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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. Mquz

    Mquz Versed in the lewd.

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    For clarification, what does it mean outside of the anime fandom?
     
  2. jaelin910

    jaelin910 habitual lurker

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    So far as I'm aware, it's not that its meaning changes, it's just that some people do take note of the implications of the word and some don't.
     
  3. nick012000

    nick012000 Gone for Good

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    Also, China has a policy of covertly “influencing” any expatriates that start to reach a certain level of prominence. Unless his plan is to get the Chinese Space Navy expats to launch a coup, I think he’ll probably be disappointed, barring the use of New God magic (possibly in concert with Scott Free).

    I think we might be getting a bit close to breaking the “no politics” rule, though.
     
  4. TotalAbsolutism

    TotalAbsolutism Magnificent Bastard Moderator

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    I'm just gonna note that topic has been argued to death and back to the point where it tends to invite modly wrath due to the flame wars that tend to ensue.
    Little bit, but everyone's being reasonable so I see no reason to start whipping out the big bad modvoice just yet.
     
  5. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
    He's thinking very long term.
     
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  6. Bramble Thorn

    Bramble Thorn Verified Silhouette

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    There is probably a difference between clandestine influence peddling or monetary shenanigans and public commentary.
    Finding out the local I can't believe it's not Russia is covertly spending money in what looks like (or more importantly can be spun by the opposing side and made to look like) an attempt to buy an election is a different beast than someone influential there saying publicly their beliefs about the candidates.

    Isn't the whole set of Governor-Generals basically Canada and Australia?
     
  7. Sceptic

    Sceptic Critical Irrationalist

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    Not as such. There's about fifteen Governors-General currently extant, apparently.
     
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  8. Ace Dreamer

    Ace Dreamer Questioning The Nature of our Realities

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    Should be 'with'?

    Interesting discussion, and I like how Grayven is dancing around all the pitfalls of the situation that he's in.
     
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  9. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
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  10. Aeess

    Aeess I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    I wonder if the Renegade is going to offer him a Orange Ring, like the Paragon planned to.
     
    Last edited: Oct 25, 2019
  11. SirKaid

    SirKaid Know what you're doing yet?

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    In the general world "trap" is a slur referring to MtF trans people, the implication being that a person thinks they're dating a woman when it's suddenly revealed that their romantic partner is actually a man. I'm sure that you can understand why that sort of thing would be infuriating for trans people.

    Now, since going further than just defining the term would run directly into the rule against modern politics, what with trans rights being a current political thing, I would advise leaving it at that.
     
  12. Pinklestia

    Pinklestia Well worn.

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    Is probably live, and honesty, Grayven has so many ways to prove if a footage is false or edited that's ridiculous.

    Considering how much Marvel overuses the whole "frame someone for something, usually Spiderman" it would be Interesting to see what Oh El in Marvel fid during Civil War of he couldn't prevent it. Probably go off planet to fight that big threat that was happening at the same time.
     
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  13. Pinklestia

    Pinklestia Well worn.

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    And Grayven is the bad guy why again? Grayven might have experimented with himself but he had a power ring in case things went wrong, this kid ends experimenting with his own brain without having experimented on others first to make sure the procedure is as safe as possible. And without having taken enough precautions to mitigate or solve any problems if things go wrong.

    Not to mention is the BRAIN, together with hormones and the spinal cord nervous system is what determines how we think and behave.

    At least certain Decepticon that turned off his emotions always had the reason to turn them back on, depending on continuity.
     
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  14. PrinceJonathan

    PrinceJonathan Versed in the lewd.

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    "Do you like Ring Pops? I only have them in Orange and Lemon though."
     
  15. Siskulous

    Siskulous Know what you're doing yet?

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    Seconded. Or thirded since we have a mod saying essentially the same thing above.

    Um....he's not and never has been. He's impulsive and occasionally more violent than the Justice League likes, but that's a heck of a long way from being "the bad guy" in most books.
     
  16. Umbrella_merc

    Umbrella_merc Know what you're doing yet?

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    Do you got a link to it? I haven't been able to track it down.
     
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  17. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    If you do, PM it. Obama is definitely modern politics.
     
  18. Norgarth

    Norgarth Making the rounds.

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    He may be referring to the Tangent universe Superman, who was a black man (named Harvey Dent) with extremely powerful psychic powers

    EDIT: the Tangent titles/characters were created in '97 and '98, so there's no actual 'Obama Superman' to my knowledge
     
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  19. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    Look up Earth 23.
     
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  20. Norgarth

    Norgarth Making the rounds.

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    *does so* o_O
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    Sometimes I find myself quite happy with giving up on comics years ago...
     
  21. Threadmarks: Guys from Gotham (part 18)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    17th February
    01:43 GMT -5


    Still not coming out.

    Okay, sitting inside a warded area is actually a pretty good plan. The area around the warehouse is empty enough that there's clearly no way it could escape without me noticing. And if I enter the warehouse facility then it might be able to exit through one of the doors, or the ventilation-

    Still not coming out.

    -or just through a gap in the walls or the roof. The wraith is looking, but I'm not confident of its ability to locate an intelligent object that is actively trying to hide from it inside an internally warded building. I can't leave a drone up here while I search myself because I don't have a drone that could reliably spot a shapeshifter that was making an effort.

    Still-.

    Right! That's it! Gotham doesn't have street magicians and the wards wouldn't stop a serious magician anyway.

    I open my eyes, needing to see even the tiniest flicker of emotion within the warehouse. The whole building wavers in my vision for a moment, then snaps back with a tiny orange glow… Tiny orange glows, but those are rats and other minor pests. Only one stands out as a sophont mind. It's hiding… In the main warehouse. Now I don't have to worry about the wards I can easily detect it by ring scan; it's pretending to be some sort of rag doll. The wraith begins flying in its direction with a renewed hunger, but I shake my head.

    I transition into the building. Though this facility is new, most of it predates its current usage. There is more than enough room for me to trace an unobstructed line between myself and my target. The doll doesn’t move as I and its greater whole appear, and doesn't have time to as I grab it and dump it into the mud ball with the rest of it.

    "This has been a long and annoying night. Reform. Now."

    The doll swiftly dissolves, the shape and then the colours of the 'fabric' merging with the rest of the mass, the doll's face merging with the formerly-vacant mudface. The more complex lights are still there, growing in complexity as whatever it was trying to do to shut itself down stops.

    The face shrinks, rising from the surface of the mud and becoming noticeably more feminine as it extrudes. Still too misshapen to easily identify as any person in my database, assuming that this being is foolish enough to use its original face.

    "Please let me go."

    "As I told your lesser half, you're under arrest. It is extremely unlikely that I will let you go."

    "Please."

    "Oh, well since you asked so nicely a second t-. No. What happened to Charles Adelsen?"

    "I don't know."

    "Uh-huh."

    "I was.. given pictures. I was told who he was. I was given recordings of his speech. I never met him myself."

    "And who gave you those pictures?"

    "Kobra."

    "Plausible. Which part?"

    "Lady Eve."

    Not a well known name, outside of intelligence circles. Still, hardly conclusive. She doesn't keep her name a secret. I imagine that if you move in the right circles it's not too hard to hear it.

    "And how did you end up like this?"

    "I hated my natural face. I wanted to change. Lady Eve promised me that she would make it happen."

    "Right… But how did you get from that… Actually, how did you get in contact with Lady Eve in the first place? She must have hundreds of willing cultists who'd do anything to get power like this."

    "I don't know. I just wanted it."

    "Oh, come on-."

    "I don't!"

    Her face expands, her eyes going from a dull red glow to a furious burn.

    "Kobra agents came to my ro-. My house! They offered and I said yes. I didn't want to be me anymore."

    Hm. Perhaps they picked someone who already hated their own body in the hope of them not having so much of a psychological problem adapting to being made of mud? It still seems… Kind of dumb. Someone fanatically loyal would be better. Or several fanatically loyal people. The usual Kobra loyalists wouldn't talk to law enforcers like this.

    "What exactly did they do to you?"

    "They blindfolded me and took me out into the middle of nowhere. There was this… Sarcophagus… Thing, filled with some sort of… Gunk. They said it was some sort of magic and told me to get in."

    "And you just… Did?"

    "Yes."

    Ah. Hated her life so much that she wanted to cease existing… Still puzzling how Kobra found her. Or a Lazarus Pit. I could understand Ra's having a few stashed away somewhere, but I'd have thought that a man like him would have had protocols to prevent them falling into the wrong hands.

    "Why did they send you here?"

    "I was supposed to hide here and wait for other orders. They set up ' Charles Adelsen'… I don't know if they killed him or if he was a Kobra member or if he ever really existed in the first place."

    We can check th-. Richard can check that.

    "And what do you plan to do now?"

    "I.. thought you were going to send me to prison."

    "Yes, but assuming that you're telling the truth about Charles Adelsen, I've only got you for your Kobra membership. Taking into account that from what you said you appear to have been more of a test subject than a member, then even adding in the other charges that the District Attorney's office might raise, you're not looking at all that much prison time. And given that you're made of mud, you may well be effectively immortal."

    "You tried to hide rather than fight, you've been reasonably cooperative and you haven't shouted 'snake snake' even once. That suggests to me that you're an essentially rational woman. So what I'm going to suggest is that you speak to a colleague of mine and tell him absolutely everything about your contact with Kobra. And you can have a think about what you want to do with the rest of your life. Does that sound like a good idea to you?"

    "I.. guess… I just assumed that they'd be watching me."

    "With a view to doing what, exactly? You're made of mud. I shot the only other person I know about who's like you with a truly terrifying amount of gamma radiation and he was up and about in a couple of months. If you're happy being made of mud and you don't have any external leverage, there's essentially nothing they can do to compel you."

    "There's… Someone else like me?"

    "Sort of. He's much worse at shapeshifting than you are. So how about it?"

    "And you can keep me safe from Kobra?"

    "You can keep you safe from Kobra. But the more information you give me, the more I can do."

    "Then… Okay."

    Hey. A rational would-be supervillain. Perhaps tonight wasn't a total waste of time after all.
     
    Last edited: Oct 26, 2019
  22. Handlewithcare

    Handlewithcare Versed in the lewd.

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    Why would they waste a Lazarus charge on some random woman with psychological problems?
    ...
    Oh. Right. Supervillains.
     
  23. DiceArt

    DiceArt Not too sore, are you?

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    To be fair Kobra Cultists, are cultists you can't expect them to be rational, logical, or reasonable.
     
  24. Buggy123

    Buggy123 I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    ... Is this a first? It feels like a first.

    Well, OL's night definitely just took a turn for the better.
     
  25. Mquz

    Mquz Versed in the lewd.

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    They could have put in some sort of magical / technological mind control safeguard to turn her into a sleeper soldier. That needs to be checked. Would be fairly hard to do though.

    This is probably them trying to figure out what made Clayface transform by using a test subject with the right mindset of wanting to change who they are (something most versions of Clayface have).
     
  26. thepsyborg

    thepsyborg Not too sore, are you?

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    I'm wondering...that level of sheer hatred for her former body...is she, or was she I guess, trans?
     
  27. Mist of Shadows

    Mist of Shadows I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Much more likely that she was just fat and ugly.
     
  28. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    It's hard to say for sure, but I don't think so.

    [​IMG]
     
  29. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    Well the rational thing would be she was an expendable test subject for proof of concept before they start mass producing their own supersoldiers, but they never did that in the comics.

    Lady Clayface there was a part of Strikforce Kobra, a group of engineered supers by the Kobra cult- Elemental Woman who can transform matter, Planet Master 2 with a duplicate of the first's supersuit, Zebraman 2 who could attract or repel objects diamagnetically, and Spectumonster.

    The less than completely obvious inspirations for the members were the villains the Element Man (who had different powers actually) and the Rainbow Creature.
     
  30. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    Boy, his patience is wearing thin.
    Correction: 'the doors, or'

    He really has to do something about that. Unfortunately, any system complicated enough to overcome that kind of deception would likely be self-aware in some way.

    Got him. Now to catch him.

    Yeah, his patience is worn through. I bet the next step if the Clayface didn't comply would be heat lamps?

    Feminine? Oh-ho!

    OL sarcasm. It has really been a long night..

    And that's enough to ID this as Lady Clayface, one Sondra Fuller.

    And how likely is it this person would have, eh?

    That.. is a very good question.

    She's serious, it appears.

    As noted above by Mquz, they likely put some magic mind-whammy on her at some point. I doubt she'd be knowledgable enough to regocnise it.

    Never underestimate a desperate enough Want.

    Also very good questions that I hope OL remembers to check on, even if he leaves it to the Batfamily.

    Still sick of Gotham, eh?

    I'm betting that didn't occur to her at all.

    ...Okay, that's reasonable.

    Heh, I see the possibility of not being alone in this has her engaged.

    The night's not over yet..

    Well, that was unusual. Both Kobra's plan, and the young lady's willingness to cooperate. Let's hope the night doesn't throw up any worse surprises...
     
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