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div-divington · 3 years

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big ol’ invicncible spoilers, watch the show first trust me you’re not missing anything if you don’t read this post

I’ve never talked about a cartoon or tv show before but I’ve gotta say that people who say there’s ‘no complexity’ to Omni-Man’s character just tick me off.

I mean, listen, he’s totally a villain at least in the cartoon adaptation (I’ve not read the comics, going to consider them separate entities for the sake of argument), but he’s far from a two dimensional sussus amogus imposter blindly readying the planet for invasion.

I whole-heartedly believe that Omni-Man enjoyed being a superhero, saving lives. I believe his friendship with the tailor guy was real, I believe he respected, admired even, the Guardians of the Globe, cherished his relationship with Debbie, and enjoyed living among humans. The brief interaction with Darkwing and The Immortal when the Mauler Twins attack the White House is so sincere right? Like, it seems to me he respects them, the jokey “you’re welcome” when he saved Darkwing, the “I had him” when he saved the guard Immortal was going for, that wasn’t necessary of him. He had no real reason to be playful and cordial with them, he could have been distant and still gained their trust easily (I mean, Darkwing was a jerk and they loved him). The brief moment of shock and unresponsiveness when Mark revealed that he’d finally gotten his powers? I honestly believe that was a moment of disbelief. I think he hoped Mark’s powers wouldn’t manifest, hoped he wouldn’t have to continue his mission. That pause was him coming to terms with the end of things. The realization that he would have to hurt people he respected, finish his mission, and end his time as a father, author, and superhero.

When he collapses after murdering the Guardians of the Globe, the look on his face isn’t just exhaustion from the fight, it looks to me like shock. Disbelief. I don’t think he wanted to kill the Guardians, I think he hated doing it, but it’s what he was bred for. He was born and trained from childhood for thousands of years to weaken a planet from within, prepare it for invasion. Earth had superheroes, naturally a pretty noteworthy obstacle for an invasion, so he, in his mind, had no choice but to kill them. And notice that most of his kills are pretty... clean? He goes right for Immortal’s head, ditto with Aquaris and Green Ghost, snaps War Woman’s neck, kills Darkwing in one clean move, tears off Martian Man’s heart(? is that a heart?), crushes Red Rush’s head (which seems slow because of Red Rush’s perception of time being RIDICULOUS compared to our own, that horrific scene only lasted like a second for the rest of the characters). He goes for quick, clean kills, minimizing pain. Maybe its just brutal, soldier-like efficiency, since the greatest superheroes on Earth cannot be allowed to get any good hits in (they nearly killed him as it was), but what if it was a desire to not prolong the suffering of people he genuinely liked?

We see in the flashback towards the end (during the THINK, MARK, THINK! scene lmao) that he initially didn’t give two shits about humanity on a deep level. He loved and respected Debbie and his then-very-young son, but thought humans were, on a whole, primitive and dumb. But as he spends time observing them, watching their culture, interacting with them, living with them, he warms up to them. The smile on his face when Mark hits his first homerun in little league, remembering Debbie’s favourite foods, the way he laughs when he mentions how a superhero had to meet the president in a plaid supersuit, the fishing photograph with the tailor. Even after he finally reveals himself as an infiltrator, the way he talks, to me, shows respect for his adversaries even as he demeans and belittles humanity. The discussion with Cecil, the warning to ‘stay out of this’. Nolan seems reluctant to kill anybody he doesn’t have to, and seemingly acknowledges that the Global Defense Agency at the very least is a minor threat.

So, you say, why does he act so AWFUL at times?

Well, his seeming lack of emotion after the funerals for the Guardians of the Globe can proooooooooooooobably be chalked up to his alien psychology. He finished grieving, he didn’t see the harm in cracking jokes about them. Calling Debora a ‘pet’? I think that honestly would be him trying to rationalise his feelings for her. There’s a fraction of a second where he hesitates to say it, and I honestly think he’s just trying to explain to himself how he could ever love a ‘lesser lifeform’. Killing all those innocent people? In his mind that was justified to get through to Mark. He doesn’t enjoy it -- though he also doesn’t dislike it -- he just sees it as a flat necessity, no less insignificant than killing a bug (i said the man is a complex character, I didn’t say he wasn’t evil).

Don’t forget, Nolan’s genuine reasoning for bringing Earth into the Viltrum Empire is to help it. He argues that Viltrum technology can end hunger and poverty, end crime, revolutionize medicine. In his eyes, his indoctrinated eyes, he’s doing the right thing to help the people of Earth.

He still thinks he’s the hero.

‘it’s right to pity them’.

He sees humans as lesser creatures, he thinks they need protection from themselves, need to be brought up by the Viltrumites to be better. They can’t survive on their own, they’re weak and soft, they need us to reach their full potential, to find true glory in serving the might of Viltrum. Omni-Man does not see his actions as evil, he thinks he’s the good guy. He reluctantly kills the Guardians of the Globe, slaughters thousands of people, and destroys a city in order to, in his extremely twisted sense of morality, help people.

And, in the end, it is not the Viltrumite parts of Omni-Man and Invincible that end the conflict. It is Mark’s very human belief that he will, one day, get through to his dad. His refusal to give in, his undying love and determination to save people, save Nolan. It’s this that reaches Omni-Man. It doesn’t reach the tough soldier he had been for thousands of years, it reaches the small part of Omni-Man that wasn’t pretending to be human. The part that is Nolan Grayson. The part that, despite still seeing them as primitive and inferior, likes humanity. It’s a human tear that leaves his eye as Nolan flies away from Earth, finally giving up and refusing to facilitate the invasion if it means killing his son, something a full Viltrumite wouldn’t hesitate to do for a second if their family got in the way of their conquest. He was changed by his time with humans.

I’m not defending Omni-Man, he’s obviously a bad guy, an antagonist, serving a genuinely evil empire, but i AM saying he isn’t some flat, boring two dimensional villain who just PRETENDED to like humanity for the twenty odd years he spent living there. I’ve seen people in youtube comments replying with “I think you misunderstand Omni-Man as a character, you see, he was simply pretending to not hate humanity, it was all an elaborate ruse, there’s no real depth and inner terminal in him at all uwu” but i think THEY misunderstand Omni-Man.

He’s not morally grey, he’s arguably not even redeemable, but he IS a complex and well written character and boiling him down to ONLY being an evil alien who tricked people into liking him just rubs me the wrong way.

but idk maybe I misunderstood him and he really IS flat and boring. Maybe his time with humanity didn’t change him at all, he isn’t emotionally conflicted, and he’s just less cool than I thought.

And despite my seeming passive aggressive language, it’s totally chill if you disagree with my personal interpretation of Omni-Man as a character, art is meant to be a unique experience for everyone, so if you see him completely differently to me that’s great! I just dislike the insistence from some people online that anybody who sees him as a deeper, more complicated character is just wrong.

also sorry for this post coming out of left field entirely lmao

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oathofoaksart · 3 years

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YOUNG JUSTICE OC: KITSUNE

bio under the cut!

BASICS Name: Leiko Ara A.K.A: Kitsune; Lei, Kit, L.A [only by Charlie] Age: 16 [S1 Era], 21 [S2 Era] Gender: Cisgender Female Orientation: Grayromantic Bisexual

Skin: Fair Hair: Plum-Black Eyes: Black, fully golden and slit-pupiled as Kitsune Height: 5'6”, 6’1” in platforms Build: Lithe, built like a dancer Distinctions: Distinctly pretty. Sharpened canines and nails. A sharp dresser, obviously wealthy, rarely seen without some type of heel.

RELATIONS Parents: Ryuu Ara and Cho Miyamotou [estranged] Siblings: N/A Friends: Wally “Kid Flash” West, Zatanna Zatara, M’gann “Miss Martian” M’orzz, Raquel “Rocket” Irving, Kaldur’ahm “Aqualad”, Dick “Robin” Grayson, Conner “Superboy” Kent, Artemis Crock, Haley Overbea [OC] Partner/s: Wally “Kid Flash/Flash III” West (ev. post-S3) Misc.: Charles “Scribe” Jenson [OC], Penelope “Poppet” Caskett [@PoltergeistPrincessa] Affiliations: The Spiral, The Team

PERSONALITY Personality Type: ENTP-A [Assertive Debater] Temperament: Choleric-Sanguine Alignment: Chaotic Good Clever | Self-Assured | Driven | Arrogant | Spiteful

Aristocratic in both upbringing and nature, Leiko likes to carry herself with regality. Her confidence and well-honed charm makes her a popular figure among her school peers, even though she keeps everyone at a cool arm's length. Her social aloofness leaves her with little to no close friends, which she figures is just as well, since she finds friends to be a waste of time.

Around others in the heroic scene, Leiko allows herself to show off. She’s known for her theatrical and flamboyant attitude, topped with a haughtiness she cares little to subdue. She’s assertive, witty, and adores a challenge. She lets this completely unfurl as the vain and dramatic Kitsune, who views the world as her stage and anyone watching her audience.

Leiko struggles with unlearning a deep-seated cynicism against others and is often skeptical of actions claimed to be done out of good will, which clashes with the ethics of heroism. Her grasp on empathy leaves much to be desired as well; she can be condescending, sharp, and impatient when the situation calls for exactly the opposite.

Still, steadily Leiko finds herself learning humility, trust, and care from her teammates, along the way forming friendships no Swiss bank account could buy.

ABILITIES AND WEAKNESSES

Powers and Abilities:

Physiology:

Lei doesn’t possess a human soul, but of that of her namesake, a kitsune. Her “soul” is instead a Hoshi no Tama, usually referred to as her soul bead. It is a fist-sized pearl that resides within her body. This is the source of her magic as well as her heightened physical attributes.

Enhanced Senses: Lei demonstrates fox-like senses. She sees just as well at night as she does during the day, hears better than a normal human, and has a better sense of smell. This doubles in the supernatural side, she can see, hear, and smell beyond the mortal plane.

Enhanced Physiology: Lei exhibits above-average speed, strength, endurance and rarely if ever comes down with diseases, viruses and the like.

Onmyodo: A traditional Japanese occultism

Illusion Magic: Lei’s strongest suit is her hold over illusion spells. Using a variety of paper charms, mirrors, physical cues, written and verbal spells, she's able to create confusion over her opponent. These illusions range from visual to audial, making it difficult to rely on one's own senses. Her illusions are often grandiose, jarringly colorful, with nods to the overall aesthetic influence of traditional Japanese art forms. In turn makes her relatively immune to similar tactics.

Barriers: Can alternately use barriers as a sort of defense or a barring mechanism. Barriers set up by paper charms are stronger and more durable than barriers set by simple verbal spells, however combining both techniques grants the best results.

Pyrokinesis: Lei’s kitsunebi is a mystic fire she can conjure in the form of pillars and spheres. Notably different to “mortal” flame, as it burns exclusively supernatural/otherworldly beings, but brings the sensation of weakness and illness to the human body.

Weapons and Inventory:

Enchanted Parasol:

Kit’s go-to weapon. By reaching over her shoulder, the same way one would unsheath a sword, her oil paper parasol materializes into her hand in a burst of flame. It serves both as a defensive and offensive tool.

Closed: While in her hands it doesn’t appear to weigh any more than a regular parasol, in combat it carries an inexplicable weight, able to break concrete. She uses it as a melee weapon, much like a bat or a club. Kit also uses it as a makeshift wand/staff, for bigger and more complex spells. And a favorite stun tactic of hers is to mimic pumping the action to a shotgun, aiming her parasol and “firing” it. It creates a momentary illusion of being “shot” to whomever her target may have been.

Open: Popping it open creates a quick-time personal shield, able to deflect various attacks and withstand a fair amount of explosive power. Ducking behind it obscures her from her opponent and she uses this window of time to work up a spell. Spinning the canopy of her parasol causes momentary dizziness. When jumping off of highland, the parasol allows Kit to glide for long distances (the amount of time and smoothness of the glide suffers when another person is in tow).

Ofuda: These paper charms can be used as delayed “bombs” affected by sticking them into walls, either simply timed or activated by touch. They also serve for warding spells. Gohei: A summoned short wand with a decorative paper trail, the length of the trail stretches during use. Lei uses it as a sort of weaponized gymnast ribbon, or a whip. Most effective against intaginable objects or enemies. Balance Charm: With Scribe's help and after many mishaps, Kit wears a beaded charm around her ankle which enables her limited enhanced movement. She appears to glide along, unweighted, making her movements seem feather light. It helps slow or cushion short distance falls and balance on unprobable surfaces. May also explain how she manages to fight in heels. Spellbook: Kit carries a small notebook with variant spells written herself for safe-keeping and for a quick reference check. Mirrors: Kit holds a small, two-faced mirror. The mirror serves to see through glamour illusions or create more intricate illusions of her own; more often than not, she uses it to admire a makeup job well done. Purification Salt: Ghosts in particular are vulnerable to salt, circles of it makes areas inaccessible to them. Calligraphy Set: A horse-hair brush, inkwell and a small stash of paper for written spells

Limitations and Weaknesses:

Water and Aquatic Environments: As host of a fire kitsune, Kitsune’s main and biggest weakness is water. Being around areas with large amounts of water dampens the potency of her magic, being doused in it cuts off completely until she dries off. While her parasol helps repel rain and small splashes, it can only do so much. The water effect includes any type, Lei incapacitaed by things such as baths and showers as well until she properly dries herself off.

Cynophobia: Lei’s “unprompted” fear of dogs, or really any sort of canine that aren’t foxes, can be traced back to Japanese folklore. Dogs were considered enemies of foxes, being used to hunt them down. People accused of being possessed by, or being kitsune, were sometimes forced to be licked head to toe by dogs in order to expel the demon to it’s true form. Dogs make Lei largely uncomfortable at best, aggressive dogs will either send her into a state of frozen terror or at worst, unabashed panic.

HISTORY [TRIGGER WARNING: SEXUAL HARASSMENT]

The only child of Ryuu Ara, a successful luxury hotel chain owner and president, Leiko grew up with the world served to her on a silver platter. She enrolled in the best schools, excelling in academics, popularity, and was starting to make headway as a teen model. Leiko formed into a pretty, precocious, if pretentious, girl.

At age 14, after wrapping up a student council meeting afterschool, the student body president forced her into a corner when she’d turned him down for a date. The boy grew increasingly aggressive, but was stopped from going beyond grasping at her blazer when a brilliant white flame unfurled from Leiko’s hands. She fled the second she found an opening, calling for help until she caught the attention of school security. The boy was found unconscious, but physically unharmed. (She would later find out, he complained of sudden illness and a downslide of rotten luck, with little to no memory on how he’d been knocked cold.)

Ryuu spared no expense on making sure justice was properly handed out, although that was simple when compared to the news Leiko gave him about her new ability to conjure flame. But he’d taken the revelation far easier than Leiko thought he would. Ryuu admitted it was something he’d been somewhat expecting, even dreading.

Leiko’s mother was something of a taboo subject. Outside of knowing her name was Cho (Ryuu never mentioned her maiden name) and that there had been an ugly divorce shortly after Leiko was born, she didn’t know much else. Even then, her father didn’t go into specifics beyond blaming Cho for Leiko’s newly discovered “peculiarity.” Ryuu ultimately decided it was best for Leiko to pretend she hadn’t discovered it. She had a bright future ahead of her as his heir and it wouldn’t be marred by her mother’s blood. Leiko obeyed despite her protests. They’d both come to realize, however, fire was just the beginning.

Over the following weeks, more abilities came to emerge, from heightened senses to supernatural awareness. She struggled under the pressure of maintaining the semblance of being normal. The weight of stress and desperation finally proved too much for Leiko, leading to a discussion gone sour, ending only when she noticed Ryuu backing away from the looming shadow of a four-tailed fox she cast on the wall. She would miss the following days of school when her eyes refused to revert back from their completely golden, slit-pupiled appearance.

Resigned, Ryuu took to looking into someone who could help Leiko with her magic troubles as this was beyond his reach.

That someone came to be a man by the name Scribe, a semi-public mystic who operated within New York. Scribe’s interest piqued at the mention of Leiko’s transformation and to the Ara’s slight relief, Scribe proved himself to be a sorcerer of true magic instead of a con-man looking for a quick buck. He’d confirmed their suspicions of Leiko being tied to the kitsune, fox spirits of Japanese lore, although he admitted he had little to no experience with said creatures.

Scribe refused to leave Leiko to sort things out on her own, however, and offered her a proposition. Scribe’s lifelong work dealt with a massive, mystical library he dubbed the Spiral, which housed knowledge from across space and time. Despite his years slaving away at discovering and archiving its secrets, progress was going at a crawl. He’d take Leiko under his wing, giving her access to whatever she could get her hands on and import what they couldn’t find from his various connections. In return, she’d take up being his personal assistant. Ryuu had been reluctant to let Leiko have a hands on approach and had made his dislike for Scribe apparent, but relented.

The world of magic was a far cry from the straight-laced, business-oriented life Leiko had grown in; it both terrified and fascinated her. Scribe, real name: Charles Mordichai Jenson (Charlie for short), proved to be an eccentric, but well-meaning guide where he could. As the two dove into research, Leiko let loose a sense of freedom and expression she stifled to fit her father’s expectations. Charlie was quick to help enable this. They were polar opposites in many ways, but Charlie saw a passion and potential in Leiko that mirrored his own at her age, and he fully intended to see it shine. It wasn’t long before Leiko wasn’t just checking inventory and jotting notes for both The Spiral and Jenson’s Comics (Charlie’s civilian pop culture store), but followed him out on relic retrievals and even the occasional “mystic field trip”. Charlie had been adamant on one thing when she stepped out of the safety of The Spiral however, much as he’d taken Scribe as his mantle, Leiko would have to make one of her own for the sake of her identity. It wasn’t a hard choice for her as it was practically staring her in the face, Kitsune took life. Over the next two years, Kitsune proved herself to be a capable magician despite being self-taught. Juggling her home, school and magic life was busy, but thrilling. Perhaps a little too thrilling. During an outing, Scribe and Kitsune were ambushed by a sorcerer named Felix Faust, who ultimately took Scribe prisoner. Well-aware of just how over her head she was, Kitsune went on a one-girl rescue mission to save her mentor anyway and was beyond relieved to find a young group of supers on the same trail.

The group, known simply as “The Team”, had been alerted of Scribe’s abduction through their resident mystic, Zatanna. Scribe had managed to send a distress signal before all communication cut off. Shoving down the twinge of jealousy that came with that revelation and of being out of the loop, Kitsune allied herself with the Team until Scribe was rescued. She was offered a permanent position on the Team, which she said she’d think over even though she had no interest in becoming a hero. She was more persuaded by the opposition placed by Scribe and the oddly genuine endearment shown by the Team’s speedster, Kid Flash.

Less than a few days later, an argument between Leiko and Charlie sparked by his confession of thinking she wasn’t right for the Team just yet sent her right to them out of spite.

Now taking a crash course in heroics, Kitsune tackles supercrime, training, self-reflection, team building and the frustrating, but integral importance of friendship.

NOTES

Kit has alternate versions of her Kitsune outfit and will switch between them mid-battle, either because she wasn’t feeling the one she was wearing, it got dirty, or a specific attack called for a wardrobe change

Because Lei’s brand of Onmyodo is largely “home-brew” given she’s self-taught, she incorporates other types of magic and styles to compensate

Lei has the passive ability of being ridiculously lucky, she never loses games of chance such as coin flips and dice rolls

The nickname ‘Lei’ was originally coined by Wally West and it’s a nickname she only allows within the perimeter of the Cave

Lei is proud of her musical skill, it’s not uncommon to hear her singing to herself and will shred an electric guitar when given the chance

She has a pet Bearded Dragon named Prince. Prince was a at-Death’s-door rescue surrendered to Charlie, who gave him to her after she helped nurse Prince back to health and she wound up attached to him

Lei’s father is unaware she’s taken up heroism, as far as Ryuu knows, she’s studying under Charlie to get her curiosity of magic out of her system

#young justice oc #dc oc #gar's oc #gar's art #oathofoaks #leiko ara #meet the OCs

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legends-live-in-memories · 3 years

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“How Did All This Happen?”- A Memoire by one Marinette Dupain-Cheng 5

hi. im back. after slightly longer than usual (my usual was like everyday, not happening again) i have returned. :) this update is also slightly longer than usual too but who complains about that?

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 6

without further ado

Did Marinette Miss Her Own Wedding? I

Constantine was having a horrible time, as far as Marinette could tell. His phone kept ringing, which he was pointedly ignoring, and he looked more and more frustrated as he skimmed through one of his many grimoires. He was also very sober. Maybe that had something to do with it.

After Marinette’s little excursion out with Plagg the previous night, Constantine joined her and her grandfather and explained the lore behind the Renlings and what they were capable of. Marinette was already over it. It’s one thing to be magical guardians of one set magical gods, but animal spirits that transform the wielder into the respective animal is borderline ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous. And Constantine wants her to find them. Why not the Justice League? Or their team of proteges? Well, apparently, Constantine has a healthy distrust of the Justice League and magic they are unfamiliar with. Something about a mystical house no longer existing because somebody was suspicious. They fucked around and found out, as Plagg so eloquently put it. She didn’t know how she felt about aiding Constantine in his paranoia.

Anyways, Marinette was now Constantine’s go-to whenever he wanted to keep things away from the JL. She would have said no like a reasonable person, but she was at least getting more magical training and could actually use some of the spells in the Miraculous grimoire. Speaking of which, the grimoire that Constantine was hunching over was supposed to help them in finding the other Prodigiouses. The Kwamis were surprisingly unhelpful as they have never heard of the Prodigiouses or Renlings.

After what could have been hours of grueling translating and spellwork, Constantine had finally figured out the location of the eight total Renlings and what their prodigiouses looked like. While Marinette and Master Fu began scheming appropriate retrieval plans, Constantine went to answer his many missed calls.

“What?!” Well that sounded concerning. Constantine looked ready to pull his hair out from scalp with tweezers. Whatever news he just received must have been awful for him to lose his composure like this. Good.

“You lot are planning to do what now?” Oh, was this JL business? Should Marinette be listening to this, albeit one-sided, conversation?

“And why do you all need to do this?”

“Don’t give me that attitude. I’m working on something important.”

“Yes it is important, Zatanna. Please don’t let that group of League Juniors do this.”

“You even got me saying ‘please.’ No I can not tell you why”

“Well what do you mean you can’t trust me?!” This was starting to sound serious. The popcorn that Wayzz brought was also making this ten times more entertaining.

“Zatanna-” Oh he got cut off. Serves him right.

“Fine, be that way.” Constantine forcefully ended the call and was pouting like a child.

Marinette didn’t know if she should ask anything but she had the feeling it was related to the prodigiouses and tracking them. Were the League getting involved? It would explain his desperation to not have them interfere.

“I can’t believe them.” Looks like Marinette didn’t have to make the decision after all. He was going to rant about it.

“What can’t you believe, Constantine?” Her grandfather appeared equally as curious.

“The Team are going to try and track down the prodigiouses. Luckily, they only think there are five rather than eight.” He paused to run his hands through his already disheveled hair. “I don’t know which five they’re tracking. Also, they probably know you have the Snake’s Fang.”

“Pardon?” Marinette doesn’t know what she would do if she was on the Justice League’s most wanted.

“Zatanna didn’t outright say it, but Kobra probably told them it was taken from him. That’s probably how they knew about the others too. Thanks for that.”

“First of all, I didn’t even know what these things were so don’t blame me. Second of all, this could have all been avoided if you just told them!” Marinette did not appreciate the blame being put on her for the League’s involvement. She wasn’t done ripping Constantine a new one yet either. “Especially considering the fact that you knew that their secondary team had a mission there. UN rules or not. But no! You wanted to keep all your magical secrets to yourself. So don’t blame me for the consequences of your own actions.” She was fuming at this point, probably overreacting, but she was tired of cleaning up after people who won’t so much as thank her.

The ensuing silence was deafening and eyes that weren’t on Marinette were on Constantine. He looked rather surprised at Marinette’s show of spine, probably forgetting that she was born and raised in the League of Shadows. He never will again if he keeps pushing his luck.

Fu cleared his throat, probably clogged from the awkward tension. “Well, now that that’s all dealt with, do you know what your next move is Constantine? Do we actively hinder the League for the sake of your own peace of mind or do you talk to them and work collaboratively with them?”

Constantine, who was still doing his best fish impersonation since Marinette—no, Mei Fu—dragged him for everything he’s worth, tried to string together an answer.

“I still think it’s best we don’t involve the Justice League with this. We should try to intervene and cut off their attempts of retrieving the prodigiouses.” He sounded like a child trying to convince their parents that they didn’t break the expensive vase. Very pitiful and very unconvincing.

“Fine.” Pardon? Did her grandfather just agree? “We’ll help you keep the prodigiouses and the Renlings away from the Justice League.” Wow. Okay. So he’s just agreeing with him. Three guesses as to who will actually be the one to retrieve them. Wonderful.

Groaning with the weight of a thousand suns, Marinette also voiced her consent. The Kwamis were silent throughout this, not expressing their opinions. Except for Trixx, who had periodically rolled his eyes so hard Marinette would have been concerned he had popped a few blood vessels, if he had any.

They spent the rest of the week planning and convincing her parents that she wasn’t in danger with her grandfather. They agreed that Marinette would retrieve the Dragon’s Claw first. Despite Brazil being closer, the Monkey’s tail would be harder to find in the dense forestry so they didn’t want to waste time on an extended search until much later.

If you were to ask Marinette, the week was not enough to prepare. She made arrangements to stay with the Tsurugi family and convinced Kagami to help her in the mission. Her mother would be providing them with non-miraculous weapons as a back-up. Lady Tomoe was too understanding of her daughter being a magic-wielding superhero in Marinette’s opinion. Not one to look a gifted horse in the mouth, Marinette did not make any comments about the very impressive artillery of weapons. She chose a pair of double broadswords while Kagami stuck to a katana. Kagami also had the Dragon and the Ladybug prepared while Marinette stuck to the Tiger and Horse. Plagg didn’t want to miss out on the action and planned to tag along again. Wayzz made an off-handed comment about Plagg’s sixth sense for chaos and his recent desire to accompany Marinette on these missions. Overthinking whatever that was supposed to mean had cost Marinette six hours of sleep.

While everything had been physically prepared, Marinette had yet to cope with the whole ‘going behind the backs of the Justice League because Constantine was paranoid’ thing. But this will not be the worst thing she has done. She also has the godsend, Kagami, to pull her out of any impending mental spirals. Now all that’s left is to actually get the Dragon’s Claw.

According to Constantine, the Dragon’s Claw was located inside the dojo of a martial arts master, O Sensei. Kagami, to be referred to as Tonbo, meaning Dragonfly, was to guard the perimeter for any individuals who could get in the way, while Marinette, codenamed Tigerlily with this combination of miraculouses, was to find the Dragon’s Claw, camouflaged by the tiger miraculous, and teleport them both back out. It was simple enough in planning and should be simple enough in execution. Even if the sensei of the dojo was to be made aware of their presence, They were expecting the element of surprise to give them an advantage. You know, outside of Marinette’s assassin training. So, yeah the plan was simple.

Except for the part where a group of the young Justice League heroes were already there negotiating with whom she assumed was O sensei. She recognized Kid Flash, Robin and Nightwing. The two women with them were unfamiliar. She also found the Dragon’s Claw in the sensei’s hand. She was positioned on a tree branch looking into a window in the room. If she timed this right, she could grab the necklace and portal out of the room to Tonbo and then portal back to the Tsurugi residence. That plan carries the risk of being seen but the pay-off should be worth it.

Poised to leap from the branch, Tigerlily steadied her breathing and prepared to call on the Horse’s Voyage. Still camouflaged, she jumped through the window and summoned the portal, about to grab for the necklace. Except she grabbed nothing and was suspended in the air.

Who she knew now was Ms. Martian was using her telekinetic abilities to suspend her. Kid Flash sped his way over and quickly tied her, the contact breaking the camouflage charm. They must have figured she would appear at one of the locations eventually and planned a contingency plan for her appearance. The martian hasn’t read her mind yet, so maybe they thought she was non-hostile. That thought wouldn’t last long however as Tonbo emerged from the portal and, using the Flame Dragon, took down Ms. Martian. Tigerlily used the distraction to undo the bindings and get in a fighting stance. Nightwing and Robin were protecting O sensei while Kid Flash and the other woman charged at the two.

Kid Flash was circling the two faster and tighter, corralling them together. Tigerlily drew for her broadswords and slashed the old floor boards. Kicking them in Kid Flash’s path, she knocked him off balance and thumped him the back of the head with the butt of her blade, knocking him down. Tonbo called for her Storm Dragon to subdue her opponent, who was also knocked down, then strung up both with the Ladybug yoyo. Tigerlily began a steady approach to the two batboys. She was ready to attack first but Nightwing got the upper hand. He drew his escrima sticks and swiped for Tigerlily’s head. She blocked with one sword and jump kicked to his chest, missing him entirely as he had crouched to sweep her legs from underneath her. Rolling out of the fall, Tigerlily slashed for his rising back but he intercepted with his other stick. He turned to face her and barrelled his full strength into her. They crashed into the nearby wall and at a standstill.

Tonbo was caught in a clash of katanas with Robin, neither side giving way to the other. If Tigerlily was more conscious of their fight than her own, she would have noticed familiar fighting techniques that were ingrained in her since birth. Alas, her attention was on the blue bird in front of her. Using his force that kept her against the wall, She double kicked him in the chest, forcing him away. Robin and Tonbo had broken away from each other and Tonbo aimed to stab Nightwing in the leg. Nonfatally of course, she wasn’t an ex-assassin as far as Tigerlily knew. Right?

Anyways, her attack switched up the fight as now Tigerlily tried to dodge under Robin's incoming blade. Sliding on her knees, she reached to where O sensei was situated with the Dragon’s Claw. Frustrated with the night’s turn of events and forgetting all sense of pleasantries, Tigerlily tried to grab for the necklace. The business end of a katana was swiftly placed under her jaw. One wrong move meant game over.

“What do you want with the Dragon’s Claw?” Robin sounded like he was holding back from saying something.

“An acquaintance of mine wishes for you all to not have it. I am merely doing him a favor, Tweety Bird.” Where did that nickname come from? She must have been internally catastrophizing more than she thought she was if she was actually trying to flirt her way out of this. Tonbo’s exasperation was made loud and clear with that answering sigh.

“Flattery gets you nowhere, Mei.” Robin’s arm twitched at that.

“Wait, you know her?” “You know him?” Nightwing’s and Tonbo’s voices overlapped but Tigerlily registered none of it as her ears were ringing with spiked emotions she thought she had buried years ago. Only a few people knew her by that name. Kagami, Chloe, Luka and Adrien were the only people outside of the League of Shadows who knew her by that name. Even then, there was only one person her age with the Shadows who knew her. But it couldn’t be him. He was supposed to be dead. There was no way in hell that the Boy Wonder holding a katana to her throat was—

“Damian?!”

Taglist:

@deathwishy @neakco @virtualreading @f-rget-lt @your-resident-chicken-nugget @nathleigh @toodaloo-kangaroo @irontimetravelflower @trippingovermyfeet @t1dwarrior-of-earth @tip-tap-tired @fidget-eep @thenillabean @officiallydarkgeek @mystery-5-5 @moonlightstar64 @just-an-observer-ignore-me @nightstarblue @certainmuffinbagelcalzone @fan-written @jjmjjktth @vixen-uchiha @zorua-adorable @nnon-it-up

#maribat #mlb x dc #daminette #badass!marinette dupain cheng #maridami #hdath #if you asked to be on the taglist but arent there let me know #hehehehe #i forgot to proofread oops #no beta we die like jason

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krispydefendorpolice · 4 years

Text

Miraculous Future (3)

Justice League England/Saturday Evening

Ok. Here is the next chapter of the kids from the Future AU. We’re closing up the chapter of their lives from Dupont and the class and starting to get into their lives together. At least that’s what I had in mind this chapter.

Enjoy the reading.

Beginning Previous Next Masterpost

————————————

Once they were at the London Division of the Justice League headquarters the Paris group was divided into smaller parties. Another three children and 5 young adults had joined their group for the trip to England from Marne-la-Vallee, France.

Marinette’s group, which included Sakura, Terry and Helena got a larger conference room as they waited for a medic to take the samples they needed.

With the medic came, a file clerk who went down a list of questions asking about the children, their affiliations, their parents future selves, and their affiliations. Terry, Helena, Emilie and Thomas all mentioned attending ‘The Academy for Future Heroes’ or ‘Hero Academy’ as it was affectionately called, for their schooling. They said that Damian and Jon continued their current affiliations with the League.

Before they left Marinette asked if they could get food for the kids and the rest of them. The last meal was around 1 when the children arrived and it was getting to be 8 and little Louis was beginning to fuss.

They were led to the cafeteria where many of the displaced children and families were getting meals as well. Marinette drafted Damian and Jon to help her get food for everyone while Adrian, Luka Terry and Helena were deputized to keep the Litterbugs together and calm.

Meals were served and children were eating when someone approached their table.

Marinette and the rest looked up to see a nervous Nino standing next to them. He glanced at Marinette and Adrian before looking down at the top of the table. “Would it be possible for me to have a word with the two of you?” He asked them.

Adrian looked at Marinette for her response. When she stood, he went with her to an empty table that was a bit farther from theirs but within eyeliner if needed. Marinette and Adrian took seats next to each other on one side as Nino sat across from them.

“I’ve been listening to Dahlia and the twins talk about the future. They’ve had some eye opening things to say about Lila and,” he grimaced, “even Alya. But it’s made me think about how the class has been for the last couple of years and I think they might be downplaying how bad it gets.”

Marinette waited for Nino to get to the point he was trying to make. Under the table Adrian had taken her hand because it was hard to see his old friend, his first friend in school, struggle with this. Marinette gave it a squeeze as Nino continued.

“I owe you both an apology. I let Alya and Lila tell me lies that if I thought about for myself for even a moment I would have known they weren’t true and believed them to be truth. I hurt the both of you with my words and my actions over the last couple of years and you didn’t deserve that.” He had tears in his eyes when he met their gaze head on and finished, “I’m sorry I wasn’t a good friend to you.”

Marinette looked down at the table as she found the words she’d wanted to say since the whole class schism had begun. “I accept your apology Nino,” she looked up at his eyes for the next part, “but I can’t forgive the hurts you’ve caused. You were one of my oldest friends and you know me. But you still chose to believe a stranger over me. You turned your back on me when the class was bullying me and your turned a blind eye when Alya and Lila themselves would harass me.”

She stood up and finished her speech, “I wish you have a good life Nino. Cherish those little girls that are waiting for you but I can’t have you as part of my life anymore. Goodbye.”

Marinette turned and walked away from the boys and back to the large table with her future at it. Where there was silence behind her there was laughter, noise and chatter in front of her. She found her pace quickening so that she could get back to that table faster.

Adrian looked at Nino who was freely crying in front of him. “You were my first friend you know? The first friend I made by myself and of my own choice.” He smiled at Nino when he looked at him. “Thank you for offering your friendship. You helped me to see the world beyond the walls my father built. But Marinette showed me what it meant to be family. She’s been there through every change since we were 15 and she’s stood with me when my Dad would have turned Lila into my keeper at school.”

“Have a good life Nino. You deserve it too,” Adrian left the young man at the table and joined his boyfriend, his best friends and their family at their table.

****************************

They returned back to their conference/waiting room when everyone finished eating. By this point Baby Louis was falling asleep and Jon was holding the baby since he had cried when anyone else had tried.

According to Terry and Helena he was like that in the future as well and insisted that either Mama or Dada, his name for Jon, hold him when he was sleepy.

Batman came into the room with J’onn J’ones. The Martian Manhunter himself went over the results of the kids tests.

“So the results of the LitterBugs,” he stumbled over the nickname but continued on, “was as you had said. Marinette is the biological mother for all with fathers as previously stated.”

He turned to Chloé, Kagami and Sakura, “Mademoiselle Bourgeois is the biological mother, no matches were found for a biological father.”

“And Miss Helena is who she says she is. Which leaves you young man,” he closed the files and looked at Terry who was sitting with Helena.

“Congrats. It’s a boys,” he smirked at Bruce in his costume.

Bruce removed the cowl since he was pretty well resigned to having the Parisians in his house until the children could be returned to the future and everyone else here already knew.

“How?” He asked. Since Damian came to them

Bruce had been as responsible as he could to ensure they didn’t have a similar situation occur.

“Relax,” Terry said leaning back into the wall, “I don’t think you had any say or control over my birth. There was a mad science group.”

“Is a mad science group?” He asked looking at Helena who shrugged back. “Anyways, they managed to get DNA from blood left at one fight or another. Used it to create a nano-virus which they gave to my Dad Warren. Changed his doodads into genetic replicates of yours. Mom and Dad got busy and nine months later a bouncing baby boy is born with your DNA”

“Didn’t make a difference to either of them while they were alive, but when my dad died, mom didn’t want me. The state did a DNA test to see if I had other family out there. Imagine the surprise when ‘Billionaire Family Man’ Bruce Wayne had a secret son.”

“It was a pretty bitter pill as a kid who just lost one parent, when I got shipped to my older brother Damian and Marinette’s place for a few years. But I get it now. After I found out the family secret,” he jabbed his chin at the bat symbol on Bruce’s chest, “you wanted to keep me out of it. Keep me safe if you could. And Damian, who was semi-retired to help care for the LitterBugs was a safe place for me to go.”

“I’m sorry,” Bruce said.

“Don’t be,” Terry replied. “I got to see a lot of you, Selina and Helena. You guys came pretty frequently, about a week or two every couple months to get to know me. And I spent time with you guys in Gotham or on Vacations. You were just trying to protect me from what you could.”

“And Helena was telling the truth, that was the year she turned seven and started spending long summers in France.”

Bruce sighed and gave his attention back to the group. “Damian has already asked but I wanted to offer again, our home is open to all of you for the duration of the kids stay. But if you would prefer we are arranging living quarters at the various League Headquarters and London has offered you rooms to stay with the kids or to find caretakers if needed.

“My maman and papa have already given me permission to stay with the kids Mr Wayne.” Marinette looked at Damian and the rest of her group. “We’d be open to accepting your offer.”

“Helena and I are technically your kids B so we’ll go where ever you think best,” Terry added and looked to the side.

He may have tried to dismiss it but being sent away as a kid did leave hurt feelings behind.

“You’ll be coming to the manor then,” Bruce said, “All of you.”

————————————

@g-arya @megawhitleycalderonpaganus @fertileleaf @mystery-5-5 @ravennightingaleandavatempus @maya-custodios-dionach @a-marlene-s @eve-valution @multifandomscribette @mochinek0 @zebrabaker @northernbluetongue @bluerosette23 @thepeacetea @vivilakitty @actualaster @sassydepression @mindfulmagics @bee-wrecker @bloody-no-kissu @yokizu @niza13149 @dragonflyswing @echpr @kris-pines04 @daminett4life @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen @iglowinggemma28 @corabeth11 @chocolate1721 @drarryismylife101 @blackrosee3 @zalladane @missadorable96 @jardimazul @silvergold-swirl @loysydark @lirulua @fandom-trapped-03 @that-feeling-wyn @loveswifi @whatsupwithjinx @lntimancy @dagnysdawn @abrx2002 @darknightchan @queen-annaira @indecisive-mess-named-me @magic-miraculous @random-fandoms7

Tag list is full, but I am changing how I tag. If you want to be tagged for the next chapter, leave a comment. I’ll probably be starting my list over each chapter.

Meanwhile I hope you enjoyed this

#miraculous future au #daminette #marinette x damian #Kids from the future AU #class salt #lila salt #salty read #dead dove don’t eat #lukanette #marinette x luka #adrian x jon #chlogami #chloe x kagami #polyamory #poly relationship #marinette x damian x luka

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papermoonloveslucy · 3 years

Text

THE WILLS

March 19, 1950

“The Wills” (aka “The Coopers Make Their Wills”) is episode #80 of the radio series MY FAVORITE HUSBAND broadcast on March 19, 1950.

Synopsis ~ After Liz and George make out their wills, Liz is convinced that George intends to do away with her. Liz is startled to find a receipt for some arsenic and rope in his pocket, but is shocked when George suggests a trip to the country - with a one-way ticket for Liz!

Starting with this episode, “My Favorite Husband” moved from Thursday nights, to Sunday nights.

Note: This program was used as a basis for a scene in “I Love Lucy” episode “Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying to Murder Her” (ILL S1;E4) filmed on September 8, 1951 and first aired November 5, 1951. For various reasons, it was the first episode of the series filmed, but the fourth aired.

“My Favorite Husband” was based on the novels Mr. and Mrs. Cugat, the Record of a Happy Marriage (1940) and Outside Eden (1945) by Isabel Scott Rorick, which had previously been adapted into the film Are Husbands Necessary? (1942). “My Favorite Husband” was first broadcast as a one-time special on July 5, 1948. Lucille Ball and Lee Bowman played the characters of Liz and George Cugat, and a positive response to this broadcast convinced CBS to launch “My Favorite Husband” as a series. Bowman was not available Richard Denning was cast as George. On January 7, 1949, confusion with bandleader Xavier Cugat prompted a name change to Cooper. On this same episode Jell-O became its sponsor. A total of 124 episodes of the program aired from July 23, 1948 through March 31, 1951. After about ten episodes had been written, writers Fox and Davenport departed and three new writers took over – Bob Carroll, Jr., Madelyn Pugh, and head writer/producer Jess Oppenheimer. In March 1949 Gale Gordon took over the existing role of George’s boss, Rudolph Atterbury, and Bea Benadaret was added as his wife, Iris. CBS brought “My Favorite Husband” to television in 1953, starring Joan Caulfield and Barry Nelson as Liz and George Cooper. The television version ran two-and-a-half seasons, from September 1953 through December 1955, running concurrently with “I Love Lucy.” It was produced live at CBS Television City for most of its run, until switching to film for a truncated third season filmed (ironically) at Desilu and recasting Liz Cooper with Vanessa Brown.

MAIN CAST

Lucille Ball (Liz Cooper) was born on August 6, 1911 in Jamestown, New York. She began her screen career in 1933 and was known in Hollywood as ‘Queen of the B’s’ due to her many appearances in ‘B’ movies. With Richard Denning, she starred in a radio program titled “My Favorite Husband” which eventually led to the creation of “I Love Lucy,” a television situation comedy in which she co-starred with her real-life husband, Latin bandleader Desi Arnaz. The program was phenomenally successful, allowing the couple to purchase what was once RKO Studios, re-naming it Desilu. When the show ended in 1960 (in an hour-long format known as “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour”) so did Lucy and Desi’s marriage. In 1962, hoping to keep Desilu financially solvent, Lucy returned to the sitcom format with “The Lucy Show,” which lasted six seasons. She followed that with a similar sitcom “Here’s Lucy” co-starring with her real-life children, Lucie and Desi Jr., as well as Gale Gordon, who had joined the cast of “The Lucy Show” during season two. Before her death in 1989, Lucy made one more attempt at a sitcom with “Life With Lucy,” also with Gordon.

Richard Denning (George Cooper) was born Louis Albert Heindrich Denninger Jr., in Poughkeepsie, New York. When he was 18 months old, his family moved to Los Angeles. Plans called for him to take over his father’s garment manufacturing business, but he developed an interest in acting. Denning enlisted in the US Navy during World War II. He is best known for his roles in various science fiction and horror films of the 1950s. Although he teamed with Lucille Ball on radio in “My Favorite Husband,” the two never acted together on screen. While “I Love Lucy” was on the air, he was seen on another CBS TV series, “Mr. & Mrs. North.” From 1968 to 1980 he played the Governor on “Hawaii 5-0″, his final role. He died in 1998 at age 84.

Gale Gordon (Rudolph Atterbury) had worked with Lucille Ball on “The Wonder Show” on radio in 1938. One of the front-runners to play Fred Mertz on “I Love Lucy,” he eventually played Alvin Littlefield, owner of the Tropicana, during two episodes in 1952. After playing a Judge in an episode of “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour” in 1958, he would re-team with Lucy for all of her subsequent series’: as Theodore J. Mooney in ”The Lucy Show”; as Harrison Otis Carter in “Here’s Lucy”; and as Curtis McGibbon on “Life with Lucy.” Gordon died in 1995 at the age of 89.

Bea Benadaret (Iris Atterbury) does not appear in this episode.

Ruth Perrott (Katie, the Maid) was also later seen on “I Love Lucy.” She first played Mrs. Pomerantz (above right), a member of the surprise investigating committee for the Society Matrons League in “Pioneer Women” (ILL S1;E25), as one of the member of the Wednesday Afternoon Fine Arts League in “Lucy and Ethel Buy the Same Dress” (ILL S3;E3), and also played a nurse when “Lucy Goes to the Hospital” (ILL S2;E16). She died in 1996 at the age of 96.

Bob LeMond (Announcer) also served as the announcer for the pilot episode of “I Love Lucy”. When the long-lost pilot was finally discovered in 1990, a few moments of the opening narration were damaged and lost, so LeMond – fifty years later – recreated the narration for the CBS special and subsequent DVD release.

GUEST CAST

Herb Vigran (Doctor Stephens) made several appearances on “My Favorite Husband.” He would later play Jule, Ricky’s music union agent on two episodes of “I Love Lucy”. He would go on to play Joe (and Mrs. Trumbull’s nephew), the washing machine repairman in “Never Do Business With Friends” (S2;E31) and Al Sparks, the publicity man who hires Lucy and Ethel to play Martians on top of the Empire State Building in “Lucy is Envious” (S3;E23). Of his 350 screen roles, he also made six appearances on “The Lucy Show.”

EPISODE

ANNOUNCER: “As we look in on the Coopers tonight, it's just after dinner, and we find Liz and George settling down to a normal evening's conversation.”

George has something he needs to talk to Liz about. Liz immediately thinks it is something to do with her household budget, but George wants to talk about their wills. The subject immediately upsets Liz. The idea of living without George sends Liz into gales of tears. George wants her to read it, and threatens to leave everything to his mother if she doesn’t. Liz snatches the will from him. George then tells her that he has had her will drawn up as well.

LIZ: “What for? You're the one who's going! What are you trying to do, push me ahead of you in line?”

George reminds her of the three acres of Florida beachfront property that her father left her, which she calls ‘Sunken Acres.’ George always assumed it was oil land.

LIZ: “If there's any oil down there, it's still in a whale. Oh! I see it all now, George! You want me to sign a will leaving everything to you, and then you'll bump me off! You want to get your dirty fishhooks on my oil holdings!

Liz agrees to read and sign the will as the scene fades out. At the bank the next day, Mr. Atterbury notices that George seems tired. George admits he was up late talking to Liz about their wills. Mr. Atterbury proposes that the Coopers join him and Iris at their mountain lodge for the weekend, flying up, and then leaving the girls there for the week while they fly back for work. The following weekend they will drive up to get them in Mr. Atterbury’s new car.

Mr. Atterbury has already bought the airline tickets and asks George to go to the hardware store for a few items.

MR. ATTERBERRY: “I need poison for those horrible little gophers up there. And some rope for a clothesline, and a couple of sacks of cement. Iris wants a patio so she can sunbathe. Come to think of it, that ought to keep the gophers away.” GEORGE: “Let me make a list on the back of this envelope. Now, poison, ropes, cement...” MR. ATTERBERRY: “Oh, and I need an axe, too.”

Mr. Atterbury tells George that they should tell their wives that they are just going for a weekend, so that they don’t rush out to buy a week’s worth of new clothes.

At the Cooper home, Katie the Maid is preparing dinner. George comes home and tells Liz the good news that they’ll be going to the Atterbury’s lodge this weekend, and he’s got the airline tickets in his pocket. As George goes upstairs to prepare for dinner, Katie reminds Liz that she has a beauty shop appointment on Saturday. Liz wonders what time the plane leaves, and fishes in George’s jacket pocket to check the tickets. She notices that one tickets is round trip, and the other is one way! Liz immediately assumes one of them isn’t coming back, and reminds Katie that George asked her to sign her will! She notices some writing on the envelope that looks like a shopping list.

LIZ: “Poison! He's going to take me out in the woods and poison me! Look, at the next item - rope. If the poison doesn't work, he's gonna hang me! Cement. If I live through the poison and the rope, he's gonna put my feet in cement and dump me in the lake! Look what's next - axe! If I able to hold my breath, he's gonna swim in the water and chop me to pieces!” KATIE: “Oh, how can Mr. Cooper do such a thing?” LIZ: “With that list of weapons, how can he miss?“

Liz realizes why George might want to do away with her - they’ve finally struck oil on Sunken Acres!

End of Part One

Announcer Bob LeMond reads a live Jell-O commercial.

ANNOUNCCER: “As we return to the Coopers, we find Liz in a state of nervous apprehension. After years of having George under her thumb, she's suddenly discovered that he's bout to put the finger on her. Or at least she thinks he is. But right now it's after dinner, and Liz, the intended victim, is in the living room, reading. While George, the killer, is slowly stalking up behind her.”

George kisses Liz on the back of the neck. She screams! Liz nervously says that she’d rather not go to the Atterbury’s lodge this weekend.

GEORGE: “What? Why, Liz, you love the lodge. You always say that's your idea of living.” LIZ: “Well, I want to keep it that way.”

George says that he has a big surprise for her up there. Liz suggests he take his mother and give HER the big surprise!

GEORGE: “Now, don't be silly! You just wait: When you wake up Monday morning, you'll be very pleasantly surprised.” LIZ: “If I wake up Monday morning, I'll be surprised.”

Liz wonders if George is having money problems. She asks him why he made her sign her will last night. George says that if it bothers her so much, he’ll tear it up - as soon as they get back from the lodge.

Liz runs to her bedroom and locks the door! George telephones Dr. Stephens (Herb Vigran) to report that Liz is acting peculiar.

DOCTOR: “Peculiar for Liz, or peculiar for normal people?”

RICKY RICARDO: “Lucy is acting crazy!” FRED MERTZ: “Crazy for Lucy or crazy for ordinary people?”

This joke was adapted for Lucy Ricardo in “Lucy Thinks Ricky Is Trying To Do Murder Her” with Fred Mertz taking the Doctor’s line.

Doctor Stephens cannot make a house call because he’s got an appointment with his psychoanalyst, but he tells George to give Liz a sedative until he can get there.

Liz comes in for a glass of water. George tells her that he’s had Katie prepare them some hot milk. In the kitchen, Katie tells Liz that she saw Mr. Cooper pour a powder into one of the glasses. Liz says she’ll just switch the glasses so that George drinks the one with the powder in it.

In the living room she distracts George just long enough to switch the glasses. But when George lifts his glass to drink, Liz dashes it from his hand. She says she couldn’t do it to him, even if he could do it to her.

LIZ: “You put something in my glass, didn't you, George? Well, I fooled you! I switched glasses!” GEORGE: “I had a hunch that's why Katie called you, so I switched them again while you were out of the room.”

Liz starts to gag as if she’s been poisoned! Liz falls to the floor, convinced she is going to die, trying to make peace with George in her final moments.

LIZ: “If I had my life to live over again, I want you to know I'd do better. I could stay within the budget, if I tried. (coughs) And I'd never buy clothes I need. (coughs) I'd throw away my charge-a-plate.”

The doorbell rings. It is Mr. Atterbury, come to make the ‘final arrangements.’ Liz tells George that she saw the one way ticket, and the shopping list for poison and the axe. The men dissolve in laughter. Mr. Atterbury explains that those were supplies for the lodge. Liz is angry that she’s been tricked, and refuses to keep the promises she made in her ‘final moments’.

LIZ: "I didn't know what I was saying! I was under the influence of warm milk!”

End of Episode

In the live Jell-O commercial, Lucille Ball plays a Mexican spy, and Bob LeMond is interviewing her for a job.

In the bedtime tag, it is five in the morning and George is reading a suspenseful magazine story. Liz begs him to turn out the light, but then can’t sleep until he knows the outcome of the story. Liz grabs the magazine and reads the last lines.

LIZ: “The huge, shapeless thing crept slowly up behind Mildred, and before she could scream it slipped its bony hands around her - Oh, no!!!” GEORGE: “What does it say, Liz? Around her what?” LIZ: “Around her continued next week! Good night!”

ANNOUNCER: “You have been listening to ‘My Favorite Husband’ starring Lucille Ball, with Richard Denning, and based on characters created by Isobel Scott Rorick. Tonight's transcribed program was produced and directed by Jess Oppenheimer, who wrote the script with Madelyn Pugh and Bob Carroll, Jr. Be sure to get the April Issue of ‘Radio Mirror Magazine’ with the big picture of Lucille Ball on the cover. That's the April issue of ‘Radio Mirror Magazine.’ Original music was composed by Marlin Skyles and conducted by Wilbur Hatch. Bob LeMond speaking.”

#My Favorite Husband #Lucille Ball #Richard Denning #Gale Gordon #I Love Lucy #Ruth Perrott #Bob LeMond #Herb Vigran #radio #CBS #Radio Mirror #The Wills #Jello

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rukaelf · 5 years

Text

Unforgotten

Enjoy this cheesy short story inspired by my playthrough of Stellaris!

Date: August 15, 2210, 0720 hours System: Sol Planet: Mars Region: Endeavor Impact Crater, Meridiani Planum Plains

Onboard the Imperial Science Ship Hawking.

Reshmi Mirza was no spacer. Her whole life was spent within Terra’s gravity well, safely studying the finer points of astrophysics at the Baghdad Sector of the Mesopotamian Urban Corridor. So when it was finally time to don a spacesuit to walk the Martian surface just outside, she knew very well she looked like a nitwit.

Well that, and Professor Hyun’s amused look as she collapsed onto the floor of the airlock getting her right foot in said it all. “Need help, miss Mirza?” He asked politely, his lips twitching upward.

“I do not. Instead of standing there like a smug mug, I need you to go and re-verify our navigational data is accurate,” she bit back.

“Smug mug...?”

“Hyun. The data.”

“Yes, miss Mirza. This is the spot. We’ve triple checked, although we had little reason to doubt your calculations.” Hyun walked over, moving to assist in putting the rest of the suit on. “Come on. One step at a time...”

Mirza growled in frustration, but nodded, letting the seasoned spacer help her. Revenge for her wounded pride would come later.

The Martian surface.

In 2142, Mars had undergone a small scale terraforming effort, allowing for a colony capable of supporting life to be built on its surface. Automated underground infrastructure had been constructed, and for over sixty years, patiently waited for the first colonists to arrive from Terra.

The first colony ship was already being constructed in Terra’s orbit, but Mirza, having been given command of the Terran Empire’s first FTL-capable science ship, had gotten there first. One last stop in humanity’s birth system, before the warp jump to Alpha Centauri, three light years away.

With the INS Hawking parked safely behind them, a suited up team lead by Mirza set foot on the rust-colored Martian soil.

“So. First humans on Mars. Gonna say something historic?” Hyun grinned at Mirza.

“Uh...about damn time?” Ignoring the titters from the others---albeit with a small grin on her face---Mirza pushed onward, scanning the horizon, trying to get to business.

But Hyun’s words had a delayed effect on her, and she paused. This was alien soil. Mars. Soon to be home to thousands, then millions of human souls. And only a few months later, she would be in another star system entirely. A place that, for all of humanity’s recorded history, was just a dot in the sky. A wave of giddiness overtook her, and she ran off to get the jitters out of her system.

Before she left the solar system, before Mars would see its first human colonists, she needed to get one thing. One important piece of history.

“Come on! This way!” She beckoned to the others.

---

They walked for hours, taking readings here and there, marking important sites for later analysis. But Mirza was insistent on reaching their destination first. Their journey eventually took them through an ancient erosion network, what old astrocartographers called “Perseverance Valley”.

The others didn’t quite understand Mirza’s insistence on coming to Perseverance Valley. Nor did they know exactly what she was looking for. She knew she sounded a bit bonkers. But the Terran Empire had picked her and her team for being humanity’s first interstellar explorers. She was utterly confident in her own qualifications.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kcFE4uFZ9o

“There. We found it,” She finally whispered breathlessly, pointing ahead.

Nestled up against a mound of red soil, was a curious looking robot. From a glance, the science team could tell it was ancient by at least two hundred years.

She began taking out her dataslab, eager to access the drone’s information banks, but turned to face the others. “I know...I know what you guys are thinking. ‘We came all the way out here for a...a forgotten little robot. But I---”

“Miss Mirza. Go right ahead,” Hyun gestured. No snark or sarcasm this time, a genuine smile on his face. “We’ve got all the time in the universe. Well, relatively speaking. But I do need to ask: what are we looking at here?”

Mirza didn’t initially answer, instead delicately moving over to link up her dataslab to the deactivated robot. Thank the gods that she’d managed to find those dinosaur-era handshake protocols to even communicate with this thing.

“This rover was sent by our ancestors here, a long time ago,” she said softly, watching her dataslab get to work. “Before our great grandparents were even born. Its mission was to scout the Martian surface for ninety days. But it ended up serving Earth faithfully for fifteen years.”

Her dataslab began to display scrolling blocks of texts, graphs, chemical readings, and other information, each a separate report from the ancient rover. Finally, it stopped on the final message of the robot before it deactivated:

-- My battery is low and it’s getting dark --

Mirza reached out a tender hand, gently stroking the rover’s side. In English, highlighted by the crimson Martian sun, was the word “OPPORTUNITY”. “Come on, little buddy,” she whispered. “You’re going back home.”

#stellaris #MAAAAAAARS

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famous-hungarians · 5 years

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Famous Hungarian Mathematicians

Please note that almost all information below comes straight from Wikipedia. This page is not meant to be used as original information, only as a subjective excerpt of the lives of these extraordinary people.

"Ratings" are very subjective therefore they represent only a very personal opinion.

John von Neumann (Neumann János)

Rating: Must know

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_von_Neumann

Born: 1903, Budapest, Austria-Hungary (today Hungary)

Died: 1957, Washington, D.C., U.S.

Residence: Hungary, United States

Excerpt: Von Neumann was generally regarded as the foremost mathematician of his time and said to be "the last representative of the great mathematicians". He is often compared to or mentioned along the likes of Hilber, Shannon, Turing or even Einstein.

Von Neumann was a child prodigy. When he was 6 years old, he could divide two 8-digit numbers in his head and could converse in Ancient Greek. By the age of 8, he was familiar with differential and integral calculus, but he was particularly interested in history. He went on to study chemistry in Berlin and later Zurich meanwhile also studying mathematics in Budapest. Once he had received his Ph.D., he went to study under David Hilbert in Göttingen.

He started his career teaching in Berlin, later briefly in Hamburg but was already invited to Princeton, New Jersey by the end of 1929. In 1933, he was offered a lifetime professorship on the faculty of the Institute for Advanced Study where he stayed until his — rather early — death.

Von Neumann is considered one of the most influential scientists of the 20th century. He contributed not only to various fields of mathematics but also to multiple branches of physics, economics, computing and statistics. He took part in the Manhattan Project and the development of the hydrogen bomb while also served as a consultant of various US government organizations.

Personal life: Von Neumann was born Neumann János Lajos to a wealthy, acculturated and non-observant Jewish family. He left Europe before the Nazis took power, but he did eventually have to relocate his family to the US in 1939. Von Neumann was married twice and had one daughter from his first wife.

Known for: Von Neumann achieved so many thing in so many fields that it's hard to summarize. Still, it's probably fair to say that in his absence the second world war could have lasted somewhat longer and that the development of computers could have also suffered greatly.

Fun fact: Von Neumann held a lifelong passion for ancient history, being renowned for his prodigious historical knowledge. A professor of Byzantine history at Princeton once said that von Neumann had greater expertise in the field than he did.

Legacy: If Einstein was the greatest mind of the 20st century then von Neumann was easily the greatest Hungarian mind of the 20st century and possibly ever. His legacy is close to impossible to list but the Von Neumann architecture is likely to be known and taught world-wide for the foreseeable future. His contributions to the war effort is also likely to remain well-remembered.

Paul Erdős (Erdős Pál)

Rating: Should know

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Erdős

Born: 1913, Budapest, Austria-Hungary (today Hungary)

Died: 1996, Warsaw, Poland

Residence: Hungary, United Kingdom, Israel, United States

Excerpt: One of the most prolific mathematicians of the 20th century. He was known both for his social practice of mathematics and for his eccentric lifestyle (Time magazine called him The Oddball's Oddball) His main field was combinatorics but did contribute to other fields as well.

Erdős never won the Fields Medal, but he did win the Wolf Prize in Mathematics for "his numerous contributions".

Throughout his career, Erdős would offer payments for solutions to unresolved problems. These ranged from $25 for problems that he felt were just out of the reach of the current mathematical thinking (both his and others), to several thousand dollars for problems that were both difficult to attack and mathematically significant. There are thought to be at least a thousand remaining unsolved problems, though there is no official or comprehensive list. The offers remain active despite Erdős's death. A solver can get either an original check signed by Erdős before his death (for memento only, cannot be cashed) or a cashable check from Ronald Graham.

Personal life: Erdős was a son of two Jewish mathematics teachers. In 1939, he fled the country from the Nazis and lost many of his family members to Holocaust. He spent most of his life traveling, living out of suitcases. Erdős never married and had no children.

Known for: Since Erdős was considered a problem solver rather than a theory developer therefore his achievements are somewhat less memorable. He is still known for a long list of lesser known achievements.

Legacy: The Erdős number is an important part of folklore of mathematicians.

János Bolyai, Johann Bolyai (Bolyai János)

Rating: Nice to know

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/János_Bolyai

Born: 1802, Kolozsvár, Transylvania, Habsburg Monarchy (today Cluj-Napoca, Romania)

Died: 1860, Marosvásárhely, Transylvania, Austrian Empire (today Târgu Mureș, Romania)

Excerpt: Bolyai, the son of famous mathematician Farkas Bolyai, became obsessed with Euclid's parallel postulate early in his career. Between 1820 and 1823 he had prepared a treatise on a complete system of non-Euclidean geometry. Bolyai's work was published in 1832 as an appendix to a mathematics textbook by his father. In addition to his work in geometry, Bolyai developed a rigorous geometric concept of complex numbers as ordered pairs of real numbers. Although he never published more than the 24 pages of the Appendix, he left more than 20,000 pages of mathematical manuscripts when he died.

Known for: Non-Euclidean geometry. The discovery of a consistent alternative geometry that might correspond to the structure of the universe helped to free mathematicians to study abstract concepts irrespective of any possible connection with the physical world.

Legacy: There is a university in Cluj-Napoca, and dozens of schools both in Hungary and Romania named after him. There is also an international prize for mathematicians named after him.

Personal life: Like his father, Bolyai was an accomplished polyglot, speaking nine foreign languages including Chinese and Tibetan. Bolyai also played the violin at a very high level.

Farkas Bolyai, Wolfgang Bolyai (Bolyai Farkas)

Rating: Nice to know

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farkas_Bolyai

Born: 1775, Bolya, Transylvania, Habsburg Monarchy (today Romania)

Died: 1856, Marosvásárhely, Transylvania, Austrian Empire (today Târgu Mureș, Romania)

Excerpt: Bolyai's main interests were the foundations of geometry and the parallel axiom. His main work, the Tentamen (Tentamen iuventutem studiosam in elementa matheosos introducendi), was an attempt at a rigorous and systematic foundation of geometry, arithmetic, algebra and analysis. Other important ideas in the work include a general definition of a function and a definition of an equality between two plane figures if they can both be divided into a finite equal number of pairwise congruent pieces.

Personal life: Studied mathematics both in Jena and Göttingen, became close friends with Gauss. Father of János Bolyai.

Known for: Contributions to the foundations of geometry Wallace–Bolyai–Gerwien theorem.

Fun fact: He learned Latin, Greek, Romanian, Hebrew as a child and later also French, Italian and English. He certainly spoke German fluently as he spent many years in Germany.

Paul Halmos, Paul R. Halmos (Halmos Pál)

Rating: Nice to know

Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Halmos

Born: 1916, Budapest, Austria-Hungary (today Hungary)

Died: 2006, Los Gatos, California, U.S.

Residence: Hungary, United States

Excerpt: Halmos made fundamental advances in the areas of mathematical logic, probability theory, statistics, operator theory, ergodic theory, and functional analysis. He has been described as one of The Martians.

He arrived in the U.S. at 13 years of age, by 22 he already had his Ph.D. in mathematics, having some of his time "wasted" with philosophy on his way. Soon after his graduation he started working under John von Neumann.

Halmos later thought at various universities and became known as an outstanding expositor of mathematics.

Personal life: Halmos followed his father to the US. He comes from a Jewish-Hungarian family, and he's know to have followed his father to the United States but there's little information on his personal life.

Known for: Halmos was an unusually clear and engaging expositor of university mathematics who won various awards

Legacy: In his memoirs, Halmos claims to have invented the "iff" notation for the words "if and only if" and to have been the first to use the "tombstone" notation to signify the end of a proof, and this is generally agreed to be the case. The tombstone symbol ∎ (Unicode U+220E) is sometimes called a halmos. Lester R. Ford award is also renamed Paul R. Halmos — Lester R. Ford Award in his honor.

Other famous mathematicians

There are of course many more Hungarian mathematicians with an English Wikipedia page but most of them are lesser known among wider audiences.

There are still a few of them who might be interesting to people more involved in mathematics:

Peter Lax (Lax Péter)

John G. Kemeny (Kemény János)

George Pólya (Pólya György)

Cornelius Lanczos (Lánczos Kornél)

#hungarians #mathematics #mathematicians

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brigdh · 6 years

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Reading Saturday

Nemesis Games by James S.A. Corey. Book 6 of The Expanse series. "I made my name with the story on the Behemoth. Aliens and wormhole gates and a protomolecule ghost that only talked to the most famous person in the solar system. I don't think my follow-up to that can be "Humans Still Shitty to Each Other". Lacks panache." That's Monica Stuart, a journalist looking for her next story, but it makes a fairly good summary of Nemesis Games as well – though I'd disagree about it lacking panache. After five books of zombie viruses and a vast galaxy of empty planets for the taking and physics-defying abandoned security systems, Nemesis Games features pretty much no alien content at all. Instead we have humanity reacting to these events, mostly in negative ways that feature them being, well, shitty to each other. The biggest reaction comes from the Belters, millions of humans born and raised in no-gravity or low-gravity. Those conditions have led to extremely low bone-mass (among other physical adaptations), which means all those new planets out there for the taking? The Belters won't be going to them, at least not without months or years of expensive medical therapy that's out of reach for most of them. They can see the future coming, and it's going to abandon them to poverty and irrelevance. They lash out with terrorist attacks on a scale grander than any before, as though enough violence will force humanity back to where it was before the first encounter with the alien protomolecule. That might be an impossible goal, but a hell of a lot of people are going to die anyway. Meanwhile, the spaceship Rocinante is in need of repairs, which means our four main characters are out of action for a few months. They take this opportunity to split up and visit family and old friends – Amos to Earth, Alex to Mars, Naomi to the Belt, and Jim stays with the ship at the repair station. Having separate plotlines means that each one gets their own POV, and you guys, I was so excited! I've been waiting to hear Naomi or Alex's voice since Book One, and this does not disappoint. Amos's narration was particularly well-written; he's a straight-up sociopath (though one who tries to do good nonetheless) and struggles to recognize emotions either in himself or in others, often defaulting to describing social situations as a set of maneuvers toward a desired outcome. It lends his POV a curiously flat tone, but one that is really interesting to read. The four crew members are still separated when the terrorist attacks begin, and most of the emotion in the book comes from them trying to desperately make their way back to one another. Each one thinks of the others as family, as home – this is such an absolute fantastic series for those Chosen Family feels – especially Jim, and who would have thought the boring action hero of Book One could become such an adorable softie? He spends a significant portion of this book being sad that no one will do the space-equivalent of texting him back, and I love him so much. Holden could sit at a tiny table skimming the latest news on his hand terminal, reading messages, and finally check out all the books he’d downloaded over the last six years. The bar served the same food as the restaurant out front, and while it was not something anyone from Earth would have mistaken for Italian, it was edible. The cocktails were mediocre and cheap. It might almost have been tolerable if Naomi hadn’t seemingly fallen out of the universe. Alex sent regular updates about where he was and what he was up to. Amos had his terminal automatically send a message letting Holden know his flight had landed on Luna, and then New York. From Naomi, nothing. She still existed, or at least her hand terminal did. The messages he sent arrived somewhere. He never got a failed connection from the network. But the successfully received message was his only reply. After a couple weeks of his new bad Italian food and cheap cocktails routine, his terminal finally rang with an incoming voice request. He knew it couldn’t be from Naomi. The light lag made a live connection unworkable for any two people not living on the same station. But he still pulled the terminal out of his pocket so fast that he fumbled it across the room. Each character gets to star in a very different genre within this one book: Jim himself is in a political thriller, trying to find the mole hidden in the security forces; Amos is making his way through a post-apocalyptic landscape; Naomi is in a prison-break movie; and Alex gets at least two extremely cool car chases (well, spaceship chases) between being a detective following the paper trail. All of them are great, but I think my favorite is Naomi's, which is an incredible depiction of the harm and suffocation of emotional abuse (gaslighting in particular) and the depression and learned helplessness that can result, especially when everyone around you sees nothing wrong. We get a lot more about her long-awaited backstory, as well as Amos's, and there are reappearances of a lot of my favorite secondary characters: Martian marine Bobbie, failed murderer Clarissa Mao, foul-mouthed politician Chrisjen Avasarala. (Though I'm still holding out hope Prax will show up again someday; I miss him.) All through The Expanse series I've admired Corey's focus on petty human squabbling and politicking in the face of grand, universe-changing discoveries. Nemesis Games is that thread turned up to eleven. It's not a cynical series, though; for every narrow-minded failure there's an equally small but important triumph of friendship or justice or well-meaning. It reminds me of Terry Pratchett, in a way. Not at all in Corey's style of writing or type of humor, but they both have a view of humanity which is simultaneously realistic and fond and exasperated. And if there's a bigger compliment than that, I don't know what it is. Artificial Condition by Martha Wells. Book 2 of the Murderbot Diaries. A security robot/cyborg armed with all sorts of guns and other methods of killing has hacked its governor module, allowing it to do whatever it wants, and nicknames itself Murderbot. But it turns out that what Murderbot really wants to do is spend hours watching dumb sci-fi TV shows, avoid eye contact or any social encounters with humans, and not have to deal with its own emotions. Unfortunately that last one is hard to avoid. In this book, Murderbot is heading to a mining planet where it knows something bad went down in its past, involving lots of human deaths. But Murderbot can't remember exactly what happened, since its memory was wiped, and so it's off to investigate. Getting to the planet means hitching a ride on a spaceship run by a massively complicated AI (which Murderbot promptly nicknames ART: Asshole Research Transport) and then getting a job as a human bodyguard to a group of scientists heading down to the planet's surface. Things, unsurprisingly, go wrong, and Murderbot finds itself with another pack of dumb humans in need of protection. I enjoyed Artificial Condition a lot, but it's not quite as good as the first book in the series, All Systems Red. Part of that is very simply that it's a middle book of the series, and it shows; progress in the larger plot is made, but not much, and there's a feeling of spinning our wheels while we wait for big events to happen. That said, it's still an extremely enjoyable novella (only about 120 pages), which builds out the world from what we learned in All Systems Red. Now we have sexbots and ship navigators, more about how different governments interact and function (or don't), and some hints as to what's going on with the company that created Murderbot. Plus there's Murderbot's wonderful narration, which honestly is worth the price of admission all on its own. A section from where it introduces ART to trashy entertainment: I watched seven more episodes of Sanctuary Moon with it hanging around my feed. Then it pinged me, like I somehow might not know it had been in my feed all this time, and sent me a request to go back to the new adventure show I had started to watch when it had interrupted me. (It was called Worldhoppers, and was about freelance explorers who extended the wormhole and ring networks into uninhabited star systems. It looked very unrealistic and inaccurate, which was exactly what I liked.) [...] “It’s not realistic,” I told it. “It’s not supposed to be realistic. It’s a story, not a documentary. If you complain about that, I’ll stop watching.” I will refrain from complaint, it said. (Imagine that in the most sarcastic tone you can, and you’ll have some idea of how it sounded.) So we watched Worldhoppers. It didn’t complain about the lack of realism. After three episodes, it got agitated whenever a minor character was killed. When a major character died in the twentieth episode I had to pause seven minutes while it sat there in the feed doing the bot equivalent of staring at a wall, pretending that it had to run diagnostics. Then four episodes later the character came back to life and it was so relieved we had to watch that episode three times before it would go on. At the climax of one of the main story lines, the plot suggested the ship might be catastrophically damaged and members of the crew killed or injured, and the transport was afraid to watch it. (That’s obviously not how it phrased it, but yeah, it was afraid to watch it.) I was feeling a lot more charitable toward it by that point so was willing to let it ease into the episode by watching one to two minutes at a time. After it was over, it just sat there, not even pretending to do diagnostics. It sat there for a full ten minutes, which is a lot of processing time for a bot that sophisticated. Then it said, Again, please. So I started the first episode again. C'mon, tell me you wouldn't read a million pages of that, plot or no plot.

[DW link for easier commenting]

#books #book reviews #james s.a. corey #martha wells #The expanse

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fatesinthenight · 7 years

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The Egos and a Baby (part 8)

“You found her a home?” Kathryn asked surprised. “Yes. I was searching all night.” Dark drinks his coffee and lets out a yawn. “Wow that was really thoughtful of you. And it’s you.” Mark saids. “I did it for me. I rather not have a small baby living here and dealing with it.” Dark sighs. “Question though. How did you find a family for her? Did she have one before she was left at the house?” Amy asks. “Hope did not have a home to go back to. She lost her mother at birth and the father had left before she was born. She was in a bad foster home and was taken in by a selfish woman trying to salvage a failed relationship. She was completely alone.” Dark runs his head and looks at the baby. She was sitting on the floor and Ethan and Tyler were playing peek a boo with her. Willford joins them and makes a goofy face every time he appears behind his hands. “Poor sweetheart…” Amy’s heart goes out to Lil Bub. “So her name is Hope? How did you find that out?” Kathryn asks. “It is on the tag of her toy. The mother bought it for her before she was born it seems.” Dark takes another swing and his coffee. “I looked into her mind last night to see if she can be given to anyone and doesn’t seem to have any other family. So I looked up families and did a search on them and found one. Hope what an ironic name.” “When do we give her to her new parents?” Mark asks. “They should be arriving in two hours. So I suggest everyone saids their goodbyes now.” Dark sits up and walks away. “Hey Dark. Thank you. You did a good thing.” Mark calls to Dark. “I didn’t do it for you.” Dark calls back and goes to his room. Mark goes into the main room and tells everyone what Dark did. He tells them that Hope’s new parents are coming soon. “How come Dark can give up a baby and it’s fine but when I do it it’s a big problem?” Ed makes a face. “Did he really do that?” Bim looks up at Mark from his spot on the floor beside Hope. “Yes he did. So I’m sorry guys but Hope has to go be with her new family.” Mark saids softly. “Wait how do we know this is real? What if this is all a lie and just another one of Darks tricks.” Willford saids. “It is not. I just looked at what Dark had searched on his computer. He looked up adopting agencies and looked through the profiles and found this couple in Long Beach. Their profile seems in check.” Googles eyes glow and he does the search in his head. “Then Dark did something good.” Silver tilts his head. “It appears so.” The Host said. “So this really means that she is leaving…” Bim looks at Hope who is crawling on Tyler as he lays down. “It is for the best remember.” The doctor pats Bim’s head. “We can always just say she likes us better. Me being the best dad.” Willford saids hopefully. “Willford knows that this couple wants Hope just as much as you do maybe even more. They must have been waiting for so long to have a child and now they will be graced with Hope.” The Host saids softly. A hint of sadness in his voice. “I know I know… It’s just I love Lil Bub.” Willford looks down. “We all do Will but her new parents are coming and we need to send her off. So let’s get dressed and send her off with a big smile ok.” Amy holds Willford’s hand looking up at him. “Ok lets do it!! There will be no tears today!! I’m looking at you Bim. Now let’s get this show on the road!” Willford saids in his showman voice. After 2 hours a car pulls infront of the house. A couple gets out and walks to the front of the door an knocks. “Hello you must be the Martins. I’m Mark.” Mark answers the door and lets in the couple into the house. “My girlfriend is getting Hope’s things ready. Can I get you anything?” “O no thank you. Wow you have a big house here.” The wife looks around as they walk into the main room. “O well it’s actually not my house.” Mark saids. “O right it’s your brothers house isn’t it? He said he lives here with all of his family right. That must be interesting.” The husband smiles as they all sit down at the couch. “Um yea it is. It got really crowded so I moved out but I had to stay the night on the count of the storm that hit.” Dark had made up the story that all the egos were relatives so if they questioned why they all looked alike there would be an explanation. But making the egos seem like his brothers, Mark sighed. “Are your brothers here? We wanted to thank them for finding Hope.” The wife asks Mark. “O yea my brothers are around they should be here.” Mark Hope’s they would act normal for once in front of this couple. “O why hello there! My name is Willford.” Willford walks into the room. He made his pink mustache look black for the couple. He shakes hands with the couple. “It’s nice to meet you Willford. You brother here was just telling us you will be here.” The wife smiles. “Of course. I’m going to miss Lil Bub. She is quite the character.” Willford laughs. “Lil Bub?” The husband asks. “It’s a nickname he gave her.” Mark saids. “Awwww it sounds cute.” The wife giggles. “See they like it.” Will whispers to Mark. “Hey there. The names Ed.” Ed walks in and leans in a chair. “Yes sir the little lady is a cutie pie.” “O hi there! I’m Bim it’s nice to meet you two.” Bim shakes the couples hands and sits beside Willford. “Good morning. I am Dr.iplier. I gave Hope an examination and these are her medical records as of now. I hope this will be of use for the future.” The docto hands the papers to the husband. “Wow this is great thank you. We didn’t know if she had an exam yet. Thank goodness your a doctor.” The husband saids looking up at the doctor. “Ummm hello. I’m Silver…” Silver walks out. The egos and Mark stare at him because he took off his costume. It was like they forgot he looks like Mark as they looked at him with eyes wide open. “Silver? That’s an interesting name.” The wife saids. “Yea our parents couldn’t think of anymore names hahaha…” Silver saids nervous. He feels naked without his costume but he was doing it for Hope and treated it like it was a mission. “Why hello it is very nice to meet you. I am Google.” Google steps in. He did his best to seem less like a droid trying not to glitch. “Google? The website?” The wife tilts her head. “The very same. It is a nickname if you will.” Google saids. “Hu cool.” The husband chuckles. “And I am Host.” The Host walks in with his cane. The doctor used patches on his eyes for the time being replace for the bandages. They were then covered by a pair of black glasses big enough to to cover the patches. “O do you need help?” The wife stand up and walks to Host. “That is very kind of you. But I will be fine standing here.” The Host smiles. “Alright.” The wife pats Hosts hands on his cane and sits beside her husband. “I hope my brothers have not bothered you. They can be very unusual.” Dark walks in. He was able to make himself look human and not flicker red and blue. “O no your brothers are great. I find their names very cool. You must be Dark.” The husband stand up and shakes Darks hand. “Yes I’m Dark. I’m glad you had a save journey here. I have all the paperwork here. It is done with I handled it myself.” Dark gives the husband a folder. “Thank you so much Dark. This means so much to us.” The husband smiles wide. “My wife and I have been trying to have children but found out we can’t. We have been wanting to adopt for years but nothing happened. I can’t thank you enough…” The wife walks to Dark and hugs him with tears in her eyes. “Thank you so much… It’s everything..” “Your welcome Mrs. Martin. I wanted Hope to go to a good family. She deserves it.” Dark smiles and pats the wife’s back. Amy walks in holding Hope in her arms and Kathryn has the baby bag in hers. The couple sees Hope and they tear up at the sight of her. “Mr. And Mrs. Martian this is Hope.” Amy smiles and bounces Hope. “She is perfect.. Awwww she is so beautiful.” The wife cries. “Here you can hold her.” Amy gives Hope to her new mother. Hope looks up mat the wife curiously. She tilts her head and then smiles. She giggles and lifts her arms up at her. “I love you already.” The wife holds Hope close. The husband comes beside her and holds Hopes head and cries too. Ethan sniffles with Bim and Silver passes them the tissue box he was holding in case of emergency. They all go outside and put Hope’s bag in the trunk and the couple smiles brightly. “I can’t thank you enough for this…” The husband saids and he looks at this wife bouncing Hope happily. “We are just glad she is going to a good home with you.” Bim saids snuffling. “We should be heading home now. Thank you all so much for everything.” The husband saids. “Umm wait my brothers were the ones That were taking care of Hope. You should thank them more. Without them Hope wouldn’t have been able to find you two.” Mark saids looking back at the egos. “We have gifts for Hope if you don’t mind.” Bim saids. “Of course not. That’s so sweet of you all.” The wife saids. Ed goes first. “Well little lady I got you this hat. It suits you well. I also got you a pair of little cowgirl boots. I’m going to to miss ya. Take care now.” Ed sniffles and give Hope a kiss on the head. Silver goes next. “ Hope I know your going to be a good girl so I want you to have this… It’s my Silver action figure and the onesie I got you is in your bag cape included. So you know you can save the world one day. Bye little sidekick.” Silver kisses Hope. Google comes up. “Now Hope I found that babies enjoy those toys that light up so I got you a robot that teaches you the alphabet. May this serve as a learning device for you. May you stay well in the future.” Google kisses Hope and when he backs away he sniffles just a little. The doctor comes in. “Well now since I was your first doctor I will give you this teddy bear doctor in hopes maybe you will want to become one too. I think you have great potential to help others. Stay healthy.” The doctor give his kiss. The Host comes makes his way to Hope. “I want you to have this. This is a book or fairytale so found in my room. I think they will suit you more. May you always have sweet dreams sweet Hope.” The wife brings up Hope to meet Hosts lips to kiss her head. Willford zooms in. “Now I know I speak for everyone when I say I was the fun dad here. So to keep the it going i got you… A top hat and white and red stripped coat!! Just like me!!! To me you will always be my Lil Bub. Good day to you my darling.” Willford kisses Hope repeatedly and she giggles. Bim walks up sadly but happy. “Ok Hope this is your family now. I know we took care of you for a day but I’m going to miss you so much. I’m so happy I found you… And that you came into our lives even for just a moment. We were a family. And I will never forget you… I love you Hope.” Bim tears up and cries a little. He wipes his tears and takes a breath. “So I got you this daisy. It’s so bright and open. It puts a smile on anyone’s face just like you. Be good for me ok?” Bim kisses Hope and she wipes a tear from his face. Just when the couple was about to leave Dark come up. “Wait. I believe you almost forgot something my lady.” He holds out the plush dog. He hands it to the wife and Hope whimpers and holds her arms out for Dark. “She wants you. Want to hold her for a moment before we go?” The wife holds out Hope. Dark hesitantly takes her in his arms. “You are the most interesting one I have ever met. I am very taken by you. I wonder how you will grow. Did this encounter impact you? Will it influence you? Who is to say.. Usually I want to meet someone again if it means I get a deal but for you only if we meet again I hope is for good intentions. I gave you your gift already. Gave you a family. Farewell my dear Hope” Dark kisses Hope’s cheek. Hope cuddles one last time to his chest and whispers “Dadda” “For this moment I will be.” Dark give Hope back to her new mom. They strap her in her baby seat and take off. The Egos wave at the car as it disappears from sight and smile. Mark looks at them and smiles. When Dark walks past him he snickers. “Who knew you were a softy Darkipoo. It’s nice to know.” “Only for that one.” Dark huffs and he leaves into the house. “Well now we have an empty nest… Let’s get another one!!!” Willford saids happily. “Dear god no… Let’s not mess up any other children” Tyler saids. “But we know what to do now!!!” Willford pouts. “Fine then let me look after Chica to help my broken heart. O Chica I got a dog Willford Warfstache outfit with your name on it!!” Chica’s tail wags happily as Willford scoops her in his arms and runs off with her in the house. “Don’t you dare take my dog!!!” Mark storms in after Will. “Well things are normal now.” Ethan saids. “Hey let’s sleep over again!!” “Yea it was fun!” Bim saids and he and Ehtan walk in to house making plans. “Maybe this time we can play more games.” Silver runs into the house and tugs on his mask. “Well then I’m going to grab some grub I’m starving.” Ed walks in the house next. “Me too I’m starving. Hey Google can we stream some Netflix.” Tyler said as he steps into the house. “I can access that.” Goggle goes in with Tyler. “Host want to help me cook? Lols like we have a full house again.” The doctor sighs. “Ooo please!! I love your cooking.” Amy saids happily. “I call first dibs!!” Kathryn races Amy to the house. The Host makes his way in the house and looks out once more. “Yes one big happy family.” The End *hope you enjoyed this story. I will be posting my original story for now but i will be back with another ego story soon. Also I realized I was spelling Kathryn’s name wrong.. Sorry T-T thank you for reading :)

#willford warfstache #dr.iplier #darkiplier #bim trimmer #ed edgar #googleplier #silver shepherd #the host #markiplier #amy nelson #Kathryn #Ethan #crankgameplays #Tyler #the egos and a baby #fanfic #story

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aion-rsa · 5 years

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What Makes The Expanse a Truly International Show

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We talked to the cast and creators behind The Expanse about bringing such a global story to the Amazon platform.

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When The Expanse Season 4 launches on Amazon in December, the science fiction drama based on the bestselling series of books by James S.A. Corey will be available in the "same" place around the world for the first time ever as an Amazon Global Original.

Previously, The Expanse aired on Syfy in the United States, streamed on Amazon Prime domestically, and was available internationally via Netflix, with all of those release dates coming at different times. When Amazon swooped in to save The Expanse after Syfy cancelled it after three seasons, that not only meant we would get more of one of the best and most vital shows on TV, it also meant that, moving forward, this story would be made available to multiple countries closer to the same time.

Prime Video, as it is sometimes known, launched globally in 2016, becoming available in more than 200 countries and territories. This is in addition to the more than 100 million people in the U.S. who have access to Amazon Prime Video, according to a Consumer Intelligence Research Partners survey.

While The Expanse has always been a show that works to include diverse perspectives and tell a story about what outward expansion would look like not just for the United States or the western world, but for the entirety of the human race, this is particularly true heading into Season 4, based off the events of Corey's Cibola Burn. When we catch back up with the crew of the Roci, they will be setting off on a U.N. mission to explore the new worlds beyond the Ring Gates, the first step of a new world for humanity, which is now faced with the opportunity to explore thousands of Earth-like planets.

read more: The Expanse Season 4 — What's Next For Naomi & Amos?

Den of Geek was part of a group of reporters who had the chance to chat with the cast and creative team behind The Expanse about the move to Amazon and what makes The Expanse such an international show.

"Whether we succeeded or not, it was always the intention to not have the American experience of space, you know, the mandate was always the show cannot be white guys in space," says Ty Franck, one half of the writing team known as James S.A. Corey who writes the books and serves as an executive producer on the show.

"Because of that [mandate]," says Franck, "we always sort of tried to write to as many different audiences as we could. Hopefully we succeed more than we fail, that's always the intention. And I think, you get people in other countries, they see themselves on screen, and we're talking about issues that are true worldwide and not just true here."

Franck's writing partner and fellow executive producer Daniel Abraham noted that, in writing The Expanse book series, the authors drew from historical precedent and not just American or western examples. Because "history rhymes," Abraham said, this has led to the books and TV show feeling not only internationally-relevant, but also extremely topical, with The Expanse showrunner Naren Shankar adding that modern parallels to the experiences the characters go through in the series are often discussed in the writers room, using the Syrian refugee crisis and Prax's experience as a refugee as one example.

read more: Why We Need The Expanse More Than Ever

"It was always a part of the project," says Abraham, speaking about the books' diverse cast of characters that is also maintained in the show. "When we were talking about it, the mandate of the books was to be as rich, as diverse and the full as our lived experience of world and doing less than that seems weird. So as long as the show was as complex as like a teaching hospital, we win."

"And everybody is, you know, first and foremost human," adds Shankar, "which means, they're good and they're bad. There are violent people and kind people on every side of the factions in terms of Earth, Mars, and the Belt, of every color and every gender. It's like... they're people. And that's what people are."

While it's important to note that The Expanse is an American TV series filmed in Canada and based on a series of novels written by two Americans, it also includes an incredibly diverse cast who hail from around the world themselves. We spoke to some of them about what makes The Expanse an international show and what the move to Amazon could mean for the show's ability to start conversations and encourage change.

read more: The Expanse Season 5 Confirmed

"I am very excited about the fact that they are on Amazon because this is a global show," says Dominique Tipper, who plays Belter and Roci crew member Naomi. "It's very allegorical and I think not many of the people see themselves in the characters, but they see themselves in the situations that the characters find themselves in."

Tipper, who is half-Domincan, half British and grew up East London, hopes that The Expanse finds a broader audience now that it is on Amazon. "I'm really excited that we are now with somebody who has the kind of weight that Amazon does. Because I think the show is worthy of that in what it represents across the board."

"I just want it to go further," Tipper says. "I wonder if the little kids that grew up how a lot of us on the show grew up have seen it yet. I don't know if they have and I didn't know what it would do for them. I hope it would empower them, and I'm really interested in that and I'm interested in using the show as a vehicle for that—not only for it to be seen as art, but maybe we can use it as some kind of vehicle for outreach in the communities that we represent because I don't really see the point of it otherwise. So I think we're going to start working on that."

I am half Dominican & half British & like so many of the BAME faces you see on your UK AND US TV screens, WE are descendants of the Windrush generation. The Windrush generation have as much right to be here in the UK as any one else. Please support this cause! @AllWindrush %u2764%uFE0F pic.twitter.com/fXVa2aj8N1

— Dominique Tipper (@Mi55Tipper) May 23, 2018

Frankie Adams, a New Zealand-Samoan actress who plays Martian Bobbie Draper, is proud to be an example of a Pacific Islander on TV, but notes that she is one of only few examples across film and television.

"There's not really many of us that are going active on the world stage, " says Adams, who was born in Samoa and grew up in New Zealand, "and the only person I can think of that I saw when I was younger was Lilo from Lilo & Stitch and her big sister, and that was great, but there was never anybody that I saw that I was like, 'Oh my god, that's me,' you know?"

read more: The Expanse Book 8 Review — Tiamat's Wrath

Adams spoke about the privilege of having the opportunity to be that for other women, saying: "I definitely experience that with women in New Zealand, Australia, and in the Pacific Islands where they've gone, 'Oh, like Frankie's doing it, that's so awesome.' It just gives them so much hope and I think it's such a wonderful thing to do for young women."

The only photo I got at the wrap party. You%u2019re welcome. pic.twitter.com/Wt5d1htlLd

— Frankie Adams (@ffrankieadams) January 28, 2019

"The show is about the people of the world," says Iranian-American actress Shohreh Aghdashloo, who plays U.N. Secretary-General Chrisjen Avasarala on The Expanse. "It should have been on Amazon from Day One. If it's about the people of the world it should be shown to the people of the world."

Aghdashloo says that, prior to the Amazon switch, she would have to tape the show and send it to her brothers and mother, who live in the U.K., to watch.

"Now, they get to watch it simultaneously," says Aghdashloo. "These game-changers can change everything, it's just incredible, unbelievable that the whole world gets to watch this show and see what is happening in this future world. Which they keep calling it science fiction and I keep saying there's nothing fiction about it anymore, this is what is happening in today's world."

Cas Anvar, who plays Martian and Roci crew member Alex, was born in Canada to Iranian parents. He spoke to Den of Geek about the importance of the organic diversity of the Expanse world, and how important it is not only for viewers of color, but white audience members as well, to see.

read more: The Expanse Season 4 Reveals Release Date, Footage at SDCC

"It's not just as important for the kids of color and the women of color and the paint color to see themselves," Anvar says. "It's also equally important for the people who are not of color to see these people in those positions so that they can go, 'That's normal.'"

"I think it's only fitting because it is such a global narrative," says Steven Strait, who plays Holden, of the move to Amazon. "We were in Europe recently and we went through Germany and we met people from France and all over that part of the world. And it's remarkable how universal the story is."

Strait said he was struck by the fact that, even though the source material was written beginning almost 10 years ago, the story feels so relevant to what's happening now.

"I think we do have a globalized world," Strait says, "and a lot of the issues we deal with in the show sociopolitically and what not are mirrored all over the place: the things we're dealing with in the States are similar things they are dealing with, Europe which are similar things they're dealing with, Asia. It's a universal human narrative."

The Expanse Season 3 Reviews | The Expanse Season 2 Reviews

For Strait and the other cast members, The Expanse represents not only a chance to tell an important story, but starts important discussions.

"The show really reflects the current state of affairs and how intimately it shows what the repercussions of those things are across borders," says Strait. "[Science fiction] is a genre that really lends itself to allegory and using allegory in very powerful way. One of the things I'm most proud of on this show is that, in a time where things are really divided and it's very difficult to communicate across partisan lines or social lines or whatever... art can manage to bridge a divide and you can spark conversations out there that maybe wouldn't be had otherwise. If you mask the names and times, and things like that, that allow it to be more digestible. I think it's one of the things I'm most proud of about this show. The work feels important."

The Expanse Season 4 will return on December 13th on Amazon. The show has already been greenlit for a fifth season.

Kayti Burt is a staff editor covering books, TV, movies, and fan culture at Den of Geek. Read more of her work here or follow her on Twitter @kaytiburt.

Read and download the Den of Geek SDCC 2019 Special Edition Magazine right here!

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comicgirl08 · 5 years

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Supergirl recap: Dreamer girl meets world

We’ve got four separate storylines this week, so let’s start with—ugh—Ben Lockwood, who’s lost his flair for rhetorical dazzle in recent episodes and has devolved into a bit of a one-dimensional shouty bad guy. The Children of Liberty (and his actual child, George) have all donned armbands now that they’re deputized by the president, and they’re setting out to round up known aliens.

George expresses uncertainty about their actions when the wife of one target objects to her husband’s arrest, and Lockwood warns, “We can’t humanize them, son. Don’t ever mistake them for anything but the roaches they are.” Bad parenting, exhibit A.

Meanwhile, Brainy, Lena, and Alex work together to help James, whose PTSD is being exacerbated by the Harun-El in his system. Lena’s frustrated because she can’t get the tech scavenged from Lex’s prison cell to work, so Brainy proposes entering James’s memories to find the root of his trauma, reasoning that if James can control his anxiety attacks, he can control his powers.

Brainy assumes the trauma is Lex-based, but the source is actually his father’s funeral when he and Kelly were children. James didn’t attend because he was accidentally locked in a bathroom, which Kelly tells Alex was upsetting for her as well, as she really needed her big brother. Brainy gently (for him) suggests that James has told himself this story so many times that he now believes it, and we eventually learn that in fact, two bullies found him that day and locked him into a casket in the basement. Yiiiiikes. I’d suppress that memory, too.

When Brainy pushes him to work through the memory, James ejects him from his mind palace, so Kelly agrees to slap on a forehead amplifier thingy and give it a try. She finds James and urges him to fight back and change the narrative. James pulls a Thanos on the bullies in his memory and helps his younger self out of the casket. When he wakes up in the lab, he’s levitating. Success!

Kara, meanwhile, is committed to bringing down Lex Luthor through a journalistic exposé that finds her flipping through the L Corp black budget and trying the “investigator tapes up photos and scrawls manic notes on a window” approach. She quickly realizes how central Amertek is to the mystery and that Franklin the Dryad 1) has been sleeping at work for safety and 2) has a sister, Edna, who works at Amertek.

After some convincing, Edna agrees to let Kara look through the Amertek files for a Lex link. She finds paperwork on a suspicious Rubnia missile base tied to a Sebastian Melmoth, but Edna refuses to look further because she’d have to use her personal ID number. “You don’t know what it’s like to walk around with a target on your back because of who you are,” she tells Kara.

The Amertek visit pays off when Kara realizes she saw the name Sebastian Melmoth in the L Corp budget, so she pays Lena a visit. Lena, though, isn’t pleased that she’s seen more of judgy, judgy Supergirl than her actual best friend, who now wants to use her as a source. To be fair, though, Lena’s super frustrated that her attempts to remove Harun-El from her test hearts keep causing them to explode, so she was already on edge.

While Kara’s doing journalism, Dreamer steps in to fill the Supergirl void, even though Brainy warns there’s a 63.6 percent chance she’ll be apprehended. During her patrol, she discovers that several terrified aliens have taken refuge at the alien bar.

Then the Children of Liberty goons bust in, and George Lockwood is shocked to see his friend Charlie hiding there. This armband-wearing child has the audacity to ask, “Why didn’t you tell me?” Thankfully, Charlie’s got enough spirit left to serve some attitude when he replies, “Why do you think?”

Then the episode jumps into campy overdrive in a way that may have worked for you but didn’t quite work for me. In the melee, the jukebox starts playing American Woman, and Dreamer fights off the Children with her light powers and her quips. She’s impressive, and I get what that song means for her on a number of levels, but it was a little *jazz hands* in its showiness. Cool but jarring, I guess. Anyway, the encounter leaves George wondering if they’re doing the wrong thing, but his proud mother assures him that he’s helping save the country.

Nia and Kara agree that they feel hopeless and helpless, so Kara hatches a plan to give the public a hero who can inspire hope as both an alien and a human. Nia suits up, and Dreamer and Kara sit down in the deserted CatCo office for a live, unscheduled interview that takes over the airwaves somehow, with Franklin running the camera. What follows is definitely not journalism, but it is emotional.

Dreamer explains that she’s a trans woman, born in America to a human father, who became her spine, and a Naltor mother, who became her heart. She says she prefers salty over sweet, that she’s a Gryffindor with a gray stallion Patronus, and that she likes nerdy boys who think too much. (Watching with Lena, Brainy asks, “What does love feel like?” Ha!) She urges viewers not to fear their differences and concludes by saying, “We don’t have to wait for a new day. We are the new day.”

While the speech is lovely, it’s kind of weird that Kara has the authority to air this non-journalistic interview just willy-nilly. But whatever. A good portion of the viewing audience is moved by Dreamer’s bravery and honesty. This includes Lena, who tells Brainy she feels paralyzed by being unable to fix James or find Lex. Brainy advises her to give trust in order to receive it.

Also touched by Dreamer’s message is one of Lockwood’s troops at the DEO, who texts Alex a warning that his boss is on the way to CatCo. By the time Lockwood arrives to arrest Dreamer for “seditious violent speech,” Alex’s team has shut down the lights, allowing Kara to use her super-powers in the dark alongside the other heroes.

Things that are awesome in the ensuing fight: Kara using her pink jacket as a weapon, Brainy and Dreamer battling back to back, Franklin jumping into the fray and Kara pretending he saved her, and a powered-up James arriving to break Lockwood’s hand and crumple his gun. “All I see are journalists exercising their rights of free speech,” James satisfyingly bellows. “Get. Out. Now.”

Edna also watched Dreamer and was inspired to use her ID to access the records Kara needs, even volunteering to go on record. Then Lena shows up to apologize and admit she worked with Lex for months, despite knowing he was manipulating her. Kara hugs her and tells her she’s strong, kind, and brilliant. Then they work together to decipher the Amertek clues.

Lena remembers that Sebastian Melmoth was an Oscar Wilde pseudonym Lex enjoyed using, and it leads her to pick apart his cipher, which reveals “Rubnia” to be code for Kaznia. And since L Corp transferred out $5.8 billion the same day that Amertek paid $5.8 billion for the missile base, Kara says, “Guess we’re going to Kaznia.”

George Lockwood, meanwhile, tosses aside a Children of Liberty mask in disgust and texts his friend Charlie that he’s there if Charlie needs him. But that might all change soon; Ben Lockwood catches sight of the woman who objected to her husband’s arrest at the top of the hour fleeing his home. Inside, he finds his wife’s body on the floor with a wound to the chest.

And the episode concludes with J’onn in Martian form on T’ozz, where he deposits his ancestors’ memories and spear for safe keeping. He smiles wistfully, and a huge Myr’nn face appears in the sand and tells him to go home to his family.

Snaps of the cape

What a strangely disconnected ending beat. Was it only there to answer the question of where J’onn was for the Earthly action?

So. James has powers. And if he wields them with the controlled ferocity we saw at the end of the episode, this could be interesting to watch unfold.

I cannot get enough of Kara secretly using her powers to stop the bad guys, whether it’s a purse-snatcher or a xenophobic jack-booted thug. If we have to be Supergirl-less for a while longer, I’m glad we have that to look forward to.

Dreamer’s also a lot of fun in action, although some of her quips are better than others. “I’m your worst nightmare” and “Sweet dreams”? Okay. But “Sleeping beauty” and “Try this reverie” might need to go back to the drawing board.

Where does Lena get all those experimental hearts? Do … do we want to know? Also, Katie McGrath is one of the best criers on television. Change my mind.

#Supergirl #KaraDanvers #Dreamer #BiaNal #NicoleMaines #LenaLuthor #JamesOlsen #Brainiac-5 #Brainy #AlexDanvers #KellyOlsen #CatCo #RedDaughter #Kaznia #NationalCity #TheCW

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flairmagazineblog · 5 years

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Talking with the Cast of Netflix’s Umbrella Academy

The new upcoming Netflix series “Umbrella Academy” staring Ellen Page, Tom Hopper and David Castaneda is set to be a dark, fun superhero series with a twist. Focusing on the aftermath and lives of former child superhero group The Umbrella Academy, we see the band of orphans gather together after the death of their adoptive father. While trying to surpass the threats of a pair of time travelling assassins, they must navigate through unresolved rivalries and feelings within their family unit. We dive further into the world of the “Umbrella Academy” and its characters in an interview with actors Tom Hopper (Luther Hargreeves), David Castaneda (Diego Hargreeves) and Robert Sheehan (Klaus Hargreeves).

David Castaneda (Diego Hargreeves)

What’s it like working on a show that’s to be aired on a platform as big as Netflix?

It’s great, they’re pulling up some really good stuff. They always have a standard for putting out good quality, so it’s a very exciting time.

Did you read or know about the comics before the show?

No, I got to read the comic books when I was given the chance to play the character of Diego Hargreeves and I took a lot of it just trying to figure out the physicality of Diego, and also just by how he talks to his family in the comic books- really, really kind of being a bit distanced, knowing your always different- that right there is not much different than the comic books, it really transitions.

How do you feel about the alternate reality that Umbrella Academy is set in?

It really is a weird world that we worked on for the show. I think, in my opinion, it does serve the comic book, at least for the theme, like it had to be something that is very dark and just the composition of each frame, that you will see, is quite specific to the feel of the comic book.

How do you feel about Diego’s relationship to his father in comparison to all the other siblings?

I think Diego was probably the only one of his entire family that didn’t accept his role and that lead to him having confrontations with his dad. He didn’t want to be number two, he wanted to be number 1. And his dad realized this and put him as number two and that push leads Hargreeves to be better. And also, the fact that he was a kid, Diego wanted to be loved and he wanted to be cared for and the only thing that cared for him was a robot mother.

The show starts in the middle of the comic book series after the kid’s adoptive father died. Why do you think they throw the beginning narrative right into the adulthood of the siblings?

Here’s the thing, you’re going to be able to see how we grew up. The world hops between the present and when were all together as child superheroes. So, you will get a feel for that. It won’t just start with us as adults, you actually get to see how we were raised in the show, which will be an interesting thing, because it will kind of latch the audience on between our history and the reason why we are coming together.

Tom Hopper (Luther Hargreeves)

How was it working with Netflix?

Netflix is amazing. One of the great things about working for Netflix is you know that they have the best interest of the show at heart, because they’re very good creators and they want to make the best version of every show they do. So, to have them behind this is great. The show really reflects the passion they put into it.

Does the show make use of the binge-able factor of the Netflix platform?

Yes absolutely, the one thing that Steve Blackman, the head creative, said from the start is that it’s got to be a 10-hour movie. Highly unlikely you are going to want to stop watching halfway. Each episode is certainly one that needs you to want to just power through and get through it because each one is so entertaining on its own, each episode is done so well. But at the end of each one the underlining true-line of the show is driving you through it. So, I mean we behind the camera, even just reading the scripts- each time we got a new script, we were so desperate to get the next one because we wanted to know what was gonna happen. So, yes, it’s perfect for Netflix, it’s a perfect binge-watching show.

Did you know about the comics before the show or gain any inspiration from them when performing your character?

Yes. So I came across the comic a few years before when I was at a comic-con event and I met this fan who had this graphic novel and I spoke to her about it and then when it came to me, right down here to this new show, I obviously googled him and I was like “Oh my god, this is that comic I talked to that fan about years ago” and then I started doing more research into it and I saw Luther and I started learning about Luther and read the comic and in my head I was like, I’ve got to play this role- if I don’t go and get this then I might as well give up because I feel like Luther is so right for me. And I feel related to him so much in the way of his manner and in how he’s a sort of a big guy with a softer side. To take that part of what Luther is, I related to that a lot. So, I tried to sort of keep all those things that the comic started off and broadened it, you know, made it a much deeper, richer version of what’s in the comic.

When being surrounded by DC and Marvel series, how does this new super hero universe stand out?

It’s trickier than that because in a lot of ways, even though it is a superhero show, I don’t compare it to those shows, because I feel that it’s far more grounding, in a lot of ways, than that. The super element isnt as defined in umbrella academy- I feel like the character driven element is the thing that defines it and its one of the things that clearly makes the project different from other superhero shows. The thing that drives the whole thing, the thing that wants to make you keep watching is the character element and the dysfunctional family element and the relationship between these people. And then on top of that it’s complimented with all the superhero stuff, so in that way it’s very different from all the Marvel stuff. You know, it obviously has that action element, that superhero action element, but it really is just a compliment on top of the stuff that really is the richness of the show.

In the comics, your character has a Gorilla Martian body. Is that played out somehow in the series?

I can’t say too much about it, but yes there is certainly a nod to that from the comics. What I will say is that, yes, what Luther’s body is, you obviously see in footage and what you see in the photos, what you will see is his body isnt normal, so I will say that much. And he’s very much aware of that being his body now and it’s a form of body dysmorphia effectively and he’s very conscious of it, and self-aware and sensitive about it actually and not necessarily the body that he was born in anymore. That is a key element in how Luther is dealing with life right now, he’s going through a lot of problems because of it.

How do you feel about the alternate reality that Umbrella Academy is set in?

There is this element of the comics and then there’s also bits of it added and creators have added in as well so, it is effectively set in what you would call present day. I mean I call it like an alternate present day because, they’re no cellphones in this world. It’s almost like it set in the early 90s or something, before a lot of technology existed, like the internet and stuff and so its kind of like a more basic world, a more basic present day, without technology.

The show starts in the middle of the comic book series after the kid’s adoptive father died. Why do you think they throw the beginning narrative right into the adulthood of the siblings?

That’s a good question. I mean, there is a flashback element to the show as well, so that there’s lots of things to the season that you get to see with them living as children and what kind of created the issue that they are now dealing with as sort of 30 year old, and I think the reason why is because it’s a lot more interesting because it keeps the audience guessing on why they are all the way they are. But you will see a huge amount of flashback elements and that flesh out these characters and as you learn about these 30-year old’s, you’ll start to fill out the blanks on why he’s like that and why she’s like that, and why do those two do that together and those blanks get filled in as the season goes on.

Robert Sheehan (Klaus Hargreeves)

Klaus is quite an eccentric character, was it challenging to play him?

Yes, because he is representing certain things like drug addiction, and you want to portray these things with as much honesty as possible and also make it sort of unique and interesting as possible as well. I spent a lot of time trying to figure him out and come up with him and make him feel different to possibly everything I’ve done before, perhaps possibly everything that’s ever been before. I think the more work you do the more fruits you see, so I just took that approach while going in. Didn’t leave any stone unturned.

Did you read the comics? If yes, did you gain any inspiration from them for the show?

I did read the comics. One of the things that struck me about Klaus in the comic book is that he is this strange entity who drifts between sort of our plane of existence and others. He’s almost not fully solid, he gives you that sense in the comic books. Probably because he’s always behind dark sunglasses and like levitating- he has this sort of very French air, you might say. So, I wanted to instill that, I wanted the audience to feel the ghosts that had rubbed off on Klaus over the years.

Klaus has the power of Telekinesis, considered among most superhero universes as the strongest power. Is it used in the show or has Klaus, like many from the Hargreeves, decided to stop using his powers?

He has this very complicated relationship with his power and I think that’s the key to what makes him interesting, because Klaus is a rampant drug addict who will eventually take anything to subdue the voices in his head/dead people that insist on following him around. So, he has this big drug addiction because he was traumatized as a child. This reclusive, eccentric that adopted our dear heroes as children, he put them through very traumatic and rigorous training and Klaus was no exception. So, he had a very troubled relationship with his ability to talk to the dead. Essentially he tries to avoid them like the plague. And what’s interesting is that, as an audience member, as Klaus goes on, sometime you’re not sure whether he’s just talking to himself or whether he’s actually talking to dead people. There’s always an ambiguity with him where you don’t fully know what’s real and what isn’t, which I love.

The universe of the show is set in an alternate reality. How does it differ from today’s world?

I think one of the big ways is technology. Our show has its own very interesting brand of technology. So, if you ever see any of the characters interacting with any technology, it has a real sort of retro-futuristic vibe to it, which I really love, because what it does is that it doesn’t pin the show down to any specific time. Time in history, kind of has a vague twentieth century feel, which I really like very much. Its, one of the big things that gives it that other-worldly vibe.

How does Klaus feel about the apocalypse?

I don’t think he gives the slightest bit of importance. That’s what makes him very interesting, is that, the big, grave apocalyptic events, that worry most people, just don’t really matter to Klaus. Because if you can already speak to the dead- if you have a very solid impression of where you’re going after you die, then I suppose worrying about things happening in the future, would just become less of an issue. I think it’s his knowledge and foresight that free him from being too concerned about trivial things like an apocalypse.

What is his relationship with his siblings?

I think because the nature of his life, probably because of his drug addiction, he keeps himself very much on the outside. But underneath, he was raised with these people. They shared a very odd childhood together which bound them together forever. They had this very traumatic experience, which was like a childhood they had to recover from, as opposed to a childhood that kind of is helping you and gets you ready for the world. These guys are still in recovery from such a traumatic childhood. But you know as they say, “Adversity bonds us stronger than contentment,” It’s very true, and so, these handful of people went through this thing. To their knowledge, they’re the only people ever in history to have gone through such a unique experience. So, you know, he still loves them for that, I think he still acknowledges that he’s tied to these people and that they’re a big part of him. But his priorities are different from when we meet him in the beginning of the show. But I think he has real love for them underneath.

By Nour Ibrahim

Talking with the Cast of Netflix’s Umbrella Academy was originally published on FLAIR MAGAZINE

#Featured

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asabutterfielded · 7 years

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Set Report: The Space Between Us with Asa Butterfield & Britt Robertson

From War of the Worlds to Rogue One, humanity has had a longstanding fascination with sci-fi and the idea of life on other planets. The Space Between Us – an interplanetary adventure from STX Entertainment hitting theaters next month – embraces elements of the science fiction genre while telling a very human story… and showing us that the futuristic fantasies of its predecessors are much closer to reality than we might think.

Fangirlish had the opportunity to visit the Albuquerque, New Mexico set of The Space Between Us – which stars Asa Butterfield, Britt Robertson, Gary Oldman, and Carla Gugino – in late 2015. There, Asa, Britt, Director Peter Chelsom, and Executive Producer Richard Lewis talked us through the timely premise of the film, the unique relationship between its two central characters, and more.

The Premise

The Space Between Us imagines a future that doesn’t seem too far off: one where humans have colonized Mars. Between recent NASA discoveries and the ongoing fascination with both real-life and fictional developments concerning the Red Planet, this is one science fiction story that feels more like a matter of “when” than “if.”

Speaking of Mars missions, SpaceX’s work involving the Red Planet was a major source of both inspiration and research for the team behind the film. “It’s unbelievable,” Director Peter Chelsom said. “It’s like my 9-year-old kid Ollie designed and drew a rocket station – there’s a Starbucks over here, and there’s people building a rocket there, and people going ’round on skateboards, and the average workforce is 32 years old. It’s incredible. There’s none of that kind of Apollo 13, white shirt and collar with ‘Houston, we have a problem.’ It’s not like that. And it’s very, very imminent. The t-shirts are ‘Occupy Mars,’ and when you leave the building, you’re kind of overwhelmed by the power of one man’s conviction.” That man, of course, is SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who is given a clear nod in Gary Oldman’s Nathaniel Shepherd.

The film opens as a group of astronauts heads into space on the first mission to establish this Mars colony, spearheaded by Shepherd’s company. However, soon after takeoff, they discover that one of the astronauts is pregnant. As Executive Producer Richard Lewis explained, this scenario is very much on the minds of NASA’s scientists, one of whom he consulted while writing the script. “He said, It’s gonna happen and we don’t know what to do.”

The result in the movie, at least, is bittersweet. The astronaut in question dies due to complications from giving birth shortly after landing on Mars – but her child survives. Gardner Elliott (Butterfield) – whose name is drawn from Being There‘s Chauncey Gardner and E.T.‘s Elliott – grows into an extraordinary, brilliant teen fascinated by the home planet he has never known.

The film’s central focus is the human element of Gardner’s story – the discovery and wonder of seeing our planet through new eyes, first love, and so on – but it’s all the stronger for the real science behind his circumstances, which also drives the plot in an essential way. This required extensive research not only into Mars itself, but how a human born on the Red Planet would develop and what would happen to them if they made their way to Earth, as Gardner eventually does. Lewis consulted with his father, a heart specialist, as well as a number of other medical and astrophysics professionals while working on the script. “The science has been well researched,” he said. “It’s obviously fictional, but we feel we’re pretty damn close to what would really happen.”

The Characters

Richard Lewis, who also produced 2007’s August Rush, originally envisioned Freddie Highmore as Gardner. Though Freddie aged out of the role, Lewis became familiar with Asa Butterfield’s work and finished developing the script around him. “I’ve actually put a sizzle reel together, which Asa’s never seen, of him at that age – at 14 or 15 – playing this character,” he teased. “It would be so shocking to him. What’s been terrific [is that] he’s been in my eye since really the conception of the story. He’s got an otherworldly quality -he’s so disarming and so charming.”

Butterfield, who also starred in Ender’s Game, is no stranger to out-of-this-world stories. But his role as Gardner Elliott presented a new challenge: What would it be like to be the only human who has never known his home planet? Rather than alienating (no pun intended) us from its protagonist, The Space Between Us answers this question by bringing things closer to home. “This is science fiction, but it’s a lot more than that because of all the themes and the ideas are sort of more relatable,” Asa said. “It’s set in the future, [but] all the things they’re dealing with are [still] very current, about finding where you belong – something that I think everyone goes through and something that you see Gardner and Tulsa both are going through in the film.”

Tulsa (Britt Robertson) is a street-smart girl biding her time until she ages out of the foster system and can get on with her life. She and Gardner strike up a fast friendship in an online chat room (Gardner, of course, not telling her that he’s from Mars). “I think when you go online to meet people, you’re searching for something – whether it be friendship or romance or just companionship,” Britt said. “I think when [Gardner and Tulsa] met, what drew them together is just a connection and a bond and being curious about one another.”

Though Tulsa is initially wary of Gardner – who shows up unannounced at her school after he makes his way to earth – she soon realizes that he is who he says he is and lets her guard down. “There’s no harmful bone in his body, and that’s reassuring for someone who doesn’t trust,” Robertson said. “[She] realizes that he’s just a good guy and he’s been through a lot of different circumstances than, say, the average human.”

As the two travel across the country to find Gardner’s father, we see just how wondrous Earth is to the boy from Mars. Every experience is brand new for Gardner, who is blown away by everything from rain to horses. Asa revealed that these scenes proved rather difficult to shoot. “It’s hard to put yourself into that kind of position because we are so experienced in the world,” he said. “To completely strip all that back and just be in absolute awe about everything you see – whether a tree or a dog – it’s just, everything’s interesting.”

Tulsa plays a significant role in helping Gardner acclimate to Earth, and their road trip only brings them closer together. Britt describes their relationship as a partnership – “romance-wise or not.” “He is her family in some way, shape, or form. She doesn’t have anyone, she barely has friends, and her life feels like there’s something missing – and that piece of it is companionship and family, and that’s what he is to her,” she said.

The Set

Though filming for The Space Between Us took the cast and crew from Vegas to Malibu, it was Albuquerque, New Mexico that served as home base. Our set visit brought us to Highland High School: a real, very much in-session place of learning standing in for Tulsa’s Colorado high school.

The first scene of the day took place in an outdoor courtyard, with Tulsa confronting some bullies before riding off on her motorcycle. (Yes, Britt Robertson actually did that and yes, it was awesome.) The second brought us inside for Gardner and Tulsa’s first meeting, which doesn’t go quite as smoothly as Gardner expects.

Since both scenes take place during the school day, things got a little interesting. Not only were there lots of extras standing in for Tulsa’s fellow students, but Highland’s actual students passed through the set between classes and at lunch. These circumstances made for an authentic environment, if a slightly chaotic one. “I haven’t been to school in so long – nor have I actually been to a public high school before – so it’s overwhelming,” Britt said. “I hear they were getting a little confused as to who the actual students were and who background was. But it’s fine. Everyone’s been really cool.”

From a filmmaking standpoint, the high school actually made for one of the easiest shooting locations. “Compared to all our other challenges, this feels really like a walk in the park,” Chelsom said. “This is a kind of easy film environment. No one’s at zero gravity, no one’s in harnesses and wires, no one’s having to avoid an explosion, no one’s standing clear of helicopter blades. I find this kind of thing easy compared to all that.”

Asa talked us through the experience of filming in some of these more challenging environments, including the quarry standing in for Mars. “We had some great exterior things in this quarry where they made the Martian landscape, wearing the big space suits. I am a massive science fiction fan, so I was so excited to try an astronaut suit. I was walking around, [breathing] like Darth Vader. It was fun.”

#asa butterfield #interview #britt robertson

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hermanwatts · 5 years

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Sensor Sweep: Spears of Clontarf, Mech, Max Brand, Melee, Dresden Files

Robert E. Howard (Jeffro Johnson): This is a great story, a fascinating piece.

In the first place, it shows us up close the sort of peoples, Christian and pagan, that produced the bedrock of the myth and legends that would define our base concepts of fantasy and heroism. But it also presents the notion that we are descended from people that were every bit as heroic as Conan and Solomon Kane. And being written by Robert E. Howard, you can’t help but end up being persuaded!

So many good lines here:

My lords, it may be God’s will I fall in the first onset– but the scars of slavery burn deep in my back this night, and may the dogs eat my bones if I am backward when the spears are splintering.

Fiction (Rawle Nyanzi): It’s finally here. The project that myself, Brian Niemeier, and Bradford C. Walker set out to complete is under way. Three mech books — two currently released, one in pre-orders — can finally be purchased on Amazon. One even has a sequel out. These stories are very different from one another. Xseed is military sci-fi in the Gundam mold, very grounded in realism; Reavers is “Christian knights in space,” strongly modeled off of both chivalric romances and classic Star Wars. My own book is based strongly on Japanese-style superhero shows, specifically Power Rangers, while also taking place in an alternate history.

Authors (DMR Books): Frederick Faust, better known to millions of fans over the last hundred years as “Max Brand,” was born on this date in 1892. Awhile back, I wrote a post on H. Bedford-Jones where I called him “King of the Pulps.” I may need to change my mind on that one. I was following the opinion of Darrell C. Richardson–whose opinions and erudition I esteem greatly–in that instance. I think I’ll have to belatedly disagree with Darrell this time.

While Bedford-Jones is calculated to have written about twenty-five million words for the pulps in his career, Faust wrote at least that many in a shorter career–Faust died five years before Bedford-Jones, almost to the day. Both men wrote in various genres, but Faust appears to have made better money doing so.

Fiction (HiLo Brow): Ernest Hemingway‘s WWI adventure A Farewell to Arms. A hardboiled account — by a disillusioned American, Frederic Henry, serving as a paramedic in the ambulance corps of the Italian Army — of the horrors of WWI. “I was always embarrassed by the words sacred, glorious, and sacrifice and the expression in vain,” Henry recounts. “I had seen nothing sacred, and the things that were glorious had no glory and the sacrifices were like the stockyards at Chicago if nothing was done with the meat except to bury it…” Our narrator is introduced to Catherine Barkley, an English nurse, whom he indifferently attempts to seduce; he gets to know Catherine better as he recuperates under her care, after being wounded on the Italian front; he is sent back to the front — leaving a pregnant Catherine behind in Milan.

Fiction (Eldtrich Paths): Grave Peril is the third book of the Dresden Files. I had no major problems with the first two books in the series, but I can see why many readers say the series picks up with this book. A lot happens. Harry Dresden has to deal with more characters, more problems, and more enemies are. The author really puts Harry through the grinder with this one, making it a great chapter in the series.

Fiction (DMR Books): The second installment in the serialized version of Tros of Samothrace is titled “The Enemy of Rome” and consists of what would become chapters 15 – 26 of the novel published in 1934. Set in the late summer/early fall of the year 55 B.C., this story tells of the aftermath of Julius Caesar’s first invasion of Britain and was first published in the April 10, 1925 issue of Adventure magazine.

Tros has won his first skirmish with Caesar and Rome: he has Caesar’s ship, his pay chests, his seal of office and all of his correspondence (not just military intelligence but much of his foe’s schemes and ongoing plans).

History (Don Herron): Recently I read A Splendid Savage: The Restless Life of Frederick Russell

Burnham by Steve Kemper. Here’s a paragraph from the book:

Apaches inspired terror for good reason. They were as harsh and pitiless as the landscape they roamed. For non-Apaches, the worst imaginable fate was to be taken alive by them. Captured children and young women were occasionally integrated into the tribe, but men were doomed to torments. Captives were often turned over to Apache women whose male relatives had recently been killed.

Fiction (Black Gate): The Wrath of Fantomas is a book I approached with extreme prejudice. It’s a graphic novel that seeks to present a new version of Pierre Souvestre and Marcel Allain’s Fantomas series, which proved so successful when it was introduced a scant 108 years ago. As a rule, I dislike the concept of rebooting a series.

When first discovering a book series as a kid, continuity was key. It made a property more meaningful if there were numerous volumes to find and devour. Scouring used bookstores for dogeared copies of the missing pieces in the narrative puzzle made such books far more valuable to me.

Fiction (Hillbilly Highway): You can imagine my interest then, when I discovered that an Appendix N and Weird Tales stalwart, Manly Wade Wellman, wrote an entire series of short stories very much rooted in the lore of my people. About John. At least that’s the only way his name is given in the stories. He is more usually known as John the Balladeer or Silver John. He may also be a parallel universe Johnny Cash. Or maybe John the Baptist. Or maybe both.

Games (Jeffro Johnson): This game is so rad.

I get it out to show it to people, as if to just explain what it is and show off the components…. But then, if you have time to explain it, you pretty much have time to play it. And once you play it, you gotta play it again!

The sample character cards from the recent Fantasy Trip “Monster” Set make this even easier. Just pick a card. Pick one at random, even. Man, it’s just so easy.

Games and Popular Culture (Wasteland and Sky): I’m unconvinced there is a Millennial who knows what an actual homage is. They should, but for some reason have discarded this definition from their minds. A “homage” is clearly not swiping passages of another writer’s work and not transforming it to a new form, such as comedy or parody, or attributing the original when doing so. But that aside there is a another quote that gives the game away.

Cinema (Sacnoth’s Scriptorium): So, the organizers of Tolkien Day in Kalamazoo arranged for a special showing of the new TOLKIEN biopic to a room full of Tolkien scholars. We were on the whole a skeptical bunch as to whether the filmmakers cd pull it off, but willing to see how it had come out.

The first thing that struck me was the trees. Tolkien famously said you can’t get much about trees into a play, one reason he considered drama inferior to fiction, but the filmmakers showed this is not necessarily the case for film.

Fiction (Classic Mysteries): I’m pretty sure that readers who enjoy some of the great classics of science fiction are already familiar with the name of Fredric Brown. I have particularly fond memories of several of his SF classics, such as Martians, Go Home. But I’m also fond of Brown as a mystery author. And, as a fan of Lewis Carroll, and the Alice in Wonderland books in general, I generally try to re-read one of my favorite Fredric Brown mysteries, Night of the Jabberwock, every few years. It’s funny, medium-to-hard-boiled, and I think its plot is both unique and brilliant. It’s not always available in the marketplace, but – as of May, 2019 – it looks like it’s out there at least as an e-book. So here’s what I had to say about Night of the Jabberwock when I reviewed it on the Classic Mysteries podcast several years ago. I’ve updated the information about the book’s availability, but otherwise it’s pretty much as I first wrote and recorded it.

Pulp Science Fiction (SF Magazine): The Debt by E. Mayne Hull is the third of her ‘Artur Blord’ series, and sees the return of the alien Skal from the previous story. This one starts with Blord coming upon a ravaged spaceship, where all the men are dead and there is only one hidden survivor, Ellen Reith. All the other women have been taken by the Skal’s henchmen to the Castle of Pleasure. Blord realises that they will soon deduce from the manifest that Reith is missing, and that they will return for her. He calls his office to organise a cover up.

Fiction(Paperback Warrior): Author Paul Bishop is a 35-year veteran of the Los Angeles Police Department. Receiving “Detective of the Year” accolades twice, Bishop starred as the lead interrogator on the ABC reality show “Take the Money and Run” developed by marquee name producer Jerry Bruckheimer. Along with his 15 published works, Bishop also is the writer and editor of the essential reference work “52 Weeks 52 Western Novels – A Guide to Six-Gun Favorites and New Discoveries”.

Sensor Sweep: Spears of Clontarf, Mech, Max Brand, Melee, Dresden Files published first on https://sixchexus.weebly.com/

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inexcon · 5 years

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RSI Comm-Link: Galactic Guide: Kallis System

This Galactic Guide originally appeared in Jump Point 5.2.

A Star Is Born

A whirling mass of potential, the recently discovered Kallis system has excited scientists and researchers the Empire over by offering them a rare opportunity: to witness the formation of a stellar system first hand.

Kallis was first visited in 2921 through its jump point connection with Oso, and initial ICC scans of the system revealed a G-class main sequence star anchoring nine protoplanets in various stages of development. Officially, the system’s discovery is credited to OB Station Chimera, the main research facility in Oso, but many still persist that it should be rightly attributed to former PFC Gabby Rifon.

Part of the Army security force detailed under the Fair Chance Act to protect Oso II from poachers, smugglers, and other trespassers, Rifon served as a long-range scan technician tasked with sweeping the system for errant ships. According to later interviews, Gabby was often “bored as hell” looking for ships hours at a time. Instead she would shrug off her duties and adjust the scan station to search for spatial anomalies. It was during one such unauthorized session that Gabby excitedly noted faint indications of a jump point. Informing her commanding officer of the discovery brought to light the fact that Gabby had been “wasting” hours during her shift. A week before the first ship would traverse the Oso-Kallis jump point, Gabby was dishonorably discharged for improper use of Army resources.

A Second Chance

Almost immediately, it was clear that Kallis (meaning “beloved” in a Martian dialect) was a system to be cherished. Once again, Humanity was getting a chance to witness the birth of a solar system firsthand, and scientists around the Empire pledged to not let the opportunity be squandered as it had been in Gurzil.

When Gurzil, a system still in its accretion phase, was discovered in 2539, scientific access was cut short due to security concerns. Upon the arrival of Xi’an ships in 2542, Gurzil was drafted into the UPE’s recently created Perry Line and set aside to protect Humanity’s borders. For the next several centuries, the system was off-limits to everyone but military forces.

Upon the dissolution of the Perry Line, the scientific community hoped that Gurzil would fall under the protection of the Fair Chance Act. However, various industries lobbied that centuries of military intervention had already damaged the system past its original scientific value and that it would better serve the credit-strapped Empire harvested of its valuable resources. In the end, the Senate voted against applying the Fair Chance Act to Gurzil and decided to allow both research and restricted mining in the system.

The scientific community was strongly motivated to make Kallis a different story.

A Front Row Seat

Within a month of the first scan report from Kallis being released, a bill was introduced on the Senate floor to place the system under the protection of the Fair Chance Act and, this time around, thanks to the pristine status of the system as well as a much more favorable Transitionalist-controlled chamber, the vote passed. The system at once became off-limits to commercial development and general traffic. From that point on, Kallis would be a sanctuary for research and discovery.

Under the guidance of a joint Army and Imperial Science and Technology Foundation governing body, the past two decades have already greatly expanded our knowledge and understanding of the universe around us. Undoubtedly, this is just the start of a trend that will continue for decades to come as research continues in Kallis around the clock and new generations of scientists eagerly await their turn to study nature’s mysteries first hand.

Kallis I

A loose fusion of recently merged planetary embryos, this small developing protoplanet has an aggressively eccentric orbit that has many researchers speculating whether it will break apart before it can establish itself.

Kallis Belt Alpha

As the gravity wakes from the nearby forming worlds tug at this dense orbiting collection of planetesimal, frequent collisions can cause chaotic motion and hazardous travel conditions anywhere nearby.

Kallis II & III

These two rocky terrestrial worlds are currently sharing an orbit, but it is estimated that one of the worlds will eventually pull in enough mass from the surrounding asteroid belts to “win the race” and subsume its sibling.

Kallis Belt Beta

A swirling mass of asteroids and dust grains, this belt is composed of materials with high melting points. Although there is enough mass here to compose three to five planets, orbital resonance with the surrounding worlds has prevented this from happening yet.

Kallis IV, V, VI

These three terrestrial worlds hold special interest for researchers as they have the greatest chance for the potential to one day support life. Kallis IV in particular has a striking resemblance to what many believe Earth must have looked like in its infancy. With active volcanoes possibly forming an atmosphere, researchers are looking into creating monitoring methods capable of lasting the lifetimes it will take to see it form. While Kallis V may not currently have any potential for developing an atmosphere, the swirl of debris orbiting its rocky surface indicates that it may soon have a series of moons to call its own. The least developed of the three, Kallis VI has a surface entirely composed of molten rock, giving it a planetary glow.

OB Station Gryphon

Located near the Kallis-Oso jump point, OB Station Gryphon was sealed late in 2922 and has served as the main operational hub for the entire system ever since. In order to preserve the living experiment that is Kallis and its protoplanets, construction throughout the rest of the system has been extremely limited. While there are small observation posts and scan satellites positioned throughout the system, if you are looking to refuel or restock, Gryphon is your only choice. All deliveries to the system are also routed through the station to ensure that the strict Fair Chance Act protocols are followed.

Despites the system’s focus on serious scholastic pursuits, it has begun to gain notoriety for the unique community that has developed over the years. Between the Army personnel stationed here to guard the system and the young grad students conducting research, the median age of the system’s small population is well under thirty. It is no wonder that the habitation decks can get a bit raucous as researchers (looking to blow off steam after days spent alone in remote obervational outposts) and soldiers (with extra energy after long shifts spent patrolling for trespassers) meet for drinks and heated debates. Toss into the mix a growing number of philosophers and spiritualists who have come seeking deeper truths about the universe’s origins, and you can see why OB Station Gryphon is a destination that’s not quite like anywhere else in the Empire.

Kallis VII & VIII

Located out beyond Kallis’ frost line, the system’s two giants formed from volatile icy compounds and captured hydrogen and helium. Kallis VII has drawn its fair share of exoclimatologists interested in studying its burgeoning storm systems, while Kallis VIII has proven exciting for those seeking to construct a more complete model regarding dynamics and chemistry in ice giant atmospheres.

Kallis IX

A small planetesimal in distant orbit around the sun, Kallis IX has the distinction of being the only celestial body in the system whose surface has been marred by orbital mining lasers, thanks to a joint UEE project with mining conglomerate Shubin Interstellar’s research department seeking to better understand this dwarf planet’s role in the system’s formation.

TRAVEL WARNING

All ships arriving in-system are expected to first stop at OB Station Gryphon to officially register. Traveling anywhere without having acquired the proper clearance is a sure way to draw the ire of the Army pilots on patrol here.

HEARD IN THE WIND

“I learned a ton during my two years in Kallis. Unfortunately, I forgot most of it thanks to my two years visiting Gryphon.”

– Dr. Wahid Allimon, Professor of Geology, University of Rhetor, 2945

“Even though my mom didn’t get the credit she deserved for discovering the system, there is some small consolation in that they named that station after her. Sure, if you ask they’ll say it’s named for one of those lion-bird things, but come on, it’s pretty clear that the scientists in charge were sticking it to those Army guys when they chose the name.”

– Alice Thomas, daughter of Gabby Rifon, 2943

http://bit.ly/2WK7vgl

#RSI.CommLink.Repost

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