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

Darko · Jan 27, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
shield whatever it was made of and these rounds clearly haven't.

Maybe "no matter what it was made"

Mr Zoat said:
Some inquisitors are hard people in a hard line of work,

Hard Men making hard choices.

More often than not it's a load of crap to justify acting like a dick.

Mr Zoat said:
This man didn't solve problems. He created them.

That's a perfect summary of the Imperium of Man.

Mr Zoat said:
The colours are fading slightly, and I can see the outline of the room. Looks like there's… Yes, an enhanced interrogation suite, Inquisition style. Clamps, chains, an excruciator, what's left of a scribe servitor… But they knew he didn't know anything! There wasn't anything he could tell them and they didn't believe otherwise. This was just… Horribly torture a man because that's the next step. And they don't even have the excuse that most Imperial organisations do about procedure being holy writ; the Inquisition is expressly empowered to go against that.

Maybe they wanted to make sure that they weren't losing their touch and used him for practice.

Darko · Jan 27, 2023

Chojin Patriarch said:
And given how many human-ruled worlds there are... Ten billion lives is a fraction of a percent. A literal rounding error.

The Administratum probably has ten times that number of people lost due to a clerical error.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Sadly, many Inquisitors end up having to run clean-up on other Inquisitors of their Ordos... It's a wonder they get time to focus on their real enemies.

I mean, the Imperium is kinda one of its own worst enemies.

Chojin Patriarch said:
In other words, this may not have been an intentional summoning. Daemons of Khorne especially are drawn to places of bloodletting

Rituals connected to Chaos seem to just be a way for mortals to focus.

It's possible that for a sufficiently skilled psyker manipulating the Warp would just be a matter of will.

Mr Zoat · Jan 27, 2023

Darko said:
Maybe "no matter what it was made"

I think that's fine.

Hard Men making hard choices.

More literally, hard men making unproductively brutal choices and assuming that it's the same thing.

That's a perfect summary of the Imperium of Man.

I rather like the description... I think it was from 1d4chan: 'A man hanging from a cliff by one hand. He could probably pull himself up if he used his second, but he's too busy using it to flip off the people standing on the clifftop.'

unLuckerII · Jan 27, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
testicle-retraction-inducing

Oh my god was that not supposed to be "particle"? Bwahaha

Mr Zoat · Jan 27, 2023

unLuckerII said:
Oh my god was that not supposed to be "particle"? Bwahaha

Why would a particle retract?

Handlewithcare · Jan 27, 2023

Loving it. More 40K Paul please! If there is one setting that needs his special brand of rationality it's this one.

Has Paul any plans to interfere in Guilliman's resurrection in some way and help him along?

Mr Zoat · Jan 27, 2023

Handlewithcare said:
Loving it. More 40K Paul please! If there is one setting that needs his special brand of rationality it's this one.

Can do.

Has Paul any plans to interfere in Guilliman's resurrection in some way and help him along?

This is a 2nd Edition story. While Macragge isn't that far from the Tau Empire, he's not sure he could get to the temple where they're keeping Guilliman's body, not sure he could fix it and pretty sure he wouldn't get a positive reception even if has was successful.

Lord Ernest · Jan 27, 2023

unLuckerII said:
Oh my god was that not supposed to be "particle"? Bwahaha

I'm pretty certain the expression means that the Assassin got so close as to see the white of this Paul's eyes, and the poor fella saw his life flashing.

And on that note, I also thought it was hilarous and would like a proper accounting of what and how it happened, please!

Vaermina · Jan 27, 2023

Lord Ernest said:
I'm pretty certain the expression means that the Assassin got so close as to see the white of this Paul's eyes, and the poor fella saw his life flashing.

And on that note, I also thought it was hilarous and would like a proper accounting of what and how it happened, please!

Given Callidus Assassin's are armed with Necron and Psychic weaponry that bypasses any and all defenses I'm pretty sure he meant it was him running in fear.

Mr Zoat · Jan 27, 2023

Chojin Patriarch said:
...As in Shas'La T'Au Kais? Oh, shit... For reference, he's a Fire Warrior who proved so badass that he supposedly steam-rolled Astartes both Loyalist and Heretical, daemons and even beat down a Greater Demon of Tzeentch.

No, that's the Kais from the game. This is the Kais from the novel.

Coda · Jan 27, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
a result of the shear barbarity of the rulers

sheer

Mr Zoat said:
Scarlet and purple

Hey wait, this ain't a Pokemon game!

Someguy Somewhere · Jan 27, 2023

Where's Kaldor Draigo when you need him?

Darko · Jan 27, 2023

Someguy Somewhere said:
Where's Kaldor Draigo when you need him?

I'm guessing he's jumping around in the Warp with his roommate, Leman Russ.

Mr Zoat · Jan 27, 2023

Coda said:
sheer

Thank you, corrected.

Mr Zoat · Jan 28, 2023

6 561 937.M41

I'm..! Burning!

Every part of my… AGH! Skin is… I can see welts-. No, that's… That's my armour, my armour has blisters and I can feel the blood draining and the fat dripping and the pus oozing! The pain in my eye sockets is incredible but I can still see…

RING!

AH!

Ah!

I'm not better, I'm not healed, but the pain is reduced to manageable levels. My injuries are glowing-.

"Advena."

Then the daemon hurls me away, and for a moment I foolishly assume that I'm heading back into reality. Instead, I hit-.

OW!

Hit a solid metal surface, my blisters tearing open again. Uh, the first version I read of the death of Horus described his armour as bleeding wherever Sanguinius cut it with his sword. And now I know how that felt. My armour's bruised, despite the ceramite being solid plates… Until a few moments ago. Now it and I are one and the same, and I need to-.

A piston screams towards me and I fly-.

Doesn't work!

I frantically scramble out of the way, the metal plate clipping my right leg-

CRACK!

-andagh! I grab a nearby support pillar and pull myself to my feet, avoiding putting any weight onto my newly broken leg. And I'm painfully aware that while I can charge myself with warp energy I can't just punch a hole back into reality myself.

The huge metal daemon is looking down at my form… From a hole in the roof and far wall of some sort of hellish manufacturing plant. Its face… The skin is like peeling… Metal? As if a coating was partially rubbed off. Around the joints I can see leaking lubricant fluid, and its mechanical eyes judder as they track me. Some parts of its body look like they're missing, as if whoever was making it gave up before they finished, cables and tubing left hanging free. I can actually see through it in a few places.

"What do you want?"

"We have known dark times. We have known strife."

Screech!

I glance up and hobblehobblehobble!

The industrial crucible crashes down and overturns, spilling molten metal across the floor towards me! Spotting a ladder on the side of a giant machine of some kind I hop at it and lunge, grabbing the furthest rung I can manage with both hands and hauling myself up just ahead of the glutinous slag!

"To live in these times is to have expendable life."

"Yeah, it's not called the-" Up, up. "-grim dark future because it's all puppies and rainbows."

The ladder's heating up and burning my hands, but it's nothing compared to what I got hit with when I first arrived.

"Where progress and humanity are replaced with brutality."

"Look, if you're trying to tailor a corruption narrative to fit me, you're going to have to try harder than that. I've got the orange light and the tau. I don't need-."

And that's when I spot that the rungs of the ladder are made of metal-coated human arms, reaching out from a machine whose outer surface is made of layers of metalised human skin.

Even for the Mechanicus…

"-Chaos or Chaos worshippers."

What god is it from? The decaying metal and comparatively laid back manner suggests Nurgle. But Nurgle daemons are usually a lot more overt about their decay, and this thing is more… Like damage from long term lack of maintenance rather than an infection or fungal growth. Its form is relatively stationary and rather… Bland, which implies that it's not Tzeentch. It's talking and there aren't skulls everywhere so Khorne's out, and while Slaanesh loves pain as much as everything else this is all a bit mundane.

I doubt that it's Malal given that we're in the warp, but since there aren't any other daemons around I suppose it's a 'maybe'. Which leaves other lesser chaos powers like Mo'rcck, Phraz-Etar or An'sl and I've got no idea what their daemons look like, or this could be a daemon of Chaos Undivided. If it's a regular daemon, it would have grown from a patch of undifferentiated energy not associated with the four. Or if it's an actual Daemon Prince, a being marked equally by each of the four, or a creature that absorbed and internalised enough warp energy to transcend its mortal origins without the four.

None of which helps me.

"Where the will of the few dictate the lives of the many."

"That's just human culture, I'm afraid."

"But a secret promise is made to those who are dauntless."

Oh. He came from that planet. Did the Inquisitor find a cultist by accident? I know that the princedom threshold is a bit lower for demagogues than it is for astartes, but there wasn't a cult here. They still have to do something, and getting tortured while someone else kills the Inquisitor wouldn't be enough.

I pull myself up on top of whatever this is a moment before the hands unclasp and the sheets of metal skin begin peeling off. Grabbing a control lectern for stability I look up at the daemon.

"Bit surprised it bothers you, though. Who are you?"

Its many robotic eyes move independently, taking in the whole of the factory. Some rotate further, and through the warp-stuff around it I can dimly make out more factories behind and above it.

"For at the end of days, they shall be found..."

Man-shaped metal sheets fly through the air towards the daemon as it spreads its arms wide to welcome them.

"Faultless."

They hit the daemon and flatten themselves against its skin, covering its metal plates and cables. To start with it just looks odd, but as more and more build up it changes the misshapen metal into a near-smooth humanoid.

What am I seeing?

I don't know.

I grab a metal person-sheet as it tugs against its mooring and try using my ring to learn something about it.

Damn this wretched world that I call my home.

And I feel it, feel the years, decades, centuries of the same cycles of suffering and misery. But they don't hope or despair, because it's all they know. They can't imagine anything else-. Or couldn't, until they were murdered by an Inquisitor and their souls were set loose into the warp.

Where they formed a bridge. Centred around-.

I let the flapping sheet go, and it flies around to cover the daemon's back. Or if I guess right, the newly ascendant daemon prince's back. That last prisoner, drawing the fragments of the souls of those who shared his misery into itself to fuel its ascension. And as far as I can tell, they're entirely willing to be consumed in that way, to get revenge at those who made their lives what they were.

The daemon above me flexes its limbs as the flayed metal skin finishes coating its new body, and I can see the edges smooth out as they fully integrate into its being.

And then it looks up, at the still open hole back to reality.

Someguy Somewhere · Jan 28, 2023

I was JUST listening to that tune. Stringstorm and company do good work.

Good stuff all round.

Vanbers · Jan 28, 2023

"I need a massive amount of senseless torture and resentful innocent souls to fuel my ascension, but where could I possibly find such a thing? Where could I find enough people to torture, and enough people to do the torturing?"

Inquisition: "Allow us to introduce ourselves."

"Ah. Excellent. I can use that most dangerous of Chaos Psykery. Outsourcing."

Handlewithcare · Jan 28, 2023

Welp,maybe it will realise Paul already dispensed justice on the Inquisitor?

Nice little deamonic ally?

m_d · Jan 28, 2023

Interesting. I've never played W40K, though I've watched others do so in Wargames club in high school a few times. That said, I think that your writing puts in enough detail that I would be drawn in even if I hadn't.

Mr Zoat said:
a nearly support pillar

nearby

Mr Zoat said:
looking down at my from

form

Mr Zoat said:
It's face

Its

Chojin Patriarch · Jan 28, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
6 561 937.M41

I'm..! Burning!

Every part of my… AGH! Skin is… I can see welts-. No, that's… That's my armour, my armour has blisters and I can feel the blood draining and the fat dripping and the pus oozing! The pain in my eye sockets is incredible but I can still see…

And evidently this thing is bypassing his defences on some level, because if P'Aul didn't want it to, this would not be hurting him unless it was very powerful... And any daemon powerful enough to ignore the Ring would not need to mess about like this...

RING!

AH!

Hurting so badly he can't even think, eh?

Ah!

I'm not better, I'm not healed, but the pain is reduced to manageable levels. My injuries are glowing-.

At least Ring Charge is in no short supply in here.

"Advena."

Then daemon hurls me away, and for a moment I foolishly assume that I'm heading back into reality. Instead, I hit-.

OW!

Too much to hope for, alas.

Hit a solid metal surface, my blisters tearing open again. Uh, the first version I read of the death of Horus described his armour as bleeding wherever Sanguinius cut it with his sword. And now I know how that felt. My armour's bruised, despite the ceramite being solid plates… Until a few moments ago. Now it and I are one and the same, and I need to-.

A piston screams towards me and I fly-.

Oh, dear. That's a common thing for Heretic Astartes, who often fuse into their armour because of Warp energies... Getting it off again is gonna suck.

Doesn't work!

I frantically scramble out of the way, the metal plate clipping my right leg-

Oh, this is gonna hurt.

Leg injuries always make me squirm, especially knee stuff.

CRACK!

-andagh! I grab a nearly support pillar and pull myself to my feet, avoiding putting any weight onto my newly broken leg. And I'm painfully aware that while I can charge myself with warp energy I can't just punch a hole back into reality myself.

The Ring works on far too rational a technological principle for that, eh?

The huge metal daemon is looking down at my from… From a hole in the roof and far wall of some sort of hellish manufacturing plant. It's face… The skin is like peeling… Metal? As if a coating was partially rubbed off. Around the joints I can see leaking lubricant fluid, and its mechanical eyes judder as they track me. Some parts of its body look like they're missing, as if whoever was making it gave up before they finished, cables and tubing left hanging free. I can actually see through it in a few places.

...How ironic, given discussion of Vashtorr the Arkifane, Daemonic master of the Soul Forges that produce Daemon Engines...

"What do you want?"

"We have known dark times. We have known strife."

Though I doubt this being was borne of the Warp...

Screech!

I glance up and hobblehobblehobble!

Not even trying to heal it? Or are you too focused on not dying horribly in general first?

The industrial crucible crashes down and overturns, spilling molten metal across the floor towards me! Spotting a ladder on the side of a giant machine of some kind I hop at it and lunge, grabbing the furthest rung I can manage with both hands and hauling myself up just ahead of the glutinous slag!

"To live in these times is to have expendable life."

Seriously, dude is quoting, and quoting badly, assorted flavour lines from the 40k rulebook...

"Yeah, it's not called the-" Up, up. "-grim dark future because it's all puppies and rainbows."

The ladder's heating up and burning my hands, but it's nothing compared to what I got hit with when I first arrived.

Why do I get the feeling you actually fell into the crucible before he plucked you out of it...

"Where progress and humanity are replaced with brutality."

"Look, if you're trying to tailor a corruption narrative to fit me, you're going to have to try harder than that. I've got the orange light and the tau. I don't need-."

Heck, depending on how his soul-less nature interacted with the Immaterium, he may well be something close to a Blank minus the off-putting creepiness...

And that's when I spot that the rungs of the ladder are made of metal-coating human arms, reaching out from a machine whose outer surface is made of layers of metalised human skin.

Even for the Mechanicus…

"-Chaos or Chaos worshippers."

I doubt they'd go to this extreme... The Dark Mechanicum, on the other hand...

What god is it from? The decaying metal and comparatively laid back manner suggests Nurgle. But Nurgle daemons are usually a lot more overt about their decay, and this thing is more… Like damage from long term lack of maintenance rather than an infection or fungal growth. Its form is relatively stationary and rather… Bland, which implies that it's not Tzeentch. It's talking and there aren't skulls everywhere so Khorne's out, and while Slaanesh loves pain as much as everything else this is all a bit mundane.

I mean, there are daemons of Chaos Undivided, they're just rarely glimpsed anywhere because the four iconic gods are, well... Iconic.

I doubt that it's Malal given that we're in the warp, but since there aren't any other daemons around I suppose it's a 'maybe'. Which leaves other lesser chaos powers like Mo'rcck, Phraz-Etar or An'sl and I've got no idea what their daemons look like, or this could be a daemon of Chaos Undivided. If it's a regular daemon, it would have grown from a patch of undifferentiated energy not associated with the four. Or if it's an actual Daemon Prince, a being marked equally by each of the four, or a creature that absorbed and internalised enough warp energy to transcend its mortal origins without the four.

Sound those names out and take note of them... Early Warhammer writers were magpies of culture.

None of which helps me.

"Where the will of the few dictate the lives of the many."

Such is...

"That's just human culture, I'm afraid."

"But a secret promise is made to those who are dauntless.

Dang, ninja'd by the character in-universe.

Oh. He came from that planet. Did the Inquisitor find a cultist by accident? I know that the princedom threshold is a bit lower for demagogues than it is for astartes, but there wasn't a cult here. They still have to do something, and getting tortured while someone else kills the Inquisitor wouldn't be enough.

I pull myself up on top of whatever this is a moment before the hands unclasp and the sheets of metal skin begin peeling off. Grabbing a control lectern for stability I look up at the daemon.

I suppose if they threw enough shit at the wall some of it would stick eventually.

"Bit surprised it bothers you, though. Who are you?"

Its many robotic eyes move independently, taking in the whole of the factory. Some rotate further, and through the warp-stuff around it I can dimly make out more factories behind and above it.

Great, it's already becoming non-euclidean. This is really gonna get trippy.

"For at the end of days, they shall be found..."

Man-shaped metal sheets fly through the air towards the daemon as it spreads its arms wide to welcome them.

Ah, crap, it's powering up. And P'Aul is in no shape for a boss fight.

"Faultless."

They hit the daemon and flatten themselves against its skin, covering its metal plates and cables. To start with it just looks odd, but as more and more build up it changes the misshapen metal into a near-smooth humanoid.

...And now I'm reminded of the golden Giant from the later part of 'Astartes'.

What am I seeing?

I don't know.

'It is not needed to understand something in order to learn how to kill it.'

I grab a metal person-sheet as it tugs against its mooring and try using my ring to learn something about it.

Damn this wretched world that I call my home.

Ooof. Someone's upset about their lot in life.

And I feel it, feel the years, decades, centuries of the same cycles of suffering and misery. But they don't hope or despair, because it's all they know. They can't imagine anything else-. Or couldn't, until they were murdered by an Inquisitor and their souls were set lose into the warp.

Where they formed a bridge. Centred around-.

Oh, well done, that idiot of an Inquisitor. In trying to find heresy, you formented it.

I let the flapping sheet go, and it flies around to cover the daemon's back. Or if I guess right, the newly ascendant daemon prince's back. That last prisoner, drawing the fragments of the souls of those who shared his misery into itself to fuel its ascension. And as far as I can tell, they're entirely willing to be consumed in that way, to get revenge at those who made their lives what they were.

The daemon above me flexes its limbs as the flayed metal skin finishes coating its new body, and I can see the edges smooth out as they fully integrate into its being.

And then it looks up, at the still open hole back to reality.

Well, shit. Let's hope you can hitch a ride...

The scary thing is, who knows how long has passed outside. It could have been an instant, it could have been hours. For all we know, Gremlin is waiting there with a whole army of fire warriors and Crisis teams, all packing enough dakka to vapourise the new Prince. Let's just hope it isn't one of those 'return to the material world before you left' deals. ...That would make the daemon something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Then daemon hurls me away, and for a moment...

'The' or 'Then the', perhaps?

...the rungs of the ladder are made of metal-coating human arms...

...the rungs of the ladder are made of metal-coated human arms...

Mr Zoat · Jan 28, 2023

m_d said:
nearby
form
Its

Chojin Patriarch said:
'The' or 'Then the', perhaps?
...the rungs of the ladder are made of metal-coated human arms...

Thank you, corrected.

Vaermina · Jan 28, 2023

Handlewithcare said:
Nice little deamonic ally?

If there was even the most remote chance of that happening the Eldar would have already arranged this Paul's death.

Because they don't play games with that sort of thing.

Darko · Jan 28, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
We have known dark times. We have known strife."

Hmm, I was honestly thinking that this may be a Man of Iron.

Mr Zoat said:
But a secret promise is made to those who are dauntless.

Add a " at the end.

Darko · Jan 28, 2023

Chojin Patriarch said:
Ooof. Someone's upset about their lot in life.

They live in the Warp.

Wouldn't you be upset?

Chojin Patriarch said:
Oh, well done, that idiot of an Inquisitor. In trying to find heresy, you formented it.

That's just par for the course when it comes to them.

I'm pretty sure that's of the Inquisitions brand.

Heck, at least they get job security and won't be out of work, since they end up making more and more problems that need fixing.

Khornelius · Jan 28, 2023

I love that song. It's awesome how you seemed to have been inspired by enough to make this chapter or the very least this Daemon a Prince of Nihilism.

Mr Zoat · Jan 28, 2023

Darko said:
Hmm, I was honestly thinking that this may be a Man of Iron.

First mentioned in the 3rd edition rulebook, if I remember correctly. And it was in a piece written from an in-universe perspective and I read it as if they were talking about a human culture rather than the AIs the term was later used for.

Add a " at the end.

Thank you, corrected.

Mr Zoat · Jan 28, 2023

crazygrox, you know what you did.

crazygrox · Jan 28, 2023

Mr Zoat said:
crazygrox, you know what you did.

Crud wrong thread.

Deleted.

Vaermina · Jan 28, 2023

Chojin Patriarch said:
The scary thing is, who knows how long has passed outside. It could have been an instant, it could have been hours. For all we know, Gremlin is waiting there with a whole army of fire warriors and Crisis teams, all packing enough dakka to vapourise the new Prince. Let's just hope it isn't one of those 'return to the material world before you left' deals. ...That would make the daemon something of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Outside of game mechanics Tau weapons aren't capable of actually hurting Daemon Princes.

Even Greater Daemons are skirting the level of reality breakdown where you need sanctified weapons to actually harm them.

Mr Zoat · Jan 29, 2023

6 561 937.M41

"That's not a good idea!"

Once the daemon leaves, it will lose control of this patch of the warp. The factory should decay away and then I'll be free to follow it out. But that's a big daemon. It'll burn through its power at an accelerated rate; giant daemons are rare, but they occur frequently enough that there are records. Angron himself had to call a halt to his offensive on Armageddon when his horde started evaporating from lack of warp energy.

And the massive ritual sacrifices he made to correct the problem must have saved the Administratum years.

The purges… Yes, that might work!

"I, who am Faultless, was subject to the foulest of mistreatment at the hands of arrogant masters! And now, I will return bearing the wrath their deeds have earned."

"The Inquisitor's dead!" Its head jerks down, eyes staring at me. "We already killed him!"

"He was MINE!"

"We didn't know you existed! I came to the prison to free and heal you, and any others who were still alive!"

The daemon leans down, right hand resting on a part of the now-skeletal factory wall. Out of the corner of my eye I spot that the wall… Fills out, becoming whole and… Cleaner, as if it were newly made rather than subject to Hive City decay.

"I will be the judge."

Warning! Mental-

My mind becomes a square. Ridged lines form between evening meal, washing and sleeping, and those lines are solid and fixed. But the other lines are made of the myriad of different actions and situations I am in for the rest of the day, and the square-.

My face hits the deck just as the vomit leaves my helmet-mouth.

Wrong! Wrong! The square doesn't work, can't catch, every moment it tried to force what was there into a pattern where no pattern exists. Travelling and fighting nearly hold, but the differences in foes and locations still tear it apart.

I try pushing myself up

Travel-. Travel- Traaaaaaaaaaa-.

and the daemon slumps and I can think clearly-. Nearly clearly, again.

Can't just ring the vomit away, not while the daemon is imposing its version of reality on this place. But… Rag, and water, because that's what they'd use to clean up messes in the factory.

There. I splash some water-. Polluted water, across my face and armour, then use the rag to wipe as much away as possible. Given the state of my leg-. I can't fix it because no one would waste time giving a low-hive factory worker medical aide. Splint? Yes. Alright. And crutch. And hobble upright and make sure I tell Tsua'm and Bo'ohk to prioritise medical aid once I get out.

"Did you..? See what you needed?"

It closes its eyes, jaw working and expression pained.

"I saw a universe of colour, such as I have never seen before. I saw possibilities and a shifting, inconstant soul. I saw xenos showing more consideration and kindness than my own masters ever gave me."

"That might just be because I have something unique to offer them."

He shakes his head, eyes unfocused.

"No. I saw the human worlds you visited. So much… Life. Even the labourers were treated better."

"Those weren't Hive Worlds. Comparing the two doesn't work. Yes, the tau will make improvements, but it won't be anything like as radical-."

"Why?" His head comes up and focuses fully on me. "Why do xenos care more for our suffering than our masters?"

"Because people respond better to being treated well. In the Imperium, they can rely on cultural indoctrination to keep everyone working hard. The tau have to be a bit more mercenary. 'See, look how much your life has improved, and you can keep worshipping the Emperor if you want'."

"Does he exist, or is that a lie too?"

"To the best of my knowledge, the Emperor exists. The Ecclesiarchy doesn't get him quite right, but he'd definitely hate me for giving up on humanity in favour of aliens."

"Then why do we suffer so?"

"Because it's easy and simple. He cares about humanity, but doesn't care at all for individual humans. If the output of your factory stayed good, he'd think it was fine. Improving your standard of living would cost extra resources without a corresponding payoff in output."

"Did the Inquisitor have his sanction?"

"He doesn't approve their appointment on an individual basis, and… The organisation came into being towards the end of the Heresy. I don't know whether he created it or not. But… The Emperor wouldn't have condemned you merely for drawing his eye, but he wouldn't have contradicted the Inquisitor either. Saving you wouldn't have been worth the time. But that time would have saved other lives."

"Why did my soul not go to him at the moment of my death?"

"I'm not sure how it works. I don't even know if that happens."

The daemon looks around.

"Is he here?"

"Ah… He has a presence in the warp, yes, but it's a long way from here. You'd have to follow the astronomicon to its source, and it's fairly well protected against things like you. It would be a long journey, and I doubt that other daemons would be glad to see you." I sigh. "I could take you there in the material universe, but we'd probably both die without seeing him."

I'm sure that they've closed Jaq Draco's tunnel by now.

"Look, I understand that you want to tear everyone responsible for your situation apart, but we're past the point where that's a rational course of action. The people taking over your world have tau engineers and physicians with them. It'll take a while, the Hives are very big places, but they're going to start improving things. The existing rulers… They're going to be removed, but I'm afraid that if you subjected them to a magic mind probe you'll learn that they aren't especially bad people. The system they were part of just gave them more than it gave you."

"Then who do I hurt?!"

"I wasn't trying to give you a target. Lashing out might be cathartic, but it doesn't usually help solving complex problems."

"What of the other Hives? Other worlds? I saw them in your mind. How I lived is common."

"My current plan is to help the tau conquer the galaxy, while at the same time improving them to the point where they can fix that problem. I can't promise that it's going to work, but I haven't been able to come up with anything better. If you want to help cast down incapable rulers, we'd be happy to work with you."

Happy may be overstating things, but for once the tau's relaxed attitude to daemons might actually come in handy.

"I mean… Apart from that, what do you want out of existence?"

6 563 937.M41

Bo'ohk stands two places away from me, his right hand on The Faultless One's left arm. Before us, a Primaris Psyker checks the latest of the thousands of victims of the latest Inquisitorial purge for the taint of chaos. With each shaken head, a body is taken before the planet's senior Ecclesiarchy clergy to perform the funerary consecration before they're taken to the cathedral for burial, their clerical robes increasingly stained with blood and soot.

"It's a start."

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

Connoisseur.

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Getting out there.

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At the End...

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The Critical Fumbler

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The Critical Fumbler

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Fascinated by storytelling

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Overlord of the Underworld

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