The Unaligned Player
Agony that desires to meet Extinction
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This story is one of the things that keep me from feeling completely empty on the inside.
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With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)
- Thread starter Mr Zoat
- Start date
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- self insert young justice
Nervaqus987
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Some day, people will learn to stop feeding the troll.
BartlettMagic
peekaboo, you fucks you!
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and someday, i'll get some fraggin' Lobo
Vaermina
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Hopefully.
Though I fear if we do Zoat will just have his SI mind fuck Lobo into an upstanding citizen or something.
Faed Away (part 21)
Mr Zoat
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5th May
18:36 GMT -5
Lord-Protector Judah's right hand tightens around the grip of his sword, and his escort barely restrain themselves from raising their jezails.
"This is the fiend?"
Melmoth smiles. "Hello, descendant."
The Lord-Protector's botoxed face doesn't give anything away, and his wards mean that his empathic network doesn't either.
"Your seal upon his forehead. Does it mean have broken him to your will, as we do the grundymen?"
"No. That's a sign that I've changed his desires. He's still free to make decisions within his new framework."
Melmoth nods as best he can with the collar and chains.
"I see it clearly now; I was so painfully short sighted. I can never make amends to your forebears, but please let me help you. I know things about your magic and physiology that you have yet to discover; you have access to only a small part of your full magic potent-."
"Cease your prattling, Sheeda-man." Judah turns to Diana. "What is your intent?"
"The Earth will soon face the fury of the full Harrowing fleet. Every piece of information we can learn and every artefact of theirs that we can study improves our ability to fight against them. We would like to bring people here to study this harvest ship's-."
"'Harvester Dreadnought'. Though obviously this one has been substantially reconfigured."
"And Melmoth's magic. This is a unique opportunity for us."
"You would have us tolerate his presence."
"You may, or you may place him in our custody and you need never see him again."
"And the vessel?"
"We have no need for the vessel itself. We merely need to learn how to fight others of its class."
"I mean: will you take this blight from our skies?"
"We…" Diana glances at me. "Can do that, if you wish."
"Lord-Protector, I would urge you not to throw this opportunity away. Do you not use the grundymen and grundywomen created from criminals?"
"Those of mundane criminals who may seek forgiveness from God Almighty, aye. From such as him, I would see them burned, not raised. We have no desire for this… Chalice of poison."
Well… Okay. We offered and he didn't want it. No idea how we're going to ship it, but I suppose that we can just cut it up and shove it through the witch-path in pieces. Or throw it into the local primary.
Or I could take it as a replacement for my old Ice Fortress. I'm sure that I can learn how it works-.
Not the time.
Diana nods. "And Melmoth?"
"Is the binding permanent?"
"Technically, no, merely indefinite. Another Orange Lantern or a magic user who knew what they were doing could remove it, and he would revert back to his actual personality."
"Can you make it permanent?"
"Yes… But that would effectively make him a new person. If you want to try him for what he did to your forebears, it wouldn't be reasonable to do that to a new person who happened to share the old him's body."
"Do not presume to tell me what is 'reasonable'."
"I'm using it in the legal sense."
"By the laws of Columbia he is an outlaw, a pestilence from our grandsire's time who should have long since been keeping company with Satan in eternal hellfire."
"And by the laws of the Orange Lantern Corps-" I lay my left hand on the glowing sigil on my body armour's chest. "-I can't hand him over under these conditions. I can't hand over someone I know for a fact not to be guilty in a jurisdiction where I do not believe that they will receive a fair hearing."
Which is a legitimate interpretation of the actual rule, but I don't think calling Lord-Protector Judah 'technically incompetent' is going to win any friends here.
Judah stares at me for a moment, then turns his face towards Diana.
"And your view on the matter?"
"I'm not comfortable with permanently altering a person's nature in that way, and I will not authorise it."
I shrug. "I'm fine with that. I just want to make sure that you're fully informed."
"While he is like this, could you order him to list his sins in full?"
"Um. He probably doesn't precisely share your definition of 'sin' and so might struggle. And I'm not sure whether or not his memory is perfect. He's very old and has committed a great many crimes. But I could make him want to recount as many as he can remember to the best of his ability."
"You must take this vessel, and may take a share of the fallen beasts. I will consult with parliament on the matter of Melmoth himself." Diana and I nod. "Now. What of the warlock-breed, and the accursed warlocks?"
Diana shakes her head. "This doesn't change anything. We're still willing to offer them sanctuary if they want it. Though with the attacks by the Sheeda beasts coming to an end it is possible that they would prefer to remain here."
"Or we could offer them Melmoth's knowledge to turn them into normal humans. Or.. Columbian humans. I mean, I understand why you hate warlocks, but if the worst they've done is have a warlock parent or grandparent, well… That ancestor won't be as bad as Melmoth and you're all descended from him."
"They are not citizens of Columbia. We have agreed a truce, and I have no cause to forbid them from seeking his aid. But they will not be citizens for as long as I draw breath."
"Lord-Protector-."
"No, no, I get it. It's a catch twenty-two. If they're showing Sheeda modifications then they're tainted, and if they use Sheeda technology to remove those modifications then they're tainted."
"Verily."
"Would you let them become citizens if they removed their alterations by some other means?"
"Which part of 'draw breath' escapes your comprehension?"
Diana gives me a short glare as she somehow hears me thinking 'how long do witch-men live, asking for a friend?'.
"As you will. Let me know when I can be of further service."
I walk away, heading for one of the launch bays. Melmoth told me that he didn't know if anything could be done for Aurakos, but he's more than happy to try. And I want him to try soon just in case Judah decides to give him the thumbs down.
18:36 GMT -5
Lord-Protector Judah's right hand tightens around the grip of his sword, and his escort barely restrain themselves from raising their jezails.
"This is the fiend?"
Melmoth smiles. "Hello, descendant."
The Lord-Protector's botoxed face doesn't give anything away, and his wards mean that his empathic network doesn't either.
"Your seal upon his forehead. Does it mean have broken him to your will, as we do the grundymen?"
"No. That's a sign that I've changed his desires. He's still free to make decisions within his new framework."
Melmoth nods as best he can with the collar and chains.
"I see it clearly now; I was so painfully short sighted. I can never make amends to your forebears, but please let me help you. I know things about your magic and physiology that you have yet to discover; you have access to only a small part of your full magic potent-."
"Cease your prattling, Sheeda-man." Judah turns to Diana. "What is your intent?"
"The Earth will soon face the fury of the full Harrowing fleet. Every piece of information we can learn and every artefact of theirs that we can study improves our ability to fight against them. We would like to bring people here to study this harvest ship's-."
"'Harvester Dreadnought'. Though obviously this one has been substantially reconfigured."
"And Melmoth's magic. This is a unique opportunity for us."
"You would have us tolerate his presence."
"You may, or you may place him in our custody and you need never see him again."
"And the vessel?"
"We have no need for the vessel itself. We merely need to learn how to fight others of its class."
"I mean: will you take this blight from our skies?"
"We…" Diana glances at me. "Can do that, if you wish."
"Lord-Protector, I would urge you not to throw this opportunity away. Do you not use the grundymen and grundywomen created from criminals?"
"Those of mundane criminals who may seek forgiveness from God Almighty, aye. From such as him, I would see them burned, not raised. We have no desire for this… Chalice of poison."
Well… Okay. We offered and he didn't want it. No idea how we're going to ship it, but I suppose that we can just cut it up and shove it through the witch-path in pieces. Or throw it into the local primary.
Or I could take it as a replacement for my old Ice Fortress. I'm sure that I can learn how it works-.
Not the time.
Diana nods. "And Melmoth?"
"Is the binding permanent?"
"Technically, no, merely indefinite. Another Orange Lantern or a magic user who knew what they were doing could remove it, and he would revert back to his actual personality."
"Can you make it permanent?"
"Yes… But that would effectively make him a new person. If you want to try him for what he did to your forebears, it wouldn't be reasonable to do that to a new person who happened to share the old him's body."
"Do not presume to tell me what is 'reasonable'."
"I'm using it in the legal sense."
"By the laws of Columbia he is an outlaw, a pestilence from our grandsire's time who should have long since been keeping company with Satan in eternal hellfire."
"And by the laws of the Orange Lantern Corps-" I lay my left hand on the glowing sigil on my body armour's chest. "-I can't hand him over under these conditions. I can't hand over someone I know for a fact not to be guilty in a jurisdiction where I do not believe that they will receive a fair hearing."
Which is a legitimate interpretation of the actual rule, but I don't think calling Lord-Protector Judah 'technically incompetent' is going to win any friends here.
Judah stares at me for a moment, then turns his face towards Diana.
"And your view on the matter?"
"I'm not comfortable with permanently altering a person's nature in that way, and I will not authorise it."
I shrug. "I'm fine with that. I just want to make sure that you're fully informed."
"While he is like this, could you order him to list his sins in full?"
"Um. He probably doesn't precisely share your definition of 'sin' and so might struggle. And I'm not sure whether or not his memory is perfect. He's very old and has committed a great many crimes. But I could make him want to recount as many as he can remember to the best of his ability."
"You must take this vessel, and may take a share of the fallen beasts. I will consult with parliament on the matter of Melmoth himself." Diana and I nod. "Now. What of the warlock-breed, and the accursed warlocks?"
Diana shakes her head. "This doesn't change anything. We're still willing to offer them sanctuary if they want it. Though with the attacks by the Sheeda beasts coming to an end it is possible that they would prefer to remain here."
"Or we could offer them Melmoth's knowledge to turn them into normal humans. Or.. Columbian humans. I mean, I understand why you hate warlocks, but if the worst they've done is have a warlock parent or grandparent, well… That ancestor won't be as bad as Melmoth and you're all descended from him."
"They are not citizens of Columbia. We have agreed a truce, and I have no cause to forbid them from seeking his aid. But they will not be citizens for as long as I draw breath."
"Lord-Protector-."
"No, no, I get it. It's a catch twenty-two. If they're showing Sheeda modifications then they're tainted, and if they use Sheeda technology to remove those modifications then they're tainted."
"Verily."
"Would you let them become citizens if they removed their alterations by some other means?"
"Which part of 'draw breath' escapes your comprehension?"
Diana gives me a short glare as she somehow hears me thinking 'how long do witch-men live, asking for a friend?'.
"As you will. Let me know when I can be of further service."
I walk away, heading for one of the launch bays. Melmoth told me that he didn't know if anything could be done for Aurakos, but he's more than happy to try. And I want him to try soon just in case Judah decides to give him the thumbs down.
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Darko
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Here's something from the previous chapter.
Maybe 'have easily talked', it just sounds better.
'warlock-breed', seeing as they were descendants from warlocks.
Maybe 'have easily talked', it just sounds better.
'warlock-breed', seeing as they were descendants from warlocks.
BlueMangoAdea
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Would killing Melmoth even put him in hell? What are the Sheedas' views on afterlife? Where would Melmoth's soul end up if you kill him on Witch World?
Darko
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If the Sheeda are arrogant enough then they may not worship any gods, and if they don't have a safe place to go with a pagan afterlife then they would probably automatically go to the Abrahamic afterlife, which will most likely be Hell due to, well, everything about them.
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Darko
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To be fair it's only Judah here whose being a bigot.
We've already seen other more liberal Columbians, like Abendego, so not all of them are borderline genocidal bigots.
The Columbians are like ordinary humans, in that they have their extremists and their more sane members.
Vaermina
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Eh... From what we have seen it's only really the Lord Protector that's particularly bad...
Mr Zoat
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BlueMangoAdea
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Altered!Melmoth is surprisingly endearing.
Comes to my mind.
Chojin Patriarch
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To be honest, I would not have complained of someone took the shot anyway, whether from fear or anger. It's not like it'll kill him, he's immortal.
Heh, easy assumption to make, even if it might not feel the same to the Columbians. As for the Lord-Protector (and isn't that a familiar title...) I have to wonder if he's not so locked down, physically and emotionally, as some kind of Geas to rule fairly and as impartially as possible...
Which is still worrying. I mean, OL can shut off any potentially harmful urge as soon as he feels it even if it's completely logical to Melmoth in his altered state. But there's still that niggling hint of concern that he might pull something...
Yeah, nattering on about potential is probably just going to piss off the Columbians. What with their whole opposition to using their in-born talents. Plus, he's just got such a punchable face.
It does fit with what we've seen of previous Sheeda craft... Castle
Well, you can just drop him into a dark hole whenever you don't need to talk to him. It's not like starving will kill him.
Eh... Putting a technologically advanced craft in the hands of, for want of a better term, primitive people like the Columbians (and I mean that in terms of scientific knowledge, nothing more.) That could go so wrong in so many ways. What if some overzealous Witch-Hunter decides the Warlock-breed need to be exterminated utterly, and hijacks it to do so?
It would be a bad reminder of their history. I'm sure tales of such things, hanging in the sky like swords of Damocles, still persist centuries after their abduction.
Understandable. I suspect Burning is treated as the ultimate punishment. Imagine it: Being seen as so worthless or so dangerous, that your people would rather see you reduced to ash rather than allow you to serve as a Grundy?
No, OL. Not without getting it deeply checked over by a Maltusian technician. Who knows what hidden traps still lay within, even after Melmoth got flipped. Plus the whole issue of the Timey-wimey lime juice...
Not as much as you'd like, certainly...
Oh, yes, but whether he would want to? That's a whole other kettle of fish.
Surprised there wasn't even a hint of anger showing through. I doubt Judah has that good a temper... Maybe he's emotionally throttled for just that reason...
I think even The First of the Fallen would go "He's too dangerous. Flay his soul for fuel and be rid of him." After all, even Hell has some standards.
Nooo... probably not. Best not to piss off your host any further than he already is. Don't want to burn what little goodwill you've earned dealing with this crisis (which you had a hand in causing, no less...)
Makes sense, she is a spirit of Truth, and all that. That kind of alteration... Would mean fundamentally altering someone's true self...
...You got a couple of years? He has been busy. Very, very busy. And lived a long, long life.
What about them? I mean, the warlocks, yes, they might need dealing with, especially if any are as bad as Klarion. But the warlock-breed aren't really.. Are you really considering them tainted by the sins of their forefathers?
...Oh, right...Oh, that would just drive people nuts with paranoia. Imagine not knowing if someone new to town were a 'true and just' Columbian who hews to their rules, or some warlock-breed wearing the mask of pureness and good? Even if the warlock-breed were willing to agree to be bound as the Columbians are, and many did seem to be, that whole 'sins of the father' thing would follow them...
Save it, Diana, the man's made his mind up. And he does not seem the sort to change it for anything. Even if The Presence itself came down with a host of angels and told him to, he'd probably refuse.
Wow, asshole. Stubborn to a fault, and proud to admit it...
I don't know, how long...
Damn, you got there first.
Let's hope he goes for the 'out of sight, out of mind' angle, and not 'hung, drawn, quartered and then burnt.' Not that the latter would likely keep Melmoth down, given his immortality.
Yeah, that went about as well as could be expected. At least ol' Swirly-cheeks is trying to be helpful now. With any luck, that'll last until he can be in a very secure lock-up. Preferably one where he can't manipulate his gaolers Joker-style...
...study this harvest ship-.
Sockmonkey
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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True, but if he wanted to, the rings let him use could godspeech and Diana is new-god-ish enough to hear it.
moralrelativity
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DO. IT.
Rude.
Surprisingly tolerant response Paul. Well done.
Darko
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Maybe, but his god speech may not be exactly like a regular New God so she may not hear it.
Darko
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Ehh, immortality can be bypassed and they may have magic to do so.
It would make sense.
Or that he'd do it more and more often until it's his go to method for solving every problem and then we get another Tangseid, and I'm pretty sure Paul would not like to become Tangseid.
And a slittable neck.
If he needs food to somehow stay immortal then it may kill him.
It would be like having Jews live next to a concentration camp.
The First may actually like Melmoth.
Both are, or were, leaders of a race of psychopaths that did most things because they're sadists and bastards.
That may work to be honest.
No, pride is a sin, but lying is also a sin and being truthful is a virtue.
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Lothlo
Not too sore, are you?
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Well, that has many solutions
rkyeun
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Mr Zoat
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Failures in discipline in a military unit are a big deal, even if the person they shot had it coming.
'Lord Protector' and 'Lord-Protector' are completely different titles.
Thank you, corrected.
I don't think that works if the kettle isn't black.
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rkyeun
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It works best if the kettle isn't black, especially in this case.
If my visage doth offend, I must confess the fault is mine;
I hath polished my surface ev'ry day, the reflection seen is thine.
jaelin910
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That's the point though. A phrase I've heard in another context is 'the pot calling the silverware black'
transhumansage
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good. if he is anything in the comics like he was presented in justice league unlimited, then that is a very good thing.
inq101
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"Oh, that's no problem. I know of several anaerobic respiratory systems I could fit you with."
WhiteNoise
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I would expect that to be the last thing.
First thing, too, and everything in the middle.
Frank Iannetta
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Arguing with Vaermina is like continuing to check the time on a broken clock with frozen hands hanging on your wall. While it may be correct once in a while, it will usually be wrong, and will continue to frustrate you since it won't show you the right time, and can't be fixed. The best thing you can do is either throw it away, or stop looking at it. ( I have a broken coocoo clock my wife won't let me throw away, so I put it in another room so I don't have to look at it).
Mr Zoat
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Why not either 1) fix it or 2) remove the hands and treat it as an ornament?
Could you be more precise?
The ship uses magic-based technology that is so different to the tech base of everyone involved in the NEMO project that it... Wouldn't really be worth their time. Now, an industrialising magic-focused civilisation could really benefit from it.