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

[Bramble Thorn]

He isn't paid to be an Orange Lantern.

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Because if you can't make money when you have the powers of an orange ring at your disposal, should you have an orange ring in the first place?

I think this is a concept OL instituted before he founded the OLC.
And that was before he had a proper database. Nowadays, getting a ring would be like being given a turnkey creation forge. Were homeless, now you can want a self maintaining luxury space yacht into existence, transmuted from asteroid debris and included plans. Ditto anything else you need, such as trade goods. Also, steals cable like a boss.

 

[Pinklestia]

I am the only one thinking that "Low politics" is getting way too long?

 

[Darko]

I am the only one thinking that "Low politics" is getting way too long?

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Two more chapters and we're done.

Hopefully there are also going to be some more chapters on the alternates.

 

[Pinklestia]

Two more chapters and we're done.

Hopefully there are also going to be some more chapters on the alternates.

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At least is not the braindead Hell arc, that one definitely lasted way too long.

 

[Darko]

At least is not the braindead Hell arc, that one definitely lasted way too long.

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Hey we saw Satanus get taken down and Paul got a way to find Amon, getting Mammon to tell him.

Also he ensured the Light lost another member and Hell can get better.

 

[Mastigos2]

No, it's to see what happens when you give a ring to a merchant rather than a police officer or soldier. A single incident that hasn't even finished yet isn't enough to draw a conclusion.

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I disagree. The evidence clearly indicates that this is a test of what happens when you vie a ring to a large ham pretending to be a merchant.

 

[Pinklestia]

Hey we saw Satanus get taken down and Paul got a way to find Amon, getting Mammon to tell him.

Also he ensured the Light lost another member and Hell can get better.

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That still doesn't justify his mass resurrection plan involving a method that he knew was flawed and made people insane.

Anyway, I hope we get a Grayven chapter soon.

 

[Darko]

That still doesn't justify his mass resurrection plan involving a method that he knew was flawed and made people insane.

Anyway, I hope we get a Grayven chapter soon.

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He did use criminals for the ressurection experiments to see how it works before he tried it on the non criminals.

 

[Vaermina]

He did use criminals for the ressurection experiments to see how it works before he tried it on the non criminals.

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Which, given most criminals go to hell, was a flawed experiment from the get go.

 

[iamnuff]

"DO YOUR JOB, ASSHOLE" with a side-order of 'This is bad customer service'
Very nice.

"I WILL EXPUNGE MY SHAME WITH ULTRA-PLATINUM LEVELS OF CUSTOMER SERVICE!"

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Looks like it was a critical hit, too.
If only he was more competent.

 

[Gantradies]

...Really? Really? He forgot his own use-name? <headdesk> gods above, why did Dox give this... This... Village Idiot a power ring?

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

At least someone's on the ball... Seriously, is L-Ron the real reason he's so successful?


I do hope OL is recording this for Dox's later reference...


Because MK here is really not giving a good showing. And people call OL flighty?


Would the young man like to share with the class?


I suppose it wouldn't be Manga Khan without completely and comically missing the point...


...Do they know whether the client has any way to contact them? Or is this a case of 'we e-mailed you about your inability to log into your e-mail...'


...Seriously, OL has far better control than I, for I would have a handprint permanently embedded in my forehead by now...


"I'm the ideas guy, I'm not supposed to sweat details! Whatever 'sweat' is..."


Methinks it's beginning to hit him that he might be in trouble?


That's no good reason not to do your job.


He didn't read it, did he? Did he even look at it, or tell L-Ron to handle it?


<smack> ow. My forehead... Why, Dox... Why?


His protestations grow feebler and feebler.


OL might be better off channelling Kilowog here. Get Drill Sergeant Nasty on this maroon.


Did he consider that Earth has little knowledge of starship systems and weaponry? How are they supposed to know that?


Ah, appealing to his fear of Customer Service complaints...


And out comes the melodrama... Stop dabbing, you twit!


I don't think you could lower yourself to his level... That would take a major change of character...


Okay, Manga Khan, dial it back a little...


I would hope so, because one alternative is that he slept his way to the top...


He's going to be at this for hours, isn't he?


Methinks she's reconsidering her decision to volunteer for this position...


Still peeking at his greediports, I see. More data!


I know he's not on the best of terms with Orin, but this is getting silly.


Though there are probably plenty of rumours, I bet. Halfway around the world while the Truth is still getting its boots on, and all that.


Queen Mera, most likely. Which might be helpful, she's less likely to yell.

So glad things are starting to wind down for this debacle... I have the feeling everyone will be glad to see the back of this episode... Hopefully, it ends peacefully. Despite me almost missing chapters ending with a bang...

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i mean, for all his quirks and flaws, he's happy to delegate/very capable of delegation,seems to take keeping to a contract/providing good service seriously, and seems to have commissioned/surrounded himself with VERY capable subordinates...

 

[Pinklestia]

He did use criminals for the ressurection experiments to see how it works before he tried it on the non criminals.

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And had he stopped when things started to go terribly wrong I would accept that.

Instead the guy decided to piss of both Hell and Heaven just because.

Enough about this.

Anyone wants to think what Paul would be in gender reversed DC? Would he explore being female or what?

 

[Sockmonkey]

Anyone wants to think what Paul would be in gender reversed DC? Would he explore being female or what?

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IIRC there is a parallel Earth where all the superheroes were female so OL genderswapped him/herself.
I could also see our version trying out being female for a day just to see what it's like.

 

[Pinklestia]

IIRC there is a parallel Earth where all the superheroes were female so OL genderswapped him/herself.
I could also see our version trying out being female for a day just to see what it's like.

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That doesn't exist unless you count those omakes I wrote ages ago.

Unless Paula was part of the recent crisis and I missed it?

 

[Darko]

Which, given most criminals go to hell, was a flawed experiment from the get go.

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Only one of those criminals he resurrected went to actual Hell, the others went to their religions version of a horrible afterlife, but not the Judeo Christian Hell.

Even if others went to Hell that is an issue he can deal with. He was taken by surprise when he went to Hell after he brought that guy back to life, but if it was just an ordinary demon and no Hell portal occurred then destroying said demon would be childs play.

If some of the other souls went to Hell then them getting brought back to life is good because it deprives Hell of potential demons if these souls are capable of turning into demons, it deprives them of materials that demons can forge from broken souls and it gives the mortal world knowledge on how Hell damages souls so they can figure out a way to heal said damage.

And had he stopped when things started to go terribly wrong I would accept that.

Instead the guy decided to piss of both Hell and Heaven just because.

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He did stop his experiments when that guy came back as a demon. The other time something went wrong was when that one guy dissolved and I don't think they brought his soul back, just regenerated his body.

Paul also has ways to deal with Hell and its demons and he wasn't exactly pissing of Heaven as the souls he was bringing back to life were either in Hell or in another pagan afterlife, not in Heaven.

He, and basically every superhero and decent person n the planet, are already pissing demons of with the whole trying to stop them from spreading evil in the world thing.

If you try to live a decent life and encourage other people to do so then you are pissing demons of.

Heaven also may be split on the decision on whether or not to be pissed seeing as they were running experiments in order to rehabilitate souls that don't involve torturing them, so seeing as they figured out their old fashioned approach of hellfire was not working they were trying a more reasonable way. Some of the Angels may approve of what he was doing, rehabilitating damned souls, and while there are those among them who would be pissed, that traitor angel king and Karrien, they are most likely pissed with the majority of humanity for not living up to their ludicrous standards of morality.

 

[w34v3r]

Well more to the point I think Karrien's butthurt that humans can have moralities beyond OBEY!, and still get a heavenly reward.

 

[thebishop8]

According to the table of contents, we're getting a chapter from an alternate Paul in a universe in which it's 2018. Not sure who that is. MCU Paul?

 

[Darko]

According to the table of contents, we're getting a chapter from an alternate Paul in a universe in which it's 2018. Not sure who that is. MCU Paul?

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Would be the first time we see him, aside from that one snippet of him and Skye on SV.

Also the next episode is titled Plutonian.

The only comic character with that name was the one that went insane and killed millions of people because he couldn't fit in.

This could mean that the paragon will be facing some problems from his actions, or lack of them, from this episode.

If it's a renegade one then his alien nature may come up.

 

[Mr Zoat]

9th April
14:41 GMT -2

"...cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy bl-"

Queen Mera swims into the room.

"-ue-."

I dismiss my Cat's Cradle construct. I… Haven't really had much to do with Queen Mera for a while. Sephtian was my point of contact with the Conservatory. I don't even know whether the Atlanteans who swam in after her are government officials, aides, or additional security. I'm a little surprised to see her acting in what I assume is about to be a government capacity. My knowledge of Atlantean nobility isn't perfect, but my understanding had been that she left that stuff to her husband.

"Your majesty."

She smiles politely.

"My lord Illustres."

That's… Probably about right.

"Just came from a meeting with the Venturian cabinet. Is that.. something I can talk to you about?"

"Atlantean diplomatic custom would have us make small talk for a while first."

I nod. "Alright. How's Artur getting along?"

"He's in good health, thank you."

"Are you planning on having any more?"

"I.. think that we'll be waiting a year or two before deciding on that."

"Because if you're concerned about the whole Atlantean brothers' curse thing-."

"I'm more than capable of ensuring that Artur only has sisters. And that line of enquiry is outside of what would be considered polite noncommittal conversation in Atlantean society."

"I'll keep that in mind. For an Orange Lantern, it's… If you don't care, why bother talking about it? I imagine you'd be more interested in the Deep Dream analysis I'm hiring the Venturians to do for me, I'm certainly more interested in it-."

"Dream research?" I nod. "Are you interested in prophecy?"

"No, I'm.. pretty sure that Apollo has it in for me, so there's basically no chance of me getting anything useful from an oracle. I believe that there's at least some chance that-."

"That our arcane analytical equipment -which you shared with them- is now advanced enough that we might get something useful out of it? I hadn't even considered that aspect of it."

"You don't really have the personnel to spare to work on the project here-."

"Are you certain?"

"Yes. I have a near-complete list of every Atlantean research mage above a certain level courtesy of Professor Sephtian, because I asked him for the names of everyone he wanted to involve. I went to Venturia in the first place because-."

"None of them participate in our research programs."

"Though the chance of us getting anything useful isn't that great. And-. Are you familiar with the novel Nineteen Eighty Four?"

"No."

"It's… Really depressing for anyone trying to influence the world in a positive way, actually, but there's one bit where one of the characters says that they have some of the world's greatest scientists working on projects that won't ever bear fruit in order to keep them occupied. So if Poseidonis is worried about what Venturia's researchers are going to be doing-."

"They're going to be working on a project which -if successful- would result in them being able to command the fundamental forces of creation."

"And Oceana was going to get an earthquake machine. Except they weren't, ever. At most, I expect to get a way to extend the distance from Earth magic can be actively used, and that will probably be decades away. And it might turn out to be impossible. Which is worth knowing, but…"

"I thought that you wanted to employ Venturia's sorcerers for the Orange Lantern Corps."

"King Cyprian's not going to release all that many for long term detached duty, and they're going to have to learn a new world's magic system almost from scratch before they can teach anyone. The point is that Venturia isn't going to present a security threat to Atlantis. "

"Unless their research into the Dream bears fruit faster than you expect it to and they gain the ability to control magic universe-wide."

"Being an empath, and having spent some time in King Cyprian's presence, I feel safe in saying that if they were that successful, everyone involved would be rounded up and told in no uncertain terms that they weren't that successful, and that they were being reassigned to metaphorical Alaska, and that they should never talk about the thing that never happened again. Of course, you've got more resources. You could almost certainly outpace them. But-"

"As you pointed out, we have more demands upon those resources and there may be no payoff at all." She considers for a moment. "Will the Venturian Academy be willing to share their findings?"

"I imagine that academic cooperation will be a subject for debate post-referendum. Though given that they didn't really share while they were part of Atlantis and that I rather got the impression that King Orin was planning on using that sort of thing as a lure to persuade them to stay…"

"Something which Kaldur assured me that you believed would not work."

"It wouldn't, but me falling out with King Orin isn't a constitutional crisis. But since we've come full circle…"

She nods. "What does Lord Cyprian wish for you to discuss with me?"

"King Cyprian wants to meet with High King Orin to discuss the terms of the referendum. How the vote will be conducted, the methods both sides will use to persuade people to their viewpoint, and what happens afterwards."

"And Queen Ptra's involvement in these discussions?"

"As far as Venturia is concerned, she's the ruler of an Atlantean city-state. She has as much right to be involved as, say, the Speaker of the Shayeris senate. They're not going to insist that she leave if she's there, but they're not there to negotiate with her."

"Will they accept her as their Queen if the vote to leave fails?"

"It's not a vote to leave. They've already left. It's a vote to rejoin. And almost certainly not, though King Orin is welcome to raise the issue." I frown. "I know that King Orin didn't grow up here, but you're a native. You are.. aware of the history here, aren't you?"

"Some.. what. My studies were more focused on magic than on politics or history."

"At least make sure that King Orin is properly briefed before the meeting? Because he clearly hasn't been to date."

She looks at me for a few moments.

"I believe, Orange Lantern, that you have my husband's full attention."

 

[Ardy]

Awk-Ward....

 

[Darko]

Maybe it can be 'Just came' instead of 'just come'

'from which Earth' instead of just 'from Earth'

'Oceania' not 'Oceana'

 

[Handlewithcare]

I mean,do they not have any contact at all? How can Atlantis and Venturia have so little idea of what the other thinks?

 

[Darko]

I mean,do they not have any contact at all? How can Atlantis and Venturia have so little idea of what the other thinks?

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Isolation and lack of interest in learning what the other thinks maybe.

 

[Mr Zoat]

Maybe it can be 'Just came' instead of 'just come'

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Thank you, corrected.

'from which Earth' instead of just 'from Earth'

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I think it works as it is.

'Oceania' not 'Oceana'

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The SI hasn't reread it since getting perfect memory.

 

[Darko]

I think it works as it is.

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It just doesn't sound right when I read it.

'from Earth magic can be used' really doesn't sound like it makes sense without adding 'which' or something similar in it.

 

[Citizen]

She looks at me for a few moments.

"I believe, Orange Lantern, that you have my husband's full attention."

Click to shrink...

He's standing right behind me, isn't he?

 

[Darko]

It works somewhat if your talking about the distance away from the planet a caster can still use magic, but not if there referring to the style of "Earth magic" (Terran magic not dirt magic), so it all depends on what he was going for.

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Maybe.

It can also be 'from which/where the Earths magic can be used'

 

[Chojin Patriarch]

9th April
14:41 GMT -2

"...cat's in the cradle and the silver spoon,
Little boy bl-"

Queen Mera swims into the room.

Click to shrink...

Ah, I see I was right yesterday, Mera's giving him her personal attention. Now, if he can avoid offending her too...

Spoiler: Commentary spoilered for length

"-ue-."

I dismiss my Cat's Cradle construct. I… Haven't really had much to do with Queen Mera for a while. Sephtian was my point of contact with the Conservatory. I don't even know whether the Atlanteans who swam in after her are government officials, aides, or additional security. I'm a little surprised to see her acting in what I assume is about to be a government capacity. My knowledge of Atlantean nobility isn't perfect, but my understanding had been that she left that stuff to her husband.

Click to shrink...

She is the Queen of Atlantis, she's presumably in nominal charge when Orin is out of the city. I assume she would normally work with whatever council is set up as a cabinet.

"Your majesty."

She smiles politely.

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Well, so far so good...

"My lord Illustres."

That's… Probably about right.

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Well, you are effectively the field commander of an interstellar armed force. That's got to be equivalent to at least a Lordship, or at worst a Barony.

"Just come from a meeting with the Venturian cabinet. Is that.. something I can talk to you about?"

"Atlantean diplomatic custom would have us make small talk for a while first."

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Not something OL is that good at, I note. Too much of that 'straight down to business' character type. Comes with being an Orange Lantern, I expect.

I nod. "Alright. How's Artur getting along?"

"He's in good health, thank you."

"Are you planning on having any more?"

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And straight to the overly prying questions. Though it would make some sense in medieval times, when you couldn't count on a young heir making it to adulthood, these days it's a little less essential to have the 'heir and a spare'...

"I.. think that we'll be waiting a year or two before deciding on that."

"Because if you're concerned about the whole Atlantean brothers' curse thing-."

Click to shrink...

That's an actual thing in Atlantean culture? I guess that's part of why Arthur was raised on the surface...

"I'm more than capable of ensuring that Artur only has sisters. And that line of enquiry is outside of what would be considered polite noncommittal conversation in Atlantean society."

"I'll keep that in mind. For an Orange Lantern, it's… If you don't care, why bother talking about it? I imagine you'd be more interested in the Deep Dream analysis I'm hiring the Venturians to do for me, I'm certainly more interested in it-."

Click to shrink...

Oh, that's interesting. A detailed study of interactions with the Dreaming, wasn't it? Presumably with a minor eye on extending terrestrial magic to toher planetary bodies?

"Dream research?" I nod. "Are you interested in prophecy?"

"No, I'm.. pretty sure that Apollo has it in for me, so there's basically no chance of me getting anything useful from an oracle. I believe that there's at least some chance that-."

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Well, you did help Eris dump him in a pigsty. Greek gods can hold grudges like you wouldn't believe...

"That our arcane analytical equipment -which you shared with them- is now advanced enough that we might get something useful out of it? I hadn't even considered that aspect of it."

"You don't really have the personnel to spare to work on the project here-."

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Which is why he's gone to Venturia. Also less chance of damaging the other cities if something goes wrong.

"Are you certain?"

"Yes. I have a near-complete list of every Atlantean research mage above a certain level courtesy of Professor Sephtian, because I asked him for the names of everyone he wanted to involve. I went to Venturia in the first place because-."

Click to shrink...

I'm sure Sephtian is looking forwards to hearing about the results. Though I'd be wary of the research. Don't want to tick of Oneiros, aka Dream of the Endless...

"None of them participate in our research programs."

"Though the chance of us getting anything useful isn't that great. And-. Are you familiar with the novel Nineteen Eighty Four?"

Click to shrink...

Hmm, would Arthur be familiar with it? It doesn't seem like the kind of fiction he'd have been interested in as a child...

"No."

"It's… Really depressing for anyone trying to influence the world in a positive way, actually, but there's one bit where one of the characters says that they have some of the world's greatest scientists working on projects that won't ever bear fruit in order to keep them occupied. So if Poseidonis is worried about what Venturia's researchers are going to be doing-."

Click to shrink...

Because unoccupied scientists have a small tendency to become supervillians in this universe, given half a reason. Especially if they're multi-disciplinarian.

"They're going to be working on a project which -if successful- would result in them being able to command the fundamental forces of creation."

"And Oceana was going to get an earthquake machine. Except they weren't, ever. At most, I expect to get a way to extend the distance from Earth magic can be actively used, and that will probably be decades away. And it might turn out to be impossible. Which is worth knowing, but…"

Click to shrink...

Again, that ever-minute chance of ludicrous success that ends up with someone calling themselves 'Quake-master' or 'Doctor Seismic'...

"I thought that you wanted to employ Venturia's sorcerers for the Orange Lantern Corps."

"King Cyprian's not going to release all that many for long term detached duty, and they're going to have to learn a new world's magic system almost from scratch before they can teach anyone. The point is that Venturia isn't going to present a security threat to Atlantis. "

"Unless their research into the Dream bears fruit faster than you expect it to and they gain the ability to control magic universe-wide."

Click to shrink...

It's not impossible. Look at the sort of breakthrough that resulted in the spellforges Atlantis is using now. Even if that is something difficult to make without certain resources.

"Being an empath, and having spent some time in King Cyprian's presence, I feel safe in saying that if they were that successful, everyone involved would be rounded up and told in no uncertain terms that they weren't that successful, and that they were being reassigned to metaphorical Alaska, and that they should never talk about the thing that never happened again. Of course, you've got more resources. You could almost certainly outpace them. But-"

Click to shrink...

True. Cyprian would be sensible enough to see the threat inherent in such research. And he's canny enough not to let it get out of hand...

"As you pointed out, we have more demands upon those resources and there may be no payoff at all." She considers for a moment. "Will the Venturian Academy be willing to share their findings?"

"I imagine that academic cooperation will be a subject for debate post-referendum. Though given that they didn't really share while they were part of Atlantis and that I rather got the impression that King Orin was planning on using that sort of thing as a lure to persuade them to stay…"

Click to shrink...

Which OL, and we, know won't work...

"Something which Kaldur assured me that you believed would not work."

"It wouldn't, but me falling out with King Orin isn't a constitutional crisis. But since we've come full circle…"

She nods. "What does Lord Cyprian wish for you to discuss with me?"

Click to shrink...

And back to the business at hand.

"King Cyprian wants to meet with High King Orin to discuss the terms of the referendum. How the vote will be conducted, the methods both sides will use to persuade people to their viewpoint, and what happens afterwards."

"And Queen Ptra's involvement in these discussions?"

Click to shrink...

Besides a reasonably polite 'please keep your nose out of it'?

"As far as Venturia is concerned, she's the ruler of an Atlantean city-state. She has as much right to be involved as, say, the Speaker of the Shayeris senate. They're not going to insist that she leave if she's there, but they're not there to negotiate with her."

"Will they accept her as their Queen if the vote to leave fails?"

Click to shrink...

And you're misreading the situation, Mera...

"It's not a vote to leave. They've already left. It's a vote to rejoin. And almost certainly not, though King Orin is welcome to raise the issue." I frown. "I know that King Orin didn't grow up here, but you're a native. You are.. aware of the history here, aren't you?"

"Some.. what. My studies were more focused on magic than on politics or history."

Click to shrink...

Irritating, I suppose she never expected to end up as the queen, though. In another universe, she may well have gone through to become head of the university without ever touching politics...

"At least make sure that King Orin is properly briefed before the meeting? Because he clearly hasn't been to date."

She looks at me for a few moments.

"I believe, Orange Lantern, that you have my husband's full attention."

Click to shrink...

In other words: tell us more. Because to some degree, OL is their best source on the current state of Venturia, outside of agents that don't officially exist, and given Orin's philosophy, likely don't exist at all, to his knowledge.

Well, that's that for this episode. I expect the plotline will continue in the background of later episodes though. One last chapter for a denouement, a quick alternate Paul and then 'Plutonian'. Which sets off alarm bells for me, having read some of Irredeemable. I seriously hope it's not something like Match turning bad or something... Guess we'll see by the weekend.

 

[Darko]

Well, that's that for this episode. I expect the plotline will continue in the background of later episodes though. One last chapter for a denouement, a quick alternate Paul and then 'Plutonian'. Which sets off alarm bells for me, having read some of Irredeemable. I seriously hope it's not something like Match turning bad or something... Guess we'll see by the weekend.

Click to shrink...

It could be about Paul or renegades troubles fitting in to society because of their alien natures.

The renegade is literary thought of as an alien, while paragon has an alien mindset.

Didn't the Plutonian go crazy because people still hated him despite the fact that he helped them, aside from the other reasons of course.

If that is the case then the episode could be about some kind of anti hero, anti alien group or something trying to stonewall the renegade or paragon or some such shit.

If the whole thing about the renegade being considered to be the ruler of Earth got out I can see some idiots trying to protest it and considering Paul's actions, or lack of actions, in this episode a lot of people may be pissed.

 

[Mastigos2]

It's not impossible. Look at the sort of breakthrough that resulted in the spellforges Atlantis is using now. Even if that is something difficult to make without certain resources.

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Or much more concerningly relevant: the Materioptikon.