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

Discussion in 'Creative Writing' started by Mr Zoat, Jan 27, 2019.

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  1. Grek

    Grek (she/her)

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    Have we considered the possibility that something in the town just so happens to be increasing people's psychic sensitivity, and that Nigel here either got an extra strong dose of it (maybe he lives near the source?) or was already high on the bell curve before exposure and developed actual telepathy as a result.
     
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  2. Siskulous

    Siskulous Know what you're doing yet?

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    I dunno. Not easy to manage with a hunting or trap shotgun, true, but in the US we have some pretty short-barreled shotguns designed for home defense and stuff. And that doesn't even take into account commonish illegal modifications like sawed-offs. And even without all that some people are long enough in the arm to pull it off without too much effort. Depending on the specific shotgun it could raise no eyebrows at all.
     
    Last edited: Nov 7, 2019
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  3. Tylorsama

    Tylorsama Your first time is always over so quickly, isn't it?

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    So controlling your own thoughts and briefly convincing yourself of a false narrative seems like a viable defense against a telepath you don't want to get suspicious and murdery. I'd suggest Paul deliberately 'thought' about how this kid was 'likely the only one in the state' who could read him to throw off the kids suspicions. A family of telepaths driving the 'ugly' to suicide would fit the pattern, and Paul's oblivious response very neatly diverts them.
     
  4. Ganurath

    Ganurath Apologizes For Nothing

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    Wasn't there recent Grayven stuff that indicated that if you induce telepathy in humans, you're gonna have a bad time?
     
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  5. Buggy123

    Buggy123 I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    That's only if you use well-understood, repeatable techniques like technology. If you use magic bullshit sufficiently advanced alien technology or magical mentality-open-sesame it'll work without a hitch.

    Once.

    Can't have that status quo change too much by making everyone telepathic, of course.
     
  6. Gantradies

    Gantradies Not too sore, are you?

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    technically the murderer was Hera. she hijacked his body whilst he was asleep and used it to murder his entire family/ drove him temporally insane,goaded him into attacking them, then fudged his memory afterwards (though the outcome/intent was identical- He wasn't responsible), because she was canonically a sadistic, petty, gutless wonder who took her frustrations out on her husband's victims >.<

    in my view, the true tragedy was he went through his entire life, wasted so much time and effort,blood and suffering trying to atone for a crime that was actually committed by someone else-someone who, by the nature of the world, was above facing consequences/justice for their actions..

    technically, that's artifically inducing it in adults- i think he said something about the changes being easier/much safer in children/genetically done before conception...
     
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2019
  7. nick012000

    nick012000 Gone for Good

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    Fun fact: one time, after Hercules flipped out and killed a guy, the local queen sentenced him to spending a year as her personal slave as his punishment. She promptly forced him to crossdress and perform women's work, while going around wearing his armor and carrying his weapons. After the year was over, he promptly married her.
     
  8. Threadmarks: Sprited Away (part 11)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    18th February
    10:34 GMT -6


    I watch the cars as they shoot past on the way to somewhere with a lower suicide rate.

    "…founded in nineteen twenty two. Before that, it was basically just a train station and refuelling point."

    "And the deaths?"

    "As far as I can tell, it's always been like this. There were 'unexplained deaths' back to the founding. Before that, actually. In eighteen seventy, a train arrived in the next station along with its whole crew dead. According to the story I found, it looked like they'd been partially eaten."

    "Wolves?"

    "Getting on a moving train? Crewed by Americans with guns?"

    "Anything before that?"

    "Nothing that made the papers. But that was fifty years before there was officially a town here. They don't have all of the issues. You find anything?"

    "One telepath with antisocial tendencies. But he's not a hundred and forty years old, and as far as I could see didn't want people dead."

    "How 'antisocial' are we talking, here?"

    "I couldn't see any desires relating to other people at all."

    "I've been trying to read up on human telepaths, but there aren't really any good studies."

    "The best estimate I saw was that there are probably about a thousand people with some level of telepathic ability on Earth, of whom maybe a tenth are decent generalist telepaths. But that's extrapolated from a relatively small sample, and… Well, by definition, police can only study failed criminals. If a powerful, competent telepath didn't want to be noticed, they wouldn't be."

    "So what do we do about him?"

    "I'll tell Mister King when we're finished, ask him to do a home visit. He didn't exactly sound happy, but if he's managed this long then I doubt we need to prioritise him."

    "Unless he knows something. If he's been hearing people's thoughts since puberty -or longer- then there's a chance that he's been around some of the… Victims? Is that the word?"

    "If something external to them is causing it, yes. And.. that might explain his unusual behaviour. He did say that one of the victims was one of his classmates. But even Mister King ended up in an asylum. There's plenty of opportunity for telepathy to cause neurosis without external assistance."

    I look over to where Garth is finishing up. Since we're out of sight of the townsfolk he's taking the opportunity to draw out a runic working on the ground. He spots me looking at him and shakes his head as he rubs his foot on the ground to erase the physical traces of it. Darn. Given the number of people who had killed themselves around here I'd hoped that we'd get something beyond the road signs referencing the figure and pleading people to drive carefully.

    "Have you found any links between the victims?"

    "No statistically significant family links, geographic links, ethnicity, religion… The age thing looks like it should be significant, but I can't work out why."

    "Any survivors?"

    "A few. Most of them sort of shut down, except to have another go. The last one died of malnutrition, over a decade ago." There's a pause. "I think I need a new hobby."

    "Are you finished where you are?"

    "I think so, yes."

    "Do you think you could speak to the family of that last survivor? See if they said something that didn't mean anything to their caretakers but would mean something to us?"

    "Leonid and I don't exactly sound American."

    "Are you telling me you can't do accents?"

    "Eh… Kind of. I can do the voice but I don't know enough about actually being an American to really fake it. I could say I'm an exchange student or something..?"

    "Whatever you think best."

    Garth reaches convenient speaking distance.

    "I got an impression of the deaths, but that's it. I think I'm at a dead end as far as magic-based detection is concerned. Unless we trip over something… You will need to ask someone else if you want to investigate this further with magic."

    "Okay. I know this isn't your speciality and I appreciate your efforts so far. Any ideas on another avenue of investigation?"

    "I've been trying to work out who would benefit from something like this. I know that there are magic rituals which are powered by death, but as far as I can tell that isn't happening here. There are monsters who eat people who died in particular circumstances, but most of the bodies we have records for were intact."

    Beryl 'hms' down the phone. "It can't be Star Conquerors because they don't like drawing attention and killing people they could use as hosts isn't productive. It probably isn't G-Oni because Garth can't detect any magic. It's not the Light because… There's no point to it. It doesn't make heroes look bad because no one really knows that it's happening and it doesn't get them anything. Kobra wouldn't mind being able to cause mass suicides, but they didn't come to America until the thirties. Were there any supervillains around here in the nineteenth century?"

    "At least one werewolf pack, but I couldn't name any members. Other than that… No idea. None I've heard of."

    "Sheeda?"

    "Sheeda aren't this subtle. And how would they even get here? The ships haven't arrived. A Mind Killer could do something like this, but these are just random teenagers. They're not people would could meaningfully resist a Harrowing. There's no.. motive that I can see."

    Garth nods. "Maybe it's practice? How would we detect a Mind Killer?"

    "The Sivanas have a device that can reveal them, but as I understand it only the person they're trying to affect can see them otherwise."

    "What do they look like?"

    "A fat humanoid made out of cloud with too many eyes. You're not.. seeing one now, are you?"

    "No." He shakes his head, looking thoughtful. "I take it that they aren't magical?"

    "I haven't seen enough Sheeda technology to know. I don't think so."

    He glances up to where Linda is flying high above us, her magic sense straining to feel anything untoward in the town. "And they don't have souls?"

    "I'm not sure."

    "Do they have their own emotions?"

    "I didn't see any last time, but there are ways to block me and the Sheeda have had a long time to work at it."

    "Yeah." Beryl sounds thoughtful. "Probably worth eliminating them from our enquiries. How hard would it be to get a way to detect them?"

    "I didn't scan the device. I'll have to ask Magnificus if we can borrow it. If he's not too busy, maybe a few minutes." I nod. "I'll go and ask."
     
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2019
  9. Ngamer11

    Ngamer11 Experienced.

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    So close. I hope they get backup from the Sivana family and blow this situation up.
     
  10. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    So, like many, many small towns before the advent of the Automobile and the Freeway.

    Significant, if off-topic for the suicides.

    Unless they were bulletproof or mystical, not likely...

    So he's only seeing a minor unrelated thing. Oh, is his everything going to be red when he realises what's going on...

    Well, that was a letdown. I hope something gets them on the right trail...

    So the tendency towards megalomania, criminal tendencies and/or vigilantism are a benefit to identification? Only in comic books...

    Possible witness? That's one way of thinking about it.

    Honestly, given the likely cause, Magic is probably not going to find anything useful...

    Interesting that they just shut down. The influence malfunctioning without instructions?

    Would they even remember something like that after this long?

    At least OL knows when to let people work things out by themselves.

    So to them, this is looking like a complete waste of time and effort. But that very absence of anything is itself suspicious...

    Would there be records of things like that? Short of some vigilante keeping journals or a newspaper reoprt, there's not much history.

    Argh, so close... But assumptions get in the way.

    I would be worried if he did...

    That probably comes down to how complex a construct they are...

    The joy of dealing with things from millions of years in the future...

    Remind me, Magnificus was freed from Sheeda influence here, wasn't he? Or was that in Renegade's timeline.

    Oh, this is painful, like watching someone play a video game badly. When you know exactly what's going on, but you can't do anything to just tell them about it...
     
  11. Grimnar

    Grimnar Versed in the lewd.

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    Needs something. Another was maybe.
     
  12. Z000

    Z000 If this is trash, then find me in the dumpster

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    wait

    people already figure out the plot

    can some one spoil me please, i hate not knowing
     
  13. RichardWhereat

    RichardWhereat Aia airëa Fëanáro.

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    it's

    Mind Killer? Mind Killer. Or, get this, Pennywise.
     
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  14. Mquz

    Mquz Versed in the lewd.

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    Yeah, this is the timeline where all the Sivanas survived.
     
  15. Mquz

    Mquz Versed in the lewd.

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    Sheeda. This is a storyline where a group of Sheeda crash landed and started affecting the groups around them.
     
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  16. thebishop8

    thebishop8 Umm, ackchyually...

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    He was freed in both.
     
  17. Prince Charon

    Prince Charon Just zis guy, you know?

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    Paul is too rational. He thinks that the Sheeda would need a visible motive to do things like this.
     
  18. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
    Spare a thought for Great Uncle Magnanimous Sivana, killed by a Gnu.
     
  19. Prince Charon

    Prince Charon Just zis guy, you know?

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    Is that canon? It's really hard to tell if you're joking, given some of the stuff that is canon.
     
  20. RichardWhereat

    RichardWhereat Aia airëa Fëanáro.

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    He's joking. Grue didn't trigger until the 2000's.
     
  21. Prince Charon

    Prince Charon Just zis guy, you know?

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    He didn't say 'Grue,' though. He said 'a Gnu.'
     
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  22. Mquz

    Mquz Versed in the lewd.

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    This is a Gnu. It is also known as a wildebeest
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  23. Prince Charon

    Prince Charon Just zis guy, you know?

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    I thought so. Interestingly enough, wildebeests do have some significance in DC canon.
     
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  24. nick012000

    nick012000 Gone for Good

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    The Sheeda are time-travellers, right? It could be a Terminator scenario - kill the mother of the leader of the Resistance before he was born to prevent the Resistance from coming into existence.
     
  25. Handlewithcare

    Handlewithcare Versed in the lewd.

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    Given the numbers of deaths that would mean quite a few messias. All in one small town.
     
  26. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    In theory, that's possible. In practice, they're from so far in the future and Harrowings are so devastating that it's not very likely.
     
  27. Gantradies

    Gantradies Not too sore, are you?

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    the problem is, if its humanities idiotic descendants (im legit running on the assumption of a idiocracy-style cultural degredation at some point in the timeline that lead to the sheeda), he's assuming they HAVE a sensical motive-

    Their entire society is built around actively maintaining a time-loop that causes their critical resource shortages (the stuff about them not being able to reach outside of the Sol system/away from earth is bullshit of the highest degree- if they have time-travel with a controllable destination, they -have- space travel-EVERYTHING moves, and all they'd need to do is do is tweak the admittedly complicated maths they HAVE to be doing to compensate for planetary/galactic motion to change the emergence point towards another planet with exploitable resources)-there are SO many non-temporal incursion-focused derivatives of any system/technology or technique capable of this kind of precision it isnt even funny- propellent-free, zero-hassle ground-to-orbit/deep-space launch is literally the easiest-it'd render pretty much ANY non instantaneous, P2P FTL drive pathetically obselete)

    - the only reason for the harrowings is the entire society having room-temperature/60-70-ish IQ's by modern human standards, or pointless, self-defeating "mwahahaha!"-level joker-style supervillany, where causing damage and hurting people is the only point >.<

    .. or, you know, they went full-on with the whole "nonERP RP-ing being the fucking insane,inscrutibly amoral fae from White wolf's Changling" thing to the point their brains leaked out of their fucking ears onto the floor...

    this is one of the things i could see OL getting genuinely Furious/Exasperated about when he has a decent time period of not putting out fires, planetary, personal and galactic, where he can do in-depth research and planning about the big post-Reach threat to humanity- they're so incredibly STUPID considering the tech and resources they HAVE to allready have at hand to even TRY this... this..idiotic, rube-goldbergian method of propping up their collapsing society/regime when they could just spend a quarter as much effort PROSPECTING a few fo the thousands/millions of uninhabited planets available out- ERGH!

    *with the blankly-confused stare of a freshly-lobotomised Gumby*: ...my brain hurts....
     
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2019
  28. Idkusername

    Idkusername Versed in the lewd.

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    The one thing that irks me here is that people seem to forget Paul already has a memetic defence against telepathy in that any telepathy who try to learn his name immediately pass out, not to mention the other defences he’s put up since then.
     
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  29. Gantradies

    Gantradies Not too sore, are you?

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    ..wasnt that one removed, along with the compulsion stopping him from even thinking of it as "his" ring, or am i miss-remembering a little?

    .. even so, you have to admit, allowing a telepath you've literally just met AND who's, at best, mentally/emotionally off-kilter due to a case of "Psycho-mantis" syndrome (minus the psychic "burn-in" of a dying serial killer partially overwriting his personality, i mean) free reign to peek into/ play around inside your brainpan isnt the best of ideas...
     
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  30. Idkusername

    Idkusername Versed in the lewd.

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    Yes, definitely. I never said that qualified in any way as a good decision, just that people forgot about it. And no, Paul didn’t get it removed. He has his ring play a recording of it during conversation as a get-around.
     
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