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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. Maxx Crowley

    Maxx Crowley I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Yep....this cautious, pondering OL is getting annoying. I'm actually wondering if his mind wasn't tinkered with when he was resurrected.
     
  2. RichardWhereat

    RichardWhereat Aia airëa Fëanáro.

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    You're not wrong. Why isn't he jumping into events having skydived to conclusions and acting on those, instead of taking the time to figure shit out before acting?

    Can't believe he's learning.
     
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  3. Maxx Crowley

    Maxx Crowley I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Learn what? 4 Green Lanterns have been puttering around on earth for years. OL himself spent a full year zapping around and...nothing? Nothing at all. So what shit does he have to figure out?

    Oh, and what set all this off? Boss Smiley. Yeah, there is a trustworthy source.
     
  4. Sceptic

    Sceptic Critical Irrationalist

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    Learning? What kind of weirdo does things like that?!?

    So, are we starting a "bring back shōnen protagonist Paul" whining campaign or what? (I'd rather not go to the trouble of designing t-shirts if we're just going to be mature or something. Ugh.)
     
  5. Prince Charon

    Prince Charon Just zis guy, you know?

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    Given how loooong(cat) this fic is, no-one can reasonably blame you for that.
     
  6. Sceptic

    Sceptic Critical Irrationalist

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    Perhaps, but we're the With This Ring readership, dammit! We're not going to let a little thing like reasonableness stop us from doing something we want to do!
     
  7. AidanMorgan

    AidanMorgan Essentially Overworked

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    Something something Yuki Yuna is a Hero light novels. Though I really don't think that giving everyone access to the HERO System, even without Trump Cards and/or Mankai, would turn out nearly as well as it did there.

    The presence of a common enemy does a lot to unify people, though, so maybe it would work well during the Reach invasion.

    Maybe have it so that the Justice League can unlock it during times of worldwide crisis...

    Seriously, though, having JL auxiliaries who are given Hero Dials in times of crisis is actually a good idea. Train a bunch of police officers in their use, with strict accountability on that use, and that could be a huge boon. Depending on if they can be manufactured, or duplicated at all, it might even be a solution to the problem of metahuman response teams being hella expensive and out of the reach of most places smaller than Metropolis.

    Sure is a lucky break for John, isn't it?

    Almost like his magical bloodline is bullshit levels of luck.
     
  8. 9adam4

    9adam4 No emotion, only "peace"

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    This is called Chesterton's Fence. Never take down a fence until you know why it was there in the first place.

    Power fantasies and rational fic tend to violate this principle a fair bit. It's nice when the author introduces hidden consequences when reformers don't pay attention to why things were done the way they were. (It's come up a couple of times in Delphic as well.)
     
  9. Pinklestia

    Pinklestia Well worn.

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    *****I am the Scintillating Psionist! Give me the information I want or everyone here dies!***

    "RING, BRAND!"

    Branding has been used enough by him, right?
     
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2019
  10. NeoVictorian

    NeoVictorian Your first time is always over so quickly, isn't it?

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    Though.. what phone system uses a six digit phone number? Default, for the USA at least, is seven digits.

    C'mon, go full old OL and PA system 'everyone find a land line and dial 4376!'
     
  11. Maxx Crowley

    Maxx Crowley I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Better not. He's only done it a couple dozen times. No idea what effect it could be having on the wider universe.
     
  12. Pinklestia

    Pinklestia Well worn.

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    Not worse that other mild forms of mind control. Is not Assimilation after all.
     
  13. Impartial Panic

    Impartial Panic I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    There's an app for that
    "Oh for the love of..."

    "So I took some of your ideas to heart and now chaos is going 5G"

    "Damn it Eris!"
     
  14. Maxx Crowley

    Maxx Crowley I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    But the possible unknown effects!
     
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  15. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    None of those Green Lanterns used their FTL in Earth's atmosphere.

    Further the Green Light is a lot more stable then the Orange light, and unlike Paul they have modern rings that could very well have safety devices/programing Paul's 2 old timey rings lack.
     
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  16. Coda

    Coda Versed in the lewd.

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    At least in Zoat's canon, the Green Lanterns have totally been using Transition.
     
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  17. Maxx Crowley

    Maxx Crowley I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    If OL was a shonen hero the he would have at LEAST 3 different (generic) super forms by now. Plus, he would have discarded the power of Avarice for....bravery or something. Plus, his HP gauge is clearly not covered by your standard DETERMINATION! shield. Otherwise the War Angel would not have been able to kill him....have to get past the DETERMINATION! first.

    Flash rockets around at FTL speeds constantly, vibrating through solid matter. Nabu, and other magic users, teleport around as they please. Nabu having an entire magical tower that gets teleported all over the place. To say nothing of the Dolomin gates.

    I'm reasonably certain that Guy can, and now does, use transitions like OL does. Either way, the only reason that they didn't, was that they didn't know how. Furthermore, if OL transitioning was ripping apart the fabric of reality then I'm fairly certain that the Guardians would have sent him a memo by now. They HAVE been watching him since the Blume incident at least.

    The Gimme-port is just another teleportation technique, one Hinon already cleared, where OL steps into, and out of, the Hodun of Avarice that the Ophidian showed him.

    Finally, all this doom and sunder was brought up by who? Boss Smiley. A lying liar who lies. One who, if actually real, clearly wants OL to BE LESS EFFECTIVE at what he is doing.

    At this point, I can only figure that some sort of mental suggestion was stuck into OL's rebuilt brain.

    And on a list of what the hell happened. Next to Hades and the Angel's little chat...just what happened with the Ophidian sensing both OL's death, and probably rebirth. She just head back to Maltus? She loses her favorite thing, and doesn't even check up on it?
     
  18. Yog

    Yog Know what you're doing yet?

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    The biggest (And quite compelling too) evidence that transitioning with people is not harmful is that the green lantern ring Paul assimilated did not ever object to him doing so. If transition = harm, Green Lanterns would not be allowed to use it (with passengers), and would at least remark to it. And no, "human GLs are ignorant" is not an excuse, because GLs from other planets visited Earth and observed Paul.

    Personally, I choose to believe that Paul's head was messed with by Boss Smiley, and, since BS hasn't been caught and got away with it, he's still under the influence.
     
  19. The Slumbering Crocodile

    The Slumbering Crocodile Sleeping in the mud

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    It could just be that, since green has a minimal impact on one's psychology, the effect from green transitions is negligible enough that the Guardians don't consider it worth a warning. That isn't necessarily the case for a transition from the much more psychologically impactful orange light.

    Boss Smiley "messed" with Paul's head, sure, but that doesn't mean mind control. Simply planting the idea in his head that it could be harmful, which can be done simply through talking, would have both the demonstrated effect and would match Boss Smiley's visible actions.
     
  20. Yog

    Yog Know what you're doing yet?

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    1) Guardians were very strict about messing with people's minds, even calming someone forcefully (ie the most likely effect of green light exposure) is considered forbidden - this is shown on-screen in this story
    2) Let's not confuse "universal teleport by stepping out into the realm of avarice" and "lantern FTL transitioning". As far as I know, the second one is the same for all lantern colors.

    It might be as simple as that, yes.
     
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  21. Sceptic

    Sceptic Critical Irrationalist

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    Or they consider it a minor but beneficial side effect that's not worth mentioning.
     
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  22. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    Actually Flash is only supposed to approach Light speed in YJ, not equal it, much less exceed it.

    Moving on, while Zoat might not include either option, in the comics people who use the dials internalize the power.

    For the Robbie Reed dial, that was shown as a pseudo-metagene effect- Fight or Flight situations will cause the person to manifest a fraction of the powers of their transformations.

    Robbie Reed was running around with dozens if not hundreds of powers, all at a fraction of their original strength.

    This was not a function of time of use, just use, apparently if you use the dial just once you can potentially manifest a weaker version of the power.

    For the Chris and Vicki dials, well actually their transformations were similar but not identical. Vicki became superstrong, fast, and tough (She can go toe to toe with Starfire in her human form), and can transform without a dial. Chris builds up an hourly charge and then must transform on the hour, I understand he gets a suit from STAR Labs to control it, but unlike the Vicki and Robbie things I didn't actually read that storyline.

    This seemed to be a function of long term use, since people who used the dials for lesser periods were never shown to gain this effect.

    Considering Zoat kept Robbie's adventures in the 60s instead of using the DC sliding timeline, if Zoat is using either option there might be quite a few people who gained permanent abilities over the decades.


    Basically already shown in DC. In DC 1 Million, superpowers are downloaded off of the telepathic internet like phone apps.

    Luther Luther downloaded Superman's powers to celebrate Superman coming out of his self imposed exile from the Sun.

    He also downloaded "Lex Luther's powers," which is odd, since DC wasn't even using the mad scientist version of Lex at the time. So maybe he got the powers of a Kryptonian and a businessman. shrugs
     
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  23. Siskulous

    Siskulous Know what you're doing yet?

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    Learning I can see. Suddenly being overly cautious though? That seems REALLY out of character. I mean seriously, you're talking about the guy who recruited a weaponer to his corps and whose antics leave gods and Maltusians worrying about what he's going to do next. Somehow I think someone must have messed with his head. And if they didn't then Eris is gonna be pissed at him.
     
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  24. Itypeslow

    Itypeslow Corpses for the Corpse God!

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    "as he reads me over"

    This should probably be: "leads"
     
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  25. Sceptic

    Sceptic Critical Irrationalist

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    Does a fatal stab through the face count as messing with his head?
     
  26. Ganurath

    Ganurath Apologizes For Nothing

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    It'd certainly be causing for a splitting headache.
     
  27. Maxx Crowley

    Maxx Crowley I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    I think the burning sensation is what really did it.
     
  28. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    I'm sure there are creams for that... Something orange-flavoured, even?
     
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  29. Maxx Crowley

    Maxx Crowley I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    That's what you'd think, but I hear it's a real killer. Next thing you know, your skin's all pebbled and I hear the shedding is atrocious.
     
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  30. Threadmarks: Z-E-R-O (part 18)
    Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    2nd January
    15:15 GMT -7


    "You're the what?"

    Wait. Someone with superpowers and a stupid name suddenly appears. Was.. the librarian whose name I didn't get the guy all along?

    **I am the Scintillating Psionist and you will respect me!**

    Pale pink lights shimmer under the skin of his brain and-. People stop running, their bodies locking up.

    **Answer my question!**

    "Okay. No need to do anything hasty."

    Neural chaff grenades as a possibility, but against a non-standard neural structure I can't be confident they would work. And the few nonhumanoid telepaths on record are noted as being able to do things with their abilities that humanoids flat out can't. Star Conquerors couldn't function with humanoid minds, and M'gann's abilities have come on in leaps and bounds since she stopped restricting herself.

    Worse, I don't know what would happen to the people he's connected to. There are ways to accidentally fry people's brains when you're hooked up like this. To say nothing of the neural programs that he could have inserted. Doing things like that should take years to learn, but whatever else the dial does it appears to give at least some people an intuitive understanding of what they can do.

    "I don't know who has the dial. The last person I know of who had it was so surprised by their transformation that they accidentally threw it off a bridge, and we haven't been able to find it since."

    The 'Scintillating Psionist' considers this for a moment.

    **Reveal your mind to me!**

    Selective revelation is possible against a humanoid telepath. Or at least I could stick my barriers back up if something untoward was happening. Against a being like this… I don't like my chances of pulling something like that off.

    "Why?"

    **I want the dial!**

    I squint. No, no you don't. You want something, but it isn't the dial.

    "Okay, if you have some sort of documented proof that it's your property, I'll return it to you just as soon as the current user has disconnected themselves."

    **Unacceptable! Who dares to use the dial!?**

    "They didn't realise what it was. And they very much want to stop using it. They didn't mean to offend you, and I'm sure they're very sorry about the whole situation."

    **The dial is useless while they use its power!**

    That's a relief. We don't have to worry about a mad serial killer getting hold of it or something.

    "Then you've got every reason to want them to disconnect willingly, haven't you?"

    **I will have the truth from your mind!**

    "Looking into my mind wouldn't show you the difference between false memories and genuine ones."

    I take a hologram projector out of subspace and… Create an image of Mr Hamill's current form, taking care to alter her facial appearance.

    "The woman in question came to the Justice League looking like this."

    Another wave of colour passes under the brain's… 'Skin'. Any observable-?

    I spot a woman who had been frozen between steps regain at least some ability to move as she looks up in growing horror at…

    Ring, what is the librarian's name?

    Local government personnel records list him as 'Jonathan Dow'.

    Jon Do-? Really. How long has he worked here?

    Approximately thirty years.

    Fair enough, then. The woman looks up at me for a moment, and I make an urgent 'push away' gesture with my right hand. She takes the hint and starts creeping away from our confrontation, and I notice a handful of others doing the same. Good. I don't know what sort of range Mr Dow has, but if they can get out of it then-.

    **I can't find her!**

    Everyone freezes again, and I don't think it's from fear. How much range does he have? A telepathic life form of that size… Star Conquerors with brains that size were proved to be able to operate across a continent…

    "Yes. The dial grants powers at random, doesn't it? I found it had several curious interactions with my rings. I did wonder if it was perhaps due to transformed individuals not being there in the conventional sense."

    **Where is she?!**

    "Mister Dow-."

    **I am the Scintillating Psionist now!**

    "Scintillating Psionist, why do you want to know where she is?"

    **So that I can recover the Dial!**

    "And then what?"

    **That is not your concern!**

    "Scintillating Psionist, I'm perfectly happy to return your property to you, but I can't in good conscience give you the location of someone you're simply going to attack. If you would like to accompany us during our search, we'd be happy to have you along. And as I've said, if you can prove that you own the dial then we will return it to you."

    **Give! Me! The! D-!**

    "Oh God, Jon, what have you done to yourself?"

    A woman stares out from the hole in the wall in horror. That would be… Patricia Birchall, the other librarian.

    **I am completing our mission! The Dial belongs to the Master!**

    I check, and a portion of the crowd are once again trying to make themselves scarce. Okay, good. He isn't facing my way but… Yes, I can feel the weak telekinetic field he's using in place of sensory organs. What do I do? I could try suppressing his desires, but I don't know if he'd realise what I was doing. And frankly his desire network looks weird.

    "Jon, it's been decades-."

    **That doesn't matter! I can't live like this any more!**

    Ring, can we… Analyse his current physiology?

    Analysis complete.

    Oh great, even my ring isn't sure how that thing is functioning. Okay, assume that a lot of the work is offloaded onto whatever dial he just used… I just need to shut down his telepathy.

    "Jon, just-. Just use the dial again, and we can sort this out."

    Reconfiguring neural shock generator, ready filament-based area evacuation.

    Compliance.

    **You're just distracting me.** The brain turns back in my direction. Is the telepathy direction-restricted? **TELL ME WHERE IT-!**

    I trigger the generator.
     
    Last edited: May 21, 2019
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