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

mastermenthe · Nov 19, 2022

FuzzyZergling said:
I wonder; would being a nihilist prior to exposure make you more able to function while anti-lifed, or less?

Less, but it's not what you think.
A nihilist would still have been compelled to observe social norms and succumb to the drives of hunger and poverty as greater forces than his own personal philosophy.
Now? A nihilist would be totally unaffected mentally... in any way. With Anti-Life Justifying Their Thoughts/Philosophy, a Nihilist would experience no misery, no peace, only a permanent zen state of Flow without performing any Function.
Truly the "no thoughts, head empty" meme made manifest.

...Someone should go check that mausoleum of self-mummified Buddhist monks, the Anti-Life might have woken then up thinking it was the Destined Time.

Coda · Nov 20, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
dependant

dependent

Mastigos2 · Nov 20, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
"So I've been wondering: are you and Euanthe romantically involved?"

Her hands are withdrawn.

"Uh-aah, what?"

"Because it would be something to look forward to? Because that would mean that you're a prospective violet power ring user? Because it would be a sign of your psychological normalisation?"

"I don't think-. I haven't really… Thought about her that way. I don't think she thinks about humans that way."

"She's open to the idea."

She looks at me askance. "Should you be using your power like that? Isn't that unethical?"

"I didn't use my power. She came onto me. In a way that suggested that she didn't exactly get human interactions but thought it might be something I'd enjoy."

Ummm ... Paul already discussed this with her. Back in the "where is Constantine?" Arc. And Pamela kind of wasn't interested?

There was a whole digression about how Poison Ivy wasn't picking men as victims due to being a lesbian but more just regarded any lust from "Meat" as disgusting.

Also, whatever happened to the whole "about to grow a tree from the a seed stolen from the Garden of Eden" plotline that was supposed to make all plants on the planet demonbane? Because I thought that checkov's gun was about to fire there.

Mr Zoat · Nov 20, 2022

Earth 534834

8th February 1992
02:34 GMT +3

"You know… Ororo, I've been meaning to bring this up for a while."

Ororo's keeping an eye on the floodlight-lit playing field below us where the remains of the Genosha 'Self-Defence Force' are kneeling with their hands behind their backs. We're both more than a little concerned that the resistance fighters and mutant civilians policing our temporary holding area might take the opportunity to just kill them all. Not quite sure what we're going to do with them. They're the locals, after all.

"You are free to speak."

"Team balance. I realise that Charles took whatever mutants he could get when he started the X-Men, and that it was mostly to train them in using their abilities safely and usefully rather than crafting the best possible field team, but… It seems to me that we've got quite a lot of D-. People who can shoot things or smash them, but not a lot of people who can absorb damage or heal."

"I do not know of any mutants who have powers that allow them to heal others."

I frown. "Huh. Really?"

"If such powers were commonplace, mutants would be more widely accepted. People fear fighters more than physicians."

I nod. "So there aren't any, or we just haven't heard of them?"

"Mutant powers emerge without rhyme or reason. Though there is no reason to believe that healing powers cannot exist, if there were mutants with the power to heal, we would have no easy way to hear of them."

"Well, I'm going to count that as evidence in my favour." She gives me a dubious look. "Oh, come on, what's more evolutionarily useful: the ability for a member of a species that already has guns to fire low-grade explosives from their hands, or the ability to heal rapidly?"

"Evolution is seldom so simple. And the absence of an obvious precursor ability does not 'prove' the involvement of alien biologists."

I grin. "So are you taking the bet? It's just you and Henry who are holding out."

She'd clearly like to be able to say 'yes', but she masters herself. "No, though I will be happy to review any evidence you find. Should you actually find any."

"And I'll be happy to present it to you. How about tanks?"

"Tanks?"

"People who can take hits. A taser doesn't do much to me, but they hit Anne-Marie hard enough to stun her."

Of course, I only had to hold them off for the few moments it took her to activate the Impact Beam Ring, and then we were both immune to just about every weapon they had. The robots and power armour slowed us down a little, but Anne-Marie and I both have far more resilience than they could cope with. Well, when her ring's active in her case. It took a lot of electricity to down her, but she's actually quite a lot less tough than she is strong, something I hadn't really… Picked up on before.

"There are several such people in Cerebro's database, but most of them have made choices that would make joining the X-Men difficult."

Henry is a bit tougher than a normal human, but not by all that much and he's in gaol at the moment in any case. Logan heals faster, but he's not actually all that much harder to hurt than a normal human. And he made it very clear when I asked that while he's more used to being hurt than most people, it still hurts him just as much as anyone else. Apparently he gave up wearing body armour because it wasn't effective enough to make up for the pain of pulling partially-melted steel plates off his skin. Which is pretty fair.

"The easiest thing would be for people to find us, but that draws attention to the school, which… Has its own problems."

She nods solemnly.

"…mutant citizens of Gehosha will not tolerate…"

I wince as a man I recognise as the leader of a resistance group called 'The Acolytes' starts grandstanding for the benefit of the other mutant tourists. Apparently, the Acolytes are big fans of Magneto, which is a little odd because as far as I know he's never met them and he's always on the lookout for new mutant henchmen. Not sure how much of that attachment is a reaction to the radical anti-mutant practices of the Gehosha government, being drawn to his mutant-supremacist teaching as a result. Or I suppose they could be natural mutant-supremacists. As Sir Terry Pratchett wrote, 'Just because someone's a member of an ethnic minority, it doesn't mean that they're not a nasty, small-minded little jerk.'

I turn to Ororo. "Do you want to get that, or shall I?"

"I think that it may do him some good to interact with humans-"

There's a tiny hesitation which lasts nearly long enough to make me raise my eyebrows.

"-who are not mutants."

I smile and nod in gratitude, because it took a while for the X-Men to understand the point I was making there, and her acceptance of my terminology is a minor victory for both science and integration.

I give her a jaunty salute and then fly over to where Mr. Cortez is holding court. Surprising that a man of his mindset hasn't picked a 'mutant name', but I haven't had enough exposure to the mutant subculture to really be sure what that signifies.

A couple of his friends spot me as I get closer, but he himself doesn't react to me until I drop into his line of sight.

"Mister Cortez?" I smile warmly. "Is there a problem?"

"Not any longer." He looks.. genuinely pleased to see me, though living out in the Genoshan wilds hasn't exactly lent itself to regular washing. "Now we are free of our oppressors!"

The Genoshan government database says that he's Spanish, so I'm not all that sure how they were oppressing him from here. I don't want to… Imply anything, but for an island off the coast of Africa the Acolytes…

I'd be surprised if they were local, let's put it like that.

"Do any of you-"

He's turned back to the crowd. "We will establish Genosha as a home for all mutantkind!"

"-have any government experience, because-"

"Free from all who would enslave us!"

"-running a country is actually quite hard-."

"Free from all humans who hate and fear their us as their superiors!"

"Mister Cortez, I'm human."

That brings him up short. He turns on the spot. "What?"

I hold up my left hand, showing my glowing ring. "No x-gene, I'm afraid. Just an alien ring." I shrug. "I just really don't like slavery, and my.. girlfriend does have an x-gene. So if you could tone down the racism a bit, that would be splendid. Also, if you keep trying to incite a crowd to murder our prisoners, I'm not going to be very impressed. Look." I move my eyes from him to the now slightly less riled up crowd of holidaying mutants. "You've all had a very hard time. Why don't you head over to the hotels and get some rest in an actual bed. Then we can all get together and decide what to do with this lot tom-. Later today, when we're all thinking a bit more clearly?"

Mr. Cortez grimaces, then marches off, his Acolytes following behind him. One of them, a red haired woman, glances back for a moment before writing me off. With them gone, the rest of the crowd decide to-.

Somewhere near the back of the crowd I spot a hulking great man I recognise as the time traveller Cable. We make momentary eye contact and then he's gone, vanishing into the darkness. I could go after him, but… That sounds like a bad idea.

Alright, demagogue sent away, crowd dispersed, prisoners not going anywhere. Now all that's left-.

"So sugah." Anne-Marie drifts down to stand beside me. She's thrown a blouse and sarong on, but those really do more to emphasise the thing they're concealing than to actually conceal it. "What was that about a ring?"

Mr Zoat · Nov 20, 2022

Coda said:
dependent

Thank you, corrected.

Mastigos2 said:
Ummm ... Paul already discussed this with her. Back in the "where is Constantine?" Arc. And Pamela kind of wasn't interested?

There was a whole digression about how Poison Ivy wasn't picking men as victims due to being a lesbian but more just regarded any lust from "Meat" as disgusting.

Mr Zoat said:
I vaguely remembered writing something like that, but I forgot where it was. Isley believed that Euanthe's interest was in the SI due to their personal interactions, rather than in humans in general.

Also, whatever happened to the whole "about to grow a tree from the a seed stolen from the Garden of Eden" plotline that was supposed to make all plants on the planet demonbane? Because I thought that checkov's gun was about to fire there.

They're growing, but they don't interact with the Green particularly well so they're just seedlings.

hance1986 · Nov 20, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
He's turned back to the crowd. "We will establish Genosha as a home for all mutantkind!

mutantkind!"

Vaermina · Nov 20, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
"Evolution is seldom so simple. And the absence of an obvious precursor ability does not 'prove' the involvement of alien biologists."

I grin. "So are you taking the bet? It's just you and Henry who are holding out."

She'd clearly like to be able to say 'yes', but she masters herself. "No, though I will be happy to review any evidence you find. Should you actually find any."

The funny thing? He's actually wrong this time.

The "Alien Biologist" thing was just a Celestial smokescreen to cover up the natural evolution of humanity under the effects of The Horde.

Handlewithcare · Nov 20, 2022

Huh? I think I remember him explaining to her the ring when he explained how he could help her.

Also, good on him for heading of that whole Genosha fiasco early on.

Also, he should probably not try to hard to find evidence for the Celestial's meddling. Iirc, unearthing that buried Celestial causes all kinds of trouble.

hance1986 · Nov 20, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
Somewhere near the back of the crowd I spot a hulking great man I recognise as the time traveller Cable. We make momentary eye contact and then he's gone, vanishing into the darkness. I could go after him, but… That sounds like a bad idea.

I kind of want to see a short Cable follow through on that. Paul is someone he doesn't know but Genosha was handled far more smoothly than Cable's history says it was. He slides back into his future, but it's no longer wartorn with Apocalypse controlling knock off Terminators. Paul handled En Sabah Nur ages ago in the present so Cable's future is relatively quiet.

hance1986 · Nov 20, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
"So sugah." Anne-Marie drifts down to stand beside me. She's thrown a blouse and sarong on, but those really do more to emphasise the thing their concealing than to actually conceal it. "What was that about a ring?"

they're

Ngamer11 · Nov 20, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
"Mister Cortez?" I smile warmly. "Is there a problem?"

"Not any longer." He looks.. genuinely pleased to see me, though living out in the Gehoshan wilds hasn't exactly lent itself to regular washing. "Now we are free of our oppressors!"

The Genoshan government database says that he's Spanish, so I'm not all that sure how they were oppressing him from here. I don't want to… Imply anything, but for an island off the coast of Africa the Acolytes…

I'd be surprised if they were local, let's put it like that.

"Do any of you-"

He's turned back to the crowd. "We will establish Genosha as a home for all mutantkind!

"-have any government experience, because-"

"Free from all who would enslave us!"

"-running a country is actually quite hard-."

"Free from all humans who hate and fear their us as their superiors!"

"Mister Cortez, I'm human."

That brings him up short. He turns on the spot. "What?"

I hold up my left hand, showing my glowing ring. "No x-gene, I'm afraid. Just an alien ring." I shrug. "I just really don't like slavery, and my.. girlfriend does have an x-gene. So if you could tone down the racism a bit, that would be splendid. Also, if you keep trying to incite a crowd to murder our prisoners, I'm not going to be very impressed. Look." I move my eyes from him to the now slightly less riled up crowd of holidaying mutants. "You've all had a very hard time. Why don't you head over to the hotels and get some rest in an actual bed. Then we can all get together and decide what to do with this lot tom-. Later today, when we're all thinking a bit more clearly?"

Mr. Cortez grimaces, then marches off, his Acolytes following behind him. One of them, a red haired woman, glances back for a moment before writing me off. With them gone, the rest of the crowd decide to-.

I see Paul both notices that the Acolytes don't belong and is able to cut off Fabian Cortez's ranting short. It seems he'll have to act as one of, if not the only, voice of reason here.

Mr Zoat said:
Somewhere near the back of the crowd I spot a hulking great man I recognise as the time traveller Cable. We make momentary eye contact and then he's gone, vanishing into the darkness. I could go after him, but… That sounds like a bad idea.

I'm guessing Cable is going to do what the Legion of Super-Heroes did and assume Paul is a fellow time traveler he needs to scope out. I can't wait to see how everyone is going to react to Paul knowing things he shouldn't despite not technically being a time traveler.

Mr Zoat · Nov 20, 2022

hance1986 said:
mutantkind!"

hance1986 said:
they're

Thank you, corrected.

Lord Ernest · Nov 20, 2022

Handlewithcare said:
Huh? I think I remember him explaining to her the ring when he explained how he could help her.

I believe she's referring to the engagement ring that Paul was about to look for to propose, before they were interrupted by the Genosha Gestapo. I think, anyway.

theaceoffire · Nov 20, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
"So sugah." Anne-Marie drifts down to stand beside me. She's thrown a blouse and sarong on, but those really do more to emphasise the thing they're concealing than to actually conceal it. "What was that about a ring?"

THIS IS A SUBTLE HINT.

I AM SUBTLY HINTING ABOUT YOU GETTING A RING AND MARRYING MORE THAN ONE WOMAN, ONE OF THEM BEING ME.

Chojin Patriarch · Nov 20, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
Earth 534834

8th February 1992
02:34 GMT +3

"You know… Ororo, I've been meaning to bring this up for a while."

Ororo's keeping an eye on the floodlight-lit playing field below us where the remains of the Genosha 'Self-Defence Force' are kneeling with their hands behind their backs. We're both more than a little concerned that the resistance fighters and mutant civilians policing our temporary holding area might take the opportunity to just kill them all. Not quite sure what we're going to do with them. They're the locals, after all.

Ah, skipping over OL's touching base with NEMO and getting a detailed briefing. At least it's in favour of more X-Men '92 Lantern. And the clues and comments place this as during 'Slave Island', midway through season one...

"You are free to speak."

"Team balance. I realise that Charles took whatever mutants he could get when he started the X-Men, and that it was mostly to train them in using their abilities safely and usefully rather than crafting the best possible field team, but… It seems to me that we've got quite a lot of D-. People who can shoot things or smash them, but not a lot of people who can absorb damage or heal."

Heh, Lantern about to use a term that likely hasn't even become common in gaming culture...

"I do not know of any mutants who have powers that allow them to heal others."

I frown. "Huh. Really?"

Sadly, the few such characters that do exist either came about long after the show, or simply didn't appear in it (Such as a Morlock healer.)

"If such powers were commonplace, mutants would be more widely accepted. People fear fighters more than physicians."

I nod. "So there aren't any, or we just haven't heard of them?"

Honestly, I'd be looking into reports of 'miracle healers'. Sure, many would be evangelical stage tricks, but just maybe...

"Mutant powers emerge without rhyme or reason. Though there is no reason to believe that healing powers cannot exist, if there were mutants with the power to heal, we would have no easy way to hear of them."

"Well, I'm going to count that as evidence in my favour." She gives me a dubious look. "Oh, come on, what's more evolutionarily useful: the ability for a member of a species that already has guns to fire low-grade explosives from their hands, or the ability to heal rapidly?"

To be fair, evolution doesn't acknowledge things like tool-use in heredity. And rapid self-healing would be extremely useful.

"Evolution is seldom so simple. And the absence of an obvious precursor ability does not 'prove' the involvement of alien biologists."

I grin. "So are you taking the bet? It's just you and Henry who are holding out."

Heh. I take it this is a long-running in-joke between him and the team...

She'd clearly like to be able to say 'yes', but she masters herself. "No, though I will be happy to review any evidence you find. Should you actually find any."

"And I'll be happy to present it to you. How about tanks?"

As a team leader, she does have to set an example, after all...

"Tanks?"

"People who can take hits. A taser doesn't do much to me, but they hit Anne-Marie hard enough to stun her."

Ah, his gaming terminology again. Remind me, do they know he comes from a future period (

the distant future of 2011!) And does he use that as an excuse occasionally when he uses slang or pop-culture references they don't know?

Of course, I only had to hold them off for the few moments it took her to activate the Impact Beam Ring, and then we were both immune to just about every weapon they had. The robots and power armour slowed us down a little, but Anne-Marie and I both have far more resilience than they could cope with. Well, when her ring's active in her case. It took a lot of electricity to down her, but she's actually quite a lot less tough than she is strong, something I hadn't really… Picked up on before.

It's a relative thing, of course. She gets knocked around more to show how powerful a bad guy is, since she's the tank of the team. Same reason Wolverine gets torn up regularly in the comics, despite logically being skilled enough to avoid most of the attacks he takes...

"There are several such people in Cerebro's database, but most of them have made choices that would make joining the X-Men difficult."

Henry is a bit tougher than a normal human, but not by all that much and he's in gaol at the moment in any case. Logan heals faster, but he's not actually all that much harder to hurt than a normal human. And he made it very clear when I asked that while he's more used to being hurt than most people, it still hurts him just as much as anyone else. Apparently he gave up wearing body armour because it wasn't effective enough to make up for the pain of pulling partially-melted steel plates off his skin. Which is pretty fair.

In case anyone doesn't remember, that's Henry McCoy, the Beast, who spends the season in prison following the events of the pilot episodes.

"The easiest thing would be for people to find us, but that draws attention to the school, which… Has its own problems."

She nods solemnly.

Yes, it's a very big target for anti-mutant sentiment. And having more people around makes it more risky when some supervillain comes a-knocking...

"…mutant citizens of Gehosha will not tolerate…"

I wince as a man I recognise as the leader of a resistance group called 'The Acolytes' starts grandstanding for the benefit of the other mutant tourists. Apparently, the Acolytes are big fans of Magneto, which is a little odd because as far as I know he's never met them and he's always on the lookout for new mutant henchmen. Not sure how much of that attachment is a reaction to the radical anti-mutant practices of the Gehosha government, being drawn to his mutant-supremacist teaching as a result. Or I suppose they could be natural mutant-supremacists. As Sir Terry Pratchett wrote, 'Just because someone's a member of an ethnic minority, it doesn't mean that they're not a nasty, small-minded little jerk.'

Making an early-bird appearance, it seems, since they officially don't appear until season four, over thirty episodes after the first appearance of Genosha... I guess they had to starts somewhere.

I turn to Ororo. "Do you want to get that, or shall I?"

"I think that it may do him some good to interact with humans-"

Cue level stare from Lantern as he points out the very, very angry young man giving a very racially motivated speech...

There's a tiny hesitation which lasts nearly long enough to make me raise my eyebrows.

"-who are not mutants."

Really, half of the problems they've had over the years can be traced back to their terminology, really. 'Mutants' just sounds kind of... Icky, to the average person. Rather than evoking an image of 'natural-born super-being'... Sadly, some of the attempts to change it weren't much better.

I smile and nod in gratitude, because it took a while for the X-Men to understand the point I was making there, and her acceptance of my terminology is a minor victory for both science and integration.

I give her a jaunty salute and then fly over to where Mr. Cortez is holding court. Surprising that a man of his mindset hasn't picked a 'mutant name', but I haven't had enough exposure to the mutant subculture to really be sure what that signifies.

I mean, the 'Mutant name' thing is sort of a Professor X/Magneto thing. Pride in yourself, that sort of thing. Many of the Acolytes likely weren't exposed to either man's philosophy before they declared themselves for Magneto.

A couple of his friends spot me as I get closer, but he himself doesn't react to me until I drop into his line of sight.

"Mister Cortez?" I smile warmly. "Is there a problem?"

Heh. To most people, Lantern probably seems like one of the lucky mutants who won the super-power lottery...

"Not any longer." He looks.. genuinely pleased to see me, though living out in the Gehoshan wilds hasn't exactly lent itself to regular washing. "Now we are free of our oppressors!"

The Genoshan government database says that he's Spanish, so I'm not all that sure how they were oppressing him from here. I don't want to… Imply anything, but for an island off the coast of Africa the Acolytes…

Well, Genosha did advertise itself as 'mutant-friendly' in order to lure the enhanced there, before capturing and press-ganging them... The comics version wasn't above kidnapping them internationally in secret... Dirty pool all round.

I'd be surprised if they were local, let's put it like that.

"Do any of you-"

And to be fair, Cortez always did come off as a young man trying to overcompensate for... Something? So him coming here looking to foment an uprising in the name of Mutant Power isn't all that improbable.

He's turned back to the crowd. "We will establish Genosha as a home for all mutantkind!

"-have any government experience, because-"

Welp, Cortez isn't listening. Just watch out if he starts spraying spittle.

"Free from all who would enslave us!"

"-running a country is actually quite hard-."

Something seen often, frequently in relation to Genosha. For a while, just before the comics re-aligned to be more like the movies, the UN gave it to Magneto in hopes that it'd distract him.

"Free from all humans who hate and fear their us as their superiors!"

"Mister Cortez, I'm human."

That brings him up short. He turns on the spot. "What?"

Honestly, I'm amazed his super-charging power doesn't include some sort of passive sense of a person's 'mutantness' before he touches them...

I hold up my left hand, showing my glowing ring. "No x-gene, I'm afraid. Just an alien ring." I shrug. "I just really don't like slavery, and my.. girlfriend does have an x-gene. So if you could tone down the racism a bit, that would be splendid. Also, if you keep trying to incite a crowd to murder our prisoners, I'm not going to be very impressed. Look." I move my eyes from him to the now slightly less riled up crowd of holidaying mutants. "You've all had a very hard time. Why don't you head over to the hotels and get some rest in an actual bed. Then we can all get together and decide what to do with this lot tom-. Later today, when we're all thinking a bit more clearly?"

Heh. The voice of reason winning out over the voice of hatred. I suspect a night in a warm bed, plus showers or baths, is looking very appealing right now to many of the former captives.

Mr. Cortez grimaces, then marches off, his Acolytes following behind him. One of them, a red haired woman, glances back for a moment before writing me off. With them gone, the rest of the crowd decide to-.

Somewhere near the back of the crowd I spot a hulking great man I recognise as the time traveller Cable. We make momentary eye contact and then he's gone, vanishing into the darkness. I could go after him, but… That sounds like a bad idea.

Heh, Cortez looks like he's smelt something nasty. Lantern's non-enhanced nature throwing a wrench in his 'Human versus Mutant' narrative, perhaps?

Alright, demagogue sent away, crowd dispersed, prisoners not going anywhere. Now all that's left-.

"So sugah." Anne-Marie drifts down to stand beside me. She's thrown a blouse and sarong on, but those really do more to emphasise the thing their concealing than to actually conceal it. "What was that about a ring?"

...I'm sure Genosha has many fine jewellery stores you can approach, Lantern. And I suspect proposing after freeing a group of enslaved people is going to be more memorable than during a simple holiday.

Heh. Bound to be many wrenches and butterflies in motion whenever Lantern is involved. I wonder if Cable's future era has record of him, or if he seems to be as big an outsider as the Askani hero. At any rate, Lantern might be a little more concerned about soothing his lady love's temper than all the potential threats he's noted today...

Darko · Nov 20, 2022

Chojin Patriarch said:
Really, half of the problems they've had over the years can be traced back to their terminology, really. 'Mutants' just sounds kind of... Icky, to the average person. Rather than evoking an image of 'natural-born super-being'... Sadly, some of the attempts to change it weren't much better

Not to mention the whole "homo-superior" was maybe not the best idea.

Darko · Nov 20, 2022

Hey Zoat, are Hades and Persephone still partially mind-wipped to help with their dead marriage, or have their memories been restored?

If they're restored then what was the outcome?

And please don't just say that the SI doesn't know.

After what happened to the Green, Persephone now has some leverage to having more support in getting that divorce.

If I remember correctly it was mentioned that she revitalized plants during the spring, so that may be useful in restoring the Green.

BrotherofaStudio · Nov 20, 2022

Good job with this one, Paul really has a talent for diplomacy. I am curious though, are you familiar with Magic the Gathering? If so, if there was to be an alternate Paul who was a Planeswalker would power his ring with Black Mana and what adventures would he get himself into?

Mr Zoat · Nov 20, 2022

Darko said:
Hey Zoat, are Hades and Persephone still partially mind-wipped to help with their dead marriage, or have their memories been restored?

If they're restored then what was the outcome?

The SI-.

And please don't just say that the SI doesn't know.

Still partially mind-wiped. They can still do their jobs, they just don't remember their shared history.

BrotherofaStudio said:
Good job with this one, Paul really has a talent for diplomacy. I am curious though, are you familiar with Magic the Gathering?

I've got a cupboard upstairs full of folders of magic cards. The cupboard to my left as I write has a shelf covered in completed decks.

If so, if there was to be an alternate Paul who was a Planeswalker would power his ring with Black Mana and what adventures would he get himself into?

If he was a planeswalker... Oldwalker or newwalker? In either case, he'd probably focus on using magic. He wouldn't have any particular connection to black mana.

BrotherofaStudio · Nov 20, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
If he was a planeswalker... Oldwalker or newwalker? In either case, he'd probably focus on using magic. He wouldn't have any particular connection to black mana.

I was thinking he could use Black Mana to power the ring as I believe avarice is an emotion closely connected to Black mana and it's philosophies. If Paul weren't to have any particular connection to black, what colors would he use and which era of MTG would he get involved with, the war against the Phyrexians, the time just before the Mending, everything from 2007 to war of the spark or what comes next?

Mr Zoat · Nov 20, 2022

BrotherofaStudio said:
I was thinking he could use Black Mana to power the ring as I believe avarice is an emotion closely connected to Black mana and it's philosophies.

Yes, but...

It's not necessarily a healthy use. And it would require the SI to get close enough to black mana that he could manipulate it. The SI managed as well as he did with the orange ring because he wasn't particularly avaricious. Black mana doesn't have any truck with hesitancy.

If Paul weren't to have any particular connection to black, what colors would he use

Blue/White, probably. The first deck I ever actually planned out used Shifting Skies and a lot of Protection from Red stuff, so that tracks.

and which era of MTG would he get involved with, the war against the Phyrexians, the time just before the Mending, everything from 2007 to war of the spark or what comes next?

Not the Phyrexian war, because Urza would just use him to fuel a manabomb. I've been thinking about writing something happening at roughly the same time as Odyssey, set on Aerona, but it wouldn't have been an SI thing.

Probably an entirely novel plane.

Bud-E · Nov 20, 2022

Mr Zoat any plans to see a Paul in Batman Brave and the Bold cartoon? With how light-hearted the show is I'm not sure how Paul would react/adjust.

BrotherofaStudio · Nov 20, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
It's not necessarily a healthy use. And it would require the SI to get close enough to black mana that he could manipulate it. The SI managed as well as he did with the orange ring because he wasn't particularly avaricious. Black mana doesn't have any truck with hesitancy.

I wasn't aware of the card but I believe you.

Mr Zoat said:
Blue/White, probably. The first deck I ever actually planned out used Shifting Skies and a lot of Protection from Red stuff, so that tracks.

Interesting

Mr Zoat said:
Not the Phyrexian war, because Urza would just use him to fuel a manabomb. I've been thinking about writing something happening at roughly the same time as Odyssey, set on Aerona, but it wouldn't have been an SI thing.

Probably an entirely novel plane.

I'm sure you could think of something and I will admit I am hoping to see an alternate Paul who is an MTG Planeswalker.

Diraniola · Nov 20, 2022

BrotherofaStudio said:
I was thinking he could use Black Mana to power the ring as I believe avarice is an emotion closely connected to Black mana and it's philosophies.

I think the most likely option would be using the ring as a generic mana source. Either way, it would be an artifact that probably uses charge counters in some way to fuel a wish effect if you were giving it game mechanics.

Rockinalice · Nov 20, 2022

I'm going to guess that https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Joshua_Foley_(Earth-616) hasn't been born yet on this Earth, the stupidly strong, Useful and Broken Life Minipulator.

Paul hasn't thought of using Bobby to fix the ice caps, something he could do as easy as Breathing.

Convince Pryo that he could make stupid amounts of money with his Fire Manipulation in the Industrial sector for a few countries or working for Dooms Country.

It's sad that the most useful Mutants only really use their Powers for Unga Bunga

Mr Zoat · Nov 20, 2022

BrotherofaStudio said:
Interesting.

5 Island
5 Plains
4 Adarkar Wastes
4 Hallowed Fountain
4 Flooded Strand

3 Circle of Protection: Red
3 Counterspell
4 Shifting Skies
2 Idyllic Tutor
1 Worship
1 Teferi's Moat

4 Tidal Visionary
4 Devoted Caretaker
4 Crimson Acolyte
4 Galina's Knight
4 Silver Knight
4 Silver Drake

The original version has simpler land and a slightly different composition. I'm still kicking myself for not taking it to an Extended tournament when Goblin was running rampant.

BrotherofaStudio · Nov 20, 2022

If you do make a Planeswalker Paul, are you planning to have this deck as the basis for his abilities?

Darko · Nov 20, 2022

Rockinalice said:
I'm going to guess that https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Joshua_Foley_(Earth-616) hasn't been born yet on this Earth, the stupidly strong, Useful and Broken Life Minipulator.

Or his powers haven't manifested yet.

Rockinalice said:
Paul hasn't thought of using Bobby to fix the ice caps, something he could do as easy as Breathing.

Nice idea, but relying on one guy to fix them all the time isn't exactly efficient or reliable.

Rockinalice said:
Convince Pryo that he could make stupid amounts of money with his Fire Manipulation in the Industrial sector for a few countries or working for Dooms Country.

Assuming he wants to.

Pyro may not be all that stable.

Granted, I mostly know his Evolution self, so I could be wrong.

Ngamer11 · Nov 20, 2022

Darko said:
Nice idea, but relying on one guy to fix them all the time isn't exactly efficient or reliable.

Assuming he unlocks his full potential, he might be able to do it. Until then though, it would be a waste of time.

Rafin · Nov 20, 2022

Mr Zoat said:
"Half right." He reaches back with his right hand to rub the fresh tattoo on the back of his neck. "And this isn't reliable."

I have no idea what Green Arrow is talking about here. What is half right and why did he decide that this is a good time to get a tattoo?

I also don't get why Connor Hawke would be the person to talk to about enlightenment. Then again, I didn't even remember Connor Hawke appearing in this story before.

Mr Zoat said:
The SI doesn't know.

Do you mean that he doesn't know currently after the Anti-Life crisis started or that he didn't know the roster before that happened either? Does that mean Paul doesn't really talk to his former team mates anymore? Not even off screen? I would have thought that they would remain his for pretty much the foreseeable future, at least on the periphery.

Something else: I didn't quite understand what gives most (all?) of the Justice League the ability to cope when most baseline humans don't seem to. And why there isn't any mention of other superpowereds outside America that weren't members of the Alliance either. Like the various superfunctionaries in China and Russia for instance.

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

Mint Thistle

Versed in the lewd.

Versed in the lewd.

Dedicated ragequitter

Dedicated ragequitter

A pitiful excuse for a man.

Well worn.

Versed in the lewd.

A pitiful excuse for a man.

A pitiful excuse for a man.

Experienced.

Dedicated ragequitter

At the End...

Versed in the lewd.

Veteran Lurker

Connoisseur.

Connoisseur.

Know what you're doing yet?

Dedicated ragequitter

Know what you're doing yet?

Dedicated ragequitter

Stand up so I can push you down!

Know what you're doing yet?

I trust you know where the happy button is?

Versed in the lewd.

Dedicated ragequitter

Know what you're doing yet?

Connoisseur.

Experienced.

Not too sore, are you?

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