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

This may be an expansion of how several governments interact with Paul. Although he isn't a member of the Justice League, they know he has some pull with them, especially since they know Accomplished Perfect Position got in thanks to Paul's recommendation. As such, the gods go to Paul because they know he has an in with the new King of Olympus.

 

Now, considering how much of a opportunistic schemer Odin is, is Tyr being genuine, or is he an agent of the All-Father sent in to provide Asgard intel as to what improvements Hephaestaean is making so that the Aesir/Vanir can do likewise and hopefully avoid Ragnarok?

 

Remember that Paul is also the Agent of the Serpent of Avarice, so he's very far from a normal mortal.

If it's like the situation in the comics then Odin may potentially be looking for a refuge for his pantheon when Ragnarok happens and Tyr could probably put in a good word.

Or Odin is looking to acquire weapons from the New Olympus.

 

I just realized those Desire goddess must hate Paul now that he put Hephestean in charge. He'll make them actually have work now.

 

How about an 'aura' of Depth that literally allows him to create some/all of the conditions of the Depths? Like he could create an omnidirectional crushing aura around things, all the way from 'just underwater' to 'very bottom of the Mariana Trench' or darken the surroundings, as the light seems further and farther away? make people loose contact with the ground beneath them as they start drift as if submerged in water?

Remember Heph talking about how Jesus's character wasn't as relevant to his religion as you'd think, since he considered his church to be the creation of Paul? They could see OL as the Paul of the Restructured Olympian Mysteries; the one laying the foundations for whatever comes after.

Going to that person at the very beginning (before policies you may disagree with get entrenched), and lobbying for the ideology and doctrine to be inside the shared space of the Venn Diagram circles of 'things you want' and 'things OL wants' sounds like a really god idea.

I mean it sounded like just about no one really wanted Zeus as King. But nothing changed. Then someone went and convinced OL that Zeus needed to go and lo and behold, he stopped being King shortly thereafter. (Zeus being the person that did the convincing being rather ironic.) But now you have a demonstrated situation where people know that if you can make a sufficiently strong case to OL, can get him invested in something you care about...

 

Never established, but it may be a poetic way to say resistance to injury, just as somehow the courage of Achilles grants invulnerability and courage.

I mean what do you call minor injuries? Shallow wounds.

So perhaps with the Depth of Neptune, all wounds are shallow.

Unless it was something that would actually pierce to the bottom of the ocean.

I may of course be giving it more thought than the writer was.

Or if one wants to use even more word play, depth can also be a reference to intensity. "Deep knowledge, depth of despair." In which case it could be a general modifier like back in the day Superman could just do anything by using super as a prefix. "Super hypnotism. Super ventriloquy. Super typing. Super underwater basket weaving."

 

I have a (probably terrible) idea for how Heph could hand the Persephone situation. Basically, put the problem to Hades himself ... but not as Hades, husband of Persephone. No, let the Judge of the Dead cast his best judgement. Basically pit Hades' own devotion to evenhanded dour judgment against his emotional attachment.

 

My response to this would be that if the Shinto are so willing to help what were they doing when Oceanus was having his moment? The wave he sent towards North America would have destroyed the statue of Liberty and America as whole.

 

......... Okay now I'm just wondering how long it will take the church of superman to get their hands on a Theology-magic specialist and convert their object of reverence into a god against his will.
It's not like he'll stop saving people and him not tapping into that power is just begging Lex to steal it.

Lex as superman's devil sounds like a terrible recipe. He should get warded to avoid that.

 

Lex is a secret supervillain in YJ, so I doubt that enough people know about him to instill any sort of anti-divinity into him.

Make me wonder who people think of as Superman's archnemesis in YJ. Match seems to be the Bizarro equivalent, Darkseid isn't publicly known, Lex is supposed to be a billionaire philanthropist, Brainiac hasn't visited Earth yet...Metallo maybe? Parasite?

 

I'm guessing you mean Persephone, and got hit by autocorrupt (or is that an alternate name for her that I missed)? That might be a good way to handle it.

 

... um, well that's interesting. Also worrisome and unexpected. Something to check up on after talking to Euanthe.

Another distraction from looking for Constantine?

 

If that belle named Liberty says the Uncle Sam in DC isn't the real one than something super sus is up.

 

Is this a similar situation to how Lucky Hans was turned into Captain Nazi?

 

took my a -> took me a

 

Had not considered that (since I'd forgotten that plot point, and now I'm wondering when it was brought up in the fic, though I do recall that it was), but it seems possible.

 

Uh oh. Boss Smiley?

 

Abridged Red Tornado: Because magic, you fucking potato!

I didn't either.

I first discoveredthat little bit in a video analysis of an American Gods episode where it was pointed out that in some of the older myths, Tyr was head honcho.

Your hand may no longer be in Fenrir.

Though it may be...mushy.

Yeah, a joke.

"was going to do before"

At least in small amounts.

Ahh, nine, such a symbolic number for the Norse.

"far longer"

Huh, I remember that in the Z.E.R.O. episode Truggs and Circe talked and then a third person showed up and their face was compared to their of a recruitment poster or something.

I remember someone suggested Uncle Sam, so it looks like they may have been partially right.

 

It was back when the Team was investigating the Hitler Clone in Brazil. Wolf Krieger and Captain Nazi died at the end of that arc and Paul first claimed the Spear of Destiny. Sephitan freaked out because the Spear was too OP. It was also revealed that the Nazis captured the old 18th century national representation of Germany, Lucky Hans, and ritually killed him to create Captain Nazi, the ubermensch the Party needed. There was a line about how until Captain Nazi was killed he still had some kind of spiritual link to the German national character which is why modern Germany was still hung up on Nazi Germany in some ways in this fic.

 

I forgot all about that. Is it possible that Truggs recruited an evil Uncle Sam from an alternate universe?

 

Thank you, corrected.

No, that's correct.

 

Am calling it now, the Uncle Sam in Washington is John Constantine in disguise trying to learn about Order and Chaos and how to harmonize them from the complete mess that is Washington DC.

 

Boy that was fast...

But even I'm impressed with the sheer amount of retconning Mr Zoat had to do with Tyr here...

Like, that is 100% Mr Zoat made up shit that has no foundation in either the real life Mythos or the DC mythos.

And he did it all because for some dumb reason he wants to make the Olympians the Author Insert power houses of the setting.

 

I was wondering how Hephaestian and Euanthe would interact.
What with him being technology, and many of her worshippers being ecological primitivists/luddites.

There's probably a way to compromise there.
Between the Sheeda's destruction, and the mix of the tribes and Euanthe being radically pro-rainforest, but Danner probably trying to moderate things where it would cause unnecessary suffering, there are probably a bunch of people who refused to move out in the wake of the attacks and rainforest expansion, but who also recognize that they're outmatched in power and dependent on the tribal Danner enhanciles and Euanthe's magic for defense.
If Danner was given the opportunity to recruit for Hephastean's cult, it could provide an outlet for those people to seek power without disrupting the country, probably stabilizing it actually by giving him more powerful groups committed to the idea of a central government and varying in culture compared to those already existing, except for a common agreement on loyalty to his office.
There's also the advantage that Hephastean is committed to working through a whole pantheon. If his own cult doesn't flourish in Brazil that's no reason why his pantheon can't still do so.

 

Is the Heartlands a place from the comics? I presume it's like the American metaphysical equivalent of Olympus or something.

Have people already discussed in the thread about the interpretatio romanus that went in Roman imperial history on where Tyr was equated with Mars (and thus possibly Ares too)? It's poetic that he's the candidate in that sense- Tuesday (Tyr's Day) is directly analogous to Mars's Day in Latin and Romance languages.

If Odin took over from Tyr after backstabbing him, is the creation account we have of Norse mythology about Odin killing Ymir and fashioning the first humans with the help of his later-forgotten brothers accurate? Tyr in mythology is also the son of a Jotun I believe (even if that's more of a cultural difference than a 'species/race' difference between them and the Aesir), so it might have been worth asking what connections he has to them. Jotun are often quite primordial compared to the Aesir so I'm unsure if there are any connections between them and the Titans. I assume getting benevolent Jotun on board would be too much of a provocation to Odin though, so best to avoid that until New Olympus is better established.

 

They very well might go for some form of Techno Primitivism, that is a "primitive" life style enabled by advanced technology. To put it simply, the tech is there but it's not obvious or intrusive enough for the average person to notice it in every day life, or maybe doesn't even know about it.

The Joutun are thought to represent the primal forces of nature, especially winter. So they probably are much like the Greek Titans.

 

And probably not short of conflict, if only him smacking surly drunks and hauling them outside. Which would be extra embarrassing, to get manhandled by a one-handed man. Good to see he's been keeping his eye in... Unlike Odin.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

The joy of getting most of our modern information from sources garbled by those writing them down trying to couch them in terms friendly to their own religion.

I have to wonder how the rest of the Norse Gods feel about the scheming. Surely some of them have accepted their Doom, and plan to have one last good fight before they go.

<snerk> A war god with a sense of humour. That promises to make for an amusing time later.

Yeah, Fenrir did get done dirty, thanks to old one-eye.

Garmr, for reference. At least if Tyr's working with the Olympians, he'll have backup for the fight.

To be fair, Freyja (Not Frigga, wife of Odin) is one of the better gods. And a good example of deities playing musical pantheon, being born of the Vanir rather than the Æsir, having relocated as part of a peace treaty or similar.

Yeah, not hard to make things worse for him.

At least he won't push where he's not wanted. Unless it turns into love at first sight for both of them. Narrative Causality and all that.

Turning the mad bloodlust that Ares promoted into manly determination and hot-blooded courage. Sounds good.

True enough. Battles are tending to be fought by smaller groups on behalf of larger organisations, and as the technology improves, the soldiers need to improve with it.

True, he has his eyes on growth markets...

I still find it amusing that they know each other. I guess Tyr visited the gym while he was wandering, or some such.

Spreading his word through Youtube! ...Or whatever the DC Universe equivalent is.

Don't be surprised if that changes, old fellow. There are perks to joining Hephaestaean's renewed pantheon.

...Try not to sound too eager now, though.

Quite a step up from Ares, then?

Well, looks like he's hired. I expect the delay is to allow other prospects to emerge.

At least he seems to be respectful of his soon-to-be-fellows.

Not wasting any time, I see. I suspect Phaeste would have made him the hand even if he didn't get the job, though. Like OL, such imperfections seem to offend him.

Since she technically is still under the auspices of the Olympians, being a Dryad.

...Requests, OL. You don't formally work for him, after all. Except as a worshipper. Though to be fair, when a member of your pantheon says jump, it's probably a good idea to nod and maybe ask 'how high?'

I assume that means it'll feel and move like living flesh, rather than simple metal.

...Wait, what?

...Well, that's not good. Might want to look into that after finishing with Euanthe.

Oh, this is going to turn out to be the plotline of U.S., isn't it? Where the real Sam is wandering the country as a 'homeless crazy man' while a cockier, more Jingoistic incarnation has been pushing the country into conflict after conflict? In which case, hell yeah. But first, that little chat with the radiant plant-girl of Brazil, and perhaps Hugo Danner will show up...

---

...but I have reached the point in my life...

 

I mean, in-story Orange Lantern did visit an alien civilization which produced their technology by growing it as plants.

I've been wondering when Euanthe was going to get that powerup for a while now.

 

Isn't she a Vanir tho? Tyr would care about the difference.