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

Yog · 2026-10-11T09:40:02+0100

Darko said:
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.

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 · 2026-10-11T09:46:34+0100

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

Mr Zoat said:
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."

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

Mr Zoat said:
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."

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

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

"Thank you."

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

Mr Zoat said:
"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."

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

Mr Zoat said:
"What is a 'newspaper'?"

I blink. "What?"

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

Mr Zoat said:
"That's a rather deep rabbit-hole."

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

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

Mr Zoat said:
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."

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

Mr Zoat said:
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."

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

Mr Zoat said:
"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?"

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

Mr Zoat said:
Mayan gasps. She's… Staring at the comic.

"This is a work of fiction."

"Yes."

Huh, she caught on quick.

Mr Zoat said:
"Do you know what the difference between fiction and reality is?"

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

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

Mr Zoat said:
"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."

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.

Mr Zoat said:
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."

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 · 2026-10-11T09:56:00+0100

Darko said:
"writes"
"seriously"
"of what"

Thank you, corrected.

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

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

BoML · 2026-10-11T10:29:25+0100

Mr Zoat said:
Did we ever find out what canonically happened on her tour?

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 · 2026-10-11T10:33:54+0100

BR549 said:
...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.)

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 · 2026-10-11T10:46:54+0100

BR549 said:
...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.)

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

markblaze · 2026-10-11T10:50:18+0100

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 · 2026-10-11T11:04:07+0100

m_d said:
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.

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)

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)

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 · 2026-10-11T13:09:43+0100

BR549 said:
...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.)

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 · 2026-10-11T17:20:02+0100

Yog said:
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.

^^This.

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

Darko · 2026-10-11T19:18:14+0100

Vaermina said:
^^This.

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

Except not really, since what power rings are capable of doing has changed a lot over the years.

teikan · 2026-10-11T19:34:16+0100

Junior pulls some kind of spray can out of the wall cabinet and sprays it onto his injured leg.

The aforementioned possibility of cloudy skies with a chance of meatball exhibitions is authorized.

Having a cutie mark is not a prerequisite for possessing this talent.

Not how it works.

Frozen20XX said:
because we don't see them
spike stone
99% of the magic was gone.
Unfortunately.

ok

Silverstream was a princess... the rest were pretty much just random civilians. Heck, Gallus was living on the streets prior to the School of Friendship being founded.

Galus lives with that old gryphon who handles affairs on behalf of the gryphons (I don't remember his title).
P.S. I forgot that Grampa Gruff isn't called the leader of the griffons in the show itself—only on a collectible card of questionable canon status...

When Spike appeared in G5, he actually seemed baffled that the ponies lost magic, implying that either it wasn't apart of the -proposed- plan or somehow every race

Or he assumed that the ponies wouldn't start fighting without any reason.[/QUOTE]

Vaermina · 2026-10-11T21:01:08+0100

Darko said:
Except not really, since what power rings are capable of doing has changed a lot over the years.

General reminder that in canon DC comics power rings aren't capable of flying at near lightspeed in atmosphere, or transmuting matter into other things, or hacking into computers.

They also aren't capable of using their "ring AI" to bypass the "you have to be able to mentally envision what you're doing" requirements of creating constructs.

Frozen20XX · 2026-10-11T21:21:55+0100

teikan said:
Galus lives with that old gryphon who handles affairs on behalf of the gryphons (I don't remember his title).
P.S. I forgot that Grampa Gruff isn't called the leader of the griffons in the show itself—only on a collectible card of questionable canon status...

I think if he did, he'd probably have been with Gruff during the festival rather than outside.

Or he assumed that the ponies wouldn't start fighting without any reason.

Fair.

A Headcanon of mine had been Twilight's plan was "Hide the magic temporarily so she can't steal it and get more powerful like Tirek did" and she at least planned to returning all the magic after Opaline was defeated. Obviously she failed and after she hid Equestria from Opaline, the magic remained stuck in the species respective crystals.

markblaze · 2026-10-11T23:16:58+0100

Jankl said:
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

Thank you so so much. Yes that is very useful, helped me out a bunch. That's my fault for not reading the first page. I missed it, or forgot about it. It's been a while since I've been on this thread.

Man, that list is very useful. It's very easy to get lost in this thread. It'd be great if that list is Threadmarked or something, or indexed? It'd be easier for people who aren't tuning in every chapter.

Darko · 2026-10-12T05:59:35+0100

Vaermina said:
General reminder that in canon DC comics power rings aren't capable of flying at near lightspeed in atmosphere, or transmuting matter into other things, or hacking into computers.

They also aren't capable of using their "ring AI" to bypass the "you have to be able to mentally envision what you're doing" requirements of creating constructs.

Again, they literally change what rings are capable of doing all the time.

Welcome to comic books.

Mr Zoat · 2026-10-12T06:16:49+0100

12th October 2013
17:24 GMT -5

The door opens and Kal-El strides through, clearly distraught. "Is it true?"

I gesture through the observation window to where Dr. Balewa is carefully examining Senator Finch. "The report I submitted was accurate at the time of writing, sir."

He stares through the window-. And from the way his eyes are focusing, he's using one of his alternate visual modes. After a moment he lowers his eyes and shakes his head.

"I can't even see where she ends and those creature start. I assume some sort of.. banishment, isn't safe?"

"We don't know. There's literally no reports on this sort of elemental other than the one Blue Lantern and I wrote, and we didn't know very much."

He shakes his head in disbelief. "And they're all in the cells?"

"Yes. Every one we've checked for infestation and found clear has insisted that they got involved voluntarily."

"But we're still holding them."

"They didn't declare it." He gives me a mild frown. "They would be obliged to, at the very least. And of course we're concerned about spiritual and mental contamination. Best case as far as I can see is that they just… Jumped out of the woodwork and started controlling them."

He shakes his head. "Great Krypton. What does this do to the U.S. government?"

"Nothing? The remaining elected officials can still hold debates and vote on things. A few committees will need to be reshuffled, and all of the… Governors usually nominate replacements, don't they?"

"We just had an election."

"If it makes you feel any better, none of the new intake were involved in this. "

"So… We have another election? If it's different states-."

I hold up my right hand. "I.. said the new intake wasn't involved, not that the states they got elected in weren't involved."

"I suppose if the runners up were from the same party, they could take the job. At least it would be some kind of democratic process."

I smile innocently at him. "But have you considered..? Monarchy?"

"Ah-hah." He looks slightly cheered up, so I suppose that half-worked. "The people of America might be pretty disappointed in the institution and the people occupying it, but I don't think they'll ever give up on the principle."

"You know, you did come third in the last presidential election."

"I didn't win any states, and I only got electoral college votes as a publicity stunt."

"Why do you still use that?"

He frowns at me. "Are you..? Telling me we should abandon a tradition just because it's out of date and doesn't make any sense?"

"… No…"

"Didn't think so. You got any ideas on how we could… Mitigate this?"

"Well, I did cure Alzheimer's."

He raises his eyebrows, "You did?"

"My device treats the symptoms, anyway. And it's just about good enough to start limited trials. The only idea I've got right now is to have American legislature announce some sort of accelerated trial period. Or skip it completely."

"That's a bit of a risk. Clinical trials exist for a reason."

"Then… Some sort of radical anti-this legislation? Say it was in response to the Anti-Life, but that this just underlines why it's necessary? Alan would probably be quite annoyed with me if I suggested bringing back the House Un-American Activities Committee, but-"

"I think he would."

"-we can just ask Uncle Sam to give everyone the once-over. Can't get more American than Uncle Sam."

"I…" He sighs. "I guess we can think about it. I suppose a procedural change would be easier than amending the Constitution."

"I don't know. Lincoln rushed a constitutional change through before the states reorganised, and that one is generally considered to have gone pretty well."

Through the glass we watch as Dr. Balewa moves his hands, and… The worms squirm out of Senator Finch's body before crawling across the floor to hide in the corner of the room. That doesn't seem to cause the woman herself any particular distress.

"Doctor Mist?"

"I should be able to remove the worms with little difficulty." He sighs in irritation. "But theyah is some other magic heyah, and it is… Confounding me."

"What does it do?"

"The worm Miss Zatanna killed, there was little human blood. Neither did the creature store it either physically or as magic energy. Then where did eet go?"

"To Senator Finch?"

"No. Thet is not the case."

Oh no…

I walk over and press the 'talk' button as… Her eye stalks.. wiggle.. back inside her head, revealing her normal human eyes,

"Senator Finch, you were offering the worms the blood of traitors?"

"As… Penance. We were traitors. We are.. trying to be patriots."

"Orange Lantern?"

"The Tree of Liberty."

"Ah…"

"It exists in the Heartland. I watered it under Uncle Sam's instruction. He made a joke about where the blood came from. Even said that it could be literal blood. There were loads of worms in the Heartland the first time we visited. We didn't find any this time. But we didn't check his shed."

"Uncle… Sam..?" Kal-El frowns, shaking his head. "That… Doesn't sound…"

"No, there's almost certainly something else going on there. But we need to check. Doctor Mist-."

"I could open a portal, but I will be busy here."

"That's fine, Zatanna's still around. Superman, do you want to come?"

He nods firmly. "Yeah. I think I need to."

CrazyNoVa · 2026-10-12T06:22:48+0100

This just occured to me, but does Krypton have an Uncle Sam equivalent? I mean, is there like a personification of Krypton out there somewhere?

Darko · 2026-10-12T06:24:05+0100

Mr Zoat said:
and all of then… Governors

"of them"

Mr Zoat said:
He frowns at me. "Are you..? Telling me we should abandon a tradition just because it's out of date and doesn't make any sense?"

"… No

Most of Britain is basically an out of date tradition that doesn't make sense.

Mr Zoat said:
Uncle… Sam..?" Kal-El frowns, shaking his head. "That… Doesn't sound…"

Ahh, crap.

So either Sam isn't all that good, or the worms somehow hijacked his blood supply and the blood he's using is actually hurting the tree.

Z000 · 2026-10-12T06:25:34+0100

as an Asian

what is going on here, i don't grok American-ism

McGraww · 2026-10-12T06:26:15+0100

CrazyNoVa said:
This just occured to me, but does Krypton have an Uncle Sam equivalent? I mean, is there like a personification of Krypton out there somewhere?

It may not have had one since IIRC Krypton was a low-magic planet.

But if there was one, Krypton's explosion and the death of the vast majority of the species probably killed it.

CrazyNoVa · 2026-10-12T06:26:59+0100

Vaermina said:
General reminder that in canon DC comics power rings aren't capable of flying at near lightspeed in atmosphere, or transmuting matter into other things, or hacking into computers.

Yes, they absolutely can. We've already seen several times in the comics that lanterns can keep up with speed force users, and opponents who have shown that they can move faster than light.

Furthermore, they can transmute matter, replace organs/body parts, and hack computers too. They've been able to do that since the silver age.

GigaVanguard · 2026-10-12T06:30:57+0100

Z000 said:
as an Asian

what is going on here, i don't grok American-ism

There's a lot going on here, what in particular confuses you? The various references to mechanisms of the American government, the other references to American history, the analogous metaphors of the Heartland?

BR549 · 2026-10-12T06:31:32+0100

Z000 said:
as an Asian

what is going on here, i don't grok American-ism

In DC comics, there's another dimension called the Heartlands. IIRC, it's kinda part of the Dream? It's a mirror, a reflection, in this case of America and what it hopes, intends, to stand for, strive for. It's...not ruler, but Most Important Personage is Uncle Sam, who is...well. Uncle Sam, the personification of America. (In the past, Paul & Co. helped save Sam from his evil twin, Johnny Reb, who is exactly what you think he is.)

Recently, Paul & Co. visited again to give the new recruits an experience in a relatively safe part of the weird and wonderful DC multiverse, and there we were shown the Tree of Liberty. IRL, there is a saying that the Tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of patriots and traitors; in the Heartlands, that is very literal. Given the Heartlands runs on Dream logic, Paul thought nothing of it.

Except now the Worms - which are the Heartlands' representation of political corruption - are manifesting in the real world, and the...Head Worm Cultist, for want of a better term, at least believes that they were providing the Blood of Traitors, via the Worms, to water the Heartlands' Tree of Liberty.

Needless to say, this has raised Concerns.

The Froggy Ninja · 2026-10-12T06:34:04+0100

McGraww said:
It may not have had one since IIRC Krypton was a low-magic planet.

But if there was one, Krypton's explosion and the death of the vast majority of the species probably killed it.

Is that true? I could have sworn they had an active pantheon and possibly magical tradition. There was that whole bit where Despair had apparently convinced Rao to set up the whole "last son of Krypton" thing as an art piece. As in, as far back as convincing Rao to bring about life on an unstable planet in the first place.

KharnTheBrotrayer · 2026-10-12T06:46:48+0100

BR549 said:
Johnny Reb

CHECKMATE LINCOLNITES!

Chojin Patriarch · 2026-10-12T06:55:46+0100

Mr Zoat said:
12th October 2013
17:24 GMT -5

The door opens and Kal-El strides through, clearly distraught. "Is it true?"

I gesture through the observation window to where Dr. Balewa is carefully examining Senator Finch. "The report I submitted was accurate at the time of writing, sir."

Oh boy. One of the most awkward conversations yet is about to ensue, I think. Supes is pretty confident in the whole democratic process, and something like this is going to hurt that for sure...

He stares through the window-. And from the way his eyes are focusing, he's using one of his alternate visual modes. After a moment he lowers his eyes and shakes his head.

"I can't even see where she ends and those creature start. I assume some sort of.. banishment, isn't safe?"

X-ray vision, presumably, scanning her under the skin. So presumably the worm's burrowing is somehow metaphysical, not purely material.

"We don't know. There's literally no reports on this sort of elemental other than the one Blue Lantern and I wrote, and we didn't know very much."

He shakes his head in disbelief. "And they're all in the cells?"

Unless someone didn't show up on the scans for the summoning glyphs...

"Yes. Every one we've checked for infestation and found clear has insisted that they got involved voluntarily."

"But we're still holding them."

Because mind-altering effects can easily convince someone they chose to use it themselves.

"They didn't declare it." He gives me a mild frown. "They would be obliged to, at the very least. And of course we're concerned about spiritual and mental contamination. Best case as far as I can see is that they just… Jumped out of the woodwork and started controlling them."

There had to be some sort of initial contact, negotiation for the whole blood drain thing and some kind of reward for doing so... Ask them what they got out of it.

He shakes his head. "Great Krypton. What does this do to the U.S. government?"

"Nothing? The remaining elected officials can still hold debates and vote on things. A few committees will need to be reshuffled, and all of then… Governors usually nominate replacements, don't they?"

I suspect they'd rather not require another round of elections.

"We just had an election."

"If it makes you feel any better, none of the new intake were involved in this. "

Which is telling. I guess they haven't had time to be inducted into this thing.

"So… We have another election? If it's different states-."

I hold up my right hand. "I.. said the new intake wasn't involved, not that the states they got elected in weren't involved."

Because in the American system, every state has multiple representatives at both levels.

"I suppose if the runners up were from the same party, they could take the job. At least it would be some kind of democratic process."

I smile innocently at him. "But have you considered..? Monarchy?"

And who the heck would get picked as the first King of America?

"Ah-hah." He looks slightly cheered up, so I suppose that half-worked. "The people of America might be pretty disappointed in the institution and the people occupying it, but I don't think they'll ever give up on the principle."

"You know, you did come third in the last presidential election."

Sadly, pretty sure he's ineligible due to not being born in-country. Depends on particular version, but this one arrived as an infant, I think?

"I didn't win any states, and I only got electoral college votes as a publicity stunt."

"Why do you still use that?"

It started out as a way to manage the process, I understand. A sort of secondary filter against bad actors?

He frowns at me. "Are you..? Telling me we should abandon a tradition just because it's out of date and doesn't make any sense?"

"… No…"

Hard to stand up to that disappointed frown.

"Didn't think so. You got any ideas on how we could… Mitigate this?"

"Well, I did cure Alzheimer's."

A little besides the point? Failing to see the relevance here.

He raises his eyebrows, "You did?"

"My device treats the symptoms, anyway. And it's just about good enough to start limited trials. The only idea I've got right now is to have American legislature announce some sort of accelerated trial period. Or skip it completely."

"That's a bit of a risk. Clinical trials exist for a reason."

Put it into use, and treat the first-adopters as the clinical trials?

"Then… Some sort of radical anti-this legislation? Say it was in response to the Anti-Life, but that this just underlines why it's necessary? Alan would probably be quite annoyed with me if I suggested bringing back the House Un-American Activities Committee, but-"

Given they drove him and his colleagues out of the public eye in the first place...

"I think he would."

"-we can just ask Uncle Sam to give everyone the once-over. Can't get more American that Uncle Sam."

But that still counts on Uncle Sam being uncorrupted. I know he had a big fight with his own corrupted counterpart, but who's to say part of that one doesn't still linger in him?

"I…" He sighs. "I guess we can think about it. I suppose a procedural change would be easier than amending the Constitution."

"I don't know. Lincoln rushed a constitutional change through before the states reorganised, and that one is generally considered to have gone pretty well."

I don't think you're gonna pull a fast one like that again.

Through the glass we watch as Dr. Balewa moves his hands, and… The worms squirm out of Senator Finch's body before crawling across the floor to hide in the corner of the room. That doesn't seem to cause the woman herself any particular distress.

"Doctor Mist?"

Well, at least they're out of her. Maybe now they can get some solid answers.

"I should be able to remove the worms with little difficulty." He sighs in irritation. "But theyah is some other magic heyah, and it is… Confounding me."

"What does it do?"

He must be annoyed, his accent usually isn't that strong.

"The worm Miss Zatanna killed, there was little human blood. Neither did the creature store it either physically or as magic energy. Then where did eet go?"

"To Senator Finch?"

"No. Thet is not the case."

...Then to somewhere else. A certain garden shed in a certain magical realm, perhaps...

Oh no…

I walk over and press the 'talk' button as… Her eye stalks.. wiggle.. back inside her head, revealing her normal human eyes,

Still gross. Eye stuff always icks me.

"Senator Finch, you were offering the worms the blood of traitors?"

"As… Penance. We were traitors. We are.. trying to be patriots."

Oh, yes. That wording makes it quite clear, doesn't it?

"Orange Lantern?"

"The Tree of Liberty."

"Ah…"

As a journalist, Supes probably recognises the literary reference.

"It exists in the Heartland. I watered it under Uncle Sam's instruction. He made a joke about where the blood came from. Even said that it could be literal blood. There were loads of worms in the Heartland the first time we visited. We didn't find any this time. But we didn't check his shed."

So he's got them... gathered up, sends them out to feed on folks like the senators here and stores the blood gained to water the tree. I suppose it's one way to make good use of them?

"Uncle… Sam..?" Kal-El frowns, shaking his head. "That… Doesn't sound…"

"No, there's almost certainly something else going on there. But we need to check. Doctor Mist-."

"I could open a portal, but I will be busy here."

Probably for the best as he isn't an American citizen, so him poking a portal into the Heartland might meet resistance.

"That's fine, Zatanna's still around. Superman, do you want to come?"

He nods firmly. "Yeah. I think I need to."

Although Doctor Mist's expertise might be more useful, Uncle Sam might get along better with such a popular figure.

This is going to be an interesting meeting. Somehow, I get the feeling that even if Sam is involved in the whole 'worms draining senators' blood' thing, it might turn out this wasn't his first choice, but since America isn't involved in a war in-universe right now... It's gotta come from somewhere. And if this lady instigated it, maybe he took advantage of the circumstances.

BR549 · 2026-10-12T07:08:18+0100

Chojin Patriarch said:
It started out as a way to manage the process, I understand. A sort of secondary filter against bad actors?

As I understand it, one of the main points of the College was to ensure that you couldn't have a situation where, say, back in the Thirteen Colonies days, somebody could have campaigned from Boston to Philadelphia and nowhere else, won because the majority of the nation's population was in that belt, and when representatives from Virginia, the Carolinas, New Hampshire, etc. came to discuss things they could be told by the new President that he didn't need them to get elected and wouldn't need them to get re-elected so they could all go and pound sand. With the College, a candidate would at least have to pay lip service to the concerns of the citizens of every state, because every state could be the one whose electoral votes tipped the scales.

(Of course, whether this, and the College itself, is still relevant or not runs into Rule 8 like Wile E. Coyote into a painted tunnel mouth...)

khansy · 2026-10-12T07:09:03+0100

Vaermina said:
General reminder that in canon DC comics power rings aren't capable of flying at near lightspeed in atmosphere, or transmuting matter into other things, or hacking into computers.

They also aren't capable of using their "ring AI" to bypass the "you have to be able to mentally envision what you're doing" requirements of creating constructs.

Why do you say things that are easily disproven with a single Google search? How have you not gotten a threadban just for being a pest at this point? Why cant everyone wise up and ignore you so I dont see their responses to your asinine posts?

Those are the real questions we need answered.

PeriodicPedant · 2026-10-12T07:27:22+0100

Mr Zoat said:
few committees will need to be reshuffled, and all of then… Governors usually nominate replacements, don't they?"

?

Mr Zoat said:
"Are you..? Telling me we should abandon a tradition just because it's out of date and doesn't make any sense?"

"… No…"

snerk.

Mr Zoat said:
Can't get more American that Uncle Sam."

than

Mr Zoat said:
"As… Penance. We were traitors. We are.. trying to be patriots."

"Orange Lantern?"

"The Tree of Liberty."

*looks 1 quote back*
... oh dear.

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

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