AverusBlack
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Disappointing. Circe-tutored supervillain Sunset might've been a fun moment.
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With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)
- Thread starter Mr Zoat
- Start date
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- Tags
- self insert young justice
Disappointing. Circe-tutored supervillain Sunset might've been a fun moment.
Attention Counting
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Well, if it's any consolation, we know that Paragon!OL will eventually make his way to Equestria and have his talk with Nightmare Moon.
Edit: And he was visiting regularly for an entire millenium so he might've intervened in that scenario. Though from the surprise from Celestia about his general existence, either he didn't do anything then or he didn't make himself known to Celestia when he intervened.
It may be well after the story ends but beggars can't be choosers.
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LazySloth13
Versed in the lewd.
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I'm hoping for more possible future crossovers or at least fun little bottle episodes, like a version of Mr. Zoat/Paul that wound up in the universe of the recent hero game Dispatch, either in the way of Peter Wynne by starting a company like SDN or tried to be a hero only to retire after a short stint and acts as an office worker instead taking the role of HR or something that deals with the reformation of ex-villains.
Darko
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Found two more broken links on the same page.
Mr Zoat
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No, Sunset ended up in the Renegade timeline due to Brum-El's teleportation bugs activating without Irwin Schwab.
Motivations (part 4)
New
Mr Zoat
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12th August 2013
16:26 GMT
"… Oh."
Does Timaronian law have 'pleading the belly'? Don't know, because not enough women burned worlds from orbit for there to be an established precedent.
"I assume that General Dru-Zod is the father?"
"Ah, yes."
"If you're not certain-."
"I am certain. I'm also shocked." She frowns distractedly. "How does this… Affect anything?"
"I don't know. I'm going to go and talk to your lawyer about this now. Excuse me."
I
step out, homing in on Arnus's desire to practice interstellar law again before
barging into the room set aside for his deliberations.
He looks up at me, and then shuts down his terminal. "Orange Lantern. Contact between a lawyer and a party to the case-."
"Is perfectly fine when that party is a physician or being employed as one or otherwise providing pertinent medical information."
"Medical?"
"Ursa's pregnant."
…
"I see."
"So if you want me to go and talk to Amalak about this, now is the time to tell me."
"How advanced is the pregnancy?"
"She didn't know. Thinking about it…" Ah, very early development, the amount of time between their coup attempt and them being sent to the phantom zone… "I'd estimate that she became pregnant about the time they started planning their coup."
He nods slowly. "A highly stressful situation."
"And one where getting court-martialled for fraternisation was the least of their worries. Which makes sense, but it's an extra complication."
"Have you informed Dru-Zod?"
"No. Legally, I have to tell you. Practically, I probably need to tell Amalak, because we sort of need him not to insist on executing her until after she's given birth."
"Why not move the fetus to an incubator?"
"Kryptonian birthing matrixes are designed to gestate the foetus from the start. Once the cells are embedded in the uterine wall, best kryptonian medical practice is to leave them where they are."
"I see. My own species are more adaptable."
Yes, he used to look like a tau before getting reconfigured, but that flexibility is unusual.
"I'm not saying that someone couldn't kludge something workable together, I'm saying that the kryptonian physicians advised against it back when they still existed."
He inclines his head slightly, then gets out of his chair. "Do not tell Commodore Amalak yet. I will discuss the subject with my clients first."
"Ah… Okay, but talk quickly. The Doomsday's pretty fast, and he wants a speedy trial."
He nods as he leaves the room. "I will not take long."
I watch as the door closes, and… Ugh. The fact that she's pregnant doesn't mean that she's not a mass murderer, however natural discomfort at the idea of executing a woman just after she's given birth is. And it's not just a matter of being on the bridge when the captain did it; she had his complete confidence and almost certainly took part in the planning process. She thought that bombarding a world from orbit was better than just loading a bunch of people into the ships they used to do it and heading off instead.
Sure, trying to 100% percent a situation is tempting. Certainly worth trying in a game. But with actual people's lives, they'd-.
Ring, how accurate was Jor-El's projected timeline?
A summary of his reports appears in my mind. So… Within a month. If they had loaded up their system defence ships with Jor-El's admirers and set course for… Anywhere, what would have happened? Assuming that the Science Council even noticed, because the people operating the sensor network would have sided with Dru-Zod and it would be easy for them to just not report it for a while…
They'd have sent Eradicators. If they could. Eradicators don't have built-in F.T.L.. So if Dru-Zod sabotaged their deployment ship… Could they build a new one inside a month? Probably. Would they bother?
I don't know.
And if they did and no one wanted to go back, how exactly would the Eradicators force them? If-.
If they went to a planet with a yellow sun, they could probably destroy the Eradicators. The Council Guard controlling them would give Dru-Zod a decent fight, but they'd lose to superior numbers.
And then… They hold out for a month, and it stops being a problem.
Ex-cept, the only yellow star I know they knew about is Sol, and… I'm not sure that Dru-Zod bringing a posse to Earth would have been good for us. They could probably set up on the surface of Mars well enough… No, I think they'd go to Earth. A few hundred fully powered kryptonians turning up in the eighties…
Ah…
Probably best for us that they didn't.
The other place they could go was Timaron. I haven't gotten the impression that they really had a problem with their old overlords, and kryptonian technology was still more advanced than what they had. There would have been a major benefit to both parties.
Or maybe… Maybe he didn't have enough support for something like that? Maybe he was having to lie to his subordinates about what they were doing and who they were arresting to make the coup happen at all? I don't know. I don't think he was lying to me but that doesn't mean that he was telling me the entirety of the truth.
Hm. Okay, there's not really anything I can do here. I
step out, looking for the desire to mend the universe that characterises
Lantern Mother of Mercy.
"Illustres. Welcome."
I stand on the surface of her world, just under the fronds of one of her solar energy collectors. Looking up, I can see the surface of Timaron, and off to one side I see the small orange specks of the observers.
"Orange Lantern Mother of Mercy. How goes it?"
"I am on schedule. The last of the volcanoes will be plugged by the end of the day. Then I will begin atmosphere filtration."
"Good show. Mind if I watch for a bit?"
"I would enjoy your company."
I nod, walking towards the trunk of the solar collector and sitting down with my back against it.
"So what have you been up to?"
16:26 GMT
"… Oh."
Does Timaronian law have 'pleading the belly'? Don't know, because not enough women burned worlds from orbit for there to be an established precedent.
"I assume that General Dru-Zod is the father?"
"Ah, yes."
"If you're not certain-."
"I am certain. I'm also shocked." She frowns distractedly. "How does this… Affect anything?"
"I don't know. I'm going to go and talk to your lawyer about this now. Excuse me."
I
step out, homing in on Arnus's desire to practice interstellar law again before
barging into the room set aside for his deliberations.
He looks up at me, and then shuts down his terminal. "Orange Lantern. Contact between a lawyer and a party to the case-."
"Is perfectly fine when that party is a physician or being employed as one or otherwise providing pertinent medical information."
"Medical?"
"Ursa's pregnant."
…
"I see."
"So if you want me to go and talk to Amalak about this, now is the time to tell me."
"How advanced is the pregnancy?"
"She didn't know. Thinking about it…" Ah, very early development, the amount of time between their coup attempt and them being sent to the phantom zone… "I'd estimate that she became pregnant about the time they started planning their coup."
He nods slowly. "A highly stressful situation."
"And one where getting court-martialled for fraternisation was the least of their worries. Which makes sense, but it's an extra complication."
"Have you informed Dru-Zod?"
"No. Legally, I have to tell you. Practically, I probably need to tell Amalak, because we sort of need him not to insist on executing her until after she's given birth."
"Why not move the fetus to an incubator?"
"Kryptonian birthing matrixes are designed to gestate the foetus from the start. Once the cells are embedded in the uterine wall, best kryptonian medical practice is to leave them where they are."
"I see. My own species are more adaptable."
Yes, he used to look like a tau before getting reconfigured, but that flexibility is unusual.
"I'm not saying that someone couldn't kludge something workable together, I'm saying that the kryptonian physicians advised against it back when they still existed."
He inclines his head slightly, then gets out of his chair. "Do not tell Commodore Amalak yet. I will discuss the subject with my clients first."
"Ah… Okay, but talk quickly. The Doomsday's pretty fast, and he wants a speedy trial."
He nods as he leaves the room. "I will not take long."
I watch as the door closes, and… Ugh. The fact that she's pregnant doesn't mean that she's not a mass murderer, however natural discomfort at the idea of executing a woman just after she's given birth is. And it's not just a matter of being on the bridge when the captain did it; she had his complete confidence and almost certainly took part in the planning process. She thought that bombarding a world from orbit was better than just loading a bunch of people into the ships they used to do it and heading off instead.
Sure, trying to 100% percent a situation is tempting. Certainly worth trying in a game. But with actual people's lives, they'd-.
Ring, how accurate was Jor-El's projected timeline?
A summary of his reports appears in my mind. So… Within a month. If they had loaded up their system defence ships with Jor-El's admirers and set course for… Anywhere, what would have happened? Assuming that the Science Council even noticed, because the people operating the sensor network would have sided with Dru-Zod and it would be easy for them to just not report it for a while…
They'd have sent Eradicators. If they could. Eradicators don't have built-in F.T.L.. So if Dru-Zod sabotaged their deployment ship… Could they build a new one inside a month? Probably. Would they bother?
I don't know.
And if they did and no one wanted to go back, how exactly would the Eradicators force them? If-.
If they went to a planet with a yellow sun, they could probably destroy the Eradicators. The Council Guard controlling them would give Dru-Zod a decent fight, but they'd lose to superior numbers.
And then… They hold out for a month, and it stops being a problem.
Ex-cept, the only yellow star I know they knew about is Sol, and… I'm not sure that Dru-Zod bringing a posse to Earth would have been good for us. They could probably set up on the surface of Mars well enough… No, I think they'd go to Earth. A few hundred fully powered kryptonians turning up in the eighties…
Ah…
Probably best for us that they didn't.
The other place they could go was Timaron. I haven't gotten the impression that they really had a problem with their old overlords, and kryptonian technology was still more advanced than what they had. There would have been a major benefit to both parties.
Or maybe… Maybe he didn't have enough support for something like that? Maybe he was having to lie to his subordinates about what they were doing and who they were arresting to make the coup happen at all? I don't know. I don't think he was lying to me but that doesn't mean that he was telling me the entirety of the truth.
Hm. Okay, there's not really anything I can do here. I
step out, looking for the desire to mend the universe that characterises
Lantern Mother of Mercy.
"Illustres. Welcome."
I stand on the surface of her world, just under the fronds of one of her solar energy collectors. Looking up, I can see the surface of Timaron, and off to one side I see the small orange specks of the observers.
"Orange Lantern Mother of Mercy. How goes it?"
"I am on schedule. The last of the volcanoes will be plugged by the end of the day. Then I will begin atmosphere filtration."
"Good show. Mind if I watch for a bit?"
"I would enjoy your company."
I nod, walking towards the trunk of the solar collector and sitting down with my back against it.
"So what have you been up to?"
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Darko
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"built"
Mr Zoat
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Gosh darn it.
Twenty minutes tracking down those images in the comics, cutting, pasting and saving, and it turns out that I already had them uploaded to my new image host.
Thank you, corrected.
BlueMangoAdea
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Huh. So it is medically inadvisable to execute her right away, even with the exo-wombs. I suppose the child would have to be adopted by someone else, after birth. At least, assuming the execution still happens.
Chojin Patriarch
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It is definitely going to complicate the matter of the trial. Especially if the timaronians are angry enough to not care about her status. Hopefully, she gets a reprieve, but I get the feeling that will be highly unlikely.
Loyalty being one of her big things, after all. Though that adds in a whole different angle to their association. Much like Shepard romancing Ashley or Kaidan in ME1, it's a little thing called 'fraternization.'
Certainly, if it was a one-night thing, she should be surprised, unless things just happened to line up right.
I bet he was in a great mood before this moment. Performing in his original career instead of flying around punching criminals?
Really should have knocked, OL. I know you're in a rush, but...
Ah, that got his attention. And when you're talking about this situation, there's really only two options: She's already dying, or...
...That. He's probably gonna have to check Timaronian laws to see what impact this has now. Which may actually be something he enjoys.
Now, see, that is an important question, but the way she reacted, well...
So it's marginally excusable. Just a fluke that she was fertile at the right moment, I suppose. Unless said preparation took weeks.
Oooh, he's gonna be shocked if he finds out. Finding out you're going to be a father can change a man's outlook rather suddenly.
A good question. And a natural complication to see. The kind of trauma removing the placental connection would involve could well cause the fetus to fail.
Probably some measure of tailored genetic modifications. His species can modify their appearance, why not make pregnancies easier for the ladies?
Right, then. Better be quick.
Good. It's surely a matter of days before the whole thing gets underway, if not hours.
Admittedly, it would have been a lot more noticeable if they started shipping people offworld. Especially after a ban on doing just that.
Reminds me of the 'ME1 infinite Morality loop'. One NPC encounter can be repeated to provide a continuous feed of Paragon and/or Renegade points for as long as you can stand to perform it. But imagine the NPC's point of view...
A big leap, but if it makes the hypotheticals easier...
Could well have seen the Science Council fume but sit on their hands.
Given that a lot of those aboard would be military service personnel... There would be a decent amount of combined experience there.
There would still have been some superhumans about, but by and large, they weren't operating particularly openly...
...There also weren't a lot that could stand up to empowered Kryptonian soldiers.
But it would also be a likely place for the Science Council to look if they decided to engage in pursuit.
Far too many unknowable variables involved. Theorycrafting is fine, but don't rely on it.
Huh. Well, he moved on quickly. I suppose he doesn't have to be present the whole trip, after all.
A terrifying sight for anyone with conventional perceptions of 'normal'.
Swift work. She's giving them a real masterclass in geological and ecological manipulation.
If nothing else, he might get some ideas. About what, I'm not sure, but still...
Heh. What do you talk about with a being big enough to cover a planet, after all?
Well, the pregnancy is confirmed, and being kept on the down-low for now. No doubt once Arnus reads up on the relevant passages of Timaronian law, a decision will be made to go public with it.
Bit cheeky not to tell the father yet, but why worry him, eh? Seems like a good place to cut away to another alternate, anyway. Wonder who it'll be this time..."I assume that General Dru-Zod is the father?"
Missing Full Stop.
Mr Zoat
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Thank you, corrected.
WereDragon
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Just as if not more likely that it was socially unacceptable rather than anything to do with medical knowledge.
Mr Zoat
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No. I consider blackface to be racially offensive.
BartlettMagic
peekaboo, you fucks you!
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i love interactions with the truly unique Orange Lanterns. now i'm imagining a way that MoM lives up to her name and provides some kind of unique-to-her solution for the pregnancy. creating a birthing pod on herself, maybe. what this is making me realize is that i don't know nearly enough about what MoM's baseline powers/abilities/whatever are, let alone how they could be augmented by an Orange Ring. i know she's been acting as a kind of satellite for interstellar souls to get them to Hades, or am i misremembering that?
also, while i love what Lantern Son of Great Mother is doing on earth with infrastructure, but it makes me curious what LSoGM and MoM would think of each other, or how they might interact. i'm assuming they know about each other, or at least have the opportunity to learn about each other via Ring. i could see LSoGM being myopic and not looking her up, but i just feel like MoM is more sapient and curiousity might lead her to another Lantern that seemingly has a name inferring a built-in desire to serve a greater "Mother."
i dunno, but i enjoy the flights of fancy that this extended universe takes me on.
Duke Long
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'specks'?
Mr Zoat
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Thank you, corrected.
Zig
Not too sore, are you?
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Anyone wanna take odds on this trunk being a special appendage ala the Spider Queen?
TFTwink
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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This sentence might need an ellipsis instead a period, or a rephrasing.
Vaermina
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Without Ursa's permission to do so every member of the League there would fight to stop it.
Mr Zoat
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I... Think it's okay..?
Motivations (part 5)
New
Mr Zoat
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12th August 2013
16:46 GMT
"…recovered those of my children that Mongul had been misusing.
"I'm glad to hear it. Any luck finding the man himself?"
"I have no desire for revenge-"
"Uh-huh."
"-but I admit that should I encounter him now, he would not survive the experience. Is he a target for the Corps?
I sigh. "Not specifically at this time. Once we've dealt with the Reach, he'll probably end up on the target list, but unpleasant as he is, he's not actually enough of a problem in any one place to be worth prioritising. The Spider Guild and Apokolips come first. Of course, if we ran into him in the course of doing something else, it would be most efficient to deal with him then and there."
"That is reasonable. I have modified my children to reduce the likelihood of misuse. Now, they can be removed externally by squeezing them in an area indicated by coloured patches."
"That sounds like an extremely reasonable precaution. I'm particularly pleased that you didn't refuse to do so for reasons of pride."
"That would make no sense."
"Yes, but people sometimes do things for pretty stupid reasons, myself included. There was a man called Alexander Tuttle I met when I was starting out. He invented a device that could remove molecular bonds in anything it touched. I used it a lot, so when we met I tried to thank him and give him credit for his work. He went nuts. According to his psychologist, he couldn't stand the idea that someone had used his work better than he had."
"Crumbler."
"That's the fellow."
"I am not so fragile."
"Yeah." I pat the root network beneath me with my right hand. "I spotted that."
"I knew that I did not understand the small creatures adequately. I wanted to, so that I could remove their pain more effectively. When I gained that understanding, it would have been churlish to complain about it."
"It would be, but as I said, people do some pretty stupid things sometimes." I look up at Timaron again. "So how did they do it?"
"The destruction of Timaron-" A construct globe appears in front of me. "-was most likely triggered by the use of high-powered energy weapons on surface and sub-aquatic volcanic faults, triggering simultaneous shockwaves, tidal surges and the release of poison gasses. The construct image simulates the detonations. "Wreckage patterns in orbit suggest that a sizable proportion of escaping ships were intercepted and destroyed."
"Was Timaron particularly volcanic?"
"Compared to Earth?"
"Or whatever the average is. I always thought that Earth's oversized moon made it more tectonically active than most equivalent planets, but I can't say that I've ever looked into it."
"It is, but the difference means little on a geological timescale. Timaron had fewer active volcanoes, but just as many fault lines. Since the energy was externally applied, the difference was irrelevant."
"And of course an energy beam that powerful would turn the air into plasma and create shockwaves anyway."
"To a degree. Their containment fields appear to have been highly effective. What did Krypton do with the ships?"
"Hm? Oh, grounded them and broke them up for parts. The military was completely shut down after the coup attempt, aside from the Council Guard and the Eradicators. That's why literally no one escaped other than Kal-El and Kara." Hm. "I never asked, but thinking about the timelines, I wouldn't be surprised if they salvaged their FTL drives from those ships. Jor-El certainly wouldn't have had trouble getting access at that point in his career."
"And their weapons?"
"No idea. They were probably on Krypton when it exploded, assuming they were still intact. I doubt that they still exist in a useable format today. If they do… Someone probably salvaged them years ago. It's not as if Krypton exploding was a secret, it was just something not a lot of people knew about."
Wait a… Moment.
"How..? Dumb, was this?"
"The placement of the shots suggest a sophisticated understanding of planetary geophysics."
"No, I mean, the idea of unifying Krypton behind Dru-Zod by doing this."
"I have heard of worse plans. And better ones, made by other people. Why do you ask?"
"When they came out of the phantom zone, we got hit by some sort of intelligence suppression affect. Briefly. It couldn't have been a gas because it affected Lanterns wearing environmental shields. I blocked it using a mind shield so it was probably telepathic, but… There are telepathic weapons that don't require a brain-. Or at least not a whole one."
"Do you mean that you think the reason Dru-Zod destroyed Timaron is because his judgement was impaired?"
"I don't know." I snort. "It didn't occur to me to get someone to check. Because the problem about being affected by an intelligence suppressor… Is that your intelligence is suppressed."
"That is a tautology."
"That's a joke, because it's obvious… Unless your intelligence is being suppressed."
"I do not have a sense of humour."
"I can't really help you there. My own is a little off-kilter."
"Do you honestly believe that the devastation of Timaron could have been as a result of a telepathic attack?"
"I know it could have been. But I don't know if I'm thinking that it was because I just can't understand this sort of callousness, or because the situation genuinely looks dodgy. Checking's going to be a pain, and possibly flat out impossible. But I've got to, or innocent people could get executed and the guilty escape."
"Would the guilty still live?"
"By universal standards, surviving forty years isn't all that hard. Some species could even have survived Krypton exploding beneath them. Heck, an empowered kryptonian with a top-tier radiation shield and an air supply could have survived it."
So I better get back to it, because Amalak's not going to be easier to convinced because I dallied along the way.
"Well." I stand. "Keep up the good work, Lantern Mother of Mercy. And-." Hm. "I know we think you're artificial, but it occurs to me that there's a techno-organic ship in my home system now whose design suggests a similar underlying nature. I don't know if there's any actual similarity in the systems, but once you're finished here you could fly by and have a look."
"I will. Thank you for drawing my attention to it."
16:46 GMT
"…recovered those of my children that Mongul had been misusing.
"I'm glad to hear it. Any luck finding the man himself?"
"I have no desire for revenge-"
"Uh-huh."
"-but I admit that should I encounter him now, he would not survive the experience. Is he a target for the Corps?
I sigh. "Not specifically at this time. Once we've dealt with the Reach, he'll probably end up on the target list, but unpleasant as he is, he's not actually enough of a problem in any one place to be worth prioritising. The Spider Guild and Apokolips come first. Of course, if we ran into him in the course of doing something else, it would be most efficient to deal with him then and there."
"That is reasonable. I have modified my children to reduce the likelihood of misuse. Now, they can be removed externally by squeezing them in an area indicated by coloured patches."
"That sounds like an extremely reasonable precaution. I'm particularly pleased that you didn't refuse to do so for reasons of pride."
"That would make no sense."
"Yes, but people sometimes do things for pretty stupid reasons, myself included. There was a man called Alexander Tuttle I met when I was starting out. He invented a device that could remove molecular bonds in anything it touched. I used it a lot, so when we met I tried to thank him and give him credit for his work. He went nuts. According to his psychologist, he couldn't stand the idea that someone had used his work better than he had."
"Crumbler."
"That's the fellow."
"I am not so fragile."
"Yeah." I pat the root network beneath me with my right hand. "I spotted that."
"I knew that I did not understand the small creatures adequately. I wanted to, so that I could remove their pain more effectively. When I gained that understanding, it would have been churlish to complain about it."
"It would be, but as I said, people do some pretty stupid things sometimes." I look up at Timaron again. "So how did they do it?"
"The destruction of Timaron-" A construct globe appears in front of me. "-was most likely triggered by the use of high-powered energy weapons on surface and sub-aquatic volcanic faults, triggering simultaneous shockwaves, tidal surges and the release of poison gasses. The construct image simulates the detonations. "Wreckage patterns in orbit suggest that a sizable proportion of escaping ships were intercepted and destroyed."
"Was Timaron particularly volcanic?"
"Compared to Earth?"
"Or whatever the average is. I always thought that Earth's oversized moon made it more tectonically active than most equivalent planets, but I can't say that I've ever looked into it."
"It is, but the difference means little on a geological timescale. Timaron had fewer active volcanoes, but just as many fault lines. Since the energy was externally applied, the difference was irrelevant."
"And of course an energy beam that powerful would turn the air into plasma and create shockwaves anyway."
"To a degree. Their containment fields appear to have been highly effective. What did Krypton do with the ships?"
"Hm? Oh, grounded them and broke them up for parts. The military was completely shut down after the coup attempt, aside from the Council Guard and the Eradicators. That's why literally no one escaped other than Kal-El and Kara." Hm. "I never asked, but thinking about the timelines, I wouldn't be surprised if they salvaged their FTL drives from those ships. Jor-El certainly wouldn't have had trouble getting access at that point in his career."
"And their weapons?"
"No idea. They were probably on Krypton when it exploded, assuming they were still intact. I doubt that they still exist in a useable format today. If they do… Someone probably salvaged them years ago. It's not as if Krypton exploding was a secret, it was just something not a lot of people knew about."
Wait a… Moment.
"How..? Dumb, was this?"
"The placement of the shots suggest a sophisticated understanding of planetary geophysics."
"No, I mean, the idea of unifying Krypton behind Dru-Zod by doing this."
"I have heard of worse plans. And better ones, made by other people. Why do you ask?"
"When they came out of the phantom zone, we got hit by some sort of intelligence suppression affect. Briefly. It couldn't have been a gas because it affected Lanterns wearing environmental shields. I blocked it using a mind shield so it was probably telepathic, but… There are telepathic weapons that don't require a brain-. Or at least not a whole one."
"Do you mean that you think the reason Dru-Zod destroyed Timaron is because his judgement was impaired?"
"I don't know." I snort. "It didn't occur to me to get someone to check. Because the problem about being affected by an intelligence suppressor… Is that your intelligence is suppressed."
"That is a tautology."
"That's a joke, because it's obvious… Unless your intelligence is being suppressed."
"I do not have a sense of humour."
"I can't really help you there. My own is a little off-kilter."
"Do you honestly believe that the devastation of Timaron could have been as a result of a telepathic attack?"
"I know it could have been. But I don't know if I'm thinking that it was because I just can't understand this sort of callousness, or because the situation genuinely looks dodgy. Checking's going to be a pain, and possibly flat out impossible. But I've got to, or innocent people could get executed and the guilty escape."
"Would the guilty still live?"
"By universal standards, surviving forty years isn't all that hard. Some species could even have survived Krypton exploding beneath them. Heck, an empowered kryptonian with a top-tier radiation shield and an air supply could have survived it."
So I better get back to it, because Amalak's not going to be easier to convinced because I dallied along the way.
"Well." I stand. "Keep up the good work, Lantern Mother of Mercy. And-." Hm. "I know we think you're artificial, but it occurs to me that there's a techno-organic ship in my home system now whose design suggests a similar underlying nature. I don't know if there's any actual similarity in the systems, but once you're finished here you could fly by and have a look."
"I will. Thank you for drawing my attention to it."
Someguy Somewhere
The Critical Fumbler
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Her and Lantern Son of Great Mother are sure to get along swimmingly.
Frozen20XX
Making the rounds.
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Mongul should consider himself lucky deaths in his future and not constructhood.
Old Knife
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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Dunno about that. He looks good in orange.
thebishop8
Umm, ackchyually...
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Just last episode Paul was thinking about how he couldn't tell if Brainiac took Kandor and that he didn't have time to investigate, so it would be ironic if Brainiac is the one behind the intelligence suppressor and it was part of some plot to steal Kandor. Though, there would have to be a good explanation for why the intelligence suppressor was triggered again when Zod was released.
I made a typo when searching for mentions of Brainiac, and found Zoat made the same typo once, only a couple of days away from a full decade ago:
I made a typo when searching for mentions of Brainiac, and found Zoat made the same typo once, only a couple of days away from a full decade ago:
'Braniac' to 'Brainiac'
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Duke Long
Glomerulus
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Chojin Patriarch
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He's a comparatively minor threat compared to stuff like the Reach, but his misuse of her blooms would definitely qualify as personal business. She'd be well within her right to hunt him and Warworld down and take both for the Corps.
Heh. I doubt she'd even find any reason to bother Assimilating him. Perhaps bind him with a tailored 'it gets worse' Black Mercy (Black Anguish?) and let him rot in some hole on her surface...
Now, whether matters could be arranged to make such a thing happen? well, I'm sure she's got the processing power to plan that out.
A clever trick. Not obvious except as a minor variation of the blooms, but to those with the knowledge... It beats going into the dreamscape telepathically and interacting with the captive directly.
Much less without his permission, I bet. Although given that he was an entirely intellectual man of not particularly athletic build (typical superhero comics art notwithstanding,) it's not surprising that a Lantern could outperform him.
Kind of a pathetic one, really. Typical malign hypercognitive.
Not much that can really damage a planet-wide neural network outside of heavy bombardments, and a Lantern Ring can protect from some of that.
Especially when the process of removing their pain usually resulted in their deaths (from deprivation and neglect, usually.) I guess she knows better now.
Very much an intentional attack designed to inflict maximum damage. Not something you can blunder into, and it definitely highlights the premeditated nature of it...
Given that we haven't really the experience to know whether exoplanets are more or less tectonically active, kind of a hard comparison from our limited knowledge. For all we know, Earth is incredibly active and aliens would be stunned we can survive on it...
Doesn't really matter how it cracked, only that it did. And did so too fast to deal with well.
Oh, yes, incredibly precise weapons. Wouldn't want to set their atmosphere on fire on top of cracking their planet like a chocolate egg.
Honestly, that makes too much sense. The hyperdrives for the pods had to come from somewhere and I doubt he could just build one in his garage.
Certainly, the trauma of a planet exploding underneath them would probably not leave much intact in the armoury bunkers the weapons would have been stored in, anyway.
Not the kind of dumb he meant, I think. More 'low WIS' than 'low INT'.
It does rely on a lot of assumptions about how the Kryptonian people would react.
I still figure the effect was coming from inside the Zone itself, but could it have been some lingering external mental influence surrounding Zod himself? A curse that burped out one last 'dumb bubble' before expiring with no mana supply?
Well, if people act uncharacteristically foolish around Zod, that could be a strong sign one way or the other.
But he does have a point. I bet he only realised he was being affected by intelligence dampening was his prior experience with a similar effect, enough for him to realise 'this is wrong, I should be smarter' and promptly counteract it.
Decidedly so, yes...
Oh no, he's totally going to screw up the very trial he arrange,d isn't he?
Though it would have to be a long-life one for them to survive long enough to reach some kind of nearby vessel...
Hmm... That could be an interesting meeting. Would Mother of Mercy and The Great Mother become fast friends or wary of each other?
Sadly, I doubt we'll get to see it.
OL seems to have a bit of ragged mystery in his jaws now, and he's tugging at it earnestly. There are a few odd details that don't line up, but the hard part is working out how they're connected, if at all, and whether it exonerates Zod or not. And whether that exoneration would antagonise Amalak and his people or not, too...
BR549
This is filth! FILTH!!
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Hmmm. That would set the cat amongst the pigeons, wouldn't it?
But I seem to recall Amalak did allow for the fact that, if it could be proven Zod wasn't responsible somehow, that he would turn his ire to ensuring the true perpetrator was executed instead...
...this has a non-zero chance of Amalak and Zod having to team up, doesn't it.
But I seem to recall Amalak did allow for the fact that, if it could be proven Zod wasn't responsible somehow, that he would turn his ire to ensuring the true perpetrator was executed instead...
...this has a non-zero chance of Amalak and Zod having to team up, doesn't it.
I think I remember that in some continuities, Brainiac is responsible for the existence of kryptonite, so, it can't be ruled out...