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

[Mquz]

You know very well that Death doesn't care where you die, so stop being silly Paul.

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Remember -afterlives are planet exclusive and sort of suck people in. Death doesn't get you to them. Otherwise there would be no ghosts, and I'm fairly sure DC has ghosts. She might make sure you do something you're supposed to. That doesn't mean that that something isn't staying right where you are if you are on a dead planet. Paul even linked a scene in the comics where the same happened, so he does have reason to worry.

 

[Vaermina]

Remember -afterlives are planet exclusive and sort of suck people in. Death doesn't get you to them. Otherwise there would be no ghosts, and I'm fairly sure DC has ghosts. She might make sure you do something you're supposed to. That doesn't mean that that something isn't staying right where you are if you are on a dead planet. Paul even linked a scene in the comics where the same happened, so he does have reason to worry.

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Part of the Endless version of Death's shtick is that she meets with the recently deceased and guides them to their afterlives.

And the Endless are part of this story.

 

[Mquz]

Part of the Endless version of Death's shtick is that she meets with the recently deceased and guides them to their afterlives.

And the Endless are part of this story.

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Yes, but Paul is saying that afterlives you go to are determined by planet you die on, and what the people living there believe. Not necessarily by what you believe. Otherwise atheists wouldn't go to Heaven - when it has been stated they do.

It was mentioned that afterlives are an intermediary to reincarnation. Planets with little life in Zoat's explanation have little magic and maybe 1 afterlife / direct reincarnation. Planets with no magic have no life and no reincarnation so spirits have nothing to do but stay there.

Maybe Death just gets souls going to afterlives that are part of a planet's possible ones - or starts you along the path. Maybe makes you follow a possible path if you are unwilling. She is a guide as shown in that one comic. She doesn't do the actual work - you do.

 

[Bramble Thorn]

Potentially worrying sign - Zatanna is sensitive to star saphire color in other's words. I am assuming she is running Predator's Ears (analog of Ophidian's eyes) constantly.

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Pretty sure the violet analog to Ophidians Eyes are those glowing pink eyes with the heart shaped pupils.

It's something that happens in Dresden Files. Which I'm still not writing.

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Someone needs to set up a Patreon and have that as a goalpost. A monetary amount where you metaphorically throw your papers in the air, and go from "Still not the Dresden Files" to "Ok, FINE. You can have a little Dresden Files with your WTR. But no Mantles. That is where I draw the line."

And then a later goal where you move the line.
It's a perfectly legitimate way to take those who offend you, and make them pay. Make them all pay! Mwa ha ha...

Perhaps, but let's flip the situation around: Is it so inconvenient to use the same account and then act as someone else in a post? In the end, everyone know it is you regardless.

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No. I thought the Queen of Fables think was neat because it meant the relevant post could have a different Avatar picture. Which was the Queen of Fables, natch. And she wasn't hijacking Zoats account, she was hijacking the story. Like a regular viewer was posting the omakes, only the omakes were canon because magic.

What exactly do you expect Paul to do here?

He utterly refuses to look up a lot of the Supertech in the setting and his biggest gun was the Foot Long Blade of the Fallen, which was just destroyed.

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Well, a good start would be invoicing the King Angels of the Silver City for the one they stole and then destroyed as part of the reparations after they erroneously declared war on OL. They broke the sword that can both kill high powered supernatural beings and reincarnate them without their powers? Now they can use some of that Source given Theurgy to replace it with something equivalent.

And apparently require answers about all the other side jobs Boss Smiley had them do during the invasion, like apparently stealing the Ark of the Covenant?

I mean it appears just resurrecting the people they killed is just the tip of the iceberg here. And there is no indication they even thought about all the other bad stuff that happened.

"Oi! Dragon!"

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Allow me to manually register my funny vote.

Wow... Cornwall Boy has gotten strong enough over a few months to deflect dragon fire that even Paul can't stop. That's quite a bit of power.

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Eh, the theme of this episode (besides 'always remember that dragons have True Sight') seems to be 'Magic Must Defeat Magic'

Spoiler: Ninjas I swear

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This is what happen when you are a late poster. All the good jokes get taken already.

I lower my hands as my lantern returns to subspace. Have to ask Hinon if she's made any progress on turning these things back into people. I'm not sure that I'd want to return a high ranking Citadelian to Vega, but I don't think that eternal torment is a reasonable punishment for any crime. At the very least we could execute him.

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That way he can probably go to Hell!
...
Paul is still fucked up about this I see, considering there have been no indication in story that someone made into a construct is feeling eternal torment. As opposed to not really feeling anything at all most of the time unless called upon, and then feeling only a desire to do what they are bid. As afterlives go, there are much, much worse alternatives.

I shake my head. "I'm taking her effort to mind control me into leaving Jade as a plea for help. Robert's got the Staff, and it's going in a warded case in a.. location she can't get to just as soon as I get back. Giovanni, I… I don't know how to handle this."

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Well, the first thing you should do is accept that she is her own person with her own personality, and who she chooses to love is not something you have any authority over, even if that person is you.

Taking away the staff because of what happened under mind control is all kinds of fucked up unless you are also having Adom takeaway Orisis's powers, and Canis's art, and the ring of every non enlightened orange lantern.

People kept talking about how worrying seeing the violet light was, but that is starting to really look like not like a rational response, but them making a prejudgement and finding the conclusion they want to find. In Hoard Part Six, we saw it when she first saw him. And sorry OL, at this point that has nothing to do with the Staff of Love. And violet mist, because that is the color magic powered by violet light has, same as Pauls constructs are orange. In Hoard Part Eight, her conversation with Paul is totally nonviolent until she starts using magic and it is used to denote that.

And yet immediately after, the very first post was.

Seriously, how much does it take for him to pick up on possible Violet overload?

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Because people see what they want to see.

"No, I don't suppose that you do." He leans back, bows his head and rubs his forehead with his right hand. "You can see people's emotions, can you not?"

"Yes. But that doesn't mean I know exactly what the resulting behaviour will be or how to… Control it."

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Ladies and gentlemen, OL, honorary Controller. Someone has feelings of love for you that you don't reciprocate. Do you A, fucking deal with it and either start repricoting or live with it, or B, decide her feelings for you are unhealthy and depower her until she stops having them or using them as a source of power. Because you obviously get to decide how she should feel as the more mature one.

Poor Zatanna. Paul's gonna have to crush her heart to save her from herself.

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It seems like he is doing to to save himself from her.

So she can get the fuck over it. No sympathy if she goes all weepy girl over being entitled to OL or whatever because girl reasons.

Beyond that, I'm saddened that she's probably about to lose her staff of powerup.

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Yeah, that is the part that is complete hypocritical bullshit.

"Zatanna." She looks up again, her eyes watering. "I don't care about that. But I do care about the fact that I haven't been clear enough, and it's having an adverse effect on you. You are my friend. I like you. I do not love you. I love Jade." She nods jerkily. "And that isn't. Going. To change. Am I being completely clear about this?"

"Y-yes."

It would be nice to apologise for being this hard on her. But at this point I can't risk saying anything that moderates the point I'm making.

"And I'm going to be avoiding you for a while. Not because I hate you, but because this isn't healthy for you.

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This? This is reasonable.

And the Star Sapphire is going in a very secure place."

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This is arrogant bullshit that makes me wish the Justice League decided they knew best and decided to take Pauls Orange Ring away from him at the beginning of the story.

 

[DAT_NOOB]

Does Robin still have a crush on Zatanna? I'm wondering because, would it be considered healthy for her if she got over Paul and then decided to try things out with Robin.

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yes and no in that order

 

[CTrees]

"I do actually know a good trauma counsellor. I'm going to talk to Zatara about arranging a meeting."
Holy crap, Common Sense? In a Superhero? Mark the calendar!

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I'm guessing you aren't reading Heroes in Crisis, because... Well, it deals with the League's solution for trauma counselling for superheroes, and it isn't going well. Even without all the murder, it doesn't seem like it would be effective therapy...

 

[Stsword]

I'm guessing you aren't reading Heroes in Crisis, because... Well, it deals with the League's solution for trauma counselling for superheroes, and it isn't going well. Even without all the murder, it doesn't seem like it would be effective therapy...

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Because apparently just sending superheroes who need psychiatric help to the psychiatrist to the superheroes would have made too much sense which would get in the way of a stupid storyline.

Claire Foster is a psychiatrist that treats Superman, Martian Manhunter, and Starfire.

And that's just her named patients. To paraphrase what she tells Superman "You have a secret identity. I respect that. Many of my patients do, after all."

And to paraphrase her again "Why is it always the window with them? My office has a perfectly usable door" as Superman flies out after his 45 minutes were done.

"There are no therapists" is not a thing in DC. Whether the writers just decided to ignore that, or honestly were ignorant of that, is anyone's guess.

Hell, Waller, of all people, made sure that Belle Reve had therapists and a priest.

So in between suicide missions for the government supervillains had access to mental healthcare.

 

[Bramble Thorn]

"But it's convenient, isn't it, for certain people to disappear in a way not at all attributable to the Justice League?" She regards me levelly. Maybe taking a picture of Vandal Savage flying into the sun was a bit much. "How about we spend the day together, so you can have the opportunity to better assess my character?"

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The protagonist of this timeline seems to speak in a different font. Is this representative of some in-story quality, or just a convenience for the reader, to make it easier to tell who is speaking in a conversation, since you don't include any 'X said' or 'Y remarked' as a rule?

It's the same font that the SI used when he got transformed into a demon.

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Ah.

I'm naked, aren't I?
He only notices that NOW? Wow, he is hedonistic.

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So... Do you think all soul stuff has the same influence proportional to the percentage of the soul it takes up, or can some parts be more influential than others? Like if the first core strands to make up his soul were formerly incubus essence, does that have a big influence even if incubus essence only comprises a small portion of his soul compared to regular earthly magic and random non-incubus mook demons?

Beyond that, what's he got on his person as a "contingency" against my dragging him hundreds of billions of lightyears away from earth, sealing him in a solid block of unbreakable material, and then burying him miles within a lifeless planet that somehow, SOMEWAY, my power ring couldn't pick up? Which then is going to, magically I guess, somehow get him back to earth just in time for me to take him to a literal death god to deal with. After I beat him unmercilessly of course. Because I have super powers, and he's just a fucking caveman.

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Um, we don't actually know the exact mechanism of how his resurrection works. If it is magic based, killing or taking him off planet may work of the magic is limited to Earth's thermosphere, Or is may not work at all if instead of being limited from Earth's thermosphere, it arises from it. Like if the rule is 'Vandal Savage shall walk the Earth until the end of his days', taking him all the planet just had the magic resurrecting him tread that the same as him dying, and one of his shed skin cells somewhere on the planet starts regenerating, even if you have in a tungsten box somewhere in another solar system. Like Dragons servers in Worm keep bringing her back as long as they are in working order.

Or to put another way, we don't know the solution to dealing with Savage is to just deal with the body, or if that is like splashing computer monitor in a badly written movie, and expecting that to make the incriminating blackmail files go away.

 

[Buggy123]

long

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There's a lot here and I can't really respond to it in detail right now, but in brief I would counter with:

1: Bingeing on part of the emotional spectrum is usually a bad idea, OL just got lucky and he knows it. Before he summoned the Ophidian, he was very slowly going orange in the head, and he got lucky with the Ophidian and got a power boost and immunity at the same time. This does not mean that it's a good idea for anyone else to try something similar.

Not to mention, he regularly made efforts to avoid mental influence, including separating himself from his rings and meditating. And after he separated from the Ophidian, the first thing he did was go cold-turkey for a week.

2: While theoretically the only requirement for a relationship is "both parties can consent", there are other factors that can make them a rather less than ideal situation. Significant differences in emotional maturity (more-or-less age), and significant power disparity, can result in consensual relationships going very poorly for both parties, even if neither has malicious intent. Furthermore, in Paul's case, he has a strong preference for monogamy and is already committed to a partner; it's not something he could just get over unless he radically changes what kind of relationships he prefers.

Technically yes, Zatanna could just accept having one-sided love for Paul. But I'm not seeing any particular indications that that is the case; that's a fairly unusual mental state for a human to adopt in the first place, and its practically unheard of in people with Zatanna's level of emotional maturity.

This is reinforced by the fact that one of the first things she did after having her desires amplified and inhibitions lowered (via magic) is try to force Paul to abandon his current partner. While you can't hold her accountable for that, it's still a fairly strong indicator that she has not come to terms with the fact that her love is unrequited. Paul might just have to accept how she feels, but the reverse applies to her just as much, and that fact had to be made clear.

 

[nick012000]

So in between suicide missions for the government supervillains had access to mental healthcare.

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*looks at the track record of Arkham Asylum's therapists*

For all the good it seems to do...

 

[Mr Zoat]

Lantern Dul floats in interstellar space a short distance...
"Why? What do your people do with the remains of dead space farers?"
The space between the words of 'space farer' reads oddly. Maybe make it one word (spacefarer, after seafarer) in each case?
...original version that the more streamlined modern version...
...original version than the more streamlined modern version...
I wrap my fight fist around it. "Ready?"
I wrap my right fist around it. "Ready?"

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[Tzeentch]

"My people go into space on rockets. We don't have enough space farers to have a tradition. Water warships that sink are left alone, but that's on a living world. In.. space… Take it from someone who's died, that's.. not a good place to leave them."

"You believe that their souls are trapped there forever."

"I don't have enough magic researchers to task them with studying the process in detail, but based on what I know…" I nod. "It's a distinct possibility."

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And The Guardians thought the results of their War against Magic could only lead to good things for the universe!

Granted, I'm sure the likes of The Empire of Tears HAD to be put down, but...

 

[SH2009]

Does Robin still have a crush on Zatanna? I'm wondering because, would it be considered healthy for her if she got over Paul and then decided to try things out with Robin.

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Even if he does / doesnt, he's Dick Grayson. Nightwing gets around about as much as Batman does. I would not be surprised if something developed.

 

[Ngamer11]

Mr. Zoat, I just noticed that Field Trip Part 3 and Part 5 on you TOC don't link to the chapters, they instead link to the page right after the chapters.

 

[Valint]

Does Robin still have a crush on Zatanna? I'm wondering because, would it be considered healthy for her if she got over Paul and then decided to try things out with Robin.

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Eh, if anyone's able to pull off a transitional relationship where she has fun and then they break up and become just friends, it's Dick.

I mean, he canonically dated several of the YJ girls, with everyone still friends even after the break up, so I'm presuming he's going to have a much better chance of managing to navigate the situation than a blunt instrument like Paul.

 

[Sockmonkey]

And some more because why not?

 

[Coda]

"I mean, no personal affects?

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personal effects (which you got right just a little bit later)

lictors

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Usually you link references like this to images; I had to look up what it meant.

space farers

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spacefarers

u-shape levers

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If it matters to you, they're called knife switches. The U-shaped ones in particular are called dual-pole knife switches, but that tidbit is just for educational purposes because I'm pretty sure that saying it like that would totally not flow well.

If they ask why she started using the Star Sapphire in the first place-."

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Is the Star Sapphire a matter of public knowledge at this point? This is the only superhero-identity reference in the whole conversation.

 

[Stsword]

*looks at the track record of Arkham Asylum's therapists*

For all the good it seems to do...

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Belle Reve is a federal prison in Louisiana, while Arkham is a private psychiatric hospital in another state.

The failures of one in no way reflect on the level of success of the other.

 

[Siskulous]

Someone needs to set up a Patreon and have that as a goalpost. A monetary amount where you metaphorically throw your papers in the air, and go from "Still not the Dresden Files" to "Ok, FINE. You can have a little Dresden Files with your WTR. But no Mantles. That is where I draw the line.".

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I remain convinced that the "mantling" people talk about here has more to do with Elder Scrolls than Dresden Files.


In Dresden Files, a mantle is a sort-of metaphysical cloak associated with a title that you wear. It changes you somewhat and gives you power, but you can't put it on till whoever is currently wearing it takes it off (by dying in every instance thus far in the books) and often have no choice in the matter (more than half of the times someone has gotten a mantle in the books it was forced onto them). This in no way resembles Grayven's route to godhood. I honestly don't understand how Dresden Files even got a mention in the process.

In Elder Scrolls, you can become a god by pretending to be a specific god convincingly enough (there is WAAAY more to it than that, but that's the basic idea). The process is called mantling and is MUCH closer to what Grayven has done.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Mr. Zoat, I just noticed that Field Trip Part 3 and Part 5 on you TOC don't link to the chapters, they instead link to the page right after the chapters.

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That's... Weird. Should be fixed now.

personal effects (which you got right just a little bit later)
Usually you link references like this to images; I had to look up what it meant.
spacefarers

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Thank you, corrected.

If it matters to you, they're called knife switches. The U-shaped ones in particular are called dual-pole knife switches, but that tidbit is just for educational purposes because I'm pretty sure that saying it like that would totally not flow well.

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The SI actually doesn't know that, assuming that they only ever existed in fiction.

Is the Star Sapphire a matter of public knowledge at this point? This is the only superhero-identity reference in the whole conversation.

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It's not public knowledge but it's not actually a secret.

 

[Vaermina]

Yes, but Paul is saying that afterlives you go to are determined by planet you die on, and what the people living there believe. Not necessarily by what you believe. Otherwise atheists wouldn't go to Heaven - when it has been stated they do.

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And Death escorts you to those afterlives.

It was mentioned that afterlives are an intermediary to reincarnation. Planets with little life in Zoat's explanation have little magic and maybe 1 afterlife / direct reincarnation. Planets with no magic have no life and no reincarnation so spirits have nothing to do but stay there.

Maybe Death just gets souls going to afterlives that are part of a planet's possible ones - or starts you along the path. Maybe makes you follow a possible path if you are unwilling. She is a guide as shown in that one comic. She doesn't do the actual work - you do.

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Do remember that Paul isn't an omniscient narrator.

 

[Mquz]

And Death escorts you to those afterlives.

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True. But that's the point. If the planet you are on doesn't have an afterlife other than itself/ just staying there, you stay there as a ghost/ zombie. Death shows up, and escorts you to being a ghost.

 

[Ardy]

And Death escorts you to those afterlives

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Paul died and she sure as shit didn't, why make the assumption and have people trapped in the void forever?

 

[Tzeentch]

Part of the Endless version of Death's shtick is that she meets with the recently deceased and guides them to their afterlives.

And the Endless are part of this story.

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But if souls actually get stranded in space in this setting, and Death doesn't help them move on, does that make her a negligent bitch in this story, unlike her more compassionate portrayals in canon?

 

[Maxx Crowley]

Do remember that Paul isn't an omniscient narrator.

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Technically he is, as Paul is the Author. Out of politeness, we often refer to him as Zoat.

Orange Lantern 2814, often referred to as Pavlos however is not.

 

[draconomial]

Anybody have a word count for With This Ring?

 

[Chaoswind]

Anybody have a word count for With This Ring?

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Last time I checked it was over five million, and that was a long while ago.


Then again I could be remembering wrong.

 

[Vaermina]

Paul died and she sure as shit didn't, why make the assumption and have people trapped in the void forever?

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Paul was already in the afterlife when he died.

Speaking of which, Paul has yet to actually do his worshiping duties for Eris.

 

[Mr Zoat]

21st January
14:55 GMT

Light from the Halls'-. Late.. Halls..? They're not called 'Hall' any more and they're not married, and I can hardly call them 'the Hawks' when I'm about to visit a planet of hawk people. Old Hawks? Whatever, their short range teleporter lights up and deposits Mr Hall into space. He turns his helmeted head around and raises his right hand to hail me.

I smile and wave back. "Seals holding?"

He shifts his arms and legs around to test his mobility. The Nth metal lets him fly under his own power far more easily than gas thrusters would, though it's still not completely instinctual. Completing his test, he taps his belt to activate his radio.

"Confirmed. No leaks, movement good." He floats back from the ship slightly. "Beginning a visual inspection of the ship exterior."

With the ship's shields set to low power, I can see through the canopy as Ms Parker makes eye contact with her son and raises her right hand in acknowledgement. Naturally I checked all of this before we left the ground, but it's sensible for them to get into good habits, and I'm not surprised that Ms Parker née Chay-ara taught him to do it that way.

"Orange Lantern to Hawkwoman. We have made Earth-orbit. Ship looks good." Orichalcum might not do everything Nth metal can, but it serves just as well for hull plating. I'll keep recording what it does so that I can report back to Hephaestus and Vulcan about it.

"Yes, we watched your ascent. We'll be with you in.. two minutes."

I turn and look back towards the horizon. Yes, I see them. The contrast between the two ships is interesting. The forward sweeping wing design is a point of commonality, but in the case of the modern Hawks' ship it's clearly a functional wing, designed to be able to keep the vessel flying through lift when the main booster is active. With the Halls' ship, the design looks more decorative. Its wings would allow it to undergo a controlled crash, but it's designed to be kept aloft purely by Nth metal flight systems rather than the mix of Nth metal and conventional space aged engineering.

I suppose that the Thanagarian government didn't want too much Nth metal ending up in alien hands just in case something happened to the Hawks.

The new ones.

"I see you. Lantern Dul, do you want to transport your ship, or shall I do it?"

"The aim is to get to Thanagar as fast as possible. You are far faster than me."

"Very well. I'll warp us there once you arrive." I turn back to Mr Hall. "Silver Scarab, is the hull in one piece?"

He looks my way. "Silver Scarab, huh? Guess it goes with the costume." He turns his attention back to the hull. "Looks good. No warping, no sign of heat build up or cracking. No sign of escaping gas. Dad?"

"Confirmed. Internal sensors show green across the board."

"Sorry, do you.. not want me to call you Silver Scarab?"

"I don't know. I haven't been Silver Scarab for over a decade. And it's not like I'm hiding my identity from anyone, least of all Mom's side of the family."

"It's been seven thousand years. I doubt we'll meet any of my relatives. Not without a gene clinic doing a comparison."

"Do you remember your original family? Your first incarnation was a while ago."

"I… Think I do. I can't promise that I'm not confusing them with one of my other sets of parents, but they were the only ones with wings."

"Have you..? Either of you, told your current parents about this?"

Mr Cantrell lets out a huff-laugh. "Yeah, we did. Mine aren't sure whether I've gone crazy or not, and Joe and Megan Parker are pretty sure we have."

"Mom was happy that we're getting married, at least."

"We've spent more of our lives married than not. The only question is, do we have a church service or get Adom to marry us?"

"Shouldn't we ask Rama? We do reincarnate, after all. And anyway, if you're thinking of Kahndaq in the old days you know full well your people didn't have a marriage ceremony. Dad will kill us if we have a civil ceremony."

"Mom? Dad? Can I come back on board?"

"Oh! Sorry." There's a flicker of light as the teleporter activates once more.

"So was that a 'no' to Silver Scarab?"

"Yeah, Hector's fine. And are you sure you're not still married?"

Through the canopy I see Mr Cantrell and Ms Parker look at each other. Mr Cantrell shrugs. "We did die, son. I'm pretty sure that's an 'honorable discharge'."

"Marriage law hasn't really kept up with the impermanence of death. Though I suspect that Lord Rama would either say that you should marry other people in order to move towards spiritual liberation, or that you've already demonstrably transcended the wheel and so are married permanently regardless of what face you wear in any particular life."

"Wait, if Kahndaq didn't have a wedding…" Mr Cantrell sits back in his chair. "No, you're right, it didn't… But we had a ceremony. I don't remember every detail-."

Ms Parker smiles fondly at him. "That was because you left them up to me; your beautiful winged bride from the heavens."

"That was a Thanagarian ceremony?"

"Why do you think you wore your wing harness?"

"Oh! No, you're right, I remember now! And we had an argument because I didn't want to disturb their bodies…"

"Ah… Dad? What bodies?"

"The other thanagarians, the ones who died during the crash, or… Just after. Chay-ara thought the Kahndaqi reverence for the physical remains of the dead was… Bizarre."

"I've had dozens of lifetimes to get used to it now."

Hector takes his mask off, clearly not understanding what they're talking about. "Alright, but why did you need them for the wedding?"

Mr Cantrell shrugs, his wing harness moving as he does so. "Son, I'm human, and unlike your mother I always have been. Where did you think these wings came from?"

…

Huh. I suppose that makes sense.

"You cut-? They're from one of the other..?

"Where did you think I got wings that let me fly?"

"I thought it was the Nth metal in the harness! And.. birds. For the.. feathers!"

Ms Parker shakes her head. "We were active as Hawkman and Hawkgirl for seven years before we found where Adom put this ship after Hath-Set murdered us. Finding our bodies to reclaim our grave goods was far easier."

"Speaking of… Any luck finding this generation's Hath-Set? I realise that reincarnation takes some of the sting out of being murdered, but I'm sure you'd rather avoid it."

Mr Cantrell shakes his head. "Helene Astar and Rajak Darkraven are both dead, we checked that. Which is in line with what usually happens." Hector's jaw tightens at the mention of the people who murdered his parents. "Whoever's coming after us, it's someone new."

"Of course, if you stay on Thanagar long term… It won't be a problem."

"Huh." He and his fiancée look at each other. "I suppose it wouldn't. That might be worth considering."

"We'll see how things go. I'm going to get more of Chay-ara's memories back when we start visiting places, but I've been human longer than I've been thanagarian."

"Illustres."

I look around as the Modern Hawks' ship matches our velocity, raising my right hand in the direction of the command module. Alright then, Thanagar that way.

"Stand by for warp. Warping in three, two one."

Orange light shines and space bends.

 

[Huttj509]

The SI actually doesn't know that, assuming that they only ever existed in fiction.

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Yeah, knife switches used to be the standard like 100 years ago but are rarely used nowadays. Main situations are when someone wants to evoke Dr. Frankenstein, or if you're doing an experiment or demonstration where you want to be able to see from across the room whether the switch is open or closed. Due to the exposed metal bits they tend to be too dangerous.