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

Did OL just figure out a tiny fragment of the Life Equation?

Also it just occured to me that many myths consider the sky as a solid surface, dome, or shell around the Earth. Often held up or otherwise maintained by the gods.
This could be an explanation for why Magic was more prevalent in certain time periods or places. What if they weren't holding up the sky, but holding in the thaumosphere.
We know that magic radiates out from earth. When if at various points the different thaumovoric gods and pantheons have constructed magical superstructures to act as an inverted shield, holding the magic closer to the earths surface to concentrate it.

So say Atlas was not holding up the sky in it's entierty, but was instead holding in the magic around the greek peninsula. And his being freed removed the advantageously high thaumic concentration which helped the greek pantheon stay in power.
 
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"magic only gets you so far" unless this is meant to be some funky statement about magic plants.
Me said:
They burn brilliantly where they land

Thank you, corrected.
Why would they have to confict?

It seems they'd go together like peanut butter an jelly.

The Black deformats someone's desires to bleak emptiness.
The Orange fills the hollowed out space the the desire to enact the will of the one wielding the Orange light.
It's not Anti-Life in general that conflicts, but rather that this fragment can't be reconciled with it.
 
Desire? DESIRE?

You used one of the endless in a spell, eh? An endless who is likely in constant contact with your Light. Does everyone remember how Zeus' stupid mission for Wonder Woman distracted Paul from Constantine? And then Gaia sent him to South America, Persephone sent him to the Underworld, etc etc?
It sounds like one of the Endless will choose to pop in soon enough! That sounds appropriately chaotic for Eris's worshipper. The only question is will she appear during or after this mission? I certainly doubt the barriers in the Tower of Fate will bar her passage if she Wants to see Paul again.

Alternatively Paul meant the word Desire, as a concept, rather than the entity. But where is the fun in that?

On an unrelated note- I wonder if Onomatopoeia is in this part of the Tower too.
 
There's a basic rule of magic that the Anti-Life appears to have never learned. If something is touching you, you're touching it.

We open the Honden in the Black that is touching us.

"Purposelessness → Desire → Purpose."
Without Dues Ex Machine protection this would result in the Anti Life poisoning both the Orange Light and Ophidian.

Because Anti Life is just that much higher on the metaphysical scale.
 
Without Dues Ex Machine protection this would result in the Anti Life poisoning both the Orange Light and Ophidian.

Because Anti Life is just that much higher on the metaphysical scale.
That might be possible if it were the entire Anti-Life Equation. But as this is just a fragment, it is believable that it can be overcome.
 
Anti-life in Dalek voice, "I HAVE BEEN CON-TA-MI-NA-TED!!!!"

And I can't find that scene on YouTube .
----

Hey side note, how is best snake doing in the orange power battery? We haven't heard from her for since then, even with Paul occasionally passing through her house, and in this case raiding her fridge for desire infusions to feed a really depressed vagrant . Is anyone talking with her there? Get a few more enlightened in the OL corps?
 
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Did OL just figure out a tiny fragment of the Life Equation?

Also it just occured to me that many myths consider the sky as a solid surface, dome, or shell around the Earth. Often held up or otherwise maintained by the gods.
This could be an explanation for why Magic was more prevalent in certain time periods or places. What if they weren't holding up the sky, but holding in the thaumosphere.
We know that magic radiates out from earth. When if at various points the different thaumovoric gods and pantheons have constructed magical superstructures to act as an inverted shield, holding the magic closer to the earths surface to concentrate it.

So say Atlas was not holding up the sky in it's entierty, but was instead holding in the magic around the greek peninsula. And his being freed removed the advantageously high thaumic concentration which helped the greek pantheon stay in power.

This has kinda been confirmed in the story.

When Paul was investigating that tech god that was going to emerge, Vulcan or Heph told him that apparently the Titans destroyed the previous magical pillars of the world and took their place, so yeah, they kinda were holding up the thaumosphere.
 
That might be possible if it were the entire Anti-Life Equation. But as this is just a fragment, it is believable that it can be overcome.

The orange light of avarice is literally part of the Life Equation post flashpoint, all the emotional electromagnetic spectrum lights are. Kyle as the White Lantern was the guardian of the Life Equation.

While Zoat usually doesn't dip into that well, he has in the past.

And honestly in a fic about a lantern in which Darkseid is the Big Bad of the Renegade half, I'd say it's quite appropriate thematically.
 
Ungrateful villains not appreciating how hard the heroes are working to save them from a fate worse than death.
 
That might be possible if it were the entire Anti-Life Equation. But as this is just a fragment, it is believable that it can be overcome.
It's quite literally not.

Even with a tiny fragment the most Orange could theoretically do is slow down the corruption or maybe puke it up somewhere else.
 
The Orange fills the hollowed out space the the desire to enact the will of the one wielding the Orange light.

That's probably possible, but it's not what he did. The thought he put into the crystals, "Purposelessness → Desire → Purpose.", is more or less a translation into Anti-Life language of All Things Strive.
 
It's... Sort of more that they want to give him a different fate worse than death, after first pumping him for information.
That makes sense, I still think it's a impulsive way of handling the situation but they've gone through a lot. By the way, I was actually trying to make a joke.
 
Because it's not.

Oh I know where Stsword got the idea from, but that was just the Wiki being wrong as Wiki's are won't to be since the actual book referenced doesn't say that.

For this fic, we saw that Balewa is able to counter it because he's so Life oriented. And it's not a huge leap, since Lantern lore has it where all seven colors combined equal white light of life. Life equation is, well. life equation. It's honestly not a leap to connect that to the White Entity. And if YJ canon has it where a motherbox without safeguards can cheat the life/anti life equation, then Zoat having it where a Lantern channeling part of an embodiment that's 1/7th of Life can go against someone who's channeling part of Anti-Life doesn't seem game breaker, especially since it's a piece of the equation that seems perfect to be countered by the Orange Light.
 
For this fic, we saw that Balewa is able to counter it because he's so Life oriented. And it's not a huge leap, since Lantern lore has it where all seven colors combined equal white light of life. Life equation is, well. life equation. It's honestly not a leap to connect that to the White Entity. And if YJ canon has it where a motherbox without safeguards can cheat the life/anti life equation, then Zoat having it where a Lantern channeling part of an embodiment that's 1/7th of Life can go against someone who's channeling part of Anti-Life doesn't seem game breaker, especially since it's a piece of the equation that seems perfect to be countered by the Orange Light.
No we didn't?

We saw Balewa's immortality get shut down by it.
 
No we didn't?

We saw Balewa's immortality get shut down by it.

This is a Vaermina response.

What we saw was Mist get stabbed in both soul and body, with his soul needing to heal before his flesh could get any benefit from his healing factor. He then proceeded to tell an Anti-Life fragment inside of someone to kindly fuck off because the adults are talking.
 
This is a Vaermina response.

What we saw was Mist get stabbed in both soul and body, with his soul needing to heal before his flesh could get any benefit from his healing factor. He then proceeded to tell an Anti-Life fragment inside of someone to kindly fuck off because the adults are talking.
Um...

Dr. Mist's passenger slumps and the doctor finally manages to get a good grasp on it, a faint white glow shimmering from his wounds-.

Which stay exactly where they are.

"Doctor, are you alright?"

"They are able to use the Anti-Life as a spiritual weapon. We need to scour the area for more information!"

I nod, rising higher into the air and extending filaments towards his wounds.

"May I?"

"It is not critical, but, yes. I would appreciate it."

Filaments try to bind the flesh? Nothing. Purple healing ray from subspace? Nothing.

"Um."

"Yet I can feel thet it is not interfering with my natural clotting."
No?
 
Tower Offence (part 15)
8th November 2012
11:59 GMT -5


Because-. How does he even know who I am?

Crystals continue exploding across the room, and the vines look more like vines rather than tendrils of eldritch evil.

"Green Lantern!"

Alan takes a moment to face Blackbriar Thorn. "Stand down, Blackbriar."

Thorn snarls, bringing his hands together in front of him, causing vines to leap from above and below, targetting Alan. Alan jinks and lashes out with construct blade which… Bites in and appears to get stuck, cutting through only slowly.

I frown as I try to remember what Thorn's motivation is. Supposedly, he got hit by a curse that a group of druids were using to try and kill Roman soldiers, but that doesn't explain why he took part in Roanoke Island rather than singling out Italy for retribution. Can't negotiate based on his objectives, he's already in line for the harshest punishment for mass murder.

"FATE!"

The chamber trembles as he does something with the vines threaded throughout the surrounding earth.

"FACE ME, COWARD!"

But if he's looking for revenge.

"We're not here to help Fate! We're here to stop him!"

The dome of plant matter that he's impaled into undulates and shifts in a mildly disturbing fashion. This time his lightning hits a heavy construct palisade, and I idly note that the brownies have stopped trying to attack.

"I WILL KILL FATE!"

"The thing that made you his slave is called the Anti-Life! We'll happily help you destroy it!"

"And YOU!"

Purple flowers I don't recognise sprout from nearby vines, rising towards me and releasing clouds of dangerous looking… Pollen? I generate a rotary fan construct and blow as much as I can away from me. Quick check, but I can't see any sign of The Demon Constantine.

"I'll kill YOU! Did you think I didn't recognise you?!"

He points his left hand at me, but nothing appears to happen. Okay, weed killer didn't work. Incendiary time. But I can be a little cleverer than Alan.

In the comics, Lonnie Machin managed to use Jade Scott's ring to change the universe's Planck Length over a small area in order to defeat a physics anomaly. I don't want to do that as I don't understand physics well enough to know what that would do, but I can alter the activation energy of particular chemical reactions in a similar way. Since I scanned the structure of the vines on the surface, a simple construct…

A wave of fire ripples through the vines, making them writhe in what isn't pain, just a result of the water in them vaporising and expanding, then breaching their skin and collapsing.

Not pain at all, and the screaming noise is escaping water vapour.

Thorn's pulling a face, but I don't know if he's getting some sort of feedback or that's just what he does when he's fighting. Alan fires energy pulses at him just as Thorn's vine pile undulates and rises.

"You have no conception of what this place is!"

I mean… True, but who cares?

The fires I'm generating are consuming all of the cavern except his core at this point, and the fumes and heat would be a problem if it wasn't for my environmental shield. I could open up with something a little heavier-.

"I'll crush ALL OF YOU!"

Does he sound a little orange-? I accidentally amplified his desire to destroy us, didn't I? Alright, I can fix that.

"What did you do with Constantine, Blackbriar?"

"Let me show you!"

Rock surges, enveloping his vine mound and torso, cracks appearing on the ceiling as the chamber loses structural integrity. I fire a couple of mage slayers at him, but the rock isn't enchanted so the rounds don't achieve very much.

"Blue Lantern, I think we need to evacuate!"

"What about Constantine?"

"I can't see him. Can you?"

"You're better at that than me." He scans anyway. "No."

"I can probably get it out of him."

The floor of the cavern cracks and crumbles as Thorn extracts more material and the ash of the roots that were embedded there crumble to dust.

"Alright, but-."

The rock pile in the middle of the cavern slumps, parts sliding free as the magic holding it together loses its grip.

It doesn't move.

Alan and I pause for a moment, weighing our options. Then we both generate pneumatic drill constructs and fly towards it, jamming the picks into pre-existing cracks. And after the first couple of strikes we both add construct earmuffs. Rock explodes away, the large mass being reduced swiftly now that it's not growing and its master isn't repairing it. As we get closer to the core we switch over to giant claws, draconic in my case and mechanical in Alan's, tearing at the looser rock and-.

Sanderson finishes pulling Blackbriar Thorn out of his anchorage and pushes him out, letting him fall to the-.

Alan catches him before he hits the ground and breaks his neck or something and forces us to wait until he gets reincarnated again. Of course, with no Anti-Life infection that wouldn't be a greater risk than there was before, but I think we're going to get permission to do something a little more permanent with him as well.

"Are you alright, Sandman?"

"Sure thing, Blue Lantern." He pulls himself out of the fallen colossus and lands on the broken ground. "I couldn't get through the vines, but the moment he pulled all that rock towards him it was real easy to sneak up on him."

"Good work." I give the chamber one last scan, but I don't find anything useful. I do however connect a filament to Thorn and drain out the excess of orange light because while he's not going to be easy to deal with I doubt that he'll be harder than he would be in orange crazy mode. Add a suppression collar and he's ready for interrogation. "We should get back to the surface."

I generate a platform and he gets on board, then the four of us fly back up through the hole Alan dug. Thorn stirs weakly, so Alan adds construct chains to my suppression chain, just in case. I don't think his physical strength has ever really been tested. We rise out of the hole and… Dr. Balewa is sitting across from a brownie with no arms, the stumps glowing as he regrows them.

"Good work, gentlemen. Urisk here has volunteered to explain what John Quinn has been doing with himself. I am sure that it will be an interesting tale."
 
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I frown as I try to remember what Thorn's motivation is. Supposedly, he got hit by a curse that a group of druids were using to try and kill Roman soldiers, but that doesn't explain why he took part in Roanoke Island rather than singling out Italy for retribution

Well the Roman civilization he knew was gone, so he may not have cared about revenge.

As for Rpanoke, either Klarion threatened him to help, offered him something, or Thorn was just an evil bastard that did it for fun.

"The thing that made you his slave is called the Anti-Life! We'll happily help you destroy it!"

"And YOU

Yeah, he remembers you.

"You have no conception of what this place is!"

I mean… True, but who cares

You should, since this may be much bigger than you think.

That Eutanthe update with the Heaven Tree makes me think that Quinn was planning on using Thorn to spread Anti-Life with his plant magic.
 
8th November 2012
11:59 GMT -5


Because-. How does he even know who I am?

Crystals continue exploding across the room, and the vines look more like vines rather than tendrils of eldritch evil.

"Green Lantern!"

Oh, that's a lot of orange. Methinks his tie to the vines is having a detrimental effect on him now they're being flooded with Avarice. So now instead if being marinated in 'purpose=pointlessness', he's chock full of 'desire=purpose'. And what's his desire of the moment? Take a guess. :p

Alan takes a moment to face Blackbriar Thorn. "Stand down, Blackbriar."

Thorn snarls, bringing his hands together in front of him, causing vines to leap from above and below, targetting Alan. Alan jinks and lashes out with construct blade which… Bites in and appears to get stuck, cutting though only slowly.
Oof, that's not great. The Avarice proving a bit sticky for the Hope?

I frown as I try to remember what Thorn's motivation is. Supposedly, he got hit by a curse that a group of druids were using to try and kill Roman soldiers, but that doesn't explain why he took part in Roanoke Island rather than singling out Italy for retribution. Can't negotiate based on his objectives, he's already in line for the harshest punishment for mass murder.

"FATE!"
I mean, knowing the Italians would suffer as much as everyone else might have done it. Or he was just intimidated by Klarion. On the other hand, I doubt he fears death much, even a legal execution.

The chamber trembles as he does something with the vines threaded throughout the surrounding earth.

"FACE ME, COWARD!"
Somehow, I don't think this hole in the ground is going to stand up to much of that.

But if he's looking for revenge.

"We're not here to help Fate! We're here to stop him!"
Admittedly, you're not sure what he'd doing, but at first sight, it does look bad.

The dome of plant matter that he's impaled into undulates and shifts is a mildly disturbing fashion. This time his lightning hits a heavy construct palisade, and I idly note that the brownies have stopped trying to attack.

"I WILL KILL FATE!"
I suspect the brownies are getting a skull full of WANT right now, getting a good chunk of Anti-life burnt out by Purpose..

"The thing that made you his slave is called the Anti-Life! We'll happily help you destroy it!"

"And YOU!"
Ah. Looks like he's not too happy to see you again.

Purple flowers I don't recognise sprout from nearby vines, rising towards me and releasing clouds of dangerous looking… Pollen? I generate a rotary fan construct and blow as much as I can away from me. Quick check, but I can't see any sign of The Demon Constantine.

"I'll kill YOU! Did you think I didn't recognise you?!"
I mean, he might not know your name, depending on how up he was with current affairs before Roanoke, but he certainly knows your face.

He points his left hand at me, but nothing appears to happen. Okay, weed killer didn't work. Incendiary time. But I can be a little cleverer than Alan.

In the comics, Lonnie Machin managed to use Jade Scott's ring to change the universe's Planck Length over a small area in order to defeat a physics anomaly. I don't want to do that as I don't understand physics well enough to know what that would do, but I can alter the activation energy of particular chemical reactions in a similar way. Since I scanned the structure of the vines on the surface, a simple construct…
Please, let's not tap into the Reach's arsenal of 'possible theological implications'-type super-weaponry... Especially if you aren't sure if the local laws of physics work the same way as Earth's.

A wave of fire ripples through the vines, making them writhe in what isn't pain, just a result of the water in them vaporising and expanding, then breaching their skin and collapsing.

Not pain at all, and the screaming noise is escaping water vapour.
...Ow. :confused: Best not tell Pammie or Euanthe about that little trick, they might be annoyed at you.

Thorn's pulling a face, but I don't know if he's getting some sort of feedback or that's just what he does when he's fighting. Alan fires energy pulses at him just as Thorn's vine pile undulates and rises.

"You have no conception of what this place is!"
Then please, do tell us. You know you want to...

I mean… True, but who cares?

The fires I'm generating are consuming all of the cavern except his core at this point, and the fumes and heat would be a problem if it wasn't for my environmental shield. I could open up with something a little heavier-.
I doubt it's all that pleasant for the Brownies or Doctor Balewa, though. Hopefully they've retreated.

"I'll crush ALL OF YOU!"

Does he sound a little orange-? I accidentally amplified his desire to destroy us, didn't I? Alright, I can fix that.
Gee, you only just realised? I mean, you've never really fought him, so for all you know, angry ranting and raving is his normal methodology...

"What did you do with Constantine, Blackbriar?"

"Let me show you!"
No, no, no need to demonstrate...

Rock surges, enveloping his vine mound and torso, cracks appearing on the ceiling as the chamber loses structural integrity. I fire a couple of mage slayers at him, but the rock isn't enchanted so the rounds don't achieve very much.

"Blue Lantern, I think we need to evacuate!"
Yeah, looks like this Load-bearing Boss is about to lose his final Hitpoint... And you know what happens after that...

"What about Constantine?"

"I can't see him. Can you?"

"You're better at that than me." He scans anyway. "No."
Worrying. Especially so being that it's a Constantine in the wind.

"I can probably get it out of him."

The floor of the cavern cracks and crumbles as Thorn extracts more material and the ash of the roots that were embedded there crumble to dust.
...Honestly, I'm not surprised he's going for a suicide play. it's not like he'll stay dead for long.

"Alright, but-."

The rock pile in the middle of the cavern slumps, parts sliding free as the magic holding it together loses its grip.

It doesn't move.
...Okay, a little anti-climactic. No giant golem body, Thorny?

Alan and I pause for a moment, weighing our options. Then we both generate pneumatic drill constructs and fly towards it, jamming the picks into pre-existing cracks. And after the first couple of strikes we both add construct earmuffs. Rock explodes away, the large mass being reduced swiftly now that it's not growing and its master isn't repairing it. As we get closer to the core we switch over to giant claws, draconic in my case and mechanical in Alan's, tearing at the looser rock and-.
Just in case Constantine's under there somewhere, huh? And it's still not safe to let Blackbriar get away while he's still mind-whammied by both Anti-Life and Avarice.

Sanderson finishes pulling Blackbriar Thorn out of his anchorage and pushes him out, letting him fall to the-.

Alan catches him before he hits the ground and breaks his neck or something and forces us to wait until he gets reincarnated again. Of course, with no Anti-Life infection that wouldn't be a greater risk than there was before, but I think we're going to get permission to do something a little more permanent with him as well.
Was wondering when he'd turn up. Guessing the vines made it a little hard to manoeuvre in there?

"Are you alright, Sandman?"

"Sure thing, Blue Lantern." He pulls himself out of the fallen colossus and lands on the broken ground. "I couldn't get through the vines, but the moment he pulled all that rock towards him it was real easy to sneak up on him."
Thought so. And coming through with the last minute save, at that. They'll make a hero of you yet, Sandy.

"Good work." I give the chamber one last scan, but I don't find anything useful. I do however connect a filament to Thorn and drain out the excess of orange light because while he's not going to be easy to deal with I doubt that he'll be harder than he would be in orange crazy mode. Add a suppression collar and he's ready for interrogation. "We should get back to the surface."

I generate a platform and he gets on board, then the four of us fly back up through the hole Alan dug. Thorn stirs weakly, so Alan adds construct chains to my suppression chain, just in case. I don't think his physical strength has ever really been tested. We rise out of the hole and… Dr. Balewa is sitting across from a brownie with no arms, the stumps glowing as he regrows them.
Ah, right, the one OL disarmed earlier. Might want to apologise for that later, OL?

"Good work, gentlemen. Urisk here has volunteered to explain what John Quinn has been doing with himself. I am sure that it will be an interesting tale."
I see the Doctor hasn't been idle, either. Sounds like he's cleared the Anti-life out of the poor fellow...

Okay, one more mini-boss downed. Time for them to focus on tracking down the head honcho, and asking some pointed questions about what's been going on, where the original John Constantine is, and what the fuck John Quinn even is... And hopefully, this lucky little fellow is about to be the first step in that search.
 

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