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

Vaermina · Oct 13, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
"I've been bleaching it since forever. But you must have known that. Why did you think my hair stayed blonde after you 'awoke' me?"

Actually her hair color is naturally blond in Young Justice.

Vice Xarno · Oct 13, 2020

Vaermina said:
Actually her hair color is naturally blond in Young Justice.

she said since Grayven Awoke her, so she was a natural blond until she became a New God, where she was just dying it back to her normal color

Mr Zoat · Oct 13, 2020

Vice Xarno said:
she said since Grayven Awoke her, so she was a natural blond until she became a New God, where she was just dying it back to her normal color

No, it stayed blonde in the sense that her toughness didn't overcome the bleach.

Darko · Oct 13, 2020

Vice Xarno said:
she said since Grayven Awoke her, so she was a natural blond until she became a New God, where she was just dying it back to her normal color

I think her natural color is black like her sisters and she was just dyeing it blonde.

Blonde hair isn't exactly a common hair color among Asians.

Chojin Patriarch · Oct 13, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
Bull
Stands

"Like the hair."

Artemis rolls her eyes at me as we walk down a corridor in Caergwaed. Finally, things are settling down. Finally, we can return to the task at hand. I miss the fight already.

With any luck things should be settled soon. Assuming some idiot doesn't get more stupid ideas about their place in the world.

"It was an accident."

"I didn't even know New Gods could bleach their hair."

Safe to assume they work like humans do, unless otherwise noted. So things like colouring are probably guided by their divine nature... Consider guys like Sleez...

"I've been bleaching it since forever. But you must have known that. Why did you think my hair stayed blonde after you 'awoke' me?"

"I thought that your divine nature might have included being blonde." I shrug. "The phenomena isn't well studied in humans."

Considering there's like half a dozen Earthborn New Gods, that is a monumental understatement.

"No, still dyeing it. Which I couldn't do here, because Sheeda don't have hair. One of my-" She glances backwards at our escort. "-attendants looked at my two-tone hair and asked if there was a problem. Only they didn't know what bleaching agents humans use and gave me something that turned it white instead."

"Is it permanent?"

Unless it somehow modified her DNA (and I wouldn't put it past Sheeda science,) that's unlikely. Worst case, she cuts her hair short and grows it back.

"Ask me in another two hundred years."

I nod. "Will do."

And you know he will ask that, if Artemis is still around. And she'll be like, "What? Oh! Fuck you, Grayven."

We emerge onto a balcony which grants a good view across the city, if mist-shrouded military base is your idea of a good view like it is mine.

"Nice place you got here."

I doubt it's better than any other city, given the utilitarian nature of Sheeda habitation, amongst the lower ranks at least...

Artemis steps forward, indicating a complex over to our right with her right hand.

"That stuff's new. We had to fortify our long-range communications, and since even when it got really bad no one wanted to risk destroying Caergwaed's vats this was the best place to put it."

The joy of holding the keys to making new troops. You're too valuable to attack without risk of destroying that production capability. Makes for a safe home base, unless someone feels up to committing a major atrocity.

I nod. Local experts are copying the really quite clever system to the cities on my side of our renewed alliance as we speak, and inscribing New God designs on them for superior effectiveness.

"So what happened?"

Ah, the best part of meeting old friends: Catching up.

"After you left, two of the 'observers' turned out to be assassins. After they got killed we found out that a bunch of other cities were attacking the cities who sent representatives to the launch." She turns around to face me, leaning back on the railing. "Caeryg died right away-" Unfortunate. "-and so I had to try and get everyone to work together."

"Looks like you did a pretty good job. Yours was the second largest alliance on the planet."

And since they've naturally teamed up, the rest will choose to fold for fear of being eradicated. Nice.

The only other one worth talking about. Once the unaligned cities found out that our war had suddenly stopped they began making representations. More to Artemis' side than mine, but since what's mine is hers I'm not going to complain.

"This…" She shakes her head. "Isn't my thing. It's like herding cats! I spent like ninety percent of my time just trying to get them to even talk to each other!"

Feh, even cats are smart enough to work together to gain something. The Highborn seem to be hardwired with chronic backstabbing instincts. Probably at the Queen's behest, so they would focus on getting ahead of each other for her favour rather than eyeing up her throne...

"I just killed anyone who disobeyed me. Saved a lot of time…"

"I wanna say that's bad… But I know how many people died every time one of the Highborn on my side decided to act up."

No doubt quite a lot. Still probably less than Grayven's bodycount. And, honestly, Sheeda tend to be kind of easily replaceable. The only issue is knowledge and skillsets. If they're anything like Dark Eldar, there's probably a mechanic to stripmine neural data from their brains.

"That's politics at the national level. People die whatever you do. I like the way I do things but I can't tell you I'm objectively right. Your way might have been better."

"Or it might not have worked."

Ultimately, you made it work, more or less. That's what counts, in the end. Don't get bogged down looking back. That's never good for the soul.

I nod. "And you won't ever know for sure because you can't do both." I smile. "And this is the difference between Earth, and Apokolips and New Genesis. You encouraged cooperation and I compelled obedience, and rather than fight to the death we're talking about it like rational people and combining our power bases to do something more important."

"Did you kill a lot of people?"

"Like a lawnmower, when necessary." Seriously, while headhunting might have worked, there would probably still be holdouts who ignore the way the wind's blowing. Even if that wind is the breeze of Grayven's sword passing by their head.

"The total Sheeda population is far less than the population of Earth in our era. Do you mean as a proportion, or in absolute numbers?"

"I-." She gives a tired snort. "I suppose it doesn't matter." She shrugs. "So what's next?"

Now you look into A: evacuating the Universe and B: identifying the cause of the Vampire Sun effect.

"Bleed torsion generator."

That gets her attention.

"You know how to make it work?"

No, but Mother Box might have some ideas to try. He's the muscle, he leaves the science to other people.

"Think so." I huff, shaking my head. "I've had to have Mother Box working on war-related things, but between when she already knows and what she learned in space, it should be possible. And…" How to approach this? "When did the picture cut off?"

"A little bit after you started your tour of the Source Wall. The universe is really small now, huh?"

Like the song says, 'It's a small world after all...'

And no, I will not apologise for any Earworms I may have just triggered.

"That's my conclusion, though I don't plan on touching it to check."

"Yeah."

Yes, let's not poke the demonstrably grabby giga-structure with anything less than a ten-million-foot pole. Especially since it might be the only thing between you and the Big Crunch.

"I… Saw something, when I was coming back. An etheric tide flowing from the Earth to the sun. I'm not sure.. exactly what was happening, but once things are stable here I want to go up again and get a closer look at the sun."

She nods. "That's the only other place to look."

...There are two celestial bodies left... What if the Sun's been catching a bad rap?

"Technically, we could look underground." She smiles faintly. "And I know that we knew that the sun is continuing to.. feed, but it became noticeably more intense when the fighting started. And when I began to despair, it was able to drain me."

She shrugs. "I don't think the Sheeda are going to start another war."

I still find it fascinating that when he felt a little Black, it took a firm hold... Oh, Hells... It's Nekron, isn't it? He and the Life Entity are the only two sources of emotional light left in the universe, trapped in a constant cycle of growth and draining, until they finally end up forced together as the Source Wall contracts... At which point, they act like the ultimate combo of matter and anti-matter, triggering the death of one universe and the birth of the next in a Big Bang. And boy, I wish QQ had a[glow=orange] Glow[/glow] BBcode like SB does

"No, but once the generators are up and running, I think it might be worth putting resources into light entertainment."

She nods. "To keep people happy, and make it harder for the sun to feed on them."

Pfft. Do the Sheeda even have any forms of entertainment these days that don't involve pain, sadism and death? No heroic fiction or romantic legends?

"Or just to add circuses to the bread. Anything new on your end?"

She nods. "We round records of the tissue sample. The one-"

Oh-ho, that's informative. Do tell...

"The one they got from the Justice Legion." / "-they picked up from whoever it was-. Yeah."

"And… Where you able to learn anything about it?"

Come on, make with the exposition! We've been jonesing for this all episode.

"I.. got the local Vat Masters to look at it, but the record's really old and… Weird. The Vat Lord said that he thought the problem was their ancestors making a copy of a copy of a copy without really understanding what they were looking at."

I nod. "To be expected, really. Unless they find the original I doubt it will help. But… I am pleased that you keep looking."

So, they can barely identify that it was organic in the first place. Yay.

She nods with a smile, stepping away from the railing.

"We should go talk to the Highborn. Let them know what we want them doing now that the war's over."

And make sure no-one's died in the time they've been chatting. Seriously, itchy stabbing hands...

I nod. "Maybe I could bring more people up with me next time. See if going above the mists affects Sheeda differently."

"That-."

"My lady? My lord?"

Oh, what's gone wrong now? because at this point, I doubt anything good could happen.

A Highborn I don't recognise walks around Artemis's attendants and hesitantly halts before us. Since this is Artemis's city I wait for her to reply.

"What is it, Edwyn?"

Heh, subtle hint that the Highborn can't have missed. that will raise interesting discussions around the dinner table for them later.

"You asked about a particular tissue sample collected by our ancestors?"

"What about it?"

This better be good...

"With the help of Lord Grayven's arcanists, we… We believe that we may have found it."

She frowns. "A better record?"

Oh, it is good...

"No. The original sample. It has… It appears to have somehow survived. We.. initially misidentified it, but… With a more thorough review-."

"Take us to it right now."

Very very good! Finally some answers!

And the plot moves along, at the speed of convenience. Thank goodness, this is turning into the Namek sage... Wearing out its welcome somewhat, well-written as it is.
And my two cents on Artemis' hair colour? Even if she is naturally blonde, that doesn't mean she can't dye it a different shade of blonde.

Seriously, 'Blonde' covers quite a range of shades, from lightish browns to almost ginger to pale, pale yellow-white...

Godspeech:

"Like the hair."

Artemis rolls her eyes at me as we walk down a corridor in Caergwaed. Finally, things are settling down. Finally, we can return to the task at hand. I miss the fight already.

Mr Zoat said:
I nod. "Will do."

We emerge onto a balcony which grants a good view across the city, if mist-shrouded military base is your idea of a good view like it is mine.

DeathlessProficiency · Oct 13, 2020

So... why did Artemis kiss him?

Lurker Scum · Oct 13, 2020

DeathlessProficiency said:
So... why did Artemis kiss him?

At the time, it would have been a kiss of relief. As in "I've spent the last 200 years trying to unite these idiot cities to fight Sheeda Hitler but Sheeda Hitler turned out to be one of my best friends from when I first arrived on this shithole. I'm so happy!". Now? Zoat's playing coy so we don't know if that relationship advanced any further than that yet.

Darko · Oct 13, 2020

Chojin Patriarch said:
With any luck things should be settled soon. Assuming some idiot doesn't get more stupid ideas about their place in the world.

Hello my name is Murphy.

Chojin Patriarch said:
there's probably a mechanic to stripmine neural data from their brains.

More like necromancer.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Like the song says, 'It's a small world after all...' And no, I will not apologise for any Earworms I may have just triggered.

You bastard.

Chojin Patriarch said:
I still find it fascinating that when he felt a little Black, it took a firm hold... Oh, Hells... It's Nekron, isn't it? He and the Life Entity are the only two sources of emotional light left in the universe, trapped in a constant cycle of growth and draining, until they finally end up forced together as the Source Wall contracts... At which point, they act like the ultimate combo of matter and anti-matter, triggering the death of one universe and the birth of the next in a Big Bang.

Well him or someone with the Anti Life Equation.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Pfft. Do the Sheeda even have any forms of entertainment these days that don't involve pain, sadism and death? No heroic fiction or romantic legends?

They probbaly do have heroic fiction and romance, but it's more likely to also include death and sadism, and their romantic entertainment is something akin to Bonnie and Clyde.

Darko · Oct 13, 2020

Chojin Patriarch said:
And the plot moves along, at the speed of convenience. Thank goodness, this is turning into the Namek sage... Wearing out its welcome somewhat, well-written as it is.

But there is no Guru here, though that could explain why the universe is so small, Guru ate the rest and became SUPER fat.

Seriously I can't really see Guru as being anything other than his Abridged self now, along with Popo and of course Nappa.

Vaermina · Oct 13, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
No, it stayed blonde in the sense that her toughness didn't overcome the bleach.

Except she didn't dye it because she was naturally blond like her father.

Stsword · Oct 13, 2020

Darko said:
I think her natural color is black like her sisters and she was just dyeing it blonde.

Blonde hair isn't exactly a common hair color among Asians.

She's half asian.

And yes she's a natural blonde-

. Unless you think she's been dying her hair since she was nine years old.

And really, you thought she was dying her hair in a way that makes her look like her abusive supervillain father? That is even less likely than her being a natural blonde in my opinion.

Vaermina · Oct 13, 2020

Stsword said:
She's half asian.

And yes she's a natural blonde-

. Unless you think she's been dying her hair since she was nine years old.

And really, you thought she was dying her hair in a way to look like her abusive supervillain father? That is even less likely than her being a natural blonde in my opinion.

Nice find! I forgot about that specific bit.

Darko · Oct 13, 2020

Stsword said:
She's half asian.

And even then it's still a fairly rare color. It's more likely to occur, but it's still rare.

Stsword said:
And yes she's a natural blonde-

. Unless you think she's been dying her hair since she was nine years old.

Children today are doing all sorts of things at a younger age and dyeing hair is one of the mildest of those things.

Also Artemis didn't exactly have a standard childhood.

Stsword said:
And really, you thought she was dying her hair in a way to look like her abusive supervillain father? That is even less likely than her being a natural blonde in my opinion.

You do realize that children from abusive homes can sometimes have conflicting feelings regarding their parents right?

On one hand they may hate them, but on the other hand some part of them may want their parents to love them and they can have some affection for them even if they are abusive. This can continue for years, even if they left their parents and stopped trying to please them.

Artemis could have dyed her hair in order to feel closer to her father and she kept doing that for years, and even if she lost any desire to please him or feel closer to him she may have still dyed her hair because she either liked how it looked, or just developed a habit.

Stsword · Oct 13, 2020

Darko said:
You do realize that children from abusive homes can sometimes have conflicting feelings regarding their parents right?

On one hand they may hate them, but on the other hand some part of them may want their parents to love them and they can have some affection for them even if they are abusive. This can continue for years, even if they left their parents and stopped trying to please them.

Artemis could have dyed her hair in order to feel closer to her father and she kept doing that for years, and even if she lost any desire to please him or feel closer to him she may have still dyed her hair because she either liked how it looked, or just developed a habit.

And still her being a natural blonde is more likely than her dying it since she was nine.

Darko · Oct 13, 2020

Stsword said:
And still her being a natural blonde is more likely than her dying it since she was nine.

It's also more likely for children to be raised by people who aren't assassins, but it wasn't in Artemis' case.

It's not exactly that difficult to believe that someone would dye their hair since they were young.

Some kids get piercings like earrings when they're pretty young, so dyeing hair is fairly low on the weird scale.

Vaermina · Oct 13, 2020

Stsword said:
And still her being a natural blonde is more likely than her dying it since she was nine.

Don't forget her eyebrows are also blond.

BR549 · Oct 13, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
making a copy of a copy of a copy

Someone's been watching Gen:LOCK.

Mr Zoat · Oct 13, 2020

BR549 said:
Someone's been watching Gen:LOCK.

No, Stupendium.

Z3r0Sama · Oct 13, 2020

Is the sun feeding on the life entity? Would maybe kinda explain why the universe is shrinking.

Assblaster5000 · Oct 13, 2020

Chojin Patriarch said:
I still find it fascinating that when he felt a little Black, it took a firm hold... Oh, Hells... It's Nekron, isn't it? He and the Life Entity are the only two sources of emotional light left in the universe, trapped in a constant cycle of growth and draining, until they finally end up forced together as the Source Wall contracts... At which point, they act like the ultimate combo of matter and anti-matter, triggering the death of one universe and the birth of the next in a Big Bang.

If it turns out that I'm actually right then I'm going to unreasonably angry over a victory.

Why are you doing this to me you damn menace of a brain?

Senevri · Oct 13, 2020

Agent Orange said:
Oh it was 'only' two centuries since they last saw each other! Well that makes things much better /s

My understanding is that a large chunk of that was because of the Source Wall causing temporal dilation, and not just Renegade dragging his heels conquering cities. Does this imply that it took them a 100 years to get to beetle rocket experiment? MrZoat mentioned 300 years, after all....

Senevri · Oct 13, 2020

Darko said:
I think her natural color is black like her sisters and she was just dyeing it blonde.

Blonde hair isn't exactly a common hair color among Asians.

Her father is blond(e) , IIRC, so it's more likely than for most. OTOH, I wouldn't be surprised if the showrunners just forget these things....

King of Frost · Oct 13, 2020

Okay, so the kiss was just an "Oh my god I'm SO glad to see you." response, not an "I am suddenly very attracted to you now that everyone we know are gone." response.

Sorry, I've been reading some not-so-good SI stories lately and in these kinds of situations it was always the latter. Made a few assumptions.

Stsword · Oct 13, 2020

Senevri said:
Her father is blond(e) , IIRC, so it's more likely than for most. OTOH, I wouldn't be surprised if the showrunners just forget these things....

I doubt it.

Kaldur has dark eyebrows, despite his mother being blonde.

So it seems one member of the Team does in fact dye their hair to look like a parent, it's just Kaldur.

Artemis's look was inspired by a half asian gal who has natural blonde hair- Hanah Cook.

"Victor Cook's daughter is naturally blonde, though she's one-half Korean on BOTH parents' side, making her one-half Asian total. She, in part, served as one of our inspirations for Artemis." Ask Greg.

Agent Orange · Oct 13, 2020

Senevri said:
not just Renegade dragging his heels conquering cities. Does this imply that it took them a 100 years to get to beetle rocket experiment? MrZoat mentioned 300 years, after all....

It honestly doesn't matter in the slightest. The fact that it took him more than a few months to let his only real ally/friend know that he's alive/that she's not alone in the end of times is SoD breaking for me.

South Pole to New England (or wherever it was that he and Artemis landed in) is the distance you can walk in several months if you're determined enough (a 60-year-old guy did it in the 70s apparently). Grayven isn't a 60-year-old human and he doesn't have to walk it, he can fly. Even if he had no magical radio, even if he had no messenger zombie pidgeons, taking one to three centuries to get in touch with her is ridiculous.

I can lose time when playing a good strategy game as much as the next guy but come on!

david15 · Oct 13, 2020

Darko said:
It's also more likely for children to be raised by people who aren't assassins, but it wasn't in Artemis' case.

It's not exactly that difficult to believe that someone would dye their hair since they were young.

Some kids get piercings like earrings when they're pretty young, so dyeing hair is fairly low on the weird scale.

she was based on the daughter of a friend of one of the people behind the show the girl she's based on is a blue eyed blonde girl who is part Asian, look it up if it bothers you that much

Mr Zoat · Oct 13, 2020

Agent Orange said:
It honestly doesn't matter in the slightest. The fact that it took him more than a few months to let his only real ally/friend know that he's alive/that she's not alone in the end of times is SoD breaking for me.

South Pole to New England (or wherever it was that he and Artemis landed in) is the distance you can walk in several months if you're determined enough (a 60 year old guy did it in the 70s apparently). He didn't have to walk it. Even if he had no magical radio, even if he had no messenger zombie pidgeons, taking one to three centuries to get in touch with her is ridiculous.

I can lose time when playing a good strategy game as much as the next guy but come on!

Sheeda don't have a long range communications network and he prioritised stabilising Sheeda civilisation.

Sockmonkey · Oct 13, 2020

Stsword said:
I doubt it.

Kaldur has dark eyebrows, despite his mother being blonde.

So it seems one member of the Team does in fact dye their hair to look like a parent, it's just Kaldur.

Kaldur isn't the best example. As a non-pureblood Atlantean, he has all kinds of biological shenanigans going on.
Most of the blondes people see nowadays are brunettes who dye their hair, but not their eyebrows.
Subconsciously, people start to think that's what blondes are supposed to look like.

Agent Orange · Oct 13, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
Sheeda don't have a long range communications network and he prioritised stabilising Sheeda civilisation.

That's... nice but it doesn't make my SoD feel any less broken. Then again I am not ageless New God so what do I know.

DAT_NOOB · Oct 13, 2020

Agent Orange said:
It honestly doesn't matter in the slightest. The fact that it took him more than a few months to let his only real ally/friend know that he's alive/that she's not alone in the end of times is SoD breaking for me.

South Pole to New England (or wherever it was that he and Artemis landed in) is the distance you can walk in several months if you're determined enough (a 60 year old guy did it in the 70s apparently). He didn't have to walk it. Even if he had no magical radio, even if he had no messenger zombie pidgeons, taking one to three centuries to get in touch with her is ridiculous.

I can lose time when playing a good strategy game as much as the next guy but come on!

You haven't accounted for stabilizing regions that were conquered, losing territory, reconquering territory, a war going on so people at actively trying to disrupt his communications, the fact he doesn't know exactly where she is or if she has moved, having to advance in the wrong direction to take out big threats, etc...

I'm sure if Grayven just decided to walk towards her while the entire planet burned around him he'd do it in several months, but that rather offends his nature.

I once again point to Alexander the great who took 13 years to 'walk' 5-6 thousand kilometres which is roughly two-thirds of the distance from America to Antarctica (just the countries starting and ending at the closest points), and Grayven is fighting an enemy civilisation a little more advanced than alexander.

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

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