With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)

[Yog]

He knows that an advanced race that exists in a comic book also exists in some form in real life, so it's not that unbelievable.

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No he doesn't. He knows that

1) He has a device that, as far as he can tell, functions similarly, though not identical to, how fictional devices work in comic books. There are a number of differences: it is orange, instead of green, it doesn't have a lantern, it charges off emotions, including those generated by souls / mental engrams of dead people
2) First Ones exist, and at least some of them are incorporeal and/or telepathic
3) People have been abducted from Earth before him

The simplest explanation is that the device he has on his hand is not a lantern ring from the comics, but something made to mimic a lantern ring from the comics, or that he and others around him perceive as a lantern ring from the comics. For all he knows, there's a continent-sized spacewhale hiding in hyperspace that is actually doing the ring impression. This is a simpler explanation, because it doesn't require adding new entities into the picture of the universe.

 

[BoML]

Back to Babylon 5, and it seems Mayan's lecture was a reasonable success...but Babylon!Paul was apparently...busy.

Spoiler: Spoilered for length

I drop down in my seat across from Mayan with a sigh, and… She's glaring at me?

"I didn't realise that you found my talk so offensive."

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She's miffed. Probably expected Babylon!Paul to actually pay attention to what she was talking about. Joke's on her, though...

I roll my eyes, reach down, fabricate copies of the arrest records of my targets and then pass them to her.

She takes them, frowning. "What is this?"

"The people I prevented murdering you, you delightful living target." She blinks. "I felt that as poignant as it would have been for you to die mid-speech, it would probably work out better if a member of the Grey Council didn't have one of her friends killed on Earth by human hands."

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Again, I'm amazed that her tour to Earth went as well as it did in OTL (original timeline).

She opens the charge sheets one after the other, skimming the front sheets before closing them and sitting back.

"Thank you."

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...hmmm, makes me wonder what is going in her head. Though the thanks is appreciated.

"I still want to encourage rapprochement between our species, but it has occurred to me that I did not ask a human what they thought the best approach would be. What do you advise?"

"The only people interested in listening to you right now are people who don't bear a grudge anyway. I haven't really thought about it in any detail, but… Off the top of my head, you could either go to a small colony and work as a literature teacher so the people there can get to know you as an individual, or get a job with a newspaper and write a… Travel log or something."

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And let's be real, her tour in OTL probably didn't really amount to much.

"What is a 'newspaper'?"

I blink. "What?"

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Wow, they really don't even have an equivalent? Makes me wonder if they have a concept for gossip.

"That's a rather deep rabbit-hole."

"And now I understand the words, but not the meaning."

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Get used to it, there are a lot of such available. In just about any Earth language.

She regards me with puzzlement for a moment. "Matthew, what do you think my job is?"

I grin. "Aw, dang. Sick burn."

"It was not my intent to burn you."

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A good question. Does she have a job? And her genuine ignorance in what he means makes sense. Amusingly.

She studies the cover for a moment, and then turns to the first page. "Other colors of Lantern exist?"

"If they do, I haven't seen them."

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You better hope that they don't where you are.

"Because the people who gave them those positions do respect them. They're just a small part of human civilisation as a whole. Look, I-. I get the impression that minbari society is highly regimented. Stratified. There's a clear sense of hierarchy and just about everyone sticks to it."

She waits a moment for me to make my point.

"Yes?"

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*shakes his head* This is the way it has been her whole life. She doesn't see anything wrong with it.

Mayan gasps. She's… Staring at the comic.

"This is a work of fiction."

"Yes."

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Huh, she caught on quick.

"Do you know what the difference between fiction and reality is?"

She drags her eyes up to me. "Yes."

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Ah, that's genuine fear there. I think the implications unsettle her.

"The quote I am referring to is this: 'The difference between reality and fiction is that fiction has to make sense.'" Her language only. "I wear on my hand a device that grants me the powers of its fictional alter-ego, so either a First One is a big fan of twentieth century comics, or we have complete confirmation that the universe we live in is real and not fictional."

I lean a little closer, smiling.

"Because no one with a scrap of talent or skill would write something like this."

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Considering everything so far, you can say goodbye ever being able to make sense of your current situation. Better to just enjoy life as is.

She doesn't manage to focus on me, and her breaths are sharp.

"I think… I think I need to meditate." She nods to herself. "At length."

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You'll be doing that a lot in the days ahead if you stay near Babylon!Paul, Mayan. Better get that special meditation rug ready, and be prepared to shell out money for a new one soonish.

So...next should be that meeting with Psi Cops. Hope they did get that liability form, because the end result of that is going to be...interesting. One way or another.

 

[Mr Zoat]

"writes"
"seriously"
"of what"

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Thank you, corrected.

Again, I'm amazed that her tour to Earth went as well as it did in OTL (original timeline).

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Did we ever find out what canonically happened on her tour?

 

[BoML]

Did we ever find out what canonically happened on her tour?

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Not to my knowledge. I remember seeing a small mention about Mayan trip to Earth and heading back to Minbar, but there was nothing else of note said in the scene.

EDIT

Yeah, the episode in question was "Eyes" in Season 1. Basically, Mayan went to Earth, did her thing for a while, then started a return trip to Babylon 5 to see Delenn, Lennier asks Garibaldi to arrange a security team because of the events during "War Prayer", Garibaldi says he'll handle it. We don't get to see Mayan during the episode. And presumably Mayan goes back to Minbar after her talk with Delenn.

So...based on that, and the fact that there was no public outcry from Delenn about it...it probably went well? Of course, it didn't change the events going on Earth that they were already on the works, but at least Mayan tried.

 

[NightmareWarden]

...huh. I forget, is this the first Paul who's straight-up told someone about the whole "where I came from, this is fiction" thing?

(Ambush Bug Georg is an outlier adn should not be counted.)

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Well... He knows he is mildly safe from the Psicorps due to his ring's protections and the souls in his head. They could get him while he is asleep of course, but he's SUCH an unknown that they are not likely to ambush Paul in a manner that's likely to succeed.

Anyway, perhaps giving Mayan this information will help with the Psicorps problem? Most of the corps has difficulty reading aliens' minds. But they will likely want information from Mayan in the upcoming meeting. She can use this ridiculousness to help Paul out in some coordinated or uncoordinated manner, since the truth wouldn't be viable. Recall how the voices in his head were rolling around options for proceeding with Mayan? Yeah. This is adjacent to those cold, practical options.

 

[Signaller]

...huh. I forget, is this the first Paul who's straight-up told someone about the whole "where I came from, this is fiction" thing?

(Ambush Bug Georg is an outlier adn should not be counted.)

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Constantine and Jade in the paragon timeline; I don't think there was anybody in the Renegade or any other timeline?

 

[markblaze]

I lost track of where I was reading. Does somebody have a bookmark or link about that comment that made a list that kept track about the Alternate Timelines and Realities?

 

[Jankl]

In the first post of this thread there is a link to a post under Spoiler: Omake Index called List of Minor SI variants. It was last updated 19 June 2021, so it doesn't contain the Stargate ones yet since they started 1 February 2024. I would be unsurprised to find that there are readers of this fic who have their own indexes, but I don't know of any current public ones. The TV Tropes one and the Wiki linked on the first post don't appear to contain the sort of index you're looking for. You can search specific threads as a QQ member for keywords though. I might eventually post one, but I haven't gotten around to putting one together. If you can remember chapter titles you can also just open the threadmarks list and do a wordsearch there.

For convenience, here is guide to the Stargate ones I've found:
Starring (part 1) to Starring (part 22) all can be found under the heading of Episode 145: Unreal on the third post of this thread. The next time I'm aware of them coming back up are in chapters Starbate (part 1) to Starbate (part 4), all of which are in Episode 151: Working Relationship.

The Transformers ones:
Start in Episode 120: Krummkreuz with Plus Two (part 1) and Plus Two (part 2)
Continued in Episode 128: Feasibility Study with Transformed (part 1) to Transformed (part 7)
Continued in Episode 145: Unreal with Transformational (part 1) to Transformational (part 4)
Continued in Episode 148: Codominion with Meet The Eye (part 1) to Meet The Eye (part 12)
Continued in Episode 149: Equity with Equity (part 3) and Equity (part 8). The titling convention of this section is different because of the crossover nature of the episode. You can get an idea in the index by going off of the year the chapter takes place in. The Transformers ones are the ones in 2014.

For completeness-sake, here are links to all of the posts for both that I found behind spoilers with the dates and Episodes as given in the index. Please let me know if I missed any or if you have other corrections.

Spoiler: Stargate

Episode 145: Unreal
14th August 2013
Starring (part 1)
Starring (part 2)
Starring (part 3)
27th August 2013
Starring (part 4)
Starring (part 5)
Ten Years Later
Starring (part 6)
Three Years Later
Starring (part 7)
Starring (part 8)
Two Months Later
Starring (part 9)
Two Seasons Later
Starring (part 10)
Three Days Later
Starring (part 11)
Starring (part 12)
About a Month Later
Starring (part 13)
Starring (part 14)
Starring (part 15)
9th October 1999
Starring (part 16)
Starring (part 17)
Starring (part 18)
Starring (part 19)
Starring (part 20)
11 October 1999
Starring (part 21)
Starring (part 22)

Episode 151: Working Relationship
3rd November 1999
Starbate (part 1)
5th November 1999
Starbate (part 2)
12th November 1999
Starbate (part 3)
Starbate (part 4)

Spoiler: Transformers

Episode 120: Krummkreuz
21st May 2013
Plus Two (part 1)
21st May 2013
Plus Two (part 2)

Episode 128: Feasibility Study
16th October 2013
Transformed (part 1)
Transformed (part 2)
Transformed (part 3)
17th October 2013
Transformed (part 4)
25th October 2013
Transformed (part 5)
Transformed (part 6)
Transformed (part 7)

Episode 145: Unreal
5th February 2014
Transformational (part 1)
Transformational (part 2)
Transformational (part 3)
Transformational (part 4)

Episode 148: Codominion
14th June 2014
Meet The Eye (part 1)
Meet The Eye (part 2)
15th June 2014
Meet The Eye (part 3)
22nd June 2014
Meet The Eye (part 4)
Meet The Eye (part 5)
28th June 2014
Meet The Eye (part 6)
Meet The Eye (part 7)
12th July 2014
Meet The Eye (part 8)
13th July 2014
Meet The Eye (part 9)
Meet The Eye (part 10)
15th July 2014
Meet The Eye (part 11)
Meet The Eye (part 12)

Episode 149: Equity
16th July 2014
Equity (part 3)
Equity (part 8)

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Heh, here we go again. I hope this has all you need. There is probably a lot more like the brimstone universe chapters. Like this one. Post in thread 'With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)' https://forum.questionablequesting....-justice-si-thread-fourteen.8938/post-6146211

 

[Chaoswind]

...huh. I forget, is this the first Paul who's straight-up told someone about the whole "where I came from, this is fiction" thing?

(Ambush Bug Georg is an outlier adn should not be counted.)

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Paul told Constantine and later explained to him at length when Constantine somehow misunderstood some parts of it.

The renegade may have told the woman with no destiny, he told her an awful lot of mind bending shit to that poor old lady, I think because she reminded him of his nan.

Edit: Oh yeah Paul also told Jade, but no one really cares about that romance plot, probably one of the parts of the fic that least interest me. Zoat has tried to make the mundane ninja assassin an interesting and relevant part of the fic, but all I see when she is around is all the missed opportunities and extra drama different relationships could have brought to the fic.

 

[Vaermina]

No he doesn't. He knows that

1) He has a device that, as far as he can tell, functions similarly, though not identical to, how fictional devices work in comic books. There are a number of differences: it is orange, instead of green, it doesn't have a lantern, it charges off emotions, including those generated by souls / mental engrams of dead people
2) First Ones exist, and at least some of them are incorporeal and/or telepathic
3) People have been abducted from Earth before him

The simplest explanation is that the device he has on his hand is not a lantern ring from the comics, but something made to mimic a lantern ring from the comics, or that he and others around him perceive as a lantern ring from the comics. For all he knows, there's a continent-sized spacewhale hiding in hyperspace that is actually doing the ring impression. This is a simpler explanation, because it doesn't require adding new entities into the picture of the universe.

Click to shrink...

^^This.

People always seem to forget that Zoat Power Rings work distinctly different from actual Power Rings.