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

[AngelicKnight.]

So a thought occurred to me when reading this update, is there a Misa in the paragon timeline?

Like there been a few timeline specific characters before, some from another universe like sunset shimmer and golden age supergirl, some from the setting who the other timeline never met like I think Misa is meant to be (like she's from death note but this version of her is a DC native?).

I'm just curious, is the paragon path Misa ok?

 

[Smartkittykhan]

So a thought occurred to me when reading this update, is there a Misa in the paragon timeline?

Like there been a few timeline specific characters before, some from another universe like sunset shimmer and golden age supergirl, some from the setting who the other timeline never met like I think Misa is meant to be (like she's from death note but this version of her is a DC native?).

I'm just curious, is the paragon path Misa ok?

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Given that she and Sunset are explicitly crossover characters I'm inclined to believe their presence is exclusive to the renegade timeline.

Also, I thought Misa's parents were murdered which is why she came to Grayven in the first place. Am I misremembering something?

 

[Mr Zoat]

'toggled'
'they've'

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Thank you, corrected.

So the reason the g-gnomes were successful was that they could rapidly place an illusion/mind control/whatever on the target before they could suicide?

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The thing about mind reading is that you have to know it's happening to actively resist it. If g-gnomes aren't rushed, they can be very subtle.

Since there's a decent chance we'll be seeing a lot of Persuader/Elise this episode (assuming the planetary exploration has something funny happen and doesn't get offscreened), I feel the need to ask what her backstory is, because I scarcely remember at all. I think she got given future-Persuader's axe after Grayven killed him, but that's all.

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Elise? Persuader 1 came back in time to kill Superman and failed. He decided that the best way to succeed on his second attempt was to recruit his own ancestors, give them copies of his axe, train them up and then rush Superman. Elise thought that getting an axe was pretty neat, and liked meeting members of her distance family, but when she realised that the target was Superman she opened a portal to Challenger Mountain and told the Renegade everything. He beat the snuffing out of the rest, investigated her circumstances and offered her a pupillage.

I don't recall anything about her father. Is he the sort of person who would take an interest in planetary surveying? Seems like there is a significant risk of 'blank stare' response.

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He'd probably be somewhat interested? Humans going into space is usually considered pretty interesting. He's trying to improve his relationship with a daughter who he hadn't seen (prior to the Renegade's intervention) for about a decade, so he'd definitely show an interest.

Given that she and Sunset are explicitly crossover characters I'm inclined to believe their presence is exclusive to the renegade timeline.

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They're present because of what happened to Ambush Bug's bugs. Since they didn't randomly discharge in the main timeline, no Sunset and no Misa.

Also, I thought Misa's parents were murdered which is why she came to Grayven in the first place. Am I misremembering something?

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No, that's correct.

 

[boo600]

And clearly the only proper response to that is going on a killing spree.
Our reminder that this particular individual was a nutcase before Grayven handed her the power of a god. And a death scythe. And his explicit approval to go around killing people she thought it would be a good idea to kill.
Honestly it is a wonder they haven't had problems before now.

I don't recall anything about her father. Is he the sort of person who would take an interest in planetary surveying? Seems like there is a significant risk of 'blank stare' response.

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I mean. Reach spies, there to mindwipe and slowly genocide worlds. She's saving planets, by killing inarguably evil monsters. I'm not sure that 'killing spree' is a fair statement to make, particularly since she A) has trustworthy telepaths look them over, and B) is one of Grayven's retainers - Grayven may not be the Illustres of the OLC, but he is still effectively at war with the Reach, simply because they're going to nom Earth like the political version of a tide of alien locusts.

This is not a spree murdering, this is the disposal of threats to all life on a number of worlds, which would normally be preceded by decades of slavery that grind down the mind of the slave race before they're essentially slaughtered for religious reasons in an eternal jihad against all other life that makes the Fremen from Dune look tame.

 

[Ardy]

You don't have to read it. I won't be offended. I've already said that I'm not going back to Worm, though I admit it being all anyone seems to want to talk about at the moment is making me reconsider.

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You said you'd never bring up Worm again, and you brought up Worm again.

 

[Duke Long]

slaughtered for religious reasons in an eternal jihad against all other life that makes the Fremen from Dune look tame.

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Come to think of it, is their extermination of aliens caused by their ideology requiring antipathy towards other sophont species, or is it just a consequence of it requiring expansionism and probably valuing the reachian species? In this story they tend to seem pretty chill, but we haven't seen enough of their culture to be sure. And the dominators sometimes seem pretty chill too, but their ideology certainly does require antipathy.

 

[Huttj509]

I don't recall anything about her father. Is he the sort of person who would take an interest in planetary surveying? Seems like there is a significant risk of 'blank stare' response.

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Active engagement is not the purpose. The issue is that she's not comfortable with how much she keeps her activities hidden from her father, and she doesn't feel she can go into more detail about "I killed a bunch of people, but they had it coming."

So the planetary habitat expansion stuff is something she can actively talk about with more detail than "work went well."

 

[CrazyNoVa]

There's nuance to it.

Scion was basically on an emotional rollercoaster during the apocalypse, feeling the first joy and pleasure he had in the decades since coming to Earth and losing Eden, then finding Eden's corpse and having that wound torn open, started to just vent all his rage, got into a massively frustrating fight with Khepri stubbornly refusing to lose, then once again having that emotional wound with Eden scrubbed with salt and lemon juice, and had it caped off with a moment of hope against hope that in all of that chaos somehow Eden was there and impossibly alive. Until he took a second look and it was just another fake.

Then he exploded(literally) and just stopped caring and Khepri shot him until he died.


It's a very different situation to having Yellow Paul show up while Scion is still in the middle of his depression and is the sort of thing that risks Scion leaning into his nature as an Entity rather than indulging in the emotions of human emulation.

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Okay, fair enough. But what I'm arguing here is that even when taking Scion's entity nature into account, the mere existence of Paul might still just be enough to avoid his meltdown in canon, both by the renewing of purpose that he was sorely lacking, and by the butterfly effect. Especially once Scion realizes that the non-Wildbow universes might hold the solution to the problem that he and the other entities have been seeking for so long: the heat death of the universe. And if that's not enough, then another chain of events that lead to Scion's defeat could theoretically still happen.

Also, if his partner could be resurrected, that might further help avoid Scion going crazy.

 

[Mr Zoat]

You said you'd never bring up Worm again, and you brought up Worm again.

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No, other people brought up Worm again. I consider myself somewhat obliged to respond to people discussing my story on my story thread.

 

[Ardy]

Also, if his partner could be resurrected, that might further help avoid Scion going crazy.

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It would force all intelligent life on Bet and countless other worlds into a fate worse than death, but he wouldn't go "crazy", yes.

 

[Zig]

I only watched series 1, but I can't think of any way that would work.

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It was a magical eclipse that messed with super powers and could be seen everywhere on Earth at the same time.

 

[CrazyNoVa]

I've been trying to hold my tongue, I've been trying real hard, but what the fuck people?!

You're going on about a setting that hasn't appeared in this story for years! To hell with Worm, to hell with Worm canon, to hell with Wildbow, and to hell with every character in that stupid web serial.

Come on, don't you have anything to say about the story currently in progress? You can even talk about Sailor Moon if you want; at least that's relevant since Endymion is going to be a continuing character for a while.

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To be fair, the Worm segment is kind of part of the main story here, even if only loosely, so it's inevitable that it would get brought up from time to time. It may have been years since then, but it's still part of the story regardless, so it's fair game for discussion.

Besides, it's not like we talk about it all that often. It's been what, at least several months since the last time it got brought up here?

It would force all intelligent life on Bet and countless other worlds into a fate worse than death, but he wouldn't go "crazy", yes.

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You're missing the point. What I'm trying to say here is that Scion might put his attention towards the greater multiverse, and get distracted by the idea that his former partner might get resurrected by some means or ways out there, and then he might get obsessed enough to deviate from his original fate, which might give the people of Earth-Bet a better chance at survival. He would become obsessed with finding a way to resurrect his partner, and that might throw things out of whack just enough for the butterfly effect to make a difference.

 

[Steelplaza]

Imagine being the Reach Intelligence Analyst who has to try and figured out what the fuck happened.

"Yes sir, we don't know what happened to the heads. Our best guess is that they were taken for use with some sort of brain-reading technology, so we're assuming all the information those agents knew is compromised. We think this may have been the work of either a single individual or a small number of individuals with enhanced speed, but we can't be sure. The attacks were nearly simultaneous, but trying to compare chronology across interstellar distances is difficult."

 

[Mr Zoat]

It was a magical eclipse that messed with super powers and could be seen everywhere on Earth at the same time.

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Did it create powers, or just activate something that was already there? Do already working powers continue drawing power from the sun, or do they run off the body of the one using the powers? And honestly, if an eclipse was visible from everywhere on the planet I'd start looking around for something causing gravitational lensing.

 

[Rebu]

A rectangular pan does sound pretty cool. Though I wouldn't use it for omelettes.

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You could make four grilled cheese sandwiches at once!

 

[boo600]

Come to think of it, is their extermination of aliens caused by their ideology requiring antipathy towards other sophont species, or is it just a consequence of it requiring expansionism and probably valuing the reachian species? In this story they tend to seem pretty chill, but we haven't seen enough of their culture to be sure. And the dominators sometimes seem pretty chill too, but their ideology certainly does require antipathy.

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I mean, they follow a Writ. And they always kill off their enslaved races, some way or another, even when they make good slaves/computers/technicians/pharmaceutical ingredients. They're probably doing it on purpose, given how competent they are at expanding, and therefore, they're probably killing them for religious reasons.

They could just be incompetent at actual governance, but… to this degree? Even when some of the species, for example, use natural alchemy in their young, something the Reach can't replicate? Those guys would get killed eventually as well, given their track record, and I don't believe that they've never come across something like that before.

 

[Zig]

Did it create powers, or just activate something that was already there? Do already working powers continue drawing power from the sun, or do they run off the body of the one using the powers? And honestly, if an eclipse was visible from everywhere on the planet I'd start looking around for something causing gravitational lensing.

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No no, you're assuming it makes sense. The powers don't draw power from the sun, they draw power from the eclipse. The eclipse created the first powers around 400 years ago. Those people had decedents who seem to have something there but no powers. Then each time there is an eclipse, things go wonky. People who have something get powers activated, but then people who already have active powers lose them while the eclipse is happening. So like, the eclipse is somewhere giving people energy to use their powers most of the time, but when a solar eclipse is happening on Earth (everywhere on Earth at once) that means the eclipse is busy using the power itself so others can't use theirs.

Also the Internet wasn't invented, it's a sentient being that allowed humans to discover it.

 

[Mr Zoat]

No no, you're assuming it makes sense. The powers don't draw power from the sun, they draw power from the eclipse. The eclipse created the first powers around 400 years ago. Those people had decedents who seem to have something there but no powers. Then each time there is an eclipse, things go wonky. People who have something get powers activated, but then people who already have active powers lose them while the eclipse is happening. So like, the eclipse is somewhere giving people energy to use their powers most of the time, but when a solar eclipse is happening on Earth (everywhere on Earth at once) that means the eclipse is busy using the power itself so others can't use theirs.

Also the Internet wasn't invented, it's a sentient being that allowed humans to discover it.

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Is the internet-being the same as the eclipse-being?

 

[Duke Long]

I mean, they follow a Writ. And they always kill off their enslaved races, some way or another, even when they make good slaves/computers/technicians/pharmaceutical ingredients. They're probably doing it on purpose, given how competent they are at expanding, and therefore, they're probably killing them for religious reasons.

They could just be incompetent at actual governance, but… to this degree? Even when some of the species, for example, use natural alchemy in their young, something the Reach can't replicate? Those guys would get killed eventually as well, given their track record, and I don't believe that they've never come across something like that before.

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I decided to have a look for some relevant quotes instead of relying on memory.

"And you can't synthesise this stuff more easily?"

"No. For some reason this is the only method that works. We've tried foetal cells, foetal tissue cultures, vivisected adults… We even tried editing the eggs so that they remain in the egg stage of development indefinitely. Nothing else works."

"Oh, I can believe it. That's impressive biological security. I'm sure that if breaking it was possible, you'd have done it."

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"My homeworld has a number of time travellers living on it. Apparently, when you conquer my species, you remove all of the ones with useful traits from the general population and transplant them into an artificial environment where they're raised to revere the Reach. You gain-. Or rather, your successors, gain their loyalty by treating them as valued servants. Sometimes, social engineering works just as well as biological engineering."

"Why limit ourselves?"

"Because in every example we've been able to study, Reach biotechnological domination is inevitably followed by extinction. You people don't maintain servitor races. And then you've got places like this-"

I note the weak glow of my armour's rune stone with a lack of surprise. Natural alchemy. Which only works as long as no alien elements are introduced. It would limit the native species' growth if it's a required part of their physiology, but since the Reach don't use magic at all there probably isn't a way for them to bypass it.

"-where that approach doesn't work. As I understand it, the Reach hasn't even studied long term stable social engineering. I mean, you people like being in control of other species, but you always run them into the ground. It defeats the object of the exercise."

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I do think there's a decent chance that the Reach has antipathy for other sophont species, but I have some reasons for doubt.

Between these quotes I think it is established that this alchemical species is unusually resistant to modification of the alchemical process, and perhaps the Reach truly never has encountered a species quite like this. In the past they might've encountered species which are useful in similar ways, but were not sufficiently resistant to being modified into fleshy blobs that spit out useful products. Similarly for Threllian's species, it was mentioned that they are raised relatively normally because it's cheaper than synthesising their brains, so perhaps in the past similar species have been encountered but synthesis of their useful traits was not so expensive. Or perhaps with enough to time to work on the problem, synthesis of useful Threllianoid brains (did we ever get a proper name for the species?) will become cheap enough that the current method will be discontinued. And I think this alchemical species seemed like it was going to be maintained in its current form, possibly. That's the impression I get from these quotes, sort of. The Reach couldn't modify them, and didn't really know how to deal with them without modifying them because they aren't used to situations like this.

It is mentioned that biotechnological domination is followed by extinction, but the vast majority of species just aren't useful and the others might have gone 'extinct' in the sense I mention above, and furthermore we know little enough about the Reach interior (I think?) that there might be species kept intact in there to be exploited, with Oh El simply not knowing. Also, he does seem to think the Reach enjoy ruling aliens and might just be stupid, though given how clever the Reach tends to be I'd be a tad surprised by that.

With the mention of time travel reports of social exploitation of metahumans, the treatment of the alchemical species, and to an extent the way we've seen Threllian's species treated, I also think it's possible that even if the Reach has a history of exterminating even useful species, they've recently undergone a theological/political shift that has caused them to begin research into longer-term social engineering for maintenance of useful species. I assume the Writ includes some glorification of the proliferation of their species, so perhaps they were previously focused on relatively short-term acquisition of lebensraum for their species at the cost of other benefits. After all, any resources spent on maintenance of an alien are resources that could've been spent on a reachian. Perhaps a different interpretation of the Writ was discovered or popularised that caused them to reconsider this strategy, or there was some more practical reasoning involved.

 

[Zig]

Is the internet-being the same as the eclipse-being?

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no, that would make too much sense

 

[Mr Zoat]

19th November 1995
05:34 GMT

"A possessed corpse." Sandro stares at the snarling reanimated soldier as I hoist him-. It? In the air and bind its arms. Glowing red eyes glare at me, but from its blood-flecked mouth all that issues is an animalistic bark-roar. "I don't think that will catch on."

"Worried you'll be out of work?"

"No, look at it. No higher reasoning and no higher purpose. It combines the worst aspects of zombie and wraith."

"Better with weapons than a skeleton, though."

"I'm sure that I could create a skeleton capable of using… Grapeshot arquebuses. Given time."

Mazikeen frowns at it. "Bring it closer."

"Alright."

The corpses don't seem to do anything particularly interesting; just wander around with whatever weapons they had to hand when they were killed and attack anything that isn't on their team that they see. I'm not honestly sure that they're possessed per se; I wouldn't be surprised if this was more the result of an excess of demonic magic. Ring scans confirm that they have no biological activity going on. The neurons in their brains fire more or less randomly, their blood is… Warm and circulating, but their hearts have stopped and they don't breathe. And while there aren't any obvious death wounds, whatever's making that red glow in their eyes has burned the flesh around it so that the eye orbits of their skulls are partially visible.

"RAHWR."

Mazikeen stares directly into its face. "Do you know me?"

"RHHHHHR."

"How about-" She removes her half-mask. "'aw?"

The zombie doesn't say anything for a moment, though it's impossible to tell exactly where it's focusing its attention.

Then it makes up its mind.

"RAHWR."

Sandro… Walks around Mazikeen to get a look at what she has under her mask. A little rude, but it's not as if she hasn't spent most of her life walking around with it uncovered. He regards it silently, apparently no longer interested in the walking corpse.

Prince Endymion scowls. "That was a soldier, once. Destroy it, say a prayer for his departed soul and then move on."

I fabricate a crucifix necklace and float it over the demon zombie's head. It drops, necklace around its neck and cross resting against its armoured chest. No observable effect.

Sandro looks at it, a puzzled air about him. "What was that for?"

"It's the sacred symbol of the largest religion of my homeworld. Some demons are harmed or even banished by its presence. Things could be different here, or it could be because there's no actual demon in there. Mazikeen, do you want to try controlling it?"

"There's no point. It's clearly too mindless to know anything about where Angelica went."

I try filling it with the desire to go to its master, or creator, or Angelica, but I can't make it stick. There's just not enough person in there to bind the desire to.

"Fine." I bring my hands together in front of my chest. "May your soul find its way to Lord Hades swiftly, and may he judge you fairly."

Crumbler.

The demon zombie disintegrates.

Prince Endymion looks puzzled. "Lord Hades?"

"I practice the Hellenic faith."

"I've never heard of it."

"Well, no, you predate modern human civilisation. It would be a bit strange if you had."

"No, I think… I recognise the cross symbol of Christianity. Some of… This body's memories are coming back to me. But I don't know what 'Hellenic' means."

"Ancient Greece?"

"Oh. I wasn't expecting that."

I nod. "It's not a big religion, globally speaking."

Mazikeen takes a moment to restore her mask, and then looks at me. "Have you found any radio transmissions?"

"Just random screams, moans and interference crackles from here. I can detect transmissions from Mars and from Earth, but nothing that appears to be aimed at us."

"Then where are we?"

"Phobos."

"Then how is Prince Endymion breathing?"

"Oh, there's an atmosphere. Their guns aren't designed to work outside of an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. There's no dome or atmosphere retention force field, so I assume that they've been cracking ice or something."

Sandro looks at me. "Cracking..? Ice..?"

"Earth's air -and Ashan's- is mostly made up of two gasses, nitrogen and oxygen, in a ratio of about a four to one. You can replace nitrogen with other things, but the plants and animals that live there need oxygen. And the explosives in the demon zombies' weapons need it to ignite. Water is made of oxygen and hydrogen, which means that if you break it apart, you can get a gas you-. Which a living person can breathe."

He nods slowly. "I see what you mean about your understanding of mundane science being far ahead of ours."

Endymion is looking up at the sky. "If it's…" He jerks his head around to face me. "Where is Deimos?"

"Gone. There's a little exotic energy where it used to be… Probably some sort of teleportation residue I don't recognise." I shrug. "We could try travelling to Earth or Mars, but if the portal brought us here, then this is either where Angelica is or where she was. Mazikeen, can you detect her?"

She shakes her head. "No. There's a demonic miasma covering this world. It's obscuring everything. You?"

"I can detect plenty of things. But I can't get clear particular images, just approximate size and location. I guess they're more soldiers like these, but I don't know for certain. Can you tell where the miasma is coming from?"

She closes her eye for a moment. "It appears to be coming from several places. The closest-."

"Incoming." I generate a construct shield between us and the lift doors. "This one seems to be moving with more purpose than the others."

"Ah." Sandro nods. "A summoner, perhaps?"

"I wouldn't think so, it's just one person. A summoner would bring protection, even if they wanted-"

The lift doors open, and a soldier dashes out, shotgun blasting. Naturally, it does nothing to my construct barrier.

"-to take a look themselves. Hello there! We're looking-"

The soldier holsters his shotgun, draws a missile launcher-. Then stops.

"-for-."

"You can talk?"

The voice sounds gruff, and more than a little tired.

"Yes, hello! We're not zombies or demons. How are you?"

"Taggart, Flynn. Corporal, U.S. Marines. Tired, angry, beat up, nothing to eat or drink for two days. Picked a Hell of a time for a vacation."

"No, Corporal Taggart, this is work. A friend of ours is missing, and we're not leaving until we find her."

"Lucky you. All my friends died here. You do realise how-." He stares at Sandro. "Is that guy a skeleton?"

"Don't worry, he's perfectly sanitary." I fabricate a water bottle and float it over to him. "Why don't you explain what's going on, and we'll work out how to fix it."

 

[BR549]

Why do I hear boss music?

"Incoming." I generate a construct shield between us and the lift doors. "This one seems to be moving with more purpose than the others."

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

With This Ring Current Story Only Second Revised Story Only (Now up to date!) Historical Story...

forum.questionablequesting.com

"Ah." Sandro nods. "A summoner, perhaps?"

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Not sure this link is supposed to be here...

 

[Darko]

"It's the sacred symbol of the largest religion of my homeworld. Some demons are harmed or even banished by its presence. Things could be different here, or it could be because there's no actual demon in there. Mazikeen, do you want to try controlling it?

Click to shrink...

Or maybe you need to actually worship and believe in the entity of the symbol you're holding in order for it to have an effect.

Luck you. All

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"Lucky"

 

[Ngamer11]

The corpses don't seem to do anything particularly interesting; just wander around with whatever weapons they had to hand when they were killed and attack anything that isn't on their team that they see. I'm not honestly sure that they're possessed per se; I wouldn't be surprised if this was more the result of an excess of demonic magic. Ring scans confirm that they have no biological activity going on. The neurons in their brains fire more or less randomly, their blood is… Warn and circulating, but their hearts have stopped and they don't breathe. And while there aren't any obvious death wounds, whatever's making that red glow in their eyes has burned the flesh around it so that the eye orbits of their skulls are partially visible.

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That should say 'Warm'.

"I wouldn't think so, it's just one person. A summoner would bring protection, even if they wanted-"

The lift doors open, and a soldier dashes out, shotgun blasting. Naturally, it does nothing to my construct barrier.

"-to take a look themselves. Hello there! We're looking-"

The soldier holsters his shotgun, draws a missile launcher-. Then stops.

"-for-."

"You can talk?"

The voice sounds gruff, and more than a little tired.

"Yes, hello! We're not zombies or demons. How are you?"

"Taggart, Flynn. Corporal, U.S. Marines. Tired, angry, beat up, nothing to eat or drink for two days. Picked a Hell of a time for a vacation."

"No, Corporal Taggart, this is work. A friend of ours is missing, and we're not leaving until we find her."

"Luck you. All my friends died here. You do realise how-." He stares at Sandro. "Is that guy a skeleton?"

"Don't worry, he's perfectly sanitary." I fabricate a water bottle and float it over to him. "Why don't you explain what's going on, and we'll work out how to fix it."

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It's great that Paul might be recruiting Doomguy.

 

[Frozen20XX]

.. Holy crap Paul's in Doom.

 

[PepeTheFrog]

Huh. Does anyone know if any angels die in Doom? Or demons that have become angelic in Angelica's case? I'm assuming that the original spell that sent Paul, Mazikeen and Angelica to places they had conceptually "died" already but I don't know a lot about Doom lore.

 

[Silverias]

Huh. Does anyone know if any angels die in Doom? Or demons that have become angelic in Angelica's case? I'm assuming that the original spell that sent Paul, Mazikeen and Angelica to places they had conceptually "died" already but I don't know a lot about Doom lore.

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Angels aren't much mentioned in doom. You have demons and humans. If you get into the modern trilogy you have the makyrs, who style them as angels and are dimensionally "up" in the way that hell is "down", but they're not angels. No noke, in modern canon, OL is talking to the person closest to being an angel in the setting.

 

[GhostKing 666]

Did anyone have DOOM on their bingo card list? Also any guesses on which DOOM it is(original series, movie, new trilogy).

 

[Bigreader]

Ohhh, oh crap. You are in the vicinity of the Doom Guy. Someday to be called the Doomslayer. Well, you better find your friend fast.And get the heck out of this universe cause nothing good will come from staying there.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

19th November 1995
05:34 GMT

"A possessed corpse." Sandro stares at the snarling reanimated soldier as I hoist him-. It? In the air and bind its arms. Glowing red eyes glare at me, but from its blood-flecked mouth all that issues is an animalistic bark-roar. "I don't think that will catch on."

"Worried you'll be out of work?"

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I assume simple zombies exist in Ashan, but they're merely corpses animated by arcane necromancy, not possession. On the other hand, a zombie grunt is a little bit more effective than a mere walking corpse.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

"No, look at it. No higher reasoning and no higher purpose. It combines the worst aspects of zombie and wraith."

"Better with weapons than a skeleton, though."

Click to shrink...

I see he's offended on professional principles, not moral ones. Then again, he is a Liche, it'd be fairly hypocritical for him to abhor undead.

"I'm sure that I could create a skeleton capable of using… Grapeshot arquebuses. Given time."

Mazikeen frowns at it. "Bring it closer."

"Alright."

Click to shrink...

I assume the hard part of programming weapon skills into an Ashan undead is knowing how to use the weapon in question to start with.

The corpses don't seem to do anything particularly interesting; just wander around with whatever weapons they had to hand when they were killed and attack anything that isn't on their team that they see. I'm not honestly sure that they're possessed per se; I wouldn't be surprised if this was more the result of an excess of demonic magic. Ring scans confirm that they have no biological activity going on. The neurons in their brains fire more or less randomly, their blood is… Warn and circulating, but their hearts have stopped and they don't breathe. And while there aren't any obvious death wounds, whatever's making that red glow in their eyes has burned the flesh around it so that the eye orbits of their skulls are partially visible.

Click to shrink...

At least they didn't encounter a 'Sarge' or 'Gunner' variant... yet. Or any of the more hellish inhabitants of the Moonbase.

"RAHWR."

Mazikeen stares directly into its face. "Do you know me?"

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If it's a possession, she might well hold some authority here. Though i expect her foreign nature precludes that.

"RHHHHHR."

"How about-" She removes her half-mask. "'aw?"

Click to shrink...

Honestly, expecting rational conversation out of it is optimistic.

The zombie doesn't say anything for a moment, though it's impossible to tell exactly where it's focusing its attention

Then it makes up its mind.

"RAHWR."

Click to shrink...

And I can't help but hear the classic sound-bites of the original Doom.

Sandro… Walks around Mazikeen to get a look at what she has under her mask. A little rude, but it's not as if she hasn't spent most of her life walking around with it uncovered. He regards it silently, apparently no longer interested in the walking corpse.

Prince Endymion scowls. "That was a soldier, once. Destroy it, say a prayer for his departed soul and then move on."

Click to shrink...

I mean, she does have marvellous bone structure.

I fabricate a crucifix necklace and float it over the demon zombie's head. It drops, necklace around its neck and cross resting against its armoured chest. No observable effect.

Sandro looks at it, a puzzled air about him. "What was that for?"

Click to shrink...

Never know, it might have worked.

"It's the sacred symbol of the largest religion of my homeworld. Some demons are harmed or even banished by its presence. Things could be different here, or it could be because there's no actual demon in there. Mazikeen, do you want to try controlling it?"

"There's no point. It's clearly too mindless to know anything about where Angelica went."

Click to shrink...

Technically, the demons of Doom aren't quite the classical demons of Abrahamic religion. Not quite aliens either though, but for the purposes of a first-person shooter game...

I try filling it with the desire to go to its master, or creator, or Angelica, but I can't make it stick. There's just not enough person in there to bind the desire to.

"Fine." I bring my hands together in front of my chest. "May your soul find its way to Lord Hades swiftly, and may he judge you fairly."

Click to shrink...

If Hades even exists here...

Crumbler.

The demon zombie disintegrates.

Click to shrink...

Not as messy as the usual Gibs.

Prince Endymion looks puzzled. "Lord Hades?"

"I practice the Hellenic faith."

"I've never heard of it."

Click to shrink...

To be fair, the 'Hellenic' term isn't too widely used in the mainstream anyway. It's usually 'Greek Gods' or 'Olympians' that most people would recognise outside of academia or certain fandoms.

"Well, no, you predate modern human civilisation. It would be a bit strange if you had."

"No, I think… I recognise the cross symbol of Christianity. Some of… This body's memories are coming back to me. But I don't know what 'Hellenic' means."

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That's fair. Mamoru is only a Japanese high school student, I can't expect him to have studied mythology to that level.

"Ancient Greece?"

"Oh. I wasn't expecting that."

Click to shrink...

At least that rings a bell.

I nod. "It's not a big religion, globally speaking."

Mazikeen takes a moment to restore her mask, and then looks at me. "Have you found any radio transmissions?"

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Given the state of the place, there'd be one person talking, and he doesn't exactly use his words much in-game.

"Just random screams, moans and interference crackles from here. I can detect transmissions from Mars and from Earth, but nothing that appears to be aimed at us."

"Then where are we?"

Click to shrink...

Not even a distress call from the base? I suppose given the events of Doom II, most of human civilisation is getting hit just as hard as Phobos...

"Phobos."

"Then how is Prince Endymion breathing?"

Click to shrink...

Space-base. There might well be a forcefield dome or something overhead.

"Oh, there's an atmosphere. Their guns aren't designed to work outside of an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere. There's no dome or atmosphere retention force field, so I assume that they've been cracking ice or something."

Sandro looks at me. "Cracking..? Ice..?"

Click to shrink...

Ah, right. His knowledge of chemistry leans more towards alchemy and magic.

"Earth's air -and Ashan's- is mostly made up of two gasses, nitrogen and oxygen, in a ratio of about a four to one. You can replace nitrogen with other things, but the plants and animals that live there need oxygen. And the explosives in the demon zombie's weapons need it to ignite. Water is made of oxygen and hydrogen, which means that if you break it apart, you can get a gas you-. Which a living person can breathe."

Click to shrink...

Though in the wrong mix, it can be intoxicating, toxic or outright flammable.

He nods slowly. "I see what you mean about your understanding of mundane science being far ahead of ours."

Endymion is looking up at the sky. "If it's…" He jerks his head around to face me. "Where is Deimos?"

Click to shrink...

I mean, the two moons of Mars don't orbit in perfect sync. It's not like they'd be visible from each other, unless they were about to collide (seriously, at the distances visual recognition would need, they'd be far too close for comfort in astronomical ranges.)

"Gone. There's a little exotic energy where it used to be… Probably some sort of teleportation residue I don't recognise." I shrug. "We could try travelling to Earth or Mars, but if the portal brought us here, then this is either where Angelica is or where she was. Mazikeen, can you detect her?"

Click to shrink...

In the games, it gets shunted into the hell dimension, serving as the second episode of the story to Phobos' first.

She shakes her head. "No. There's a demonic miasma covering this world. It's obscuring everything. You?"

"I can detect plenty of things. But I can't get clear particular images, just approximate size and location. I guess they're more soldiers like these, but I don't know for certain. Can you tell where the miasma is coming from?"

Click to shrink...

Heh, he gets to play with the map cheats on. Including the 'show entities' toggle from sourceports.

She closes her eye for a moment. "It appears to be coming from several places. The closest-."

"Incoming." I generate a construct shield between us and the lift doors. "This one seems to be moving with more purpose than the others."

Click to shrink...

Ah, there's the Doomguy. Let's see which version he is... The Slayer is likely to shoot first, ask questions never, mind.

"Ah." Sandro nods. "A summoner, perhaps?"

"I wouldn't think so, it's just one person. A summoner would bring protection, even if they wanted-"

Click to shrink...

And really, the enemy code in the game is largely limited to 'see player, shoot player/run at player'. Any friendly mobs would work much the same.

The lift doors open, and a soldier dashes out, shotgun blasting. Naturally, it does nothing to my construct barrier.

"-to take a look themselves. Hello there! We're looking-"

Click to shrink...

See? Perfectly normal reaction for a Doomguy.

The soldier holsters his shotgun, draws a missile launcher-. Then stops.

"-for-."

Click to shrink...

Episode 1, then. Otherwise, he'd have gone for the plasma-gun.

"You can talk?"

The voice sounds gruff, and more than a little tired.

Click to shrink...

And not slightly cracked, like the comic version. I half expect this to be the movie version.

"Yes, hello! We're not zombies or demons. How are you?"

"Taggart, Flynn. Corporal, U.S. Marines. Tired, angry, beat up, nothing to eat or drink for two days. Picked a Hell of a time for a vacation."

Click to shrink...

Ah, the novel 's protagonist. Not a version I'm familiar with.

"No, Corporal Taggart, this is work. A friend of ours is missing, and we're not leaving until we find her."

"Luck you. All my friends died here. You do realise how-." He stares at Sandro. "Is that guy a skeleton?"

"Don't worry, he's perfectly sanitary." I fabricate a water bottle and float it over to him. "Why don't you explain what's going on, and we'll work out how to fix it."

Click to shrink...

Well, at least he's not reacting by shooting, given the typical Skeleton enemy in the games is the Revenant. I suspect the lack of shoulder-mounted rocket launchers clued him in that Sandro is not one of them.

Well, this promises to be quite fascinating. I rather suspect OL can shortcut a lot of the classic plot of the game story simply by flying to the necessary destinations. It's going to be a worry about what happened to Angelica, given the peculiar situation of the cosmology here. I imagine the local rulers will be very confused by her existence...

---

Also, @BR549, this might be more appropriate for the current setting:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31dOilKLywY