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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. Ngamer11

    Ngamer11 Experienced.

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    You can also check the TV Tropes page. That has a few more members in it.
     
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  2. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Drusa's the one who hacked Aya in the Green Lantern animated series.
     
  3. Prince Charon

    Prince Charon Just zis guy, you know?

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    That's less helpful than you probably think.

    EDIT:
    I'd rather not give TVTropes more page views than absolutely necessary.
     
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  4. Ngamer11

    Ngamer11 Experienced.

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    I think it's more that he has more people that he cares about on Earth. As such, he wants to improve it with as little chance of people he cares about being hurt as possible. When he's on other planets, he wants to improve them, but he's more willing to do things like mass murder.
     
  5. moralrelativity

    moralrelativity Recovering pendant.

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    beneficially -> beneficial
     
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  6. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
    First seen back here.
     
  7. jonasquinn

    jonasquinn I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    I feel like that’s a loaded way of saying it

    A more neutral way of putting it would be that OL can only dedicate time to so many projects at once so it’s better for him to take the more hands off route to helping people on other planets, even if that includes violence
     
  8. Ngamer11

    Ngamer11 Experienced.

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  9. Threadmarks: Negetiations (part 4)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    4th August 2012
    15:33 GMT


    "So?"

    Lantern Drusa looks at me a little cautiously.

    "So?"

    "How have you been? How do you feel about our mission? Are there any developments in your skills regarding which you need to apprise me?"

    "Well enough. It's a job. I'm… Not a god..?"

    "Me neither."

    I take a seat on the opposite side of the refectory table, the various L.E.G.I.O.N.-affiliated personnel around us suddenly taking a great deal more interest. At least, those who aren't heading for what they imagine to be minimum safe distance.

    Come on. Becoming a god's not that hard. Have these people even met a god?

    "And I wasn't expecting you to be a god. I was wondering how much progress you'd made in finding out what it is that you most value?"

    Her eyes drop to… Her copy of 'The Grace of Aulier'? A religious book from her homeworld.

    "I'm not finding it here." She stares into my eyes. "How did you become immortal?"

    "Did you try reading my book?"

    She nods. "You abhor decay."

    I extend my right forefinger and point to a worn section of her book at it is restored back to prime condition. Then a scuff on the table, a faint stain…

    "I abhor decay. My environmental shield undoes it without me even really thinking about it."

    "How do you get like that?"

    "I don't know, exactly. I didn't grow up in a-" I point to her book again. "-religious household. But I did go to a religious primary school. And I wasn't really… I'm not naturally inclined to question things that I'm told-."

    She blinks, her mouth falling open slightly for a moment before she closes it again, trying to make it look like she wasn't astonished.

    "I grew up surrounded by trustworthy people. I know, I was lucky. But when the local vicar gave weekly sermons I just… Accepted that was how the universe worked. And then… When I learned a little more about the world around me, I couldn't relate the fantastical stuff that he was saying with.. practical reality. That was when I first came to believe that death was permanent."

    "It still is for most people."

    I shake my head.

    "No. Lantern Corps policy involves shipping our corpses back to our homeworlds where possible, or a friendly world where it's not. Your soul will end up somewhere. Did you see my tattoos?"

    "… Yes."

    "That's what I had to do to even get a soul. Well before I developed my current level of pain resistance, I volunteered to have my flesh branded so I could benefit from something that you've had your entire life at no cost." I lean back slightly. "Once I stopped believing in God, I stopped believing in souls. And if souls didn't exist, death was inevitable oblivion."

    "Yes?"

    "I can only assume that it was more of a shock to me than it is to you because I had previously believed that it wasn't the case."

    "That was it?"

    "There was an encounter with a dead chicken as well, but… Yes. I don't like me decaying. I don't like the things around me decaying. The first thing-."

    "The first thing you did with your ring was improve your body."

    "I can heal myself very easily, too."

    "So without having gone through those experiences, I can't make myself immortal."

    "No, you probably can. Just not in the same way. Is there really no long-term goal that you're working towards? I-" I shake my head and shrug. "-mean, anything."

    She thinks for a moment.

    "Which god?"

    "Ah… In my home parallel, we haven't had contact with other intelligent species. I don't know if there's anything like the Source Wall. But it was a monotheistic religion worshipping an all-powerful creator deity."

    "My peo-. My homeworld had several religions. All they were for me was a source of curse words."

    "You didn't grow up with one in-" I point to the book again. "-particular?"

    "I'm going through them in alphabetical order. No."

    "Okay, so you don't specifically want to be immortal."

    "I want to be immortal. I just don't want it as hard as you do. I'm so used to things decaying that it doesn't seem wrong to me."

    "If you're interested in taking that route, I know a few telepaths-."

    "No."

    "Ah, progress! You-."

    "I value my mental integrity over becoming a better Lantern."

    "'Better' is a loaded term. There's no one right way to be an Orange Lantern. Though-. Have you ever visited Larfleeze?" I get a shallow nod. "That's the wrong way."

    "Because he has no desires that are actually his own, he just acts on pure desire."

    "That's not a terrible answer. I honestly hadn't thought of it like that." I nod. "But I think you're right. So… Okay, you're having a problem with a visceral drive. Working on pure intellectual desire. Where do you want to end up? If given a choice of jobs, which do you opt for, all other things being equal?"

    "I like working with technology. But now I have-" She raises her left hand, ring shimmering. "-the most advanced piece of technology in the universe on my finger."

    "Do you want to learn to create them?"

    "I could, but then I'd just have the ability to create something I've already got."

    "Only machines it has a record of. Have you read the files on my homeworld's scientists?"

    "I picked up machines because it made me useful but not threatening. I don't have some great underlying love for technology."

    "Okay. Maybe we're taking the wrong approach, here."

    "What do you mean?"

    "You don't know of anything you really really want? So maybe you just need to try completely new things. How do you feel about model wargaming?"
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2021
  10. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
  11. Diraniola

    Diraniola I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Paul would take that opening to recommend his game.
     
  12. Handlewithcare

    Handlewithcare Versed in the lewd.

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    :D:D:D

    "LET THE EMPEROR...LITTLE PLASTIC FIGURINES FILL THAT GAPING MAW IN YOUR SOUL!"

    Hm. Slaneesh would actually be a good cautionary tale for OLs. Excessive want without satisfaction.
     
  13. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Canis has called you a New God, and others have called you a demigod.

    No Paul, they haven't.

    Well there are the Controllers.

    Also, not everyone finds things as easy as you do.

    This does not match up with what we've seen him do when he's told something by someone.

    Assuming her world has an afterlife.

    If not, then she may just be a ghost, and that may not be so good, or she could be absorbed in her worlds mystic fields and potentially lose her identity and sense of self, so just another form if death.

    Still not all that connected to them.

    'homeworlds'

    If the second 'really' is not intentional then it's just 'you really want'

    Hmm, so he may ask her for help in the Vega game.
     
  14. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
  15. FreeGod

    FreeGod If you see a God on the road fuck it!

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    I assume that it was a changing experience in more than one way.
     
  16. DrThoth

    DrThoth I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Is this the Lantern who really valued wealth/material resources because they were rare on her planet? I forget if we got a detailed explanation of how she was chosen.

    Paragon could use his empathic vision to figure out her desires, but without some even more metaphysical shenanigans that probably wouldn't lead to identifying potential new desires.

    If she values mental integrity so much, I think that could extend to a general desire for stability of consciousness, which is basically what a soul is. She could turn that into an abhorrence of specifically mental deterioration and thus have a perpetually unaging brain (a Lantern equivalent to the Brain on Earth, I suppose). Cloning or brain transplantation tech seems feasible with the levels of technology in play here, especially with having medically oriented Orange Lanterns who would be really driven to heal others. It wouldn't be the pseudo-immortality the Paragon has, but it seems functional enough.

    Another suggestion is just throwing her into a life-or-death situation to trigger primal survival instincts or something, though that could go any number of ways.
     
  17. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    Probably feeling a little concerned about what the Illustres wants from her this time. Bad enough she's stuck being the diplomatic one on their joint mission. If she's been keeping up on his affairs, she knows how badly things can go...

    In other words, you want to know the things that don't get logged in the records.

    Not yet. but you're getting there, kind of.

    With OL, the splash zone is quite large. I expect a few have discreetly started filming, just in case something funny happens...

    But that would be more of a Hope thing than a Want. Still, good to see she's looking for something.

    If it's written anything like this, it must have been interesting.

    What a delightful understatement.

    Well, for a start, it involved merging with the Ophidian. Not something for a casual Orange Lantern without a good understanding of their wants to attempt...

    Indeed. That's not exactly the image other people see of him much of the time. Then again... As we saw in his briefings with Dox, he usually only asks questions to clarify details, but rarely do we see him say 'No, that's not right.'

    Then you haven't been working hard enough at it. Much like a sensible wizard, a good Orange Lantern is very, very hard to kill. OL has just taken it to the point that he's even harder to keep dead.

    Admittedly, there isn't always a lot to ship back sometimes.

    And there's the start of his thanatophobia, eh?

    Well, not every culture has an afterlife equivalent after all. For some, it's merely in being honoured by others. For others, it's a literal place their soul goes. I wouldn't be surprised if each of her planet's religions had different ideas about it...

    ...I won't ask, it's probably a messed up memory. But most people's first brush with actual death is often a dead animal or the like...

    And unlike that first time, you know to block your pain receptors when you do it.

    This is probably going to be a running theme for those more interested in the esoteric side of Orange Light use. Since each person's desires are unique, so will their path towards Enlightenment...

    To be fair, that's probably a concept that turns up on every planet now and again. So it wouldn't be completely unknown to her.

    Well, that's certainly a thorough way to apply yourself to a task... Bet she's noticed a few running themes and similarities between them. After all, most members of a species have some ideas in common.

    An odd way to look at it, but hey... Whatever works. I'm sure there's something that'll get you invested in it.

    See? You're invested in not wanting your mind to be messed with. It's a good start.

    Which will mean your Orange Light will allow you to shrug off mental effects more easily.

    :confused: ...Huh. That... That is honestly an interesting viewpoint on it. It makes sense, too. He mainlined Avarice for so long that his own desires were buried underneath the collectives wants of the universe. Like one grain of sand in a desert.

    So, desire fulfilled. Now what? What do you want to use it for?

    And why would you need more than one ring? As OL's showed, extra rings only supply more charge, and a good personal lantern can mitigate that issue easily enough.

    Welp. What do you want, then? When your power works on wanting things, you have to be able to focus on something you want, after all. The joy of satiation...

    See, that's a good idea. New experiences end up sparking new wants. ;) But be honest, OL, you just want another player for your refined, balanced Warhammer, don't you?

    Ah, the joy of gaining what you thought you wanted. You end up feeling unsatisfied, because it's not what you really wanted after all. I wonder how many other Orange Lanterns are having that sort of issue? How many are finding getting something that can do anything they want isn't what they were really needing?
    At any rate, it'll be interesting to see if people try his Warhammer game and enjoy it. Could become a meme within the Corps: The Illustres is so good at war that he made a game where everything else is equally good at killing too, just so he could have a challenge...:D
     
  18. Zig

    Zig Not too sore, are you?

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    Is Warhammer Paul asking his friends to play Heroclix?
     
  19. w34v3r

    w34v3r Versed in the lewd.

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    I'm actually very interested in the potential for inter-species gaming leagues and companies.

    This sounds FASCINATING.
     
  20. RichardWhereat

    RichardWhereat Aia airëa Fëanáro.

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    A few days later, she really really wants to be Sanguinius, with an army of genesons.
     
  21. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Yep.

    She appeared in the episode where Paul fought a Thunderer during a diplomatic mission.

    She doesn't seem to care all that much about her home planet.
     
  22. AidanMorgan

    AidanMorgan Essentially Overworked

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    I mean, it's happened a couple times. Like with him just going along with being on the Team and assuming it wasn't the kid's team until someone set up a school identity for him.
     
  23. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    No.

    No meme image, because I don't know Heroclix well enough to hate it.
     
  24. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    And Paragon doesn't.
     
  25. ForeverShogo

    ForeverShogo Not too sore, are you?

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    The idea that you need some special mindset to be effectively immortal as an Orange Lantern still seems really dumb to me. Most people don't really want to get old, or decrepit, or deal with illness or injury or whatever.

    The idea that always being in your prime isn't just part of the package is just absolutely bonkers to me.
     
  26. BlueMangoAdea

    BlueMangoAdea Alive. For now.

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    Right. The ring allows you to completely reshape your body, anyways. Wouldn't the vast majority of old people want to stop being old if they have the ring on?
     
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  27. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    It's perfectly possible that they don't see getting old or dying as being anything that's wrong or bad.

    Their culture, society or religion may even consider these things to be good, or they themselves may view them as being good, so have no great desire to avoid them all that much.

    There are real life cultures that venerate old age.

    They might view immortality and agelessnes as even being abhorrent.

    They probably may not like illness or injury, so use the ring to get rid of those, but have nothing against old age.

    They may try to remove some of the less positive aspects of getting old, like losing some of your mental or physical strength, but are otherwise fine with getting old and dying.

    And that's assuming their species has any negative side effects from getting old.

    Some of the members in the Corps may belong to species where old age actually brings physical and mental benefits, as in they get stronger and more mentally focused the more they age.
     
    Last edited: Apr 29, 2021
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  28. Senevri

    Senevri Not too sore, are you?

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    Well, if you start always following the advice of every authority, that only lasts until you're told to question things. Or, if you believe an authority is always correct, that should end the first time you find them to be wrong.
     
  29. topin89

    topin89 Virgin Centrist

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    In general, yes, galaxy is huge, there should be more than one person who thinks being old, ill, decaying and inevitably dead is awesome.

    But Drusa's definitely not that person. She asked how to become immortal, she does not want to die. So why this wish was not granted by her ring, I don't understand. Maybe she's already immortal, and never noticed? I mean, ring heals any injures, surely it will heal age-related, like wrinkles or heart scar tissues. She just don't want to be younger, so no new body for her.

    Then again, immortal is relative term. She's definitely ageless, but she will die if she's killed (that is, if nothing changes during this chapter). Paul got better from qwa-matter in the face. Not sure how anyone could repeat that.
     
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  30. Ngamer11

    Ngamer11 Experienced.

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    This link is linked to the page after the page that has the actual chapter on it.
     
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