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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. DrThoth

    DrThoth I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    I wonder if the Sheeda invasion will play a major part in
    Batman getting a yellow power ring
    , assuming that's still part of Zoat's plans.

    This is basically a request for future info, but will Paragon's Mercy-hallucinated idea of a Root of Yggdrasil for non-planetary magic actually bear fruit (pun intended)? Given that Venturians should be playing a greater part in extraterrestrial affairs from now on and their research goals; I'm sure Dox and/or other people would be interested in the applications of universally accessible magic, especially if they discover how magic shut down the Blue Beetle Scarab and reverse-engineer the spell (which, considering Isis is around, could be very feasible).
    I believe some poster on this thread (or the thread on previous forums) discussed one comics origin for Atlanteans being that they came from Krypton or somewhere else in outer space (or possibly the reverse); is the Venturians' new role in LEGION (aka space-Atlanteans) kind of a homage to that?
     
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  2. Maxx Crowley

    Maxx Crowley I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Well that just doesn't work. Because then he's not batman anymore.

    Was that a thing? I know he had one for like...a few seconds, and
    Sinestro
    chided him over not giving in to it.
     
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  3. Valint

    Valint I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Actually, it was literally worse than useless.

    Don't forget that this is the second response to his request. The first was an incompetent buffoon who just caused problems and didn't even try to do the job he was sent there for.

    It feels like the only purpose for that particular subplot is to show that OL is actually a raging hypocrite?

    Like, he goes off on moralistic speeches about how everyone needs to be hypercompetent and hyperefficient rather than wasting their abilities just dealing with the particular problems they want to deal with... and it turns out that the OLC he created is a complete waste of potential, because he (and they) can't be arsed to do anything other than the particular problems they want to deal with.
     
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  4. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    That says some rather bad things about other uplift stories you have read...

    For evidence of just how much Paragon is half assing his uplift, I will direct you to look no farther then Peter.
     
  5. Flightless Man

    Flightless Man Versed in the lewd.

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    For Paragon, What is really left from long term threads?

    Reach war conclussion with Darkstars and OL corp
    Confrontation of some kind with Guardians
    Lex and his Fleet.
    Whatever is left of the light
    Darkside(or is this more a renegade only line while paragon gets reach or lex?)

    If i am wrong and a bunch more long term threads have been forgotten by me, please correct me i want more story.

    A few characters need some more interaction.
    Jade, Wonder Woman, Alan Scottt, Guy, and something with the team and Zatana.

    Its not that i want this story to end, but i really only see a year or so left in Paragon story. Anything else will feel like filler in the final stretch. Renegade doesn't seem nearly as close to completion and all the other variations could be fleshed out.

    Also as nice as OL's revief of leage was, I want to see them give him a reverse review at sometime. voice some of our concerns through them so OL can acknowledge, concede, or counter the points.

    I hate post miller batman/post knightfall batman. up till bronze age he was a detective and handled a single case. He encountered and lost to a new criminal. He came up with a counter (where the whole prepp time thing came from. Which is good as a solution to a case, not as a catch all at any second.) and defeated the villain.

    Now he's a riot cop, who is smartest human on earth, and has pre prepared for everyone on earth and some beyond at every second of every day.
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2020
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  6. moralrelativity

    moralrelativity Recovering pendant.

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    Boss Smiley. That can't be left as it is.

    And why all the Paul's? And why isn't he in the book of fate or whatever it's called?
     
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  7. Prince Charon

    Prince Charon Just zis guy, you know?

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    If he checked on everything that he knows about that other people also know about and really should be looking into, he'd never have time to do anything else, like sleep.
     
  8. AidanMorgan

    AidanMorgan Essentially Overworked

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    What would even go into that? The smell of fiat currency and Axe body spray?
     
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  9. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    Well... There's a reason the Guardians decided to use the Green Light of Will over anything else...

    And contrary to what Paul might want to think, his pyramid hasn't really gotten rid of the down side of the Orange Light so much as just kept people from going all the way Larfleeze.
     
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  10. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Maybe also some tea, which Paul dislikes.
     
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  11. Threadmarks: Cold Iron (part 24)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    28th June 2012
    21:53 GMT -5


    "I'm going to ask once."

    Strands of orange light connect me through one of Dr. Sivana's machines to the Harvest Dreadnaught's internal systems. Its external mechanisms are already dead, but a lot of the internal mechanisms don't have any sort of central override.

    "The Castle Revolving has been destroyed. Every other Harvest Dreadnaught has either been destroyed or captured. Queen Gloriana Tenebrae is dead. The Harrowing is over and has failed. There is no longer any benefit in you continuing to fight. Please surrender. Lay down your arms and you will be treated in accordance with our laws for handling prisoners of war. Should you choose not to…"

    I look over to where Dr. Sivana is pushing a fish tank gurney filled with child zombies back through his portal.

    "I regret that I will be obliged to leave your fate in the hands of Doctor Thaddeus Bodog Sivana."

    By pure chance I was right. Without the Castle the Harvest Dreadnaughts were stuck. Those that were using their more powerful stealth technology, anyway. One was caught in the 'deployed' position in southern Africa, and there weren't any survivors once the US air force were finished bombarding it.

    Their defences were somewhat compromised at the time. Dr. Balewa appears to consider time travellers to be acceptable targets.

    "You may remember him as the human who spent some time in your era and survived everything you threw at him. Now that he has a fully equipped laboratory, he wants to find out what he missed about the way your bodies work. Naturally, I can't condone such behaviour, which is why I will turn around before he starts performing live dissections. You have…"

    There's a quiet 'thunk' as the wheels move over the lip of the portal.

    "About thirty seconds to decide. We own your internal systems at this point, so just shout 'we surrender' in a loud and clear voice."

    My eyes briefly alight on the still-beating Sheeda heart Dr. Sivana is using as part of his device.

    "Twenty eight."

    The Dreadnaught's internal monitoring shows that even after a billion years, diffusion of responsibility is still a thing. Crew are looking at their section chiefs, and it looks like they're waiting for them to make the 'right' decision. Oddly, it's the surviving squadron leaders who are making a point of obeying my instruction. Sheeda working in the processing section on the other hand are setting up ambushes. They've already… There wasn't anyone recoverable in there when we boarded.

    That makes a degree of sense. Proving that an individual soldier went beyond acceptable degrees of wartime murderousness would be difficult but everyone in processing is looking at a firing squad. If they're still alive once Dr. Sivana is finished with them.

    The Highborn captain on the bridge stands.

    "We are prepared to negotiate-."

    "I'm not. I am presenting terms. Twenty seconds."

    She isn't carrying any weapons, but bows her head and removes her gauntlets before symbolically dropping them on the floor. Some of the bridge crew briefly hesitate, but all of them follow suit.

    "We surrender."

    I make sure to broadcast that across the rest of the ship, and the hesitant start to comply.

    "Leave your weapons where they are. Proceed to the primary drive for p-." I nearly say 'processing', but I don't want to imply that we're going to kill them anyway. Immediately anyway. "Formal detainment. Any attempt to bring weapons with you will be treated as perfidy and result in summary- "

    Dr. Sivana walks back through the portal, rubbing his hands together eagerly.

    "-execution. Your time is now up. Proceed to Primary Drive in a calm and orderly fashion now. Hostilities will resume once all prisoners are removed."

    "So? How many do I get?"

    "Looks like thirty two."

    "All Lowborn, I take it?"

    I didn't ask whether Sheeda were in the habit of taking other Sheeda alive. They presumably know that we don't do to prisoners what they do to them.

    "Yes."

    "Mm. Well, I have to start somewhere, I suppose. Do you think I should try and recover the human remains?"

    "I imagine that their families would appreciate that."

    He looks at me, and I remember that he's a psychopath.

    "Yes, if reasonably practical."

    He smiles.

    "Ah, you spotted it. I had too, but as much as I like being a free man again it's not as if I actually care about those people."

    "I don't believe you've ever actually been in prison."

    "No, but I did once spend two weeks in a secure hospital while I was in a coma."

    Disarmed fly ground crew from the closest hangar walk in, freezing briefly when they see Dr. Sivana. I point to the portal and they carry on through, not breaking into a run but not taking their eyes off him.

    "So this is really it? No more supervillainy?"

    "I think my problem was that I didn't kill enough people. Half of the countries offering me a pardon tried to hire me, all thanks to the Sheeda. If I'd cloned a few million super-insects and faked an invasion, I could have had this years ago."

    "You weren't the man you are now a few years ago. Also, I don't think that Venus would like it if you created an army of super-insects."

    "Yes, mentioning Venus's name is a good way to make me remember a request. Well done." He looks around, causing the Sheeda walking past to step away while trying to avoid looking like they are. "So who gets to keep this Harvest Dreadnaught?"

    "Do you want it?"

    "No, I've already taken one, but that Dox fellow seems like the sort who might appreciate it." I raise my eyebrows. "Georgia mentioned him. She seems quite taken with him." He frowns thoughtfully. "It will be an interesting conclusion to the experiment if she ends up in a romantic relationship before any of my other children."

    "Can you guess what I'm thinking?"

    "Usually, no. But in this case, I imagine that you're curious about me performing experiments with my children."

    "'Curious'. Yes."

    "It's either that or you're interested in either her or Dox yourself, and that's not very likely. I haven't made any secret of what I'm doing, and I know perfectly well that she and Junior are going to be watching my attempts to re-woo Venus with notepads out and pencils raised." He smiles. "That's how I raised them. Hm." He focuses on me. "I have a question for you, actually."

    "I have little interest in either Georgia or Dox, and wish them every happiness."

    "No. What happens next? I've never been any good at predicting people. I honestly didn't think that they'd ever give me a pardon. But my life coach says that I should try putting myself -metaphorically putting myself- in other people's position. A lot of people lost family members to an attack they didn't see coming and couldn't fight back. I'm not.. sure what I'd do if anyone in my family died, but I doubt it would be particularly nice. I've seen what happens when alien civilisations go through this sort of trauma, but humans aren't quite like other species. What does this sort of trauma do to humans, do you think?"

    "What's going to happen next?"
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2020
  12. w34v3r

    w34v3r Versed in the lewd.

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    A lot of freaking out.
     
  13. egooo

    egooo Getting sticky.

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    We're all asking ourselves that question right now.

    And, realistically, it's a range between:
    a) Status quo remains because comic book universe and entities like Boss Smiley
    b) Status quo is broken, humanity starts using lots more resources it has not tapped into to dab on them haters style on all of the external threats.
     
  14. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    'performing'

    'to the'

    And I doubt they'd be able to hold him.

    I think he could walk through walls in the comics, but now they may be able to hold him.

    This reminds me of the fake alien invasion Bishop did in TMNT to get funding

    Well he is bi.

    Nice save kidnapped Sivana.

    If you didn't clarify the whole metaphor thing then chances are high he would have done something like switching bodies with someone.

    Kill the ones responsible.

    'What do you think this sort of trauma"
     
  15. Sockmonkey

    Sockmonkey I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Now would be a good time to push for that United Earth Defense Force.
     
  16. Cherico

    Cherico Connoisseur.

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    At some point you cant put your head in the sand any more this is one of those moments.
     
  17. The Unaligned Player

    The Unaligned Player Agony that desires to meet Extinction

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    Oh they very much can and knowing humanity likely will. It would just be highly sub-optimal for them to do so if they want to continue to be autonomous in every sense of the word on every level.
     
  18. moralrelativity

    moralrelativity Recovering pendant.

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    live dissections -> vivisections
    I don't think it's the time travel, it's because they're genocidal immoral monsters.
     
  19. Ganurath

    Ganurath Apologizes For Nothing

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    You'd think reactions to the Split would provide data to model a prediction with.
     
  20. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    Much easier to capture a vessel when you can own its systems remotely. It's why any spacefleet worth its salt will have extensive counter-intrusion software suites. As seen in Mass Effect, though not the best example, as nearly everybody seemed to use the same computers...

    I suppose to the Sheeda, all of that sounds impossible. After all, they are the ultimate form of life. How could any of that have happned, they'll say... It has low chance of success, especially if they have a determined leader still in command. But the attempt has to be made.

    Ah, gathering samples for his research, I see. I bet he feels like a kid in a candy store right now, told he can have anything he wants... Thankfully he's focusing on the Sheeda, not good people.

    A prime example of 'Good does not mean nice'... Remember, Doctor Balewa lives is the deepest, most war-torn lands of the African continent, and has gone unmolested for years. I doubt the local warlords would respect anything but the greatest force, so you can imagine the object lessons he delivered to gain that respect...

    You can just imagine the Sheeda flop-sweating (presumably they don't actually perspire, but...) at the sound of Doctor Sivana Senior working away in the background. The only thing missing is him whistling or humming a jaunty tune...

    "There will be no further warnings." I can see the lower ranks beginning to look at their leaders with fear in their hearts, wondering if the foe will be merciful if they bring their leader's head...

    Ouch. Understandable, though. The Sheeda were expecting to ship back home, why keep live captives who have to be fed and watered, when you can just render them into more useful organic materials...

    Now, how foolish will they be? Will they try and remain loyal to the Queen they believed immortal and unkillable, and who may well still be out there as far as they know (and would take poorly to the betrayal of surrender?) Or will they throw themselves on Humanity's mercy and hope they aren't summarily killed in a slow painful way, which they would probably expect?

    "w-w-w-Where'd he learn to negotiate?"
    "I wonder..."

    Welp, Sivana misses out. I suppose they'll hope for a quick execution, then. Probably life imprisonment for the lower ranks, death for the Highborn commanders.

    Because I have no doubt some bright spark with an independent streak thinks they can take a Lantern. Someone who's shown the ability and will to destroy anyone who stands against him in open combat... But is reasonably merciful to those who do not.

    The ones still resisting will take that as a cue to begin planting more traps or scuttling charges... Assuming they could get a hold of anything like that in the processing bays...

    No super-sheeda for you, Doctor. I'm afraid you'll have to get by with vivisections and/or dissections on the regular model...

    Any Sheeda taken alive in their conflicts probably meets the same fate as the dead: Rendered down for materials in the victor's flesh-vats... I imagine it's a rarity for them to be taken alive, unless they have a particularly strong survival instinct, or are deemed 'useful', like the Vat Lords or Librarians on the Renegade's side.

    ...OL, remember who you're talking to here...

    Honestly, I'm impressed he asked. Advice from his therapist alternate self?

    Except maybe as useful tools? Those that don't just piss him off, anyway...

    No doubt he made a mess when he woke up, or the kids came to collect him. Either way, I presume there were fatalities involved...

    He only really went supervillian because someone pissed him off. And then they tried to arrest him, which pissed him off further. I mean, I'm not saying he's not at fault, he was the one who escalated things to murder...

    Ah, yes. The one thing that he doesn't hate about the world. Family.

    Pfft, like he doesn't have a couple stashed away already. It's not like he'd have been sitting on his hands waiting for the world governments' response.

    Ah, he ships... Uh, what would you call it? Vril'gia? Geor'Dox? And not even a thought about any possible age difference, of course. What would that matter to intellectuals, after all? Georgia's what, fifteen? Sixteen? At most? (Given that the Terrors are late teens, and Beautia and Magnificus are eighteen or nineteen, merely seeming older because of intellect?)

    It's not like it's anything new to him. He probably expects them to do the same to him, if they could catch him by surprise... And he's too canny for that.

    Sivana probably has all manner of mathematical models for predicting human behaviour. For all his quirks, OL is still human (mostly) and Sivana can probably pick up slight hints as to his preferences.

    Now, will he give Dox any warning about Georgia's possible intentions? ...Nah, it'll be too funny to watch him work it out..

    Thankfully, we don't have to wonder what Sivana would do if he lost his family. We got to see it in action in the Renegade's timeline. And I expect OL is smart enough to guess as much.

    "What next?" The same question we're all asking. Will Boss Smiley's manipulations prevent humanity from changing, or will this trauma overcome him? Will people actually take OL's speeches about having to develop seriously, or will they coast along on cultural inertia? Only time (and Mr Zoat's plotting) will tell, I suppose.
     
  21. Handlewithcare

    Handlewithcare Versed in the lewd.

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    Knowing humans I'd say, a lot of agreement that global cooporation is necessary to prevent this from happening again plus immediate infighting as who gets to lead, spearheaded by China and the US
     
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  22. ForeverShogo

    ForeverShogo Not too sore, are you?

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    Space racism, I guess. Xenophobia will probably be on the rise.

    Also . . . It's vivisection. There's no such thing as a live dissection.

    If it's dead you dissect it. If it's still alive you vivisect it.
     
  23. MagnumForce

    MagnumForce Making the rounds.

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    Now would be the perfect time to start improving Earth technologically, especially its military. Maybe Sivana could help with that, or OL could ask for help dealing with the Reach?
     
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  24. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    He doesn't exactly like to get involved unless it's magical, so he may have honestly just used a spell to make them ignore him instead of fighting them.

    I'm not sure we know how old Dox is, and given his alien nature he may still be an adolescent, and that's without getting into his artificial birth.

    The Sheeda are technically from Earth, but yeah I can some idiot trying to stir up xenophobia.
     
  25. w34v3r

    w34v3r Versed in the lewd.

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    Considering what we know about how sheeda-forms interact with the life-death cycle that might not be as clear a distinction with them as it normally would be.
     
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  26. Ganurath

    Ganurath Apologizes For Nothing

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    Ship Name: Georgia For Man Vril.
     
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  27. Agent Orange

    Agent Orange Experienced.

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    Find out in the next episode of: 'OL vs Status Quo!'
     
  28. Sorrow

    Sorrow Getting sticky.

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    I don't think that will work, exactly. Too many of the World's Finest and protectors of earth are alien. Superman is an alien. Martian Manhunter is an Alien. The Hawks are Aliens. The Green Lanterns are supplied by Aliens. Any true Xenophobia is not going to work well with this fact.
     
  29. Ngamer11

    Ngamer11 Experienced.

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    Tell that to former General, possibly now Senator, Hardcastle.
     
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  30. Gantradies

    Gantradies Not too sore, are you?

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    Or to Alexander Luthor- I still strongly suspect that the paragon version is still happily off his rocker About Clark- acting classes are usually cheaper then psychotherapy, and require fewer admissions of your own flaws/neurosis >.<

    once someone starts wonking on about a single inane issue, 2/3 of the time they’re just continuing inside their head if you get them to shut up..
     
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