November 5, 2017
Welcome to November! We're almost finished with 2017 and I'm honestly looking forward to a new year. It's been a rough ten months so far.
Excellent television viewing this week. The Flash had a great episode. It's always fun to see Cisco on the hot seat. Really enjoyed his storyline. Also interested in seeing where things go with Joe and becoming a father again.
Legends of Tomorrow didn't have a terrible episode. The homage to ET maybe went a little overboard but still fun.
Riverdale was sort of on the fence for me… until I got a wild hair theory about who the black hood is and now I have to stay tuned to see if I'm right. I'm honestly fairly disappointed with the addition of Hiram to the fold. He made a better villain working from the shadows.
Arrow continues to amaze me. I love the way roles continue to be mixed up and everything is fluid. That keeps me glued to the screen.
Got caught up on Gotham and watched this week's episode. I won't be disappointed to see the end of Professor Pyg but at least the plot is moving forward and I'm down with that.
Having fun watching holiday movies on the Hallmark channels. There's usually something on one of them that catches my interest.
And that's it for television this week. Tonight's post is from Xtreme Justice, a novella that started with a writing community prompt to create characters with metahuman abilities.
Here's the mini-blurb:
The double X gene found in junk DNA makes life very interesting for a group of humans. Nyx Boit reshapes matter with her force of will. Cythe Baldetto literally has blades of steel at his fingertips. When Cythe is sent to recruit Nyx, she wants no part of his offer. To make her point, she converts his arrows, darts, and knives into liquid pools at his feet. Finally meeting his match, Cythe figures recruiting Nyx is out, but wooing her is most definitely in.
And a preview snippet…
Cythe Baldetto waited for the lights to lower in the viewing room. "Bring on the crazy." According to his former flame and current boss, he'd be impressed with Nyx Biot's ability.
Stanja Davidich wanted Cythe to become a recruiter. Not something he had much of an interest in. But knowing who else had double "x" abilities helped keep him alive.
The screen went from dark to bursting with action. Apparently Nyx had the ability to alter matter and she wielded her power with passion. Bending metal into cage traps, bringing down light fixtures to act as nets. She'd taken out three people in the first five minutes.
Cythe narrowed his eyes. "Where is this? How did you get the footage?" The building looked too familiar.
Stanja sent him a sideways glance. "Okay, I'll admit we set up a scenario to see what Nyx can do."
Cythe growled. "Which you know pisses me off." He hated the stupid games UNIT played.
A big part of the reason he and Stanja no longer had a relationship.
He let the topic go for the moment. Nyx had raw but amazing moves. She shifted a huge expanse of floor into a liquid pool. Then she changed the shimmering mass into a boiling vat of seething danger. With some training, she could probably do even more impressive stunts.
Stanja read his mood. "She's good. Look at how she almost predicts what her best move will be." Her voice held admiration.
Cythe grunted a noncommittal response. Stanja didn't have things wrong, but she didn't see the way Nyx ducked and ran for cover, moving behind a metal partition for several minutes while the team tried to get around the huge obstacle she'd laid out. Cythe's gut said Nyx had limitations and he'd bet anything the more showy or intense the matter shift, the greater toll it took on her. For now, he'd keep that piece of information to himself.
The final five UNIT members skirted the bubbling mass on the floor and engaged Nyx again. She waited until they got close to a stack of metal beams then altered the bars into flexible restraints and wrapped them around the group. The drone camera zeroed in on Nyx when she shimmied out of the building and headed toward the docks.
The lights came up and the screen went blank.
Stanja shifted her position to face Cythe. "We lost her once she got to the shipping yard, but we're pretty sure she's holed in one of the empty containers." She shuddered.
Cythe barely bit back a smirk. Stanja liked living the cushy life the UNIT afforded her. So what if she sold half her soul to do it. Cythe signed on with them because they were the lesser of two evils. UNIT didn't try to exploit his ability for profit or personal gain, but he didn't consider himself stupid—they had a measure of control over him. No doubt they wanted to same with Nyx. Someone with her power could be an extreme threat—
Cythe straightened. "What do you want with her?" He cut right to the meat of the matter.
Stanja snorted. "Nothing sinister, Cythe. She's a powerful metahuman. Wouldn’t it be better to have her on our side?" She gave him the standard bullshit curve of her lips.
Cythe lifted a shoulder. "It might. What do you want me to do?"
Stanja flashed a genuine smile. "We want you to recruit her. Bring her into the fold."
Pretty much what he thought. "Why me?" The one piece of the puzzle he didn't have figured.
Stanja held his gaze a moment before answering. "Because you came from the outside. You know what's at stake and why she'd be an asset." She shrugged. "And you know I've been wanting you to bring in new members."
Reluctant, Cythe needed some assurances. "Why, exactly, do you want her?" Even with their past, or maybe because of it, he wanted specifics.
Stanja's eyes went wide. "Did you not just watch the same footage I did?"
Well, yeah, he did. Didn't mean he automatically thought they'd welcome Nyx with sunshine and rainbows. Which prompted his next question.
"What happens if I can't talk her into joining UNIT?"
Stanja glanced away. "We'd rather not consider that option." Her voice dropped to low tones.
Cythe nodded. Pretty much what he'd expected. Nothing sinister or nefarious… unless Nyx didn't want to play ball.
Then all bets were off.
Cythe got up and waited until Stanja met his gaze. "If you want this to happen, I do it my way, meaning UNIT doesn't get involved." At least not until he gave the go ahead.
Stanja opened her mouth to argue but thought better of it. "Fine. We'll give you latitude to work…" She didn't have to add it would only be up to a certain point.
So be it. He didn't plan on failing. If Stanja wanted him to step up and start recruiting for UNIT, she could stay the hell out of his way.
So far, this one is giving me all kinds of ideas. I'm excited to see where Cythe and Nyx go.
That's it for this week.
Cheers!
Skye
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