Lex Sedet In Vertice: A Supervillain in the DCU CK2 quest

What sort of tone should I shoot for with this Quest?

  • Go as crack fueled as you can we want Ambush Bug, Snowflame and Duckseid

    Votes: 30 7.7%
  • Go for something silly but keep a little bit of reason

    Votes: 31 7.9%
  • Adam West Camp

    Votes: 27 6.9%
  • Balanced as all things should be

    Votes: 195 50.0%
  • Mostly serious but not self-involvedly so

    Votes: 73 18.7%
  • Dark and brooding but with light at the end of the tunnel

    Votes: 12 3.1%
  • We're evil and we don't want anyone to be happy

    Votes: 22 5.6%

  • Total voters
    390
  • Poll closed .
Zod's Invasion - The Young Mistress (Part 1)
I promise I'll give a full review later (I'm currently at work).

Just as a preliminary thing, I found this to be really solid work. The omake does seem to be premised on something I don't really get. I don't really like or read many Xianxia stories so while I can get what it's kind of parodying, I don't have much knowledge of or appreciation for the genre so certain things land weirdly (like the whole tree thing makes me think of Tao Pai Pai from Dragonball which I don't think is the intended comparison).

That's not a bad thing and I think the omake still works really well, I just think its fair to point out that I am not the ideal audience for this as while I know enough (I think) to recognize what its going for, I also am not really super well-versed in the genre it seems to be making jokes about.

Very preliminarily it's good work that deserves 400 exp and a threadmark and I'll give those to you in a bit.
Probably late on Friday next week, not because I think that it'll accurately reflect how much people vote but because I'm fairly confident I will not be able to get things done before then (I've got a big conference coming up and I'm getting glasses for the first time next week so that's two days down on top of the usual law school rigor and my job).
I kind of want to grab a magic user at like the age of 8 and grind them like a motherfucker into being the second coming of Merlin
Did you know that there's a DC comics character named Timothy Hunter who's pretty explicitly "the second coming of Merlin"? He's also kind of based on Harry Potter and IIRC he's younger than Cassandra.

Edit: Alternatively if you want to get a really, really powerful magic user without as much training Lori Zechlin is also younger than Cassandra and remains one of the most contextually busted magic users out there.

Edit #2: These are not meant to be "you should do this" and more "from what you're describing it really sounds like you want character A or B"
 
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Mmm. I don't really mind Jason though if it is indeed difficult to do as you say then I'm not too sure. I also struggle to imagine Lex being proud of Jason like he is of Cassandra and I don't see him fitting in with Pamela and Kate. Maybe he could've been the Mercy of the next generation but Rose already does that... I mean I guess he could run serial peacemaking? I don't know. I struggle to fit him in the narrative inside my head.

I kind of want to grab a magic user at like the age of 8 and grind them like a motherfucker into being the second coming of Merlin, the magic-humanities!Cassandra to counteract the existing chi-science!Cassandra essentially.That's super tempting to me. I am extremely curious what this sort of character could end up accomplishing.

Otherwise I think that Cassandra is the heir and thus a generalist, and that any and all future kids will need to be heavily specialized in a field or a niche (Politician!Kid, Magic!Kid etc).
I kinda feel like the whole 'age 8' thing is a bit pointless in that we've never had that much trouble building up our kid heroes and while fun, the time we spend assigning them to learning actions is also time that they're not actually producing results on projects for Lexcorp.

Plus, if we were to look into 'specialist' kids, it seems like we've already got our magic people well fitted out. We pretty much already have two 'second coming of Merlin' kids in Raven and Jinx, with one a walking doomsday who can throw down with kryptonians and the other with enough potential to make Doctor Fate seriously concerned.

I do agree that Cassandra fits well as our 'generalist', she kinda has to be trained in a variety of roles to be the heir anyway. Given we have magic and chi covered, I'd be much more interested in a psychic kid hero (though Raven kinda fits the latter as a powerful empath), or more likely a technology based kid hero. It's really a shame Barbara Gordon kinda flew the coop as she'd have fit that role well.

There were other talented kids at the first Lexpo we could look back into though: of the kids we didn't recruit Natasha Irons (daughter of John Henry Irons and a future engineer/scientist) and Karen Beecher (was Bumblebee in the future and developed shrinking tech) are decent prospects.
 
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Jason would be my goal but in general a visit or tower would open up opportunities.

Originally I was thinking about him going chemistry, since he's pretty good with that in a lot of iterations, and I considered him being adopted by Pamela and Katherine as a Gotham orphan adopted by two Gotham born individuals.sort of a chemical/natural toxin deal.

I'm just not sure if they have the personality to handle him I guess. I'm not by any means opposed though.

I don't think the quest is going to run long enough for that to happen, nor would finding such a specific combination potential, right age, and malleability likely to be easy to track down. Your best bet would be to focus on building up raven, as she is the daughter of Trigon, who is himself brother to merlin's father. Raven has the greatest potential and learning capacity, and a lot of raw power besides. Getting her on a lot of learn different types of magic actions will allow for us to push her beyond her current limits.

Yeah that's probably fair. Raven doesn't quite have the personality I want. I don't want to repeat myself twice so please read the answer to the quote below.
Did you know that there's a DC comics character named Timothy Hunter who's pretty explicitly "the second coming of Merlin"? He's also kind of based on Harry Potter and IIRC he's younger than Cassandra.

Edit: Alternatively if you want to get a really, really powerful magic user without as much training Lori Zechlin is also younger than Cassandra and remains one of the most contextually busted magic users out there.

Edit #2: These are not meant to be "you should do this" and more "from what you're describing it really sounds like you want character A or B"

I didn't know that but apparently that kid has parents. Are you suggesting we murder them in cold blood and then worm our way into his heart as a replacement?! Sure, that could work. Lori Zechlin seems cool but if her only power is stealing powers that a bit iffy even if it's a super storng ability.

I guess I don't care as much about the raw magical talent. Well, I do, but it's not the absolutely highest qualifier for me as I really want them to have the personality and mindset to use darker, crueler magic like curses, cell manipulation and darker shades of necromancy while remaining practical and unapologetic about it in creative ways. I guess it stems from the lack of true "dark lord" quests and stories. To use the previous example of Darth Lord. I think that Sith Magic and alchemy are incredibly cool and varied powersets but I legitimately can't find any story featuring them as a core powerset. Another random fun fact is that arifacts like the darkstaff, which is a sentient magic staff, exist in Star Wars, so it's very much possible to create a "wizard in a tower" within that universe, but that's a bit aside from the point.

I also like the spellsword classification as well, so my ideal character would be a pragmatic-evil, charismatic sorccerer-emperor. I think that's cool.

I kinda feel like the whole 'age 8' thing is a bit pointless in that we've never had that much trouble building up our kid heroes and while fun, the time we spend assigning them to learning actions is also time that they're not actually producing results on projects for Lexcorp.

Plus, if we were to look into 'specialist' kids, it seems like we've already got our magic people well fitted out. We pretty much already have two 'second coming of Merlin' kids in Raven and Jinx, with one a walking doomsday who can throw down with kryptonians and the other with enough potential to make Doctor Fate seriously concerned.

I do agree that Cassandra fits well as our 'generalist', she kinda has to be trained in a variety of roles to be the heir anyway. Given we have magic and chi covered, I'd be much more interested in a psychic kid hero (though Raven kinda fits the latter as a powerful empath), or more likely a technology based kid hero. It's really a shame Barbara Gordon kinda flew the coop as she'd have fit that role well.

There were other talented kids at the first Lexpo we could look back into though: of the kids we didn't recruit Natasha Irons (daughter of John Henry Irons and a future engineer/scientist) and Karen Beecher (was Bumblebee in the future and developed shrinking tech) are decent prospects.

I detailed some issues above but I don't think that Raven and Jinx have the kid of expertise or mindset I'd personally like even if they for sure fit the talent bar. They also aren't Luthors so there's that.

I think that Cassandra is a super genius with science stuff so I don't absolutely care about it to the extreme but I can see someone arguing that Cassandra is more specialist in natural sciences and such so having a proper software and engineering expert is worthwhile.

I legitimately don't think that Lex can handle a psychic kid as his kid, which is to say raising and being with them and so on.

I'm also counting on Natasha to show up at Lexpo and us recruiting her to where I'd be bummed if that doesn't work out.
 
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I guess I don't care as much about the raw magical talent. Well, I do, but it's not the absolutely highest qualifier for me as I really want them to have the personality and mindset to use darker, crueler magic like curses, cell manipulation and darker shades of necromancy while remaining practical and unapologetic about it in creative ways.
I'd agree on that for Raven, but I'm genuinely surprised you don't think Jinx has the mindset for that kind of thing.

She's very cute in her interactions with Zatanna and Mick and so forth, but it's pretty clear Jinx both enjoys torturing people she dislikes beyond even the normal realm of practical jokes, and she has very little sympathy for anyone outside her friend group. She seems kind of a perfect fit for that and perfectly willing to learn that kind of thing - she even has special affinities for some pretty nasty magics.

I find it really doubtful we'd find anyone who is better suited who is actually controllable (Black Alice as an example would be valuable but she doesn't exactly fit the bill any better than Jinx), and I've no interest in trying to deal with someone who isn't controllable (like freaking Klarion if that's what you're picturing sorry-not-sorry). Pretty obviously, we don't want a 'sorcerer-emperor' who will want to oust Lex.
 
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I'd agree on that for Raven, but I'm genuinely surprised you don't think Jinx has the mindset for that kind of thing.
She already has a magic type for that kind of shit too. Her shadow magic was gained from being that used it to dominate the minds of all but a handful of people in metropolis, and to mutate the physical form of doctor fate. Doctor fate confirmed that she could end up more powerful than Karkull or whatever the proper spelling of his name is, and he took doctor fate, superman, jinx and siobhan to take down.
 
Mmm. I don't really mind Jason though if it is indeed difficult to do as you say then I'm not too sure. I also struggle to imagine Lex being proud of Jason like he is of Cassandra and I don't see him fitting in with Pamela and Kate.
While I'm not sure how likely we are to get Jason, especially since he may have already met Batman, but if we were I think he'd fit in pretty well with Kate and Pamela.

With them all being Gothamites they could bond over their shared experiences with the city, Kate and Pamela could sympathise with Jason's shitty life and Jason has at least some hobbies/talents in common with both of them, specifically martial arts and marksmanship with Kate and at least some amount of talent with chemistry with Pamela.
ed, I'd be much more interested in a psychic kid hero (though Raven kinda fits the latter as a powerful empath)
I think our best hope for a psychic kid would be to pursue the Mars stuff and hope we stumble across M'gann. Also if we want a psychic just in general Looker would be a pretty good grab.
 
I'd agree on that for Raven, but I'm genuinely surprised you don't think Jinx has the mindset for that kind of thing.

She's very cute in her interactions with Zatanna and Mick and so forth, but it's pretty clear Jinx both enjoys torturing people she dislikes beyond even the normal realm of practical jokes, and she has very little sympathy for anyone outside her friend group. She seems kind of a perfect fit for that and perfectly willing to learn that kind of thing - she even has special affinities for some pretty nasty magics.

I find it really doubtful we'd find anyone who is better suited who is actually controllable (Black Alice as an example would be valuable but she doesn't exactly fit the bill any better than Jinx), and I've no interest in trying to deal with someone who isn't controllable (like freaking Klarion if that's what you're picturing sorry-not-sorry). Pretty obviously, we don't want a 'sorcerer-emperor' who will want to oust Lex.

She already has a magic type for that kind of shit too. Her shadow magic was gained from being that used it to dominate the minds of all but a handful of people in metropolis, and to mutate the physical form of doctor fate. Doctor fate confirmed that she could end up more powerful than Karkull or whatever the proper spelling of his name is, and he took doctor fate, superman, jinx and siobhan to take down.

The problem with Jinx is that she's a dumb teenager. This isn't an insult but a description in that her personality isn't the sort of thing I'd want to stick the Luthor name on and she's too old to influence into that sort of role and she doesn't have the necessary child actions to see that sort of thing happen. She also already has her role too, and that sort of change would mess with the dynamics with Cassandra quite a lot. Jinx is just not a very good fit. If anything from what I found, she was raised specifically to be Cassandra's helper.

Black Alice as an example could work not because she's more talented or gifted but because she's younger and more malliable and much like Jinx was raised to be Cassandra's number two she could be raised into being someone who could stand by Cassandra as her sibling and equal. It's not really purely about power or talent (though that's a must too) as much as it is about personality and attitude which Jinx doesn't have.

I'm not sure any character quite fits that mold which is why I think that someone needs to be raised or influenced into that mold.

Also this entire talk about Jinx being talented in lots of magics is nice but she wasn't raised to have the kind of learning stat needed to fully capitalize on that and I don't see anyone clamoring to teach her magic and turning her into this uber magic threat. This entire thing seems very up in the air.

While I'm not sure how likely we are to get Jason, especially since he may have already met Batman, but if we were I think he'd fit in pretty well with Kate and Pamela.

With them all being Gothamites they could bond over their shared experiences with the city, Kate and Pamela could sympathise with Jason's shitty life and Jason has at least some hobbies/talents in common with both of them, specifically martial arts and marksmanship with Kate and at least some amount of talent with chemistry with Pamela.

Maybe. I just think that "they're from the same city" is a super shallow common denominator.
 
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The problem with Jinx is that she's a dumb teenager. This isn't an insult but a description in that her personality isn't the sort of thing I'd want to stick the Luthor name on and she's too old to influence into that sort of role and she doesn't have the necessary child actions to see that sort of thing happen. She also already has her role too, and that sort of change would mess with the dynamics with Cassandra quite a lot. Jinx is just not a very good fit. If anything from what I found, she was raised specifically to be Cassandra's helper.

Black Alice as an example could work not because she's more talented or gifted but because she's younger and more malliable and much like Jinx was raised to be Cassandra's number two she could be raised into being someone who could stand by Cassandra as her sibling and equal. It's not really purely about power or talent (though that's a must too) as much as it is about personality and attitude which Jinx doesn't have.
That does explain your reasoning a lot better.

Frankly, that sounds like a lot more effort and trouble than it's worth, I've no interest in playing Charlemagne and potentially having Lexcorp split into squabbling estates if it ever does look like Lex is incapacitated or dead. Given she is who we will be playing if Lex dies, Cassandra having an equal within the company is a fail state as far as I am concerned - she can have siblings but she must be the undisputed heir.

A large part of that is also just time investment - I love Cassandra both as a character and as a mechanical heir, but Lex has invested a LOT of effort action and time-wise throughout the game on her and you're talking about a character we'd probably want to invest about as much time into, then more time managing the interaction between her and Cassandra. Especially if sibling rivalry seems likely to involve magical curses and so forth. We saw how Ra's Al Ghul had to deal with multiple daughters; it wasn't pretty. Lex has actual world-conquering to do, he's not Gru from Despicable Me.

It's a fair idea and might make for interesting plot beats - King Crimson had some fun with the idea of Cassandra having siblings- but while I might vote for the curses/necromancy/etc and I might vote for Lex having other children I'm not really interested in voting for what you seem to describe.
 
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Are you suggesting we murder them in cold blood and then worm our way into his heart as a replacement?! Sure, that could work.
Not really, it was more just a comment meant to point out that if you're looking for a young magic user who's the "second coming of Merlin" DC comics has a less well-known character who fits the bill. It's less a suggestion of "you should do this" and more "here's a character people don't know that sounds like what you're looking for".
I guess I don't care as much about the raw magical talent. Well, I do, but it's not the absolutely highest qualifier for me as I really want them to have the personality and mindset to use darker, crueler magic like curses, cell manipulation and darker shades of necromancy while remaining practical and unapologetic about it in creative ways. I guess it stems from the lack of true "dark lord" quests and stories. To use the previous example of Darth Lord. I think that Sith Magic and alchemy are incredibly cool and varied powersets but I legitimately can't find any story featuring them as a core powerset. Another random fun fact is that arifacts like the darkstaff, which is a sentient magic staff, exist in Star Wars, so it's very much possible to create a "wizard in a tower" within that universe, but that's a bit aside from the point.

I also like the spellsword classification as well, so my ideal character would be a pragmatic-evil, charismatic sorccerer-emperor. I think that's cool.
I want to make it clear that this is not a recommendation that you should do this, but more me pointing out that you could do this, but rather than searching for a child you could just make a child. Morgaine Le Fey for example has proven fairly successful at making child homunculi that can then wield magic in some capacity.

If your goal is just "mindset" you might be better off straight up building the mindset from scratch.
Her shadow magic was gained from being that used it to dominate the minds of all but a handful of people in metropolis, and to mutate the physical form of doctor fate.
So that's not quite what Karkull did. Karkull wasn't "dominating the minds of all but a handful of people in Metropolis" in the sense that he was mind controlling them, instead he transfigured them into monsters and let the monstrous minds run on autopilot. He wasn't as actively coordinating and controlling his monsters as he would've if he was fully controlling them. He also didn't mutate the physical form of Dr. Fate. He used Jinx's chaos magic to suckerpunch Dr. Fate and disable him IIRC.

Additionally if you're crediting Karkull with his magical feats, I think plunging an entire city into darkness to block all natural light is pretty impressive and "assimilating someone else into his form to use their magic" (what he did to Jinx) is also pretty impressive.
 
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Non-Canon Omake: Mini-Golf Date New
So I promised the valentine's day omake and here it is. I hope you guys enjoy it. I pushed myself in a direction I felt a little less comfortable with but I'm glad that I was able to challenge myself as a writer. It was a struggle to have a story involving "dumb teenagers on a date" and not cross lines into tastelessness or crassness but I think I threaded the needle alright. Again I hope everyone enjoys this omake.

Non-Canon Omake: Mini-Golf Date
Cassandra Luthor
Naturally Cassandra aimed for perfection in all endeavors she engaged in. Perfection often wasn't achievable or quantifiable, but nevertheless she strove to get as close as possible. It was endemic to who she was and she refused to do any less.

This in turn frustrated her when she wasn't the best which in turn meant today had to go perfectly. She was currently behind in her latest competition with Bette Kane. Coming up with the best date possible should naturally be child's play, as Cassandra was without a doubt the smartest and the best looking, but Bette had started playing dirty.

A breakfast cooked by your partner was an area Cassandra was confident that she'd dominate in, cooking was just artisanal chemistry and she had an incredibly refined palate, but then Bette had pulled out the French maid costume and Cassandra had to concede that Bette had it wrapped up. Yes Cassandra could wear it better, but Bette didn't look bad in it and she was far more willing to engage in the behavioral parts that Cassandra wouldn't. And Cassandra couldn't deny that the behavior and flirtation was part of what made the performance so appealing and why the date had the impact it did on her. She'd give Bette the advantage for now but she was far from willing to concede defeat. Simply put Cassandra had to devise a date that was superior to what Bette had come up with thus far.

Cassandra had spend days brainstorming exactly what the optimal date might look like, and after a large amount of consideration she had come to a firm conclusion. A mini-golf date would be far superior to the shared breakfast date. This wasn't something inherently true but dates ought to be tailored for the individuals going on them. She and Bette were naturally competitive, constantly sharpening against one another like blades on a whetstone. Naturally they enjoyed this because they continued to seek each others company, so incorporating a competitive element into the date would only cause it to go better. Additionally mini-golf would enable them to show off their skills and would ensure that there was never a lull in conversation that was not intentional, as the state of the game would provide a constant easy icebreaker whenever they needed one.

Of course Cassandra would have to tailor the mini-golf experience to be the perfect most sublime mini-golf it possibly could be, but she was confident that the glories of a relatively low stakes competitive game that enabled them to observe and surpass one another would be far superior to Bette's previous planned date as on top of allowing for companionship and attraction, it would also enable them to function more naturally in their preferred dynamic. Truly mini-golf was a superior date.

Cassandra couldn't rely on preexisting mini-golf institutions. Her standards, and thus by extension Bette's required that they have the best possible mini-golf and as such Cassandra needed to handle the design of the courses herself. Naturally she'd delegated as necessary but by her own hand, the Grand Golf Gauntlet, had sprung into being. It was probably located in a suboptimal spot for commercial purposes but keeping things private suited Cassandra's purposes. Even if it wasn't profitable, the Grand Gold Gauntlet would serve its purpose well.

Cassandra surveyed her creation. A mere 18 holes would be insufficient for her oncoming engagement with Bette. Cassandra figured that 324 holes, 18 separate courses each with 18 holes of their own. It was absolutely state of the art in a way no other facility was. Robotic dinosaurs, miniature volcanos, actual labyrinths and even multi-layered courses were all present in the Grand Gold Gauntlet. Naturally each course was immaculately themed and no expense was spared on ensuring that this was the ideal mini-golf experience.

Of course it wasn't just the physical course that had to be perfect. There might be an expression that "you can't control the weather" but clearly those people weren't Cassandra, because she could. Countless drones were up in the air ensuring that the temperature and weather pattern today was perfect. Beyond that Cassandra had commissioned expertly a good number of clubs for both herself and Bette, though this was abnormal for mini-golf, and designed basic robotic caddies for the game. The facilities were made to include countless benches, a restaurant and a good number of bathrooms, all tailored to Cassandra's exact specifications. Absolutely everything with regards to the facilities would be perfect, approaching the platonic ideal of the greatest mini-golf experience.

Granted that wasn't the only preparations Cassandra had engaged in. This was still a date and naturally Cassandra intended to deliver on that front as well. Her body was already honed to not just a physical but also an aesthetic excellence, so naturally her sartorial selection was designed to further enhance things. Cassandra wasn't going to compromise winning in mini-golf with her choices but that didn't mean she couldn't emphasize her good qualities as well.

The black and gold collared polo shirt was tailored to cling tightly to her form, serving to highlight it as best as possible. It in no way restricted her breathing and motion and it left her arms bare to be flexed and posed as she pleased, ensuring that she'd be able to play optimally. At the same time Cassandra left enough buttons undone to show her collarbone, content to let her more feminine attributes be emphasized through the definition of the shirt and not through baring them to the world. She was going for attractive not tawdry and classless.

Of course the real highlight was with her glossy golden shorts. Cassandra rather liked her rear, and more importantly she knew that Bette liked it. As such if she wanted to win the date, she naturally had to emphasize her posterior in order to fully win over Bette. Years of dedicated training and diet had ensured that Cassandra managed to sculpt the ideal behind and so the shorts were naturally engineered and tailored to highlight that fact, clinging in such a way that emphasized the glory of Cassandra's rear. The shorts were Cassandra's ace in the hole for ensuring Bette was over the moon with this date and managed to thoroughly enjoy it.

Cassandra wore a pair of black and gold golf shoes in the style of sneakers, glossy and custom made for this very mini-golf date, and she rather liked the way her bare legs flowed between them and the shorts. Cassandra strutted before a mirror a few times before she was fully confident that she could fully achieve the effects she wanted to.

The outfit was completed with a pair of black synthetic leather golf gloves, to ensure optimal grip on the club. Cassandra tied back her hair into a ponytail and enjoyed watching herself as she tested how the outfit looked from multiple angles. It was a masterpiece and Cassandra knew that between her form and her attire, Bette would certainly recognize how beautiful and attractive Cassandra was and she didn't have to stoop to anything like a French maid outfit.

Cassandra finished her preparations and waited for Bette to arrive at the designated location. An automated limousine, complete with the finest amenities Cassandra could provide, ferried Cassandra's date to the Grand Golf Gauntlet. Cassandra was eagerly anticipating Bette's arrival, eager to prove the natural superiority of her date over Bette's.

As Bette stepped out of the limo, Cassandra was glad to see that her date had decided to make this a challenge, seeking to use her own attire to distract and fluster Cassandra. Cassandra was unshakeable but still she couldn't help but respect the move from Bette.

The yellow pleated skirt and the red halter neck top managed to emphasize Bette's assets but not in a classless manner. The swishing of the skirt would naturally draw the eye to the rear, especially when Bette swung with force. A similar tactic to what Cassandra had done with selecting the color of her shorts, and a tactic that wouldn't work, but one Cassandra couldn't deny had aesthetic appeal and was a smart move. Similarly the red halter neck top was form fitting enough that Cassandra could clearly see Bette's figure but only her shoulders were bared to the world. Interesting tactics.

The real interesting element was the white golf shoes and thigh high white socks. An attempt to emulate a schoolgirl uniform in the hopes that it might somehow distract Cassandra? Cassandra let out a grin. While she wouldn't deny enjoying the way her date dressed, it would take far more than mere allusion and suggestion to throw Cassandra off her game. Cassandra craved victory and as such had steeled herself for such tactics.

The white visor atop Bette's head indicated that she intended to take the mini-golf game seriously as well. Cassandra was glad, it wasn't fun if there wasn't a fight, even if Cassandra's victory was inevitable due to her inherent superiority. The conflict, the struggle and the back and forth, that was what Cassandra lived for and what made these dates so exciting.

Cassandra signaled for the robotic caddies to follow her as she sashayed over to Bette. Bette let out a confident grin, eager for the oncoming challenge.

"Cassie!" Bette exclaimed as she flicked back her golden tresses. Nobody else was allowed to call Cassandra by the diminutive 'Cassie', that was a privilege denoted solely to her date. "You really went all out on the mini-golf course"

"Of course" Cassandra responded "Only the best will do if I'm to prove I'm better at making dates, it'd be an insult to hold back when competing with you"

"Is that an acknowledgement of my capabilities, the great princess Luthor recognizes my talents?" Bette mocked, laying a hand against her chest, emphasizing the swell of her breast. Cassandra didn't miss a beat.

"I wouldn't agree to date you if I didn't think you could meet the minimum of my standards" Cassandra fired back confidently, jutting out a hip to emphasize her rear a bit. "But you're about to learn that there's a vast universe of difference between the floor of my expectations and the ceiling."

Bette only grinned even more, though Cassandra noted how her attention darted to where Cassandra had directed it. The shorts worked and Cassandra fully intended to ruthlessly exploit that.

"You talk a big game Cassie, just don't get too frustrated when I prove superior in dating and in mini-golf" The blonde bragged.

"My dear Bette, I always enjoy your fighting spirit and relish the chance to show you your place is beneath me" Cassandra rejoined before stepping forward and taking Bette's hand so that she could lead her to the first hole of the first course.

Cassandra enjoyed the interlocking of their fingers as she lead Bette in what would prove that Cassandra was superior at arranging and organizing dates. Of course Bette was wonderful in that she continued struggling in the face of Cassandra's superiority.

"I could hold hands and lead better than that" Bette claimed.

Cassandra bared her teeth in a grin as the date began perfectly. It was so on, Cassandra could easily prove superior in taking her partner's hand and leading them to a destination.

Raven
Raven didn't really have much time to date. Romantic entanglements were fine in theory and some deep dark part of herself she wouldn't admit to couldn't help but yearn for and appreciate the idea of romance, the reality was that Raven had other things to deal with. Frankly Raven was fine with that. She had friends and a future and that was more than enough for her.

Of course being friends with Jinx meant that things never got too dull.

"So Cass is on another date with Bette" Jinx stated "Which means I'm on overwatch duty, you want to tag along?"

Raven was a touch confused.

"Who's Bette?" Raven asked "And why exactly are you spying on this date?"

"Bette Kane is Cassandra's rich blonde rival turned girlfriend from Gotham. She's real, she somehow matches Cass's freak and they've been dating since Cass turned 16 or so" Jinx calmly fired back. "And I'm not spying on them, I'm providing overwatch."

Raven raised an eyebrow in response. Jinx rolled her eyes in response.

"I'm there to make sure that nobody takes any pictures of the happy couple to sell to the tabloids while they're off doing their thing"

That fully clarified things, though Raven still had a question.

"Why exactly are you inviting me to this?" Raven asked. Jinx shrugged.

"Cass's dates are incredibly weird and I wanted someone to keep me company while I did my job" Jinx answered back.

"How weird can Cassandra's dates be? I doubt she'd appreciate your insinuations, especially when she takes such steps to prevent others from casting judgement on her relationship." Raven retorted with a hint of incredulity.

Jinx scoffed in response.

"Rae, Cass is my best friend so believe me when I say her dates are weird" Jinx replied "The whole reason why she wants no pictures taken of her on this date is because she knows her dates are weird."

Raven still stood her ground, "They can't be that weird, you're clearly just exaggerating because you're bored and want me to tag along"

Jinx grinned and the albino witch's eyes lit up with glee as she realized that Raven was certain that Cassandra's dates weren't that strange. Raven knew Cassandra Luthor well enough, sure she was a little odd but she was a bit of a cold fish more than anything else and was far too composed and precise to get carried away when dating someone else.

"I'll buy you any book you want if you tag along with me in providing security and you're not weirded out by things."

Raven contemplated the offer for a moment. Sure she'd be wasting a Saturday but magic tomes were expensive and Jinx's offer to pay for a new grimoire was not one that came lightly. All Raven had to do was not get surprised by whatever nonsense Jinx was clearly exaggerating about here.

And so the day of the mini-golf date, Raven joined Jinx in sitting on a bench observing Cassandra interact with her date. They'd already scanned and patrolled the grounds and Jinx was keeping an eye on various drone feeds to ensure that no one else approached. The weather controlling drones ensured that it was a beautiful sunny day, and so far nothing had seemed to out of the ordinary.

Cassandra's attire was unusual for her, but most people dressed to impress their partner during a date, that was hardly strange. When Cassandra's pretty blonde girlfriend arrived for the date, Raven was absolutely certain that she was going to win that bet.

Then as the two walked towards the first course while holding hands, they abruptly stopped. Jinx perked up as she realized what was happening and began to narrate what was unfolding before Raven's eyes.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Ravens who are here with me during this gig, prepare to feast your eyes on a handholding match the likes of which you've never seen before" Jinx snidely announced.

"Blonde Bette provides the opening move as she goes for a full handhold. Will she get all five fingers? Yes she will and she couples that with a tug to pull her opponent closer to her." Jinx continued "But Bette better watch out as that crafty Cassandra counters with her a solid set of pinky links. Will less prove to be more or will Cassandra win out the day?"

Raven did her best not to let the confusion show as she realized that apparently Cassandra and her girlfriend were competing over holding hands.

"Bette hasn't thrown in the towel just yet as she comes up with her own counter to Cassandra's move. Girlfriend Kane wraps her arms around Cassandra's and leans into her shoulder, hoping the increased physical intimacy will allow her to steer her opponent into losing this match" Jinx continued to faux-announce. "But Cassandra escalates right back wrapping an arm around Bette's should and going for the unconventional move of holding Bette's right hand with her right. And in case that wasn't enough Cassandra proves that she's feeling bold today as she deliberately positions Bette to cop a feel of her butt."

Raven was weirded out but it was more due to Jinx's commentary than anything else.

"Your whole wrestling match announcer bit is weirder than what their doing." Raven interjected. "Do you seriously do that every time you get dragged to something like this?"

Jinx just grinned in response.

"No but it keeps me from getting bored and helps me win the bet by freaking you out." Jinx answered "And this was only the prelude to how weird it is going to get."

Cassandra Luthor
Cassandra was quite satisfied with the way things were going. Everything was proceeding according to plan and Cassandra was dominating in mini-golf on top of that. Initially they'd started off fairly even, each of them effortlessly nailing hole in ones, but as the dimensionality and obstacles escalated and they shifted solely to making one handed swings in less than five second of observing the course, Cassandra ended up pulling ahead. Bette still put up a valiant fight, it wouldn't do to make Cassandra's victory too easy, but she frankly couldn't keep up when the courses reached their maximum difficulty. Cassandra was more than a little pleased that it looked like today she'd be winning twice over.

"Cass" Bette called out "Would you mind helping me with my swing here? Ever since the giant brontosaurus I haven't quite been able to keep up"

Cassandra didn't let it show but the comment irked her. First of all, that dinosaur was clearly a diplodocus, not a brontosaurus, and she was halfway certain that Bette knew that. Secondly it wasn't like Bette to give up so easily. When Cassandra read her date's body language it read out as that she was feigning weakness and was feeling smug. Surely this was some kind of trap but Cassandra couldn't quite make out the angle just yet.

Still when dealing with a trap, if you couldn't figure it out, sometimes it was best to spring it to let the opponent exhaust their options and believe they had truly outsmarted you. As such Cassandra moved to assist Bette with her swing.

They had reached the superhero themed course and this current hole involved Ultraviolet producing a wide variety of construct walls, which whirled around the hole to prevented easy shots, and a false construct labyrinth. Cassandra had easily cleared it in two strokes but Bette had yet to take her first.

As she approached Bette continued to radiate confidence as Cassandra moved to help her. Initially Cassandra was fairly straightforward in her assistance, attempting to provide her date with easily replicable advice, but when Cassandra moved to assist Bette with her stance, that's when the blonde sprung her trap.

Cassandra had been standing behind Bette, attempting to reposition her arms in order to optimize her swing when Bette stuck her rear out and grinded it against Cassandra. Cassandra wouldn't deny that the move turned her on but she refused to be distracted.

Still it was a clever ploy from Bette. Cassandra's date had clearly realized she couldn't defeat Cassandra in mini-golf and so she'd decide to increase her efforts in the field of flirting in order to score a victory there. How very devious and tactical. Cassandra grinned. In addition to that the positioning had ensured that Cassandra couldn't use her own rear, negating a natural advantage Cassandra had while also making use of the skirts swishiness to have a more lasting impact later down the line. Still Cassandra had moves available to her.

Cassandra deliberately stepped in close to Bette and wrapped her arms around her, ostensibly to help her position herself and perform a better swing, but in reality to mimic an embrace in order to turn the tables on Bette. Beyond that she deliberately pressed her breasts against Bette's back, hoping to take advantage of the positioning in the same way Bette had with regards to posteriors. Now was the time to go on the offense.

"You need to establish a caress along the shaft, not so tight that the you're crushing it, but with enough firmness to apply just the right amount of... pressure" Cassandra purred, deliberately trying to get a rise out of Bette as her hot breath tickled her date's neck. "Once you've got everything lined up you need to keep your eyes on the course in front of you. Soak in every last exquisite detail and act upon your desires"

Cassandra enjoyed being able to do this to Bette and she wasn't about to relent anytime soon.

"From there you shift your weight back, rotating your hips and torso back to build up the power, before snapping forward and following through with a well paced strike" Cassandra continued "The vast majority of the rotational force will come from your hips so you'll want to make use of them"

Cassandra guided Bette through the swing, striking the ball such that it turned into a bright white blur that wove through the various obstacles and landed in the hole.

Cassandra let go of her date and moved back, eager to engage in the next round of sparring. She'd made sure to jut out her hip ever so slightly to emphasize her own assets knowing she'd thoroughly defeated Bette's ploy. The ball was in Bette's court so to speak.

"I can do better" Bette calmly stated.

Cassandra was somewhat confused, the whole point of Bette's last play had been to feign accepting inferiority, this ran somewhat counter to that. The reading of Bette's body revealed that the other girl was radiating arousal. That was to be expected from Cassandra's last play, but it didn't narrow down what Bette was about to do.

Then Cassandra spotted it. Bette's muscles coiled as she prepared to step forward and grab the lapels of Cassandra's polo. Cassandra could effortlessly block the move but she trusted Bette and was quite interested to see where this would go. The game was still ongoing.

Bette stepped forwards and grabbed Cassandra by her shirt's lapels and then pulled her forwards.

"I'll give you something to think about the next time to contemplate the next time you think about my form" Bette whispered seductively before pulling in Cassandra for a kiss. As their lips came in contact, Cassandra enjoyed the moment. It wouldn't be a date with Bette if there wasn't some new angle of attack and a new way to spar with one another, growing ever sharper as Cassandra slowly but surely asserted her superiority. Only Bette could challenge her this way.

They separated and took a moment to catch their breaths. Cassandra let out a throaty growl, which seemed to cause a slight spike in arousal in Bette as she picked up that Cassandra wouldn't back down from this challenge either. After all Cassandra could do better.

Raven
The entire mini-golf setup was excessive to the extreme. Raven didn't exactly consider herself an expert on the activity but something about how Cassandra and Bette were effortlessly navigating what was probably the most overdesigned mini-golf course ever made the whole thing seem farcical. Still things weren't too weird yet.

Raven kept glancing at Jinx, trying to see if the other girl was nervous about losing the bet, but the other girl was content to just check her phone for drone footage to make sure no one was getting near the perimeter and occasionally to provide some color commentary on the game. Jinx seemed a little too calm all things considered.

Raven had felt somewhat confident she'd win the bet until the couple reached the seventeenth hole of the sixteenth course. That was when Cassandra and Bette threw her for a loop.

Raven didn't know what to make of it when the blonde girl physically grabbed Cassandra by her shirt, and so she asked Jinx if they needed to step in to help Cassandra. Jinx responded by answering that they'd be fine letting things play out.

"This is all just part of the date" Jinx replied "They're just having fun competing over something"

Raven was not at all assuaged by this as she saw Cassandra tackle Bette to the ground and the pair began rolling around on the mini-golf course.

"Are you sure?" Raven asked "That doesn't look like a very friendly competition"

Jinx snickered

"Oh it's 'friendly' all right" Jinx tittered "Just not the kind of friendly me and you would go for if you catch my drift"

It took Raven a moment to put it all together but when she did she was stunned. Apparently the two of them were making out so aggressively and competitively that it had looked like fighting at first to Raven. Of course because Jinx wanted to really rub in the weirdness, she returned back to the color commentary.

"And there goes with Cassandra with a devastating pin as she straddles the opposition before going in. She's made contact and is going in for a three count, but lo and behold Bette gets loose and turns the tables but before being able to shake things off Cassandra pulls her right back down for another engagement"

Raven shook her head and tried to block it out, she was going to win this bet.

"And in this latest tumble, Bette has been unvisored but this has only increased her motivation and determination as she seeks to hold Cassandra down and have her way with her"

Raven just had to block out the noise and the sights. She really regretted not having brought a book.

Far, far too much time passed before things ended and Jinx let up on the commentary, though she did need to get in one last comment, implying that this was the reason that Cassandra didn't want photographs of her dates, because that sort of aggressive making out was apparently normal for her dates.

Cassandra and Bette had gotten back up and apparently decided to head over to Jinx and Raven. They'd both fixed their appearances and done their best to make it seem like they hadn't spent the past few minutes rolling around on the ground and pawing at each other. It worked surprisingly well all things considered.

They were clearly still bantering but Raven didn't get to make out too much of what they said till they got closer.

"... and that is why I am the superior kisser" Cassandra insisted as she got close enough that Raven could hear her. Raven had a sinking feeling that the weirdness wasn't over and she might not be getting that book after all.

"Please I did way better" Bette said as she flipped her hair back "you're all aggressiveness and no tenderness"

Raven found both of them weirdly aggressive but she wasn't going to jump on that landmine.

"It's not my fault you can't recognize technique when it literally hits you in the face."

No instead it was Cassandra who was going to do that, albeit in a really different way

"Is that what we're calling tongue now?" Bette glibly responded which only caused Cassandra to respond with sarcasm right back

"No that's what we're calling engagement and interaction, your partner should make you feel their passion." Cassandra smugly rejoined "You certainly liked mine"

Raven really, really didn't need to hear this.

"I still think I did better despite all your 'engagement and interaction'" Bette responded "Sometimes it takes a bit of softness rather than full-on aggression"

Raven had thought the two had reached the apex of the weirdness they'd engage in but clearly she underestimated the power of whatever the heck was off with those two.

"Clearly we need an objective third party, darling, otherwise you'd never concede defeat." Cassandra pivoted, vaguely gesturing at Raven and Jinx

"I'm all for getting a third party to objectively conclude things, just don't get too mad when I win princess." Bette concurred

Raven really, really, really, hoped this wasn't going to go where she thought it was. Jinx of course was no help, the other girl looking on with sardonic delight as she realized what was going on.

"Raven get over here we need an objective third party to evaluate our kissing." Cassandra imperiously commanded.

Apparently the universe never failed to disappoint in weirdness

"What the fuck?" Raven blurted out in confusion due to the fact that she was not expecting to be propositioned. She did not volunteer for this.

"Yeah that's a thing they do sometimes." Jinx smugly stated, certain that Raven had lost the bet at this point.

Raven let out a strangled noise of confusion at what was going on. Why were they treating it like this was a totally regular thing to do?

"I don't know why you're so confused Raven, we need to settle a competition so we're bringing in an outside source to evaluate who the winner is." Cassandra clarified, doing nothing to dispel how weird Raven felt about what was going on. The casualness with which she went about doing this only further served to confuse Raven.

"Bette are you okay with this?" Raven asked, hoping that maybe Cassandra's girlfriend would be sane enough to realize why casually inviting a third party to 'judge their kissing skills' while their date watched was really, really weird.

"Of course I am." Bette calmly stated, immediately dashing Raven's hopes that this was just Cassandra being weird and not the both of them "A competition is a competition and I'm going to win. If me and Cass need to take turns making out with you in order to come to a conclusion then it's only natural that we do so."

Raven didn't know what to say

"I... what am I even supposed to...?" Raven stumbled over her words as she attempted to get her brain in order to process what was going on anymore.

"Your call on if you want to do it or not." Jinx jumped in, clearly not intending to actually help and instead savoring the fact that apparently she'd proved Raven wrong "Personally I wouldn't recommend too much, they like to try and innovate."

Raven just looked at Jinx with bafflement, confused as to what the heck that was supposed to mean. Had Jinx just confessed to getting involved with their 'innovations'? Apparently Raven's incredulous stare had some effect on Jinx as the other girl moved to respond.

"I didn't make out with them but last time they had a date, they competed over who was better at seductively feeding someone chocolate." Jinx confessed "I was sick after that date."

And now Raven was immensely concerned and weirded out again.

"Your evaluation was greatly appreciated Jinx," Cassandra said, surprisingly openly and honestly "I appreciate that you were willing to step in and assist even if it caused you to fall ill."

Raven had questions and she didn't know if she wanted the answers. Some things were just better off not being known.

"I still contend that the conclusion was invalid because as your best friend she's biased, I was clearly better." Bette interjected which in turn caused case to respond.

"Hence why we're asking Raven this time, so that you can learn to more gracefully accept defeat."

The blonde casually snaked an arm around Cassandra's shoulder before continuing on

"Fair enough. Raven, do you accept acting as the judge for this or not? We don't have all day so we need an answer now." Bette concluded.

"No, I'm not making out with you two!" Raven loudly denied. Why was this even a thing she needed to say to them?

"Disappointing." Cassandra groused before ignoring all of what came before and turning to her girlfriend once again. "Bette would Kori be a successful substitute?"

Bette shrugged "She's acceptable but not ideal. We need to find someone truly unbiased who could keep their mouth shut sometime soon"

And with that the two of them once more interlocked arms and walked back out to the golf course, seemingly interested in going back to their game like nothing had happened now that they'd figured out how to resolve their dispute.

Raven was stunned. Jinx had won the bet but that didn't mean Raven wasn't still confused.

"What did I just witness?" Raven asked as she turned to face her friend. Jinx shrugged, seemingly unconcerned and unbothered by what had just gone down.

"The wild dating habits of Cassandra Luthor" Jinx responded. "I didn't want you to doubt me when I said that it's really weird"

Fair enough, Raven had been wrong and Jinx's description of the way Cassandra and Bette dated as just 'weird' arguably undersold just how strange it got. Of course Jinx wasn't content letting things lie there.

"It gets weirder sometimes," Jinx said "Wait until one of them gets the bright idea to involve the suspension bridge effect, that's when shit gets crazy."

Raven was never volunteering for this sort of thing ever again.
 
That does explain your reasoning a lot better.

Frankly, that sounds like a lot more effort and trouble than it's worth, I've no interest in playing Charlemagne and potentially having Lexcorp split into squabbling estates if it ever does look like Lex is incapacitated or dead. Given she is who we will be playing if Lex dies, Cassandra having an equal within the company is a fail state as far as I am concerned - she can have siblings but she must be the undisputed heir.

A large part of that is also just time investment - I love Cassandra both as a character and as a mechanical heir, but Lex has invested a LOT of effort action and time-wise throughout the game on her and you're talking about a character we'd probably want to invest about as much time into, then more time managing the interaction between her and Cassandra. Especially if sibling rivalry seems likely to involve magical curses and so forth. We saw how Ra's Al Ghul had to deal with multiple daughters; it wasn't pretty. Lex has actual world-conquering to do, he's not Gru from Despicable Me.

It's a fair idea and might make for interesting plot beats - King Crimson had some fun with the idea of Cassandra having siblings- but while I might vote for the curses/necromancy/etc and I might vote for Lex having other children I'm not really interested in voting for what you seem to describe.

This also seems to misunderstand what I'm talking about. Cassandra is the undisputed heir because she is raised to be the heir and her skillset will align with that. She has the power-base within the company and everything else. The second child so to speak would have different skills that wouldn't align with that role. They could potentially have their own power base but it will 100% not be LexCorp which is a very important distinction I think. For example, a politician!child could go and work at a government position or even create an independent nation that they rule or even represent LexCorp's interests in the interplanetary scene. The point is to create someone who is equally capable as Cassandra just in different ways.

Like, Starfire and Jinx and Raven are super competent in their fields, but they are extensions of Cassandra's will. When I think of Lex having a second child I think of someone who can be an extension of his will like Cassandra is, not meant to be the heir to the company but with their own role to play out that isn't subservient to Cassandra.

A good comparison is Batman and his Robins and Batgirls. They are equal within the "Batfamily" but they all have their roles and positions and aren't in direct competition with one another. Even if one of them succeeds Bruce the others aren't lesser because they didn't.

The point about the investment is fair. I'm not opposed to it personally since I enjoy the narrative but like Randino said the quest will probably not last long enough to have that particular outcome regardless.

I want to make it clear that this is not a recommendation that you should do this, but more me pointing out that you could do this, but rather than searching for a child you could just make a child. Morgaine Le Fey for example has proven fairly successful at making child homunculi that can then wield magic in some capacity.

If your goal is just "mindset" you might be better off straight up building the mindset from scratch.

Creating super magic babies is also something I'm not opposed to.

Also the more I read about Timothy Hunter the more I feel that he's never going to be within reach no matter what.
 
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Zod's Invasion - The Young Mistress (Part 1)
So omake review time. Get ready for a lot of "Is this a thing?" from my end because this omake is deliberately trying to imitate something I'm less familiar with, namely a Xianxia. I can kind of recognize it but as someone who hasn't really engaged in the genre all that much, I'm operating entirely on knowledge via some osmosis and am likely to just miss or not understand a lot of details.

I mentioned before I do think the general thrust of the omake still lands even without that knowledge but I am thoroughly outside the target demographic.
When it was discovered that Cassandra possessed an innate connection to such a power, enough to ensure she was not just another victim in this brutal world. Lex took a keen interest in cultivating it, particularly since her ability was both unknown and potentially replicable.
So I'm pretty sure that the grammatical error here is not intentional. The period after "brutal world" should be a comma as otherwise you've got an incomplete sentence fragment.

That being said I'm also not entirely sure if this is not a stylistic thing as "just another victim in this brutal world" and the use of the word cultivation rings to me of a stylistic emulation but I don't know if I fully get it or if I'm missing something.
Her silk cheongsam fluttered gently, despite her arrival's unnatural speed. Her long, dark hair was bound in a tight ponytail, her sharp eyes carrying the weight of unspoken storms.
So I understand that this is meant to deliberately emulate Xianxia tropes (I think) but I actually find it really funny that this would actually mean Cassandra actually probably looks like her biological mother considering how DC has been giving Lady Shiva costumes that are variants of cheongsams for decades now and still put her in such outfits pretty regularly
Given Cassandra's talent for finding enemies wherever she went, the lie was unlikely to backfire.
I feel like this is meant to be a play on a genre convention but I can't quite place it
"I swear upon my Dao heart, this great enemy shall be chastised as is right and just. Meet Buddha, slay Buddha. Meet God, slay God!"
Is this a thing in these types of stories? I actually have no idea how close this hews to actual Xianxia as while the other stuff looked sort of recognizable to me this was something I couldn't place.
The last time Cassandra was "deployed", Mercy had to take questions from the National Weather Service as to why the entire state of Nevada has been covered in perpetual storm clouds for the past month despite it being the middle of summer
Is this a thing in the genre?
"The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole lurking behind!"
I'm pretty sure that this is deliberate emulation of a tortured metaphor and I don't know if it's intentional but it gets its biology a bit contorted. I'm pretty sure mantises don't normally eat cicadas and orioles don't normally eat mantises.
It was completely unnecessary, given that Cassandra could fly.
Is that a thing in the genre?
Mercy turned to see Rose, who had entered unnoticed.

They locked eyes.

Then, without hesitation, Mercy slapped Rose across the face.
This ending is really solid. Again I'm not an expert on the genre but even without the knowledge the omake pretty effectively sets the stage for why Mercy and the audience should find the behavior obnoxious which makes the moment of the slap land better as comedy.

I found it fairly solid and so this omake earns 400 exp and a threadmark though it's definitely not canon.
 
I am not a consumer of Xianxia for the most part, but I shall try my best to assist.

Is this a thing in these types of stories? I actually have no idea how close this hews to actual Xianxia as while the other stuff looked sort of recognizable to me this was something I couldn't place.
Yep. Cultivators are purple prose speakers 90% of the time, and they almost always take an opportunity to flex their verbosity before laying the smackdown on their opponents.

Is this a thing in the genre?
Attacks that can literally change the weather are indeed normal, though that's usually reserved for the more advanced cultivators.

I'm pretty sure that this is deliberate emulation of a tortured metaphor and I don't know if it's intentional but it gets its biology a bit contorted. I'm pretty sure mantises don't normally eat cicadas and orioles don't normally eat mantises.
Eh, that's usually how Xianxia terminology is. "You have eyes but cannot see Mt. Tai!" "You are an ugly toad daring to touch a beautiful swan!"
 
Yep. Cultivators are purple prose speakers 90% of the time, and they almost always take an opportunity to flex their verbosity before laying the smackdown on their opponents.
It's less the purple prose (that I figured was part and parcel of it) and more the use of "dao" to refer to a heart (like "dao" means way or path right? What does "dao heart" even mean?) and the whole eager to murder divine figures bit.
Eh, that's usually how Xianxia terminology is. "You have eyes but cannot see Mt. Tai!" "You are an ugly toad daring to touch a beautiful swan!"
Okay but those metaphors are internally consistent and make sense to convey what they want to. "The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole lurking behind!" is a metaphor that doesn't make sense as it's like saying "the coyote stalks the penguin, unaware of the komodo dragon lurking behind!", it doesn't make internal sense.

As orioles are a bird native to North and South America, I'm pretty sure that this is a deliberate attempt to ape the style of things and so I'm curious on if the internal breakdown of logic is intentional and if so to what degree.
 
and the whole eager to murder divine figures bit.
Defying the heavens is pretty much a state of the Xianxia trope, and so is murdering them too.

Edit: Also, Dao is basically how the cultivators do their magic thingies. That's all I know about that, though, all the specifics go in through one ear and out the other.
 
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Okay but those metaphors are internally consistent and make sense to convey what they want to. "The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole lurking behind!" is a metaphor that doesn't make sense as it's like saying "the coyote stalks the penguin, unaware of the komodo dragon lurking behind!", it doesn't make internal sense.

As orioles are a bird native to North and South America, I'm pretty sure that this is a deliberate attempt to ape the style of things and so I'm curious on if the internal breakdown of logic is intentional and if so to what degree.
It's more of a translation issue that became an artifact of copying blindly and is not specifically an oriole - most of the first xianxia translated to English were done very much by amateurs and Chinese is a pretty tough language to translate from anyway given the alphabet and grammar are VERY divorced from English. So most people don't know where it came from and just repeat it. 😅

It's an apocryphal story allegedly by a Daoist philosopher from 4th century BCE named Zhuang Zhi. In the original story, the bird is not specifically an oriole, and the philosopher himself was so busy watching the scene of the bugs and bird that he didn't realize he was trespassing on property where he wasn't supposed to be and almost got in serious trouble when caught by a gardener.

www.sanctuaryoftao.org

Losing the Child heart—Zhuangzi, the bird, the mantis, and the cicada

This is a parable about the Taoist Philosopher, Zhuangzi, having an encounter with a bird, a mantis, and a cicada. He sees that through grasping he loses his true nature and mindfulness of himself. He secludes himself in his home until he feels he has uncovered his "child heart" again.

The funny thing is that the original story is essentially an admonition against greed and encouraging restraint - but in xianxia, especially with foreign writers, it's become more often a sort of brag that you've got the drop on someone who thinks they're the predator. It's especially ironic given people tend to brag about being the 'oriole' or bird thinking that makes them a tough guy, when the bird in the story almost got shot by a guy whom himself almost got arrested by a park ranger equivalent.
 
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