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

Chojin Patriarch · 2026-08-28T06:52:45+0100

Mr Zoat said:
28th September 2013
13:26 GMT -5

Hiro frowns as we look at the caravans. "They have moved closer."

Zatanna shakes her head. "We're no longer in an entirely real environment. Ideas and habits matter as much as geography."

And by corollary, don't expect the laws of physics or biology or, well, any logical mechanics to stay consistent. Being overlaid with the Dreaming like this means reality is being defined by consensus.

I nod. "Inhabited buildings have more of a presence than a small patch of scrubland."

"That sure is a nice thing for you to say!"

Ah, see what I meant? Logic is taking a vacation right now.

One of the caravans… Oh, that's disturbing. Eyes have opened in its front face, and a mouth… It's like from a old-style Disney animation. Or one of the cars from Brave Little Toaster.

Behind me, Hiro steps back and falls on his arse.

Not surprising he's stunned. This isn't exactly a common thing in his experience, i would suspect.

"Not at all, sir. You fulfil a valuable role."

"Yea, but it's nice to be recognised!"

And OL takes it in stride. He's seen stranger, after all.

The voice sounds masculine and… In a way I can't quite explain, mechanical.

"Oh, hey! You're the other half of that Gary kid, ain't you?"

Timothy does a half-nod as Hiro gets up, still staring. "Yes. Do you know where he is?"

Given the wild magic of the place, I'm not surprised.

"I only saw him walking past, but I think he was headed to the crystal tower."

"The crystal tower?"

No doubt the work of Lonnie and Tetch. This is totally the 'cleanse all illusions form people's minds' plot, isn't it?

"Sure! Just about the only thing anyone can talk about these days."

"Ah saw a tower, once." One of the other caravans opens its eyes. "Sure weren't made of crystal."

I imagine the memory of a lot of places linger in their structure.

"Well I don't know what it's made of, just what it's called."

"Damn fool name."

Well, it ain't Statler and Waldorf, but it's fun back-and-forth.

"Thank you for the information, sir. Which direction would that be in?"

Ah. It looks like they're Disneyified enough to bend a little, but they can't really move. He's able to indicate a direction by turning his 'head' and eyes, and… That'll do for us.

'Just down the way there, folks', eh?

"Thank you again."

"Mind how you go, now! I think that Lonnie boy's up to something!"

Oh, no doubt of that.

We walk onwards, other caravans opening their eyes to watch us walk past, and then appearing to go back to sleep. Hiro is jerking his head from one to the next, wide-eyes.

Zatanna regards him with concern. "Toyman, are you okay?"

Presumably his adventures in Japan have not been nearly so interesting as this.

"The mobile homes are talking! They are talking! They have eyes, and-. And they can talk! There should not be enough room in their interior for their mouth!"

Timothy half-frowns at him. "Have you never seen magic before?"

"No!"

Oh, you are in for a wild time as part of this program, then.

"What about the gremlins who destroyed those robots?"

"Talking to goblins is not the same as… That! A goblin looks like a shaved monkey! That was a talking cabin!"

No need to be rude, kiddo.

"What, you couldn't build one?"

He blinks, and calms as he's forced to consider it. Then he shakes his head. "Not one that looked like that. That was too realistic. What are they? Living creatures made by a mad scientist? Aliens? Monsters?"

Magic, remember?

Timothy half-shakes his head. "Motor homes."

"Motor.. homes..?"

I doubt RVs are much of a thing in Japanese cities.

"Do you know what the empathetic fallacy is?"

"No."

Ever called a vehicle 'she' or pleaded with an inanimate object like it was alive?

"It's where you talk to an inanimate object like it's alive. Have you ever done that?"

"I sometimes insult machines that don't work properly. Is that what you mean?"

Would the term 'tsukumogami' feel better, Hiro? Similar principle. Except here, it didn't take 99 years to awaken the spirit...

Timothy nods. "When enough people do it, magic… Associations build up. Add raw magic energy, and it's easy to make objects people treat as if they're people become like people."

"Did.. you.. do that?"

I would assume it's more an aspect of being soaked in Dreaming stuff.

"I didn't mean to. You get… Problems."

"Problems?"

"It's alright if I decide how much like people they are, but… What does a motor home do if it starts getting hungry?"

And then there's the matter of what happens after he's done with them. This is why his 'making' spirits to solve problems is such a problem.

"Eat?"

"Yeah."

"…oh. How does that work?"

...I don't want to think about it. And neither should you.

"It-. It's really messy. So-. When this is finished, these will all go back to being regular motor homes again."

Hiro looks at me. "Is that allowed? Do America's laws on artificial intelligence not apply to them?"

He hopes they'll go back to normal. Otherwise Zatanna might need to apply a magical 'undo' button.

"The Supreme Court hasn't made a ruling on the subject, but my feeling is that since they provably don't have any cognitive abilities of their own, they're essentially just chatbots with unusual bodies. Just-. Ah, Hunter? If you make them too intelligent, that law would apply, so don't go around creating mentally sophisticated people unless you're ready to be a father."

Let's hope he hasn't gone that far yet. Might be a bit hard to explain to his girl-friend.

"I won't."

"Good show."

It'll be a lot easier once Zatanna works out what he can and can't do at this stage, and ban him from using the more problematic stuff.

Alright, I can see the field where Lonnie was holding court. Even if they're not there, we should be able to find some sign-

One of the nearby caravans opens its mouth-.

-of-.

Ah. This could be troublesome.

A… Creature made of black slime… Pulls itself out of the caravan, and I now see that the caravan itself is… Dead? Its eyes whited out and its panels are in poor repair. The creature has the body proportions of a g-elf, but as it pulls itself free I see that it's considerably more flexible. And it appears to have six eyes, three on each side of its head.

Very troublesome.

And then another pulls itself out of the caravan door, and another crawls out from underneath, and another shoves the left eyeball aside enough to crawl out of the socket…

Behind us, one pulls itself out of a pile of ash.

Oh, that's just creepy.

Zatanna takes a half-step forwards. "What are you, and what do you want?"

"We are parts of people, cast aside. We must be made whole."

If this is the 'remove all lies and self-deceptions' ploy, then these would be those very things embodied, I bet.

"And you're not too fussy about who makes you whole, is that it?"

"We prefer to make ourselves whole. But we will accept others. Can you find our other halves for us?"

Given there's no-one else here as far as they've seen... yeah, I don't think this is going to end nicely.

"Why can't you find them yourselves?"

"The crystals burn."

Because they enforce truthfulness and clear-headedness, I would bet.

"We'll see what we can do." Zatanna looks pointedly towards the field. "Excuse us?"

"No…" The moves to form a complete circle around us. "We think we will not."

I wonder what would happen if these were destroyed? Would their 'other halfs' just be more truthful and level-headed? At least until they start to settle back into human habits.

This will be interesting, I bet. All people's little self-directed evils and social defences congealed into not-so-nice predators. Which makes me wonder what happens if they manage to infuse someone like one of the heroes? Instant evil mode? Or just become a jackass... Either way, let's hope Zatanna can ward them away.

Jankl · 2026-08-28T06:54:36+0100

_The_Bomb said:
@Jankl I am incredibly curious what about my post from two years ago resonated with you enough to make you Like it.

Oh, it just doesn't take much for me to like a comment. And I was interested in the answer to your questions.

NightmareWarden · 2026-08-28T07:12:51+0100

Mr Zoat said:
Zatanna takes a half-step forwards. "What are you, and what do you want?"

"We are parts of people, cast aside. We must be made whole."

"And you're not too fussy about who makes you whole, is that it?"

"We prefer to make ourselves whole. But we will accept others. Can you find our other halves for us?"

"Why can't you find them yourselves?"

"The crystals burn."

"We'll see what we can do." Zatanna looks pointedly towards the field. "Excuse us?"

"No…" The moves to form a complete circle around us. "We think we will not."

I wonder if Hades' mental comportment is affecting the ease with which other Black light and Death aligned entities can "act out" like this. Probably not! But it's possible.

More likely options... Something is hunting Lonnie, and he's running from it. He's using his followers to obscure his location and otherwise protect himself while other work is accomplished.

I don't think Lonnie has become The Question's apprentice, but... Their team has become Grayven's Light, but for the Paragonverse. Sorry, I'm kinda out of it right now. My point is that The Question either shared some tips with Lonnie about metaphysical things based on his own magics, orrrrrr he performed magic nearby Lonnie, in such a way that Lonnie extrapolated from the example enough to try some magic of his own.

What else... I wonder if these mobile homes are extra intelligent due to the kidnapping of Enginehead by Lonnie? Or perhaps Hephestean's sphere of influence? Questions and questions, which might be relevant once Hunter and Toyman are ready for a high level adventure.

Darko · 2026-08-28T07:34:53+0100

NightmareWarden said:
I wonder if Hades' mental comportment is affecting the ease with which other Black light and Death aligned entities can "act out" like this. Probably not! But it's possible

I doubt it.

Hades is powerful, but he's not in charge of every single black light or death-aligned entity on the planet.

If it's connected to the Greek mythic, then he's their boss, but if it isn't, then they work for someone else.

NightmareWarden said:
More likely options... Something is hunting Lonnie, and he's running from it. He's using his followers to obscure his location and otherwise protect himself while other work is accomplished

I thought that if he was mind controlling people then these things were the parts of his victims that were thrown out due to whatever he did to them.

BR549 · 2026-08-28T08:46:37+0100

Chojin Patriarch said:
If this is the 'remove all lies and self-deceptions' ploy, then these would be those very things embodied, I bet.

...

They really are Armus-es!

Darko · 2026-08-28T09:16:54+0100

Mr Zoat said:
The moves to form a complete

Maybe "he moves" or "They move to".

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

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

Chojin Patriarch

Veteran Lurker

Jankl

Getting sticky.

NightmareWarden

Playtest Results: *happy chirping*

Darko

Connoisseur.

BR549

This is filth! FILTH!!

Darko

Connoisseur.

Users who are viewing this thread

Playtest Results: happy chirping