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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. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    That doesn't apply to the League of Blackships.

    They only care about one thing, retrieving human Psykers from every human planet in the galaxy. And anything that tries in any way to block or prevent that duty get's a face full of the Imperium's most powerful warships.
     
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  2. m_d

    m_d Fascinated by storytelling

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    If you want the source, Kaising the Joint (part 1):
     
  3. NightmareWarden

    NightmareWarden Versed in the lewd.

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    I can easily imagine her suggesting a Star Sapphire theme for their wedding, if Paul has mentioned the “light of love” to her.
     
  4. moralrelativity

    moralrelativity Recovering pendant.

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    considered most -> considered the most
    hadn't -> haven't
    to better match the tense of the rest of the sentence
     
  5. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    I think they're okay.
     
  6. Doccer

    Doccer I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    What about using a HUD for his ring to highlight the bodyparts involved and what they mean instead of this guessing game till he gets it?
     
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  7. RoninSword

    RoninSword Sky God

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    My guess is that his ring doesn't have that information in its database. A Maltusian database (even partial, like his is), isn't going to know anything about the species in warhammer 40k.
     
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  8. Ciber

    Ciber Know what you're doing yet?

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    There are lots of reasons the Tau caste system makes no sense. Not least among them is the idea that all the things civilization needs can be swept up into a few neat buckets.
     
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  9. Threadmarks: Fear Ourself (part 1)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Fear Ourself

    20th January 2013
    10:02 GMT


    Jade nods. "The food is-." She frowns. "Better, here."

    I look around the calm street in which our restaurant is situated. If not for the odd colour of the residents this could be somewhere in France or Italy; the roads are cobblestone and the buildings are clearly modernised relics of an earlier age.

    Not Britain though: they drive on the right.

    "Better than raw liquidised space snake?"

    "Yes, but-." She looks uncomfortable.

    "What is it?"

    "What happens to the souls of the people who get eaten?"

    I don't ask her to clarify whether she means the souls or the people.

    "Nothing special. If the death is traumatic enough the person who ate them might become the attachment point for their ghost rather than the place they died, but otherwise they're off to the local afterlife as normal. Unless… You're telling me otherwise."

    She gives her head a small shake, not looking at me. "I don't know."

    "Most people the citizenry kill are on planets, and most of the rest are near to inhabited planets. What I experienced with my second death is unusual and only really happens in deep space. Even if you… Had a ghost haunting you, we're on a world with a measurable thaumosphere at the moment; they'd probably wander off. And, if you want, we can perform the appropriate death-rites to make sure of it."

    "Can we change my brain back?"

    "Change..? To how it was before you used my ring?" She doesn't nod, but she does make momentary eye contact. "Yes. It wouldn't.. be a good idea, but we could. Are.. you.. having problems?"

    "No. No.. nightmares. No shaking or flashbacks. Just a background sense of… Wrong, that I ate them. That's more empathy than I used to have."

    "That wasn't part of your training, was it?"

    She turns her head towards me, frowning more deeply. "Eating people? No." her expression becomes contemplative. "Though I think Dad would probably have given us a pass on our wilderness survival if we did."

    "I'm pretty sure that the Scouts Association would have failed me if I'd done that. And… Eating people is wrong, so I can't say that there's anything wrong with you feeling that way. How serious-?"

    "No, not… I was just talking. So, what's the plan for freeing Earth?"

    "If I knew how to remove Anti-Life, I assure you, I'd have volunteered that information. The League's plan is… I can't think of anything better, and it will probably work as it's supposed to."

    "All that effort trying to take over the world, and the Justice League gets there first."

    "The right to rule comes from the consent of the governed. And it turns out that the governed prefer heroes who've tried to help them to villains who keep robbing and killing them."

    She raises her right eyebrow.

    "Yes, I am including actual politicians, though in all fairness they're not all in the second category. The problem with democracy is that people don't always vote for who they're supposed to. I mean, would you vote for Knight or Horne over Superman?"

    "I might if I thought he was going to fly off to save the world every day instead of doing his job."

    I raise my eyebrows pointedly at her.

    "Fine. No. So why didn't he stand for office?"

    "Because his adoptive parents and work colleagues would almost certainly get killed. And because as good a man as he is, he doesn't actually have any experience in civil administration and wouldn't really know what to do. And he.. wasn't born in the United States. Now, Batman could run, but he doesn't have the same reputation amongst the general population."

    "And it would terrify every other country on the planet. So what's the plan for dealing with that when it's over?"

    "What, 'if we keep fucking up competent and morally upstanding people might take over'?" I shrug. "I don’t know, but you know what happened with Brazil."

    "The League hasn't done a thing to get rid of the Accala. I thought that was because there wasn't anything to restore."

    "People have asked the League to do it, including survivors from the pre-Sheeda Brazilian government. This… Well, people will either restore their pre-Anti-Life governments, or they won't. The fact that a thing existed at one point in time isn't an indication that it must exist for all time."

    "All men aren't created equal if one of them can fire lasers out of his face."

    "All men aren't created equal anyway. I'd have to check with Rao to see if he endowed Kryptonians with the same innate rights as humans. But, yeah. If your political structures don't centralise power then it doesn't matter if the people with power are incompetent arseholes because they can't do anything too bad. If you do, then they need to be good people."

    "And who better than the Justice League?"

    "I hope someone, because most of them don't have the skill set."

    "But they do all have the moral integrity. Have you ever read Starship Troopers?"

    "I don't actually think that overthrowing the concept of democracy in favour of oligarchy would be as easy in reality as Robert Heinlein thought it would be."

    "So you have read it, or..?"

    "No, I just watched the films. The third one was surprisingly good, given the budget."

    She smiles with a quiet snort.

    "So you've got no idea at all?"

    "No, no… I've got an idea, it's just that even if it works, the results might be worse."

    "For Earth, or the universe?"

    "Both. Though given that the universe as a whole isn't that bad-."

    Wait. The Crime Syndicate reality. Would they..? Have some sort of non-evil Anti-Life? Or… Would it just be the Anti-Life in the hands of Highfather?

    I'll pass that one along.

    "What?"

    "Just had an idea that may be even worse. Ah, first idea is to use different colours of power ring to forcibly push the Anti-Life out of peoples' souls. But we don't have all the colours, and Alan and Ghia'ta probably aren't skilled enough, and I doubt that Sinestro will cooperate."

    "Why do we need Sinestro? Kalmin works for you."

    "Kalmin works for Kalmin. He just happens to be pointing in the right direction at the moment."

    Still… I suppose it wouldn't hurt to ask.
     
    Last edited: Feb 4, 2023
  10. BR549

    BR549 This is filth! FILTH!!

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    I mean, Kalmin is the Weaponer of Qward.

    What more gloriously worthy target for destruction could you find than "kill the Anti-Life"?
     
  11. CTrees

    CTrees Chasing the ring

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    I had forgotten they made sequels. I do vaguely remember Starship Troopers 3 being better than 2, but I'm pretty sure my memory of 4 and 5 being awful was accurate.
     
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  12. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    "Highfather"

    And if I remember correctly Darkseid in that universe if a fast food worker, so maybe he imbues Pro-Life into the meals he makes.

    And yes I know what the Equation name i gevw it can also mean.

    You never know.

    Given the title of the episode I'm guessing it will focus on him.

    Given that it's Kalmin you're talking about it honestly may hurt.
     
  13. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    I'm sure it's pretty enough. But there's bound to be little things that seem wrong to their human eyes. Oddities in behaviour, demeanour or atmosphere. Heck, even a little thing like the cutlery can make for a 'huh, that's odd' moment...

    See? One little thing and the illusion is ruined. Ruined, I say! :D

    To be fair, nearly anything would be better than raw liquidised space snake...

    Pretty straightforward, honestly.

    I doubt the majority of the Citizenry are in any way religious... Jade's not worried about the Citizen she sliced up, is she?

    ...Assuming you could find appropriate death-rites. o_O Whose rites would take precedence anyway? The Ghost's religion? The hauntee? The local planet?

    Ah. She's just feeling bad about the whole experience. It's just something you'll have to live with, Jade...

    Unless it ended up attracting some local spirit of cannabalism or something...

    Seriously, girl. Maybe you might need some therapy after that whole mission?

    If it helps, they're doing it out of necessity. It's this or let Mannheim have his way...

    Phrasing, OL? :D

    ...I mean, there is a universe or two where that happens.

    To be fair, I'm sure Clark would give it the old Smallville try.

    On the upside, neither of them would need much in the way of Secret Service protection. :p

    It's not really the League's job to step in on matters like that. Whatever any firebrand journalist might have to say on the matter.

    ...Bit of a lame comeback. But sadly true.

    Well, all of them do have their issues. Not all of them are squeaky-clean. ...Except maybe Captain Marvel. ;)

    I mean, would you put Patrick 'Eel' O'Brian in charge of anything? Besides maybe a bachelor party?

    Heinlein is not the best standard to judge anything by...

    She laughs, because the films were practically opposite-viewpoint parodies of the books. Plus a criminal lack of the powered armour technology from the books. :cool: ...Because Power Armour is almost as cool as a Power Ring.

    As in 'War of Light' worse? 'Blackest Night' worse? 'Final Crisis' worse? There's a wide scale for these things, you know.

    From what little you've seen of it...

    If the entire universe is morality-reversed, then 'Apokalips' might well be paragons of freedom and virtue. But I doubt it.

    Never mind the difficulty of getting Red or Indigo rings...

    ...So, how long is Kalmin going to laugh at you?

    Kalmin? I suppose he might take the challenge of removing a harmful universal principle from an entire population as a challenge. He might find the concept Anti-Life an unpleasant method of destruction, after all, since his religion is the annihilation of all life, not its enslavement. Or he might be pleasantly amused that OL even asked... :confused: The next chapter is going to open with him laughing, isn't it?
     
  14. DAT_NOOB

    DAT_NOOB Accused of writing in a far away land

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    Even then, isn't a plot point of the films that you become a citizen who has voting rights through service? I guess Zoat was watching it properly (With your mind turned off).
     
  15. The Froggy Ninja

    The Froggy Ninja The Blade Will Never Die

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    I’m fairly certain the Qwardians worship the anti life. Or something very ideologically aligned.
     
  16. webxro

    webxro Benevolent Bystander

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    Before the anti-life thingie I was wonder if Boss Smiley didn't somehow won already and just brainwashed Paul to move away from innovation without us noticing it. But now I wonder if he isn't somehow behind the anti-life thingie.
     
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  17. B00ki5h

    B00ki5h Verified: Oddball, Lurker, and Dabbler

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    They made more than three shit. Granted, I liked Tremors better.
     
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  18. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Some of them may be religious.

    The ones that have been forced to join them may pray to their idea of divinity.

    And Jade was worried about the people that were turned into porridge that she ate.

    They do have the fragments of an indigo ring.
     
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  19. Dur'id the Druid

    Dur'id the Druid Know what you're doing yet?

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    Don't forget the cartoon series.
     
  20. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
    What?
    Military service guarantees citizenship. In the book, you can get citizenship by doing equivalent civilian work for the same period of time.
     
  21. Doccer

    Doccer I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Nonono. If that were true he couldn't speak with any of them. And Zoat specifically said he turned that function off to learn the body language.
     
  22. Baladar

    Baladar Know what you're doing yet?

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    The man will likely say something like “you had to phrase it like that didn’t you? I feel obligated now.”
     
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  23. Rebu

    Rebu hey, little Anna, you're the one

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    I want to bring up a certain fact about America, but I'm afraid it would count as discussing politics.
     
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  24. Rafin

    Rafin Not too sore, are you?

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    This doesn't parse correctly to me. How could she even technically mean anything other than the souls with this phrasing? Like if Paul would have asked, what would the question have looked like?
     
    Last edited: Feb 4, 2023
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  25. Huttj509

    Huttj509 Getting sticky.

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    what happels to the *souls of the people* who get eaten

    what happens to the souls of the *people who get eaten*

    Doesn't really make a difference, but my interpration was "tempted to make a pedantic quibble, but won't"
     
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  26. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    Freedom Fighters implied linkage between the Anti-monitor and the ALE when it revealed that the "mathemagicians of anti-life" were in fact the Anti-monitor's shadow demons.

    They weren't formally linked until post flashpoint where they retconned the Anti-monitor to being a person empowered by the anti-life equation, which is the life equation equivalent of the Crime Syndicate universe.
     
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  27. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    There are ways to eat a soul, incorporating its magical energy into the eater. Merely eating their flesh is a far less extreme and more common thing.
     
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  28. Duke Long

    Duke Long Glomerulus

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    ‘an off-network’
    Full stop between ‘ready’ and ‘I’?
    God, I love 40K. Glad to see so many chapters of it.
    Never heard of this guy or the other two. I hope that this guy is actually Mork, having hornswoggled people into thinking that he’s a Chaos God with the power of Kunnin’ Brutality.
    ‘aid’?
    ‘these creatures’
    I mean, they would think it was a daemon, but the Ecclesiarchy does have quite a lot of leniency sometimes, particularly when they’re trying to convert people.
    Damn nice story.
    Gotta love slave-loaded starship weapons. Although sadly, I remember seeing a calculation which I think said that a purely slave-loaded Nova cannon is physically impossible with the normal size of Imperial ships.
    Not sure if this is deliberate, or if it should be ‘psychic’.
    ‘Citizenry’?
    Did Earth fall to oligarchy before the grassroots veterans took over? I just remember general degeneracy. My memory of the book isn’t great, though.
    Even the Arachnids had power armour in the book! I don’t hate the movies, but I can’t forgive them for turning the Arachnids from a technological civilisation to generic animalistic bio-tech bug aliens.
     
  29. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    Mo'rcck - Micheal Moorcock: Fantasy Writer whose works inspired the Warhammer form of 'Chaos';
    Phraz-Etar - Frank Frazetta: Legendary and iconic fantasy artist.
    An'Sl - Most likely Bryan Ansell: Early designer for Games Workshop, including Warhammer Fantasy Battles.
    And these are actual references from Early Warhammer. They loved their references, they did. :D
     
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  30. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    I vaguely remember you once mentioned that the Uxas from the Crime Syndicate universe was working in the fast food industry with Suli.
     
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