#just shoot the government agents jay | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

holylulusworld · 4 years

Text

Ms. Bodyguard - Past always catches up

Summary: Jensen is used to be the hero on his show. He’s not a coward, not at all - but when he gets attacked by an unknown man the studio insists on a full-time bodyguard. Specialist in protecting people while living with them - you agree to protect Jensen, but he doesn’t like the fact a ‘small’ girl shall protect him. Will you be able to protect the unwilling actor?

Pairing: Jensen Ackles x Bodyguard!Reader

Characters: Jared Padalecki, Clif Kosterman

Warnings: angst, mentions of blood/torture (nothing graphic), slow burn, language, comforting, mentions of suicide (nothing happens), investigations, conspiracy, panic attack

A/N: This is a gap filler to get to know more about the mysterious man, the readers grudge against him and her past.

Ms. Bodyguard Masterlist

“He can’t be here…I…I killed him…”

Clif doesn’t know how to react to your breakdown or rather panic attack. He never saw you like that before. “Y/N, look at me.”

It’s getting harder to breathe when you must watch Jensen run after you only to find you on your knees, panting like he did when he got the call. “Y/N? Terminator. Shit, sweetheart…” Kneeling Jensen grasps for your hand, tries anything to help you breathe right.

“Look at me, Y/N. In and out, Terminator. Breathe with me.” Meeting Jensen’s eyes you nod, hating he sees you weak. “I know it’s hard to concentrate but you need to focus on my voice, baby.”

“I…I try…” Choking the words out you grasp for his hand, squeezing it tightly. “We…we need to go inside. He’s out there…”

Jensen can see the fear in your eyes, and he knows, whoever is after him even frightens you. “We will, Y/N. Just calm down first and we will barricade within these walls if you want me to, promised.”

Nodding you follow Jensen’s words, try to calm your racing heart while you can’t wrap your mind around the fact ‘he’ is alive. “Impossible. I…I saw him dying…”

“Do you know about whom she was talking about? I mean, she’s usually tough and self-confident but those two words let her lash out.” Jensen watches you down a drink in one go. “Jesus, she can drink…”

“I got no clue, Jay. Honestly, everything, before she trained me to become a bodyguard, is top secret. I know she worked for the government, took over dangerous missions but Y/N never talked about anything according to her former job.” Clif rubs his neck nervously, not liking the way you act.

“I am fine, Clif. Stop staring.” Turning around you are your usual grounded self. “We need to change the plan, I guess. He’s not after you Jensen.”

“I don’t get it, Y/N. Why should someone from your past attack me? We didn’t even know each other until Clif…oh-I get it.” Jensen groans.

“Exactly, sweetheart.” Smirking your pat Jensen’s cheek. “You’re not just a pretty face, smart too. The man, he’s after me.”

“Okay, this is some serious shit and I need a drink,” Jared exclaims before he walks toward the bottle of Jack. “I can’t listen to more horror stories while being sober.”

“I can’t tell you anything, Jared. Clif, I want you to drive him home. We’ve got to keep Jared and his family out of this shit.”

Offended Jared looks at you. “Listen, it’s not that I do not trust you, but if I tell you more about this man, you’ll be in danger. Go home, forget about what happened today and kiss your wife…”

“Will you tell me about the guy?” Finally, alone you lock the door, taking a deep breath. “Y/N, I have the right to know who tries to kill me. Don’t tell me crap like it’s top secret.”

“This can never leave this house, Jensen. If you ever tell anyone about my former job, I have to kill you and the person you talked to.” Your features harden when you face Jensen. “This is not a joke. I am dead serious about this.”

“I swear to all that’s holy, even on my mother’s life if I have to.” Pouring Jensen, a drink you take another deep breath before you hand him the glass.

“Good.” Falling onto the couch you place your gun next to you, a smirk on your lips. “I don’t drink and shoot, sweetheart. You can drink, I’ll guard your ass.”

“Now you are the one hiding behind jokes. I am listening if you are ready to talk about it or rather him.” Jensen gives you a soft smile and you return it before you close your eyes.

“It was a job like any other back then. We got a mission, we made our way through the enemies, always the target in sight but then…” Your eyes open and you give Jensen a cracked smile. “Everything went downhill faster than I could blink.”

Jensen remains silent, only sipping at his drink he watches you get up to nervously pace around the room.

“I have to tell you about the man who’s after you first. The way he killed the poor girl, that’s his style. Fast. Efficient. No pain.” Jensen shudders at your words but he doesn’t dare to say anything.

“But…” Clearing your throat you stop in your tracks to face Jensen again. “What he did to you, that’s his specialty. He likes to play with his targets. If we had the mission to let a death look like a suicide, they would send him as…”

“The people killed themselves after he made their lives living hell?” Nodding you give Jensen a cracked smile. “Got it…”

“Sometimes, we had to take a target out fast, silent, and precise but…” Rubbing your forehead you sigh. “When we got the orders to let the person look like he or she was crazy or out of control, he, the shadow, would take over.”

“The shadow? Stupid name,” Jensen grumbles. “I like Terminator more, or guardian angel.” Again, you smile at Jensen, but it fades when you step closer to sit on the couch again.

“Anyways. He was hard, fast, and deadly. Something I liked back then so we kinda…”

“Fucked?” Snickering you nod at Jensen. “Lucky bastard…”

“It wasn't love or even friends with benefits. We let out steam and that was that. There was no connection or any feelings on both ends.” Clarifying your relationship with ‘the shadow’ you rub your hand over your thighs.

“Fast forward. We had a few missions together, teamed up and I must admit, we were a perfect team. I trusted him with my life, that was a mistake, an almost deadly one.”

Getting back up you turn around to lift your shirt. “You remember the scar, the story of the little girl?”

“Yeah…” Choking the words out Jensen glances at your back. “Sorry for not believing you back then- I was stubborn and stupid.”

“It’s fine, Jensen. Let me tell you more to understand why I did what I did to him.” Jensen watches you struggle before you talk again. “We had the order to find the girl, bring her to the headquarter to...well force her father to…I don’t know what they wanted from him.”

“You saved her…right?” Nodding you grasps for the gun to have anything to hold onto. “What happened?”

“The order changed in the middle of the mission. Our boss decided it’s not worth to risk two agents to save a child in a land no one cares about. I…I refused to terminate the mission. We were so close.” You place the gun onto the table to take a swig from Jensen’s glass.

“I assume your partner was not amused?” Jensen huffs when you shake your head. “Asshole then…”

“Exactly my words. I told him to fuck off if he doesn’t want to help me. There were only three kidnappers, so I could’ve easily sneaked in, take them down, and free the girl.” Your hands shake when you close your eyes.

“He left and…” Shuddering you meet Jensen’s eyes. “All hell broke loose. They were waiting for me as my partner sold me to those bastards. It was him - the scar.

The order didn’t change to leaving the girl behind, the new order was to kill the girl, take a picture and leave. He knew about my rules. No collateral damage, no children.”

“That bastard.” Teeth gritted Jensen jumps up to throw the bottle of Jack against the wall. “He would’ve killed a little girl to accomplish his fucking mission?”

“I told you we did things I am not proud of but, I have rules. I never crossed that line.” Jensen nods, glancing at the shards on the floor.

“He wanted to make it look like the kidnapper tortured me for information, kill the girl and…dunno. When he believed I was unconscious he left the room and the girl, that poor soul was so frightened, but she grasped the knife and cut the ropes holding me open.”

“Smart girl, brave too…”

“I was weak but somehow I got up on my feet, grabbed the guns they took from me and my bag. I lead the girl outside, into the jungle and we survived…” Your voice cracks when you recall that night in the jungle.

“The girl helped me as good as she could. Cleaned my wound and pressed a band-aid to it. We found our way to her father and he hid me.”

“What happened to the kidnappers?” Your eyes narrow and a dark grin appears on your lips. “Y/N?”

“The shadow took care of them for letting the girl and me escape. I assume he believed that I didn’t make it. The blood in the jungle, the clothes we left at the river. Perfect deception…” Jensen nods, swallowing thickly when you slide your fingers over your gun.

“I called the agency, told them what he did and they, well let’s say I was out, he was still in. After that I hid in the shadows to find him. It took me months but, I succeed.

What I don’t understand is, that I killed him, Jensen. I was there, in his hotel room and took care of him the way he did with me. I checked his pulse, he was dead.” Grasping for his drink Jensen downs it in one go.

“I guess messing with you is a bad idea.”

“Sweetheart, I wouldn’t dare to lay a finger on Dean Winchester. Your fans would kill me.” Snickering you get up to squeeze Jensen’s shoulder. “The knife pierced his heart, Jensen. There was no chance to survive, but he did…”

“…and now he’s after me. But why?” Looking up at you Jensen licks his lips when you lean closer to slide your fingers through his hair. “Y/N?”

“My fault, Jay. I was untouchable as long as I was in Saudi Arabia. I guess he knew about my connection to Clif and that if anything like that happens to you my friend would call me. It was a long shot, but Shadow knows I never let a friend down.” Panting Jensen glances at your lips, wishing he could just kiss you.

“I’ll protect you and kill that bastard. There is no way I’ll let him win, not again. If he wants to hurt you, he has to bring me down first, sweetheart.”

Jensen nods, not listening to your words as he’s busy to cup your face, waiting for his chance to press his lips to yours.

Ms. Bodyguard Tags

@healojane, @bitchwhytho, @marvelouslysherlockedhunter, @mimzy1994, @couldabeenamermaid, @abbessolute, @vicmc624, @fantasydevil2002, @bobbie3939, @mamooska8, @winchestergirl82, @winchester-wifey

-------------------------------------------------------

SPN Forever Tags

@donnaintx

@screechingartisancashbailiff

@fallen-wolf22

@sister-winchesters99

@mogaruke

@the-is13

@helloitsmeamie203

@sandlee44

@strayrosesbloom

@notyourtypicalrose

@thewinchesterco

@marvelfansworld

@hobby27

@gh0stgurl

@flamencodiva

@jay-and-dean

@voltage-my2dlove

@spnhollis

@chonisberonica

@wittysunflower

@supernaturalenchanted

@shikshinkwon

@yolobloggers

@hhiggs

@laxe-from-outer-space

@ilovefanfic86

@linki-locks11

@eggingamazinglove

@trumpettay

@fandom-imagines1

@thenamelesschibi

@waywardbaby

@straycuties9

@drakelover78

@stuckys-whore

@zxph-yr

@i-love-superhero

@nepeta-leijon1618

@deepmuffinspymaker

@katsav17

@heyitscam99

@fandom-princess-forevermore

@neii3n

@exo-nova

@cocklesbelli

@echoesofpassion

@shatteredabby

@deanmonandnegansbitch

@sea040561

@lemondropirwin

@lonewolf471

@wronglanemendes

@juniorhuntersam

@helpmeluci

@goodgodimaweirdperson

@shadowkat-83

@alltimesamantha

@officialmarvelwhore

@meganywinchester

@miraclesoflove

@maniacproffesor

@hollymac79

@kayla-2000

@gracefultrenchcoat494

@babygirls-fav

@spnwoman

@amiquette

@stormchasingchick32

@geekofmanyforms

@jessica-marsh09

@spnficgirl

@shut-themoonscone

@thequeenreaders

@countrygal17a

@atomicfandombomb

@kteelou

@soryuwifeyxx

@defenderrosetyler

@shortwinchester

@maybesomedaygayyyy

@octobereids

@sabascio

@that-place-called-middle-earth

@the-broken-angel-13

@bunnybaby89

@pandabiiissh

@maddiedott

@lilulo-12

@theoneandonlymelol

@mblaqgi

@clawsandshotguns

@justsomedreaming

@cassiopeia-barrow

@its-the-timey-wimey-winchesters

@mscarter213

@jo-like-josette

@mep6811

@prettydeaneyes

@rvgrsbrns

@deanwanddamons

@tearsforhan

@waywardbabie

@certaindeanwinchesterforcastiel

@belovedcherry

@amandamdiehl

@emaanjffri

@sycochick

@nickyrose3123

@abeautifuldiaster124

@matsumama

@rynabarnesrogers-reading

@homeorbust

@emoryhemsworth

@lunaticgurly

@sofiiamdeansgirl

@xxlikeheavenxx

--------------------------------------

Dean/Jensen Forever Tags

@spnfamily-j2

@supernatural-bellawinchester

@negans-lucille-tblr

@deans-baby-momma

@thefaithfulwriter

@squirrelnotsam

@roonyxx

@neerness

@deansgirl-1968

@spn-dean-and-sam-winchester

@butifulsoul125

@lyinginthegingerlocks

@neen-illustrates

@janicho88

@woodworthti666

@thevelvetseries

@dreaminemz

@akshi8278

@midnightsilver16830

@mrspeacem1nusone

@ria132love

@caligraphee

@the-witch-in-silence

@justanotherwinchester

@multisuperfandom

@jason-todd-squad

@jadesupernatural

@psychicforest

@luciathewinchestergirl

@magssteenkamp

@palefiregiver

@tranquility-or-chaos

@jxackles

@michellemxndes

@addictedtofictionalcharacters

@gabifernandessn

@waywardrose13

@team-free-will-you-idjiot

@myopiamystical

@rintheemolion

@isthatabutterfly

@bluecornflowers

@rosalynshields

A/N: If your name is crossed out Tumblr won’t let me tag you.

#Ms. Bodyguard - Past always catches up #angst #Jensen Ackles #jensen ackles fanfiction #jensen x reader #jensen ackles x reader #jensen ackles series #Supernatural fanfic #Supernatural RPF #spn rpf #RPF #jensen ackles x you #jensen x you #jensen x y/n #jensen ackles fanfics

178 notes · View notes

popentertainment-moviereviews · 3 years

Photo

TOM CLANCY’S WITHOUT REMORSE (2021)

Starring Michael B. Jordan, Jamie Bell, Jodie Turner-Smith, Lauren London, Brett Gelman, Jacob Scipio, Jack Kesy, Colman Domingo, Todd Lasance, Cam Gigandet, Luke Mitchell, Guy Pearce, Lucy Russell, Artjom Gilz, Merab Ninidze, Alexander Mercury, Rae Lim, Sumi Somaskanda, Zoe Günther, Jill Holwerda, Angus McGruther and Conor Boru.

Screenplay by Taylor Sheridan and Will Staples.

Directed by Stefano Sollima.

Distributed by Paramount Pictures. 110 minutes. Rated R.

Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse is sort of the state of the art of its popular genre.

I’m not going to lie. I’m not a huge fan of Clancy’s fiction, or of this particular genre – an action/adventure spy film based upon the military – but Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse does it as well as can be expected. For lovers of this type of story, Without Remorse will be a shot of adrenaline. For me, it was good, although nothing I’d ever become passionate about.

However, I understand that a lot of films that I just kind of liked have passionate followings amongst other viewers – such as the Bourne movies, the Mission: Impossible movies and the Jack Ryan films, the last of which are also based on Clancy novels. So, I get that there is a rabid fan base for this kind of stuff. Also, I can recognize when it is done well.

Without Remorse is mostly done very well, though its conspiracy theory plot gets needlessly intricate (read: confusing…) at some points.

It is the first salvo in a potential series of films revolving around favorite Clancy character John Kelly (aka John Clark in the books) starring Michael B. Jordan. A film version of the novel Rainbow Six with Jordan as the character is also in the works, and the character was in so many books that lord knows how many movies this series will expand to.

I say it is based upon the character, because Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse is apparently only very loosely based upon the novel. The basic concept of the book is retained in the film – Navy Seal Clark… sorry, Kelly… seeks revenge when his pregnant wife is violently killed in a spray of bullets.

However, the rest of the labyrinthine – some might say convoluted – conspiracy theory plot is mostly original to the movie. Without Remorse becomes a web of shadowy government agents, soldiers, spies, mercenaries, and others sniping at each other – both literally and figuratively.

There is tons of action – shooting, bombings, chases, drownings and lots of agents and pols crossing and double-crossing each other. It doesn’t always make a whole lot of sense, and sometimes it’s hard to keep track of who’s a good guy and who’s a bad guy – except for Kelly, of course, who is obviously good, but conflicted.

And if, in the end, we are still a bit unclear about the motivations of many of these characters, well that’s what sequels are for, right?

Due to the Covid crisis, Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse has skipped its big screen release and is debuting directly on Amazon Prime Video. While it is nice to get a major title like this for home consumption right out of the gate, I have the feeling this is the kind of film that would be better to experience in a crowded movie house. (Remember those?) Its action palate would work even better on a big screen in surround sound.

However, it’s not the only big film with this problem, and it is certainly not the filmmakers’ fault. This is the hand that life has dealt, and Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse makes for quality content for Amazon Prime. It also opens the possible opportunity of some kind of crossover with Amazon’s Jack Ryan series with John Krasinski, which is based upon another Clancy character.

In the meantime, Without Remorse makes for some exciting filmmaking, no matter what format it is shown on. I’m glad I saw it, although honestly, I’m not sure I’ll have any great urge to revisit it in the future.

Jay S. Jacobs

#Tom Clancy's Without Remorse #without remorse #2021 #Movie Review #Michael B. Jordan #Jay S. Jacobs

10 notes · View notes

snowdice · 4 years

Text

Finding the Time to Study Fic 2 [Day 18]

Here is my starting post for today’s study break stories session. See this post for more details and feel free to send me asks to keep me going! It’s been a lot of fun so far! I will reblog this post with the story as I write them today. I’ll be constantly looking for ideas of times and places for Janus to have missions, so feel free to send in any you can think of at any point!

If you are a new follower or just don’t want all of these posts clogging your dash, please feel free to block the tag “study break stories” as all posts and voting about it will go there. You can still see the finished product of the story even if you are blocking that tag as I will not tag the edited chapters with “study break stories” but with the tag “folds in paper.” See edited chapters below. Chapters 3-8 and what I have of Chapter 9 are under the cut.

My Masterpost Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

I also have a playlist on youtube (because Spotify didn’t have one of the songs I wanted). It’s short, and not really for serious listening, but I had fun with it.

I have homework due tomorrow, so let’s go.

Arc I: Finding Cinderella

Chapter 4

Janus was frozen in surprise for a few long moments after Pat disappeared. Which had been, admittedly, his mistake, because, while their window had technically been until 11:17pm and it was only 11:10, the loud crack that whatever Pat had been using for time travel made, garnered the attention of someone else.

“Uh oh,” Remus said, likely hearing footsteps. “Hide.”

That snapped Janus into action, but instead of hiding immediately like a sensible human being, he chose to go for the only link to the man who’d just stolen time travel tech and waltzed away, the mask.

Which was why he ended up getting arrested.

Remy tsked the moment they were all alone in the police car having come to ‘transfer Lee to another facility.’ Remus was already waiting in the front seat, and flashed Janus a smug smile. If Janus wasn’t still handcuffed, he’d slap him.

“Well,” Remy said. “At least you didn’t shoot anybody like I asked. I was joking by the way. I didn’t really want to pick you up from a 1920s police station period.”

“It wasn’t my fault.”

“Mmm, nah, ‘cause Remus managed to not get arrested this time, so you defiantly screwed something up.”

“Oh, he defiantly wanted to screw something all right,” Remus said joyfully.

“Remus,” Janus hissed.

“What?” he asked. “I’m not the horny one for once. Well, no, that’s a lie, but it didn’t affect the job this time.”

Janus groaned and leaned his head back against the seat.

Remy pulled into a seemingly random garage around 20 minutes later. “Alright,” he said. “Here we are.” He got out of the car and then helped Janus out before uncuffing him. “Here’s your ‘watch,’” Remy handed him the timepiece that had been confiscated when he’d been arrested.

Janus put it on and activated it. “Shit,” he said.

“What?” Remus asked.

“An appointment with cultural outreach has already been downloaded to my calendar for once we get out of decon.”

“Oof. Going to baby jail,” Remy laughed. Remus was cackling.

“This,” Janus said, “was not a cultural faux pas. I did nothing that indicated that I was not from this time. I am not some rookie.”

“Don’t forget cell phones don’t exist in the 1920s,” Remus sang.

“The real question is whether or not my foot exists in your…” Remus disappeared before he could finish, a smirk on his face. Janus growled. “By Remy,” he gritted out. He selected the decontamination chamber from his queue, ignoring the appointment that came after it for now.

He knew exactly where Remus would be standing when he landed, which was why he stepped forward on reentry to ram into him.

He yelped in surprise. “Sorry,” Janus said pleasantly. “I must have also forgotten landing procedures.

Remus laughed good naturally. “Aw, come on Jay,” he said, bumping Janus back, albeit much gentler than Janus had been. “It’s not a big deal. You just go talk with some crusty old college professor who is far too interested in spoons and then everything’s fine.”

“It’s the principle of the thing,” he growled. “They’re treating me like I’m an idiot who accidently invented disco in the 1920s when I was conned by some free agent time traveler.”

“‘Conned,’ Remus said. Is that what they’re calling it now?”

“I know where and when you live Remus,” Janus said.

Remus gave him a dopey smile as the decontamination cycle finished and the door unlocked. Janus’s wrist buzzed telling him that the coordinates to the cultural outreach office were now unlocked. Instead of pulling them up, Janus walked to the door.

“Um,” Remus said, following him. “Aren’t you supposed to be going to your appointment?” Janus just kept walking towards their office. “Uh… Jan?”

“It’s absolutely ridiculous that I have to go to cultural outreach,” Janus said. “In fact, no one can make me. If they want me to go have a discussion about the definition of ‘bushwa,’ they’re going to have to have me dragged there.”

“Mmm, I feel like The Boss won’t be too happy about that, and I have a feeling she’d be 100% down to dragging you there herself.”

“Well, then, let her,” Janus said, stalking through the door to his office. “I’m not going to…”

“Ah, Agent Picani,” the woman standing next to his desk, clearly waiting for him, said when he came through the door. “Dr. Picani was informed that there were complications with your last mission and wishes to have a conversation with you and asks that you meet him in his office at the AMO.”

“Oh, um,” Janus said, stumbling a bit before plastering on a regretful half smile. “Unfortunately, I actually have an appointment right now at Cultural Outreach. It’s mandatory and very important, and I have to go now. So, I’ll have to take a raincheck on that.”

“But-” she started, frowning.

“Remus, work on the report!” Janus said quickly as he waved his hand to bring up his timepiece display and jammed his finger at the glowing appointment card in his queue. A few moments later, Janus was at Cultural Outreach.

Cultural Outreach was not part of the TPI, though it often worked very closely with them. It was a collaboration between the government and multiple universities to help government workers, politicians, and other citizens understand and bridge cultural gaps. It had existed before time travel was invented but had expanded to also teach people who needed to time travel how to behave in unfamiliar times and cultures.

After it had to be expanded to provide for the TPI, it had been moved to Silver Mountains University. The building had once just been a museum, but it had been thoroughly renovated and there had been add-ons for office space and some classrooms. It was still a museum, however, its purpose had expanded greatly and there were many areas that were off limits to the general public.

One of these areas was the fourth floor, where Janus’s timepiece had dumped him. This was the floor that was almost exclusively for TPI agents and staff of Cultural Outreach who worked with them.

He immediately turned away from the reception area, hoping that he could escape and go sit on the university’s quad or something of the like for the next hour or so in hopes the woman his brother sent to fetch him would give up and go back to the AMO. Yet, the receptionist apparently saw him.

“Janus Picani?” he asked.

Janus grimaced and turned back towards him. “Yes,” he said.

“Is something wrong?” he asked. “You’re 5 minutes late for your appointment and seem disoriented.

“Nothing’s wrong.”

“Is your timepiece malfunctioning?”

“No.”

“Uh… okay. Well, if you sign in here, I can take you to your appointment.”

“…Fine.”

He begrudgingly stepped forward and touched the screen he’d gestured to sign with his fingerprint, and then let the man lead him down the hall.

The door they stopped at was propped open slightly, but he still paused and knocked. “Professor Eran? Your 2:30 is here.”

Janus had just a moment upon hearing the name to think that maybe there was actually some sort of intelligent design of the universe and whatever being of ultimate power had crafted it was a dick.

The door opened and Virgil Eran’s eyes immediately narrowed on him. “Janus.”

“Virgil.”

“I see you’re still late for everything.”

“I see you’re still a bastard.”

Janus saw the receptionist slowly back away in the direction they’d come.

“Why don’t you come in?” Virgil said faux pleasantly.

Janus did, because he really didn’t have much of a choice at this point unless he wanted to jump out of a window… or push someone out of a window.

Virgil turned back into his office and took a seat behind his desk. Janus unhappily followed him in and sat across from him.

He took his time pulling up whatever the TPI sent him and reading it over. “So, I see you failed your recovery mission and were arrested in 1923.”

“It wasn’t like that,” Janus said. “I shouldn’t be here.”

Virgil gave him that same suspicious look he used to give Janus whenever Janus claimed to have not eaten his hot pockets out of the freezer in the middle of the night. He’d only been lying 80% of the time. Virgil had a tendency to forget what he’d eaten in a half-conscious state at 3 o’clock in the morning.

“I shouldn’t,” Janus snapped defensively. “Nothing went wrong with anyone from the time period. An illegal time traveler screwed up the mission details.”

“Well, it is still protocol to make sure nothing slipped when agents go off script. You weren’t prepared to be in a jail cell, and it is possible that you screwed something up.”

“I didn’t screw anything up,” Janus growled.

“Alright,” Virgil said pulling up a document on his desk. “The mission started on July 27th, 1923 at 9:58pm, correct?”

“Oh, god, we’re not really going to fill out a time sheet. I don’t have time for that today.”

“It is protocol and best that the information is documented when it is still fresh in your mind. Besides, your schedule has been cleared for the rest of the workday.” The bastard was enjoying this. He knew how much Janus hated this stuff.

“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Janus said, “it was the damned illicit time traveler.”

“And I will be the judge of that,” Virgil said. Janus should have just bit the bullet and had coffee with his brother. “If you truly did nothing wrong, your supervisor will see that when I send this to her.”

Yet, despite the fact that Virgil clearly relished in his suffering, he was charitable enough to do most of the actual filling out of the forms. He’d read out the questions and write down what Janus said instead of making him do it himself. Janus really only had to do a quick quality check and sign it at the end.

He still was an asshole about the details, but really he’d been like that about stupid thing like the settings for the dish washer and how the pantry was organized during their college days before they’d had their falling out, so Janus wasn’t particularly surprised. When they were finally done, Virgil sent it off to get filed by the TPI.

Then, they were left staring at each other with nothing between them but almost a decade of radio silence and a whole lot of awkwardness.

“I should go,” Janus finally said, standing up.

Virgil tilted his head slightly to the side and gave him a half smile. “Don’t lock the door behind you,” he said. “Not that I’d expect you too.”

Janus took it for the clear attempt at a joke it was intended to be and puffed out a breath of amusement with a head shake. “No risk of that,” he said. Then, he turned and walked out of the office.

Chapter 5

Janus stepped back into the reception area and booted up his time piece. Instinct said to go back to the office despite the fact that it was late enough that most people had gone home, but he hesitated. Surely Emile had given up by now, but considering he’d sent someone to ambush him in his office, Janus wasn’t sure if he should trust that. He could just go home, but he already knew his mind was racing too much to sleep tonight so he’d probably just end up staring at the lake for the next 6 hours. So, he decided on the only other legitimate option he had. He pulled up Remus’s home coordinates and selected.

The home that Remus had chosen (after his long line of rejected requests) managed to somehow make no and absolute sense simultaneously to anyone who knew him. It was a small farm in the United States just west of the Mississippi in 1842 in what would be ratified as the state of Iowa in a few years. When asked why he would choose that time and place, Remus always responded with “I thought it was funny,” whatever that meant.

Unlike most time agents who simply used the identities assigned to them by the AMO as a cover, Remus actually lived his part time.

Janus was… fairly certain he was cheating a bit to get everything done, but he maintained his small farm all on his own, growing most of his own food. The neighbors he had lived very far away, but he still spoke with them far more than Janus did his own.

Janus appeared inside the small home, his eyes already shut. “Are you hear and dressed?” Janus called. Something bumped lightly into his legs.

“I’m in the kitchen!”

Janus peaked his eyes open and squatted to pet the cat at his feet. “That doesn’t answer my question!” he called back to Remus.

“It’s a surprise!” Remus said.

“Remus.” Diesel Fuel the cat flopped to her side on the ground as Janus continued to pet her ears. He heard Remus’s footsteps, and saw cloth covering his legs, so risked looking up. He was currently not only dressed, but wearing an apron that Janus was fairly sure was not time appropriate judging by the fabric and cat pawprint design. He had a bit of flour on his hands, and it may have been a bit too white for the time and place, but Janus couldn’t be completely sure.

“What’re you doing here?” Remus asked.

“My day has been an endless series of frustrations,” Janus said. “So, I have come to see the only tolerable being in the history of the universe.”

Remus snorted. “Since I know that isn’t me, I’ll assume you’re talking about the cat.”

“I still don’t understand why you tolerate this creature,” Janus addressed Diesel Fuel. She blinked slowly up at him. “To be fair, he was assigned as my partner. I didn’t have much of a choice in it. You could go always run away and become feral in the woods if you’d like.”

“So could you, technically,” Remus pointed out.

“I’m thinking about it after today.”

“Would you like some bread?” Remus asked. “That’s all I’ve been making this afternoon. Some fresh should be coming out of the oven in a few minutes.”

“Do you have anything stronger made out of wheat?”

“Ew, no, but I do have vodka.”

“Vodka works.”

“Want me to mix it with something?”

“No.”

“One of those night then,” Remus said, easily. “Let me finish up the bread, so I don’t burn the kitchen down. You can go get the alcohol from the cellar while you wait if you want, or you can just flop down on the couch.”

He was going to just flop down on the couch.

He did just that as Remus disappeared back into his kitchen. The cat hopped onto his stomach, proceeding to purr loudly and kneed at chest. Janus petted the cat and listened to the noise of Remus moving around in the other room, letting his mind drift. His mind drifted to Virgil for a bit and he steadfastly did not allow it to drift to his brother. Yet, the thing that most was on his mind was the strange man who had flirted and charmed Janus all night before mercilessly screwing him over. ‘Pat’ he’d said his name was, but surely that was not his real name.

Janus sighed and scratched the cat’s ear. “He certainly wasn’t an amateur,” Janus mused to the cat. “With that amount of precision to get in before we did, he must have someone not on the ground feeding him information. Perhaps more than one.” He was part of a group of time traveling thieves perhaps or something worse. “I didn’t get a good look at his face since he was wearing a mask,” Janus said, “but I spent a lot of time with him, and I’m sure Remy swiped the mask from the police since it had been on me when I was arrested. It’s a good lead.”

He continued to pet Diesel Fuel. Eventually, Remus came back in, noticed Janus hadn’t bothered to get the alcohol and went outside to the cellar. “I’m going to find him,” Janus told Diesel Fuel. “I’ll stop whatever it is he’s doing, and I’ll bring him in.” Diesel Fuel mewed her support, and Janus patted her on top of the head.

Remus came back in with the bottle of vodka and handed it to him without a word. He sat down on the couch near Janus’s feet and patted his lap so Diesel Fuel would come over to him and allow Janus to sit up.

The bastard waited until he was approximately 3 shots in (he didn’t have a shot glass and was just taking drinks from the bottle) to ask the questions Janus really didn’t want to answer. “Are you mad at Emile?” Remus asked.

Janus groaned, trying to wash out the bitter taste of shame and grief with the sharp sting of vodka. It didn’t work. “No,” he said to Remus.

“Then why have you been avoiding him?”

“Shit, I’m here because I didn’t want to think about it. Can’t we just not.”

“Don’t want to think about what?

“It’s none of your business, Remus.”

He could feel Remus frowning at him, but Janus stared resolutely ahead. At least, he did until a foot poked his face. He slapped it away, but it did the job of getting Janus to look at Remus.

“It is my business,” Remus said, foot still in the air. “I’m your partner and your friend.”

“If I’m your friend, you’ll drop it.”

“So, you’re not mad at Emile,” Remus continued, contemplatively. “Did you do something to him, then?” Janus bit his lip and looked away. “What?” Remus asked. Janus didn’t respond. “Look, I’m sure he’ll forgive you for whatever it is. He’s a good guy. Just talk to him about it.”

“I can’t,” Janus said.

“Whatever it is, it’s probably been long enough that he forgives you. You literally just have to have a conversation, say you’re sorry, and everything will be A-OK.”

“I can’t,” Janus repeated.

“Why not?”

“He doesn’t know about it.”

Remus paused. “So, as far as he knows, you just cut contact with him all of a sudden for no reason and have been avoiding him ever since?”

Janus looked at his shoes. “Yeah.”

“That…” Remus said, “is not fucking fair Janus.”

“I know.”

“Then why the hell are you doing that to him? He’s like… soft and feeling-y. He’s probably really upset.”

“I know, Remus.”

“Tell him. Whatever it is.”

“I can’t.”

“Look,” Remus said. “You tell him and he either forgives you or he doesn’t. If he does, everything’s fine. If he doesn’t… well, it’s not like it would be any different from you two never being in the same room the last few years. Either way, you can’t just do this to him. He’ll probably forgive you. He’s your brother. Brothers don’t… brothers would forgive each other.”

Janus laughed softly and met Remus’s eyes. “That’s the problem,” he said. “He’d definitely forgive me.” He turned away and opened the vodka bottle again. “Now, if you’ll shut up for a few minutes, I’m going to drink until I black out.”

Chapter 6

“Really, Khalid,” Janus said, storming into his boss’s office. “A yellow?” It had been about a week since the 1920s incident, and his incident report had finally been cleared. Sure, it wasn’t a red or a black and he wasn’t facing any reprimand, but it should have been a green.

She looked up at him, clearly unconcerned. “There was an incident,” she said. “You handled it well, but there was one. Therefore, yellow.”

“It wasn’t a time travel incident! It was a rouge time traveler.”

“Janus, you helped me make these rules,” she said impatiently.

“Which is why I know this is bullshit,” he snapped.

She rolled her eyes. “If it was anyone else, you would agree with me. While you didn’t go against protocol and had no time related incidents, the fact of the matter is, you were still distracted by this ‘rouge time traveler,’ didn’t complete your mission, and were arrested.”

“He was good,” Janus said. “You can’t fault me for that. He also could be dangerous and you’re busy handing out yellows instead of working to track him down.”

She raised an eyebrow. “We are working on tracking him down,” she said. “We have done an analysis on the mask and found fibers dating to the 2010s and some DNA. Though it isn’t exactly a high priority.”

“We have no idea who he is or what he’s planning to do. Why is that not a high priority thing?”

“At the moment?” she asked. “Because we have reports of a time bomb being activated.”

“What?” Janus asked sitting up. “When?”

“New Years Eve going into the year 3,000 in Brazil,” she said. “Which you’d know about if you’d bothered to check your integration port this morning before storming into my office.”

“It’s my mission?” Janus asked.

“The incident investigation is over and your active again despite the dreaded yellow,” she said, clearly making fun of him a bit. “So, yes, and it’s a high priority mission, so I’ll be running it.”

“Who all is going?” he asked.

“Other than the two of us, Remus, Lena, and Fred,” she told him. “We leave in three hours, so, you might want to run off to Rhi before Fred gets to her and ties her up for an hour on details.”

Janus nodded and got to his feet. He turned back at the door. “I still don’t deserve the yellow,” he hissed.

She waved him off. “I’ll see you in a few hours, Picani.”

He ground his teeth a bit about the dismissal of his worries, but his resentment was slightly soothed by the fact that she’d assigned him to go on such a high priority mission and with only senior agents.

He took the advice and grabbed Remus from the office, noting Lena hadn’t been able to wrangle Fred yet as she was still at her desk, and they both headed off to see Rhi.

A few hours later, they were all in decontamination together, decked out in truly god-awful costumes. The turn of the third millennia had been a wild event, and the best way to fit in was to look like you’d grabbed something from every century in recorded human history, dyed it in neon paint, and rolled around in a vat of glitter.

Remus had opted to stick his head in a vat of glow in the dark green paint that costuming had offered them, and it wasn’t even going to be slightly disruptive to their covertness.

In fact, costuming had frowned when Janus had insisted he not get his hair dyed and instead wore a bowler hat. They had required him to have flowers made out of glitter on it.

There were five people waiting for them when they landed 6 hours before the turn of the millennia. Three were touchdown agents, including Remy, and two were on location tech support. Usually it would be overkill to have that many people there just for support even with five agents in the field, but today the TPI needed to be cautious because they were planning on instituting a time lock.

Time bombs were dangerous things that would ripple through time if not contained. Even if it did end up going off (killing everyone in its reach), the time lock would serve to prevent most damage outside of the city and, more importantly, the year it was planted.

Janus had only been in two time locks before, and he was one of the most senior agents in the TPI, outranked only by the founder: Lia Khalid. Time locks were designed to keep all time linear in a certain fixed time and geographical area as well as prevent any time travel in and out. Once it was engaged, all forms of time travel would not work for the duration, bar the pin device. Khalid was already switching out her regular timepiece with the slightly bigger one that was designed to support the time lock.

There was a failsafe back at the TPI that could be engaged in an emergency, which was why tech support was here, but other than that, the only thing that could break the time lock was that timepiece, and it would break the moment the time lock ended.

As soon as it was on Khalid’s wrist, she looked up at them all. “Our information says the time bomb was planted in the costume of one of the ‘Millennium Birds’ who are the organizers of the different events,” she said. Janus had seen a photo of the identical costumes in the mission details. They were all robe like garments with giant fans of feathers coming from the neck that coalesced in a peak a foot above their head to hold a fake bird egg. At least they’d be easy to find. “There are 25 of them throughout the city. We need to find each of them. So, we don’t double count, you’ll need to subtly,” her eyes touched on Remus, “scan each one you find for the bomb and tag them with a tracker if it’s not on them. You can view the already tagged ones, as well as the rest of us on your timepiece even once the time lock is engaged. When you find the bomb, call it in.”

They all nodded, and Khalid looked over at one of the techies. She nodded at her and then the techie flipped a couple of switches. “Three, two, one,” the techie said. There was a slight shift in the air that most people would disregard, but Janus as a seasoned time traveler could feel the change even before his wrist buzzed. He glanced at his timepiece to see it had a big red ‘X’ across its display. He tapped it and was still able to bring up the map of the city with 10 green dots on it all clustered together in their current location.

After that, he tested the scanner on his timepiece that he would use to search for the bomb, just to make sure the time lock hadn’t messed anything up with his equipment. He glanced up to see everyone else was doing the same.

“Keep in contact,” Khalid said before everyone split up. Janus and Remus started by going North while Fredrick and Darlene were to go South. Khalid was a floater who would tag any Birds she saw but was mostly there for backup and orders.

Janus and Remus stepped into the chaos of New Years Eve before the turn of the third millennia. The streets were already swamped with people and it would only be getting worse the later it go.

“Where should we start?” Remus asked.

“Let’s go all the way North to the games area,” Janus said. “We can work our way back here.”

“Okay!” Remus said. “I wonder if they have those fun little genetically modified goldfish as prizes. I’ve always wanted to eat one and see if I end up getting whatever design was on the fish on my body.”

Janus gave him a disgusted look.

“What?! People eat fish all the time!”

Janus shook his head. “We’re not playing the games anyway. We have work to do. Important work.”

“Boo,” Remus replied. Janus chose to ignore him as he spotted one of the Millenia Birds letting people into the gaming area.

They walked over towards the entrance. Janus got in range first and moved to subtly scan the Millenia Bird, Remus doing the same the next moment. After a second, Janus’s timepiece buzzed and lit up red, meaning the bomb was within range. “Well, that was easy,” he said. “It was on the first one we found.”

“Uh…” Remus said. “Jan.” When Janus looked, he was holding up his wrist to show his green lit time piece.

“What?” Janus asked. He quickly moved to rescan the Millenia Bird, and his timepiece came up green as well. Which, meant the bomb was not in range, even though the Millenia Bird had not moved. “But…” He and Remus’s eyes met, and they quickly both started turning in a circle to look at the crowd around him. No one looked like they’d just stolen a time bomb off the Millennial Bird, but then Janus’s eyes caught on a man. He blended in perfectly to his surroundings. He was wearing the disgusting garb of the times, a large light blue piece that bubbled near his hips, and had most of his skin covered in rainbow neon paints. Yet, something about him, the curl of his hair or the way he moved, drew Janus’s eyes to him. He recognized the man immediately even in a completely different dressing style. Yet, what cinched it was the moment Janus’s eyes met his and they seemed to sparkle slightly in the afternoon sun. The next moment, the person Janus knew as Pat, turned to disappear into the crowd.

Chapter 7

“Him,” was the only thing Janus said before taking off after the figure who had just disappeared into the game area.

“What?” Remus’s voice followed after him. “Janus! What?!”

Janus did not pause, just continuing to run after Pat, hopping over two barricades as a shortcut. Janus cursed when he lost sight of the man for just a moment near the prize table filled with colorful goldfish, but he was able to spot him once again walking into one of the tents. Janus blasted into the tent. It was a game where they raced rats, and when Janus entered, Pat was cooing at one of them.

“Who’s a tiny little squishy precious baby?” he was asking one of them, wiggling his pointer finger at it.

“You,” Janus growled stepping up to him.

He turned and tilted his head at Janus with a frown. “Um, me?” he asked, pointing to his chest, all sorts of innocent, but Janus could see a spot of hidden amusement in his eyes.

“Where is it?”

His eyebrows drew together, but it was an act. It was clearly an act! “Where is what?”

“The…” he glanced around them at the people surrounding them. “Thing you just took.”

“I didn’t take anything,” Pat said with a frown.

“Oh, no,” Janus said. “Fool me once, shame on you. Fooling me twice is not an option.”

“I’m sorry sir,” Pat said. “I really don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Bull. Shit.”

Just then, Remus jogged into the tent. “What’s going on?” he asked.

“It’s him,” Janus said pointing. “He took it. He has it.”

“I… don’t know what you’re talking about,” Patton said. He looked over to Remus with a confused frown.

Remus looked at Janus. “Are you sure?”

“Yes,” Janus said. “It’s him. It has to be him. He’s the mask guy.”

Remus squinted at Pat. “He is?”

“Whoever you think I am, I’m not. I haven’t worn a mask all night. I just did the face paint,” he pointed to his cheeks.

Remus raised his wrist and his timepiece lit up green. He looked at Janus.

“I lost sight of him for five seconds. He must have stashed it somewhere,” Janus said. He turned on Pat. “Where did you put it?”

“…Are you,” Pat asked, his eyes going back and forth between Janus and Remus, “… the police?”

“We are, actually,” Khalid said as she stepped into the tent. Remus must have called her. She inserted herself between Janus and Pat. “Agent Khalid,” she said, offering a hand with a smile. Pat looked at it in surprise and then smiled back hesitantly as he took it. “Apologizes, one of the big game prizes was stolen by someone matching your description. Would you mind coming down to security for questioning? Just to clear it up.”

“Oh,” Patton said, hesitant. Janus expected him to refuse outright, but then he said. “Uh, sure.”

“Thank you very much, Mr…”

“Jonas,” Pat told her earnestly. “Do I need to be handcuffed?”

“No,” Khalid said. Janus frowned at her, but she ignored him. “It’s just a talk for now.” She gestured to the tent entrance. “Come with us.”

He did without argument, and Remus and Janus followed behind the both of them. Khalid did not lead them back to the base, but to a little spot that said “security” near the center of the event. Remy was already there waiting for them at a desk.

“Remy, would you please take Mr. Jonas to go sit down?” she asked.

“Sure, boss,” Remy said, standing up. He led Pat away.

Khalid turned to Janus and Remus once they were out of earshot. “What is going on?”

“It’s the mask man,” Janus said, “the one from 1923, and my scanner said the time bomb was on the Millenia Bird outside the games entrance, but then it was gone the next second, and I saw him, and then he ran away.”

“So, does he have it on him?”

“No. I lost sight of him, and he must have stored it somewhere, but I know he took it.”

10264

“He’s the man from 1923?” she asked.

“Yes! Remus, that’s him, right? You recognize him.”

“Well,” Remus said thoughtfully. “He was in a mask, and it was dark in the room with the necklace. Other than that, I only really saw his back, and he was wearing pants. Mr. Jonas is wearing a dress, so I can’t really tell if their asses match.”

“Okay, but I was with him for hours. I swear it’s him, and I swear he took it,” Janus just about shouted.

“We’ll question him,” Khalid placated, “and Fred and Lena will keep looking in the meantime.”

“He knows where it is,” Janus insisted. “I swear.”

“Okay,” Khalid said, before leaving to follow where Remy and Pat had gone. She stopped Janus with a hand on his shoulder. “I think Remus and I will do the interrogation.” He opened his mouth to argue. “You know the most about him, so observe from the sidelines and see if he makes any mistakes that indicate you’re right.”

“That’s just to placate me and you know it.”

“Observation’s over there,” she said pointing.

He got a thumbs up from Remus as he walked by, and Janus glared at his back before walking off to the indicated location.

He watched as Remus and Khalid entered the room, and Remy left it. Remy joined him in the observation room after leaving and leaned against the wall.

Pat was sitting at a table and watched Remus and Khalid with that same rubbish placid confusion that he had before. “So,” Khalid said, “Mr. Jonas.”

“You can call me Nick,” Pat interrupted.

“Lia,” Khalid replied. He smiled at her happily. “So, are you enjoying your day?” she asked.

“I am!” he replied. “It’s a big day. You only get to see the turn of a millennia once in your life.”

“Ah, yes,” Khalid said. “Doing anything special for it?”

“Um, not really,” he said. “Other than the party. I’m going to meet up with my roommates after dinner. Kevin doesn’t like this sort of thing, and Joe couldn’t come.”

“Your roommates,” Khalid said, considering him. “Do you live around here?”

“Uh huh,” Pat replied.

“Do you have any ID?”

“I do, want me to get it?”

“If you wouldn’t mind.”

Pat unzipped one of the bubbles on his waist and handed her a chip. “Remus, would you mind going out and getting the ID scanner?” she asked, even though her timepiece would be able to read it.

“Ah, shit,” Remy said. “Props. What do those things even look like?”

As Remy scrambled to find something that would pass for an ID reader so “Nick” didn’t get suspicious of Khalid using her timepiece, Janus watched the two alone in the room like a hawk.

“I see you’re wearing a dress inspired by the 2770s,” Khalid noted, as Remus came to stand next to him.

“Yeah!” Pat replied. “Joe made it for me. He’s really good at fashion design!”

“Can I see?” she asked.

With a happy smile, he reached over the table to let her get a look of the sleeves. Janus saw her subtly scan the fabric, probably to make sure it was from the 2990s and not actually from the 2770s. Considering she didn’t mention it, Janus assumed it checked out.

Remy came back with some sort of device then and handed it to Remus who saluted and wandered back into the interrogation room. Khalid pretended to scan the ID in her hand. She handed it back to him without comment. “So, you said you live with your roommates: Joe and Kevin?” she asked.

“Yep!” he replied. “We’re practically like brothers.”

“Would you mind calling them?”

“Erm,” he titled his head like he was confused by the question. “Well, like I said, Joe is a bit busy, but I could definitely call Kevin.

“Here,” Khalid said, “use my phone.”

“I have my own,” he said with a frown.

“Humor me,” she requested.

“Uh, okay,” Pat agreed. He took the offered 2999 phone and dialed a number on it. Khalid reached over to put it on speaker.

“Hello?” a voice asked after a few seconds.

“Um, hey Kevin, it’s Nick.”

There was a sigh on the other end. “Hello Nick, is something wrong? Why are you calling me from someone else’s phone?”

“I’m fine, I think.” He looked up at Khalid. “Why am I calling him exactly?”

“Hello, I’m Officer Khalid,” Khalid said. “I just wanted to confirm that you are Nick Jonas’s roommate, and he does live in Manaus.”

“Yes, we live together with our other roommate,” the man replied flippantly. “Officer? Is something wrong?”

“I believe there was just a case of mistaken identity,” Khalid said.

“Bullshit there was!” Janus hissed, though she could not hear him.

“No need to worry,” Khalid continued.

“I’m good Kevin,” Pat said.

“Are you absolutely sure?” Kevin asked.

“Don’t be Paranoid, Kevin. I’ll see you Tonight for the New Years Celebration. You know I Live to Party.”

“I am hanging up now,” Kevin said.

“No! Comeback.” The line went dead. Pat handed the device back to Khalid.

She took it and smiled at him. “Give us just a couple of minutes,” she requested. He nodded easily, and she and Remus exited the interrogation room. “I… think we’re done here,” Khalid said.

“No, he’s lying,” Janus insisted, and got a dubious look in return. “I know he is! Remus!”

“The alibi is pretty solid…” Remus said, “and he doesn’t have the bomb on him.”

“Oh, come on,” Janus said. “You can’t say there is nothing fishy going on here.”

Khalid and Remus shared a look. “Janus,” Khalid said. “I respect your intuition. It is usually very good, but you have been a bit intense about the man from the 1920s, and I think that may be blinding you a bit...”

“I am not imagining this!” Janus said. “That’s him and he took it.”

“You only met him once while he was wearing a mask,” Khalid pointed out with a frown, “and you didn’t see him take the bomb, did you?”

“No, but he looked at me and I knew,” Janus argued. They both gave him a skeptical look. “Oh, come on!”

“You know that’s a little weak, Jan,” Remus said.

“Let me talk to him,” Janus requested. “Just give me five minutes to talk with him.”

Khalid raised one eyebrow. “Fine,” she agreed. “You have five minutes, but after that, you have to let it go. We can’t waste any more time.”

Chapter 8

Pat looked up as Janus stepped into the interrogation room. “Hi,” he said with an innocent smile that could cut steal.

Janus didn’t say a word as he took a seat; he just watched him intently. He leaned slightly over the table and steepled his fingers in front of his chin. “So, your name is Nick this time?” Janus asked.

“Nicholas Jonas,” he said. “Always has been.”

“Stop it,” Janus said.

“Stop what?”

“Cut the crap. I know.”

Pat leaned forward, mirroring Janus as he leaned closer, interlocking his fingers and laying his chin on top of his knuckles. “What did you say your name was again?” he asked, pleasantly.

“Janus,” Janus replied.

“No, I’m Jonas,” he said, pointing to his chest.

“Not Jonas,” Janus spat. “Janus.”

“Um,” Pat said, eyes alight with amusement. The bastard. “Those are the same words.”

“No, they’re not. It’s Janus. J-A-N-U.-S.”

“Well, that’s confusing,” Pat said with a frown, but his nose was crinkling. “It’s close to my name. You should go by a nickname instead.”

“What?” Janus said. “No.”

Pat hummed. “How about Love Bug?”

“What! No!” Janus sputtered, almost flipping the table, as Pat winked at him.

“BB Good?”

“What does that even mean?!”

“Mandy.”

“No!”

“Okay, okay, how about Macy Misa.”

11594

Janus stared at him for a moment. “Fine. Whatever. What was I even talking about?”

“Hmm. I Believe we were talking about my name and how you think it’s not my name.”

“Right,” Janus said. “So, Nick. That was your roommate, Kevin on the phone, right? He seemed a bit unhappy with you. Any reason?”

“Nah, we’re Cool” said Pat. “That’s Just the Way We Roll.”

“Not because you’re messing up a mission right now?”

Pat’s eyes crinkled together. “A mission?” he parroted. “I’m not messing up a mission.”

“Oh, really?” Janus growled. “Because you’ve been captured by the TPI, and I know who you are and what you’ve been doing.”

“I have no idea what the TPI is,” he claimed.

“Yes, you do!” Janus said, standing up. “You obviously do! Or you wouldn’t be playing this game!”

“Game?” Pat asked. “Macy I ask you what you’re talking about.”

“This is all just a game to you isn’t it!” Janus said, slamming his hands down on the table in front of them.

“Whoa,” Pat said, putting his hands up. “Calm down. Your face is getting all red. You must be Burnin’ Up.”

“I’m not sure what, but something about what you just said pisses me off.”

“And that is five minutes,” Khalid said, bursting into the room. He felt a tug on the back of his shirt and glared back at Remus who was putting his own body between Janus and Pat.

“There was no way that was five minutes,” Janus growled.

“It was five minutes,” Khalid gritted out. “Remus, get him out of here.”

“Come on Jay,” Remus said, dragging him back towards the door.

“Remus, I swear to god.”

“Just chill, Janus,” Remus said, slamming the door closed behind them.

Janus shrugged him off. “You chill!” he snapped. “He’s playing you all for the fool.”

“Wow, Macy,” Remy drawled like an asshole. “I’ve never seen you so fired up.”

“Oh, my gosh. No one is going to believe me, and he’s going to get away with this.”

“You’re not really helping your case, babe,” Remy said.

Remus grabbed him by the shoulders again. “Here, let’s go get some water.”

“I don’t want water,” he said even as he let Remus lead him to another room to get a glass of water.

“Look,” Remus said. “I know the Mask Guy thing really sucked, but you have to look at the facts.

“I am looking at the facts,” Janus insisted, “and the facts are, he’s fucking with me.”

“You don’t know what mask guy looks like,” Remus said. “You didn’t see Nick take the time bomb, he has an ID from this time period and a roommate in this time he called on the phone, and he legitimately seems to not know what any of us are talking about.”

“Did you even listen to our conversation?” Janus asked. “He was screwing with me the entire time!”

“Janus…” Remus said.

“What?” Janus said, narrowing his eyes at Remus’s tone.

“I know you recently had a bad experience, but not everyone who flirts with you is doing it out of evil.”

Janus’s mouth hung open for a few seconds. “That’s what you got out of our conversation?”

“He called you Love Bug.”

Janus felt his face heat a bit at the reminder. “That’s not… I. I’m stealing your cat and then never speaking to you again.”

Remus laughed. “Ah,” he said. “Young lust.”

Janus elbowed him roughly in the side. “No!”

“Yes!” he crooned, pleased.

“You are the worst partner,” Janus hissed. “When I’m right you owe me 10 loafs of your fresh bread.”

“Branching out from poptarts?” Remus asked.

Janus shook his head. He still wasn’t happy about the state of things, but he could feel himself cooling down a bit.

Khalid came out of the integration room after a few minutes, leaving Pat with Remy. “What was that?” she asked him.

“He got under my skin,” Janus said.

“We’ll talk about it later,” she said. “For now, we’re letting him go and then going back to looking for the bomb like we’re meant to be.”

“Fine,” Janus relented. “Just do me the favor of tagging him before he leaves. Just that. I beg of you.”

“Sure,” she agreed. “If it will calm you down.”

He nodded.

“Then, let’s go,” she said. When they met back up with Remy and Pat, he saw Khalid make the subtle gesture that would tag Pat like they would have for the Millennium Birds. Pat sent him what could pass as a sweet smile if Janus didn’t know better. Then, they walked him outside, leaving Remy on clean-up duty for the make-shift security office.

“So, I’m free to go?” Pat asked. His bemused expression edged far too much on the side of amused verses confused for Janus’s taste.

“You are,” Khalid said. “Have fun at the festivities.”

His hands went flapping about. “Oh, you too!” he said. “Well, I guess you’re working, but you can have fun anyway, I’m sure.”

“We’ll do our best,” she said.

He gave her a blinding smile and reached forward to shake her hand enthusiastically. Janus rolled his eyes and looked up at the heavens. “It was nice to meet you!” he said, “and you too, Remus!” He turned to meet Janus’s eyes. “Macy Misa.”

Janus pressed his lips together.

Then, Pat turned and walked away.

“Well, now that we’re done with that,” Khalid said, turning to them. “We have only a few more hours before midnight and we really need to find the time bomb.

“Oh,” Pat called. He’d paused a few yards away and turned back to them. “Thanks for letting me go so easily by the way,” he said, “and just in the Nick,” he winked, “of time too.” Janus narrowed his eyes at him. He smiled back. “Wrist check,” he said holding up his arm to show off the timepiece there. Khalid immediately looked down at her own wrist just to see that the one timepiece that could move through the time lock was no longer there. Pat made a gesture and disappeared.

All three of them stared at the spot he’d been for a long moment.

Janus was the one to speak first. “I want. The yellow. To be erased. From my record.”

Chapter 9

Khalid immediately called everyone back to base.

“What happened?” asked Fred when he and Lena arrived. The tech people were already scrambling to get through to the TPI and get the time lock broken from the outside.

“Remus, Remy, and Khalid got played by Pat or whatever his name is. It certainly isn’t Nick. He was just setting up a joke,” Janus told him.

“Stop being smug,” Remy said. “It’s not a good look for you.”

“Pat is…?” Lena asked.

“They guy who fucked me over in 1923,” Janus said, “and is currently in the middle of fucking us all over because he stole the pin timepiece, and by extrapolation, probably the time bomb too.”

“It will be fine,” said Khalid, “because what he doesn’t know is that timepiece has a tracker on it. Wherever and whenever he went, we’ll have his coordinates.”

“Speaking of,” one of the techies said. “It’s about to break. You might want to hold onto something.” Janus grabbed for a support beam next to him as the techie put a device on the ground in the center of the base. It blinked once, twice, and on the third blink the ground rumbled. There were sounds of panicked yelps outside. The fail safe for the time lock was not nearly as gentle as ending it correctly.

Everything settled after a few moments, and they all straightened themselves out. Janus’s timepiece buzzed to indicate it was now functioning normally. Khalid had returned her usual timepiece to her wrist and now used it to open a display they could all see. “The pin timepiece’s closest time/space coordinates are…” she trailed off. “Right outside?” She frowned. “That’s strange. Why would he still be here?” She turned to march outside, following the coordinates to a trash can. She pulled the pin timepiece out and stared at it. “Fuck,” she said.

“What just happened?” Remy asked.

“He ticked us,” Janus said. “Again.”

“He was stuck in the time lock,” Khalid said. “That’s why he got our attention. He couldn’t leave with the time bomb unless he had the pin timepiece or we broke the time lock. Apparently, he’s smart enough to know that if he took the pin timepiece away from here, we’d probably be able to find him, but he knew we’d break the lock as soon as the pin went missing. So, he must have stashed his own timepiece and went back in time within the time lock to grab it while we were distracted with the past version of him. As soon as the time lock went down, I imagine he left.”

“Probably with the time bomb,” Janus said.

“Probably with the time bomb,” she confirmed.

And everyone knew the only thing worse than a time bomb was a time bomb you didn’t know the location of.

They evacuated after that, of course, and time locked the location once they were out just in case they were wrong, but midnight 3000 struck without thousands of people dying in Brazil, so the time bomb had defiantly been removed from then.

The, they initiated a time travel lockdown for all nonessentials, not willing to let random history students get caught up in an explosion if Pat decided to set the thing off somewhere.

Then, it was a matter of figuring out everything they could about ‘Pat.’ First, they checked the tracker data as Khalid had tagged him with one of the Millennium Bird trackers. It wouldn’t work outside of the zone they’d set up that day, but the record would show his behavior during the time lock after he’d escaped with the pin timepiece.

There had been many little green dots on the map that day as Fred and Lena had actually been doing the job they’d set out to do, but most of those were running around in the south. There had been one green dot, however, that appeared suddenly in the game area about 10 minutes before the time bomb had been stolen.

They could see Janus’s yellow dot almost brush his when he’d been chasing the earlier Pat down, around when he’d lost him briefly. The earlier Pat must have all but handed it off to his future self.

“He doubled back,” Remus commented when they watched the recorded data. It was a ballsy move and one that most people balked at, because there were inherent dangers any time you interacted with yourself from a different point in the timestream. It was ripe for paradoxes. It made everyone at the agency even more worried, because if he was willing to risk that, then what else was he willing to do?

Because of the lockdown of all nonessential time travel, people working for the TPI were not allowed to go home for the night. They were allowed to pick up anyone or anything dependent on them for care like kids and pets if there wasn’t someone in their home time to care for them, but other than that, they were unfortunately all sleeping in their offices for the foreseeable future.

“You are the only tolerable one,” Janus told the cat who upon being let loose in the office by Remus, immediately jumped on Janus’s lap.

“I have literally done nothing to you,” Lena said, but then added. “Yet.”

“You exist. In my space.”

“Can’t we just all get along?” asked Fred. “It’s only been an hour past when we’d usually go home. I went and grabbed milk and I have my giant thing of different flavored hot chocolate under my desk. We can try them all and vote on which is better.”

“Fuck your hot chocolate, Fred,” Janus growled, having been one of the three who had chipped in to buy it for him on his last birthday.

“Don’t go after Fred, jackass,” Lena spat.

“He’s just testy because his boyfriend escaped,” Remus contributed.

Janus’s lips turned down into a frown and he cupped Diesel Fuel’s face. “We agree we’re eating him first, right?” he asked her.

She purred her agreement.

“I’d have it no other way,” Remus replied.

“There is plenty of food,” Fred said, sounding stressed. “In fact, I was thinking we should all chip in on ordering take-out soon. “What does everyone like on pizza?”

“This is not a slumber party, Fred,” Janus pointed out.

“Shut it,” Lena snapped and turned to Fred. “I’m fine with almost everything, except…”

“Bananas and tuna salad!” Remus interrupted.

“…whatever Remus is about to say.”

Janus rolled his eyes as that started a debate about whether or not fruit and/or fish belonged on pizza. He leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes, which was when there was a knock on the door.

He froze when he heard the familiar voice. “Hello, hello,” said Emile, cheerfully. Janus looked up to see Emile standing at the open office door. Shit. Apparently, the man had decided to give up on sending lackeys to come fetch him and had decided to track him down himself when Janus couldn’t even escape without breaking a time lockdown. They met eyes briefly and Janus could see irritation if not anger in his eyes despite his otherwise cheerful expression and tone.

“Janus,” he said when he’d gotten their attention. “I’d like to have dinner with you.” The word choice told Janus everything he needed to know. Usually Emile was careful with how he said things to make sure people knew they had a choice. Typically he’d say something like, “I was wondering if you’d have time to have dinner with me tonight,” or “I’m about to go get food, would you like to come?” Today, there was no choice in the statement.

Janus still dried to dodge anyway. “Uh,” he said. “We were actually about to order pizza.”

“Go ahead,” said Fred kindly. Janus wanted to strangle him. “We can order pizza with olives if you’re not here.”

“I…” said Janus. “Guess, I’ll be going with you.”

“Great!” Emile said. “Let’s go.”

“Oh,” Janus said. “Uh, now?”

“Now,” Emile said a bit of uncharacteristic steel to his tone.

Well, Janus was screwed. He swallowed his nervousness and got to his feet, taking Diesel Fuel with him. He turned to hand her off to Remus with a plea in his eye, but he just got an eyebrow raise in return. Traitor.

Then, he followed Emile out of the office door. “What would you like to eat?” asked Emile.

“Uh,” Janus said. “I don’t know. You asked me to eat, don’t you have any ideas?”

“I don’t actually,” Emile replied. Right.

“…Noddle Bar?” Janus threw out the nearest restaurant he knew.

“The one noodle restaurant? Sure,” Emile answered simply. They walked side by side out of the front doors of the TPI building. Janus actually couldn’t remember the last time he’d taken these stairs. He usually used his timepiece to get in and out.

The noodle bar was only moderately busy at this time. They were quickly able to find a table near the back and Emile pulled his menu up in front of him. Emile hummed as he flipped through the different displays. “What are you having?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” Janus said, only then pulling up the menu himself, but still not quite looking at it.

“What about the fortune noodles,” Emile suggested.

Janus shook his head. “I don’t like those,” he said.

Emile glanced at him through the menu displays. “You used to.” Fortune noodles were a bit cheekily named. They didn’t actually indicate anything about your future. They were just supposed to taste like what you wanted from your future. A grad student might experience a feeling like they’d just aced a paper. A child that they got to stay up an hour later that night. Janus had liked the experience when he was younger, but in recent years, he’d begun to taste the underlying chemicals in the dish until that’s all he could.

“Well,” Emile said lightly, eyes on his menu. “That makes me even more worried for your mental health than I already was because of the almost three years of you avoiding talking to me.”

“No small talk, huh?” Janus asked.

“Forgive me,” Emile said, eyes now focused on Janus, and tone much darker. “How has your life been since I last saw your face 5 months ago during a business meeting and you refused to look me in the eye? Anything interesting happen? Shave your head and let it all regrow? Develop an allergy to peanuts? Join a convent and take an oath of silence that you only just broke today?”

“No,” said Janus quietly into the table.

“Great,” Emile said clipped. “Small talk over. Order your food.” Janus reached up blindly to select the first thing that came up on the food and drink menu as Emile punched something into his own and both menu displays disappeared, meaning there was nothing between their faces anymore. “You know, I was willing to give you a year,” Emile said. “I was willing to let you deal with it on your own because I thought eventually, you’d come talk to me about it, but apparently I was mistaken. The next year, I thought maybe you thought I didn’t want to talk to you, so I subtly made myself available, and you never took me up on the offer. I thought maybe I was just not being clear, and I should make my desire to talk to you more explicit, but as you have been routinely, clearly avoiding me at every single turn, I’ve decided I’ve had enough. So, let’s lay it all on the table. Is it me or do you need help?”

Janus closed his eyes. “It’s not you.”

“Then you need help,” Emile concluded.

Janus shook his head.

“Yes,” Emile snapped. “Whatever this is has gone on far too long.”

Janus stood up and slammed his hand down on the table. “And it’s going to keep going on!” he said. The food popped up at that moment. It appeared Janus had ordered lasagna and bubble tea, and Emile had ordered something with spaghetti and a fizzy drink.

“So, you’re just planning to go on being miserable then?” Emile asked, and Janus wasn’t sure if it was worse or better that he didn’t sound angry anymore.

14656

Janus slapped his hand down on the “To Go” button and his dinner was insta-wrapped by the table. “Yes,” he said.

“What exactly do you think you’re paying penance for, Janus?” Emile asked.

“You wouldn’t understand,” Janus said, paying for both of their meals with his fingerprint.

“That’s a cop out and you know it,” Emile said. “All you’d have to do is talk to me. Or even just talk to someone else. Please.”

“Just…” Janus said, grabbing his bag of food to avoid looking at him. “Just, leave me be.” He walked out of the noodle shop without another word.

Chapter 10

“And I thought Remus was going to be the most disgusting roommate in this equation,” Lena grumbled. Janus and Lena were apparently the earlier risers in the group as Fred was still curled up around a pillow and Remus was sprawled out under his desk.

Janus flipped her off.

“Protein infused Poptarts and caffeinated orange juice for breakfast?” she asked. “Just eat an energy bar and have a cup of coffee like a normal person.”

He took another pointed bite of his Poptart.

“You’re a horrible roommate. This is why they gave us different partners.”

“Yeah, well you snore, asshole,” Janus said after finishing off his meal.

“I’d tell you to go eat shit, but you already did that once this morning.”

A pillow flew across the room and somehow managed to hit the both of them. “S’op fighting,” Fred mumbled. “It’s sleep time.”

“It’s morning Fred,” Lena said.

“No,” Fred mumbled.

Janus ignored them, turning back to his integration port to continue to keep plugging in phrases of interest, but he kept getting nothing.

“What are you doing?” Lena asked after a few moments of him huffing at his screen reader.

“Trying to do anything that may change our current living arrangements.”

She puffed out an amused breath. “Can I help?”

“Can you see any connection between these words and phrases?” he asked, pulling away his screen reader and tapping at the words he’d typed out.

“Paranoid, tonight, I live to party, comeback, love Bug, BB good, Mandy, Macy Misa, I believe, cool, that’s just the way we roll, burnin’ up,” she said. “What are these?”

“They’re things Pat said when we interrogated that struck me funny,” Janus explained. “I feel like he was saying something more than what he said.”

“Hmm,” she said. “PTI for the first three?”

“Maybe,” Janus agreed, “but what about the rest of it? I feel like I’m missing something.”

15080

“Millennia,” Remus mumbled from under his desk. Janus hadn’t been aware he was awake. “He said something something about it being the only time he could see the change of the millennia.” He turned his head to look at Janus. “Considering he’s a time traveler, that’s definitely a weird thing to say.”

“Millennia,” Janus contemplated. “A different turn of the millennia. Oh no.”

“What?” Lena asked.

Janus sighed, and rubbed his temple. “I know someone who studied the 1700-2200s.”

“Isn’t that good?”

“No,” Janus groaned, “because now I have to go talk to him.” He stood with a sigh and then paused. “How do I even get to Silver Mountains University without my timepiece?”

#study break stories #not writing

47 notes · View notes

northpen · 3 years

Text

the long jade night (preview)

an: despite having another multi-chapter in the works, i’ve been secretly working on a mini-sequel to Meet Again. the final result will be a one-shot, but i’ve finally finished the first part, so i’ve decided to post it as a preview here!

(slight warning: this preview is more than 3k words long).

JADE | QUIET

The story broke a year after their return as ninja.

Cole tugged on the sails of Destiny's Bounty, turning them northwest. The wind was strong; it wouldn't take long to reach their destination. What awaited them, he wasn't entirely sure. He only knew that its prospect filled him with dread.

The laws of chronology dictated that Cole was 3129 years-old. In appearance, he looked no older than twenty-one. He had lived through thirty-one lifetimes. Some were happy, some were sad, but most were lonely. Until now, he had long since accepted the latter as a permanent symptom of agelessness. It wasn't very often that he got to live his days surrounded by friends.

It crushed his heart to know this was the last time it would ever happen.

"I knew her once, didn't I?" said a robotic voice from behind.

He tied down the ropes and turned around. Adorned by his white ninja robes, Zane stood stiffly on the wooden deck. There was a familiar sadness in his eyes, the kind that came around whenever he encountered something he could no longer remember. It pained Cole to witness. They had promised to continue their lives as ninja to create new memories, not mourn the ones they had lost.

It would get easier over time, he assumed. In Jamanakai, they would no longer be surrounded by reminders of the lives they had once shared together. They would both heal in the village's snowy landscape. And then they would prosper.

"We barely knew her," Cole replied. His memories of her before her death were faint, a vague recollection in lieu of anything concrete. "Lloyd and Nya knew her better. We were trapped in another dimension when she ruled with Garmadon. By the time we came back, she was gone. It's a little worrying."

Zane tilted his head to the side. "Worrying?"

Memories of sifting through the ruins of a fallen building crawled across his consciousness like spiders, pinning the visuals just behind his eyes. Chunks of grey brick. Dirt. Shattered glass. He lifted the treasures beneath them with shaky hands.

A strand of pin-straight white hair, now soaked in blood and coated with dust.

"I knew the others well when we approached them. They were different, but the same in all the ways that mattered. Their souls hadn't changed at all," he said. He clenched his fist to keep his hand from shaking. "I feel like I'm going into this blind. The Jade Princess was never one of my closest friends."

Zane hummed. "Then why help her?"

His decision to return to Ninjago City was impossible to rationalize. Despite initial false appearances, Harumi had always been an enemy to them. She had lied to them, taunted them, tried to kill them—and yet, she drew such deep feelings of sympathy from him. There was no way for him to answer the why without going into abstract emotions that made no sense to anyone but himself.

"I can't explain it," he finally responded. "I just feel this is something I have to do."

Zane came forward and placed a comforting cold hand on Cole's shoulder. "If you believe so, we will stand behind you."

Cole nodded and swallowed thickly. Right now, it wasn't Zane or the other ninja that worried him. It was Borg Industries and what they would do when they realized he'd betrayed them.

The previous evening, the police had sent a memo to the Bounty's communications system. A sixteen year-old girl, adopted only a few years ago into a wealthy family, had slit her adopted parents' throats and hidden away somewhere in Ninjago City. Afraid she would hurt other people, the police had requested the aid of the ninja in her retrieval. Of course, they had accepted immediately. But they had their own ulterior motives.

The story was too familiar for Cole to ignore. Even without her name, he knew this was the work of the Quiet One. Harumi was well and alive and Lloyd's desperate gamble had more widespread effects than initially thought.

Last night, he'd dreamt of the building's wreckage. When he'd awoken that morning, he'd remembered the testimony from a family who claimed that Emperor Garmadon's right-hand had played a personal role in their survival. After lunch, he'd made his final decision about what he would do when he reached Ninjago City.

He would find Princess Harumi. And then, he would let her go before any of the police's nindroids could take her away to the Kryptarium.

The police didn't know she was a reincarnation. Cole planned to use their secret connection to his advantage.

It was a risky move. A treacherous one. But he believed in her potential for redemption, and to him, that was enough reason to put himself back into danger again.

He just hoped that she wasn't beyond saving.

The city came into view during sunset. Its dark skyscrapers disrupted the soft pinks and oranges of the horizon; metaphorical spikes that cut into the delicate skin of nature and made it bleed heat and waste. Buildings stretched on for miles upon miles, an endless jungle of concrete and metal that had consumed much of the west coast in its expansion. They spoke to him in nonverbal tongues and made their demands ever so clear: We may trip, we may stumble, but we will never fall. What makes you so certain you can undermine us and win?

He could not answer their question. Doubt bloomed in his belly as the Bounty flew closer to Ninjago City. To help Harumi, the ninja would need to defy the police, Borg Industries, and the government of Ninjago itself—this was a gamble that threatened them with major institutional backlash. If they failed, they would spend the rest of their lives on the run. Nindroid agents would stalk them to the smallest of rural villages. Drones would shoot down the sails of the Bounty in the dead of night. Any reprieve they had found in their year of liberty would be lost to the threat of imprisonment.

They would become enemies of the state. Dangerous to the public. Wanted.

Hunted.

Autopilot kicked in and the Bounty lurched forward. They had begun their descent into the city.

Cole held his breath in a bid to slow his racing heart. Somewhere in the city, hidden away in an abandoned home or a dark alleyway, awaited the last reincarnation for him to encounter. Like Nya, had Harumi figured out she was a reincarnation on her own? Had she stolen her memories back just as Morro did? When they came face-to-face, would she recognize him as someone from their shared past, or only as a stranger from the present future?

The Bounty's thrusters roared as it lowered over the football field that acted as their temporary landing pad. When he looked over the edge of the deck, he could see many trucks and police cars in the parking lot next to the field. It seemed like the Commissioner was in a hurry to move things along.

The deck below his feet shook as the Bounty stuck its landing. Below deck, it was Zane alone who controlled the Bounty's motions. Nya would be in her room, getting ready to come upstairs. Out of all the ninja, she was the only one Borg and the police really trusted. Zane's memory loss and control by Nadakhan had spooked them, the other ninja were nobodies in their eyes, and Cole was a little too rebellious to be seen as someone they could depend on. Nya was their stable link that was about to be treacherously severed.

The hatch opened beside him. Nya's head poked out, and Cole offered his hand to help her climb the rest of the way out. She wore her gi and knee armour, but her hood rested at her shoulders. When she got to her feet, she took one look at Cole and rolled her eyes.

"If you want them to trust you��" she reached forward and yanked down Cole's hood "—you can't make it seem like you're trying to hide from them. I know you're a good liar. Put your acting skills to use."

The autumn air stung his cheeks. "You remember the code?"

She gave him a knowing smile. "If something is wrong, I say 'piano'. If something is disastrously wrong, I say 'Ronin'."

He put a finger to his ear and pushed down. "You guys hear that?"

"Yes, dad. We all heard," retorted Kai's voice over the channel. "Connecting to line five. Have fun."

Line five, the emergency line. The ninja were aware that for such a high level investigation, their usual communications channels wouldn't be safe. The police would want to work in conjunction with the ninja, so it was wise to assume that their voice channels would be secretly listened into by police forces. Line five was unique because unlike their other lines, it couldn't be listened into. Or at least, not until the police realized what they were doing.

Buried inside of Zane's original hardware was a transceiver for basic communications. It was this transceiver, as Nya and Jay had explained to him, that allowed Zane to hear sounds as well as emit them. "When you talk to him, the transceiver converts your words into radio signals he can receive," Jay had told him. "He digests them in a human manner, forms his response, and then transmits it back in audio waves perceivable by you. It seems complicated, but it's not really. Just think of him as a living walkie-talkie." It was this transceiver they were manipulating for line five. Instead of relaying their communications through the Bounty, they now had a much more personal short-range radio tower: Zane.

Line five routed its communications through Zane's personal transceiver. As long as they were within a few kilometres of each other, line five would transmit their words on a secure channel that could only be used by those with access to Zane's body. Thanks to Nya's purge of Zane from the system after the Nadakhan takeover, that number had been reduced down to a comfortable six.

To reduce suspicion, they would only use it in dire emergencies. The codeword piano, spoken over the main channel, meant one of the ninja needed help. Ronin meant that the police were growing suspicious and the ninja needed saving. A call for help over line five meant that evacuation was likely in order. He hoped it wouldn't come to that. They were being so careful—if all went according to plan, Harumi would be on the Bounty by the end of the night while they flew her to the moderate safety of the countryside.

At the edge of the deck, Cole wrapped an arm around Nya's torso and used airjitzu to float them safely to the ground. They crossed the grass and passed through a gate, where the parking lot awaited them on the other side. The Commissioner and several detectives were gathered beside a police van next to the parking lot entrance.

The Commissioner stretched out his arms in welcome. "Oh, how great it is to see you again, Miss Nya. Let me tell you, the current head of security is nowhere close to as good as you were."

She shook his hand politely. "You need to keep hiring reincarnated ninja. We're pretty special, you know."

The Commissioner laughed and offered his hand to Cole. "Is it safe to assume neither of the original ninja would be interested in the position?"

"Way too stressful for me," Cole replied with a smile. He hoped it didn't look too forced. "We're both pretty dead set on retirement, but who knows? Maybe we'll get bored after a few centuries and Zane will want to help out in the city again."

The Commissioner's thick moustache twitched as he smiled. "Then I look forward to your boredom."

"We're not doing the debriefing here, are we?" Nya cut in. "We should get moving. Or did we all forget there's a dangerous murderer on the loose?"

A nindroid opened the police van's side door. The Commissioner gestured to its interior.

"Of course. Climb in."

Throughout all of his years as a ninja, Cole had only visited the police headquarters a handful of times. His memory painted it as a crowded place, each floor in the tall building packed wall-to-wall with nindroid officers and human detectives. He recalled shouting and phones ringing, a place that was always loud and always busy. Tonight, it was eerily empty.

"Please excuse our appearance," the Commissioner said as he led them through the vacant halls. "Just about every capable employee we have is searching for the suspect. It's a very high priority mission for us."

All for one person, Cole thought. It occurred to him that they might not have received the full story in the transmission to the Bounty. What had Harumi done to warrant such a reaction?

Nya shared a glance with Cole. A year of masks had taught them to read each other's eyes well. In the darkest parts of her brown eyes, hidden by their feigned impartiality, was an expression of sincere worry. He was certain they were both thinking the same thing: with every cop in the city on the case, this was going to be a lot harder than originally anticipated.

The debriefing was held in a small conference room on the fourth floor. A sleek wooden table stretched across the room, its top covered in scattered paperwork and discarded takeout coffee cups. At the end of the table, three human silhouettes watched a 24-hour news station being projected onto the wall.

"Before we continue into the next story, a reminder to stay indoors if possible for the night," the anchor said to the camera. A photo of Harumi was displayed in a box next to her head. "The suspect is still at large and considered to be dangerous by the police. While the Commissioner has not yet signalled an intent to move the city into lockdown—"

"You look very busy," the Commissioner commented loudly. "Can any of you explain to me why public funds are being spent so you can watch TV?"

One of the detectives waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. "Yeah, yeah. We were just waiting for you to get here."

The lazy, deep drawl of his voice froze Cole in place. In the flickering light of the projector, he caught glimpses of the detective's personal features. Puffy, gelled-up hair. Trimmed eyebrows. A cleft chin. A smile that seemed to stretch a little too wide.

Really, Cole should have expected his return by this point.

Dareth turned to face them completely. "How are the ninja doing, anyways? Still okay after ditching us for a year?"

"We're doing fine, thank you," Nya said. Her hand touched his arm. She would take the lead from here. "Are you the detectives we're working with?"

"More or less," Dareth responded. "I'm the only mystery-solver here. The other two are just intelligence."

The female detective to Dareth's left slapped his arm. "I haven't spent ten years undercover for you to write me off as intelligence," she complained. She leaned forward on the table and winked. Her clumpy mascara brought attention to the sharp look in her eye. "The name's Violet. Nice to meet you."

The last intelligence took this as his queue to face the ninja as well. This was a face Cole was more excited to see.

He adjusted his glasses. His wheelchair squeaked as a result of the movement. "Cyrus," he said simply.

Nya flashed Cole a look, asking for confirmation. He nodded. Yep, it was the same one.

"This will be your team for the rest of the mission," the Commissioner said. He gestured to the chairs at the table. "Why don't you take a seat? I think it's about time we got on with the debriefing."

"Of course," Nya said. Cole moved to follow her to the chairs, but the Commissioner stopped him with a firm hand to his chest. "Not you. I need you to stay up."

Cole swallowed nervously. "Why?"

In lieu of answering his question, the Commissioner moved to the front of the room. The projector flashed erratically over his body. He lifted an arm to Cole, gesturing for him to come closer.

Nya gave Cole a small nod. It was safe to go forward.

The projector hurt his eyes. He looked into the dark corners of the room as the Commissioner clapped a large hand onto his back.

"As I'm sure you all know, the black ninja here is blessed with memories stretching all the way back to the unleashing of the Great Devourer," the Commissioner began. The hand on his back was more forceful than comforting, an idle threat that scared him more than Morro ever did. "Tonight, your debriefing won't be done by me. I think it's only fair that we let the expert take the lead."

Cole snapped his head to face the Commissioner. "I don't follow."

A laugh. It was a little mocking, a little sarcastic.

It was one Cole couldn't trust.

"Why don't you tell us what you know about the Jade Princess?" His hand trailed up his back, fingers dancing along the nape of his neck. "Judging by the presence of our friend Nya here, I'm sure this isn't your first time dealing with a reincarnation."

Just like that, the plan burned. The police knew Harumi was a reincarnation. The ninja's only advantage was gone.

If Cole had planned on stowing her away and then playing stupid, this was now completely impossible. They would expect him to know everything. If he couldn't locate her hideout, they would at the very least expect him to locate her corpse. Even after all these years, he could remember her original death bed in perfect clarity.

The Commissioner knew that Harumi's hours were numbered. With a case this serious, there was no way Cole would be allowed to operate without supervision. He had two choices: turn in Harumi to the police, or once again find her broken among the rubble.

His status as the only ninja with memories was being weaponized against him. There was no easy way for him to liberate Harumi and remain on the good graces of the law at the same time.

Well, it was a good thing he didn't work alone. It wasn't like the Commissioner could keep track of six fully-trained ninja at once.

"Harumi wasn't a friend," Cole said. He willed his voice to be forceful, channelling the ninja leader inside of him. "She was a monster. A dangerous, evil monster. My only regret is that I never got to take a swing at her myself."

A finger tapped Cole's neck. "You must remember more than that."

Cole found comfort in Nya's quietly terrified eyes. Her hand was balled into a fist below the table, and she seemed ready to spring from the chair at a moment's notice. She must have reached all the same conclusions as him.

The faint hum of the earpiece in his ear inspired his next words.

"Well, she was always a little closed off on the Bounty. But I do remember her being really, really good at the piano."

thanks for reading! i’m going to try to have this finished soon <3

#ive had a few requests for meet again one shots #so ive been slowly hammering one out #ninjago #lego ninjago #ninjago fanfiction #meet again #my fics

14 notes · View notes

stephenjaymorrisblog · 3 years

Text

Do We Blame God, Satan, or No One?

The Delta Variant will kill registered Republicans.

Stephen Jay Morris

8/2/2021

©Scientific Morality

In 1978, a San Francisco cult called “The People’s Temple” killed 500 people in the jungles of Guyana. (For more info click on: Jonestown – Wikipedia.)75% of cults in the USA are Christian-based. Many scholars have labeled the Republican Party a death cult. Many Christian cults are fanatical, Anti-Communists. Somehow, Fascism and Protestant Christianity has merged. When you are more vocal about the evils of Communism over Fascism, you are a Nazi sympathizer.

The Authoritarian Right bases this methodology in reverse psychology: they accuse their own kind of being too passive, apathetic, and weak. This is their way of making the rank and file Republicans into gun shooting, Counter-Revolutionaries. Then, there is Androcentrism – Wikipedia , by which all males become fearless warriors and fight for a Corporate Christian White state. They want all their warriors not to fear death, for the more deaths there are among Right wingers, the more it instills fear in the so-called Left, as well as in the public at large.

However, this beseeches that nagging question: Why would they kill their own supporters? I could speculate all day long on why that is. Is dying for refusing to follow government guidelines in order to prevent a highly contagious virus, that may kill you, equivalent to dying in a rice paddy in Vietnam, to avoid tyrannical Communism? “I am standing up against government tyranny by not wearing a mask!” or “I am a bad ass mo-fo because I wear no mask!”

I have one conspiracy theory: Maybe these Conservatives are really Communist agents who want to cause Republican deaths. Then, America will become a one-party state where they can take away all of their bibles, guns, and private property. Nah! As usual, I am full of shit. But I can write a fictional book that would make the late Tom Clancy look like a Democratic Socialist. If he was an insurance agent who wrote paranoid, Right wing fiction on his off days, then I can do it, too! That bastard’s estate was worth $300 million American dollars when he kicked the bucket! As for me? I don’t have pot to piss in!

I still can’t understand their twisted reasoning. Prominent Conservative leaders are telling their fellow conservatives and constituents to stop doing sensible things to keep them safe from infection, so that they risk not only their lives, but the lives of others—for what? A cause? For money? To show their manhood? You die for your country, but your country would never do it for you. Why wouldn’t a country die for you? Because it is an inanimate object; just a parcel of land. God died for your sins? Yeah, but he resurrected and went back to Heaven. Can human beings do that? If so, then the Buddhists are right—reincarnation does exist! I will die for someone or something if they are willing to do the same for me. One thing I agree with Ayn Rand over is her statement about sacrifice: “Man—every man—is an end in himself, not a means to the ends of others; he must live for his own sake, neither sacrificing himself to others nor sacrificing others to himself; he must work for his rational self-interest, with the achievement of his own happiness as the highest moral purpose of his life.” Unquote. If every man decided not to die, then there would be no more wars. Conservatives always blather on about “Individual Liberty,” then ask you to die for the 1%.

So, I will continue to wear a mask, get my shot, and stay home. Whatever it takes. As for the rest of you? Go die!

#covid #poets on tumblr #atheism #anarchism #american politics #Stephenjaymorris

1 note · View note

thinkveganworld · 6 years

Text

This is an article I wrote a while back, “Brave New McWorld.” It ran widely in various Internet publications.

BRAVE NEW MCWORLD By Carla Binion Rutgers political science professor Benjamin Barber says in "Jihad vs. McWorld" that today's corporate culture spins a shimmering scenario of "corporate forces that demand integration and uniformity and that mesmerize people everywhere with fast music, fast computers, and fast food -- with MTV, Macintosh, and McDonald's, pressing nations into one commercially homogenous theme park: a veritable McWorld tied together by communications, information, entertainment and commerce." In this fast-paced, mesmerized McWorld the public attention flits rapidly from one important news story to the next. Now we see Impeachment; now we don't! Now we see Seattle; now we're off to something else! The public has no time to digest and assimilate news events and their lessons. The corporate spin on globalization is eerily cheerful, despite the fact that the gap between rich and poor is widening. Barber says government leaders are intimidated by today's market ideology. No one dares question the conventional wisdom about free trade. The conventional wisdom says that globalization is inevitable, and that our democratic traditions are obsolete. Barber quotes Felix Rohatyn: "There is a brutal Darwinian logic to these markets. They are nervous and greedy. They look for stability...but what they reward is not always our preferred form of democracy." Capitalism wants to tame democracy, says Barber, and capitalism does not mind tyranny as long as it secures "stability." In the same interview where George W. Bush failed to name the leaders of four different countries, Bush also said he thought the coup in Pakistan was a good thing because it would help bring "stability" to the region. If Bush recommends tyrant's coups to "bring stability" to other nations, would he also favour tyrannical oppression for "stability's" sake in this country? The message of globalization is that democracies are old-fashioned and that "tyranny to secure stability" is bright and shiny new. No matter how much confectioner's sugar the globalization flacks sprinkle on the message, this is not good news for the ever-shrinking American middle-class. It is especially bad news considering the very rich have used violence and deception to control and divide the working class throughout this nation's history. In McWorld, can we still learn from history? Important lessons from history as recent as the Seattle demonstrations have been obliterated by the McNews networks. Network news did not cover the fact that a Seattle physician reported that the rubber bullets police used on peaceful demonstrators tore off part of a person's jaw and smashed the teeth of many nonviolent protesters. Peaceful demonstrators had tear gas injuries, including damage to eyes and skin. One Seattle reporter was thrown to the pavement, handcuffed, and thrown into a van, even though the correspondent showed credentials. Corporate owned news networks did not interview the nonviolent protesters who were injured by "stability" enforcing police. Like terrorist death squads in third world countries, U. S. vigilante police sometimes ignore legal formalities and practice unlawful torture on nonviolent strikers or peaceful protesters. Folksinger Woodie Guthrie once sang, "Well, what is a vigilante man? Tell me, what is a vigilante man?....Would he shoot his brother and sister down?"(1) Apparently for Seattle police, the answer was yes. In McWorld, not only is democracy out of date, but labour concerns are also antiquated. However, for those of us not living entirely in a McWorld-induced trance, it is useful to reflect on the way U. S. corporations and certain government agencies have tried to divide and oppress the working class at previous moments in history. A close look at corporations' long-term oppression of the middle class indicates where unbridled capitalism will take McWorld's cheerful tyrants in the future. Corporate and government leaders have long used police and National Guardsmen and even federal troops to break strikes and crush progressive movements. The copper miners' strike of 1892 in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho was broken when the governor brought in the National Guard, reinforced by federal troops. Union leaders were fired, scabs were reinstated and six hundred miners were imprisoned. (That is about the same number of people arrested in Seattle. Senator-activist Tom Hayden said that of the 587 arrested in Seattle, virtually all were nonviolent.) For a Carnegie Steel workers' strike in 1892, the governor of Pennsylvania brought in state troops to protect strikebreakers and crush strike leaders, arresting the entire Strike Committee.(2) If anyone doubts corporate/government leaders would use such force to bring "stability" today, we only have to once again remember Seattle -- if McWorld will stop spinning long enough to allow the memory to resurface intact, that is. In 1885, a labour meeting was held in Chicago's Haymarket Square. A bomb exploded, wounding sixty-six policemen and killing seven. Historian Howard Zinn writes, "Some evidence came out that a man named Rudolph Schnaubelt, supposedly an anarchist, was actually an agent of the police, an agent provocateur, hired to throw the bomb and thus enable the arrest of hundreds, causing the destruction of the revolutionary leadership in Chicago. But to this day it has not been discovered who threw the bomb."(3) Seattle's violent disruptions might also have been instigated by provocateurs, but even contemplating such a question is taboo in today's McCulture. Lack of evidence in the Haymarket incident did not matter. Police arrested eight "anarchist" leaders. A jury sentenced them all to death. George Bernard Shaw and other prominent Americans were outraged because they considered the trials a railroading. There was a march of 25,000 in Chicago, and 60,000 people signed petitions to Illinois Governor Altgeld, who later pardoned the three prisoners who had not already died. Will future McWorld leaders even allow a George Bernard Shaw to speak or 25,000 to march without shattering their jaws with rubber bullets? In more recent history, during the 1960s, the FBI used surveillance and agents provocateurs to foster division within protest organizations.(4) Senate hearings in the 1970s (the Church committee hearings) showed that the FBI worked to discredit and destroy certain civil rights and women's liberation groups. The Senate report showed that FBI informants infiltrated leftwing groups, disrupted their plans, and even encouraged members to kill one another or tried to destroy their personal lives.(5) The Church committee report states that the FBI wiretapped Martin Luther King, Jr., and made a systematic effort to knock him "off his pedestal and to reduce him completely in influence."(6) The FBI smeared King, lying about him to congressmen and university officials. Thirty-four days before King was to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, he received an anonymous tape in the mail -- a tape that recorded King's extramarital affairs. The Senate report showed that Assistant FBI director William Sullivan wrote King a letter saying: "King, there is only one thing left for you to do. You know what it is. You have just 34 days in which to do it."(7) King understood this to mean Sullivan was urging him to commit suicide. This is what tyrants do in order to "stabilize" the disenfranchised. Corporate/governmental brutality toward nonviolent protesters is nothing new in this country's history. The mainstream media's neglect is not unusual either. Journalist Michael Parenti reveals how the mainstream press often shows an anti-labour, anti-protester bias. For example, major newspapers have no "labour" section to go along with their business section. Strikes and protests are usually covered from the management or corporate viewpoint. One study of ABCs "Nightline" found that over a forty-month period covering 865 programs, guests were overwhelmingly conservative, white, male, government officials, or corporate executives. "Only 5 percent represented public interest groups. Less than 2 percent were labour leaders or representatives of ethnic minorities."(8) The news blackout on Seattle was just more of the same from corporate McNews media. Benjamin Barber says that the old masters were visible tyrants. Today's masters are invisible and "sing a siren song of markets in which the name of liberty is invoked in every chorus." The new masters tell us that oppression is liberty, and war is peace, and tyranny is stability. The "liberty" of McWorld may be good for consumption, says Barber, but it may not be of much use to civic liberty. Robber baron Jay Gould once said in reference to a Knights of Labour Strike, "I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half." Gould meant that he was willing to stir up conflict among workers and encourage violence in order to oppress average Americans who dared to stand up for their rights.(9) Gould's mentality might seem outdated, but the *fruits* of his thinking are not substantially different from what occurred in Seattle. Day after day we see cheery, breezy fluff on the McNews channels. We are fed shimmering portraits of smiling corporate leaders who assure us globalization is good for the country. Just beneath the glowing skin, gleaming teeth and glib snake oil spin of your friendly McWorld salesman lurks the soul of Jay Gould. Let us watch and see where trading tyranny for "stability" will take us over the next few years. Let us not be McMesmerized into forgetfulness. (1) Bertram Gross, FRIENDLY FASCISM, 1980. (2) Howard Zinn, A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, 1980. (3) Zinn, A PEOPLE'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, 1980 (4) Cathy Perkus, ed., COINTELPRO, The FBI's Secret War on Political Freedom, 1975. (5) Kathryn S. Olmstead, CHALLENGING THE SECRET GOVERNMENT, 1996.; (Olmstead's source is: U. S. Senate Select Committee, Intelligence Activities, vol. 6, Federal Bureau of Investigation, 18 November 1975, 26.) (6) U. S. Senate Select Committee Report., vol. 6, 31. (7) U. S. Senate Select Committee Report, vol 6, 33 (8) Study by William Hoynes and David Croteau, prepared for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR), February 1989. (9) Gross, FRIENDLY FASCISM, 1980.

20 notes · View notes

sinrau · 4 years

Link

When historians of the future look back on Donald Trump ’s presidency, they may well mark June 1st, 2020 as “a date that will live in infamy”.

That phrase was etched into the nation’s collective consciousness nearly eight decades ago by President Franklin Delano Roosevelt as he addressed Congress in the wake of Japan’s December 7, 1941 sneak attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii.

Sharing the full story, not just the headlines

By attacking the US fleet, Japan made clear that the geopolitical tensions which had strained its relationship with the United States during the preceding decade had reached breaking point. And if anyone in either country thought the smoking hulks and dead American servicemen strewn about Pearl Harbor were open to interpretation, the formal declaration of war signed that day made Tokyo’s intentions clear: America was now Japan’s enemy, and Japan and its allies were bent on America’s destruction.

Like December 7, 1941, Americans will remember the first day of June 2020 as the date of a sneak attack against their countrymen, but while that 78-year-old atrocity was perpetrated by a foreign government, this one came from within.

That afternoon, as hundreds of Americans protested peacefully outside the gates of the mansion that has been home to Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin Roosevelt, its current occupant was plotting.

That man, Donald Trump, was incensed by media reports which revealed how he’d reacted to the appearance of a few hundred demonstrators outside the White House gates on Friday.

They came from all over the Washington, DC area to protest the police brutality and systematic inequality symbolised by the late George Floyd, a Minneapolis, Minnesota man killed by police officers just one week ago.

As they massed outside the “people’s house,” they chanted Floyd’s last words, uttered as he gasped for breath as a white police officer’s knee pressed on his neck: “I can’t breathe”.

And how did Donald Trump react? He retreated to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, the Second World War-era bunker installed under the White House’s East Wing to protect FDR against a potential Luftwaffe bomber attack. Later expanded and hardened to protect presidents against nuclear explosions, it’s where then-Vice President Dick Cheney took refuge in 2001, as hijacked airliners brought down the World Trade Center and smashed a hole in the Pentagon.

Though he initially praised Secret Service officers for exhibiting restraint against the “professionally managed so-called ‘protesters’ at the White House,” administration officials said Trump later became upset at how the news of his retreat to the White House bunker made him look weak. And so he responded with what he thinks of as strength.

As he prepared to deliver remarks in the White House Rose Garden just three days later, a phalanx of shield-bearing federal police, joined by line after line of officers on horseback, suddenly opened fire on those peaceful protesters, clearing them from Lafayette Park with tear gas, pepper balls, rubber bullets, and other “less than lethal” munitions.

Not even members of the press were safe, as one Australian broadcasting crew found out when an officer began shoving and striking a videographer with a shield.

The reason for the sneak attack? After Trump finished his Rose Garden speech, in which he threatened to “deploy the United States military and quickly solve the problem” of mass protesters unless the nation’s governors use National Guard forces to “dominate the streets,” he wanted to be photographed as he walked across the street to a historic church, Saint John’s Episcopal, which had been the scene of unrest the previous night.

Trump holds up bible outside Washington church

And with the smell of tear gas still hanging in the air, Trump stood outside the empty building, known as the “Church of Presidents,” and held up an upside-down bible for the cameras.

Earlier that day, Trump had hosted governors on a conference call, during which he scolded them for being “weak” by allowing the demonstrations to persist. And as night fell, helicopters with US Army markings flew low over protesters, using their rotor wash to drive them away while shattering glass and snapping tree limbs in the process.

It’s a flying manoeuvre known as a “show of force,” but one pilot I spoke to — an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran — said it’s a technique they learn for use against enemy insurgents overseas, not Americans protesting on the streets of Washington.

Dr Bandy Lee, a Yale University Medical School psychiatrist who studies violence, said the militaristic attack on protesters and the press — which occurred on Trump’s orders — reflected how he feels about most Americans.

“He probably views most of the American people as his enemy now, because of all the criticism, because of his falling polls, and because of the result of his own mishandling of the pandemic increasingly pressing in,” she said. “It’s not a reality he can easily subvert with his own fantasy thinking.”

Lee said the increasingly violent response on the part of police as they’ve put down protests across the country is the result of officers taking their cues from Trump.

“We have a president who is making violence symbolically acceptable … by anticipating that once the looting starts, the shooting will start, by labeling protesters as thugs, and by threatening vicious dogs and ominous weapons if protestors ever came close,” she explained. “These are all trigger signals for police brutality, and it would be actually be surprising if it didn’t happen.”

Patrick Skinner, a former CIA case officer who now works as a police detective in Georgia, said he did not want to directly blame Trump for the actions taken against journalists by police officers across the country, but told me the president “certainly bears responsibility for it” because his rhetoric “doesn’t help”.

“I don’t know if I blame Trump for this, but he’s certainly not stepping up to the occasion,” he added.

But Skinner did take issue with the view, popular in some police circles, that Trump has “taken the shackles” off law enforcement by rolling back Obama-era reforms.

Asked whether Trump’s rhetoric has given police permission to be more violent than they might have been otherwise, Skinner replied: “Yes.”

“Is it a silent dog whistle? I don’t want to get into all that, but I believe that anyone in a position of leadership needs to not just not tolerate that stuff but actually be affirmative, to speak out against excesses,” he said. “But he’s not speaking out against excesses, he’s objecting to the reaction to the excesses.”

Skinner posited that some of the wanton violence against protesters and the press can be attributed to a mentality among police that they are soldiers in a “war on crime”.

“They’re not wearing a uniform … so they have to be on the other side — everything stems from that,” he said. “Obviously the riots are a failure in society, but the reaction that we have all these military tools and that we want to use them? It’s funny that our response to people complaining about overwhelming force is to use overwhelming force. That’s bats**t crazy.”

Skinner maintained that Trump still bears some responsibility because his word carries weight with law enforcement: “He’s the President of the United States, and so millions and millions of people are going to listen to that, and certainly some people who are in the police department are going to listen to that. It’s irresponsible and it’s a dereliction of duty.”

Dr Peter Moskos, an ex-Baltimore City police officer who chairs the department of law, police science, and criminal justice administration at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, said some of the police reaction to the protests and officers’ affinity for the president is a reflection of a solidly blue-collar, conservative culture which pervades law enforcement, but said Trump’s rhetoric has emboldened the bad actors among them.

“In a way, Trump is their id, and he does normalize bad behavior,” Moskos said. “Before, they might have had to keep things quiet because they knew they weren’t supposed to say certain things because they’d get in trouble, but now they don’t give a s**t.”

“Speech — bad speech and hate speech — has consequences. That’s become a much easier argument for me to make since Trump has become president,” he added. “Of course it influences some people, but it doesn’t have to influence all of them. That’s what makes it dangerous.”

I asked police, veterans and a former CIA agent what they think of Trump’s response to the protests. Even they are horrified #web #website #copied #to read# #highlight #link #news #read

#IFTTT #WordPress

0 notes

hellyes-tommccamus · 6 years

Photo

Mutant X [TV] (2001-2004)

S01E21 “Dancing on the Razor”

[spoilers]

Sci-fi/action

Tom McCamus plays a main role in season 1

The penultimate episode [of season one]. No prizes for guessing why I consider the end of season one the end of the show. The title may or may not be a quote of Iron Maiden lyrics. Or may be me drawing parallels where none exist. Which really is the backbone of English Literature. Oh how proud my English teacher would have been. Or perhaps not. He was not at all impressed when I read out a novelised X Files episode in class.

Brennan and Jesse wander round one of the many abandoned warehouses that are invariably chosen as meeting spots. I think I might be wary of being asked to go to such a location if I was a scared and vulnerable New Mutant. The GSA show up and fight the guys one or two at a time, Kung Fu style. The New Mutant they were supposed to meet doesn’t show, but someone has installed cameras in the warehouse and is watching them.

Proxy Blue reports that she has an informant who has video footage of the fight. Am I the only one who is disappointed the internet no longer looks all shiny and bevelled? My first website was. Back in the day when people had websites.

The guys of Mutant X decide that they won’t be able to trace the email from the person who set them up. Despite all of them allegedly being great computer hackers. Adam says they finally have something in common with Genomex. Other than him being an ex-employee? And their goals actually aligning pretty often? I guess we’re all guilty of saying things that sound good, but aren’t necessarily true.

Mason complains to his new number two about Proxy Blue broadcasting his business on her broadband spectrum. I do love it when they toss around “techno terms” in an effort to sound more sci fi. Recall when we didn’t all have broadband? Recall when we didn’t have internet? There’s a scary thought. Support Net Neutrality! And with that, I think I have reached my maximum allowable number of tangents in the first five minutes of this episode.

His new number two, Harvey Lanchester (Roman Podhora) suggests that the leak came from inside Genomex. Mason refuses to believe that, despite his employees being discovered working against the company actually quite frequently. (Cut to some poor intern shaking their head and taking down the 1 above the “days since employee defection” sign). Mason indicates that he has implemented some sort of method to detect thoughtcrime (1984 reference number three). Today, I believe that would be extremely easy. Let me scare you to death for a second: do you ever think anything you don’t google/message to someone/say on the phone? Here’s hoping my NSA file says something along the lines of: “Mostly harmless, mind too focused on frivolous things to revolt. Mad as a spoon.”

Harvey is an interesting second in command. He replies to Mason in the same sharp and unforgiving tone as his boss uses, and seems to get away with it.

The Mutant X girls have more luck in their computer hacking than the guys. Shalimar says they tracked a caller to Proxy Blue to a company called Macklin Exporters.

Harvey is way ahead of them, and his team is pulling apart the exporting office. He demonstrates his power, which is to shoot some form of heat beam from his forehead. The exporting company looks to be, if not a front, unsuccessful. Their warehouse is completely empty and doesn’t even have any racking to store things on. Macklin employee Jay (James Gallanders) is brought over to Harvey for questioning. He claims not to know anything. Shalimar and Brennan stroll in and fight off the GSA. They rescue Jay, not bothering about all his unconscious colleagues. Probably uncredited extras, and not important. Harvey sets fire to the warehouse, presumably killing all of those poor unimportant extras.

Brennan and Shalimar take Jay back to a safehouse. They start to question him but they end up telling him about what they are. And isn’t the whole point of this operation to stop just that? Jay says he knows nothing except he’s only alive because he was late for work. So did the GSA kill his colleagues before setting fire to the building? And for that matter, why did he not react much to seeing his colleagues at least knocked out?

Proxy Blue reports on the “explosion” at the warehouse. And she even mentions that it’s not connected to the unreleased video footage from earlier. Isn’t it a bit odd that she would indirectly expose her informant like that? Predictably, Mason isn’t happy with how Harvey dealt it. Emma and Jesse look up Harvey in the New Mutant database and find that he has a psionic combustion power. I’m not sure why this power is classed as psionic when it would be better classified as elemental or even molecular. But I know I can’t escape the obvious explanation - and I’m rolling my eyes as I write this - it’s because it comes from his head, isn’t it? Emma thinks Proxy Blue is taunting her informants to come forward with the disc, which would make sense.

Shalimar questions Jay again. He refers to his colleagues as friends, which is inconsistent with his apparent apathy towards them. Brennan gets a call from Adam, who pushes him to get information from Jay. He asks for his coworkers’ names but he does not know them, despite just calling them his friends. He tells them to look in his apartment, and that there is a list of the other employees on his refrigerator. I’m sorry, but is it normal to keep that sort of thing on your refrigerator?

Brennan goes to Jay’s apartment, but once again the GSA is there before them. However the whole scene is stolen by Man Carrying Dog in an Elevator.

Meanwhile Shalimar seems to be having fun mothering the man they think is involved in (badly) attempting to expose them. She tells him about how this exposé will affect their lives, while making a good show of drinking from a cup, which is clearly shown as empty from the angle they chose to film.

Brennan and Harvey face off. Their fight is interrupted before it starts by the unsung hero of this episode. Oh yes it’s Man Carrying Dog in an Elevator! There’s another man involved this time, and they pass the dog between them. At times I am a Supporting Artiste (the most pretentious and best job title) and honestly I think they think it’s hilarious to make us do the most stupid and bizarre things. Where is the logic behind the dog being carried twice? Part of me loves the abject falseness of film and TV but the other part of me thinks the people who make it need a bit of real life experience to realise how silly they’re being. Politicians should also be forced to go on my Grim Reality course. Insider info: the dog was probably owned and brought along by one of the men.

Shalimar and Jay get very flirty and plan to go on a date. But he tries to kiss her and she pulls away. Probably for the best, seeing how her last two relationships ended.

Jesse discovers that the company looks legit so the spying must have come from a single person. And as the rest of the workers are dead, the only way for the story to go anywhere is if Jay was the culprit. Wow, Shalimar sure does know how to pick em!

Brennan drops by to the safehouse and tells them the GSA got to Jay’s apartment before him. Jay tries to call the police but they stop him. Suddenly he mentions his sister. Now if he isn’t the culprit, he at least has something wrong with him that gives him a lack of empathy and a poor memory. Shalimar goes with him to find his sister.

Proxy Blue has nothing to report, and is now saying it may have been a false alarm. Harvey thinks he has done enough to diffuse the situation, but Mason insists he finds Jay. I noticed something about one of the panels in Mason’s office, the one that is X shaped. It looks like a Western Blot, which will mean nothing to the non-scientists in the room. Neither will this: I miss the smell of agar in the morning.

Emma looks for Jay’s sister but can’t find her in the database. There is no mention of her being a New Mutant, so this suggests something very sinister: does Adam have a database on everyone in the country?

Predictably, Jay tricks Shalimar and locks her in his apartment. She escapes, but not before he disappears. Harvey finds her and uses her power to try to torture her into telling him where Jay is. Emma sneaks in and uses her extra power of illusion to trick Harvey and the other GS Agents into thinking she is Mason and does a remarkable job of persuading them to leave Shalimar alone without giving away what she is doing.

Jesse finds some info on Jay. Which means Adam’s database must include regular humans as well as New Mutants. So he must have stolen this from another government agency. Which is a rather odd thing for someone supposedly supporting freedom and liberty to do. Jay is apparently a journalist. Surprise surprise. Jesse makes an offhand comment about him packing computer chips. Is this actually one of the US’s exports? But anyway he was fired from a job as a journalist.

Proxy Blue reports that the “explosion” was an accident. Mason video calls Harvey to congratulate him, and he is confused because he just saw him. Mason’s reaction to this is quite hilarious. And they are both still none the wiser.

Adam tells Shalimar that Jay lied about having a sister and is also the one who set them up. The girls want to go after him, but Adam isn’t keen. They go after him anyway. And I have to say I love the yellow and lime green lighting in the warehouse. It’s not realistic in the slightest but cool anyway. Jay plans to give the disc to Proxy Blue but the girls ambush him. Shalimar grabs the disc and hits him. But he grabs Emma and holds a gun to her. Emma has clearly learnt to use her powers even in stressful situations, and she makes him think the gun is too hot to hold.

Shalimar gives him a beating and they are about to leave victorious but the GSA arrive and ruin it. Interesting thing about Harvey’s powers: why is it that when he hits things it sets them on fire, but on people he just makes them painfully hot? Emma redirects one of his heat blasts and hits him with it. So she’s also a telekinetic now? And why does it appear to be deadly/severely disabling on him when other people seem to be merely in pain from it?

Adam grabs the disc and they are about to leave when Mason shows up with the most GS Agents we’ve seen all together. They have the most tropey standoff. Then decide to destroy the disc and set fire to the warehouse.

Later, Brennan sort of admits he has feelings for Shalimar. Emma and Shalimar complain about their bad luck with men. I mean, sure, they are young people, but in the circumstances dating is probably not a great idea. They are looking through a rail of Emma’s clothes and Shalimar makes fun of them. And nobody really thought this through because Emma is always seen to be ultra fashionable (for the time).

#mutant x #tom mccamus #Victoria Pratt #roman podhora #victor webster #john shea #lauren lee smith #forbes march #james gallanders #00s tv #00s sci fi

3 notes · View notes

marymosley · 4 years

Text

The Case For Impeachment All Living Presidents

YouTube

Below is my column in The Hill Newspaper on the new standard on impeachment emerging from the House hearings. Democrats continue to state an insistence on a vote by Christmas — the shortest period of investigation of an impeachment in history. If impeachment is to be reduced to such an impulse buy item, there are many other choices for voters.

Here is the column:

Every year, shoppers wait for the next big thing in holiday gifts. The “must have” this year, at least for 43 percent of them, is the impeachment of President Trump. Like frenzied shoppers, Democrats are rushing to obtain impeachment before Christmas, despite pursuing an impeachment that seems designed to fail with an incomplete and conflicted record. It also is the narrowest impeachment in history that conspicuously omits thus far the crimes that Democratic leaders in Congress insisted for years would be proven by the Russia investigation but ultimately were not.

For an academic or legal commentator, it has become perilous to even raise obvious flaws in this impeachment from historical or constitutional perspectives. It is like trying to explain to panicked shoppers on Christmas Eve that the new “Tickle Me Elmo” is an overpriced and poorly designed toy. Whether it lasts does not matter. It is all about the sheer joy of opening and playing with it for a short time before it breaks.

It really does not matter that Democrats are moving forward with an undeveloped record. They have yet to subpoena John Bolton, the former national security adviser mentioned by every public witness. They have yet to subpoena Rudy Giuliani, Mike Mulvaney, Mike Pompeo, or others with potentially first hand knowledge of a quid pro quo. In the past, they simply dismissed the need for such key witnesses. They have also dismissed the problem of removing a sitting president on the basis of military aid being briefly withheld but eventually released. They have brushed off the fact that two of the three direct conversations with Trump contained express denials of a quid pro quo, including one in August, before the whistleblower complaint was sent to Congress. There may be an impeachable case to be made with Bolton, who teased about an undisclosed back story, but it will not be sustainable on this record.

More importantly, there is growing exasperation over any questions about the criminal allegations raised in the House Intelligence Committee hearings. Chairman Adam Schiff and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi have accused Trump of bribery, and Schiff repeatedly raised the elements of that crime in the hearings. Yet when some of us pointed out that his interpretation seems strikingly like the “boundless interpretation of the federal bribery statute” rejected unanimously by the Supreme Court in Robert McDonnell versus United States, he and others dismissed such legal definitions because “this is impeachment.” Why claim bribery at all if the definition and elements of that crime do not really matter?

Writing for the Washington Post this week, former prosecutor Randall Eliason has the answer. He argues that the actual elements of the crime are less important because “impeachable offenses are not governed by the strict terms” of the federal criminal code. Eliason has also argued that Trump saying he could pardon border agents for shooting undocumented immigrants could qualify as bribery. He said Donald Trump Jr. attending the 2016 meeting with Russians to hear alleged evidence of criminality by Hillary Clinton could constitute a vaguely defined conspiracy.

Apparently, the Clinton campaign hiring a former British spy to gather such information from Russian intelligence and other foreign sources was just politics. Now there seems to be a clear case for bribery, even if there is a problem on the elements or definition of that crime. Why? Because as Eliason concludes, the Constitution “specifically names bribery as a basis for impeachment” and that is “reason enough alone to choose that term” for the conduct of Trump. Why not call it “treason” as others have?

The fact is that past impeachments have always looked to the federal criminal code to judge the gravity of such criminal allegations. This is not bribery, but it sounds better than “quid pro quo” or some nebulous “abuse of power.” Opponents of Trump seek to use the term “bribery” precisely because it is a serious crime, but they do not want to deal with the actual legal definitions of that crime. In other words, stay away from my “Tickle Me Elmo.” It may not last long, but my kid thinks it is actually Elmo.

I have had enough. It is no fun to constantly state the obvious when no one wants to hear it. While I have objected to the conduct of Trump in Ukrainian matters as highly inappropriate, that is not enough when others demand impeachment as a way of upholding the ideals of the presidency and the aspirations of a nation. I have, therefore, decided to get into the holiday spirit and join the rush. For years, there has been an academic debate over the ability to retroactively impeach our officials. I do not think it is constitutional, but this is not the season for such technicalities.

President Obama made unjustified and extreme claims in withholding witnesses and documents when Congress investigated such matters as the “Fast and Furious” scandal. Democrats backed Obama but now claim Trump can be impeached for obstruction for going to court to challenge such demands. Seeking judicial review now appears to be impeachable, and there is a line of presidents who should have been removed for asking courts to resolve conflicts with the legislative branch.

Obama also pledged during his campaign to deal with the infamous CIA terrorist torture program but, soon after entering office, assured agency employees that no one would be prosecuted, a legal question that was supposed to be left to the Justice Department. The Obama administration then pressured other countries, with threatened loss of support, to drop investigations against those responsible for the torture program.

President Bush suspended military aid to 35 countries simultaneously to pressure them to guarantee United States immunity in potential cases at the International Criminal Court. He implemented a terrorist torture program and gave false information to Congress to justify a war that killed tens of thousands and cost hundreds of billions of dollars. He refused to comply with subpoenas from Congress and had the audacity to go to the courts, like Trump has been doing in the impeachment inquiry.

President Clinton committed perjury, as a federal court later found, but Democrats in Congress insisted that some “crimes do not raise to the level of impeachable offenses.” Now, however, even poorly defined noncrimes are fair game for the same Democrats who voted against the Clinton impeachment. Besides, Clinton committed a host of other violations like Trump, such as pardoning his half brother and a Democratic donor who was not only a fugitive but entirely unrepentant over his crimes.

Once we are untethered from constitutional language, there is no reason we cannot retroactively include posthumous impeachments. The range of such impeachable actions go back to George Washington, who refused material evidence to Congress on a costly failed military campaign and later refused to show Congress the Jay Treaty with Great Britain. While he eventually relented under pressure, he should have been impeached and removed within a few short weeks, or at least before Christmas.

Some of these retroactive impeachments might appeal to the 57 percent of Americans who do not support the current impeachment, including the 45 percent expressly opposed to it. So let us simply give everyone in the country a happy holiday and impeach them all. Anyway, who needs “Tickle Me Elmo” when you have the “Endlessly Impeachable Potus”?

Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) is the chair of public interest law at George Washington University and served as the last lead counsel in a Senate impeachment trial in defense of Judge Thomas Porteous. He has testified with other constitutional experts in the Clinton impeachment.

The Case For Impeachment All Living Presidents published first on https://immigrationlawyerto.tumblr.com/

0 notes

nosy-talk · 5 years

Text

20 people dead in El Paso shooting, 26 injured Texas governor says!

youtube

(CNN)Twenty people were killed and more than two dozen were injured in a mass shooting at an El Paso shopping center on Saturday, according to Texas and local authorities.”Lives were taken who should still be with us today,” Gov. Greg Abbott said at a news conference.Twenty-six people were injured, according to El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen.What we know about the shooting in El Paso, Texas“The ages and genders of all these people injured and killed are numerous in the age groups,” Allen said. “The situation, needless to say, is a horrific one.”A 21-year-old white man from Allen, Texas, is in police custody, Allen said. Authorities are looking at potentially bringing capital murder charges against him.FOLLOW LIVE UPDATESThe case also has a “nexus to a potential hate crime,” he said.”Right now, we have a manifesto from this individual that indicates to some degree a nexus to a potential hate crime,” Allen said.FBI El Paso Special Agent in Charge Emmerson Buie said more investigative work was needed before determining whether there was a possible hate crime.

Authorities on the scene of a shooting at a Walmart near Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso.CNN reported the suspect is 21-year-old Patrick Crusius of Allen, just outside Dallas, according to three sources.Two federal law enforcement sources and one state government source confirmed the suspect’s identity. The federal sources said investigators are reviewing an online writing posted days before the shooting that may speak to a motive.The online posting was believed to be written by Crusius, the sources said, but that has not been confirmed.

‘This was a massacre’

The first call of an active shooter went out at 10:39 a.m. local time, Allen said. The first officer arrived on scene six minutes later.El Paso Police Sgt. Robert Gomez previously told reporters police were initially given multiple possible locations for the shooting, at a Walmart and the Cielo Vista Mall next door.

WalmartCielo Vista Mall

“This is a large crime scene, a large area,” Gomez said of the scene Saturday afternoon.Multiple agencies responded to the scene, including the FBI, the sheriff’s department, the state Department of Public Safety and Border Patrol.The crime scene will “be in play for a long period,” Allen said. “Unfortunately, the deceased will remain at the scene until the scene is processed properly for evidentiary purposes to be gathered for later prosecution.”

El Paso Police Department Sgt. Robert Gomez briefs media on a shooting that occurred at a Walmart.Officials from two local hospitals said they had received at least 23 people.Thirteen people were taken to University Medical Center of El Paso, spokesman Ryan Mielke told CNN, and one of them has died. Two children with non-life-threatening injuries were transferred to a children’s medical facility, Mielke said.Eleven victims were transported to the Del Sol Medical Center, hospital spokesman Victor Guerrero said. Nine are in critical but stable condition, he said.At least two of the patients are in a “life-threatening predicament,” according to Del Sol Medical Center Dr. Stephen Flaherty. He said the patients ranged in age from 25 to 82. Two are in stable condition, he said, and seven required emergency operations.”This was a massacre,” US Rep. Veronica Escobar, who represents the area, told CNN. Escobar has received conflicting reports on the numbers of casualties, she said, but added, “The numbers are shocking.”

Footage shows people lying on the ground outside Walmart

Walmart issued a statement regarding the shooting, saying, “We’re in shock over the tragic events at Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso. … We’re praying for the victims, the community & our associates, as well as the first responders.”Inside the mall, crowds hid inside stores after hearing reports of an active shooter, according to 26-year-old Brandon Chavez, an employee at Forever 21.Chavez had just started his shift when he saw customers and staff members running to the stock room to take shelter.”There were about 20 children and adults, plus employees, hiding, all cramped like sardines,” he told CNN. “Most of us were desperate, some were on their phones. There were girls crying, people trying to talk to each other and women with babies in their arms.”

Shoppers exit with their hands up after a shooting in El Paso, Texas, on Saturday.Store employees had closed the glass doors but he could see police officers walking around the mall and evacuating people from other stores.After police officers knocked on the store’s doors, Chavez said his group had to leave the store, forming a line with their hands up and running.In a shaky Snapchat video aired by CNN, a woman holding the camera frantically runs with a small group of girls or women through a mall department store and into a parking lot.As the group hurries past racks of clothes and cases of merchandise, voices off camera shout, “Hands up!”Once in the parking lot, one member of the group asks, “What happened?””I don’t know,” the woman holding the camera responds. “I don’t know.”Another video, shot from outside the Walmart, showed people lying on the ground, some of them next to a table set up by the store’s entrance.

Authorities respond to an active shooter at a Walmart near Cielo Vista Mall in El Paso.”There’s a man lying down at the stand that a school set up,” the man holding the camera says in Spanish.”Help!” a man screams in English.”We need CPR,” someone else says. “We need CPR.”

‘Our community will heal,’ mayor says

Mayor Dee Margo said Saturday evening that his city would rise above this “senseless and evil act of violence.””We will be defined by the unity and compassion we showed in the wake of this tragedy,” he said. “United, our community will heal.”Nowhere was that spirit more on display than at blood donation centers. Authorities had said donations were urgently needed, and said if local residents wanted to help, they should make appointments to do so.Frances Yepez, waiting in line at one blood donation center, said the center was at max capacity and dozens of people were waiting to make appointments for Sunday or Monday.”It’s easy to make a dollar, but it’s harder to make a difference,” she said. “So I get out there and do whatever I can do to help.”She said the mood there was somber, and she could hear sniffling as the crowd of people learned updates over the television.

White House pledges ‘total support’

President Donald Trump has been briefed on the shooting, and the White House is monitoring the situation, deputy press secretary Steven Groves said in a statement.”Terrible shootings in El Paso, Texas,” the President tweeted Saturday afternoon. “Reports are very bad, many killed. Working with State and Local authorities, and Law Enforcement. Spoke to Governor to pledge total support of Federal Government. God be with you all!”

Terrible shootings in ElPaso, Texas. Reports are very bad, many killed. Working with State and Local authorities, and Law Enforcement. Spoke to Governor to pledge total support of Federal Government. God be with you all!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 3, 2019

Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke, who once represented the area in Congress, addressed the shooting while at a speaking event in Las Vegas.”We know there is a lot of injury, a lot of suffering in El Paso right now,” he said. “I am incredibly sad and it is very hard to think about this.””But I’ll tell you, El Paso is the strongest place in the world,” he added. “This community is going to come together.”O’Rourke said he would be cutting short his trip to Las Vegas to return to El Paso.Gov. Abbott tweeted late Saturday afternoon that he had arrived in El Paso.”Texans grieve today for the people of this wonderful place. We united in support of all the victims. We thank First Responders for their swift action,” the governor said. “We ask God to bind up the wounds of all who’ve been harmed.”The scene was unfolding in the same week two employees were fatally shot at a Walmart store in Southaven, Mississippi, and three people were shot and killed at the Gilroy Garlic Festival in California.

CNN’s Josh Campbell, Evan Perez, Ed Lavandera, Theresa Waldrop, Artemis Moshtaghian, Shawn Nottingham and Jay Croft contributed to this report.

source

The post 20 people dead in El Paso shooting, 26 injured Texas governor says! appeared first on NosyTalk.

from WordPress https://nosytalk.com/20-people-dead-in-el-paso-shooting-26-injured-texas-governor-says/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=20-people-dead-in-el-paso-shooting-26-injured-texas-governor-says

#OMG Crimes #Trending #World News #20 people dead in El Paso shooting #21-Year-Old Man: Police #26 In

0 notes

popentertainment-moviereviews · 3 years

Photo

POPEYE – 40th ANNIVERSARY EDITION (1980)

Starring Robin Williams, Shelley Duvall, Ray Walston, Paul Dooley, Paul L. Smith, Richard Libertini, Donald Moffat, MacIntyre Dixon, Donovan Scott, Roberta Maxwell, Allan Nicholls, Wesley Ivan Hurt, Bill Irwin, Robert Fortier, David McCharen, Sharon Kinney, Peter Bray, Linda Hunt, Wayne Robson, Van Dyke Parks, Klaus Voormann and Dennis Franz.

Screenplay by Jules Feiffer.

Directed by Robert Altman.

Distributed by Paramount Home Video. 114 minutes. Rated PG.

Even in 1980, the creation of Popeye seemed a little out there. The character was way old-fashioned and campy, so what really was the chance that a musical film version would float?

However, it had a lot of things going for it. It would be helmed by legendary director Robert Altman – who was looking for a big hit after the lukewarm replies for his last few more personal films. The film was written by legendary cartoonist, author, playwright and screenwriter Jules Feiffer (Carnal Knowledge).

The music and lyrics were written by respected pop/rock singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson, whose career was also a bit on the skids due to drug usage but was still acknowledged as a musical genius. (Nilsson’s score is one of the best things about the film.)

They also built a humongous, expensive, self-contained set; a whirligig of action and motion which seemed almost like a Disneyland shantytown ride.

So much was expected of this film that it was one of those rare occasions in which a movie was made by two of the major movie studios – Paramount and Walt Disney.

And this was the first lead role in a film for Robin Williams, who had recently become a shooting star with his popular sitcom Mork and Mindy. Williams’ role as the sailor man is interesting. It is a spectacular imitation of the character, however it’s so all-consuming that his acting sort of gets swallowed up by the mimicry of an always slightly odd role. It wasn’t until his next film – The World According to Garp – that we learned what a subtle and smart actor Williams was.

However, if Williams was punching a little over his weight here, the casting agent who chose Altman regular Shelley Duvall (The Shining) as Popeye’s love Olive Oyl was a pure genius.

Popeye is cartoonish – which makes sense, I suppose, it is based on a cartoon – but eventually it gets to all be a bit too much, too twee, too over-the-top. There isn’t all that much of a story, Popeye sails into the small town in search of his long-lost father. (One of the better sight gags in the film has Popeye kissing good night to a framed picture and then you see it is just a piece of cardboard which reads “My poppa.”)

He runs afoul of Bluto, the muscle-bound local government boss. He befriends locals like the cheap burger scarfing Wimpy (“I would gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today”). He rents a room with the Oyl family, eventually falling into a love hate relationship with gawky daughter Olive. They find an abandoned baby named Sweet Pea.

Sometimes it was a bit unconventional – this Popeye doesn’t like spinach, ferchrissakes.

The dialogue tries a bit too hard, way too many jokes land with a thud. The action sequences are so overdone that they feel like a live-action animation. (I know that was the point, but it doesn’t work as well as they would have liked.)

In the end, despite all the high hopes, Popeye was considered a bit of a flop upon release. With 40 years of hindsight, it’s not all that hard to see why. When you get right down to it, Popeye was not a good film. In fact, in many ways it was pretty disappointing. Still, it was a rather fascinating failed attempt and worth watching just to see all the crazy topsy-turvy ideas that just didn’t quite work.

Jay S. Jacobs

#Popeye #40th Anniversary Edition #2020 #Video Reviews #Robin Williams #Jay S. Jacobs

3 notes · View notes

snowdice · 4 years

Text

Finding the Time to Study Fic 2 [Day 17]

My Masterpost Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

I also have a playlist on youtube (because Spotify didn’t have one of the songs I wanted). It’s short, and not really for serious listening, but I had fun with it.

I have homework due Friday and it’s long so let’s go.