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

[Darko]

Isn't this Diana a god herself at this point? I'd think she'd be able to do it herself.

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She's still technically a demigod. Albeit a powerful one.

Plus, she's only recently started training her more esoteric abilities, so she may not be able to do it.

Heck, she may never be able to bless them with children since she's connected to Truth rather than say Fertility or Birth, so her powers may never be able to do that.

Can the Renegade free the Coluans the way Paul was able to get help to do so? Because I remember it was only done thanks to Captain Comet's immense telepathic abilities, abilities which his Renegade counterpart doesn't quite have anymore due to brain damage.

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Though Renegade has access to a lot of genomorphs.

Plus Manchester Black has telepathic abilities and he was Awakened, so his powers may have grown to rival Comet.

 

[Darko]

admittedly, I expect most any demolition and construction on Themyscira tends to be more in the way of repairs after natural disasters or hard weather. Smaller building collapsed by earthquakes or high winds... Then again, Themyscira may not get that sort of thing. I guess their buildings do wear out eventually anyway.

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Or monster attack.

Or wrath of god/gods.

Drawback of a culture being monofocused on their specialisation. Even the Klingons had scientists, cooks, and other less illustrious tasks, and they rarely looked down on those who performed them... Much.

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They kinda did look down on them.

To be fair, Lex would probably rather it just be 'biggest Human fleet', no aliens involved. But it is what it is, and he can't exactly do much to Diana out here.

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I don't think he's quite as xenophobic in the renegade timeline.

Plus he may like the fact that humans are leading aliens.

Ah, right. The ladies of the Citizenry probably barely know how to interact with any male that isn't a slave

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Some might have before they joined.

Yeah, demigoddesses probably can expect to maintain fertility for a century or more, and live to two or three hundred years or longer, depending on just how strong their divine blood is.

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Heck, they may not even need the blessing to be immortal.

As for importing males, might need to make sure of biological compatibility.

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the Citizenry didn't seem to have a problem with that before, so they may have some method to deal with it.

Heh. Really flexing her bad mood, making it clear that would be a bad idea.

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Didn't notice her using god speech.

 

[Signaller]

Is there any reason Grayven, or any other lantern, couldn't do the thing that OL did to generate children from the DNA of two women?

 

[BR549]

Drawback of a culture being monofocused on their specialisation. Even the Klingons had scientists, cooks, and other less illustrious tasks, and they rarely looked down on those who performed them... Much.

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I've mused on that the Klingons would likely look on even the lowest street-sweeper as worthy of praise. Because yes, he does a small, dirty job. But if he does it well? He brings honor to his street. That brings honor to his town. That brings honor to his province. And that brings honor to the Empire.

 

[Darko]

Is there any reason Grayven, or any other lantern, couldn't do the thing that OL did to generate children from the DNA of two women?

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They probably can, but that would leave Diana's new people dependant on them to continue to exist.

 

[Bud-E]

Was it ever said what happened to Diana's Aunt now that she's not leading the Citizenry? I imagine Hippolyta would like to meet her sister again.

 

[Darko]

Was it ever said what happened to Diana's Aunt now that she's not leading the Citizenry? I imagine Hippolyta would like to meet her sister again.

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I think that Diana said that she was going to use the waters of Lethe, the magical river that erases memories, to erase her memories of her working with the Citizenry.

 

[Ngamer11]

Was it ever said what happened to Diana's Aunt now that she's not leading the Citizenry? I imagine Hippolyta would like to meet her sister again.

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That depends on whether or not they found a way to restore Hippolyta's memories of her sister. I assume they tried using the Lasso of Truth to burn away false memories, but if they're just gone then that won't help.

 

[Mr Zoat]

"in turn"

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Thank you, corrected.

Did Orana take Wonder Woman's place in the Justice League the way John Quinn did in the Paragon timeline?

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No. Diana actually introduced her to them ahead of time and taught her how they work.

Can the Renegade free the Coluans the way Paul was able to get help to do so? Because I remember it was only done thanks to Captain Comet's immense telepathic abilities, abilities which his Renegade counterpart doesn't quite have anymore due to brain damage.

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Honestly, he'd probably find it easier. But he doesn't have any real reason to go there, and there isn't anyone who does who would ask for his help.

Is there any reason Grayven, or any other lantern, couldn't do the thing that OL did to generate children from the DNA of two women?

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There aren't any Green Lanterns with that degree of skill. As for Orange Lanterns... Yes, one could if they wanted to, but what's the end goal? The SI was willing to do that on Themyscira because he liked them and because he wanted their civilisation to embrace change. Grayven doesn't really care about the Citizenry as long as they're not causing problems for anyone else. To have long-term viability they need to abandon misandry, not be helped to bypass it. Otherwise they'll just raise their daughters in their current culture.

 

[Darko]

Honestly, he'd probably find it easier. But he doesn't have any real reason to go there, and there isn't anyone who does who would ask for his help.

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Yeah, even Dox may not care about them.

In the comics after Brainiac left it was made illegal to be above a certain degree of intelligence, and Vril II was smarter than the acceptable amount, so he was imprisoned.

I'm guessing something similar happened here before he was given to the Dominators.

He may resent them.

Or he would like to free them, but doesn't ask the Renegade for help because he thinks he'll just owe him more.

 

[Ngamer11]

Yeah, even Dox may not care about them.

In the comics after Brainiac left it was made illegal to be above a certain degree of intelligence, and Vril II was smarter than the acceptable amount, so he was imprisoned.

I'm guessing something similar happened here before he was given to the Dominators.

He may resent them.

Or he would like to free them, but doesn't ask the Renegade for help because he thinks he'll just owe him more.

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The entire population of Colu is plugged into machinery and under the control of AI left by Brainiac. I can't remember what they're called though.

 

[Darko]

The entire population of Colu is plugged into machinery and under the control of AI left by Brainiac. I can't remember what they're called though.

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Computer Tyrants.

 

[Ngamer11]

@Mr Zoat, what do the Amazons think of the Citizenry in both timelines? Paragon timeline only has Paul's reports, while Renegade timeline has several Amazons interact with them and has even Diana admit that they're savage who mostly won't change their ways

 

[Darko]

@Mr Zoat, what do the Amazons think of the Citizenry in both timelines? Paragon timeline only has Paul's reports, while Renegade timeline has several Amazons interact with them and has even Diana admit that they're savage who mostly won't change their ways

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The only people that may know about them in the Paragon timelinecare Diana and Hippolyta, since Paul probably told them.

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th May 2013
03:55 GMT -1

I don't react as the arm wraps around my neck and the knife pokes my jugular.

"Do I belong here?"

"Sha'ark, it's me."

The knife doesn't move.

"If he tasted you, he can track you. Anywhere." Sha'ark leans just far forwards enough that he can give me a sideways glare. "Did? He? Bite? You?"

"Yes, but I transmuted my tissue before-."

"Bah! Master blood mages commune with the essence of anything they eat! You think that just changing what your flesh is made of is enough?"

"What happens if they eat part of themselves?"

"What?"

"I was able to disengage by giving him an overwhelming desire to bite his own arm."

His hold on me grows very slightly weaker. "Eating part of another blood mage allows the one who does it to take a portion of their own strength. But eating.. his own flesh… That… Might have been enough. How?"

"Oh that's right, we haven't spoken for a while. I can use a connection made through the orange light to manipulate someone's desires. When he ingested the power from my rings, he made a connection which bypassed his defences."

"And you just made him want to eat his.. arm?"

"For someone with his particular skill set, wanting to eat parts of people isn't all that strange."

While I had Mr. Thornton as a construct lantern, I used his knowledge of magic to confirm my suspicion that it would be possible to back hack a spell which relied on your attacker having a part of your body as a focus. And since it turns out that it is, I've been trying to drain whatever residual energy could still be connecting me to the blood mage. In theory, it should have worked, and since I'm pretty sure I wasn't followed, either it did or something else is going on.

"Who did you eat to get that body?"

"That's not how it works for me."

"Mm." He removes the knife, stows it, and then releases his hold on my neck. "Shame."

I smile, swimming away from him a little before turning around. "No one searching for you?"

"No. They should be."

"I still think it was telepathic. I'm not sure why the rest of us weren't affected."

"Mass mind control? I thought that was rare."

"Mass mind control is. Most people can't handle directly puppetting more than one body. Miss Martian can do a few more, but that's not what that was."

"What do you mean?"

"You heard them. 'You shouldn't be here'. A strong telepath could project an idea into a lot of people who were prepared to think that sort of thing. Soldiers. But not civilians or out-of-area superheroes. But they could have made you think that of me, unless you were deliberately targetted for attack."

"Ahri'ahn isn't a telepath. No Atlantean is."

"It's been a long time. Telepaths can learn magic. And there are telepaths people can hire."

"No, we've researched this. There are no such thing as 'meta-Atlanteans'. I don't know if it's because we're all changed by magic or something else, but those unique changes some surface people have? We don't get those."

"Never?"

"No. Sometimes the spells which give us aquatic characteristics start going wrong, but that's its own thing. And that doesn't happen to sharks."

"Why not?"

"Basic blood magic. We all get fed a little blood from our parents. It makes sure that the spell stays the same every generation."

"Why don't the-?"

"Why don't the others use it? Because the spells are different. Ours didn't come from Ahri'ahn."

"How significant is that?"

"The trance thing he's doing doesn't work on us."

I frown. "You said that he did something to make you stupid when you confronted him."

"Yes, but I had to be right there." He grimaces. "Emotional manipulation isn't something traditional Atlantean magic is good at, but he's Ahri'ahn. He's the archmage."

"Are you sure it wasn't telepathy or drugs?"

"I'm not a master blood magician, but I've learned enough to become immune to ingested poison. And once I got out of the palace I could taste his magic."

"He didn't disguise it?"

"He probably did." He snorts. "Do you think he bothered to learn blood magic? Magic that uses animal spirits? I could taste his essence on my skin."

Maybe not, but I'd be surprised.

"Alright, plan of action. What have you got?"

"I want to find the High King and High Queen. Until then, we can't take any action against Ahri'ahn. And we can't even do that if someone can mind control my people."

"Highest priority: find the telepath." He nods. "Anyone unusual in the city?"

"Ahri'ahn's been sending fish-type Atlanteans here. We know roughly where most of them are, but it's almost impossible that it's one of them."

"'Almost'?"

"There are a few people from the surface who get citizenship. You met Ambassador Vallambrosa. He's not the only one."

"Are there any living here?"

"There weren't, but we've had a lot of people move here recently. A few might have come here."

"Do you keep detailed records?"

"No. There's a census, but the last one was three years ago and it's mostly for us sharks."

Telepath, shark city… One overlap.

"Does the name 'Karshon' mean anything to you?"

"No. What is it?"

"The supervillain 'Killer Shark'. A normal shark who got his brain augmented to full sophoncy. He looks enough like your kind that he might be able to fit in here, except… Last time I saw him, he'd been turned back into a normal shark."

"I've got no idea who that is, but biomancy is a common Atlantean profession. If someone wanted to sneak a telepath in here, sending him would make sense."

 

[Mr Zoat]

@Mr Zoat, what do the Amazons think of the Citizenry in both timelines? Paragon timeline only has Paul's reports, while Renegade timeline has several Amazons interact with them and has even Diana admit that they're savage who mostly won't change their ways

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Those that know of them think of them as something like Amazons who have gone horribly wrong.

 

[Darko]

"Ahri'ahn isn't a telepath. No Atlantean is."

"It's been a long time. Telepaths can learn magic

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Or maybe a magician could use magic to simulate telepathy.

Why don't the others use it? Because the spells are different. Ours didn't come from Ahri'ahn."

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Interesting.

Given their skill in blood magic, it's possible that they could have altered themselves.

"I want to find the High King and High Queen. Until then, we can't take any action against Ahri'ahn. And we can't even do that if someone can mind control my people."

"Highest priority: find the telepath

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I just had a thought.

Aquaman isn't around and he can control marine life.

Maybe Ahri'ahn is using him to control everyone.

 

[Ngamer11]

Those that know of them think of them as something like Amazons who have gone horribly wrong.

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It's got me wondering what radicals like Aresia from the DCAU would think of them.

 

[Darko]

It's got me wondering what radicals like Aresia from the DCAU would think of them.

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Probably consider them something worthy to be admired.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

7th May 2013
03:55 GMT -1

I don't react as the arm wraps around my neck and the knife pokes my jugular.

"Do I belong here?"

"Sha'ark, it's me."

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OL, you do realise how silly that sounds. Even if he recognises your voice (with a knife in your throat and the acoustics of being underwater,) who's to say you haven't been controlled anyway?

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

The knife doesn't move.

"If he tasted you, he can track you. Anywhere." Sha'ark leans just far forwards enough that he can give me a sideways glare. "Did? He? Bite? You?"

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Good, he's definitely being appropriately paranoid in a situation this bad.

"Yes, but I transmuted my tissue before-."

"Bah! Master blood mages commune with the essence of anything they eat! You think that just changing what your flesh is made of is enough?"

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So even a taste of his aura would be enough to work magic on, with enough skill. That makes the guy that much scarier...

"What happens if they eat part of themselves?"

"What?"

"I was able to disengage by giving him an overwhelming desire to bite his own arm."

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Sometimes, OL says such insane things, yet you know he's entirely serious about it.

His hold on me grows very slightly weaker. "Eating part of another blood mage allows the one who does it to take a portion of their own strength. But eating.. his own flesh… That… Might have been enough. How?"

"Oh that's right, we haven't spoken for a while. I can use a connection made through the orange light to manipulate someone's desires. When he ingested the power from my rings, he made a connection which bypassed his defences."

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So it's kind of like a data cache, and his own body was enough to blank out OL's aura. Eh, just nod and move on.

"And you just made him want to eat his.. arm?"

"For someone with his particular skill set, wanting to eat parts of people isn't all that strange."

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Just a matter of changing the target of his desire, I suppose. With a side order of overriding 'I don't want to injure myself' instincts.

While I had Mr. Thornton as a construct lantern, I used his knowledge of magic to confirm my suspicion that it would be possible to back hack a spell which relied on your attacker having a part of your body as a focus. And since it turns out that it is, I've been trying to drain whatever residual energy could still be connecting me to the blood mage. In theory, it should have worked, and since I'm pretty sure I wasn't followed, either it did or something else is going on.

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That feels like a possible thing, especially by using Satanus' mystical knowledge to his advantage. I expect that one Identity theft helped give him some useful insight into building his own form of magic use.

"Who did you eat to get that body?"

"That's not how it works for me."

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I mean, you didn't question him being a Manta a few minutes ago.

"Mm." He removes the knife, stows it, and then releases his hold on my neck. "Shame."

I smile, swimming away from him a little before turning around. "No one searching for you?"

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And no hard feelings about the knife thing, it's not like OL is concerned much by such minor lethal injuries.

"No. They should be."

"I still think it was telepathic. I'm not sure why the rest of us weren't affected."

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That does seem curious. A blanket effect would have tagged at least some of the good guys here. I doubt Stevie has much in the way of mystical mental resistance, and Lori already got whammied once before, according to her. Might want to watch her for signs of backsliding into that state.

"Mass mind control? I thought that was rare."

"Mass mind control is. Most people can't handle directly puppetting more than one body. Miss Martian can do a few more, but that's not what that was."

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On the other hand, you don't always need to assume direct control. Stuff like what OL does by manipulating desires is a lot more effective.

"What do you mean?"

"You heard them. 'You shouldn't be here'. A strong telepath could project an idea into a lot of people who were prepared to think that sort of thing. Soldiers. But not civilians or out-of-area superheroes. But they could have made you think that of me, unless you were deliberately targetted for attack."

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I expect Nanaue's warding scars would be strong enough to protect him. He definitely seems to think they would.

"Ahri'ahn isn't a telepath. No Atlantean is."

"It's been a long time. Telepaths can learn magic. And there are telepaths people can hire."

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And it can't be that hard to develop magic that emulates the effects of telepathy, can it? Especially if it's tailored to overcome people's natural magical resistance.

"No, we've researched this. There are no such thing as 'meta-Atlanteans'. I don't know if it's because we're all changed by magic or something else, but those unique changes some surface people have? We don't get those."

"Never?"

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Though some are exceptional in other ways. The royal line's psychic powers, for instance.

"No. Sometimes the spells which give us aquatic characteristics start going wrong, but that's its own thing. And that doesn't happen to sharks."

"Why not?"

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I assume biomancy is used to correct that sort of thing for most cases as infants. later onsets might be trickier.

"Basic blood magic. We all get fed a little blood from our parents. It makes sure that the spell stays the same every generation."

"Why don't the-?"

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That's a nasty way of doing it, but it seems pretty effective thus far.

"Why don't the others use it? Because the spells are different. Ours didn't come from Ahri'ahn."

"How significant is that?"

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There must be quite the backstory behind that. And I imagine Ahri'ahn might not like that detail either.

"The trance thing he's doing doesn't work on us."

I frown. "You said that he did something to make you stupid when you confronted him."

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To be fair, with a sufficiently subtle spell, you could stupefy anyone not heavily protected against that sort of thing..

"Yes, but I had to be right there." He grimaces. "Emotional manipulation isn't something traditional Atlantean magic is good at, but he's Ahri'ahn. He's the archmage."

"Are you sure it wasn't telepathy or drugs?"

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How would he know it's the former? As for the latter, I'd bet he'd sense any chemical difference in the water or food.

"I'm not a master blood magician, but I've learned enough to become immune to ingested poison. And once I got out of the palace I could taste his magic."

"He didn't disguise it?"

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Probably overconfident that no-one could sense it.

"He probably did." He snorts. "Do you think he bothered to learn blood magic? Magic that uses animal spirits? I could taste his essence on my skin."

Maybe not, but I'd be surprised.

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It depends on how much of a min-maxer he is. He might not bother to absolutely master methods other than his preferred, but he almost certainly knows of them.

"Alright, plan of action. What have you got?"

"I want to find the High King and High Queen. Until then, we can't take any action against Ahri'ahn. And we can't even do that if someone can mind control my people."

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Plus, extracting and deprogramming them, if needed, removes a lot of his legitimacy.

"Highest priority: find the telepath." He nods. "Anyone unusual in the city?"

"Ahri'ahn's been sending fish-type Atlanteans here. We know roughly where most of them are, but it's almost impossible that it's one of them."

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And how can you be that certain, then?

"'Almost'?"

"There are a few people from the surface who get citizenship. You met Ambassador Vallambrosa. He's not the only one."

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I expect most people who move to an Atlantean city undergo whatever modification they need to survive here... there's probably records of that somewhere anyway.

"Are there any living here?"

"There weren't, but we've had a lot of people move here recently. A few might have come here."

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And they've seen that the Sharks don't seem too concerned about headcounts or record-keeping of them.

"Do you keep detailed records?"

"No. There's a census, but the last one was three years ago and it's mostly for us sharks."

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Welp, not much use there, then.

Telepath, shark city… One overlap.

"Does the name 'Karshon' mean anything to you?"

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Huh, there's a deep cut. I seem to remember OL or an alternate encountering him at some point. <one quick search later> Ah, yes, back in 'Wait Time'.

"No. What is it?"

"The supervillain 'Killer Shark'. A normal shark who got his brain augmented to full sophoncy. He looks enough like your kind that he might be able to fit in here, except… Last time I saw him, he'd been turned back into a normal shark."

"I've got no idea who that is, but biomancy is a common Atlantean profession. If someone wanted to sneak a telepath in here, sending him would make sense."

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Especially if he retained his human intellect and telepathic abilities, which I think he did. Regaining limbs would probably appeal to him as a carrot for Ahri'ahn to dangle before him as a willing servant. Or simply mind-control him as a tool...

There's another possibility that @Darko thought of: Orin being used as a telepathic broadcaster. Either Ahri'ahn used magic to reconfigure or supercharge his telepathy, or he had an ally indulge in some mad science to manually modify him, ala the 'Justice' miniseries. If Ahri'ahn is working with the Light... That's a worrying possibility.

 

[Ngamer11]

There's another possibility that @Darko thought of: Orin being used as a telepathic broadcaster. Either Ahri'ahn used magic to reconfigure or supercharge his telepathy, or he had an ally indulge in some mad science to manually modify him, ala the 'Justice' miniseries. If Ahri'ahn is working with the Light... That's a worrying possibility.

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I think Ahri'ahn would only deign to work with the Light if he thought they'd be useful pawns.

 

[Darko]

I think Ahri'ahn would only deign to work with the Light if he thought they'd be useful pawns.

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Heck, the Light wants to rule the planet.

With Lex controlling the economy, they're fairly close to doing that.

Granted, they may want to use Ahri'ahn to disrupt things since the League is currently the ultimate authority and they don't like that.

 

[Ngamer11]

Heck, the Light wants to rule the planet.

With Lex controlling the economy, they're fairly close to doing that.

Granted, they may want to use Ahri'ahn to disrupt things since the League is currently the ultimate authority and they don't like that.

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I'm struggling to see how the Light could've communicated with Ahri'ahn during the Anti-Life crisis. Also, Lex doesn't control the economy, especially since Justice League medallions are now the most stable currency in the world.

 

[Darko]

I'm struggling to see how the Light could've communicated with Ahri'ahn during the Anti-Life crisis

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They do have Circe.

Also, Lex doesn't control the economy, especially since Justice League medallions are now the most stable currency in the world

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He is technically running things and working to reestablish civilization.

 

[Steelplaza]

Aquaman isn't around and he can control marine life.

Maybe Ahri'ahn is using him to control everyone.

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There's another possibility that @Darko thought of: Orin being used as a telepathic broadcaster. Either Ahri'ahn used magic to reconfigure or supercharge his telepathy, or he had an ally indulge in some mad science to manually modify him, ala the 'Justice' miniseries.

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I agree that Aquaman being plugged into some sort of magical ritual to let Arion control everyone would be very on-brand for a DC comic book plot. It even sort of makes sense if you squint from a "using the symbolism of the High King's authority over everyone combined with his telepathy" because magic loves that kind of symbolic stuff.

 

[Stsword]

I agree that Aquaman being plugged into some sort of magical ritual to let Arion control everyone would be very on-brand for a DC comic book plot. It even sort of makes sense if you squint from a "using the symbolism of the High King's authority over everyone combined with his telepathy" because magic loves that kind of symbolic stuff.

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It would be ironic though.

You see, Aquaman's marine telepathy is because the Atlantean royal family isn't "pure." Well, in New Earth comics anyway.

Aquaman's great etc etc grandmother was raped by her own cousin.

The child born of that rape was a blond scaly mutant with marine telepathy. A "fish-head" as Orm's underwater Deatheaters would call him.

So Arthur being blond and telepathic is him taking after his mutant great etc etc etc uncle Kordax.

Aquaman being born with blond hair was seen as the Curse of Kordax and was why he was left to die by exposure. Arthur, even as a baby though, was fine breathing above and below the water and survived as a feral child until being adopted by Dolphins as basically Mowgli underwater. With less dancing bears though.

 

[mastermenthe]

With less dancing bears though.

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Dancing manatees?

 

[Someguy Somewhere]

Huh....Stumbled across something odd with Modern DC having an attack of the retroactive narrative device. Some plot with Rip Hunter taking "Golden Age" character out of the OG timeline has lead to them now being released back into the universe. So now we have "new" vintage characters and events being inserted into comic book lore. This includes a Golden Age Red Lantern, complete with odd coloured daughter. He's a Russian Solider they tried to replicate GL's powers with.

Spoiler: Meet Vladimir Sokov

Anyway....never heard of him until today.....seems to be part of their work altering GL's history. Been around a year or two by the looks of it



Something Else on my mind after doing a lot of re-reading.

Waaay back at the start of the Time Trapper story line, With the Paul of the china timeline 'beats' the alternate Savage and 'first' comes to The Vanishing Point.
The way he describes the order of events was that before he was time trapper, a version of vandal savage was, and before that savage was, another version of savage that had failed in his time travel plot was The Time Trapper.....but he states that version of Savage got his time travel gear from Another Time Trapper...with THAT one being our Mathusian Friend Jevek Jos Jar.

So A Version of Jevek Jos Jar was a Time Trapper at one point, and then another makes the Effigy Corps. And they're brothers of Krona. I did Not make that connection to the Other Alternate Paul story until now.

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th May 2013
04:06 GMT -1

"Recognised, Miss Martian, B zero five, Zatanna Zatara, B zero nine."

M'gann comes through the construct zeta tube in mermartian form, while Zatanna appears in a bubble of air that has runes floating on the surface. Though I see that she's also got her enchantments going so that if the comfortable layer fails she won't get immediately crushed and drowned.

And they're both glaring at me.

M'gann puts her hand on her hips. **I thought that we were doing this together.**

**I was just following up on a lead. I didn't think this would become an active mission. Plus, it was an awkward time for the East Coast-.**

Zatanna flies over to me and pokes me in the chest with her right-.

I felt that on my skin. She just connected to my ring's environmental shield and used it to convey a poking sensation. Either that or she did something really clever without using her bloodline backwards talking ability-. Or she did it before arriving so that she could poke me once she got here.

I can't help smiling at her level of preparedness-.

She glares. "Stop smiling." Like a puppy. "I'm mad at you."

"Yes, but look at you. What you're doing now just brings home for me how far you've come."

Zatanna seems momentarily nonplussed, her poking hand raised slightly from my chest.

M'gann sort of glances at Zatanna for a moment, then shifts her form to that of a white-skinned sharkwoman. **Um.**

"While I'm aware that your shapeshifting has improved significantly since our first mission, I'm afraid that that's something you could do years ago."

Abandoned warehouses aren't really a thing in Atlantis. This warehouse isn't abandoned, it's just that all the things it was storing are now being used to construct new farms so there isn't much in it. Steven's been working here as a warehouse manager, a combination of security guard and clerk. A decent enough place to hide out, even if we're not sure that anyone's looking for us. All three of the Fearsome Fish-Eaters have joined us, and… Mr. Cottridge is checking out M'gann's flukes.

He grins a toothy shark-grin. "I like it just fine. You busy later?"

M'gann glances at him, then rolls her eyes. **I'm already dating someone.**

"Had to think about it though, didn't you?"

**No.** She turns back to me. **Orange Lantern, what's our objective?**

**Someone appears to be using wide-area telepathic suggestions on the locals. It didn't do anything to us, but I don't know if that's because we were the ones the suggestion was supposed to kill or something else.**

Zatanna frowns, glancing at Robert. "And it wasn't magic? This is Atlantis."

"N-."

King Sha'ark snorts. "Yes, this is Atlantis, not the surface. Everyone here knows some magic. Try that sort of thing with magic and someone would notice. One of our senior blood mages was affected, and other people's magic usually slides right off them. We're not used to telepathy."

Robert looks a little down. "No. What he said."

**So we're tracking a telepath? That should be easy if there's only one telepath in the city.**

**Miss Martian, there's a giant naked statue-.**

**I haven't forgotten! I've learned a lot since then, too.**

**To be clear, we don't know that there's just one telepath, just that there was one command which would only require one telepath.**

**Do you think there are six telepaths as strong as me?**

**That seems unlikely.**

**Then-** Her forms shifts once again, from sharkwoman to star conqueror. **-I'm fairly confident.**

**Okay. My first idea was that the rest of us would go somewhere open and let lots of people see us, then you could trace it once the broadcast happens.**

Her legs wiggle. **That works for me, but what if it's a machine of some kind?**

**Could you home in on it? Tell us where it is?**

**Probably. But I can't just attack it like I could if it was a person.**

**Not a problem. Anything I haven't thought of?**

**If it's implanted commands in everyone in the city I can't remove them all in one go. Depending on what they are, I might not even be able to remove them all when we beat… Whoever it is.** She monoptically frowns. **Do we know who it is?**

**My only guess so far is Karshon.**

**I thought he was just a regular shark again.**

**That's my most recent information. But he's been changed back before. Of course…** I frown. **There's really no reason why someone with the mutagen couldn't just dose another shark.** I nod to King Sha'ark. **Or a local. But whoever it is and whatever happened, we need to track them down.**

**Right.**

"Zatanna, I'd rather not hurt more people than we have to following Miss Martian's directions. Please focus on countermagic and decoys."

She nods.

"Cornwall, traps and barriers. Lock anyone who attacks us in place long enough for us to move on."

"Can do."

"Miss Lemaris, since you are by your own admission compromised, I'm going to have to ask you to stay here."

She doesn't look happy, but she nods.

"King Sha'ark-."

"Yes. King Sha'ark. This is my city."

"You don't have any telepaths or ways to track telepaths, and we don't know what the trigger is for whoever this is spotting us and turning your fellow Nanauvians after us. And until King Orin formally nullifies it, Atlantis is part of the Justice League's charter, which means that we're obliged to protect its people."

"Still."

I give him a courtly bow. "I apologise, your majesty, for my gross impropriety. How may these humble servants aid you?"

"Exactly what you just said. But you should ask me first."

"Alright. Any idea where the telepath might be hiding, so we know where to start?"

"If they've had the run of the place, the Royal Citadel would be a good place to start. And it would certainly get a response."

"Very well. In-."

Steven swishes his tail. "What about us?"

"Since you've got minimal training, have never worked with us and have no particular resistance to telepathy or magic, please stay here and guard Miss Martian."

M'gann makes eye contact with me as they nod.

**'Guard'.**

**Be nice, they're reformed.**

 

[Darko]

What you're doing not just brings

Click to shrink...

Remove "not".