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

The earth thaumosphere is heavily contaminated, that is a bad idea.

 

The thaumosphere is different than the dream, per his conversation with Hecate

 

meh, it was a thought. 'benevolent goddess with a lantern's ring' is a super interesting concept to me. it seems like certain concepts in the magical/spiritual/ethereal/eternal realm are really compartmentalized in this universe, and i love it when Zoat blends boundaries between them. an Earth Hellenistic goddess of nightmares (among other things), with a universally recognized constant like the emotion and yellow light of fear, channeled through one of the strongest tools/weapons of the universe in a latern's ring, potentially bonding with/controlling the embodiment of fear, possibly getting some kind of advanced patronage from an Endless if she plays her cards right... what a fucking trip that would be.

i do concede all points in rebuttal.

 

I can’t quite figure out how to link the image directly from Reddit, but Here is seemingly another example of British (probably lower class) slang I found amusing recently due to the context.

 

ah, hell. i do hope that it’s unnecessary in the end - he’s been trying pretty hard not to have to go to extremes or jump immediately to them, and he already feels like shit even asking Bats to do it anyway. not to mention - i think Paul’s relationship with Batman is one of the most interesting out of the League in general, so if this is how it ends or fractures it would hurt a lot, haha. i’m sure Batman would understand from an intellectual standpoint - he’s no stranger to ends justifying the means - but i find it hard to believe he’d trust him again, or at least not as much.

 

I suppose I'm a little unsure as to who Paul plans on dosing with what I assume is fear toxin? Get Bruce to respond to Talia being dosed?

 

Alternatively, his main objection might be 'it's magic, therefore nonsense' (I don't actually remember which chapter the stone is from, or anything else about it, so I might be wrong about it being magic; any idea where the stone was introduced?) or 'Orange Lantern is not a psychologist, and therefore must be wrong.' The latter possibly overlaps with 'we can't have non-experts curing people, it'll make us look bad, and potentially lower our salaries.'

 

Here you go

 

Thank you. OK, we can add 'religious objections' to the list of possible reasons why the therapist might have decided that the stone had to go.

 

It's also important to remember that the therapy was having Crane be exposed to nightmares by a Greek deity that's connected to nightmares and madness.

None of that sounds even remotely good or sane.

His therapist may have made a mistake, but if you heard what the supposed treatment was, you would probably also do the same thing.

 

I can't wait to see Batman's inevitable anti-Paul plan in action, because he's going to make that a priority after this.

 

I imagine he might just not give back the ring.

 

"an eye"

If I remember correctly he arrested him after he caught him trying to give those ships to pirates.

Well...

 

...Paul did you just turn him into The Batman Who Laughs?

 

Maybe just a fraction of that.

 

Realistically? There are a lot of ways Batman could utterly fuck LePaul.

But that's not really in the narrative.

So the most I expect is Batman just bluntly telling everyone what LePaul did and ruining his reputation with everyone even remotely League adjacent.

 

I think what would more likely happen is that some heroes would prefer Paul over Batman or vice versa, leading to there being factions among the heroes. Not necessarily opposed to one another, but more willing to work with those in their faction than those in the other faction.

 

yep, Paul and Bruce are done with each other

you don't dose your enemy, let alone your own ally with the Joker funny gas

 

I wonder if any member of the Orange Corps will be able to come up with a better solution after this. I know a lot of them would not value Batman’s well-being over their own home world, or Earth as a valuable resource, but there should be a few lessons to be learned from this. Batman has previously demonstrated he can be petty, he just doesn’t lash out like a supervillain. So I imagine there will be consequences for this, even if Batman loses the ring.

To be honest, I wonder if his ring or the Medusa Mask will be destroyed from this. Seemingly-permanent damage to Paul’s superpower from the mask’s destruction? That would be neat. Perhaps it could degrade further each time he reconstitutes. A fear born from that…

I’m going to jump to civilians next. Is Mannheim or Darkseid going to be a taboo name? I bet such a case will be used more precisely than “he who must not be named” was in H.P., but I’m not sure if that is enough. What sort of symbol or behavior could connect people, help build them back up, after the Anti-Life is sealed? Perhaps a newfound interest in magic, due to people drifting away from organized religion? Could become as common as modern day blacksmithing or glassblowing.

 

I'm left wondering why Paul didn't at least check with Jordan or Guy as to whether screwing around with Batman or Sinestro was preferable, given the choice?

 

Whelp… we are now about to enter a new Nabu debate. Except it is Paul who is the bad guy now.

 

I would be fine if Paul takes another extended vacation from Earth if this is what it takes to stop the Anti-Life.

 

Though what he has committed tends to sit amongst the worst. Fortunately he's mostly only interested in Earth because of Hal Jordan. If he knew what else was here, he'd have led a force to conquer it outright before now.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Good catch, OL. These aren't characters when you're dealing with them face-to-fleshy-face, after all. They're people. Though it does amuse us to imagine the reactions of those Pauls in worlds like 'Superfriends' or 'The Brave and the Bold'. Imagine having to deal with that much schmaltz from the first, or the sheer hamminess of the second?

I suspect his exile within the Green Central Power Battery helped, where he met Parallax.

More likely he's running the Lawful Evil route. The 'Order through dominance' course, where the universe marches to his beat, an orderly beat.

Oh, boy! This has been a long time coming!

And when he talks, I can't help but hear Vincent Price.

Because the Yellow Ring is no doubt feeding him intel every moment.

Ah, good, you know him. That should make this easier. Any hints?

Oh, he has his suspicions about what's going on, doesn't he? To be fair, he knows of Orange, Yellow, Green and Indigo Light. Not unreasonable to make the leap to there being more colours. And from there to the possibility of them combining.

...Which means he has Corspmen, of course. Good to have that confirmed. Unless he's pre-emptively considering Bats one.

Nero definitely seems more like a projectile, yes. One you aim at your target and forget about. But always have a kill-switch for, of course.

I guess he's still trying to find someone or something capable of providing the sort of spiritual targetting the Greenies have.

Though no doubt those plans will be being looked at now, with three colours of Lantern on-planet (four if you count the Violets.)

Well, the assumption of one. It all comes down to how the Entity will react.

And it'll require more cooperation than Sinestro would be willing to apply, I suspect.

Yes, trade one would-be conqueror for another. Albeit one with slightly less threat.

I wonder if he'll catch that you're quoting someone?

He's not that close to the Godzilla Threshold, thank you.

...Old habits die hard, eh, OL? Surprised you didn't drop an 'Eris!'.

...Okay, he's using the Ring. Good news. Problem is, he's focused on you.

Remember, he's a goddamn ninja detective. And now he was a weapon that can do anything he can imagine... A simple fakeout is easy.

...Yeah, okay, that would piss him the fuck off.

Good thing you don't need to breathe.

Ah, getting it to supply air through your larynx so you can speak?

And there's no time to call in anyone from his Corps. No-one could travel that fast to make it here in time.

Effectively being Exiled from Earth might suck, but at least it'll be safe..~ish.

Well, clock's ticking. Now or never. And 'never' won't end well for anyone but Mannheim.

And there goes any relationship he had with Batman. Maybe Bruce will look back later with a clearer head and agree that 'Yes, it did work. Fine, you were right.' But that may take quite a while. At least he can focus on the mission, and not on turning OL into confetti. Though I can't wait to hear someone utter 'Who thought it was a good idea to give the Goddamn Batman a thought-based weapon?'

---

...unelaborated elf gate sites indicates...

I think 'had' might fit better here? Assuming he meant the chemical assistance.

 

Risk or no, I would rather have taken Sinestro up on his offer than do what Paul did to Bruce.

You could maybe do something to stop or prevent his maybe-not-even-inevitable betrayal.

You just plain can’t fix Smilexing an ally that trusted you. Not in any way that matters.

 

Reread the newest story part and found an error.

That should say 'spent'.

 

Fucking with Batman's head and ruining a relationship with an ally vs just biting the goddamn bullet and accepting aid from Sinestro or someone Sinestro adjacent.

Naturally, he picks the stupid option. For all that he's supposed to be in a rush, he sure does love making this needlessly complicated. I certainly don't see how this isn't a bigger act of desperation than the Sinestro option.

 

Think 'had' is what works here.

Remember that Paul here does not think like a normal human anymore and has not for some time.

He tries to think human-like, but he's steeped in orange so he assesses value, basically, when getting what he wants.

Getting Fear Batman Now alienates Batman, possibly permamently, and might wind up with him getting kicked off Earth for a time. But he gets what he wants now, and with minimal risk to the planet itself - he can cure Bruce and then bugger off for a few decades cleaning uo the universe.

Inviting Sinestro to Earth? That trades 'extistential memetic threat' for "world-conquering threat who may decide if he can't have the planet no-one can" - especially since it almost certainly will end with Sinestro learning that Earth is the home of the Life Entity. Which ends with a likely best possible result of Sinestro declaring Earth a protectorate like Darkseid did in the Renegade timeline.

Taken strictly as a utilitarian assessment, the former is the "better" answer.

 

That was a fucked up thing to do, but the earth had been under darkseid's heel (by proxy) for literally months.

Everybody is having their minds fucked with world-wide.
Put your big-boy pants on and embrace the drugs for the next 2 or so hours.

Grow up.

 

While monumentally fucked up, and probably something that absolutely ruins their relationship, given the alternative is Darkseid eats Earth, it's not the worst possible thing.

Plus, he used the specific variant he knows how to cure, so he can undo it after. Cold comfort for the trauma and fucked-up-ness of it, but it is at least still better than Nabu just stealing bodies forever and ever.

Definitely something that'll fuck over that relationship, though.

But hey, given that Earth is in the middle of being Anti-Lifed at least he'll have plenty of people to commiserate with in regards to getting their mind fucked with. And by 'plenty of people' I mean literally everyone.

Now, given that this is a comic book, Batman will likely not get the curable thing cured afterwards for REASONS, but here's hoping.