LexCorp has been known as the "King of the Cellphone" for almost five years since the introduction of the first LexPhone. And, while there have been some attempts to dethrone the king, most recently with WayneTech's TechPhone targeting the low to mid-tier cellphone price point, none have been able to dethrone the king. LexCorp's most recent release, the LexPhone III, is set to maintain its rule over the cellphone world for yet another generation.
Much like it's predecessor, the LexPhone III's 6 x 3 x .25 in dimensions are stylishly designed with most of the front display built using its patented LionGlass technology. In addition to last year's choices of Black, Silver, and White, the LexPhone III also comes in Red and Blue. While last year's LexPhone II had an increased durability over the original LexPhone, the LexPhone III has no such improvements in damage resistance. So, keep those phones in your pockets or use a phone protector.
However, the phone does feature a few additions: an improved battery, some limited water resistance, and a whole panolply of new programs. The most immediately noticeable are the new programs. Included in every LexPhone III are now things such as a calculator program (which also comes in a graphing calculator mode), calendars where you can write notes, and a direct connection to any Bank of LexCorp accounts. None of which were particularly interesting. The stand-out app is something called "LexChat", which allows people to take pictures and send them to other LexPhone users with the ability to also chat. It is surprisingly addictive and, as a picture is worth a thousand words, can be an impressive supplement to the normal voice calls that we all use cellphones for.
The new battery in LexPhones, which contrary to rumors are not the LexCorp Kryptonite Batteries, are a welcome, if annoying addition. Welcome because now a LexPhone can go a few days on a single charge, making it ideal for weekend camping trips or a lifesaver for those who forget to charge their phones. Annoying because the new batteries require a whole new charger, which is another expense if you want more than one charger in your life.
As to its limited water vulnerability, when asked about why such a feature was developed, LexCorp PR stated, "Yeah. We were surprised that people thought that it was okay to dunk an electronic device into water. People legitimately used to go swimming with their phones and would call in to complain when the entire thing broke! I always used to say you can't protect against stupidity. But, we are trying with these new water-resistant phones. Uh...don't go swimming with an electronic device! Or dunk these phones: resistant! Resistant!"
While I wouldn't call the new LexPhone III idiot proof, it is still worthy the upgrade for both the extended battery life and especially for the new LexChat program in the phone.
This is solid and I'm comfortable canonizing it. The quote is a little shaky for me but over all I think it is solid with the bits talking about the features more directly being rather nice. I particularly liked the comment about the new type of charger (because that is certainly a thing).
MysteryCPU has earned 500 exp. I'm always glad to see more omakes and this one was a nice pseudo-callback to one of the earliest ones made which only added to this feeling of how far the quest and by extension Luthor has come.
This is solid and I'm comfortable canonizing it. The quote is a little shaky for me but over all I think it is solid with the bits talking about the features more directly being rather nice. I particularly liked the comment about the new type of charger (because that is certainly a thing).
MysteryCPU has earned 500 exp. I'm always glad to see more omakes and this one was a nice pseudo-callback to one of the earliest ones made which only added to this feeling of how far the quest and by extension Luthor has come.
Actually, the Darkside name was chosen intentionally as, in my head cannon, Gary Larson tried to take over the world.
Changed it from Darkside to Darkseid.
As to the quote, I kinda was thinking that the reporter got into contact with Marie Louise Dahl (who is PR). So, was trying to go for an inappropriate PR statement. I still have to work on getting her voice down, though.
I appreciate the feedback.
Please put my 900XP into Cassandra Luthor's Learning. Making it 19 with 100XP left over.
So this is now on it's way. Schedule slip has been a constant friend in this quest but I feel like I've managed to deliver fairly consistently. Superman is coming soon and the quest will begin to take shape. Events will be more common at the start but I'll probably ease of on them as time passes on. The winning vote from last time is as follows
[X] Plan Research Killer Robots and Start Lexbook.
-[X] Assist the US Government with the war effort in Santa Prisca - Katherine
-[X] Fortify LexCorp tower - Carl
-[X] Consult with the DOMA - Pamela
-[X] Recruit Lucy Lane as a personal lawyer - Roxanne, Lisa
-[X] Release what you have - Oswald
-[X] Develop and sell high fashion clothing - Mari
-[X] Develop a social media platform - Felicity, Carol
-[X] Build a secret lab in a remote location - Dr. Moon
-[X] Investigate Bradford Sackett's death - Rose, Mercy
-[X] Build surveillance satellites - Samuel, Leonard
-[X] Investigate the unknown individual - Nygma, Cerise,
-[X] Learn about Kryptonite - Rebecca, Mick
-[X] Learn from the Red Tornado data - Lex, Cassandra, Karl
-[X] The A.M.A.Z.O. project - Dr. Ivo, Marie
-[X] [Jinx] Educate Jinx about writing and literature- Jinx
-[X] [Bane] Sell captured Intergang weapons to LexCorp
-[X] [Bane] Look for secret weapons
-[X] [Jobs] Change some titles and positions
--[X] Emily Rice -> Part-time tutor to Cassandra
-[X] [Jobs] Add an additional title or position to a unit
--[X] Carl Draper -> Director of Internal Review
-[X] [DIR] Carl Draper
Without further ado I now present the next update.
Personal Actions 18
Please vote for which ever option you want to win from each characters category. There is a 1 hour moratorium on voting and all votes in plan format will be rejected.
Lex Luthor
[ ] [Lex] Reminisce with Mercy
[ ] [Lex] Try to teach Cassandra Luthor how to play poker
[ ] [Lex] Write a book
[ ] [Lex] Upgrade box opening robot
[ ] [Lex] Look into the Japanese market
[ ] [Lex] Speak with Carol about potential budget increases
[ ] [Lex] Have Cerise Orielle double check for mystical interference in Santa Prisca
[ ] [Lex] Discuss Samuel Scudder with Mercy
[ ] [Lex] Read Cassandra a book on Luthor history
[ ] [Lex] Create your own alphabet
Mercy Graves
[ ] [Mercy] Take Rose to the shooting range
[ ] [Mercy] Buy a Mozart CD and see if Cassandra can recreate it just by hearing it
[ ] [Mercy] Play darts with Roxanne and Mari
[ ] [Mercy] Inform Carl of his new positions responsibilities
[ ] [Mercy] Confiscate the alcohol Dr. Moon is illegally brewing in an unused lab
[ ] [Mercy] Speak with Felicity about cybersecurity
Pamela Isley
[ ] [Pam] Go out on another date with Katherine
[ ] [Pam] Go and meet up with all of the individuals from Gotham and have a night on the town
[ ] [Pam] Correct some of Cassandra's misconceptions on how plants work
[ ] [Pam] Discuss Ivo's Nobel Prize with Karl Helfern
[ ] [Pam] Sunbathe
[ ] [Pam] Practice her new powers in isolation
Roxanne Sutton
[ ] [Roxy] Visit Carol
[ ] [Roxy] Try to convince Rebecca to let her roast marshmallows on hellfire
[ ] [Roxy] Mess around with Janus and a laser pointer
[ ] [Roxy] Buy Nygma a puzzle cube
[ ] [Roxy] Buy Carl a set of fuzzy handcuffs
[ ] [Roxy] Buy Leonard Snart a giant novelty snow-globe
[ ] [Roxy] Try to get Snowy to dance
Cassandra Luthor
[ ] [Cass] Learn how to play a sport
[ ] [Cass] Make something to impress Lex
[ ] [Cass] Spend time with Rose
[ ] [Cass] Learn about a foreign country
[ ] [Cass] Put Janus in the vents
[ ] [Cass] Play games with Jinx
[ ] [Cass] Talk to Pamela about biology
[ ] [Cass] Steal Edward Nygma's sudoku sheets
Marie Louise Dahl
[ ] [Dahl] Give out Felicity's number to telemarketers
[ ] [Dahl] Complain to Janus about her day
[ ] [Dahl] Thank Samuel for the mirror he gave her
[ ] [Dahl] Submit scripts to Oswald under a pseudonym
[ ] [Dahl] Send spam email to Lisa's account
Janus
[ ] [Cub] Run away from loud metal fire spitter (run away from Roxanne's rocket)
[ ] [Cub] Chew up the bad green bowls (Chew on Nygma's hats)
[ ] [Cub] Play with Packmate (Play with Cassandra)
[ ] [Cub] Hit all the shiny dots in Up-Down Box (hit all the buttons in the elevator)
[ ] [Cub] Say hello to the man who comes in to talk with surprise ambush (pounce on Jarret Parker)
[ ] [Cub] Watch the funny man with the eye-boxes (watch Oswald film something)
[ ] [Cub] Catch birds
[ ] [Cub] Avoid water dunk (avoid taking a bath)
[ ] [Cub] Roar at cold man for making things chilly (roar at Leonard Snart)
[ ] [Cub] Sharpen claws
[ ] [Cub] Laze about in den
[ ] [Cub] Show four armed monkey that he will not be vanquished
Snowy
[ ] [Monkey] Cling to safe person (Stay close to Cassandra)
[ ] [Monkey] Investigate light boxes (play with a phone)
[ ] [Monkey] Collect hidden fruit stashes (Collect fruit baskets Mercy places in hard to reach locations)
[ ] [Monkey] Steal unattended food piles (Steal unattended sandwiches)
[ ] [Monkey] Fight the cold box (attempt to open a refrigerator)
[ ] [Monkey] Distribute grapes to friends
[ ] [Monkey] Sit in warm water pool (Sit in a filled bathtub)
[ ] [Monkey] Sit in warm water pool in cold man's house (sit in Leonard Snart's bathtub as part of a prank by Lisa)
[ ] [Monkey] Find a good nap spot
[ ] [Monkey] Groom himself
[ ] [Lex] Read Cassandra a book on Luthor history
[ ] [Mercy] Play darts with Roxanne and Mari
[ ] [Pam] Discuss Ivo's Nobel Prize with Karl Helfern
[ ] [Roxy] Try to convince Rebecca to let her roast marshmallows on hellfire
[ ] [Cass] Make something to impress Lex
[ ] [Dahl] Submit scripts to Oswald under a pseudonym
[ ] [Cub] Show four armed monkey that he will not be vanquished
[ ] [Monkey] Collect hidden fruit stashes (Collect fruit baskets Mercy places in hard to reach locations)
no real reason for these action just thought the looked fun
[ ] [Lex] Upgrade box opening robot
[ ] [Lex] Look into the Japanese market
[ ] [Mercy] Buy a Mozart CD and see if Cassandra can recreate it just by hearing it
[ ] [Mercy] Inform Carl of his new positions responsibilities
[ ] [Mercy] Confiscate the alcohol Dr. Moon is illegally brewing in an unused lab
[ ] [Pam] Go out on another date with Katherine
[ ] [Pam] Go and meet up with all of the individuals from Gotham and have a night on the town
[ ] [Pam] Discuss Ivo's Nobel Prize with Karl Helfern
[ ] [Pam] Sunbathe
[ ] [Pam] Practice her new powers in isolation
[ ] [Roxy] Try to convince Rebecca to let her roast marshmallows on hellfire
[ ] [Roxy] Buy Nygma a puzzle cube
[ ] [Roxy] Buy Leonard Snart a giant novelty snow-globe
[ ] [Cass] Make something to impress Lex
[ ] [Cass] Learn about a foreign country
[ ] [Cass] Put Janus in the vents
[ ] [Cass] Play games with Jinx
[ ] [Dahl] Thank Samuel for the mirror he gave her
[ ] [Dahl] Submit scripts to Oswald under a pseudonym
[ ] [Cub] Run away from loud metal fire spitter (run away from Roxanne's rocket)
[ ] [Cub] Hit all the shiny dots in Up-Down Box (hit all the buttons in the elevator)
[ ] [Cub] Chew up the bad green bowls (Chew on Nygma's hats)
[ ] [Cub] Roar at cold man for making things chilly (roar at Leonard Snart)
[ ] [Cub] Show four armed monkey that he will not be vanquished
[ ] [Monkey] Investigate light boxes (play with a phone)
[ ] [Monkey] Collect hidden fruit stashes (Collect fruit baskets Mercy places in hard to reach locations)
[ ] [Monkey] Steal unattended food piles (Steal unattended sandwiches)
[ ] [Monkey] Fight the cold box (attempt to open a refrigerator)
[ ] [Monkey] Distribute grapes to friends
[X] [Lex] Read Cassandra a book on Luthor history
[X] [Mercy] Play darts with Roxanne and Mari
[X] [Pam] Discuss Ivo's Nobel Prize with Karl Helfern
[X] [Roxy] Try to convince Rebecca to let her roast marshmallows on hellfire
[X] [Cass] Make something to impress Lex
[X] [Dahl] Submit scripts to Oswald under a pseudonym
[X] [Cub] Show four armed monkey that he will not be vanquished
[X] [Monkey] Collect hidden fruit stashes (Collect fruit baskets Mercy places in hard to reach locations)
[X] [Lex] Upgrade box opening robot
[X] [Lex] Look into the Japanese market
[X] [Mercy] Buy a Mozart CD and see if Cassandra can recreate it just by hearing it
[X] [Mercy] Inform Carl of his new positions responsibilities
[X] [Mercy] Confiscate the alcohol Dr. Moon is illegally brewing in an unused lab
[X] [Pam] Go out on another date with Katherine
[X] [Pam] Go and meet up with all of the individuals from Gotham and have a night on the town
[X] [Pam] Discuss Ivo's Nobel Prize with Karl Helfern
[X] [Pam] Sunbathe
[X] [Pam] Practice her new powers in isolation
[X] [Roxy] Try to convince Rebecca to let her roast marshmallows on hellfire
[X] [Roxy] Buy Nygma a puzzle cube
[X] [Roxy] Buy Leonard Snart a giant novelty snow-globe
[X] [Cass] Make something to impress Lex
[X] [Cass] Learn about a foreign country
[X] [Cass] Put Janus in the vents
[X] [Cass] Play games with Jinx
[X] [Dahl] Thank Samuel for the mirror he gave her
[X] [Dahl] Submit scripts to Oswald under a pseudonym
[X] [Cub] Run away from loud metal fire spitter (run away from Roxanne's rocket)
[X] [Cub] Hit all the shiny dots in Up-Down Box (hit all the buttons in the elevator)
[X] [Cub] Chew up the bad green bowls (Chew on Nygma's hats)
[X] [Cub] Roar at cold man for making things chilly (roar at Leonard Snart)
[X] [Cub] Show four armed monkey that he will not be vanquished
[X] [Monkey] Investigate light boxes (play with a phone)
[X] [Monkey] Collect hidden fruit stashes (Collect fruit baskets Mercy places in hard to reach locations)
[X] [Monkey] Steal unattended food piles (Steal unattended sandwiches)
[X] [Monkey] Fight the cold box (attempt to open a refrigerator)
[X] [Monkey] Distribute grapes to friends
[X] [Lex] Look into the Japanese market
[X] [Mercy] Buy a Mozart CD and see if Cassandra can recreate it just by hearing it
[X] [Pam] Sunbathe
Katherine obviously needs some fan service after being in a warzone.
[X] [Roxy] Try to convince Rebecca to let her roast marshmallows on hellfire
This can only end well.
[X] [Cass] Steal Edward Nygma's sudoku sheets
[X] [Dahl] Send spam email to Lisa's account
[X] [Cub] Roar at cold man for making things chilly (roar at Leonard Snart)
All these newcomers encroaching on the Alpha's territory.
[X] [Monkey] Sit in warm water pool in cold man's house (sit in Leonard Snart's bathtub as part of a prank by Lisa)
I will always endorse upgrades of the box opening robot. At least until it defeats Superman.
[X] [Lex] Look into the Japanese market
[X] [Mercy] Buy a Mozart CD and see if Cassandra can recreate it just by hearing it
[X] [Mercy] Inform Carl of his new positions responsibilities
[X] [Mercy] Confiscate the alcohol Dr. Moon is illegally brewing in an unused lab
[X] [Pam] Go out on another date with Katherine
[X] [Pam] Go and meet up with all of the individuals from Gotham and have a night on the town
[X] [Pam] Discuss Ivo's Nobel Prize with Karl Helfern
[X] [Pam] Sunbathe
[X] [Pam] Practice her new powers in isolation
[X] [Roxy] Try to convince Rebecca to let her roast marshmallows on hellfire
[X] [Roxy] Buy Nygma a puzzle cube
[X] [Roxy] Buy Leonard Snart a giant novelty snow-globe
[X] [Cass] Make something to impress Lex
[X] [Cass] Learn about a foreign country
[X] [Cass] Put Janus in the vents
[X] [Cass] Play games with Jinx
[X] [Dahl] Thank Samuel for the mirror he gave her
[X] [Dahl] Submit scripts to Oswald under a pseudonym
[X] [Cub] Run away from loud metal fire spitter (run away from Roxanne's rocket)
[X] [Cub] Hit all the shiny dots in Up-Down Box (hit all the buttons in the elevator)
[X] [Cub] Chew up the bad green bowls (Chew on Nygma's hats)
[X] [Cub] Roar at cold man for making things chilly (roar at Leonard Snart)
[X] [Cub] Show four armed monkey that he will not be vanquished
[X] [Monkey] Investigate light boxes (play with a phone)
[X] [Monkey] Collect hidden fruit stashes (Collect fruit baskets Mercy places in hard to reach locations)
[X] [Monkey] Steal unattended food piles (Steal unattended sandwiches)
[X] [Monkey] Fight the cold box (attempt to open a refrigerator)
[X] [Monkey] Distribute grapes to friends
[X] [Lex] Upgrade box opening robot
[X] [Lex] Look into the Japanese market
[X] [Mercy] Buy a Mozart CD and see if Cassandra can recreate it just by hearing it
[X] [Mercy] Inform Carl of his new positions responsibilities
[X] [Mercy] Confiscate the alcohol Dr. Moon is illegally brewing in an unused lab
[X] [Pam] Go out on another date with Katherine
[X] [Pam] Go and meet up with all of the individuals from Gotham and have a night on the town
[X] [Pam] Discuss Ivo's Nobel Prize with Karl Helfern
[X] [Pam] Sunbathe
[X] [Pam] Practice her new powers in isolation
[X] [Roxy] Try to convince Rebecca to let her roast marshmallows on hellfire
[X] [Roxy] Buy Nygma a puzzle cube
[X] [Roxy] Buy Leonard Snart a giant novelty snow-globe
[X] [Cass] Make something to impress Lex
[X] [Cass] Learn about a foreign country
[X] [Cass] Put Janus in the vents
[X] [Cass] Play games with Jinx
[X] [Dahl] Thank Samuel for the mirror he gave her
[X] [Dahl] Submit scripts to Oswald under a pseudonym
[X] [Cub] Run away from loud metal fire spitter (run away from Roxanne's rocket)
[X] [Cub] Hit all the shiny dots in Up-Down Box (hit all the buttons in the elevator)
[X] [Cub] Chew up the bad green bowls (Chew on Nygma's hats)
[X] [Cub] Roar at cold man for making things chilly (roar at Leonard Snart)
[X] [Cub] Show four armed monkey that he will not be vanquished
[X] [Monkey] Investigate light boxes (play with a phone)
[X] [Monkey] Collect hidden fruit stashes (Collect fruit baskets Mercy places in hard to reach locations)
[X] [Monkey] Steal unattended food piles (Steal unattended sandwiches)
[X] [Monkey] Fight the cold box (attempt to open a refrigerator)
[X] [Monkey] Distribute grapes to friends
The sense of relief and peace flooding across the Union states in 1865 was shattered on April 14th, 1865. Not six weeks after the president who'd won the Civil War was sworn in for his second term, prominent celebrity John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln during a showing of the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington.
Radicalization
Born to a family of stage actors, Booth followed his father and brothers onto the stage from a young age, and also became involved in the sometimes violent nativist "Know-Nothing" Party in Baltimore politics. Booth soon became famous for his charismatic acting style, the physicality of his performances, and his study of swordsmanship. Some called him "the handsomest man in America.' While he was erratic and often averse to hard study of his lines and the parts he would play, he nonetheless commanded high pay and became rich and famous, going on a nationwide tour in 1859-60 shortly before the war broke out.
Booth's private politics were intensely pro-slavery, anti-Lincoln, and, after the outbreak of the Civil War, intensely pro-Confederate. This impinged on his popularity in some of the northern states, and he spent most of his time touring the border states during the war. With his connections he was even able to make tours in the Confederacy. Feeling angry and ashamed with himself for obeying his mother's promise not to enlist as a Confederate soldier, Booth became involved with Confederate spy networks in the North as well. This evolved in 1864 to the fiery young actor's attempt to put together a scheme to kidnap President Lincoln from his summer residence in the countryside near Washington and exchange him for Confederate prisoners of war.
Booth's politics grew ever more radical, until his brother threw him out of his New York home for rants against Lincoln as a 'tyrant,' accusing him of 'making himself a king' with his reelection, and claiming to his sister that "That man's appearance, his pedigree, his coarse low jokes and anecdotes, his vulgar similes, and his policy are a disgrace to the seat he holds. He is made the tool of the North, to crush out slavery." His obsession with Lincoln only grew as the Confederate armies collapsed one by one, but others among his immediate circle were uncertain. The war was over, they argued- but Booth would have none of it. He was unable to persuade his friends to directly attack other Union officials, as had been discussed in January before Joe Johnston's Army of the Tennessee surrendered to Sherman. By this point, even Booth had little belief that any assassination attack on the Union government could somehow allow the Confederacy to reconstitute its own leadership or armies. But if Booth could not save the Confederacy, he could at least aspire to avenge it.
Booth had ready access to Ford's Theater, as he acted there often, was one of the theater's most famous celebrities, and was a personal friend of the owner. He had no trouble slipping into the president's box during the performance, and shooting him in the back of the head with a derringer. Leaping down from the box into the main part of the theater, Booth made his escape to where his friends held a horse for him.
The assassin galloped southwards; while there were railroads and telegraph lines connecting Washington to Metropolis, there was little development in the land between that corridor and the Potomac River, even in those days. Furthermore, there were still many Confederate sympathizers in the area, despite the efforts of federal troops and the Pinkerton and Graves detective agencies. Based on remarks to surviving co-conspirators, he hoped that the woods and swamps of this region would give him the best chance of escaping to Virginia.
At midnight on the 14th, Booth and his comrade David Herold retrieved a cache of weapons and supplies they'd left at Surratt's Tavern, roughly ten miles from the borders of the District of Columbia. They continued their ride, as Lincoln expired on his deathbed.
Rich Hill
Booth and Herold are known to have reached Rich Hill, the house of one Samuel Cox, during the night of April 15th. Cox, who had contacts with what was left of the Confederate spy network in the area, sent messages to his former contacts seeking help in transferring the fugitives from his home- messages were spreading by rail and telegraph in all directions, and a systematic manhunt was already underway.
However, at this point even federal investigations after the fact fail to shed light on events at Cox's house. Shortly before dawn on April 16th, gunshots were heard from the house by neighbors living some distance away. The screams and gunshots continued for some time, then ended. Federal troops were called in directly, as it was widely known that any suspicious activity might be connected to the assassins.
John Wilkes Booth was found dead, with a sword by his body, mutilated by several sword cuts. His friend David Herold had been garroted. Moreover, all inside the Rich Hill house were dead, including Cox, his wife, his mother-in-law, and Mary Swann, one of the family's two servants. There were numerous other bloodstains and extensive damage to the furniture, suggestive of a fierce fight in close quarters. The hoofprints of many horses surrounded the property, but no other bodies were found. Cox's surviving family and servant never spoke of what had happened, even when threatened with prison time.
Conspiracy theories abound as to who killed John Wilkes Booth, and only the evidence gathered from his surviving co-conspirators in Washington and points elsewhere has made it possible to reconstruct his plans and actions. Booth had a massive price on his head, equivalent to nearly a million dollars in today's money- which no credible claimant ever came forward to collect. Some even speculate that other Confederate spies killed him and a number of witnesses, in hopes of laying low and concealing their own involvement.
Railroad Rivalry
John W. Garrett, then president of the M&O Railroad, 1864
Even as Maryland reeled from the shock of the first presidential assassination in American history, a more local and commercial form of strife was unfolding in the state capital.
Lucius Luthor had handily outmaneuvered all the executives of the B&O Railroad, first by cutting it off from its goal of reaching the west through the pass at Point of Rocks, and then by repeatedly building branch lines that undercut the B&O's business in much of the state. The Baltimorean investors who controlled most of the B&O's stock sold out to Luthor one by one, until finally Lucius could simply integrate the B&O's tracks into his own system- a triumph that cemented his reputation as one of America's first great railroad barons.
Leland, with considerably less experience under his belt and a great preoccupation with his inventions, struggled to manage the sprawling Luthor Steam & Steel commercial empire. Whereas another magnate might have delegated the task of building war machines to focus on his business affairs, though, Leland did the opposite. He looked for another man to take the job of president of the Metropolis and Ohio railroad.
John W. Garrett was a successful businessman in the warehousing and shipping trade in the port of Baltimore- still a major, active harbor despite all the competition Metropolis could provide. He had owned considerable B&O stock, and had been part of the last tranche of B&O investors to sell their shares during Lucius' hostile takeover.
In another life, where the B&O's lawyer Roger Taney had overcome Lucius Luthor and Abraham Graves in the courts of Metropolis, or where Lucius had simply never seen fit to take up the railroad business, Garrett might have made a fine president for the victorious B&O. But the line was obviously in the process of collapsing in the years of Garrett's prime; after selling his shares, he stayed out of the railroad business for some years. However, when Leland announced in the autumn of 1862 that he was looking for another man to directly run the company while he concentrated on the war effort, Mr. Garrett discreetly traveled down to Metropolis to suggest himself as a candidate. Leland would remain the owner, of course- but Garrett would manage the line.
Garrett proved an extremely able leader for the M&O, fully competitive with Lucius Luthor's own skillful management. He quickly proved a well-liked and capable manager, ingratiating himself with several of the most prominent figures associated with the railroad, such as the famously expansive and colorful labor gang foreman Henry Turpin, and the Swedish-American engineer Sven Happersen, who had designed many of the M&O's most impressive bridges and tunnels, along with numerous public buildings and infrastructure projects in Metropolis itself. It was Happersen who, hired away from LS&S in later years, would complete the layout of the city's 19th century running water and sewer systems, some parts of which are still in service today.
Garrett handled the wartime needs of the M&O ably, directing repair operations, tightening up timetables, and seeing to it that military supplies were transported quickly to the fighting front. He coordinated with the armies, and with President Lincoln, in tours of battlefields in Maryland, and provided the overstrained Graves Detective Agency with critical intelligence that, in 1864, would give the Union military considerable advance notice of an impending Confederate cavalry raid, which was stopped by federal troops and a pair of armed and armored M&O trains at the Battle of Monocacy. Lincoln was grateful to Leland as owner of the line- but also to Garrett, and praised him effusively. Garrett would have a sad opportunity to serve the president, in a sense, one last time after Lincoln's assassination; it was he who organized Lincoln's funeral train, returning him to be buried in his home city of Springfield, Illinois.
But his efforts to ingratiate himself with the M&O's middle management had been only part of his overall plans. Exploiting the extent to which Jack Graves' detectives were distracted dealing with the war effort and spying on the Confederates, he had quietly approached many of the minor shareholders who held portions of LS&S's stock- and two cousins of Leland's, men who customarily signed over voting control of their shares to him, as they had to his father, in return for assorted considerations that benefited their own, smaller spinoff businesses.
By May, Garrett was coming very close to convincing holders of a slim majority of LS&S's stock that he, not the obsessive and now withdrawn Leland, should be manager of the entire Steam and Steel consortium...
[X] [Lex] Look into the Japanese market
[X] [Mercy] Inform Carl of his new positions responsibilities
[X] [Pam] Correct some of Cassandra's misconceptions on how plants work
[X] [Roxy] Try to get Snowy to dance
[X] [Cass] Play games with Jinx
[X] [Cass] Talk to Pamela about biology
[X] [Dahl] Complain to Janus about her day
[X] [Dahl] Thank Samuel for the mirror he gave her
[X] [Dahl] Submit scripts to Oswald under a pseudonym
[X] [Cub] Play with Packmate (Play with Cassandra)
[X] [Monkey] Collect hidden fruit stashes (Collect fruit baskets Mercy places in hard to reach locations)
[X] [Monkey] Distribute grapes to friends
The sense of relief and peace flooding across the Union states in 1865 was shattered on April 14th, 1865. Not six weeks after the president who'd won the Civil War was sworn in for his second term, prominent celebrity John Wilkes Booth assassinated Lincoln during a showing of the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater in Washington.
Radicalization
Born to a family of stage actors, Booth followed his father and brothers onto the stage from a young age, and also became involved in the sometimes violent nativist "Know-Nothing" Party in Baltimore politics. Booth soon became famous for his charismatic acting style, the physicality of his performances, and his study of swordsmanship. Some called him "the handsomest man in America.' While he was erratic and often averse to hard study of his lines and the parts he would play, he nonetheless commanded high pay and became rich and famous, going on a nationwide tour in 1859-60 shortly before the war broke out.
Booth's private politics were intensely pro-slavery, anti-Lincoln, and, after the outbreak of the Civil War, intensely pro-Confederate. This impinged on his popularity in some of the northern states, and he spent most of his time touring the border states during the war. With his connections he was even able to make tours in the Confederacy. Feeling angry and ashamed with himself for obeying his mother's promise not to enlist as a Confederate soldier, Booth became involved with Confederate spy networks in the North as well. This evolved in 1864 to the fiery young actor's attempt to put together a scheme to kidnap President Lincoln from his summer residence in the countryside near Washington and exchange him for Confederate prisoners of war.
Booth's politics grew ever more radical, until his brother threw him out of his New York home for rants against Lincoln as a 'tyrant,' accusing him of 'making himself a king' with his reelection, and claiming to his sister that "That man's appearance, his pedigree, his coarse low jokes and anecdotes, his vulgar similes, and his policy are a disgrace to the seat he holds. He is made the tool of the North, to crush out slavery." His obsession with Lincoln only grew as the Confederate armies collapsed one by one, but others among his immediate circle were uncertain. The war was over, they argued- but Booth would have none of it. He was unable to persuade his friends to directly attack other Union officials, as had been discussed in January before Joe Johnston's Army of the Tennessee surrendered to Sherman. By this point, even Booth had little belief that any assassination attack on the Union government could somehow allow the Confederacy to reconstitute its own leadership or armies. But if Booth could not save the Confederacy, he could at least aspire to avenge it.
Booth had ready access to Ford's Theater, as he acted there often, was one of the theater's most famous celebrities, and was a personal friend of the owner. He had no trouble slipping into the president's box during the performance, and shooting him in the back of the head with a derringer. Leaping down from the box into the main part of the theater, Booth made his escape to where his friends held a horse for him.
The assassin galloped southwards; while there were railroads and telegraph lines connecting Washington to Metropolis, there was little development in the land between that corridor and the Potomac River, even in those days. Furthermore, there were still many Confederate sympathizers in the area, despite the efforts of federal troops and the Pinkerton and Graves detective agencies. Based on remarks to surviving co-conspirators, he hoped that the woods and swamps of this region would give him the best chance of escaping to Virginia.
At midnight on the 14th, Booth and his comrade David Herold retrieved a cache of weapons and supplies they'd left at Surratt's Tavern, roughly ten miles from the borders of the District of Columbia. They continued their ride, as Lincoln expired on his deathbed.
Rich Hill
Booth and Herold are known to have reached Rich Hill, the house of one Samuel Cox, during the night of April 15th. Cox, who had contacts with what was left of the Confederate spy network in the area, sent messages to his former contacts seeking help in transferring the fugitives from his home- messages were spreading by rail and telegraph in all directions, and a systematic manhunt was already underway.
However, at this point even federal investigations after the fact fail to shed light on events at Cox's house. Shortly before dawn on April 16th, gunshots were heard from the house by neighbors living some distance away. The screams and gunshots continued for some time, then ended. Federal troops were called in directly, as it was widely known that any suspicious activity might be connected to the assassins.
John Wilkes Booth was found dead, with a sword by his body, mutilated by several sword cuts. His friend David Herold had been garroted. Moreover, all inside the Rich Hill house were dead, including Cox, his wife, his mother-in-law, and Mary Swann, one of the family's two servants. There were numerous other bloodstains and extensive damage to the furniture, suggestive of a fierce fight in close quarters. The hoofprints of many horses surrounded the property, but no other bodies were found. Cox's surviving family and servant never spoke of what had happened, even when threatened with prison time.
Conspiracy theories abound as to who killed John Wilkes Booth, and only the evidence gathered from his surviving co-conspirators in Washington and points elsewhere has made it possible to reconstruct his plans and actions. Booth had a massive price on his head, equivalent to nearly a million dollars in today's money- which no credible claimant ever came forward to collect. Some even speculate that other Confederate spies killed him and a number of witnesses, in hopes of laying low and concealing their own involvement.
Railroad Rivalry
John W. Garrett, then president of the M&O Railroad, 1864
Even as Maryland reeled from the shock of the first presidential assassination in American history, a more local and commercial form of strife was unfolding in the state capital.
Lucius Luthor had handily outmaneuvered all the executives of the B&O Railroad, first by cutting it off from its goal of reaching the west through the pass at Point of Rocks, and then by repeatedly building branch lines that undercut the B&O's business in much of the state. The Baltimorean investors who controlled most of the B&O's stock sold out to Luthor one by one, until finally Lucius could simply integrate the B&O's tracks into his own system- a triumph that cemented his reputation as one of America's first great railroad barons.
Leland, with considerably less experience under his belt and a great preoccupation with his inventions, struggled to manage the sprawling Luthor Steam & Steel commercial empire. Whereas another magnate might have delegated the task of building war machines to focus on his business affairs, though, Leland did the opposite. He looked for another man to take the job of president of the Metropolis and Ohio railroad.
John W. Garrett was a successful businessman in the warehousing and shipping trade in the port of Baltimore- still a major, active harbor despite all the competition Metropolis could provide. He had owned considerable B&O stock, and had been part of the last tranche of B&O investors to sell their shares during Lucius' hostile takeover.
In another life, where the B&O's lawyer Roger Taney had overcome Lucius Luthor and Abraham Graves in the courts of Metropolis, or where Lucius had simply never seen fit to take up the railroad business, Garrett might have made a fine president for the victorious B&O. But the line was obviously in the process of collapsing in the years of Garrett's prime; after selling his shares, he stayed out of the railroad business for some years. However, when Leland announced in the autumn of 1862 that he was looking for another man to directly run the company while he concentrated on the war effort, Mr. Garrett discreetly traveled down to Metropolis to suggest himself as a candidate. Leland would remain the owner, of course- but Garrett would manage the line.
Garrett proved an extremely able leader for the M&O, fully competitive with Lucius Luthor's own skillful management. He quickly proved a well-liked and capable manager, ingratiating himself with several of the most prominent figures associated with the railroad, such as the famously expansive and colorful labor gang foreman Henry Turpin, and the Swedish-American engineer Sven Happersen, who had designed many of the M&O's most impressive bridges and tunnels, along with numerous public buildings and infrastructure projects in Metropolis itself. It was Happersen who, hired away from LS&S in later years, would complete the layout of the city's 19th century running water and sewer systems, some parts of which are still in service today.
Garrett handled the wartime needs of the M&O ably, directing repair operations, tightening up timetables, and seeing to it that military supplies were transported quickly to the fighting front. He coordinated with the armies, and with President Lincoln, in tours of battlefields in Maryland, and provided the overstrained Graves Detective Agency with critical intelligence that, in 1864, would give the Union military considerable advance notice of an impending Confederate cavalry raid, which was stopped by federal troops and a pair of armed and armored M&O trains at the Battle of Monocacy. Lincoln was grateful to Leland as owner of the line- but also to Garrett, and praised him effusively. Garrett would have a sad opportunity to serve the president, in a sense, one last time after Lincoln's assassination; it was he who organized Lincoln's funeral train, returning him to be buried in his home city of Springfield, Illinois.
But his efforts to ingratiate himself with the M&O's middle management had been only part of his overall plans. Exploiting the extent to which Jack Graves' detectives were distracted dealing with the war effort and spying on the Confederates, he had quietly approached many of the minor shareholders who held portions of LS&S's stock- and two cousins of Leland's, men who customarily signed over voting control of their shares to him, as they had to his father, in return for assorted considerations that benefited their own, smaller spinoff businesses.
By May, Garrett was coming very close to convincing holders of a slim majority of LS&S's stock that he, not the obsessive and now withdrawn Leland, should be manager of the entire Steam and Steel consortium...
Whenever my insomnia is acting up I can count on an omake by Simon Jester to give me something good to read. This in particular while transitory did contain some fascinating information most notably how John Wilkes Booth was killed is radically different from our history (where he died of a gunshot wound). The mystery of what just happened is intriguing as there are a few good candidates for who did it.
[X] [Lex] Look into the Japanese market
[X] [Lex] Speak with Carol about potential budget increases
[X] [Mercy] Take Rose to the shooting range
[X] [Mercy] Play darts with Roxanne and Mari
[X] [Pam] Practice her new powers in isolation
[X] [Roxy] Try to convince Rebecca to let her roast marshmallows on hellfire
[X] [Roxy] Mess around with Janus and a laser pointer
[X] [Roxy] Try to get Snowy to dance
[X] [Cass] Spend time with Rose
[X] [Cass] Play games with Jinx
[X] [Dahl] Complain to Janus about her day
[X] [Dahl] Thank Samuel for the mirror he gave her
[X] [Cub] Run away from loud metal fire spitter (run away from Roxanne's rocket)
[X] [Cub] Watch the funny man with the eye-boxes (watch Oswald film something)
[X] [Cub] Roar at cold man for making things chilly (roar at Leonard Snart)
[X] [Cub] Show four armed monkey that he will not be vanquished
[X] [Monkey] Sit in warm water pool in cold man's house (sit in Leonard Snart's bathtub as part of a prank by Lisa)
[x] [Mercy] Speak with Felicity about cybersecurity
Felicity should appreciate someone else taking her job seriously.
[x] [Monkey] Distribute grapes to friends
I want the monkey to eventually be head of payroll.
[x] [Lex] Speak with Carol about potential budget increases
[x] [Pam] Go out on another date with Katherine
[x] [Pam] Correct some of Cassandra's misconceptions on how plants work
[x] [Pam] Sunbathe
[x] [Roxy] Try to convince Rebecca to let her roast marshmallows on hellfire
[x] [Cass] Make something to impress Lex
[x] [Cass] Play games with Jinx
[x] [Cass] Talk to Pamela about biology
[x] [Dahl] Thank Samuel for the mirror he gave her
[x] [Dahl] Submit scripts to Oswald under a pseudonym
[x] [Cub] Play with Packmate (Play with Cassandra)
