• The site has now migrated to Xenforo 2. If you see any issues with the forum operation, please post them in the feedback thread.
  • Due to issues with external spam filters, QQ is currently unable to send any mail to Microsoft E-mail addresses. This includes any account at live.com, hotmail.com or msn.com. Signing up to the forum with one of these addresses will result in your verification E-mail never arriving. For best results, please use a different E-mail provider for your QQ address.
  • For prospective new members, a word of warning: don't use common names like Dennis, Simon, or Kenny if you decide to create an account. Spammers have used them all before you and gotten those names flagged in the anti-spam databases. Your account registration will be rejected because of it.
  • Since it has happened MULTIPLE times now, I want to be very clear about this. You do not get to abandon an account and create a new one. You do not get to pass an account to someone else and create a new one. If you do so anyway, you will be banned for creating sockpuppets.
  • Due to the actions of particularly persistent spammers and trolls, we will be banning disposable email addresses from today onward.
  • The rules regarding NSFW links have been updated. See here for details.

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

"You're doing all that the Guardians want of you, you know that? A Controller if my acquaintance told me that for the Guardians, the Sector Lanterns maintaining order is what the Corps is for. There is no demand from the organisation for you to go further."
I think that's wrong, but I'm not certain on how to fix it.

A Controller and former Guardian… Coming to the largest centre of Lanternism in the galaxy.

I should probably warn some people.
And just when I thought that nothing could shake up Karax even more than a super Green Lantern with a self-made Green Central Power Battery could, you throw us this surprise Mr Zoat. At least no one can logically blame Paul for this one.
 
I put-

"No."

-Larfleeze's ring on the table between us.

She's got your number.

The orange light is highly addictive."

"I can give it up any time I like. I just don't want to."

Spoken like a true addict.

But I'll never side into self-

'slide into'

But I'll never side into self-destructive urge-indulgence."

Unless we count your tendency of trying to get friendly with supervillains, which has bitten you in the ass.

A Controller if my acquaintance

'of my'

"I've met four enlightened Green Lanterns. Two were human, but the other two weren't

Well Malvolio isn't fully human, though he probably considers himself to be.

. Self-actualisation without restriction is an appealing concept to me, but it's not appealing to everyone

If that self-actualization involves the person actualization themselves as something horrible, like say a killer, then yeah it's not so good.

A Controller and former Guardian… Coming to the largest centre of Lanternism in the galaxy.

I should probably warn some people.

Karax really is in for an interesting time.

First a bunch of weird Lanterns come there, next a priest is outed as working with their version of the devil, then a Green Light demigod comes strolling in and now a being they may view as a full on god is going to show up.
 
And just when I thought that nothing could shake up Karax even more than a super Green Lantern with a self-made Green Central Power Battery could, you throw us this surprise Mr Zoat. At least no one can logically blame Paul for this one.

They kinda can blame him for this.

He's the one that released Malvolio from his prison, so if it wasn't for him then Malvolio wouldn't have come to Karax.
 
11th September 2012
09:02 GMT


I put-

"No."
o_O Well, that was awful quick of you... Are you so scared of taking up another colour that you can't bear to think of it? Or is the person offering? Because while OL can be peculiar, he does generally have the best in mind for everyone.

-Larfleeze's ring on the table between us.

"I haven't asked anything."
You know, Larfleeze's ring might be good for a test-drive unit. Limited if any VI support, lower charge than the standard model and easy enough for OL to reclaim. Good if the wearer turns out to have issues with exposure to Avarice.

"Please don't imply that you believe I'm stupid. You've made it clear to me that I can't get the result I want if I stick to the Guardians' rules of engagement.. Do you not intend to recruit me?"

"I don't hate the idea. But there wouldn't be any point in you putting on an orange ring if what you really want is to be a Green Lantern. Though I would suggest that it might be worth trying it out, just to see what it feels like."
And while some may be able to manage two different colours at once, it's generally a lot more challenging for the average Lantern.

"The orange light is highly addictive."

"I can give it up any time I like. I just don't want to."
...That's hardly reassuring, OL, even as a joke.

She pauses, briefly.

"That was a joke, I assume."
Yes. One in bad taste, but that's OL in a nutshell, really.

I hold out my left hand, palm level. And then I turn the ring off, and leave it off for a few moments before allowing it to resume its connection.

"It's a mildly amusing fact relating to one of the most popular narcotics of my homeworld, that a sizeable proportion of the population lack the receptors to actually get addicted to it, yet use it anyway. My desires are indeed the core of my psychological makeup. But I'll never side into self-destructive urge-indulgence."
Not since you can see when you begin to do so. And have enough people with an eye on you to also intervene.

I pick up the ring and hold it in my right hand.

"You're doing all that the Guardians want of you, you know that? A Controller if my acquaintance told me that for the Guardians, the Sector Lanterns maintaining order is what the Corps is for. There is no demand from the organisation for you to go further."
Indeed, I rather suspect they'd not be entirely happy about genocide of a sentient race (or at least the part in that sector,) even one as bad as the Spider Guilds. Far too disorderly.

"That doesn't matter."

"I've met four enlightened Green Lanterns. Two were human, but the other two weren't. If you managed that mental transformation yourself you would be substantially more powerful. I suspect that Lantern Priest of Sector One Six Three Four would be happy to advise you. He should certainly be able to spare the time."
That would be Guy, Malvolio, Priest and Chaselon, am I right? Since Jordan might be close but not that close. Still, Enlightenment of any colour is no easy task.

"What are you doing?"

"Helping you overcome your contradictions. It's what I do. Let me repeat: there is no point in me trying to put a ring on someone who doesn't want it. Self-actualisation without restriction is an appealing concept to me, but it's not appealing to everyone and -given how enlightenment affects me- the idea of forcing it on someone who isn't ready strikes me as bizarre and wrong."
Neatly summed up, OL. Yes, some people, you do not want getting their hands on a Ring of any colour...

"Ready? You're so certain that it's right for everyone?"

"I can't see cutting off a chunk of your personality… Or if you prefer, a rationalisation of the phenomena emergent from the programming evolution has left you with… As anything other than ill-advised. Unless you've got more cybernetics than just your eyes, your physiology works best when used in a particular way. The green light is the actualisation of the useful trait of tenacity, your motive the intellectualisation and universalisation of the desire to protect the tribe."
Also neatly summarised, if an interesting take on it. What does that make things like Rage, then? Or Fear? Hope, Compassion and Love are easy enough...

I put Larfleeze's ring back on my right ring finger.

"The Orange Lantern Corps has no desire to directly compete with the Green Lantern Corps. Lord Malvolio of One Six Three Four may decide to do that, but I'd really prefer to cooperate. And that won't happen if I start pinching their Lanterns. Though if you're interested in trying an orange ring for the sake of comparison, I'm happy to lend one to you."
Hmm... Has any other Lantern taken him up on that offer before? It's been so long, I can't remember if any have. I mean, Alan went from Green to Blue, but that's easy. And Koriand'r works great in Blue... But I don't remember any sampling of Green to Orange.

"But to your way of thinking, refusing an orange ring means that I want to be as I am, and not to destroy the Spider Guild."

"And that's not a terrible thing. Having a constant threat encourages people to develop their own strategies to deal with it. There's nothing stopping any of the worlds in this region building up their military resources and carrying out an attack. If they could depend on you for everything, why would they bother looking to their own defences?"
And certainly, there are other threats than the Spider Guilds. Many are more dangerous.

"Should I spend more time on that, do you think?"

"That would seem logical. But now you know how you feel, how do you feel about that?"
Heh, now you sound like a psychological counsellor, OL. Probably something in short supply amongst the Green Lanterns.

"Disappointed. I thoughtThat I was an unstoppable force of opposition."

"Then you can change your behaviour, better informed of your true nature. Or… Not, and at least you will know who you truly are a little better."
And for a Lantern, that can be a big improvement.

"That is true." Now she faces me directly. "I thought that you would be different."

"Oh dear. Are Green Lanterns spreading rumours about me?"
Besides people listening to Guy's stories in the bars? The things he could tell them...

"Since we learned that you exist, some of us have tried to decide on a policy."

"There are two Sectors away from the Reach that have Orange Lanterns in them. Lantern Green Man appeared to have a reasonable relationship with Lanterns Komand'r and Koriand'r, and… The Alignment needed realigning."
In general, they're easy-going. And the rare nutter is usually brought down too quickly to be a real worry...

"What can I do to help with the Spider Guild?"

"Create a coherent plan and put it separately to the governments and the people of the Sector. Share some of the-."
Interesting that she's spent the whole conversation so focused. On edge because she's meeting such a storied personage, or something deeper, I wonder.

My ring blinks.

"Excuse me. Illustres here?"

Dox's face appears over the ring.
Oh, goody, this is never a good sign.

"Clarissi."

"The Spider Guild Nests in your area have requested a parley. Is it useful to you for me to pretend to be interested?"
I doubt he's interested in anything they have to say, especially if it's, "Please stop dropping rocks on us!"

"No, not really. But thank you for offering."

"Have you made progress with your task?"
Uh... Define 'progress'.

"They're all stronger, but I'm not sure that it's anything we can systematise…" Hm. "Do we have any telepaths in the Corps?"

"I do not believe that telepathic conditioning would work."
Unless you want everyone to have the exact same desire set. And I rather suspect that would fail, because Souls.

I shake my head. "Me neither, but if we're trying to come up with a way to improve teaching and we don't have anyone else like me, telepaths would be the next best thing."

"Then yes, a few, but I do not believe that any of them would be appropriate."
Run prospective candidates through a mental training course, that kind of thing? A vision quest of sorts?

I nod. "I'll see if I can talk Dubbilex into it. Anything else?"

"Controller Hinon has a task for you, but she wants to brief you in person."
...Oh, this day just gets better and better.

"Okay. I can be-."

"She will come to you once she has met with Lantern Malvolio. Dox out."
So she'll probably be extra grumpy. Because I doubt she'll get on great with Malvolio. Unless he decides she reminds him of his mother...

A Controller and former Guardian… Coming to the largest centre of Lanternism in the galaxy.

I should probably warn some people.
:confused: ... :eek: ... YA THINK?!

Oh, boy. OL will probably be remembered on Karax all right. For 'the day the internet exploded'. Well, the second time, anyway, given the response to his arrival... I shudder to imagine what Graf Toren's reaction will be. Besides the 'Oh no, not again...' that seems to come over so many people OL works with for any period... At any rate, I foresee hilarity will ensue... Well, it'll be funny for us, anyway. :p
 
Hmm... Has any other Lantern taken him up on that offer before? It's been so long, I can't remember if any have. I mean, Alan went from Green to Blue, but that's easy. And Koriand'r works great in Blue... But I don't remember any sampling of Green to Orange.

Well some people who would have become Lanterns of other colors were snatched up by Paul before they could get their rings.

Soranik, Ratchet, Ranx would have become green, red and yellow respectively before Paul showed up.

And certainly, there are other threats than the Spider Guilds. Many are more dangerous.

Though they may be more difficult to deal with, so they dtick with the relatively easy Spiders.

Run prospective candidates through a mental training course, that kind of thing? A vision quest of sorts?

The Green Lanterns have something like that.
 
So I was thinking, if OL can reclaim orange stuff he lost but still wants out of orange, can reclaim kitty back ? Because for me it sounds plausible.
It's really more that Larfleeze's ring was the focus of so much desire for so long that it left an imprint.

I have no plans to bring back Teekl.

And there is no tooth fairy.

And it wasn't a massage wand that you found in your mother's desk.
 
Last edited:
And there is no tooth fairy
Between your affinity for Pratchett, the Dreaming being a thing, and the fact that I'm sure they've shown up at some point in Hellblazer or something like that (I also have the Hellboy 2 ones in mind a lot), this definitively isn't true.

Though I suppose the Sheeda spine riders kind of make any 'swarm of evil little tooth fairies' a bit redundant, aesthetically.

I know Paragon's still keeping the white light under wraps, but he's still spreading knowledge of all the regular colors in the system, so surely there are people/organizations who have fairly accurate speculative guesses about the true metaphysics by now; wondering 'what happens if you combine all the colors?' seems pretty logical. I'd like to see Onik take that path, personally.
 
It's really more that Larfleeze's ring was the focus of so much desire for so long that it left an imprint.

I have no plans to bring back Teekl.

And there is no tooth fairy.

And it wasn't a massage wand that you found in your mother's desk.
Between telling blunt truths, having a persona asking people for their true desire and being British...
Zoat, are you Tom Ellis ? ;)
 
Between telling blunt truths, having a persona asking people for their true desire and being British...
Zoat, are you Tom Ellis ? ;)

His character does possess a lot of qualities we'd associate with the devil.

His souls is made of something that's considered a sin, he's fought against angels, he consorts with demons, he's tempted people to eat a fruit that God has forbidden to be eaten, he's basically a magic snake etc.

Yeah, he really is the devil, or at least a coincidental impersonator.
 
And not only is Grayven his own boss, he is the boss of others. He actually nourished his own team, trained up operatives. He built up his own social circle.

Meanwhile Paragon kind of has his acolyte oramge lanterns and the science network.
 
And not only is Grayven his own boss, he is the boss of others. He actually nourished his own team, trained up operatives. He built up his own social circle.

Meanwhile Paragon kind of has his acolyte oramge lanterns and the science network.

You forgot that paragon also nourished his own version of the Team and that he's also one of the guys in charge of hundreds, possibly thousands, of Orange Lanterns, not just a few acolytes.
 
I'm sometimes worried about the Team in the Illustres' Earth. Because the encounters themselves got hard enough to give the Illustres a bit of difficulty, what with all the exotic effects and the technology and magic that had to be implemented to counter him. And while the Team got upgraded, I'm not so certain they got upgraded enough to counter everything that is now running around on their Earth without the Illustres there to help.

And we know what happened with the Sheeda on the Illustres' Earth, poor planet got hit hard, governments collapsing, world trade totally disrupted, who knows how many humanitarian and political crises there are, the Light still out there doing who knows what. I said it before, it gives the impression that the Illustres' Earth has like a couple billion less people than Grayven's, at this point.
 
I'm sometimes worried about the Team in the Illustres' Earth. Because the encounters themselves got hard enough to give the Illustres a bit of difficulty, what with all the exotic effects and the technology and magic that had to be implemented to counter him. And while the Team got upgraded, I'm not so certain they got upgraded enough to counter everything that is now running around on their Earth without the Illustres there to help.

And we know what happened with the Sheeda on the Illustres' Earth, poor planet got hit hard, governments collapsing, world trade totally disrupted, who knows how many humanitarian and political crises there are, the Light still out there doing who knows what. I said it before, it gives the impression that the Illustres' Earth has like a couple billion less people than Grayven's, at this point.

I wouldn't say billions, but definitely may be a few million people shorter.
 
At this point, I think there is a major difference between overall power.
For Grayven, Grayvens fleet was a serious threat. For Paul, Grayven is a minor power worth spending maybe a day hiring.
For Grayven, Grayven was a slightly superior in a 1v1. For Paul, Grayven would be a serious opponent, but not an equal, not a peer, more like serious in the same way that Lex Luthor is a serious threat to Superman in 1v1 combat. Yeah you could take him, but theres still a risk that he comes up with some clever trick or that defeating him requires more than you would like to give.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top