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

This is a documented fact as per Bliz own account, female players or those that claimed to be female players in their internal data overwhelmingly played female toons/characters (around 90%) and as a result were pretty much in their majority part of the alliance. That was acknowledged later as the impetus to twist the lore backwards to give the Horde the bloodelves to encourage female players with friends in the horde faction to join them.

This is literally historical fact.


I'm sorry, do you think there were not female undead, orcs, tauren, and trolls? Those models existed from release.
 
I'm sorry, do you think there were not female undead, orcs, tauren, and trolls? Those models existed from release.

As per blizzard? Less than an statically anomaly, of the millions of self identified women playing wow around 90% played female toons/characters, mostly the hotter ones that were alive. Clearly some played other characters, but they weren't statically significant and they still wrote on surveys that they would prefer to have better looking characters in the horde faction.

This is a known fact for any old player that remembers this information and I could probably substantiate the argument with plenty of data, but I just don't care.

I am telling you what Zoat wrote is historical fact, you denying reality is exactly that.
 
"Wouldn't that only work on demon magic?"

"Turns out? No. There's a weak interaction with any kind of magic, it's just not as noticeable. That's why I'm watching carefully.
In The Ladies of Grace Adieu and Other Stories, the anthology spin-off of Jonathan Strange and Mister Norrell, I rather like the explanation of how a number of Saints in "John Uskglass and the Cumbrian Charcoal Burner" were able to get the better of an Archmage like The Raven King, because the genius loci and other animistic spirits he had contracts with answer first and foremost to The Almighty, who holds authority over ALL.

Kind of also explains why Jonathan Strange said his magic always gets weakened a bit after taking communion. It's not that Magic is fundamentally Evil, it's just that God's command over the powers of Creation surpasses a Magician's, and momentary "weakness" may be a reminder of this.

.....Although given John Uskglass was said to have alliances/contracts with several demons as well as angels when establishing the "Tradition of English Magic", that could be another factor.
 
Trivialities (part 6) New
7th April 2013
07:06 GMT -5

"…disrupting your concentration."

The two Lex Luthors are sitting across a chess board from each other, and from the looks of things the clean-shaven one has won. He at least does his alter ego the courtesy of not looking too smug about it.

"A disadvantage of caring about people."

"If you prefer to remain as you are when another mindset might enable you to help them better, do you really care about them?"

"Oh! I know this one!" I descend towards their balcony. "Yes!"

Clean-shaven looks up at me. "I'm a little surprised to hear you say that."

"I'm an Orange Lantern, Mister Luthor. If I gave up the ability to care about people, then I'd stop acting in their interests because I no longer desired their betterment."

Bearded Luthor nods. "Yes. I remember my father saying something similar, and as I'm sure you understand that rather put me off." He stands and offers Bald Luthor his right hand. "Well played."

Shaved Luthor takes his hand, barely showing any outward sign of how the mention of his alter ego's father affected him. I can only see it because I'm monitoring his heat and electromagnetic radiation patterns. It's interesting that they appear to have similar relationships with their fathers despite the moral reversal. Or perhaps it would be better to be disturbed by it?

Shaved Luthor raises his eyebrows interrogatively. "Same time tomorrow?"

Bearded Luthor smiles. "Wouldn't miss it, brother."

And then they separate, much to my relief, Bearded Luthor triggering his costume's flight system and rising into the air. I nod politely to Shaved Luthor and Ms. Graves before flying after him.

"I'm almost afraid to ask..?"

"I had thought, perhaps, that he might be an example of how my life might have gone had my circumstances been different. Instead, he's…" He shakes his head. "That."

"I think I got close to talking him around, once."

"I assume that morality paid no part in your efforts."

"If you're separating 'morality' from 'long term collective interest', then, no. Any idea what he gets out of talking to you?""

"Family."

"Really? Because…"

"Like me, the only person he loved and felt love from growing up was his sister. The idea of having that relationship with someone else is a drug like none other. For both of us. We're each everything the other despises, yet we've met up every morning for over a month."

"Just so long as you don't clone each other, hehh."

He gives me a sharp look. "I have better things to do with my time."

"That.. was a joke."

"To you, perhaps. He made a demi-clone son."

"And you didn't?"

"Does that sound like something that a morally decent man would do?"

"Well, speaking as someone who has enabled the population of Themyscira to breed with one another, in some circumstances, yes."

He frowns at me. "You used your own seed?"

I raise my hands. "No, no, no. But DNA from two eggs doesn't merge naturally. If you wanted to have children but thought that doing so naturally was too great a risk, then you could do it like that."

He nods, returning his gaze to his flight path. "I.. apologize. I've rather gotten used to thinking the worst of people."

"Besides, Kon-El turned out alright."

"Kal-El is a good deal more intelligent that Kal-Il. And has innate powers, rather than needing to inject himself with radioactive crystals. If for some reason I decided to have a child with one of them it would be the former and not the latter."

I nod. "Your people all settling in alright?"

"Your civilisation has fallen to its lowest point, and yet it still provides a better place to live than anything on our side of the portal. The social practices which we have developed make maintaining ourselves simple."

"'Social practices'?"

"Humans operate best in the sort of small, tightly-knit communities which are usually found in rural environments. Replicating that in an urban environment is difficult but possible. It more or less involves making a tower block the 'village' unit, with clearly designated community leaders and a shared industry."

"And that works?"

"Better than anything. I actually had to adapt it a little because the external pressures here are so much weaker. Given the chance, my people still choose to reach out to their neighbours."

"Is that good or bad?"

"In this particular situation, I'm not sure. For my faith in humanity, it is excellent."

"If you don't mind me asking… Your-?"

"My father? Kantian, or near enough. No compassion or kindness or patience, just doing what was right. Even those he helped ended up despising him."

He looks down and redirects his flight as we approach the site of the dimensional portal.

"Well, at least you didn't murder him for the insurance money."

"No. That, I didn't. Insurance as you know it doesn't really exist on our Earth."

Which clearly implies that he did kill him, just not for the same reason. And it rather kills the conversation. We land in silence, walking across the short distance from the car park to the warehouse before entering.

"Hey, good choice of bodyguard."

Power Ring gives me a respectful nod, while… Ultragirl? Looks me over in a more appraising way. While the personal scanner on her equipment belt tries to scan me. I wonder how many people realise that you don't need to wave them at someone to make them work?

"I did try and get in contact with you earlier."

He shrugs insolently. "Can't always get to the phone."

"Your loss. Someone else gets the yellow power ring."

"I remember what Parallax made me feel. I think I'll stick with my ring. But." He holds up his right hand. "Thank you for the consideration."

The people we're escorting regard one another calmly. "Luthor."

"Karen. You look better. Have-?"

"You have my product?"

He holds out his hand and a suitcase shimmers into normal space. A click and it unlocks, revealing the kryptonite sample inside.

Ultragirl smiles. "Then we can begin shipping your product as well."

"They're people, Karen."

"You might find it easier if you don't think of them like that."

"Perhaps. But I've never been one for doing what is easy."
 
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"they separate"

Family."

"Really? Because…"

Well on a more narcissistic level it let's him meet up with someone he'd actually like.

We're each everything the other despises, yet we've met up every morning for over a month."

So like a lot of families.

Stares looks me over in a mo

Remove "Stares"
 
He holds out his hand and a suitcase shimmers into normal space. A click and it unlocks, revealing the kryptonite sample inside.

Ultragirl smiles. "Then we can being shipping your product as well."

"They're people, Karen."

"You might find it easier if you don't think of them like that."

"Perhaps. But I've never been one for doing what is easy."
Just to confirm, are they only getting back the people who were shipped to Earth -16? Or are they also getting people who are from that world but want to leave it for whatever reason?
 
So we skipped about 21 hours, and no resolution of the rest of the Game issue? Anyone else feeling a bit lost? Given the demon-to-elemental conversion thing that happened with Chantinelle, could Hephastean provide a similar service to convert Simpson?

With that said, Harrolds' line here implies that a person with, say, alzheimers, or any form of comics memory-wiping, could lose (non-Orange) Enlightenment without necessarily having their soul decimated as OL did a while ago?
 
"they separate"
Remove "Stares"
Thank you, corrected.
Just to confirm, are they only getting back the people who were shipped to Earth -16? Or are they also getting people who are from that world but want to leave it for whatever reason?
Both.
So we skipped about 21 hours, and no resolution of the rest of the Game issue? Anyone else feeling a bit lost? Given the demon-to-elemental conversion thing that happened with Chantinelle, could Hephastean provide a similar service to convert Simpson?
What were you looking for? The game is fine, the building and everyone in it get a ritual banishment and Simpson gets sent back to Hell.
With that said, Harrolds' line here implies that a person with, say, alzheimers, or any form of comics memory-wiping, could lose (non-Orange) Enlightenment without necessarily having their soul decimated as OL did a while ago?
What line?
 
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What were you looking for? The game is fine, the building and everyone in it get a ritual banishment and Simpson gets sent back to Hell.
That's a shame. I thought Paul could've used him for something. Will he come back as a villain, become one of Mammon's subordinates, or get torn apart by demons who want to rise up the ranks?
 
7th April 2013
07:06 GMT -5


"…disrupting your concentration."

The two Lex Luthors are sitting across a chess board from reach other, and from the looks of things the clean-shaven one has won. He at least does his alter ego the courtesy of not looking too smug about it.
Similar, but not identical. I can't help but imagine Lex Sixteen being a little jealous of Alex Minus Sixteen's head of hair. It'd be petty of him, but that's Lex in a nutshell. still, as long as they both benefit in terms of morale and cooperative planning...

"A disadvantage of caring about people."

"If you prefer to remain as you are when another mindset might enable you to help them better, do you really care about them?"
And there's the most primal difference between them. Alex Minus Sixteen cares in a way that lex Sixteen doesn't.

"Oh! I know this one!" I descend towards their balcony. "Yes!"

Clean-shaven looks up at me. "I'm a little surprised to hear you say that."
What is a Lantern but someone who changes their mental state in order to do things?

"I'm an Orange Lantern, Mister Luthor. If I gave up the ability to care about people, then I'd stop acting in their interests because I no longer desired their betterment."

Bearded Luthor nods. "Yes. I remember my father saying something similar, and as I'm sure you understand that rather put me off." He stands and offers Bald Luthor his right hand. "Well played."
Now, whether that's a good thing for his opinion of OL or not, I have no idea.

Shaved Luthor takes his hand, barely showing any outward sign of how the mention of his alter ego's father affected him. I can only see it because I'm monitoring his heat and electromagnetic radiation patterns. It's interesting that they appear to have similar relationships with their fathers despite the moral reversal. Or perhaps it would be better to be disturbed by it?

Shaved Luthor raises his eyebrows interrogatively. "Same time tomorrow?"
I see Lex Sixteen has learnt to hide his emotional makeup from OL. Though I shudder to imagine what their respective fathers would have made of each other.

Bearded Luthor smiles. "Wouldn't miss it, brother."

And then they separate, much to my relief, Bearded Luthor triggering his costume's flight system and rising into the air. I nod politely to Shaved Luthor and Ms. Graves before flying after him.
Things to speak of that Lex doesn't need to hear of, eh?

"I'm almost afraid to ask..?"

"I had thought, perhaps, that he might be an example of how my life might have gone had my circumstances been different. Instead, he's…" He shakes his head. "That."
Sadly, different stimuli, different results. The ultimate demonstration of nurture over nature.

"I think I got close to talking him around, once."

"I assume that morality paid no part in your efforts."
Honestly, a little more reputation bonus with him and it might have worked.

"If you're separating 'morality' from 'long term collective interest', then, no. Any idea what he gets out of talking to you?""

"Family."
Given that his sister Lena probably wants little to do with him these days... I can see it. Also the narcissistic aspect of 'Only another me can understand me.'

"Really? Because…"

"Like me, the only person he loved and felt love from growing up was his sister. The idea of having that relationship with someone else is a drug like none other. For both of us. We're each everything the other despises, yet we've met up every morning for over a month."
Got to wonder what Lena Minus Sixteen was like. Surely villainous, but in what way?

"Just so long as you don't clone each other, hehh."

He gives me a sharp look. "I have better things to do with my time."
Besides, the process is inefficient unless you use accelerated ageing to get them to a usable state in a reasonable time, in which case you then have to worry about stopping the ageing. :p

"That.. was a joke."

"To you, perhaps. He made a demi-clone son."
...Which must creep him out just a bit.

"And you didn't?"

"Does that sound like something that a morally decent man would do?"
I mean... If they wanted a legacy but couldn't find a woman suitable to their tastes...

"Well, speaking as someone who has enabled the population of Themyscira to breed with one another, in some circumstances, yes."

He frowns at me. "You used your own seed?"
Amusing that he leapt to that first, but given his world... I could see Power Ring or Ultraman pulling shit like that for a giggle.

I raise my hands. "No, no, no. But DNA from two eggs doesn't merge naturally. If you wanted to have children but thought that doing so naturally was too great a risk, then you could do it like that."

He nods, returning his gaze to his flight path. "I.. apologize. I've rather gotten used to thinking the worst of people."
Such is your world. Honestly, I'm surprised you're fitting in so well about here. Probably considered a bit cynical by other heroes.

"Besides, Kon-El turned out alright."

"Kal-El is a good deal more intelligent that Kal-Il. And has innate powers, rather than needing to inject himself with radioactive crystals. If for some reason I decided to have a child with one of them it would be the former and not the latter."
Let's not go telling him that, mind. He was already iffy about Conner back in the day...

I nod. "Your people all settling in alright?"

"Your civilisation has fallen to its lowest point, and yet it still provides a better place to live than anything on our side of the portal. The social practices which we have developed make maintaining ourselves simple."
I'm guessing very tribalistic tendencies. Neighbourhood against neighbourhood?

"'Social practices'?"

"Humans operate best in the sort of small, tightly-knit communities which are usually found in rural environments. Replicating that in an urban environment is difficult but possible. It more or less involves making a tower block the 'village' unit, with clearly designated community leaders and a shared industry."
There is a certain limit on how many people someone can empathise with without it becoming abstract. Just have to be careful they don't get competitive about it. Like 'Block Wars' in 'Judge Dredd'.

"And that works?"

"Better than anything. I actually had to adapt it a little because the external pressures here are so much weaker. Given the chance, my people still choose to reach out to their neighbours."
Then again, your people are the outliers of Minus Sixteen, the ones who have compassion and empathy towards their fellow man.

"Is that good or bad?"

"In this particular situation, I'm not sure. For my faith in humanity, it is excellent."
Good to see he's at least seeing things that improve his mood.

"If you don't mind me asking… Your-?"

"My father? Kantian, or near enough. No compassion or kindness or patience, just doing what was right. Even those he helped ended up despising him."
Which might well be rather expected, given such ethics. Absolute morality, without humanity... By their standards, he might well have been more horrifying than most of the supervillains.

He looks down and redirects his flight as we approach the site of the dimensional portal.

"Well, at least you didn't murder him for the insurance money."
...Hopefully? I can't imagine insurance catching on on Earth Minus Sixteen. You just know someone would start committing fraud as soon as they could.

"No. That, I didn't. Insurance as you know it doesn't really exist on our Earth."

Which clearly implies that he did kill him, just not for the same reason. And it rather kills the conversation. We land in silence, walking across the short distance from the car park to the warehouse before entering.
Yeah, bit of a mood.

"Hey, good choice of bodyguard."

Power Ring gives me a respectful nod, while… Ultragirl? Stares looks me over in a more appraising way. While the personal scanner on her equipment belt tries to scan me. I wonder how many people realise that you don't need to wave them at someone to make them work?
Yet another Supergirl alternate, eh? At least she's subtle about her inquisitiveness.

"I did try and get in contact with you earlier."

He shrugs insolently. "Can't always get to the phone."
Too busy securing his position in the Syndicate, I bet. Violently, more likely than not.

"Your loss. Someone else gets the yellow power ring."

"I remember what Parallax made me feel. I think I'll stick with my ring. But." He holds up his right hand. "Thank you for the consideration."
Still amusing that he wields a Green Ring with Fear Enlightenment. I suppose knowing exactly what he fears makes it easier to overcome it.

The people we're escorting regard one another calmly. "Luthor."

"Karen. You look better. Have-?"
I doubt they have any kind of friendship, much less romance. Unlike at least one Luthor and Supergirl.

"You have my product?"

He holds out his hand and a suitcase shimmers into normal space. A click and it unlocks, revealing the kryptonite sample inside.
Ah, a light snack for her, eh? Figuratively speaking, since I doubt they eat it directly... Just grind it into a solution and inject it.

Ultragirl smiles. "Then we can being shipping your product as well."

"They're people, Karen."
And therein lies the moral issue between the Syndicate against Luthor.

"You might find it easier if you don't think of them like that."

"Perhaps. But I've never been one for doing what is easy."
True, he's been the best and brightest moral mind of his world all his life. 'Easy' has never been in his lexicon...

A sudden transition, but I doubt we really needed much resolution to Simpson's little plot. At most, he's hauled into Hell, given to Mammon to discipline, and the game software checked over for hidden arcane traps. All of that is best handled by people actually trained for it, and OL probably has little interest in it beyond 'job's done'. Something of an ongoing issue for him, really.
 
So I take it some of the weirdness with the game team was because of Simpson instead of the ALE.

Because a demon getting a job as a video game designer seems like the kind of thing Paul would want to encourage otherwise.
 
That's a shame. I thought Paul could've used him for something. Will he come back as a villain, become one of Mammon's subordinates, or get torn apart by demons who want to rise up the ranks?
Hell is going through a quiet and diplomatic patch, where Mammon has made it clear that he's not going to tolerate the sort of misrule that had been occurring. Simpson still doesn't like it, but for the most part he's left to his own devices.
 
What were you looking for? The game is fine, the building and everyone in it get a ritual banishment and Simpson gets sent back to Hell.
I think after the whole anti-life struggle, People are surprised when a suspicious event isn't a harbinger of something horrible.
 
A
This is a documented fact as per Bliz own account, female players or those that claimed to be female players in their internal data overwhelmingly played female toons/characters (around 90%) and as a result were pretty much in their majority part of the alliance. That was acknowledged later as the impetus to twist the lore backwards to give the Horde the bloodelves to encourage female players with friends in the horde faction to join them.

This is literally historical fact.
Those facts, even if accurate, do not substantiate your conclusions.
 
What were you looking for? The game is fine, the building and everyone in it get a ritual banishment and Simpson gets sent back to Hell.
Wow, that is such a waste of a storyline.

If you were just going to have that be the resolution you should have at least pulled the "sucked into the game as their characters" thing first to give some reasoning for sending him back to hell. Because as it was it basically amounts to "character shows up, looks around, punches a wall, then leaves".
 
So I've been wondering, quite some time ago, Paul was wanting to get in contact with some magic user only to find that they had already moved to the White College (or whatever it's called). I can't imagine them having a much better time dealing with the Anti Life either. Was there any plans to touch on that again?


I suppose I'm wondering why Simpson had to be banished? He has citizenship under American law (unless he was never American in the first place). So unless there's something else, all he's done is help make the game better?
 
While I agree I'd like to see the on screen reasoning of sending Simpson back to hell, I've just been reading Drift on SB and am genuinely amused by the contrast between the post apocalyptic situation there and here
 
So I've been wondering, quite some time ago, Paul was wanting to get in contact with some magic user only to find that they had already moved to the White College (or whatever it's called). I can't imagine them having a much better time dealing with the Anti Life either. Was there any plans to touch on that again?
The SI has no plans to try and get in touch with Timothy Hunter.
I suppose I'm wondering why Simpson had to be banished? He has citizenship under American law (unless he was never American in the first place). So unless there's something else, all he's done is help make the game better?
He was British. And he made the game better my messing with the minds of the people working on it. Given the Anti-Life, you could argue that they came away with pockets full of fish, but it was still illegal and as far as I know American law doesn't have a pockets full of fish clause.
 
He was British. And he made the game better my messing with the minds of the people working on it. Given the Anti-Life, you could argue that they came away with pockets full of fish, but it was still illegal and as far as I know American law doesn't have a pockets full of fish clause.
An argument could be made by his lawyers that binding the group to a creative goal and putting his full effort into helping them achieve it was the best means he has available to shield anyone from Anti-Life damage, and all this falls under the Good Samaritan Clause.
 

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