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

Wheenesss · Mar 26, 2021

I completely forgot that Misa/Iname exists here. It feels like it's been a while since we've seen her.

Mr Zoat · Mar 26, 2021

Rafin said:
Can Grayven really not think of more efficient ways to beat them? If the Illustress was here he'd probably do it with brain-seeking fillaments tipped with X-ionised knives.

He could kill them easier, yes. He's trying to avoid doing that.

Pinklestia · Mar 26, 2021

DrThoth said:
I think calling the League in would be a good course of action; I'm sure a bunch of their members would be resistant to the insectoid's effects for whatever reason. And if Ahr'ian is still around they would be good backup to have.

The only one who can help, their Wizard, is already going. You do not want Superman to get infected, do you?

Bramble Thorn · Mar 26, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
The originals are from Louisiana. Later additions come from a variety of places.

This is not helpful at all.

Mr Zoat said:
This has all been covered in the story, but in summary:

Anton Arcane made them after the original Un-Men turned on him. They're big, aggressive and with Arcane dead they don't obey anyone. Most of them also used to be regular people who were infected by an existing insectoid, and the transformation is very fast. They're kept in Aberrance because Cranius is researching them and... Actually, the site is pretty secure. There are levels of force you can't secure places against.

This is much more helpful.
However, a point of confusion is that in Part 10...

Mr Zoat said:
I shoot into the sky, colossal construct insects appearing in the streets and grabbing hold of the buildings, both preventing the upper stories falling and blocking further shots with their bodies as I frantically look around for the attacker! Glass sprays from the superheated glass panes as they explode, my shields only covering-.

You introduce Insects as what appears to be utility constructs made from the renegades yellow ring, before having the some different, completely unrelated insects show up in Part 12.

And yes, they come out as an curveball.

"well, they were mentioned in the story at some point," isn't a good excuse for not refreshing the readers memories when they suddenly became relevant in the here and now. This is a big sprawling story after all, and I cannot remember them showing up before. So when Grayven suddenly starts ruminating about how they are this incredibly contagious zombie virus analog, I was thinking "what the hell is going on, why are they suddenly here, and how does he know about their virulence without it having happened yet, or the Mother Box or one of the rings doing a scan and telling him?"

Vaermina · Mar 26, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
There are levels of force you can't secure places against.

Two words, subspace pocket dimension.

Old Knife · Mar 27, 2021

Iname. Can she get infected? Cause she's got superspeed and PietroQuicksilver was mentioned.

Pinklestia · Mar 27, 2021

Old Knife said:
Iname. Can she get infected? Cause she's got superspeed and PietroQuicksilver was mentioned.

Like any New God she has magic resistance and chemical resistance, not to the extent Grayven does but her body should be able to fight it off.

infinityDivided · Mar 27, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
Komand'r flies into Koriand'r, embracing her warmly. Koriand'r doesn't appear even slightly put off by that, even though their relationship since Komand'r arrived on Earth two and a half years ago might charitably be described as 'tense'.

Corrected.

Sorrow · Mar 27, 2021

I don't quite understand... Why is Ahr'ian doing this? Is he some sort of Atlantean Supremacist upset that Atalantean Biomancy is being used by non-Atlanteanian's? He's just a big jerk? Just for shits-and-giggles???

Darko · Mar 27, 2021

Sorrow said:
I don't quite understand... Why is Ahr'ian doing this? Is he some sort of Atlantean Supremacist upset that Atalantean Biomancy is being used by non-Atlanteanian's? He's just a big jerk? Just for shits-and-giggles???

He is a massive racist so you may have just figured out why he's doing this.

Pinklestia · Mar 27, 2021

I can totally see Common Sense Paul making a video like this:

Mr Zoat · Mar 27, 2021

12th July 2012
13:04 GMT -8

I shrug, trying not to look as relieved as I feel.

"Eh. You know."

Because I can do control spells and I can do battle spells. But I'm not so good at doing both at once while someone actually tries to kill me. Magic armour plus transformed Earth Pony should let me do what Grayven does and just shrug off people hitting me. But I've seen the scars from where he couldn't and I'm not ready to try that quite yet.

I smile, some of the tension going out of my shoulders.

"All the better now you're here."

Because I can do this. Probably. But having someone here who's got a lot more experience than me means that I'm less likely to get something really wrong.

I feel Circe touching my spells with her magic, feeling out what they do and how much effort they're taking. Even without a horn I can manipulate far more magic power now than I could before my transformation, and after I set spells up keeping distinct spells running in parallel is a snap. I thought about making the spell I'm using to prevent elemental manifestations harder to understand, but if we're trying to find whoever's responsible for this attack, then-.

"You've made that spell simple to understand on purpose, haven't you?" Circe smiles at me. "You cunning minx."

I tilt my head back, chin held high in pride.

"Cunning pony."

And there's an exception for a very narrow band of sympathetic resonances, so that if I do this-

The concrete and tarmac around us jumps up, forming a short defensive wall.

-then it behaves a little more like a hill or fortress. Not as good as if I reinforced it directly, but it's a lot tougher than it should be. It took me hours to work out how Maud was doing that, but even with the bruises it was time well spent. So if-.

Everything goes white for a moment and I immediately heal myself, blinking-. Yes! Tarmac beats lightning! This is starting to look like the work of someone who's strong but lazy. I mean-

I start trying to reverse-engineer whatever it was that whoever that is did to hurl lightning like that, my etheric senses running along the channel in the way Circe's did my spell. And I'm not exactly feeling anything impressive. Like I thought, high power and…

Auto-targeting? Huh. So it's not targeting me specifically, it's just taking shots at targets of opportunity. But I've seen Misa dropping people off and it hasn't tried blasting any of them. What's the characteristic it's looking for? It's not how much of a threat it is, because it was blasting buildings when Grayven got here.

"Sunset, it would be wise to raise your defenses."

Huh?

"Magic defenses? I've already got those."

"No, your shields against direct attack. These buttresses are reasonable, but-."

Oh, darn it. She's right. The few battlemage lessons I was able to persuade Celestia to give me didn't take into account the sort of weapons Earth has. I mean, I'm a small target-

I wave my right hand, creating an area around me where all objects and energies are predisposed to avoid hurting people.

-in cover, so I'm not exactly an easy target.

I take a step to the left.

Moving around might be better than bunkering up, but I don't know what magic is being used here and I don't want to split my concentration. Genomorphs might get converted by those.. insectoid things.

Equestria does not have anything like those.

I turn to look at Circe.

"Is this oka-"

A beam of rainbow light shoots past my nose, disintegrating a neat hole through my dugout.

"-y?"

Okay taller walls now. I don't need to be able to see all that well to keep suppressing the summoning effect.

"I think that it is, yes."

"What even was that? It-."

Actually, what did it do? Was it homing in on me? There wasn't an explosion when it hit home and I didn't feel any sort of pressure shift that might be caused by teleportation or matter nullification. I spread the area of the safe zone outwards to increase the chance of it 'catching' another shot like that, boost my armour and start trying to examine that spell and the lightning spell for shared elements.

Okay… I think…

"Is that the guidance system?"

"The guid-. Hm." Circe nods. "I think you're right. I think it is."

"Okay, well, I can misdirect it-. Actually."

I bend down and pick up a small stone. Yes, that should do… I trace a small sigil on it with my right foreclaw and imbue it with a little power. And throw…

It sails over the area covered by my ward and-.

And I blink to clear my eyes as lightning hits it. Twice.

And then the rainbow beam hits it.

Ooooooh.

Oh, this bit isn't going to be fun.

I hold my right hand out to the side, draw mana into the material world just over my palm and wai-.

Lightning strike. And two, three, four, f-.

The glowing ball winks out as the rainbow beam shoots it through the middle-. Through the middle because the ward is only protecting living people and a ball of energy isn't a living person.

I pour mana into my right palm, raise my left hand and conjure a beam of light-.

Hah! It curved around! That's pretty clever. Once we're finished here I'll do a proper analysis and work out-.

Circe pats me on the head.

"I'm sure that's very interesting, dear, but perhaps you should focus on the here and now?"

"Right, okay. It look like-. Grayven?"

"Listening."

"The lightning and rainbow beam home in on magic. If you-"

I pull more power into the world, but this time surround it with a minor dampening spell so that it won't look like it's there.

One.

"-hide anything magical with a disguise ward, the spells shouldn't trigger."

Two, three, four… Five.

Yes!

"Right. I'll bear that in mind. Is Circe with you?"

She leans towards me. "Yes, I am."

"You've got lots of experience undoing human transformations. Would you mind having a go at some of the locals? We… Didn't get to all of them fast enough."

Mr Zoat · Mar 27, 2021

Dragonriderjh said:
Corrected.

Thank you, corrected.

Darko · Mar 27, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
now you're here."

'that you're'

Mr Zoat said:
whoever that is did to hurl

This sentence feels weird

Maybe:

'whoever did this'

Mr Zoat said:
Auto-targeting? Huh. So it's not targeting me specifically, it's just taking shots at targets of opportunity. But I've seen Misa dropping people off and it hasn't tried blasting any of them. What's the characteristic it's looking for? It's not how much of a threat it is, because it was blasting buildings when Grayven got here.

Seeing as Arion is a massive racist it may be targetting non-humans and it can detect that Sunset isn't a human, either because she registers as something like a New God or because it can detect she's a pony.

Mr Zoat said:
magic is bring used here

'is being'

Mr Zoat said:
I sails over the area

'It sails'

Mr Zoat said:
You've got lots of experience undoing human transformations

Which she caused.

DrThoth · Mar 27, 2021

It would maybe be worth it for Circe, Sunset and Atlantean/Venturian biomancers to study the insectoids more thoroughly to see if they can reverse the effects, even for those transformed for a long-time. At least to rule out the possibility of curing/reversing their condition, if nothing else. Cranius is good and all but his arcane education (pun semi-intended) is relatively lacking.

Mr Zoat · Mar 27, 2021

Darko said:
'that you're'

This sentence feels weird

Maybe:

'whoever did this'

No, those are correct.

'is being'
'It sails'

Thank you, corrected.

moralrelativity · Mar 27, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
something really wrong

Needs a full stop at the end.

Agent Orange · Mar 27, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
I shrug, trying not to look as relieved as I feel.

'Ah! Senpai is here! The day is saved!'

I don't expect anyone else to have this reaction to Circe appearing before them but it makes sense in this context.

Mr Zoat said:
Magic armour plus transformed Earth Pony should let me do what Grayven does

...

I thought she transformed into Alicorn? Doesn't that already make her as strong/tough as an Earth Pony?

Chojin Patriarch · Mar 27, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
12th July 2012
13:04 GMT -8

I shrug, trying not to look as relieved as I feel.

"Eh. You know."

Ah, Sunset. And this picks up just on Circe's arrival. Time for the ladies to magic the shit out of the bad guys... Seriously, to quote Banner in Infinity War: "Haha, now you guys are screwed!"

Because I can do control spells and I can do battle spells. But I'm not so good at doing both at once while someone actually tries to kill me. Magic armour plus transformed Earth Pony should let me do what Grayven does and just shrug off people hitting me. But I've seen the scars from where he couldn't and I'm not ready to try that quite yet.

I smile, some of the tension going out of my shoulders.

Heh, not ready for the true close quarters stuff, eh? Understandable, she is still young. It's also refreshing to not have a teenager (or young adult, at this point) to feel as if they're invulnerable.

"All the better now you're here."

Because I can do this. Probably. But having someone here who's got a lot more experience than me means that I'm less likely to get something really wrong

Always helps to have someone who can check your work, eh? Especially the 'cool big sis' figure in your life.

I feel Circe touching my spells with her magic, feeling out what they do and how much effort they're taking. Even without a horn I can manipulate far more magic power now than I could before my transformation, and after I set spells up keeping distinct spells running in parallel is a snap. I thought about making the spell I'm using to prevent elemental manifestations harder to understand, but if we're trying to find whoever's responsible for this attack, then-.

You can use it as bait if they try to dispel it, eh? The question is whether someone as old as Arion the Elder would fall for that. Then again, he may not consider that anyone but a 'true Atlanean' could manage it.

"You've made that spell simple to understand on purpose, haven't you?" Circe smiles at me. "You cunning minx."

I tilt my head back, chin held high in pride.

Awww, you can see the 'Eee! Sempai noticed me!' running through her head, can't you?

Not discounting the shipping yet, you know.

"Cunning pony."

And there's an exception for a very narrow band of sympathetic resonances, so that if I do this-

'This' presumably being a casual twist of the spell matrix, eh? 'Press X to smash an attacking enemy.'

The concrete and tarmac around us jumps up, forming a short defensive wall.

-then it behaves a little more like a hill or fortress. Not as good as if I reinforced it directly, but it's a lot tougher than it should be. It took me hours to work out how Maud was doing that, but even with the bruises it was time well spent. So if-.

Good to see she's picking up Earth Pony Geokinesis. Helps that she was working with one of the stronger equestrian experts.

Everything goes white for a moment and I immediately heal myself, blinking-. Yes! Tarmac beats lightning! This is starting to look like the work of someone who's strong but lazy. I mean-

I start trying to reverse-engineer whatever it was that whoever that is did to hurl lightning like that, my etheric senses running along the channel in the way Circe's did my spell. And I'm not exactly feeling anything impressing. Like I thought, high power and…

Man, that brings my opinion of Arion the Elder down a bit (not that it was very high to start with.) I'm reminded of a quote from 'Kill Six Billion Demons' about the DemiUrges of the universe using the power of the creator god 'as a man might use a particularly sharp rock.' All that power, and he's using it like a caveman.

Auto-targeting? Huh. So it's not targeting me specifically, it's just taking shots at targets of opportunity. But I've seen Misa dropping people off and it hasn't tried blasting any of them. What's the characteristic it's looking for? It's not how much of a threat it is, because it was blasting buildings when Grayven got here.

Some sort of racial profiling thing, perhaps? It seems the sort of thing Arion the Elder might use. Either purity of blood (read 'how similar to pureblood Atlanteans') or the like... Targetting the buildings is the spell trying to hit those inside? Or some sort of proximity trigger.

"Sunset, it would be wise to raise your defenses."

Huh?

"Magic defenses? I've already got those."

Sure, Alicorn of Ambition. But even the mightiest Sorceror can still be brought down by a rock in a sock.

"No, your shields against direct attack. These buttresses are reasonable, but-."

Oh, darn it. She's right. The few battlemage lessons I was able to persuade Celestia to give me didn't take into account the sort of weapons Earth has. I mean, I'm a small target-

You don't have some kind of missile-deflecting spell? Then again, Equestrians don't go in for bows much. More thrown rocks and spellbolts. And any deflection spell might not work well on bullets...

I wave my right hand, creating an area around me where all objects and energies are predisposed to avoid hurting people.

-in cover, so I'm not exactly an easy target.

That's a rather vague effect. Bet it costs a lot more energy than a more defined spell, but works much better...

I take a step to the left.

Moving around might be better than bunkering up, but I don't know what magic is bring used here and I don't want to split my concentration. Genomorphs might get converted by those.. insectoid things.

Oh, sure, now she's tempting Murphy. Sheesh. Also: Scary thought.

Equestria does not have anything like those.

I turn to look at Circe.

Even Changelings aren't that... Evil.

"Is this oka-"

A beam of rainbow light shoots past my nose, disintegrating a neat hole through my dugout.

"-y?"

Yikes. Might want to add a spell to warn you to duck. Or perhaps one that forces you to before your reactions can catch up.

Okay taller walls now. I don't need to be able to see all that well to keep suppressing the summoning effect.

"I think that it is, yes."

Remember though: Concealment does not equal cover, nor does cover equal concealment...

"What even was that? It-."

Actually, what did it do? Was it homing in on me? There wasn't an explosion when it hit home and I didn't feel any sort of pressure shift that might be caused by teleportation or matter nullification. I spread the area of the safe zone outwards to increase the chance of it 'catching' another shot like that, boost my armour and start trying to examine that spell and the lightning spell for shared elements.

At least she can focus on the important things rather than 'Oh dear Celestia, I nearly got killed!'

Okay… I think…

"Is that the guidance system?"

Huh. Like a leader charge, which serves as the channel for the bulk of the lightning? Except noticeably longer between charge and strike...

"The guid-. Hm." Circe nods. "I think you're right. I think it is."

"Okay, well, I can misdirect it-. Actually."

Let's not try that right on top of you, though. Work at a distance. Preferably a big one.

I bend down and pick up a small stone. Yes, that should do… I trace a small sigil on it with my right foreclaw and imbue it with a little power. And throw…

I sails over the area covered by my ward and-.

...'Foreclaw'? Her armour has talons? Interesting.

And I blink to clear my eyes as lightning hits it. Twice.

And then the rainbow beam hits it.

...Oh, that's significant! By Jove, my dear, I think you've cracked it!

Ooooooh.

Oh, this bit isn't going to be fun.

Almost like reverse thunder... "I'm not overly fond of what follows..."

I hold my right hand out to the side, draw mana into the material world just over my palm and wai-.

Lightning strike. And two, three, four, f-.

That was on the rock... Now, what next...

The glowing ball winks out as the rainbow beam shoots it through the middle-. Through the middle because the ward is only protecting living people and a ball of energy isn't a living person.

I pour mana into my right palm, raise my left hand and conjure a beam of light-.

So the beams track active mana, not passive stuff like people's souls. Which explains why it's not targetting fleeing civilians: they're not mages.

Hah! I curved around! That's pretty clever. Once we're finished here I'll do a proper analysis and work out-.

Circe pats me on the head.

Circe, there's encouraging, and then there's patronising. You're walking a fine line there.

"I'm sure that's very interesting, dear, but perhaps you should focus on the here and now?"

"Right, okay. It look like-. Grayven?"

At least she kept Sunset from getting distracted. That would get people killed.

"Listening."

"The lightning and rainbow beam home in on magic. If you-"

And active magic at that. Because it doesn't seem to be tracking Iname or Grayven...

I pull more power into the world, but this time surround it with a minor dampening spell so that it won't look like it's there.

One.

You better hope it works...

"-hide anything magical with a disguise ward, the spells shouldn't trigger."

Two, three, four… Five.

All quiet? Looks like the gamble paid off.

Yes!

"Right. I'll bear that in mind. Is Circe with you?"

Not that Grayven really uses all that much magic, beyond Godspeech. Much like OL, he's not really suited to the finer Arts.

She leans towards me. "Yes, I am."

"You've got lots of experience undoing human transformations. Would you mind having a go at some of the locals? We… Didn't get to all of them fast enough."

Craaaap. I hope they're well-contained. Because that's a biohazard just waiting to bite back...

Such a casual outlook to fighting animate stone and lightning bolts. Then again, given the weirder things in Equestria, I'm not surprised she's blasé about it. And I though Grayven was headed to beat mage face.

Are we sure she's actually talking to Grayven? No, wait, this is probably something he came across on the way...

And I'm not exactly feeling anything impressing.

Phrasing's a little awkward. Perhaps 'impressive' or 'to impress me.'

Hah! I curved around!

Hah! It curved around!

Darko · Mar 27, 2021

Chojin Patriarch said:
Then again, he may not consider that anyone but a 'true Atlanean' could manage it.

And this is why racism is worthless.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Man, that brings my opinion of Arion the Elder down a bit (not that it was very high to start with.) I'm reminded of a quote from 'Kill Six Billion Demons' about the DemiUrges of the universe using the power of the creator god 'as a man might use a particularly sharp rock.' All that power, and he's using it like a caveman.

He's probably much more skilled than this but just thought that he didn't need to show off and waste time.

With his power he honestly doesn't need much skill.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Oh, sure, now she's tempting Murphy. Sheesh

You'd know something about that.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Foreclaw'? Her armour has talons? Interesting.

Or that's how she calls fingers.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Circe, there's encouraging, and then there's patronising. You're walking a fine line there.

She's a three thousand year old sociopath that turned thousands of innocents into animals.

She probably can't do better than that.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Not that Grayven really uses all that much magic, beyond Godspeech. Much like OL, he's not really suited to the finer Arts.

Paul has started using magic.

Mr Zoat · Mar 27, 2021

moralrelativity said:
Needs a full stop at the end.

Thank you, corrected.

Agent Orange said:
I thought she transformed into Alicorn? Doesn't that already make her as strong/tough as an Earth Pony?

Without wishing to get too far into pony racial politics, Alicorns are Earth Ponies, Unicorn Ponies and Pegasus Ponies.

Though isn't it interesting that the first episode refers to them as 'winged unicorns'?

Chojin Patriarch said:
Even Changelings aren't that... Evil.

Given how Celestia likes to suppress information, I'm not sure that Sunset has actually heard of the changelings.

...'Foreclaw'? Her armour has talons? Interesting.

She's still not entirely used to having wiggly worms attached to her monkey hooves.

Such a casual outlook to fighting animate stone and lightning bolts. Then again, given the weirder things in Equestria, I'm not surprised she's blasé about it.

Sunset left Equestria as a student, and hasn't actually encountered that much weird stuff in Equestria outside of books. And she mostly focused her studies on pony magic.

Phrasing's a little awkward. Perhaps 'impressive' or 'to impress me.'

Hah! It curved around!

Thank you, corrected.

Darko said:
She's a three thousand year old sociopath that turned thousands of innocents into animals.

She probably can't do better than that.

Oh, no. She's not a sociopath.

Darko · Mar 27, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
Oh, no. She's not a sociopath.

Fine, borderline-sociopath then.

Her actions do suggest a lot of sociopathic tendencies.

Prince Charon · Mar 27, 2021

Darko said:
Fine, borderline-sociopath then.

Her actions do suggest a lot of sociopathic tendencies.

I suppose that depends on how you look at it (and on what actions definitely took place on Earth 16). If you're referring only to stuff she did in this story, of course, then it's fortunate that we can directly ask the author, because that seems not to have been his intention. This may be a difference in ethics between reader and author, though.

Pinklestia · Mar 27, 2021

Order magic should help yo undo transforms... Or.make the transformations stable... who knows with magic?

DrThoth · Mar 27, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
Given how Celestia likes to suppress information, I'm not sure that Sunset has actually heard of the changelings.

The Genomorphs came through the portal as changelings, was Sunset just not around for that at all? Seeing what happens to a synthetic novel species seems like something she'd want to monitor.

Handlewithcare · Mar 27, 2021

It depends a bit on what backstory Zoat is going with, but afaik Arion encountered (and built) Shizo tech in his time.

He should know that non-magical threats are an issue as well.

Unless he thinks the Unmen are caused by a curse or something?

Mr Zoat · Mar 27, 2021

Darko said:
Fine, borderline-sociopath then.

Her actions do suggest a lot of sociopathic tendencies.

Like what? Serious question. She told Grayven why she started killing people, and it was self-preservation. Her emotional reactions to other characters are relatively normal. I though, anyway. I mean, she's not particularly nice to people she doesn't know, but in human history that's pretty normal.

DrThoth said:
The Genomorphs came through the portal as changelings, was Sunset just not around for that at all? Seeing what happens to a synthetic novel species seems like something she'd want to monitor.

I... Don't think she was there? Alright, she's probably heard of them by now, but she doesn't have any details.

Darko · Mar 27, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
Like what?

Turning people into animals and enslaving them.

Lacking any regret or remorse for any lives she has destroyed.

Mr Zoat · Mar 27, 2021

Darko said:
Turning people into animals and enslaving them.

Lacking any regret or remorse for any lives she has destroyed.

Do you think that all historical slave owners were sociopaths?

Darko · Mar 27, 2021

Mr Zoat said:
Do you think that all historical slave owners were sociopaths?

No, but it doesn't exactly change my mind that Circe has some sociopathic tendencies, even if according to you she's not a full blown sociopath.

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

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