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

The level of Heresy is strong with this one.

 

The only reason i'm not giving you the stink eye right now is because you correctly placed this story in the SFW section of the forum.

That said. You tease you!

 

Ah, working with the bondage Eldar gladiators not proving pleasant, P'ol? At least you're done suffering through their presence for now. Hopefully their efforts didn't go unrewarded, and you got some useful information out of the devices they were working on...

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

In other words, more comfortable than a slightly springy slab of wood.

Honestly, you're not missing much. Tau females don't have much to show off, regardless of what /tg/ Memes would have you believe. (Admittedly, the first example is an Ethereal, but still...)

Ah, the joy of not having reached Enlightenment.

All tall, and slender, and bending over unnecessarily-like...

'Skimpy' does not do the term justice in some cases.

And the more skilled they are, the less they wear. outside of some thigh-high boots and strategic armour, the best may as well be naked.

Well, someone was being distracted, but it wasn't them, shall we say?

Heh. Good to see her experience with humans is starting to pay off in understanding him.

Imagine having to sit there watching as an entire troupe of super-models in body-paint parade about around you... Eldar or not, that's got to be straining (..on his pants!)

Given how hard they fall into the uncanny valley, you'd really have to be a xenophile to want them. Or a horny, heretical degenerate.

Honestly, P'ol, I know you SIs can be dense, but...

I mean, he wouldn't say 'no' if you offered...

Probably a reasonably comfortable position for a Tau, given they're digitigrade ungulates. That is, they walk on hoof-like feet.

Heck, he had to go before the homeworld's High Council to make his case for that, among other things.

Kind of impressive, really. Guess the old herd-animal instincts kick in oddly sometimes.

Hey, he's not the first Paul to date a mother, at least.

Bit of an awkward question, especially for someone who might not have had that much experience in this sort of discussion before.

At least there's the promise of some nice, old-fashioned canoodling involved.

Well... that was before the Ethereals, I suppose...

Though I suspect they're more likely to occur out on the borders of Tau space rather than the inner sphere expansions. Less oversight, more fraternisation between castes...

Yeah, I could see that. Not having some on the natural instincts of one of your parents' castes, yet not fitting into the other either.

I'm sure you never actually ask her to do anything she wouldn't want to do. Heck, you can probably feel it if she's not into it anyway.

Hey, some would say 'Flat is Justice!' Others do like a little padding in the right places.

Heh. I wonder if that would make other humans react more positively to her too. Never underestimate the power of blueberry orbs.

Well, I see P'ol intends to make good on that promise.

Ah, true love can bloom.

Oh, my... </takei>

"Oh, no, the Geu'la rogue is about to have his way with me! Whatever shall I dooo?"
"...I can just leave, you know."
"Noooo..."

Ah. How amusing. He was just thinking about Star Trek, and now here he is about to... Go Boldly Forth. Ah, living the dream. And giving us quite the entertaining show in the process. Wonder if that'll turn up in 'In Praise of Eros'... At any rate, he's making slow progress on his other project, I suppose. Maybe he needs someone a little more proficient with psycho-reactive systems... Pity such talents are in short supply.

---

"There do not wear much armour...
"They do not wear much armour...
...discourage them from show off through fighting.
...discourage them from showing off through fighting.

 

Not unless he also gives them cat ears and a fluffy tail.

 

Thank you, corrected.

 

Obligatory.

 

Paul is forever destined to be tormented by evil elf types trying to seduce him

 

It's not his fault, elves are meant for lewdness.

 

I mean... That's kind of his own fault given he goes around mindbreaking them...

 

That should say 'lucky'.

 

And now we have Paul's response to being forever doomed to be tormented by evil elf types trying to seduce him.

"Elves are assholes"

 

"We've reached whole new levels of desperate, that I didn't even think were possible."

 

So... He's just going to run away and let Mannheim eat an entire pantheon of gods under the idea that's so long as he gets rid of the Anti Life he can just fix things...

Except... If Mannheim get's a big enough power boost he will just kill everybody and continue on Anti Life or not Anti Life...

 

He needs to prepare his plan in order to confront Mannheim at all. Plus, it's not like he was close to the members of the Aztec pantheon.

 

Ah, a new episode. And from the title, it looks like they'll have to go ahead with OL's plan, come hell and high water. Also, looks like Nuala's going to need to, like, soak in a bath of healing potions at this rate.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

No time to explain, just follow orders and haul ass.

I'm guessing Wally's been too busy to brew, or they've been chewing through them in short order.

It'll at least keep her alive, hopefully.

And was apparently succeeding, by the looks of it.

Might not stop him raiding other divine realms, but rebuilding it will at least slow him down.

Hope being the operative word, since you don't know how any of this worked.

Oh, the Orange Light can manage that easily enough. Might burn a lot of charge depending on the arcane content of her biology, but...

Yes, well, 'healing' ray, not 'regeneration' ray, after all.

Do you want to pay the toll for getting them to use it, though?

What with her having been on the outs with the Queen for quite some time. Turns out choosing not to use a glamour is a bit offensive to the Lady.

Erebos is also likely cut off, in that case.

And given how much work everything needs to be rebuilt, healing one person is a worthwhile start.

...Ooh, right. Reminds me of Final Crisis, where a dying Darkseid went 'fuck it' and tanked Earth's everything.

The hard part is trying to prepare for the unforeseen in such cases.

Oh, right. He was on his own for quite a while there.

I still suspect she was a later addition to the Pantheon, and thus low on the totem pole compared to some of the more well-known deities. And there's probably not much room for advancement in these things.

In over his head and struggling to stay afloat. Not the best place at this stage.

Then again, he probably has whatever passports the gods used to get around quickly. Because I doubt they had to walk the mountain of razor-sharp glass or any of the other trials if they wanted to go somewhere.

Japan's divine corporation is probably too wary to be taken in. The American heartlands, though... They're probably already conquered.

Good question, Rob. At best, it's a setback they can overcome.

Ah, there's the problem. All this was to get to Melinoé. And with the Olympians unreachable...

Why do I get the feeling this will be one of the things Bats dislikes OL for in future?

...Yeah, that trip is going to be tricky.

So, then. The time pressure is amplified. OL is having to make do with less-than-optimal choices for his Ring-wielders. And unless some surprise aid comes along, it's going to be a toss-up whether this actually works as intended. And that's assuming they can even get to safety, what with having to get past a rather short-tempered mountain spirit with a lot of volcanic glass to go around...

---

Robert clenches his fists, and the stones of the walls reach out and grab them.

 

I'm still not even sure what Mannheim's plan was in all of this. And if we are going back to the idea of giving the ring to Batman? Feels a bit filler-y these episodes.

 

Except what happens when Mannheim becomes an old god who can draw power from his believers?

 

great! So we’ve just run in a circle. Boy I sure am I glad we went on this adventure, and got to meet interesting new characters like *looks at smudged notes* “smocxoptl” and “shmeep” who appeared in ‘DC comics: adventures in zogworld’.

 

"The yellow lantern candidate hunt didn't pan out. Gonna have to get Bruce to do us a solid here. Where is he, by the way?"

"Paul... he's DEAD."

 

Well, now we know why Future Batman hates OL.

Remember, virtually every bit of 'folklore' that decribes elves as anything else is cribbing from Tolkien.

Before Tolkien? Well, I'll let Pterry say it for me.

Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.

Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.

Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.

Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.

Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.

Elves are terrific. They beget terror.

The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.

No one ever said elves are nice.

Elves are bad.

 

Thank you, corrected.

 

‘behind us’?

’converges’?

It’s just occurred to me that Cernunnos hasn’t been mentioned for a while, so far as I can remember. Is he still back with the Amazons behind the mountain? And what happened to the clone of that hippy? I’d forgotten about her too.

 

Thank you, corrected.

Yes. I definitely didn't forget that he exists.

 

Well, these are trying times. There's no time to complain about those unfortunates of the masculine persuasion being here, especially while here is not where it used to be. And there are probably emergency qualifications for whatever blessings affect the island anyway.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Ah, time to make nice with Apollo, eh?

Yes, I think he's made his annoyance over that matter quite clear now. I wonder if that bane's been applied to him the whole time since or just while he's here in a divine-adjacent realm?

...Right. Remember, the gods are staying shut up right now.

Oh, is that all it is? Ire?

Hopefully at least those lines of communication are still open. I imagine there'd be a heavy firewall, though.

...Oh, right, he's still wearing the Tezumak suit.

Someone reeling it in from the homeland?

Strip him of all armour, at the very least? Less things to pull on him?

Well, at least they're out. I can't imagine whatever causing this is cause for celebration, though.

Said hearts no doubt feeling a softer tug, eh?

Oh, someone's definitely repossessing everything OL and company brought over here.

...Shit. Is Mannheim causing this?

Given that he can basically see whatever's doing this, I'd suspect he's very worried.

Like it's pouring down into something? Being pulled like a vacuum cleaner's pulling on it?

Oh, that's so not good. Not that they could have done anything to stop him earlier anyway...

I'm guessing he's reverting to human basic.

OL, remember, he's like fourteen. Even with a crash course in the more mystical aspects of his family's career, he's not going to know what this is.

One more indignity from his gods, eh?

Like he knows? At best, he can tell you what happened over there... And make some guesses.

Even Doom's Doorway? Then again, that one opening is usually bad.

I'm sure they've tried everything they could already...

I mean, the guy was very helpful. Once he stopped trying to kill them.

What with the 'daughter of Ares' part of her heritage, after all.

True. Best not to be experimenting now with a man's life at stake.

Let's hope the Amazons can do something for her, then.

Wonderful. So now they're going to have to visit Elfland, and probably navigate the social minefield of the Queen's Court.

...It's stopped? Oh, dear. That may mean Mannheim has finished his metaphorical meal.

Okay, when you say 'gone", what do you mean?

...Ooooh, that's bad. Either Themyscira just got relocated again... Or Mannheim ate the entire Aztec Afterlife.

An entire afterlife realm doesn't just up and vanish... Unless Mannheim pulled the whole thing apart by absorbing the power of its deities. Which means he's likely increased his own power somewhat, depending on how they measure up to his base level of power. Could be a drop in a bathtub, or he just doubled his might. And he's likely looking at Themyscira next...

 

Hopefully the gate to Erebos got reopened with the disappearance of the Aztecs. That way they can at least get something out of this debacle.

 

Wow...

Who could have guessed that something super horrible would happen if Mannheim was allowed to complete his plan of absorbing the Aztech gods.

Oh wait... Literally anybody with even a hint of genre savyness... But I guess LePaul traded all of this away for more power.

 

And what could he have done at the time? Mannheim was already strong enough to annihilate Paul with a literal glance if he thought Paul was worth the effort, so it was a no win situation at the time. The very best they could've hoped for was retreat with actionable info, which they did.

 

Tried to eat the gods before Mannheim could.

Blown up the Temple and hope it was load bearing.

Had Kon challenge Mannheim to a contest of physical prowess. Which he probably would have had to accept due to the Aztech rules of the place.

Ripped out his Ophidian heart and offered it as a willing sacrifice to the Aztech gods to power them up enough to fight back.

Pulled the Obsidian out of this body and used it to bypass Mannheims defenses and kill him.

Utilize some unthought of loophole to turn the tables on him and drive him off.