- Pronouns
- Reader
inject him with a none addictive narcotic that damaged his motor control just enough that delicate thievery will be forever beyond him?
Lex Sedet In Vertice: A Supervillain in the DCU CK2 quest
- Thread starter King crimson
- Start date
- Superhero
- Location
- Singapore
Leave him alone but have him wake up every morning with an "We are watching you" note on his chest.
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
Hello, general update time. Update should land sometime tomorrow at the latest. Also I forgot to do this before but the vote's officially closed. Thank you all for your patience.
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
So funny, slightly disappointing news, I forgot the section talking about Count Vertigo. As such while I hope to get the update out today still, it might end up arriving tomorrow. Thank you for your understanding.
Interlude: Many Unhappy Returns
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
So the winning vote is as follows
[ ] [Role] Have Herbert Winston act as a private tutor for Emmylou Brown
[ ] [CC] Write-In: Seemingly accept Vertigo's concerns about Perdita's education and safety and Offer Dr. Moon's services as a researcher. Propose hosting the peace summit at Lexcorp Tower as a seemingly neutral mediator.
The interlude train continues ever onwards but this should be the last stop in the station before we get to world news. It has been a while since we've had one of those. There's a lot of stuff that will go into that next section and I look forward to getting things moving forward.
Regarding this entry I hope it doesn't come off as too disjointed. There were a lot of sections that were repeatedly recycled and reworked and I feel like the first part of this interlude is entirely incongruous with the back half of it. Despite this still being on the smaller side of things I hope this interlude is one people still enjoy and have fun reading. I struggled a bit with wrapping up some sections but I do think this is solid enough to get out.
Interlude: Many Unhappy Returns
Talia al Ghul
Talia was rather satisfied with the parameters she'd been given. Dealing with a mere petty thief like Andre le Blanc was beneath her purview but having free reign to deal with him as she saw fit so long as he was given reason to regret his life choices and served as a cautionary warning to others was freeing in and of itself.
Initially Talia had contemplated maximizing le Blanc's pain. It would've been simply to destroy the reputation of being a gentleman thief he so prided himself on. An extra stolen art piece or two, some ill-gotten medical records and if she was feeling macabre a severed head, placed in Andre le Blanc's apartment would have been more than enough for Talia to destroy his reputation as a "gentleman thief". He'd go down as a vile craven charlatan and Talia would have been able to maximize his suffering.
However Talia quickly abandoned this line of thinking. Not only was it not conducive to serving as a cautionary warning, as framing someone inherently necessitated hiding one's involvement as much as possible, but while it might make le Blanc regret his life choices, it was also quite liable to earn some serious enmity on his part. It wasn't worth it on the off-chance he decided to get back at Alexandria later on down the line.
Instead she settled on her current plan of action. Talia had no doubt that some questions would be raised but warnings worked best when you outlined cause and effect for everyone to observe. As such a simple but effective method would be employed to ensure that everyone knew not to commit robberies in Alexandria.
It was child's play to track down le Blanc to Los Angeles. The thief wasn't the most skilled in covering his tracks and it was clear that to finance his lifestyle, he'd likely need some kind of fence to sell his stolen goods through which Talia could trace his location. As such Talia slowly winnowed down the places he could b before she found the house he was staying in. Apparently Andre le Blank had decided to rent some wealthy couple's summer home while he was in Los Angeles.
Talia snuck past the security system clad in a disguise meant to obscure as much of her figure as possible, but pointedly did not disable it. She'd need it for what was to come later. The bedroom was on the third floor and so Talia made her way into the house. A picked lock later and Talia was in the room. Le Blanc was sleeping which meant that Talia was going to have an easy time setting up. She opened the window of the bedroom and felt confident that it was the right size. It was time to act.
Talia struck fast, striking the sleeping thief directly in the gut. Le Blanc lurched to wakefulness through the pain but he was still disoriented. Talia dragged him out of the bed and quickly got the man in a hold with his arms twisted and taut behind him.
"There are consequences to stealing in Alexandria" Talia stated, giving the thief enough knowledge to know why she was here. Then in an instant, Talia threw Andre le Blanc out the open window and right onto the house owner's car. The alarm immediately began beeping and screeching. Talia strolled out of the building.
She briefly checked that le Blanc was still alive, and upon confirming that he was, pulled out a burner phone and called the police, informing them of the location of the house, before deliberately setting off the house alarm in addition to the sounds of the car alarm. Talia then left, knowing that there was a minimum of evidence that was actually usable but that the message would get spread.
Whilst she doubted the competence of the Los Angeles Police Department, they would definitely be able to put together enough clues that a woman was involved in the incident. This in turn would lead to them asking Andre le Blanc about her and the message would be sent. In a few days time Talia would find a journalist to tip off and have them show up to speak with Andre le Blanc in order to further spread the information. It was an interesting and ominous story and she had no doubt that it would spread given time.
The plan was simple elegant and effective and whilst Talia would have liked to have made a bigger show of it, a larger production meant more loose ends to tie up else they link back to herself or LexCorp. Andre le Blanc would come out of this but she doubted it would be easy to forget being defenestrated and spending months in recovery. Talia had kept the cruelty to a minimum to ensure that no one felt sympathy for him or made catching his assailant a priority and so Andre le Blanc might eventually return to a life of crime. That being said he'd always sleep with one eye open and Talia doubted he would ever steal from Alexandria ever again.
Talia was satisfied with the way this assignment had been concluded, even if the work itself was beneath her. She'd demonstrated what she could do and that she was capable of weighing numerous parameters and making the choice that would be most beneficial given the circumstances. As such Talia hoped that she would be done with these tasks and show that she could be trusted as even with near total freedom to handle things as she chose, she demonstrably didn't do anything that might compromise LexCorp. Hopefully this would be the end of her dealing with tasks beneath her and she'd be let in on things she could truly learn from.
Lex Luthor
Supervillains were irritating. Sure watching Superman get ragdolled by them was immensely satisfying and you couldn't deny that certain supervillains were useful enough to be kept around but by and large they caused chaos and disrupted the safety and stability of your city. As such you'd generally prefer to remove or coopt them when possible.
Carol's latest success in superheroics had resulted in you dealing with a fairly substantial number of supervillains that you now needed to be rid of. The regular criminals and the survivalists were promptly shipped off to an appropriate mundane prison but the rest would need to be dealt with in due time. Of particular note was the remnants of the Voodoo crew, Earthquake and Rainmaker.
Your first port of call was Bialya, as Queen Bee could potentially make a lot of use off of them. Queen Bee was not interested in most of your captured supervillains but she did want Rainmaker brought over. It made sense, for a north African country, the ability to produce massive amounts of water on command was incredibly useful and as such that was who she wanted sent over.
And so in the inaugural use of the zeta beam transmat stations, Rainmaker was sent over to Bialya so that Queen Bee could go and make use of him and his capabilities. However that left you with a good number of them to get rid of. It took a fair bit of clandestine communication with Eiling but eventually you managed to find a government facility that would take on the remaining superpowered individuals you had in custody and hopefully keep your name as off the books as possible.
It wasn't perfect but it didn't need to be, you simply needed to get rid of the supervillains and not get caught with them in your custody any quicker than was absolutely necessary.
Diana Prince
Diana had been kept very, very busy as of late. The situation was that for all the work she'd put into trying to get ahead of the curve regarding metahumans, there was too much needed to be regulated and monitored and dealt with. Lex solved most of her budgetary and equipment concerns but even still the amount of matters she had to handle was constantly expanding.
Diana still was keeping everything under control and handling things well enough but the reality was that the DOMA needed to expand and adapt to meet these new challenges. The new West Coast school for metahumans was simple enough to get the ball rolling on, and Lex remained amicable and helpful when it came to getting the resources and materials in order.
His request that the school be named after his grandmother was a minor thing in the end. It would clearly signal that they were working together but Diana wasn't exactly trying to hide that from the world with how much she had already leaned on his backing and assistance. It might even make some people more wary of crossing her. After all Diana had no intention of asking Lex to reduce how much business he did with the government but if people thought she was able to convince Lex to engage in retaliatory behavior on her behalf, that might reduce the number of political games people tried to play.
Of course not everything was flowing so smoothly. Diana had spoken to Tala briefly about attempting to create some kind of centralized school or location for magic users but Tala promptly shut that idea down, citing that not only would it be dangerous and difficult to get magic users to agree, but collecting a large number of magically potent but inexperienced individuals was just asking for an attack or ritual of some kind as it would provide a very tempting target to certain powerful but ethically lacking entities. It was a shame but Diana would have to shelve that idea.
Speaking of Tala, the other woman had been heavily working on the potential Trigon problem. Lex claimed to have things mostly under control and Tala had worked with the young woman, but that didn't mean they weren't making their own preparations. Beyond the usual wards and weapons, Tala had been reaching out to various demons in an attempt to get them to counteract Trigon. It was risky business as far as Diana understood it, but Tala was an expert and it became increasingly clear that no one wanted Trigon loose on earth.
Beyond that Diana was meeting with Amanda Waller a lot more. The head of ARGUS had grown increasingly interested in recruiting from the programs Diana had set up and currently was talking to her about offering some kind of contract for powerful metahumans to agree to work for ARGUS upon completing their education and the insertion of more combat related protocol in the schools curriculum. Diana was against this, she didn't want the children she was teaching to be conscripted but at the same time she couldn't reject Amanda outright or prevent people from choosing what might be a good option for them. As such they were currently negotiating things.
In the end there was always more work to do. The school on the west coast would likely be built without too much difficulty and so Diana could afford to prioritize other work.
Cassandra Luthor
"I see" Father responded, seeming as though he believed Count Vertigo's lies about the princess of Vlatava's obligations. It was likely because he didn't see it as worthwhile to call out the lie. After all if Vertigo couldn't tell that he'd been seen through, he'd continue to lie and squirm in such an obvious manner. Better not to correct him and give him a chance to improve.
"I am willing to host the peace summit at LexCorp Tower to act as a seemingly neutral mediator" Father continued "Even if that doesn't alleviate your concerns with Perdita I'm sure it would assist in ensuring that the talks remain productive and get us what we want"
Cassandra read the relief coming off of Count Vertigo but the minute tenseness he still carried showed that he was worried about Father's involvement.
"Thank you for your understanding, I'm afraid Perdita would be unable to leave the palace for any extended period of time, though I appreciate the offer" Count Vertigo answered "As for hosting the peace talks in LexCorp tower I'm not so sure that would be a good idea"
Cassandra leaned in to get a better look at Count Vertigo to see what exactly he was thinking.
"Flying to Metropolis would require all the relevant parties to cross the Atlantic Ocean which would make things difficult" Count Vertigo continued truthfully. It wasn't a trick or a lie, the Count was just nervous about denying Father what he wanted, even if he did have a legitimate reason this time. Cassandra smirked. Good she wanted him to be more afraid.
Father seemed unmoved by this as he provided his own alternative option.
"Perhaps then the LexCorp building in Austria might be better served to facilitate this exchange?" Father queried. "It's still on neutral ground and it's significantly closer than Metropolis"
Count Vertigo considered the deal. Cassandra saw that he was comfortable once again. It somewhat irked her but she'd squash the childish annoyance she felt when she saw the idiotic nobleman think he was safe and superior. Father was demonstrating a lesson here and she was determined to pass with flying colors. She continued to make notes regarding her assessment.
"That would likely work" Count Vertigo admitted "I'll check with the Markovians but I have no objections to the matter"
"Excellent" Father responded. The conversation meandered a bit and Cassandra was sure to note all of Vertigo's tells. He wasn't lying and for now at least the man felt safe. It made it easy to direct him and Father had likely already gained access to what he wanted. mediating the peace negotiations gave Father a large amount of control over how things would go and would provide him with access to the Markovians. As such if Count Vertigo ever proved to be a liability, the Markovians likely could be easily recruited in order to remove him.
"I will say that I'd like to offer the services of one Dr. Moon" Father stated as the conversation turned "The man is a surgeon but he's very clever and would be more than happy to get involved in your quixium experiments"
Cassandra suppressed a rather vicious grin. She was happy that they were getting rid of Dr. Moon. The fool wanted to cut open Jinx and scared Snowy. If she could get away with it, Cassandra would have beaten him to death but for a while he'd been useful. This was more satisfying though. Count Vertigo and Dr. Moon deserved each other and this way Father could have the insignificant aristocrat thank him for taking their garbage and owe him a favor for it. And Moon wouldn't be able to complain about his new boss since he was getting what he claimed he wanted. Cassandra couldn't wait until one of the two pushed too far and they blew up, it was going to be delightful knowing that two people she disliked were going to hurt each other and not know LexCorp was behind it.
Count Vertigo agreed and Cassandra made a note to herself on what she could pull from this. Massaging the ego of wretches like Vertigo was disgusting but it made it so much easier to get subtle and satisfying crucial victories later. Cassandra had learned plenty.
As the aristocrat left back to his country, Father called Cassandra over to share her observations with him. Now was the time for Cassandra to prove her worth.
"His cane doubles as a sword" Cassandra decided to open her observations with something interesting that Father might not have observed "every time he got nervous his fingers would twitch towards it but he'd suppress his instincts, no doubt due to knowing what would happen if he drew it in here"
Father nodded for her to elaborate.
"I don't like him" Cassandra elaborated "He dismissed me as not worth considering and thought he was better than me. He's afraid of you and of offending you but he disregards, dislikes and disparages me"
Cassandra took a moment to consider her next words.
"I don't like it and I don't like him but his arrogance caused him to underestimate me and so I see the benefit in it" Cassandra explained, hopefully demonstrating that she was mature. Sure she might have fun tormenting those she disliked but Father should know that she was more than capable of controlling herself.
"He lied to you multiple times, most notably about his niece. He gave excuses and while he was nervous and afraid of being seen through he was relieved when you didn't press forward on it" Cassandra continued "He left thinking he'd gotten everything he wanted and that he'd managed to persuade you not to do anything that wouldn't benefit him"
"And what of his viability as an ally?" Father probed, testing Cassandra's assessment further.
"I made further notes regarding his mentality and ultimately while I can see why he would be useful he's not to be trusted" Cassandra explained "He's too fearful and too ambitious. He can be kept in line and made useful but contingencies almost certainly need to be made to prevent him from attempting to turn on us. For now he's aware that LexCorp could crush him and his country but if that were ever to change he'd almost certainly immediately turn on us. I'd recommend keeping him as an ally while he's still useful and then cutting ties and removing or replacing him with someone more useful later on"
"That broadly aligns with my own observations" Father said, accepting Cassandra's assessment "Though you're far more focused on his potential threat than I would be"
"I thought that's what today's lesson was about" Cassandra admitted, causing Father to demonstrate that his interest had been piqued.
"It's about placating an ambitious potential threat in order to make them more useful and malleable to manipulation and lead them to underestimate you later on down the line" Cassandra continued "You let him believe that he had successfully lied to you, let him feel like he had control of things and that he managed to talk you out of things and in exchange you got him comfortable and willing to give you things while also disposing of a potential liability. This was a lesson both in asset management and in how to neutralize someone without ever letting them know you did so"
Father smiled and praised Cassandra's assessment. Cassandra beamed with happiness. Now he had to know that she could handle these things. She might hate the people she'd need to interact with but she understood what to do and how to handle them. Father could trust her to take on more responsibilities as his heir.
She'd passed this test and if she was given the opportunity to attend the peace negotiation, she'd pass that test as well.
Helena Bertinelli
Helena was happy. It had taken decades but she'd finally had her revenge and it was oh so sweet. Helena popped a bottle of a nice red wine and began to celebrate. Yes the death of Mandragora was more than enough cause for Helena to indulge a bit. She wouldn't go wild, she was still living in the guest room of Selina Kyle's house.
The other woman had proven instrumental to the success of her revenge and Helena didn't want to be a poor houseguest. She could get shitfaced back in Metropolis if she really felt like it. The euphoria from finally succeeding was tantalizing. Admittedly it wasn't the climactic showdown Helena had long envisioned, and she didn't get to see Mandragora die before her, but the thought of Mandragora dying because of near literal rat poison was satisfying in its own right.
When Helena had arrived in Gotham she'd been ready to once more canvas the streets in search of them but instead Selina had managed to get Helena to wait. The Huntress moving around would be liable to spook the criminals but Catwoman was a more known quantity. Helena had agreed to be patient. Selina had initially not been able to pin down where Mandragora was either but had then come up with an alternative strategy.
Strangely enough it started with Helena getting a new job. Selina had found an Italian restaurant that was often used by mobsters to discuss things on neutral grounds. Helena then applied for a job there as a waitress and after passing a basic background check on her false ID, Helena had a job. She worked at the restaurant for a few weeks, not long enough to become a well known figure, but known enough that the other staff would recognize and vouch for her. Helena did not enjoy working in the service industry, much less when it came to serving literal mobsters but the need to succeed in her vengeance outweighed personal enjoyment.
At the same time Selina put out feelers and managed to arrange a covert meeting with Mandragora. The entire thing was kept clandestine as it was seemingly to discuss the viability of his portion of Cosa Nostra working with the Menagerie to ensure that he became the dominant power amongst the old school Italian mobsters. Obviously Mandragora didn't want anyone to know of his treachery and so it was assured that no one save his closest lieutenants would know that Mandragora had even met with Selina Kyle.
Selina and Mandragora talked over dinner and ever so coincidentally Helena was their waitress. It was tempting to attempt to physically kill him but with his bodyguards present and his paranoia, it was likely Mandragora would survive a direct attack. As such Helena stuck to the plan. Rather than a physical assault, Helena instead placed Thallium in his food, knowing that the flavor would be very easily disguised.
As the corpulent gangster ate and the discussions ultimately lead nowhere Helena couldn't help but smirk. She might not have been able to calculate the dosage perfectly but in a day or so Mandragora would have stomach pains and in a week or so he'd be dead. In order to build up a potential alibi, Helena continued to work at the restaurant for a few more weeks before eventually quitting, citing harassment from customers as her reason for quitting.
And now the job was done. The kill was later confirmed when Helena found Mandragora's death in the newspaper, though the obituary listed his cause of death as being a housefire. Leonard Fiasco did good work apparently. He was currently the weak link that Batman might be able to go after, but if Fiasco squealed then his entire business was over and Helena would long be out of Gotham by then.
It was satisfying and freeing to know that finally, finally she'd avenged her family and killed the treacherous bastard who'd had them all gunned down. It had taken decades but finally it was done.
[ ] [Role] Have Herbert Winston act as a private tutor for Emmylou Brown
[ ] [CC] Write-In: Seemingly accept Vertigo's concerns about Perdita's education and safety and Offer Dr. Moon's services as a researcher. Propose hosting the peace summit at Lexcorp Tower as a seemingly neutral mediator.
The interlude train continues ever onwards but this should be the last stop in the station before we get to world news. It has been a while since we've had one of those. There's a lot of stuff that will go into that next section and I look forward to getting things moving forward.
Regarding this entry I hope it doesn't come off as too disjointed. There were a lot of sections that were repeatedly recycled and reworked and I feel like the first part of this interlude is entirely incongruous with the back half of it. Despite this still being on the smaller side of things I hope this interlude is one people still enjoy and have fun reading. I struggled a bit with wrapping up some sections but I do think this is solid enough to get out.
Interlude: Many Unhappy Returns
Talia al Ghul
Talia was rather satisfied with the parameters she'd been given. Dealing with a mere petty thief like Andre le Blanc was beneath her purview but having free reign to deal with him as she saw fit so long as he was given reason to regret his life choices and served as a cautionary warning to others was freeing in and of itself.
Initially Talia had contemplated maximizing le Blanc's pain. It would've been simply to destroy the reputation of being a gentleman thief he so prided himself on. An extra stolen art piece or two, some ill-gotten medical records and if she was feeling macabre a severed head, placed in Andre le Blanc's apartment would have been more than enough for Talia to destroy his reputation as a "gentleman thief". He'd go down as a vile craven charlatan and Talia would have been able to maximize his suffering.
However Talia quickly abandoned this line of thinking. Not only was it not conducive to serving as a cautionary warning, as framing someone inherently necessitated hiding one's involvement as much as possible, but while it might make le Blanc regret his life choices, it was also quite liable to earn some serious enmity on his part. It wasn't worth it on the off-chance he decided to get back at Alexandria later on down the line.
Instead she settled on her current plan of action. Talia had no doubt that some questions would be raised but warnings worked best when you outlined cause and effect for everyone to observe. As such a simple but effective method would be employed to ensure that everyone knew not to commit robberies in Alexandria.
It was child's play to track down le Blanc to Los Angeles. The thief wasn't the most skilled in covering his tracks and it was clear that to finance his lifestyle, he'd likely need some kind of fence to sell his stolen goods through which Talia could trace his location. As such Talia slowly winnowed down the places he could b before she found the house he was staying in. Apparently Andre le Blank had decided to rent some wealthy couple's summer home while he was in Los Angeles.
Talia snuck past the security system clad in a disguise meant to obscure as much of her figure as possible, but pointedly did not disable it. She'd need it for what was to come later. The bedroom was on the third floor and so Talia made her way into the house. A picked lock later and Talia was in the room. Le Blanc was sleeping which meant that Talia was going to have an easy time setting up. She opened the window of the bedroom and felt confident that it was the right size. It was time to act.
Talia struck fast, striking the sleeping thief directly in the gut. Le Blanc lurched to wakefulness through the pain but he was still disoriented. Talia dragged him out of the bed and quickly got the man in a hold with his arms twisted and taut behind him.
"There are consequences to stealing in Alexandria" Talia stated, giving the thief enough knowledge to know why she was here. Then in an instant, Talia threw Andre le Blanc out the open window and right onto the house owner's car. The alarm immediately began beeping and screeching. Talia strolled out of the building.
She briefly checked that le Blanc was still alive, and upon confirming that he was, pulled out a burner phone and called the police, informing them of the location of the house, before deliberately setting off the house alarm in addition to the sounds of the car alarm. Talia then left, knowing that there was a minimum of evidence that was actually usable but that the message would get spread.
Whilst she doubted the competence of the Los Angeles Police Department, they would definitely be able to put together enough clues that a woman was involved in the incident. This in turn would lead to them asking Andre le Blanc about her and the message would be sent. In a few days time Talia would find a journalist to tip off and have them show up to speak with Andre le Blanc in order to further spread the information. It was an interesting and ominous story and she had no doubt that it would spread given time.
The plan was simple elegant and effective and whilst Talia would have liked to have made a bigger show of it, a larger production meant more loose ends to tie up else they link back to herself or LexCorp. Andre le Blanc would come out of this but she doubted it would be easy to forget being defenestrated and spending months in recovery. Talia had kept the cruelty to a minimum to ensure that no one felt sympathy for him or made catching his assailant a priority and so Andre le Blanc might eventually return to a life of crime. That being said he'd always sleep with one eye open and Talia doubted he would ever steal from Alexandria ever again.
Talia was satisfied with the way this assignment had been concluded, even if the work itself was beneath her. She'd demonstrated what she could do and that she was capable of weighing numerous parameters and making the choice that would be most beneficial given the circumstances. As such Talia hoped that she would be done with these tasks and show that she could be trusted as even with near total freedom to handle things as she chose, she demonstrably didn't do anything that might compromise LexCorp. Hopefully this would be the end of her dealing with tasks beneath her and she'd be let in on things she could truly learn from.
Lex Luthor
Supervillains were irritating. Sure watching Superman get ragdolled by them was immensely satisfying and you couldn't deny that certain supervillains were useful enough to be kept around but by and large they caused chaos and disrupted the safety and stability of your city. As such you'd generally prefer to remove or coopt them when possible.
Carol's latest success in superheroics had resulted in you dealing with a fairly substantial number of supervillains that you now needed to be rid of. The regular criminals and the survivalists were promptly shipped off to an appropriate mundane prison but the rest would need to be dealt with in due time. Of particular note was the remnants of the Voodoo crew, Earthquake and Rainmaker.
Your first port of call was Bialya, as Queen Bee could potentially make a lot of use off of them. Queen Bee was not interested in most of your captured supervillains but she did want Rainmaker brought over. It made sense, for a north African country, the ability to produce massive amounts of water on command was incredibly useful and as such that was who she wanted sent over.
And so in the inaugural use of the zeta beam transmat stations, Rainmaker was sent over to Bialya so that Queen Bee could go and make use of him and his capabilities. However that left you with a good number of them to get rid of. It took a fair bit of clandestine communication with Eiling but eventually you managed to find a government facility that would take on the remaining superpowered individuals you had in custody and hopefully keep your name as off the books as possible.
It wasn't perfect but it didn't need to be, you simply needed to get rid of the supervillains and not get caught with them in your custody any quicker than was absolutely necessary.
Diana Prince
Diana had been kept very, very busy as of late. The situation was that for all the work she'd put into trying to get ahead of the curve regarding metahumans, there was too much needed to be regulated and monitored and dealt with. Lex solved most of her budgetary and equipment concerns but even still the amount of matters she had to handle was constantly expanding.
Diana still was keeping everything under control and handling things well enough but the reality was that the DOMA needed to expand and adapt to meet these new challenges. The new West Coast school for metahumans was simple enough to get the ball rolling on, and Lex remained amicable and helpful when it came to getting the resources and materials in order.
His request that the school be named after his grandmother was a minor thing in the end. It would clearly signal that they were working together but Diana wasn't exactly trying to hide that from the world with how much she had already leaned on his backing and assistance. It might even make some people more wary of crossing her. After all Diana had no intention of asking Lex to reduce how much business he did with the government but if people thought she was able to convince Lex to engage in retaliatory behavior on her behalf, that might reduce the number of political games people tried to play.
Of course not everything was flowing so smoothly. Diana had spoken to Tala briefly about attempting to create some kind of centralized school or location for magic users but Tala promptly shut that idea down, citing that not only would it be dangerous and difficult to get magic users to agree, but collecting a large number of magically potent but inexperienced individuals was just asking for an attack or ritual of some kind as it would provide a very tempting target to certain powerful but ethically lacking entities. It was a shame but Diana would have to shelve that idea.
Speaking of Tala, the other woman had been heavily working on the potential Trigon problem. Lex claimed to have things mostly under control and Tala had worked with the young woman, but that didn't mean they weren't making their own preparations. Beyond the usual wards and weapons, Tala had been reaching out to various demons in an attempt to get them to counteract Trigon. It was risky business as far as Diana understood it, but Tala was an expert and it became increasingly clear that no one wanted Trigon loose on earth.
Beyond that Diana was meeting with Amanda Waller a lot more. The head of ARGUS had grown increasingly interested in recruiting from the programs Diana had set up and currently was talking to her about offering some kind of contract for powerful metahumans to agree to work for ARGUS upon completing their education and the insertion of more combat related protocol in the schools curriculum. Diana was against this, she didn't want the children she was teaching to be conscripted but at the same time she couldn't reject Amanda outright or prevent people from choosing what might be a good option for them. As such they were currently negotiating things.
In the end there was always more work to do. The school on the west coast would likely be built without too much difficulty and so Diana could afford to prioritize other work.
Cassandra Luthor
"I see" Father responded, seeming as though he believed Count Vertigo's lies about the princess of Vlatava's obligations. It was likely because he didn't see it as worthwhile to call out the lie. After all if Vertigo couldn't tell that he'd been seen through, he'd continue to lie and squirm in such an obvious manner. Better not to correct him and give him a chance to improve.
"I am willing to host the peace summit at LexCorp Tower to act as a seemingly neutral mediator" Father continued "Even if that doesn't alleviate your concerns with Perdita I'm sure it would assist in ensuring that the talks remain productive and get us what we want"
Cassandra read the relief coming off of Count Vertigo but the minute tenseness he still carried showed that he was worried about Father's involvement.
"Thank you for your understanding, I'm afraid Perdita would be unable to leave the palace for any extended period of time, though I appreciate the offer" Count Vertigo answered "As for hosting the peace talks in LexCorp tower I'm not so sure that would be a good idea"
Cassandra leaned in to get a better look at Count Vertigo to see what exactly he was thinking.
"Flying to Metropolis would require all the relevant parties to cross the Atlantic Ocean which would make things difficult" Count Vertigo continued truthfully. It wasn't a trick or a lie, the Count was just nervous about denying Father what he wanted, even if he did have a legitimate reason this time. Cassandra smirked. Good she wanted him to be more afraid.
Father seemed unmoved by this as he provided his own alternative option.
"Perhaps then the LexCorp building in Austria might be better served to facilitate this exchange?" Father queried. "It's still on neutral ground and it's significantly closer than Metropolis"
Count Vertigo considered the deal. Cassandra saw that he was comfortable once again. It somewhat irked her but she'd squash the childish annoyance she felt when she saw the idiotic nobleman think he was safe and superior. Father was demonstrating a lesson here and she was determined to pass with flying colors. She continued to make notes regarding her assessment.
"That would likely work" Count Vertigo admitted "I'll check with the Markovians but I have no objections to the matter"
"Excellent" Father responded. The conversation meandered a bit and Cassandra was sure to note all of Vertigo's tells. He wasn't lying and for now at least the man felt safe. It made it easy to direct him and Father had likely already gained access to what he wanted. mediating the peace negotiations gave Father a large amount of control over how things would go and would provide him with access to the Markovians. As such if Count Vertigo ever proved to be a liability, the Markovians likely could be easily recruited in order to remove him.
"I will say that I'd like to offer the services of one Dr. Moon" Father stated as the conversation turned "The man is a surgeon but he's very clever and would be more than happy to get involved in your quixium experiments"
Cassandra suppressed a rather vicious grin. She was happy that they were getting rid of Dr. Moon. The fool wanted to cut open Jinx and scared Snowy. If she could get away with it, Cassandra would have beaten him to death but for a while he'd been useful. This was more satisfying though. Count Vertigo and Dr. Moon deserved each other and this way Father could have the insignificant aristocrat thank him for taking their garbage and owe him a favor for it. And Moon wouldn't be able to complain about his new boss since he was getting what he claimed he wanted. Cassandra couldn't wait until one of the two pushed too far and they blew up, it was going to be delightful knowing that two people she disliked were going to hurt each other and not know LexCorp was behind it.
Count Vertigo agreed and Cassandra made a note to herself on what she could pull from this. Massaging the ego of wretches like Vertigo was disgusting but it made it so much easier to get subtle and satisfying crucial victories later. Cassandra had learned plenty.
As the aristocrat left back to his country, Father called Cassandra over to share her observations with him. Now was the time for Cassandra to prove her worth.
"His cane doubles as a sword" Cassandra decided to open her observations with something interesting that Father might not have observed "every time he got nervous his fingers would twitch towards it but he'd suppress his instincts, no doubt due to knowing what would happen if he drew it in here"
Father nodded for her to elaborate.
"I don't like him" Cassandra elaborated "He dismissed me as not worth considering and thought he was better than me. He's afraid of you and of offending you but he disregards, dislikes and disparages me"
Cassandra took a moment to consider her next words.
"I don't like it and I don't like him but his arrogance caused him to underestimate me and so I see the benefit in it" Cassandra explained, hopefully demonstrating that she was mature. Sure she might have fun tormenting those she disliked but Father should know that she was more than capable of controlling herself.
"He lied to you multiple times, most notably about his niece. He gave excuses and while he was nervous and afraid of being seen through he was relieved when you didn't press forward on it" Cassandra continued "He left thinking he'd gotten everything he wanted and that he'd managed to persuade you not to do anything that wouldn't benefit him"
"And what of his viability as an ally?" Father probed, testing Cassandra's assessment further.
"I made further notes regarding his mentality and ultimately while I can see why he would be useful he's not to be trusted" Cassandra explained "He's too fearful and too ambitious. He can be kept in line and made useful but contingencies almost certainly need to be made to prevent him from attempting to turn on us. For now he's aware that LexCorp could crush him and his country but if that were ever to change he'd almost certainly immediately turn on us. I'd recommend keeping him as an ally while he's still useful and then cutting ties and removing or replacing him with someone more useful later on"
"That broadly aligns with my own observations" Father said, accepting Cassandra's assessment "Though you're far more focused on his potential threat than I would be"
"I thought that's what today's lesson was about" Cassandra admitted, causing Father to demonstrate that his interest had been piqued.
"It's about placating an ambitious potential threat in order to make them more useful and malleable to manipulation and lead them to underestimate you later on down the line" Cassandra continued "You let him believe that he had successfully lied to you, let him feel like he had control of things and that he managed to talk you out of things and in exchange you got him comfortable and willing to give you things while also disposing of a potential liability. This was a lesson both in asset management and in how to neutralize someone without ever letting them know you did so"
Father smiled and praised Cassandra's assessment. Cassandra beamed with happiness. Now he had to know that she could handle these things. She might hate the people she'd need to interact with but she understood what to do and how to handle them. Father could trust her to take on more responsibilities as his heir.
She'd passed this test and if she was given the opportunity to attend the peace negotiation, she'd pass that test as well.
Helena Bertinelli
Helena was happy. It had taken decades but she'd finally had her revenge and it was oh so sweet. Helena popped a bottle of a nice red wine and began to celebrate. Yes the death of Mandragora was more than enough cause for Helena to indulge a bit. She wouldn't go wild, she was still living in the guest room of Selina Kyle's house.
The other woman had proven instrumental to the success of her revenge and Helena didn't want to be a poor houseguest. She could get shitfaced back in Metropolis if she really felt like it. The euphoria from finally succeeding was tantalizing. Admittedly it wasn't the climactic showdown Helena had long envisioned, and she didn't get to see Mandragora die before her, but the thought of Mandragora dying because of near literal rat poison was satisfying in its own right.
When Helena had arrived in Gotham she'd been ready to once more canvas the streets in search of them but instead Selina had managed to get Helena to wait. The Huntress moving around would be liable to spook the criminals but Catwoman was a more known quantity. Helena had agreed to be patient. Selina had initially not been able to pin down where Mandragora was either but had then come up with an alternative strategy.
Strangely enough it started with Helena getting a new job. Selina had found an Italian restaurant that was often used by mobsters to discuss things on neutral grounds. Helena then applied for a job there as a waitress and after passing a basic background check on her false ID, Helena had a job. She worked at the restaurant for a few weeks, not long enough to become a well known figure, but known enough that the other staff would recognize and vouch for her. Helena did not enjoy working in the service industry, much less when it came to serving literal mobsters but the need to succeed in her vengeance outweighed personal enjoyment.
At the same time Selina put out feelers and managed to arrange a covert meeting with Mandragora. The entire thing was kept clandestine as it was seemingly to discuss the viability of his portion of Cosa Nostra working with the Menagerie to ensure that he became the dominant power amongst the old school Italian mobsters. Obviously Mandragora didn't want anyone to know of his treachery and so it was assured that no one save his closest lieutenants would know that Mandragora had even met with Selina Kyle.
Selina and Mandragora talked over dinner and ever so coincidentally Helena was their waitress. It was tempting to attempt to physically kill him but with his bodyguards present and his paranoia, it was likely Mandragora would survive a direct attack. As such Helena stuck to the plan. Rather than a physical assault, Helena instead placed Thallium in his food, knowing that the flavor would be very easily disguised.
As the corpulent gangster ate and the discussions ultimately lead nowhere Helena couldn't help but smirk. She might not have been able to calculate the dosage perfectly but in a day or so Mandragora would have stomach pains and in a week or so he'd be dead. In order to build up a potential alibi, Helena continued to work at the restaurant for a few more weeks before eventually quitting, citing harassment from customers as her reason for quitting.
And now the job was done. The kill was later confirmed when Helena found Mandragora's death in the newspaper, though the obituary listed his cause of death as being a housefire. Leonard Fiasco did good work apparently. He was currently the weak link that Batman might be able to go after, but if Fiasco squealed then his entire business was over and Helena would long be out of Gotham by then.
It was satisfying and freeing to know that finally, finally she'd avenged her family and killed the treacherous bastard who'd had them all gunned down. It had taken decades but finally it was done.
Duke William of
I really need to finish my quests. :V
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- He/Him
It really helps humanize Luthor, especially when you know just how bad a parent Lex's father was. Really makes you wonder if this is Lex trying to get back at his dad by being a better father than he ever could.
- Location
- Singapore
Oh. He died shitting himself.
Something tells me the Batman Negaquesters aren't going to buy Mandragora taking the "Die in a house fire" action in their Rival reports. But from what I can tell it's a clean enough kill that and Batman's going to have a lot more important stuff on his plate that we might be able to slip by him.
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- Reader
Wonderful update. Cassandra was brilliant, and the back and forth between her and lex after the count left delightful. I like how our offloading of Moon is practically a built in carrot for Cassandra.
Just tossing him out of a window after infiltrating while he was asleep. Fantastic.
Good. It's handled, and whatever suspicions batman has, they'll be dropped to the wayside when Bane invades. By the time he picks them up again, any trail will be long cold and evidence scarce.
Just tossing him out of a window after infiltrating while he was asleep. Fantastic.
Good. It's handled, and whatever suspicions batman has, they'll be dropped to the wayside when Bane invades. By the time he picks them up again, any trail will be long cold and evidence scarce.
I wonder what's gonna happen to Mandragora's kid(if he exists yet)? He might grow up to be a mobster like he did in Batman Beyond but he's still a kid and well both whoever takes over Mandragoras crew and Mandragoras enemies have a vested interest in there not being any future "heirs to the throne".
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Lopezelpesado
Space worm best worm.
- Pronouns
- Something
He will go on an epic crusade for revenge for his father, continuing this endless cycle of revenge....
If he can figure out it wasn't an accident or which of his fathers enemies did him in. Being poisoned and having his death be portrayed as a house fire are less conspicuous then getting shot by a crossbow. And while he may suspect Huntress as a ruthless mobster Mandragora had a lot of enemies.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
...and in the same way it really highlights how much of a monster in human skin Cassandra is growing up to be. Seriously. She's going to be terrifying.
...and yeah. It's been made pretty explicit that part of what's going on is that Lex is counting coup over his dad by deliberately being a (much) better father.
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- Reader
I do like that she's being raised as a feather touch monster however.
rather than personally destroying people she hates the way most Cassandra's would, Lex has just taught her the beauty of intricately setting up horrible people to destroy themselves, and feel grateful for your part in arranging it. this is a Cassandra who will some day use dick grayson to expose and destroy some Argus facility, getting himself captured and committing numerous federal crimes as he goes. unwittingly taking out some insurance police Waller has against LexCorp in the process.
Sirrocco
Pedantic
So... meaningful take-homes as far as I'm concerned:
Talia did the thing with flying colors. I'm quite pleased. Literally no one is going to look at this chain of events and decide that it means that offending Lex Luthor is a good idea. In general, it supports the idea of playing her with a light hand. When we're deploying Talia, we want to express the general outcome that we'd like to see occur, and let her handle any and all details, especially when we're dealing with areas of her particular expertise. We get good results, and she's happier.
It's also the case that while she's reasonably happy for now, she wants to be put on to stuff that's a bit more... high-status? I'm not actually sure how to gauge what kinds of actions she would and would not want to be put on, but I think that part of it is that she wants to be on the stuff that's larger in scale... and probably the stuff that has a decently healthy DC to it. So... might be worth looking into lining up partners who she teams well with while still being the lead on the action.
***
Cassandra really is turning into a little monster, and I'm suspecting that it's rather too late to change that. Oh, well.
I do think that there'd be some benefit in teaching her to value good PR, though. Like, there's a reason that Lex plays things on the soft side, and while Cassandra grasps the idea of appearing to be innocent and such, she doesn't really seem to grok the long view on it. The facades she presents are really quite thin and brittle in places - made fragile by the fact that she assumes that so much of her opposition is made up of morons, and not really giving any respect to the idea that even morons can get lucky if you depend on their incompetence too much.
I think that to some degree she sees Lex being too successful at it, and assumes that it's easy, because the opposition never really scores any wins that she can perceive.
***
I feel like we've gone another half-step towards melting Amanda Waller's iceberg. Like, she has to be noticing how we keep doing stuff that she finds useful. Our fingerprints were all over the VAA, and also all over the metahuman schools, and... those things are handy, you know?
Amanda Waller negaverse is deeply suspicious, but they're also pragmatic. Potential enemies (domestic) of the Constitution who regularly create institutions that help them do their job are less bad than potential enemies who do not. So... they make unhappy noises every time they lower his priority on the Threat Board user-maintained infopost, but that doesn't mean that they don't do it.
Whether Lex or Superman should be higher on that board was a matter of rather serious debate recently. Superman "won" that argument.
On the bright side... well, Lex's little changes really are making it a lot easier to recruit superpowered assets... and, better yet, it looks like they have a line on getting a few superpowered assets who they can claim publicly. That has... value.
***
Getting Helena her revenge is great, especially when it's clear that her employment at LexCorp was a big part of helping her make it happen. Feeing good about that. Should we look into doing something nice for Selina Kyle? I seem to recall that we just spent our last favor with her and, honestly, I rather like having favors with her.
Talia did the thing with flying colors. I'm quite pleased. Literally no one is going to look at this chain of events and decide that it means that offending Lex Luthor is a good idea. In general, it supports the idea of playing her with a light hand. When we're deploying Talia, we want to express the general outcome that we'd like to see occur, and let her handle any and all details, especially when we're dealing with areas of her particular expertise. We get good results, and she's happier.
It's also the case that while she's reasonably happy for now, she wants to be put on to stuff that's a bit more... high-status? I'm not actually sure how to gauge what kinds of actions she would and would not want to be put on, but I think that part of it is that she wants to be on the stuff that's larger in scale... and probably the stuff that has a decently healthy DC to it. So... might be worth looking into lining up partners who she teams well with while still being the lead on the action.
***
Cassandra really is turning into a little monster, and I'm suspecting that it's rather too late to change that. Oh, well.
I do think that there'd be some benefit in teaching her to value good PR, though. Like, there's a reason that Lex plays things on the soft side, and while Cassandra grasps the idea of appearing to be innocent and such, she doesn't really seem to grok the long view on it. The facades she presents are really quite thin and brittle in places - made fragile by the fact that she assumes that so much of her opposition is made up of morons, and not really giving any respect to the idea that even morons can get lucky if you depend on their incompetence too much.
I think that to some degree she sees Lex being too successful at it, and assumes that it's easy, because the opposition never really scores any wins that she can perceive.
***
I feel like we've gone another half-step towards melting Amanda Waller's iceberg. Like, she has to be noticing how we keep doing stuff that she finds useful. Our fingerprints were all over the VAA, and also all over the metahuman schools, and... those things are handy, you know?
Amanda Waller negaverse is deeply suspicious, but they're also pragmatic. Potential enemies (domestic) of the Constitution who regularly create institutions that help them do their job are less bad than potential enemies who do not. So... they make unhappy noises every time they lower his priority on the Threat Board user-maintained infopost, but that doesn't mean that they don't do it.
Whether Lex or Superman should be higher on that board was a matter of rather serious debate recently. Superman "won" that argument.
On the bright side... well, Lex's little changes really are making it a lot easier to recruit superpowered assets... and, better yet, it looks like they have a line on getting a few superpowered assets who they can claim publicly. That has... value.
***
Getting Helena her revenge is great, especially when it's clear that her employment at LexCorp was a big part of helping her make it happen. Feeing good about that. Should we look into doing something nice for Selina Kyle? I seem to recall that we just spent our last favor with her and, honestly, I rather like having favors with her.
So anyone got an idea on what action to put Talia on next turn? If I remember right she want's to do some business stuff and is tired of being used as an intrigue hero for now.
Torgamous
Aspiring Gynoid
- Pronouns
- She/Her
She's tired of being used against minor nuisances.
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
So I think it's fair to bring up that Bruce was in Metropolis when this happened, in order for the trail not to already be cold, Robin needs to have investigated it.
Furthermore evidence is already scarce. There are a few ways to check for Thallium poisoning and burning the body kind of destroys all of them. You can't check the urine or blood, you can't do hair analysis (which is apparently a thing and the easiest way to check), and you can't check the liver. Starting the fire tips off that there was foul play but it makes it way harder to figure out what happened as it pretty much destroys all of the ways to confirm the cause of death. Batman could theoretically figure out who lit the fire that destroyed the body and try to get Fiasco to reveal who he worked for, but if Fiasco does that and it gets out, he's never working as a crime scene cleaner ever again.
As such it doesn't matter if Batman immediately investigates the matter, he's already dealing with an at least slightly cold case with very little evidence.
Cassandra almost certainly was going to turn out to be some kind of monster. Beyond the fact that Lex is also kind of a monster, Cassandra's a teenage girl who's legitimately better than most other people she meets and has been encouraged towards amorality. She spent half her life being trained to be a perfect assassin and martial artist, and the next half of her life learning to be a ruthless billionaire CEO.
The odds were always heavily stacked against her not becoming a monster, especially at this age.
Edit: I'd also like to note that Cassandra has some positive qualities as well. Off the top of my head even in this update part of the reason why Cassandra wants to beat Dr. Moon to death is because he wants to dissect Jinx. That's arguably a positive thing as Cassandra wants to protect her friend from someone she knows wants to do bad things to her. Cassandra's not all monster by any means and while I think it was an uphill battle for her to ever be a good person, she's still not as awful a person as a lot of the other characters in the quest.
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- Pronouns
- Reader
she expresses clearly that she wants access to the big stuff, and to learn. development actions, but not solo so her trait doesn't kick in, but definitely with her leading. diplomacy stuff. in particular allowing her to participate in Lex picking a presidential candidate to back. eventually, get her on expand Lexcorp and let her add some new businesses to LexCorps portfolio.
I bet action Talia most interested in is [ ] Create a worldwide spy network . We were reluctant to have her do it since she would maintain some degree of control over it though. Still if we really want to give Talia important position , then it is a way forward.
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- Reader
no. she already has this. she is already a world class spymaster. Talia wants to learn how to use the levers of politics and business to adjust the futures of places and organizations so she can begin to shift the world towards her vision of environmentally friendly society.
Hello @King crimson. I have a few comments and questions about the update.
1) Constanse and Viviane's trait subvote?
2) Information about the Church of Blood?
3) TImetable for an informational post about politicians of interest?
4) Centurion + Coldcast's character sheets?
5) DC to contact Congo, South Africa and India?
6) Did Helena's opinion of Lexcorp and Lex specifically improve?
7) When will Charles Mccnider's school have a career fair for us?
8) Selina owed us two favors, did we use both?
1) Constanse and Viviane's trait subvote?
2) Information about the Church of Blood?
3) TImetable for an informational post about politicians of interest?
4) Centurion + Coldcast's character sheets?
5) DC to contact Congo, South Africa and India?
6) Did Helena's opinion of Lexcorp and Lex specifically improve?
7) When will Charles Mccnider's school have a career fair for us?
8) Selina owed us two favors, did we use both?
See, the problem with getting Talia into business/politics LexCorp way is that she still operates incognito. There is not much that she can do on open diplomatic front if she continue to operate under alias. As for giving her a firm to control, no lesser firm would be able to manage things on the global scale necessary to implement politics she wants, although you are free to propose options here.
And it is not like she needs Lex's master class in business/politics. She had plenty of opportunities to try before and it is not something that she necessary needs LexCorp help for. Was not one of her alias already businesswoman or something?
Personally I took her mention of desire to learn new things as to be primarily related to study and implementation of new technology, since one of her previous stated goals was to modernize League of Shadows. And LexCorp is primary source of new tech. Creating spy organization using the latest of tech available (as opposing to how LoS operates) is exactly in her wheelhouse and allows her to learn new approaches as long as it is something she is interested in doing.
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- Pronouns
- Reader
we aren't throwing her back into intrigue after she has been getting annoyed at doing intrigue. doing business under an alias or assumed identity or patsy is perfectly doable. it's how we bought stars lab stock.