Tag: ORACLE (Page 1 of 3)

CHAPTER 39

…there came from the brazen lungs of the clock a sound which was clear and loud and deep and exceedingly musical, but of so peculiar a note and emphasis that, at each lapse of an hour, the musicians of the note orchestra were constrained to pause, momentarily, in their performance, to harken to the sound and thus the waltzers perforce ceased their evolutions; and there was a brief disconcert of the whole gay company; and, while the chimes of the clock yet rang, it was observed that the giddiest grew pale…

Edgar allan poe • the masque of the red death

Masquerade

“Mister Saturn will be making ‘appearances’ in areas of the city that will be very visible this weekend,” said Alfred Pennyworth, pouring a cup of coffee and handing it to Bruce Wayne. “As for you, Mister Bruce, you’ll need to be making high profile appearances of your own. Establish and re-establish the alibi.” 

The air in the cave was cooler than outside, but equally damp. April’s rain was relentless and unpredictable. 

“Gelio’s not going to stop. If he hasn’t figured it out, Gordon has. And that doesn’t even account for Saturn setting the bar a lot higher than we can maintain,” Bruce said. The coffee was overextracted and bitter, and he took another sip.

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CHAPTER 30

“The truth is you can be orphaned again and again and again.

The truth is you will be.

And the secret is, this will hurt less and less each time until you can’t feel a thing.”

Tender branson, survivor

This Must Be The Place


Greathorn Diner, Ashburton 5:58 a.m.

“You two can follow me in if you don’t mind sittin’ in the dark for a minute, hon,” the waitress said, her breath hanging in clouds in the November morning air.

Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth did just that, removing their hats and coats in such synchronicity that George Gershwin would’ve had half a mind to consult the duo for choreography.

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CHAPTER 28

I would say ‘it’s nice to meet you,’ but I don’t believe in time as a concept, so I’ll just say ‘we always met.'”

Darius epps • Atlanta

Funeral For A Friend

Alfred Pennyworth cleared his throat.

“When I was 22 years old, my life changed forever, and it hasn’t stopped changing since. If you had asked me on that day if I was ready to be a father to a teenager who had just lost his mother and father, I would’ve said ‘Hell no!’ and that would’ve been that.”

Behind Alfred, Bruce Wayne cracked a smile. Alfred knew this because nervous lips throughout the gathered mourners began to twitch into cautious smiles.

It was a brisk, but clear Sunday in November, and Alfred pressed on with glassy eyes.

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CHAPTER 27

CONTENT WARNING

graphic violence • gun violence • violent death

“The wretches will suffer punishment and will shortly meet the end which they deserve

Nero Claudius Caesar

Oedipus In Exile

It was unseasonably warm for November, and thunder crashed in the night sky of Gotham City.

Votes were cast amid gunfire and the violent competition for territory by a fractured mob family.

Mayor Basil Karlo was re-elected in a curious (but only if you had the luxury of thinking about it for more than five minutes) landslide.

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ORIGIN STORIES: THE FLYING GRAYSONS

The Very Edge of Sherwood Forest, Nottingham, England 1322 

(Oak Point Park, Midway City, Michigan, 1922)

The Sheriff of Nottingham was right behind him.

“I’m right behind you, scoundrel!”

And he would stop at nothing to make his arrest.

“I’ll stop at nothing to make my arrest, you fiendish outlaw!”

 And so it was that the outlaw was running for his life. 

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CHAPTER 26

CONTENT WARNING

graphic violence • gun violence • violent death

“Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.”

Mao Zedong • August 7, 1927

The sun was setting in Gotham City, casting the college campus in vibrant magenta, violet, and tangerine light that glittered off the calm waters of the Gotham Harbor.

There was something of an amphitheater set up here. There was hardly any slope to the hill, with just enough to make it easier to get a view of the stage, which had a concentric semicircular shell to provide for better projection of the performers. The area was located to the left of a standing placard that read: 

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CHAPTER 25

CONTENT WARNING:
graphic violence against the mentally ill • violent death

“Sometimes you make up your mind about something without knowing why, and your decision persists by the power of inertia. Every year it gets harder to change.

Milan KundeRA • THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING

Inertia

TOP COP GELIO: “BATMAN IN CUSTODY”

By Lois Lane

Nov. 1 – (GOTHAM) Commissioner Yiannis “Johnny” Gelio, the top cop at Gotham City’s Police Department, claims to have the so-called “superhuman” vigilante and alleged child-killer known as The Batman in custody, according to an exclusive interview granted to this reporter.

“Today, Gotham City becomes the first city in the world to have peacefully apprehended a superhuman,” Gelio said. “The costumed criminal has terrorized our citizens long enough. We have the Batman in custody.” 

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CHAPTER 24

CONTENT WARNING:
gun violence • death • police violence

“Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.”

Kurt Vonnegut • Slaughterhouse Five

Parallels

Sitting in the Commissioner’s office, hued a high blue-green by the fluorescent lighting, Aurelio Liberatore considered the work he was doing. Aurelio wore a badge and had access to every police building in Gotham, but he wasn’t truly an officer of the Gotham Police Department.

The job paid well, and he got to keep himself in fighting shape. But the title of officer wasn’t extended to contract workers. Contractors – like Aurelio –  were placed with the department through a company called “Henshaw Allied,” a multifarious organization with a speciality in “private security services.”

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CHAPTER 23

“Hades, all the fine suits in the world won’t change the fact that you stink of death.”

Rachel Smythe • Lore Olympus

Loose Ends

Gotham Police Commissioner Yiannis “Johnny” Gelio was spinning an ever-more-precarious number of competing plates.

There was his new position on the Board of Estimates. Three hundred Henchmen (Johnny hatedthe nickname, but it refused to come unstuck around the department) furnished by Henshaw Allied, which was in no uncertain terms, a shell corporation for Carmine “The Roman” Falcone. And those henchmen needed to be groomed into loyalty to him, to the work of Justice. The work of preserving the enlightened Man against the brute force of Gods. 

Carmine Falcone represented the Old Way. Something unencumbered by the modern understandings of quote-unquote legitimate business, and Johnny was providing a modern take on police work with a mind on the future, corporatist organizing that was doing so well in Falcone’s homeland.

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