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

TFTwink · Jun 2, 2025

Mr Zoat said:
"Does he come with a spray bottle?"

No, you gotta pspsps Paul first.

Chojin Patriarch · Jun 2, 2025

Mr Zoat said:
18th July 2013
11:31 GMT -5

Selina moves another piece into the 'blue with medium purple lines' table, before giving me a frustrated glare. "Doesn't your ring have a puzzle-completing mode?"

"A mode?" I shake my head as I try and persuade the pieces to attach themselves together. "It's a basic function. Unfortunately, this looks like it's a piece of New God technology. I didn't know it was here until I opened the door which means that it either has stealth and disguise as one of its fundamental properties, or it's messing with my ring specifically. In either case, exposing New God technology to exotic energy isn't a good idea when you don't know what it does."

Modes come down largely to what he feels like doing at any given moment. I'm sure the software itself has many, many delineated functions, but to the average user, it just looks like 'Do the thing' is all you need...

"And the reason you haven't called someone who does is..?"

"Scott Free and Big Barda are very busy. Canis… Didn't take finding out that Darkseid didn't keep sending assassins after him as a test and genuinely wanted him dead particularly well. I haven't seen him for a while. And I'm persona non grata on New Genesis after I made their crown prince mentally ill-"

I mean, he already had anger issues. You just got him the full subscription.

"At least you're in the right city."

"-and I don't want to try Apokolips, and I don't know where else I could find a New God."

Sadly, unlike the Maltusians, there aren't that many offshoots.

Selina looks at a couple of the pieces. "Do you have some kind of space glue?"

"Yes, but that would coat the circuits."

Do you really need it functional, though?

"Then how are we sticking it back together?"

"Either I work out how to recombine the fragments, or I make a big transparent sphere to hold them as we slot them together." I frown. "Unless Gotham has a puzzle-themed criminal that I don't know about."

...Not that kind of puzzle, sadly.

"Eddie doesn't do literal puzzles. Neither does Cluemaster. I think you've actually found an original theme."

"Yay. Can you-? If you find pieces that look like they go together, just lay them next to each other?"

Honestly, given everything so far, if you didn't know otherwise, you might think he was a neutral-ish rogue if you were told about him.

"Yes, I do know how puzzles work, Paul."

"Would you like me to put some music on?"

As long as it's not the sort of incidental music from game shows used to raise tension. You know, like the 'Jeopardy' thinking tune.

"Just focus on making the alien thingy work." Something appears to occur to her. "This isn't dangerous to me, is it?"

"If I knew what it did, I could answer that. But I can't see a power source and there isn't a New God nearby, so I suspect that it's just 'regular' dangerous, rather than 'super' dangerous."

In other words, only in the sense that it has sharp edges and broken metal tips.

"I'm sure that the Joker did something like this once, but for the life of me I can't remember when."

"Nothing in my files."

That'd have to be a strange gag he was pulling.

Okay, these two pieces… Yes, they're supposed to go together like that, and that one goes there… And… Dreamer did say that I felt like a New God…

"I've got an idea. You-." She's already on the far side of the room. "Should do that."

Hey, you don't grow up on the streets of Gotham City without developing a solid danger sense.

"This isn't my first rodeo. Or the first time I've been down into the sewers with a superhero who's a few bats short of a belfry."

"It hadn't even occurred to me to ask you if you knew The Question."

Now that would be an amusing team-up, but no...

Okay, unfocus, and… Perceive the world in terms of patterns of desires, needs, wants, fixations and obsessions. Oooh yes, that's lighting up nicely.

"He's the guy with no face, right?"

Ah, dipping into his more shamanistic toolset. Always a fascinating moment.

Feeling out environment, seeking useful knowledge, reaching for safety without giving information away.

"He has a face-."

I suspect he's starting turn a little ethereal, and possibly a little serpentine...

"Ah… Tell me when you've finished."

Keep the crazy man where you can see him and stay out of the blast radius.

An entirely reasonable precaution when this happens.

Not sure what that's about. Returning my focus to the objects I can… See something of Tetch himself. He need for physical reality to be unreal, and for the people in his head to be made manifest. And as I.. turn a fragment over-.

It's… Stronger. Like… He was calm, if not entirely happy, and then almost frenzied in the frantic need to get back what he… Lost. The delusion. The dream.

Huh. I guess he did have a bad reaction to the Anti-Life, then.

I've felt that way once or twice myself. The realisation that something you'd desperately like to be true just isn't, the loss of possibility and your ability to believe in it. And that…

Yes, I see it. Fragments of the desire, linking to one another, this one to this to this to this to this… All little parts of a whole which-

And I would bet the fragments in question are now lifting off the table and swirling about in front of him...

"Robin? Yeah, it's Catwoman. What do I do when Orange Lanterns starts… Glowing more than usual." … "About ten feet. Why?"

-make something more and bigger. Fragments to fragment, the delightful delusion on one side and the bitter desperation of denial on the other and the shapes-.

Heh, Selina calling for advice while he goes all Orange Light mystic.

"Ah, hey, Alan? It's Orange Lantern. He's gone a bit… Yeah. Yeah. I'll pass you over."

"Paul, knock it off. You're scaring people. Again."

And back in the room, standing in front of… I'm not sure what.

Amazing how a few words from his mentor can shake him out of a trance like that.

"But I'm being ever so productive." I turn, looking past the phone into Selina's slightly worried face. "I think I'd have been alright, but well thought out."

"You back to firing on all cylinders, son?"

"Yes, Alan, don't worry-. Actually, do you want to keep talking to Selina while I try and work out what this thing is?"

In other words, don't go anywhere. He may need help in a hurry.

"Ah… Maybe I should. Just in case."

Selina looks.. mildly puzzled, but pulls her phone back as I return to stare at the… Thing.

A thing which is now fully reassembled, more or less?

Okay, so at the base it's a.. large globe. I think. There are a load of other lines on it, and I'm not really sure what they represent… Some of the.. intersections are places where there were Anti-Life broadcasters…

But I've got no idea how that ties into the desires I was seeing.

Fascinating. Not the foggiest as to what it does, but fascinating all the same.

Ring, compare this to-.

Object not found.

...Wow, that is concerning. He's looking at it, yet the Ring has nothing.

Still?

Object still not found.

Makes you wonder if there are other things like this out there, undetected by Ring scans much like a scry ward...

Okay. Overlay… Ley lines?

Overlay not available.

It can't even render a simple sphere near it?

Because you can't see this globe. Okay, just… Show globes with… Ley lines, shipping routes and air travel routes.

Compliance.

Some overlap, but I don't know why these ones are significant and others aren't. Alright, how about I-?

Huh. Some manner of geomantic map? Odd that the travel routes line up, though...

"…like the way he's looking at it." I awkwardly turn towards Selina. "Does he come with a spray bottle?"

"Heh. I'm afraid not."

"Okay, I can take a hint." Selina raises her eyebrows, and on the phone's screen I see Alan raise one of his. "I'll move it to a specialist and avoid touching it myself. Happy?"

I suspect that's the best option. Although he'll have to be careful who the device interacts with, just in case.

Well, at least he's being sensible and using the remarkably uncommon power of delegation. Though if this somehow leads to someone getting map-related superpowers, I would not be surprised.

Mildly amused, but hardly surprised. The question remains as to how this can help find the Hatter, even if it offers some insight into his probable state of mind.

Darko · Jun 2, 2025

Mr Zoat said:
Nothing in my files."
Okay, these two pieces… Yes, they're supposed to go together like that, and that one goes there… And… Dreamer did say that I felt like a New God…

Add a space.

Mr Zoat said:
Keep the crazy man where you can see him and stay out of the blast radius.

Not sure what that's about

Hah!

Mr Zoat said:
He need for

"His need"

BR549 · Jun 2, 2025

It's amusing to me that Selina calls Riddler "Eddie", but uses Cluemaster's nom de cape instead of calling him "Arthur". It's a good hint that Riddler is more part of the main Gotham Villains Social Circle than Cluemaster is.

Cuchulin · Jun 2, 2025

BR549 said:
It's amusing to me that Selina calls Riddler "Eddie", but uses Cluemaster's nom de cape instead of calling him "Arthur". It's a good hint that Riddler is more part of the main Gotham Villains Social Circle than Cluemaster is.

The Ridder commands respect, he is popular and generally has class as well as style. Not to mention he gets along well with most of the other major Batman villains. Cluemaster is a knockoff former quiz show host who went to jail for a long time and got taken down by his teen daughter.
Not to mention my head cannon is that Kite man is his brother or cousin.

Mr Zoat · Jun 2, 2025

Darko said:
Add a space.
"His need"

Thank you, corrected.

thebishop8 · Jun 2, 2025

Mr Zoat said:
"-and I don't want to try Apokolips, and I don't know where else I could find a New God."

What about the New Gods of New Cronus?

Based on what Paul was seeing, I'd guess that Tetch was healed in ways he didn't want to be healed by the white light when it purged the anti-life.

iamnuff · Jun 2, 2025

Catwoman is being pretty pretty whiny about him using his ring to put this thing together.

Its not like he started singing or anything, he's just concentrating.

Mr Zoat · Jun 2, 2025

thebishop8 said:
What about the New Gods of New Cronus?

It's been a while, but didn't almost all of them die?

Ngamer11 · Jun 2, 2025

Mr Zoat said:
It's been a while, but didn't almost all of them die?

If you mean the alien planet inhabited by descendants of Rhea, then aren't they in a coma?

Steelplaza · Jun 2, 2025

Mr Zoat said:
Canis… Didn't take finding out that Darkseid didn't keep sending assassins after him as a test and genuinely wanted him dead particularly well. I haven't seen him for a while.

So there's something interesting here. We just saw how Paul could barely let Catwoman alone when she's dealing with fairly minor romantic problems, how he felt compelled to give her a better costume so she wouldn't deal with mild discomfort. When there's a problem, he wants to solve it. And he knows Canis is having serious problems... but Paul hasn't been trying to solve them.

Where have we seen that before? Well, it seems to be a symptom of guilt. The same way he didn't want to interfere with Batman further. When OL feels guilty about a problem, feels like he caused it in some sense, it makes him think that further interference will only make the problem worse.

I think OL feels guilty about Canis because he knew Canis was under a delusion and didn't try to convince Canis of the truth, or at least gave up on convincing Canis of the truth. It was just easier and more convenient to use Canis, and that meant that when Canis found out the truth it was in the worst way possible. At least, that's the only explanation I can come up with for why Paul would leave Canis alone like this when usually he's all-in on trying to "fix" people who are close to him and whom he owes. (And Canis did a lot for the team and for OL.)

Mr Zoat said:
It's… Stronger. Like… He was calm, if not entirely happy, and then almost frenzied in the frantic need to get back what he… Lost. The delusion. The dream.

So Tetch has lost his ability to delude himself, How very dangerous. Maybe it was the White Light, but I think the other guess is more likely. Tetch welded the hemispheres of his brain together to try and stave off the anti-Life, and it left him unable to delude himself anymore.

Mr Zoat said:
It's been a while, but didn't almost all of them die?

One of them joined the Orange Lantern Corps and is the go-to New God tech guy for the Corps even as he insists he's not really a technology god. I forget his name. Theoretically Paul could go show it to him, though the guy might be busy fighting the war and such.

Darko · Jun 2, 2025

Steelplaza said:
So there's something interesting here. We just saw how Paul could barely let Catwoman alone when she's dealing with fairly minor romantic problems, how he felt compelled to give her a better costume so she wouldn't deal with mild discomfort. When there's a problem, he wants to solve it. And he knows Canis is having serious problems... but Paul hasn't been trying to solve them.

Where have we seen that before? Well, it seems to be a symptom of guilt. The same way he didn't want to interfere with Batman further. When OL feels guilty about a problem, feels like he caused it in some sense, it makes him think that further interference will only make the problem worse.

I think OL feels guilty about Canis because he knew Canis was under a delusion and didn't try to convince Canis of the truth, or at least gave up on convincing Canis of the truth. It was just easier and more convenient to use Canis, and that meant that when Canis found out the truth it was in the worst way possible. At least, that's the only explanation I can come up with for why Paul would leave Canis alone like this when usually he's all-in on trying to "fix" people who are close to him and whom he owes. (And Canis did a lot for the team and for

It's important to remember that psychologically Canis is very off compared to most of the people Paul deals with, so he honestly may not know how to help him.

Selina is also friends with Holly and Caron, who Paul cares about, so he'd try to help Selina.

Canis may be a member of the Team, but I'm betting that most of them try to keep their distance since he's off-putting.

Steelplaza said:
One of them joined the Orange Lantern Corps and is the go-to New God tech guy for the Corps even as he insists he's not really a technology god. I forget his name. Theoretically Paul could go show it to him, though the guy might be busy fighting the war and such

There were several others that left Sparta's side.

One of them was a guy that just wanted to heal people.

Steelplaza · Jun 2, 2025

Darko said:
It's important to remember that psychologically Canis is very off compared to most of the people Paul deals with, so he honestly may not know how to help him.

Selina is also friends with Holly and Caron, who Paul cares about, so he'd try to help Selina.

Canis may be a member of the Team, but I'm betting that most of them try to keep their distance since he's off-putting.

I am sure "I don't know how to help him" is the justification Paul is using for himself, but you have to admit "We've tried nothing and now we're out of ideas," is not his usual MO. If there's a problem OL wants to solve he'll almost always try a few things, ask advice, give it a shot, before declaring it insoluble,

As for whether Canis is off-putting and psychologically off, he sure is. Nevertheless there were many occasions where the Team and even OL specifically needed help and Canis came through as their "magic guy who knows about New God stuff". He's not some random stranger; he bled for the Team and they frankly owe him something. Paul has gone to greater effort for people he didn't know nearly as well.

Me saying "OL feels guilty" is an attempt to rationalize why he'd avoid Canis as much as anything else.

Darko said:
There were several others that left Sparta's side.

One of them was a guy that just wanted to heal people.

Oh sure, but the guy who joined the OL Corps ought to be most accessible and also (importantly) has actually been working with New God technology to some extent. The others are "New Gods" but don't actually come from New Genesis or Apokolips and are going to be less valuable when shown a random piece of tech and asked, "What does this do?"

NightmareWarden · Jun 2, 2025

Mr Zoat said:
It's been a while, but didn't almost all of them die?

Rhea was brought back as a full divinity, no body or active mind. It seemed like she was going to turn the soul-marbles into similar disembodied gods in the thaumospnere, until the "dead" can pull themselves together. They aren't actively leading the world anymore exactly, at least.

Mr Zoat · Jun 2, 2025

Gosh darn it, I'm going to need to do a reread of my own story.

Steelplaza · Jun 2, 2025

If you need to find the story, here is the post where Paul last visits New Cronus and recruits Allyn.

Allyn is actually a pretty cool character. In the followup he's part of the team that pulls Jade out of her infiltration mission in the Citizenry. I think they also take Knock-Out prisoner during that one and may have ended up recruiting her in some fashion. (SHe was supposed to spy on Grayven for Darkseid, but Grayven realized it and dumped her and she can't go back a failure.)

RoninSword · Jun 2, 2025

My understanding was they did a ritual that essentially dumped the seeds into the planets thaumosphere, strengthening it massively. Also let's them stop boom tubes from opening into their space without their leaders permission. Some if them were out into a coma when Sparta stole the seeds but they recovered when they got them back and the ritual was done.

Darko · Jun 2, 2025

Steelplaza said:
Allyn is actually a pretty cool character. In the followup he's part of the team that pulls Jade out of her infiltration mission in the Citizenry. I think they also take Knock-Out prisoner during that one and may have ended up recruiting her in some fashion

Knockout hasn't shown up in the Paragon timeline.

They did fight Astarte and Sparta, but they escaped.

Steelplaza said:
SHe was supposed to spy on Grayven for Darkseid, but Grayven realized it and dumped her and she can't go back a failure.)

She's still with renegade.

RoninSword said:
My understanding was they did a ritual that essentially dumped the seeds into the planets thaumosphere, strengthening it massively. Also let's them stop boom tubes from opening into their space without their leaders permission. Some if them were out into a coma when Sparta stole the seeds but they recovered when they got them back and the ritual was done.

I think the Titans are still in a coma, but Athyns used the Seeds and Rhea's body to activate the world's magic.

Ngamer11 · Jun 2, 2025

Darko said:
Knockout hasn't shown up in the Paragon timeline.

She has. When Zartok's team plus Allyn assisted the Darkstars in investigating a stranded Citizenry ship which had Jade on it, Knockout was on that ship as well. Grayven showed up long enough to tell the Lanterns and Jade that they can keep Knockout and admitted that he orchestrated the malfunction to get rid of her. This happened in Episode 133: Counterpunched.

Steelplaza · Jun 2, 2025

Darko said:
I think the Titans are still in a coma, but Athyns used the Seeds and Rhea's body to activate the world's magic.

Yeah. I think there's been some confusion in this discussion between the "New Titans" who can do the godlike thing of existing purely in the thamuosphere and were in comas last time we checked, and "Rhea's descendants" who are effectively New Gods and like other New Gods are physical beings with flesh and blood bodies even if their souls are connected to the Source.

Old Knife · Jun 2, 2025

iamnuff said:
Catwoman is being pretty pretty whiny about him using his ring to put this thing together.

Its not like he started singing or anything, he's just concentrating.

No. He's going into cakeman mode.
He's not supposed to do that unless you want him to make a cake or mass Produce Kon's Nth Metal Armor.

Sockmonkey · Jun 2, 2025

What about Hephestian, god of technology? He's got the god mojo, the tech mojo and OL in still on good terms with him.

Vaermina · Jun 2, 2025

Mr Zoat said:
Ring, compare this to-.

Object not found.

Still?

Object still not found.

Okay. Overlay… Ley lines?

Overlay not available.

Because you can't see this globe. Okay, just… Show globes with… Ley lines, shipping routes and air travel routes.

I just want to point out that this is Paul failing because he's too much of a face puncher now to make a construct of a video camera.

Darko · Jun 2, 2025

Vaermina said:
I just want to point out that this is Paul failing because he's too much of a face puncher now to make a construct of a video camera.

If he makes a construct then it still wouldn't work.

The construct would still be the ring doing its own scanning and recording functions, the only difference being is that it's doing that through the form of a camera.

And the ring can't scan the tech, so making the scanner into the form of a camera wouldn't help.

Vaermina · Jun 2, 2025

Darko said:
If he makes a construct then it still wouldn't work.

The construct would still be the ring doing its own scanning and recording functions, the only difference being is that it's doing that through the form of a camera.

And the ring can't scan the tech, so making the scanner into the form of a camera wouldn't help.

The rings scanners can't detect the tech.

A camera construct would bypass those scanners, so the only way it wouldn't work is if the technology was also invisible to cameras.

In which case he could just make a construct eye, because he already confirmed that the naked eye can see it.

Darko · Jun 3, 2025

Vaermina said:
The rings scanners can't detect the tech.

A camera construct would bypass those scanners, so the only way it wouldn't work is if the technology was also invisible to cameras.

In which case he could just make a construct eye, because he already confirmed that the naked eye can see it.

I'll repeat myself because you clearly didn't read my post.

The construct would still be the ring doing it's scanning and recording function, it would just be doing it in the form of a camera.

And if the ring, which is one of the most advanced pieces of tech in the universe, can't scan the tech, then it's unlikely that other lesser forms if tech could do anything useful.

Vaermina · Jun 3, 2025

Darko said:
I'll repeat myself because you clearly didn't read my post.

The construct would still be the ring doing it's scanning and recording function, it would just be doing it in the form of a camera.

And if the ring, which is one of the most advanced pieces of tech in the universe, can't scan the tech, then it's unlikely that other lesser forms if tech could do anything useful.

No. When a ring creates a construct of a camera it's a camera that works on the same physical properties as a regular camera. Not just the ring pretending to be a camera.

balor64 · Jun 3, 2025

Darko said:
I'll repeat myself because you clearly didn't read my post.

The construct would still be the ring doing it's scanning and recording function, it would just be doing it in the form of a camera.

And if the ring, which is one of the most advanced pieces of tech in the universe, can't scan the tech, then it's unlikely that other lesser forms if tech could do anything useful.

I hate to agree with Vaermina, but Paul already demonstrated way back when he first merged with the Ophidian that scrying wards can be bypassed by making eye constructs and looking through those instead of scanning normally. Constructs really do work differently from the ring's normal processes.

That doesn't necessarily mean that a New God scrying ward can also be defeated that way though.

Mr Zoat · Jun 3, 2025

19th July 2013
00:53 GMT +8

I float down through the tunnels hewn into the rock, the orange light from my rings the only illumination. Tibet wasn't quite the last place I expected to find Canis, but it was pretty close. The monks were happy enough to direct me down here, though…

I'm cringing internally at the thought, but they all looked the same to me. And normally I'd wonder if the Chinese were cloning people, but I doubt that they could organise something like that at the moment… Or maybe they escaped in the chaos? But this place is a lot older than six months old. And… It's built on the top of a weirdly-shaped rock spire… Which must have been really difficult with the sort of tools they'd have had if the age estimate my rings are giving me is correct.

But they're not hurting anyone up here, so that can be a problem for another day. Canis is in one of the meditation chambers, and they didn't seem to think that me disturbing him would be a problem. Honestly, with the spire being the shape it is, I'd have thought that digging in from the sides would be the easiest way to use it, but it looks like the only entrance to the caves below is from the top.

Crazy monks are going to crazy monk, I guess.

I can just about hear… Muttered chanting coming from a short distance below. I recognise Canis's voice, but there's… Some sort of resonance to it that I don't remember from before. No translation available, apparently, which might mean that it's a New God thing. Down the path I can see a weak light, probably coming from lanterns of the sort the monks carry.

"Canis?"

As I reach the chamber leading to the meditation cells Brut pads over to greet me. I note that he's not wearing armour as I raise my right hand for him to sniff. Reassured that I am who I smell like, he snorts at me before turning around and walking back to one of the cell entrances. He then turns around a couple of times to find a comfortable spot on the stone floor, then lays down.

"Good dog."

Four lanterns on poles provide a level of illumination for people without power rings. There are some… Wall hangings whose design I don't really recognise. They put me in mind of other designs from the region while still being… Different, but I suppose that naturally a place this remote would develop its own style. There's a fire pit in the middle, but it's currently cold. Are they using..? Coal? Probably easier to get than wood somewhere like this.

I walk towards the cell… The door is made of wooden planks, and the frame looks like it's made of… Copper? Brut is keeping his eyes on me, but he doesn't object as I reach out to knock.

"Canis? I'm sorry to intrude, but I could use your help. Do you have a moment?"

"Yes, certainly! Come!"

I push the door, and it.. resists for a moment before swinging open.

Ah. Of course.

Canis has decorated.

There's a raised cuboid of stone in the middle of the chamber, with slots for lantern poles at each of the corners. Around the sides of the room are.. pots containing various types of… Bonsai ivy? Okay. Alternating with those are pots containing decorative stones. And the walls…

Canis is working on an incredibly intricate painting… The borders of the various scenes look a little like the decoration on pieces of Chinese pottery, but in several colours and.. a little bit spikier. The scenes… I'd guess they're things from Apokoliptian myths? I can see what I think are fire pits in some of them, and one of the towers reminds me of one of the pictures the League took during their brief sojourn there. The rest? No idea, and he's only about a third done.

"Impressive."

He doesn't look around, focusing on his brushwork. "No. But it will be. The rocks of this place speak to me."

"Metaphorically or literally?"

"For me there is little difference." "For me there is no difference."

"I need your help with something. There's a New God device, and I've got no idea what it's for."

"Why not ask my aunt, or her husband?"

"Because they're very busy. There's a lot of Apokoliptian technology to go through, and this wasn't involved in the broadcast. It's not a high priority."

"But high enough for me?"

I make a point of looking around. "Yes, I think so. Canis, I realise that your standard of 'alright' is as divergent from human norms as mine is, but are you alright?"

"Did they tell you what happened when we encountered the False Darkseid?"

I nod. "He told you that you weren't being tested. That your exile was genuine. And… I suppose that you weren't important enough to put significant effort into killing."

"Does Kanto toy with me, do you think?"

"He did spare Scott Free once out of admiration for his abilities. Perhaps he's a fan?"

"A curious thing. I once wrote a poem inspired by him passing through a crowd. He left knife wounds that his targets didn't even feel until he had left. It was… Beautiful."

"Well, there you are, then-."

"Except it wasn't." His expression is bitter as he lowers his brush and turns towards me. "What was that.. white light that you unleashed upon this world?" "With its burning revelation."

"The essence of life."

"There is a Life Equation? I thought that was some foolish-." He closes his eyes for a moment. "And how did you discover it?"

I shrug. "I have a good relationship with the Controllers. Controller Hinon was involved in the creation of the first power rings."

"Ah." He nods. "Yes. And do you know what it did to me?"

"I don't, but… You'd-. You grew up surrounded by Anti-Life. And it removed it. That… Must have been disturbing for you."

"No. No. It was the most natural thing in existence. It was breathing without a choke collar for the first time in my life." He leans towards me, his eye widening manically. "I.. hate it."

"Ah."

"My thoughts dwell on the uplifting and unified. When I think on my own memories of Great Darkseid's hymnals, and of the wonder of the dark city, of the joyful screams of the labour slaves… I am filled with disquiet. With… Horror. And not the good kind! Is this how you see it?"

"I can't say for certain, but it sounds like it."

"Can you turn it off?"

"Um. I don't think so. And I don't think I'd want to. Have you considered that this is giving you an interesting new perspective to work from?"

"'I' am not working. It is this… False consciousness that moves me now."

"But what if the false state was the previous one?"

"It was still mine!"

"You.. could just go back to Apok-."

"I could not bear Darkseid's gaze as I am now!"

"I think that if you give not being evil a try, you'll find that it isn't all that bad."

"This is the problem!"

"Okay, but… Has being here helped?"

He looks away, shaking his head. "Little."

"Then maybe you need to try something else. Come and help me, and… I'll try and do something horrible to your psyche afterwards. If that's what you w-."

He strides past me. "Brut! We ride!"

Ngamer11 · Jun 3, 2025

I think Paul just became Canis' best friend.

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

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Connoisseur.

Custom Title

Versed in the lewd.

Dedicated ragequitter

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Sky God

Connoisseur.

Experienced.

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I trust you know where the happy button is?

I trust you know where the happy button is?

Well worn.

Connoisseur.

Well worn.

Connoisseur.

Well worn.

Your first time is always over so quickly, isn't it?

Dedicated ragequitter

Experienced.

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