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

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DrThoth said:
Is that concept (and word) your own invention or something from DC canon?
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They're based on what Desaad did to Mortalla, but the name is 'original'.
It reminds me a bit of the Blood Angels' use of what are basically high-tech vampire-esque coffins; I'm wondering if that was an inspiration.
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No.
On another note, the thought occurs to me that Mr Zoat may write/create another iteration of the SI who landed in a world where season 3 is included in canon (though I hear season 4 is on the horizon so it's probably best to wait). I asked before how things would have changed in WtR if season 3 was canon, with the answer that not much, but I think knowing the Light's true motivations, even if their practices don't represent the most optimal or intelligent way to realize their goals, could change a lot of how they deal with Paragon's capabilities and feats
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The nearest I've come to that is imagining how the post-WTR SI and Truggs would cope if they were forced to jump tracks.
(though given season 3's horrendous treatment of Luthor I'm fine if this doesn't happen).
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Batman burned the youth team to win a social media pole. Lex has nothing to complain about.
 
Mr Zoat said:
Scott checks both directions, his multi-cube set to a sensor-disrupting configuration.
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Ah, the second-most useful tool in a New God's equipment belt.

"You bet he was. I doubt he was expecting you to turn up, but this whole set-up was definitely intended to lure Stormwatch away from Earth." He glances back at me. "How are you holding up?"

"I'll have nightmares for weeks. And I'll need Scott Sixteen to check the containment; I probably wrecked-"
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Focus, Renegade. No point getting away if you drop an Emo-bomb on everyone.

Sunset frantically shields herself with magic as the station is destroyed around her, her weak defence lasting just long enough that she knows that she'll die before it breaks and her lungs collapse. She shouldn't have come here.

Hinon's words ring true and the Dog Soldiers burst through the walls, their blasters scything down the few who dared dream-.
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Fascinating imagery... Goes to show you who he worries about.

"Whoowph." Freedom from Limitations.

I pick myself off the floor as Scott holds his Mother Box up to me. I feel… Better…

"Ping."
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"Indeed. You are a lifesaver."

"How exactly did the other me contain it?"

"'Exactly'? I don't know. He said that he made a pearl from my soul to surround it. I felt better after reaffirming each part of the emotional spectrum. Would you mind helping?"

"I'll do a lot of things to stop that leaking out again."
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Yeah, no-one wants that little treat running loose in anyone''s soul.

I hug him, pulling him tightly into me. Scott takes a moment, then grips with his left arm so he can pat me on the back with his right.

"You know, for some reason, I never get this from Orion."
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He's much too full of anger for that...

"Or Kalibak. You should visit. I can't imagine not having Lynne with me, and I owe that to you and Barda."

"Alright. After we deal with Grayven the Anti-Hugger. Ah. You gunna let me go..?"

"Yes." I release him. "But I may need to grab you again later."
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Mister Miracle, giver of Freedom Hugs!

"Alright." He peaks out of cover again, then leaps...
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"Alright." He peeks out of cover again, then leaps...

I know that I wasn't entirely coherent last time this happened, but I remember feeling really weak. This time… I didn't feel any physical weakness when I used the Anti-Life fragment against Grayven and the tamaranian. Psychologically, yes, it was horrible… Darkseid certainly wasn't weak, for all the Anti-Life fragments he acquainted himself with. I wonder what was different this time?
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It's like weaponised Depression. You just don't feel like you have the energy to do anything... It's just so much easier to lay there...

Scott drops from the ceiling, twisting as he does so to land lightly on his feet. "One squad of guards who won't care whether we walk past them or not."

"Ah."

"Because I dosed them with something that inhibits their initiative."
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Impressive skill. Human ninjas would love to learn that shit from him, I bet.

"Bodies would be a giveaway. Your alter ego would probably feel it if a soldier sworn to him died."
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Eh, if only as a loss of a useful tool, I suppose.

I nod. "True. I don't suppose they're coherent enough to know where Barda is being held?"

"No. I don't even know that she's on this ship." He holds out his Mother Box and waves her around for a moment.

"Ping."
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"Yes, I know you're not a tricorder. Honestly, should never have let you watch that show..."

I should be thinking, but I can barely focus well enough to trudge after Scott. Frustrating as I'm sure this weakness would be if I could focus well enough to get properly angry, it's.. interesting. Grayven 50 fled rather than confront the Anti-Life, and I'm.. if not exactly skipping like a summer lamb, then at least functional.
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Too bad G-50 didn't cop the full force of it. I doubt he'd be much for resisting anything them.

"What do we do after this?"
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The same thing we do every night, Pinky!

He stop, glancing back at me. "You do remember what I'm the god of, right?"

"Do you remember what I'm god of?"

"Ah. Actually, no. I don't think anyone ever told me."

Oh. "Conquest."
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Honestly, you'd think he'd have picked up on that, with the whole 'Take Over The World' Pantomime last year.

"So that's it. No one will every try out other systems of government again. I'm not just 'I'm free now', I'm 'I'm becoming free'. I'm recognising the value of freedom. I can live with a degree of tyranny as long as people can see it for what it is and fight against it. If Grayven takes over, that's it. No more systems, no more noble experiments, just Grayven, stamped on the face of the human race, forever."
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He has a point, you know. </Morgan Freeman>

"Heh. Tell you what: once I become an absolute autocrat of somewhere I'll invite you over and see if you can find any actual faults in the system I create."

"And if I do, you'll give it up?"

"No, I'll fix them. I want my people happy-. Well. Generally satisfied and happy at times. An external hostile viewpoint would be useful in identifying problems."
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At least he'd be a decent ruler. He's not the sort to want blind obedience...

"Scott, you found him for me."

"Barda." He holds up his hands in a placatory gesture. "He's not the Grayven from this universe."

"I know. And?"
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So, she wants to punch him on principle.

"We might need him." She appears sceptical. "And he's carrying an Anti-Life fragment. We don't know what happens to those when the one carrying them dies."

2nd Best Barda growls under her breath, then glances back through the wall rubble as a ringless Rayner emerges.
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This ain't over, I'm guessing. She will be having words later.

I nod to him. "Rayner. If you're injured, I've got a purple healing ray."

He nods. "Yeah. Thanks." I remove one from subspace and toss it to him. He catches it, examines it for a moment and then plays it over his body. "So. What's our next step?"
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Get off this ship, find out what happened to those aboard the Watchtower, and then kick some New God ass.

Seriously, if Grayven-50 doesn't come out of this beaten to a pulp and his armies thrown down around his ears, I will be disappointed...

Godspeech, courtesy of Mister Miracle:
Hinon's words ring true and the Dog Soldiers burst through the walls, their blasters scything down the few who dared dream-.

"Whoowph." Freedom from Limitations.
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"No, because I recognise that threats to freedom don't just come from governments." Break the Wheel.
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Huh... so does preventing rebellion through influencing people's opinion to like you, and letting them question your government, despite having supreme power constitute as a lack of freedom? Is it still a lack of freedom if you're not a surveillance state?
I don't think there's much of a difference between that and the US government, at least to the layman.
 
Mquz said:
Huh... so does preventing rebellion through influencing people's opinion to like you, and letting them question your government, despite having supreme power constitute as a lack of freedom? Is it still a lack of freedom if you're not a surveillance state?
I don't think there's much of a difference between that and the US government, at least to the layman.
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Or the British government, for that matter.
 
Despite the modern usage, at its most fundamental level a tyrant is merely someone who seized power through less than legal means. If they're basically immortal, thus avoiding the headaches of succession, and benevolent . . . Does it really matter if you trim the fat and replace hundreds of different methods of ruling with a single method that works? Even if you're using literal god power to reinforce it?

A dictatorship need not be inherently bad.
 
Hey Zoat, I know you're using a modified Anti-life equation. Is the only difference that Self=Null instead of Self=Darkseid? And what are the equivalent changes in the Life equation?
 
ForeverShogo said:
Despite the modern usage, at its most fundamental level a tyrant is merely someone who seized power through less than legal means. If they're basically immortal, thus avoiding the headaches of succession, and benevolent . . . Does it really matter if you trim the fat and replace hundreds of different methods of ruling with a single method that works? Even if you're using literal god power to reinforce it?

A dictatorship need not be inherently bad.
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*points to Highfather's rule over New Genesis*
 
Mr Zoat said:
No. It's supposed to be 'Desaad' but sometimes I forget.
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If that's the decision you're making, that's up to you, but last time we had this conversation (back on SV) you linked me to a comic panel that rendered it DeSaad.

Navi-Hank said:
Hey Zoat, I know you're using a modified Anti-life equation. Is the only difference that Self=Null instead of Self=Darkseid? And what are the equivalent changes in the Life equation?
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Darkseid strove to solve the anti-life equation. Once he had a solution, he was able to derive an expression of it that included himself and his divine nature. "Life=Pain" is another such consequence of the theorem of anti-life -- not directly part of its most fundamental statement, but a provable corollary.
 
Mquz said:
Huh... so does preventing rebellion through influencing people's opinion to like you, and letting them question your government, despite having supreme power constitute as a lack of freedom? Is it still a lack of freedom if you're not a surveillance state?
I don't think there's much of a difference between that and the US government, at least to the layman.
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nick012000 said:
Or the British government, for that matter.
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One could very well argue that living under such governments gives you more freedom than most due to the stability and safety they grant, at least in theory and once did for most people in reality. After all freedom is over rated if other people are free to screw you over, rob you blind, badly injure or even kill you.
 
Mr Zoat said:
"No, because I recognise that threats to freedom don't just come from governments." Break the Wheel.
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"Nice job breaking it, Scott. Now civilization has to walk everywhere."

Mr Zoat said:
"So. What's our next step?"
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CONFIRM BEST WAIFU SUNNY BUN IS ALIVE!!! I'm so far at the edge of my seat here I'm getting a wedgie so bad I can taste it!

Chojin Patriarch said:
Focus, Renegade. No point getting away if you drop an Emo-bomb on everyone.
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Emo-Bomb! Oh that's a good one. Now I can't stop imagining underneath his tough stony exterior, Darkseid secretly listens to Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance.
 
So, correct me if I am wrong.

Reneged-SI-16's parallel is on Earth-50 (opposite of Earth 12). Both want to take over Earth, 50 just is being unnecessarily violent about it.
Paragon-SI-16's parallel must then be the one we saw on Earth-12. Where they both want to make the world better using technology, just 12 can not (currently) use his ring so he has to do things the hard way.

Or am I just overthinking things again?
 
Cuchulin said:
One could very well argue that living under such governments gives you more freedom than most due to the stability and safety they grant, at least in theory and once did for most people in reality. After all freedom is over rated if other people are free to screw you over, rob you blind, badly injure or even kill you.
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............. I came very, very close to lecturing on politcal theory.


After the first page, I remebered the rules.



Shit.
 
Conqueror's Moon (part 22)
  • Threadmarks
    • 27th December 2004
    22:12 GMT -5

    I frown. "Rayner, can you feel your ring?"

    "N-."

    "Oh, and is that motley of yours armoured?"

    "No. I can't feel it and it's not armoured. I don't think I could get any armour on Earth that would stop a gordanian blaster."

    Sadly, the closest New Gods have to a 'Jesus Christ' is standing next to me and wearing red, yellow and green and fiddling with his multi-cube. But how is this man still alive?

    "Yes, if only you had a device which allowed you to travel to other worlds in search of better equipment. Rayner, I don't care if you want to be a prat when it's just your life at risk, but you're on a team with my brother and I'm not happy about you imperilling him. Here."

    A basic plasmic shield generator attaches itself to his waist.

    "You know, Kara tried to tell me you were faking the whole 'alien warlord jerk' thing, but you really weren't, were you? You're an alien, a warlord and a jerk."

    "Yes, healing you and upgrading your equipment. What a jerk. Scott?"

    "I think I got him." He nods to himself. "The other Grayven is preventing me from directly tracking his location, but this is an Apokoliptian ship. It's designed to allow the New God commanding it to feel the whole thing."

    I nod. "And you and your Mother Box can track it back?"

    "… No. But I can set up a boom tube that can take us right to him, wherever he is."

    Barda pats the head of her mega rod against her left palm. "How close?"

    "About ten feet away."

    Hm. "We'll be surrounded, reinforcements will be upon us sooner rather than later and he can just boom tube away again."

    "No, I can stop that. Not.. usually my thing, but 'freedom' includes the freedom to take the consequences. He could run on foot, but I don't think he will."

    No, me neither. I raise my hands slightly, examining my rings. If we go through Rayner will die. Without a ring, he's basically useless even as a human shield. "Rayner, how good are you at focusing your fear-"

    Lantern Grayven?

    "-or your avarice?"

    "'Huh' and 'don't know'." He follows my gaze. "Wait. Do you-?"

    "You can't fight like you are."

    "Hang on." Scott fiddles with the multi-cube a little more. "Oan technology should stand out. It's the only major thing around here that isn't designed to conduct God Speech."

    Rayner and I watch him for a moment while Barda starts pacing. A moment later his proddings become less sure.

    "Which.. also means that there's nothing to connect to it."

    I shake my head. "Rayner, can you do remote ring control?"

    "Yeah, close up. Not from the other end of a huge starship."

    I sigh faintly and then step towards him, laying my hands on his shoulders. He looks a little puzzled, particularly when I make a point of rubbing them.

    "Er… You wanna tell me-?"

    "Scott, is him calling the ring enough for you to trace it?"

    "Maybe. It might let Grayven know we're here, but since we're going to be moving anyway, I guess that doesn't matter."

    "I'll boost your calling ability. On two?"

    He frowns faintly, then nods. "One, two."

    Stalwart Retainer's Determination.

    "Oh Whaw. Ring, get over here!"

    Rayner gestures towards one of the walls with his right hand.

    "Scott?"

    "Not.. sure. I think the ring's in the same place Grayven is."

    I nod. "Makes sense. Can he use it himself, or have someone else use it? Maybe.. by cloning Rayner's skin to make a glove?"

    "Why are you asking me about the interactions between New Gods and power rings?" He points at my hands. "I'd have thought that you'd be the expert."

    "Jack of all trades, I'm afraid. Haven't really studied the interaction in any detail. Last time someone took one of my rings I stabbed them until they gave it back."

    "Hm. Well, I expect that the Guardians of the Universe would give it better security than that, but there's still a cachet in wearing one. Particularly to species from Vega."

    "Alright." I nod. "Rayner, get your ring back as fast as you can. Barda-."

    "Don't tell me what to do."

    "I will attack targets of opportunity. You hang back and keep an eye on everything while your good lady wife does as she feels appropriate. All s-?"

    There's a quiet puff sound as an object-. As Rayner's ring punches through a wall and lands on his finger.

    I release his shoulders as construct armour flows over his body. "Good enough?"

    "Ask the other Grayven. Watch Scott's back?"

    He nods. Right then. Sword of the Fallen as a finisher, daiklave, fusion cannon as a chaff dispenser. Cast Down the Rival.

    Barda takes position as close to me as she can stomach and then-

    Boom!

    -the tube opens and I'm charging through. Grayven's on a command dais ahead of us and to the left-

    I take a blaster shot to the left shoulder as one of the more on-the-ball gordanians takes a shot. My return shot incinerates him and the three standing next to him.

    -while next to him stands.. Bernadeth? What's she doing-?

    Grayven's eyes glow for a moment, then a beam of red energy zigzags through the air. I counter by dumping a lump of steel directly into its path. The steel is vaporised when the omega beam hits it, the blast exploding across the room with enough force that I need to reinforce my armour to avoid being knocked back. Barda throws her mega-rod at Bernadeth, who darts aside and draws a short sword. Most of the explosion passed, I leap at my alter ego, daiklave slashing at his eyes. He activates his armour, causing it to expand to cover his entire body in solid metal plates, then steps forward, using the thick armour of his left forearm to expertly turn my blade aside.

    I raise my gun to shoot him in the face as he fires his omega beams again.
     
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