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

Discussion in 'Creative Writing' started by Mr Zoat, Jan 27, 2019.

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  1. Chojin Patriarch

    Chojin Patriarch Veteran Lurker

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    Ah, Krono. Out looking for the Battle-Bots, are we? I suppose the Ohio Colony pushed for it, given they're a clear danger, and have useful tech they can recover. Getting in touch with their maker is probably a bonus objective.

    Especially if he's got any obvious 'not pure human' traits, like altered skin, bigger muscles or giant throbbing skill veins (because psychic.)

    Ah, the Sarge. Still in fine voice, I see.

    ...Not by themselves. This might actually make the sergeant pop a blood vessel...

    Heh. Big lad, ain't he?

    Who some of the more hard-liner anti-mutant types would probably rather be forgotten.

    And a real nice guy, if you didn't piss him off, too.

    Yeah, pretty much the Enclave's equivalent of an Astartes, if you didn't mind the colouring.

    ...Let me guess: a Player Character? :p

    A logical enough idea. Pity things went tits-up before it could be perfected.

    By which time, making super-soldiers took a back seat to surviving.

    Those would probably have been reserved for advanced special forces.

    Now, if he could have reliably reproduced it, things might have been very different.

    A good few hundred kilograms, at least? Impressive, but doable in power armour...

    ...That, on the other hand, is not.

    Keep in mind, you aren't bulletproof, corporal.

    Good answer, kid. That probably saved you from being busted back down to private.

    In other words, 'it's okay if it's our wastelander muties doing it'? :rolleyes:

    And that could be decades away. No super-soldiering for you, Corporal America.

    Yeah, you'd have better luck searching for a needle in a big haystack. Without a magnet or fire.

    Still not comfortable with the head-talking, huh, Dornan?

    And if the men in charge said do it, you do it? :D A good little soldier, huh?

    And if not, there's always some other plan?

    Ah, someone's spotted something?

    Oh, right. Because that gameplay mechanic is an actual in-universe thing.

    On the other hand, the dust is good cover. Unfortunately, that works both ways...

    To human eyes, at least...

    ...Pity the folks they're looking for aren't using human eyes to see.

    Well, looks like their trail just got hot. Now, have the Battle-bots seen them coming, or is this just a chance encounter? Hopefully, the militia troops can take the heat from the enemy's beam guns, or this is going to end very messily... :oops: If delicious-smelling. If nothing else, a psychic ally's going to be a big force-multiplier...
     
  2. DrThoth

    DrThoth I trust you know where the happy button is?

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    Reminds me of this Youtube series on American Civil Religion (if faith doesn't require specific self-acknowledgement that you're a religion).

    I wonder if this incident gets publicized that Russia, China and other places are going to do their best to locate their national personifications to mitigate any metaphysical political manipulations. Though given that Captain Nazi was known to be the embodiment of Germany (by a top-ranking German government official, but I feel like foreign intelligence would still be able to get that info), maybe they already are.

    Would be interesting to see the effects of the Sheeda Harrowing and other major events on the anthropomorphic personifications of countries. Like does Kahndaq have one or does Teth Adom's pseudo-divinity enable him to become a focus of the natioal psyche?

    My questions also apply to the magical mindscape/reflections of the countries, which I'm assuming are some stable locations in the Dreaming.
     
    Last edited: Jun 10, 2022
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  3. hkim

    hkim Know what you're doing yet?

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    "we didn't fight the evil sorceror because of his dark powers, we fought him because the source of his dark powers was ritual human sacrifice" dude what the fuck is this hair you're splitting, like yes things are more detailed on the geopolitical layer but if they hadn't been getting power from ritual human sacrifice are we saying the war would have happened anyway? prolly NOT

    (yes I posted the same response, and will likely continue to do so as long as people post this nonsense. once you start using ritual human sacrifice for your own power, your precise motivations stop mattering, at all, you are now the villain of the piece and whatever valid points you may or many not have also had are now tainted, good job)
     
  4. Bramble Thorn

    Bramble Thorn Verified Silhouette

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    it all ended up aright though. The confederate avatar got eaten by the metaphor for corporate opportunistic predation.

    You are kind of being an ass here. Please remember rule 1:

    1: Play nice with the other members on the forums.

    Spamming the thread by repeating yourself in post after post because you disagree with the other guy, is not that.
     
  5. Old Knife

    Old Knife Not too sore, are you?

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    .....Are we going to see Uncle Sam end up in Fallout? Or is John Constantine taking a vacation in this radioactive wonderland?
     
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  6. Stsword

    Stsword Versed in the lewd.

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    Actually I don't think Zoat was aware of the term "vulture capitalist" from his response when someone first brought it up.

    I think, and I might certainly be wrong, that Zoat was going for the opposite of the Eagle.

    Eagles, in common perception, are these fierce highflying birds.

    Vultures? "Lowly" scavengers who pick on the dead and the dying.
     
  7. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    More success then a figure that represents hope and liberty to hundreds of millions of people? o_O
     
  8. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    No.
    No. He'd be in Fallout: London.
     
  9. Cuchulin

    Cuchulin Versed in the lewd.

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    1. The Fort was Federal Property which was the important bit and if they did try Diplomacy they didn't do it very well.
    2. Sending Ambassadors to the North and offered to pay isn't something that ever came up in anything I've read and heard. At least not that I remember.
    3. The first part of the War had the North firmly on the defensive, at least in the East and the South was very much the Aggressor as they had been even before the war on the issue of Slavery. I also recall there being battles in Ohio, but the parts of the Civil war fought in the west don't get much attention.

    No, every state that left did so over Slavey. Which is also why various parts of the South like West Virginia and the "Free State of Jones" rebelled against the Confederacy, they resented the power of the plantation owners and how slavery hurt the ability of small farmers to make a living or have any political power. Which happened mostly in places like Appalachia and the Ozarks.
    The "Solid South" is another myth created after the civil war.

    Yeah, but they came up with a fairly elaborate racist ideology of racial superiority to justify why only Black people were slaves. I mean there was a book a read about the Black middle class in the Antebellum South, which was small and pretty much only in a few places like Charleston and New Orleans, that had a section discussing how a visitor was baffled by New Orleans complex Racial politics as he could understand why one person of with some African ancestors was classified as being "Black" while another that (to him at least) looks to have even more African ancestry was see as being White.
    Also, like I said they banned Black Literacy and Black preachers even teaching that Heavan for Black people would be as House/Kitchen servants.
    So clearly while this flowed mostly from the economics of Slavey it didn't even comes close to stopping there and lead to various pseudo-scientific at best justifications of enslaving only Africans, along with why White people were superior. I mean I did mention John C. Calhoun and his twisted justifications for things like Slavery?


    Yeah, except that the Confederate states basically built their entire economies and society around plantation slavery even though they realized before all that long that it was unsustainable. Heck part of the reason it wasn't a bigger issue when the nation was found is that it at least seemed slowly dying out everywhere until the invention of the cotton gin as it just wasn't the profitable. It also kept bring them into conflict with the rest of the US and them breaking deals like the Missouri Compromise once they started being disadvantages to the South. Also, for years shortly before the war you had Pro-Slavery Congressmen going around carry knives and bullying others with threats of duels.
    So, it's really not like your example at all.
     
    Last edited: Jun 11, 2022
  10. jasonh23761

    jasonh23761 Not too sore, are you?

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    Good old Frank Horrigan, not just a super mutant but a super mutant in custom power armor with a buffed turbo plasma rifle and a buffed combat knife that honestly was the size of most swords. Also a spiteful, genocidal murderer who detonated the Oil Rig in an attempt to kill you.

    As an aside, it's kinda funny trying to reconcile this version of Granite who appears in Enclave Reborn as opposed to the new Granite I was just dealing with in 4.0 in Eureka. I haven't finished it out yet but I hope some of their mercenary mechanics get ported to Gente Del Sol because I think they fit the Generalissimo very well.

    Honestly, Gente Del Sol is my favorite nation to play but the Alamo Chapter is a close runner-up. Also what little time I got with the overhauled West Hills Chapter was a lot of fun.
     
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  11. Bud-E

    Bud-E Stand up so I can push you down!

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    Mr Zoat I don't know if this was ever discussed for real but Paul and the team visiting the canon YJ timeliness sounds fun. Paul mentioning the invasion by The Sheeda and Heaven, Artemis and Robin seeing themselves with superstrength, Brazil being controlled by a Super Dryad leading a tribe of native supers, and Nabu ooof Nabu.
     
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  12. LazySloth13

    LazySloth13 Versed in the lewd.

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    It was mentioned that Paul wouldn't meet Zatanna until the near end of the story, listed as Victory Lap, but he didn't mention the rest of the team meeting their Canon counterparts. It also wasn't mentioned especially when in the timeline they would meet so I could see the current paragon version of the team meet their older counterparts at least by season 3 Outsiders or season 4.

    It would be jarring for them to learn how much of a benefit it was to have Paul intervene in their lives as well as shock the Canon crew by having them learn of the more dangerous and esoteric the Paragon Team has faced and won, save for a few moments. There's should be a scene of the Lights trading notes only for Paul to show up because the Canon Light didn't have the anti-scry measures, or at least have them discuss how much Paul's efforts to uplift humanity made them look like fools and make them worry since Paul doesn't pay by regular hero rules, and if push come to shove he will plan their deaths and follow through.

    I can definitely see Wally complain about his death only for someone to mention that Paul probably has half a dozen plans to revive him if he didn't move on to the afterlife. Canon Artemis would be shock to hear her sister went to prison, decide to change careers, and has a loving relationship though sadden to hear Lean doesn't exist, or isn't likely to be born, or how her mother can walk again.
     
  13. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    I've found 4.0 to be kind of a damp squib. Sons of Kaga had a good story but after the first war I never felt threatened and half the tree is generic. Sisters of Steel lacks any unifying theme to their focuses. Cult of Renewal looked interesting but as far as I could tell their teleportation mechanic didn't work and their unique advisor failed to appear. And I got halfway through NCR before I realised that the special forces I got from the collapsed Mojave Territories had locked templates which is a hard no for me.
    I played Gente Del Sol once. I thought it was mediocre. It's functional, has war focuses (looking at you Vault 37) and gives a clear idea of the General's character but it's kind of short. I prefer RRG (Rosado only), Iron Mongers and Alamo Chapter, though I was rather hoping that they'd finish the Alamo Chapter's tree with this update.
    Do you mean the Lost Hills Chapter? The one where you spend in-game years digging a hole in the ground and the tree is not even finished and sometimes you get randomly annexed due to a bug?
     
    Last edited: Jun 10, 2022
  14. Bud-E

    Bud-E Stand up so I can push you down!

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    Also Superboy's reaction that he was adopted by Wonder Woman and Match is perfectly sane in this timeline.
     
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  15. jasonh23761

    jasonh23761 Not too sore, are you?

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    Yeah, that's a fair view. I'm happy they got it out but a lot of it feels a bit short for me. Like they expanded too wide but without enough depth to it. I'm hopeful for the future though. I personally want another light special forces focused nation, perhaps up in Canada. Also locked templates are the bane of my existence, they totally killed the Rogue Ranger playthrough I was doing because I couldn't change my unit composition for >60% of my army.
    Exactly, giving Gente Del Sol the merc volunteer mechanics will help give them more to do I think. Personally I like their characterization but there isn't much for them to do, really. A nation of mercs and arms dealers makes sense in Fallout but having them side with the Legion is just so odd for me. I can see them going somewhere allying with the RRG or the NCR against the Legion. Alamo Chapter is a lot of fun but once you beat back Santa Anna there isn't much to do unless Lanius comes knocking and even then, at that point you should have oodles of Sentinel power armor divisions.
    Yep, those guys. I find the alternate mechanics interesting but you're honestly depending on the AI's stupidity for those chapters to still be around to where you can help them. I like what they're setting up for later releases but still. Also the MacArthur AFB Enclave are such a tease because of how unfinished they are and what they hint at for the Chicago Enclave.
     
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  16. NightmareWarden

    NightmareWarden Versed in the lewd.

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    Have we seen Manchester Black, the telekinetic spy, in the Paragon timeline yet? Is it possible Black and Constantine are settling the “demon politician” problem that Paragon!Paul missed?

    The biggest problem with this is the idea that Constantine is fighting a war silently, without destructive fallout making waves. I also had this paranoid theory Constantine might come up with… Paul used to use demons (and he still has the hellwraith). Paul does morally ambiguous things. Paul is pretty observant when it comes to investigations. Paul seems to hail from the UK, even if he spends a lot of time in the US. So Constantine gets it in his head that Paul has been working with (or is controlled by) the cabal of sadists and demon-summoners (the ones we saw Grayven take out).
     
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  17. Ngamer11

    Ngamer11 Experienced.

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    Manchester Black was mentioned but never appeared in the Paragon timeline. Also, the corrupt British elite was cleansed in holy fire by the angels when they invaded Earth.
     
  18. Mr Zoat

    Mr Zoat Dedicated ragequitter

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    Fucking Canada, man. I got all excited about playing a communist robobrain, and then found out that not only does a nation run by a robobrain and whose focuses specifically state that he's kidnapping people to turn into robobrains not know how to build robobrains, but when you complete the visible focus tree... That's it.
    Did you also notice that unlike Texas you can't boost the effectiveness of that unit type?

    The dev explanation is that because you get a division whenever you core, you can't be allowed to change them. Personally, I don't see why it can't just refer to a template for generating them and then let you change the new ones to a new template.
    I know that they always go Legion when the AI does it, but I seem to remember that they get the option to go with RRG?
    Really? Because I always get attacked by RRG, Tlaloc's sons and Texas.
    I think they should have let them keep their territory from version 3, but made it non-core so they have a choice between working to get it under control or giving it to the NCR to improve relations.
    MacArthur doesn't appear to have a final stage, from what I could see. Like Sisters of Steel, the focus tree doesn't conclude so much as stop.
     
  19. Darko

    Darko Connoisseur.

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    The final episode should include Paul going to canon.

    Nope.

    At least the demon worshippers were killed.

    The ones that didn't engage in demon worship weren't killed, so they may still be doing their corrupt activities.

    However it's possible that some have changed their ways since they don't want to be killed by an Angel.
     
    Last edited: Jun 10, 2022
  20. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    Good news everybody!

    We finally found the real Earth 16 Supergirl!
     
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  21. dw7thdoctor

    dw7thdoctor Getting sticky.

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    Where was she?
     
  22. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    Stuck in the Phantom Zone.
     
  23. hkim

    hkim Know what you're doing yet?

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    • Rule 1 & 5 Warning. When taken with your last two posts you are in fact breaking both.
    v0v

    they repeat nonsense, I repeat nonsense, it's only fair
     
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  24. Someguy Somewhere

    Someguy Somewhere The Critical Fumbler

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    [​IMG]
     
  25. Coda

    Coda Versed in the lewd.

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    • "Rule 8 - No Politics" is not a shield
    reasonably

    Uh... No, I said exactly the opposite of that. To follow that metaphor, we fought the evil sorcerer because his dark powers were a huge threat. The fact that it was powered by ritual human sacrifice is a detail that doesn't really change anything, because we still would have fought the evil sorcerer even if his powers ran on AA batteries.

    The South fought the North because the North was trying to deprive them of billions of dollars worth of business investments. The fact that those business investments were slaves was, in the eyes of Southerners at the time, beside the point, and they would still have gone to war if their economy has been based on anything else that the North wanted to deprive them of.

    Too much modern discussion treats the American Civil War as if it were a comic book, enlightened noble heroes going to war to punish the obviously irredeemably evil villains for their crimes against humanity. But even if the North's motivations align with our modern morals, the North's behavior wasn't all noble, and the majority of the people in the South who suffered as a result of the conflict weren't the ones who were participating in the slave trade. Innocent people, black and white alike, were driven into decades of poverty because of powerful white men in the North violating their own laws.

    This isn't just an academic matter, either. This misrepresentation of history has led to ongoing discrimination in the modern day, and aspects of the modern state of politics resemble the politics of the mid-1800s in dangerous ways, but I will refrain from elucidating upon either of those out of respect for the rules of this forum.

    It wasn't unsustainable. It was actually quite sustainable. If it had been allowed to continue, it would have eventually stopped being competitive, sure. It hadn't yet proven to be better at that stage because it wasn't clear that agricultural industrialization was going to be profitable; it wasn't obvious the increased production from mechanization would outweigh the significantly higher investment and upkeep costs. Pantation owners didn't expect industrialization to be as ridiculously, game-breakingly effective in the long run as it was -- a big reason the North phased out slavery in the first place was because they were able to replace human labor with machines.

    Kind of like how a lot of companies in the 20th century were sustainable and didn't expect this newfangled "Internet" thing to obliterate their ability to compete. At first, computers were difficult and expensive and didn't reach enough people to make it obvious that it would be better than continuing to do things the old way, but we all know how that turned out. Rapid technological change upends economies. That's a thing that happens, and the more you have invested into the old way of doing things, the harder and more expensive it is to pivot to the new way.
     
  26. Baladar

    Baladar Know what you're doing yet?

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    @Zoat I just watched the Black Adam trailer.

    I think someone in Warner Brothers is reading your stuff. Not sure if I’m joking.
     
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  27. Vaermina

    Vaermina Well worn.

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    More like Zoat is reading DC stuff's since that it a standard Black Adam story.
     
  28. Silvercrystal

    Silvercrystal That’s no Moon, It’s a Moderator! Moderator

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    Rule 1 and 5. Play nice with others; and Stay on topic.
    When I look at these posts I see someone playing the troll.
     
  29. Moderation: "Rule 8 - No Politics" is not a shield
    Mokou

    Mokou Muse in charge! Moderator

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    Moderation
    I'm going to step in here for a moment.
    Stating that further discussion of a topic would be in violation of the rules, implicitly using it as a shield for your argument, is not in keeping with rule 8's objective of avoiding thread derails and heated arguments over politics. The rules are no more a weapon to wield in this manner than threats of reporting.

    If you must address a topic, address it. If addressing a topic properly would unavoidably spill over into prohibited territory, then don't bring it up.
     
  30. Baladar

    Baladar Know what you're doing yet?

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    Haven't looked at DC comics themselves in years. Last I remember Black Adam was a villain through and through and runs his country as a despot.

    The movie's trailer looked like he was going to be a hero that is going to over throw a tyrant and Dr. Fate is a pretentious dick.
     
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