[Archive] With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Story Only)

[Mr Zoat]

6th April 2013
09:57 GMT -5

Connection made to monitored phone line.

I glance down at my right with a faint smile on my lips. Been a while. This number-.

Oh, I'd… Forgotten about-. Well, not forgotten, but I'd stopped worrying about-.

After I got back from Vega, I sponsored the formation of a computer game company with a view to making a roleplay game about the region. Talented, passionate people to whom I gave as much data on the Vega Systems as I could -along with a chunk of seed capital- and left to it. Between the Sheeda and the Anti-Life I… Honestly hadn't spared them a thought for a year or so. In fact, I'm mildly impressed that they're still alive.

Um.

Answer.

"Orange Lantern here."

"It's… Ah. Hey. Ah."

"Good morning, Kurt. How are things?"

"We're ready."

Assuming that they were using an existing game engine -no real reason for them not to- and kept the main story relatively paired down, I suppose that they might have a first build complete after a year. It… Hm. I.. have no idea what sort of state the computer game industry is in right now. I haven't heard the others mentioning new games for a while, but it's not like I have a surfeit of spare time.

It's not like I actually need it to make money. It was… Not quite a pure ego project, but… Pretty close, if I'm honest. An undercurrent of 'if you don't like how I did it let's see you do any better'.

"Good show. Is this where you give me my pre-release code?"

"We're ready, sir. This is-. Everything you wanted."

There's.. something in his voice that's putting me a little on edge.

"Kurt, are you alright?"

"I don't know. I-I don't know. I've been-. I've just been writing and writing for… Ah…"

Where is he?

That.. wasn't what he looks like last time we spoke, but he's still recognisable. I

step out and

6th April 2013
07:59 GMT -7

reappear five metres away from him in his direct line of sight. I didn't detect any weapons or threats-.

Someone behind me drops something. "He's here!"

I glance around-. And a walking stereotype of a programmer; thin, pallid and unkempt, stares at me through tape-bound spectacles. And to complete the picture it looks like he dropped a pack of cheetos.

And then he turns and sprits through some nearby double doors.

..

I think that maybe I should have checked on them before now.

"Ah. Sorry about-. Ah, Martin." I turn back to Kurt. "We've all… I mean, with everything that happened, it's a bit…" He hesitates, his gaze growing a little vacant before snapping back to me. "Y'know."

"No, I don't think I do. So let's start with the most important thing-."

He smiles. "The game!"

"Your health, and the health of the other employees." I scan him. Elevated stress hormones, but for a company chairman or someone who lived through the Anti-Life it's not that unusual. "Because you sound a little odd. What's been happening?"

He runs his right hand through thinning hair, glancing off to the side.

"So… At the start, things were pretty normal. Good, compared to a lot of companies. Everyone… Knew their jobs. Got the basic story sketched out, and we could get the graphic artists started right away because you told us what the ships and.. people, the different species, look like."

"I remember that much."

"And it was good! It was… The storylines were coming together, and-. And companion characters, faction leaders… Even the procedurally generated stuff could kinda link to the story missions, 'cause they wouldn't be available unless a faction was strong enough to advance its agenda, and NPCs would try things if you didn't recruit them or kill them. And… I'd say we had a basic playable build by November last year."

"That's pretty quick work."

"Yeah. And then… T-that thing."

"The Anti-Life."

"And we lost the will to live, but… Coding's not really living."

I tilt my head a little to the right. "What, exactly, do you mean by that?"

"That's what we did. That was our reason for being. For the whole-. God, was it just a month?"

"About a month, yes."

"The whole team, the artists, writers and… Backroom people, they… Cleaned up, made sure we ate enough to.. keep working." His slightly crazy eyes snap back to me. "And now we're done."

"Ready for beta testing?"

"I mean…" His eyes slide to the side again as he rubs his face with his right hand. "We probably should, but… It-it's done. Playable… We could add things, but it would disrupt the internal balance, and… It would be pretty gimmicky. You know?"

"Again, no, but I'll take your word for it. Internal balance is good?"

"The usual result if the AI is left to handle things is some sort of Citadel victory, which is what really happened. But exactly what happens changes every time. Some routes are harder so that works for people looking for a challenge. It's… Good. Yeah."

"Okay, well, I'm glad to hear that. I-."

"But you've gotta see it. Today-. Now."

He goes to reach out to me, then stops himself. I… Walk up to him and pat him on the shoulder.

"Okay, Kurt. Take me to the rest of the team, and…"

I'll make sure that they're basically healthy and not too crazy, because one of the things I wanted to do here was avoid the crunch that other computer game companies use to rush out shoddy and unfinished products and it turns out that they basically death marched it while under the affect of the Anti-Life.

Ring, low urgency alert to the rest of the team. Ask them if they're interested in trying out a new computer game.

Compliance.

"And then you can show me the game itself."

The smile he gives me is truly disturbing.

 

[Mr Zoat]

6th April 2013
09:34 GMT -7

Richard frowns at his screen. "Space combat feels kinda slow."

I give the unsteady-looking game designers around us a quick look, but they don't seem to be offended. Returning my eyes to Richard, I shrug.

"That's a bottom-of-the-market hauler. They are kinda slow. It's not even a computer game thing to justify upgrades."

From reviewing the plot outlines, I know that Richard's done the quickest route to getting control of a ship: start as a gordanian with the pilot background, then get a job doing routine supply runs on a ship whose captain is over the hill and is happy to let you run the thing. That leads to getting attacked, and there's plot threads for if you manage to escape or if you don't.

I'm just doing the same thing I did with Morrowind: staring at the character creator and failing to progress to the actual game. Richard jumped in with one of the default builds and Wallace picked a well built female Tamaranean scientist.

Okay, so I don't think I want to play as a Citadelian, which leaves…

Ah, bite the bullet. Crown Imperium engineer it is. Generically handsome male, ah… Lallan, that's a reasonably common name.

Wallace wiggles his control pad. "Wait, how come I can't fly? I should be able to escape this easily."

"Tamaraneans need to feel joyful to fly." I glance at his screen. "And I don't think being auctioned as a slave is making her joyful."

"Ah… She won't have to… Do..? Stuff, with-."

"No. Technically skilled slaves are too valuable to be used as sex toys. Though that sort of thing probably wouldn't actually bother a Tamaranean all that much."

"It would bother me. I think it would bother most people, Oh El."

"That's probably why 'whore' isn't a template."

"Not for player characters." We look around at the developer who just spoke. "Your records made it pretty clear that prostitution is pretty common in the Vega Systems with most species, there just weren't enough ways to get one involved in the main plots."

Richard pauses his game. "What sort of rating were you going for?"

"Mature, but there's a toggle to turn the blood and gore down or off. Oh, ah, any sex happens off camera."

Wallace snorts as one of the guards at his slave auction is shot dead, giving him space to run for it. "I don't know if you've heard of it, but we've got this thing called 'the internet'."

"Oh no, this game doesn't need an internet connection to run. Orange Lantern had that as one of the original requirements."

"Heh. Well, I have a girlfriend now, so I should be okay anyway."

Richard smiles. "You think something like this could encourage the space program?"

"It wasn't the main reason, but-. Maybe we could add an 'explore modern Vega' mode..?" Huh. "Did either of you think of starting with a branx character?"

Wallace shrugs. "Not really into playing as the bad guys."

The designer shakes his head. "Oh, no, you don't need to. In-game it's more profitable for a branx character to be ruthless, but there are legitimate-. Legitimate by our standards, jobs they can take."

"Kid Flash, was that a speciest remark?"

"Whu-?" He looks around in surprise. "No, I just-. I figured that even if they weren't particularly bad individually, they were still working on the evil side. Even the guys just manning the ore freighters are supplying the Citadel, right?"

"Yes, most of them. That's part of the whole moral conundrum that the game presents."

Richard looks curious. "Why did you ask about the branx?"

"Market research. In World of Warcraft, ugly races get played a lot less than attractive ones. And the whole Horde is ugly, so the player base was overwhelmingly Alliance until the Blood Elves got added in. Since this is a single player game I guess it doesn't matter; there's no population balance issue…"

Wallace presses buttons with unnecessary vigour. "Fighting's-. Maybe I shouldn't have picked a scientist."

"Her arms are still chained together, and those guards are gordanians."

"I didn't see a key..?"

"But you did see the sniper shoot the guy next to you. They were there to free the slaves-."

"So do I go back-?" He turns the camera around and sees that the market's security force is pushing through the area, trading fire with the attackers. "I guess not."

Richard leans in to look at his screen. "Dude, those guys are dying so you can get away. Maybe you should actually try getting away?"

"Ah, yeah?" He moves his character into cover-.

And there's… No clipping. The character isn't wearing all that much, but her skin deforms naturally to fit in the available space rather than phasing through the virtual wall. I can't… Think of a single game that does that. Some switch the character to a different pose to cut down on it, but phasing limbs has been a feature of every game I've ever seen. I used to shoot guards' arms through the doors they were standing next to in Goldeneye.

I pause my character's briefing from their factory supervisor and turn to the programmer. "What engine did you end up using?"

"Oh, it's custom. None of the ones on the market could handle the switch between space combat and ground combat in the way we wanted. You can actually stand on the outside of a ship's hull while the ship to ship combat happens around you. None of it's pre-rendered."

Okay, no. I've heard that 'Obsession makes better'; I'm an Orange Lantern. But I refuse to believe that even top tier programmers could create an entirely new engine and a full game in a year. Certainly not with only a month of death marching.

"Did you outsource any of-."

"No! This is all-. All our work."

I take my runestone out of subspace and…

Ah. A glow. Well, it was that or telepathy. Wallace and Richard pause their own games, getting ready to follow my lead.

"And… Did someone join the company? Since last time I got an update, I mean?"

"Did-? Did someone..?" His eyes go a little glassy. "I mean… People join, people-. People left-."

"Someone you remember as being unusually enthusiastic? And made everyone else more enthusiastic by being around them?"

His face… Sort of brightens up, then falls again. Then it brightens up, then falls, looking confused. Then he frowns. "What?"

Richard pulls out his own runestone, and I nod.

"We'll start in the basement. Stick together. We'll call in Zatanna once we have confirmation."

Two nods, and I lead the way through the crowd of enchanted game developers towards the exit.

"But what did you think so far!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

6th April 2013
09:46 GMT -7

Pffft.

Wallace watches the vapour droplets waft out across the room for a moment, then turns ninety degrees to his right.

Pffft.

"What's that? Some sort of alchemical-?"

"Nah." He studies the pattern, then sprays again.

Pffft.

"No point in coming up with something new when there's already something that does the job. This is holy water. And a tiny bit of thaumically inert dye."

"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. You didn't find anything?"

I shrug. "Nothing on scans. Not that that means much if they just had the sense to put the warding runes inside the bricks or something like that."

Pffft.

"What about that 'feed me' thing you do with the Ophidian? Oh, and I'd just wanna say? Naming your attacks? Not what I expected from you."

"I've done that from the start." He looks over to me, raising his eyebrows. "I just didn't say it out loud. 'cause it… Sounded a little…"

I look away awkwardly.

"I called that thing Flash does where he runs around the world at full speed and then punches something 'the Infinite Mass Punch'."

"Is it?"

"…no..?" He looks confused. "'Infinite-'? How would that even work?"

"Look, my Secondary School didn't even do physics as a separate subject. I know that speed changes the rate that time passes, but anything beyond that…"

"Super speed can't work without changing how normal physics affects us. Escape velocity isn't even all that fast, but we never start flying."

"I realised that when I found out that you only pass as much waste matter as a normal-."

"Dude!"

I snort with amusement.

"So yeah, an affect of running that fast would be to increase his mass, except it doesn't, because super speed. The-." He looks me in the eye for a moment. "Okay, simple version? The universe treats it as having normal mass for some things and… Very high mass for others, and other times it kind of splits the difference."

"With you so far. What does the Flash call it?"

"He calls it 'hitting stuff really hard'. Which it, you know, does."

We leave the storage room, heading down the subterranean corridor towards the… Back-up generator room.

Pffft.

"Did you ever name your own attacks?"

"I… Tried. It didn't work out."

"Oh?"

"Uhhr. You know… How I can't move through stuff like Flash does?"

"Yes? Ooh, I could make you some phasing armour, if you want?"

"Uuh..? No. Thanks, but that stuff doesn't always interact with super speed like it's supposed to. That whole 'physics work in our favour' thing only works with the super speed."

"Bad experience?"

"One time I gave a guy really bad road rash. He had it coming, but… Freaked me out at the time. Freaked Mom out more."

Pffft.

"Do wizards mess around with computer games a whole lot? Can we narrow it down?"

"It's more… They don't, but I ran through the theory of what a glamour-based virtual world would be like, and I realised that it would be pretty easy to Rip Van Winkle thousands of people. With games that involved, people already think of the setting as being 'real' on some level, which makes it painfully easy for the fae to entrance people."

"Has it happened before?"

"No, and if I understand their mindset properly, they'd basically have to do it by accident, then realise what they'd done, then have something they wanted to do that involved them doing it a lot. It's pretty unlikely, but it would be really bad if it happened."

He nods. "Anyone else?"

"Doing magic through electronics is hard, especially-" I point to a small shrine to Hephaestaean attached to the wall. "-with Hephaestaean taking even a little interest. Having absorbed the nascent elemental of technology, there isn't really any other source of knowledge on how to adapt existing techniques. Unless…"

Wallace raises his eyebrows. "Unless..?"

"Well, there's no reason why someone else couldn't have realised what was going on with that and have started work on it before its merger with Hephaestus. I just don't know of anyone who did, other than Richard Simpson."

"Richard Simpson, who was in the Tower of Fate and who's been missing since you dealt with John Quinn."

"Yes, but I don't see why this would be him. It's kind of low hanging fruit. He's a reasonably powerful demon."

Pffft.

We walk into-.

"Oh, hey Rob."

Richard's smiling smugly. I've almost missed that. "Hey guys. Find anything?"

Wallace shrugs, shaking his head. "No magic reaction so far. Oh El can't pick up anything either. … Youuuuuu already know where he is, don't you?"

"Yeah. Just a matter of looking at the power distribution, throughput and waste heat to work out where the missing room is. I'd worked out it was Richard Simpson, too, but you eventually caught up with me there."

I sigh in mock-frustration and his smile broadens. "Where?"

He points to a bare wall. I generate a crumbler ram construct and gently apply it, erasing plaster, concrete and brick before breaking through into a…

A man cave.

Three large screens, a gaming rig, half-empty bags of snack food, and Simpson in spiky energy demon mode is staring at the hole, cringing slightly at the sight of us.

"I just like gaming, alright?"

…

Pffft pffft.