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

Reader mode
Mr Zoat said:
29th May 2282
14:43 MTZ

**[A mutant in heavy metal plate armour, spikes on his shoulders and a cybernetic replacing his right eye.]**

I nod. "Attis."
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Boy, this guy seems to be the driving cause behind a lot of bad stuff in the region... And I don't doubt that he started out with the best of intentions for his kind... Yet the fallout is still raining down years later.

**[A force of Brotherhood of Steel paladins attaching a mutant force… Underground somewhere? They're gradually forced back and I see their leader get struck down. His helmet gets torn off and-.]**

"No, that… Didn't happen. Rhombus beat Attis. He retired to be a farmer. The Texans have a memorial where he's buried."
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Are they catching sight of different timelines? Because this sounds like something out of the campaign victory cutscenes posted earlier in the thread...

**Yes.**

**[An elderly Rhombus guiding a plough behind a pair of brahmin.]**
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A nice peaceful retirement? In this universe? :p Isn't that against the rules?

**[Attis taking a volley of gauss gun shots to the left arm and chest and being forced to retreat. Shale takes command, but the charge against Brotherhood lines fails a little while later.]**

"I… Don't know if that was exactly what happened, but it seems more correct than the first version."
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Another possibility they're picking up? Did Krona's arrival and death knock the barriers between timelines lose, or is this something else?

**[Attis falls to his knees, the flesh of his body expanding to fill an entire arena.]**

"Ah… I think we'd have noticed-."
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Yes, I rather suspect that wouldn't have gone unmentioned...

**Something changed.**

"I don't think you can change something that didn't happen." I frown. "Unle-. Time travel?"
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Please, don't let it be time travel. Things are bad enough already.

**I don't know. We don't know.**

I wince as her voices changes, getting an… Echoey quality, with the echo coming form different voices. The.. only thing I've heard like it was the way Crimson Acolyte psychics could speak in unison, but… But the voices here are far more human.
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Calling in others to strengthen herself? Is she tired, or planning something? Or are they pushing their way in?

"You're seeing different things and some of them didn't happen." I shake my head. "Could it be that the super mutants have their own psychic disrupting what you see? My people haven't really studied prognostication in the same way we have other psychic phenomena."

**[An image of a ghoul-inhabited city-. Los, I know it all to well. Super mutants patrol the streets while the cloak-shrouded ghouls try to avoid drawing their attention.]**
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I recognise the sound of that. The Super-mutant victory cutscene again?

"Okay, but is that what's actually happening or what didn't happen?"

**We don't know!**
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I bet that was loud enough for even non-psychics to feel. They sound like they're getting desperate.

Augh!

**Hundreds of people suspended off the ground in a cavernous room, tubes and wires connecting them to the floor and ground. All of them shouting the same words!**
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Which is the bulk of the Choir, I take it. Have to wonder how long some of them have been strung up there for...

I glare at the First Chorister.

**Don't do that. I can't absorb the shock without a network and I don't have one here.**

**I am sorry but we grow frustrated! Things are not as we see them!**
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So, are they seeing a 'truer' timeline, without Krono's interference? Or, to borrow a metaphor, are they seeing someone else's playthrough?

I…

I turn to Dr. Saunooke.

"Do they have access to the outside world without their psychic powers?"
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...Not sure what that has to do with anything. Are you going somewhere with this, Krono?

He shakes his head. "We haven't found a way to safely disconnect them. Their bodies just.. aren't used to doing things for themselves anymore."

Which is… Fixable. Probably not here, but Vault City could fix it and so could I if we were back in Groom Lake.
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The hard part would be having the time to do so freely. Another reason to stop the Legion.

"Can you get a television in here?"

"Not down here, no. This part of the facility is shielded against radiation, which includes radio waves."
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Sensible. But a pain in the ass. Maybe a hardline could be run down the corridors?

"Okay, no live broadcasts, but could you play tapes?"

"Holotapes?"
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Not bad. A logical alternative to CDs, especially if they didn't have quite the same technological progression...

Yes, because instead of inventing CDs like back home or crystal rods like we use in Groom Lake, the people of this Earth invented a sort of ultra-high density laser readable like magnetic tape for improved data storage. The first time I saw one it look me back to the long car journeys my family took during holidays to visit relatives, where my sister and I put our personal tape players on at the start and only took them off to ask for replacement batteries.
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Better than the inevitable arguing about seat space or playing handhelds? I wouldn't know...

"A cellulose reel would be fine if you've got any. The lack of variety is making them obsess over their psychic visions. I-." I turn to Mr. Entertainment. "You haven't reinvented cable television, have you? I'm pretty sure that my people can work out how to manufacture fibre optic cables."

He shakes his head, his mood genuinely becoming more sombre for the first time since I met him.
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I doubt the cables would survive in the wild for long. Between rampaging predators, malicious bandits attacking work crews and downright inhospitable radioactive areas, it sounds more trouble than it's worth.

"No can do. Twenty third century America is nothing like stable enough for that kinda infrastructure project. And without infrastructure, there's no demand."

I nod. Like electric cars: without charge points no one will buy them, and without electric cars to use them no one will build charge points.
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A vicious circle. Short of pushing it through with legislation, I doubt they could swing it.

"But we can get a cinescreen down here in a couple of days, if the doc thinks that'll help the Choir." He brightens up slightly. "Heck, my singing voice might be a little rusty, but I wouldn't be much of a Tubehead if I couldn't set up an impromptu solo performance."

"Thank you." Okay. **First Chorister, do you have any visions of the inside of Los that don't contradict what we know about history?**
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Easier to see what matches than what doesn't? I suspect it'll be a depressingly small sample.

**[A miserable looking Shale standing in front of a computer terminal.]**

**That's plausible, but I don't see-.**
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But is that now or then? Or a time yet to come? I mean, Krono did ask for something that could be, after all.

**[A vat of cancerous flash PAIN-.]**

I stagger back, clasping my head in a hopeless attempt to block out the agony! I keep-. Trying to tell myself that these visions shouldn't involve telepathic contact as they're not happening now, but so far my brain… Really hasn't gotten the message.
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Yes, sometimes having impressive psychic powers isn't a good thing, eh, Krono?

**Okay, now, this time, don't show me. Just tell me.**

**It is easier to show-.**

**It's really not.**
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Like I said, getting hit in the brain by a big DVD box-set...

**There are great vats under the city. The same substance that the researchers injecting into us.**

I nod. **FEV can induce telepathic abilities.**
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Not nearly as powerful, I presume. A Psychic brute would be a scary thing indeed. hell, I remember a 'What If?' that asked what if Xavier had picked up the Ruby of Cyttorak and become Juggernaut. Like so many 'What If?' stories, It did not end well...

**Shale vanishes. The remains of Attis vanish. The machine vanishes. Something appears that we cannot clearly see.**

I don't want to know. But I need to.
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This is gonna suck, isn't it. Hopefully you're tough enough not to go all Scanners...

**Show me what you can.**

…king up.

Uh?
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Well, you did ask for it.

I blink-. Hospital, I'm in a… Hospital? I'm an FEV enhancile, I should-.

I push myself up and Dr. Saunooke tried to push me back down. He's not strong enough to force me, but now I'm… I'm still in the Watonga Correctional Facility. Okay.
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Heh, mild super-strength, eh? Bonus of all those buffs.

"What happened?"

"I-I don't know. You and the First Chorister were just staring at each other, then your-. Your eyes and ears started bleeding and you fell over. I was-. I wasn't sure that you would recover."
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Would be kind of embarrassing if your psychics inadvertently fried the brain of a foreign dignitary by accident.

"How long?"

"Maybe an hour?"
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Not that bad, then. Bet you feel like you need an aspirin. Even with a healing factor, that kind of mental stress would not be pleasant...

I nod. "The First Chorister tried to show me what we're going to have to face. I…"

Screaming. Lots of screaming. And a… Chest with a mouth in it and tentacles all around…

"I think we might need to rethink our priorities."
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If that Super-mutant video a couple of days back was anything to go by, you're damn straight.


So, Krono knows he has to lead a coalition to stop all hell breaking loose, then. Better get to diplomancing the forces needed. Yet, he'll have to avoid weakening battlelines against the Legion. This is going to get messy, methinks...
 
Chojin Patriarch said:
I doubt the cables would survive in the wild for long. Between rampaging predators, malicious bandits attacking work crews and downright inhospitable radioactive areas, it sounds more trouble than it's worth.
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Eh, it could work out. Most of the animals in the wasteland don't really seem to care all that much about any structures they come across, so that's potentially a non-issue.

Raiders... if you've got the infrastructure to build this kind of infrastructure then you've probably also got the things you need to basically hit the delete button on them as a threat.

The radiation issue could theoretically be solved with an altered version of RadAway, depending on how it works anyways.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Not nearly as powerful, I presume. A Psychic brute would be a scary thing indeed. hell, I remember a 'What If?' that asked what if Xavier had picked up the Ruby of Cyttorak and become Juggernaut. Like so many 'What If?' stories, It did not end well...
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I... *shakes head* No, I'd rather not talk about Galactus and Aunt May finding The Magic Space Twinkie.

Down that path lies only madness and tooth decay.

Edit:Fixed a small mistake.
 
Chojin Patriarch said:
Another possibility they're picking up? Did Krona's arrival and death knock the barriers between timelines lose, or is this something else?
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So remember when TimeTrapper!OL rewrote the local multiverse so temporal changes didn't overwrite the main timeline, but instead created new branches? Could the Choirs problems be related to that. They have been used to seeing under the old set of rules for a couple hundred years, and now they are starting getting problems because they never had to learn to tune their reception that finely.
 
Assblaster5000 said:
I... *shakes head* No, I'd rather not talk about Galactus and Aunt May finding The Magic Space Twinkie.
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What?
Bramble Thorn said:
So remember when TimeTrapper!OL rewrote the local multiverse so temporal changes didn't overwrite the main timeline, but instead created new branches? Could the Choirs problems be related to that. They have been used to seeing under the old set of rules for a couple hundred years, and now they are starting getting problems because they never had to learn to tune their reception that finely.
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Actually, they're seeing a cancelled Fallout game and how it contradicts Old World Blues and the actual reality they're living in.
 
Mr Zoat said:
What?
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Welp, guess I'm talking about it after all.

There was a "What if?" story in the 80's or something that had Aunt May turned into a Herald of Galactus, and she proceeded to feed him every Twinkie on Earth to try and sate his hunger. That sort of worked and since all the ones on Earth had been consumed they went off to find more in space for... some reason that made perfect sense to them I'm sure, which resulted in Galactus eating a giant space Twinkie and saying he wasn't going to need to eat planets anymore after that.

I've probably gotten some details from that a bit wrong, but that was the story as I remember it.

tl;dr Marvel did a Twinkie ad in the 80's or something and Aunt May was turned into a Herald of Galactus for it because comics.

Edit:You can see a better summary of the story here.
 
I'm just going to point out that tape drives are still in current, real-world usage for long term storage. A current LTO tape cartridge stores multiple terabytes of data. So Fallout's holotapes always seemed weirdly reasonable to me.
 
Assblaster5000 said:
Welp, guess I'm talking about it after all.

There was a "What if?" story in the 80's or something that had Aunt May turned into a Herald of Galactus, and she proceeded to feed him every Twinkie on Earth to try and sate his hunger. That sort of worked and since all the ones on Earth had been consumed they went off to find more in space for... some reason that made perfect sense to them I'm sure, which resulted in Galactus eating a giant space Twinkie and saying he wasn't going to need to eat planets anymore after that.

I've probably gotten some details from that a bit wrong, but that was the story as I remember it.

tl;dr Marvel did a Twinkie ad in the 80's or something and Aunt May was turned into a Herald of Galactus for it because comics.

Edit:You can see a better summary of the story here.
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Well in Babylon 5 every species had a variation of a meatball, so I guess in Marvel every species has a variation of a twinkie.
 
Darko said:
Well in Babylon 5 every species had a variation of a meatball, so I guess in Marvel every species has a variation of a twinkie.
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It was actually an artificial planet (also a moon, but no clue if Galactus ate that) made by one guy literally named "Dough Boy" who thought baking up a planet was a reasonable decision, so honestly I think I'd accept any explanation.

Edit:Apprently Dough Boy went on to become the new Herald of Galactus after Aunt May found the planet as "Golden Oldie" because of how much Galactus liked the world sized pastries he could make.
 
Assblaster5000 said:
It was actually an artificial planet (also a moon, but no clue if Galactus ate that) made by one guy literally named "Dough Boy" who thought baking up a planet was a reasonable decision, so honestly I think I'd accept any explanation.

Edit:Apprently Dough Boy went on to become the new Herald of Galactus after Aunt May found the planet as "Golden Oldie" because of how much Galactus liked the world sized pastries he could make.
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Of course.

Now in my personal headcanon Dough Boy is an Elder of the Universe who dedicated himself to baking.
 
Chojin Patriarch said:
Better than the inevitable arguing about seat space or playing handhelds? I wouldn't know...
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Probably. Also a lot less frustrating for the parents than an endless refrain of 'Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Are we there yet?' (My sister and I eventually replaced it with 'Will we be there soon?' which is probably just as annoying, but at least is a better question, as most places it would be obvious if we were there yet.)
 
NightmareWarden said:
This setting is quite messed up. It is like someone trapped forces from every Warhammer 40k faction on a planet (largely cut off from the Warp)... after fast forwarding hundreds of years, I suppose. So many projects abandoned, corrupted, or left to rot in the worst possible ways.
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Without the Warp... it still makes things a whole lot better.
 
Mr Zoat said:
long car journeys
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So, in the car for an entire hour? "Europeans think a hundred miles is a long way..."

NightmareWarden said:
This setting is quite messed up. It is like someone trapped forces from every Warhammer 40k faction on a planet (largely cut off from the Warp)... after fast forwarding hundreds of years, I suppose. So many projects abandoned, corrupted, or left to rot in the worst possible ways.
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Poll: which setting is more batshit insane troll logic: Fallout, or 40k? I think it's pretty close...
 
Mr Zoat said:
the people of this Earth invented a sort of ultra-high density laser readable magnetic tape for improved data storage
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Chojin Patriarch said:
Not bad. A logical alternative to CDs, especially if they didn't have quite the same technological progression...
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We invented it on our Earth in the 90s but it didn't see commercial deployment. It was supposed to have 20-100x the storage capacity and 6-7x the read speed of magnetic tape, which would have been great for archival (same as the primary business use for high-capacity magnetic tape). I don't have any concrete information about why it didn't take off but I speculate that recording them was a problem (maybe write-once like CD-Rs?), or the fact that it wasn't random-access was too much of a disadvantage compared to other technologies under consideration, or the lack of consumer-level application made it hard to commoditize.

That said, we ALSO invented a diffraction-grating-based videotape format in the late 1950s, which is more likely what the Fallout stuff is based on. This was an ambitious idea that would have allowed rapid mass-produced read-only tapes -- perfect for home video, which was its intended use case -- but the technology would have never worked for home recording like magnetic tape. It's super easy to imagine a different history where this format took off, because the main reason it didn't succeed in our world is that it was poor management.
 
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