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

[Darko]

Remember Justin? He was a scary guy, wasn't he?

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As scary as any fanatic.

It occurred to me that a mimbari reading Small Gods by Terry Pratchett would find the fact that Vorbis sat in the desert for 100 years to be utterly hilarious

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Makes sense, given their sense of humor revolves around attempts and failures at spiritual growth.

 

[Mr Zoat]

As scary as any fanatic.

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The joke is that in-universe he's a really big deal, the lynchpin of the shadows' operations in human space and an important political operator in his own right. In the series, he's that old man Sheridan talks to for two minutes before doing something he'd planned to do anyway. Also... Was his name mentioned in the series? I don't remember it. I learned it from the card game.

 

[mastermenthe]

Remember Justin? He was a scary guy, wasn't he?

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I had forgot he even existed.

It occurred to me that a mimbari reading Small Gods by Terry Pratchett would find the fact that Vorbis sat in the desert for 100 years to be utterly hilarious.

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Why would they find it funny?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Why would they find it funny?

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Makes sense, given their sense of humor revolves around attempts and failures at spiritual growth.

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Basically, Vorbis dies and is no longer able to delude himself that he's hearing Om's voice. And then rather than start walking (everyone else who dies in the story is shown taking the initiative regarding their new location) he just sits down, unable to function, for a hundred years. He only starts moving when Brutha dies and starts helping him, as he did earlier when they were stuck in the desert together.

 

[Vaermina]

It appears to be a large mechanical sphere.

The only races that consistently use it are the pak'ma'ra and the Gaim.

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Translator's are standard equipment, however verbal one's are limited to single languages while text based one's tend to cover any written language in their database.

Translator: A translator, or translation device, contains
a sophisticated expert system capable of translating one
language into another, complete with inflection and idioms
as appropriate. These devices are generally either handheld
or hung from the neck of the wearer. Each translator
functions for eight hours using an internal power supply.
It can translate to and from two specific languages (e.g.
an English/Gaim translator or an EnglishNree translator).

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I'm still waiting for a Vault Dwelling for Sanity and Profit (Fallout/SI) update.

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Or you could check out the much better written Star Trek and Stargate story's I'm writing.

That's one of the nifty things about B5 - a lot of things aren't technologically handwaved away. Things are either visibly complex and difficult like the translator, or are simply all but absent - for instance, IIRC only the Abbai had energy shields for their ships, everyone else - including, as I recall, the Vorlons and Shadows - used armor.

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The Abbai have gravitic shields, the Vorlon's use electromagnetic shields, the White Star's also have electromagnetic shields.

The Shadows have personnel energy shields, however their ships use energy diffusers to radiate impacting energy off into hyperspace.

And the Minbari sort of have nascent gravitic shields that do weird things to sensors.

I'm guessing that unlike the main storyline Paul this one isn't in the habit of acquiring databases and doing planet scale sweeps with his ring as standard procedure? Because if he is, I expect Vorlon ship data warfare countermeasures to at least notice, if not be able to stall the ring. Not to mention the possibility of active Glow manipulation being noticeable by itself.

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Non-swarm Vorlon ships have pieces of Vorlons in them, so that would end very badly for Paul.

Also, with all the Shadow tech floating around it is really really bad idea to go around randomly downloading databases.

 

[GhostKing 666]

IIRC only the Abbai had energy shields for their ships, everyone else

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Among the Younger Races, the Abbai are the only ones that put gravitic shields on all their ships. The Brakiri also have the technology(they managed to get it from the Abbai), but it's owned by one of their megacorps so only ships built by said megacorp have gravitic shields.

The Drakh are a Middle Born race though and do have their own version of gravitic shields.

And the Hyach have their own version of shield technology, called Harmonic shields, that are the only ones that block lasers(but nothing else).

As for the Vorlons, they prefer EM shields and living adaptive armor, which is what the White Star with its Vorlon technology uses.

And the Minbari sort of have nascent gravitic shields that do weird things to sensors.

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Minbari Jammers aren't a shield, though they are similar. It uses a gravity field to deflect and bend sensors around and away from the ship. Similar principle but used in a different way.

 

[Vaermina]

The Drakh are a Middle Born race though and do have their own version of gravitic shields.

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Ah right, forgot about the Drakh.

As for the Vorlons, they prefer EM shields and living adaptive armor, which is what the White Star with its Vorlon technology uses.

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Vorlon adaptive armor is actually really impressive, it actually learns as you shoot it and changes to better deflect the specific weapons being used again it.

Minbari Jammers aren't a shield, though they are similar. It uses a gravity field to deflect and bend sensors around and away from the ship. Similar principle but used in a different way.

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Not just sensors, they also bend viable light in a way that makes Minbari ships appear to be in a slightly different location then they actually are.

 

[Frozen20XX]

Unrelated to the above comments:

I have added it.

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Hey, so question: since an Ask Greg from S4 confirmed Dinah 16 is an actual qualified therapist (not sure if an earlier Ask Greg mentioned this fact) would that make Paulphidian's call out of her a case of Hilarious in Hindsight or Harsher in Hindsight; since it means that retroactively she was qualified?

 

[Someguy Somewhere]

Could be she became a qualified therapist in this universe AFTER having it pointed out. Actually the Ask Greg never gives a time frame on when she got her qualifications.

 

[GhostKing 666]

@Mr Zoat, quick question. Will you're version of Omega Destroyers only have the weapons depicted in the show, or will it have its full intended arsenal?

For those that don't know the story, due to CGI budget limitations at the time, for the first several seasons they were unable to showcase the Omega's full capabilities. But after Season 3, B5 ended up switching to a different CGI company and either because of design copyright or ignorance, the Omega's "hidden" capabilities were never shown.

First off, the Earth Alliance's signature combination "Laser-Pulse" cannons were originally intended as an Omega's "light" weapons.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YYBjIbs4bPc
The row of hatches you can see on the Omega behind and in front of the rotating section were actually a whole bunch of missile silos meant to be fired in a way invocative of a broadside barrage.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGyjqRZiHEU

Second, those two odd ovals you see at the front of the Omega beneath the flight bay are actually gigaton energy mine* launchers, a type of Narn technology the EA bought from the Narn during the Minbari War(at jacked up prices of course).

View: https://youtu.be/JXDwMRb8DOA?t=74

And finally, those hatches you see at the very ends of the rotating section were supposed to be the Omega's version of B5's Cobra Launch bays,

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVhUcFgev-Q
Using the centrifugal force of the section's rotation to quick launch a full flight of Starfuries in moments.

*Energy Mines are basically barrels full of anti-protons being flung at the enemy, and you don't need much antimatter to create a gigaton level blast.

 

[BR549]

Meanwhile, since it's relevant and I was reminded by the third bit above...

The thing about Paul, being from Earth-Prime, not having a soul may be relevant to the B5 side-story. JMS stated that he intended things to be ambiguous as to whether the "souls" the Soul Hunters collect, and the Triluminary detects, were actually the classical-eternal-soul or something more traditional-sci-fi-ish, but given the preponderance of the evidence, it seems very likely that souls do, indeed, demonstratably exist in the B5 unverse, Beyond the Soul Hunters and the Triluminary, there's also the fact that one episode, as I recall, revolves around a Day of the Dead-esque observance in which it seems people are actually able to speak with deceased loved ones; Lochley's half of the Lost Tales special involves an energy being that is very heavily hinted at being an Actual Literal Demon from Earth....and - relevant to the third video above - there is a superstition, shared by almost all hyperspace-capable races, that if your ship is destroyed as it crosses the event horizon of a jump point, your soul is trapped in that moment, eternally exploding, for eternity.

While we're never given explicit evidence that this belief is true, in the battle that introduced the Shadow Battlecrabs (as the third video above shows), the Shadows went out of their way to destroy two Narn cruisers in exactly this fashion by torpedoing and destabilizing their jump points as they were attempting to escape...


Now, all that said, I'm not sure how this soul-less state will be relevant (perhaps the Soul Hunters attempt to 'harvest' him only for their machine to not go ding), but it seems plausible that it will at some point.

 

[Darko]

Meanwhile, since it's relevant and I was reminded by the third bit above...

The thing about Paul, being from Earth-Prime, not having a soul may be relevant to the B5 side-story. JMS stated that he intended things to be ambiguous as to whether the "souls" the Soul Hunters collect, and the Triluminary detects, were actually the classical-eternal-soul or something more traditional-sci-fi-ish, but given the preponderance of the evidence, it seems very likely that souls do, indeed, demonstratably exist in the B5 unverse, Beyond the Soul Hunters and the Triluminary, there's also the fact that one episode, as I recall, revolves around a Day of the Dead-esque observance in which it seems people are actually able to speak with deceased loved ones; Lochley's half of the Lost Tales special involves an energy being that is very heavily hinted at being an Actual Literal Demon from Earth....and - relevant to the third video above - there is a superstition, shared by almost all hyperspace-capable races, that if your ship is destroyed as it crosses the event horizon of a jump point, your soul is trapped in that moment, eternally exploding, for eternity.

While we're never given explicit evidence that this belief is true, in the battle that introduced the Shadow Battlecrabs (as the third video above shows), the Shadows went out of their way to destroy two Narn cruisers in exactly this fashion by torpedoing and destabilizing their jump points as they were attempting to escape...


Now, all that said, I'm not sure how this soul-less state will be relevant (perhaps the Soul Hunters attempt to 'harvest' him only for their machine to not go ding), but it seems plausible that it will at some point.

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Now I'm imagining them thinking that he stole those souls because he doesn't have one and wants to use the soul orbs to make up for that.

 

[Vaermina]

Meanwhile, since it's relevant and I was reminded by the third bit above...

The thing about Paul, being from Earth-Prime, not having a soul may be relevant to the B5 side-story. JMS stated that he intended things to be ambiguous as to whether the "souls" the Soul Hunters collect, and the Triluminary detects, were actually the classical-eternal-soul or something more traditional-sci-fi-ish, but given the preponderance of the evidence, it seems very likely that souls do, indeed, demonstratably exist in the B5 unverse, Beyond the Soul Hunters and the Triluminary, there's also the fact that one episode, as I recall, revolves around a Day of the Dead-esque observance in which it seems people are actually able to speak with deceased loved ones; Lochley's half of the Lost Tales special involves an energy being that is very heavily hinted at being an Actual Literal Demon from Earth....and - relevant to the third video above - there is a superstition, shared by almost all hyperspace-capable races, that if your ship is destroyed as it crosses the event horizon of a jump point, your soul is trapped in that moment, eternally exploding, for eternity.

While we're never given explicit evidence that this belief is true, in the battle that introduced the Shadow Battlecrabs (as the third video above shows), the Shadows went out of their way to destroy two Narn cruisers in exactly this fashion by torpedoing and destabilizing their jump points as they were attempting to escape...


Now, all that said, I'm not sure how this soul-less state will be relevant (perhaps the Soul Hunters attempt to 'harvest' him only for their machine to not go ding), but it seems plausible that it will at some point.

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Who said he doesn't have a soul?

Souls in Babylon 5 are distinctly different things then souls in DC comics.

 

[Mr Zoat]

28th September 2013
12:36 GMT -5

I have my ring feed the witness statements into my mind as I walk up the path towards Shadowcrest. Short term memory loss. They were all in Mount Dora for various reasons. Most were on their own, though there was one couple. No children, which is… Something. Face volunteered to liaise with Mount Dora police to see if they could find anything out, but Mister Tetch should be long gone. There's nothing unifying the victims other than they were in Mount Dora and wouldn't immediately be missed.

And Tetch sent them to get g-sanchong implanted. Why? Don't know. There are thousands of people with g-sanchong implanted. There's no… Central list, as far as I'm aware, but it wouldn't be hard to monitor people leaving the clinic. Or just the people who boast about it online.

Of course, he is called the Mad Hatter.

I reach the front door of Shadowcrest and reach out with my right fist to knock, only for the house to decide to play to type and open the door before my knuckles reach it.

"Very stereotypical. Please let Giovanni know that I'm here."

And then I walk inside, and-. Hah. The door starts to close behind me at a speed that would result in it closing just fast enough to catch my arse.

So I stop right in the doorway.

The door makes a mildly disappointed creak, and stops in turn.

"I thought not."

I transition forwards, and the door swings shut catching nothing but air. That was odd. As far as I know, Shadowcrest is a place of magical power but it isn't intelligent in its own right. Certainly, it never showed that sort of intelligence when I used to visit regularly. I suppose Giovanni might have… Changed the settings. Or maybe they bound some sort of spirit to the place.

"Ahoy the house!"

"We're in the library!"

I head through the foyer and down the corridor, through the indoor rock garden seating area and then into the grand library. Obviously, it's too large internally to fit within the external dimensions of the house, and just as obviously it's decorated by various magical knickknacks in warded glass cases.

"Hey Paul!"

I look up to see Zatanna waving from the second floor balcony, while Timothy just watches.

"Good afternoon, Zatanna. Hunter."

He cringes slightly. "You can just call me 'Tim'."

I smile. "So would you say-?"

He cringes more. "Yes, there are.. some who call me 'Tim'."

Zatanna blinks. "Is that a movie quote? Is this going to be like Cornwall Boy all over again?"

"Yes, yes it is. Do you know why the front door tried to grab my bottom?"

"Ah-uh… No..?"

Timothy straightens up slightly. "That was me."

"Uh… Huh?"

"I brought a pooka with me as a housewarming present. She really likes it here."

"Oh, ah, good. Please tell her that while I'm flattered, I'm not on the market."

"She can hear you."

"Ah." I look around the room, staring at nothing in particular. "Ma'am, I'm afraid that I'm not available."

A chair next to me jumps, the arm rest-. Oh, great, I'm being sexually harassed by furniture.

Timothy shrugs. "She can hear you. That doesn't mean that she cares what you say."

"Alright. Tell her that if she does it again we will eat her."

The chair falls over.

"She can still-." He nods. "Okay. Zoe, knock it off, alright?"

"Thank you."

Zatanna looks curious. "So what did you come here for? Planning on stealing my other student?"

"I called dibs."

"We already did this argument, Paul."

I take out a bag containing the crystals which had been mounted in the hats. "I need to find out where these came from. It'll probably be warded. If you can't do that-"

"Llafwols." Zatanna jumps over the balcony railing and drifts towards the ground floor.

"-then I'd like to know what sort of machinery they were around."

Timothy follows his mentor over the edge, wooden hands extending from the wood to carry him to the floor.

Zatanna approaches and takes the bag from me. "What's so special about them?"

"Jarvis Tetch used them in his latest generation mind control headwear."

"Is he branching out into magic?"

"I'm more worried about Lonnie Machin. One of the parallel universe versions of me I've met lived in a parallel where he used magically empowered crystals as part of a large scale brainwashing machine. Or… He called it an unbrainwashing machine, but it amounted to the same thing. Tetch hasn't used crystals in his technology before, and I'm concerned that he's collaborating."

"On a magic crystal brainwashing machine?" She sits down at a table and shakes the crystals out across the surface. "S'rellewej epuol."

A jeweller's magnifying monocle appears in the air in front of her and she takes a closer look at one of the crystals.

"Yes, he aligned them to parts of the moral compass and used that to compel everyone to become profoundly honest. Horrible situation."

"I can imagine."

Timothy wanders closer. "Can I take a look?"

"By all means."

Timothy reaches across the table and taps one of the crystals, which… Promptly sprouts arms and legs and stands up, facing him.

Huh?

He notices my surprise. "Earth elemental. If whatever Miss Zatara's planning doesn't work, we can try asking it."

"Can it talk?"

"You can't hear it?"

"Okay." Zatanna stands up, brushing the inanimate crystals back into the bag. "Tim, you should interrogate the elemental while Paul and I set up the ritual. Hopefully, this won't take too long."

 

[Darko]

Who said he doesn't have a soul?

Souls in Babylon 5 are distinctly different things then souls in DC comics.

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There really isn't a definite definition of what qualifies as a soul, or how it's made in DC comics, so Zoat can just make it so that the B5 Paul is also soulless.

 

[Vaermina]

There really isn't a definite definition of what qualifies as a soul, or how it's made in DC comics, so Zoat can just make it so that the B5 Paul is also soulless.

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There is a definite defination of a soul in Zoat's DC AU however.

And its related to magic and distinctly different from souls in Babylon 5.

 

[GhostKing 666]

Meanwhile, since it's relevant and I was reminded by the third bit above...

The thing about Paul, being from Earth-Prime, not having a soul may be relevant to the B5 side-story. JMS stated that he intended things to be ambiguous as to whether the "souls" the Soul Hunters collect, and the Triluminary detects, were actually the classical-eternal-soul or something more traditional-sci-fi-ish, but given the preponderance of the evidence, it seems very likely that souls do, indeed, demonstratably exist in the B5 unverse, Beyond the Soul Hunters and the Triluminary, there's also the fact that one episode, as I recall, revolves around a Day of the Dead-esque observance in which it seems people are actually able to speak with deceased loved ones; Lochley's half of the Lost Tales special involves an energy being that is very heavily hinted at being an Actual Literal Demon from Earth....and - relevant to the third video above - there is a superstition, shared by almost all hyperspace-capable races, that if your ship is destroyed as it crosses the event horizon of a jump point, your soul is trapped in that moment, eternally exploding, for eternity.

While we're never given explicit evidence that this belief is true, in the battle that introduced the Shadow Battlecrabs (as the third video above shows), the Shadows went out of their way to destroy two Narn cruisers in exactly this fashion by torpedoing and destabilizing their jump points as they were attempting to escape...


Now, all that said, I'm not sure how this soul-less state will be relevant (perhaps the Soul Hunters attempt to 'harvest' him only for their machine to not go ding), but it seems plausible that it will at some point.

Click to shrink...

Souls exist, the Vorlons scientifically proved it.

Using the telepathic technology acquired from the Mindriders(that was based on the Mindrider's natural abilities), the Vorlons discovered that some element of sentience survived the death of the body. The energy of the mind rejoined the universe, but in all known dimensions. The mind's energy did not merely exhaust itself as electrical activity in the brain but also impacted time/space around the body, the corresponding region of hyperspace and the folded sub-dimensions that underlie all reality. The Vorlons developed a mathamatics of the soul and the discovered that other, even higher dimensions were implied by their equations.

In short, the Vorlons scientifically proved the existence of the soul and discovered it was going somewhere after death. For a lesser race, this would have been a religious revelation; even a mid-born race would have had trouble integrating this fact. The Vorlons took it in their stride, which was either extreme confidence or absurd hubris. They then applied their vast engineering knowledge to the problem and developed a method to punching a hole into this higher dimension.

Then they switched the gateways on.

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In case you can't tell, this is how the Thirdspace War started.

Then there's how they incorporated their knowledge of the soul into their Transcendence into energy beings.

Spoiler: Vorlon Physiology

Spoiler: The Core

The core of the Vorlon is the physical part of the Vorlon; essentially, it is the Vorlon's body though the term is of little relevance. When seen, it resembles a being of glowing light, with tentacles and surrounded by a fiery corona of energy. Before the Vorlons transcended base matter and became beings of energy, this core was an organic body(the product of millions of years of evolution and genetic engineering, but a recognizable body nonetheless).

The core is a crystalline structure, which contains the intrusion of the Vorlon's soul into realspace. The core is composed of four distinct sections. Firstly, there are the external manipulating tentacles, which are composed of a silicon-carbide gel, laced with a nanometer-scale gride of sensors and energy effectors. Each of these tentacles is strong enough to tear through the hull armor of a Sharlin-class warship, but is also precise and gentle enough to manipulate brain tissue without causing injury. For the majority of Vorlons, these tentacles – and the entire core body – are largely redundant, as few Vorlons have needed to manipulate matter directly for millions of years.

The outer shell of the core superficially resembles the pre-transcendence form of the Vorlons but is primarily a crystalline memory aleph with a storage capacity of 10100 bits, wrapped in an armored casing. The Vorlons no longer possess internal organs; they do not need to breathe or ingest any food or liquid. The shell's crystalline structure stores energy as well as information – the Vorlon shell is essentially battery powered, although a Vorlon could function without a recharge for thousands of years as long as it did not exert itself.

The third and most important section of the core is the brain, although this complex crystalline computer does not resemble an organic brain in the slightest. The Vorlon soul is incarnated within this brain to allow the Vorlon to think and reason; without a core brain, the soul is static and unchanging, being nothing more than a self-replicating pattern of information and energy.

The fourth section of the core consists of various implants and technological devices. Each Vorlon has his own suite of special abilities derived from the gadgets and devices contained within his suit or core.

Spoiler: The Soul

The Vorlon soul is not an abstract philosophical concept or superstition; it is a precisely engineered construction in the intersection between hyperspace and realspace. The personality engram of each Vorlon has been encoded in an information matrix and inscribed into the very structure of space-time. This is the Vorlon soul – eternal and unchanging. The soul can be destroyed – Ambassador Kosh, for example, was killed by the Shadows, who shattered his core body and then dissipated his soul by scrambling its information – but barring attacks of that sort, the personality of each Vorlon is indestructible. The soul cannot change, so the Vorlons cannot change or learn while in soul form. Therefore, the soul is incarnated– downloaded, essentially – into a core. This core can be contained in virtually any form – an encounter suit, a ship, a base and so on. Using their telepathic abilities, the Vorlon scan transfer soul fragments into the minds of other species. These fragments can then think and observe independently of the Vorlon core.

Spoiler: The Halo

The halo is the collection of devices, agent programs, ships and other techno-organic devices that are linked to an individual Vorlon. They may contain fragments of the Vorlon's soul, making them thinking, reasoning parts of the Vorlon whole, or they may simply be imprinted with the personality matrix, in which case they are not truly sentient but are 'sympathetic' to the commands of a matching core. Ambassador Kosh's ship, for example, was imprinted with his personality and was essentially a part of him. A Vorlon warship might contain a hundred cores, each of which has a copy of the same soul. The entire warship then would be a single Vorlon mind simultaneously incarnated into multiple bodies. Vorlons differentiate between types of object. Some Vorlon tools are just that, but more complex organic devices like ships or computers are as intelligent and sentient as any Human; they are a part of the Vorlon and so are included in the halo(so too are servants; to another Vorlon, Lyta would have been a part of Kosh).

Spoiler: The Song

The final part of a Vorlon is the song, the total consciousness of the Vorlon race and all its creations. The song can be considered a telepathic network linking the Vorlons together, but it is also inherent in the mind of every individual Vorlon. It is constantly evolving belief in order, a fractal philosophy of union and structure. The aspects are movements in the song; individual Vorlons are chords and notes.

Telepaths can dimly perceive the song; those truly touched by the Vorlons are never without it, for they are a part of the song. It was the establishment of the song that brought the Vorlons into their Fourth Age.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

28th September 2013
12:36 GMT -5

I have my ring feed the witness statements into my mind as I walk up the path towards Shadowcrest. Short term memory loss. They were all in Mount Dora for various reasons. Most were on their own, though there was one couple. No children, which is… Something. Face volunteered to liaise with Mount Dora police to see if they could find anything out, but Mister Tetch should be long gone. There's nothing unifying the victims other than they were in Mount Dora and wouldn't immediately be missed.

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Looking into the mystical side of the hats, I see. And It's fortunate no kids were involved. I mean, Tetch would probably have just hatted them too and sent them off anyway. But knowing DC genetics, a kid exposed to these might have gained superpower from it.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

And Tetch sent them to get g-sanchong implanted. Why? Don't know. There are thousands of people with g-sanchong implanted. There's no… Central list, as far as I'm aware, but it wouldn't be hard to monitor people leaving the clinic. Or just the people who boast about it online.

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...That seems concerning. What if they have an issue that requires the sanchong to be recalled? Relying on people seeing that recall seems a little foolhardy.

Of course, he is called the Mad Hatter.

I reach the front door of Shadowcrest and reach out with my right fist to knock, only for the house to decide to play to type and open the door before my knuckles reach it.

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Well, that's helpful, but it's still best to announce your presence anyway, especially in a wizard's domain.

"Very stereotypical. Please let Giovanni know that I'm here."

And then I walk inside, and-. Hah. The door starts to close behind me at a speed that would result in it closing just fast enough to catch my arse.

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First time I've seen 'Don't let the door hit you in the arse' applying to someone entering rather than leaving.

So I stop right in the doorway.

The door makes a mildly disappointed creak, and stops in turn.

"I thought not."

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Best not to encourage that sort of tomfoolery.

I transition forwards, and the door swings shut catching nothing but air. That was odd. As far as I know, Shadowcrest is a place of magical power but it isn't intelligent in its own right. Certainly, it never showed that sort of intelligence when I used to visit regularly. I suppose Giovanni might have… Changed the settings. Or maybe they bound some sort of spirit to the place.

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Or someone else did as a gift.

"Ahoy the house!"

"We're in the library!"

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Now, who's that 'we'? Giovanni and Zatanna, or...

I head through the foyer and down the corridor, through the indoor rock garden seating area and then into the grand library. Obviously, it's too large internally to fit within the external dimensions of the house, and just as obviously it's decorated by various magical knickknacks in warded glass cases.

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Thank you, dimensional magic shenanigans.

"Hey Paul!"

I look up to see Zatanna waving from the second floor balcony, while Timothy just watches.

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...Lucky boy, getting some one-on-one time with the lovely lady of the mystic arts.

"Good afternoon, Zatanna. Hunter."

He cringes slightly. "You can just call me 'Tim'."

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True, it is a private space with no-one not in the know. But it's kind of your fault for using your surname as a cape name.

I smile. "So would you say-?"

He cringes more. "Yes, there are.. some who call me 'Tim'."

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No, no, say it with your whole chest, lad. Own it.

Zatanna blinks. "Is that a movie quote? Is this going to be like Cornwall Boy all over again?"

"Yes, yes it is. Do you know why the front door tried to grab my bottom?"

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...She hasn't seen 'Holy Grail'? Honestly, OL, what have you been teaching her if not the mastery of absurdist British Comedy that is Monty Python.

"Ah-uh… No..?"

Timothy straightens up slightly. "That was me."

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I'm sure your girl-friend would be very interested in hearing about that.

"Uh… Huh?"

"I brought a pooka with me as a housewarming present. She really likes it here."

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Ah. A household caretaker and sometimes-prankster. That explains the door.

"Oh, ah, good. Please tell her that while I'm flattered, I'm not on the market."

"She can hear you."

Click to shrink...

Probably standing right behind you appreciating the view...

"Ah." I look around the room, staring at nothing in particular. "Ma'am, I'm afraid that I'm not available."

A chair next to me jumps, the arm rest-. Oh, great, I'm being sexually harassed by furniture.

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...And totally going for the grope, it seems.

Timothy shrugs. "She can hear you. That doesn't mean that she cares what you say."

"Alright. Tell her that if she does it again we will eat her."

The chair falls over.

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Yeah, nothing like getting a flash of universal hunger right in the face to stun you for a second..

"She can still-." He nods. "Okay. Zoe, knock it off, alright?"

"Thank you."

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I would expect 'Zoe' is enthusiastically nodding her agreement to Tim.

Zatanna looks curious. "So what did you come here for? Planning on stealing my other student?"

"I called dibs."

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And really, is there that much a wizard could teach a technologist? Though given Tetch's latest shenanigan...

"We already did this argument, Paul."

I take out a bag containing the crystals which had been mounted in the hats. "I need to find out where these came from. It'll probably be warded. If you can't do that-"

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Oooh, a challenge.

"Llafwols." Zatanna jumps over the balcony railing and drifts towards the ground floor.

"-then I'd like to know what sort of machinery they were around."

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So many ways they could manage that. How accurate they'd be, that remains to be seen.

Timothy follows his mentor over the edge, wooden hands extending from the wood to carry him to the floor.

Zatanna approaches and takes the bag from me. "What's so special about them?"

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I can't help but picture the hands just sliding down the column while Tim stands in their palms, like a mini-elevator.

"Jarvis Tetch used them in his latest generation mind control headwear."

"Is he branching out into magic?"

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No, he now has colleagues to bounce ideas off. And it looks like the hats are their first joint project. Not a bad first attempt, I would imagine...

"I'm more worried about Lonnie Machin. One of the parallel universe versions of me I've met lived in a parallel where he used magically empowered crystals as part of a large scale brainwashing machine. Or… He called it an unbrainwashing machine, but it amounted to the same thing. Tetch hasn't used crystals in his technology before, and I'm concerned that he's collaborating."

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Yes, a 'parallel world'... So handy that he had that little crossover that gave him so many more alibis for his metaknowledge. Then again, maybe one of his alternates did have that encounter. Raul, maybe.

"On a magic crystal brainwashing machine?" She sits down at a table and shakes the crystals out across the surface. "S'rellewej epuol."

A jeweller's magnifying monocle appears in the air in front of her and she takes a closer look at one of the crystals.

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No doubt subtly enchanted to allow her to see the spellwork applied to it.

"Yes, he aligned them to parts of the moral compass and used that to compel everyone to become profoundly honest. Horrible situation."

"I can imagine."

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No, I don't think you can imagine what a world without all the little lies we tell ourselves and others would be like. Not big, blatant lies like 'the sky is green'. Little things like 'I don't hate you' or 'No, of course you look fine, dear'. Even the lies we tell ourselves to stay stable and sane... I shudder to imagine how many people died from the loss of their stabilising self-deceptions...

Timothy wanders closer. "Can I take a look?"

"By all means."

Timothy reaches across the table and taps one of the crystals, which… Promptly sprouts arms and legs and stands up, facing him.

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...Well, that's quirky.

Huh?

He notices my surprise. "Earth elemental. If whatever Miss Zatara's planning doesn't work, we can try asking it."

"Can it talk?"

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Though I wonder if its perspective will translate all that well.

"You can't hear it?"

"Okay." Zatanna stands up, brushing the inanimate crystals back into the bad. "Tim, you should interrogate the elemental while Paul and I set up the ritual. Hopefully, this won't take too long."

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Applying a little remote psychometry or something of the like? Calling up images of the crystals' recent past?

Always good to see Zatanna in her element. There's a reason she's one of the League's foremost magical experts by the time she's twenty-five and it ain't her typical costumes. Though I assume that with OL advising her on gear, she's not big on fishnets these days anyway. So, then... What will she find from the crystals...

 

[boo600]

Ooh, Zatanna, a return to Shadowcrest, and Tim Hunter's whole deal?

We've got Magic, baby!

He cringes more. "Yes, there are.. some who call me 'Tim'."

Zatanna blinks. "Is that a movie quote? Is this going to be like Cornwall Boy all over again?"

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…heretic. Paul, you're a HERETIC!

How dare you not enlighten your American colleagues?!?

Timothy shrugs. "She can hear you. That doesn't mean that she cares what you say."

"Alright. Tell her that if she does it again we will eat her."

The chair falls over.

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Always good to see someone being assertive about their desire to not be sexually harassed.

"Llafwols." Zatanna jumps over the balcony railing and drifts towards the ground floor.

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Huh. You know, it didn't really cross my mind in the wake of the anti-life (of course she'd stick with her strongest focus), but I wonder how Zatanna's casting has been improved or altered by her time with the Star Sapphire? I mean, her training to focus on Love was mostly wasted on drawing power from a mind-altering source she gave up, but she specifically 'learned real magic' as part of her attempts to impress Paul - and surely that affects her approach with her logomancy.

Perhaps that's part of how she was able to poke him in the chest during the Atlantis Rising incident.

I wonder who will learn more from each other - Tim is mostly here to learn about superhero proceedings rather than magic, but he hasn't demonstrated knowledge beyond what Zee has (Earth elementals, talk to birds). Who's approach will be more affected by working together - will Zee start using conjured doves as an information/aerial drone network, or will Tim dabble in some kind of logomancy (though I doubt that one, since her focus is family-based) or gain some insight on heavy-duty conjuring as opposed to his usual Pact/Pale style of making social connections with spirits and using clever tricks?

Souls exist, the Vorlons scientifically proved it.


In case you can't tell, this is how the Thirdspace War started.

Then there's how they incorporated their knowledge of the soul into their Transcendence into energy beings.

Spoiler: Vorlon Physiology

Spoiler: The Core

The core of the Vorlon is the physical part of the Vorlon; essentially, it is the Vorlon's body though the term is of little relevance. When seen, it resembles a being of glowing light, with tentacles and surrounded by a fiery corona of energy. Before the Vorlons transcended base matter and became beings of energy, this core was an organic body(the product of millions of years of evolution and genetic engineering, but a recognizable body nonetheless).

The core is a crystalline structure, which contains the intrusion of the Vorlon's soul into realspace. The core is composed of four distinct sections. Firstly, there are the external manipulating tentacles, which are composed of a silicon-carbide gel, laced with a nanometer-scale gride of sensors and energy effectors. Each of these tentacles is strong enough to tear through the hull armor of a Sharlin-class warship, but is also precise and gentle enough to manipulate brain tissue without causing injury. For the majority of Vorlons, these tentacles – and the entire core body – are largely redundant, as few Vorlons have needed to manipulate matter directly for millions of years.

The outer shell of the core superficially resembles the pre-transcendence form of the Vorlons but is primarily a crystalline memory aleph with a storage capacity of 10100 bits, wrapped in an armored casing. The Vorlons no longer possess internal organs; they do not need to breathe or ingest any food or liquid. The shell's crystalline structure stores energy as well as information – the Vorlon shell is essentially battery powered, although a Vorlon could function without a recharge for thousands of years as long as it did not exert itself.

The third and most important section of the core is the brain, although this complex crystalline computer does not resemble an organic brain in the slightest. The Vorlon soul is incarnated within this brain to allow the Vorlon to think and reason; without a core brain, the soul is static and unchanging, being nothing more than a self-replicating pattern of information and energy.

The fourth section of the core consists of various implants and technological devices. Each Vorlon has his own suite of special abilities derived from the gadgets and devices contained within his suit or core.

Spoiler: The Soul

The Vorlon soul is not an abstract philosophical concept or superstition; it is a precisely engineered construction in the intersection between hyperspace and realspace. The personality engram of each Vorlon has been encoded in an information matrix and inscribed into the very structure of space-time. This is the Vorlon soul – eternal and unchanging. The soul can be destroyed – Ambassador Kosh, for example, was killed by the Shadows, who shattered his core body and then dissipated his soul by scrambling its information – but barring attacks of that sort, the personality of each Vorlon is indestructible. The soul cannot change, so the Vorlons cannot change or learn while in soul form. Therefore, the soul is incarnated– downloaded, essentially – into a core. This core can be contained in virtually any form – an encounter suit, a ship, a base and so on. Using their telepathic abilities, the Vorlon scan transfer soul fragments into the minds of other species. These fragments can then think and observe independently of the Vorlon core.

Spoiler: The Halo

The halo is the collection of devices, agent programs, ships and other techno-organic devices that are linked to an individual Vorlon. They may contain fragments of the Vorlon's soul, making them thinking, reasoning parts of the Vorlon whole, or they may simply be imprinted with the personality matrix, in which case they are not truly sentient but are 'sympathetic' to the commands of a matching core. Ambassador Kosh's ship, for example, was imprinted with his personality and was essentially a part of him. A Vorlon warship might contain a hundred cores, each of which has a copy of the same soul. The entire warship then would be a single Vorlon mind simultaneously incarnated into multiple bodies. Vorlons differentiate between types of object. Some Vorlon tools are just that, but more complex organic devices like ships or computers are as intelligent and sentient as any Human; they are a part of the Vorlon and so are included in the halo(so too are servants; to another Vorlon, Lyta would have been a part of Kosh).

Spoiler: The Song

The final part of a Vorlon is the song, the total consciousness of the Vorlon race and all its creations. The song can be considered a telepathic network linking the Vorlons together, but it is also inherent in the mind of every individual Vorlon. It is constantly evolving belief in order, a fractal philosophy of union and structure. The aspects are movements in the song; individual Vorlons are chords and notes.

Telepaths can dimly perceive the song; those truly touched by the Vorlons are never without it, for they are a part of the song. It was the establishment of the song that brought the Vorlons into their Fourth Age.

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This is really cool; thank you for sharing. I am now more excited about the Paul in B5.

 

[Mr Zoat]

@Mr Zoat, quick question. Will you're version of Omega Destroyers only have the weapons depicted in the show, or will it have its full intended arsenal?

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It's vanishingly unlikely that the correct armament of the Omega Destroyer will ever be relevant, but if it is, they'll have all their guns.

Always good to see someone being assertive about their desire to not be sexually harassed.

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It's less that he cares about being sexually harassed, and more because he thinks that letting it go would be disrespectful to Jade.

 

[LZB1285]

"Okay." Zatanna stands up, brushing the inanimate crystals back into the bad.

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Shouldn't this be "bag"?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Shouldn't this be "bag"?

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Thank you, corrected.