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

[Bud-E]

Leslie's radio show is in Gotham? Is she gonna move to Metropolis after this?

 

[FeepingCreature]

I mean if you made it a fair battle... we don't find out that stuff about all the background forces holding Worm stable at the start either. So for most of those capes you can just handwave internally and say "yes but soandso from dc is helping out in the background and counteracting him or her." And of course you're taking Worm stated feats over shown in some places. For instance you could easily handwave and say "power ring perfectly counters Mathers via Wholeness Rightly Assumed." As usual in superhero comics, the winner is "whoever the writer wants." It just depends on how you match up their respective bullshit.

 

[Darko]

You're a good writer, Mr Zoat, and I trust your knowledge of DC. But you have not read Worm or Ward

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To be fair, about 99% of people that write Worm fanfiction have never read Worm.

 

[Steelplaza]

Seeing the Common Sense mention that he is assuredly only going to take orders on talking to media for the next 8 months makes me wonder why Paragon version has been so accommodating on having the League order him around about media interviews.

 

[Darko]

Seeing the Common Sense mention that he is assuredly only going to take orders on talking to media for the next 8 months makes me wonder why Paragon version has been so accommodating on having the League order him around about media interviews.

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Because he knows that they're better at that sort of thing than he is since he tends to say things that you sometimes just don't say or that can cause a lot of problems.

 

[Steelplaza]

Because he knows that they're better at that sort of thing than he is since he tends to say things that you sometimes just don't say or that can cause a lot of problems.

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They're better at that sort of thing assuming he and they agree on everything and place the same level of importance on what should be elevated in public discussion.

If he's got Opinions that he wants to share or Problems that he wants to cause, that's a different matter.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Damn, Lord Protector Paul really gets shit done! He's like a one-man, more competent and less stupid version of The Elite!

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Perhaps, but considerably more ignorant.

Well, considering how useful and versatile Skitter's powers are, and the fact that she's a lot more open to using lethal force than most heroes of her world, I'd figured that Lord Protector would want to make a super-team of supervillain exterminators and recruit Skitter in it. Sure, Lord Protector is very competent at exterminating villains by himself, but hunting monsters with friends is always more fun than hunting monsters alone. Also, Lord Protector seems kind of lonely and could use a friend. And when he has the power of friendship, he can use it to hunt down and exterminate all the supervillains.

HURRAY FOR MASS MURDER FUELED BY THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!

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Taylor is less than half his age, inexperienced and squishy. While her power isn't anything to scoff at, it doesn't do much that a Lantern can't do.

Don't Cauldron want to maximise parahuman population? I feel like they would send someone over to tell him to knock it off.

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They would probably try to communicate that eventually.

Thing is, other than not making further requests for reenforcements, Piggot probably wouldn't want to draw attention to the fact that all of Brockton's villains were dead. Not if Lord Protector left promptly, which he did. And even if she did refer it to the Chief Director... Brockton Bay Experiment. And powerful parahumans aren't that strange. Coasta-Brown might like the Protectorate to recruit him, but she's not exactly going to prioritise it right then. Not unless Contessa tells her to.

Which she won't immediately because (as I understand it, correct me if I'm wrong here) being on Third Earth or further away from Earth than the moon puts him out of range and she can't Path him until he comes back. And even if that isn't the case, his armour now includes exotic protections created by Mumm-Rana. She might get something if she asks the right question at the right time, but it's not reliable.

Then he picks a city and does his 'you've got a week' thing. So what? Plenty of would-be heroes have done that before. And Piggot would probably have a quiet word with the local Director, but I doubt much would happen until he actually did it.

This is where Caldron actually gets together and talks about him. Getting a message to him is difficult because he's not staying still, and they don't trust him enough or know enough about him to seriously try to bring him on board. Which leaves beating him, sticking him in a cell and twisting his arm.

I think there are more bulletproof parahumans than that in Brockton Bay. If you allow ones that are only mostly bulletproof/vulnerable to surprise attack, there are also some in New Wave, Hookwolf, Fenja, Menja, maybe some more that aren't coming to mind right now. It's true that most parahumans can be killed by normal people with guns, but the percentage that can't (except by surprise attack or good luck) is reasonably large.

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Fenja and Menja can become very tough, but they don't have force nullification. Even if they grow before you can kill them, they don't have regeneration by default and you can kill them by shooting them through the eye orbits. Hookwolf would absolutely require heavy ordnance, you're right there.

Pressing villains into a corner does seem a bit risky when there are some parahumans who can wipe out a city but don't because they have no reason to (Miss Militia for example). If they decide to do a suicide attack because they feel the situation is hopeless it could cause a lot of deaths.

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Oh, you're completely right there.

They wouldn't be in a position to do that because Lord Protector already killed Legend and wrecked their base going to Earth Bet.

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Ah, no, that was a theoretically version who went to Earth Bet from the start. He lived in Africa and only came to America shortly before Behemoth attacked Brockton.

Too many crazy ideas to deal with right now, I'll answer these in detail tomorrow but short version is: no.

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I'm not even planning on writing this.

You haven't read Worm. That's fine.

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Hey, I haven't either! It would really help me... A bit, given that, I will say this again, I'm not going to write this, if you could provide references.

Point 1) Supervillains in Worm are just criminals with superpowers. Which means Lord Protector will be mass murdering people who include those who did nothing to warrant a death penalty because apparently he can't be bothered to be useful with his time like prioritizing targets that would actually be worthy of his attention like say dealing with the international Nazi supervillain organization or freeing the brainwashed victims who have been turned into terrorists by the like of Teacher, the Endbringer Simurgh, or Heartbreaker's sleeper agents.

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Yes, absolutely. To his mind, the time for careful policing was 10-15 years ago. At this point a ruthless cull is the only way to restore stability. He's not necessarily right and it's certainly not a nice thing to do, but that's how he looks at it.

Point 2) Villains naturally outnumber heroes because Trigger events require trauma. Trauma, you know, like Lord Protector's fearmongering mass murder campaign will cause, which will result in even more villains arising, so no, this is like how the Garou in Werewolf the Apocalypse fighting the spirit of entropy and hate with murder and homicidal rage.

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While it's common knowledge in the setting that supervillains outnumber heroes, I don't think that it's because of the trauma. Similarly, I don't think that a targetted campaign against specific individuals which ends the ongoing campaign of violence that they were carrying out would increase the rate of triggers.

Paul has no counter for capes such as Mama Mathers - perceiving her in any way, even her name, gives her access to and control over that part of the sensorium. Seeing her, even on a scan or with an exotic sense (fear vision) means she controls your sight. The ring AI could help once he notices what's going on… buuuut I'm not sure she couldn't infest it indirectly, creating a dybuuk just to deal with that.

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You don't know that.

No Entity has ever encountered a power ring, but shard-based powers rely on parallel universe connections to work. Yes, once she has a connection he'd be in a good deal of trouble. But can she make one? He looks at her, her power... Might register that? Then it tried to form a larger link. His ring could definitely detect that. Could it? Maybe. Lord Protector's lack of a database means that he has no special knowledge of the techniques involved, but subspace manipulation is a basic technique.

And while he isn't knowledgeable about the mechanics involved, Mumm-Rana is. With only one living human left to study she put substantial effort into his armour, and it does contain exotic baffles. Nothing specific -she's never encountered an Entity before either- but general 'block attack' and 'stabilise reality' charms.

But lets assume that doesn't work, and his world is filled with pain and a whispering voice telling him to come to her location. He's enlightened. The pain is extremely unpleasent but he can disassociate from it, and use his ring to control his own pain receptors. Then you've got the issue that it's trivially easy for him to get out of range... Or nuke the location she's just given him because there's no further penalty to seeing her again.

And look at it another way: Legend is one of the most powerful capes, period. He turns into light, he can unleash thousands of laser beams from all parts of his body that comes with various effects and sizes - they can turn corners, impart kinetic force, cut things, freeze things, burn things. Fat, thin, staccato. He's actually really durable; he constantly heals by absorbing the light and heat in the air, the ripple of gravity as the planet spins. He converts all energy to healing himself, and it gets stronger as he shifts into his light form, helping to counter his weakness of extreme speed slowing his thoughts. If you manage to take him out, one massive Endbringer-esque hit breaking his breaker form, he'll be unconscious - but he absorbs the kinetic energy of the hit, and whatever exotics go along with it, meaning he's unconscious but completely fine, physically, and any attack on him - even unconscious - automatically turns him into his breaker form again, waking him up. He is far more powerful than most people think; he's entirely capable of repeatedly turning himself into a nuke.

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I have no disagreement with any of that.

Grue counters him, hard. His darkness drinks his lasers, and who knows what it would do to his light form. Just one random villain, who could kill one of the best heroes if his back was against the wall, and things went wrong.

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Yes, but I suspect that's more because Grue's power won rock-paper-scissors than because of anything innate.

Information gathering helps, but LPaul isn't akashically scanning or scrying, he's checking emotions and power ring scans. He's going to run into bad power interactions; trumps in particular are made to interact with things like his power ring, rather than using Shard Commands or anything to weaken or steal other powers.

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Nearly. Trumps are not in any literal sense made to interact with his power ring.

Take Jack Slash's mind reading ability, for example. It only works because it using the pre-rootkitted brain of other parahumans. It doesn't work on normal humans at all. So you've got most powers working on the same system... How many of their interactions are defined by that system and nothing anythinig innate?

And if he gets Scion's attention, he's kind of fucked unless he can drastically outscale him - he's literally the purpose Scion has for existing, meaning that suddenly Scion isn't in slowly winding down depression - he's firing on all cylinders, because he has his purpose back, and that means Paul has to deal with Scion's Path To Victory. He can probably leave - Paul would need to fly past the moon, but he can leave most parahumans behind - but Scion was canonically blown past Jupiter by the G-Driver, and it took him less than a minute to come back; the Warrior Avatar is entirely capable of FTL speeds, as well as slipping between dimensions as easily as walking down the street. And this Paul isn't linked to an Entity; I'm not sure he can scale above Scion's raw power, and the nature of Stilling/wavelength manipulation means that Scion cuts through his defenses like butter. Not unusual, for a Paul to have to deal with something like that, but with a being that powerful…?

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Oh yes, if Zion woke up he'd kill Lord Protector very easily. No question at all. And then Third Earth, and everywhere else the liches ever settled. Mumm-Rana could probably create something to fight him eventually, but if that happened she's have a fraction of a second before faccing the Ancient Spirits of Goodness.

And that assumes the Simurgh doesn't notice him - and she will. She constantly scans Earth, both telepathically and precognitively, by looking directly at the future and number crunching based on the minds she looks into. Her purpose is also to keep the cycle going; she turned against Scion because he was a threat to it. Here, he isn't, because he's not depressed. And Lord Protector Paul just doesn't have what he needs to fight someone as intelligent as the Simurgh - and that's the scary thing: she is intelligent. Inhuman, but she genuinely understands people; she doesn't just calculate like a computer. The first thing she'll do is review his whole life with post cognition, because her post cognition is basically perfect. And she'll figure him out, bit by bit.

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Again... True? I'm not saying that he'd win, I'm saying that what he'd try and do. If I wrote it. Which I'm not going to.

Worm isn't quite the OWoD in terms of 'and now Caine eats you,' as can be seen by its canon end - but it was set up by powerful, prepared beings to keep it the way it is, and it takes a lot to bring that down. What Paul's doing is the exact way to fail, basically - the thing you do if you don't understand what you're dealing with. And that's always been clear - it's a bit sad, but it's in character for Yellow Lanterns to make that kind of mistake.

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Yes. If I somehow haven't been clear until now, he doesn't understand what he's dealing with, and has access only to publically available information.

 

[Mr Zoat]

'your'

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[CrazyNoVa]

Shards can do literally everything Power Rings can except on a larger scale.

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Can you elaborate?

You haven't read Worm. That's fine.

Point 1) Supervillains in Worm are just criminals with superpowers. Which means Lord Protector will be mass murdering people who include those who did nothing to warrant a death penalty because apparently he can't be bothered to be useful with his time like prioritizing targets that would actually be worthy of his attention like say dealing with the international Nazi supervillain organization or freeing the brainwashed victims who have been turned into terrorists by the like of Teacher, the Endbringer Simurgh, or Heartbreaker's sleeper agents.

Point 2) Villains naturally outnumber heroes because Trigger events require trauma. Trauma, you know, like Lord Protector's fearmongering mass murder campaign will cause, which will result in even more villains arising, so no, this is like how the Garou in Werewolf the Apocalypse fighting the spirit of entropy and hate with murder and homicidal rage.

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That's not quite true. Lord Protector usually spares the ones who surrender, and he keeps targeting the real pieces of trash, so if anything, people might start seeing him as a symbol of hope for finally giving villains what they deserve. Thus, a lot of newly triggered superhumans would either be too scared of him to oppose him, or they would practically worship the ground he walks on.

He possibly could - and main Paul, given a maintained connection to the Ophidian, definitely could - but the way he's going about 'fixing' the setting just sets everything on fire and gets him killed. Goku could probably just win; mainline Superman could probably just kill Scion with a punch or something. But he's not that overpowered, and he simply doesn't have the resources to do what he's trying to do.
Yes, even with a power ring.

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Not yet, but with the ring and enough imagination, he can simply MAKE the ressources he needs.

And if he gets Scion's attention, he's kind of fucked unless he can drastically outscale him - he's literally the purpose Scion has for existing, meaning that suddenly Scion isn't in slowly winding down depression - he's firing on all cylinders, because he has his purpose back, and that means Paul has to deal with Scion's Path To Victory. He can probably leave - Paul would need to fly past the moon, but he can leave most parahumans behind - but Scion was canonically blown past Jupiter by the G-Driver, and it took him less than a minute to come back; the Warrior Avatar is entirely capable of FTL speeds, as well as slipping between dimensions as easily as walking down the street. And this Paul isn't linked to an Entity; I'm not sure he can scale above Scion's raw power, and the nature of Stilling/wavelength manipulation means that Scion cuts through his defenses like butter. Not unusual, for a Paul to have to deal with something like that, but with a being that powerful…?

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Maybe he wouldn't stand a chance in his current state, but he might decide to seek out power ups and make himself strong enough to stand up to Scion.

Also, does Scion have any viable defenses against magic?

That's true. He can't. Without very specific information, a single Lantern can't change the system.

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Hence why I suggested he finds himself some allies.

 

[Dur'id the Druid]

What is everyone talking about? I don't see any kind of crossover with worm at all in previous thread marks. But everyone's talking as if some of it's already written or something?

( PS I hope Zoat writes more in the Harem tragedy line myself. I don't know why I like that particular plot thread)

 

[Attention Counting]

What is everyone talking about? I don't see any kind of crossover with worm at all in previous thread marks. But everyone's talking as if some of it's already written or something?

( PS I hope Zoat writes more in the Harem tragedy line myself. I don't know why I like that particular plot thread)

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I believe it started when Mr. Zoat talked about a hypothetical scenario of how Lord Protector Paul would act in Worm, sparking this whole discussion.

 

[Ardy]

Must, resist, urge, to start worm derail on how that won't actually work…

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Behold, I have predicted the future

 

[Stsword]

While it's common knowledge in the setting that supervillains outnumber heroes, I don't think that it's because of the trauma. Similarly, I don't think that a targetted campaign against specific individuals which ends the ongoing campaign of violence that they were carrying out would increase the rate of triggers.

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It is. Cauldron and it's selling vials to people is why the villain-hero gap isn't even wider in Worm, the gap is naturally even wider.

With triggers coming from major trauma, fucked up people are the majority of parahumans in Worm.

So for every villain Lord Protector kills, the shards will just find a new host, who will turn out to be a new villain over 66% of the time.

And shards bud. They spread to people the parahuman spends close proximity with- friends, classmates, family, coworkers, lovers, and neighbors.
The people who will be the most likely to be traumatized by a superhero murdering their friend, classmate, family member, coworker, lover, or neighbor.

So for every supervillain Lord Protector kills will most likely be replaced with a new villain and quite possibly more than one.

Which would be a worthwhile risk for deserving targets like say a vile mass murderer because A) The new villain(s) would be likely to be better people anyway and B) Probably has a smaller and possibly nonexistent pool of people their death would potentially trigger so smaller chances of making additional villains.

But you aren't having Lord Protector prioritize vile mass murderers, you decided Lord Protector idea of making the world a better place includes murdering fucked up teenage trauma victims who make poor choices because they are fucked up traumatized teenagers.

That's not quite true. Lord Protector usually spares the ones who surrender, and he keeps targeting the real pieces of trash, so if anything, people might start seeing him as a symbol of hope for finally giving villains what they deserve. Thus, a lot of newly triggered superhumans would either be too scared of him to oppose him, or they would practically worship the ground he walks on.

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It is true.

We have it straight from Zoat that Lord Protector's plan is go city to city and mass murdering every single villain who doesn't surrender to the police in the week before.

He's basing his targets on geographic convenience not prioritizing by any useful metric like potential lives saved. So falsely claiming he will be focusing on real pieces of trash is a complete waste of everyone's time as is any argument based on that obviously false premise.

The chances that Lord Protector quixotic quest will make Earth-Bet a better place is up there with chances that Sisyphus will finally get that rock up that hill.

Not because the Lord Protector lacks the power to make Earth-Bet better but because Lord Protector's plan refuses to use that power in an intelligent or effective manner.

 

[Wivk]

capes aren't idiots

Hell, the fact that you think capes heads are fucked with to be more violent or whatever as a rule means you really don't know what you're talking about

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Some capes are idiots. Intelligence isn't something the shards select for. I would actually say the shards select based on incompetence, and as a knock on effect they are more likely to select for idiots than geniuses. You can only have a trigger event if you aren't able to cope with the stress and trauma of your situation. The shards don't want pacifists at one with the dao, they want people that will use their power for everything and against anything. This means they actively select for people without good coping strategies, without support networks, without adequate communication skills, with underlying emotional instability, and with pre existing problems they can't think or talk their way out of.

If you were reasonably intelligent you would realize your lack of a support network, inability to communicate effectively, and total lack of coping strategies was holding you back and do something about that. So capes are all either too stupid to realize this, or too incompetent to do anything with that knowledge. And this is all before we take potential conflict drives into account.

 

[Vaermina]

Can you elaborate?

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Parahumans aren't a Shards power, they're a carefully curated fractional representation of what a Shards power actually is.

Remove that curation however and you get Titans.

You don't know that.

No Entity has ever encountered a power ring, but shard-based powers rely on parallel universe connections to work. Yes, once she has a connection he'd be in a good deal of trouble. But can she make one? He looks at her, her power... Might register that? Then it tried to form a larger link. His ring could definitely detect that. Could it? Maybe. Lord Protector's lack of a database means that he has no special knowledge of the techniques involved, but subspace manipulation is a basic technique.

And while he isn't knowledgeable about the mechanics involved, Mumm-Rana is. With only one living human left to study she put substantial effort into his armour, and it does contain exotic baffles. Nothing specific -she's never encountered an Entity before either- but general 'block attack' and 'stabilise reality' charms.

But lets assume that doesn't work, and his world is filled with pain and a whispering voice telling him to come to her location. He's enlightened. The pain is extremely unpleasent but he can disassociate from it, and use his ring to control his own pain receptors. Then you've got the issue that it's trivially easy for him to get out of range... Or nuke the location she's just given him because there's no further penalty to seeing her again.

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The only way "block attack" and "stabilize reality" charms would work is if they were conceptual bullshit on a level of //Fate.

Otherwise the shards would just brute force through them.

 

[Bud-E]

@Mr Zoat Random question any chance you'll write a Paul in any of the Ben 10 cartoons?

 

[Mr Zoat]

It is. Cauldron and it's selling vials to people is why the villain-hero gap isn't even wider in Worm, the gap is naturally even wider.

With triggers coming from major trauma, fucked up people are the majority of parahumans in Worm.

So for every villain Lord Protector kills, the shards will just find a new host, who will turn out to be a new villain over 66% of the time.

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My understanding is that you need a Corona Pollentia to trigger naturally. The shard can find a new host once one becomes available.

And shards bud. They spread to people the parahuman spends close proximity with- friends, classmates, family, coworkers, lovers, and neighbors.
The people who will be the most likely to be traumatized by a superhero murdering their friend, classmate, family member, coworker, lover, or neighbor.

So for every supervillain Lord Protector kills will most likely be replaced with a new villain and quite possibly more than one.

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I don't think that the family of a violent criminal will exactly be shocked that the family supervillain was violently killed. And considering what happened to Theo when Kaiser was killed, I wouldn't be so sure that they jump that way.

Which would be a worthwhile risk for deserving targets like say a vile mass murderer because A) The new villain(s) would be likely to be better people anyway and B) Probably has a smaller and possibly nonexistent pool of people their death would potentially trigger so smaller chances of making additional villains.

But you aren't having Lord Protector prioritize vile mass murderers, you decided Lord Protector idea of making the world a better place includes murdering fucked up teenage trauma victims who make poor choices because they are fucked up traumatized teenagers.

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No. Lord Protector's priority is preventing the chaos of Earth Bet spreading via a portal he can't close to Third Earth. Killing supervillains achieves this, as far as he knows. In Nilborg's case, buying him off worked. Anything else a nice-to-have. His idea would be if the people on the Bet side could police themselves. He isn't trying to save anyone. As I already said, USA Bet becoming an uninhabited wasteland is a minimal victory, because it's no longer a threat.

It is true.

We have it straight from Zoat that Lord Protector's plan is go city to city and mass murdering every single villain who doesn't surrender to the police in the week before.

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Surrender or leave.

He's basing his targets on geographic convenience not prioritizing by any useful metric like potential lives saved. So falsely claiming he will be focusing on real pieces of trash is a complete waste of everyone's time as is any argument based on that obviously false premise.

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The real pieces of trash are probably more likely to make a fight of it than those with a shorter criminal record.

Not because the Lord Protector lacks the power to make Earth-Bet better but because Lord Protector's plan refuses to use that power in an intelligent or effective manner.

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It's more than he lacks the knowledge of the reality of the situation.

@Mr Zoat Random question any chance you'll write a Paul in any of the Ben 10 cartoons?

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No. Never watched it, never read any fanfiction of it.

 

[Ct613hulu]

What was the Lord Protector's plan for the Endbringer's. I would assume they would be a priority as they (or more precisely whoever is making and directing them as they are obviously not natural) would clearly be the greatest threat to Thundera. The idea is that whoever is behind the Endbringers could place one on Thundera and start periodically destroying cities on Thundera just as its counterparts do on Earth-Bet. This seems like a far greater threat then single-city gangs and supervillains somehow stumbling on the portal and deciding to go through in search of victims or resources.

Does he just plan to show up and assume that his overpowered Lantern Ring and out of context supernatural abilities will grant him an assured victory?

 

[NightmareWarden]

This talk of other lanterns makes me want to see Suicide Squad's Angel again.

 

[Ardy]

This is why SB is a wasteland. Let's just move on!

This talk of other lanterns makes me want to see Suicide Squad's Angel again.

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Last we saw he got his wings ripped off by the local angels after the universe rebooted and he thought he WAS an angel.

 

[swarm]

Holy shit this is still ongoing after all these years

 

[Steelplaza]

I know we're pretty far from the Reach plotline at the moment, but I've been thinking about what it means that they haven't really gotten desperate yet. It's taking a while to sink in that NEMO is an actual existential threat that really could force an unconditional surrender. They're still moving to wartime footing. And when they do?

Well, the Reach has conquered a rather significant portion of space. As in, you can actually see it on a map of the universe (the universe being only a few galaxies) even if it's a wee, tiny color blot on that map. But still, that's a lot of worlds on which to discover weird, one-off artifacts and creatures. A signed favor from a God of Death to kill a single individual. A murder drone of impossibly advanced technology made by a one-off genius a million years ago they found sitting at the bottom of a well. A gate that spews forth an endless stream of Kryptonian-level monsters from... somewhere... that they managed to put a cap on. I'm just making things up, but you can image it right? No one world might be as strange as Earth, but if you take a million worlds you can probably strain an earth level of weirdness out of them collectively.

So what happens when the Reach opens up their version of the sci-fi closet, all the weird one-off weapons and hazards that they have accumulated and left in storage with "break open in case of doomsday" written on them? It's probably a good thing that Dox is so good with his power ring, because sooner or later he's going to be facing off against some awfully exotic assassination attempts.

Seem plausible?

 

[Ardy]

I know we're pretty far from the Reach plotline at the moment, but I've been thinking about what it means that they haven't really gotten desperate yet. It's taking a while to sink in that NEMO is an actual existential threat that really could force an unconditional surrender. They're still moving to wartime footing. And when they do?

Well, the Reach has conquered a rather significant portion of space. As in, you can actually see it on a map of the universe (the universe being only a few galaxies) even if it's a wee, tiny color blot on that map. But still, that's a lot of worlds on which to discover weird, one-off artifacts and creatures. A signed favor from a God of Death to kill a single individual. A murder drone of impossibly advanced technology made by a one-off genius a million years ago they found sitting at the bottom of a well. A gate that spews forth an endless stream of Kryptonian-level monsters from... somewhere... that they managed to put a cap on. I'm just making things up, but you can image it right? No one world might be as strange as Earth, but if you take a million worlds you can probably strain an earth level of weirdness out of them collectively.

So what happens when the Reach opens up their version of the sci-fi closet, all the weird one-off weapons and hazards that they have accumulated and left in storage with "break open in case of doomsday" written on them? It's probably a good thing that Dox is so good with his power ring, because sooner or later he's going to be facing off against some awfully exotic assassination attempts.

Seem plausible?

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I thought that kind of stuff was mostly just Earth and the previous worlds that had the life entity on them. Like, there are some crazy advanced species out there, but mostly nothing the reach wouldn't already be using after reverse-engineering the original

 

[CrazyNoVa]

The only way "block attack" and "stabilize reality" charms would work is if they were conceptual bullshit on a level of //Fate.

Otherwise the shards would just brute force through them.

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You mean like The Requiem Stands from Jojo or the Almighty element attacks from SMT/Persona?

Holy shit this is still ongoing after all these years

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What is? The Reach plot? Yeah, Zoat did say that it would be lasting a LONG time.

 

[Attention Counting]

@Mr Zoat, I beseech thee in humble supplication, let us see OL's daughter Best Girl Mazikeen again!

I've been re-reading the story and I've always loved their interactions, as short and few as they were. Maybe he can even introduce her to the Missus if she's not busy with Darkstars business.

 

[Cuchulin]

It is true.

We have it straight from Zoat that Lord Protector's plan is go city to city and mass murdering every single villain who doesn't surrender to the police in the week before.

He's basing his targets on geographic convenience not prioritizing by any useful metric like potential lives saved. So falsely claiming he will be focusing on real pieces of trash is a complete waste of everyone's time as is any argument based on that obviously false premise.

The chances that Lord Protector quixotic quest will make Earth-Bet a better place is up there with chances that Sisyphus will finally get that rock up that hill.

Not because the Lord Protector lacks the power to make Earth-Bet better but because Lord Protector's plan refuses to use that power in an intelligent or effective manner.

Click to shrink...

Killing Jack Slash and his group alone would make the world a slightly better/safer place. Also, new villains take some time to pop up.

 

[Mr Zoat]

3rd October 2010
09:06 GMT -5

I squint at the incoming handegg construct and generate a wicket-keeper's mitten to catch it.

"While this is a… Surprisingly chummy way of spending our lesson, Lantern Jordan…" I focus on his location and throw the construct his way. "I was sort of expecting something else."

His construct image floating over the ring… I think he's raising his eyebrows, though the mask makes it hard to tell. "What happened to 'sir'?"

"I realised that you don't actually outrank me, and time in rank doesn't matter in separate organisations. Unless this is an American-" Construct hands form to catch the ball, then hurl it back towards me. "-etiquette lesson and I'm supposed to call you 'sir' because you're older than me."

"Oh? When did you join the Justice League?"

"The Justice League has no formal authority-" I catch the ball again and because I'm feeling fancy I actually spin around before throwing it back. "-over superhumans generally. And I imagine that the Controllers would rather that I didn't take orders from the Guardians."

"How would you know? You said-" He catches and returns. "-you never met them."

"Your very loud silence on the subject. There are two possible sources of power rings: Maltus and Qward. If it came from Qward you'd have taken it off me due to them being evil. It's not the Guardians because they've stuck with green for… What, a billion years? It's not Zamaron, because they like violet and because you'd have taken it off me due to them being crazy." Catch and return. "Who does that leave?"

"Why assume that no one except Qward can learn to make them?"

"Occam's razor. Power rings are amazing and Green Lanterns have been around for a long time. If it was the sort of thing-" Catches and return. "-that anyone could do, other people would have started it. Qward is hardly the only place that mad super-scientists come from. So if there's someone available who could have made it, they're the best place to look."

Catch and return.

"Alright, that makes sense. But why do you care what they think? If they did give you your ring, there's a good chance they're the ones who kidnapped you."

Catch and return.

"Then I'll have it out with them. But they also might be able to send me back, so I'm not going to start by being rude to billion-year-old superbeings."

Catch and return.

"I mean, maybe they think that I'm some sort of ideal Orange Lantern candidate and they just wanted to make sure I could handle it? That's a big show of trust."

The construct image nods. "Would you go back?"

"It depends on what the terms of my return are. I'd love to go back, ring and personal lantern intact, and be my Earth's only superhero. Maybe have a look around our galaxy to see if there's anyone else there. But… Unless travel is two-way, Paula obviously wouldn't want to move, and…"

Catch and return.

"And I don't know what I'd do about that. If it was stay or go with no coming back and no ring, I'd… Probably stay. Hopefully send a message, but it's just… I've got more opportunities to do something with my life here."

"And Paula."

Catch and return.

I find myself smiling, and do my best to clamp down on the feeling as my construct starts to waver.

"That close, huh?"

"This close. I don't really have anything to compare it to, but I have every intention of making it closer. Ah. Are you and Ms. Ferris..?"

Catch and return.

"We're not together. Guess the nice thing about having a secret identity is that you have time for things like that."

"If something's important, you make the time."

Catch and return.

"Did you just quote Star Trek at me?"

"Yes, but it's true." Catch and return. "Yes, I could spend forty hours a week plus travel time being an administrative assistant as well as the time I spend being a superhero and trying to have a life in whatever's left, and… Lying to everyone about it. But why?"

Catch and return.

"Not really the same for me."

"Does the Green Lantern Corps not pay you a living wage? Serious question, I've got no idea if you get paid or not."

Catch and return.

"Yeah. I do. Might cause trouble for my family, though."

"Sinestro already knows who your family is."

"I know."

"And don't the families of most Green Lanterns plant that.. flag, with the green sigil on it, outside of their houses as a badge of pride?" Catch and return.

"... Yeah."

"Funny story about M.I.6. They didn't used to employ homosexuals due to the concern that they could be blackmailed about being homosexual. Then someone realised that was stupid and now it's fine as long as they're open about it." Hm. "Are attacks on the families of police officers common in America?"

Catch and return.

"No, not… Really. Because they know if they tried, every single person involved would die. Police do not take that kinda thing."

"Well, if you want to invite me to a family barbeque I won't say 'no'. I don't think anyone will miss the implication if you're seen with me."

Catch and return.

"Heh. Thanks, I guess." The ball flies towards he, and his dismisses it. "Guess I was kinda… Thinking about it. I'd have to talk to Jack and Jim first." He aims himself in my direction and accelerates, covering the distance in a few seconds.

"And wasn't your Uncle the first Airwave?"

He looks mildly pleased. "You're the first person outside our family who knew that. And yeah, I don't remember Aunt Helen having any trouble over it. I'll.. give it some thought." He looks around. "So if you don't wanna toss a ball around, what do you wanna do?"

I reach into a pouch, and pull out Teth Adom's amulet.

"My investigation skills could do with some work. Perhaps we could look into what this is?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

It usually takes me three hours to write a segment. Last night I spent two hours just trying to find a decent picture of Forager III. It was quite frustrating.

 

[Darko]

think I'm sort of ideal Orange

Click to shrink...

"some sort"

"Well, if you want to invite me to a family barbeque I won't say 'no'. I don't think anyone will miss the implication if you're seen with me."

Click to shrink...

Yeah, being seen as being friends with a guy that killed a bunch of supervillains will get people to reconsider pissing you off.

I reach into a pouch, and pull out Teth Adom's amulet.

"My investigation skills could do with some work. Perhaps we could look into what this is?

Click to shrink...

Hmm, maybe Teth will get to come back.

But didn't Paul disintegrate the amulet?

 

[Duke Long]

"The Justice League has no formal authority-" I catch the ball again and because I'm feeling fancy I actually spin around before throwing it back. "-over superhumans generally. And I imagine that the Controllers would rather than I didn't take orders from the Guardians."

Click to shrink...

'that'

"I mean, maybe they think I'm sort of ideal Orange Lantern candidate and they just wanted to make sure I could handle it? That's a big show of trust."

Click to shrink...

I always did wonder about this.

"It depends on what the terms of my return are. I'd love to go back, ring and personal lantern intact, and be my Earth's only superhero. Maybe have a look around our galaxy to see if there's anyone else there. But… Unless travel is two-way, Paula obviously wouldn't want to move, and…"

Click to shrink...

Going home doesn't come up often as a realistic prospect, I feel. I expected that he'd be more interested in returning, but I'm not sure why. When I actually think about it it's pretty clearly not that great.

"Heh. Thanks, I guess." The ball flies towards him, and his dismisses it. "Guess I was kinda… Thinking about it. I'd have to talk to Jack and Jim first." He aims himself in my direction and accelerates, covering the distance in a few seconds.

Click to shrink...

'he'

It usually takes me three hours to write a segment. Last night I spent two hours just trying to find a decent picture of Forager III. It was quite frustrating.

Click to shrink...

Foolishly, my immediate assumption upon reading this was 'so you were able to write a whole segment in one hour?'