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

[Pinklestia]

Hey Zoat considering who wrote the Boys maybe the only reason they got Compound V to make a Superman expy was the Dolly the clone sheep method.

Aka they keep trying until one worked with what they wanted.

That means they killed hundreds, maybe thousands of babies, because they most likely had no way to fully test the powers in the fetus stage...

 

[Vaermina]

Why would the drug of one universe have anything in common with the weird genetics of another universe?

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Because no matter how little sense it makes, Zoat has decided all universes run on the same set of genetics and physics.

 

[Darko]

Because no matter how little sense it makes, Zoat has decided all universes run on the same set of genetics and physics.

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No he hasn't.

There may be some similarities between various universes, but some things may for example be only to work in some places while others won't work in that place.

 

[Mr Zoat]

8th April
18:56 GMT -5

"…why you're not more excited about this?" M'gann uses her fork to scoop up some escaped shredded beef. "Isn't this what you wanted?"

"Once things were a bit more organised, yes." I'm not usually a fan of wraps. Or salads. But this is actually quite nice. "But as it stands, even someone of Manga Khan's intellect can easily play Earth's governments off against each other. To say nothing of the potential damage to Earth's socioeconomic systems. I held off on introducing alien technology because I wanted to force Earth to actually use its advantages, and only.. engage once it started doing that. As it stands, there's no… Unity." I point at her with my right index finger. "Mars is far better placed to take advantage of this than Earth is."

"Are they.. coming to Mars?"

I shrug. "Can't think of any reason why they wouldn't. Martian biotechnology probably doesn't have quite as big a market as some of the things Earth produces, but in the hands of a species without monophobia it might be viable as an alternate tech base for spacefaring telepaths."

"Like who?"

"Bolovaxians, like Lantern Kilowog." I create a small construct image of him standing on the table. "If they could adapt Martian animals to join their group mind they'd probably prefer it to mechanical technology."

Kon nods. "And maybe meeting new species might make more martians want to leave Mars?"

"It… Might…"

"Ted phoned me earlier to tell me that he's been getting a lot more-."

Canis stabs his taco with his fork, causing guacamole to spray in two directions across the table.

"This is insufferable."

Kon takes the insult to his culinary abilities in his stride. "If you don't like-."

"No, Orange Lantern and Aqualad."

I.. look at the mountainmate whose eyes I've been avoiding. He does the same.

And then we both look away.

"That." He points at the air halfway between us. "Did you see that!?"

Ghia'ta nods. "I most certainly did. This is not good for team unity."

M'gann leans back a little. "Humans sometimes like to be a little less direct about things."

"Yeah, but I'm only human out of habit. Okay, Kaldur?" He meets my eyes. "Given that Venturia has played next to no part in Atlantean political life for the last sixty years, what exactly is going to change now that they're going to formalise it?"

"Most likely, nothing. But that does not change the fact that you once again concealed information from my king."

I frown. "What do you mean? Cyprian had been sending messages to the government in Poseidonis since Queen Clea's death. It was hardly a secret."

"And you had no dealings with them before that."

"I first met Cyprian on the twenty fourth of December last year when I expressed a desire to hire Venturian magicians for a project. That was when I learned that Queen Clea was dead. And that's how I know that King Orin was informed; I took him a personal message from King Cyprian and delivered it into his hand. The impression I got was that it wasn't the first contact they'd had on the subject, but it's the first I can personally confirm happened."

"Why did you wish to hire Venturian magicians?"

"Because I was overworking Sephtian already. His expanded team couldn't handle any more projects, but because the Venturians were so cut off from the Atlantean mainstream their specialists were still available."

"You wished to hire them for the Orange Lantern Corps."

"No. I wanted to find out-." I look around. "Did you all read my report on my first meeting with Lantern Mother of Mercy?"

Three nods.

"In my fantasy we'd found a way to spread the Earth's magic system out from the planet. I wanted to find out whether that was actually possible or not, so I hired some Venturians to research the links between Earth's magic systems and the Dream. Fairly blue skies stuff, and things were so tense with Poseidonis that Cyprian didn't want to release his researchers from military service. Hiring them directly for the Orange Lantern Corps was something I negotiated for four days ago due to the urgent necessity."

"That was not what you told King Orin."

"No, convenience was why I wanted to expand the agreement beyond that one incident, and getting Venturia's magicians returned to their civilian occupations was why I offered a defence contract I don't think will ever be activated."

"What else did you offer them?"

"The designs for the arcane forge, which I have a perfect legal right to."

"Queen Mera had offered to include Venturian scholars in the Conservatory's research program."

"And they'd turned it down because it would have meant surrendering more sovereignty to Poseidonis. With modern communication magic there's no reason for all research to be carried out at a single location, other than to emphasise the centralisation of authority. Now they can work from their own city and still share their results with the-. With Atlantis. Look, do you actually know about how King Orin's grandmother ballsed up relations with Venturia?"

"She raised Princess Ptra in the royal court after her mother clashed with Aurania's senate. It is not uncommon in the Atlantean tradition for noble children to be raised apart from their parents in times of civil strife."

"I'm going to respectfully suggest that you do more research -preferably including Venturian sources- before making any decisions which require you to assume that is true. One, Venturia was completely secure, two, Clea didn't request it and wasn't allowed to refuse it, three, Ptra might have been a ward of the throne but she spent more of her time in Aurania than in Poseidonis which proves that the 'place of safety' justification is irrelevant if not flat out nonsense. Venturia seceded not because of anything I did but because three successive Poseidonian monarchs dropped the ball. The most I did was preventing a military conflict."

"Why?"

Both our heads jerk in the direction of Canis. His eyes move from Kaldur to me. Then he nods.

"You don't understand-. Why did you prevent the war?"

"Because it might have resulted in the deaths of people useful to me. And it wouldn't have solved the underlying issues. Queen Clea will never get to raise her daughter. She'll never know who murdered her husband. Nothing that we could do at this point could fix that and I don't particularly want to duel another Justice League member."

"Very well." Canis nods. "Aqualad, why did you want the war to happen?"

"I do not. I do not agree that war was inevitable without Orange Lantern's intervention."

"Well, no, King Cyprian might have surrendered. I'm not sure how long Ptra would survive ruling a city that didn't want her and considered her a Poseidonian puppet, but that was a possibility. But okay, how was King Orin planning on handling it?"

"His plan was to continue to refuse to recognise Cyprian's claim to the throne of Venturia while offering political and financial incentives for Venturia to become more involved with the rest of Atlantis. He realised that Ptra would not be able to rule without her cousin's willing assistance and wanted his agreement regarding any settlement. Military force was not something he had seriously considered. Your actions prevented him resolving the dispute in the interests of all Atlantis."

"Then he should have communicated that more clearly to King Cyprian. Not that it would have mattered, because opposing the expansion of the authority of the High King is the core of Venturia's policy towards the rest of Atlantis and King Cyprian would have interpreted everything you just said Orin was planning as a power grab. Which is something he would have explained if he'd been asked about it and which anyone who knows anything about Venturia should have told Orin."

"You did not explain that to King Orin."

"It's not my job to tell him how to do his job." I sniff. "And that's one thing this whole situation has cemented in my mind: I am not responsible for other people making bad decisions."

 

[Mr Zoat]

Hey Zoat considering who wrote the Boys maybe the only reason they got Compound V to make a Superman expy was the Dolly the clone sheep method.

Aka they keep trying until one worked with what they wanted.

That means they killed hundreds, maybe thousands of babies, because they most likely had no way to fully test the powers in the fetus stage...

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Possible, but I tend to doubt it. They kept Homelander a secret up until his unveiling. That would have been very difficult to do if there were a large number of high-end superbabies all lashing out with random powers, possibly for years. The the description Legend gives only mentions one.

 

[thebishop8]

Kon nods. "Any maybe meeting new species might make more martians want to leave Mars?"

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Change "Any" to "And".

"She raised Princess Ptra in the royal court after a her mother clashed

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Remove "a".

 

[Darko]

'quite' not 'quiet'

it should be 'in Atlantean political' not just ' Atlantean"

'would have survived' or at least 'would survive' not 'would survived'

I think it should be 'he's pointing at the air between us', the other thing just sounds weird

Zoat if the other members of the Team were doing this whole connecting to the common man thing like Kon then what were Canis and Angelika doing?

Angelika could have been trying to participate in some kind of multicultural thing, while I could see Canis trying to teach delinquents things about art and how to express themselves, and they inevitably are freaked out by him or are inspired.

 

[Ganurath]

"You don't understand-. Why did you prevent the war?"

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Wouldn't "I don't understand-. work better here?

 

[Someguy Somewhere]

Wouldn't "I don't understand-. work better here?

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He's stating that they do not understand his question. He's always in favour of war as a general principle, so from his point of view a question of a reason NOT to have one is rather obvious.

 

[Handlewithcare]

Canis would make an excellent therapist.

"Face your issues head on! WITH AN AXE!"


Also, did a fed up OL just learn discretion?

But he already knows four moves! Which one did he forget to make room???

 

[Darko]

Canis would make an excellent therapist.

"Face your issues head on! WITH AN AXE!"

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Canis can help friends face their issues while Zox helps lovers face their issues.

 

[mac1235]

Possible, but I tend to doubt it. They kept Homelander a secret up until his unveiling. That would have been very difficult to do if there were a large number of high-end superbabies all lashing out with random powers, possibly for years. The the description Legend gives only mentions one.

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Eh, you would only have to bring to term the ones without visible mutations...

 

[TheDudeMan400]

Maybe Aqualad had a point, if OL told King Orin what he just told Kaldur maybe his relationship with with King Orin wouldn't be so bad.

The lack of communication between OL and the Justice League is going to blow up in bad way eventually.

Ever since the Naboo was admitted into the Justice League I can't seem to enjoy the Paragon side of the story as much as I did in the beginning anymore and I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe a part of it was in the beginning Paul was more willing to build good relationships and now those relationships are being soured.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Change "Any" to "And".
Remove "a".

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Thank you, corrected.

'quite' not 'quiet'
it should be 'in Atlantean political' not just ' Atlantean"
'would have survived' or at least 'would survive' not 'would survived'
I think it should be 'he's pointing at the air between us', the other thing just sounds weird

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Ah, cryptic corrections.

Zoat if the other members of the Team were doing this whole connecting to the common man thing like Kon then what were Canis and Angelika doing?

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Sewer maintenance technician and working in a Dakota City community centre.

 

[Darko]

Maybe Aqualad had a point, if OL told King Orin what he just told Kaldur maybe his relationship with with King Orin wouldn't be so bad.

The lack of communication between OL and the Justice League is going to blow up in bad way eventually.

Ever since the Naboo was admitted into the Justice League I can't seem to enjoy the Paragon side of the story as much as I did in the beginning anymore and I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe a part of it was in the beginning Paul was more willing to build good relationships and now those relationships are being soured.

Click to shrink...

One of the reasons for that may be the fact that when OL first came to this universe he didn't have anything so he was trying to have a close relationship with the League so he wouldn't be left alone with nothing.

Now he has several things that secure his safety. He has a Lantern Corps, multiple rings, is not bound by magic any longer etc.

He doesn't really need the League at this point and is just working with them because his friends work for them, but because he doesn't need them anymore he isn't trying to get on their good side all that much anymore.

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

8th April
18:56 GMT -5

"…why you're not more excited about this?" M'gann uses her fork to scoop up some escaped shredded beef. "Isn't this what you wanted?"

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My, my, that can be taken in so many ways... But I assume they're talking about the matter of the day: Manga Khan.

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

"Once things were a bit more organised, yes." I'm not usually a fan of wraps. Or salads. But this is actually quite nice. "But as it stands, even someone of Manga Khan's intellect can easily play Earth's governments off against each other. To say nothing of the potential damage to Earth's socioeconomic systems. I held off on introducing alien technology because I wanted to force Earth to actually use its advantages, and only.. engage once it started doing that. As it stands, there's no… Unity." I point at her with my right index finger. "Mars is far better placed to take advantage of this than Earth is."

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Interesting insight. Did it occur to tell the League this? Or did they not listen when he did?

"Are they.. coming to Mars?"

I shrug. "Can't think of any reason why they wouldn't. Martian biotechnology probably doesn't have quiet as big a market as some of the things Earth produces, but in the hands of a species without monophobia it might be viable as an alternate tech base for spacefaring telepaths."

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Or species with shapeshifting abilities. Assuming they haven't discovered shifting clothes or the like.

"Like who?"

"Bolovaxians, like Lantern Kilowog." I create a small construct image of him standing on the table. "If they could adapt Martian animals to join their group mind they'd probably prefer it to mechanical technology."

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Note that that's not a Hive mind. Each Bolovaxian is a distinct individual. It's much like Mars. Like a telepathic internet linked into your head.

Kon nods. "Any maybe meeting new species might make more martians want to leave Mars?"

"It… Might…"

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Just a little side benefit, of course.

"Ted phoned me earlier to tell me that he's been getting a lot more-."

Canis stabs his taco with his fork, causing guacamole to spray in two directions across the table.

"This is insufferable."

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I know Tacos are tricky to eat if you're not used to them, Canis... But insufferable? Really?

Kon takes the insult to his culinary abilities in his stride. "If you don't like-."

"No, Orange Lantern and Aqualad."

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...No, I'm not seeing any ship teasing there.

I.. look at the mountainmate whose eyes I've been avoiding. He does the same.

And then we both look away.

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Oh, goddammit, guys! Do you know how that looks?

"That." He points at a pointing the air halfway between us. "Did you see that!?"

Ghia'ta nods. "I most certainly did. This is not good for team unity."

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At least she's able to frame things outside of Eros now... The Team is more Storge and Philia...

M'gann leans back a little. "Humans sometimes like to be a little less direct about things."

"Yeah, but I'm only human out of habit. Okay, Kaldur?" He meets my eyes. "Given that Venturia has played next to no part Atlantean political life for the last sixty years, what exactly is going to change now that they're going to formalise it?"

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Oh, thank goodness, he's finally just out and asking things!

"Most likely, nothing. But that does not change the fact that you once again concealed information from my king."

I frown. "What do you mean? Cyprian had been sending messages to the government in Poseidonis since Queen Clea's death. It was hardly a secret."

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Hell, OL carried one of those messages himself on his initial recruiting drive.

"And you had no dealings with them before that."

"I first met Cyprian on the twenty fourth of December last year when I expressed a desire to hire Venturian magicians for a project. That was when I learned that Queen Clea was dead. And that's how I know that King Orin was informed; I took him a personal message from King Cyprian and delivered it into his hand. The impression I got was that it wasn't the first contact they'd had on the subject, but it's the first I can personally confirm happened."

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See? Nothing untoward at all.

"Why did you wish to hire Venturian magicians?"

"Because I was overworking Sephtian already. His expanded team couldn't handle any more projects, but because the Venturians were so cut off from the Atlantean mainstream their specialists were still available."

Click to shrink...

Admittedly, they might have need a little reading to get up to date on new methods...

"You wished to hire them for the Orange Lantern Corps."

"No. I wanted to find out-." I look around. "Did you all read my report on my first meeting with Lantern Mother of Mercy?"

Three nods.

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Better than their mentors, at least. How often do the Leaguers read reports now? Besides OL's.

"In my fantasy we'd found a way to spread the Earth's magic system out from the planet. I wanted to find out whether that was actually possible or not, so I hired some Venturians to research the links between Earth's magic systems and the Dream. Fairly blue skies stuff, and things were so tense with Poseidonis that Cyprian didn't want to release his researchers from military service. Hiring them directly for the Orange Lantern Corps was something I negotiated for four days ago due to the urgent necessity."

Click to shrink...

So, more or less two recruitment drives, several months apart. Everything looks above-board.

"That was not what you told King Orin."

"No, convenience was why I wanted to expanded the agreement beyond that one incident, and getting Venturia's magicians returned to their civilian occupations was why I offered a defence contract I don't think will ever be activated."

Click to shrink...

Since they'd likely be happier as researchers than soldiers...

"What else did you offer them?"

"The designs for the arcane forge, which I have a perfect legal right to."

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True. Also hard to replicate without experienced mages, Lanterns and/or surface-worlder tech.

"Queen Mera had offered to include Venturian scholars in the Conservatory's research program."

"And they'd turned it down because it would have meant surrendering more sovereignty to Poseidonis. With modern communication magic there's no reason for all research to be carried out at a single location, other than to emphasise the centralisation of authority. Now they can work from their own city and still share their results with the-. With Atlantis. Look, do you actually know about how King Orin's grandmother ballsed up relations with Venturia?"

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So a lot of this comes down to misunderstandings and blunders. 'Low' politics indeed.

"She raised Princess Ptra in the royal court after a her mother clashed with Auranian's senate. It is not uncommon in the Atlantean tradition for noble children to be raised apart from their parents in times of civil strife."

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Keeping in mind Queen Clea was technically an international supervillian as well... Assuming this took place back around WWII

"I'm going to respectfully suggest that you do more research -preferably including Venturian sources- before making any decisions which require you to assume that is true. One, Venturia was completely secure, two, Clea didn't request it and wasn't allowed to refuse it, three, Ptra might have been a ward of the throne but she spent more of her time in Aurania than in Poseidonis which proves that the 'place of safety' justification is irrelevant if not flat out nonsense. Venturia ceded not because of anything I did but because three successive Poseidonian monarchs dropped the ball. The most I did was preventing a military conflict."

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Yup... Bullheadedness on all sides. Because Atlanteans (and I include Venturians as well) aren't used to accepting they can be wrong?

"Why?"

Both our heads jerk in the direction of Canis. His eyes move from Kaldur to me. Then he nods.

"You don't understand-. Why did you prevent the war?"

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Yeah, definitely looks like Canis is saying they don't understand his question... But then, Canis is from a world where disputes are settled with violence and war as a matter of course. Lives matter not, because they're only Lowlies, after all...

"Because it might have resulted in the deaths of people useful to me. And it wouldn't have solved the underlying issues. Queen Clea will never get to raise her daughter. She'll never know who murdered her husband. Nothing that we could do at this point could fix that and I don't particularly want to duel another Justice League member."

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And that's the sad tragedy of the situation... A mother separated from child and husband by politics... I mean, she ended up channelling her grief at the latter's death into supervilliany, but hey...Mistakes were made all round.

"Very well." Canis nods. "Aqualad, why did you want the war to happen?"

"I do not. I do not agree that war was inevitable without Orange Lantern's intervention."

"Well, no, King Cyprian might have surrendered. I'm not sure how long Ptra would survived ruling a city that didn't want her and considered her a Poseidonian puppet, but that was a possibility. But okay, how was King Orin planning on handling it?"

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And that's an equally good point. I'm sure the Venturians would not be happy about the change of leadership, Ptra would get nobbled by some bravo and Poseidonis would have to roll back in in six months...

"His plan was to continue to refuse to recognise Cyprian's claim to the throne of Venturia while offering political and financial incentives for Venturia to become more involved with the rest of Atlantis. He realised that Ptra would not be able to rule without her cousin's willing assistance and wanted his agreement regarding any settlement. Military force was not something he had seriously considered. Your actions prevented him resolving the dispute in the interests of all Atlantis."

Click to shrink...

Admirable, but misguided. Did he mention anything like this to Cyprian? And explain his reasoning so Cyprian didn't go 'wait, that? That's a terrible idea!'...

"Then he should have communicated that more clearly to King Cyprian. Not that it would have mattered, because opposing the expansion of the authority of the High King is the core of Venturia's policy towards the rest of Atlantis and King Cyprian would have interpreted everything you just said Orin was planning as a power grab. Which is something he would have explained if he'd been asked about it and which anyone who knows anything about Venturia should have told Orin."

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Evidently not. Bullheadedness and dickwaving all round. This was always going to be a tangle...

"You did not explain that to King Orin."

"It's not my job to tell him how to do his job." I sniff. "And that's one thing this whole situation has cemented in my mind: I am not responsible for other people making bad decisions."

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And yet you keep ending up cleaning up the messes made by people who do make those decisions... Not always willingly, either, when those messes end up stepping into you.

And once again, Poor Communication Kills... Inter-city relations. Maybe Kaldur can consider mentioning this discussion to Arthur next time he sees him. And maybe hint that if he'd thought to be more open, they wouldn't be in this mess? Oh, well. What's done is done, mistakes were made, and maybe they can avoid war.

 

[Ganurath]

Maybe Aqualad had a point, if OL told King Orin what he just told Kaldur maybe his relationship with with King Orin wouldn't be so bad.

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What OL just told Kaldur isn't exactly a secret. The Venturian representatives that Atlantis is holding "as guests" would know it. The Atlantian courtiers and politicians who'd worked with those same Venturians would know it as well, if they ever took the time to listen to the representatives... who were there so that Atlantis could hear the Venturian perspective. Either King Orin has a serious infection of Treacherous Viziers, or anything OL would've said on the matter would've gone in one ear and out the other. I suspect the former, purists who probably held a grudge over Clea's lack of support for Prince Orm over King Orin. Wouldn't be surprised if they also whispered the accusations against Clea to keep scrutiny off themselves.

 

[Citizen]

I'm honestly more interested in the Atlantean politics than I am in ClusterCorp at this point.

 

[Pinklestia]

Possible, but I tend to doubt it. They kept Homelander a secret up until his unveiling. That would have been very difficult to do if there were a large number of high-end superbabies all lashing out with random powers, possibly for years. The the description Legend gives only mentions one.

Click to shrink...

Let's see Superheroes were first used in WWII were they did not work, at all, in fact they just got killed.

Skip a few decades and there is at least in the USA a whole thing were superheroes are celebrities.

Had the whole WWII thing be public knowledge that just wouldn't work.

So really, covering the death of a few hundreds fetuses is not beyond those bastards could do.

 

[Vaermina]

The lack of communication between OL and the Justice League is going to blow up in bad way eventually.

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It hasn't yet, so I don't see why you think Zoat will actually have it do so.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Let's see Superheroes were first used in WWII were they did not work, at all, in fact they just got killed.

Skip a few decades and there is at least in the USA a whole thing were superheroes are celebrities.

Had the whole WWII thing be public knowledge that just wouldn't work.

So really, covering the death of a few hundreds fetuses is not beyond those bastards could do.

Click to shrink...

Very few people knew about the WWII team. Only a relatively small number of people saw them, and most of them were killed by the Germans. The WWII team also weren't anything like as powerful as Homelander, and given how long Voight had to make them I suspect that they were empowered as adults.

 

[Idkusername]

It hasn't yet, so I don't see why you think Zoat will actually have it do so.

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Mr Zoat has long expressed how he expects relationships to develop and spur between OL and the League. It won't be one explosive argument, but probably a few small things here and there that erode the relationship a little by little over time for some members.

 

[RichardWhereat]

"It… Might…"

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Three dots?

"And that's one thing this whole situation has cemented in my mind: I am not responsible for other people making bad decisions."

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Which makes this story so much better than most self inserts. They almost always wanna run around as the author's insert, and 'fix' people.

Ever since the Naboo was admitted into the Justice League

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Them and their pesky senators..

 

[Mr Zoat]

Three dots?

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[RichardWhereat]

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No, I mean, you usually have two periods for a pause in a sentence. You usually, rightfully, keep the three for when something has been redacted.

 

[Darko]

Mr Zoat has long expressed how he expects relationships to develop and spur between OL and the League. It won't be one explosive argument, but probably a few small things here and there that erode the relationship a little by little over time for some members.

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We know his relationship with Batman will turn sour sometime before Rimbor.

I once asked Zoat how the paragons story will end and he told me it will probably end with him sighing and walking away from the League.

Don't know if Zoat is going to make it end like that or change it, hell maybe he will walk away from an alternate universe version of the League, think the last episode may have him going to canon Earth 16 and killing Nabu with that version of the Sword of the Fallen.

 

[w34v3r]

Let's see Superheroes were first used in WWII were they did not work, at all, in fact they just got killed.

Skip a few decades and there is at least in the USA a whole thing were superheroes are celebrities.

Had the whole WWII thing be public knowledge that just wouldn't work.

So really, covering the death of a few hundreds fetuses is not beyond those bastards could do.

Click to shrink...

It's not covering up the immediate failures that's a problem. The problem is the ones that look like they might be successes, or the partial successes, or the ones slightly less successful than Homelander.

If they didn't have a way to make things go a certain way in advance they'd have to deal with a bunch of kids whose powers were only partially understood, were skewed towards the powerful, and would have unpredictable final results until their bodies and mind began to stabilize. They wouldn't have any idea which ones would be the real powerhouses until puberty at the earliest, and they'd have just generally had to manage more than one Homelander type subject for at least two decades. If Homelander wasn't a for sure thing, he'd have had 'siblings', maybe an entire team's worth of capes from the same project.

 

[Mr Zoat]

No, I mean, you usually have two periods for a pause in a sentence. You usually, rightfully, keep the three for when something has been redacted.

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I use three for trailing off and stopping, which is what happened there.

 

[Sceptic]

I use three for trailing off and stopping, which is what happened there.

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Twice, apparently.

 

[Slayer Anderson]

Venturia ceded not because of anything I did but because three successive Poseidonian monarchs dropped the ball. The most I did was preventing a military conflict."

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I think you mean seceded here.

Also, looks like poor communication still kills on the part of the Atlantean government.