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

[Mr Zoat]

Correction: 'actively threatens someone'

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

 

[Handlewithcare]

Uhm...didn't Truggs and Cadabra remember him? Orangest Night and all that?

Also Sivana is fun.

Oh: Rick and Morty meet Sivana crossover idea!

 

[AidanMorgan]

No, Orangest Night was Larfleeze, it's just the presence of any Orange Lantern made Kadabra shit himself.

 

[Sockmonkey]

But unlike Earth no one in the region where THAT incident occurred would dare make fun of him.

Click to shrink...

IIRC they did rag on him a little.

 

[CTrees]

Aw, OL, you jinxed it... DC Universe timelines are a twisted spaghetti of alternate futures, eras that could never be, and the timey-wimey slush of paradoxes holding it all together...

Click to shrink...

It may well be that the Sheeda exploit hypertime instead of normal time travel, in which case there's no hope of preventing them. Because it wouldn't be DC if there wasn't an extra bullshit version of super time travel.

 

[Mquz]

Wait, then...
If they use hyper time, their goal might be to remove all stagnation from the timeline. Basically, whenever a culture begins to stagnate, they invade with their mind killers. And if people are weak enough to give in to despair, it's their fault for being weak. A new, stronger, culture eventually rises. Their plan would then be to ensure that they are never created and that there is never any long-term world-wide cultural stagnation in any timeline.

 

[Stsword]

It may well be that the Sheeda exploit hypertime instead of normal time travel, in which case there's no hope of preventing them. Because it wouldn't be DC if there wasn't an extra bullshit version of super time travel.

Click to shrink...

There's no actual difference there with how hypertime works.

Hypertime is not static, even as new hypertime realities branch off, hypertime realities also merge back together when the differences no longer matter.

So not only does DC have a multiple choice future, it has a multiple choice past.

The reality where Superman felt like Chinese for lunch one Tuesday instead of Italian only exists as long as there's a difference, when that is no longer the case they flow back together.

As far in the future as the Sheeda are, Paul's transhuman Empire, Starfire's Star Trek Communism in SPACE...ACE...ACE, and Supergirl's Christian Utopia could all be equally valid pasts for them.

The fact that invalidates the entire shtick of Destiny of the Endless? Well as far as I can tell most if not all DC writers not named Gaiman just don't give a shit, even if they're pretending Vertigo and New Earth where the same continuity.

 

[Mquz]

There's no actual difference there with how hypertime works.

Hypertime is not static, even as new hypertime realities branch off, hypertime realities also merge back together when the differences no longer matter.

So not only does DC have a multiple choice future, it has a multiple choice past.

The reality where Superman felt like Chinese for lunch one Tuesday instead of Italian only exists as long as there's a difference, when that is no longer the case they flow back together.

As far in the future as the Sheeda are, Paul's transhuman Empire, Starfire's Star Trek Communism in SPACE...ACE...ACE, and Supergirl's Christian Utopia could all be equally valid pasts for them.

The fact that invalidates the entire shtick of Destiny of the Endless? Well as far as I can tell most if not all DC writers not named Gaiman just don't give a shit, even if they're pretending Vertigo and New Earth where the same continuity.

Click to shrink...

Destiny's actual shtick could be to keep track of the timeline going on right now - like the timelines themselves, his book has many possible futures and many possible pasts, and possibly even many possible presents - it's a 4-dimensional artifact, and the page people see when they look at it, if they look at it, is a 2-d slice of a 3-d slice of a 4-d image. The book is basically the result of turning a 5-d universe into a book filled with 4-d pages and a 5th dimension that can be flipped through.

As for the Sheeda, this also goes with my idea mentioned above - since all futures result in the Sheeda, they may be trying to get rid of all the futures in which they end up as they are, so that they fail to exist in all possible futures. Their time travel can go through hyperspace, and all original futures end up resulting in themselves, so they try to rewrite those futures into ones where they don't exist and the original futures get cut off into being impossible in any timeline that results in the Sheeda.

Or maybe by doing so, they extend the time after which they come into being - creating more materials by virtue of having more time to gather materials in.

 

[Siskulous]

IIRC they did rag on him a little.

Click to shrink...

In the immediate aftermath, sure. But now? Post fall-of-Citadel?

 

[LostPath]

Its head tilts slightly. "Do you want to know how the mighty star-spanning Empire of Earth falls? How the war-fleets of the drug-ascendant god-kings stretched forth their hands from wretched wastelands of Old Terra and slowly strangled the spirit of humanity to assuage their vainglorious lusts?"

Click to shrink...

Now it's just quoting Dune fanfiction.

 

[Imperator Pax]

This guy doesn't have inkling about patient consent, does he?
Or, you know, hear me out, he's a Supervillain and he just doesn't give a shit.

Click to shrink...

Sivana: "IRB what that?"

 

[Maxx Crowley]

Been going through some of my old collection today...because the heavens took a mighty dump and there is white shit everywhere in attention to frigid temps and I can't help but think, that with there being an OL in the Marvel universe (Maybe more than one) and he still has the goal of enhancing baseline humans. Then man, does he need to spend some time in New York, and talk to dear ol' Spider-man.

I mean you have the Goblin formula. Originally jacking strength up to the 9 ton range, in addition to all the other physical enhancements like agility and such. A healing factor on top of that. May or may not increase intelligence.

You have the Scorpion treatment. Which brought Gargan up to twice and strong as Parker, 20 tons originally, with even higher grip strength, agility to match Parker, the adhesive factor, and a (rarely) used "Scorpion" sense that was supposed to be just like Parker's spider sense.

You have the Rhino treatment. Which beyond the nigh-indestructible suit granted increased durability, strength and speed. Somewhere between 20-30 tons originally and then jacked up to 75 tons (The Thing strength) with the Leader's gamma treatments.

To say nothing about The Shocker's far more impressive tech than I think anyone gives him credit for.

Like...the amount of Meta-human formulas developed around Spider-man are almost mind boggling.

 

[Cuchulin]

Been going through some of my old collection today...because the heavens took a mighty dump and there is white shit everywhere in attention to frigid temps and I can't help but think, that with there being an OL in the Marvel universe (Maybe more than one) and he still has the goal of enhancing baseline humans. Then man, does he need to spend some time in New York, and talk to dear ol' Spider-man.

I mean you have the Goblin formula. Originally jacking strength up to the 9 ton range, in addition to all the other physical enhancements like agility and such. A healing factor on top of that. May or may not increase intelligence.

You have the Scorpion treatment. Which brought Gargan up to twice and strong as Parker, 20 tons originally, with even higher grip strength, agility to match Parker, the adhesive factor, and a (rarely) used "Scorpion" sense that was supposed to be just like Parker's spider sense.

You have the Rhino treatment. Which beyond the nigh-indestructible suit granted increased durability, strength and speed. Somewhere between 20-30 tons originally and then jacked up to 75 tons (The Thing strength) with the Leader's gamma treatments.

To say nothing about The Shocker's far more impressive tech than I think anyone gives him credit for.

Like...the amount of Meta-human formulas developed around Spider-man are almost mind boggling.

Click to shrink...

Yet people like the Avengers or the FF don't really consider them to be big threats because they are almost always beaten by a "Street Level" hero.

 

[Someguy Somewhere]

To say nothing about The Shocker's far more impressive tech than I think anyone gives him credit for.

Click to shrink...

Herman Schult.

While not as impressive as the crumbler gauntlets, he'd be up there with Captain Cold for 'oh yeah I'll just invent this while in jail with no higher education' levels of oddball tech development. Highly effective with plenty of commercial use in demolition work. And he's actually one of the few Spider-man villains that was in it for the money rather then revenge or ego.

Comics wise last I heard of him he was irritating the Ms Marvel over in 'Jersey these days.

 

[Maxx Crowley]

Yet people like the Avengers or the FF don't really consider them to be big threats because they are almost always beaten by a "Street Level" hero.

Click to shrink...

I'm not sure what the opinions of a bunch of C and D-Listers that can't hold their own books matter.

Ok, to be serious.

I believe Dark Reign was all about what kind of threat Osborn could be if he wasn't so laser focused on Parker.

Scorpion is a bit too stupid to really live up to his potential. Mostly a henchman.

Rhino is in the same boat, but being able to kick the shit out of the Thing, and throw down with the Hulk (for a time) ups him a bit. I recall when the Leader took mental control over his body, he battled the Hulk with it very, very well.

Shocker doesn't want that kind of attention anyway, and likes that some of the "Bigger" hero groups think he's a joke. Then he gets pissed and whamps the Sinister six (Well five as I guess he defected) collective asses. I know he's spent time not wanting to get on the Punisher's radar. Not...entirely sure why as Shocker could turn Frank into bloody jello easily enough.

Beyond that, any disrespect thrown Paker's way by the Avengers is just the writers trying to justify why he isn't on the team ("You young fool!" I recall a lot of in their first team up) because Spider-man's massive popularity means he's waaay too big for the Avengers and he'd just eat the book up. Plus, he flat out outmatches a huge chunk of the Avengers roster, and deals with team threats that would give them some issue all by himself.

The FF on the other hand are basically Parker's super hero family. Yeah, "Parker must stay miserable and a loser" writers tend to forget that. The Torch is basically his best super hero friend, he's gotten the Thing to back him up several times with a simple phone call, and got Reed to help him with his Venom problem more than once...which writers promptly forget.

While not as impressive as the crumbler gauntlets, he'd be up there with Captain Cold for 'oh yeah I'll just invent this while in jail with no higher education' levels of oddball tech development. Highly effective with plenty of commercial use in demolition work. And he's actually one of the few Spider-man villains that was in it for the money rather then revenge or ego.

Click to shrink...

Plus his modifications to his armor that when he got the idea to insert "contact plates", which trigger sharp bursts of pressure on detecting impact. This deflects physical strikes, makes him very difficult to get a grip on, and makes his physical attacks extra powerful due to trip-hammer vibration.

Which would be highly valuable for police/riot/prison guard work.

 

[gattsuru]

It may well be that the Sheeda exploit hypertime instead of normal time travel, in which case there's no hope of preventing them. Because it wouldn't be DC if there wasn't an extra bullshit version of super time travel.

Click to shrink...

While I'd be very surprised if Zoat used it, the Sheeda were once tied to Zachary Zor in Seven Soldiers of Victory, who had the Time Tailor schtick and then had some Weird Metatexual Powers. They could have extra bullshit on-off super time travel.

 

[Gforce1000]

Not...entirely sure why as Shocker could turn Frank into bloody jello easily enough.

Click to shrink...

The Punisher's main weapon is Batman-grade plot armor derived from the sort of popularity that comes from appealing to all the twisted teenage violent revenge fantasies most superheros can't indulge, and Herman's well aware of that. He knows he'd only be able to beat the Punisher temporarily before the loony got back up and just tried again with some plot device "clever trap" that removes all of his defenses.

When Spidey does that it's annoying. When Punisher does it it's lethal and that's way more of a pain in the ass.

 

[bobsimmo]

Or the rather fascinating monoculture that we see the entirety of humanity stick to, which is just a delightful gigantic, flashing-red warning sign that a culture has something unpleasant going on behind the scenes to maintain it.

Click to shrink...

the brain slugs and the collective PTSD of the Eugenics wars/WW3

 

[Handlewithcare]

the brain slugs and the collective PTSD of the Eugenics wars/WW3

Click to shrink...

Nope, it's Control, according to the books.

 

[Ganurath]

This whole chapter is a fucking trip

Click to shrink...

Wrong thread.

 

[Mr Zoat]

18th February
12:03 GMT -6

There's a small circular area in the Oregon High Desert where an open-walled laboratory appears to have been deposited. Sivanadroids move to and fro, setting up equipment and erecting force field emitters to keep out the dust and… Unwanted superheroes, presumably.

I transitioned Miss Ryan back into town without us. I'm letting Doctor Sivana take the lead, and Beryl is flying alongside me using her kinetic belt. She's also been shooting me irate glares.

"What is-?"

"How long have you been working with the insane mass murderer Thaddeus Sivana?"

"'Working with' is putting it a little strongly. And I'm not convinced that he's legally insane."

"So how would you put it?"

"I've been trying to keep an extremely dangerous weapon pointed at the people who've exterminated worldwide civilisation at least once."

"Five times." Beryl's head jerks in the direction of Dr Sivana's rocket plane. "I've been using some of my own suspendium reserves to track their temporal shifts. They've ravaged worldwide Earth civilisation on five separate occasions, about five hundred years apart at their end. And while I like 'extremely dangerous' I'm really not fond of being described as a 'weapon'."

"Doctor, you've freely admitted to me that your social skills aren't very good. Your reactions to human society are sufficiently atypical that I feel that -as a metaphor- describing you as someone who can best be handled by treating them as an explosive with 'This End Towards Enemy' printed on it is fairly reasonable."

"Ah, so you were referring to your inability to fully grasp my mindset, rather than describing me as a tool to be wielded."

"There's a degree of overlap, but that was my principal intent. I've no desire to offend you so much that you select me as your next target once the sheeda are dealt with."

"Oh, there's very little chance of me doing that. Have you ever heard of a man called 'The Spider'?"

"I have. He was a racketeer, thief and terrorist. And then he vanished, and hopefully he's dead."

"He also worked for British intelligence."

"Don't bloody remind me. I don't know what they were thinking."

"A few years ago I managed to get hold of the records of an associate of his, a man named Professor Pelham. He wrote that The Spider told him that he found other criminals to be far more challenging foes than the police, as they operated under fewer restrictions on their methodology. I didn't think much of it at the time-"

Beryl and I land just outside of the laboratory area as Dr Sivana brings his plane in to land and a couple of Sivanadroids remove a containment unit from inside the nose cone.

"-but having decided to pit myself against the sheeda, I can't help but wonder if he was on to something." A sivanadroid reaches up with telescopic arms and lifts him out of the cockpit, then deposits him on the ground and returns to its other work. "The Batson boy represented a static obstacle; resilient but disinclined to innovation. But the sheeda, all of the genius and malice of a desperate and corrupt civilisation!" One of the sivanadroids plugs the containment cylinder into what looks like a large fish tank, and a moment later the Mind Destroyer is visible within its confines as Dr Sivana strides over to stand before it, rubbing his hands as he does so. "I don't mind telling you that I'm positively giddy with excitement!"

"I'm glad to hear it."

"You needn't worry… Squire, wasn't it?" Dr Sivana turns his head to look at her, and his smile… Well, it comes a little short as far as reassurance goes, but it's an improvement on what he used to do and he actually noticed that an effort would be appropriate. "Orange Lantern's intentions are quite noble. He has been trying to encourage me in the direction of reform."

"You're not someone like Leonard Snart, a thief with a rough childhood. You had every opportunity not to be a monster and you threw it away."

"Not 'every opportunity'." He turns back to the tank and starts pressing buttons on the control panel. "Though I suppose that I did have more than him. And since I suspect that you're about to mention it-" He glances my way. "-not that I'm picking up on that as a result of an improvement in my understanding of social conventions, but you can only be heroically lambasted so many times before you pick up how it goes, no, I don't feel bad about any of the people I killed. No, most of them hadn't done anything in particular to offend me, they were just sort of there. I don't feel bad now and I suspect that even if I became as 'reformed' as I can, I still wouldn't feel bad."

"And you're only doing this because you find it fun."

"And they tried to kill me and my family. The fact that I do actually care for a few people means that Orange Lantern was probably correct in pronouncing me sane. I'm just very nasty."

"Have you been able to extract its orders?"

"Oh, yes. I was just going through its records."

I wait for a moment, but he doesn't say anything else.

"And?"

"The people they were attacking were best-fits for their priority targets. But those targets aren't particularly well defined. The sheeda queen appears to believe that a group of seven soldiers were the greatest threat to her efforts to harrow our civilisation. Unfortunately, she didn't know anything else about them, so the Mind Destroyers are programmed to attack groups of seven people. Her ex-husband is also on the target list. Apparently, he fled back in time after being deposed-."

"Melmoth, yes. He kidnapped a lot of puritans and used them to found a colony in a nearby parallel universe. They deposed him, but I'm not sure what happened after that."

"They were supposed to look for any trace of him as well. That appears to be how they ended up here." He strokes his chin. "Once I work out how to get write access, I should be able to turn these things into long-range sheeda detectors. Which will certainly come in use if this 'Melmoth' is active on Earth to any degree."

"He might be able to give us all sorts of information."

"He led several Harrowings himself."

"And you have a moral objection?"

"No, but I've committed myself to ending the sheeda, not changing which of them is in charge. Having them swap places doesn't make any sense." He frowns. "To me. Does it make sense to you? I sometimes miss things."

"I don't know." She glares pointedly at me. "How optimistic are we feeling?"

"I was planning on branding him and then placing him in Belle Reve for the rest of his life, however long that might be. In the unlikely event that he has reformed, I might reconsider."

Dr Sivana frowns faintly, then shakes his head. "No, I definitely think I'm missing something."

"My aim is to prevent the Earth being harrowed. I don't much care about the sheeda in and of themselves. In the unlikely event that Melmoth thinks he can make them reform I'll probably let him try. For much the same reason that I'm willing to work with you."

"Ah! Rationally pursuing your objectives, even at a dreadful cost to others! That's an ideology I understand!"

Beryl bows her head and shakes it.

"Though naturally I won't get in the way of your efforts against them."

"Glad to hear it! Now, this thing wasn't able to track down Melmoth, but according to its memories there was definite evidence that he was here at some point. Without any real direction they were just latching on to people who matched their target criteria to at least the lowest level and talking them to death. It appears that they thought that he might come back at some point, though their evidence supporting that belief appears to be somewhat weak."

"What evidence is that?"

"The butterflies, naturally."

 

[TheLunarwolf]

Beryl is... having a moment, and hour and probably day.

Yeah, she is having a Day.

 

[Massgamer]

"And they tried to kill me and my family. The fact that I do actually care for a few people means that Orange Lantern was probably correct in pronouncing me sane. I'm just very nasty."

Click to shrink...

For all that he is a super scary old man I can at least respect that he loves his family and is aware of his limits.

 

[Handlewithcare]

Ah, the joys of mismatching utility functions.

I missed the clashes of OLs pragmatism with other heroes more idealistic outlook.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

There's a small circular area in the Oregon High Desert where an open-walled laboratory appears to have been deposited. Sivanadroids moves to and fro, setting up equipment and erecting force field emitters to keep out the dust and… Unwanted superheroes, presumably.

I transitioned Miss Ryan back into town without us. I'm letting Doctor Sivana take the lead, and Berly is flying alongside me using her kinetic belt. She's also been shooting me irate glares.

Click to shrink...

Ah, the inevitable instant laboratory. Classic super-scientist logic.
Correction: 'and Beryl is'

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

"What is-?"

"How long have you been working with the insane mass murderer Thaddeus Sivana?"

"'Working with' is putting it a little strongly. And I'm not convinced that he's legally insane."

Click to shrink...

If he is insane, he's at least productively insane.

"So how would you put it?"

"I've been trying to keep an extremely dangerous weapon pointed at the people who've exterminated worldwide civilisation at least once."

"Five times." Beryl's head jerks in the direction of Dr Sivana's rocket place. "I've been using some of my own suspendium reserves to track their temporal shifts. They've ravaged worldwide Earth civilisation on five separate occasions, about five hundred years apart at their end. And while I like 'extremely dangerous' I'm really not fond of being described as a 'weapon'."

Click to shrink...

It wasn't an insult, certainly. Think of it as a friendly term of endearment, like 'Buddy'.

"Doctor, you've freely admitted to me that your social skills aren't very good. Your reactions to human society are sufficiently atypical that I feel that -as a metaphor- describing you as someone who can best be handled by treating them as an explosive with 'This End Towards Enemy' printed on it is fairly reasonable."

"Ah, so you were referring to your inability to fully grasp my mindset, rather than describing me as a tool to be wielded."

Click to shrink...

Pot, meet kettle. Both of them possess atypical mindsets by average DC citizen standards.

"There's a degree of overlap, but that was my principle intent. I've no desire to offend you so much that you select me as your next target once the sheeda are dealt with."

"Oh, there's very little chance of me doing that. Have you ever heard of a man called 'The Spider'?"

"I have. He was a racketeer, thief and terrorist. And then he vanished, and hopefully he's dead."

Click to shrink...

...In this timeline at least. Thank you, Grayven.

"He also worked for British intelligence."

"Don't bloody remind me. I don't know what they were thinking."

"A few years ago I managed to get hold of the records of an associate of his, a man named Professor Pelham. He wrote that The Spider told him that he found other criminals to be far more challenging foes that the police, as they operated under fewer restrictions on their methodology. I didn't think much of it at the time-"

Click to shrink...

No rules to play by, yes. It's why anti-heroes like Punisher or Wolverine are popular.

Beryl and I land just outside of the laboratory area as Dr Sivana brings his plane in to land and a couple of Sivanadroids remove a containment unit from inside the nose cone.

"-but having decided to pit myself against the sheeda, I can't help but wonder if he was on to something." A sivanadroid reaches up with telescopic arms and lifts him out of the cockpit, then deposits him on the ground and returns to its other work. "The Batson boy represented a static obstacle; resilient but disinclined to innovation. But the sheeda, all of the genius and malice of a desperate and corrupt civilisation!" One of the sivanadroids plugs the containment cylinder into what looks like a large fish tank, and a moment later the Mind Destroyers is visible within its confines as Dr Sivana strides over to stand before is, rubbing his hands as he does so. "I don't mind telling you that I'm positively giddy with excitement!"

Click to shrink...

I see they didn't think to collect more. Shame, leaving them in place allows them to push someone to breaking.

"I'm glad to hear it."

"You needn't worry… Squire, wasn't it?" Dr Sivana turns his head to look at her, and his smile… Well, it comes a little short as far as reassurance goes, but it's an improvement on what he used to do and he actually noticed that an effort would be appropriate. "Orange Lantern's intentions are quite noble. He has been trying to encourage me in the direction of reform."

Click to shrink...

Which, I note by his attempt at sociability, is kind of successful.

"You're not someone like Leonard Snart, a thief with a rough childhood. You had every opportunity not to be a monster and you threw it away."

"Not 'every opportunity'." He turns back to the tank and starts pressing buttons on the control panel. "Though I suppose that I did have more than him. And since I suspect that you're about to mention it-" He glances my way. "-not that I'm picking up on that as a result of an improvement in my understanding of social conventions, but you can only be heroically lambasted so many times before you pick up how it goes, no, I don't feel bad about any of the people I killed. No, most of them hadn't done anything in particular to offend me, they were just sort of there. I don't feel bad now and I suspect that even if I became as 'reformed' as I can, I still wouldn't feel bad."

Click to shrink...

Well... No, I got nothing. If he's anything like the golden age Sivana at his worst, he was a fairly nasty fellow.

"And you're only doing this because you find it fun."

"And they tried to kill me and my family. The fact that I do actually care for a few people means that Orange Lantern was probably correct in pronouncing me sane. I'm just very nasty."

Click to shrink...

He's just not a good man. Hopefully he won't make the mistake of gloating at the Sheeda before he destroys them...

"Have you been able to extract its orders?"

"Oh, yes. I was just going through its records."

I wait for a moment, but he doesn't say anything else.

"And?"

Click to shrink...

Ha!

"The people they were attacking were best-fits for their priority targets. But those targets aren't particularly well defined. The sheeda queen appears to believe that a group of seven soldiers were the greatest threat to her efforts to harrow our civilisation. Unfortunately, she didn't know anything else about them, so the Mind Destroyers are programmed to attack groups of seven people. Her ex-husband is also on the target list. Apparently, he fled back in time after being deposed-."

"Melmoth, yes. He kidnapped a lot of puritans and used them to found a colony in a nearby parallel universe. They deposed him, but I'm not sure what happened after that."

Click to shrink...

No point mentioning Klarion. He's dead, after all.

"They were suppose to look for any trace of him as well. That appears to be how they ended up here." He strokes his chin. "Once I work out how to get write access, I should be able to turn these things into long-range sheeda detectors. Which will certainly come in use if this 'Melmoth' is active on Earth to any degree."

"He might be able to give us all sorts of information."

"He led several Harrowings himself."

Click to shrink...

Not a nice guy, then.

"And you have a moral objection?"

"No, but I've committed myself to ending the sheeda, not changing which of them is in charge. Having them swap places doesn't make any sense." He frowns. "To me. Does it make sense to you? I sometimes miss things."

Click to shrink...

I doubt there's any Sheeda pleasant enough not to continue the Harrowings. Better to delete them and hope nothing worse pops up.

"I don't know." She glares pointedly at me. "How optimistic are we feeling?"

"I was planning on branding him and then placing him in Belle Reve for the rest of his life, however long that might be. In the unlikely event that he has reformed, I might reconsider."

Dr Sivana frowns faintly, then shakes his head. "No, I definitely think I'm missing something."

Click to shrink...

Again, generally nasty people. Not worth trying to preserve any part of their culture.

"My aim is to prevent the Earth being harrowed. I don't much care about the sheeda in and of themselves. In the unlikely event that Melmoth thinks he can make them reform I'll probably let him try. For much the same reason that I'm willing to work with you."

"Ah! Rationally pursuing your objectives, even at a dreadful cost to others! That's an ideology I understand!"

Click to shrink...

The joy of Avarice Enlightenment, 'end justify the means' logic.

Beryl bows her head and shakes it.

"Though naturally I won't get in the way of your efforts against them."

Click to shrink...

That'd just aim him at you too. Smart move.

"Glad to hear it! Now, this thing wasn't able to track down Melmoth, but according to its memories there was definite evidence that he was here at some point. Without any real direction they were just latching on to people who matched their target criteria to at least the lowest level and talking them to death. It appears that they thought that he might come back at some point, though their evidence supporting that belief appears to be somewhat weak."

"What evidence is that?"

"The butterflies, naturally."

Click to shrink...

"Now, I'm not saying it was aliens, but..."

Another nice walk and talk, and good insight into Thaddeus Senior's mentality. 'Mess with me and mine and I'll cut you! With Science!'

 

[FreeGod]

Beryl is... having a moment, and hour and probably day.

Yeah, she is having a Day.

Click to shrink...

I expect that she is going to have some more sharp words with Paul. Which is likely to be frustrating because Paul is never uncertain and only ever changes his mind if given new information.

 

[Ardy]

I expect that she is going to have some more sharp words with Paul. Which is likely to be frustrating because Paul is never uncertain and only ever changes his mind if given new information.

Click to shrink...

In this case the new information is: "how long will Beryl yell at me whenever I do this stuff."

Still, I like her as a character. Like a more-fun Robin.

 

[FreeGod]

In this case the new information is: "how long will Beryl yell at me whenever I do this stuff."

Still, I like her as a character. Like a more-fun Robin.

Click to shrink...

Paul could ignore her nod every now and then and have his ring give him a summary. He won't, but that is just because he has gotten really good at multi tasking.

 

[RichardWhereat]

I wish they'd used this version of Sivana in that Captain Marvel movie. Mark Strong just didn't feel anything like Sivana.

 

[Dakkan Sall]

One of the sivanadroids plugs the containment cylinder into what looks like a large fish tank, and a moment later the Mind Destroyers is visible within its confines as Dr Sivana strides over to stand before is, rubbing his hands as he does so.

Click to shrink...

Should be "Mind Destroyer" singular, unless he has several swirling around in there in which case it should be "Mind Destroyers are". Also "it" rather than "is" further along the sentence.