Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
- Joined
- Dec 1, 2016
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September 7th, 2013
21:24 UTC
"Hahehahey! That's cheating!"
I feel my eyes narrow as I glance up at the cage. I wasn't lying when I said that I don't mind them wrestling, but tickling isn't the same thing. Paul is-. Ah, he was trying distract her so that he could try-. Some.. sort of hold. His form is so bad that I can't actually tell. It's actually.. possible that he isn't trying for an actual hold and is just making it up as he goes.
I tried teaching him -briefly- but… Neither of us could really afford to spend the time to focus on it. And he's a Lantern. He wasn't wrong when he pointed out that better unarmed technique wouldn't improve his combat ability in most circumstances.
And when we did, he-. We, tended to get distracted.
…
Three years.
I originally agreed to five years because I wanted to establish myself, as he knew. But it was also because I wasn't… Sure about our relationship. Or about relationships. Would it really be better to focus on getting closer to a person who valued our relationship than making myself useful to an organisation that valued what I could do for it?
I'm not exactly sure when I went from hedging my bet to agreeing with him that I'd have preferred a shorter... Engagement. Perhaps when we went to Hell? When I shot him with the Ace of Winchesters it wasn't because I thought that he'd betrayed me. It wasn't even because I thought he might have betrayed me. I immediately knew that he wouldn't say that if he was himself.
Three years. And then what? I was worried that there wouldn't be enough work for a former Darkstar on Earth. But I'm running an investigation on Batman with my whole team. The Director made it clear that there was no need for me to rush back. It sounded like he was perfectly content for me to go back to Earth permanently.
I'm not sure how insulted I should have been. And I actually don't care.
So I could keep working for the Darkstars on detached duty, writing reports and suggesting policy changes to Earth governments in the same way I do to the governments of NEMO member planets. Or use my exo-mantle to get a better private security job than I had when I left. Or even be a superhero.
Or a mother.
Hm.
My parents were… Not good parents. There are things about what I've done that… I wouldn't do again, but leaving home isn't one of them. I'm closer to Artemis than I am to Mom. I'm probably closer to Alan and-. My grandparents, than I am Mom. It's not that I hate her. I don't doubt that she's better now, but in the time in my life when a normal girl would bond with their mother… I didn't, because she was her.
I don't think Artemis remembers that part. Or maybe the prison visits overrode it.
My computer shows another dozen notifications, and with a quick glance up at the cage I start going through them.
A load of soldiers don't just leave a bar. No officer wants to have to deal with drunk soldiers, and what they serve here is alcoholic. I've dealt with enough alien species to know that some things are almost universal. So if they were recalled to duty when they were off duty, something dangerous must have been happening, and there can't have been much notice. If the thanagarian government was planning something, these soldiers wouldn't have been here in the first place.
I don't know how my hacking suite matches up to thanagarian government security, and we're supposed to be here to talk about buying broadcasting rights. But there's more ways to find out what's happening than penetrating their military central command. Social media isn't anything like as developed here as it is on Earth, but there are still thousands of messages going back and forth between individuals every moment of the day.
Gang members, sending gang lieutenants and leaders messages about troop movements. Businesses ordering stock, or cancelling orders. Ships docking or landing and communicating with traffic control stations. And of course personal communications from the soldiers themselves letting friends and family know where they are even when they're supposedly under a communications blackout.
It's usually difficult to find anything useful when you aren't looking for one specific thing, so I've got my analytics tools looking at patterns of things that don't match the historical data logs. Ship movements that aren't part of normal patrols, patrols vanishing from some places or redoubling in others. I tried looking at their public banking records to see if the inevitable insider trading was happening, but it doesn't look like they have those.
Motherhood…
Before I met the Crock family I never really thought about it. But there's something about seeing a functional family that thinks I'm a part of it that… Makes me envious of how they relate to each other. Seeing how things are supposed to be when your parents aren't internationally wanted criminals. Helping out at the Ubu kindergarten was one of the chores newly initiated Shadows got stuck with, so I know I could handle the basics. I'm really more worried about whether Paul and I could socialise them properly.
Commodity prices aren't exactly public knowledge but it's not hard to get them from the personal computers of the people involved in the trade. There's been a steady increase in food prices, and a commensurate increase in unrest amongst the people living in the underside. Complaints from the rural governors that aliens are showing up in their territory. A few asking if they can use them to replace…
Why is there a shortage in lizarkon labor in rural areas?
I send out more enquiries, and my analytics suite gets to work again.
Bir Tawil is completely unsuitable for raising a child. I appreciate the security, and the weather, but children need other children around. Especially if they're going to be raised by us…
Ah. I've already assumed that's going to happen. Nice to know I'm not conflicted. So… Gotham? New York? Or Ripon?
I snort dismissively. Gotham's Gotham, so no. New York puts us close to Alan and Wonder Woman, and all the other Amazons coming and going through the embassy portal. And a lot of them either have young children or are thinking about having children. But I don't know them, and both Alan and Wonder Woman work full time. And Wonder Woman hasn't exactly had a normal life either.
So, Ripon. Close to my grandparents, uncle, aunt and -when they're on leave- my cousins. And some of the other, more distant relatives I saw in the photos on wall. Low crime, good local school, transport… Not great, but Paul can put a dolmen gate or a zeta tube in.
It's been a while since I've had to drive a car…
Okay, that's our best option. Getting Paul to agree shouldn't be hard-.
Lizarkon labor shortage confirmed. Lizarkons in rural areas are almost exclusively employed in agriculture. It looks like the area of cultivated land has increased, but not in a way that would create a labor shortage. There aren't any other major industries which focus on lizarkon labor in the same way, even-.
Thanagarians use lizarkon auxiliary units, not as a regular part of their military. Because when you're oppressing an entire species you don't want to teach them how to fight or arm them. But if you need to increase the size of your army quickly and can't redeploy members of your own species because they have specialist skills that make them too valuable to use as foot soldiers, it's a reasonable choice. It's also one they've occasionally used when the Thanagarian Empire has had to fight multiple opponents at once.
Thanagar actually prefers not to engage in open warfare. Instead, they engage in low intensity warfare and present an annexation treaty to the people they're antagonising once they've demonstrated the difference in strength. It prevents them having to occupy territory… When it works, while generating almost the same benefit to outright conquest.
But if they're calling up auxiliaries, they're actually planning to land soldiers somewhere. I'd have to-.
"Ah-agh!"
"Huh? What-? Oh no!"
My eyes snap up again. What have they done-?
Paul's right arm is hanging loose in its socket, and Bleez is looking very guilty.
"I'm as strong as you, but I'm not quite as tough." He reaches across with his left arm and winces as he touches his right shoulder. "Ah. Call it here?"
21:24 UTC
"Hahehahey! That's cheating!"
I feel my eyes narrow as I glance up at the cage. I wasn't lying when I said that I don't mind them wrestling, but tickling isn't the same thing. Paul is-. Ah, he was trying distract her so that he could try-. Some.. sort of hold. His form is so bad that I can't actually tell. It's actually.. possible that he isn't trying for an actual hold and is just making it up as he goes.
I tried teaching him -briefly- but… Neither of us could really afford to spend the time to focus on it. And he's a Lantern. He wasn't wrong when he pointed out that better unarmed technique wouldn't improve his combat ability in most circumstances.
And when we did, he-. We, tended to get distracted.
…
Three years.
I originally agreed to five years because I wanted to establish myself, as he knew. But it was also because I wasn't… Sure about our relationship. Or about relationships. Would it really be better to focus on getting closer to a person who valued our relationship than making myself useful to an organisation that valued what I could do for it?
I'm not exactly sure when I went from hedging my bet to agreeing with him that I'd have preferred a shorter... Engagement. Perhaps when we went to Hell? When I shot him with the Ace of Winchesters it wasn't because I thought that he'd betrayed me. It wasn't even because I thought he might have betrayed me. I immediately knew that he wouldn't say that if he was himself.
Three years. And then what? I was worried that there wouldn't be enough work for a former Darkstar on Earth. But I'm running an investigation on Batman with my whole team. The Director made it clear that there was no need for me to rush back. It sounded like he was perfectly content for me to go back to Earth permanently.
I'm not sure how insulted I should have been. And I actually don't care.
So I could keep working for the Darkstars on detached duty, writing reports and suggesting policy changes to Earth governments in the same way I do to the governments of NEMO member planets. Or use my exo-mantle to get a better private security job than I had when I left. Or even be a superhero.
Or a mother.
Hm.
My parents were… Not good parents. There are things about what I've done that… I wouldn't do again, but leaving home isn't one of them. I'm closer to Artemis than I am to Mom. I'm probably closer to Alan and-. My grandparents, than I am Mom. It's not that I hate her. I don't doubt that she's better now, but in the time in my life when a normal girl would bond with their mother… I didn't, because she was her.
I don't think Artemis remembers that part. Or maybe the prison visits overrode it.
My computer shows another dozen notifications, and with a quick glance up at the cage I start going through them.
A load of soldiers don't just leave a bar. No officer wants to have to deal with drunk soldiers, and what they serve here is alcoholic. I've dealt with enough alien species to know that some things are almost universal. So if they were recalled to duty when they were off duty, something dangerous must have been happening, and there can't have been much notice. If the thanagarian government was planning something, these soldiers wouldn't have been here in the first place.
I don't know how my hacking suite matches up to thanagarian government security, and we're supposed to be here to talk about buying broadcasting rights. But there's more ways to find out what's happening than penetrating their military central command. Social media isn't anything like as developed here as it is on Earth, but there are still thousands of messages going back and forth between individuals every moment of the day.
Gang members, sending gang lieutenants and leaders messages about troop movements. Businesses ordering stock, or cancelling orders. Ships docking or landing and communicating with traffic control stations. And of course personal communications from the soldiers themselves letting friends and family know where they are even when they're supposedly under a communications blackout.
It's usually difficult to find anything useful when you aren't looking for one specific thing, so I've got my analytics tools looking at patterns of things that don't match the historical data logs. Ship movements that aren't part of normal patrols, patrols vanishing from some places or redoubling in others. I tried looking at their public banking records to see if the inevitable insider trading was happening, but it doesn't look like they have those.
Motherhood…
Before I met the Crock family I never really thought about it. But there's something about seeing a functional family that thinks I'm a part of it that… Makes me envious of how they relate to each other. Seeing how things are supposed to be when your parents aren't internationally wanted criminals. Helping out at the Ubu kindergarten was one of the chores newly initiated Shadows got stuck with, so I know I could handle the basics. I'm really more worried about whether Paul and I could socialise them properly.
Commodity prices aren't exactly public knowledge but it's not hard to get them from the personal computers of the people involved in the trade. There's been a steady increase in food prices, and a commensurate increase in unrest amongst the people living in the underside. Complaints from the rural governors that aliens are showing up in their territory. A few asking if they can use them to replace…
Why is there a shortage in lizarkon labor in rural areas?
I send out more enquiries, and my analytics suite gets to work again.
Bir Tawil is completely unsuitable for raising a child. I appreciate the security, and the weather, but children need other children around. Especially if they're going to be raised by us…
Ah. I've already assumed that's going to happen. Nice to know I'm not conflicted. So… Gotham? New York? Or Ripon?
I snort dismissively. Gotham's Gotham, so no. New York puts us close to Alan and Wonder Woman, and all the other Amazons coming and going through the embassy portal. And a lot of them either have young children or are thinking about having children. But I don't know them, and both Alan and Wonder Woman work full time. And Wonder Woman hasn't exactly had a normal life either.
So, Ripon. Close to my grandparents, uncle, aunt and -when they're on leave- my cousins. And some of the other, more distant relatives I saw in the photos on wall. Low crime, good local school, transport… Not great, but Paul can put a dolmen gate or a zeta tube in.
It's been a while since I've had to drive a car…
Okay, that's our best option. Getting Paul to agree shouldn't be hard-.
Lizarkon labor shortage confirmed. Lizarkons in rural areas are almost exclusively employed in agriculture. It looks like the area of cultivated land has increased, but not in a way that would create a labor shortage. There aren't any other major industries which focus on lizarkon labor in the same way, even-.
Thanagarians use lizarkon auxiliary units, not as a regular part of their military. Because when you're oppressing an entire species you don't want to teach them how to fight or arm them. But if you need to increase the size of your army quickly and can't redeploy members of your own species because they have specialist skills that make them too valuable to use as foot soldiers, it's a reasonable choice. It's also one they've occasionally used when the Thanagarian Empire has had to fight multiple opponents at once.
Thanagar actually prefers not to engage in open warfare. Instead, they engage in low intensity warfare and present an annexation treaty to the people they're antagonising once they've demonstrated the difference in strength. It prevents them having to occupy territory… When it works, while generating almost the same benefit to outright conquest.
But if they're calling up auxiliaries, they're actually planning to land soldiers somewhere. I'd have to-.
"Ah-agh!"
"Huh? What-? Oh no!"
My eyes snap up again. What have they done-?
Paul's right arm is hanging loose in its socket, and Bleez is looking very guilty.
"I'm as strong as you, but I'm not quite as tough." He reaches across with his left arm and winces as he touches his right shoulder. "Ah. Call it here?"
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