Terrific in the Control Center

“What exactly do you do here?” said Shino.

Terrific shrugged again. “All manner of things. Mission assignments, risk analysis, tower maintenance, scientific studies, working out timetables and budgets, hiring new technicians, coordinating international efforts… Things like that.”

“And again, I must say what I did before. This seems an unusual role for a superhero. You could perform it just as well as a civilian.”

“In many ways, a superhero IS a civilian, albeit a highly talented one dressed up in a fancy costume. Intelligence and administrative knowledge is a power just like any other. Indeed, I might say it is THE power, to be able to supervise the inner workings of a team. Superman could not do what I do, just as I could not do what Superman does.” Half-turning, Terrific offered them a lopsided grin. “Contrary to popular belief, all men are NOT created equal.”

Shino’s brow wrinkled. “I beg your pardon?”

Terrific sighed and turned back. “Forget it. Isolated historical reference, reflecting an important humanistic principle of the 17th century. Actually, it’s talking about legal rights, not capabilities, so the example doesn’t particularly apply, especially as Superman isn’t exactly…” Terrific shook his head, clearing the thought. “Never mind. In any case, the point stands that all men have different talents. And, in a civilization, where there are many roles to fill, those talents have to match up with those roles.”

“Like a hive.” Shino nodded.

“Or a village,” Sakura sent her teammate what she hoped was an admonishing look. Could he make any NON-creepy metaphors?

Terrific’s eyes blinked twice as he processed this. “Yes, very much so. Hyuuga Neji was born with a very different set of talents than either of you. Just as you were born with a very different set of talents than he. Naturally, each of you will be suited for different roles.”

“Well… yes.” Shino frowned. “That is basic administration.”

“But someone needs to do the administering. You could have something like the caste, or feudal system, where you assume everything depends on genetics, but an administrator is a much more flexible and sure method of assigning talents to roles.” Terrific inclined his head modestly. “And that’s me. It is not, perhaps, the most glorious position, but just because the agent’s unseen doesn’t mean it’s not important.”

********************

Cover for "Cooperation," this week's chapter of Connecting the Dots. [link]

Sorry for the rather unexciting picture and excerpt, but in all honesty this is a rather unexciting chapter. Not as bad as it WAS, fortunately--the chapter you're getting is a re-written version I made after receiving many complaints on how didactic and boring the original was--but still rather slow. This picture actually shows many of the isolated aspects of the chapter, and more or less underscores the theme, so I thought it was relevant. The major difficulty is that it's hard to distinguish the background from the characters, as everything's flat. Something to work on for next time, I guess.

Here we get our first view of Mr. Terrific, the third smartest man in the world, undetectable to computers and impervious to religious faith. I really enjoyed writing his character throughout the story, but honestly the guy has got one of the goofier outfits in the league, and that's saying something.

EDIT: OH! I nearly forgot to mention, we also get a view of the original, ugly, AWESOME Amanda Waller, not the ridiculous stereotypical supermodel the new 52 replaced her with.

EDIT 2: Also forgot to mention, I really like how Sakura turned out in this shot. Hair looks shiny and everything.