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

It's pretty unlikely. I was offended by their dreadful cultural appropriation.

There is something amusing about a Japanese guy essentially being a teaboo.

It's a Japanese work in which King Arthur is the face and Camelot is treated as far more important than any Japanese heroes. The setting has the center of the magical world in London, with the headquarters of the Mage's Association literally located in the British Museum, and Japan is considered a provincial backwater.

... though, to be fair, it's a London in which people walk around with names like McDonell Elrond and Rocco Belfeban, but that just makes it even better.
 
Dude. You are fucking English. Your country stole the statues from off the frigging Greek Parthenon itself and had them carted off to your national museum. Plus, the whole imperialism thing.

If he was offended by cultural appropriation, he would have said "offended by their cultural appropriation - dreadful!". This reads to me as a complaint about its quality. He's British, as you say. They mastered the art in the modern day and he is offended at the Nasuverse' slapdash approach to it. Dreadful cultural appropriation, indeed sir.
 
Obviously I'm not offended by it when my country does it. That would be ridiculous.
Well, that's a very English attitude, indeed.

If he was offended by cultural appropriation, he would have said "offended by their cultural appropriation - dreadful!". This reads to me as a complaint about its quality. He's British, as you say. They mastered the art in the modern day and he is offended at the Nasuverse' slapdash approach to it. Dreadful cultural appropriation, indeed sir.
Hadn't considered that, but it fits.
 
Not sure how familiar you are with Fate, but Diarmuid's sexiness is actually a superpower of sorts (the result of a magic blessing in his youth, I believe), though one responsible for a lot of the tragedy in both his life (his liege lord's wife fell in love with him and geased him into running away with her, which eventually and semi-indirectly led to his death) and death (summoned as functionally a ghost familiar, his summoner's fiancee fell in love with him too, which caused a fair amount of strife).
Well that's what you get, fucking around with those wimmin.

A cute boy like that? Should settle down with a nice, loving boi.
 
Eh, we used to be pretty close. The the Second World War happened.

Indeed, which is why Sherlock Holmes knows some Jujitsu or rather the hybrid knock off created by E.W. Barton-Wright and likely mastered/used to great effect by John Steed of the Avengers.


No, that's the wrong Avengers! I mean the British ones with Emma Peel.
 
Back Door (part 8)
9th July 2012
00:33 GMT


"How would you feel about becoming my acolyte?"

Lantern Gozzi frowns at me as we watch the business premise of our target.

"In what sense? I will remind you that I haven't decided that I want to remain an Orange Lantern yet."

"I don't think you'd have come all this way if there was any doubt. Peace time administration not your thing?"

Her eyes narrow slightly. "You know."

"Maybe."

She looks away.

"I liked having the direct working relationship with Amalak that we had until now. It's been… Varied. Negotiations with governments and pirates, administration and combat. With Vega at peace and his organisation switching to policing… The work is becoming more simple while also requiring that the two of us spend less time working together."

"Are you romantically interested in him?"

"No. It simply… Suits my sense of place. And he's holding onto the hope that there's a surviving female of his own species that he could mate with. And you presume to offer what I had with Amalak."

"Something like that. I'd suggest talking to him about it directly-."

"He encouraged me. The various surviving Vega powers are quite eager to have a way to monitor you. Princess Koriand'r had seemed like the best choice, given your interactions to date."

"Princess Koriand'r is invested in Tamaran. The place needs her there."

"And Amalak doesn't need me?"

"You tell me."

She pauses for a moment.

"And what does being your acolyte involve?"

"I have abilities no other Orange Lantern possesses. You would study my techniques and ways of thinking with the aim of developing them yourself. I want to see if that's even possible without bonding with the Ophidian."

"You would provide me with all pertinent information?"

"I provide anyone who asks with all pertinent information. I'd be coaching you."

"And then?"

"You'll be an Orange Lantern with the ability to travel anywhere in the universe at any time. You can hang around me, move to Earth -which has a highly varied work environment- or travel from Lantern to Lantern helping them with their work as the mood takes you. Or just pursue your own projects."

"And fighting the Reach?"

"It's worth a ring to learn that others can develop the ability to do what I do. I'd like it if you stuck around, but you shouldn't consider yourself obliged to. And… Speaking from personal experience, how you feel about the idea now may not be how you feel about it afterwards."

"If we are successful."

"Yes. If. But it sounds like you were looking for an alternative to working for Amalak anyway."

"Perhaps we should continue with this mission. It will give me a better idea of what it would be like."

I nod. "Fair enough. Do you want to take the lead? I suspect that you've interrogated more people than I have."

She frowns. "How much experience do you have?"

"I got my ring about two years ago."

"Y-? A-?" She blinks, her eyes unfocused. "I had assumed that it took longer than that."

"It's been an interesting two years. Vega was comparatively uneventful compared to my homeworld."

"I will take the lead." She flies across the rocky wasteland towards the smelting plant, light construct armour enveloping her. "There should not be significant defences. Light infantry weapons at worst."

"Seems like a reasonable conclusion, and scans support it. Unfortunately-"

An energy beam bursts through the planet and hits her in the chest!

"-the Reach can interfere-"

Another shot as Lantern Gozzi hurtles out of control through the air, her armour glitching as she tries to bring herself back under control. I lasso her and generate a plasma shield generator construct.

"-with ring scans. Fortunately, neural impacters aren't even-"

A scarab warrior flies out of the hole, oversized qwardian weapon on its hands. Horns, so a local boy/girl. Might still be possible to assimilate it, since it's not a Reachian. It fires again, the beam of energy striking my plasma field and achieving little. The weapon then -oh that's interesting- shifts shape into what looks like a rapid-fire-.

I deactivate the plasma screen and move as the qwa-bolts chew through the rock, converting everything within the blast radius to vapour and radiation! Shield and accelerate!

The drifts of exploding dust slow to a crawl.

And-. Qwa-matter weapons in the hands of aliens? That's Qwardian heresy! Ring, tell Lantern Kalmin!

Compliance.

And alert local government.

Compliance.

Empathic vision shows a definite spike in concern in the smelter plant, though that might just be a result of the explosions rather than an admission of guilt.

Speaking of explosions, I should probably do something about that.

I form two railgun constructs and load crumbler rounds, the second being destroyed by a qwa-bolt even as the first fires-. And the scarab warrior staggers slightly, its body-morphed point defence systems shooting my round so that all that hits it is the kinetic force.

Not a bad response. Top marks.

The scarab reacts to my attack, extending the armour from its arms to cover the gun as best it can. It's a little awkward; scarabs aren't designed to carry external weapons like this. But it will reduce the impact of kinetic attacks. And… Perhaps directly targeting a device storing qwa-matter isn't the best idea anyway.

I reform the destroyed railgun, orange light flowing into shape as the scarab warrior tries to bring its gun back on target fast enough to stop me. This model appears to be faster than others I've encountered. Not by enough though, as the second railgun joins the first in rapid-fire mode. The scarab is forced to morph stabilisers to prevent the repeated impacts knocking it around, and the shots are edging closer as the point defences can't quite keep up-.

A chunk of its left shoulder evaporates and the point defence laser mounted on it loses speed. And then my shots start hitting him, armour being erased from the chest and gun cowling. The scarab tries to repair it by shifting armour from the back, but Lantern Gozzi has already flanked it and fired directly at the parasite.

The scarab-matter disintegrates in a wave of orange, leaving us with a heavily injured local man.

Excellent.
 
Last edited:
How would you feel about becoming my acolyte?"

Honestly, never thought he'd choose her.

that haven't decided that I want to remain an Orange Lantern

'I haven't'

"Are you romantically interested in him

Jealous?

"I have abilities no other Orange Lantern possesses. You would study my techniques and ways of thinking with the aim of developing them yourself. I want to see if that's even possible without bonding with the Ophidian."

We know it's possible to achieve enlightenment without bonding to an Entity, but maybe it will be different for others since they may not bond, or lack Paul's exotic nature

Vega was comparatively uneventful compared to my homeworld."

This may interest her.

Saying his planet is more eventful than genociding an entire species and changing the political and social structure of a piece of space.

plant light construct armour enveloping her

'plant, light' add a ,

not be significant defences.

Maybe 'be any'

oversize qwardian weapon

'oversized'

And-. Qwa-matter weapons in the hands of aliens? That's Qwardian heresy! Ring, tell Lantern Kalmin!

Either they stole it, or they bought it.

That new leader of theirs apparently wasn't a traditionalist and wanted to sell weapons


'best as it'

flanking it and fired directly at the parasite.

'flanked it'
 
The scarab tries to repair it by shifting armour from the back, but Lantern Gozzi has already flanking it and fired directly at the parasite.

The scarab-matter disintegrates in a wave of orange, leaving us with a heavily injured local man.

Have we seen a Lantern destroy a Scarab while leaving the host (relatively) unharmed before? That seems like a sophisticated technique, but I can't remember for sure.
 
9th July 2012
00:33 GMT


"How would you feel about becoming my acolyte?"
Well, now. Already looking for a proper sidekick, OL? I'd say a Coluan has the best intellectual chance of learning your advanced skills... It's just a matter of also having the emotional character...

Lantern Gozzi frowns at me as we watch the business premise of our target.

"In what sense? I will remind you that haven't decided that I want to remain an Orange Lantern yet."
I mean, seeing what OL goes through on a daily basis will give you a slightly skewed version of the average Lantern's day-to-day affairs... But could you really bring yourself to give up this power?

"I don't think you'd have come all this way if there was any doubt. Peace time administration not your thing?"

Her eyes narrow slightly. "You know."
It's not a well-known fact that he can see deeper emotional elements than most levels of empathic vision, isn't it?

"Maybe."

She looks away.
Let's hope that 'all-knowing' air doesn't turn her off, OL. I know you do like feeling the smartest guy in the room, but that's not necessarily a good approach to a Coluan...

"I liked having the direct working relationship with Amalak that we had until now. It's been… Varied. Negotiations with governments and pirates, administration and combat. With Vega at peace and his organisation switching to policing… The work is becoming more simple while also requiring that the two of us spend less time working together."

"Are you romantically interested in him?"
I mean, the way she puts it, it does sound that way, doesn't it? More likely, she just enjoyed the level of challenge and one-on-one partnership...

"No. It simply… Suits my sense of place. And he's holding onto the hope that there's a surviving female of his own species that he could mate with. And you presume to offer what I had with Amalak."

"Something like that. I'd suggest talking to him about it directly-."
So, she perfectly happy working in close proximity to a superior officer. A natural Dragon, it seems?

"He encouraged me. The various surviving Vega powers are quite eager to have a way to monitor you. Princess Koriand'r had seemed like the best choice, given your interactions to date."

"Princess Koriand'r is invested in Tamaran. The place needs her there."
Though I bet she'd be so much better for it with a Blue Ring. Pity Kalmin's asking such a high price to make one.

"And Amalak doesn't need me?"

"You tell me."
I'm sure he'll miss your easy handling of complex data and excellent management skills. But if he can find enough people to handle those jobs, well..

She pauses for a moment.

"And what does being your acolyte involve?"
Nothing naughty, of course. Jade would have his balls, multiple times!

"I have abilities no other Orange Lantern possesses. You would study my techniques and ways of thinking with the aim of developing them yourself. I want to see if that's even possible without bonding with the Ophidian."

"You would provide me with all pertinent information?"
Mastering the shit OL has is more a matter of heart, and possibly of soul...

"I provide anyone who asks with all pertinent information. I'd be coaching you."

"And then?"
Assuming she doesn't go full Brainiac on him, at least... Seriously, there are so many ways this could go wrong...

"You'll be an Orange Lantern with the ability to travel anywhere in the universe at any time. You can hang around me, move to Earth -which has a highly varied work environment- or travel from Lantern to Lantern helping them with their work as the mood takes you. Or just pursue your own projects."

"And fighting the Reach?"
Presumably Dox would prefer having the additional resources of a second Orange Light Shaman... But if she doesn't want to, well...

"It's worth a ring to learn that others can develop the ability to do what I do. I'd like it if you stuck around, but you shouldn't consider yourself obliged to. And… Speaking from personal experience, how you feel about the idea now may not be how you feel about it afterwards."

"If we are successful."
And that is a big, big 'If...' Still, as OL says, knowing others can manage to gain his abilities? That's beyond any material worth.

"Yes. If. But it sounds like you were looking for an alternative to working for Amalak anyway."

"Perhaps we should continue with this mission. It will give me a better idea of what it would be like."
As long as you're not going to shut down when all hell inevitably breaks loose. ...What? OL's involved, you know the explosions are coming.

I nod. "Fair enough. Do you want to take the lead? I suspect that you've interrogated more people than I have."

She frowns. "How much experience do you have?"
Brace yourself...

"I got my ring about two years ago."

"Y-? A-?" She blinks, her eyes unfocused. "I had assumed that it took longer than that."
Earth is a great place for power-levelling. As long as you don't go insane in the process. :p

"It's been an interesting two years. Vega was comparatively uneventful compared to my homeworld."

"I will take the lead." She flies across the rocky wasteland towards the smelting plant light construct armour enveloping her. "There should not be significant defences. Light infantry weapons at worst."
Never assume, and especially never declare something like that. The universe will take it as a challenge.

"Seems like a reasonable conclusion, and scans report it. Unfortunately-"

An energy beam bursts through the planet and hits her in the chest!
Barely one chapter till the shooting started. Nice.

"-the Reach can interfere-"

Another shot as Lantern Gozzi hurtles out of control through the air, her armour glitching as she tries to bring herself back under control. I lasso her and generate a plasma shield generator construct.
And this, padawan, is why you have heavy non-construct armour available. What if that blast had been any larger?

"-with ring scans. Fortunately, neural impacters aren't even-"

A scarab warrior flies out of the hole, oversize qwardian weapon on its hands. Horns, so a local boy/girl. Might still be possible to assimilate it, since it's not a Reachian. It fires again, the beam of energy striking my plasma field and achieving little. The weapon then -oh that's interesting- shifts shape into what looks like a rapid-fire-.
Called it. Beetle in the field. Now to see how easily OL slaps it down...

I deactivate the plasma screen and move as the qwa-bolts chew through the rock, converting everything within the blast radius to vapour and radiation! Shield and accelerate!

The drifts of exploding dust slow to a crawl.
Qwa-bolts?! Where the hell did they get a piece of Weaponer tech? ...<Looks upthread> Sure that's this timeline? I can't honestly remember...

And-. Qwa-matter weapons in the hands of aliens? That's Qwardian heresy! Ring, tell Lantern Kalmin!

Compliance.
:rolleyes: Nice to see he has his priorities straight...

And alert local government.

Compliance.
Yes, I think they'd like be be informed of a skirmish being fought in the vicinity of a major shipyard...

Empathic vision shows a definite spike in concern in the smelter plant, though that might just be a result of the explosions rather than an admission of guilt.

Speaking of explosions, I should probably do something about that.
This won't take long...

I form two railgun constructs and load crumbler rounds, the second being destroyed by a qwa-bolt even as the first fires-. And the scarab warrior staggers slightly, its body-morphed point defence systems shooting my round so that all that hits it is the kinetic force.

Not a bad response. Top marks.
Well, Crumblers have become something of an Orange Lantern trademark, haven't they? It's only natural they'd have plans to counter them...

The scarab reacts to my attack, extending the armour from its arms to cover the gun as best it can. It's a little awkward; scarabs aren't designed to carry external weapons like this. But it will reduce the impact of kinetic attacks. And… Perhaps directly targeting a device storing qwa-matter isn't the best idea anyway.
No... The kabooms that result tend to qualify as city-killers at the minimum...

I reform the destroyed railgun, orange light flowing into shape as the scarab warrior tries to bring its gun back on target fast enough to stop me. This model appears to be faster than others I've encountered. Not by enough though, as the second railgun joins the first in rapid-fire mode. The scarab is forced to morph stabilisers to prevent the repeated impacts knocking it around, and the shots are edging closer as the point defences can't quite keep up-.
The joy of not using conventional matter for your weaponry: No wasting time shifting mass or configurations...

A chuck of its left shoulder evaporates and the point defence laser mounted on it loses speed. And then my shots start hitting him, armour being erased from the chest and gun cowling. The scarab tries to repair it by shifting armour from the back, but Lantern Gozzi has already flanking it and fired directly at the parasite.
And that'll be a mission kill. Bonus points for the rookie. If they work this well together all the time, things are going to get Rationally straightened out through the power of Jolly Cooperation.

The scarab-matter disintegrates in a wave of orange, leaving us with a heavily injured local man.

Excellent.
TIme to see how well she handles healing? After all, he's bound to have all manner of useful information on the Reach's activities in-system...

Honestly, this is the fun of heading through low-level side-missions with a high-level character: walking through combat encounters with almost no difficulty... But seriously: They now have clear proof of Reach presence in system, and will soon have information on their actions to subvert a L.E.G.I.O.N ally... No matter how fast the other Reach agents work, they're not going to be able to destroy their records quickly enough...
 
Have we seen a Lantern destroy a Scarab while leaving the host (relatively) unharmed before? That seems like a sophisticated technique, but I can't remember for sure.

I think when OL first met the Darkstars they managed to defeat the Scarab without killing the host.

But I'm not completely sure.

So... The hat of this race is that they're horny. Gotcha.

Well the woman and those around her certainly were.
 
Well, now. Already looking for a proper sidekick, OL? I'd say a Coluan has the best intellectual chance of learning your advanced skills... It's just a matter of also having the emotional character...

I was honestly expecting it to be a Tamaranean, given their emotional selfs.

Kori may not have been able to due to being more blue, but Komand'r, who while I greatly hate, except for her n52 self and this one Elseworld, may have been able to.

I mean, seeing what OL goes through on a daily basis will give you a slightly skewed version of the average Lantern's day-to-day affairs... But could you really bring yourself to give up this power

If the risk is losing her sanity, then maybe she'd want to give it up.

After her species lost their minds to the Tyrants she may be afraid of that happening to her.

Though I bet she'd be so much better for it with a Blue Ring. Pity Kalmin's asking such a high price to make one.

Really hope she gets a blue ring.

If Kalmin doesn't make one then maybe some Maltusians can start working on it.

I'm sure he'll miss your easy handling of complex data and excellent management skills. But if he can find enough people to handle those jobs, well..

His position is at least a whole lot more secure, since now others are going legit and killing competitors is not considered all that legit.

Never assume, and especially never declare something like that. The universe will take it as a challenge.

You would know, you Murphy loving bastard.

And this, padawan, is why you have heavy non-construct armour available. What if that blast had been any larger?

Or created to bypass constructs.

Qwa-bolts?! Where the hell did they get a piece of Weaponer tech? ...<Looks upthread> Sure that's this timeline? I can't honestly remember...

They either stole them, or bought them.

The new leader is apparently interested in selling weapons.
 
I was worried that the OLC was making the Reach desperate enough to trade with Qward (or possibly strengthen pre-existing relations), but if qwa-weapons are restricted from outsiders then something more illicit seems to be going on, which is still bad but is hopefully smaller in scale.
 
I like the part where Gozzi thought that she had everything handled, right after she learned that Paul had only been at this for 2 years, and then the explosions started. She's going to have to accept that Paul is far beyond what she could hope to copy, even if he's only been a Lantern for 2 years.
 
'I haven't'
'plant, light' add a ,
Maybe 'be any'
'oversized'
'flanked it'
Thank you, corrected.
No, that's fine.

That's a little unfair. The psyker in that clip willingly sacrificed his soul to warn the astartes, knowing that he'd be consumed by a daemon when he did it. 'Die clean, my friend' would be more accurate.
 
Honestly, this is the fun of heading through low-level side-missions with a high-level character: walking through combat encounters with almost no difficulty...
The Qwa weapon on the random encounter does feel painfully reminiscent of being accosted by bandits with full glass equipment in Oblivion. Like, if you have equipment that valuable, why are you out in the middle of nowhere roughing up peasants for pocket change?
 
"How would you feel about becoming my acolyte?"

Lantern Gozzi frowns at me as we watch the business premise of our target.

part of me is really excited for OL to finally have a sidekick.

the rest of me is wondering how long it takes for an 'et tu, brute' situation to develop.
 

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