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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. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Jade was implying that if the Kryptonians invaded during the peak of the British Empire then said Empire would just be reduced to a small piece of territory for a much more powerful government instead of being the most powerful thing in the world.
     
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  2. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Yes. I mean, not by the people involved or specifically for that, but yes.

    Ah.

    Except Sinestro. He's doing fine. And Arkillo. He temporarily lost his tongue, I think, but he got better.
     
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  3. Sojiko

    Sojiko Getting sticky.

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    Those humans can, thankfully.


    That link is now dead. Or restricted or something. Took me a while to figure out it was a link to Insane In The Brain by Cypress Hill. Here's a version without the censorship ruining things. Or maybe you want to use the official (censored) version, either with just the music or the full music video.

    I want to say that this part is one of my favourite parts of the entire story. Especially when Grayven calls her a stupid cow. It's made even better by Brain showing why he's one of the villains I like most in this story.
     
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  4. Clell65619

    Clell65619 Making the rounds.

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    - Upper towers?
     
  5. Rafin

    Rafin Not too sore, are you?

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    Being away from SV must be freeing.
     
  6. Prince Charon

    Prince Charon Just zis guy, you know?

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    Yeah, that is certainly one of the places where 'want the end, want the means' (and other aspects of Zoat's personality and moral/ethical systems) would be a serious problem on SV.com.
     
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  7. ForeverShogo

    ForeverShogo Not too sore, are you?

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    I've never really been a fan of Bleez's appearance as a Red Lantern, mostly because I think the fleshless wings thing is stupid. Ditto the little demon wings on her mask. But yes, Bleez as she used to be and as she is in this story? Pretty damn hot.

    [​IMG]

    And for an idea of what she is wearing . . .

    [​IMG]
     
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  8. Radix

    Radix Not too sore, are you?

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    Well it's nice that there is someone (almost) calling Paragon out on his bullshit. Slavery is only wrong when it is his friends or maybe someone he knows. Especially if it is "for their own good".
     
  9. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    It means the same thing.
    Ah, but it wasn't Insane in the Brain by Cypress Hill. It was Insane in the Brain by Richard Cheese.
    Thank you, corrected.
    I'm racist against demons, and I'm proud of it.
    Slavery generally sucks for the individuals involved, but it can be beneficial for a people of the long term. Romans civilised England, improved every aspect of our technology and connected us to continent wide trade networks.
     
  10. Cuchulin

    Cuchulin Versed in the lewd.

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    Correction, they "civilized" most of Britian and it was already connected to continent wide trade Networks as it had been for centuries if not since the Bronze age. The Greeks, the Phoenicians and the Carthaginians traded for Cornish tin. Also, I remember reading that British Woolen goods were prized even in Caesar's time and I know that even in the Bronze age European trade networks connected the Mediterranean to Scandinavia.
     
  11. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    Your daily reminder that Paragon's kind of a horrible person...
     
    Last edited: Jan 26, 2022
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  12. pervyshyguy

    pervyshyguy Getting sticky.

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    Got links or cites? I wanna read that
     
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  13. Doccer

    Doccer I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    A person who cares but doesn't know
    vs
    A personn who knows but doesn't care
    Which is preferred the most I wonder?
     
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  14. Cuchulin

    Cuchulin Versed in the lewd.

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    Well to for some basic info there is Cornwall, Atlantic Bronze Age, Cassiterides or Tin Islands, Wessex culture, British Iron Age and this (DOC) Celtic Clothing During the Iron Age- A Very Broad and Generic Approach | heather smith - Academia.edu indicates that at the very least the pre-Roman Celts were creating very fine woolen fabric.
    Also, if Celts of Iron Age Britain didn't have stuff worth taking and didn't trade with the rest of Europe Ceasar would never have invaded.
     
  15. Radix

    Radix Not too sore, are you?

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    Last I checkes someone could be broight into a trade network without being conquered and enslaved. The Mediterranean had plenty of trade before the Romans and Greeks.

    Simply interacting causes cultural osmosis that leads to technological advancement. The fact that a group is "better off" after their enslavement doesnt justify enslaving them when that could be achieved without enslaving them.
     
  16. Michael Vonica

    Michael Vonica Know what you're doing yet?

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    Did anyone here ever say that slavery was the best option? I think that the argument that was presented in the story was that it wasn't the worst thing that could have happened. Which, from some perspectives, is true. They weren't all killed, after all. Which is what the Reach would have eventually done, after enslavement, were they the ones to conquer these people. Also, did Thanagar, a space faring civilization, really need to enslave the local hunter gatherer population of a colony world? I might be wrong here, but it seems to me that an advanced civilization like that would have an easier time of things by just ignoring, displacing, or removing of the locals, and letting their own industry take care of things. Which, for Thanagar, might just be slave based anyway, but still.

    When comparing benefits, the enslaved locals get societal stability, access to Thangarian technology, modern infastructure built to their specification, and knowledge and training on, at the very least, how to do the jobs that Thangarians don't want to do. And the Thangarians get... slave labor? That they could have just imported from one of their other enslaved species, or simply replaced with technology, like any reasonable space aged civilization would? The standard of living for the locals must be taken into consideration, but I have too little information on this.

    Feel free to tell that I'm wrong about something, but if the Thangarians were feeling particularly diplomatic, they could have come down and bartered with the locals for the land and natural resources they wanted. And that's all the Thangarians would want, seeing as how the locals would have little else of value. After striking a deal, the locals would get some food, rudimentary weapons, low level tech they don't understand, and pretty things, while the Thangarians would likely be able to get as much land as they wanted. This situation would probably be worse for the locals than the slavery option, as they wouldn't have any of the benifits provided by the Thangarians to their slaves, and would probably still have little more freedom than the actual slaves (slaves we have yet to see, so I can't be sure).

    If the Thangarians were really kind, they would have come down, conquered the locals, set up a stable local government managed by the local people, and then left, while making sure to maintain a good relationship with the new government through healthy investment and trade. And from this, the Thangarians would have gained nothing that could not be gained by simpler means, except self satisfaction in their own good nature. Which is something that Thangarians don't seem to value much.
    The enslaved locals can also always eventually become free. As for Paul's choice of not dealing with that right now, there are already some good reasons posted already.
     
  17. Hell's Razer

    Hell's Razer Passive Member

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    Shouldn't this be "sighted"?
     
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  18. Threadmarks: Workhorse (part 10)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    4th October 2012
    08:32 GMT


    Bleez tosses a blanket down on a pondside rock, then stares at its wrinkled lay for a moment before taking the time to pull it out flat.

    "I usually get Toroz to arrange things for me before I get here, but he'd totally tell Mother where I went, you know?"

    The rocks are far too regularly shaped and conveniently placed to be naturally occurring, but it's clear that whoever landscaped this area made an effort to include only plausibly natural elements. The depression in the side of the mountain could be natural, but ring scans are showing me where the rock was worked with chisels before all sign of that work was covered in vines and mosses to completely obscure it. The improbably mini-waterfall is similarly worked, dug channels funnelling rainfall from a large portion of the mountain into multiple streams which converge in the same place. For that, ring scans show that there is an option to turn it up by using the castle's systems to pump water into the channels, but it's currently not running. As a result, the fall is a background trickle rather than a wildlife shower.

    Jade sits on the next rock along, giving her head a small shake as I raise my left hand and mouth 'want a blanket' to her. No, she wouldn't be relaxed enough to do something like that just yet.

    "Is he your butler?"

    "Hm? Noo." Bleez sits down on the edge of her blanket-covered rock and then leans back, supporting herself with her left arm while brushing her hair out of her face with her right. Then she tilts her head up and arches her back, posing for-.

    She's posing, milking every action for everything it's worth as if this were a magazine photo shoot. I wonder why?

    She twists around to kneel on the blanket with her wings slightly flared, then leans forward until she's on all fours and arches her back again. Then she lays down with her head supported by her bridged hands and her lower legs pointed upwards, her wings again slightly raised to that someone looking at her from the side would have an unobstructed view of the curves of her body while also seeing that her feathers and flight muscles were in excellent condition. Then her wings drop, and I see that the rock bier is just high enough that when she completely relaxes her flight muscles the tips of her wings don't quite reach the ground.

    "He's my body slave."

    I frown. The native species of Havania are raniform and about a third of the size of a standard pattern humanoid, so she can't mean-.

    "You know, like a personal attendant who's bound to you for life?"

    "I can't say that I do."

    Bleez rolls her eyes and looks away.

    "I didn't pick him, okay? He's just been, like, there, my whole life. That's one of the reasons I prefer performing off-world. His people aren't allowed to leave Havania so he can't come with."

    "Bleez, why are we hiding from your mother?" Her shoulders droop slightly. "On Earth, dodging the lady of the house would be quite rude."

    "Uh. I came back after my tour finished so I could work on some new songs, or maybe some adaptations of the kryptonian and human stuff you sent me? I haven't even put my bags down before she's trying to bundle me off to meet 'an excellent suitor of good breeding, I will not let your father's lineage die with you, he sacrificed too much building this sanctuary to let it go empty and become ransacked by the commoners below'."

    She pulls herself up slightly as she mimics her mother's voice, sneering as she finishes.

    Jade turns her head to carefully judge the distance to the glade's points of egress.

    "Is that likely to happen?"

    "No one's going to ransack anything. If I died without an heir the military would probably take it over. Not that that's going to happen."

    I smile. "Oh? You have an eye on someone inappropriate and you want to wait until she's really desperate?"

    "No… It's…" She frowns at me and then looks around. "Hey, could you check this place for monitoring equipment real quick?"

    "Is that what you were posing for?"

    She blinks in confusion. "'Posing'?" She checks her stance, then sags. "Uhr, I've been doing that so long it's just automatic now." … "I'm pressing my boobs together with my upper arms, aren't I?"

    "I hadn't notic-"

    "Yes."

    "-ed."

    "And done. They're just going to see us sunbathing and talking about music."

    Bleez frowns. "Wait, there actually are-?" A frustrated exhalation. "Of course there are. Mother probably put them there."

    "You are next in line to rule the planet. It wouldn't be too surprising that the Empire's government wants to keep an eye on you."

    "Though if it was your mother, she knows where you are."

    "If she remembers to look."

    "I don't think you've spoken about your father much."

    She makes a small wing-shrug. "He was one of the people who got Hyathis to cure the Equality Plague, and after she got thrown out he negotiated the settlement we have now with the government of Thanagar. They put him in prison for a while for working with her, which was total guano."

    "Where is he now?"

    "Oh, he's dead. And I'm his only child, which is why Mother is so fixated. If she wanted a bigger family, why couldn't she just remarry? I wouldn't have cared!"

    "So there isn't someone inappropriate?"

    "There will be. Probably. It's just-. I don't think she and I want to do the same things, you know? So she'll never accept anyone I actually want to marry, someone who wants the same things as I do for Havania." Another small shrug. "And since my marriage needs her approval, I.. just have to wait until she's dead."

    "I hadn't realised that you actually had a manifesto."

    She looks at me with an expression of faint disappointment.

    "I've known that I was going to end up ruling Havania since I was three. Of course I've got plans. And the reason why I'm spying on you -and yes I know that you know that I know- is that I want to make sure the military give me the space to change things without throwing me in prison. That's why I learned to perform at all: so regular Thanagarians would have a positive image of me."

    Jade smiles faintly. "What is it you want to do?"

    "Abolish all legal restrictions on the aboriginals. Increase the size of our civilian economy and start trading outside the Empire. Remove travel restrictions so that all the dispossessed of the Empire can come here. Develop an actual culture outside of military service. And marry a man who wants the same things as I do and wants to change the Thanagarian Empire into something less brutal. Because it's really brutal. I mean, you saw Downside, but you only saw a bit of Downside and there's a lot more to it than that. They actually dump prisoners from the newer colonies there, did you know that? Any of the aliens who do something wrong gets taken away from their home and dumped Downside with no way back."

    "And you want to fix it?"

    "I just want to fix my little bit of it. And don't even think about giving me a power ring. The government will never let me do any of it if I've got a power ring."

    "Wouldn't dream of it."

    Until the end of my holiday, anyway.
     
    Last edited: Jan 28, 2022
  19. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
  20. hance1986

    hance1986 A pitiful excuse for a man.

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    ' too '
     
  21. Prognostic Hannya

    Prognostic Hannya Knight of the Yuri Crusade

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    Everything's italicized
     
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  22. néocorvinus

    néocorvinus Versed in the lewd.

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    Wow... Pretty bird just got a lot more interesting. Also, hard to remember after reading that, that Thanagar is one of DC's kindest/least evil space empires
     
  23. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    'to arrange'

    Do you really wonder why?

    Seriously, it's difficult to tell with you.

    'muscles, the tips'

    'gives me'

    Ohh, Paul, you never change.
     
  24. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
    No, I think those are okay.
     
  25. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    Ah, the joy of your people being paid by your mother. Assuming they're paid at all. They feel kind of obliged to follow her orders, even if they'd like to help you. Such is the fate of serfs.

    So, a considerable amount of effort to make a seemingly natural picnic spot. No doubt the only way up here on foot is a narrow track that the native workers who got recruited to build it hated trying to walk up...

    More likely her mother's butler, if anything. If he's native, it's probably less dignified a named position, but...

    Force of habit? Assumption that Jade will be interested - no telling what an alien's attracted to, after all? Trying to distract the inevitable observers with arousal?

    Maybe its like a cat, stretching and squirming to find just the right spot to sun themself? I can see her using the spread-eagled position to shed or soak up heat through her wings.

    That's apparently 'Froglike', for reference. I'm picturing something like this, or a bit slimmer. On the other hand, I'd expect them to be good with their tongues. x3

    Construct Lanterns kind of fit that, but I wouldn't call them 'personal attendants'.

    Ah, he's always been there annoying you with 'your duties, mistress' or tattling to her mother about her ignoring them?

    Dear god, I can just imagine the voice. I can't even describe it, but I can hear the haughty tone. Something... Something akin to Majel Barret-Roddenberry as Lwaxana Troi. :confused: Yesssss...

    And hide a sly chuckle at the image? Subtle.

    Well, at least she has plans for the future.

    I don't know, that sounds kind of like Work. Might need Jade's okay...

    :oops: ...Um, well, I wasn't going to say anything, but...

    Heh, Jade bringing the brutal honesty. And a successful deflection roll by OL.

    No doubt trying to catch any 'indiscretions with unsuitable persons'... So she can yell at Bleez more.

    Probably expected her to head right to this spot after that argument.

    Yes, good, change the topic, pronto. This was supposed to be fun.

    Let me guess: Killed while imprisoned, probably by another 'inmate'. If not, well, I doubt imprisonment was particularly pleasant for him...

    Phrasing, OL. It sounds like you're offering to be that inappropriate someone...

    Huh, she's actually taking her future role seriously, then. Anything she plans on will have to dance a fine line between pleasing the Empire and benefiting the people, though.

    How very... Machiavellian of her. Not sure he'd have approved of the royal position, but her intentions...

    :confused: Wow, okay, not planning on doing things by halves, huh?

    Too bad it's hard to be discreet with a Power Ring. :rolleyes: Would be amusing if he managed to poach another Lantern from a Corps that hasn't even formed yet...

    Because that's Work, and Work things are for later.

    An interesting insight into Bleez. I wonder how much of that is from her comics characterisation? I mean, in the comics, she's a Red Lantern, so subtlety in her desires is even less of a thing than it would be for an Orange. Still, it's good to see she's more than the pampered princess playing at pop-star prestige. :cool: I'm kind of rooting for her success now.


    ...portion of the mountain into multiple streams who converge...
     
  26. Sojiko

    Sojiko Getting sticky.

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    OH! Well, that's much better. I was confused why Grayven would set that as his ring tone. Richard Cheese is a much better fit for his style.
     
  27. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Now I can't stop imagining Paul getting sexually harassed by her.

    Or maybe Alan, while Paul is relegated to the task of romancing her daughter or carrying her luggage.

    Nope.

    I think this us purely Zoat.

    In the comics the most we saw of her before Red Lantern was her being haughty and snobbish.
     
    Last edited: Jan 27, 2022
  28. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Not exactly. Lwaxana generally spoke from a position of confidence. Bleez's mother doesn't feel like that.
    In the comics, she says that she feels trapped and that no one knows the real her, but we're never really given any idea of what the real her is. As a result she ends up sounding like a spoiled brat who doesn't like the fact that she finally has an actual duty to perform.
    Thank you, corrected.
     
  29. Old Knife

    Old Knife Not too sore, are you?

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    Well if she's got high Ideals and actually cares about the entire planet, getting her entire planet butchered by the Sinestro Corps would be a plausible trigger for RAGE>
    .... Now to see where this rabbit hole goes.
     
  30. 012345

    012345 Well worn.

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    One would think that person with Power Ring is deciding what government is allowed to do? Like Paul isnt ruling Earth because its a wierd place having Justice League actualy capable of oposing him and him not wanting to rule that mess.
     
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