#mike/headquarters victor

[deputy-buck]

This is a transfer post from my old blog!

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Ahh! Hi! Yes! These are all extremely random, and kinda suck cause I’m bad at articulating what’s in my head- excuse my poor grammar lmao I hope you like them regardless

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- Per Evan's book, he shows his affection physically, he's a very touchy man with those he likes. More specifically he really likes holding hands and cuddling on the couch, petting through their hair and over exposed skin.

- Often calls Nate "Honey", Brad "Babe", Ray "Menace (affectionate)", Walt "Pretty boy", Trombley "Pup", Doc "my old man (you know, like how southern couples call each other)", Stafford and Christeson "Staffy&Chrisy, the kids, the boys". And yet he calls everyone "Sweetheart"

- After he retired out of the Corps, he became a carpenter; decks, bars, kitchens, wardrobes, entertainment centers, wine cellars. He's more into trimwork than anything though. Good trimwork, none of that "oh the painters will caulk the gaps." bullshit. All his joints are tight, all his boards are flush, each miter is cut to the specific corner angle of the room, he doesn't just assume all walls meet at a perfect 90°, because they don't. Ever.

- Drives a ‘77 baby-blue Ford F-300 diesel dent-side. Automatic, flatbed and dual tanks, navy leather bench seat with an ebony stained dash and door panels. Rhino-Lined floor pans were a fucking must for him personally, because even though he does interior units, he hates grungy carpet. (yes this is just my dream vehicle-) 

- He loves working on it with Stafford and Christeson. He doesn’t yell at them for shaking the flashlight but he will bark at them if they put their oily, gritty hands on his paint. He’s too broke to get it refinished, okay, they’re grown enough to know better. 

- Wears cargo shorts but it’s fine, he actually uses the pockets. He always has a paper towel in his pocket too and forgets about it when he puts them in the laundry, so he has to pick off all the little bits of obliterated napkin every time. :)

- Needs glasses, has glasses, hates wearing his glasses. It’s a constant fight between him and Tim, Doc bitches that they were expensive and helps slow down the deterioration of Mike’s vision. Mike bitches that he paid for them and they’re his eyes so he can do whatever he wants with them... He wears the glasses.

- He likes camping a lot, but none of that tent camping shit, he says he’s too damn old to be sleeping on the ground anymore. So he owns a camper! A 2013 Rockwood Roo, it’s light, small, has three soft shell expandable bunks that are all queen-sized beds and a slide-out. He loves it, It’s a pain in the ass sometimes but it fits almost everyone who wants to go so it’s worth it.

- He gets ✨Emotional✨ when any of the guys are a part of a ceremony and have to wear their dress blues or service uniform. Nearly cries when they get promoted, he’s just so damn proud of his boys.

- Refuses to understand how modern kitchen appliances work; Nate’s Keurig is his archnemesis-

18+ under the cut

- A true switch, he likes just about anything that’s put on the table. And even if it’s not his cup of tea, he’s not judgmental at all, he values a lot of communication.

- Really enjoys cock-warming, loves having one of his boys’ mouths on his half-hard cock for hours while he quotes out material and types up invoices for jobs. He’ll rock his hips forward just a tad when he feels them dozing a little too far off, reminding them to keep his cock in their mouth. 

- Praises his partner no matter if he’s topping or bottoming. Seriously, he will say, “Fuck me harder, sweetheart. Good boy.” 

- Him and Captain Patterson have a Thing with Nate and Barrett being Theirs, and so they like to mess with each other by touching the other man’s Boy. All in good fun of course, they know and respect each other’s boundaries. Gunny has more patience than Patterson though, so he can watch as Patterson pets and praises Nate for much longer than Patterson can stand watching Wynn do the same to Rich. It always ends in Patterson reluctantly surrendering Nate back to Gunny and guiding Barrett to a “middle” position, having Rich kneel between Patterson’s legs and tilt his head back until they can maintain eye-contact, which leads to Patterson cupping one hand under Barrett’s jaw to press the back of his head to Patterson’s belt buckle. Gunny and Nate watch, amused and endeared.

- Can and will edge the ever living fuck out of his boys, the one’s who like it.. Brad. Brad really fucking likes it, to the point of whispering pleadingly in Mike’s ear whenever he feels too pent up. Mike’s fine with letting Brad thinking he’s doing any sort of convincing, he likes making it an emotional challenge for Colbert.

- Playfully pulls his rank when Stafford and Christeson “contradict him” in bed, “This is your Gunny you’re talkin’ to, boys.” or “Show your Gunny some fuckin’ respect, boys.” He’d never do it legitimately to make them do something they don’t actually want, but he knows they like the play of it, knows it gets them all flustered.

- Facials, I feel like that’s all I need to say but I want to say more so- Walt kneeling on the concrete garage floor, lips wrapped around Mike’s cock, hands obediently clasped behind his back while Mike thrusts into his mouth as he pleases. Mike is so close when he pulls out of Walt’s mouth, jacking himself off the rest of the way and spilling onto Walt’s face; thick, pearly ropes laid across his flushed cheeks, a risky string of it over the bridge of his nose making the younger man squint slightly. After catching his breath, all Mike can do is grin, “Such a pretty boy, Hasser.” and pat his cheek affectionately. 

- Was the only one to not treat Trombley like a fragile, skittish deer when they started getting intimate. He listened and paid attention to Trombley’s cues of when he was uncomfortable, but he didn’t fret over it. James admitted it was a little scary at first, but it made it easier to be openly affectionate with Mike and the others. Wynn, noticing how quickly Trombley is progressing, started pushing for more, quicker: deep kisses at random times to get Trombley all hot n’ bothered, feeling him up in front of the others at home like it was nothing, semi-graphic flirting in front of the whole platoon because everyone knows and couldn’t give two shits less.

- Capitalizes on Ray being smaller than him by breaking Ray’s brain just from gently wrapping his hand around Ray’s wrist, or placing his hand flat on Ray’s belly while he’s fucking Ray, acting like he can feel his own cock there. 

- Likes it a little too much when Doc wraps a hand around his throat and pulls him up while getting fucked from behind. Especially if they’re in front of a mirror so he can watch his own jaw drop slack and his whole body just utterly melt back against Doc.

[pyxisastronautica]

Clawing and Scraping

Echo stepped up to the podium on the stage in front of their headquarters. The streets nearby had been closed, and were filled now with a mix of press, subsidiary representatives, and curious passersby. Merely to have such an event so publicly was a tacit declaration of victory, of corporate conquest and certainty there would be no reprisal.

Even so, both Oscar and Mike in their prime models stood within arm’s length of them, ready to shield their captain at first detection of a laser sight. Additionally, their new models stood farther to the back, flanking either edge of the guard. Somewhere out of sight, Victor and Uniform, too, were watching their back, their minds observing the security feeds, while they subtly swept the area for any unusual activity.

But even such relative safety did nothing to ease them away from wishing they were anywhere else. A million lightyears out into the void, perhaps, where they could return to tinkering with their gadgets while taking measure of the stars. Or at least, in their room composing music.They felt, as they always did, far in over their head, using the new persona they’d built to breathe underwater.

Still, they looked out into the sea of faces, curious or cautious, and a strange and terribly powerful emotion gripped their core with vice-like cruelty. A terrible affliction of affection, a despair at the alternative, and drumbeat of obligation that tied them both together. There was nowhere else they could be right now.

It was knowledge that steadied Echo as they tapped the mic and began to speak.

“I offer my warmest greetings to you, my fellow Plutopolitans, as well as all of our honored guests, as we gather here on this day of celebration. For it is on this day, my comrades, that the grand First City of Hades stands united, leaving behind the conflicts of division that have torn it apart for so long, and looks forward to a new and brighter tomorrow. 

“To get here, to this point, is a testament not to my will alone, nor even just that of the hard-working people of Cosmo Technologies Incorporated- though I will certainly not diminish their efforts either- but to this city as a whole. No company, no matter how powerful, exists in a vacuum, and thus it is your cooperation and support which has seen us through as we come here to announce the ways in which we seek to repay you- figuratively and literally, as now most of you are now, in some fashion, part of this great endeavor.

“Our cafeteria and housing programs have already seen great success and will continue to be expanded as we grow with you. There is no employee of ours that should have to fear for their own, or their family’s, basic necessities for food, water, shelter, or medical care- the latter of which will be seeing expanded options soon for those that lack them. And, since our conglomerate oversees the labor now for approximately 90% of the city, it is now also our duty to ensure that all of its facilities are also accounted for, I believe. We are pledging a portion of all funds to the education system as well as the maintenance of infrastructure, as much as is needed to ensure that on every level you and your children are given what you need to thrive.

“This is, of course, asking for a great deal of trust from all of you, however. Trust that, in this short period of time, we have little time to earn but have every intention to prove the worth of. Even so, nothing replaces direct feedback- so please, if you have any questions-”

The press erupted, clamoring, nearly deafening. Echo pointed out one who was raising her hand.

“Kineti Goldfield from Ellis Times- Mistrum Addleton, how many of these policies are a response to- or the result of pressure from- the violent insurrectionists of Taros?”

“I’d like to think of it this way: violent actions come from negligent practices. People whose needs aren’t being met are of course going to turn to rebellion- when given no other recourse, what else is to be expected? But we can do better than to merely wait for that to happen. The only means to prevent collapse are to address the issues that might cause it- something I tried to caution my father of but, rest his soul, he was very set in his ways, the old ways. Dismissed these notions as mere naive idealism. And perhaps I am an idealist in that fashion, but I am one who is willing to do whatever is necessary to make them a feasible material reality. The people of this city deserve better than to have their leaders shrug their shoulders at their complaints.

“On that note: expect to see not only redistribution of company resources, but restructuring of our departmental hierarchy and appointment practices- one that will more heavily weight feedback from employees. I have additionally heard that there are those who are wishing to unionize here- and let me tell you now that I do not intend to obstruct you from doing so, I would ask for you to wait to make demands until detailed plans for the future have been officially posted- which will be made publicly available on our website in the coming weeks. As rapidly as I have been and am trying to pivot policies away from useless consolidation of wealth, the city must remain stable and it will take time for implementation to take effect. I eagerly look forward to working with all of you on solidifying our timeline for doing so- and more generally, in working with you towards a better future for this city. It has been a tremendous honor thus far to be granted such a chance- yes, you there?”

“Luin Archetto from the Plutopolis Daily. Speaking of the future of this city, Mistrum Addleton, I think we’ve all been ignoring the bull in the room- the two of them, in fact: those giant metal men besides you. You’ve made some bold claims about their intellect, I believe. That these robots can think and feel as much as any of us can. Do you still stand by them?”

“I do.”

“You must also have heard some concerns, then, that you mean to use these machines to replace us, and that your garnering of public support is just a means of placating folks while the good jobs they’re promised get phased out?”

“I have. But let me assure you unequivocally that this isn’t the case. To my knowledge, absolutely no robots have been built to the caliber or suited to the wide range of tasks that I have built these to accomplish. But my goal for them is that you think of them neither as your replacements, nor as mere objects, but as your helpers and companions. For the entirety of human history, it has been the desire of human beings to labor in some fashion- either for their own enrichment, as through invention and artistic expression, or in support of their communities. This is not a desire that I am able to strip from anyone, neither do I wish to. But the work that you do can be made not only easier but safer. If they do end up replacing your work, it ought only be because you have made the decision to focus on other aspects to which you feel better suited.

“There can be, and is, a place for humans to live in harmony with their technology- if we have but the discipline to be thorough about our standards, the patience to see it through, and mercy and understanding for the needs of both man and machine. To wit, I have made a total of 100 androids for my associates in Steelsong Security Group, and did so under the condition that they would not replace any existing personnel. You have seen their work now on TV, surely. Yes, these in their current roles have been involved in intercompany violence as you know, but you must also have seen how they protect those whose divisions they have been assigned to, and more importantly, in how they protect civilians caught in conflicts. Do not imagine the efficiency and loyalty of these manmade soldiers as heralding collapse, but as bastions for the world to come.”

“That’s all well and good, but being as they are intelligent beings, so you say, may we ask them their opinion on the matter?”

Echo paused, hiding their momentary mortification at the thought. They weren’t entirely unprepared for the possibility and had tried to coach the two guards, but they- especially Oscar- could be unpredictable. They nodded to the reporter, and then to the two of them.

E: Remember. Stay positive, no aggression.

Mike spoke up first, awkwardly clutching one arm with the other. 

“Uh. Can you like, be more specific? I’m…not really used to public speaking. Or, uh. Speaking.”

“Alright, for starters: How do you feel about the city, Mike? You’re only a year and change old, as far as any of us know. Getting thrown into the tumult like this must be a lot to handle- or does your programming account for all that?”

“Oh, uh. I like it, actually. How different things are. I don’t mind adapting to it. It’s really nice being outside and getting to see people. I like working with my squadmates, sometimes we play sports or exercise together. I have to be careful, though. I’d feel pretty bad if I hurt ‘em, they’re good fellas.”

“And you, Oscar? How do you feel about being built for war?”

“Feel pretty alright about it.”

“Excuse me?”

Echo tried to interject, “Alright, that’s enough for-”

“What? Of course it feels alright. I didn’t get a choice about what I was made for, I can only try to do what I do well and trust that my boss knows what they’re doing is actually what’s best. And I do trust them because they haven’t given me a reason not to.”

“So you feel no guilt over any actions you’ve taken?”

“Not really. It feels…exciting to be in a fight. There’s this rush, this good feeling of success at making it work. Ask any of the other guys, the humans, and they’ll tell you the same. Maybe that’s wrong? I don’t know, I didn’t code me. They didn’t code themselves, either. But I do know that it’s not the only thing I found out I like, or even really that I like it the most. When you’re fighting someone and they die, they just stop. They’re done. They can’t do anything else. But if someone’s alive they can do all sorts of things- play sports, or do crazy stunts, or make sick music. I like that just as much or better. Maybe it would feel kinda bad to know that maybe the people I killed coulda done those things, but then. It’d feel just as bad if they killed a civilian who could’ve done the same, right? I don’t know. All that stuff’s kinda above me. I just wanna do a good job and maybe have fun.”

“...I see. Is there anything you don’t like, then?”

“Uhhhhh. Yeah, actually. Sometimes people wave at us- kids like to especially- and usually Mike waves back, but their parents or friends kinda shush them and try to pull them away. That kinda sucks. I mean. I like spooking hostiles sometimes ‘cause it’s funny. But I don’t want everyone to be scared of us all the time. We can’t hurt people unless we’re told to, anyway, and it feels pretty bad to be surrounded by people but not really allowed to talk to any of them.”

“That true, Mike?”

“Yup.”

“So what would you tell people on the street if they met you, then?”

“Uhhhh. Hi. I don’t know if I’ll get to talk to you much ‘cause we’re always on the move, but I probably think you’re interesting and if my CO let’s me, maybe I can play the tuba for you?”

“Play the- but you have no mouth or lips?”

“Downloaded a pretty good synthesizer, though.”

“Alright, can you play something then?”

Mike played a few lines of “When the Saints Go Marching In”, a song for which no human present had any context for nor knew the lyrics of, to uproarious laughter and applause. 

“Thanks Mike- and thank you Mt. Addleton. No more questions from me.”

Echo’s fans pushed out a heavy sigh and they nodded.

“I think that’s as good a note as any- forgive the pun- to end things on.

“Once again, I offer by deepest thanks for your support, Plutopolis. May our best days be ahead of us all.”

The second the speech ended, Echo waited a few seconds, expecting to see the flash of fire from a muzzle, or hear its boom. It didn’t happen.

They returned through the door of the headquarters, expecting some lunatic to rush them with a bomb strapped to their chest and blow them sky high. It didn’t happen.

They entered the elevator that took them, their guards, and fellow crewmates up to the top floor. They expected the cables to get cut, sending them plummeting to a messy end. This one had almost happened due to sabotage by a rival company, with help from an insider if the investigation was to be believed, but the second set of failsafes had prevented their sudden deactivation. This time, however, the ride was completely smooth.

They flopped down into a chair in a large study while Quebec, India, and X-ray took to the couches, Oscar and Mike sat on the floor with a loud thud while Victor, Uniform, and Ailis manned the doors. They expected the sound of cracking stone as the ceiling gave way and the stalactite fell upon the city, crushing not only their own lives and that of many innocents, but whatever little amount of hope they were finally bringing to the world.

It didn’t happen. Not then, at least.

It wasn’t until the next day, after the haze of victory and paranoia had settled down like so much confetti after a parade, that something unusual happened. 

It could not be said that it was unexpected, both in that Echo knew their activities were bound to draw attention from others outside of the First. Nor was it that that they hadn’t literally seen it coming- they had run security feeds from all over the city through some of the unused servers in the archive and kept a connection to it at almost all times, one bot panopticon second only to TCCAI itself at this point. 

(Well. Granted, the other androids in the First had access to it as well, but none used- or abused- the surveillance to the degree that Echo did, determined as they were to never be caught off guard.)

It was…the timing, if anything, both in date and hour. Early in the morning, maybe thirty minutes after the front doors had opened, Charlie called them up to inform them that the CEO and CFO of AcherEN had arrived with the request to speak to them.

Everything about their appearance was meant to be a warning. Not just due to their security detail, which was actually quite modest all things considered, but the suddenness of it, the expectation that absolutely everything else that could have been going on would be put on hold for them- which they were, unfortunately, right about. 

Bravo, at least, was happy enough to play the part of a tour guide while flanked by Uniform and Victor. He had been put into the PR department and had thrived there, as a lifetime of trying to make the dry reports he had given to the occasional researchers who contact the Triskelion entertaining had prepared him to try drawing blood from a stone. It felt no different to him now, watching the mildly entertained faces of his performance nod along to information they probably already sort of knew about the history of CT Inc.

And his part in the whole affair was, at least, pleasantly brief.

As Echo shook the hands of their guests, they felt a spike of envy for him in that regard.

Acher’s wires powered the rest of Hades outside of the First, practically its lifeblood. AcherEN was the city itself for all intents and purposes. And these two, as far as most people in Hades were concerned, were AcherEN.

The CEO, Joanna Vesteris, though physically merely a normal woman in her mid-forties, carried herself as though she were the black heart of Hades itself. She had the green eyes of a cat, the hungry smile of a jackal, and despite being shorter than Echo by several inches it felt as though she towered over them.

Marshall Apellon, by comparison, was not far off from being the perfect average of an Acheran man, an unremarkable person who almost seemed to disappear into thin air- an accomplishment even to Echo, given that in the many millennia of their existence they had never encountered a face so utterly bereft of defining details. They could never voice the question aloud, but part of them wondered if it was perhaps intentional- a deliberate obfuscation of his own role. 

“I’m sorry to be dropping in like this,” Vesteris began in a fashion that was decidedly unapologetic, “but I just had to come to congratulate you as soon as I had the chance. To think I’d see a second city become as united as the Third in my lifetime in a year and a half’s time? Truly inspiring.”

“Especially given the fracturing of Hyperion in the same timeframe. It’s good to have that sort of stability restored to the world,” Apellon added.

“Thank you, both of you,” Echo started, “Had I known how much it meant to you, I would have prepared a brunch for all of us. You’ll have to forgive my lack of preparation. Even so, I can’t imagine you rushed out all of this way just to take off again, so please, come in, take a seat.”

“Of course, of course,” Vesteris and Apellon entered, and with a simple gesture directed their guards to wait outside- a courtesy which Echo returned, mostly, by sending out Victor, Uniform, and the other mercenaries, though when the guard that had already been in the room went to join them Echo bid him to stay.

“Apologies, Mrs. Vesteris, Mr. Apellon, but I’d like to keep my agent here in the room with me. He can be trusted with anything we discuss here, I assure you.”

Joanna eyed the man for a moment. He was largely no different from any other soldier in their power suit, but it didn’t stop her from asking, “Is that right? What’s your name, fella?”

There was a long and tense pause. Echo was paralyzed. Telling him to stay quiet would invite considerable suspicion, but telling him yes would endanger his life.

He remained quiet for a long time. He was comfortable standing in silence.

“Come on, now, don’t be shy.”

“Please continue your conversation with Executive Addleton,” was all that she got from him, but it was enough.

“...You. Well, I’ll be damned. No hard feelings, I hope?”

“None. Business is business.”

Vesteris smiled. “Exactly so. And just as I remembered. Very well, Addleton, I have no issue with his inclusion here.”

“I’m glad to hear it, Mrs. Vesteris. Can I get you anything? Coffee, tea? I think we should still have some pastries or snacks in one of the meeting rooms nearby.”

Vesteris shook her head. “Can’t fool me, dear. I can already see you getting ants in your pants, so I think we can cut to the chase.”

“Which is?” Echo asked coyly.

“Let us say I, and my dear associate here, have our concerns about the future of Hades and the direction you intend to take it in. Never has someone so heavily cyborgized been in a position of power quite like yours- and even those who have been entirely intact have never had as much ambition as you.”

“Ex…cuse me?” Echo tilted their head.

“Save it,” Vesteris said with sudden bluntness, “We have eyes across Hades, just as you do. And our friendships with some of your investors go back from well before you were at senior prom- our family’s since before either of us were alive. You really didn’t think that your performance, your decision to personally put yourself in combat zones, during the past two Blackout Weeks went unnoticed, did you? Or that word wouldn’t reach about your grand plans for your company’s future?” Echo crossed their legs and folded their hands in front of them neatly onto the desk in front of them.

“And? The cyborgized can be found across Hades, and I am the owner of this company. What expectation would you have but that I do everything I can to make it grow? I see opportunities and I take them. How are we any different in that regard?”

“...But you didn’t take an opportunity, did you, Addleton? You made it. Or I think more likely, it was made for you.

“Up until a few years ago you were a nobody in all but name, staying out of all of the circles that would have offered you the world without effort. A shut in with no-name friends. Up until last year, plus some change, you were, even then, a notable wallflower. Never once known for athleticism or genius. And then something very suddenly changed. Your father dies and the old personality with it, while you claim you’ve been trying to convince him of whatever this is you’re doing the whole time.

“I think that ol’ Daddy Addleton got tired of waiting for you to become the perfect heir and decided to make himself one. I just wonder how far he took it- how far he must have to make you want to kill him. Tell me, did he leave anything left of you? I thought surely he must have at least left a little bit left, like those two outside, but now, seeing these more humanoid works of yours, I wonder…”

Echo narrowed their eyes. “You are making baseless accusations about my late father, me, and my medical history. That is libel, ma’am,” Echo said, as if libel was a crime that she was at any risk of receiving any meaningful punishment for.

“...No, of course you couldn’t admit to it,” Vesteris sighed, “I wouldn’t expect that. But I think your associations with Taros make my suspicions a little better than a conspiracy theory. Those cyborgs didn’t appear out of thin air, and contrary to popular speculation I have my doubts they came out of Asphos’s depths either. I’m no engineer, mind you, but there’s something about the style of them that doesn’t match their design philosophy.”

“I ask once again: what is the point of this line of inquiry?”

“The point is this: I will not allow Hades to be conquered by the machinations of a megalomaniacal brain in a can. Beyond mere matters of property ownership- and the fact that you by rights ought to be company property- there is good reason for the cybernetically enhanced to be denied the highest echelons of control. For as much as we have given up to live in Hades,” It was so casual, to these old houses, to speak so easily of the true nature of the world, “we must remain human beings. Humans must be in charge of humanity- not cyberliches surrounded by armies of the all-but-dead.”

“You are catastrophizing for nothing. Where do you see ill intent in anything I have done?”

“There doesn’t need to be any, Addleton. That’s the thing of it. You may have the best wishes for the people who remain people, but necessity will force you to strip them apart. To make them like you, for your own safety. Long have the rest of us agreed to tow the line, to not take those steps that would warp our civilization entirely, but you. You have decided to cross it.”

“You are a businesswoman. It would be good business for us to get along, Mrs.Vesteris.”

“I have enough money to afford principles.”

“Do you? Is that what you call the system that currently exists? Principled?”

“Compared to the long dark age of monarchic tyranny you represent, I would like to think so. There are winners and losers in every system. There aren’t many in ours. There would be only one in yours. I think that’s an improvement.”

“And I think it is cowardice. And projection, frankly. I am not like you. I will be better.”

“You are like me, though, if any part of you is still flesh. You may try to deny that you are a child of privilege as I am, that you’re really all doing this for the little guy, but the fact of it is that money and power has left its mark on your psyche as it has all of us. I have seen it make stupid and arrogant many a person- I’m not above it myself. Why should you be?”

Echo was silent. There was no way to answer her question without saying too much. And in truth, she wasn’t all wrong. There was no good and clean way to concentrate power. For it to exist meant inevitably that it would be abused in the same way a gun left on a table was inevitably going to be fired. On their orders, surgeries had been conducted without consent of the patients, minds made pliable to accept what had been attached to what remained of their bodies. And that was the norm here. The status quo pushed up to its very limit of what dehumanization is acceptable, and they stood posed to escalate.

“I’m sincere in my congratulations to you, by the way,” Vesteris started after a time, smoothness creeping back into her voice for a moment, “It really is remarkable what you’ve been able to accomplish so far. My advice to you is to stop while you’re ahead. Maybe your works in the First will inspire others, but that should be done without meddling from it.”

“And if they should want my cooperation?”

“...Then I would suggest you use your best judgment about taking them up on the offer.”

The two of them held their gazes for a moment. This was no time for war for either of them. Not directly, anyway. The other cities were watching, waiting for the day when they too would ignite into flames- or if others would first and they could cannibalize them. But neither was there an expectation of understanding- that Echo would take Vesteris’s advice to heart, or that Vesteris would not try to choke them out for ignoring it.

The inconvenient truth of it for Vesteris was that said revolution had been a long time in coming for Hades, the product of its own excesses that would have caught up to it eventually even if her rival had never thrown their hat into the ring. But it had always been possible to stamp out unrest before. She had always hoped to be the one to capitalize upon it, but she’d been beaten to the punch in an unexpected way.

The inconvenient truth for Echo was much simpler but equally inevitable: people were afraid of bloodshed, but they were equally afraid of the dark.

Echo sank back into their chair after the two of them left. A moment of suspicion for the wordless CFO who had done nothing but silently nod along prompted them to stand up and fish around along the edge of the seat where he’d been, and pulled out a bug. They thought, for a moment, about doing something funny like boxing it up and sending it to another city, or maybe mailing it back, but opted to just step on it instead. Like a normal person.

They sighed heavily, shoulders dropping as they sank deep into thought. Maybe Victor was right. If they were willing to treat other humans this way just for being augmented, what hope did any of them, as androids, have? There had only been one person from Hades who they had trusted with the knowledge of their true identities, and he had also found himself put into the line of fire  had narrowly missed the first time around.

Not that Ailis seemed to mind, as he placed a hand on Echo’s shoulders.

“I ought to be the one comforting you,” Echo said, trying not to shiver, “I should have let you leave when you had the chance. I didn’t think she’d recognize you.”

“She might have known I was in your employ already. Asking my name may have been a shot in the dark that was worth the gamble to her. Both of us are at risk, at any rate, and I am not afraid.”

“No? I am. I think I’ll set a record for number of assassination attempts if I live to see the end of all this.”

“You will see the end of it. I am contracted to this company, and you are its leader. If it is at all within my power to ensure you live, you will.”

“And if it isn’t?”

“I believe in this company’s future, and I believe in you. If I die for that, I die satisfied that I did all that I could within the framework that I was given.”

Echo turned and held the man tightly. 

“I’ll make it worth it. Or I’ll die trying, at least.” 

“I know.”

[wmproprt]

Victor Davis Hanson @VDHanson

The Colorado Insurrection

@realDonaldTrump is being erased from the Colorado primary (and general?) ballot, by warping the 14th Amendment, and in a way never envisioned by its creators.

So now can one be guilty by fiat of Confederacy-like “insurrection,” when he has never been charged with, much less convicted of, such a crime?

How can a buffoonish January 6th riot become an “insurrection,” when no one was armed, there was no plan to seize power, and protestors were advised by the purported insurrectionist leader “to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard”?

As far as election insurrectionary interference, why did liberal journalist Molly Ball label the leftwing effort to defeat Donald Trump in the 2020 election a “cabal” (e.g., “That’s why the participants want the secret history of the 2020 election told, even though it sounds like a paranoid fever dream–a well-funded cabal of powerful people, ranging across industries and ideologies, working together behind the scenes to influence perceptions, change rules and laws, steer media coverage and control the flow of information”)?

And why did Ball double-down and further call it a “conspiracy” (“There was a conspiracy unfolding behind the scenes, one that both curtailed the protests and coordinated the resistance from CEOs. Both surprises were the result of an informal alliance between left-wing activists and business titans, of CEOs, Silicon Valley billionaires, street protestors…Their work touched every aspect of the election. They got states to change voting systems and laws and helped secure hundreds of millions in public and private funding. They fended off voter-suppression lawsuits, recruited armies of poll workers and got millions of people to vote by mail for the first time. They successfully pressured social media companies to take a harder line against disinformation and used data-driven strategies to fight viral smears.”)?

As far as efforts to nullify the popular vote, do we remember the pathetic 2016 ensemble of C-list Hollywood celebrities (e.g., Martin Sheen, Debra Messing, James Cromwell, BD Wong, Noah Wyle, Freda Payne, Bob Odenkirk, J. Smith Cameron, Michael Urie, Moby, Mike Farrell, Loretta Swit, Christine Lahti, Steven Pasquale, Dominic Fumusa and Emily Tyra)?

They were drafted by leftwing groups to cut commercials urging the electors to reject their constitutional duties of reflecting their states’ popular votes, and instead, as faithless electors, to vote instead for Hillary Clinton, the loser in their respective states’ popular votes.

How did they rationalize that anti-constitutional gambit? Well, remember Martin Sheen’s shameless sophistry to ignore the Constitution and the election results?

“As you know, our founding fathers built the Electoral College to safeguard the American people from the dangers of a demagogue, and to ensure that the presidency only goes to someone who is to an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications.”

So what makes a high elected official an insurrectionist?

Current or past advocacy for using violence against the government, as represented by, say, the Supreme Court?

Or urging on more protests that had already turned violent, eventually leading to 35 deaths, 1,500 injured police officers, $1-2 billion in property damage, and a torched courthouse, police headquarters, and iconic church?

Attempting to break into the White House grounds? Sending the president into a secure underground bunker?

If so, remember Kamala Harris’s summer 2020 boasts about the protests that, she knew (contrary to “fact checkers”) had already a long history of violence:

“But they're not gonna stop. They're not gonna stop, and this is a movement, I'm telling you. They're not gonna stop, and everyone beware, because they're not gonna stop. They're not gonna stop before Election Day in November, and they're not gonna stop after Election Day. Everyone should take note of that, on both levels, that they're not going to let up — and they should not. And we should not.”

What was the Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer intending, when in 2020 he incited a throng at the very doors of the Supreme Court, warning of violence to come to two justices whom he called out by name?

“I want to tell you Gorsuch. I want to tell you Kavanaugh. You have released the whirlwind and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

“Hit you”?

Now we have ballot suppression to add to the long list of farces, hoaxes, and lies all designed to destroy a candidate who otherwise might win popular support for an agenda the majority of Americans have consistently supported.

So the leftwing Colorado Justices join the “Russian collusion” spectacle, the Alfa Bank “pink” hoax, the “Russian disinformation” laptop ruse, the precedent breaking two impeachments of a president in his first term, the caper of trying an ex-president as a private citizen in the senate, and the ploy of raiding an ex-president’s home.

What exactly is the Left doing?

They accept they have no majority support for the current President or his agenda. They fear the voters will elect a Republican. They are horrified that it might be Donald Trump, whom they especially loathe. And they are terrified that Trump might do to them what they would certainly do if they were in his position.

The Left is mightily frustrated that after controlling all the sources of information, communications, and institutions (e.. CEOs, traditional and social media, entertainment, the Internet, Silicon Valley, academia, K-12, foundations, sports, and popular culture, etc.), and having a vast advantage in fund raising and money, they still cannot stop the will of the majority.

And the Left wages lawfare because they assume the Right is either too timid, too incompetent, too preoccupied, or too principled to reciprocate in kind—especially given they gloat that there were never any consequences for all the past hoaxes and ruses they perpetuated.

But this time they may have jumped the proverbial shark and shown themselves to be the true and only insurrectionists that will face the consequences of any angry public in November 2024.

9:28 PM · Dec 20, 2023

@VDHanson

https://x.com/VDHanson/status/1737661200866136571?s=20

[theoutcastrogue]

Besides the Mafia, what exactly is a "thieves' guild"? Is it something D&D invented?

Fritz Leiber invented it, D&D pilfered it.

Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser #1: “Ill met in Lankhmar”, art by Mike Mignola

Thieves' House

There's a Thieves' Guild in the city of Lankhmar, where Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser (the OG fantasy rogue) operate, and it's first mentioned in the short story Thieves' House (1943). Ankh-Morpork and its own Thieves' Guild (which hilariously operates like a proper historical guild, recognised and regulated by the state) is inspired by Lankhmar, too.

"The house had a bad reputation. People said it was the den in which the thieves of Lankhmar gathered to plot and palaver and settle their private bickerings, the headquarters from which Krovas, the reputed Master Thief, issued his orders—in short, the home of the formidable Thieves' Guild of Lankhmar."

The Guild is powerful, merchants pay tribute to it, and Krovas the guildmaster just hates it when independent thieves attempt to make a buck, too. In the story, said independent thieves are our (anti-)heroes, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. And that notion of a trade monopoly obviously comes from historical guilds, whose entire point was that no one was allowed to practice a trade unless they were members of the relevant guild.

Rogue Literature

So where did Fritz Leiber get the idea of a Thieves' Guild? I can't know for sure, but his parents were Shakespearean actors and he was into Elizabethan theatre, and do you know the book The Rogues and Vagabonds of Shakespeare's Youth? If Leiber did, he knew rogue literature, and that explains both Thieves' Guilds (not the term, just the content, the term is all his) and Thieves' Cant.

English rogue literature is an early modern (rather than anything medieval) and largely urban genre, which appears around 1600 with pamphlets describing the wicked ways and language of beggars, thieves, and conmen, all out to get the upstanding, respectable, and all too gullible good people of (usually) London. Around 1700, the first cant dictionaries appear, and Daniel Defoe's Moll Flanders (1722) is probably the first novel of the genre. Meanwhile, there are a lot of plays that are at least inspired or informed by it, from Shakespeare himself to John Gay's The Beggars' Opera.

1600s

Now, if we take the early Elizabethan pamphlets at face value (and we should NOT, since all our sources were outsiders who aimed to shock – and titillate! – their law-abiding audience), thieves and beggars were organised in associations or fraternities with strict hierarchies. There were ranks and offices, and elaborate initiation rites and oaths to the devil, and codes of conduct and chains of command, and even kings of thieves with prima nocta privileges. And lots and lots of greed.

Most of that is bullshit, it's made up or wildly exaggerated. Some of it makes a lot of sense, though, if you take out the fanciful stuff. A certain level of organisation is necessary for urban crime to work. After all, thieves need fences and beggars need real estate (I mean, they need to call dibs on their spots and somehow ensure that other beggars will respect that). And we should keep in mind that rogues (people without masters) and vagabonds (people without homes) were a world apart from respectable society: not only did they not enjoy whatever protections the state extended to its subjects, but they were considered criminal elements merely for existing without masters and without homes. So their only recourse was each other. A fraternity where all the thieves of London somehow worked together is mere fancy, but there was certainly a lot of mutual aid (if you were lucky) and internal exploitation (if you weren't).

1700s

As we move on to the 1700s, London's criminal underworld booms as much as the city itself, and the pamphlets (and now the newspapers!) have plenty of material to talk about. And for a hot second, there arguably is a thieves' guild, run by a sinister guildmaster, a criminal mastermind who controls the thieves of London with one hand – and with the other, serves law-abiding people and retrieves their stolen property for but a small fee. His name is Jonathan Wild, and like Lankhmar's Krovas, he hates it when independent thieves try to make a living in his city. And also he's an utter bastard.

The infamous Thief-Taker General and his elaborate organisation may have been an inspiration for Fritz Leiber's Thieves' Guild, or perhaps it was second-hand from Professor Moriarty, who was also partly inspired by Jonathan Wild.

Elsewhere

Meanwhile, in 17th century Istanbul, the Thieves' Guild ("the corporation of thieves and footpads who... pay tribute to the two chief officers of the police") and the Beggars' Guild (which had a "sheikh", i.e. a leader, a guildmaster) once joined a very official procession of the guilds on the city streets. Or at least, that's what The Book of Travels says. But all the research I've read about Ottoman guilds considers this passage fanciful. There may have been thieves and beggars in the procession, but they didn't have a legally recognised guild – an esnaf.

Spanish picaresque novels had been around since the mid-16th century, and Cervantes describes something like a thieves' guild in Seville. A French jargon of thieves, along with assorted poetry and literature, is attested from the 15th century. Rogue characters/anti-heroes appear in Arabic literature from the 9th century, and the early emergence of big cities in the Islamic world leads to various associations of thieves and beggars in places like Cairo and Baghdad. A loose co-fraternity of rogues, the Banu Sasan, pops up in every corner of the Arabic world, from al-Andalus to India.

But I don't think Leiber (or Gygax) were too familiar with any of these, except perhaps with a very distorted echo of French thieves & beggars via The Hunchback of Notre Dame: Victor Hugo took a heavily mythologised version of the Court of Miracles, a 17th century thing, and projected it back to 14th century Paris, so it's kinda based on history but also wildly inaccurate.

Conclusion

So as far as the D&D origins of Thieves' Guilds and Cant are concerned, I believe we should stick to Fritz Leiber, English rogue literature, and whatever kernel of historical truth is behind it. And completely ignore the Mafia and any sort of contemporary organised crime, which is another animal altogether.

[phroyd]

WASHINGTON — President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. prepared on Sunday to start building his administration, even as Republican leaders and scores of party lawmakers refrained from acknowledging his victory out of apparent deference to President Trump, who continued to refuse to concede.

With Mr. Biden out of the public eye as he received congratulations from leaders around the world, his team turned its attention to a transition that will swing into action on Monday, with the launch of a coronavirus task force and swift moves to begin assembling his team.

But more than 24 hours after his election had been declared, the vast majority of Republicans declined to offer the customary statements of good will for the victor that have been standard after American presidential contests, as Mr. Trump defied the results and vowed to forge ahead with long-shot lawsuits to try to overturn them.

While some prominent Republican figures, including the party’s only living former president, George W. Bush, called Mr. Biden to wish him well, most elected officials stayed silent in the face of Mr. Trump’s baseless claims that the election was stolen from him.

Mr. Biden did not respond to Mr. Trump’s attacks on the result, but he also was not waiting for a concession. On Sunday, he unveiled his official transition website as he prepared a series of executive actions for his first day in the Oval Office — including rejoining the Paris climate accord, moving aggressively to confront the coronavirus pandemic and restoring labor organizing rights for government workers — aimed at unwinding Mr. Trump’s domestic agenda and repairing the United States’ image in the world.

But Republicans’ silence suggested that even in defeat, Mr. Trump maintained a powerful grip on his party and its elected leaders, who have spent four years tightly embracing him or quietly working to avoid offending him or his loyal base. For many prominent Republicans, the president’s reluctance to accept the election results created a dilemma, making even the most cursory expression of support for Mr. Biden seem like a conspicuous break with Mr. Trump.

Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri was the most senior Republican to suggest that Mr. Trump had most likely lost and cast doubt on his allegations of a stolen election, but he stopped short of referring to Mr. Biden as the president-elect in an exceedingly careful television interview.

“It’s time for the president’s lawyers to present the facts, and it’s time for those facts to speak for themselves,” Mr. Blunt, the chairman of the Rules Committee, said on ABC’s “This Week.” “It seems unlikely that any changes could be big enough to make a difference, but this is a close election, and we need to acknowledge that.”

“I look forward,” Mr. Blunt added, “to the president dealing with this however he needs to deal with it.”

At the White House, there was little indication that Mr. Trump was dealing with it at all. As he played a second consecutive day of golf at his private club outside Washington, the president recirculated a groundless claim by Newt Gingrich, the former Republican speaker of the House, who told Fox News, “I think that it is a corrupt, stolen election.”

Privately, the president’s advisers, several of whom have quietly been candid with Mr. Trump that the chances of success in any challenge to the election outcome were not high, had concluded they had little option other than to allow the president to keep fighting until he was ready to bow to the reality of his loss.

On Friday, a large group of them met with the president in the Oval Office to discuss the way forward, giving him a brutally honest assessment of his likelihood of prevailing. After another meeting at Mr. Trump’s campaign headquarters on Saturday, where political aides again laid out the small chances of changing the outcome of the race, Jared Kushner, the president’s senior adviser and son-in-law, asked the group to go to the White House to outline it for Mr. Trump, according to people briefed on the meeting.

Campaign officials continued to discuss their legal strategy for challenging the election results on Sunday and named Representative Doug Collins of Georgia, who lost his bid for a Senate seat on Tuesday, to lead their recount effort in the state.

On his first full day as president-elect, Mr. Biden kept a low profile, emerging publicly only to attend Mass, as he does most Sundays. Afterward, he visited the cemetery where his son Beau; his first wife, Neilia; and their daughter, Naomi, are buried. In a sign of one specific stylistic change coming to the White House, he also stayed quiet in another way: Aside from circulating a video posted by his presidential transition, he had not sent a single tweet by Sunday evening.

Leaders around the world sent their congratulations to Mr. Biden, underscoring the international community’s acceptance of the results, even by those who had cultivated close personal ties with Mr. Trump, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Boris Johnson of Britain. A few refrained, including the leaders of Russia and China, Vladimir V. Putin and Xi Jinping.

There were signs that Mr. Trump would come under increasing pressure to accept the election results. The nonpartisan Center for Presidential Transition, a nonprofit that assists in transfers of power between administrations, called on his team to “immediately begin the postelection transition process.”

“While there will be legal disputes requiring adjudication, the outcome is sufficiently clear that the transition process must now begin,” members of the group’s advisory board — including Mike Leavitt, the former Republican governor of Utah, and Josh Bolten, the White House chief of staff under Mr. Bush — wrote in a letter reported earlier by Politico.

“This was a hard-fought campaign, but history is replete with examples of presidents who emerged from such campaigns to graciously assist their successors,” they wrote.

Mr. Bush extended his congratulations to Mr. Biden in a statement issued after the two men spoke on Sunday.

“Though we have political differences, I know Joe Biden to be a good man, who has won his opportunity to lead and unify our country,” Mr. Bush said in a statement.

And a former member of Mr. Trump’s cabinet, Gary Cohn, also acknowledged Mr. Biden’s victory, tweeting his “congrats” to “President-elect @joebiden and Vice President-elect @kamalaharris.”

“With over 145M votes cast,” he continued, “both campaigns should be applauded for getting an unprecedented number of citizens engaged in the democratic process.”

The silence from most other leading Republicans cut both ways for the president. While it allowed Mr. Trump to continue the fiction that he had not lost, it also left him to battle against the election results without the full, vocal support of his party behind him.

Senator Mitch McConnell, Republican of Kentucky and the majority leader, has declined to say anything since Friday, before the election results were known, when he released a generic statement encouraging officials to “count all the votes.” No member of his leadership team has either, apart from Mr. Blunt’s carefully worded statements on Sunday.

In a brief interview later Sunday, Mr. Blunt said a public vetting of the Trump campaign’s claims of fraud could help reassure voters on both sides of the election’s legitimacy.

“I think it is best for both the president and Biden to have as much information out as is possible,” he said.

At the same time, just two Republican senators — Mitt Romney of Utah and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska — and a handful of House members had acknowledged Mr. Biden’s win by Sunday evening, while others were trying to cast doubt on the results.

“Every legal challenge should be heard,” said Representative Kevin McCarthy of California, the House minority leader. “Then and only then will America decide who won the race.”

Speaking on Fox News, Mr. McCarthy questioned why news media outlets had called the presidential race for Mr. Biden, who was leading by tens of thousands of votes in key battleground states, before learning the final results of contests in competitive House districts — many of those in deep-blue California and New York — where thousands of mail-in ballots remain uncounted.

“Why would you call the presidential race first?” he asked.

News outlets call races after analyzing returns and concluding the outcome is certain, and the results in the congressional races in which ballots are still being tabulated — all but a handful of them in states that Mr. Biden easily won — have no bearing on the presidential race.

Still, some Republicans were grasping for evidence of wrongdoing. Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina urged Mr. Trump to refuse to concede and fight on. He acknowledged, though, that a claim he circulated over the weekend that a postal worker was said to have overheard talk of what he believed was corruption taking place at a facility in Erie, Pa., remained unverified.

“Do not accept the media’s declaration of Biden,” Mr. Graham, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said on Fox News on Sunday morning. He called the election “contested” and urged: “Do not concede, Mr. President. Fight hard.”

Those comments reflected the advice of some of Mr. Trump’s top advisers, chiefly Rudolph W. Giuliani, his personal lawyer, who were urging him on Sunday to continue to fight the results.

A remarkably small number of Republicans called for the country to move on and acknowledged Mr. Biden’s victory. Among them were three governors of blue states — Charlie Baker of Massachusetts, Larry Hogan of Maryland and Phil Scott of Vermont — and fewer than a dozen House Republicans.

They included the centrist Representatives Tom Reed of New York and Fred Upton of Michigan; Representative Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who has been an outspoken critic of Mr. Trump; and four lawmakers who will not be returning to Congress next year: Representatives Paul Mitchell of Michigan, Will Hurd of Texas and Francis Rooney of Florida, who are retiring, and Representative Denver Riggleman of Virginia, who lost his primary this year.

Representative Don Young of Alaska, whose race remains undecided after a re-election bid that was more difficult than expected, said he wished “the president-elect well in what will no doubt be the most challenging chapter of his political career.”

“It is time to put the election behind us, and come together to work for a better tomorrow for our nation,” Mr. Young said in a statement.

On “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Romney provided a contrast to many of his Republican colleagues. He said that he believed it was “appropriate” for Mr. Trump to pursue recounts and legal challenges in certain battleground states, but cautioned against widespread condemnations of the American system of elections.

“It’s important for the cause of democracy and freedom that we don’t allege fraud and theft and so forth, unless there’s very clear evidence of that,” Mr. Romney said. “To date, that evidence has not been produced.”

Mr. Romney noted that he had had a legal team ready to challenge the results of the 2012 election when he was the Republican nominee, but decided not to go forward once he saw such efforts would be futile.

“At some point, truth, freedom and democracy have to ascend,” he said, “and you step aside.”

Phroyd

[sciencespies]

Human Spaceflight In 2020: What Lies Ahead

https://sciencespies.com/news/human-spaceflight-in-2020-what-lies-ahead/

Human Spaceflight In 2020: What Lies Ahead

Last Thursday, NASA confirmed that The Boeing Company had completed readiness reviews for a December 20, 2019 launch of its uncrewed CST-100 Starliner spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS). This launch will be the first flight of Boeing’s Commercial Crew vehicle, and the second flight overall for NASA’s Commercial Crew Program following SpaceX’s uncrewed Dragon 2 launch in March. Pending a successful uncrewed Orbital Flight Test (OFT), Boeing plans to launch a crewed mission aboard its Starliner spacecraft early next year. Similarly, SpaceX plans to launch crew to the ISS using its Dragon 2 spacecraft in the near future, pending a successful In-Flight Abort Test in January.

For years, the industry has eagerly awaited the first Commercial Crew launches, as the last spacecraft to receive human-rating certification was NASA’s Space Shuttle in 1981. Since then, space agencies and private companies around the globe have poured significant money and resources into developing new crew vehicles, but none of these efforts have yet resulted a crewed mission.

As the year draws toa close, space agencies and companies have begun to turn their sights towards 2020 for crewed flight. Below is a peek at what we can look forward to in the next year.

1. Crewed launches from both NASA Commercial Crew Program providers

NASA introduced to the world on Aug. 3, 2018, the first U.S. astronauts who will fly on … [+] American-made, commercial spacecraft to and from the International Space Station – an endeavor that will return astronaut launches to U.S. soil for the first time since the space shuttle’s retirement in 2011. The agency assigned nine astronauts to crew the first test flight and mission of both Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX’s Crew Dragon. The astronauts are, from left to right: Sunita Williams, Josh Cassada, Eric Boe, Nicole Mann, Christopher Ferguson, Douglas Hurley, Robert Behnken, Michael Hopkins and Victor Glover.

NASA

NASA’s Commercial Crew Program (CCP) has provided funding to U.S.-based private companies to develop orbital human spaceflight capabilities since the first phase of program awards (Commercial Crew Development 1, or CCDev 1) in 2010. The program was created in order to reduce U.S. reliance on Russia for human spaceflight capabilities after the retirement of the Space Shuttle in 2011. Since 2011, NASA has paid Russia approximately $86 million per seat to launch astronauts to the ISS aboard its Soyuz spacecraft.

After supporting 6 companies through the initial development and proposal phases of the program, NASA ultimately selected Boeing and SpaceX for Commercial Crew Transportation Capability (CCtCap) contracts in 2014. The multibillion dollar CCtCap contract provides funding for each provider to complete an uncrewed mission to the ISS, verify its vehicle’s in-flight abort capabilities, and finally complete a crewed demonstration mission during which two NASA astronauts are successfully ferried to and from the ISS aboard the company’s vehicle.

Though the program has experienced the delays common to human spaceflight development, it had a productive year in 2019, with one uncrewed test flight complete and another on the books for this month. While the program has not publicly released specific launch dates for its crewed flights, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine has expressed confidence that the providers will launch crew in the first half of 2020.

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner

Boeing’s first CST-100 Starliner spacecraft sits atop a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on pad … [+] 41 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on December 4, 2019 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Starliner crew capsule, designed to carry as many as seven astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS), is scheduled to make its first unmanned test flight to the ISS on December 19. (Photo by Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

NurPhoto via Getty Images

Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner spacecraft is scheduled to launch its OFT mission to the ISS aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket on December 20. According to NASA’s press release, the spacecraft will dock to the ISS on December 21 and will remain attached for approximately a week. On December 28, the spacecraft will undock from the ISS and re-enter the Earth’s atmosphere before performing a parachute and airbag-assisted landing at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.

The OFT launch comes on the heels of the Starliner Pad Abort Test, which the company successfully completed at the beginning of November. Boeing previously experienced a setback when during a 2018 attempt at the test, a propellant leak occurred during engine shutdown. Based on the results of the subsequent anomaly investigation, Boeing implemented an operational control to prevent the leakage from re-occurring.

As Boeing has chosen to verify its vehicle’s in-flight abort capabilities via analysis rather than test, the OFT mission is intended to be the vehicle’s final test flight before its first crewed launch early next year. The vehicle’s crewed flight test (CFT) will provide ISS transportation for 3 crew: NASA astronauts Nicole Mann and Edward “Mike” Fincke, as well as Boeing Commercial Crew Director and former NASA astronaut Christopher Ferguson. Pending successful execution of the mission, Ferguson could become the first individual in history to travel to the ISS in both a government and commercial capacity.

SpaceX’s Crewed Dragon 2 Spacecraft

The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft which is designed to carry people and cargo to orbiting destinations … [+] such as space stations, is displayed at the SpaceX headquarters in Los Angeles on July 21, 2019. (Photo by Mark RALSTON / AFP) (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

SpaceX’s Dragon 2 vehicle (sometimes referred to as “Crew Dragon”) launched to the ISS for the first time this March, when it successfully completed an uncrewed 5 day mission before splashing down safely in the Atlantic Ocean. Shortly afterwards, the company experienced a setback when the same vehicle used for this mission exploded on a test stand in Cape Canaveral during a capsule static fire. SpaceX has since completed a full investigation of the anomaly, which traced the fault back to a leaky component that has since been replaced on its other capsules. A newly assembled capsule completed a successful static fire earlier this month, and the company remains on track for a January 2020 launch of its In-Flight Abort Test ahead of its crewed Demo-2 mission early next year.

SpaceX’s Demo-2 mission will provide ISS transportation for NASA astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken, who have undergone training with the company at their Hawthorne, California headquarters for several years. Though the company has been given the option to transport a SpaceX employee or private passenger to the ISS on this test flight in addition to the two NASA astronauts, SpaceX has not publicly announced any plans to do so.

2. Crewed launches of commercial suborbital vehicles

Suborbital human spaceflight has captivated the imagination of the American public since the 1990s, when renewed interest in space tourism from the investment community began opening the door to the development of new ventures. For the low price of “only” $100,000 to $1M USD, companies such as XCOR Aerospace, WorldView and Armadillo Aerospace promised private citizens a taste of the astronaut experience with short “hops” into space. Though the experience would only last several hours and provide only a few minutes of weightlessness, the substantial price reduction from orbital tourism opportunities (which often cost upwards of $20M USD) gave hope to those who dreamt of bringing spaceflight to the masses.

Space is hard, and unfortunately many of the early players in the commercial suborbital market faced technical and financial setbacks that led them to shut their doors. Over time, the field of competitors has been whittled down to Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic, who have emerged as the pack leaders with their New Shepard and SpaceShipTwo vehicles. While both companies have experienced repeated delays in their flight schedules, both continue to launch successful test flights on a regular basis, with company executives publicly stating this year that they expect crewed flight to occur within the next few months. If things continue as planned, 2020 could finally be their year.

Blue Origin’s New Shepard

Participants enjoy the Blue Origin Space Simulator during the Amazon Re:MARS conference on robotics … [+] and artificial intelligence at the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada on June 5, 2019. (Photo by Mark RALSTON / AFP) (Photo credit should read MARK RALSTON/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

Blue Origin’s New Shepard suborbital rocket and capsule have been under development since at least 2006, when the program’s first subscale demonstration vehicle first flew. Since April 2015, the full New Shepard system has visited space regularly, and on its second flight the rocket became the first to land vertically on Earth after visiting space.

Named after Alan Shepard, the first American man to visit space, New Shepard was intended from the start to be a crewed transportation system. However, to date, the vehicle’s flights have carried only cargo beyond the Karman line. As of December 2019, Blue Origin has completed 12 test flights of the vehicle, 9 of which have carried commercial payloads. Recent tests have also carried a dummy named Mannequin Skywalker, which is outfitted with sensors to measure how future commercial passengers could be affected by the flight.

Blue Origin CEO Bob Smith has talked about the first crewed flight of New Shepard happening as early as 2018, but this date has repeatedly been pushed back. Smith has attributed these delays to the company’s desire to be “cautious and thorough,” so as not to jeopardize passenger safety.

As of December 2019, the company has not publicly announced a date for the first crewed flight of the capsule, but founder Jeff Bezos has hinted that he expects it to occur in the near future. The first passengers on New Shepard are likely to be Blue Origin employees, and the company has stated that it will not begin taking deposits for commercial passenger flights until these initial crewed flights have occurred.

Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo

MOJAVE, CA – FEBRUARY 19, 2016 – Sir Richard Branson, center, poses with the employees for photos … [+] by the new Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo at its roll out in the Mojave Desert, about a year and a half after Virgin’s last rocket plane broke into pieces and killed the test pilot. (Photo by Al Seib/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Los Angeles Times via Getty Images

Virgin Galactic’s human spaceflight capabilities have technically been in development since 1996, when the Ansari XPRIZE was created to award $10M USD to a team who could launch a reusable manned spacecraft into space twice in two weeks. Mojave Aerospace Ventures (MAV), a joint venture between Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen and Burt Rutan’s Scaled Composites, ultimately won the prize with its SpaceShipOne reusable spaceplane design and White Knight launcher. Following the award, MAV signed a contract with Virgin Galactic to develop a suborbital spacecraft based on the XPRIZE-winning technology for space tourism. This deal resulted in the formation of The Spaceship Company, a joint venture between Virgin Galactic and Scaled Composites, to manufacture the spacecraft.

Since 2004, the team has been hard at work developing Virgin Galactic’s spaceplane and launcher, dubbed SpaceShipTwo and White Knight 2. A mockup of the design was revealed to the press in January 2008, with a company statement that the vehicle itself was around 60% complete at the time.

UNSPECIFIED – JANUARY 24: Virgin Galactic Flight Simulator in January 24th, 2008 – Test pilot Brian … [+] Binnie in the Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo flight simulator, which will take passengers a year to just over 100 km altitude; Virgin Galactic’s first world is the spaceline owning an (Photo by Thierry BOCCON-GIBOD/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)

Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images

The vehicle’s development has not been without hiccups. In July 2007, an explosion occurred during a SpaceShipTwo oxidizer test at Mojave Air and Space Port, killing three employees and injuring three others with flying shrapnel. The company suffered an additional setback in October 2014 when a SpaceShipTwo vehicle broke up during a crewed test flight and crashed in the Mojave desert. The vehicle’s co-pilot was killed and the pilot was seriously injured. A subsequent inquiry by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) concluded that the crash was caused by the co-pilot’s premature deployment of the spacecraft air brake device for atmospheric re-entry. The board also cited inadequate design safeguards against human error, poor pilot training and lack of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oversight as contributors to the accident.

Since conclusion of the NTSB investigation in 2015, the SpaceShipTwo team has conducted 13 successful crewed test flights using its upgraded VSS Unity spaceship. These tests are in addition to the 54 successful test flights that occurred using the VSS Enterprise ship prior to its 2014 crash. Since the crash, Virgin Galactic has also taken over construction of the spacecraft from Scaled Composites, and has redesigned critical components in house to ensure passenger safety.

To date, more than 600 individuals have put down deposits for crewed tourist flights onboard SpaceShipTwo. The total price tag for a flight is $250,000 USD, and customers are asked to front half the ticket price to reserve their spot in advance. A specific launch date for the vehicle’s first commercial passenger flight has not been announced, but founder Sir Richard Branson said earlier this year that he hoped it would occur “in months not years.” Earlier this year, the company commenced its “Astronaut Readiness Program,” a preparatory course for customers that have reserved seats onboard one of the company’s first passenger flights.

3. Steady launch cadence for Russia’s Soyuz

KYZYLORDA REGION, KAZAKHSTAN – JUNE 6, 2018: A Soyuz-FG rocket booster carrying the Soyuz MS-09 … [+] spacecraft with the ISS Expedition 56/57 prime crew members, European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Alexander Gerst, Roscosmos cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, and NASA astronaut Serena M. Aunon-Chancellor, aboard blasts off to the International Space Station from the Baikonur Cosmodrome. Sergei Savostyanov/TASS (Photo by Sergei SavostyanovTASS via Getty Images)

Sergei Savostyanov/TASS

As NASA’s Commercial Crew providers continue to work towards operational crewed missions, Russia’s Soyuz vehicle will continue to be the sole low-Earth orbit transportation option for all ISS partners, who must purchase each seat from ROSCOSMOS. Launching from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Soyuz program has been transporting astronauts and cosmonauts into orbit since 1968. With a fatality rate of 1 in 63 people sent to orbit, Soyuz is thus far the safest human spaceflight system in history. (In contrast, the Space Shuttle’s fatality rate was approximately 1 in 56.)

As of December 2019, Soyuz Expeditions 62 and 63 are on the books for April and May 2020 launches, respectively. Each mission will ferry a crew of 3 astronauts between the Earth and ISS. While NASA hopes to reduce its dependence on the Russians for ISS transportation in the near future, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine stated in October 2019 that the agency was looking into purchasing an additional Soyuz seat for fall 2020 or spring 2021 to protect for additional Commercial Crew delays. Although both Commercial Crew partners are expected to launch crew in early 2020, Bridenstine noted that when it comes to human spaceflight development, “usually things don’t go according to plan.”

4. China’s Shenzhou 12 mission and Tiangong Space Station

BEIJING, Oct. 19, 2016 — Photo taken on Oct. 19, 2016 shows the screen at the Beijing Aerospace … [+] Control Center showing a simulated picture of an automated docking between the Shenzhou-11 manned spacecraft and the orbiting space lab Tiangong-2. The Shenzhou-11 manned spacecraft successfully completed its automated docking with the orbiting Tiangong-2 space lab Wednesday morning, according to Beijing Aerospace Control Center. (Xinhua/Ju Zhenhua via Getty Images)

2016 Xinhua News Agency

As of 2019, China is the only nation with human spaceflight capabilities that is not a member of the ISS program. The Chinese manned spaceflight initiative, called the Shenzhou program, successfully sent its first crew member into orbit in October 2003. Since then, the country has successfully completed 5 other crewed missions using its Shenzhou spacecraft and Long March rocket.

The last of these 5 missions – Shenzhou 11 – was launched in October 2016. After a 4 year hiatus, China plans to send its next crew up in 2020. As China does not participate in the ISS, the country plans to construct its own Tiangong Space Station, which will be constructed, owned, and operated solely by the Chinese government. Tiangong is expected to have an orbital lifetime of at least 10 years and to be able to accommodate 3 to 6 astronauts at a time, making it a project of similar scale to the ISS. The Chinese government has stated that it aims to complete construction of the station by 2022.

Looking beyond 2020, the rest of the decade appears rife with opportunity for both the commercial space industry and for government programs with deeper space ambitions. NASA’s Artemis program aims to send “the first woman and next man” to the Moon by 2024. The program has yet to announce a launch date for its uncrewed Artemis 1 test flight, but earlier this month, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine stated that he believed it would be sometime in 2021 based on the current Space Launch System (SLS) development schedule.

A model of the SLS rocket on display during the 35th Space Symposium at The Broadmoor in Colorado … [+] Springs, Colorado on April 9, 2019. – NASA is preparing to use the SLS rocket to send US astronauts to the moon in 2024. The four day symposium is the largest space trade show in the world, attracting leaders focusing on space technology, satellite development, rocket design, and space policy. (Photo by Jason Connolly / AFP) (Photo credit should read JASON CONNOLLY/AFP via Getty Images)

AFP via Getty Images

SpaceX, in turn, looks to continue pushing the boundaries by exploring destinations beyond the ISS. The company’s #dearMoon project, which is scheduled for launch no earlier than 2023, aims to send Japanese billionaire Yusaku Maezawa to orbit the Moon in a SpaceX Starship vehicle along with a crew of several artists. One of the project’s major goals is to inspire the creation of new art to promote peace across the world. Initial tests of the Starship system have commenced in Boca Chica, Texas, using subscale models of the spacecraft.

The successful certification and operation of any of the aforementioned vehicles will be a huge milestone, both for the space industry and for humanity as a whole. If the 2010s were the decade of SpaceX, perhaps the 2020s will be the decade where space tourism finally becomes a reality. With a little luck, it could even be the decade where humans once again venture beyond low-Earth orbit.

#News

[thecomicsnexus]

TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS #42-44, ANNUAL #3 MAY - JULY 1984 BY MARV WOLFMAN, GEORGE PEREZ, DICK GIORDANO, MIKE DECARLO AND ADRIENNE ROY

SYNOPSIS (FROM DC DATABASE)

Donna and Kory finish up a photo shoot at Donna's studio. Gar, naturally, is overwhelmed by the skimpiness of Kory's bathing suit. Tara is present, and asks how Donna could afford such an expansive studio apartment. Donna tells her that it was a gift from Queen Hippolyta. What none of the Titans present realize is that someone is surreptitiously taking surveillance photos of Donna's studio.

Gar and Tara walk Dick back to his midtown apartment. Again, someone continues to take photographs of the group, but none of them seem to be aware of it. After dropping Dick off, Gar and Tara walk over to a nearby frozen pond where Vic Stone and Sarah Simms are ice skating with a group of Sarah's disabled wards. Vic loses his balance and falls onto the ice, and Sarah and the children begin laughing at them. Vic is only slightly embarrassed, but his humiliation is compounded when Gar turns into a bunny and begins poking fun at him. Afterwards, Vic returns home where he finds a letter from his grandparents. The letter indicates that they will be visiting him some time soon. Vic is not overjoyed to receive such news. As before, someone takes a snapshot of him from outside his apartment.

Later, Gar walks Tara down to the East River. She finally relents to his persistent affections and the two share a kiss. Gar leaves, and Tara takes the raft to Titans Tower. She stops by Raven's room and finds the empath in the midst of meditation. Raven doesn't trust Tara, but as she has been dealing with so many emotional issues as of late, she cannot determine whether her apprehension is justified, or if it is just a by-product of her father Trigon's influence over her.

Some time later, the Titans regroup at the tower and Cyborg goes through a training exercise. He succeeds in overcoming a five-ton steel press. Donna and Kory spar with one another atop a floating raft in the Titans' swimming pool. Donna has never defeated Kory during these trials and is determined to win. Kory reminds her once again that she was trained by the Warlords of Okaara, and that fighting is second-nature to her. She proves her point by kicking Donna in the jaw, knocking her into the pool. Terra silently watches the various trials, taking note of her potential teammates strengths and weaknesses.

The next training exercise takes place outside. The Titans want to see what Tara is truly capable of and has her spar against Changeling. Changeling, with his usual aplomb, transforms into a variety of animals, and circle about Terra, disrupting her concentration. He keeps making jokes and poking playful fun at her, not realizing that she each barb is steadily bringing her temper to a boil. Finally, Terra can take no more of Gar's shenanigans and unleashes a volley of earth, rocks and debris at him. Volcanic mounds of dirt begin erupting across the island, and the other Titans quickly realize that Terra has lost control. They finally get Terra to calm down, and they make sure that Gar is okay. Cyborg chastises him for provoking her.

Later, Tara retires to the Terminator's secret lair. Slade criticizes her for losing control, and tells her that it is only through sheer naiveté that the Titans still trust her. Tara tells him not worry about anything.

Elsewhere, a middle-aged woman and her teenage son monitor Slade and Tara's actions. They take a surveillance photo of them boarding a helicopter. The woman is surprised that she was able to get close enough to Slade to photograph him. She whispers to herself, "Slade, it's been a long time. But not long enough for you".

Dick Grayson is at home typing a letter when suddenly the Terminator crashes through his apartment window and attacks him. It quickly becomes clear that the Terminator knows that Dick was once the retired super-hero Robin, though Grayson has no idea how he could have acquired such knowledge. Realizing that the Terminator has a physical advantage over him, Dick baits his foe into kicking him out the broken window. He uses his leather jacket to slow his fall as his body plummets into a pile of garbage. As the Terminator begins firing rounds out the window, Dick (injured) sprints into the crowd. The Terminator gives chase and follows him across a busy street. Two witnesses to this tableaux are the middle-aged woman who had been spying on the Terminator, and her silent teenage son. Terminator follows Dick into a nearby park, but Dick loses him in a crowd of marathon runners.

Fearing that his fellow Titans may be in danger, Dick tries to contact them on his communicator, but nobody responds. He races over to Donna and Kory's apartment, but as he feared, the penthouse is in shambles. He finds evidence of a letter bomb that could've been used to render Kory unconscious. Examining Donna's darkroom, he finds trace elements of poisonous chemicals that had been mixed with her photo solutions. He suspects that the odor from the chemicals would have been strong enough to incapacitate someone of even Donna's hearty constitution.

He next stops at Victor Stone's apartment. Breaking down the door, he finds an empty chair outfitted with clamps and wires designed to electrocute its intended target. He also finds a letter on the floor from Vic's grandparents and surmises that he was reading the letter when the Terminator sprung his trap. Like the others, Vic is nowhere to be found.

Dick then goes to Titans Tower. The tower is empty but for a massive spiraling column of earth. Clearly this is Terra's handiwork. The column leads into Raven's quarters, but neither Terra nor Raven are anywhere to be found. Dick hears a voice from behind him and spins around to see the middle-aged woman and her son standing before him. The woman introduces herself as Adeline and the boy next to her is her son Joey. Adeline tells him that the Terminator learned all of the Titans secrets from Terra. Dick doesn't trust this woman, and is unwilling to readily accept the fact that Terra was a traitor. Adeline tells him that she has unique knowledge of the Terminator and his schemes, due in no small part to one simple fact – he was once her husband.

Meanwhile, the Terminator abducts his final victim – Gar Logan. Playing on Garfield's vanity, he poisons the seal on a pile of envelopes that correspond to autographed photos of himself that he plans on mailing to his female fan base. After licking numerous envelopes, the poison finally takes affect and Gar passes out. Deathstroke collects his quarry and brings all of the Titans to the Rocky Mountain headquarters of his employers – the H.I.V.E.

At Titans Tower, Dick Grayson stands incredulous as Adeline Kane accuses Terra of collusion with their most hated foe Deathstroke the Terminator. As his former wife, Adeline has intimate knowledge of Slade Wilson's origins. She provides Robin with a complete history of Slade's life.

The Origin of the Terminator Having lied about his age, Slade Wilson was sixteen-years-old when he first enlisted in the United States Army. After serving a stint in Korea, he was later assigned to Camp Washington where he had been promoted to the rank of Major. In the early 1960s, he met Captain Adeline Kane who was tasked with training young soldiers in new fighting techniques in anticipation of brewing troubles taking place in Vietnam. Kane was amazed at how skilled Slade was and how quickly he adapted to modern conventions of warfare. She immediately fell in love with him, and realized that he was without a doubt the most able-bodied combatant she had ever encountered. She offered to privately train Slade in guerrilla warfare. In less than a year, Slade mastered every fighting form presented to him and was soon promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel. Six months later, Adeline and he were married and she became pregnant with their first child. It was at this time that the war in Vietnam began to escalate and Slade was shipped overseas. At home, Adeline gave birth to their son Grant. Some time later, Wilson volunteered for a medical experiment designed to stimulate his adrenal gland in the hopes of increasing a soldier's ability to resist truth serums. The experiment did not go as expected, and Slade fell into a coma. When he awakened however, he discovered that was now capable of using 90% of his brain capacity, and his strength, durability and agility were increased to near superhuman levels. He applied for re-assignment with the army, but they refused him. Although his condition was now stabilized, depression took hold of him and he was desperate to serve his country. At this time, Adeline became pregnant with their second child, Joseph. Unable to further his career in the military, Slade turned towards hunting. He became a world famous safari hunter and great wealth followed soon after. Adeline always suspected however that Slade felt unfulfilled.

A few years later, a group of hired mercenaries broke into the Wilsons' mansion and kidnapped young Joey. Adeline attempted to fight them off, but a gas grenade prevented her from saving her son. When Slade discovered what had happened, he knew he could not keep the truth from his wife any longer. Slade was not only a world famous safari hunter, he was also one of the world's deadliest and most highly sought after assassins - Deathstroke the Terminator. He promised Adeline that he would save their son. Together, they flew to Tangiers and squared off against a rival mercenary known as the Jackal. The Jackal wanted Slade to reveal important information relating to a client or else he would have his men kill Joey. Slade gambled on the idea that he could save his son before the Jackal could give the order. Though he succeeded in disarming the thugs and killing the Jackal, he was not fast enough to prevent one of them from slicing Joey's throat, permanently robbing him of his voice. Grief stricken beyond measure, Adeline attempted to shoot her husband in the back of the head. His lightning reflexes saved his life, but he could not avoid the bullet taking out his left eye. Slade and Adeline parted ways, but Addie always promised that she would finish the job she started.

After concluding her tale, Adeline convinces Dick to allow them to help rescue the Titans. Dick runs upstairs to don a brand new costume, and with it a new identity. When he returns to the meeting hall, he is no longer Robin the Boy Wonder. He is now Nightwing. Joey too has a costume and has taken to calling himself Jericho. Dick is still unsure about having Joey around, but Adeline reveals that the experiments which gave Slade his powers, had a mutagenic side-effect in his son. Joey has the ability to physically possess the bodies of other people. After a quick demonstration, he communicates (through sign language) his desire to bring his father to justice. Nightwing is still reluctant, but agrees to accept his aid. They fly off in the T-Jet on the trail of Deathstroke and Terra.

Nightwing and Jericho go to the H.I.V.E. base nestled in the Rocky Mountains. They sneak into the facility and discover that the Titans have been strapped to a giant machine which is slowly siphoning away their life energy. Nightwing and Jericho fight through a horde of H.I.V.E. shock troops but are eventually captured. The Terminator is surprised to see his son with the Titans and tries to bargain with the H.I.V.E. to let him go. The H.I.V.E. refuses however and Jericho takes this opportunity to possess his own father. Using the Terminator's body and weaponry, he frees the other Titans and begins fighting the H.I.V.E.

Terra is enraged at Terminator and feels that his affection for Joey makes him weak. She accuses him of betraying her, not altogether different from how she betrayed the Titans. She loses complete control of her sanity and years for nothing more than the death of everyone in the room. Changeling refuses to believe that Tara has gone bad, and is certain that the Terminator has brainwashed her. Terra calls him a moron and confesses that she has always been conspiring with Slade against the Titans. Terra's powers rage out of control and twisting columns of rock begin growing from out of the floor and walls. Wonder Girl ensnares Terra in her golden lasso, but Terra knocks her off her feet with a geyser. Changeling turns into a giant serpent and tries to coil himself around her, but she keeps him at bay by hurling a wave of debris at him. One of the discarded chunks of sediment strikes Raven in the face, knocking her unconscious. As Terra's emotions are whipped into a greater frenzy, her powers become even more uncontrollable. Finally she causes a mountain of earth and debris to collapse down from the ceiling, killing herself in the process.

The Titans bring Terra's body back to New York for burial. The funeral service is small and only the Titans and the Outsiders are in attendance. The Titans let Tara's surviving brother Geo-Force believe that she died heroically while fighting the H.I.V.E. From some distance away, Joey Wilson sheds a tear for Terra. His mother comforts him and speaks about the nobility of the Titans. She concludes with, "You'll do well with them".

INTERVIEW WITH WOLFMAN

Dan: Now, going back to The Judas Contract … that was a perfect example of melding character beats and a lot of action and the culmination of a story. So, give us a sense of how that particular story came together.

Marv: I had the original idea and George and I, at this point George lived about five blocks from me. We’d get together at a diner between us and…

Dan: Where was this? Was this in New York?

Marv: Yeah. And we would talk out… I’d come in with the idea and then we’d start talking it out and going back and forth and early on I’d go back and rewrite it as a full plot, broken down page-by-page, and George would take that and do what he wanted. The fact that I broke it down didn’t mean he had to follow it. It was my way of pacing the story and he’d use what he wanted or he’d come up certainly with the action stuff, a million great things.

George’s strength was he also understood the characters 100 percent as I did so there was never any question. He knew. We had talked enough about the characters to know we were exactly on the same page with them. So I said, “Everyone keeps complaining that we’re like the X-Men” and the X-Men had just gotten Kitty Pryde. I said, “Why don’t we really screw around with them completely?” — this is the fans — “…and make them think we’re stealing Kitty Pryde only she’s gonna be bad from Day One.”

You always had characters pop up, certainly at Marvel, who were bad that get redeemed. But this character would never get redeemed. She was insane. In fact, she was the catalyst for everything. She wasn’t working for Deathstroke. He was working for her in many ways and she was leading him because she’s crazy. She’s a total psychopath… and she’d be 15. And she’d be smoking and she’d be trying to seduce him.

The very first time we see her, she’s trying to blow up the Statue of Liberty. It’s just that all the fans assumed because we went out of our way to make her cute — but not too cute, with the buck teeth and everything — everyone would assume that she was gonna become good by the end and that was never the case.

First thing, we made a promise that day that we would never renege on our view that she’d never become good. It’s sometimes hard to do that with characters you like. You want them to become good or something like that. But we never liked the character enough—because we knew what we were doing with her—we never allowed ourselves to fall for the character. Because that’s bad. That’s bad storytelling. You’re doing what you want as a fan at that particular point, not as the creators. The fans had to accept what we were doing and not do the same stories that they had read 14,000 times before. You know, at Marvel, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch were villains who became good guys and I could go through a whole list of ’em.

The funniest part — when we got to the end of the storyline and we’re at the diner and we’re plotting the death. At the end of it, four or five hours later, we walk out and I suddenly turn to George and I say, “Do you realize we’ve been plotting the death of a 15-year-old girl and not one single person there said boo. (Laughter) Can you just kill people in New York and no one even cares?” (Laughter)

REVIEW

This story is a milestone in comic-book history. The sidekick that never went back to being a sidekick. Then you have the actual betrayal of Terra, the introduction of Jericho, the origin of Deathstroke, the first “TITANS TOGETHER”  (If I am not mistaken). The story has something for everyone.

Furthermore, we get to see Dick investigating the crime scenes and figuring out what happened to his team-mates.

I think the only thing missing from this saga is Romeo Tanghal. Giordano and Decarlo make the book look iconic, but it is still significantly different. I assume the reason for his absence can be explained by the fact that they were preparing for the other Titans title. 

While Nightwing was never undone by DC, the actual origin has been fluctuating ever since. Most notoriously, making his origin more Batman-related than titans. Whatever the case, he became a fan favorite character, even more so than Robin (though future Robins probably benefited by their predecessor's success.

I give this story a score of 10

[weekegg2-blog]

Choose Your Own Adventure, Bryce Harper edition

Remember when you were a kid and loved reading those "Choose Your Own Adventure" stories? Well, baseball fans, we have a real treat for you -- a Bryce Harper Choose Your Own Adventure story. Here's how it works:

Start reading below. As you'll see in the very first line, you are the protagonist. Control the narrative by channeling your inner Bryce.

Whenever you see a fork in the road, make a choice and click on it.

When you reach the end (i.e. no more choices), live happily ever after with your decision. Or don't -- part of the fun of the CYOA genre is going back and exploring all the other endings.

You're Bryce Harper.

You have perfect hair. You have a powerful arm and an even more powerful bat. You have one Most Valuable Player award already in your possession, and you wouldn't mind another. But what you're really after is a ring.

There has been speculation about Atlanta pursuing Harper. It makes sense, but it's just not how the organization does business.

Bryce? Manny? Both? ... Or steer clear. We examine how every team in baseball should approach a historic pair of free agents.

From the free agents set to cash in to the big-name stars sure to come up in trade rumors all winter long, keep up with all of the latest action.

2 Related

It's the one thing that has managed to elude you during your seven years in the nation's capital. Well, that and a playoff series win. And a manager that lasts more than two seasons. And a passionate fan base that cares about baseball -- like, really cares. Sure, you were flattered when the Nationals drafted you with the first overall pick back in 2010. But Washington wasn't exactly a sexy franchise, and you love sexy franchises. Always have.

You'd be lying if you said you hadn't allowed yourself to envision playing in a different uniform next season, but in your mind, you kept coming back to the Nats. After all, you made your big league debut with them. You've spent your entire adult life wearing red and white. The fans in D.C. adore you, and despite the team's massively disappointing performance this season, the future is pretty darned bright -- especially if you stick around.

But now you're no longer under contract. A few days after the World Series ended, you officially became a non-member of the Nats. You are a free agent. Finally.

So where will you sign?

Click below to:

Safety squeeze | Swing away

Brad Mills-USA TODAY Sports

YOU'RE (STILL) A NAT!

It was a weird season in D.C. Except for you, almost every key player on the team was hurt at one point or another. Your new manager, Davey Martinez, brought real live camels into spring training to help put the Nationals over the playoff hump (get it?), but it didn't work. You guys didn't win a playoff series, or even make the playoffs. Your Nats, expected to contend for a World Series title with largely the same squad that averaged 96 wins the previous two years, were far and away the biggest disappointment in baseball. Still, the window remains wide open in Washington.

Staff ace Max Scherzer has three more years left on his contract, and Stephen Strasburg has five more. Shortstop Trea Turner, a fellow 25-year-old who's one of your best buddies, should be around for at least a few more seasons. Rookie Juan Soto is a beast, and an outfield that features him, top prospect Victor Robles and you does have a nice ring to it.

Speaking of rings, the fact that you haven't been able to deliver one to the District yet bothers you. And while that matters, it doesn't matter quite as much as this: The Nationals are the only team you've ever known. You have a strong relationship with GM Mike Rizzo, who has been there since day one, a steadying presence as the team has churned through manager after manager. You've spent the past seven years patrolling the outfield at Nationals Park and you know the contours of the right-field corner almost as well as you know your high school sweetheart (who, by the way, you married while you were a member of the Nationals). There's even a field named after you in nearby Takoma Park, a symbol of just how much you've meant to the city.

"This is my second home," you said at the ribbon-cutting ceremony in May. A couple of months later, in the midst of a horrible first-half slump, you electrified the hometown fans when you staged an epic comeback to win the Home Run Derby in your own park. You had it all working that night. The stars-and-stripes arm sleeve. The D.C. flag bandanna. The unwavering and full-throated support of a sellout crowd filled with fans from in and around the D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area. It was a crazy night, one that reminded Washingtonians just how much you mean to them. Perhaps more important, it was a reminder of how much the city means to you.

All that said, baseball is a business. You have the potential to sign a record-setting contract. You are represented by superagent Scott Boras. In other words, you're not about to hand out a hometown discount. That's why you reportedly said thanks but no thanks to the 10-year, $300 million deal Washington reportedly offered you at the end of September. In fact, you might be headed for a hometown markup.

True, someone might be willing to pay a little more for your services depending on positional need and/or payroll flexibility. But the Nationals are the only club with any emotional equity invested in you, and they've got lots of it. Much like parents who think their child is the greatest, Washington's opinion of you -- the face of the franchise -- is likely to be inflated relative to other teams. If you don't believe it, just check out that bloated $161 million deal Chris Davis received from the Orioles a few years back. And that was in a market where, by the looks of things, there weren't a whole lot of teams courting him. For you, things should be different. Much different.

By signing with the Nats, it seems you can have it all. The comfort level. The chance to win. And, of course, the money. Boras has probably already told you that you might have to be OK with deferring some of that dough, just as Scherzer and Strasburg (he reps them too) did in their contracts. The Nats already have $117 million committed toward next season, and that's without addressing needs at catcher, first base, second base and on the mound.

But assuming you don't mind a little delayed financial gratification, there's no place like home.

Start over »

Mark Goldman/Icon Sportswire

YOU'RE LEAVING THE NATS!

You've had it with the Nationals. It's not that you didn't have a nice run in the District -- there were plenty of good times. It's just that, well, seven years is a long time.

In fact, it's more than a quarter of your life. You were a kid when they drafted you, and now you're a man. It's high time to spread your wings and see what life is like outside the cocoon.

Click below to:

Stay in the (comfort) zone | Go oppo

Geoff Burke-USA TODAY Sports

YOU'RE HEADING TO A NEW NL TEAM!

Much like the family that sells its house only to move into another house right around the corner (it's all about the school district, baby), you're not ready to venture too far afield.

As such, you've ruled out a move to the American League and are focused only on Senior Circuit suitors.

Click below to:

Go for the glitz | Go for the gang | Go for the green

AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais

YOU'RE A DODGER!

La-La Land, here you come. The Dodgers don't wear pinstripes, but it's pretty much your dream scenario. Because you're all about the sexy franchises. Always have been.

A couple of years ago, you walked into the clubhouse on the first day of spring training wearing a Dallas Cowboys cap, a gutsy move for a guy who's the face of a franchise headquartered in Redskins country. But you didn't care. After all, the Cowboys are America's Team.

When LeBron James signed with the Los Angeles Lakers in July, you wore an orange Lakers cap to the ballpark the very next day. Growing up in Vegas, the Lake Show was about the closest thing you had to a local NBA squad. Of course, it didn't hurt that L.A. is where Magic and Kareem and Worthy played, where Shaq and Kobe did their thing, where "Showtime" was born.

Of course, L.A. is also home to the Dodgers, one of the most storied franchises in all of pro sports. They're also one of the richest: Every season from 2013 through 2017, Los Angeles -- bankrolled by Magic Johnson and Guggenheim Partners -- had the highest payroll in the majors. That includes 2015, when the Dodgers' $301 million payroll was nearly $80 million more than the next-closest club. They scaled things back a bit last season, checking in with the league's third-highest number ($196 million), but that doesn't alarm you. In fact, it intrigues you, because odds are the increased thriftiness had everything to do with getting under the luxury tax threshold so the team could spend freely this offseason -- on you.

You're flattered the Dodgers put in a waiver claim on you back in August. It showed they wanted you. After all, most teams would have been scared off by having to pay a portion of the $21.6 million you were earning last season. That same gesture also proves that despite a crowded outfield picture, they'd have no problem making room for you. Maybe they trade Yasiel Puig to open up right field. Maybe they sell high-ish on Matt Kemp. Maybe both. You don't really care. Because regardless of whom the Dodgers unload, they'll still be loaded.

The squad that's won the NL West in each of the past six seasons still has Justin Turner. It still has Cody Bellinger and Corey Seager. It still has closer Kenley Jansen and ace Clayton Kershaw. Hell, if you're lucky, L.A. might even be able to re-sign Manny Machado so you can reunite with your old roomie from back when you were both teenagers on Team USA. Not that you need the pot to be any sweeter.

Besides the deep pockets and the deep roster, the Dodgers have one thing money can't buy: location, location, location. (Technically that's three things, but you get the point.) Chavez Ravine is practically around the corner from your old stomping ground in Las Vegas, meaning you'll get to see your pops that much more. And your homies. And your beloved Golden Knights. And on days when the MLB and NHL calendars don't align for you, the Lakers aren't a bad Plan B. Heck, there's a sporting chance you can even roll with Magic and hang in the owner's box.

While you're at Staples Center, you can chat with LeBron James, who, like yourself, seems to have a knack for the whole athlete/actor thing. It's just one more reason he took his talents to Tinseltown.

And why you just did the same.

Start over »

Brad Mills/USA Today Sports

YOU'RE A CUB!

Last year in D.C., while the Cubs were in town, you posed for a pic. Left to right, it was your old pal Kris Bryant, his wife Jessica, your wife Kayla, and of course you. Then you posted it on Instagram, along with a caption that read, "Just two Vegas boys living our dream with the ones we love! This is what it's all about. What a time to be alive." No big deal, really. Except for the hashtag you decided to drop: #Back2BackOneDay.

The whole superfriends model of roster construction hasn't hit MLB yet, not like in the NBA, where all the best players would rather play with one another than against (see: Warriors, Golden State). But you don't mind starting a trend -- you've always been good at that.

You and KB (if he doesn't get traded), Anthony Rizzo and Javier Baez and Kyle Schwarber. A bunch of fun-loving 20-somethings, all under one roof. You'll be the National League version of the Houston Astros.

On the one hand, it doesn't seem the Cubs could possibly give you the gobs of green you're looking for. Not with almost $165 million in payroll already committed for next season. Not with Jason Heyward's fat contract on the books for another five seasons. Not if they want to keep superstars like Bryant and Rizzo in the Windy City long-term.

Still, when it comes to spending, the Cubs might not yet be in the same league as the Yankees and Dodgers, but ever since the Ricketts family took ownership almost a decade ago, it sure has seemed like they're headed in that direction. With a wildly popular team and a rabid fan base and a new TV deal on the horizon, the money seems to be there.

The only question is: Where exactly will you play? With Heyward in right field, Albert Almora in center and Schwarber in left -- not to mention Ian Happ backing up all three spots -- there isn't a whole lot of room in Wrigleyville for you. And it's not like you can DH, either. But that's not your problem. When you land in Chicago, GM Theo Epstein will find a way to create space for you. And once he does, Joe Maddon will find a spot for you in the lineup.

With any luck, you'll be hitting right behind your old homeboy Bryant. Back-to-back.

Start over »

Gavin Baker/Icon Sportswire

YOU'RE A PHILLIE!

This one's all about the Benjamins.

Sure, the long-range forecast is sunny. Led by Rhys Hoskins and Aaron Nola, the Phillies have a solid core of young talent that has made the team playoff-relevant, and well ahead of schedule. And you like a W just as much as the next guy. That said, Philadelphia is even farther away from your hometown of Las Vegas than D.C. is. Beyond that, it's a town that, when it comes to sports teams, is decidedly unsexy, a city known for its gritty, blue-collar edge. It's the kind of place a guy like Mike Trout -- a low-profile, no-nonsense kind of dude who was born and raised in nearby Millville, New Jersey -- belongs. You? Not so much.

Remember that slump you went through in the first half of last season? If and when that happens in the City of Brotherly Love, you'll get pummeled by the unforgiving fans there. Kind of like how the fans in NYC abused Giancarlo Stanton after he got off to a rough start.

But that's OK. Because for you, the move to Philly is a bottom-line move. It's a move that feeds your ego. Although you've never come out and said it, you love the idea of one-upping Stanton and setting a record for the richest contract ever. And the Phillies are the team that gives you the best chance to do that.

Aside from Jake Arrieta and Carlos Santana, the Phils don't have any high-priced, long-term contracts. They have only $69 million committed to next season's payroll. Of all the clubs on your radar, they have by far the most financial flexibility, enough that they could probably sign you and Manny and still have some spending money left over. In other words, you can pretty much name your price, to the extent that GM Matt Klentak is interested in procuring your services. And why wouldn't he be?

Nick Williams is fine in right field, but he's not you. Even if Klentak wants to hold on to Williams, the Phils could slide him over to left and move Hoskins back to first once Santana's contract expires.

You don't really care about that. All you care about is the Benjamins. And the city where Benjamin Franklin made his name is where you'll make your fortune.

That's why you chose Philly.

Start over »

Rob Tringali/SportsChrome/Getty Images

YOU'RE A YANKEE!

You've decided to lend the Junior Circuit your services. Although the Angels make a little bit of sense on account of the whole L.A. thing, really there's only one option in your mind.

You grew up worshipping the Yankees because your dad worshipped them. And because, well, they're the Yankees. Mickey Mantle was your idol. You loved him so much, your Twitter handle, @Bharper3407, is a combination of his number and your number. As for your number, you're aware of the conspiracy theory. The one that says the reason you chose to wear 34 in Washington is that you knew if you ever ended up wearing pinstripes, 7 wouldn't be an option. So you chose a number whose digits add up to seven, knowing full well you could take 34 with you to the Bronx should the situation present itself.

If you're being technical about it, following in the Mick's footsteps means playing center field. But you're not really a center fielder. Yes, that's where you spent most of your time as a rookie, but that was mostly because the Nationals already had Jayson Werth entrenched in right.

Ultimately, though, Werth moved to the opposite corner and bequeathed right field to you. You like playing there. It allows you to show off that ridiculous hose of yours in a way the other outfield spots don't, what with those long throws to third base. Even when you don't get the chance to let it rip because the runner knows better than to try to go first to third on you, which happens all the time, it makes you feel mighty and respected.

Whether or not you care to admit it, you weren't your usual defensive self this year. You were a little less aggressive, especially in the vicinity of the warning track, as if you were afraid of getting dinged up in your walk year. Maybe it was a conscious choice, maybe not. You also seemed a little distracted out there from time to time, a little less engaged than usual. Maybe that was the walk year talking too. Or maybe that first-half slump got in your head and made it hard for you to leave your ABs in the dugout.

Regardless of what went down on D last season, you're a good right fielder and you know it. Maybe not as good as some folks think, but certainly good enough to play right field for the New York Yankees. Problem is, so is Aaron Judge.

Could Judge slide over to center to make room for you? Probably. After all, he's a pretty sick athlete who's remarkably coordinated for his size. But that size -- 6-foot-7 and 280 pounds -- sounds less like a center fielder and more like just a plain old center. As in a basketball center. Or a football center. Take your pick.

So maybe Judge pulls a Jayson Werth and moves over to left field for you, where there's a hole created by the redeployment of Brett Gardner, whose $12.5 million team option was declined by the club and who instead will earn $7.5 million next season, which sounds a little less like starting outfielder money. Alternatively ... the Yanks could leave Judge in right and put you in center.

Oh, don't act like that doesn't intrigue you. It intrigues everyone who watched you start 50-something games in center field for the Nationals last season. Sure, Washington was struggling to score early on and it was a creative way to get three strong bats (yours, Juan Soto's and Adam Eaton's) into the lineup at the same time. That said, the move was eerily reminiscent of when Orioles slugger Davis -- a first baseman by trade and a fellow Boras client -- suddenly started playing a bunch of right field during his contract year.

And let's not forget about first base. You've never played the position before, but that didn't stop you from taking grounders there in early July, before a game against ... the Yankees. Coincidence? Maybe. But if you're looking to plant a seed in the collective mind of a front office whose team doesn't necessarily have a long-term solution at first base (Greg Bird? Luke Voit?), there are far worse ways.

Speaking of planting seeds: In June, a couple of weeks before your impromptu first-base showcase, you showed up to Nats Park clean-shaven for the first time in forever. That trademark beard of yours? Gone. Then you went out and took early batting practice prior to the series opener ... against the Yankees ... who don't allow facial hair.

If someone who was watching you didn't know any better, they might think you'd already made your choice then.

Start over »

So what will actually happen? Maybe Harper ends up signing with a dark horse like the Giants or Rangers or Padres. Maybe he decides to play in Japan. Maybe he pulls a Colby Rasmus and decides to walk away from baseball altogether. Nobody knows for sure, but it'll certainly be fun sitting by the hot stove this winter and seeing which adventure Bryce Harper chooses.

Source: http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/24674023/choose-your-own-adventure-bryce-harper-edition

[wazowskiofthemikevariety]

BDRP wrimo Day 3: In script format, write the opening of your character in a popular TV series

The EX-Files, or The X-Files where Mike is Scully if Scully believed with her whole heart that not all demons/ghosts/ghouls were bad and where Sully is Mulder if Mulder didn’t believe in anything and was just using the FBI’s resources to kill everything he could find so they send in a lawyer to try and get dirt on him so they can finally fire his ass. (But spoilers, that I don’t get to since this is an opening,: They become best friends and Mike’s loyalties no longer belong to the Bureau.) 

EXT. - NIGHT - WOODS

Surrounded by trees the only sound is a man struggling to run, his BREATH and FOOTSTEPS are messy. He breaks through the brush, finally visible, but only just. He is wearing pajamas and no shoes. Odd for a romp around in the woods. At night.

He's looking over his shoulder, looking but not seeing. Something is chasing him. He looks for too long and trips over something, a branch or a root or a rock, is unknown.

He looks up. A blinding light makes his features clear, there is blood on his forehead and scratches on his cheek. He has shut his eyes against the light. 

LAUGHTER makes the man attempt to open his eyes. He shields the light with a hand, his palm is dirty and bleeding, too.

The LAUGHTER gets louder.

EXT. - DAY - WOODS

Laying face down is a man. Gloved hands turn him over to reveal he is the same man from earlier, still in his pajamas and the blood on his face has dried. 

The coroner, LEONARD QUIGGLY, a middle aged man with greying hair and thick framed glasses that match his square face, is looking the man over, frowning.

A man is taking pictures. Uniformed officers are surrounding the area with numbers and caution tape.

Two men are looking down at the corner. VICTOR is balding and stocky, he is of the mindset that it's too cold and too wet to be standing out here doing his job.

JACOBY is only a few inches taller than his partner, biting his nail as he looks on with worry. This is his first dead body. It shows.

As the coroner works Jacoby gets restless.

Victor points to the man's face, stepping so he is standing directly over the man's head.

                                              VICTOR

                          That's Nathan Weston.

                                             LEONARD

                          Is that a positive I.D.?

                                            VICTOR

                          He went to school with my son.

                                             JACOBY

                           Was it an animal?

                                            LEONARD

                                     (Shaking his head)

                          No. These markings are too precise. See here?

Leonard lifts the man's shirt. The scratches are not like the ones on the man's face. They are, as the coroner said, planned. Almost like he was used as a canvas to a drawing.

Victor tilts his head at the display. He and Leonard exchange a knowing look.

                                            VICTOR

                          Can you check his back?

Leonard turns the man in his pajamas over, lifting up his shirt. The markings are there too. But there's something else. Victor steps forwards and sighs.  

Victor walks away from the scene quickly, not looking at the other officers as he passes. He has somewhere to be that is not there.

                                            JACOBY

                                    (Looking after his partner in confusion )

                          What does that mean?

Jacoby looks at Leonard but Leonard will not meet his eyes, he is too busy looking at the man. The boy, Nathan Weston, and the cuts that adorn his body.

INT. - DAY -FBI HEADQUARTERS IN WASHINGTON D.C.

A man walks up the stairs of the entrance of the FBI building. Around him men and women pass by as they go about their day. An elevator dings, heels clack against the tile below them.

He approaches the front desk with a bright smile for the secretary sitting there.

                                             WAZOWSKI

                          Agent Michael Wazowski.

INT. - DAY -FBI HEADQUARTERS - OFFICE

MICHAEL WAZOWSKI, a young know it all whose courage outweighs his infinite amount of fear every time, walks through desks. He is taking in his surroundings, smiling at people he passes, while also making headway for where he is supposed to be.

He walks down a hallway until he stops at a door. He knocks gently three times.

                                            V.O. MAN’S VOICE

                          Enter.

Wazowski opens the door. An older man reading a newspaper is sitting at an important looking desk is inside waiting for him. His name is LANDERS, a man who once loved his job but is too old to do anything else now.

Wazowski approaches the desk.

                                            LANDERS

                          Agent Wazowski, thank you for coming on such short notice. Please, sit.

Wazowski sits as directed. His eyes drift to the two other men that are in the room. One looks younger, older than Wazowski himself, and is sitting in a chair just off to the wide of Landers’ desk. He smiles back at Wazowski when they make eye contact.

The other man is standing in the corner, not looking up from a spot on the floor. His arms are crossed and Wazowski can't really make out his expression. He can't look at him any longer, Landers is addressing him.

                                            LANDERS

                          We see you've been with us just under three years.

                                            WAZOWSKI

                          Yes, sir.

                                            LANDERS

                          You went to Law School. Passed the BAR, but decided not to practice. How did you come to work for the FBI?

                                            WAZOWSKI

                          Well, sir, I was recruited out of Law School, actually. I didn't think I would be cut out for the field work so I went ahead and took the BAR but after second thought I realized that the FBI could be a place where I could distinguish myself.

                                            LANDERS

                          Are you familiar with an Agent by the name of James P. Sullivan?

                                            WAZOWSKI

                          Yes, I am, sir.

                                            LANDERS

                          How so?

                                            WAZOWSKI

                          By...reputation. His family's name proceed's itself. He is a Yale graduated psychologist who wrote a monograph on serial killers possessed by demons, used to help catch and exorcise Jennifer Jordan in 2005. Generally thought of to be the best analyst in violent demon possessions. He had a nick name at the Academy. Scary Sullivan.  

                                            LANDERS

                          What I will also tell you is that Agent Sullivan has developed a consuming devotion to an unassigned project outside the Bureau mainstream. Are you familiar with the so called X-Files?

                                            WAZOWSKI  

                          I believe they have to do with unexplained phenomena.

                                            LANDERS

                          More or less. The reason you're here, Agent Wazowski, is we want you to assist Sullivan on these EX Files. You will write field reports on your activities along with your observations on the validity of the work.

The man in the corner looked up then. Wazowski caught his eye, faltering for a moment before looking back to Landers.

                                            WAZOWSKI

                          Am I to understand that you want me to find evidence to defraud the EX Files, sir?

                                            LANDERSw

                          Agent Wazowski, we trust your education had provided you with to make give a proper analysis to the methods that are being used on the project. You'll want to contact Agent Sullivan shortly. We look forwards to seeing your reports.

INT. - DAY - FBI HEADQUARTERS - BASEMENT

An elevator dings. Wazowski steps out into a dingy hallway that is poorly lit. There are boxes of files lining the walls. He makes his way to the end of the hall where there is barely any light left.

Wazowski knocks, in contrast they aren't as sure to the ones he had made earlier.

                                            V.O. MAN’S VOICE

                          Sorry, no body down here but the FBI's most unwanted-!

Wazowski pushes the door open anyways to find JAMES P. SULLIVAN. Bulky, spoiled, good at hiding inside himself. Confident in a way that is learned, not naturally born. He is sitting at his desk so his height is hidden for the moment. His back is turned to the door, the file he is reading open as he bends over to read it.

The office does not look like the professional ones upstairs.  There is no method to the madness. Pictures of shadow figures, of pentagrams, of people adorn the walls. Files are spilling out everywhere. Wazowski is horrified.

Still he enters.

Sullivan turns, looking up from the file. Wazowski waves.

                                            WAZOWSKI

                     (Walking forwards with his hand outstretched)

                          Agent Sullivan. I'm Michael Wazowski. I've been assigned to work with you.

                                            SULLIVAN

                    (Taking Wazowski's hand)

                          Isn't it nice to suddenly be so highly scrutinized?

Wazowski's eager demeanor shifts.

                                            SULLIVAN

                    (Going back to his file, dismissive)

                          So who did you take off to get stuck with this details? Wazowski?

                                            WAZOWSKI

                          Actually I'm really looking forwards to working with you. I've heard a lot about you. And your family.

                                            SULLIVAN

                          Oh, really? I was under the impression that my dad sent you to spy on me.

                                            WAZOWSKI

                          If you have any doubt about my qualifications or credentials-

                                            SULLIVAN

                          You're a lawyer. You teach at the Academy. Got your undergraduate degree in demonology.

Sullivan pulls a stack of papers from under a heap of files, the top few falling off. He stands, reading the top page.

                                            SULLIVAN

                          "A proposal on legal processes of Demons, Michael Wazowski, senior thesis," now that's credential, humanizing demons.

                                            WAZOWSKI

                          (Defensive)

                          Did you bother to read it?

                                            SULLIVAN

                          I did. I liked it. It's just that in most of my work demons don't necessarily sit in a court room to stand trial.  

                          Sullivan passes by Wazowski , walking to the door. He turns the lights off behind him leaving Wazowski to stand in the dark.

                                            SULLIVAN

                          Maybe I can get your opinion on this though.

Sullivan moves back into the room, turning on a projector and returning to a laptop.

On screen is a body. Nathan Weston in his pajamas, face up.

                                            SULLIVAN

                          Montana male. Age 22, no explainable cause of death. Autopsy showed nothing. Nada.

The picture changes, showing the cuts along Nathan's abdomen.

                                            SULLIVAN

                          There are, however, these lines all across his body. Not deep enough to kill him, not even deep enough to need a stitch. Lawyer Wazowski, tell me, can you I.D. these marks?

Wazowski stepped closer to the screen, apart of the projection displaying on his body as he does.

                                            WAZOWSKI

                          Claw marks, maybe? Or knife wounds made by the attacker. A rune of some kind?  

Wazowski turns back to Sullivan, who changes the slide.

                                            SULLIVAN

                          How's your chemistry? this is the chemical found on the surrounding tissue.

                                            WAZOWSKI

                          It's organic. I...don't know, is it some kind of synthetic protein?

                                            SULLIVAN

                          Beats me! I've never seen it before either. But here it is again in Astoria, Oregon, and again in Maysville, Kentucky.

The slides change. Two different bodies show on screen. Both with the same markings on their skin. Wazowski turns to look at Sullivan.

                                            WAZOWSKI

                          Do you have a theory?

                                            SULLIVAN

                          I have plenty of theories. Maybe what you could explain to me is why is Bureau policy to label these cases as unexplained phenomenon and ignore them and then expect the public to abide by laws to these creatures.

Wazowski has no answer, so he says nothing.

                                            SULLIVAN

                          You're of the mindset that demons aren't all evil? Right? That we can just, sit down and have dinner with them? Have rational conversations with them?

                                            WAZOWSKI

                          Logically, we as a society can not record all demon summoning, tears in the rift, or portal openings. We also cannot have a record of every possessed physical being walking around. And even then methods use for exorcism are barbaric, without any thought on the host until the demon is extracted. I could be a demon right now, and you'd be having a rational conversation with one, wouldn't you?

                                            SULLIVAN

                          Conventional wisdom. You know this Montana male is the fourth person in his town to die under mysterious circumstances. Now when convention and the law aren't able to give procedure to these beings, are we to just stand by and allow these things to happen just because people like you think they deserve a change to explain themselves? Would you be saying that to a human capable of these things?

                                            WAZOWSKI

                          The boy obviously died of something. If it was due to a demon it's plausible it was something missed in the postmortem, if he was murdered, it's plausible there was a sloppy investigation. What I find is the notion that you'd think an intelligent being that we know little to nothing about in the grand scheme of things would be lacking in empathy or emotion of any sort. Just because you've never run into one living a normal life here outside of the Underworld doesn't mean they aren't here. You just have to know where to look.

                                            SULLIVAN

                          That's why they put the "I" in FBI.

Sullivan smiles and walks off towards the desk he had been sitting at.

                                             SULLIVAN

                          See you tomorrow, Wazowski. Bright and early. We leave on the very first plane to Helena, Montana at 5 am. 

Wazowski stands there for a moment longer unsure of what had just happened, but he smiles because whatever it was that had happened, he had won. 

[collectorscorner]

CC Blogger - New Arrivals @ Collectors Corner : Wednesday 6/30/21

Collectors Corner Parkville - HQ : OPEN for IN STORE SHOPPING with Strong Safety Measures in Place (Hand Sanitizing Stations, Masks Encouraged for All) - 1-410-668-3353.

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PUBLISHER/TITLE/PRICE

ABLAZE Gung Ho Anger #2 (Cover A Mike McKone), $3.99 Gung Ho Anger #2 (Cover B Antonio Fuso), $3.9

ABSTRACT STUDIOS Terry Moore 2021 Sketchbook, $15.99

AFTERSHOCK COMICS Girls Of Dimension 13 #3, $3.99 Maniac Of New York #2 (Andrea Mutti 2nd Printing Variant Cover), $3.99 Undone By Blood The Other Side Of Eden #4, $4.99 We Live #1 (Inaki Miranda 4th Printing Variant Cover), $4.99 We Live #5 (Inaki Miranda 3rd Printing Variant Cover), $4.99

ARCHIE COMIC PUBLICATIONS Archie 80th Anniversary Jumbo Comics Digest #3, $7.99 Mighty Crusaders The Shield #1 (One Shot)(Cover A Rob Liefeld), $3.99 Mighty Crusaders The Shield #1 (One Shot)(Cover B Francesco Francavilla), $3.99 Mighty Crusaders The Shield #1 (One Shot)(Cover C Aaron Lopresti), $3.99 Mighty Crusaders The Shield #1 (One Shot)(Cover D David Mack), $3.99 Mighty Crusaders The Shield #1 (One Shot)(Cover E Jerry Ordway), $3.99 Mighty Crusaders The Shield #1 (One Shot)(Cover F Rob Liefeld Top Secret Variant), $3.99 Mighty Crusaders The Shield #1 (One Shot)(Cover G Rob Liefeld Sketch Variant), $3.99 Mighty Crusaders The Shield #1 (One Shot)(Cover H Blank Variant), $3.99 World Of Betty And Veronica Jumbo Comics Digest #6, $7.99

AVATAR PRESS Nightmares Of Providence #1 (Cover A Gabriel Andrade Wisdom Variant), $6.99

AWA STUDIOS Redemption #5, $3.99

BEHEMOTH COMICS Freak Snow #2 (Cover A Victor Santos), $3.99 Freak Snow #2 (Cover B Matt Emmons), $3.99 You Promised Me Darkness #1 (Damian Connelly 3rd Printing Variant Cover), $3.99 You Promised Me Darkness #3 (Cover A Damian Connelly), $3.99 You Promised Me Darkness #3 (Cover B Damian Connelly), $3.99 You Promised Me Darkness #3 (Cover C Damian Connelly), $3.99

BOOM! STUDIOS Basilisk #1 (Danny Luckert 2nd Printing Variant Cover), $3.99 Buffy The Vampire Slayer Tea Time #1 (Cover A Mirka Andolfo), $7.99 Buffy The Vampire Slayer Tea Time #1 (Cover B Mirka Andolfo Foil Variant), $8.99 Buffy The Vampire Slayer Tea Time #1 (Cover C Sweeney Boo), AR Buffy The Vampire Slayer Tea Time #1 (Cover D Junggeun Yoon Virgin Variant), AR Buffy The Vampire Slayer Tea Time #1 (Cover E Sweeney Boo Virgin Variant), AR Dune House Atreides #8 (Of 12)(Cover A Evan Cagle), $4.99 Dune House Atreides #8 (Of 12)(Cover B Jeff Dekal), $4.99 Dune House Atreides #8 (Of 12)(Cover C Evan Cagle Virgin Variant), AR Dune House Atreides #8 (Of 12)(Cover D Jeff Dekal Virgin Variant), AR Mega Man Fully Charged TP, $14.99 Power Rangers Unlimited Edge Of Darkness #1 (Cover A Dan Mora), $7.99 Power Rangers Unlimited Edge Of Darkness #1 (Cover B Junggeun Yoon Connecting Variant), $7.99 Power Rangers Unlimited Edge Of Darkness #1 (Cover C Vincenzo Riccardi Villain Virgin Variant), AR Power Rangers Unlimited Edge Of Darkness #1 (Cover D Derrick Chew Virgin Variant), AR Power Rangers Unlimited Edge Of Darkness #1 (Cover E Junggeun Yoon Connecting Virgin Variant), AR Specter Inspectors #5 (Of 5)(Cover A Bowen McCurdy), $4.99 Specter Inspectors #5 (Of 5)(Cover B Erica Henderson Pocket Book Variant), $4.99 Specter Inspectors #5 (Of 5)(Cover C Bowen McCurdy Virgin Variant), AR We Only Find Them When They’re Dead #7 (Cover A Simone Di Meo), $3.99 We Only Find Them When They’re Dead #7 (Cover B Toni Infante Dead God Variant), $3.99 We Only Find Them When They’re Dead #7 (Cover C Mattia De Iulis Virgin Variant), AR

BROADSWORD COMICS Tarot Witch Of The Black Rose #128 (Cover A Jim Balent), $3.99 Tarot Witch Of The Black Rose #128 (Cover B Jim Balent), $3.99 Tarot Witch Of The Black Rose #128 (Cover C Jim Balent), AR

COFFIN COMICS La Muerta Retailiation #1 (One Shot)(Cover A Sun Khamunaki), $7.99

COMIC SHOP NEWS Comic Shop News #1767, AR

DARK HORSE COMICS Art Of Arkham Horror HC, $39.99 EC Archives Saddle Justice HC, $49.99 Everyone Is Tulip TP, $19.99 Far Cry Rite Of Passage #2 (Of 3)(Cover A Matt Taylor), $3.99 Parasomnia #1 (Of 4)(Cover A Andrea Mutti), $3.99 Parasomnia #1 (Of 4)(Cover B Rafael Albuquerque), $3.99 Witcher Witch’s Lament #2 (Of 4)(Cover A Vanesa R. Del Rey), $3.99 Witcher Witch’s Lament #2 (Of 4)(Cover B Anato Finnstark), $3.99 Witcher Witch’s Lament #2 (Of 4)(Cover C Stefan Koidl), $3.99

DC COMICS Batman And Scooby-Doo Mysteries Extravaganza #1, $4.99 Batman By John Ridley The Deluxe Edition HC, $17.99 Batman White Knight Presents Harley Quinn HC, $24.99 Catwoman 2021 Annual #1 (Cover A Kyle Hotz), $5.99 Catwoman 2021 Annual #1 (Cover B Liam Sharp Card Stock Variant), $6.99 DC Connect #14, AR DC Poster Portfolio Joelle Jones TP, $24.99 Flash By Mark Waid Volume 8 TP, $34.99 Future State Superman TP, $39.99 Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 (Cover A Dan Mora), $9.99 Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 (Cover B Michael Cho 1940s Variant), $9.99 Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 (Cover C Daniel Warren Johnson 1950s Variant), $9.99 Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 (Cover D Neal Adams 1960s Variant), $9.99 Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 (Cover E Derrick Chew 1970s Variant), $9.99 Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 (Cover F Gary Frank 1980s Variant), $9.99 Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 (Cover G Howard Porter 1990s Variant), $9.99 Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 (Cover H Jen Bartel 2000s Variant), $9.99 Green Arrow 80th Anniversary 100-Page Super Spectacular #1 (Cover I Simone Di Meo 2010s Variant), $9.99 Infinite Frontier Secret Files #1 (One Shot)(Cover A Bryan Hitch), $9.99 Mystery Of The Meanest Teacher A Johnny Constantine Graphic Novel GN, $9.99 Space Jam A New Legacy TP, $12.99 Suicide Squad Casualties Of War TP, $29.99 Teen Titans Academy 2021 Yearbook #1 (Cover A Rafa Sandoval/Alejandro Sanchez/Jamal Campbell/Steve Blackwell), $5.99 Teen Titans Academy 2021 Yearbook #1 (Cover B Rafa Sandoval Card Stock Variant), $6.99

DIAMOND PUBLICATIONS Game Trade Magazine #257, $3.99 Previews #394 (July 2021), $3.99

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT Vampirella #21 (Cover A Lucio Parrillo), $3.99 Vampirella #21 (Cover B Marco Mastrazzo), $3.99 Vampirella #21 (Cover C Shannon Maer), $3.99 Vampirella #21 (Cover D Ergun Gunduz), $3.99 Vampirella #21 (Cover E Lorraine Cosplay Variant), $3.99

FANTAGRAPHICS BOOKS Another History Of Art HC, $24.99 Red Room #2 (Cover A Ed Piskor), $3.99 Red Room #2 (Cover B Troy Nixey), AR Red Room #2 (Cover C Ed Piskor), AR Red Room #2 (Cover D Jim Rugg), AR

HEAVY METAL MAGAZINE Heavy Metal #307 (Cover A Thumbs), $13.99 Heavy Metal #307 (Cover B Kai Carpenter), $13.99

IDW PUBLISHING Canto And The City Of Giants #3 (Of 3)(Cover A Sebastian Piriz), $3.99 Canto And The City Of Giants #3 (Of 3)(Cover B Drew Zucker), AR Chained To The Grave #4 (Of 5)(Cover A Kate Sherron), $3.99 Chained To The Grave #4 (Of 5)(Cover B Brian Level), AR Chibi-Usagi Attack Of The Heebie Chibis GN, $12.99 Dungeons And Dragons Fell’s Five TP, $39.99 Godzilla Rivals Vs Hedorah #1 (Cover A E. J. Su), $7.99 Godzilla Rivals Vs Hedorah #1 (Cover B Jeffrey Veregge), AR Jack Kirby’s Fantastic Four Artisan Edition HC, $39.99 Marvel Action Captain Marvel Volume 2 #4 (Cover A Sweeney Boo), $3.99 Marvel Action Captain Marvel Volume 2 #4 (Cover B Megan Levens), AR Marvel Action Spider-Man Volume 3 #3 (Cover A Philip Murphy), $3.99 Marvel Action Spider-Man Volume 3 #3 (Cover B Arianna Florean), AR My Little Pony Transformers II #3 (Of 4)(Cover A Tony Fleecs), $3.99 My Little Pony Transformers II #3 (Of 4)(Cover B Bethany McGuire-Smith), $3.99 My Little Pony Transformers II #3 (Of 4)(Cover C Adam Bryce Thomas), AR Sonic The Hedgehog The IDW Collection Volume 1 HC, $59.99 Star Trek Year Five #21 (Cover A Stephen Thompson), $3.99 Star Trek Year Five #21 (Cover B J.J. Lendl), AR Star Wars Adventures Weapon Of A Jedi #2 (Of 2)(Cover A Ruairi Coleman), $5.99 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Urban Legends Volume 2 TP, $29.99 Transformers Beast Wars #5 (Cover A Josh Burcham), $3.99 Transformers Beast Wars #5 (Cover B Dan Schoening), $3.99 Transformers Beast Wars #5 (Cover C Alex Milne), AR Usagi Yojimbo The Dragon Bellow Conspiracy #1 (Of 6)(Cover A David Petersen), $3.99

IMAGE COMICS Crossover #7 (Cover A Chip Zdarsky), $3.99 Crossover #7 (Cover B Chip Zdarsky Virgin Variant), AR Crossover #7 (Cover C Chip Zdarsky Raw Variant), AR Crossover #7 (Cover D John J. Hill), AR Department Of Truth #10 (Cover A Martin Simmonds), $3.99 Department Of Truth #10 (Cover B Vincenzo Riccardi), $3.99 Department Of Truth #10 (Cover C Michael Dialynas), $3.99 Kane And Able TP, $12.99 Made In Korea #1 (Of 6)(George Schall 2nd Printing Variant Cover), $3.99 Made In Korea #2 (Of 6)(Cover A George Schall), $3.99 Monstress #35 (Cover A Sana Takeda), $3.99 Outcast By Kirkman And Azaceta Volume 4 HC, $39.99 Spawn #319 (Cover A Bjorn Barends), $2.99 Spawn #319 (Cover B Todd McFarlane), $2.99 Spawn #319 (Cover C Francesco Mattina), $2.99 That Texas Blood #7 (Cover A Jacob Phillips), $3.99 That Texas Blood #7 (Cover B Marc Aspinall), $3.99 Two Moons #5 (Cover A Valerio Giangiordano & Bill Crabtree), $3.99 Two Moons #5 (Cover B Roberto Ricci), $3.99 Walking Dead Deluxe #10 (David Finch & Dave McCaig 2nd Printing Variant Cover A), $3.99 Walking Dead Deluxe #10 (David Finch 2nd Printing Variant Cover B), AR Walking Dead Deluxe #11 (David Finch & Dave McCaig 2nd Printing Variant Cover A), $3.99 Walking Dead Deluxe #11 (David Finch 2nd Printing Variant Cover B), AR Walking Dead Deluxe #12 (David Finch & Dave McCaig 2nd Printing Variant Cover A), $3.99 Walking Dead Deluxe #12 (David Finch 2nd Printing Variant Cover B), AR Walking Dead Deluxe #7 (David Finch & Dave McCaig 2nd Printing Variant Cover A), $3.99 Walking Dead Deluxe #7 (David Finch 2nd Printing Variant Cover B), AR Walking Dead Deluxe #8 (David Finch & Dave McCaig 2nd Printing Variant Cover A), $3.99 Walking Dead Deluxe #8 (David Finch 2nd Printing Variant Cover B), AR Walking Dead Deluxe #9 (David Finch & Dave McCaig 2nd Printing Variant Cover A), $3.99 Walking Dead Deluxe #9 (David Finch 2nd Printing Variant Cover B), AR

KEENSPOT ENTERTAINMENT Ninjas And Robots #8 (Cover A Erik Klaus), $4.99 Ninjas And Robots #8 (Cover B Bella Rachlin), $4.99 Ninjas And Robots #8 (Cover C Elliot Fernandez), $4.99

KENZER AND COMPANY Knights Of The Dinner Table #284, $6.99

MAD CAVE STUDIOS Honor And Curse #12, $3.99 They Fell From The Sky #5, $3.99

MARVEL COMICS Avengers By Jason Aaron Volume 8 Enter The Phoenix TP, $19.99 Avengers Mech Strike #4 (Of 5)(Cover A Kei Zama), $3.99 Avengers Mech Strike #4 (Of 5)(Cover B Ron Lim), AR Beta Ray Bill #4 (Of 5)(Cover A Daniel Warren Johnson), $3.99 Beta Ray Bill #4 (Of 5)(Cover B Declan Shalvey), AR Black Cat Annual #1 (Cover A C.F. Villa), $4.99 Black Cat Annual #1 (Cover B Travis Charest), AR Black Cat Annual #1 (Cover C Ron Lim Connecting Variant), AR Black Cat Annual #1 (Cover D Guile Sharp), AR Black Knight Curse Of The Ebony Blade #4 (Of 5)(Cover A Iban Coello), $3.99 Black Knight Curse Of The Ebony Blade #4 (Of 5)(Cover B Stephanie Hans Legend Of The Black Knight Variant), AR Black Widow #8 (Cover A Adam Hughes), $3.99 Black Widow #8 (Cover B Davi Go Spider-Man Villains Variant), AR Cable #11, $3.99 Daredevil #31 (Cover A Marco Checchetto), $3.99 Daredevil #31 (Cover B Greg Land Spider-Man Villains Variant), AR Eternals #5 (Cover A Esad Ribic), $3.99 Eternals #5 (Cover B Gerald Parel), AR Eternals #5 (Cover C Esad Ribic Design Variant), AR Eternals #5 (Cover D Todd Nauck Headshot Variant), AR Giant-Size Amazing Spider-Man Chameleon Conspiracy #1 (Cover A Mark Bagley), $5.99 Giant-Size Amazing Spider-Man Chameleon Conspiracy #1 (Cover B Ryan Stegman), AR King In Black TP, $24.99 M.O.D.O.K. Head Games TP, $15.99 Marvel Previews Volume 5 #13 (July 2021), $1.25 Marvels #3 (Cover A Alex Ross), $3.99 Marvels #3 (Cover B Dave Johnson), AR Reign Of X Volume 1 TP, $17.99 Shang-Chi #2 (Cover A Leinil Francis Yu), $3.99 Shang-Chi #2 (Cover B Peach Momoko), AR Shang-Chi #2 (Cover C Michael Cho), AR Shang-Chi #2 (Cover D Natacha Bustos Spider-Man Villains Variant), AR Star Wars Doctor Aphra #11 (Cover A Sara Pichelli), $3.99 Star Wars Doctor Aphra #11 (Cover B Chris Sprouse Lucasfilm 50th Anniversary Variant), AR Star Wars Doctor Aphra #11 (Cover C TBD Pride Variant), AR Star Wars The High Republic #6 (Cover A Phil Noto), $3.99 Star Wars The High Republic #6 (Cover B Peach Momoko), AR Star Wars The High Republic #6 (Cover C Javi Garron Pride Variant), AR United States Of Captain America #1 (Of 5)(Cover A Alex Ross), $4.99 United States Of Captain America #1 (Of 5)(Cover B Nick Robles), AR United States Of Captain America #1 (Of 5)(Cover C Carmen Nunez Carnero), AR United States Of Captain America #1 (Of 5)(Cover D Jan Bazaldua Design Variant), AR United States Of Captain America #1 (Of 5)(Cover E Todd Nauck Headshot Variant), AR X-Factor #10 (Cover A Ivan Shavrin), $3.99 X-Factor #10 (Cover B Russell Dauterman Cyclops Character Design Variant), AR X-Factor #10 (Cover C Russell Dauterman Connecting Variant), AR X-Factor #10 (Cover D David Baldeon Character Design Variant), AR X-Factor #10 (Cover E Phil Jimenez Pride Month Variant), AR X-Factor #10 (Cover F Phil Jimenez Pride Month Virgin Variant), AR X-Men Age Of Apocalypse Omnibus Companion HC (New Printing)(Adam Kubert Book Market Cover), $125.00 X-Men Age Of Apocalypse Omnibus Companion HC (New Printing)(Bryan Hitch Direct Market Cover), $125.00

ONI PRESS Kaijumax Season Six #2, $3.99 Quick And Easy Guide To They/Them Pronouns Bundle TP (not verified by Diamond), $39.95

RED 5 COMICS White Lily #5, $3.95

SCOUT COMICS By The Horns #3 (Of 7)(Cover A Jason Muhr), $3.99 Midnight Western Theatre #2 (Of 5), $3.99

SECOND SIGHT PUBLISHING Blowtorch #2 (Of 5), $3.99 Chess #2 (Of 5), $3.99 Divine Retribution #1 (One Shot), $3.99 Duplicant #2 (Of 3), $3.99

SOURCE POINT PRESS 20 Fists #3 (Of 3), $3.99 Boston Metaphysical Society The Scourge Of The Mechanical Men #1 (One Shot), $4.99 Broken Gargoyes Sin And Virtue #1, $3.99 Cult Of Dracula #4 (Of 6)(Cover A Gyula Nemeth), $3.99 Cult Of Dracula #4 (Of 6)(Cover B Shannon Maer), $3.99 Darling #1 (Cover A Dave Mims), $3.99 Darling #1 (Cover B Alex Riegel), $3.99 Monstrous Heartbreak And Blood Loss #2 (Of 3), $3.99 Seis Cuerdas Defender Of Mexico #2 (Of 3), $3.99 Yuki Vs Panda #2, $3.99

STORM KING PRODUCTIONS John Carpenter’s Tales Of Science Fiction Hell #3 (Of 8), $3.99

TITAN COMICS Blade Runner 2029 #5 (Cover A Dani Strips), $3.99 Blade Runner 2029 #5 (Cover B Syd Mead), $3.99 Blade Runner 2029 #5 (Cover C Eldo Yoshimizu), $3.99 Blade Runner 2029 #5 (Cover D Claudia Iannciello), $3.99 Star Wars Insider #203 (FOC Edition), $9.99 Star Wars Insider #203 (Newsstand Edition), $9.99 Star Wars Insider #203 (Previews Exclusive Edition), $9.99

TOHAN CORPORATION Hobby Japan May 2021, $20.00 Megami April 2021, $20.00 Newtype April 2021, $20.00

UDON ENTERTAINMENT Shigenori Soejima And P-Studio Art Unit Art Works Volume 2 2010-2017 TP, $44.99 Shigenori Soejima Art Works 2004-2010 TP, $44.99 Street Fighter 2021 Sci-Fi And Fantasy Special #1 (Cover A C.F. Villa), $4.99 Street Fighter 2021 Sci-Fi And Fantasy Special #1 (Cover B Ryan Kinnaird), $4.99 Street Fighter 2021 Sci-Fi And Fantasy Special #1 (Cover C Blank Variant), $5.99 Street Fighter 2021 Sci-Fi And Fantasy Special #1 (Cover D Genzoman), AR

VAULT COMICS Autumnal #8 (Cover A Chris Shehan), $3.99 Autumnal #8 (Cover B Nathan Gooden), $3.99 Autumnal #8 (Cover C Jason Wordie), $3.99 Barbaric #1 (Cover A Nathan Gooden), $3.99 Barbaric #1 (Cover B Josh Hixson), $3.99 Barbaric #1 (Cover C Tim Daniel), $3.99 Barbaric #1 (Cover D Tim Seeley Polybag Variant), $5.99 Barbaric #1 (Cover E Corin Howell), AR Barbaric #1 (Cover F Richard Pace), AR Barbaric #1 (Cover G Darick Robertson), AR Barbaric #1 (Cover H Darick Robertson Black & White Virgin Variant), AR Money Shot #12 (Cover A Caroline Leigh Layne), $3.99 Money Shot #12 (Cover B Caroline Leigh Layne Black Bag Variant), $5.99 Vampire The Masquerade #9, $3.99 Witchblood #4 (Cover A Lisa Sterle), $3.99 Witchblood #4 (Cover B Lisa Sterle), $3.99 Witchblood #4 (Cover C Yoshi Yoshitani), $3.99

ZENESCOPE ENTERTAINMENT Oz Annual Patchwork Girl #1 (One Shot)(Cover A Igor Vitorino), $7.99 Oz Annual Patchwork Girl #1 (One Shot)(Cover B Harvey Tolibao), $7.99 Oz Annual Patchwork Girl #1 (One Shot)(Cover C David Nakayama), $7.99

GAMES -

NECA/WIZKIDS Dungeons And Dragons Icons Realm Premium Painted Figure Dwarf Cleric Male, AR Dungeons And Dragons Icons Realm Premium Painted Figure Elf Rogue Male, AR Dungeons And Dragons Icons Realm Premium Painted Figure Elf Wizard Female, AR Dungeons And Dragons Icons Realm Premium Painted Figure Fire Genasi Wizard Female, AR Dungeons And Dragons Icons Realm Premium Painted Figure Genasi Druid Male, AR Dungeons And Dragons Icons Realm Premium Painted Figure Halfling Fighter Male, AR Dungeons And Dragons Icons Realm Premium Painted Figure Human Cleric Female, AR Dungeons And Dragons Icons Realm Premium Painted Figure Human Monk Female, AR Dungeons And Dragons Icons Realm Premium Painted Figure Tabaxi Rogue Male, AR Dungeons And Dragons Icons Realm Premium Painted Figure Tiefling Rogue Female, AR

TOYS - T-SHIRTS & COLLECTIBLES Conan The Barbarian Ultimates Iconic Movie Pose Conan Action Figure, AR POP NBA Legends Dominique Wilkins Hawks Home Vinyl Figure, AR POP Pins Deadpool King Deadpool, AR POP Pins Deadpool Wizard Deadpool, AR POP Pins Disney Baby Hercules, AR POP Pins Motu She-Ra, AR POP Pins Motu Skeletor, AR POP Pins Naruto Itachi, AR POP Pins Naruto Kakashi, AR POP Pins Naruto Sasuke, AR Shang Chi 6 Inch Feature Action Figure Assortment 202101, AR

[thecomicsnexus]

TALES OF THE TEEN TITANS #56-58 (FINAL STORY) AUGUST - OCTOBER 1985 BY MARV WOLFMAN, CHUCK PATTON, MIKE DECARLO, ROMEO TANGHAL AND ADRIENNE ROY

SYNOPSIS (FROM DC DATABASE)

A band of costumed men, the hirelings of Gizmo of the Fearsome Five, invades the STAR research hospital in New York to retrieve the encapsulated form of Neutron, a nuclear-powered villain who once fought Superman, and who had just been transferred to the facility from Metropolis. Abruptly, Raven appears and mercilessly attacks the intruders, almost killing them. When she realizes what she is doing, she breaks off her assault and instead uses her empathic powers, increased by the growing influence of Trigon, to cure the patients of the hospital's Intensive Care Ward. Meanwhile, Gar Logan meets the returning Joseph and Adeline Wilson at the airport and apologizes for his earlier behavior toward Jericho, while Cyborg undergoes the operation that will restore his normal appearance. When the members of the Fearsome Five stage a break-in at Tri-State Prison, they are resisted by Nightwing, Wonder Girl, and Starfire, the remaining unoccupied Titans. When Nightwing is injured, Starfire forcibly removes him from the encounter by depositing him on a rooftop. Despite the efforts of the two heroines, Psimon and his teammates are able to abscond with another encapsulated super-powered prisoner, a woman called Jinx.

At Titans Tower, Dick, Donna, and Kory recuperate from their battle with the Fearsome Five, together with Gar and Joe, while at STAR, Victor Stone, his cyborg parts successfully replaced with plastic, undergoes recuperative physical therapy under the direction of Dr. Sarah Charles. 

The Fearsome Five recruit the sorceress Jinx to their cause, but are unable to release Neutron from his confining radiation-proof capsule without aid. Days later, having heard nothing from Cyborg, the Titans learn of his operation from his grandparents, while the Fearsome Five decide to abduct Dr. Jenet Klyburn to help them free Neutron. Both groups converge on the STAR facility, but the super-villains arrive first and kidnap both Dr. Klyburn and Victor, whom they fail to recognize as the former Cyborg. Back at the criminals' headquarters, Victor manages to rig Neutron's capsule to explode, so that he and Jenet Klyburn can escape in the confusion. As they do so, however, Victor collapses when his body begins to reject its new polymer replacement parts. 

The next morning, Psimon's image appears at a hastily convened mayoral press conference to demand the surrender of New York City to the Fearsome Five.

The Fearsome Five appear on the New York waterfront to lay claim to the city, and are confronted by the police and the Teen Titans. Starfire's opening blast throws Psimon into the Hudson River, and he does not resurface. The other super-criminals, particularly the revived Neutron, prove harder to subdue, and a pitched battle ensues. 

Meanwhile, Psimon finds himself teleported aboard the orbiting satellite of the Monitor, who enlists him in his efforts to stop the destruction of the multiverse (as shown in Crisis on Infinite Earths). 

Victor Stone undergoes surgery to transform him hack into Cyborg in order to save his life. Nightwing, Wonder Girl, Changeling, and Starfire are defeated, but the Fearsome Five have still to contend with Jericho, who possesses the members one-by-one, forcing them to battle one another, until the Titans have time to recover. 

By this time, Jinx and Gizmo are unconscious, and Shimmer has been possessed by Jericho. Starfire matches power-blasts with Neutron, while Wonder Girl hurls Mammoth high into the air with her lasso, then drops him directly onto the nuclear villain, which knocks out both criminals. 

The Titans then visit a recuperating Cyborg in the hospital, after which Jericho is made an official member of the team at Titans Tower.

REVIEW

And that is the last new story of New Teen Titans volume one. It’s not a great story, but it introduced Sarah Charles. This story also leads to New Teen Titans Volume 2.

As to why volume 2 was printed in offset with volume 1, just like with Outsiders, the reason was that back then, comic book shops weren’t everywhere, and Volume 2 was only available on comic shops. So these titles would reprint volume 2 stories in regular paper.

This practice didn’t last long. By 1987, comic shops were a thing everywhere.

It was also nice to see Victor as almost human again, even if it was for such a short time. More changes will come to him, especially by the end of the nineties.

I give this story a score of 7

[comic-movieheroesranked]

Cinematic Comic Characters Ranked! (Year 2009) Part Two

It’s rough coming right after a fantastic year of movies (2008) but 2009 did pretty well for itself. Terminator Salvation is our only sequel and we also get an X-Men spinoff with X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Kids favorite shows come out with Astro Boy, Dragonball: Evolution, and G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra, and we got a couple of thrillers with Whiteout and Surrogates. We also get the debut of the controversial Watchmen! Let’s get started with numbers #60-41!

*SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ALL HIGHLIGHTED MOVIES ABOVE*

60. Master Roshi (Dragonball: Evolution)

"You are the only one who can do it."

It was like Grandpa Gohan never even died once Roshi showed up as his replacement. They both train Goku, they both understand the elemental fighting style, and they both tell horrible jokes. The only difference between them is that when Roshi dies, he gets to come back!

59. Sparx, Robotsky, and Mike the Fridge (Astro Boy)

"Viva La Roboto-lution!"

Sparx, Robotsky, and Mike the Fridge are the founding members of the RRF, an rebel organization that aims to free robots from their human slavery. They're able to recognize that Astro is a robot and 'save' him from the surface kids. Even though their heart is in the right place, the trio never actually do anything that helps Astro and his friends, but that doesn't stop them from trying again and again and again.

58. General Clayton M. Abernathy/Hawk (G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra)

"When all else fails, we don't."

A war veteran, General Hawk has moved on to lead the G.I. Joes in their missions to save the world. After temporarily adding Duke and Ripcord to the team, Hawk does his best to protect the valuable nanobite warheads but ends up getting defeated by Storm Shadow. The beatdown supposedly leaves him in a coma and he doesn't show up again until he bails the team out of the French prison. He leads the team against Cobra in the final battle before officially adding Duke and Ripcord to the team.

57. The Prophet (Surrogates)

"We're not meant to experience the world through a machine."

The Prophet is a man who starts cult following by people who refuse to use surrogates. He has them believe that they are an abomination and an act against God. Turns out The Prophet is actually a surrogate himself, belonging to the surrogates creator, Lionel Canter. The Prophet is just one of the many tools he uses to put on end on the surrogates forever.

56. Fred Dukes/Blob (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)

"Did you just call me... Blob?"

Another member of Stryker's team, Fred Dukes is so strong he can take out a tank missile and it wouldn't leave a scratch on him. After retirment he really lets himself go, becoming the Blob most comic fans are familiar with. He has the information Logan wants but refuses to give it up after he thinks Logan makes fun of his weight. He ends up beating the shit out of Logan in a boxing match but once Logan gets the upper hand and wins, he tells him everything he needs to know.

55. Hamegg (Astro Boy)

"They're robots! They do what I say!"

Hamegg used to create robots for Astro's father, but then moved to the surface world so he could participate in the robot fights. He adopts all the orphan kids he finds and sends them find him parts for the perfect fighting robot. He seems like a nice guy, but in the end he's only nice to his own species. He's able to find out that Astro is a robot and quickly throws him in the ring to get him destroyed. He's stopped by ZOG who then takes care of him while the surface kids go rescue Astro.

54. Grandpa Gohan (Dragonball: Evolution)

"Always have faith in who you are."

Grandpa Gohan was that grandpa who most have been really popular when he was younger so he still cracks jokes now that he's older. He was really nice to take Goku in after the other came flying down to Earth in a meteorite as an infant and started training him how to fight. Didn't expect him to die as fast as he did, but he pops up one more time after Goku 'dies' to tell him he's not actually going to stay dead.

53. Russell Haden (Whiteout)

"You crazy bitch!"

I think it's funny that this guy had the audacity to call Carrie a crazy bitch for threatening to cut off his fingers when he literally killed three people within a couple of days and was willing to kill more. I didn't like Haden at first glance so when Carrie finds out he was the killer, I wasn't that shocked. And I know the scenes where he chased Carrie outside were suppsoed to be serious but I couldn't help but notice that even at the brink of death BOTH of them continued to follow safety procedures when it came to clicking themselves to the safety rope. Of course we see the reason why when Carrie cuts Haden's rope free and he ends up getting blown away by 100 mph winds until he slams his upper body into the facility's pillars, killing him instantly.

52. Andrew Stone (Surrogates)

"You left us no choice but to take you out."

In charge of the police force, Andrew Stone is an old man who uses a younger, more attractive surrogate to do his day-to-day activities. When the creator of the surrogates threatens to shut the whole thing down, his partners give Andrew the weapon to kill him. Andrew hires a amateur hitman who ends up killing Canter's son instead. After being found out by Greer, Andrew pays for his crimes when Canter confronts and kills him.

51. Rex Lewis/The Doctor/Cobra Commander (G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra)

"The time has come for the cobra to rise up and reveal himself."

You know what's always interesting about mad scientists? They always get obsessed with the scientific breakthroughs that would destroy all of humanity instead of helping it. Like can we get a breakthrough in cancer? No, but here's a breakthrough with mind-controlling soldiers and city-destroying nanobites. What's also a trip is that The Doctor willingly goes for it, unlike some of the villains who turn out to be mind controlled. He just loves being evil so it's no one's surprise when he takes command of Cobra himself by the end of the film. Too bad he literally gets arrested right after.

50. Mai (Dragonball: Evolution)

"I could disrupt them."

Piccolo's little assassin who would've been just as boring had it not been for all the fights she ended up having. I'm assuming she's the one that breaks Piccolo free from his prison before she joins him in hunting down the Dragon Balls. She hardly talks but she has a cool trick of turning into people as long as she has a part of their DNA. She uses it on Chi-Chi to get the remaining Dragon Balls. In the end she's shot dead by Yamcha after she nearly kills Bulma.

49. Hershel Dalton/Heavy Duty (G.I. Joe: Rise of the Cobra)

"Don't make me shoot a woman."

Heavy Duty was kinda my least favorite Joe member-if we're not counting Cover Girl who was there for like, five seconds. I didn't necessarily NOT like him because he was always there when the team needed him and packed a mean punch when it came down to it. He was just a bit boring. Even when he leads all of the Joe's in an ocean fight against Cobra, I found myself more invested in everyone else's mission.

48. Robert Pryce (Whiteout)

"I think you warmed up to me."

I'll say it, I thought Pryce was going to turn out to be the killer the whole time. With the whole backstory on how Carrie's last partner betrayed her, I figured Pryce was going to do the same. He didn't, he was actually innocent. You know what else he was? Useless. He didn't do a damn thing to help solve the case except give Carrie something to worry about. Ok, he did figure out how to get them all out of the plane but Carrie would've figured it out eventually so there really was no reason for him to come down from his UN headquarters.

47. Jennifer Peters (Surrogates)

"It's not safe to be without a surrogate."

Jennifer is Greer's partner on the police force and assists him on Canter's son's murder case. She's seen to be a loyal partner, caring about Greer when his surrogate is destroyed but she's taken out of the game early when Canter kills her in her real body. Her surrogate hangs around and does most of the work when it comes down to Canter destroying the world but is shot down before Greer can really stop her.

46. Zane, Widget, Sludge, and Trashcan (Astro Boy)

"Yay, Astro!"

Zane, Widget, and Sludge are the main surface kids who befriend Astro when he shows up to their world and Trashcan is the robot dog that accompanies them. They become family to Astro, which is nice to see after his father decides not to accept him. Trashcan forever is trying to out Astro as a robot, but when the truth comes out even the dog is sad to see Astro get captured by President Stone. The kids join Cora to rescue Astro and end up interacting with citizens of Metro City once the city falls onto the Surface World.

45. Star (Terminator Salvation)

*silently survives like the young Queen she is*

Star is definitely one of my favorite kids to be portrayed in an apocalyptic world. She's mute, but that doesn't mean she's useless. She has a weird ability to sense when a terminator is nearby, something that helps her and Kyle survive. Plus she actively participates in keeping herself alive, not just relying on the adults. At one point she loads up Kyle's guns and even hands Marcus a flare to blow up a giant machine trying to kill them.

44. John Wraith (X-Men Origins: Wolverine)

"Hey be nice! Or be your approximation of nice."

Probably the friendliest of Styker's team, John Wraith's abilities of teleporting allow him to stop any type of sneak attack from the enemy. He retires and spends his days with Fred Dukes until Logan shows up. John travels with him to New Orleans to find Remy Labeau, but runs into Victor instead. You'd think with his powers, he'd win easily, but Victor is able to predict his moves and crush his spine. He takes a sample of his blood to be used on Deadpool.

43. Yamcha (Dragonball: Evolution)

"Ow, my balls!"

Yamcha kind of came out of nowhere to rob the main group of their belongings, until he agrees to help them out in exchange for him being added to the nonexistent profit they think they'll make once they find all seven Dragon Balls. He sticks around mainly because he has a thing for Bulma, but he bravely helps the group try to fight off Piccolo from destroying the world.

42. The Terminator (Terminator Salvation)

"attacks naked*

I always wondered how the future John Connor was going to meet The Terminator and what he was going to do. I didn't expect the answer to get his ass handed to him, that's for sure. The new and improved Terminator takes on both Connor and hybrid machine, Marcus, easily, all while being completely nude. He manages to mortally wound Connor but ends up freezing after being drenched molten hot magma.

41. Bobby Saunders (Surrogates)

"We just saved about a billion lives there."

Bobby works for the police force and is the only human in the department who doesn't use a surrogate. Against the whole thing he stays in his watch room and looks for crime, coming up with a code to temporarily block a user from their surrogate. This comes in handy at the end when Greer uses the code from saving every human on Earth from dying when a virus destroys all their surrogates.

[fathersonholygore]

AMC’s Breaking Bad Season 3, Episode 4: “Green Light” Directed by Scott Winant Written by Sam Catlin

* For a recap & review of the previous episode, “I.F.T.” – click here * For a recap & review of the next episode, “Más” – click here At a gas station, Jesse (Aaron Paul) stops and fills up the RV. He doesn’t have enough cash to pay, then offers all he can: the blue meth. Takes a bit of convincing, especially with a cop lurking around. The worst part of it is that Jesse is pulling more people into the unclean web he’s been living in for the better part of the past few years. He wants to get away from that person he was, though as long as he’s in that world it’ll never happen. Saul Goodman (Bob Odenkirk) receives a visit from Mike Ehrmantraut (Jonathan Banks) about the situation between Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and his wife Skyler (Anna Gunn), who’s just banged her boss Ted Beneke (Christopher Cousins). Worst is the jilted husband’s headed for the office, to pay him a visit. Something Mike and Saul would rather keep contained, if possible. Bad news for everybody any time Heisenberg’s true identity shows up noticed by any authorities. Also, Walt looks pretty foolish in his, albeit justified, bruised masculinity trying to break the window at the office before security shows up. Everyone in there knows exactly what’s going on, too. Real awkward for them, Ted, and Skyler. Before anything gets too crazy Mike arrives to cart him off to their mutual lawyer. Saul tries to talk some sense into him. But it isn’t long before Walt figures out he’s business partner is keeping tabs on him, real close. “That‘s just my meticulousness,” Saul explains. After a bit they wrestle. The relationship’s begun to sour. What our anti-hero needs to remember is that he’s got other people watching him, and a sinister chalk marking on the street outside his house is a grim reminder for the audience, as well. Saul: “Oh, boo hoo, ‘I won‘t cook meth anymore.’ You‘re a crybaby, who needs you?” Walt has troubles at school, then tries putting the moves on Carmen (Carmen Serano) when they meet in her office to talk. He is out of sorts, taking the betrayal of Skyler in their marriage in strange ways. He isn’t the only one feeling strange, either. Hank Schrader (Dean Norris) and wife Marie (Betsy Brandt) are at odds over his going to El Paso. Particularly after the last brush with death. Before he can go into the airport he gets a call: more blue meth. He decides to stay; both as a way to further his vendetta against the mysterious Heisenberg and as an excuse not to go, because of the fear inside he won’t talk to anyone about. After Walt takes a sabbatical from school – “indefinite,” he says – Jesse turns up outside the school to chat. He wants to meet the distributor, to get back into the business. He’s sober, but won’t give up the meth money dreams. His former partner wants no part of it, though Jesse has his heart set on it. He’s cooked his own blue stuff. Only Walt calls it inferior, “my formula” and “mine” are the words he uses. Suddenly he becomes full of anger, resentment. Another relationship going sour; more like already there, long ago. Meanwhile, Skyler faces backlash in the office over the affair with Ted. They keep having one, despite that. And there’s a spark, too. They have chemistry, which makes matters worse.

Over at DEA headquarters Hank and partner Steve Gomez (Steven Michael Quezada) keep chasing the blue meth connection. Problem is they’re all too often getting information from idiot junkies. Aside from that Gomez isn’t thrilled with what they’re doing lately, feeling that his partner’s reaching for a case. At his office Saul’s visited by Jesse with his bag of blue. He wants a meet with the distributor. However, something tells us it won’t be easy for him to get a meet on his own. Speaking of the man himself, Gus Fring (Giancarlo Esposito) gets a full report on Walter White’s cancer, his mental state, et cetera, from Mike. Plus he lets him know the Salamanca brothers marked the house with a chalk scythe. Moreover, Gus agrees to do a deal with Pinkman. Because he wants to get to Heinseberg, to motivate. He wants to do business, and bad. Hank finds himself at the gas station where we saw Jesse in the beginning. He questions the girl who took the meth. Agent Schrader gets what he wants, eventually. She tells him about the guy who came in, trading for gas. But there’s not much to tell, outside a basic description. Add that to the fact she remembers the RV. Nothing to really go on. Not until Hank discovers an ATM outside; one with a camera inside. This will give him a picture of the vehicle. Uh oh. Later, Jesse receives money from Victor (Jeremiah Bitsui). Only half. Why? “That‘s your half,” he’s told. You know where the rest is headed. There’s now a choice on the table for Hank: go to El Paso, or stay. He puts it off, saying it’s about the Heisenberg case. Finally, he has to make the choice. He decides to stay and keep chasing the blue meth, despite how it looks to anyone else. His boss knows there’s something up, everyone does. It’s up to Hank to sort that out for himself. Walter heads on down the road and hears that Donald Margolis, father of Jane, has shot himself. Then he stops at a red light. Victor pulls up quick, tosses him a bag full of cash: “Your half.” This confuses Walt, but we understand. He will too. Soon enough. Another excellent episode. Further down the rabbit hole we go. Up next is another solid chapter called “Más” and that means MORE in Spanish. Breaking Bad – Season 3, Episode 4: “Green Light” AMC's Breaking Bad Season 3, Episode 4: "Green Light" Directed by Scott Winant…

[kbox-in-the-box]

Austin Kingsley: Star Prodigy — Episode 1, “Saving Alexandria,” Part 6

The bright-eyed newswoman, with the compact camcorder mounted on the shoulder pad of her white blouse, wasn't the only reporter thronging the pair of black-haired, stubble-jowled, surly criminals who were led onto the maglev car, in handcuffs, by the grizzled veteran cop, but her running commentary to her viewers set her apart from the bustling crowd.

“Former youth gang leaders, who graduated to serving as hitmen for alleged mob boss Victor Bishop, the Dark brothers — older brother Gregory Powell Dark, and younger brother Michael Donovan Dark, who cofounded the Dark Knights street gang as teens in the 1970s — could be heading to prison for a permanent stay this time, thanks to a particularly incriminating videotape recovered by Apex City Police Detective Hector Haggerty. This is Tandi Sinclair, with First-Person Shooter News. We're currently broadcasting from the Lehnsherr Elevated Maglev Line, and we'll continue to provide live updates, as the Dark brothers are transported to the Apex City Courthouse.”

Greg Dark stood taller, as his narrowed eyes surveyed the car with quiet, predatory contempt, while Mike Dark's wide eyes flitted from face to face, among the now-nervous commuters, his shoulders hunched over like a jungle cat ready to pounce. Even as Hector Haggerty hung firmly to the chain connecting his two suspects' handcuffs, his other hand struggled to maintain his grip on the slippery transparent plastic evidence bag, containing the Betacam tape, while also manipulating his radio mic.

“Whose bright idea was it to pull Detective Bakshi off this shift?” Haggerty hissed into the receiver. “It's bad enough we're transporting two dangerous subjects out in the open, on the Double-L, but there should be a minimum of two officers on this detail.”

“I know those guys,” Mitzi Klingfeld whispered in excited disbelief to Austin Kingsley, who sat next to her, across the aisle from where the assembled press surrounded the standing Haggerty and the Dark brothers. “I mean, I don't, like, KNOW them, know them, you know? But they liked to stop by Bishop Builders' offices, back when I was temping there as a secretary.”

Austin scanned the details of the scene in rapid succession. Haggerty responded subconsciously to the jostling reporters, with their babbling queries and flashing cameras, by becoming more unguardedly animated (and aggravated) in his radio conversation with headquarters, his grip slackening ever-so-slightly on the chain connecting the Dark brothers' handcuffs.

As they felt that barely perceptible bit of give in their restraints, Mike's eyes met Greg's. Greg never shook his head, and Mike never nodded, but they didn't need to. They were brothers, and while Austin was well aware of how inept he was at reading people, he could still recognize what families could say with certain wordless gestures.

“They're going to try and break free,” Austin told Mitzi, before rushing out of his seat, away from the clustered media.

“What?” Mitzi checked incredulously. “No, that's crazy, they wouldn't …” she trailed off, as Mike's wild eyes locked into an unblinking stare with her own, and he broke into a savage grin. “… Oh, no,” she breathed.

The collected reporters could barely blink before the Dark brothers had pulled themselves loose from Haggerty's grip on their restraints, with Mike retrieving a small and mysterious silvery device from the cuff of his pants leg, and melting the links of his and Greg's handcuffs with it, before Greg slung one arm around Tandi's waist, and fished a hidden razor from the shirt cuff of his other arm, to press against her throat.

“Everybody down on the ground, now!” Mike shouted, pointing the device (apparently a weapon) at Haggerty, whose service pistol was already unholstered and aimed at Mike's head in turn.

“This wasn't part of the plan, Mike,” Greg growled discontentedly, even as he backed his brother's play by holding Tandi hostage, all while she kept filming, her camcorder still mounted relatively steadily on her shoulder, its eyepiece still affixed firmly to her face, as she broadcast what she was seeing live.

“Forget that noise, Greg!” Mike yelled. “I know what our orders were, but the way I figure it, we've got a lot better chance of shooting our way to freedom from a moving train car, through only one cop, than waiting until we're in the city courthouse, surrounded by an entire police department.”

“So who smuggled the contraband to you two dullards?” Haggerty interjected, his aim never wavering.

Greg's lips curled into a rare smile. “You're the detective, Haggerty. You figure it out.”

“Here's what I'm thinking,” Haggerty snarled, as he edged toward the Dark brothers. “I think this is all a load of bull. Oh, sure, the razor blade's real enough, but I'll bet my next paycheck that toy you're waving in my face is some sort of welder's torch, mocked up to look like a Flash Gordon ray-gun.”

“Actually, it appears to be an authentic, albeit crudely constructed, handheld matter-and-energy disruptor,” a professorial voice from behind Haggerty informed him, before Austin Kingsley stepped forward, clad in a skintight black bodysuit, his limbs and torso outlined by electric yellow patterns and symbols, whose flowing neon lines seemed at once ancient and alive. “Then again, it's hardly fair of me to expect Athenæum-grade quality from street-level merchandise.”

“Well, now, I didn't know the circus had come to town,” Mike chuckled, as Haggerty rolled his eyes, and even Greg allowed himself a skeptically squinty-eyed smirk. “So who are you supposed to be, sunshine?”

“The Star Prodigy,” Mitzi blurted out, before Austin could reflexively confess the secret identity that he'd concealed, by creating glowing golden hard-light holographic wraparound sunglasses to obscure his eyes and cheekbones. “I mean, um, I … heard him, you know, call himself … the Star Prodigy.”

“Another vigilante,” Haggerty shook his head wearily, “just like the Zenith Vanisher, a decade ago.”

“Not exactly humble, with a name like that, are you?” Greg quipped casually, his gravely voice almost light-hearted, in spite of the drops of blood his blade had drawn from Tandi's skin.

Austin shrugged and strolled forward, blithely inserting himself between Haggerty and the Dark brothers. “I'm not wrong, though, am I?” he checked, behaving as though he'd been handed the floor during a college debate tournament. “You alluded to a plan. I'm going to guess it was not one of your own devising, or else you wouldn't be so quick to disregard it. And while a closer examination of the disruptor which you're wielding so carelessly reveals that it has a remarkably slipshod assembly, I'm still going to say it would be well out of the reach of whatever meager resources either of you might be able to lay your hands on.”

“You know, maybe you're not a genius, but you've sure got a smart mouth on you, Mister Star Prodigy,” Mike glared at Austin, before turning the disruptor on him instead of Haggerty, “especially considering I'm the one with the death ray that can turn your head into a canoe.”

“Fire it here, and you'll do more damage than that,” Austin warned.

Greg narrowed his flinty eyes even further. “Explain,” he demanded, before a light jab from the tip of his razor drew a gasp from Tandi's throat, “and no funny business.”

“Whoever supplied you with your plan and weaponry wanted you to discharge the disruptor at the courthouse, yes?” Austin reminded the Dark brothers, racing through his exposition. “As soon as you used it to remove your handcuffs, the protective casing started to degrade. Your mistake was, you thought of it as a laser gun. It's a bomb, and according to the plan, you were meant to set it off while surrounded by as many law enforcement agents as possible.”

Greg's once-unyielding hold over Tandi loosened, as the chilling plausibility of Austin's claims settled over him like a shroud. “Mike …”

“He's bluffing, Greg!” Mike bellowed, even as the beads of sweat that sprouted on his brow betrayed his sudden shortfall of confidence. “And I'm gonna prove it, by plastering his smug face all over the side of this train.”

Austin blinked in almost comical astonishment, before rounding on Mike with the closest thing to righteous indignation that Mitzi had yet seen from him. “Are … are you SERIOUS? How has NONE of this sunk in?”

“Yeah, that's a great idea, egghead,” Mike retorted. “Keep calling me stupid, because THAT'S gonna change my mind.”

“I am NOT calling you STUPID!” Austin yelled back, before snorting bitterly, “Although, given the fact that I'm having to stand here and explain to an ostensible adult precisely why it's a bad idea to pull the trigger on a MATTER and ENERGY DISRUPTOR inside of a MAGNETIC LEVITATION train, I don't suppose I can be charged with calling you intellectually GIFTED, either.”

“Hey, hero?” Haggerty gritted his teeth. “Maybe try NOT insulting the guy who's got his finger on the bomb, yeah?”

“I'm sorry, but what exactly do you expect me to do here?” Austin threw up his hands in frustrated futility. “Draw him a DIAGRAM?”

“You don't know WHEN to shut up,” Mike began laughing, even as his body quaked with outrage. “You don't know HOW to shut up …”

“I'm honestly trying NOT to be condescending!” Austin insisted in earnest exasperation. “But I also don't know who to blame more … YOU, or the educational system that clearly FAILED you!”

Just as the Dark brothers had preyed upon Haggerty's momentary distraction, so too did Tandi capitalize on the scene between Mike and Austin to elbow a briefly unwary Greg in the gut, all while keeping her camcorder (still broadcasting live) mounted solidly on her shoulder.

Mike's burst of panic was all it took for him to pull the trigger on the disruptor, which burned his hand as it exploded in slow motion.

“Desperta Ferres!” Austin exclaimed, clapping his hands together in front of him, to generate a sphere of neon yellow energy capable of containing the fluorescent red ball of explosive force blasting forth.

For a few seconds, it almost seemed as if he might succeed in completely muting the blast … until the shockwave literally knocked everyone off their feet, even before the Lehnsherr Elevated (“Double-L”) Maglev Line lurched to a grinding halt.

When the lights in the train car flickered back on, less than a minute later, Haggerty found himself regaining consciousness roughly in time with the rest of the commuters, and sought to take stock of the total damage done. While almost all of the other passengers appeared to be waking up with only minor injuries, both of the Dark brothers were still sprawled out cold on the floor, which Haggerty counted as his first stroke of good luck that day.

As Haggerty clapped his spare set of handcuffs on the Dark brothers' wrists — one bracelet for each brother, with the chain between them passed through the gap of an enclosed loop seat armrest — he heard Tandi slapping the side of her camcorder, as it emitted white noise.

“You've got to be kidding me!” Tandi groused as she peered into the viewfinder, before she spotted that she'd attracted Haggerty's notice. “The best live coverage of my entire broadcast news career, and the electromagnetic pulse must have blanked my tape!”

Haggerty's face fell as he remembered the Betacam tape he'd dropped when he drew his gun, and he scrambled across the floor to recover the evidence bag. “Here,” he handed Tandi the camcorder tape, compatible with her equipment, “play this, please.”

When nothing but static appeared, Haggerty rose slowly from his knees, trembling as he took to his feet, squaring his shoulders as he ascended to his full height, and inhaled deeply, before he screamed and swore and pounded the wall of the train car until he was fairly certain that at least one of the bones in his hand was broken.

“That's obviously bad, then,” Tandi exhaled, as the other passengers still cringed at Haggerty's outburst, “but at the risk of sounding pedantic … HOW bad?”

“Bad enough,” Haggerty shrugged, his demeanor almost as calm as before, all except for his breathing, loud and voluminous, his barrel chest expanding and deflating like the bellows of a furnace. “Our new friendly neighborhood vigilante just erased the best evidence we had against these two walking stains. Even with the stunt they just pulled here, it wouldn't take much for Victor Bishop's lawyers to see to it that the Dark brothers get off scot-free.”

Haggerty's eyes searched the train car for the offending vigilante, but the Star Prodigy was long gone.

And so was the woman who'd named him, whom Haggerty and Tandi had already forgotten.

[blackkudos]

James Jamerson

James Lee Jamerson (January 29, 1936 – August 2, 1983) was an American bass player. He was the uncredited bassist on most of the Motown Records hits in the 1960s and early 1970s (Motown did not list session musician credits on their releases until 1971), and is now regarded as one of the most influential bass players in modern music history. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2000. As a session musician he played on 30 Billboard #1 hits, as well as over 70 R&B #1 hits, more than any other bass player in both categories.

In 2011, Jamerson ranked third in The "20 Most Underrated Bass Guitarists" in Pastemagazine.

Biography

A native of Edisto Island (near Charleston), South Carolina, Jamerson moved with his mother to Detroit, Michigan in 1954 and began playing in Detroit area blues and jazz clubs. His son, James Jamerson, Jr. (1958-2016), was also a professional bassist.

Motown years

Jamerson continued performing in Detroit clubs after graduating high school, and his increasingly solid reputation started providing him opportunities for sessions at various local recording studios. Starting in 1959, he found steady work at Berry Gordy's Hitsville U.S.A. studio, home of the Motown record label. There he became a member of a core of studio musicians who informally called themselves The Funk Brothers. This small, close-knit group of musicians performed on the vast majority of Motown recordings during most of the 1960s. Jamerson's earliest Motown sessions were performed on double bass, but in the early 1960s he switched to playing an electric Fender Precision Bass for the most part.

Like Jamerson, most of the other Funk Brothers were jazz musicians who had been recruited by Gordy. For many years, they maintained a typical schedule of recording during the day at Motown's small garage "Studio A" (which they nicknamed "the Snakepit"), then playing gigs in the jazz clubs at night. They also occasionally toured the U.S. with Motown artists. For most of their career, however, the Funk Brothers went uncredited on Motown singles and albums, and their pay was considerably less than the main artists or the label received. Eventually, Jamerson was put on retainer with Motown for one thousand dollars a week, which afforded him and his ever-expanding family a comfortable lifestyle.

Jamerson's discography at Motown reads as a catalog of soul hits of the 1960s and 1970s. His work includes Motown hits such as, among hundreds of others, "Shotgun" by Jr. Walker & the All Stars, "For Once in My Life," "I Was Made To Love Her" by Stevie Wonder, "Going to a Go-Go" by The Miracles, "My Girl" by The Temptations, "Dancing in the Street" by Martha and the Vandellas, "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" by Gladys Knight and the Pips, and later by Marvin Gaye, and most of the album What's Going Onby Marvin Gaye, "Reach Out I'll Be There" and "Bernadette" by the Four Tops, and "You Can't Hurry Love" by The Supremes. According to fellow Funk Brothers in the 2002 documentary Standing in the Shadows of Motown, Gaye was desperate to have Jamerson play on "What's Going On," and went to several bars to find the bassist. When he did, he brought Jamerson to the studio, who then played the classic line while lying flat on his back. He is reported to have played on some 95% of Motown recordings between 1962 and 1968. He eventually performed on nearly 30 No. 1 pop hits—surpassing the record commonly attributed to The Beatles. On the R&B charts, nearly 70 of his performances went to the top.

Style and influence

Jamerson is noted for expanding the musical style and role of bass-playing in the popular music of the time, which (in 1950s and '60s R&B, rock and roll, and country) largely consisted of root notes, fifths and simple repetitive patterns. By contrast, many of Jamerson's bass lines relied heavily on chromatic runs, syncopation, ghost notes and inversions, with frequent use of open strings. His nimble bass playing was considered an integral part of the "Motown Sound". He transcended the standard "bass line" and created a duet with the singer, melodic, but still very tightly locked with the drumgroove. Prominent bassists who have claimed Jamerson as a primary influence include James Brown's Bernard Odum, Bootsy Collins, Abraham Laboriel, Pino Palladino, Alan Gorrie, Rick Danko, Anthony Jackson, Jack Bruce, John Entwistle, Bernard Edwards, Jason Newsted, Jaco Pastorius, John Patitucci, John Paul Jones, Robert DeLeo, Rick Skatore, Mike Watt, Billy Sheehan, Joel Shipp, Geddy Lee, Victor Wooten, Paul McCartney, Mike Mills, Suzi Quatro, Matt Noveskey, Tommy Shannon, Matt Rubano, Phillip Chen and Michael "Flea" Balzary.

Post-Motown career

Shortly after Motown moved their headquarters to Los Angeles, California in 1972, Jamerson moved there himself and found occasional studio work, but his relationship with Motown officially ended in 1973. He went on to perform on such 1970s hits as "Rock the Boat" (The Hues Corporation), "Boogie Fever" (The Sylvers), and "You Don't Have to Be a Star (To Be in My Show)" (Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr.) and also played on Robert Palmer's 1975 solo album Pressure Drop. But as other musicians went on to use high-tech amps, round-wound strings, and simpler, more repetitive bass lines incorporating new techniques like thumb slapping, Jamerson's style fell out of favor with local producers and he found himself reluctant to try new things. By the 1980s he was unable to get any serious gigs working as a session musician.

Death

Long troubled by alcoholism, Jamerson died of complications stemming from cirrhosis of the liver, heart failure and pneumonia on August 2, 1983, in Los Angeles at the age of 47. He left a wife, Anne, three sons, James Jamerson Jr., Ivey (Joey), and Derek, and a daughter Doreen. He is interred at Detroit's historic Woodlawn Cemetery on Woodward Avenue.

Recognition

James Jamerson (as is the case with the other Funk Brothers) received little formal recognition for his lifetime contributions. It was not until 1971, when he was acknowledged as "the incomparable James Jamerson" on the sleeve of Marvin Gaye's What's Going On, that his name even showed up on a major Motown release.

Jamerson was the subject of a 1989 book by Allan Slutsky (aka "Dr. Licks") titled Standing in the Shadows of Motown. The book includes a biography of Jamerson, a few dozen transcriptions of his bass lines, and two CDs in which 26 internationally known professional bassists (such as Pino Palladino, John Entwistle, Will Lee, Chuck Rainey, and Geddy Lee) speak about Jamerson and play those transcriptions. Jamerson's story was also featured in the subsequent 2002 documentary film of the same title.

In 1999, Jamerson was awarded a bust at the Hollywood Guitar Center's Rock Walk.

In 2000, Jamerson was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, part of the first-ever group of "sidemen" to be so honored.

In 2003, there was a two-day celebration entitled "Returned To The Source" which was hosted by The Charleston Jazz Initiative and Avery Research Center of The College of Charleston.

In 2004, the Funk Brothers were honored with a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.

In 2007, Jamerson along with the other Funk Brothers was inducted into the Musicians Hall of Fame in Memphis, Tennessee.

In 2008, James Jamerson was awarded the Gullah/GeeChee Anointed Spirit Award.

In 2009, Jamerson was inducted into the Fender Hall of Fame. Among the speakers was fellow legendary Motown session bassist and friend, Bob Babbitt.

In 2009, Jamerson received a Resolution from the SC House of Representatives.

In 2012, Jamerson received the Hartke, Zune, Samson 2012 International Bassist Award.

In 2013, he along with the Funk Brothers received their Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 2014, Jamerson received a State Resolution from the South Carolina Senate.

Jamerson's equipment

James Jamerson's double bass was a German upright acoustic bass that he bought as a teenager and later used on such Motown hits as "My Guy" by Mary Wells and "(Love Is Like a) Heat Wave" by Martha and the Vandellas.

Jamerson played mainly the Fender Precision Bass, but is known to have briefly used a Fender Bass V and a Hagström 8-string later in his career.

His first electric bass was a 1957 Precision Bass, refinished in black, with a gold anodized pickguard and maple fretboard, nicknamed "Black Beauty". That bass was a gift from his fellow bass player Horace "Chili" Ruth. In the sixties, that bass was stolen.

After his 1957 Precision Bass was stolen, he acquired a stock 1962 Fender Precision Bass which was dubbed "The Funk Machine." It had a three-tone sunburst finish, a tortoise-shell pickguard, rosewood fretboard and chrome pickup and bridge covers (the latter containing a piece of foam used to dampen sustain and some overtones). On the heel of the instrument he carved with ballpoint pen the word "FUNK". He typically set its volume and tone knobs on full. This instrument was also stolen, just days before Jamerson's death in 1983. To date, it has not been found.

James Jamerson used La Bella heavy-gauge (.052–.110) flatwound strings which were never replaced, unless a string broke. He didn't particularly take care of the instrument, as he stated: "The gunk keeps the funk", and it is possible that the neck eventually warped, as many claimed it impossible to play. While this made it more difficult to fret, Jamerson believed it improved the quality of the tone. Early in the '70s, a producer attempted to modernize James Jamerson's sound by asking the bassist to switch to brighter-sounding roundwound bass strings, but Jamerson politely declined.

One aspect of James Jamerson's upright playing that carried over to the electric bass guitar was the fact that he generally used only his right index finger to pluck the strings while resting his 3rd and 4th fingers on the chrome pickup cover. Jamerson's index finger even earned its own nickname: "The Hook". Another aspect of Jamerson's upright playing which carried over was his use of open strings, a technique long used by jazz bass players, to pivot around the fretboard which served to give his lines a fluid feeling.

Jamerson's amplifier of choice at club performances was an Ampeg B-15; in larger venues, he used a blue Naugahyde Kustom with twin 15" speakers. On both, the bass was typically turned up full and the treble turned halfway up. On most of his studio recordings, his bass was plugged directly into the custom-made mixing console together with the guitars from Eddie Willis, Robert White and Joe Messina. He adjusted the console so that his sound was slightly overdriven and had a mild tube compression.

References

Further reading

Taylor, Harold Keith, The Motown Music Machine. Jadmeg Music Publishing, 2004

Andr, Motown Bass Classics. Hal Leonard Corporation, 1998

Posner, Gerald, Motown : Music, Money, Sex, and Power. Random House, 2005

Rubin, Dave, Motown Bass (Bass Signature Licks). Hal Leonard Corporation, 2000

Dr. Licks, Standing in the Shadows of Motown: The Life and Music of Legendary Bassist James Jamerson. Hal Leonard,1989

External links

James Jamerson at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

James Jamerson's recorded bass parts isolated

Partial discography

BassLand James Jamerson page

James Jamerson Transcriptions and Educational Resources

James Jamerson at Find a Grave

Wikipedia

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