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

Reader mode
moralrelativity said:
Could Manga Khan's head, neck and shoulders be any more phallic?!? (I mean, without actually becoming pornographic.)
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Actually Manga Khan is an incorporeal being (a cloud of gas, or a cloud of energy that looks like gas) that uses an artificial exoskeleton to have thumbs and stuff.

As for his look, he's basically what if Darth Vader was a Ferengi, having the trappings of a strong powerful aggressive space warlord, who it turns out just wants to sell you a used spaceship that was only piloted once a week by a little old lady who went to church.

So I'd say that's a facet of the characters he's meant to parody.
 
Besides the fact that this guy is broadcasting LEGION codes, the Controllers found a solution to the rogue rings ages ago:

Mr Zoat said:
"Um. Yes..? What about the missing rings?"

"Controller Vosk Vit Vorlanni believes that he can remotely drain them using the Central Power Battery, or at the very least prevent their use. Construct-rings are apparently different enough from true rings that he can do so without affecting our operations at all."
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Darko said:
I remembered this, but thought that either the method didn't work, or that it wasn't finished yet.
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If the Controller's solution wasn't something that could be used immediately, then it doesn't make sense for Dox to tell Paul that he doesn't have to deal with them because the rogue rings still would have been causing trouble until the Controller's solution was ready.
 
thebishop8 said:
If the Controller's solution wasn't something that could be used immediately, then it doesn't make sense for Dox to tell Paul that he doesn't have to deal with them because the rogue rings still would have been causing trouble until the Controller's solution was ready.
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Makes sense, thanks.
 
Gazing Eye said:
Edit: I may have misread the wiki page.... is the megacorp the first contact or the second in that series?
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Well, technically, first contact is with the gatebuilders, who sort of fill the megacorp role, but they don't actually do much plotwise other than provide the gates that are the settings sole FTL method.

Second contact is with the Horvath (Not!klingons), who come through the gate, bombard a couple cities, and demand Earth pay tribute.

Third contact, the Glatun (Not!ferengi) are the ones who most resemble the megacorp you describe, and serve as earth's closest allies when the actual war starts.
 
Zoat does the Light know Satanus has been replaced by Mammon?

Is Mammon working with the Light?
 
MattT said:
Alas, if only those short-sighted Orange Lanterns had access to interstellar resources and had a method (or twelve) of bypassing the intervening space... like, for instance, zeta transportation. Or the magic gates. Yup, no way at all to keep the city state supplied while working through international courts.

And of course the rest of the world would have no interest at all in an alternate source of magical expertise, breaking Atlantis' monopoly on the subject and bringing prices down. Nope, even landlocked states would surely bow down instantly to pressure from the nation that has been such a stable member of the international community for so long...

Well, a decade and change since coming out of their isolationist stance. With at least one attempt at a civil war. Yup. Total non starter. No chance at all of working.
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First things first, formatting is your friend.

Second things second, Zeta beam transportation still moves through space, the magic gates are controlled by Atlantis, and nobody would sacrifice their existing relationship with Atlantis for a relationship with a small backwater that's decades away from catching up to their already existent trading partner.
 
Mr Zoat said:
No. They know that Satanus is indisposed but not exactly what happened on the hell end of things.

No.

Micro aggression! Hit him!
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Thought that if they still had people in Belle Revve then they would know about his situation.

Though if they think he is indisposed they could just think the demon in Belle Revve is just a particularly powerful one, assuming that John Quinn hadn't locked him in his tower.

Waller did say that she may want to talk to him about imprisoning powerful magical threats inside his tower and he said he would talk to her, so it is possible Satanus is trapped there.

Vaermina said:
First things first, formatting is your friend.

Second things second, Zeta beam transportation still moves through space, the magic gates are controlled by Atlantis, and nobody would sacrifice their existing relationship with Atlantis for a relationship with a small backwater that's decades away from catching up to their already existent trading partner.
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OL has access to all sorts of transportation technologies and teleportation tech in his rings database so he could set up something in Venturia to help them.

Atlantis doesn't control all the magic gates in the world.
The Gnomes can make them, Hephaestus and Vulcan can make them, OL can just give the schematics for them to the Venturias, assuming they already can't make them, and all these groups have good or at least decent relationships with OL.
The gates can also work in space, at least in the same solar system, as demonstrated by Mother of Mercy when Hades took all the souls on her surface through a gate, and if they need a god to activate them to work like that, well OL has a good relationship with several gods.

Governments have also often times used substandard methods to achieve their goals just because they are cheaper, so they may be willing to work with Venturia. They get magic at a cheaper price by working with them instead of the more expensive rest of Atlantis.

They also can't claim that they have the authority to order the OLC to leave their solar system as Mars also has a population. A population who has received a great deal of help in the revitalisation of their home world from the OLC and the Martian government may be unwilling to provoke OL because they think he would release the information he has on the Burning Martians, so they may protest Earth claiming authority over the entire solar system.
 
Idkusername said:
Paul's reasoning made perfect sense to me. Where do you think he went wrong?
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SirKaid said:
It's Vaermina. In Vae-land, anything Paul (or Grayven) does is axiomatically incorrect, impolite, and exhibits moral turpitude. In the parallel version of the story that he reads, Paul routinely kicks puppies, steals candy from babies, and ties damsels to train tracks.

Politely, it's best to ignore Vae. Impolitely, Vae is a fucking idiot and the only thing that you'll get out of talking to him is a headache.
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I hate to contribute to a conversation very likely breaking Rule 1, but I feel like I need to say that after like a year of reading Vae's downright anti-constructive comments that make an interpretative argument essay look like the anti-christ of Vae's logic, I blocked them.
 
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Ace Dreamer said:
So, we need Vegeta turning up to complain about the names being too similar, and a female negotiator/diplomat, who floats around, translating the threats into more reasonable language? :)
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Really can't wait for OL to interact with L-ron.

Maybe he and Dr Blights AI assistant could share notes on how to deal with eccentric partners.

We know OL may travel to alternate universes in the future so it is a possibility.
 
Pinklestia said:
Point me to a television series that crosses over MLP, Thundercats, Marvel and so on and is not called Robot Chicken.
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Ah Robot Chicken, I really think Sybarite would fit in there.

By that I mean:



When you said DBZ/DC fusion did you mean Ideas Guy's story Going Native, or something else?

If it is something else can you tell me what it is?
 
Darko said:
When you said DBZ/DC fusion did you mean Ideas Guy's story Going Native, or something else?
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There's A o a goodt time, which is specifically DBZ/Young Justice. It went very multicross as well, with Godzilla, Beetlejuice, WH40K, etc. I dropped it when Dogwelder showed up; just got too out there for me. Actually looks like there have only been a couple updates since then? Oh well.

Edit: QQ formatting on mobile is killing the title/link for some reason. The fic is A Cell of a Good Time.
 
CTrees said:
There's A o a goodt time, which is specifically DBZ/Young Justice. It went very multicross as well, with Godzilla, Beetlejuice, WH40K, etc. I dropped it when Dogwelder showed up; just got too out there for me. Actually looks like there have only been a couple updates since then? Oh well.

Edit: QQ formatting on mobile is killing the title/link for some reason. The fic is A Cell of a Good Time.
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A really hilarious story.

Lapis is just so precious.

That fight with Godfrey was just priceless.

Cells handling of the Light and the torture he puts Luthor through are just wonderful.

Oh and in the last update the Question apparently decapitated and killed Lucifer, somehow.

And best of all it has Snowflame and a cocaine god, as well as Wonder Woman getting a cocaine high from touching Snowflame when they fought.
 
Darko said:
A really hilarious story.

Lapis is just so precious.

That fight with Godfrey was just priceless.

Cells handling of the Light and the torture he puts Luthor through are just wonderful.

Oh and in the last update the Question apparently decapitated and killed Lucifer, somehow.

And best of all it has Snowflame and a cocaine god, as well as Wonder Woman getting a cocaine high from touching Snowflame when they fought.
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I stopped reading when it got too insane for my taste but early on it was funny as hell.
 
Darko said:
Can't wait to see what kind of legal skill OL shows when we get to Rimbor.

Zoat did the renegade version of the League attack Rimbor?

I think either you or someone else once mentioned the renegade version of the Team managed to free the League before they were sent there.
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Mr Zoat said:
You'll get to see his delegating skill.
I may have.

I may have.
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He said that Paul would probably just do the pragmatic thing and bribe the judges, like everyone else does.
Here's the link: https://forums.spacebattles.com/thr...justice-si-thread-eleven.311139/post-17932548
 
Pinklestia said:
Point me to a television series that crosses over MLP, Thundercats, Marvel and so on and is not called Robot Chicken.
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That's because multi-crosses are hard to do right.

And by right I mean respecting the source material so it's actually a multi-cross and not just a bunch of AU worlds thrown together so the author can rage at them.
 
Low Politics (part 4)
  • Threadmarks
    • 5th April
    19:33 GMT -5

    Why?

    My forehead bangs against the table in front of me.

    Why?

    And again.

    Why?

    And again.

    Did Dox decide to give a power ring to Lord Manga Khan? Did he just find one? But Dox hates things going out of his control-

    "Orange Lantern? Is this a.. bad time?"

    -and becoming a problem for him. If he'd picked up a ring like that then Dox wouldn't have given him a significant job.

    I look up at the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United Nations, Mister Naif al-Sheikh, and shrug.

    "I doubt that I'd be here if it wasn't."

    Mister al-Sheikh looks for a moment at the rotating Chair of the Justice League, who as luck would have it is King Orin at the moment.

    King Orin doesn't look at me.

    "Very well. If you could tear your attention away from your desk for a moment, perhaps you could tell the Security Council why the Orange Lantern Corps is blockading Earth."

    "We're not." I shuffle into a more comfortable position on my chair. "The Orange Lantern Corps does not restrict its members from engaging in private commercial activity. Lord Manga Khan's announcement was made on behalf of ClusterCorp and in his role as Chief Operating Officer of ClusterCorp. The fact that a person owns a Mercedes-Benz is not proof that the German government is supporting them. In addition, the Earth has neither interplanetary imports or exports. He can't prevent Earth from doing something it hasn't ever done and isn't trying to do."

    "He has a power ring."

    "He does."

    "Is he here under your authority?"

    "He's here in response to a request-. I was expecting a LEGION flotilla to arrive in a few months."

    He regards me sternly.

    "You don't seem entirely pleased."

    "A LEGION flotilla would be crewed by disciplined soldiers. ClusterCorp has a habit of skirting the technical definition of interstellar piracy a little too closely for my liking."

    There's a.. stirring amongst his colleagues.

    "Piracy?"

    "Different empires have different laws on what levels of contact are allowed between civilisations of different levels of technological sophistication. And they have them… Because they recognise that a small group with space age technology can easily dominate a primitive planet. That introducing certain technologies can massively disrupt a species' social and technological development. But there's no galactic UN where a set of legal standards could be agreed upon and Earth isn't under the aegis of a larger empire. The closest to a standard set of rules is 'how far can I go before the Green Lantern Corps stops me', but the Corps' rules of engagement are defined by precedent and are well known to spacefaring civilisations. ClusterCorp won't cross that line, because it would create too much trouble for this exercise to be profitable. But they'll do anything else, because they're here to make money."

    "Are we to understand that you have no command authority over him?"

    "I have seniority, but Dox hasn't put him under my command. Unless we encounter a situation outside of his original orders, then yes, I have no direct authority over him."

    "What level of military force does the ClusterCorp possess?"

    "By the standards of their home region, the Cluster Ship is a lightly armed trading vessel with a corporate security battalion. But the precise armament isn't important because they have the run of the system. They could be completely unarmed and all they'd need to do in order to wipe out life on Earth is throw a sufficiently big rock at us."

    "Even so, I would like to know how lightly armed."

    "Assuming that they haven't upgraded a lot since my last update, no primary weapons. About thirty anti-attack craft coilgun turrets and maybe a couple of light laser batteries. It's not a warship. If they pointed all of their guns at the Earth -which they can't, the shape of their ship doesn't allow it- and fired, nothing would reach the ground. They have maybe twenty actual marines, a few hundred armed robots -mostly fairly cheap ones- and all of their personnel have some weapon training."

    "And a power ring."

    "And a power ring. Earth has plenty of power rings already. He hasn't had it for long, and… I'd describe him as being moderately powerful with no desire for actual combat. Any of Earth's native Lanterns could beat him in a fight."

    "You appear to be trying to reassure us."

    I shake my head. "Oh, no, that ship is a potential civilisation-ender. I just don't want you to mischaracterise it. It's not a military threat; it's an economic threat."

    "Explain."

    "It almost certainly has holds filled with refined metals. If Manga Khan used his ring, he could have harvested asteroids on their way into the system. The quantities of metal they hold could crash Earth's metal markets. In addition, they have records of the technologies used by hundreds of spacefaring civilisations. And they'll sell them, crashing any technology market. They might not want to attack anyone on Earth themselves, but they'll happily sell weapons to anyone who wants to buy them, thus destroying Earth's balance of power."

    A few Security Council delegates are looking more concerned now, but… Nothing like what they were when they thought it was an armed warship.

    "If he already has all of that, what exactly is he hoping to trade for?"

    "I don't know exactly. If you're asking me to speculate, I guess any of the unique technology Earth possesses, and… Magic objects and expertise."

    "What about cultural objects; art, literature..?"

    "Anything that has a copy publically available, they'll already have taken. Otherwise they might try and buy a few pieces for display, but there isn't much of an interstellar art market. They're here to make money for the ClusterCorp; they have no other objective."

    "Al… Right." He consults his notes. "Now, Manga Khan himself. What is a 'Lord-Lantern'?"

    I roll my eyes. "There's no such thing as a 'Lord-Lantern'. He's a Lantern who already-. No, he's not even a Lord. He just picks out words and syllables in his trading partner's language and starts calling himself that. 'Lord' is short and implies authority, so he chose it as his English language prefix. He picked 'Manga' and 'Khan' for the same reason. 'Lord Comic King', that should give you some idea of the psychology you're dealing with."

    "Why doesn't he use his actual name?"

    "Because it's-"

    I generate a construct of a cloud of dust, then have it twinkle in patterns.

    "-this. The suit of armour you saw in his transmission is just an environmental suit he wears so that humanoids have something to interact with. His natural form is a sentient gas cloud."

    He nods slowly.

    "So you are confident that the presence of the Cluster Ship is not a military threat to Earth, or to human civilisation as a self-governing society?"

    "Not as long as Atlantis doesn't invade-" I give King Orin a sidelong smile. "-Venturia, no."

    "Thank you, Orange Lantern. The Chair yields the floor."
     
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