• The site has now migrated to Xenforo 2. If you see any issues with the forum operation, please post them in the feedback thread.
  • Due to issues with external spam filters, QQ is currently unable to send any mail to Microsoft E-mail addresses. This includes any account at live.com, hotmail.com or msn.com. Signing up to the forum with one of these addresses will result in your verification E-mail never arriving. For best results, please use a different E-mail provider for your QQ address.
  • For prospective new members, a word of warning: don't use common names like Dennis, Simon, or Kenny if you decide to create an account. Spammers have used them all before you and gotten those names flagged in the anti-spam databases. Your account registration will be rejected because of it.
  • Since it has happened MULTIPLE times now, I want to be very clear about this. You do not get to abandon an account and create a new one. You do not get to pass an account to someone else and create a new one. If you do so anyway, you will be banned for creating sockpuppets.
  • Due to the actions of particularly persistent spammers and trolls, we will be banning disposable email addresses from today onward.
  • The rules regarding NSFW links have been updated. See here for details.

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

I might be thinking of a different story then. Because shit, the one I'm thinking of damn near traumatised me.

Well the stories written by theirishdreamer on SB, one of which included a YJ SI story, tend to have bad grammar and spelling, but they are wonderful to read, once you get past the bad grammar and spelling of course.
 
Summer's End (part 9)
Full
Stop


The skeletal-thin chief archivist of the city of Caernouid bows apologetically.

"I am sorry, my lord. Preserving the media in its original format proved quite impossible under the light of-."

"The vampire sun." / "-the Vampire Sun."

I nod. No computers from humanity's prime. Nothing written on paper or parchment or vellum. No… Artefacts of whoever came before the Sheeda.

"So how do you maintain records?"

"Task-adapted biological computers and ultra-dense chitin are the two main methods. We feed the chitin into specialised digestion receptacles for it to be read. It is not a quick process, and the summaries are often.. long out of date. If you tell me what you're looking for I can dispatch our retrieval specialists."

"I'd like to know about the first generation of Sheeda. Was… Your current form the result of gradual change, or engineered specifically for… Some reason."

The cadaver-lookalike nods. "Those are not our oldest records, but it is the earliest period that is well recorded. Do you wish to review the recreations of the source material, or are later analyses acceptable?"

Uuh. This is going to be a long haul. We're going to be looking for sources for our sources, all the while knowing that the Sheeda have had more than enough time to falsify anything they want.

Ping.

Sure you're up to it?

Ping.

"How about-?"

"What about the Justice League?"

I raise my eyebrows at Artemis's enquiry.

"What?" She shrugs. "You're the one who said that kryptonians live thousands of years if they get enough sunlight. There's gotta be some kind of record of Superman."

I shake my head. "I knew a time traveller. Superman dies in the next couple of decades from-"

Her eyes widen. "What?"

"-our point of view. Oh, yeah. Why do you think I've been pushing the Earth Defence Force through so hard? Earth gets conquered and the Justice League killed… Well, in the original timeline it did. I doubt that will happen now."

"So…" She frowns. "Are we dealing with original history or your fixed history?"

I make a show of slowly shrugging.

"Okay, but was that just it? Humans got wiped out?"

"No, humans were taken as… Janissaries? By the people who conquered Earth, and the population of Earth wasn't completely wiped out. Just… Reduced a lot. My contact didn't make any mention of the Justice League… A Justice League reforming at any point-."

"Forgive.. my interruption." The archivist looks genuinely interested, a strangely open expression which looks odd on a Sheeda's face. "But what was the Justice League?"

I get a half-second glare from Artemis, which causes me to close my mouth and give her the metaphorical floor.

"The Justice League is-. Was a group of heroes who-."

I mime biting my lip.

"Who fought for freedom-"

I mime biting my lip really hard.

"-and justice against criminals and evil people."

"They were guards?"

"No, they… Didn't work for a government. They just did what they thought was right."

No, no, he's got no framework for understanding the concept of 'superhero'. How to put this..?

"Imagine a group of Highborn who -rather than serving the Queen directly or ruling cities in her name- used their abilities to enforce a code of moral behaviour, primarily on other Highborn but occasionally on regular citizens."

"Warriors."

"They have a wide variety of skills, but primarily:-" I nod. "-yes."

"I don't remember any group called the 'Justice League', but I… Seem to recall mention of a Justice Legion. Are they related?"

I very dimly remember something about them from Earth Prime comics. Reading the summaries didn't make the concept sound very appealing; clones of heroes from an earlier era with a few cosmetic changes. Ridiculous, really: put a picture of the Justice Society next to one of the Justice League and even the people with the same name don't look the same. And that's just two generations.

"Ah..?"

Artemis looks at me like she expects me to know. Which I'd normally like, because if she decided to go Richard-the-Justice-League-Puritan on me this would rapidly become very tiresome.

"Perhaps you could call up a file and we could see if there are any familiar faces?"

"I'm afraid that we don't have good records from that period, but…" He walks over to an organic-looking console and presses several buttons. Symbols I don't recognise appear on a… Holographic? No, an illusion-based display. "Relating to your query regarding the origin of Sheeda-kind. Our best information suggests that we were deliberately created. The city with our largest flesh vats is still on that site where the first of Sheeda-kind were created. And the Justice Legion…"

A severely degraded illusion of a human torso appears. I… Think it's a dark-skinned baseline human man, but I've got no guarantee that my concepts of any of those things mean anything to future-humanity.

"…art, I… … …halos fall…"

The quality is not good, but a damaged record that has been translated through several formats for… A very long period of time isn't going to be high quality.

"…site… …extract… …rom the Justice Legion's last st… …it here, but everywh… …understand what's killing us."

The archivist presses another button, and the playback stops.

"If you have any insight, I would be fascinated to hear it."

"A 'halo' could be a sign of an angel's divinity, or it could refer to an orbital ring. My.. future contact said that those became rather common forms of habitation for humans."

Not unusual. There are a lot more systems with valuable materials in them than there are habitable planets. At a certain level of technology building habitats makes economic sense.

"That sounded like 'from the Justice Legion's last stand', indicating that they tried to fight something and were wiped out in the attempt, and that someone went there later to pick something up."

Artemis nods. "And they were going to study it here. Does it say what they were fighting?"

"There are references to a great destructive force. It isn't clear whether they're referring to a singular being or group or… Perhaps even a natural event."

I nod. "Yeah, we're going to need all of those. And anything that mentions the Legion and wherever Sheeda came from."

The archivist smiles. "How long do your people live?"

"Indefinitely."

The archivist nods. "'Indefinitely' might be enough. I will gather a party, and my successor's successor will relay the last of the materials you requested to you. I wish you the best of fortune, my lord, my lady."
 
Last edited:
Full
Stop


The skeletal-thin chief archivist of the city of Caernouid bows apologetically.

"I am sorry, my lord. Preserving the media in its original format proved quite impossible under the light of-."
No doubt. Not that there are many modern forms of media that would still be around this far along.

"The vampire sun." / "-the Vampire Sun."

I nod. No computers from humanity's prime. Nothing written on paper or parchment or vellum. No… Artefacts of whoever came before the Sheeda.
Short of something very durable - incorrodible, indestructible metal, maybe - or very ethereal - some manner of telepathic database linked to the Earth's magical field or the like - I don't think you'd be very lucky at all.

"So how do you maintain records?"

"Task-adapted biological computers and ultra-dense chitin are the two main methods. We feed the chitin into specialised digestion receptacles for it to be read. It is not a quick process, and the summaries are often.. long out of date. If you tell me what you're looking for I can dispatch our retrieval specialists."
Again: Biotechnology. Often inefficient, rarely quick, very gross.

"I'd like to know about the first generation of Sheeda. Was… Your current form the result of gradual change, or engineered specifically for… Some reason."

The cadaver-lookalike nods. "Those are not our oldest records, but it is the earliest period that is well recorded. Do you wish to review the recreations of the source material, or are later analyses acceptable?"
One question is how biased those later analyses are going to be? Who knows how much revision some 'facts' have undergone in the thousands of years of Melmoth's Reign?

Uuh. This is going to be a long hall. We're going to be looking for sources for our sources, all the while knowing that the Sheeda have had more than enough time falsify anything they want.

Ping.
Ah, she's feeling better? I wonder if that's because of the Witch-sign or she's just adapted to the local conditions.

Sure you're up to it?

Ping.
Translation: "The little fiends have stopped pounding on my casing. It's a just a dull ache now, and I am better than that."

"How about-?"

"What about the Justice League?"
As if anything of them survived this long. They were mythical by the 853rd​ century. How much info do you think survived five billion years?

I raise my eyebrows at Artemis's enquiry.

"What?" She shrugs. "You're the one who said that kryptonians live thousands of years if they get enough sunlight. There's gotta be some kind of record of Superman."
Yes, but they aren't that immortal. Superman Prime notwithstanding, anyway.

I shake my head. "I knew a time traveller. Superman dies in the next couple of decades from-"

Her eyes widen. "What?"
:eek: Spoilers! Besides, it's very hard to actually kill-kill Kryptonians. Especially Pre-Crisis ones. Their biology is robust beyond belief, thanks to millennia of refinement and engineering.

"-our point of view. Oh, yeah. Why do you think I've been pushing the Earth Defence Force through so hard? Earth gets conquered and the Justice League killed… Well, in the original timeline it did. I doubt that will happen now."

"So…" She frowns. "Are we dealing with original history or your fixed history?"
And does it matter? All that took place so long ago the Earth's continents aren't even the same shape.

I make a show of slowly shrugging.

"Okay, but was that just it? Humans got wiped out?"
Pfft. Humans are like cockroaches. Plus, aliens seem to find humans remarkably useful, whatever as slave labour, soldier or sex toy. There'd be tons running around off-world.

"No, humans were taken as… Janissaries? By the people who conquered Earth, and the population of Earth wasn't completely wiped out. Just… Reduced a lot. My contact didn't make any mention of the Justice League… A Justice League reforming at any point-."

"Forgive.. my interruption." The archivist looks genuinely interested, a strangely open expression which looks odd on a Sheeda's face. "But what was the Justice League?"
Oh, this will be fun. Someone with no concept of a superhero, if even a vigilante. It'll be like explaining colour to a blind man...

I get a half-second glare from Artemis, which causes me to close my mouth and give her the metaphorical floor.

"The Justice League is-. Was a group of heroes who-."
"What are heroes?"

I mime biting my lip.

"Who fought for freedom-"
"Never heard of it."

I mime biting my lip really hard.

"-and justice against criminals and evil people."
"The only word I recognise there was 'criminal.'"

"They were guards?"

"No, they… Didn't work for a government. They just did what they thought was right."
And the archivist is just tilting his head in confusion. Totally unfamiliar concepts.

No, no, he's got no framework for understanding the concept of 'superhero'. How to put this..?

"Imagine a group of Highborn who -rather than serving the Queen directly or ruling cities in her name- used their abilities to enforce a code of moral behaviour, primarily on other Highborn but occasionally on regular citizens."
See, that he might understand. The concept of 'not serving the queen directly' might be a stretch, but 'enforcing' things? Yeah.

"Warriors."

"They have a wide variety of skills, but primarily:-" I nod. "-yes."
Mostly based around Righteous Face-punching.

"I don't remember any group called the 'Justice League', but I… Seem to recall mention of a Justice Legion. Are they related?"

I very dimly remember something about them from Earth Prime comics. Reading the summaries didn't make the concept sound very appealing; clones of heroes from an earlier era with a few cosmetic changes. Ridiculous, really: put a picture of the Justice Society next to one of the Justice League and even the people with the same name don't look the same. And that's just two generations.
One of the stranger future visions of the DC Earth. Honestly, the clones thing sound more like Justice League 3000, from That Era. A great many of the DC One Million heroes were distant descendants, inspired by, driven by or even vague fans of their namesakes. As for looks: Fashions change. The Golden age heroes lived in times of cotton, wool and leather. The Silver age sported space age materials like nylon, polyester and early spandex (which was invented in 1959!).

"Ah..?"

Artemis looks at me like she expects me to know. Which I'd normally like, because if she decided to go Richard-the-Justice-League-Puritan on me this would rapidly become very tiresome.
At least she knows enough to know when she doesn't know about something.

"Perhaps you could call up a file and we could see if there are any familiar faces?"

"I'm afraid that we don't have good records from that period, but…" He walks over to am organic-looking console and presses several buttons. Symbols I don't recognise appear on a… Holographic? No, an illusion-based display. "Relating to your query regarding the origin of Sheeda-kind. Our best information suggests that we were deliberately created. The city with our largest flesh vats is still on that site where the first of Sheeda-kind were created. And the Justice Legion…"
Fascinating. Let me guess, somewhere on the east coast of North America. Or whatever it developed into over the eons.

A severely degraded illusion of a human torso appears. I… Think it's a dark-skinned baseline human man, but I've got no guarantee that my concepts of any of those things mean anything to future-humanity.

"…art, I… … …halos fall…"
Given the future bio-engineering seen in DC One Million, their colouring might well be a personal preference. As is their shape. Transhumanism for the win.

The quality is not good, but a damaged record that has been translated through several formats for… A very long period of time isn't going to be high quality.

"…site… …extract… …rom the Justice Legion's last st… …it here, but everywh… …understand what's killing us."
Hmm... Perhaps this is a future where Solaris the Living Sun won during DC One Million? His plan was to kill Superman Prime, if I remember right. Who was chilling in the core of the Sun...

The archivist presses another button, and the playback stops.

"If you have any insight, I would be fascinated to hear it."
At least we know he's got one thing he cares for. Craves, even.

"A 'halo' could be a sign of an angel's divinity, or it could refer to an orbital ring. My.. future contact said that those became rather common forms of habitation for humans."

Not unusual. There are a lot more systems with valuable materials in them than there are habitable planets. At a certain level of technology building habitats makes economic sense.
Another common part of DC One Million... Alongside with a race of Neptunian aquatic humanoids, Pluto being a prison planet and Mars being 'haunted' by the consciousness of J'onn J'onnz.

"That sounded like 'from the Justice Legion's last stand', indicating that they tried to fight something and were wiped out in the attempt, and that someone went there later to pick something up."

Artemis nods. "And they were going to study it here. Does it say what they were fighting?"
You're lucky they know that much. The only reason this isn't like modern palaeontologists reconstructing dinosaurs from 200+ million years ago, is advancements in technology.

"There are references to a great destructive force. It isn't clear whether they're referring to a singular being or group or… Perhaps even a natural event."

I nod. "Yeah, we're going to need all of those. And anything that mentions the Legion and wherever Sheeda came from."
Just some light reading, then. Good thing Mother Box is willing to give it a try. You might be here a long-ass time otherwise.

The archivist smiles. "How long do your people live?"

"Indefinitely."
Within reason. Are there any truly old New Gods? Not like Highfather, and his traditional 'venerable wizard' look. Truly ancient ones, who have seen eons pass. I doubt Apokalips might, given their generally short, brutal lifetimes... But New Genesis...

The archivist nods. "'Indefinitely' might be enough. I will gather a party, and my successor's successor will relay the last of the materials you requested to you. I wish you the best of fortune, my lord, my lady."
...He makes it sound like it'll take centuries... Or at least a couple of Sheeda generations. Which, honestly might be rather shorter than our, what, twenty years for a generation?

Looks like this could be quite the task. Hope Artemis is going to be okay with possibly finding herself quite a bit older when she gets home. At any rate, I suspect this might be a good time for a cutaway...
 
No doubt. Not that there are many modern forms of media that would still be around this far along.

Well reality TV may have survived.

The fact that it's managed to survive as long as it has is a good indicator of its cockroach like ability to survive.

As if anything of them survived this long. They were mythical by the 853rd century. How much info do you think survived five billion years?

Well some of the League may have survived.

Superman lived to that time and I think Diana became a goddess.

Yes, but they aren't that immortal. Superman Prime notwithstanding, anyway.

And that other Superman that kept the universe from collapsing so that that Mesopotamian god could die peacefully.

Mostly based around Righteous Face-punching.

And saving innocents from natural disasters and maniacs.

Honestly, the clones thing sound more like Justice League 3000, from That Era

The clone thing was done before the n52, Batman Beyond in case you forgot.

Given the future bio-engineering seen in DC One Million, their colouring might well be a personal preference. As is their shape. Transhumanism for the win.

The solar system is basically similar to the Culture then.

Another common part of DC One Million... Alongside with a race of Neptunian aquatic humanoids, Pluto being a prison planet and Mars being 'haunted' by the consciousness of J'onn J'onnz.

And don't forget the marble Amazons.

Within reason. Are there any truly old New Gods? Not like Highfather, and his traditional 'venerable wizard' look. Truly ancient ones, who have seen eons pass. I doubt Apokalips might, given their generally short, brutal lifetimes... But New Genesis...

Yuga Khan was most likely alive when Hinon still didn't fall in a coma, 3 billion years ago, so that could indicate that he's also billions of years old, and Darkseid may also be billions of years old as far as we know.

Metron may also be eons old, given that he spends a lot of time on his chair, which can time travel, he may spend eons viewing different eras before returning to the time he left.
 
He also saw the renegade at some of his worst.

Plus the fact that renegade tends to mock him doesn't exactly improve his impression of him.
To be completely fair, Robin pushed him in a way that was massively hypocritical, fairly early on. I can safely say that they're both at fault.
 
The clone thing was done before the n52, Batman Beyond in case you forgot.

The solar system is basically similar to the Culture then.

Unless Gravy was having an early senior moment, he didn't mean clones literally, he meant as in the Justice Legion were carbon copies, unimaginative and derivitive.

And no, in point of fact I can't recall any feats of genetic engineering shown in DC 1 Million. Batman 1 million did put Bruce in a clone of Bats1Million's body, but that's not the same thing.

Rather, humanity is more like evolved past the need for technology rather like the future people from Callahan's Crosstime Saloon.

DC 1 Million people have a telepathic internet that connects them all and enhanced information processing to go along with it.

Over this telepathic internet, they can download superpowers like apps. Luthor Luthor downloaded Superman's powers to celebrate Superman Prime reemerging from the sun, for example.

The DEO deals with bootleg superpower app dealers/designers, because black market superpowers might not have required safety features like say teleportation or intangibility that won't leave you to die merged with a wall.

So in the future, everyone is Amazo, if you have the cash, and by cash I mean internet points.
 
Unless Gravy was having an early senior moment, he didn't mean clones literally, he meant as in the Justice Legion were carbon copies, unimaginative and derivitive.

And no, in point of fact I can't recall any feats of genetic engineering shown in DC 1 Million. Batman 1 million did put Bruce in a clone of Bats1Million's body, but that's not the same thing.

Rather, humanity is more like evolved past the need for technology rather like the future people from Callahan's Crosstime Saloon.

DC 1 Million people have a telepathic internet that connects them all and enhanced information processing to go along with it.

Over this telepathic internet, they can download superpowers like apps. Luthor Luthor downloaded Superman's powers to celebrate Superman Prime reemerging from the sun, for example.

The DEO deals with bootleg superpower app dealers/designers, because black market superpowers might not have required safety features like say teleportation or intangibility that won't leave you to die merged with a wall.

So in the future, everyone is Amazo, if you have the cash, and by cash I mean internet points.

I was talking about cloning the members of the League was done before the Justice League 3000 comic was released, not that the members of the Legion were clones.
 
The archivist nods. "'Indefinitely' might be enough. I will gather a party, and my successor's successor will relay the last of the materials you requested to you. I wish you the best of fortune, my lord, my lady."
While cool, I can't help but think that Renegade and Artemis becoming, if not time abysses, something like really seven hundred years old, does provide some challenges regarding keeping the characters relatable. Worry.
 
Maybe I missed something, but at what point did they establish that they'd gone to the future instead of the past? Sheeda etc make it more likely to be the future, but there's always the possibility of a looped universe per Futurama?
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top