Working Relationship (part 2)
Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2016
- Messages
- 16,231
- Likes received
- 832,612
April 20th, 2013
07:30 Exactly
Once, the IRS could tell you that I was the richest man in America. If they felt like being unusually forthcoming, they could confirm my own claim to be the third richest man on Earth.
Though that would only count publically disclosed holdings, and would rely on the lumpenproletariat's ability to accurately determine asset value. The truth is that I am far and away the richest man on Earth, and by some measures the most powerful.
And then I spent two months under the influence of the Anti-Life, as did the rest of the world.
Mercy passes me the overnight folder. I already know what ninety percent of it will say, but it's always worth knowing the precise degree to which the Justice League's takeover has progressed.
Western politicians have been making unfunded spending commitments since the end of the World War Two-
My eyes unavoidably drift to a watercolour on my office's side wall.
-and once the worker base stopped expanding and started contracting, have stuck to currency depreciation as the correct method for avoiding the consequences of their electorate's spendthrift habits. It wasn't a problem for me, as the correct response was obviously to treat money like any other depreciating asset and invest resources elsewhere. My entire asset management system was premised on the continuation of that policy.
And now the world reserve currency is the Justice League Medallion, and not only are they not going to depreciate it, it's backed by precious metal.
Precious metal currency in the 21st century? Widely traded precious metal currency in the 21st century? The banking sector literally doesn't have the skills to handle it. So I have to review investment decisions and forecasts made by formerly competent employees who are suddenly out of their depths.
I glance over to the bookcase at Professor Prokopios' Principles of Finance. He must be beside himself with joy.
Someone might as well be.
Ah, yes. The President continues to be a witless buffoon. I wasn't expecting a great deal from President Knight; his only real virtue was how agreeable he was to doing whatever it was that the last person he spoke to said. The cheapest President I've ever bought, and without any of the truculent moralising that Horne was inclined to do. Making him go in the right direction required not just money but time and attention as well.
I always thought that someone with the ego to dress in a skin tight blue costume with a red cape would refuse to take over the world indirectly. Someone so brazen would never stoop to covert means. Their ego wouldn't allow it. But I suppose that anyone of moderate intellect can employ people capable of pursuing useful methods that don't come naturally to themselves.
Ah, yes, I see that the Medallion is to be treated both as a currency and a unit of precious metal, and the Treasury is once again ignoring the part of the Constitution that makes it clear that issuing currency is their job and theirs alone. I'm a little surprised that Batman is so well-prepared for this eventuality…
But only a little.
The most frustrating part is that I can't do anything about it. Nothing that wouldn't be foolishly self-destructive, at least. The sort of people I would usually work through or with had a higher than average death rate during the Anti-Life period. Of those that survived, a surprising number had a fatal attack of conscience after the… Whatever it was that ended it.
It's incredible. The Justice League used a global mind control effect even more invasive than the one they were fighting, and the countries that survived are happy to give them the keys to the metaphorical city.
The countries that they allow to survive. If I could get a better idea what happened to Atlantis-.
"Sir?"
Otis has a very narrow skill set. Usually I like that in my employees, because it means that they're more likely to stay where I put them. In Otis's case his difficulty in paying attention to social cues has given me more than a few headaches over the years, but in exchange I get a very capable and completely loyal Chief of Security.
Trying to imply that he should wait until after my daily update before trying to brief me was a total waste of time.
I flick through to the Security sheet. Some progress on tracking 'LexCorp employees displaced during the Anti-Life period', but the only one found overnight was found dead. That leaves some sort of problem with one of the top security sites-. No, he'd just have woken me if that was it. Direct instructions he can manage.
"Yes, Otis?"
He pulls his tablet out of his belt. "Sir, we've begun getting applications for summer internships."
I don't have interns working directly for me, but if otherwise intelligent people want to work for me for no money, who am I to stop them?
"We did the usual background checks, and one… Well." He puts his tablet down on my desk and slides it towards me.
I have a fully integrated wireless communications suite, constantly monitored by a completely loyal AI. He has access. He could-.
Oh, at least he isn't using print-outs any more.
I look-.
"Ah. I see. Is this genuine?"
"Details match the fake background the Justice League invented. The next stage would be a call-back, but I thought I should run it by you first."
Match's face stares back at me from the application summary.
Why?
The Justice League has shapeshifters and magicians. As well as the financial resources to send someone with no prior Justice League history. If they wanted to infiltrate LexCorp they have far better options than knocking on the front door.
Given how I'm forced to use their ridiculous currency, they hardly need more control levers.
If it was Conner I could almost understand it. It took me a bullet to finally resolve my own issues with my father, and the bullet was worth more than he was. And since I'm still alive… 'As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool returns to his folly' and all that. But why does the failed project want to visit the company? Doing the ground-work for an eventual cover job? There's no chance of me paying a Justice League affiliate for anything, much less a duplicate of the alien.
There isn't going to be any way to turn this into a way to get him back under control. I'm not going to waste time considering it. Between the loss of specialist personnel and the fact that the League will do daily checks on him, that approach just isn't viable. I don't think that he's stupid enough for a soft-sell to work. What the Justice League has on me might not be admissible in court, but it's hard to square the actions I've been associated with and my genuine end goals.
I take a moment to mentally curse Klarion. I nearly had Orange Lantern on-side! What part of 'distraction'-?
Ah… Sunk cost. Well and truly sunk and quite costly.
I let my higher functions work on this issue while I read the rest of his application. Good school grades, though like his primogenitor I don't know if that's the actual limits of his abilities or just a good cover; intelligent enough to give a good impression but not intelligent enough to draw excessive attention. No, it has to be an act. He's had access to genomorph educational neuroprogramming.
Do the League think that I don't know-? No. Might he? No, this is signed by his adopted mother. He would have had to speak to her about it.
Is it a joke of some sort?
Possible. He didn't have any kind of sense of humor as Project: Match, and none of the intelligence I've received since then has made any reference to one. A dare seems slightly more likely; Robin once sent in an application as me, and I could see him goading 'Mitchell Kent' into doing the same thing.
So in summary: threats? Negligible. Opportunities? None. Response?
"I have no opinion. Do the usual screening and follow the normal procedure. If he gets in then he gets in. If he doesn't then he doesn't. Is there anything else?"
Otis recovers his tablet. "No sir."
"Then you're dismissed. I have a global economy to repair."
07:30 Exactly
Once, the IRS could tell you that I was the richest man in America. If they felt like being unusually forthcoming, they could confirm my own claim to be the third richest man on Earth.
Though that would only count publically disclosed holdings, and would rely on the lumpenproletariat's ability to accurately determine asset value. The truth is that I am far and away the richest man on Earth, and by some measures the most powerful.
And then I spent two months under the influence of the Anti-Life, as did the rest of the world.
Mercy passes me the overnight folder. I already know what ninety percent of it will say, but it's always worth knowing the precise degree to which the Justice League's takeover has progressed.
Western politicians have been making unfunded spending commitments since the end of the World War Two-
My eyes unavoidably drift to a watercolour on my office's side wall.
-and once the worker base stopped expanding and started contracting, have stuck to currency depreciation as the correct method for avoiding the consequences of their electorate's spendthrift habits. It wasn't a problem for me, as the correct response was obviously to treat money like any other depreciating asset and invest resources elsewhere. My entire asset management system was premised on the continuation of that policy.
And now the world reserve currency is the Justice League Medallion, and not only are they not going to depreciate it, it's backed by precious metal.
Precious metal currency in the 21st century? Widely traded precious metal currency in the 21st century? The banking sector literally doesn't have the skills to handle it. So I have to review investment decisions and forecasts made by formerly competent employees who are suddenly out of their depths.
I glance over to the bookcase at Professor Prokopios' Principles of Finance. He must be beside himself with joy.
Someone might as well be.
Ah, yes. The President continues to be a witless buffoon. I wasn't expecting a great deal from President Knight; his only real virtue was how agreeable he was to doing whatever it was that the last person he spoke to said. The cheapest President I've ever bought, and without any of the truculent moralising that Horne was inclined to do. Making him go in the right direction required not just money but time and attention as well.
I always thought that someone with the ego to dress in a skin tight blue costume with a red cape would refuse to take over the world indirectly. Someone so brazen would never stoop to covert means. Their ego wouldn't allow it. But I suppose that anyone of moderate intellect can employ people capable of pursuing useful methods that don't come naturally to themselves.
Ah, yes, I see that the Medallion is to be treated both as a currency and a unit of precious metal, and the Treasury is once again ignoring the part of the Constitution that makes it clear that issuing currency is their job and theirs alone. I'm a little surprised that Batman is so well-prepared for this eventuality…
But only a little.
The most frustrating part is that I can't do anything about it. Nothing that wouldn't be foolishly self-destructive, at least. The sort of people I would usually work through or with had a higher than average death rate during the Anti-Life period. Of those that survived, a surprising number had a fatal attack of conscience after the… Whatever it was that ended it.
It's incredible. The Justice League used a global mind control effect even more invasive than the one they were fighting, and the countries that survived are happy to give them the keys to the metaphorical city.
The countries that they allow to survive. If I could get a better idea what happened to Atlantis-.
"Sir?"
Otis has a very narrow skill set. Usually I like that in my employees, because it means that they're more likely to stay where I put them. In Otis's case his difficulty in paying attention to social cues has given me more than a few headaches over the years, but in exchange I get a very capable and completely loyal Chief of Security.
Trying to imply that he should wait until after my daily update before trying to brief me was a total waste of time.
I flick through to the Security sheet. Some progress on tracking 'LexCorp employees displaced during the Anti-Life period', but the only one found overnight was found dead. That leaves some sort of problem with one of the top security sites-. No, he'd just have woken me if that was it. Direct instructions he can manage.
"Yes, Otis?"
He pulls his tablet out of his belt. "Sir, we've begun getting applications for summer internships."
I don't have interns working directly for me, but if otherwise intelligent people want to work for me for no money, who am I to stop them?
"We did the usual background checks, and one… Well." He puts his tablet down on my desk and slides it towards me.
I have a fully integrated wireless communications suite, constantly monitored by a completely loyal AI. He has access. He could-.
Oh, at least he isn't using print-outs any more.
I look-.
"Ah. I see. Is this genuine?"
"Details match the fake background the Justice League invented. The next stage would be a call-back, but I thought I should run it by you first."
Match's face stares back at me from the application summary.
Why?
The Justice League has shapeshifters and magicians. As well as the financial resources to send someone with no prior Justice League history. If they wanted to infiltrate LexCorp they have far better options than knocking on the front door.
Given how I'm forced to use their ridiculous currency, they hardly need more control levers.
If it was Conner I could almost understand it. It took me a bullet to finally resolve my own issues with my father, and the bullet was worth more than he was. And since I'm still alive… 'As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool returns to his folly' and all that. But why does the failed project want to visit the company? Doing the ground-work for an eventual cover job? There's no chance of me paying a Justice League affiliate for anything, much less a duplicate of the alien.
There isn't going to be any way to turn this into a way to get him back under control. I'm not going to waste time considering it. Between the loss of specialist personnel and the fact that the League will do daily checks on him, that approach just isn't viable. I don't think that he's stupid enough for a soft-sell to work. What the Justice League has on me might not be admissible in court, but it's hard to square the actions I've been associated with and my genuine end goals.
I take a moment to mentally curse Klarion. I nearly had Orange Lantern on-side! What part of 'distraction'-?
Ah… Sunk cost. Well and truly sunk and quite costly.
I let my higher functions work on this issue while I read the rest of his application. Good school grades, though like his primogenitor I don't know if that's the actual limits of his abilities or just a good cover; intelligent enough to give a good impression but not intelligent enough to draw excessive attention. No, it has to be an act. He's had access to genomorph educational neuroprogramming.
Do the League think that I don't know-? No. Might he? No, this is signed by his adopted mother. He would have had to speak to her about it.
Is it a joke of some sort?
Possible. He didn't have any kind of sense of humor as Project: Match, and none of the intelligence I've received since then has made any reference to one. A dare seems slightly more likely; Robin once sent in an application as me, and I could see him goading 'Mitchell Kent' into doing the same thing.
So in summary: threats? Negligible. Opportunities? None. Response?
"I have no opinion. Do the usual screening and follow the normal procedure. If he gets in then he gets in. If he doesn't then he doesn't. Is there anything else?"
Otis recovers his tablet. "No sir."
"Then you're dismissed. I have a global economy to repair."
Last edited:
Even though there is an Earth Sixteen version...
