Trinity Angles (Discussion Thread)

[hatori]

Damn.
I repeat.

DAMMMMMMN

[Kieran]

Shall I take it to mean that you approve?

. . . Honestly, I think there actually is a fair bit of crossover potential between Rowling and Colfer's works - and I'm disappointed that nothing I've found (so far) lives up to it. So I suspect that using my version could be even more interesting . . .

[hatori]

hell yes, do i approve. but i always envisioned Butler as like a Agent 47 clone from the Hitman series... not the one we see cast as him though.

[Kieran]

The guy cast as Agent 47, or the guy cast as Butler? I admit, I've never really seen the former, and as for the latter . . . While he's not really what the books describe, admittedly, I've seen unconventional castings work before - and Kenneth Branagh hasn't let me down yet.

[hatori]

i meant, i always felt butler was more agent 47-ish,
but the movie's casting of him threw that impression a little off

[Kieran]

*Nods* That's fair.

. . . So, I note that no one seems to have an opinion on the song (or maybe they just don't read my Writer's Notes?) . . . Does anyone have any requests, if the Artemis Fowl crossover continues? Things they'd like to see happen (or not happen). . .?

[Kieran]

Continuing . . .







Eyes closed, Shirou pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Let me get this straight,” he said slowly. “The magical event you’re investigating is the fault of an entirely different hidden magical society that also just so happens to be based on yet another series of children’s books?”

“Yes,” Galen said bluntly.

“. . . Do I need to start worrying about wardrobes that lead to Narnia, next?” the redhead demanded. “Or rabbit holes to Wonderland, tornadoes to Oz, or something else?”

“Up until about ten minutes ago, I’d have said ‘no’—as of now, though, I haven’t the slightest idea.”

“. . . I really, really hate you.”

“You’re just mad at me because it’s safer than being mad at your wife,” Galen retorted dryly.

“And your point is?” Shirou challenged.

“You’re getting predictable in your old age?”

“You’re older than me . . .!”

“It’s not the years,” Galen said serenely, “it’s the mileage.”

Now Shirou began to massage his temples. “You’re spending far too much time with Luna—no, wait, that’s from Raiders of the Lost Ark!”

“The two facts are not necessarily exclusive.”

“. . . Galen, why did you call me?”

“Mostly to bring you up to speed,” the other wizard said, “and maybe to ask your advice on whether or not to interfere.”

Now Shirou’s eyebrows rose in surprise.

“You’re asking me?” he blurted in disbelief. “You?!”

“Yeah,” Galen said, “which should tell you how tricky this could turn out to be.”

“Hmph,” Shirou replied. “What are we up against, here?”

“Subterranean fairies with a knack for magic-derived technology that’s out of science fiction and a biological capacity for mind control,” Galen listed. “As well as a series of criminal and/or scientific geniuses that make James Moriarty look like an mentally-deficient underachiever—not to mention several magical disasters with potentially planet-ending consequences, if not handled properly.”

“That’s not necessarily anything we haven’t handled before . . .” Shirou noted leadingly.

“Genocide, on the other hand—potentially of multiple species and societies, if this is handled wrongly—isn’t,” Galen said grimly. He scowled. “And while we technically don’t need to interfere now, it’ll be a lot harder for us to intervene later if we don’t lay the groundwork ahead of time.”

“. . . Then do it,” came the response. “If we need to start now in order to improve things later, just do it—we’ll handle the consequences as they come.”

There was a deep breath on the other side of the connection, followed by a quiet “All right.”

“. . . And hey,” Shirou said reassuringly, “if anything does go wrong—I’ll just tell Ilya it’s your fault.”

“Oh, you son of a—!”








Writer's Notes: Shorter, this time, because I've been working on the next chapter in parallel; it's half-written, and with a little bit of luck, I might be able to have it up tomorrow. So that being the case, I hope you don't mind . . .?

[Xamusel]

Nice! I'm glad that you're getting the next chapter out soon.

Then again, that's not to say this Angle isn't good, far from it.

[Kieran]

*Chuckles* I recently caught a movie that I missed when it was in theatres, and it gave me an idea . . .


"You know, you really are an annoying host," the symbiote complained. "I've never had one that fights me as much as you do - or could. Whatever this 'magic' of yours actually is, it's definitely a pain to deal with. Even if it does make you a strong host," it added in a grumbling undertone.

Galen shrugged. He was hardly about to apologise for Occlumency and his Animagus nature giving him a biological and psychic flexibility that made him resistant to the symbiote's control - since he didn't know this specific "Venom," caution was the order of the day. Certain versions having full control of his abilities were a horrific idea.

"Like I said, I'm willing to work with you, under certain conditions," he said aloud, "since variations of you I'm familiar with can be reasonable. But it depends on what you're looking to do, and what you actually need. Are you the adrenaline-draining type, the type that likes chocolate, vulnerable to electricity, or sonics and fire like the standard version?"

"Sound hurts," it admitted. "A frequency between four and six thousand hertz is lethal - so avoid that. And fire!"

". . . I can't swear that an Imperturbable Charm will work," Galen admitted. "But I'm willing to bet a Flame-Freezing Charm can handle the second problem."

"'Flame-Freezing . . .?'" There was that odd sense of the symbiote rummaging through the back of his mind, and a brief pause; it was followed by the even odder sensation of a mental bear-hug.

"YOU ARE MY FAVOURITE HOST EVER AND I AM NEVER EVER LEAVING YOU!" it bellowed, sounding like Hermione in full chatterbox mode. "Suck it, Riot - I have the most badass host in the galaxy! And he's mine, ALL MINE!"

Galen suppressed a sigh as his mind was filled with the demented cackling of a loser who'd suddenly been granted access to Awesome Power. He'd have been more annoyed if he didn't understand exactly how the alien felt . . .

[Tsubasamoon]

Kieran congrats on completing The Trinity, it's being a great experience and one that actually arrived at its destination which is I feel is a rarity especially if it's a crossover so thank you for the ride. Talking about The Trinity though reminded me of another modern day Wizard series called the Young Wizards by Diane Duane. Dunno if you've heard of it before but I just thought it could be an interesting place for your characters to visit in the future.

[Kieran]

Kieran congrats on completing The Trinity,

Thank you.

it's being a great experience and one that actually arrived at its destination which is I feel is a rarity especially if it's a crossover so thank you for the ride.

You're very welcome; I'm glad you enjoyed your time with it. And I know exactly what you mean, which is why I was determined to finish it - even if it took a lot longer than I originally planned on, or even expected it to at worst.

Talking about The Trinity though reminded me of another modern day Wizard series called the Young Wizards by Diane Duane. Dunno if you've heard of it before but I just thought it could be an interesting place for your characters to visit in the future.

I have, actually - I haven't read it in a couple of decades, mind you, and I think she added one or two books since then, but it might be worth revisiting . . .

[Kieran]

Writer's Note: Just because the Resident Evil 2 remake was released this week . . .




Continuing . . .




The Spencer Estate
September 7, 1998








Now, in all fairness, it had to be said that Takara was the stealthy one of the three of them. She had the training and biological disposition for the work—a physical regimen honed over centuries to optimise the skill, paired with reflexes in the peak of human capability, high flexibility, and an innate grace that would’ve won her worldwide fame as a dancer, gymnast or acrobat. Adding in the predatory instincts of an owl, and specifically a species of owl that hunted as an ambush predator, only made her ability to move unseen all the more refined.

By contrast, Shirou was almost as well-trained, had very good reflexes, and similar instincts, but he was almost twice her mass, twenty centimetres taller and not nearly as supple. Galen had less training but slightly better reflexes, having honed them against Takara specifically—and later, Hermione—for years, with similar but not identical instincts. The reason for that being that wolves ran down prey as much as they ambushed them; stealth was not quite as important as stamina, in that case. Furthermore, he was slightly (but significantly) taller than Shirou, and over twenty kilograms heavier.

Galen’s was not a build conducive to stealth, in other words—but as was often the case when confronted with obstacles, he cheated rather heavily.

With magic first and foremost, of course, but also through the fact that he hadn’t always been built like a linebacker; the weakness of his first life had given him rather strong “prey” instincts, and he used them, when they could be. For example, he immediately scanned places for potential hiding spots, as much for himself as for hidden foes; including places most people wouldn’t—or couldn’t—use. After all, Sticking Charms could place him in the upper corner behind a door, after all, making it easy to ambush people entering a room.

As for general sneaking about, there was the standard Disillusionment Charm, of course; an Imperturbable Charm on the soles of his boots silenced his footsteps, and Flame-Freezing Charms had a remarkable side-effect of spoofing thermal detection systems.

Similarly, he could, with some effort, cause photoelectric beams to bend around him (magic was nothing if not the ability to manipulate energy, after all), though pressure plates were somewhat harder to deal with; Hover Charms existed, of course, but levitating himself and moving . . .? Honestly, it was easier to work around both systems by spotting them and using a Freezing Charm. Mind you, he had to spot the projectors first—but then, that was part of what the training was for.

And when all else failed, the Deathcloak could literally cover a multitude of sins . . .

Though perhaps not in this case, given that T-virus victims are zombies . . .?

Galen paused to consider that.

Hard to say—going by S.D. Perry’s novelizations of the series, they’re not truly undead, just virally infected to the point that their brains are cooked, and the decay’s something of a side effect. The “zombie” part is just a symptom, or overall look, in human subjects; much like the dogs look like they’ve been skinned and the crows are just bloody huge. The movie versions of infectees, on the other hand, are more comprehensively undead—and as of the third movie, completely nonsensical, given that they apparently subsist on limitless energy from nothing, feeding only by impulse rather than necessity.

And the games themselves somewhat see-saw between the two, as Capcom draws on the Japanese tendency for combining ridiculousness and overkill in detail. See also: “Dragon Ball Z,” “Naruto,” “Bleach,” “Tsukihime,” and “Fate/anything” . . .

For the moment, he decided to remove the Deathcloak and stick with Disillusionment; it would be a good test of how effective it was, and not run the risk of exposing—or worse, losing—the Deathcloak. Plus, it kept that as a backup option, if needed. If the war had taught him nothing else (or at least, reinforced the lesson), it was to always have backup plans.

That was part of why Galen had dosed himself with the Elixir of Life before coming here; he didn’t anticipate having to fist-fight with Umbrella’s mad science experiments, but if he had to, he wanted every edge he could get. The fact that the immortality conferred by it also made him immune to disease—conventional ones, at least, including magical pathogens—was another point in its favour.

And especially since we know, thanks to Takara’s tests, that any kind of extraction from someone dosed with the stuff instantly breaks down into a organic but otherwise indecipherable slurry. Which seems remarkably convenient, but she and Hermione said that they figure it’s either that’s the magic of the Elixir’s way of protecting itself from would-be alchemists taking the easy path, or a symbolic representation of how delicate a state of “perfection” actually is . . .

Or maybe both, Galen conceded, after a moment of thought. Either way, it means Umbrella can’t get anything usable from me—or even identifying, since I won’t leave fingerprints or trace evidence like this.

(And it also enabled him to survive falling from airplanes at a significant height and impacting the ground at what really ought to be terminal velocity, which had already proven useful.)

Confident that he’d evaded the technological security—and that there was no biological security (mutated or otherwise)—at the moment, the wizard paused to consider where exactly Spencer was liable to be hiding.

I know the room that Wesker confronted him in, but “Resident Evil 5” wasn’t exactly forthcoming as to where it is in the mansion . . . After a moment, he sighed. Nothing for it, I suppose.

Galen hated Apparating blind . . .








FEMA Station
Outside Raccoon City limits









Now, in all fairness, it had to be said that Galen was the sneaky one of the three of them. He had, melodramatic streak aside, a flair for acting and theatrics; partially due to skills honed over decades as a role-player (and some actual theatre performances), and partially due to a modicum of talent. Furthermore, as a former bullying target, he had instincts designed to misdirect people, and avoid attention altogether. Adding in magic, including but not limited to Apparition, Legilimency, and the Cloak of True Invisibility, and her boyfriend was, in Takara’s opinion, more or less unsurpassed when it came to moving about unnoticed.

But that was not to say that she was without skills of her own in the field . . .

Such as duplicating a hazmat suit such as the current personnel were using, so she could ascertain a few things. Firstly, she’d be able to see who was among the Raccoon City survivors: Jill Valentine’s looks and outfit were fairly iconic, as were Claire Redfield’s, and a pretty-boy in Raccoon City police blues should be easy to spot, as well. Likewise, while she’d been too young to actually watch the American movies, Takara remembered enough of the commercials to identify the main actress if she saw her—Milla something?

Being able to tell who was present would tell them which universe’s timeline they were dealing with, after all.

Takara’s second purpose in coming was to try and snag samples of infection for her own use, so that she could see exactly what magical healing would or could do to them. It was beyond risky, admittedly, but they needed to know. If they thought that they had immunity—as with Hermione—or a cure, through magic, and didn’t . . .

Well then, the term catastrophe seemed to be, in Galen’s words, “an understatement so criminal it should qualify as a capital offence . . .”

Not that Takara liked the idea of playing with the T-Virus, G-Virus, Nemesis Parasite or whatever she might be able to find at all—and she fully intended to use Fiendfyre on everything when she was finished, and also at the slightest provocation. But it was still a necessary risk, for the aforementioned reasons.

It might be better if this is the movie setting, she mused. At least there, it’s really just the one virus, according to Galen, rather than any number of new and variant stra—damn.

This last was uttered because she’d just caught sight of Claire Redfield. And while the college student definitely had more than a passing resemblance to her real-world portrayer in the “Resident Evil” film franchise at the appropriate age, the clothes she wore made her origins perfectly clear.

The game universe it is, which is both good and bad . . .

. . . I do like that jacket, though.

[MWkillkenny84]

Writer's Note: Just because the Resident Evil 2 remake was released this week . . .

Those poor zombies...

[Kieran]

*Chuckles* To some degree, certainly. Granted, they can be surprised - and given the number of jump-scares in Resident Evil (especially the remake), it's certainly possible - so the T-virus infectees are still a threat. And they can also be swarmed (something that the remake has no trouble doing; holy crap, that's a lot of zombies), to say nothing of the more . . . Dangerous mutants. The giant crocodile, Mr. X, Nemesis, etc. - they're all still viable threats.

. . . But yeah, there's going to be a lot of zombie-killing in the interim - assuming that it comes to that, of course.

[Kieran]

. . . So, a bit of an update (apologies for the double-post, but it's been a while, so I hope it's forgivable):

First, in relation to the previous (above) post: I've actually done a bit of research, and apparently Galen's prototype Thunderbird pistol - which he would be using here - would fire .50-calibre rounds with approximately 13.6x their normal force. In the Resident Evil 2 remake's terms, that's basically a little over two clips' worth of ammo of the starting pistol in one shot; I have no idea how much kinetic force it actually is, but I admit I'd be curious to find out. Anybody have a background in mathematics and/or forensics?

(. . . And for reference's sake, the finished product would deliver almost 48x the force of a .50-cal bullet per shot - but that's a few years or decades' worth of experimentation off. )


Secondly, I've spent the last four days watching playthroughs for Kingdom Hearts III. Keeping things spoiler-free, I think it's a beautiful game to look at, I find all the Disney touches as pleasing as always, and I really regret being unable to play it; as much because my carpal tunnel syndrome would kill me through all the button-mashing as because I don't own the relevant system and game.

. . . But that said, ye gods, the LOGIC HOLES . . .! The series has always been a bit iffy that way, but this one . . . *Shakes head*

Now, you may be wondering why I'm bringing this up. The reason is simple: the last I felt this way about a series, I ending up spending a decade writing "Trinity," and I've already tried doing a Kingdom Hearts crossover with it before . . . But this is honestly tempting me to try again . . .

[hatori]

considering .50 caliber is the equivalent of an anti-material rifle round... damn... punch through cover??

[Kieran]

considering .50 caliber is the equivalent of an anti-material rifle round... damn... punch through cover??

Probably . . .? Like I said, I don't even have enough of a math background to know where to start calculating the ballistics.

. . . On the other hand, now you know why Rin was complaining about "the cannon you two idiots call a gun," and that "handguns should not be ANTI-TANK WEAPONS!"

[MWkillkenny84]

Probably . . .? Like I said, I don't even have enough of a math background to know where to start calculating the ballistics.

. . . On the other hand, now you know why Rin was complaining about "the cannon you two idiots call a gun," and that "handguns should not be ANTI-TANK WEAPONS!"

To understand what a .50 caliber bullet do, I shall post here a video.

Warning: it will contain graphic content.

Second warning: Army and ex-Army personell, when they saw this scene, complimented the filmakers for having portrayed the effects of said bullets in a perfectly real way (read: the effects in the movie are the same as they are in reality).



Both the machinegun and the friendly sniper's weapons use .50 caliber bullets. So yes, when said bullets are used, the rule is "Cover? What cover?"

[Kieran]

*Whistles* Impressive.And that's with (mostly) lead rounds, before the enchantments are applied . . .

I mean, if nothing else, according to my calculations, the prototype gun ought to have a range of about 450 metres (500 yards); it'd be longer, but tungsten is about 70% denser than lead, so the round's a fair bit heavier. For comparison, a normal Desert Eagle has an effective range of about 200 metres.

. . . The fully enchanted Thunderbird, on the other hand, has a range of 1, 648 metres - or one mile, plus around 160 yards.

[Kieran]

Ministry of Magic, Department of Mysteries, Director’s Office
London, England
May 3, 1999








The man who held the title “Director of the Department of Mysteries,” Algernon Croaker—code-named “Saul” in internal documents—looked across his desk, to the newest Unspeakable. Technically, they’d done employment entry and exit interviews already, some years ago; however, certain circumstances had prevented an official instatement until now.

“Well, young Gwydion,” he said, in as jovial a tone as his solemn voice ever produced. “It has been a long time coming, but it is my genuine pleasure to finally welcome you officially to the Department of Mysteries.”

The chestnut-haired wizard’s eyebrows rose. “I still think that’s far too obvious a codename—sir,” he added hastily.

“Obvious, perhaps,” the older wizard admitted, “but we could hardly find one more fitting—given your history—than the Welsh magician, hero, and trickster.”

Unlike his protégé, he raised a singular eyebrow, both in challenge and as a sign of mastery of that particular trick.

The lad had the decency to blush, at least, Croaker noted.

“Which,” he continued, “brings me to the primary purpose of this meeting—you see, we were hardly idle while in isolation. If nothing else, it allowed us to perform some of the more . . . Let us say, delicate experiments, shall we? The sort of experiments, say, whose potential rewards were outweighed by their effect on the surrounding area if mishandled.”

“Which, I’m sure, is a very polite and roundabout way of saying ‘things man was probably not meant to know,’” the younger remarked dryly.

“I stand by my description,” Croaker said in an equally dry tone, “while acknowledging that yours is also valid—though were I you, I’d be cautious in making such comments in future . . . Nevertheless, we did find—if you’ll pardon the expression—the time to come up with a rather interesting prototype.”

He delicately placed a Time-Turner onto his desk. It was made of platinum instead of gold, about half again the size of the standard Time-Turners, and with twice as many rings, but its nature was unmistakable.

“. . . I swear to God—I didn’t steal it, I have no plans to steal it, and therefore why are you showing it to me?” Gwydion demanded in a rapidly-rising voice, eyes wide

“Because this prototype can exceed the normal five-hour limit by a considerable margin, safely,” Croaker replied serenely, inwardly enjoying the mild flashes of panic the lad was exhibiting. It pleased him greatly to know that while Galen Salvatore had enjoyed his involuntary internship (or perhaps more accurately, “internment”) in the Department of Mysteries enough to join it when he came of age, the punishment aspect of his time here had firmly stuck.

It was often difficult to impart such lessons to powerful witches and wizards, he knew, and all the more important for it—especially to those in his employ. Croaker was quite pleased to find that he had managed it once again. He expected that the Department would benefit greatly from the association.

I suppose I owe Alastor a bottle of Ogden’s Finest, at the very least—he’d so hoped that the DMLE would snatch Gwydion up, instead . . . Ah, well—perhaps a consultancy could be arranged—

“None of that explains why you are showing this to me,” the younger wizard insisted, drawing Croaker’s thoughts back to the conversation at hand. “You made it very clear that I belonged nowhere near these things, ever! So why show me this?”

“Why, indeed?” Croaker asked, folding his hands in front of his face. “Perhaps I wished to test how you might react to temptation? After all, I imagine you could find any number of uses for this one—and you’ve shown yourself clever enough to use a Time-Turner with more forethought than most. You did manage to lift one out from under our noses, didn’t you . . .?”

There it was—the slight widening, and narrowing of his eyes that indicated young Mister Salvatore had caught the implication, and was following the thread. His Occlumency defence was the next best thing to foolproof Croaker had ever seen, but magic wasn’t the only way to get inside someone’s head. The boy had a relatively good poker face, all things considered, and but the director had been reading witches and wizards’ tells for more years than his parents combined had been alive

Salvatore wasn’t stupid, either—Croaker wouldn’t have had him anywhere near the Department of Mysteries if he was—so it didn’t take him long to work it out.

“You let me take it,” he said flatly. “Oh, my distractions and plans helped—if nothing else, they gave you deniability—but the security on those things is a lot tighter than I saw at the time. But that makes no sense; there was no proof that Riddle was operating, and the timescale was such that you couldn’t have been reacting to the kidnapping—it hadn’t happened yet! And even if you were forewarned by a prophecy or something similar, there’s no way you’d have let it go to a sixteen-year-old kid instead of a trained wizard—be they Auror, Unspeakable, or what have you.

“I’ll set aside the ‘how’ for the moment, and ask the most important question: why?”

Croaker smiled suddenly, as a man who had been hidden in the room the entire time was suddenly revealed in answer. It was important that the young learn that however bright and powerful they were, they were not the be-all and end-all when it came to tricks and clever ideas.

“Because I told them to,” said the dark-skinned man—one of the most clever and dangerous Croaker had ever come across. And by the look on Gwydion’s face, he knew it, too.

“. . . I’m given to understand, Gwydion, that you know Agent Fury quite well,” he said cheerfully. “Oh, pardon me—I mean to say that you will know him, of course.”








A heartbeat or three passed, as Galen Salvatore beheld the grim visage of a one-eyed Samuel L. Jackson—with hair, no less!—otherwise known as the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Nicholas J. Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Panic over the implications of that fact (as well as puzzlement over what a Disney property was doing in a Warner Brothers universe) was shoved aside for the moment, as he considered how the hell a mundane, even the spymaster, could find his way into the heart of Magical Britain, and not be summarily Obliviated back to potty training. Croaker was relatively forward-thinking, but not that much, even with his family connection to the Longbottoms . . .

What came out of his mouth, however, was “‘Agent?’”

The response got a snort of amusement from Fury, who responded, “No, I’m still not the Director, Gwydion—but I’m getting there.” He showed his teeth in what could charitably be called a smile, in the same manner a wolf’s expression could, as he added, “Though it is damned nice to see you being the one confused for a change—I’ve been waiting a long time to see that.”

He set something onto Croaker’s desk. “And I believe this belongs to you.”

“Yes,” the other director said in a wintry tone. “Agent Fury was kind enough to return your official identification badge—and quite promptly, at that. I would lecture you about the importance of retaining it, but it’s rather important that you lose it . . . This once.”

The last two words gained an implacable tone which didn’t so much imply that any other losses would not be tolerated as bash the listener over the head while screaming it at maximum volume.

“Go gather your field kit, Gwydion,” Croaker ordered. “Anything you assume you’d need for a—”

“Heavy-combat mission,” Fury supplied. “And I’d recommend a cup, given the blonde in the Blockbuster.” That wolf’s grin showed again. “Then again, if you took one, I wouldn’t need to make the recommendation, would I?”

“You seem to be enjoying this a lot,” the younger wizard grumbled.

“Given half the crap you pulled, I’ve been looking forward to this for years.”

“Have you considered that, whatever I did, I did in retaliation to what you’re doing now?” he riposted.

Fury paused thoughtfully for a moment. “. . . Eh, still worth it.”

“You are getting a rainbow afro,” the wizard hissed. “In polka dots!”

He Disapparated.

“. . . Did he do it?” Croaker asked, idly curious.

“He took goddamned pictures,” Fury growled. “It took me months to track down and destroy them all—I had to use every tradecraft trick I knew and invent a couple of new ones to do it.” He shook his head. “. . . Damn it, I wish S.H.I.E.L.D. had gotten to him first.”

“You’re not the only one to express similar sentiments,” Croaker said, a touch smugly. “Nor even the first. But I suspect that arrangements could be made to place him—and likely his friends—at your disposal. After all, we have an interest in maintaining the safety of this planet, too . . .”

The Beginning . . .?