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

[Cuchulin]

"Alright, let me put it this way. Do you like eating bread?"

He frowns, clearly not knowing where I'm going with this. "I… Eat bread?"

"Do you like knowing that it's made of flour and not chalk?"

"What?"

"Chalk. Chalkies were a working class Victorian staple, and one of the causes of our first food anti-adulteration laws. Chalk was cheaper than actual flour, so bakers would add some to the dough to bulk it up."

Click to shrink...

I can confirm the bit about chalk, I've read about that in books about the Victorian era. Chalk and other crap was used to make bread with less flower, arsenic was used to make pickles green and glue as well as other crap was added to milk to make it look safe to drink.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Don't really have a use for this, so I guess I'll stick it here.

Spoiler: If Donna was the investigator

1st September 2013
07:01 GMT -5

I sit in the cab of the lorry, next to-.

I exhale, and turn to my driver.

"Okay, I have to ask: why do you-"

Donna Troy rolls her eyes, and huffs.

"-have a-?"

"I told you: we usually put Giganta on a low loader when we knock her out. Diana had to handle the police, so it made sense for me to get lessons."

I regard her very sceptically. "Yes, but I'm fairly sure that the police could find someone to do that, so while I respect your thoroughness I have to call bullshit."

She gives me a side-eyed glare. "Does it matter?"

"In the general scheme of things, no, but I am your boss at the moment."

"You mean I'm getting paid?"

"Of course you're getting paid."

"I mean, by you."

"Ah… Not directly. I own Cadbury as a sole proprietor, but Cadbury Logistics is a separate private limited company and they'll be paying you one you start working here."

She takes that in, then returns her attention to the work site ahead of us.

"So..?"

She sighs loudly, her shoulders drooping. "Okay, look. When I was… Younger, I… Got really into feminism."

"Okay?"

"And I know Amazons aren't really.. feminists by modern standards, but I really associated with the whole… Thing."

"Right?"

"And Dad's qualified as a truck driver, and there're basically no women truck drivers, so-. At the time, I thought that getting qualified was a strike against the patriarchy."

"Oh, okay. What did your dad think?"

"Oh, he thought it was great." She looks away a little awkwardly. "It was a bonding… Thing."

"And his colleagues?"

"Yes, okay, they were all really supportive. And it turns out that the reason why women don't want to be truck drivers isn't because we're not allowed, it's because it's physically and mentally tiring work, with long hours and poor pay and there's basically no social interaction, and if you're driving a dust cart the smell's really bad too."

"And women generally have better senses of smell than men."

"It's… Probably more that I didn't have a chance to go nose-blind, but it wasn't much fun."

"Well, that, ah… Does sound a little silly, but it resulted in personal growth and it's nothing compared to, you know, the giant Christmas cake."

"Okay, thanks, but-. Don't.. mention it to anyone else?"

"If you're.. that bothered about it, sure. So how did Kid Flash know about it?"

"I knew him when I was.. going through that patch. About a year before I met you? He didn't-. Get it, and at the time it kinda… Pissed me off."

"Lucky escape, there."

"Huh?"

"Based on his relationship with Artemis, I suspect that if you'd spoken to him a year later, he'd probably-."

She looks mildly unwell. "Oh, really?"

"I was surprised, too." Hm. "Actually, I should… Probably make more of an effort to get to know the Wests."

"They're.. nice people, but why in particular?"

"Future in-laws."

"Oh. Huh. I hadn't.. really thought about that." She taps the steering wheel. "Do you think he has?"

"I'm sure that I mentioned it… Once. But Jade and Artemis haven't actually spent all that much time with each other… Since Jade left home. They're not as close as.. you are with your niece."

"My-?" She frowns. "Diana's not my niece."

"Great great grand niece? If Hippolyta is the daughter of Ares, and Ares is-."

"No, because she's… 'Biologically' Gaea's daughter, which makes me her niece." She sits back in her seat. "Huh. I hadn't thought about that."

"And it makes Zeus your brother."

"And Cassandra's my niece. And I think we should stop there, because I.. know how Olympian family trees go. How's Deva getting on?"

"Do you want to see the images, or will you just take my word for it that she's having a whale of a time?"

"How.. much blood..?"

"Yes."

She grunts quietly in acknowledgement.

"To be fair, only deserving targets. We caught some of Grayven's people attempting to carry out a planetary extermination."

"I thought you were trying to get Grayven to focus on the Reach."

"Well, yes, but our whole justification is that we're preserving and restoring the civilisations which the Reach has enslaved and destroyed. If we see Grayven doing the same sort of thing we're not just going to hold our noses and ignore it. It would completely undermine our legitimacy."

"I don't… Really know how it works. Does legitimacy help?"

"Yes. Ah. We're probably overdoing it in simple utilitarian terms. I think most member worlds treat the Controllers' promise as empty, pleasant-sounding nonsense. They know that they'll help species in danger of getting overrun to evacuate, but until they actually… See them bring a species back, that's about as far as it goes. But if you can't even say nice things when it costs you nothing…" I shrug. "One interesting thing about taking the high road; we've had some defectors."

"From the Reach?"

"From the Green Lantern Corps. Because we're being as morally upstanding as possible, the Guardians can't try and say that we're in the wrong. Lanterns who saw their Sectors disappear or their species enslaved are getting irritated with their lack of support. Two tossed their rings and took ours. A third just quit and volunteered for reconstruction duty."

"Wouldn't the Guardians just let them do that?"

"No. Because the Reach haven't renounced their claim on that world, so it's part of the Reach, so if a Green Lantern goes in, it's an invasion. The Guardians are haemorrhaging moral legitimacy in our region of space as a result."

I check the time-.

"Alright, that's it." I pass Donna her schedule. "Here you go. Contact me after your first day."

 

[Ngamer11]

"Sure, you said that the guys your arrested weren't the original creators, right? So what's to stop someone picking up Hayden and starting it all up again? Or him doing it himself?"

Click to shrink...

That should say 'you'.

"Is that why you're not going to hard on these patches?"

Click to shrink...

That should say 'too'.

Don't really have a use for this, so I guess I'll stick it here.

Spoiler: If Donna was the investigator

1st September 2013
07:01 GMT -5

I sit in the cab of the lorry, next to-.

I exhale, and turn to my driver.

"Okay, I have to ask: why do you-"

Donna Troy rolls her eyes, and huffs.

"-have a-?"

"I told you: we usually put Giganta on a low loader when we knock her out. Diana had to handle the police, so it made sense for me to get lessons."

I regard her very sceptically. "Yes, but I'm fairly sure that the police could find someone to do that, so while I respect your thoroughness I have to call bullshit."

She gives me a side-eyed glare. "Does it matter?"

"In the general scheme of things, no, but I am your boss at the moment."

"You mean I'm getting paid?"

"Of course you're getting paid."

"I mean, by you."

"Ah… Not directly. I own Cadbury as a sole proprietor, but Cadbury Logistics is a separate private limited company and they'll be paying you one you start working here."

She takes that in, then returns her attention to the work site ahead of us.

"So..?"

She sighs loudly, her shoulders drooping. "Okay, look. When I was… Younger, I… Got really into feminism."

"Okay?"

"And I know Amazons aren't really.. feminists by modern standards, but I really associated with the whole… Thing."

"Right?"

"And Dad's qualified as a truck driver, and there're basically no women truck drivers, so-. At the time, I thought that getting qualified was a strike against the patriarchy."

"Oh, okay. What did your dad think?"

"Oh, he thought it was great." She looks away a little awkwardly. "It was a bonding… Thing."

"And his colleagues?"

"Yes, okay, they were all really supportive. And it turns out that the reason why women don't want to be truck drivers isn't because we're not allowed, it's because it's physically and mentally tiring work, with long hours and poor pay and there's basically no social interaction, and if you're driving a dust cart the smell's really bad too."

"And women generally have better senses of smell than men."

"It's… Probably more that I didn't have a chance to go nose-blind, but it wasn't much fun."

"Well, that, ah… Does sound a little silly, but it resulted in personal growth and it's nothing compared to, you know, the giant Christmas cake."

"Okay, thanks, but-. Don't.. mention it to anyone else?"

"If you're.. that bothered about it, sure. So how did Kid Flash know about it?"

"I knew him when I was.. going through that patch. About a year before I met you? He didn't-. Get it, and at the time it kinda… Pissed me off."

"Lucky escape, there."

"Huh?"

"Based on his relationship with Artemis, I suspect that if you'd spoken to him a year later, he'd probably-."

She looks mildly unwell. "Oh, really?"

"I was surprised, too." Hm. "Actually, I should… Probably make more of an effort to get to know the Wests."

"They're.. nice people, but why in particular?"

"Future in-laws."

"Oh. Huh. I hadn't.. really thought about that." She taps the steering wheel. "Do you think he has?"

"I'm sure that I mentioned it… Once. But Jade and Artemis haven't actually spent all that much time with each other… Since Jade left home. They're not as close as.. you are with your niece."

"My-?" She frowns. "Diana's not my niece."

"Great great grand niece? If Hippolyta is the daughter of Ares, and Ares is-."

"No, because she's… 'Biologically' Gaea's daughter, which makes me her niece." She sits back in her seat. "Huh. I hadn't thought about that."

"And it makes Zeus your brother."

"And Cassandra's my niece. And I think we should stop there, because I.. know how Olympian family trees go. How's Deva getting on?"

"Do you want to see the images, or will you just take my word for it that she's having a whale of a time?"

"How.. much blood..?"

"Yes."

She grunts quietly in acknowledgement.

"To be fair, only deserving targets. We caught some of Grayven's people attempting to carry out a planetary extermination."

"I thought you were trying to get Grayven to focus on the Reach."

"Well, yes, but our whole justification is that we're preserving and restoring the civilisations which the Reach has enslaved and destroyed. If we see Grayven doing the same sort of thing we're not just going to hold our noses and ignore it. It would completely undermine our legitimacy."

"I don't… Really know how it works. Does legitimacy help?"

"Yes. Ah. We're probably overdoing it in simple utilitarian terms. I think most member worlds treat the Controllers' promise as empty, pleasant-sounding nonsense. They know that they'll help species in danger of getting overrun to evacuate, but until they actually… See them bring a species back, that's about as far as it goes. But if you can't even say nice things when it costs you nothing…" I shrug. "One interesting thing about taking the high road; we've had some defectors."

"From the Reach?"

"From the Green Lantern Corps. Because we're being as morally upstanding as possible, the Guardians can't try and say that we're in the wrong. Lanterns who saw their Sectors disappear or their species enslaved are getting irritated with their lack of support. Two tossed their rings and took ours. A third just quit and volunteered for reconstruction duty."

"Wouldn't the Guardians just let them do that?"

"No. Because the Reach haven't renounced their claim on that world, so it's part of the Reach, so if a Green Lantern goes in, it's an invasion. The Guardians are haemorrhaging moral legitimacy in our region of space as a result."

I check the time-.

"Alright, that's it." I pass Donna her schedule. "Here you go. Contact me after your first day."

Click to shrink...

Is the info here, like about Donna's ultra-feminism phase and GLs defecting to the OLC, canon in the Paragon timeline?

 

[Darko]

They're not as close as.. you are with your niece."

"My-?" She frowns. "Diana's not my niece."

"Great great grand niece? If Hippolyta is the daughter of Ares, and Ares is-."

"No, because she's… 'Biologically' Gaea's daughter, which makes me her niece." She sits back in her seat. "Huh. I hadn't thought about that."

"And it makes Zeus your brother."

"And Cassandra's my niece. And I think we should stop there, because I.. know how Olympian family trees go.

Click to shrink...

Don't try to make sense of a divine family tree.

We caught some of Grayven's people attempting to carry out a planetary extermination."

"I thought you were trying to get Grayven to focus on the Reach."

Click to shrink...

The people he was trying to exterminate could have been a mind controlled society.

Wouldn't the Guardians just let them do that?"

Click to shrink...

"Would the"

 

[Someguy Somewhere]

Been a while since we've encountered this one...seemed half decent, but I don't know how well dumping earth insanity on to them is going aid their mental health.....Hope Cadbury's Medical covered alien shrinks.

 

[Duke Long]

"Now, the first corporate war, that was interesting." She takes her seat, setting the tray down on the desk and then passing a glass to me. I take it from her and nod for her to continue. "Someone… Probably the psions, started handing out faster than light drives like it was a bankruptcy auction. A great many of our larger corporations decided that moving to places… Planets in some cases, without Emana's 'restrictive anti-business laws', as in their best interests."

Click to shrink...

'was'

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

4th September 2013
10:12 GMT -5

"…adding inspectors to cut down on contraband." I nod as Oliver goes through the initial report. "And I gotta resign right after."

Huh. "Ah. If you… Want to. May I ask 'why'?"

Click to shrink...

At a guess? He's not comfortable in the boardroom in general, even back in the day when he ran Queen industries. Much more comfortable running around with a green bow and arrow.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

He smiles. "You can ask..."

"Okay. Why?"

Click to shrink...

Asking does not mean he'll answer, but I suspect he does want to talk about it.

He sighs, slumping slightly in his seat, his eyes drifting away from me. "Look, I took this job because you wanted someone to keep an eye on Cadbury when you weren't around. Non-exec director, sure, I can do one day a week without it cutting into my-." He takes a moment to consider where we are. "LARPing time, but this… This isn't just me keeping tabs on things. You need someone who can do this full time, and that's not me."

Click to shrink...

I like that's become his go-to excuse for his idle time. Wonder if people decided he's got some superhero cosplay group going on.

I nod. "Yeah, that's fair enough. Would you agree to keep doing the Cadbury Chocolate side of things, so long as I get someone else for the Logistics side?"

"Yeah, I appreciate the offer, but the thing is? I wanted to increase my LARPing time anyway. The chocolate-. Okay, I admit you're right about the chocolate quality, but it's not really…"

Click to shrink...

Ha, good to see Ollie came around on that end.

"It's not so good that it's vital to the wellbeing of the planet."

He nods. "So I was justifying sticking around because the logistics stuff is, but…"

Click to shrink...

Though honestly, how vital is him and his pointy-stick launcher to running the planet? I suppose his organisational skills are more helpful, but he still does prefer to do them in green long-johns.

He shrugs, and I nod.

"Yeah. Do you have any suggestions on your successor?"

Click to shrink...

Someone prepared to deal with crazy shit, because this got weird, for one thing...

"Not… Really. Your representative on the board should be someone you've got a good working relationship with. Or at least someone you trust with that authority. If you don't know anyone, I can give you the name of a few reliable commercial law firms who could get someone for you."

Click to shrink...

And while OL has options for making sure of a person's loyalty and trustworthiness, not all of them are morally viable.

"Do you think Alan could do it?"

He looks confused for a moment. "Alan… Scott..?"

"He used to run the Gotham Broadcasting Company."

Click to shrink...

Ah, having to pretend not to know other capes in their civilian identities...

"Isn't he… About a hundred years old?"

"Ninety-. Yes."

"The business world has changed a little since he was-. When did he retire?"

Click to shrink...

Quite a bit more cut0throat, I would imagine. Some things never change, though.

"About twenty years ago."

"Right. And I got the feeling that he'd rather spend all his time 'LARPing', too."

Click to shrink...

He does have quite a good Green Lantern cosplay, yes. The World War II one, that is.

"Probably. So…"

"I don't think it's a great idea, but you could always talk to him about it. No one else you could ask?"

Click to shrink...

Sadly, all the corporate types he knows are either too busy with their own business or not people he can trust.

"How many experienced former company chairmen do you think I know? Apart from you and Alan… Alexander Luthor?"

"Lex-with-hair? I think he's busy. Whatever happened to that… Lord-Lantern-?"

Click to shrink...

Manga Khan? Oh my god, imagine that hilarity.

I cringe. "Don't even joke about that. I'll-. I'll think about it. I assume that the rest of the board will be fine with the increased security?"

"Given the number of Justice League contracts we've got, I asked the League to send a request to our security department instead. I'll explain things to the rest of the board during the next meeting."

Click to shrink...

Just point out that there was an illicit magical narcotic being smuggled right under everyone's noses and go from there.

"Okay." I lean back slightly. "And that pretty much shuts it down, because there aren't alternate routes. And as far as I can tell from the people going through detox, it isn't chemically addictive."

"Sure, you said that the guys your arrested weren't the original creators, right? So what's to stop someone picking up Hayden and starting it all up again? Or him doing it himself?"

Click to shrink...

Somehow, I think the smiling bastard has ruled this out as a viable ploy. And Psycho-Pirate is in the wind, either in his clutches or at loose in general.

"The answer is nothing, except that they've already lost the ability to transport their product long distance. It wouldn't make sense."

"You have met supervillains, right? And drug pushers."

I nod. "I take your point, which is why the investigation will continue until we find him."

Click to shrink...

Yeah, rational sensibility isn't their strong point in most cases. If it was, they wouldn't be in their chosen line of work.

"You don't wanna hold off on the increased security while you work? Might make it a bit easier to find things, if they just wait for the heat to die down and then try setting up again with new patsies."

"No. Because if something like this was being smuggled, I'm sure that other things were as well. We should probably have done something like this a while ago."

Click to shrink...

In their defence, they've kind of been winging it as far as assembling the whole setup goes.

"We needed to expand. You know what things were looking like-."

"Yes, but things haven't been 'desperate' for a few months. We've had time…"

"Yeah. Yeah, I guess…"

Click to shrink...

But not the motivation before now.

"Cocaine production is way down, but heroin is still moving around, along with things like fentanyl and other synthetics. We can't do much to stop fentanyl production, but we can at least stop suppliers moving things around using us." Heh. "Honestly, I suspect drug dealers are extremely eager for transportation networks to go back to normal."

Click to shrink...

Probably easier to exploit, for sure. They know all the old loopholes and tricks they used to smuggle via those methods. Dolmen Gates? Much harder to sneak around.

"And… What about other stuff?"

"Other stuff? You mean like L.S.D.?"

"I was thinking of weed."

Click to shrink...

Ah, less outright harmful things. Potentially abusable but manageable in controlled circumstances.

"Honestly, I don't really care about it beyond the fact that us deciding to transport it further undermines the governments which have banned it. And the obvious problem with it suddenly becoming 'Justice League approved weed'. " He snorts, but nods. "We've only just gotten to the point where we can start building new dolmen gates, I don't want to put effort into moving recreational substances over vital ones."

Click to shrink...

Indeed. The world isn't back to 100% stability yet. And may not be for some time yet.

"Is that why you're not going to hard on these patches?"

"Wallace West isn't interested in producing them, but I think there's potential in a side effect free pick me up. If we can work out how to produce them without the exotic side effects, and without sucking juice out of Mister Hayden. Alright. Unless there's anything else, I need to start interviewing for your replacement."

Click to shrink...

Perhaps look up some Atlanteans for it?

4th September 2013
18:02 GMT

The former High Conciliator of Emana glances up at me as I appear in her office, bypassing the force fields and guards. She takes me in for a moment, then looks mildly disappointed. "I was hoping for an assassin."

Click to shrink...

Huh, not the strangest reaction to OL's arrival I've ever seen. But given what she went through, I'm not surprised.

"Why?"

"Deposed leaders tend not to last long in Vega."

I frown. "You did all you could-."

Click to shrink...

At least they didn't just kill her. Presumably because of OL's assistance?

"And sometimes that's not enough. The surviving consortia-alliances have agreed to a peace deal with the Vega Alliance, but there are a great many former corporate leaders who are now nearly powerless and such people are not prone to rationality. After all the damage that happened I couldn't remain in office, especially not if the Alliance forces us to reform our government." She relaxes slightly. "Why are you here, Orange Lantern?"

Click to shrink...

Huh. So she suddenly finds herself with considerable free time? How convenient.

"What are your future employment opportunities here like?"

"Non-existent. I was lucky they agreed to pension me off."

"Then how would you like to work for me?"

Click to shrink...

I assume OL will handle any paperwork involved in a working Visa on Earth...

Quite a way to go for a trustworthy but skilled replacement for Ollie. At the least, she's probably going to be very happy to be as far from here as she could get while all this post-war stuff is settling down. Not sure how the rest of the board will respond to an alien taking up OL's seat on the board, but it's surely not the weirdest thing they've had to handle these days.

 

[BlackCoat13]

"Sure, you said that the guys your arrested weren't the original creators, right?

Click to shrink...

you