Adrian XXIV
Average User, from Poland
- Location
- Poland
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Who is taller, Coldcast or Non?
Lex Sedet In Vertice: A Supervillain in the DCU CK2 quest
- Thread starter King crimson
- Start date
- Superhero
Who is taller, Coldcast or Non?
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
So this isn't a hard line (if people want to depict it otherwise that's fine) but in my head Non is taller. Non's actually pretty huge despite having initially been a scientist first and foremost.
Edit: If you want further semi-canon size scaling, most adult male kryptonians don't get taller than Non's chest. Superman's built like a linebacker, and Non has easily a whole head of height on him and is arguably even more bulky in terms of frame.
Edit #2: It's pretty safe to assume that if you encounter a kryptonian character, Non is taller by a not insignificant margin.
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AI art of Characters at a peace summit, Edward Nygma and Carla Draper
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
I appreciate the fan art. I do have a little bit of commentary on these.
So broadly speaking I think this really works for Mercy. There are a few things that could be nitpicked, like the hand on the right having 6 fingers, but it's generally solid and it presents Mercy in a way that I think makes a lot of sense.
I can't place where I've seen this face before but something about Brion here gives me deja vu. I'll also say that this is I think the only picture that outright got details wrong. I don't always describe what characters are wearing but in the teaser I wrote the following from Cass's perspective about Brion.
So it's actually something closer to this without the hat
Not too much to comment on with Cass, there's some weirdness with the buckle thing around what looks to be some kind of purple belt cinch thing (I'm not the most technical with my fashion terms) but that's not the most interesting.
Something interesting to note is that I see this as being more in line with Cass's public face. I've noted it a few times (including obliquely in the teaser) but Cass kind of has "resting bitch face" so when she's not trying to present herself to others she probably looks a little more dour than she does in this image. This isn't a critique of the picture by any means, it makes sense for Cassandra to try to not look hostile or angry when she's publicly mingling (and she's both aware of her natural tendency and is very good at controlling/manipulating how she presents herself to others).
I'm not sure why this version of Count Vertigo appears to be wearing a clerical collar, nor why the two medals/cape clasps are different colors. I will say that the gold filigree on the suit jacket feels about right.
I also don't have too much to say here. This is pretty clearly Lex, though something about the lighting is distractingly weird to me, the suit is bent/wrinkled at points that don't make sense (the crease under the hand holding the glass is weird) and the glass has a visibly different width at the point where the liquid fills it and where it's empty.
So I'm kind of mixed on this look for Nygma. I have no idea why he's wearing two rings, one on each hand, but I kind of like the detail of him having a bunch of big books and a sort of "red string corkboard" behind him (though the clock being there is weird). The general suit trends away from more typical depictions of what Nygma wears but it keeps the green theming and generally works. I do like the bright green shade of the eyes, and he does look somewhat smug, but the expression also feels a little reserved.
I want to make it clear that I appreciate the fan art, it just reads a little weirdly for me as Nygma while also still making a lot of sense as a design for Nygma (if the casting and costuming in a movie looked like this, I would not complain).
So this is interesting. Again I'm pretty sure there's some AI weirdness going on (whatever's going on with her earring/ear and the vanishing necklace). What I can't place is if the face giving me deja vu is actually because of a resemblance to some actress whose name I can't place, or if it's just me being a little face-blind.
Something interesting to note is that the hair color is a fair bit lighter than Carla was traditionally depicted with
Regardless this gets 400 exp and my appreciation as fan art.
i'm getting more of an agent 47 vibe from the lex art, granted that could just be that it's a buff bald guy in a suit
Is there a scheduele for the new update?
I thought this was supposed 500 points
on a related note I just went and checked and this bit right here
Is... well I don't have a polite way of saying it. Let's just refer to it as eyebrow raising.
I thought this was supposed 500 points
on a related note I just went and checked and this bit right here
Is... well I don't have a polite way of saying it. Let's just refer to it as eyebrow raising.
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
I hope to get it out tomorrow but that's less a "schedule" and more an "aspiration"
I'm willing to give 500 exp.
Edit: AizenMD got the additional 100 points.
IIRC (which I might not be) that particular rule alteration came after someone negged and argued with me for multiple days and tried to get me to give them exp. When I told them to stop and had made my decision they claimed that they were not arguing at all and that I was being unfair.
I might be mischaracterizing things a touch (its been a while since that incident) but the rule change is a backstop to make it clear that there are consequences to legitimately pissing me off and being overly pushy.
So far I think over the about 5 years I've run this quest, I've demonstrated that I'm pretty tolerant to people expressing opinions and positions and challenging me on things. I pretty regularly have some degree of back and forth with people in the quest and I'd like to think that I'm good about allowing for people to critique me on things.
Is the rule a little eyebrow raising? Yes, but it's basically there to prevent people from legitimately pissing me off and outline how I will respond once someone significantly irks me in this specific manner. Now if someone does spend multiple days and posts telling me that I'm wrong for not giving them exp and that they deserve and should get exp they know exactly what they are risking.
Edit: I see this rule as pretty similar to codifying "don't repeatedly employ invectives against the QM or you will end up getting banned". Now I've had no issue with people insulting me as a person with this quest, but if I did I would probably codify a similar rule so that people can no longer say "I wasn't warned". This rule is somewhat similar but it's meant to target behavior that has happened in the quest and that I would prefer not to repeat.
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King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
So a brief status update on how things are going. I'm reaching closer and closer to that point where I'd be comfortable cutting the initially planned size down to something smaller and letting that sit as the update. It does mean that not all of the nemesis mini events will come at once but I think that's fine.
I'm still in the process of editing stuff and trying to get things up to a level of quality I like but I am making significant progress. Thank you all for your patience.
I'm still in the process of editing stuff and trying to get things up to a level of quality I like but I am making significant progress. Thank you all for your patience.
Adrian XXIV
Average User, from Poland
- Location
- Poland
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Don't worry.
Updates from good QM are like a wine: longer you wait, better taste it will have
Updates from good QM are like a wine: longer you wait, better taste it will have
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
Totally of topic but is that a thing with wine? I'm in no way a wine expert but my assumption was that wine wasn't inherently better tasting (just different tasting) as it aged and that instead it's more of an economic flex than anything else (because in order to have say a 200 year old wine, you need to be wealthy) and that over time we culturally came to understand old wine as "better" because the price on those could be ratcheted up more.
Edit: My theory hinges on the fact that there exist ways to artificially age wine but as far as I can tell most grocery stores don't sell artificially aged wine all that much. If aging made wine taste better, wouldn't artificially aged wine be really popular?
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I'm in no way an expert myself but based on some research it seems that aging actually does improve the taste of some, but not all, wine as a result of some complicated chemical process. That being dai I fully believe that over time the preference for older wine has become more a matter of snobbishness than taste.
As for why artificially aged wine isn't much of a thing I imagine it's a combination of if you're selling "cheap" wine it probably isn't worth the extra price to make it taste a bit better and the wine industry suppressing the practice like how the diamond industry does with artificial diamonds.
Did some looking on the topic, and apparently what happens is that alcoholic and fruity flavors tend to 'quiet down' a bit and more subtle nutty or earthy flavors tend to be accentuated as wine ages This was especially favorable in the past when sweet and fortified (more alcoholic) wines were more common because they were intended to be stockpiled and last without any kind of refrigeration or special temperature control. In the present, it is not terribly hard for a vintner to add nutty or earthy taste to a wine by adding ingredients that don't age well, and this is practical since few people worry about losing access to wine or temperature control much.
These days, while a good vintage isn't dirt cheap, most truly aged and expensive wine is more of a social and economic flex than anything else.
But that is sort of the point and you're not going to shame any of the wealthy by pointing it out - the culture of the wealthy in most countries tends to exalt creativity, exclusivity, and tradition because these are what their wealth is often built on. Much like Lex and his penchant for honoring his family, the ideal is to point out that your family bought the wine ages ago when they were still wealthy and successful and you are opening it now. Or one-up old money by opening a bottle of wine better than their family could ever afford.
These days, while a good vintage isn't dirt cheap, most truly aged and expensive wine is more of a social and economic flex than anything else.
But that is sort of the point and you're not going to shame any of the wealthy by pointing it out - the culture of the wealthy in most countries tends to exalt creativity, exclusivity, and tradition because these are what their wealth is often built on. Much like Lex and his penchant for honoring his family, the ideal is to point out that your family bought the wine ages ago when they were still wealthy and successful and you are opening it now. Or one-up old money by opening a bottle of wine better than their family could ever afford.
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Turn 33 Nemesis Mini-Events Part 1
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
So the winning votes from last time are as follows
[ ] [Lex] Spend time with Cassandra
[ ] [Mercy] Take a brief trip to Coast City
[ ] [Cass] Use zeta beam transmat stations to take a day trip to Rome with friends
[ ] [Jinx] Have Lucy attempt to educate her a bit more on the law
[ ] [Rose] Attempt to teach and guide Starfire
[ ] [Helena] Supervise a trip to Rome with Cassandra Luthor
[ ] [Raven] Talk to Mina about Azarath and magic
[ ] [Chaytan] Get to know the other members of Bastion
[ ] [NCJ] Ask Brittney Meld for help managing his new income
[ ] [Cent] Get to know Zatanna better
[ ] [Crock] Practice playing her persona of "Cheshire"
[ ] [EB] Beg her dad for a Zoom Pet
[ ] [Cub] Speak to the strange lady who is all the animals (talk to Mina Chaytan)
[ ] [Monkey] Discover heated blankets
Raven's personal action involved a tiebreaker coin toss and it landed on tails. I will say that I'm kind of excited from a writing perspecitve that we have two different POV's for the trip to Rome. It'll be interesting having the same event be described from different POVs in the shorter style of the personal actions.
Additionally the characters people most wanted to see next time was a five way tie between
[ ] [Next] Tora
[ ] [Next] Caitlin
[ ] [Next] Karl
[ ] [Next] Frost
[ ] [Next] Nygma
It's rather exciting to see what will come next.
I do want to give you guys a heads up that this is not every mini-events first part (it's just the first three and that I'll probably be sticking to three mini-events at once. I do imagine that this will wrap up in less parts than last time. I also think it's fair to give you a heads up that there was a small tweak to Cassandra's POV from the snippet I posted earlier. Largely it is the same though, I just wanted to point out that it might merit a reread to find what has been added.
Additionally if we're talking about my writing woes, one of these POVs was a lot harder than it should be considering I was trying to write a man with no name. As such the section near totally just uses pronouns for how the character refers to themselves and it's a little messy. I do think it was fun and interesting to attempt.
Lastly I hope the fight scene in this update is good. I don't think it's my best work but I do think there were a few neat moments of choreography and I'm hoping you guys find it fun to read. As always if you've got questions or think you spotted something wrong, feel free to bring it to my attention but without further ado, here's the update.
Mini-Event: A Precipitous Peace Conference Part 1
Cassandra Luthor
Cassandra rather enjoyed the peace conference. It wasn't too different from what had come before but the fact that she had been allowed to accompany Father to this event in Austria was a sign that she was trusted. As such Cassandra nevertheless strove to prove that she could handle whatever was thrown her way. This peace conference was not too different of an assignment from what had come before. In some ways it combined the social navigation aspects of her task at both the Isley-Kane wedding and when Bruce Wayne was in Gotham, and mixed in the analysis of others ulterior motives from when she was tasked to watch Father's negotiation with Count Vertigo. All in all a simple evolution of what had come before and Cassandra had no doubt that she'd similarly be able to effortlessly conquer whatever challenges lay before her. This was new and exciting and Cassandra was excited for more.
Cassandra was relaxed, enjoying herself once more in formal attire and enjoying a flute of apple juice as a rare treat for herself. There were so many interesting figures to note and observe at this event. While she wasn't going to be herself in her entirety, Cassandra knew that she could lean into her youth as an excuse to start up conversations and as cover for what was going on, and so she figured it would be best to not try and sell herself as someone she wasn't. She could do so if she chose to, Cassandra was an accomplished liar, but since this was in public Cassandra wanted her persona to at least partially reflect who she really was. And so she hung back and observed at first.
The count was smug as ever, and Cassandra still didn't like him, but despite the fact that he brought extra bodyguards, Count Vertigo remained calm and collected. Cassandra considered conversing with him a bit but ultimately dismissed it for now. She had no doubt that Count Vertigo would attempt to engage with father soon, and she would be better served trying to identify other wildcards. Cassandra moved to chatting with the Austrian contingent of the delegation, whom she found rather easy to deal with. They did try and get details about Father's work on suits from them, but Cassandra made sure not to provide them with actionable information whilst still keeping a positive impression, choosing to express that one of LexCorp's top pilots had recently returned and so there were new opportunities to improve things. All technically true, and all things she could know of, but no commitments or tangible statements about what was being done for them.
Cassandra continued to surveil the room when she spotted something interesting. One of the caterers was planning on enacting violence towards Count Vertigo. Cassandra guessed it likely would've involved a knife that ostensibly would have been used for the dinner. Cassandra quickly sent off a notice to security and the man was promptly escorted off the premises to be arrested without anyone any wiser as to what was going on.
Cassandra had briefly entertained the idea of confronting the man openly, throwing her apple juice into his eyes and then laying him out with a few debilitating strikes. While that might've been more fun from a personal perspective, it would've been too loud and drawn far too much attention. The way she handled things was better and she was confident that Father would appreciate her discretion. Besides she could always find someone to fight later and she doubted an angry caterer would really be able to push her to her limits. Cassandra took another sip of her apple juice.
The Italian countess she met was interesting, the woman clearly had designs on Father via marriage and was attempting to befriend Cassandra as a way to get to him. Cassandra wasn't impressed by those results but the woman was clearly suppressing enough tells and manipulating her own body language well enough that Cassandra knew she was certainly skilled enough in the art of deception. Not skilled enough to fool Cassandra but the conversation was entertaining enough even if they both did their best to veil their true goals.
The large man with the scarred face had an unusual appearance and when Cassandra read his body language she got a sense of boredom and slight amounts of contempt. However what Cassandra saw did suggest that he was surprisingly strong. Cassandra couldn't place who he was and instead would opt to inform Father of his presence to see if there was any relevance to him.
The soldier with the black bird pin was interesting as well. Cassandra had approached him under the guise of being interested in his weaponry, which she nominally was, but more interesting than that was the fact that his arm was some kind of advanced cybernetic and Cassandra had no idea where he had gotten it from. He'd come into the conference, ostensibly as part of the security detail for some German representative of the United Nations, and was similarly scanning the room for threats. He attempted to brush her off a few times but Cassandra was good at leveraging things in order to keep him trapped in a conversation with her. She didn't get much but she knew he was dismissive and that he was expecting some kind of danger or attack, as he was deliberately watching both Vertigo and King Victor of the Markovian royal family. That wasn't enough to fully get everything from him but Cassandra managed to get enough that she felt she was likely better served by engaging with others at the conference.
A little more meandering and Cassandra spotted the younger of the two princes of Markovia, prince Brion. Cassandra moved to engage him in conversation. He was close to her age, only being a few years older and so she ought to be able to easily bring him into the fold without much issue.
As Cassandra drew closer she couldn't help but admire his form. He cut an impressive figure in the red double-breasted coat he wore. Cassandra couldn't help but find her eyes drawn to the way the epaulettes on his dress uniform seemed to emphasize his shoulders. He had muscle on him and Cassandra couldn't help but enjoy looking at it. It had an aesthetic value that Cassandra appreciated.
"Hello" the prince greeted, smiling in a way that seemed without guile but made Cassandra's stomach flutter a little bit. She had no idea why, she'd never felt this way before and she couldn't identify what it was about the prince and his charming smile, and prime physique that would make her feel this way. Cassandra still hid any sort of turmoil beneath a somewhat placid and congenial smile.
"I wasn't expecting many people our age at an event like this" The prince admitted with a casual smile that Cassandra admired and made her want to smile back reflexively. Cassandra didn't know why she wanted to smile around him but it couldn't be that bad. His body conveyed that he wasn't trying to fool her or trick her so Cassandra let out a happy and somewhat more honest smile. She'd heard that she had a bit of a stern resting expression so hopefully smiling would put him more at ease and get him to smile more.
"My father helped organize the event" Cassandra replied "I'd be remiss if I didn't at least show up to observe what he was achieving"
"Ah so you are Cassandra Luthor!" The prince cheerfully replied. Cassandra did her best not to get distracted by his eyes but they really were a nice shade of green. And he was smiling at her and recognized her. Cassandra preened a bit before she got confused. Why was she so eager for him to like her and be impressed by her? Brion Markov was unimportant in the grand scheme of things and his opinion shouldn't matter and yet Cassandra was for some reason interested in what he thought of her. Not enough to change her course or spill secrets but enough that she could tell she was somehow being affected by his presence.
Cassandra scanned his body in an instant finding no sign of deception or intentional manipulation but confirming that he had a very solid core and a broad chest. Cassandra idly imagined what he might look like if she took off his shirt and then realized that this was not at all normal. Thinking too much on his form affected her thoughts some how and caused her to drift into distraction.
"The one and only" Cassandra replied calmly, obscuring her panic as she attempted to assess why he was having this effect on her. Was it perhaps some kind of mind control?
Cassandra pondered the idea and then firmly rejected it. If it was mind control than it was such a poor job that Cassandra had both cottoned on to it and was able to actively resist it even if thinking about his eyes and his smile and the way his face lit up sent tingles through her stomach and made her feel irrationally happy and nervous. Cassandra was not a dog who could be controlled by such rudimentary pavlovian techniques.
No this was likely something else as it would be foolish for a prince to attempt to mind control her in such a slapdash manner.
"I'm glad we got to talk" Brion said smiling all the while and while Cassandra smiled back, inside she was concentrating and focusing, refusing to let him distract her. Whatever this weakness was Cassandra would overcome it. "This peace negotiation is important. The people of Markovia have suffered at the hand of Vlatavan aggression and while I would like peace, my people need to be protected from further depredation by Count Vertigo"
Cassandra nodded along.
"I would appreciate it if you could let your father know of this and speak to him to ensure that the plight of Markovia is not overlooked" Brion continued.
That was the catch. He was attempting to use whatever it was that was affecting her to make her want to impress him and keep him happy and pleased with her as leverage to get her to bias Father in some capacity towards favoring Markovia. Cassandra made some non-comital agreement to at least mention it to her father and spent the rest of the time trying to impress the prince with her achievements, at least the ones she felt comfortable revealing, as she continued to analyze why she was feeling the way she did.
Cassandra listed the symptoms she was experiencing mentally. Some kind of tingling in her stomach, increased nervousness, a desire to impress the prince and keep him happy and fond of her, a reflexive desire to smile around him and get his attention, a tendency to get lost in imaginations when observing features of his body, and liking the way he smiled. It dawned on Cassandra.
Was this attraction? Was she attracted to Brion Markov? She ran through the symptoms again and found it matched up with what most people would define as teenaged infatuation. Cassandra hated it. It messed with her head and compromised her in ways she hadn't ever been before. It was stupid and she wished she could stop feeling the way she did. It was awful.
Cassandra wouldn't let it affect her. Now that she knew how she was compromised she could take steps to mitigate its effects. Cassandra paused in her thoughts as she realized something. She couldn't let Father know. If he knew that she could be so easily compromised, he might doubt her capabilities. Cassandra refused to let stupid hormones ruin things for her. She had been getting more responsibility and was finally able to prove herself worthy of being Father's heir.
Father didn't have to know about her useless attraction to Brion. Nobody needed to know about it. She'd just suppress it for now and then once she was back in Metropolis she'd talk to Jinx about it. Maybe she'd have Jinx act as a proxy in requesting for advice from Father in dealing with this part of growing up. Yes that sounded like a reasonable plan. For now Cassandra finished talking to Brion Markov, making sure to let none of her inner turmoil show and prepared to finish excelling in the task given to her.
Bad Samaritan
The conference was disappointing. One might expect that as a Markovian diplomat, he would be more excited for a peace conference. After all diplomats ostensibly were most useful in a negotiation. His talents lay elsewhere. Had Markovia not proven to be incapable of fighting Vlatava long term, he might've actually preferred to keep the conflict going. To put it simply, he might be a diplomat nowadays but that wasn't his primary vocation.
The paperwork to let him in claimed that he was Markovian, but he wasn't. He wasn't Markovian, or Russian, or Georgian, or Soviet. He was a man of no nation, a Bad Samaritan providing people with the necessary touches of violence and chaos to both advance and evolve societies as a whole and to allow him to seize power. He preferred to live comfortably but he could abandon everything and fade away into the shadows. Even the name Zviad Baazovi could be abandoned without much issue, for his true name had been cast aside ages ago.
He wasn't quite sure how he felt about the coming peace. On the one hand his growing power in Markovia would benefit from some measure of stability. On the other hand negotiating with a fascist nobleman with delusions of superiority simply because he had some metahumans in his employ was irritating and it would be so much better if he could simply remove Count Vertigo from the picture.
The attempt with the caterer had admittedly been unlikely to succeed, but that was a natural consequence of attempting to covertly mess with someone's emotions to push them into acting. Rage and hatred was fantastic for getting someone to spontaneously decide to kill someone but that same spontaneity meant that the attempts weren't planned and thus were less likely to succeed.
He lost nothing, though he did determine that he would be better served no longer attempting to influence minds. He couldn't draw on something that wasn't already there and if someone was familiar with psychics, they'd likely to be able to detect his meddling. One rogue caterer would likely not invite too much scrutiny, especially since he had no connection to the man he'd pushed into attempting murder. Influencing many individuals however meant everything was more likely to be observed with scrutiny and if his psychic talents were discovered, he would be forced to flee.
As such all that was left was to let things run their course. There would be peace and Zviad Baazovi would be there to advise his king and queen on what to do next. He'd thoroughly wormed his way into their confidence and as such he had enough latitude to act in ways others might find immoral or unpleasant. And with the royals fear of a repeat invasion, he would be able to secure his power base in Markovia even further all the while using the royal family as puppets and a shield for what was to come next. He'd come across a promising opportunity at this meeting. Whoever "Mr. Savage" was, his connections with a metahuman smuggling ring of all things was exactly would be exactly the sort of leverage necessary to ensure that Markovia would be on a more even footing with Vlataca the next time conflict broke out.
Victor Markov AKA King Markov
The situation was not untenable but it certainly was not ideal. Too much had been lost to the damned Vlatavan usurper. They'd managed to slow the advance of his monsters, but Markovia's fields were red with the blood of its people.
The fact of the matter was that if Vlatava kept all the land it had gained, then Markovia was unlikely to remain intact for long. Serpents like Count Vertigo would not hesitate to bite just because you made your neck available. As soon as the world lost interest in what was occurring, Vertigo would undoubtedly return to attempting to conquer Markovia. The usurper wasn't satisfied with merely supplanting his own family, Verrtigo would undoubtedly chase after more land and prestige and power. After all the man was so utterly lacking in honor and respect that he needed to try and take it from others.
What irked Victor was that it wasn't his countrymen who had proven triumphant, it was the interests of outside oligarchs and powers that had prevented the war from continuing. Markovia couldn't afford to lose more of its children, already their industry would be impacted by the death toll of the war. No instead Victor had to swallow a poisonous peace and hope it was sufficient for now.
That in turn informed his strategic goals for this conference. Victor sought to obtain reparations first and foremost. The other countries sought ot use Markovia like a country in a coal mine, warning of impending danger when Vertigo's ambitions were sufficiently roused. As such Victor would argue that it was essential that Markovia get paid reparations by Vlatava. Zviad had ideas on how best to use that industry to build up Markovia's forces. Once they had enough forces to match Vertigo's monsters, the map could be redrawn, this time in Markovia's favor. Victor certainly would prefer not to concede land but he'd tolerate it as a condition. The world had not cared when Vlatava stole land from Markovia and so in turn they would not care when Markovia took that land back.
Victor would avoid any sort of foreign oversight or involvement if possible. After all he fully intended to build Markovia up in secret and so any organization that could interfere in that development would be problematic. An exchange of diplomats could be useful as a way to insert spies to figure out how Vertigo was manufacturing metahumans, but actual foreign oversight was only likely to lead to complications.
The other catch to the situation was Lex Luthor. The host to the peace negotiations played at being neutral and the countries of the world but a man with a tower in the Vlatavan capital was not a neutral party, much less one who made money off of wars. Victor wasn't sure why Lex Luthor was interested in peace now, but he didn't trust the man as far as he could throw him. As such the strategy to deal with him was twofold.
The first element of the strategy was simple. Rather than attempting to go through Lex directly it was easier to try and sway his daughter. Victor had brought both of his sons to the conference. Gregor was here to learn, but Brion was here to make friends. Brion was naturally gregarious and if he could form an emotional connection or some bond of friendship with the girl, then Markovia could use her to put pressure on her father. After all what father would want to make their child sad? It was cold and callous but it was a strategy that allowed Victor to potentially circumvent needing to figure out what the billionaires motives were or even really cutting a deal. Brion was left in the dark, but Victor was confident the idea had some merit.
The second was a lot more direct but also more complicated. Victor had heavily consulted with Zviad regarding this but the answer was simple. Regardless of what shape the peace talks took, Victor wished to approach Lex Luthor and offer him a deal. Let the American mogul invest in Markovia as much as he had in Vlatava. Not only did it make reparations something Luthor would be more willing to countenance as some of the money would go to him, but if Markovia struck back to take what they wanted then Lex Luthor was unlikely to take a side if he was equally invested in both countries. Sure the man wouldn't want a war between two countries he was invested in, but in the age of metahumans wars could gain a lot of ground fast and a quick turn around to peace could allow Markovia to keep what it gained.
How exactly to best convince Luthor to invest was likely going to be best served by approaching him and figuring out what he wanted, before then making him an offer just good enough that he would accept it without compromising Markovia's future stability.
The last problem was Vertigo. The usurper obviously would seek to paint himself the victim and to cripple Markovia as much as possible. Victor wasn't overly worried but he did try to keep an eye out on who Vertigo was talking to. He was confident that he could neutralize any arguments that Vertigo might employ, but it was best to be cautious. What occurred at this summit would invariably effect the outcome of the next war.
Werner Vertigo AKA Count Vertigo
Count Vertigo enjoyed a sip of his wine and luxuriated in the knowledge of how far he'd come. While he couldn't outright say it, Count Vertigo had become a conquering king. His conquest had been stopped by the political realities of the situation but now in this peace conference, Vertigo could permanently kill off Markovia. It would be less satisfying than direct conquest but after King Victor got a bad deal and was tragically assassinated by unhappy dissidents, Vertigo could easily step in to protect the remainder of the royal family. He'd probably need to dispose of the sons but the princess was likely young enough to be reshaped and taught to be a proper ruler like his niece.
Count Vertigo didn't feel much anxiety at the way things would proceed. His ally was acting as the seemingly neutral moderator and host, his metahuman abilities as well as his guards would prevent any direct foul play, and he had legitimate casus belli through the "attempted assassination" he had staged. The Markovians would be stuck with unfavorable terms and Vlatava would be stronger than ever. He would have to think of a way to deliver a castle to Luthor once it was all over, but that was something to be worked out later.
Vertigo scanned to see who was in attendance. Luthor was standing surrounded by diplomats, with a lone female bodyguard acting as his support and keeping him from getting swarmed. Count Vertigo would speak with him soon enough once the graspers had left for a time.
He spotted the Austrian, Greek, Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian and Albanian contingents. They were small players unless they remained united in purpose. Count Vertigo would move to the Greeks and the Macedonians and see if he could arrange some sort of deal with them. He didn't trust them as far as he could throw them, but he also could recognize that these were countries with more history. An American idiot vaguely knew of Greece and Macedonia was close enough. How many Americans could place Albania or Bulgaria on a map? Austria was broadly speaking irrelevant for the purposes of preventing another war so they weren't a real contender.
Vertigo continued to scan the room. The Italian Countess would make for a suitable partner of equally noble blood, but Count Vertigo was here to finish off Vlatava, not to seek out a marriage. The large man with the scarred face was interesting but in all likelihood irrelevant, especially since he hadn't seemed to approach anyone thus far. Lex Luthor's brat was underfoot somewhere, as were the Markovian princes.
And with that Vertigo decided upon his course. It likely would be some degree of faux pas, but angering and enraging princes was far easier than angering a king, and the more the Markovians weren't thinking straight, the more mistakes they would make. Now was the time to kill Markovia, with pen instead of the sword.
Conversation Starter subvote
There are a number of interesting factions and individuals present at the peace conference. As such getting a better sense of who they are and potentially preemptively arranging a deal with them prior to the negotiations proper might be advantageous for you. Some of these parties may attempt to speak to approach you on their own. That being said time is a limited factor and you cannot speak to everyone. Please pick up to three of your favorite options. Write-ins are strongly encouraged for this subvote but as always all write-ins are subject to QM approval. As always there is a 1 hour moratorium on voting.
[ ] [Converse] Speak to the Austrian contingent about the progress of their power armor
[ ] [Converse] Attempt to talk to the German UN representatives about prosthetics
[ ] [Converse] Attempt to broker an arms deal with the Serbian representatives
[ ] [Converse] Attempt to negotiate some sort of archeology dig from the Greek representatives
[ ] [Converse] Attempt to negotiate assistance on the construction of a LexCorp building in Macedonia
[ ] [Converse] Attempt to negotiate some sort of land transfer with the Albanians
[ ] [Converse] Speak to the Bulgarians to figure out their angle on things
[ ] [Converse] Speak to King Victor of Markovia to see what he wants from the negotiation
[ ] [Converse] Speak to Count Vertigo to coordinate your plans for the peace negotiation
[ ] [Converse] Attempt to get a sense of Prince Gregor and the man wearing sunglasses talking to him
[ ] [Converse] Speak to Prince Brion to get a better sense of his character
[ ] [Converse] Speak to the Italian Countess to find out more about her
[ ] [Converse] Speak to the large man with scars on his face to find out more about him.
[ ] [Converse] Compliment Cassandra on a job well done and reassure her that she' doing excellent
[ ] [Converse] Write-in
Nemesis Event: White House Black Heart Part 1
Jinx
Jinx rather enjoyed this sort of work. Getting told to more or less let loose some chaos was a fun way to spend an afternoon. Granted there were limitations, Jinx couldn't arrange for any obviously criminal actions and needed to ensure that Superman was kept distracted and that he didn't catch on to what was going on.
Jinx needed to stay relatively small scale. While causing the roof of the Daily Planet to collapse and actively endangering the people there would almost certainly distract Superman, it also would get him looking for answers. As such Jinx needed to be small scale enough that Superman wouldn't think of it as anything more than a bizarre accident. At the same time Jinx needed to make it big obvious and distracting enough that Superman would get involved.
In the end the plan Jinx settled on was fairly simple. She couldn't target the entire city all at once, but she could target key systems pretty easily. Additionally she could broadcast messages to Metropolis at large. Jinx resented her time in the sewers but key applications of chaos caused the pipes to break and flood in key ways and kept her well out of sight for the public.
After having thoroughly messed with the cities plumbing and unintentionally drenched herself, though thankfully she was wearing protective gear instead of nice clothes, Jinx used a backdoor in the L-Phone system to piggyback on an L-Phone somewhere else and use it to call Lois Lane. A prerecorded message of "Tell Pooperman to find me in the sewers" later and Jinx had set her bait. It was all deniable as a teenager pulling a dumb prank call after an unfortunate series unrelated of accidents. Nothing criminal but plenty distracting. Superman could go spend his time searching the sewers for a supervillain who didn't exist, while Jinx enjoyed a nice long shower so that she could feel clean again after accidentally drenching herself.
If Superman didn't respond then she'd escalate. Jinx would cause chaos with the electrical grid or further mess with phones. Admittedly it would likely be a lot more overt but it would be distracting. Jinx just had to hope Superman took the bait.
Clark Kent AKA Superman
Clark had been uneasy over President Garner's invitation to meet with Kara. The man had been acting strange for a while now and his invitation was unusual. Clark smelled some kind of trap. Unfortunately Kara wouldn't listen and insisted on going to the meeting. As such Clark had planned on showing up to make sure everything was alright. He still didn't fully know what Kara was doing either but he was hardly going to let her walk into what he thought was a trap.
Of course then the day had to get weird. It started out normal enough, indistinguishable from any other day. Even the first few signs that something was amiss were nothing too out of the ordinary, Clark had thought nothing of it when Ron had complained about the water in the men's bathroom not working. Then the staff at the Daily Planer had realized that all of the water in the building wasn't working right. Then a few frantic phone calls later and they'd found out that this was a problem all across Metropolis.
Clark hadn't considered it his problem just yet, but that changed about a half hour later when Lois got a call. Lois's number wasn't known to the general public meaning that most of her calls were from informants. The call was short and Clark did his best not to listen in, but the speed of the call quickly confirmed that it wasn't a personal call or likely an informant.
"Ugh, some juvenile nuisance thinks I'm Superman's secretary or something" Lois complained, revealing somewhat the contents of the call. Clark calmly asked Lois what exactly they said to her.
"I refuse to repeat it as it was said" Lois stated with annoyance "But they basically told me to pass a message to Superman to find them in the sewers. Of course I can't dismiss it as just a prank call because somehow they managed to call me from an unknown phone number"
That was a good point. The timing of it was suspicious though. Though the time in which Supergirl and President Garner would meet wasn't super well known, and whoever this was hadn't timed things perfectly, they'd clearly done so at a very similar point in time. As such this reeked of a distraction. While this failure was unfortunate, it didn't quite seem like a problem for Superman to solve. As such Clark kept his head down and intended to ignore it, fully intending to go after Kara since this seemed tailor made to keep them separated.
After half an hour or so, whoever was behind this then started cutting the power supply in Metropolis, deliberately knocking out power block by block. At that point Superman knew he had to intervene. Whoever was behind this was escalating and this was getting actively dangerous for civilians. If Superman didn't at least appear to play their game, they'd only escalate further and potentially start actively endangering civilians.
Clark left the Daily Planet and found a private area to change and become Superman. From there Superman visibly flew into the air, made sure that whoever was behind this could see him take the bait so they wouldn't keep escalating, and then flew down into Metropolis's sewers. He had a job to do and the faster he got through this, the faster he could go solve whatever scheme this was trying to distract him from.
Pamela Isley-Kane
Pamela had done her best to reach out to as many contacts as possible in the hopes of trying to prevent the president from meeting with Supergirl. She'd made sure to reference that the president had already been kidnapped once and that Supergirl was an unknown alien with unclear motives that weren't necessarily benevolent. It had been a frantic drive as Pamela half yelled into the phone, trying to get things to move as fast as they could.
Pamela had done her best but she wasn't sure it was quite good enough, hence why she was back in the capitol. Showing up in person might help to sway even more people. Pamela was starting to get some pull, and she was fairly confident that there would at least be additional security around the president, but it wasn't enough. Most of the request for monitoring were dismissed as the White House was already heavily monitored. It was frustrating and annoying but it looked like Pamela's efforts weren't going to be enough to prevent the meeting from occuring outright.
As Pamela saw the form of Supergirl fly in and land on the White House lawn, she knew she needed to make a call. It was unclear if the extra security she'd coerced and cajoled into coming into place would be sufficient to prevent what was going on. As such Pamela needed to figure out what exactly she and Ultraviolet were going to do.
Intervention subvote
Pamela needs to make a call on what exactly ought to be done as while she was unable to prevent the President and Supergirl from meeting, she was able to get additional security in place for the president, though no additional monitoring. As such it's up to you to determine what move Pamela makes. Write-ins are available for this subvote though they are subject to QM approval. As always there is a 1 hour moratorium on voting.
[ ] [Intervention] Both Pamela and Ultraviolet should forcibly head into the White House to prevent the meeting
[ ] [Intervention] Have Pamela mind control a few guards and agents to let her covertly enter the White House while Ultraviolet remains on standby
[ ] [Intervention] Have Pamela try and alter the plants outside while Ultraviolet stays as an eye in the sky.
[ ] [Intervention] Have Ultraviolet attempt to enter the White House claiming that there's some kind of threat to the POTUS that she became aware of, while Pamela tries to rally more support
[ ] [Intervention] Have both Pamela and Ultraviolet watch and wait to see what happens.
[ ] [Intervention] Write-in
Nemesis Event: Man of the Apes
Malcom
Malcom raged at what he had been forced to. He would've preferred fighting the current Vulcan but the man was a coward, hiding and avoiding confrontation. Malcom would've preferred direct confrontation but he also knew that if he took on a big enough target, Vulcan would be forced to confront him. As such the decision to target Ultraviolet was a straightforward one. She was powerful, well-known and in the public eye. If Malcom drew out the fight just enough, and made himself out to be a threat then Vulcan would cease hiding and come confront him.
Malcom knew more than a few of Vulcan's secrets. He'd almost been Vulcan, but the metagene had activated wrong within him, leading to him being forced to seek alternate means of empowerment. It had taken a while and the grafts had been painful but he was made to be superior to anything Vulcan could produce on his own. His form was twisted and warped but it would see him through to let him win the day.
It only enraged Malcom further to know that he had to jump through all of these hoops to get what he wanted. The fools were playing monkey in the middle with what should have been his, perpetually passing it on to unworthy successors and keeping the title of Vulcan out of his hands. Malcom intended to murder both the man who'd promised him a destiny only to deny and mutilate him, and the man who'd replaced him. If there was a child, some new Son of Vulcan to take the mantle, then Malcom would end it regardless.
Radiant was the blood of the beast and Malcom intended to channel it into his rage as he continued to rampage across Metropolis. He didn't intend to inflict too much property damage, a few cannon shots into the road and some general anger and menace and he'd get enough attention. Malcom had no doubt the police would be upon him soon but he hoped to keep those fancy exo-suits from confronting him and so limited how wild he was acting, instead bellowing and proclaiming his challenge to Ultraviolet.
He'd get his fight soon enough and whether by guilt or by duty, he'd get his fight with Vulcan later.
Beatriz Da Costa
Beatriz wasn't exactly new to the superhero business, both she and Tora had both had experience before coming to work for LexCorp and had both participated in the fight against Funnyface. That being said this was the first time Beatriz was acting as the field commander for a fight against an unknown threat.
This wasn't like when Ultraviolet had lead her in a fight against Parasite, that involved known quantities and she hadn't had to take the lead. This new monkey man was a complete unknown. That being said his rampaging, though surprisingly contained, and constant challenges to Ultraviolet meant that Beatriz had to confront him.
She and Tora had quickly dispatched and now Fire and Ice were on the scene, with the police currently having evacuated civilians and seemingly kept the monkey man's rampage contained, it was looking like she and Tora would be free to engage. Still before the fighting began Beatriz wanted to gather some information on what was going on.
Beatriz eyed the creature before her. A man's head, with what looked to be some kind of wireless electroencephalogram thing fused to the skull, atop a massive gorilla's body. Beatriz had seen gorillas at the zoo but this one was abnormally large. Some kind of crude metallic armor was grafted to the knees and shoulders and one hand resembled some kind of club or cannon. All in all he made for an unusual monster but the fact he could speak showed some intelligence and that meant he could respond to whatever tactics they used against him.
Beatriz made note that when it came to a fight she ought to draw the monkey-man's fire while Tora acted from the back. The cannon's ranged capabilities were unknown but Beatriz would likely be able to take the shots far better than Tora would. His size also meant that fighting him head on was untenable but the relatively small head on the large body caused Beatriz to suspect he'd have difficulties shifting his field of vision, as his own massive shoulders would block his view if he turned his head. Divide and conquer was the name of the game.
"We're not Ultraviolet" Beatriz declared, hoping to get the monkey-man's attention, "But if you want a fight, we'll happily oblige"
The monkey-man looked at them, seeming to try and assess something before smirking, having arrived at a conclusion.
"You'll do" The monkey-man rasped "If you don't put up the fight I'm looking for then your defeat will only draw out someone more capable"
Beatriz didn't wait much longer. She allowed her fire to envelop her, shifting forms and burst forwards, flying at the monkey-man. The beast snarled as he leapt to the side and attempted to club her with his metal hand. Beatriz barely caught the blow and started to superheat the metal. The monkey-man screamed in pain but didn't let that slow him down as he slammed Beatriz into the ground in an effort to get her to let go. Beatriz refused to do so and so the monkey-man resorted to attempting to punch her with his other hand.
Beatriz made the decision to disengage, and flew backwards. The monkey-man hissed and snarled but realized that his feet had been frozen just long enough for Beatriz to hit him in the chest with a blast of fire.
The monkey-man shrugged it off and attempted to return fire but his arm was still overheated and inoperable. The monkey-man instead slammed the cannon hand into the ice around his feet as an impromptu club. The ice shattered and the monkey-man immediately turned around and leaped towards Tora. Tora responded by creating a pillar of ice that slammed into the monkey-man. He hardly let the blow slow him down and instead began clambering around it with surprising speed.
Beatriz moved to intercept the monkey-man keeping his attention focused on her and not Tora. The monkey-man was forced to disengage but instead leaped off of the ice pillar and instead grabbed hold of a nearby streetlight before leaping at Beatriz. Beatriz dodged, but the monkey-man caught himself and seemed to pause for a moment, before darting towards Beatriz once again.
Beatriz blasted a stream of emerald fire but the monkey-man turned and used his armor shoulder to intercept it. Beatriz upped the heat, hoping that the armor, which appeared to be metallic, would conduct the heat and that the pain would cause him to slow down. He didn't slow down and the monkey-man managed to shoulder check Beatriz knocking her back.
He couldn't capitalize on it though as he was quickly pelted with blasts of ice from another direction. The monkey-man hissed and turned, around only to get hit with fire as Beatriz righted herself and rushed back into the fight.
The monkey-man tore up the street and used chunks of it to make cover for himself, blocking the projectiles. Beatriz flew to try and get above him but the monkey-man merely hurled a part of his impromptu cover and then darted now that one side was left open. Beatriz dodged the massive projectile and righted herself to try and case after him as he raced back towards the streetlight.
The monkey-man didn't get too far as Tora iced the ground beneath him causing him to slip. Beatriz surged forwards confident that this was an opportunity to close the fight now that their opponent had lost traction.
Then in an instant that absolutely boggled Beatriz's mind, the monkey-man slammed his hand into the ground, spun himself around on it, grabbed the streetlight with his feet and then ripped it out. Beatriz barely had a moment to react when she was brained by the streetlight and slammed into the ground.
She'd barely recovered when the monkey-man kicked her at Tora. Tora ended up creating a sort of slide-wall to bleed off momentum from Beatriz but in doing so she'd blinded herself and separated them. It took Beatriz a moment to right herself because she knew that the monkey-man would exploit this moment. Beatriz surged forth, passing through the ice wall by melting it on contact and managed to come just in time to hit the monkey-man in his chest before he could bring down a devastating overhead strike upon Tora. Beatriz pulled back and looked to Tora, to make sure she was alright.
Tora nodded to show she was good and began to move to the side once again. Tora's attention refocused once more as parts of the street were hurled at her with tremendous force. Beatriz unleashed a corona of fire to push the pieces away, causing them to harmlessly fall to the side and hopefully blinding the monkey-man.
Beatriz once more moved towards the monkey-man who seemed to be slowing down. He just barely caught a massive chunk of ice Tora hurled at him, only for Beatriz to catch him with a gout of flame. He was slowing down.
The pattern repeated for what felt like ages, of Beatriz and Tora constantly hitting him from different directions and forcing him to constantly turn to react. They weren't dealing any devastating blows but he was tiring and slowing down. Over and over and they engaged until eventually the monkey-man collapsed. Beatriz had Tora create ice to act as impromptu manacles to keep him from attacking if this was merely him playing possum but the monkey-man had been defeated.
The police arrived and congratulated Tora and Beatriz on their capture and defeat of the monkey-man before bringing him into custody. Beatriz felt good. Not only had they ended up taking care of the monkey-man, but Beatriz had succeeded in leading and had managed to do so without needing to call for back-up. They'd gotten lucky that he'd allowed her to so easily disable his cannon, but Beatriz still counted that as a win. Now she and Tora would enjoy the victory before they had to go and make a statement for the press.
[ ] [Lex] Spend time with Cassandra
[ ] [Mercy] Take a brief trip to Coast City
[ ] [Cass] Use zeta beam transmat stations to take a day trip to Rome with friends
[ ] [Jinx] Have Lucy attempt to educate her a bit more on the law
[ ] [Rose] Attempt to teach and guide Starfire
[ ] [Helena] Supervise a trip to Rome with Cassandra Luthor
[ ] [Raven] Talk to Mina about Azarath and magic
[ ] [Chaytan] Get to know the other members of Bastion
[ ] [NCJ] Ask Brittney Meld for help managing his new income
[ ] [Cent] Get to know Zatanna better
[ ] [Crock] Practice playing her persona of "Cheshire"
[ ] [EB] Beg her dad for a Zoom Pet
[ ] [Cub] Speak to the strange lady who is all the animals (talk to Mina Chaytan)
[ ] [Monkey] Discover heated blankets
Raven's personal action involved a tiebreaker coin toss and it landed on tails. I will say that I'm kind of excited from a writing perspecitve that we have two different POV's for the trip to Rome. It'll be interesting having the same event be described from different POVs in the shorter style of the personal actions.
Additionally the characters people most wanted to see next time was a five way tie between
[ ] [Next] Tora
[ ] [Next] Caitlin
[ ] [Next] Karl
[ ] [Next] Frost
[ ] [Next] Nygma
It's rather exciting to see what will come next.
I do want to give you guys a heads up that this is not every mini-events first part (it's just the first three and that I'll probably be sticking to three mini-events at once. I do imagine that this will wrap up in less parts than last time. I also think it's fair to give you a heads up that there was a small tweak to Cassandra's POV from the snippet I posted earlier. Largely it is the same though, I just wanted to point out that it might merit a reread to find what has been added.
Additionally if we're talking about my writing woes, one of these POVs was a lot harder than it should be considering I was trying to write a man with no name. As such the section near totally just uses pronouns for how the character refers to themselves and it's a little messy. I do think it was fun and interesting to attempt.
Lastly I hope the fight scene in this update is good. I don't think it's my best work but I do think there were a few neat moments of choreography and I'm hoping you guys find it fun to read. As always if you've got questions or think you spotted something wrong, feel free to bring it to my attention but without further ado, here's the update.
Mini-Event: A Precipitous Peace Conference Part 1
Cassandra Luthor
Cassandra rather enjoyed the peace conference. It wasn't too different from what had come before but the fact that she had been allowed to accompany Father to this event in Austria was a sign that she was trusted. As such Cassandra nevertheless strove to prove that she could handle whatever was thrown her way. This peace conference was not too different of an assignment from what had come before. In some ways it combined the social navigation aspects of her task at both the Isley-Kane wedding and when Bruce Wayne was in Gotham, and mixed in the analysis of others ulterior motives from when she was tasked to watch Father's negotiation with Count Vertigo. All in all a simple evolution of what had come before and Cassandra had no doubt that she'd similarly be able to effortlessly conquer whatever challenges lay before her. This was new and exciting and Cassandra was excited for more.
Cassandra was relaxed, enjoying herself once more in formal attire and enjoying a flute of apple juice as a rare treat for herself. There were so many interesting figures to note and observe at this event. While she wasn't going to be herself in her entirety, Cassandra knew that she could lean into her youth as an excuse to start up conversations and as cover for what was going on, and so she figured it would be best to not try and sell herself as someone she wasn't. She could do so if she chose to, Cassandra was an accomplished liar, but since this was in public Cassandra wanted her persona to at least partially reflect who she really was. And so she hung back and observed at first.
The count was smug as ever, and Cassandra still didn't like him, but despite the fact that he brought extra bodyguards, Count Vertigo remained calm and collected. Cassandra considered conversing with him a bit but ultimately dismissed it for now. She had no doubt that Count Vertigo would attempt to engage with father soon, and she would be better served trying to identify other wildcards. Cassandra moved to chatting with the Austrian contingent of the delegation, whom she found rather easy to deal with. They did try and get details about Father's work on suits from them, but Cassandra made sure not to provide them with actionable information whilst still keeping a positive impression, choosing to express that one of LexCorp's top pilots had recently returned and so there were new opportunities to improve things. All technically true, and all things she could know of, but no commitments or tangible statements about what was being done for them.
Cassandra continued to surveil the room when she spotted something interesting. One of the caterers was planning on enacting violence towards Count Vertigo. Cassandra guessed it likely would've involved a knife that ostensibly would have been used for the dinner. Cassandra quickly sent off a notice to security and the man was promptly escorted off the premises to be arrested without anyone any wiser as to what was going on.
Cassandra had briefly entertained the idea of confronting the man openly, throwing her apple juice into his eyes and then laying him out with a few debilitating strikes. While that might've been more fun from a personal perspective, it would've been too loud and drawn far too much attention. The way she handled things was better and she was confident that Father would appreciate her discretion. Besides she could always find someone to fight later and she doubted an angry caterer would really be able to push her to her limits. Cassandra took another sip of her apple juice.
The Italian countess she met was interesting, the woman clearly had designs on Father via marriage and was attempting to befriend Cassandra as a way to get to him. Cassandra wasn't impressed by those results but the woman was clearly suppressing enough tells and manipulating her own body language well enough that Cassandra knew she was certainly skilled enough in the art of deception. Not skilled enough to fool Cassandra but the conversation was entertaining enough even if they both did their best to veil their true goals.
The large man with the scarred face had an unusual appearance and when Cassandra read his body language she got a sense of boredom and slight amounts of contempt. However what Cassandra saw did suggest that he was surprisingly strong. Cassandra couldn't place who he was and instead would opt to inform Father of his presence to see if there was any relevance to him.
The soldier with the black bird pin was interesting as well. Cassandra had approached him under the guise of being interested in his weaponry, which she nominally was, but more interesting than that was the fact that his arm was some kind of advanced cybernetic and Cassandra had no idea where he had gotten it from. He'd come into the conference, ostensibly as part of the security detail for some German representative of the United Nations, and was similarly scanning the room for threats. He attempted to brush her off a few times but Cassandra was good at leveraging things in order to keep him trapped in a conversation with her. She didn't get much but she knew he was dismissive and that he was expecting some kind of danger or attack, as he was deliberately watching both Vertigo and King Victor of the Markovian royal family. That wasn't enough to fully get everything from him but Cassandra managed to get enough that she felt she was likely better served by engaging with others at the conference.
A little more meandering and Cassandra spotted the younger of the two princes of Markovia, prince Brion. Cassandra moved to engage him in conversation. He was close to her age, only being a few years older and so she ought to be able to easily bring him into the fold without much issue.
As Cassandra drew closer she couldn't help but admire his form. He cut an impressive figure in the red double-breasted coat he wore. Cassandra couldn't help but find her eyes drawn to the way the epaulettes on his dress uniform seemed to emphasize his shoulders. He had muscle on him and Cassandra couldn't help but enjoy looking at it. It had an aesthetic value that Cassandra appreciated.
"Hello" the prince greeted, smiling in a way that seemed without guile but made Cassandra's stomach flutter a little bit. She had no idea why, she'd never felt this way before and she couldn't identify what it was about the prince and his charming smile, and prime physique that would make her feel this way. Cassandra still hid any sort of turmoil beneath a somewhat placid and congenial smile.
"I wasn't expecting many people our age at an event like this" The prince admitted with a casual smile that Cassandra admired and made her want to smile back reflexively. Cassandra didn't know why she wanted to smile around him but it couldn't be that bad. His body conveyed that he wasn't trying to fool her or trick her so Cassandra let out a happy and somewhat more honest smile. She'd heard that she had a bit of a stern resting expression so hopefully smiling would put him more at ease and get him to smile more.
"My father helped organize the event" Cassandra replied "I'd be remiss if I didn't at least show up to observe what he was achieving"
"Ah so you are Cassandra Luthor!" The prince cheerfully replied. Cassandra did her best not to get distracted by his eyes but they really were a nice shade of green. And he was smiling at her and recognized her. Cassandra preened a bit before she got confused. Why was she so eager for him to like her and be impressed by her? Brion Markov was unimportant in the grand scheme of things and his opinion shouldn't matter and yet Cassandra was for some reason interested in what he thought of her. Not enough to change her course or spill secrets but enough that she could tell she was somehow being affected by his presence.
Cassandra scanned his body in an instant finding no sign of deception or intentional manipulation but confirming that he had a very solid core and a broad chest. Cassandra idly imagined what he might look like if she took off his shirt and then realized that this was not at all normal. Thinking too much on his form affected her thoughts some how and caused her to drift into distraction.
"The one and only" Cassandra replied calmly, obscuring her panic as she attempted to assess why he was having this effect on her. Was it perhaps some kind of mind control?
Cassandra pondered the idea and then firmly rejected it. If it was mind control than it was such a poor job that Cassandra had both cottoned on to it and was able to actively resist it even if thinking about his eyes and his smile and the way his face lit up sent tingles through her stomach and made her feel irrationally happy and nervous. Cassandra was not a dog who could be controlled by such rudimentary pavlovian techniques.
No this was likely something else as it would be foolish for a prince to attempt to mind control her in such a slapdash manner.
"I'm glad we got to talk" Brion said smiling all the while and while Cassandra smiled back, inside she was concentrating and focusing, refusing to let him distract her. Whatever this weakness was Cassandra would overcome it. "This peace negotiation is important. The people of Markovia have suffered at the hand of Vlatavan aggression and while I would like peace, my people need to be protected from further depredation by Count Vertigo"
Cassandra nodded along.
"I would appreciate it if you could let your father know of this and speak to him to ensure that the plight of Markovia is not overlooked" Brion continued.
That was the catch. He was attempting to use whatever it was that was affecting her to make her want to impress him and keep him happy and pleased with her as leverage to get her to bias Father in some capacity towards favoring Markovia. Cassandra made some non-comital agreement to at least mention it to her father and spent the rest of the time trying to impress the prince with her achievements, at least the ones she felt comfortable revealing, as she continued to analyze why she was feeling the way she did.
Cassandra listed the symptoms she was experiencing mentally. Some kind of tingling in her stomach, increased nervousness, a desire to impress the prince and keep him happy and fond of her, a reflexive desire to smile around him and get his attention, a tendency to get lost in imaginations when observing features of his body, and liking the way he smiled. It dawned on Cassandra.
Was this attraction? Was she attracted to Brion Markov? She ran through the symptoms again and found it matched up with what most people would define as teenaged infatuation. Cassandra hated it. It messed with her head and compromised her in ways she hadn't ever been before. It was stupid and she wished she could stop feeling the way she did. It was awful.
Cassandra wouldn't let it affect her. Now that she knew how she was compromised she could take steps to mitigate its effects. Cassandra paused in her thoughts as she realized something. She couldn't let Father know. If he knew that she could be so easily compromised, he might doubt her capabilities. Cassandra refused to let stupid hormones ruin things for her. She had been getting more responsibility and was finally able to prove herself worthy of being Father's heir.
Father didn't have to know about her useless attraction to Brion. Nobody needed to know about it. She'd just suppress it for now and then once she was back in Metropolis she'd talk to Jinx about it. Maybe she'd have Jinx act as a proxy in requesting for advice from Father in dealing with this part of growing up. Yes that sounded like a reasonable plan. For now Cassandra finished talking to Brion Markov, making sure to let none of her inner turmoil show and prepared to finish excelling in the task given to her.
Bad Samaritan
The conference was disappointing. One might expect that as a Markovian diplomat, he would be more excited for a peace conference. After all diplomats ostensibly were most useful in a negotiation. His talents lay elsewhere. Had Markovia not proven to be incapable of fighting Vlatava long term, he might've actually preferred to keep the conflict going. To put it simply, he might be a diplomat nowadays but that wasn't his primary vocation.
The paperwork to let him in claimed that he was Markovian, but he wasn't. He wasn't Markovian, or Russian, or Georgian, or Soviet. He was a man of no nation, a Bad Samaritan providing people with the necessary touches of violence and chaos to both advance and evolve societies as a whole and to allow him to seize power. He preferred to live comfortably but he could abandon everything and fade away into the shadows. Even the name Zviad Baazovi could be abandoned without much issue, for his true name had been cast aside ages ago.
He wasn't quite sure how he felt about the coming peace. On the one hand his growing power in Markovia would benefit from some measure of stability. On the other hand negotiating with a fascist nobleman with delusions of superiority simply because he had some metahumans in his employ was irritating and it would be so much better if he could simply remove Count Vertigo from the picture.
The attempt with the caterer had admittedly been unlikely to succeed, but that was a natural consequence of attempting to covertly mess with someone's emotions to push them into acting. Rage and hatred was fantastic for getting someone to spontaneously decide to kill someone but that same spontaneity meant that the attempts weren't planned and thus were less likely to succeed.
He lost nothing, though he did determine that he would be better served no longer attempting to influence minds. He couldn't draw on something that wasn't already there and if someone was familiar with psychics, they'd likely to be able to detect his meddling. One rogue caterer would likely not invite too much scrutiny, especially since he had no connection to the man he'd pushed into attempting murder. Influencing many individuals however meant everything was more likely to be observed with scrutiny and if his psychic talents were discovered, he would be forced to flee.
As such all that was left was to let things run their course. There would be peace and Zviad Baazovi would be there to advise his king and queen on what to do next. He'd thoroughly wormed his way into their confidence and as such he had enough latitude to act in ways others might find immoral or unpleasant. And with the royals fear of a repeat invasion, he would be able to secure his power base in Markovia even further all the while using the royal family as puppets and a shield for what was to come next. He'd come across a promising opportunity at this meeting. Whoever "Mr. Savage" was, his connections with a metahuman smuggling ring of all things was exactly would be exactly the sort of leverage necessary to ensure that Markovia would be on a more even footing with Vlataca the next time conflict broke out.
Victor Markov AKA King Markov
The situation was not untenable but it certainly was not ideal. Too much had been lost to the damned Vlatavan usurper. They'd managed to slow the advance of his monsters, but Markovia's fields were red with the blood of its people.
The fact of the matter was that if Vlatava kept all the land it had gained, then Markovia was unlikely to remain intact for long. Serpents like Count Vertigo would not hesitate to bite just because you made your neck available. As soon as the world lost interest in what was occurring, Vertigo would undoubtedly return to attempting to conquer Markovia. The usurper wasn't satisfied with merely supplanting his own family, Verrtigo would undoubtedly chase after more land and prestige and power. After all the man was so utterly lacking in honor and respect that he needed to try and take it from others.
What irked Victor was that it wasn't his countrymen who had proven triumphant, it was the interests of outside oligarchs and powers that had prevented the war from continuing. Markovia couldn't afford to lose more of its children, already their industry would be impacted by the death toll of the war. No instead Victor had to swallow a poisonous peace and hope it was sufficient for now.
That in turn informed his strategic goals for this conference. Victor sought to obtain reparations first and foremost. The other countries sought ot use Markovia like a country in a coal mine, warning of impending danger when Vertigo's ambitions were sufficiently roused. As such Victor would argue that it was essential that Markovia get paid reparations by Vlatava. Zviad had ideas on how best to use that industry to build up Markovia's forces. Once they had enough forces to match Vertigo's monsters, the map could be redrawn, this time in Markovia's favor. Victor certainly would prefer not to concede land but he'd tolerate it as a condition. The world had not cared when Vlatava stole land from Markovia and so in turn they would not care when Markovia took that land back.
Victor would avoid any sort of foreign oversight or involvement if possible. After all he fully intended to build Markovia up in secret and so any organization that could interfere in that development would be problematic. An exchange of diplomats could be useful as a way to insert spies to figure out how Vertigo was manufacturing metahumans, but actual foreign oversight was only likely to lead to complications.
The other catch to the situation was Lex Luthor. The host to the peace negotiations played at being neutral and the countries of the world but a man with a tower in the Vlatavan capital was not a neutral party, much less one who made money off of wars. Victor wasn't sure why Lex Luthor was interested in peace now, but he didn't trust the man as far as he could throw him. As such the strategy to deal with him was twofold.
The first element of the strategy was simple. Rather than attempting to go through Lex directly it was easier to try and sway his daughter. Victor had brought both of his sons to the conference. Gregor was here to learn, but Brion was here to make friends. Brion was naturally gregarious and if he could form an emotional connection or some bond of friendship with the girl, then Markovia could use her to put pressure on her father. After all what father would want to make their child sad? It was cold and callous but it was a strategy that allowed Victor to potentially circumvent needing to figure out what the billionaires motives were or even really cutting a deal. Brion was left in the dark, but Victor was confident the idea had some merit.
The second was a lot more direct but also more complicated. Victor had heavily consulted with Zviad regarding this but the answer was simple. Regardless of what shape the peace talks took, Victor wished to approach Lex Luthor and offer him a deal. Let the American mogul invest in Markovia as much as he had in Vlatava. Not only did it make reparations something Luthor would be more willing to countenance as some of the money would go to him, but if Markovia struck back to take what they wanted then Lex Luthor was unlikely to take a side if he was equally invested in both countries. Sure the man wouldn't want a war between two countries he was invested in, but in the age of metahumans wars could gain a lot of ground fast and a quick turn around to peace could allow Markovia to keep what it gained.
How exactly to best convince Luthor to invest was likely going to be best served by approaching him and figuring out what he wanted, before then making him an offer just good enough that he would accept it without compromising Markovia's future stability.
The last problem was Vertigo. The usurper obviously would seek to paint himself the victim and to cripple Markovia as much as possible. Victor wasn't overly worried but he did try to keep an eye out on who Vertigo was talking to. He was confident that he could neutralize any arguments that Vertigo might employ, but it was best to be cautious. What occurred at this summit would invariably effect the outcome of the next war.
Werner Vertigo AKA Count Vertigo
Count Vertigo enjoyed a sip of his wine and luxuriated in the knowledge of how far he'd come. While he couldn't outright say it, Count Vertigo had become a conquering king. His conquest had been stopped by the political realities of the situation but now in this peace conference, Vertigo could permanently kill off Markovia. It would be less satisfying than direct conquest but after King Victor got a bad deal and was tragically assassinated by unhappy dissidents, Vertigo could easily step in to protect the remainder of the royal family. He'd probably need to dispose of the sons but the princess was likely young enough to be reshaped and taught to be a proper ruler like his niece.
Count Vertigo didn't feel much anxiety at the way things would proceed. His ally was acting as the seemingly neutral moderator and host, his metahuman abilities as well as his guards would prevent any direct foul play, and he had legitimate casus belli through the "attempted assassination" he had staged. The Markovians would be stuck with unfavorable terms and Vlatava would be stronger than ever. He would have to think of a way to deliver a castle to Luthor once it was all over, but that was something to be worked out later.
Vertigo scanned to see who was in attendance. Luthor was standing surrounded by diplomats, with a lone female bodyguard acting as his support and keeping him from getting swarmed. Count Vertigo would speak with him soon enough once the graspers had left for a time.
He spotted the Austrian, Greek, Serbian, Bulgarian, Macedonian and Albanian contingents. They were small players unless they remained united in purpose. Count Vertigo would move to the Greeks and the Macedonians and see if he could arrange some sort of deal with them. He didn't trust them as far as he could throw them, but he also could recognize that these were countries with more history. An American idiot vaguely knew of Greece and Macedonia was close enough. How many Americans could place Albania or Bulgaria on a map? Austria was broadly speaking irrelevant for the purposes of preventing another war so they weren't a real contender.
Vertigo continued to scan the room. The Italian Countess would make for a suitable partner of equally noble blood, but Count Vertigo was here to finish off Vlatava, not to seek out a marriage. The large man with the scarred face was interesting but in all likelihood irrelevant, especially since he hadn't seemed to approach anyone thus far. Lex Luthor's brat was underfoot somewhere, as were the Markovian princes.
And with that Vertigo decided upon his course. It likely would be some degree of faux pas, but angering and enraging princes was far easier than angering a king, and the more the Markovians weren't thinking straight, the more mistakes they would make. Now was the time to kill Markovia, with pen instead of the sword.
Conversation Starter subvote
There are a number of interesting factions and individuals present at the peace conference. As such getting a better sense of who they are and potentially preemptively arranging a deal with them prior to the negotiations proper might be advantageous for you. Some of these parties may attempt to speak to approach you on their own. That being said time is a limited factor and you cannot speak to everyone. Please pick up to three of your favorite options. Write-ins are strongly encouraged for this subvote but as always all write-ins are subject to QM approval. As always there is a 1 hour moratorium on voting.
[ ] [Converse] Speak to the Austrian contingent about the progress of their power armor
[ ] [Converse] Attempt to talk to the German UN representatives about prosthetics
[ ] [Converse] Attempt to broker an arms deal with the Serbian representatives
[ ] [Converse] Attempt to negotiate some sort of archeology dig from the Greek representatives
[ ] [Converse] Attempt to negotiate assistance on the construction of a LexCorp building in Macedonia
[ ] [Converse] Attempt to negotiate some sort of land transfer with the Albanians
[ ] [Converse] Speak to the Bulgarians to figure out their angle on things
[ ] [Converse] Speak to King Victor of Markovia to see what he wants from the negotiation
[ ] [Converse] Speak to Count Vertigo to coordinate your plans for the peace negotiation
[ ] [Converse] Attempt to get a sense of Prince Gregor and the man wearing sunglasses talking to him
[ ] [Converse] Speak to Prince Brion to get a better sense of his character
[ ] [Converse] Speak to the Italian Countess to find out more about her
[ ] [Converse] Speak to the large man with scars on his face to find out more about him.
[ ] [Converse] Compliment Cassandra on a job well done and reassure her that she' doing excellent
[ ] [Converse] Write-in
Nemesis Event: White House Black Heart Part 1
Jinx
Jinx rather enjoyed this sort of work. Getting told to more or less let loose some chaos was a fun way to spend an afternoon. Granted there were limitations, Jinx couldn't arrange for any obviously criminal actions and needed to ensure that Superman was kept distracted and that he didn't catch on to what was going on.
Jinx needed to stay relatively small scale. While causing the roof of the Daily Planet to collapse and actively endangering the people there would almost certainly distract Superman, it also would get him looking for answers. As such Jinx needed to be small scale enough that Superman wouldn't think of it as anything more than a bizarre accident. At the same time Jinx needed to make it big obvious and distracting enough that Superman would get involved.
In the end the plan Jinx settled on was fairly simple. She couldn't target the entire city all at once, but she could target key systems pretty easily. Additionally she could broadcast messages to Metropolis at large. Jinx resented her time in the sewers but key applications of chaos caused the pipes to break and flood in key ways and kept her well out of sight for the public.
After having thoroughly messed with the cities plumbing and unintentionally drenched herself, though thankfully she was wearing protective gear instead of nice clothes, Jinx used a backdoor in the L-Phone system to piggyback on an L-Phone somewhere else and use it to call Lois Lane. A prerecorded message of "Tell Pooperman to find me in the sewers" later and Jinx had set her bait. It was all deniable as a teenager pulling a dumb prank call after an unfortunate series unrelated of accidents. Nothing criminal but plenty distracting. Superman could go spend his time searching the sewers for a supervillain who didn't exist, while Jinx enjoyed a nice long shower so that she could feel clean again after accidentally drenching herself.
If Superman didn't respond then she'd escalate. Jinx would cause chaos with the electrical grid or further mess with phones. Admittedly it would likely be a lot more overt but it would be distracting. Jinx just had to hope Superman took the bait.
Clark Kent AKA Superman
Clark had been uneasy over President Garner's invitation to meet with Kara. The man had been acting strange for a while now and his invitation was unusual. Clark smelled some kind of trap. Unfortunately Kara wouldn't listen and insisted on going to the meeting. As such Clark had planned on showing up to make sure everything was alright. He still didn't fully know what Kara was doing either but he was hardly going to let her walk into what he thought was a trap.
Of course then the day had to get weird. It started out normal enough, indistinguishable from any other day. Even the first few signs that something was amiss were nothing too out of the ordinary, Clark had thought nothing of it when Ron had complained about the water in the men's bathroom not working. Then the staff at the Daily Planer had realized that all of the water in the building wasn't working right. Then a few frantic phone calls later and they'd found out that this was a problem all across Metropolis.
Clark hadn't considered it his problem just yet, but that changed about a half hour later when Lois got a call. Lois's number wasn't known to the general public meaning that most of her calls were from informants. The call was short and Clark did his best not to listen in, but the speed of the call quickly confirmed that it wasn't a personal call or likely an informant.
"Ugh, some juvenile nuisance thinks I'm Superman's secretary or something" Lois complained, revealing somewhat the contents of the call. Clark calmly asked Lois what exactly they said to her.
"I refuse to repeat it as it was said" Lois stated with annoyance "But they basically told me to pass a message to Superman to find them in the sewers. Of course I can't dismiss it as just a prank call because somehow they managed to call me from an unknown phone number"
That was a good point. The timing of it was suspicious though. Though the time in which Supergirl and President Garner would meet wasn't super well known, and whoever this was hadn't timed things perfectly, they'd clearly done so at a very similar point in time. As such this reeked of a distraction. While this failure was unfortunate, it didn't quite seem like a problem for Superman to solve. As such Clark kept his head down and intended to ignore it, fully intending to go after Kara since this seemed tailor made to keep them separated.
After half an hour or so, whoever was behind this then started cutting the power supply in Metropolis, deliberately knocking out power block by block. At that point Superman knew he had to intervene. Whoever was behind this was escalating and this was getting actively dangerous for civilians. If Superman didn't at least appear to play their game, they'd only escalate further and potentially start actively endangering civilians.
Clark left the Daily Planet and found a private area to change and become Superman. From there Superman visibly flew into the air, made sure that whoever was behind this could see him take the bait so they wouldn't keep escalating, and then flew down into Metropolis's sewers. He had a job to do and the faster he got through this, the faster he could go solve whatever scheme this was trying to distract him from.
Pamela Isley-Kane
Pamela had done her best to reach out to as many contacts as possible in the hopes of trying to prevent the president from meeting with Supergirl. She'd made sure to reference that the president had already been kidnapped once and that Supergirl was an unknown alien with unclear motives that weren't necessarily benevolent. It had been a frantic drive as Pamela half yelled into the phone, trying to get things to move as fast as they could.
Pamela had done her best but she wasn't sure it was quite good enough, hence why she was back in the capitol. Showing up in person might help to sway even more people. Pamela was starting to get some pull, and she was fairly confident that there would at least be additional security around the president, but it wasn't enough. Most of the request for monitoring were dismissed as the White House was already heavily monitored. It was frustrating and annoying but it looked like Pamela's efforts weren't going to be enough to prevent the meeting from occuring outright.
As Pamela saw the form of Supergirl fly in and land on the White House lawn, she knew she needed to make a call. It was unclear if the extra security she'd coerced and cajoled into coming into place would be sufficient to prevent what was going on. As such Pamela needed to figure out what exactly she and Ultraviolet were going to do.
Intervention subvote
Pamela needs to make a call on what exactly ought to be done as while she was unable to prevent the President and Supergirl from meeting, she was able to get additional security in place for the president, though no additional monitoring. As such it's up to you to determine what move Pamela makes. Write-ins are available for this subvote though they are subject to QM approval. As always there is a 1 hour moratorium on voting.
[ ] [Intervention] Both Pamela and Ultraviolet should forcibly head into the White House to prevent the meeting
[ ] [Intervention] Have Pamela mind control a few guards and agents to let her covertly enter the White House while Ultraviolet remains on standby
[ ] [Intervention] Have Pamela try and alter the plants outside while Ultraviolet stays as an eye in the sky.
[ ] [Intervention] Have Ultraviolet attempt to enter the White House claiming that there's some kind of threat to the POTUS that she became aware of, while Pamela tries to rally more support
[ ] [Intervention] Have both Pamela and Ultraviolet watch and wait to see what happens.
[ ] [Intervention] Write-in
Nemesis Event: Man of the Apes
Malcom
Malcom raged at what he had been forced to. He would've preferred fighting the current Vulcan but the man was a coward, hiding and avoiding confrontation. Malcom would've preferred direct confrontation but he also knew that if he took on a big enough target, Vulcan would be forced to confront him. As such the decision to target Ultraviolet was a straightforward one. She was powerful, well-known and in the public eye. If Malcom drew out the fight just enough, and made himself out to be a threat then Vulcan would cease hiding and come confront him.
Malcom knew more than a few of Vulcan's secrets. He'd almost been Vulcan, but the metagene had activated wrong within him, leading to him being forced to seek alternate means of empowerment. It had taken a while and the grafts had been painful but he was made to be superior to anything Vulcan could produce on his own. His form was twisted and warped but it would see him through to let him win the day.
It only enraged Malcom further to know that he had to jump through all of these hoops to get what he wanted. The fools were playing monkey in the middle with what should have been his, perpetually passing it on to unworthy successors and keeping the title of Vulcan out of his hands. Malcom intended to murder both the man who'd promised him a destiny only to deny and mutilate him, and the man who'd replaced him. If there was a child, some new Son of Vulcan to take the mantle, then Malcom would end it regardless.
Radiant was the blood of the beast and Malcom intended to channel it into his rage as he continued to rampage across Metropolis. He didn't intend to inflict too much property damage, a few cannon shots into the road and some general anger and menace and he'd get enough attention. Malcom had no doubt the police would be upon him soon but he hoped to keep those fancy exo-suits from confronting him and so limited how wild he was acting, instead bellowing and proclaiming his challenge to Ultraviolet.
He'd get his fight soon enough and whether by guilt or by duty, he'd get his fight with Vulcan later.
Beatriz Da Costa
Beatriz wasn't exactly new to the superhero business, both she and Tora had both had experience before coming to work for LexCorp and had both participated in the fight against Funnyface. That being said this was the first time Beatriz was acting as the field commander for a fight against an unknown threat.
This wasn't like when Ultraviolet had lead her in a fight against Parasite, that involved known quantities and she hadn't had to take the lead. This new monkey man was a complete unknown. That being said his rampaging, though surprisingly contained, and constant challenges to Ultraviolet meant that Beatriz had to confront him.
She and Tora had quickly dispatched and now Fire and Ice were on the scene, with the police currently having evacuated civilians and seemingly kept the monkey man's rampage contained, it was looking like she and Tora would be free to engage. Still before the fighting began Beatriz wanted to gather some information on what was going on.
Beatriz eyed the creature before her. A man's head, with what looked to be some kind of wireless electroencephalogram thing fused to the skull, atop a massive gorilla's body. Beatriz had seen gorillas at the zoo but this one was abnormally large. Some kind of crude metallic armor was grafted to the knees and shoulders and one hand resembled some kind of club or cannon. All in all he made for an unusual monster but the fact he could speak showed some intelligence and that meant he could respond to whatever tactics they used against him.
Beatriz made note that when it came to a fight she ought to draw the monkey-man's fire while Tora acted from the back. The cannon's ranged capabilities were unknown but Beatriz would likely be able to take the shots far better than Tora would. His size also meant that fighting him head on was untenable but the relatively small head on the large body caused Beatriz to suspect he'd have difficulties shifting his field of vision, as his own massive shoulders would block his view if he turned his head. Divide and conquer was the name of the game.
"We're not Ultraviolet" Beatriz declared, hoping to get the monkey-man's attention, "But if you want a fight, we'll happily oblige"
The monkey-man looked at them, seeming to try and assess something before smirking, having arrived at a conclusion.
"You'll do" The monkey-man rasped "If you don't put up the fight I'm looking for then your defeat will only draw out someone more capable"
Beatriz didn't wait much longer. She allowed her fire to envelop her, shifting forms and burst forwards, flying at the monkey-man. The beast snarled as he leapt to the side and attempted to club her with his metal hand. Beatriz barely caught the blow and started to superheat the metal. The monkey-man screamed in pain but didn't let that slow him down as he slammed Beatriz into the ground in an effort to get her to let go. Beatriz refused to do so and so the monkey-man resorted to attempting to punch her with his other hand.
Beatriz made the decision to disengage, and flew backwards. The monkey-man hissed and snarled but realized that his feet had been frozen just long enough for Beatriz to hit him in the chest with a blast of fire.
The monkey-man shrugged it off and attempted to return fire but his arm was still overheated and inoperable. The monkey-man instead slammed the cannon hand into the ice around his feet as an impromptu club. The ice shattered and the monkey-man immediately turned around and leaped towards Tora. Tora responded by creating a pillar of ice that slammed into the monkey-man. He hardly let the blow slow him down and instead began clambering around it with surprising speed.
Beatriz moved to intercept the monkey-man keeping his attention focused on her and not Tora. The monkey-man was forced to disengage but instead leaped off of the ice pillar and instead grabbed hold of a nearby streetlight before leaping at Beatriz. Beatriz dodged, but the monkey-man caught himself and seemed to pause for a moment, before darting towards Beatriz once again.
Beatriz blasted a stream of emerald fire but the monkey-man turned and used his armor shoulder to intercept it. Beatriz upped the heat, hoping that the armor, which appeared to be metallic, would conduct the heat and that the pain would cause him to slow down. He didn't slow down and the monkey-man managed to shoulder check Beatriz knocking her back.
He couldn't capitalize on it though as he was quickly pelted with blasts of ice from another direction. The monkey-man hissed and turned, around only to get hit with fire as Beatriz righted herself and rushed back into the fight.
The monkey-man tore up the street and used chunks of it to make cover for himself, blocking the projectiles. Beatriz flew to try and get above him but the monkey-man merely hurled a part of his impromptu cover and then darted now that one side was left open. Beatriz dodged the massive projectile and righted herself to try and case after him as he raced back towards the streetlight.
The monkey-man didn't get too far as Tora iced the ground beneath him causing him to slip. Beatriz surged forwards confident that this was an opportunity to close the fight now that their opponent had lost traction.
Then in an instant that absolutely boggled Beatriz's mind, the monkey-man slammed his hand into the ground, spun himself around on it, grabbed the streetlight with his feet and then ripped it out. Beatriz barely had a moment to react when she was brained by the streetlight and slammed into the ground.
She'd barely recovered when the monkey-man kicked her at Tora. Tora ended up creating a sort of slide-wall to bleed off momentum from Beatriz but in doing so she'd blinded herself and separated them. It took Beatriz a moment to right herself because she knew that the monkey-man would exploit this moment. Beatriz surged forth, passing through the ice wall by melting it on contact and managed to come just in time to hit the monkey-man in his chest before he could bring down a devastating overhead strike upon Tora. Beatriz pulled back and looked to Tora, to make sure she was alright.
Tora nodded to show she was good and began to move to the side once again. Tora's attention refocused once more as parts of the street were hurled at her with tremendous force. Beatriz unleashed a corona of fire to push the pieces away, causing them to harmlessly fall to the side and hopefully blinding the monkey-man.
Beatriz once more moved towards the monkey-man who seemed to be slowing down. He just barely caught a massive chunk of ice Tora hurled at him, only for Beatriz to catch him with a gout of flame. He was slowing down.
The pattern repeated for what felt like ages, of Beatriz and Tora constantly hitting him from different directions and forcing him to constantly turn to react. They weren't dealing any devastating blows but he was tiring and slowing down. Over and over and they engaged until eventually the monkey-man collapsed. Beatriz had Tora create ice to act as impromptu manacles to keep him from attacking if this was merely him playing possum but the monkey-man had been defeated.
The police arrived and congratulated Tora and Beatriz on their capture and defeat of the monkey-man before bringing him into custody. Beatriz felt good. Not only had they ended up taking care of the monkey-man, but Beatriz had succeeded in leading and had managed to do so without needing to call for back-up. They'd gotten lucky that he'd allowed her to so easily disable his cannon, but Beatriz still counted that as a win. Now she and Tora would enjoy the victory before they had to go and make a statement for the press.
- Monkey-in-the-Middle (he may end up with a different name in quest but I'm using that for now) is defeated by Fire and Ice and is placed in prison in Metropolis
- Superman does not show up in time to affect the fight
- Fire and Ice gain some reputation as a good team of capable combatants
- Vulcan is now aware of Monkey-in-the-Middle's location and may end up heading to Metropolis because of it
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King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
So the votes are now open if people want to take a shot at them.
Lopezelpesado
Space worm best worm.
- Pronouns
- Something
I just wanna to talk to him.
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Nice result for Fire and Ice dealing with Monkey in the Middle.
It sounds like depending on how things fall out there is a chance to bring Miguel Devante a.k.a. Son of Vulcan into our orbit.
As an orphan we could probably take guardianship of him fairly easily, and having a boy in the Lexcorp wards would be kinda nice. Plus the Vulcan gene is a separate thing from the normal metagene, and the Vulcan armor is a serious piece of technology with some very handy powers. Better yet, the armor itself provides a lot of knowledge to it's user.
It sounds like depending on how things fall out there is a chance to bring Miguel Devante a.k.a. Son of Vulcan into our orbit.
As an orphan we could probably take guardianship of him fairly easily, and having a boy in the Lexcorp wards would be kinda nice. Plus the Vulcan gene is a separate thing from the normal metagene, and the Vulcan armor is a serious piece of technology with some very handy powers. Better yet, the armor itself provides a lot of knowledge to it's user.
- Location
- Singapore
Erich Thonius (New Earth)
Erich Thonius was the hero known as Vulcan. One in a long line of superheroes by that name, he chose Miguel Devante as his sidekick and successor. Many thousands of years ago, the White Martians created a metavirus, a metagene that could be passed from host to host via touch. This metavirus was...
dc.fandom.com
Ah. White Martians storyline.
Why did we vote the castle again? I can't remember.
Fight Club 20
1# You do not talk about Fight Club
- Location
- North Carolina
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I'm assuming magic related.
Part of a Xanatos gambit... No, just kidding. Pretty much for the same reason Lexcorp has a bowling alley and I think a waterslide?
Just because.
Granted, it might make an appropriate conversation starter or residence for some bizarre hero unit or something, but mostly for fun.
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King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
So something I want to make clear to people is that the Vulcan stuff is not 1 to 1 with the comics. This is in part due to me needing to have Mars be consistent in quest and cutting out some of the absolute weirdness present in their lore. As such expect things with Martians and thus by extension Vulcan to be different.
Edit: It's not to the extent of something like magic, where I straight up just tossed out a ton of DC lore regarding Homo Magi (because I don't like it and don't think it's all that interesting or engaging) and instead it's closer to something like Atlantis or the history of Krypton, where I took elements of stuff in various comics media, picked and chose what I liked and then tossed in some original flavor on top of it all to get it to be something I liked.
Edit: It's not to the extent of something like magic, where I straight up just tossed out a ton of DC lore regarding Homo Magi (because I don't like it and don't think it's all that interesting or engaging) and instead it's closer to something like Atlantis or the history of Krypton, where I took elements of stuff in various comics media, picked and chose what I liked and then tossed in some original flavor on top of it all to get it to be something I liked.
IIRC people liked the aesthetic and saw no reason not to ask for it in the first round of negotiation with Vertigo. Vertigo then accepted that pretty quickly with no real pushback besides getting it to you guys once the war is over.
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I assume the castle is going to be used as a black site.
I'm too tired to use the brainpower necessary to craft actual plans right now but I will break some stuff down.
However there is one significant new addition, the large scarred man is 100% Vandal Savage which could be very interesting for us depending on how we choose to handle it.
Arguably the most important piece of information that we get from his POV is that Vandal is seemingly connected to a metahuman trafficking ring, very possibly Shard's metahuman trafficking ring, which is something we should absolutely keep in mind if we have any thoughts of working with him or targeting said ring.
Additionally now that we have a confirmed psychic at least adjacent to our interests we should get a move on with that psionic research.
To that end he's trying to manipulate us through both Cassandra and encouraging us to invest in Markovia itself. Not a bad plan in theory but it underestimates Cassandra's own abilities and how shady Lex is willing to be.
Us having a presence in Markova would make it significantly easier to keep an eye on things there, potentially get our hands on some Quixium, establish ourselves as "neutral" in this war and maybe conduct some espionage to sway some things in Vertigo's favour. Hell, depending on how things go we could expose Victor's unethical practises as a pretence for Vertigo to declare war again.
King Victor - Let him make his offer and allow Lex to get his measure IC before the actual negotiations start.
Vandal - Actually meet the man and see if there's any possibility of a deeper relationship there.
Gregor and Zviad Meet with the crown prince of Markovia to learn more about him and potentially learn that there's something off with Zviad.
Vertigo - Ensure that we're all on the same page here.
Cassandra - Just make some general conversation and learn what she's gathered so far.
Potentially we could mix and match a bit like having Cassandra join us to meet Vandal, Zviad or Victor?
Superman is distracted but that's of tentative use and risks Jinx being caught, Pamela has requested extra security but that is borderline useless when President Humanite can just order them to leave and Carol is kinda just sitting around doing nothing.
Again maybe I'm just tired but I have no idea what's ere supposed to do here.
If he's stuck to his canon origin he doesn't have a mentor and both Fire and Centurion have some similar power sets. Plus the latter may appreciate him using the name of a Roman god.
Largely the same as the snippet we saw earlier, the Italian woman is almost certainly the Countess and my best guess for the man with the cybernetic arm remains Irishman.
However there is one significant new addition, the large scarred man is 100% Vandal Savage which could be very interesting for us depending on how we choose to handle it.
Okay so Zviad already has his hooks into the Markovian royal family, that could be good for us or very bad. His stoking the flames means the two countries going to war again is more likely and we could actually paint Markovia more cleanly as the aggressors. On the other hand his desire to seize control makes the situation a lot more complicated no matter who wins the war.
Arguably the most important piece of information that we get from his POV is that Vandal is seemingly connected to a metahuman trafficking ring, very possibly Shard's metahuman trafficking ring, which is something we should absolutely keep in mind if we have any thoughts of working with him or targeting said ring.
Additionally now that we have a confirmed psychic at least adjacent to our interests we should get a move on with that psionic research.
So Victor pretty much just plans to use this ceasefire for the same ends as Vertigo, build up a better army and defences and steamroll the enemy at a later point. Even if it means utilising some less than ethical methods.
To that end he's trying to manipulate us through both Cassandra and encouraging us to invest in Markovia itself. Not a bad plan in theory but it underestimates Cassandra's own abilities and how shady Lex is willing to be.
Us having a presence in Markova would make it significantly easier to keep an eye on things there, potentially get our hands on some Quixium, establish ourselves as "neutral" in this war and maybe conduct some espionage to sway some things in Vertigo's favour. Hell, depending on how things go we could expose Victor's unethical practises as a pretence for Vertigo to declare war again.
Nothing particularly noteworthy from Vertigo's perspective beyond the fact that he basically intends to pull a Treaty of Versailles on Markovia here.
The options I'm considering here are:
King Victor - Let him make his offer and allow Lex to get his measure IC before the actual negotiations start.
Vandal - Actually meet the man and see if there's any possibility of a deeper relationship there.
Gregor and Zviad Meet with the crown prince of Markovia to learn more about him and potentially learn that there's something off with Zviad.
Vertigo - Ensure that we're all on the same page here.
Cassandra - Just make some general conversation and learn what she's gathered so far.
Potentially we could mix and match a bit like having Cassandra join us to meet Vandal, Zviad or Victor?
Maybe it's just my tiredness talking but I have no real thoughts on this one. I didn't really like the plan when it was made and I kinda feel like it's accomplished nothing and left us with no real options right now.
Superman is distracted but that's of tentative use and risks Jinx being caught, Pamela has requested extra security but that is borderline useless when President Humanite can just order them to leave and Carol is kinda just sitting around doing nothing.
Again maybe I'm just tired but I have no idea what's ere supposed to do here.
Good to have an easy win under our belt and confirmation that Vulcan/Son of Vulcan exists is very interesting.
He could make a good sidekick/young member of Bastion to maybe go along with Raven.
If he's stuck to his canon origin he doesn't have a mentor and both Fire and Centurion have some similar power sets. Plus the latter may appreciate him using the name of a Roman god.
Primarily just because it's cool and cost us nothing but also because it would give us a relatively safe and secret place to do… questionable things.
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
So I would like to qualify this by mentioning that Jinx is currently (at the time of where the "White House, Black Heart" mini-event is) sitting in LexCorp tower and isn't out to physically get caught. I'm not saying that Superman can't do detective work to figure out who was behind things, but Jinx physically will not be caught unless Superman enters into LexCorp tower somehow.
I don't want to say too much but Carol being here does cover a few options in the future. If for some reason the event turns into a combat encounter, Carol's able to reinforce Pamela really quickly. Additionally if Supergirl tries to fly away and leave to somewhere, Carol can easily follow Supergirl (and potentially take things with her.
Jinx by comparison is in Metropolis and will not be able to be used/respond to anything that occurs in Washington DC.
[ ] [Converse] Write-in: Attempt to negotiate some sort of archeology dig from the Greek representatives. Speak to Count Vertigo to coordinate your plans for the peace negotiation. Speak to King Victor of Markovia to see what he wants from the negotiation. Have Cassandra join you for conversation with King Victor and Greek representatives. Make sure to stay near Cass when Vertigo plans come to a fruition.
I want Greek archeology for possible connection with Greek gods, speaking with Vertigo to make sure all plans go well, and negotiation with Markovia. We can congratulate Cassandra when the whole thing ends, as for Vandal I don't think that we are that interested in metahuman traffic ring. Ares or any other Olympian gods or even artifacts would be more useful.
[ ] [Intervention] Write-in: Have Pamela try to contact Diana, to see if she can be brought in as reinforcement or send some of her agents as potential back up. Have Ultraviolet stay as an eye in the sky. If fight starts have Ultraviolet attempt to immediately move fight away from White House to minimize damage and risks to president.
Supergirl herself is unlikely to try anything, but President Ultrahumanite would almost certainly try something. If fight starts we can join, but ultimately we probably are not interested in president capturing her and swapping minds . If he wants there is whole Kryptonite invasion force to pick from, he is just jumping the gun here. The same if it is some attempt on making a trap for Supermen. We are spending efforts on keeping him away, we don't need his involvement that you very much.
Ideally the moment fight starts Ultraviolet slams Supergirl and moves her away. If Supergirl escapes government can accuse her of attacking. If Diana arrives and we end up subduing her we can attempt to interrogate her with Lasso or see if Pamela pheromones work to get information on Kryptonians plans. Then Ultrahumanite would lose interest in her as there would be better targets for swap than teenage girl.
@King crimson are those write-ins valid?
I want Greek archeology for possible connection with Greek gods, speaking with Vertigo to make sure all plans go well, and negotiation with Markovia. We can congratulate Cassandra when the whole thing ends, as for Vandal I don't think that we are that interested in metahuman traffic ring. Ares or any other Olympian gods or even artifacts would be more useful.
[ ] [Intervention] Write-in: Have Pamela try to contact Diana, to see if she can be brought in as reinforcement or send some of her agents as potential back up. Have Ultraviolet stay as an eye in the sky. If fight starts have Ultraviolet attempt to immediately move fight away from White House to minimize damage and risks to president.
Supergirl herself is unlikely to try anything, but President Ultrahumanite would almost certainly try something. If fight starts we can join, but ultimately we probably are not interested in president capturing her and swapping minds . If he wants there is whole Kryptonite invasion force to pick from, he is just jumping the gun here. The same if it is some attempt on making a trap for Supermen. We are spending efforts on keeping him away, we don't need his involvement that you very much.
Ideally the moment fight starts Ultraviolet slams Supergirl and moves her away. If Supergirl escapes government can accuse her of attacking. If Diana arrives and we end up subduing her we can attempt to interrogate her with Lasso or see if Pamela pheromones work to get information on Kryptonians plans. Then Ultrahumanite would lose interest in her as there would be better targets for swap than teenage girl.
@King crimson are those write-ins valid?
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