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

Chojin Patriarch · 2025-01-21T06:42:08+0000

Mr Zoat said:
7th May 2013
04:06 GMT -1

"Recognised, Miss Martian, B zero five, Zatanna Zatara, B zero nine."

M'gann comes through the construct zeta tube in mermartian form, while Zatanna appears in a bubble of air that has runes floating on the surface. Though I see that she's also got her enchantments going so that if the comfortable layer fails she won't get immediately crushed and drowned.

Good, multi-layered protection. Shows a lot of progression in her skills in combat and adventuring magic. I'm guessing she's here to assist with identifying possible magical brainwashing sources. Or just to cover M'gann because going into a hostile site solo seems foolish..

And they're both glaring at me.

M'gann puts her hand on her hips. **I thought that we were doing this together.**

It was somewhat short notice, which is why more of the Team isn't out here. I rather imagine another Lantern might go a long way to helping keep people from injuring themselves in another forced attack.

**I was just following up on a lead. I didn't think this would become an active mission. Plus, it was an awkward time for the East Coast-.**

Zatanna flies over to me and pokes me in the chest with her right-.

Ah, it has been a while since they've seen other, right? Even if she's cleared of Violet Light contamination, there's still feelings.

I felt that on my skin. She just connected to my ring's environmental shield and used it to convey a poking sensation. Either that or she did something really clever without using her bloodline backwards talking ability-. Or she did it before arriving so that she could poke me once she got here.

Any one of them says a lot about her state of mind.

I can't help smiling at her level of preparedness-.

She glares. "Stop smiling." Like a puppy. "I'm mad at you."

Well, don't show off, then.

"Yes, but look at you. What you're doing not just brings home for me how far you've come."

Zatanna seems momentarily nonplussed, her poking hand raised slightly from my chest.

Comes looking for an argument, gets confused when he compliments her. Typical OL, really.

M'gann sort of glances at Zatanna for a moment, then shifts her form to that of a white-shinned sharkwoman. **Um.**

"While I'm aware that your shapeshifting has improved significantly since our first mission, I'm afraid that that's something you could do years ago."

It's not like she did it for your approval, baka.

My, that would be amusing: Tsundere Miss Martian.

Abandoned warehouses aren't really a thing in Atlantis. This warehouse isn't abandoned, it's just that all the things it was storing are now being used to construct new farms so there isn't much in it. Steven's been working here as a warehouse manager, a combination of security guard and clerk. A decent enough place to hide out, even if we're not sure that anyone's looking for us. All three of the Fearsome Fish-Eaters have joined us, and… Mr. Cottridge is checking out M'gann's flukes.

Because of course he is.

Some guys just have no sense of priorities.

He grins a toothy shark-grin. "I like it just fine. You busy later?"

M'gann glances at him, then rolls her eyes. **I'm already dating someone.**

And he could kick your ass into orbit, bud. Be polite. She seemed amazed he'd try to pick up girls during a covert superhero operation.

"Had to think about it though, didn't you?"

**No.** She turns back to me. **Orange Lantern, what's our objective?**

The pause was more surprise than consideration. Amazed she didn't give OL a private **Is he serious?**...

**Someone appears to be using wide-area telepathic suggestions on the locals. It didn't do anything to us, but I don't know if that's because we were the ones the suggestion was supposed to kill or something else.**

Zatanna frowns, glancing at Robert. "And it wasn't magic? This is Atlantis."

Not a form they recognise, certainly. Doesn't mean it is or isn't, just they didn't recognise it.

"N-."

King Sha'ark snorts. "Yes, this is Atlantis, not the surface. Everyone here knows some magic. Try that sort of thing with magic and someone would notice. One of our senior blood mages was affected, and other people's magic usually slides right off them. We're not used to telepathy."

I wouldn't be surprised if everyone knew a couple of common magical spells, from simple 'heat water' spells to 'minor persistent protection from 'bad things''.

Robert looks a little down. "No. What he said."

**So we're tracking a telepath? That should be easy if there's only one telepath in the city.**

Careful about leaping to conclusions, M'gann. there's only the possibility of 'Some kind of telepath', not 'A single telepath'.

**Miss Martian, there's a giant naked statue-.**

**I haven't forgotten! I've learned a lot since then, too.**

Nice reminder of her first big blunder with telepathy. Surprised he hasn't relocated the statue somewhere by now.

**To be clear, we don't know that there's just one telepath, just that there was one command which would only require one telepath.**

**Do you think there are six telepaths as strong as me?**

Unless they have a knack for coordinating their telepathy, no.

**That seems unlikely.**

**Then-** Her forms shifts once again, from sharkwoman to star conqueror. **-I'm fairly confident.**

Ah, right, multi-brained psychic. With plenty of cross-brain error-correction, so if whoever's behind this gets one brain, another can force them out... Unless someone can hit all of them at once.

**Okay. My first idea was that the rest of us would go somewhere open and let lots of people see us, then you could trace it once the broadcast happens.**

Her legs wiggle. **That works for me, but what if it's a machine of some kind?**

Or an arcane structure with the same function.

**Could you home in on it? Tell us where it is?**

**Probably. But I can't just attack it like I could if it was a person.**

Just locating it would be enough, given OL's long-range strike capabilities.

**Not a problem. Anything I haven't thought of?**

**If it's implanted commands in everyone in the city I can't remove them all in one go. Depending on what they are, I might not even be able to remove them all when we beat… Whoever it is.** She monoptically frowns. **Do we know who it is?**

That must be a peculiar thing to see on a giant cyclopean starfish...

**My only guess so far is Karshon.**

**I thought he was just a regular shark again.**

Doesn't stop him from being a psychic threat.

**That's my most recent information. But he's been changed back before. Of course…** I frown. **There's really no reason why someone with the mutagen couldn't just dose another shark.** I nod to King Sha'ark. **Or a local. But whoever it is and whatever happened, we need to track them down.**

Or multiples of either. Make an entire school of psychic sharks or something.

**Right.**

"Zatanna, I'd rather not hurt more people than we have to following Miss Martian's directions. Please focus on countermagic and decoys."

And if they can shake that sort of thing off? Hand them off to someone better suited?

She nods.

"Cornwall, traps and barriers. Lock anyone who attacks us in place long enough for us to move on."

Just remember to think three-dimensionally. A wall won't help much if they can still swim around it.

"Can do."

"Miss Lemaris, since you are by your own admission compromised, I'm going to have to ask you to stay here."

She doesn't look happy, but she nods.

Good. Hopefully with at least one person monitoring her.

"King Sha'ark-."

"Yes. King Sha'ark. This is my city."

The joy of working with an active monarch. Think he's feeling a little ignored and powerless about these outsiders making plans without him?

"You don't have any telepaths or ways to track telepaths, and we don't know what the trigger is for whoever this is spotting us and turning your fellow Nanauvians after us. And until King Orin formally nullifies it, Atlantis is part of the Justice League's charter, which means that we're obliged to protect its people."

In other words, he's not going to just ignore the troubled state of Nanauve.

"Still."

I give him a courtly bow. "I apologise, your majesty, for my gross impropriety. How may these humble servants aid you?"

There's polite, OL, and then there's taking the piss... And you're walking a thin line.

"Exactly what you just said. But you should ask me first."

"Alright. Any idea where the telepath might be hiding, so we know where to start?"

Ah, good thought. They'd either have to be centrally located, or mobile around the outskirts to provide coverage.

"If they've had the run of the place, the Royal Citadel would be a good place to start. And it would certainly get a response."

"Very well. In-."

Hopefully not bigger than they can handle.

Steven swishes his tail. "What about us?"

"Since you've got minimal training, have never worked with us and have no particular resistance to telepathy or magic, please stay here and guard Miss Martian."

Sensible. She's more than strong enough to resist them if they get controlled, and can disable them without trouble.

M'gann makes eye contact with me as they nod.

**'Guard'.**

**Be nice, they're reformed.**

In other words, play nice with the rookies. And try not to hurt the one who hit on you if he persists.

All right, the plan is laid out, the members are ready to carry it out. Now how badly can this go sideways? Because it's a rare thing for anything OL or the Team is involved in to go smoothly. Fortunately, the chance doesn't stack if they're both part of it. And how bad would it be if Miss Martian got compromised, since she's technically an aquatic lifeform right now?

Ngamer11 · 2025-01-21T06:48:39+0000

Mr Zoat said:
M'gann sort of glances at Zatanna for a moment, then shifts her form to that of a white-shinned sharkwoman. **Um.**

That should say 'white-skinned'.

FuzzyZergling · 2025-01-21T07:25:44+0000

Mr Zoat said:
What you're doing not just brings home for me how far you've come.

doing now

Mr Zoat · 2025-01-21T08:27:42+0000

Darko said:
Remove "not".

Nearly.

Ngamer11 said:
That should say 'white-skinned'.

To be fair, her shins were white too.

PDV · 2025-01-21T08:48:28+0000

Mr Zoat said:
Leaving aside the chapter cults and the entire Mechanicus, there are major tolerated divisions in belief and practice in the Ecclesiarchy. The Temple of the Saviour Emperor tried to maintain uniformity when they declared a War of Faith against the Confederacy of Light. It didn't work. The Confederacy of Light hung around until Sebastian Thor legitimised them. Then there's the Death Cults, the Redemptionists, the Imperialists and the Brethren of the Light to name a few. They all practice the faith differently and none are called heretics.

Irrelevant. The orthodoxy that's enforced is all-encompassing enough that it doesn't need to crack down in minor variations.

Shipping? Rogue Traders are defined by the fact that they aren't centrally controlled. Individual navigator houses have pacts with various groups to provide them with navigators in exchange for protection or resources. The Paternoval Envoy represents the navigator houses as a High Lord of Terra, and is sometimes joined by Speaker for the Chartist Captains. They're not being told what to do, they're having direct input into policy.

Rogue Traders are defined by being one of the very few groups who have a moderate amount of independence, and even they don't keep their privileges if they leave the fringes and go into the imperial core. The Navigators have leverage to exert real influence, to the extent they act on shared interests; Chartist captains are represented in name only. Why would the speaker for the chartist captains pander to the actual chartist captains?

Except... Those things are actually threats. Heretics, mutants and (most) aliens are active threats to the Imperium and its people. It's not an invention to keep people scared, it's a simplified but basically literal description. In the medieval context, it's the difference between 'Jews eat Christian children' and 'Muslims raid Europe and carry of Christians as slaves'.

The threats being mostly real doesn't actually make it less fascist. And the conspiratorial mindset of how they react to an external threat is plenty to demonstrate that.

Mr Zoat · 2025-01-21T13:34:21+0000

PDV said:
Irrelevant. The orthodoxy that's enforced is all-encompassing enough that it doesn't need to crack down in minor variations.

The Imperial Creed.

For example, take the Arch Zealot of the Redemption, the theoretical head of the Redemptionists of Hive Primus on Necromunda. He is a religious authority. What is his position in the Ecclesiarchy? Well, he wanders around rilling people up, which makes him a confessor. Except it doesn't, because he's not a member of the Ecclesiarchy. He is claiming divine authority without being a member of the state church.

And then we're got the Cardinals Crimson, or any other religious warrior order. What part of the Ecclesiarchy do they serve? They don't. Legally, they can't. Individuals may in practice work for a religious official as bodyguards but organisationally they have to be separate.

Rogue Traders are defined by being one of the very few groups who have a moderate amount of independence, and even they don't keep their privileges if they leave the fringes and go into the imperial core.

No, they do. That Warrant of Trade supercedes everything except practical reality. Something authorised by the High Lord of Terra is the highest Imperial law.

An example of practical reality came up in the Soul Drinkers series, where a senior Inquisitor pointed out that while he could execute the local tech-priests for refusing to give him access to their archives, their response would be to withdraw support for his crusade. No titans and no engseers.

The Navigators have leverage to exert real influence, to the extent they act on shared interests; Chartist captains are represented in name only. Why would the speaker for the chartist captains pander to the actual chartist captains?

Because they nominate the speaker? He literally works for them and would be replaced if a majority thought that he wasn't doing his job? He's a representative like the Inquisitorial Representative, not a department head like the Master of the Administratum.

The threats being mostly real doesn't actually make it less fascist. And the conspiratorial mindset of how they react to an external threat is plenty to demonstrate that.

It does, because it's a response to reality rather than an ideological decision.

Put it this way: who is the ruler of the Imperium?

That's right, no one is.

The Emperor is the head of state but isn't capable of making decisions. The High Lords cooperate as heads/representatives of their organisations and don't have the authority to give direct orders to each others followers. The next biggest locus of legitimate powers is... Marneus Calgar as nominal ruler of the 100 worlds?

Ardy · 2025-01-21T17:50:57+0000

Oh man, I'd forgotten the giant naked statue

Thoracto · 2025-01-21T21:15:51+0000

Weren't Sephtian and co. studying Dream Baghdad as part of their research? Would some kind perfected version of that show up to normal magical scans, given that it would presumably be opereting directly through connetions to the Dreaming?
Actually, given Ahri'ahn's intrest in OL's Dream dive, that's probably not it. ~~Unless that's the dream of a perfect Atlantean court magician instead of the real Ahri'ahn!~~

boo600 · 2025-01-22T01:08:46+0000

It's amusing that Megan deigns to show off so she can get Paul's praise as well; I suppose everyone wants a complement, and that she doesn't look too badly on him for the Batman Incident, for all that she's aware of how much PR-based damage control he tends to incur.

And I loved seeing her and Zatanna pop up - some of the original cast finally returning to the screen - but as cool as it is to see how far Zatanna has come, despite 'not being an archmage,' I'm now really curious as to what sort of thing her Renegade-timeline counterpart is up to, just to see how New Godhood interacts with her spellcasting. The Renegade himself was able to make his soul a place of power where intruders couldn't access their magics, as he showed on Luna (due to experience with intruders); what could Zee be doing, as a New Goddess of Magic using the Zatara tricks?

I'm assuming something more interesting than Nu52's "she's just blatantly God."

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

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Chojin Patriarch

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Ngamer11

Experienced.

FuzzyZergling

Getting sticky.

Mr Zoat

Dedicated ragequitter

PDV

Revelation That Uncertainty Is Itself An Answer

Mr Zoat

Dedicated ragequitter

Ardy

I trust you know where the happy button is?

Thoracto

Getting some practice in, huh?

boo600

Welp

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