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

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Mr Zoat said:
Sinestro's face appears over my ring, and I sit up a little straighter.
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I feel like Paul should consider going back to his old ways of mind-reading everyone he meets, at least when it comes to people he doesn't know well.
PepeTheFrog said:
I find it mildly amusing that most universes think of themselves as the regular matter universe and others as the "anti" matter universe.
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Well, that's just natural. I find it way funnier that Kalmin calls his own universe the anti-matter universe.
dw7thdoctor said:
This starting to make less sense. I'm I get Sinestro and Lysis working together, but why Power Ring also am I to believe that Power Ring gaining fear enlightenment was on purpose or just a happy accident? Another thing I'm wondering now was Harrold and Parallax target the approved target was this always a plot against Paul?
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As I understand it, Power Ring was there partly to be a test subject to attract Parallax, and also he was hoping to get enlightenment, but that wouldn't have been likely without Paul inadvertently helping him. They were attracting Parallax to help with understanding the yellow light so that they could make rings. I'm pretty sure that this was not a plot against Paul all along.
When Harrolds says that he's ready for the next step, I'm pretty sure that he's talking about helping with making yellow rings, and it has nothing to do with his plans to invade Earth 16. It's just a coincidence that he wants to invade, because there was a pre-existing plan to invade, and now that he learned from Paul that Earth 16 is fucked, he's more interested in the plan, both because it makes it easier, and because he seems to want to help.
 
PepeTheFrog said:
I find it mildly amusing that most universes think of themselves as the regular matter universe and others as the "anti" matter universe.
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That's always bugged me about universe numbering in comics. Why do all the universes apparently use the same metric?
 
Rebu said:
That's always bugged me about universe numbering in comics. Why do all the universes apparently use the same metric?
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Definitely something they didn't think through in the comics, but earlier in this story it was explained that the numbers aren't arbitrary, but the reasoning is too complex for Paul to understand. Or so I recall, at least.
 
dw7thdoctor said:
This starting to make less sense. I'm I get Sinestro and Lysis working together, but why Power Ring also am I to believe that Power Ring gaining fear enlightenment was on purpose or just a happy accident? Another thing I'm wondering now was Harrold and Parallax target the approved target was this always a plot against Paul?
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It was likely a plot to capture Parallax.

Lysis's capture lantern probably shunted the thing to Sinestro's new central power battery.
 
Holy damn shit what a twist of a chapter.

I also really liked the world-building glimpses of -16. That Kryptonian design for instance. Is it all extrapolated by you, based on various snippets and ideas or is there a comic where anti-kryptonians work more or less exactly like that?

I am also hungry for more. Like, what does a good anti-Darkseid look like, given that he still calls himself dark side? What did Earth -16's government look like and how much was it openly or covertly beholden to the Syndicate? How different is -16 from how -14 was before the Justice League invasion?


Mr Zoat said:
I stick up a construct wall but he's already stopped.
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Already stopped what? Was he walking towards Harold?

Mr Zoat said:
The Metropolitan Man.
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I've actually seen stories and concept art older than that which posited that Superman's species doesn't always look human for one reason or another.
Duke Long said:
Definitely something they didn't think through in the comics, but earlier in this story it was explained that the numbers aren't arbitrary, but the reasoning is too complex for Paul to understand. Or so I recall, at least.
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There's something in the unique vibration of each universe that the big brain experts (Guardians and such) base their numbering on.

Actually, that makes me think: -14 Paul decided to steal stuff from +16. I don't remember why he chose that place in particular, but did he use a matter inverter together with his dimension hopping equipment? As in, was he purposefully targeting an Earth that would be more similar to the +14 that invaded and attacked the old Syndicate? Because otherwise that would mean that, based on the local laws of physics alone, -14 and +16 are made of the same type of matter and actually either the Syndicate universe of Blue Paul should be +14 or Young Justice should be -16.
 
Mr Zoat said:
"Three hundred and eighty-five megahertz. Exactly the frequency to really fuck up your inner ears."

"Nyugnugguuuh!"

"Hurts a lot. Now I know how this goes: the powerful one smacks the weaker one around a bit, then we get back to business. But I read Machiavelli, and you know what he says? 'Never do an enemy a small injury.' You know what happens at three hundred and ninety megahertz?"

His eyes open. "Nghnooo!"
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... huh. I was going to make the correction that you probably meant kilohertz instead of megahertz, because ultrasound frequencies are usually in the hundreds-of-kilohertz range, while hundreds-of-megahertz frequencies are usually brought up in discussion of microwave radiation.

But... then I did the math.

Assuming kryptonite is at least vaguely similar to typical silica-based minerals, and assuming that the construct was close enough that air and intervening tissues wouldn't attenuate it, 390MHz would hit the resonant frequency of a crystal somewhere in the 10-15 micron range. That's a pretty typical size for silt particles, which is reasonable for something that you can put in suspension and take as an injection.

385MHz for disorientation, on the other hand, only makes sense if the kryptonian vestibular system is significantly different from the human one... but that's not an unreasonable assumption to make.
 
I thought this paul would use his newfound power to show that anti-earth's people that there is a better way than the crime syndicate? or is this paul not really inclined to make the world a better place? is he a transplant from prime earth as well like main paul?
 
mastermenthe said:
To be fair, there is the chance that Earth Syndicate is being infected with anti-death.
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The Life Equation is the opposite of the Anti-life equation. Would probably be portrayed as painting smiles on people's souls. People just lying there starving to death because they are too happy to worry about little things like eating. Sort of like the movie Serenity.

The anti-death equation, which is unlikely to be used here since Zoat doesn't like post flashpoint comics as a rule, is a horse of a different color.

Well you know how DC nauseatingly overuses popular characters like say Joker or Darkseid until they become mere hollow caricatures of their former selves?

That's the anti-death equation in a nutshell. A fate worse than death where you will never ever ever die.
 
transhumansage said:
I thought this paul would use his newfound power to show that anti-earth's people that there is a better way than the crime syndicate? or is this paul not really inclined to make the world a better place? is he a transplant from prime earth as well like main paul?
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The POV from this chapter wasn't Paul or a version of him.

It is a completely different character that's a native and he has no inclination to dismantle the syndicates.
 
Mr Zoat said:
"I suggest reading about what Dolan Chirosius managed to spur people into doing against Cardinal Bucharis."
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what edition are the pics from? is it the original rogue trader books?

Vaermina said:
The problem is this isn't headcanon/fannon territory.

Most of the stuff this Paul is wrong about? It's basic stuff he should have known via a twenty second wikia walk back in the day. So if we go that route this is either Zoat deciding to just not do the research and just make anything he wants up. Or this is Zoat deciding to do that thing where everyone has seen the sky as blue all their lives, but then the SI comes in and claims the sky is and always has been plaid, and everyone goes to look and discovers the SI is right.
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what part exactly is he wrong about? the whole collective psykery seems right to me and fits in to the whole thing about machine spirits....
 
transhumansage said:
What part exactly is he wrong about? the whole collective psykery seems right to me and fits in to the whole thing about machine spirits....
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Well, machine spirits are just AI's of various sorts.

The whole collective psykery thing however is just full on wrong. To butcher a quote, there's more under the stars then just psychic powers and The Warp. And what he was describing was very specifically one of those "more" things. And while Zoat could of course change that to make that version of his SI right. That's not a good thing to ever do.
 
Vaermina said:
It was likely a plot to capture Parallax.

Lysis's capture lantern probably shunted the thing to Sinestro's new central power battery.
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The Guardian didn't seem to think so; they may have just wanted the data.

Or they may think they can bust Parallax out of wherever they put him.

I doubt that the Guardians will create a Yellow Weakness in this continuity; they seem to have both the ability to contain Parallax, and actual common sense.
 
transhumansage said:
I thought this paul would use his newfound power to show that anti-earth's people that there is a better way than the crime syndicate? or is this paul not really inclined to make the world a better place? is he a transplant from prime earth as well like main paul?
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If you're referring to the POV character from the last segment, that isn't a Paul. That's Joseph Harrolds, the negative counterpart to Hal Jordan, aka Power Ring of Earth -16. He apparently left the Syndicate to ally with Sinestro and the female Weaponer.

Now he returned to his native Earth to kill the moron of Ultraman, handed the Syndicate to this female Kryptonian (I don't know who that is, the negative counterpart to Kara from Earth -16, maybe?) and is planning to get back with Sinestro, do something with the people of Earth 16 and most probably finally kickstart the Sinestro Corps.
 
Xenopsychology (part 17)
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    • 6 574 938.M41

    I stare at the ring for a moment.

    "There is one thing I didn't consider."

    Bo'ohk tilts his head downwards slightly. "In the entirety of the universe, there is one thing you did not think of?"

    "Alright, there's one relevant thing I didn't think of while we were being questioned."

    "Is it something we need to go in and tell them?"

    "No, it's just-. I know that daemons can be bound to objects. Or… Turned into objects. I said that this ring could be a pre-Age of Isolation artefact-."

    "But you did not say that it could be a bound daemon."

    "Right. That might explain why it can draw power from the warp. And why travelling using it is so safe. Bound daemons… Sometimes they openly exert an influence on the people carrying them… There's a sword that a Space Marine called Garran Crowe uses that talks to him constantly. Others don't, or just create a general desire in the person using them. My ring only talks like a drone, but… Emotional impressions? That's basically what it does."

    "Would an ancient human sorcerer really have bound a daemon simply to have something that worked a little like a fictional tool?"

    "Yes. The surprising thing would be that they were successful, not that they tried it."

    I sigh. Of course. Obviously it's a daemon. Good work whoever bound it; maybe the Emperor was into comics in his youth?

    "But you have used it to destroy daemons."

    "I've transferred power from one daemon and… I mean, if this ring is a daemon, I've transferred it from one to another. That's normal daemonic activity."

    "Is there a way to find out for certain?" I wince, and I'm pleased to see that he picks up on the expression. "Other than freeing the daemon, of course."

    "A psyker with experience in sorcery would probably be able to tell whether or not there was a binding in place without damaging it. Good luck finding one we could trust being this close to it."

    Bo'ohk looks at the ring. "Do you really think that is what it is?"

    "Occam's razor says 'yes'. But honestly, I don't know."

    "Okham… The simplest explanation is the most likely one?"

    "The one that requires least invention, yes."

    "That is the way of thinking that led us to conclude that you were a psyker."

    "It's not automatically right, it's just right quite a lot of the time. It's-."

    One of the room's doors opens, and two fire warriors armed with pulse blasters enter and do a quick visual inspection. Once that's complete they step aside and the Kor'O from the meeting walks in. Bo'ohk and I make a gesture of respect and she makes one of acknowledgement before… Dismissing her guards.

    Bo'ohk notes that, though I don't know if that's normal for tau or not. Tau don't really have the same sort of internal competition that humans do, so it isn't a matter of being concerned about them leaking to a political rival. As anti-Callidus measure, it.. seems ill-considered.

    Scan her and scan the room.

    Ave, Lanterna.

    No, looks like normal tau desires, with none of the under layer that marked the Callidus I saw out as odd. Similarly, the room only has the monitoring devices that are supposed to be there, and no focuses of warp energy.

    "Security is to your satisfaction, Lantern?"

    "I limited my scan to this room, Admiral, but as far as that goes, yes." Is it rude to say 'well spotted'? It… Might be.

    "How far could you go?"

    "In theory, the only limit is my mind. In practice, I could manage a 'smart scan' over this building and the surrounding area without difficulty. Further than that and I'd need to be looking for something in particular, and the simpler that thing is the further I could go. I've noticed that for large warp distortions it will just notify me."

    "There are so many things that could be achieved with a few dozen like you. I would send an exploration fleet, if we had the slightest idea where to send them."

    "I could carry an exploration fleet to Segmentum Solar if you want, I just don't think that anything good would happen as a result."

    "I was referring to the ring. Do your ancient stories say where they come from?"

    "That's… Ah… A planet called 'Oa', which is supposed to be located in the centre of the universe. As far as I know, my species never made it that far."

    "The centre of the universe. I don't believe that there is one."

    "The writers at the time didn't know that. Though of course it relates to a fictional universe which could have one without it saying anything about the real universe."

    "What did they look like?"

    I generate a Guardian construct.

    "The ones on Oa looked like that, but there were other political subdivisions of their species who looked different."

    "They had castes?"

    "No, the divides were political rather than functional. They changed their appearance to reflect their subculture."

    "And what did the others look like?"

    I generate Controller, both types of Zamaron and a Leprechaun. Oh, wait, Krona didn't look like them. Add one of him-.

    The Kor'O… Is focusing her attention on that one.

    "What are this faction's beliefs?"

    "That's Krona. He wanted to peel back time to examine the start of the universe for himself. That resulted in him breaking it, and he was punished by being rendered incorporeal. He was the villain of his stories."

    She continues looking at him.

    "What was the first non-human intelligent species that humans encountered?"

    "I'm not sure. Daemons, probably. I know that the Emperor was off gallivanting around the universe under his own power before the rest of us had steam power, and he met the c'tan Void Dragon. For the rest of us… Orks, I think, but that's based on one record and I… Probably couldn't independently confirm it."

    "For the tau, we first gained confirmation that alien intelligences existed when we reached our innermost moon. There was a starship there, damaged, but functional."

    I glance at Bo'ohk, but he looks just as surprised as I feel. Not common knowledge, then. That would have been… Two thousand years ago? Three? Three thousand years or so after the Imperium spotted that the tau existed and marked them down for extermination.

    "After that, we encountered the nicassar and orks. The nicassar were conquered and incorporated while… I believe that you know of the orks. After the nicassar, the kroot and vespid were also incorporated. But none of the species we met as friends or enemies built ships like the first we discovered. We learned a great deal from that ship, though much of it was… Not anything we could use at the time. We still do not fully understand it. And we do not know the names of its creators."

    She turns back to me.

    "Did not know. Your new project will be to interface with the ship's computers directly and allow us to finally grasp the full extent of its lessons and history. Once that is done, you may return to your current mode of operation."

    "Of course, Admiral. Is.. that the final word of the T'au Aun'ar'tol?"

    "Were you concerned about your relationship with Lar'shi Tsua'm Raard?"

    "A… Little, Admiral."

    "It is strange, but worth accepting considering the gains. To be completely open, if you solve this problem for me I would be willing to perform intimate acts with you myself."

    She's about half a metre taller than me, stick thin, and… In her forties, which is eighty in tau years.

    "Thank you, but that won't be necessary."
     
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    • Mr Zoat said:
    Bo'ohk tilts his head downwards slightly. "In the entirety of the universe, there is one thing you did not think of?"
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    Well he's a Paul, so he's not all that bright.

    Mr Zoat said:
    The surprisingly thing would be
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    "surprising"

    Mr Zoat said:
    I sigh. Of course. Obviously it's a daemon
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    Not quite.

    Mr Zoat said:
    please to see that he
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    "pleased"

    Mr Zoat said:
    The writers at the time didn't know that.
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    Or didn't care about the science.

    Now I can't help but imagine that ship being Maltusian.
     
    Lazurman said:
    Did this Paul skip the Krona-kidnapping?
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    Hopefully. 40K factions learning to multiverse travel would be Bad.

    I don't think it will be, but it would be cool if it was a Human Federation ship, complete with AI.

    If it had a complete STC database Paul could basically buy a long term peace treaty between Imperium and Tau
     
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