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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. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Can the SI make mage slayers without a magic user?

    If so then if the SI gave Yaul some designs of that then it could greatly help him.
     
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  2. BlueMangoAdea

    BlueMangoAdea Alive. For now.

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    Still might be useful in a "final confrontation" if there is any.
     
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  3. Nero200

    Nero200 Magus (derogatory)

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    As far as I recall, no. They are made production line style with a dozen or more mages, all plugged into a workshop ward system to sync their spells up.
     
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  4. Yog

    Yog Know what you're doing yet?

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    Why would Indigo be dependent on Voight in giving people super powers? In fact, with an actual competitor on the market, Voight might be forced to be a better company.

    So, he did get tattoo designs. Interesting. Also... would they stabilize Angel's curse essentially making it unbreakable?

    Oh, and as to memories, there's the Gem of Amara - just the fact of its existence and general location would be a boon enough.
     
  5. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    No, but the magic user doesn't need to be particularly good. Mumm-Rana could hook him up, though it wouldn't be particularly fast as the system is designed for large numbers of low calibre magicians.
    Because if people learn that he can give people powers he's never going to get a moment's peace. And neither would they.
    No, it would still detect his happiness. Might prevent it being reapplied, though.
    It doesn't actually help a Black Lantern all that much.
     
  6. WereDragon

    WereDragon Bookwyrm

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    You know that there must be a bigger fish but darn if you can find the sodding thing.

    Hate being replaced by contentment or just redirected into frustration?
     
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  7. Chaoswind

    Chaoswind Lord of nonsense

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    He could give substandard quality lanterns to a few of the orange ones that didn't have any. Also knowledge of the setting is still somewhat useful...

    Mr Zoat no one gave information to Paul about young justice (red getting a heads up about trigon too)? I was excited with the idea that Paul was going to learn about the blue bettle that was a focus character of the incoming second season and how ancient magic was used to reprogram it to not be loyal to the Reach... One would think such an important character for season two would warrant the other Paul's to share information of it with our Paul... I remember you said the bettle was in stealth mode because it had detected lanterns and that is why Paul never encountered it...
     
  8. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Has Lord Protector met Mumm Rana?

    How is their relationship like if they have met?
     
  9. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    The hate is still there, it's the relative importance of it in his life that is being reduced.
    Not yet, though he will eventually.
    I still haven't watched the entirety of Teen Titans. No other version of the SI knows anything precise enough to offer guidance, and as far as he's concerned he's dealt with it as much as he can short of personally attacking Trigon.
    Even if he got the information, he wouldn't be willing to let a piece of Reach mind control technology attach itself to a child.
     
  10. Mist of Shadows

    Mist of Shadows I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Can you explain that one?

    I mean, is there a reason it wouldn't work? It would give a vampire immunity to sunlight and regeneration that wasn't tied to the Black Lantern ring... with a ring, it probably wouldn't take long to find... he could stick it on one of his toes and no one would know...

    I get that the black ring sort of covers that... but redundancy is a thing.

    It's also my largest issue with Green Lanterns... they never really go for extra powers, which I sort of understand because of bobble-head malware...

    Until we get to your characters who don't have that problem...

    Now you're saying... that having one more layer of protection isn't worth 10 to 20 minutes to grab something that would keep sunlight from being annoying?

    Or making sure that other vampires can't just dig the ring up?

    I mean, I get that it's not amazing compared to a power ring.. but it should be one more layer of defense.
     
  11. Yog

    Yog Know what you're doing yet?

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    Which is why he should incorporate. It works for Voight. Paul has a better product. And dislike Voight. So, competing with them and pushing them out of the market makes sense.
    I was under the impression that the curse was actively anchoring Angel's soul to vampire's body, and that on release that anchor dissolved, rather than the release being forceful ejection of a naturally attached soul. If so, then tattoos would (after a certain amount of time it would take for tattoo-generated soul-like structure to form) work as an anchor instead of the curse, so, even if it is released, the soul would stay in place, anchored to the tattoos.
    It severely reduces the charge required to maintain body cohesion and to repair the body in case of damage. It allows daytime operations without needing to use environmental shields.
     
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  12. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Unless the Ring of Amara works off the demon possessing the corpse, in which case it would either do nothing or destroy him. It's not as if anyone in the setting understands how the thing works. The black ring gives him regeneration and immunity to sunlight. Yes, it would cut down his power demands if it worked, but now that he's up to a minimum... There's always someone who deserves having their heart ripped out.
    I assumed that between their secret identity's job and their time Lanterning, they didn't have time to investigate an area with pretty dubious returns. I mean, of the abilities Alan Scott could have copied, there was Hour Man's steroids and Thinker's cap which needed to be plugged directly into his brain and couldn't be safely removed.
    And you're assuming that he could find a ring based on the description 'a ring somewhere in Sunnydale'.
    He would be releasing top tier super powers into a world that has no really good examples of superheroics and plenty of arseholes with powers. In that situation no government would tolerate independent people with powers. At best, he'd be nationalised by the US government the moment they found out what he could do. More pessimistic options include him and everyone he knows being killed by Voight, BAE Systems, the secret service of any country in the world, anti-supe vigilante groups... There's no way that goes well. Besides, what goal does he have that requires it?
    Ah, I see. I thought you were talking about the warding aspect. That might work, but it might also pick up the demon and assume that's part of his soul.
     
  13. Pinklestia

    Pinklestia Well worn.

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    Oh I am quite sure that will end well.
     
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  14. Coda

    Coda Versed in the lewd.

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    No, it didn't burn to death. It suffocated. Burning is rapid oxidation, and the rat lacked the ability to generate oxygen -- so it used up everything in its body.

    Has BK gone downhill over the last 20 years? I worked there as a summer job in college and it actually gave me MORE respect for it. Or maybe the international franchises don't have the same standards?

    Actually, thinking about it is making me crave the barbecue burger we had at the other fast-food place I worked in college...
     
  15. Mist of Shadows

    Mist of Shadows I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    If you find it, you can have a magic user study it. Maybe it's worth using, maybe it's not. But at least you checked it off the list. Also why the fuck would it do anything if it worked on a demon, it didn't just randomly kill people that put it on... so why would it kill the Paul like zombie? Run some tests, have Giles call his aunts and take a look see... the other side of the coin is, maybe it works and you have a second line of defense. The character wouldn't know which side the ring would fall on until he gets it.

    (Also time loops like what happened in the Buffy show are a thing... so you can with the help of a friendly magic user... TOTALLY TEST IT! Without risking your life...)

    There were other heroes/villains and Alan in this is already partially something else... so more the rest of the lanterns. But okay... let's go with the Thinker's cap. Ring scan the tech, see if you can get something that doesn't need to be plugged in. It might be worth handing the design off to a friend or it might not be..

    No, I'm not assuming he can find a ring based off it's a ring... It's in a vault, underground with a lot of gold... so yes, I think a fucking Power Ring can scan for that... (considering your were using a Power Ring to mine asteroids which would require scanning at 100's or thousands of miles, through all sorts of crap...) if you find another vault with gold... you loot it and keep looking. So yeah, I think you can find it. It's also in the main town area based on the collapsed sections of road. I mean, boosting recall shouldn't be out of the question for Paul, thus... hey, it's underground in a vault with gold... something that would be useful for him anyways...

    So... yeah, I don't really understand a reason not to look considering you'd just have the ring make a map and ask yourself, is this large stash of gold in the bank... no, okay, let's check it out. It's an action that also gets you gold and potentially other things, it's not a oh woe is me, I spent months or years looking for this and it didn't pay off perfectly...

    This is a hey, I spent a few hours, maybe a few days and I got a magical item that can be studied and possibly replicated for use by Angel if you can't use it yourself. Or maybe you can figure out how to create rings that stop sunburn... that's still worth a couple of hours or days when it also comes with vault filled with gold.
     
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  16. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    The Buffyverse has precisely no thaumaturgists. And very few people interested in making a supervampire more super.
    Certainly it's possible. But not safely or reliably.
    Alan couldn't really do that, and Ted is working on a safe version. Though if you've got a ring, taking the time out to learn how to use it well enough to do things ring can't and to the point where is doesn't distract you in combat would be a bit difficult.
    Finding 'gold' is easy. Finding 'gold in a shape something like this, but it might not be gold, and we don't know exactly where it is' would give a huge number of returns that would have to be checked manually.
     
  17. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    The JLAU Paul and Blue Lantern Paul to start with.
     
  18. FreeGod

    FreeGod If you see a God on the road fuck it!

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    Most people would think one spelleater was enough. Not everyday you fight a Lord of chaos.
     
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  19. Tzeentch

    Tzeentch I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Wonder if the hyper-adaptive properties of the Meta-gene itself might provide the answer as to the problems that Compound V apparently has....
     
  20. BlueMangoAdea

    BlueMangoAdea Alive. For now.

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    A lot of people will die from such an experiment until you luckily run into a person with compatible meta-gene, and even then, they are likelier to kill you.
     
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  21. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    The meta-gene is singular, it doesn't come in varieties, the different results are from differing triggers when it's activated.
     
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  22. Tzeentch

    Tzeentch I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Hence it's hyper-adaptive nature.
     
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  23. BlueMangoAdea

    BlueMangoAdea Alive. For now.

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    Ah got it. Does it work often, though? Like, if I put a thousand people with dormant metagene into a pool of acid, how many would survive?
     
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  24. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    They were lucky not smart.

    Krona mistook Hagen for Peter and either he didn't need Baul because he already had some Blue Lanterns.
     
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  25. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    In the comics, 12% were theorized to have a latent metagene.

    The Dominators kidnapped 50 and tried to kill them all. 6 people survived and gained superpowers, forming the Blasters. Snapper Carr was a member, he gained teleportation.

    The comics just ignored that really wasn't a great sample size.....

    The Reach abductees would be the YJ equivalent, although the membership is completely different.

    The distribution might be more or less on different Earths, of course.

    From what I read about Season 3, it doesn't sound like the Light can just mass produce supers, so it's probably safe to say that the ratio is lower than 12% on Earth-16.
     
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  26. Handlewithcare

    Handlewithcare Versed in the lewd.

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    Why would the drug of one universe have anything in common with the weird genetics of another universe?
     
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  27. Pinklestia

    Pinklestia Well worn.

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    Hey Zoat considering who wrote the Boys maybe the only reason they got Compound V to make a Superman expy was the Dolly the clone sheep method.

    Aka they keep trying until one worked with what they wanted.

    That means they killed hundreds, maybe thousands of babies, because they most likely had no way to fully test the powers in the fetus stage...
     
  28. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    Because no matter how little sense it makes, Zoat has decided all universes run on the same set of genetics and physics.
     
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  29. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    No he hasn't.

    There may be some similarities between various universes, but some things may for example be only to work in some places while others won't work in that place.
     
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  30. Threadmarks: Low Politics (part 16)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    8th April
    18:56 GMT -5


    "…why you're not more excited about this?" M'gann uses her fork to scoop up some escaped shredded beef. "Isn't this what you wanted?"

    "Once things were a bit more organised, yes." I'm not usually a fan of wraps. Or salads. But this is actually quite nice. "But as it stands, even someone of Manga Khan's intellect can easily play Earth's governments off against each other. To say nothing of the potential damage to Earth's socioeconomic systems. I held off on introducing alien technology because I wanted to force Earth to actually use its advantages, and only.. engage once it started doing that. As it stands, there's no… Unity." I point at her with my right index finger. "Mars is far better placed to take advantage of this than Earth is."

    "Are they.. coming to Mars?"

    I shrug. "Can't think of any reason why they wouldn't. Martian biotechnology probably doesn't have quite as big a market as some of the things Earth produces, but in the hands of a species without monophobia it might be viable as an alternate tech base for spacefaring telepaths."

    "Like who?"

    "Bolovaxians, like Lantern Kilowog." I create a small construct image of him standing on the table. "If they could adapt Martian animals to join their group mind they'd probably prefer it to mechanical technology."

    Kon nods. "And maybe meeting new species might make more martians want to leave Mars?"

    "It… Might…"

    "Ted phoned me earlier to tell me that he's been getting a lot more-."

    Canis stabs his taco with his fork, causing guacamole to spray in two directions across the table.

    "This is insufferable."

    Kon takes the insult to his culinary abilities in his stride. "If you don't like-."

    "No, Orange Lantern and Aqualad."

    I.. look at the mountainmate whose eyes I've been avoiding. He does the same.

    And then we both look away.

    "That." He points at the air halfway between us. "Did you see that!?"

    Ghia'ta nods. "I most certainly did. This is not good for team unity."

    M'gann leans back a little. "Humans sometimes like to be a little less direct about things."

    "Yeah, but I'm only human out of habit. Okay, Kaldur?" He meets my eyes. "Given that Venturia has played next to no part in Atlantean political life for the last sixty years, what exactly is going to change now that they're going to formalise it?"

    "Most likely, nothing. But that does not change the fact that you once again concealed information from my king."

    I frown. "What do you mean? Cyprian had been sending messages to the government in Poseidonis since Queen Clea's death. It was hardly a secret."

    "And you had no dealings with them before that."

    "I first met Cyprian on the twenty fourth of December last year when I expressed a desire to hire Venturian magicians for a project. That was when I learned that Queen Clea was dead. And that's how I know that King Orin was informed; I took him a personal message from King Cyprian and delivered it into his hand. The impression I got was that it wasn't the first contact they'd had on the subject, but it's the first I can personally confirm happened."

    "Why did you wish to hire Venturian magicians?"

    "Because I was overworking Sephtian already. His expanded team couldn't handle any more projects, but because the Venturians were so cut off from the Atlantean mainstream their specialists were still available."

    "You wished to hire them for the Orange Lantern Corps."

    "No. I wanted to find out-." I look around. "Did you all read my report on my first meeting with Lantern Mother of Mercy?"

    Three nods.

    "In my fantasy we'd found a way to spread the Earth's magic system out from the planet. I wanted to find out whether that was actually possible or not, so I hired some Venturians to research the links between Earth's magic systems and the Dream. Fairly blue skies stuff, and things were so tense with Poseidonis that Cyprian didn't want to release his researchers from military service. Hiring them directly for the Orange Lantern Corps was something I negotiated for four days ago due to the urgent necessity."

    "That was not what you told King Orin."

    "No, convenience was why I wanted to expand the agreement beyond that one incident, and getting Venturia's magicians returned to their civilian occupations was why I offered a defence contract I don't think will ever be activated."

    "What else did you offer them?"

    "The designs for the arcane forge, which I have a perfect legal right to."

    "Queen Mera had offered to include Venturian scholars in the Conservatory's research program."

    "And they'd turned it down because it would have meant surrendering more sovereignty to Poseidonis. With modern communication magic there's no reason for all research to be carried out at a single location, other than to emphasise the centralisation of authority. Now they can work from their own city and still share their results with the-. With Atlantis. Look, do you actually know about how King Orin's grandmother ballsed up relations with Venturia?"

    "She raised Princess Ptra in the royal court after her mother clashed with Aurania's senate. It is not uncommon in the Atlantean tradition for noble children to be raised apart from their parents in times of civil strife."

    "I'm going to respectfully suggest that you do more research -preferably including Venturian sources- before making any decisions which require you to assume that is true. One, Venturia was completely secure, two, Clea didn't request it and wasn't allowed to refuse it, three, Ptra might have been a ward of the throne but she spent more of her time in Aurania than in Poseidonis which proves that the 'place of safety' justification is irrelevant if not flat out nonsense. Venturia seceded not because of anything I did but because three successive Poseidonian monarchs dropped the ball. The most I did was preventing a military conflict."

    "Why?"

    Both our heads jerk in the direction of Canis. His eyes move from Kaldur to me. Then he nods.

    "You don't understand-. Why did you prevent the war?"

    "Because it might have resulted in the deaths of people useful to me. And it wouldn't have solved the underlying issues. Queen Clea will never get to raise her daughter. She'll never know who murdered her husband. Nothing that we could do at this point could fix that and I don't particularly want to duel another Justice League member."

    "Very well." Canis nods. "Aqualad, why did you want the war to happen?"

    "I do not. I do not agree that war was inevitable without Orange Lantern's intervention."

    "Well, no, King Cyprian might have surrendered. I'm not sure how long Ptra would survive ruling a city that didn't want her and considered her a Poseidonian puppet, but that was a possibility. But okay, how was King Orin planning on handling it?"

    "His plan was to continue to refuse to recognise Cyprian's claim to the throne of Venturia while offering political and financial incentives for Venturia to become more involved with the rest of Atlantis. He realised that Ptra would not be able to rule without her cousin's willing assistance and wanted his agreement regarding any settlement. Military force was not something he had seriously considered. Your actions prevented him resolving the dispute in the interests of all Atlantis."

    "Then he should have communicated that more clearly to King Cyprian. Not that it would have mattered, because opposing the expansion of the authority of the High King is the core of Venturia's policy towards the rest of Atlantis and King Cyprian would have interpreted everything you just said Orin was planning as a power grab. Which is something he would have explained if he'd been asked about it and which anyone who knows anything about Venturia should have told Orin."

    "You did not explain that to King Orin."

    "It's not my job to tell him how to do his job." I sniff. "And that's one thing this whole situation has cemented in my mind: I am not responsible for other people making bad decisions."
     
    Last edited: Jun 12, 2020
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