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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. Senevri

    Senevri Not too sore, are you?

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    Magic is bullshit and has some explaining to do.

    ... Give the lady a ring and out-skill her?
     
  2. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    Congratulations Mr Zoat.

    You have reached the same point that many comic writers before you have of making your character so overpowered that to have engaging encounters requires you hit said character with the nerf bat.

    On the up side, this is the most interesting Paragon's story has been in something like nine months.
     
  3. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    As long as whatever's in there doesn't come out looking like New 52's Earth-2 Solomon Grundy (in his finest Cenobite summer line fashion), it should be fine...

    So it's a long term project Swirly-Cheeks has rushed into completion. History, both real and fictional, has proven doing that shit usually doesn't pan out well. The times it has, it's because of Protagonist plot armour.

    Checking for invisible watchers, ambushers and other ne'er-do-wells, i see.

    Unless Melmoth set things up so it'd be controlled as soon as it became active. Because of course he's going to be able to break the rules like that. Surprised OL didn't consider that.

    Getting it over with quick, then. Hope it doesn't bite you in the metaphorical ass.

    Motherfucker. Hopefully not done while she was alive, but knowing him, almost certainly so.

    Oh, it does not sound like she's in a good mood. I get the feeling she's going to be a lot more like Solomon Grundy than the locals are.

    Oh, hell. Because of course that bit of DC ephemera turns out to be important here. Aurakles had kids, of course.

    With any luck, she takes more after the smarty Grundy versions, rather than the rampaging ones. Hopefully, Melmoth can't transmit orders silently...

    Ah, when wireless communications fail, the old ways succeed.

    "On the phone. Get him on the phone. I want him on the phone right now!"

    Oh, that's funny, because, you know, it's happening right now. Get down here. Hop to it. No arguing please.

    Yes, Canis, Humans are bullshit crazy, even the evil elf ones from the far distant future. Amazed you caught on so quick. I'm sure you can make a marvellous painting of it later.

    Craaaaap... That's never a good sign.

    Oh, boy. Hold on to your arse, OL, because it's about to start hurting. A lot.

    ...New God bullshit! OL might well have to force himself to work out this whole Godspeech thing pronto to counter her.

    Performance issues, huh. Oh, boy, this is really going to sting.

    Because she's basically Hercules' daughter (or the pre-civilisation equivalent of Herc,) she is going to be a hell of a fighter. Even Power Armour might not cut it to equalise.

    Indeed. Now I guess this is how Grayven's opponents must feel when he pulls his Conquest Godspeech shit. Man, no wonder so many of them don't like him. :D

    Shouldn't have neglected the melee combat skill tree, huh, OL? But noo... :rolleyes: You wanted to max out the Orange Light mastery and Diplomancy trees instead. And of course the developers put shit like this in to punish those choices...

    Even the Odds. You're limited to her level of physicality, and one blade. And unfortunately, she's the better fighter.

    Faster-than-human accellaration. Bullet-time, in other words. Great for fights, hard to have conversations with anyone not at the same speed.

    He kind of noticed that, but not what it means. She invoked a literal challenge, Warhammer-style. A fair fight, and OL doesn't do well in fair fights.

    While you might say 'Mathematician's Answer', in this case, it's literally true. She's turned this into a story, and I suspect OL will follow the 'get beat down then make a comeback' trope in order to win...

    Or he could try to sidestep the fighting, try and Talk Her Down. But that control sigil Swirly Cheeks put on her might make that difficult.

    Good luck, OL, you're going to need it. Cue the 'Lore in a Minute' sad-face

    I have the feeling this is going to be the toughest fight OL has ever had up to this point. Let's hope he can live up to his Guile Hero role and work out how to win. Tomorrow will be very interesting for his detractors, methinks.


    Some godspeech from the lady.
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2020
  4. Sockmonkey

    Sockmonkey I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    He can't, because he stuck them inside his body so he wouldn't lose them if his arms get cut off.

    I suspect the best move is to try and provoke her into invoking her divine resistance to throw off the control. I'm kind of surprised that someone who's being mind-controlled can do the whole triggering the Source to engage the dueling rules thing.

    If he tried to use the rings to help his opponent by removing the sigil, would the rules still stop him?
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2020
  5. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    'hangs loose'
     
  6. Agent Orange

    Agent Orange Experienced.

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    I guess he has a proper motivation ("Oh JumpedUpElementals I'm gonna die again!") to want an orange ring into existence.
     
  7. Ngamer11

    Ngamer11 Experienced.

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    If she really is a rush job, there might be a chance that Melmoth can't completely control her. Is it wrong that I want Paul to assimilate her after this is over? An undead New God could be a useful melee combatant for the more diplomatically inclined Paul. I also want him to use Construct Lanterns again, just like earlier in the story.
     
  8. BlueMangoAdea

    BlueMangoAdea Alive. For now.

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    Ah yes. Metaphysical bullshit. Usually, the only way to overcome such bullshit is to use a greater metaphysical bullshit. While Paul has used some New God-like metaphysical bullshit before, I think he used rings to accomplish them? So either he learns to access some Orange Light Bullshit without his rings, or finds some other ways to get out.
     
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  9. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    To be honest I think that if the Sheeda did get their hands on Grundy, they would dress him like that.

    Have you seen some of their clothing?

    Hmm, maybe Melmoth didn't really resurect her so much as he just reanimated her corpse and it still has access to some of her powers, while her soul is really gone.

    Give him a break, not everyone can get it up when they first engage with a girl.

    Fortunately for renegades opponents, they're dead now, so they don't have to be frustrated by his god speech.

    He may also be able to free her from his control and she may join him.

    This is assuming that she didn't really die, but that her soul lingered in her body and Melmoth just did this weird alteration thing, but she's still alive somehow.

    New God soul bullshit.

    He may still be able to use the rings for metaphysical bullshit, seeing as it's supposed to be an even match, but he won't be able to use any constructs.
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2020
  10. Agent Orange

    Agent Orange Experienced.

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    He has two rings does he not? One in his head, one in his chest? He wants to give one of them to the lady and beat her at his own game right? The solution is obvious! Let her decapitate him (body is mostly superfluous at this point; the head ring will keep him conscious and floating) and then offer her a ring sticking out of his torso "to make things even". Now he just has to do his usual "while you slept the sleep of the dead I ringed; while you swung that primitive hunk of iron I ringed; etc." and win the day!
     
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  11. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    Or he surrenders to her and then runs the moment his rings turn back on.
     
  12. Ngamer11

    Ngamer11 Experienced.

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    Paul has purposefully used Godspeech once. Maybe he'll do so again here to save himself.
     
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  13. moralrelativity

    moralrelativity Recovering pendant.

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    I'm not so sure the ring is going to be able to do keep him conscious and floating. It seemed to me that everything to do with orange light has been shut down.
     
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  14. BlueMangoAdea

    BlueMangoAdea Alive. For now.

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    Can he surrender and survive, given that this is a metaphysical challenge?
     
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  15. Agent Orange

    Agent Orange Experienced.

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    I don't think it 'shut down' as much as the Cutscene Effect is preventing it from doing anything "not fair" - this is a sword fight; he can't win this. He has to turn it into a ring fight. He already noted this 'equipment working normally except obviously not' issue. If the rings/orange light were really off/unavailable he would've dropped dead already - he has a ring shaped shrapnel in his brain and his chest!
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2020
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  16. Belenus

    Belenus Versed in the lewd.

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    It says why he's the best member of the Team.
     
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  17. Lothlo

    Lothlo Not too sore, are you?

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    So, no dice on extracting the 2 rings from inside himself, throw one to the New God and keep the other and say: duel with my weapon of choice?
     
  18. Z3r0Sama

    Z3r0Sama Not too sore, are you?

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    Ha ha, Grayven goes smash. Bet you wish you had turned yourself into a giant rock monster right now Paul?
     
  19. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    If by best you mean being best at being psychotic, then yes.

    Even if he did that the challenge thing may have made that pointless.
     
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  20. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
  21. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    She's a New Genesis type New God, so I don't see why not.
     
  22. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    Zoat said that some Zataras can only do illusions, hence the entire conversation about how Zoat said some of the family have lesser magical abilities.

    Zatara and Zatanna's logomancy is such that they literally know enough about magic that they have an infinite ability to create new spells on the fly by just saying what they want to happen backwards.

    The only way one could understand magic better than that is to know enough about magic to have an infinite ability to create new spells on the fly with but a thought.

    Which the Atlanteans not only do not have, they fall rather short of.

    Kaldur states in Denial that his skin icons power his water-bearers. Atlantean Sorcery= No skin icon, no magic.

    So to create a new spell in Atlantean Sorcery, one would first have to create a new skin icon. Then to get that spell cast, one needs to tattoo someone with it and then teach them how to use the skin icon.

    Which is apparently neither an easy or fast process, since word of Greg is that Tempest is the most advanced student in the entire Conservatory of Sorcery, which is why he can call upon the power of the Tempest.

    So no, YJ Atlantis's knowledge of magic falls thoroughly short of the Zatara's.

    Good thing that YJ Atlantis is in fact a high tech society.
     
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  23. w34v3r

    w34v3r Versed in the lewd.

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    Well yes, that's the difference between upper tier bosses and mid-bosses. The upper end peeps have the ability to counter the old bolt in the throat trick.

    It also says a lot about Humans since we seem hellbent on keeping him entertained.
     
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  24. m_d

    m_d Fascinated by storytelling

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    For reference, in case you wanted a citation Darko, from Doppelgängered (part 7):
     
  25. Agent Orange

    Agent Orange Experienced.

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    You know what drew me to this story in the first place, what made OL actually interesting in the beginning? Not the power ring. It was his tendency of averting the worst of superhero comic tropes. He always entered a fistfight with a gun, he Just Shot Them rather than letting them get ready, he prepared in advance, etc. These days he's gone native. He ignores inconvenient revelations, he barely uses storybreaking equipment he himself commisioned (and if he bothers justifying this to himself it is almost always nonsensical), most of his fights lately are of the cutscene kind where no amount of preparation matters... this stopped being an SI fic a loooong time ago and it is the worse for it.
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2020
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  26. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Ahhh.... Yeah no, just no.

    The Zataras magic while powerful is probably not even that op, and the spells may be limited in what they can do.

    The Zataras also don't have an unlimited understanding of magic, if they did a lot of their problems would have been solved.

    The Zataras also may not posses the necessary knowledge, equipment or skill in some mystic matters that an Atlantean can have, even if their casting ability is higher.

    The Atlantean are also a civilization that has been using magic for millenia in case you forgot.

    And that thing about needing to apply a new tattoo for every single spell is just wrong.

    The tattoos help channel magical energy, but that's about it.

    The reason Kaldur typically just uses electricity and water in his fighting is because he didn't finish his education, not because the tattoos somehow limit him to just those two things.

    They don't need to create a new tattoo for every single spell.

    Maybe for some spells they do, but not for every single one since that would be just massively impractical.

    So no, Atlantean outstrip the Zataras in terms of magical knowledge, even if the Zataras can cast more spells than them.

    And while YJ Atlantean use tech, we typically saw them use their magic instead of their tech.

    OL also went to them since aside from the fact they are more knowledgeable and better equipped than the Zataras, they are also more available than them.

    Giovanni had the League, his job and his daughter taking up his time, so he didn't have the time to help Paul all that much.

    Zatanna still didn't finish her education, and is still being educated.

    Atlantean magic can also be used by more people and it probably isn't anchored to a bloodline, unlike the Zataras magic which is, so with Atlantean magic OL can advance the surface world more easily.
     
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  27. AidanMorgan

    AidanMorgan Essentially Overworked

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    I'm just sitting here pointing and laughing because I actually remember early on that Paul was whining about "punching week" saying there was absolutely no way it would ever be useful for him.

    Ha.

    Haha.

    Black Canary is never gonna let him live this down.
     
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  28. Dakkan Sall

    Dakkan Sall Random Encounter

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    Buh?

    Ok, when did he do that? I obviously missed Paul deciding to delve into subdermal jewelry options.
     
  29. AidanMorgan

    AidanMorgan Essentially Overworked

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    It was a throwaway line a few chapters ago.
     
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  30. Agent Orange

    Agent Orange Experienced.

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    To be fair, while short-sighted, he wasn't completely wrong. He has a stupidly versatile tool/weapon he never takes off (except for when he does) that makes his "unarmed" cqc skill completely irrelevant. Even if he trained every single day for the past two years(?) I very much doubt it would've mattered against an opponent who presumably trained and fought for most of her life.

    He probably should've downloaded some unarmed/meele combat skill package (Matrix style) by now but that would make scenes like this even more ridiculous. Zoat is already struggling to write interesting fight scenes without nerfing OL and removing one more of his weak spots is counterproductive to that end. It's the same reason he went out of his way to avoid making his body less squishy. You know what's better than wrapping your frail human flesh in powerarmor and forcefields? Giving yourself a superthoughness and then wrapping yourself in powerarmor and forcefields.
     
    Last edited: Sep 15, 2020
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