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

Reader mode
Dur'id the Druid said:
Probably. When was the last time he missed a day? I honestly don't remember.
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When he got banned from SB he technically missed a day for the EU time (I think), but not the US.

Same almost happened when he came here me thinks.

On busy weekends he will either post the update early or late, so nothing to fear right now.
 
That was my thinking as well. When I didn't see the daily Zoat post I came over to see if he rage quit from this form as well and where I'd need to go to find the story in the future. Still, even if he wanted to take a two week vacation he'd still have a better posting record than any other fanfiction author I can think of.
 
Rin said:
I think it's very important that we catastrophise this. Being reasonable and sensible about a small change in schedule has never gotten anyone anywhere.
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I for one have had my day's schedule entirely ruined, this has lead me to crash my car and break all my bones!

I hold Mr Zoat entirely responsible for this!

/s 😜
 
Mr Zoat said:
"I can share the plans, but without Garden of Eden Construction Kit I'm not sure what good it would do you."
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'without a'
Mr Zoat said:
Landing the saucer is something I'm well accustomed to doing; it's agility and speed meaning that avoiding any other aircraft in the area is a simple matter even on those rare occasions when it isn't the only thing in the air here.
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Extraneous apostrophe, and I'm not sure but I think the semicolon ought to be a comma.
Mr Zoat said:
Assuming that they were using an existing game engine -no real reason for them not to- and kept the main story relatively paired down, I suppose that they might have a first build complete after a year. It…
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'pared'
Mr Zoat said:
That.. wasn't what he looks like last time we spoke, but he's still recognisable. I

step out and
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'looked'
Mr Zoat said:
I glance around-. And a walking stereotype of a programmer; thin, pallid and unkempt, stares at me through tape-bound spectacles. And to complete the picture it looks like he dropped a pack of cheetos.

And then he turns and sprits through some nearby double doors.
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I think it ought to be more like:
'programmer - thin, pallid and unkempt - stares at me'
Also, 'sprints'
Mr Zoat said:
From reviewing the plot outlines, I know that Richard's done the quickest route to getting control of a ship: start as a gordanian with the pilot background, then get a job doing routine supply runs on a ship whose captain is over the hill and is happy to let you run the thing. That leads to getting attacked, and there's plot threads for if you manage to escape or if you don't.
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I think 'there're', but yours works as casual thought.
 
Okay, now i'm really worried
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© https://www.theargus.co.uk/news/24540086.eastbourne-police-negotiate-two-men-roof-15-hours/ (didn't work for me without a UK VPN)
This is one hilarious coincidence
 
Occums razor says it's more likely that whatever Zoat's day-to-day is has been interrupted by this, not that he's directly involved in the situation. Low probability. But if there's a police cordon and he can't get home or the power is cut in the area or something like that, he'd be unable to post.

Until we know more, no sense getting too wound up about it. Things'll be fine.
 
Any other Britons here with nothing to do on a Saturday evening? I'm thinking of heading down to Eastbourne to riot over this interruption of service, although it'll be a 6 hour train journey for me so any Englanders might have to start without me. Hopefully I can make enough from looting to cover the train tickets.
 
Equity (part 15)
7th May 2024
09:07 GMT

Atom Eve's eyes open for a moment, scanning her environment. I get a half-second longer than the physicians, but nothing more.

"Well. Here you go." Dr. David Evesham shrugs dejectedly. "She won't be fully alert just yet, but she can hear you."

I nod. "Could you..? Could all of you take a break?" Oh. "Do you have a break room, or are you all stuck in here-."

"He took over this whole facility. We've got space… For whatever good it does us." He breathes out, glancing at Atom Eve's monitors. "We can, but-" A couple of the others look like they're about to object, but quieten down as he makes eye contact with them. "-you need to know what you need to do if there's some kind of problem. And obviously, if anything happens to her, we're all dead… And you are too."

"Don't worry." I wave my right hand. "I can rearrange matter. I'm gong to fix everything except her spinal column. And I can monitor everything in real time, so I'll see any problems faster than the monitors will."

"You can-?" He breathes out slowly, shaking his head. "Don't do this to me."

"Don't..?"

"Don't give me hope. If you do that, half of us aren't needed. He might let us go. Or he might kill us, I guess, but I don't think he'd kill our families at least. Either way…"

"Um." I stare blankly at him. "I don't-." Okay, these people… Plenty of food being produced in the world outside, not counting that nutrient paste which appears to be what viltrumites feed their auxiliaries. I reach into subspace while feeling out their canteen area. A decent meal is the least I can do. "Anything… Anything else I need to know?"

"We don't exactly know how her power works. She hasn't used it since she's been here, and she hasn't been drugged the whole time. It could be she needs to move her hands…" He shrugs. "She doesn't have extra organs or anything, but if you heal her, she might just blast her way out."

I nod. I've seen recordings of her firing energy pulses from her hands and feet and creating simple constructs. For a while I thought that she might have a power ring, but… No flight aura.

"I'll bear that in mind. Now take a break."

He regards me for a moment, several of his colleagues heading out immediately. Then he looks down, nodding to himself before following them out.

Alright.

Sound baffle and scan.

Ekh.

Yes, she's been in the wars alright. And laying in bed all day isn't doing her much good ether. I start patching-.

Alert!

What?

The aura I had forming around Atom Eve… Fractures!

Don't you dare.

Shield and scan!

Construct armour appears around me and-. And there's no one here. That was the ring-. Usually, whatever it translates is making some sort of noise, but given the state of her neck…

"Didn't you hear?" I drop my armour. "He might let some of your physicians go. There's a lot of work for doctors outside."

Let me die.

"I'm not doing that. It would get a lot of people in trouble."

Her eyes open slightly, assessing me. Telepath.

"No, I've just got a really good translator. Look, whatever you've got planned, most of your injuries can't kill you. They're just crippling you and causing you pain."

No.

"Alright." I pull out one of the chairs standing against the wall and move it into a position where it's easy for her to see me. "Now-."

He sent you.

I nod. "He did."

Her eyes harden further. Traitor.

"They hardly needed my help."

You could have fought-.

"I'm not that strong, not that fast, and I have no training. I've learned how to slowly rearrange matter. That's not something that can really hurt a viltrumite."

She snorts, and turns her eyes to the ceiling.

Right. "Do you know who General Franco was?" She doesn't look at me. "Fascist ruler of Spain for a good chunk of the twentieth century. Didn't join in the Second World War because after the civil war Spain was in too much of a mess to really do anything except send Germany a few volunteers, which is why he lasted so long. But as he neared the end of his life he wanted a successor. And having done the traditional fascist dictator thing of playing his subordinates against each other and only promoting people who couldn't challenge him, he didn't have anyone available who could do the job."

"But he'd been a monarchist in his youth and… The son of the deposed king seemed to be his sort of person. Young Juan Carlos made all the right dictatorial nationalist noises so… Franco nominated him his successor, Juan Carlos became head of state and then king once Franco died… And then revealed his true colours, abolished the fascist dictatorship and transitioned the country to democracy."

"Then there's the Book of Esther. Haman persuaded King Ahasuerus to have all the Jews in Persia executed… Until the king's wife Esther persuades him not to, saving tens of thousands of lives without killing anyone."

Oh, she's looking at me now. No.

Yeah, she worked that out quickly enough.

I shrug. "And of course if the king didn't care about her, they'd all be dead. And if she'd let the fact that he was about to have her entire ethnicity exterminated stop her from 'persuading' him, they'd all be dead." I sit back a little. "I did.. hear about Omniman and Invincible finding your resistance group. Aside from one guy who teleported out, they all died. So I'm going to ask. You're clearly happy to sacrifice your life. Are you willing to sacrifice your pride?"

Tears leak from her eyes, and she squeezes them closed to try and keep them clear.

"I was wondering how it would work, being conquered by an alien empire. I mean, Omniman acting as a scout and then destroying resistance once he realised that we couldn't beat him… Okay, that's efficient. No sense wasting resources when what's on site can do the job. But one man can't run a planet. All he's really done since then is destroy potential sources of resistance. Invincible's the one who made the broadcasts. I don't… I don't think he knows how to run a world. And clearly the Viltrumite Empire didn't have a team ready to go when it happened. In my role as a toady I've been asking for the reconstruction plan, and I don't think there is one. Omniman kills without hesitation, but I… Got hold of some of the Global Defence Agency's recordings. In the early fights, before he… Internalised the victim-blaming, Invincible looked at his father for… Approval? Before killing his opponents."

You disgust me.

"Yeah, that's fair. But having not fought them, and played the part of willing collaborator, I've been able to give millions shelter, food and sanitation. How many people did you help by resisting? After we lost at our strongest, how many did you think you could help by fighting at our weakest?"

You do it, then.

"We went bowling last week. I think he's trying to make a friend, but he's gotten so far into his alien overlord persona that he keeps being inadvertently terrifying… Then deciding that it was intentional." I shake my head. "I couldn't pretend to be you well enough. Couldn't hold your shape or match your power."

I sigh, then get up.

"Think it over."
 
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Galler said:
So, I assume that Zoat is having a long lie-in today or is having internet issues.
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My phone line died last night. Posting now from my mother's laptop. It has no mouse and no Word and appeared to think that the document I write on was a web page for some unfathomable reason. Updates might become patchy and forget about spelling corrections.

I appreciate your forbearance in advance.
 
Mr Zoat said:
My phone line died last night. Posting now from my mother's laptop. It has no mouse and no Word and appeared to think that the document I write on was a web page for some unfathomable reason. Updates might become patchy and forget about spelling corrections.

I appreciate your forbearance in advance.
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It's cool you've been updating everyday for years if you need some time for whatever reason just say so
 
.... Yeah. Trying to be honorable when your leaders are really in need of a long stay in a Sanitarium is impossible. Reminds me of a story or study of family who was raised by a psychopath. They had the secondary traits, but their brain scans were diffrent. And they became more normal as they grew up away from the psychopath.
 
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RoninSword said:
So not knowing anything about Invincible (the comic or the show), I think someone else mentioned that this woman had some mental alterations done to her? Can someone elaborate?
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Eve is the result of a shady government science experiment that aimed to create a person that could manipulate matter.

However, she had mental blocks placed on her so that she couldn't manipulate her own form or organic matter like people.

At least that's what I remember.
 
Mr Zoat said:
Let me die.

"I'm not doing that. It would get a lot of people in trouble."
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Presumably this OL has been spending most of his time in Britain, hence the excessive understatement. 'in trouble' doesn't really cover the mass murder that would result.

Mr Zoat said:
My phone line died last night. Posting now from my mother's laptop. It has no mouse and no Word and appeared to think that the document I write on was a web page for some unfathomable reason. Updates might become patchy and forget about spelling corrections.

I appreciate your forbearance in advance.
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Ouch. But could be a lot worse.
Consider my fors bearanced.
 
To go a bit further.

As mentioned, Eve can manipulate matter. Create things. Destroy things. Turn thing into other things. But she had mental blocks put into her so that she couldn't use her powers to manipulate the matter that makes up living things. The blocks were put in place more to protect her from herself than to protect others from her. The government tried to make siblings as capable as her. They didn't have the original scientist responsible for Eve's creation, and since he was the one who made the mental blocks this meant those siblings didn't have them. That didn't turn out well for them. Their bodies were seriously fucked up.

If put through a severe enough emotional shock she can temporarily bypass the mental blocks. Or she can die. I don't know if it's supposed to be any form of death, or if you could prevent it by vaporizing her or something, but in the moment of death her powers kick in without those limits and restore her body to her prime. So she's effectively immortal, but she does have to go through the experience of becoming old repeatedly. Well, that or she kills herself every twenty years or so so she never has to get TOO old again. I don't really remember how they decided to handle the resurrective immortality thing.

======

I do wonder what made the main Invincible a good guy. We're told that in most universes he becomes evil. I'd actually originally thought maybe it involved his mom, but we're also told that in most universes she's a pretty infamous collaborator.

And for that multiverse stuff, to try to keep it simple.

The person that tells us about the other universes is a guy named Angstrom. He has the power to open portals between the various alternate universes. He had a plan to basically combine the knowledge of all his alternate selves, then use that combined knowledge to create a utopia. He had a special machine built that would let him do this without being overwhelmed by the minds of his alternates. Some stuff happened and the machine exploded when he tried to help Invincible.

This seriously fucked him up but, more importantly, it also removed his safeguard against mental contamination. He has the memories of all those alternates but lost the ability to filter them out. So for him it's as though he personally lived all those lives. Most of which had an evil Invincible. Many of which personally wronged him. (One of the evil Invincible's killed his son in front of him. Another killed his wife. Etc. Etc.)

So he ends up an antagonist. Mostly because he can't separate the good Invincible from all the evil ones.
 
I appreciate that rather than pulling out references from television shows, movies, and fanfiction and such (as he frequently does in other universes), the SI quoted one example from real life history and one example from... well it's probably still fiction but at least a Biblical story has some cultural weight to it as a moral lesson.

I don't like to harp on it, because you know it is what it is, but I always find it a little cringe when the SI quotes some fictional reference to lend weight to his argument and the person he's talking to doesn't respond with, "No shit because that's fiction and the author can make it work however he wants." So this was genuinely a case of the SI upping his game, good job.

ForeverShogo said:
I do wonder what made the main Invincible a good guy. We're told that in most universes he becomes evil. I'd actually originally thought maybe it involved his mom, but we're also told that in most universes she's a pretty infamous collaborator.
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Maybe it's because people don't "become evil". They make choices that then constrain their further choices because once you're committed it's hard to go back.
 
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ForeverShogo said:
I do wonder what made the main Invincible a good guy. We're told that in most universes he becomes evil. I'd actually originally thought maybe it involved his mom, but we're also told that in most universes she's a pretty infamous collaborator
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I once read that it's possible that the other Nolan's didn't call Debbie a pet, so those versions of Mark didn't get so mad at him and heard him out.
 
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