#shell gas near me

[trustpie]

Gas shell station near me

#Gas shell station near me drivers#

To get the latest email updates from Yorkshire Live, click here.

Supermarket petrol stations: Tesco, Asda and Morrison store locator.

Shell: 24 hours - Locate nearest station here.

Esso: Opening times available on locator tool - Locate nearest station here.

For any station, click on 'Get Directions' to get driving directions to the station, or 'Station Details' to view more information for each station. You'll see a map and a listing of Exxon and Mobil service stations in the surrounding area.

BP: 5am to 10pm daily (many are 24 hours) - locate nearest petrol station here we have a selection of sat nav downloads to help you find your nearest Keyfuels site. Type a town, postcode, or address and click the 'Search Location' button.

Petrol stations are being refilled as quickly as possible.ĭifferent petrol stations will be refilled at different times, but below are the general opening times and locator tools for each operator in the UK. LISTED: The petrol stations which still have fuel in Huddersfield, Leeds and Sheffield When do petrol stations refill? In 1951, Shell Oil Company began selling gasoline at its service stations under its own brand name rather than just rebranding gasoline purchased. Here is a round up of when BP, Shell, Esso and Supermarket petrol stations will refill. Dog Grooming Near Me > Nail Salons Near Me > Women’s hair salons near me tanning salon near me > tanning salon near me >Barber shops near me > closest gas station to me > 24 hour service stations.

#Gas shell station near me drivers#

Ministers are scrambling to find solutions to the panic buying - with emergency measures announced this weekend to enable 10,500 lorry drivers and food sector workers to help avoid “significant disruption” this Christmas.Ī lack of around 100,000 delivery drivers led to some BP petrol stations having to close and pump shortages at Esso.Īnd with the petrol shortages continuing into the new week, everyone is asking the same question. He said drivers refuelling their vehicles unnecessarily are causing shortages and queues outside stations across Britain. UK Transport Secretary Grant Shapps hit out at those panic buying fuel in what he called a “manufactured crisis”. Panicked motorists are filling up their tanks while they still can, amid news that fuel firms may begin restricting deliveries of fuel.Īnd some petrol stations have even had to temporarily close, due to shortages and an inability to get new deliveries.įor the latest news on this issue follow our live blog hereĪ "handful" of BP stations have been closed in England and some Tesco forecourts have also been closed. Panicked motorists across Yorkshire have been queueing to panic-buy fuel at petrol stations over the past few days, in scenes similar to the Covid panic-buying crisis in supermarkets last year.

[forleavingscenes]

Police response to the Charleston church shooting and Dylann Roof's arrest

After leaving Mother Emanuel AME church at 9:07 p.m. on June 17, 2015, Dylann was surprised to see that no police had shown up to the church, as he later claimed that his plan was to shoot himself when the cops showed up and ultimately chose not to kill himself before he was caught because he “decided that it’s just a bad idea”. Evidence taken from his GPS shows that he traveled for 20 miles along I-26 to Branch AME Church in Summerville, which also holds a bible study every Wednesday night. Dylann did not stop at the church and said in his interrogation that the reason he didn’t go to another church is because he was “worn out”

For several hours, the only description given of Dylann was “younger white male, approximately 5’9”, slender build”, as well as two photos of him entering the church, his ID photo, and two photos taken from facebook. This vague description was what led Austin Rich, a photographer from Charleston who happened to be wearing a similar outfit to Dylann's, to be arrested under the impression that he was the shooter.

From Austin Rich's Facebook: “Tonight as many of you may already know I was detained as a suspect for the shooting that took place on downtown Charleston. I want to assure everyone that I am safe and innocent. I was interviewing strangers at the scene when I was mistaken as the shooter because of my grey t shirt, black pants and tan shoes. I was told to get on the ground with my hands up. I laid on my stomach, gently placing my camera on the ground. The officers rushed over to handcuff me. I told them to please be easy with my camera and gear as they picked me up off the ground. I understand that the officers were simply doing their job and they did it well. I was compliant and escorted across the street, to the Marriott Courtyard Hotel and then questioned. I gave them the details of where I was and who I was with. They asked several questions, checked my phone records and told me I was clear to go. I am thankful for the professionalism of the officers on duty.”

At 10:30 p.m., someone claiming to be the killer called a local TV station to claim that he placed a bomb near the church, which would detonate at 11 p.m. However, when the area was checked, no explosives were found, and investigators were cleared to go back inside by 11:30. 

The next morning at 5:50 a.m., Dylann went to a Shell gas station in Charlotte, North Carolina. He used the ATM by the door and went inside to buy a bottle of water and a bag of Doritos. The employees didn’t recognize him and thought of him as just being a “polite, quiet guy”.

A few hours later, a woman named Debbie Dills spotted Dylann’s car while she was on her way to work. She then called her boss, who then called the police, to confirm that it was Dylann. Police quickly caught up to Dylann and pulled him over at a traffic stop in Shelby, North Carolina (Dylann later said that he was on his way to Nashville, Tennessee). He rolled down his window, told the police that the gun was in the backseat, and let the police frisk and handcuff him without resisting. He was finally arrested at 10:44 a.m., 13 hours and 37 minutes after he left the church. He was then brought to the police station, where he would be brought a meal from Burger King after he said he had only eaten the bag of chips he bought that morning (Note: many people claim that Dylann was brought to BK before he was brought to the police station, which is not true. Bringing food to suspects is a very common interrogation technique, often to build rapport.) Shelby police Chief Jeff Ledford said “He was very quiet, very calm. He didn’t talk. He sat down here very quietly. He was not problematic.”

In the hours after Dylann’s arrest, vigils were held for the shooting. Vigils held at Allen Temple AME Church, West End Community Center, and Morris Brown AME Church all had false bomb threats anonymously called in and had to be evacuated.

At 7:28 p.m., Dylann was booked into Al Cannon Detention Center.

[whollyfree]

Let's Talk

Summary – You have a hard time watching Jake be ogled, and he has a remedy to remind you what's yours.

Pairings – Jake Kiszka x F!Reader

Word Count – 3.1k

Warnings – 18+ MINORS DNI!!! oral (f!receiving), face-riding, unprotected sex, dumbification, LOTS of dirty talk, cockwarming if you squint, spanking, mentions of alcohol

You had really fucking had it this time.

Was it a normal thing for Jake to be ogled? Yes! How could he not be? 

It was far too easy to find yourself staring at him; so you truly couldn’t blame anyone else for doing so. With an air of confidence, he enters a room and every eye falls onto him. 

He is an enigma to all (except you, of course) and it felt like damn near every girl at that godforsaken bar was on a mission to have his eyes so much as glance their way. He knows this, of course. How could he not?

But behind his mysterious, debonair exterior, he’s Jake. Your Jake. Your soft, sweet Jake who raids your pantry to make you breakfast in bed and fills your car with gas because “why do you ever let your tank run that low?! It’s not safe!” he had argued (but he still fills it up every time). 

He’s your loving, tender Jake who litters you with kisses at any given moment and nuzzles his face in the crook of your neck when the poor thing feels as if he isn’t getting enough of your attention. That, and he can’t stand not to be touching you in any form or fashion. He’s just like a little lovesick puppy!

And no matter how hard you try to remind yourself of these things, to be rational, you can’t help but have to bite your tongue. The jealousy eats away at you and it infuriates you to no end. You hate yourself for it.

Which is why tonight at the bar, you bit your tongue so hard you’re sure small trickles of blood had seeped their way into your mouth. Jake stood by the bar; an arm securely wrapped around your waist as he beckons the bartender over with a simple raise of his fingers. 

Of course, when it’s Jake, it’s not hard to get anyone’s attention; unwanted or not. And that was abundantly clear from the blonde at the end of the bar, twirling her straw in her cocktail as she eyed your boyfriend. 

Her eyes moved up and down, and you notice they became stuck on his exposed chest and silver necklaces dangling against his tanned skin. And, oh god, do you hate her for it.

Stop it. Your conscience pleads with you to (for lack of a better phrase) chill the fuck out!

Jake could tell you were a bit pouty. He knows you all too well. And just as assumed, he knew he was being eye-fucked by the blonde at the end of the bar (and one hidden away in a booth in the back, but like hell he was planning on telling you that).

Part of him hates himself for finding your jealousy so amusing. And in all honesty, if he saw a man looking at you the way that women have looked at him, he’d be raising hell.

“You okay, baby?” He grins as the two of you walk into your home after your excursion to the bar, tossing his car keys on the kitchen counter.

“Mhm.” You hum. Short and sweet. He won’t expect a thing, right?

You’re kidding yourself and you know it.

“Yeah?” He replies, crowding your space immediately from behind. He takes the curves of your hips in each of his palms, his breath tinted with the Maker’s Mark he had a glass of at the bar. Top shelf only for him, of course. “You were awfully quiet tonight. Getting shy on me all of a sudden, princess?”

You can hear the subtle teasing in his voice, and you’re sure he knows exactly what you were sulking for. But you simply answer, not ready to give yourself away too quickly. “No, just tired is all.”

“Just tired is all,” he mocks you with a low chuckle. You’re a terrible liar, always have been. “It’s cute that you think you could ever lie to me.” He adds, lips grazing over the sensitive skin of your neck – it already feels too much but not enough. 

And when his lips ghost over the shell of your ear, you feel a rush of heat between your thighs, and you swear your knees may give out. How he’s able to turn you into a puddle of yourself so quickly? You’ll never know.

“Come on, princess,” he sounds, and just like that it’s over. His hands are removed from your hips and he moves in front of you, his arm outstretched to you and his body facing the stairs. “Let’s go to bed then if you’re so tired.”

You try to hide your huff of annoyance, aching to have his touch again after being subjected to watch women drool over him all night. So you decide, no, you’re not going upstairs. Your arms cross over your chest like an insolent child who didn’t get what they wanted. Stubborn and spoiled. And your act of defiance is certainly not lost on him.

“No?” He quirks up an eyebrow at you, “Is the princess suddenly not tired? Sure are moody, though. What’s that about?”

God, you hate him. You hate that he’s finding your frustration the slightest bit entertaining. He’s taunting you, dangling the carrot in your face just to see you bite back.

He huffs out a laugh at your silence. “Oh, so we don’t wanna talk now, hm? That’s alright. We’ll see how long that lasts.”

Before you can even blink, you’re thrown over his shoulder like a rag doll. A surprised shriek slips out of you as he trudges up the stairs and in the direction of your bedroom. Smaller in stature he may be, but weak is not a way you would ever describe him.

“Jake!” You scold him, not having any of his shit right now. “Put me down!”

“Oh, so we are talking now?” He muses, depositing you on the neatly made bed. He hovers over you, standing at the foot of the bed where he practically threw you on it. 

“How about this then, princess?” He taunts, “Since you’re suddenly in the mood to talk, I say we play a little game. You talk, I listen.”

Seems easy enough…a little too easy. 

“Everything off.” There it is.

He strides over to the bed, climbing on before laying on his back. His head rests against the pillow as you continue eyeing him, slowly peeling your clothes off your body until your stark naked and sitting on your heels on the bed.

“So obedient, my pretty girl. And so fucking beautiful when you listen, aren’t you?” He coos. “Come have a seat, princess,” he beckons, still fully clothed, “talk to me.”

With a bite to the inside of your cheek, you rise from your sitting position to straddle his lap. And just as you begin to settle yourself – 

“Uh-uh,” he tuts. “Not quite, baby.”

Your incredulous look makes him laugh. What else could he have wanted?

“Come on,” he encourages, placing his hands on your hips. “Up you go, princess.”

With a quick slap to your ass, he hoists you up further. Your eyes go wide and you yelp at the crack of his hand hitting your skin, your heart racing as your knees straddle either side of his head. 

“Good girl,” he praises, his hands trailing up the sides of your thighs and to your hips to keep you steady. “Go on, princess. Tell me what’s got you so pouty. Wanna help.”

Considering you’re at a loss for words and can’t think straight with him eye-level with your cunt, you suddenly don’t even know why you were upset to begin with. But another swat to your ass quickly brings you back to consciousness.

“F-fuck,” you whimper, your head falling down and fingers gripping his hair. “They were staring at you…at the bar.” You manage out.

“Yeah? Who was, princess?” He’s teasing you even more now, pressing the gentlest of kisses to your clit until you choke out his name and begin tugging on the roots of his hair. He knows you can’t answer; you’re already too far gone and he’s hardly started.

But your impending fear that he would stop has you rushing out the words through uneven breaths.

“The girls at the bar,” you croak out as his lips continue pressing small kisses to your bundle of nerves. “Hated the way they looked at you. I was fucking jealous. I’m sorry.”

Pleased with your answer (even if he already knew it), he grins. And you can feel it against you before he presses one final kiss to your pearl.

“But you see, princess,” he says, smoothing his hands over your hips. “No one else gets to have this. Just because they see my face, doesn’t mean they get to fuck it like you do, do they?”

“N-no.” You reply, desperate to feel his mouth on you again.

“Good girl,” he croons. “And what they don’t know is that I get to have my face fucked by the prettiest little pussy whenever I please. Get to have your scent all over me. ‘Cause it’s yours, isn’t it, princess?” 

“Yes, sir.” You peep, unable to form another word if your life depended on it. 

Not only were you insanely turned on and dripping because his face was buried between your thighs, but it’s also due to how he speaks to you with such dominance and authority. He could have you on your knees (both literally and figuratively) with the snap of his fingers.

With one more praise of good girl, he dives back in, immediately sucking your clit into his mouth and flicking against it like a man starved. You feel your eyes roll back, a whining desperate mess above him. The tugging on his hair only gets tighter as he grips your hips to keep you against him.

You’re sure there will be marks, and you aren’t mad about it either. You need him tethered to you in every way possible.

He expertly licks through your folds, tongue gently prodding at your entrance as his nose brushes your clit. You can’t fight the whimper that leaves your lips, your pussy fluttering around the tip of his tongue. And when he groans at the feeling, you swear you’re done for.

“Jake,” you gasp, tightening your hold on his hair. He doesn’t seem to mind, though. He hums against your cunt, flicking your arousal against your clit before sucking it past his lips once more. 

“Yeah, princess? Feel that sweet little cunt fucking squeezing my tongue. That feel good? Feel good to take what’s yours?”

And before you have time to catch your breath, his tongue finds your entrance again. He wastes no time going harder, faster this time. His tongue fucks into you relentlessly, nose nudging your clit in perfect timing. It’s sloppy and wet and downright sinful.

You can hardly register when it happens, you’re so far gone, but you cum hard against his tongue. Grinding your hips against his tongue to chase the feeling for as long as your body will allow while you cry out his name like a hymn.

And he can’t get enough of it either, ravaging you and swallowing every bit he can muster until you pry yourself off of him. 

You look him over, his mouth, chin, and nose glistening with remnants of you. It’s enough to stir you back up again, your overstimulation be damned. Your lips crash into his, and he’s eager to capture them with his own, maneuvering you to straddle his lap. 

“Fuck, my sweet girl,” he breathes out. “Did so fucking good. Came so hard for me. Could eat that pussy until it suffocates me, I swear.”

You gasp when you feel his hardened cock through his jeans that he wore out make contact with your swollen clit. 

Grinding against him, you whimper against his lips at the new feeling bubbling within your tummy. He groans, feeling the slightest bit of relief as you grind against him. With the amount of wetness you felt between your thighs even after your orgasm, you’re sure that you’re absolutely soaking the fabric.

“This what you want, baby?” He murmurs. “Want my cock? Wanna fuck what’s yours?”

“Please.” You whimper, grinding down against him with a bit more force this time before moving your hips upwards to allow him to undress.

He practically moans when he sees the wet splotch of your arousal on the crotch of his jeans. “Fuck, princess. So fucking wet for me.”

“Jake, please,” you whine, tugging at his pants in an effort to make him move faster. 

“Oh, my needy little thing.” He teases, resuming pulling his pants down along with his boxers. “Just had her pussy fucked with my tongue and can’t wait for more, can you?”

You shake your head no, trying to will yourself to calm down. You don’t want him to think he has the power, even though he knows all too well that he already does.

“I know, princess.” He soothes you with his tone, tossing his pants and boxers on the floor along with your clothes. 

His dick stands tall, pressed against his stomach as precome leaks from the slit on the swollen head. He gives himself two languid strokes with his fist, hissing at the feeling. “Can’t wait to have you wrapped up around me…all tight and sweet and warm- fuck, come here, baby. Take it. Take what’s yours.” 

You’re quick to crawl back to him, desperate to have him inside of you as you grasp his shoulders for balance. Using one hand, you grasp him, whimpering when you feel his crown just lining up with your weeping hole. 

Jake holds your waist, patiently waiting for you to sink down around him. And when you do, you could cry from how good and full you feel already. You keen as you feel the familiar and pleasurable sting that only happens when he’s this deep inside you. 

“Shit,” He hisses, fighting the urge to fuck upwards into you. “Feels so good, princess. This cock is yours, baby. Everything is yours.”

And that’s more than enough to encourage you to begin riding him, rolling your hips back and forth at an even pace. You whine and mewl from above him as he holds your waist, encouraging you with each movement you make.

You’re both a complete wreck already. Jake is already so close to coming and you’d hardly started moving your hips against him.

“Whose cock is this?”

You hated when he made you talk. You could listen to him go on and on all day about nothing that truly mattered (especially in bed). But you hate having to talk as well. You feel like you were nowhere near as good at it as he is.

In hopes that he’ll somehow forget what he asked, you resume your movements and peel your eyes away, beginning to go faster in hopes that you’ll truly distract him. But that sure as hell doesn’t work.

“Uh-uh,” He scolds, using his free hand to take your chin and turn it to face him. Eye-to-eye. “Eyes on me, princess. Now tell me whose cock this is. Wanna hear you, sweet girl. Tell me nice and loud.”

You’re embarrassed. If your cheeks could turn any darker in this moment, you’re sure they would. And you don’t want to answer him, suddenly bashful even when he’s buried inside of you as you bounce on his cock. 

Displeased with your lack of a response, he angles his hips upwards, meeting you halfway to send himself deeper into the depths of your cunt. It catches you off guard to say the least, but only causes you to move faster, further onto him to chase that feeling again.

“It’s mine, sir,” you whine, words rushed and breathless. “It’s mineit’smineit’smine!” You continue, drunk off his cock and so close to coming you can’t hardly stand it.

Jake groans, continuing to push his hips upwards. “Yes, princess. My good fucking girl. It’s fucking yours.”

You want him to come harder than he ever has; want his cum deep inside you because it really is yours. He’s yours.

“Taking me so well, princess.” He pants. “Riding me so fucking good. Go on, baby. Want you to come again. Soak my cock, baby.”

Your words become mush, incoherent babbles as you continue fucking yourself on him. You can’t hardly breathe anymore, your chest heaving for breath as you feel the knot inside of you threatening to snap.

“Oh, princess…” he coos, “My dumb little baby. Can’t even get a word out when my cock’s buried inside you. Can’t even help it, can you?” He snaps his hips upwards more forcefully than before, an unforgiving pace that allows you some sort of reprieve from the burning in your thighs.

The moan that rips from your chest would have caused you to curl in on yourself in embarrassment, but right now you can’t seem to care. The way he’s fucking into you, the way he’s speaking to you…it’s too much for your already fucked-out brain to handle.

“Gonna come!” You muster out, your voice cracking as you grip his shoulders tighter.

“Yeah?” Jake taunts, still snapping into you as your pussy contracts around him. “Do it, princess. I can feel you fucking squeezing me so tight- fuck, baby. Gonna make me fucking come, aren’t you?”

You want to answer him; you really do. But all you can muster is a nod as your orgasm rips through you, your mouth dropping open and your cunt locking down around Jake as it fights to keep him inside. Your ears ring as you pulse around him, unsure if you’re making noise or not at this point. 

Jake’s orgasm washes over him, choking out a moan of your name as he buries himself as far as he can. He spills inside of you, cum spurting from his swollen tip and into you. You feel him coating your walls as your vision returns to you, his eyebrows furrowed and sweat glimmering his forehead. 

God, he’s beautiful all the time, but especially like this.

The two of you are a breathless mess, feeling the his cum mixing with yours as it seeps down your inner thighs. You breathe out a laugh, your forehead falling against his as he wraps his arm around you.

“I’m yours, princess.” His voice is as soft as silk as he traces his fingertips along your spine. “You know that don’t you?”

You smile, lashes fluttering as you wrap your arms around his neck. He makes your heart feel warm – even when you don’t deserve it; even when you’re acting like a brat.

“I do now.” You tease, attempting to bite back a smile but ultimately failing when you hear him giggle.

“Oh, princess,” He tightens his arms around you. “What are we gonna do with you?”

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[mostlysignssomeportents]

$100 billion later, autonomous vehicles are still a car-wreck

Autonomous vehicles were always a shell-game. The last time I wrote about them was a year ago, when Uber declared massive losses. Uber’s profitability story was always, “Sure, we’re losing money now, but once we create self-driving cars, we can fire our drivers and make a bundle.”

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/30/death-to-all-monopoly/#pogo-stick-problem

But Uber never came close to building an AV. After blowing $2.5b, the company invented a car whose mean-distance-to-fatal-crash was half a mile. Uber had to pay another company — $400 million! — to take the self-driving unit off its hands.

It’s tempting to say that Uber just deluded itself into thinking that AVs were a viable, near-term technology. But $2.5b was a bargain, because it allowed the company’s original investors (notably the Saudi royals) to offload their Uber shares on credulous suckers when the company IPOed.

Likewise Tesla, a company that has promised fully self-driving autonomous vehicles “within two years” for more than a decade. The story that Teslas will someday drive themselves is key to attracting retail investors to the company.

Tesla’s overvaluation isn’t solely a product of the cult of personality around Musk, nor is it just that its investors can’t read a balance-sheet and so miss the fact that the company is reliant upon selling the carbon-credits that allow gas-guzzling SUVs to fill America’s streets.

Key to Tesla’s claims to eventual profitability was that AVs would overcome geometry itself, and end the Red Queen’s Race whereby adding more cars to the road means you need more roads, which means everything gets farther apart, which means you need more cars — lather, rinse, repeat.

Geometry hates cars, but Elon Musk hates public transit (he says you might end up seated next to “a serial killer”). So Musk spun this story where tightly orchestrated AVs would best geometry and create big cities served speedy, individualized private vehicles. You could even make passive income from your Tesla, turning it over to drive strangers (including, presumably, serial killers?) around as a taxicab.

But Teslas are no closer to full self-driving than Ubers. In fact, no one has come close to making an AV. In a characteristically brilliant and scorching article for Bloomberg, Max Chafkin takes stock of the failed AV project:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2022-10-06/even-after-100-billion-self-driving-cars-are-going-nowhere

Chafkin calculates that the global R&D budget for AVs has now exceeded $100 billion, and demonstrates that we have next to nothing to show for it, and that whatever you think you know about AV success is just spin, hype and bullshit.

Take the much-vaunted terribleness of human drivers, which the AV industry likes to tout. It’s true that the other dumdums on the road cutting you off and changing lanes without their turn-signals are pretty bad drivers, but actual, professional drivers are amazing. The average school-bus driver clocks up 500 million miles without a fatal crash (but of course, bus drivers are part of the public transit system).

Even dopes like you and me are better than you may think — while cars do kill the shit out of Americans, it’s because Americans drive so goddamned much. US traffic deaths are a mere one per 100 million miles driven, and most of those deaths are due to recklessness, not inability. Drunks, speeders, texters and sleepy drivers cause traffic fatalities — they may be skilled drivers, but they are also reckless.

But even the most reckless driver is safer than a driverless car, which “lasts a few seconds before crapping out.” The best robot drivers are Waymos, which mostly operate in the sunbelt, “because they still can’t handle weather patterns trickier than Partly Cloudy.”

Waymo claims to have driven 20m miles — that is, 4% of the distance we’d expect a human school-bus driver to go before having a fatal wreck. Tesla, meanwhile, has stopped even reporting how many miles its autopilot has mananged on public roads. The last time it disclosed, in 2019, the total was zero.

Using “deep learning” to solve the problems of self-driving cars is a dead-end. As NYU psych prof Gary Marcus told Chafkin, “deep learning is something similar to memorization…It only works if the situations are sufficiently akin.”

Which is why self-driving cars are so useless when they come up against something unexpected — human drivers weaving through traffic, cyclists, an eagle, a drone, a low-flying plane, a deer, even some pigeons on the road.

Self-driving car huxters call this “the pogo-stick problem” — as in “you never can tell when someone will try to cross the road on a pogo-stick.” They propose coming up with strict rules for humans to make life easier for robots.

https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/3/17530232/self-driving-ai-winter-full-autonomy-waymo-tesla-uber

But as stupid as this is, it’s even stupider than it appears at first blush. It’s not that AVs are confused by pogo sticks — they’re confused by shadowsand clouds and squirrels. They’re confused by left turns that are a little different than the last left turn they tried.

If you’ve been thinking that AVs were right around the corner, don’t feel too foolish. The AV companies have certainly acted like they believed their own bullshit. Chafkin reminds us of the high-stakes litigation when AV engineer Anthony Levandowski left Google for Uber and was sued for stealing trade secrets.

The result was millions in fines (Levandowski declared bankruptcy) and even a prison sentence for Levandowski (Trump pardoned him, seemingly at the behest of Peter Thiel and other Trumpist tech cronies). Why would companies go to all that trouble if they weren’t serious about their own claims?

It’s possible that they are, but that doesn’t mean we have to take those claims at face-value ourselves. Companies often get high on their own supplies. The litigation over Levandowski can be thought of as a species of criti-hype, Lee Vinsel’s extraordinarily useful term for criticism that serves to bolster the claims of its target:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/02/euthanize-rentiers/#dont-believe-the-hype

Another example of criti-hype: the claims about the risks of ubiquitous drone delivery — which, like AVs, is half-bullshit, half self-delusion:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/08/05/comprehensive-sex-ed/#droned

Today, Levandowski has scaled back his plans to build autonomous vehicles. Instead, he’s built autonomous dump-trucks that never leave a literal sandbox, and trundle back and forth on the same road all day, moving rocks from a pit to a crusher.

$100 billion later, that’s what the AV market has produced.

Image:

Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

Gartner (modified): https://www.gartner.com/en/research/methodologies/gartner-hype-cycle

[Image ID: A chart illustrating the Gartner hype-cycle; racing down the slope from the 'peak of inflated expectations' to the 'trough of disillusionment' is the staring eye of HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, chased by speed-lines.]

[katakaluptastrophy]

Hi! I really love your metas and they’ve cleared up a lot of what I missed when I read the books. I was wondering if I could ask you a question. (Totally fine if not!)

So we know that John killed the entire Solar System because he was angry the trillionaires got to escape a dying Earth and leave of the rest of its inhabitants behind. He details killing Earth, the Sun, the other planets. My question is, what happened to the moons? Did he overlook them? Did the Lyctors get to them later?

I ask because I’m wondering if the moons have anything to do with the Resurrection Beasts and/or their Heralds. Frankly, I’m just curious about what happened to them.

I get that killing a planet and everyone and everything on it would create a Resurrection Beast. But I’m wondering if size matters. Pluto is a dwarf planet. I’m sure there are moons that are larger. I’m not sure whether life-supporting environments mattered either. I can’t recall if any of the planets had stations that could maintain human life before the Resurrection.

John mentioned killing the Sun and later resurrecting it into Dominicus. I thought that was interesting because there is no way humans could have lived near or on the surface of the Sun, so its thalergenic potential would be incredibly limited if not zero, right? But it is now a thanergetic celestial body. Dominicus is remarked upon in the books and seems to have some significance because it is tied to John’s life. (Or was that a lie he told the Lyctors? I don’t remember.)

In comparison, moons get almost no mention. I’m wondering if that’s a choice or if there are just some thalergenic moons in the Dominican System. That seems unlikely to me and I’m wondering at the significance.

Perhaps I’m overthinking it lol. What are your thoughts?

I'm honestly so confused about moons.

There's only two references to moons that I can think of:

Mercymorn says to Harrow "I'm going to go do the moonlet next door. It'll be covered in reflected thalergy." But what is a moonlet, and is this a real phenomenon, or just one she made up as an excuse for Harrow to encounter the BoE crew?

And of course, there's Pyrra's "half-flipped moon", which is again rather confusing - what does it mean to be 'half-flipped'?

John doesn't mention them in his Very Hungry Caterpillar adventures, and there's no direct references to moons from any of the other Housers we meet - with the exception of Gideon using 'moonspeak' to mean something like technobabble or nonsense. There's no specifically moon-based pre-res stations mentioned that I can recall - there's some kind of city on Mars, the Kuiper Platform (perhaps near Neptune), and the shell being built around Uranus. So we can't assume RBs for Jupiter and Saturn came solely from humans living near them.

The Glossary in GTN goes out of its way to specify that "planets and gaseous bodies in space usually produce thalergenic radiation." It further says, "thalergy is produced by cellular growth and reproduction. Most planets, even ones without a biological mass of life, are thalergenic." So that's clear... The waters are further muddied by the explanation we get in HTN, where Harrow says thalergy "comes from the accumulation of microbial life" and John talks about how this produces a "communal soul". From the way John describes it, a revenant seems to the result from any swift planetary murder.

So thalergy is caused by an accumulation of microbial life which creates a communal planetary soul...but gaseous bodies also radiate thalergy?

I think there's two possibilities here.

The first is that we try to treat this as a properly sci fi endeavour to create a fantastical yet scientifically cohesive system, and we assume that perhaps that radiated thalergy Mercymorn describes relates to the idea that anything within the planet's gravitational orbit is part of its communal self. Perhaps the gas giants draw their thalergy from as-yet-undiscovered microbial life on their moons? Perhaps the sun is the sum of the solar system in some way?

The second is to assume that while this story is fiction that portrays scientific understandings in its fictional world, it is fundamentally a story about metaphysics. So the value of a moon is not determined by having a particular amount of microbial life or a specific relationship with another planet, but some mythological or metaphysical purpose - for the most part, moons aren't symbolically important to the story as it's being told.

So perhaps the moons of the solar system are part and parcel with the RBs of their planets.

[obriengf]

A Gracious Gift || Mitch Rapp x Reader

Summary: Mitch had almost forgotten what it was like to be shown love until you gave him a small token to change his mind. Words: 1.4k Warnings: swearing bc it's mitch... he also has trust issues okay, pretty angsty oops Notes: the first addition to my 2023 xmas fics!

hope he's bringing me love this christmas cause i deserve you here ✩

His nose scrunched, details of exasperation etching themselves deep in the wrinkle between his brows and the frown of his lips. It was a cross between amusement and simple irritation that devoured the man as he stood resistant to the brightly coloured lights that reflected across the warm brown of his irises, arms crossed over his chest and a huff pushing past his lips. Mitch Rapp didn't do Christmas, not anymore. Neither did his ears enjoy the pretentious tunes that flooded the small living room of your safehouse or the irony they held as he stared at the decorated tree beside the small television.

"Is this a joke?" He huffed, once more, head barely turning as his voice carried to the small frame to his left. You didn't reply, his question dripping in all things rhetorical, and instead allowed a smile to curl upward into the shadow of a smirk. His pessimism is something that you're used to by now - starting beyond the tantrum he threw when you were first assigned as his partner. The Assassin grew to like you, however, after many arguments and a handful of times proving yourself. He saw honour within you and a driving force to do right by all, no matter what it took. In turn, you saw a man that hurt where his heart lay, but he used his head as a guard and determination to build up near impenetrable walls. It didn't stop you though, from trying... from showing him that there is much more to this world than Good versus Bad. And eventually, Mitch Rapp became oxygen - you breathed in his presence every single day without fault, but a part of you also desperately needed him to survive. 

"Don't be such a killjoy." You eventually said, proud that you pulled together something so makeshift in such little time allowed. You chuckled at his negative outlook, avoiding the side eye he threw your way as you tentatively reached out to drag a finger across a bright blue bauble. It was hope, a much-needed light in the midst of the cruel world that you face every day. And it just so happened to appear in the form of cheap gas station decorations and an overwhelming scent of pine needles from one of the small trees next to the cabin. You drew a breath as you turned to the man, the whisky tone of his eyes already peering down at you. He was swimming in hesitation, near drowning from it if it meant that he kept himself closed off. "I just wanted to give you a reason to be happy."

Your voice was quiet, and Mitch nearly would have missed it if he wasn't pouring so much of his focus into you. He last celebrated this stupid Holiday with Katrina - when he had a reason to smile, to have hope, to bathe in that happiness that would usually come from such a joyous time. And since then, you had made him smile and he had an inkling of hope, and he had a reason to be happy once again but the pain was still so incredibly present that it continued to devour every single cell in his body until he was just a shell. And Mitch hurt. He always hurt.

You always knew when he was starting to shut down. Mitch's emotions would turn off, like a simple flick of a switch, and the robot persona that the Central Intelligence Agency craved would soon embody the man that you've grown so accustomed to. You would lose him for hours, as if he was asleep and he needed to wake. Mitch Rapp had lost hope for so long and it killed you to see how much it affected him.

Even if it took every single second you owned, you were going to help him. To show the man the love that he deserved. To finally wake him up.

Mitch scoffed and turned away from you, his large hand dragging down his cheek. Words were mumbled against the palm of his hand, "Well, you wasted your time."

"You're never a waste of time, Mitch." You replied, remaining beside the tree as you watched his head hang low. It was expected for him to walk away, but he didn't, his back still to you but his ears listening for the soft coo of your voice. A small smile tugged eagerly at your lips, "You're a lot of things, mostly a pain in my ass, but you're not a waste of time. Especially mine. I'd do anything for you, you know that."

The man exhaled, his head shaking, "You can't fix a broken man, Y/N. Not one whose as fucked as I am."

Your chest tightened. Mitch's exhaustion was wearing him down, his walls cracking, crumbling, and not in the way you thought they would. His sadness tugged at your heart and you were already beginning to second guess if your plan was the right path to take. Gently, you reached to the base of the tree, the lights flickering against the side of your face as you grasped at a small box.

"You're not broken. You're not a waste of time. And if you're fucked up Mitch, then I must be as fucked up as you because we've come from the same place. We've had the same feelings hurt. But we're here, and we're alive and okay. And I'm never letting you go, no matter how much you push me away."

Mitch turned to catch the shimmer in your eyes. He could see the emotion building up and gathering along your waterline, and he had such an overwhelming desire to catch the tears before they fell. He moved forward with large strides before he captured your cheeks within his palms, thumbs rubbing with such tenderness under the tips of your lashes. You always managed to bring him back from the edge of despair, but seeing you with such sentiment was enough to shake some sense into him. He shushed under his breath, any evidence of an Assassin disappearing, and instead a simple man was left behind.

"Please don't cry." He hummed, not daring to look away from your eyes until he felt something hard press to his abdomen. His focus broke, an eyebrow raising in question at a small white box clutched strongly within your hands. Mitch's head tilted to the side, "What's this?"

An unwanted sniffle escaped you before your gaze followed his, the box in question now lifted toward him, "I meant it when I said I'm never letting you go. You mean a lot to me, Mitch, and this is how I was going to show you... instead of crying like a child." An incredulous chuckle ended your response as you ushered the box at Mitch, shaking the small object until he took it from you.

The man was nervous, but curious, pulling lightly at the bow that adorned the top until the fabric fluttered gently to the hardwood floors. The top of the box was removed next and he froze before he picked up the item inside. Mitch's finger ran over it delicately as he peered in disbelief.

"This is for me?" He asked, voice whispered as he held his new pocket knife so gently between you both. All you could do was nod and smile as he looked at you, his own smile perking in happiness.

"Turn it over."

He did as he was told before his lips slightly parted, irises of deep brown flicking over the engraving you left on the hilt -

Always with you.

A clang was heard as he placed the knife on the table beside him, a movement so quick that you almost didn't see it happen as you were gathered in his arms. Arms of your own slid over his shoulders as the man secured your waist, his hold tight and he savoured being so close to you. It was his kick, his wake-up call. It was what he needed to know that hope was not lost. It was his future and the piece that could fill the hole in his heart.

Mitch pressed a kiss tenderly to the crown of your head, his lips then falling to your temple before they pressed again. He was sure that you could feel the thumping in his chest, but he didn't care. Not when he had you wrapped up so perfectly against his frame.

You could feel the warmth of his breath dance against your skin, "I am always with you, too."

[ms-scarletwings]

Oh, I think I got a spacebug science ask . . . if Irkens make various bug noises (chirps, clicks, hissing, whathaveyou), how do they do it?

Thank you for throwing me a real curve ball on this one. I’ve actually been pretty stumped. At first, I wanted to hand wave this off with the simple ‘oh pretty much like any Earth vertebrate’ considering that they do in fact breathe air, can choke, visibly speak from the mouth, etc. but then I started running back into the rabbit hole question of how Irken breathing/airflow even works, since no one knows if they have lungs or an insectoid setup or something of the like to begin with. I have always theorized that the PAK is heavily integrated with their body’s circulation and gas exchange but there’s not much I have to go on with to guess at the exact machinations. It’s not that I have NO ideas, it’s that when you start taking inspiration from nature absent of canon pointers, you kind of literally can’t run out of equally plausible ideas.

Original point being that laughing, clicking, hissing... I mean, this is all stuff we can do just fine with tongues, teeth, and a larynx. Occam’s razor says ditto for them.

Except for this one thing that screams so distinctly arthropod to me.

See there was this one little moment in Dark Harvest that I’ve been majorly obsessed with. There’s this… sound that is part of the ost right before the big chase. When the lights are flipped off. It could be a strange choice of ambience but I swear it feels like the implication was that it was actually coming from Zim. And the reason I can’t stop thinking about it is because it sounds damn near identical to, of all things, hermit crab chirping. Take a listen to what I mean

Congrats btw if this is how you learn hermit crabs can even do such a thing. In the wild this is actually a way they communicate stress and aggression to other crabs, as in during fights over shells or when trying to warn an attacker to back off.

Their method for it is something called stridulation, which is essentially big word talk for rubbing together certain body parts like an acoustic instrument. Lots of other invertebrates produce sounds in the same manner. In the crab case, it’s a leg on leg or legs on shell kind of action. In crickets, think leg to wing or wing to wing. By no means universal either, though. Cicadas are a surprising example of insect that sounds off primarily through other means. Their mating calls are produced with tymbal structures located on either side of their abdomen.

As nutshell fashion as I can describe the tymbals, they’re a combo of complex membrane and stiff ribs that produce sound by flexing and clicking together really, really fast. I focus in on these at all because they are personally my favorite pet theory behind a secondary, possibly vestigial way for mature Irkens to produce sound :) and I needed some alternate idea because the one other moment in the show that got me on this thought spiral- if you remember that screaming back and forth Zim got into with Dib in Backseat Drivers. You know, the “ISN’T IT” bit? I’ve pointed out before, but if you listen closely enough Zim is so angry in that exchange that the way he vibrates angrily is actually audible. Like there’s this odd noise accompanying the rage shakes I can only describe as “skittery”

[falltothesun]

I like to go on long drives, ending up in places I don't even know the names of. I'll stop to get gas somewhere and head inside to get a drink.

It's late, the only people in the little store is me, the clerk, and this older man who's got to have half a foot on me- likely more. I beeline for the soft drinks, and as I'm reaching for the top shelf to get a bottle, I feel him behind me.

He slides a hand across my midriff- exposed, where the hem of my sweater lifted as I reached up, and then presses me back against him. My back flush with his chest, my ass on his crotch, where I feel his hard cock through his jeans as he grinds on me. I all but freeze up, my heart stuttering to a halt.

"Put it back," he orders, lips on the shell of my ear. Obediently, I place the bottle of soda I'd just grabbed back on the shelf, and let the fridge door fall shut. Some distant part of my brain questions why I'm following his commands, but it just feels natural to the rest of me. He grins, and I feel it where he presses his mouth against the side of my head. "Good little thing. Now, start walking."

With a hand on the back of my neck, he guides me to the dingy bathroom. The clerk doesn't even look our way as he shoves me inside and locks the door behind him. Then he's on me- pressing my face against the wall as he grinds into my ass like a dog in heat. He groans in my ear, muttering and grunting about how good I'm going to be.

"Please," I finally manage to say. "Don't do this. Let me go, please."

He ignores me, and all but tears down my pants, leaving them pooled at my ankles so my movement is limited. He does tear my underwear off, and then stuffs it in my mouth. I hear his belt, his zipper, and then I feel the head of his cock dragging over my cunt. He reaches around to play with my clit- it's rough, not meant for my pleasure, but to signal my body to make this easier for him and get me wet.

And I do. He chuckles breathily in my ear. "That's right. I knew you were just a dirty cockslut. You're getting soaked for me."

He doesn't waste anymore time before thrusting in. He grabs my wrists, pins them at the small of my back, and starts to fuck me roughly against the wall. The slap of his hips against my ass fills the small, tiled bathroom, as does his grunts and occasional "Fuck yeah" and "take it, whore".

The old man had stamina. It felt like hours with his hips pistoning his cock deep in my cunt. I came thrice- the first time brought me to tears, along with his jeering laugh and "cumming on your rapist's cock? you fucking slut". After the second time, I felt my brain shut off, and I felt nothing but his dick bullying my insides and the wet, hot breath near my ear.

Finally, his rhythm stuttered, and he came. He made a vulgar moan-sigh sound into the crook of my neck and stilled with his cock thrust so far up my cunt that I was on my tiptoes. I felt it twitch inside me, as well as the warm feeling of his cum fill me up. He pulled out slowly, but kept me pressed against the wall.

"You know what you're made for," he said, licking up the column of my throat. I heard the jingle of his belt buckle, and then I was alone in the bathroom.

The next night, I found that gas station again. I walked inside, and immediately locked eyes with him. He grinned like a wolf, and prowled over to claim his rightful prey once again.

[yourssinfullyquiche]

Morning

Hello, all you beautiful people🥰 SMUT SMUT SMUT— This is an NSFW drabble Hope you enjoy~

The voice he uses when he wakes me. Husky and low. Sometimes it’s due to tiredness, lack of sleep, and work. Other times—most of the time, it’s the knowledge that my body tingles with goosebumps when I hear it close to the shell of my ear.

“Morning…,” he exhales softly against my ear that it tickles. The rough layers reverberate through me, fluttering around in my lower belly. The breath I take in is quick to calm my beating heart yet it is futile when his hand languidly traces the band of my panties over my cream nightgown. The hem has ridden up to my thigh and this does not go unnoticed by officer Gavin’s keen eyes. 

My voice comes out lazily. “Mmm morning.” The band stretches and smacks lightly on my hips as his fingers play with it. I bite the inside of my mouth, guide his naughty hand to my soaking pussy that awaits his fingers and the moan that escapes me is immediate when his fingers slip in and come into contact with the bud of nerves. 

It’s aching when one finger slips in, followed by another. They move without hesitation, those nimble fingers. My toes curl inwards, soft moans of his name escape my lips. Then I feel it, his hardened cock grinding against me, the quivering sighs teasing my ear knowing full well how it shoots sparks straight to my core, that it only serves to make me more hot and wet. 

My body’s on fire and it coils further and further into a tight knot desperately waiting for the inevitable snap that would release me into oblivion. “Almost there,” he whispers as he adds another finger. His lips rest on my temple leaving a few kisses. The couple of moans I let out are the only response he gets. His fingers are unrelenting in their mission, slamming in and out, teasing the bud of nerves—the friction as he rolls his cock to my ass makes me see stars. 

“Ga-gavin...” In my fogged out brains the squelching sounds register—it’s erotic and like a moth drawn to a flame my body responds to it, making me moan louder. The way I am right now—naked, vulnerable, an incoherent mess and on the verge of falling apart, it’s only for his eyes. I aimlessly find something to grip as I near the breaking point, the bedsheet is my victim but it slips away easily. Almost instantly, Gavin’s idle hand envelopes mine, our fingers fill the spaces between. 

“Thank y-ahhhh!” I grip onto his hand as I reach the blinding crest and feel my whole body tremble with overwhelming relief and satisfaction. It takes moments for my body to come down from the high, moments where I’m breathing hard, where Gavin licks his fingers clean, showers me with kisses everywhere he lays his lips on, runs his fingers through my hair with praises from his lips.

I turn to face him, meet his lips in a deep kiss. My hand travels to the obvious bulge, I don’t need to see to know what the dampness means. He shudders with a groan, eyes darting to mine and away from them in a second, hand on my hips bunching the fabric of my nightgown. And of course a red hue dusts his skin, ears in its wonted heavy colour. 

“It’s your turn,” I say softly. He puts his hand over mine, shaking his head. “It’s okay. You have to get ready for work,” he pats my bottom prompting me to leave the bed. Leave him alone as he takes care of himself. Who’s he fooling?

I push his hand away, look into his whiskey eyes that are clearly dilated and hungry and decide I won’t let him deny me the bliss I feel when I satiate his needs. I grip his clothed cock a little harshly and look directly at him when he moans. 

“You want me?”

He starts and swallows, blushes deeper and then nods, dark whiskey eyes never leaving mine. “Answer me,” I move to his jaw and pepper it with kisses. 

“Yes,” Gavin says, his voice tight. 

The kiss is hard and sloppy as my hand slips into his boxer and hold his aching cock.

“Then let me take care of you…”

-

A/N: Thank you for reading❤️

It's been far too long people. I've been busy with college, exams, results and the aftermath of being plunged into "the world." I just graduated and am in the midst of finding a job. It's tough and I've been adjusting to this new normal. So, I haven't had the mood to sit down and let my writing juices flow. But I'm working on something and this is part 1 of a smut series.

AND credits to @cafekitsune for the lovely dividers😚 Everyone if you need dividers to pretty up your posts, please check out the blog~ The creator has some awesome dividers!

© YOURSSINFULLYQUICHE2023 — no part of this writing shall be plagiarised, translated or reposted in any way. Likes, reblogs and comments are always appreciated!

Taglist: @playheej  @purple-cat-demon @rinharu-purple (if you want to join my taglist, please visit my blog and click the link available on my pinned post)

[nxghtstxne]

"like a date"

Warnings: None

Pairings: JJ Maybank x reader

Word Count: 1392

Summary: JJ and y/n had been instant best friends since she moved here from the UK, feelings have been growing until a night on the boat changes everything.

Y/n had moved to Outer Banks a couple of years ago from the UK, moving in with her grandpa in his little house nestled somewhere between The Cut and Figure Eight; not quite pogue but not kook either. After a walk on the beach and running into Pope and Sarah, she soon became inseparable from the group called the pogues.

It was a cool Tuesday night and y/n and JJ had found themselves wrapped up in blankets with snacks and a beer or two on the HMS Pogue, floating softly by the makeshift dock at the back of the chateau. Music was playing from y/n’s phone, a mixture of her favourite songs and some that JJ had forced her to add to the playlist, claiming that she needed to ‘broaden her music taste’, the two had a special relationship, ever since they had first met y/n had calmed JJ down, making him rethink all of his insane plans and he had bought her out of her shell; being more on the introverted side, he was one of the few people that instantly made her want to talk and be herself. After having a crazy few days of picking up extra shifts at work at the gas station, or petrol station as JJ and the other pogues teased her for calling it, and other stuff, the best friends had made plans to hang out, just the two of them, wrapped up and comfortable on the floor of the boat. The sun was just starting to set, JJ chugged the rest of his beer down, making y/n laugh as she saw a bit dribble down his chin causing him to laugh, covering his mouth, eyes flickering over to her. Her head was back leaning against the edge of the boat, hair tucked behind her ears, she had a light blanket over her lap and was wearing his hoodie, sleeves pulled over her hands holding her own beer. JJ hadn’t told anyone but his feelings towards the girl had changed over the years, at first she was just a friend, a good addition to the group, her light and calm energy had fit in perfectly with the chaos that came with the pogues, he wasn’t quite sure when it all had changed but now whenever shes near him, his heart beats a little faster and his stomach fills with butterflies whenever she touches him or they hold eye contact for maybe a little too long for just friends. And seeing her like that, relaxed, with the golden light from the setting sun shining somehow just right on her skin and spending time with just him was making those butterflies reappear. 

JJ didn’t realise he was zoned out until a soft hit to his thigh and then another to his arm brought him back, “huh?” he murmured, running his hand through his hair and looking at her. 

“Where’d you go? I was just talking about this lady that came into work today.” she giggled at the way his nose scrunched up and he shook his head, his hand coming over to grab her legs that were by his side and pulling over his lap, her body now facing him still leaning against the side of the boat.

“Nowhere! I was jus’ thinking..”

“Oh you know how to do that?” she teased, giggling at the way he scoffed and shook his head.

“Yknow what? Give me that-” he reached for her phone and unlocked it, his face id working on her iphone, smiling at the fact that she even wanted to set it up with him. He changed the song and watched as she started smiling big, “Oh I love this one!” He knew all of her favourite things, as did she with his favourite things. Instantly she started to softly hum and sing along as JJ was drumming along on her legs, still on his lap, they were both giggling and laughing at each other as the singing got more serious and louder, y/n now using her hand as a makeshift microphone and JJ doing the same, forgetting about his ‘drumming’. The sun had set fully now, a soft blue tint covering the OBX, birds and bats alike flying about overhead. The two of them now serenading each other, pointing and mouthing the words, laughing at each other. 

The song finished and the playlist carried on, JJ and y/n still laughing as she rested her head on his shoulder, he placed his hands back on her legs on his lap after fiddling with his shark tooth necklace. “JJ we should do this more often, I love the others but I love just us too.”

“Yeah we should, like once a week or something for sure?” 

“It’ll be like a date! Once a week.” JJ took notice of the excitement in her voice and in her eyes but his head only replayed that one word a date, surely she didn't mean it like that? y/n would never want to go on an actual date with him would she? In her eyes they were just friends, JJ was sure of it. That didn't stop the slither of hope in his heart that just maybe she would want to go on an actual date. 

“What's wrong J?” she whispered, lifting her head off his shoulders and tangling a hand in his hair, lightly scratching his head. She had noticed how quiet he was, quite the opposite to how JJ usually is.

“I- I jus’- I don't know.” He sighed, he wanted this moment to last forever, no chaos, no gold chasing, just him and his girl on the HMS Pogue, on a nice cool night. And if he told her how he truly felt then maybe she wouldn’t want to do this anymore. But what if she did want this?

“I want this to last forever y/n, jus’ you and me. I don't think I've ever wanted anything more actually.” He looked at y/n, her eyes looking straight back at him, a small smile on her face when they locked eyes. He swore he felt his heart and mind calm down at that, “I like you y/n, more than I've ever liked anyone before and I was always scared to say anything cause like what if you don’t like me like that and I ruin everything and-” he was cut off by a soft giggle and a squeeze on the hand that was rested on her legs, now in her other hand. 

“J I like you too, I have for awhile and I really thought I was being obvious but clearly not-” Another giggle escaped her lips at the look on his face, eyes locked on hers and his mouth hanging slightly open, “I couldn’t imagine liking anyone else as much as I like you, you make me feel the kind of happy and loved that I never thought I’d ever feel.” They were facing each other now, y/n cross legged and still holding JJ’s hand.

“I wanna do this J, if you do too?” JJ nodded with no hesitation, grabbing her hand back tightly,

“More than anything yeah I do” He leaned closer to her moving his free hand to hold her face, waiting for y/n to show that she wanted it. Y/n moved forward slowly and he pressed his lips to hers for a gentle kiss that they both have waited years for. Y/n pulled away first, laughing when JJ whined and chased her lips for another quick kiss. 

“So does this mean I can finally take my girl on a real date?” He asked, his thumb still softly stroking her cheek, 

“Your girl huh? I like the sound of that” 

“You've always been my girl but now it’s like official official y'know?” He smirked and watched as a blush covered her cheeks.

“I like that” Y/n whispered.

“Yeah?” JJ whispered back, “Yeah” She replied, putting her head back on his shoulder as his arm wrapped around her shoulders, holding her to him. The smirk never leaving his lips but only growing when the playlist shuffled to a song that caused y/n to gasp and start singing along to again. They were definitely going to be doing this more often. 

[todaysdocument]

WWI Experience of Capt. Clark Owsley

Record Group 120: Records of the American Expeditionary Forces (World War I)Series: Records of Divisions

November 9, 1918 My Experience at the Front On the morning of October 6, 1918 , I started out from Somme Suippe with the Headquarters company , Captain Miiller in command We were going on a journey but where we did not know or [overwritten: from] how far About half way to our destination our order came back from Col. Bloor thru Lt. A.H. Carrigan to put an officer at the rear of his company to watch for straglers I being the only offices who was not attached to the company, or who did not have a platoon, was posted in the rear to watch for [illegible due to blurred ink stain]. The regiment progressed nicely without ^stray^ [illegible due to blurred ink stain] man falling out. As soon as we had arrivedat our destination, I reported to [crossed out : the] Capt. Miller, that the Regiment [crossed out: had ] did not have any stragglers . We arrived at our destination about three-thirty and about six o'clock, Capt. Nelson sent for me to report to him. I reported and he gave me orders to go to Somme-Py and meet a party of officers and men, who were to guide us into the line. This was my first knowledge of us going[ g overwritten] into the front. I got in^to^ [into] a motorcycle- side car & was driven to Somme-Py. When I arrived there, the Boche were shelling the cross-roads and my first knowdege of this was that the Frecnh and American soldiers were ducking their heads & falling into [typed above crossed out "on their"] ditches. I got out of the car & soon became doing the same as I hadseen the French & American soldiers do, duck. I was to meet the party near the old church at Somme Py. I went immediately to the old church and remained there until I met a Lieutenant that said he was looking for a "Guide" from 141st Inf. or some unknown Regiment. I told him that I was the guide for the 142nd Inf. and would give him to where the Colonel was. So he decided that it was the 142nd Inf. and proceed to go with me. I guided him to the place the Colonel was. It was now about 8:30 o' clock. At about 9:15 o'clock we started for the front. ("The" over written] We passed over roads which were being shelled continuously, but soon we arrived at our new P.[?G or C]. As soon as we had gotten settled there I [ "soon" crossed out] ask to see the Reg. Gas. Officer and he informed me that they had never had a gas attach and there was absolutely no danger of gas. [The following paragraph is underlined in red] On October 8, 1918, we had our first experience in going over the top. During our advance the Boche threw mustard gas, di-phosgene and Di Phogene chloropicrin [see comments ] gas upon our advancing men. Very few casualties resulted from the gas. this was due to the well discipline ["ci" is written above crossed out "er" ] of gas training. [crossed out] Lt. Murphy, 2nd Bat. Gas Officer was wounded, and the officers of the first and third could not keep in touch with the their battalion. [end crossed out] We had a great [? number], wounded and killed. As I would pass by a dead American, I would sometime think, but when by a dead Boche [full transcription at link]

[cassied03]

raw dogged my brain for a part two right now. enjoy the 600 words my brain came up with. :)

part 1

Now Keith was, of course, smart. He had to be to get into the Garrison solely on a scholarship (the fact that he only stayed because of shiro was because of the fights, and not his intelligence), and then afterwards he was taught by his mother the basics of surviving and living.

Keith had always had a feeling when it came to danger, and seeing someone on the other side of the road run off after seeing the guy standing in front of him did not make Keith feel any better. If anything it made him feel worse. Grabbing his knife properly, Keith kind of hoped he could get this over with fast.

The guy started laughing, and took out what looked like a gun, so keith took a proper fighting stance, ready to bolt left or right depending on where it looked like the guy woild shoot. not like it mattered, the thing that shot oht was a capsile of joker gas (not like keith knew it was called that). Luckily, keith got out of the way before the capsule hit the ground and appeared behind the joker.

Holding the joker by his neck, Keith put his blade to the mans neck. "Who are you?" Keith hissed into the mans ear. "Oh ho ho!!! A little newbie then huh?" Joker taunted, as if he wasn't being held at Keiths knife point. "Shut up, who, are, you?" Keiths voice somehow got deeper when he asked the Joker who he was.

"I'm the Joker!! hehehehHaHAHAHHA" The joker laughed out, making keith wonder what was funny. Shockingly, he recognized the name beyond the card from a deck. Ignoring the Jokers laughter, he thought back to one of his friends.

'Key, I need you to promise one thing.' His friend said. They met when keith was refuling gas into his bike and became close, meeting up every week while keith stayed near the garrison. 'I'm leaving to go back home, back in Gotham. If you ever get anywhere near Gotham, I need you to stay away from the Joker and Arkham.'

Confused, Keith looked into his friends eyes. They were green, with a couple flecks of blue. 'Yeah, sure. Any reason why?' Keiths friend's form sagged in relief, causing keiths confusing to grow ten fold. 'He, that man.. He has done horrible stuff. He hurt me, and I ended up losing my family and myself as a result.. I don't want you to lose yourself as well..'

Keith could tell his friend wasn't telling the full truth. But it was close enough to the truth that Keith understood. 'Yeah, yeah alright. But if i get close to him on accident I'll kill him for you.' Laughing, keiths friend thiught he was joking, 'Yeah, sure you will Key.'

Keith wasnt joking. he was dead serious. 'It's a promise then, Jay.'

Thinking back on it, Keith maybe should have thought harder about his choice but considering he spent most of his late teen and early twenties in an inter galactic space war, he was a little desensitized to murder. Which ended in a dead man in an alleyway. And, a communicator call from his mom.

Although getting a call from his mom was normal, it was some bad timing. “Keith, I’m with the so called, Justice League, I think, and they’re looking for more information on the Blade of Marmora. They have this, teleporting tech like a teleduv without the whole, portal thing. Could you come over?”

Looking down at the dead Joker corpse, Keith debated for a second wondering if it would be a good idea to decapitate him as a present for his friend Jason. “Uh, sure. I guess. Give me maybe ten minutes, and send me the location for the teleporting thing.”

About thirteen minutes later, Keith makes his way through the Watch Tower, holding a still bleeding head of the Joker by his hair. Ending in the meeting room, his mother greeting him as if he wasn’t holding the decapitated head of a person with him at all.

Saying hi back, Keith looked at the shell shocked faces of everyone around him before looking back at his mom, he said “How quick can this be? I need to give this,” he holds up jokers head, “To a friend. After I find him.”

[aledanshi]

Tried searching for some q!Archivists content on the tag but there's barely anything, so I guess I'll have to become this site's biggest q!Archivists warrior (while also feeding my own delusions).

Brace yourselves.

So! In my hc, Cellbit is polyamorous and he ends up falling in love with and eventually "marrying" Philza during purgatory, their trust in each other has been developing before that due to Philza helping him in his investigations and becoming one of the leaders of the Order, but they only formed a connection after day 1 on Egg Island and all the insanity-inducing bullshit they went through.

Their relationship is a mixture of mentor/pupil and lovers, they playfully call each other Father and Son, but ever since Philza became the leader of the BOLAS?!?? gas mask cult, the title of Father Crow has much more depth attached to it. Philza is practically their God, their saviour in moments of desperation and hopelessness, he'll guide his "children" and protect them from everything that this hellscape THIS ISN'T PURGATORY, THIS IS HELL throws at them.

And then he sees Cellbit. Fierce, unforgiving, sometimes cruel, with the intellect of a genius and such compassion and humanity which would surpass that of even the most God-honoring men and women that he's known, but buried so deep inside his heart after everything that he's been through that he isn't even able to feel empathy anymore. He sees this beautiful, broken shell of a man and takes him under his wings, glueing the little pieces bit by bit with his kindness in the hopes of making him feel whole again, even if he knows that it won't heal the cracks and the scars.

But Cellbit sees Philza too, he sees the once stoic, solitary crow residing atop of the wall, observing the passerbys living their lives while keeping his distance, beggining to protect his newly acquired "flock" with a vice grip on his axe and shield, building a nest that'll shelter each of his children while providing them with anything that they need, whilst also encouraging them to pursue their freedom and take matters into their hands. A loving father, a kind leader, a wonderful man in all aspects.

He's not exactly proud of letting the walls that surround his most vulnerable parts crumble so easily, but he can't bring himself to regret it if Philza's the one swinging the hammer at the bricks.

Don't get me wrong, it's not simply a tale of loving gazes and whispered reassurances, their love is also sick, it blinds them to the outside world and the consequences of their actions, their selfishness is warped into a delusion of compassion and they keep themselves tethering on the edge of insanity (or "freedom", as someone that's part of a cannibalistic doomsday cult may call it).

When they eventually "marry" each other near the end of purgatory (and Roier is informed of their newly formed relationship), Philza gives Cellbit a green leather collar with a gold pendant that has been engraved with his initials, his only words to him are "I would like for you to be mine, even if your heart has already been claimed by someone else", Cellbit accepts and once the rest of team BOLAS?!?? receives the news of their union, Cellbit is refered to as "Mother" in family gatherings and "The Hand of God" when Philza is absent.

The green collar and his wedding ring are his most prized possessions, no one's allowed to touch it if not Philza or himself, which unintentionally resulted in an argument between Cellbit and Roier when the mexican tried to touch his husband's neck and had his wrist held forcefully by the other on pure instinct. If someone from the blue team takes the collar as a "hunting prize" after murdering Cellbit they are ambushed and brutally eaten alive by the frenzied red team members.

[the-scarecrow-of-aus]

Chapter 3 is finally out.

(Hopefully writers block stops using my head like the log truck in final destination treats the people in the car behind it)

Chapter 3: difficult meeting's

Summary:

Jazz has had a rough time, the justice league are having a rough meeting

Notes:

*shaking myself by the collar* that's it, no more tinkering. post the darn chapter you anxious fool!

sorry about the delay, writers block. At least I got time to plan and plot out the rest of the storyline.

here's the chapter that was meant to go out late august.

Enjoy!

Gotham -the night of the Kansas storm.

In a small apartment in the narrows near crime alley a young woman sat on her bed thumbing a golden amulet with one hand, in the other she gripped a thin folder, a strange hunger in her eyes.

Her gaze snapped to the front door as voices could be heard approaching and she tucked the amulet into her jacket warily, she relaxed as she heard her room mate come in, talking over her shoulder at the neighbour "ha! Jokes on you, I'm into that shit!" She closed the door laughing and turned around freezing at seeing her room-mate sitting unmoving in the dark. "Oh shi... ancients jazz! you look terrible, you eaten lately?"

The thought of eating twisted her stomach for some reason, She shook her head and turned to the clock "he said not to eat until after the league received the files, that the meeting would be more effective if I was a 'little' off..." ember frowned before replying "that sounds creepy, *sigh* I'm sure the old man had a reason but still..." she trailed off before heading over to her room, tossing a book bag in and grabbing her guitar case "well... I have a gig at noonans Bar tonight, Baytor finally got back to me about work there. should help us for when the iceberg lounge is closed for 'urgent' repairs, You sure you don't want a feed before you go?" Jazz shook her head "I need the meeting to go right, I'll do whatever it takes to fix things".

Both their eyes glanced over at a metal thermos sat on top of the fridge, repurposed electrical wires spliced it into the fridges power supply, the outer shell of the thermos and its circuits cut open and cannibalised.

Looking through the mess of wires and circuits down to its inner layer, you could see it generating a low amount of blued mist, constantly emmited out of the shell only to be pulled back into the thermos opening as if there was a draught, in its stead it emitted a low red light from the mouth of the thermos, as if there was something else within.

Ember, eyes closed for a moment shivered, opening her eyes again and rubbing her arms like she was cold, she murmured "guess its gonna be sad songs tonight" before drawing her attention away and headed back out the front door "alright, I want you to call me if anything happens tonight, OK? No arguments!" She called not waiting for an answer as the door closed behind her.

Jazz continued to sit in the dark patiently watching the clock, she didn't get bored nowadays and that was marginally useful if a little annoying at times. She would prefer to be back home in amity with Danny though, not that that could happen anymore.

finally after time in the dark apartment the clock hit 6:15, unfolding herself from the bed she got up giving the thermos a lingering glance before leaving the apartment, it was time.

-

-

Jazz left her apartment and hailed a cab, keeping a weathered eye out for tell-tale signs of a trap, the last thing she needed was to be delayed by joker gas or fear toxin, heck even the Riddler grabbing hostages for some convoluted bomb scenario.

The trip through the dark city of Gotham didn't take long, the city was abnormally quiet tonight, minimal traffic. 'probably Gotham itself is trying to keep things quiet' jazz thought, giving silent thanks to the old spirit of the city who was willing to give her refuge.

All the rogues were supposedly in Arkham right now or laying low, as she travelled she could see the shadow of capes flick around roof corners as the vigilantes started their patrols across the rooftops guarding the city.

The taxi left the city proper climbing up to where Wayne manor resided, as the taxi driver pulled up to the gate possibly hoping to get into the manor grounds and look around jazz stopped them, thanking them for the ride and paying the fare.

As she waited for the taxi to leave disappearing down the road, she stared up at the manor then back down the path, nervously approaching the gates

"OK jazz, you got this. Just like we practiced".

-

-

Alfred pennyworth having bid all his charges good luck as they went out into the night, had just finished cleaning up after dinner and was preparing to settle down when there was a clear sharp knock at the front door, he frowned.

There had been no alert from the front gate and no sensors had gone off (nor his own personal alarms strangely).

For a moment He assumed it was Ms Cassandra forgetting something or possibly master Damien sneaking back with another stray cat he didn't want his father to find out about, but he highly doubted that, Damien would always use the back door and Ms Cassandra wouldn't need to knock.

After pinging the bat clan that something was up he answered the door, one hand holding his shotgun behind the door as it unlocked and opened.

A tall young woman with white streaked red hair, strange burns and cuts around the corners of her mouth and the look of a predator stood slightly back at the entry, hands clasped in front of her politely holding a document folder.

She smiled politely as well, not showing teeth and introduced herself. "Hello, it's Mr Pennyworth correct? My name was Jasmine Fenton, I apologise for disturbing you unscheduled but I have an urgent delivery to 'Agent A and the Batman for the Justice League', it concerns their current meeting".

She somehow spoke the names in a way the words didn't travel beyond him, he didn't know how but Alfred was certain the sound disappeared quickly without any sort of echo after it reached his ears.

Alfred, ever the consummate butler not to mention a senior member of the bat family was observant enough to see the signs of stress and nervousness hidden on her face, he smiled and opened the door wider "it will take a moment to arrange things, would you like to come inside and have a cup of tea while you wait?"

Jazz smiled slightly more, lips parting enough to show sharp teeth slotted together, her canines and the teeth next to them much longer then a normal humans.

"only if you would like me to, I'm just here to deliver the files. I can wait outside for confirmation or leave if you prefer, my contact information is in the folder if need be".

Alfred noted the teeth but chose to look at her with heartfelt concern "nonsense my dear, please come in. Perhaps I can make you something to eat, you do look hungry".

She looked sad as he invited her in and murmured "thank you, but tea is fine, I highly doubt you could feed me what I need".

---

---

The watchtower -primary meeting room, night of the Kansas storm.

It had been a week from hell for most members, everybody not doing intelligence gathering was dealing with hard nosed politicians refusing to admit any wrong doing or shady government officers who were urgently trying to destroy any evidence that they were connected to said wrong doing, sometimes it was the same people.

Attempted tracking of the two spirits who escaped the facility was vexing, originally all sightings pointed to them heading directly towards a small town in Illinois, but the moment league members got close to the town their comms completely shut off and the spirits disappeared from all media and view, this was later tracked back to another GIW facility based in the area that blacked out all outside communications within the town as part of a legal sociological experiment they had 'volunteered' for.

More investigations would have to be done on that as well.

With no way to track them physically or electronically, the league chose to switch to more magical means of tracking. More duties falling on the few JLD members there were, raven was the one currently on duty. She had last reported there was interference for the tracking of the spirits but hadn't checked back in yet.

Examination of data recovered from the facility had been just as difficult, all secure information seemed only viewable on the hardware from the building, of which very few hardware pieces survived the destruction intact. Watchtower technicians were carefully piecing together the functioning pieces into working computers.

The computer parts themselves while definitely low tech had what Constantine called ectoplasm ('heavily filtered, concentrated and refined Lazarus water' he grudgingly accepted as a description) mixed and bonded into their construction. Unfortunately attempts to recreate the pieces using the leagues limited supply of Lazarus water failed to work, simply frying the circuit boards.

As such any attempt to view it on normal or league technology resulted in either the data being unreadable or (unfortunately for the Batcomputer) tore the machine apart trying to comprehend it. Now even cyborg was wary to examine the data.

-

-

[Entry: green lantern-06, Constantine John, wonderwoman-01, superman-01, zatanna-01, flash 02, Question 00, Martian manhunter-01, green arrow-01, Dr Fate 02, captain marvel-01.

Zatanna spoke to the tower A.I "computer, please note Deadman also in attendance" the computer beeped in confirmation with her casting a spell quickly to let them communicate with Boston.

Batman studied the reports as league members involved in the case, both dark and light filed in. "How goes the containment of the facility, there are disturbing reports coming in from people near the site".

Constantine lit a cigarette glaring right back at anyone who tried to stop him. "Bad, but securely contained. I reached out to some of my more 'questionable' contacts for additional resources to help strengthen the barrier but until we find out what exactly did it and how to reverse it, all I can do is speculate on what's happening in there and how to stop it".

Green arrow spoke up "couldn't we ask those agents? What about the survivors from the lab, has there been any update?"

Constantine shook his head "I wouldn't trust a word that came out of that agency's mouths if I were you, that being said the agent that attacked the lanterns is the only lucky one, he must have been on a doughnut run or something when it happened. Either he knows nothing or is too devoted to his cause, he won't speak to us... it's that or he's just plain crazy now, but who am I to judge".

"Usually the first, since you often call me crazy" said the flash cheerily getting a glare from Constantine in return.

"Your entire family can break the sound barrier wearing sand shoes and have a habit of screwing with time, of course I think you're crazy. But for the agent, He's basically enthralled, the perfect employee".

"Care to elaborate?" Asked captain marvel

"Sure, From the medical observation it looks like he had already been systematically driven insane by something, then he latched onto his organisations beliefs to try and keep himself alive, 'probably didn't even question the surgical procedures they did to themselves...' uh, basically doubling down to anchor himself. Otherwise he probably would have had enough self control to avoid recklessly attacking the lanterns".

Batman spoke "what about those still in medical. is there any way to question them?"

Constantine looked weary at this, taking a last drag of his cigarette and stubbing it out. Breathing out the cloud of smoke he finally answered "there's no coming back for them. Their bodies might heal, those that are capable, but they won't truly live anymore"

"Oh dear, Why, what happened to them?" Asked Wonder-woman wondering what was troubling Constantine so badly.

"Mass Soul disruption" said Constantine itching for another cigarette. The answer made Wonder-woman, Zatanna, Doctor fate and even Deadman floating in the room visibly flinch.

"from what I could divine, after months of torture the agents must have broke open their captives core's and abused them. A ghost core is basically their heart, soul and mind. One of the spirits probably decided they had nothing left to lose anymore and let loose. those that were in the room got what was coming to them, for everybody outside, consider their deaths a mercy"

"What is soul disruption exactly?" Asked superman raising a hand, he and most of the non magic leaguers looked confused.

Zatanna uncomfortably gave the answer "soul disruption is a general term to explain damage to or loss of a soul" Zatanna paused and looked to where Boston floated, concern and worry plain on his face "stories say that a person without a soul is bound to become evil, but most of the time they just end up as figurative zombies, maybe over a long time period they could slowly recover. they can still perform tasks but no spark of life, empathy or creativity anymore, they're just on autopilot doing what they're told".

Lantern Simon baz spoke up "could I assume this 'Soul disruption' that caused the explosion is related to the green flames we saw on first arrival? Because I was unable to track any specific damage in the collapsed building short of the hole melted into the roof"

Constantine nodded "yes and no, the original explosion was the only attack that actually happened. In a tight underground space it reverberated around destroying anything it hit until it found a weak point and was funnelled up the elevator shaft, now concentrated, the wall of resonate sound melted through anything close by and shattering anything solid in its way. It forced itself out of the building, dispersing into the atmosphere with all the lab ectoplasm stores and debris which caught fire. more like a volcano erupting, unfortunately normal volcanic explosions don't make screaming skull shaped clouds".

Members that had been within earshot of the blast winced as they remembered the horrid sound

Constantine had finished the cigarette too fast, he definitely needed another but he held off, no sense in antagonising the bat with his habit. "Yeah… from what was recorded and reported, it sounds like a cry or scream, not an explosive blast".

Zatanna froze "scream? from a spirit... like a wail?... as in 'banshee?'... Oh gods damn it!" Hearing her curse and cover her mouth had the rest of the league concerned, Zatanna just stared blankly ahead, deep in thought without responding.

Boston gently poked her trying to snap her out of it "uh, maybe an explanation for those who don't know what a screaming lady has to do with this?"

Sighing Constantine grabbed the second cigarette, lighting up. "Ok, cliff notes on Banshee's.

-Creature's of myth from the olden days back home.

-they have an important job, which is they wail when a person is going to die.

Dramatic? Sometimes, Prophetic? Usually, supernatural? definitely.

-they do it for a very important reason though, it helps souls cross over without lingering, basically a reminder message to pack your bags and turn off the stove".

He shrugged at the assembled leaguers, some still looked confused "look, Without it the entire UK would have been overrun by the undead a millennia ago".

"Isn't England already full of ghosts and undead now anyway? I assume that's the reason we pack Nth metal weapons anytime we go over there" the flash asked, gaining an annoyed look from half the members present, including Constantine, "blame Charlemagne" He dryly replied.

"The species themselves emigrated from this plane along with a few other species like the yeti's when humanity went into their holy war's phase, mostly to avoid eradication. Smart thinking in my opinion, but that's not the issue.

A Banshee by themself isn't strong enough to do this damage, when they left earth, they all had to work together just to pass through the veil. Mostly they're human offspring of something vaguely referred to in historical records as half spirits.

So with the mounting evidence: it's dangerously possible that the GIW agents caught a progenitor of the banshee's... which would be really bad".

Mythology lesson apparently done, Batman gave Constantine a gesture to get him back on track.

"The major issue is, they did something so horrible to a creature related to a banshee, a creature who normally only warns of death.

With the use of a full strength wail, this spirit basically ruptured the fabric of reality in that area when it blasted their souls out, shredded them like a pressure washer on seafoam. The bodies in medical, they're empty vessels".

There was a priority comm beep from Batman and he excused himself to answer it quietly, Zatanna seemed to stir, while still looking deep in thought she spoke quietly "we need to prepare for what comes now".

"Prepare for what?" Asked wonderwoman.

"Prepare for whatever comes looking for the spirit that cried out and hope it's friendly not hostile".

Constantine considering a third cigarette went paler if possible "oh crap, I missed that part. Oh no, ohnonono crap! that's gonna cause problems".

Batman came back to the meeting and perhaps hoping to avoid witty remarks from the flash or arguments among the league members asked the question brewing: "what's the likely scenario, what will happen?"

Again Zatanna spoke "the creature would have left a tear in reality at the site. worse case, something notices the tear and tries to get into our world through it, knowing our enemies probably something infernal and therefore a Hellmouth may form".

Constantine, Boston and captain marvel groaned in different levels of stress "blast it, I'm definitely gonna need more resources, hey bats reckon you can stomach the bile to ask Lex for assistance? Nobody likes having a Hellmouth in their backyard"

"no, nope, I don't do hellmouths. They're uncomfortable to be near and eat at my soul"

"I can probably get some more help from the rock of eternity if needed?..."

The members broke out in various discussions like this till batman interrupted them "this meeting will need to be suspended for the moment, new information has just been brought to my attention down in Gotham and I need to personally verify it, we will pick back up in half an hour in conference room 3".

Green arrow called to batman as he got up to leave the meeting room "what kind of information?"

"An unknown woman appeared unexpectedly at Wayne manor with hard copy files pertaining to this meeting. Constantine, the first page was a letter to you, you're with me".

"Like bloody-hell I do! Most letters addressed to me are either letters of debt or the magical equivalent of letter-bombs, sometimes both. I'm not going near it!" Batman nodded not stopping, instead tapping a button on his gauntlet "the letter mentioned that".

The meeting rooms projector displayed a scanned shot of a slim stack of papers. The first page was a letter directed to Constantine:

John Constantine,

Two matters of urgent importance:

1. please come verify the authenticity of these documents or I will call in 'my' favours to Satan, Beelzebub and azrael regarding your 'shared' contracts.

2. Please summon me using the enclosed sigil for convenience, meeting room 3 will suffice. I have a matter to discuss with the league regarding the topic of your current meeting and to notify you all of destabilising incidents in the realms related.

(Batman, please be advised that Constantine will not trust this letter expecting a trap, show him a photo of this page to get him moving)

Don't keep me waiting John, you know I can't leave the realms easily 'without' consequence.

Yours in time

Clockwork (formerly Kronos)

Ghost of time

-

-

"Oh... bollocks... rutting, friggin bollocks, there's the blasted problems we were worried about" swore Constantine stalking out of the room after batman.

Boston took one look at the letter and shuddered "OK, I changed my mind. The Hellmouth it is, no way am I staying here if he's showing up"

Green arrow didn't get the chance to work with Boston often, the few times he did was through the proxy of possession so he sat and observed Boston's expression, trying to decide if it was fear or disgust... what he saw instead was envy and concern... whoever this clockwork guy was, Boston was worried about been seen by him.

The various JL members talked amongst themselves while they waited, hopefully batman wouldn't hold things up by interrogating the woman...

"Who's Charlemagne?" Captain marvel asked Zatanna quietly.

---

---

Wayne manor

Batman and Constantine zeta'd to the Batcave, immediately taking the main lift up to the manor. Constantine looked confused "uh, bats? We not taking the scenic route through to the front door?"

Batman gritted his teeth as he answered "there was an additional note attached to the letter, it was addressed to 'Bruce Wayne' and Alfred, in mine and Alfred's private security cypher, it was a warning that there was a security leak in the watchtowers systems and how to find it. Oracle is currently investigating, as for the woman, she seems aware and the note identified her as this 'clockworks' granddaughter, I need you to verify who she actually is"

"Verify if she's the grandchild of the mad titan? Are you kidding me, how am i supposed to do that? We already have Diana, and I doubt any of those Olympians could keep it together long enough to create another demigod! Can't you just look her up or did the Batcomputer explode again?"

Batman growled in answer, exiting the elevator into the manor heading straight for the kitchen. Constantine slowly grinned and held in a laugh as he followed "oh, so that's why were taking the direct path, going out the backdoor takes us past the computer! So it blew up again huh?" Batman glared at him "Yes, the same way it blew up when we tried to examine the GIW data. I need to know why it reacted to her like that".

-

Alfred was in the kitchen talking politely with Ms jasmine, she seemed insistent for him not to call her a Fenton. Apparently there was a huge falling out and jasmine was in the process of legally changing her name, a task that seemed to be more difficult then normal.

"So we get back to amity, i find out what they did to my siblings, enter the local justice department and I reach the front desk only to find those asshole agents waiting for me there like they own the place, they tried to charge me as an escaped fugitive and shoot at me again so I broke their noses and slipped back out of Illinois before they could hunt me down. Then I went off grid, planting a trail leading to my aunts place and made my way to Gotham with my friends"

"That seems rather dangerous, will your aunt be OK?"

"Oh yeah, it was her idea. After star city aunt Alicia completely disowned Maddie, she knew it wasn't safe in that house and had been trying to get Maddie to stop and think, but... after what happened to Danny and then me... Maddie's on her own, there's no chance for her anymore".

"No I mean will your aunt be OK from those agents?" Jazz snorted "oh yeah no, she'll be fine! Aunt Alicia said if we are going to come, go through Danny's space camp trail. Everywhere else will be a kill box".

"I see... well, next time you talk to her tell her I said good hunting"

Jazz was interrupted from further talk by the dark knight and a shabby blonde man in a overcoat walking into the kitchen "oh, hello Mr Batman sir. I'd say It's nice to meet you but honestly I hoped to never meet you outside of a university lecture, in fact I was honestly expecting a robin to come get the files... aaand you are that occult guy from a few years back who tried to make my parents stop their research. Mr... continuoustein?" Jazz cocked her head in thought.

"Constantine, and your name lass?"

"Oh I'm just Jazz now, formerly Fenton"

Constantine froze and stared blankly at her "you're little jasmine? 'Jazzy-pants? From amity park's Jack and Madelyn Fenton?"

"I hate that name but Yes, why are you so confused?"

"Sorry, I just wasn't expecting you of all people to be here, weren't you a strict non-believer and studying to be a psychologist?"

Jazz stared at him hard "I was yes, then Danny had his accident and I had to face the reality of the situation, 'no matter how much I protested'" she added "As for my plans, I was still planning to be a psychologist up until a month ago, I found out Danny had been taken by the GIW and my parents took leave of their sanity since they literally sold him to them, they also tried to take me as well, and... well I'm sure the news coverage on that was kept quiet. Anyway, here's the file's 'boobytrap' free for you to examine, my job of courier is now complete!".

Batman silently took in everything she said, a simple glance showed a tired college student, if he looked closer however, things were off like an uncanny valley effect.

Alfred had mentioned her teeth but he hadn't mentioned the angular lines to her face, it was definitely a normal human skull when she turned her head but if you looked directly at her the lines of her face blurred... made it look...off, elongated even. her blue eyes also seemed off, backlit like they glowed, she looked hungry. if you looked at her perfectly normal hands from the corner of your eye they looked a lot sharper while wrapped around the tea cup, like she had hardened claws for nails.

'Not human, or not completely human' batman thought, summarised from what he could see 'definitely signs of being a predator of some sort. Priority is the information though, the threat is secondary'. He decided reigning himself back in before speaking "Jasmine, I'm sorry but i need to ask you a few urgent questions".

"Sure, Jazz is fine but go for it, I can answer a few before I have to leave, although I'm pretty certain clockwork can answer better then me".

"Who is clockwork to you, how can i trust him or you? I ask because from what I was told the infinite realms should hold a sizable grudge against the living."

Jazz stared at him smiling gently as she listed on her fingers: "he's mine and my siblings adoptive grandfather, he doesn't lie but he does like to turn things into lessons to entertain himself and to my knowledge the only ones he has a grudge against is a Doctor fate for some past incident during WWII and time travellers including the flash family for making his job more annoying. As for the realms, excluding me... most just want to be left alone or pursue their obsessions. We police the more dangerous ones like pariah, Anything else?"

He watched her for any flicker of emotion, any sign she was lying... nothing. "Do you know where the leak is or who I am?"

She didn't even blink before replying "page three of the files, they're getting in through cyborg via his star labs uplink, an update installed a blind spot they took advantage of to install spyware marked as necessary firmware. We've added a patch note to allow him to view the GIW files you have, as well as stop computers exploding around ectoplasm. As for you? you are batman, that's all I need to know outside of a psychology examination... unless you want to discuss the theories that 'the butts match' or Wayne industries does a lot more then just help 'fund' the justice league?"

With no answer given Jazz finished her tea and got up, "this has been interesting but I definitely need to head out now, things to do, late for dinner, need to feed. Thanks for the tea Mr pennyworth."

"Are you a metahuman?" Asked batman making her pause as she left the kitchen "hmm, tough question... short answer no, long answer maybe? I'm liminal like my brother, Mr Constantine can probably explain it to you more when he gets past his... apparent brain freeze" Jazz finger gunned past batman causing him to look around.

Constantine, waiting too long to ask his own questions had closed his eyes for a moment to rub at a forming headache of her previous answers, opening his eyes in confusion to batman staring at him, Batman looked back to see jazz had disappeared, the path to the front door was completely empty.

Jazz was gone.

"where did she go?" Batman asked Alfred knowing he hadn't taken his eyes off her. "She left sir, prior engagements and the like. Don't you have a meeting to get back to?"

Outside the Wayne manor The sound of a motorbike revving and driving off echoed into the night.

---

Jazz knew they would begin following her when she reached the streets, she also knew she shouldn't instigated batman by disappearing mysteriously, but her hunger was getting worse! if she stayed a moment longer she would literally dig through the floorboards to get at that faint whiff of what smelled almost like ectoplasm coming from underground... she shook her head and stopped her body from turning back around to hunt the smell, if it had been ectoplasm it would have permeated the air of Wayne manor, not travel up like a bad smell... 'it. Was. Not. Ectoplasm'. She thought hard as she dug her lengthening nails into her palm beds.

It was probably just an experiment or batman stuff, nothing relevant to her.

Jazz exited the manor to find Johnnie waiting out the front on his bike looking idly up at the mansion, he turned to her with a solemn look on his face, no smile, no jokes. she nodded to him and got on his bike, gripping him comfortably as he drove straight through the closed gates, taking her back through the winding upper society roads into Gotham proper.

She tapped him to get his attention and he pulled over to let her off a few blocks away from home, johnnie held her hand for balance as she got off and gave it a gentle squeeze before letting go, still not smiling. He seemed to be about to say something to her but clenched his jaw and looked away, a look of stressed concern or possibly anger flickered across his face before he shook it off and revved the engine.

he drove off without a word leaving her to walk the streets home.

Damn jazz was hungry.

---

---

The batfam were following their targets for the night, there was a suspected metahuman trafficker in Gotham and they were planning to hunt them down before they got a foothold.

The duress warning from Alfred however had made almost everyone try to race back to the mansion before he gave the all clear response.

Now with the city being so quiet and no leads on the traffickers they had idle time, as such they listened in on the woman named jazz's static filled conversation with Alfred in the kitchen (her words sounded like a old tape recorder message, an issue neither oracle or red robin were able to solve on their ends). She was polite and chatted about her life in a town called amity park, how proud she was of her brother for doing his best helping people around town despite their families reputation, the many peculiarities of her town with its fame for being the most haunted... then it got weirder. How Danny had to recruit the entire school to mount a rescue for all the brainwashed adults from a flying ghost ship, The time she almost got blown up by the school councillor who was feeding on the students negative emotions, her brothers creepy godfather who had him cloned resulting in a new little sister who she absolutely adored (once Danny actually thought to tell her she existed), her parents toxic obsession with the ghosts and how it had destroyed her and her siblings lives. "She's making this up, ghosts don't... aren't, capable of all that" grumbled Damien currently staked out on the manors roof, he wasn't risking Alfred being harmed because they dropped their guard.

"I'm glad you said that and not ghosts don't exist because I definitely recall your face when you first learnt about Boston and Greta!"

"That's not relevant nightwing, ghosts can rarely appear in the world let alone orchestrate physical attacks on groups of people, we have no record of these things happening, you would think someone would notify the justice league!"

Steph's giggling voice entered the channel "you know, since nobody was hurt the town probably kept it quiet to help with their most haunted town theme, that... or somebody stopped them reporting it, but that would be crazy-ridiculous and mean something larger".

Jazz's voice came through the com again, this time talking about her recent activities and they sounded even worse.

"So a few months ago I get ready to check out a few college's, waved goodbye to my parents, hugged my brother, the whole shebang. Off I go city to city checking out my preferred places, a few weeks in, hero stuff happens further up the train line and my friends and I get redirected to star city until the lines clear. A day or two in I get the odd feeling someone's stalking me, I stick to public areas and it fades... then the day the lines are clear and we're heading to the station the feelings back again and this time I see them, the freaking GIW are stalking me with their white suits and vans. My friends and I try to bail because we know, anytime they're near, there's gonna be collateral damage and friendly fire all blamed on ghosts. We almost make it before they act, blocking us in the public area and open fire".

Tim is typing away on his wrist computer looking more and more distressed till dick has to put a hand on his shoulder to draw him out "what is it RR?" Tim sends files to his siblings giving each of them chills when they read its contents. "We missed another GIW operation, it didn't turn up in our hunt because the officials who sent us the information were also our contacts with star labs in the city, we didn’t question the information, there's no record of a fire-fight but there is a record of a gas main explosion that caused quite a few casualties in star city a while ago..."

"Many casualties..." murmurs orphan staring at the list "can we confirm?"

Oracle chimed in "I found something while following a lead for 'B', a star labs I.D was used in an attempt to delete star city camera security footage which was flagged by green arrows security logs, the 'explosion' if you want to call it that was caught on a safe house security feed, and shows GIW agents shooting at people trying to cross into a train station. It's hard to be certain but it looks like 'Ms Fenton' was there... it also looks like someone took a shot meant for her!" Oracle enhanced some of the footage, a slightly staticky zoomed in clip showing an agent raise a heavy weapon and fire it at jazz, before it can hit, one of the people with jazz, a woman dived up in front of jazz and the were both blown off screen by the weapon blast.

The sound of B and Constantine entering the kitchen drew their attention, they listened to her answer B's questions when she started to leave. "Getting in position to tai..." Damien was getting up from his position on the roof ready to follow her but found himself frozen in place, unable to move the moment he locked eyes with a man on a motorbike in front of the manor. a man that hadn't been there a minute ago that was now staring directly at him on the roof, The man brought a finger up and wagged it at robin as if to chastise him.

"Robin, can you repeat, you cut out there. come in!" Spoke Grayson in his ear but he couldn't answer. Soon enough the Fenton woman exited straight through the manor door as if it wasn't there and walked up to the biker getting on. The man gave him one last glance before taking off and driving straight through the closed gates to the main road, the moment he left the property Damien could move again, he wasted no time in reporting in to the voices calling him.

"Ugh! Target left the property on a motorbike, driver is a male possibly mid to late 20's extremely pale with white hair, capable of inflicting full paralysis at a distance, may be sight based! Motorbike and riders went through closed gate as if it wasn't there, combined with appearing out of nowhere, may have matter shifting abilities similar to Martian manhunter!"

Unseen, Damien's shadow returned to its normal proportions as a patch of darkness before it flitted away after the motorbike, the woman Jazz had disappeared, gone in the darkness leaving them far behind.

---

---

A quick study of the documents and a quicker check-up of the annoyed but otherwise fine Damien was all Bruce could afford before they needed to return to the watchtower, folder and its documents in hand.

Exiting the zeta tube batman immediately contacted cyborg "cyborg, I'm sending you a file, immediately follow its instructions to remove a data breach to your systems, then head to the star labs branch in star city, bring the listed officials and workers in for questioning".

-

Conference room 3 was one of the older rooms, a sturdy work floor had been installed on top of the standard station floor for this room to allow repeated defacing of the surface without needing to constantly repair the space station section, Fortunately most magic rituals could be done with chalk these days.

Currently members of the JLD (minus Dr fate and Deadman who gave their apologies as not wanting to interact with Kronos) and a few supernatural aware JL members were surrounding a summoning circle drawn on the floor, there Constantine was grumbling under his breath while busy wrapping his hands around concoction soaked rags.

"Alright, here we go folks. Good news, clockwork is a neutral entity and is often quite reserved in his personality, that being said. Remember not to wisecrack the ancient entity of time... uh, that warnings mostly for me. So lets get this over with!" Constantine lit the rags on fire, filling the room with the smell of sulphur, clapped his hands together in prayer and began the summoning".

"venias ad me nunc aeternitatis exactor" the circle lit up before slowly turning down from a burning orange to a glowing green as he continued

"Ad te voco spiritum temporis ut det munus meum. Invoco te spiritus temporis ad dandum meum donum scientiae"

(*Come to me now driver of eternity. I call upon you the spirit of time to give my gift. I call upon you, the spirit of time, to give me the gift of knowledge.)

With barely a ripple, a being with red glowing eyes, one scarred and what looked like a grandfather clock jammed in its torso appeared floating in the circle glaring at Constantine"

"I gave you my summoning circle, yet you have the nerve to summon me like that Constantine? I'm not a damn demon. you didn't even use my name properly! if I hadn't wanted to talk to you I would have sent a hex down the line". The grizzled spirit stared at them unblinking, slowly shifting form between adult, child and elder as the sound of deep ticking echoed from him.

"I didn't think you'd really answer the summons for little old me without some kind of trouble waiting, besides, I don't speak Esperanto well, fortunately Latin works just fine".

Constantine tried to light a new cigarette but was stopped by batman nudging him to continue. "You said you had information for our case so I need to ask. I'm enquiring into two spirits we were tracking who escaped a holding facility last week" the ancient spirit glared at Constantine and replied in a mocking tone "a holding facility you say? I didn't know the justice league knew about such places capable of 'containing' spirits. Tell me John, do they just 'hold' spirits there, is that what they do?"

Constantine had the good sense to feel ashamed as Clockwork chewed him out "we didn't know they had gotten this bad, I had requested they be under more scrutiny bu-" "I don't care for excuses Constantine, the damage is done and still continues. Now! Ask what you wanted to ask so I can get back to dealing with some meddlesome intruders in my domain". "Uh right... the two spirits that escaped, they were wounded. We can't seem to track them anymore, I'd like their names so we can summon them and make sure they're alright and possible answer some questions".

If it was possible, the aura around the spirit became more dangerous.

"The spirits you are searching for no longer exist as they were" said the ancient ghost, anger clear on his face towards Constantine and the league members in the room. "Their cores begun final collapse and destabilisation this afternoon after being on the run from the humans agents called the Ghost investigative ward, those that hurt and hunted them. They didn't even get the comfort of their loved ones with them. The most we could do was shroud the area so they would not be recaptured in their final moments".

"Oh, I'm so sorry. What were their names?" Asked Zatanna "their human names? You might know them as Daniel Fenton of amity Park and his cloned half sister Danielle masters" The glare as he turned back to Constantine increased.

"Hang on! The Fenton boy? 'He was cloned?...' uh no wait, Why would he be a spirit? Aren't his parents working with the bloody GIW!" "Yes, yes they are". came the reply with a sense of finality to it.

Constantine's eyes went wide and his skin paled as he realised the implications of what jazz had said earlier, "Oh... oh no." "Oh yes" glared clockwork "my grandson Danny spent two years protecting Amity Park from both ghost attacks, his parents and the GIW without the league or outside help. He kept the human world safe from the ghosts and then had to switch to protecting the realms from the humans. Only to then get shot in the back by his parents, to have his body and core cut up piece by piece".

He watched them mutter and wince amongst themselves before continuing "it should interest you to note, His human allies and their families were also taken by the GIW and are being held by your government in rather unpleasant detainment facilities. If you would like to earn my favour I would suggest tracking them down and releasing some of them for starters".

The batman approached the circle and examined clockwork before speaking "what are their names? Do you know which facilities they are in or what they're being held for?" Clockwork seemed to contemplate something. A green sheet of parchment fell through the circle at their feet, a list of names, aliases and locations.

"You can start with Samantha Manson, she's currently booked illegally in Arkham under an alias, you should find her having tea with poison ivy since they have a lot in common. By the way, since her parents willingly helped lock her up in that 'tainted curse' of a place to avoid being incarcerated themselves, I would suggest helping her out with emancipation paperwork and bringing charges against the parents.

Next is tucker Foley, he's currently in the Cadmus lab in metropolis as a test subject, luckily he's smarter then them. You can give him a few more days before you collect him, he's having fun sabotaging their more shady work.

Last, You'll find Valerie grey residing in belle reve prison... most of the time. You will need to schedule time with Amanda Waller if you want to get her out".

Batman stared at the list "what are all these other names and locations?"

"The Foley's and the grey family are interred with students from Casper high, amity park. They're being held in detention cells throughout America" clockwork rolled his glowing eyes at that. "The students attempted to get in touch with authorities outside amity park and the GIW'S control, the agents found out about it and had them black bagged, or white bagged if you want to go by their theme, Now they're being held for breach of the anti-ecto acts. The rest of the locations are undocumented GIW facilities where captured ghosts and ecto contaminated subjects are experimented on. I would advise shutting them down soon or the GIW, if successful with their experimentation will gain enough strength to be a major problem for your entire reality".

Batman looked at the list and nodded, "it will be dealt with, how were these anti-ecto acts breached exactly?-"

[Entry: raven 02]

Their conversation was stopped by raven entering the meeting room and coming to a halt. "Oh, uh did I come at a bad time?" Clockwork shifting to a small child ghost, looked up at her and smiled "of course not Ms raven, in fact I was hoping to return something of yours, would you like it now or we can discuss later if you prefer?"

"What are you offering her?" Asked Constantine immediately suspicious, "memories" clockwork replied. Raven looked confused but nodded assuringly to Constantine "whose memories are they?" Clockwork pulled out a small clockwork gear printed in strange symbols on a glowing material and flicked it out of the circle like a coin to her. "I'd say yours, to remember in your own time" Clockwork turned back to batman shifting to an old ghost and continued explaining the anti-ecto acts and the loopholes they had used to get their way.

Diana glanced up at raven, still standing awkwardly by the door holding the cog unsure if she had been dismissed. "Raven, take a seat dear, has something happened?"

Raven sighed as she answered accepting an empty chair "I'm sorry, I was tracking the spirits down with superboy when that weird storm hit. tracking has completely failed and smallville was the last area I could locate the spirits. I've tried breaking through again but the storm is too strong, Not to mention strange reports began just before it appeared".

"Oh, what reports?"

"Public disturbance calls mostly, Magic sites across the globe that deal with spirits are reacting weirdly. shrines, graveyards even haunted houses". Diana caught clockworks grin at her and turned to look at him "what do you know about this?" She asked staring at him intently.

"Oh just the second reason for my visit, none of you would know this yet but the infinite realms is currently in a form of political turmoil" Constantine perked up "turmoil? What happened, did one of your more inane ghosts do something stupid like stealing Pandora's box again?"

"Close, due to the disappearance of phantom, who has being one of the more stabilising presences in the realms. some citizens of the realms (who may have had a hand in his disappearance) took it upon themselves to steal royal artefacts and dispense them to potential candidates for the throne, as such from tonight we are now locked into a war of succession"

"A war of succession... how? Pariah's been your king for well over a millennia!" Exclaimed Constantine. "exactly, pariah in his defeat was still wearing the crown while locked in the coffin of forever sleep. however during an incident two years ago he was temporarily freed by a greedy idiot. After a few days terrorising the realms, he was bested and re-sealed by phantom, this time without the crown. Since having been defeated in what was observed as single combat he lost the rite of control for both the crown of fire and the ring of rage. Both items at the time were stolen by Vlad masters and stored in his vault... they are gone now, and are in the hands of candidates to the throne".

Green arrows face scrunched like he'd eaten something sour, "Vlad masters? That rich, creepy mayor with a ton of shady businesses? How'd he get involved?" "The same way he got those businesses, he caused an issue then swept in taking what he wanted without the original owners being aware. You'll find files on him in those GIW computers you collected, fortunately he's not a candidate for the throne so I can sell the prat out without breaking the rules, by the way, I'd appreciate you hunting him down Constantine, he has many relics you might be interested in as payment".

"What makes a candidate? can we know who the candidates are?" Asked batman trying to bring them back on topic. "I cannot say the selection process was done by the Observants without permission of the ancients, those two relics are crafted in a way that I cannot detect or interact with them, a fail-safe pariah built into them to stop me ever trying to usurp him. They were stolen around the same time but I only discovered they were missing because another one of the stolen relics was guarded by the yeti's. That has itself brought up its own local problems. However, the earliest theft was shortly before phantom disappeared two months ago. all I can say is they are loose in this world and you will begin noticing their effects soon... or you may already have noticed these effects..." Constantine was getting irritated and really wanted another smoke " you're clear as mud clockwork, that doesn't really help things. Do us a favour and tell us what the items do to people, I mean, shouldn't they only affect ghosts?"

Clockwork grinned "how many times have you all died? Even for short periods of time because your heart stopped? Now, how many of you live in area's where there's a high amount of death energy permeating the city around them?" He looked to batman for this one with a raised eye. "The ring and crown influence those affected by death in different ways, fortunately you would need to be an actual denizen of the infinite realms to have full control of all the relics abilities".

Green arrow spoke up "so what can we expect from a non denizen who wields the relics?" A smile this time, "a good question green arrow. The crown will empower any undead that swears fealty to its wearer, the ring however will absorb the willpower from anybody targeted by it and give it to the wielder". Simon, content to just listen glanced up at clockwork who was looking at him intently as he said it.

Green arrow frowned, "so together they would allow you to both gain an obedient army and make them stronger?"

"Seems like it would be quite useful on a battlefield amongst the dead! Good thing they are currently separate".

Diana raised a hand to interrupt simply getting a smile from clockwork "we are not in class granddaughter, please go ahead" Diana hesitated at the title but pressed on "what are the requirements to become the new king? How will the succession war end, do you already know who will be victorious?" Clockwork looked sad and hesitant to answer "unfortunately the wielders for the relics are concealed from my sight and as for who the victor is I cannot say, all possible futures are laid out in front of me, futures where everything ebbs, futures where everything flows but without the present tense to follow the trails, I cannot see which is more likely to happen, all I can do is plan and prepare. For how it starts, claim the ring and crown and be acknowledged by the throne. As for how it ends, it ends when someone is foolish enough to stab the old king".

At the last part Diana saw his glowing eyes flicker to raven still holding the cog wheel "I... assume you have made your plans for the succession... should we be worried?" Clockwork chuckled loudly before answering in a bored manner "I am forbidden by ancient contracts that chain me to my domain, by their command and for the good of the realms. interfering in a war of succession is not permitted unless it risks temporal damage or destruction of the infinite realms". It sounded like he was reading off a contract he'd been forced to read countless times throughout eternity. "Are you really kronos? You are acting far too personable to be the mad titan" "No, I'm Clockwork. The ghost of time. If that doesn't answer your question ask me again next time we meet granddaughter, I will explain things better then, for now, be worried, or don't be worried. I'm sure you have many rogues and villains to confront to keep you busy, farewell".

Clockwork seemed to turn to leave before looking back "Oh and batman, the joker just escaped from Arkham, his cell has a joker gas bomb rigged to the cell door. Good luck!"

And with that he flickered out of view leaving them in the shadowed room.

---

---

It was only a few questions that had been asked, with much information being given in return. Batman had made his apologies as he stormed out of the room calling in the possible escape while the JLD members relocated back to the previous meeting room, there they were busy comparing notes on possible contenders for the throne and looking for signs of strange activity.

They needed to stay in the loop for this, while the infinite realms was definitely out of their jurisdiction, the threat of another pariah dark was enough of a threat to stay involved in the process.

Clark sighed as he looked over the footage of the spirits escape "if we could have just found them sooner, perhaps we could have saved them... or at least helped them pass comfortably" the Question, studiously looking through the green parchment of names and places, comparing them with old physical road maps replied comfortingly.

"Don't beat yourself up Kal-el, this entire situation came from a forgotten agency with no oversite, they've been keeping things off our radar, not to mention using their authority and the general public's disbelief in the supernatural... All we can do is prevent any further tragedies happening".

"Public disbelief? The public should know magic exists, including supernatural entities like ghosts!" "Yes but they're not like our ghosts are they. Deadman can only be seen by use of magic and could never interact with the physical world without possessing someone, Secret? while able to be visible she couldn't interact with the world for more then a few minutes at a time. These ghosts however are capable of feats of strength on par with you, powers that defy physics, rivalling masters of magic and superheros alike".

[Entry: cyborg 01]

They all looked up to cyborg entering the meeting room with an angry look on his face. "Oh what now?" Asked Constantine tiredly. "Three scientists. a visiting professor. 6 security guards with league clearance and the public rep for star labs are in custody, I guess the preference for white outfits should have been a sign to look out for. the security breach for the watchtower and the league in general has been closed" he gritted his teeth before continuing. "There has also been a break in at the holding facility where the GIW personnel were hospitalised. A GIW agent has been arrested but the patients are gone, nobody can find a trace of them". Simon perked up quickly looking into it "when did this happen? There's been no alert put out". "That's because none was issued, the agent rocked up to the facility with all the paperwork ordering their release, paperwork apparently signed off by us. the only reason he was caught was because I cleared the block preventing me from noticing them and ordered him arrested". Cyborgs voice became like acid "I've been running back through the watchtowers files, without the block I can now read all their data including the files from their computers, they've been tampering with us for years. Changing our logs, diverting emergency calls, even stealing equipment, research and funding!"

Diana rubbed her temples and sighed "so the government agency that has caused us so much trouble over a long time period, who has endangered this world with their recent actions just stole subjects of a priority investigation? We'll need to arrest them now, collate the data and we'll organise a priority meeting with the American government, this needs to be stopped. Any other information we should know?

Raven spoke up "I'm concerned with those GIW agents in the white vans, when we caught up with them they were tearing across Kansas after the spirits causing trouble, they destroyed a lot of peoples crops and fences. none of them seem to be magic users but somehow they can track the spirits long distance through some sort of scientific means. Fortunately it seems when the storm started they lost tracking the same time I did, unfortunately they then rounded on us accusing us of sabotaging their gear. Superboy was dealing with them and told me to head back to report, he didn't like the way they kept eyeing me and examining me with their gear".

Superman remembered the threat clockwork had mentioned and spoke looking at Constantine "-you may have already noticed it's effects-, Constantine you said the agent was driven insane previously right? He wouldn't have attacked the lanterns otherwise? Perhaps the GIW are involved in both issues. This is a new risk to watch out for, nobody approach or interact with those people by yourselves, always partner up, especially Dark members, they may decide magic is their contamination and I don't want to risk you guys getting captured by them. Send the warning out to all league members and any community's at risk. This meeting is now adjourned".

The league members quickly headed off to their tasks, there was a lot to be done.

---

---

In a GIW lab

Agent B hurried through the facility towards the high containment area, intent on ignoring the calls for help from the multitude of containment cells. In the far room was his new superior examining test results.

"Sir, the captured agents have been retrieved but agent A was apprehended by those ecto loving hero's! Permission to stage a rescue operation?"

The bald man with a pointed nose looked at the agent with disdain "why would I waste my time with that useless trash, if he got caught he got caught, bring those captured agents down to the containment labs, it's time for the 'live' trials!" He caressed a glass jar full of bright green ectoplasm and smiled. Agent B stared at his superior confused "sir, why would I bring the agents here, they need the medical wing so they can recover and get back at that damn ghos-" "-atututa" said the man shushing the agent "that's not needed, after all, the field reports indicate that the ghost in question is either destroyed or near complete ending, your wounded agents dealt it a killing blow in the lab before it's escape, you can be proud that they caused it to suffer immensely before fading. Well done, now bring them down here". The smile disappeared as the man repeated himself. "Agent B was about to object when the superior held up his hand with a green skull ring on it "I said bring them down here" the agent glowed slightly as something was drained away from him into the ring, he nodded and turned away to complete the task, the superior called to him jovially as he left "also once that's done begin recruitment to replace the fallen agents, we can't have the GIW looking too thin in numbers!" the door closed and the man added quietly "after all, a good scapegoat has to look healthy for people to buy it!"

-

---

Notes:

-that's all for this chapter, next ones back in smallville as Danni starts to find themself again.

-sorry if it got too wordy or is too close together, would you believe me if I said the last month has been me trying to figure out the last half of the JL meeting? I just couldn't put words down that stuck!

-might be a little confusing because I'm playing with time but ravens designation is because she's been reincarnated, the league would have to keep all biometrics of all people using titles in case they were temporally displaced.

-I'm keeping question ambiguous like a dread pirate Roberts because that is on character for question, so you can imagine them as Vic or Renee, it's up to you.

[becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys]

Doctor Who, but Chronologically: 33

It has happened a few times, so far, that we've seen episodes that, whether good or bad, had little impact on the series: they answered no questions, and posed no new ones.

This, however, is the first we've watched this way that suddenly answers a shit-ton of arc while offering new elements, and also hints at a whole bunch of vital story we haven't seen yet, and is completely fucking batshit to the point of near-incomprehensibility.

It's 1938, and the episode is Let's Kill Hitler.

We open with a "Previously On" that contains nothing we've previously seen LMAO ALMOST AS IF OUR WATCH ORDER IS DEEPLY FUCKING STUPID but it turns out Amy was pregnant after all, her baby was promptly stolen by a one-eyed woman fighting a war against the Doctor that the Doctor was apparently unaware of (insert Don Draper "I don't think of you at all" meme), the baby is called Melody and has Time Lord DNA because... well that wasn't explained but maybe it's why Amy's pregnancy test was inconclusive, and there are some aliens called the Silents. Oh, and at some point Amy was melted. Is Rory still plastic? Not sure.

Anyway, we open with Amy and Rory trying to get the Doctor's attention by writing his name in crop circles in a scene that made me wonder how much they had to pay the farmer to film it. "Have you found Melody yet?" Amy begs of her missing baby, except she doesn't, because Karen Gillan imbues the scene with the urgency of a housemate asking if you remembered to check if Shell or British Gas will give you cheaper bills.

Then Amy and Rory's BESTEST FRIEND MELS turns up. The show then has to introduce us to Mels, because in spite of being presented as an indispensable part of their lives, even people watching the normal way have never even heard of this woman before now. Then she pulls out a GUN from somewhere and insists they all go to kill Hitler, which... I'm on board, actually.

Except a shapeshifting justice robot staffed with tiny people (I love the shapeshifting justice robot staffed with tiny people btw they should get their own spin-off) is already here and trying to kill Hitler, so the TARDIS smashes in and accidentally saves his life. There is a genuinely very funny and enjoyable scene where they punch Hitler and put him in a cupboard.

And then the episode just fucking nosedives in quality. Mels was accidentally shot by Hitler, and regenerates - into River!!! We know her, she was a criminal who could fly the TARDIS. What this means, though, is that Amy and Rory - new parents, who are desperate to reclaim their kidnapped baby - find out in that moment that their baby... will never come back to them. They're never going to see her again. They're never going to get to raise her, never going to see her take her first steps, never teach her to identify trees or swim or dance. A whole childhood and adolescence of memories and experiences, stolen away. They're to be grateful, they're told, that they knew her as their childhood tearaway friend Mels - because that's just like raising her after all. Except prior to being Mels, she was raised and abused and brainwashed into being an assassin - a "psychopath", because the writers don't know what that word means. They will never be able to protect her from that.

That is a horrifying thing to realise; the sort of thing that will mean you're in therapy forever.

And the episode considers it to be so unimportant that Amy and Rory are IN THE BACKGROUND OF THE SHOT WHEN IT'S REVEALED.

Who gets our focus?!? Why, the Doctor of course! Who else but the Specialest Man. This is obviously deeply relevant to him the most. Jesus fucking wept. Also I should mention this is easily the most misogynistic episode we've seen yet. The Doctor asks and receives permission to hug Amy - from her husband. River regenerates while yelling "I'm trying to focus on a dress size!" and makes another three fatphobic comments within the same scene. When Amy says "But River's not a psychopath in the future! What's wrong with her right now?" the Doctor responds "She's been brainwashed and also she can't help it because she's a woman."

(That's not an exaggeration. "She's a woman" is literally given as the reason she's a "psychopath". In a scene in which said woman has spent half her lines stressing how thin and fuckable she is.)

Anyway, the rest of the plot is what you'd expect, probably - River tries and succeeds in killing him with slow poison, Amy manages to be useful inside the shapeshifting justice robot staffed with tiny people, there's a showdown where River decides to save him by using up all her regenerations on him. At the point the Doctor dies, Karen Gillan and Arthur Darville literally forget to cry. It's an utterly sterile scene where you're just waiting for them to hurry up and resolve it. At the end, the Doctor now knows that he's going to be killed by River (dressed as an astronaut! A plot answer!) in Utah in 2011, which he hides from Amy and Rory for no clear reason given that they already know. We learn the Silents aren't an alien race but a religious sect who believe that Silence Will Fall when the first question is finally answered, though why they want that silence is a mystery (technically so is the question but I'mma be real with you all, lads, I remember watching this series when it was first on and immediately guessing so lol). Hitler is still in a cupboard.

However, it was very nice seeing Cardiff museum.

Plot threads!

“She” (an unknown person) is returning (perhaps River returned as Missy. Maybe Me? Maybe Clara???!)

There is something on Donna’s back

An entire planet, Pyrovilia, just… disappeared, somehow. (Maybe because the TARDIS is exploding??? Saturnine was also lost, and that WAS because of the TARDIS exploding. The lion man’s planet was also lost but he was a bit of a knob about it if I’m honest.)

Amy is maybe dead (she’s not)

The Doctor has been cubed (he’s out, but how?)

River is possibly blown up  (unless she’s Missy)

The TARDIS has blown up  (It’s fine now. Except it’s sort of melting now because it’s corrupted, but it’s fine again)

The universe appears to have ended  (the universe is back again)

The Doctor has employed(?) Nardole

(And Nardole was “reassembled???” Nardole had glass nipples and invisible hair?? WHAT THE FUCK IS HE)

There’s a vault in the TARDIS and it contains Missy but we don’t know why (sometimes she knocks for the bants)

What has happened to all these companions and where are the new ones coming from?

There’s an immortal Viking girl now. Her name is Me and she’s now looking after the people the Doctor abandons

Why was Rory entirely unconcerned by the entire world suddenly going silent when that is Not Normal and should have been, at the very least, extremely disconcerting?

What did the Doctor do to Queen Lizzie One?

Who is Captain Jack Harkness? (Is he the one who gave the companions a warning about the lone cyberman?)

Why is Amy seeing a one-eyed woman in a vanishing window? (NEW INFO: she's with the Silents, but we don't know why Amy saw her)

Why is Amy's pregancy inconclusive? (NEW INFO: because the baby had Time Lord DNA?)

Who is Sarah-Jane Smith?

How is the Doctor Bill’s teacher and why/where does he have an office?

What is going on with the Cyber War and the Cyberium???

What happened with the Other Cyber War?

What happened with the Third War that deleted the void?

Why does Rose seem particularly important?

What’s with the Weeping Angel statues, and why can’t you blink at them?

What order do these Doctors go in? (Eccleston, Tennant, uncertain, Smith, Capaldi, Whittaker)

Which companion just… forgot the Doctor, and how?

Yaz and Vinder are about to die as Mori/Mwri/Muuri

There is a Lupari shield around Earth.

What’s a Time War?

What’s the Rift?

What’s Bad Wolf?

In which war did the Doctor become a war criminal, and how?

Who is the Master?

Why has Amy forgotten Rory?

Is Rory plastic or not?

Why is the Doctor sulking on a cloud?

How exactly does the Doctor have a cloud?

What exactly happened with Strax to, uh, tame him?

Which friend killed Strax?

Which friend brought Strax back?

Where did this lesbian lizard and human couple come from?

What happened with Clara as Souffle Girl and the Daleks?

How does Clara actually join?

Why so many Claras?

Why is Missy apparently in robo-heaven?

Why is probably!Missy pushing Clara and the Doctor together?

What is Trensilor and what happened there?

Who is Handles?

The Doctor is about to be dissolved by a beautiful geode man

The universe is being crushed by the Flux

Will the Doctor open the fobwatch?

Sontarans are invading Earth again

Who is Kate?

Who is Osgood? Another name of Clara’s again?

The fuck is the deal with the Grand Serpent

Does Martha get to go to an ice cream planet with 12-fingered massage aliens?

How did the Doctor forget Clara?

Who is Bill’s puddle girlfriend Heather?

How did Nardole die?

When does Bill get Cyberman-ed and die?

When does the Doctor shrink and enter a Dalek called Rusty?

Whittaker is falling to her death rn

Was that ring relevant?

Does anyone know the Doctor’s name?

When did Yaz talk to Dan about fancying the Doctor?

When did Dan talk to the Doctor about fancying Yaz?

Who was the Doctor’s wife?

What’s happening with the bees?

What happened with Donna’s ex and a giant spider?

What war wiped out the Daleks, and is it one of the ones already mentioned?

What did the Doctor mean when he said “The (Daleks) always live, while I lose everything?”

If Dalek Caan is the last Dalek left why are there more now?

How did the rest of the Time Lords die?

How and why did Amy melt?

What's the question that will make silence fall?

Why do the Silents... want silence to fall?

How and why are Silents at war with the Doctor when he... hasn't even heard of them?

How does Hitler get out of the cupboard?

[onewiththeother]

((Hello! This is actually my first roleplay blog so yeah :,) If I use (()) brackets that means I am OOC and talking as the admin of this account B) however this entire post is OOC so let me just drop the brackets rq))

Okay, there we go.

Hey! This is an alt RP account (my main is @thealexisreal!!!!) I have for my That's Not My Neighbor OCs!!!! This post will basically explain all there is to the blog and the basic guidelines for interacting :)

ABOUT THE OCS

GARRETT CLIVESDALE - "THE MARKSMEN NEVER MISS!"

If you've come here from my main, I posted a small description of him. If not, let me run down the basics of garry :33

Garrett Clivesdale was a professional baseball player playing for a team known as the Red Marksmen, a local baseball team carrying home a winning streak. Garrett is awfully arrogant about the winstreak and tends to boast about it a lot, though this just makes him come off as a bratty child at times. He's very passionate about baseball and tends to talk about it when no one cares. He's overconfident and believes he's on top of the world, and WILL get pissy when he fails. However, he holds grudges and tends to be really petty and rude to people he believes are his enemies :( He is quite nice to people he likes though, and will always try to spoil them... Mainly with food. Especially burgers. If you wanna get with him enjoy burger dates forever theyre his favorite food

His text will be red.

ESPEN SOLHEIM - "...Wait, what was I gonna...? Wait--"

Espen is another news reporter (I made him before I remembered Isaack was a reporter... they're coworkers now :).) He's paranoid and timid, a stark contrast from his cheerful ID photo. Constantly seeking affirmation from others, he's constantly unsure of himself and always overthinking. He actually found out about doppelgangers a few months before measures began to be taken to keep people safe from them, and since then he has grown to be a shell of his former self, still holding scars from his first doppelganger encounter. He's scared of new people and often sticks to people he's familiar with, see Harvey.

His text will be orange.

COLE WAGNER - "Oh, I've been waiting for an opportunity like this~ I'm so excited..."

Cole is a waiter at Nana's, a diner near the apartment complex that Garrett is a diehard regular at. As a result, the two are close friends. Cole himself is cheerful and outgoing, if not a bit mischievous and enjoys drama. He's known for spreading rumors and misinformation with the guests at Nana's. However, his laid-back and cheerful attitude remains even in serious events, and he often lets jokes slip when he's not supposed to. He doesn't like being serious because he gets really awkward in those scenarios. He's also very loud and annoying.

His text will be blue.

AGATHA BARNES - "Nothing to be afraid of, no need to worry."

Agatha is a photographer, though she usually dresses like the models she photographs. She's friendly and often hypes others up, constantly attempting to bring good vibes. She's similar to Cole in a way that she enjoys the company of others, but when she gets serious, she becomes uncharacteristically stern. I honestly have no idea what else to say for her besides the fact she's basically a mom friend.

Her text will be green.

HARVEY CLARENCE - "I was forced to be on this god forsaken blog."

Harvey is the doorman to the complex (for my au (do i even call it that?) at least). Stoic and lacking a sense of humor. He's not easily persuaded and is often incredibly stubborn.

His text won't have any color TEEHEE

OLIVER GRANTHAM - "A lovely little feast, all laid out for me...?!"

Oliver is a doppelganger who had replaced one of the D.D.D.'s cleaners. Since cleaners usually wear a hazmat suit, and since Oliver took the real one's ID, he wasn't noticed until he took off the suit, giving away his bright pink eyes (that he has since pink is his favorite color). He now dons a mouth-only gas mask to tell him apart from the others, mainly because he's under heavy supervision all the time. Childish, excitable, curious, yet stupid, it's a miracle how he managed to infiltrate D.D.D. ranks. He doesn't seem to be hostile to humans, though, but he was practically taught to attack doppelgangers. He thinks a certain few r cool tho :)

His text will be pink.

okay enough about them beats up everyone aforementioned LET'S GET TO THE RULES!!!

RULES AND STUFF

If you don't follow these rules, expect a block.

Please be respectful. We may have differing opinions, and I'd like you to respect them. I know you guys probably aren't the type to start drama on these kinds of posts, but if you're going to comment something rude, just don't. Your comment will be deleted anyway.

Absolutely no NSFW. I am a minor, and seeing that kind of stuff repulses me so much. Lightly suggestive jokes are alright, but NSFW interactions are just a no.

The basic DNI criteria: Do not interact with this blog if you're:

LGBTQ+phobic, racist, or a bigot in general

A Z00/P3D0PH1L3

A com/darkshipper

And...That's about it! thanks for actually taking the time to read this :,)