Mr Zoat
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I wasn't either. Anyone else?
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With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)
- Thread starter Mr Zoat
- Start date
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- Tags
- self insert young justice
Radiant Knight
Phoenix Fire
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No, they're both effect in this use case.
m_d
Fascinated by storytelling
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By my lights, 'affects' is what I think you're saying. While you can effect (cause) change, you affect (change) people and things. Effects affect things.
JeanEricVillon
Getting out there.
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It should be "affects", yes.
You can affect an effect, or modify an occurring event or condition. You can affect an affect, by modifying someone's mood. You can effect an affect, by bringing about a mood. You can effect an effect, by bringing about an occurring event or condition.
Mr Zoat
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JeanEricVillon
Getting out there.
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Ha!
Yeah, English is screwy. Both can be verbs and nouns and there's no easy way to distinguish without already knowing ahead of time.
Yeah, English is screwy. Both can be verbs and nouns and there's no easy way to distinguish without already knowing ahead of time.
Ngamer11
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It helps that this isn't a person but the Grey, a literal force of nature.
Ngamer11
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Can you please elaborate on that?
Mr Zoat
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I think it would break Rule 8. Look up 'Kentler Project'. Stopped in the early 2000s.
Coda
Versed in the lewd.
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kerleth
Getting out there.
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Oof. Yeah, probably best to keep the Anti-life to inside the story. Thanks for the info though.
Unrelatedly, I just realized The Black and The Grey are actually two different things. In my mind I connected them as an overall concept of dying and being reborn, where as The Green (and The Red) were about life in "full bloom". (I apologize for nothing, nothing!) I'm used to thinking of living things as being colloquially Animal, Plant, or Bacteria, with virus being in a weird "our definition of life is a bit fuzzy and they either are or are not alive depending on how you look at it" pseudo category.
I was about to make a post pondering if "The Rot/The Black" being connected to the cycle of death and life helped it more easily shake off the totalitarianism disguised as edgy pop psychology nihilism that is The Anti-Life. Which is a neat bit of head canon. Too bad that it's so off base that it can't even rise to the dizzying heights of even being able to be wrong, since this is The Gray and not The Black. Doh!
Hooray for self checking instead of assuming I am right I suppose. Not a huge fan of the concept that fungi is an alien invader instead of part of the cycle, but it is what it is. On the plus side, now I know that while my understanding of the inherent fuzziness and partial subjectivity of our categorizations was correct, my understanding of the details of the current model was embarrassingly wrong. My understanding of the world is just a bit more accurate now than it was yesterday. Neat.
Also good story or whatever I guess
Windona
Beetle Queen of Crackshipping
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And that is why my whiteboard calendar at home literally has both those words and definitions up for when I write. It helps me remember that 'effect' is only a noun and the result.
eh, I think Kurt was adopted by the family that found him. So that skips a lot of screwiness, especially given Kurt's adoptive family tend to be (stereotypical) Romani, so they might have pulled a Kent and worked around the system.
Mr Zoat
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Thank you, corrected.
Darko
Connoisseur.
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Well thanl you for bringing this up.
I'm going to go and puke out my guts.
Jet Fighter (part 21)
Mr Zoat
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31st December 2012
19:48 GMT -3
There's not a.. lot left.
The fungoids walked out. Some in their basic forms, others taking the conks and rotten wood of their new homes with them. What's left is… Good soil and sunlight, a little moss, a few tiny sprouting plants and the one tree I stuck back together.
"What's the knock-on effect of this likely to be?"
Giant Wooden Doctor Isley shakes her head as she pointedly avoids looking away from the leaving column of fungusfolk.
"I don't know enough about thaumaturgy to tell. A huge focus of Green magic just got destroyed. Even if Euanthe can manage to… Partially restore it, the bonds between the world's plants and this place just got… Totalled. Plants will grow more slowly -if.. they grow at all- and fruit yields will be way down."
"I'm worried that no one will be farming at all."
"That might have been the point. If the Green wasn't… If it was healthy, we could help out. Do what Swamp Thing did to Gotham. Or Euanthe could talk to the other dryads into visiting places and helping out. Now, we can't do that." She shudders a little. "If they could even manage to work through the Anti-Life."
"What did it feel like to you?"
"You mean, 'what does it feel like to me'."
"Oh."
"It's like I'm still Poison Ivy, but I'm not crazy enough to just go with it."
I float closer, and lay my right gauntlet on the middle phalanges of her right index finger.
"Then you're not Poison Ivy, because that was her defining trait. You've managed the Brazil-Accalacan situation really well, you and Euanthe, and what you're feeling now that you weren't yesterday is the result of the Anti-Life."
She nods, her left hand coming around to put the tip of her left index finger on top of my right hand.
"Thanks."
"So I've been wondering: are you and Euanthe romantically involved?"
Her hands are withdrawn.
"Uh-aah, what?"
"Because it would be something to look forward to? Because that would mean that you're a prospective violet power ring user? Because it would be a sign of your psychological normalisation?"
"I don't think-. I haven't really… Thought about her that way. I don't think she thinks about humans that way."
"She's open to the idea."
She looks at me askance. "Should you be using your power like that? Isn't that unethical?"
"I didn't use my power. She came onto me. In a way that suggested that she didn't exactly get human interactions but thought it might be something I'd enjoy."
"And… Did..?"
"No. But you've spent a lot more time with her than I have, and you're more on her wavelength."
The last of the fungoids tramp through the pale grey hole in space.
"If you think she needs advice on the meatspace aspect, I'm happy to wingman for you."
"So.. I'll have something to not go crazy for."
"Yes indeed. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to pacify the fungoids and you-."
"I need to rebuild the Green with Euanthe. I.. guess that works for a date?"
"Given how long you've been living together, I'd say that you should be a bit direct about things. If that's what you want. Excuse me."
I fly through the portal, and…
Huh.
It's a bit like a snowstorm. Or some sort of duststorm or smog. Light-coloured… Fog? Mist, or… Dust? Is everywhere, but unlike back in the ruins of the Green there's strong light coming from… Somewhere. Yes, diffuse snow is what it reminds me of. The fungoids I was following have… More or less vanished. I can see a few as they walk away but none of them are paying me any attention.
What little of the of the landscape I can see appears to be made of giant conks and fruiting bodies. Colours… Are accurate, when I'm close enough that whatever is filling the air doesn't obscure it. I'm not going to prod things, not when things are tense and not with power armour. I'm not… Sure what they're growing on. There's a definite floor here, but unlike in the Green where it was soft earth I'm… Not really sure what it's made of.
Okay, may as well get started. I unfocus my mind slightly… Ah, yes, there it is. The pale of the Anti-Life, cast over an otherwise functioning area of the Earth's thaumosphere. It's not the same as… Erebos, and it's definitely not the same as the attitude of Melinoë and family. They accept that things naturally end where I cling to them and demand that they last forever. Anti-Life is magical nihilism; rushing towards annihilation and nothingness.
I don't know how fungus thinks, but I can't immediately come up with a reason why it would be all that different from plants. Other than the fact that they make less use of animals as a vector.
"Gary, do any of you have friends?"
"Some."
"Who?"
"Odd wizards and druids. Sometimes we go into the world and meet people. It's confusing."
"But there aren't any fungus dryads."
"No."
So the fungoids are at least a degree less human-like than Euanthe, who struggles to understand humans at the best of times and certainly doesn't value human stuff in the way that humans do.
On the other hand, I've touched the Ophidian's mind.
I draw away from myself and surround myself with the Grey. It feels like dying, but that's because they're part of the system that breaks human remains down. They're not agents of primal annihilation, not in their inner selves.
I think for a moment of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, but honestly the underlying nature of the Grey is so… Simple, that I think that MRS GREN is more appropriate.
But it's not just the characteristics of life in themselves that will act as a fix, and I can feel the fungoid's habits of movement in the same thought as I feel a ring of fungal spore pods advancing across a lawn. Or the alien way fungi sense the world around them by dampness and something like a sense of smell. No, it's the idea that those things are sufficient. That acting in accordance with those impulses are satisfactory in themselves, that living is sufficient.
I feel the Anti-Life try to tie itself around particular impulses in opposition to my efforts, but it seems to have lost its 'in'.
"A life well-lived is its own reward."
Pulling back in to my own consciousness, it seems… The Anti-Life is still all around, but it's less tied to the spiritual energies of the Grey. It's influencing them less.
Good.
Now it's time to call in Dr. Balewa.
19:48 GMT -3
There's not a.. lot left.
The fungoids walked out. Some in their basic forms, others taking the conks and rotten wood of their new homes with them. What's left is… Good soil and sunlight, a little moss, a few tiny sprouting plants and the one tree I stuck back together.
"What's the knock-on effect of this likely to be?"
Giant Wooden Doctor Isley shakes her head as she pointedly avoids looking away from the leaving column of fungusfolk.
"I don't know enough about thaumaturgy to tell. A huge focus of Green magic just got destroyed. Even if Euanthe can manage to… Partially restore it, the bonds between the world's plants and this place just got… Totalled. Plants will grow more slowly -if.. they grow at all- and fruit yields will be way down."
"I'm worried that no one will be farming at all."
"That might have been the point. If the Green wasn't… If it was healthy, we could help out. Do what Swamp Thing did to Gotham. Or Euanthe could talk to the other dryads into visiting places and helping out. Now, we can't do that." She shudders a little. "If they could even manage to work through the Anti-Life."
"What did it feel like to you?"
"You mean, 'what does it feel like to me'."
"Oh."
"It's like I'm still Poison Ivy, but I'm not crazy enough to just go with it."
I float closer, and lay my right gauntlet on the middle phalanges of her right index finger.
"Then you're not Poison Ivy, because that was her defining trait. You've managed the Brazil-Accalacan situation really well, you and Euanthe, and what you're feeling now that you weren't yesterday is the result of the Anti-Life."
She nods, her left hand coming around to put the tip of her left index finger on top of my right hand.
"Thanks."
"So I've been wondering: are you and Euanthe romantically involved?"
Her hands are withdrawn.
"Uh-aah, what?"
"Because it would be something to look forward to? Because that would mean that you're a prospective violet power ring user? Because it would be a sign of your psychological normalisation?"
"I don't think-. I haven't really… Thought about her that way. I don't think she thinks about humans that way."
"She's open to the idea."
She looks at me askance. "Should you be using your power like that? Isn't that unethical?"
"I didn't use my power. She came onto me. In a way that suggested that she didn't exactly get human interactions but thought it might be something I'd enjoy."
"And… Did..?"
"No. But you've spent a lot more time with her than I have, and you're more on her wavelength."
The last of the fungoids tramp through the pale grey hole in space.
"If you think she needs advice on the meatspace aspect, I'm happy to wingman for you."
"So.. I'll have something to not go crazy for."
"Yes indeed. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to pacify the fungoids and you-."
"I need to rebuild the Green with Euanthe. I.. guess that works for a date?"
"Given how long you've been living together, I'd say that you should be a bit direct about things. If that's what you want. Excuse me."
I fly through the portal, and…
Huh.
It's a bit like a snowstorm. Or some sort of duststorm or smog. Light-coloured… Fog? Mist, or… Dust? Is everywhere, but unlike back in the ruins of the Green there's strong light coming from… Somewhere. Yes, diffuse snow is what it reminds me of. The fungoids I was following have… More or less vanished. I can see a few as they walk away but none of them are paying me any attention.
What little of the of the landscape I can see appears to be made of giant conks and fruiting bodies. Colours… Are accurate, when I'm close enough that whatever is filling the air doesn't obscure it. I'm not going to prod things, not when things are tense and not with power armour. I'm not… Sure what they're growing on. There's a definite floor here, but unlike in the Green where it was soft earth I'm… Not really sure what it's made of.
Okay, may as well get started. I unfocus my mind slightly… Ah, yes, there it is. The pale of the Anti-Life, cast over an otherwise functioning area of the Earth's thaumosphere. It's not the same as… Erebos, and it's definitely not the same as the attitude of Melinoë and family. They accept that things naturally end where I cling to them and demand that they last forever. Anti-Life is magical nihilism; rushing towards annihilation and nothingness.
I don't know how fungus thinks, but I can't immediately come up with a reason why it would be all that different from plants. Other than the fact that they make less use of animals as a vector.
"Gary, do any of you have friends?"
"Some."
"Who?"
"Odd wizards and druids. Sometimes we go into the world and meet people. It's confusing."
"But there aren't any fungus dryads."
"No."
So the fungoids are at least a degree less human-like than Euanthe, who struggles to understand humans at the best of times and certainly doesn't value human stuff in the way that humans do.
On the other hand, I've touched the Ophidian's mind.
I draw away from myself and surround myself with the Grey. It feels like dying, but that's because they're part of the system that breaks human remains down. They're not agents of primal annihilation, not in their inner selves.
I think for a moment of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, but honestly the underlying nature of the Grey is so… Simple, that I think that MRS GREN is more appropriate.
But it's not just the characteristics of life in themselves that will act as a fix, and I can feel the fungoid's habits of movement in the same thought as I feel a ring of fungal spore pods advancing across a lawn. Or the alien way fungi sense the world around them by dampness and something like a sense of smell. No, it's the idea that those things are sufficient. That acting in accordance with those impulses are satisfactory in themselves, that living is sufficient.
I feel the Anti-Life try to tie itself around particular impulses in opposition to my efforts, but it seems to have lost its 'in'.
"A life well-lived is its own reward."
Pulling back in to my own consciousness, it seems… The Anti-Life is still all around, but it's less tied to the spiritual energies of the Grey. It's influencing them less.
Good.
Now it's time to call in Dr. Balewa.
Last edited:
Ngamer11
Experienced.
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This makes me want to see Euanthe suggest a child made from all three of them, either here or in the In Praise of Eros thread.
Chojin Patriarch
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So, this area has basically been ransacked of it's... What? It's life-force? Its' verdant Essence? The thing that makes it Green, rather than mere stone and fertile earth. But that can be replaced, surely. It wouldn't have been possible, if the Gray were still invading. So, a net win?
Not trusting them to all leave, Pammie? Good logic, but i don't think they'll have the capacity for trickery at this level...
Just as I figured. But now you have something to do, I guess?
What makes you think she's immune here, OL? It's affecting all parts of Earth and its thaumosphere...
Yeah. Optimistic of you, but really, a little rude...
Or you're being one of the nicer versions of Poison Ivy. And yes, they exist. Not every version of her is a human-hating eco-terrorist... (Though goodness, that's a lot.)
Heh, head-pats from a giant woman: the ultimate reward.
What? ...But given how it looks, yes, I could see it.Probably a good thing this form can't blush, huh?
And you haven't felt like thinking about this, then?
Honestly, setting up two friends? Sounds like a decent use of it.
To be fair, she's probably thinking 'Teenage guy, hot plant chick, nature ensues...'
So, time for OL to keep up his side of the bargain.
Well, that is a nice bonus.
Well, the green in whatever part of South America this is, assuming it's not just a representation of their base in the former Brasilia.
Just don't go full Commander 'Memetic Horndog' Shepard and go 'We'll bang, okay?'
So, not the giant boneyard of the Rot. Anything would be better than that, after all.
Probably some kind of mycelium pad overlaying the rest. Kind of like the Zerg's Creep.
As a nutrient source, sure. Transmitting spores via animals? Not so much. Animal biology is kind of resistant to that sort of thing...
Oh, where's he going with this angle?
Hence the anthropomorphic form they use. Bit harder to hold a conversation with a giant mushroom cap...
Heh. Now I'm picturing any number of Generic Fantasy Setting sexual dimorphism memes.
You know, the 'sexy female monster' trope...And they still have desires, alien as they are.
Before anyone asks: MRS GREN. Simply put, Movement; Respiration; Sensation; Growth; Reproduction; Excretion; Nutrition. The fundamentals of organic life, really.
So, he's effectively 'rebooting' their instinctual needs to pre-Anti-Life defaults?
And if the Dark Side are aware of all this, since I assume they'd be watching if they did this on purpose, someone is now swearing up a storm.
And maybe he can install some safeguards against further outside manipulation. When he has a spare moment, anyway.
Seems a bit quickly wrapped up, but I suppose if all things in the Grey are interconnected, then the effect will spread outwards across the whole of Earth. To be fair, the geography of the Elemental Realms is a bit skew-whiff. still, all's well that's sorted out here. So back he goes to putting out hotspots while they try to track down Mannheim and end this properly...
RoninSword
Sky God
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I distinctly remember Paul asking if Isley and Euanthe were involved before and Isley saying that she had tried to set Paul up with Euanthe.
thebishop8
Umm, ackchyually...
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I found the relevant chapter here: https://forum.questionablequesting....i-thread-fourteen.8938/page-1728#post-5539465
Ngamer11
Experienced.
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Maybe Paul thinks something could have changed since then?
Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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I vaguely remembered writing something like that, but I forgot where it was. Isley believed that Euanthe's interest was in the SI due to their personal interactions, rather than in humans in general.
Darko
Connoisseur.
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Though it doesn't mean she actively wants to pursue such a relationship with a human.
She may have been studying humans and thought that would make a good reward.
Karmic Acumen
The long-suffering one
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Yeah, we've been in Bad End territory for a while. It's pretty much inevitable when threat escalation remains the only story-driving mechanic for so long.
Darko
Connoisseur.
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"heard of has to say?" or "about some old smith"