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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. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    Given how suspicious some members of the League are towards him already... Good idea not to give them ammo.

    Ah, yes, the old metaknowledge conundrum. How much to reveal...

    Just ripping the plaster off, are we? Hopefully, Doctor Munro won't go doing anything foolish...

    Not directly, actually. Heck, OL didn't even realise Iron Munro existed here before the India mission, did he?

    Big picture, Doctor. Humanity becoming supermen in a few generations. Lex won't jeopardise that for his own manias. I hope.

    And since what Lex knows, The Light will know soon after...

    Nothing that puts your country in danger, of course. Think of the goodwill!

    You honestly think you'd last very long anyway?

    In other words, Colonel, keep the war-boner in your figurative pants.

    I'm betting everyone not involved in the highest planning level will end up very confused about it all.

    Hopefully, nothing the UN would want to have words with them about...

    Power ring. Until Warded servers became a thing, OL could know anything he wanted in moments...

    Too much hassle to argue about it with OL...

    In other words, have a meeting scheduled during their work day, but if he doesn't turn up.. Well, a free lunch!

    Ah, eyes on the world's public opinion. How political of you, Colonel.

    Oh, yeah, that was a thing.

    Ah, the benefit of a non-totalitarian government. I'm sure the Colonel sees it was weakness...

    So, cooperation likely but grudgingly given.

    I take it Mirror Master there will be providing transportation for the fictional 'project'...

    More heist planning.And from what we've seen, the League's investigators will be working their asses off to unravel it...
     
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  2. Ngamer11

    Ngamer11 Experienced.

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    It should be 'misled'.

    Now I really can't wait for the epic "training exercise".
     
    Last edited: Nov 26, 2019
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  3. Lokpik

    Lokpik Know what you're doing yet?

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    I'm really interested in seeing the proper u.n. officials who go over the leagues reports after this wargame.
     
  4. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    It will be funny if the League cheats on this one like Paul cheated on the last.
     
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  5. w34v3r

    w34v3r Versed in the lewd.

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    It seemed less like cheating and more like overabundant enthusiasm.
     
  6. Aeess

    Aeess I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    He didnt cheat, he did something unexpected that still fulfilled the purpose of the exercise by revealing a hole in their defense a real Supervillain could exploit.

    This isn't supposed to be some game between them with fair chances of winning, but something that helps the League in thr long term.
     
  7. ForeverShogo

    ForeverShogo Not too sore, are you?

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    I'm still surprised he gave up on Lex as totally as he did. Especially now that he's further developed his ability to understand the desires and motivations of others.

    It just seems like it'd be pretty easy to figure out, "Oh. He's a paranoid shit who thinks I used the Ring to make him have a change of heart."

    Because Zoat has said Lex's paranoia that he was being brainwashed is the only reason Paul failed to flip him the last time they spoke to one another.
     
  8. Maxx Crowley

    Maxx Crowley I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    In all failed relationships, eventually you just have to move on.

    You could "this" and you could "that", but really? You just need to cut your losses and get on with your life.
     
  9. Ace Dreamer

    Ace Dreamer Questioning The Nature of our Realities

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    Looking at the Grayven is/becoming a god bit...

    This seems to depend on several things, including "what is the nature of a god?", in this setting, which it should be quite clear is Mr Zoat's decision, not YJ or DC Comics, though they might point you in useful directions. If you want to go classical, dying and restoring yourself to life was regarded as the qualification for becoming a shaman or a god... Whether this is required to be symbolic or actual is a different issue... From my memory of the WTR story Grayven qualifies, arguably on more than one occasion...
     
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  10. Gantradies

    Gantradies Not too sore, are you?

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    i mean- he gave it his best shot-he gave the man so many choice whilst KNOWING just how far he was capable of sinking,
    but Alexander's..
    well..
    he's too...ill? Neurotic? to be saved without psychological help- anything that genuinely makes him second-guess-himself/question the morality of his actions/upcoming actions causes him to snap to "im obviously being mind controlled- the smartest man on the planet NEVER questions himself- nice try, ALIEN, ill double down, im clearly justified,you just tried to brainwash me!"
    without breaking his delusions/ FORCING him to face just how...off his perspective/viewpoint is, how much damage he's constantly on the verge to causing to humanity, in a way he CANT rationalize away with his paranoia,until he has to acknowledge he's -not- mentally healthy, well...things will never improve, and eventually he'll be the one cackling at the controls of the orbital accelerator instead of one of his "business partners"...


    ......kinda reminds me of my mother giving her sister too many second chances-
    like you said, in the end, sometimes you have to just...call it a loss and ...let things go ...
     
    Last edited: Nov 26, 2019
  11. Bolo

    Bolo Know what you're doing yet?

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    I’m lost. If he even thinks Lex is still up to No good then why hasn’t he done anything about it.
     
  12. Aeess

    Aeess I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Because like he said, he doesn't have evidence, and because of Scry Wards he cant easily gather evidence.
     
    Last edited: Nov 26, 2019
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  13. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
  14. rdfox

    rdfox Know what you're doing yet?

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    So true. One of the US military's greatest assets, at least for the Army and Marines, is the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, California. This is a facility for large-scale force-on-force training exercises, far bigger ones than any unit could do in their own base's maneuver grounds. However, the value of it doesn't come (solely) from that--it comes from the fact that there's an entire armored cavalry regiment based at Fort Irwin dedicated entirely to the job of being the opposing force at the NTC. As a result of the fact that they fight a major (if simulated) battle on the same ground every six weeks or so, the OPFOR know the NTC's grounds intimately--Tom Clancy once described it as them knowing the battlefield there "like an inner-city high school basketball team does its own court, where they know every loose board in the floor by name." The result is that the OPFOR is really really unfairly good at fighting at the NTC, particularly since the exercise rules do not have any differentiation in weapons performance between the unit training and the OPFOR (i.e., the OPFOR is assumed to have weapons just as advanced and effective as US forces); one standing joke is that there is an "OPFOR Tunnel" that lets the OPFOR move unobserved throughout the NTC and pop up wherever they want to be at any time (when it's really just that they know the terrain so well that they know where they need to be in advance, and how to get there unobserved).

    NTC rotations are both eagerly and fearfully anticipated by US troops, because a training battle there is, deliberately, harder than actual combat. The visiting unit goes in knowing that they will lose the battle, lose it badly, and be forced to write a dissertation-length post-mortem analysis as to why, in humiliating detail. It is an absolutely miserable experience... and yet it's also both one of the best chances to go out and play in the dirt and to get yourself ready for real combat; the more an NTC rotation sucks, the less a combat deployment will suck.

    The best training exercise is one that is very much not fair to the trainee, one designed to let them learn from failure. (Note: this is not to say a training exercise that is inherently impossible to "win" is a good one; all that a true no-win scenario will do is kill morale. For example, during the Apollo program, NASA would run training simulations that faced the crew with scenarios where the only way to survive was to immediately abort the mission and carry out a very specific series of corrective actions; however, the simulator operators were absolutely forbidden from throwing a combination of problems at the astronauts that was impossible to survive--there always had to be some chance, no matter how slight, of being able to solve the problem without "dying" in the simulator. In theory, the OPFOR at the NTC can be beaten; they just have all the advantages.) This is because the last thing any military force wants is a fair fight; there's always a chance of losing a fair fight. So if you're prepared to fight effectively on the "unfair" side of the fight, then fighting anything more fair than that will be a relatively easy victory...
     
  15. Z3r0Sama

    Z3r0Sama Not too sore, are you?

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    Whereas Gravy acted like an asshole, made Light 2.0 without his input and randomly stumbled over the hidden dialogue option to connvince Lex he was being paranoid, which is to say he didn't even try to persuade him but let Lex persuade himself.
     
  16. DAT_NOOB

    DAT_NOOB Accused of writing in a far away land

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    To be fair lex didn't have much of a choice
     
  17. Coda

    Coda Versed in the lewd.

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    Yes, yes, I know you folks invented the language, but that's no reason to treat it so poorly.
     
  18. jonasquinn

    jonasquinn I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    So I know that this is kind of a random question but I've been doing a reread and there's something that's been kind of bothering me, what does Ranx look like?

    Image search shows that he either looks like a weird twisted thing or a perfect sphere but as far as I can tell the only picture in the story show him as just being a giant grey building in space but did that change after getting a ring? And if he is just a building is he still like the size of a moon or just a regular space station?
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2019
  19. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    He looks a bit more like the Sinestro Corps version these days. He's expanded significantly for extra shipyard capacity.
     
  20. jonasquinn

    jonasquinn I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    So what, is he a giant grey building with a bunch of docks and stuff coming off him now?
     
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  21. Lord Ernest

    Lord Ernest At the End...

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    If Ranx looks like from the Sinestro Corps War version, then he should be looking something like...

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    [​IMG]

    Just that with the Orange Lantern symbol, I suppose.
     
  22. Threadmarks: Bended (part 4)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    29th February
    17:22 GMT -5


    I knock on the window of the Daily Planet office once again, and once again Ms Lane pointedly ignores me.

    When I first did this, Planet staff looked around in alarm or flat out sprinted for cover. Now I've got a small crowd, and one of the braver souls took it upon herself to point me out to Ms Lane. She hasn't even looked up since she confirmed that I wasn't Superman.

    Lex would have said something by now. I don't.. think I've done anything in particular to irritate her.

    Ms Grant appears to be trying sign language again. And by sign language, I mean posing.

    I knock again, and Mr White sticks his head out of the editor's office, takes one look at me and then shouts something. Ms Lane sighs, gets up and with clear reluctance heads my way. I

    step out

    and reappear in her chair.

    "Good afternoon!"

    She turns around with a frustrated exhalation. "You could have walked in the front door and you could have phased through the glass. Were you really that desperate to take my chair?"

    I stand, step aside to ceremoniously return her chair to her, then sit in the air next to it.

    "Hn."

    She retakes her seat.

    "Having a hard day?"

    "I've got a deadline, an article to write and someone just knocked on a fifteenth floor window to get my attention. What is it? And it better not push my actual article to the second page again."

    "I'm running a wargame for the Justice League."

    She looks at me blankly. "What, like, Napoleonic?"

    "No, a.. training field exercise."

    "God damn it." She sighs. "Do you ever feel that everyone focuses all their attention on the.. part of your work that's least important?"

    I smile a little too broadly. "Hey, remember when there used to be a drugs trade in Caracas? No, no, never mind. Yes, it was a very big cake."

    She nods sympathetically. "So, what, you're here to give me the inside scoop?"

    "No-." Huh. "Sort of. More… A front row-."

    "You want to kidnap me."

    "N-. No. Technically, I wouldn't be doing it." She shakes her head, breath hissing through her teeth. "I'm going for realism, and you have to admit, Superman's villains have a certain form when it comes to-."

    "I know."

    "Also, it's just a possible thing. The idea is that the villainous party will be reacting to the League and vice versa. You and Mister Olsen are the obvious targets for anti-Superman distraction attacks, so I thought that I'd try and get your permission."

    "So we're going to get kidnapped."

    "Or killed-. Virtually, virtually killed. If you agree to take part. I'm striving to make this as authentic a supervillain experience as possible."

    "Are you kidnapping people?"

    "No, that would compromise my objectivity. Also, if you consent in advance it isn't kidnapping. It's an unexpected holiday."

    "You checked, did you?"

    "Yes. For every country on the planet with a coherent set of laws."

    "Am I getting an actual holiday out of this?"

    "I'm happy to offer my services as a transport vehicle whenever you like. I don't know where the villain team is planning on hiding any hostages they may take, because that would threaten my objectivity."

    And risk Mr J'onzz or M'gann getting a look at it inside my head. M'gann's not technically part of this, but she could very well involve herself at his direction. She is a Manhunter, and a better telepath than him.

    "So? Are you in?"

    29th February
    18:33 GMT -5


    General Lane squints slightly.

    "You are aware that I'm a general in the US army, right?"

    "Yes, General. The uniform was a bit of a clue."

    "And you want to stage a supervillain attack in the middle of an army base. That's what you're telling me."

    "Possibly, yes."

    He shakes his head. "I don't think I'm going to be able to approve that."

    "Won't it be a useful readiness test? I mean, I know that Hardcastle's gone-."

    "And that didn't exactly make you any friends."

    "Yes it did."

    "I wouldn't-."

    "I'm an empath. It may be less precise than telepathy, but it has the advantage of bypassing the mental defence techniques US military officers get taught."

    His face takes a turn for the stern.

    "Get the hell out of my head."

    "That's not.. how it-." I shake my head. "Look, you have preparedness drills, don't you?"

    "We don't use civilian contractors. And I doubt that you want whoever you've got playing the role to get shot dead by the US army."

    "Actually, that's fine."

    He raises his eyebrows. "Excuse me?"

    "We're using lifelike robots. Your people can shoot them as much as you want. The individual running the villain side knows that your rules of engagement are different to the ones the Justice League uses."

    He looks a little interested.

    "Are you serious?"

    "They'll be using low lethality weapons themselves. It's possible that your people could get hurt in melee or by.. friendly fire. But it doesn't matter if any of the attackers get destroyed."

    "Didn't you.. get a law passed-?"

    "They're not intelligent enough to be covered."

    "Okay." A frown, this time curious. "Can we buy these robots?"

    "I'll ask, but probably not."

    "Okay, yeah. This could have legs. Let me talk to a few people, then I'll get back to you."
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2019
  23. Queshire

    Queshire Not too sore, are you?

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    Only thought is that Lois would probably say vacation instead of holiday.
     
  24. Grimnar

    Grimnar Versed in the lewd.

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    Goddamn it, this is the most interesting arc in a while. This is really going to go tits up, isn't it?
     
  25. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Mmm... I think she was mimicking what he said.
     
  26. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    That reminds me...

    Whatever happened to that robot scientist that Paul orange lighted?
     
    Last edited: Nov 27, 2019
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  27. gustyeagle

    gustyeagle Know what you're doing yet?

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    probably off being useless
     
  28. Cuchulin

    Cuchulin Versed in the lewd.

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    Hmmm, I am reminded of the bit in Cat Tales where Lois tells the Riddler (who kidnapped her out of frustration that Super Man wasn't playing along with his usual riddle game) that she actually finds being abducted relaxing and productive because she uses the time to compose her next article in her head.
     
  29. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    I don't think she's in the mood for any superheroic stuff right now. Must be a busy news day.

    Dammit, Cat. Just because he's rich...

    Oh, I'm sure Eris would be enjoying this. If she could watch you properly...

    Now that's a straw too far. Amazed she doesn't smack him one, but she probably knows it wouldn't hurt him.

    Yes, he does have that effect on people sometimes.:D

    "Dammit, what did I just say?!"

    One word, involving something delicious and moist. And no it's not dirty. [/phrasing!]

    Yes, it's kind of polite to alert a prospective asset before they get involved.
    Correction: 'there used to'

    Ah. I shudder to imagine the Planet's insurance premiums...

    Better be real careful around Lois' mortality, OL. Supes tends to take it real bad... Injustice, the '79 movie, Kingdome Come...

    Dotting his 'i's and crossing his 't's.

    Also to prevent...

    ...That, yes. I bet the first thing Manhunter does is poke him telepathically, only to get a **Now, now, no cheating, sir** reply.

    Please try not to annoy the person you're buttering up, OL...

    I should think not...

    Can't fool Empathic Vision, after all.

    Ah, OL, probably not the best thing to say...

    Yeah, he's failing these conversation checks. Time for a different tack.

    Wait, what?
    Correction: 'the role of'

    Okay, now that worked. I guess the opportunity to shoot stuff with no risk is attractive.

    So, concussive guns, neural stunners or the like. Still, low-lethality doesn't mean harmless...

    So, the most basic operational programming. 'Go here', 'grab that' and the like?

    I bet all he can think of is 'New toys for the US!'

    Heh. This is getting amusing. The League is really going to be overwhelmed, aren't they?
     
  30. Lucidum

    Lucidum Verifiably Bored

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    I think you meant to have used here.

    Otherwise, I'm very excited to see the Justice League's reaction to how much planning OL put into this War Game.
     
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