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

Reader mode
Mr Zoat said:
"A black hole only has the same mass as the star it was before its collapse. I mean, ultimately, everything in the universe will crash into everything else, but a lucky planet can circle the drain for a very long time. You probably wouldn't want to live on one, though. Most species don't react well to not having a light in the sky."
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Wrong universe, the one you're in isn't a closed system.
 
Vaermina said:
Wrong universe, the one you're in isn't a closed system.
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If you're talking about the fictional universe Zoat made then he can just make it whatever he likes physics wise.

Comic authors have been doing it for decades.

Aeess said:
Considering her past interactions with the SI I find her reaction to be fully understandable.
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Being dragged to Hell because of your actions will make many people dislike you.
 
Mr Zoat said:
"A black hole only has the same mass as the star it was before its collapse. I mean, ultimately, everything in the universe will crash into everything else, but a lucky planet can circle the drain for a very long time. You probably wouldn't want to live on one, though. Most species don't react well to not having a light in the sky."
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Fun fact, you can have light in a Black hole system, if it has an accression disk and said disk doesn't rotate too fast around the black hole (or else the light emitted wouldn't be in the visible spectrum).

Interstellar shows how it would look like : you would see a dark zone where the black hole is, with a shiny ring in front of it, and a shiny corolla around the hole (the corolla is in fact the part of the accression disk behind the hole, its light curving around the mass)

[Edit : stupid autocorrect]

Ganurath said:
Probably because apostrophes aren't quotation marks. Even Americans know that.
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I still prefer our format : « like this »
Much easier to see IMO
 
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Mr Zoat said:
1st May
07:06 GMT -5

"What time of year is it?"
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Look, Leonid, can we not assume this place is identical to Earth? Just because it has similar plants and wildlife, and can sustain people...

I look down at the nation of Columbia. I hesitate to say 'sleeping' nation because I don't want to trigger alerts by trying to scan houses that from the look of the glowing sigils on their eaves are probably warded. There are eight large towns that I can see from this height, and about a hundred smaller settlements ranging in size from farming hamlets with a few houses to market towns and mining towns with a few dozen. It looks like a successful colony from the era their ancestors were kidnapped.
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Surprising they haven't advanced visibly in the technological arena. But given their religious and cultural bias, they've focused entirely on the arcane, have they not? And presumably there're reasons to not form overly large cities ('towns' implies a certain size, yes...) besides the obvious limitations of their farming methods...

"I'm not sure. I don't know for certain that they have seasons here."

"The planet's orbit is completely even? Their rotational axis is vertical?"

"I don't know. I'm trying to avoid scanning anything I don't have to. Why do you ask?"
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So relying primarily on passive observation of the main populated areas. That's got to be annoying.

He shrugs awkwardly. "Since I was enhanced, I have been less sensitive to temperature and the… Pressure of the wind. As I have moved around the world, I do not always know what the temperature is. Or what time of year it is." He shakes his head. "I was curious. It does not matter."

"You didn't mention anything about numbness. Is it something I can help with?"
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Fascinating. I suppose it's a necessary side effect of being capable of unprotected spaceflight.

"No, it is not-. I am not numb. If you touch me I will feel it without you needing to punch me. It is that I do not…" He takes a moment to think through the sentence. "My brain does not receive it in the same way."

I nod. "Otherwise you'd get overloaded when someone in your weight class did hit you."
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Or when making atmospheric re-entry without a suit. Or tanking energy blasts...

"That would be a problem. Please, continue with your task." He smiles faintly. "I will watch out for houses with chicken legs."
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I doubt Baba Yaga is running around here, Leonid. Wouldn't be surprised, though.

They've got road… Turnpikes? They appear to use the Macadam method, rather than covering them with tarmac. I also can't see any evidence of steam power, though I suppose with grundymen providing physical power they wouldn't need it. I can see horse drawn carts but no cars or sedan chairs. Sedan chairs would make sense, wouldn't they? A grundyman front and back and they could carry the occupant easily enough.
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Since the populated areas isn't especially spread out, you wouldn't need much in the way of long-range vehicles. And few people would travel far from home except for business, if they live like their ancestors do.

"Wrong mythology. Though I think I was right about the seasons." I point upwards towards a glowing dot in the sky. "I haven't checked because I don't want to trip an alert, but I think that's a white dwarf."
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Witchworld's got some messed up physics, I take it. The weird output of a white dwarf might explain some of the stranger aspects of their environment...

They've got canals and I can see boats on the rivers. Rivers that appear to have been straightened in places. I suppose that one thing this place isn't short on is manual labour. I know that the Seven Soldiers version had a prohibition on the menfolk performing certain types of manual labour in the belief that they should be done by grundymen while the men focused on their religious obligations, but the witch-hunters I met didn't seem to find manual labour particularly offensive. I can't see the sea from here, but the rivers appear to be draining to somewhere. Planets with liquid water on the surface but no seas are quite unusual.
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Underground aquifers? Sunken seas? This place is very strange...

"I see." He nods. "I had wondered why it was so light at night. I had thought that we were near dawn." He takes another look at the landscape below. "The plants have leaves, so there must be a normal sun as well."

"There are a couple of different arrangements that can work, but we're not in anything weird like a black hole system."
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Eurgh. I shudder at the things such a place would produce... The Universe is a weird and wonderful place.

He raises his eyebrows. "Those exist?"

"They're uncommon, but yes. I'm only aware of two naturally occurring systems like that, where planets formed a very long way away from the star and survived its pre-collapse expansion. There's another one astronomers think was a capture of a rogue planet and a fourth where a sufficiently godlike being just moved a planet there."
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Because of course some deity wanted a holiday home under the shade of a black hole.

There are people up and around. I can see people entering and leaving what I assume to be homes and businesses. A lot of them are accompanied by a grundyman, but I'm not seeing any grundywomen? Is that a cultural prohibition, or are they just employed in different work?
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The question is, does the process that creates them actually affect women?

"Are they dangerous?"

"A black hole only has the same mass as the star it was before its collapse. I mean, ultimately, everything in the universe will crash into everything else, but a lucky planet can circle the drain for a very long time. You probably wouldn't want to live on one, though. Most species don't react well to not having a light in the sky."
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Unless they evolved under it to not use light. Like Rot Lop Fan's people, evolving to use sound instead of sight because their planet had poor light. :confused: Or am I talking out of my arse?

The churches are easy to identify, and they're relatively modest affairs. Actually, that appears to be a theme in their architecture; frivolity and gaudiness are completely excluded. Externally, at least. Oh, I can tell the wood-built houses of the poor from the stone houses of the rich, but there's nothing flamboyant about he homes of the wealthy. No marble fascias or decorative columns. No stained glass. They've got leaded glass, but I'm not seeing any single-pane large windows.

Huh. Not seeing any overt use of Sheeda technology. That could be a taboo of some sort as well…
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I expect any flamboyance is kept for private places. If they bother with it at all. As for Sheeda tech, could they even produce it without the support structures needed? Some of it is organic, sure, but not all, or not entirely.

"I think I've got enough of a map for us to be going on with. Anything you want to take a look at before we head back do-?"

A blast of purple fire explodes next to us! I create a construct barrier between us and the blast while Leonid just raises his right arm to shield his eyes, the fires burning… It's eating at the construct but not going right through it. Progress!
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Well, looks like someone finally noticed them. And he's learning to harden his constructs against the particular arcane signature of their weaponry. That'll be helpful down the line.

"There." Leonid points down. "It came from there. We should-. Ask Wonder Woman for permission to engage?"

I look down and ah! My favourite witch-hunter! Who's busy reloading her jezzail while grundymen hold her barrel rest and ammunition pouch.
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Hell of a shot. I had assumed they were higher up, like a couple of kilometres...

"No. These people may be dangerous for sixteenth century refugees, but they aren't much of a threat to us and we're not here to pick fights. Please go and tell Wonder Woman what's happening while I try talking Mistress Bleak down."

"This is the woman-." He nods, already floating back towards the menhirs. "I understand."
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Yes, there's some history between them, so to speak. You don't want to get tarred with the same brush...

Beulah raises her miniature artillery piece again and I drop, dimming my glow in an attempt to throw off her aim. I didn't think that she was 'kill-on-sight' angry with me when we parted, but perhaps all she can see is an orange dot in the sky? I watch her grimace as she loses sight of me, her attempt to track my most likely location spoiled by the unresponsive nature of her gunnery crew.

I land a short distance away, raise my hands and step into her line of sight.
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Yeah, I expect grundymen don't have the best reaction times. Probably why the actual fighters are human and they're limited to bearers.

"Mistress Bleak. May I ask-"

She fires, and this time the projectile doesn't explode. Instead it strikes my construct barrier and keeps coming, bending my construct back in the effort to repel it. I opt to simply step aside and then dismiss my barrier, letting the projectile carry on into the nearby trees.

"-why you're shooting at me?"
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Like a boss, OL. Letting her shoot at you and everything.

She levels the jezzail at my chest, her motions slightly.. twitchy.

"Are you alright?"

There is a flicker of light from some of the sigils embroidered on her shawl, then a little of the tension leaves her.
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Calming runes? She must have some anger issues, then. :D

"Well enough not to need aid from the likes of you, pagan. What dark turn of fate brings you to our shores this night?" She shakes her head in irritation. "T'was you who opened the witch-path, deny it not."

"That's how I got here certainly, but it wasn't me who opened it."
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More or less what she asked, but not quite what she wanted...

She regards me with a level, frustrated gaze. "How many?"

"Eight, including our most capable arcanist. We're here-."
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Well, seven humans, and Brut. Which the Witchworlders will probably find significant.

"Why are you here?"

"Because Queen Gloriana Tenebrae's Sheeda are going to be attacking our Earth before too long, and we need information from you."

"We made war upon her husband and his accursed followers. We care not a whit for her."
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Honestly. One lot is as bad as the other. The Queen would ravage your lands just as her hubbie would.

"But she cares about Melmoth, and I doubt very much that the witch-paths will remain obscured to her if she defeats us."

She nods with clear reluctance. "Perhaps."

"Would you like to speak to the head of the mission, to discuss the matter in more detail?"
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Good move, passing the buck. Diana should have an easier time of it, with her diplomatic skills.

Well, belated, but enjoyable. It did take a moment to remember who was with OL in the opening lines, but that's the nature of Mr Zoat's style. And very amusing that Beluah Bleak is the first person to interact with them. Not a great first (second?) impression...
 
Mr Zoat said:
A blast of purple fire explodes next to us! I create a construct barrier between us and the blast while Leonid just raises his right arm to shield his eyes, the fires burning… It's eating at the construct but not going right through it. Progress!
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We see later that a magic projectile does go through his construct, so was the construct resistance here due to the nature of the purple fire or some actual power development on the Paragon's part? Saying 'progress' seems to point towards the latter, at least in my view.
 
ForeverShogo said:
Even with magic and grundymen, they're weirdly static in their technological advancement. Or seemingly static.
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Not really. Remember, they are descendent from the kidnapped inhabitants of the Roanoke Colony, which was composed of approximately 112-121 colonists at the time of their disappearance. And doubtlessly at least a few died during their enslavement and liberation.

They had a very small starter population and it's only been a little over 400 years since their displacement to Witchworld. Technological advancement requires a large population, and while they've grown in number I still doubt they have the population of even one of the smaller American colonies during the Revolution.

What development they've had, has naturally been focused on infrastructure development(as they found themselves on a truly untamed wilderness without even natives to possibly get help from and no trade or immigration from a "mother country") and integrating magic into their society(which in itself would have drastically boosted them above the capabilities of a 16th century American colony).

They aren't stagnate, they've just had different needs and priorities, as well as a lack of the pressures that lead to an industrial revolution. Give them another half millennium, and assuming their population bottleneck doesn't cause them too many problems(at least problems that cant be fixed with magic and sheeda blood), their population will have grown large enough to have developed even more significant diverges from their colonial forebears, and possibly even start a magitech industrial revolution amongst them.
 
listen guys, i know you don't know me, and that this may or may not be the most appropriate forum to drop this factoid in, but i have to because i don't know where or when i'll ever get another chance to say it:

goddamn, i would raw-dog the shit out of Beulah Bleak, and corrupt her in so many carnal ways. i've never been one to succumb to the typical comic hotties, but something about my dear Beulah makes me want to run that gauntlet and shoot for the goal, and every other metaphor that could be reasonably applied to the challenging uphill battle i would face when courting her.

now that my creepy confession is concluded, i'll go back to lurking. thank you for your time.
 
Otherworld (supplementary, Renegade Option)
  • Threadmarks
    • 1st May
    07:31 GMT -6

    "…President Horne getting a surprising degree of traction in Colorado."

    "I…" I nod my head to the side. The gesture will be lost over the radio, but increasing numbers of people watch over the internet these days. "I think it's really more that… With me here… People are willing to look beyond their customary party loyalties and examine the actual content of his platform." I raise my hands. "Though I want to be clear-."

    My interviewer raises her pencil-thin eyebrows sceptically. "You're not campaigning for the President."

    "Just so. I-."

    "Every time you get an interview and promote the President, you say you're not campaigning."

    I shrug. "The President is what people ask me about. You can ask me about Senator N-."

    "Senator Knight. Since you can't seem to remember his name from one interview to the next."

    "I was going to say Senator Northrup Bristol…" I frown. "He's still in the running, isn't he?"

    "He's still on the ballot paper, but he can't get enough delegates to win the nomination."

    And she knows that I'm messing about. I nod to concede the point, and decide that it's time to retire that joke. Senator Bristol didn't have much of a following, even amongst the arch-conservatives who might be considered his natural followers, largely because he sounded dangerously close to wanting to give certain parts of his social ideals… An undue amount of legal authority. Fault-only divorce was one of his more sensible policies.

    "You can ask me about my dealings with Senator Knight if you like, but it won't take very long."

    "Okay then. What dealing have you had with Senator Knight?"

    "Basically none." I shrug. "I arranged for his protection when Doctor Cochin tried to carry out his coup, and I've been on the periphery of a few discussions he and the President were part of, but that's about it. I don't think we've exchanged more than a dozen words. You see; I can only tell you about the interactions I've actually had with people, so anything I say on the subject is naturally going to focus on President Horne. But you can ask me about anything else."

    "Alright then." She turns to the… Internet text-channel thing. "Have you got anything to say about rumours you're dating a horse?"

    "No, no. Completely ridiculous."

    "Because they've got pictu-."

    "Princess Luna is a pony, not a horse. A horse would be taller. Also, she's from a parallel universe where ponies are intelligent. Really, it's no more weird than me dating a human would be. Also, she went from trying to stab me to dating me, a dramatic improvement on the order in my previous relationship."

    Her expression suggests that she doesn't quite know how to take that. Jade's doing… I hesitate to call it 'good' work in Africa, but certainly 'productive' and 'beneficent'. Their politicians are mostly-. I should say, their surviving politicians are mostly honest, and we're making progress with their industry. The continent as a whole has never been more stable or principled and Lex is building so many spaceships without having to worry about first world spies.

    "So.. I.. understand that you send your children to a public school."

    I fro-. "Oh! Oh, sorry. Ah. In Britain a 'public' school is one you can attend regardless of where you live or what religion you practise. They're still private organisations, rather than public services." I nod. "Yes, all my children attend our local school. Since none of them had what you might call.. normal childhoods, I thought that improving their social skills and.. helping them make connections in the local community was the most important consideration."

    "That implies you don't think very highly of the quality of the school's teaching."

    "No, no, that's… I'm in the fortunate position to have good relations with the genomorphs. I employ a lot of them in Challenger Mountain and I've been involved in helping them find their feet in human society. So it really wasn't that difficult to have a lot of the purely rote learning stuff telepathically inserted into my children's minds. That's a service the genomorphs offer commercially, and since my younger children would have been so far behind their peers otherwise it seemed wise to avail ourselves of it."

    "So between the genomorphs teaching them facts and the school teaching them how to use it, you've covered all of your bases."

    I nod. "Nearly. I had to cover a couple of things myself. There aren't a lot of New Gods on Earth, so I had to teach Lynne the New God specific things myself. Likewise, my younger children have a tutor for their own arcane abilities. And since American schools are so reticent in that area, I had to cover sex education myself. Which was a little bit awkward, because I had no prior knowledge of how sanitary pads or.. tampons worked, until I needed to find out for my younger girls. If you're a boy, British sex education just skips right past that stuff-. Or at least it did when I was in school."

    "You..? Ah, you didn't get sex education from… On Apokolips?"

    "Sort of. That was a five minute aside from my father's chief torturer during my physiology lectures."

    Confirmed by the late and unlamented Father Box.

    "I can't say it really stuck out? And that wouldn't have covered 'feminine hygiene' anyway; female New Gods can consciously control their fertility and so have no need for that sort of thing. But when I was growing up in Britain during my 'second childhood', I didn't remember any of that."

    "A lot of American parents don't want schools to teach their children about sex in case it encourages them to become sexually active before they're ready to deal with the emotional and physical consequences. How do you feel about that?"

    "Well… I'm…" I shrug. "Just used to it being part of the curriculum. And.. it certainly didn't make me sexually precocious. But that's a.. wider difference between Europe and America, you know; collective responsibility versus individual responsibility. In Europe it's considered completely natural to make sure that children get a basic education on how their bodies work in school, along with education on everything else. I think… Some parents withdrew their children from those particular lessons, but it was a pretty small number. But in America it's seen as a big deal… So… Fine; you're responsible for your own children. If you don't want to delegate that responsibility then it's your job as parents to make sure they have the information they need presented in the proper context. I don't have a problem with that, either, and like to think that I've discharged mine in a reasonably competent manner."

    She nods. "I see. And what sort of age do you think a parent ought to explain things to their children?"

    "The explanations children get for things get… More complex as they get older. But I'd say that the very basics of how the reproductive organs work, it probably makes sense to tell them that as early as possible. 'This is what your heart does, this is where poop comes from, this is what your genitals do.'"

    "Ooh."

    "Because that way you're not making it sound like it's a taboo subject. You're not drawing any particular emphasis to it, and at that sort of age they're not going to take in the details anyway. If it's not a taboo subject, not only will they not feel embarrassed about asking you questions, it won't be anything like as interesting."

    She sits back in the chair.

    "I.. think we're going to get some calls about this."

    "Good show, but while I don't really have a problem giving the talk to… Just about anyone, I really think… Children, if you're listening? The best ports of call actually are your parents, not phoning a radio program. I know it's weird and awkward, but they've almost certainly been through whatever you're going through, but long enough ago that they've got some perspective on it."

    "OkayIthinkthat'senoughonthattopic! Ah. Let's try something nice and uncontroversial, like gun control."

    "Ah, alright? To the best of my knowledge, President Horne's position is that the Second Amendment is pretty clear on the subject, and the Federal Government shouldn't be infringing on people's right to bear arms."

    "His.. voting record as a Senator and his speeches tell a rather different story."

    "The fact that he personally doesn't like private gun ownership doesn't change his reading of the Constitution. It's like free speech: 'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it'. He is very unlikely to spend any time while in office removing restrictions because he likes living in a country where those restrictions exist, but he isn't going to make more because he doesn't think he has the authority."

    "Okay! Well, ah… This is Karolyn McDermott for DCNN, and we'll be… We'll be right back after these messages. … Probably."
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • BartlettMagic said:
    listen guys, i know you don't know me, and that this may or may not be the most appropriate forum to drop this factoid in, but i have to because i don't know where or when i'll ever get another chance to say it:

    goddamn, i would raw-dog the shit out of Beulah Bleak, and corrupt her in so many carnal ways. i've never been one to succumb to the typical comic hotties, but something about my dear Beulah makes me want to run that gauntlet and shoot for the goal, and every other metaphor that could be reasonably applied to the challenging uphill battle i would face when courting her.

    now that my creepy confession is concluded, i'll go back to lurking. thank you for your time.
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    deimos16 said:
    It's good that you've gotten that off your chest, but seriously? Beulah Bleak of all people? The weird creepy witch Hunter nun person?
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    Nuns are catholic. She's puritan.
     
    Mr Zoat said:
    "You..? Ah, you didn't get sex education from… On Apokolips?"

    "Sort of. That was a five minute aside from my father's chief torturer during my physiology lectures."
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    I doubt it.

    The real Grayven probably got the talk from Darkseid, because if there's one thing Darkseid would never pass up, it's a chance to emotionally traumatize his offspring.
     
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