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

31st December 2012
19:21 GMT -3


Dozens of lumpy fungoid faces staring at me from their perches in the rotten boughs of the Green. I mark their locations as I slowly gain height. There doesn't seem to be a 'roof' to this place, but at a certain point there are fewer tree-representations trying to reach for it.

I create a giant construct of myself.

"Yeah?! You want some too?! This is the Green!"
Ah, OL. Living the dream. Surrounded by gribbly fungus-things looking for dinner, and your response is to make a giant you to yell 'Come have a go if you think you're hard enough!' Although, you do have some advantages against them. Like fire.

I continue making repairs to this tree while I still have their attention.

"And you're invaders! Leave, or be cast out!"
To be fair, someone strong enough to eat one of yours and then ignore you while fixing the damage you did might just be a little intimidating...

Most vanish back inside their trees, with a few staying on lookout duty. The trees they're in don't seem to be getting… Notably worse, so I assume that they're building something to fight me. Still not seeing Euanthe or Isley, but the tree I'm working on is almost back in a functional state. In fact, that's the last of the rotten sections gone and all the bark is connected up.

But it still feels… Incomplete.
At least their presence is obvious. Imagine fighting an army of invisible, spore-chucking mooks in a forest of mushrooms...

I wince as I form the mandala. Okay, what could I have been doing wrong? Everyone I know who does this is a weird plant person either naturally or by adoption. I try to command plant life. Does that sound like something that Euanthe would do? No. Euanthe considers herself to be part of the plant continuum. She nudges and encourages, she doesn't just restructure piece by piece as she will.

The body is earth, the blood is magma. Think like a tree-. No, feel like a tree.
Just don't go too deep into the Treebeard impression...

Not blood. Desires. The world is the soil where my roots grow and feed. Those concepts that I need to form the shape of myself flow up my skin and to the parts of me that need them. I reach out, taking what I need to grow.

I want to be… A tree.
"Eat earth! Dig deep! Drink water! Go to sleep! Bombadil is talking!"

Ah. I think that's working.

I mean, I've got no idea how to do anything complicated, manipulating it this indirectly. But for just getting the whole thing started up again, that appears to be doing it. I can see the tree looking more… Alive, than it did before. Parts that I didn't know what to do with are sprouting, small branches growing and leaf buds appearing.
Once you filled its' figurative belly, it knew what to do.

One down, an entire plane to go.

"Tree, have you got any idea where Euanthe is?"
Now, would it be worrying or not if he got a reply?

The tree says nothing.

"Fine. Fungoid, your name is now 'Gary'. Confirm directive."
Heh. Like naming a single bee in a hive and trying to keep track. Or an ant.

"I confirm."

"What's going on, Gary?"
Assuming it wasn't working on instinct...

"We are lead to a land of food which enriches the soul, nourishing us."

"This food would be… These living spiritual representations of plants?"
Yeah, I bet it's like a smorgasbord for them. An all-you-can-eat buffet with no restrictions. And no way for them to make themselves sick from overeating.

"They were alive. We struggle to eat the living wood. But something made them smell of death, taste of death. Taste of food."

I remember a film reviewer once saying that when the squids arose from the sea to dominate the Earth, Hellboy would serve as evidence of out causal anti-squid racism. I don't want to be racist against fungi. I'm sure that they serve a very useful ecological niche, and the fact that they're usually found on dying trees isn't proof that they made them die, any more than finding maggots in rotting flesh is proof that they made it rot.
Hmm... 'Something' made them seem dead? The Anti-Life, or something a littler deader?

But still.

"What has to happen for your kind to leave?"

"We will leave when there is nothing to eat."
And that would no doubt kill the Green. Whoopie.

"The place you were before this. What was it like?"

"Waiting, as a spore waits to germinate. Sometimes we would hear food and we would extrude one of us to consume it. But all there are as we are."
Argh, the joy of talking to intelligences with a different frame of reference.

Ah, it's the old 'rabbits in Australia' problem. In a creature's own ecosystem there are all sorts of other creatures that live in balance with it, eating it or otherwise using it. Take it out of that, and it reproduces uncontrollably.

"How mentally complex are you?"

"What?"
And wasn't that just the smartest thing anyone ever did back in the day? :rolleyes:

Right. It's never been anything else; how would it know how to compare itself to anything else? It's an elemental creature, not a normal person who happens to be fungus-based. Even if it can engage in conversation, that doesn't mean that it can be persuaded to act out of its element any more than Euanthe can.

"Am I correct in assuming that you're some sort of fungus elemental?"
It is what it is... Or was, rather. Like Fatty, who existed solely to consume.

"Yes."

"Do you know what it was that made this place feel edible?"
Betting it was either the Anti-Life or the Black. o_O ...Where did Dark Druid get to, again?

"No."

"What were those decay-related abilities you used on me?"
Ah, the good old spell-like abilities. Rot on a conceptual level, weaponised...

"An extension of my nature. I am decay to things that are not like me."

"You can induce decay, and not just feed on it."
I wonder if it's a net-positive process, or a net-minus?

"It is tiring. But I am well-fed." For the first time it forms an expression. I think it's confused. "I was well-fed."

"Are there intelligent beings here who are not like you?"
Right. Euanthe, Ivy, the Parliament of the Green, former Avatars, anyone...

"Yes."

"The tree I healed. Does it feel tasty to you?"
As much as it has a sense of taste, anyway...

"Not… Now. But if I was not like this…"

Its structure changes, odd fronts projecting from hits head and neck and waving in the air.
Oooh, gribbly. I'm guessing that's how it eats. So it's basically giving OL the old 'licking its lips' expression. :p

"Yes."

Which means that I can't leave it to the mercy of the others… Wait.
As soon as he leaves, one of the others with more courage will probably go pouncing on it.

"Using your abilities on things that aren't rotting uses your strength. Whatever it is that made this place feel edible didn't actually make it edible. You had to use your powers to fully rot these trees, didn't you?" It nods as it pulls its fronds back in. "So how come you aren't all starving to death here?"

"There is more to eat."
So roughly net-positive.

Then… They have to be a symptom. Or possible a distraction. Magic loci resist being changed; you can't just take one and then add its strength to your own without losing something. Did something… Magnify their ability to rot things? And if so, where is the connection to this realm?

I want to defend something I've built, but I don't think that's the correct thing to do here. I need to find something more significant to work on.
And as bad as things are on Earth right now, this could be worse in the long run.

"Take me to where you came in."

"Yes, Master."
Looking to plug the hole, then you can deal with the swarm that's already here...

Well, off on another side-quest. Guessing he didn't just absorb its' knowledge out of concern for possible memetic contamination. Understandable, given its' alien conceptual base. Still, something like this is usually in Swamp Thing's wheelhouse. So why isn't he here? Dealing with outbreaks elsewhere? Protecting his wife and daughter in the real world? I doubt he's mortal enough to be affected by Anti-Life...
 
It's weird, but Gary might be the closest thing the Grey has to an Avatar now. Connection to fungi? Check. Non-hostile to the Grey? Check. Mentally complex? Getting there. I hope Gary is the breakout character for this arc and champions the cause of sitting on dead stuff and eating it.
 
The fungoids seem to be opportunists, like a lot of bacteria that live on the skin. Interesting. Though having a being that feeds on decay and can cause it could be very useful in the future.
 
From previous days:
"Oh God, Oh God. I…" His right clasps the side of his face. "What happened to me?"
'right hand'?
With the helmet on, I… Felt that I was a.. tiny, completely replaceable parts of some… Great machine.
'part'
This universe contains seven galaxies. Each contains about a hundred billion stars.
Holy shit that's small. That makes Starbreaker eating the universe a lot less impressive. I mean, still incredible, but orders of magnitude less so.

From today:
Nameless fungoid of the rot
'Rot'?
"We are lead to a land of food which enriches the soul, nourishing us."
'led'
Also, maybe 'were'
Hellboy would serve as evidence of our causal anti-squid racism.
'casual'?
Its structure changes, odd fronts projecting from hits head and neck and waving in the air.
'fronds'?

Tangentially, I discovered and watched Freeman's Mind over the last couple of days, and I saw a comment from the Mr Zoat YouTube channel on one of the episodes. Small world, or something.
 
From previous days:
'right hand'?
'part'
'led'
'casual'?
'fronds'?
Thank you, corrected.
The SI doesn't know that that's a distinct place.
No, I think that's okay.
Tangentially, I discovered and watched Freeman's Mind over the last couple of days, and I saw a comment from the Mr Zoat YouTube channel on one of the episodes. Small world, or something.
If a thing's popular enough, it's not that strange.
 
The Rot is post flashpoint, and is decay, not fungi.

Given how much Zoat Loves the New 52 its surely that!

edit: rip that was wrong

I think the rot zombies are people, Brazil really shouldn't have gone the tree people route
 
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Jet Fighter (part 17)
31st December 2012
19:26 GMT -3


I fire another wave of flames down, the spore cloud that had been rising to meet us crackling and burning. No, not a cloud; it's more like a mist, diffuse and all-enveloping. The spacing is enough that I can't just burn the whole thing with a single gout of fire, though it does clear out the area around me. Which suggests that it's not aimed at me.

"Gary, you attacked me with spore clouds. This isn't an attack. What is it?"

"Home."

"Your home is filled with spores all of the time. You consider that normal."

"Yes, but that is not all. This will make this place part of home. When we are everywhere and everything."

Ah.

"Can you manipulate the spores?"

"I can make more."

"But can you control them?"

"No."
Again, he… It? Makes a confused expression. "Can you control your seeds?"

"
Yes, but it's not a common ability." And Jade finds it unsettling. "Are the others of your kind doing this deliberately, or is it automatic?"

"This..?" It floats down and waves its left arm through the miasma. Interestingly, they don't try settling on it or leaching its power. "No. This is simply a product of us being here."

"
Can you destroy them?"

"Yes. It isn't hard. But not more easily than you can with fire."

"
Can you recall them-" It gurns at me. I.. suppose I can see where it's coming from. "-or shut down the things producing them?"

"I could go lower and tear them out of the food. That would stop them. But they would become more faster than I could do it."

I peer down through the spore mist and spot the places where the growth is just beginning. Purging fire is looking more and more like the best option.

"Fine. Carry on."

He doesn't bother coming back up, flying through the upper part of the miasma in the direction of what I hope to be the origin point. The land below is looking more like a swamp rather than a forest of rotting redwoods, though I don't know if that's just because the fungus has been working here longer or because this is a different region of the Green.

Ring, are we..? Getting anything useful?

Lack of baselines makes accurate analysis difficult. Fungoid elementals have stunted emotional range by human standards. Fungoid elementals have stunted emotional range by observed dryad standards.

More emotionally simple than Euanthe.

Yes.

Naturally, or is that the Anti-Life?

Unknown. Lack of baselines-.

Yes-. Yes. "Gary, what do you want-" I let out another blast of fire to clear my way. "-out of life?"

"Nothing. I exist in continuity with my environment and nature."

"
But you can talk."

"I was told that elementals emerge from the world's magic as a result of human expectations. I mimic humanity. I do not possess it. I am a fungus that can talk, not a human with fungus magic."

"
Do you know the name 'Mannheim'?"

"I do now."

"
Did you know it before now?"

"No. Maybe. I don't register human names. Just whether they smell like food or not."

"
How about 'Darkseid' or 'Anti-Life'?"

"No."

"
'No' as in 'definitely not', or 'no' as in ' I didn't register it'."

"Darkseid is just a name. Anti-Life, that has meaning. If someone had told me that something was Anti-Life, I would remember it. We near it."


I frown. "Anti-Life?"

"Home."


Then it's time to put a little more effort in. A huge fuel tank construct forms behind me, orange light being transmuted directly into fuel. Twelve fuel hoses project down, pilot lights burning faintly as I plot a firing solution. And… Burn.

WOOOOSH!

"Faster, please."

It accelerates down through the murk… Definitely reduced levels of illumination down here. Other fungoids… Larger ones, pull their way out of the mire below and adopt a hostile posture… For a few seconds before my hoses reach them and render them a non-issue. The ground they were hiding in proves to be a little more resilient to my attentions, the moisture oozing back from underground.

Don't worry about that. Flames to the sides and above, and follow Gary.

And… Huh. Some of the plants lying close to the ground aren't-. Don't appear to be dead. Not much: a few leaves and small sprouts. I move the flames to avoid burning them, using constructs to shield those that are too close to major piles of rot to be avoided. No coherent response from the fungoids, but I suppose… Fungi aren't exactly known for being proactive, and it's not as if I'm making a real difference to their numbers.

"We are near."

"
Alright, what does-?"

And there's a huge tree, standing a good two hundred metres tall and.. sort of.. bent over. There's a faint green glow around it which appears to be keeping the spores at bay… Mostly. I see a small conk growing near the base, only for some sort of Venus flytrap mouth to chomp into it and tear it off. The wood beneath repairs itself a moment later. Further on, a part of the tree appears to be growing into the ground, the green glow there more intense.

"It look like."

Around the tree I see rows of the same sort of brambles around Brasília. The fungoids are attempting to break through, but they appear poorly organised. Their rot-based powers appear to make a degree of headway, only for a surge of growth to make good the Green's losses and cut into them.

I fly upwards to try and get a better view. The shape of the tree is… Odd. It looks more like three or four trees are growing together, which would make sense if the growth were directed, but-.

Oh.

The giant wooden form of Doctor Pamela Isley slowly turns its head to look at me.
 
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Damn, Pamela pulling through.

I guess she is actually better than Euanthe to combat the rot, as part human.


A nature spirit, for which rot is a necessary part of the lifecycle, is probably not as spiritually hardened as humans who did and do their best to invent things impervious to decay.
 
31st December 2012
19:26 GMT -3


I fire another wave of flames down, the spore cloud that had been rising to meet us crackling and burning. No, not a cloud; it's more like a mist, diffuse and all-enveloping. The spacing is enough that I can't just burn the whole thing with a single gout of fire, though it does clear out the area around me. Which suggests that it's not aimed at me.

"Gary, you attacked me with spore clouds. This isn't an attack. What is it?"
Man, OL is just roasting everything around him. Probably for the best. Any flesh the trees have lost to the fungi is dead, and as long as the trees have enough nutrients left in their root systems to begin regrowth, the fire is an inconvenience.

"Home."

"Your home is filled with spores all of the time. You consider that normal."
Well, of course he does.

"Yes, but that is not all. This will make this place part of home. When we are everywhere and everything."

Ah.
Too bad for everyone and everything else, though.

"Can you manipulate the spores?"

"I can make more."
To be fair, it's like breathing. Short of holding your breath or covering your mouth, there's not much you can do to manipulate what you breathe out.

"But can you control them?"

"No." Again, he… It? Makes a confused expression. "Can you control your seeds?"
...Define 'seeds'. :confused: Because OL has some freaky talents...

"Yes, but it's not a common ability." And Jade finds it unsettling. "Are the others of your kind doing this deliberately, or is it automatic?"

"This..?" It floats down and waves its left arm through the miasma. Interestingly, they don't try settling on it or leaching its power. "No. This is simply a product of us being here."
:eek: Oh god, we did not want to hear that. Ew. Odd reaction from the spores, though. The Construct Lantern doesn't register as being alive, but it didn't trigger any hostile response, either? Could be useful.

"Can you destroy them?"

"Yes. It isn't hard. But not more easily than you can with fire."
So, what you're saying is... Burninate the countryside?

"Can you recall them-" It gurns at me. I.. suppose I can see where it's coming from. "-or shut down the things producing them?"

"I could go lower and tear them out of the food. That would stop them. But they would become more faster than I could do it."
Well, then. Not much use, are you?

I peer down through the spore mist and spot the places where the growth is just beginning. Purging fire is looking more and more like the best option.

"Fine. Carry on."
Best to start at the edge and work your way inwards, then. Once the source is blocked, anyway.

He doesn't bother coming back up, flying through the upper part of the miasma in the direction of what I hope to be the origin point. The land below is looking more like a swamp rather than a forest of rotting redwoods, though I don't know if that's just because the fungus has been working here longer or because this is a different region of the Green.

Ring, are we..? Getting anything useful?
I mean, how far have you flown? Not that time and distance mean all that much in an eldritch realm like this...

Lack of baselines makes accurate analysis difficult. Fungoid elementals have stunted emotional range by human standards. Fungoid elementals have stunted emotional range by observed dryad standards.

More emotionally simple than Euanthe.
Not unexpected. Not much need for emotions when your only purpose is to consume and reproduce.

Yes.

Naturally, or is that the Anti-Life?
I expect 'insufficient data' or something...

Unknown. Lack of baselines-.

Yes-. Yes. "Gary, what do you want-" I let out another blast of fire to clear my way. "-out of life?"
Huh. To be fair, it probably does have more cognitive abilities now than it used to.

"Nothing. I exist in continuity with my environment and nature."

"But you can talk."
Very easy-going, then.

"I was told that elementals emerge from the world's magic as a result of human expectations. I mimic humanity. I do not possess it. I am a fungus that can talk, not a human with fungus magic."

"Do you know the name 'Mannheim'?"
To be fair, that logic works. Humanity looms large within Earth's thaumaturgic networks, with its' minor variations like Atlanteans a mere blip in the noise. Belief shapes existence, and all that.

"I do now."

"Did you know it before now?"
What would a fungus have needed names for? It is what it is, and all else is fodder.

"No. Maybe. I don't register human names. Just whether they smell like food or not."

"How about 'Darkseid' or 'Anti-Life'?"
Which is a worthwhile question, as both terms do have metaphysical weight to them...

"No."

"'No' as in 'definitely not', or 'no' as in ' I didn't register it'."
Ah, good catch. After all, it has little need to differentiate between the aspects...

"Darkseid is just a name. Anti-Life, that has meaning. If someone had told me that something was Anti-Life, I would remember it. We near it."

I frown. "Anti-Life?"
Interesting. VEry interesting. Even the Black has a concept of what should not be...

"Home."

Then it's time to put a little more effort in. A huge fuel tank construct forms behind me, orange light being transmuted directly into fuel. Twelve fuel hoses project down, pilot lights burning faintly as I plot a firing solution. And… Burn.
Praise the Emperor and pass the blessed promethium! Catachan Guardsmen would feel right at home.

WOOOOSH!

"Faster, please."
...There must be a hell of a lot of it down there...

It accelerates down through the murk… Definitely reduced levels of illumination down here. Other fungoids… Larges ones, pull their way out of the mire below and adopt a hostile posture… For a few seconds before my hoses reach them and render them a non-issue. The ground they were hiding in proves to be a little more resilient to my attentions, the moisture oozing back from underground.

Don't worry about that. Flames to the sides and above, and follow Gary.
Heh. Not much defence against being incinerated before you can even assume a battle-ready pose. :p

And… Huh. Some of the plants lying close to the ground aren't-. Don't appear to be dead. Not much: a few leaves and small sprouts. I move the flames to avoid burning them, using constructs to shield those that are too close to major piles of rot to be avoided. No coherent response from the fungoids, but I suppose… Fungi aren't exactly known for being proactive, and it's not as if I'm making a real difference to their numbers.

"We are near."
Looks like the Green is already fighting back, with a little of the pressure off.

"Alright, what does-?"

And there's a huge tree, standing a good two hundred metres tall and.. sort of.. bent over. There's a faint green glow around it which appears to be keeping the spores at bay… Mostly. I see a small conk growing near the base, only for some sort of Venus flytrap mouth to chomp into it and tear it off. The wood beneath repairs itself a moment later. Further on, a part of the tree appears to be growing into the ground, the green glow there more intense.
They most be close to a major node of green consciousness, then, if it's taking direct action. Looks like you've found someone.

"It look like."

Around the tree I see rows of the same sort of brambles around Brasília. The fungoids are attempting to break through, but they appear poorly organised. Their rot-based powers appear to make a degree of headway, only for a surge of growth to make good the Green's losses and cut into them.
Heh. Regrowing faster than they can consume. But how long can the being keep that up before they expend all the resources nearby?

I fly upwards to try and get a better view. The shape of the tree is… Odd. It looks more like three or four trees are growing together, which would make sense if the growth were directed, but-.

Oh.

The giant wooden form of Doctor Pamela Isley slowly turns its head to look at me.
...Nice. I guess you could say she's now got huge tracts of land? :p

Well, then. Looks like Ivy done evolved into Alraune. (And boy, if that ain't an easy subject to find a worksafe image for... x3 So many monster girls...) I wonder if it was her own doing, Euanthe's, or some kind of mystical accident. At any rate, I bet this has really improved her ability to command plant-life. Which she's definitely in need of, with what's going on...


Other fungoids… Larges ones, pull their way out of the mire below and adopt a hostile posture…
Other fungoids… Larger ones, pull their way out of the mire below and adopt a hostile posture…
 
Looks like Ivy got transformed into a plant elemental.
Wonder if this is how she becomes the May Queen in this continuity- or attracts the attention of that elemental if it exists.

Trees and fungi have important symbiotic relationships in real-life, but I'm not sure how much of that translates to how the Grey and the Green interact in comics canon. Though this is the Grey and not the Black that was used by Anton Arcane, right?
 
The no should be orange as well.
Thank you, corrected.
That would kinda be like enforcing a depressing genre shift onto the DC brand. All their media, comics tv shows and movies, suddenly becoming 'Anti-Life' flavor. I imagine that would be unpleasant for people like Paul who live in there.
It would explainj a lot, though.
Other fungoids… Larger ones, pull their way out of the mire below and adopt a hostile posture…
Thank you, corrected.
What does conk mean? I tried looking it up for an obscure definition, but I couldn't see any that fit.
Flat fungus growth projecting from the side of a dead or dying tree.
 
Most of the chapter is orange. I don't think that's on purpose.

Hm -

"Gary, you attacked me with spore clouds. This isn't an attack. What is it?"

"Home."

"
Your home is filled with spores all of the time. You consider that normal."

There's a missing /COLOR tag after that first "...

"Can you manipulate the spores?"

"I can make more."

"
But can you control them?"

..and another after the " at the start of this...and another after the " at the end that is spilling over to make the rest of the chapter a harbinger of Orangest Night.
 

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