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Pound the Table | An X-Men Self-Insert

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This was Osborn's fight to lose...and he has. So far. Which makes sense; he's the kind of rich douchebag who thinks himself entitled to push others around because nothing can hurt him...until it does. And he's the type of unhinged "fly around in a Halloween costume" sort, so his sense of proportionality is...off.

Noa did everything she could, but this went her way due to Obsorn's faults and some good luck. The office job being a little too complete, and happening to have a paralegal who actually understood cybercrime

Was 616 Erik connected with the Mossad? I doubt he draws a paycheck, but he's certainly the type to work with others when their missions and priorities coincide. And he's just the right level of deniable for a co-belligerent vigilante.
 
October Daye said:
mostly born of half-assed koshering that only cared about satisfying the requirements, but not preserving flavor.
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Damn right! Proper kosher meat from a good butcher is the best meat I've ever had.

On the story, watching the Goblin get spanked was so very satisfying. I love the balance this story draws between action and planning, as well as the way you can write a scene with only discussion as so riveting I'd believe it's a full on battle scene.
 
Cobalt-60 said:
Was 616 Erik connected with the Mossad? I doubt he draws a paycheck, but he's certainly the type to work with others when their missions and priorities coincide. And he's just the right level of deniable for a co-belligerent vigilante.
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I have a feeling that they created his current legal paperwork, and use him as a deniable asset whenever they can. Maybe not paying him with cash, but Eric's all about the hunt and they give him targets.


Have I mentioned how much I love Nazi-Hunter Magneto?
 
Lunaryon said:
I dont think that was at all the plan, more what Osborn jumped to because the idea of people working together is utterly alien to him.
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The guy runs a company, the concept of teamwork cannot be that unheard of.
And if it is, then it needs to be shown textually because so far all thats really been shown of Osborns tendancies is anger, bad judgement calls because he can't imagine them backfiring and pettiness. Everytime he's been in the story he's had an entourage of lawyers.
It just hasn't been setup for what the WoA was saying was the case.
 
October Daye said:
"... the liver and onion cravings?" she asked.

"..." I refused to answer, but I was pretty sure my blush told her everything she needed to know.
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Can someone explain this one to me since I need to run shopping right now and don't have the time to puzzle it out?
 
Dmol8 said:
Can someone explain this one to me since I need to run shopping right now and don't have the time to puzzle it out?
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Noa, thanks to her mutation, doesn't have body hair. Instead, she has sections of keratinous scales across her body. This includes on her horns and tail.

Every few months, she sheds the old scales, and grows new ones. When this happens, she needs to greatly increase her intake of keratin, otherwise the scales are flimsy and weak, leaving them prone to cracking, breaking, and bleeding.

Humans have a tendency to develop cravings when we're missing or in need of certain nutrients. An easy example of this is seen in the accounts of castaway survivors who were lost at sea for weeks/months at a time – a common account is that fish eyes tasted like candy, and they couldn't get enough of them.

And lastly... onions and beef livers are very high in keratin.
 
Cobalt-60 said:
Was 616 Erik connected with the Mossad?
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GamingGeek said:
I have a feeling that they created his current legal paperwork, and use him as a deniable asset whenever they can. Maybe not paying him with cash, but Eric's all about the hunt and they give him targets
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Pretty sure that was just something he made up so the FBI agents wouldn't bother him about his backstory too much. Note he presented no papers, no license, no badge, just "yeah I'm mossad, no further questions"
The only reason it stood up is because noa vouched for him and Cate trusts noa
 
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MJ12 Commando said:
I actually feel that although this arc started pretty strong its ending was a little bit of a letdown. I was discussing the chapter with @Tempera and she helped me figure out what wasn't gelling with me.

The start was pretty strong - it was a small-stakes case, but the reader's (expected) knowledge of who everyone involved was meant you knew it was going to escalate into something more than that, and Osborn getting more and more threatening as he got more and more visibly unhinged was a pretty great leadup. The issue is basically that I don't think the chapter quite stuck the landing. The conclusion is essentially that Osborn/Goblin wrote a check his ass couldn't cash (via the virus) that basically instantly tied him to the crime (and made him a lot of powerful enemies besides) and the presence of Magneto as Noa's guardian angel to eliminate the possible physical threat Osborn/Goblin might provide negated the other aspect of his threat.

The big victory didn't feel as 'earned' as the prior victories Noa had, basically - and it's entirely realistic that sometimes the other guy's case is kind of weak or their temperament is one that they just kind of implode their own case, but it made the last 2 chapters feel a little anticlimactic after reading, even if they were pretty fun at the exact time. I understand that a lot of this is just going to be the natural and inherent consequence of writing a chapter-by-chapter thing and presenting it in a relatively unedited format, some chapters are just going to end up being a little rougher than others, and I think the story's great overall, it's just that the last bit of this arc felt a little more like faceslapping than it should have when all was said and done even if it held together well moment-to-moment.

It probably needed a little bit more time for Noa to figure out a way to prove the virus was a thing and Osborn was playing fuck-fuck games with her to the court, and Magneto to have just a smidge less of a Cool Badass Uncle vibe in the end, and I think it would have been an excellent arc instead of a merely pretty fun one.
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My feelings aren't exactly the same - the second-to-last chapter didn't bother me at all - but I agree that this one just felt to, like, neat and clean, I guess. Magneto felt way too much like a scalpel here. Having someone who is proudly a villain show up and unsubtly help should be causing about as many problems as it solved. It also kinda robbed Peter of his ability to actually contribute.
 
Yeah, no way in hell does Norman put away the glider. He's going to grab it and go straight for Noa again. Norman is for sure the type of person that will straight up die before he admits he is wrong.
 
MJ12 Commando said:
I actually feel that although this arc started pretty strong its ending was a little bit of a letdown. I was discussing the chapter with @Tempera and she helped me figure out what wasn't gelling with me.

The start was pretty strong - it was a small-stakes case, but the reader's (expected) knowledge of who everyone involved was meant you knew it was going to escalate into something more than that, and Osborn getting more and more threatening as he got more and more visibly unhinged was a pretty great leadup. The issue is basically that I don't think the chapter quite stuck the landing. The conclusion is essentially that Osborn/Goblin wrote a check his ass couldn't cash (via the virus) that basically instantly tied him to the crime (and made him a lot of powerful enemies besides) and the presence of Magneto as Noa's guardian angel to eliminate the possible physical threat Osborn/Goblin might provide negated the other aspect of his threat.

The big victory didn't feel as 'earned' as the prior victories Noa had, basically - and it's entirely realistic that sometimes the other guy's case is kind of weak or their temperament is one that they just kind of implode their own case, but it made the last 2 chapters feel a little anticlimactic after reading, even if they were pretty fun at the exact time. I understand that a lot of this is just going to be the natural and inherent consequence of writing a chapter-by-chapter thing and presenting it in a relatively unedited format, some chapters are just going to end up being a little rougher than others, and I think the story's great overall, it's just that the last bit of this arc felt a little more like faceslapping than it should have when all was said and done even if it held together well moment-to-moment.

It probably needed a little bit more time for Noa to figure out a way to prove the virus was a thing and Osborn was playing fuck-fuck games with her to the court, and Magneto to have just a smidge less of a Cool Badass Uncle vibe in the end, and I think it would have been an excellent arc instead of a merely pretty fun one.
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I largely agree with this - the most recent chapter, on reflection, felt like a resolution to the conflict that hadn't adequately built the required tension, which turned it from a moment of catharsis to something significantly less satisfying. It wouldn't have taken much for the very physical, extrajudicial threat represented by Osbourne (and the Green Goblin) and his goons to have been more serious - resolve the virus or the office raid less neatly, have Magneto be out of the country in the initial/middling stages of the build up, or something along those lines. As it stands though, it felt like being caught by a safety net without actually falling - if you're trying to sell the idea that not all issues can be dealt with in the courtroom, then they have to feel like threats.

The quality of the resolution itself isn't really the problem, but rather in the surrounding context of the previous chapters of the arc it's much less satisfying than it could have been. Which is a shame, given how well handled the two previous cases were, from a narrative perspective.
 
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Xepheria said:
As it stands though, it felt like being caught by a safety net without actually falling
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Considering the home threat got resolved offscreen by Magneto, she was arguably caught by the safety net before she realised she was falling.
Compared to the set up that Osborn was going to be abandoned by the Oscorp lawers immediately, which got established when he was nearly ousted as chairman over a lazy eye, a lot of things got established and then resolved in the next chapter over the last 3, and it does feels rushed.
 
DocMatoi said:
Pretty sure that was just something he made up so the FBI agents wouldn't bother him about his backstory too much. Note he presented no papers, no license, no badge, just "yeah I'm mossad, no further questions"
The only reason it stood up is because noa vouched for him and Cate trusts noa
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OTOH, I feel like it makes perfect intuitive sense for Magneto, who at this point is very keen on hunting nazis, to want to join Mossad for the extra legitimacy and also for Mossad to want him for the firepower. Their interests coincide pretty strongly here.

Now, he might get the boot later because he goes off the deep end into his canon mutant supremacy ideology but that's what character development is for.
 
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FunkyEntropy said:
OTOH, I feel like it makes perfect intuitive sense for Magneto, who at this point is very keen on hunting nazis, to want to join Mossad for the extra legitimacy and also for Mossad to want him for the firepower. Their interests coincide pretty strongly here.
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Magneto: "I don't need acknowledgement from the governments of men for my cause to be legitimate. Their information network is useful in a way that- Well, Noa had a point about keeping them alive long enough to talk."
 
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Chapter Twenty-Two | The Arrival
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    • Pound the Table
    Chapter Twenty-Two

    "Where were you?", they ask.

    Where were you when JFK was shot? Where were you when we thought nuclear war was coming? Where were you when the Berlin Wall came down?

    Where were you when HE arrived?


    Wednesday, July 4, 1990

    I sat on my small balcony, a cup of Earl Grey in one hand, the Daily Bugle in the other. Summers were always a little calmer in the area, what with all the NYU students back home for their break. And despite being the middle of the summer, it was a shockingly pleasant day out. We'd had rain from the middle of the night into the early morning, which killed the humidity, leaving scant few clouds in the sky. And with the courts closed for the day, I had nowhere to be until this evening.

    It was a perfectly pleasant day.

    Then the clouds spread out. I frowned slightly, taking a sip of my tea. Really? On the Fourth of July? Couldn't they just take a break for one day to let us enjoy ourselves? I watched the clouds as they formed a perfect silver-lined blanket over the skies, and had to squint when the clouds got weird.

    Were they getting darker? Storm clouds? No, wait, that wasn't… that looked like concrete up there, now. Was that even possible? Wait, was it cracking now? How would that—

    I heard something break. Confused, I looked around, and saw my mug on the floor of the balcony, shattered to pieces. What? When did I drop that?

    I bent over to pick up the pieces. Something red dripped into the spilled tea, and I felt something wet on my lip. I brought a hand to wipe the liquid away, and it came back red.

    A nosebleed? I pinched my nose shut and stood, looking up—
    The clouds were gone, parted. No – shattered. I stared up at the sky.

    HE stared back.

    I could hear them, carried on a wind that didn't blow. The voices. The screams. The passing of thousands of peoples, on thousands more worlds. It was too much.
    It was too much.



    There weren't eyes—not at first. Just two great spotlights staring down at me—past me, through me. I was just an ant. No... less. Less than an ant. Before that baleful gaze, I was less than dust.

    The face came next, and it, it... it was —
    The words didn't exist.

    My eyes saw the face of a man, eyes shadowed by a horned crown, mouth impassive and calm. But my mind.
    My mind saw differently.
    There wasn't a face there. There were thousands.
    A thousand, thousand faces, for an uncountable number of eyes.

    This form, this, this thing... he, IT wasn't there, in truth. It was just, just window dressing. Something for us to see. This was no giant man in a suit. That was just how my eyes saw it – how our eyes saw it.

    Because the truth was too much for minds as mortal as ours.


    I couldn't—


    MY JOURNEY IS ENDED
    THIS PLANET SHALL SUSTAIN ME UNTIL IT HAS BEEN DRAINED

    SO SPEAKS -GALACTUS-
    ​

    I was on the floor. Closed the door behind me – was I still bleeding? No, I needed… where was it? My purse, it was in my purse, where was my purse. At the door? At the door. Stand up. I needed to get it from my purse, by the door.

    Needed to walk. One foot in front of the other.

    My nose wouldn't stop bleeding. There was blood on my nightgown. God, that was going to stain, wasn't it? No, focus. Noa. Keep walking.

    What was that noise? It was too loud. It was so loud – why was it so loud.

    Existence shuddered. A small pinprick of Light, in a vast expanse of darkness. That was me.
    What hope did I have in the face of this void? The Devourer?
    We are all so very small.

    I, I fell. Tripped.

    My face was all crusty. Something on the floor in front of me, dry, brown. Flaky. How long was I?

    No. Still by the door. Had to get up, get it. I pushed myself up, tried to stand.

    Too heavy. I stumbled, fell forward. It hurt, but I was closer now. Just a little bit more. Twenty feet.

    Upon it I laid eyes unseeing. A great tower of silver and glass and twisting other, rising above the horizon. A wonderful, terrible machine. An impossible spire, an impaling spear through our Earth. But this was no Tower of Babel, though it rose to the heavens.
    O'er us hung the Sword of Damocles, angling for its final stroke.


    THE CONVERTER
    NOT IN A THOUSAND THOUSAND YEARS HAS IT FAILED
    WHY DO YOU YET RESIST
    NO MATTER

    LET THE -PUNISHER- APPEAR
    ​

    My fingers closed around my purse. I pulled. My coat hanger fell, my purse spilling open.

    My fingers closed around it. The mezuzah. It glowed, softly. Just a little light.

    "Baruch ata Adonai… eloheinu melech ha'olam—"
    Blessed are you, O God, King of the Universe.
    "—asher kidishanu b'mitzvotav, v'tzivanu, likbo'a mezuzah…"
    Who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us to affix a Mezuzah.

    And when He seeth the blood upon the lintel and on the two sides posts, He will pass over the door, and will not suffer the destroyer to come into your houses to smite you—


    I DO NOT WISH TO HARM YOU HERALD
    PLEDGE YOURSELF TO ME ONCE MORE

    SWEAR ALLEGIANCE TO -GALACTUS-
    ​

    I held onto that little light.

    I held on. I prayed.

    I—

    I don't want to die.


    I don't want to die.




    I don't want to die.


    Please, God.



    ... IN THE HANDS OF A -HUMAN-
    ​
     
  • Threadmarks
    • October Daye said:
    A nosebleed? I pinched my nose shut and stood, looking up—
    The clouds were gone, parted. No – shattered. I stared up at the sky.

    HE stared back.

    I could hear them, carried on a wind that didn't blow. The voices. The screams. The passing of thousands of peoples, on thousands more worlds. It was too much.
    It was too much.

    MY JOURNEY IS ENDED
    THIS PLANET SHALL SUSTAIN ME UNTIL IT HAS BEEN DRAINED

    SO SPEAKS -GALACTUS-
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    Yeah I can see Galactus's presence being somewhat......rough on people with active mystic senses.
    Along with how one interprets the universe and potentially religious views.
     
    this is where things come out of noa's hands entirely (probably) to get resolved by the Main Line Comic Characters and she has to come back around afterward to deal with whatever legal issue arises from the cleanup

    October Daye said:
    LET THE -PUNISHER- APPEAR
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    Or Frank Castle is suing Galactus The Devourer for copyright infringement.
     
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    That was really not the direction I was expecting it to go, good chop on capturing the abruptness and feel of Galactus' arrival, and setting him as a possibility with the FF mentions.

    I wonder who the current herald is. I never really got into the FF stories.
     
    October Daye said:
    MY JOURNEY IS ENDED
    THIS PLANET SHALL SUSTAIN ME UNTIL IT HAS BEEN DRAINED

    SO SPEAKS -GALACTUS-



    "Baruch ata Adonai… eloheinu melech ha'olam—"
    Blessed are you, O God, King of the Universe.
    "—asher kidishanu b'mitzvotav, v'tzivanu, likbo'a mezuzah…"
    Who has sanctified us with His commandments, and commanded us to affix a Mezuzah.



    I held onto that little light.

    I held on. I prayed.

    I—

    I don't want to die.


    I don't want to die.




    I don't want to die.


    Please, God.
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    "And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field," saith the LORD of hosts. Malachi 3:11
     
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