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

Discussion in 'Creative Writing' started by Mr Zoat, Jan 27, 2019.

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  1. Threadmarks: Summer's End (part 7)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Shoe
    Stopping


    Artemis looks around at the vats as the zombie children line up to vomit into them.

    "What..? Is this?"

    Buddug the Zombherd looks at her in clear puzzlement. Interrogating the Sheeda who were part of the Harrowing fleet was an exercise in futility, but I suppose that it makes sense that those were the most fanatical soldiers. Buddug is a civilian with a civilian's understanding of the commonly used magics of her civilisation, and she's… Not a completely open book: Sheeda facial structures aren't quite the same as humans and they express emotion a little differently. But she is far more open to telling us what she knows.

    "These are the city's digestion vats, where the living tissue harvested from the Deep Crawlers enters circulation."

    I touch the side of the closest vat, running my right forefinger along a seam-. That's a pulse.

    "The.. vats are alive?"

    That… Might have puzzled her.

    "But of course. How else would it be?"

    I make momentary eye contact with Artemis, who is watching our environment carefully for any guards who might make an unscheduled appearance. Buddug claimed that this entrance to the city isn't guarded but we're not taking that on faith.

    "Machinery? Mechanical devices that are not alive?"

    Though to be fair, this… Does look like a factory. With just a touch of H.R. Giger. The structure is more of the coral stuff while the interior decoration, pipes and cables are somewhere between plastic and skin. And I can see veins supplying them with blood and bones holding them in place. None of the deep-Giger walls made of baby faces or zombie Mickey Mice stuff, but there's a definite feeling that we're inside a living organism. Or that the dividing line between living and non-living isn't anything like where we're used to it being.

    Buddug looks mildly concerned.

    "I don't understand."

    Artemis takes a look over the rim of the vat-creature and then pulls her head back almost immediately, a look of distaste plain on her face.

    "How long have these been here for?"

    "Far longer than I have been alive, my lady. I cannot imagine how we could handle our harvest without them."

    "Ah, why did you just call me 'my lady'?"

    "Your power, your appearance. You are Highborn, are you not?"

    Artemis frowns. "What does that mean?"

    "Sheeda ruling caste. Strong, tough, mystically powerful." The zombie children have more or less finished and have fallen back into ranks. "You probably saw a few without realising it. Perfectly killable at our level of power, but definitely mid-tier superpeople."

    Buddug looks confused. "You are.. not Highborn?"

    Artemis shakes her head. "We're the people your people are trying to harvest."

    Buddug's hand tightens around her stave. "But how did you come here?"

    Hm. On the one hand, operational security. On the other hand, if we're worried about that we'll have to kill her anyway, so there's no harm in telling her.

    "Sivana destroyed the Castle Revolving and we had to jump into the time pool to escape. We fell out here, more or less. Oh, we ran into some wild zombie-children, are you responsible for them?"

    "I'm-. That's-. No, the Castle, the Queen-."

    I lean in, looming over her and gaining her silence immediately.

    "Destroyed and dead, respectively. So what happens now, now that the bounty of a Harrowing will not be forthcoming?"

    "The Age of Autumn will return." Her eyes are vacant and her hands are trembling. "There will be no new… Fuel. For us, for our civilisation."

    Artemis frowns. "What's with all the clouds, anyway?"

    The look on Buddug's face indicates that she doesn't really understand that question, either.

    "The clouds. In the sky. Why are they always there?"

    "Where else would they be?"

    "On the ground as liquid? Do you not.. have liquid water?"

    "A-are you thirsty?" Still shaking slightly, Buddug makes her way over to a recessed area and pulls out… A still-beating heart? No, no, a… sachet? A beating sachet with a small scab where it just disconnected from whatever filtration system it was connected to, but still a sachet.

    "What..? Is that?"

    "Water? You.. drink it?"

    I roll my eyes at Artemis and reach out with my right hand. "Give it here."

    Buddug gives it to me, and… Ah, I see. There's a small protruding bone which acts as a ring pull… And the top of the sachet opens, the vessel's arteries and cartilaginous rings causing it to 'collapse' into a cup shape. I sniff it, and there's something… Off about it. But only slightly off. The light in here is too bad to see it clearly, but I doubt that they keep a poison strong enough to affect a New God just lying around. I take a cautious sip, and there's a surprisingly… Bloody taste, but it's mostly water.

    "I think it's safe." I hold the cup out to her. "Want some?"

    Artemis shrugs her left shoulder and takes it, sniffing it and then pulling a face.

    "What's in this? No, don't-. Water. Why is there stuff in it?"

    "The Vampire Sun would consume it without that. I have only seen pure water twice in my entire life."

    "The sun eats it." Artemis looks at me. "Did you know about that?"

    "Sivana mentioned something about the sun sucking the life out of things. I didn't realise that applied to water. Other than.. evaporation. But to return to our original question, Miss Buddug, what happens to your civilisation if it can't replenish itself through theft? And who might be inclined to do something about that?"

    "We will.. starve, slowly. Through harvesting the bounty in the ground-" She glances at the neat ranks of zombie children. "-we will survive for a time, but we will weaken. Decay. Any of us would do anything we can to prevent that."

    "In the absence of Queen Gloriana Tenebrae and King Melmoth, who would organise that sort of effort?"

    "The Highborn. Lord Caeryg is the ruler of this city."

    "Grayven?"

    "We want to defend our own civilisation, but… Do we need to destroy the Sheeda to do that? Without the Castle Revolving they can't resupply from our era."

    She nods. "So we find out how this happened and try and fix it."

    "Or build them a planar portal and let them move somewhere a little sunnier." I turn back to Buddug. "Can you get us to his keep? Or wherever it is he lives?"

    "No, I'm just a gatherer. He is Highborn."

    "But you know where it is." She nods. "Can you get us to somewhere with a line of sight to it?" She nods again, and I smile. "Then we have the outlines of a plan."
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2020
  2. Me. Joka-r

    Me. Joka-r Professional Procrastinator

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    How do.... Sheeda have time machines and not interstellar tech?
     
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2020
  3. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Maybe 'Far longer than I have'
     
  4. Sockmonkey

    Sockmonkey I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    I'm really interested to learn just wtf is up with the sun.
     
  5. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Melmoth mentioned that the reason they don't just steal a space ship is because if they could do that then they could move to some other place that doesn't require them to stay raiders and that they don't want to do that since they like being evil.

    If Melmoth, Gloriana and the Highborn are the only ones who like doing this then maybe they're using something to control the populace to go along with them, or the rest of the populace is also evil, like demons, Citadelians and Psions, and also likes being evil.
     
  6. fluffy

    fluffy Not too sore, are you?

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    Because they stole time travel from a civilization of super evolved Neanderthals. Haven't you been paying attention?
     
  7. JamesEye

    JamesEye Not too sore, are you?

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    I love how this Paul with all his violence and not idealistic pure hero typing still comes around and works to save civilisations because there’s some gain for him but it ends up being a better attempt than just destroying them like a Hero would do haha,

    I feel so much frustration or not quite that but when I read a timeline where things go better then head to another where whatever’s ideas or actions to make that better timeline just don’t happen I want to reach out anemone point them in the right direction. I love it. It gets me really invested and thinking about differing choices, stuff like that.
     
  8. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Paul wouldn't be the first hero that's tried to save a civilisation, even if its made up of bad people, but the reason other heroes aren't so successful is because they either lack the resources or the power to do so.
     
  9. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    Biotechnology. Sometimes inefficient, often strange, always gross.

    Have to wonder why she's being so helpful. Maybe she's confused you for someone important from elsewhere?

    Good thing it doesn't need to be wired for sense. Ew.

    Because of course this is all she's ever known. Would she ever have seen anything non-organic beyond dirt?

    Good, always be wary in hostile territory. Just because she's being cooperative, doesn't mean she's friendly.

    This being very much on the wrong side of that line.

    That's like asking her why grass is gre-... :confused: Oh, wait...

    I wonder how long an individual tank lasts... Years, obviously... Centuries?

    Because you ain't covered in shit?

    Show me what passes for nobility amongst your misbegotten kind...

    Oh, that's going to make her a little less cooperative...

    Props for not panicking, at least.

    Wow, just rip the band-aid off. That's basically telling her heaven and god just died, and you killed them.

    Yes, Grayven is rather good at that, even without rings.

    A return to times she's probably on heard of in horror stories. Yes, bad times ahead for the Sheeda.

    She seems to get that a lot with these two...

    That is a good point. No rivers? No rain?

    ...Ew...

    Well, his New God physiology is a lot hardier than hers. He's less likely to die from poison...

    Given that it's probably been recycled a thousand times or more... You're lucky it only tastes like blood...

    Hey, when you're thirsty enough, anything smells good.

    Seriously? Even water? That's... That's messed up, man.

    He needs to know who to conquer, after all. Hey, don't judge him. New Gods gotta God.

    They had no clear heirs of course. Because that would make them and the heirs targets, after all.

    And how responsible are the common folk for the actions of their leadership? Yes, that's a good question to ask...

    ...At a guess, I would say the biggest building in town? That tower they saw?

    Since stealth is less than likely to work,. It's time to get flashy.

    So... The common folk of the Sheeda aren't as bad as we all assumed. This Buddug doesn't seem to be a cackling sadist. Just someone doing her job and trying to not die... :eek: Are you seriously going to make us feel sorry for the Sheeda, Mr Zoat?
     
  10. moralrelativity

    moralrelativity Recovering pendant.

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    Probably.
     
  11. Ganurath

    Ganurath Apologizes For Nothing

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    It's like Frank Fontaine said, somebody has to clean the toilets.
     
  12. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Or Artemis is very good at the threat department, which makes sense given her upbringing.

    Swirly cheeks and weird tentacle hair.

    If the Sheeda are more long lived than humans then she may have been alive during that time.

    Or they didn't care about making heirs.

    As far as we know the line between Sheeda civilians and the ones that go on Harrowings could be very small, or it may not exist, so all the Sheeda may honestly be involved in the Harrowings or have been at some point in their lives, and the ones that aren't on a Harrowing are too busy with something else or are needed in their timeline.

    They could be like the Citadelians and Psions in that they don't have civilians but just raiders.

    The only Sheeda 'civilian' we've seen so far is this chick so we don't exactly know all that much.

    Hey they could still be pure evil, they're not just the cackling type.

    Buddug may have been polite to them because she was afraid for her life if she displeased people she thought were Highborn and is helping them to save her skin.

    None of this means that she can't be a pure evil bitch, even if she is trying to help her civilization.

    I mean comic Komand'r tried to ''help'' her people but that didn't stop her from being an evil, power hungry, sadistic bitch.

    Lex Luthor seemingly cared about his employs, but that didn't stop him from being a xenophobic, genocidal madman.

    Orm cared about Atlanteans, but that didn't stop him being a bigoted warmonger.

    Black Manta seemingly cared about black people yet it didn't stop him from being a lunatic and murderer.

    Even in the real world this is true.

    Hitler cared about animals, but he started one of the largest and most violent wars in history and had millions of people exterminated.

    Fred Phelps was a civil rights lawyer and yet he created one of the most bigoted churches in all of America.

    Just because someone may have a few good qualities that doesn't mean they can't be pure evil.
     
  13. Handlewithcare

    Handlewithcare Versed in the lewd.

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    Hm. Vampire sun.

    Maybe it was reaching it's end of life and some well meaning entity tried to reverse it's entropy to fix it? Which causes everything else to rapidly decay to provide "fuel" so to speak?

    We have no idea if the vampire effect is limited to Sol.
     
  14. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
  15. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    The Sheeda could have still just taken a ship and moved to another planet in the past, or in another dimension like the Columbians.
     
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  16. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    'than' not 'that'
     
  17. Pinklestia

    Pinklestia Well worn.

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    Well... the sun might kill anyone that leaves Earth.

    To be honest the whole thing... is badly written.

    Not this fanfic, the idea of future Earth having a vampire sun and the people on Earth having time machines and not using them to permanently escape.

    Why stay? At all? Is not like they need the Vampire sun to keep existing.

    Heck an old science fiction movie had people of the future that came to the present (The eighties) have to constantly smoke because while they looked like present humans, they bodies were adapted to air with a high level of toxins. And staying for more than a few days in the present had negative effects in their health.

    They also couldn't reproduce much anymore and so they stole people from the past that should die in accidents and replaced them with dead bodies. Because their cloning process couldn't make souls.

    And I find that movie as lame as it was more interesting than these fake Eldar from the future.
     
    Last edited: Oct 4, 2020
  18. transhumansage

    transhumansage Versed in the lewd.

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    its sort of like the imperium. tech is sort of like magic to them. both due to clarke's third law and probably there own ignorance. plus in this place magic isnt likely to get them soul raped by daemons on the slightest mistake.
     
  19. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    I think they understand the difference between magic and technology, like when Gloriana said the Highborn were the product of magic and science, but they may not be able to make more of the Castle for some reason, or they don't want to since it somehow allows the rulers of the Sheeda society to stay in power.
     
  20. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
  21. Coda

    Coda Versed in the lewd.

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    distaste

    Missing full stop.
     
  22. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
  23. Tzeentch

    Tzeentch I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Hmm, I wonder how the Pomegranate of Good and Evil would be useful in other settings for characters/beings who are "Always Chaotic Evil".

    Certainly would have helped the Demon Sorcerers from Jackie Chan Adventures to be FAR more pragmatic than just immediately trying to conquer, consume and/or destroy everything the very moment they were released from their imprisonment.

    Might even help them to be more resistant to "Good Magic" if they were able to comprehend what "Good" is.
     
  24. AngelicKnight.

    AngelicKnight. Lewd demon of negotiable affection

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    Hey so I think Alan's blue ring lacks nobblehead malware and has no limitations on its functions right? He can make constructs and such?

    But I was thinking, what can a Blue do without a Greenie around? Because presumably the Flight, environment shield, FTL, comms and probably Comms would be required for basic functions?

    Otherwise how would they get anywhere or talk to anyone to find Greenies they can help?
     
  25. Pinklestia

    Pinklestia Well worn.

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    In that setting bad is bad and good is good. At most you can have pragmatic evil but that guy literally ran a Japanese oni army and had long term plans. Ia funny as hell that in a series with mostly Chinese villains the most competent ones were Japanese.
     
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  26. rkyeun

    rkyeun Cabbitus Maximus

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    In Sheeda-world Russia, toilets clean you.
     
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  27. Sockmonkey

    Sockmonkey I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    It was called Millennium.
    https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0097883/
    Best part is that the robot guy who operated the time portal was named Sherman.
    As in "Sherman, set the WABAC machine"
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mister_Peabody
     
    Last edited: Oct 6, 2020
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  28. Gantradies

    Gantradies Not too sore, are you?

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    i mean, it makes sense- they're not a harrowing 24-7, much as the Norse weren't a-viking all year round-
    has to be SOME poor bastards around to brutalize when they're at home....
    and to prop the dead weight of the psychos in charge.....

    i guess we should have seen this coming- a more "normal"/ less neurologically modified/ aberrant underclass is probably the only way the sheeda could last for any amount of time- if they were all hardwired as ACE, they'd die out within a year in an orgy of backstabbing/destroyed infrastructure...
    .. i mean, "who the FUCK wants to farm when they could be torturemurderraping, right? hey, serf, pass me the pear of agony"
     
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  29. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Ehh, the Citadelians and Psions also had some members that were used for things other than fighting and experimenting, but it didn't exactly stop them from also being psychopaths.

    The Sheeda may be somehow programmed to have a desire to preserve their species, like the Citadelians were made to preserve their empire, so they don't get too carried away with backstabbing.
     
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  30. Threadmarks: Summer's End (part 8)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Flue
    Stopping


    "They're late, aren't they?"

    The one-legged Sheeda Highborn Lord Caeryg turns as fast as he can, but between his injury and the surprise that's nothing like fast enough to stop me stabbing him. Fortunately for him, that isn't my intention. But he sees my sword and Artemis's bow. And probably Buddug the Zombherd's stave, though I imagine that he discounts it.

    "And with time travel, that shouldn't be possible. Unless…"

    He grimaces, and I can feel him drawing magic into himself. "The Queen will return when she returns, Child of Spring."

    I smile, eyebrows raised. "Apokolips as spring. There's a simile I haven't heard before."

    I-.

    [​IMG]

    No. That's that… Needless confrontation thing again.

    I sigh.

    "Okay, so there are two ways this can go. One, we mock each other for a little while until you've gathered enough magic power to fight us or call your guards, then we fight and the winner takes all. I'm not sure that the two of us can fight your entire civilisation, but I do know that we can kill you. The other way is that we come to terms which let us cooperate at least until the Queen returns, and while that does risk you getting in trouble with her, it also gives you an out just in case she doesn't."

    "What do you mean?"

    "You harvest the past. But if you can't, your civilisation breaks down due to whatever… Weirdness is going on. My God-Name drives me to dominate, but it also drives me to shepherd civilisation. I don't much like you or your people, but this…" I gesture out over the balcony towards the fog-shrouded city. "Is my future as well. I have an investment in fixing it."

    "You escaped the Harrowing."

    "We were both there when Sivana killed the Queen." His face remains still. "Sivana? Short, bald human? Spent some time here? The Queen sent a Huntsman to kill him?"

    There's… Something in his eyes that suggests that he knows who I'm talking about.

    "I know of him."

    "I don't know exactly what happened with the Harrowing fleet, but the Castle Revolving was toast. Which means that the rest can't return. So unless another time traveller pays you a visit, we're the only help you're going to get."

    He regards us both for a moment, clearly not enthusiastic.

    "I could..? Probably build you a new leg?"

    "My leg was taken as punishment for being slow in bowing to the Queen. Any Highborn could do something as simple as replacing a missing limb. And if the Queen is not returning and I am consorting with her enemies, I would do so."

    Artemis tightens the string on her bow slightly. "You gunna help or not?"

    He narrows his eyes slightly. "What would you require?"

    "Access to your archival records. Everything you're got on how Earth became-" I nod at the city. "-this. We'll also need to know how your civilisation works now. We know about the Harrowing, but aside from that it's all a blank."

    Artemis nods. "Everything we had which wasn't New God tech fell apart. What's doing that?"

    "Our bane. Our… God. The Vampire Sun. All that does not live, dies."

    "What about your clothes?"

    Lord Caeryg's eyes finally alight on Buddug, and she pulls at the neck of her robe… Showing the proboscis plugged into her neck artery. Huh.

    Artemis keeps staring even after Buddug releases it and the needle slides back inside of her.

    "Everything's alive? What about the walls?"

    "The material is barely alive, but it lives. In a manner of speaking. The same stone that is the upper layers of our world." He contemplates the matter. "You wish to see our archives?"

    I nod. "It seems the most expedient way to learn. Once we have a better idea of what is going on, we can talk more about the next step." I smile. "And if the Queen returns from another era or somehow survived, you can always claim that you were detaining us to be destroyed at her pleasure."

    "And after you have seen our archives, what then?"

    "Locate problem, study problem, fix problem." I shrug. "Or wait for the world to die around us, one or the other."

    "In Melmoth's era this 'problem' was studied in exhausting detail."

    I smile. "Then we'd better start there. Lead the way!"

    "Perhaps I will. Perhaps you will be our salvation. Or perhaps you will be meat, or a gift for the Queen." He smiles. "Or perhaps the knowledge will break your minds and I will gain some amusement from it. I see little harm in indulging you like this."

    Something occurs to him.

    "Have you eaten, since you arrived here?"

    Artemis raises her eyebrows at me for a moment. I look away, and she shakes her head.

    "No. Didn't look like there was much to eat around."

    "And you say that you are… New Gods?" I nod, cautiously. "We have entertained New Gods as guests before. I will have something sent down to you presently."

    The magic he gathered… Fades somewhat, glyphs forming on his right index and middle fingers and then floating over to Artemis and me.

    "These will allow you access to our archives without my personal presence. As.. I recall, our previous New God visitors had no facility for the form of magic which we use."

    "Thank you." I lift Mother Box off my belt and tap it against the sigil, and it is swiftly absorbed into her structure. Artemis taps the one offered to her with her right hand and it fades into her skin.

    "And… You." He looks directly at Buddug, who wilts slightly at the attention. He then crafts another sigil and sends it to her, where it burns itself into her forehead. "You will serve as their equerry."

    Buddug winces, but tries to control her reaction. Guess it's more painful for Sheeda? "Y-yes, my lord."

    "I will summon a servant to show you the way."

    He.. waits-?

    I smile and nod. "By all means."

    He taps the butt of his spear against he floor, and I feel the pulse of magic move through the apparently living structure.

    "Hey." Artemis frowns. "What did you mean 'previous' New Gods?"

    He smiles warmly. Oh dear. "Their visit was the foundation of our society. We learned a great deal from them on many subjects."

    "Does that include biotech?"

    "No, our records say that was our own distant forebears. But… Our archivists can explain it better than I. Would you like to examine the artefacts of the other New Gods as well?"

    Artemis looks at me, and I nod.

    "Can't hurt."

    "I suspect that you are mistaken… But... Very well."
     
    Last edited: Oct 5, 2020
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