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

Chojin Patriarch · Jan 29, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
4th October 2012
15:11 GMT

I stretch out my arms and legs, spreading the wings of my wingsuit and catching the air rising from the hillside.

Bleez catches up with a single wingbeat, looking over the canvas holding me in the air.

Heh. I would not have taken OL for such a thrill-seeker. Still, it's as close as we can get to actually flying, at least until they can miniaturise jet engines to provide lifting thrust, and do it safely. Which I doubt will happen in our lifetimes...

Her mouth moves, and I can't hear a word of tree!

I swerve around it, flailing slightly before catching the air current and getting a little more lift. This is very different from using a power ring. I know I'm perfectly safe, but my heart is actually racing.

...I'm guessing he has a Kinetic Belt on standby, and his rings are presumably in a pocket. Plus a spotter in Bleez.

There's a click as Bleez activates her microphone.

"This isn't flying. This is falling." A twist of her wings and she's gliding on her back. "Without style."

Pfft, says you. Some people don't have natural powers of flight...

"I don't have wings. I can fly by power ring, but that gives me perfect control and turns the whole thing into an exercise of the mind."

Getting a little low open the wings gain a little height and over the ridge!

Interesting. I guess this is some manner of athletic course for Thanagarians, with carefully shaped landscaping to make for interesting atmospheric conditions...

"This engages my body. I feel this. Can you imagine not feeling the air moving through your feathers when you fly?"

"Yes? I've been in space. But I guess I sort of get it."

That would probably be a fascinating sensation for a Thanagarian, the first few times. I wonder if they have a sort of motion sickness related to that.

A lopsided flap and she barrel roles around me, giving me an eyeful of her 'aerodynamic' flight gear.

"But is that really the best your people have?"

...I'm guessing either so tight it might as well be body paint, or lots of skin showing...

"Anything bigger and I'd be wearing a microlight."

I angle down and retract my wings to gain speed in the descent.

On the one hand, he's probably a lot heavier than she is, so can get a lot faster before hitting terminal velocity. On the other, he's not nearly so aerodynamic (despite her...

buoyant... qualities.)

"Short of growing wings, this is about as immediate as I can make flying."

There's a sharp intake of breath through the headphones.

Yes, kind of shocking. But we're tool users, we make do.

"That's so sad!"

"It's pretty normal for humanoid species."

Of course, to the naturally flying anthropoid, that's sad...

"That doesn't make it less sad. How did your species used to get around?"

"Ah, well, our really distant ancestors used to wing between tree branches using disproportionately long arms. After that we just walked everywhere until we started domesticating horses and building boats."

And believe me, humans have impressive endurance in that respect. For instance: Horses may be faster on the hoof, but they can't keep that pace for long without having to eat, and they can't eat on the run... Funnily, dogs mesh quite well with our movements...

I stop diving and open my wings again, causing Bleez to shoot past me as I exchange speed for lift.

"Really? Whaw. That must have been slow."

Humans are nothing but patient, when it comes to getting somewhere... Or at least, we used to be. <glances at all those Dashcam compilations my father watches on Youtube...>

"It beat having our early civilisation controlled by soul-eating demons, but I suppose that it's hard to do a pure cost/benefit analysis."

"Ooh, can you get me the number of that thanagarian who got reincarnated as humans? I'd love to hear about the sort of music we made back then!"

I can understand that appeal. There's still a lot of music and musical styles lost to the depths of history because people stopped performing them and forgot about them... And those depths come a lot closer to the present days than many might think.

"Yes, no problem. I'm sure that Missus Cantrell will be happy to hear from you."

I'm not sure what sort of geographical upheaval caused this sort of landscape, a 'hill' that covers an area the size of central Europe with all manner of interesting features. Rivers have carved out valleys, water wearing away soft soil and leaving hard rock promontories and spines. Larger mesas produce interesting air currents and possible landing or taking off zones-.

As if they'd leave anything to chance like that?

This is all artificial, isn't it?

"How long did it take too put this place together?"

Ha, I was right, it is an exercise park for fliers.

"Like, two hundred years? It was pretty great for flying when the planet was first settled, then generations of thanagarians kept working on it until we got this. This is the beginner swoop-slope. I haven't been here since I was… Seven, I think? There are harder runs in other places."

I angle towards a valley, not trying to test my reflexes but just looking at the natural beauty of Havania as shape by the hands of its residents.

I have no doubt some of those harder runs include paths through canyons and/or caves. I bet there's always some idiots who push their limits too hard and crash badly.

"Hey, listen."

Bleez flies directly in front of my, blocking my view and effortlessly matching my pace.

Gah, Navi flashbacks. I never even played Ocarina of Time and I heard the sound.

"You didn't really say anything when I told you want I wanted to do with Havania after Mother dies?"

"I'm on holiday."

And I'm sure Jade would like to hear about you trying to nudge him into doing work on his holiday.

"Yeah, but you have an opinion, right? Whether it'll work or not?"

"I don't know the ins and out of the Thanagarian Empire's government to know whether it's plausible or not. Looking into that aspect would very definitely be 'work'. Could you-? I can't see where I'm going at the-"

I doubt she'd have gotten in your way if there was any risk to you...

She flaps and rises above my flight path. No, nothing in the way but artfully dressed landscape.

"-moment-. Thank you. What you described sounds plausible, but I don't know the people involved. I also don't know how your fellow Havanian thanagarians think of this. You might inherit the position, but every leader needs some way to get other people to go along with them and I doubt that you've got a particularly large home guard."

Yeah, big dreams sound nice, but there's a lot of hard work to be done to make them reality.

"They're cool with it. Father did a lot of the things I want to bring back while Thanagar was busy getting Equalised. Industrialisation stalled after Thanagar was Unequalised and the military started leaning on us to 'know our place', but powerful people like becoming more powerful."

"Completely true, but are they going to want to have a whole lot of aliens come and live here?"

Are they really cool with it, or just saying so to keep you happy? How well do you trust them, and how deserved is that trust?

"More people to lord it over. Literally, because we can fly and the owners of the industrial areas will be lords. But it still won't be as bad as Downside."

"To start with."

It's a fine line to walk... Or fly, in this case.

Bleez gives me a look of irritation.

"I'm not going to turn it into Downside later! That goes against everything I'm trying to make happen!"

It might not be a conscious choice, you know. People are people, no matter what species they are...

"I believe you. But will they?"

"Huh?"

...And there's always the saw of 'Sounds to good to be true.'

"Downside's probably less of a mess since the manhawks got cleared out, but it's still rife with violence and crime gangs. If you bring people like that here en masse, they're going to keep down what they know in a nicer setting. I don't need to do special research for that."

"But we'd treat them better."

Yeah, the assholes will keep being assholes, no matter the setting.

"Overcoming old habits isn't quite that simple. It would help, certainly, and if you were working exclusively with… Children or something, it might be enough, but with top thugs who manage to bring their whole gangs along with them?"

"What about if we do law enforcement better?"

Then you risk resentment over 'cultural misunderstandings', 'heavy-handed police states' or 'oppressive racial profiling'...

"That would just mark out your police as different dressed Wingmen. Ideally, police should come from the community they're protecting-. Remind me to give you a copy of A Short History of the British Police before I leave. Essentially, you're going to want to vet people heavily at the Thanagar end and make sure that you've got the civic and social infrastructure in place to support a migrant population, and then… Make sure that it works in practice on a small scale before expanding it. This sort of thing is the work of a lifetime, and I really respect that you want to get started with it."

Hopefully it goes better than the evolution of policing London... There were a lot of ups and downs before they got that far.

Bleez thinks for a moment.

"Do you..? Know anywhere that's done something similar that I could look at?"

...That sounds an awful lot like work, Bleez...

I wonder if her employers would be fine with her taking a trip off-world with OL. I mean, she could probably spin it as 'information-gathering'. It would probably be very educational for her, certainly, especially if she visits Earth. Would also let her meet the Hawks face to face. Though it's going to be very tricky to let her see the best of human law enforcement without landing headlong in 'Oh no, that supervillain just kidnapped my alien princess!' territory...

...used to wing between tree branches...

I expect that should be 'swing', unless some of our ancestors were flying squirrels.

Darko · Jan 29, 2022

Chojin Patriarch said:
Heh. I would not have taken OL for such a thrill-seeker

He does work as a superhero, which is a very risky profession.

Mr Zoat · Jan 29, 2022

Ngamer11 said:
That should say 'to'.

Thank you, corrected.

Darko said:
'those Thanagarians who got reincarnated as humans'

No, there's only one. Prince Khufu was human.

'shaped'
'what i wanted'
'keep doing'

Chojin Patriarch said:
I expect that should be 'swing', unless some of our ancestors were flying squirrels.

Thank you, corrected.

Rafin · Jan 29, 2022

What's Jade doing this episode? Not flying?

Radix · Jan 29, 2022

Did we evolve from tree swingers? I was under the impression we evolved from land-walking simians. Which actually isnt too uncommon, plenty of monkeys essentially live on the ground.

Cuchulin · Jan 29, 2022

Radix said:
Did we evolve from tree swingers? I was under the impression we evolved from land-walking simians. Which actually isnt too uncommon, plenty of monkeys essentially live on the ground.

The land walkers evolved from tree swingers.

Ciber · Jan 29, 2022

It is really funny to imagine that entire conversation taking place while hurtling down a mountainside.

Mr Zoat · Jan 29, 2022

Rafin said:
What's Jade doing this episode? Not flying?

I'm going to say...

Sunbathing.

BR549 · Jan 29, 2022

Chojin Patriarch said:
Heh. I would not have taken OL for such a thrill-seeker. Still, it's as close as we can get to actually flying, at least until they can miniaturise jet engines to provide lifting thrust, and do it safely. Which I doubt will happen in our lifetimes...

1440x810_cmsv2_603de949-8582-51f6-b57f-cd6ec60f549e-5692678.jpg

But actually, Jingles...

It's possible right now.

Stsword · Jan 29, 2022

also you know, water jets, like this

Sure you're not exactly soaring like an eagle there, but one does achieve lift off.

Vaermina · Jan 29, 2022

Chojin Patriarch said:
Heh. I would not have taken OL for such a thrill-seeker. Still, it's as close as we can get to actually flying, at least until they can miniaturise jet engines to provide lifting thrust, and do it safely. Which I doubt will happen in our lifetimes...

He's not really thrill seeking since there's no personal risk involved.

fappingtoyourpost · Jan 30, 2022

Ciber said:
It is really funny to imagine that entire conversation taking place while hurtling down a mountainside.

It's very Calvin and Hobbes, isn't it?

Coda · Jan 30, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
she barrel roles around me

rolls

Mr Zoat said:
that thanagarian who got reincarnated as humans

Given the rejection of the previous correction, then it should be "as a human" unless that thanagarian was reincarnated more than once?

Cuchulin · Jan 30, 2022

fappingtoyourpost said:
It's very Calvin and Hobbes, isn't it?

Yeah, Calvin and Hobbes did that pretty often.

Prince Charon · Jan 30, 2022

Cuchulin said:
Yeah, Calvin and Hobbes did that pretty often.

Then they crashed at the end.

GhostKing 666 · Jan 30, 2022

Radix said:
Did we evolve from tree swingers? I was under the impression we evolved from land-walking simians. Which actually isnt too uncommon, plenty of monkeys essentially live on the ground.

Our very early ancestors, from like right after the split with the ancestors of the chimps, spent plenty of time in the trees. In fact there's a theory that bipedalism originally developed to help with reaching food in the trees the same way some apes do today, before climate change forced our ancestors not just onto the ground but also into the savanna(where the bipedalism proved itself more efficient when walking long distance and allowed us to hold things with our hands, and thus our ancestors started developing to be fully bipedal all the time).

Mr Zoat · Jan 30, 2022

Coda said:
rolls

Thank you, corrected.

Given the rejection of the previous correction, then it should be "as a human" unless that thanagarian was reincarnated more than once?

Both she and Khufu are serial reincarnators.

Mr Zoat · Jan 30, 2022

6th October 2012
18:43 GMT

Jade pauses a moment to check sightlines. The pool area is completely deserted, aside from a pool attendant trying to avoid looking like he's staring at us and a barwoman ready to serve drinks. Prior to Xalitan's revolution, this was a place frequently occupied by the great and the not-so-good of Alignment society. Now, the extreme political turbulence combined with the public trials and executions means that most of their former client base-

Bleez struts past us both and begins the arduous process of posing herself onto a lounger.

-either aren't interested in holidaying at all, or are engaged in far more extreme entertainments than somewhere like this offers.

To the delight of both observers, Bleez stalls in an arms and wings back sitting posture that displays her chest to best advantage. And her flight muscles, but I doubt that they're interested in those.

"I've never been this far from Thanagar before!"

"We're closer to Thanagar than Earth. Thanagar would have run into the Alignment eventually."

"They're still here. We're still going to run into them." Bleez looking around to meet my eyes. "Won't we?"

"The current provisional government has expressed a disinterest in expanding their territory further and has sent feelers out to its neighbours regarding cooperation agreements. The previous government wanted to expand by force. My prediction is that they and the Thanagarian Empire would have bumped into each other before either of your borders abutted Earth. But if they're not going to expand any more, that's no longer the case."

"Huh. So, where are we visiting?"

I open my mouth to reply, but Jade's looking at me with raised eyebrows.

Hm.

"After the revolution, they had to release every political prisoner from their penal settlements, as well as trying to resocialise their child soldiers. But that's not just a matter of dumping everyone out of prison; for some of them, prison life is all they've known for decades. For others… Well, the sort of person disposed to revolt against a omnipresent and corrupt police state isn't the sort to integrate well into any kind of structure. Then there are the alien servitors from the worlds they conquered."

Bleez frowns. "Are they handling it better than us?"

"Define 'better'."

She frowns.

"You saw Downside. Is it like that?"

"It's probably best if you see it for yourself. The housing they've got is more like a barracks complex, so whether highly regulated civil order or Darwinistic liberty is better is a value judgement I'm not able to make for the people of Downside, who I'll remind you I only saw very briefly."

"So when are we going?"

"I can put you in touch with the current government of the Alignment whenever you want. But as I said, Jade and I are on holiday and it doesn't-"

Jade nods. "Thank you for remembering."

"-really sound like a holiday activity."

"You don't go exploring while you're on holiday? You don't wanna meet new people?"

I start to look at Jade and then stop myself. Not really fair to make it her sole decision, like I'm siding with Bleez on the subject and then putting her on the spot if she wants to be the party pooper.

"Helping Thanagar rearrange its society is 'work'. But… I suppose that walking around wouldn't hurt?"

Jade considers, then reluctantly shrug-nods. "What else is there to do in the Alignment?"

"Music and plays, of both high and low culture. Sporting events to watch or participate in. They traditionally haven't brought in anything of alien culture, even to publically disparage it. That might start changing now, but we'll pretty much be getting pure-"

Bleez sits up and flaps off her chair, heading for the edge of the pool's deck.

"-Alignment culture."

She lands and stands against the railing, staring out at the town below. Reminds me a little of 1984, where the Inner Party deliberately made their own lives worse despite being purely self-interested. The explanation was that after a certain point it was easier to increase the difference in quality of life between them and their social subordinates not by improving their lives in material terms but by making their subordinates' lives worse. In fact, it was so much easier that they intentionally collapsed the entirety of industrial society in order to make that difference as big as possible, because even as their own lives got worse to the point that formerly commonly available items became rarities the lives of the members of the outer party and the proles got worse still.

That sort of reasoning was what made me completely hate Ingsoc society, more than the constant warfare, stupid unworkable superweapon research programs, editing of history or torture and mind-breaking. If it had been for something I might have accepted the rest, depending on how good it was. But being a shit to make everything worse for everyone is completely against everything I believe in.

The rich and privileged in the Alignment have their hotels around the edge of the town so that they can literally look down on the middle class district in the town proper. They didn't really have a concept of a working class holiday resort. I don't know if that will change. If they go for a mostly free capitalist economy then they should come into being in a few decades, once the renewed civil war burns itself out. In a more planned economy…

"Bleez, your education included planetary economics, right?"

"Yeah? And interplanetary economics? All of the ruling class of Havania get trained on that, or we wouldn't know how the Thanagarian Empire worked. About half my old school class ended up working in military logistics because officers from Thanagar just don't get it."

She turns away from the view, looking right at me.

"You think I should bring people here? Because they're going to need economists who didn't work for the people they just overthrew and they probably don't know much about it either."

"The thought did occur. It would also serve to get them used to working with aliens as equals. As employers, even."

"I dunno how many would go for it. Which I suppose is the point. If they can't work with aliens this far from home, they're not going to do it back home where it will actually change things." She looks away, waving her left arm. "And Intelligence will accept it, because we'll get information about the Alignment and make contacts here."

"Ah..? Yes..?"

"They wouldn't let us get away with this without getting something. Yeah, yeah, that could really work out for us. Maybe we could hire some of their workers to serve as role models."

"It's certainly possible."

"So, hey, why don't you set all that up while Jade and I go explore the town some?"

"Can…" I look at Jade and get small nod. "Do? It's been a little while since I've seen Onisia. It will be nice to catch up."

"Great!" Bleez smiles and flaps over to Jade, smiling at her. "Think we could pick up some knives while we're here? You look like a knife-girl."

moralrelativity · Jan 30, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
expanding their territory further and send feelers out to its neighbours

send -> sent

"knife girl"

Darko · Jan 30, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
Prior to Xalitan's revolution, this was a place frequently occupied by the great and the not-so-good of Alignment society. Now, the extreme political turbulence combined with the public trials and executions means that most of their former client base-

Are probably dead or have lost a lot of their wealth that needless spending is bad.

Mr Zoat said:
that displays her chest to best advanta

'to the best'

Mr Zoat said:
My prediction is that they and the Thanagarian Empire would have bumped into each other

And probably started a war.

Mr Zoat said:
But if they're not going to expand any more, that's no longer the case."

Unless they continue expanding, but in a more peaceful way.

Mr Zoat said:
Great!" Bleez smiles and flaps over to Jade, smiling at her. "Think we could pick up some knives while we're here? You look like a knife-girl."

You've got good eyes on you Bleez.

Bud-E · Jan 30, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
"Great!" Bleez smiles and flaps over to Jade, smiling at her. "Think we could pick up some knives while we're here? You look like a knife-girl."

More so Sai's than knives but I'm sure Jade will appreciate more stabbing weapons.

RichardWhereat · Jan 30, 2022

Paul is shit at holidays.

Chojin Patriarch · Jan 30, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
6th October 2012
18:43 GMT

Jade pauses a moment to check sightlines. The pool area is completely deserted, aside from a pool attendant trying to avoid looking like he's staring at us and a barwoman ready to serve drinks. Prior to Xalitan's revolution, this was a place frequently occupied by the great and the not-so-good of Alignment society. Now, the extreme political turbulence combined with the public trials and executions means that most of their former client base-

To put it simply, the hotel's days are a lot quieter, and a lot less profitable? The downside of total sociological upheaval. It's one of the things you'd never see in any of those YA 'kids overthrow social order' stories. Too complex for most writers to consider, I guess. Writing an easy win is, well, easy. Working out what happens next? That's tough.

Bleez struts past us both and begins the arduous process of posing herself onto a lounger.

-either aren't interested in holidaying at all, or are engaged in far more extreme entertainments than somewhere like this offers.

I'll say this, the lady makes for one hell of a distraction. If this were still the police state, anyone watching...

To the delight of both observers, Bleez stalls in an arms and wings back sitting posture that displays her chest to best advantage. And her flight muscles, but I doubt that they're interested in those.

"I've never been this far from Thanagar before!"

...Would no doubt be taking a very healthy interest in her anatomy.

Because between some anthropoid species, certain attractors are consistent.

"We're closer to Thanagar than Earth. Thanagar would have run into the Alignment eventually."

"They're still here. We're still going to run into them." Bleez looking around to meet my eyes. "Won't we?"

Well, looks like you get to orchestrate a more peaceable encounter between them, Bleez.

Lucky you!

"The current provisional government has expressed a disinterest in expanding their territory further and send feelers out to its neighbours regarding cooperation agreements. The previous government wanted to expand by force. My prediction is that they and the Thanagarian Empire would have bumped into each other before either of your borders abutted Earth. But if they're not going to expand any more, that's no longer the case."

"Huh. So, where are we visiting?"

Yeah, I suspect a war between the two empires would have been big, messy and have quite the splash zone of trouble for their neighbours.

I open my mouth to reply, but Jade's looking at me with raised eyebrows.

Hm.

Well, I expect she wants to see some sights, not get stuck watching OL do business. Because holiday, remember, OL?

"After the revolution, they had to release every political prisoner from their penal settlements, as well as trying to resocialise their child soldiers. But that's not just a matter of dumping everyone out of prison; for some of them, prison life is all they've known for decades. For others… Well, the sort of person disposed to revolt against a omnipresent and corrupt police state isn't the sort to integrate well into any kind of structure. Then there are the alien servitors from the worlds they conquered."

Not a complete amnesty, then. Good move. I suspect there's plenty of people they still wouldn't want out on the streets. Wouldn't have been hard to pick the political prisoners out from the actual murderers, rapists and the like, I suppose, but...

Bleez frowns. "Are they handling it better than us?"

"Define 'better'."

...That bad, huh? Hopefully Xor and his ilk are handling it okay...

She frowns.

"You saw Downside. Is it like that?"

Different cultures, different behaviours.But i suspect there are still commonalities.

"It's probably best if you see it for yourself. The housing they've got is more like a barracks complex, so whether highly regulated civil order or Darwinistic liberty is better is a value judgement I'm not able to make for the people of Downside, who I'll remind you I only saw very briefly."

"So when are we going?"

The beach, perhaps. Oh, you meant for the political thing, Bleez? But that would be Work!

"I can put you in touch with the current government of the Alignment whenever you want. But as I said, Jade and I are on holiday and it doesn't-"

Jade nods. "Thank you for remembering."

Hey, he's an inveterate sticky-beak, Jade., You knew this going into a relationship with him...

"-really sound like a holiday activity."

"You don't go exploring while you're on holiday? You don't wanna meet new people?"

If half the stories I read about tourists on places like Notalwaysright.com are true, than apparently not. But a lot of those stories are about Americans.

I start to look at Jade and then stop myself. No really fair to make it her sole decision, like I'm siding with Bleez on the subject and then putting her on the spot if she wants to be the party pooper.

"Helping Thanagar rearrange its society is 'work'. But… I suppose that walking around wouldn't hurt?"

If nothing else, you could provide a few introductions. Help Bleez make a few connections?

Jade considers, then reluctantly shrug-nods. "What else is there to do in the Alignment?"

"Music and plays, of both high and low culture. Sporting events to watch or participate in. They traditionally haven't brought in anything of alien culture, even to publically disparage it. That might start changing now, but we'll pretty much be getting pure-"

An odd decision. Generally when people want to feel superior, they'll single out those not like them so they can say 'Glad we're not like that!'

Bleez sits up and flaps off her chair, heading for the edge of the pool's deck.

"-Alignment culture."

She might have to get used to low-altitude flying for a while. I doubt the traffic networks is set up for individuals.

She lands and stands against the railing, staring out at the town below. Reminds me a little of 1984, where the Inner Party deliberately made their own lives worse despite being purely self-interested. The explanation was that after a certain point it was easier to increase the difference in quality of life between them and their social subordinates not by improving their lives in material terms but by making their subordinates lives worse. In fact, it was so much easier that they intentionally collapsed the entirety of industrial society in order to make that difference as big as possible, because even as their own lives got worse to the point that formerly commonly available items became rarities the lives of the members of the outer party and the proles got worse still.

There's a reason it's the number one go-to for dystopian tropes. Orwell did that much right when he wrote it.

That sort of reasoning was what made me completely hate Ingsoc society, more than the constant warfare, stupid unworkable superweapon research programs, editing of history or torture and mind-breaking. If it had been for something I might have accepted the rest, depending on how good it was. But being a shit to make everything worse for everyone is completely against everything I believe in.

I suspect that if an alternate you ended up there with the power to change things, Ingsoc would be gone by the end of the first week? ~~Especially if he had a Blue Ring~~...

The rich and privileged in the Alignment have their hotels around the edge of the town so that they can literally look down on the middle class district in the town proper. They didn't really have a concept of a working class holiday resort. I don't know if that will change. If they go for a mostly free capitalist economy then they should come into being in a few decades, once the renewed civil war burns itself out. In a more planned economy…

Heh. Literally arranged so they could look down on their social inferiors? Glad they're gone, then.

"Bleez, your education included planetary economics, right?"

"Yeah? And interplanetary economics? All of the ruling class of Havania get trained on that, or we wouldn't know how the Thanagarian Empire worked. About half my old school class ended up working in military logistics because officers from Thanagar just don't get it."

I'll bet they don't. Lots of 'What? Why would we need anything from other races?' going on, I bet. The grim downside of promoting racial superiority.

She turns away from the view, looking right at me.

"You think I should bring people here? Because they're going to need economists who didn't work for the people they just overthrew and they probably don't know much about it either."

...oooh, she's a smart one. I bet very few even considered that here.

"The thought did occur. It would also serve to get them used to working with aliens as equals. As employers, even."

"I dunno how many would go for it. Which I suppose is the point. If they can't work with aliens this far from home, they're not going to do it back home where it will actually change things." She looks away, waving her left arm. "And Intelligence will accept it, because we'll get information about the Alignment and make contacts here."

Win-win for everyone. You get to weed out the unsuitable staff, and please your bosses with one action.As Black Panther put it best (as far as I've seen,) "In times of need, foolish men build barriers, wise men build bridges."

"Ah..? Yes..?"

"They wouldn't let us get away with this without getting something. Yeah, yeah, that could really work out for us. Maybe we could hire some of their workers to serve as role models."

And she can safely claim it was her idea. Because it was.

"It's certainly possible."

"So, hey, why don't you set all that up while Jade and I go explore the town some?"

...Oh, dear. Those two going for a walk together? It could turn quite... Enthusiastic.

"Can…" I look at Jade and get small nod. "Do? It's been a little while since I've seen Xalitan. It will be nice to catch up."

"Great!" Bleez smiles and flaps over to Jade, smiling at her. "Think we could pick up some knives while we're here? You look like a knife-girl."

And you can always tell yourself it's just catching up with an old friend, OL. Not Work.

Well, quite a few things getting underway there. I suppose you can't really escape doing Work, when you wear your work-tools all the time. Still, I can't imagine those two will be able to avoid trouble while OL's away. Whether it be trouncing muggers, or just some girl talk, something juicy's bound to happen.

lancelot · Jan 30, 2022

I'm start to think she'd rather be seducing Jade then Paul, or maybe both.

Darko · Jan 30, 2022

Chojin Patriarch said:
I suspect that if an alternate you ended up there with the power to change things, Ingsoc would be gone by the end of the first week? Especially if he had a Blue Ring

I think a blue ring would shut down by all the lack of hope everywhere.

Chojin Patriarch said:
I'll bet they don't. Lots of 'What? Why would we need anything from other races?' going on, I bet. The grim downside of promoting racial superiority

True, promoting racism is just asking for trouble for everyone later down the line, both for the group you're against and your own group, but I don't think that's the case.

This seems more like the Thanagarians really liking their military but not having the skills necessary for things like paperwork.

And to be fair to them, that's also true of Earth militaries.

You don't see militaries on Earth trying to recruit people by explaining how their filing system works.

Chojin Patriarch said:
...Oh, dear. Those two going for a walk together? It could turn quite... Enthusiastic

Very enthusiastic.

Old Knife · Jan 30, 2022

If Jade wants a threesome will you say yes?
Or will you cheat using your eyes?

webxro · Jan 30, 2022

Chojin Patriarch said:
or just some girl talk, something juicy's bound to happen.

If this was a lewd fic then at this point the wing-girl would just ask for a 3some, but before that she would at least try to get some tongue action with Jade.

Oh look where this story is hosted. Huh.

Flightless Man · Jan 30, 2022

GhostKing 666 said:
Our very early ancestors, from like right after the split with the ancestors of the chimps, spent plenty of time in the trees. In fact there's a theory that bipedalism originally developed to help with reaching food in the trees the same way some apes do today, before climate change forced our ancestors not just onto the ground but also into the savanna(where the bipedalism proved itself more efficient when walking long distance and allowed us to hold things with our hands, and thus our ancestors started developing to be fully bipedal all the time).

We also have the started to transition to aquatic but then decided to stay on land(likely when the water receded from the area once again)/or just more of a swamp ape, theory based on human fat distribution being very similar to blubber, lack of body hair, and wrinkly fingers/toes when wet.

Bramble Thorn · Jan 30, 2022

Vaermina said:
He's not really thrill seeking since there's no personal risk involved.

Um, I know you like to randomly 'Bah, humbug' anything Zoat says, but could you do it in a way that makes you look less like an blithering idiot?

I mean, we have like an entire roller coaster industry going on. Millions of people going on them every year to get a thrill who would not get on them, o allow their children to get on them, if they felt there was any realistic possibility of personal risk. Ditto things like properly set up bungee cord rigs.

People are perfectly capable of seeking thrills, and getting them, from situations that do not actually put them at risk.

Handlewithcare · Jan 30, 2022

Well, she already learned how to delegate at least.

And to people on holiday too! Perfect middle management material!

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

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