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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. Belenus

    Belenus Versed in the lewd.

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    That's what parallelization and scale are for. A billion copper cables aren't going to be as effective as schizo-tech superconductors, but when you have enough of them, it doesn't really matter.
     
  2. Mquz

    Mquz Versed in the lewd.

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    Size is a problem though, if you’re trying to fit multiple building-sized objects onto a single starship.
     
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  3. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
    Looks fine to me?
    Not in a cinema. And I like that the child himself doesn't seem to know why he's behaving in the way that he is.
     
  4. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    It was white in my quote box. Must have nixed the colour in my formatting - I usually Cut the end quote tag to paste after the first comment I make.
     
  5. dxdragon

    dxdragon Experienced.

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    Your post was the first I've heard of it, but it looks interesting.
    I had no idea what it was originally, but 30 seconds in, all I could think was "Wow, they are blatantly ripping off Superman."

    It looks like it could easily be summed up as: "What if the Kents failed as parents?" -James Gunn

    I really hope the mom's name isn't Martha or something. :D
     
  6. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    I think it's more complicated than that.

    There's this strain of thought that just because Kryptonians look human doesn't mean that they can actually pass as human on the instinctual level.

    Man of Steel Woman of Kleenex for example included a theory that Superman wouldn't be able to be attracted sexually to a human.

    Supreme Power had Hyperion, the Superman expy, being an outsider in his school because all his classmates knew he was the alien. Of course, they literally knew he was an alien.

    So since the kid was bullied and ostracised, I think they were going with the same idea- That a human alien would invoke the uncanny valley with people even if they look identical. That he doesn't smell right, move right, talk right, there's something off about him, something other.

    Combine that with the fact that young children are not developed mentally, hence why you can't diagnose a child as a sociopath and well when you take the power of a god, ostracism, and a squishy unformed brain, and that's a recipe for Elfen Lied style death and dismemberment.
     
  7. Siskulous

    Siskulous Know what you're doing yet?

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    Meh, it's another "What if Superman were evil" story. The only difference between it and any of the dozen others I've seen is that it's a movie. The only thing that gives me any hope for it is that it's helmed by James Gunn, but I'm still expecting it to be more or less by the numbers. I expect nothing more interesting from it than a lot of jump scares and maybe some body horror.

    I rather got the impression that he was a bullied kid who went off the deep end. That happens all the time in the real world, at least in the US. It's not something I want to be reminded of in my entertainment.

    In short, and just my personal opinion, it doesn't interest me. It's seems like a movie with one element I like (supers) and a whole bunch that I don't.
     
  8. Sorrow

    Sorrow Getting sticky.

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    Sadly, I agree. I might see it on video or Free TV, but paying $11.00+ to see it? No thanks, I'll save my money for Endgame.
     
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  9. Belenus

    Belenus Versed in the lewd.

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    Except this is what Vaermina was talking about when the subject of power generation was brought up.

    If you are trying to stick an Nth metal transmutation factory on a starship, you are doing industry wrong.
     
  10. Mquz

    Mquz Versed in the lewd.

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    Same thing though, if it takes a city’s / planet’s worth of power to produce a few atoms of Nth Metal. Especially if explosions can happen. You might have infinite fuel, but only so much capacity to burn it.
     
    infinityDivided and Just a guy like this.
  11. PDV

    PDV Revelation That Uncertainty Is Itself An Answer

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    I assumed it was a link to The Boys or Worm and didn't bother following it. Looking, it looks like Sturgeon-bait in a genre I don't like.
     
  12. Legend of Ruina

    Legend of Ruina Moderator

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    Indeed. Lexcorp’s venture into filmmaking was quite well known to me.
     
  13. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    Oh, this reminds me, DC did their own "Superman as a horror movie" story.

    A halloween special.

    A rather glaring example of kryptonians aren't all the same, Superbaby landed on Earth, and is a demonic looking coal black skinned red eyed talking in kryptonese enfant terrible that killed Jonathan, then Martha, and then flew off to presumably murder some more people.

    If memory serves, that comic had Batman as a delusional serial killer, Harley as basically the ghost of Glenn Close from Fatal Attraction, and Wonder Woman as a murderous spirit summoned by an ouija board.
     
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  14. Threadmarks: Wing and Dagger (part 18)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    22nd January
    03:28 GMT


    I slow as Bleez follows me towards the airlock. "How.. serious were you about needing my protection?"

    "Kinda serious? Like, Andar seems like the sort of guy who'd make someone disappear? But I don't think he cares enough about me to put any real effort into it, so once I'm out of the way I'm probably fine."

    "Um. Okay, but why are you following me?"

    "'Out of the way', like, 'not on a ship full of people who report directly to him'."

    Ah. And the large zeta tube on Earth is down for testing, so I can't just ship her back… "I could just take you hom-."

    "Oh no."

    "I can't honestly believe that your mother is more fearsome than cultists, mutants, mutant cultists and manifested demons."

    "There isn't gunna be anything like that down there. C'mon, even if there are ruins, they'd have to be idiots to perch there."

    I actually start laughing.

    "What?"

    "Bleez, I know a man who invented a gun which reduces anything it shoots to zero degrees Kelvin, and who uses it to rob museums. When it comes to supervillainy, there is literally no level of stupid that would surprise me. I'm fully expecting us to walk in on the whole cult mid-ritual."

    "They'd have to be kind of dumb-. Oh."

    "Yeah."

    I extend my environmental shield to cover her as we step into the airlock and I trigger it to cycle. This class of warship generally leaves its fighters out in the vacuum, Thanagar having found that while it makes sense to have permeable force fields on larger ships it just isn't efficient on smaller ones and that constant atmosphere-vacuum transitions are actually worse for maintenance than either fixing them outside or dumping them off on a tender. As such, there isn't a nice easy hangar to stroll out of, so we have to wait-.

    Lights flash and a warning alarm sound, and then the exterior door opens and I fly us out.

    "Three, two-."

    "Hey can we… Actually fly-fly down?"

    "Thanagarians might be able to fly in space, but you can't fly very fast. And I don't want to wait a couple of hours."

    "Can't you just make us go faster? Pleeeeease?"

    Ring, how far have they gotten? Oh, not very. Though there are geophysics scans on file for this part of the planet, they were looking for places that would be worth mining. Dense rock with no trace of Nth metal ore didn't warrant closer investigation, but thanagarians do know how to mine and they've got an industrial matter flayer down there silently boring a tunnel down towards where the temple should be.

    "Al.. right." Bleez smiles-. "How well can you mimic normal humanoid body language?"

    "Ah, pretty well?" She shrugs, and she makes the gesture more naturally than even Ms Thal does. "I had a diplomacy tutor from when I was five years old, and I've wanted to perform outside the Empire for, like, ages. No good swinging my wings around if no one knows what it means, right?"

    She giggles as I give her a slightly closer look. Oh, trying to manipulate me without me noticing and embarrassed that I spotted it. Fine, it's pretty harmless, and if Onimar Synn or Thasaro turn up in person I can be down there in a second.

    "Alright, fine."

    I bend space a little, increasing our downward speed relative to the rest of the universe. The skin around her eyes pulls tight in a more thanagarian expression of pleasure, flying free and focusing on what's in front of her. She angles her wings, and the feedback from my ring suggests that she's using her own Nth metal space-warping abilities extremely well. Deciding to humour her a little further, I generate construct wings and adopt a similar posture as the continent spreads out before us.

    She glances at my wings for a moment, then returns her gaze to the landscape ahead.

    "Do they bother you?"

    "Makes me wonder why you're surprised that I can do alien body language."

    "Working as a Lantern brings me into contact with a great many alien species. Plus, I have my ring's database to draw upon." Closer now, I can start to see the shape of the terrain surrounding the buried temple with my eyes. "What do you actually make of this?"

    "Huh?"

    "The Seven Devils being historical fact, what looks suspiciously like a government conspiracy… I mean, pop singers on Earth generally don't get involved in this sort of thing."

    "Y'know… Fighting's… Pretty much part of being thanagarian? Not just Thanagar's.. military government thing, but… We've never exactly been shy about violence. So if some thanagarians practise some weird religion and turn each other into monsters they're just another fight."

    "And the mutants?"

    "My Mother's generation lived through the Equality Plague and Hyathis's algae cure. Another way of messing with someone's body is just… Yeah, they're creepy, but that's more the face-wearing thing? They're not really out there."

    As we fall through the atmosphere the thanagarians below us begin moving the boring equipment away from their entry point.

    "The carrier's commander didn't seem quite so phlegmatic about it."

    "That's 'cause he's from Thanagar. They get, like, taught from birth to hate the 'enemies of our glorious empire'. I'm a bit more realistic about stuff."

    "And the colonies aren't? I'm surprised the Empire's government missed that trick."

    "Education gets controlled by individual worlds. There are schools like that, but-."

    A huge clawed arm shoots up out of the bore hole, grabs one of the soldiers mustering there and jerks back inside.

    Right, we're inside the atmosphere. I stop bending space.

    "Sorry, we'll have to continue this conversation later. Head away from the dig site."

    I warp down, appearing in front of the bore hole as the thanagarian sergeant shouts his soldiers into some sort of order. Ring scans of the hole show me.. nothing useful. I fly down immediately, filaments extending ahead of me as I go. Assuming that the owner of the arm was humanoid, they would be… Approximately twenty metres tall. The claw put me in mind of the Man-Hawks' talons, but the structure they were attached to was clearly an arm. Large room up ahead and while there's some noise I'm not hearing any screaming.

    And I'm out, rock wall behind and to the left of me while Nth metal columns support an Nth metal ceiling. The temple's portico, presumably.

    "Ugh."

    The thanagarian who was snatched a moment ago stabs at the claw enveloping her with her short sword, but the giant Vultureman lookalike holding her appears unaffected, not even bothering to look down at her.

    Soon see about that.

    Destruction pulse.
     
    Last edited: May 23, 2019
  15. Flux Casey

    Flux Casey The Colonel

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    Destruction pulse, eh? So a pulse of destructive force, presumably expanding outwards? Possibly with some sort of "boom" sound effect?

    You really didn't want to use the word "explode" as that last paragraph, did ya, boss man? :p
     
  16. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    Are you kidding? She sounds like a total Tiger Mom... (Not related to a Cougar.)

    Fate...Tempted. You have guaranteed imminent trouble!

    She angles her wings, and the feedback from my ring suggests...

    A huge clawed arm shoots up out of the bore hole, grabs one...

    And I'm out, rock wall behind and to the left of me while Nth metal columns...

    Thasaro's Avatar, I presume.

    And the action begins!

    Nah, this is the classic 'generic energy blast' Lanterns usually fire off. More massive disingtegrating beam than explosion.
     
    Last edited: Sep 19, 2019
  17. Handlewithcare

    Handlewithcare Versed in the lewd.

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    Yeah, everyone raise their hands who was surprised there was something down there.

    Also, Nth metal synthesis can take as much energy as it wants, they have access to stars.

    Even assuming they have nothing better than solar cells you can still build swarms of the things.
     
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  18. Mquz

    Mquz Versed in the lewd.

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    That might take Nth metal and be a Catch 22 situation, where it just takes to long to start doing and maintain doing.

    The Golden Gate Bridge is constantly being painted year - long from one side to the other. When they finish, they start again with the other side. This could be similar in that stuff constantly breaks down, and is constantly being maintained / replaced, with no completely predictable breaks happening.
     
    Last edited: Apr 20, 2019
  19. Buggy123

    Buggy123 I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    If they can't figure out how to make a solar panel without using the space-magic do-it-all metal, they don't deserve to have the space magic metal.

    Actually, now that I think about it... they use it to make maces. They probably don't know how.
     
  20. DAT_NOOB

    DAT_NOOB Accused of writing in a far away land

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    Gods and Monsters? (it's a stretch)
     
  21. Mquz

    Mquz Versed in the lewd.

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    The easy way out: they can make solar panels, but they need wires of astronomical lengths made of Nth Metal to make them work.
     
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  22. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
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  23. BR549

    BR549 This is filth! FILTH!!

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    Yeah, I mean, seriously. The very idea of such a thing is truly, truly, truly outrageous.
     
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  24. Mquz

    Mquz Versed in the lewd.

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    I wouldn’t be surprised if they DID fairly frequently, in DC. I get that you’re probably sarcastic, but it makes even more sense in the DC setting. Can’t forget Music Meister. Or that Constantine was in a punk rock band called Mucous Membrane.
     
    Last edited: Apr 20, 2019
  25. Old Knife

    Old Knife Not too sore, are you?

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    Where did he learn/get this from again?
     
  26. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    It's a fairly intuitive use of an orange power ring. I think his first on-page use was when he fought Red Volcano.
     
  27. Zig

    Zig Not too sore, are you?

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    Wasn't evil.
    Was direct to video, never in theaters.
     
  28. Prince Charon

    Prince Charon Just zis guy, you know?

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    OK, now you've got me imagining Constantine getting involved in rescuing a poptart who went slumming with the wrong crowd. It's hard to describe, but it looks messy, and if she survives, her whole musical style might change.

    EDIT: If anyone is confused by the use of the term 'poptart' in this context, look up what 'tart' means (or meant) in British slang.
     
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  29. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    In Supergirl, the New God from Apokalips Twilight discovered her sister reincarnated as a member of a girl group.

    So just think the shenanigans that Not Spice Girls and their new hanger on, a New God Earth Born Angel would get to.
     
  30. Aeess

    Aeess I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Guy taught him.

     
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