Pattern Ghost

It's been a minute. How you doing, HeroGM?

I agree with it not becoming the norm, at least to this extent. It already is, to the extent of readily-searchable lists of jail inmates and arrest records, for example. The full charges, etc., being uploaded seems to be the extra step, and I think in this particular case that's a good thing for transparency. Condolences.

It seems to me that as others have said, they've only released information that's in the public record. This information will be gained by public record requests and posted in short order anyway by private parties, given the enormity of the event. By preemptively making the information available, they're being transparent, which is a good thing, considering that conspiracy nuts are being whipped into a frenzy here. There's also an easy way to avoid getting your asshattery posted on the internet by your government: Don't engage in asshattery. Or open sedition. Or criminal trespass leading to five deaths.

Mentor/Instructor/Old Hand: Bob the Skull, (Dresden Files) It's surprising what you can find at garage sales, if you know what garage sales to check. The Chief acquired Bob at a greatly discounted price (or one not yet paid) about a decade before the birth of Chicago's only professional Wizard. Even Niles Caulder was not foolish, nor desperate enough to pursue many of the routes to immortality the spirit of intellect offered up through the years. Those that he had pursued, had been -- no pun intended -- dead ends. (OK, that pun was intended, you can tell by the em-dashes.) What does one do once the vast knowledge of a spirit of intellect has been exhausted? Why, go to the Library. Bob, whether through jealousy or a keen sense of self-preservation, had held on to this option for last, so we now find him reluctantly guiding Niles on a route to gain access to the fabled Library of the Neitherlands.

The Antagonist/Bad Guy: Cosima Niehaus (Orphan Black) If everyone's the hero in their own story, then their opposition must be the bad guy, no matter how well-intentioned. After years of covertly experimenting on, and ruining the lives of, others, the Chief is starting to develop the barest inkling of a guilty conscience. He's doing a stint teaching college to gain access to their labs after his mansion was again destroyed, and his most brilliant student has started to get a whiff of what he's up to. Will she talk him out of his foolhardy plan to attempt to plunder the Library, or will she be tempted to go along with his plan to seek a cure for her own unique condition? Niles has been closely monitoring her due to her unique genetic condition, and to ensure that she doesn't become aware that she's a clone. He's quite confident that his hand isn't visible in that particular project, but there's no harm in multitasking, after all. (Our story begins around 2011, two years before the start of Orphan Black, and eight years before the events of Doom Patrol season 1.)

I found this mashup surprisingly pleasing to the earholes:

Or a more modern "King for a Day" (Cover) (NSFW: Language):

Sorry about the sore mouth, but at least now you're royalty. Of course, it's a temporary crown, so it's like:

Applicant: Niles Caulder, AKA The Chief (Doom Patrol TV Series, HBO Max) He has long sought immortality, at any cost. This is Niles from his Project Immortus days at the Bureau of Normalcy.

.com

Institution: Library of the Neitherlands (The Magicians TV Series, Netflix) "The Library of the Neitherlands, or simply the Library, is a multiversal archive that contains all knowledge in the multiverse. There are books about magic and books about entire lives; what has been and what will be. Travelers founded The Library and filled it with knowledge from across the universe. Librarians formed the Order of the Library of the Neitherlands, a group that guards and protects the knowledge in the Library" This is the Library before they took control of the magic of the Wellspring.

Also dumbass Walter Mitty fantasy gear. I'm very familiar with the product. I've put plenty of people in them. Civilians have no need of them, because civilians shouldn't be taking prisoners. Anyone wasting money on them for prepping instead of buying more useful gear has some weird ideas rattling around in their head.

No, that's nutjob militia gear.

Uh, just do it in the usual spot. If the insurrectionists show up, deal with them. Flamethrowers come to mind, but if you prefer a less toasty approach, you could also go with tear gas, LRAD (sonics), and water cannons.

At least one photo showed someone with flexi-cuffs. Those are far from simple zip ties. They're purpose made restraints, with one loop for each wrist, extremely heavy-duty and reinforced with wire. Not really prepper gear, unless your preparations include taking prisoners.

DT, glad your cousin is doing better and hope you are too. TKDGuy, hope your cat is OK. I get very attached to my pet critters, so I know it's a rough time. Wishing you and her the best. I've got a (probably) benign tumor that's pretty large sitting between my spine (and growing out of it) and my aorta. Not looking forward to getting it cut out. Especially disturbed by the idea of collapsing one lung to do the work, even though that's routine. Since I developed asthma in the Army, I've had a slight fear of death by asphyxiation.

Well, I think Death Tribble would be an OK president, though I would hesitate to give him the launch codes . . .

Just finished the first two seasons of both Doom Patrol and Titans. Both were good. Whoever put together the Titans trailers didn't do the show any favors.

It turns out she did die after the second announcement. She was great on That 70's Show as Midge.

It's two shots, but it would likley be 500 doses. My hospital got one shipment for the first round, and will get a second for the next.

Woot! 🥳

Thanks for the update, still pulling for you, BoneDaddy.

In that case, I hope your Boxing Day is better, Hermit!

I felt much the same about WW84. I think the movie had a pretty simple throughline, and all the broad beats of a heartfelt Wonder Woman story, including the resolution . . . but they had no real plan on how to get there. There was a lack of internal consistency that kicked in hard near the end that completely threw me out of the story. They set up expectations on how the world worked, rules for the McGuffin, and then said . . . it's magic! and just tossed out the established rules by the end. They also could have set up Diana and Barbara's friendship better, had them working more shoulder to shoulder in the investigatory scenes, etc. I also thought Steve was used poorly. Not so much the concept, but the execution could have been better. I'll give it a C-.