and adult themes, violence, manipulation, gaslighting

Rating: 18+

Notes: - The Agents Face Claims: Agent 1- Jonny Lee Miller; Agent 2- Edward Norton             - This fic is kind of a spin-off of ‘You cast a spell on me’ therefore it is set in Los Angeles and Female Witch Reader has a small role            - Morpheus, Lucienne, Matthew and Mervyn also appear

After Morpheus, the King of Dreams, has freed from his 100-year imprisonment, he created two new dreams, the Agents, whose task was to bring back a free-roaming nightmare to the Dreaming. The job seemed simple, although over time the Agents revealed their true selves…

The Dreaming

Morpheus, or Sandman as most know him, walked around his ruined palace that was slowly falling apart while he was imprisoned in a glass sphere in the basement of a magus named Roderick Burgess. It was not enough that he had to renovate the palace, but he also had to get his tools - pouch, helm, ruby ​​- back somehow. This will surely keep him busy for a while, but until then, someone should look after the palace. Lucienne, Morpheus's confidant, was busy with the library so he had to find someone else for this task. Or, he could create. So he created two new dreams, the Agents, whom he named Agent 1 and Agent 2. They were two men in elegant suits whose main job was to find sense and meaning in human's dreams, and they were in charge when Morpheus had things to do outside of the Dreaming. In addition, they supervised the work of Lucienne and Mervyn, the janitor, and gave Morpheus a weekly report on the happenings in the Dreaming.

Morpheus asked the Agents to read every book in the library so they would know everything about the Dreaming and the Waking World. After they finished, Morpheus asked them to count how many of the inhabitants had returned, because while he was imprisoned, many dreams and nightmares left the Dreaming.

The Agents finished counting and went to report to Morpheus.

"Lord Morpheus, we have completed the task you asked us to do." Agent 1 said.

"Good." Morpheus said with satisfaction. "So, what are the results?"

"Almost all dreams and nightmares came back except for one." said Agent 2.

"Really? Who is it?” Morpheus asked.

"A Nightmare, The Corinthian." the two agents said at the same time. Sometimes they spoke at the same time.

"This is not good news. I would like to ask you to go to the Waking World and bring him back."

"But Lord Morpheus, what makes you think he would obey us?" Agent 1 hesitated.

"We read about him in his book and well...he doesn't seem like an easy case." Agent 2 continued.

"I know, but I trust you." Morpheus said encouragingly. So the Agents had no choice, but before they set off to find Corinthian, they thought it would be the best to read his book again in the library, sure enough.

The Waking World

The Corinthian, the main nightmare of the Dreaming, lived his best life in Los Angeles. Although he had a beautiful house in Hollywood Hills, he had been spending time at his girlfriend, Y/N's home for a while now. Y/N is a modern witch, whom Corinthian met at a bar. Next to her, he realized the meaning of life and calmed down. He decided that he would not kill anymore unless someone threatened him or his girlfriend.

One night, he suddenly awoke from his sleep. He had a bad feeling, something was bothering him… something that could change his presence in the Waking World…

The Dreaming

The Agents were in the library. Agent 1 was reading Corinthian's book and Agent 2 was listening to Matthew, the raven's entertaining stories from when the bird was still human. After Agent 1 read the book, he said:

”Well, the first few hundred pages were interesting, but the parts where he is in the Waking World are rather monotonous and boring. He did nothing but had sex and killed. After reading this and many other books, I came to the conclusion that in the Waking World, sex really is the meaning of life."

"Of course it is! That's how babies are made." laughed Matthew. The raven continued to troll the Agents.

"So, you guys are virgins, right?" Have you ever seen a naked woman in a dream?”

“Well, Matthew, as you know, our job is to find meaning in dreams. When it comes to nudity, it's none of our business, it's the job of sex dreams." Agent 1 said as he crossed his arms in front of him.

"But even if we saw someone naked, we'd look away because we're gentlemen," Agent 2 said with his hands in his pockets.

"Yes, you are!" Matthew said in a mischievous tone. Agent 1 turned to his partner and said:

"Now, enough of the joking. Agent 2, let's go find this runaway, troublemaking nightmare.”

The Waking World

Corinthian was in the kitchen making lunch. His girlfriend was at a meeting with a Hollywood producer and director, who will soon make a movie based on her bestselling book. He looked into the fridge and heard a man's voice behind him.

"The famous King of Nightmares!" said Agent 1. "Finally, we get to meet you!"

Corinthian turned quickly to see two men in suits. In self defense, he picked up the knife on the kitchen counter.

"Who the hell are you?" he asked nervously.

"Relax, we don't want anything. We are the Agents, we came from the Dreaming." replied Agent 2. "Morpheus created us."

Corinthian was confused. "Wait, what are you talking about? When did he create you?”

“Not long after he returned to the Dreaming,” Agent 1 said.

The knife almost fell out of Corinthian's hand. So that's what he felt. Morpheus broke free from his cage.

"So what the hell do you want?" he asked the Agents.

"Lord Morpheus asked us to take you back to the Dreaming," said Agent 2.

"Well, forget that, I'm not going anywhere," Corinthian shook his head.

The Agents looked at each other and then at him.

"We knew it wouldn't be easy to get you to come back. But at the same time, we also learned many other things about you, from your book." Agent 1 said with a wry smile.

"Roderick Burgess, do you know that name?" Agent 2 asked.

Corinthian swallowed, and the Agents enjoyed embarrassing the cocky nightmare.

"We know that you helped the magus imprison Morpheus for 100 years." they said at the same time.

It occurred to Corinthian that everything he had done so far was written in his book. If the Agents know about it, then surely Morpheus does too. Fuck!

”Does Morpheus know about this? he asked, clearing his throat.

"It's unlikely, because he would have said it then. Now he's busy with his own things anyway, he doesn't have time to read books." Agent 1 said

So he doesn’t know about it yet. "Are you going to tell him?"

"Only if you don't come back with us," Agent 2 replied.

Corinthian realized he couldn't let them make a fool out of him. He is the King of Nightmares, the masterpiece of Morpheus, who are these two nobodies compared to him?

"You can try anything, but you're not going to make me go back to Dreaming! I belong here now and I don’t care what Morpheus wants! I won't kill anymore, unless I feel threatened."

What the hell! Did the big nightmare change for good? The agents thought to themselves, almost laughing.

"So be it. Your girlfriend must be glad you're staying." Agent 1 said mockingly and the two agents were about to leave. Corinthian frowned.

"Hey guys!" the Agents looked back, he pointed at them. "If I find out that you're even trying to get close to her, it's going to be a fucking big deal!" he threatened the two men. The Agents shrugged, then waved and left.

The Agents were walking on the beach. They were a funny sight in their elegant suits, while people in bathing suits ran around them.

"See, I told you this is going to happen!" Agent 1 said indignantly, then continued. "You know what I don't understand? How could he be Morpheus’s masterpiece? Corinthian is nothing more than a primitive sadist who thinks with his dick. We are much more meaningful, we should be Morpheus's masterpieces!"

"Don't even say it, I also think it's unfair." agreed Agent 2. "Let's not even talk about how cocky he is."

"Yeah, that too. But you know what? Since he refuses to come back with us, I say let's mess with him!” Agent 1 said enthusiastically and gave his partner an evil look, indicating that he was serious about his intentions..

"What's your plan?" asked Agent 2, who liked the idea.

"He said he doesn't kill anymore, right? What if we killed in his name to make it look like as if he did it. Just think about it! If his girlfriend finds out about this, she would surely leave him, and Morpheus would destroy him, and with that we would be the new masterpieces!” Agent 1 rubbed his palms together, and Agent 2 smiled in satisfaction. They couldn't wait to get started and decided they wouldn't hold back.

The Dreaming

Lucienne and Matthew were sorting through the new books in the library and talking about the Agents.

"They should have returned a long time ago. I don't think they managed to get Corinthian to come back." Lucienne said as she flipped through one of the new books.

"It's strange to me too. What do you think of them?" Matthew asked, standing on top of a pile of books.

"What do you mean?" Lucienne asked, adjusting her glasses

"Well, how can I say it...they are so odd. I can't explain it either, but for some reason they're not very likeable."

"To be honest, I don't like them either, but that's not why they're here. Morpheus made them that way and they're just doing their job." answered Lucienne, then took out a new book and started flipping through it.

The Waking World

Corinthian and Y/N were in bed, Y/N had already fallen asleep, he was still watching TV. There was nothing good so he changed the channels to see if he could find something interesting. Finally, one of the channels showed the late night news. The reporter announced breaking news: someone was killed in a bar and the dead person had no eyes.

Corinthian covered his mouth with his hand, he almost got sick. He didn't want to believe it. He was afraid that if Y/N found out, she would break up with him no matter how much he tried to explain himself. Who could’ve done this? Just some copycat killer. He turned off the TV and tried to sleep. He'll look into things tomorrow...

 A few days later the Agents went to a diner where they were invited by a group, called the “Collectors”. They were walking down an alley when Agent 2 spotted what appeared to be a corpse with a board on its chest. They went to check and saw that the dead man had empty eye sockets and an address was written on the board. Since the Agents didn't have mobile phones, this could only be for them, they thought and agreed that whoever messaged them like that was very creative.

Three men and a woman were waiting for them in the diner. The Agents sat down with them and found out who they were:  - The invisible man: he mingles among the people and stabs them in the neck from behind with a needle  -The femme fatale: a woman who seduces men, goes to their apartment, ties them up and stabs them with any sharp object -The theRapist: a psychologist who drugs and rapes his victims before killing them -The beauty maker: a plastic surgeon who mutilates his clients in such a way that they die from their injuries.

It turned out that the “Collectors” were a group of killers whose hobby was murder and were big fans of the "eye killer", as Corinthian has been called in the media. Somehow they found out that the Agents killed using his method and wanted to take them in. The Agents pretended to be interested in all of this and seemingly agreed to carry out further killings together as a team. As they left, Agent 2 waved his hand and the kitchen burst into flames and the fire spread quickly. People tried to escape, but Agent 1, also with a hand wave, closed all the exits. All the people there, murderers and innocents, were all burned to death.

They won't team up with anyone, they discussed it among themselves. This only belongs to them, and besides the murders, they can also blame Corinthian for setting fire to the diner.

The Dreaming

"Do you know anything about the agent guys?" Mervyn asked Matthew as he mopped among the bookshelves.

"Still nothing. I'm surprised Morpheus hasn't inquired about their whereabouts yet. I think I'll go to the Waking World to see if I can find out the reason for their delay."

"Okay, birdie. Be careful!” said the pumpkin head janitor, whistling to himself as he continued to clean up.

The Waking World

In the news, there was talk about the diner that was set on fire, and also about the sadistic "eye killer", who has left behind 12 victims so far, and who knows how many more will there be. Corinthian was nervous as hell, but so far he had managed things so that Y/N wouldn't find out about them. He was lucky that she rarely watched TV and she was not interested in the news.

"I think I packed everything I need." Y/N said zipping up her suitcase. She had to travel away for a while, because the film based on her book will be shot in New York and she wanted to visit the set and meet the actors.

"Okay, then we can go." He said and took his girlfriend to the airport. After returning home, he sat down for a while. On the one hand, he was relieved because he could track down who was killing people in a row, but at the same time, he was afraid that Y/N might get hurt. But she's a witch, she can protect herself if she needs to, he thought to himself.

He began to wonder who could be doing these murders? He finally realized that it could only be the work of the Agents. Those fuckers! They should be stopped somehow, but how? He couldn't kill them, only Morpheus could.

Morpheus. The thought of asking him for help made Corinthian nauseous. No, absolutely not! I'll sort it out myself, he said to himself...

 The next day the Agents were sitting in a taxi. They asked a passerby to help them call one. 

"What makes you so elegant, gentlemen? Work? You must be important people then." said the driver in a friendly manner.

"You don't even know how much." Agent 2 replied.

"Then how come you called a taxi, why not a limousine?"

"Look, Mr. Driver. We did not request a comment. Just take us where we asked.” replied Agent 1 cynically. The driver shrugged and drove on in silence. They came to an empty warehouse, and then the taxi stopped in front of the building. The Agents got out and Agent 1 said:

"Could you come with us? We need to find something and we would like to ask for your help. In exchange, we pay double for the fare.”

The driver didn't have to be asked twice, he jumped out of the taxi and entered the building with the Agents. They went all the way to the other end of the building, when Agent 2 pulled out a knife and stabbed the unfortunate man with it, then handed the knife to Agent 1...

Matthew watched the happenings from the top of the building. He saw that the Agents were carrying a bag, which they had placed in the trunk of the taxi. It turned out that their plan was to put the body in the wardrobe tomorrow until Corinthian gets home, because he will obviously be looking for them, and then call the police from the driver’s phone at night. The reason for this is that the next night there will be a charity event in the Convention Center with many influential people, where they will release sleeping gas into the air, which will make everyone fall asleep and they can kill people while they sleep. Matthew realized that the Agents were doing it all so that while the cops were busy with Corinthian, they would be free to run riot at the event. He immediately flew back to the Dreaming to inform Morpheus.

 It was late night, but Corinthian couldn't sleep, even though he'd been sitting in his car all day running around. He went to every place where the Agents might be, but unfortunately he couldn't find them anywhere.

"These are true professionals." he said to himself. "Even when I was actively killing, I wasn't that good. Anyway, I'll look around town again tomorrow."

The bell rang. He went outside to see who it could be at this time. A detective and some policemen were standing at the gate.

"Good evening sir, I'm detective Harrington. Sorry to bother you, but the gentlemen and I received a call that something suspicious was observed at this house.” said the detective.

"What kind of suspicious thing? I'm the only one at home, my girlfriend is away." Corinthian said, mildly annoyed that his time was being wasted on such nonsense.

"In any case, we want to look around, just to be safe." said one of the police officers.

"Look, I said there's nothing here! Please leave me alone, I've had a long day." Corinthian mentally send the men to hell.

"Look, if you don't let us in, it's considered obstructing the work of the police".

He had no choice but to let them in. Two policemen started searching in the living room and two others upstairs. Until then, the detective was talking with Corinthian.

"I hope you don't take it as an insult if I ask why are you wearing sunglasses at night?" asked the detective and pointed to his eyes.

"My eyes are sensitive to bright lights." Corinthian gave the clever answer and hoped that the uninvited guests would leave soon.

One of the police officers called the detective upstairs, they found something he needs to see immediately. Corinthian went up with him. It turned out that there was an eyeless corpse in a bag in one of the wardrobes. Corinthian was shocked, he didn't know how to tell that it wasn't him. Meanwhile, another police officer came forward and showed the detective Corinthian’s knives. That was enough, he got arrested.

As they took him away in handcuffs, the police cars began to sound their sirens. Meanwhile, in the opposite street, the Agents watched the events with delight. They couldn't enjoy the humiliation of Corinthian for long, they had to go for the event because they had important work to do...

The Dreaming

Matthew returned to Morpheus’s palace, who was standing at the window and looking in front of him, pondering something

"Morpheus!"

"Yes Matthew?"

"You must come to the Waking World immediately, the Agents are killing people and they blame it all on Corinthian!"

Morpheus was filled with shock and anger at the same time.

"I see. I'll go there soon, in the meantime, you should go and try to find The Corinthian!"

The Waking World

Corinthian was sitting in an interrogation room, waiting for detective Harrington to return. He came back a few minutes later, coffee in one hand and a stack of photos in the other. He put the coffee on the table and spread the pictures in front of Corinthian. On them were men and women, all with empty eye sockets.

"Go ahead." He said cynically and drank the coffee.

"I swear on my life, I didn't do it." Corinthian said in despair. He remembered that he had done such things a long time ago, but he had not killed these people.

"Oh, that's what you all say." Harrington put the coffee down and leaned back in his chair. "If it wasn't you, then who? Your partner? Were there more of you? Answer me!” the detective slammed the table so hard that even Corinthian flinched

Suddenly the fire alarm went off.

"Stay here!" Harrington said and went out.

While it was chaos outside, Matthew appeared in the room

"Who are you and how the hell did you get here?" Corinthian asked

"I'm Matthew, Morpheus's new raven. I set off the fire alarm to free you. I'll tell you the rest on the way, just come, let's get out of here!"

Amid the cops running around frantically, Corinthian and Matthew quickly left the police building and headed towards the center of the city

"I know about the Agents and that they put the body in the wardrobe and called the cops on you." Matthew said

"Fuck, I knew it! Those two bastards! I wish I could strangle them with my bare hands!" Corinthian said angrily.

"Why do you think they did that?"

"I think it's revenge for not going back to the Dreaming with them." he said as he ran his fingers through his hair. "Wish I’d know where they are now?"

"I know. At the convention center. They're trying to pull off something big at an event. I told Morpheus, he's on his way too," said Matthew. Corinthian took a deep breath. Morpheus was the last person he wanted to see right now.

"Fine. Let's just get there as soon as possible and hold those two fuckers to account!"

The convention center was further away, so Corinthian started running, and Matthew kept up with him.

 All the elegant guests have already arrived for the event. A red carpet was laid outside, and the participants could enjoy the glittering scenery inside. These wealthy people all came together to donate money for new researches. The Agents have also arrived. There was no problem with their attire, as they were always in suits, however, they did not have an invitation, but that was not an obstacle. As the clever manipulators they were, they persuaded the security guard to let them in. They had a large black suitcase with a gas cylinder and a pipe inside.

They went to the basement. There was a ventilation system, the end of which was right in the hall where the guests gathered. They connected the pipe to the gas cylinder, put it through the opening and released the sleeping gas. The guests slowly all felt the effect of it, they all dropped their glasses and phones from their hands and slowly collapsed on the ground, fainting. The Agents waited a bit, then went up from the basement to the hall. They were pleased to see that everyone had passed out. They took out their knives and were about to begin their terrible deeds, when suddenly Corinthian appeared...and Morpheus. Agent 2 spread his arms and Agent 1 started clapping mockingly

"Look at that. From a nightmare to a hero, congratulations!"

Corinthian and Morpheus angrily approached the agents, then stopped and looked around. They were somewhat reassured by the knowledge that people were only sleeping, not dead

"How could you do that?" Corinthian asked

"Do you really want to know?" asked Agent 2. "Because Agent 1 and I couldn't believe that a nobody like you could be Morpheus’s finest work! You're just scaring humans, which makes no sense! We read in your book that you killed because you wanted to know what it feels like to be human. Bullshit! It's just a lame excuse to live out your sick, sadistic desires! Our task is much more valuable, searching for meanings in dreams is much more meaningful and important. Your so-called little girlfriend is also an idiot. How can she be with such a fucked up man like you?"

Morpheus had to restrain Corinthian so he wouldn't go for Agent 2 and beat him to death

"And you, Morpheus," Agent 1 said and looked at him. "Look at you! A Lord should command authority, not pity. You only care about yourself, it doesn't even occur to you that you could make the Dreaming a better place by us! You let Corinthian run wild in the Waking World, and instead of you going after him, you entrusted us with that humiliating task!"

How conceited these Agents are, Corinthian thought, while tears appeared in Morpheus's eyes, and inside he seethed with rage. What the Agents said was horrible for him. He never told them, but he was very proud of them. Besides their basic duties, they were his closest confidants, just like Lucienne and Matthew. He trusted them and they betrayed him by using Corinthian's method to get revenge on the nightmare. Morpheus regretted creating them.

"I could say many things, but all I know is that I am very disappointed in you. I can do nothing but destroy you." he said and held out his hand. First, the knives in the hands of the Agents began to crumble to dust, then slowly, starting with their feet, they too.

The Agents could do nothing but stand and wait for their imminent death. For the last time, Agent 1 said to Morpheus "If only Agent 2 and I could somehow killed you, then we could be the Lords of the Dreaming." Then they turned to sand.

Corinthian and Morpheus stood there speechless, trying to process what they had seen. Corinthian wasn't an angel either, but he was created to be a nightmare and Morpheus expected him to act accordingly in the Waking World. The Agents, on the other hand, were dreams who turned into nightmares over time with their nefarious deeds.

They heard police sirens and then quickly left the building...

 The next day, Corinthian and Morpheus were sitting on the beach in the sand. Morpheus said that he had already forgiven him for keeping him captive in Burgess's basement and was glad that he had stopped killing, but instead of murdering threatening people, it would be better if he just scared them into never doing anything evil. He also allowed him to freely move between the Dreaming and the Waking World, without having to return to his original location forever. Corinthian was moved by this, even a tear rolled down his face, which he tried to wipe away, he didn't want Morpheus to notice. A huge weight fell from his heart, deep inside he was terrified that Morpheus would destroy him because of it.

They stood up and said goodbye to each other. Morpheus returned to Dreaming and Corinthian went to the airport for Y/N, his love.

 Tags: @placeinthemiddleofnowhere​; @thecorilove86​

[cinemedios]

¡“MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios” revela secretos del UCM!

🎬El libro más controversial para el UCM ha sido publicado y trajo consigo muchas discusiones.

El pasado 10 de octubre de 2023 se publicó el libro “MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios” escrito por los periodistas Joanna Robinson, Dave Gonzales y Gavin Edwards, en el que se cuenta la razón y el camino que recorrió la franquicia Marvel Studios para lograr su exitoso Universo Cinematoráfico actual; revelando también algunas controversias “detrás de escenas”. Robinson, Gonzales y Edwards…

[john-macnamara]

*Norton finished off his fifth coffee of that morning, dark circles still ever present under his eyes as he entered the building. He flashed his ID, got his fingerprint and eye identified via scanner and was in. He gave a quick wave or nod to everyone he saw as he made his way to the changing room again, switching out his uniform and civvies as quickly as he could. He splashed some cold water on his face before he left, sighing as he prepared for another day without sleep.

He walked out to the main room, looking at the other agents as people started to congregate for today's work delivered by the General. He gave him a calm salute, bowing his head.*

Good morning, Sir.

*He knew he sounded more dull today, more tired, but he couldn't be bothered to liven up.*

@peip-agent-no-5

Good morning.

[John hasn’t left since the previous night, not that it shows. He’s become a master of disguise over time, a bit of concealer, an in-office shower, and a portable toothbrush can make all the difference. That and the constant air of enthusiasm that surrounds him.]

Did you get enough sleep, Agent?

[sirenjose]

Hunter Norton Backstory Trailer Analysis

As a rule, the sons of miners follow the occupation of their fathers. Once Norton’s father died, and his mother also likely dead by then too, he had no other choice but to become a miner if he wanted to survive. Especially with how poor they likely were, Norton’s father (and mother) likely left almost nothing for their son, forcing him to work hard to support himself from a young age.

Based on Norton’s comment about living like a “rat” for 20 years, as he is 28 in the present, Norton’s father potentially died when he was 8 (his mother potentially died before then), leaving him an orphan.

A Mine Regulation Act in 1872 prevented children under the age of 12 from working underground. Until then, he would likely have been kept to surface work, such as:

Sorting and transporting materials

Loading and unloading transports

Assisting with general maintenance and cleaning

Delivering messages

Etc…

An Educational Act in 1870, which applied to England and Wales, made schooling compulsory for boys between the ages of 5 and 10, while an Act in 1872 applying to Scotland made school compulsory for kids between 5 and 13.

Once he reached the age of 12, the Regulation Act in 1872 would continued to limit his work hours, which prevented boys between 12 and 16 from working more than 54 hours in 1 week or 10 hours in 1 day. It also required them to have 8 to 12 hour breaks between “periods of employment” (defined as starting when they leave the surface and ending when they return to the surface).

Once he was old enough, regular miners were expected to work at least 12 hour shifts (though this varied from mine to mine) on weekdays. And we know from Norton’s deduction 2 that he worked longer than any of his coworkers, while his 3rd letter states, as a habit, he enters the mines at least 30 minutes before the others.

Conditions in the mine were hot, musty, and cramped (as mine owners didn’t want to spend extra to make them bigger), increasing the chance of accidents. We can actually see just how narrow the tunnels usually were in the trailer.

Miners also worked in complete darkness except for lighting they had to buy themselves. In fact, they had to buy much of their own equipment.

Unfortunately, wages for miners were incredibly low back then. Miners were paid by the quality of what they produced rather than by the hour, giving owners plenty of ways to reduce how they could pay their miner (including by lying about the quality or rigging the scales).

The average wage of coal miners in the 1880s was somewhere between 3s (s = shillings) and 5s per day, with around 4s being closer to the normal, and 5 only if you were lucky. 4 shillings was about $1.20. Generally though wages varied greatly in different districts. After spending on equipment, food, and rent, they could be left with maybe no more than 1s.

Going back to the trailer, it says “Blasting Agent – Mercury (II) Fulminate”. This is an explosive compound made from mercury, nitric acid, and ethanol. It was commonly used as a primary explosive in percussion caps and detonators during the 19th century. When struck or subjected to a shock, it would rapidly decompose and produce a violent explosion. Its role was to initiate the ignition or detonation of the main explosive charge, such as dynamite.

This is the stuff that we see him pouring into the dynamite.

Continuing, we see Norton smiling at a coin, but then his wrist is crushed by the other miners, who steal it from him, taunting him to try to take it back.

Norton actually smiling at the coin helps show Norton’s desire to get out of poverty, an idea he emphasizes later when he describes poverty as a “curse”.

But as we see in the Famitsu Article, people didn’t understand why he tried so hard. It “intimidated” them. Then in Norton’s 2nd letter as well as in this trailer, we see that he was ridiculed by his coworkers. They didn’t think it was possible for him to achieve such a goal. This is reflected with how essentially, at that time “Englishmen recognized if he is in a certain social grade, he is likely to remain there. He’ll never reach a higher class, and didn’t rebel”. Each class “cheerfully” accepted “the lot which providence has assigned” to them.

Norton was different though. He says in the trailer “I once thought the same” after it talks about sons of miners became miners themselves.

He may have initially accepted the same thing everyone else did, but things likely changed over time, the longer he was forced to live this sort of life.

There’s also a good chance part of his change was from working with people like Benny. He learns from them to improve himself (and hopefully improve his chance at earning more), but he also sees how these old miners are, which emphasizes in his brain he doesn’t want to end up like them. He doesn’t want to end up in hospice or stuck in poverty his whole life like they did, just waiting for the day they die.

Norton worked hard, harder and longer than everyone else, in the hopes eventually this would be enough to improve his life, to make it even slightly close to what most would consider a comfortable life, even if it meant only the basics. But it wasn’t enough. The mine owners were greedy. The other miners were all in it only for themselves. His wages were miniscule, and his daily and weekly expenses pretty great. Especially with how back in that time period, mine owners had ways where they attempted to keep their employees indebted to them, to force them to keep working for them, as well as improve their own personal profits as much as possible.

Norton was surrounded by these sorts of people forced to live in such a cruel environment, watching the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. This is reflected in his 2nd letter where he says “This is simply unfair. The poor find it difficult to lead a comfortable life, while all the rich need to do is wave their banknotes around”. He describes all the pain he’s gone through just at the chance to “climb up” out of poverty before describing “how much effort I put into this” as “ridiculous”.

His hard work is exemplified by his 3rd deduction, which describes how he’s done so well his employers always attempt (but fail) to keep him for longer. He works to learn, to improve his skills, and better himself at the chance at earning more and thus potentially work his way out of poverty faster.

We can also see it during the trailer, with him surrounded by all these books and other things.

This quality of his, where he likes to teach himself, to learn, and to improve himself has been implied at other points by Netease, such as by several of his skins or even from part of other collabs, like B.Duck, which described Norton as “full of curiosity” and “likes learning”. It also described him with a “desire to act at MAX” or “highest level of execution”. This means he’s the type of person to put all his effort into whatever he does.

It just wasn’t enough.

We even see the sort of suffering this life has forced him to endure, as in the trailer it shows him coughing due to the damage his lungs have suffered due to his life as a miner.

Hard work wasn’t enough. This is why he eventually turned to the list of 13 mines he learned from Benny, seeking to instead attempt to escape poverty by finding gold.

As explained by @metalIurgy and @Deskdeas, each of the names on this list are European mines or people.

(Also, there seems to be 15 names total on the list, rather than 13)

Von Donnersmarck: House of Donnersmarck, prominent aristocratic family that originated in the region of Silesia. Owned mines.

Georg Wilhelm: Russian military officer and engineer who specialized in mining

Prince Konstantin: prince of Russia, killed in a mining shaft

Ștefan Procopiu: physicist who researched electricity and magnetism

Friedrich Alfred Krupp: German industrialist, developed Krupp steel manufacturer and arms manufacturing company

Saarbergwerke: mining company that operated in the Saarland region of Germany

Romeria: religious pilgrimage (Spain or spanish speaking countries?)

Petro-pavlivska (''Петро-павлівська''): black coal mine located in the Eastern part of Ukraine

Nova Baňa: silver and gold mining site in central Slovakia.

Swansea Copper: Welsh copper mines

Eramet: French multinational mining and metallurgical company

Ivan Polzunov: Russian engineer known for his contributions to steam engine technology

Wowdcole: ?

(Sorry, I can't read the 15th name crossed out in the top left corner of the list)

We know from Norton’s 5th deduction that he tried and failed to find anything at any of the other 12 mines, leaving him with only Golden Cave left.

Back to the trailer, we see him with a map.

The left side looks like it should be a map of Lakeside and the surrounding area, with Golden Cave being the X at the base of the mountains. Count Barriere is the owner of this land, and also the owner of Golden Cave. The right side should be the representation of a map of the mine itself.

Considering how earlier Norton’s coworkers stole Norton’s coin, it’s possible they essentially tried to do the same thing here. Saw him looking at the map, then took it for themselves. Like how Norton’s 8th deduction includes “you need more helpers”, they may have forced him to take them along, and why they explore it on their own without Norton. Especially with the looks on their faces in that scene not showing they had any good intentions.

(A lot of what I’ll say next is said very well by @Yaboku_samaa)

Norton seems to have set all this up in advance, before they came through the mine.

Next we see Norton’s inner conflict. A conflict between morals and vengeance represented by survivor Norton vs Hunter Norton. His Hunter side manages to win out by telling Norton that this is what they deserve, it’s revenge for all the pain and ridicule he’s been put through, all in silence, all without fighting back. He’s forced to keep a façade. To keep his true feelings hidden if he doesn’t want a penalty or reduction in wages. He’s tired of having to live such a hard life of constant suffering and humiliation and hopelessness, and thus why he had hit his limit and the side represented by his Hunter version won out.

(I’m not going to push the idea too much, but it’s possible Norton may have bipolar disorder. That or DID, especially with how he literally talks to himself in his 2nd letter. Especially as both can form in children or young adults who experience long-term physical or emotional distress or abuse. Causes can include childhood trauma (like neglect, abuse, trauma, losing someone like a parent), stressful life events, genetics, etc…)

This decision is shown during the trailer when Norton says “There are ways to make a change”.

Norton’s 2nd letter does an accurate job of summarizing everything:

“Over the last 20 years, I lived like a rat in the gutter. I spent days under the ground in the dark just so I could earn a minimal living. Scars from the blasts crawled all over my face like maggots. The constant scorn and ridicule... I endured it every time just so I'd get a chance to climb up the ladder. It's ridiculous how much effort I put into this—anyway, I've finally managed to crawl out from the rat hole. I no longer have to pick and pull on the disgusting ash. Those who did nothing but laugh at me deserve to stay underground and be stepped on like maggots forever.”

And the trailer visually showing Norton’s inner conflict matches up very well with how quite clearly Norton in his 2nd letter is arguing with himself. The side represented by Hunter Norton is likely the version talking right now, trying to convince him (the side represented by Survivor Norton) to kill the female, “think about how arrogant she is” and all the money he’d get. The fact he is trying to convince himself shows that Norton doesn’t want to do it, and how he isn’t willing to do anything for money. His hatred for his coworkers for their treatment of him for so long was enough for the side represented by Hunter Norton to convince him to trigger the explosion on them, but that motivation doesn’t exist here. Right now, his less moral side is trying to motivative him with money and thinking about others as “arrogant” and essentially mean, as well as the doubt that she could do something to him.

But that may not be enough to convince him next time to actually do it if he’s given a chance. At Golden Cave, that was his last chance to try to find gold. He’d gone through 12 other mines (and 20 years of pain on top of that) with nothing to show for it. Norton may be very stubborn and determined, but even he was growing so very desperate, which is shown well by Norton’s 5th deduction as well as by the trailer itself. So it makes sense that Norton was mentally not in the right place and vulnerable to the sort of temptation we see him going through in the trailer.

Norton is alone. No family. No money. Suffering from lung problems. Has never been shown kindness and forced to grow up in a very cruel environment. The only thing keeping him moving forward and losing all hope is by focusing on his goal of getting out of poverty and achieving some form of a comfortable life with at least the basic necessities. This is shown very well by Norton’s 4th birthday emote “Savings”, where Norton takes out a single gold coin and thinks about simple worn clothes and a loaf of bread, while the description reads “Endure it, Norton. You’re almost there”.

For years he attempted to push on, but little by little, his coworkers, his employers, his environment, it all chipped away at him until he felt he had no other choice. I believe the trailer does a good job of emphasizing how his main motivation wasn’t greed but desperation, hopelessness, and the pain he was subjected to by his coworkers and everyone. It’s life or death, and this mine is his last chance, and his deep misery that pushes him over the edge, so it’s no wonder he doesn’t care about anyone anymore. He’s always been alone, always had to be the one to look out for himself. No one else could be trusted. They would only take advantage of him or even potentially steal what little he had. Yet even still he hesitated to pull the trigger, which I think says a lot about Norton.

Despite the decision being made, he doesn’t run after he sets off the explosion. He accepts what happens. There’s no way he didn’t know what was going to happen, not with how long he’s worked as a miner, and how much he’s learned in his own time. It could be the side represented by his survivor version sees the scar as punishment for his deeds. It could be he knew if he wanted to get his revenge he had to deal with the potential scars.

But he was here not just for revenge, but for the chance at finding gold. Hunter Norton’s character backstory says the accident brought Norton “Golden Luck” or “a gold rush of fortune”, so it sounds like he did find something.

We do know he at least found the meteorite, which is what he made his magnet from, so this could be what is referred to in Hunter Norton’s backstory.

Along with the above, we could connect whatever his “golden luck” was with Memory’s comment during Time of Reunion, where she says “they seemed to be looking for something other than ore”.

This is repeated during AoM with a newspaper clipping about rumors being false of precious metal ore in the mine.

Considering Golden Cave’s rumor is “despite not a single piece of gold was ever found, Count Barriere still got what he wanted with this land”, these statements should be talking about the same thing.

It’s possible Barriere was after the meteorite, especially as the only things we know that came out of that mine after it collapsed were Norton and the chunks of the meteorite he carried.

There are potential parallels from Lily’s essence, which connects to Golden Cave, and her essence story says “The mine is filled with special phosphorescent ores, which brought wealth to their ancestors but also cursed them with phosphorescent illness”. Considering in the famitsu article it says the magnet aka the meteorite may have been affecting his brain, it’s possible the “phosphorescent ores” is meant to parallel the meteorite.

If that is what Barriere is after, maybe there’s a chance he reached out to Norton afterwards, and he could’ve been the one to offer Norton all that money in exchange for killing some female. Especially when we know Count Barriere has a lot of money based on Lily’s backstory, as he even offered her enough to survive for 2 years and even more via making her the owner of the IOU likely belonging to Orpheus for him buying Oletus Manor.

Anyways, we also know from Norton’s 3rd letter that he “dug his way out through a mountain creek a few dozen meters away from the mine” with only “minor burns”. We also know from the Famitsu Article that people didn’t talk to him, they said a bare minimum then kept a “wide berth”, and considering the very visible scar on his face, it is possible this was the reason they avoided him (they were frightened of him. Like we see at the end of the trailer, it is possible people saw him as a “monster”, especially back then when these sorts of things weren’t treated or seen as kindly as today).

[peip-agent-no-5]

[General MacNamara’s receptionist, Mrs. Kramer, approaches Norton]

The General would like to see you, sir.

@john-macnamara

*Norton frowned for a fraction of a millisecond, leaving his unfiled items on his desk. With how little proper time he'd had to sort through everything today he would have to stay late to catch up, dammit, he was hoping he'd actually get some alone time with his wife that day.

Nevertheless, Agent Newman made his way to John's office for the third or fourth time that day. He was really trying to ignore how he'd acted the last time but Norton couldn't do anything but remember how ugly he'd cried on his boss.

He knocked on the door gently, letting himself in as always.*

You wanted to see me, Sir?

[jokest3r]

How it feels to be the only one willing to draw raunchy fanart of Agent 14