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

You'd think a bunch of zombies moving about the place would be a bit of dead (heh!) give away that the Sheeda are indeed around.

The renegade probably doesn't know if the Sheeda use zombies.

Hell the only Sheeda related group we've seen use zombies are the Columbians, and that doesn't necessarily mean their Sheeda cousins use them.
 
Summer's End (part 7)
Shoe
Stopping


Artemis looks around at the vats as the zombie children line up to vomit into them.

"What..? Is this?"

Buddug the Zombherd looks at her in clear puzzlement. Interrogating the Sheeda who were part of the Harrowing fleet was an exercise in futility, but I suppose that it makes sense that those were the most fanatical soldiers. Buddug is a civilian with a civilian's understanding of the commonly used magics of her civilisation, and she's… Not a completely open book: Sheeda facial structures aren't quite the same as humans and they express emotion a little differently. But she is far more open to telling us what she knows.

"These are the city's digestion vats, where the living tissue harvested from the Deep Crawlers enters circulation."

I touch the side of the closest vat, running my right forefinger along a seam-. That's a pulse.

"The.. vats are alive?"

That… Might have puzzled her.

"But of course. How else would it be?"

I make momentary eye contact with Artemis, who is watching our environment carefully for any guards who might make an unscheduled appearance. Buddug claimed that this entrance to the city isn't guarded but we're not taking that on faith.

"Machinery? Mechanical devices that are not alive?"

Though to be fair, this… Does look like a factory. With just a touch of H.R. Giger. The structure is more of the coral stuff while the interior decoration, pipes and cables are somewhere between plastic and skin. And I can see veins supplying them with blood and bones holding them in place. None of the deep-Giger walls made of baby faces or zombie Mickey Mice stuff, but there's a definite feeling that we're inside a living organism. Or that the dividing line between living and non-living isn't anything like where we're used to it being.

Buddug looks mildly concerned.

"I don't understand."

Artemis takes a look over the rim of the vat-creature and then pulls her head back almost immediately, a look of distaste plain on her face.

"How long have these been here for?"

"Far longer than I have been alive, my lady. I cannot imagine how we could handle our harvest without them."

"Ah, why did you just call me 'my lady'?"

"Your power, your appearance. You are Highborn, are you not?"

Artemis frowns. "What does that mean?"

"Sheeda ruling caste. Strong, tough, mystically powerful." The zombie children have more or less finished and have fallen back into ranks. "You probably saw a few without realising it. Perfectly killable at our level of power, but definitely mid-tier superpeople."

Buddug looks confused. "You are.. not Highborn?"

Artemis shakes her head. "We're the people your people are trying to harvest."

Buddug's hand tightens around her stave. "But how did you come here?"

Hm. On the one hand, operational security. On the other hand, if we're worried about that we'll have to kill her anyway, so there's no harm in telling her.

"Sivana destroyed the Castle Revolving and we had to jump into the time pool to escape. We fell out here, more or less. Oh, we ran into some wild zombie-children, are you responsible for them?"

"I'm-. That's-. No, the Castle, the Queen-."

I lean in, looming over her and gaining her silence immediately.

"Destroyed and dead, respectively. So what happens now, now that the bounty of a Harrowing will not be forthcoming?"

"The Age of Autumn will return." Her eyes are vacant and her hands are trembling. "There will be no new… Fuel. For us, for our civilisation."

Artemis frowns. "What's with all the clouds, anyway?"

The look on Buddug's face indicates that she doesn't really understand that question, either.

"The clouds. In the sky. Why are they always there?"

"Where else would they be?"

"On the ground as liquid? Do you not.. have liquid water?"

"A-are you thirsty?" Still shaking slightly, Buddug makes her way over to a recessed area and pulls out… A still-beating heart? No, no, a… sachet? A beating sachet with a small scab where it just disconnected from whatever filtration system it was connected to, but still a sachet.

"What..? Is that?"

"Water? You.. drink it?"

I roll my eyes at Artemis and reach out with my right hand. "Give it here."

Buddug gives it to me, and… Ah, I see. There's a small protruding bone which acts as a ring pull… And the top of the sachet opens, the vessel's arteries and cartilaginous rings causing it to 'collapse' into a cup shape. I sniff it, and there's something… Off about it. But only slightly off. The light in here is too bad to see it clearly, but I doubt that they keep a poison strong enough to affect a New God just lying around. I take a cautious sip, and there's a surprisingly… Bloody taste, but it's mostly water.

"I think it's safe." I hold the cup out to her. "Want some?"

Artemis shrugs her left shoulder and takes it, sniffing it and then pulling a face.

"What's in this? No, don't-. Water. Why is there stuff in it?"

"The Vampire Sun would consume it without that. I have only seen pure water twice in my entire life."

"The sun eats it." Artemis looks at me. "Did you know about that?"

"Sivana mentioned something about the sun sucking the life out of things. I didn't realise that applied to water. Other than.. evaporation. But to return to our original question, Miss Buddug, what happens to your civilisation if it can't replenish itself through theft? And who might be inclined to do something about that?"

"We will.. starve, slowly. Through harvesting the bounty in the ground-" She glances at the neat ranks of zombie children. "-we will survive for a time, but we will weaken. Decay. Any of us would do anything we can to prevent that."

"In the absence of Queen Gloriana Tenebrae and King Melmoth, who would organise that sort of effort?"

"The Highborn. Lord Caeryg is the ruler of this city."

"Grayven?"

"We want to defend our own civilisation, but… Do we need to destroy the Sheeda to do that? Without the Castle Revolving they can't resupply from our era."

She nods. "So we find out how this happened and try and fix it."

"Or build them a planar portal and let them move somewhere a little sunnier." I turn back to Buddug. "Can you get us to his keep? Or wherever it is he lives?"

"No, I'm just a gatherer. He is Highborn."

"But you know where it is." She nods. "Can you get us to somewhere with a line of sight to it?" She nods again, and I smile. "Then we have the outlines of a plan."
 
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How do.... Sheeda have time machines and not interstellar text?

Melmoth mentioned that the reason they don't just steal a space ship is because if they could do that then they could move to some other place that doesn't require them to stay raiders and that they don't want to do that since they like being evil.

If Melmoth, Gloriana and the Highborn are the only ones who like doing this then maybe they're using something to control the populace to go along with them, or the rest of the populace is also evil, like demons, Citadelians and Psions, and also likes being evil.
 
I love how this Paul with all his violence and not idealistic pure hero typing still comes around and works to save civilisations because there's some gain for him but it ends up being a better attempt than just destroying them like a Hero would do haha,

I feel so much frustration or not quite that but when I read a timeline where things go better then head to another where whatever's ideas or actions to make that better timeline just don't happen I want to reach out anemone point them in the right direction. I love it. It gets me really invested and thinking about differing choices, stuff like that.
 
I love how this Paul with all his violence and not idealistic pure hero typing still comes around and works to save civilisations because there's some gain for him but it ends up being a better attempt than just destroying them like a Hero would do haha,

I feel so much frustration or not quite that but when I read a timeline where things go better then head to another where whatever's ideas or actions to make that better timeline just don't happen I want to reach out anemone point them in the right direction. I love it. It gets me really invested and thinking about differing choices, stuff like that.

Paul wouldn't be the first hero that's tried to save a civilisation, even if its made up of bad people, but the reason other heroes aren't so successful is because they either lack the resources or the power to do so.
 
Shoe
Stopping


Artemis looks around at the vats as the zombie children line up to vomit into them.
Biotechnology. Sometimes inefficient, often strange, always gross.

"What..? Is this?"

Buddug the Zombherd looks at her in clear puzzlement. Interrogating the Sheeda who were part of the Harrowing fleet was an exercise in futility, but I suppose that it makes sense that those were the most fanatical soldiers. Buddug is a civilian with a civilian's understanding of the commonly used magics of her civilisation, and she's… Not a completely open book: Sheeda facial structures aren't quite the same as humans and they express emotion a little differently. But she is far more open to telling us what she knows.
Have to wonder why she's being so helpful. Maybe she's confused you for someone important from elsewhere?

"These are the city's digestion vats, where the living tissue harvested from the Deep Crawlers enters circulation."

I touch the side of the closest vat, running my right forefinger along a seam-. That's a pulse.
Good thing it doesn't need to be wired for sense. Ew.

"The.. vats are alive?"

That… Might have puzzled her.

"But of course. How else would it be?"
Because of course this is all she's ever known. Would she ever have seen anything non-organic beyond dirt?

I make momentary eye contact with Artemis, who is watching our environment carefully for any guards who might make an unscheduled appearance. Buddug claimed that this entrance to the city isn't guarded but we're not taking that on faith.

"Machinery? Mechanical devices that are not alive?"
Good, always be wary in hostile territory. Just because she's being cooperative, doesn't mean she's friendly.

Though to be fair, this… Does look like a factory. With just a touch of H.R. Giger. The structure is more of the coral stuff while the interior decoration, pipes and cables are somewhere between plastic and skin. And I can see veins supplying them with blood and bones holding them in place. None of the deep-Giger walls made of baby faces or zombie Mickey Mice stuff, but there's a definite feeling that we're inside a living organism. Or that the dividing line between living and non-living isn't anything like where we're used to it being.
This being very much on the wrong side of that line.

Buddug looks mildly concerned.

"I don't understand."
That's like asking her why grass is gre-... :confused: Oh, wait...

Artemis takes a look over the rim of the vat-creature and then pulls her head back almost immediately, a look of distastes plain on her face.

"How long have these been here for?"
I wonder how long an individual tank lasts... Years, obviously... Centuries?

"Far long that I have been alive, my lady. I cannot imagine how we could handle our harvest without them."

"Ah, why did you just call me 'my lady'?"
Because you ain't covered in shit?

"Your power, your appearance. You are Highborn, are you not?"

Artemis frowns. "What does that mean?"
Show me what passes for nobility amongst your misbegotten kind...

"Sheeda ruling caste. Strong, tough, mystically powerful." The zombie children have more or less finished and have fallen back into ranks. "You probably saw a few without realising it. Perfectly killable at our level of power, but definitely mid-tier superpeople."

Buddug looks confused. "You are.. not Highborn?"
Oh, that's going to make her a little less cooperative...

Artemis shakes her head. "We're the people your people are trying to harvest."

Buddug's hand tightens around her stave. "But how did you come here?"
Props for not panicking, at least.

Hm. On the one hand, operational security. On the other hand, if we're worried about that we'll have to kill her anyway, so there's no harm in telling her.

"Sivana destroyed the Castle Revolving and we had to jump into the time pool to escape. We fell out here, more or less. Oh, we ran into some wild zombie-children, are you responsible for them?"
Wow, just rip the band-aid off. That's basically telling her heaven and god just died, and you killed them.

"I'm-. That's-. No, the Castle, the Queen-."

I lean in, looming over her and gaining her silence immediately.
Yes, Grayven is rather good at that, even without rings.

"Destroyed and dead, respectively. So what happens now, now that the bounty of a Harrowing will not be forthcoming?"

"The Age of Autumn will return" Her eyes are vacant and her hands are trembling. "There will be no new… Fuel. For us, for our civilisation."
A return to times she's probably on heard of in horror stories. Yes, bad times ahead for the Sheeda.

Artemis frowns. "What's with all the clouds, anyway?"

The look on Buddug's face indicates that she doesn't really understand that question, either.
She seems to get that a lot with these two...

"The clouds. In the sky. Why are they always there?"

"Where else would they be?"

"On the ground as liquid? Do you not.. have liquid water?"
That is a good point. No rivers? No rain?

"A-are you thirsty?" Still shaking slightly, Buddug makes her way over to a recessed area and pulls out… A still-beating heart? No, no, a… sachet? A beating sachet with a small scab where it just disconnected from whatever filtration system it was connected to, but still a sachet.

"What..? Is that?"
...Ew...

"Water? You.. drink it?"

I roll my eyes at Artemis and reach out with my right hand. "Give it here."
Well, his New God physiology is a lot hardier than hers. He's less likely to die from poison...

Buddug gives it to me, and… Ah, I see. There's a small protruding bone which acts as a ring pull… And the top of the sachet opens, the vessel's arteries and cartilaginous rings causing it to 'collapse' into a cup shape. I sniff it, and there's something… Off about it. But only slightly off. The light in here is too bad to see it clearly, but I doubt that they keep a poison strong enough to affect a New God just lying around. I take a cautious sip, and there's a surprisingly… Bloody taste, but it's mostly water.
Given that it's probably been recycled a thousand times or more... You're lucky it only tastes like blood...

"I think it's safe." I hold the cup out to her. "Want some?"

Artemis shrugs her left shoulder and takes it, sniffing it and then pulling a face.
Hey, when you're thirsty enough, anything smells good.

"What's in this? No, don't-. Water. Why is there stuff in it?"

"The Vampire Sun would consume it without that. I have only seen pure water twice in my entire life."
Seriously? Even water? That's... That's messed up, man.

"The sun eats it." Artemis looks at me. "Did you know about that?"

"Sivana mentioned something about the sun sucking the life out of things. I didn't realise that applied to water. Other than.. evaporation. But to return to our original question, Miss Buddug, what happens to your civilisation if it can't replenish itself through theft? And who might be inclined to do something about that?"
He needs to know who to conquer, after all. Hey, don't judge him. New Gods gotta God.

"We will.. starve, slowly. Through harvesting the bounty in the ground-" She glances at the neat ranks of zombie children. "-we will survive for a time, but we will weaken. Decay. Any of us would do anything we can to prevent that."

"In the absence of Queen Gloriana Tenebrae and King Melmoth, who would organise that sort of effort?"
They had no clear heirs of course. Because that would make them and the heirs targets, after all.

"The Highborn. Lord Caeryg is the ruler of his city."

"Grayven?"

"We want to defend our own civilisation, but… Do we need to destroy the Sheeda to do that? Without the Castle Revolving they can't resupply from our era."
And how responsible are the common folk for the actions of their leadership? Yes, that's a good question to ask...

She nods. "So we find out how this happened and try and fix it."

"Or build them a planar portal and let them move somewhere a little sunnier." I turn back to Buddug. "Can you get us to his keep? Or wherever it is he lives?"
...At a guess, I would say the biggest building in town? That tower they saw?

"No, I'm just a gatherer. He is Highborn."

"But you know where it is." She nods. "Can you get us to somewhere with a line of sight to it?" She nods again, and I smile. "Then we have the outlines of a plan."
Since stealth is less than likely to work,. It's time to get flashy.

So... The common folk of the Sheeda aren't as bad as we all assumed. This Buddug doesn't seem to be a cackling sadist. Just someone doing her job and trying to not die... :eek: Are you seriously going to make us feel sorry for the Sheeda, Mr Zoat?
 
Have to wonder why she's being so helpful. Maybe she's confused you for someone important from elsewhere?

Or Artemis is very good at the threat department, which makes sense given her upbringing.

Show me what passes for nobility amongst your misbegotten kind...

Swirly cheeks and weird tentacle hair.

A return to times she's probably on heard of in horror stories. Yes, bad times ahead for the Sheeda.

If the Sheeda are more long lived than humans then she may have been alive during that time.

They had no clear heirs of course. Because that would make them and the heirs targets, after all.

Or they didn't care about making heirs.

And how responsible are the common folk for the actions of their leadership? Yes, that's a good question to ask...

As far as we know the line between Sheeda civilians and the ones that go on Harrowings could be very small, or it may not exist, so all the Sheeda may honestly be involved in the Harrowings or have been at some point in their lives, and the ones that aren't on a Harrowing are too busy with something else or are needed in their timeline.

They could be like the Citadelians and Psions in that they don't have civilians but just raiders.

The only Sheeda 'civilian' we've seen so far is this chick so we don't exactly know all that much.

So... The common folk of the Sheeda aren't as bad as we all assumed. This Buddug doesn't seem to be a cackling sadist. Just someone doing her job and trying to not die... :eek: Are you seriously going to make us feel sorry for the Sheeda, Mr Zoat?

Hey they could still be pure evil, they're not just the cackling type.

Buddug may have been polite to them because she was afraid for her life if she displeased people she thought were Highborn and is helping them to save her skin.

None of this means that she can't be a pure evil bitch, even if she is trying to help her civilization.

I mean comic Komand'r tried to ''help'' her people but that didn't stop her from being an evil, power hungry, sadistic bitch.

Lex Luthor seemingly cared about his employs, but that didn't stop him from being a xenophobic, genocidal madman.

Orm cared about Atlanteans, but that didn't stop him being a bigoted warmonger.

Black Manta seemingly cared about black people yet it didn't stop him from being a lunatic and murderer.

Even in the real world this is true.

Hitler cared about animals, but he started one of the largest and most violent wars in history and had millions of people exterminated.

Fred Phelps was a civil rights lawyer and yet he created one of the most bigoted churches in all of America.

Just because someone may have a few good qualities that doesn't mean they can't be pure evil.
 
Hm. Vampire sun.

Maybe it was reaching it's end of life and some well meaning entity tried to reverse it's entropy to fix it? Which causes everything else to rapidly decay to provide "fuel" so to speak?

How do.... Sheeda have time machines and not interstellar text?

We have no idea if the vampire effect is limited to Sol.
 
Hm. Vampire sun.

Maybe it was reaching it's end of life and some well meaning entity tried to reverse it's entropy to fix it? Which causes everything else to rapidly decay to provide "fuel" so to speak?



We have no idea if the vampire effect is limited to Sol.

The Sheeda could have still just taken a ship and moved to another planet in the past, or in another dimension like the Columbians.
 
How do.... Sheeda have time machines and not interstellar text?

Well... the sun might kill anyone that leaves Earth.

To be honest the whole thing... is badly written.

Not this fanfic, the idea of future Earth having a vampire sun and the people on Earth having time machines and not using them to permanently escape.

Why stay? At all? Is not like they need the Vampire sun to keep existing.

Heck an old science fiction movie had people of the future that came to the present (The eighties) have to constantly smoke because while they looked like present humans, they bodies were adapted to air with a high level of toxins. And staying for more than a few days in the present had negative effects in their health.

They also couldn't reproduce much anymore and so they stole people from the past that should die in accidents and replaced them with dead bodies. Because their cloning process couldn't make souls.

And I find that movie as lame as it was more interesting than these fake Eldar from the future.
 
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How do.... Sheeda have time machines and not interstellar tech?
its sort of like the imperium. tech is sort of like magic to them. both due to clarke's third law and probably there own ignorance. plus in this place magic isnt likely to get them soul raped by daemons on the slightest mistake.
 
its sort of like the imperium. tech is sort of like magic to them. both due to clarke's third law and probably there own ignorance. plus in this place magic isnt likely to get them soul raped by daemons on the slightest mistake.

I think they understand the difference between magic and technology, like when Gloriana said the Highborn were the product of magic and science, but they may not be able to make more of the Castle for some reason, or they don't want to since it somehow allows the rulers of the Sheeda society to stay in power.
 
Hmm, I wonder how the Pomegranate of Good and Evil would be useful in other settings for characters/beings who are "Always Chaotic Evil".

Certainly would have helped the Demon Sorcerers from Jackie Chan Adventures to be FAR more pragmatic than just immediately trying to conquer, consume and/or destroy everything the very moment they were released from their imprisonment.

Might even help them to be more resistant to "Good Magic" if they were able to comprehend what "Good" is.
 
Hey so I think Alan's blue ring lacks nobblehead malware and has no limitations on its functions right? He can make constructs and such?

But I was thinking, what can a Blue do without a Greenie around? Because presumably the Flight, environment shield, FTL, comms and probably Comms would be required for basic functions?

Otherwise how would they get anywhere or talk to anyone to find Greenies they can help?
 
Hmm, I wonder how the Pomegranate of Good and Evil would be useful in other settings for characters/beings who are "Always Chaotic Evil".

Certainly would have helped the Demon Sorcerers from Jackie Chan Adventures to be FAR more pragmatic than just immediately trying to conquer, consume and/or destroy everything the very moment they were released from their imprisonment.

Might even help them to be more resistant to "Good Magic" if they were able to comprehend what "Good" is.

In that setting bad is bad and good is good. At most you can have pragmatic evil but that guy literally ran a Japanese oni army and had long term plans. Ia funny as hell that in a series with mostly Chinese villains the most competent ones were Japanese.
 

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