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

[Vaermina]

Paul doesn't care about bad PR.

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Exactly, which is a big part of why it could be used to utterly wreck him.

 

[Mr Zoat]

thought

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Thank you, corrected.

Paual and Allen will have to fight the Statue of Liberty, won't they? An Englishman blowing up the american symbol of liberty...which was a gift from the french...

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No one by those names will have a fight in this episode.

If anyone wonders what that bit is: Special Field Order no. 15. Civil War-era political stuff.

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Rule 8 ban in 5...

 

[FeepingCreature]

I love Boss Smiley and his Big Demiurge Energy.

For further reference, the title Prince of the World is generally applied to Satan.

 

[Darko]

I like to imagine Paul managing to squeeze in a question about Constantine and Boss Smiley immediately postponing the incoming smiting to join the "Constantine must not be unaccounted for. Also, kick him in the balls" club

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This would be hilarious.

Paul doesn't care about bad PR.

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True, but others like the League and their allies may care since if they have bad PR then they're jobs become more difficult.

 

[DAT_NOOB]

I wonder, did paul look for Smiley enterprises?

 

[NightmareWarden]

I love Boss Smiley and his Big Demiurge Energy.

For further reference, the title Prince of the World is generally applied to Satan.

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Hmm. In DC Satan does not exist and Lucifer seems to have departed the universe. I wonder if Smiley got some of his conceptual weight (mojo) from either of those facts. We've heard before any demon can call themselves Satan, so what if Smiley (regardless of whether he is still a demon) earned the greatest returns on said scheme?

 

[Darko]

. In DC Satan does not exist

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I think the First of the Fallen was considered to be Satan.

 

[Bud-E]

I think the First of the Fallen was considered to be Satan.

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The First of the Fallen and Lucifer Morningstar are two different beings both can be considered the devil in DC comics

 

[WereDragon]

"I see what you were trying, but any of my chosen appellations work as a notarikon of my true name. Which means that I can hear them. Goodbye, Lanterns and turkey."

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I'm… not seeing the threat. If this joker could win a direct confrontation he would not have put so much effort into trying to avoid such a confrontation.

 

[Mr Zoat]

I'm… not seeing the threat. If this joker could win a direct confrontation he would not have put so much effort into trying to avoid such a confrontation.

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Oh, he can't just snap his fingers and kill them, no. But he can make their life jolly unpleasant.

 

[Windona]

Oh dang. I was beginning to wonder if Boss Smiley really was a hallucination in the Silver City or not.

 

[jasonh23761]

"It's about Uncle Sam. You're almost certainly right; the eagle says that the new fellow smells terrible and that he hasn't seen Uncle Sam since the seventies."

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The implications of this are staggering, especially when mapped out onto American politics and cold war history. It's also very hard to talk about without trapezing all over Rule 8. Bravo, MrZoat

Oh.

The giant yellow face now affixed to the Statue of Liberty regards me impassively for a moment.

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Well now, that's pants shittingly terrifying. Still, I prefer it to the image of him the wiki has from the Stargirl show. He looks like a possessed muppet.

 

[redleo37]

Surely there is a spirit for Rosie the Riveter, a representation of the Gold Rush, public libraries, invention, or a spirit for transportation (railway construction and horsemanship)? I'm trying to think of old spirits.

Well.
Not that Paul would consider them old.

Anyway, surely some weak but cunning spiritual entity exists that calls the USA home. Something better than this eagle.

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I am a Scion Player who loves the idea of the Yankee Pantheon (even if I think it was miss managed in 1e I think it gets a bad rap by fans and could be extremely different to other Pantheons)

More then anything else I want to see the full Colonial American Pantheon have a meeting with Paul about how to best to match the growing Shinto and Olympians if not exceed them.

Also does anyone think some cultural icons like Mickey Mouse is apart of the pantheon or someone is using that image to gain magical power.

 

[Bud-E]

I am a Scion Player who loves the idea of the Yankee Pantheon (even if I think it was miss managed in 1e I think it gets a bad rap by fans and could be extremely different to other Pantheons)
More then anything else I want to see the full Colonial American Pantheon have a meeting with Paul about how to best to match the growing Shinto and Olympians if not exceed them.
Also does anyone think some cultural icons like Mickey Mouse is apart of the pantheon or someone is using that to gain magical power.

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Disney is a global power so I think Mickey would probably be in charge of his own pantheon

 

[Windona]

Disney is a global power so I think Mickey would probably be in charge of his own pantheon

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Well, at least we know that in this universe Bay directed the prequels so Star Wars might not be as profitable for Disney.

Huh, now this has me thinking tangentially about if superhero movies would be popular at all or mostly just fall into the realm of biopics

 

[WereDragon]

Oh, he can't just snap his fingers and kill them, no. But he can make their life jolly unpleasant.

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He will have to be quick about it. He just announced that he is declaring war on a guy who dethroned Zeus while under the restriction of not fighting or killing Zeus.

 

[Silveraith]

"Allegedly, the Prince of the World. That git arranged for my first death, so I-."

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That.

Spoiler: Image Source

 

[Mr Zoat]

Well now, that's pants shittingly terrifying. Still, I prefer it to the image of him the wiki has from the Stargirl show. He looks like a possessed muppet.

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I saw that image, but I couldn't find a larger one and I think it makes him look like an alien rather than something supernatural.

That.

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You've taken the quote out of context. The speaker was describing a world other than the one they were in.

Edit: Smiley's claim about his title.

 

[Enochi]

So.... is the statue back to being Shiny copper brown again or is it still Green?

 

[Istaran]

I like how Alan is introduced into the conversation this way.

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Me too. In part because there was no preamble so we know Alan had to be keeping tabs on Paul closely enough to hear the statue just as a standard precaution. Maybe a passive ring command to make him aware of weirdness happening around Paul? He spends much of his day filtering out the results? Eagle flying in and out of a painting... eh, I'm sure he's got it handled. Statue of Liberty talking... I better check it out.

 

[Mr Zoat]

So.... is the statue back to being Shiny copper brown again or is it still Green?

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Brown.

Me too. In part because there was no preamble so we know Alan had to be keeping tabs on Paul closely enough to hear the statue just as a standard precaution. Maybe a passive ring command to make him aware of weirdness happening around Paul? He spends much of his day filtering out the results? Eagle flying in and out of a painting... eh, I'm sure he's got it handled. Statue of Liberty talking... I better check it out.

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It's more that Dr. Balewa was following the 'Paul Protocol', and called Alan after the Statue of Liberty changed colour.

 

[Darko]

Still, I prefer it to the image of him the wiki has from the Stargirl show.

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Holy crap, that's creepy as fuck.

Also does anyone think some cultural icons like Mickey Mouse is apart of the pantheon or someone is using that image to gain magical power.

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He might be in Valhalla.

Huh, now this has me thinking tangentially about if superhero movies would be popular at all or mostly just fall into the realm of biopics

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Hmm, good point.

I think a lot of Worm fics tend to say that after parahumans showed up, things like superhero and action media just stopped being popular.

He will have to be quick about it. He just announced that he is declaring war on a guy who dethroned Zeus while under the restriction of not fighting or killing Zeus.

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True, but Paul may not have anything to counter Smiley and unlike Zeus, Smiley might actually be prepared for Paul.

It's more that Dr. Balewa was following the 'Paul Protocol', and called Alan after the Statue of Liberty chan ged colour.

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I love that they have a protocol for that.

I'm guessing it involves calling someone Paul might listen to so that they can convince him to stop or figure out what he's doing?

 

[Mr Zoat]

I'm guessing it involves calling someone Paul might listen to so that they can convince him to stop or figure out what he's doing?

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Yes.

 

[Stsword]

I love Boss Smiley and his Big Demiurge Energy.

For further reference, the title Prince of the World is generally applied to Satan.

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Actually DC has the actual Demiurge- Synnar.

Yes, God's architect is a supervillain.

But I doubt we'll see him considering how much Vertigo stuff gets thrown into this story, as Lucy and Mike creating the universe would be somewhat awkward.

As for Boss Smiley, of course. Pres is a Messianic archetype in that Sandman story, Boss is there to play the Satan role in the Temptation of Christ.

"All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me." Matthew 4.9

 

[Coda]

"You know who it is. You've spoken to them directly; something few others have."

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Comma instead of semicolon, and probably "something few others have done."

that would be the best things to do,

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best thing

"No, not him. Though if you see him, punch him in the crotch for me."

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He doesn't even have the lyrics right. Though I can't tell if it's mixing up the lines in-character, mixing up the lines out-of-character, or censorship because the correct line in that context is "pilgrim's pride."

His name is in Japanese; there's no correct English spelling because it isn't an English word. There are no letters in the sense you're thinking of them, either; The word Susanowo became Susanoo, just like the word caught became the word caught in some regions... well, before and after the relevant vowel merger. Unfortunately English doesn't have phonetic orthography, so that's less clear when written. The point is that the actual orthography of the word in Japanese doesn't contain any representation of the old version because the old version is no longer what the word is representing, and the English version of the word should generally be imitating the word itself and not the orthography to begin with, so there's no reason to insert a dash to represent a "w" sound that no longer exists. The most typical transcriptions would be Susanoo, or use a macron for the o, but technically since English doesn't have vowel length distinctions Susano is fine for the purposes of most speakers.

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I'm well aware. 日本語を話せるよ。I was simplifying the description for the relevant audience and using the presentation that had been used in the comics and earlier in the fic.

 

[WaleXdraK]

it."

"Then why are you hesitating to say his na-? You think he'll hear you. But my tattoos mean that he can't hear me.

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"Allegedly, the Prince of the World. That git arranged for my first death, so I-."

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look like Smiley actually found a way to counter Paul Tattoo, now we just have to see if it's just a part of it or if he can completely negates their effect.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Comma instead of semicolon, and probably "something few others have done."
best thing

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Thank you, corrected.

He doesn't even have the lyrics right. Though I can't tell if it's mixing up the lines in-character, mixing up the lines out-of-character, or censorship because the correct line in that context is "pilgrim's pride."

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He had just lost most of his brain matter.

Edit:
Oh, and these are my attempts to make a smiley face on the statue of liberty. It's surprisingly hard to make non-square pictures.

 

[Rafin]

So what's Boss Smiley doing in Rene!Grayven's timeline? Stuff's rapidly changing there too, ain't it? Africa is becoming a group of nations run by the Light and facilitating Earth's space program. Electricity is dirt cheap too.

 

[Perchance]

And lo, how good it is to be vindicated. While the chance for Boss Smiley to just be a Heaven-Matrix man behind the man behind the man to the power of n was possible, he felt far too much like a Chekhov's gunman for it to finish out nicely.

At first I thought yeah, John has some kind of distraction spell going on, manipulating the synchronicity wave highway to continually throw obstacles and problems in Paul's way to keep him off his back. But then I thought hey wait. While that is absolutely a Very Constantine Thing To Do (VCTTD) it just didn't quite fit.

I could of course be entirely wrong, but to me it seemed more likely that someone else was getting in the way. Someone who was known for large scale manipulation to get their way. With the Uncle Sam Doppelganger insidiously manipulating the undercurrents of American society plot thread dangling it all felt a bit too coincidental. So who would be able to do that? Who could manipulate event after event constant(ine)ly to keep Paul from checking on John?

The only in-universe-as-of-yet-with-any-real-reason-to-do-so answer, was Smiley. Because John's ascendancy to Chaos Lord was a big change. Constatine, who constantly mucked about with the winds of destiny and chance, finally given real power? Well if I were an ancient, mysterious, arcane puppet master, that's the last thing that I would want. And if John can be pushed into wanting to rid himself of that power, all the better. But best to make sure that the wrench in these celestial gears is far and away removed for the process.

I'm very excited to see where this goes. For starters, how does Lady Liberty even know of him? Is it his connection to elections and the rigging thereof? And what happened to her since she was Telepresencing through the statue he plonked his head on? And what really IS he? My best guess is that he's the satanic archetype of the manipulator. Luckier and the First both (iirc anyways) said they don't care to be blamed for people's actions. But all that belief in a tempter and liar and manipulator has to go somewhere after all.

Edit: or he could well be, and this one is surprising to think about, some weird, celestial politics version of Equinox, an intended link between Order and Chaos. Change, but at a very slow, measured pace. Not too orderly, not too chaotic.

And what is his next big move? I assume its not another heaven nuke/invasion, because he's had ample time to watch Paul and devise a counter to him now, and a much more vested interest in doing so.

Of course watch me say all this and then it turn out that I've gotten every last thing wrong

 

[JeckJack]

I was trying to remember what this arc was reminding me of, and I finally found it:

The buddy-cop vibes, the talking Eagle, the discussion on the meaning of America and all that jazz. I'm actually surprised nobody else brought it up since the eagle was introduced. I mean, it's a crime-solving eagle named Detective Heart of America.