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

Bud-E · Sep 21, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
"Isn't there a god of the intellect amongst Zeus's followers?"

"No. Zeus ate Metis, and… I don't think he's been listening to her advice very much."

"Met-? Zeus ate another god?"

"Yes. And-"

"But that's-"

"-I realise that-"

"-what he rallied-"

"-that's what Cronus did-"

"-the younger gods against!"

"-to his brothers and sisters, yes."

"And that hypocrite rules the Earth? Humans pray to him!?"

Now I feel a little bad. It's never good to find out family members are blatant hypocrites.

Handlewithcare · Sep 21, 2021

They were smart enough to make the Titan of intellect their leader? Perhaps there is hope for them.

Though I still think they will attempt to steal that sun-eater maker

Chojin Patriarch · Sep 21, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
11th September 2012
14:59 GMT

"…breached the control room, but it does not appear designed to respond to those such as we."

Coeus leads the way through the breach in the earth that leads to the most accessible part of the decommissioned sun eater factory. Not sure whether this means that the Junior Titans can't teleport, haven't gotten the hang of teleporting in Minosyss's magic sphere or if the maltusians built something that blocks it.

Or they're simply exercising caution. I would assume it was unearthed during Iapetus' casual adjustments to the surface mantle. At least it seems Rhea was wise enough to instil a good amount of wariness in the kids concerning unknown and possibly arcane locations.

"Have you been studying it?"

"We dared not. Though I'm confident that we would survive whatever traps the maltusians might have added to their system, this world is inhabited by people far less resilient than we are."

And when said trap might involve setting loose a rampaging monster? Yes, I suppose they'd rather not endanger their worshipper base.

"I meant, 'you personally', though I suppose that answers the question."

"Iapetus looked it over, since it comes closest to falling within his sphere. He'd be here now, but his brief encounter with your Ophidian appears to have left him rather distracted."

...I rather hope he's not performing any 'landscaping' near populated areas. People tend to get a little upset when the ground exhibits a habit of not sitting still...

"I suppose that there isn't a titan of engineering, is there?"

"Had mother survived, there may have been eventually."

Though I suspect it would have required working through quite a few less complex concepts on the way, if the process was anything like the Olympians' selection of roles and portfolios...

"Do you know what her… Plan, was? Did you intend for you to go back and defeat Zeus when you were ready, or...? What?"

"She taught us to use our abilities as best we could. Perhaps she had an ultimate goal in mind… Sadly, we shall never know."

At least they're content to take it slow and find a place for themselves in things, rather than going off half-cocked and demanding all the universe worship them...

I nod. That suggests that they weren't all that old when she died. Is Coeus the oldest? Was he forced to take on a pseudo-parental role when their mother died? None of the others disputed his right to negotiate with me, after all.

"Why do you care?"

It's called Compassion.I don't know if it comes naturally to you guys, but Humans are quite good at it when they want to be...

"Oh, I'm nothing like as emotionally invested as you are. But I'm a utilitarian. I don't destroy things unless there's a good reason to do so. Senseless violence is wasteful. And as an Orange Lantern I tend to like to see people pursuing their goals in a rational and pragmatic way."

I looks up and to the right as a section of… I think that used to be a wall, juts through the side of the rocky passage. And earthquake? Did that..? Breach the walls? That doesn't seem likely, but the whole reason why the Controllers chose this place was because it doesn't entirely conform to the usual rules.

Well, like I suggested: If Iapetus was shifting the rock about, it's not unlikely he would have noticed the large volume the factory would represent. And once noticed, it's only a small step to having a poke about...

"You wanted to get the factory safely shut down, so rather than come up with some sort of convoluted scheme to lure a maltusian here you just directly asked. We have absolutely no reason to say 'no', the maltusians abandoned the place because they had no further use for it…"

"The cooperation of disparate parts to a common good is the very definition of civilisation."

Good lord, OL must feel like he's dreaming at the sheer sensible nature of the Titans. And it is refreshing to have such an honest, open approach to the matter of getting it dealt with safely.

We walk in silence for a few moments, the corridor bending as it moves around the buried sections of factory which stick through the walls in several places.

"So… What does being moon god actually involve? Are you in charge of New Cronus?"

Not an unreasonable assumption. Though 'The Moon' is probably only a singular and small part of his divine portfolio.

"Yes, but that's more a coincidence than anything else. The moon is totemic; most of my actual divine powers relate to the intellect rather than the night in any literal way."

"Hah! We could definitely do with you back on Earth then."

Try and get some direction to the usual bands of hypercognitives, eh? They would probably need divine intervention in some cases...

"Isn't there a god of the intellect amongst Zeus's followers?"

"No. Zeus ate Metis, and… I don't think he's been listening to her advice very much."

Not in an entirely literal fashion, certainly. In the Myth, he tricked her into turning into a fly, after learning of a prophecy involving children she would bear him, and consumed that... Only to have Athena grow within his skull, because divine biology is fricking weird.

"Met-? Zeus ate another god?"

"Yes. And-"

"But that's-"

"-I realise that-"

"-what he rallied-"

"-that's what Cronus did-"

"-the younger gods against!"

"-to his brothers and sisters, yes."

Love the rapid back-and-forth as they talk over each other, yet basically saying the same thing.

"And that hypocrite rules the Earth? Humans pray to him!?"

"Not really, no. Greece converted to Christianity about two thousand years ago. The few Hellenists left mostly prefer to pray to other Olympians. My particular patron is Eris, Goddess of Chaos."

Now, anyone else would assume the Chaos thing is bad, but I would expect Coeus to be smart enough to understand that sometimes a little Chaos is good for a stale system... Though I wonder what he'd make of the Abrahamic faiths....

"You… Mentioned a 'super Dryad'."

"Yes, Euanthe has done very well for herself. Essentially, she increased the strength of her bond to all earthly plant life, and after a rather nasty war she made contact with an alliance of jungle tribes in the Americas… And now she's their main god."

I assume she's been wasting no time reforesting the Amazon Basin, with plenty of natural defences against logging. And with the Danner-buffed tribes playing forest guardians, well...

"How powerful is she?"

"Innately? Probably not much more than she was before. But she has command authority over the natural world, so her effective power is much greater."

Much more direct than something ambiguous like 'The Moon' or 'The Dawn'.

We walk out into… Huh. Yes. A room big enough to build a creature that could eat a sun. In the distance I can see… Gantries, and machinery that I can't easily-

"It's just up here."

Maltusians certainly didn't do things by halves, did they? I expect the gantries are for servant races who probably couldn't fly.

-identify. Coeus leads me up a… A rope bridge, to a round platform which appears to be suspended from the ceiling by struts which are both uncomfortably long and uncomfortably thin.

Coeus sees me hesitates.

Well, I guess it was put in place by the locals.

"They're strong enough. Can you not fly?"

"I can fly in three different ways and I may well be immortal. That doesn't make me feel safe."

Although flying would probably get the attention of some sort of security system. Hence the long walk to get this far.

I shake my head as I reach the platform. Yes, it's solid -certainly more solid than the bridge- and in the centre there's a maltusian control console. It's a ring made of a stone-like substance, the middle of the ring containing a glowing orb which… Is probably the part of the machinery that they designed to access the dimensional warp.

And there's a plug for a personal lantern. A bit odd, given who was using it at the time. This was shut down before Guardians started using Green Lanterns. I mean… The Guardians had the technology beforehand. Larfleeze's existence proves that. Still, it's a little…

Ah, telepathic control systems. What's wrong with panels with neatly and clearly labelled buttons, eh?

"This control system is contemporary, is it?"

"As far as I know. It was here when we discovered this vault, but I know little of maltusian technology."

Which raises questions as to how recently a maltusian was here...

"Fair enough."

I don't attach my personal lantern to it, but rather reach out with orange threads and attach-. Ah, yes, there we are. I was a little worried that they would have designed the system to work with their symbiotic abilities rather than glow technology, but it doesn't seem to be arguing the toss.

Probably more than a little control lag from having to process through the Ring, but workable, I guess. I would have checked in with Hinon before getting started on anything though...

"Is there anything important directly above here?"

"A few villages. Why?"

"I might need to physically fly the sun eaters out, to say nothing of whatever other weapons the Controllers stashed here."

...Like that. Doing it that way could have any number of failure points. Not least of which is what if someone notices a bundle of Sun-Eaters being towed along somewhere?

"I can order an evacuation, though I would rather avoid doing so."

"Alright then. Let's see what this does."

So instead, you're going to poke the pocket stargate - which you barely know how to use, I would expect - and shunt them direct to a Maltusian storage facility?

Oh, boy, OL... There are so many ways this could all go wrong. I'm not even kidding. Murphy must be sitting there giggling his ass off at the sheer number of them. Seriously, I would call Hinon for advice before poking anything. I'm pretty sure she'd like an update at some point anyway. Before she gets the inevitable 'The Illustres has done it again...' call.

Darko · Sep 21, 2021

Chojin Patriarch said:
Good lord, OL must feel like he's dreaming at the sheer sensible nature of the Titans. And it is refreshing to have such an honest, open approach to the matter of getting it dealt with safely.

And he'll probably be annoyed when the shitstorm, either accidental or by betrayal, happens.

Chojin Patriarch said:
I assume she's been wasting no time reforesting the Amazon Basin, with plenty of natural defences against logging. And with the Danner-buffed tribes playing forest guardians, well...

The first may slso be completely demon proof.

She once grew forests that did that and after she absorbed that divine wood the forests may have become harmful to them.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Maltusians certainly didn't do things by halves, did they? I expect the gantries are for servant races who probably couldn't fly.

Or for them.

Paul mentioned that Maltusians couldn't use their powers here, so they may have made them for themselves.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Oh, boy, OL... There are so many ways this could all go wrong

That's true for a lot of things involving Paul.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Murphy must be sitting there giggling his ass off at the sheer number of them.

You'd know dust Murphy does.

AmericanNumbers · Sep 21, 2021

"Let's randomly feed the orange light to a mechanism that may be controlling or hooked to Sun Eaters! What could possibly go wrong!"

BR549 · Sep 21, 2021

Chojin Patriarch said:
At least it seems Rhea was wise enough to instil a good amount of wariness in the kids concerning unknown and possibly arcane locations.

"When you are aboard an alien construct of uncertain design and purpose, you touch nothing! You have no way of knowing if a lever could vent the atmosphere into space…if…if a switch could activate flesh-eating nanobots! Until you have studied everything, you have to assume that this station's single purpose was to isolate and destroy you personally! Do you understand?!"

moralrelativity · Sep 21, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
"Is there anything important directly above here?"

"A few villages. Why?"

"I might need to physically fly the sun eaters out, to say nothing of whatever other weapons the Controllers stashed here."

"I can order an evacuation, though I would rather avoid doing so."

"Alright then. Let's see what this does."

What happened to the common sense that OL seemed to be developing recently? The lack of caution when he's just learnt of the villages above is just STAGGERING.

RichardWhereat · Sep 21, 2021

Darko said:
Ohh, hypocrisy is one of the lesser crimes of Zeus.

I wonder how many of the rapes were actually Zeus being Zeus, as opposed to kinky women getting with animals, and (or) cheating and then blaming it on their Skydaddy. Like that whole Mary fiasco.

Mr Zoat · Sep 21, 2021

Darko said:
'I look'
'An earthquake'

Thank you, corrected.

And to be clear, his probing isn't so much 'What does this switch do?' as 'Is this a switch?'.

Vaermina · Sep 21, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
Thank you, corrected.

And to be clear, his probing isn't so much 'What does this switch do?' as 'Is this a switch?'.

Those are the same thing if you don't know whether it's a switch or not...

SaltyWaffles · Sep 21, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
Thank you, corrected.

And to be clear, his probing isn't so much 'What does this switch do?' as 'Is this a switch?'.

That's not any better. If you can't even tell if it's a switch or not, and it may be connected to a Malthusian-scale doomsday weapon, call in the Malthusians.

This is unbelievably stupid.

rkyeun · Sep 21, 2021

Vaermina said:
Those are the same thing if you don't know whether it's a switch or not...

No, it's worse if you don't know. At least if you do know, you're pushing it on purpose, however ill-advised that may be. But now you're making the second mistake of not doing what you intended on top of the previous ill-advised one.

Mr Zoat · Sep 21, 2021

I once looked at a plane.

Naturally, it fell out of the sky a few moments later due to my action.

Bud-E · Sep 21, 2021

What is going on in Brazil the Sheeda destroyed most of the cities, right? Did Euthane take advantage and just grow more forest that Danner and his people claimed as their property?

Khettien · Sep 21, 2021

Darko said:
Well there's Athena.

As a minor point of order, Athena was the goddess of crafts (which is actually a poor translation for what we now call industry, really,) and strategy. Intellect, to the extent she covered it, would have been a very minor domain.

Mr Zoat · Sep 21, 2021

Bud-E said:
What is going on in Brazil the Sheeda destroyed most of the cities, right? Did Euthane take advantage and just grow more forest that Danner and his people claimed as their property?

Sort of. Any area that had simply been deforested got reforested, as did some farmland. Urban centres that were repopulated by evacuation/Sheeda/other are in the process of being torn down by plantlife. Beyond that, the Accala as a group are just trying to work out how their new society is going to work.

Ngamer11 · Sep 21, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
Sort of. Any area that had simply been deforested got reforested, as did some farmland. Urban centres that were repopulated by evacuation/Sheeda/other are in the process of being torn down by plantlife. Beyond that, the Accala as a group are just trying to work out how their new society is going to work.

Almost makes me want to see what would happen if sentient plant life developed there and demanded that the "two legged animals who destroy them" leave so that the Accala would be forced to leave. And just to push it a little more, have Euanthe either not care, or side with the sentient plant life.

jasonh23761 · Sep 21, 2021

I like these New Titans.

Bud-E · Sep 21, 2021

Ngamer11 said:
Almost makes me want to see what would happen if sentient plant life developed there and demanded that the "two legged animals who destroy them" leave so that the Accala would be forced to leave. And just to push it a little more, have Euanthe either not care, or side with the sentient plant life.

You sick bastard I love it!

Vaermina · Sep 21, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
I once looked at a plane.

Naturally, it fell out of the sky a few moments later due to my action.

Except this isn't looking at a plane with your eyes.

It's looking at a plane with a very high powered microwave transmitter.

Mr Zoat · Sep 21, 2021

Ngamer11 said:
Almost makes me want to see what would happen if sentient plant life developed there and demanded that the "two legged animals who destroy them" leave so that the Accala would be forced to leave. And just to push it a little more, have Euanthe either not care, or side with the sentient plant life.

Plants don't feel like that about individual plants.

Coda · Sep 21, 2021

Ryumancer said:
Ah, to be clear, it's not a lack of effort memorizing the trick, but rather, it's a heck of a lot easier for me to simply remember stuff without overly complicating things by involving mnemonic tricks. They tend to be rather long. Why would I bother memorizing two things, if i can just memorize one instead?

Well, that usually indicates it's a bad mnemonic device.

Mr Zoat said:
Coeus sees me hesitates.

hesitate

Mr Zoat · Sep 21, 2021

Coda said:
hesitate

Thank you, corrected.

Ideomancer · Sep 21, 2021

Vaermina said:
Except this isn't looking at a plane with your eyes.

It's looking at a plane with a very high powered microwave transmitter.

More or less how planes look at each other, as it happens.

Mr Zoat · Sep 22, 2021

11th September 2012
15:06 GMT

Naturally, there's no user interface.

In fact, I'm not sure that there's any 'computer' here in the conventional sense of the term. I mean, it's the regulator for the interface, but it was clearly built on the assumption that the Controller would be doing most of the work in their head. It's letting me do it by ring more because it hasn't been designed not to rather than any sort of permission system.

"Are you able to access it?"

"Yes. Sort of. Unfortunately, it's designed for an actual Controller to do most of the work. They literally have to bridge the gap between dimensions themselves; this system doesn't do it. Which… I'm sorry, but I'm wasting your time. I can't do that."

I frown.

Can I? Or rather, can my ring?

No, no, I don't think so. The Honden isn't a dimension, not in the way that this place is designed to use the term.

"You can't?"

He sounds genuinely surprised. Which is oddly touching, but it's slightly unfortunate that I'm giving a bad impression.

"Sorry. I'm a Lantern, not a dimensional mathematician. I can do an assessment of the place and report back to the actual Controllers, but as far as activating this is concerned…"

"We would rather not have the Controllers come here personally."

"Ah… Okay? I suppose Dox could probably do it. Maybe one or two others? Would you..? Mind telling me why you don't want them here?"

Coeus turns aside and swings his right arm, indicating the rest of the factory.

"Does it seem strange that we are concerned about the people who made all of this?"

"A little? I mean, they left. A long time ago. There's no obvious reason for them to want to take it back. You said that you were worried about their technology decaying due to lack of attention, and those weapons are already here."

He smiles faintly. "Oh, for a rational universe."

"I know what you mean. I suppose… Is this the first planet you've ruled?"

"Without our mother's guidance?" He nods. "Yes. Is there really nothing you can do?"

"There are a lot of things I could do. But I can't be sure in advance what the result would be, which rather defeats the purpose of my coming here."

I take a moment to peer off into the distance.

"How about I take a look around the place and then report back to the Controllers for instructions?"

"Very well. I can't really give you a tour as I have no idea what any of this does, but you are welcome to see it."

He turns away to walk back down the rope bridge-.

"I'm sorry if this is a personal question, but can you fly?"

"Normally, yes. But there is something about this place that distorts magic. I take it that the Controllers made no use of it?"

I try to rise by ring, but the power leaks away almost immediately. Ophidian?

…

"They can, but they aren't keen on using power moderated by others."

I trigger my armour's flight system instead, and… Yes, that works. I rise off the platform and fly after Coeus.

"Can I offer you an alternate system? It's fairly instinctual to use."

He looks rather taken aback.

"How?"

"Basic physics is working more or less the same in here as it does outside. So whatever shielding they've put in place is probably… High order stuff, designed to prevent certain types of extra-planar energy working. So no magic for you and no ring for me. However, normal"-

I try taking a simple magnet out of subspace, but can't. Ah… Side arm? I draw it and point it off into the distance.

"-manipulations of magnetic forces and electricity work fine."

I pull the trigger, the bang caused by the exploding powder echoing through the chamber before being lost to the distance.

"As well as chemical reactions."

"You carry a chemical propellant weapon?"

"They're a pain to stop remotely." I frown. "What… Language are you speaking?"

"I speak several languages, though at the moment I'm speaking Greek. Why do you ask?"

So how is my ring translating? I mean, I've learned a little Classical Greek, but I'm not fluent and I wouldn't mistake it for English. So is the ring's translation system separate..? Or is it that he has a normal connection to the orange light and it's running off that? Something else to ask Hinon.

"My armour has a translation system, but I usually rely on my ring. And I doubt that you speak English."

"So you can bypass the system?"

"So I can accidentally bypass the system in one regard without knowing why. Let's not get ahead of ourselves."

He nods. "It is wise to know one's limits. And yes, thank you. I would like you to share whatever system you're using."

"I-."

With my rings down, I can't fabricate a flight belt. But I can disconnect my armour's backup and attach a couple of straps… There.

I hold it out to him.

"Strap this on securely."

He looks it over, then tests the strength of the straps before pulling it around his waist and tightening it.

"Tap it, then sort of angle yourself in the way you want to-"

Coeus launches into the air, narrowly dodging the beams holding up our platform to the ceiling before stopping.

"I see. A little…"

He shifts sideways, stops, falls a few metres and then stops again.

"I see. Interesting. Is this its original purpose?"

"No, it was originally used as crash protection for starship travellers."

"Travellers who would often not have been trained in specialised systems." He thinks for a moment. "Tell me: you mentioned geothermal power earlier. What other suggestions do you have for improving this world?"

Darko · Sep 22, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
"Sorry. I'm a Lantern, not a dimensional mathematician

You should have said:

"Dammit man, I'm a Lantern, not a dimensional physicist!"

Mr Zoat said:
We would rather not have the Controllers come here personally."

Worried about the natives not reacting pleasantly to their former overlords and enslavers showing up?

Mr Zoat said:
Does it seem strange that we are concerned about the people who made all of this?"

Ohh, so they're worried that the Controllers could defeat them.

Mr Zoat said:
no obvious reason for them to want to take it back

Actually there is.

The Reach.

They used the planet as a delivery system for their Sun Eaters in the past, so they may want to reclaim it now and send their Lanterns into Reach space.

Mr Zoat said:
He smiles faintly. "Oh, for a rational universe."

I think he and Paul just became very, very close.

Mr Zoat said:
Normally, yes. But there is something about this place that distorts magic. I take it that the Controllers made no use of it

So it's not just the Controllers mini chlorian powers that are disrupted.

Mr Zoat said:
You carry a chemical propellant weapon?"

I'm betting he's thinking it's odd for a space traveler to have such a primitive weapon.

Mr Zoat said:
"They're a pain to stop remotely

Unless you have that device the Sontarans used, or the Tollan used.

Mr Zoat said:
So how is my ring translating? I mean, I've learned a little Classical Greek, but I'm not fluent and I wouldn't mistake it for English. So is the ring's translation system separate..? Or is it that he has a normal connection to the orange light and it's running off that? Something else to ask Hinon

Or the translation system doesn't use all that much power so is not so disrupted.

So, anyone thinking that Paul is going to run into something horrible and not be able to use his ring?

Ardy · Sep 22, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
What other suggestions do you have for improving this world?"

im guessing we're cutting back next year huh?

Doccer · Sep 22, 2021

I think I see a truly destined Broship for the ages blossoming here.

moralrelativity · Sep 22, 2021

Darko said:
So, anyone thinking that Paul is going to run into something horrible and not be able to use his ring?

Yes. And worrying that he can't reach the Ophidian as well.

I wouldn't be looking around. I'd gtfo and call Hinnon asap.

asparagus · Sep 22, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
. What other suggestions do you have for improving this world?

Wow, that's probably his favorite question of the year. He usually just gives out those suggestions unprompted.

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

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