Final season of Smallville Lois determines to, in her words 'try for a thaw in the cold war between Clark and his dad', and knowingly teleports herself to the Fortress of Solitude to talk to Jor'el. The Fortress of Solitude being a literal ice palace in the middle of the Arctic. Her first reaction when she arrives. "Wow, when Clark said you gave him the cold shoulder, he wasn't kidding!"
So a reformed and confused Director Henshaw asks Nikita, a prisoner turned agent of his organization why she doesn't hate him. Considering the jerk he once was to her and that he is the reason her friend Jeremiah Danvers is dead. To the second she answers thoughtfully.
"And you're right I do miss Jeremiah, but I also trust him. You must as well, if you want me here to say what he would have said. As weird as that sounds, I get it. But for the love of anything solid in this world, Hank, if Jeremiah thinks you're worth dying for, I'm pretty sure you're worth forgiving!" Hank just kind of sheepishly lowers his head.
The show Arrow is surprisingly as full of heart as it is of darkness. The heart and soul of the show comes from Oliver's relationship with Detective Quentin Lance, in both of his personas. Season 2 episode 4 of Arrow is called Crucible. This is where teh soul of the story really even begins. Quentin Lance has finally faced his prejudices about Oliver and is slowly moving past... everything. In the moment his daughter Laurel 'needs a friend right now' and Quentin asks Oliver to talk to her-be there for her. The previous episode is one of my favorites where Officer Lance puts aside his distrust of the Arrow and begins to grow into the awesome friend and ally he is for most of the rest of the series. I would suggest watching that one first just to ground and orientate yourself with the characters and where/who everyone is.
A few episodes later "I'm with Lance as Oliver and he just phoned the Arrow."
Me'gann has asked Nikita why she would defy J'onn who was not only her direct superior but a man she so clearly respects, for her.
"Because this is the second time history has repeated itself and I didn't know what else to do." Taking a breath, without looking at Me'gann, Nikita explains. "J'onn is wearing the face of his predecessor, a man I served under before him. And that is an epic misnomer. He took the identify of a man named Hank Henshaw. It is disheartening to say the least when J'onn lives up to that man's face. But slightly more importantly you are my guest and this is my home!" Nikita turns slowly to face Me'gann. "Knowing what I know about the history of your races, if he'd found you at a restaurant or something and tried to arrest you, that is to take you back to the D.E.O I wouldn't have objected, not publicly. I would have made my case to give you a fair hearing when we were at the D.E.O. Just as I did when the former prince of Daxam was thrown in a cell for a crime he literally couldn't have committed. Mon'el was believed to be guilty and the hero who arrested him assumed the worst of him just because he was from Daxam, didn't even bother to ask his name. Yeah that actually happened, and that was the first time it felt like Hank was still running things. One cannot force me not to be true to myself and J'onn would be a fool to knowingly try it. He's known me for six years and doesn't realize that, whatever else is going on, I know you well enough to know that I can trust you. And no one with a brain in thier skull insults a friend of mine IN my house. Not even my closest friends can get away with that."
"You literally took away my ability not to talk and you're surprised you can't shut me up? Yeah I know what that thing is." Taps the back of her neck where they implanted a truth-seeker. "Thing is, you don't know what I am. I said I had abilities which could only be described as magical... never said it was magic."
Elana is of a race called Enkarens, well she is a half-breed but identifies herself as one of her mother's people. She can give people images or videos in thier minds eye if she maintains the connection, like they were watching a movie or in a holodeck. She's explaining that if she were entirely of her mother's people this would be a full immersion experience, indistinguishable from reality. Where ever they would put one, one would literally believe they were there and it was real. To other races in the galaxy this ability is known as 'traumatic hypnosis'. It's an misnomer, but an understandable one." She says. Her race are such fierce and capable warriors, this is assumed to be the only way they'd use that ability: to bring enemies to their knees. Her friend suggests that might not be because of the Enkaren race at all. But because other alien races are such single-minded warriors and conquerors. They would use a gift this way, it is what makes sense to them. It is the only 'sensible' thing to do according to thier mindset. So how this ability is perceived has less to do with a misunderstanding of Enkarens and more to do with the mindset of the other races. What is this kind of reflection called? Where the description of a thing is taken more from the viewer than the picture itself? If it makes it easier to understand what I'm asking: Instead of 7 mice seeing 7 parts of a single thing and think it's something different, each of the seven mice sees the elephant, the one thing and give it seven different names?
I have written 2 stories on the premise of Superman kneeling in front of a victorious Lex Luthor. I was trying to figure out whether to call the first version of the story "Clark Defeated" or "Lex Speechless." Because Superman is technically defeated in both and Lex only becomes so completely floored in that one, I am calling that version "Lex, Speechless." But I decided not to call the other one, "Clark Defeated." For two very specific reasons. Clark had lost his memories in the other one. He didn't remember why Lex hated him so much and never actually had the chance to tell Lex his identity. So to use his human name in the title wouldn't actually fit. And that Tabula Rasa paid off. By the end Lex and Superman find they have one thing in common: they both admire Nikita. They come to an understanding. Superman even thanks Lex for the compassion that he showed. So ultimately Superman was never Defeated at all. Not in the Nikita version of the story. The primary difference between the two? Superman is calling Lex by his first name while Kara is suspended in front of him by chains made of kryptonite. Or Superman is pleading with Lex, without using any particular form of address when Nikita is suspended over, and about to be dropped into something she would Not survive being dropped into.
– Nikita is on deaths door. Elana explains what is needful to bring her back and why she can't
"It would require someone both compatible and in sync with her to pull her back from death. I'm compatible; I'm not in sync!" She looks around and takes it by a different handle. "It would require someone who has been with her for at least six years day in day out who is on the same wavelength as her. I'm on the same wave-length. But she and I are practically strangers."
Elana and Nikita are from similar empathic alien races. And they are the most open-minded and human looking aliens anyone at the D.E.O. have ever met. Which is why it made sense to everyone that Elana could easily 'sync up' with Nikita and bring her back. But despite the fact that they agree with each-other on 95% of everything, they have never actually spent any time together. And in this case, it has to be someone who is BOTH.
Now I see how much my life influences my otherwise strictly TV inspired stories.
A Moment in a story I am calling "Dreaming the Impossible."
“Are you awake?” I heard a voice say from the other side of the door minutes later.
“Yes, please come in.” I answered. A young woman in her late 20's walked in carrying a bowl and a tray. Her cinnamon-colored hair was short-cropped just below her earlobe. She weighed maybe 140. “Nibbles.” She said holding the tray up a bit. I nodded. She set the tray down on the bench and the bowl of water down at my feet.
“What are you doing?” I asked her.
“I should think that was self-evident.” She said in a voice so devoid of humor I could not believe she was poking fun at me. If anything she seemed surprised at my question. So I decided to rephrase the question. “Why are you doing this?”
“Me personally, Jean said to make you as comfortable as possible. Why are we taking any measures to make you comfortable...that is for Jean to explain.”
“Am I a prisoner here?” I insisted.
“No restraints but there is a perimeter, that is my understanding.” She replied. She tilted her head. “Please, introductions should come first. My name is Sarrin, and you?”
"Jeremiah."
My absolute favorite moment in any DEO story I've written.
Jeremiah Danvers: I swore I would stand with you J'onn, that I would not leave your side. From what I understand that was a 'til death do us part' oath of loyalty, brotherhood even."
J'onn Jo'nzz: The oath is in-valid if you are staying only out of obligation, do you not see that? We will always be brothers Jeremiah. You don't have to live under my roof for that. But if there is someone else in this world who needs you, I would never knowingly keep you from them. That's part of what brotherhood Means!
The latest except I've written in my Earth-9 story:
So Superman brings an alien friend of his, Nikita to the Fortress of Solitude to meet his Kryptonian father Jor'el. It's been established she's been on Earth at least 3 decades, long enough to have been around when Superman fist landed. And it turns out Nikita rightly thought she'd met Superman's Kryptonian father before. She was just going by a human name at the time. Noticing that Nikita and Kal'el both speak of a man named Jeremiah with affection and honor Jor'el asks her what type of man raised his son. She replies "Let me put it this way: In the 76 years I've been on this planet the only Human I ever met with as strong a moral compass and as temperate a soul as Jeremiah ...was you."
In an instant she starts coughing and having trouble standing. She's old and weak, as if old age hit her all at once. "My people live about 120 years. I'm 96 years old." She thinks aloud. "I've lived on Earth for 76 years. and before that..." Her face goes ghost white and in a deadpan voice she says. "I don't even know how old I am in Earth time. For the first 20 years of my life I lived in another solar system!"
Jor'el takes a step forward and says "My son, get her to her home NOW!
This is something else, just a one-shot type of deal I think. So a non-flash Barry Allen and a version of Supergirl, Kara Beckett meet an alien mecca of people in Arias Guatemala. They came looking for super-powered people that might be interested in joining STAR Labs, which is basically IIT tech for weirdo's. J'onn J'onzz is the leader of this self-made community of aliens of various races and tolerant humans. But he's dropping his friend Jeremiah off at the D.E.O right now so it falls to a young woman with short-cropped sandy brown hair who seems to be unable to raise her voice she is that soft-spoken, to show them around and just be thier host. As she is doing so she doesn't take her eyes off Barry. Rather her eyes keep darting toward him. She's not even sure why but something about him feels well pretty freakish. When she invites them to a quiet meal and a drink of tea she stares hard at Barry, flips out after snapping at Kara and drops her head on the dining room table. Sarrin is an Atraxi female. A race that view Kryptonians as thier superiors. So snapping at Supergirl about something and then realizing who she's talking to; a member of the noble house of El, she freaks out. Because to her mind she screwed up. When she sits up a minute later the first words out of her mouth are "Kara what are you doing here? More to the point...where is here?"
The reason Barry feels so freakish to Sarrin isn't because he's a speedster...which he is. It's because she first met J'onn Jo'nzz more than 2 decades ago. Henry was wounded. He and J'onn needed a place to stay for the night. She invited them in and J'onn stuck his foot in his mouth in a MAJOR way. So when she needed a place to call home years later, J'onn had well, the opposite of reservations about letting her stay at Arias. She doesn't understand why but Barry is reminding her of that visit. Of Henry and J'onn changing her life. Henry being Henry Allen, Barry's father.
After effusively defending the alien menace she's harboring, Sasha Jordan Scott turns to 'Joe'
“That wasn't posturing you know, I was serious. I trust you a lot more than I trust him. He is breaking our laws coming into a private residence without permission, searching the place without prob--a reason to think something illegal is going on. Also I know enough about you to trust you. You are both a guest in my house and my responsibility. I will do everything in my power to keep you safe. No one with a brain in their skull insults a friend of mine in my house."
At the end of a personal conversation about the earliest memories of her life, Sasha starts acting out motions to a play, singing 'Good King Wenceslas', facing North when her friend is standing East. It's something Merlin has never seen in her before. He didn't know she had such a wellspring of knowledge, of memory. It wasn't drama, it wasn't art or theater. It was a hidden memory not a hidden talent and he got that. She smiles at him, warmly, appreciatively, even though he literally said nothing and made no outward sign. She explains her smile and her song by that statement. What happens next in the conversation?
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