Poem: "The Most Misunderstood People"
Apr. 13th, 2016 01:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis poem came out of the April 5, 2016 Poetry Fishbowl. It was inspired by prompts from siliconshaman, alexseanchai, and LJ user Ng_moonmoth. It also fills "The Mentor" square in my 4-1-16 card for the Archetypal Characters Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Ng_moonmoth. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics.
"The Most Misunderstood People"
Kraken is among the oldest
of the supervillain organizations;
indeed, it predates the awareness
of supervillains as such.
They don't have an evil agenda,
although plenty of people think
that their agenda -- to control
the surface from the abyss --
is evil all the same.
But look at what happens
when ordinary folk are left
to rule themselves at whim.
This is a thing that Captain Left
comprehends, even though he himself
is not very comfortable in crowds and
prefers to lead from the fringes.
Supervillains are among
the most misunderstood people,
fighting for survival in a world that
often wants to snuff them out.
So Kraken seeks to change the world
not from above but from below,
a slow sea-change that goes
unnoticed until it is too late
for anyone to fight effectively.
They are the power beneath the throne.
They are not diabolical,
but they are at times ruthless,
and they will do things in pursuit of
saving the world that superheroes will not.
Well, somebody has to.
Kraken is also invested in
keeping a lid on the amount of
mayhem happening in the underworld.
After all, you can't fish
in a dead river.
These are things that Captain Left
spends a lot of time teaching
to the new recruits.
Ideally, Kraken attempts
to find the disaffected before
they become the diabolical,
reaching out to troubled youth
and inviting them on board.
It is a challenging angle but
it yields good results; better
to seek those who don't fit in
than to pry loose those who do.
Kraken knows the subtlest of truths:
the most misunderstood people are
in the best position to understand each other.
The places where they congregate are
good fishing for a supervillain organization
interested in attracting new minions.
Despite his age, Captain Left likes
to think of himself as a digital native
because he has always felt more at home
in cyberspace than in meatspace, even if it
took a while for the technology to catch up
to what he knew it could become.
This is why he has thrown his support
and no small amount of funding behind
BlackSheep, a chat venue frequented by
supervillains, minions, and disillusioned youth.
It is why he has facilitated the development
of the Triton Teen Centers, a chain of
recreational and educational facilities.
Like chumming the waters for fish,
it is easier to find who you seek
if you give them a reason to gather.
Teenagers are among
the most misunderstood people,
treated like children but
expected to act like adults.
Captain Left remembers this
from the bitter frustration
of his own youth.
It makes him wonder
what would happen if
someone reversed
that paradigm, granting
teens the opportunity
to explore mature choices
in a protected place.
So this is his inspiration
for creating such spaces
and his persona as Capricorn
to keep watch over them.
He has plenty of help, of course --
other geeks like World Worker
keep an eye on BlackSheep,
and partygoers like Kaleidosculptor
nudge the vulnerable toward
the Triton Teen Centers.
It is quiet, careful work.
It takes time to set up
the venues and then
to establish them
in people's minds.
It takes trust, built up
through the wee hours
of listening to people whom
nobody else will listen to; and
sometimes, it takes a word in
the right ear to make sure that
some abuser feeds the fishes.
There is no fame, but
the last thing Capricorn
wants is that kind of attention.
It's better if the populace never realizes
how much Kraken controls or accomplishes.
There are no victory parades, but
Kraken knows from its wartime roots
how hollow those are anyhow.
Such things are for superheroes,
who have the luxury of living in the light.
Capricorn's domain is the darkness
where the scapegoats crawl away
to lick their wounds in safety.
So he's there when World Worker
warns him of a flame war that's
threatening to hit the bricks.
Capricorn waters down the fight
to keep it from flaring out of control.
He's there when Kaleidosculptor
tells him that some perv is staking out
a Triton center in the Heights.
Capricorn arranges a quiet demise
for the man before finding his first victim
who led him to the place and then
whisking her to a safehouse.
He is one of the most misunderstood people,
and that is exactly what makes him so good at
being the bad guy when it is what's needed.
He is Captain Left to Kraken,
half the voice of an undersea regime
that spans the whole planet.
He is Capricorn to the kids
growing up in a rough world
that can be particularly cruel
to people with superpowers.
He is a mentor, and that makes him mighty.
He knows that the best way
to predict the future is to create it.
* * *
Notes:
Captain Left (Marko Agüero) -- He has tinted skin and brown eyes. His hair was blond but is now mostly white and receding. His body is still trim and fit. Marko speaks Argentinian Spanish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, German, Hindi, and Italian. He enjoys Kraken's exercise facilities even though he's not much of a fighter or an athlete.
Marko often finds face-to-face interaction confusing and stressful, but he does great with online interactions. He keeps an eye on BlackSheep for young soups in trouble and follows world politics through the nets. He takes an especially dim view of mad scientists, but he likes ethical zeteticists just fine. His personal assistant is a cyborg Super-Gizmologist.
Origin: Marko came out of a secret lab. Genetic engineering gave him Super-Intellect from birth. Further modifications from neurosurgery and super-gizmology made him a Telepath and Technopath. Much of his scalp is netted with tiny scars, and thicker ones trail down his spine.
Uniform: Sometimes Marko wears plain men's street clothes to blend in with local populations. On duty as a Kraken executive, he wears standard business attire. On field duty, he wears a Kraken uniform of dexflan and capery; the jumpsuit is sensibly designed with sleek fit, plenty of pockets and fasteners for equipment. It provides Expert (+4) Camouflage to a designated user, but if worn by anyone else, turns garish neon colors. The utility belt contains a multitude of small gizmos and other tools. When appearing in his titular role, he wears his uniform of state, which is inspired by United States and German naval flag-rank officers' uniforms of the World War I era. The plain dark uniform is largely American, the heavy overcoat and elaborate hat German. Kraken members love The Hat: it makes them feel part of something shiny and important.
Qualities: Master (+6) Kraken Captain, Expert (+4) Stealth, Expert (+4) Friends in Cyberspace, Good (+2) Computer Games, Good (+2) Dexterity, Good (+2) Strategy
Poor (-2) Reading Emotion
Powers: Good (+2) Super-Intellect, Good (+2) Technopath, Good (+2) Telepathy
Limitation: His telepathy comes from super-gizmology, so it lacks the hint of emotion that often comes with organic telepathy even for someone not counted as a telempath. It's the equivalent of talking on a telephone. Because Marko was raised in artificial conditions, he didn't get a lot of human contact early on, and he's used to thinking of people as flat mechanical voices. Combined, these factors make it hard for him to identify other people's emotions.
Motivation: To spark connections.
Kraken ship captains, base captains, and other commanding officers wear a round white hat like this. It marks the top of the local chain of command. Most Kraken officers wear a round black hat like this. If the senior officer usually in charge of a location is wearing a black hat, that means Captain Left and/or Captain Right is onsite. Only Captain Left and Captain Right (or more typically, their stunt doubles) wear these magnificent gold-crested hats.
(Character by ng_moonmoth )
Kaleidosculptor (“Candy House”) -- She describes herself as "mongrel Asian;" her parents' families emigrated from Singapore to Rain City. She is in her mid-30s, 165 centimeters tall and 58 kilograms. She has short hair, invariably dyed in one or more neon color(s); the dye job changes every month or so.
Kaleidosculptor is a laser light show artist who creates and performs shows at raves and festivals in and around Westbord. A techno/dance/house music lover and electronics geek, she defected to rave culture after being hassled out of her high school's science and computer clubs for having "girl cooties" by male students she describes as "horny little boys with their heads stuck up their ******* asses." She was intrigued enough by the equipment being used for shows that she started hanging out with, and learning from, the folks who were running them. Eventually she started getting some gigs herself, and got better quickly. She became successful and in demand enough to start touring. Currently she travels the rave and festival circuit in an aging Class C RV, similar to this Fleetwood Searcher, packed with lighting equipment and some custom gizmoelectronics. Kaleidosculptor hasn't ever used her deadname on the rave circuit; she's only known by her handle.
She uses her superpower to create custom light show equipment, and disable surveillance cameras monitoring impromptu rave locations. She also picks up additional money and gizmotronics as a specialist and rave community talent scout/observer for Kraken. When she's not traveling or working a hush job for Kraken, she parks with friends wherever she is, or goes up to Rain City for a while to hang out with friends she met there while growing up. Kaleidosculptor also participates in art MOOCs when she has the chance, and is trying to make some contacts in the art department at the University of Washington so she can get some studio access and make some progress toward an art degree. She feels like she's ageing out of the rave circuit, and is working on establishing her next career.
Origin: She was running the light show board at a Rain City rave (roughly 2000) when someone who was near the board took a hit of what they expected to be Ecstacy, but was actually a zetetic gas. The gas concentration was high enough that the original user died when struck by a laser beam. Nearby ravers had not received enough gas to be affected, but the cloud of exhaled gas was the right concentration to cause Kaleidosculptor's powers to manifest. She can now alter the refractive index of any transparent substance, and can use Microscopic Vision to observe the effects. She's working on improving the precision with which she can use her power; right now, the edges of the affected regions are often fuzzy, and improvement is difficult.
Kaleidosculptor was recruited into Kraken a couple of years later, when she foxed a surveillance camera in a closed factory that Kraken was using to monitor a safety hideout they had set up there. An impromptu intake interview led to a couple of trial jobs; success at those jobs, and demonstrating discretion and secrecy, resulted in an invitation to become a Kraken "associate."
Uniform: Colorful tank top, clashing neon board shorts, Doc Martens.
Qualities: Expert [+4] Light Show Artist, Good [+2] 3D modeling (includes sculpture and computer), Good [+2] Electronics, Good [+2] Raver Culture, Poor [-2] Interrogate Authority.
Powers: Good [+2] Alter Materials Properties, Good [+2] Microscopic Vision.
Limitation: Alter Materials Properties only works on non-opaque materials, and can only change index of refraction.
Motivation: Succeed outside the mundane world.
* * *
"Teenagers: The most misunderstood people on earth. Treated like children and expected to act like adults."
-- Unknown
Supervillain organizations come in many flavors. In this case, however, many of the minions are actually punchclock villains. They joined Kraken for reasons similar to those for joining an ordinary gang, in particular because Kraken has a terrific benefits package. Another interesting quirk is that, unlike most supervillain organizations, Kraken is not led by a single charismatic leader. They have two. The whole structure is bifocal and always has been.
Supervillains are famous for having a vision or evil plan. This is where it gets murky. Kraken wants to rule the world, a traditional supervillain goal, but their reason is to keep ordinary idiots from wrecking it, and their style is benevolent despotism. Unlike the poor blokes in the IRA, Kraken actually has contingency plans for what to do when they gain enough power, along with pretty much every other imaginable scenario. In both entertainment and regular life, bad guys often don't think of themselves as evil. How other people feel about this varies.
Captain Left is a classic introvert, and introverts think differently than extroverts. He prefers interacting online to interacting in person, and as Capricorn he's a lot more outgoing. Introverts make great mentors and leaders, especially for proactive followers. Introverts and extroverts have different needs, too, so understand how to take care of introverts.
Being understood is a fundamental human need. Feeling misunderstood is a common and miserable experience. Mixed signals and other problems can cause misunderstandings. Know how to cope with feeling misunderstood and how to make other people feel understood.
Disaffected youth are cut off from society in various ways. When adolescents don't get their needs met, they often get into trouble. Harsh treatment rarely helps, and often makes matters worse. Kraken prefers recruiting disaffected people, and their preferred age range is teens and twenties. Understand how to reach out to troubled teens in your area. Here is a guide to group discussions between adults and teens.
The grooming process involves a common set of techniques used by a wide range of human predators, including sexual abusers and cults. They often choose victims carefully. However, notice the overlap with building trust through stages. Many of the actions are the same, such as approaching slowly, starting small, showing kindness, and deepening intimacy. What differs is the followthrough. Trust consists of multiple elements including benevolence (intending good), integrity (being honest), competence (ability to help), and predictability (keeping promises). While Kraken does get people involved in crime, most of them were already into it; and the organization does an excellent job of meeting member needs such as companionship, employment, and health care. It may be on the black side of the cape, but it's a fair deal.
Sometimes, the supervillains have a point. They do needful things that superheroes can't or won't do, and occasionally even rescue the good guys. In this as in all things, diversity has its uses.
Mentoring has many benefits. Understand the qualities needed to be a good mentor. Know how to find a mentor and make the most of one.
The best way to predict the future is to take steps to create it. There are ways to build your personal future and influence the future of the world.
siliconshaman, alexseanchai, and LJ user Ng_moonmoth. It also fills "The Mentor" square in my 4-1-16 card for the Archetypal Characters Bingo fest. This poem has been sponsored by Ng_moonmoth. It belongs to the series Polychrome Heroics."The Most Misunderstood People"
Kraken is among the oldest
of the supervillain organizations;
indeed, it predates the awareness
of supervillains as such.
They don't have an evil agenda,
although plenty of people think
that their agenda -- to control
the surface from the abyss --
is evil all the same.
But look at what happens
when ordinary folk are left
to rule themselves at whim.
This is a thing that Captain Left
comprehends, even though he himself
is not very comfortable in crowds and
prefers to lead from the fringes.
Supervillains are among
the most misunderstood people,
fighting for survival in a world that
often wants to snuff them out.
So Kraken seeks to change the world
not from above but from below,
a slow sea-change that goes
unnoticed until it is too late
for anyone to fight effectively.
They are the power beneath the throne.
They are not diabolical,
but they are at times ruthless,
and they will do things in pursuit of
saving the world that superheroes will not.
Well, somebody has to.
Kraken is also invested in
keeping a lid on the amount of
mayhem happening in the underworld.
After all, you can't fish
in a dead river.
These are things that Captain Left
spends a lot of time teaching
to the new recruits.
Ideally, Kraken attempts
to find the disaffected before
they become the diabolical,
reaching out to troubled youth
and inviting them on board.
It is a challenging angle but
it yields good results; better
to seek those who don't fit in
than to pry loose those who do.
Kraken knows the subtlest of truths:
the most misunderstood people are
in the best position to understand each other.
The places where they congregate are
good fishing for a supervillain organization
interested in attracting new minions.
Despite his age, Captain Left likes
to think of himself as a digital native
because he has always felt more at home
in cyberspace than in meatspace, even if it
took a while for the technology to catch up
to what he knew it could become.
This is why he has thrown his support
and no small amount of funding behind
BlackSheep, a chat venue frequented by
supervillains, minions, and disillusioned youth.
It is why he has facilitated the development
of the Triton Teen Centers, a chain of
recreational and educational facilities.
Like chumming the waters for fish,
it is easier to find who you seek
if you give them a reason to gather.
Teenagers are among
the most misunderstood people,
treated like children but
expected to act like adults.
Captain Left remembers this
from the bitter frustration
of his own youth.
It makes him wonder
what would happen if
someone reversed
that paradigm, granting
teens the opportunity
to explore mature choices
in a protected place.
So this is his inspiration
for creating such spaces
and his persona as Capricorn
to keep watch over them.
He has plenty of help, of course --
other geeks like World Worker
keep an eye on BlackSheep,
and partygoers like Kaleidosculptor
nudge the vulnerable toward
the Triton Teen Centers.
It is quiet, careful work.
It takes time to set up
the venues and then
to establish them
in people's minds.
It takes trust, built up
through the wee hours
of listening to people whom
nobody else will listen to; and
sometimes, it takes a word in
the right ear to make sure that
some abuser feeds the fishes.
There is no fame, but
the last thing Capricorn
wants is that kind of attention.
It's better if the populace never realizes
how much Kraken controls or accomplishes.
There are no victory parades, but
Kraken knows from its wartime roots
how hollow those are anyhow.
Such things are for superheroes,
who have the luxury of living in the light.
Capricorn's domain is the darkness
where the scapegoats crawl away
to lick their wounds in safety.
So he's there when World Worker
warns him of a flame war that's
threatening to hit the bricks.
Capricorn waters down the fight
to keep it from flaring out of control.
He's there when Kaleidosculptor
tells him that some perv is staking out
a Triton center in the Heights.
Capricorn arranges a quiet demise
for the man before finding his first victim
who led him to the place and then
whisking her to a safehouse.
He is one of the most misunderstood people,
and that is exactly what makes him so good at
being the bad guy when it is what's needed.
He is Captain Left to Kraken,
half the voice of an undersea regime
that spans the whole planet.
He is Capricorn to the kids
growing up in a rough world
that can be particularly cruel
to people with superpowers.
He is a mentor, and that makes him mighty.
He knows that the best way
to predict the future is to create it.
* * *
Notes:
Captain Left (Marko Agüero) -- He has tinted skin and brown eyes. His hair was blond but is now mostly white and receding. His body is still trim and fit. Marko speaks Argentinian Spanish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, German, Hindi, and Italian. He enjoys Kraken's exercise facilities even though he's not much of a fighter or an athlete.
Marko often finds face-to-face interaction confusing and stressful, but he does great with online interactions. He keeps an eye on BlackSheep for young soups in trouble and follows world politics through the nets. He takes an especially dim view of mad scientists, but he likes ethical zeteticists just fine. His personal assistant is a cyborg Super-Gizmologist.
Origin: Marko came out of a secret lab. Genetic engineering gave him Super-Intellect from birth. Further modifications from neurosurgery and super-gizmology made him a Telepath and Technopath. Much of his scalp is netted with tiny scars, and thicker ones trail down his spine.
Uniform: Sometimes Marko wears plain men's street clothes to blend in with local populations. On duty as a Kraken executive, he wears standard business attire. On field duty, he wears a Kraken uniform of dexflan and capery; the jumpsuit is sensibly designed with sleek fit, plenty of pockets and fasteners for equipment. It provides Expert (+4) Camouflage to a designated user, but if worn by anyone else, turns garish neon colors. The utility belt contains a multitude of small gizmos and other tools. When appearing in his titular role, he wears his uniform of state, which is inspired by United States and German naval flag-rank officers' uniforms of the World War I era. The plain dark uniform is largely American, the heavy overcoat and elaborate hat German. Kraken members love The Hat: it makes them feel part of something shiny and important.
Qualities: Master (+6) Kraken Captain, Expert (+4) Stealth, Expert (+4) Friends in Cyberspace, Good (+2) Computer Games, Good (+2) Dexterity, Good (+2) Strategy
Poor (-2) Reading Emotion
Powers: Good (+2) Super-Intellect, Good (+2) Technopath, Good (+2) Telepathy
Limitation: His telepathy comes from super-gizmology, so it lacks the hint of emotion that often comes with organic telepathy even for someone not counted as a telempath. It's the equivalent of talking on a telephone. Because Marko was raised in artificial conditions, he didn't get a lot of human contact early on, and he's used to thinking of people as flat mechanical voices. Combined, these factors make it hard for him to identify other people's emotions.
Motivation: To spark connections.
Kraken ship captains, base captains, and other commanding officers wear a round white hat like this. It marks the top of the local chain of command. Most Kraken officers wear a round black hat like this. If the senior officer usually in charge of a location is wearing a black hat, that means Captain Left and/or Captain Right is onsite. Only Captain Left and Captain Right (or more typically, their stunt doubles) wear these magnificent gold-crested hats.
(Character by ng_moonmoth )
Kaleidosculptor (“Candy House”) -- She describes herself as "mongrel Asian;" her parents' families emigrated from Singapore to Rain City. She is in her mid-30s, 165 centimeters tall and 58 kilograms. She has short hair, invariably dyed in one or more neon color(s); the dye job changes every month or so.
Kaleidosculptor is a laser light show artist who creates and performs shows at raves and festivals in and around Westbord. A techno/dance/house music lover and electronics geek, she defected to rave culture after being hassled out of her high school's science and computer clubs for having "girl cooties" by male students she describes as "horny little boys with their heads stuck up their ******* asses." She was intrigued enough by the equipment being used for shows that she started hanging out with, and learning from, the folks who were running them. Eventually she started getting some gigs herself, and got better quickly. She became successful and in demand enough to start touring. Currently she travels the rave and festival circuit in an aging Class C RV, similar to this Fleetwood Searcher, packed with lighting equipment and some custom gizmoelectronics. Kaleidosculptor hasn't ever used her deadname on the rave circuit; she's only known by her handle.
She uses her superpower to create custom light show equipment, and disable surveillance cameras monitoring impromptu rave locations. She also picks up additional money and gizmotronics as a specialist and rave community talent scout/observer for Kraken. When she's not traveling or working a hush job for Kraken, she parks with friends wherever she is, or goes up to Rain City for a while to hang out with friends she met there while growing up. Kaleidosculptor also participates in art MOOCs when she has the chance, and is trying to make some contacts in the art department at the University of Washington so she can get some studio access and make some progress toward an art degree. She feels like she's ageing out of the rave circuit, and is working on establishing her next career.
Origin: She was running the light show board at a Rain City rave (roughly 2000) when someone who was near the board took a hit of what they expected to be Ecstacy, but was actually a zetetic gas. The gas concentration was high enough that the original user died when struck by a laser beam. Nearby ravers had not received enough gas to be affected, but the cloud of exhaled gas was the right concentration to cause Kaleidosculptor's powers to manifest. She can now alter the refractive index of any transparent substance, and can use Microscopic Vision to observe the effects. She's working on improving the precision with which she can use her power; right now, the edges of the affected regions are often fuzzy, and improvement is difficult.
Kaleidosculptor was recruited into Kraken a couple of years later, when she foxed a surveillance camera in a closed factory that Kraken was using to monitor a safety hideout they had set up there. An impromptu intake interview led to a couple of trial jobs; success at those jobs, and demonstrating discretion and secrecy, resulted in an invitation to become a Kraken "associate."
Uniform: Colorful tank top, clashing neon board shorts, Doc Martens.
Qualities: Expert [+4] Light Show Artist, Good [+2] 3D modeling (includes sculpture and computer), Good [+2] Electronics, Good [+2] Raver Culture, Poor [-2] Interrogate Authority.
Powers: Good [+2] Alter Materials Properties, Good [+2] Microscopic Vision.
Limitation: Alter Materials Properties only works on non-opaque materials, and can only change index of refraction.
Motivation: Succeed outside the mundane world.
* * *
"Teenagers: The most misunderstood people on earth. Treated like children and expected to act like adults."
-- Unknown
Supervillain organizations come in many flavors. In this case, however, many of the minions are actually punchclock villains. They joined Kraken for reasons similar to those for joining an ordinary gang, in particular because Kraken has a terrific benefits package. Another interesting quirk is that, unlike most supervillain organizations, Kraken is not led by a single charismatic leader. They have two. The whole structure is bifocal and always has been.
Supervillains are famous for having a vision or evil plan. This is where it gets murky. Kraken wants to rule the world, a traditional supervillain goal, but their reason is to keep ordinary idiots from wrecking it, and their style is benevolent despotism. Unlike the poor blokes in the IRA, Kraken actually has contingency plans for what to do when they gain enough power, along with pretty much every other imaginable scenario. In both entertainment and regular life, bad guys often don't think of themselves as evil. How other people feel about this varies.
Captain Left is a classic introvert, and introverts think differently than extroverts. He prefers interacting online to interacting in person, and as Capricorn he's a lot more outgoing. Introverts make great mentors and leaders, especially for proactive followers. Introverts and extroverts have different needs, too, so understand how to take care of introverts.
Being understood is a fundamental human need. Feeling misunderstood is a common and miserable experience. Mixed signals and other problems can cause misunderstandings. Know how to cope with feeling misunderstood and how to make other people feel understood.
Disaffected youth are cut off from society in various ways. When adolescents don't get their needs met, they often get into trouble. Harsh treatment rarely helps, and often makes matters worse. Kraken prefers recruiting disaffected people, and their preferred age range is teens and twenties. Understand how to reach out to troubled teens in your area. Here is a guide to group discussions between adults and teens.
The grooming process involves a common set of techniques used by a wide range of human predators, including sexual abusers and cults. They often choose victims carefully. However, notice the overlap with building trust through stages. Many of the actions are the same, such as approaching slowly, starting small, showing kindness, and deepening intimacy. What differs is the followthrough. Trust consists of multiple elements including benevolence (intending good), integrity (being honest), competence (ability to help), and predictability (keeping promises). While Kraken does get people involved in crime, most of them were already into it; and the organization does an excellent job of meeting member needs such as companionship, employment, and health care. It may be on the black side of the cape, but it's a fair deal.
Sometimes, the supervillains have a point. They do needful things that superheroes can't or won't do, and occasionally even rescue the good guys. In this as in all things, diversity has its uses.
Mentoring has many benefits. Understand the qualities needed to be a good mentor. Know how to find a mentor and make the most of one.
The best way to predict the future is to take steps to create it. There are ways to build your personal future and influence the future of the world.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-13 05:43 pm (UTC)What happens when someone wants to distance themselves from Kraken?
Thoughts
Date: 2016-04-14 05:11 am (UTC)Thank you! I like the way it fits their style.
>> I like the way they work so far - they've got their heads on straighter than some local groups who /aren't/ out to rule the world. <<
Sooth. And that's because they have plans about what to do with it when they've got it.
>> What happens when someone wants to distance themselves from Kraken? <<
If they leave on good terms, there are assorted severance packages to help them settle somewhere else. People do sometimes retire.
If they don't leave on good terms, they miss out on the severance option.
In any case, people are expected to keep their mouth shut about Kraken business.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-04-14 06:10 pm (UTC)I like these folks.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-04-14 06:18 pm (UTC)Something else interesting about the largest supervillain organizations is that they're not all soups or all villains. There are varying levels of involvement with criminal or violent activities. Some people are fighters. Others aren't, but can defend themselves if attacked. And some are people with useful traits who need a sheltered place to work, like most of the healers.
Of course, Kraken is a high-water-mark. There are plenty of supervillain organizations that don't let people leave easily, or at all.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-04-14 08:15 pm (UTC)>>There are varying levels of involvement with criminal or violent activities. Some people are fighters. Others aren't, but can defend themselves if attacked. And some are people with useful traits who need a sheltered place to work, like most of the healers.<<
And this just fascinates me.
It helps that one of my favorite characters is basically an assassin working for a not-so-decent corporation (Tseng, FFVII). This seems like the kind of shop he could get along with.
>>There are plenty of supervillain organizations that don't let people leave easily, or at all.<<
...which is what I was expecting. Kraken continually surprises me by being benign in unexpected ways. See also: Dr. Infanta.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-04-14 08:50 pm (UTC)Agreed.
>> Not one that makes you sign away all your copyrights or ability to work in that field for a year, or similarly horked-up nonsense. <<
A majority of L-American corporations are downright parasitic. T-American ones are not legally permitted to be so, let alone required, although of course some of them are horrid anyhow. The general trend is more positive, however, because T-America requires corporations to provide for the public good; i.e. to produce beneficial products/services. It also forbids them from wreaking havoc on the environment, workers, society, etc. L-American corporations are mandated to work in the best interests of their shareholders which leads directly to cost-cutting that kills people and wrecks the environment. While the T-American legal system is not perfect, it is better on average, which means fewer companies use clauses that violate worker or customer rights. That leads to better business relationships and a more functional society all around.
This refracts throughout the rest of the culture. There's a spectrum of force, a spectrum of good and evil, a spectrum of relationship health, and so on. Most individuals and organizations are somewhere in the middle. With supervillains, the whackjob end is held down by people like Haboob and the Mandible. Then there are examples like Shakedown's gang: violent, selfish thugs with minimal skills who live in a squalid hole in the ground. Ricasso is a modestly successful minor boss rapidly rising due to skill, diligence, and taking good care of his guys. Boss White is pretty typical for a city boss: rough but fair, and clear about not allowing certain things in his territory. Boss Batir over in Lincoln is what you get when a thug is skilled enough and determined enough to take control of a city. The Marionettes are primarily an Italian mob Family with a tight-knit structure and excellent standards, although they have some influence elsewhere. Kraken is global.
Those top layers are more civilized because people work on keeping it that way. Dr. Infanta, Kraken, the Marionettes, etc. will tolerate a certain amount of mayhem but there are limits. The more violent and wild someone is, the harder it is for them to attract followers, obtain supplies, and advance in influence. Conversely the promising young folks are more likely to get a hand up in the form of job offers, alliances, or a more favorable share of communal loot. Favor-trading and reputation are enormous factors in soup culture, especially among supervillains, although the details are different for black and white capes. If you're an asshole, then you have a hard time because nobody wants to deal with you, which means your only options are other assholes, who by definition are not trustworthy.
This process is necessary to keep the world intact and functional, as supervillains have far more potential to cause harm than ordinary people do. It is in everyone's best interest to ensure that the world does not get taken over or blown up by a raging lunatic. That was the Mandible's motivation, by the way: "The world is corrupt. You'll see! Someday I'll kill you all!" Well, eventually that got him and a bunch of his followers and a handful of scientists killed, which is par for the course.
>> And this just fascinates me. <<
That's just how organizations work. An army needs footsoldiers, and people generally think "in the army" = "fighter." But the army also has doctors, cooks, mechanics, and everything else needed to run what amounts to a self-contained town. The bigger an organization, the more specialized roles it supports. And you don't want to contract out that work if you have security concerns like an army or a supervillain organization does. Plus you may have people who are loyal but not fully functional. If you're an asshole, you dump them in the street like L-America does. Over in Terramagne, veterans are routinely offered jobs in army-related facilities. That doesn't solve the problem of veteran unemployment/homelessness but does reduce it substantially. Supervillain organizations need loyal people to handle the everyday stuff so they don't waste the time of their rare and valuable heavy hitters. Even a healer benefits from having nurses to help carry the load.
This is almost never shown in entertainment, but it does occasionally. I was deeply amused by the Nautilus in League of Extraordinary Gentleman. As soon as the casualties piled up, there were white coats everywhere setting up an entire mobile hospital. It was like a third of the crew was medtechs. LOL
>> It helps that one of my favorite characters is basically an assassin working for a not-so-decent corporation (Tseng, FFVII). This seems like the kind of shop he could get along with. <<
That's cool.
>> ...which is what I was expecting. Kraken continually surprises me by being benign in unexpected ways. See also: Dr. Infanta. <<
Spectrum of force. If you brutalize people, they tend to hate you, and they're always looking to stab you in the back. If you treat them well -- especially, if you treat them better than anyone else has -- then they will be loyal even under stress. Therefore it makes sense to use only the amount of force necessary for success.
What makes them supervillains is how far down their scale goes and how quickly they travel along it. A principled supervillain tends to start fairly high up, and if you deal with them in a civil way, they're perfectly decent and may even be great customers. But if you try to cheat or oppress them, they will fuck you up. Dr. Infanta and Kraken both like zap guns, and Dr. Infanta even likes projectile weapons. That's atypical for Terramagne as a whole. Dr. Infanta's superpowers are frankly terrifying, and sometimes she uses them as terror weapons, particularly against people who harm children. Kraken manipulates much of the world, and they're not elected, and they're not accountable. This is not generally considered acceptable, even if they're doing a decent job. They also tend to solve certain types of problem by feeding offenders to the sharks. Good guys don't torture or murder; that's bad guy territory. But there's a big difference between principled and unprincipled supervillains, and the principled ones hold the upper hand. Fortunately.
What happens when that isn't the case? Marvel and DC. 0_o Which are good examples of why certain values in Drake's equation may be disappointingly small.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-04-15 10:43 pm (UTC)There are circumstances under which I consider this an ethical option. Normally they involve either conflicts between Law and Justice or offenses that I take a lot more seriously than the legal system does, such as serial rape/abuse. My beef with Kraken here would be likely to be an issue of where to draw the line more than anything else.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2016-04-15 11:09 pm (UTC)Agreed.
>> My beef with Kraken here would be likely to be an issue of where to draw the line more than anything else.<<
Many of the principled supervillains prefer to use legal methods when feasible, as it reduces the amount of 'heat' on them from police. There's no point running up your risk level unnecessarily. Times they are most likely to use shark justice:
* really heinous crimes like serial rape
* particularly awful people like forks
* individuals whose wealth/power/connections places them largely above the law
* someone foolishly attacks a Kraken vessel in open water, resulting in serious damage and/or casualties
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2017-05-15 08:50 pm (UTC)Worse, the court decision that established this was on a case where the board of directors was doing stuff to insure long term profitability, and the shareholders who sued wanted profits *now* damn the long term.
So long term planning is pretty much out the window.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2017-05-15 10:10 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2016-04-13 10:44 am (UTC)Love the comment about the The Hat! Hats are important. I wonder, does that make Ashley the leader of Imago Hive? She has a hat... [Noooo! says Ashley!]
Thank you!
Date: 2016-04-13 06:00 pm (UTC)Yay!
>> Love the comment about the The Hat! Hats are important. <<
:D Uniforms, including fancy hats, can provide structural integrity to a group. That's especially true for one that isn't officially supposed to exist.
>> I wonder, does that make Ashley the leader of Imago Hive? She has a hat... [Noooo! says Ashley!] <<
No, it doesn't make her the leader. But it may make some people, especially supervillains, think that she is the leader. Frex, the Ring Mistress and her minions have probably made that mistake already, and will not be easily swayed from it. Which could be highly amusing.