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whatisthiscontentyouspeakof · 4 years

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The One Where They Know

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@laurcad123

I’m going to be honest, I’m not feeling this chapter. I may come back and rewrite it until I’m satisfied. It just feels flat and forced to me but I wanted to move on instead of killing myself creatively when it comes to this story.

AO3 First Next

Chapter 2: It’s Been A Day

Chat Noir and her had both tried searching for the akuma but since they were both so close to their transformation they had to give up. Marinette felt dread fill her heart. This was worse then her first day as a superhero when she had almost forgotten to purify the akuma but Chat Noir had reminded her but they still had to chance they thing half way across town before she could capture it. She had no idea what was going to happen now.

Unfortunately all she could do was cast the Miraculous Ladybug cure and head home since the akuma was long gone.

“Tikki, what do I do now?” Marinette softly asked her Kwami once she was in the privacy of her own room. She felt drained now that she was alone, shame at her failure overcoming her. She shouldn’t have gotten distracted and let Chat Noir handle the situation, he would have made sure Ivan was safe and she wouldn’t have gotten the akuma.

“I’m afraid there is nothing you can do, Marinette,” Tikki said, floating up to look her in the eye.

“But what does not purifying the akuma mean?” Marinette asked. “Ivan is obviously back to being himself and I was able to fix everything so what’s going to happening? Does the un-purified akuma give Hawkmoth some sort new power? If so why hasn’t he used it before? Will he-“

“Marinette!” Tiki yelled, having already said her name a few times, getting no reactions. “Take a deep breath.” Marinette did as she was told, taking a deep breath before looking at Tikki. “So there’s two things that could happen since the akuma wasn’t purified. One, Hawkmoth won’t do anything, either because he doesn’t see the point in reusing the akuma, or because he doesn’t know how to he can reuse it. The other thing he could do is reuse the akuma if he’s aware of the ability. That means the second Ivan gets upset again he’ll be re-akumatized into Stoneheart again. He’ll also get the ability to control minions.”

“Minions?” Marinette asked. “You mean like how other akumas can take control of people?”

Tikki nodded before shrugging. “Sort of. Instead of Stoneheart needing to come into contact with someone to turn them into a minion like other akumas, Hawkmoth will actually be able to turn anyone upset into a stone being for Stoneheart to take control of when Ivan turns into him again.”

Marinette bit worryingly at her lip. On one hand, she needed to keep Ivan from getting upset since she doesn’t want him being re-akumatized, but a part of her wanted Ivan to get upset as soon as possible so that if Hawkmoth was planning on akumatizing Ivan, she could purify the akuma before a bunch of other civilians got turn into stone minions.

Tikki seemed to know what she was thinking because she said, “There’s no point in worry about it now, Marinette. We don’t even know if Hawkmoth will even re-akumatize Ivan. We can wait until tomorrow to deal with all this.”

Marinette allowed herself to relax like Tikki said, sending Chat Noir a message to tell him to do the same. She had a nice supper with her parents and finished a few tiny projects she was working on before heading to bed a bit earlier then normal. After all, the early she was to bed, theoretically, the easier she would wake up and make it to school and check on Ivan.

Marinette made her way downstairs the next morning trying to figure out how to bring up Ivan’s akumatization with him since it was an unspoken rule that bringing up someones akumatization to them is really rude.

“Good morning Papa,” Marinette greeted, kissing her dad on the cheek. “Maman in the bakery?”

“Yes. She’s training Harmony on the cash register today.” her dad responded. Harmony was their newest hire. She’d help with the front end aspects of the bakery so that her maman could focus on custom orders and decorating while her papa made the stuff for customers that just walked in. They had other bakers on staff but it was only on a part time or casual basis depending on how busy the bakery was. And her maman and papa both like making sure everything made was to their standard so it was just easier to hire people to run the front end and help customers.

Marinette grabbed her cereal bowl just as the news turned on. Nadja was onscreen, showing pictures of other stone beings that were frozen in place.

“Don’t be amused, it’s just the news,” Nadja said, before going onto news coverage. “The stone beings are all over Paris.” The screen filled with a clip of a police officer standing guard over the frozen stone being while a civilian was taking its photo. “For now, they’re showing now signs movement.” It cut to another stone being, this one outside the Louvre. “Police have cordoned off the areas.” Was that one by the Arc de Triomphe? There was going to be a lot of angry people if the Police had to block off part of the road.

The Screen turned to show the Mayor standing in front of Hôtel de Ville speaking to what Marinette assumed was a bunch of reporters since he had a press podium in front of him. “We won’t stop until we get these people back to normal.” the mayor was saying. She noticed that Sabrina’s dad, Roger Raincomprix was standing behind the Mayor, his arm in a sling. She would have thought Lieutenant Roux would have been standing there since he was the lead on all Akuma cases. Not that she missed him. Officer Raincomprix was more understanding and empathic to Akuma victims. If he had been there in the stadium yesterday, he would never had ordered his officers to shoot and Marinette would have gotten the Akuma just like she had all the other times.

“We’re not making much headway but with the help of Lieutenant Raincomprix, who has been promoted to take over for Lieutenant Roux as the lead on Akuma cases, and our heroes, I’m sure everything will be back to normal before supper tonight,” the mayor said jollily. Marinette couldn’t even feel happy she no longer had to deal with Roux and his views on Hawkmoth and Akumas since the mayors promise of having everything normal by this evening was making her anxious. What if she and Chat Noir couldn’t fix this? What if Hawkmoth kept the people as stone beings and never reakumatized Ivan?

The screen cut back to Nadja with the picture showing a image of her and Chat Noir instead of any of the stone beings. “Paris is relying on our guardian angels, our heroes, Ladybug and Chat Noir, to save us all.” she said, making Marinette feel worse. If she had just dealt with Roux quicker she would have been able to get the Akuma and none of this would have happened. “Our lives depend on them.”

Marinette couldn’t help but gasp a little. She knew if she failed that Paris would suffer but this was the first time that something had happened that could actually be considered a failure and it was weighing heavily on her.

She felt her father place a large, warm hand on her should. “I know all this is scary and upsetting,” he told her gently. “We’ve never had an akuma attack that’s lasted more then a day, but don’t worry, Ladybug and Chat Noir will fix it, just like they have in the past. We just have to show them that we’re not scared, that we believe in them because we trust them and know that they’ll find a way to turn those people back to normal.”

“But what if Ladybug fails?” she couldn’t help but voice the thought she had had since she first started doing this. If she failed then there was no one to purify the Akuma or rebuild the city. Hawkmoth would win. The little voice in the back of her head, the one that she thought had died the more comfortable she had gotten with being a hero, was telling her to find someone better to be a hero, someone older with more experience. God, there was the entire Justice League who dealt with this kind of things. Another voice reminded her that Chat Noir and her had agreed that getting the Justice League involved was a bad idea since it ran the risk of someone capable with their own powers getting akumatized.

“Then, I’d come and save you,” her papa said as if it were the easy. “Superbaker to the rescue!”

Marinette couldn’t help but giggle as her dad picked up a baguette and held it forward like a sword. She turned and hug him, placing a kiss on his cheek. “Thanks, Superdad.” she told him, genuinely feeling better. If her dad could believe in her, then she could to. And she knew her partner, he always had her back. They’d be able to figure this out, together.

Now energized for the day Marinette made her way back up to her room, a hop in her step. She had this.

Marinette walked through the school doors, having met Alya right outside the doors. Was this what having a best (civilian) friend was like? She was just glad she wasn’t late so Alya didn’t have to wait for her or risk being late herself.

“Look at this,” Alya said handing her her cellphone. “Apparently a bunch of other teens are a bit freaked out that another person their age got akumatized, it’s becoming more and more common after all, that they all decided they need more information on Akumas, Akuma attacks and all news related to either, including that of our heroes. My blog had a major spike in visitors last night, especially since the news used my footage of the battle. I may have update my blog to make sure it doesn’t crash.”

“That’s great. At least something positive came from having one of our classmates become an akuma.” Marinette said, handing Alya her phone back.

“That’s a good way to look at it, girl. Staying positive is the best way for us to fight against Hawkmoth. Ladybug even said that herself you know. I bet you won’t have to worry about getting akumatized with kind of attitude.” Alya said, completing her as if it were the easiest thing to do. Marinette wasn’t used to be completed as Marinette, at least outside of the Art Room. Chloe had made sure that anyone who did would later regret it.

Before Marinette could say anything nice about Alya, both of their attentions were grabbed by a group of people surrounding Ivan. Marinette frowned as he started to look upset. You’d think by now people would realize that upsetting people was a bad and mean idea, not to mention stupid since everyone had the chance of becoming an akuma.

“Come on Ivan.” Kim was needling. “You have to know what went wrong. Why are you normal and there a a bunch of stone monsters still hanging around? What did you do?”

“Everyone knows akuma victims don’t have any memories,” Rose said, trying to defend the gentle giant. “You can’t blame them for their actions.”

“Yeah, and everyone knows that after an Akuma is defeated the city is repaired and everyone is returned to normal and yet here we are, the city in ruins and several people have been turned into stone beings,” Kim argued. “So who’s to say that he doesn’t remember exactly what he did?”

Several people looked uncomfortable with what Kim was saying but no one spoke up. She notice Ivan looked towards Mylène, as if hoping for her to either say something, or to not look at him like he was a monster.

Well no one nice anyways. “Once a monster, always a monster,” Chloe said form off to the side, Sabrina standing half a step behind her. “We all saw the way you were going to beat Kim up even without the Akuma. Are any of us surprised that you turned into one of those monsters? Now with innocent Parisians turning into a bunch of stone versions of Akuma you, I’m surprised you haven’t been brought in.”

Iva stood up, obviously sick of everything he was hearing, storming off angrily.

“Don’t let the door hit you on the way out,” Chloe called after him.

Marinette felt angry on Ivans behalf. If anyone was a monster here, it was Chloe. She saw Alya turned angrily towards Chloe, and decided to let her deal with the bully since she had dealt with her so well the day before. Concerned about Ivan, she raced after him. She knew there was a chance he’d be reakumatized, and while that would give her the chance to purify the akuma, she didn’t want her classmate going through such negative emotions. If need be she’d get Chat Noir and the two fo them would take Ivan somewhere private and let him know what’s happening before trying to get him akumatized so they didn’t risk the chance of any civilians getting hurt.

She found the larger boy sitting on the floor of the locker room in front of his locker. He had headphones one and seemed to be trying to destress as not to get reakumatize, something Marinette applauded him for. He knew he was upset and was trying to calm down and deal with it in a way that was helpful and relaxing to him.

She knelt down beside him and place a gentle hand on his arm. His face relaxed at bit seeing it was her, pulling his headphones off and looking at her.

“You should tell Mylène how you feel,” she told him.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Ivan insisted.

Marinette smiled encouragingly. “Come on, I saw how you look at her.”

Ivan looked at her as if trying to tell if she was making fun of him. She tried to look as supportive as possible. She genuinely thought he and Mylène would make a cute couple and that the shorter girl felt the same way about him. Ivan looked away, still looking upset.

“No, no negative emotions.” he looked up her angrily and she had to back track. It did sort of sound like she only cared that he didn’t become a ‘monster’ again. “What I mean is…be positive. I’m sure she likes you too.” She leaned closer. “Do talk to her.”

“I’m no good with words.” Ivan said and Marinette could almost shout in joy. She was making headway. He was no longer denying that he liked Mylène and pretty soon the two of them would become the schools cutest couple.

“Who needs words?” Marinette said. She was so going to make this happen. “You could draw her a picture, send her flowers….”

“I could write her a song?” Ivan asked hopefully.

She smiled widely at the idea. Maybe he’d be better with words when it was an art form and something he could practice. Especially since this was the most upbeat she’d seen him yet. “That’s a great idea!” Marinette said firmly, her hands forming little determined fists. She’d love it if someone wrote her a song. It’d be so romantic. “Who wouldn’t want a love song written for her? Go for it, Ivan, and stay positive. We can all make the world a better place, one full of love, if we were all just more positive.”

Ivan nodded at her, shooting her a smile, before heading off to write his love song. Marinette smiled as she watched him disappear. She couldn’t wait to hear what he wrote, or see what a cute couple he and Mylène will be.

“You did good Marinette,” Tikki said, flying out of her purse.

“Even if I didn’t take the chance to fix everything?” she asked her Kwami, sure that Tikki would be disappointed with her.

“You’re classmates feelings are more important. And I’m sure you’ve already come up with an idea of how to fix everything later. You looked out for your classmate and his feeling and that’s what’s important.” Tikki said.

Marinette smiled at her before opening her purse back up, allowing Tikki to fly back in. It wouldn’t do her any good to be on school property and still make it to class late. She’d never hear the end of it.

Marinette was happy to Alya was still downstairs. This way, if she was late, at least she wasn’t going to be late alone.

“Oh, I can’t stand Chloe,” Alya said. “Who does she think she is, making fun of people and making them feel worse then they already do.”

“She thinks she’s the mayors daughter.” Marinette muttered. She sighed. “I get, Chloe can be really upsetting but you have to be careful. I admire the way you’re able to stand up to her, but the school won’t punish her in case they piss off her dad. You have to be careful that you don’t get punish instead.”

Alya placed a hand on her shoulder. “Thanks for looking out for me, girl, but I got his. Chloe and her dad don’t scare me.”

Alya walked through the classroom door and gasped. Marinette walked up behind her to see what had caused her to react like that. She saw a blond haired boy kneeling down by her seat doing something to it.

“What are you doing?” Marinette demanded, rushing forward. She saw a chewed piece of gum on her seat, his finger against it as if he had just placed it there.

“I..” he was cut off by Chloe’s laughter.

She should have known that the heiress was involved in this.

Marinette placed her hands on her hips, pushing down the upset feeling that was building in her chest. No way was she going to give Chloe the satisfaction. “Ok, i get it. Good job, you three. Very funny.”

The boy jumped to his feet. “No, no. I was trying to take it off.”

She didn’t believe him. This had to be some sort of mean trick on Chloe’s behalf. “Really?” she demanded.

She huffed, placing her backpack on the ground and leaning down to get the piece of gum off her seat. She poke it before decided to just cover it up with a napkin. She’d deal with that later when she didn’t have an audience. She turned to the blond boy who she could feet still standing behind her. “You’re friends with Chloe, right?” she remembered Chloe mention yesterday that her friend was joining the class.

“Why do people keep saying that?” he asked as if he didn’t know.

Marinette just stood up angrily, not giving him the time of day, before sitting at her spot, making sure she didn’t step on the napkin. At least it wasn’t that far across the bench so she wasn’t going to be crowding Alya.

“That so wasn’t cool,” Alya said as she sat down beside Marinette. “See what I mean about who the real monster is.”

Marinette just hummed, not ready to talk about it yet. She would have thought after all these years Chloe’s bullying wouldn’t affected her anymore but she was wrong. She glanced over at the boy growing even more as she looked at him. Something about his face seemed familiar.

“I know I’ve seen him somewhere before,” she muttered. Alya must have read her mind because she handed her her phone which was pulled up to the issue of Paris that had Gabriel Agreste, aka Marinette’s fashion designer role model, was on the cover. That brat was his son. Figures he was rich with that attitude.

“Of course. He’s the son fave’ designer, Gabriel Agreste.” Marinette said just in case Alya didn’t know who exactly Gabriel Agreste was, since she was new to Paris. She flipped through the dozens of photos of Adrien, that was right his name was Adrien like her Chaton, though he’d never behave like this, recognizing some from some pretty popular Gabriel ads.

“Daddy’s boy, teen supermodel and Chloe’s buddy?” Alya scoffed. “Forget it. That boy is bad news.”

Marinette made a noise of agreement. Any friend of Chloe was trouble to her.

Marinette and Alya both turned forward focusing on class as Ms. Bustier walked in. No need to think about Chloe and her bully friends.

“Agreste, Adrien.” Ms. Bustier called. There was a moment of silence as they all waited for him to say something. After all, they all knew he was there after that little display.

Suddenly the model shot to his feet, throwing his hand in the air and yelling ‘Present!’

Had he never had a roll call before? No one was the excited to have their name called.

“Bourgeois, Chloe?” Ms. Bustier asked, continuing the roll call after letting out a small giggle at the boys enthusiasm.

“Present,” Chloe said, giving a half hearted raise of the hand.

“Bruel, Ivan?”

There was a large bang and Marinette was startled enough that it took her a second to realize that Stoneheart had bursted into the room, literally.

“Present”! the giant stone akuma yelled. He turned to look at the class. “Mylène.” he called.

Marinette ran as Stoneheart shoved her desk to the side to get to Mylène, ducked under one of the desks, hoping Stoneheart hadn’t spotted her. Once he left she’d be able to sneak away and transform. Until then, she just need to stay safe and out of sight.

“Let go of me, Ivan,” she heard Mylène say. She risked a peak around the desk, seeing Mylène being held up in the air in Stoneheart’s right fist.

“I’m not Ivan anymore. I’m Stoneheart.”

“Why are you doing this?” Mylène asked, as Marinette ducked back behind the desk.

“So you and I can be together, forever!” That so wasn’t the way to get a girl.

“Daddy, the akuma is back,” Marinette heard Chloe saying. She risked another look and say Chloe ducked under her own desk, speaking on the phone with her father.

“You!” Stoneheart said, lifting the desk up and throwing it. Chloe screamed as Stoneheart picked Chloe up with his other hand.

“Please, my hair,” she begged.

Stoneheart didn’t listen to her, kicking a hole in the wall and jumping away.

“Put us down, Ivan!” she heard Mylène yell as she pulled herself up from under the desk. Now all she needed was to get away without anyone noticing. At least fleeing to her room was a good excuse with this akuma.

Before she could sneak away, Alya turned towards her. Guess there was a downside to making friends. “Let’s follow him.” she said.

She threw up her hands. “Oh no, you go. I’m finding a place to hide.” She put on her best terrified face. “I don’t like being around during akuma attacks.” There, hopefully Alya wouldn’t think anything of it in the future when she randomly disappeared.

“You’re gonna miss Ladybug in action.” Alya said, not knowing that if Marinette didn’t disappear, there’d be no Ladybug coming.

“Well… I see everything that happens on your blog, right? It’ll be like I was there myself” She smiled at Alya, hoping this was enough to get the blogger to leave her be. At this point, Chat Noir was going to beat her to the scene and the akuma appeared in her classroom.

Bingo, Alya seemed to realize that nothing she said was going to make her come with and left the room, not willing to lose out on the follow up story of Stoneheart’s akumatization.

Marinette creeped from the room, taking a moment to look down the hallway to make sure Alya wasn’t lurking around to try and convince her to come with still. Satisfied, Marinette rushed towards the girls bathroom, taking just enough of a moment to make sure all the stalls were empty before opening her purse. “Tikki, spots on!”

Instantly she was surrounded by the comfortable pink glow of her transformation. As soon as if fell away, leaving her as Ladybug, she bolted from the bathroom and used her yoyo to propel herself into the air, over the school wall and out into the city. She took a moment to survey the scene, to try and locate where exactly Stoneheart was. She caught a clamps of colour out of the corner of her eye and looked over, the streets having quickly been abandoned when Stoneheart had burst through the school wall, though Marinette would bet that several streets away there were car jams and lots of people milling about in a panic.

Turning to see what had caught her eye, Marinette just caught a glimpse of Alya as she rounded a street corner. Where Alya was going then that was likely where Stoneheart had gone. She swung herself over to the building of the street, to get a better view and felt her heart drop. A car was being flung towards Alya. Not having a good enough view, she dropped to the ground just as Chat Noir threw his baton to knock the car off course from squishing Alya. Ladybug flung her yoyo forward, wrapping it around Alya and pulling hard. Alya flew through the air towards, just missing being pinned by the car. She saw Chat Noir being grabbed by a stone being but she could only deal with one thing at a time.

“Oh my god, I was just save by Ladybug!” Alya said, speaking to her phone camera excitedly.

“Let’s get you out of the way.” Ladybug said, trying to not seem to familiar with the blogger.

Ladybug jumped onto the closet rooftop and set Alya down. “You should be safe here.” She took off running across the rooftops, but not before grabbing Chat Noir’s baton. Her Chaton would be every so sad if she lost that.

She turned around the street corner that the stone beings had gone, dropping to swing through the buildings, jumping off a stone beings head, before bouncing off a wall and throwing Chat Noir baton towards him where he was trapped in the one stone beings fist.

“Chat Noir, extend it!” she ordered, before she landed on a lamp post.

Chat Noir did as she said, extending the baton, forcing the stone beings hand to open, releasing him. As he dropped to the ground, she wrapped her yoyo string around the lamp post before throwing her yoyo out, wrapping it around his leg and pulling him out of the way of being squashed by the same stone being he had just escaped.

“Milady, fancy seeing you here,” Chat Noir greeted her even as he dangled upside down. “Have I ever told you you turn my world upside down?”

Ladybug went to make a quip back but was interrupted by the stone beings roaring. She glanced over and saw the three pissed off stone being approaching them.

“Now’s not the time,” she said, glancing up to the rooftops. “Hold on.”

Not waiting for him to say anything, she jumped into the air, dragging him behind her, and onto the rooftops. She got enough air that she was able to retract her yoyo, releasing her partner, without worrying about him falling off the roof. As the two bound across the rooftops, Ladybug pulled her yoyo and and slid the top half off to bring up the screen. She pulls dup the news to see what they were saying about Stoneheart, knowing that Chat Noir would let her know if she was in any danger, or close to running straight off a roof, which she did once and they will not speak of it again.

“Got a plan Milady?” her partner asked her.

She glanced down at the yoyo screen which showed Stoneheart standing on the second platform of the Eiffel Tower. “I have a few ideas but nothing solid.” she said. “We need to get to the source first.”

The two of them took a moment to survey the situation happening around the Eiffel Tower from the safety of steps of the Trocadéro. It hit Ladybug as she looked at the scene, that Lieutenant Roux was no longer in charge of Akuma cases. She knew that she had heard that on the news, but watching how the police stayed back, not attacking Stoneheart or risking civilian lives, really made it a reality to her. She just hoped they were staying back because they knew attacking would just make the situation worse and not just because Stoneheart had the mayors daughter.

The police had sectioned off the area around the Eiffel Tower, blocking off a large radius along with the entirety of Pont d’Inna, likely either evacuating the surrounding buildings and stores, or sending out a shelter and place order. Or she at least hope they did, sometimes they forgot to give out warnings so people who didn’t watch the news would sometimes wondering into the middle of fights, though the Eiffel Tower was enough of an Akuma hot spot that the police and news helicopters should be enough to keep people away.

“I demand my daughter’s safe return!” Mayor Bourgeois was saying through a megaphone as the two heroes approached.

“Daddy!” Chloe yelled, her voice carrying all the way down to them on the other side of the bridge from the tower.

“You’re welcome to her!” Stoneheart bellowed.

Oh, that wasn’t good.

Ladybug rushed forward as Chloe was thrown from the tower towards the mayor and the police that waited with him. As the mayor and Chloe screamed, Ladybug threw her yoyo forward, wrapping it around a part of the tower and pulling herself forward. She slammed into Chloe, skitter a stop a couple meters away form the mayor, landing on one knee, holding Chloe bridal style.

“I didn’t promise.” Chloe said.

“What?”

Chloe didn’t answer her, instead rushing towards her father, who met her half way and pulled her into a big hug. “My little princess,” he muttered.

“We’re clear to attack!” Lieutenant Raincomprix yelled from atop one father police cars. So much for have an officer in charge that wasn’t going to be more of a problem then a solution.

“Wait! Don’t attack! You’ll only make it worse.” Ladybug said, turning to the officers. Did they not pay attention to yesterday's battle at all. “Look what happened yesterday when Lieutenant Roux attacked instead of letting us do our jobs.”

“You mean where you failed to stop Stoneheart from continuing to attack the city?” Lieutenant Roux demanded. “You failed us yesterday and its time for the pros to step in and do our jobs of keeping Paris safe.”

“Attacking him directly is only going to make him more powerful.” Ladybug insisted. “And you run the risk of injuring a innocent civilian, an innocent school child. Just because Stoneheart release Chloe, didn’t mean he release the other civilian.”

“What about all those innocent civilians that were turned into rock monsters last night? We take Stoneheart down and they’ll return to normal.”

“But you don’t know that. Let Chat Noir and I deal with this, and in an hour, if everything isn’t back to normal, then you can do it your way.” Ladybug tried bargaining.

Roger Raincomprix seemed to think over her offer. “You have half an hour.” he finally said.

Ladybug nodded, turning around to face her partner. Before she could come up with a plan with him, Stoneheart started coughing, falling back from where her stood to the actual Platform. Ladybug felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. The last time an akuma had started coughing was when, during their first akuma battle, when Hawkmoth had contacting them, and informed all of Paris of his presence, via a giant face of baffled up butterflies. Purifying all of those had been a pain in the ass, and Ladybug wasn’t looking forward to doing again.

She tried not to sigh out loud when a face of dark purple and black butterflies had been caught out by Stoneheart, forming Hawkmoths face. There were almost triple the amount of butterflies as the last time, creating an even larger face.

“For months now,” Hawkmoth said through his butterfly face. A part of her wondered if she could use ladybugs in the same way, or if Chat Noir could do it with a bunch of cats. “You have lived in fear, unable to express you emotions. Ladybug and Chat Noir could have out an end to all of this that first day. All they had to do was hand over their Miraculouses, the ladybug earrings and car ring now, and you’d no longer have to live in fear. Ladybug and Chat Noir, the two of you have done enough damage to the people of Paris.”

Oh, Ladybug felt anger building inside her, no way was he going to let the blame fall on them when he was the one terrorizing Paris. She took a calming breath before starting to slow clap, as she slowly walked closer to the floating face. “Nice try,” she said, “but we know who the bad guy is.”

She wasn’t going to let Hawkmoth radicalize the people who were already iffy on her and Chat Noir and create a divide in Paris, allowing Hawkmoth to have more victims to akumatize.

“Let’s not reverse the roles.” she continued. “You turned these innocent victims into villains. You have taken people who have rightfully felt upset or angry, something every human should be allowed to do, and made it into something people fear. You are the true villain here, not us and not the people of Paris. Hawkmoth, I make this promise to you, and to the people of Paris, no matter how long it takes, we will find you and you’ll hand us your Miraculous!”

She rushed forward, twirling her yoyo in the air as she went before flinging it out and wrapping it around two streetlights and slingshotting herself into the air and towards the floating butterfly face. She wasn’t going to put up with this BS. She twisted herself in the air, her yoyo flinging and twisting out around her, catching each and every butterfly with a yell of her now iconic saying, ‘time to de-evilize’. Hawkmoth didn’t even try to fight back against her attack making her think that the only capabilities of the butterfly face was as a communication form.

She landed on the first viewing platform of the Tower and turned to face the people of Paris, either the officers and officials that were down below or to all the people of the Paris watching from the safety of their homes.

“Let me make this promise!” She called out to them. “Whoever wants to harm you, Chat Noir and I will do all we can to keep you safe.” She took out her yoyo and released the mass of purified butterflies. She made a silent promise to herself to never let herself get distracted again, to never fail again.

“Ok, Hawkmoth,” Ladybug turned around and saw the neon purple butterfly outline on Stonehearts face. Seemed like since Hawkmoth failed to intimidate them, he was falling back on trying to beat the Miraculouses off of them.

Chat Noir joined her into jumping in front of Stoneheart.

“Help me!” Mylène called, unfortunately not having been released from Stonehearts hand when he had collapsed.

“You’ll never take Mylène from me!” Stoneheart yelled. He jumped across the platform, shaking the entire tower as he landed, causing her and Chat Noir to fall down. “Come to me, my stone beings!”

“We’re surrounded.” Chat Noir said as he glanced over the towers edge. “What are we going to do now? Attacking him is only going to make him more powerful.”

“At least we know where his object is,” Ladybug said, happy they had one less thing to worry about.

“In the fist he’s got Mylène in,” Chat Noir finished for her.

“Exactly,” she frowned in thought. “So, he’s in love with her… That’s it! We don’t separate them, we bring them closer together. They’re made for each other, they just don’t know it.”

“Sure.” Chat Noir said, as she flew off. She knew he didn’t quite get what she meant yet, but if there was one thing her partner was good at, it was going with the flow until her plan became more obvious. It’s one of the things that made them such great partners. She was a strategist, coming up with the ideas, while he was the muscles, executing the important part of the plan most of them time, while keeping her on her feet and from getting too stuck in her head.

She flung her yoyo up the tower, hopping up the side of it, as she started to plan the smaller details of how she was going to get Ivan and Mylène closer. Chat Noir followed behind her, able to scale the tower without the use of his baton. Once she was past the bulk of the tower, she flung her yoyo up, using it to propel herself all the way to the top of the tower, past Stoneheart and Mylène and the news helicopters that Stoneheart was swatting at.

“Help! I’m scared of heights!” Mylène called out to her, seeing her land land at the very top of the tower.

“It’ll be alright!” she called back, trying to reassure her classmate. It wasn’t like she was trying to be stealthy at the moment.

Stoneheart didn’t like that, throwing his head back and roaring at her.

“Anything you need to me to do yet?” Chat Noir called out, as he prepared to fight off the stone beings which had quickly scaled the tower and were closing in.

“Not quite yet.” she yelled down at him. She was missing a key element. Good thing she had the perfect thing to get said element. “Lucky Charm!”

A parachute fell down to her. At least this was a lucky charm that made sense right off the bat. She slipped the parachute onto her back, ignoring Chat Noir flying through the air behind her back. She knew he hand things under control and could handle the stone beings, especially when he looked on form and determined as he flew through the air.

She stood straight up from where she had been perched, flinging her yoyo around in the air in the same manor she would if she were trying to shield herself. She studied Stonehearts body position before flinging her yoyo down at him, wrapping it under his arm and torso, leveraging it so that when her pulled, quite hard, stone wasn’t light after all, his fist went towards his body, pulling Mylène closer until her lips gently pressed against Stonehearts. She retracting her yoyo as Stonehearts had flew out in surprise, releasing Mylène, who just managed to grab onto one of Stonehearts fingers to keep from plummeting to the ground.

Chat Noir, the clever kitty, threw himself off the edge of the tower, using his baton as a bungee cord, falling just far enough to smack the akumatize object back up to her, without her even asking. She caught the akumatized object with her yoyo, wrapping the cord around it and pulling tight, cracking it. She slipped the piece of paper that was left, into her yoyo to give back later.

She ran her finger along her yoyo face, opening it up to catch to yoyo. She started swinging it, “No more evil-doing for you, little Akuma.” she stopped though, before she could catch it as she saw Stoneheart turn back into Ivan, something that wouldn’t sometime happen until she casted the cure which was something she was hoping for. He and Mylène started plummeting to the ground.

She set her face in determination, taking a moment to glance at where the Akuma was before diving from the tower. “Chat Noir, take care of Ivan,” she order, focused on Mylène as she pressed her legs and arms tightly in, allowing her to fall faster then both of her classmates who were flailing around.

She saw Chat Noir call for his power, jumping from his baton and grabbing onto a piece of rusty Eiffel Tower that had extruded from the tower when he touched it with his hand. It extended until he was under Ivan, catching him easily. Satisfied that Ivan was safe, she dropped down to Mylène, grabbing her around her torso before turning around and shooting her yoyo up in the air catching the akuma before it could get any farther away. “Gotcha,” she said as her yoyo returned to her. She yanked on her parachutes cord before they could fall any farther. They sailed gently to the ground, handing at the base of the tower. Mylène fell to her knees, mostly likely shaky from the days events.

Ladybug pulled her yoyo back out and opened it up. “Bye bye, little butterfly,” she said as the pure white butterfly flew away. She grabbed the parachute and tossed it in the air. “Miraculous Ladybug!” The parachute instantly dissolved into thousands of little ladybugs. She loved watching the cure fly about the city as the little ladybugs fixed everything that had been damaged or changed throughout the last two days.

“I don’t think I’m ever going to find this not beautiful,” Chat Noir said as he helped Ivan over to them.

“Yeah. It’s the best part of doing this.” There was something just so magical, so miraculous about watching the cure work.

She stood by Ivan and Mylène as the police started breaking down their barricade, and helping the people who had been turned into stone beings down from the tower. Chat Noir stood a couple feet away, letting Ivan and Mylène have their privacy, while keeping his eyes on them, making sure none of the police tried to harass or grab Ivan to interrogate him. It hadn’t happened in awhile, but was still a worry that the two of them had.

“I think you two need to talk,” she said to her classmates.

“I-I,” Ivan stuttered. He glanced away, embarrassed.

She turned to Mylène, deciding to help out her larger classmate. “It may help if you read the lyrics to Ivan’s song.” she told the shorter girl. She pulled out the piece of paper that the song was written on, handing it to Mylène before heading over to her partner, leaving the two to figure out their feelings by theirselves. She’s meddled enough for the day.

She watched as the two talked before Mylène hugged Ivan tightly, causing the bigger boy to blush. Smiling she turned to her partner. “They’re made for each other.” she announced.

“Like us too,” Chat Noir said, leaning to put an arm around her.

She grabbed his arm, pulling him forward and pointing to his ring. “See that? You’re out of time,” she told him. She may of let him put his arm around her had them been out of public eye but she wanted to stay professional when they were being watching and a relationship wasn’t professional. Not that she and Chat Noir were in a romantic relationship. She couldn’t be in one with someone who she didn't know beneath the mask they wore, whom she couldn’t share most of her life with. She cared for her partner dearly, but she wouldn’t allow her emotions to go there.

She turned and started to head away as her earrings let out their own beep. “Time to split. See you soon, Chat Noir,” she said to him. She glanced back in time to see him waving to her before she flew off, heading home to see whether or not school was going to reopen for the day though it likely was. She wonder as Akuma attacks became more often if the school board would decided to force kids back to school right after attacks whether they were in a traumatizing situation or not so that they didn’t fall behind on their studies.

The next day she, once again on time, heading to school and met Alya right outside of the building. She was really liking having a civilian friend.

“How’d the akuma attack go? Get some good footage?” she asked Alya. She had been too tired, and her parents had wanted to spend extra time together the night before, and hadn’t been able to check the Ladyblog.

Alya let out a dramatic sigh. “By the time I biked to the Eiffel Tower, it was all over. I’m way bummed.” she said. Marinette wasn’t. She was glad her friend hadn’t been in any danger besides almost being pinned by a flying car. She didn’t get how Alya could be so gung ho about putting herself into dangerous situations.

“On the plus side,” Alya continued. “I did get rescued by Ladybug which was amazing.”

“You’ll get your scoop eventually,” Marinette reassured her friend. Hopefully it’d be from a safe distance.

“You’re right,” Alya agreed. “Next target; ‘Ladybug: An Exclusive Interview.’”

“Sounds exciting,” and Chat Noir had been insisting that they do more interviews to connect better with the people of Paris and make themselves more relatable to try and battle the officers and officials that had been speaking out against them, saying they should leave the akumas to the police.

“Oh, wait, even better,” Alya said, looking excited. “Finding out who’s really under that mask!”

And that was a lot less exciting. “Good luck with that one,” Marinette said nervously trying to keep Alya from sensing anything off about her. She’d have to warn Chat Noir about this development. So far they hadn’t had any press trying to follow them but that may change. Alya trying to figure their identities out them spark a fire under professional reports and the two of them find themselves in sticky situations.

The two of them heading into class, Marinette taking a moment to deal with Chloe for a day. The second Marinette walked into the classroom though, she felt a spike of anger overtake her calmness. She was Ladybug. Why did she let Chloe walk all over her? Alya had proved that she wasn’t all powerful and she defiantly wasn’t scarier then any Akuma.

“No, wait.” Marinette said as Alya went to their seat, determined. She hopped up the steps and gestured to the seat she had sat in last year and the years before, smiling at her friend. Alya smiled back up at her, joining her on the second platform, sliding in first so she sat close to the wall. Marinette slid in after her, both of them smiling to each other as they sat down. They fist bumped each other before Chloe walked in, Sabrina trailing behind her.

“You’re in the wrong seats,” Chloe said, turning to the angrily. She pointed to where the two of them had been forced to sit before. “Go on, get lost.”

Marinette looked down at Chloe, determined. “All that’s necessary for the triumph of evil, is that good people do nothing,” she quoted.

“That’s that supposed to mean?” Chloe asked, puffing her shoulders up in a little huffed laugh.

“It means I’m not putting up with your crus anymore, either is anyone else.” Marinette informed her. She stood up and pointed to the seat that had previously been hers and Alya’s. “So take your attitude and go and get lost!”

The rest of the class started laughing at the sight of Chloe being told off, not exactly what she had wanted but at least it showed Chloe that she wasn’t by herself with being done with the heiresses BS.

Chloe glared but the laughing seemed to deter her from doing anything at the moment. She stomped off the seats Marinette had pointed to, all while still glaring at her. Marinette just confidently put her hands on her hips and smiled at her, refusing to let the blond get to her. If she couldn’t handle Chloe, how could she be expected to handle Hawkmoth.

She sat back down and Alya gently pushed her shoulder. “Good job,” she said.

She smiled softly at her friend before looking up to see the blond boy, Adrien, who had put the piece of gum on her seat. He gave her a little wave as if she was going to remember what had happened the other day. She turned to look away from him with a huff. At least Chloe had the decently to act like the bitch she was.

She spent the rest of the day ignoring the models existence. She just got Chloe out of her life, she wasn’t about to invite new trouble in.

Marinette headed out of the school building at the end of the day, disappointed that she couldn’t use the Ladybug miraculous to get herself home, especially when she had forgotten her umbrella and it was raining cats and dogs. She stood under the roof and stretched her hand out before dropping it with a sigh. She was so going to get soaked. She pulled her backpack off, knowing she would have to wait for the rain to die down a bit. Knowing her she trip on a wet step, break her leg, and then who would be Ladybug?

“Hey,” She turned around to see Adrien standing behind her, an umbrella grasped in his hand.

She huffed, looking away from him. Why couldn’t he just act more like Chloe? Why did he have to act like everything was okay.

He extending his umbrella and took a step out into the rain. He took a step, maybe two, before stoping. “I just want you to know,” he said, not turning to face her. “I was only trying to get the gum off, I swear.” Marinette just starred at him, sensing no dishonesty from him. “I’ve never been to school before. I’ve never had friends. it’s all sort of new to me.” He glanced back at her, shrugging as if to say he didn’t care if she forgave him, that he just wanted her to know the truth. He stared at her a second before handing her his umbrella.

Marinette stared at him, glancing between the umbrella and his face, which showed genuine emotion. Either he wasn’t playing with her, or he was the best actor she had ever seen. She hesitantly reached out and took hold of the umbrella. No one had ever apologized to her, especially not for something Chloe had done. They just expected her to get over it. They met each others eyes for just a moment before her world went dark. it took her a second to realize the umbrella had collapsed, just her luck.

Adrien started to laugh, but it wasn’t one full of venom, it was one that was surprised that the umbrella had collapsed and didn’t know how else to react. Marinette pulled up one edge of the umbrella to peak up at him, her heart beating as her cheeks warmed. She couldn’t help it, she started laughing with him.

“I’m Marinette by the way,” she introduced her self. “Sorry that I jumped to conclusions the other day.”

Adrien look at her surprised on his face. “Well Marinette,” he said with a familiar smirk on his face. “My name is Adrien, but you can call me Prince Charming.”

Marinette felt her world come to a halt. She flashback to several months ago when she and Chat Noir had made the decision to share first names. She had gone first, surprising her partner but when he shared his name he had said the exact same thing.

“It’s nice to meet you Adrien,” she said numbly.

“It’s nice to meet you as well, Maribug.”

And she was an idiot. The person she thought was a massive jerk was actually her very kind and well meaning partner.

Before she could say anything else a car horn sounded from the road in front of the school steps.

“That’s my ride,” Adrien said as if they hadn’t just discovered each others identities. “I’ll see you later.”

“S-see you l-later,” she stammered. She watch him approached the car, unable to tell if she felt numb or was about to have a panic attack. “I think I’m in trouble, Tikki,” she muttered.

Tikki flew up and pressed against her cheek. “Things all happen for a reason. Maybe there’s a reason that the two of you have met like this. You just don’t have all the pieces to see the bigger picture yet.”

That made her feel a bit better. At least Tikki didn’t think them meeting was the end of the world.

Marinette watched Adrien drive off, or well be driven away, before she made her way home. Today had been a day, yesterday had been a day, and she couldn’t wait to see what tomorrow would bring, especially with Adrien, her Chaton, in her everyday life.

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arolla-pine · 4 years

Text

Fake Dating - p.18

(18) - A failure

Adrien had bad feelings. What could have happened and ruined his friend’s good mood? Only one woman in the world was able to do that, but it was absolutely impossible to meet her in that club. Unless they were extremely unlucky. So, what could cause that sudden rush in leaving the club?

“Maybe it’s not so bad as we think?” Adrien muttered under his breath while heading for his room. His friend only glanced at him sideways as if he was wondering how someone could be so naïve.

The answer was sitting on the couch in Adrien’s room and its name was Plagg who apparently had been waiting for their return.

“Welcome onboard Titanic, kid!” the agent greeted wryly.

“What the heck?” Adrien was surprised.

“We’re sinking. And I’m afraid that there’s no rescue boat for us.”

“What are you talking about, Plagg?”

“Our favourite journalist managed to take a photo…”

“You promised to wait with the set-up!” Adrien glared at his agent.

“I have nothing to do with that!” Plagg raised his hands as if he surrendered. “The photo was sent to her publisher a half hour ago. Fifteen minutes later it was on your father’s desk. I got known about all this five minutes ago.”

“But… It’s what we wanted to achieve, right?”

“Yeah… Something like that. But we didn’t plan that Alya of all journalists in the world would be the one who’d catch you. And… We didn’t foresee that your father would go mad…”

“You said that my dad would stop worrying.”

“Yeah, about your orientation. Yet, he started worrying about your choice. I’m afraid he won’t be happy unless you marry the mayor’s daughter.”

“But why Alya was there?” Adrien wondered and unintentionally glanced at his friend.

“Don’t look at me!” Nino replied in reproach. “Hell would freeze over before I’d call her!”

“Maybe Marinette’s manager sped things up?” Plagg muttered.

“It wasn’t her who was talking about the time…” Adrien remembered.

“Why are you so sure?” the agent replied sarcastically. “I’ve got known that they’re leaving tomorrow.”

“What do you mean: they’re leaving?!”

“Exactly what I said. They have a charity concert or something. Apparently she discovered that singing for needy can bring more advantages to her little star…”

“Don’t you dare insult Marinette!” Adrien growled.

“Sorry…” Plagg muttered.

That was something new. He had never apologised before! Usually he extricated with a sarcastic comment and continued his work. His behaviour was at least alarming now, so Adrien glanced at him concerned.

“Did you…?” the model began, but didn’t dare asked him a direct question about a nature of his relationship with Tikki.

“You’d better pack.” Plagg cut the subject. “Tomorrow you’re having photoshoots in London.”

“What do you mean: photoshoots? And in London?! What the he…”

“Adrien?” a cold voice interrupted their argument. It was Nathalie, Gabriel Agreste’s assistant. As usual, she emerged from nowhere. The young man cursed under his breath, but immediately turned around in her direction. “Your father wants to see you.”

“I’m coming…” he replied reluctantly, then he glared at Plagg. The moment of paying checks. Now, he’d reap the harvest of that stupid plan.

Adrien followed Nathalie trying to calm down, but the panic was overwhelming. As soon as he entered his father’s office, he noticed a printed photograph on his desk. A picture of him kissing Marinette.

“What’s that, son?” Gabriel Agreste drawled in a cool voice.

“I can explain that, father.”

“Then do it. I’m listening.”

“That’s my girlfriend, Marinette Dupain-Cheng.”

“Why haven’t I met her yet?”

“Uhm… Because…” Adrien lost a concept.

“Who is that girl?”

“She… She’s a singer.”

“A brand new star, who decided to help her career by a relationship with my son!” Gabriel yelled irritably, and Adrien realised immediately that his father had already worked out the mysterious girl from the photograph.

“She doesn’t do that!”

“Of course she doesn’t. I won’t let her do that!” Gabriel laughed ominously. “That’s over, son. Whatever you wanted to achieve, I don’t approve it.”

“But, father…”

“Your phone!” Gabriel reached for Adrien’s smartphone.

“I’m adult, dad. And…” the son began, but his father’s look made him be quiet and obedient. Years of discipline – or a training, what Marinette had called it… - yielded result, and he gave in instantly.

“My son won’t be dating some singers. We’ll find you an appropriate wife. No more stupid girls. Now, focus on your work. Tomorrow you’re flying to London.”

“But, dad…”

“That’s all, son. Goodnight.”

Then Gabriel turned away, sending a message that the discussion was over.

––

Fake Dating p.17 <- Previous part | Next part -> Fake Dating p.19

Start reading from the beginning

#Fake Dating #adrienette #adrinette #fanfiction #Adrien Agreste #Adult Adrien #Nino Lahiffe #adult Nino #Gabriel Agreste #AUstory #AU story #au

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frenchbelgianfics · 4 years

Text

Ch 1-Les Brothers d'en face After failing to try to get the Cossacks and a Chinese to join the 22nd cavalry to fight the Sudists

Blutch and Chesterfield return

to Alexander's camp.

after some time after that incident Chesterfield and Blutch managed to hide the lying.

But, their superiors soon discovered everything.

As punishment, the two had to spend a few months in the jail in the camp.

After those long months in jail, their superiors decided to give the two of them a second chance to recruit new soldiers.

Soon they returned to where Mayor Dooley was waiting for them.

"Mayor Dooley?" Asked Chesterfield.

"Yup, Sergeant Cornelius Chesterfield and Caporal Blutch are you here again to try to recruit the new soldiers?" asked the mayor and the two nodded yes.

"Well, I hope the same thing didn't happen with the Cossacks." said Mayor Dooley, looking seriously at the two who were surprised to see that the news went quickly.

"Yes ... and you already knew what happened, didn't you?" chuckled Chesterfield nervous

"Yes, I heard from Captain Stark." replied seriously.

"but, thank your superiors and me because we are willing to give you a second chance." said the mayor, which made a big smile appear on the sergeant's face.

"But a question, what are their names?" It was Caporal's turn to ask.

"Good that you asked that.

he said, going over to a table and handing Chesterfield a paper.

"Here are the names of the two."

answered Mayor Dooley.

Soon, Chesterfield and Blutch looked at both names on the paper, and their eyes widened in surprise.

"Huh? Adrian and Andrew ..." murmured Blutch, until reality made him shook his head.

"wait, are those names ..."

"Yes, they are native to the United States." replied Dooley.

"The two born in Virginia and moved to Missouri to try a new life.

well they are out there, let's say it was a mistake for us to give this mission to try to make those men become real soldiers ... "

said the mayor, sitting in his chair to settle his affairs.

"Good luck." he finished with a smile at the corner of his mouth.

"Thank you Mayor Dooley." he said shaking the mayor's hand and going outside, just as they left the mayor's office they saw some soldiers.

some talking about everything and nothing.

Soon the red-haired sergeant stepped forward and cleared his throat

"Well, which one of you are Adrian and Andrew?" asked the sergeant, looking at the young soldiers.

"Well it looks like ..." the first voice spoke, it seemed to be from an older man.

"these are Us ..."

spoke the second voice that was identical to the first but this sounded a little younger.

Soon two young men with black skin and curly hair, identical to each other, stepped forward to the surprise of the caporal and the sergeant.

Adrian had gray eyes and Andrew had hazel eyes.

Something that some black-skinned people didn't have.

Some of these people had brown or black eyes, so Chesterfield deduced that they had inherited the color of the eyes of a relative like a Grandfather or an Uncle.

"Are these Adrian and Andrew?"

Blanket whispered to Chesterfield.

"I think so, Blutch."

Chesterfield whispered back.

Chesterfield looked up and down at the two young men.

"So, are you very similar, are you by any chance twins?"

asked Blutch and the two young black men nodded.

"Twins ... this is something rare to happen."

it was Chesterfield's turn to speak.

"But with the color of your eyes it's easy to tell who's who."

"Heh, that's true." replied Adrian.

if we both had black or brown eyes you two would be confused all the time. "said the young man with gray eyes.

"Greetings, i, m Sergeant Cornélius Chesterfield and Caporal Blutch Hardings." he said introducing himself on behalf of the two.

"The General and the Captain gave a second chance to train the two of you to do well on the battlefield." he explained, soon the redhead changed his facial expression from serene to serious.

"Are you ready for this?" asked the redhead.

"The war can last for years, and the soldiers of the 22nd cavalry are exposed to the dangers of this civil war, some survive and others do not.

"you are aware of that, aren't you?" he asked and the two nodded yes.

"Yes, Sergeant, we are aware that during a battle we may come back alive or not." Replied Andrew.

Letting out a short quick sigh, Chesterfield ordered Blutch to fetch the uniform the soldiers were wearing, something Blutch did without murmuring or questioning, as he had already done the mesko when he went to get the uniforms for the Cossacks and the Chinese.

When Blutch arrived with the two uniforms, the two young men went to a place to change and try on the clothes.

The uniforms fit the twins right as one (or two) gloves, the uniforms were the same as those of the soldiers at back the camp.

"Very well, come with us now." He said.

"Where are we going sergeant?" asked Blutch, looking back at where the two twins were talking to each other, the conversation seemed to be fine but Blutch decided not to interrupt.

"Well, we're going to have to train them, my little Blutch, and it's going to be in the very place where that failure happened." explained while he cringed a little with the memory.

"Oh please, those Cossacks were good either." said Blutch, smiling a little but just as the caporal saw the glare that Chesterfield shot at him, the mocking smile became a frown.

"For a circus, but not for being soldiers." huffed the redhead.

A few minutes walking, silence prevailed among the four until they arrived in a clearing with a vast space for training.

"Here, we're here." he said and the two twins looked at Awe at the vast space that the field had, it seemed that the green pasture seemed to have no end as well as the mountains that were there, far away.

"Your training starts now." said the redhead.

"Blutch, you know what to do." said chesterfield and utch dashed back to where they came from.

after a few hours of waiting, Blutch returned with Two Skewbalds, the sergeant was impatient with the delay of Blutch who came with two Skewbalds.

"Sorry sergeant, I took too long because these were the only horses that were there ..." the young one sheepily.

"Adrian and Andrew come here!" shouted Chesterfield and the two woke up from a long nap, then the two went to Chesterfield and Blutch were, and were surprised to see the two horses.

"First lesson of training, you will go horseback riding." explained Chesterfield with an proud smile.

"As you are in the 22nd cavalary you should know how to ride them, horses can be a little difficult to ride and be trained." explained the sergeant and then he looked with a serious expression at the two boys.

"And then." he started, "who's going first?" the red-haired sergeant asked.

"I go first!" exclaimed Adrian,

leaving Chesterfield surprised.

"Are you sure about that?" he asked trying to hide the nervousness in his voice.

"Relax, you will see Adrian in action." he said, approaching the Skewbald and saddling him, then the youngest climbed the White and Brown furred equine.

Needless to say, but he did a very good job, even the Sargent's jaw fall at seing the young man controlling a horse on the first day, as he and Blutch were training for almost three days when they arrived in the Army.

"Look, you did very well, better than the last recruiter who couldn't ride a horse."

"Really?" he asked surprised and the sergeant nodded, then he tried to make a serious face, but the joy he felt did not keep an straight face.

"thank you sergeant."

"And you, Andrew, can you ride a horse?"

Chesterfield asked looking at the hazel-eyed man.

This question took the oldest of the brothers by surprise, soon he could feel his throat close but what could he tell the redhead?

who didn't know how to ride a horse?

That you were not prepared for a test like this?

Or should he just lie?

Lying was the right option, wrong for some ... but can lying always get you out of something right?

"Suuure ..." he lied and Adrian facepalmed something that blutch realized.

Adrian felt a hand on his shoulder, he turned and saw Blutch with a worried expression on his face.

"Let me guess, he never rode a horse before."

"No, never," replied the youngest.

"although we are twins, we are very different, we were raised on our father's farm." explained the gray-eyed young man.

"he was only good at other tasks but never riding a horse." he said with a certain nervousness in his voice as he looked at the older twin.

"Aie, aie, aie..." murmured the young caporal.

"Very well ..." he said, saddling the white and black furred horse.

With a quick sigh, the young man finally got on his horse.

A new experience for him since he had never assembled one.

"Good horsey, good boy ..." he said getting on the horse but the horse that Blutch got was skittish and he took down the young man who had just ridden him.

"Damn ..." he said getting up and dusting his uniform.

"Are you okay bro?" Asked Adrian from a distance.

"Yes, but it's time to try again!" He said going to the horse and getting on it again.

"I like his persistence and determination." said the sergeant, noting that the young hazel-eyed man was getting on his horse again.

"He was always like that." he said.

"I always wanted to show Dad that he could make it happen." explained younger of the twins.

Soon they watched the struggling young man to stay on top of the steed.

Soon Sergeant Blutch and even Adrian could not contain their laughter after seeing the novice soldier try to control the horse or even fall into a puddle of mud.

"Uhhh, I-I think that- that's enough ..." Chesterfield said trying to keep from laughing again, but it was something that Blutch and Adrian tried to do but failed miserably.

approaching the young man, Chesterfield put a hand on his shoulder.

"Hey look at me." he said and the young black man looked at the redhead.

"when Blutch and I arrived here we didn't even know how to ride a horse.

Of course your brother is one step ahead of you but hey! it's never too late, is it? "he asked and the young man was silent and then nodded.

"Now let's go back to camp, okay?"

Upon returning to the camp, the four saw that there were more of them there all looking very young, some seemed to be just 23 and 26 years old and others already adults seemed to be 38 and 40 years old.

Inside a cabin made of wood, a soldier named Liam was looking out the window to see the four men arriving there.

"My Colonel." he said to the white-haired man.

"Sergeant Chesterfield and Caporal Blutch are here with the new recruits."

"Great, let's see how they do."

"Do you think they managed to train them both?" asked Liam.

"Those two idiots?" the Colonel immediately laughed out loud.

"Of course not, you will train them just to check I want you both ready tonight."

"Yes, my colonel." he said and went out to where Chesterfield and Blutch were with the new recruits.

"So ... are you the two new recruits?" he asked and they both nodded.

"Great, you have ten seconds to join the others." he said

"Join the others to where?" It was Adrian's turn to ask.

"To the front of course, now follow us you and the others are heading to train and then to Biglerville." Explained Liam.

"Biglerville well ..." the oldest one said and then his eyes wait is an three days trip! "Shouted Andrew to the annoyence of Liam.

"Well you better be ready for long trips, 22nd cavarly soldiers not only battle on the battlefield

but they also do some patrols in some cities and also in the states of the U.S.A. "he explained." C, mon you two. "

"Good luck." said Caporal Blutch.

"We are going to need it."said Andrew and he and his brother joined the other soldiers for a trip that would last not one, but three or seven days.

A few days passed after the new soldiers left the camp to be trained.

while this was happening, the same things were happening in General Alexander's camp.

The Charges the enemy troops in the battlefield, some missions like going to fort bow and even Chesterfield and Blutch getting themselves into trouble and trouble, and rare trips to Fort Bow.

"Hey Blutch stop bein, worrywart they are fine." Chesterfield said irritated with the caporal pacing.

"How are you sure about that?"

"'Cause they are back!" He said pointing to the same group of soldiers returning to the camp.

Soon the two brothers went to Sergeant and Caporal to tell how the long days of training were with Liam and the others.

"Hey, how was the training?" Blutch asked.

Well ... weapon training was easy for me, but difficult for my brother here. "He said pointing to Adrian who was scratching the back of his head.

"Why? The redhead asked." Don't tell me that- "

"I accidentally shot a grazed soldier.

only after a few attempts, you know, I never held weapons, but I finally managed to hit Bullseye. "

"With my help, of course." Andrew said giving a playful punch to the younger man's arm, and Adrian did the same.

"And I helped him ride a horse." he said with a smile and Andrew soon nodded and chuckled.

"thank you very much for trying to train us, even if that training was just a warm-up."

"Now you're welcome, now come with us.

you will meet the other soldiers who are here in the camp with us. "explained the sergeant.

"Yes, some of them are survivors of the several times of Stark's crazy charges in enemy troops."

"Blutch stop talking about Stark like that, he's a great leader!" Said the sergeant.

"And you know what I said about him is the most sincere truth." Retorted the caporal soon Blutch and Chesterfield started arguing.

and the two of the brothers just laughed at the arguing duo.

#Lestuniquesbleues #thebluecoats #fanfic #fic #talesofthe22ndcavarlyseries

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highordinal · 5 years

Text

An Eye for An Eye

Warning! There are mentions of blood and gore within this drabble. If you are sensitive to those topics please do not read.

This is also 7 pages long on a word document, so be prepared to hunker down for awhile.

It had taken him weeks to relearn all the techniques he had accumulated over the years, for the loss of his left eye had hindered him greatly. Jarvan had prohibited him from taking any missions until he was sure the Ordinal could defend himself without any further mistakes. To the emperor's face, Kayn smiled and thanked him for being so considerate. On the inside he seethed in anger as he sat around and accomplished nothing. After his recovery he sailed back amongst the stars with his crew and continued with his work. It had been a few months since the incident occured, so Jarvan had felt comfortable enough to assign the Ordinal tougher missions. Kayn thanked the gods for this change, as he was growing bored of dealing with paperwork and petty crimes.

For this next mission he and his crew were ordered to meet with a client in Ionan’s capital city. His orders were to accompany and strike a deal with one of the influential families, however, what his crew didn’t know was that one of their own was rumored to be leaking Demaxian information to both Templar and Syndicate factions. His real mission was to find out who within his ranks is the traitor and put an end to it.

Kayn had little to work with. All he knew was that the traitor was a skilled and high ranking soldier that worked under the Ordinals. Judging by the information that was leaked, Jarvan had suspected that he was apart of Kayn’s crew, since Kayn handled most of the empires “sensitive” issues. The Ordinal was rather disappointed to hear that it was one of his own, but that just meant killing them would be all the more sweeter. In an attempt to thin the possible candidates, he decided to hold one-on-one conferences with everyone in his crew on their way to Ionan.

Doing such a thing would alert the traitor, so he disguise them as promotional and congratulatory meetings. He would boost morale with the promise of a raise and higher rank and learn more about his subordinates. Killing two birds with one stone. Once they left port, the meetings began and for days on end he found absolutely nothing. It was aggravating. Kayn sighed, leaning back in his chair. His desk was littered with files, each one consisting the background information on all personnel on board.

He picked up the next folder and flipped it open. The next individual schedules to walk in was a soldier named Yone. From what was in his file, he was a skilled and intelligent fighter hailing from Ionan. But what Kayn didn’t recall was when the man became a part of his crew. He scanned the paper until he found his answer. Apparently Yone had served under a different Ordinal before he was transferred here a few weeks ago for unknown reasons. How interesting.

As he read the file, the familiar voice of his Captain rang over the intercom. “Ordinal, Lieutenant Yone is awaiting your permission to enter.”

“Thank you, Captain.” He responded before looking towards the metal doors that lead into his office. The Ordinal straightened his posture, tucking the files away in a cabinet beside his desk before calling out. “Lieutenant, you may enter.”

Within seconds the doors slid open, revealing this Yone. He was decorated with the standard Demaxian military uniform, sporting a few extra badges upon his chest. He stood tall and could be considered handsome. Jet black hair slicked back into a short ponytail, clean shaven and his presence commanded respect.

“Good evening, Lieutenant. Please, come in and make yourself comfortable.” Kayn smiled.

The man smiled in turn and walked forward, taking up the chair placed before Kayn’s desk. “Yes, good evening, Ordinal Kayn. I received a note that you wished to speak with me?”

“I did, yes.” The blue haired man folded his hands. “First and foremost, it is a few weeks late, but I wanted to welcome you aboard my ship.” Kayn waited for Yone to thank him before continuing on, “I’ve looked at your record, and I must say I am quite impressed. In all the years you’ve served, not one mission was a failure. You have a shining resume here, it is no wonder you were transferred into my crew.”

He watched Yone chuckle. “Oh, thank you sir. It’s a great honor to be apart of your crew. I will continue to work hard and bring success to you and the empire.”

The Ordinal hummed in agreement. “It is good to see such a hard working soldier. I know you’ll make us proud, Lieutenant. Now,” Kayn sat back in his chair. “I read that you are from Ionan, correct? If that is the case, I will be relying on you to guide us around.”

“Yes, sir. But if I may ask, I thought you hailed from Ionan as well?”

Kayn raised a brow. “Oh? And where did you hear that?” He watched as the man began to squirm. “No matter. Yes and no. I was born in the Demaxian empire, but I lived in Ionan for many years studying how to fight.”

“Ah, I see. My apologies, sir.”

“No need. I realize that my information is accessible to all because of my status.” Kayn cleared his throat before standing up and walking to the giant window. He glanced out into the darkened space, stars flittering in and out as the ship moved. “The only other thing I needed to inform you about is your raise. It’s self explanatory, so I don’t think we really needed to discuss it.” He looked over his shoulder at the man and smiled once more. “That is all, Lieutenant. You may retire for the night.”

Yone stood up and faced him. He saluted the Ordinal, thanked him, then bid him goodbye. As the metal doors closed behind the figure, Kayn’s eyes remained glued to the door.

“My, my. Does he look down on me that much?” The Ordinal mused. “To think he’d be the one.”

Kayn walked off the ship, head held high as he was greeted by various Ionan generals. They praised him for being so successful, complimented his work ethic, and preached other flattering words to win him over. Little did they know that he had no intention to become buddy-buddy with these untalented pushovers. Yone stood beside him, serious and nonchalant. Kayn was quite serious when he said he would rely on the Lieutenant for guidance around the capital city. But it was also because he wanted to keep a close eye on the soldier.

“Ordinal Kayn!” A deep and gruff voice called out, gaining the Ordinal’s attention. Kayn looked over to see a wealthy looking man, dressed in fine garbs and adorned with golden jewelry, walking towards him. The man's arms were open wide, a bright smile on his face. Beside the man was another, although this one looked less wealthy and more like a bodyguard. White unruly hair tied into a high ponytail that looked unnatural, patchwork armor, a strong physique and facial features similar to Yone’s.

Speaking of Yone, Kayn noticed the soldier react when his eyes landed on the rugged looking man. Curious, Kayn turned to face the two approaching strangers and smiled. “Yes, that is I. Who may I have the pleasure of speaking to?”

They stopped before him, the prominent man holding out his hand. “It is an honor to meet you in person, Ordinal Kayn. I am Reo Sakae, mayor of this fine city.”

Kayn firmly took the mayors hand and shook. “Please, the honor is all mine Mr. Sakae.” His eyes then turned to the white haired man standing behind. “And who is this, your grace?”

“Huh?” The man looked over his shoulder. “Oh this is just a bodyguard I hired to accompany me here.”

The Ordinal glanced to Yone. “Lieutenant.”

“Ah- yes, sir?”

“I couldn’t help but notice your reaction earlier. Do you know this man?” Kayn asked, playing the innocent and curious role.

“Yes, sir. He is my brother.”

Both Kayn and the Mayor’s eyes widened in surprise. Kayn smiled and closed the gap between him and Yone’s brother. He studied the man, looking him up and down which earned an uncomfortable expression from him. “Truly you are related. The two of you look quite similar. What is your name, sir?”

The white haired man looked to Yone then back to the Ordinal. “...Yasuo.” He finally blurted out.

“Well it is nice to meet you, Yasuo. You know your brother has accomplished so much for the empire. He is one of our top soldiers- you should be proud.”

Yasuo hesitantly nodded. “I am.”

“You look like you can handle yourself well. Why not join the military? Demaxia is always looking for skilled warriors such as yourself to join.” Kayn waited and he watched the Ionan’s facial expressions. There was a hint of disgust and rejection in his eyes. His stance was defensive and closed off.

“Sorry, but no. I rather sell my services to a more deserving people.”

Everyone around them froze, and who could blame them? It wasn’t everyday that someone so casually brushes off one of the highest ranking individuals within the Demaxian empire. This man- what nerve he had. Kayn only chuckled though, earning concerned looks from all around.

“I understand, Yasuo. Everyone has their own opinions about the empire, I know full well that not all are positive. You are allowed to live your life how you want- that’s the future we are fighting for.” Kayn turned around back towards the ship. “But if you ever change your mind, I’m sure your brother can tell you what to do. Yone, you may have some free time as the crew settles in. I’m sure you’d like to spend some time with your family.”

As the Ordinal walked away, he heard the hushed whispers of the brothers as they bickered back and forth. Good. He had his target, and now, he had someone to take the blame for whatever ‘accident’ befalls him. This was all going so swimmingly.

“Sir? What are we doing here?”

Kayn stopped in his tracks, a sly smirk crossing his lips as he looked around. A back alley neighborhood with no one around, claiming to be a shortcut to their initial destination. The wind blew softly, picking up a few strands of his hair as it passed. “Ah, it seems we’ve gotten lost. I did tell you that you needed to lead the way, did I not?”

Yone looked confused. “I-”

“Not another word, Yone.” Kayn snapped. “Or should I say traitor?” He turned to face the man and what he saw confirmed all his suspicions. Yone was pale, and his hand was hovering closer to his weapon.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, sir.”

The Ordinal laughed. “Oh? Did you think I wouldn’t notice how you continually left your room at the dead of night, avoiding all cameras to the communication room?”

Yone’s eyes went wide. “Wha-?”

“I see everything, Yone. I know everything. Your first mistake was thinking you could get away with this.” He turned around fully and unsheathed his sword. “I don’t give second chances. I had high hopes for you, Yone. But you’ve disappointed me. Now, before I gut you, would you at least enlighten me as to why you decided to betray us?”

He watched the Ionan bit his lip and take a step back. His stance was lowering as if he thought he could run away or make the first blow. “I..” He said roughly, his voice becoming dark. “I know what Demaxia is trying to do. Taking all the ora for yourselves, preaching peace but then subjecting every planet to your tyrannical rule- You won’t get away with this.”

Kayn couldn’t help but burst into laughter. “Is that so? Oh, my dear Yone, I can get away with anything. You on the other hand..”

The Ordinal sprinted forward, catching the other man off guard. As Yone went to pull back, Kayn closed the gap between them. He was nearly centimeters away- but then vanished. Yone stood there, panting as if he’d seen a ghost. His eyes darted around for any sign of the blue haired man, but all he saw was the sun fading beneath the city. All he heard was the soft billowing of the wind.

Yone took this chance and ran. He sprinted past corners, looking over his shoulder for the ordinal but never seeing a thing. He was breathing hard, sweat running down his brow as he followed the narrow streets. He kept running, but everywhere he turned led to another road. He cursed himself as he realized that no headway was being made. Finally he saw one final street, with hope welling up inside him he pushed forward. Closer. Closer. And when he turned the final corner, he felt his heart stop.

A dead end.

A harrowing laughter echoed throughout the corridor behind him. Yone spun around, but again, saw nothing but the darkened sky. The man backed up until he was against the wall, blade out and ready for when the Ordinal showed his face. The ominous laughter faded and the wind resumed its soothing melody. Yone caught his breath and sighed. The soldier was about to take a step when the wind suddenly ceased.

“Argh!” He cried out in pain, a piercing pain riveting through his body. He looked over his shoulder, body shaking, as he saw half the Ordinals body emerging from the stone behind them.

“Hush…” Kayn whispered. “I promise your death will be slow and painful.”

In a swift movement, Yone blindly swung his sword up. He heard a scream of pain from the Ordinal. “You insolent fool!”

Yone felt another sting but his cry was replaced with him hacking up a handful of blood. His vision was beginning to fade, the sanguine dripping down his chin. Slowly he looked down and saw the Ordinal’s blade protruding from his abdomen.

Kayn left the wall entirely, his left arm falling limp to his side. The sword had embedded itself deep within his shoulder. Without him applying any pressure to the wound, he could see how the flesh separated further from his body. By the looks of it, it might not be salvageable. But he decided to push that thought to the back of his mind, for he had a job to do.

He placed his foot on the others back and yanked the sword out before kicking the man onto the ground. “All those years. Those many years you spent in the military. All those people you deceived into thinking you were fighting for the empire. All your plans- everything- I have just taken from you.” He walked around Yone’s body, squatting in front of him. “Oh look at you, you poor unfortunate soul.”

His smile faded and he glared. He grabbed the man’s shoulder and forcefully rolled him onto his back. Yone was coughing up more blood, choking and shrieking in anguish. Kayn didn’t care in the slightest. “You disgusting swine. You decrepit and unloyal peon.” Kayn grit his teeth. “A shame you need to die. But don’t worry, I’ll make sure your brother knows just how much your suffered. I’ll make that very clear.”

The Ordinal raised his blade and plunged it down into Yone’s stomach. The mans mouth burst open, but nothing came out. Kayn reared back and slashed again, and again, and again. After the fourth time he stopped. He glared down at his massacre and lowered his weapon. He had done enough. He shook his blade in one motion, splattering the excess blood onto the pavement before sheathing it. Feeling dizzy he slammed into the stone wall. With his free hand he gripped his sagging shoulder. His breathing turned to heavy pants and he felt the adrenaline settling down, filling his body with agonizing pain.

It was then that he heard footsteps. Good. He was here. Kayn steadied himself before wobbling to the wall and activating his shadow step. As he passed through the cement, he looked back once more just in time to see Yasuo turn the corner.

Kayn sat at his desk, hands folded in his lap as he gazed out into the stars. A single file rested on the desks surface with the name: Yone printed on it. After admiring the beauty of the stars for a few more moments, Kayn glanced down to the file. He slowly reached out and picked it up, reading the name once more before tossing it in the garbage can near him.

News of a gruesome murder spread through the city and into the ears of the Demaxian Military. A young man who had murdered his brother, a stellar Demaxian soldier, in cold blood. This man, Yasuo, was being hunted by the military and was last seen fleeing the planet.

Oh, and Ordinal Sheida Kayn was injured due to a training accident aboard his ship.

Kayn touched his prosthetic arm. He smiled.

Mission completed.

#drabble #headcannon #blood #gore #ITS HERE I FINISHED IT!

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verdigrisprowl · 5 years

Text

Jan 7 Dancitron Movie Night - Gotham s2 e10-13

They talked about body cameras. Gotham could use some.

Today NoodlesAtNight 7:36 pm *Soundwave has everything set up already, but is not parked on his couch. For some reason, Earth's signal is a little weak today. Must be some objects getting in the way. He's tinkering quietly beneath one of the floor panels in front of the video wall.* NoodlesAtNight 7:59 pm ((get whatever you need, we're starting in approximately 10-15)) SCProwl 8:00 pm *maneuvers through the furniture toward the front of the room where Soundwave is fiddling* Is something wrong with it? SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:00 pm *enter dragon! she's got plenty of snacks for everyone! totally didn't overcompensate for missing last movie night! the previous sentence is a lie!* Hello, Soundwave, everyone! NoodlesAtNight 8:01 pm *Soundwave looks up at his timeline's Prowl for a moment, pings her hello, and returns to messing with the equipment.* [[He is running diagnostics. The feed is slightly glitchy tonight and he is trying to determine whether it is on his end or Earth's.]] Today NoodlesAtNight 8:01 pm *A feeler lifts over his shoulder to wave at the dragon.* [[You could singlehandedly feed the minicon complex's inhabitants for a night, dragon. That is, for the record, a compliment.]] SCProwl 8:02 pm *nods in greeting to the dragon and then returns the ping* Is there anything I can assist you with or is this an issue you can solve more easily on your own? NoodlesAtNight 8:03 pm *Considers.* [[Are you capable of testing a signal array if it has an inbuilt readout with port?]] Boomtank 8:03 pm -wanders in, before making his way towards the front- Um... What's wrong? SCProwl 8:04 pm I am, yes. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:04 pm That's a compliment I'll bear with pride. *goes to put everything on the Designated Snack Counter* NoodlesAtNight 8:04 pm [[Minor feed glitches.]] *Soundwave sends Prowl some coordinates. Hop to bridging, miss.* [[Attempting to identify the source of the problem.]] verdigrisprowl 8:05 pm *appears* opatoes 8:05 pm /Smokescreen's coming in and is quickly making a leap for the couch! He's missed a couple nights and it's great to be back!/ Soundwave, everyone, hey! What'd I miss? SCProwl 8:05 pm *will do just that* Swervester 8:05 pm [oozes himself over a couch] Boomtank 8:05 pm Ah. Do you need help? Or was that what Prowl just got to? NoodlesAtNight 8:06 pm ((in other words: i'm stealing a few minutes to finish eating real quick and rabbit is being slightly glitchy audio quality wise tonight))

[[Here - take over testing, would you? He should catch Smokescreen up.]] *Pings Prowl and Swerve hello* verdigrisprowl 8:06 pm *pings hello back* Boomtank 8:06 pm Alright then. -and is going to do just that- NoodlesAtNight 8:08 pm ((@Smokey mun - http://slenderwave.tumblr.com/private/181594024362/tumblr_pkmh7dHzQT1rj4udt

http://slenderwave.tumblr.com/private/181619172547/tumblr_pko2wcgjT11rj4udt )) ((episode data for 4-9)) NoodlesAtNight 8:09 pm ((five minutes get what you want and get settled!)) NoodlesAtNight 8:10 pm *And he's transferred that data now. Time to check on what Blaster and Prowl have got.* Swervester 8:10 pm [pings hi back] Swervester 8:11 pm //excellent my dinner finished cooking in time SCProwl 8:11 pm @SW: [[Everything is in working order here. The problem is not on our end.]] Boomtank 8:12 pm Nothing wrong here. Think it might be Earth having the problem. opatoes 8:12 pm Thank you, Soundwave! I wanna say I'm all caught up, now, but trying to put it all together's a bit weird. I'm sure I'll be fine once I see it, though! NoodlesAtNight 8:13 pm [[Hm. That's three votes for Earth. Earth it is. Thank you - just place the floor plate back where it goes, please. It will self-lock.]]

*He heads over to Prowl and takes his seat. Join him?* SCProwl 8:13 pm *will take that bridge back now* Boomtank 8:14 pm -and scrambling out of the floor, and shoving the plate back in place- There we go. NoodlesAtNight 8:14 pm GOTHAM S2 10-12 (13?)// Violence, blood, death, excessive police force, foul language, the usual. Drill to the head. Poor depictions of mental illness, psychiatric abuse. The most disgusting body horror scene in the entire SERIES. Lung failure and coughing up blood throughout 12/13. Eye gore. I'll try to remember in time to notify for these last few.)) opatoes 8:14 pm ((SADZXCBN i set my macaroni for 73 minutes by accident and i'm glad i caught it before it was gonna be a problem NoodlesAtNight 8:14 pm ((oh my god)) Boomtank 8:14 pm ((holy shit SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:15 pm ((oshit)) verdigrisprowl 8:15 pm *does, of course, join Soundwave* NoodlesAtNight 8:15 pm *Soundwave brings a whole medium-sized plate of snacks over to himself with the help of his feelers and gives Prowl's shoulder a quick bunt while everyone's settling in.* opatoes 8:15 pm ... Wait, did someone die NoodlesAtNight 8:15 pm *He's ready to watch.* opatoes 8:16 pm I mean, I guess someone died 'cause they're not just lugging around a living person's body in a coffin, but what NoodlesAtNight 8:16 pm [[Yes. Officer Gordon chose not to kill a cannibal hitman he had already defeated. They later killed another officer.]] SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:17 pm *the dragon is never going to be able to stop feeling warm and fuzzy about Soundwave appreciating the snacks. it's nice to feel appreciated as a cook.* opatoes 8:17 pm Guess that cannibal guy wanted some bacon? ... 'Cause, you know. Cops. Goats. NoodlesAtNight 8:18 pm [[...Goats?]] verdigrisprowl 8:18 pm "Become a murderer," she says, like he isn't already a murderer. opatoes 8:18 pm ... Isn't that what humans call cops? frag i thought that said galvatron for a klik MedicalMurdersaurus 8:18 pm *FLIPS AND ROLLS INTO THE ROOM* HI NoodlesAtNight 8:18 pm [[Hello, Swoop. Sit down.]] Swervester 8:18 pm She has a lot of faith that the mayor's going to do the thing. This entire town is corrupt what makes her think the guy's not going to get off? MedicalMurdersaurus 8:19 pm *scampers around* Bird NoodlesAtNight 8:19 pm [[No Bird tonight, Swoop. She is taking care of an errand.]] MedicalMurdersaurus 8:19 pm Why? NoodlesAtNight 8:20 pm [[...Because that is one of her duties.]] MedicalMurdersaurus 8:21 pm Dumb >: verdigrisprowl 8:21 pm Oh, he survived. ... But the good one didn't. Boomtank 8:21 pm -huffs and settles into his seat- This...isn't going to end well SCProwl 8:22 pm Unfortunately. NoodlesAtNight 8:22 pm [[The bitten one?]] MedicalMurdersaurus 8:22 pm *hops up to sit on the back of a sofa* verdigrisprowl 8:22 pm I meant the other captain. verdigrisprowl 8:23 pm The one who had the job about a day. NoodlesAtNight 8:23 pm [[Ah. Yes, most unfortunate. He thinks he would have liked to see what she might have done in office.]] MedicalMurdersaurus 8:23 pm What movie? verdigrisprowl 8:23 pm Same. NoodlesAtNight 8:24 pm [[Gotham, Swoop. The Batman as a youngling.]] opatoes 8:24 pm I almost forgot Bruce sometimes went to school MedicalMurdersaurus 8:24 pm Me Swoop like Batman : > MedicalMurdersaurus 8:25 pm Us watch cartoon Batman! NoodlesAtNight 8:26 pm [[Perhaps another time.]] Boomtank 8:26 pm ..... SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:26 pm Honestly, I'm surprised that his docent still takes him there. It seems like he would be in danger there. opatoes 8:26 pm Oh man, I love those old Batman cartoons, Swoop NoodlesAtNight 8:26 pm [[You may not have figured this out yet despite attending for months and months, but generally speaking, he shows what he has scheduled, not what someone suddenly asks him to put on.]] Swervester 8:26 pm Should he be able to move like that after being tabbed SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:27 pm ...Why. Why did he pull the knife out. That's a good way to bleed to death. MedicalMurdersaurus 8:27 pm You Soundwave boring Boomtank 8:27 pm HOLY-! NoodlesAtNight 8:27 pm [[...He doesn't think they were concerned about bleeding to death.]] SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:27 pm ...Ah. Well, I guess he doesn't have to worry about that. opatoes 8:27 pm There's this one ancient one from like... 1992? It's fun! MedicalMurdersaurus 8:27 pm kehehHEHEHH opatoes 8:27 pm Also, Also, Soundwave, what do you have scheduled after this? Or is it a surprise? verdigrisprowl 8:27 pm ... There's a Batman cartoon? NoodlesAtNight 8:27 pm [[There are several.]] Boomtank 8:27 pm He's...very dead. MedicalMurdersaurus 8:27 pm YAH! It pretty cool. NoodlesAtNight 8:28 pm [[Hm. After we wrap the second batch of documentaries, we will see Over The Hedge, Venom, and Rampage.]] verdigrisprowl 8:28 pm *glances at Soundwave* Are any of them good? *by Soundwave's standards, not Swoop's.* MedicalMurdersaurus 8:28 pm YAH! SCProwl 8:28 pm What are those about? SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:29 pm Speaking of getting /kidnapped/... NoodlesAtNight 8:29 pm *Soundwave considers the question.* [[At least two. One a little more than the other, or so Rumble tells him.]] Swervester 8:29 pm [squints] How fake is that kidnappiong verdigrisprowl 8:29 pm Very fake. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:29 pm Extremely. NoodlesAtNight 8:30 pm [[She's really very sensible, this Lee human.]] opatoes 8:30 pm sewer monks Boomtank 8:30 pm ...... Boomtank 8:31 pm Well, it works MedicalMurdersaurus 8:31 pm What sewer is? Swervester 8:31 pm Humans living in sewers is weird. opatoes 8:31 pm ... teenage mutant ninja sewer monks Swervester 8:31 pm Seems unhygenic. MedicalMurdersaurus 8:31 pm OH! Ninja Turtles thing : > NoodlesAtNight 8:32 pm [[....What.]] opatoes 8:32 pm Wh. Boomtank 8:32 pm It is...but it works verdigrisprowl 8:32 pm It'd be a believable lie if he were a believable liar. Boomtank 8:33 pm If it's anything like the tunnels SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:33 pm He doesn't have to be. No one ever pays attention to him- almost as if they're worried that he'll start talking to them. verdigrisprowl 8:33 pm Hff. opatoes 8:33 pm Scream as loud as you can and burst his eardrums NoodlesAtNight 8:33 pm ((interesting fact: tom the knife's actor really has got a glasgow smile. poor guy got jumped outside a bar once years ago)) MedicalMurdersaurus 8:34 pm ((damn)) verdigrisprowl 8:34 pm ((sad, but useful for a character actor I guess)) MedicalMurdersaurus 8:34 pm SMACK! Keheh NoodlesAtNight 8:34 pm ((ye)) Boomtank 8:34 pm ((yikes SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:34 pm ((ouch)) SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:35 pm ((those get infected super easily too, IIRC. glad he didn't lose his face, I suppose)) NoodlesAtNight 8:35 pm ((same)) verdigrisprowl 8:35 pm ((yeah)) verdigrisprowl 8:36 pm Ah. So the kidnapping IS real. NoodlesAtNight 8:36 pm [[Oh dear.]] Swervester 8:36 pm Huh. MedicalMurdersaurus 8:36 pm Dead? Swervester 8:36 pm I really thought she was in on it based on past behavior. verdigrisprowl 8:37 pm It was certainly a possibility. NoodlesAtNight 8:37 pm [[So did he. It seemed rather convenient at the time.]] SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:37 pm She might have been in on it but not aware that they were going to kill her in it. I doubt that her uncle wouldn't consider her expendable. Boomtank 8:38 pm ..... NoodlesAtNight 8:38 pm [[He thinks you are right. He already threatened to kill his own sister.]] verdigrisprowl 8:38 pm Primus, these are such foul excuses for cops. NoodlesAtNight 8:39 pm [[You'll hear no arguments from him.]] verdigrisprowl 8:39 pm If they can't torture information out of someone then they don't know how to get information. Swervester 8:40 pm That name's familiar verdigrisprowl 8:40 pm I don't believe her. NoodlesAtNight 8:40 pm [[Why is that?]] Swervester 8:40 pm ... verdigrisprowl 8:40 pm Oh! Swervester 8:40 pm Huh. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:40 pm Oho! NoodlesAtNight 8:40 pm [[She has n-- ....]] verdigrisprowl 8:40 pm Hah! Primus! SCProwl 8:40 pm Clever. Boomtank 8:41 pm HAH! Swervester 8:41 pm I was totally right. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:41 pm Sneaky Cat-human. opatoes 8:41 pm Don't a lot of people end up lying when they're getting tortured Swervester 8:41 pm I had a weird hunch that Bruce was fine and it wasn't wrong. NoodlesAtNight 8:41 pm [[What a sharp little feline.]]

[[That they do, Smokescreen.]] [[You have a good instinct, Swerve.]] SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:41 pm Yes. Torture is not an effective way of gaining information. MedicalMurdersaurus 8:42 pm *flops backwards off the sofa and onto the ground* verdigrisprowl 8:42 pm Torture doesn't work. Boomtank 8:43 pm ..... verdigrisprowl 8:43 pm Torture produces answers, but not truthful answers. MedicalMurdersaurus 8:43 pm *sprawls out, limbs everywhere* Boomtank 8:43 pm You are screwed girl NoodlesAtNight 8:44 pm [[Hardening his spa-- heart, already, he sees.]] Swervester 8:44 pm OH. Clever? MedicalMurdersaurus 8:44 pm ((lovin that batman voice, gordon)) Swervester 8:44 pm //that monk's voice is weirdly deep SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:44 pm ...That's going to give him an infection. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:45 pm Who knows what's been on that knife. Boomtank 8:45 pm -facepalms- NoodlesAtNight 8:45 pm *Soundwave keeps quiet about what does and doesn't produce answers. Certain parties in here don't need to be reminded about the Patch.* MedicalMurdersaurus 8:45 pm boooooooooooooooooooring Swervester 8:45 pm Aw he was getting him to talk too. verdigrisprowl 8:45 pm Nice of him to actually give a blessing, though. NoodlesAtNight 8:45 pm [[...Why do you say that?]] *Actual curious look.* Swervester 8:45 pm .... Alfred please. verdigrisprowl 8:46 pm ... Because it's nice. I kind of thought he was going to spit on his forehead. opatoes 8:46 pm ... Why does anybody stay in this town, anyway? NoodlesAtNight 8:46 pm [[Oh. Yes, that - that is nicer than spitting, he will agree to that.]] MedicalMurdersaurus 8:46 pm *pops up for the fight scene* Boomtank 8:46 pm Alfred Swervester 8:46 pm Just shoot Alfred. It's self defense. NoodlesAtNight 8:46 pm [[Likely for the same reasons mechs stayed in Kaon, Blaster City, Slaughter City, Yuss... you cannot afford to leave.]] Boomtank 8:47 pm Alfred the hell. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:47 pm She did exactly that. opatoes 8:47 pm True... verdigrisprowl 8:47 pm Is Yuss that bad? MedicalMurdersaurus 8:47 pm Me Swoop want to fight in an elevator :V opatoes 8:47 pm I wish I could throw weapons like that SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:47 pm Speaking of infections... Ew. Boomtank 8:47 pm Whoops SCProwl 8:48 pm I could teach you if you'd like. NoodlesAtNight 8:48 pm [[It WAS a nice place. A lovely place, in fact. Then the Acid Wastes spread and reached th-- did he say--!]] opatoes 8:48 pm That'd be amazing, Prowl! Swervester 8:48 pm Ugh, I was right that he'd lie on stand. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:48 pm *WHOO* verdigrisprowl 8:49 pm Hm. Who got to the mayor? MedicalMurdersaurus 8:49 pm ((stick up for penguin, gordon)) NoodlesAtNight 8:49 pm [[Someone got to him. How did they let that happen? Was no one watching him?]] MedicalMurdersaurus 8:49 pm *flops back onto the ground like he was shot* Boomtank 8:49 pm ........... What just happened opatoes 8:49 pm Seriously Boomtank 8:49 pm Are you NoodlesAtNight 8:49 pm [[And elevators are terrible places for fights.]] Especially if you have unusually long and awkward limbs. Boomtank 8:50 pm ugh NoodlesAtNight 8:50 pm *Mumble.* [[Punch him.]] SCProwl 8:50 pm Perhaps Galavan's people? He did have officers loyal to him, yes? Swervester 8:50 pm Gordon! verdigrisprowl 8:50 pm *HUFF* NoodlesAtNight 8:50 pm *Mumble.* [[Thank you.]] opatoes 8:50 pm Gordon no Swervester 8:50 pm As satisfying as that was, he should not have done that Boomtank 8:50 pm -snorts- verdigrisprowl 8:50 pm No, he should not. Boomtank 8:51 pm I feel like doing that some days NoodlesAtNight 8:51 pm [[Galavan does, yes. He had hoped Barnes would have managed to pick better guards for the mayor.]] Swervester 8:51 pm [makes vague noise] Wasn't Malone one of the early gang people. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:51 pm ...Ah, young love. NoodlesAtNight 8:51 pm [[That was Maroni.]] SCProwl 8:51 pm ((baby batcat <3 Swervester 8:52 pm Oh. Okay. MedicalMurdersaurus 8:52 pm *could melt under the weight of his disappointment in this show not being all fight scenes* verdigrisprowl 8:52 pm If she asks for permission first, she's not stealing the car, is it? NoodlesAtNight 8:52 pm @P: [[He is glad you do not steal cars when he compliments you. For one thing, he isn't a car anymore.]] *Soundwave would like to see that happen to Swoop. Then they'd know exactly what it takes to beat a Dinobot.* verdigrisprowl 8:53 pm @S «I don't know what I'd do with a car.» NoodlesAtNight 8:53 pm @P: [[Use it in your human holoform mode?]] MedicalMurdersaurus 8:53 pm *lifts his head up just some in the hope gore is coming* verdigrisprowl 8:53 pm @S «I'd use myself.» Swervester 8:53 pm Maybe he should start wearing personal hidden cameras or something, he'd get so much evidence that way NoodlesAtNight 8:54 pm @P: [[Then he has no idea.]] *Amusement ping.* [[...That is /brilliant,/ Swerve.]] Boomtank 8:54 pm A lot Swervester 8:55 pm Like if he was recording right now????? verdigrisprowl 8:55 pm Should be standard for police, really. I've been reading up on it. MedicalMurdersaurus 8:55 pm *flops back so hard his helm makes a loud THUNK on the floor* NoodlesAtNight 8:55 pm [[Oh? What does the reading say?]] *Absolutely interested in spying for better work.* Boomtank 8:55 pm Ouch MedicalMurdersaurus 8:55 pm *HEARS PAIN!* Swervester 8:55 pm I assume they took his gun and that's why he didn't do something smarter like SHOOT HIM MedicalMurdersaurus 8:55 pm *rolls onto his tummy and watches with his chin in his hands* Kehehhehh Him suck NoodlesAtNight 8:56 pm [[Hm. Quite a lot to this Galavan fleshling beneath the surface. And of course they would have taken his gun.]] Boomtank 8:56 pm Yikes.... Boomtank 8:57 pm More yikes SpecsTheSpectralDragon 8:57 pm ...Penguin human. He's unconscious. NoodlesAtNight 8:57 pm [[Jim could have worse 'friends' than the Penguin. Better ones. But also worse.]] MedicalMurdersaurus 8:57 pm Fight fight fight! Boomtank 8:57 pm Bruce, run NoodlesAtNight 8:58 pm [[Is a garbage heap really the best hiding place with an open wound?]] Boomtank 8:58 pm Annnnd that's infected now Swervester 8:58 pm Was he unconcious in the truck? Don't human garbage trucks crush trash before it gets that far??? verdigrisprowl 8:58 pm The reading says, in most societies, it's not a bad idea. Swervester 8:58 pm ... Was he down there this whole time. SCProwl 8:59 pm I suppose my visor could double as a camera. If one doesn't mind seeing the entire EM spectrum all at once. MedicalMurdersaurus 8:59 pm ((this show has such EXCELLENT suits)) SCProwl 8:59 pm ((i have a lot of feelings about the suits in this show tbh Boomtank 8:59 pm That'd hurt verdigrisprowl 8:59 pm I'd kind of like to use it here, but I can't make too many changes at once before people rebel. NoodlesAtNight 9:00 pm [[And they are allowed to use the video captured as evidence?]]

[[Well, you should pin it for later. He thinks it could be interesting - in both directions. Imagine how many more pages you could fill in your reports when firing the corrupt.]] MedicalMurdersaurus 9:00 pm Everyone talk dumb. Them FIGHT now! verdigrisprowl 9:01 pm That's half the point. The other half is to get concrete evidence to use when judging accusations of enforcer misconduct. Boomtank 9:01 pm ....yeah, no NoodlesAtNight 9:01 pm *As he'd hoped. He's already on board with this personal video thing. So much.* Swervester 9:01 pm Ed is this smart. MedicalMurdersaurus 9:01 pm ((gay)) NoodlesAtNight 9:02 pm ((heh)) opatoes 9:02 pm rip ed SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:02 pm No, it's a terrible idea. Ed's going to get in so much trouble. NoodlesAtNight 9:03 pm ((i love that shot ;; )) verdigrisprowl 9:03 pm ... Plus, people tend to behave better when they know they're on camera. SCProwl 9:03 pm Perhaps we could introduce it here in Praxus. Our population is small enough that they may more easily adjust. NoodlesAtNight 9:03 pm [[Yes. Yes, they do.]] *The tiniest smile.*

[[You would be willing to try that?]] *To his own timeline's Prowl.* MedicalMurdersaurus 9:05 pm *slowly rolls like a childish log around the floor* SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:05 pm Goddess, what a useless human. Swervester 9:05 pm Is she actually his niece? verdigrisprowl 9:06 pm Let me know how it goes. I've seen such systems on other worlds, but not on a Cybertron. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:06 pm I hope not. SCProwl 9:06 pm I'd like to look at what you've been reading, Captain, but I want to ensure this new police force doesn't become what it was before the war. MedicalMurdersaurus 9:06 pm *rooooooolll roooooooooooollll* NoodlesAtNight 9:06 pm [[Swoop, for Primus' sake, go run laps outside if you need something to do.]] SCProwl 9:07 pm I sincerely doubt Silver is going to succeed here. MedicalMurdersaurus 9:07 pm Me Swoop don't waaaaaannnttt to laps! opatoes 9:08 pm there's my house verdigrisprowl 9:09 pm ... There were a couple of citystates that used cameras before the war, but exclusively to the enforcers' benefit. Footage was suppressed and destroyed if it wasn't to the enforcers' advantage. So I hardly count it as the same system. Swervester 9:09 pm Oh my god officer lady. verdigrisprowl 9:10 pm Why does he think he knows Gym better than she does? She's known Gym longer than him. Swervester 9:10 pm I expected bats verdigrisprowl 9:11 pm He's scared of bats. MedicalMurdersaurus 9:11 pm *kicks his foot up and holds onto it * *is now an asymmetrical lump* verdigrisprowl 9:12 pm She's not. Boomtank 9:13 pm What verdigrisprowl 9:13 pm she's saying that to get him to stay. Boomtank 9:13 pm Oh verdigrisprowl 9:13 pm Or leave, rather. SCProwl 9:13 pm Steps would have to be taken to ensure something like that didn't happen then. *contemplating the idea somewhat, debating pros and cons and possible scenarios* verdigrisprowl 9:13 pm Stay with her, not stay in Gotham. Boomtank 9:13 pm Makes sense NoodlesAtNight 9:13 pm ((sorry had to run off briefly, back)) MedicalMurdersaurus 9:14 pm *rolls onto his back, gets his hands and feet under him and -- TA DA-- he is now a bridge* verdigrisprowl 9:14 pm The most obvious solution would be to make all the footage public, all the time; however, that would mean that a great many people's very traumatic, very private moments were up for public consumption at all time. verdigrisprowl 9:15 pm The next best solution, I think, would be to ensure that the enforcers aren't the ones that hold the footage. Keep it in the hands of an independent department that doesn't answer to the police. NoodlesAtNight 9:15 pm *Perks.* Swervester 9:15 pm Wow. NoodlesAtNight 9:15 pm [[Corrupt enforcers would count as an internal threat to be monitored.]] *Casually.* [[Another department would work.]] Boomtank 9:15 pm Buuut Jim really should have just told her he's trying to...save...Bruce? SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:16 pm *Welp. She's dead.* verdigrisprowl 9:16 pm Why did the guard just hand the gun over without question. Boomtank 9:16 pm That's not good. Swervester 9:16 pm How the hell did he find out so fast? verdigrisprowl 9:16 pm ... Does Gym know for sure yet that he's the Son of Gotham? Boomtank 9:16 pm Gunshots are loud. MedicalMurdersaurus 9:16 pm *walk upside down on his hands and feet over to a chair and climbs to perch on it* SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:16 pm I assume there's cameras in the cell. NoodlesAtNight 9:16 pm [[Because she is a Dumas. Likely they have been trained to respond to whatever they are told.]] verdigrisprowl 9:16 pm I'm thinking this is part of her performance to re-seduce Brace. verdigrisprowl 9:17 pm Turn his own game against him: act like she's been captured along with him. MedicalMurdersaurus 9:18 pm *leeeeeeeeans back until he can get the chair popped up onto two legs and balances that way* NoodlesAtNight 9:18 pm [[At least he is willing to go the roundabout route to get it done.]] *Stretches a feeler over and firmly pushes the chair back onto all four legs.* SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:19 pm *goodness, the riddling human is very /visibly/ eavesdropping and no one is- ah, there we go.* NoodlesAtNight 9:19 pm ((it's windows, not with us, captioner)) verdigrisprowl 9:19 pm He couldn't help himself. Boomtank 9:19 pm Uh...oh....dear. Ed. MedicalMurdersaurus 9:19 pm *SQUEAKS as he gets plopped back down* MedicalMurdersaurus 9:20 pm ((Riddler/Penguin/Gordon/Lee)) ((I need it)) NoodlesAtNight 9:20 pm ((i'd ship it)) Boomtank 9:20 pm .... Swervester 9:20 pm She knows. Boomtank 9:20 pm Jim. Jim you idiot. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:21 pm ((H E A L T H Y P O L Y A M O R Y)) verdigrisprowl 9:21 pm ((Lee deserves better than that many concentrated self-destructive tendencies.)) NoodlesAtNight 9:21 pm ((true)) SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:21 pm ((but yes puff is right)) SCProwl 9:21 pm ((I ship Lee/no one that exists on this show rn NoodlesAtNight 9:21 pm ((lee as vanessa/deadpool)) SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:21 pm ((lmaoooooo valid)) Swervester 9:21 pm Look pretty well makeup'd to me, girl MedicalMurdersaurus 9:21 pm ((lee/deadpool)) verdigrisprowl 9:21 pm ((riddler/penguin/gordon/vanessa)) Swervester 9:22 pm //i must look terrible she says, looking like a model NoodlesAtNight 9:22 pm ((omg)) [[You are being too obvious, child.]] Boomtank 9:23 pm .....eeeesh verdigrisprowl 9:23 pm She might get her kiss just for telling him the truth. Solely to save her life. MedicalMurdersaurus 9:24 pm *leans forward in the chair slowly until he tips over, roll roll rolling to a new spot* MedicalMurdersaurus 9:25 pm ((look at all these people coming out for bruce)) NoodlesAtNight 9:25 pm [[Fox is having one pit of an interesting day.]] Boomtank 9:25 pm He's a kind person, he'd...wow verdigrisprowl 9:25 pm He's the only sensible person in the room. NoodlesAtNight 9:26 pm [[Of course he is. Lee drove off.]] *And that's something of a shame, because they could really use two sensible people right now.* Boomtank 9:26 pm A menagerie of animals verdigrisprowl 9:26 pm ((Fox/Lee. Only Sensible People)) NoodlesAtNight 9:26 pm ((lmao)) Swervester 9:26 pm Ah NoodlesAtNight 9:26 pm [[That is kind of him.]] verdigrisprowl 9:26 pm As I said. Swervester 9:27 pm He's too nice. Boomtank 9:27 pm It is. SCProwl 9:27 pm ((but fox needs to be Bruce's other dad with Alfred tho? verdigrisprowl 9:27 pm ((Alfred and Fox can split custody)) Boomtank 9:28 pm Annnnd this isn't going...Cat. Cat what are you doing? Oh. That. NoodlesAtNight 9:28 pm [[Clearing a way in.]] *Ahh, the days of when his minicons would do that for him.* ((bullock reminds me of that scene in kung fu panda 2 where he's like MY WORST ENEMY! .... STAIRS. )) SCProwl 9:29 pm ((me too, bullock, me too Boomtank 9:29 pm ((Stairs. The enemy of all out of shape people Swervester 9:29 pm //mood NoodlesAtNight 9:30 pm [[Ah. She is dead.]] verdigrisprowl 9:30 pm Huh. She legitimately saved his life. Swervester 9:30 pm Should Fox sound so ominous opatoes 9:30 pm pppphffhfh Boomtank 9:31 pm Bullock opatoes 9:31 pm nice SCProwl 9:31 pm ((Tabby <3 NoodlesAtNight 9:31 pm ((good tabby <3 )) Swervester 9:31 pm Huh. verdigrisprowl 9:31 pm God, I would have been so confused if I'd been given that crime scene to examine. Swervester 9:31 pm She's a good woman ally I guess NoodlesAtNight 9:31 pm [[Which one? The sacrifice scene?]] opatoes 9:32 pm Can she do that again Boomtank 9:32 pm -hides face- Swervester 9:32 pm Did Silver even know how to use that MedicalMurdersaurus 9:32 pm KEHEHH PUSH SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:32 pm What the... NoodlesAtNight 9:32 pm [[She did. Her parachute deployed.]] MedicalMurdersaurus 9:32 pm Me Swoop want to push out a window : > Swervester 9:32 pm Oh. verdigrisprowl 9:32 pm Yes. Trying to make sense of the body that appeared to have fallen to the ground mid-jump. opatoes 9:32 pm shoot him Boomtank 9:33 pm Jim, no MedicalMurdersaurus 9:33 pm Shoot! Shoot! Shoot! SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:33 pm On the one hand... But on the other. NoodlesAtNight 9:33 pm [[A heavy gust of wind from above?]] verdigrisprowl 9:33 pm Put your damn gun down, Gym. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:34 pm Hello, Penguin. Swervester 9:34 pm God opatoes 9:34 pm oswald even has a fluffy coat like a penguin now MedicalMurdersaurus 9:34 pm Why him a penguin? Swervester 9:34 pm Wait what child Boomtank 9:34 pm ..... SCProwl 9:34 pm Lee is carrying. NoodlesAtNight 9:34 pm [[Lee is bearing human spawn, Swerve.]] Swervester 9:34 pm What since when verdigrisprowl 9:34 pm I'm still not convinced. Swervester 9:35 pm Did I miss that Boomtank 9:35 pm -not going to say he'd turn this over to Penguin, but he would- NoodlesAtNight 9:35 pm [[She told Jim she was.]] Swervester 9:35 pm I don't recall that. Maybe it was one I missed verdigrisprowl 9:35 pm *sighs* NoodlesAtNight 9:35 pm [[It was earlier tonight, at Nygma's.]] SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:35 pm *oh, the dragon would have committed a murder in a heartbeat. Penguin wouldn't have even needed to bring up the child.* Swervester 9:35 pm Oh. NoodlesAtNight 9:35 pm *Shakes his head. Damn it, Jim.* Swervester 9:35 pm t have been when I got that call, I tuned out for a bit. That'swhy I don't remember it. MedicalMurdersaurus 9:36 pm : > SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:36 pm Goddess' fangs, Penguin. Boomtank 9:36 pm ............ NoodlesAtNight 9:36 pm [[How far he has fallen.]] *Vent.* Boomtank 9:36 pm Jim. opatoes 9:36 pm ... Man, this reads like some kinda phoenix wright case MedicalMurdersaurus 9:36 pm Aww, that a boring dead : < Boomtank 9:37 pm Jim, you didn't. SCProwl 9:37 pm Appalling. Swervester 9:37 pm So much for clearing corruption verdigrisprowl 9:37 pm Indeed. opatoes 9:37 pm Ji, verdigrisprowl 9:37 pm Sure, it's over—until the next guy. opatoes 9:37 pm Jim Boomtank 9:37 pm ...... verdigrisprowl 9:38 pm Or until the evidence surfaces. NoodlesAtNight 9:38 pm [[And it will only be easier, now. It only ever gets easier.]] Boomtank 9:38 pm Yeah... opatoes 9:38 pm Uh MedicalMurdersaurus 9:38 pm KEHEHHEHHEHHH verdigrisprowl 9:38 pm Or until somebody charges him with something. Boomtank 9:38 pm Um...how? NoodlesAtNight 9:39 pm *Tilts his helm. What's this, then?* Boomtank 9:39 pm What. Oh yikes NoodlesAtNight 9:40 pm [[Oh - a trial?]] *Leans forward* verdigrisprowl 9:40 pm Not a trial, yet. NoodlesAtNight 9:41 pm ((i've been debating, and personally i'd like to do this, but i'll take votes -- this is part 1 of a good 2 parter; do y'all want the extra ep tonight or to keep it split?)) MedicalMurdersaurus 9:41 pm ((extra!)) Boomtank 9:41 pm ((extraaaaa! SCProwl 9:42 pm ((i'm good with extra ep because these episodes are great SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:42 pm ((extra ep works for me)) verdigrisprowl 9:42 pm ((sure)) NoodlesAtNight 9:42 pm ((cool! she said, winking obnoxiously)) MedicalMurdersaurus 9:42 pm Soundwave NoodlesAtNight 9:43 pm [[Yes?]] SCProwl 9:43 pm Ugh. verdigrisprowl 9:43 pm Ugh. NoodlesAtNight 9:43 pm [[And if this is not a trial - is this an internal affairs business?]] MedicalMurdersaurus 9:43 pm You fight Me Swoop : > NoodlesAtNight 9:43 pm [[...Why are you both ughing his name.]] verdigrisprowl 9:43 pm No, the show. NoodlesAtNight 9:43 pm [[No, Swoop.]] *Pause.* [[At least, not right now.]] SCProwl 9:43 pm *gesture at the screen* MedicalMurdersaurus 9:43 pm Fight later? :V NoodlesAtNight 9:43 pm [[He will consider it.]] MedicalMurdersaurus 9:44 pm Yay : > Boomtank 9:44 pm Well that's an insult Swervester 9:44 pm OH, they don't trust Jim anymore? NoodlesAtNight 9:44 pm ((i'm SO MAD that we likely don't get to get a twoface outta him)) ((dumb other show hiring him away)) SCProwl 9:44 pm ((*shakes fist at other show* MedicalMurdersaurus 9:44 pm KAHA! Drill to the FACE! NoodlesAtNight 9:44 pm *He'll have to send that clip to Frenzy. Frenzy would like that.* verdigrisprowl 9:45 pm Interesting new attachment. NoodlesAtNight 9:45 pm [[Personally, he is disappointed. He was promised a tiny chainsaw.]]

*Looks to Swerve* [[Would you?]] NoodlesAtNight 9:46 pm [][][]Like a sad bear.[][][] Boomtank 9:47 pm ....... SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:47 pm ...I wonder how they got it to spin. NoodlesAtNight 9:47 pm ((..........well damn it now I'M wondering)) MedicalMurdersaurus 9:48 pm WHOA! SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:48 pm ((seriously, like- HOLY FUCK)) Boomtank 9:48 pm ..... verdigrisprowl 9:48 pm ... Him versus flamethrower girl. Boomtank 9:48 pm That's....that's a new one SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:48 pm ((but yeah wasn't there supposed to be /wrist/ and stuff back in there? how'd they hitch the electronics up? you can do some funky things with nerves, but still.)) MedicalMurdersaurus 9:48 pm Flamethrower girl?????? :V NoodlesAtNight 9:48 pm [[Oh. Oh, he'd like to see that.]] *Nodding at Prowl.* NoodlesAtNight 9:49 pm ((yeah i... i have no idea how that would work. i mean, galavan's rich enough to do the nerve thing i guess? but idk)) opatoes 9:49 pm let it go NoodlesAtNight 9:49 pm [[Don't you /dare/.]] opatoes 9:49 pm But Soundwave... SCProwl 9:49 pm Dare what? SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:49 pm ((also, with the monkey experiment along those lines, they had to teach the monkey to think about certain cues before they wired him up. you don't need to do that with humans, but still.)) MedicalMurdersaurus 9:50 pm Me Swoop don't like being cold Boomtank 9:51 pm ....? NoodlesAtNight 9:51 pm [[...He wonders if Nygma will attack Harvey.]] verdigrisprowl 9:51 pm At least he's pretending to be polite now. Boomtank 9:51 pm Let it go? NoodlesAtNight 9:51 pm @SCP: [[A song that he could not move two inches without hearing for the better part of an Earth year. He likes music, and enjoys repetition, but it was difficult to find anything else via his usual channels.]] NoodlesAtNight 9:52 pm [[Jim is in trouble now.]] *Scoots forward.* SCProwl 9:52 pm @SW: [[Ah, yes, that would be annoying.]] SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:52 pm Oh no. opatoes 9:52 pm ((dangit smokey wants to be like "humans really did just need to let it go")) MedicalMurdersaurus 9:53 pm *climbs onto the nearest couch and curls up* NoodlesAtNight 9:53 pm ((SUCH SASS)) MedicalMurdersaurus 9:53 pm *completely ignoring personal space* Boomtank 9:53 pm Oh dear. verdigrisprowl 9:53 pm Penguin won't sell him out. Boomtank 9:54 pm Penguin wants to take the credit. NoodlesAtNight 9:54 pm [[With a debt that size waiting there for him if he covers? No criminal being of good sense would.]] SCProwl 9:54 pm They probably corroborated their stories before the ni--*sighs* verdigrisprowl 9:54 pm Penguin's going to protect his "friend." Boomtank 9:54 pm True MedicalMurdersaurus 9:54 pm ((Gordon is worth more on the force and also Penguin is gay for him and wouldn't want to ruin his life)) Boomtank 9:54 pm ((HAH SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:55 pm I feel as though this has gone long past "friend" and into "asset," just like with the riddling human. MedicalMurdersaurus 9:55 pm *looks around for pillows* verdigrisprowl 9:55 pm He gains nothing and loses a huge advantage if he sells Gym out. Plus, he IS now in custody. He could use a friend on the force. ... Since when has "friend" been anything BUT a code word for "asset"? SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:55 pm Alright, fair enough. MedicalMurdersaurus 9:55 pm Me Swoop and Her Bird are FRIENDS! :v verdigrisprowl 9:55 pm *case in point.* NoodlesAtNight 9:55 pm [[It hasn't. It only appears that way to those who do not think to make good and consensual use of their friends when the opportunity strikes.]] NoodlesAtNight 9:56 pm [[And who are not willing to acknowledge the reverse.]] SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:56 pm ...Does he intend to freeze her? verdigrisprowl 9:56 pm The way Penguin uses it, I mean. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:56 pm Ah. opatoes 9:56 pm OH. Ohhhh. Oh. NoodlesAtNight 9:56 pm [[Ah. That is a different kind of 'asset'. But you are still correct.]] opatoes 9:56 pm I know who this is now NoodlesAtNight 9:56 pm [[...He didn't tell her.]] verdigrisprowl 9:57 pm In general, good friends are also assets. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:57 pm Why would he? She'd refuse to let him freeze her if she knew, surely. verdigrisprowl 9:57 pm In Penguin's case, friends are /only/ assets. Swervester 9:57 pm //what did i miss in the last ten minutes i had to clean up Cat Accident SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:57 pm ((there's a man freezing people to save his wife)) ((par for the course)) verdigrisprowl 9:58 pm ((penguin got arrested, in the interrogation room backed up jim's alibi)) Swervester 9:58 pm //is there a sensible reason for freezing lmao verdigrisprowl 9:58 pm ((i almost spelled it "gym," im too used to prowl's confusion)) Swervester 9:58 pm //lmao NoodlesAtNight 9:58 pm ((cryogenics. preserving her until science finds a cure for her disease)) SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:58 pm Is there a reason that he isn't working with proper lighting? Surely he needs to be able to see things? Swervester 9:58 pm //ah Boomtank 9:58 pm ........... Swervester 9:58 pm //so all the victims are him perfecting it i assume? NoodlesAtNight 9:58 pm ((yeah)) SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:58 pm ((yup)) verdigrisprowl 9:59 pm Maybe he doesn't like bright lights. Boomtank 9:59 pm What.... SpecsTheSpectralDragon 9:59 pm ...I don't believe I'd call him insane. verdigrisprowl 10:00 pm But he claimed insanity. Arkham is a sieve. He's clever. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:00 pm Fair enough. Boomtank 10:00 pm ...... Sounds terrifying, no thanks verdigrisprowl 10:01 pm Someone's about to die. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:01 pm It's not ineffective. Some creatures are able to undergo it without ill effects. MedicalMurdersaurus 10:01 pm ((he looks so tiny and scawny)) MedicalMurdersaurus 10:02 pm !! *is inspired* *stands on the sofa* *bounces* opatoes 10:02 pm Uh oh NoodlesAtNight 10:02 pm ((if you are easily disturbed by body horror, DO NOT WATCH THIS SCENE I AM NOT KIDDING)) verdigrisprowl 10:03 pm Well, if he didn't plan on killing anybody, why did he bother with the boast? ((... what kind)) NoodlesAtNight 10:03 pm ((what ice does when it's hot.)) Boomtank 10:03 pm Um.... SCProwl 10:03 pm ((what snowmen do in summer Boomtank 10:03 pm Is....is...oh verdigrisprowl 10:03 pm ((oh, that's exciting)) SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:03 pm Hm. MedicalMurdersaurus 10:03 pm *erupts in laughter and flops back down* Him GOO NoodlesAtNight 10:04 pm ((all right y'all are safe now)) Swervester 10:04 pm Is she NoodlesAtNight 10:04 pm ((except for nora being a coughy bloody mess)) Swervester 10:04 pm Oh boy. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:04 pm ((thank u sounds <3)) Well, that looks bad. Lungs should not be full of blood. Boomtank 10:04 pm That...was nasty... verdigrisprowl 10:04 pm ... Maybe he should freeze her first and THEN continue experimenting on other prisoners. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:05 pm It's not the reviving that's the only problem. He doesn't know how to freeze her so that she /can/ be revived. NoodlesAtNight 10:05 pm [[And if he does it wrong? He is talking about formulas. He has to perfect it.]] Swervester 10:05 pm Hm. Poor lady. verdigrisprowl 10:05 pm Why's he scolding her? She's got blood on her face. HE should keep track of her prescriptions. Swervester 10:06 pm He didn't even look at the bottle, how the fuck does he know if it has one He has to at least check the info on the bottle to know that. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:06 pm The organic creatures I know of that can be revived have antifreeze in the blood. Boomtank 10:06 pm ((and this is true, I don't like how the pharmacist is being portrayed Swervester 10:06 pm Also he's not a kook for wanting medication for his dying wife sir NoodlesAtNight 10:07 pm ((tbh i've encountered some shitty pharmacists so i'm just like "ah. one of you." )) SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:07 pm ((also, man, I've had that interaction before about my own medication. "I literally just called my doctor, she said she gave you guys a refill order for six iterations." "yes but we can't refill this because it doesn't have a refill order.")) MedicalMurdersaurus 10:07 pm ((what is this actor's name? I feel like he's been in a lot of other stuff. Unless I'm mistaking him for someone else.)) Boomtank 10:07 pm ((can't refill without refills on the prescription, it's law SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:07 pm ((anyways fuuuuuuuuuuck american healthcare)) Boomtank 10:07 pm ((and yes to that Swervester 10:08 pm //also tho he should have at LEAST looked up the name like. you can't just take an empty bottle and say that, you have to actually check the file for the patient to know that info lmao Boomtank 10:08 pm ((and yeah, he did that improperly Swervester 10:08 pm //i say this as someone who gets monthly refills on medications, at least one of which requires a refill order verdigrisprowl 10:08 pm ((sometimes it's displayed on the bottle?? mine always have how many refills are left displayed on the bottle)) SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:08 pm ((I'm gonna be real here, I don't feel bad for the pharmacy guy getting frozen to death.)) MedicalMurdersaurus 10:08 pm DEAD SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:08 pm ((also yeah, mine do too)) Boomtank 10:08 pm !!!!!!! NoodlesAtNight 10:09 pm ((i don't think we're SUPPOSED to feel bad about it)) SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:09 pm ((so it clearly says "x refills left" and they /still/ make my doctors send a new one each. fucking. time.)) Swervester 10:09 pm //yeah. but he didn't even look at the bottle, but some sorts of meds have to actually be looked up on the computer to know, and if he's doing tat then that's likely one of them you'd need to actually look up to check lmao SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:09 pm ((shrieking)) Boomtank 10:09 pm ((true, if he did that /properly/ he'd probably not be in trouble verdigrisprowl 10:09 pm ((and if this is a place that needs paper scripts rather than keeping prescriptions on computer file, which seems likely given the deliberate mess of anachronism in the show)) Swervester 10:09 pm //i'm lucky that i get my meds refilled from the pharmacy across the hall from my psych tho and one of the guys working there also works in my doc's office so they just run back and forth when they need refill orders lmao NoodlesAtNight 10:09 pm ((like i think we're supposed to feel sorry for victor and nora that this jackass is in charge)) Boomtank 10:10 pm ((yup, so the pharmacist was an asshat Swervester 10:10 pm //yes lmao MedicalMurdersaurus 10:10 pm *reaches out to hold someone's hand, anyone's hand, just a hand* Swervester 10:11 pm //is that uh. what's his face NoodlesAtNight 10:11 pm ((yes it's the guy from law and order and jurassic park)) Swervester 10:11 pm //ok i was right lmao SCProwl 10:11 pm ((he's so goooood Boomtank 10:11 pm ((looks familiar verdigrisprowl 10:12 pm ((i have very little doubt that her prescription had run out and had no refills. but the pharmacist is clearly intended to be a jackass, regardless of her prescription.)) NoodlesAtNight 10:12 pm [[For Primus' sake, man, install a ramp.]] MedicalMurdersaurus 10:12 pm *WANTS TO HOLD HANDS SOMEONE HOLD HIS HAND* Swervester 10:12 pm [does Swoop want his hand] SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:12 pm *no. no handholding for the fire-breathing toddler.* Swervester 10:12 pm [can he TRUST Swoop with his hand] Boomtank 10:12 pm Oh no NoodlesAtNight 10:12 pm [[Oh. Oh dear.]] Boomtank 10:12 pm Oooooh no Swervester 10:12 pm Uh oh Boomtank 10:12 pm She's...oh MedicalMurdersaurus 10:12 pm *takes Swerve's hand and remains, as always, untrustworthy* : > SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:12 pm ((tbh I support freezing asshat pharmacists)) Swervester 10:12 pm OH so she didn't know. I thought she might. NoodlesAtNight 10:13 pm [[No. She thought they were mice.]] Swervester 10:13 pm Oh boy. SCProwl 10:13 pm ((BD Wong is such a delight, Gotham does some stellar perfect casting sometimes Swervester 10:13 pm [squinting slightly at Swoop just in case] verdigrisprowl 10:13 pm ... Why doesn't he experiment on mice? MedicalMurdersaurus 10:13 pm *chirps* SCProwl 10:13 pm Too small? Swervester 10:13 pm Good question SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:13 pm ((wait, hugo strange is fucking... uh. Henry Wu?)) NoodlesAtNight 10:13 pm ((YEP)) SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:14 pm ((god I am so fucking faceblind)) NoodlesAtNight 10:14 pm [[Mice have different systems from humans. It would be like trying to perfect a treatment for Cybertronians on sheepicron.]] Boomtank 10:14 pm ((OH SCProwl 10:14 pm ((and also Li Shang SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:14 pm ((I didn't even recognize dr alan grant in event horizon lmao)) Swervester 10:14 pm //i recognized him but the lighting and lack of hair made it take me a minute lmao verdigrisprowl 10:14 pm He could at least get close, BEFORE he starts killing people. Swervester 10:14 pm Oh, and she doesn't have her medicine! Boomtank 10:14 pm Oh no. Swervester 10:14 pm Does she? NoodlesAtNight 10:14 pm [[Now that he agrees with.]] [[And no. No, she does not.]] SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:14 pm Yeah, they should get her her medicine. Or else she'll die. NoodlesAtNight 10:14 pm ((eye horror coming)) verdigrisprowl 10:15 pm I mean—disclaimer, any amount of murder is bad—but better if he only needs four or five human test subjects instead of dozens. SCProwl 10:15 pm *shudders* Boomtank 10:15 pm ................. NoodlesAtNight 10:15 pm ((eye horror over)) SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:15 pm ((EESH)) MedicalMurdersaurus 10:15 pm *uses his new hand buddy as a cuddle buddy* Swervester 10:15 pm she is cooperating??? verdigrisprowl 10:15 pm Oh shut the hell up, she is cooperating. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:15 pm She's sick and she is cooperating. Goddess eat them both. verdigrisprowl 10:16 pm Did they bring her meds? SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:16 pm Doesn't look like it. Swervester 10:16 pm It didn't seem like it. NoodlesAtNight 10:16 pm [[She is a loyal mate even now. He sees why the Victor human does not want to lose her.]] MedicalMurdersaurus 10:16 pm *climbs into Swerve's lap* SCProwl 10:16 pm *runs hand over visor and sighs* Swervester 10:16 pm [allows this] Boomtank 10:16 pm /wow/ SCProwl 10:16 pm Really, Bullock? SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:16 pm ...Er. Aren't humans supposed to have red lips? NoodlesAtNight 10:17 pm [[Human lips are only red when they have sufficient oxygen.]] *pause.* [[Knock Out learned this when tampering with Silas. He learned it from Knock Out.]] Boomtank 10:17 pm Oh no Swervester 10:17 pm Oh. He even gave himself up for her. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:17 pm So, the purple lips that Miss Nora has are a /bad/ thing, then. NoodlesAtNight 10:17 pm [[Very bad.]] MedicalMurdersaurus 10:17 pm *puts his chin on Swerve's head* NoodlesAtNight 10:18 pm [[...Are there - are there normally many humans confessing to crimes they did not perform?]] Swervester 10:18 pm [squints at Swoop] opatoes 10:18 pm Maybe a bunch of humans are all freezing other humans MedicalMurdersaurus 10:18 pm *can't see the squinting from here* : > verdigrisprowl 10:18 pm Yes. NoodlesAtNight 10:18 pm ((i love ed's reaction)) Boomtank 10:18 pm Oh... SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:18 pm ((ed is valid)) NoodlesAtNight 10:18 pm [[Oh - it worked!]] SCProwl 10:18 pm *laughs quietly at Ed's "Huh"* SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:18 pm Well, he's alive. NoodlesAtNight 10:19 pm *Glancing at amica-Prowl.* [[Why? They would be put away for murder.]] verdigrisprowl 10:19 pm You get fed in prison. Swervester 10:19 pm Free bed. Boomtank 10:19 pm ((love that reaction. Just 'Huh. Dead body vanished' NoodlesAtNight 10:19 pm [[He knows /that/ - but for a crime with a death sentence?]] SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:20 pm Starving is a death sentence, too. MedicalMurdersaurus 10:20 pm ((I would argue this diagnosis so much for Penguin. I don't buy it at all.)) NoodlesAtNight 10:20 pm [[Hm. True.]] verdigrisprowl 10:20 pm Death row takes forever. NoodlesAtNight 10:20 pm *Twitch. Young lady arsonist? So this is--* SCProwl 10:20 pm ((agreed about penguin MedicalMurdersaurus 10:20 pm *lets go of Swerve's hand so he can wrap his arms around the other bot and lean his birby weight on him* NoodlesAtNight 10:20 pm *Oh. Oh. He gets it.* Swervester 10:20 pm Arsonist? Swervester 10:21 pm [accepting because he is in fact a baby dino] NoodlesAtNight 10:21 pm [[The one who set herself on fire by accident. The one who they said died, but was taken to a research facility.]] *Point.* [[/That/ facility. Indian Hill.]] Swervester 10:22 pm OH. I think I forgot who she was so I'll have to refresh my memory later. Boomtank 10:22 pm That....is /worrying/ SCProwl 10:23 pm I sincerely hope he's using the new formula so these people are still alive. Swervester 10:23 pm //rtgg it is prolly weird that i really wanna push them over and see if they smash NoodlesAtNight 10:23 pm [[So does he.]] MedicalMurdersaurus 10:23 pm *is the bittest baby in the room* NoodlesAtNight 10:23 pm ((if it is then i'm weird too)) Swervester 10:23 pm //lmao Swervester 10:23 pm [pats Swoop. is he calm???] NoodlesAtNight 10:23 pm ((*throws notes at puff on discord*)) Boomtank 10:24 pm ((hey the one they hit smashed nicely verdigrisprowl 10:24 pm ((o/)) MedicalMurdersaurus 10:24 pm *is the calmest a dino can be* SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:24 pm I would assume that, since he seems to intend to freeze his wife, he'd use the new formula. NoodlesAtNight 10:25 pm [[That is true. There might not be enough time or open space available to switch cartridges and avoid hitting her with the old formula.]] Swervester 10:25 pm //rABBIT SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:25 pm Exactly. And what if the old formula contaminates the new one? Swervester 10:26 pm [excellent. pats Swoop and gives him a snack for good behavior[ MedicalMurdersaurus 10:26 pm *takes the snack and holds it* : > NoodlesAtNight 10:26 pm ((table flip)) Boomtank 10:27 pm ((too nice of a table to flip Swervester 10:27 pm I mean, her refusal to betray him aside, she's an innocent in this whole matter, do they even have a legal right to hold her? She doesn't even know where he is, even if she isn't willing to betray him. MedicalMurdersaurus 10:27 pm *pats the snack on Swerve's cheek like a kid feeding a toy doll* Swervester 10:27 pm [rolls his eyes behind visor] Swervester 10:28 pm The least bad would actually be letting her go, because he a) won't attack them and b) then yiou'd be less a dick SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:28 pm *snrk* She's got him. verdigrisprowl 10:29 pm They think she does. She stopped saying "I don't know" and started saying "I'm not telling you." MedicalMurdersaurus 10:29 pm *makes fake eating noises on Swerve's behalf* verdigrisprowl 10:29 pm Buuut, it is very fragile evidence to hold her on indefinitely. Swervester 10:29 pm The problem is they didn't believe her even when she was telling the truth, which is dumb. [grumbles] Swervester 10:30 pm [thanks Swoop] MedicalMurdersaurus 10:30 pm WHOA verdigrisprowl 10:30 pm Ooh. NoodlesAtNight 10:30 pm [[/Primus./]] Swervester 10:31 pm That's strong. verdigrisprowl 10:31 pm Impressive technology. NoodlesAtNight 10:31 pm *Turns his hand over for Prowl.* SCProwl 10:31 pm Oh, that's interesting. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:31 pm ...Goddess... *and that's said with reverent awe. that was a damn cool ice thing.* MedicalMurdersaurus 10:31 pm ((aaaaaand we're about caught up to where I've watched on my own now. Poor Penguin... )) opatoes 10:32 pm Why are they putting him in a vr thing NoodlesAtNight 10:32 pm ((flashing lights like mad in a few seonds)) verdigrisprowl 10:32 pm *grimacing* MedicalMurdersaurus 10:32 pm What them do? NoodlesAtNight 10:32 pm ((flashing lights done)) MedicalMurdersaurus 10:32 pm goose NoodlesAtNight 10:33 pm [[They hurt him.]] MedicalMurdersaurus 10:33 pm why Swervester 10:34 pm //this is the actual worst place to put nora man NoodlesAtNight 10:34 pm ((that scene is sadder still when you realize he was so ostracized as a kid he literally does not know the rules to duck duck goose)) Swervester 10:34 pm //tbh verdigrisprowl 10:34 pm ((i was just thinking)) MedicalMurdersaurus 10:34 pm ((I want to rescue baby penguin)) verdigrisprowl 10:35 pm Oh, seriously? NoodlesAtNight 10:35 pm [[They did say some time back that was where she would be going.]] MedicalMurdersaurus 10:36 pm ((gordon don't be a dick)) NoodlesAtNight 10:36 pm ((in gordon's very very very limited defense, he has no idea what hugo's doing in there. nobody does)) ((and yet: he is still an ass for that)) verdigrisprowl 10:37 pm If nothing else, there should be rules against leaving doctors alone in rooms with people who tried to kill them. Boomtank 10:37 pm ....what did I miss? I was talking to... Swervester 10:37 pm Prolly NoodlesAtNight 10:37 pm [[There should be.]] Boomtank 10:37 pm ....huh NoodlesAtNight 10:38 pm [[They are taking Nora to Arkham to serve as a trap for Victor because they cannot lock down a whole hospital. Barbara Kean is there as well, but in a coma. Penguin is being put through mental torture and Jim refuses to believe it.]] *At Blaster.* MedicalMurdersaurus 10:38 pm *takes Swerve's hand and puts it on his helm* *Swoop's helm* Swervester 10:39 pm [pats] MedicalMurdersaurus 10:39 pm *chirps* : > SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:39 pm Docent, you asked the question. What- oh. Swervester 10:39 pm Hello Swoop. MedicalMurdersaurus 10:39 pm hi SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:39 pm *hm. is this good docentry or bad docentry?* Swervester 10:39 pm You good? SCProwl 10:39 pm *both?* MedicalMurdersaurus 10:39 pm Sleepy NoodlesAtNight 10:39 pm *...He's inclined to believe it is good. If the youngling is determined to see the killer die, at least it stops the youngling from being responsible for it.* Boomtank 10:39 pm Ah. Thanks Soundwave. verdigrisprowl 10:40 pm *mutters* No one ever believes people under psychiatric hold. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:41 pm It's comforting to dismiss anyone who doesn't have a "normal" brain. Boomtank 10:41 pm .....? verdigrisprowl 10:41 pm *scowls* NoodlesAtNight 10:41 pm *Glance at Prowl. Then the screen.* [[He should have at least asked for more details. He knows perfectly well the Penguin has his senses.]] [[And even if he did not - he should still ask.]] verdigrisprowl 10:41 pm Oh. She actually is pregnant. Boomtank 10:42 pm Oh dear verdigrisprowl 10:42 pm Where did he get THAT thing? Boomtank 10:42 pm Holy.... MedicalMurdersaurus 10:43 pm ((that dude would be in an UNREAL amount of pain)) SCProwl 10:43 pm Are they going to call a medic for the driver or just leave him there? MedicalMurdersaurus 10:43 pm OH YEAH Swervester 10:43 pm Space suit MedicalMurdersaurus 10:43 pm *giggles to himself* Boomtank 10:43 pm ((oh those arms are /gone/ Swervester 10:44 pm [pats Swoop] Maybe you should sleep SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:44 pm ((yeah, I would /not/ want to be the driver)) Boomtank 10:44 pm !!!!! verdigrisprowl 10:44 pm I hope he's using the non-fatal formula. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:44 pm ((like, I definitely get - why is there an icicle growing out of his eye)) NoodlesAtNight 10:44 pm ((did that skip for everyone or just me)) verdigrisprowl 10:44 pm ((fine here)) Swervester 10:44 pm //fne here Swervester 10:44 pm Is the doctor purposelly letting him through NoodlesAtNight 10:45 pm ((and it's not growing out, it's a shard that exploded from the source like shrapnel)) Swervester 10:45 pm Since he wants his tech MedicalMurdersaurus 10:45 pm *yaaaaaaaaaaaawwwns* NoodlesAtNight 10:45 pm [[Naturally.]] verdigrisprowl 10:45 pm Yes, he's said he's interested in his cryogenic research. Boomtank 10:45 pm Oh.... Swervester 10:45 pm So much for Gordon's plan, it really doesn't work if the guy in control of all the defenses lets the suspect through verdigrisprowl 10:46 pm That's an electric chair. Is it going to zap him? Is it on? MedicalMurdersaurus 10:46 pm ((his mouth is ON that microphone. It's not sounding that clear.)) Swervester 10:46 pm I don't trust it NoodlesAtNight 10:46 pm [[No, it won't. It is the chair they placed the Penguin in, he thinks.]] Swervester 10:46 pm Oh. I guess it isn't on MedicalMurdersaurus 10:46 pm *rests his head on Swerve* verdigrisprowl 10:46 pm Yes, and Penguin got zapped something awful. NoodlesAtNight 10:46 pm This message has been removed. This message has been removed. ((god damn it)) NoodlesAtNight 10:47 pm [[By the headset.]] Swervester 10:47 pm [pets Swoop. he is the dino whisperer] verdigrisprowl 10:47 pm Ah. MedicalMurdersaurus 10:47 pm *is whispered* zzzzz verdigrisprowl 10:47 pm ... You know what, I think I'd just let him take her. NoodlesAtNight 10:47 pm [[Agreed.]] Swervester 10:47 pm Same. NoodlesAtNight 10:47 pm [[Especially now that he has said that. Go with him, let him do that, and take him in.]] Swervester 10:47 pm HE'S OFFERING TO GIVE HIMSELF UP IF THEY JUST LET HIM TAKE HER WHERE SHE CAN GET HELP AND BE SAFE, just let him do it???? SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:48 pm ((RIOT)) Boomtank 10:48 pm ..... NoodlesAtNight 10:48 pm ((SORRY)) MedicalMurdersaurus 10:48 pm *perks up at the yelling and then realizes no one is getting killed so he lays back down* Swervester 10:48 pm Jim's got a real issue about Needing To Be Right sometimes opatoes 10:48 pm That's like how he gets into half the messes he gets into SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:48 pm No one's bitten him on the snout for running his mouth before, and it shows. Swervester 10:49 pm I mean, all the others are damn well fine doing the thing as long as he gives himself up and doesn't hurt anyone else, just go with it Jim. It's the easiest way to save lives. NoodlesAtNight 10:49 pm [[That cannot be good. Not in any way.]] Boomtank 10:49 pm Jim Swervester 10:49 pm If he'd been willing to compromise then Victor might have let him come along to feel better about it. Boomtank 10:51 pm Jim you moron Swervester 10:51 pm Naturally Jim's going to fuck eerything up and create himself yet another enemy because he just had to be right and not compromise? Boomtank 10:52 pm -facepalms- verdigrisprowl 10:52 pm That waste of time is going to be fatal. opatoes 10:52 pm Wait, specs, did you ever get bit on the nose for running your mouth? What's that even like Boomtank 10:52 pm Maybe she wants it to be... Swervester 10:52 pm Oh I see. She sent him away to give Lee time to escape? NoodlesAtNight 10:52 pm [[...Oh.]] Swervester 10:52 pm Oh. Oh no. opatoes 10:53 pm Uh oh Swervester 10:53 pm That's going to kill her, she did that on purpose verdigrisprowl 10:53 pm ... No one will know as long as she's frozen. Boomtank 10:53 pm .......kinda hate my guess was right verdigrisprowl 10:53 pm Unless they look at the canister, she's going to remain frozen for how many years, and then when they finally try to wake her up, THEN she'll die. Swervester 10:53 pm But why did she do that? Does she not want to be revived without him being there when she wakes up in the future, or because she's just tired and doesn't want to keep going? SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:54 pm Not a hard bite, but yes, one of my docents did it when I was younger. It feels really unpleasant, honestly. Like having one's mouth forcibly closed. verdigrisprowl 10:54 pm She's already said she doesn't want to be revived without him. Swervester 10:54 pm Oh no. opatoes 10:54 pm He could use that freeze gun for making really awesome ice cream but no NoodlesAtNight 10:54 pm *HUFF* *And there's Smokescreen breaking the tension.* Swervester 10:55 pm [snorts] opatoes 10:55 pm /That's his job!/ SCProwl 10:55 pm His job is to make ice cream? opatoes 10:55 pm Well, no- but I bet he could've made some amazing homemade ice cream with that slag. And slushies. Boomtank 10:55 pm /BRUCE/ Boomtank 10:56 pm Bruce, no verdigrisprowl 10:56 pm ((he looks so grownup)) ((he looks, like, nine years old)) SCProwl 10:56 pm ((lol NoodlesAtNight 10:56 pm ((PFFHFHFHA)) SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:56 pm Cat human, keep him away from any guns. MedicalMurdersaurus 10:56 pm ((no gunplay if we can help it)) opatoes 10:57 pm She's giving him the cold shoulder... SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:57 pm *wheezes* Swervester 10:57 pm OH no. SCProwl 10:57 pm ((his voice is actually really dropping hard in the newest episodes Swervester 10:57 pm Tell him she asked you for water, Lee. NoodlesAtNight 10:58 pm *Bows his helm just a touch. This cannot end in anything /but/ sadness, he thinks.* opatoes 10:58 pm ... He's not going to do that is he verdigrisprowl 10:58 pm He's going to freeze himself? SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:58 pm *oof. poor everyone.* verdigrisprowl 10:58 pm Either that or go on a murder spree in grief. Swervester 10:58 pm [covers face] verdigrisprowl 10:58 pm More likely freeze himself. ... Probably get it wrong and survive. Swervester 10:59 pm .... SpecsTheSpectralDragon 10:59 pm I don't think he'll be surviving that. Boomtank 10:59 pm . . . verdigrisprowl 10:59 pm People who die in strange ways tend to survive in this show. Self-immolation, defenestration... Ah. He's probably still alive. verdigrisprowl 11:00 pm He "died" in Arkham. NoodlesAtNight 11:00 pm [[Like the arsonist "died", he expects.]] SpecsTheSpectralDragon 11:00 pm I guess he is. Go- Oh, Gym human, no. SCProwl 11:00 pm Likely in Indian Hills now. Swervester 11:00 pm Did he just BLAME Lee for his shitty decisions? SpecsTheSpectralDragon 11:00 pm *covers her eyes with her tail* Stupid, stupid, stupid. NoodlesAtNight 11:00 pm [[Fool. He throws away everything he has with this nonsense.]] verdigrisprowl 11:01 pm *scowls.* NoodlesAtNight 11:01 pm *Is at least pleased to see that Penguin fights.* Boomtank 11:01 pm He's not thinking NoodlesAtNight 11:01 pm *Perhaps they won't manage to break him before he gets to them.* verdigrisprowl 11:01 pm What did I say. opatoes 11:01 pm He looks like some old 2000s pop star SpecsTheSpectralDragon 11:01 pm ...Did he somehow manage to undergo albinism by being frozen? Boomtank 11:01 pm Oh wow verdigrisprowl 11:02 pm ... Penguin is supposed to be a good manipulator. SpecsTheSpectralDragon 11:02 pm Okay, albinism is the least of his worries. verdigrisprowl 11:02 pm Why the hell is he fighting instead of convincing them that their "therapy" worked? NoodlesAtNight 11:03 pm [[Perhaps it has not occurred to him yet. Or he does not know how.]] opatoes 11:03 pm ... couldn't he just walk out SpecsTheSpectralDragon 11:03 pm I suspect that door is locked. NoodlesAtNight 11:03 pm [[Hugo did say he can spot a liar.]] opatoes 11:03 pm Uh MedicalMurdersaurus 11:03 pm zzzzzzzzzzz verdigrisprowl 11:03 pm Penguin hasn't tested that claim yet. Boomtank 11:03 pm What.... SpecsTheSpectralDragon 11:03 pm ((did one of those dudes have three nipples)) NoodlesAtNight 11:04 pm ((nah it's a bullet hole i think)) Boomtank 11:04 pm Okay, what? NoodlesAtNight 11:04 pm ((or else a mole. but jim DID shoot galavan)) SpecsTheSpectralDragon 11:04 pm ((it wouldn't be the weirdest place for a nipple, but given the milieu, bullet hole is more believable.)) *the dragon stretches* I should head off. Goodnight, Soundwave, everyone. opatoes 11:05 pm Hey! Be nice to frumble! NoodlesAtNight 11:05 pm [[Goodnight, dragon.]] ((time marker: 11:25)) opatoes 11:05 pm Night night, Specs! SpecsTheSpectralDragon 11:05 pm ((lmao get rekt skywarp)) opatoes 11:05 pm ... Are all Decepticons seriously just like this SCProwl 11:05 pm ((i love soundwave just watching them like "gj dudes" SCProwl 11:06 pm Many Autobots are like that too. opatoes 11:06 pm That's true! Swervester 11:06 pm I think I better head out Bar's opening soon and I need to set up. Swoop, I gotta get up. NoodlesAtNight 11:06 pm [[Goodnight, Swerve.]] verdigrisprowl 11:06 pm ((i like how 1) the twins can just fuckin knock skywarp over with a flying leap, and 2) thundercracker can just pick them up and the threat is over)) opatoes 11:06 pm Oooh- Ooh, Swerve. Should I go with you to help out with bar stuff? verdigrisprowl 11:06 pm Evening. Swervester 11:06 pm //lmzo MedicalMurdersaurus 11:06 pm *perks up at the music* ? Swervester 11:06 pm Nah, I'm good Smokey. It's Blue's shift with me tonight so. Swervester 11:07 pm [nudges Swoop off so he can go] LAter guys. opatoes 11:07 pm Aw, okay! You sure you don't need any extra bouncers? NoodlesAtNight 11:07 pm ((also, for those who may not have noticed: fish and jerome were also in those tubes)) ((plus one rando)) MedicalMurdersaurus 11:07 pm *slides off swerve straight onto the floor* ((fiiiiiiiiiish)) SCProwl 11:07 pm ((fish <3 opatoes 11:08 pm But yeah- Thanks for having us, Soundwave! /He's going to drop by the bar and grab a couple drinks for the road!/ NoodlesAtNight 11:08 pm [[Quite welcome. Do return next week.]] MedicalMurdersaurus 11:08 pm *gets up and starts to shuffle off towards Laserbeak's room* NoodlesAtNight 11:09 pm *...He'll allow it. As long as Swoop goes right to her room, and only to her room.* opatoes 11:09 pm I'll do my best! You missed me, huh? MedicalMurdersaurus 11:09 pm *doesn't care about anyone else's room and goes to take a nap in there* NoodlesAtNight 11:10 pm [[You do have that book with you half the time.]] *That's a yes. Don't mind him.* opatoes 11:11 pm I guess so! But I didn't bring it with me tonight. Guess you're hoping for it next week? NoodlesAtNight 11:11 pm [[Only if you want to bring it.]] SCProwl 11:11 pm *pings everyone goodnight and leaves because i'm exausted and need to lay down now* verdigrisprowl 11:12 pm *farewell ping to alternate* Boomtank 11:12 pm -pings one back in return- opatoes 11:12 pm I'll definitely think about it. We can always have a sleepover and read it together, you know. NoodlesAtNight 11:12 pm [[...Yyyyyyes, he supposes that is an option.]] *Like hell would he actually sleep though.* Boomtank 11:12 pm Anyway, that's good night for me too. Thanks for the show. opatoes 11:13 pm Perfect! Maybe we could play a couple games, too, between processing everything in there? NoodlesAtNight 11:13 pm [[Goodnight, Blaster. You are welcome.]] [[And we will see.]] opatoes 11:13 pm Fair enough! Looking forward to it, though, Soundwave. Night night, Soundwave, Blaster. Boomtank 11:14 pm -waves and is out for the night- NoodlesAtNight 11:14 pm [[Goodnight.]] NoodlesAtNight 11:15 pm *Turn to Prowl.* [[You are holding up?]] verdigrisprowl 11:16 pm Hm? Yes. Should I not be? NoodlesAtNight 11:18 pm [[If he is honest, he wasn't sure. But if you are fine, then that is that.]] *Pops the last of his snacks into his mouth.* [[You were right about Jim carrying on. He hopes that is as far as it will go.]] verdigrisprowl 11:19 pm *not sure what to do with that, but leans on Soundwave.* I doubt it. Not until there are real consequences that he acknowledges are his own fault, and maybe not even then. NoodlesAtNight 11:21 pm *Whatever he pleases, really. Soundwave was just checking on whether or not that had set off Prowl's hatred of either mind doctors or mental tortures and invasions.*

[[In that case, it is good that the Bruce human retains his kindness, however deep below the surface.]] [[At least one of them will be good for the city in the future.]] verdigrisprowl 11:21 pm *oh, well, yes, it definitely did that.* He's plotting his first murder. NoodlesAtNight 11:22 pm [[Alfred agreed to perform it in his place. Voluntarily. He will not get the chance to fall that way.]] verdigrisprowl 11:23 pm Doesn't matter, he wants to. And that says something. NoodlesAtNight 11:24 pm [[Perhaps. He allowed Silver to live twice, though.]] verdigrisprowl 11:25 pm Gym's allowed Penguin to live quite a few times, too. I don't take that as a testament to his moral fiber. NoodlesAtNight 11:26 pm *Tap tap on chin.* [[Hm. You have a point there.]] [[...There's always Lee.]] verdigrisprowl 11:27 pm Of course he's allowed her to live, he likes her and she's never set her foot down. NoodlesAtNight 11:28 pm *Leaning back* [[Are you suggesting Jim would kill Lee for putting her foot down?]] verdigrisprowl 11:28 pm ... Not /yet./ And if it did happen it would be in a fit of violence during an argument, not premeditated. NoodlesAtNight 11:29 pm *Resumes how he was sitting, but staring up at the ceiling.* [[Primus. He hopes not. Gotham has too few voices of reason as it is.]] [[They really could use those cameras.]] verdigrisprowl 11:31 pm Hmm. ... You know what, time and again, has been the biggest thing hampering such cameras' effectiveness? NoodlesAtNight 11:32 pm *Turns to look at Prowl again.* [[...Sufficient memory space?]] *Human storage spaces are so small. Laughably tiny. They can fit, what, a few whole days on one device?* verdigrisprowl 11:33 pm Enforcers turning them off before confronting a suspect and pretending they'd malfunctioned. NoodlesAtNight 11:33 pm *His upper lip curls slightly in a "what, really" kind of expression.* [[What idiot makes the on and off switch controllable by the wearer?]] verdigrisprowl 11:35 pm Someone very trusting. NoodlesAtNight 11:35 pm [[Sync it to their life signs and keep the activation and deactivation controls in a secure facility. Then they will run as long as they are on the mech - and if they cannot detect a life sign, then either the mech is dead or has taken it off. Both cases merit investigation.]] NoodlesAtNight 11:36 pm [[...Have it installed into the frame so it will require obvious self-injury to remove it.]] verdigrisprowl 11:37 pm Installing it in the frame IS an idea, but too... easy to abuse. verdigrisprowl 11:38 pm What if, say, Starscream got hold of the ability to activate it? What if he started spying through the cameras while the officers were off-duty? verdigrisprowl 11:39 pm Here's the thing about creating new systems like this: you've got to assume that, someday, you're going to be in a terrible accident, and somebody you hate is going to take over your position. verdigrisprowl 11:40 pm In the expectation that that idiot is going to have your job someday, you've got to ensure that the system you've left in place for him is very easy to use for its correct intended purpose, and very difficult to abuse for corrupt purposes. NoodlesAtNight 11:41 pm *Hmm. That's a good point. He wouldn't want Starscream to get his claws on it. ... Providing Prowl really did mean Starscream, and wasn't covering up an implication that Soundwave was the one who would spy while they were off-duty.* *He'd like to think Prowl wouldn't be like that toward him, though.* verdigrisprowl 11:41 pm *Starscream was a euphemism for "anyone untrustworthy and/or literally Starscream himself," not for "Soundwave."* NoodlesAtNight 11:44 pm [[Perhaps a facility that would shut itself down on removal of its guard and force a full replacement and reset?]] *Frown.* [[No. Then the corrupt mechs would terminate anyone they didn't like and enjoy the freedom in the interval between guards.]] [[Hm. This is more difficult than he thought.]] NoodlesAtNight 11:45 pm *Huff.* [[Give it to your alternate. If she has lived THIS long, she will probably live at least another 100 million.]] verdigrisprowl 11:45 pm I have ideas. For another day, though. Being able to implement them on my Cybertron is still a ways off. NoodlesAtNight 11:46 pm *That's not serious. He's just blowing off some frustration over an idea that's So Good, but so Troublesome.*

[[Of course. As you said -- too many changes at once. ... But he would like to see them /some/ day.]] *Preferably sooner rather than later.* [[Besides, your force is small enough we can keep our optics on them fairly well at the IIII.]] verdigrisprowl 11:47 pm Mm. Painfully small. I've cut three people so far and we're feeling the loss of every one of them. verdigrisprowl 11:48 pm ... Well, okay. Only of two of them. Fuse was dead weight. NoodlesAtNight 11:48 pm [[What would you propose to fix that?]] verdigrisprowl 11:50 pm *shrugs* More hires. That's slow work. NoodlesAtNight 11:51 pm [[Particularly with very few new bots available.]] *Frowning harder. That damn population problem again.* NoodlesAtNight 11:54 pm [[So many problems. If he had known there would be this many when taking his oath, he would have asked Primus for a how-to manual.]] verdigrisprowl 11:54 pm This one isn't your problem. NoodlesAtNight 11:55 pm [[Related to it. But even if it weren't - he is allowed to be frustrated by the overall complexity of mending a society.]] NoodlesAtNight 11:57 pm *Gets up to start cleaning. He supposes he'll have a lot to think about this evening. Might as well ponder it all now.* verdigrisprowl 11:58 pm *gets up to help clean. he's been allowed to do it twice now and he's not about to lose that privilege.* NoodlesAtNight 11:58 pm [[Thank you.]] verdigrisprowl 11:59 pm You're welcome. ... *oh so very casually* I've still got half of that bottle you gave me left. Today NoodlesAtNight 12:00 am *Drops the cube he was picking up.* [[Oh.]] *He'll just as casually fetch a broom and dustpan with his feelers.* [[He did wonder about that.]] NoodlesAtNight 12:01 am [[...Were you considering breaking into it again?]] verdigrisprowl 12:02 am If you think that might be fun. I /was/ testing out its strength for tonight. NoodlesAtNight 12:04 am [[Oh, yes. Yes, he thinks that would be - it would be very fun. It is always very fun.]] *Pause.* [[You aren't going to play a game with the datanet if he encourages it, correct? That is not the goal this time? He enjoyed that, but--]] *But he'd like to get laid, is where he's going with this.* verdigrisprowl 12:05 am No. I'm going to interface with you. NoodlesAtNight 12:06 am *And he drops the broom. His imagination is very active tonight.* [[Good! Good.]] verdigrisprowl 12:07 am *he NEARLY maintains a poker face, but his shoulders are trembling.* NoodlesAtNight 12:08 am [[...Maybe he will try it the other way around one day. You always seem to enjoy it, yourself...]] *That's a thought for later.* [[Go on up. He will - get this swept up in a moment and follow you.]] verdigrisprowl 12:08 am I'm helping you finish clean. NoodlesAtNight 12:09 am [[Damn the cleaning. It's technically Buzzsaw's duty tonight.]] [[He can take five minutes away from his paintings.]] verdigrisprowl 12:10 am *Eager, was he.* Then I'd better get started on the bottle. NoodlesAtNight 12:10 am *JUST A LITTLE.* NoodlesAtNight 12:11 am [[Good. And he'll get sweeping.]] *The fastest job of it ever, in fact, and then he'll practically cart Prowl up there like a bag of rocks.* verdigrisprowl 12:12 am *and like a bag of rocks he goes*

#chat

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badgraph1csghost · 3 years

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Post: 11,999 notes.

Me: *reblogs*

Post: 12,000 notes.

Me: Be the change you want to see in the w

[accidentally unlikes post]

Post: 11,999 notes.

Me:

#greetings from the office of the mayor of failure #stupid

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theliberaltony · 5 years

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to a weekly collaboration between FiveThirtyEight and ABC News. With 5,000 people seemingly thinking about challenging President Trump in 2020 — Democrats and even some Republicans — we’re keeping tabs on the field as it develops. Each week, we’ll run through what the potential candidates are up to — who’s getting closer to officially jumping in the ring and who’s getting further away.

It was a historic week. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand entered the presidential race. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard did too, sort of; she has not yet formally announced but said she plans to this week. This is the first time that at least three women will vie for the nation’s most powerful office in one of the two major parties. It’s already an increase from the 2016 field, which featured Hillary Clinton and Carly Fiorina. And several other women could still join the field.

Jan. 11-17, 2019

Joe Biden (D)

Asked about the possibility that Biden could run for president, President Trump told Fox News on Saturday that Barack Obama took Biden “off the trash heap” when he selected him to be his running mate. Trump went on to describe Biden as “weak.”

On Monday, Biden is scheduled to attend the National Action Network’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfast in Washington, D.C.

Cory Booker (D)

Booker questioned William Barr, Trump’s attorney general nominee, on race and the criminal justice system during Barr’s confirmation hearing Tuesday, objecting to Barr’s earlier claim that “there’s no statistical evidence of racism in the criminal justice system.” The pair ultimately pledged to meet and discuss the issue further.

The New Jersey senator sent best wishes via Twitter to Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York after she announced her presidential exploratory committee. The two played a lighthearted game of “How Well Do You Know Your Co-Worker?” in a Marie Claire video in which Gillibrand described Booker as “Senate chiseled.”

Michael Bloomberg (D)

The former New York City mayor said he hasn’t made a final decision about a presidential run during the keynote address at an Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada event Tuesday. Bloomberg joked that “there’s actually no rush” because, in his case, “my donor isn’t walking away.”

Bloomberg visited Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Thursday to announce that the city was a winner in Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Public Art Challenge and meet with a local Moms Demand Action gun control group. On Monday, he is scheduled to attend the National Action Network’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfast in Washington, D.C., according to a spokesperson.

Sherrod Brown (D)

The Ohio senator announced Tuesday that he will embark on a “dignity of work” listening tour beginning at the end of the month, with stops in Ohio, Iowa, Nevada, New Hampshire and South Carolina. “What I want to accomplish is I want to continue to learn about the dignity of work,” Brown told MSNBC. “I want [the tour] to encourage my colleagues running for president that this should be the narrative. … It’s the best way to govern, fighting for the dignity of work, and it’s the best way to win elections.”

BuzzFeed News reported Thursday that Brown hired an Iowa-based former field director for Bernie Sanders’s 2016 campaign, an additional sign that he may launch a campaign.

Steve Bullock (D)

The Montana governor wouldn’t answer questions about his presidential plans during a Wednesday news conference in Helena. Bullock said that he is “at a great advantage to be able to do the job that I get to do, and that’s what I’m focusing on.”

Pete Buttigieg (D)

The South Bend Tribune previewed Buttigieg’s forthcoming book Thursday, which describes his first mayoral run in 2011, his coming out story, his missteps while leading South Bend, Indiana, and his unsuccessful 2017 bid to be the chairman of the Democratic National Committee. He told the newspaper that a decision on a presidential campaign could come within the next few weeks. “For anybody who isn’t already very famous, you really don’t have long, past the end of this month, to make some kind of move,” he said.

Julian Castro (D)

Castro officially announced his presidential candidacy Saturday in his hometown of San Antonio, where he served as mayor for three-terms. “I’m running for president because it’s time for new leadership, because it’s time for new energy and it’s time for a new commitment to make sure that the opportunities I’ve had are available for every American,” he said.

Following the announcement, Castro traveled to Puerto Rico where he met with San Juan Mayor Yulin Cruz, an outspoken critic of Trump, toured communities affected by Hurricane Maria and spoke at a political summit.

The former Housing and Urban Development secretary spent much of the past week in New Hampshire, with various events in Concord, Laconia, Manchester and Somersworth. At Saint Anselm College in Manchester, Castro criticized the government shutdown and argued for “compassion” in developing immigration reform. He additionally pledged universal pre-K nationwide and a recommitment to the Paris Climate Agreement.

Bob Corker (R)

Corker, a former Tennessee senator, said in an interview with Nashville Public Radio that the ongoing partial government shutdown was Trump’s responsibility. “This is one where at the last minute the president changed his mind and so now we are sitting here shut down because — just because,” he said. “This whole thing, as I’ve mentioned before, is pretty juvenile, and at some point, government will open back up.”

Asked during the interview about a potential presidential run, Corker didn’t rule it out. “It’s something to consider, and certainly I’ve got the background and knowledge levels, and hopefully intelligence and judgment and all of those kind of things to be good at it, if I was elected,” he said. “But, again, it’s not necessarily even on the front burner; it’s a possibility. There are many other things that I’m going to be thinking about over the next period of time.”

John Delaney (D)

In an interview last Sunday on ABC News’s “This Week,” Delaney said he would focus the first 100 days of a potential presidency solely on “bipartisan proposals.” The former Maryland congressman said such initiatives could include action on infrastructure and criminal justice reform. He also said that he felt his campaign (now more than 500 days old) was “going great.”

Delaney will visit New Hampshire on Friday and Saturday for meet-and-greet events in Amherst, Hanover and Manchester, according to his campaign.

Tulsi Gabbard (D)

The Hawaii congresswoman said that she has “decided to run” for president and teased a forthcoming formal announcement in an interview with CNN last Friday. Gabbard, who has served in the House since 2013 and was one of the few elected officials in Washington to support Sen. Bernie Sanders’s candidacy in 2016, said that the “one main issue” she wished to address as president was “war and peace.”

Following the announcement, Gabbard quickly faced criticism for working for an anti-gay organization led by her father in the early 2000s that touted conversion therapy and fought same-sex marriage legislation. On Thursday, she apologized in a video and series of tweets, explaining that she was raised in a socially conservative household and that her personal opinions have since changed.

Eric Garcetti (D)

Garcetti’s hands were full this week with the ongoing Los Angeles Unified School District teacher strike. The mayor, who facilitated negotiations at City Hall Thursday according to his office, earlier described the strike as “electrifying” and expressed pride in the educators for standing up for a “righteous cause,” but cautioned that there must be consideration for the district’s “fiscal health.”

Kirsten Gillibrand (D)

Gillibrand announced on Tuesday that she is forming a presidential exploratory committee, making her the second female senator, after Elizabeth Warren, to take the step toward a White House bid. In an interview on “The Late Show,” where she made the announcement, the New York senator cited health care, education and economic inequality as key points of focus for her campaign. Asked what she would do on her first day in office, Gillibrand said she would “restore what’s been lost — the integrity and the compassion of this country,” and stressed the need for bipartisanship.

On Wednesday, Gillibrand addressed reporters outside a diner near her hometown in Troy, New York, and described her evolution from a centrist Democrat who once received an “A” rating from the National Rifle Association to a more liberal lawmaker, saying that “it’s important to know when you’re wrong and to do what’s right.”

Gillibrand will travel to Iowa this weekend for events in Sioux City on Friday and Cedar Rapids on Sunday, according to a Gillibrand campaign official. In-between, on Saturday, she’ll stop in Des Moines to speak at the Iowa Women’s March.

Kamala Harris (D)

On Thursday morning, Harris became the first member of the Senate Judiciary Committee to come out against the confirmation of attorney general-nominee William Barr. Harris tweeted that Barr’s hearing indicated to her that he “won’t defend independent investigations from attacks and ensure equal protection under the law for all Americans.”

During the hearing, Harris was critical of Barr’s role in promoting incarceration during the “war on drugs” amid his prior stints at the Justice Department.

“I would suggest to you that in the intervening almost 30 years since you were last Attorney General that there is consensus in the United States that when we look at the drug epidemic, whatever the narcotic may be, that there is now an understanding that the War on Drugs was an abject failure,” Harris said.

Jay Inslee (D)

Next Tuesday, Inslee will visit New Hampshire for two events focused on climate change, according to a media advisory from his office — a roundtable with students at Saint Anselm College and a speech at Dartmouth College. The trip comes as some local Democratic officials have criticized Inslee for not investing in New Hampshire’s 2018 gubernatorial race during his tenure as chair of the Democratic Governors Association.

John Kasich (R)

Upon leaving the Ohio governor’s office, Kasich signed on to become a CNN political commentator. In a tweet, he said that in the position he would “be like an umpire calling balls and strikes like I’ve always done throughout my entire career.” This week, in one of his first appearances on the network, Kasich questioned Trump’s command of the partial government shutdown and whether Democrats were seriously engaged in negotiations. “I think it’s incumbent on the leader to try to bring people together and get something done, and I just don’t see it,” he said, adding, “I wonder a little bit if the Democrats are enjoying this, because the numbers are all going against the president.”

On Friday, Kasich will be a guest on the 17th season premiere of HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”

Amy Klobuchar (D)

The Minnesota senator told MSNBC that she received the blessing of her family to move forward with a presidential campaign, relaying that they are “on board,” should she decide to run.

The internet worked itself into a tizzy on Tuesday after a Twitter user posted what appeared to be a Klobuchar 2020 campaign logo that he said he found at a Washington, D.C. coffee shop. The senator later responded, speculating that the artwork was the work of “a very enthusiastic supporter” and joking that the design’s mountains weren’t geographically accurate.

During this week’s confirmation hearings for attorney general-nominee William Barr, Klobuchar alluded to Watergate as she asked Barr whether “the attorney general [is] the people’s lawyer or the President’s lawyer.”

Mitch Landrieu (D)

The Institute of Politics at Harvard Kennedy School announced on Wednesday that Landrieu would be among its visiting fellows for this year’s spring term. Landrieu will join former Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter to “continue their discussion on ‘Politics, Potholes, and Public Service.'”

Jeff Merkley (D)

Merkley was one of the many Democratic senators on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee who had strong words for the Environmental Protection Agency’s acting administrator Andrew Wheeler during his confirmation hearing. Merkley shared his concern that “the rate [of carbon emissions] is actually accelerating despite the international conversations” and said he hopes Wheeler will “become more familiar with these issues.”

Seth Moulton (D)

Citing a source close to the Massachusetts congressman, WBZ-TV reported Wednesday that Moulton is exploring the idea of a presidential bid.

Moulton will visit New Hampshire on Feb. 2 for a private event with the Bedford Democratic Committee, the group confirmed to ABC News on Wednesday.

Beto O’Rourke (D)

O’Rourke gave an interview to the Washington Post on Tuesday that received attention more for what the former Texas congressman didn’t say than for what he did. In it, O’Rourke demurred when asked for solutions on the border and Syria, calling for “debate” and “discussion,” but providing few concrete details about where he personally stands on the issues.

In a Medium post published on Wednesday detailing a visit to southwest Kansas, O’Rourke admitted to being “in and out of a funk,” but wrote that if he continues to travel to meet people it’ll help clear his head. “Maybe if I get moving, on the road, meet people, learn about what’s going on where they live, have some adventure, go where I don’t know and I’m not known, it’ll clear my head, reset, I’ll think new thoughts, break out of the loops I’ve been stuck in,” he wrote.

O’Rorke will be interviewed by Oprah Winfrey as part of “Oprah’s SuperSoul Conversations from Times Square” on Feb. 5.

Howard Schultz

Schultz, the former CEO of Starbucks, announced a book tour beginning later this month to promote, “From the Ground Up.” Notably, stops on the tour thus far do not include cities in early-voting states.

Bernie Sanders (D)

On Wednesday, Sanders met with women who said they experienced sexual harassment or gender discrimination while working on his 2016 presidential campaign. A read-out of the meeting provided afterward to ABC News indicated that the senator “was there to listen” and that there “is a desire to create a better process” and “put a good program in place” to combat the issues.

Sanders pointedly questioned acting EPA Andrew Wheeler at Wheeler’s confirmation hearing Wednesday, pressing him about the EPA’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “We are the strongest economy in the world, and if the leadership in the Environmental Protection Agency in the United States says to China and to Russia and to India, and to countries all over the world, that we have got to move aggressively to protect this planet for our children and our grandchildren, we can have some impact on the entire international community, are you prepared to do that?”

Eric Swalwell (D)

The California congressman is headed to South Carolina on Saturday to speak at the Greenville Women’s March and the Spartanburg County Democratic Party’s Blue Carolina Black Tie Gala, according to an adviser.

In the wake of a New York Times report that the FBI investigated whether Trump was working on behalf of Russian interests, Swalwell, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, told CNN that the question has “shifted from whether the president is working with the Russians to what evidence exists that the president is not working with the Russians?” He further criticized Trump for failing to meet personally with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

Elizabeth Warren (D)

Warren visited Manchester, New Hampshire, last weekend — her first visit to the state since announcing her presidential exploratory committee. In public remarks, the Massachusetts senator called for “systemic change” as a course correction following the “bad decisions” currently being made in Washington. Warren returns to New Hampshire Friday for an event in Claremont.

On Sunday, Trump criticized Warren’s Instagram livestream from early January quipping on Twitter that she should have done the video “from Bighorn or Wounded Knee instead of her kitchen, with her husband dressed in full Indian garb, it would have been a smash!” Native Americans condemned the tweet as racist.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #Adam Kelsey

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creepycreature-exe · 5 years

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The Siren System Update #2

Updated Update: So, first month of work done. Nothing much has changed since my last post. The weird phone call happened twice this week, the latrine lieutenant is still on a set schedule, and the Hatch still comes and goes with little logic behind it. What I do have to report is some interesting stuff I uncovered in all those old documents I mentioned last time.

The biggest thing I got from these documents is that this is far from the first-time weird stuff has happened in this office. What was super interesting though was that weird stuff has been happening since before the siren system even came online.

Now I know what some of you are saying. What the hell is that even supposed to mean? Allow me to explain. You see before the siren system was put in, there were several other methods created to try and warn people about possible calamities. The oldest record I could find talked about an old coalition of young men and boys who supposedly went around yelling and ringing little bells. They would ring the bells to draw people’s attention and then announce whatever they needed to. Once they were done, they would run further along the street and repeat the process. However, not to long after the band of boys was set up, false alarms started going out.

There was even an old newspaper clip about the whole affair. It was written after several false alarms had been sent out and the townspeople had finally had enough. In the clip one of the boys who worked at the alarm center talked about how a city hall worker had come out every time to tell them to raise an alarm. The man in question was a Mr. Paul Harker, who was an actual city hall worker and was in fact, the city hall worker who oversaw the boys. The man personally met each boy who worked for him, and all the boys said the same thing. On the days of the false alarms, Mr. Harker would show up at the alarm center building, a small one room cabin that had been set up on the outskirts of the city. The boys would go to meet Mr. Harker, and he would tell them to raise an alarm with orders to evacuate the town. The boys would of course follow orders. Their accounts were even backed up by some adults who had gone to the building for various reasons and had seen Mr. Harker giving the order to raise the alarm.

The craziest part though, is that Mr. Harker said he never raised these alarms. Even crazier? Every time the boys said they were given orders to raise the alarm by Mr. Harker, he was seen somewhere else in the city by several other people. On one occasion, Mr. Harker was at lunch with the Mayor at the same time he was giving the order to raise an alarm. He was seen giving this order by 10 boys and a group of 5 mothers who had come to bring their sons lunch.

At the end the article, the mayor promised to solve the problem. He stated he was talking to a specialist about the best way to solve the false alarm issue. You want to know what he didn’t tell the press? What he didn’t tell them was that the “specialist” he was referring to was a local spiritualist. You see, the Mayor and Mr. Harker knew there were too many eye witnesses for the second Mr. Harker story to be a fraud. So, the two instead concluded that the second Mr. Harker must’ve been a doppelgänger trying to start trouble. They figured a spiritualist would know best how to solve the problem, so they found some local spiritualist and asked for help. The spiritualist came out to the alarm center, did some odd rituals and buried almost 50 “blessed” coins around the perimeter of the property. After that, there were no more false alarms. Mostly because Paul Harker #2 couldn’t get on the property anymore. The last report on the matter was a complaint launched by a mother whose boy had seen the second Paul Harker for, what I imagine, was the last time.

According to the woman, her 11-year-old son had come back late from working at the center. When she went to reprimand him for being late, she noticed he was incredibly pale and shaken. When his mother quizzed him, he admitted he had seen Paul Harker, but not the real Paul Harker. He was certain he had seen the doppelgänger on account of what the strange creature did. He said he was leaving the alarm center when he saw Mr. Harker walking towards the building. He was about to call out, but that’s when he noticed Mr. Harker stop and fall back, like he had walked into an “invisible wall”. This is when the boy realized that this was not Mr. Harker. No, this was Mr. Harker’s doppelgänger. The coins and rituals had made it so he couldn’t enter the grounds. After the doppelgänger fell, it got up and pushed on the invisible wall, trying repeatedly to gain entry. After several minutes of failure, the doppelgänger started screaming. This drew the attention of some older boys who were still inside the building. They ran out to grab the younger boy and try to shield him from the doppelgänger. The last thing the boy saw was the doppelgänger’s mouth unhinging as it threw its head back in agony. The older boys brought the younger boy inside, and only let him leave once the screaming stopped and the older boys were sure the doppelgänger was gone.

Now I know what some of you are saying. People in the old times were superstitious. I doubt anything like that happened in the modern era, where people are calm and rational, right? WRONG. Yah know Jim? The siren system worker before me? Yeah well, he had a treasure trove of weird shit happen to him.

Jim sent a myriad of complaints when he first started his job. Weird shit went off like crazy once the siren system was established. I guess it had been a few decades since the city had an established alert system, so the activity of the past had come to a halt. Then one of the past city mayors decided to throw a bunch of money into a siren system. I guess he figured it was a hip modern thing, so why not? Regardless of the why, the siren system was built and placed in an unused, city-owned building. Than city hall hired three staff to manage the whole operation. From how Jim talked about it, it sounds like this place was actually pretty nice when it first opened. The entry room was actually a working reception area, and for the first few months things were relatively normal. Then one day, the janitor came into work and low behold, the Hatch showed up in the janitor’s closet. That’s right, the Hatch has literally been coming and going for almost 5 decades.

Now, I will admit that while the Hatch is constant, none of the other activity I’ve been experiencing is. However, just like all the activity I’ve been experiencing, Jim and the other two staff experienced weird, repetitive activity of their own. For Jim, he would get regular knocks on the door followed by the receptionist’s voice asking for him to come out and assist her. The first time it happened, Jim peeked his head out the door to see what she needed, but she wasn’t there. When he saw the receptionist later that day, he asked her why she was messing with him. She gave him a confused look, and assured Jim that she had been on her lunch break when the event happened. After that, Jim would get the occasional knocks followed by the receptionist’s voice. And every time, he would learn that the actual receptionist was on her lunch break during the time of the incident. This went on for almost a year, with the fake receptionist’s voice getting more and more frantic every time.

This wasn’t the only odd incident. Sometimes the receptionist would see a shadowy figure with the proportions of a grown man out of the corner of her eye. These incidents were always followed by an angry aura filling the room. Now these incidents would almost always happen just before the receptionist’s lunch break, so she would just leave on her break. Then, like clockwork, Jim would have the fake receptionist knock on his door. Like I said, this went on for almost a year, until things finally hit their climax.

During this next particular incident, Jim had actually been sick. He had to stay home that day and wrote a complaint about the incident after getting a frantic call from the receptionist. She inevitably quit in the wake of this incident, and it left Jim feeling like he was in terrible danger.

So, as I said before, Jim was sick, and the reception came by his house before work so he could give her the instructions on how to operate the siren system. She placed the written instructions in her work bag, before leaving for work. Later that day, the receptionist was sitting at her desk, doing whatever she was supposed to be doing, when she sees that shadow and the room filled with an angry aura. At this point she was used to these occurrences, so she finished up her work, grabbed her work bag and walked to a bench just outside the building for lunch. As she ate, the janitor walked up to greet her, and they started chatting. Just as she was finishing her lunch, a scream rang out from the building. The receptionist and the janitor shot up from the bench and ran inside, mostly because they recognized the voice. It was the receptionist’s voice, screaming out in agony. When they entered the building, the door to the control room was wide open. On the floor of the control room, was the body of the receptionist, or to be more precise, the doppelgänger of the receptionist. The doppelgänger had her throat destroyed by the second person in the room, Jim. Or, as many of you had already guessed, the doppelgänger of Jim.

Now, at this point the doppelgänger of Jim was standing in the room, blood all over his face. I can only imagine this was form chewing the other doppelgänger’s neck out. The receptionist proceeded to throw up all over the reception room floor, which drew doppelgänger Jim’s attention. It looked at the real receptionist and the janitor and started demanding the instructions for the siren system. The creature began approaching the two, at which point the janitor stepped in. Now I don’t know a lot about the janitor, but he must’ve been stacked cause he managed to take down Jim’s doppelgänger with relative ease. Once Jim’s doppelgänger was down, it just started screaming about how it needed to turn on the system, that they HAD to let it flip on the system. Of course, neither the receptionist nor the janitor complied with this thing’s pleas. Once the doppelgänger realized it wouldn’t get what he wanted, it stopped fighting. After several moments, it began to convulse. The janitor got off of the creature at that point, allowing Jim’s double to flop onto its back and writhe on the ground in agony. After a few moments, the lights started to flicker in the building, followed by absolute darkness. And I don’t just mean the lights shut off. According to the receptionist and the janitor, the whole world went dark for a moment. It was like someone had extinguished all light, even the sun. The receptionist said she tried to call out to the janitor, but it was like she had lost her voice. She could feel her mouth opening, but nothing came out.

After several seconds like this, the lights turned back on. When the receptionist had recomposed herself, she realized that both doppelgängers had vanished. The blood had not. It took a third-party cleaning company a full 3 days to clean all that blood up.

In the end both the receptionist and the janitor quit, and no one new was hired to replace them. The pair tried to file a police report, but I found the original report among the documents in the filing cabinet. It hadn’t really been filled out, and a note at the top mentioned that the mayor wanted whatever they had on the incident delivered to him personally. It’s clear City Hall wanted to bury the incident without a trace.

Jim tried to quit not too long afterwards, but the city threatened to cut his retirement if he tried. So, he stayed. He wasn’t going to let the whole situation remain as it was though. He requested all the city records about past alarm systems and the current siren system. That’s how the documents I’ve talked about here, got into the filing cabinet in the first place. I suspect there are even more records as several of the older documents are missing pages. Also, all the planning and building records for the current siren system are missing. I imagine Jim took those records home and I guess he just never got around to bringing them back.

He did, however, leave some notes on modifications he made to the buildings after the doppelgänger incident. You see Jim went out to the site of that first alarm system I mentioned and dug up some of those old coins. He could only find four or five, not enough to place around the perimeter of the whole building. So, he took the ones he could find, and placed them in the flooring of the control room. I think… I think that’s why the fake Debbie, the doppelgänger of Debbie, knocked on the door and asked me to turn on the system. I think just like the doppelgänger of Paul Harker, the doppelgänger of Debbie can’t get into the control room because of those coins. However, the doppelgängers can get into every other part of the building, which is why all the strange activity happens around the control room but not in it. Jim also mentioned trying to figure out a pattern for the Hatch, but he never found anything concrete aside from my own observations. Anytime another weird incident occurred, the status of the Hatch would change. He never went in it though, or if he did, he left no record of his journey.

Honestly, these documents have left me with more questions than answers. Where are all these fucking doppelgängers coming from? What is their obsession with emergency alarm systems? What does the Hatch have to do with anything? Do I… Do I have a doppelgänger?

I don’t know what I am going to do with all of this information. I am going to take the next few days to try and formulate a game plan… I’ll update you next week as usual.

-Rachel

#writing #horror story #creepy #scary #The Siren System

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cupidmarwani-archive · 6 years

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Cakewalk (1/15)

Summary: Sonny runs “Carisi’s Sweetstop.” Rafael runs New York Barba. Somehow, they get caught up in each other’s lives.

Warnings (Whole Fic): past character death, grieving, guilt, homophobia, referenced bullying, referenced sex crimes, blackmail, outing, past abuse

Read on AO3

WC: 1347

A/N: It picks up more after the first chapter or so! // Odd chapters are Sonny’s POV, even are Rafael’s

Monday morning at four thirty, Sonny unlocks the door of Carisi’s Sweetstop. He’s not fully awake yet, but he’s close from the brisk walk down the street between his apartment and work. It’s warm inside, thanks to a night without the expensive AC, but not hot enough to melt the candy or affect the fridges of dough, batter, cream, and soda. He keeps fudge in them too on particularly warm Summer days, but luckily it hasn’t come to that yet this year. He bumps the door shut with his hip and stumbles to the back to set his bag on the counter and fumble in the direction of the lightswitch inlaid on the back wall.

When he flicks on the light, warm yellow bathes the pictures behind the counter of all the owners in order above their aprons. He smiles to himself at Nonna’s picture on the wall as a young woman. She had been formidable even then, wearing a dark skirt, a plaid shirt, and a purple apron with “Carisi” on it in white cursive as she flexes and laughs at the camera. To the right of her is a picture of himself. Before it was his, it was his grandmother’s, and her mother’s before that, and her mother’s before that, back countless generations from the first Carisi to set foot on Staten Island. Although he had been working here since he was little and running it for a couple months before the photo, it was his first morning as the official owner. It’s not obvious in the print, but his cheeks were puffy and there were bags under his eyes from a sleepless night.

He picks up his green apron that Nonna made him when he turned sixteen. Ten years ago, she had seemed invincible. Its sturdy strings are woven into a knot against the small of his back, keeping it in place to protect his clothes while he bakes. It’s Monday, which means the daily treats are macarons, donuts, and in warm months, ice cream. Colder times bring hot chocolate instead, but not when the sun hasn’t risen and the temperature is already in the eighties. He made the donut batter already, and doesn’t need long to pour it into the pan before he starts on the macarons.

Before heading into the kitchen and pulling out all the ingredients, however, he pauses to pull out his phone and press play on New York Barba, his favorite podcast. Although he never made it to law school, he still likes to read the law review journals and listen to the talk shows. Call him weird, but he loves New York Barba for a multitude of things: the name (a pun on the bar association), the topics (every important or interesting verdict that week), the jokes (the host has a sarcastic sense of humor that rivals Sonny’s own), and the host himself (Rafael Barba). Rafael used to be an ADA, and every now and then he mentions some of his favorite techniques in court. One boring afternoon, he got it in his head to look up the man’s career and was astounded to find a high win rate, infamous attitude, and someone who wanted to change the world. He doesn’t understand why someone like that would just quit, but if Rafael ever gave an explanation, Sonny can’t find it. He always saves the shows, which come out during mass on Sunday morning, for background at the start of the work week.

“Welcome back to New York Barba, this is Rafael on air. Before I get into the usual stuff, please tell me you’ve all been keeping up with politics lately.”

Sonny laughs a little himself as he cracks the eggs and separates out the yolks. The store fills with the sound of Rafael’s insults about the current administration and the policies being shown to the world. There’s passion in his voice, strong enough that it rings true in Sonny’s chest like an echo. It drips like honey over the egg whites that Sonny whisks hard and fast into the frothy mixture that macarons demand. His sister tried to get him an electric mixer once, but he refused. It’s Nonna’s way or not at all. The first batch takes a few minutes to whip up after he adds the rest of the ingredients and a few drops of food coloring and flavor to the cookie part. Most of the flavors he does use plain frosting, but he’ll add flavor to that too if he’s in a playful mood.

“So, on to the latest failures of the wonderful NYPD,” Rafael says, voice so venomous that Sonny can picture his green eyes darkening and a scowl staining his face as the donuts are pulled from the oven and dumped onto the cooling rack. Sonny starts the glaze while they reach an acceptable temperature for it. “My dear friend and the leading candidate for another term as mayor, Alex Muñoz, has the lovely men and women in blue in his back pocket. He appears to have bought his way out of the investigation of some extracurriculars with his teenage intern in a poli-sci class at PS 129. Look up the reports- they’re public record- and you’ll see that the girl’s mother filed a report of statutory but the precinct dismissed it. Two hours before it was dismissed, the precinct was given a grant from the mayor’s office for improved facilities. I can’t speak to exactly what happened, but I think it’s obvious.”

“You’d be a better candidate,” Sonny tells the empty room.

He pulls the glaze off of the stove top and tilts the saucepan over the first two dozen donuts, coating all of them with sweet-smelling glaze and preparing them for when the shop opens. It’s nearing five, giving him only half an hour before he has to open up. Already, early joggers are running past and peering inside only to catch sight of the ‘closed’ sign and carry on with their routes. They’ll come back, they always do. Sonny listens to the rest of the cast intently while he puts everything in its place and starts to churn this week’s ice cream flavors, vanilla bean, strawberry, and mint chip. He’s thought about investing in a machine, but it falls under the same rule as the electric mixer. Nonna did it by hand, so he’ll do the same.

The podcast ends at five twenty-seven, just in time for Sonny to silence his phone, wash his hands, and return to the front of the store with today’s fresh treats. He runs up to the door and flips the ‘CLOSED’ sign to open. There aren’t many people this early most of the time, but he likes getting to chat with other business owners and morning shift workers on their way in, as well as the harried mothers picking up treats for their kids before school. He recognizes and greets his regulars, preparing their orders when he sees them walk in, disturbing the old windchimes made from broken glass plucked by Nonna’s careful fingers off the beach.

At six fifteen, Amanda comes in. She owns the kickboxing studio next door and stops by at the beginning and end of the day, as well as whatever free moments she can find between classes. Her loose tee shirt gets caught on the door, making her loudly complain as Sonny chokes back a laugh and fetches her the usual blueberry muffin and cup of orange juice. For once, she isn’t running late, so she’s able to loiter at his counter while she munches through her breakfast.

“I’m assuming you heard Barba’s show?”

“Yeah. Really heavy on politics this time, not as much law,” Sonny replies, as if he wouldn’t listen to Rafael rambling on for hours about the methods of tying ties. “Makes sense though, election season is coming up.”

Amanda wipes her mouth with the back of her hand to erase a smear of blueberry. “What’s your take on Muñoz?”

“Never liked him anyways.”

She gives him a knowing smile but doesn’t say anything else.

Taglist: @rafaelscarisi @giraffe-puppy @biweatherman @scottishblend @obfuscateyummy @tiredbisexual @scanavino-esparza @welcomehomemysweet @mrobot @bullet-prooflove

#barisi #rafael barba #dominick sonny carisi #rafael barba x sonny carisi #mine #fic #fluff #((so far))#cakewalk

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9lph9tr0n5s · 6 years

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Rohan’s backstory

Beware that the read more option may not work, both in the app and in the computer

History in the TAS world: when Robyn and Hannah were on their their honeymoon at the canaries, they’re left stranded during a sea trip on a seemeingly unreachable island, not before being brutally shot by who turns out to be the last drowned agent, who received the order from Fuli to terminate Scarlet and Bullet, or every member of team ceartais in case of failure of the “snow day” attack. Robyn survived thanks to her healing factor, but Hannah died from blood loss. Robyn was distraught, but when she went to hug her, the steel blood nanites interacedt with each other and instinctively merged to repair Hannah’s damage. This triggered a literal merge in robyn and hannah’s bodies, who then waked up into one being. At first being shocked, the two wives managed to separate each other and kept living on that island for seven days.

During those days, Robyn and hannah couldn’t resist being separated, so, once per day, they decided to fuse together for a few hours and then separate back in fear of being stuck into one. This led to the discovery of unkown abilities from both girls, secrets and stuff being kept hidden due to a mental link and hidden traits none of them were aware of: for example, robyn became more romantic and loving than she usually was, hannah discovered she got her sight back and could control whether she went blind or not and, most importantly, both hybrids became fertile. Unfortunately, said secrets the couple held were discovered during the links and once a day, Robyn and Hannah would end up having arguments and fighting with each other, before apologizing temporarely. On the fifth day though, after so much time considered impossible to bear for normal beings, Robyn and Hannah understood that their fusion (whom they nicknamed Rohan by combining their names) and all the troubles thew went through didn’t divide them, but kept them united more than ever, since none of the two ever gave up on the other; they apologized permanentely that day and promised to never lose love and hope for each other and the world in general, even at their darkest hour.

That same day, a small comet splashed into the water waking up the girls. Since Hannah was too tired from everything she went through to check, Robyn went into the water and picked the melon sized rock. After smashing it to check if there was anything suspicious, she noticed six colored fragments popped out of the rock and got all of them in her hands at the same time. What happened next could be described as raw immense energy flowing rapidly through Robyn’s body. Robyn squealed with horror and she would have been disintegrated if Hannah hadn’t woken up and run in her help and fused once again into rohan to stabilize the immense energy. It didn’t take long for them to figure out those were fragments of the infinity gems, since they wathced the recent marvel movies and got informed later about their story on the internet (despite never reading any comic book related to them) which granted them even more superpowers than before. After the fusion, the girls managed to handle easily the fragments while being separated and fused. What they couldn’t understand was why all the six fragments dropped by them out of all the living beings in the universe.

The seventh day their killer returned with the local police, trying to get rid once and for all of the superheroines; unluckily for him, Robyn and Hannah thought out a plan when they saw him arrive and managed to trick him and reveal his assassination plot and allignment by using the mind fragment. The criminal was taken into custody and the zootopian police was allerted. Robyn and Hannah then went back home and were greeted by all their friends and family, who heard about them being stranded for a week immediately after the capture of the criminal. The next days, Robyn and Rannah decided to meet in secret and train with their newfound powers and form and agreed to reveal everything at the right moment.

The right time came the year later when Nick organized a memorial evening for the anniversary of the “snow day” attack being foiled, but also as the anniversary of his parents’, Robin sr and Marian Wlde, death. After Robyn and Hannah gave a speech about how tragic the wave was, but nobody never lost hope against such a disaster, they fused right in front of everybody. Everybody was shocked, but not as much as hearing what happened at the canaries, about their infinity-based powers and about Robyn and Hannah keeping the secret and training their new abilities in secret for about a year. After Rohan answered everybodys questions about her, she finished her components’ speech by saying that as a gift for everybody who loved them, cared about them and would never stop, she would have made something impossible; then she snapped her right hand and the whole universe was engulfed by white light for a second. After the snap, Rohan fell unconcious to the floor, unable to move and intangible, but at the same time everyone discovered what the snap did when robyn’s dead siblings, Ryan Ronan and Reginald materialized in front of them from a small whirlind of dust, then Robyn’s grandparents came along materializing in the whirlind, followed by Hannah’s eponymus grandma, Little John, and old family friend, the former mob boss Mr Big and his guard Koslov and ,in the end, victoria todd, the biological mother of robyn’s sister luna. The snap had taken back to life everyone who died between the incursions of the underworld trio, from the last days of the wave disaster, all in perfect health, having aged as if nobody died and with full memories of what happened. Unfortunately, rohan was still unconcious and immaterial and the only way they could carry her was through an electrostatic box invented by their old friend Olivia which was able to catch all the molecules. They brought her to the mayor office believing it woud have been a safe place.

After nearly eight hours, Rohan started to show signs of recomposing and gaining her conscience back, she would have been back in ten minutes, but unfortunatelty, there wasn’t time to celebrate, as a giant rift opened in the sky above the city hall bringing out a giant starship. Everyone knew that sign was no good and instinctively hid Rohan, hoping no one would find her until she was back. After a few seconds they hid her in the boiler room and squadron of eight green, strange looking aliens smashed into the roof inside the mayor’s office. They identified them as skrulls: alien mutants who could camouflage themselves as any other living species and mimic superpowers. The drop team was lead by a skull called Kl’RT, although he wanted to be called Super Skrull; he claimed to be in search of the fragments of the infinity gems to rebuild the skrull empire and bring glory to it. Nobody knew what was the green leader talking about and remained silent, but when the super skrull mentioned that six fragments dropped into that dimension and listed some of their abilities, after hearing one of said powers was to bring back to life anyone with a snap, everyone (especially Robyn and Hannah’s friends, Kodi, Kion, Olivia and Alice and Robyn’s sister luna) immediately connected the dots and locked the door, while managing to fend off the skrulls; unfortunately the skrull were no match for them, beating everyone and leaving them unconcious, except for Robyn’s mother, Judy and Hannah’s mother, Skye, who they wanted to use as a bait to lure their daughters out.

Meanwhile, Robyn and Hannah found themselves into a strange world composed by a large speck of marble and some ruins, greeted by six spirits, each one colored as the fragments. Those spirits identified themselves as the infinity gems, leaving the married couple astonished for two reasons: 1) they couldn’t believe something tecnically invented could exist, 2) they discovered to be invented charachters from a fictional universe themselves by talking to the spirits. The most important discovery though was why they had basically all the power in the universe, or the multiverse after their discovery of multiple dimensions: in another universe, a group of the most powerful superheroes called the Illuminati, formed by six powerful superheroes of the marvel universe: Iron Man, a genius playboy philantropist millionare turned hero, namor, king of atlantis and the sea, Mister Fantastic, leader or the fantastic 4, Professor x, protector of all mutantkind, Doctor Strange, the sorcerer supreme and Black Bolt, king of the inhumans. They used the gems, wielded by Captain America, the first avenger, to avoid the collision of their universe with a parallel one, but since time ago it was declared the gems could not act together this led to the destrucion of all the gems, especially the time gem whose fragments were scattered through time. In the end Robyn and Hannah learned that the fragments couldn’t find a better possessor over time, but then the infinity spirits found them: during the time of the wave, they were living in a corrupt world, on the brink of collapse, where everybody lost itself, but not them; Robyn and Hannah stayed true to themselves despite all the madness such a disaster could bring, had the power to go through such a situation for so long, they lost loved ones, their minds were torn, but they never gave up, neither stopped loving each other and, literally, they had superpowers. Those feats were more than enough for the spirits to consider the two hybrids worthy. And that was why Robyn and Hannah had the powers of infinity. They thanked the spirits and those greeted the wives back, claiming they could have changed everything. Then they started gaining their concioussness and physical form back.

When they woke up into Rohan, she felt a giant headache and then she heard the scream of Judy and Skye being held. She ran out of the boiler room, only to find everyone lying numb on the floor, except Judy, Skye and the skrulls. Kl’Rt debreifed them about the situation and ordered them to hand him the gems. He was unfortunate not to know he shouldn’t have messed up with the giant hybrid: rohan seemingly gave in, asking for her mothers to be freed; the request was fulfilled, at the terms that Rohan should have gone with the skrulls. As Rohan started advancing to the leader, she quickly started a fight with him, punching the green baddie in the chest and breaking his ribcage; the other skrulls quickly dropped into the fight only to have their ass handed by rohan, one with subdued by rohan’s fighting skills, the other six soldiers were killed, each one by a different power of the fragments. The Super Skrull was not willing to give up and plummeted onto her enemy, seemingly gained the upper hand, until Rohan reunited the fragments into a single gem on her fist and punched it against the super skrull, this time though Kl’Rt was invested by a surge of energy he couldn’t contain. As Rohan kept pressing, the skrull’s body kept flowing energy within, at the point it couldn’t contain anymore. Rohan finished him by blowing his body and soul up. The explosion also blew up the roof of the city hall, but, fortunately, no one else was harmed. The helicopters with the journalist were quick to arrive on the scene when they saw the explosion and started asking questions to rohan. Thinking about what the spirits said, Rohan deicided to take a risky gamble: tired of hiding secrets and knowing said secrets would have been discovered afterwards by die-hard conspirationists, Robyn and Hannah unfused right in front of everybody, revealing to the whole Zootopia their secret identities, their fusion nature and told everything happened inside the city hall: from the drop squad breaking in to the leader blowing up. They clamied to have done so because they felt zootopia needed to know the truth and didn’t want to cover up everything with some half-assed excuse. The only thing they didn’t give away was their companions secret identities, which were safe… or so they thought.

Over the next week following the skrull assault, zootopia was torn in two: the politicians wanted to declare superheroes and superpowered mammals illegal, while the public fought in rallies, protests and riots standing by their thought that zootopia didn’t need control, nor order, but just to be safe and free, no matter who protected them, also chastising the governement, calling it corrupt, unfair and old. While there were tensions inside the wilde family and their friends, everybody did their best to comfort each other, especially Robyn and Hannah, who received the most hate. Nick was not willing to give up on her daughter despite all the accuses against him, but every attempt to calm down the city was vain. But suddenly, a chance of redemption popped up: unbeknownst to everyone, the skrull that wasn’t defeated by Rohan by the power of the infinity fragments, silently escaped on the ship (which was invisible the whole time) and this time he brought back up: another alien race, called the kree. The two armies broke in the middle of a protest, capturing everybody: men, women, politicians, normal people, kids; then, they called in a massive ship/orbital cannon, capable of destroying an entire planet. The skrull threatened Rohan to come out and surrender, otherwise he would have erased the city from the planet. Rohan was trapped: either she went there and die for the whole city or she would have fought at the risk of losing many innocent lives. Believing she runied the city and everyone’s life, in the end she did come out and was ready to die for who she loved and seeking for redemption. She waved goodbye to her family and friends and she faced a public execution, where there kree leader, Ronan, blasted her to smithereens with his hammer.

The skrull then went to pick up the fragments, gloating over his revenge and claiming to be the only true keeper of the universe; but the infinity spirits had decided: Robyn and Hannah were the only worthy to keep all that power. They immediately rejected their impostor and reformed Rohan form the ashes; this time though Rohan was determined to end to skrull threat once and for all. she called in her allies: the famous team ceartais: andraste, spitfire, roar, the mage and yurei (respectively Luna, Olivia, Kion, Kodi and Alice), the ZPD, the MCB and the task force Camelot; no matter who the enemies were or what others thought about her, she was going to end everything.

After a long 10 hours battle, Rohan, ceartais and their allies finally defeated the skrull/kree army, not without casualties: almost 50 percent of the city was dead. Ronan, the kree leader, though was not willing to lose against a bunch of animals and in an act of rage, he activated the cannon at full power: he wanted to wipe out the whole planet if he couldn’t conquer it. When the cannon fired, every hope seemed lost, but rohan, uncapable of giving up and now unwilling to let everyone die, concentrated and unlocked the full power of the infinity fragments enetring the infinity state: she had all the powers in the universe and could have been able to alter the whole structure of the universe itself; after nullifying the cannon’s beam, she completly erased the cannon itself out of existence; then, after facing ronan one last time and killing him when he cheated and attempted for his loved ones lives, she brought back from the dead everyone who died in the recent skirmish and recreated back the entire city: every building that was knocked out or demolished during the wave or the skrull/kree invasion was fully rebuilt. Then Rohan passed out again, falling unconcious and incorporeal, this time only for two hours.

When she woke up, there was her family celebrating her victory, alongside almost the rest of Zootopia; only a few mammals still distrusted her. But soon a problem came out: the energy emitted by Rohan in the infinity state started to give superpowers to random citizens, no matter if they were rich or poor. To solve this problem, Rohan asked for a super’s therapy centre to be created, so that powered mammals could be able to control their powers to fit better into society, without class or power differences and for who wnated to become a superhero. She also asked for every super that would come to be registered as an ally of the zpd, but able to fight free, without law many restrictions. At last, she said that every super was free to mantain it’s secret identity if he or she wanted. Every request was taken with joy from everyone, aside the opposers; that same day team ceartais followed Rohan’s example and revealed their secret identities to zootopia, without fear. Wether this situation was good or bad it’s still discussed today, but two things were for sure: Robyn and Hannah did indeed change everything and even if the alien threat was defeated, many other villains would come out to take the fragments for themselves or for other villanous purposes and those bad guys weren’t just some vigilante level threat: they were superpowered and even came from other universes. Things had to changes so Rohan’s and ceartais’ arsenal grew up, combining the latest tech with the infinity powers, while staying true to their vigilante nature.

In the end, since the “revival” (how the skrull/kree invasion, their subsequent defeat and the revitalization of Zootopia was dubbed) Rohan, despite being a fusion has gained full full rights and it’s considered a civilian just like everyone, Robyn and Hannah are recognized as superstars, just like their teammates, but even with all the fame, the two hybrids live a fairly humble life with their eight children, while also protecting zootopia and other dimensions from evil forces.

for who is intrested in the main bio here’s the link

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