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Aug. 29th, 2008 12:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
masterofmidgetsYay, I don't have to work tomorrow - it's my week to work the Saturday shift (OMG EW 7.30 KILL ME NOW) so I have Friday off. And I am so relieved - it has been such a - not bad, but very draining? - week that I don't think I could manage another shift without a day off. *is a total wimp*
On Monday I took /90/ calls in /8/ hours, which is just absolutely and completely insane. Seriously. Normally even on the really busy days when we're getting nonstop calls I only average about 70. /41/ retention calls. Again, on a normal day? My average is about 14. This was A FUCKING CRAZY DAY. I hate the Bank of America so much for introducing two major price jackings within about a week of each other. Not good business sense, guys! This week was also the first time I've ever had someone threaten to sue me. It was kind of awesome. But I made it through the week, and I'm giving my two weeks' notice on Tues when I get back to work if I can figure out how. I feel so bad about it; I guess I just really hate quitting jobs, since I had the same guilty, anxious attitude toward quitting the movie theater job and that I hated with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns. But I will do it! Somehow!
This is certainly not news to anyone, but I am a tremendous geek. XD I had this solidly reaffirmed today, when I realized that I am seriously considering calling in sick from work so that I can listen to a Torchwood radio drama and make sure the CERN people don't blow up the world accidently. But honestly, can you blame me? Jack+giant particle accelerators=HOT. SO HOT.
The fact that I am about 550 pages into Anna Karenina, which I have been reading entirely of my own free will, does not help me shake the geek hat. It's lucky I like the hat. And the book. Which is odd, since it's the sort of book I normally loathe, being all concerned as it with the sundry love affairs of Russian aristrocrats. But it's actually rather fabulous - Tolstoy's writing, for one thing, since the man was /brilliant/, and the way he works so many bits and bobs about Russian history and politics ans culture and religion and philosophy into it. And all the characters are strangely sympathetic. Normally by this point in a "classic" I'm beating my head against the wall shouting "how can you all be this stupid?!?!" but in AK, even though everyone's making frightfully bad choices I can understand why that would seem the only choice to them. It's a nice, if disconcerting, chance to like a classic for once.
In the end, sending back the Justice League of Earth-23 was as simple as finding the statue the Flash had inadvertently licked to open the trans-dimensional portal in the first place, using it - under more controlled circumstances this time - to re-open the passage, and herding everyone through. The two Batmans trying to glower each other down notwithstanding, all was proceeding without a hitch...until it came to the Blue Beetle.
"I don't want to go back," he said again, arms crossed stubbornly over his chest.
"Don't be ridiculous, Beetle," the Earth-23 Superman said, rolling his eyes. The coruscating lights of the portal threw distracting glints off his costume and disconcertingly shiny hair. "This isn't Paris, it's another universe. You don't belong here."
"Well, I sure don't belong back there in our universe," Beetle said, throwing his hands into the air. "And why do you care? it's not like you even wanted me in the Justice League to begin with. You only let me in because you felt bad for me...and because you thought it might keep me out of trouble. I can't imagine anyone going mad with grief if I don't go home, so why shouldn't I stay?"
From the one corner's worth of shadows he had found to lurk in, Batman said, "The universe can only support one version of you at a time without extreme stress. It's why we've all been getting headaches since we came here. If you stay, you'll die, at best. At worst, you'll take this entire universe with you."
"Nice try, but I haven't been having the wobbly quantum headaches like you guys. Which means either I never existed here, or I'm dead. And since every time I try to bring myself up people go weird and change the subject, I'm guessing it's the second. If I'm dead, there'll only be one of me, so there's no problem."
Superman ran a hand wearily through his hair; a determined Beetle was more than anyone should have had to deal with after the week he'd had. "Ted, please, be reasonable about this. How do you think this is going to work? They look like us, but they aren't - their history, their memories, their personalities - none of that is the same. You don't know them. You can't be happy here."
"I can't be happy in our universe!" Ted shouted. "I hate it there! None of you respect me, I know you don't like me, the public thinks the Blue Beetle is a bad joke, I don't even have Kord Industries any more, ever since Max finally showed his cards. Why should I want to go back to that? And it's not so different here. I asked around, while you were trying to find that dumb statue. Our universes ran parallel until last year. Completely identical timelines - I could sit down with their Green Lantern and he'd remember the same fight we had five years ago about American versus Japanese cars that ended in me trying to shove him out the airlock on the Bug. Just... say what you want. It doesn't matter. I'm staying, and that's it."
"What makes you think they even want you here?" Batman asked.
"Booster Gold wants me here," Ted said softly. "Right, Booster?"
No one had seen Booster working his way through the small crowd of heroes, but now he took Ted's hand, the effect of his glare dampened somewhat by the fact he was directly it toward Batman's forehead.
"I know he's not my Ted," he said. "I'm not his Booster, either. I don't care. I'm keeping him anyway. You can fight me for him, if you want!"
On Monday I took /90/ calls in /8/ hours, which is just absolutely and completely insane. Seriously. Normally even on the really busy days when we're getting nonstop calls I only average about 70. /41/ retention calls. Again, on a normal day? My average is about 14. This was A FUCKING CRAZY DAY. I hate the Bank of America so much for introducing two major price jackings within about a week of each other. Not good business sense, guys! This week was also the first time I've ever had someone threaten to sue me. It was kind of awesome. But I made it through the week, and I'm giving my two weeks' notice on Tues when I get back to work if I can figure out how. I feel so bad about it; I guess I just really hate quitting jobs, since I had the same guilty, anxious attitude toward quitting the movie theater job and that I hated with the white-hot intensity of a thousand suns. But I will do it! Somehow!
This is certainly not news to anyone, but I am a tremendous geek. XD I had this solidly reaffirmed today, when I realized that I am seriously considering calling in sick from work so that I can listen to a Torchwood radio drama and make sure the CERN people don't blow up the world accidently. But honestly, can you blame me? Jack+giant particle accelerators=HOT. SO HOT.
The fact that I am about 550 pages into Anna Karenina, which I have been reading entirely of my own free will, does not help me shake the geek hat. It's lucky I like the hat. And the book. Which is odd, since it's the sort of book I normally loathe, being all concerned as it with the sundry love affairs of Russian aristrocrats. But it's actually rather fabulous - Tolstoy's writing, for one thing, since the man was /brilliant/, and the way he works so many bits and bobs about Russian history and politics ans culture and religion and philosophy into it. And all the characters are strangely sympathetic. Normally by this point in a "classic" I'm beating my head against the wall shouting "how can you all be this stupid?!?!" but in AK, even though everyone's making frightfully bad choices I can understand why that would seem the only choice to them. It's a nice, if disconcerting, chance to like a classic for once.
In the end, sending back the Justice League of Earth-23 was as simple as finding the statue the Flash had inadvertently licked to open the trans-dimensional portal in the first place, using it - under more controlled circumstances this time - to re-open the passage, and herding everyone through. The two Batmans trying to glower each other down notwithstanding, all was proceeding without a hitch...until it came to the Blue Beetle.
"I don't want to go back," he said again, arms crossed stubbornly over his chest.
"Don't be ridiculous, Beetle," the Earth-23 Superman said, rolling his eyes. The coruscating lights of the portal threw distracting glints off his costume and disconcertingly shiny hair. "This isn't Paris, it's another universe. You don't belong here."
"Well, I sure don't belong back there in our universe," Beetle said, throwing his hands into the air. "And why do you care? it's not like you even wanted me in the Justice League to begin with. You only let me in because you felt bad for me...and because you thought it might keep me out of trouble. I can't imagine anyone going mad with grief if I don't go home, so why shouldn't I stay?"
From the one corner's worth of shadows he had found to lurk in, Batman said, "The universe can only support one version of you at a time without extreme stress. It's why we've all been getting headaches since we came here. If you stay, you'll die, at best. At worst, you'll take this entire universe with you."
"Nice try, but I haven't been having the wobbly quantum headaches like you guys. Which means either I never existed here, or I'm dead. And since every time I try to bring myself up people go weird and change the subject, I'm guessing it's the second. If I'm dead, there'll only be one of me, so there's no problem."
Superman ran a hand wearily through his hair; a determined Beetle was more than anyone should have had to deal with after the week he'd had. "Ted, please, be reasonable about this. How do you think this is going to work? They look like us, but they aren't - their history, their memories, their personalities - none of that is the same. You don't know them. You can't be happy here."
"I can't be happy in our universe!" Ted shouted. "I hate it there! None of you respect me, I know you don't like me, the public thinks the Blue Beetle is a bad joke, I don't even have Kord Industries any more, ever since Max finally showed his cards. Why should I want to go back to that? And it's not so different here. I asked around, while you were trying to find that dumb statue. Our universes ran parallel until last year. Completely identical timelines - I could sit down with their Green Lantern and he'd remember the same fight we had five years ago about American versus Japanese cars that ended in me trying to shove him out the airlock on the Bug. Just... say what you want. It doesn't matter. I'm staying, and that's it."
"What makes you think they even want you here?" Batman asked.
"Booster Gold wants me here," Ted said softly. "Right, Booster?"
No one had seen Booster working his way through the small crowd of heroes, but now he took Ted's hand, the effect of his glare dampened somewhat by the fact he was directly it toward Batman's forehead.
"I know he's not my Ted," he said. "I'm not his Booster, either. I don't care. I'm keeping him anyway. You can fight me for him, if you want!"
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no subject
Date: 2008-08-29 12:42 pm (UTC)Heeey, you're home today? Can I call you this evening when I get off work (so totally signing off at five, that'll be three your time, but I am /beat/ unto /death/.
*giggles at ficlet* I'd actually end it at 'I'm keeping him anyway.' That seems like the perfect place, and then you don't have to put in the ending that you aren't sure about how to write and which, unless it's so completely awesome, is going to be superfluous anyway.