-
Going forward, links to content from Twitter (now X) will no longer be embedded. Pre-existing links should not be affected.
Lex Sedet In Vertice: A Supervillain in the DCU CK2 quest
- Thread starter King crimson
- Start date
- Superhero
- Location
- Hala
Hmm... I change my opinion on Expos. They are nothing but breeding ground for villans.
(I jest)
Kufufu
Adequate at best
- Location
- What's it to ya?
"I dont understand, how did you get Dormamu to join you?"
"I showed him the benefits we offer at Lex Corp and he pounced on it."
"...what, do you offer souls by the ton or something?"
"No, just dental and the like. He was visibly excited for the dental."
"....you fuckiing moron, only you could seriously offer a living dimension dental and somehow have it work. I hate you."
Last edited:
- Location
- Fifth Dimension
Torgamous
Aspiring Gynoid
- Pronouns
- She/Her
On the other hand, you could start the Justice League just with whoever dogpiles the villain once they go loud.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I mean, we're playing a supervillain and have active designs to supplant or kill some of the most powerful heroic factions on the planet, so... I for one am okay with that?
That's... pretty much how most iterations of the Justice League start.
We've got Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Superman present, and that's just the known superheroes and not counting any who are on our payroll.
This is actually sounding very much like we've accidentally created the preconditions that will be Issue One of the DCQU's Justice League: Year One.
To be fair I'm pretty sure Diana would refuse to take part in any crime fighting and stay as the director of DOMAI mean, we're playing a supervillain and have active designs to supplant or kill some of the most powerful heroic factions on the planet, so... I for one am okay with that?
That's... pretty much how most iterations of the Justice League start.
We've got Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, and Superman present, and that's just the known superheroes and not counting any who are on our payroll.
This is actually sounding very much like we've accidentally created the preconditions that will be Issue One of the DCQU's Justice League: Year One.
Though if Supes and GL do meet we should start trying to undercut the Justice League before it can form, conveniently we just so happen to have a lead on a certain wisecracking speedster and if we buy out Queen Industries before Ollie gets back we could have an in with him
The Presence in Quest
- Location
- Hala
Hmm... Can I interpret it as The Presence?
- Location
- Fifth Dimension
That's who that is...
The First Lexpo Pt. 3
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
This isn't my best work but I promised to get it out by today and so I'll deliver it because I think it's good enough. A few more long term mysteries have been dangled in front of you now. I'll have one last bit on this event before shifting over to the two meetings (Haly's and Avruskin) and the videos before ending with the Parker v. Helfern subvote and maybe an interlude
All of you got a bit blindsided by a fairly simple fact. Sinclair Batson and Mr. Mind are two different individuals and Sinclair Batson wants to die (meaning if he sees the opportunity to get killed he is actively going to take it). This has caused things to spiral out of control very quickly and Rose's trait activated to make things even more messy on top of all of this. There will be some significant fall out from this event and not all of it will be immediately obvious at first glance.
On an unrelated note can I just mention that I love Veronica Cale's backstory? Like it's great and of all of the super rich people in the DC universe she was the one who got rich off of video games. I find that kind of hilarious.
So the winning vote is the following
The First Lexpo Pt.3
Mick
Jinx was not the most well socialized of children. That much Mick knew from the get go. No kid living in a company without meeting that many others their own age would turn out completely normal under those circumstances. The girl had almost no friends that she met face to face and with the utter lack of time spent with others she likely didn't even know how to make friends in person. Now Mick would be the first person to tell you that school was a load of bullshit but at least it taught kids better ways of dealing with each other. Jinx had none of those tools that other kids normally had.
As such watching Jinx interact with people near her age was difficult cause Mick could tell when and where she messed up but if he helped her she'd never learn anything and end up resenting him for it. As such when Jinx flipped out at some girl who had apparently cut her in line to the hologram presentation Mick did nothing to prevent it. This was Jinx's battle to fight and she'd grow from the experience no matter what happened. Mick would only step in if the fight escalated to violence.
"Fuck you, I was here first!" Jinx shouted at the top of her lungs drawing the attention of everyone around her. Mick got what it was to be pissed off but he knew at least intellectually that Jinx's current behavior was making her look bad as people stared at her.
"No thanks" the other girl said calmly "You're not my type"
The other girl was a well dressed black girl about the same age as Jinx although Mick didn't really have much reference on how kids looked at each age. She was well dressed and her clothes seemed to show that her parents had money. Mick idly wondered where her parents were to see if they were willing to step in as well.
Jinx shouted and cursed at the girl some more causing the other girl to give out short sharp retorts in response. They were starting to draw a crowd and it looked like Jinx was getting ready to start hurling around her bad luck magic in the hopes of winning the argument by shutting the other person the hell up. While it was Mick's favorite way to end a fight, Jinx was liable to do a lot more than sock an asshole in the jaw and with this many people watching it would only get her in trouble. Mick moved to step between the two.
"Jinx, some girl cutting you in line isn't worth what you are going to do" Mick intervened "People don't care about whose right in a fight they only care who looks right and as of now you look like the bad guy to outsiders"
Jinx's eyes darted around, glancing at the people who had started to stare at her. She contemplated one more time if it was worthwhile or not still attacking the other girl before ultimately concluding that while it would feel good it wouldn't solve anything and would only land her in more trouble.
"It's not fair" Jinx quietly whined as the line shuffled forwards.
"Life's not fair" Mick smoothly replied "You've got to pick what piece of bullshit life throws at you is worth fighting over or your going to drown in it"
Jinx quietly seethed at this while Mick felt comforted by the fact that he had stopped the fight from escalating despite his own rather intense temper. It was at around this point where a tall broad shouldered black man, likely the other girl's father, rejoined the back of the line.
"Thanks for saving my spot in the line, Tasha" The man calmly stated "Anything interesting I missed while I was away?"
"Some weird goth girl started screaming at me for cutting in the line when I was saving your spot so you could go to the bathroom" The girl responded. The man sighed.
"Tasha did you explain to her why you entered the line where you did" The man asked with slight overtones of exasperation and fondness in equal measure.
"No" the girl answered "If she wants to scream and yell over something that's obviously not true then nothing I say is going to convince her otherwise"
The man sighed and began to explain to his daughter that if she didn't explain herself to people who were mad at her then they'd assume the worst about her and that she should strive to be more personable going forward. The girl insisted that she already had friends so she didn't need to deal with weird people who were so angry and judgmental and Mick ended up feeling happier then ever that he wasn't actually responsible for a kid. As the line moved forward though the black man eventually turned to try and introduce himself and reconcile the kids. Mick figured it was a lost cause but he figured he might as well be polite.
"Names John Henry" The black man said as he gripped Mick's hand in a strong firm handshake "Sorry about Natasha's little spat with your kid, she's still convinced that cause she's smarter than other kids her age she doesn't need to explain herself to them"
"Jinx isn't my kid" Mick responded "I'm just doing her guardian a favor and letting her have some fun at this event"
John Henry was a somewhat pleasant fellow and while he was a little too smooth and polished and put together for Mick to think fondly of him, he wasn't going to be a dick to the man over nothing. His kid and Jinx still didn't get along but after a bit of talking over technology they were no longer quite at each others throats. Hopefully Jinx would eventually get to the point where she could make friends with other kids her age.
Lisa Snart
Man, this whole Lexpo thing was such a hassle. It was certainly an opportunity to be seized for networking and stuff but man was it a mess and a half to deal with. Still it was better than the funeral and she could always go bother Lenny if she couldn't handle dealing with all the stuck-up folks here. An opportunity was an opportunity and more contacts and cash was always something she'd be happy to get.
Lisa wandered around the expo looking for something particularly interesting to go and check out. She made sure to avoid running into Mick, since the sourpuss was probably annoyed at having to be responsible adult and put on babysitting duty and she wanted no part of having to deal with him when he got in one of his moods. Still there were plenty of things to check out. The self-flying planes were neat and the new phone she quickly grabbed was nice but it was all mostly sideshows and stuff.
She ended up making her way to the station STAR Labs had setup. Now Lisa didn't know much about STAR Labs except that they had done something with some fancy rocks that some dead tunnel dude had found. She ended up making her way into the station and she spotted an egghead who was talking to some other people about alien biology and how conventional biological understanding was insufficient to truly grasp what would likely come ahead. Lisa was bored so she decided to ask the man about Martians. In the end Dr. Emil Hamilton, the egghead in question, ended up letting her know that he was convinced that there was life on Mars and that it didn't match up with conventional earthly understanding of biology. Weird theory but a fun one nonetheless and Lisa at the very least got a kick out of talking to him. Dude was passionate about his work and at the very least could give entertaining speeches. If he wasn't loyal to STAR Labs he'd probably excel at LexCorp.
Lisa's wanderings around the expo ended on a high note actually. Some ginger brat had actually ended up recognizing her for her work in Clockstoppers and asked for an autograph. Being recognized by some snot nosed kid wasn't exactly the fame and fortune most people dreamed of when they went to work in television and movies but at the very least it was nice to be recognized. She ended up giving the girl, whose name started with a B or something and her last name was like Gourden, her autograph and a way to contact Oswald after chatting with her for a bit. Girl was way to eager to talk about all the little details in the show that Lisa was sure Oswald was responsible for. Lisa did her best to not tip her hand to the fact that she never watched Clockstoppers and she figured Ozzy would be better at dealing with a fan of the shows then she would be. He liked kids for some godforsaken reason.
The mother ended up thanking her for indulging her kid and Lisa earned herself some goodwill from a kid and her mom. Honestly it was kind of ridiculous but Lisa was at least able to back in the glow of being recognized for her talents even if it was by some brat whose name she couldn't even remember.
Lucy Lane
The days leading up to the expo were miserable. Her dad as always was a bit of a pain to deal with. Lucy never remembered him having a kind word to say about her. No it was always "why can't you be more like your sister Lucy" and other such refrains that made her feel sick and miserable. Honestly it wouldn't be so bad if her dad at least paid attention to what she did but considering the fact that he dismissed all of her work as "riding on the coattails of other more successful people" while Lois was praised for "At least doing things on her own even if she does them ass backwards out of some misguided rebellion she should be over by now". It burned to not be as good as Lois in her father's eyes to the point where he didn't even try to hide the fact that he liked one of his daughters far more than the other.
The constant hustle and bustle of work only made things more stressful especially since there was talk around the office about how Lois was going to try and investigate LexCorp again and now people were eyeing her with scrutiny. Not Lex thank god but it still burned that she was perpetually in the shadow of Lois and kept suffering for it. Still nobody liked a whiner and Lucy buckled down to get her job done. At least at LexCorp her talents were appreciated by the upper echelons, by the people who truly mattered.
This thought was only reinforced when Lex took some time out of his busy schedule to visit her during the expo and ask her how she was doing as Cassandra entertained herself with some kind of logic puzzle while dutifully shadowing her fathers footsteps. It wasn't really anything meaningful that he went out of his way to discuss with her but the fact that he cared enough to at least see what she was doing and check in with her was more than anyone else did for her. Honestly it was a shitty week all around once Lexpo rolled around but at least once it was all over Lucy was secure that she could be seen as her own person and make her own way in the world at LexCorp.
Veronica Cale
Veronica was not truly impressed by the so called Lexpo. It was certainly an extravagant symbol to Lex Luthor's ego and a demonstration of his power but the rather juvenile need to strut and boast like a peacock of some kind was rather distasteful for Veronica. She could appreciate the ability to work hard for power and the ambition to see things go your way but such ostentatious displays never really suited her. Lex was a showman while Veronica preferred to work from the shadows. Her contributions to both Wayne Enterprises medical technology and her rather dominant performance in conquering the video game market were utterly unknown to the world at large. Even her latest project Cale-Anderson Pharmaceuticals was not well known to the world at large despite being a massive success.
That is not to say that she didn't find Lex Luthor the man to be impressive. By all accounts the man genuinely earned what he had and while his need to display his power was a touch off putting it wasn't enough for her to dismiss him out of hand. After all everyone had their flaws and if Lex Luthor liked to preen and show off his passes to the masses then that was simply a flaw, not something that poisoned the whole of who he was. Expecting perfection was the height of stupidity and the sign of the truly imbecilic.
So when Lex Luthor approached Veronica to speak with her, she was open minded about the possibility of working with him. After all he was a genius and while Veronica wouldn't deign to put herself beneath him she knew that he had many more resources and opportunities than she did. The fact that Lex Luthor was familiar with her work only caused her opinion of him to rise. The brief talk of business between the two of them was enjoyable and was certainly likely to be profitable. They'd likely have to meet after the expo to hash out all of the details but Veronica knew this was an opportunity to make even more money going forward and she was more than happy to let Luthor take the credit so he could have the glory and acclaim he craved so long as she got a cut of the power and profits. This would be an excellent partnership.
Diana Prince
Lex Luthor's event was certainly interesting. Diana had been in Man's World for a few years but never before had she seen such a sea of bodies before her. The event was spectacular and Diana couldn't help but enjoy herself despite trying to stay on guard for what was coming. The exo-suits Luthor had developed were particularly impressive and while they were not the non-lethal weapons the DOMA needed Diana could see that this would prove very successful in abating the fears of the government in this ever changing world. Eiling in particular looked eager to get his hands on them.
Diana flashed her pass to the security guards near the sealed building in which Luthor did his weapons demonstration away from the rest of the event. Diana had no real interest in the weapons for her own department and instead focused on who was interested in buying. The weapons were certainly impressive but her organizations purpose was not to fight but to establish relations between the normal and the abnormal in order to protect both. As such watching for how others reacted to Luthor's presentation would help her gauge who might become a problem later on down the line. Waller's agent was interested which was good, Eiling Lane and Hardcastle where all scheming as usual and while none of the group trusted each other fully they were very interested in keeping the weapons available to those nominally on their side, the various governments ambassadors sent to this meeting were thrown into a frenzy although Diana was quite concerned about the response of the Biyalian ambassador who seemed far to relaxed at this meeting and the last of the important individuals whose reactions she had been noting was that of ex-DEO agent William Walsh who was very interested in spreading this technology to as many people as possible.
William Walsh was a particular concern as he had dropped off of the grid to do who knows what and had now reappeared to attend this event. It was concerning to say the least especially since he had been representing a foreign government in order to enter.
As the meeting cleared Lex went to go and speak with the various officials who were interested in offering him something for his new weapons and generally getting to know him. Diana meanwhile chose to speak to his daughter Cassandra, who was under the watchful eye of a few security guards, to get a better read on Luthor. After all Diana was still not completely sure about how her alliance with Luthor would work out and who better then a child to give her an honest assessment of the man?
The conversation with Cassandra was enlightening. While the girl had a speech impediment she was frighteningly sharp. Before they even spoke Cassandra had asked Diana what she was since her body didn't move like a normal humans cause the weight was distributed weirdly. Diana didn't have time to fully regale the girl on what an Amazon was, especially since the walls could have ears here so she prevaricated a bit and asked Cassandra about what she liked to do. Cassandra apparently enjoyed playing games that proved she was the best and had started to branch out more and more now that she could speak. She gushed about how great her father was for teaching her to speak and how she found her cat Janus to be funny and many more little inanities. The conversation was reassuring actually. You often could know a parent by their child and Cassandra held a focus and pride in being a Luthor and in being the best and living up to the legacy her father had made for her. The values Luthor passed on to his child were likely ones that he valued and while Diana couldn't necessarily agree with everything Luthor did she could respect the man a lot more now that she had some measure of why he did what he did. Her conversation with Cassandra ended with Cassandra asking her if she was a friend. Diana wasn't really sure how to answer that so she told Cassandra that right now she was trying to figure out if she and her father could be friends and that speaking to Cassandra had helped in that regard.
It was at around this point that Lex Luthor returned for his daughter and began to talk to Diana. The discussion was mostly a reiteration of their prior agreement and Diana thanking him for being prompt in fulfilling his obligations. She made sure to warn Luthor about William Walsh and that the Biyalian ambassador had been remarkably unmoved by his demonstration which was an oddity. She would have continued the conversation but they were cut off when a burst of tinny voices came over the radios.
Somehow a man had killed a member of the Metropolis Police Department and stolen both his uniform and gun and was now taking hostages until Lex Luthor showed up and surrendered himself to him. Luthor rushed out and Diana followed. Whereas Diana went to immediately help coordinate evacuating civilians, Luthor went to confront the gunman and stall for time after having gotten Cassandra out of harms way.
Chaos and panic were present throughout the event as people screamed and shrieked and ran every which way. Diana heard a single gunshot ring out and even more screaming filled the air. Well this had swiftly devolved into a mess but Diana would make sure her ally came out of this alright if not unscathed.
Rose Wilson
Honestly the whole Lexpo thing was kind of boring at first. Rose knew about the need for moral and all that shit but the whole county fair of science and capitalism approach wasn't really her style. Initially she had thought that at least getting to pilot an exo-suit for the day would be fun but it quickly turned out not to be the case. She couldn't push the suit to its max limits and get a rush of adrenaline, no instead she had to show off to a bunch of simpering masses how she could pick stuff up, hover in place, jump rope and over such boring small things. She was sure that they were absolutely astounding on a technical level or if you had never seen an exo-suit before but honestly Rose had gotten so bored of it all by the second hour of it and by the fifth she was ready to call it a day bored out of her skull.
Still Rose wasn't the type to quit just cause a job was boring. After all there was no job that didn't have its ups and downs. So as such Rose decided to take a quick break and let some other sap take over for a bit. It was as she left the exo-suit and had gone to get lunch where she observed something unusual. A man in a somewhat rumpled suit suddenly began screaming at the top of his lungs and flailing around attempting to attack a police officer. The man was promptly tasered and dropped to the ground. The police then took away the man outside of the expo area. Rose put it out of her mind as just an oddity.
Thirty minutes later Rose had finished lunch and headed back to the exo-suits to continue demonstrating their capabilities. It was at this point that she began to hear radio chatter that some police officers had randomly gone dark. At the time Rose hadn't connected it to what had happened earlier. About an hour later the police had found the first of the men to have gone dark on them, utterly catatonic and stripped of his uniform and gun. Now they were on the hunt to find this man. However if they tipped off the infiltrator that they knew of his existence then he might start firing on the crowd. The trick was to stay cool calm and collected and trap him.
The security for the event swiftly locked down yet the perpetrator still managed to avoid them. It was only when the police found two catatonic LexCorp security forces that they realized that by keeping radio silence so as to not tip off the infiltrator they had enabled the infiltrator to incapacitate more of the security forces. As such this was announced over the guards radios meaning that the infiltrator now knew they knew. Rose was excited. Maybe things would finally get interesting now.
The infiltrator though had realized that his ability to disguise himself and hide was over now. He fired twice into the crowd, killing a police officer and injuring another before taking people hostage. The infiltrator demanded to have Lex Luthor meet him. Rose rushed over to where the infiltrator was to try and get in on the action. The civvies were fleeing and that wasn't Rose's area of expertise.
When Rose arrived at the scene she saw that the infiltrator was the man who had been taken away from the expo by the police earlier. Unlike before where his eyes were wild and he was almost feral he now was overly relaxed and stiff and looked out at the world with a glassy eyed stare. He had a gun to a young blonde boys head.
Rose's head started aching as migraines pulsed throughout her mind and her vision went wonky. She could hear Lex Luthor arrive to try and stall for time while the infiltrator demanded that Lex take the young boys place. Rose's mind felt like it was breaking under the strain of everything that was going on around her.
She'd kill the fucking Jackal holding her son hostage. Wait, Rose had no son and she didn't know any jackals but she'd kill the fucking backstabber as she should have back in 'Nam. A shot to the chest was too good for scum like him but Rose had never shot this man before and she certainly had never been to Vietnam before. Her mind muddled and grew confused and angry as voices grew louder and louder and the urge to just give in and ride the hate and the rage and give in to instinct roared and slowly crushed any pretense at other things. Rose knew who she was and what she was meant to do. That hadn't changed at all. She had to kill and kill and kill and kill and KILL! She was a terminator and she'd slaughter all of those who stood in her way for nothing more than the thrill of glorious combat and victory!
Rose took the shot and the infiltrators head exploded in a shower of gore. Good. Then the thoughts and the voices and the urges all left Rose and she felt so tired and she let the blackness overtake her.
Rose woke up three days later in the hospital. Once they knew what was going on and that Rose was awake Mercy came to pick her up and explain the situation to her. Rose was not being charged with anything but public perception was fairly mixed. On top of that numerous bodies of scientists that were effectively braindead were found scattered throughout the remains of the expo. LexCorp had taken a solid PR hit for how things had played out at the very end. Rose grimaced. Maybe she shouldn't have been so eager for some action cause it seemed like she'd get plenty in the next few days.
Aftermath subvote
In the wake of the attack on Lexpo by the now identified Sinclair Batson LexCorp has come under more scrutiny than ever before. People are now looking to try and find links between Batson and LexCorp and much more that could prove quite annoying to deal with in the long run. As such it is up to you to choose how to conduct the aftermath of this event. Please pick your favorite option from the list below. Note that there is a 1 hour plan moratorium. Please keep all votes within approval format as any votes in plan format will be rejected. Write-ins are available for this vote but all write-ins are subject to QM approval.
[ ] [Aftermath] Lock down entirely and keep things as quiet as possible
[ ] [Aftermath] Make use of your control of the police to have it seem as though you were investigated while shifting the blame onto others
[ ] [Aftermath] Engage in total transparency to attempt to assuage any fears of LexCorp being in the wrong by the public
[ ] [Aftermath] Smear Sinclair Batson's name as much as possible to make him look like a deluded schizophrenic who just happened to get lucky when getting past the guards
[ ] [Aftermath] Blame police incompetence for why things got as bad as they did and point out that one of your employees saved the day
[ ] [Aftermath] Write-in
All of you got a bit blindsided by a fairly simple fact. Sinclair Batson and Mr. Mind are two different individuals and Sinclair Batson wants to die (meaning if he sees the opportunity to get killed he is actively going to take it). This has caused things to spiral out of control very quickly and Rose's trait activated to make things even more messy on top of all of this. There will be some significant fall out from this event and not all of it will be immediately obvious at first glance.
On an unrelated note can I just mention that I love Veronica Cale's backstory? Like it's great and of all of the super rich people in the DC universe she was the one who got rich off of video games. I find that kind of hilarious.
So the winning vote is the following
It feels a little weird to be out of the swing of things and still not fully settled back in (5 more days until I can get used to things again and speed back up) but I hope people enjoy the update despite the wait. I'm likely not to get much else up this week as I've got a few more things to finish up.
The First Lexpo Pt.3
Mick
Jinx was not the most well socialized of children. That much Mick knew from the get go. No kid living in a company without meeting that many others their own age would turn out completely normal under those circumstances. The girl had almost no friends that she met face to face and with the utter lack of time spent with others she likely didn't even know how to make friends in person. Now Mick would be the first person to tell you that school was a load of bullshit but at least it taught kids better ways of dealing with each other. Jinx had none of those tools that other kids normally had.
As such watching Jinx interact with people near her age was difficult cause Mick could tell when and where she messed up but if he helped her she'd never learn anything and end up resenting him for it. As such when Jinx flipped out at some girl who had apparently cut her in line to the hologram presentation Mick did nothing to prevent it. This was Jinx's battle to fight and she'd grow from the experience no matter what happened. Mick would only step in if the fight escalated to violence.
"Fuck you, I was here first!" Jinx shouted at the top of her lungs drawing the attention of everyone around her. Mick got what it was to be pissed off but he knew at least intellectually that Jinx's current behavior was making her look bad as people stared at her.
"No thanks" the other girl said calmly "You're not my type"
The other girl was a well dressed black girl about the same age as Jinx although Mick didn't really have much reference on how kids looked at each age. She was well dressed and her clothes seemed to show that her parents had money. Mick idly wondered where her parents were to see if they were willing to step in as well.
Jinx shouted and cursed at the girl some more causing the other girl to give out short sharp retorts in response. They were starting to draw a crowd and it looked like Jinx was getting ready to start hurling around her bad luck magic in the hopes of winning the argument by shutting the other person the hell up. While it was Mick's favorite way to end a fight, Jinx was liable to do a lot more than sock an asshole in the jaw and with this many people watching it would only get her in trouble. Mick moved to step between the two.
"Jinx, some girl cutting you in line isn't worth what you are going to do" Mick intervened "People don't care about whose right in a fight they only care who looks right and as of now you look like the bad guy to outsiders"
Jinx's eyes darted around, glancing at the people who had started to stare at her. She contemplated one more time if it was worthwhile or not still attacking the other girl before ultimately concluding that while it would feel good it wouldn't solve anything and would only land her in more trouble.
"It's not fair" Jinx quietly whined as the line shuffled forwards.
"Life's not fair" Mick smoothly replied "You've got to pick what piece of bullshit life throws at you is worth fighting over or your going to drown in it"
Jinx quietly seethed at this while Mick felt comforted by the fact that he had stopped the fight from escalating despite his own rather intense temper. It was at around this point where a tall broad shouldered black man, likely the other girl's father, rejoined the back of the line.
"Thanks for saving my spot in the line, Tasha" The man calmly stated "Anything interesting I missed while I was away?"
"Some weird goth girl started screaming at me for cutting in the line when I was saving your spot so you could go to the bathroom" The girl responded. The man sighed.
"Tasha did you explain to her why you entered the line where you did" The man asked with slight overtones of exasperation and fondness in equal measure.
"No" the girl answered "If she wants to scream and yell over something that's obviously not true then nothing I say is going to convince her otherwise"
The man sighed and began to explain to his daughter that if she didn't explain herself to people who were mad at her then they'd assume the worst about her and that she should strive to be more personable going forward. The girl insisted that she already had friends so she didn't need to deal with weird people who were so angry and judgmental and Mick ended up feeling happier then ever that he wasn't actually responsible for a kid. As the line moved forward though the black man eventually turned to try and introduce himself and reconcile the kids. Mick figured it was a lost cause but he figured he might as well be polite.
"Names John Henry" The black man said as he gripped Mick's hand in a strong firm handshake "Sorry about Natasha's little spat with your kid, she's still convinced that cause she's smarter than other kids her age she doesn't need to explain herself to them"
"Jinx isn't my kid" Mick responded "I'm just doing her guardian a favor and letting her have some fun at this event"
John Henry was a somewhat pleasant fellow and while he was a little too smooth and polished and put together for Mick to think fondly of him, he wasn't going to be a dick to the man over nothing. His kid and Jinx still didn't get along but after a bit of talking over technology they were no longer quite at each others throats. Hopefully Jinx would eventually get to the point where she could make friends with other kids her age.
Lisa Snart
Man, this whole Lexpo thing was such a hassle. It was certainly an opportunity to be seized for networking and stuff but man was it a mess and a half to deal with. Still it was better than the funeral and she could always go bother Lenny if she couldn't handle dealing with all the stuck-up folks here. An opportunity was an opportunity and more contacts and cash was always something she'd be happy to get.
Lisa wandered around the expo looking for something particularly interesting to go and check out. She made sure to avoid running into Mick, since the sourpuss was probably annoyed at having to be responsible adult and put on babysitting duty and she wanted no part of having to deal with him when he got in one of his moods. Still there were plenty of things to check out. The self-flying planes were neat and the new phone she quickly grabbed was nice but it was all mostly sideshows and stuff.
She ended up making her way to the station STAR Labs had setup. Now Lisa didn't know much about STAR Labs except that they had done something with some fancy rocks that some dead tunnel dude had found. She ended up making her way into the station and she spotted an egghead who was talking to some other people about alien biology and how conventional biological understanding was insufficient to truly grasp what would likely come ahead. Lisa was bored so she decided to ask the man about Martians. In the end Dr. Emil Hamilton, the egghead in question, ended up letting her know that he was convinced that there was life on Mars and that it didn't match up with conventional earthly understanding of biology. Weird theory but a fun one nonetheless and Lisa at the very least got a kick out of talking to him. Dude was passionate about his work and at the very least could give entertaining speeches. If he wasn't loyal to STAR Labs he'd probably excel at LexCorp.
Lisa's wanderings around the expo ended on a high note actually. Some ginger brat had actually ended up recognizing her for her work in Clockstoppers and asked for an autograph. Being recognized by some snot nosed kid wasn't exactly the fame and fortune most people dreamed of when they went to work in television and movies but at the very least it was nice to be recognized. She ended up giving the girl, whose name started with a B or something and her last name was like Gourden, her autograph and a way to contact Oswald after chatting with her for a bit. Girl was way to eager to talk about all the little details in the show that Lisa was sure Oswald was responsible for. Lisa did her best to not tip her hand to the fact that she never watched Clockstoppers and she figured Ozzy would be better at dealing with a fan of the shows then she would be. He liked kids for some godforsaken reason.
The mother ended up thanking her for indulging her kid and Lisa earned herself some goodwill from a kid and her mom. Honestly it was kind of ridiculous but Lisa was at least able to back in the glow of being recognized for her talents even if it was by some brat whose name she couldn't even remember.
Lucy Lane
The days leading up to the expo were miserable. Her dad as always was a bit of a pain to deal with. Lucy never remembered him having a kind word to say about her. No it was always "why can't you be more like your sister Lucy" and other such refrains that made her feel sick and miserable. Honestly it wouldn't be so bad if her dad at least paid attention to what she did but considering the fact that he dismissed all of her work as "riding on the coattails of other more successful people" while Lois was praised for "At least doing things on her own even if she does them ass backwards out of some misguided rebellion she should be over by now". It burned to not be as good as Lois in her father's eyes to the point where he didn't even try to hide the fact that he liked one of his daughters far more than the other.
The constant hustle and bustle of work only made things more stressful especially since there was talk around the office about how Lois was going to try and investigate LexCorp again and now people were eyeing her with scrutiny. Not Lex thank god but it still burned that she was perpetually in the shadow of Lois and kept suffering for it. Still nobody liked a whiner and Lucy buckled down to get her job done. At least at LexCorp her talents were appreciated by the upper echelons, by the people who truly mattered.
This thought was only reinforced when Lex took some time out of his busy schedule to visit her during the expo and ask her how she was doing as Cassandra entertained herself with some kind of logic puzzle while dutifully shadowing her fathers footsteps. It wasn't really anything meaningful that he went out of his way to discuss with her but the fact that he cared enough to at least see what she was doing and check in with her was more than anyone else did for her. Honestly it was a shitty week all around once Lexpo rolled around but at least once it was all over Lucy was secure that she could be seen as her own person and make her own way in the world at LexCorp.
Veronica Cale
Veronica was not truly impressed by the so called Lexpo. It was certainly an extravagant symbol to Lex Luthor's ego and a demonstration of his power but the rather juvenile need to strut and boast like a peacock of some kind was rather distasteful for Veronica. She could appreciate the ability to work hard for power and the ambition to see things go your way but such ostentatious displays never really suited her. Lex was a showman while Veronica preferred to work from the shadows. Her contributions to both Wayne Enterprises medical technology and her rather dominant performance in conquering the video game market were utterly unknown to the world at large. Even her latest project Cale-Anderson Pharmaceuticals was not well known to the world at large despite being a massive success.
That is not to say that she didn't find Lex Luthor the man to be impressive. By all accounts the man genuinely earned what he had and while his need to display his power was a touch off putting it wasn't enough for her to dismiss him out of hand. After all everyone had their flaws and if Lex Luthor liked to preen and show off his passes to the masses then that was simply a flaw, not something that poisoned the whole of who he was. Expecting perfection was the height of stupidity and the sign of the truly imbecilic.
So when Lex Luthor approached Veronica to speak with her, she was open minded about the possibility of working with him. After all he was a genius and while Veronica wouldn't deign to put herself beneath him she knew that he had many more resources and opportunities than she did. The fact that Lex Luthor was familiar with her work only caused her opinion of him to rise. The brief talk of business between the two of them was enjoyable and was certainly likely to be profitable. They'd likely have to meet after the expo to hash out all of the details but Veronica knew this was an opportunity to make even more money going forward and she was more than happy to let Luthor take the credit so he could have the glory and acclaim he craved so long as she got a cut of the power and profits. This would be an excellent partnership.
Diana Prince
Lex Luthor's event was certainly interesting. Diana had been in Man's World for a few years but never before had she seen such a sea of bodies before her. The event was spectacular and Diana couldn't help but enjoy herself despite trying to stay on guard for what was coming. The exo-suits Luthor had developed were particularly impressive and while they were not the non-lethal weapons the DOMA needed Diana could see that this would prove very successful in abating the fears of the government in this ever changing world. Eiling in particular looked eager to get his hands on them.
Diana flashed her pass to the security guards near the sealed building in which Luthor did his weapons demonstration away from the rest of the event. Diana had no real interest in the weapons for her own department and instead focused on who was interested in buying. The weapons were certainly impressive but her organizations purpose was not to fight but to establish relations between the normal and the abnormal in order to protect both. As such watching for how others reacted to Luthor's presentation would help her gauge who might become a problem later on down the line. Waller's agent was interested which was good, Eiling Lane and Hardcastle where all scheming as usual and while none of the group trusted each other fully they were very interested in keeping the weapons available to those nominally on their side, the various governments ambassadors sent to this meeting were thrown into a frenzy although Diana was quite concerned about the response of the Biyalian ambassador who seemed far to relaxed at this meeting and the last of the important individuals whose reactions she had been noting was that of ex-DEO agent William Walsh who was very interested in spreading this technology to as many people as possible.
William Walsh was a particular concern as he had dropped off of the grid to do who knows what and had now reappeared to attend this event. It was concerning to say the least especially since he had been representing a foreign government in order to enter.
As the meeting cleared Lex went to go and speak with the various officials who were interested in offering him something for his new weapons and generally getting to know him. Diana meanwhile chose to speak to his daughter Cassandra, who was under the watchful eye of a few security guards, to get a better read on Luthor. After all Diana was still not completely sure about how her alliance with Luthor would work out and who better then a child to give her an honest assessment of the man?
The conversation with Cassandra was enlightening. While the girl had a speech impediment she was frighteningly sharp. Before they even spoke Cassandra had asked Diana what she was since her body didn't move like a normal humans cause the weight was distributed weirdly. Diana didn't have time to fully regale the girl on what an Amazon was, especially since the walls could have ears here so she prevaricated a bit and asked Cassandra about what she liked to do. Cassandra apparently enjoyed playing games that proved she was the best and had started to branch out more and more now that she could speak. She gushed about how great her father was for teaching her to speak and how she found her cat Janus to be funny and many more little inanities. The conversation was reassuring actually. You often could know a parent by their child and Cassandra held a focus and pride in being a Luthor and in being the best and living up to the legacy her father had made for her. The values Luthor passed on to his child were likely ones that he valued and while Diana couldn't necessarily agree with everything Luthor did she could respect the man a lot more now that she had some measure of why he did what he did. Her conversation with Cassandra ended with Cassandra asking her if she was a friend. Diana wasn't really sure how to answer that so she told Cassandra that right now she was trying to figure out if she and her father could be friends and that speaking to Cassandra had helped in that regard.
It was at around this point that Lex Luthor returned for his daughter and began to talk to Diana. The discussion was mostly a reiteration of their prior agreement and Diana thanking him for being prompt in fulfilling his obligations. She made sure to warn Luthor about William Walsh and that the Biyalian ambassador had been remarkably unmoved by his demonstration which was an oddity. She would have continued the conversation but they were cut off when a burst of tinny voices came over the radios.
Somehow a man had killed a member of the Metropolis Police Department and stolen both his uniform and gun and was now taking hostages until Lex Luthor showed up and surrendered himself to him. Luthor rushed out and Diana followed. Whereas Diana went to immediately help coordinate evacuating civilians, Luthor went to confront the gunman and stall for time after having gotten Cassandra out of harms way.
Chaos and panic were present throughout the event as people screamed and shrieked and ran every which way. Diana heard a single gunshot ring out and even more screaming filled the air. Well this had swiftly devolved into a mess but Diana would make sure her ally came out of this alright if not unscathed.
Rose Wilson
Honestly the whole Lexpo thing was kind of boring at first. Rose knew about the need for moral and all that shit but the whole county fair of science and capitalism approach wasn't really her style. Initially she had thought that at least getting to pilot an exo-suit for the day would be fun but it quickly turned out not to be the case. She couldn't push the suit to its max limits and get a rush of adrenaline, no instead she had to show off to a bunch of simpering masses how she could pick stuff up, hover in place, jump rope and over such boring small things. She was sure that they were absolutely astounding on a technical level or if you had never seen an exo-suit before but honestly Rose had gotten so bored of it all by the second hour of it and by the fifth she was ready to call it a day bored out of her skull.
Still Rose wasn't the type to quit just cause a job was boring. After all there was no job that didn't have its ups and downs. So as such Rose decided to take a quick break and let some other sap take over for a bit. It was as she left the exo-suit and had gone to get lunch where she observed something unusual. A man in a somewhat rumpled suit suddenly began screaming at the top of his lungs and flailing around attempting to attack a police officer. The man was promptly tasered and dropped to the ground. The police then took away the man outside of the expo area. Rose put it out of her mind as just an oddity.
Thirty minutes later Rose had finished lunch and headed back to the exo-suits to continue demonstrating their capabilities. It was at this point that she began to hear radio chatter that some police officers had randomly gone dark. At the time Rose hadn't connected it to what had happened earlier. About an hour later the police had found the first of the men to have gone dark on them, utterly catatonic and stripped of his uniform and gun. Now they were on the hunt to find this man. However if they tipped off the infiltrator that they knew of his existence then he might start firing on the crowd. The trick was to stay cool calm and collected and trap him.
The security for the event swiftly locked down yet the perpetrator still managed to avoid them. It was only when the police found two catatonic LexCorp security forces that they realized that by keeping radio silence so as to not tip off the infiltrator they had enabled the infiltrator to incapacitate more of the security forces. As such this was announced over the guards radios meaning that the infiltrator now knew they knew. Rose was excited. Maybe things would finally get interesting now.
The infiltrator though had realized that his ability to disguise himself and hide was over now. He fired twice into the crowd, killing a police officer and injuring another before taking people hostage. The infiltrator demanded to have Lex Luthor meet him. Rose rushed over to where the infiltrator was to try and get in on the action. The civvies were fleeing and that wasn't Rose's area of expertise.
When Rose arrived at the scene she saw that the infiltrator was the man who had been taken away from the expo by the police earlier. Unlike before where his eyes were wild and he was almost feral he now was overly relaxed and stiff and looked out at the world with a glassy eyed stare. He had a gun to a young blonde boys head.
Rose's head started aching as migraines pulsed throughout her mind and her vision went wonky. She could hear Lex Luthor arrive to try and stall for time while the infiltrator demanded that Lex take the young boys place. Rose's mind felt like it was breaking under the strain of everything that was going on around her.
She'd kill the fucking Jackal holding her son hostage. Wait, Rose had no son and she didn't know any jackals but she'd kill the fucking backstabber as she should have back in 'Nam. A shot to the chest was too good for scum like him but Rose had never shot this man before and she certainly had never been to Vietnam before. Her mind muddled and grew confused and angry as voices grew louder and louder and the urge to just give in and ride the hate and the rage and give in to instinct roared and slowly crushed any pretense at other things. Rose knew who she was and what she was meant to do. That hadn't changed at all. She had to kill and kill and kill and kill and KILL! She was a terminator and she'd slaughter all of those who stood in her way for nothing more than the thrill of glorious combat and victory!
Rose took the shot and the infiltrators head exploded in a shower of gore. Good. Then the thoughts and the voices and the urges all left Rose and she felt so tired and she let the blackness overtake her.
Rose woke up three days later in the hospital. Once they knew what was going on and that Rose was awake Mercy came to pick her up and explain the situation to her. Rose was not being charged with anything but public perception was fairly mixed. On top of that numerous bodies of scientists that were effectively braindead were found scattered throughout the remains of the expo. LexCorp had taken a solid PR hit for how things had played out at the very end. Rose grimaced. Maybe she shouldn't have been so eager for some action cause it seemed like she'd get plenty in the next few days.
Aftermath subvote
In the wake of the attack on Lexpo by the now identified Sinclair Batson LexCorp has come under more scrutiny than ever before. People are now looking to try and find links between Batson and LexCorp and much more that could prove quite annoying to deal with in the long run. As such it is up to you to choose how to conduct the aftermath of this event. Please pick your favorite option from the list below. Note that there is a 1 hour plan moratorium. Please keep all votes within approval format as any votes in plan format will be rejected. Write-ins are available for this vote but all write-ins are subject to QM approval.
[ ] [Aftermath] Lock down entirely and keep things as quiet as possible
[ ] [Aftermath] Make use of your control of the police to have it seem as though you were investigated while shifting the blame onto others
[ ] [Aftermath] Engage in total transparency to attempt to assuage any fears of LexCorp being in the wrong by the public
[ ] [Aftermath] Smear Sinclair Batson's name as much as possible to make him look like a deluded schizophrenic who just happened to get lucky when getting past the guards
[ ] [Aftermath] Blame police incompetence for why things got as bad as they did and point out that one of your employees saved the day
[ ] [Aftermath] Write-in
Wait, so people are blaming us for some random nutjob going on a shooting spree and a member of our security for putting him down?
Talk about victim blaming
Talk about victim blaming
- Location
- Hala
Ob la di, ob-la-da, life goes on, bra~
La-la, how the life goes on~~
That's why Expos are bad. With no bad guy left to pin the blame on, everyone would blame the OG host.
Or at least that's how mafia works.
- Location
- Philippines
[] [Aftermath] Engage in total transparency to attempt to assuage any fears of LexCorp being in the wrong by the public
We have nothing to hide, this really was something completely out of lexcorp's control and lex had no prior interaction with siclair batson before this event so better to just open up and reveal to the public what's up.
We have nothing to hide, this really was something completely out of lexcorp's control and lex had no prior interaction with siclair batson before this event so better to just open up and reveal to the public what's up.
Last edited:
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
I actually really enjoyed this picture for a somewhat ironic reason. The image in question draws heavily from the Young Justice version of Ivo which is not how Ivo looked in quest at all (he was way more hideous and obviously visibly diseased). Still though as a statue in universe it makes sense to have this be the image Lex presents as "Ivo" since his appearance wasn't well known to many people who would contradict Lex and its much easier to make someone who looks good be marketable as opposed to someone who looks like Ivo did. As such this picture by being inaccurate to what Ivo looked like in life is accurate to what a statue or memorial to Ivo might look like in quest and I find that kind of amusing.
You've earned 400 exp.
I'm torn but I think this is the first time I have to go and tell someone that the fanart doesn't qualify for exp (and I feel bad that I'm doing this as I don't mean to devalue any effort you put into making this but I do think I need to draw a line somewhere). This piece is ultimately too low in connection to the quest and not quite at the level I would generally like for manipulated pictures (Lex Luthor is horribly pixilated and it feels a bit like one picture was cut out and pasted atop another one without the overall look being intended to come out that way). I appreciate the attempt here but I do think that I won't be giving exp for this one.
This image I find is the better photoshop of the two. I'm probably a bit of an egomaniac and a hypocrite for this but I enjoyed this picture a lot and found it funny.
This one earns 400 exp
Rose is a teenager who appeared to blow out his brains in a psychotic fit that could have gone very wrong. The issue is less "you're to blame for putting down the shooter" and more "you're to blame for creating a situation in which a teenaged girl had to kill a man in front of hundreds of witnesses". It's considered a failure on your part because of how divisive it is that someone had to be put into that situation who wasn't supposed to do it because of the failures of the security which you arranged
1 hour moratorium
Last edited:
- Location
- Hala
Bruv, we the bad guys who have done a shit tonne of illegal stuff. Let's no go transparency and accountability route, rn and have the investigators (or give Lois a chance to) find something dirty on us.
Smear campaign seems to be the best option, imo. OR pointing the blame somewhere else.
Last edited:
- Location
- alphen aan den rijn
[x] [Aftermath] Engage in total transparency to attempt to assuage any fears of LexCorp being in the wrong by the public
see no reason to make thing harder then they need to be
also see no reason too look into thing deeper on our own end if needed.
edit nr 2 i believe time is over now?
see no reason to make thing harder then they need to be
also see no reason too look into thing deeper on our own end if needed.
edit nr 2 i believe time is over now?
Last edited:
Kufufu
Adequate at best
- Location
- What's it to ya?
[ ] [Aftermath] Make use of your control of the police to have it seem as though you were investigated while shifting the blame onto others, more specifically Lois Lane.
We incriminate the paper for inflaming the psychopath and traumatizing a child, thus removing a thorn in our public image.
We incriminate the paper for inflaming the psychopath and traumatizing a child, thus removing a thorn in our public image.
Last edited:
- Location
- Fifth Dimension
[ ] [Aftermath] Make use of your control of the police to have it seem as though you were investigated while shifting the blame onto others, more specifically Lois Lane.
This. Say she radicalized him with her insistence that we're evil. She caused a teenage girl to be forced to kill this man, and the blood is on her hands.
This. Say she radicalized him with her insistence that we're evil. She caused a teenage girl to be forced to kill this man, and the blood is on her hands.
King crimson
Confusion Will Be My Epitaph
- Location
- Los Angeles
Still some time left on the moratorium.
- Location
- barking
Okay is Rose seeing Slade s memories
- Location
- Singapore
[ ] [Aftermath] Engage in total transparency to attempt to assuage any fears of LexCorp being in the wrong by the public
[ ] [Aftermath] Write-in: Provide full medical care to the casualties while secretly gathering data to determine how they were injured.
[ ] [Aftermath] Write-in: Provide full medical care to the casualties while secretly gathering data to determine how they were injured.
Last edited:
- Location
- Fifth Dimension
@King crimson Hey, shouldn't Mari have 800 exp on her Martial? I had the picture and the omake when I donated...
