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

Z000 · 2026-04-25T08:02:57+0100

Smiley was being awfully chatty and i'm not sure if he trying to talk to Paul about his issue or just buy time

Someguy Somewhere · 2026-04-25T08:15:02+0100

And now I recall that Luthor hid from the antilife in on some demiplane like extra dimensional space. Makes more sense if smiley was who moved him out. After all, who wants Lex to change? Not this guy

NightmareWarden · 2026-04-25T08:20:57+0100

mastermenthe said:
The fact that BS is even having this conversation means he wants OL on his side.

Or he works like a New God, and the victory over does matters, rather than the boost in effectiveness from something resembling Paul. A similar victory would warrant similar rewards. Perhaps a recharge or extension on his life expectancy?

Ah, new update! Yay! I enjoy this fic, this world, and this sort of heroism.

Interesting that truth seems to be a part of Smai O'Leigh's nature. That's not quite right. Perhaps it's a bit like... To use a Deltarune and Touhou term, grazing as close to the truth as possible? Sure, I can imagine some conceptual power in that. I'm not sure if (under this pardigm) his deception during the Heaven episode was permitted because he was outside of the moral world, "he" was letting a copy talk to OL rather than talk through it, or he was simply careful enough with his wording that he merely proposed possible explanations, rather than stating points as truth.

Chojin Patriarch · 2026-04-25T08:37:00+0100

Mr Zoat said:
1st September 2013
15:12 GMT

"My confidence that Batman is being a net positive to humanity is about eighty-five percent, and most of that fifteen is due to the difficult to foresee long term consequences of our actions."

Mr. Mackensen looks down at the… Distant car park where his employees are looking up at us. "My lord… Could you please tell me what you want me to do?"

I'm imagining the yellow-faced bastard being about 60-odd feet at this point, big enough that he's holding them like 1/10-th scale action figures... Let's hope he likes to take care of his toys.

The round yellow head orientates on him. "Oh? Do you worship me now, Charlie?"

"Ah-I.. can be practical?"

He's worship a side of bacon if it saved his right now.

"So, yes."

"What?"

Ah, it's one of those conceptual things... The mere act of doing something the yellow git approves of is enough to get his attention.

Boss Smiley raises his left hand to chin level. "You see, Charlie, I'm not a demon. I don't need a written contract signed in blood. I need deliberate intent. And I have to say that your actions are both deliberate and intentional. You want to make your own life better and you don't care what you have to do to pull it off. And that makes you one of my people."

'Me first, screw you guys', eh? It fits with his logic. I wonder if the smiling tosser can even really comprehend selflessness and altruism?

"Then..?" He glances at me.

"Him?" Boss Smiley keeps smiling. "I'm not your personal savour, Charlie. I have my own interests. I held up my end of our bargain, and that's all you get. Unless you've got a better proposal?"

Also fitting to his methodology. He merely gives his pawns what they need to get started, and if they can profit with that, all the better...

He thinks for about half a second.

"Transfer me into his body. I can expand my operations without worrying about being detected by the owner."

And somewhere, a million criminal geniuses facepalm without knowing why.

"Come on, Charlie, I know you're smarter than this. You don't know enough to trick his friends into believing that you're him."

"I can-."

Bitch, please. Being 'quirky and mercurial' is not going to cut it.

"Charlie, not a lot of people are out of my reach, but members of the Justice League are screened by Nommo Balewa and J'onn J'onzz and he is screened by Hinon Hee Hannanan."

"I.. don't know who that is."

Though OL is probably sweating a little knowing that the grinning git does.

"Exactly. Charlie, you're a bit-player. You had a decent scheme but you rushed the implementation. And since I'm not a demon I'm going to be straight with you: the best thing you can do is take a fall and rebuild later, older and wiser."

Hm. "And you're saying that because you don't think he's constitutionally capable of changing, so 'wiser' just means 'do the same basic thing with more foresight'."

Ah, close to the definition of madness. Of course, OL will prove to be a big agent of change in that regard.

"Ah, Paul." He raises his right hand up higher, level with his eyes. "That's all anyone can do. That's what I find frustrating about you. What exactly do you think is inhuman about Charlie here?"

"He seems like the sort to make pacts with demons, so it wouldn't exactly shock me to learn that he's got a bit of demon in him."

To be fair, Andrews does seem like a weaker, dumber version of John Constantine, with none of his wiliness or good sense.

"No, he's clean. His niche is using fey magic." Boss Smiley turns his head left and then right, implying that he's checking for eavesdroppers while being about two hundred metres tall before sharing something in confidence with me. "He thinks it's less risky."

Well, that's a big mistake.

I take a moment to consider what I've learned about the fey. The regular fey, not the future-sheeda. It's… Technically true that they're less dangerous than demons, but the sort that it's useful to make pacts with tend to be a lot more intelligent and it's easier for them to interact with the Earth. And their customer service is worse. It… Might be worth taking time to find out exactly what he offered them in exchange for tuition.

Yes, they work with so many rules of etiquette that sooner or later, you will make an unknowable gaffe and piss off someone dangerous.

"Okay. You tried corrupting my company-. Or revealing human nature to me or whatever you think this is-."

"You are hard work, do you know that?"

So the smiling git wants to work out what makes OL tick and apply leverage to him with it, eh? Make him dance to his tune, however he can.

"It has been commented on before."

"I am trying to communicate to you that his graft was harmless and benefited people in a way that it didn't occur to you to try and do. You can't control everything, and that means that not everything that happens will be enacted in accordance with your desires."

And OL is very much aware of that, thanks. The issue the yellow-faced fool is having is that he can't work out how to exploit that, isn't it?

"I'm-"

"Kid Flash to Orange Lantern."

Oh, backup on the way, perhaps?

…

That was on my internal communication system.

Ah, full armour with its face-concealing design. Makes having private conversations easier.

"-not sure I understand where you're going with this. Plus it's hard to gel that claim with the attempted murder." Internal. "Orange Lantern here. Found anything?"

"A whole lot of low grade magic paraphernalia and some cursed posters. Arte's dealing with them now. What are you doing?"

Dealing with them with prejudice, I bet. Wonder if that's putting the big tosser off his game at all?

"Talking to his sponsor, Boss Smiley."

"Like… Metaphorically..?"

No, Wally. Honestly, I'm amazed people aren't seeing this play out and rushing to assist OL yet.

"He's literally holding me right now."

"Oh El, you made the news. You're on T.V.. You're just floating there."

...Well, bugger. The smiling git's either incapable of being perceived except by living minds or he's got one hell of a concealment glamour going on.

"Murder? Murder who?"

External. "Several people who were using his products."

"Charlie, I don't remember anything about murdering people."

...So the not-so-smiling one wasn't the one responsible? Interesting.

"I did not order any murders. But I don't control what everyone who buys from me does with the product."

Ring, spell eater temperature?

Normal.

...But someone used the sympathetic magic connected to the users to affect them. If not Andrews or Mister Emoticon here, who?

I look down again, and… People aren't fleeing in terror. And my Construct Lanterns aren't reacting. Alright, but-.

Internal. "Kid Flash, am I making a construct sphere right now?"

So only Andrews and OL are getting any sign of his existence right now.

"No? Are you trying to?"

"Yes. Can you see my environmental shield?"

"The camera's not that close, dude."

Which should be suspicious, as an environmental shield's pretty obvious, unless it really doesn't show through OL's heavy armour. And do they see Andrews at all, is he floating independently or do they just see him in a restraint made by OL? So many questions...

Okay. I'm not being affected by magic but something is removing my ability to make constructs. Actually removing, not just making me think it is. For a moment I wonder if this whole thing is a glamour from Mr. Andrews, but… That shouldn't work this well on me, and his reactions don't look feigned. Boss Smiley doesn't appear to be lying, but…

You're not inclined to take his words at face value anyway, knowing he's got some sort of agenda in mind.

He told me that he doesn't exist.

I saved Timothy by disrupting the drug's magic, but I saved Mr. Mackensen and Mr. Oyebe using-.

Ah, finding a weakness he can exploit against the yellow git.

I activate my armour's short-ranged planar jammer, and get the pleasure of seeing Boss Smiley recoil for a moment before shimmering out of existence.

A short distance from me, Mr. Andrews falls-.

And I choose to picture him getting an

expression before popping like a soap bubble.

I grab him with a construct.

"What?" He stares around. "Where did he go?"

"I'm not completely sure that he was completely here. It shouldn't be that easy something like him to move around the material-."

Also, don't expect to get out of this without answering some very pointed questions, Andrews.

"A glamour? But we were actually picked up-. Unless it was your constructs really doing it?"

"I don't think so. And I think I need to see where Mister Hayden is right now."

That's why I was wondering about what it looked like from the outside...

This has made matters very complicated indeed. How the hell is OL going to explain all this when people tend to dismiss the existence of the responsible party without hard evidence... And who the hell really did the attempted murder part if neither Andrews nor the smiling git claimed responsibility? Is Psycho-Pirate really awake, on some level beyond the physical and doing it?

Duke Long · 2026-04-25T08:48:18+0100

Mr Zoat said:
Mr. Mackensen looks down at the… Distant car park where his employees are looking up at us. "My lord… Could you please tell me what you want me to do?"

I thought he was Mr. Andrews?

Mr Zoat said:
Boss Smiley raises his left hand to chin level. "You see, Charlie, I'm not a demon. I don't need a written contract signed in blood. I need deliberate intent. And I have to say that your actions are both deliberate and intentional. You want to make your own life better and you don't care what you have to do to pull it off. And that makes you one of my people."

This is pretty cool. I'm guessing he gets some sort of control over people who 'willingly' worship him.

Mr Zoat said:
"Charlie, not a lot of people are out of my reach, but members of the Justice League are screened by Nommo Balewa and J'onn J'onzz and he is screened by Hinon Hee Hannanan."

"I.. don't know who that is."

Interesting that Smiley does. Did Oh El mention her publicly, or has he got access to Justice League records?

Mr Zoat said:
Hm. "And you're saying that because you don't think he's constitutionally capable of changing, so 'wiser' just means 'do the same basic thing with more foresight'."

"Ah, Paul." He raises his right hand up higher, level with his eyes. "That's all anyone can do. That's what I find frustrating about you. What exactly do you think is inhuman about Charlie here?"

Perhaps I'm looking too far into it, but this makes me wonder if rather than political corruption and social inertia, Boss Smiley is something like an embodiment of 'human nature' (or maybe 'selfishness'?). That would seem like it could be an ancient and powerful enough thing to spawn him. And I guess maybe there's something there about how the smiley face is the friendly mask people wear over their true selves, something something.

Human nature feels like an appropriate final boss for a story like this, with the uplift stuff. Oh El wants people to be able to sort themselves out, Boss Smiley thinks they can't.

Mr Zoat said:
I take a moment to consider what I've learned about they fey. The regular fey, not the future-sheeda. It's… Technically true that they're less dangerous than demons, but the sort that it's useful to make pacts with tend to be a lot more intelligent and it's easier for them to interact with the Earth. And their customer service is worse. It… Might be worth taking time to find out exactly what he offered them in exchange for tuition.

'the'

I think we saw some fae during that Aztec business? I feel like I remember one of them being quite funny. Like, he wanted to deceive people but wasn't very good at it, something like that.

Mr Zoat said:
"I am trying to communicate to you that his graft was harmless and benefited people in a way that it didn't occur to you to try and do. You can't control everything, and that means that not everything that happens will be enacted in accordance with your desires."

Was going to say 'benefitted' but I figure he has an American accent.
Assuming this isn't bullshit, what is Boss Smiley's purpose? Oh El should meddle less because people can sort themselves out? Seems like the type of thing Oh El would want to believe, at least.

Mr Zoat said:
He told me that he doesn't exist.

I saved Timothy by disrupting the drug's magic, but I saved Mr. Mackensen and Mr. Oyebe using-.

I activate my armour's short-ranged planar jammer, and get the pleasure of seeing Boss Smiley recoil for a moment before shimmering out of existence.

Interesting that Boss Smiley told the truth there. Maybe this means that whenever he appears it is always a projection or illusion, and he doesn't have a true form?

Also interesting that Boss Smiley was using an interplanar projection, the patches worked via interplanar magic, yet the murder attempts which used interplanar attacks were done by a third party? Good shout from Chojin Patriarch on Psycho Pirate, could be he was worried that in the absence of anything really dangerous Boss Smiley would talk around Oh El and the operation would continue rather than Psycho Pirate being freed and awakened.

With the interplanar stuff going on, my best guess for the anti-construct mechanism is that he is creating constructs but they're being shunted to other spatial dimensions. He could easily check for that by looking at his ring charge, though.

Darko · 2026-04-25T08:56:38+0100

Mr Zoat said:
your personal savour, Charlie. I have my own interests. I held up my end

"savior"

Mr Zoat said:
that easy something like him to move around the material-."

"for something"

Signaller · 2026-04-25T09:57:27+0100

Chojin Patriarch said:
I'm imagining the yellow-faced bastard being about 60-odd feet at this point, big enough that he's holding them like 1-th scale action figures... Let's hope he likes to take care of his toys.

If you're curious, the various Power Rangers deluxe transforming megazord toys are generally about right for N scale (1:160), with a handful of exceptions e.g. Lightspeed Rescue/GoGoV and Kiramager.

NightmareWarden said:
Or he works like a New God, and the victory over does matters, rather than the boost in effectiveness from something resembling Paul. A similar victory would warrant similar rewards. Perhaps a recharge or extension on his life expectancy?

Do we have to go back now and check every Boss Smiley appearance for invisitext?

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

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

Z000

If this is trash, then find me in the dumpster

Someguy Somewhere

The Critical Fumbler

NightmareWarden

Playtest Results: *happy chirping*

Chojin Patriarch

Veteran Lurker

Duke Long

Glomerulus

Darko

Connoisseur.

Signaller

Not too sore, are you?

Users who are viewing this thread

Playtest Results: happy chirping