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

[Handlewithcare]

So they are a Trans-Spider Guild?

How does that mesh with their instinct to eat "intelligent live that isn't us". Wouldn't a certain degree of modification mean they might be registered as a different species? That could be rather disruptive to their society, Queeny is right in keeping this secret and low key.

 

[Simonbob]

"And I will be further in your debt. I-" She makes a quiet hissing noise as another egg leaves her body, this time from the other side. "-am a little nervous about what you may ask of us."

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Interesting.

She's got a code, I see.

Harsh, but there.



I think she'd make for an interesting Orange Lantern. Very unusual perspective.

 

[TheMidnightRook]

"We they trying to recreate your whole species in your image?"

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I assume that's meant to be a "Were"

"Yes. Speaking purely for myself, I think I prefer you to normal Spider Guild females-" Two attendants rotate some of their eyes my way so they can glare at me. "-but your structure is a little unusual."

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I can only imagine what those attendants are going to be adding to the local rumour mill when their shift ends... "The Orange Lantern was utterly shameless! Flirting with the queen as if we weren't even there!"

 

[RichardWhereat]

Can someone please pick up the phone?

 

[rkyeun]

Another one?

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Oh, it's worse than that. Far far worse. Check this.

I take another copy of my book out of subspace and hold it out to her. "This is a guide on how to be a successful Orange Lantern. I would be interested in talking to any of your people who can master it."

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"I altered their minds in-ovum to respond to my scent and shape."

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She's going to learn what mindset makes a good Orange Lantern. And then she's going to mass produce Orange Spiders.

 

[thepsyborg]

Oh, it's worse than that. Far far worse. Check this.


She's going to learn what mindset makes a good Orange Lantern. And then she's going to mass produce Orange Spiders.

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...Shit.

You're right. She's already demonstrated the ability to alter the mentality of her offspring in specific regards. This is totally a thing she could do.

Spoiler: so basically this

 

[Old Knife]

Oh, it's worse than that. Far far worse. Check this.


She's going to learn what mindset makes a good Orange Lantern. And then she's going to mass produce Orange Spiders.

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So she and paul still had babies?

Dear lord. I hope he didn't leave any genetic material lying around.

 

[Mr Zoat]

I've got some old corrections of my own:

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Hit me.

Should "could have been part" be replaced with "should have been part"?

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At that point, the SI doesn't know who was involved. As such, 'could' is correct.

If she'll be 12 in two months, on June 1st, wouldn't it be moving it forward a month and a half to when she'll actually be twelve?

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Ah, no. 'Push it back', as in, to a later date.

*should have

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Thank you, corrected.

The period after 'Devil Jizz' seems out of place.

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Maybe, but the full stop is in the correct place. The SI saw no advantage in giving himself periods.

Also, the table of contents for Retribution say that parts 13-28 happened on the 20th of November, while the actual chapters say that they happened on the 21st. I realize this might be some weird thing to do with time zones.
Space needed.
Looks like this typo wasn't fixed in the Story Only thread.
"Sure thing." should be in green quotation marks because it's Guy talking.
Should that be

Next thing I'll do.
or
Next thing I do.

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Thank you, corrected.

The green text and lack of quotation marks imply that Guy is transmitting the message directly into Paul's brain. Which is possible, but a little weird.

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Ring to ring communication. I seem to remember that it's happened on other occasions as well.

I also noticed some old Lantern to Lantern conversations that I'm pretty sure should have colored text:
Guy's text in this conversation should be pure orange.
Medphyll's text in this conversation should be pure orange.
Guy's text should be orange.
Guy's text. Orange.
Orange text needed.
Orange text.
Orange. Text.
Orange tex-I mean Yellow text needed.

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Thank you, corrected.

Grayven is in contact with Earth 50 John for 5 chapters. If this is construct image communication, then John's text needs to be all Yellow.

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No, it's using the ship's communication system. John doesn't have a ring.

He's not talking to another Lantern, but he is talking to the construct image of someone. So...?

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No, not ring-com.

 

[FeepingCreature]

The problem with holding liberal values and also an orange power ring is it's incredibly hard to impossible to be hypocritical, even unconsciously. As such, I can only assume that what happened here is that Paul held a belief like "I don't want to be speciest" and his ring very enthusiastically provided the requisite brain surgery.

That or his romantic denseness transcends all barriers of species, I guess.

 

[SirKaid]

"This is a guide on how to be a successful Orange Lantern. I would be interested in talking to any of your people who can master it."

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Paul. Paul, stop. Paul, Spider Guild members eat sapient people. The last thing anyone wants is for them to get orange rings. Yeah, these ones have opted for the moral option and are cloning meat instead of eating people, but try telling that to the legions of people who aren't going to take that chance.

I mean maybe it'll amount to nothing because the mental conditioning prevents them from being capable of mustering the required emotional state, but if it doesn't then this is a holy shit heebie jeebies bad idea.

 

[Greydragon]

So she and paul still had babies?

Dear lord. I hope he didn't leave any genetic material lying around.

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She already has samples; he obviously left skin cells behind in her reproductive tract when Paul gave her a 'massage'. I'm surprised we haven't seen any baby humans being grown on the production line to be used as Spider Guild 'masseurs'. Her current brood might also be related to Paul slightly, if she borrowed some human genes from his sample to improve them.

 

[Mr Zoat]

*Were they

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"We they trying to recreate your whole species in your image?"
"Were they trying to recreate your whole species in your image?"
...I was on board one the first wave of ships to arrive here."
...I was on board one of the first wave of ships to arrive here."
"Are you making any more like you, or are the rest of your children reproducing conventionally."
Should be a question mark?

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[edmantgoog]

is ist just me or was there a weird sexual tension in this chapter?

 

[Stsword]

Hmm, I wonder if these bioengineering Spider Guild have any relation to the species that Insect Queen belongs to, or the race that altered Red Bee.

Insect Queen worked on making Kryptonian hybrid insect warriors, Red Bee was going to breed a warrior caste fathered by Human Bomb.

DC seems to have a thing for anthropodic aliens with immense mastery of biotechnology...

 

[moralrelativity]

Geez, is this a check-in or a recruiting trip?

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It's both, of course. It's more efficient to have one trip serve multiple purposes.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Not as a masseur? Interesting.

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An oversight on my part. It should say 'masseur'.

 

[Sceptic]

An oversight on my part. It should say 'masseur'.

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A likely story.

 

[Simonbob]

is ist just me or was there a weird sexual tension in this chapter?

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It's just you.


So far.

 

[DAT_NOOB]

Paul. Paul, stop. Paul, Spider Guild members eat sapient people. The last thing anyone wants is for them to get orange rings. Yeah, these ones have opted for the moral option and are cloning meat instead of eating people, but try telling that to the legions of people who aren't going to take that chance.

I mean maybe it'll amount to nothing because the mental conditioning prevents them from being capable of mustering the required emotional state, but if it doesn't then this is a holy shit heebie jeebies bad idea.

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Or maybe they pile into the reach with mass-produced orange lantern spiders

It's just you.


So far.

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It's not just him

 

[Simonbob]

Or maybe they pile into the reach with mass-produced orange lantern spiders

It's not just him

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You call'en me a liar? 'Squints dramaticly'

 

[Gantradies]

"I didn't have to brainwash anyone this time."

Of course, that almost always makes me think of the reason why Paul failed to convince Lex Luthor to leave the Light. Which is a shame. I liked their interactions and wish it hadn't suddenly dead ended like that.

And for the forgetful among you . . . Lex knew about Paul's ability to rewrite the desires of others and, in his paranoia, assumed that was the reason he was considering going straight.

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and yet was too dense to consider that if he had been rewritten, he wouldn't have considered it, or would have instantly been adjusted again when he refused.
*kiphsighs* what is it with comic genius's and Dumping their WIS, anyway? >.<

 

[Coda]

surprised Spider Guild members scuttling back nervously . I'm on an… Open-plan bridge

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Extra space before full stop.

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Missed a correction.

 

[Lazurman]

is ist just me or was there a weird sexual tension in this chapter?

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No. No, it's not just you.

Ya know, there's a saying about sailors having a girl in every port...and as everyone knows, space is an ocean.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Extra space before full stop.

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Thank you, corrected.

 

[thebishop8]

Thank you, corrected.

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Ah yes. Well...you missed some spots.

Spoiler

"Sorry Orange, I need to concentrate."

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"Hey, Paul." I look at the image of Guy. "You know none of the rest of us can hear what the Snake's saying when you do that, right?"

"No, I.. I didn't. Really?" Lantern Stewart nods. "Huh. Um, I'm not crazy."

"We know she's real, it's just kinda weird seein' you talk to thin air."

"I'll bear that in mind. See you when we get to Switzerland." I close the connection and start climbing the ladder up to the next level.

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"…beyond not cool." The image of Guy floating over Stewart's ring shakes its head at me.

I walk down the corridor in the direction of the living area. "I know, I know. But I had no other way to get back!" His lip curls slightly as he nods. "If the Guardians had given me a star chart months ago I wouldn't have needed to. How are things on Oa?"

"Same old same olds. Kilowog's got me helpin' out with the rookies."

"Noo. Noo. Guy, you need to be teaching the veterans your technique." He gives me a sceptical look. "Seriously. It's too advanced for rookies. Get Salaak to find a few Sectors with two experienced Lanterns, recall one of them and show them how it works."

"I don't think Salaak's really in the mood fer more 'Human shenanigans' right now."

I turn the corner and can hear the television in the distance. "He actually said that?"

"Yeah. Oh, you know, translators, but…"

"Try getting Kilowog to do it then. Have you shown him?"

He nods. "Think he got it. Course, the only way t' check would be bringing you here."

"I'll probably pop over once my year's up. Anyway, reason I called. I got a phone call from Nylor Truggs this morning."

"What, you leave your number in a phone box or something?"

"He hacked GBS's phone records. You know Truggs says that he comes from the future?" Guy nods. "According to him we're due to be conquered by The Reach in a decade or so." Guy stops smiling. "He says that's why he came back."

"So why's he workin' fer Team Evil?"

"Because we failed. The League wasn't able to prevent it from happening, so he's trying to buff some other faction. Either that, or he's trying to force us to improve by giving us harder challenges. I've spent most of the day going through John's database on the Reach."

"He could just be bullshitting you."

"Yes… He could. I would probably have been able to tell if I could see him while he was saying it… On the other hand, looking at the stellar maps-" I hold up my left hand and generate a chart. "-in my particular area of interest it looks like I'll run into them anyway."

The somewhat nebulous border of the territory of the Reach Stellar Empire is marked out in a slightly brighter orange hue than the worlds around it. The map is 'dead' as of Stewart's last update so it might have expanded a bit since then. Plus, most of the systems marked aren't readily habitable. Yes, they could dismantle a few gas giants and build artificial habitats but it's so resource intensive that even the Reach don't bother outside the core of their territory. I expand one section and individual border worlds are marked out. "See what I see?"

Guy looks off to the side for a moment, then back 'towards camera'. "Maltus."

"They're actually curving around it. They can't hope to conquer it with brute force and I can't think how they'd corrupt the Controllers… And I think I can probably work out who the Orange Lantern Corps' first target is going to be. Except… Do I cause the attack on Earth? From the way Truggs was talking it was fairly apocalyptic."

Guy shakes his head. "You can't worry about stuff like that. But…" He has a furtive look over his shoulder. "Okay, look: I'm not sure I'm meant ta tell you this, but the Guardians think that the Controllers are already fighting the Reach. Lanterns in nearby Sectors have reported seeing these guys carrying out hit and run attacks on Reach shipping." The starchart disappears, being replaced by the image of a burly alien with a head somewhat like that of a bulldog trading fire with a Reach starship. "They wear this red, white and silver power armour with this.. sort of black starburst symbol-."

I smile. "The Darkstars."

"That what they're called? Wouldn't get too excited about it. Every time we saw them fighting Scarab Warriors they were gettin' their asses kicked."

"They'd probably do better if they had power rings."

Guy shakes his head. "No can do Paul. The treaty them and the Guardians signed says no Lanterns-."

"No Green Lanterns."

He's silent for a moment as he takes that in. "Heh. Hehhehheh. Think they know rings come in other colors?"

"Sinestro isn't exactly subtle. On the other hand, it's a big universe."

"So, what? You're just gunna give 'em all rings an' let 'em go at it?"

"Hardly. Even without Bobblehead malware-."

"Will you lay off'f that! They don't-."

"You can't kill people, Guy! The Green Lantern Corps was at war and they couldn't kill their enemies! The Scarabs are a threat to Lanterns -just about- but the reason you lost was because-."

"We didn't lose!" The image glitches. "We got a draw and a peace treaty. No more Reach battle fleets firing on unprotected worlds from orbit!"

"What do you call it when one side advances and the other retreats? Reach occupied space is… What? Five times as big by volume now as it was then? Are they any nicer? Give me a few hundred people who hate them, people whose worlds are under Reach control, whose people are slaves, whose strongest desire is to unmake them utterly… I think we'll get a different result."

"And then what? You wanna give a bunch of genocidal maniacs power rings you'd best be damn sure you can make them give them back at the end of it."

"That volume of space? Destroying the Reach will take centuries. Besides, rings can be used to rebuild their worlds as well as killing their enemies." He doesn't look convinced. "You know I use mine like that."

"You ain't exactly most people. And you haven't had decades a' seein' your homeworld torn apart. That sorta pain does stuff to yah and it ain't usually anythin' good. And you had trouble with the orange light anyway."

"So I'll ask the Controllers to be a bit more selective about it. It still gives me a core of experienced people to build my Corps from."

He thinks for a moment and then nods. "Plus, no one here's likely t' complain about the Reach gettin' hammered. Doubt even the Guardians would mind that."

"Any chance they'll approve bringing the Watchtower up to spec? If the Reach are heading this way…"

"I'll ask, but I doubt it. Couldn't you sort somethin' out?"

"Yes, I could build a series of space based battle fortresses armed with beam singularity projectors. Six months down the line I'll probably be able to build ones powered by Personal Lanterns in the same way Sector Houses are and equip them with nuclear force nullifiers and giant orange defensive barriers. You think they'll be okay with that? Heck, you think the Justice League would be?"

"Or you could just build one."

"Wouldn't be enough. If I'm doing a job I'm going to do it properly."

He moves his jaw slightly to the side, then looks around again. "Ah, look, I gotta go. I'll pass it on. For what it's worth. Just don't do anythin' too crazy until I get back."

I take a moment to reflect on the activity I have planned for this evening. "I'll see what I can do. Bye Guy."

He waves goodbye and the images shut down as I walk into the living room.

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Ring to ring communication. I seem to remember that it's happened on other occasions as well.

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Right, but it usually appears orange, even when Paul did it with Lantern Stewart:

Spoiler

Answer.

Orange Lantern, report.

Lantern Stewart certainly sounds better. "The kryptonian is in San Miguel de Tucumán and I'm not confident of my ability to contain him."

If you've got any kryptonite-.

"Didn't work." I do have the radiation signatures for other colours of kryptonite now, but that sounds like a good way to make the situation worse.

Flash and Superman are heading your way from the nearest zeta tube.

"Good. Orders?"

Damage mitigation. Superman knows how to fight these people. Just try and stop him killing anyone.

"Got it."

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No, not ring-com.

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What makes it different from this?:

Spoiler

"Hey."

Onigar Ton's head floats just above Guy's ring as we fly across one of the planet's oceans. There won't really be any way to disguise that we've spoken to her, but hopefully it should be possible to disguise that we're going to speak to her. Once we're there, we…

"A.. Green Lantern? What do you want?"

Well, we can protect her in the short term. And while we.. could evacuate her from the planet if the government decides that talking to us warrants her death I don't really want to mess up her life like that.

"I just recently heard how War Hounds get made. I wanna talk to somebody who cares about it. You got half an hour?"

"Y-e-. Yes. I do. Where do you want to meet?"

"We can be anywhere on the planet in about three seconds, so wherever's good for you. We could probably move you someplace else if that'd be safer."

"No. If a Green Lantern is involved then they have bigger problems than me. I'll meet you at my apartment-"

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Onigar Ron's text is pure green even though she isn't using a ring.

 

[Maxx Crowley]

She's going to learn what mindset makes a good Orange Lantern. And then she's going to mass produce Orange Spiders.

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"Excellent. All goes according to plan. Now we will see who is mightier. The Reach's Scarabs, or my Spiders"

"OL....did you rig up a way to mass produce shock troops to flood the territory of your stated enemy?"

"......Maaaaaybe?"

 

[Massgamer]

So basically they are a faction in Spider Guild that uses genetic modification more than rest of species and has unique leadership due to origins.

Would be neat if Queen became OL from desire to improve people and could likely give her firepower to combat rest of Spider Guild if needed. Also the OL ring would help a lot in modifying herself and others at need and with less effort.

I still can't help but get Drider image in my mind if she ever wanted to modify in that direction.

 

[PDV]

DC seems to have a thing for anthropodic aliens with immense mastery of biotechnology...

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It honestly makes sense. Hive insects already have low-grade bioengineering to maintain their caste structure; extrapolating that to sapients suggests they'd learn fine-grained control. And then comic book logic says they do everything with biotech.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Ah yes. Well...you missed some spots.




Right, but it usually appears orange, even when Paul did it with Lantern Stewart:




What makes it different from this?:
Onigar Ron's text is pure green even though she isn't using a ring.

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Guy's preference settings.

Other things corrected.

It honestly makes sense. Hive insects already have low-grade bioengineering to maintain their caste structure; extrapolating that to sapients suggests they'd learn fine-grained control. And then comic book logic says they do everything with biotech.

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They're not a hive. Spiders Guilders are all individually intelligent.

 

[Aeess]

If the aim is to produce a lot of functional orange lanterns, then there is always assimilation function. And considering the amount of gordanians nobody wants, there seems to be a simple solution to both problems.