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

[Cool10007]

Oh, bravo Zoat! This is a fantastic short story, excellent work!

 

[Senevri]

I admit, I am curious about this time abyss version of OL. Is it Paragon, at some distant future, or an entirely different instance?

 

[Ngamer11]

I admit, I am curious about this time abyss version of OL. Is it Paragon, at some distant future, or an entirely different instance?

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It's a different version entirely. The Ancestor has been around for thousands of years, depending on how you would measure time since he arrived during the age of the cats and then changed reality via a Dream ritual akin to a retcon.

 

[RJishalfgay]

Can someone point out where the other ancestor thread marks are?

 

[Ngamer11]

Can someone point out where the other ancestor thread marks are?

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His previous story parts were in Episode 116: Sungate, part 1 and Episode 117: Sungate, part 2.

 

[0zymandias]

His previous story parts were in Episode 116: Sungate, part 1 and Episode 117: Sungate, part 2.

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Link please?

 

[RoninSword]

Link please?

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

The Ancestor Spring Why are we here, grandson? Our people come here at this time each year, following the path-. No, no child, I was not mocking you. Our people paint the rocks to remember our history and the history of the world. I come here each year to remember when the history of...

forum.questionablequesting.com

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

January 8th, 1857 Midday Bart takes another look around and then shakes his head, before looking over to his current employer. Though 'employer' might be a bit of an overstatement, given that no actual money had changed hands yet. Oh, he was confident that he could turn a profit somehow, but...

forum.questionablequesting.com

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

January 8th, 1857 Midday "Well that there looks like a wall." Bart tried to cover up how relieved the idea that this whole thing wasn't going anywhere made him. Past the fairy trees lay a fairly steep incline, the sort of thing that could easily break a man's neck if he weren't riding real...

forum.questionablequesting.com

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th April 2013
09:37 GMT -5

"Ah…" My most recent patient takes a few staggering steps towards the exit. "T-thanks-. Thank you." He shuffles around to face me. "Thank you."

"Happy to help. Now, I really think it would be best if you kept your chair for a few weeks while you adjust. Regular exercise-."

"Oh fuck no. The only reason why I'd take that with me is so I could throw it in the garbage crusher myself." He shuffles back around and clumsily, stiffly, heads towards the door.

That went well. Mr. Christian lost his legs to a subway train shortly before the Anti-Life broadcast, so his brain hasn't adjusted to their absence as much as Paula's had to her spinal injury. His bull-headed approach isn't ideal for his recovery, but it should work and New York's crime rate is well below its pre-broadcast baseline so he probably won't get jumped by a street gang while he recovers. I'd be more worried about the police assuming that he's on drugs or something.

Karon comes in just after he leaves. Unsurprisingly, demand for travel agents has dropped to near-nothing while human civilisation recovers. Her firm managed after the Sheeda Harvest by switching almost exclusively to domestic tourism, but with the few planes still operating being cargo planes for emergency supplies that's almost impossible to arrange even if someone wants to. She's been working on reconstruction projects in Gotham, but… She's determined but not exactly heavily built, and her skills don't really lend themselves to that sort of thing.

So now she's my receptionist.

"That went well."

"Yes, it did."

"Didn't you..?" She frowns thoughtfully. "Didn't you say you couldn't do this kind of thing?"

"Not indefinitely, and I'm having you give people that disclaimer for a reason. But when I'm in the right headspace, I can do it for a while."

"Yeah, about that…" She frowns. "The next patient has some questions. And, actually? I do too."

"Alright. Bring them in and I'll clear up everything together."

She nods, a copy of the disclaimer in her left hand, and heads to the door.

"Carole? He's ready for you."

Carole is a pale-skinned and brown-haired woman in her middle years. She doesn't look like she's in terrible health, but since she hasn't signed the disclaimer I don't scan her yet. I smile and gesture to the patient's seat just across from mine.

"Good morning, Carole. I understand that you have some questions before we begin."

She nods as she hesitantly approaches and takes a seat. "The sign said 'Free Clinic' with an asterisk."

"Yes."

"What's the asterisk for?"

"Did you read the disclaimer?"

"Ye-es,-" Probably a lie. "-but I'd like you to explain it."

"I have no need for money or other fungible goods. So it doesn't cost you anything in terms of material resources."

"Fungible?"

"Tradable. Sellable." She nods. "But I have trouble focusing on fixing a bunch of similar things in a row. So what I want from you in return for fixing whatever you're having trouble with is your approval to fix other things."

"Like what?"

"Very few people get the optimal nutrition in childhood to reach their full physical potential. Then there's exposure to atmospheric lead, mercury and other unpleasant substances. Old injuries that don't entirely heal." I shrug. "I enjoy perfecting the human body."

"Oh. That.. doesn't sound so bad."

"And then there's the human eye."

Carole goes still. "The human eye?"

"Yeah, so, basically, ahh… Your skin. Your blood vessels go inside your skin. Your skin protects your fragile blood vessels while they provide it with blood. Makes sense, right?"

She nods cautiously.

"The human eye works by using four different types of photosensitive cells to detect three different colours and levels of light intensity. Would you say that it makes more sense to have those in front of the blood vessels which feed them, giving them a nice, clear, unobstructed view, or behind the blood vessels so that everything you see is distorted because you have to adjust for the fact that the light is literally passing through your blood stream before you see it?"

"Ah, the first one?"

"And you're right. That makes far more sense. And that's what squids have. But with humans it's the dumb way around. Which is why the blind spot exists, because the artery has to come in through the same hole as the optic nerve and then spread out to cover the rest of the inner eye."

"So you want to give people better eyesight?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, I haven't worked out how to make that change genetic yet, so you wouldn't pass your improved eyes on to your children."

"My.. children are four and six."

"Well you definitely won't, then. Oh, and I can also do cybernetics, so if you want improved data storage then I can give you that. Or anything else."

"Can you fix my diabetes?"

"Almost certainly."

"And… I won't need insulin injections ever again?"

"Well, that depends on what exactly's causing your symptoms-."

"Type One Diabetes."

"Yes. I'll need to fiddle with your immune system a bit, and in the event that you have more children the alteration will be passed on, but that's no problem at all. Oh, and while I'm in there, do you want to become immune to H.I.V.?"

"Ah..? Yes. Yes, I think so."

"Neat! No problem. Just sign-."

"Wait wait." Karon is frowning. "You can make people immune to H.I.V.?"

"Technically, any oncologist with the right supplies can, it's just that the supplies are hard to get hold of and the risk of death is a bit high. I don't have either of those problems, so I can just do it."

"How?"

"Ah, different people have slightly different immune cell structures. H.I.V. needs a particular bit to attack, and not everyone has that part. So some people are just immune to it. I can swap out a person's immune system for one that's immune to H.I.V., and then you can't get it anymore." Hm. "I mean, you'd be able to get it in your body, but it wouldn't reproduce and it would eventually die off, and couldn't give you A.I.D.S.. Obviously, that wouldn't help with other sexually transmitted diseases, and I wouldn't encourage unsafe sexual practices for a variety of other reasons. So-."

Karon grabs the disclaimer and signs it.

 

[Vaermina]

Did we miss a bunch of stuff? Or did the thing with Jade cause him to go goldfish and forget the thing he was supposed to be doing?

 

[Darko]

approach isn't idea

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"ideal"

Lile what?"

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"Like what"

 

[CrazyNoVa]

So, what happens if someone or something screws with Paul's mind to make him change his view and definition of what a perfected human body should be? Like, if I somehow made him believe that human bodily perfection was to have an orange afro haircut, would he then go full mad scientist and then build a machine that will give orange afros for everyone on Earth just for shits and giggles?

 

[Ngamer11]

"Wait wait." Karon is frowning. "You can make people immune to H.I.V.?"

"Technically, any oncologist with the right supplies can, it's just that the supplies are hard to get hold of and the risk of death is a bit high. I don't have either of those problems, so I can just do it."

"How?"

"Ah, different people have slightly different immune cell structures. H.I.V. needs a particular bit to attack, and not everyone has that part. So some people are just immune to it. I can swap out a person's immune system for one that's immune to H.I.V., and then you can't get it anymore." Hm. "I mean, you'd be able to get it in your body, but it wouldn't reproduce and it would eventually die off, and couldn't give you A.I.D.S.. Obviously, that wouldn't help with other sexually transmitted diseases, and I wouldn't encourage unsafe sexual practices for a variety of other reasons. So-."

Karon grabs the disclaimer and signs it.

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That's interesting to note. Is that also true in real life? Also, now that Paul has told Karon that he can do this, will she get Holly that little quality of life upgrade as well?

 

[Mr Zoat]

"ideal"
"Like what"

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Thank you, corrected.

That's interesting to note. Is that also true in real life?

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Yes. The nice thing about having AIDS is that chemotherapy doesn't make your immune system worse.

Also, now that Paul has told Karon that he can do this, will she get Holly that little quality of life upgrade as well?

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She'll let Holly know.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

10th April 2013
09:37 GMT -5

"Ah…" My most recent patient takes a few staggering steps towards the exit. "T-thanks-. Thank you." He shuffles around to face me. "Thank you."

Click to shrink...

Huh. inadvertently heading off a future Green Lantern foe without even trying. Pity we skipped over the return of Reformation Island, but I doubt it would have been that interesting, really. Still, OL never rests when he could be doing something.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

"Happy to help. Now, I really think it would be best if you kept your chair for a few weeks while you adjust. Regular exercise-."

"Oh fuck no. The only reason why I'd take that with me is so I could throw it in the garbage crusher myself." He shuffles back around and clumsily, stiffly, heads towards the door.

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Hey, now. That's expensive. You could sell it for cash, after all.

That went well. Mr. Christian lost his legs to a subway train shortly before the Anti-Life broadcast, so his brain hasn't adjusted to their absence as much as Paula's had to her spinal injury. His bull-headed approach isn't ideal for his recovery, but it should work and New York's crime rate is well below its pre-broadcast baseline so he probably won't get jumped by a street gang while he recovers. I'd be more worried about the police assuming that he's on drugs or something.

Click to shrink...

I hope they're giving people notes saying 'I got healed by a superhero, please excuse my unsteadiness.' Especially if he explains it was the Cake guy.

Karon comes in just after he leaves. Unsurprisingly, demand for travel agents has dropped to near-nothing while human civilisation recovers. Her firm managed after the Sheeda Harvest by switching almost exclusively to domestic tourism, but with the few planes still operating being cargo planes for emergency supplies that's almost impossible to arrange even if someone wants to. She's been working on reconstruction projects in Gotham, but… She's determined but not exactly heavily built, and her skills don't really lend themselves to that sort of thing.

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So instead, she's helping OL out with stuff? Or more generally with humanitarian activities.

So now she's my receptionist.

"That went well."

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I suspect she spends a lot of her time just answering junk mail.

"Yes, it did."

"Didn't you..?" She frowns thoughtfully. "Didn't you say you couldn't do this kind of thing?"

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Back during the split world thing, or just after, I think? Before he got Enlightenment, it would have been much harder.

"Not indefinitely, and I'm having you give people that disclaimer for a reason. But when I'm in the right headspace, I can do it for a while."

"Yeah, about that…" She frowns. "The next patient has some questions. And, actually? I do too."

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I'm guessing he feels the need to just fix people for a while, then.

"Alright. Bring them in and I'll clear up everything together."

She nods, a copy of the disclaimer in her left hand, and heads to the door.

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I'm surprised more people don't have questions for him when they come in.

"Carole? He's ready for you."

Carole is a pale-skinned and brown-haired woman in her middle years. She doesn't look like she's in terrible health, but since she hasn't signed the disclaimer I don't scan her yet. I smile and gesture to the patient's seat just across from mine.

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An entirely average human being, really. Somehow, I don't think she'll be stock standard once he's done, though.

"Good morning, Carole. I understand that you have some questions before we begin."

She nods as she hesitantly approaches and takes a seat. "The sign said 'Free Clinic' with an asterisk."

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'Free but with a catch' probably doesn't scan as well... And would trigger far too many red flags in people still recovering from the Anti-Life exposure.

"Yes."

"What's the asterisk for?"

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Ah, good, checking for the catches. It's always the fine print that gets you in trouble, after all.

"Did you read the disclaimer?"

"Ye-es,-" Probably a lie. "-but I'd like you to explain it."

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It's probably written a little too close to legalese for most people's taste, I bet.

"I have no need for money or other fungible goods. So it doesn't cost you anything in terms of material resources."

"Fungible?"

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No, it doesn't have anything to do with mushrooms.

"Tradable. Sellable." She nods. "But I have trouble focusing on fixing a bunch of similar things in a row. So what I want from you in return for fixing whatever you're having trouble with is your approval to fix other things."

"Like what?"

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The human body is not a well-made thing. Honestly, it's pretty damn cobbled together. All those old instincts that have no use in modern society, genetic and anatomical quirks that can go poorly so easily...

"Very few people get the optimal nutrition in childhood to reach their full physical potential. Then there's exposure to atmospheric lead, mercury and other unpleasant substances. Old injuries that don't entirely heal." I shrug. "I enjoy perfecting the human body."

"Oh. That.. doesn't sound so bad."

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And who doesn't have a few aches and pains, because our bodies decided that no, making sure all the connective tissues last isn't a priority. Never mind things like teeth.

"And then there's the human eye."

Carole goes still. "The human eye?"

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Marvel of evolution, but boy, is it poorly-made. If some deity had designed it, he'd probably have people lining up to complain.

"Yeah, so, basically, ahh… Your skin. Your blood vessels go inside your skin. Your skin protects your fragile blood vessels while they provide it with blood. Makes sense, right?"

She nods cautiously.

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Pretty logical, until something effs it up, like injuries. Then things get rough.

"The human eye works by using four different types of photosensitive cells to detect three different colours and levels of light intensity. Would you say that it makes more sense to have those in front of the blood vessels which feed them, giving them a nice, clear, unobstructed view, or behind the blood vessels so that everything you see is distorted because you have to adjust for the fact that the light is literally passing through your blood stream before you see it?"

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At least the vitreous humours don't affect things too much. Until you suffer an eye injury, little bits of skin start floating around in it and... Ugh.

"Ah, the first one?"

"And you're right. That makes far more sense. And that's what squids have. But with humans it's the dumb way around. Which is why the blind spot exists, because the artery has to come in through the same hole as the optic nerve and then spread out to cover the rest of the inner eye."

Click to shrink...

Never mind the sheer wavelength range a squid's eye has. Imagine being able to see things like ultraviolet light. Or have innate bright-light dampening and low-light vision. Just a matter of being okay with some freaky-looking potential iris shapes.

"So you want to give people better eyesight?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, I haven't worked out how to make that change genetic yet, so you wouldn't pass your improved eyes on to your children."

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...Why do I get the feeling kryptonians had that sort of general fine-tuning for a long time? Pity humanity can't catch up until mass gene-editing catches on.

"My.. children are four and six."

"Well you definitely won't, then. Oh, and I can also do cybernetics, so if you want improved data storage then I can give you that. Or anything else."

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In other words, better memory? Why not a personal internet access point too? With plenty of antivirus and anti-malware installed. And ad-blockers.

"Can you fix my diabetes?"

"Almost certainly."

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Depends on what type. The acquired kind would also need better diet and a healthier lifestyle...

"And… I won't need insulin injections ever again?"

"Well, that depends on what exactly's causing your symptoms-."

"Type One Diabetes."

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...Well, that's not so difficult. No lifestyle adjustments needed.

"Yes. I'll need to fiddle with your immune system a bit, and in the event that you have more children the alteration will be passed on, but that's no problem at all. Oh, and while I'm in there, do you want to become immune to H.I.V.?"

"Ah..? Yes. Yes, I think so."

Click to shrink...

...Wait, that's a thing?

"Neat! No problem. Just sign-."

"Wait wait." Karon is frowning. "You can make people immune to H.I.V.?"

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What about curing it, since I think either Karon or Holly suffer from it. Then again, applying the immunity would probably cause existing infections to collapse, right?

"Technically, any oncologist with the right supplies can, it's just that the supplies are hard to get hold of and the risk of death is a bit high. I don't have either of those problems, so I can just do it."

"How?"

Click to shrink...

Space magic science!

"Ah, different people have slightly different immune cell structures. H.I.V. needs a particular bit to attack, and not everyone has that part. So some people are just immune to it. I can swap out a person's immune system for one that's immune to H.I.V., and then you can't get it anymore." Hm. "I mean, you'd be able to get it in your body, but it wouldn't reproduce and it would eventually die off, and couldn't give you A.I.D.S.. Obviously, that wouldn't help with other sexually transmitted diseases, and I wouldn't encourage unsafe sexual practices for a variety of other reasons. So-."

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Ah, the joy of comic-book science. Even if this much is solidly based in the real world.

Karon grabs the disclaimer and signs it.

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Heh. How about a few other upgrades while you're there? Danner Formula for you and Holly, maybe?

Surprised OL is just limiting himself to minor repairs and preventative upgrades. Though I expect he's been told not to hand out super-powers like lollipops. I'm guessing he also doesn't do this too often, or they'd be lines around the block for treatments. Still, it makes a nice occasional break from large-scale disasters or fixing other people's bigger foul-ups.

 

[Nugar]

Karon grabs the disclaimer and signs it.

Should be Carole

 

[Ngamer11]

Karon grabs the disclaimer and signs it.

Should be Carole

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Carole already signed the disclaimer. Karon is signing it because she wants to be immune to H.I.V.

 

[edmantgoog]

What happend to the unmen?

 

[Mr Zoat]

What happend to the unmen?

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Third generation unmen cope with psychological problems by having their bodies reengineered and then fixating on the new parts. They actually coped with the Broadcast fairly well, though Cranius was overworked.

 

[SirKaid]

So, what happens if someone or something screws with Paul's mind to make him change his view and definition of what a perfected human body should be? Like, if I somehow made him believe that human bodily perfection was to have an orange afro haircut, would he then go full mad scientist and then build a machine that will give orange afros for everyone on Earth just for shits and giggles?

Click to shrink...

OL has more than a single desire. One of his more significant desires is that he wants his in group to like him. His in group won't like him if he body mods people without explicit permission. Ergo, no orange afros except for the people who want them.

This is also why he hasn't Dannered everyone on the planet.

 

[WereDragon]

10th April 2013
09:37 GMT -5

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Nice to see Paul doing something he enjoys. And blowing people's minds by being himself, but I repeat myself.

Honestly I am amazed that a type one diabetic managed to survive the anti-life. And the US's joke of a medical establishment.

 

[CrazyNoVa]

OL has more than a single desire. One of his more significant desires is that he wants his in group to like him. His in group won't like him if he body mods people without explicit permission. Ergo, no orange afros except for the people who want them.

This is also why he hasn't Dannered everyone on the planet.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, good point. I guess something like that is more up Tangseid's alley, anyway.

 

[Doccer]

Well you definitely won't, then. Oh, and I can also do cybernetics, so if you want improved data storage then I can give you that. Or anything else."

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In the brain?! What about maintenance? What happens if she needs maintenance or somebody gets cute with a magnet?

 

[Jirachi]

Random ramble thoughts!

Spoiler

What is up with the whole cosmic balance system around lords of order / chaos, anyways? If the wizard (of shazam fame) is a lord of order, and proxies empowered by a lord of order take up the cosmic balance 'slot', then it's interesting that Nabu and Captain Marvel (and co.) were able to operate at the same time - but I suppose it makes sense that it's indirect in that way. I wonder if John Constantine is planning on getting more power sources, actually - though I suppose from the renegade timeline's example it seems likely that there's no actual requirement of a fivefold power source, though I wouldn't put it past him. I wonder if his empowerment will work in a way that's passable onto others in the way that the Shazam one is - and for that matter, I wonder if the avatar of Isis thing is a splittable power as well. I'm also curious if the empowerment system will like, actually help train his abilities in chaos and order magic independently or together, vs. how much it's totally just passing the buck.
I'm also wondering why in Paragon timeline Mordru never appears to have butted in to earth - John w/ klarion's connection to Chaos fucks off on walkabout to the tower of fate disconnected from earth for a good few months, and then is out in the totally disconnected reformation island bubble for another good while, which implies either that Mordru is occupied with something else or the cosmic balance system is exceptionally lenient about being on walkabout, if you're not just dead and gone - which seems reasonably supported by the lack of any order lords or anything in the like 50 years that nabu was sitting on a shelf in the tower of fate, and klarion going on his misadventures didn't give him a chance he took to slip in.
I wonder what Nok is up to, and Zamaron, and what Ghia'ta's reaction to alan and the blue light and the like was, while I'm thinking of such things. I wonder if it'd be in principle possible for a perfect circle of seven indigo lanterns with the right affinities could do white light things, or if there's some intrinsic restriction to the method that prevents that from working, and if it's possible if that's being worked on.
Do element robots work in space? If they do, and you could give them some method of interdicting scarab FTL, they could probably serve as pretty effective scarab counters. Exactly how entwined they are with conventional magic stuff was never terribly clear, but from the kord projects on weather control drones they're probably at least not that effective.
The reach war is in a weird place because the main advantage that the reach have is stability and numbers of consistently high quality troops - afaict, equivalent NEMO ships are slightly superior to their reach counterparts, and lanterns have a kill to death closer to 2:1 then 1:1 v. scarabs, but the reach is a lot more built up and has a much bigger established industry - in that their largest advantages are falling away but are also built on a foundation of being methodical and careful in a way that makes it difficult for them to truly press it.
In principle, Hinon can probably honden port by now, right? In theory they could probably do teleport raids with the controllers just being the ship's ride, or even just teleporting unmanned empathically shielded stealth ships or something into Reach space, and then pop back, and have that work out fine.
The light are awfully irrelevant in the paragon timeline, even if he never actually finally beat any of them, aren't they? IIRC, I think like, the brain is still at large in theory, amongst others.
I wonder what the controllers are doing with the spare Butcher's Blood in the crazy maltusian's lab - there was a bunch more that wasn't used in the creation of the ring that they made that was set aside for the lantern that never got used, as best I recall? Honestly, I wouldn't be suprised if he had a decent stock of such things somewhere deeper in the complex that we never saw on screen, given how long he was said to have fought the butcher.
Don't know why they locked onto to the hope'd up kennedy for the president - in principle I think that there wasn't anything too special going on and that there's no fundamental reason why horne(?) couldn't have been bolstered in the same way by Alan with the hopes associated with him, for something more contemporaneous.
I wonder if the Rocket Red's technology interface system is sufficiently Crazy Earth Tech:tm: to be worth trying as a method for capturing a scarab intact for technological analysis - in theory, the paragon has the detailed tech info and likely passed such things onto Dox already so... ^^
It's a shame that there doesn't seem to have been any techniques that have been developed for the usage of the orange light that have made it back to the OL from the wider corps.
I wonder how practical it would be to set up the honden ritual thingy that they did for the paragon for the other of earth's green lanterns, or perhaps dame carol or Ghia'ta or Alan or others - I wouldn't be suprised if some of them were ready for it, after all they've done.
I wonder what it would take for Balewa to take on a student, given how much of a mess earth has been recently and how mortal that might have shown him to be.

 

[Mr Zoat]

10th April 2013
12:54 GMT -5

Karon peers at the pages of her novel as I deposit her lunch in front of her before sitting down in the seat opposite.

She looks up at me and shrugs. "It doesn't look much different."

"It won't. Remember, people don't see with their eyes. The eyes are merely light sensors. The image you perceive is assembled in your brain, and the human brain does a lot of editing before you become consciously aware of what you're seeing. Here."

I fabricate a classical 'blind spot disappearing shape' test on a sheet of paper and offer it to her.

"Ever done one of these?"

She nods. "In middle school." She then holds up the paper and moves it around, trying to find a spot she no longer has. "This… Huh."

"Of course, because saccades are pretty much hard wired into the brain, that won't change much about the way you use your eyes even if they're pretty much unnecessary for you now."

"Saccades?"

"Small movements of the eye. Your brain 'knows' that it can't see part of its visual field, so it makes sure that you move your eyes around enough to let it build a picture to cover it up. Editing the rest of the body is a lot easier than editing the brain."

"And this doesn't cause a problem with… I don't know, my body won't try regrowing blood vessels over my retina?"

"No. Ah-." Hm. "If you got metahuman regeneration from somewhere it might, but… Normal human healing works by copying the tissues around the injury, rather than fixing the body to template. That's why most people can't regrow a hand or other complicated bits. If you do gain metahuman abilities or use magical healing, come and see me immediately afterwards."

"Was that in the waiver?"

"I thought you read it."

She shrugs. "I skimmed it."

"Never enter into any kind of contract with a demon."

She puts down the sheet and picks up her sandwich. "Duh."

"Or any kind of supernatural entity. If we had a functioning legal system I'd add 'major corporation', but I'm pretty sure we could force majeure that if it came to it."

She chews for a moment, her eyes widening in pleased surprise. "'his is goo'." She swallows. "Where'd you get it?"

"Sicily."

"I think it's called 'Little Italy' in New York."

"The predominantly Italian area of New York is called Little Italy. The island next to Italy's toe is called Sicily."

"What happened to food shortages?"

"Food production hasn't been as badly affected as that. Farmers had a better than average survival rate. The issue is harvesting and transportation to places that don't generate food, maintaining farm equipment and... Deliberate destruction of labour-intensive farmlands."

"Like..?"

"Like mechanised family farms are fine, but places that relied on mass itinerant labour tended to get burned to the ground. After the Sheeda, quite a lot of European countries-. They were actually deliberately shutting their farms down as a matter of government policy before that to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Then they started having actual food shortages, and not just as a result of panic-buying, so they changed their policies. So when the Broadcast happened, there were quite a lot of small new farms ready to go. But they can't sell to anyone, because all of the parts of the economy that could do that aren't there."

She takes another bite of near-perfect ham sandwich. Americans usually react well to actual food, and I'm glad that Karon's no exception.

"Is the League gunna fix that?"

"The League… Can't, really. We're a disaster management charity. We can move a few hundreds tons here and there, we can't replace the entire transportation infrastructure of Earth. Maybe if Atlantis was still connected to the rest of the world and they didn't mind just making dolmen gates." I half smile. "Britain's actually doing okay because of all of the gates they bought to replace their rail network. We just moved them to major distribution nodes, and… Got Mister Atom to calculate a schedule. Other places… We're sort of hoping that people fix their own little bits of everything so we can coordinate things."

"I thought you were taking over the world."

"I'm not allowed to talk about the League taking over the world."

She raises her now-naturally-linear eyebrows. "You're actually doing that? I thought that was just you mouthing off."

"I'm not allowed to talk about the League taking over the world."

She takes another bite, thoughtfully.

"You're not… Putting anything in our heads, are you?"

"Mild brain damage is a hazard of industrial society. I can only fix it a little."

"I meant about the Justice League taking over the world."

"I'm not allowed to talk about the League taking over the world."

She frowns at me. "Did they put something in your head?"

"I'm not allowed to talk about the League taking over the world."

"O.. kay… New topic, before I get really scared. What else can you do?"

"How do you mean?"

"I never need to shave my legs or armpits or pluck my eyebrows again. I've…" She looks at her right arm and flexes her muscles. "I've never been this cut before. I don't have a blind spot any more and you got rid of my heavy metal deposits."

She takes hold of the small plastic bauble on her necklace which contains all of the metal I removed from her body. It's not a lot, but then, what you do with it counts more.

"I could implant a quantum wafer that would give you a memory backup. I can pretty much put the sum of human knowledge on it, and you'd just sort of know it if it came up in conversation."

"How about actual super powers?"

"Do you want to undergo the training regimen you'd need to not accidentally break everything you touch or not experience everything in the world as a film being played at one hundredth normal speed where you're stuck waiting forever for everything?"

"Oh."

"Minor changes to your skin, or eyes, or even your immune system are no problem. Radical things start to have extra risks…"

I.. frown.

"How about hair that changes color?" She pauses mid-bite and notices my expression. "No?"

"Oh, no, there are a couple of ways to do that… But I was thinking. The FDA isn't.. really functioning now, is it?"

Karon shrugs. "No? Isn't that why you're doing this?"

"So there isn't really anything stopping us just… Rolling out super-advanced medicine without bothering jumping through their hoops. I… Think I need to phone some people."

 

[Mr Zoat]

In the brain?! What about maintenance? What happens if she needs maintenance or somebody gets cute with a magnet?

Click to shrink...

It's a quantum wafer, not a magnetic tape. Anything you could do to damage it would wreck the brain around it first.

 

[Darko]

put the sun of human knowledge on it, and you'd just sort of know it if it

Click to shrink...

"the sum of"

 

[Lord Ernest]

So... purple healing rays are a go, because nobody can say no? At least that's what I think the super advanced medicine is.

 

[Mr Zoat]

"the sum of"

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

 

[joha4270]

were actually deliberately shutting their farms down as a matter of government policy

Click to shrink...

Are we living in the same EU? Obviously er aren't, this is a fictional EU in a world of superheroes, but somehow EU making policy against farming strains my SoD more than the FTL travel.

 

[lancelot]

It's a quantum wafer, not a magnetic tape. Anything you could do to damage it would wreck the brain around it first.

Click to shrink...

Pretty sure he was joking, or at least I fucking hope he was joking. Which now makes me wonder if you didn't get that, or your just being pedantic to a autistic degree as a joke of your own. I feel a Inception joke coming on, but it doesn't quite work.