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

Razorfloss · Feb 13, 2021

Paul is just infuriating to fight lmfao. Even when you kill him he's not dead.

Vaermina · Feb 13, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
"Yes, Illustres." The commanding officer of the L.E.G.I.O.N. ship carrying them is a clicker, though not one I've interacted with before. "They are heading to the airlock now."

You know... I think Zoat has forgotten that under his own rules magic shouldn't work in space...

Chojin Patriarch · Feb 13, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
10th July 2012
16:01 GMT

"Why do you want an escort?"

Lantern Ragnar frowns at me as we fly towards where the L.E.G.I.O.N. flotilla are picking through the wreckage.

No mention of the Leentniar, or have they quit the system to proceed to their new digs? Though I honestly doubt they want to stay anywhere near a place that had what happened occur. That's a religious experience for some races...

"I did die, Lantern Ragnar."

"For the second time. Do your species… Not die?"

No, but some members do have a habit of not staying dead...

"Not in the sense of becoming completely inert. How much awareness we retain after our organic death is… Variable, but I have an arrangement with my religion's God of the Dead so I'm really just expecting to open my incorporeal eyes in Erebos if someone manages to kill-me kill-me. Are you religious?"

"No, not even slightly. There are two major Source-worshipping religions on my world; one native and one not. And local… Tribal religions." He shakes his head. "But I've never cared about that; death is simply something I will face as I would any other enemy."

A proper Fighter. Caring only for the foe in front of him, and letting lesser men handle the strategy and logistics of war...

"That's a little unfair; Death's supposed to be quite a nice woman."

"Your people's Death God is a woman?"

Is that such a shock? Aren't there plenty of cultures have women tend to the dead? Effectively seeing them out of the world as they saw them in, if you will...

"Ah… No. Our God of the Dead is male, but he's the god who rules the souls of those who have died. He's not responsible for the actual process of death."

"You have a separate God of Death and God of the Dead? Or is the God of Death merely a functionary?"

Ah, how to explain the concept of a psychopomp? Presumably Ragnar's not that well-read...

"We have a God of Death, but I've never met… Them. And I'm not completely sure that… When your gods are beings you can meet and speak to in the way I'm speaking to you, you have to take into account the fact that what your religion tells you about them might not be accurate. I'm not sure that Thanatos is.. really a separate individual from Death of the Endless, and while she can appear as pretty much anything she tends to default to female."

"Endless?" I think I'm losing him. "Are they gods in your religion? Ascended ancestors?"

Oh, where to even start? Although The Endless do have some measure of presence in many pantheons. Dream was known as Oneiros or the Oneiromancer in mythic Greece, after all.

"No, no, they… Okay, without wanting to get too far into magic theory, there's a thing called the Dreaming. It's sort of a giant mess of magic energy formed into unstable shapes by the thoughts and feelings of all living things. Intelligent creatures can arise from it, and they in turn can give rise to other creatures. In my religion, we call the most primal creatures 'titans' and their more material offspring 'gods'. Hades, my religion's God of the Dead, is a god. Erebos, the unliving self-aware pocket universe the souls of our dead exist in, is a titan. With me so far?"

Fairly logical, though Ragnar might be a little surprised by using the corpse of an ancient entity as a land of the dead...

He nods.

"Most gods are only known to their peoples' own homeworld due to the way the Dream is closer to the material universe in some places. There are… Some records of titans being known in multiple places, but they're so primal that they're almost natural forces. The Endless are a group of seven beings of vast arcane power who don't appear to be a part of the system I just described, despite having massive influence over all of everything. Sort of… Supernatural functionaries. One rules the Dreaming, one welcomes every soul to life and waves in farewell upon its physical death, one has a record of everything that has ever happened and will ever happen… I'm not entirely sure what the other…"

In no particular order: Death, Destiny, Dream, Destruction, Desire, Despair and Delirium (formerly Delight.) Strange and wondrous folk all round, but not to be crossed.

I was sitting on the moon.

"Four…"

Oh, hey, he finally remembered clearly!

I was sitting on the moon, and… Oh sugar.

"Illustres?"

Is Ragnar going to have to catch you with a construct environmental field? Remember, you can't lose focus on Avarice now without consequences...

"There was a period when I was merged with the Ophidian when we had a bit of a meltdown. I never really… My thoughts at the time were such a mess that I couldn't remember it very well. But… I… Think one of the Endless came to see me."

I gulp, carefully not letting my fears get above a certain psychological level because I can't do that any more without risking spacing myself.

Good to see he remembers that too. Ah, the heavy lifting Enlightenment did for him...

"Desire, whose physical form is an androgynously attractive hermaphrodite of whatever species is looking at them. Apparently, we were 'a delightful mess'."

He shakes his head. "I don't know what significance that has to you, but it means nothing to me."

And it's best to keep it that way. Desire is the most mercurial of all the Endless, after all. Such is the nature of one who embodies Passion in many forms...

"I don't know what it means to me either. Probably not a lot, in practical terms. If I can't fix this myself they might be willing to give me a hand, but… Ah. The only story I heard about them actually helping someone-."

"They immediately betrayed them." He nods. "We have cautionary tales like that on Betrassus."

Though their tales probably focus more on the battlefield sense of helping. One army fighting a losing battle when an ally arrives, crushes the foe, but when the first form up to greet them as friends, they're attacked in turn?

"Technically, they didn't betray the woman. They just… Only got them exactly what they wanted, and the woman in question didn't ask what would happen next."

"That was short sighted of her."

Understandable, really. Few people consider the consequences of their actions. Not the simple ones they think will have no consequences, especially...

The edge of my construct shield begins to shimmer as we approach the site of the explosion that killed me. Ugh, Kalmin is still making preparations for his return home wasn't interested in coming to view the site once he got enough data to conclude that it was just the result of a mass of qwa matter being detonated in the same place rather than anything creative. There's no actual qwa matter left, but q'ardajin mythology describes the stuff as a manifestation of the Anti-Monitor's hatred for creation and… Given the energy residue that I'm flying through I'm not going to dismiss the claim out of hand.

No doubt Kalmin's seen plenty of Qwa-matter explosions before... From a very safe distance, of course. He may be warlike, but he's no fool.

"She was only in her late teens…"

I look at Lantern Ragnar, and check how old he.. is. Probably a little older than her, but not by much. Ah, he did fail to recognise that I was a far more capable ring-duellist than him when we first me. Thinking of which…

Bah, teenagers.You want those who give no thought to consequences? Prime example, folks.

"So when are you planning on challenging me?"

"When you are fully recovered. There is no satisfaction to be had in beating you when you are injured. I want to overcome you when you are at your best; nothing else will satisfy me."

Well, at least he's honest about it.

"Could be a wait. How are you finding the war so far?"

"I have.. learned a great deal since I arrived on Maltus. War is… It is not what I thought it would be."

Less one-on-one honour, more mass destruction, than you expected?

"What did you think it would be?"

"As it is on Betrassus; small bands of skilled warriors confronting one another to decide the wider conflict. We Lanterns in combat with their Scarab Warriors. Even after Clarissi Dox explained the.. reality to me, I did not believe it in my soul until I saw the first battles. The industrial capacities of entire worlds turned to the purpose of destruction. It's… Horrible. The sheer.. volume of death in even… Relatively trivial skirmishes. I have to use my ring to properly appreciate it. And it's made me all the more grateful to Sinestro for sparing my Sector this industrial warfare."

Ah, if only you could see the galaxy of Warhammer 40,000. That is a prime example of total war. Where millions of Men can be fed into a meat grinder of a battle for the sake of a delaying action. Where the average weapon can tear a common soldier limb from limb, reduce them to less than ash, or leave them writhing in endless agony...

"Have you had a chance to fight a scarab yet? I wouldn't want you to get too disillusioned."

"No, but Clarissi Dox has promised me a mission with a high chance of encountering one."

Oh, let me guess...

"Oh? New offensive?"

"No." He smiles. "I'm your bodyguard until you're back to full mission fitness. The Reach will want to check that you are dead, which almost certainly means they will send the strongest Scarab Warriors they have!"

Of course he is. At least the Reach understand that if there's no body, they're probably not dead...

I take a moment to check the interdiction fields. Yes, they're operating.

"You know my next mission is to Qward..?"

Sounds perfect for Ragnar. Plenty of Righteous Face-Punching of foolish Qwardian sellouts.

"It was tremendously entertaining last time!"

"Illustres to Third Principle. Are the thaumaturgists ready?"

Oh, Ragnar is just a peach... Interesting ship name. Reference to some law of magic, or an in-joke for a Maltusian bureaucrat?

"Yes, Illustres." The commanding officer of the L.E.G.I.O.N. ship carrying them is a clicker, though not one I've interacted with before. "They are heading to the airlock now."

"Thank you."

I nod and close the channel. Just have to hope this works.

Actual likelihood of this working, folks?

Well, looks like OL is wasting no time trying to get the rest of his soul untangled from the Honden. Let's hope he can do it quickly, before the Reach inevitably show up. One of the most annoying kind of mission, right behind NPC Escorts: Defend an NPC during a ritual or procedure...

Darko · Feb 13, 2021

Chojin Patriarch said:
No mention of the Leentniar, or have they quit the system to proceed to their new digs? Though I honestly doubt they want to stay anywhere near a place that had what happened occur. That's a religious experience for some races...

Or the Reach wiped them out.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Oh, where to even start? Although The Endless do have some measure of presence in many pantheons. Dream was known as Oneiros or the Oneiromancer in mythic Greece, after all.

And Morpheus.

Chojin Patriarch said:
And it's best to keep it that way. Desire is the most mercurial of all the Endless, after all. Such is the nature of one who embodies Passion in many forms...

Don't forget Delirium, and I guess pre character development Dream.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Actual likelihood of this working, folks?

Magic dice roll says maybe.

Mr Zoat · Feb 13, 2021

thebishop8 said:
NOTHING AT ALL OF ANY CONSEQUENCE

THANK YOU FOR YOUR VALUABLE CONTRIBUTION.

Darko said:
'Does'
'anything, she'

I think those are fine.

'home, so he wasn't'
'we first met'

Darko said:
The title for this chapter should be Anti Thesis part one instead of Back Door part 22.

Thank you, corrected.

Coltsguy said:
Oof. That should be 'recognize' unless that's a regional thing, 'ring-duelist' unless the same thing, and 'when we first met' on the last one.

*Pats American on the head in British.*

LZB1285 · Feb 13, 2021

Vaermina said:
You know... I think Zoat has forgotten that under his own rules magic shouldn't work in space...

My understanding of it was that working magic in deep space required either the patience to soak up the low level background energy until it is at a usable level. Or bring your own power source with you. OL has brought a ship with mages onboard, who likely have their own power.

We'll just have to wait and see.

Ngamer11 · Feb 13, 2021

Vaermina said:
You know... I think Zoat has forgotten that under his own rules magic shouldn't work in space...

LZB1285 said:
My understanding of it was that working magic in deep space required either the patience to soak up the low level background energy until it is at a usable level. Or bring your own power source with you. OL has brought a ship with mages onboard, who likely have their own power.

We'll just have to wait and see.

In Episode 99: Plutonian, Paul noted that the Star Conquerors were already close to finding a way to crack the problem that is using magic in deep space. I wouldn't be surprised if Paul gave that data to Dox to have their magicians working on how to do it reliably.

Frank Iannetta · Feb 13, 2021

Also, the Martians know Dream as Lord L'zoril.

rkyeun · Feb 13, 2021

Still waiting for infinite enlightened hondenporting orange spider babies to assimilate the universe.

Mr Zoat · Feb 13, 2021

rkyeun said:
Still waiting for infinite enlightened hondenporting orange spider babies to assimilate the universe.

...

Okay.

Sckarred · Feb 13, 2021

"I did die, Lantern Ragnar."

"For the second time. Do your species… Not die?"

"Among people in my line of work two deaths is basically what you need to be considered to have finished your internship."

Coda · Feb 13, 2021

Vaermina said:
You know... I think Zoat has forgotten that under his own rules magic shouldn't work in space...

Um... no, Zoat's rules say that magic works less effectively as you're farther away from a source of arcane power, and that stuff with enough innate/imbued magical power will still function in space, though possibly diminished.

The idea that a group of researchers can go out to look for signs of magic seems entirely in line with established precedent. It might even be easier with less background noise.

HereforZooat · Feb 13, 2021

Sorry, how did Gozzi make an exact duplicate of OL's body despite his tattoos? I'm aware that there are ways to bypass his tattoos for tactical purposes, he can be located by various passive scanners and he's obviously not innately invisible, but for the type of scans that would be sufficient to make a body duplicate, he should be immune to those.

Senevri · Feb 13, 2021

HereforZooat said:
Sorry, how did Gozzi make an exact duplicate of OL's body despite his tattoos? I'm aware that there are ways to bypass his tattoos for tactical purposes, he can be located by various passive scanners and he's obviously not innately invisible, but for the type of scans that would be sufficient to make a body duplicate, he should be immune to those.

Easiest answer? Paul uploaded his own scans to Hinon's ring at some point as a precaution. Gozzi got the scans from her.

HereforZooat · Feb 13, 2021

Also, while I'm here, was there ever any answer as to why OL couldn't recruit a human for the OLC, then dose them with the Garrick formula in order to make an Uber Lantern? For the main character, sure, he has weird soul shenanigans that prevent him from stomping every combat encounter, it's hard enough as it is to have meaningful challenges. But it's apparently extremely easy to make Flashes, and there's little existing reason why that person couldn't also have a ring.

Although it's already pretty hard to not have every fleet encounter go: OL teleports into Reach ship, dumps huge bomb out of subspace with a half second fuse, teleport out, repeat.

Mr Zoat · Feb 13, 2021

HereforZooat said:
Also, while I'm here, was there ever any answer as to why OL couldn't recruit a human for the OLC, then dose them with the Garrick formula in order to make an Uber Lantern? For the main character, sure, he has weird soul shenanigans that prevent him from stomping every combat encounter, it's hard enough as it is to have meaningful challenges. But it's apparently extremely easy to make Flashes, and there's little existing reason why that person couldn't also have a ring.

Although it's already pretty hard to not have every fleet encounter go: OL teleports into Reach ship, dumps huge bomb out of subspace with a half second fuse, teleport out, repeat.

Firstly, there's a hard cap on how fast a construct can appear. A Lantern going at Flash speed is going to have the same problem as the SI sometimes does when he accelerates his thoughts; it's too slow. Then you've got the known risk of teh Flash-Lantern going orange-light-crazy and no one being able to stop them.

quietwhile · Feb 13, 2021

HereforZooat said:
Also, while I'm here, was there ever any answer as to why OL couldn't recruit a human for the OLC, then dose them with the Garrick formula in order to make an Uber Lantern? For the main character, sure, he has weird soul shenanigans that prevent him from stomping every combat encounter, it's hard enough as it is to have meaningful challenges. But it's apparently extremely easy to make Flashes, and there's little existing reason why that person couldn't also have a ring.

Although it's already pretty hard to not have every fleet encounter go: OL teleports into Reach ship, dumps huge bomb out of subspace with a half second fuse, teleport out, repeat.

Also: a lot of idle souls nearby that could possibly be a decent anchor to the dreaming

fappingtoyourpost · Feb 14, 2021

Vaermina said:
You know... I think Zoat has forgotten that under his own rules magic shouldn't work in space...

Souls fanonically continue existing in space, and the magic in this episode has all been soul magic facilitated by Paul's soul being made of orange light.

Maxx Crowley · Feb 14, 2021

Small niggle.

Isn't Para-Paul's soul like...literally the Ophidian's heart?

Or did that change?

sourav chakroborty · Feb 14, 2021

India is the 4th strongest military by the most recent estimate as well as the 2nd largest military by manpower. Its also 6th largest economy (5th before the pandemic). So India is disintegrating, but smaller countries like UK, France or Germany are ok?

Someguy Somewhere · Feb 14, 2021

Maxx Crowley said:
Small niggle.

Isn't Para-Paul's soul like...literally the Ophidian's heart?

Or did that change?

If I understand correctly Pre-Merging, Pauls soul did exist as a crazy patchwork of energies being collected by his tattoos. Not organized into something that properly resembles a DC WTR soul structure, but was heading in that direction.

Post-Merging he had a full on soul made with the above, plus a LOT of orange light, that was Functional as far as souls went, but still rather warped by it's formation. This injection of orange light could be termed the 'Heart of the Ophidian' since after this point, when he felt very strong desires he would 'hear' a beating sound. How much of the Ophidian was left behind, and what the 'heart' of an embodiment of avarice really means, is currently not well understood. It's obviously not a literal heart, and it's clearly not her mind or any significant amount of her power, but it's enough of a tether to keep her connection to him solid, and allow him to speak with her and merge remotely.

My best Guess is that it could be a fragment of her soul, much like how Renegade Grayven gave a part of his own metaphysic to Lynn.

This 'heart' may, or may not, be directly connected with the OTHER side effects of the merging, his Enlightenment, which (aside from the coloured speech) deals with his knowledge and control of his personal desires. That appears to be a mental and spiritual alteration, which it appears that post Qward-matter bomb he's lost due to damage to his soul structure. The Last ability that came from the Merger is his ability to see emotions in others as coloured light. Pre Merger he could, with his ring, view some level of Desires in others. Post Merger, he was able to see with much more detail, and also see the other colours of the emotional spectrum.

Now....that Last bit....stands out. Post Merger Paul refereed to himself as a 'Metahuman' during talks with Harleen. Not Post Ring, or Post Tattoo. He has that ability independent of his rings. During that same talk he directly output information from his Optic Nerves to Harleen, so she could See her the way He Saw her.

EDIT: Back Here

Paul being from Earth Prime, as far as we know, doesn't have any native 'metagene' genetic abnormalities (nor an x-gene for the marvel pauls).
But he describes himself as a Metahuman, and if he was able to show information from his eyes rather from his soul with Harleen back then, it makes me think that there WAS a physical alteration to some degree that came with the merger.

Since having his body reformed, we don't know the status of his tattoo's (he had repaired damaged tattoo's from attacks that have removed physical and spiritual parts of him before, and seemed to keep them active after robotizing himself during the war with heaven.) And we haven't seen him 'Look' at anyone since the boom, so we can't confirm he can still see the rest of the spectrum.

We don't actually know how much his Enlightenment and other Post Merger Abilities are linked into each other.

Darko · Feb 14, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
No, no, no. I'm on good terms with Lord Hades and I intend to stay that way. I've already called in Lantern Mother of Mercy. Once our researchers have gone through the-" Largely vaporous. "-remains of the ships in the vicinity of the blast, we can put a few symbolic pieces of metal into a funerary urn and she can-" Eventually, once she gets here. "-transport it to Earth

Maybe she can do something similar with the Psion world and the place where Paul killed the Citadelians.

Mr Zoat said:
need to you accelerate

'you to'

Mr Zoat said:
reacquire all that parts of me. I

'that is part of me'

Mr Zoat said:
No, no, that isn't a problem. I'm more surprised that most species don't ensure that happens without intervention.

Probably because they have no idea that if they die in space their souls are stuck there.

Mr Zoat said:
I'd have to find a way to make one exist.

You have Kalmin for a red ring.

You know what, after the return to Qward episode he may have enough hope to make a ring for Kori.

Mr Zoat said:
If Jordan could beat him with a single normal green ring then I don't think that I need to rush a white ring.

Did Jordan fight Nekron in this universe?

Mr Zoat said:
unstable qwa-matter,

In the previous chapters you wrote this 'qwa matter'.

Mr Zoat said:
Impossible to say with any certainly. What I can say is that my friends and colleagues have adapted to me being me. If I change that radically now, that's going to interfere with all of those relationships. And I was actually pretty happy being me.

War does change people, and the added stability may do you some good.

Mr Zoat said:
If would have been

'It would'

Sorry for posting it before you put the chapter here, but I'm having internet problems so wanted to do this in case I lost the connection.

Mr Zoat · Feb 14, 2021

10th July 2012
16:07 GMT

"…reviewed your tattoos, of course, and I'm familiar with the operating principles." Atlanteans take to space like fish to water, which is probably a racist thing for me to think. Doctor Wilsone is trying to talk me into taking things slower while her colleagues check the parts of the site that the L.E.G.I.O.N. salvage engineers have already cleared. With how space tends to insulate things 'ground zero' is more the centre of a small and very hot nebula than a patch of wreckage, so they're using wide-beam cold guns to turn the material into something that can be handled. "But even with a system designed to draw energy constantly, you can't just shove in more energy without preparation."

"Have you factored in the fact that we're not on Earth?"

"Of course I've factored in the fact that we're not on Earth! That's the only reason why I'm spending time working out how to do this rather than dismissing the idea out of hand! Empty space tends to be mystically inert but that changes the moment someone dies there. In the relatively small area around us we've got the free-floating souls of Leentniar and Reach crews along with the less well defined energies that make up you."

"Given that the Leentniar are a space-dwelling culture, I don't think we have to worry about their souls having significant arcane force. And the Reach have never been observed as having any magic users."

"So you.. want to just eat their souls?"

We may not be in Atlantis… And Venturia may not legally be part of Atlantis any longer… But I'm pretty sure the laws against harvesting the souls of the dead predate the Sinking. They might not be N.E.M.O. law -and given how assimilation works, probably won't ever be- but it's unrealistic for me to expect most of the arcanists we hired to be alright with doing things like that.

I'm rather pleased about it, actually. That even when they're alone in the dark some people stick to what they know is right. Without prompting, even.

"No, no, no. I'm on good terms with Lord Hades and I intend to stay that way. I've already called in Lantern Mother of Mercy. Once our researchers have gone through the-" Largely vaporous. "-remains of the ships in the vicinity of the blast, we can put a few symbolic pieces of metal into a funerary urn and she can-" Eventually, once she gets here. "-transport it to Earth. I just need you to accelerate the part of the process by which I reacquire all the parts of me. I mean, there's essentially no background interference here. Can you isolate the individual souls?"

"… Yes. Slowly. As you pointed out, there's no background thaumic field here, which means that the only energy that's available for use is what we bring here with us, or take from the souls of those who died here."

"But that's a practical concern, isn't it? You don't have a moral problem with ensuring that these souls actually get to an afterlife, do you?"

"No, no, that isn't a problem. I'm more surprised that most species don't ensure that happens without intervention. But that won't be a quick process."

"I'll be trying to speed it up with my own abilities."

Some of my abilities. I don't want to try finding out what happens if I convert parts of my own soul into orange light. I mean, most of it was probably made of that anyway, but the aim here is to get all of me back as close to as-was as possible.

…

I mean, that's-. I suppose it might be possible to use this as a opportunity to change my makeup a little. Absorb a little violet light from Carol or Ghia'ta, a little blue from Alan… And if Dox is still talking to Sinestro, yellow from there. But do I want to try… 'Re-specing'?

Alright, think it through. The two reasons which immediately occur to me for doing that are 'power' and 'psychological stability'. Giving myself a balance of the colours somehow would in theory make it easier to use a white power ring, and those are supposed to be the most powerful. Most powerful for non-omnicide-related purposes. But I don't have one. To the best of my knowledge white rings don't actually exist, along with red rings, so I'd have to find a way to make one exist. Hinon knows how I know about them and she'd probably say if there was a larger problem with a white ring being active.

But what does a white ring actually get me in terms of power that having a close personal relationship with the Ophidian doesn't? I don't remember enough from the comics to know, other than maybe being a Nekron trump. And Nekron hasn't stuck his head above the parapet since that Dead Zone thing over a decade ago. If Jordan could beat him with a single normal green ring then I don't think that I need to rush a white ring.

And I've got no reason to believe that it would have helped me stop an angel with the Source's own cheat codes or a massive pile of unstable qwa matter, so it wouldn't have helped with the things I actually have problems with.

So that's a no. No reason to do it for power.

That leaves psychological stability. I'm perfectly aware that my behaviour is… Off-kilter, shall we say. And 'was' rather than 'is'. It's interesting to think that so much 'normal' human behaviour comes from people just not knowing what they want, or hesitating to go for it. Or… Maybe that was me. Would 'balancing' myself help there?

Impossible to say with any certainty. What I can say is that my friends and colleagues have adapted to me being me. If I change that radically now, that's going to interfere with all of those relationships. And I was actually pretty happy being me.

I smile.

Who'd have thought?

"Recall."

Faint orange threads appear, flowing towards me from all parts of this volume of space. As they connect… Yes, that's-. Ah, yes, I remember falling over at Laserquest and somehow gouging a chunk out of my knee and needing to get a plaster from their first aider! And since I couldn't roll my trouser leg up over the injury I had to take them off in the restaurant. I still had the scar until I came here!

And more importantly, I can feel it… 'Slot in', somewhere, in my network of desires. And it seems like I'm back to being at least dimly aware of my own desire network, which rather suggests that I'm going in the right direction.

I think Doctor Wilsone is staring at me, and I can see the lights of her spell casting shining through her faceplate. "What did you just do?"

I wait until the last of the orange threads finishes merging with me before replying.

"I pulled all the bits of me that were orange light into myself. Did you learn anything?"

She waves her hands around in a pattern of gestures I recognise as the gesture-component of laboratory-grade psychometric spells.

"Yes, but if you've already reintegrated everything I don't see that it matters."

"No, what I just did only works on orange light. Because I-" I raise my left hand. "-have an orange power ring, I can manipulate it directly. It's all the rest I need your help to recover. I'm hoping that the orange parts and the non-orange parts have enough in common that you can corral the rest for me."

"It would have been helpful if you warned me in advance and let me study it."

"We.. don't really have time. I don't want to sound smug here, but I'm a vital war asset. As long as I'm fully fit, anyway. We need to patch me up as much as possible now, and if the rest requires a longer term study then… It'll get one, but it'll slip down the priority list."

"Illustres, there are reasons why I didn't become a battle mage."

"I'm not asking you to get into a fight-."

"And it wasn't that. Battle mages have to be able to make snap decisions under pressure. Good decisions. I like to ruminate. I like to give serious subjects the consideration they deserve."

"Then why did you come here rather than staying in Venturia and working on the Dreaming stuff?"

"Because I want to make some progress within my lifetime. And because when the throne asks you to do something, you do it."

"I… Okay. Look, if you want to go home I can tell King Cyprian that you don't have the exact skill set that we're looking for. That way no disapprobation will fall on you."

"Thank you."

"But right now, I'd really like my soul back. So if you have something that might work and is unlikely to do any harm, please, just give it a go."

"Alright. Let me talk to my colleagues for a few minutes and I'll see what we can come up with."

Mr Zoat · Feb 14, 2021

Darko said:
'you to'
'that is part of me'
In the previous chapters you wrote this 'qwa matter'.
'It would'

Thank you, corrected.

Did Jordan fight Nekron in this universe?

RichardWhereat · Feb 14, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
10th July 2012
But what dose a white ring actually get me in terms of power that having a close personal relationship with the Ophidian doesn't?

does

I feel like this is going to take three episodes.

Mr Zoat · Feb 14, 2021

RichardWhereat said:
does

Thank you, corrected.

I feel like this is going to take three episodes.

I'm not planning on having it last that long.

Vaermina · Feb 14, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
But what does a white ring actually get me in terms of power that having a close personal relationship with the Ophidian doesn't?

Functionally Infinite Charge, the ability to bring the Dead back to life, no mind fuck, no elemental rock paper scissors weakness.

Handlewithcare · Feb 14, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
That leaves psychological stability. I'm perfectly aware that my behaviour is… Off-kilter, shall we say. And 'was' rather than 'is'. It's interesting to think that so much 'normal' human behaviour comes from people just not knowing what they want, or hesitating to go for it.

Not really surprising if you consider evolution.

Bascially every part of us humans is a good-enough compromise trade-off between time and energy constraints vs lack of information.

Or, simplified: we "buest guess" while trying to minimise effort. All the time.

Re White Ring: I find it odd he dismisses it so quickly based on power alone when his previous MO was "get everything, figure out uses later"

Dealing with the orange light already offered some surprises. The White Light might offer opportunities he simply can't see now.

Chojin Patriarch · Feb 14, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
10th July 2012
16:07 GMT

"…reviewed your tattoos, of course, and I'm familiar with the operating principles." Atlanteans take to space like fish to water, which is probably a racist thing for me to think. Doctor Wilsone is trying to talk me into taking things slower while her colleagues check the parts of the site that the L.E.G.I.O.N. salvage engineers have already cleared. With how space tends to insulate things 'ground zero' is more the centre of a small and very hot nebula than a patch of wreckage, so they're using wide-beam cold guns to turn the material into something that can be handled. "But even with a system designed to draw energy constantly, you can't just shove in more energy without preparation."

Like trying to force the output of a fire engine's pumps through a garden hose, for example. Sure, it's designed to funnel water, but not in so large an amount or at so high a pressure... I rather get the feeling that if the same logic applies to OL's tattoo's, the results of rushing could be explosive...

"Have you factored in the fact that we're not on Earth?"

"Of course I've factored in the fact that we're not on Earth! That's the only reason why I'm spending time working out how to do this rather than dismissing the idea out of hand! Empty space tends to be mystically inert but that changed the moment someone dies there. In the relatively small area around us we've got the free-floating souls of Leentniar and Reach crews along with the less well defined energies that make up you."

Admittedly, such souls would be thin, reedy things, given the Leentniar's lack of planetary residence to boost their spiritual density. And the Reach? While I doubt any of the crews were outright capital-E evil, they were still the baddies, so to speak...

"Given that the Leentniar are a space-dwelling culture, I don't think we have to worry about their souls having significant arcane force. And the Reach have never been observed as having any magic users."

"So you.. want to just eat their souls?"

I can see that being a big old nope for the Atlaneans. But doing so would end up integrating bits of them into OL's soul, and I doubt he's got any desire to lessen himself like that.

We may not be in Atlantis… And Venturia may not legally be part of Atlantis any longer… But I'm pretty sure the laws against harvesting the souls of the dead predate the sinking. They might not be N.E.M.O. law -and given how assimilation works, probably won't ever be- but it's unrealistic for me to expect most of the arcanists we hired to be alright with doing things like that.

I'm rather pleased about it, actually. That even when they're alone in the dark some people stick to what they know is right. Without prompting, even.

For anyone wondering, that's referring to a quote from Buckaroo Banzai: The bad guy's leader is giving a speech to his followers which includes the line "Character is what you are in the dark!"

Not sure if it's quoting something older, but the more people who see Buckaroo Banzai, the better!

"Where are we going?" "Planet Ten!" "When are we getting there?" "Real Soon!"

"No, no, no. I'm on good terms with Lord Hades and I intend to stay that way. I've already called in Lantern Mother of Mercy. Once our researchers have gone through the-" Largely vaporous. "-remains of the ships in the vicinity of the blast, we can put a few symbolic pieces of metal into a funerary urn and she can-" Eventually, once she gets here. "-transport it to Earth. I just need to you to accelerate the part of the process by which I reacquire all the parts of me. I mean, there's essentially no background interference here. Can you isolate the individual souls?"

I see they've already worked out procedures for this part of things.

Or they're just making it up as they go and setting some nice precedents.

"… Yes. Slowly. As you pointed out, there's no background thaumic field here, which means that the only energy that's available for use is what we bring here with us, or take from the souls of those who died here."

"But that's a practical concern, isn't it? You don't have a moral problem with ensuring that these souls actually get to an afterlife, do you?"

I doubt the Leentniar have their own afterlife, at least relating to their fleets... While the Reach? They seem too materialistic to care much for what happens after they die (and presumably their bodies get repurposed, exactly how you'd expect...

)

"No, no, that isn't a problem. I'm more surprised that most species don't ensure that happens without intervention. But that won't be a quick process."

"I'll be trying to speed it up with my own abilities."

Care to explain that, then? For the peanut gallery, and the research thaumaturgists?

Some of my abilities. I don't want to try finding out what happens if I convert parts of my own soul into orange light. I mean, most of it was probably made of that anyway, but the aim here is to get all of me back as close to as-was as possible.

…

I mean, that's-. I suppose it might be possible to use this as a opportunity to change my makeup a little. Absorb a little violet light from Carol or Ghia'ta, a little blue from Alan… And if Dox is still talking to Sinestro, yellow from there. But do I want to try… 'Re-specing'?

But would Best Snek still like the taste of your soul with all those nasty colours? You'd also be weakening a major war asset in the early days of the conflict, and possibly breaking multiple strategies Dox has worked out if you lose certain abilities.

Alright, think it through. The two reasons which immediately occur to me for doing that are 'power' and 'psychological stability'. Giving myself a balance of the colours somehow would in theory make it easier to use a white power ring, and those are supposed to be the most powerful. Most powerful for non-omnicide-related purposes. But I don't have one. To the best of my knowledge white rings don't actually exist, along with red rings, so I'd have to find a way to make one exist. Hinon knows how I know about them and she'd probably say if there was a larger problem with a white ring being active.

Even if you made a White Ring and had the ability to channel the Light, I doubt it would work at all... White rings will only exist if the White Light Entity allows them to. And it acts only when there's an extant threat to itself, like Nekron trying to rip open its' nest inside Earth.

But what dose a white ring actually get me in terms of power that having a close personal relationship with the Ophidian doesn't? I don't remember enough from the comics to know, other than maybe being a Nekron trump. And Necron hasn't stuck his head above the parapet since that Dead Zone think over a decade ago. If Jordan could beat him with a single normal green ring then I don't think that I need to rush a white ring.

And I've got no reason to believe that it would have helped me stop an angel with the Source's own cheat codes or a massive pile of unstable qwa matter, so it wouldn't have helped with the things I actually have problems with.

He's got a point. What if he had a white Ring then. Would the Qwa-matter rip along through the ring's connection to the Entity, and strike it directly?

Goodbye all life in the universe!

So that's a no. No reason to do it for power.

That leaves psychological stability. I'm perfectly aware that my behaviour is… Off-kilter, shall we say. And 'was' rather than 'is'. It's interesting to think that so much 'normal' human behaviour comes from people just not knowing what they want, or hesitating to go for it. Or… Maybe that was me. Would 'balancing' myself help there?

Good to see he can recognise that his Enlightened behaviour was atypical for a normal human being. The hard part is knowing whether he really wants that clarity again. Sure, it comes with things like Greedporting and massive Ring focus buffs, but the mental effects, man...

Impossible to say with any certainly. What I can say is that my friends and colleagues have adapted to me being me. If I change that radically now, that's going to interfere with all of those relationships. And I was actually pretty happy being me.

I smile.

I guess he does want Enlightenment back...Just a matter of the process involved in getting there. Will we see him create a ritual akin to the Green Lanterns' own, that forces the aspirant to confront all their desires, as he did so long ago, and accept them? Will any Orange Lantern have the courage to face themselves that way?

Who'd have thought?

"Recall."

Typical, not even warning the mage he's doing something so they can watch and scan...

Faint orange threads appear, flowing towards me from all parts of this volume of space. As they connect… Yes, that's-. Ah, yes, I remember falling over at Laserquest and somehow gouging a chunk out of my knee and needing to get a plaster from their first aider! And since I couldn't roll my trouser leg up over the injury I had to take them off in the restaurant. I still had the scar until I came here!

Not that you'd have seen it so clearly in the moment, I bet. Pain does wonders for messing with recall.

And more importantly, I can feel it… 'Slot in', somewhere, in my network of desires. And it seems like I'm back to being at least dimly aware of my own desire network, which rather suggests that I'm going in the right direction.

I think Doctor Wilsone is staring at me, and I can see the lights of her spell casting shining through her faceplate. "What did you just do?"

Ah, she wasn't completely caught off-guard. Wonder how many useful readings she'll got from it.

I wait until the last of the orange threads finishes merging with me before replying.

"I pulled all the bits of me that were orange light into myself. Did you learn anything?"

Wonder if that fixed the Honden up, or if bits of him are still mixed into the Leentniar's 'area'... It'd be interesting to see what effect that's having on them, I'll note.

She waves her hands around in a pattern of gestures I recognise as the gesture-component of laboratory-grade psychometric spells.

"Yes, but if you've already reintegrated everything I don't see that it matters."

Honey, does that look like a White Ring? One colour, not seven.

"No, what I just did only works on orange light. Because I-" I raise my left hand. "-have an orange power ring, I can manipulate it directly. It's all the rest I need your help to recover. I'm hoping that the orange parts and the non-orange parts have enough in common that you can corral the rest for me."

"It would have been helpful if you warned me in advance and let me study it."

Surely you're used to the impulsiveness of the Orange Lanterns? Or do you simply not have much contact with them?

"We.. don't really have time. I don't want to sound smug here, but I'm a vital war asset. As long as I'm fully fit, anyway. We need to patch me up as much as possible now, and if the rest requires a longer term study then… It'll get one, but it'll slip down the priority list."

"Illustres, there are reasons why I didn't become a battle mage."

Wanting to stay in one piece, for example. I doubt a battlefield is conducive to careful, rational experimentation...

"I'm not asking you to get into a fight-."

"And it wasn't that. Battle mages have to be able to make snap decisions under pressure. Good decisions. I like to ruminate. I like to give serious subjects the consideration they deserve."

And that's entirely sensible. Things like this are not simple matters to unravel.

"Then why did you come here rather than staying in Venturia and working on the Dreaming stuff?"

"Because I want to make some progress within my lifetime. And because when the throne asks you to do something, you do it."

Ah. I can see that. Refusing a command like that might be bad for the career. Why, you might even miss out on Tenure!

"I… Okay. Look, if you want to go home I can tell King Cyprian that you don't have the exact skill set that we're looking for. That way no disapprobation will fall on you."

"Thank you."

But I'm sure she'll still prefer to continue her work on this subject. Just not in the middle of a battle...

"But right now, I'd really like my soul back. So if you have something that might work and is unlikely to do any harm, please, just give it a go."

"Alright. Let me talk to my colleagues for a few minutes and I'll see what we can come up with."

I don't think they're going to need to rush. If they end up needing closer access to the site, they'll have to wait anyway...

Well, there's some surprising self-reflection on OL's part. Not that it'll stop him from doing what he wants to. And I've only just realised, the episode title: 'Anti-Thesis'... Is he going to end up turning someone's logical understanding on how things should work upside down, I wonder?

Impossible to say with any certainly.

Impossible to say with any certainty.

Senevri · Feb 14, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
Nekron trump. And Necron hasn't stuck his head above the parapet since that Dead Zone think over a decade ago.

Necron >Nekron, think>thing

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

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