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

Thank you, corrected.

'Fun' isn't the word I'd have used, but I'm glad that you liked it.

 

Well, that was interesting, in a disturbing way (which is basically what it needed to be to work).

 

... I know they keep trying to pretend that she has some sort of agenda that is just hard to explain, but this is really coming off like a fetish thing.

"Life is meaningless, step on me Mommy!"

 

Yikes. I hope the White Light comes soon, this is depressing

 

Especially with the reader-only mystery of who "Mistress" is (everyone in-story seems to know, but they aren't telling US for some reason), I'm starting to picture her as a stereotypical (or Southpark-style) goth kid. Match wants to know what she wants, but she really only wants to sit on her stoop being performatively miserable and writing awful poetry for her Anti-Livejournal.

 

...braaaains...

 

I have concerns about his working conditions.

 

I wonder if Mistress could be M’gann? Match says she used to be a good person. Maybe she got overwhelmed by the anti-life. Being invisible and intangible would make it pretty hard to find her. She’s even called Mistress Martian in the comics at times.

 

I remember this Lucifer comic where there was a guy who's fiance or wife thought that he was somehow enlightened.

Turns out the guy was just massively depressed and just didn't care about living.

No shit.

You know, the Joker may honestly be one of the more dangerous threats if he can control Anti-Life.

Given his own mental state, it may be possible.

 

I think the Sheeda destroyed Hub City.

Though the people in these locations may be doing slightly better compared to other parts.

it was mentioned that 3rd world countries wre handling it better due to having to deal with depressing situations more often, so the same may apply here.

Though he did have the advantage that many people probably didn't try to look too deep

Good luck staying sane after spending time around the Joker.

 

i may be forgetting, but has there been any description about what the Hellenistic pantheon is doing in/about the Anti-Life? i know we had the episode with the fungus infecting the Green, but i think it would be interesting to hear what new/improved Heph or even Melinoe might be doing about the Anti-Life. or even just how it's affecting them, having so much of humanity spiritually messed up.

 

Why would you even be a Joker henchman, anyway? Does his pay average out better because he's so mercurial he's quick to give bonuses for good heisting?
Because a random chance of being mogged by a stupid prop cigar of all things makes the idea of chilling with Bane or Penguin or someone else more 'normal' seem much better even if the pay's trash

 

I imagine it's less dangerous than being in most street gangs. Less picky for recruitment, too.

 

Not by much.

 

As far as we know they can't do much, the Anti-Life has created a mostly impenetrable film across the thaumosphere of the planet.

For the gods to do anything they would have to punch a hole open, and right now their usual channels of worship and divine power are completely jammed.

They could enter the world directly, if they wanted to personally risk the Anti-Life, but then the film would cut them off from their own greater selves anyways, so it's a bad move regardless.

It is implied that there some political drama going on in the Pantheons of the globe, internal strife between the gods who side with The Status Quo or side with Apocalypse or side with New Genesis. Like Marvel Comics Civil War Arc, but for the gods.

No one knows what Hell is up to, they seem to be more afraid of Anti-Life exposure than the Gods.

 

John did manage to block the Anti-Life from hitting Themyscira's reform island, granted he created the barrier right before the Anti-Life hit so who knows if that shield can be expanded to the rest of the islands.

 

Desperate people will do many things to survive, even if those things have a chance of killing them.

Others may be crazy nd just admire the Joker.

Bane seems to primarily operate in South and Central America in this fic, and Penguin is more or less legit.

Mist did mention that some gods like the Shinto may work for Apokalips if it's necessary for survival.

It would make sense.

The Anti-Life targets negative emotions like despair and increases them by a hundred, and living in Hell likely makes despair very, very present.

 

Mist mentioned that the Shinto may hold themselves back because they assume that Earth will triumph, so why should they waste any power when it'll happen anyways. Not on Apokalips side, but certainly mercenary/strategic.

 

Odd that he'd ask, but it makes sense.

He grew up in a traveling circus and even after moving to Gotham he lived in a wealthy part of the city.

Yep.

"the cops"

"produced"

 

I wonder if Paul should start making contingency plans for the Justice League for other potential disasters like this one?

 

I wonder what Mars knows/thinks about the Anti-life shenanigans happening right next door.

 

If they knew anything about it, they'd be scared out of their minds, possibly literally.

 

So who is mistress?

 

Dear god.

They've got a giant penny. They're going to be unstoppable.

Mars <-> Earth
=
New York <-> New Jersey

"Oh god, what have they done *this* time, is it still on fire?"

 

How diligent of you, Artemis. Thinking of the day you can't run around out there in tights and leather, battling crime. Admittedly, being Dannered up makes your crime-fighting days likely to be a lot longer than most.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Heh. I would hope they've got their limiters off for the duration of this crisis. Though it has been, what, over a year since they got dosed by Paulphidian anyway. If they couldn't adapt in that time...

I suppose he never did see much of the regular city life, after all. Plenty of its night life, though, if you catch my drift.

Gotta remember, even if his family started here, he hasn't spent much time here before, well...

And once the Freaks starting crawling out of the woodwork, that would get even less representative.

After all, a history book can only do so much for painting a picture of the life then.

Comes from being the big dogs.

And there's always some young yahoo or new-in-town dolt trying to start shit...

The purely mechanical kind, relying on precise timings that can foul up if there's so much as one hair out of place? I can picture it...

Such is the nature of Anti-Life. Without a strong will to direct them...

Which is why granaries were so important back in the ancient times. Even with fewer mouths to feed back then. 'Society is only three meals from collapse' and all that...

...Ironically, I could see karens serving as local middle-managers with their obnoxious resolve.

Yeah, looks bad, huh?

OL's said a lot of crazy things. Which one do you mean?

Terrible calculus, indeed.

Hey, he's not lying.

What better place for it. Dirty job, I know...

Though that would probably be enough to seed hundreds of hectares of fields...

Heh.And I'm impressed you're admitting that, Robin.

Ah, back to work.

Ah, taking the good old-fashioned method of trailing them, eh?

Not bad for a mere human. I'm sure Celestial Archer would be impressed.

Impressive trick. I'm assuming Nanomachines (son!)

Eh, his idea of happy memories probably involves mass murder.

Still, he asked first. Progress?

I mean, what self-respecting evil leader wouldn't? Can't do everything herself.

To be fair, most of the existing network structures pretty much run on automatic. But nothing says anyone has to use it.

Which is a hell of a lot of shit. From Freeze Rays to old Fear Gas. Mind control hats to Smilex sprayers...

On the upside, anything not breathable, you're a lot more resistant to.

Good to see the Team hasn't forgotten the art of covert information gathering. Though I don't doubt that somehow, this will end up in a grand melee of superpowers. The only question is which side will be the stronger. Though it sounds like even they aren't sure just who this 'Mistress' is. I guess Batman isn't sure, but has his suspicions that he's not sharing...

---

Double Space.

 

I'm wondering what Thaanagar thinks about this. They're the interstellar power closest to Earth, and would not be thrilled to have a world controlled by Apocalypse right in their backyard.

 

Venom is apparently common enough that every time the Justice League knocks down a factory producing the stuff for international distribution a new one pops up.

Not that amazing against heroes on it's own. But if you can source an autocannon, or have the suicidal justified/anti-lifers willing to wear around really heavy high-yield suicide vests, the extra equipment-carrying capacity Venom gives might be useful.

 

Thank you, corrected.

 

Given that so far all his plans have provably made things worse...

That would probably be a bad idea.