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

Thank you, corrected.

You mean, like combining a semaphore tower with a teliscope? It would be a bit dangerous to work somewhere like that in most places.

 

Either that or using lights and covers to message in Morse code. Both were used IRL. But yeah, I can see how it might not be viable over there, except in the most civilised areas.

 

I think it's interesting that this is one of the few settings where the SI finds it useful to talk about his original world. Often it's either "like this world except without some of the fantastical stuff" or "such a completely different context that there's no point in talking about it". The Warhammer Fantasy world is a rare case where the Old World has just enough echoes of real world history (because that's what all the writers were ripping from) that it can be useful to bring up examples and even the SI's former life is alien to them but not so alien that explaining it can't communicate elements of his psychology that he wishes others to understand.

And frankly it's nice to have him quoting real world history rather than television shows, cartoon, and pop culture. That stuff is fun, but the philosophies of characters in stories lack the rigor of stuff tested in the real world where the writer can't cover for you.

It's not clear to me why he is staying in a small Bretonnian village, other than the SI's tendency to get deeply attached to the first group he ends up with. It took main universe Paragon Paul forever to separate himself from the Team in a social sense, despite the fact that hanging around with a bunch of teenagers is objectively not really the peer group he would choose for himself all other factors being equal. (I mean, he's still friends with them, but his social circle is different these days.)

But the small Bretonnian village is offering almost nothing in terms of resources, other than the fact that I guess he's not pissing off anyone important by setting up shop there.

In the real world this seems to have been limited mostly to very crude signaling not sophisticated high information density reporting, so I guess it's a harder thing to do than you might think.

 

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I think the Empire could handle, with a bit of help, some version of the early Spark Gap Transmitters. Building on the scale to cover the empire wouldn't be too bad, and depending on how the winds of magic effect the planet's ionosphere and geography you could get lucky and bounce signals globally on a good night. With the Spark Gap's methods you couldn't get audio in anything you'd understand, but Morse code would be simple. On the receiving end, even without crystals or tubes, you can still manage a basic diode effect with steel and carbon. Foxhole Radio's are what it says on the tin, and could be cobbled together out of scraps in a cave, you just need to put even more power in at the transmitter end of things to get a decent output.

Honestly with a bit of magic, you could skip some of the issues holding back either end of things, since summoning crashes of thunder and lightning are things the heavy weight mages can do. The Skaven certainly have the technological foundations to get things up and running on entry level magitech....maybe loot the skavenblight before you bomb it to bits first oh Knight of the Orange Lantern.

 

Thank you, corrected.

Basically, because no one cares if he completely controls it, it's big enough to experiment with and small enough that he can fix it quickly if something goes wrong. Once he's checked that his potatoes aren't poisonous he can spread them elsewhere fairly easily. The issue is that while he's aware that a lot of things are possible, he doesn't know how to do a lot of them.

While that's probably true, this SI has no idea how to do any of that. The most he could do is offer an explanation if someone was already working on it.

Oh heck no. He's getting his evil technology from somewhere competent: Zharr-Naggrund. They have trains.

 

Ah yes, the great hats, and the chaos dwarves under them....hmm...would figure since they've already got the empire's 'Steam Tanks' rolling around (if in limited numbers) Paolo might have mentioned putting something like that on tracks.

At which point this whole WHFB setting starts looking more like Saruman of Many Devices . Not a bad thing, but it's been done, and the Empire already has black powder and proper logistics to support it.

 

Last time I checked, the Steam Tanks were built by Leonardo da Miragliano and the Empire can't build more. It's a good day when they can get the existing ones working. They used to have 12, now they have 8. The Chaos Dwarfs build more than that per day.

Ah, one of many great fics that will most likely never be finished.

 

I kept checking back for months and then years, hoping and hoping that fic was going to update again.

 

Yeah, unfortunately most people that rely on fear are the ones you don't want to have in power.

Every parent wants their kids to be better than them.

Yeah, you'd basically be trading one evil psychopath for another one.

Yeah, I remember him mentioning interviewing a celtic king for his homework.

 

So he is about to offer Melinöe a ring? Yeah, no way Papa Hades could misconstrue that...

 

Assuming he understands modern courtship rituals.

 

So, I suppose the scientific approach is necessary here. With some of their best options entirely too close to the Godzilla Threshold, they need someone more average. Let's see if he can even get the Ring to light up.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

To be fair, the average person isn't going to be especially introspective on that front.

Whoa, easy there, OL. Sure, you could patch him up if he breaks something, but still...

Any idiot could make an environmental shield. Heck, depending on opinions of some Lanterns, some do.

Or is another example necessary? Just watch out for diminishing returns on scares, though.

The joy of Enlightenment. Indeed, OL sometimes has trouble getting the shield to dim.

Yeah, not an uncommon instinct, is it? Trying to do something? Focus on it.

And to be fair, Orange Rings would be the greater risk of unintended actions anyway. When focused on Fear, most people's instincts would turn to 'Ah, run away!' or 'Ah, smash the scary thing!'

Ooh, good point. Big paychecks may get results, but so do 'consequences' for failing.

Still letting the humans bash away at the ships' computers?

Ah, Yellow Rings. The only kind of Ring that benefits from going into a cold sweat.

On the other hand, good data about inducing the right state in people to channel the Yellow Light.

Ah, not enjoying your little brush with power, Ned?

Bet the second he's out of sight, he hauls ass.

A reasonable assumption. Not entirely off, either, I bet.

Little of column A, little of column B?

Sadly, it's a few years before he'd be a reliable candidate for a Violet Ring. 'Superheroing community's most eligible bachelor', if you catch my drift?

No, I don't think you getting whammied was the sole catalyst for this change...

I mean, have you asked him about this, OL, or are you just assuming?

And to be fair, any time a Batman has a Robin, they're a lot less dark because of it. Which is a good thing. You want a dark avenger? Go follow Midnighter.

But accurate.

Honestly, at this stage, I have little expectation we'll one day see Damien, but a Bruce Junior isn't very likely either. Reality doesn't work that way.

And really, what boy wouldn't want the goddamn Batman as his father, smiting evil with the Hammers of Justice?

True, no getting around that issue.

...Okay, good point. Let's not give the career supervillain ideas about expanding his franchise.

Not that many that have open access to the living.

Now I wonder how he's been handling the constant influx of Anti-Life energies. Being a Thaumovore and all.

Hmm... Setting up a consultation with the Celtic afterlife? Using them to get in touch with the Hellenic realms? Hopefully that won't offend whatever deity handles the business of the post-mortem. Still, it might be necessary, to find a suitable Fear-master. Let's just hope OL doesn't have to make too many compromises to get such a being on side...

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...causing it to fly past his face...

A weak yellow glow surrounds a crate.

...you've been working for LexCorp on the sort of project...

I dare say that with abilities like that...

 

Does Hades even remember her? Last we heard he and Persephone agreed to a mindwipe do-over.

 

He demonstrably doesn't even understand ancient Greek courtship rituals.

(Or didn't, until OL explained them to him with small words, depending on timeline.)

 

You could also just ask Zauriel.

 

New best candidate: Nylor Truggs?

 

Thank you, corrected.

 

‘to do’ or extraneous ‘do’

Well, I’m looking forward to seeing the Otherworld. Haven’t seen much of the Celts in this story, though I suppose we’ve still seen more of them than a whole bunch of other pantheons which haven’t been mentioned at all.

 

The Silver City doesn't really maintain good relations with other afterlives.

 

The mind-wipe do-over was explicitly only pertaining to their memories of each other, not all their memories. Persephone didn't want to forget her children, just Hades.

 

When he says Power Ring, is he referring to Alan Scott from -14 or to Jordan Harrolds from -16?

 

Does it matter? Both are terrible people that he'd never trust.

 

I think Harrolds. I believe he refers to Scott as Al Scott or Capo Al Scott, while Harrolds is the most recent and relevant Power Ring because Robin already is aware of -16 amd their people smuggling operation.

 

This current storyline is reminding me of a post flashpoint Sinestro storyline I read.

Something was threatening Earth and it was up to the Sinestro Corps to defend it.

It was all hands on deck time, so the Sinestro Corps deputizes pretty much every super. Wonder Woman, Superman, Deathstroke, Black Adam, Deadman, Swamp Thing, Constantine, bunch of others I can't recall offhand.

Pity Adom and Constantine aren't available, you can't tell me they aren't quite comfortable using fear as a tool.

 

Before the whole anti life thing started (about three months ago?), how many people had signed up to use Melinoe's psychological tokens? Could one of those generate the necessary fear, and/or have they tried using the fear toxin?

 

Thank you, corrected.

 

Someone dosed with fear toxin is (if they can actually use the ring) more likely to freak out and try to fight whatever they are hallucinating. And dosing other people around the yellow ring user would only increase the rings power if the people dosed were fearing the lantern and not whatever they are hallucinating.