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

Hecate looks at her for about half a second. "If you want to help, grab a bench. We're going to break history here!"

"Do you mean-?"

"I know what I said!"

That's not terrifying in the least......

Anyone got a spare planeshifter? You know...just in case folks want to visit a safe universe for a little while....I hear WHFB 'verse is just wonderful this time of year....
 
That's not terrifying in the least......

Anyone got a spare planeshifter? You know...just in case folks want to visit a safe universe for a little while....I hear WHFB 'verse is just wonderful this time of year....
I'd prefer Shadowrun. Making Dunklezahn smile is worth a lot of that world's hellish conditions. Making him smile after causing others to fail in their fiendish endeavors? Even better. Now if only the writers would stop pretzeling the timeline…

Mr Zoat, has Eris read Paul's Orange Light pamphlet/book? Does she have any interest in writing about discordianism as a way of life? If not a book, perhaps a YouTube video filled with dancing.
 
So, two things to consider:
1) Spear of Destiny might be Destruction's totemic item (which in comic is a sword, yes, but that might be perception thing), which he left behind when leaving his position.
2) A thing Paul might not have considered - Hephaeustus is a Forge god. Spear of Destiny, by dint of being a spear falls into his natural domain. In addition to the domain of technology (which also covers the ring). I think that might amplify the ritual beyond what everyone expects.
 
stayed behind with his father. I really think it was a bit much for Orin to call this 'an insane scheme

No, no it was not.

and I did notice him biting down the rest of that sentence.

I'm guessing it would have included things like "that orange lunatic and his crazy schemes".

What's insane about using a titan to empower a crippled god to overthrow the head of the pantheon to free a woman from a place she doesn't want to leave?

Do you even hear yourself anymore?

"I've been meaning to ask. Why does every Atlantean I've spoken to get uncomfortable when I mention Queen Gamemnae? Sephtian told me that he didn't know exactly what she did…"

"I doubt that anyone alive does. With the return of Mighty Adom to Kahndaq I have taken the opportunity to study that period of our history

Even Adom may not know, since she did all those horrible things after his imprisonment.

victims piles to the roof or the bodies of

'piled'

It's not to late to change lanes.

'too late'

You want to Reach gone so

'the Reach'

Mera hesitates for a moment, but while she's an archmage Eris is a goddess

'archmage, Eris'

We're going to break history here!"

"Do you mean-?"

"I know what I said!"

I think everyone is worried that you're being literal.
 
I think that's not the real reason for annoyance, and more about no major character development for a looong time, at least for the paragon timeline. I mean, I'm skimming first chapters now, and personal changes are everywhere.

You can see how Paul changed his attitude towards the League after he'd killed Clayface. Kon's gradual social adaptation, Wallace's progression from denial of magic to health potions, other individual grows and the team's social shift. Villains reformation, Paul's relationship with Jade. Enlightenment.

It feels like for Paragon timeline everything stopped right after he'd defeated Klarion and Nabu. We got his arc culmination and everything after feels like a long epilogue. There was Heaven and Hell arc, with major villain revelation. Really big event. Now, had it changed our hero's motivation, internal thoughts, priorities, anything? Even if it had, I most certainly can't see it. All we got is that to request for some of Sivanas to investigate. Sheeda's Invasion arc? Honestly, it feels like the whole world just shrugging it off. He got qwa-matter in the face and his worries were if his clones' brains can think. I suppose even if he becomes a New God of Utilitarianism, changes would be cosmetic at best.

Renegade had it better. He steamrolled the Light and with it his relationship with Jade, and it changed him. Killed Klarion and was alienated by his peers for the trouble. Saved Lynne and in doing so he had become a father. He got a piece of Anti-Life life equation and struggled to get his emotions back. He got rid of said peace and strengthen his relationship with Luna in the process. Last time, he merged with actual Grayven and if his interludes are any indication, he now has troubles differentiating his former self from Grayven's and not thinking of Apokolyps as his place of origin. So, no wonder his timeline grows in popularity.

At that point, if we can't see inner world shift in out lead character, what about secondaries? Fortunately, they do change. Flash saw enough of Sheeda's deeds to go for lethal option when his best course of action was to swallow the rage. Xor had come a long way from rigid concept of honor to understanding what "world is wrong" means and now slowly absorbs orange philosophy. Komand'r overcame her condition. Nazi supergirl saw exactly how horrible the Third Reich is. Wonder Woman finally got snake eye protection.

Same for the Renegade timeline. The problem is, Paul interacts with tonnes of different characters and the story constantly shifts attention between them, so it's hard to feel progress of any individual person. Like, right now we (probably) would see changes in Olympic Pantheon and maybe some shift in Eris's motivation. And then moving on to something completely different.

That being said, I still enjoy reading this story. I just look at it from a different angle.

Not every series needs constant character development or constant story progress, or even both. I mean, CSI have none of that, and it's still popular. I think. Didn't really watch it. If you don't like CSI, replace with something you do like, it's all about type of fiction. So, imagine if there was a series like CSI, but first three seasons were an origin story, and everything else a classic no major plot procedural. That's what With This Ring now, with more superheroics and less crime investigation.

There's another angle. You can read this as slice of life superheroics. Like, imagine Superman series not focused on hard missions, life and death situations and difficult decisions, but on common robbery, street fights, cats on trees and same such. Banter with Batman at the Watchtower, flirting with Louis, dinner with parents. Ten years ago I would think it would be boring, and then I watched an episode of one slice of life anime where for ten minutes schoolgirls discussed at which end you should eat choco-cornet. Ten. Minutes. Half of an episode. And it was entertaining. I didn't even realize it was this long until advertisement cut.

Finally, for all I know, all this may be intentional. All this constantness may be so when everything changes we could feel it more by contrast. Like, Paul's major antagonist is Boss Status Quo. This may be his influence all along. I mean, isn't it strange that after planetary invasion it's business as usual?

P.S. Still waiting for John Constantine arc resolution. Always are, Always will. Until it resolves.

Yeah, you basically summed up a lot of the frustrations readers have with Paragon.

The same lack of development can also be seen in the Renegade if we're being honest, seeing as he's basically still an asshole that can't help but asshole.

The whole 'Friendship Beam' seemed to make him less of one, but he seems to have reverted back to his asshole self.

Except that they aren't really doing that, They are mostly content with what they have and how things are

Though that relies on the Nazis being reasonable.

Which is...kinda hard to believe.
 
I mentally shrug. We live in a world where people who believe that the Roman Empire didn't exist are allowed out in public.

That still makes me want to bang my head against a wall while screaming and crying at the sheer stupidity of it. I mean as a nearly half Irish Celtophile I kinda wish the Roman Empire didn't exist, but it's just to much a part of the foundation of European history and Western Civilization. It just makes a history buff like me want to hang my head and cry.
 
"Technically, we don't either. It's usually referred to as the Spear of Destiny, but its precise origin is lost in the mists of time. And you can tell what it does."
Reminder to everyone, LePaul loves shitting on the Silver City related religions in every way he possibly can.

This includes out right denying History if it involves them doing or creating something particularly impressive.
 
27th October 2012
18:39 GMT +3


While Queen Mera could probably convey herself through the waters of the underworld in greater comfort than she feels in my construct-grip, that would mean enduring the effects of the water. As a result, she's looking around with a considerable degree of curiosity while seated in a construct aircraft chair.

Artur stayed behind with his father. I really think it was a bit much for Orin to call this 'an insane scheme', and I did notice him biting down the rest of that sentence. What's insane about using a titan to empower a crippled god to overthrow the head of the pantheon to free a woman from a place she doesn't want to leave?
...And what does it say that we're reading a story where that kind of question doesn't raise warning signals in the character's head? :p Well, besides the alternate Pauls where he hasn't gone into full 'Hasn't stopped to consider that just he can, doesn't mean he should.' territory...

"I've been meaning to ask. Why does every Atlantean I've spoken to get uncomfortable when I mention Queen Gamemnae? Sephtian told me that he didn't know exactly what she did…"

"I doubt that anyone alive does. With the return of Mighty Adom to Kahndaq I have taken the opportunity to study that period of our history, and it was an unpleasant time and long ago. Our records are far from perfect, and much that is commonly believed has come from myth and legend."
Heck, even the cultures whose heroes took part in that Obsidian Age are likely not around anymore. Not in anywhere near the same form they were, anyway.

I mentally shrug. We live in a world where people who believe that the Roman Empire didn't exist are allowed out in public. I can hardly expect the Atlanteans to keep perfect records for five thousand years.

"As you know, she was a sorceress of incredible skill and power. She was sent into exile from Poseidonis as a child, and returned as a powerful sorceress. Supposedly, she returned the entire continent of Atlantis to the surface and turned the entire population into who they were before Ahri'ahn altered their ancestors."
People need to stop asking 'how much stupider can people get?' There are some that take it as a challenge.

"Removing the Pureblood's superior strength and endurance would make it easier to maintain control. I mean I… Doubt that she inherited the title."

"Perhaps. She is also supposed to have allowed any who would not serve under her rule to drown in waters that they had easily have breathed before she worked her magic."
Yes, hardly the sanest or most pleasant of rulers. And the tales may well be underselling things.

"I wonder how she got that powerful. I can't think of any other magic traditions in the area that were the equal of the Atlantean one."

"If it happened like that at all, I would guess that she was educated by the descendants of Atlantean exiles. It was the trauma of so much upheaval and death that left her name as a curse in our culture. If you want an accurate record of her history, Adom would be a better person to speak with."
Ooh, that'll be an interesting conversation...

"Yes, but I don't want to mess about with his memory of his old friends. His positive attitude to Atlantis is at least partially based on it."

"It is a pleasant change to have a nation in the Middle East open to the use of magic."
Given some of the other nations in the region in the DC Universe, that's saying a lot.

"Sephtian mentioned that her body.. was..?"

Mera smiles and shakes her head. "A myth. The Temple of Orcus holds no body that could come from so powerful a sorceress. I believe that it was later addition to the story. Older versions of the myth mention the bodies of her victims piles to the roof or the bodies of the royal family drowned by her spells."
So, no quagmire spell in this universe, eh? Or she was defeated before it could reach its full power...

"I didn't think undoing the spells altering Atlanteans was possible."

"All things are possible. But I do not know how she might have done it. It should be beyond any mortal." Her eye is caught by Persephone's forest. "This place is not what I expected."
...Which suggests she was either more than mortal, or had access to power that let her fake it.

"Nothing like Orcus's domain?"

"No. The domain of Orcus is supposedly a far drearier place."
A reminder about Orcus. A nice touch that not all of Atlantis' gods are solely Roman.

"It's not to late to change lanes. Shop around a little for superior afterlife services."

"It would be politically unwise. Orin is a Christian, and while Atlantis is not a deeply religious country it would not look well for both monarchs to bow to foreign gods."
Yeah, that's the kind of thing that tends to upset traditionalists.

"Then send Orcus our way and we'll see about bringing him up to our level."

"I have never spoken to him directly. According to our priests, our gods speak even to them only extremely infrequently and indirectly."
And yet you still worship them? Perhaps speaking to their manager might help get better service? :p

"There's your problem! How can they possibly provide a good service if they don't know what the customer base want?"

I bring us into land, noting the absence of dead witches and spotting my own patron- "Hey, Eris!" -taking a smoke outside Hecate's home.
Well, so much for the party. Guess Hecate wants all hands on deck for this little display.

"Hey hay, I'm Eris." She lowers her cigarette and looks Mera over. "I think Hecate needs a bigger house."

"What do I want out of life and death?"
...And what brought this on? Your little discussion about divine services?

She frowns. "You know what you-. Are you seriously testing me?" I nod. "If you hadn't just won me a bet with that spear I'd nearly be annoyed. You want people to stop being stupid and to take the opportunities presented to them. You want to Reach gone so you can build a new civilisation I'd say from its ashes, but you'd probably say something about people being unified by shared adversity. You like helping people but aren't prepared to completely baby them -which I appreciate- because if you have to do everything then what's the point of anyone else even existing."
I suppose it's easy for her to summarise, since OL's been kind of two-dimensional at times recently...

"That's life."

"I don't believe you'll stay dead next time any more than you did the last two."
Also accurate. Funny how he joked about Heroes having a revolving-door approach to death in comics, but now he's literally got one.

"Good answer. And that's why she's better than Discordia."

Eris smiles at me fondly, making eye contact with Mera. "See, that's what's great about him. I think I'm about to have to thump an uppity mortal, then he comes up with something like that and it means more because I know he means it. Now gimme that spear."
Aw, doing the sweetest things for his goddess. Could still thump him for being him, but business calls.

Mera hesitates for a moment, but while she's an archmage Eris is a goddess and her decision was effectively made the moment she agreed to come down here. Dismissing the protective spells she placed upon it, she cautiously hands it-.

Eris grabs it from her and stares at it as if transfixed.
Let's not go rubbing your face against the shiny thing, Eris. You don't know what it's been...

"I don't even know what this is."

"Technically, we don't either. It's usually referred to as the Spear of Destiny, but its precise origin is lost in the mists of time. And you can tell what it does."
So, you don't think it's the Spear of Longinus. Probably does predate all of that Christian stuff, after all...

Eris skips back into Hecate's house. "Hec-a-tay! My guy wiiii-iiins!"

"Shall we?"
And Mera's probably wondering what sort of rabbit hole she's fallen into...

Mera and I enter the… Huh. It's expanded again, and the empty pool-area outside is explained by the face that they're all hard at work in here. Since their knowledge of thaumaturgy is 'poor' by modern standards they're forced to brute force spells guided by their long experience, casting and reacting and judging by feel whether it works of not. The Maltusian power ring is on a plinth in the centre of the ritual space, and Eris had marches over to Hecate to wave the spear at her. We follow after her as Hecate stares at it, then tries to get it off the boasting chaos goddess.
So, less 'small lab' and more 'industrial testing chamber', then?

"Eris, not the time."

Eris pantomimes sighing, then offers it to Hecate.
Now, now, you'll have your fun when this is over with.

"This…" I feel Hecate running power into it and notice Mera shuddering faintly next to me.

Hephaestus looks it over, before turning to the fascinating Hecate. "Will it work?"
I bet every magic-user on Earth just felt the mystical equivalent of Hecate running her finger up their spine...

"'Will it'-? Is that all that occurs to you?" Hecate keeps working, beckoning to some of her devotees with her spare hand. "This, and more besides. We will need to rework the spell to take this… This thing into account."

Mera takes a step closer. "Might I enquire-?"
So, instead of him bringing you a litre of kerosene, he's just handed you a litre of rocket fuel?

Hecate looks at her for about half a second. "If you want to help, grab a bench. We're going to break history here!"

"Do you mean-?"

"I know what I said!"
...Can we not break reality again, so soon after the last time?

Oh, boy... If the Goddess of Magic is this excited, then I suspect things are going to be getting very noisy soon. Forget what I said about Murphy last time. He's sidled into the room, giving Eris bedroom eyes and motioning towards a closet... I suspect things are going to go wonderfully, horribly right. We can but hope the Earth is in one piece after all is said and done.
 
So, two things to consider:
1) Spear of Destiny might be Destruction's totemic item (which in comic is a sword, yes, but that might be perception thing), which he left behind when leaving his position.
2) A thing Paul might not have considered - Hephaeustus is a Forge god. Spear of Destiny, by dint of being a spear falls into his natural domain. In addition to the domain of technology (which also covers the ring). I think that might amplify the ritual beyond what everyone expects.
I wonder if he could conceivably forge a ring and, if so, whether the Maltusian ring may encompass part of his domain as well. Kalmin does have to use actual forging tools, after all.
 
Though that relies on the Nazis being reasonable.
Which is...kinda hard to believe.

I think it's less them being reasonable and more like them being a Dog that finally caught a car, they won so big they have been a bit to busy actually making things work to do many really horrible things. Also Overman has been trying to change things so they aren't as "Nazi" as they used to be.


Also considering it's strong ties to Arthurian lore and how much of that part of Arthurian lore derives from Celtic mythology? The spear likely has more to do with the Tuatha De Danu than Christ.
 
I think it's less them being reasonable and more like them being a Dog that finally caught a car, they won so big they have been a bit to busy actually making things work to do many really horrible things

Though thry still do horrible things.

. Also Overman has been trying to change things so they aren't as "Nazi" as they used to be

With little success.

Also considering it's strong ties to Arthurian lore and how much of that part of Arthurian lore derives from Celtic mythology? The spear likely has more to do with the Tuatha De Danu than Christ

Judging by what that angel said, the Spear may not be connected with Christ, so I guess it's possible that it came from the Irish gods.
 
People need to stop asking 'how much stupider can people get?' There are some that take it as a challenge.

And you just know that they'll surpass the previous champion.

So, no quagmire spell in this universe, eh? Or she was defeated before it could reach its full power

Or modern Atlanteans just don't know about it.

. A nice touch that not all of Atlantis' gods are solely Roman

I think I remember Kaldur and his Crime Syndicate counterpart talking about a god that may have been Hawaian in origin.

So, you don't think it's the Spear of Longinus. Probably does predate all of that Christian stuff, after all...

When they were in Heaven, an angel said that the Spear wasn't the one that stabbed Chrisy, since it didn't look like a Roman spear, but it did have earthly magic.

And Mera's probably wondering what sort of rabbit hole she's fallen into...

The rabbit hole dug by Paul, a rabbit that's on every drug imaginable and has ADHD.

Can we not break reality again, so soon after the last time?

I thing you're asking too much from Paul.
 
Judging by what that angel said, the Spear may not be connected with Christ, so I guess it's possible that it came from the Irish gods.

Celtic gods, the Celts seemingly had a fairly consistent culture and religion over the very broad territory they occupied as well as across time. So very strong echos are seen in what we know of the Gauls and what was written down by Irish Monks.
 
I'd prefer Shadowrun. Making Dunklezahn smile is worth a lot of that world's hellish conditions. Making him smile after causing others to fail in their fiendish endeavors? Even better. Now if only the writers would stop pretzeling the timeline…

Mr Zoat, has Eris read Paul's Orange Light pamphlet/book? Does she have any interest in writing about discordianism as a way of life? If not a book, perhaps a YouTube video filled with dancing.

Do you have a link to the shadowrun/dunkelzahn Story posts? I can't seem to find any
 
Please, for the love of Gaea someone stage an intervention for these absolute mad lads before they do something permanent. I already made a joke about "sections of the universe turning into WH40K fanart"! We don't need that centered right on the planet we live on!

You're taking an entity made of fuckmothering primordial dream soup and running it through hyper-advanced alien tech with a massively powerful magic artifact so you can roid up a god. All this being supervised by two morally questionable goddesses and an army of undead witches that just got pulled away from a pool party.

This was supposed to be just an intimidation tactic, maybe a magic bullet if Zeus decided to be dumb. By the end of this they're going to have a big, shiny, red button labeled "Apocalypse Now".
 
I'd tie it to the Seven Imperishable Treasures that the New Gods gave Earths' first superhero, Aurakles, when they gave him the mission to bring order and meaning where incoherence reigns.

A spear whose name is both love and vengeance.

A spear that in the comics caused the Sheeda Queen's death 40 thousand years after the fact with a car accident.
 
What's insane about using a titan to empower a crippled god to overthrow the head of the pantheon to free a woman from a place she doesn't want to leave?

Really hope this is leading into a proper conversation between Paul and Diana about him going to extremes. Does Zeus deserve it for all of the bullshit he's done in the past? Yea for sure.

But Diana and Paul should definitely have a conversation about proportional responses.

Considering how well things have been going for the protagonist, having some sort of intervention would be useful I think. Character development wise, I mean. Paul's reactions and his ability to interact with people has noticeably gotten worse over the past couple of arcs. So I'm hoping that Zoat leads this up to an intervention of some sort.
 
Really hope this is leading into a proper conversation between Paul and Diana about him going to extremes. Does Zeus deserve it for all of the bullshit he's done in the past? Yea for sure.

But Diana and Paul should definitely have a conversation about proportional responses.

Considering how well things have been going for the protagonist, having some sort of intervention would be useful I think. Character development wise, I mean. Paul's reactions and his ability to interact with people has noticeably gotten worse over the past couple of arcs. So I'm hoping that Zoat leads this up to an intervention of some sort.
Or paul keeps steamrolling everything and eventually starts (accidentally or on purpose) using orange light to alter people's desires to be more in line with him eventually tangseiding the world.

The first red flag to that would be batman accepting enhancements.
 
Or paul keeps steamrolling everything and eventually starts (accidentally or on purpose) using orange light to alter people's desires to be more in line with him eventually tangseiding the world.

The first red flag to that would be batman accepting enhancements.

There was a variant who did that iirc. Turned Wonder Woman into his lover.
 
That's not terrifying in the least......

Anyone got a spare planeshifter? You know...just in case folks want to visit a safe universe for a little while....I hear WHFB 'verse is just wonderful this time of year....
I have an Amulet of Planes, but you have a 50-75% chance of winding up in some kind of hellhole afterlife.
 
A few more words from Blitzen

Not sure about the blue ones but if she calls Jay "vater" should they be vuture, and Virst. I know she uses f to say frik the man and Führer so not sure on the accent here.
Thank you, corrected. Though the 'vater' thing is just the German word for 'father'.
This doesn't make sense should it be in?

I can stand on a small toilet, or was he just saying he wouldn't have appeared next to her?
He doesn't appear right next to people but a little way away. As such, he wouldn't appear in the cubical with her unless the cubical was very big.
Mr Zoat, has Eris read Paul's Orange Light pamphlet/book?
She skimmed it.
Does she have any interest in writing about discordianism as a way of life? If not a book, perhaps a YouTube video filled with dancing.
That seems unlikely.
Oh that was probably me tbh. I deleted it almost immediately so it should be gone now, unless someone else also posted in that thread. Sorry 'bout that.
Dominus noster Jesus Christus te absolvat; et ego auctoritate ipsius te absolvo ab omni vinculo excommunicationis et interdicti in quantum possum et tu indiges. Deinde, ego te absolvo a peccatis tuis in nomine Patris, et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti. Amen.
 
My explanation for how the Spear of Destiny works is ( if it was the Spear used to check if Jesus was dead) then it would have pierced Jesus while he was holding the sins of every human past, present and future in his body which probably gave the Spear a connection to the collective human unconscious. Its ability to nudge people to think like its wielder is also probably from touching a Physical Avatar as he paid the blood price for humanities sins.
 

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