#i want a bank robbery or con artist i feel like that would be fun

[iamonlyhereforthefreefood]

I actually kinda want to get picked for a jury now but only if it’s for something cool

[oliversrarebooks]

Hi!! so i recently just found your blog and i am literally in love with your work! i recently just saw a prompt that was like a musical villain who has the power to hypnotize their audience (and especially hero) through their stage performance or just by singing, and i was wondering if u you would like write anything based off that? totally fine if not, thanks queen!😁🤍

Excellent taste in prompts!

TW: mind control, imagery of restraints

She had to admit, she was happy to have a night off for a change.

Hero had been working very long shifts lately. Between the glue factory explosion two weeks ago, the string of bank robberies carried out by perpetrators who couldn't remember what they had done afterwards, and the return and subsequent defeat of notorious supervillain Radioface, it felt like she hadn't gotten more than a few hours of sleep in ages, much less time off.

The commissioner had noticed Hero's deterioration, as well. That's why she insisted that Hero take the tickets to the hottest musical act in town, the one that was sold out every night. She'd seen the act a week before, loved it, and decided that the only way to force Hero to take some time off would be giving her tickets she couldn't possibly refuse. After all, they were impossible to get unless you lined up all day or had connections.

So that was why Hero had dressed up in something other than her costume or training sweats for the first time in a long time. She was standing in the crowd near the stage, and everyone around her was buzzing with excitement.

"This is my fifth time here!" said a young woman wearing a bright yellow tank top.

"You're so lucky," said her friend. "I could've never even gotten tickets if it weren't for you."

The anticipation was so thick in the air that Hero felt like she was getting swept up in it too. How often did she just get to be a civilian, dressed in cute clothes among a big crowd, anonymous and mercifully free of responsibility? A night like this didn't come often, so she might as well cut loose and enjoy herself.

The lights cut, and instead of the commotion Hero expected, the crowd immediately went dead silent. The tension hung in the air for a moment before the stage lit up in a kaleidoscope of neon rainbow shapes. Synthwave music was fading in from the many amplifiers, and just as it reached a crescendo, a spotlight hit center stage, illuminating the city's biggest pop sensation, Siren Waves.

Her voice rang out clear and strong above the synths, launching into her first song, and Hero was immediately captivated. Her opening number was an aggressive song about power and control with a catchy beat and a great hook, and her voice was the sort that was borderline addictive to listen to. In her peripheral vision, Hero could see that the entire crowd around her was entranced and hanging on to her every word, and she could see why. She'd have to look up the artist on streaming later so she could listen to this during workouts.

Siren strode across the stage with flashy confidence, her glitter-encrusted outfit sparkling in the multi-colored lights, her cocky grin showing that she knew very well how much the audience was eating out of her hand. She went straight from her first song to her second without a break, this one with an intense, driving bass line that made Hero want to dance. Indeed, a good portion of the crowd was dancing in place to the beat, and Hero felt her own head bobbing before she could stop herself.

It really was fun to lose herself in the crowd, the beat, the colorful light show, and especially Siren's fantastic voice. She was singing about building something, hard work and devotion, and while Hero couldn't follow all of the lyrics, the way Siren sang them just made her feel good.

"Thank you everybody!" said Siren once the song finished. "For this next song, I want to slow things down a little. This is a song about feeling powerless."

A good portion of the crowd cheered.

"We all feel powerless sometimes," Siren continued. "And what a lot of people don't want to admit is that feeling powerless can be nice. It can be nice to have no responsibility, to relax and float along and let things happen to you. This is a song about that very special feeling."

The music started up again, but even though it wasn't loud and intense like the previous two songs, it was no less compelling. The slower song was a fantastic showcase for Siren's versatile voice. It was if all of Hero's cares and worries were melting away, and the only thing that existed was the music, the flashing lights, and the electrifying presence of Siren Waves.

Powerless... Hero certainly had experienced her fair share of that. Tied up, caught in traps, subdued with power suppressants, injured, knocked out... it drove Hero crazy when she had nothing to do but endure and wait for a rescue.

But...

...it could be nice, sometimes, too.

The beautiful voice and the lyrics were stirring up feelings in Hero. Feelings she normally liked to suppress. The idea that it could be nice to be powerless... that it wasn't so bad to be tied up, helpless, subdued... it wasn't as if she hadn't thought that before. She just had to save any of those thoughts and urges for when she wasn't doing heroics, for obvious reasons.

And these days, she was pretty much always doing heroics. No time for any of that.

No time to think about being powerless... bound... relaxing... letting go...

Siren's voice really was impossibly beautiful. Hero could listen to this all day. Hero could listen to this forever, really.

The thought stirred something in Hero's hazy mind. This voice... this song... it sounded familiar, didn't it? Siren was using her amplifiers to turn her voice into something synthetic, but the underlying quality of it... it was something Hero was increasingly certain she had heard before.

Where had she heard this voice? It was hard to concentrate, especially when it was so nice to stop thinking and drift along on the song. It was nice to think about times when she'd been captured and at the villain's mercy, writhing against ropes and waiting for a chance to escape, the villain whispering threats and promises in her ear.

Wait. Hero knew that voice.

Two years back, Hero had faced down a young woman with an irresistible mind control voice. It'd been one of her hardest cases yet, owing in part to the fact that each time Hero failed to catch the villain, she'd captured Hero and put her under her spell. Hero could still remember so clearly how it felt to be bound and gagged, listening to the villain's sweet hypnotic voice, her mind becoming hazy and floaty, her fight fading away as she succumbed to the villain's control. 

So good to be powerless. So good to relax. So good to stop thinking and be guided under a gentle hypnotic spell. 

Hero shook her head, trying to snap herself out of it. This was that same voice, she was sure of it. It was obscured with voice modulation, and the woman had disguised herself in flashy clothes and heavy stage makeup, but that was a voice she could never forget.

But wasn't she still in jail...?

...It was probably fine... she was here to have a nice evening off... she didn't need to do hero work... she just needed to pay attention to the concert...

She shook herself awake again. The amplified music was impossible to escape from, and she was already halfway under its spell. 

Powerless... so powerless...

No...! She wasn't powerless at all. She could storm the stage, take down the amplifiers, even just clamp a hand over Siren's mouth.

She was right in the thick of the crowd, though. All around her she could see glassy-eyed people staring up at Siren with utterly enraptured faces, swaying gently back and forth to the slow song. As she tried to gather herself and get closer to the stage, the zombie-eyed fans were unwilling to budge.

Why fight it...? Why fight it at all? Why fight it when it was so, so nice to just let the beautiful music take her away...

"Hey," said Hero weakly, shaking the shoulder of the woman in the yellow tank top. "You have to let me through. We're all being brainwashed by the music."

The woman managed to tear her eyes away from the stage, blinking slowly at Hero. "Yeah..." she said with a blissful smile. "I just love being brainwashed by Siren..."

Well, that definitely wasn't going to go anywhere. Hero was trapped in the hypnotized crowd.

Might as well give up...

No, she could use her powers to... to...

Sway gently to the rhythm of the music... let her mind relax... give in...

Hero looked up at the stage, the swirling lights, Siren's glittering makeup, and it seemed almost like the singer was singing directly to her. 

And all Hero could think about was how badly she wanted to be captured, to relax helplessly into inescapable binds, to hear that hypnotic voice whispering seductively in her ear. To give up all control, to not have to worry about the fate of the city or the danger she was in, to just let the music...

Let the music in...

A blissful, hazy feeling settled over her as she fell completely under the music's spell, forgetting why she was struggling. Why struggle against something that felt so, so good? The music was filling her head with all sorts of delicious, buried desires. As she stood there watching, letting all the tension drain from her tired muscles, she could practically feel the pull of soft bonds on her wrists, the touch of a hand on her head, the dizzying thrill of being at someone's mercy.

God, yes, this was what she wanted. So perfect.

The mesmeric song came to a close, but nothing was about to break the spell laid on the audience. "Thank you all for listening so very closely," said Siren. "My next number is a song I think a lot of you already know. It's a song about obedience and pleasure."

Hero felt a shiver run down her spine.

"Now, for this song, when I sing 'obey me,' you sing...?"

"Yes, mistress!" called out the crowd in unison. Someone very near Hero was yelling very, very enthusiastically.

"Very good! Let's try that again. Obey me...!"

"Yes, mistress!" 

"Obey me!"

"Yes, mistress!" Hero realized that the enthusiastic yelling was her.

"And we have a very special guest in the crowd today."

Siren was looking right at her and smiling, a wicked Cheshire Cat grin that made Hero weak in the knees.

"Come on up to the stage, sweet thing," she said, beckoning. "That's right, I mean you."

The crowd, which had been completely impenetrable just a few minutes before when she was trying to escape it, parted immediately to let her through. She took a few hesitant steps towards the stage, feeling as if she were sleepwalking, or deep in a dream. Hands were nudging her forward, encouraging.

Siren reached a hand down.

Her touch was electric, being so near to her intoxicating, and Hero helped herself be swept onto the stage.

"My special guest. I'm so glad to see you here," said Siren, and now that she was close, Hero could recognize those sparkling eyes, the ones she still thought about far too often. Without a doubt, it was that same villain. And judging by Siren's cat-that-ate-the-canary face, she knew that Hero knew.

Hero's mind struggled very, very briefly against the chains of trance ensorcelling her, as Siren drew her closer and turned her towards the audience. "Here she is! The city's pride and joy, the most hardworking superhero in the state. Everyone welcome Hero!"

The crowd went wild, and Hero stared out at all the blissed-out smiles, trying to pull her mind into gear. She was in her civilian clothes with no mask, and Siren had just announced to the packed venue that she was Hero. This seemed bad, really bad... but trying to think of how it was bad left Hero's mind hitting a wall of fog.

"I wanted to show my appreciation for everything you've done for the city, Hero," said Siren, pulling Hero in close and petting her hair, and oh, hearing her voice so close, her real voice with no distortion or amplifiers, was like having liquid honey poured in her vulnerable mind. "So this next song is dedicated to you."

Siren wrapped her arms around Hero as she sang the first sweet notes of her melody, and whatever remained of Hero's willpower was gone. Siren was singing to her of obedience, of vulnerability, of the sweet, irresistible pull of submission. 

Hero had been so, so exhausted. So stressed. This was what she needed, what she craved. She needed to rest her mind, let someone else make all the decisions for her. She needed the song to wash all her worries away. 

And she deserved it. She must deserve it, because Siren had brought her up on stage to sing so beautifully just for her.

"Fall to your knees for me," she sang, and Hero sank. The crowd felt like a distant memory as she surrendered to Siren in front of thousands of civilians. It all felt so completely and utterly right.

From her position kneeling at Siren's feet, Hero had the best possible view of the concert. There was nothing between her and the source of her euphoria. Here, she could lose herself entirely in the music, letting her mind ebb away with the hypnotic melody.

Hero didn't know how long the concert went on. She didn't care. As far as she was concerned, it could go on forever, the music driving her further and further into obedient trance, lights flashing all around her as her new master sang.

And then, it was quiet.

"Thank you all for coming!" Siren called out to the crowd, bowing. "Keep an eye on the mail for further instructions or free tickets!"

Hero blinked slowly as the neon light show stopped and the stage lights dimmed. She could hear the crowd shuffling out, far quieter than one would expect for so many people exiting a loud pop concert. 

She felt so disappointed that the concert was over already. It felt like it was over in the blink of an eye. Still, she had to do what her master wanted. She began struggling to her feet, her knees sore from the stage floor.

A hand on her head stopped her. "Oh, no, not you, my little hero," said the delicious voice. "I have a special encore for you and you alone to hear."

Hero's breath hitched with excitement.

"You're going to join me backstage, and I'm going to sing you into being my willing puppet to overthrow the city. Doesn't that sound perfect?"

The music was too deep in her brain for her to say anything else. "Yes, master, yes, it does."

[blacksheepfms]

Maia Kelly introduction

❀ *ﾟ courtney eaton. twenty-three. cis woman. she/her. pansexual gemini. ⇝ looks like maia kelly blew in one month ago and never left. they’ve proven themselves to be adaptable & loyal, but being manipulative & impulsive is their downfall. it’s only fitting that vienna by ultravox is playing when they leave the motel, where they live on the 1st floor. rumor has it that they are a con artist who was double crossed by their crew, wonder if that’s why the unemployed con artist moved out of their place in auckland, new zealand. ( maggie, 21+, she/her, cst ) 

Maia had to laugh that her name in Māori meant “one who has unconditional love” because she seemed to have anything but.  She barely knew her father, only knowing that he did a few cons with her mother, so naturally when he wasn’t in the picture her mother tried her best to raise Maia on her own in her home country of New Zealand.  However her mother Kora couldn’t stay out of the business for long.  Most of the time Maia couch surfed, family and friends taking her in until Kora came back for her, and it wasn’t until Maia started being able to realize what the family business was that she realized she needed to be useful.  

She started using her childlike charm and cuteness on her mother’s cons, always believing that if she did well enough her mom would make enough money and they could actually settle down together and live a normal life - maybe even her mom would reconnect with her birth dad.  But the more Maia grew up the more cynical she got, knowing dreams were something that she should never afford to let herself fall into one.  As Maia was of age she ran from home and started doing her own jobs, soon having a crew of trusted individuals that she thought she could call family.

Little did she know that trust was misplaced.

The last con that Maia did was one that was monumental, to say the least.  She was to pretend to be the long lost daughter of a banker, and if she wasn’t used to breaking people’s hearts she would pity how happy he was to actually have someone in his life.  After spending as much time was needed with him to trust her, Maia would start introducing him to a cast of convoluted characters and plot lines - eventually having him steal from his bank.  He got so far as hiding the money in his own place.  One of Maia’s crew members was supposed to set up a in-home robbery, even so much as getting the banker’s own personal savings, but on the big day when Maia walked into the house they were all waiting for her.  Seeing the look on everyone’s faces, Maia knew they had double crossed her.  

She grabbed what she could and got the hell out of dodge.  She tried to go home to her mother but her mother wanted absolutely nothing to do with her, saying how she wasn’t a good con artist and therefor had no use to Kora.  Maia stayed long enough to at least get information on her father.  Gilbert Gladstone.  Kora didn’t have to tell Maia twice, she left town and never thought of looking back.  

It didn’t take long in finding where Gilbert was, she was good at finding information on people.  So without thinking twice she came to Salem in hopes of getting help.  Plus if Maia was being honest with herself, she wanted to know this other part of her history.  But she had to reason with herself that it was just getting information - after all she couldn’t let herself dream.

OOC:

Did I use the con from Matchstick Men? Yeah don’t worry about it

Hello! I’m Maggie and this is my first character here (I’ll probably bring more, this looks so fun and I have no impulse control).  Anyway I’m always up for plotting of any and all kinds so please feel free to reach out! I look forward to getting to know all of you and your characters!

[vickyvicarious]

So having just finished watching The Bank Shot Job, I have realized another thing I adore about Hardison.

His confidence.

And not just in his computer skills. Those are obviously well-founded and given his reputation it makes total sense he'd be cocky and overconfident about them. Except it isn't overconfidence, is it, when he always backs it up.

No, what struck me here was his confidence with people. He isn't a grifter like Sophie, he isn't an especially great actor. He says ridiculous stuff like "we just got back from handling a chupacabra situation" and overacts his emotions to the point of comedy. His characters aren't necessarily very nuanced. But he gets away with it, every time, and why? Because he is so confident in himself, he railroads right over the logical part of people's brains going "....wait a minute."

One of my favorite early scenes from the Mile High Job is when Hardison enters the elevator as a janitor, blatantly blocks the other guy from coming in, changes clothes on the way up, and then accuses the guy of being racist so he doesn't catch on to Hardison being the same guy. He SAW his face, he KNEW it was the same person. Hardison raised a fuss, talked quickly and over top of him, then got out while he was still reeling.

And even that guy, by the end of the episode, didn't question that Hardison worked in the building for a while before this. He gets people so caught up in his pace that they just go along with him, and that is carried purely by his confidence.

We see it with the whole crew to some extent, of course. While Parker is the one most obviously worried about grifting, everyone has their own moments when they hesitate. Still they all have confidence and plow through to achieve their objective - but none with Hardison's flair. He never just takes up space, he owns it.

And part of it is simply the fact that he is such a genius. He knows it, and uses it, and his skill, intelligence, and creative mind help him through everything. But it would be so so easy to go the route of having the genius hacker be socially awkward or have confidence issues when compared to someone like Eliot. And Hardison just never does.

He proudly proclaims "age of the geek, baby," gets annoyed at Eliot mocking the geek stereotypes. He likes all the typical geeky stuff (scifi, WoW, Doctor Who have been specifically namedropped already) and isn't as comfortable in a physical altercation. There are other things that make him feel out of his depths too, on occasion. But that doesn't seem to bother him on any deep level, he doesn't feel lessened by it. Someone's gotta beat up the injured guy and he's fine with it being him, he says. And he isn't actually a skinny weakling, just not well versed in fighting.

Just as Eliot subverts the gruff manly tropes with his interest in cooking and his respect for the women he's slept with, or Sophie with the femme fatale being the mother figure, Hardison subverts the socially awkward genius and the hacker uncomfortable outside of their computers. He dislikes when the option to solve things with hacking is taken away from him, sure, but the same goes for everyone else on the team with their respective skills and they all face situations where they have to adapt.

The writers made a very deliberate choice to make Hardison, not just NOT awkward, but very comfortable with people. He has fun with his cons, throwing in silly and ridiculous details for his own amusement, grinning at people, befriending them easily. They write him being taught how to get along with people into his backstory, and it's not just to contrast with Parker or support her learning how to connect with others though that is a part of it. I'm sure meta on his emotional intelligence and his relationship with her has been written, most notably the "pretzels are waiting for you whenever you want them" scene, and that all holds true.

Hardison is a genius. He's pretty young, which could also play into this usually, the overconfidence of youth (except he never faces a harsh lesson and loses that confidence, not really - gets less brash maybe, more technique, but doesn't lose that base layer of confidence). He is skilled with computers, but he is also well-rounded. Not just in the 'exposition-dropping because I'm smart and I know a lot of stuff' way, though that too. He is an artist, a musician, he likes to learn and likes to create and likes to share his work with people. He is not at all a loner, and flashbacks show that even if he didn't always have close friends he wasn't an introvert.

He knows his talents (and they are many) and believes in himself so much, and it's so clearly not some act covering deep insecurities, that whenever he does hesitate or doubt himself the scene instantly gains so much more weight. It doesn't happen often; it doesn't need to. (Not in any major way, not more than the usual moments of uncertainty the entire crew has on occasion.) But when he does really doubt himself, we really do feel it - and then the others reassure him because he always comes through, and then he does just that. Because it isn't false confidence at all, just honest skill at the end of the day.

After he shows Sophie the edited footage of the bank robbery in this episode (done on the fly, out in the open, while ordering around the cops), she teasingly tells him, "You're still a geek."

Hardison just grins and says, "Power of the geek." He knows that is not an insult. Even if someone ever said it to him meaning it as one, he would know they were wrong and wouldn't lose any sleep over it.

Because he knows his own capabilities, trusts in himself, and walks confidently through life.

(And the whole team are so good about supporting one another and, teasing arguments aside, clearly respecting one another's skills. They all are wonderful with this but I especially want to thank Hardison's Nana because she clearly did so much right by him.)

[douxreviews]

American Gods - ‘Head Full of Snow’ Review

"You believe in nothing, so you have nothing."

American Gods goes on a bank heist, in an episode that neatly balances touching sidebar stories with Shadow finally getting some empowerment, both figuratively and literally. Maybe.

The more you dig into an episode of American Gods, the more impressive it becomes just how densely layered the whole thing is. How exactly would one quickly describe this episode? Is it 'The One Where Mr. Wednesday and Shadow Rob a Bank?' Is it 'The One That Separately Introduces Salim and Anubis?' Or maybe 'The One Where Shadow (Possibly) Gets Superpowers'? The answer of course is, 'yes'. It's all of those, deftly interwoven with a number of thoughtful pauses where we contemplate the cultural meaning of Jesus(es), get a glimpse of the afterlife, and discover that Mad Sweeney should keep a better eye on his things.

That's a lot going on, and yet somehow the episode doesn't feel overcrowded, which is as neat a trick as Mr. Wednesday has ever pulled.

So, let's pull it a part a little bit and see how the pieces work. To begin with, we start where we ended last week, with Shadow having lost his head, literally, in a checkers match. Since the beginning of the series Shadow has been a victim of the various forces around him that are influencing his life, and has only been able to roll with the punches as they come at him. But that all changes in the opening sequences here through his dream encounter on the roof with Zorya Polunochnaya, the Midnight Star. Neil Gaiman has always written dream dialogue well, no pun intended, and most of the conversation they have here is lifted directly from the book to great effect. One of the most necessary skills for anyone adapting a written text into visual media is knowing what they need to change to make it work and what they should leave unchanged. Fuller, Green and company made the right call in this case.

The midnight star, a virgin as she herself points out, is about rebirth and renewal, and in that spirit she absolutely gives Shadow the fresh re-start he needs. After this he's able to outwit Czernobog by playing on his vanity and his fear of growing weak into playing a second game of checkers and beats him. Czernobog still gets to bash in his brain with his hammer, but not until after Czernobog comes along with them on Mr. Wednesday's journey. So, there's that hanging over our heads until later on in the story, then.

This metaphorical empowerment then gets a little more literal when Mr. Wednesday repeatedly urges Shadow to make it snow by thinking about snow, and then it snows. Metaphorically, structurally, and possibly literally, Shadow is learning how to affect the world around him, and there's something more than a little insidious about how Wednesday seems to be manipulating things around them to make it happen. It was nice though that both the show and Wednesday chose to leave it an open question as to whether Shadow had really made the snow or whether is was a coincidence. It's about your personal choice as to what you believe, both of them seem to be saying, and as Wednesday explicitly points out, 'First you don't believe and then you do believe, and the world changes because you do.' It's admittedly a little precious as ruminations on belief go, but the show is really drilling down into the way belief affects the shape of the world, so it works in this case. Let's just all agree not to push things by cross stitching it on a pillow.

As for the bank robbery itself, well, robbery is probably a bit of an overstatement. Although I'm sure that would technically by the charge were they arrested for it. Realistically, it's more a case of conning people out of their overnight deposits when they come to put them in the ATM. The sequence works for what it's setting out to do for a couple of reasons. First, it demonstrates that Mr. Wednesday really is a devious and manipulative con artist who's good at playing people. Second, and more surprisingly, it shows us just how smoothly and easily Shadow can roll with a situation and con people himself. What it doesn't do however is show us a way of feasibly robbing a bank, as the plan we see wouldn't have worked, even at the time of the book being published, for three major reasons. 1: Night deposits in bags like that don't go in ATMs, they go in night deposit drop slots. Or they did at the time, I confess to having been out of retail for a long time, but I think that's still the same situation. 2: Even when closed, banks have security guards, particularly a bank in Chicago on a busy street like that. At the very least they would have video monitoring that would have investigated the guy sitting in front of their ATM. 3: Most importantly, in that situation the police would call the bank, not the number on a business card they were handed by the man they were suspicious of. I'm just saying; good scene for the purposes of plot and drama, bad scene if you're trying to teach yourself how to rob banks.

We hadn't seen Mad Sweeney since the first episode, and it turns out the reason why is that he's been passed out in a public toilet all this time. We've all been there. What's more interesting is that we gradually learn that his luck appears to have left him with the gold coin he gave Shadow back in that episode. His escalating bad luck while he works that out is pretty amusing, but it's hard not to feel a little bad for guest star Scott Thompson, who takes a pipe first through his windshield and then his face solely for having tried to help out someone staggering down the road. And for a guy with that much bad luck, Sweeney certainly puts on some miles here. He starts at the Crocodile bar somewhere in Missouri-ish, gets to Chicago to find Shadow, and then has to get all the way back to Indiana. That's a lot of travel for a guy who seems to be doing most of it on foot. Did he leave behind a trail of Scott Thompson's, all ghoulishly killed in one manner of bad luck traffic accident or another?

Then we have the Somewhere in America sequences, both of which are beautiful in their own way. Mrs. Fadil, dying alone only to have Anubis stop by and kindly taste her dinner before escorting her to a gorgeously filmed afterlife was just lovely. But the longer sequence of Salim, the lonely salesman and an equally lonely Jinn who unexpectedly find a loving connection to one another was one of the most profoundly moving love stories I've ever seen in film or television. Also, wow that was a lot of graphic sex. I appreciated that the way it was filmed was neither exploitative nor apologetic about it being a same sex couple. The beauty of the interactions between Sadim and the Jinn, two beings so lonely that they've given up on even the concept of finding a connection or love, can be summed up in one exchange:

Sadim: "I wish you could see what I see." Jinn: "I do not grant wishes." Sadim: "But you do."

Just beautiful.

Quotes:

Anubis: "Your Assaf will marry in a year and name his daughter for you." Mrs. Fadil: "A Bullshit middle name?" Anubis: "A bullshit middle name."

Zorya Polunochnaya: "Kissing is disgusting, but it a nice way. Like Blue Cheese, or Brandy."

Czernobog: "All right, I’ll go with Wotan to his Wisconsin. Then I’m gonna kill you. Is good?" Shadow: "Is good."

Shadow: "Storm died." Wednesday: "No it hasn’t. We’re gonna rob a bank. Want some coffee?"

Jinn: "You try and sell shit?" Salesman: "I sell Shit yes." Jinn: "And they will not buy it?" Salesman: "No." Jinn: "Strange. Cause when you look in the stores here, that’s all they sell."

Jinn: "They know nothing about my people here. They think all we do is grant wishes. If I could grant a wish, do you think I’d be driving a cab?"

Wednesday: "Come on, learn. It’ll be fun."

Bits and Pieces:

-- If you are reading this later on, or are not from the Midwest, we just spent a week at thirty below zero. Before the windchill. This was not a great week to think 'snow'.

-- I'm not very clear whether Mrs. Fadil's skinless cat was actually Bast, or if Bast is just part of all cats and so that's why the cat got to go with to the afterlife's foyer.

-- Lots of climbing up balconies this week.

-- Zorya Polunochnaya is entirely a creation of Neil Gaiman's. I'm fairly certain she's the only instance of that in the entire book, but I might be wrong. Feel free to correct me in the comments if so, it's the only way I'll learn.

-- When Zorya P. referred to the constellation as 'Odin's Wain', I misheard it as 'Odin's Wang.' That's a very different constellation.

-- I could watch Ian McShane seduce Cloris Leachman all day. Now there's a sentence I didn't expect to be typing today.

-- I have a great anecdote about Scott Thompson, but it's not relevant to the show, so I'll throw it in the comments if anyone's interested.

-- Despite the fact that Mr. Wednesday uses them interchangeably, hot chocolate and hot cocoa are categorically not the exact same thing. This is important.

-- What was the deal with the wolf they almost hit?

-- So apparently the inference is that Mad Sweeney's lucky coin brought Laura back to life, and that's how she ended up in Shadow's motel room at the end. The bigger question to me is how did she get out of her grave without disturbing the ground? And is that the most poorly monitored cemetery in the world, or what?

-- No sign this week of Media, Technical Boy, or Bilquis. Also, three episodes in and still no sign of Crispin Glover's Mr. World

-- This week's amusing behind the scenes story; Both the actor who plays Salim and the actor who plays the Jinn are heterosexual.  As, apparently, was all of the film crew in the unit that recorded their love scene.  This, the legend goes, led to Bryan Fuller receiving the rushes for their love scene and having to tell everyone involved, 'Yeah... That's not how that works...'  After which they had to stage a remount.  That last part was not intended to be a joke, but I can't bring myself to erase it.  Let's all just be adults and move on.

A solid episode with a lot of good stuff in it, but it still suffers a bit from feeling like it's all setup for more important stuff later on.

Three out of four ATM deposits

Mikey Heinrich is, among other things, a freelance writer, volunteer firefighter, and roughly 78% water.

[solaceoftheangels-blog]

How would you all feel about a gang AU ??

I may or may not have gone a lil over board with this, and to think it all started with a dream. Also I started a Solangelo one-shot based on this idea so that is why Will and Nico’s backgrounds are a bit different. Let me know what you think!

Annabeth is the boss who plans all their heists and has to deal with everyone in her crew not taking anything serious. She holds them all together and is always surprised when they make it home alive and with bags of money. She is also very deadly with any weapon and there is a rumor she can kill a man by staring them in the eye for too long. Other crews don’t believe a women could run a crew, but she proved them wrong by bringing hers to the top. The most feared crew in the city and the most wanted. She went to school to be an architect but while learning about building structures she realized how easy it was to break into most of them. Using her connections she scored some blueprints and then convinced her friends to help her pull the robberies off. It was all uphill from there. All the places they hit she uses the building as her main weapon. She studies them, finds their weak points and their places of importance. That hole the bank just had put in their basement but was not put on any recent blueprint, yeah that is a secret vault. She sees and knows all.

~The rest of the crew is described under the cut~

Jason is her second in command because sometimes he can come up with a plan and has some common sense. As long as he is not left alone with Percy. The two of them cause the most trouble when left alone. Also because Piper turned down the offer. He is very good with any gun, except long range ones and is pretty good with hand to hand combat. He is very skilled at keeping track of the crews in the area and all their warehouses. He knows who is trying to over throw them and how to tear them apart piece by piece. He can figure out their weaknesses and how to abuse it. Jason wanted to be an accountant but an office job was really never for him. Now he uses his math brain to make each crew member a millionaire and keep them safe. He also watches over all the little people who are not part of the main crew but their off branches. The smugglers, drug dealers and the mercenaries they hire. He keeps things in the dark and running smoothly and make sure there are no weak links.

Piper is their con-artist or grifter (think of the awesome show leverage ;) ) She can talk anyone into doing anything she wants. Her words are deadly. She is sent on every negotiation and gets the crew deals constantly. They get almost all their weapons, vehicles and ammo for free. Her words aren’t the only thing deadly about her, she can shoot people between the eyes but she is more known for stabbing people with poison tipped blades. Piper used to travel the world with her dad and whatever country they went to she learned their language. It helped her learn to speak any language from German to Latin and even some of the dead languages. She can become any one she wants, her acting is flawless. Piper can get anyone to trust her. She once posed as a princess to get access to the mayor’s office. She stole the key to the city, set the town up with fraud and bankruptcy. She has a thousand aliases and the crew is not even sure if Piper is her real name.  

Percy is the crew’s driver. He can drive any vehicle from cars, to helicopters to boats. He is mostly there on time when needed to bail the crew out. When he isn't helping out in the heists or hanging out with the crew he is participating in street races. Sometimes they go to cheer him on other times Annabeth warns him to be careful. A few times they had to break him out of jail. Jason likes to be his copilot on most missions. He is always hoping in the passenger seat to assist or help him fly the planes they steal. On rare occasions Jason even joins in on the races either next to him or against him. Percy is also a good shot and joins them in heists when needed, or cover fires for them. He can also be handy in hand to hand combat but mostly he just likes to run over the competition. His favorite thing to drive though is a speed boat. The rush of being able to go pretty much anywhere at any speed with water splashing him constantly. The cherry on top though is there is no traffic. Unfortunately most heists don’t take place near a body of water, but that won’t stop him from trying to convince Annabeth that they need to drive to the ocean and then ride out into the sunset on a boat with their riches. Sometimes she gives in.

Leo is a world famous hacker. He can break any encryption, firewall or security system. For fun he likes to mix up rich people’s funds and move them around to cause chaos, other times he sends the money to the crew or charities. He has even broken into the pentagon to see what they were up to. Leo makes the crew fake IDs when needed, mostly for Piper when she is on a job. He also messes with their information, like he changed Hazel’s date of birth so it says she is like 80 years old and Percy is a famous figure skater in Germany. There may be magazines with photo shopped pictures of Percy in tights going around the country, he even has his own fan page. When he isn’t using his hands on computers he is using them in the garage where all their vehicles are stashed. He is also the crew’s mechanic and tries to fix all the bullet holes, fender benders and scorched marks. The task isn’t easy but he tries. The only gun he knows how to use is the machine gun strapped to one of their helicopters.

Hazel is their thief. What Leo can’t break into from the home base she is there to break into it. She can crack any safe and avoid any laser detection. At one point in her life she was training to be a gymnast but now her flexibility helps her get into small spaces and bend under the lasers. She started pick-pocking when she was really young and moved up to be the city’s most notorious jewel thief. She joined the crew to help break into bigger and better things but on her days off she still likes to swipe some precious jewels. She may be petite but she is also the best they have in a fist fight. She uses her opponent’s weight against them before slugging them in the face with the shiny brass knuckle she always wears.

Frank is the main sniper and the crew’s biggest mystery. One day they were on a heist when the cops who had them surrounded suddenly fell down dead with bullets in their brains. When they got back to their base and settled down counting their money a knock on their spooked them all. Annabeth opened it to reveal a tall, broad shoulder man with a bear mask covering his face and holding a sniper rifle. He held up a note saying he wanted to join the crew. After some trial heists he was accepted. He was an amazing sniper and they didn’t realize they needed one until he showed up. They stopped questioning why he never spoke and why he was constantly wearing animal masks. No one knew what his face looked like, but to each their own. Piper and Hazel learned sign language to communicate with him, while everyone else stuck to talking through a notebook. They also learned to trust he was listening to them during heists as he was always where he needed to be and did his job well. What the crew didn’t know was that Frank hid himself because he had a normal life outside of the crew where he liked to work at a nearby animal shelter. He liked his secrecy and being able to go out shopping and to movies without being arrested.

Calypso is their spy. The whole crew lives together in a penthouse that overlooks the city. How they don’t kill each other is mystery itself. Besides sleeping there they spend time eating and playing games together almost like a family. A big giant murderous family. They also do all of their heists planning there and store all their vehicles in the basement of the complex. They own the whole building. To keep hidden the rest of the building is someone insurance business that turns a blind eye to what goes on at the top of the building. When they are not at the penthouse they are at a bar they own called Ogygia. The bar is run by Calypso. She is their eyes and ears. She listens to the gossip people of other crews talk about and starts some gossip of her own to throw them off her crew’s tracks. When someone wants to talk the crew or ask them for help they have to go through her. She deems them worthy or not and then sets up meetings with Annabeth. She also takes in strays and gives them jobs; either with the crew or the bar. She sets them up as dealers or directs them to Jason who figures out where to put them. Her and Jason work a lot together to keep things in order. Other times it is her job to infiltrate a crew. She will work her way through their ranks and dismantle them from the inside out without them knowing it was her doing all along. Her favorite is turning a crew against them self and watching as they blow each other brains out and then walking out as the only survivor. When the crew is secretly hanging out at the bar enjoying some drinks and dancing she watches over them to make sure they don’t do anything stupid.

Will is their doctor and when needed their back up sniper. Joining an infamous crew was not where Will saw his life going. Originally he was going to school to save people that where hurt from gang violence. Ironic right? However as much as he studied and worked hard in med school it wound up kicking his butt. He never got to walk down the aisle and wound up having to drop out. The loans he had where so high and no job would take him. Being from Texas his dad taught him how to hunt and for laughs taught him how to with a sniper rifle. He wasn’t the best but he always got the deer in the end. Using that talent he went against his moral code and became a sniper for hire. He became known as the Sunspot. Not the greatest crime name but he was proud of it eventually. He got the name because his golden sniper shined like the sun as did his hair. He also usually wore a bright orange hoodie that added on to his trademark. Snipers shouldn’t want to be shiny but Will embraced it because he made sure to always position himself in front of the sun when he made his shot, blinding anyone who tried to look at him. They only knew what he looked like from the glances they got of him running away. At night he was an underground doctor for crooks and worked out of abandoned buildings, not the most sterile places but the crooks never minded. He hid himself behind a doctor coat, a surgical mask, and different colored beanies so they wouldn’t recognize him. When Annabeth pushed an injured Percy on his work table one night she instantly saw his talent. She gave him an offer to be the crew’s official doctor he instantly jumped on board. When they later found out he was also the Sunspot, it was an added bonus. Some heists he stayed back with Leo and waited to stitch them back up or he went out to assist Frank with sniping. In his down time he still sometimes took sniping missions as the Sunspot, with Annabeth’s permission of course.

Nico is a mercenary. He is known as the Ghost King and is the most wanted man in the whole world. He takes contracts from everywhere and has never failed a single one. It is said he once took out a fully armed crew all by himself. The name, Ghost King, came from the fact that anyone he meets he can turn them into a ghost if he wanted to. He also lurks in the shadows and is such a mystery most people think he himself is a ghost. No one knows when he is there until he strikes. Nico’s hands are quick as he throws his daggers into people’s heads and guts. The most interesting weapon he uses that is not typical is a black sword he always has strapped to his hip. Anyone who is too far away or is running away he whips out his twin black pistols and stops them dead. People who do get a good look at him always nearly piss their pants. He is always dressed in dark jeans and shirt with a black leather jacket on, but what scares people is his face. It is always painted to look like a skull and his glare is so intense it nearly stops people’s hearts. Never look him in the eyes. Under his shirt his skin is lined with scars and tattoos. Across his knuckles it even reads Ghost King, the G and H share his pinky, so that when he punches them they know for sure who it is. The greatest piece is on his back of a grim reaper the scythe stretching his whole back and dripping blood. On either side of the reaper is a pair of beautiful black angel wings, making him look like the angel of death himself.

Nico was giving a mission to take out the Sunspot.