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

Not to the extent necessary which moving near the speed of light would require.

 

I never thought I'd ask this question outside of a DND campaigner.(Granted I didn't think I'd ever be asking this at all) ............ Is it still bestiality if its polymorphed?

 

The Flash cheats. Period.


Seriously, nothing about the flash is "the simplest solution to a human speedster that can move at 90% C". It's all bizarre arbitrary rules to let him do that but not make him ridiculously OP at the same time.


I've read a story with a realistic speedster. That is, realistic as in the fewest necessary handwaves, minimal secondary powers (or at least secondary powers they tell you about), and least amount of phlebotium to make their powers work.

To sum it up (possible spoilers for the story):

• They can create more-or-less arbitrary fields of acceleration in, or very close to their body. There are functional limits on precision, etc, but it's good enough to move their limbs or such without tearing them apart. The maximum sustained acceleration is about 10,000,000,000 G's. This also allows them to reduce (but not eliminate) air resistance and supersonic-shockwaves-thereof.
• They can "clamp down" on all of the molecules composing their body, both consciously and unconsciously, preventing any sort of movement all the way down to molecular vibrations and chemical reactions. This effect isn't absolute, but it's strong enough to hold everything in place even at nuclear-fusion temperatures.
• They have a "secondary brain", which forms a gestalt with their normal organic brain most of the time. Necessarily so, because the secondary brain is volatile over timespans of a few hours, and has to be kept stable and up-to-date via the normal brain. However, the secondary brain can think millions of times faster, and the 'clock rate' is consciously controllable.
• They can "entropy and momentum dump", meaning they can use the ground to change their momentum and to dispose of waste heat. This is necessary because all of these abilities obey things like Newton's Laws and Thermodynamics.

All of this together results in something like a Flash-level speedster, with as few things shoehorned in as possible. You get the whole can-run-near-lightspeed thing, you get the instant blink-and-they're-gone sorta thing, you got the thinking really fast thing, all the major tropes are there.

You can't really get rid of any of these things without compromising a lot of those tropes, and (almost) all of these powers come from the same core ability: the ability to create arbitrary and extreme acceleration gradients in a small area, along with the sort of computing hardware you'd expect to go along with it. Everything except the entropy dumping is built off of that; the entropy dumping is something else spoilery. Now, what powers it is another matter...

Spoiler

At birth, she was magically connected to a extradimensional being/space ship/life support capsule from a higher-energy universe. A sort of being that would feel at home on the surface of a neutron star.

But there's no danger of running out of gas.

Now, lets look at the consequences of this minimalist power-set:

• Touch or grab something at speed? Is it small enough to fit in the dampening field? If not, that's not so much "grabbing" as "exerting 1000x more force than any material on earth can withstand". Prepare for inevitable broken doors, and carrying people is right out.
• Read a entire library in a hour? Perfectly possible, the secondary brain can hold it, but anything that isn't jammed into the organic brain before you sleep is going to be lost. If you get any ideas about building a apartment complex or a bridge in 10 seconds flat, well, just keep in mind the first bullet point.
• Run around the world before you can blink? Well, maybe. That trick for reducing air resistance isn't perfect. 10-20% C isn't that bad, but if you want to run around at 80%+ be prepared to leave behind a trail that would put a nuclear arsenal to shame. And you're subject to relativity, same as everyone else; no reaching lightspeed.
• Throw things? Absolutely, it just has to fit in the damping field. Small rocks work well.
• Throw things at 20% C? Yep.
• Throw a pile of things at a reasonable subjective pace (10,000 a second), at 20% C? Yes.
• Laugh at anyone who tries to grab/shoot/blow up/otherwise hurt you? Yes. If anyone even manages to hit you, you technically qualify as the strongest being on earth, and definitely the most durable. And that molecular clamping is instinctive and runs on a tiny, non-volatile part of your secondary brain, so you're no more vulnerable in your sleep or at any other time.
• Shrug off mind control? Well, your normal brain is vulnerable, but unless there are telepaths that can manipulate a extra-dimensional computer running millions of times faster than they are (hint: there aren't), you can't exactly be mind controlled at speed, and it'll wear off if you speed up (for instance, if they try to get you to use your powers for nefarious purposes).

Put simply, you end up with someone who qualifies as probably one of the most powerful people on earth in any remotely reasonable setting. I'm somewhat amazed that the author of that story managed to make a actual, decent story with actual conflict, with a protagonist that is so ludicrously powerful.

 

I am somewhat less amazed. I've read all the way through it and it's definitely a good story, but the secret sauce that makes it work isn't especially mindblowing: the story isn't about using the powers. If the story was all about violent conflict, then Flicker would be ridiculously overpowered and the story would consist of predictable curb-stomps. But it's not, and that's why it works: it's primarily a social story, and the powers are just worldbuilding to set up that social story. There ARE violent conflicts, but they serve as major climax points instead of being everpresent like they are in most superhero fiction.

 

but yeah 556 bounces off his skin causing him to bleed (partially bulletproof) I reckon a 20mm cannon would mush him.

 

Since both Magni and Sunset are human-shaped, it would be "with a not-pony"-ality for her.

 

Yes, but I was underselling.

While DC might have certainly changed things around, because hey, why would they stop now, but last time I read about his depth tolerance, Aquaman's depth tolerance was "comfortable at any depth of water one can find on Earth."

So while the diving record in real life is about 1000 feet, Aquaman can go for a refreshing swim 7 miles down in the Mariana trench.

 

Interesting. I wonder how Hawkman and Hawkwoman feel about Paul teaching his teammates the completely impartial probable truth about the situation in Thanagar.

 

It's gonna take some time for her to put it behind her, I bet...

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Rocket, asking the important questions...

Huh, I'm reminded of the Cerberus science team aboard the derelict Reaper, in Mass Effect 2...

"As a result, there were a massive number of deaths and...

the world was taken over by an individual calling himself the Lord High Equaliser.

From context, I'm guessing these are the plant-based sophonts from Alstair mentioned above?

Well, an Infodump, but a pertinent one...

 

How boy. Paul just being honest is going to royally fuck up Thanagar.

 

Now that's just a lie.

But I guess Paul doesn't want to induce an existential crisis by explaining that their creator just wasn't that creative when it came to naming.

 

Thank you, corrected.

Yes.

I really wish I'd read Hawkworld before I started writing this. In that, Hawkman is getting ground down by the casual violence of Thanagar but has no idea how else a society could operate. Then he gets sent to Chicago and gets exposed to both the ideological and practical realities of running a civilisation a different way.

Hawkwoman on the other hand -after finding out during the Rann-Thanagar War that her civilisation was being taken over by satanists- preferred to side with the satanists than the people they were fighting against.

 

For example, Robin, while unpowered, dented an apparently concrete wall in one of the S1 episodes.

 

Languages other than English exist in universe. Both Doylist and Watsonian logic are potentially true. The writer created the name, but the universe also wrote in a backstory to the language - coming from Mr. Zoat in this universe. It’s true and a coincidence in this universe because Mr Zoat says it’s true - and he’s creating this world.

Possibly, The comics and fiction just happens to be right due to information somehow escaping from the in-universe perspective.

Paul can’t say which is actually true in universe - the author’s have inside information they happen to write about, or the universe is created by the author’s.

Basically, either author’s creating the world, or info escaping is true in Paul’s original world, but he can’t say which.

Edit: What Paul is talking about isnmt that the author’s create the world, but that the language in-universe has roots in the Thanagarian language. It’s not the ring translating something completely different into Lizarkons, to get the meaning of the name having the word lizard in it across, Lizarkons is what it actually sounds like in universe - though for all we know it could be written Lis-Archons or Liz’Ar’Kons more accurately.

 

It’s not bestiality if they are capable of reasoning and can consent.

 

Do you perhaps mean 'Watsonian,' not Darwinian? Otherwise, I do agree with your post.

 

...and meets a certain fuego-loving Wizard for Hire.

I'd read it.

 

This discussion reminds me of the revelations about Hawkworld (not the Hawkman prequel, but an apparently magical place that bridges the planets and inhabited by animal people ala Thundercats) in Brightest Day.

Can you imagine Shayera's reaction to finding out that Thanagarians are the result of humans and Manhawks mating?

That Manhawks are descendents of actual hawks from Earth?

That Lizarkon are descended from lizards from Earth?

Of course I think the alt.Paul in that world would feel a headache checking the DNA scan and discovering that the hawks are aliens who are somehow humans descended from birds.

Because that's just a big screw you to genetics. A human and a giant bird putting on some Barry White and suddenly there's homo sapiens accipiter.

To be fair to DC, I didn't get the impression that Hawkworld is supposed to operate on the same laws, though.

 

Isn’t evolution planned in DC? There’s a group of people that decide what every animal will look like.

 

What episode was Sunset Shimmer found?

 

Fool's Canon, in April 2011 Episode 42.

 

The Animal Masters, they showed up in Animal Man.

I think other planets were out of their jurisdiction though.

Although Animal Man made a universe with their techniques, so maybe they are universal. shrugs

Regardless, evolution of animals happens through the red.

Like in World War 3 storyline, they mess with the Red to give all of humanity kryptonian like powers temporarily.

 

along

 

"Originally we were going to call it the Hawkforce, just like we were going to call the Red Animalforce!"

 

As someone with only casual knowledge of DC the equality plague sounds A LOT like that one mind parasite that was mentioned a while ago, during the Paul in Marvel episode (the thing that makes marvel humans hate mutans or some other bullshit.)

Is this a case of low key plagiarism?

 

Mister zote could you please explain that line I'm not very familiar with the backstory of hawks and I'm not exactly sure how them being devil worshippers helped?

 

knows

Mr Zoat, could you please tell me where his ability to go into the honden and 'gimmeport' comes from? Is it an outgrowth of his enlightenment and if someone else attained orange enlightenment they could learn to do the same, or is it stemming from his soul, and someone with sufficient orange light in their soul could do it?

Is it something that can be replicated as an advanced orange ring usage, or by someone connected to the OLCPB?

And that little visual show there was probably completely unnecessary, but she wanted to make perfectly sure he know she was doing something orangy, so as to shut him up.

Old Aged Person?

Error 404
Add-On 'Voice of God' not installed in this story.

You mean Gaia didn't look like she did in Captain Planet when OL met her in the grove? No, I refuse to believe it.

You poor fool. Now you've said it. And no take backs allowed.
...
DIBS ON THE MIND CONTROL HEART RING!

As someone who got a week long ban for a post disagreeing with someone who thought group think shaming of anyone who disagrees with you was a swell idea, I have to disagree. Because apparently that is current politics. Nevermind that I don't think that is part of any political platform. That I think that is just an unhealthy and toxic approach to any and every issue, and it doesn't matter which side of the issue you may be rooting for.

Notice there is not actually an avenue of redress is a mod has a beef with you. There is no appeals process in the rules. There is no "How are are Mods Modding? Have they gone mad with power? Let us know at 1-800-FUCK-YOU." in the signature of the mod post that banned you. You just get it jammed in the ass, with no thought to aftercare at all.

There is a reason I am currently only reading an episode once it is complete. Fear of getting too involved in the forum involved and getting randomly buttfucked again.

 

Thank you, corrected.

Probably not. The bacteria the SI isolated became canon decades later and is an independent being, rather than something which merges other people together.

The SI knows that the myths concerning the Seven Devils are probably real, at least to a degree. No other life form on Thanagar uses Nth metal in quite the way they do. While he can't be certain, the Seven Devils are an obvious source of that difference.

Also, you... Really couldn't get my name right? I mean it's.. right there.

Thank you, corrected.

Yes, basically. In theory, anyone could do it, but it would be far harder to reach if their soul wasn't made of orange light and they would probably end up like Larfleeze at best if they weren't enlightened.

Old Age Pensioner. Obviously not literally.

I'm assuming that Gaea chose the form of a local woman, though she could pick something else if appropriate.

You.. sure you don't want the heart gauntlet?

I don't think that the appeals system on SV or SB is more than a token effort, so I'm not prepared to give them any points for it. The example you give doesn't sound like current politics to me, but I'm not getting the context here.

 

The post that got me banned for a week was here.
https://forum.questionablequesting....-si-thread-fourteen.8938/page-17#post-2406680

Some had the wonderful idea that the best way handle controversial issues is not through civil discussion, but getting a bunch of people together, socially engineering them until the majority all support "the correct opinion" and giving them free reign to bully the people who have the "wrong opinions"

And this is just monstorious, and it is monstrous no matter if the "correct opinion" is something you agree with, or disagree with.
Because you are trying to make people more close minded, and intolerant, and thinking that bullying those who disagree with you is something to be proud of, a goal to aspire for.

And I vehemently pointed out the wrongness of that.

I didn't think opposing that would be a political issue. Because it's not about politics at all. It's about not cultivating something that is toxic to thought and reason.