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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. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    My apologies, I had meant to be clear.

    You typed that you didn't know if the "closely related mutants are immune to each others powers" was a thing in the comics or not, or just a thing from the cartoon.

    So I was answering that- Yes it is a thing in the comics, but it's a tendency not a concrete rule.
     
  2. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Ah, right. Thank you.
     
  3. Cuchulin

    Cuchulin Versed in the lewd.

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    Maybe, at the very least it's a excuse that could easily be used to have some Martians think that Porn is far, far more realistic than it actually is.
     
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  4. Bramble Thorn

    Bramble Thorn Verified Silhouette

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    If someone finds a way to block his Instant Transmission ability and he cannot quickly return because he is on the other side of the galaxy, yes.

    I think the issue here is, is Charles Xavier American or British?

    Because as an American, I can tell you growing up, tuition was never used in the sense of 'getting an education' but instead in the sense of 'the cost of education charged by the teaching institution'

    Tuition was never used in the context of Elementary School, Middle School, or High School. Tuition was not a thing (Yar Har Har) for those twelve years of my life. It only came up in the context of College, in that if you didn't pay the tuition, you didn't go.

    Now there may have also been some usage of 'free tuition' or 'tuition is free' used in a sentence, where someone is clarifying or emphasizing that no, you do not have to pay for this thing. Like some after school or extra curricular learning programs need you to pay because they are not supported by public funds, but others are supported by some grant or foundation or others and have the tuition costs paid for in whole or in part.

    And yes, for those things to make sense, tuition does need to have a meaning of 'learning'
    But in actual American lexicon, that meaning of the word would be marked as archaic in the dictionary.

    Tl, DR, you put a Britishism into an Americans mouth.
     
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  5. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    Xavier graduated from Oxford, and I understand lived in London after that for a while.

    His using an occasional britishism wouldn't be all that odd, although I'm sure he didn't in the cartoon.

    In the comics anyway, it's been too damn long since I've seen those cartoons for me to be anything but fuzzy on the details.
     
  6. Radix

    Radix Not too sore, are you?

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    Did Paragon really stick his nose in it? As far as I am aware he just started talking to them and heard them out, then acted as a neutral 3rd party to send messages with. Not really his fault. He didn't do the wrongs to Venturia by the Atlantean Crown, nor did he make them choose self-governance. It was something that was going to happen either way.

    Which chapter was the events of Paragon Venturia by the way? I can never remember when it happens and I want to read it again.
     
  7. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Here it is.

     
  8. Threadmarks: Back Door (part 3)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    8th July 2012
    17:19 GMT


    "You rang, sir?"

    Even really big space ships don't actually look all that impressive. In space, scales are wonky. The near-infinite blackness is so incredibly vast that any finite space within it cowers into insignificance. Dox's command ship isn't huge as spacecraft go. It's certainly far smaller than the Absolute Dominion; a battleship rather than a dreadnought. But unless you've got some pressing reason to have a power generation system that big, dreadnoughts generally aren't good value for money. Grayven does, Dox doesn't.

    On the other hand, it's not exactly small. Far bigger than any Earth-built ocean vessel, and quite a bit more comfortable to live in. Among more primitive species it's generally considered a good thing to keep the mass down for easier acceleration, but once a species has artificial gravity they've generally got the ability to futz around with mass in such a way that it's a non-issue.

    I suppose if we had a pressing reason to go really big we could just get Lantern Ranx to detach his recent additions and use him.

    "Yes. Come aboard at once. I'll brief you myself."

    "Do you have the shields working yet, or can I teleport?"

    "Teleportation is acceptable."

    It's a bit of a two-edged sword in our situation. Me popping up when he doesn't expect it undermines him, but me demonstrating the ability to do something that our enemies can't stop buoys up our side's confidence. The subtle implication that all of our Lanterns can learn to do what I can. And that's technically true. But… I don't know, maybe I need to select an acolyte for dedicated one to one tuition, because as far as I can tell none of our Lanterns has made any real progress in my direction.

    I step out

    and reappear inside Dox's ready room. Dox himself doesn't look up, continuing to scroll through reports so quickly that the writing is a blur to me even with my ring's translation feature. Brand might have been able to persuade him not to overload himself, but Dox can still safely take in information far more rapidly than just about anyone else. A moment later my view of the text stabilises, but is reduced to a baby-talk summary as my ring tries to compress the information while still keeping the outline.

    I mentally tell it not to bother as I wait for Dox to acknowledge me.

    "Colu."

    "Liberated. Computer Tyrants erased, and control of the planet temporarily in the hands of the Green Lantern Corps pending transition back to Coluan control."

    "The same people who allowed my father to take power in the first place."

    "There's a rather short list of people who could stop your father, and the former Coluan government didn't contain any of them."

    "If they can't do the job then they should just clone me again and put the clone in charge."

    "Alas, people in positions of authority are seldom comfortable with confronting their limitations. Would you like to address them yourself?"

    "No. They wouldn't respond well to my involvement. If we need their help in researching something you can just transport samples to them."

    "Do you..? Have a problem with my recruitment of Lantern Gozzi?"

    "No, why would I-?" His eyes flick up and the data flow stops. "You weren't planning on trying to.. set us.. up in a social-?"

    "No. I wasn't. Though now you mention it, the research I've seen suggests that it's easier to learn certain types of social interaction from members of one's own species. If you're interested in achieving some sort of rapprochement with Colu, she's not a terrible place to start."

    "Fortunately I'm not. The Martians?"

    "At Manga Khan's base until the fleet returns. I can bring them here faster if we can spare the wizards to ward the ships..?"

    "No. It would be useful, but it's more important to keep them working on the fleet here."

    "What exactly have the Reach been up to?"

    "Everything we expected." Without looking he presses a button and calls up some holographic images. "We've screened all of the major industrial worlds in our alliance for their brute force mind control efforts: chemical, telepathic and mechanical. Countering their more subtle social engineering efforts is more difficult. We've had anti-war demonstrations in a number of places, the slogans calling for everything from isolationism to peaceful engagement with the Reach. And other things besides."

    "There will always be some idiots. Are we sure they're not largely home-grown? A war this big is something a government really needs to prepare people for."

    "We have to deal with the allies we have as we have them."

    "Are you working up to asking me to alter their desires?"

    "Not at.. this stage. Local dissent can be dealt with by local authorities. I want you to check that they aren't being encouraged directly by the Reach."

    I nod. "If they are?"

    "We are at war with the Reach, and any Reach-associated individual in the territory controlled by a L.E.G.I.O.N. affiliate or other ally can be legally detained with no other justification. Or killed out of hand."

    "Do you want them removed quietly or loudly?"

    "Use your judgement. Whatever makes the largest impact." I nod. "We've also started seeing the expected increase in attacks by deniable assets, coupled with offers of Reach 'aid'."

    I frown. "Everyone should have upgraded their defensive capacities past the point where that was an issue."

    "Our partners have. The people on the outer edge of the periphery zone have not."

    That's the problem with space. It's so gosh darn porous. We can put in place interdiction systems covering every system allied to us, but that still leaves over 99% of the zone that the Reach can fly things through without any difficulty. Even in their own territory the Reach can't stop much more than we can, that's how Darkstar teams insert themselves. In theory we could track outgoing ships and follow them to their destination, but we don't have unlimited ships and the Reach are very good at being sneaky.

    Still, it's a lot of space for the Reach, too. And the governments of civilisations advanced enough to actually help the Reach aren't stupid; if a lot of the people exposed to the Reach suddenly change their behaviours most of them will notice that something is off.

    "You've assigned other Lanterns to this?"

    "Yes, but most Lanterns don’t have your particular skills related to psychological analysis. We aren't responsible for everything our allies do. If their neighbours are picking fights on their own initiative due to local disputes, that's far less of a concern for us. If that happens, negotiate a treaty and make it clear that you will involve yourself if it is breached."

    I nod. Coming in too strongly to protect member worlds will give them the idea that they can do what they like, which certainly isn't the case. It will also alienate other worlds and encourage them to look favourably on any Reach petitions they receive. On the other hand, we do need to be able to demonstrate that we'll have our allies' backs while the majority of their forces are fighting the Reach. And while their economies are dedicated to war-fighting.

    Dox flicks an orange pulse to my ring.

    "There's a list of known problem areas. Go where you need to and do what you need to. Dismissed."
     
    Last edited: Feb 20, 2021
  9. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    'bit more'

    'now that you'

    Maybe remove the ' at the end.
     
  10. thepsyborg

    thepsyborg Not too sore, are you?

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    "breached".
     
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  11. Ngamer11

    Ngamer11 Experienced.

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    I kinda like the dynamic between Paul and Dox. Dox has problems, and has Paul clean them up, probably because Paul is his best asset on the field. Even if there is friction, both sides will work together with little difficulty, which might be because if Dox worked with anyone else, they'd be more of a nuisance to him and less of a help to whatever the problem is.
     
  12. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
    No, that's valid.
    There are several allies and the backs belong to them.
    Thank you, corrected.
     
  13. Massgamer

    Massgamer Not too sore, are you?

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    I wonder how long it will be until the Reach sends a dedicated and skilled assassin or even kill team of scarabs to try and kill Paul since he is the most powerful Lantern in OLC.
     
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  14. Grimnar

    Grimnar Versed in the lewd.

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    At this point, he's basically a fixer.

    There has to come a time OL gets to flex. Every time he's either defensive or just runs off to do side work something big comes up. It's getting kid of repetetive.
     
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  15. Radix

    Radix Not too sore, are you?

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    Episode before last he literally created a massive shield of desire and defied Grayven. Not to mention the fleet transporting.
     
  16. FeepingCreature

    FeepingCreature Not too sore, are you?

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    Ah, the pleasure of having DWIM capable subordinates.
     
  17. hance1986

    hance1986 A pitiful excuse for a man.

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    Will Paul come across bad old Brainiac at some point? I'd like to see that conversation. Maybe Brainiac would have some kind of possessive sentimentality regarding Dox in some kind of 'he was my clone experiment' kind of way.

    In any case I'd eventually like to see some kind of finality regarding Dox and Brainiac who is still out there somewhere.
     
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  18. Grimnar

    Grimnar Versed in the lewd.

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    Probably quite a while.

    To start with, while we don't know that there was only one scarab per fleet, there was only mention of a single scarab in each medium reserve fleet. Now while the reach probably has quite lot of these, it's indicative of the fact they have a literal fleet worth of Battleships for every scarab.

    They ain't cheap or disposable resources. Now while OL is quite the juicy target, they would have to travel ages, spend ages in wait, just for a chance to try to assassinate someone who can teleport or brute force their FTL blockers.

    Meaning if Injured, if he doesn't just heal through it, he can just leave.

    Which makes such an operation a resource sink for uncertain results.

    They are more likely to set a trap, especialy since if they send out Scarabs into enemy territory, they themselves have a good chance of being caputured- and while they have destructive black boxing, you REALLY don't want to give the enemy oppertunity to breach that.


    Once OL gets construct Scarabs and works out ways around it...

    Imagine if he could help others do the same- Imagine a dozen Lanterns dropping out of FTL at the edge of a system, and just releasing a wave of Construct Scarabs into the system, and when they are destroyed, just respawning and attacking again and again. And when reinforcements arrive, they just redeploy elsewhere.


    Frankly, the fact that the Orange Lanterns arn't accompanied by Construct drone Battleships is just a sign of stupidity. While Legion fleets and armies are still needed, OL's should bring their own immortal respawning fleets with them.
     
  19. Laundromat2.0

    Laundromat2.0 Getting sticky.

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    I don't know if it's possible to make a spaceship into a construct, not unless it's already sentient enough to have its own desires.

    But one thing I do agree with you about is that it seems like OLs vastly underutilize their ability to make Constructs, one of their signature abilities that's unique to them, and which is a huge force multiplier for any individual OL. I understand why that's the case: Paul probably took a stand against OLs rampantly turning other sentients into Constructs. It may be the right decision militarily, but morally it's worse than murder.

    BUT, there are some beings sentient enough to have desires but abhorrent enough to be acceptable targets for Constructs, and we've already seen Paul make great use of them: demons. Now, Paul may have already moved past the point where having a bunch of lowly energy-absorbing demons to flood enemies with is useful, but the vast majority of OLs will never get to that point. Especially considering their ability to multiply by being fed energy, you don't even have to make any diplomatic deals with Hell in order to make it happen. Every OL should have a company of self-multiplying energy-eating demons in their ring to call when they need it. It makes individual OLs even more devastating than other Lanterns.
     
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  20. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    Yeah, planet-killer-scale weapons usually need a lot of support systems and enormous power systems to fuel that destructive power. It's why the Death Star and its' ilk were the size of small moons. Even when they built the superlaser without the station, it was still a dozen or so kilometres long... :rolleyes: Grayven also probably feels the need to compensate for something else, too...

    Ranx: For when you need to absolutely dominate the spacelanes within a system... I'm guessing Dox's flagship is only Star Destroyer sized, rather than the ridiculousness of the Executor. Or the clearly-compensating-for-something Supremacy.

    Presumably magic-based shields. Those seem to be the only thing that gives OL any trouble when Greediporting. Good idea to have them anyway, just in case someone else figures out the trick and isn't so pleasant as OL is.

    God, can you imagine being that unlucky recruit (or chain of recruits?) "I can't take it any more! He's... He's insane! His species is insane! His whole planet is insane! And they all see the insanity as normal!"

    Heh. That's why you put him in charge, isn't it, OL? Because he has the temperament and character to give a damn about these details, whereas you'd get bored after the first one and wander off...

    Yes, good to see you too, Dox. Surprised he hasn't already gotten the report on Colu on his consoles there. o_O Unless he wants to hear the inefficient version from OL...

    Yes, well, Great intelligence doesn't always mean great wisdom. :sneaky: Consider your little goof-up during the battle with Grayven...

    They can't keep relying on the same person to keep fixing things, especially when said clones all seem to have very different characters. Bad ends lay that way.

    Doesn't care much for his people, does he? I mean, he certainly has good reason not to, the way they've treated him over the years since he was manufactured. But there's honestly no concern there at all? :oops: What a.. sad way to live.

    I'll be honest, I suspect even Lantern Gozzi might have had thoughts of that angle. But she's not an idiot. She has enough wisdom to know there were other reasons than just that.

    Yes, let's change that subject.

    Yeah, I doubt they'd waste the time needed to collect the Martians rookies during this time... As they say, 'Beginnings are delicate times'. A conflict this large, that's never been truer...

    Because they haven't seen the bad side of the Reach yet. Even if the NEMO forces showed it to them, they probably wouldn't believe it until they're the ones in death camps... :rolleyes:

    Every polity not on their side is a potential ally of the Reach. The less trying to play neutral - or worse, trying to play them against each other for their own benefit - the better...

    Like, say, infiltrators in very good disguises. I expect that's a major threat on the borders. Reach agents lurking on planets marked for future acquisition campaigns, surgically modified as fifth columnists... Very much a concern. :p And amusingly like World War II-era comic hero stories...

    So no-one's going to complain too loudly if OL goes snatching people publicly. As long as he can give a good reason for it, eh?

    Probably privateers rather than Reach navy assets, I presume. Reach vessel design is kind of distinctive, after all.

    Because, you know, space is really, really big...

    And I doubt everyone flies level with the galactic plane, either. What's to stop some Reach ships arcing almost-perpendicular to the galactic disc, sneaking through the emptier fringes then diving back down.?

    Guess they're not doing as well as hoped for, then. Most of the Orange Lanterns tend to be the warhammer you use to beat on enemy defenses, rather than the stiletto you sneak into their back when they're not looking... That's what the Darkstars are for, for one thing...

    Ah. So, come in like the big dog and swing the big orange hammer around until everyone plays nice, huh?

    A delicate juggling act. Aren't you glad you're not the one having to manage it?

    Oh, this promises to be entertaining. He didn't even tell OL not to wreck anything that doesn't need wrecking? What's the likelihood the entire thing will be on fire within a week? :V

    Good to see Dox at least understands how to manage OL. Give him a list of issues, let him go out there and fix them, and 'keep the explosions to a minimum, please'... Probably makes a pleasant change from the usual micromanaging needed for some of their allies...
     
  21. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    He at least has his adoptive father.

    Knowing Paul, chances of fire are high.
     
  22. Handlewithcare

    Handlewithcare Versed in the lewd.

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    Dox learned...Delegation!

    It's super effective!


    It's both hilarious and sad how scared he is off Paul trying to set up a play date with a fellow Coluan.
     
  23. Agent Orange

    Agent Orange Experienced.

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    Mechanical mind control? How the hell would that work? Lobotomy?
     
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  24. moralrelativity

    moralrelativity Recovering pendant.

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    We're -> We've
     
  25. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    I think he meant technological.
     
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  26. Agent Orange

    Agent Orange Experienced.

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    Well duh, what do you think would happen if Georgia found out that he's spending time with some other big brained lady (of his own species no less). Fear is an appropriate resonse.
     
  27. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Her finding out is a one way ticket to Possum Town for Dox.
     
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  28. Radix

    Radix Not too sore, are you?

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    Well on the bright side, I dont think Paul will mess things up too bad. Worst case some disruptions from Paul... optimizing society.
     
  29. Assblaster5000

    Assblaster5000 I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Nanites, a Joywire, replacing someone's pathetic meat brain with a computer, tonnes of ways really!
     
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  30. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Oh, they'd like to. The problem is pinning him down.
    Yes.
    Usually, through brain implants.
    Thank you, corrected.
     
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