1. Due to issues with external spam filters, QQ is currently unable to send any mail to Microsoft E-mail addresses. This includes any account at live.com, hotmail.com or msn.com. Signing up to the forum with one of these addresses will result in your verification E-mail never arriving. For best results, please use a different E-mail provider for your QQ address.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. For prospective new members, a word of warning: don't use common names like Dennis, Simon, or Kenny if you decide to create an account. Spammers have used them all before you and gotten those names flagged in the anti-spam databases. Your account registration will be rejected because of it.
    Dismiss Notice
  3. Since it has happened MULTIPLE times now, I want to be very clear about this. You do not get to abandon an account and create a new one. You do not get to pass an account to someone else and create a new one. If you do so anyway, you will be banned for creating sockpuppets.
    Dismiss Notice
  4. If you wish to change your username, please ask via conversation to tehelgee instead of asking via my profile. I'd like to not clutter it up with such requests.
    Dismiss Notice
  5. Due to the actions of particularly persistent spammers and trolls, we will be banning disposable email addresses from today onward.
    Dismiss Notice
  6. A note about the current Ukraine situation: Discussion of it is still prohibited as per Rule 8
    Dismiss Notice
  7. The rules regarding NSFW links have been updated. See here for details.
    Dismiss Notice
  8. The testbed for the QQ XF2 transition is now publicly available. Please see more information here.
    Dismiss Notice

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

Discussion in 'Creative Writing' started by Mr Zoat, Jan 27, 2019.

Loading...
  1. Norgarth

    Norgarth Making the rounds.

    Joined:
    Jan 28, 2019
    Messages:
    31
    Likes Received:
    122
    I still have a VCR player (I haven't used it in years, but I have one). Which may work out seeing how I've been cleaning out my junk room, and found a couple boxes of old tapes. I can (maybe) see what's on them. :p
     
    moralrelativity likes this.
  2. Tzeentch

    Tzeentch I trust you know where the happy button is?

    Joined:
    Feb 16, 2019
    Messages:
    765
    Likes Received:
    6,482
    With The Boys series out now, I wonder if we'll see more of Indigo Lantern Paul, whether during his time working for Vought American or long after the Homelander Horror, working to establish a TRULY respectable superhero organization.

    Of course, seeing him having lunch and a friendly conversation with Hughie and Annie would be nice.

    Come to think of it, Indigo Paul might have been one of the ONLY supers Starlight would have had a positive relationship with, and vice-versa. I can't imagine many of the Vought American Capes and employees appreciating having to actually FEEL compassion for others every time he entered the room.

    Lord knows a sociopath like Stillwell probably couldn't stand him!
     
  3. Steelplaza

    Steelplaza Custom Title

    Joined:
    May 12, 2015
    Messages:
    181
    Likes Received:
    946
    If I could draw a line under the "VCR tapes" debate? Of course there could be endless innocent explanations, and it doesn't prove anything. It's not a "red flag". It is however a "yellow flag". Another minor warning sign that, yes, Paul often talks and recounts bits of his history in a way that would make more sense if he was older than his claimed age. Little clues and cues like that add up.

    As for the Alignment, that's some pretty lousy parts to their military and legal system. On the other hand, it's still pretty much in the same league as bad stuff that first world democratic nations on earth do in our military and legal systems. No amazing surprises there.

    The mystery itself, eh, it will be what it will be. You know what 'm actually interested in? I'm wondering if resolving his revenge will make Xor unable to continue as an Orange Lantern. He does not really seem to be like a fellow who is usually driven by his desires. His burning need for revenge right now is pretty hot, but once he settles that will he really Want anything the same way? He strikes me as a fellow who preferred to just go with the flow of life and never had any grand ambitions or fierce needs. It would be interesting if Paul learns that for some orange lanterns, resolving old issues harms their ability to use orange light.
     
  4. Impartial Panic

    Impartial Panic I trust you know where the happy button is?

    Joined:
    Nov 22, 2014
    Messages:
    695
    Likes Received:
    10,770
    Lucille has standards.
     
  5. Coda

    Coda Versed in the lewd.

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2019
    Messages:
    1,079
    Likes Received:
    4,181
    That's not necessarily true. Consider the anglerfish: In some species, the male is independently viable up until the time of mating. At that point, the male attaches to the female and integrates with her physiology. His eyes, fins, and most internal organs (including the brain) atrophy to nothingness or near-nothingness, with the noteworthy exception of those necessary to produce sperm to fertilize the female. He absorbs nutrients directly from the female's bloodstream. Neither fish mounts an immune response to the other.

    In light of this, is it really so unbelievable that a plant/animal symbiosis might happen? It seems reasonable enough that an ancestral animal species might depend on an ancestral plant species to the extent that the animal would start carrying the plant around, allowing it to take root in its body. The two would, over generations, co-evolve to be more optimized for such an arrangement. I imagine that the whole thing would start off with the animal initially being a pollinator for the plant, then since that brings the animals into social contact as they spread pollen, they would begin mating and leaving their eggs at the pollination sites.
     
    Drode, Cuchulin, Vorian and 3 others like this.
  6. PDV

    PDV Revelation That Uncertainty Is Itself An Answer

    Joined:
    Apr 6, 2018
    Messages:
    387
    Likes Received:
    1,466
    I was 20 in 2011, in a fairly wealthy family, and I don't think we got a DVD player until I was in my teens. And Paul is open about being a few years older than The Team.
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2019
  7. Siskulous

    Siskulous Know what you're doing yet?

    Joined:
    Jan 29, 2019
    Messages:
    230
    Likes Received:
    842
    There's a VCR sitting on my desk hooked up to a TV capture card now. And I've used it recently. Mind you, I dug it out of storage to convert a VHS that came with a vintage board game I'd bought on EBay and don't actually own any other VHS tapes anymore. My kids managed to make me feel very old that day simply by asking "What's that?"

    Reading your comment I immediately thought of lichen and man o' wars. Both of which I was beaten to by other comments. There are also tons of examples like this between plants and fungus (basically all vascular plants have some sort of symbiotic fungus that they can't survive without). And not everything native to human guts is single-celled. There are some fungi in there too, and we need all of that stuff in order to survive.
     
    Gilhelmi and moralrelativity like this.
  8. LostPath

    LostPath Getting out there.

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2019
    Messages:
    13
    Likes Received:
    51
    Ardy likes this.
  9. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2016
    Messages:
    14,694
    Likes Received:
    728,889
    Except less brutal, and for a less corrupt government.
     
  10. Jirachi

    Jirachi I trust you know where the happy button is?

    Joined:
    Nov 21, 2017
    Messages:
    622
    Likes Received:
    1,280
    Did Paul check if the indigo corps uses the same comm system (and are therefore contactable)?
    I hope Paul and Co are able to get *some* support from other maltusian factions.
    Are the controllers letting non-controllers bond with the central power battery?
    Hope we get to see more of the planning and starting of the reach war soon...
     
    Last edited: Jul 30, 2019
  11. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2016
    Messages:
    14,694
    Likes Received:
    728,889
    Yes. They didn't answer.
    Who's 'we'?
    Kalmin asked them to start bonding slaves to it to see how quickly they explode. Hinon vetoed it on the grounds that it wasn't hygienic.
    The Reach doesn't want to do stand up fights, and would risk getting the Green Lantern Corps involved if they made direct assaults. Dox isn't ready yet.
     
  12. Jirachi

    Jirachi I trust you know where the happy button is?

    Joined:
    Nov 21, 2017
    Messages:
    622
    Likes Received:
    1,280
    It's an odd affectation I've gotten, to refer to quest protags and such in the first person in votes and discussion. (We is roughly 'the SI' or 'The orange lantern Corps' or 'The steering committee'.)
    I mean, yes? I do think there is probably a lot more work to be done regarding getting more involvement from the exotic weapons people, and actually making them a dedicated part of the war effort and part of the steering comittee for the war, becuase the whole point of the steering comittee is that they have on purpose, a shared sense of direction and so on, and if the Controllers working on side projects like Jevek's are going to be 'rogue'...
    Also, why was Hinon so shocked about the blue lantern? I mean, wouldn't she have read Paul's mission report about Kalmin, the anti-green corps and such?
     
    Last edited: Jul 29, 2019
    infinityDivided likes this.
  13. BR549

    BR549 This is filth! FILTH!!

    Joined:
    Apr 24, 2017
    Messages:
    637
    Likes Received:
    4,552
    That last bit depends on whether or not you count the Travisstys, I believe.

    I'm not sure about QQ specifically, but the general rule (as in, its actually a rule) on most of this "family of boards" is not to use "we" when the thread in question is not a quest.

    And...'not a quest'.
     
  14. moralrelativity

    moralrelativity Recovering pendant.

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2016
    Messages:
    873
    Likes Received:
    3,601
    I know that pain... I had to get on YouTube to show my kids what it was like to use a rotary dial phone.
     
    Cuchulin likes this.
  15. Threadmarks: Realigned (part 8)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2016
    Messages:
    14,694
    Likes Received:
    728,889
    6th February
    13:22 GMT


    "Lanterns." Sub Sector Unifier Creduk Vin turns to face us as we enter his office and brings his fists together at his chest. A novel gesture but the basic idea repeats itself in many humanoid civilisations: my hands are in a place which would make it difficult for me to use a weapon and I'm doing it first to acknowledge that my position is inferior. "What can I do for you?"

    The city of Johhonnta has a paramilitary police force. It strikes me as odd. Even in Metropolis -a city which has to occasionally cope with Superman-tier criminals- the Special Crimes Unit are far more heavily armed than a normal SWAT unit but regular police are equipped in the same way as regular police in other cities. And that still-. Well, used to strike me as odd when contrasted with the British police's lack of guns. But here it's like something out of Judge Dredd. Smart rail rifles, plasma blasters and solid all-enveloping armour, including a helmet which covers most of the wearer's face.

    Vin is wearing a purple dress uniform with red trim, but even that has armoured inserts. It doesn't.. make sense to me. There are good reasons why civil law enforcement officers don't dress like that outside war zones. Are they facing constant civil insurrection? Did they just finish a major war and need to put their soldiers somewhere until they demob? No, nothing about a major war on the records Canar sent me…

    I make the fist gesture back, while Guy just folds his arms across his chest. Which a local man will probably interpret in the same way.

    "One moment."

    Orange light strobes out from me, deactivating the devices monitoring the interior of the office and setting up holographic screens at the windows. Windows which are armoured, I notice. Since our presence here is official I'm not trying to deceive anyone looking in with a false image, so the holograms simply show closed blinds. Next, I take a rune stone out and wave it around. As expected there's no glow, but it doesn't hurt to be sure. Lastly I take out three anti-eavesdropping pendants, pass one to Guy, put one on myself and offer Vin the last.

    He takes it cautiously. "What is it?"

    "A tool to prevent anyone overhearing this conversation. If you wouldn't mind putting it on?"

    "I've been ordered to cooperate with you, but I'm loyal to the Alignment. Bear that in mind."

    He slips the thong over his head and lets it fall to lay against his chest.

    "I'd like to talk to you about the Alignment's practice of using child soldiers."

    He frowns, his eyes moving to Guy. "The Green Lantern Corps ruled that the practice wasn't objectionable."

    "No, th' Green Lantern Corps ruled it wasn't slavery. Ain't th' same thing." Guy lets his environmental shield glow a little brighter. Not combat-brightness, but with the lights in the office dimmed by the blinds it's quite noticeable. "If it'd been slavery, the local Green Lanterns woulda put a stop to it already. I'm here 'cause doin' somethin' about it needs someone a bit higher up t' make a decision."

    "You're an.. officer."

    "Honor Guard Lantern Guy Gardner."

    "And I'm the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps."

    I bring my formal robes out of subspace and drape them over my light armour.

    "Well-. I.. see why some people might find it objectionable, but why are you talking to me? I have no authority over the practice."

    "Pickin' names out of a hat." Guy shrugs. "Wanna find out what a regular Joe thinks of it."

    "It… Beats the way we used to handle unowned orphans."

    "Oh yeah? What was that then?"

    "Medical euthanasia."

    Guy's environmental shield grows a little brighter still.

    "Yes, I suppose that it does beat that."

    "They learn fast, and they are given bodies far stronger than our best powered armour. Ten years of service and they are free citizens. It's not… Nice, perhaps, but it works. They do useful work no one else can and they aren't mist-."

    I raise my right hand. "I'm.. going to stop you right there. Your society and mine have very different ideas of what child mistreatment looks like. But… Okay. How the heck do you turn a brain that young into a functioning soldier?"

    "I'm.. not an expert on the technology-."

    "I'm really more interested in what the average Alignment citizen believes about it."

    "It's.. something to do with how they educate them. The programming they give them grants them knowledge and… Loyalty. It makes them honourable. Then… I assume that they do something to induce synaptic pruning… It's perfectly functional. They don't behave like normal children. That would be dangerous."

    "Do that t' any regular kids?"

    "I think.. it.. used to be used like that. It… Fell out of fashion."

    "Okay, so: inexperienced but functionally adult. Plenty of species have fast maturation cycles. How are they treated once they complete their term of service?"

    "The same as any other soldier leaving the military. Their training makes them unusually honest and trustworthy. Everyone knows that."

    "I suppose if you can do anything to someone's brain, there isn't much point leaving them room to disobey."

    "No, it isn't like that. Trying to turn them into bio-robots doesn't work. The machines implant a strong code of honour which includes lionising loyalty to their superiors but they can disobey."

    "Loyalty?"

    "That's what our government gets out of it. Soldiers who can't-. Well, maybe not can't, but would be very difficult to bribe or suborn."

    "If that's true, what happened to Xalitan Xor?"

    The response is immediate. The tensing of his muscles, the saccades of his eyes and the changing of his breathing pattern. He clamps down as hard as he can -a giveaway in its own right- but he was stressed.

    "That… I wasn't the investigating officer. I was simply called in to apprehend him. His case-"

    "Is one which particularly concerns me. You told me that they're programmed to respect authority and be honourable, and he went and murdered his employer's wife."

    "That… Was extremely uncharacteristic. If.. I hadn't read the judgement myself…"

    I barely need to look inside him at this point. Fear, vague and formless, of sticking his head above the parapet. No face. So an order would go out and he'd wake up dead. I wonder if he's carried out that sort of order before himself? But that doesn't prove a particular conspiracy around Xor, just that the government is a bit on the oppressive side.

    "It surprised you to learn that one of the War Hounds would do that?"

    "… Yes. It did. If you request the case files, I'm sure that will explain things."

    "You didn't read them yourself?"

    "I had no need to."

    "Are you aware of any similar cases?"

    "There are.. instances of violence. When their sense of honour conflicts with the law. That's not a problem while they're in the military, but when they're employed by civilians it can happen."

    "And you assume that's what happened to Xor?"

    "I haven't really thought about it. It… Would be logical."

    I smile. "Then I suppose that we'd better get those files as well."
     
    Last edited: Jul 30, 2019
  16. Ganurath

    Ganurath Apologizes For Nothing

    Joined:
    Aug 18, 2014
    Messages:
    2,532
    Likes Received:
    20,675
    Welcome to the Alignment, where we solved Voldemort before he became a problem!
     
  17. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

    Joined:
    Oct 16, 2015
    Messages:
    5,515
    Likes Received:
    20,605
    What happened to Earth magic not working well off of Earth?
     
    Enochi, AngelicKnight. and Cuchulin like this.
  18. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2019
    Messages:
    2,149
    Likes Received:
    33,425
    Nice to see some things are consistent across species. Both gestures of greetings and fancy-sounding bureaucratic titles.

    Privacy. Sensible, given the culture.

    Guy doesn't sound likely to give it any good recommendation...

    And doesn't that word choice say so much about their culture. 'Unowned'...

    Definite disapproval.

    Ten years...That puts Xor around the twenty-year mark, if he was converted around five years old. Add a couple of years after mustering out...

    Should be a question?

    I like this less and less, the more I hear. It sounds like Astartes recruitment to some degree.

    Easy...

    ...Never mind, Guy. Go wild.

    To avoid following unconscionable or criminal orders, presumably?

    Missing word?

    Oh, he's nervous. He knows something...

    Still very concerning, and suspicious.

    Notable pause there. He's very worried.

    Ah, Diplomancy. Best skillset.

    Curiouser and Curiouser... Let's see how deep the rabbit-hole goes, shall we?
     
    Last edited: Sep 19, 2019
  19. Buggy123

    Buggy123 I trust you know where the happy button is?

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2019
    Messages:
    504
    Likes Received:
    3,746
    Active magic ≠ passively enchanted object. Think "solar powered" v.s. "battery powered" .

    Also, it's probably not all that powerful of a enchantment. Very useful, but it probably only uses a tiny sliver of magical power compared to, say, combat spells.
     
  20. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2016
    Messages:
    14,694
    Likes Received:
    728,889
    Hah! No.
    Thank you, corrected.
     
  21. helios

    helios Praise the Sun!

    Joined:
    Jan 20, 2014
    Messages:
    66
    Likes Received:
    1,022
    The rune stone literally did nothing. It's entirely possible the pendants don't actually do anything here either and that it's such an ingrained habit that he just does it forgetting he's not on Earth at the moment.
     
  22. Handlewithcare

    Handlewithcare Versed in the lewd.

    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2019
    Messages:
    1,289
    Likes Received:
    12,971
    There is a lot to unpack here.

    The Alignment is oppressive, militaristic and paranoid, going by their police equipment, yet produce super soldiers who are "honourable" instead of "loyal".

    This Vin is terrified of questioning Judgements but sees no problem with talking eith Lanterns about Alignment internal issues, he fears no repercussions from that.

    Meaning the Alignment fears the Lanterns enough to order their people to cooperate with them. Or they genuinely think they have nothing to hide.
     
  23. Buggy123

    Buggy123 I trust you know where the happy button is?

    Joined:
    Jan 27, 2019
    Messages:
    504
    Likes Received:
    3,746
    Huh. Now that I see it described in detail, I don't actually find this practice all that objectionable.

    I mean, ideally, they wouldn't be making soldiers, and they really ought to include a little variety instead of just "honor, honor, and more honor.". And they might be taking in children at too late of a age, to the point where it's questionable whether it's "technologically assisted childrearing" or "growing a new person by wiping/brainwashing a pre-existing person".

    But at the core of it, they're using technology to grow new people, who are, sane, competent, and happy. Genetics and childhood often forgets a few of those key features; and I'm not even going start on the sorts of improvements you can put in while you're at it.



    The fact that they're using this versatile technology to make soldiers is really just, I'd say, a reflection of their society. Of course they'd take a versatile technology with great potential, and immediately use it for war instead of anything better.

    Just like, I dunno, inventing a versatile energy source that could power entire countries, complete earthmoving construction projects in mere moments, ease the harvesting of natural resources, and send people to the stars better than any rocket ever made... and instead, using that tech to build thousands of immensely destructive weapon platforms and promptly sit a button press away from societal self-destruction for decades on end.
     
  24. Mquz

    Mquz Versed in the lewd.

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2018
    Messages:
    2,117
    Likes Received:
    8,237
    I was assuming that the reason your British cops don’t have guns in the modern era to deal with violent criminals who might have guns, is because you turned London into a surveillance state with CCTV cameras and send some version of SWAT to deal with them.
     
  25. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2016
    Messages:
    14,694
    Likes Received:
    728,889
    Yes, we have armed response units, but they're not exactly in frequent operation. CCTV wouldn't stop someone with a gun shooting someone, it would just make it easier to track their movements afterwards and convict them. And that wouldn't explain the rest of the country.
     
  26. Queshire

    Queshire Not too sore, are you?

    Joined:
    Jan 26, 2019
    Messages:
    466
    Likes Received:
    2,768
    Uhhhhh... Is this getting too close to modern politics?
     
  27. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

    Joined:
    Dec 1, 2016
    Messages:
    14,694
    Likes Received:
    728,889
    It's a bit iffy, but we've had more or less the same firearm laws for over twenty years. We've never had an all gun-armed police force.
     
  28. Mquz

    Mquz Versed in the lewd.

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2018
    Messages:
    2,117
    Likes Received:
    8,237
    The CCTV surveillance state thing is a bit newer.
     
    Wild Transient and Cuchulin like this.
  29. RichardWhereat

    RichardWhereat Aia airëa Fëanáro.

    Joined:
    Oct 1, 2016
    Messages:
    2,842
    Likes Received:
    15,026
    Even that began in the 60's.
     
    Wild Transient and Prince Charon like this.
  30. Gladiusone

    Gladiusone Well worn.

    Joined:
    Sep 4, 2014
    Messages:
    5,588
    Likes Received:
    49,135
    As I understand it, the ‘unarmed police’ go back to Bobby Peel’s original orders for the Metrapolitan Police, who were armed with a truncheon and a wooden rattle (to summon assistance). To reassure the public, they were designed to be the furthest thing from a ‘militarised organistation’ as possible, to the extent that they were originally banned from actually investigating crimes. Stopping one in progress was fine, but actually looking into crimes was seen as ‘poking their noses into the private lives of the city’s citizens.’
     
Loading...