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frown as the arrows sticking painlessly in my body in various places vanish. "You know I hear that, right?"
Ah, the sweet prayer to the Oh God of Hangovers. I suspect this little misadventure has been unpleasantly like being drunk, certainly. Especially if you look at it from the water's point of view.
Ouch, I'm not sure what was worse for the Renegade: The arrow shooting or her abuse of the English language.What… Happened..?
"Are you you, or do I gotta shoot you again?"
And it looks like the Renegade is in the driver's seat right now. Assuming they did merge as some of us surmised.'Do I got'-?
My face creases up. "Please don't use grammar like that around my children. I want them to-."
That won't be too hard. Just channel your inner Chuunibyou. Sneer haughtily, scowl at any backtalk and swagger about like you own all you survey.I feel pressure on my broken-. No, not broken? Arm, as Artemis pulls me up. I Am Sworn To Carry Your Burdens, Apparently.
"I'm sure it woulda been real clever, but you need to pretend to be the other guy when Sinthia gets back with the queen."
Yeah, going to be suspicious if one or the other isn't around to be paraded in defeat...I regain my feet and focus my eyes… Yes, eyes working, body… Not in any sort of pain and I should be. I feel a momentary impulse to check my wounds and face, but suppress it. The other Grayven wouldn't-.
"Can you make a fake body, really fast?"
Well, at least it didn't hurt. Not for him, anyway. I'm sure Grayven hated it."Why are there arrows sticking out of my-?"
Clean The Carcass.
I frown as the arrows sticking painlessly in my body in various places vanish. "You know I hear that, right?"
...Holy crap, he really is out of it if he just casually admitted it like that. Then again, she and Lynne are possibly the two closest people to him, and if he can't trust them with it, who can he trust?"Focus, Grayven."
"You know that's not actually my name? I just faked it to steal stuff from the Forever People, and then this all happened."
...Is the Honesty arrow still stuck in there somewhere? Might want to double-check. Or maybe this is just the post-Harmony high."What?!" She blinks in astonishment, but recovers. "No. No, not-. Not urgent, but you're going to be explaining that later."
"Sure thing, Artemis." I smile at her. I'm really lucky to have her. "I'm happy to share anything with you."
Ah, right, covering up the fact that Grayven-16 is no longer amongst the corporeal. Not sure why they can't just reveal that, but I suspect Sinthia, at least, might object. And The Renegade is in no shape for a Ringslinging battle.Her face falls. "I think I might of shot you too hard."
"Have shot-."
"Body!"
Well, at least the Orange Ring is talking to him. We'll see what Ringnestro thinks later, I guess.Ah… Right. Ring, I need a reasonable facsimile.
By your command.
Probably so full of good vibes, it's hard to be focused in wanting things. Besides munchies, ya know what I mean, maaaan?Light strobes out of my ring, building up a fake body on a section of the floor. It's not biological and it won't pass any sort of investigation and… It's taking longer to do this than it used to.
Wait, I-.
To be fair, I'm not sure anyone knows exactly what did go on, barring the Cosmic Author himself."What?"
"I remember arriving here. Ah, and activating the Orrery. And-. Artemis, what happened?"
So... Can we look forwards to occasional backsliding into Grayven-16? Perhaps when he's pretending just a bit too hard?"I'm-. Not.. sure. Either you merged together and I made sure that you won, or you got erased by the Omega Effect and I shot the other Grayven until he turned into you."
"Oh." That's… Bad.
Better than a mansion and a yacht, for sure."Do you still remember you? I mean, Earth Grayven?"
"I live in a mountain near Rifle, Colorado, and have adopted nine…"
Upside, pretending to be Grayven will be easier, once he gets it all sorted out in his head. Maybe set it up so that Grayven and Renegade memories are compartmentalised, though? Something to work out with Manchester Black, perhaps.I suddenly get a flash of Grayven's actual interactions with Mortalla. Of her talking to him after one of the walks he took with Father-. Darkseid-. I think she was actually trying to mother him, though… Yes, I feel his feelings. He didn't even notice.
"Nine children. And-. I think it's going to be easier for me to take control of Grayven's military… I don't think you're going to like this."
Since I don't expect ordering them to fly into the nearest sun will work... No matter how hard they're whammied, I don't you'd overcome their self-preservation instincts that easily."If I surrender to you. 'You'."
"And probably if Lynne does as well. The Queen is going to be trickier, and then I've got to decide what we're actually going to do with the fleet."
True. At least they tried to leave the Sheeda better than they found them, too."You're not just gunna kill them all?"
"We didn't kill all the Sheeda."
"We needed the Sheeda."
There's that post-Harmony high for you."I don't feel like slaughtering an entire people. Even if they kind of deserve it."
"Again."
I mean, it'd be, what, the third time you did so? You'd think you'd have plenty of practice at it, by now."I don't feel like slaughtering an entire people, even if they kind of-"
She chuckles quietly.
"-deserve it. Mother Box, boom tube to Lynne."
"Nice to have you back. I didn't like the other fellow at all."
I suppose that's one way to look at it, but their less savoury cultural practices are pretty baked in by now. It'd take some doing.BOOM!
"-citadelians or the psions. They're chancers in a violent universe. If wouldn't be right to exterminate them without at least giving them a chance to get onboard."
Oh, boy. That's going to take some explaining to head off any Righteous Face-Punching coming 'Grayven's way.She regards me curiously for a moment. Then something occurs to her. "And the Justice League's here."
"And the Justice League's here. So, are you alright swearing allegiance?"
Yeah, spending centuries together in the future have that basically locked in. It'd take acting like Darkseid to lower her opinion of you by this point.
There we go. Play the aloof arsehole. You're a natural at that.Sinthia and the two surviving Zamarons escort a blood-splattered Queen Clryssa out of an adjacent corridor and bring her before me. I pause for a moment, then focus on.. Grayven's memories of how he dealt with these people.
I turn slightly away, letting them bring the queen closer before I acknowledge-.
At least with Lynne, it's easier to explain.Lynne steps through the boom tube.
**Poppet, play along.**
**Daddy?**
Been a while since we've seen the Renegade be so open telepathically. Guess he's got some work to do rebuilding his mental fortress, eh?**Probably. [Images of my fight and what Artemis said.] I'll need you to clue the queen in without the others picking up on it.**
**Yes, Daddy.**
Yeah, playing at the benediction of a gracious tyrant... I doubt Grayven-16 would have been quite so gentle about it, though...Lynne walks towards me, stopping exactly the same distance away as Artemis is standing. I don't hear any telepathic traffic between them, but they both kneel at the same time. Now, if there was another New God here this would be a problem. This sort of pledge involved deliberately binding one soul as subject to the other. But since there's no one here who can pick up on it, I settle for stepping forward and touching each on the head.
Probably got a sarcastic **Yeah, I figured.** in return."Rise, my servants."
"Lord Grayven." / "Lord Grayven." **I've told her.**
Not that he would anyway. Grayven might have let his gordanians loose on the Crown Imperium as a reward, but the Renegade has no truck with such unpleasantness.Then I turn to the queen. I don't see anything in her manner that suggests that she's in any way reassured, but she's a reasonable politician and can probably control her own features to a degree.
"Queen Clryssa. I have won. I can send the worlds of the Vega Systems crashing into one another at will and your throneworld lays under my guns. You will offer me your surrender, and then we will draft the peace treaty. Hopefully, no occupation will be necessary."
And thus the Renegade expands his sphere of influence. Not quite as nicely as he might have done it, but what's done is done. Barring a last-minute show of defiance from the Queen."And if I refuse?"
"If all of the suns of Vega were to go nova, you would have roughly a century to evacuate your entire empire before the radiation wave hit and this region was scoured of life. And then there are the casualties that the Crown Imperium would suffer as my fleet eliminated its military capacity. Surrender really is for the best."
Let's hope the Renegade can keep up the facade of arsehole arrogance
There was no soul to soul combat, so it's the second."I'm-. Not.. sure. Either you merged together and I made sure that you won, or you got erased by the Omega Effect and I shot the other Grayven until he turned into you."
Now lets hope the Empress has absolutely zero understanding of astronomy so she doesn't call him on this bit of utter idiocy."If all of the suns of Vega were to go nova, you would have roughly a century to evacuate your entire empire before the radiation wave hit and this region was scoured of life. And then there are the casualties that the Crown Imperium would suffer as my fleet eliminated its military capacity. Surrender really is for the best."
Strange that Renegade Paul is less prone to LARPing like idiot after taking Grayven, but an overall improvement. Hopefully he stays like this instead of continuing to try to fit an ill fitting mold
Maybe try to master some form of combat at some point instead of trying to brute force everything, again like an idiot.
Okay, argument this claim, will you?Now lets hope the Empress has absolutely zero understanding of astronomy so she doesn't call him on this bit of utter idiocy.
This is QQ. Two large burly men made eye contact a little too hard and then one of them ended up riding the other hard. It looks like it's going to lead to a lifetime commitment.That may sound a little to reasonable for OldGrayven.
Actually, would it be so bad to explain Paul conquered OldGrayven? I mean, what better proof he was the superior god of conquest could there be?
The energy released by Nova's aren't multiplicative, and they have a roughly solar-system ranged death radius on a good day.Okay, argument this claim, will you?
Saying "he forgot about space radiation" is all fine and well, but you have to provide the actual numbers yourself to be taken seriously.
Okay, this is more reasonable as a critique.The energy released by Nova's aren't multiplicative, and they have a roughly solar-system ranged death radius on a good day.
So they are basically just a threat to stuff in Vega, and that ship should have already sailed when Grayven smashed those four suns together.
Heck, even Supernova don't have a 100ly death radius.
No, that works as it is.
Hereby I propose naming the concept "the Grayvening"And now renegade has meta physically eaten the other Grayven. Does anyone remember the 'no mantels or godheads in this story' zoat was declaring not so long ago? If this isn't that, WHAT THE HECK DO WE CALL THIS??? ;p
And now renegade has meta physically eaten the other Grayven. Does anyone remember the 'no mantels or godheads in this story' zoat was declaring not so long ago? If this isn't that, WHAT THE HECK DO WE CALL THIS??? ;p
Apparently he's now the New God of nitpicky grammar.
How much of his previous Grayven "memories" were installed by Father Box, and how much, if any, were actual supernatural bullshit bleed-through from original Grayven?
so zoat, whats the final verdict? is it the first or the second? this is important, if you dont mind."I'm-. Not.. sure. Either you merged together and I made sure that you won, or you got erased by the Omega Effect and I shot the other Grayven until he turned into you."
Expected answer. "He does not know."so zoat, whats the final verdict? is it the first or the second? this is important, if you dont mind.
I reckon Renegade-Paul started to dissolve into the Source due to classic-Grayven's omega beam, Grayven's divine portfolio absorbing Renegade-Paul's, and Renegade's mortal wounds.
My expectations are not 100% reliable.
With New Gods involved, the answer is probably "a little from column A a little from column B"