"Not that interesting?"
"Aside from possibly implying that Guardian Meadlux was intending to have children, no. Do you want one like it in orange? I know you were used to having two rings."
Given the Ring has the 'charge ∞' trait, I would be hard pressed to refuse. The extra charge would be useful, I guess. On the other hand, if it
requires the same level of mental realignment, regardless of color...
"Children?"
"Yes? We were once what you would call 'standard pattern humanoids'. We customarily reproduced in the standard fashion. I myself remain perfectly capable of having children."
...Please, that's
not really an image I want. God, could you imagine her with pregnancy munchies, or mood swings?
"You told me that you don't have children 'to give the rest of us a chance'."
"A slightly flippant but essentially accurate answer. But maltusian children are extremely energy-intensive to raise. With a human infant a human parent must worry about protecting it from the environment as it will die if it becomes too hot or too cold. Maltusian infants have the power of we adults but not our hard-won control. Or our experience."
So it becomes more about protecting the environment from the children. Talk about an 'enfant terrible'... A tantrum might lay waste to a whole planet, if not an entire system...
I nod.
"I can see why that sort of power in the hands of a baby could be a problem. Particularly on a world where not everyone is as tough as you."
Yes, there're few races that can make kryptonians look squishy... But maltusians are pretty high on, if not at the top of, that list...
"Socially, the difference in experience was probably a more significant factor. Creating a crèche world would hardly be a great trial for us. We spoke of the vast difference in life experience between you and I?"
"Yes."
A gulf of difference closer in size to the Pacific Ocean, if you will...
"If you sired a child, then within thirty years they would be nearly as old as you are now. And I imagine that you would expect them to be mentally more or less on your level by then. Humans tend to begin losing their faculties in their… Seventies?"
"It.. varies, but yes, at that age, without this ring, I would expect to be physically and mentally less capable."
And that assuming you haven't been rattling your faculties with chemical entertainments... An Orange Ring being everything
but chemical...
"We never do. But our children are only as experienced as yours would be. Thirty or forty years is an easily bridgeable gulf. A million? A maltusian child born now would have more in common with you."
"Are.. you.. coming on to me?"
...
That's what you take away from that? Goddammit, OL. She basically called you a toddler! You are like a
baby to her. A quirky, trouble-prone baby that thankfully managed to achieve toilet-training. AKA
Enlightenment.
"No, but if I ever completely take leave of my senses, I may call upon your services as a childminder."
I grin.
"You know, I'm actually up for that. So… This ring: it's just the maltusian equivalent of stabilisers on a child's bike?"
And if it's that much stronger than a regular Ring... What does that say about
them?
"That's the base he was working from. The design which allows younger races like yours to use the glow grew from that, but it seems that he went back to the original and tried a different approach." She shakes her head and slips the ring into her robes. "There were perfectly good reasons why we didn't take this approach the first time around, but perhaps he thought that he could do a better job of it."
"You worked on the first power rings?"
So... Meadlux was trying to reinvent the wheel? Or rather, the
training wheel? ...Blade said it best: "There's always
some motherfucker trying'a ice-skate uphill."
"No, as I said, the first rings were made as tools for the education of our children. I worked on the adaptation of that technology, which became a good deal more important once the Manhunters proved themselves so unreliable."
"Who was it that programmed them again?"
Krona, if my memory serves me correctly. No point razzing Hinon over it.
She looks at me, mildly affronted.
"Don't look at me. The only part I played in that was to approve a trial run. If I'd been running the project, there would have been a Guardian on-site to monitor them."
And
not the one who oversaw the project. That would just
scream of corrupted experimental results.
"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to imply that you were personally at fault."
She looks away again.
"Don't mention it."
No, seriously, don't... I rather suspect it's something of a sore point for her.
"I've always been a bit puzzled about how that happened. I mean, I don't always agree with the Guardians' decisions, but setting loose a army of robots without any monitoring, with programming that could lead them to conclude that killing every living things in a Space Sector was a reasonable thing to do… That suggests incompetence, and that's not something I associate the Guardians with."
"I never got a straight answer either. The Guardians involved seemed to be… We don't really do bewildered, but the next best thing, about the whole issue."
Evidently
someone forgot to set logical bounds on their adaptive AI. You're lucky they
only decided, "If crime is committed by the living, then
all life must be judged at fault." The last time I saw
that logic, it resulted in
Judge Death and friends.
"Other Guardians."
"Give that that was the day I left, I think I can reasonably exclude myself."
Man, that must have been one
hell of a day in the Guardians' chambers...
"Alright. So: the ring. Why did it make those Green Lanterns act up?"
"As you know, the Guardians elected to use the green light due to the fact that out of all of the colours it has the least effect on the mind of the user. 'Least' isn't the same as 'none'."
Yes, we've
noticed how Greenies tend to be unbending and rigidly stubborn, to stupid extents...
"Right, but in a normal Lantern it's barely noticeable."
"Thank you. It's nice that my efforts are appreciated. This ring rather does away with all of the safties."
Ah, so my analogy of a firehose compared to a squirt-gun is more apt than I thought. Unfortunately, those safeties would be there for a
reason, eh?
"Because why would children need those?"
"Maltusian children don't need the same sort of safties that younger species do. A normal power ring uses its colour at several steps removed. The light itself, the Central Power Battery, the Personal Lantern and then finally the ring. Dealing with any of the lights directly exposes a mind to everything about that emotion, not merely that emotion as it exists in the user's mind."
And minds less adapted to that level of exposure than a maltusian tend to break under the stress? At least that helps to remind us why Orange Lanterns aren't so 'Mine-
MINE-
MINE!" crazy as Larfleeze was. They're getting it filtered through more layers than the 'straight from the battery' treatment he did.
Like, say, Orange Juice. Lanterns are getting their stuff strained and sweetened. Larfleeze was getting it straight from the juicer, gristle, pulp and all
"And that's what that ring does?"
"No, but it's closer to that than is a good idea for mortal Lanterns."
Less filtered, and thus more stressful on the mental weak-points of the wearer. And the Lanterns whole stole them
broke.
"How about for me?"
"Oh, you could certainly use it. I'm just not convinced that you would still be you afterwards. You recall what you were like while merged with the Ophidian?"
To continue the analogy, OL-Phidian was
eating the oranges. Whole. I
don't think that's an improvement...
I frown.
"Yes, but I still knew the difference between our desires and the desires of the people around me."
Somethign you've been havign a little trouble with after your last death. Maybe spend a bit of time communing with
Best Snek?
"Do you want to forget that?"
"No, that sounds like a bad idea. I assume the stabiliser ring didn't have that functionality?"
Why would a maltusian child
need that? Their minds are
built to control the Spectrum. It only takes a matter of time to learn self-control...
"No, they predate our use of the glow. The similarity is more or less incidental."
"Would they work for someone else? Say, if Lantern Gardner wanted to bond with Ion without being overwhelmed?"
...OL,
No. Do not go fiddling with a good thing. Guy is
fine as he
is.
"Not… Exactly, though it could help him if Ion merely volunteered to augment him. Why?"
"Oh, just asking in case." I smile at her. "Thank you, Controller Hinon. I need to go and report to Dox."
So, don't mind any yelling in the next couple of hours. Got you.
Some minor buff Hinon didn't care to mention...
