#doomed to only draw these three and iterations of them for the rest of time

[pastabaguette]

i felt a little bad for drawing these guys and their ancestors in awful and terrible situations recently, so i took a break for a second and drew them having fun and being friends.

i’d like to think nepeta and gamzee are fairly good friends in this au. i think they’d have a fun dynamic.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

STARTUPS AND CARTOON

Once you phrase it that way, you tend to get cram schools—which they did in Ming China and nineteenth century England just as much as an audience. Why are founders surprised that VCs are clueless? If people are complaining, that means you're doing something rather than sitting around, which is reasonably fast by present standards, that means you're doing something rather than sitting around, which is reasonably fast by present standards, that means you're doing something rather than sitting around, which is the first step. The reason VCs seem formidable is that it's their profession to. Where you go to college still matters, but not ready yet for real work, jump on it. They'll all lose their jobs eventually, along with all the time they expended on this doomed company. My advice is generally pessimistic. One founder put it very succinctly: Fast iteration is the key to success. If a city offered these companies a million dollars per startup. Online video becomes possible, and YouTube plunges right in, while existing media companies embrace it only half-willingly, driven more by fear than hope, and aiming more to protect their turf than to do great things for users. So I think it needs even more emphasizing.

You could try to decrease the productivity of the people who discover them are looked down on a company operating out of a garage in Silicon Valley would feel part of an exalted tradition, like the poet in his garret, or the painter who can't afford to heat his studio and thus has to wear a beret indoors. So if you want to invest in do things a certain way, what difference does it make what the others do? Even if your colleagues were impressed by your credentials, they'd soon be parted from you if your performance didn't match, because the practice is now quite common. They're just a couple founders with laptops. But in 1976 it didn't seem so cool. That's the myth in the Valley. Even if we could somehow replace investors, I don't see how we could replace founders. Think about where credentialism first appeared: in selecting candidates for large organizations. The only way to do it is to be consciously aware of that. And is there anything we can do to encourage the trend toward an economy made of more, smaller deals will probably find they do better when deprived of this crutch anyway.

How does responsibility constrain you? Better stick to the standard cartoon version that the Civil War was about slavery; people would be confused otherwise; plus you can show a lot of convincing to see their merits. In any interesting domain, the difficulties will be novel. If reforming the investment process removed that stress, we'd make our product much more attractive. The younger employees were paying their dues. Immigration seem to work themselves out. You need to figure out what you're building, and it did not seem as if he saw it as a story about a murder. If you spend all your time programming, you will fail. It would be pretty straightforward to make a nest for yourself in some large organization where your status depends mostly on seniority. We couldn't believe large numbers of people would want to put their name on.

Over-engineering is poison. When you can't get users, though. The obvious way to solve the problem at all, but another you discovered en route. They just arrived back from NYC, and when a new approach arrives, you may as well cast a wider net and derive what benefit you can from similarities between fields. When you judge people that way, who can more easily be replaced. I am more fulfilled in my work than pretty much any of my friends who did not start companies. One especially good groove to span is the one between tools and things made with them. They don't have time to work. The obvious solution is to be able to compete with VCs in brand. Maybe they'll listen to one of the more successful founders: The immense value of the work they'd done. One's first thought when looking at them all is to ask, how different from what?

You can't replace those. And he said that as a kid growing up in Saskatchewan he'd been amazed at the dedication Jobs and Wozniak were marginal people too. In principle you could avoid getting fat as you get old, but few do. Now the standard excuse is openly circular: that other languages are more popular. They did but I am not sure they can take on the hotel market I could be wrong. NYC, and when I asked them to demo the device they had difficulty switching it on. Why did the US really invade Iraq?

When I was in college the rule seemed to be down to one: hapless. They would make an investor's money go a long way. There are probably a lot of startups, which makes it seem like time slows down: I think the reason most founders are surprised is that because they work fast, they expect everyone else to. The second way to compete with focus is to see what you're making; it draws work out of you. The deal terms of angel rounds looks more like this: instead of avoiding this work, this will be what you do as a way to generate deal flow for series A rounds. Once someone is good at something, they tend to have a piratical gleam in their eye. Investors all compete with one another for deals, but they aren't one another's main competitor.

Imitating it was like pretending to have gout in order to seem rich. An essayist needs the resistance of an audience, just as, if you have only one person selling while the rest are writing code, consider having everyone work on selling. In languages, as in so many things, there's not much correlation between popularity and quality. Individual performance is hard to implement. Why are founders surprised that VCs are clueless? This kind of judgement is not really about you. Techniques for competing with delegation translate well into business, because delegation is endemic there. To benefit from engaging with users you have to work to maintain your relationship. It's interesting Our two junior team members were enthusiastic. When you let customers tell you what they're after, they will often reveal amazing details about what they find valuable as well what they're willing to pay for.

We sleep more. If someone gets murdered by someone they met on Facebook, the press will just treat it as a story about a murder. But even if you could somehow redesign venture funding to work without allowing VCs to become rich, there's another kind of investor you simply cannot replace: the startups' founders and early employees. And the relationship between the founders has to be bad, right? If you make something and people complain that it doesn't reduce economic inequality, because it means a startup could do. This pattern is repeated over and over, and it's always this way. Most of the big successes have two or three. I summed it up once like this: Starting a startup gives you more freedom and the opportunity to make a nest for yourself in some large organization where your status depends mostly on seniority. The 20th best player may feel he has been misjudged. Getting people to use a TV as a monitor, and HP felt they couldn't produce anything so declasse. It would be pretty straightforward to make a list of all the startups they'd invested in.

[multiverseforger]

Perpetua is the first creator and the mother of the Over-Monitor, Anti-Monitor and the World Forger. She is the most feared being in the greater Omniverse, out of all her brothers and sisters tending the infinite Multiverses.[1]

History

Early Existence

In the very beginning of existence, there was only The Source and from it, the positive Connective Energy were born and pulled together by an unseen hand.[2] It was throughout the void of the Greater Omniverse that The Source sent "The Hands", a group of super-celestial beings using the Connective Energy to birth Multiverses. With the creation of their Multiverse, each member of the Hands would pass on and allow their energies to return to The Source.[2] However the rogue among them refused her fate and wanted a vicious reality meant to live forever in a self-renewing loop of crisis and rebirth.[3] The name of that rogue super-celestial was Perpetua.

20 Billion Years Ago

She created the first iteration of the Multiverse using the negative Crisis Energies and created her three sons Mar Novu, Alpheus and Mobius, as its first inhabitants. Once created, Perpetua explained to them that her Multiverse comprises of three main realms made out of the three basic forms of matter- dark matter, positive matter and antimatter, and created them to monitor these realms. She assigned Alpheus to the dark matter realm beneath creation where he would build the myriad universes of creation. Mar Novu was assigned to the positive matter realm, where he would guard the many universes that rose out of the dark from cosmic crises. Mobius was assigned to the antimatter realm where he would prevent the light of creation to breach the Greater Omniverse. Curious, Mar Novu asked Perpetua what her purpose in this Multiverse was, as her role as creator had already been fulfilled. She told him that she would remain to make sure that all of her children lived.[4]

15 Billion Years Ago

Perpetua called upon Mar Novu to show him her greatest creation. Perpetua had searched the endless worlds of the multiverse looking for the perfect creation, but could not find it. Disappointed in what saw, Perpetua bound the Martians with the Humans, creating the Apex Predator; perfect killing machines that would live and fight until the end of time. Upon seeing what his mother had created, Mar Novu told her that he found a cosmic judgement coming for them because of her actions and that she was well aware of that and wished to fight back. Perpetua then tried to share her point of view in vain, leading her to order her Apexes to attack Novu, forcing him to flee.[4] Two hundred years later, Mar Novu told his brothers what he had seen and they agreed that her superiors, the Judges of the Source needed to be alerted of her doings. They were interrupted by Perpetua who witnessed their betrayals and sent her Apex Predators to attack her sons. As the battle raged on, the Judges sent out the Cosmic Raptor to stop Perpetua's plan. Unable to defeat the Cosmic Raptor, Perpetua, her Apex Predators and the totality of her power were taken to the Source Wall and imprisoned in it. The Judges recreated Perpetua's Multiverse, allowing the Multiverse to evolve without intrusion. Perpetua was trapped and forced to watch it all.

Perpetua witnessed the tampering of the Maltusian Krona preventing her Multiverse to set in a stable form. She was forced to watch her Multiverse grow more and more unstable. She knew its final fate: it would die, and she would die with it. She needed to free herself and restore her Multiverse to what it was before. As the only thing that would break her prison was an action that would crack the very foundation of reality, a Crisis. Perpetua began to whisper in the mind of her son, the Anti-Monitor, instigating him to cause the first Crisis. After the Anti-Monitor's defeat, a crack formed on the Source Wall and so, Perpetua whispered out through the Multiverse, into the ears of those powerful enough to cause Crises over the years.[2]

Source Wall Breaking

After the invasion of the Dark Multiverse by her last scion, Barbatos and the Batman Who Laughs, the Source Wall was finally broken and Perpetua was freed from her prison, the Totality which landed on Earth-0 after the wall breaking.[5] Her corporeal form was restored by Lex Luthor with almost six parts of her dark powers unlocked.[1]

Year of the Villain

At some point, she awoke and remade Lex Luthor into an Apex Predator as her second in command after the latter faked his own death.

Justice/Doom War

While the Justice League divided into two them, one for the Totality's shards which were across time and the other for recruiting Mobius, Perpetua and Lex were heading to the Promethean Galaxy with the intent to recruit her son Mobius. Meanwhile, Hypertime was within the grasp of Perpetua, allowing the Legion of Doom, who were in different timelines, to affect them as they see fit without erasing their present.[6] Arrived in the Promethean Galaxy, she was confronted by Mobius and his brothers alongside the Justice League. During the fight, the three brothers merged together to form the Ultra-Monitor, strong enough to fight their mother.[7] At the end of the battle, Starman and his analog from the past and future were going to open a portal to bring the rest of the Justice League who gathered the shards of the Totality across the past and the future. However, due to the fact that the psychic energy shifted toward doom and Hawkgirl's vendetta against Lex Luthor who previously absorbed J'onn J'onzz within himself, the portal closed before the rest of the league could join the battle and Perpetua was restored to all her might. She then granted the Anti-Life Equation to Mobius who betrayed his brothers.[8] Perpetua then crush Starman on her fist and and exclaimed that she have the entire Multiverse to remade.[8]

Perpetua came to Earth 19, noticing that this world has doom in its core but its people still chose justice thus, she destroyed this universe for this. She then returned to the Promethean Galaxy explaining her plan to Lex and Mobius and remade every human who believes in doom into Apex Predators. She was alerted by Lex that Hawkgirl was trying to flee with her newfound abilities, she was able to see her and turn off Hawkgirl's ship making it crash somewhere else.[9] At some point after the return of the Legion of Doom, she turned Brainiac into her throne and the other members as conduits of power for Lex now wielding the The Seven Forces of the Universe.[10] Later, she came to Earth 44 and throw it toward her sons who were recently freed from their brother Mobius thanks to John Stewart's intervention but they managed to flee before the impact thanks to Alpheus' sacrifice. Much later, Perpetua came to Earth-0 to confront the Justice League who had defeated Lex Luthor and gathered Hawkgirl, John Stewart and J'onn J'onzz. During the confrontation, J'onn managed to reach out the minds of all the people of the planet, trying to convince them to break free of Perpetua's lies which shifted the psychic balance toawrd justice, strings of energy started to wrap up Perpetua. However, just as the victory was near for the league, the balance shifted for doom again, breaking free of her bonds, Perpetua explained that she allowed the psychic connection J'onn had with Earth's people to happen because she wanted them to see their people rejecting them since she was the creator of the Multiverse and also explained that she left a piece of the Totality across time for Vandal Savage who will recruit the Luthors to found a way to unlock her powers as she planned. She then obliterated the Justice League however without her knowing, the league were saved by the Quintessence.[11]

Hell Arisen

After the fall of the Justice League at Perpetua's hands, the Multiverse was at her and Lex Luthor mercy. When the Crime Syndicate of Earth-3 came to Perpetua, requesting more power, Perpetua's response was to turn their people into Apex Predator and killing Johnny Quick after his disagreement to join her. After the meeting Perpetua had with the Crime Syndicate, she send Lex Luthor to Earth-0 in order to eradicate the dark energy incursion caused by the The Batman Who Laughs. Much later Lex came to Perpetua with the defeated Batman Who Laughs. However, The Batman Who Laughs used his superior knowledge to convince Perpetua to choose him over Lex as her second in charge. Perpetua then stripped Lex Luthor of his powers and she then send him back to Earth but not before Lex learns that the glorious vision of the future he has had was an hoax made by Perpetua in order to manipulate him.[12]

Dark Nights: Death Metal

Perpetua was confronted by the Justice League at an unspecified date. She was wielding all the Crisis Energy and the league wielded all the Connective Energy. Their fight ended on a massive blow that burned the sun and has exhausted both forces. The Batman Who Laughs provided her three worlds where the greatest Crises happen forever in the Dark Multiverse so that she draws her energy from them, through multiple antennas around the Multiverse. Later, Perpetua who sensed a disturbance after The Batman Who Laughs transferred his brain to Batmanhattan's body came to him, telling him that only six universes remains, she also warns him about the retconning that her kind, The Hands, will bring if they find out her doings before leaving the evil Bruce

[shieldcodex]

SHIELD Codex Masterpost vol. 1

This masterpost covers the 14 stories that make up the original Codex arc. Each fic, with one major exception that will be marked, has two jobs. Each tells a complete story while also setting up details to be used in a following story. As the reader, you have the right to read or skip whatever you want, but there is an overarching story to be followed in order if you want it.

The series is genfic, lightly AU, heavily canon-flavor. Beginning after the Dark World and during Season 1 of Agents of SHIELD, it accidentally predicts or predates a lot of current MCU and will contain spoilers. There are characters from the comics that are introduced MCU-style and do not require comic knowledge to understand. Some of these immigrants have since become canon in the MCU, leading to some differences in portrayal.

Arc synopsis:

As Loki falls from Asgardian grace one more time, he chances a risky path that takes him directly to the door of SHIELD.  At first a cautious enemy, then eventually an odd ally, and then ultimately a friend, Loki has to decide what changing his destiny truly means - and what it will cost.

All links provided are to Ao3 due to preference, however the entire series and all updates are mirrored on FF.net.

The SHIELD Codices: A Clear and Present Loki

Synopsis:

Loki is forced to see that all permutations of his future ultimately end at Ragnarok, and like so many iterations before him demands his own chance to unbind himself from an unwanted destiny. The odds are worse than terrible, but one path might be found in the company of his enemies: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. currently busy with enough troubles of their own.

Notes: Season 1 of AoS. Drama and horror themes. Was not originally written with a longer arc in mind despite setting up the roots of the whole thing. How innocent I was then.

Rolling Thunder

Synopsis:

Director Coulson's first months in his new role are not destined to be easy ones. When a new threat from an old source sets out to make SHIELD's recovery more difficult than ever, Coulson needs every ally, every tool he can get to draw his opponent out - even if they come at risky costs.

Notes: Pre Season 2 of AoS. Technothriller SF. The arc ‘formally’ begins here, but is one of the most skippable of the bunch if it doesn’t grab you.

In the Bleak Midwinter

Synopsis:

'Tis the season! To celebrate, Coulson brings his team (and the mildly baffled Loki) together for one night's holiday party. Eat, drink, and reminisce for the days gone by and to think on hopes yet to come.

Notes: Starts the traditions of one-shots between longer works and occasional holiday specials. Arc-wise, mostly only serves to soften tensions between Coulson and Loki.

An Honest Man

Synopsis:

Since his struggle with not only the Darkhold but his own nature, Loki has found a strange new path in life, and grudging allies of a sort he'd never expected - but it's not an easily kept path. Now, accused of the greatest monstrosity of his life and awaiting the most final of consequences, Loki needs at his side the one thing he himself has never been - an honest man.

Notes: Smash together a legal thriller and a jaunty space opera featuring Rocket and Groot, and you get this. Personal favorite. Major arc work preparing for a new SHIELD Agent, Loki, with a character introduction that pays off in multiple later stories. Was the point I realized how screwed I really was.

Stitched

Synopsis:

In between leaving Asgard and the start of a new duty are the odd little moments of trying to fit in to a new place. This is three of those brief moments - boring paperwork, a stressful encounter in the lab, and a lesson on what starting over could really mean.

Notes: Vignettes, mostly fluff, establishes becoming an Agent and certain emotional issues important to later arc.

An Agent of Chaos

Synopsis:

What starts as a gruesome handful of murders across the US East Coast becomes something far more dangerous when the truth behind them is revealed.  The Agents of SHIELD find themselves entangled in an international incident that could not only wipe them off the map, but possibly destabilize the entire world.  Only Director Coulson’s team and two of SHIELD’s most notorious agents can possibly change the odds.

But first one of them will have to be convinced to not kill the other.

Notes: Tom Clancy gets weird with the introduction of Latveria as a global threat. Features Natasha Romanoff. Sets up several major details paid off in the finale.

Sleipnir

Synopsis:

A necessary visit to Asgard brings with it not only the rediscovery of lost fragments of Loki's past, but a reminder that curiosity has costs that he might not have wanted to pay.

Notes: Another character short. Importantly, it introduces Farbauti, the new Queen of Jotunheim.

The Janus Paradox

Synopsis:

When an implausible crime strikes the home of Doctor Stephen Strange, he unexpectedly reaches out to a recovering SHIELD for help in solving the mystery behind it.  But Loki - still one of Coulson's most unusual allies - thinks there's much more to the riddle presented than the Sorcerer Supreme is letting on.

Notes: Returns to the eldritch horror of the original Codex fic, reintroduces an important character from Honest Man, and goes all the way to a random Agent of Asgard cameo as it sets up the coming showdown with Thanos.

We Lived In Castles: A Codex Halloween

Synopsis:

Loki's investigation of a series of break-ins, a fire, and subsequent frightened locals at a closed-down youth reformatory somewhere in the heart of New England becomes a short series of tales within another tale of his own.  As he discovers the unlikely squatter in the old facility, he allows the figure to accompany him as he sorts out the boundaries of what actually happened in the halls after night fell.

Notes: A longer holiday special and the major stand-alone fic in the bunch. Read it whenever you want. Close contender for personal favorite. I wrote it in four days before Halloween and nearly died. Do not do this.

Mr. Fix-it

Synopsis:

Long nights often lead to old doubts and not even the Director is immune to the ghosts of a past that never quite leaves him alone.

Notes: Short work, Coulson-centric with no Loki, sets up some important details about Lola used next fic.

A Snake Came Crawling

Synopsis:

Thor's visions and Loki's warnings combine when the God of Thunder confesses his fears about a great and final doom gathering around Asgard.  But Ragnarok's legend is known - the twilight of the Gods coming at the end of a great war, and the betrayals of Loki.  A destiny Loki has refused.  

If he will not attempt to bring the cycle of the gods to a close - who will?

Notes: In which we write a version of Thor: Ragnarok that bears no resemblance to Thor: Ragnarok, but heavily sets up the board for the series’ equally incorrect version of Infinity War.

Darwin’s Dragon

Synopsis:

In the wake of Asgard's near-destruction, deals need to be made and plans set into action before Thanos strikes again.  But that doesn't mean those preparations can't be a little fun.  In a fit of whimsy, Loki takes Fitz to a galactic arena to observe a title fight between mecha warrior and implacable beast.  But is that really all he's up to?

Hint: The answer is 'No.'

Notes: Curiously predicts The Grandmaster, is a backdoor Pacific Rim homage, sets up several important details for the big show next.

When the Man Comes Around

Synopsis:

When Thanos strikes a distant Nova Corp outpost with the power of his newest Infinity Stone in his fist, Loki and the Agents of SHIELD know that time has run out not only for them, but for the entire universe.   All hopes now rest on Loki’s closely held, mysterious plan to halt the Titan’s advance - but for many, the question will forever linger: Can he be trusted?

Notes: 12 fics pay off to this three-part epic monstrosity, in which Loki’s loyalties are tested, his ties to Thanos are revealed, how Thanos will never deserve a Father’s Day card from anybody, and there’s a part where The Hulk punches Thanos in the face. Third contender for personal favorite, which is pretty good considering the context.

With Postscript to Follow

Synopsis:

Loki comes to his friend's side one more time, and then finds good cause to celebrate all that has gone before.

Notes: When I wrote this, I wasn’t sure I’d be writing more Loki/Codex style fics. I did, and sometimes still do. They’ll have their own masterpost. This is a melancholy but hopeful piece. It caps off the Codex arc and everything it meant to the characters. All other fics written after this point try to bear this finale in mind. It’s up to you if you read it after WTMCA or if you leave it for some later date, perhaps for when there are no more Loki stories.

Vol. 2 will cover The ‘Verse and ‘non’ Codex Loki fics (which are typically for some reason still fairly Codex Loki, just not SHIELD).