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

iamnuff · Feb 23, 2024

Ah.
Atlanta?

Ngamer11 · Feb 23, 2024

Ardy said:
Nah, back when he had that coluan woman who worked for Amalek as an apprentice he assimilated a ship full of them when they attacked a neutral world to take a shot at him iirc

Can you provide a link to that story part, because I don't remember that.

Venustoise · Feb 23, 2024

Glad OL gets to brush up on his minion master skills. These spirits better hope he's not in the mod to add them to his collection.

Mr Zoat said:
30th March 2013
01:33 GMT +2?
Zagreus and I are flying there on two construct lantern hydra heads. I was worried that they wouldn't obey me, but we don't appear to be having a problem so far. I haven't gained their knowledge as yet, but once my rings are back in working order I can just destroy one manually to get that. I should at least be able to tell Donna the truth of Herakles' fight with it.

How many hydra heads does OL now have exactly?

He reaches down and pats his hydra head. "How to I make this thing go?"

I pat Gary on the shoulder. "Forward, if you please."

"Yes, Master."

The heads fly forward, passing over the river of… Nectar? Which marks the boundary. And beyond that if bountiful farmland, fruitful at no effort to the inhabitant… Ssss…

Was that Gary or the hydra head? Couldn't he just tell the head to move forward?

Agh!

Destroying the construct lantern and sending it back to my ring.

Well, at least he won't have to worry about destroying one when his ring comes back online...plus he can just resummon it, right? After all, he summoned Gary and co when his ring wasn't working.

"Gary, spore cloud!"

"Yes, Master."

A cloud of orange light-.

"And take evasive action!"

"Yes, Master." We drift to the right. Sorry, Master. Fungus don't usually have to move fast."

Missing speech mark.

Also, is that spore cloud able to assimilate or just for cover?

"Yes, Master."

Should be orange.

Vaermina · Feb 23, 2024

You know, you would think he would be a bit more careful about exposing himself to Death given the ineviatable Blackest Night.

Chojin Patriarch · Feb 23, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
30th March 2013
01:33 GMT +2?

I can smell the floral scent of its trees before I see the river separating the proletarian afterlife from the Elysian Fields. Now that I think about it… It strikes me as a little odd that Hades' palace isn't there. The Silver City isn't located in Purgatory or Dis, it's in Heaven. But Hades' palace is closer to the Punishment Fields than to the final destination of the most legendarily heroic souls in Greek mythology.

Maybe he didn't want to have to hear any raucous parties they would definitely throw? Or it made it easier to throw the unworthy out to the fields of punishment? Less chance of them making a break for it or a ploy to escape like Tantalus did.

Zagreus and I are flying there on two construct lantern hydra heads. I was worried that they wouldn't obey me, but we don't appear to be having a problem so far. I haven't gained their knowledge as yet, but once my rings are back in working order I can just destroy one manually to get that. I should at least be able to tell Donna the truth of Herakles' fight with it.

Hopefully it won't give you too much of a headache, depending on how the head counts things like spending five thousand years or so at the bottom of a lake. Then again, those memories would be easy to fast forward through.

"Are we sure that I'm allowed in here?"

"Father serious considered sending you here when you die just to keep you out of the way."

Pfft, no chance he'd stay there. Besides the difficulty in keeping him dead...

"I don't think I'd be happy here. Not enough problems to fix."

"You would experience as many problems as you wanted."

...OL is just too much of a workaholic to consider it.

"But not real ones."

"But you wouldn't care unless you wanted-. Ah." He shakes his head. "I underestimated how task-focused you are. Why didn't you take Hephaestus as your main patron rather than Eris?"

Yes, wanting is a big part of his current mindset, after all.

"Differentiation. There are plenty of other superheroes who are hard-working. There aren't a lot who fundamentally change civilisation. Or…" I frown as I consider the last couple of years. I mean, I tried, but Mannheim and Tenebrae both outstripped me. Proving that it's easier to destroy than create, I suppose. "Superman might, if we can stop having disasters for five minutes and he doesn't bottle out." I chuckle. "I suppose that Momus was a viable-"

Honestly, I think Clark might stick with it. Pa Kent didn't raise no quitter, after all.

"He is with Akhlys now."

"-alternative-. Ah. Well, I… I suppose that I didn't expect to be pitted against authority quite this much. And saying 'Momus' directly to Hippolyta would have been a bit insulting."

If heartily amusing. And can you imagine an OL with a sense of heckling humour?

"Few took his words in the spirit in which they were intended. One god to keep our egos in check and no one listened to him."

"The author Sir Terence Pratchett wrote that gods are mortals writ large. It's hard to hear your worst attributes described so bluntly."

Indeed. Few people enjoy honest criticism. At least, outside of certain social circumstances, like Roasts.

…

"I'm waiting for it."

Ah, even he could see the dangling punchline there, eh?

"I just hope that when I'm seven thousand years old I'm better at it than all of you are."

He reaches down and pats his hydra head. "How to I make this thing go?"

His patience for OL's humour wearing thin, eh?

I pat Gary on the shoulder. "Forward, if you please."

"Yes, Master."

I'm guessing he's ordering them around via his constructs because of the Ring issue, hmm? Chain of command!

The heads fly forward, passing over the river of… Nectar? Which marks the boundary. And beyond that if bountiful farmland, fruitful at no effort to the inhabitant… Ssss…

"That's not supposed to be on fire, is it?"

...Funny, OL hasn't been here yet. It's rare that the fire appears before he does.

"No it is-."

CRASH! And he's gone, something slamming into his construct lantern at high speed and knocking it out of the-.

Boy, today is just loaded with comedy, huh?

This time it's slapstick!

Agh!

Destroying the construct lantern and sending it back to my ring.

And a corresponding headache, eh? Or is that waiting until his Ring starts listening to his brain again after he sheds the death energies?

"Gary, spore cloud!"

"Yes, Master."

Both a method of evasion and of attack! Multitasking for the win.

A cloud of orange light-.

"And take evasive action!"

Ah, the joy of vocal commands, rather than intent-based mental ones.

"Yes, Master." We drift to the right. Sorry, Master. Fungus don't usually have to move fast."

I look down as the orange dust spreads. Zagreus is fighting off… A flying centaur? No, a man on a flying horse. Pegasus, and Bellerophon. Bellerophon, who was killed by Zeus for trying to fly up Mount Olympus. And then Zeus used Pegasus as a pack horse… Which I suppose explains why he's not still doing that. But why is he-?

Oh look, one for that guy as well. A classic Antiquarian hero: Two parts adventurer, one part asshole.

Why is he wrapped in thorns-?

Agh..!

Mystical bindings, eh? Or an S&M thing taken just a bit too far.

Anti-Life. She got to-.

An arrow embeds itself in Gary's chest, where his heart would be if he was human.

Fortunate for him he doesn't have a heart, before or after his tangification.

Ow.

Two more arrows hit him, piercing both of the blank holes where his eyes would be. Ah, work out the angles…

Annoying, but at least it gives OL a line on the shooter.

"Send the heads down, by that copse of trees."

"Yes, Mast-" An arrow appears in his mouth. "-ah."

You'd think by now, they'd notice that the glowing orange mushroom guy isn't bothered by the arrows... But then, Anti-Life infectees aren't known for their independent thinking.

The other heads floating behind us move, but they're not all that fast like this. I could make them faster, if I could use my ring to empower them. Similarly, the Ophidian could boost them but we're back in the vicinity of the Anti-Life so that's a non-starter as well.

I'm not equipped for melee, and I'm out of practice as a minion controller. I-. Huh.

So... Ranged Crowd Control it is?

I draw my cold gun and take aim in the general direction of down, careful to keep as much of my body as possible behind Gary.

I look back at the Reachian floating along behind us. "You. Help Zagreus."

The joy of meatshields. Well, construct meatshields.

"Yes, Master."

Looking down… Ah, can't really see. Gary's spore cloud didn't stop him getting hit by arrows, but there might be other arrows that I didn't see miss us. Though given the angles involved-.

Ah, yes, the classic 'Know what we call flying soldiers?" gag. (it's 'Skeet', by the way.)

"Gary, take us down. Ground level, just over the river."

"Yes, Master."

Good for evading anti-air fire, bad for evading aerial attackers with a height advantage. Fortunately, there's only one here... So far.

Which makes it harder to hit us with arrows. I could just shoot up Elysium with cold beams, but that's… I don't want to wreck my own afterlife if I can possibly avoid it. Or give away that I have that capacity.

"Anything from the heads?"

I don't imagine Hades would appreciate the complaints he'd get from the residents, either.

They didn't exactly expect a winter home, after all.

"They have not spotted our assailant, Master."

Praexis demons were so useful for things like this. This is honestly the first time I've missed-.

Gary goes flying off the hydra head and into the river as a lioness kicks off him and lunges for me!

Hmm... Lioness? Would it happen to have a snake's tail, or wings?

Back to OL for a bit, I see. And it looks like Akhlys is being a bad neighbour, or possibly looking for recruits amongst the Heroes residing here. And there is a long list of possible targets for her to collect. Pretty much anyone who lived a 'Heroic' life and didn't make the cut for promotion to god-hood, for a start.

Well, those who didn't go out pissing off said gods, anyway.

Someguy Somewhere · Feb 23, 2024

Wivk
I'm no expert on the whole thing evolution of mythology and linguistics for the biblical stuff but I can sort of parse the basics.

You start off with Proto-Indo-European languages and mythologies which cover the birth of human civilization. If you ever wonder why so many different mythologies share parallels and even names (even if you have to play linguistic Telephone for a few millennia to parse them) its because the stories they evolved from date back to this point in history and geography.

Fast forwards a bit and you have ancient Babylon and the surrounding cultures develop and whole region shares a bunch of variations of Gods, generally attached to locations in the region, and their placement within the cultures varies by local belief.

(Zoroastrianism is also a thing going on, as is the very very early days of Buddhism, which are impacted somewhat as they're still developing in arms reach of each other)

We get the precursors to the monotheist faiths, which I THINK falls under the 'Levant' and 'Canaanite' religions you'll see mentioned in the Old Testament. It's a Full Pantheon of gods from the region with 'El' at the top, and a lot of children of El making up the rest of the faith. At this time you'll see not just 'El' which is their Skyfather deity, 'Asherah' as El's wife, but you also get 'Yahweh' as a separate deity.

Much like the evolution you see in the worship in Egypt around the same times, different gods were popular in different places at different times, and often were characterization shifts between all those. Some gods stories, roles and names get shuffled around, and popular ones absorb a lot of the lore from other ones.

This is where you get to the early Semitic Faiths, with start to focus worship on a singular God, First as King of the Gods, and then as the Only God over time. El goes from being their 'head god' to "god with a Capital G' and absorbs the name 'Yahweh' around this point, which we see carry over into early Judaism, and thus into the Old Testament and from there into Islam as well for the Abrahamic Faiths.

But since everyone else in the region has their own faiths in the region, and names are shared between a lot of them, there's still a fair amount of cross talk in the faith at the time, and they did both trade and war with each other as cultures, tribes and / or nations.

Things for the proto Abrahamic Faiths start to get properly nailed down and codified, at least as we understand it, with the creation of the Tribes of Israeli, as those theological works and historical documentation show them separating from, but interacting with each other and outsiders at that time.

You get interactions with Babylon and Egypt as well as the Canaanites and other groups, and you eventually get the Moses story side of things, which we don't have direct historical evidence, but is about where you can at least nail down a rough time frame to follow Biblical stories forwards with historical events.

Xelloss · Feb 23, 2024

Wivk said:
Do you happen to know any off the top of your head I could look into further without manually skimming through all of it? I'm interested in learning a bit more, but not THAT interested.

If you know French, Thomas Römer did a talk about the origins of YHWH : https://www.college-de-france.fr/fr...s-ses-cultes-sa-transformation-en-dieu-unique

I don't remember if he talks about YHWH's wife in it, but he does talk about the other gods from before the monotheism.
In short, from archeological sources we can reconstruct textes from before their rewrite, like Deuteronom 32,8.
In the modern form we have something like (quick and dirty translation from French mine) "When the Most High gave their inheritance to the nations, he divided the lands according to the number of sons of Israel. Indeed, YHWH's due is his people and Jacob the part that is due to him", whereas the reconstructed text is like : "When Elyon gave the nations as inheritance, and divided the people, he set their lands according to the number of the sons of El. And YHWH's due was his people, and Jacob his given share"
It appears here that YHWH is one of El's sons, and that there are others that are worshipped in other lands. Later on, it was rewritten to make sense with only YHWH (and then YHWH was replaced by "Lord" in the Greek translation because you don't need a given name if there aren't anyone else to differentiate yourself with).

Römer explains it better, I really recommend checking his talks.

Duke Long · Feb 23, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
The heads fly forward, passing over the river of… Nectar? Which marks the boundary. And beyond that if bountiful farmland, fruitful at no effort to the inhabitant… Ssss…

'is bountiful'

Mr Zoat said:
"Yes, Master." We drift to the right. Sorry, Master. Fungus don't usually have to move fast."

Missing speech mark.

Darko · Feb 23, 2024

Chojin Patriarch said:
Indeed. Few people enjoy honest criticism. At least, outside of certain social circumstances, like Roasts.

Just as long as they don't pull a Roger Smith.

Chojin Patriarch said:
I don't imagine Hades would appreciate the complaints he'd get from the residents, either. They didn't exactly expect a winter home, after all

Unless they prefer cold and snow, which some may.

Mr Zoat · Feb 23, 2024

Ngamer11 said:
That should say 'do'.

Thank you, corrected.

I assume this is referring to one of the Reach thralls, because I don't remember Paul ever assimilating a member of the Reach species.

Didn't he? Does anyone else remember him getting one?

Darko said:
"seriously" or "considers"
This should be all orange.

Thank you, corrected.

Venustoise said:
How many hydra heads does OL now have exactly?

As many as the story needs.

Was that Gary or the hydra head? Couldn't he just tell the head to move forward?

No. Gary assimilated it, and the SI's ring thinks that he's dead. I'll make that explicit.

Missing speech mark.

Duke Long said:
'is bountiful'

Thank you, corrected.

inglorius · Feb 23, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
A bit, yes. My main difference is that I'm a good deal more conservative than I used to be, but European politics don't really map onto anything in System Lord controlled space.

Yes, but his personal relationships aren't very personal. He's a god who can walk around. His people are less nervous now, because he's established a role for himself and for them, but there genuinely isn't anyone that he's emotionally close to.

Orange light is probably the best choice for creating an animated fleshlight construct.

Wivk · Feb 23, 2024

Some very well read people in here, thanks for telling me that rough outline of the idea so I didn't have to study for years just to get the gist of it and big thanks for a source to go deeper into it as well. No need to derail the whole thread forever, and Def no need to argue over it, this was enough to get me pointed in the right direction to learn more.

Doccer · Feb 23, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
Thank you, Jim diGriz.

I clickec the link but I am unfamiliar with the series and the specific reference.

Dur'id the Druid · Feb 23, 2024

I do miss both the praxis demon and the cat. I think they were both actually happier as constructs.

Mr Zoat · Feb 23, 2024

Doccer said:
I clickec the link but I am unfamiliar with the series and the specific reference.

Someone launches a temporal attack on the law enforcement organisation he's working for, killing people by killing their ancestors. Various things happen, and the man doing the attacking helps Napoleon invade England. Becasue he knows that other time travellers are coming for him, he gives the French simple radiation detectors to use at checkpoints, knowing that will pick them up.

Lord Ernest · Feb 23, 2024

Dur'id the Druid said:
I do miss both the praxis demon and the cat. I think they were both actually happier as constructs.

Totally agree, especially Teekl. When we lost that cat the story lost part of its soul; it didn't matter that it was a half-monstrous, murderous, psychopathic cat, all cats are generally like that anyway, it still was something of a morality pet for the Illustres and honestly the most effective Construct Lantern by far.

The Praexis Demons were really useful as well, not only could they eat almost anything, which was effective in almost all situations, they multiplied by themselves without having to Assimilate more people!

Ardy · Feb 23, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
Didn't he? Does anyone else remember him getting one?

He did, though they had simplified thought processes they were indeed reach members (see the Writ-Wrangler comment from the Reach negotiator earlier in the chapter)

Mr Zoat said:
"You in the cruiser. Surrender and live on as organic beings. Resist and I will assimilate you. You have five seconds now."

Okay, scans of the cruiser… I did get a couple of hits. Looks like I breached their hull. That… Shouldn't have happened. Standard shields would-. They didn't have standard shields. FTL weapons take a lot of power, but… That doesn't sound right. I mean, if this is their first cruiser with an FTL weapon they might not have finalised the design. I might be such a juicy target that they thought that the chance to off me was worth a few ships. Lucky me.

Unlucky them.

Empathic vision-. Oh. There are minds on board, but they've had their thought processes messed around with in a fairly brute force sort of way. I doubt that they're Reachians, but it should only take me-

I block another shot.

-a few moments to find out for certain.

A volley of crumbler rounds punches through their weak… Environmental barrier, not even a weak military force field. Chunks of their fore gun vanish, and ring scans show it lose power. Right, interdiction field generators are usually there in that hull type… I'm close enough that I can fire orange beams and reliably pierce the hull and puncture them.

I increase the degree to which I'm warping space, and then the ship is there just in front of me. In a pretty sorry state, but the hull is largely in one piece. I draw back my shield so that it just protects me… Looks like they gave up on point defences as well, but that's no reason to take stupid risks. Locate the crew, send out the filaments-.

Two go out as they kill themselves, but I connect to the other seven just in time. Undermanned for a ship-

"Identity theft in progress."

-of this class. I'm convinced that the Negotiator on Yuna genuinely didn't know, but someone put work into this.

"Identity theft complete."

Duke Long · Feb 23, 2024

Ardy said:
He did, though they had simplified thought processes they were indeed reach members (see the Writ-Wrangler comment from the Reach negotiator earlier in the chapter)

Is that solid evidence? Seems like it could easily be a generic insult in their culture.

Mr Zoat · Feb 23, 2024

Ah, no. The person in charge of the operation was a Reachian, the people on the ship were brainwashed serfs.

Ardy · Feb 23, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
Ah, no. The person in charge of the operation was a Reachian, the people on the ship were brainwashed serfs.

Ah, then no, never converted any reachians.

Mr Zoat · Feb 23, 2024

Ardy said:
Ah, then no, never converted any reachians.

Darn it. Okay, I'll fix that.

Mr Zoat · Feb 24, 2024

30th March 2013
01:36 GMT +2?

I flop back and kick, striking it-. Her? Clumsily in the chest. I don't push her back so much as push myself back, sliding off the hydra's head and onto its neck stump.

"Rah-ah-ah!"

The lion-woman swings her right claw at my flailing legs as I try and get up, but there isn't really anything to grip onto and I can't give the hydra head instructions without Gary-.

"Gary!"

The claw catches my leg armour and pulls me towards her without really penetrating, causing her to try grabbing me with her left claw. I fend her off with a kick to her face, but it's more an irritation than a serious strike.

Where did-? Damn it, lost the cold gun. I draw an x-ionised knife from my harness and swing it in her general direction in a warding gesture while trying to wrench my leg back out of her grip. No! Closer!

Her left claw slashes at my right forearm and I bring the knife back, getting a scratch along my vambrace in exchange for nicking her fur.

"Who are you?"

Not likely to get through to someone Anti-Lifed, but I should try.

"Rah-ah-ah!"

She leans down to bite at me, and I slash-. She grabs my right arm and drops-. Fuck! Ah, I get my left arm up and push her neck away with my forearm and her teeth chomp down an inch from my face and I still can't get-.

Roll!

"Gary!"

She's lighter than me and I manage to roll us left, but she's strong and she's slashing at me with four sets of claws while still trying to bite me! She snaps her teeth together-

Headbutt to the snout!

-as I stab my knife through her abdomen-.

She's a shade, she doesn't have blood!

Elbows, knees, hit her!

"Master."

She and I flail at each other for a moment as Gary plants himself on my back and lifts, getting me upright-

"Let go!"

-as the lioness scrambles to her own feet and lunges, mouth open again! Punch with left hitting side of jaw, raise arm to block slash from claws, swing knife at throat-.

AGH!

She slashed my gauntlet! Lost the knife and-. Armour's still whole, just-. Hurt.

Wait-. Lioness, Greek heroine-.

"Atalanta!"

She hesitates, and I punch her in the throat while drawing my revolver. That drives her back a little and gives me space to shoot her in the chest-.

BANG!

Ah! One handed shooting without power assistance! Other hand on the gun while she's reeling, fire again.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

"What is it making you feel!?"

She recovers, shaking her head as she tries to shield her bullet wounds with her arms.

"Bbbeast."

"Hephaestaean can probably fix that. Or at least modify it. And a lot of m-. People like that look."

Granted, with a mouth like that she's firmly into the cat-end of the spectrum, but I've seen the internet-.

She glares at me. "Bbbeast!"

Okay, so it's more of an internal thing. "It's still fixable-."

"HKKKRRRR!"

She drops to a couch, stabbing-. Stabbing the hydra head through the right eye with her claws.

The construct evaporates, strands of orange light flowing back into my r-ring.

Simple, reptilian thoughts inside my head, sunlight good, wait for prey, hunt for prey and then cold, cold, nothing-.

AHH!

"Sorry, Master."

There's an arrow in my hand! It punches through my palm-! We're low enough that she could just grab her bow from where she landed-.

"Drop me, tackle-"

He lets me go.

"-her!"

Gary dives at her, spraying orange spores in her direction. I land with a thud, stagger and then check the arrow. Not barbed and doesn't look poisoned. Hand close to the ground, boot on the fletching end and stamp-.

Arrrrrrrrr…

Snapped off near the hand, pull it out. Don't have a healing ray anymore but I do have a small vial of healing potion. Half on the wound and half down my throat. It's healing, and I kept my revolver. Good. Gun up, listen to where the noises are coming from and hope that Gary doesn't end up back in my ring. Can't see Bellerophon or Pegasus or Zagreus and I don't want to shout. Equipment that will keep Atalanta down? I've got extra-resilient handcuffs. They'll have to do unless Zagreus can command the local undead.

Move. Eyes on the targ-.

Eyes everywhere tiny spores granting awareness to the greater whole-.

She got Gary and the spore cloud is vanishing. I should still-.

"Pavlos!"

Atalanta is kneeling, leaking dull grey fluid from her wounds as Akhlys strokes her head. Her cybernetics now sport the signature tronlines of New God technology, and her eyes-.

She's stroking Atalanta with her misery-inducing hand. The grey not-blood is leaking from Atalanta's eyes as well as her wounds.

"Are you here to stop me? To hurt me?"

This… Pistol isn't going to do anything to her. I lower it slowly.

"I want to try and free you from the Anti-Life. We did that to the Earth-."

"Foolish youth. Everyone feels sorrow. It's a natural part of life. Here." She lifts her hand off Atalanta and starts walking towards me. "Let me show you."

Ngamer11 · Feb 24, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
"Foolish youth. Everyone feels sorrow. It's a natural part of life. Here." She lifts her hand off Atalanta and starts walking towards me. "Let me show you."

Now I'm wondering if this will somehow lead to Paul taking control of Akhlys and her domain.

0zymandias · Feb 24, 2024

Ngamer11 said:
Now I'm wondering if this will somehow lead to Paul taking control of Akhlys and her domain.

Nope that's way too much growth for one episode. We're on the ultra slow burn to Paragon becoming the New God of Avarice or something within that domain.

Duke Long · Feb 24, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
CRASH! And he's gone, something slamming into his construct lantern at high speed and knocking it out of the-.

Agh!

Destroying the construct lantern and sending it back to my ring.

Shouldn't this last chapter have given him hydra memories, or is the 'Agh!' the memory? Just doesn't seem consistent with this chapter.

Mr Zoat said:
I fend her off with a kick to her face, but it's more an irritation that a serious strike.

'than a'

Mr Zoat said:
Atalanta is kneeling, leaking dull grey fluid from he wounds as Akhlys strokes her head.

'her wounds'

Chojin Patriarch · Feb 24, 2024

Mr Zoat said:
30th March 2013
01:36 GMT +2?

I flop back and kick, striking it-. Her? Clumsily in the chest. I don't push her back so much as push myself back, sliding off the hydra's head and onto its neck stump.

"Rah-ah-ah!"

Roaring like a motherfucker. But 'Her'? Is this thing humanoid? Has Ahklys been poaching from other pantheons? Is that you, Sekhmet? Or has she been making some modifications? Let's read on and see!

The lion-woman swings her right claw at my flailing legs as I try and get up, but there isn't really anything to grip onto and I can't give the hydra head instructions without Gary-.

"Gary!"

Welp, if you weren't already in trouble yet, you definitely are now.

The claw catches my leg armour and pulls me towards her without really penetrating, causing her to try grabbing me with her left claw. I fend her off with a kick to her face, but it's more an irritation that a serious strike.

Where did-? Damn it, lost the cold gun. I draw an x-ionised knife from my harness and swing it in her general direction in a warding gesture while trying to wrench my leg back out of her grip. No! Closer!

Definitely physically enhanced, if multiple kicks aren't shifting her.

Her left claw slashes at my right forearm and I bring the knife back, getting a scratch along my vambrace in exchange for nicking her fur.

"Who are you?"

Yes, that's a question we'd all like answered.

Not likely to get through to someone Anti-Lifed, but I should try.

"Rah-ah-ah!"

Nope, she's deep in the black and red.

She leans down to bite at me, and I slash-. She grabs my right arm and drops-. Fuck! Ah, I get my left arm up and push her neck away with my forearm and her teeth chomp down an inch from my face and I still can't get-.

Roll!

Since she's probably strong enough to pierce his vambrace with her fangs, if not break his bones.

"Gary!"

She's lighter than me and I manage to roll us left, but she's strong and she's slashing at me with four sets of claws while still trying to bite me! She snaps her teeth together-

Hind legs, then. Classic D&D style pounce attack. Hooks you with the front claws, rakes with the back. Nasty combo. A little more awkward with long humanoid legs, but no less vicious.

Headbutt to the snout!

-as I stab my knife through her abdomen-.

Sadly, not that effective, if she's local to Elysium.

She's a shade, she doesn't have blood!

Elbows, knees, hit her!

Hell, she could probably stick any bits you cut off back on. But that probably explains the looks. A spirit is more vulnerable to modification than flesh is.

"Master."

She and I flail at each other for a moment as Gary plants himself on my back and lifts, getting me upright-

Lifting him and flying off won't help if she's still attached.

"Let go!"

-as the lioness scrambles to her own feet and lunges, mouth open again! Punch with left hitting side of jaw, raise arm to block slash from claws, swing knife at throat-.

Ah, they've hit the ground, more or less. Or they're fighting on the top of the Hydra's head, since it's probably quite large.

AGH!

She slashed my gauntlet! Lost the knife and-. Armour's still whole, just-. Hurt.

Be glad you still have that arm. If she'd hit the elbow...

Wait-. Lioness, Greek heroine-.

"Atalanta!"

Kind of easy to narrow down, there aren't a lot of significant females in Hellenic myths.

Especially ones from Athens.

She hesitates, and I punch her in the throat while drawing my revolver. That drives her back a little and gives me space to shoot her in the chest-.

BANG!

After all, even if you're a ghost, you're still going to think like a person, and getting punched in the throat is not pleasant.

Ah! One handed shooting without power assistance! Other hand on the gun while she's reeling, fire again.

BANG! BANG! BANG!

Recoil is a motherfucker, especially in high-caliber rounds.That wrist is gonna be hurting, if nor broken...

"What is it making you feel!?"

She recovers, shaking her head as she tries to shield her bullet wounds with her arms.

Probably having a little trouble even working out what hit her, if she hasn't been keeping up with weapons technology.

"Bbbeast."

"Hephaestaean can probably fix that. Or at least modify it. And a lot of m-. People like that look."

That depends on her placement on the human-furry spectrum...

Granted, with a mouth like that she's firmly into the cat-end of the spectrum, but I've seen the internet-.

She glares at me. "Bbbeast!"

Hey, some people still would. Even if she bites. Especially if she bites, in some loonies' cases.

Okay, so it's more of an internal thing. "It's still fixable-."

"HKKKRRRR!"

Well, she was raised by bears.

Didn't know about the 'turning into lions' bit before, though.

She drops to a couch, stabbing-. Stabbing the hydra head through the right eye with her claws.

The construct evaporates, strands of orange light flowing back into my r-ring.

Welp. There goes his ride, for now. Doubt he's going to have an easy time getting that back until the lady has settled down.

Simple, reptilian thoughts inside my head, sunlight good, wait for prey, hunt for prey and then cold, cold, nothing-.

AHH!

I'm guessing that was the primary head.

"Sorry, Master."

There's an arrow in my hand! It punches through my palm-! We're low enough that she could just grab her bow from where she landed-.

Lucky it was through the hand. There's a nerve in the forearm that, well... From what I understand, Crucifixion used it to cause all the pain, enough that it was banned from use on Roman citizens.

"Drop me, tackle-"

He lets me go.

"-her!"

...Well, you did say to let you go.

Gary dives at her, spraying orange spores in her direction. I land with a thud, stagger and then check the arrow. Not barbed and doesn't look poisoned. Hand close to the ground, boot on the fletching end and stamp-.

Arrrrrrrrr…

Yeah, you don't pull an arrow back through the wound it dealt. You break the shaft near the fletching and push it the rest of the way, and be ready to stem any bleeding.

Or better yet, don't pull it out unless you absolutely have to, since it's plugging the hole.

Snapped off near the hand, pull it out. Don't have a healing ray anymore but I do have a small vial of healing potion. Half on the wound and half down my throat. It's healing, and I kept my revolver. Good. Gun up, listen to where the noises are coming from and hope that Gary doesn't end up back in my ring. Can't see Bellerophon or Pegasus or Zagreus and I don't want to shout. Equipment that will keep Atalanta down? I've got extra-resilient handcuffs. They'll have to do unless Zagreus can command the local undead.

Said undead are likely weaker than her anyway, so unless they pile on en masse...

Move. Eyes on the targ-.

Eyes everywhere tiny spores granting awareness to the greater whole-.

Well, shit. You're on your own, OL.

She got Gary and the spore cloud is vanishing. I should still-.

"Pavlos!"

Oh, now what...

Atalanta is kneeling, leaking dull grey fluid from he wounds as Akhlys strokes her head. Her cybernetics now sport the signature tronlines of New God technology, and her eyes-.

She's stroking Atalanta with her misery-inducing hand. The grey not-blood is leaking from Atalanta's eyes as well as her wounds.

Oh, that is so far into 'not good' territory that you can barely see the middle from where you are.

"Are you here to stop me? To hurt me?"

This… Pistol isn't going to do anything to her. I lower it slowly.

Yeah, trying would just be embarrassing.

"I want to try and free you from the Anti-Life. We did that to the Earth-."

"Foolish youth. Everyone feels sorrow. It's a natural part of life. Here." She lifts her hand off Atalanta and starts walking towards me. "Let me show you."

...And watch him shrug it off because of Enlightenment. Not completely, but he'll rationalise it away.

Well, at least there's no time wasted in finding her. A pity you're the one at her mercy. And I'm thinking she's not feeling very merciful right now. Let's hope OL's resistance to Anti-Life lets him tank the psychological damage she's about to hit him with, and work out some way to talk her down, or this is going to be a very awkward episode.

At least he's got a short trip for judgement if he dies.

Z000 · Feb 24, 2024

Chojin Patriarch said:
...And watch him shrug it off because of Enlightenment. Not completely, but he'll rationalise it away.

well she not exactly wrong, it is perfectly normal to feel sorrow, no need to rationalize jack all

if Paul say no then he not being normal which is kinda like the usual friday at this point

Bud-E · Feb 24, 2024

Random question how is Canis Minor doing now that he knows Darkseid isn't training him like he thought?

Venustoise · Feb 24, 2024

Hey, didn't Paul assimilate a shipmaster New Ascendant (or whatever they were called)? How strong is that guy as a construct lantern? Still have any metaphysical power that could help out?

Mr Zoat said:
Snapped off near the hand, pull it out. Don't have a healing ray anymore but I do have a small vial of healing potion. Half on the wound and half down my throat. It's healing, and I kept my revolver. Good. Gun up, listen to where the noises are coming from and hope that Gary doesn't end up back in my ring. Can't see Bellerophon or Pegasus or Zagreus and I don't want to shout. Equipment that will keep Atalanta down? I've got extra-resilient handcuffs. They'll have to do unless Zagreus can command the local undead.

Why is Gary getting sent back into the ring a big deal? Didn't he summon Gary and the thralls despite the ring not working:

Mr Zoat said:
"But of course." I reach out my right hand… Nothing. No personal lantern. "But that might be a while."

Zagreus looks curious. "Are you helpless?"

I wave my right hand, releasing Gary and a couple of construct lantern aliens. I gesture, and they spread out to watch our surroundings. "Not completely, but you shouldn't expect too much. So who got Anti-Lifed?"

Ngamer11 · Feb 24, 2024

Venustoise said:
Why is Gary getting sent back into the ring a big deal? Didn't he summon Gary and the thralls despite the ring not working:

Every second they're in the ring is a second where they aren't protecting Paul, which is important in combat, especially when he's unable to use his ring to defend himself.

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