Editing Back Issue Bin - Arc 5

==THE MORALITY OF MORTALITY | Arc 5== 
[[Image:American-Gods-Cover-5 small.gif|frame| [http://wiki.rpg.net/index.php/Back_Issue_Bin_-_Arc_5 "The Morality of Mortality"] cover image --  [http://wiki.rpg.net/images/e/ee/American-Gods-Cover-5_12inc.gif LARGE] ]]
In this story arc of our American Gods we have just witnessed the turn of the tide.  Brian, Mandy, Jack and Arthur have always referred to themselves as Survivors, however they have faced mother nature herself... and won.  Our story begins anew as the survivors of American Airlines Flight 283 begin to see the evidence that they are truly seperate from mortal men.  Like it or not, the Survivors ARE Godlike.  Lines in the sand are being drawn - a politician, a firefighter, the young heir, and a cook may have chosen to play in the big boy's sandbox...  But who gets to choose sides?

===issue # '''26''':5===
*  ''' "Lines in the Sand" ''',  January 23th, 2006.
**  ''PREVIEW'':  In the days following the massive aftershocks in Kashmir, Jack and Arthur plan a event of their own...  The duo plan to raid "No Man's Land" the Military Base located on the site of the mysterious 5th plane of the 9/11 Disaster.  Meanwhile, Brian Jaffe takes his role as the face of these American Gods with the strongest primetime special as yet attended by a Survivor - Barbara Walters.  In the wings Mandy returns from her relief efforts, a new friend meets an old one and as they all settle in to the life Mandy's been rebuilding - problems begin to arise...
** ''RECAP #1:''  The Hopewell Survivors would soon return from their time of relief aid, but it's the bits between the cracks that matter most.  In the days following the largest aftershocks that nearly buried Mandy and Arthur for good -  there would still be time to be GODLIKE!!  While Brian toils at entertaining the world interviewed by Barbara Walters, the dynamic duo of Jack and Arthur race across the globe on little sleep to infiltrate "No Man's Land" -  leaving Brian and Mandy with solid alibi.
** ''RECAP #2:''  in the desert, The sun setting across blistering waves of heat. <br> Mandy sits with a collection of crews discussing the days events and bonding with her team mates.. Shes in her eliment.. perhaphs one even sees her smile as the sad dog next her nuzzles once at her hand and looks away as if hopping one last time for a lost master to come home...  <br>  One of the young teammembers loudly talks about a man he rescued that day he pantomimes as he talks "And we umburied him and he High Fives me! I couldn't believe it he was under all that crap and when we unbarried him he High Fived me. I haven't felt that good ever before" Exuberantly he turns to High five Mandy... as his hand lifts it begins a slowing arch through the air... strangly everything seems to become still and quiet.. Mandy looks up and around to see statues where once the animated faces of her teams celebrated the days work.. She says "hello Aurther, " raising an eyebrow even before the impossably fast man appears across from her with a plate fit to feed an entire family of refugees. Her eyes glance to the side as the ghosting of thermal patterns show her the ethereal present of Jack, sad jack he dosnt hide his expressions anymore thinking no one can see them.. see how sad he is. But she sees it.  <br>  Jacks expression is quickly replaced however with mania as he gets that "Excited look" as he nods to Mandy... One can almost hear the crowd go 'Ought Oh"  <br> Jack ans Arthur begin laying out there plan to Mandy while Brian is gone on Barbra Walters they are going to raid No Mans land... After a bit of grilling Mandy comes to realize that jack and Arther planning together is just about as a dangerous a thing as you can get as there lack of Plan takes shape before her... They invite Mandy but she declines. It is decide it will be better if she knows where they are and can play backup if needs be... <br> Arther releases his time effect as he and Jack go racing off... The team members hand continues down toward mandys as he continues to cheer "High Fives!!!" its going to be a very long night.  <br>  Jack and Aurther have a breif and disturbing conversation with Contact where they found otu shes been in there minds allmost non stop and at Milos request has been recording everything for postarity. she has even detected Aurthers thoughts and conversations Jack politely asks Contact to restrict her probing a little more to "work related times and topics" and asks that she destroy the recordings. She seems apologetic and willing to cooperate yet the two seem strangely disquieted.  <br>  Jack and Aurther make the long trek across the oeans wide to land fatigued in a large query somewhere outside of hopewell N.J. still unprepared they begin dicussing just how there going to get into no mans land. Jack says "Just explode and go intangable man! youve done it before."  Aurther seeming uncomfortable with this says "Well I dont think i can just explode! I mean there weer extenuating circumstances!" they begin to expierment Arther tells jack to make him mad so he can try to explode... Jack begins experimentign with everything from "You smell bad, your not a people person!" to "Maggie is your duaghter and shes with Daniel and Milos.. and Daniel might be a pedaphile." aurther screams "maggies my what!!!" to wich Jack responds "Um yeah did you know that? well you see this one time you got drunk and went back in time.. and Julie and Daniel weer sort of having a bad time and... well.." Arther "Jack Im gona - Arther explodes-  <br>  Jack smiles "heh that worked..." "Oh shit that worked!" Jack begins running "IM SORRY AURTHER!!!"  <br>  But Aurther just stands there watching Jack, somethings changed he sees the sad young man as he once looked so long ago on the plane Jack astraly seems unchanged from the day he steped out of his body. Airther seems angrey but only says "latter.."  <br>    <br>  Mean while barbra Wawa spares verbaly with Brian, asking first casual questions then swithing them up with more dificult ones.  BRian talks for a while about The Chalanger explosion and how it shaped his young life. as the intreview continues it seems he wins Barbra Walters over to his way of things.. or is this journalistic illusion?  <br>  Meanwhile back in N.J. Jack and Aurther discover that Aurther cant run at super speeds while astral.. He returns to solid form.. By this point The two men are so exhausted they wonder if its such a wise idea to proceed.  <br>  But carry on they do. Aurther runs them to the perimater of the Hopewell No Mans Facility. they walk in along the road standing in the gravel to oneside as each discover that the other thought theyed know what to do from here.. They share a tense momment with the audiance as a miltary SUV comes barreling toward them. Jakc tunes his ears into the radio and 'dosnt think the patrol can see them'  yet the two both tense up as the car blares down ontop of them and then... WOOSH its past. They begin the long tireing slog into the complex... mile after mile of hiking as Jack bitches about doing it the 'slow' way. Finaly they make it to the edge of the compound. A parking lot. All Mision Imposable like they make there way up toa tram and just as it gets moving Aurther jumps up and easyly into it starting to get the hang of this astral thing. Jack with his long practiced easy experiance in astral form makes a short run and a practiced leap that somehow colapses in a tangling of his own feet to land face first in the dust... Oh yeah mission impossable.  <br>  As the tram chuggs away jack calls to Aurther "Ill meet you at the big building" Jack then zap transports himself to a terminal in the lobby of the building That Ziade was being kept in before. He begins working with a terminal to access No Man.. "Oh, Upgrades" it seems the computers security has eben vastly improved and jacks best efforts can only aford the hapless ill prepared due a little time.  The audience is getting scared now. Aurther cathss back up and they discuss where to go from here. Down is decided upon when Aurther realizes hes lost excalaber... left it in the dust at the crater.. Jack continues on downward while Arther looks for a place he can do a small explosion and break off a mini aurther to send to get the Knife. strangly this new miniaurther dosnt seem to allready know what Aurther expects of him "No further informaiton is available at this time"  <br>  These words are echoed by No Man as Jack atempts to get full security access...  <br>  Jack and Aurther meet up on the bottom floor and while auther begins epxloring the hard way jack locks up to Ziads godlike signature... only to discover there are far more godlike presences in the building then he ever expected. He and Aurther regroup to discuss this just as a security guard with two dogs comes around the corner... one of the dogs senses godlike...   <br>  Brian shakes hands with barbra Walters as she thanks him for a wonderful interview but wont he stay for just a few more minutes she has just one last question for him.  <br>  Cut scene.... the audience knows we are 3 minutes from the end of the episode when we come back from the comercial break..  <br>  There stands aurther excalaber hidden beindd his back.. He is standing as yet unnoticed at the back of an airplane..  <br>  Could it be? are those a Young Mandy and Jack from the first episode  <br>  and there Brian in a suit chatting with Vivian?  <br>  Oh my GOD..


===issue # '''27''':5===
*  ''' "Down the Rabbit Hole" ''',  March 2nd, 2006.
**  ''PREVIEW'':  Two dogs. <br> One trained for attack, the other... GODLIKE. <br> A full compliment of military strength only a call away. <br> Sixteen Godlike power signatures within 60 feet. <br> And Jack Bennett-Kennedy and his friend Arthur Redford stand alone! <br> Stand straight true-believers!! <br> In this issue - critical decisions that effect all Godlike!  Brian Jaffe's face-off in front of the world turns into a pressure cooker, as Mandy Smith discovers more than she may want to know about Contact.  The Hopewell Survivors have been at odds with the Government since that fateful September day in 2001 - THIS is the day when lines are drawn in the sand.  And at issue's end SOMEONE will be dead!!
** ''RECAP:''  ???


===issue # '''28''':5===
*  ''' "On Military Time" ''',  March 9th, 2006.
** ''RECAP:''  ???


===issue # '''29''':5===
*  ''' "Unclean Getaways" ''',  March 30th, 2006.
** ''RECAP:''  ???


===issue # '''30''':5===
*  ''' "Dead Reckoning" ''',  March 16th, 2006. ''[SPECIAL Saturday game-day swith]''
** ''RECAP:''  ???




==THE AMERICAN GODS==
* '''[[Back Issue Bin - Arc 1]]''':  '''IN GOD WE TRUST'''
* '''[[Back Issue Bin - Arc 2]]''':  '''HOMECOMINGS'''
* '''[[Back Issue Bin - Arc 3]]''':  '''AMERICA'S MOST WANTED'''
* '''[[Back Issue Bin - Arc 4]]''':  '''HIGH COSTS OF WINNING'''
* '''[[Back Issue Bin - Arc 5]]''':  '''THE MORALITY OF MORTALITY'''
* '''[[Back Issue Bin - Arc 6]]''':  '''AMERICAN NIGHTMARE'''
* '''[[Back Issue Bin - Arc 7]]''':  '''IDIOSYNCRATIC ISSUES'''
----

'''FUTURE ARC IDEAS'''
''The changes we make.  Like, the first three arcs are he "establishing arcs" on some level, setting up the broad strokes of who the characters are and how they interact with the world, and after that we get into the "coming into our own for the first time" arc.

To my mind, that makes it the arc of positive changes and bettering the world before the fifth arc, wherein our enemies fuck us up the ass, only for us to win back to goodness in the sixth arc, but that's me.  

What changes are the survivers making in the world. Not just us but all over. Now that everyone has had time to get home and time for there powers to begin to reveal themselves and to deal with immediate bigotry and then celebrity. Now I think its about time to see how the survivers are choosing to user their abilitys. Who fades into the wood work who fails tragicly who means well but accomplishes little and who moves mountains and erects great monuments for good or ill. 

Then I think that just as we are realy getting into the groove of trying to make a difference some weird revliation about our origin would but a spin or twist on that of some kind.

The next arc would be about discovery of where we get our powers and what happened to us. Only to have said quest/introspection interuped by villains kicking our butts and what not.''


----
[[The AMERICAN GODS]]