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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. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    No, it's a sort-of continuation of his previous sentence.
     
  2. Coda

    Coda Versed in the lewd.

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    This assumes that she's helping... if she's affected by Anti-Life, she might be part of the problem.
     
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  3. Bud-E

    Bud-E Stand up so I can push you down!

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    Just read the League reaction meeting to Paul killing Nabu and holy shit how did it take me so long to read this!? My only question is they keep talking about arresting Paul and Paul alone when he worked with several people Zatanna included. I know Paul was the mastermind behind the whole thing but Adom, Zatanna, and Constantine helped commit the crime, but then they would be arresting a 14-year-old girl who murdered her father's kidnapper which gets even more morally grey!

    https://forums.sufficientvelocity.c...si-thread-twelve.25032/page-1971#post-8294767
     
  4. Assblaster5000

    Assblaster5000 I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    I think it's worth noting that fungus aren't actually the mushrooms we see but the mycelial network in the ground, so destroying these elementals might not be accomplishing much if they only work as the fruiting bodies of the mycelia. Also that many types of fungi spores are fairly resistant to heat, so fire maybe shouldn't be doing as well as it is? I dunno', magic is weird and maybe it's only working because they think it should.

    Oh, and the mushroom people being... not smart seems a bit off? Mycelial networks are massive, work largely the same way a brain does (if far more distributed and redundantly reinforced), and some of the most knowledgeable mycologists think there's at least a small chance that fungal colonies could be, like, people smart. That isn't backed by main-stream thought/study as far as I know, but these are literal magic mushrooms, so I'm not about to rule anything out.
     
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  5. JeckJack

    JeckJack Mask Seller

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    The DC concept of the Rot/the Gray has literally nothing to do with any kind of science, and absolutely everything to do with how humans interpret gross icky mold.

    In reality, fungi have an intrinsically vital part to play in the life cycle and health of literally every plant on Earth. Mycelial networks help hold forests together and transfer nutrients and chemical information from one place to another, and without them those forests would be crippled. They break down dead matter into matter that can be used, and serve as food sources for countless plants and animals that also contribute to the health of a forest. There are some harmful fungi that will kill some plants, but that's also just a natural part of the circle of life, and beneficial to the forest as a whole.

    If the Green/Gray, etc. paid any attention to how the real world worked, they'd be deeply interwoven and beloved entities to each other that couldn't survive without each other.

    But because most people just see mushrooms growing out of dead or old things, and don't really understand what or how a plant lives under the ground, instead we have this weird utterly human-centric idea of the Rot as the natural nemesis of the Green because whatever author first came up with the concept just thought that mold was icky.
     
  6. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    As I've already pointed out, the Rot and the Grey aren't the same thing in DC. Except for Earth-2 where the Grey claims dominion over decay and death.

    And in point of fact the Black/Rot aren't innately enemies of the Green or Red- Anton Arcane is nuts. No more life means no more things dying. The Black/Rot never ever wants the Green and the Red to go away. Anton Arcane wanted to end all life cause he's a nutjob. The Black/Rot responded by choosing Abby Holland nee Arcane as the new Champion and imprisoning Anton where he couldn't hurt anything.

    So the Champion of the Green and the Champion of the Rot snog and do other couple activities.

    Abby as the Champion of the Rot/Black if anyone is interested.
    [​IMG]
     
  7. Prince Charon

    Prince Charon Just zis guy, you know?

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    Paul was the ringleader, Constantine was IIRC missing at the time, for Zatanna you've already answered yourself, and arresting or threatening to arrest Adom at that point is a whole big kettle of worms.
     
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  8. Threadmarks: Jet Fighter (part 18)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    31st December 2012
    19:30 GMT -3


    I shift the flamethrowers into a defensive position, setting up a wall of fire around giant Doctor Isley.

    "Doctor Isley, can I help?"

    "… Hard… To concentrate…"

    The voice isn't exactly coming from her throat. That part of her plant body looks too rigid, but various outer parts making up a… Cloak? Of smaller branches and leaves. They're branches and leaves that give the impression of forming a cloak rather than a literal leaf-cloak, but there's enough structure there to form some sort of sound-making organ.

    "What do you need?"

    "… Can't…"

    Alright. Form the mandala, picture the vital processes in terms of desires and-

    Cross my fingers.

    -go.

    There's a sort of… Exhalation. Or it could just be air moving in an uncontrolled way through her leaves. Ah, okay, can I project her desires into this system? Should be.. possible, I can't see them at the moment but I remember what she looked like last time I saw her and I doubt that she's undergone a fundamental restructuring… Just don't be too precise. Just tease the basics into the right general direction-.

    Her head tilts back slightly, her eyes unfocused.

    "Aaaaaah."

    I'm not sure whether that's a good 'ah' or a bad 'ah', but she doesn't look like she's in pain, and the spores are still failing to find purchase-.

    "Paul."

    I float up into her line of sight. "Doctor Isley. Earth's under attack by the Anti-Life. I'm here to help you defend Accalacan. What's happening with the Green?"

    "I…" She ponderously shakes her head. "I can't maintain the connection well enough to fix it-!"

    I raise my hands. "Slow down. From the beginning. Unless something's super-urgent, then go to that."

    "Creatures of Grey. The despair of the Green itself called them here, the idea of constant failure and die-off, acid rain and deforestation."

    "It's that easy?"

    "The emotion was always there, ever since the first woodsman swung the first axe. But with this… Anti-life reverberating through the Green, it's overwhelming."

    "Why are you a tree?"

    "I'm not. I needed a plant form to come here. My meat body is still in Brasília. Euanthe is helping me."

    "But I'm.. here. There was a seed-."

    "I'm a human who can use Green magic. You're-. Whatever you are." She looks down towards where her 'hands' are clamped together. "I'm holding their entry point closed because I'm hoping there's some way to destroy the ones that are already here. I'm not strong enough to fix this."

    "Alright, all I need to do is shut down the linking point? I should be able to do that. If not, the League's got a few wizards outside of the Anti-Life effect area. We can-."

    "There's barely any Green left. We don’t have time for the League's wizards to work it out from first principles!"

    "Then let me-."

    "If I let go, the Green starts merging with the Grey. More than it is right now."

    "And that kills all plant life on Earth?"

    "Everywhere not protected by a.. goddess, or something. Look, I've got a solution. It's not-. I'm not happy about it, but the world's dying and I can.. do this."

    "Do what?"

    "Swamp Thing used to be a man named Doctor Alexander Holland. I know you know how to recreate the bio-restorative formula that made him transform. If you-."

    "No he didn't."

    "What?"

    "Alec Holland is dead. The Green created Swamp Thing's mind based on the state of Doctor Holland's mind when he died. It's a copy, not the original. That's why he's so mentally slow."

    "So you do know how it works."

    "I know how it worked. I don't know how to repeat it reliably. I also know that the Green has a strict 'one champion at a time' policy. So let's leave that until after we've tried other things."

    "How does it work?"

    "You burn to death."

    "That's it?"

    "It's probably a lot more complicated, but basically, yes. Burn to death surrounded by greenery, and if there's an opening then the Parliament of Trees might decide to create a Champion based on your template. But it isn't worth taking a chance on without absolute necessity and an assurance that they'll actually do it. Now: restoring the Green. If I burn the whole place, can it be restored?"

    "Euanthe… She thinks so. That's why she remained outside: to maintain as much Green energy outside of this place as possible."

    "Is that a 'yes'?"

    "I don't know. We were desperate and just.. hoped we could make it work."

    "I-."

    Huh. The waves of fungoids have stopped attacking. I suppose that they're not mindless: when they saw no way to progress, there wasn't any reason for them to keep trying.

    "If I burn the infestation out of a particular area, can you… Fortify it?"

    "No, it's taking everything I have to keep this portal closed. I'm nothing like strong enough to do that as well. If you need to burn my actual body-"

    "We're not there yet, Doctor."

    Alright, scan the plants that started sprouting and… Make more. Connect them to the Green-.

    "I see what you're trying to do, but that won't work. There's so… Little left that they-. It can't think."

    "The Green isn't currently mentally complex enough to feel the Anti-Life."

    "Even if you could repair the Green manually, the moment it was complex enough this would all start again."

    "We've got a plan for that. We just need to clear out the fungoid infestation, then Doctor Mist can fortify the whole place. I just.. need…"

    Huh. Looks like I've burned off most of the spores in the area. And their sources. That's good. I-.

    "All Things Decay!"
     
    Last edited: Nov 13, 2022
  9. Silverias

    Silverias Know what you're doing yet?

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    Call the Ophidian. Do it now. Do it NOW.

    You're expressly the avatar of the Ophidian. If it could be anti-lifed, you could be anti-lifed. If you GET anti-lifed, it gets anti-lifed.


    This is a situation where it hsouldn't even be a question. This is literally an apocalyptic event and OL, the DESIRE GUY, is hamstringing himself with a "Maybe" that has pretty solid evidence against it.
     
  10. Duke Long

    Duke Long Glomerulus

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    ‘Alright’?
    She says ‘Grey’ earlier, so presumably one of those is wrong.
     
  11. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
  12. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    Let's hope she's not operating on a different timescale here. I mean, having plants possess a different perception of time's passing tends to be a thing in fiction, isn't it? Let's hope her viewpoint is still human enough to respond...

    And the fact it sound like the wind rustling through leaves is just a happy coincidence, huh? :p

    Giving her psyche a bit of a kickstart, huh? Understandable. The Green isn't really built for human consciousness, Swamp Thing and other Avatars aside.

    And hope your DM rolls high on the hidden roll. Always an annoying thing for these kind of challenges.

    I hope you didn't poke the wrong kind of desire there, OL.

    It could well have been the sexy kind of 'ah'. :oops: Any, uh, suspicious puddles forming around the avatar-tree?

    And how bad is it going to be if whatever's happening here goes badly?

    Yeah, priorities. Let's not miss the tree for the forest...

    Oof. Yeah, sounds about what people thought. Even the collective arcane consciousness of all plant-life on Earth can have bad days...

    And is it permanent? Because that isn't really working out so well for Swamp Thing in some respects.

    A magic seed. Not the first time you've gotten magically whammied into an altered state.

    Not strong enough alone, no... But with the right backup, perhaps...

    Well, that handily lets us know how the Parliament and Swamp Thing are doing, then: Poorly.

    Though it's understandable that this place would be the most likely to suffer an incursion. The logging...

    ...So, Gaea might be keeping Themyscira a little safer than with just John's spell alone... But even Titans can have their minds and moods altered...

    Yeah, turns out that was... Well, in-universe: the Green lied. Out of universe... I guess Alan Moore thought this would make for more drama?

    Degradation, given, you know, he died slowly and painfully in fire and water...

    True. Anytime the Green has had more than one Avatar, things have gotten... Confused. And violent.

    Yes, I can see why only the most focused or deranged would leap at that requirement.

    And, to be fair, that's only what he believes going off old 'Swamp Thing' comics. The real process might be entirely different. And I doubt the Parliament of Trees is coherent enough right now to ratify a promotion.

    I can't imagine it's been any easier for her in the real world...

    To be fair, in a superhero universe, 'winging it' can work. Unfortunately, the power of Narrative is kind of skewed by the Anti-Life right now...

    Keep to the original idea, eh? Slash and Burn, carving out the dead and decaying forcefully.

    And hopefully never will be.

    Things are that bad off, eh?

    True. So it might end up having to be a delaying action until the Justice League can stop Mannheim. And meanwhile, OL has to cool his jets here...

    Oh, crap. Here comes trouble.

    Looks like this is going to keep OL tied down for a while, then. If Ivy gets overrun, there goes the Green. Try to reboot it, it gets whammied by Anti-Life again and out comes the Grey again. And there's no-one on the fungal side to negotiate with or intimidate into backing off. ...Or is there? There have been Avatars of the Grey before...
     
  13. Duke Long

    Duke Long Glomerulus

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    I like the idea of multiple apocalypses happening because the world is interlocking, with the obvious problem of humans being depressed and this with the Green dying. I wonder if there are similar problems in the Red at the moment. Does the Anti-life affect stupid organisms? Are animals all over the world depressed right now, or are they too stupid to be affected?
     
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  14. mastermenthe

    mastermenthe Mint Thistle

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    Sort-of, anything too stupid to be affected by raw undirected anti-life gets a free pass... Unless there is a New God, or New God Technology, that is directing it, in which case being too stupid to be anti-lifed makes them administratively subject to the narrative manipulating aspect of New God powers/technology.

    A rock tumbling down a hill can't be convinced to roll into someone deliberately just by exposure to anti-life, but the direct attention of a New God can use the anti-life exposure to dictate the narrative of the rock tumbling down with a sort of Gae Bolg effect, redefining it's current action of "tumbling down the hill" into "tumbling down the hill and into the skull of that person", which means that it can veer around willy-nilly like magic to aim at the persons skull until something changes the rocks conditions to make the narrative imbued no longer valid. Such as stopping the rock from tumbling, or removing the hill, or nullifying the existence of the person's skull, at which point the rock goes back to acting normally until newly reimbursed.

    You see this directly with "antilife justifies their actions" making the bullets pierce their target: the narrative of the bullets is dictateable because anti-life is overwriting causality with its own narrative, but it's an active effort, an commitment of will into something that has no will of its own.

    This is why the Justifiers are so useful: their will may be crushed utterly, but they still have a will of their own anyways, and that means they each act as independent sources of commitment to writing a new narrative into reality.

    Honestly, it's almost identical to Exalted RPG, if you know what is meant by "committing essence motes" as supposed to "spending essence motes" to perform a charm.
     
  15. Windona

    Windona Beetle Queen of Crackshipping

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    Ah, a cascade effect. That is not good at all.
     
  16. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    This feels very made up by LePaul.
     
  17. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    Wow you really aren't a Swamp Thing fan then.

    This was revealed in Swamp Thing 21....in 1984.

    Eventually culminating in the Vertigo series Swamp Thing, while Swampy was becoming a Planet Elemental, someone visited Heaven and had a talk with the spirit of Dr Holland. He ends up being reincarnated as a messianic figure, the next step in humanity's spiritual evolution. Constantine played one of his Wise Men. Constantine also nicked the gift he was supposed to give the reincarnated Alec.

    The real Alec Holland being the next Swamp Thing in New Earth continuity, to become the new White Light Entity, was a plot point in Brightest Day...in 2011.

    And post Flashpoint Alec Holland was Swamp Thing, and his predecessor was Swamp Thing that thought it was Alec Holland. Which was probably awkward at parties.

    So that's three comic universes in which that Swamp Thing thought he was Alec Holland, although the real Alec Holland was his successor in two of them.
     
    Last edited: Nov 13, 2022
  18. DrThoth

    DrThoth I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Hades and his family are black light-enlightened, that should help resist Anti-Life to some degree just like Dr. Mist's white light-enlightenment, right? Anti-Life isn't exactly Death, but it seems closely linked enough. Would be good to see the post-Zeus Olympian restructuring helping the world in the current crisis with divine protection and intervention.

    Also where's the Spear of Destiny right now? Is that where Constantine was heading, by any chance?
     
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  19. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    The issue there is that the Orange Lantern Corps are sort of using the Ophidian. Her presence in the OCPB gives them a small boost each in power and mental stability, both of which they need to fight the giant Reach fleet currently coming at them.
    They're highly resistant to its widespread deployment, yes. There are ways for a sufficiently skilled Anti-Life user to use that against them.
    I.. think it's in Atlantis. Though I suspect that someone is going to correct me.
    He's stuck on Reformation Island at the moment.
     
  20. Ngamer11

    Ngamer11 Experienced.

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    Pretty sure that's right. Paul asked for it when he upgraded Hephaestus. Unless it was destroyed somehow in the process, it should've been given back to Atlantis afterwards to keep it safe.
     
  21. Ganurath

    Ganurath Apologizes For Nothing

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    All Things Strive, fucker. The Green might be reeling, but it has considerably more punch than Kilowag's gut flora.
     
  22. Someguy Somewhere

    Someguy Somewhere The Critical Fumbler

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    See, that's the thing to worry about.

    Whomever said that might be one of the stolen clones, purposely misquoting 'All Things Strive'. Who wants to bet we get a anti life lantern paul with a goatee of evil? It's not like darkseid hasn't had a collection of lanterns and rings from fallen greenies laying around.
     
  23. Sockmonkey

    Sockmonkey I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Could be. Without a previous soul of it's own it could have a soul made of anti-life made by feeding it into the tattoos.
     
  24. Threadmarks: Jet Fighter (part 19)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    31st December 2012
    19:33 GMT -3


    "EEYAGH!"

    The construct hoses of my flamethrowers sprout holes, fuel spraying in all directions before igniting in an uncontrolled wall of flame! I shut it down at once, sending the fuel into subspace as the tank construct similarly decays and fades.

    And then I cough as my chest starts decaying in the same way.

    "Buh-grugh."

    Rep-repair that. And I'm guessing that the armour-. Yep, yep, repair and replace. In fact-.

    By the power of seniphobia, I reject decay!

    Owf, that's better! There's a extra layer to my environmental shield now as I channel my poor mental health into a useful output. For a moment I'm reminded of the clicker burrow-guards and really hope that Dox doesn't try inducing that sort of thing to see if the result is a net gain in performance.

    Or that if he does, he does it in people who aren't him.

    "Isley?"

    She's… She doesn't look good. Bark's decaying in several places and her regeneration isn't able to keep up. Looks like she's concentrating on maintaining her hands and arms to ensure that the portal stays blocked, but if I remember the technique she's using correctly then she's feeling like she's got Ebola right now.

    I strobe out solid beams of orange light, trying to hit or feel whatever just did that-.

    "Gary, what was that?"

    "All of us."

    The concentration of spores is increasing, so I counter by spraying out small quantities of fuel and igniting it.

    "Expand."

    "We exist in continuity with our nature and one another. We are one, we are all."

    Ah… Parse that…

    "You're part of a gestalt. Not just an energy, there's a higher order mind there."

    "There can be."

    I see… Not a movement in the spore cloud, but a movement of it. As if some sort of wind that I can't feel had blown through it.

    "Does it have a name?"

    "No."

    Tracking wind… Movement? Density of cloud-.

    My constructs abrade and decay into nothing.

    "All Is Rot!"

    Shieldsallaroundlinkedtomytattoos!

    Conks made of black light appear on my shields, the energy-.

    Dump, dump the construct, I do not want that inside me.

    Compliance.

    The construct starts to fail, only for black stands mimicking its outline to remain in place-. Railgun, crumbler, shoot them out!

    The crumbler detonates early as the spore cloud eats through-.

    This is the natural outcome of building anything: it falls apart and is picked over by people who could never imagine its glory. The universe is inhabited by children smashing stained glass windows because they love to hear the sound of shattering-.

    Through it!

    Plasmaplasmashoot a hole through and then crumbler again!

    Haah. Haah.

    Okay, I…

    That was disturbing.

    "Isley, I'm going to try and draw it away."

    The leaves and other fripperies are gone, the bark looks like it falling off completely would be a mercy and I can see parts of the interior wood decaying.

    "Aah-hhhngrgh."

    "Hang in there."

    I generate a large construct replica of myself, which starts falling apart almost immediately. I try releasing fuel and setting fire to the outer edge, and that… Works a little.

    "Over here!"

    And fly up and away from the things I can't see and that I'm not sure I can hurt. Okay, physical attacks are just getting destroyed by the spores and there's nothing behind them to hit anyway. I didn't think to ask Queen Hyathis how to use magic to affect fungoids, which is something I should… Fix. That leaves assimilation, but I don't really see anything to assimilate.

    I could… Try assimilating it via the spore clouds? I should be able to eat them faster than they eat-

    A piece of rotting wood hits the back of my armour. It bounces off and then… Moves around me and continues on its way.

    -me.

    And another and another until I'm forced to put a burning shield in the way as a hail of rotting wood slams into me! It's not-. I don't think it's being thrown as a projectile, and the burning-. I can see where they're going through the murk as the broken pieces continue on their way. I can see-.

    See.

    See the outline of a six-eyed cancerous head, and the hulking mass of a body whose shape I can't fully make out. Then the fires are quashed and I can't see it any longer and that's not reassuring.

    "Hello, giant rot creature. I'm the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. Can we talk about this?"

    "You will be consumed. All Exists To Feed Us."

    "That's not-."

    A hurricane of spores roars past and around me! I try dumping extra fuel out but it's even feeding on the fire! Giant construct me is gone and I'm frantically replacing the shield and burnable fuel as the spores decay through them!

    "And what then?!"

    "There is nothing else."

    That.. sounds familia-.

    Warning: low power. Twenty percent remaining.

    Marvellous.

    "Okay, but did you feel like that-"

    "Feed the Grey."

    "-yesterday?"
     
    Last edited: Nov 14, 2022
  25. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    "guessing"
     
  26. Bloodalchemy

    Bloodalchemy Versed in the lewd.

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    Google has no idea what that is so I'm thinking it's a typo?
     
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  27. moralrelativity

    moralrelativity Recovering pendant.

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    I read it as severe fear of senility.
     
  28. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    Yea, you can't convince a primordial force with words.

    Because it don't care.

    That said, it's a real pity he didn't think to try and bring in The Grey's opposing force. Because The Metal would be really useful right now.
     
    Otto von Saurion, JoTa34 and Minars90 like this.
  29. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    Oooh, nope. That is the last thing you need right now. Burning Ivy was bad enough, but having clumps of fungus trying to chew chunks out of you is seriously bad. And she's probably caught some of that shot as well.

    Thank goodness that Wholeness Rightly Assumed works here. From the sound of it, that growth was hitting your lungs.

    Care to explain what 'seniphobia' is? I doubt it's a mispelling of zenophobia... Perhaps some kind of 'fear of infection'?

    Hopefully she's not badly hurt. If she lets go of the plug...

    And you probably can't spare the energy to help fix her up, either, with a hostile out there taking great big Nurglypotshots.

    Best not to go putting all your fuel in one place, now. It looks like they can recognise a big target like that...

    In a great big circle of life?

    Not quite an actual avatar, but something like the Parliament of the Green? A crude directing intelligence...

    Ah, more of a collective instinct, then. And that movement sounds bad. Time to unleash the flames again?

    After all, what need is there for a name for anything in the Grey? If all are one, and one is all, then the loss of one fragment is inconsequential.

    Incoming tango!

    Hopefully outputting your essence, not absorbing theirs.

    Then again, it's probably a two-way street in this case...

    Oh, that's just not right.

    Ooof, full-force assault. That's got to be a pure dose of the Anti-life factors in there...

    Insert your own Kylo Ren memes here... "More!"

    And it's still out there, just gathering its strength to attack again...

    Ow. Let's hope she can hold out long enough?

    I half picture her head turning to give you such a look...

    Yes, give it a bigger target. :p That'll get it's attention...

    I doubt the spores are complex enough to be capable of being assimilated.

    :confused: What even...

    Uh-oh... We got wormsign.

    ...Matango? Or simply something representing a union of effort...

    OL, this is not a rational, sapient being here. This is a natural disaster. You are not going to be able to talk it down...

    And now you're caught in the storm. Looks like it might be all you've got just to not be swept away...

    ...Yes, sounds rather justified...

    Oh, boy. Another wrinkle. Anything else you'd like to drop on him, Murphy? May as well!

    Somehow, I don't think it wants to listen...

    Honestly, this is such an OL move... Standing in front of the fungal equivalent of the tarrasque and trying to talk at it until it gives up. And all the while, Ivy is weakening. And now he's running low on charge too. The day just keeps getting better and better, doesn't it? It's going to take something impressive to get out of this sticky wicket...
     
    Last edited: Nov 13, 2022
  30. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
    From the latin 'senium', meaning 'decay'.
    Care to explain what 'inrection' is?
     
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