1. Due to issues with external spam filters, QQ is currently unable to send any mail to Microsoft E-mail addresses. This includes any account at live.com, hotmail.com or msn.com. Signing up to the forum with one of these addresses will result in your verification E-mail never arriving. For best results, please use a different E-mail provider for your QQ address.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. For prospective new members, a word of warning: don't use common names like Dennis, Simon, or Kenny if you decide to create an account. Spammers have used them all before you and gotten those names flagged in the anti-spam databases. Your account registration will be rejected because of it.
    Dismiss Notice
  3. Since it has happened MULTIPLE times now, I want to be very clear about this. You do not get to abandon an account and create a new one. You do not get to pass an account to someone else and create a new one. If you do so anyway, you will be banned for creating sockpuppets.
    Dismiss Notice
  4. If you wish to change your username, please ask via conversation to tehelgee instead of asking via my profile. I'd like to not clutter it up with such requests.
    Dismiss Notice
  5. Due to the actions of particularly persistent spammers and trolls, we will be banning disposable email addresses from today onward.
    Dismiss Notice
  6. A note about the current Ukraine situation: Discussion of it is still prohibited as per Rule 8
    Dismiss Notice
  7. The rules regarding NSFW links have been updated. See here for details.
    Dismiss Notice
  8. The testbed for the QQ XF2 transition is now publicly available. Please see more information here.
    Dismiss Notice

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

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

Loading...
  1. Pinklestia

    Pinklestia Well worn.

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2015
    Messages:
    5,552
    Likes Received:
    29,970
    The Black Light Paul is gonna be trouble.
     
    gustyeagle and Cuchulin like this.
  2. Threadmarks: Elsewhen
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2016
    Messages:
    14,694
    Likes Received:
    728,915
    28th June 2007
    04:00 GMT


    "You're out of uniform, recruit!"

    Locating Lantern Kilowog's class was easy. Hardly any of Oa was inhabited, so it was just a matter of scanning for Lanterns anywhere other than the Citadel or its immediate surroundings. Gardner's description of him hadn't ever really conveyed his bulk.

    She raises her eyebrows slightly.

    "I assumed that the uniform selection was a training exercise. With sufficient willpower power rings will generate just about anything."

    Or not generate something, because you're perfectly happy with the clothes you're wearing. Though she realised after reviewing Kilowog's students that their various uniforms are all lacking an actual Lantern Corps insignia, each having some variation on a white circle where one should be. She's just copied Alan and used a picture of a carriage lantern.

    Kilowog regards her for a moment.

    "You figure that out all by yourself, recruit?"

    "No, I've had two years' training from a man who's been a Green Lantern for over sixty years. The only reason I came to Oa at all was so that my ring would stop nagging me about it."

    "What Sector-? Two Eight One Four? That's Jordan and Gardner. They're not veterans."

    "No, but Green Lantern Alan Scott-" The construct of her mentor appears in front of him. "-is."

    Kilowog's eyes glow faintly, his ring presumably updating him on the situation on Earth.

    "No one called 'Alan Scott' has ever been part of the Green Lantern Corps."

    "If you don't bother keeping track of who gets your rings, you shouldn't be surprised when their names aren't in your database. I've worked hard to impress him."

    "If you wanna pass my class, poozer, you should work on impressing me."

    "But if I don’t want to pass your class -and I don't- then I don't have to impress you."

    Kilowog shrugs. "Sure, you can quit. All you gotta do is hand in your ring."

    She shakes her head. "I know perfectly well this class isn't compulsory."

    "Ah…" One of the other recruits, an alien from a species who resemble naga, nervously raises his upper right arm. "This isn't compulsory?"

    Kilowog's jaw tenses in obvious irritation. "Not if you don't mind dyin' real early."

    Jade senses weakness. Kilowog must have access to her logs and reports, which means that he already knows that she's competent at the very least. He can't have his authority undermined in front of his class, but has no way to know precisely how capable she is. Her ring has already told her that he's a veteran. Beating him might be difficult, but the Green Lantern Corps wouldn't expect a Sector Lantern to be able to reliably beat a member of their Honour Guard anyway.

    On the other hand, if they don't know what Earth is like…

    She smiles, challengingly. "No. The closest thing Jordan got to lessons was a few months following Sinestro around after he'd already had his ring for over a year. I honestly thought that Gardner got singled out for special treatment."

    Gardner hasn't woken up from his coma yet, though the rest of his injuries are well on their way to mending. She remembers that he told her that he'd been trained by Lantern Kilowog, and appeared to genuinely respect him. Mocking him-.

    There's a slight movement in Kilowog's jaw which her ring's body language analysis program tells her is a sign of irritation amongst his species. Excellent.

    "Hal took part in some of my lessons but frankly I wasn't impressed."

    "Not impressed, huh?"

    "Only a fraction of the inhabited worlds in my Sector have faster than light communications. I spent most of the last month transporting panic buttons to planetary capitals, something which he'd never bothered to do. There aren't any extraplanetary extradition agreements, no agreements on what legal power Green Lanterns actually have while on any particular world and he hadn't even introduced himself to more than half of them. Not that Gardner did any better."

    Kilowog leans back, cracking his neck first to the left and then to the right.

    "All right Green Lantern. You trying to convince me that you're ready?"

    "If I have to."

    "One test for you. You ready?"

    She doesn't nod. She keeps staring him in the eyes, her ring analysing his features and microexpressions for a clue as to what he's about to do.

    He floats back slightly, then raises his right arm and generates a fortified wall construct. It's huge, easily a mile tall and three wide, the construct designed to look like solid metal emblazoned with the Green Lantern Corps' symbol.

    "Break my wall, rookie."

    She doesn't believe that she can power through a construct created by a member of the Honour Guard. On the other hand, she's always found it easier to focus on active constructs than passive ones. If this is the whole of the test-.

    Much as she hated him, her time with her father left her instinctively suspicious. And unlike Alan, she doesn't know Lantern Kilowog well enough to suspend that instinct.

    Something is going to happen. But the wall still needs to come down.

    She doesn't move her hands, but a giant drill construct forms in front of her, rotates at steadily increasing speed until it's a conical blur and then slams into the wall.

    Kilowog regards the attack with apparent disinterest as his construct shakes very slightly, tiny flecks of green flaking off the impact point and evaporating. But she's watching closely. Closely enough to spot the iridescent green line dropping down to ground level and creeping towards her. Splitting concentration like that is hard for a Green Lantern; she can do it, but it generally results in unacceptably weak constructs. Multipurpose constructs are generally superior, but she understands why he's doing this. It demonstrates a level skill most of the recent recruits can't hope to duplicate, while simultaneously putting her in her place. And then she'd be ordered to fall in line.

    Unless she actually did break through the wall, but while she's making some progress it isn't going to fall to a construct-attack any time soon.

    And then the green strand leaps up from below, wrapping around her as Kilowog grins-.

    And then the holographic projection fails in a shimmer of grey-blue. Kilowog starts, his grappling construct fading as he loses focus. Her ring floats free in the air for a moment and then flies back towards her actual body. Her armour's stealth system disengages as she flies forward, letting the ring land on her right ring finger as she slams the crumbler gauntlet mounted on her right arm into Kilowog's wall!

    It doesn't fall apart, not completely. That by itself makes her momentarily consider applying for some sort of advanced class, because she's never been able to hold a construct together against a crumbler attack. If they even offer advanced classes. But a hole about ten feet in diameter has evaporated into green vapour, and she's easily able to fly through it.

    And then she folds her arms across her cuirass and waits silently in front of Lantern Kilowog.

    "Huhm."

    He flexes the fingers of his right hand, dismissing the great wall construct. She suspects that he wants to call that cheating, but sour grapes now would destroy his credibility. Grudgingly, he nods.

    "You thought I was going to try something before you got here."

    "I had an interesting childhood."

    "I know your species; at sixteen you're still a child-."

    "Are we done here?"

    "You got through, you pass the cla-."

    The universe cracks, the sky turns red and for a brief moment she sees a vast tuning fork, a red crystal floating between the tines, a hundred copies of her bound to one and a hundred copies of a man she's never met bound to the other.

    She raises a shield-.

    "Acquisition successful."

    And then she sees nothing.
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2019
  3. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2016
    Messages:
    14,694
    Likes Received:
    728,915
    No.
    No.
    Buffy can be talked down if her initial instinctive heart-stake doesn't work.
     
  4. DrThoth

    DrThoth I trust you know where the happy button is?

    Joined:
    Dec 3, 2016
    Messages:
    697
    Likes Received:
    2,975
    Is this a cliffhanger or the plot of the next episode? Because I don't know how long I can wait if it's the former. I'm also not sure who the man is- presumably iterations of the SI, but also possibly John Dee or the man who did the multiple lives thing in the first place? It's been a long time since the segment with Red Queen Jade so I'll have to refresh my memory.
     
  5. thebishop8

    thebishop8 Umm, ackchyually...

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2019
    Messages:
    360
    Likes Received:
    2,255
    The one chapter with Red Queen Jade is here: https://forum.questionablequesting....stice-si-story-only.8961/page-65#post-2686073

    She's doing something with Time Trapper Paul, but we don't know much about it or anything else.
     
  6. Handlewithcare

    Handlewithcare Versed in the lewd.

    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2019
    Messages:
    1,289
    Likes Received:
    12,972
    I have no idea what's going on.

    But it's fun.
     
    JamesEye, Relyt33, Wheenesss and 3 others like this.
  7. Ardy

    Ardy I trust you know where the happy button is?

    Joined:
    Dec 30, 2017
    Messages:
    641
    Likes Received:
    3,464
    I knew this was going to turn into a harem fic the second we switched to QQ!
     
  8. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2019
    Messages:
    2,149
    Likes Received:
    33,428
    And nearly two months late reporting for training. She's been busy, I bet.

    I suspect Alan would have vetoed the last of those costumes. Also, that thing must feel like having her backside flossed... The power armor, however...

    Oh, this is going to be fun. Drill sergeant nasty vs pro-trained sneaky ...

    Heh, Guardians really should have confirmed his position.

    Ah, they would be obstinate about it, I expect.

    Loophole abuse. Gotta love it.

    Only if you're not familiar with Ring use, anyway.

    Oh, are they in for a surprise. And we are in for a treat!

    And Jordan probably only got that because Sinestro or Saalak noticed he hadn't attended Basic.

    Given previous versions of his basic training (like the Movie version) I would not be surprised.

    Ah, I was right, she's been busy. And taking the job seriously, by the looks of it.

    I doubt his disapproval would mean much to her, beyond the Guardians recalling her ring.

    Size isn't everything, you know. It's about how you use it.

    Good idea, Kilowog's kind of sneaky when he wants to be. He just tends to favor brute force, so much so 'his ring is the only one to make a noise' as Jordan put it in Green Lantern Rebirth.

    Playing the dumb rookie move. Nice dissembling.

    Not the micrometer-wide filaments OL favours, though. He isn't that good.

    And that would have been the KO.. if she'd been a rookie.

    Like OL, she's thought about how to use Villain tech, I see. Does she also use Cold guns?

    Nice. Making a statement without a single word. I hope the rookies were paying attention. More likely they're just standing there with jaws (or equivalent) dropped.

    Yeah, he's no idiot. Wouldn't be Honour Guard if he was...

    Heh, this is taking her away from her sector. Though besides Earth, I suspect things are reasonably quiet.

    Buh?! What? What? What the Fuu-...

    Oh, I hope that cliffhanger gets picked up on later. And now I find myself wondering, who's wielding that device...
     
  9. Lucidum

    Lucidum Verifiably Bored

    Joined:
    Jul 14, 2019
    Messages:
    1,239
    Likes Received:
    3,929
    I'm not sure which way is up anymore after recent chapters, but I do know one thing. Paul or one of his iterations will eventually make everything worse better.
     
  10. thebishop8

    thebishop8 Umm, ackchyually...

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2019
    Messages:
    360
    Likes Received:
    2,255
    I just noticed this in the table of contents:
    [​IMG]
     
  11. Twilight666

    Twilight666 I trust you know where the happy button is?

    Joined:
    Oct 5, 2014
    Messages:
    578
    Likes Received:
    2,856
    yeeeeaaah, we are closing in to this year's (2011) April 1st episode: Grayven does Equestria
     
  12. thebishop8

    thebishop8 Umm, ackchyually...

    Joined:
    Jun 25, 2019
    Messages:
    360
    Likes Received:
    2,255
    January of 2012 took 5-6 episodes. We're 6 episodes into February and we're only on the 18th. Expecting to get from February 18th to April 1st in 3-4 episodes seems like a very generous estimate. Not that I take the table of contents as solid proof of anything.
     
    Wheenesss, Cuchulin and Twilight666 like this.
  13. Grimnar

    Grimnar Versed in the lewd.

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2014
    Messages:
    2,114
    Likes Received:
    19,179
    I'm just going to come out and say it... Zoat has a real tone problems. If it didn't tell me it was Jade in story, I would have thought it was OL. Everyone is precisely articulate, and they take efficent actions and it all feels very... samey. Where did the crumbler tech come from? I can buy the decoy, but that? It just smacks of sameness.

    Across dozen of characters nearly everyone has the same style of explanatory talking that I can't quite place, but it's just... samey. They sound and act the same. The only noticable differences is when someone speaks with an accent, but they still have the same underlying syntax, verbal idiosyncrasies aside.
     
  14. Ganurath

    Ganurath Apologizes For Nothing

    Joined:
    Aug 18, 2014
    Messages:
    2,532
    Likes Received:
    20,677
    This being the suspicious absence of Episodes 92 and 93?
     
    Gilhelmi, Silveraith and erebus1994 like this.
  15. Z3r0Sama

    Z3r0Sama Not too sore, are you?

    Joined:
    Sep 13, 2019
    Messages:
    415
    Likes Received:
    5,566
    Oh shush. Anything for some moar o dat delicious Gravy.
     
  16. Sceptic

    Sceptic Critical Irrationalist

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2016
    Messages:
    1,462
    Likes Received:
    9,634
    Time to speculate on what "Bended" might mean?
    Debbie Does Dallas, Grayven Does Equestria.

    Giggity.
     
  17. Sockmonkey

    Sockmonkey I trust you know where the happy button is?

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2016
    Messages:
    579
    Likes Received:
    3,032
    Eh, I think it's that when you aren't actively implementing a speaking style, characters tend to default to sounding like the writer. In this case they sound a teensy bit British, which sticks out a bit to Americans, so it overshadows the rest of the speech patterns. The characters who are actually British sound like different people just fine.
     
  18. iamnuff

    iamnuff Connoisseur.

    Joined:
    Feb 19, 2013
    Messages:
    18,581
    Likes Received:
    80,950
    So where did this jade get crumble-tech from? She meet a version of OL?
     
    Cuchulin likes this.
  19. Sceptic

    Sceptic Critical Irrationalist

    Joined:
    Jan 1, 2016
    Messages:
    1,462
    Likes Received:
    9,634
    Presumably Alexander Tuttle. It is the glove version, after all.
     
  20. iamnuff

    iamnuff Connoisseur.

    Joined:
    Feb 19, 2013
    Messages:
    18,581
    Likes Received:
    80,950
    Isn't he a bit too crazy to cooperate, and his tech only became noteworthy because OL went around stealing from all villains he knew of? Unless jade did the same thing, that Paul did.
     
  21. Mquz

    Mquz Versed in the lewd.

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2018
    Messages:
    2,117
    Likes Received:
    8,238
    Jade would know quite a few villains through her dad.
     
  22. Mordart

    Mordart Making the rounds.

    Joined:
    Dec 24, 2016
    Messages:
    49
    Likes Received:
    227
    I get the feeling Time-Trapper Paul and Dream!Jade are picking up all there alternate selves in order to combine the timelines into a single mass, thus making the TTPaul timeline the only one.

    Only they undoubtedly didn't account for P!Paul ability to, you know, subsume a piece of the Anti-monitors armor. or Grayven!Paul discovering the secret to becoming a damn New God. So expect that in.... oh 4-5 years mayhaps a "Crisis of Infinite Pauls" will occur. Though by that time I hope Zoat reverts to his earlier writing style. Hope springs eternal, like my hair regrowing.
     
  23. NightmareWarden

    NightmareWarden Versed in the lewd.

    Joined:
    Oct 14, 2015
    Messages:
    1,093
    Likes Received:
    5,097
    Hmm. Was Jade on Oa long enough to recite her oath in front of the battery, empowering her lantern? I'm just a bit worried she'll be stuck with a single ring charge to combat the shenanigans ahead.

    Everyone's in agreement that Teekl is responsible for the disappearing Paul's, right? :p
     
    Frank Iannetta, Cuchulin and Vorian like this.
  24. Belenus

    Belenus Versed in the lewd.

    Joined:
    Feb 24, 2015
    Messages:
    1,100
    Likes Received:
    28,912
    Obviously it's the Futurama crossover episode.
     
    Bramble Thorn, Cuchulin, Ardy and 5 others like this.
  25. Jirachi

    Jirachi I trust you know where the happy button is?

    Joined:
    Nov 21, 2017
    Messages:
    622
    Likes Received:
    1,280
    ...Are you doing an infinite crisis?
    It certainly looks like it.
    Thought we dodged that with destroying the armor, but it'll probably make more sense in time.
    Green!Jade is definitely fun...
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2019
  26. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2016
    Messages:
    14,694
    Likes Received:
    728,915
    Of course he didn't coooperate. But due to Jordan's relationship with Alan she got access to his mission records.
    No, and it doesn't do that.
     
  27. Albert Scoot

    Albert Scoot Not too sore, are you?

    Joined:
    Oct 6, 2017
    Messages:
    300
    Likes Received:
    2,829
    Yes, I'd assume she's been cribbing all of the villains' and heroes' weapons or at least tried to. Like she gleaned from Kilowog, these lanterns don't know Earth.
     
    Prince Charon and Cuchulin like this.
  28. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2016
    Messages:
    14,694
    Likes Received:
    728,915
    Somewhat. She only knows some villains socially. Plenty are too crazy or too iconoclastic to form the sort of relationship where Sportsmaster would introduce his teenage daughter to them. Mostly, she gets her gear from the Justice League's collection or Alan's trophy cabinet.
     
  29. iamnuff

    iamnuff Connoisseur.

    Joined:
    Feb 19, 2013
    Messages:
    18,581
    Likes Received:
    80,950
    Yeah, but stealing tech from villains is pretty much an OL exclusive move. Nobody else really bothers, and there's nothing about the guy that really screams 'super useful technology, steal now!'

    Crumble-tech turned out to be super useful against forcefields and constructs, but on paper it's not much more impressive than the cold-guns or other such supertech.

    That's why it required Paul's influence to become so widely used in the paragon universe.
     
    Cuchulin and Ardy like this.
  30. Pinklestia

    Pinklestia Well worn.

    Joined:
    Sep 23, 2015
    Messages:
    5,552
    Likes Received:
    29,970
    You do remember all Black Lanterns obey Nekron, right? Something the ring itself enforces.

    If slave green Paul had so much trouble; then one who is death and slaved to a representative of Death is beyond fucked.
     
    Old Knife and Cuchulin like this.
Loading...