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

Yeah, I think Tang has it backwards.

Sentience = can distinguish 'self' from 'not-self'. A dog is sentient. Your goldfish is sentient.

Sapience = 'intelligent life form'. (How to define that is a can of worms, of course. Can't go by 'tool-using', for instance, or else Striated Herons count...it's basically 'I know it when I see it'.)

 

I think you're thinking of the Virus Outbreak strategy card, which was listed in White Dwarf as having 'wiped out not just armies, but entire planetry populations'.

Thank you, corrected.

It's not a matter of charge. He's just not capable of wanting something that strongly, or coping with the level of input he'd receive. Best case scenario is that he'd survive the resulting stroke.

Yeah, I thought that was going to happen. Let me change it.

 

The terms are so messy it's more practical to establish your own definitions of them. Personally, the ones I prefer are this:

 

Sapient beings are aware of their surroundings and respond to external stimulus. Sentient beings are aware of their own awareness and can respond to internal stimulus. At least that's how I heard it.

 

Perhaps not in English, but you would if you were speaking Spanish. And... I suspect some people would. It might be a regional thing, but I know people who refer to paintings with a single subject as he or she, depending on the subject, rather than it. And then there's boats/ships being "she," and sometimes cars get included in that as well... people anthropomorphize objects constantly, even when they don't talk back. And when they do... well, I assume Tang would call Siri or Alexa "it," but in my experience it is very common for people to call those chatbots "she."

I understand Tang's point, and the distinction he is making, but language is messy, even if you conpletely ignore recent discourse on gendered language (which is definitely safer to not discuss on this forum).

 

Fortunately, as an English speaker, I can ignore what sex Spanish or French or German speakers think an inanimate object is. It doesn't have one. It's an object.

 

This is Tangseid.

Just assume anything he says is either a lie, wrong, or twisted to the point it might as well be wrong.

 

Fun fact: gendered language doesn't actually add a gender to the things it describes. It's just shorthand for which mouth-sound the word uses.

 

The word "rent" is already the past tense of "rend." So "rented" is like... well, "bented." If you don't want to say "rent and bent" you can validly say "rended and bent" though that's a slight Americanism according to the dictionary.

Strange final punctuation.

changes

public

Capitalization on "First"

That's an awfully dangerous division to be performing. (I'm merely poking fun, this isn't meant to be an actual insult.)

English is a gendered language! Our genders are "can be counted" (like rocks) and "can't be counted" (like water).

 

Thank you, corrected.

 

I've got to admit. This was particularly stupid of him.

I can't see why this wouldn't be easily predictable.

"My essence is the source."

"Let's go to the one place the source isn't."

What could happen, right?

 

That should say 'lever'.

This makes me glad that Paul took care of the First of the Fallen the first chance he got and that he's basically been rendered harmless. Now I hope the Renegade can get out of this situation without losing too much of anything.

 

It's absolutely predictable.

But Grayven's so sure of his own invincibility that it didn't even occur to him that he might be in danger.

 

"But enough about me, let's kill you!"

 

At least the place has a certain style about it. No evil castle would be complete without a rickety-looking elevator that descends into places Man quails to tread. Is the demon-crab lady at least wearing a little hat?

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Fortunately, the elevator is probably mystically powered, and thus is unlikely to have a weight limit concerning its occupants. Since neither the First nor the Renegade are small men.

Not a fan of the theatre?

Seems to be an automatic reflex in Hell, really. At least in his personal presence.

The First being nice? That's like... Asking Santa Claus to swear!

A little debate that could probably outlast the entire universe...

A pleasant little clockwork world, ticking away until Entropy collapses it once more? Sounds dull.

It strokes the Ego, sure, but that high can only last so long.

How appropriate, his usual mortal form is a Greek man.

Writ large, with foibles and failings more operatic than any man...

I shudder to picture it. Probably something so eldritch that a human mind would shatter seeing its true many-angled glory.

A small blemish in the purity of the cold white flame of your soul, huh?

Well, no hug for you anyway, so there.

It's just his nature. The nature he has now, anyway. Broken as he is by his Fall.

Sounds overly simple for Him. I'm sure he's misremembering. Darkseid would take a far longer soliloquy to speechify that point.

...Darkseid versus an edgy twelve-year-old. I'm not sure which would win in a chuunibyou contest...

To be fair, He has a lot more metaphysical oomph than just about anyone.

And we still can't be sure that hasn't had an effect on you, Renegade...

The pieces He has, at least...

One of the few things that could resist the full Equation. Could be a useful ally someday... If they can avoid pissing him off now.

"There are traces of exposure, but none of the usual marks on his soulstuff. Not going to extract anything useful from it."

"Still running as expected. Which I suppose is a good thing at this point..."

As if the First would put that much effort into Hell.

I guess since even a fallen Angel is still an Angel, Kaahuite would be a threat.

Seems kind of redundant. Unless he was thinking something more... Esoteric than what the First worked on.

Ironically, isn't that what the Anti-Life Equation is? A program to impose order on everything?

Lucifer does tend to have that effect on people. Love him or hate him, there's no middle ground.

Which Lucifer has basically done, really. Unless his little private walkabout universe still counts as part of this one...

Angel, after all. And this is pretty much the nadir of the one place the Presence does not care to look.

Well, that's not concerning at all. No doubt the First can just step out of here at any moment. But what if he decides the Renegade needs a stay?

Ah. This would be Kaahuite. Tiny amounts gathered for... Reasons.

I see. It's like weaponised, concentrated #NULL#. Anathema to anything with a soul aligned to the Presence... Or the Source.

Oh dear. A last moment double-cross. Whoever could have seen this coming?

Well, a bit sooner than I expected him to betray the Renegade. Guess he really doesn't want to have the Sword around anywhere it might get pointed at him. And whatever the Kaahuite is doing to the Renegade, this makes the perfect opportunity to take it away from him. So, then. How will the Renegade get out of this pinch, I wonder?

 

Isn't 'fucking succubus' rather redundant?

 

Hmm. Grayven absolutely had to know this was coming.

Are we about to see The First taken down by the Elements of Harmony?

If Grayven can get it on tape Constantine might die laughing.

 

live -> give

 

oh i think the First has made an error here, he took the Source-backed New God of conquest to a place outside the reach of the Source's light...

an unconquered place, ripe for the conquering.
that or, being outside the Source's light, it's rendered him utterly powerless.

so this could be the place where Grayven is at his most powerful, or his least.. could see it going either way really.

 

Thank you, corrected.

 

Is that Anarchy? I thought DC abandoned him after he found out he's the son of the Joker, much less confront Darkseid in any way.

This entire thing wasn't just to set this up, was it? Really?

 

Yes.

That came later. Later still they crippled him and gave his costume to some random murderer.

 

Darkseid.

He is King Emo.

Plus the First may have wanted to show them how you really torture people.

I mean, he may have done it if he was bored.

Though I'm guessing the most it would do to Lucifer is make him get a headache.

 

That explains the problem: I've never had a man in my mouth so I don't know how it's supposed to feel.

 

Just summarizing my reaction to that.

Edit: QQ ate my emojii!

 

Damn it, Vaermina! Why do you occasionally have salient points???

 

Now I hope Princess Luna gets a chance to blast him.

Also, it's good to know that the Renegade had something just in case the First of the Fallen tried something. However, how effective it is remains to be seen.

 

A pity. I wouldn't be surprised if it actually made him stronger, in fact. And it definitely seems to be affecting the Renegade. This fight could be a challenge. A rare occasion for both of them, really.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

That may be true. He's certainly not accustomed to feeling anything he wanted to feel, I suppose. But the trick will be hurting him here.

Well, unless he steps on the points as he kicks your teeth in, it's not really a concern.

Come on, it's snappier than 'The sword made from the remains of the Second and Third of the Fallen.'

Huh, that would be an interesting conundrum. Did Chantinelle make use of that - admittedly weakened - corpse while she had the chance?

"H-Having a little t-trouble getting a signal out of h-here, dear." Sadly, i don't think phoning a friend will be possible here.

"...I don't feel so good. I think I need a little naaa-..." That's just a little worrying.

Come on, wouldn't a baseball bat be more iconic? If you can take your time, have some style in the matter.

I dread to imagine what they could be. And what kind of treatment he's given them over the ages.

Thanks to the handy scrying-protection tattoos she got, of course. Pity John didn't think to get something similar for himself, but who would he trust to do them right?

You'd think by now, he'd have done something to the young pup.

No, but you do look like a show-off, taking your time to monologue.

To be fair, as a succubus, she's probably seen her fair share.

Ah, right. Helpless victim, no sign of being able to really defend themself. of course he's feeling cocky.

I would assume the pervading magical field inside the building would make that difficult. Though the First would probably power through...

Okay threatening the kids is one thing. But threatening a little Pony? Dead man demon walking.

Unleash the Dad Rage!

Insert your 'Dio versus Jotaro' memes here.

Are you sure? It might just have a very high threshold. Why don't we start testing that out?

You saw what he can do with all that muscle, Ringnestro. Do you want him in arm's reach?

... What?

... What?

Don't sit around analysing, Conquest, get your ass up and conquer!

Right, still in danger, here.

I'm guessing he was egged on by Satanus. Looks like there's a coup in the makings.

Ah, sniper support. Doesn't seem to have done much, though.

Classy. Doesn't mean it's safe from harm, though.

Okay, Grayven, I doubt he had any trouble feeling the air displaced by your bladed surfboard, you know. Size isn't everything!

Well, this is off to a smashing start. Also slicing, impaling and ripping. It's already a bad enough day when he's down a hand, and I don't think matters are going to improve from here. And unless there's more robots on their way, I get the feeling the First is going to take the Sword of the Fallen and give the Renegade a rather unpleasant piercing.