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

Broken links in the archives from shortly after the incident with Sephtian and Damon.

…somehow he's going to end up being a problem. This is still a comic book universe, an expert in elementals named "Damon" is going to end up possessed somehow.

 

Buddy cop type story I hope.

'built'

That's so Paul.

'he listened to each one and then'

'humans do'

 

Hmm. I’ve read Ribofunk, Girl Genius and Biohacker’s Almanac: First Dan so I thought I had a decent appreciation for the biomod-class of transhumanism. But this conversation about super mutants? It reminds me of stuff I’ve only heard of in superhero stories. Figures that would give up their powers if possible and regret what they’ve done with their new form.

Neat, and I hope to see these mutants interact nonviolently in the future.

 

Thank you, corrected.

 

This is wrong.

FEV is, as the name suggests, a Virus, and there is in fact only one kind of it.

What differs, is the DNA the FEV is injected with, which is how different "strains" come about.

 

This is awesome.

 

Yay for peace in the Wasteland!

It seems the Fallout Bo...Paul is the one being accidentally the most successful with the Transhuman bend.

Though it makes sense that people in the more dire situation would be more open to radical enhancement.

 

I'd make the argument that he's referring to the different strains of FEV rather then saying there are a bunch of different viruses all under the name of FEV. Although Fallout lore has always been a bit nebulous on the specifics of how FEV functions beyond it's green goop, don't worry about it.

 

But that isnt desire, I would call that willpower.

You dont just get to override your desire to survive to fulfill another desire. That involves rejecting one desire.

Paragon here also seems very in control for someone with no Enlightenment. He should be a lot more unstable.

 

Taking full advantage of alien technology to travel the Americas, I see. And presumably the rest of the world, what isn't burnt to a radioactive cinder...

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

There's a very peculiar name. And I see El Presidente is smart enough not to trust one man's word on any matter...

One that would likely make for an amazing 80's action movie series (and associated PG-rated cartoon and action figure line,) I bet. Not likely to see much actual crime-fighting though, unless you count wasteland raiders as crime...

No land for shy, reserved wallflowers, eh? Unless you end up in the harem of some petty warlord.

So, Super-Mutants are functionally immortal? Did his vault have cloning technology, then?

Gee-Whiz. I can't help but feel this kid would make an amazing host for the Power of Shazam if it existed here...

Super-soldier-serum from the sounds of it.

Fascinating. The crazy shit Fallout came up with, eh? I suppose that's one way to explain the difference in appearances throughout the games...

Hmm... What would happen if you could safely combine the variants, I wonder...

Well, that was sensible.

Is that actually a thing that happened in the lore? Man, Fallout is weird.

I wonder which helped more... Not to deride Shaw's work, of course...

"That man is dead. Let him remain so..." Is the suggestion I get from that...

Ah, so Very Junior isn't a Super-mutant? Just a distant descendant.

...That's a bad thing, I take it. Or at least an embarrassing thing...

Juggernaut sounds proper Orky. Shale would be wasting his time, I bet. And Keats is something of a Professor Xavier type?

Oh, that sounds bad. I suppose Krono's got that to sort out in time?

Hey, you never know. Takes all types.

I'm guessing his lot went in and corrected that, with a minimum of heads beaten in?

That just sounds like a recipe for fun times...

And now I'm picturing Stan from the Monkey Island series, and his ever-wide variety of suits with unmoving and hideous textures...

Embarrassment at the boy's exuberance in front of the press, I take it...

I'm impressed there even is a press service. The NCR must be relatively stable, then, to have a working newspaper...

Now, now, it's not a personal insult, Colonel. He's just letting his mouth run away with him...

I'm guessing they don't get on too well...

Something other than 'get off me you idiot.'?

Not as bad as that one Pirate King from 'Pirates of the Carribean' who was basically a soprano, I hope? I see the Colonel doesn't agree with Keats, then...

Ah, man... Gotta wait more for OL's impression of a weather balloon... Still, if it gets more Fallout-verse, so be it. Curse my lack of knowledge about the setting... I'm guessing the Super-mutants involved had worse fates in canon?

 

He agreed that it was a chemical though, not a virus.

 

One's a centuries old soldier, the other is a former pro wrestler.

Together they fight crime.

Potential multiversal counterpart of Billy.

 

That seems like a contradiction in terms, assuming we can discuss it without Modern Politics.

 

Girl Genius Paul would be super interesting actually.

I'd especially like to see him interacting with (and quite possibly severely underestimating, like everyone else does) the Jägermonsterin.

That said, writing in a Mechanicsburg accent for any length of time might cause strokes so I understand if you don't wanna do that.

 

Just so you're aware, Chojin. When you specualted that Juggernaut was Orky? You're more right than you know.

In the mod, his faction is full of blatant references to the Orkz. To the extent they really are just, "What if Super Mutants acted the same as Orkz?"

Also, the single most distressing thing that I have read in these Fallout updates? Shale defeated Keats and Juggernaut . . . then disappeared. I do believe Texas is about to get bent over the barrel and fucked hard by [REDACTED].

===

I'm a bit curious as to what exactly Fallout Paul thinks of Caesar and the territory the Legion rules over, given a lot of the fluff around what Legion territory is actually like and what OWB has done with the Legion. I mean, I know he's helping the NCR prepare for the war and building alliances and whatnot, but there really isn't a choice there. Conflict would be inevitable.

Mostly because people in Legion territory generally like the Legion and think Caesar is a pretty good ruler. Even if they "don't know any better" because some areas, like Arizona, were apparently so fucking awful that Legion rule is a marked improvement.

===

Oh, and if you want an idea of what [REDACTED] is . . . Well . . . Read the spoilers only if you dare.

Spoiler

Think of Cerberus as Super Mutants crossed with The Flood.

 

Marcus believes that super mutants are superior to humans. That humans are inherently vicious, violent, short tempered and mean-spirited, and that super mutants have risen above that. Marcus would have like nothing better than for the Master to have won in Fallout, and the best complement he has for someone is 'you'd make a good super mutant'. After the Master's defeat he modified his ideas slightly, believing that some humans were just too evil for the miracle of super mutantdom to fix, and that in future they neeeded to 'apply a finer screen'. Which strictly speaking isn't facism, but it's close enough for most purposes.

One of the possible rulers of the Broken Coast has two methods for getting a wife. One is a cage fighting tournament with the winner becoming his queen. The other is conquering one of his neighbours and taking their queen as his wife. It's pretty clear that in the case of the second option her opinion on the matter was not sought.

West Coast ones are, yes. East Coast ones sometimes turn into near-mindless behemoths which effectively marks the end of their lives as intelligent beings, but both Fawkes and Andrew Shaw avoided that for 200 years.

No. Cloning technology exists but is fairly rare.

Probably nothing, because the only that would be safe is if they somehow neutralised each other.

Yes. Super mutants are universally sterile, unlike ghouls who just have very low fertility.

More like one of the more social neo sapiens from Exoframe.

Oh yes. The NCR's bigger than actual California at this point.

The First was created by the people who made the Old World Blues mod, so there isn't a canon ending for him. Keats gets assassinated at Shale's behest, while we won't know what happens to Marcus until the release of Fallout: New Vegas 2.

 

The single most important thing for the NCR is probably holding onto Lake Mead. At least in New Vegas, they were kind of suffering from a catastrophic water shortage to the point that Lake Mead was probably more important than the Hoover Dam itself. Though you only really learn about it if you talk to Ranger Chief Hanlon.

And if I recall, while Ghouls have extremely low fertility . . . they're functionally sterile without extremely invasive medical procedures. And even then I think The Reservation had to resort to Human x Ghoul pairings to make breeding viable. With the end result being the Born Ghoul.

===

Born ghouls are ghouls who are not mutated humans, but ghouls who were actually born as ghouls. Through cruel experimentation on humans by Dr. Sebastian at the Reservation, these ghouls gestated and were birthed. Reveling in their infrequent success (the ghoul procreation experiments have a 2% success rate), Dr. Sebastian and Dr. Willem Clark keep their born ghoul progeny close at hand and comfortable. To them, the born ghouls represent the future of the ghoul "species", and they will do everything in their power to make sure their "children" are well taken care of. There are only three born ghouls, including Measles and Belle.

At first glance they look like any other ghoul, but a closer inspection reveals that their lesions, exposed bone, and hair patches are very uniform and look like they serve some kind of purpose. On top of that, these ghouls are a little tougher, a little stronger, and a little faster than normal ghouls.

 

Bit of an understatement that. In Fallout we have:

Ionizing radiation that causes beneficial mutations in basically everything it touches, plus gigantism for... some reason, from a global nuclear war in which, assuming realistic physics/numbers, had no less than 66,000 15-30 kiloton thermonuclear bombs dropped during its roughly hour long course.

Propaganda. (Better dead then Red!)

Genetically engineered giant lizards that were designed to charge headfirst into massed laser and plasma fire with minimal harm so they could tear apart infantry, armour, and complexes with contemptuous ease. (And can be fully sapient, with some non-sapient ones that definitively lack vocal cords learning how to imitate Human speech)

Dakka.

Godzilla! (Maybe)

Aliens that have been observing, and manipulating a bit, Humanity since at least the times of Feudal Japan for... reasons(?).

Doctor Who! (Maybe)

Dark Things From Beyond The Angles Of Time That Should Not Be Named.

Corporations more soulless than the average politician.

A long and storied history of single men and/or women that can single handedly fight armies and shape the course of history.

Cake! (Which you aren't allowed to have. Ever. unless you use console commands, but you aren't a cheater are you? because that's almost as bad as a Commie, and those guys made Satan! This message brought to you by The United States Government)

And more!!!

Join today to fall over dead (or cry, that works too) trying to understand this universe and learn things which Man Should Not Know!

 

It's possible to get the Perfectly Perserved Pies from the machines in Fallout 4. It's just a random chance based on your Luck attribute.

 

A-are you saying... that Bethesda actually... used real RPG mechanics for a game?

One they made???

What bizaroverse did I wake up in!?!

 

Eh why make more mutants? Just brainwashing... eh helping the ones that exist would give you a lot of warriors.

 

Probably cause plenty of people would volunteer. Especially if you could guarantee they don't experience any of the negative mental effects.

Not even desperate, terminally ill people. If someone could effectively make you immortal, while still letting you be you, I'm sure a number of regular people wouldn't mind being tall, buff, and green. Just need to get stuff that's adapted to your bigger hands.

So basically, if people want to become super mutants, why not make more of them?

 

Extra space

Remove "the"

I think this supposed to be "in Los"?

"Ana" unless I don't know my Fallout lore.

 

Hm. What is Pauls endgame here?

Antagonising the NCR by giving Texas an army of Supermutants seems like a bad idea.

But I don't know enough about the political landscape: would Texas need Supermutants just to have a chance to negotiate with the NCR?

I don't think Paul is working towards unification of the USA. There isn't any need for it, no mega projects or common enemy that would need the concentrated manpower or resources.

 

This should say 18th May, since in this and the previous chapter it said 18th.

 

Thank you, corrected.

 

They're more used to the screeches and hisses of nocturnal predation, I take it? And interesting to see them working to change the environment itself. Perhaps create plants capable of absorbing radioactive material from the soil and condensing it into inedible fruit, for safe and self-sustaining clean-up, perhaps?

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Oh, come now, the new insects can't be that noisy... Or are you referring to the company?

So, something of an enigma, then? I mean, if they could create a form that didn't include sterility... They could make a whole new form of Humanity...

The only place that would accept them, I suppose. 'Normal' humans would have rejected them as monsters...

Gee, well, he looks like a reasonable fellow... I must say, the shoulder spikes add a certain touch.

I'm guessing Super-Mutants with higher intelligence got roped in as logistics and science workers...

So, Krono's been solving a few of the DLC questlines? I suppose someone has to?

You're going to have to sooner or later, friend. Krono won't leave it at that....

Without giant wandering monster mutant animals? I would expect so...

I'm guessing that's not some kind of local tribal hunter? More of a predatory species?

...Definitely a predatory species... A large one, from the sound of it...

So, he's not interested in the man he used to be, and would rather be left alone to live out his life in peace? Not that kind of world, big man.

Hmm... So the whole mental restoration thing wasn't entirely intentional? Fascinating...

Purple is a nifty colour, and quite regal, especially given the historical difficulties involving Indigo dyes. I'm surprised Krono hasn't gone in for a nice orange-accented robe, though...

Convergent development? Splinters of some pre-war military program? I'm guessing Krono is intrigued enough to bother finding out, sooner or later.

I doubt the program that created it would put all its research in one place. Especially if there was some manner of cold war on before things went mushroom-shaped....

Gee, if only its' creators had thought to allow them to reproduce, even at a limited rate...

Would he have been the sort to do so, even as a carrot to egg on loyalty?

Without having the man on hand, there's no way to be sure, I suppose.

Because they have a code of conduct? They don't like to pry? It's extremely noticeable? Doing it too fiercely causes cranial explosions?

Not too many yet. I'm sure Krono has plans to expand the number of psionically active people around. Presumably once local politics have settled down a bit though...

And there's no telling just how sensitive someone is until you try.

So, it's a one-day job - They'll get to it one day. And to be fair, I can see them being more concerned with the current crises than something minor down the line.

Probably not that big of a one, as far as some are concerned?

So, is he advocating approaching the Texans about such a project, or is he suspicious that they might already be doing so?

And once more, fascinating subjects that I know little to nothing about. Still, it's interesting to see a Paul basically trying to drag a world out of a post-apocalyptic age by hook or by crook. Bet there's some frustration to be had as people just don't do what he's want them to...

 

We don't have a physical description of what he looks like, so he may wear such clothes.