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

Certainly explains the Thanagarian invasion, Sheeda invasion, and Reach war. Yes.
I can't argue with comic book logic. But I suppose if you count pride and personal fulfillment as a benefit, then all of those groups were benefitting greatly through their wars. Also, logically, they should have easily conquered Earth, because of just how weak Earth should be. But comic book logic, so Earth wins. And if they did actually succeed, it wouldn't have even mattered that much to them. They are advanced enough that it would be a cheap victory, practically like a modern military conquering a country without any modern weapons. It also would have gained them next to nothing. The Reach has been at it for centuries, probably, and that's how long it took them to gain the advantages they have from it. And they really should have been opposed by that point. But comic book logic. They are being targeted now, at least.

Edit: Also, the only advantages the Reach has gained are space to grow, which they had plenty of, a fairly large buffer zone, which is nice, and a couple pieces of other societies that survived the Reach invasion. All their greatest assets are still those they developed and produced themselves.
 
We taste ions in the air; charged particles with electrons ready to leap.
Comma instead of semicolon. (You can tell because the second part is a description of the first part and not a standalone thought.)

LePaul's actions were actively insulting to the Kami. He failed to pay his respects in front of the gate entrance. He failed to purify himself with the spring water at the entrance. He failed to ring the Bell. He failed to make the saisen offering. And he failed to perform the proper ritual of respect upon leaving.

LePaul's Shinsen, aka food offering, would have also been actively insulting to the Kami. The food had not been blessed. And he offered a traditionally Indian dish.
Vae... Do you even read? >.> It WAS insulting, or at least a massive faux pas, and Susanoo even commented on it. The main reason he showed up at all is because he knew it was important.

I think OL has enough metaphysical dexterity by now to keep his touch light. Again, the description specifically called this fact out. This isn't a D&D cleric flooding the area with divine energy powerful enough to drive off the undead. Furthermore, I doubt the kami of this pagoda is so fragile; it's an ancient place, well-steeped in history, and Japanese spirits of places and things get stronger with age.

It should also be noted that Shinto places great value in acting with sincerity. OL has this in spades. And especially with the kami going out of their way to open themselves up to different presentations and accepting worship from nontraditional places, I think the Japanese pantheon is already prepared to accept clumsy but sincere contact.
 
So a small list.

Pagoda is the name of a building type, the Kami reside inside the shrine inside the building.

Susanoo-no-Mikoto was banished for being a generally horrible Kami, that banishment was never rescinded. Meaning unless Zoat completely rewrites things LePaul just got tricked.

LePaul's actions would have killed the local Kami residing in that places shrine.

LePaul's actions were actively insulting to the Kami. He failed to pay his respects in front of the gate entrance. He failed to purify himself with the spring water at the entrance. He failed to ring the Bell. He failed to make the saisen offering. And he failed to perform the proper ritual of respect upon leaving.

LePaul's Shinsen, aka food offering, would have also been actively insulting to the Kami. The food had not been blessed. And he offered a traditionally Indian dish.

LePaul refused Susano-o-no-Mikoto's offer to join him in eating the offerings, this would have been a further insult.


So this chapter was basically "LePaul's continual string of stupid actions." Which is honestly a bit impressive given he has a power ring that can download proper information directly into his brain.
I'm giving another Vaerminapost a like. What is happening to me.
 
Vae... Do you even read? >.> It WAS insulting, or at least a massive faux pas, and Susanoo even commented on it. The main reason he showed up at all is because he knew it was important.

I think OL has enough metaphysical dexterity by now to keep his touch light. Again, the description specifically called this fact out. This isn't a D&D cleric flooding the area with divine energy powerful enough to drive off the undead. Furthermore, I doubt the kami of this pagoda is so fragile; it's an ancient place, well-steeped in history, and Japanese spirits of places and things get stronger with age.

It should also be noted that Shinto places great value in acting with sincerity. OL has this in spades. And especially with the kami going out of their way to open themselves up to different presentations and accepting worship from nontraditional places, I think the Japanese pantheon is already prepared to accept clumsy but sincere contact.
It's specifically Tsukumogami that get stronger with age.

Animistic, Ancestral, and Human Kami, at least to my knowledge, do not.

And that's a close analogy, but it's more like he flooded the area with poison.

As a point, even just LePaul's regular, confirmed by Hinon, leakage of unchecked raw desire, should have been enough to contaminate the shrine's purity to the point the priests would have needed to pull an emergency Sengu.

Also you might want to go back and look at who showed up, check his history with killing giant unkillable snakes, and then take a look at how he refereed to himself when talking to LePaul. Because there's some telling stuff there if you have even a rough understanding of actual Japanese. (Though I will be fair here and say that may have just been Mr Zoat not knowing the proper way to do things and hitting snake eyes by accident.)
 
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All of the versions of the myth that I am familiar with claim that after he killed Yamata-No-Orochi, Susanoo-no-Mikoto then presented the sword he found in its tail to Amaterasu and was welcomed back after.

I have literally never seen it said otherwise until today.

Also Zoat is obviously using a version similar to the ones from the comic books, and that Susanoo was still a member of the pantheon.

I'm giving another Vaerminapost a like. What is happening to me.

Something terrible.

You may want to see a doctor.
 
If the Olympians are willing to jumpstart someone into apotheosis then it might be worth considering Prince Kon, that might be nepotism but he and the team have been in some pretty impressive fights, his avatar body would be what he is now, his conception is conceptually appropriate with war (born weapon) and the legend would be impressive
 
If the Olympians are willing to jumpstart someone into apotheosis then it might be worth considering Prince Kon, that might be nepotism but he and the team have been in some pretty impressive fights, his avatar body would be what he is now, his conception is conceptually appropriate with war (born weapon) and the legend would be impressive

It's possible that he still hasn't done enough for them to do that.

He also may not want it.

And it's also possible that they just can't do it even if they wanted to.
 
Regnancy (part 7)
28th October 2012
16:12 GMT


"Jogging in the mornings, go man go
Work outs in the health spa, muscles glow
!"

I wonder. Is that double-irony, or are they just playing it 'straight'?

A large hairy man doing curls behind a reception desk looks up from his forearm, mildly affronted that I'm interrupting him. Hairy not in the sense that the hair on the top of his head is long, but rather in the sense that he appears to have short hair coming from everywhere. "Yeah?"

"I'm looking for Kratos?"

He glances at the sign on the other side of the room, a stylised image of a muscular man lifting a massive barbell with the legend 'Kratos Gym' below it.

A couple of men lifting weights in the 'gym' part of the room glance my way, then dismiss me as a weedy manlet unworthy of their time.

"Who wants to see him?"

"My name's-"

"Paul."

"-and his nephew sent me."

He shrugs. "Prove it."

I take Hephaestaean's cup out of subspace and put it on the desk, melted circuitry still encrusted on the surface. "Good enough?"

He short-grunts, completes his curl and then carefully lays his dumbbell down on the small rack. The weights are equal to what a normal person might put on a barbell. Kratos Gym is no place for weeds. Or steroid users, according to the poster behind the desk.

"This way."

He leads me through the exercise space where men beefier than most cattle lift, clean, jerk and curl, bulging muscles smoothly exerting themselves. Ring scan shows that they're completely serious about the steroid thing, but the same restriction doesn't apply to magic.

My guide pushes through the doors at the back of the weight room, the sounds of excited cheers reaching my ears even as the sight of burly naked men grappling with one another reaches my eyes.

"Ugh!" / "Grgh!"

And between the wrestling circles strides the man I'm here to see. He's not actually much bigger than the others, but there's a certain presence to him that I feel from the other Olympians. Much like Ploutos, he's carved out a space for himself in the modern world where he's comfortable. Unlike Ploutos, it's an area filled with bodybuilders, power lifters and mixed martial artists.

Though they can get stuffed if they don't use pankration.

Kratos looks at me, and I can feel force in his stare. Oh. No, these aren't just meatheads. These are actual worshippers, men who've knelt at the shrine to the Ancient Greek God of Strength. And he's showing the benefits of that. Kratos grabs a stout staff from the wall and tosses it to my escort and nods his head towards the back office before heading towards it himself. My escort turns away from me towards one of the rings, where one of the contestants has the other in a chokehold and is weathering the increasingly weak elbow strikes trying to dislodge him. A finger comes up-

"End!"

-and there's a pause before the end of the staff strikes the winner in the middle of the forehead. The strikes seems to wake him up, causing him to release his opponent from the hold, blood flow to his brain fully restored. The contestants take a moment to gasp and recover themselves, then they hold out their right hands and clasp one another's wrists.

I follow Kratos into the office. He doesn't take the seat, preferring to loom at me across the desk from a standing position.

"What?"

"Zeus fell."

This doesn't appear to faze him. "Who?"

"Hephaestus, who became Hephaestaean."

"What does he want?"

"Your service."

"I don't break legs for the King of Olympus any longer."

"He doesn't need you to break legs. He needs you to inspire people to build strength. He wants to offer you-."

"He's drea-ming. I know you, Orange Lantern. I know what you do. I even respect it. You see those men out there?"

I nod.

"Lots of people want to come here. I test them and they fail. Those are the only ones who understand strength. You want everyone to wake up and seize power as if it was their birthright?" He looks at me, looking slightly amused. "It won't happen. Most people are helots, and they're happy like that."

"And you don't want the job of changing that?"

"I don't want the job of changing that."

"How about the job of God of War?"

"What happened to Ares?"

"Hammer to the groin."

"Heh. Hephaestus had cause. But I don't want the job. War is slaughter. Any weak idiot can pull a trigger. That's not me. Doing what you're told is not strength."

"Then change it yourself. Hephaestaean would be-."

"Change it yourself if you think it's so great. What do you think is going to happen?"

"I think that after the Sheeda attacks and angel invasion people are less inclined towards monotheism than they used to be. A dynamic pantheon with something to offer could make inroads in human civilisation."

"But what would they have to offer me?"

"A chance to test your philosophy on a wider canvas, and reach people who wouldn't have heard of you otherwise."

"These men understand strength. If I have to teach people strength, then they aren't worth teaching. I don't care about philosophy. I don't need to prove that I'm right to other people; it's enough that I know that I am."

"And if everyone became strong?"

"Then even I could not teach all of them how to use that strength."

"Nothing I or Hephaestaean could do to change your mind?"

"Nothing."

"Alright." I take a card with my contact details on out of subspace and lay it on his desk. "If you think of anything you want to talk about, get in touch."

"You have shown respect by making this offer." He shakes his head. "But I will not ever accept it. Hephaestaean should just form his own cult without any other Olympians. After all this time, we are all used to working apart."

"It might come to that. But I'd like to try talking to people first."

He smiles. It's not a friendly expression.

"That's not what I have heard."
 
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"Heh. Hephaestus had cause. But I don't want the job. War is slaughter. Any weak idiot can pull a trigger. That's not me. Doing what you're told is not strength."

"Then change it yourself. Hephaestaean would be-."

"Change it yourself if you think it's so great..."

10/10 response
 
wonder. I that double-

'Is that'

desk look up from his forearm, mildly affronted that I'm interrupting

'looks up'

A couple of men lifting weights in the 'gym' part of the room glance my way, then dismiss me as a weedy manlet unworthy of their time

Seeing as you're fairly muscular, I can only imagine how muscular these guys are.

Kratos Gym is no place for weeds. Or steroid users, according to the poster behind the desk.

I guess the god if strength doesn't like cheating.

Lots of people want to come here. I test them and they fail. Those are the only ones who understand strength. You want everyone to wake up and seize power as if it was their birthright?" He looks at me, looking slightly amused. "It won't happen. Most people are helots, and they're happy like that."

So he basically thinks that people are sheep.

And you don't want to job of changing that?"

'the job'

"These men understand strength. If I have to teach people strength, then they aren't worth teaching. I don't care about philosophy. I don't need to prove that I'm right to other people; it's enough that I know that I am

He may be an asshole but at least he's self confident.

"It might come to that. But I'd like to try talking to people first."

He smiles. It's not a friendly expression.

"That's not what I have heard

He's got you there.
 
Honestly, if she didn't blow herself up over the course of a Sandman plotline, offering Ishtar the position of the war goddess might not be a bad idea. She might even make a good dynastic match to tie pantheons together. If looking exclusively within the Grecian mythos, ascending Odysseus is probably one's best bet. "All warfare is based on deception" and all that, and Odysseus, as the author of the trojan horse idea, is the mythological epitome of the deceptive warfare, small unit tactics and essentially modern "spec ops" combat. And he's about limited warfare, so that's good too. And he's on good terms with Athena.
 
Honestly, if she didn't blow herself up over the course of a Sandman plotline, offering Ishtar the position of the war goddess might not be a bad idea. She might even make a good dynastic match to tie pantheons together. If looking exclusively within the Grecian mythos, ascending Odysseus is probably one's best bet. "All warfare is based on deception" and all that, and Odysseus, as the author of the trojan horse idea, is the mythological epitome of the deceptive warfare, small unit tactics and essentially modern "spec ops" combat. And he's about limited warfare, so that's good too. And he's on good terms with Athena.

They already have a war god connected to the strategic side of war, Athena.

They need a god that's more about brute force.
 
That was easily the gayest this fic has ever gotten.

Not tempted to spent a little time "wrestling" yourself, Paul? :D

Jade would probably enjoy watching...

Kratos idea of strength seems to be total self-sufficiency, pretty shortsighted. Paul is all about being-greater-than-the-sum-of-it's-parts so I'm surpried he even tried to convince Kratos. I don't think he would make a good war god.
 
28th October 2012
16:12 GMT


"Jogging in the mornings, go man go
Work outs in the health spa, muscles glow
!"

I wonder. Is that double-irony, or are they just playing it 'straight'?
I mean, they could follow some of the old practices, like the mentor-student relationships... But honestly, I bet it's played straight but entirely non-sexual. :p They just have a hell of an appreciation for the male form, given who they follow.

A large hairy man doing curls behind a reception desk looks up from his forearm, mildly affronted that I'm interrupting him. Hairy not in the sense that the hair on the top of his head is long, but rather in the sense that he appears to have short hair coming from everywhere. "Yeah?"

"I'm looking for Kratos?"
...Huh, an actual bear. :p

He glances at the sign on the other side of the room, a stylised image of a muscular man lifting a massive barbell with the legend 'Kratos Gym' below it.

A couple of men lifting weights in the 'gym' part of the room glance my way, then dismiss me as a weedy manlet unworthy of their time.
No doubt recognising that he cheats for his muscles. Which he basically does, as the Ring does all the work.

"Who wants to see him?"

"My name's-"

Paul.
Heh. Honestly, you could probably have used Pavlos and not seemed at all unusual in this place.

"-and his nephew sent me."

He shrugs. "Prove it."
Now how's he meant to do...

I take Hephaestaean's cup out of subspace and put in on the desk, melted circuitry still encrusted on the surface. "Good enough?"

He short-grunts, completes his curl and then carefully lays his dumbbell down on the small rack. The weights are equal to what a normal person might put on a barbell. Kratos Gym is no place for weeds. Or steroid users, according to the poster behind the desk.
:confused: ...Okay, that works. Also, good to see they're dedicated to natural improvement.

"This way."

He leads me through the exercise space where men beefier than most cattle lift, clean, jerk and curl, bulging muscles smoothly exerting themselves. Ring scan shows that they're completely serious about the steroid thing, but the same restriction doesn't apply to magic.
Oh? Interesting. Spells to amplify the benefits of working out, or to heal up the bad kind of physical damage?

My guide pushes through the doors at he back of the weight room, the sounds of excited cheers reaching my ears even as the sight of burley naked men grappling with one another reach my eyes.

"Ugh!" / "Grgh!"
...I suppose they're not your type, but for some, this might well be a candy-shop. x3

And between the wrestling circles strides the man I'm here to see. He's not actually much bigger than the others, but there's a certain presence to him that I feel from the other Olympians. Much like Ploutos, he's carved out a space for himself in the modern world where he's comfortable. Unlike Ploutos, it's an area filled with bodybuilders, power lifters and mixed martial artists.

Though they can get stuffed if they don't use pankration.
A place of sheer manliness, eh? Just imagine the smell.

Kratos looks at me, and I can feel force in his stare. Oh. No, these aren't just meatheads. These are actual worshippers, men who've knelt at the shrine to the Ancient Greek God of Strength. And he's showing the benefits of that. Kratos grabs a stout staff from the wall and tosses it to my escort and nods his head towards the back office before heading towards it himself. My escort turns away from me towards one of the bound, where one of the contestants has the other in a chokehold and is weathering the increasingly weak elbow strikes trying to dislodge him. A finger comes up-
...And now i can't help but picture him as the memetic Gigachad. And it is glorious.

"End!"

-and there's a pause before the end of the staff strikes the winner in the middle of the forehead. The strikes seems to wake him up, causing him to release his opponent from the hold, blood flow to his brain fully restored. The contestants take a moment to gasp and recover themselves, then they hold out their right hands and clasp one another's wrists.
...And then tense their biceps. It's customary!

I follow Kratos into the office. He doesn't take the seat, preferring to loom at me across the desk from a standing position.

"What?"

"Zeus fell."
And no-one's about to go pick him up this time. On the other hands, he still has all his tendons...

This doesn't appear to faze him. "Who?"

"Hephaestus, who became Hephaestaean."
Nice that he doesn't dispute the idea of Zeus being overthrown, merely a matter of which son did it.

"What does he want?"

"Your service."
I don't know, Kratos really doesn't seem the joining type, from the looks of all this.

"I don't break legs for the King of Olympus any longer."

"He doesn't need you to break legs. He needs you to inspire people to build strength. He wants to offer you-."
...Dear god, imagine him as god of War. Every soldier would look like they walked straight out of 80's action movies!

"He's drea-ming. I know you, Orange Lantern. I know what you do. I even respect it. You see those men out there?"

I nod.
I suppose he would. OL seeks to make people better themselves, even if most can't be bothered.

"Lots of people want to come here. I test them and they fail. Those are the only ones who understand strength. You want everyone to wake up and seize power as if it was their birthright?" He looks at me, looking slightly amused. "It won't happen. Most people are helots, and they're happy like that."

"And you don't want to job of changing that?"
Sadly, he's probably right. Being a badass takes effort most people won't stick with.

"I don't want the job of changing that."

"How about the job of God of War?"
Blades of Chaos optional, I hope (because those suckers were welded into game!Kratos' forearm bones.)

"What happened to Ares?"

"Hammer to the groin."
And it couldn't have happened to a more suitable target.

"Heh. Hephaestus had cause. But I don't want the job. War is slaughter. Any weak idiot can pull a trigger. That's not me. Doing what you're told is not strength."

"Then change it yourself. Hephaestaean would be-."

"Change it yourself if you think it's so great. What do you think is going to happen?"
Okay, this is gold. Kratos knows what he wants, what he is, and there's no amount of cajoling or sweet-talking OL can do to alter that.

"I think that after the Sheeda attacks and angel invasion people are less inclined towards monotheism than they used to be. A dynamic pantheon with something to offer could make inroads in human civilisation."

"But what would they have to offer me?"
Well... I suppose he is out in the world and active, as Hephaestaean decreed, even if it's only on a small scale.

"A chance to test your philosophy on a wider canvass, and reach people who wouldn't have heard of you otherwise."

"These men understand strength. If I have to teach people strength, then they aren't worth teaching. I don't care about philosophy. I don't need to prove that I'm right to other people; it's enough that I know that I am."
...Yep, he is a giga-Chad.

"And if everyone became strong?"

"Then even I could not teach all of them how to use that strength."
His style definitely suggests a more one-on-one methodology.

"Nothing I or Hephaestaean could do to change your mind?"

"Nothing."
...Well, there goes the idea of seduction. :p

"Alright." I take a card with my contact details on out of subspace and lay it on his desk. "If you think of anything you want to talk about, get in touch."

"You have shown respect by making this offer." He shakes his head. "But I will not ever accept it. Hephaestaean should just form his own cult without any other Olympians. After all this time, we are all used to working apart."
Can't blame the fella for wanting to help out his family even after all they'd dobe to him...

"It might come to that. But I'd like to try talking to people first."

He smiles. It's not a friendly expression.

"That's not what I have heard."
Well, he usually does. If they don't want to talk, or he knows that they won't, then he busts out the firepower.

Funnily, I had images of this scene running through my head this whole chapter. A pity OL didn't have his own Armstrong to speak Kratos' true language. At any rate, the offer was made, the answer given. And now the question has to be asked: who else can OL ask to be the new God of War? Ah, well. On to the next cameo flying visit.


Mr Zoat, some corrections:
Should the 'Paul' be in Quotation marks, if the Ring is speaking aloud?
...and put in on the desk...
...and put it on the desk...
My escort turns away from me towards one of the bound,
...Not sure what that means, but is it correct?
"A chance to test your philosophy on a wider canvass...
"A chance to test your philosophy on a wider canvas...
 
Kratos idea of strength seems to be total self-sufficiency, pretty shortsighted. Paul is all about being-greater-than-the-sum-of-it's-parts so I'm surpried he even tried to convince Kratos. I don't think he would make a good war god.
I… didn't get that impression. To me, it seemed more about the drive to improve oneself in general, given the respect he seems to have for Paul even if he focuses on physical improvement, and sheer willpower.

Though it's too early to tell either way given how little we've seen of him without him spelling his philosophy out for us.
 
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That was easily the gayest this fic has ever gotten.

Not tempted to spent a little time "wrestling" yourself, Paul? :D

Jade would probably enjoy watching...

Kratos idea of strength seems to be total self-sufficiency, pretty shortsighted. Paul is all about being-greater-than-the-sum-of-it's-parts so I'm surpried he even tried to convince Kratos. I don't think he would make a good war god.
No.

Kratos's idea of strength is the Strength of Self.

Which is why he was so disdainful of LePaul. Because LePaul has no personal strength. Take away his rings, take away his power armor, and he's pretty much nothing.

And what probably makes it worse to Kratos? LePaul is nothing by choice. Because LePaul could easily learn to fight without all his crutches. He just refuses to.
 
No.

Kratos's idea of strength is the Strength of Self.

Which is why he was so disdainful of LePaul. Because LePaul has no personal strength. Take away his rings, take away his power armor, and he's pretty much nothing.

And what probably makes it worse to Kratos? LePaul is nothing by choice. Because LePaul could easily learn to fight without all his crutches. He just refuses to.
I saw it more as the strength to want to improve. Paul does this, but most people are fine with the status quo and not doing anything to make things better for themselves.
 
I realize calling this Kratos a giga-Chad or a gym bro is convenient shorthand, but I'd like to think about his attitude for a moment. I reckon folks like both Armstrongs in FMA and a lot of hunters could find common ground with Kratos' core traits. Who else? Real or fictional.
I like this guy, I'd like to hear about more characters like him. His dismissiveness towards organized warfare in particular I can only compare to warrior-philosophers who become monks.
 
Don't tell me Paul is going to become a substitute war god. With the conflict with the reach, possible future human or metahuman converts Paul could put them through training subcontract some trainers/ Artemis's paternal familial ties as well as the amazons. Offer them an enhancement and an opportunity to fight for humanity either on earth or in the stars.
 

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