Vaermina
Well worn.
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*Watches the entity he freed go off to bathe entire planets in fear*
LePaul: "Welp, not my problem."
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*Watches the entity he freed go off to bathe entire planets in fear*
Is Arkham a joyful, blessed place in anti-matter Gotham?Well I suppose that could have gone worse.
In the Smallville comics, for example, Parallax did know how to make rings.
Which he used to make all those Batman villains in Arkham into the yellow lantern corps.
So asking him for a yellow lantern ring could have gone horribly right.
*Watches the entity he freed go off to bathe entire planets in fear*
LePaul: "Welp, not my problem."
Or whatever this universe's equivalent is. I mean, it's not like every alternate universe had the exact same things having the exact same feelings in each... Heck, this one may not even be a giant space locust-thing.20th January 2013
13:10 GMT
A yellow sigil burns on his forehead.
Parallax.
It's just fanning the embers of a flame long quenched... Fanning them with napalm.I guess that's why the green rings back home can affect yellow objects: he was never imprisoned.
Behind me Jade shudders, her soul flaring yellow in my sight. She can fight it to a degree, but much like the Ophidian affecting a person's desires you can't completely fight Parallax when it tries to influence you. The fears are already there.
Well, that's definitely a consistent trait of Parallax hosts from the comics. At least, after the full spectrum retcons. OL should be glad he never exhibited the Ophidian's more unusual jaw traits during his joining..."Parallax."
"Is that your name for this?" His mouth… Extends further into his cheeks than it should, and I'm getting flashes of unusually sharp teeth. "What we… I… Ah."
The joy of prior experience, if not with Fear...He doesn't understand what it is. Parallax might not even understand. I knew in advance… Roughly what was happening, and so Ophidime knew as well.
"She wasn't lying. We find that extremely strange. And…" His glowing eyes refocus on me. "You. You know what.. we are."
An orchestra of screams? That's an unusual way to look at it. I wonder if their special place is an orchestra pit or a theatre, then."I had a similar joining with the Embodiment of Avarice."
"And we are… Fear. It is…" He looks up, at-. At the universe. "A glorious music. We.. can hear… So much…"
While Enlightenment mutes his own expressions of emotions, at least to Empathic Sight..."It's the same for me. Even without the Ophidian I can unfocus my mind and feel the interlocking networks of desires, thwarted and fulfilled. I didn't hear it as music, more like a… Picture, or an abstract sculpture."
"And that is why we can hear you hardly at all. The part of you that is the Ophidian does not have fears."
Which doesn't necessarily answer the question. Was she trying to replicate Kalmin's work? Surpass it, perhaps?"That's probably a part of it. Do you mind me asking what the Weaponer offered the part of you that is Joseph Harrolds?"
"She fears her own worthlessness, and that worthlessness being known to her peers. It motivates everything she doesn't and doesn't do."
In much the same way OL can see the shape of a person's desires, even ones they're not feeling right at that moment..."It might just look like that to you because you can see-. Hear her fear and can't hear other things."
"No. No. We can see it shining clearly."
...Interesting. Abstract, but interesting."I'll take your word for it, then. Ah. Where was the Parallax part of you hanging out before coming here?"
"We don't… Remember. We remember… Everything… Fading. But it did not concern us. Concern-. Why do you call it Parallax?"
...Huh, they're right. More likely, 'Parallax' was a name the maltusian Krona gave it. ...Which wouldn't have happened here, because they don't seem to have evolved here, at least not as they did in the other universe."It once demonstrated the ability to use multiple power rings simultaneously."
"That's 'parallel'."
Huh. Joey's got a decent education, it seems."I'm sorry?"
"Using multiple power rings. That's 'in parallel', like bulbs in a high school science class circuit. Parallax means 'the apparent displacement or the difference in apparent direction of an object as seen from two different points not on a straight line with the object'."
Because Humans are Special."Oh. Then perhaps I misunderstood the explanation. Do you have another name you'd prefer?"
"We..." He looks puzzled. "No. Though… Joseph Harrolds' memories and feelings are more vibrant than what our other half though and felt. We are happy to be addressed by his name."
...That could get a little noisy, I would think."Alright, Mister Harrolds: what's next for you?"
"I want to hear more of the song. I want it to play everywhere in a glorious symphony of terror!"
After all, OL here has more experience in a joined state than you do, Joey.
Like, for example, not killing everything in the universe with their greatest fears?"More sure than we have been of anything that we can remember."
"But have you considered the value of subtlety and differentiation?"
Now you're beginning to understand how everyone felt when you were joined to Best Snek, OL...His eyes dim slightly as he turns his attention on me. That's a little creepy.
"Explain."
...Right. Negative Morality parallel."The Ophidian wants to possess everything all of the time. But that means that one thing is as good as any other, there's no difference between one desire and another. Whose fear would mean the most to you?"
"No... Hm." Mr. Harrolds frowns thoughtfully. "We admit that some of those against whom Joe had a personal grudge… The idea of them with their faces twisted in a rictus of terror before we kill them… That does have a greater appeal."
And there's that human perspective coming in. The perspective of a little man from a world of corruption and deception, where almost no-one does anything without considering how they can benefit from it."That's what happens when you bond with a mortal creature. It affects your perspective, the way you understand the universe. To a being of pure fear, all fear is fear and there's nothing else to say. To you…"
"We feel different. We aren't sure that you don't have an angle-."
'Cui Bono', once more. Or in OL's favorite phrasing: 'What do you want?'"Of course I have an angle. That doesn't mean that I'm not telling the truth."
"What is your angle?"
Oh, this should be enlightening."I want a yellow power ring, a lead on Sinestro and to speak with the Weaponer who put you in there. I'd also like to stop you going on a rampage and terrorising everyone to death."
"Your perspective is helpful, but we find ourselves curious as to what you fear."
Well, from an Avaricious perspective, there's the fear of losing his things..."Personal annihilation."
"Hm." He peers closer. "True. But there's something else."
Given the things he thinks he may have changed from 'canon', that isn't surprising. The thoughts of those whose lives he may have made worse through a blunder..."Heights?"
"No." He smiles, his mouth extending up his face in an open display of inhumanity. "You fear… Getting it wrong. You change things, risk things, and the idea that you might be wrong and that you've misled everyone makes everything resonate with a constant unease."
Probably an M&M next to the smorgasbord of his 'SI's perspective'...It's… Not as intense, but I suppose that he's right. Comic-Parallax… After the 'no-Jordan-wasn't-just-crazy' retcon, exposed people to their fears in order to possess them. This Parallax doesn't need a new host, so it's probably just being a dick.
"Okay, well, thank you for pointing that out. I also get a bit self-conscious in social situations, and you might be able to pick that out-."
After all, he doesn't want to damage what is his."You embrace chaos but you still fear to misstep."
"Follow a rule someone else came up with and everyone expects you to follow and it's as much everyone else's fault as yours. If you do your own thing, that's all on you."
...At least he's better dressed than the comics designs. Seriously, those shoulder-pads of Jordan's..."How compassionate of you." He takes a step back, and then rises into the air. His outline shimmers for a moment as armour appears around his body-. Armour that looks a lot like mine, secondary colour and sigil notwithstanding. "We genuinely have no idea where the Weaponer is, we have no idea how to forge a ring and we have a home to return to. We wish you the best of luck."
He turns to face this universe's anti-Earth and then accelerates into the sky.
...You aren't worried about that? Or are you saving the panic for when it's not going to be lapping it up?
I thought that was Hub City. The place so comically nice that it'd kill demons in it's borders like Qwa Matter if it didn't redeem them on the spot.
That should say 'the Ophidian'.He doesn't understand what it is. Parallax might not even understand. I knew in advance… Roughly what was happening, and so Ophidime knew as well.
About the only place in the universe where you find really truly HONEST Politicians.I thought that was Hub City. The place so comically nice that it'd kill demons in it's borders like Qwa Matter if it didn't redeem them on the spot.
Ophidi-me. Paulphidian.
Didn't realize that until you pointed it out. Thanks.
Wasn't there some mention of how Paul thought that the only way complex society could develop if everyone was evil was via the stronger ones dominating others around them into a hierarchy?I mean, it's Antimatter Earth. Those guys are dicks. Probably.
It's comic book antimatter universe, they're probably nearly all evil or something, or the evil justice league will stop him.
Or hell, he might end up as a hero somehow by being a 'villain' in the anti0universe by as is mandated by the law of 'villainous archetype in opposite world' comic logic. Give 'yellow = evil' and 'green = good' in the regular universe and 'green = evil' in the anti-universe.
Thank you, corrected.
Captain Kathryn Janeway : I've known fear. It's a very healthy thing, most of the time. You warn us of danger, remind us of our limits, protect us from carelessness. I've learned to trust fear.
[...]
You know as well as I do that fear only exists for one purpose: to be conquered.
Modified.In much the same way OL can see the shape of a person's desires, even ones they're not feeling right at that moment...
Guess it is time to gank another jumped up elemental.
I was thinking along similar lines.I could just be seeing things that aren't there, but I honestly liked how - underneath the surface of casual explanations and getting to know the new Embodiment-host on the block - Paul was frantically leveraging his unusual mindset and similar experience with emotions to keep Parallax from noticing that brand-new fear of Paul's and potentially doing anything to act on it.
Offering interesting tidbits of knowledge to both keep their attention on him and direct it towards the less vital topics, outright ignoring Jade's presence aside from the brief bit at the very start, pushing his various fears to the front for scrutiny while not even internally acknowledging the fear he *really* cares about in the hopes of muddying the signal for a bit...
No, he doesn't come from that Crime Syndicate..... A world that runs on the favor system vs the Fear Elemental.
That's not a good combination. Not at all.
Is the Blue Paul there?
Does that confirm that a Crime Syndicate exists on Earth -16? If yes, I hope they'll contact Earth 16 in the future, and that Joseph Harrolds reveals that he only became a member thanks to Paul's advice.
'does and doesn't'?
.... A world that runs on the favor system vs the Fear Elemental.
That's not a good combination. Not at all.
Is the Blue Paul there?
Thank you, corrected.
Which doesn't necessarily mean that there isn't a Blue Lantern there.
Thank you, corrected.
Which doesn't necessarily mean that there isn't a Blue Lantern there.
Does that confirm that a Crime Syndicate exists on Earth -16? If yes, I hope they'll contact Earth 16 in the future, and that Joseph Harrolds reveals that he only became a member thanks to Paul's advice.
Which doesn't necessarily answer the question. Was she trying to replicate Kalmin's work? Surpass it, perhaps?
You aren't worried about that? Or are you saving the panic for when it's not going to be lapping it up?
Can you please try not to completely fuck up a universe for at least one day
This is the just OL's equivalent of Wikiwalking, it's not his fault that clicking on the not-yet-purple hyperlinks has an affect on objective reality!And this was a day off. Goddammit, OL. Can you please try not to completely fuck up a universe for at least one day?
This is the just OL's equivalent of Wikiwalking, it's not his fault that clicking on the not-yet-purple hyperlinks has an affect on objective reality!
Literally, OL and Jade were on a date, Jade asked a question and OL did the equivalent of "I don't know let me Google it" and five minutes later suddenly they were watching execution videos on vice dot com and the food is cooling down in the table.