-
The site has now migrated to Xenforo 2. If you see any issues with the forum operation, please post them in the feedback thread.
-
Due to issues with external spam filters, QQ is currently unable to send any mail to Microsoft E-mail addresses. This includes any account at live.com, hotmail.com or msn.com. Signing up to the forum with one of these addresses will result in your verification E-mail never arriving. For best results, please use a different E-mail provider for your QQ address.
-
The rules regarding NSFW links have been updated. See here for details.
Nigel Burnelli Isaacs
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2015
- Messages
- 437
- Likes received
- 2,610
Hmmm Nice update and good thinking about Victoria and how she uses her Public Identity. Very interesting case here, so the Fallen faked their death thanks to Playmate's power, who's still using it making everyone dance to her tune, including the Local PRT and Brain(that is if the guy truly exists and is who he says he is, and if he is, I am pretty sure Playmate's influence changed his power)in order to lure the Pantheon in and take them out, which would have been quite possible given Playmate's power, even against the Pantheon's heavy hitters.
I am pretty sure that the investigators and Brain's reactions when victoria sid they did not have to rpove that this was a murder ties into the rules Playmate placed on the city, or at least on the people involved, so either the win condition is to prove this was a fake murder and that they were killed elsewhere(which would be hard since it was not, or at least not on the people that are thought to have been murdered)or NOT trying to prove they have been murdered eleswhere is the loophole in the present game scenario.
I am pretty sure that the investigators and Brain's reactions when victoria sid they did not have to rpove that this was a murder ties into the rules Playmate placed on the city, or at least on the people involved, so either the win condition is to prove this was a fake murder and that they were killed elsewhere(which would be hard since it was not, or at least not on the people that are thought to have been murdered)or NOT trying to prove they have been murdered eleswhere is the loophole in the present game scenario.
Jackercracks
At Two With Nature
- Joined
- Jan 18, 2015
- Messages
- 112
- Likes received
- 556
Hmmm, Brain seems scary but I'm pretty sure he'd still go down to a sneaky tranquilliser mosquito while sleeping. As such he occupies that same niche as almost everyone else on the continent: His continued existence proves only that Pantheon has not decided to end him. I mean seriously, If these guys got in the assassination game I can't really think of a terrestrial target they couldn't take out. Even Alexandria has to sleep sometimes, and Taylia recon to shut down Contessa's PtV followed by a shunted Atropos will kill damn near anything.
Brain seems like a good choice to heighten tension given the group that was sent.
Now that I think about it, what exactly are Contessa and by extension all precogs going to be good for once Yggdrasil spreads to an appreciable fraction of the continent's cities? Most can't see Taylia's influence, Contessa included, and when that influence routinely effects a large chunk of the globe that has got to throw her calculations out of whack.
Brain seems like a good choice to heighten tension given the group that was sent.
Now that I think about it, what exactly are Contessa and by extension all precogs going to be good for once Yggdrasil spreads to an appreciable fraction of the continent's cities? Most can't see Taylia's influence, Contessa included, and when that influence routinely effects a large chunk of the globe that has got to throw her calculations out of whack.
Gladiusone
Well worn.
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2014
- Messages
- 5,959
- Likes received
- 54,814
You mean fedoras: top hats are more 1890s than 1920s.
dasstan
:)
- Joined
- May 23, 2014
- Messages
- 4,651
- Likes received
- 24,102
It's gotten so bad that I honestly read "fedora" as a term for the group, first, before I read it as referring to the type of hat.
Peanuckle
Versed in the lewd.
- Joined
- Jan 15, 2014
- Messages
- 1,833
- Likes received
- 9,329
You say scariest, I say best. I want to be this person's friend so I can play RL games all day.
On one hand, she shouldn't let her pride get in the way of solving crimes. On the other, she's absolutely right.
Overall a good start into what appears to be a mystery, which is something that this fic has sorta lacked. I think it'd be awesome if you made a real detective out of Vicky; field intelligence is a valuable position, and one that Pantheon needs since Lisa is doing strategy and PR.
BlackBulletOfSeven
Making the rounds.
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2015
- Messages
- 41
- Likes received
- 198
Someone needs to do an Omake of Old Man Henderson coming along and just destroying Playmate in every single way.
Thunder Man Soul
(Verified Prime)
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2015
- Messages
- 22
- Likes received
- 110
Would Old Man Henderson come out of retirement for Playmate though? The Man is a legend in his own right.
Ch 205- Theo
TanaNari
Verified Dick
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2015
- Messages
- 26,861
- Likes received
- 287,207
Amelia, Ch 205- Theo
Victoria was really stealing the proverbial show. I'd seen it before, my father was a genius at it, and there was a time when I was younger when he had some hope of grooming me to continue the family business, and had given me a few tips. Even instructed Victor to do the same. Victoria was good at it. Not nearly to the level my father was, of course, and certainly not a match for Victor's stolen talents. But still, she was good.
There just wasn't much her talents could do here, besides look good while doing nothing. The battle occurred elsewhere, and we had no way of knowing where. We left disappointed, if not completely empty handed, to meet with Aceso and Atropos. But a fairly common, if expensive, drug was no kind of evidence.
"So, now that we know we have no leads, what do we do?" Atropos asked, and gave a wary glance at Brain. She and I had been warned that our powers wouldn't shield us from his attack. If it came to fighting him, Aceso was the only weapon we had which might work. It might not even be safe for Taylor's bugs to be in range of this guy. But, for all his power, he was still physically human.
I took advantage of my armor's more or less amorphous shape to look at Aceso covertly. Clarice. She's unfairly beautiful, my traitorous mind told me yet again. As all the other times, I forced myself to remember that she was not real. She was never real. And, as all the other times, it didn't work. It was like telling myself she was dead. How did Zach cope? Oh, right, he didn't have to. She couldn't use this part of her power on him.
I closed my eyes. It's not his fault, I told myself. And he didn't get away unscathed, either.
"Hey, you okay over there?" Victoria asked, tapping on the armor.
"Yeah, sorry," I tried to mean it. "Just lost in thought."
"We're going to stir up a couple hornet nests," Vicky told me. "If your head's not in the game, let us know. We're here for the weekend, we can take a bit of time to make sure things go the best they can go."
"No, I'm fine," I insisted. I wasn't going to slow us down just because of something like this.
"Taking your word for it," she responded. "Okay, so we're still trying to be covert about it. Suggestions?"
"I can show you some of their suspected safehouses," Brain suggested.
"That's certainly an option, any others?"
"Neutral ground," Aceso spoke up. "Every city has two or three of them. Big ones can have lots more. Locations where villains will meet up to discuss major problems, even inviting indie heroes and rogues if the situation's bad enough."
"Would revealing you're in town be considered 'bad enough' for them?" Brain suggested.
"Doubtful," I replied. "They'd rather go to ground and hope we pick off their enemies for them in situations like this. When they ally together, it's for things like a mad bomb tinker blowing up the city one block at a time."
"Our town doesn't have other villains or independents," Brain pointed out. "What would they do under those circumstances?"
"Should still have the neutral locations," I insisted. "Visiting out of towners, friends on the opposite side of the law. Usually the owners of such establishments are well liked by the villains. Even if there's no need to keep them, they'll remain out of sentimentality."
"They're supervillains," Brain scoffed. "They don't strike me as sentimental."
I couldn't help but smirk, fortunately it didn't show through my armor, nor would my tone carry through the echo my power created. "If anything, the criminals are more sentimental than normal people. It's part of the criminal culture. Or, at least, any criminal culture that manage to last. Lunatics like the Teeth and the Fallen play by their own set of rules, of course. But more established criminal groups like Empire Eighty Eight and the Mafia like to pretend they're civil and even cultured. They'll go to absurd lengths to keep that illusion alive."
"Horus is our resident psych expert," Vicky patted my shoulder. "There's a reason I brought him along to the crime scene."
"You have a parahuman psychologist?" Brain asked, sounding more than a little doubtful.
"Of course," Vicky answered. "Why not?
"Just seems odd that you would have powerful parahumans doing mundane careers," he pointed out.
"Blame my mother for that," she dismissed. "She became a fairly successful lawyer in addition to her career as a crime fighter with no secret identity. We have a doctor, a very skilled business executive, even a fashion designer. Just because you're a parahuman doesn't mean you can't have a normal job. In fact, Pantheon encourages it."
"Fascinating," Brain replied. "And how do you plan to locate one of these meeting places?"
"I'm sure there's a place suspected of money laundering that you haven't been able to prove, right?" I asked.
"A few," he admitted. "What do you have in mind?"
....
An 'Authentic Italian' restaraunt owned by the mob, huh? I might have mocked them for playing up the stereotype, but E88's holdings mostly consisted of drug houses and dogfighting rings. Bribing or intimidating enough of the police that they didn't even need to hide it. We of course left Brain behind to return to his bosses. We didn't need the Protectorate here for this. They just didn't know how to think of villains as people.
The greeter's eyes widened. We must have been imposing in our costumes. Vicky and I might have been recognized, we'd been on the news often enough. Aceso probably was, she was a little media darling because she gave them some great sound bites. Atropos, I was certain was identified immediately. The Azrael armor was more well known than most countries. That's what happens when you're an Endslayer, after all.
The man was impressively quick on his feet. "How may I help you?" he asked.
"We're interested in ordering a table," I informed him. With my armor padding my figure and adding a few inches of height, I'm sure I cut an imposing figure. Vicky was letting me take the lead on this one. Criminal culture was something I'd been raised in, and I understood it intuitively. May as well put that understanding to use doing something decent.
"I- I'm sorry, sir, but we don't have any tables available," he lied fluidly. I didn't even need the tech, I could see into the establishment, and the place wasn't much more than half full. Although even that was impressive since it wasn't quite time for Saturday dinner to kick off. It'd be much busier later in the evening. A man with hard eyes watched me from one of the back tables. He's the one, I decided. Not because he was the only crook in the place, but because he was the one who looked confident. He was either a trusted member, or a parahuman. In E88, he would have to be both, but this group may not work the same.
"That's fine," I responded back. "We're willing to wait a while."
The greeter's lips thinned. He had hoped it was a coincidence, now he knew for certain we were there for a reason. "Perhaps it would be easier for you to make a reservation and return later?" he offered. Meanwhile, the scanners in my armor showed that he had hit a button beneath his podium. Some kind of panic button, most likely. They wouldn't attack us, not this openly, but they knew we were here now.
The man inside glanced somewhere I couldn't see a couple seconds later, and then got up and approached us. The social reading tech confirmed what I already knew, he got the permission he needed.
"How's it going?" he asked the greeter smoothly, with the smile of someone who knew he was in charge, and had done this before.
"I was just apologizing to these folks that we weren't ready to receive more guests at the moment," he replied. Also part of the act.
"They can come sit at my table, then," the man offered smoothly. "In fact, put their meal on my tab. Not every day I get to buy lunch for an Endslayer."
Smart ploy, I thought. Something right out of Victor's playbook. Taking food from him would create a subliminal rapport, even though I was aware of the tactic. In addition, accepting a meal from a suspect was basically idiotic, so he'd know how much he had to worry based on whether we accepted. And, for all I knew, his sentiment was genuine. You didn't need to be a good person to have a grudge against the Endbringers.
"That is most generous of you, sir," I answered. "Although we wouldn't want to impose on you and your friends." Of course I intended to accept, but you had to show the initial reluctance, that was just a matter of politeness.
"Nonsense, we'd be happy to have you," he smiled. He knew by my tone that I was accepting. All part of the game. "I'm Angie. Pleasure to meet all of you."
"Horus," I responded as I shook his hand. "This is Atropos, Victoria and Aceso. Apologies for using their costumed names."
"That's fine. I've seen enough capes come and go to understand the score," he smiled broadly as he shook all their hands. He even managed to be charming about it. He stopped at Atropos for an extra moment. "I hope it won't come off as me only doing this for selfish reasons, but would you mind signing an autograph. Y'see, Arianna, my niece, is gay, and it would mean a lot to her. You're one of her heroes." To my surprise, he was telling the truth.
"Oh," Lily hesitated, looking like she wanted to ask us if it was okay. Angie caught on immediately, and it probably didn't tell him anything he didn't already know.
"It can wait, of course," he added. "Let's get you fed first. I insist." He led us in and snatched a few menus with the practiced ease of someone who'd done this often. "You can meet my pals, Joel and Brick. Dunno what Brick's real name is. Not sure he does, either."
The men he named weren't especially notable, physically. Big, but not especially so. Barrel shaped, I think was the term. They wouldn't stand out in a crowd, but they had the same eyes that Angie had when he first looked at me. These are men who've killed before, I was certain of it. They were also clearly hangers on, perhaps even a little insecure in their positions as they glanced at our host for cues. They could be relied on to do exactly nothing but what they thought he wanted.
The next few minutes were mostly small talk about the food, of which he was both familiar and passionate. We made our orders, and Angie's companions were content to let him do all of the talking. Eventually we got to the important question. "So, I hope you don't think it's rude of me, may I ask why you're visiting our lovely city?"
"Probably not the best topic over a meal," I replied, feigning hesitation.
"We're big boys," he gave Brick's back a good smack. "I think we can handle it."
"Don't worry about us," Joel agreed.
"It's the murders of the Fallen," I answered with a quieter voice, as if I didn't want the other patrons to hear. In truth, I didn't care that much, more because I knew we had a place that would make it hard for others to listen in, and the wait staff wouldn't dare.
"That's what I figured," Angie nodded. "Is there a reason you came to this restaurant?"
"Lunch," it was a lie neither of us believed, of course, but such was the game. "We're faced with a bit of a problem. We want to get in touch with the local villains, to see if they have any clues as to who might be trying to frame them for this."
"You don't think they're responsible?" he asked. The suit told me he was shocked by that possibility, and really wanted to pump us for more information without making it too obvious that he was. He was also suspicious I was saying all this, of course.
"It's either a setup, or a single lunatic serial killer," I answered. "Possibly an out of town group hoping we'll come in and clear out the locals so they can move in on the suddenly open market. Hard to say for certain this early in the investigation, but that's why only us four are here, for the moment. If we don't get what we need in a couple days, we might have to bring reinforcements. We cannot ignore a serial killer sending us a direct message like this, but it would be a tragedy to let someone manipulate us into giving them what they want by turning this into a major spectacle."
There was more suspicion than relief by my statement, but then I expected there to be. Still, I had achieved what I'd come here to achieve. My message would make it up the command chain, and someone would find a way to contact us. Probably tonight. No more conversation was had on the subject of heroes and villains, as we talked about stuff already public, like the Endbringer battles. The whole time ignoring our suits' alerts that we were being listened to by hidden microphones.
Angie really did go out of his way to charm Atropos, and in the end it earned him an autographed picture signed to his niece, and he promised she'd cherish it. The whole encounter only lasted at most thirty minutes, but it did seem faster than that.
"Hard to believe he's a criminal," Atropos observed as we left with our doggie bags, intended for Riley who of course missed out on the actual meal.
"I know," Vicky agreed.
"Exact opposite for me," I replied. "Everything about him screamed obvious crook. Of course, I grew up around men like that."
"He reminded me a lot of Jack," Riley whispered her agreement through the coms.
That ended any discussion on that subject.
==============
A/N- One day, I might write a Theo chapter I don't enjoy. This is not that day.
Victoria was really stealing the proverbial show. I'd seen it before, my father was a genius at it, and there was a time when I was younger when he had some hope of grooming me to continue the family business, and had given me a few tips. Even instructed Victor to do the same. Victoria was good at it. Not nearly to the level my father was, of course, and certainly not a match for Victor's stolen talents. But still, she was good.
There just wasn't much her talents could do here, besides look good while doing nothing. The battle occurred elsewhere, and we had no way of knowing where. We left disappointed, if not completely empty handed, to meet with Aceso and Atropos. But a fairly common, if expensive, drug was no kind of evidence.
"So, now that we know we have no leads, what do we do?" Atropos asked, and gave a wary glance at Brain. She and I had been warned that our powers wouldn't shield us from his attack. If it came to fighting him, Aceso was the only weapon we had which might work. It might not even be safe for Taylor's bugs to be in range of this guy. But, for all his power, he was still physically human.
I took advantage of my armor's more or less amorphous shape to look at Aceso covertly. Clarice. She's unfairly beautiful, my traitorous mind told me yet again. As all the other times, I forced myself to remember that she was not real. She was never real. And, as all the other times, it didn't work. It was like telling myself she was dead. How did Zach cope? Oh, right, he didn't have to. She couldn't use this part of her power on him.
I closed my eyes. It's not his fault, I told myself. And he didn't get away unscathed, either.
"Hey, you okay over there?" Victoria asked, tapping on the armor.
"Yeah, sorry," I tried to mean it. "Just lost in thought."
"We're going to stir up a couple hornet nests," Vicky told me. "If your head's not in the game, let us know. We're here for the weekend, we can take a bit of time to make sure things go the best they can go."
"No, I'm fine," I insisted. I wasn't going to slow us down just because of something like this.
"Taking your word for it," she responded. "Okay, so we're still trying to be covert about it. Suggestions?"
"I can show you some of their suspected safehouses," Brain suggested.
"That's certainly an option, any others?"
"Neutral ground," Aceso spoke up. "Every city has two or three of them. Big ones can have lots more. Locations where villains will meet up to discuss major problems, even inviting indie heroes and rogues if the situation's bad enough."
"Would revealing you're in town be considered 'bad enough' for them?" Brain suggested.
"Doubtful," I replied. "They'd rather go to ground and hope we pick off their enemies for them in situations like this. When they ally together, it's for things like a mad bomb tinker blowing up the city one block at a time."
"Our town doesn't have other villains or independents," Brain pointed out. "What would they do under those circumstances?"
"Should still have the neutral locations," I insisted. "Visiting out of towners, friends on the opposite side of the law. Usually the owners of such establishments are well liked by the villains. Even if there's no need to keep them, they'll remain out of sentimentality."
"They're supervillains," Brain scoffed. "They don't strike me as sentimental."
I couldn't help but smirk, fortunately it didn't show through my armor, nor would my tone carry through the echo my power created. "If anything, the criminals are more sentimental than normal people. It's part of the criminal culture. Or, at least, any criminal culture that manage to last. Lunatics like the Teeth and the Fallen play by their own set of rules, of course. But more established criminal groups like Empire Eighty Eight and the Mafia like to pretend they're civil and even cultured. They'll go to absurd lengths to keep that illusion alive."
"Horus is our resident psych expert," Vicky patted my shoulder. "There's a reason I brought him along to the crime scene."
"You have a parahuman psychologist?" Brain asked, sounding more than a little doubtful.
"Of course," Vicky answered. "Why not?
"Just seems odd that you would have powerful parahumans doing mundane careers," he pointed out.
"Blame my mother for that," she dismissed. "She became a fairly successful lawyer in addition to her career as a crime fighter with no secret identity. We have a doctor, a very skilled business executive, even a fashion designer. Just because you're a parahuman doesn't mean you can't have a normal job. In fact, Pantheon encourages it."
"Fascinating," Brain replied. "And how do you plan to locate one of these meeting places?"
"I'm sure there's a place suspected of money laundering that you haven't been able to prove, right?" I asked.
"A few," he admitted. "What do you have in mind?"
....
An 'Authentic Italian' restaraunt owned by the mob, huh? I might have mocked them for playing up the stereotype, but E88's holdings mostly consisted of drug houses and dogfighting rings. Bribing or intimidating enough of the police that they didn't even need to hide it. We of course left Brain behind to return to his bosses. We didn't need the Protectorate here for this. They just didn't know how to think of villains as people.
The greeter's eyes widened. We must have been imposing in our costumes. Vicky and I might have been recognized, we'd been on the news often enough. Aceso probably was, she was a little media darling because she gave them some great sound bites. Atropos, I was certain was identified immediately. The Azrael armor was more well known than most countries. That's what happens when you're an Endslayer, after all.
The man was impressively quick on his feet. "How may I help you?" he asked.
"We're interested in ordering a table," I informed him. With my armor padding my figure and adding a few inches of height, I'm sure I cut an imposing figure. Vicky was letting me take the lead on this one. Criminal culture was something I'd been raised in, and I understood it intuitively. May as well put that understanding to use doing something decent.
"I- I'm sorry, sir, but we don't have any tables available," he lied fluidly. I didn't even need the tech, I could see into the establishment, and the place wasn't much more than half full. Although even that was impressive since it wasn't quite time for Saturday dinner to kick off. It'd be much busier later in the evening. A man with hard eyes watched me from one of the back tables. He's the one, I decided. Not because he was the only crook in the place, but because he was the one who looked confident. He was either a trusted member, or a parahuman. In E88, he would have to be both, but this group may not work the same.
"That's fine," I responded back. "We're willing to wait a while."
The greeter's lips thinned. He had hoped it was a coincidence, now he knew for certain we were there for a reason. "Perhaps it would be easier for you to make a reservation and return later?" he offered. Meanwhile, the scanners in my armor showed that he had hit a button beneath his podium. Some kind of panic button, most likely. They wouldn't attack us, not this openly, but they knew we were here now.
The man inside glanced somewhere I couldn't see a couple seconds later, and then got up and approached us. The social reading tech confirmed what I already knew, he got the permission he needed.
"How's it going?" he asked the greeter smoothly, with the smile of someone who knew he was in charge, and had done this before.
"I was just apologizing to these folks that we weren't ready to receive more guests at the moment," he replied. Also part of the act.
"They can come sit at my table, then," the man offered smoothly. "In fact, put their meal on my tab. Not every day I get to buy lunch for an Endslayer."
Smart ploy, I thought. Something right out of Victor's playbook. Taking food from him would create a subliminal rapport, even though I was aware of the tactic. In addition, accepting a meal from a suspect was basically idiotic, so he'd know how much he had to worry based on whether we accepted. And, for all I knew, his sentiment was genuine. You didn't need to be a good person to have a grudge against the Endbringers.
"That is most generous of you, sir," I answered. "Although we wouldn't want to impose on you and your friends." Of course I intended to accept, but you had to show the initial reluctance, that was just a matter of politeness.
"Nonsense, we'd be happy to have you," he smiled. He knew by my tone that I was accepting. All part of the game. "I'm Angie. Pleasure to meet all of you."
"Horus," I responded as I shook his hand. "This is Atropos, Victoria and Aceso. Apologies for using their costumed names."
"That's fine. I've seen enough capes come and go to understand the score," he smiled broadly as he shook all their hands. He even managed to be charming about it. He stopped at Atropos for an extra moment. "I hope it won't come off as me only doing this for selfish reasons, but would you mind signing an autograph. Y'see, Arianna, my niece, is gay, and it would mean a lot to her. You're one of her heroes." To my surprise, he was telling the truth.
"Oh," Lily hesitated, looking like she wanted to ask us if it was okay. Angie caught on immediately, and it probably didn't tell him anything he didn't already know.
"It can wait, of course," he added. "Let's get you fed first. I insist." He led us in and snatched a few menus with the practiced ease of someone who'd done this often. "You can meet my pals, Joel and Brick. Dunno what Brick's real name is. Not sure he does, either."
The men he named weren't especially notable, physically. Big, but not especially so. Barrel shaped, I think was the term. They wouldn't stand out in a crowd, but they had the same eyes that Angie had when he first looked at me. These are men who've killed before, I was certain of it. They were also clearly hangers on, perhaps even a little insecure in their positions as they glanced at our host for cues. They could be relied on to do exactly nothing but what they thought he wanted.
The next few minutes were mostly small talk about the food, of which he was both familiar and passionate. We made our orders, and Angie's companions were content to let him do all of the talking. Eventually we got to the important question. "So, I hope you don't think it's rude of me, may I ask why you're visiting our lovely city?"
"Probably not the best topic over a meal," I replied, feigning hesitation.
"We're big boys," he gave Brick's back a good smack. "I think we can handle it."
"Don't worry about us," Joel agreed.
"It's the murders of the Fallen," I answered with a quieter voice, as if I didn't want the other patrons to hear. In truth, I didn't care that much, more because I knew we had a place that would make it hard for others to listen in, and the wait staff wouldn't dare.
"That's what I figured," Angie nodded. "Is there a reason you came to this restaurant?"
"Lunch," it was a lie neither of us believed, of course, but such was the game. "We're faced with a bit of a problem. We want to get in touch with the local villains, to see if they have any clues as to who might be trying to frame them for this."
"You don't think they're responsible?" he asked. The suit told me he was shocked by that possibility, and really wanted to pump us for more information without making it too obvious that he was. He was also suspicious I was saying all this, of course.
"It's either a setup, or a single lunatic serial killer," I answered. "Possibly an out of town group hoping we'll come in and clear out the locals so they can move in on the suddenly open market. Hard to say for certain this early in the investigation, but that's why only us four are here, for the moment. If we don't get what we need in a couple days, we might have to bring reinforcements. We cannot ignore a serial killer sending us a direct message like this, but it would be a tragedy to let someone manipulate us into giving them what they want by turning this into a major spectacle."
There was more suspicion than relief by my statement, but then I expected there to be. Still, I had achieved what I'd come here to achieve. My message would make it up the command chain, and someone would find a way to contact us. Probably tonight. No more conversation was had on the subject of heroes and villains, as we talked about stuff already public, like the Endbringer battles. The whole time ignoring our suits' alerts that we were being listened to by hidden microphones.
Angie really did go out of his way to charm Atropos, and in the end it earned him an autographed picture signed to his niece, and he promised she'd cherish it. The whole encounter only lasted at most thirty minutes, but it did seem faster than that.
"Hard to believe he's a criminal," Atropos observed as we left with our doggie bags, intended for Riley who of course missed out on the actual meal.
"I know," Vicky agreed.
"Exact opposite for me," I replied. "Everything about him screamed obvious crook. Of course, I grew up around men like that."
"He reminded me a lot of Jack," Riley whispered her agreement through the coms.
That ended any discussion on that subject.
==============
A/N- One day, I might write a Theo chapter I don't enjoy. This is not that day.
Last edited:
dasstan
:)
- Joined
- May 23, 2014
- Messages
- 4,651
- Likes received
- 24,102
Is using his first name intentional?
GBscientist
Getting sticky.
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2015
- Messages
- 59
- Likes received
- 247
Say, does Brain sound like Orson Welles and have an idiot co-worker?
selonianth
Writer of Words
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2014
- Messages
- 865
- Likes received
- 3,245
And have an affection for cheese?
Nigel Burnelli Isaacs
Not too sore, are you?
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2015
- Messages
- 437
- Likes received
- 2,610
Was wondering the same.
Now nice snip I love how Theo thinks and how you show how him growing up among the Empire can be useful to the team, just as I liked how Victoria introduced him(aside from the weird first name use). Now I might be overly suspicious but I do not thnk Lily should have signed anything this could very well have an use for someone with the right weird power or something in Playmate's rules can fuck her up(if that's what the whole thing is).
Flammy
Gone for Good
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2015
- Messages
- 23
- Likes received
- 130
Really good chapter, characters personality and actions really fit well.
Small typo:
Small typo:
Missing closing quote.
edale
Versed in the lewd.
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2015
- Messages
- 1,878
- Likes received
- 4,961
And I thought I was the only one that noticed. Seriously, noone besides me posted a SINGLE thing supporting zzzzzz's post. Was tempted to throw that XKCD comic back at the guy who originally posted it, lol.
That or Blank from No Game No Life (don't even need to see her power in action to know that's a curb-stomp waiting to happen)...or Yugi from Yugi Oh (King of Games? We'll see about that! lol).
FTFY.
edale
Versed in the lewd.
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2015
- Messages
- 1,878
- Likes received
- 4,961
SB = Mods trash fics.
QQ = Mods participate in discussion about fics.
I think we have a winner!
Last edited:
selonianth
Writer of Words
- Joined
- Sep 20, 2014
- Messages
- 865
- Likes received
- 3,245
You can try to use it against me all night long. Doesn't change the fact that Saint's actions are only logical from the perspective of a crazy, addict who is so liberally abusing the directive given to him by Richter that if it was an earthquake it would break the scale he would have designed had it not been for Scion.
Considering Blank won games that shouldn't have been winnable? Lulz. Yugi by contrast was playing a game that he'd been playing for millennia and had in fact created.
PineTreeq
Know what you're doing yet?
- Joined
- Jan 11, 2015
- Messages
- 236
- Likes received
- 323
You must have never seen season 0 then, he played some weired non-yugioh games.
Adrian Nightshade
Making the rounds.
- Joined
- Jan 25, 2015
- Messages
- 38
- Likes received
- 115
I think he meant the Pharaoh, or Yami Yugi.
Jans
That which smiles.
- Joined
- Mar 15, 2013
- Messages
- 543
- Likes received
- 179
Good lord why would she need a candlestick holder?Yami was a vicious sonuvabitch in the manga who mind raped and tortured his way through punks and bullies. I'm not surprised his expy is a super-villain.
edale
Versed in the lewd.
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2015
- Messages
- 1,878
- Likes received
- 4,961
And I'll repeat, that only applies to his actions AFTER his first contact with Teacher. All his motivation and actions before his first dose of the Teacher Juice (tm) are still valid; and what was he doing before Teacher? THE SAME THING!!!! with the exception of actually being able to use some of the Dragon tech they had ALREADY stolen.
Where does it say the Yami created shadow games? In fact, he's the one who sealed their power. Granted I only saw up through the Leviathan arc, so didn't get all the pharaoh's back-story, but seems unlikely he CREATED them, they were played by the Gods after all.
On a slightly, but not really, related topic, has anyone done a Yugi Oh/NGNL crossover? I can definitely see Yugi taking Blank's place in NGNL, though he'd definitely go about things differently. Closest I've seen was a short where Blank showed up to KaibaLand to play some game 6 months after the game was removed...with Yugi being the ONLY one to beat it.
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2013
- Messages
- 28,692
- Likes received
- 115,674
SB = Mods trash fics.
QQ = mods participate in discussion about fics.
I think we have a winner!
Tanuki is just another member of the forum... well... a hipster member of the forum... but modly stuff/duties are just extra stuff that shouldn't affect tanuki posts... :3
edale
Versed in the lewd.
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2015
- Messages
- 1,878
- Likes received
- 4,961
Edale's point still stands, and is further re-enforced.
No wait! I meant my point!...damn it, now you've got me doing it.
jaelin910
habitual lurker
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2015
- Messages
- 502
- Likes received
- 3,303
if he'd been hit repeatedly in the head and developed a minor case of serious brain damage, would continuing the same actions as he had performed before be a sign that he's coping well or that his judgement shouldn't have been trusted at any point?
your posts seem to indicate you believe that, as his behaviour was unchanged, it was not, before or after, 'stupid'.
selonianth, on the other hand seems to be of the opinion that his behaviour was always that of a halfwit and that afterwards he merely had an excuse.
