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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. Fallen Gods Rise

    Fallen Gods Rise Just stepped on a Lego

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    Empathise
     
  2. dw7thdoctor

    dw7thdoctor Getting sticky.

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    I know this might be a stupid question to ask, But couldn't they use any lantern as a connection(representation of) the elemental they could become. Like he's not a pure-blooded demon like a succubus right. I'm sure he felt willpower(or maybe hope in the past) before so borrow one of those lanterns for the power or the symbol they represent and repeat the process with whatever demon doesn't want to be a demon anymore(ex. John Simpson).
     
  3. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    So LePaul's caught in a Constantine plan...

    Sucks to be him. :p
     
  4. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    She's at least around 7000 years old since Shazam summoned her when he still looked fit.

    Yeah, if one of John's partners tries to kill him with an age in bed then that's actually a stable relationship for him.

    They do have at least one Violet Ring.

    But whether they'd be willing or even capable of helping is uncertain.
     
  5. RichardWhereat

    RichardWhereat Aia airëa Fëanáro.

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    She did dress up as a nun one time.
     
  6. DrThoth

    DrThoth I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Worst case, between Paragon and the OLC's resources, orange light conversion for demons should be more than achievable. Though without proper enlightenment you do run the risk of getting Drakul Karfang 2.0 or something, but maybe that's something they can work on. It's not like the violet light of love isn't dangerous in its own right.

    Feels like they should really have asked the Demon something along the lines of 'are you holding back information in a maliciously harmful manner/that you know we would be interested in/etc.', give or take some careful phrasing. Especially after we (and Paragon) saw Mazikeen command the Crimson Avenger guns to not lie in spirit as well as word.
    Don't know if it's some John-related effect that makes things turn out semi-decently for him when they could otherwise be worse (like he got captured in a country fine with killing demons, but he got captured by a team working under Kaldur whose rules of engagement won't permit execution; Paragon and Mist should really have lassoed him first thing, but they didn't, etc.).

    Now I wonder if Boss Smiley and John Quinn are working together. Smiley isn't really a direct-fights kind of antagonist, so I think that would make sense as a narrative development. If Smiley mystically assimilated/possessed/replaced Uncle Sam, then that would be a neat way of tying together the plot threads from these episodes, and also explain his possible influence over American superhero culture (and the world, via globalization and America's prominence on the world stage).
     
  7. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Thank you, corrected.
     
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  8. Senevri

    Senevri Not too sore, are you?

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    Good thing he can heal respawn
     
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  9. Windona

    Windona Beetle Queen of Crackshipping

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    Man, I really need to read Hellblazer.

    Interesting conversation with Demon John and Chantel. If the conversion did work, well, what greater weapon is there than to turn an enemy to your cause.
     
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  10. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    You know, after Lady Liberty met Tyr I got to wondering if she is going to meet some other Norse characters.

    Like say, a certain Fire Giant.
     
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  11. Coda

    Coda Versed in the lewd.

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    I think it requires a bit more than just the experience of having felt an emotion. Succubus magic is already closely aligned with love -- a perversion of love, but love. Swapping it out for the pure stuff only required that the succubus had familiarity with the pure stuff.

    I imagine that very, very few demons would be compatible with willpower. They're fairly notorious for their impulsivity. Demons have enough raw power that they rarely need to lean on raw determination to get through a situation.

    And while you could probably get at least one of Red, Orange, or Yellow to work for most demons... that kind of seems... unwise?

    Blue seems utterly incompatible with demons, given that the process of becoming a demon involves torturing away hope.

    Indigo... plausible, as tempting a mortal requires understanding them.
     
  12. dw7thdoctor

    dw7thdoctor Getting sticky.

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    They may be impulsive, but they show the ability for long-term planning. Demon Constantine said he talked Santanus into being more subtle. John Simpson basically skipped the steps needed to become a demon and thus still has a more human outlook on things remember he had planned out how to take over the birth of god(Titan?) I'm sure he can feel the emotional spectrum better than others. Also, Demon Constantine was in a normal relationship for nearly eleven months. This implies he knows enough about emotional responses to at least fake them which probably means feeling them on a lower level. As for Hope, the damned hell know hope, as sandman pointed out hell is full of dreams of someday escaping and reaching heaven i.e. hope. maybe once they become demons the hope is beaten out of them, but it could still be there.
     
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  13. Caerwen

    Caerwen Know what you're doing yet?

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    Indigo corps mind controlled the worst people. Demons would fit right in.
     
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  14. Bud-E

    Bud-E Stand up so I can push you down!

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    Does demon Constantine partnering with Boss Smiley confirm that he is in fact a demon and not a god?
     
  15. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Not really.

    It's possible for different magical beings and races to cooperate with each other.
     
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  16. Patrick Holt

    Patrick Holt Getting sticky.

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    So unless this is one of the changes on Earth 16, American McDonald's burgers don't have lettuce leaf on them, it's all shredded. Hamburgers and cheeseburgers specifically only have; a "beef" paddy, two pickles, rehydrated onions, one squirt ketchup, one squirt mustard, and one slice American cheese if needed.

    He could discard the pickles... if he is a heathen.

    Also what toy did he get? Looking at the available options at that time it would be
    • Young Justice fingerboards/Littlest Pet Shop toys (November) picture
    Huh did not expect that.
     
  17. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    Well it really should have been a Wacky Meal from Wakdonals, or a meal from Burger Fool, whose name makes it sound like an expy of Burger King and McDonalds with it's clown mascot at the exact same time.
     
  18. Prince Charon

    Prince Charon Just zis guy, you know?

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    I wouldn't want to assume that it was only once, though.
     
  19. Cuchulin

    Cuchulin Versed in the lewd.

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    Not Big Belly Burger or O'Shaughnessy's?
     
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  20. Threadmarks: Dear John (part 14)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    7th November 2012
    Roughly 10:07 GMT -5


    "Alan?"

    "Yeah?"

    I push myself off the ground, ignoring something semi-liquid sticking to my gauntlets and cuirass.

    "You alright?"

    "I've been better."

    I look left and see Alan picking himself up slightly more gingerly, his back and left side soaked in the same stuff that my ring is now cleaning off me.

    Oh, it's… Blood. A thin film of the stuff is spraying down from somewhere above us. Frowning slightly, I generate a construct umbrella and set my environmental shield to clean me off. Alan copies me, though his umbrella is more classic and less aerodynamic.

    "You mind cleaning me off?"

    I raise my left hand, a beam of orange playing over him and pushing the blood down like a window washer's scraper pushing suds off a window.

    "Thanks. That was bringing back some very uncomfortable memories."

    "Happy to help."

    I look around. It looks like we're still on Liberty Island, though I'm a bit worried about…

    Oh.

    The torch of the Statue of Liberty appears to have been replaced by a sprinkler, coating the entire island, a swath of the sea and part of the mainland with a fine misting of vitae. New York itself appears to have been replaced by… Gotham? No, not gothic enough. Hub..?

    No. Blüdhaven. Looks like Blüdhaven. Which might explain why no one's shouting about the rain of blood: they're used to it.

    Boss Smiley's face is still there, big and yellow, but it doesn't look animated any longer. I fly up, and… No, no reaction. The dimensions of the hands and feet have changed a little and-. The date on the tablet now reads August MDCXIX, which is probably an important date in American history.

    "Where did that eagle fellah go?" Alan floats up behind me. "Did he come with us?"

    "Don't know. Eagle!?"

    "Where is here, anyhow? That doesn't look much like New York to me."

    "Rough guess, this is a part of America's collective psyche. Maybe another part of the Heartland-."

    I take a closer look at the Statue's tiara.

    "There he is."

    I drift closer, peering in through one of the glassless window to where the eagle is hunched up in one corner, shivering and fluffing his feathers up.

    "Eagle?"

    "We're in the bad place we're in the bad place…"

    "Is he okay?"

    "Alan, I would never normally suggest this, but I think we might need to cheer him up by singing uplifting American patriotic music."

    "You must be desperate." He floats up alongside me "Maybe a dead mouse or something?"

    "It may surprise you to hear this, but I don't routinely carry dead mice around with me."

    "You don't?" He.. actually sounds surprised. "I just thought you had one of everything in there."

    "No, because sustaining a larger subspace volume slightly reduced my maximum charge. I try to only carry things I've got a reasonable chance of needing. Usually, I can just fabricate food, but…" I look up at the blood fountain. "I'm a little worried about the sort of spiritual energy it would pick up around here."

    Alan flies right up to the window before awkwardly clambering inside. The room inside looks tatty but basically structurally sound, as if… Someone deliberately built the interior to look untidy and it's setting off my OCD.

    "Hey, buddy." Alan kneels down next to the clearly freaked out eagle. "You doing okay there?"

    "We're in the bad place! We're in the bad place. And that's really bad."

    "Okay, can you tell us about it?"

    "This is the opposite of the Heartland!"

    "Like, the..? The Lungland?"

    "What?" The eagle raises his head slightly above his wings so that he can stare at Alan. "What? How is a lung the opposite-?"

    "Footland?"

    "No-! Like… Like blackhear-rrrrrr…" … "Evil Heartland."

    "I'm going to guess that while the Heartlands is a sort of idealised America, this is the less optimistic place."

    "Yeah." The eagle nods. "All of the worst bits and the worst interpretation of the rest with none of the positive bits."

    "Is it dangerous to you?"

    "It's dangerous to all of us. But… No, just being here won't hurt me. But the locals will know that I don’t belong here."

    "Good show. What locals are we-?"

    Something taps on the left side of my helmet. Unlike my heavy armour which doesn't have a separate headpiece, my current generation light armour's helmet let's me look left and right without compromising the protection. So I turn my head, and am greeted by the face of a bird.

    "Still alive then? Okay. Let me know if that changes."

    "Oh no."

    I narrow my eyes. "And what are you supposed to be?"

    "Oh, you know. This and that. Don't mind me."

    "She's the Vulture of Death!"

    "No I'm not." She looks away for a moment. "Scavengers have an important role in the ecosystem, I'll have you know. We don't usually kill things ourselves."

    "Someone else does all the work and you get all the benefit!"

    Alan looks at the vulture. "You two know each other?"

    "Oh. You know." The vulture ruffles her wings. "It's the Nixon-Kennedy thing. 'When they see you, they see what they want to be. When they see me, they see what they are.' We're naturally antithetical. He bangs on about freedom. I just do my thing."

    "Eagle, if you want to get out, you need to pull yourself together. You've crashed, there was no parachute, but you're still alive. Do you want to stay that way? Do you want to rescue Sam?"

    "Yeah." The eagle straightens up slightly, then flaps its wings and flies over to perch on the edge of the tiara window. "But this is going to be hard."
     
    Last edited: May 28, 2022
  21. FreeGod

    FreeGod If you see a God on the road fuck it!

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    The asslands? Or the crack? I feel like the nane would have something to do with shit.
     
  22. dw7thdoctor

    dw7thdoctor Getting sticky.

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    What happened to lady liberty? Wasn't she there with them?
     
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  23. Queshire

    Queshire Not too sore, are you?

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    Honestly glad it's someone from across the pond doing this. I've seen "USA at its worst" type arc from a local before. Let's just say it got... political.
     
  24. Ganurath

    Ganurath Apologizes For Nothing

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    The Headwaters contrasts on multiple levels.
     
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  25. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    Ah, good, we're back with our heroic Lanterns. Now, what did the Smiling Bastard do to them, I wonder? I doubt he's got the metaphorical mojo to mess with a piece of the Ophidian, after all, and Adara is probably keeping a close eye on Alan.

    Wait, 'sticky'... Did he toss Psychoactive Slime on them? From 'Ghostbusters 2'? The fiend!

    I do hope he's wearing more than the old red pirate shirt and tight pants he used to, at least. That would be nasty.

    Probably a bit harder to visualise cleaning via hope, I guess.

    Presumably one of those old cases he doesn't like to talk about at all...

    Well, at least they haven't gone far. So, did the grinning jackass dump them into an alternate reality, or...

    ...Ew. Definitely not a parallel world, then. Although that seems so appropriate, that Blüdhaven be here, wherever that be. Bet it appeals to the Smirking Devil's tastes.

    '1619'? Oh, dear. Looks like a reference to this: First Africans in Virginia. Let me guess, it embodies the Chuckle-fuck of Exploitation's birthdate, much like July 4th, 1776 would be Uncle Sam's?

    I can't imagine it's going to be a pleasant trip for Roger, wherever they are.

    Presumably the part filled with self-loathing and recriminations... The part people don't like to talk about.

    Well, out of the rain, at least.

    Oooh, that's not good.

    Very much not good. Gods only know what's happening back home right now...

    Come on, man, put that Hope to use. Can't you see he's despairing?

    Yeah, what happened to 'being prepared for anything'?

    Let me guess, that slight lean that gives you the feeling the roof is about to fall on you, even if it's perfectly sound?

    As bad as stealing 40 cakes? :p

    Ah. The arse end of the zeitgeist. Because it would have to exist, after all...

    Hey, at least you're not petrified anymore, right? :cool: Good move, Alan.

    Can't bring himself to seem even slightly politically incorrect, even here, can he? Nice of him to try.

    So, the place fed by the paranoid and the disturbed. The place that brings out the darkness and rage in an American's heart? o_O Oh, boy...

    'Know' as in be able to trace you from anywhere? Could make it hard to run and hide.

    "'Sup?"

    And so it begins...

    Bit hard to ignore a giant-ass vulture looming over you, with a hungry gleam in their eye.

    But you're totally willing to take advantage of other's misfortune? Well, no wonder the Yellow-headed Git has you here.

    Well, no love lost there, it seems?

    Oh, boooy. Let's at least try to keep the discussion civil, huh?

    Nothing worth doing ever is.

    And things are just going to get weirder from here, aren't they? At least the two best people to sort this out are on the job. The one who wants to sort this shit out, and the one who can bring hope to this hopeless place... Let's hope they can pull it off without an upheaval as big as OL caused Olympus...
     
  26. Handlewithcare

    Handlewithcare Versed in the lewd.

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    Yikes.

    Every country has an ugly underbelly of course, though usually you don't see it quite this...explicitly.

    Though I wonder, if Paul changes and fixes things here what effect might that have on America? Maybe Boss Smiley shot himself in the foot with this one.

    Also, an Avatar of Greed and a Paragon of Hope are now stuck in America's collective suppressed subconsious.

    It feels very...topical.
     
  27. Cuchulin

    Cuchulin Versed in the lewd.

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    Got to agree with you there, as long as Alan can keep his hope up they are all but certain to make some major changes to the place. The bigger question is will it last? Because I can't see them making any real fundamental change to the place given it's nature.
     
  28. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Based on evidence available to the SI, it looks like Smiley grabbed the magic statue phone off her.
     
  29. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    Big Belly Burger was seemingly inspired by Bob's Big Boy and I'm not sure if O'Shaughnessy's is supposed to be a McDonald's expy despite both having ethnic names.

    I was limiting it to restaurants who I saw as bland name products for McDonald's.

    MacTavish is definitely one though, since it has a "MacBiggie" burger.
     
    Last edited: May 28, 2022
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  30. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    Ohh, this is hilarious.

    To be fair, it is surprising.
     
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