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

[A_Bibliophage]

Because Soylent Green is people? It's a trope that sounds gross, and depending on one's beliefs may be immoral.

Click to shrink...

Cannibalism is still Cannibalism even with extra steps included.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

Why?

Click to shrink...

For a start, it's generally morally skeevy, as Mquz noted. Imagine how the soldiers would react if they learned they were eating their previous bodies?
(Hmm... I bet that'd be covered in their programming...)
There's also the possibility of disease transfers ala Mad Cow Disease, though a race as advanced as the Alignment is probably able to deal with that aspect.

 

[Buggy123]

Why?

Click to shrink...

Contamination issues. They aren't the same species as humans, but if they have even somewhat similar biology then it isn't safe for them to eat meat from other individuals.

Pretty much by definition, any diseases a human is carrying are infectious to other humans. And even if you cook the meat thoroughly, non-sterilizable* infectious agents like prions are still a serious risk. There have been past cases of prion disease outbreaks caused by eating human flesh, such as Kuru.

In this context, rendering that meat safe would require advanced nanotech or other intensive processing techniques. It'd be way easier to just build a new vat-meat factory instead.


*Okay, yes, technically you can sterilize anything. But some prions are stable at extremely high temperatures, and are resistant to many other sterilization techniques. Cooking certainly won't get rid of it; even many hospital sterilization techniques are ineffective.

There was even a study done, where they burned prion-infected tissue to ash and tested if it was still infectious.
After cooking for 15 minutes at 600 °C(1112°F), it still infected 2 out of 21 lab rats.

Remember kids, never eat your own species. You might catch bad germs!

 

[DrThoth]

Honestly Paragon or some Maltusian faction connected to him should have done something about the Psions during his exploits in Vega; just like wizards, you don't give mad scientist-types prep time that'll make them exponentially more dangerous.
I'm not indirectly blaming him for the Alignment War Hound program since that's definitely gone on for longer, but it's still a loose thread which doesn't really fit the ideal/enlightened Orange Lantern philosophy of completing a task as thoroughly and perfectly as possible.

 

[King of Frost]

Really, the best fanfic explanation I've seen for the sharingan (this was from a crack fic that actually made sense, though I forgot what it was called) is that it really just lets you cast whatever genjutsu you want by looking people in the eye, as well as see through genjutsu. So things like the giant skeleton, or the teleport, or the meteor from space... , or the 72 hours in a minute thing... all just genjutsu / distractions. Of course, in that fic the leaf was really reminiscient of Oceania, leaving people actually susceptible to that sort of thing.

Click to shrink...

Are you talking about the semi-serious crackfic where the Hidden Leaf village was actually a huge cult that worshipped the Hokage as a god, to the point where when Orochimaru, who has been a wanted traitor for decades, was revealed to be the new Hokage after the old one was obviously assassinated everyone just bowed and acknowledged him as the new one?

It was slowly revealed that they also smile and laugh joyously when they fight and kill, and the other villages find this super creepy?

 

[Navi-Hank]

Because Soylent Green is people? It's a trope that sounds gross, and depending on one's beliefs may be immoral.

Click to shrink...

It's unhygienic is what it is, and super dangerous at that.

 

[Mquz]

Are you talking about the semi-serious crackfic where the Hidden Leaf village was actually a huge cult that worshipped the Hokage as a god, to the point where when Orochimaru, who has been a wanted traitor for decades, was revealed to be the new Hokage after the old one was obviously assassinated everyone just bowed and acknowledged him as the new one?

It was slowly revealed that they also smile and laugh joyously when they fight and kill, and the other villages find this super creepy?

Click to shrink...

Yes, someone linked it already. Sasuke Uchiha and the power of lies.
The thing was, the fic had depth. Instead of literally worshipping him as a god, I read it as them repeating the party's lies that he IS a god, despite a lot of them knowing that observed reality doesn't quite match up. Also, Konoha is still genuinely the "nice" village. Instead of killing Orochimaru, they villainized him. Instead of killing people, they brainwash them. It was a great take on 1984/ Oceania, but with ninjas.

 

[Mihari]

You... look at alerts?

Click to shrink...

I think your alerts have a you problem
EDIT : though, uh, that's rather hypocritical coming from me https://imgur.com/a/3aThscv

 

[Bramble Thorn]

If I tried to look at my alerts, I wouldn't have enough time in the day to sleep:

Click to shrink...

If you do look at them, they do reset you know.
Unless that is like a week or lesses worth, you are just being lazy. Also, I think you can trigger what triggers alerts, like making it so only quotes, replies, and OP posts or threadmarks do, but not likes or regular thread replies.

EDIT:

For a start, it's generally morally skeevy, as Mquz noted. Imagine how the soldiers would react if they learned they were eating their previous bodies?

Click to shrink...

Why yes, yes I am the same person as I used to be, and I mean that literally, not just metaphorically. Because we use our old selves as biomatter to nourish our new bodies. As is traditional and right and proper.

 

[Pinklestia]

From what I hear, Boruto gets worse... namely, more aliens that manage to somehow beat both Naruto and Sasuke, so now Boruto has to somehow compete with that. The power curve just seems really messed up. I just wish they made the show about actual ninjas who ninja instead of summoning meteors. Really, the best fanfic explanation I've seen for the sharingan (this was from a crack fic that actually made sense, though I forgot what it was called) is that it really just lets you cast whatever genjutsu you want by looking people in the eye, as well as see through genjutsu. So things like the giant skeleton, or the teleport, or the meteor from space... , or the 72 hours in a minute thing... all just genjutsu / distractions. Of course, in that fic the leaf was really reminiscient of Oceania, leaving people actually susceptible to that sort of thing.

Click to shrink...

The thing is, Boruto is a terrible name in some languages. Just for that alone I skipped the sequel and I am glad at did.

Sequels do suck most of the time, decent to good sequels are the exception not the norm.

 

[Gantradies]

It's unhygienic is what it is, and super dangerous at that.

Click to shrink...

Prions...Prions everywhere....
then again, given how stupid the idea was even as a last-gasp of a dying society, i wouldn't be surprised if the people who came up with it in-universe were already most of the way to having sponge-for-brains anyway >.<

short version for those not in the know, cannibalism literally rots holes through your brain (hence the diagnosis "spongiform encephalitis) as the warped/broken protein fragments (Prions) attempt to bind to tissue at random, and royally %$^# the contents of your brainpan up- its why cannibalism's been associated with insanity for so long BESIDES the well-known social stigmata- there's a very high chance it'll send a "practitioner" round the bend,before killing them horribly >.<​

 

[Silveraith]

Yes, there isn't anything is this facility that threatens me.

Click to shrink...

In.

And maybe "can threaten" though that is optional.

 

[Mr Zoat]

In.

And maybe "can threaten" though that is optional.

Click to shrink...

I'm afraid that Chojin Patriarch beat you via PM.

 

[Maxx Crowley]

Wait.

You... look at alerts?

If I tried to look at my alerts, I wouldn't have enough time in the day to sleep:

Click to shrink...

I watch exactly one thread. It's fairly easy.

Yeah, during Shippuden Naruto took a place plant into Road Apples then tried that again with a Cow Pie.

Click to shrink...

Naruto basically died during the Naruto/Neji fight and then the first battle at the valley at the end gave it the I'm double tap to finish it off.

 

[Coda]

when the people trying to kill me got anti-phasing weapons

Click to shrink...

Unless that's dialect, "have anti-phasing weapons".

Cannibalism is still Cannibalism even with extra steps included.

Click to shrink...

But what about eating books?

In all seriousness... Cannibalism is really only a problem for cultural reasons. Prion diseases exist, yes, and they're nasty stuff, but they're not exactly common, and you can get them from sources other than cannibalism. For a non-human species with different biology, there may be no problems at all.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Unless that's dialect, "have anti-phasing weapons".

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

 

[Someguy Somewhere]

The dietary discussions above reminded me of an interesting bit from the Karen Travis novels for Star Wars: Republic Commando.

Spoiler: They Say that in the Grand Army, the Food is Mighty Fine...

A Marit trotted over and peered into the stew, head jerking slightly like a droid. "You like it?"

Atin, kneeling down to help himself to another portion, looked up innocently. The scar across his face-the one that Vau had given him-was a thin white line now. "It's very tasty."

"My great-grandmother!" the Marit beamed. It was weird to watch a lizard smile like a human. They seemed to have a double row of small triangular teeth. "She'll be happy."

Darman noticed A'den slide forward a little and try to interrupt the exchange. "Atin..."

But Atin was off, being polite to the locals and taking his hearts-and-minds role seriously. "Is it her recipe, then?"

"Atin..."

"It's her," said the Marit, and wandered off. Atin stared into the bowl. There was a moment of complete silence, and A'den sighed. Fi put his knuckles to his mouth to stifle nervous laughter, but it didn't work.

Niner chewed to a halt. Darman tried to be culturally sensitive and all that, but he was hungry, and the Marit seemed pleased they were enjoying the meal.

"Oh fierfek..." Atin put his mess tin down on the ground and sat back on his heels. He screwed his eyes shut tight, and judging by the way his lips compressed he was in serious digestive crisis, as Ordo called it. Then he rocked back on his heels, stood up, and bolted for the nearest bushes.

"He's throwing up," Niner said, and went on eating. The faint sound of retching confirmed his diagnosis.

A'den shrugged. "It's not like they killed her to eat her. It's how they dispose of their dead. They like to think they do their families some good after they're gone. It's rude not to tuck in."

"Cultural diversity's a wonderful thing," Fi observed, but he looked quite pale. "What do they do for desserts?"

Niner fished out a chunk of lean meat and gazed at it, then popped it into his mouth and chewed thoughtfully. Darman didn't know he could be so daring. "I never thought I'd resort to cannibalism."

"It's not cannibalism for us, Niner," A'den said. "Just for them."

"That's the Grand Army for you." Fi's face seemed back to its normal color again. "See the galaxy, meet fascinating new species, and snack on them."

 

[moralrelativity]

Thanks y'all for engaging with my deliberately provocative question.

depending on one's beliefs may be immoral

Click to shrink...

Agreed. But not an actual reason unless you have a sound basis for your moral beliefs.

For a start, it's generally morally skeevy, as Mquz noted.

Click to shrink...

See above.

There's also the possibility of disease transfers ala Mad Cow Disease, though ...

Click to shrink...

Remember kids, never eat your own species. You might catch bad germs!

Click to shrink...

Finally an actual reason... but

... though a race as advanced as the Alignment is probably able to deal with that aspect.

Click to shrink...

so maybe eating them is not an issue after all?

 

[jaelin910]

I just wish they made the show about actual ninjas who ninja instead of summoning meteors.

Click to shrink...

Not really a counter to your complaint but do keep in mind that, while they're not much like historical ninjas, they are perfectly consistent with fictional ones. I tend to view that complaint as being like worrying that a story about witches or whatever doesn't portray them the way they were irl.

 

[Mquz]

Not really a counter to your complaint but do keep in mind that, while they're not much like historical ninjas, they are perfectly consistent with fictional ones. I tend to view that complaint as being like worrying that a story about witches or whatever doesn't portray them the way they were irl.

Click to shrink...

Ah, no... I was more complaining about that instead of being sneaky backstabbing bastards like ninjas in media, even if they have superpowers, the later seasons of Naruto overpower the ninjas to the point where sneaking just doesn't happen.

This is the equivalent of instead of wizards either using secret knowledge, or making deals with powerful forces, they're born with straight up superpowers, and are each able to use them perfectly from day 1. Harry Potter is almost this, but controlled magic is still knowledge based, so he's a wizard.

Basically, later Naruto seasons lack the essence of what ninjas are about. They're not jojo type fights where tricks always come in handy, but DBZ type punchemups. I don't mind them having powers, if the name of the game is to assassinate your opponent, or sneak up on them, or use distractions. Earlier seasons/ volumes are fine. But when the solution of a fight basically amounts to "let's punch him together" or "let's invent a new previously impossible move on the spot" or "suddenly, meteor", or getting a sudden last season power boost, that's no longer doing ninja stuff, but full out 1v1 superpower fights. Basically, use some type of stealth / trick, or you're not a ninja in any sense of the word.

 

[Mr Zoat]

7th February
05:38 GMT

No… Nothing here.

It's a tidy, well-ordered work space, but the computer equipment is all part of the network and a quick poke around the interior hasn't revealed a separate hard drive or anything like that. So… Either they physically destroyed the records, or… The commander has a personal computer attached to her forearm, Pip-Boy style. I had assumed that it was just a personal interface to access the network, but it could have classified information on it. Getting data from there will be difficult, and…

Well, what happens if they do spot my filaments? I'm not sure if my presence has been announced to the general public. It probably wouldn't have been conveyed to a place like this. In the usual run of things. They know that we're concerned about this place by now. So the commander at least will probably be in the know. If they find out that I'm here that will prompt a full inspection of the facility. Which might result in them detecting the changes I made to the program, though I edited the log as well… A technician might notice it, but only if they went through the entire program and specifically remembered the original content of the part I altered.

And it's not as if they would suddenly gain the ability to stop me or anything.

Alright, according to the schedule the commander is currently overseeing the training of the senior War Hound recruits. That's in.. that direction-.

Message received from Lantern Gardner.

I phase out and fly in the direction of the commander.

Play it?

Message content: 'Psions?'.

Outer office, corridor…

Phase in. Response: 'Equipment similar to psion equipment. Suspect psion involvement in War Hound project'.

Message sent.

The most adaptable tool in the universe and I'm using it for text messages…

Phase out.

Hm. Actually… If I limit my environmental shield to the interior of my armour -which is simple enough- then there wouldn't necessarily be anything to link the Lanterns paying them a visit to the person breaking into their facility. It's not as if Guy and I were being subtle. Foreign intelligence services in the Alignment are going to be aware of us, and I doubt they're exactly going to be sad if their neighbour's elite infantry suddenly disappear. I haven't been wearing my heavy armour anywhere anyone might see it…

Huh. I emerge-.

Oh. Looks like we intervened just in time.

Or… Possibly not. I suppose there are plenty of reasons why they might be training their heavy infantry in aquatic combat besides a desire to invade the homeworld of the local aquatic Green Lantern. I phase through the water as War Hound trainees trudge slowly along the bottom of the tank, bringing their micro torpedo launchers to bear on designated targets and firing upon them. Up and up I go…

And out of the water. The facility commander is conferring with a small cluster of officers and non-commissioned officers on an observation platform off to one side, while technicians monitor each of the tanks. Plumes of water blast upwards as the torpedoes strike home and detonate, and the closest technicians brace and cover their faces against the water. Okay, high enough. I phase in.

"…system still not good enough."

"It's designed as a medium distance weapon. If we want to test it properly, we'll need bigger tanks."

I fly towards the commander. The ceiling of this room is probably designed to be high in order to accommodate larger 'sets' for their training exercises. I know from my own experience that super strength can be a little hard on your surroundings. Good access to the workshop area so they can build stuff like these tanks and move it into here without too much difficulty. Force fields in case of stray shots.

"These things are already dangerously big. I think we need to talk to the Section Unifier about field trials."

"They're never going to agree to that."

"He said-."

"Yeah, he said, but security-."

I tune them out as I approach my target. She's making notes, which… Ring, local or server?

Notes are being transmitted to the server.

Lights are… Dimish. And she's moving her arm a bit and there are a lot of eyes around her. There's quite a good chance of my filament getting spotted. Ring… track their lines of sight.

Compliance.

They're mostly looking at the tanks, the technicians, each other and their own arm-computers. The guards around them… They're watching all parts of the room but they're not really watching the walls. The ceiling of the main part of the room is getting some attention, but if I float over here…

I send my filament down the wall, across the small gap to the observation platform and… Up the outside of the uniform of the officer standing next to her. Then across the short gap and burrow through the outer casing…

Now let's see what we've got…

Sealed orders on what to do if the facility is compromised, fine. Nothing too shocking. In the event of the facility being overrun they're supposed to destroy the computers but not execute the children. Which I'm glad to read, because that means that I don't feel more inclined to destroy the place. Psion, psion,-

The commander negligently tries to brush my filament off.

-psion… Nothing. I let the filament move as she pushes it, but-. She turns back to look at it, a small frown on her face. Okay, time to go. Dismiss the filament, back away-.

"Did you see that?"

"See what, sir?"

"That…" She's fiddling with her computer, possibly trying to see if anything was accessed. "Strand of… Light."

Alright, time to go. I phase out and fly upwards at speed, parts of the facility flashing past too quickly for me to see what's going on. I could check the stations and the ships, but it looks like the Alignment has good data protection processes. I think I'll be better off with humanoid intelligence in this case. Find whoever arranged the trade and brand them into telling me what I want to know.

I pass out through the facility's roof and turn towards the sky, phasing back in-.

And stop in front of the facility's shield, which has now reactivated.

Hm. Strong impact can disrupt my stealth systems, but that should have been within tolerances. But there's a good chance that the shield registered the impact. I could teleport, but that would cause a flicker of orange. Hm. I phase and drop back down. Staff toilet is… This way, and only monitors people as they enter and exit. I'd rather not do this inside the facility but it shouldn't be a big problem.

One empty stall with… Hose attachments. Okay. Phase in and

step out and then

back inside the ship.

Onigar looks up as she sees the flicker of orange that marks my reappearance, but with my stealth still live I'm invisible.

I deactivate it, returning my power armour to subspace.

"Program updated, and I've gotten a lot of files for you to look through. How are the others doing?"

"They.. were doing well, but now the home defence fleet is moving into position."

"Then I'd best go and help, hadn't I?"

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

Well, what happens if they do spot my filaments? I'm not sure if my presence has been announced to the general public. It probably wouldn't have been conveyed to a place like this. In the usual run of things. They know that we're concerned about this place by now. So the commander at least will probably be in the know. If they find out that I'm here that will prompt a full inspection of the facility. Which might result in them detecting the changes I made to the program, though I edited the log as well… A technician might notice it, but only if they went through the entire program and specifically remembered the original content of the part I altered.

Click to shrink...

This is reaching Dune levels of Plans within Plans, 'What do they know?' calculations. Lovely.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

And it's not as if they would suddenly gain the ability to stop me or anything.

Click to shrink...

There is that, yes.

Phase in. Response: 'Equipment similar to psion equipment. Suspect psion involvement in War Hound project'.

Click to shrink...

Suspect, but not confirmed. Either it was covered up very well, or it's coincidence?

Or… Possibly not. I suppose there are plenty of reasons why they might be training their heavy infantry in aquatic combat besides a desire to invade the homeworld of the local aquatic Green Lantern. I phase through the water as War Hound trainees trudge slowly along the bottom of the tank, bringing their micro torpedo launchers to bear on designated targets and firing upon them. Up and up I go…

Click to shrink...

Concerning. But not damning evidence of anything... They could be Batman-level crazy-prepared...

I fly towards the commander. The ceiling of this room is probably designed to be high in order to accommodate larger 'sets' for their training exercises. I know from my own experience that super strength can be a little hard on your surroundings. Good access to the workshop area so they can build stuff like these tanks and move it into here without too much difficulty. Force fields in case of stray shots.

Click to shrink...

All very sensible, at least.

Lights are… Dimish. And she's moving her arm a bit and there are a lot of eyes around her. There's quite a good chance of my filament getting spotted. Ring… track their lines of sight.

Click to shrink...

Ah, a stealth game's best friend: Vision cones.

Sealed orders on what to do if the facility is compromised, fine. Nothing too shocking. In the event of the facility being overrun they're supposed to destroy the computers but not execute the children. Which I'm glad to read, because that means that I don't feel more inclined to destroy the place. Psion, psion,-

Click to shrink...

No executing future materiel. How compassionate.

The commander negligently tries to brush my filament off.

Click to shrink...

Uh-oh!

"That…" She's fiddling with her computer, possibly trying to see if anything was accessed. "Strand of… Light."

Click to shrink...

Cue Metal Gear Solid alert sound and '!'

Alright, time to go. I phase out and fly upwards at speed, parts of the facility flashing past too quickly for me to see what's going on. I could check the stations and the ships, but it looks like the Alignment has good data protection processes. I think I'll be better off with humanoid intelligence in this case. Find whoever arranged the trade and brand them into telling me what I want to know.

Click to shrink...

Don't get ahead of yourself, OL. Get out of Dodge, first.

One empty stall with… Hose attachments. Okay. Phase in and

Click to shrink...

...Hoses? ...No, I don't want to know.

"Then I'd best go and help, hadn't I?"

Click to shrink...

Forced Stealth over with, now for fleet combat. Prep the flight sim controls!

Hoo boy. Time will only tell how sucessfully his operation went... Time for some action, now!

 

[Old Knife]

Ohohohoho. ROW ROW FIGHT THE POWAH! (Every single time Paul takes on an alien government.

 

[moralrelativity]

This is reaching Dune levels of Plans within Plans

Click to shrink...

But not yet at HPMoR levels.

 

[Handlewithcare]

Was it really worth the risk being spotted?

I have a hard time imagining a situation where classified files would be kept on a private, mobile computer rather than in the protected center of the facility.

 

[FreeGod]

Was it really worth the risk being spotted?

I have a hard time imagining a situation where classified files would be kept on a private, mobile computer rather than in the protected center of the facility.

Click to shrink...

You would be surprised. Security and convenience are always opposited to each other and convenience often wins out.

 

[Mquz]

You would be surprised. Security and convenience are always opposited to each other and convenience often wins out.

Click to shrink...

The logic could also be not writing on it anywhere except for secure personal communication which then gets deleted. Though I assume they just bought the blueprints or the one machine off of the Psions.

 

[Gantradies]

You would be surprised. Security and convenience are always opposited to each other and convenience often wins out.

Click to shrink...

from what ive heard, the higher people are up in a Corperate/military chain of command, the more likely they are to believe that operational security/ basic password changing/locking the terminal when you leave the desk MAGICALLY doesn't apply to them.
or someone does face-value stupid things like leaving out post-it's on their monitor with their current password, because IT/corporate insists on using hard-to-memorize gibberish like jdgtj39 for their passwords and changing it every month/fortnight, instead of something that's memoriseable and actually resistant to brute-force automated guessing...

i prefer the XKCD method myself, but that requires someone to make every password manually, so you usually get alphabet soup instead of something like QuestionableQuestingZoatWTRThreadParagonTimelineP298 (long AND easy to remember as it serves as a Memnomic- i used to use "UsedCarDealerUntrustworthyGrin" myself a few years back), or people resorting to demanding to be issued something 8 characters or less so they have a chance of memorizing it...>.<.
...then there's the edge cases with specialist software, and resisting upgrades to maintain compatibility, but that could go on for hours XD
suffice to say, one of the issues is that we've been writing security policies WRONG for well over a decade- the former guidelines for making passwords ect basically led to a lot of weak codes that people have issues memorizing, and that can be brute-forced by a dictionary/alphabet guesser relatively quickly due to being short- and the irritating nature of said passwords leads a lot of people with pull to force exceptions or leave notes anyway....

 

[AverusBlack]

But not yet at HPMoR levels.

Click to shrink...

We can always go one level higher.

 

[Bramble Thorn]

Now let's see what we've got…

Sealed orders on what to do if the facility is compromised, fine. Nothing too shocking. In the event of the facility being overrun they're supposed to destroy the computers but not execute the children. Which I'm glad to read, because that means that I don't feel more inclined to destroy the place. Psion, psion,-

The commander negligently tries to brush my filament off.

-psion… Nothing. I let the filament move as she pushes it, but-. She turns back to look at it, a small frown on her face. Okay, time to go. Dismiss the filament, back away-.

Click to shrink...

You know last episode how he connected to the server, copied everything without reading it, disconnected, and only started perusing then? That was smart. This just sounded stupid. While Paul was looking through the files the filament got noticed, when he should have been in and out way before then.

This isn't a bad tv/movie where the download times follow the rule of drama. This is supposed to be a rational SI with a xenotech power ring, and a man portable amount of storage. The download should have been completed and the filament gone by the time OL finished thinking the download command.