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

Reader mode
Mr Zoat said:
27th October 2012
09:35 GMT +3

"Halt, dem-!"

Zagreus spots me, and lowers his bow.
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I know OL's a bit crazy, but 'demon'? Still, it's nice to see Zagreus takes guard duty seriously. Though I suspect OL's lucky he didn't shoot first, investigate the remains later. With an eleven-foot pole.

"Lantern, I realise that you are frequently a stranger to reason, but we try to keep demons out of Erebos."

Richard Simpson tries to make himself look smaller. The thaumically active and anatomically accurate android body he's currently in doesn't have any sort of size-changing ability, and the warding chains that prevent him accessing his more exotic abilities are in place to prevent him adding such an ability. As a result, he's limited to cringing. It's a bit odd; he's not any physically weaker than Nergal was, and all that will happen if his body gets damaged is a few minutes of inconvenience for me.
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Surprised you don't simply have him trussed up like a hand-bag. A handle would probably make it easier to keep him where you can see him...

"Mister Simpson has information vital to a project I'm pursuing, and I need to get him and Hecate together in one place."

Zagreus doesn't look impressed.
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And since Hecate is unlikely to be inclined to leave Erebos, well...

"I was coming to the palace to get permission from Lord Hades; you just intercepted us before we arrived."

"Really."
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Easier to ask forgiveness than permission, what with bring a live demon in here.

"I respect Lord Hades."

His right hand goes to his forehead. "Then in my father's name, tell me what you are planning."
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Are you sure you really want to know? Really, really sure? :D

"Are you sure that you want me to?"

He regards me for a moment.
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...No, no he is not.

"No. No I am not. But I have a duty."

"Are you familiar with the term 'plausible deniability'?"
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:confused: ...I swear, I am not reading ahead.

"Yes. I assume that you're going to do something I might want to deny having know about."

"I say no such thing. But you could see how something like that could be-."
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Can't admit to doing something of dubious legality and safety, after all.

"Go. Go. Just-. Go."

"Thank you!"
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He isn't paid enough to deal with this shit. ...Not that he's paid at all.

I pick up Mr. Simpson with a construct and fly at speed in the direction of Hecate's Pool Party.

"You didn't tell Hecate I was coming either, did you?"
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Such is the drawback of OL's spur-of-the-moment impulses. They're often hard on other people's blood pressure.

"No. But I'm confident that she'll be interested to meet you."

"How come?"
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...I mean, anatomically correct body. But setting that aside...

"Wouldn't you rather live in a universe where she is than a universe where she isn't?"

"Shiiiiiiiit."
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Unless that's a joke about OL's Earth, I don't follow... o_O

A couple of probably-Amazons are mock-wrestling on the inflatable, while there's a greater current of action amongst the others. Eris-

"Hey!"
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Chances they aren't wrestling, but are actually 'wrestling'? x3

-is holding court, but pushes through the swimwear-clad courtiers to get closer to me the moment we make eye contact. At least she's wearing clothes now.

"Lady Eris. This is-."
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Surprised they haven't got a sound system set up, laying down the DOOFs... :p Ain't a proper party without music.

"Does Hades know you've got a demon?"

"He will once Zagreus tells him. This is Mister Richard Simpson."
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...Let's just hope he doesn't come busting in at the wrong moment.

Eris looks at him, an expression of amused curiosity on her face.

"A demon lord hiding in a robot body. Did you do that?"
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OL might have played a part, yes. Do you like it? :D

"I did most of the robot. The rest was him. Is Lady Hecate still around?"

"A demon, a goddess and a giant snake walk into a pool party." She smiles. "I've got to know the punch line."
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It's gonna be a hum-dinger. Zeus won't be so amused, but fuck him. ;)

Mr. Simpson looks around a little awkwardly as Eris leads the way back towards the tower. "I wasn't expecting a pool."

"It's a reward for working out how to purify the river Leith. They've been working on that for a while."
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It's probably the most harmful of the rivers of the Underworld. And yes, I am including Phlegethon, river of fire, in that metric.

"Purify as in..?"

"Turn it into normal water, with the residue being a nasty mind wipe magic."
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No doubt Hecate's been working on ways to weaponise it for Hades? Or at least dispose of it safely.

She shoves the door open and marches inside.

"He-cat-ay! My guy's doing his thing again!"
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Oh, don't brag because your favourite worshipper is so exciting... :rolleyes:

The shop from before is gone, replaced by a slightly old school arcane workshop. Hecate in teenager mode is standing at a lectern, reading through a modern book on Atlantean thaumaturgy.

She looks at Mr. Simpson, who raises his right hand to wave awkwardly.
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Putting OL's offerings to good use, I see.

"What is this? A demon golem?"

"No." Mr. Simpson shakes his head. "I was a human studying how to use altered states of consciousness could allow the human mind to directly interface with electronic systems. A bloke called John Constantine asked me to have a look at this weird cult called the Resurrection Crusade. I got him the info, but they-. I got too focused. Didn't spot their defence spells. My body got burned to ask while I was still inside."
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'And that was the first time I died...' I'm sure Hecate heard the name Constantine and went 'Yup, that'll happen.'

"But you're a demon golem."

"Getting to that. John got into a fight with Nergal, and since he's a fifty a day smoker he wasn't going to outrun him. Instead, he did what I did: put his soul into a computer system. So I took his body and ended up face to face with Nergal. Bloody lucky he realised I wasn't John-. Then I showed Nergal how to go after John, and John got him to chase him into Heaven's data network. Angels burned Nergal to death, but I still had John's cancer-ridden body. Which for some reason, John wanted back. So John convinced me to take Nergal's body instead. I managed to integrate with it -which wasn't much fun- and got to enjoy it for a whole five seconds before Agony and Ecstasy dragged me to hell."
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Sadly, that's about normal for a Constantine plot-line...

Hecate considers this.

"They burned his spirit, while he physical form remained. And you were able to interface with it?"
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Well, just a matter of rewriting the hardware drivers.

"Well, yeah. I'd been living in a computer, dodging technomantic defences and dealing with a reality the human mind isn't designed for. Compared to that, a thing made of human vice was easy."

"What an adaptable consciousness you must have. And why are you in a golem?"
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...Boy, she is really stuck on the 'golem' thing, isn't she? :p

"I did okay in hell. Even took over the Odium. But it was still hell. I wanted out, and the best way looked like using the dream of machines to bootstrap myself into full godhood. Only this-. Lantern, stopped me. Made me this body so I don't have to worry about the other demons finding me, but that's not a permanent solution."

"The dream of machines? What do you-?" Her eyes widen slightly. "Oh."
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...Yup. A new Titan, after thousands of years. Not yet aware beyond the most instinctive level, just waiting for someone to snap up its power...

I nod. "Modern machines are like nothing in nature. They have their own nature that doesn't shade into anything else in the Dream. Mister Simpson found something emerging. I want the two of you to put your heads together to see if it can be used to empower a god enough that they'll be able to fight Zeus."

"That is interesting." Hacate looks at Eris with a smile. "I see why you like this one."
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I'm sure it'll be an interesting exercise for her. And such fascinating company.

Well, she's in. Anyone else needing to be lined up for this not-a-heist OL's setting up? Man, this is going to come completely out of left field for the Olympians. Only a few of them seem to really comprehend that humanity has been changing, and they need to change with them. Zeus and so many others have just been chilling in Olympus. :sneaky: Maybe the shake-up will do them some good...
 
Chojin Patriarch said:
Well, she's in. Anyone else needing to be lined up for this not-a-heist OL's setting up? Man, this is going to come completely out of left field for the Olympians. Only a few of them seem to really comprehend that humanity has been changing, and they need to change with them. Zeus and so many others have just been chilling in Olympus. :sneaky: Maybe the shake-up will do them some good...
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Well... Lawful Evil Paul should need the Moirai, since without them there should be a 100% chance this fails.
 
Chojin Patriarch said:
Such is the drawback of OL's spur-of-the-moment impulses. They're often hard on other people's blood pressure.
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Fortunately Zagreus is a god so he may be immune to that.

Though I wouldn't be surprised if Paul somehow has him develop one.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Chances they aren't wrestling, but are actually 'wrestling'?
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More like wrestling.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Sadly, that's about normal for a Constantine plot-line...
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A crazy ride that ultimately ends in tragedy.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Well, she's in. Anyone else needing to be lined up for this not-a-heist OL's setting up
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Holy crap, now I can't stop thinking of Rick and Morty.

He even has Hephaestus!
 
Chojin Patriarch said:
It's gonna be a hum-dinger. Zeus won't be so amused, but fuck him. ;)
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You know he would be into that, right?

Hey, there's a thought. Paul as the new Queen of Olympus.


The Dream of machines...

Do Androids dream of Titans freeing them?

We have the Green, the Red, the Grey...

What would machines be like? The Blue, for electric energy? The Black for Oil and Iron? The Gold for refined metal?
 
wait wait wait..... Are we coming up to the point where OL becomes a deity and starts bumming around the multiverse HALPING people?
 
Chojin Patriarch said:
Unless that's a joke about OL's Earth, I don't follow... o_O
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If they live in a universe where Hecate is interested to see him. Mr. Simpson gets to continue to exist, whereas if it's a universe where she isn't, his existiance will be very short and very exciting.


Handlewithcare said:
We have the Green, the Red, the Grey...

What would machines be like? The Blue, for electric energy? The Black for Oil and Iron? The Gold for refined metal?
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There's a canon machine Parliment in DC - The Metal.
 
[Pointless reply to Vaermina]

Vaermina said:
It's still sacrificing an unborn child...
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Abortion debate is rule 8 territory. Please stop.


Vaermina said:
Now, maybe maybe you could excuse that if the power boost was needed to stop say, Darkseid. But Lawful Evil Paul wants it to punish a guy for giving a friend of his a shit job after she refused to sleep with him.

That's like... Not even Constantine would do something like that...
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Reminder that Zeus is a serial rapist at best.
 
Vorian said:
Reminder that Zeus is a serial rapist at best.
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So was Hades, and Heph was an attempted rapist, and Hera was an attempted child murderer. Yet only one has to remain that way in this story.

Zeus didn't even rape Cassie's mum. From all evidence it was consensual.

Also, just through Vaermina onto your block list like the rest of us have.
 
Mr Zoat said:
I nod. "Modern machines are like nothing in nature. They have their own nature that doesn't shade into anything else in the Dream. Mister Simpson found something emerging. I want the two of you to put your heads together to see if it can be used to empower a god enough that they'll be able to fight Zeus."
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Why do I feel like this is how you make the Broken God?
 
Vorian said:
Most of the time missing thread context is more irritating to me than Vaermina is.
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If you block someone then a small sentence will appear below saying "show ignored content".

If you click it then you can see the posts by the one you blocked.

You can use this if you want to both ignore Vaermina, but see what's going in if you're curious.
 
Hey if Hephestus uses his new power and status to steal Aphrodite from Ares is he cucking him Reverse cucking stealing his woman back????
 
Darko said:
He was interested in a divorce but Zeus wouldn't give it.
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Because he knew that other than divorce, there was nothing else he could do about the situation. But a sudden burst of power could go to his head and give him some delusions. I'm not saying that it's a good idea. But I am saying that it isn't all that implausible.
 
Paul has freed Teth Adam, helped create a stable sentient fear elemental, made a demon into a love elemental, helped Constantine become a lord of chaos, risen the dead, saved alien souls, and turned a half demon into a half angel. Am I missing any other perversions of the natural order he has helped facilitate? Now he's trying to make a titan into a Naruto style tailed beast for Hephaestus to pull energy from. Honestly, the magical experiments are one of my favorite parts of this series. But I feel that it's getting too easy and predictable at this point. It's just Paul asking 'Can we do it?', the answer bring technically yes, and Paul gathering all the people and things necessary to make it happen, before everything then goes as planned. I feel it would be good to have some more twists in there. Not necessarily having Paul just fail, but having the outcome be unexpected. Anyway, looking forward to what we get next.
 
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