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

[Neruz]

Holy Shit! So was Goku Red and Goku Blue just more Superman references?!?!

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Probably not, but it's not impossible I suppose.

 

[Mquz]

Probably not, but it's not impossible I suppose.

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A Red oni and a Blue oni with contrasting personalities is a Japanese trope, associated originally with Zenki and Goki, oni from Japanese folklore. There's a tv trope for it.

 

[Duke Long]

"What for?"

"I nearly killed you."

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He's apologising for that, and not, I don't know, asking Mister Miracle to boom tube him to Daxam? Without warning Oh El or presumably anyone else important, might I add? Superman really fucked up this time.

 

[Prince Charon]

He's apologising for that, and not, I don't know, asking Mister Miracle to boom tube him to Daxam? Without warning Oh El or presumably anyone else important, might I add? Superman really fucked up this time.

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He's apologising for doing something that he understands to be wrong (and hasn't internalized to be 'not his fault'), not for something that he considers to have been the 'right' decision based on the information he had at the time (wrong in hindsight, but he doesn't see it as being wrong to start with). OL's decision-making process is really alien to the rest of the League, so it's not surprising that they don't automatically assume that he made the right choices when someone accuses him of doing something wrong. Superman-16p probably still thinks Paul's handling of the situation with Nabu was very wrong, and that also colours his perceptions of Paul's decision-making.

 

[Ngamer11]

He's apologising for doing something that he understands to be wrong (and hasn't internalized to be 'not his fault'), not for something that he considers to have been the 'right' decision based on the information he had at the time (wrong in hindsight, but he doesn't see it as being wrong to start with). OL's decision-making process is really alien to the rest of the League, so it's not surprising that they don't automatically assume that he made the right choices when someone accuses him of doing something wrong. Superman-16p probably still thinks Paul's handling of the situation with Nabu was very wrong, and that also colours his perceptions of Paul's decision-making.

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That's why I can't wait to see Paul resolve the Rimbor situation for the League. Really force it down their throats that what they believe is right isn't always right and that sometimes they really can only pick the least bad option/pragmatic option at the time.

 

[PJ739]

"Batman." Since Jade's exo-mantle includes scry wards and she hasn't taken off her helmet I'm not completely sure what her expression is, but I can guess. "You're going after Batman."

"Sort of."

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I know there is a joke about prep time in there, but it's not coming to me.

 

[Prince Charon]

That's why I can't wait to see Paul resolve the Rimbor situation for the League. Really force it down their throats that what they believe is right isn't always right and that sometimes they really can only pick the least bad option/pragmatic option at the time.

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The problem is that if his solution is too far outside their worldview, they can avoid thinking about that by just being annoyed that he 'rushed things' and didn't let them come up with the 'right' solution.

 

[Ngamer11]

The problem is that if his solution is too far outside their worldview, they can avoid thinking about that by just being annoyed that he 'rushed things' and didn't let them come up with the 'right' solution.

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That might be a little hard to do as Mr. Zoat has Rimbor declaring the Justice League war mongers and indicated that the truth of them being under mind control when that happened is not going to help their case at all. Paul is going to have to save the day in a way they don't want and they can only shut up and accept it.

 

[Prince Charon]

That might be a little hard to do as Mr. Zoat has Rimbor declaring the Justice League war mongers and indicated that the truth of them being under mind control when that happened is not going to help their case at all. Paul is going to have to save the day in a way they don't want and they can only shut up and accept it.

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I feel like we're talking past each other, but I'm too tired to be sure.

 

[Neruz]

A Red oni and a Blue oni with contrasting personalities is a Japanese trope, associated originally with Zenki and Goki, oni from Japanese folklore. There's a tv trope for it.

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Red\Blue dichotomy is a very common thing across many cultures, likely due to how the two colours are on the opposite ends of the perceivable spectrum and thus feel like opposites on a fundamental level.

 

[mastermenthe]

much like a time-gated quest in an MMO.

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Would you consider the War with the Reach more like FF14's "FATE battles", or more like Vanilla WoW's "Battle For Ahn-Qiraj"?

 

[Mr Zoat]

Are you setting up Clark to learn how to access his Electric Blue Superman powers? Because when I think of Superman and energy manipulation, that's the first thing that comes to mind.

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No.

Regarding Superman taking a trip to Daxam himself... The SI is not a member of the Justice League. Superman is effectively his superior. Him wanting to get an idea for himself what Daxam is like is completely reasonable, and the SI didn't know that the Eradicator Program was there. Is there something I'm missing?

 

[Jirachi]

"Batman." Since Jade's exo-mantle includes scry wards and she hasn't taken off her helmet I'm not completely sure what her expression is, but I can guess. "You're going after Batman."

"Sort of."

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Didn't we establish that scry wards don't keep working indefinitely in low magic environments? It probably shouldn't be applying here.

 

[Duke Long]

Regarding Superman taking a trip to Daxam himself... The SI is not a member of the Justice League. Superman is effectively his superior. Him wanting to get an idea for himself what Daxam is like is completely reasonable, and the SI didn't know that the Eradicator Program was there. Is there something I'm missing?

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Given that the daxamites were known to be very culturally and specically xenophobic and could probably be guessed to have real-time interstellar communication (given that they did turn out to have it and I assume that was a known capability of that era of kryptonian technology), and he doesn't have any particular stealth capabilities, him visiting could have endangered the negotiations. The fact that seemingly nobody in the negotiating room knew he was visiting is a clear failure of communication. Unless the Green Lanterns knew and just didn't say anything?

There was also some risk to his own safety involved in the trip, even considering the fact that the specific thing which happened could not reasonably have been predicted. The fact that he seemingly went alone and possibly without informing many people was unnecessarily risky. I suppose if he had the ability to ring up Mister Miracle at any moment and ask for a boom tube home this isn't really much of a problem unless he gets instantly incapacitated (which he did, but that's just bad luck).

 

[Mr Zoat]

Didn't we establish that scry wards don't keep working indefinitely in low magic environments? It probably shouldn't be applying here.

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I did also include that bit about NEMO coming to terms with Queen Artemis. Topping them up isn't really a problem at the moment.

 

[ShadowScion626]

That might be a little hard to do as Mr. Zoat has Rimbor declaring the Justice League war mongers and indicated that the truth of them being under mind control when that happened is not going to help their case at all. Paul is going to have to save the day in a way they don't want and they can only shut up and accept it.

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??? Did I somehow miss a lot of thread marks? Where did this come up? When did this happen?

 

[GhostKing 666]

Are you setting up Clark to learn how to access his Electric Blue Superman powers? Because when I think of Superman and energy manipulation, that's the first thing that comes to mind.

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I think he's setting up Clark to learn Christopher Kent of Earth-16's powers. Raised in a Buddhist monastery and has several powers that normal Supermen didn't, including the abilities to manipulate external energy(like heat vision), absorb and "metabolize" other types of radiation for power(which we saw Superman do here) and even increase his own size.

 

[Ngamer11]

??? Did I somehow miss a lot of thread marks? Where did this come up? When did this happen?

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Mr Zoat mentioned it in the thread, not in-universe.

 

[Steelplaza]

Given that the daxamites were known to be very culturally and specically xenophobic and could probably be guessed to have real-time interstellar communication (given that they did turn out to have it and I assume that was a known capability of that era of kryptonian technology), and he doesn't have any particular stealth capabilities, him visiting could have endangered the negotiations. The fact that seemingly nobody in the negotiating room knew he was visiting is a clear failure of communication. Unless the Green Lanterns knew and just didn't say anything?

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This just falls under the shit that superheroes do every day. Complaining about Superman flying off to check something out without properly informing everyone... come on. That's not how Superman works. That's now how any of them work. They do what they're going to do as seems right to them at the time, and there's no point in getting mad about it. You notice OL certainly doesn't bother acting like he can get Superman to behave any differently in a similar situation in the future.

 

[Ardy]

This just falls under the shit that superheroes do every day. Complaining about Superman flying off to check something out without properly informing everyone... come on. That's not how Superman works. That's now how any of them work. They do what they're going to do as seems right to them at the time, and there's no point in getting mad about it. You notice OL certainly doesn't bother acting like he can get Superman to behave any differently in a similar situation in the future.

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He has given up. We have not.

 

[Mr Zoat]

31st July 2013
20:34 GMT

Jade looks at me mildly reproachfully. "I had that."

I look down at the… Okay, that is a Scarab Warrior, but from what I can tell it's one of the lower end ones. Looks like they stuck it on a local man without doing any of the preparation work or indoctrination because that shouldn't have been as easy as it was.

I look up at her, smiling. "I'm certain that you did. However..." Got it. "I can prevent this Scarab self-destructing and- "

The armour peels itself off the host, retreating back into the Scarab. I deploy a construct and pluck it from the man's spine.

"-capture it intact."

She looks curious. "How?"

"I can bypass previous generation anti-construct defences and alter the Scarab's desires, and since the Scarab now earnestly wants to help it volunteers."

"Hm." She nods, half-turning to where the rest of her squad are detaining the rest of the paramilitary militia. One looks at the Scarab floating in my construct clamp and sags in defeat. "How about current generation defences?"

"No luck yet. They self-destruct if they move outside of prescribed tolerances." I watch as the paramilitaries are cuffed and manacled before being handed over to the local security forces. I could just look it up, but… "What did this lot do?"

"Their group bombed a recruitment centre and murdered off-duty soldiers."

"Are they..?" I tap the side of my head with my right forefinger and she shrugs.

Jade shakes her head. "We haven't found any signs of it. There's probably a training cadre somewhere in the mountains who are, but most of them are true believers."

Ah. My eyes dip for a moment. "That's a shame."

But it's not a surprise. The Reach love mind control in every form. Purging it from places where we know it is, worlds newly brought under their control? Simple, if not easy. Once they're firmly in control they only take things slowly when they really have to. But we've been expecting more subtle efforts to spring up everywhere ever since the war began, and they haven't disappointed.

And sometimes it's not them at all.

Sometimes it's casualties, or the economic drain, or old industries becoming obsolete or being forced to work with their old enemies. And it's not like there are many sources on the Reach outside of NEMO so how do they know they can trust us?

Sometimes it's purely internal, and rational. Just… Incorrect.

"How are they going to handle the trials?"

"Maximum openness. Everything will be broadcast, with summaries on every news program."

"Likely response?"

A small smile. "A tour of the front lines so they can see what we're up against. Then, it depends how they respond."

"Is that the local punishment, or how Darkstar counterinsurgency wants it handled?"

"Mm. We advise, but it's their decision."

I nod. Then everything's working as it's supposed to.

"Vandal Savage appears to be working with Apokolips. Still."

"Are you sure he's not just using left over technology?"

"He had a squad of Apokoliptian commandos under his command. Now, they could have been working as mercenaries, but given the late Queen Bee's contact before Mannheim started hogging their attention I think that's unlikely."

"Is Darkseid trying to attack Earth again?"

"I.. don't know. I'd say that I doubt it-. I was assuming that he'd give it a little while. I mean, he left us alone since the Renaissance…"

She flashes me a crooked smile. "Maybe you're too interesting to ignore?"

"Maybe. Ah." She looks closely at my face with a small frown. "I-."

"You haven't been ignoring me. Artemis and Mom live on Earth and I understand how important what you're doing there is."

"In… This instance, I was hoping to hit two birds with one stone."

She smiles faintly. "This should be good."

"I'm not much of an investigator. And.. I'm.. extremely concerned about some of the things Batman's doing while we're working on reconstruction. It would be… Helpful to me if you'd accept temporary reassignment to Earth. With a.. team, if you think it's appropriate."

She thinks for a moment. "Two birds."

"I miss you. I miss you not being around. I know we'd.. both be working a lot, but…"

She nods. "Still regret the five year thing, huh?"

"Yeah." I sigh. "I don't want you to ever think that.. I don't. If I could have thought of a better way for you to fulfil your professional ambitions I'd have suggested that-."

"Like what, Paul? Be honest."

"Infiltrating the Black Suns?"

"With who?"

"One of the… Sector's governments? I'm sure we could find.. someone doing something like that."

She looks at me fondly, but she's clearly not convinced. "There isn't always a perfect answer, Paul. I barely accepted the Darkstars. I only did it because I knew I wouldn't be getting any favors. If you'd persuaded someone to include me in an investigation just because you asked, it-. Wouldn't have worked."

I sigh. "Yeah."

"But…" She looks around as the rest of her squad hang around at maximum eavesdropping distance. "Since we're finished up here, I… Think I could accept getting reassigned. For a month or-"

I dart forwards, wrapping my arms around her.

"-so-."

She rolls her eyes, but fondly. And she's smiling properly.

"You'll need to arrange quarters for the rest of the squad."

"My place in Bir Tawil has plenty of room. Lanterns Coutara, Taranna and Yat are staying there."

"And is Kara still living next door?"

I nod. "With Bleez."

"Does she still do the thing with her towel?"

"Not.. really. It's on the equator. A towel's kind of… Superfluous."

Her eyes narrow slightly. "Maybe I should have come back sooner."

I nod. "Yes. You should."

 

[Ngamer11]

Her eyes narrow slightly. "Maybe I should have come back sooner."

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Quotation marks should be black.

 

[CrazyNoVa]

"Does she still do the thing with her towel?"

"Not.. really. It's on the equator. A towel's kind of… Superfluous."

Her eyes narrow slightly. "Maybe I should have come back sooner."

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You idiot! You made it sound like she's casually showing off her body for you!

 

[Kurai]

Her eyes narrow slightly. "Maybe I should have come back sooner."

I nod. "Yes. You should."

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And with the emotional colouring, I can at least pretend he's missed her point by being too wrapped up in her . . . *Shakes head*

 

[Duke Long]

Cool that he can subvert old Scarabs. I feel like it used to be a fairly big deal that they couldn't capture Scarabs. I guess that'll be useful for R&D.

 

[Frozen20XX]

"-capture it intact."

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Surprised he didn't just assimilate it. Scarab do have emotions, right?

Though I suppose it might be more useful as is.

Her eyes narrow slightly. "Maybe I should have come back sooner."

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By the jumped up elementals, Jade spontaneously achieved orange enlightenment!

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

31st July 2013
20:34 GMT

Jade looks at me mildly reproachfully. "I had that."

I look down at the… Okay, that is a Scarab Warrior, but from what I can tell it's one of the lower end ones. Looks like they stuck it on a local man without doing any of the preparation work or indoctrination because that shouldn't have been as easy as it was.

Click to shrink...

Huh. Sounds like a very improvised thing, then. Maybe a leftover from an occupation force, or an under-the-table supply? And on an untrained user, it probably went as well as Jaime Reyes' first time powered up.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

I look up at her, smiling. "I'm certain that you did. However..." Got it. "I can prevent this Scarab self-destructing and- "

The armour peels itself off the host, retreating back into the Scarab. I deploy a construct and pluck it from the man's spine.

Click to shrink...

Well, that's impressive. Is that a new trick, or is this just the equivalent of a Windows XP device compared to the new bugs?

"-capture it intact."

She looks curious. "How?"

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Please, do share.

"I can bypass previous generation anti-construct defences and alter the Scarab's desires, and since the Scarab now earnestly wants to help it volunteers."

"Hm." She nods, half-turning to where the rest of her squad are detaining the rest of the paramilitary militia. One looks at the Scarab floating in my construct clamp and sags in defeat. "How about current generation defences?"

Click to shrink...

Nah, they've had the anti-Avarice manipulation security update.

"No luck yet. They self-destruct if they move outside of prescribed tolerances." I watch as the paramilitaries are cuffed and manacled before being handed over to the local security forces. I could just look it up, but… "What did this lot do?"

"Their group bombed a recruitment centre and murdered off-duty soldiers."

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Ah, people unsatisfied with the new order of things on their reclaimed planet. Probably guys who had a cushier life under the Reach.

"Are they..?" I tap the side of my head with my right forefinger and she shrugs.

Jade shakes her head. "We haven't found any signs of it. There's probably a training cadre somewhere in the mountains who are, but most of them are true believers."

Ah. My eyes dip for a moment. "That's a shame."

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Like I said, they probably preferred how things were under the Reach. When they were top dogs, privileged fellows. I assume so, anyway. Or it could just be sour grapes about the 'aliens' coming in and kicking out their 'benefactors'.

But it's not a surprise. The Reach love mind control in every form. Purging it from places where we know it is, worlds newly brought under their control? Simple, if not easy. Once they're firmly in control they only take things slowly when they really have to. But we've been expecting more subtle efforts to spring up everywhere ever since the war began, and they haven't disappointed.

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The social indoctrination would be a lot more insidious. A couple of generations after the initial takeover, the people would likely not have known any other way. So this raise feelings of 'Why are you doing this? We were happy!' and wouldn't sit well with some.

And sometimes it's not them at all.

Sometimes it's casualties, or the economic drain, or old industries becoming obsolete or being forced to work with their old enemies. And it's not like there are many sources on the Reach outside of NEMO so how do they know they can trust us?

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And the Reach probably seem much kinder than these strangers rolling up and saying 'You're not part of the Reach anymore.'

Sometimes it's purely internal, and rational. Just… Incorrect.

"How are they going to handle the trials?"

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Especially if the locals are still somewhat unused to non-Reach leadership and laws...

"Maximum openness. Everything will be broadcast, with summaries on every news program."

"Likely response?"

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As in what sentence they get? Or how the public will respond to 'patriots' being put on trail, hmm?

A small smile. "A tour of the front lines so they can see what we're up against. Then, it depends how they respond."

"Is that the local punishment, or how Darkstar counterinsurgency wants it handled?"

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I would expect the Reach laws would be much harsher in some respects...

"Mm. We advise, but it's their decision."

I nod. Then everything's working as it's supposed to.

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As long as their decision isn't 'We want the Reach back'.

"Vandal Savage appears to be working with Apokolips. Still."

"Are you sure he's not just using left over technology?"

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Full-on troops aren't exactly the kind of thing that can be left-over.

"He had a squad of Apokoliptian commandos under his command. Now, they could have been working as mercenaries, but given the late Queen Bee's contact before Mannheim started hogging their attention I think that's unlikely."

"Is Darkseid trying to attack Earth again?"

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Hopefully not. They still haven't gotten everything back together yet.

"I.. don't know. I'd say that I doubt it-. I was assuming that he'd give it a little while. I mean, he left us alone since the Renaissance…"

She flashes me a crooked smile. "Maybe you're too interesting to ignore?"

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Sadly possible.

"Maybe. Ah." She looks closely at my face with a small frown. "I-."

"You haven't been ignoring me. Artemis and Mom live on Earth and I understand how important what you're doing there is."

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At least she's trying to be nice about it.

"In… This instance, I was hoping to hit two birds with one stone."

She smiles faintly. "This should be good."

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Oh, this will be, I bet.

"I'm not much of an investigator. And.. I'm.. extremely concerned about some of the things Batman's doing while we're working on reconstruction. If would be… Helpful to me if you'd accept temporary reassignment to Earth. With a.. team, if you think it's appropriate."

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Oh, nice. Could be a chance to get some iconic Darkstar members onscreen...

She thinks for a moment. "Two birds."

"I miss you. I miss you not being around. I know we'd.. both be working a lot, but…"

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Getting to sleep together in the same bed on Earth probably sounds good.

She nods. "Still regret the five year thing, huh?"

"Yeah." I sigh. "I don't want you to ever think that.. I don't. If I could have thought of a better way for you to fulfil your professional ambitions I'd have suggested that-."

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Ah, a rare bit of affection from Jade's side. Good to see it isn't completely one-sided.

"Like what, Paul? Be honest."

"Infiltrating the Black Suns?"

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Wouldn't be much fun, I suppose.

"With who?"

"One of the… Sector's governments? I'm sure we could find.. someone doing something like that."

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Always amusing how Earth is one of the few powers in its' Sector with reach beyond its system, and Humanity's not even really a space-going species...

She looks at me fondly, but she's clearly not convinced. "There isn't always a perfect answer, Paul. I barely accepted the Darkstars. I only did it because I knew I wouldn't be getting any favors. If you'd persuaded someone to include me in an investigation just because you asked, it-. Wouldn't have worked."

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She wanted to get ahead on her own merits, not cronyism, after all.

I sigh. "Yeah."

"But…" She looks around as the rest of her squad hang around at maximum eavesdropping distance. "Since we're finished up here, I… Think I could accept getting reassigned. For a month or-"

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Ah, that bunch of gossips...

I dart forwards, wrapping my arms around her.

"-so-."

She rolls her eyes, but fondly. And she's smiling properly.

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They do make a sweet couple, when she lets down her defences.

"You'll need to arrange quarters for the rest of the squad."

"My place in Bir Tawil has plenty of room. Lanterns Coutara, Taranna and Yat are staying there."

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And if anything comes at Earth that four Orange Lanterns, two or more Green Lanterns, a Blue Lantern and a Yellow Lantern Batman can't deal with...

"And is Kara still living next door?"

I nod. "With Bleez."

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'Next door' as in a separate apartment within the tower, eh?

"Does she still do the thing with her towel?"

"Not.. really. It's on the equator. A towel's kind of… Superfluous."

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...Dare I ask?

Her eyes narrow slightly. "Maybe I should have come back sooner."

I nod. "Yes. You should."

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...Oh, my </takei>

Well, this should be interesting. I can only assume Jade's infiltration and information-gathering skills have only been improving in her time off-world, and combined with infiltration mantles, she and her squad should be able to dig up something interesting in no time. And any Darkstars that join her will get S-rank experience on Earth. Plus spending couples time with her is a bonus.

 

[Darko]

while we're working on reconstruction. If would be…

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"It would"

 

[Mr Zoat]

Quotation marks should be black.

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No, but nearly.

You idiot! You made it sound like she's casually showing off her body for you!

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I'm sure it's purely incidental.

"It would"

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[Old Knife]

You idiot! You made it sound like she's casually showing off her body for you!

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That is intentional. By focusing on his meaning, if she blows up then she can't blame him for phrasing because she would then have to accept that he loves her so much that he doesn't think of other women OR take it as admission of cheating. Which considering how this works? Is perfectly verifiable and thus returns us to one+embarrassing situation where she is wrong and a third party knows.