Coda
Versed in the lewd.
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This. Don't fragment the community.
This… Why would any version of me do this?
Nearby, Artemis is kneeling, running her hand along the concrete. No doubt it's very informative, but… "This is fruitless unmaking."
She looks around, her hand still running over the hardened ground. Read the Traces.
"It's not just that they aren't alive anymore. They're gone. I haven't even found any blood stains."
Kanto looks contemplative. "And it is not easy to kill an entire planetary population without shedding blood." Believe me, I've tried.
"I don't know. I only spoke to him once. Grayven Fifty did. Someone who could depopulate a world… I don't know."
Artemis closes her eyes. Read the Traces.
Artemis rises and.. gingerly stalks towards the aperture, stopping every few steps to listen to the flows of the universe with her godly senses. I can't feel much of anything, which implies to me that this wasn't an example of Grayven brute forcing it… But it's not as if I've studied his work in detail.
I follow her, Kanto bringing up the rear. She leads us through the portal and out into another part of the planet, another town. This one is on the shore of a lake, but I… Don't otherwise see anything particularly…
Ruler's Presence.
I nod. "I felt the presence of someone important, but I can't tell more about it than that."
Listen to the Wind. She nods. "I… Can. I can't draw you a picture or anything, but… It feels like… Wonder Woman."
"That's not the point. The version of me I met on Earth Fifty was a bad guy. He killed and he conquered, but he was still me. He was still trying to build something. What's-. Built here?!"
Kanto looks contemplative. "And it is not easy to kill an entire planetary population without shedding blood." Believe me, I've tried.
She shakes her head. "No residue from any kind of knockout gas. There was a fight here, and no blood got spilled? I don't buy it."
Artemis looks at him. "You think he's got some kinda god-power that lets him go all Pied Piper of people?"
Given the work we are engaged in, I think 'Kanto' is appropriate. Though you should feel free to greet me as 'Iluthin' when we play our mortal roles
There's no explanation that makes any sense to me for Diana being here. And the Amazons didn't make any others like her.
Did they?
This was my first guess too.I vaguely remember something about space Amazons, and I think Paul once mentioned that Diana had a crazy aunt in space.
Remember, Renegade, you are not Grayven! I know you've been living this life for so long it's settled like a worn-in coat, but please, try to remember who you are underneath. I mean, that doesn't mean you shouldn't be angry at this, but try to keep in mind you are not him.27th August 2012
02:33 GMT
I look around the ravaged cityscape.
This… Why would any version of me do this?
Heh, I see she's grown more comfortable in using her godspeech after their little sojourn. Sweeping her more exotic senses over the area in hopes of finding some trace of the attackers, no doubt.Nearby, Artemis is kneeling, running her hand along the concrete. No doubt it's very informative, but… "This is fruitless unmaking."
She looks around, her hand still running over the hardened ground. Read the Traces.
One word: Reputation. He's trying to intimidate people into bending their knee to him. "Kneel, or be erased.' Taking a leaf from his Father's playbook, from the looks of it."You knew he was a bad guy."
"That's not the point. The version of me I met on Earth Fifty was a bad guy. He killed and he conquered, but he was still me. He was still trying to build something. What's-. Built here?!"
So, this would be some manner of colony? Didn't the Renegade maroon one of the Gordanian clans that enslaved Tamaran like that? Or was that the Paragon? God, so long ago... <Reads ahead> Okay, not the Gordanians. Stil...Kanto née Iluthin is looking through some sort of local data recorder, one of the few pieces of advanced technology on this planet.
"A hole in the ground, I'd say. A statement, perhaps?"
Oh, god, let's not get into those sort of mind games. It just leads into recursive 'I know that you know that I know...' loops."If I had to send two New Gods with hunting and stalking skills to find it, then who exactly was it supposed to be a statement for?"
"Unless he knew that you would send us?"
So not completely trapped in the middle ages. Hard to imagine a world without the modern mainstays that things like Oil brought us. Petroleum and Natural Gas... Plastics... I bet their design sense was a lot more artisanal than our own...I shake my head. "Deliberately destroying something without a benefit… He'd be making himself weaker. This place… They were trapped by Avleb's Wall, their world lacking enough fossil fuels to fully industrialise when they reached the level of technology where that would usually happen. He could have worked wonders here."
"Charcoal burning was a major industry, and of course their elites had generators bought from off-world."
So not a raid for materials. I can't see a world in this state of development having much to offer Grayven-16. He'd have an easier time getting materials from asteroids. Perhaps his Gordanians were getting antsy about profits?I shake my head. "At some point in the future, I'd love to come to a world like this, just for the challenge of raising it up. Did they take anything?"
Artemis shakes her head. "Nothing stolen. Some of their machinery is damaged, but as far as we can tell that's just because there was a fight there. Ingots of metal were left stacked where they were."
At least they fought back. Not successfully, it seems, but they fought."And the people?"
"There are signs of a fight." She points at a wall. "There are three musket rounds embedded in that wall. Plenty more places like that. Just no people. Or animals."
Which is unlikely if they fought. Unless the Gordanians were so overwhelmingly powerful that people surrendered immediately upon realising they couldn't harm them... Something more esoteric was used... Mind control, perhaps."Did he kill them?"
"It's not just that they aren't alive anymore. They're gone. I haven't even found any blood stains."
A 'gray goo' scenario? Would Grayven-16 use something like that? Everything we've seen of Grayvens suggests he'd use force of arms.Kanto looks contemplative. "And it is not easy to kill an entire planetary population without shedding blood." Believe me, I've tried.
"Nanotechnology?"
So, no fallen weapons or discarded tools? People calmly returned their things to storage as they walked off? Definitely something mental."Buildings still stand, plants still live and bones still rest in graveyards. Nanotech weapons are seldom that discriminating."
Artemis nods. "And there aren't any inert machines left on the ground from after they finished."
Something happened. An entire planet doesn't just turn into the Mary Celeste by itself..."Dragged off as slaves? Slavery is a pretty common amongst gordanian clans."
She shakes her head. "No residue from any kind of knockout gas. There was a fight here, and no blood got spilled? I don't buy it."
And thus a lot of cargo space. Seriously, that many people, plus animals, would take up a lot of space. More than any fleet could hope to carry easily.How many people was it? When humans had this level of technology the total population of Earth was less than a billion, but they've been-. They were at this level for longer. Knowledge spread out, rather than being concentrated in a few places. Still, they lacked the capacity to create truly dense urban regions. Call it… Three billion? Still a… Lot of people.
Or technology that provides something equivalent. Something clearly happened here, that much is obvious..."There are robots that can capture people like that." Kanto strokes his beard. It's shorter than it was. He originally grew it because Darkseid told him to, then shaved it off shortly after we resurrected his wife. Turns out that she rather liked it, and… Since New Gods don't age much past thirty, it was a sign that time hadn't just stopped for him after she died. "But we haven't found treads or tracks or signs from anti-gravity devices, nor fuel residue in the air."
Artemis looks at him. "You think he's got some kinda god-power that lets him go all Pied Piper of people?"
Not even Darkseid could manage that. And the Omega Effect always struck me as primarily line-of-sight in its demonstrations.I shake my head.
"He could have disintegrated them with the Omega Effect, but it would take a very long time to do to this many people. Any sign of a boom tube?"
Indeed. I'm betting anywhere the Renegade's been recently shows traces of his presence too. Challenger mountain must have a veritable imprint of his being on it by now..."No, but he might just use a hush tube like you do."
Another shake on my part. "That would conceal the aperture itself, but it wouldn't conceal Grayven himself. You'd be able to feel him."
To be fair, I don't know how much she'll get. Especially if whoever was responsible wasn't anywhere nearby... It's never been clear how far New Gods can sense each other from, after all.She frowns. "Does he.. feel like you?"
"I don't know. I only spoke to him once. Grayven Fifty did. Someone who could depopulate a world… I don't know."
Artemis closes her eyes. Read the Traces.
So he basically found the local equivalent of the farm's bookkeeping software? That's a pain."Kanto, do-." I stop myself. "Do you prefer 'Kanto' or 'Iluthin'?"
"Given the work we are engaged in, I think 'Kanto' is appropriate. Though you should feel free to greet me as 'Iluthin' when we play our mortal roles." He holds up the data recorder. "We'll get nothing out of this, I'm afraid. Whoever these people were, they didn't record day-to-day occurrences here."
I suppose the Hunter in Green's godly senses are far sharper than the Renegade's..."There's… Something…" Artemis opens her eyes, frowning. "I can feel something. It doesn't feel like you, but... Mother Box, hush tube."
Oh marvellous. If Grayven has other New Gods supporting him then this is going to get a lot harder.
To quote from Tron Legacy: "He's knocking on the sky, and listening to the echo..."Artemis rises and.. gingerly stalks towards the aperture, stopping every few steps to listen to the flows of the universe with her godly senses. I can't feel much of anything, which implies to me that this wasn't an example of Grayven brute forcing it… But it's not as if I've studied his work in detail.
I follow her, Kanto bringing up the rear. She leads us through the portal and out into another part of the planet, another town. This one is on the shore of a lake, but I… Don't otherwise see anything particularly…
Perhaps local government, or a higher-ranked leader's summer residence? I suppose it's pretty...Ruler's Presence.
I nod as Artemis accelerates, dashing through the streets towards.. a watchtower of some kind. Someone was here, someone with authority… Did they try hiding their government here? They couldn't supply settlements over a certain size and it's not an unpleasant place to live.
Well, that's good news. What's it going to be, i wonder. Or is she just going to scan the area and reveal the minimap? Seriously, some of this has had a real 'Assassin's Creed' feel to it.Artemis waves from the top of the watchtower.
"I've found something!"
I nod and trigger my aero-discs, rapidly flying up to her. "What is it?"
If they had off-world trade, then there'd probably have been tourists. probably not a lot, I suspect, but some..."Someone was standing…" She walks to a position with a good view of the lake. "Here. Looking that way. The shape of their feet and the way they balanced was wrong for the locals. And there's a small amount of residue on the ground from a material the locals don't make."
"Off-world visitor?"
Then whoever was here did not have a large presence to New God senses... Either a weak metaphysique, or one used to concealing itself..."Yeah, but it's more than that. I can feel them."
I nod. "I felt the presence of someone important, but I can't tell more about it than that."
Oh, dear. Oh, dear...Listen to the Wind. She nods. "I… Can. I can't draw you a picture or anything, but… It feels like… Wonder Woman."
I frown. "Wonder Woman? Well, yes, she's a little like a New God… We can ask if she's been here, but..."
...Um. There is one: Grail. One of the 'There's no explanation that makes any sense to me for Diana being here. And the Amazons didn't make any others like her.
Did they?
Hey, Darko, A little tip for dealing with invisitext and altered colours: Next to the Undo button on the editor is a 'Tx' button. That removes all formatting from selected text, including colour. It can be useful for regaining default colours in replies and help avoid that 'grey' text...
Didn't the Renegade maroon one of the Gordanian clans that enslaved Tamaran like that? Or was that the Paragon? God, so long ago... <Reads ahead> Okay, not the Gordanians. Stil...
So not a raid for materials. I can't see a world in this state of development having much to offer Grayven-16. He'd have an easier time getting materials from asteroids. Perhaps his Gordanians were getting antsy about profits?
So, no fallen weapons or discarded tools? People calmly returned their things to storage as they walked off? Definitely something mental.
And thus a lot of cargo space. Seriously, that many people, plus animals, would take up a lot of space. More than any fleet could hope to carry easily.
Not even Darkseid could manage that. And the Omega Effect always struck me as primarily line-of-sight in its demonstrations.
is it a stretch to believe Grayven-16 might have found an ally in a younger half-sibling with a knack for weakening resolve? This... This has all manner of implications if it's true...
And all this because the Renegade felt like playing on some New Genesisian idiots' assumptions in pursuit of power, and got in way deeper than he ever planned to... Well, nice job breaking the game, hero.
Hey, Darko, A little tip for dealing with invisitext and altered colours: Next to the Undo button on the editor is a 'Tx' button. That removes all formatting from selected text, including colour. It can be useful for regaining default colours in replies and help avoid that 'grey' text
I vaguely remember something about space Amazons, and I think Paul once mentioned that Diana had a crazy aunt in space.
Does anyone have any information on who this is? I tried looking it up on my end, and got nothing.
I have no idea who that is.
Thank you, corrected.
Okay I'm really getting strong EMIYA vibes here.
She's a magical archer, she came from the future where she fought a war and became more cynical and jaded, she has white hair, and now we have something that practically resembles Shirou's Trace On magecraft.
And let's not forget the other parts, like the raised by an assassin bit, the desire to be a hero thing and the tense relationship with a sibling.
That's a fun coincidence, though Reading the Traces isn't quite the same as Trace On besides the name, though both do involve sensing the energies or compositions of a certain targeted area, yes. I would expect Shirou's Trace On to be something a (New) God blacksmith or craftsman can do.
I've more been struck how appropriately she's acting as her namesake (I wonder if New God Artemis is going to meet Old God Artemis at some point) as well as fitting her mother's old callsign Huntress. It's a nice distinguishing between her and Tao (I would have liked to see their awkward reunion; as a being analogous to a New God himself, he must have recognized how she'd spiritually changed, and it would have been poignant).
I'm sure Zoat has an expressed an opinion regarding Fate/Nasuverse media at some point, does anyone remember?
Correct me if I'm wrong but Mr Zoat is a Brit, proud of it, and very aware of his countries history, yes?Though I think he said that he didn't like the cultural appropriation.
I'm aware of bits of my country's history, yes. When I said that I didn't like the cultural appropriation I don't mean that I'm offended by it, I mean that I think it's stupid. I don't know if an actual historical figure served as the basis for the King Arthur myth, but if they did then I'm fairly sure that they wouldn't have been a blonde Japanese woman.Correct me if I'm wrong but Mr Zoat is a Brit, proud of it, and very aware of his countries history, yes?
He hasn't watched Fate.
Though I think he said that he didn't like the cultural appropriation.
King Arthur myth, but if they did then I'm fairly sure that they wouldn't have been a blonde Japanese woman.
Does the Renegade or any of his associates have any plans for Hell?
Has Renegade considered asking the League/Team to take on the oldest kids and Lynne or at least develop some kind of working partnership? Seems like a good step towards long-term cooperation, given a lot of the Team are New Gods or aliens who age very slowly, and Artemis's metaphysical bonds to Renegade.
Is he (and/or his similarly aged siblings) interested in training to be an enforcer for Renegade, or something else
Very progressive of them to enoble a grey rectangle.https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/t..._sleeve.png/revision/latest?cb=20121213224947
That one is a Finnish noble lady.
Does the Renegade or any of his associates have any plans for Hell?
I don't have an exact age in mind. He was prepubescent when the Renegade rescued them, but he'd had a pretty poor diet so might be older than that implies.He's brushed up against demon magic in his work with the vampire/succubus children I suppose, which leads me to ask, how old is the oldest one of those kids? I think it should be Paul, right?
Not especially.Is he (and/or his similarly aged siblings) interested in training to be an enforcer for Renegade, or something else?
"Lad, you're having as near to a normal childnood as I can give you, whether you like it or not."Has Renegade considered asking the League/Team to take on the oldest kids and Lynne or at least develop some kind of working partnership? Seems like a good step towards long-term cooperation, given a lot of the Team are New Gods or aliens who age very slowly, and Artemis's metaphysical bonds to Renegade.
He approves strongly.Moving things back to the Paragon side and speaking of afterlives and religions, does Lantern Onik have a great deal of knowledge regarding the events on the planet of the eye-blinders? What's his opinion of how things went down there?
Does anyone have any information on who this is? I tried looking it up on my end, and got nothing.
Good way to get Lucifer to smite your ass.Zoat once mentioned that in the future renegade will conclude that Hell serves no one and start doing his own Harrowings on it.
Yes and No, Lucifer is connected to hell because he created it and it sorta feeds off the excess of his existence.Plague of Ghosts already happened in setting, which means Lucifer left Hell.
Hell's not his problem anymore and he may have already fucked off from reality.
Either way, he doesn't give a shit anymore and trying to make him give a shit is more likely to piss him off than anything that Grayven's doing.
Yes and No, Lucifer is connected to hell because he created it and it sorta feeds off the excess of his existence.
And that connection doesn't go away ever.