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

[Ngamer11]

"It would both me. I think it would bother most people, Oh El."

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That should say 'bother'.

 

[Signaller]

Did Black Canary ever get into Xcom, or whatever it was that OL recommended to her early on in the story?

 

[Mquz]

Huh...

When I played wow a long time ago I didn't give the alliance a second thought. I thought they all looked kinda lame with bad characters.

The horde had these radically different looking monster people. So I picked them because I liked the characters more and thought they looked much cooler.

Guess I'm a outlier.

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Yeah, the everyone is alliance thing was really more a thing on pvp servers I think? Where one faction eventually ends up losing 90% of it's players because people don't want to constantly get farmed. And so servers always either go mostly one way or the other.

 

[Sordid Snake]

"What engine did you end up using?"

"Oh, it's custom.

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Its not a game engine, its a interstellar-range mind control/surveilance device!

(It controls a real person in Vega as the player character, and then views what happens and presents that on the screen. Probably with dimensional shenanigans, its probably not the same Vega as the one OL&Co are familiar with. And that could be how it handles saved games etc)

Did Black Canary ever get into Xcom, or whatever it was that OL recommended to her early on in the story?

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I'd like to see her screaming at the computer when the operatives miss a 95% shot three times in a row

 

[Senevri]

phasing limbs has been a feature of every game I've ever seen.

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Ah, right. OL transferred around early in the decade and probably doesn't/didn't play that many recent triple A games. It is still technically a thing, since perfect collision and deforming would be a huge waste of resources - same reason nobody AFAIK uses mathematically perfect multithreading.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Multiple occurrences of 'Tamaranian', Mr Zoat... Those should be 'Tamaranean', yes?
Even the guys just manning the ore freighters are supplying the Citadel, right?"
Wallace presses buttons with unnecessary vigour.

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That should say 'bother'.

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Thank you, corrected.

Also, we appear to have lost the 'replace all' function. Am I just missing it?

Did Black Canary ever get into Xcom, or whatever it was that OL recommended to her early on in the story?

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No. She played it a little to try to understand what he was talking about, but that's it.

 

[Doccer]

Literally magic video game.

I'm kinda envious.

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Very. They could sell this for twice the price of any other triple A game.
Personally I still have money that the characters (Edit: both MC and especially NPCs) are a bit more living than usual.

 

[Bud-E]

The only character I can think of who could do something like this is Control Freak or maybe Toyman any other guesses?
Edit: Maybe Queen of Fables is a possible option

 

[Ngamer11]

The only character I can think of who could do something like this is Control Freak or maybe Toyman any other guesses?

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Calliope could've inspired them?

 

[BartlettMagic]

i'm relieved they didn't just get automatically sucked in. starting off with investigation is usually much more interesting IMO.

also, team selection here is nicely fitting. KF and Robin are the perfect picks.

 

[FreeGod]

Calliope could've inspired them?

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If the Muse was feeling grateful to OL for saving her that would be an excellent way to pay him back.

 

[The Froggy Ninja]

Well, that says more about your own masculinity than anything.

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I think most people would be put off by their character being raped, regardless of their insecurity, or lack thereof.

(Which I've seen happen in the Superhero MMO I play.)

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Oh? City of Heroes, DC Universe Online or is there some other superhero mmo I haven't picked up on since I don't run in those circles anymore?

Calliope could've inspired them?

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Seems somewhat unlikely to also mind whammy everyone, though I suppose she could have been trying to nip future kidnapping attempts in the bud.

 

[Darko]

Lantern had that one of the original

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"as one of"

 

[Mr Zoat]

"as one of"

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[PDV]

Horde had no female players, thus it had a lot less players even if 1v1 pvp was mostly equivalent.

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Bullshit. Neither part of that claim makes sense. Gender imbalance was large enough that losing large swaths of women wouldn't be a huge effect, and there's no reason to expect women to be substantially more superficial to a degree that was obvious in statistics. I'd expect men like Wally here to be way more superficial and show up in smaller but comparable numbers.

Yeah, the everyone is alliance thing was really more a thing on pvp servers I think? Where one faction eventually ends up losing 90% of it's players because people don't want to constantly get farmed. And so servers always either go mostly one way or the other.

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This, on the other hand, I believe. Small preferences (aesthetic, being Good Guys, whatever) snowballing makes perfect sense.

 

[Chaoswind]

Bullshit. Neither part of that claim makes sense. Gender imbalance was large enough that losing large swaths of women wouldn't be a huge effect, and there's no reason to expect women to be substantially more superficial to a degree that was obvious in statistics. I'd expect men like Wally here to be way more superficial and show up in smaller but comparable numbers.


This, on the other hand, I believe. Small preferences (aesthetic, being Good Guys, whatever) snowballing makes perfect sense.

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This is a documented fact as per Bliz own account, female players or those that claimed to be female players in their internal data overwhelmingly played female toons/characters (around 90%) and as a result were pretty much in their majority part of the alliance. That was acknowledged later as the impetus to twist the lore backwards to give the Horde the bloodelves to encourage female players with friends in the horde faction to join them.

This is literally historical fact.

 

[Stsword]

Oh actually now I'm reminded of a series DC had ICandy.

Basically Nintendo Special Forces are the thin line between Earth and the Things Beyond the Video Game Screen That Hate Us and totally want to enact the Pixels short.

Until a kid playtests a video game and uses character creation to make the character look like his missing older sister, and then she comes to life.

Later finds out that she is his missing sister who got sucked into the video game dimension, gained video game powers, and got amnesia as she acclimated.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

I think most people would be put off by their character being raped, regardless of their insecurity, or lack thereof.

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Wasn't even thinking of that angle, but it could well fall under 'seeing your female avatar doing sex things you wouldn't' anyway.

Oh? City of Heroes, DC Universe Online or is there some other superhero mmo I haven't picked up on since I don't run in those circles anymore?

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Champions Online, actually. Still going strong(-ish) after about thirteen years. Known for having one of the best character creators around, especially if you have a good amount of unlocked costume pieces. While not heavily populated, it's still got a solid core of players keeping it alive.

 

[CrazyNoVa]

So, it's basically space Skyrim? That sounds awesome!

Also, I'm now convinced that someday, one of the game developers is going to have an accident while making the game that will result in them becoming some kind of human/video game hybrid creature supervillain.

And with OL's luck, history will probably remember it as being his greatest arch-nemesis.

 

[NightmareWarden]

Speaking of WoW, if you want to try the Pandaria remix thing, download modern WoW, informally called Retail. Not WoW Classic.

There's some weirdness going on with scaling and alt characters, so you may want to choose your first Pandaria character carefully.


Oh, and a reminder for everyone. Kid Flash's mentor, The Flash, stepped away from heroism for a bit after killing some elves. They were at war with Earth though, and Flash had failed to rescue a lot of civilians from their cruelty. This was prior to the anti-life stuff, and I reckon Flash was working a reduced schedule through that mess.


Mr Zoat, is Star Labs going back to normal in the wake of everything? A lot of items were stolen from official government facilities, so I reckon the league might send recovered doodads to Star.

 

[Cuchulin]

Figures Robin would figure out the 'easy' mode that quickly. Because I doubt he went for the reptile guys out of interest.

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I am a bit surprised that Dick didn't chose a Tamaranian for obvious reasons.

 

[Mr Zoat]

6th April 2013
09:46 GMT -7

Pffft.

Wallace watches the vapour droplets waft out across the room for a moment, then turns ninety degrees to his right.

Pffft.

"What's that? Some sort of alchemical-?"

"Nah." He studies the pattern, then sprays again.

Pffft.

"No point in coming up with something new when there's already something that does the job. This is holy water. And a tiny bit of thaumically inert dye."

"Wouldn't that only work on demon magic?"

"Turns out? No. There's a weak interaction with any kind of magic, it's just not as noticeable. That's why I'm watching carefully. You didn't find anything?"

I shrug. "Nothing on scans. Not that that means much if they just had the sense to put the warding runes inside the bricks or something like that."

Pffft.

"What about that 'feed me' thing you do with the Ophidian? Oh, and I'd just wanna say? Naming your attacks? Not what I expected from you."

"I've done that from the start." He looks over to me, raising his eyebrows. "I just didn't say it out loud. 'cause it… Sounded a little…"

I look away awkwardly.

"I called that thing Flash does where he runs around the world at full speed and then punches something 'the Infinite Mass Punch'."

"Is it?"

"…no..?" He looks confused. "'Infinite-'? How would that even work?"

"Look, my Secondary School didn't even do physics as a separate subject. I know that speed changes the rate that time passes, but anything beyond that…"

"Super speed can't work without changing how normal physics affects us. Escape velocity isn't even all that fast, but we never start flying."

"I realised that when I found out that you only pass as much waste matter as a normal-."

"Dude!"

I snort with amusement.

"So yeah, an effect of running that fast would be to increase his mass, except it doesn't, because super speed. The-." He looks me in the eye for a moment. "Okay, simple version? The universe treats it as having normal mass for some things and… Very high mass for others, and other times it kind of splits the difference."

"With you so far. What does the Flash call it?"

"He calls it 'hitting stuff really hard'. Which it, you know, does."

We leave the storage room, heading down the subterranean corridor towards the… Back-up generator room.

Pffft.

"Did you ever name your own attacks?"

"I… Tried. It didn't work out."

"Oh?"

"Uhhr. You know… How I can't move through stuff like Flash does?"

"Yes? Ooh, I could make you some phasing armour, if you want?"

"Uuh..? No. Thanks, but that stuff doesn't always interact with super speed like it's supposed to. That whole 'physics work in our favour' thing only works with the super speed."

"Bad experience?"

"One time I gave a guy really bad road rash. He had it coming, but… Freaked me out at the time. Freaked Mom out more."

Pffft.

"Do wizards mess around with computer games a whole lot? Can we narrow it down?"

"It's more… They don't, but I ran through the theory of what a glamour-based virtual world would be like, and I realised that it would be pretty easy to Rip Van Winkle thousands of people. With games that involved, people already think of the setting as being 'real' on some level, which makes it painfully easy for the fae to entrance people."

"Has it happened before?"

"No, and if I understand their mindset properly, they'd basically have to do it by accident, then realise what they'd done, then have something they wanted to do that involved them doing it a lot. It's pretty unlikely, but it would be really bad if it happened."

He nods. "Anyone else?"

"Doing magic through electronics is hard, especially-" I point to a small shrine to Hephaestaean attached to the wall. "-with Hephaestaean taking even a little interest. Having absorbed the nascent elemental of technology, there isn't really any other source of knowledge on how to adapt existing techniques. Unless…"

Wallace raises his eyebrows. "Unless..?"

"Well, there's no reason why someone else couldn't have realised what was going on with that and have started work on it before its merger with Hephaestus. I just don't know of anyone who did, other than Richard Simpson."

"Richard Simpson, who was in the Tower of Fate and who's been missing since you dealt with John Quinn."

"Yes, but I don't see why this would be him. It's kind of low hanging fruit. He's a reasonably powerful demon."

Pffft.

We walk into-.

"Oh, hey Rob."

Richard's smiling smugly. I've almost missed that. "Hey guys. Find anything?"

Wallace shrugs, shaking his head. "No magic reaction so far. Oh El can't pick up anything either. … Youuuuuu already know where he is, don't you?"

"Yeah. Just a matter of looking at the power distribution, throughput and waste heat to work out where the missing room is. I'd worked out it was Richard Simpson, too, but you eventually caught up with me there."

I sigh in mock-frustration and his smile broadens. "Where?"

He points to a bare wall. I generate a crumbler ram construct and gently apply it, erasing plaster, concrete and brick before breaking through into a…

A man cave.

Three large screens, a gaming rig, half-empty bags of snack food, and Simpson in spiky energy demon mode is staring at the hole, cringing slightly at the sight of us.

"I just like gaming, alright?"

…

Pffft pffft.

 

[Ngamer11]

He points to a bare wall. I generate a crumbler ram construct and gently apply it, erasing plaster, concrete and brick before breaking through into a…

A man cave.

Three large screens, a gaming rig, half-empty bags of snack food, and Simpson in spiky energy demon mode is staring at the hole, cringing slightly at the sight of us.

"I just like gaming, alright?"

…

Pffft pffft.

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This was a pleasant surprise. Maybe he can start working under Paul as part of a new gaming company that doesn't abuse its employees.

 

[Darko]

universe treats it has having normal

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"it as"

"One time I gave a guy really bad road rash. He had it coming, but… Freaked me out at the time. Freaked Mom out more

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At least you probably didn't go all A-Train on him.

small shrine to Hephaestaean attached to the wall. "-with Hephastaean

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The two names are spelled differently.

"Yes, but I don't see why this would be him. It's kind of low hanging fruit. He's a reasonably powerful demon

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Maybe it's for shits and giggles.

Or he was weakened since you last saw him and he's planning to get a power boost by using the game.

 

[Ngamer11]

@Mr Zoat, now that we know where Richard Simpson is, it reminded me of the fact that Paul met John Constantine's nephew. Did Paul ever go through with setting up a meeting between him and John's sister, his birth mother?

 

[PepeTheFrog]

He's not Evil. He's just a Gamer.

 

[RichardWhereat]

I get that. I'd do that too.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

6th April 2013
09:46 GMT -7

Pffft.

Wallace watches the vapour droplets waft out across the room for a moment, then turns ninety degrees to his right.

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Interesting. An alchemical spray that changes colour around certain types of magic, or something similar? I mean, a skilled alchemist could probably make such a thing, and Wally's got to be getting along well in those studies. ...The alternative is air freshener, because nerd funk.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

Pffft.

"What's that? Some sort of alchemical-?"

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Heh, same line of thought, eh, OL? Reasonable assumption, too.

"Nah." He studies the pattern, then sprays again.

Pffft.

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What, a bit shimmery is it? Hopefully safe to be spritzing about, I hope?

"No point in coming up with something new when there's already something that does the job. This is holy water. And a tiny bit of thaumically inert dye."

"Wouldn't that only work on demon magic?"

Click to shrink...

Ah, I take it the holy water evaporates oddly when it hits the right kind of mystical energies?

"Turns out? No. There's a weak interaction with any kind of magic, it's just not as noticeable. That's why I'm watching carefully. You didn't find anything?"

I shrug. "Nothing on scans. Not that that means much if they just had the sense to put the warding runes inside the bricks or something like that."

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'Less noticeable' than the typical sort of 'instantaneous boiling hiss' Hollywood depicts it as having? And I see OL is still having difficulties with weak magical effect detection, eh.

Pffft.

"What about that 'feed me' thing you do with the Ophidian? Oh, and I'd just wanna say? Naming your attacks? Not what I expected from you."

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Not really naming attacks if it's a clear vocal command to the Ring. Be glad the Green Lanterns don't do that kind of thing.

"I've done that from the start." He looks over to me, raising his eyebrows. "I just didn't say it out loud. 'cause it… Sounded a little…"

I look away awkwardly.

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Besides, warning your opponent of what's coming is kind of a bad idea. This isn't anime, where calling an attack narratively forces your target to stand there and take it.

"I called that thing Flash does where he runs around the world at full speed and then punches something 'the Infinite Mass Punch'."

"Is it?"

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Depends. How close does he get to light speed? Because while he can kind of sidestep the effects of speed, his hand is still regular bone.

"…no..?" He looks confused. "'Infinite-'? How would that even work?"

"Look, my Secondary School didn't even do physics as a separate subject. I know that speed changes the rate that time passes, but anything beyond that…"

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Relativistic effects are kind of tricky to work out. People still argue them today.

"Super speed can't work without changing how normal physics affects us. Escape velocity isn't even all that fast, but we never start flying."

"I realised that when I found out that you only pass as much waste matter as a normal-."

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Okay, too much information. Which makes the apparent lack of speed force even more bizarre, as something has to be handling that stuff... I guess the Source just likes guys who run fast, maybe.

"Dude!"

I short with amusement.

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Ah, teenagers. One second, they're discussing physics conundrums, the next they're getting freaked out by the mention of bodily functions.

"So yeah, an affect of running that fast would be to increase his mass, except it doesn't, because super speed. The-." He looks me in the eye for a moment. "Okay, simple version? The universe treats it has having normal mass for some things and… Very high mass for others, and other times it kind of splits the difference."

"With you so far. What does the Flash call it?"

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So he basically builds up sort of a 'bubble' of speed/mass interaction, and hits people with that.

"He calls it 'hitting stuff really hard'. Which it, you know, does."

We leave the storage room, heading down the subterranean corridor towards the… Back-up generator room.

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I'm guessing they started on the top floor and worked their way down.

Pffft.

"Did you ever name your own attacks?"

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I mean, teenage superhero. Surely the temptation would be there. Probably not as much as someone with energy-blasting powers, but...

"I… Tried. It didn't work out."

"Oh?"

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Hey, things don't always work out how you'd expect.

"Uhhr. You know… How I can't move through stuff like Flash does?"

"Yes? Ooh, I could make you some phasing armour, if you want?"

Click to shrink...

Some versions of Kid Flash could phase through matter, but not safely. Think 'explosive dismantling' by way of vibrations.

"Uuh..? No. Thanks, but that stuff doesn't always interact with super speed like it's supposed to. That whole 'physics work in our favour' thing only works with the super speed."

"Bad experience?"

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Guessing one of those 'his speed doesn't affect someone else for random reason' moments.

"One time I gave a guy really bad road rash. He had it coming, but… Freaked me out at the time. Freaked Mom out more."

Pffft.

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It could have been worse. You could have ground them down to pulp entirely on the road/wall/whatever. At least you stopped.

"Do wizards mess around with computer games a whole lot? Can we narrow it down?"

"It's more… They don't, but I ran through the theory of what a glamour-based virtual world would be like, and I realised that it would be pretty easy to Rip Van Winkle thousands of people. With games that involved, people already think of the setting as being 'real' on some level, which makes it painfully easy for the fae to entrance people."

Click to shrink...

Though I could imagine some company thinking 'oh wow, we could debut the ultimate form of immersion!'

"Has it happened before?"

"No, and if I understand their mindset properly, they'd basically have to do it by accident, then realise what they'd done, then have something they wanted to do that involved them doing it a lot. It's pretty unlikely, but it would be really bad if it happened."

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And really, some nutter of a techno-mage would work it out sooner or later.

He nods. "Anyone else?"

"Doing magic through electronics is hard, especially-" I point to a small shrine to Hephaestaean attached to the wall. "-with Hephastaean taking even a little interest. Having absorbed the nascent elemental of technology, there isn't really any other source of knowledge on how to adapt existing techniques. Unless…"

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Heh. A nice little reminder of how things are changing on this Earth.

Wallace raises his eyebrows. "Unless..?"

"Well, there's no reason why someone else couldn't have realised what was going on with that and have started work on it before its merger with Hepheastus. I just don't know of anyone who did, other than Richard Simpson."

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Ah, him. Yeah, ultimately, it seems like he'd be the likely culprit, being exactly the sort of nutter techno-mage demon I mentioned.

"Richard Simpson, who was in the Tower of Fate and who's been missing since you dealt with John Quinn."

"Yes, but I don't see why this would be him. It's kind of low hanging fruit. He's a reasonably powerful demon."

Click to shrink...

Maybe he's trying to be sneaky? Either out of a desire not to get caught, or out of some depowered necessity.

Pffft.

We walk into-.

"Oh, hey Rob."

Click to shrink...

Well, he was around here somewhere. I'm guessing he skipped the room-by-room check in favour of more cerebral methods.

Richard's smiling smugly. I've almost missed that. "Hey guys. Find anything?"

Wallace shrugs, shaking his head. "No magic reaction so far. Oh El can't pick up anything either. … Youuuuuu already know where he is, don't you?"

Click to shrink...

Let me guess, Detective-man junior has it all worked out?

"Yeah. Just a matter of looking at the power distribution, throughput and waste heat to work out where the missing room is. I'd worked out it was Richard Simpson, too, but you eventually caught up with me there."

I sigh in mock-frustration and his smile broadens. "Where?"

Click to shrink...

Ah, smug Robin is just a peach.

He points to a bare wall. I generate a crumbler ram construct and gently apply it, erasing plaster, concrete and brick before breaking through into a…

A man cave.

Click to shrink...

Hoo boy. Hopefully without the stereotypical 'piss bottles'. I shudder to imagine what a techno-demon would fill them with...

Three large screens, a gaming rig, half-empty bags of snack food, and Simpson in spiky energy demon mode is staring at the hole, cringing slightly at the sight of us.

"I just like gaming, alright?"

Click to shrink...

I approve of his set-up, barring the half-empty bags (finish one before you open another, jackass!) Just not the method he no doubt used to acquire it.

…

Pffft pffft.

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...And a spiteful spritz of holy water from Kid Flash. I can literally see the animated moment and his grumpy frown.

So, conundrum solved. Mostly. At least they found him and can get him securely bound up. Still the question of any ulterior motive behind it, including any threats aimed at OL. I mean, imagine if the game made people who played it hate him irrationally or something. A little bit petty, but that is kind of Ritchie Simpson's deal.

 

[Lord Ernest]

High level demonic power and freedom from Hell's hierarchy and other worldly shenanigans?

Yeah, I think I would do that too. Between that and just binge-watching stuff. I feel even more sympathetic for Simpson.

 

[Mr Zoat]

"it as"
The two names are spelled differently.

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Thank you, corrected.

@Mr Zoat, now that we know where Richard Simpson is, it reminded me of the fact that Paul met John Constantine's nephew. Did Paul ever go through with setting up a meeting between him and John's sister, his birth mother?

Click to shrink...

Finn Brady is still in Kenya. He sort of put the genetic test thing to the back of his mind, then the Anti-Life happened.