FreeGod
If you see a God on the road fuck it!
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Paul has never seen him and doesn't know what he wants. That is sort of the problem.
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With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Fourteen)
- Thread starter Mr Zoat
- Start date
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- Tags
- self insert young justice
Coda
Versed in the lewd.
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Nope, there are two other ways to parse the sentence besides implied subject (you) - verb (enter) - object (friends).
One is to parse it in VSO order, which is common in poetic phrasings ("speak ye the truth" for example). That would make it equivalent to "Friends enter" (as opposed to enemies who do not).
The other is to insert an implied "as" -- that is, "enter as friends," an invitation of hospitality. This, too, is a more poetic presentation; imagine if it were to be extended as "enter friends; leave enemies" and the meaning becomes clear.
Medidiction (part 11)
Mr Zoat
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27th August 2012
01:23 GMT
Lantern Toren stares at his ring, which stubbornly remains active.
"I don't think this is going to work for me."
"Not now, no. It requires a very particular mindset, and this wasn't how I wanted to teach you all anyway."
Xor -who actually paid attention to what I was saying and only briefly participated in this diversion to show willing- nods.
"Would we have to survive bonding with the Ophidian?"
"I don't know, but I don't think so. Lantern Xor, have you ever lost control under the influence of the orange light?"
He thinks for a moment.
"No."
"Well, there you go. It's a very specific mental state to be in. Just staring-. Lantern Dul, stop, please."
Onik has managed to keep his environmental shield down to a minimal level, which I'm pleased to see as it means that he, A, gets the idea and, B, has engaged in sufficient reflection that he has a rough idea how it might be done. Dul on the other hand is at the centre of an orange bonfire and I'm starting to get a little concerned.
"Why won't it turn off!"
"Because you're being excessively direct. Rather than just wanting at it, consider… Pride. Focus on how much you want the intrapsychic reward that you would receive by achieving this objective, on how much you want to impress your political overseers with your skill."
She takes a deep breath and her environmental shield shrinks a little.
"That worked for you?"
"It worked for us."
There's a peculiar echo as we taste the desires of those around us. This place worships the Green Men. It makes them taste strange. We don't like it.
Onik smiles weakly. "Could you demonstrate it for us?"
I shrug and sit down cross-legged on the library floor.
"I originally did this on my homeworld's moon. My homeworld's moon doesn't have a breathable atmosphere. This-"
I raise my left hand, fingers pointed downwards.
"-is a far more benign environment."
The ring drops from my finger to the floor.
"If any of you were empathic you'd feel a curious lassitude in my thoughts. My desires are there, but they're partially disconnected. But it's not-"
My ring jumps back up onto my finger.
"-a particularly pleasant way to exist. Especially if you're used to having an orange ring."
Lantern Toren nods, clearly intently interested. "An admirable self-mastery."
"I'd say it's not about mastery, but about learning to direct the flow." I shrug and shake my head. "But we've been distracted from the point. Lantern Dul, please-."
"That is all?"
Xor looks bemused.
"That is all."
Xor raises up his left hand, frowning as he looks at his ring.
"That would make me a better Lantern?"
"That is part of how I became such a powerful Lantern. 'Better' is far more subjective."
"I… Think…"
His environmental shield blinks out for a moment, then he starts and it reappears.
"Oh."
Lantern Onik stares at him. "How did..?"
"In the Warhounds, we have it beaten into us that personal desires are wrong. That selfishness of any sort is a betrayal of our comrades and our people." He exhales through his nose. "That any desires of our own were a betrayal. I wanted to be a better Warhound. I wanted it-." Another exhalation. "I wanted it so much."
His eyes narrow.
"I no longer want it."
"I'm impressed. Good work, Lantern Xor."
He breathes in and then out. Then he turns away and walks towards the exit.
I nod as he goes. That sounded like a fairly big deal for him, and since he's ahead there's no problem with him taking a few minutes to collect his thoughts.
"Did that give anyone else any ideas, or can we go back to what I was trying to teach you?"
Lantern Dul glances at Xor as he lets the library door close behind him, then stares at me.
"That's it?"
"Lantern Xor's been doing a lot of thinking. I was teaching him my philosophy while he was under arrest on Earth. And he's had a life that lends itself to this."
"No struggle?"
"The struggle is internal; the Lantern is forced to feel or think things they would rather not. You heard what Lantern Xor said about your loyalty; he didn't like it because he used to feel that way about the Alignment. And now -with all the zeal of the convert- he doesn't."
Her face goes slightly blank and she's not quite meeting my eyes.
"Can you think of a time in your life when you genuinely wanted to not want something that you wanted?"
"That-."
She bites down her initial response.
"I will not share that."
"Okay. But you're going to need to revisit it in the privacy of your own head if you want to overcome this. You're going to need to accept your feelings and decide how you want to feel."
"I… Will do so."
"Glad to hear it. Now then Lantern Toren… Let's talk about fear."
01:23 GMT
Lantern Toren stares at his ring, which stubbornly remains active.
"I don't think this is going to work for me."
"Not now, no. It requires a very particular mindset, and this wasn't how I wanted to teach you all anyway."
Xor -who actually paid attention to what I was saying and only briefly participated in this diversion to show willing- nods.
"Would we have to survive bonding with the Ophidian?"
"I don't know, but I don't think so. Lantern Xor, have you ever lost control under the influence of the orange light?"
He thinks for a moment.
"No."
"Well, there you go. It's a very specific mental state to be in. Just staring-. Lantern Dul, stop, please."
Onik has managed to keep his environmental shield down to a minimal level, which I'm pleased to see as it means that he, A, gets the idea and, B, has engaged in sufficient reflection that he has a rough idea how it might be done. Dul on the other hand is at the centre of an orange bonfire and I'm starting to get a little concerned.
"Why won't it turn off!"
"Because you're being excessively direct. Rather than just wanting at it, consider… Pride. Focus on how much you want the intrapsychic reward that you would receive by achieving this objective, on how much you want to impress your political overseers with your skill."
She takes a deep breath and her environmental shield shrinks a little.
"That worked for you?"
"It worked for us."
There's a peculiar echo as we taste the desires of those around us. This place worships the Green Men. It makes them taste strange. We don't like it.
Onik smiles weakly. "Could you demonstrate it for us?"
I shrug and sit down cross-legged on the library floor.
"I originally did this on my homeworld's moon. My homeworld's moon doesn't have a breathable atmosphere. This-"
I raise my left hand, fingers pointed downwards.
"-is a far more benign environment."
The ring drops from my finger to the floor.
"If any of you were empathic you'd feel a curious lassitude in my thoughts. My desires are there, but they're partially disconnected. But it's not-"
My ring jumps back up onto my finger.
"-a particularly pleasant way to exist. Especially if you're used to having an orange ring."
Lantern Toren nods, clearly intently interested. "An admirable self-mastery."
"I'd say it's not about mastery, but about learning to direct the flow." I shrug and shake my head. "But we've been distracted from the point. Lantern Dul, please-."
"That is all?"
Xor looks bemused.
"That is all."
Xor raises up his left hand, frowning as he looks at his ring.
"That would make me a better Lantern?"
"That is part of how I became such a powerful Lantern. 'Better' is far more subjective."
"I… Think…"
His environmental shield blinks out for a moment, then he starts and it reappears.
"Oh."
Lantern Onik stares at him. "How did..?"
"In the Warhounds, we have it beaten into us that personal desires are wrong. That selfishness of any sort is a betrayal of our comrades and our people." He exhales through his nose. "That any desires of our own were a betrayal. I wanted to be a better Warhound. I wanted it-." Another exhalation. "I wanted it so much."
His eyes narrow.
"I no longer want it."
"I'm impressed. Good work, Lantern Xor."
He breathes in and then out. Then he turns away and walks towards the exit.
I nod as he goes. That sounded like a fairly big deal for him, and since he's ahead there's no problem with him taking a few minutes to collect his thoughts.
"Did that give anyone else any ideas, or can we go back to what I was trying to teach you?"
Lantern Dul glances at Xor as he lets the library door close behind him, then stares at me.
"That's it?"
"Lantern Xor's been doing a lot of thinking. I was teaching him my philosophy while he was under arrest on Earth. And he's had a life that lends itself to this."
"No struggle?"
"The struggle is internal; the Lantern is forced to feel or think things they would rather not. You heard what Lantern Xor said about your loyalty; he didn't like it because he used to feel that way about the Alignment. And now -with all the zeal of the convert- he doesn't."
Her face goes slightly blank and she's not quite meeting my eyes.
"Can you think of a time in your life when you genuinely wanted to not want something that you wanted?"
"That-."
She bites down her initial response.
"I will not share that."
"Okay. But you're going to need to revisit it in the privacy of your own head if you want to overcome this. You're going to need to accept your feelings and decide how you want to feel."
"I… Will do so."
"Glad to hear it. Now then Lantern Toren… Let's talk about fear."
Last edited:
Handlewithcare
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I think I know what this emotional state feels like and I don't like it.
It is not quite depression, I think, but it is very, very unpleasant.
It is not quite depression, I think, but it is very, very unpleasant.
Darko
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He's a good student.
'show willingness'
'as it'
He was a former monk, so he would have some ability to self reflect or something similar.
Never saw this light grey before.
If it wasn't intentional then you should change it to bevstandard color.
Probably the first time we witness him being anything other than stoic or pissed.
Assblaster5000
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I think the implication is that it's a very light application of The Black Light being used to disassociate from your regular emotions.
Prince Charon
Just zis guy, you know?
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'Show willing' is British slang, I think.
edmantgoog
Not too sore, are you?
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I call it the ouroboros of regret since fir me qtleast if feel like it keeps feding into itself
Assblaster5000
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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BlueMangoAdea
Alive. For now.
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I am pretty sure I've seen that color in this fic twice before this chapter.
Bloodalchemy
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Apathy is the lowest energy state for emotions.
Mr Zoat
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Eh. I remember hearing an SCP file on YouTube about an agent who encountered butterflies that ate memories. He pointed out that while Westerners found them horrific, Buddhist monks found it liberating as it cut their bonds.
Can't find the video now.
No, that's correct.
Thank you, corrected.
His old order wasn't big on 'self'.
It was the colour I used for the SI when he split with the Ophidian.
Silverias
Know what you're doing yet?
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I think this might be the first time since she went into the power battery that shows that Ophidi-chan is still deeply linked to OL in a personal way instead of just a metaphysical way.
Ciber
Know what you're doing yet?
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I agree it is like being trapped in a maze of circles.
Chojin Patriarch
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Yeah, I suspect it's much harder to reach the desired state coming from the Will angle. How on Karax would you manage to be determined about something, without feeling determined to do it? Avarice probably has it easier because of the possible angles involved. Wanting to be useful, needing to be free, that sort of thing.
It's odd that Xor is doing so well at all this. I suppose it comes as part of his wanting to serve better. If mastering this makes him better able to protect his world and his love, than by all the hells, he'll master it.
Hell, before the Bonding, even OL had moments of lost control. I'd be surprised to find someone who hadn't.
...Colour me surprised.
Oh, that can't be a good sign. Is she stuck in some kind of self-reinforcing mental loop of wanting?
Probably not the healthiest focus, but considering how obsessive she's seemed to be about being a good soldier... It may work well enough to break the feedback loop, at least.
Every person has different wants and needs, honestly. Maybe if OL focused on studying what each Lantern's desire actually are, he might be able to offer a clearer direction...
Oh, hi thar, Best Snek. Did Dul's little display get her attention, or has she been watching via OL?
Admittedly, you had multiple Green Lanterns to cover you. Including the two who play a part in your desires. I wonder if that could be a useful element of the training?
To be fair, knocking yourself that far off-balance in terms of emotion probably would leave you listless.
Like disengaging the gears of a car while travelling a several hundred miles an hour. I bet kicking it back into gear as he does at the end is a bit of a jolt.
I rather expect it feels like a specifically targetted form of depression. At least he can shrug it off when he needs to, unlike an externally-sourced version.
If he's as experienced as he seems, he would probably have had his empathic vision running during that. Assuming it's as easy for other people as it is for OL.
...I'm sure there's more to it than that, kid. And it's not to be taken as the exclusive solution, you know...
It'd give you a better understanding of Avarice, maybe. How you apply it, that's what would make you better.
Hot damn, this kid's got it on his first real try. If he doesn't fuck himself up working with it, he might well manage Enlightenment.
"That felt... Peculiar." Congrats, kid, you might just have taken the first step on the path of true Orange Light Shamanhood...
Oof, that's a painful realisation. The very act of wanting to be better is a deeply personal desire, the very thing he was supposed to avoid...
...And I think he's just realised the logical contradiction of that very concept.
...Yeah, he's gonna need some alone time. I hope that doesn't break his ability to use the ring, though. After all, being a better Warhound is no longer a desire he needs to feel, now. But what can he find to replace it? Making his world a better place?
To be fair, this is something they can muddle through on their own for a bit. Just have to be careful they don't break something.
Dammit, birdbrain, read the room. Can't you recognise someone having had a deep personal breakthrough?...I think I begin to see the trouble you're having, Dul. You're looking at this like a fight to be won or lost. The only person you're fighting is you in this, and there's no way to defeat yourself short of doing something nasty to your own psyche...
Imagine if you found out your masters had done something you couldn't countenance, some morally repugnant action you could not in good reason abide by. How would you react? By burying your head and ignoring it, no matter how hard that might be? Would you turn against them?
But all your self-worth is tied to serving them, isn't it? How would you feel then. Lost? Alone? Standing at the entrance of some deep, dark cave with the weight of all their misdeeds pushing you inside? What will look back from the darkness as you look into it?
That's how Xor is feeling right now, I think...And I have the feeling my little screed there is more on the mark than I thought.
That's fine. It isn't the rest of them who have to deal with it, after all...
Ah, a subject OL also knows quite a bit about, thanks to our long-lost Fear Elemental friend Michael Siskin...
A lot of personal revelations being had by some of OL's students, it seems. Let's hope Dul can find a way to find desires not tied to her superiors, stop being a good little Hawk and start questioning herself. Because that seems to be at the heart of her issues, I think. And I find myself looking forwards to that moment. The joy of looking deeper into the esoteric side of the uses of the Spectrum.
Assblaster5000
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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mastermenthe
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Correct me if I am mistaken, but is the lesson here talking about how to unperson the selfishness of your desires, to separate the process of "wanting" from the "I Want" framework?
Mr Zoat
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Yes, that's it.
rkyeun
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Introspective self-deconstruction.
Pinklestia
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Eh, I felt like that sometimes, is still better that being a nervous wreck.
Basically sometimes your mind kinda pushes emotions for "later" to avoid a mental breakdown.
Is why you can gave trouble to cry when someone you care about just died.
Heck took me months to cry when my father died.
DrThoth
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I've been thinking about alternative technology bases that South America could use (using a broad definition of technology; Mars's biotechnology is fairly different from Earth's base, for example), and I remembered that in the comics Swamp Thing created some hallucinogenic fruit to induce a particular vision or something, right? (and in this story as well, being able to eat Swamp Thing's fruit was originally intended as a way to communicate with him). I'm wondering now if it's possible to expand on that idea to create magic-based virtual reality, possibly touching on Dreaming magic or at least creating a shared mindscape, that could be facilitated through magic fruit. It could also function as a nature-magic way to have long-distance communications that seems like something both the tribes and Euanthe would be fine with. So basically a magical/psychic internet using trees/plants as a physical medium. I guess it would be something like Eywa from James Cameron's Avatar.
I forget any Words of God on the subject of the Parliament of Trees (who should be in, or at least accessible from, Brazil) and their opinions of or interactions with Euanthe.
Going back to things currently happening in the story, I do hope we get to see more heterodoxic viewpoints and places beyond this primary green light Lanternist temple. Given all the crashing of the social media sites due to Paragon's shared information, I wonder if he'll be swarmed by people at some point (I don't know how stealthy an escort by a Green Lantern can really be).
mastermenthe
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I counterpoint by noting miraculously fast food production and water purification miracles are in full effect.
I do concur that societal structure and civilization will completely be undone, especially with the means of sufficiency being universally available, to say nothing of the means of production being unmade.
The population will survive, that's the only guarantee.
Medidiction (part 12)
Mr Zoat
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27th August 2012
01:29 GMT
"And since I'm sure that this will be awkward and uncomfortable for everyone, I'll go first. I used to fear my own death. Not pain; I've been hurt before and I could get my head around the idea of injuries which caused more pain than what I had previously experienced. I'm talking about the sheer incomprehensibility of the cessation of my conscious existence. When I arrived in this parallel, one of the first things I did was investigate local religious beliefs in an attempt to find out if anything they said about post-mortem existence had any validity to it. When I discovered that it did but that as an outsider I wouldn't benefit from it, I immediately took steps to rectify that."
I send all of my clothes other than my pants into subspace in order to show off my tattoos.
"Now I have a soul. And I don't think that people like you who come from a parallel where that's normal understand exactly how great it is to have built-in budget immortality. Furthermore, I've actually experienced organic death twice, so the idea that an enemy might bring enough force to bear to kill me again just doesn't have the same psychological weight."
Lantern Toren nods. "You have no fear of change, then?"
"We learn to fear things that have hurt us in the past. All the change I've experienced over the last two years has been either positive or a step on the way to a positive change I'm reaching for. I no longer fear death because it's a solved problem. I still fear non-existence, it's just further away now than it used to be. I still fear decay, but thanks to my ring I'm not troubled by physical decay any longer."
Another nod. "Environmental shields can filter out disease organisms. Wearing it full..." I'm shaking my head. "Time-. That isn't what you mean?"
"I fear decay, due to the association with death. I fear losing functionality. But early on I was so accepting of the idea of using my power ring to solve all of my practical problems that I don't age any more. I cut bits off myself as a demonstration of my ability to regrow parts of my body with my ring. If I got crippled now, I wouldn't despair at permanently losing a capacity, I'd either fix it with my ring or -if I didn't have it on me- work out how to get it back and then fix the problem. At a fundamental level, I no longer believe that there are problems I can't fix with my ring."
I make an amused snort.
"At this point, if I received a severely crippling injury it might actually be easier to die and resurrect in a new body than to fix the one I was in."
"You don't lose functionality?"
"It's constantly restored by my ring, so, effectively, no."
He looks awkwardly at Lanterns Onik and Dul.
"Is that the same for all Orange Lanterns? I can see the advantage in not retiring veterans."
Lantern Dul looks mildly contemptuous. "I have never feared death."
"Which is why you can't do what I do. Tell me." I take an x-ionised sword out of subspace. "If I took this and cut off one of your wings, would-"
Armoured wing-cowls appear over her wings.
"-you be able to restore them? Well done on responding rationally like that, but I'd still like an answer."
She holds out her right arm and draws a dagger with her left hand. Making sure that she has my full attention, she stabs herself in the right bicep. It bleeds freely for a moment, then the wound is concealed by the orange glow.
"Okay, but you're missing the point. I can tell by your scars that you've had injuries to your arms before. And most other parts of your body. But not your wings."
Lantern Onik nods. "They are totemic for your species. Losing them would be a greater psychological shock than even losing an arm."
The glow dies down and her arm… Has a new scar, actually. The flash that cleans her knife is far more thorough.
"I don't fear-."
My sword flies towards her right wing, her eyes widening and armoured cowl collapsing as it stops a millimetre from the flesh of her ulnare.
"Yes. You do."
I recall my sword, and wait patiently as Lantern Dul flares her environmental shield and looks about a heartbeat from going for me. Which I'd be fine with; it might help her, actually.
"It's perfectly natural to fear losing your extremities, but when you're a Lantern-"
Her environmental shield dims back down to normal levels.
"-it actively impedes your ability to defend yourself."
"So I have to let you cut off my wings, huh?"
Her voice is fairly level. She's not angry, or even afraid. I've demonstrated that it's perfectly possible to heal with a ring. She's healed with a ring. She knows that it's possible. And she wants to expunge the weakness just a little more than she wants to protect her wing-based ego.
"No, of course not. That would be ridiculous, though I'm sure that there are some Orange Lanterns who do that."
Onik looks awkward for a moment, then nods. I'll have to talk to Lantern Ragnar about that.
"It's entirely natural to want to avoid injury, but you allowed your fear of losing your wings to overwhelm your desire to keep them. You see why that's bad, right?"
"Yes." She nods.
"You've been in combat many times. Have you been worried about losing your wings before now?"
"Only as a.. background thing. Our wings have enough Nth metal in them that it's hard to destroy them with something that doesn't kill us outright."
"Are there cybernetic replacements?"
"They don't feel right. And you need to use them as a pair, which…" She flexes her wings. "If you'd only lost one, they would cut the other off as well."
"Chay'ara manages."
"Sharon Parker wears the wings of a three thousand year old corpse. That's even worse. Did she tell you that she intends to try to die on Thanagar next time?"
"No, but that's a fairly sensible thing to do. Even if it doesn't work, she'd learn something." Have to see if there's enough DNA in those wings to clone her. "But to return to your wing issue, do you understand why it's such a big deal for you?"
"I'd be less of a Thanagarian without them. Just a common humanoid."
"Just so. It's not the injury, it's the loss of status and the violation of your self-concept. You are a Thanagarian before you are a soldier. Even before you are Paran Dul. And certainly before you're an Orange Lantern."
"I…" Her voice is quiet, subdued. "Understand. You're right."
"Of course I'm right. It's my job to be right. Need anything else?"
"Not at this moment."
"Rightoh. Lantern Onik-."
"I fear that I have horribly misunderstood the nature of the universe and my place in it, leading to me making increasingly poor decisions in search of spiritual validation while pushing people away and so entirely missing the point of life itself."
I hesitate for a moment, then nod. "Good. Good. Well done." … "Lantern Toren?"
01:29 GMT
"And since I'm sure that this will be awkward and uncomfortable for everyone, I'll go first. I used to fear my own death. Not pain; I've been hurt before and I could get my head around the idea of injuries which caused more pain than what I had previously experienced. I'm talking about the sheer incomprehensibility of the cessation of my conscious existence. When I arrived in this parallel, one of the first things I did was investigate local religious beliefs in an attempt to find out if anything they said about post-mortem existence had any validity to it. When I discovered that it did but that as an outsider I wouldn't benefit from it, I immediately took steps to rectify that."
I send all of my clothes other than my pants into subspace in order to show off my tattoos.
"Now I have a soul. And I don't think that people like you who come from a parallel where that's normal understand exactly how great it is to have built-in budget immortality. Furthermore, I've actually experienced organic death twice, so the idea that an enemy might bring enough force to bear to kill me again just doesn't have the same psychological weight."
Lantern Toren nods. "You have no fear of change, then?"
"We learn to fear things that have hurt us in the past. All the change I've experienced over the last two years has been either positive or a step on the way to a positive change I'm reaching for. I no longer fear death because it's a solved problem. I still fear non-existence, it's just further away now than it used to be. I still fear decay, but thanks to my ring I'm not troubled by physical decay any longer."
Another nod. "Environmental shields can filter out disease organisms. Wearing it full..." I'm shaking my head. "Time-. That isn't what you mean?"
"I fear decay, due to the association with death. I fear losing functionality. But early on I was so accepting of the idea of using my power ring to solve all of my practical problems that I don't age any more. I cut bits off myself as a demonstration of my ability to regrow parts of my body with my ring. If I got crippled now, I wouldn't despair at permanently losing a capacity, I'd either fix it with my ring or -if I didn't have it on me- work out how to get it back and then fix the problem. At a fundamental level, I no longer believe that there are problems I can't fix with my ring."
I make an amused snort.
"At this point, if I received a severely crippling injury it might actually be easier to die and resurrect in a new body than to fix the one I was in."
"You don't lose functionality?"
"It's constantly restored by my ring, so, effectively, no."
He looks awkwardly at Lanterns Onik and Dul.
"Is that the same for all Orange Lanterns? I can see the advantage in not retiring veterans."
Lantern Dul looks mildly contemptuous. "I have never feared death."
"Which is why you can't do what I do. Tell me." I take an x-ionised sword out of subspace. "If I took this and cut off one of your wings, would-"
Armoured wing-cowls appear over her wings.
"-you be able to restore them? Well done on responding rationally like that, but I'd still like an answer."
She holds out her right arm and draws a dagger with her left hand. Making sure that she has my full attention, she stabs herself in the right bicep. It bleeds freely for a moment, then the wound is concealed by the orange glow.
"Okay, but you're missing the point. I can tell by your scars that you've had injuries to your arms before. And most other parts of your body. But not your wings."
Lantern Onik nods. "They are totemic for your species. Losing them would be a greater psychological shock than even losing an arm."
The glow dies down and her arm… Has a new scar, actually. The flash that cleans her knife is far more thorough.
"I don't fear-."
My sword flies towards her right wing, her eyes widening and armoured cowl collapsing as it stops a millimetre from the flesh of her ulnare.
"Yes. You do."
I recall my sword, and wait patiently as Lantern Dul flares her environmental shield and looks about a heartbeat from going for me. Which I'd be fine with; it might help her, actually.
"It's perfectly natural to fear losing your extremities, but when you're a Lantern-"
Her environmental shield dims back down to normal levels.
"-it actively impedes your ability to defend yourself."
"So I have to let you cut off my wings, huh?"
Her voice is fairly level. She's not angry, or even afraid. I've demonstrated that it's perfectly possible to heal with a ring. She's healed with a ring. She knows that it's possible. And she wants to expunge the weakness just a little more than she wants to protect her wing-based ego.
"No, of course not. That would be ridiculous, though I'm sure that there are some Orange Lanterns who do that."
Onik looks awkward for a moment, then nods. I'll have to talk to Lantern Ragnar about that.
"It's entirely natural to want to avoid injury, but you allowed your fear of losing your wings to overwhelm your desire to keep them. You see why that's bad, right?"
"Yes." She nods.
"You've been in combat many times. Have you been worried about losing your wings before now?"
"Only as a.. background thing. Our wings have enough Nth metal in them that it's hard to destroy them with something that doesn't kill us outright."
"Are there cybernetic replacements?"
"They don't feel right. And you need to use them as a pair, which…" She flexes her wings. "If you'd only lost one, they would cut the other off as well."
"Chay'ara manages."
"Sharon Parker wears the wings of a three thousand year old corpse. That's even worse. Did she tell you that she intends to try to die on Thanagar next time?"
"No, but that's a fairly sensible thing to do. Even if it doesn't work, she'd learn something." Have to see if there's enough DNA in those wings to clone her. "But to return to your wing issue, do you understand why it's such a big deal for you?"
"I'd be less of a Thanagarian without them. Just a common humanoid."
"Just so. It's not the injury, it's the loss of status and the violation of your self-concept. You are a Thanagarian before you are a soldier. Even before you are Paran Dul. And certainly before you're an Orange Lantern."
"I…" Her voice is quiet, subdued. "Understand. You're right."
"Of course I'm right. It's my job to be right. Need anything else?"
"Not at this moment."
"Rightoh. Lantern Onik-."
"I fear that I have horribly misunderstood the nature of the universe and my place in it, leading to me making increasingly poor decisions in search of spiritual validation while pushing people away and so entirely missing the point of life itself."
I hesitate for a moment, then nod. "Good. Good. Well done." … "Lantern Toren?"
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Darko
Connoisseur.
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Flashing people again Paul.
Didn't you learn your lesson from Zatanna?
Though with the likes of Darkseid around it's still uncomfortably close.
Losing their wings could be comparable to how human males may fear castration.
Seeing as she's from a warrior culture scars may be valued and thus they keep them.
I remember from Going Native that the Saiyans would heal the muscle beneath their scars to prevent losing function, but still keep the scar.
You do fear.
Soon...he potentially mutilated himself....
...
...wonderful...
'wings to'
'losing your'
Welp, this is disconcerting.
Not my exact reaction, but close.
Two updates on the same day.
What's the occasion, Zoat?
Rockinalice
Versed in the lewd.
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Mr. Zoat since Paul has died twice has he actually met Death of the Endless and doesn't remember or Will he only meet her when he permanently dies.
Cause from my understanding it doesn't what afterlife someone goes to when you die you always meet her
Cause from my understanding it doesn't what afterlife someone goes to when you die you always meet her
Finagle007
[Verified Great Old One]
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It also doesn't matter where you are when you die. You still meet her. She's everywhere.
mastermenthe
Mint Thistle
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Not yet.
Other versions of Paul have met her, just to say hello, but not OL.
Also, Death of the Endless only is duty bound to show up in order to manage last goodbyes, meaning that if you die and meet her, odds are that she's either there to give you a Near-Death Experience for fun, or she is there because there are no futures where you get to come back, and she is there to usher you out of the theater for good, because She knows the flow of time, and if she says that your minions will fail to resurrect you, she is correct by default.
SaltyWaffles
I trust you know where the happy button is?
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I find this rather bizarre. There's simply no way in hell civilizations with technology advanced enough to trade with the rest of the galaxy can't readily prevent or reverse aging. Hell, we're already on the path towards that capability IRL (it'll probably take another century of research/development/work to achieve it on a practical, safe level, but we're definitely getting there--we've already proven the ability to reverse aging in mice, better identify the causes of aging, and figure out the mechanisms for slowing or reversing aging. The big hurdle will be figuring out how to implement it on a practical and affordable scale). Even if this species hasn't reached that point technologically, they would undoubtedly learned of many species that have. The capability should not at all be novel. If anything, the only novel thing is the method through which Paul achieved it.
Loved this segment. And I love how Paul just casually demonstrates how Lanterns cannot rely on their construct-barriers to protect them, no matter how strong they are, against any and all weapons--there is always something to fear, and you have to be prepared to deal with that at all times.
"Instead, you're going to have to be the one to cut them off yourself, so that you can then regrow them with your ring."
Dul looked incredulous.
"I mean, I've had my body destroyed multiple times, I've had my guts continuously shredded by Chaos magic until a mage was able to fix me, I've had my memories suppressed by a telepath, I've had my ring stolen thrice, and I've been captured to be used as a multiversal tuning fork by someone even the Controllers are terrified of. At some point, you have to learn how to roll with the punches without flinching."
This is one of my favorite characteristics of Paul: his ability to connect with people and help them better understand themselves (and the world around them).
It's a fascinating approach/tendency/point of view, too, when you compare it to the GLC or other Lanterns (or even other superheroes, sometimes). While it's entirely reasonable for any GL to be law enforcement/peace upholders first and foremost, it's undoubtable that few of them have the same kind of training or grasp of the importance and value of truly understanding others (beyond the ones they're close to) and cutting to the heart of their problems in an effort to help them.
And it's also a fascinating contrast in viewing the (currently) only enlightened OL and the enlightened GLs we've seen so far. While enlightenment has obvious utility/strength enhancements for all of them, enlightenment for OLs seem to be more of a stability and self-control boost rather than a strength boost. Which makes sense, because Green is the easiest light to use with stability and self-control, while Orange is a light that becomes a lot harder to use with stability and self-control the more strongly you use it, so self-control and stability is the real value of enlightenment for OLs.
This is exactly the kind of mix of arrogance and innocent rationality I've come to fear from Paul. Like...he's been wrong plenty of times before, and with serious consequences. He should be more self-aware (ESPECIALLY given his enlightenment and nature) than that.
I feel like this is something Paul should be prioritizing--probably as soon as this session is done. Because he can speak from experience when it comes to "realizing that you've horribly misunderstood the nature of the universe and your place in it", at least on an intellectual/second-hand level.
Something like, "It's not the end of the world. It doesn't mean that everything you've done is wrong, or can't be fixed, or that you have to give up everything you are or possess in desperation to start anew," on top of everything else to discuss about that.
Michael Vonica
Not too sore, are you?
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What are the chances that after Michael Siskin got killed, a little part of him just woke up on the plain of fear? That's how it works for demons, but it might be different for emotion elementals.