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

You know, I don't think I ever asked. What was the point of divergence that caused the MLP crossover to only happen in Renegade?
Ambush Bug's bug causing Sunset Shimmer to turn up.
I ask, since OL's future/alt reality visions during the ambush bug thing involved him interacting with Nightmare Moon, who was already released long before that happened in the Renegade timeline. That's a pretty huge disparity in the two timelines and I'm curious how it came about.
In Grayven's timeline, the bug hit him and then altered reality. In the SI's timeline, the bug created Ambush Bug.
Speaking of Ambush Bug, is he gonna show up again once he finishes reading/watching all of DC's collected works?
I currently have no further plans for the character. Given DC's quality lately, that may be a mercy.
 
Angelika? Not sure that a group of demigods would have the same instinctual respect for her that they would for someone who felt like them.
How different would an angel/pseudo-angel be from a polytheistic god, metaphysically speaking? The former might be on a different 'frequency' but I'd imagine she'd still have power that they'd respect.
I know Paragon isn't thinking of raw thaumic power as a factor so much as affinity/commonality, but I'm curious exactly how they differ. Mister Miracle was able to counteract Karrien Excalibris's theurgy and stuff, I remember.
 
How different would an angel/pseudo-angel be from a polytheistic god, metaphysically speaking? The former might be on a different 'frequency' but I'd imagine she'd still have power that they'd respect.
I know Paragon isn't thinking of raw thaumic power as a factor so much as affinity/commonality, but I'm curious exactly how they differ. Mister Miracle was able to counteract Karrien Excalibris's theurgy and stuff, I remember.

I think he's talking about Overgirl.

The former demon turned angel is Angelica, while the former Nazi is Angelika.
 
Ambush Bug's bug causing Sunset Shimmer to turn up.

In Grayven's timeline, the bug hit him and then altered reality. In the SI's timeline, the bug created Ambush Bug.

I currently have no further plans for the character. Given DC's quality lately, that may be a mercy.

But what about next april fools???
 
I think he's talking about Overgirl.

The former demon turned angel is Angelica, while the former Nazi is Angelika.
Ah, thank you. I'd have expected him to list Blaze (or whatever her superhero name is now) alongside Diana and Alan for metaphysically significant Leaguers he could contact then, though he is of course closer to the latter two.
 
Sungate (part 7)
11th September 2012
14:32 GMT +3


"Um."

Melinoë tries to check her horn armour, fails, then glares at Gaudia until she does it.

"If the encounter turns hostile, my highest priority will be evacuating you."

"Yes, it will."

"You didn't wear that armour when we were going to confront Cottus."

"That was in Tartarus."

"Um. Yes?"

She pauses in checking the parts of her armour she can actually reach in order to give me a withering eye roll.

"I'm a goddess and we're inside a titan. Being myself here is easy. I can't manifest my full power in the material world without an external power source, which I don't have."

I frown. "So how-?"

"I'm going to have to create a weak avatar and go there as that. Which means I need this armour which cousin Hephaestus made."

"Did he make it recently?"

Her eyes narrow.

"What are you implying?"

"That his knowledge of arcane smithing has increased a lot lately and that probably wouldn't be the style he'd use today."

"Oh." She bats Gaudia's hands away. "I suppose that's possible."

"Not that I think what you've got looks bad- "

"I don't care!"

"-in any… Okay. Ah, do you want any technological assistance?"

She frowns. "What do you mean?"

"A personal force field generator? Defence drones? Extra armour plates?"

"This armour is perfectly alright for a visit. Even if the world is closely connected to the Dream, they'll be under the same restrictions as I am. And I doubt that they'll be stronger than me; we don't keep track of everyone, but if someone powerful went missing we would know about it."

"A shield generator doesn't need to be very big."

"Do you know that it wouldn't interfere with the enchantments on this armour?"

"Based on my general knowledge of thaumaturgy and Hephaestus's techniques, I think it highly unlikely."

"I'd like a force field generator." I look around as the lightly armoured Aporia raises her right hand. "If that's alright?"

I glance at Gaudia, who nods twice. I raise my left hand and orange light flickers out, creating girdles around their waists with built in reactive kinetic barriers.

"Hm."

Melinoë makes a point of looking unimpressed.

"Are we leaving via Themyscira, or via the Dream gate?"

"You can't get there through the Dream without lots of preparation. Have you made lots of preparations?"

"Barely any."

"Then there would be 'barely any' chance of you arriving." She looks at her subordinate goddesses. "Any of you."

"But you'd be alright?"

"I'm the Goddess of Nightmares, idiot. I'd be more alright there than in the material universe."

"Rightoh. So I'm flying us there?"

"Unless you expect us to walk."

"Can you walk there?" I widen my eyes. "Gosh, that's impressive. Most people-"

She scowls. "No, of course-"

"-have trouble using magic-"

"-that's not possible, idiot."

"-away from a thaumically active planet."

I smile as her face goes from 'smile' to a 'blank, I'm totally above it all' expression. Then she vanishes.

I look around-. There she is, heading up the stairs to Themyscira. I turn to Gaudia and Aporia.

"Can I offer you a lift?"

Aporia nods. "I am very interested to experience your orange light for myself."

I tag each of them with orange bonds and I get a sudden shock of awareness, an existing contact between them and the Honden. I don't think they had the sort of access that I do, but they definitely became aware of it. That might make them better recruitment prospects than I had assumed.

"Oh. That's interesting."

They feel it, too. Might be worth giving them each an entry-level ring just to see how they function. Though given what Melinoë said, they would be far less powerful in the material universe than they would be here. Maybe they could use their rings to do their jobs faster?

I lift them off the ground and we fly out of Melinoë's dressing room, rising up over the palace and heading for the entrance at speed. I think about making a 'please keep your hands inside the ride' comment, but if they haven't kept up with the surface world they wouldn't understand it.

"So what have you two been doing with yourselves since Greece converted to Christianity?"

Gaudia makes a dismissive gesture with her right hand.

"For a time, we simply stayed in our manors near the main entrance. As we had fewer and fewer souls to vet, we increasingly had to make our own entertainment. Eventually, Lord Hades sent a messenger to dismiss us entirely so that he could keep the interesting evaluations entirely to himself. Then other than hearing the occasional prayer… We didn't have any official functions at all."

Aporia nods. "In the end, we just left. Explored the mortal world, in a variety of roles. We've each had dozens of names at least."

"So that thing about understanding desires… You've got practical experience and not just divine magic?"

"Yes?"

"Good to hear."
 
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"If I was interested in having sex with an embodiment of desire then I'd have sex with the Ophidian. If I was interested in an ego-massaging harem of goddesses picked from near-dead religions, I'd have gone out looking for recruits before now. I want neither of those things."

Though… Looking back, that could have been an interesting way to spend a few years.
Huh. Did Sybarite do that, or are we going to get a new Paul variant? It does sound like a fairly 'stereotypical SI' thing to do, but it could still be interesting as a brief interlude or two (possibly in the Eros-AU thread).
 
Huh. Did Sybarite do that, or are we going to get a new Paul variant? It does sound like a fairly 'stereotypical SI' thing to do, but it could still be interesting as a brief interlude or two (possibly in the Eros-AU thread).

Seeing as we now got Ancient Paul, I'm thinking he'd do something like this.
 
So Mr Zoat, I know that you like being an old crudmegon stubbornly rejecting "modern" warhammer but the Cathay trailer for Total War Warhammer 3 finally dropped today(well yesterday now) and since this is the first look at an actual Cathay army we've seen ever(outside of the occasional lore tidbits over the years), I thought that as a warhammer fan you'd like to know and see it for yourself.
 
11th September 2012
14:32 GMT +3


"Um."

Melinoë tries to check her horn armour, fails, then glares at Gaudia until she does it.
Oh, cutting straight to the getting dressed scene, eh? I'm guessing if they bothered to check with Lord Hades, he gave OL a very firm, "Don't let my little girl get hurt again, or your afterlife will make for an object lesson in pain." Pity we didn't get to see it, but I doubt it would have been that interesting...

"If the encounter turns hostile, my highest priority will be evacuating you."

"Yes, it will."
Given his track record of keeping her safe so far? He'd better keep that promise...

"You didn't wear that armour when we were going to confront Cottus."

"That was in Tartarus."
Indeed. Her place of power, more or less. While Cottus was soundly bound by its magic...

"Um. Yes?"

She pauses in checking the parts of her armour she can actually reach in order to give me a withering eye roll.
I know, dear. :rolleyes: He's rather thick, even for a man.

"I'm a goddess and we're inside a titan. Being myself here is easy. I can't manifest my full power in the material world without an external power source, which I don't have."

I frown. "So how-?"
With great difficulty, duh.

"I'm going to have to create a weak avatar and go there as that. Which means I need this armour which cousin Hephaestus made."

"Did he make it recently?"
Just, you know, keeping up with fashions... And material sciences... Would you like some powered armour?

Her eyes narrow.

"What are you implying?"
...She's taking that as a comment about her figure, isn't she? You fool, OL!

"That his knowledge of arcane smithing has increased a lot lately and that probably wouldn't be the style he'd use today."

"Oh." She bats Gaudia's hands away. "I suppose that's possible."
Phew, misunderstanding defused. I'm guessing he'd have made a suit more like Wonder Woman's battle armour than the classical Attican garb of Helm, Breastplate, Bracers and Greaves.

"Not that I think what you've got looks bad- "

"I don't care!"
Indeed, it's not like you care what he thinks, do you? No Denying the Tsundere-ness...

"-in any… Okay. Ah, do you want any technological assistance?"

She frowns. "What do you mean?"
I mean, metal plates and leather straps isn't the peak of military defences these days...

"A personal force field generator? Defence drones? Extra armour plates?"

"This armour is perfectly alright for a visit. Even if the world is closely connected to the Dream, they'll be under the same restrictions as I am. And I doubt that they'll be stronger than me; we don't keep track of everyone, but if someone powerful went missing we would know about it."
Ooh, big assumptions to make. Who knows what they'll actually be like?

"A shield generator doesn't need to be very big."

"Do you know that it wouldn't interfere with the enchantments on this armour?"
...That is a good point. Some esoteric defences don't stack, after all.

"Based on my general knowledge of thaumaturgy and Hephaestus's techniques, I think it highly unlikely."

"I'd like a force field generator." I look around as the lightly armoured Aporia raises her right hand. "If that's alright?"
...I'm guessing she hasn't even got a breastplate... Maybe a layered linen vest...

I glance at Gaudia, who nods twice. I raise my left hand and orange light flickers out, creating girdles around their waists with built in reactive kinetic barriers.

"Hm."
Feeling a little jealous, Melinoë dear?

Melinoë makes a point of looking unimpressed.

"Are we leaving via Themyscira, or via the Dream gate?"
...Is visiting the Dreaming really such a good idea?

"You can't get there through the Dream without lots of preparation. Have you made lots of preparations?"

"Barely any."
Given it's only a few hours since he even knew he was going on this mission? Yes, I'd say so.

"Then there would be 'barely any' chance of you arriving." She looks at her subordinate goddesses. "Any of you."

"But you'd be alright?"

"I'm the Goddess of Nightmares, idiot. I'd be more alright there than in the material universe."
Well, at least you haven't dated the Oneiromancer...

"Rightoh. So I'm flying us there?"

"Unless you expect us to walk."
...Not exactly a walk to the corner shop or anything, OL...

"Can you walk there?" I widen my eyes. "Gosh, that's impressive. Most people-"

She scowls. "No, of course-"
Unless one of them has suddenly added Travel to their portfolio...

"-have trouble using magic-"

"-that's not possible, idiot."
Is he trying to distract her from the danger? Because it's working. The only danger now is to him...

"-away from a thaumically active planet."

I smile as her face goes from 'smile' to a 'blank, I'm totally above it all' expression. Then she vanishes.
Yeah, let's not piss off the Goddess of Nightmares, OL... Do you want her cursing you?

I look around-. There she is, heading up the stairs to Themyscira. I turn to Gaudia and Aporia.

"Can I offer you a lift?"

Aporia nods. "I am very interested to experience your orange light for myself."
Oh, are you in for a treat.

I tag each of them with orange bonds and I get a sudden shock of awareness, an existing contact between them and the Honden. I don't think they had the sort of access that I do, but they were definitely aware of it. That might make them better recruitment prospects than I had assumed.

"Oh. That's interesting."
Oh no, she's getting ideas, isn't she? Filthy, filthy ideas?

They feel it, too. Might be worth giving them each an entry-level ring just to see how they function. Though given what Melinoë said, they would be far less powerful in the material universe than they would be here. Maybe they could use their rings to do their jobs faster?

I lift them off the ground and we fly out of Melinoë's dressing room, rising up over the palace and heading for the entrance at speed. I think about making a 'please keep your hands inside the ride' comment, but if they haven't kept up with the surface world they wouldn't understand it.
There goes any idea of them playing webcam temptresses, then... :oops:

"So what have you two been doing with yourselves since Greece converted to Christianity?"

Gaudia makes a dismissive gesture with her right hand.
But at least we get to find out what...

"For a time, we simply stayed in our manors near the main entrance. As we had fewer and fewer souls to vet, we increasingly had to make our own entertainment. Eventually, Lord Hades sent a messenger to dismiss us entirely so that he could keep the interesting evaluations entirely to himself. Then other than hearing the occasional prayer… We didn't have any official functions at all."

Aporia nods. "In the end, we just left. Explored the mortal world, in a variety of roles. We've each had dozens of names at least."
But presumably not bothering too much to actually study the changing culture, then. About what I'd expect?

"So that thing about understanding desires… You've got practical experience and not just divine magic?"

"Yes?"

"Good to hear."
Thinking of getting their assistance with a bit of spiritual remodelling in some students, OL?

Well, then. This might be an interesting trip for the ladies. The lesser goddesses don't know anything about space travel, do they? Wonder what they'll make of the fact they're flying billions of miles every second on the trip. At any rate, seeing how the Titans respond to their arrival will be telling. Let's hope they're not offended.
 
Wow, direct access to the Honden.

That's not bad for aspiring Orange Lanterns.

As for what they did on earth...porn comes to mind immediately of course, but also psychiatrist, life coach, lobbyist...

Ha, used car salesmen!

These two could turn out much more useful than Paul first expected.
 
Huh. Did Sybarite do that, or are we going to get a new Paul variant? It does sound like a fairly 'stereotypical SI' thing to do, but it could still be interesting as a brief interlude or two (possibly in the Eros-AU thread).
No version did that. The versions who are persuing relationships are strongly inclined towards monogamy, while the others have no interest in forming a stable.
So Mr Zoat, I know that you like being an old crudmegon stubbornly rejecting "modern" warhammer but the Cathay trailer for Total War Warhammer 3 finally dropped today(well yesterday now) and since this is the first look at an actual Cathay army we've seen ever(outside of the occasional lore tidbits over the years), I thought that as a warhammer fan you'd like to know and see it for yourself.
I'll take a look this evening. Thank you for drawing it to my attention.

I should point out that the company has made multiple oriental Total War games before, so they're not exactly stretching themselves.
tenses don't seem to match, maybe one of these to fix it?
don't -> didn't OR had -> have
Thank you, corrected.
Well, at least you haven't dated the Oneiromancer...
I read that as 'Oneëromancer'.
 
I should point out that the company has made multiple oriental Total War games before, so they're not exactly stretching themselves.
It's not just CA doing this. GW doesn't allow anything using their intellectual property without their permission(unless your Marvel Disney anyway). Anytime CA introduced something "new" into Total War Warhammer to fill a blank space, they could only do it with GW's permission. That includes making a Cathay faction, which GW dropped their own video about on their youtube channel for their upcoming Warhammer: The Old World game.

 
When If?
When If?

Universe-199998

13th February 2019

"The lost books…"

I look around from my position halfway up the ridiculous bookcase pillars as a somewhat weathered man in a suit walks slowly into the library. The ill-fitting amulet around his neck…

Time manipulation.

I can hardly complain about O'Bengh asking me to substitute for him while he takes a holiday, but that's a subject I'm either… No, I am the best person to answer questions about it. I just hoped that I could avoid it from now on. Returning to China didn't quite… Nothing was going to return me to anything approaching normal, but I'd been able to put being Time Trapper behind me.

I float down, smiling at the prospective researcher as he looks up and notices me.

"Hello, there."

"Aah, hello." He gives me a mild frown as I land a short distance away. "Are you..? Cagliostro?"

"No, I'm the substitute librarian. I've no idea where Cagliostro him or indeed herself is, and O'Bengh the Librarian is taking a holiday. I'm Orange Lantern, holiday temp."

He looks around, taking the place in.

"Strange."

I nod.

"Yes, the whole 'introduce yourself by your codename' thing breaks down in cultures where pseudonyms aren't common. Unfortunately, that-."

He squints. "No, I-. My name. Stephen Strange. Doctor Stephen Strange."

"Ah. Well, pleased to meet you, Doctor Strange." I offer him my right hand, and after a moment of awkward hesitation he takes it. "What can I do for you?"

"I'm… Hoping you can show me the books on time travel."

"Ah… I haven't taken an inventory, I'm-" I glance back at the books stacks, shaking my head. Being a wizard is no reason to abandon sound design principles. "-afraid. Though if it's any consolation, I used to be an atemporal being. There's not a lot about temporal manipulation that I don't understand, and I'm happy to answer your questions."

He looks at me askance.

"If you were atemporal, then surely some version of you still is."

"Oh, well spotted. But no. A version of the being I used to be is still atemporal, though since they lack my particularity they have no particular reason to help me or.. you."

He nods. "Orange… Lantern, was it?"

I take my personal lantern out of subspace. "A symbol of office and a power source. For a maltusian, it's like introducing yourself as a police officer."

"Well, Orange Lantern, perhaps you can help. I need a way to change an absolute point-" I wince. "-in time. Cagliostro was rumoured to have found a way-."

"There's no such thing." I shake my head. "That's not how time works. Even here."

He scowls. "I've got a certain amount of experimental data that says it is."

"Then you're misinterpreting it." I pull a couple of chairs and a table over to us and take a seat. "Tea?"

He takes a deep breath and huffs. "Look, I can find it myself-."

"Why rush?" I lean back in my chair as I take a tea service out of subspace. "You didn't come here for a way to travel in time, so presumably that thing around your neck already has that covered. Which means that it doesn't matter how long it takes. And it sounds like you are in need of background information."

He looks up at the stack, then down at the table. "Fine." He pulls out his chair and sits, leaning forward with his forearms on the table. "What do you mean 'there's no such thing'?"

"Exactly what I said. Time is a process. It's not a person; it can't care about anything. Nothing is just… Randomly designated as being more important than anything else. While the precise mechanism changes from parallel reality to parallel reality, it's usually just a matter of the availability and application of energy, due to-."

"So I need to get stronger."

"So you need to stop interrupting." I pour him a cup, then reach out and pull a book from a nearby shelf. 'What I Did In My Holidays' by Twoflower. "Could you lift this?"

He regards me with mild irritation for a moment before nodding. "Yes."

"If you were much stronger, could you-" I point. "-lift that bookshelf?"

"Yes."

"Is there a level of strength you could arrive at where you could pick yourself up by your own feet and carry yourself around?"

That puts him off his stride, eyes moving away from me as he tries to puzzle it out.

"The human mind is designed to keep us safe from hungry tigers; it isn't easy to talk about temporal mechanics in a language originally designed for telling the other monkeys where the ripe fruit are."

"Oh-kay."

I think he's trying some sort of breathing exercise, though with limited success.

"So then explain it to me like I'm a monkey."

"Events cause other events, and are in turn-."

"I already had this talk."

"Why are you here? Hm? What went so badly wrong that you feel the need to rewrite time?"

"I don't want to.. rewrite all time, I just.. want to save one woman."

"There's your problem. You-."

"Her death set me on this path. I can't go back and save her because if I did then I wouldn't exist."

"Nearly. Your perception of her death set you on this path."

And now I have his attention.

"What do you mean?"

"If she died and you didn't know about it, your behaviour would be unaltered. If she was replaced by a gynoid programmed to mimic her, or a shapeshifter, your behaviour would be unaltered. On the other hand, if you believed that she died…"

"I-. Would still have done everything to bring her back. Whether she was actually dead to or not."

"You tried to brute force it, didn't you? That can't work. Where I'm from, causation violations can upend the entire timeline like-" I click the thumb and middle fingers of my right hand. "-that. It took me an immeasurable amount of time to recreate my own timeline. Here, things are different. Time works -mechanically works- to minimise changes, sucking energy out of the universe every time. It's easy for something like a person dying; there are all sorts of ways to die, and it's more energy efficient to do that than... Than to try and maintain a paradox as part of history? I don't even want to think about how much energy that would-."

Oh.

"No, I've got it. If you moved her to a universe with a different temporal system then the two of you would be alright, it's just that the universe you left would collapse."

"Let's leave that for plan D. So what-"

"Yes, let's."

"-you're saying is, as long as I can exist in the resulting timeline, I can save her?"

"Yes. Your problem was confirmation bias. Once you heard an answer you didn't like, you didn't consider alternate hypotheses."

"So, what, I need to fake a car crash. Get a realistic fake body. Difficult, but-."

"Or you could just fake your memories."

"Excuse me?"

"Go back in time, explain things to whoever she is and your past self. Change his memories so that he remembers what you remember happening, and… Carry on."

He frowns. "She wouldn't see me for two years."

"Better than being dead. Or you could partition your mind so you could see her for a few days each month. I don't know how good you are at mind altering magic."

"I can get good very fast. And you're sure that will work?"

I shrug. "It should. Of course, there's an easy way to check, considering the nature of time travel. Are there any mental partitions in your mind at the moment?"
 
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he looks up an notices me.

'and notices'

No, I'm the substitute librarian. I've no idea where Cagliostro him or indeed herself

'himself or'

He squints. "No, I-. My name. Stephen Strange. Doctor Stephen Strange."

Time for some multiversal shenanigans.

monkeys where the ripe fruit are.

'fruit is' or 'fruits are'
 

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