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

Darko · Jul 27, 2020

Vaermina said:
I mean, if you don't think pointing out problems with a persons writing is relevant to a thread where that person is posting their writing I don't think I can help you.

No pointing out problems isn't a bad thing.

Being a annoyance, like you are, is.

Making up problems and sticking with your assumptions, even when evidence is presented that contradicts your assumptions, is also a problem.

Vorian · Jul 27, 2020

Darko said:
Hey, don't insult Sakura like that.

She at least improved herself after several years.

Until she teamed up with Naruto and Sasuke again and reverted to form. >.>

Idkusername · Jul 28, 2020

Vaermina said:
I mean, if you don't think pointing out problems with a persons writing is relevant to a thread where that person is posting their writing I don't think I can help you.

Yes, except it didn't happen in a vaccum. We were talking about power ring matter manipulation/creation, and you took the opportunity to lambast Zoat because.. you disagree with how the powers work in his fic, so you instead jump to writing quality? And are now attempting to brush it off after you changed the goalposts.

Stsword · Jul 28, 2020

Rafin said:
Hermes has been worshipped as the god of alchemy for at least a few centuries. So if he did what you said, he'd be well past read in by now.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermes_Trismegistus

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermeticism

Hermes the Thrice Great is a separate individual in DC.

Egyptian wizard who taught immortality to Noah and Methusalah.

Committed suicide, Faust decided to wake him up to learn the secret of immortality. He wasn't amused.

So he decided to enact a ritual that would "snuff out the life frequency" of the universe.

He took control over Kyle's emerald energies (in fact, he claimed that energy was his favorite to command), he fell Superman with red sun radiation, defeated Flash with figment scorpions crawling all over him.

He would have succeeded but the ghosts of all the dead Justice Leaguers swarmed him while Ice's ghost sacrificed herself to disrupt the spell.

Not that Zoat is required to use any of that, of course.

And to make it extra creepy, he was trying to genocide the universe as an act of mercy. Believing Life=Pain, he felt he was doing everyone a favor by ending their suffering.

Mr Zoat · Jul 28, 2020

15th April
12:48 GMT

Robert half-closes his eyes for a moment, then shakes his head.

"Yeah, I can feel it."

The manor of Fawney Rig hasn't changed since last time I was here. There's a party of Chinese tourists walking the grounds, but they're almost immediately more interested in Robert, Wallace and me than in the location. To most people it's just the base of operations of a group of mystical rip-off merchants who were briefly a thing in the seventies and eighties. I'd say something, but the absolute last thing the universe needs is anyone else trying to trap the Endless. It was hard to see on a country-by-country basis, but when I looked at the statistics worldwide his imprisonment killed thousands of people who went to sleep and never woke up… Or woke up and lost the ability to sleep.

I haven't tried looking at the same period on other planets.

Wallace frowns as I pay for our entry and we head towards the house.

"Are you serious about this? This… Endless guy was trapped here for seventy years, and there aren't any… I don't know, magical barriers here?"

"The only heavy-duty bound spell was the one keeping him imprisoned. Otherwise, it was all minor stuff. While it worked."

Robert nods. "Yeah. It feels weird, but it's a background weird."

Wallace nods uncertainly as we enter the house. "So how come no one else spotted this sand stuff?"

"The man who owned the place before the National Trust bought it didn't believe in magic. The only reason he kept the setup downstairs in one piece was so that he had something impressive-looking to show potential 'investors'. I still don't think that anyone who actually knows anything about magic has made it safe."

Wallace stops. "What?"

"Oh, no, no." Robert shakes his head. "Dad told me. They got someone called Cursitor Doom to check the place over in the eighties. Should be alright."

"But we're relying on it not being alright, right?"

I lead the way towards the basement.

"Dream sand is only dangerous in high concentrations. And even then, actual dream manifestations require long term exposure." I take a warded gas mask out of subspace and offer it to him. "It shouldn't be a problem anyway, but just in case…"

He takes it from me and looks at it for a moment.

"Kid Sandman, here we come."

He puts it on over his face, fiddling with it in a vain attempt to make it comfortable. I have no idea how Wesley Dodds managed for so many years.

"So how are we finding this stuff?"

"I scanned the sand that Fate had." I lead the way down the stairs into the basement. "And while my ring couldn't make sense of the exotic aspect, it gave me a pretty clear reading on the 'sand' part. So all I've got to do is scan for that sand, and we should have it."

Robert frowns. "I thought they took his stuff off him as soon as he got here."

"Yes, but it was in the building for years. If he spilled some inside the circle, or they spilled some in the house somewhere, I should be able to find it."

"Unless they were having some building work done."

"Sand isn't just sand. I can distinguish between the molecular structure of that sand and the stuff that's used in the local buildings."

I step out into the basement and walk a little way around the room, letting the others come in. Robert looks fascinated, though I'm not sure how much of that is due to the history of the place and how much to whatever his arcane senses are telling him. Wallace-.

"Oou really couldn't put a throat mike in this thing?"

"It would be an extra point of weakness and complexity. Ring, find me some sand."

Orange light washes outward, covering the inner surfaces of the room. And like a disclosing tablet, colour pools in particular areas of the room. Nooks and crannies in the stone floor, the walls, the tapestries and the stairs. Not a lot really, but worth noting.

I make a pulling gesture with my left hand and it comes, flying through the air and coming to rest in a small construct box. No, not a lot, but perhaps we can do something with it.

"Stuff dreams are made of." Robert frowns. "What happened to the woman who was using it?"

"She starved to death." I shrug. "Sort of. She only lasted as long as she did because she spent so much time in the Dreaming, but her body was a mess when she finally died."

One last strobe around reveals nothing, and I turn to leave.

"And what happened to her house?"

"Her father's brother got it in his will, and he sold it. The family who moved in ended up having bizarre waking dreams, galloping nightmares, believing they were other people, all sorts of weird stuff. There was a nasty legal battle over the sale which ended with the bank repossessing it. They couldn't sell it, a few people tried squatting there which resulted in it being burned down. It's a grass field, now. There's no way we're getting any sand from there."

I fly back up the stairs, tiny quantities of dream sand making themselves known as I go. I… Vaguely remember Morpheus dosing a few people with sand during his escape, but after this long I doubt that I'll get more than a few grains anywhere which isn't somewhere where he did that. Probably just the bedroom of the former owner, Alex Burgess.

"…supposed to help us find him?"

Robert and Wallace follow me back up, Wallace shaking his head.

"Fate can use it as a focus for a spell to detect other people using dream magic. It's not something a lot of magicians use, so it should show us where to look. I wanna see if I can use it alchemically. If this stuff can make anything I can imagine real, I might be able to make a potion to fix Sandy."

"You think so?"

"This… Something like this needs a real expert. But there aren't any. There's some people who use scientific equipment to do alchemy, but there's no one who's actually studied it scientifically. So it's not like when Tempest and Aquagirl do a whole lot of math to work out how their spells should go; this is basically… Guessing."

He grimaces under his mask.

"Hey, Oh El: Sandy didn't ever get the same kinda dreams that Sandman did, did he?"

"Not as far as I know."

Based on sources that I've found here and based on the handful of Justice Society of America comics I read with him in them. Mostly what I remember of that is him complaining about how libidinous everyone had become since the forties and then getting into a fight with Hawkman over Hawkgirl.

"No, that would be too easy."

We continue through the house until we get to the bedroom. They've redecorated it to look how it did during the heyday of The Order of Ancient Mysteries, but… Yes, a decent amount of sand lurks under the carpet. Probably a good job that no one tried sleeping here since Alex died.

I hold up the small construct box with even less sand than John had. And I'm not completely sure that it is all dream sand.

"I think this is all we're getting. Time to head back."

Queshire · Jul 28, 2020

Huh, with how important the Dreaming is mystically it's surprising that there's not more dream magic users. Well, I suppose Dream's incarceration probably made it dangerous and even afterwards few would want to risk stepping on the toes of Dream.

Darko · Jul 28, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
"Ugless

'unless'

Mr Zoat said:
other come in.

'others'

Mr Zoat said:
real expect

'expert'

Mr Zoat said:
Mostly what I remember that that is him

This sentence feels a bit weird.

Maybe 'what I remember of that version is him'

Handlewithcare · Jul 28, 2020

Queshire said:
Huh, with how important the Dreaming is mystically it's surprising that there's not more dream magic users. Well, I suppose Dream's incarceration probably made it dangerous and even afterwards few would want to risk stepping on the toes of Dream.

I think magic users would be the first people to realise how dangerous messing with it would be.

He said the house still contains the rig that trapped Dream? Why not check if that is where Sandy is kept.

Or destroy it completely, just as a precaution?

Darko · Jul 28, 2020

Handlewithcare said:
He said the house still contains the rig that trapped Dream? Why not check if that is where Sandy is kept.

I think they did just check the place where Dream was kept.

Also the thing holding Dream may not work for Sandy, since he's not an Endless.

Chojin Patriarch · Jul 28, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
15th April
12:48 GMT

Robert half-closes his eyes for a moment, then shakes his head.

"Yeah, I can feel it."

Sounds like something out of a blaxploitation film. "Yeah, I can dig it." Must be quite the magical footprint to linger so much.

The manor of Fawney Rig hasn't changed since last time I was here. There's a party of Chinese tourists walking the grounds, but they're almost immediately more interested in Robert, Wallace and me than in the location. To most people it's just the base of operations of a group of mystical rip-off merchants who were briefly a thing in the seventies and eighties. I'd say something, but that absolute last thing the universe needs is anyone else trying to trap the Endless. It was hard to see on a country-by-country basis, but when I looked at the statistics worldwide his imprisonment killed thousands of people who went to sleep and never woke up… Or woke up and lost the ability to sleep.

Yeah, it's a really dark idea when you stop to think about it. Just like transporting everyone under 18 to a dimensionally separate copy of Earth as a distraction...

I haven't tried looking at the same period on other planets.

...Oh, that just makes it worse.

Wallace frowns as I pay for our entry and we head towards the house.

"Are you serious about this? This… Endless guy was trapped here for seventy years, and there aren't any… I don't know, magical barriers here?"

Unless you're an Endless or related to one (like Orpheus the Bard) you won't be in any danger. I doubt the spell used was that indiscriminate.

"The only heavy-duty bound spell was the one keeping him imprisoned. Otherwise, it was all minor stuff. While it worked."

Robert nods. "Yeah. It feels weird, but it's a background weird."

To a thaumovore like Cornwall boy, it must feel like a steady tingle across his entire body... Or maybe a craving for popcorn?

Wallace nods uncertainly as we enter the house. "So how come no one else spotted this sand stuff?"

"The man who owned the place before the National Trust bought it didn't believe in magic. The only reason he kept the set up downstairs in one piece was so that he had something impressive-looking to show potential 'investors'. I still don't think that anyone who actually knows anything about magic has made it safe."

That's a worrying oversight. You'd think Morpheus might have mentioned it to Hob Gadling during their next meeting... Assuming it's happened already...

Wallace stops. "What?"

"Oh, no, no." Robert shakes his head. "Dad told me. They got someone called Cursitor Doom to check the place over in the eighties. Should be alright."

No doubt Doom took plenty of notes... Just in case.

"But we're relying on it not being alright, right?"

I lead the way towards the basement.

"Dream sand is only dangerous in high concentrations. And even then, actual dream manifestations require long term exposure." I take a warded gas mask out of subspace and offer it to him. "It shouldn't be a problem anyway, but just in case…"

Just watch out for odd swirls of dust in the air, for one thing.

He takes it from me and looks at it for a moment.

"Kid Sandman, here we come."

He puts it on over his face, fiddling with it in a vain attempt to make it comfortable. I have no idea how Wesley Dodds managed for so many years.

Experience, or a custom version. Given the design used in the comics, it was probably both.

"So how are we finding this stuff?"

"I scanned the sand that Fate had." I lead the way down the stairs into the basement. "And while my ring couldn't make sense of the exotic aspect, it gave me a pretty clear reading on the 'sand' part. So all I've got to do is scan for that sand, and we should have it."

So it's not just grains of silicon-based substrate. Wonder what it's actually made of?

Robert frowns. "I thought they took his stuff off him as soon as he got here."

"Yes, but it was in the building for years. If he spilled some inside the circle, or they spilled some in the house somewhere, I should be able to find it."

After all, how easy would it be to try just a small pinch of the Sand? And once you've tried it, well...

"Ugless they were having some building work done."

"Sand isn't just sand. I can distinguish between the molecular structure of that sand and the stuff that's used in the local buildings."

You really need a better moniker for it. Dream Dust, perhaps, or Morphean Powder. Then again, those sound like some exotic narcotics...

I step out into the basement and walk a little way around the room, letting the other come in. Robert looks fascinated, though I'm not sure how much of that is due to the history of the place and how much to whatever his arcane senses are telling him. Wallace-.

"Oou really couldn't put a throat mike in this thing?"

Speak up, you're a bit muffled.

"It would be an extra point of weakness and complexity. Ring, find me some sand."

Orange light washes outward, covering the inner surfaces of the room. And like a disclosing tablet, colour pools in particular areas of the room. Nooks and crannies in the stone floor, the walls, the tapestries and the stairs. Not a lot really, but worth noting.

Huh. never knew what those were called. Looks like I'm one of the ten thousand today..

I make a pulling gesture with my left hand and it comes, flying through the air and coming to rest in a small construct box. No, not a lot, but perhaps we can do something with it.

"Stuff dreams are made of." Robert frowns. "What happened to the woman who was using it?"

Nothing good, at least in the real world.

"She starved to death." I shrug. "Sort of. She only lasted as long as she did because she spent so much time in the Dreaming, but her body was a mess when she finally died."

One last strobe around reveals nothing, and I turn to leave.

One upside of this for Morpheus: OL is tidying up for him, searching for his Dream Sand like that.

"And what happened to her house?"

"Her father's brother got it in his will, and he sold it. The family who moved in ended up having bizarre waking dreams, galloping nightmares, believing they were other people, all sorts of weird stuff. There was a nasty legal battle over the sale which ended with the bank repossessing it. They couldn't sell it, a few people tried squatting there which resulted in it being burned down. It's a grass field, now. There's no way we're getting any sand from there."

Anything left is probably distributed across half the region by now, whether from going up with the smoke or being carried along in the water table.

I fly back up the stairs, tiny quantities of dream sand making themselves known as I go. I… Vaguely remember Morpheus dosing a few people with sand during his escape, but after this long I doubt that I'll get more than a few grains anywhere which isn't somewhere where he did that. Probably just the bedroom of the former owner, Alex Burgess.

"…supposed to help us find him?"

The Law of Sympathy, perhaps. The Sand is touched by the Dreaming. As is anyone using Dreaming-based magic.

Robert and Wallace follow me back up, Wallace shaking his head.

"Fate can use it as a focus for a spell to detect other people using dream magic. It's not something a lot of magicians use, so it should show us where to look. I wanna see if I can use it alchemically. If this stuff can make anything I can imagine real, I might be able to make a potion to fix Sandy."

Make a wish, Wally. If it works... Maybe you can fix yourself up too. But that would be too easy a solution, really.

"You think so?"

"This… Something like this needs a real expect. But there aren't any. There's some people who use scientific equipment to do alchemy, but there's no one who's actually studied it scientifically. So it's not like when Tempest and Aquagirl do a whole lot of math to work out how their spells should go; this is basically… Guessing."

The joy of being on the bleeding edge of thaumaturgic studies. You're stuck doing all the hard work of making sense of things...

He grimaces under his mask.

"Hey, Oh El: Sandy didn't ever get the same kinda dreams that Sandman did, did he?"

"Not as far as I know."

Key words indeed. His memory isn't that good, even with the Ring's aid... And if he hasn't read anything about a DC thing, he won't know about it.

Based on sources that I've found here and based on the handful of Justice Society of America comics I read with him in them. Mostly what I remember that that is him complaining about how libidinous everyone had become since the forties and then getting into a fight with Hawkman over Hawkgirl.

"No, that would be too easy."

You aren't in this line of work for easy, man.

We continue through the house until we get to the bedroom. They've redecorated it to look how it did during the heyday of The Order of Ancient Mysteries, but… Yes, a decent amount of sand lurks under the carpet. Probably a good job that no one tried sleeping here since Alex died.

I hold up the small construct box with even less sand than John had. And I'm not completely sure that it is all dream sand.

"I think this is all we're getting. Time to head back."

Well, it's something. So not a completely wasted trip.

And the hunt continues. It's always interesting to see these fun walk-and-talk scenes. They're often more characterful than any fight scene...

...but that absolute last thing the universe needs...

...but the absolute last thing the universe needs...

Darko · Jul 28, 2020

Chojin Patriarch said:
...Oh, that just makes it worse.

Don't forget about all those nightmares that escaped into the waking world.

For example everyone's favorite eye eater, the Corinthian.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Unless you're an Endless or related to one (like Orpheus the Bard) you won't be in any danger. I doubt the spell used was that indiscriminate.

Plus the 'Order of Ancient Mysteries' was essentially more of a bunch of New Ager's that found a magic book, rather than an order of actual sorcerers that knew different types of magic.

Chojin Patriarch said:
So it's not just grains of silicon-based substrate. Wonder what it's actually made of?

Sugar, spice and everything nice.

Chojin Patriarch said:
You really need a better moniker for it. Dream Dust, perhaps, or Morphean Powder. Then again, those sound like some exotic narcotics...

It technically is a exotic narcotic.

Chojin Patriarch said:
After all, how easy would it be to try just a small pinch of the Sand? And once you've tried it, well...

Don't do drugs kids, drugs are for losers.

The fact that it's a magic drug may mean that pooping your mouth is a genuine risk here, along with that whole giving you fears teeth and arms and locking you in with them.

That could be a way for OL to meet God, but God may hate him.

Idkusername · Jul 28, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
"Oou really couldn't put a throat mike in this thing?"

Oou - you

Mr Zoat said:
Something like this needs a real expect.

expect - expert

edit: got Nok'ed by Darko

Darko · Jul 28, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
She narrow her eyes.

'narrows'

Vaermina · Jul 28, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
15th April
12:48 GMT

Well, that answers the question from earlier, he was totally bluffing.

Darko · Jul 28, 2020

Vaermina said:
Well, that answers the question from earlier, he was totally bluffing.

You might want to reread the chapter again, since nothing in it indicates he doesn't remember or know how Dream was bound.

And no, that bit about him only vaguely remembering Dream dosing people with sand doesn't count, since it's after he escaped, not before.

Phrexia Unbound · Jul 28, 2020

Vaermina said:
Well, that answers the question from earlier, he was totally bluffing.

Oh god, if the writing for this is such an affront to your preconceived notions, go commit Eyeball Spoon.

Darko · Jul 28, 2020

Phrexia Unbound said:
Oh god, if the writing for this is such an affront to your preconceived notions, go commit Eyeball Spoon.

The Corinthian may be willing to help with that.

Though even he may have standards.

Mr Zoat · Jul 28, 2020

Darko said:
'unless'

No, that's intentional. The gas mask is distorting his voice.

'others'
'expert'
This sentence feels a bit weird.
Maybe 'what I remember of that version is him'

Thank you, corrected.

Chojin Patriarch said:
Sounds like something out of a blaxploitation film. "Yeah, I can dig it." Must be quite the magical footprint to linger so much.

I don't think I've explicitly stated it, but Robert isn't black.

...but the absolute last thing the universe needs...

Thank you, corrected.

Darko said:
'narrows'

Thank you, corrected.

Idkusername · Jul 28, 2020

Mr Zoat, you missed this.

Idkusername said:
Oou - you

Darko · Jul 28, 2020

Idkusername said:
Mr Zoat, you missed this.

I think that was intentional, due to the mask he was wearing hampering his speech.

I also wrote that 'ugless' was wrong and this was Zoats reply:

Mr Zoat said:
No, that's intentional. The gas mask is distorting his voice.

Doccer · Jul 28, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
"Ugless they were having some building work done."

"Unless they were having some building work done."

Mr Zoat said:
"Oou really couldn't put a throat mike in this thing?"

"You really couldn't put a throat mike in this thing?"

Darko · Jul 28, 2020

Doccer said:
"Unless they were having some building work done."

"You really couldn't put a throat mike in this thing?"

Those were intentional, because the mask was distorting his voice.

Mr Zoat said:
No, that's intentional. The gas mask is distorting his voice.

Mquz · Jul 28, 2020

So it looks like the previous owners / museum staff cleaned up the dream sand when they moved in. It might be worth checking the nearest city dump for the stuff. And cleaning that up while you're there.

Gilhelmi · Jul 28, 2020

At some point Wallace is going to publish his findings. He will go down in history as a great scientist and the Father of modern Alchemical Science.

Dr. Wallace West will be spoken of in the same way as Albert Einstein and Sir Issac Newton.

I can not wait to see his reaction when the leading research Universities are all begging him to come to give lectures and study. Not only giving him a full-ride scholarship, but PAYING his a fair salary to study Alchemy.

How old is Wally now, 16 or 17?

I can see the first few lines of his paper now. "Unknown science is indistinguishable from magic, and fully studied Magic is just another science. Alchemy is just another form of science that we must learn as it is as natural to our world as the air we breath or the light of the sun."

Information era · Jul 29, 2020

Gantradies said:
*dryly* that's only because the inmate who has a pet holding a "lobotomize AI into mindless puppet with access to anything network connected"button for the person running it is an idiot with a complexity obsession/ was seceretly a corpse-puppet for his own Shard. the birdcage as of the start of the story is compromised due to the AI running its systems being compromised-
even without the idiot salvage diver's stolen admin credentials, there's the free-will override forcing her to follow "lawful orders"from higher authority....

if Teacher was smarter/was still in control of his own body (timeline is vague) by that point, well....
... you know, i was thinking....
ironically, if the reveal had happened in a less traumatic way, there's a decent chance that there'd have been a Demand for Dragon to hand over control of the 'cage specifically because she COULD be ordered to let people out if higher authority was of malicious intent/subverted,instead out of Frankenstein-complex induced paranoia...

Even if saint killed dragon at some prior point, he still wouldn't have been able to release people from the birdcage. How they get people out of the birdcage is getting the move overpowered mover to open up portals directly in and out. The birdcage, as it is mechanically set up, is inescapable.

But that is tangential at best to my actual point. The birdcage isn't like Arkham or prisons in comic universes where people escape all the time. It is a prison where the only way to get out is to be let out. LP, with a minute of research, would learn that it is a true working prison. At most, he would have to deal with saint if/when LP learns about saints backdoor access.

He has enough resources that he isn't forced to kill people. There is a prison where criminals can be stored instead of killed. If he is continuing to kill people when he doesn't need to, he is being evil.

And this is aside that fact that his actions are going to lead to the extinction of not just earth bet but also his own earth and 10^80 other Earth's when he deliberately provokes Zion into killing people.

Even if he becomes parallax LP, he doesn't have a greater than even chance of winning.

Mr Zoat · Jul 29, 2020

15th April
07:59 GMT -5

The magic detector lights up like a Christmas tree. A small and flat Christmas tree.

Wallace's eyes widen as he picks up the flask and swirls it around, watching the tiny sparkles within.

"I.. think it's a universal catalyst. It literally makes everything… More. And.. if the.. Dreaming is the source of magic, that makes a lot of sense." He turns to me. "How much you got left?"

I hold up the construct box, and its maybe three pinches of dream sand.

Wallace exhales disappointedly.

"You don't think that Morpheus guy would sell me more of it, do you?"

"He might. But he wouldn't want just money in return."

"Okay, what would he want?"

"Shakespeare gave him a play in exchange for making sure that his plays lived on after him. Which explains why people still study them here, though I've got no idea why they do it back on Earth Prime."

He frowns faintly. "I wanted to ask: how come your Earth gets to be Earth Prime?"

"You'd have to ask President Lex Luthor on Earth negative fourteen. And… If you do, it's probably best not to mention me."

He begins preparing the next mixture.

"You didn't get anything on 'why'?"

"I only saw his early notes, but to him my home Earth looked like it didn't quite fit in with the system the others established. It looks like he referred to it as 'prime' in a couple of places because he thought that it might be the 'original' parallel from which others divided, but he didn't really do any work on it."

And I think someone would have noticed a man dressed like an owl fighting a man dressed like a bat next to a giant bomb.

"So why not 'Earth One'?"

"Because he used negative numbers for some of them, so he'd have 'one', the defining article, and 'negative one', which was different but didn't mirror it."

"So… Is it?"

"How would I know? He stopped focusing on it when he couldn't open a portal to it. It was really just a guess about a parallel that didn't fit, anyway." I smile. "Did you know that the Amazons don't consider 'one' to be a number?"

"What?"

"It's not all that much stranger than modern mathematicians not considering 'one' to be a prime number because it doesn't fit a pattern the others do."

"Ah, yeah it-"

A golden ankh appears in the air close to us.

"-is."

John steps through and holds his right hand out towards my sand box. "Mind if I take that?"

I fabricate a normal box in place of my construct and pass it to him. "Does Wonder Woman want the rest of us to come along?"

"She doesn't want to crowd him by bringing everyone. Do you think your empathic manipulation will work?"

"It.. should." I shrug. "With a novel life form I can never be completely sure."

He nods. "You're in. Kid Flash, will your potion work?"

"It's a super-wellness potion. It should help with just about anything, but like Oh El says…"

"Welcome to magic, kid."

"That's not much of an excuse. I'm sure I'll get there; I'm just not there yet."

"I like your optimism, Kid. Let's get going before Wonder Woman starts to think we got lost."

He steps back through, and… Huh. I haven't been through one of these before. Wallace walks through just ahead of me, and…

I hesitate. I could just teleport mys-.

No. No. Just do it. I step through and-

-u-ugh-

-out.. again. John's head whips around to stare at me as the ankh wobbles and then collapses.

"Maybe you should-" / "Maybe I should-" / "-teleport yourself-" / "-teleport myself-" / "-next time." / "-in future."

I'm really not orderly.

John waves his hands, causing the dirt on the… Car park we emerged onto to form the runic symbols he needs to run this ward-bypassing trace spell. Wallace steps closer to me.

"You knew Morpheus had been there for a while, right?

"Yes."

"So why didn't we go there right away? Like, last year or something?"

"You remember what happened to Rachel Mathers?" He hesitates, then nods. "Dealing with the Dreaming is dangerous, and the place is poorly understood. It's a case of 'if there's another option, do that first'."

"…and a pinch of the good stuff-"

John tosses a tiny amount of sand into the air.

"-to make it real."

A door, like a slightly more cartoonish version of the little card doors that come with the old Heroquest game, appears in front of him.

"Huh."

Diana steps up to it. "This will take us to him?"

"I'm not sure. Something odd is going on. I was just expecting directions. But…" He shrugs. "Dream magic isn't my focus. This doesn't necessarily mean that it's a trap. This could be what's supposed to happen."

"Do you know what we will find?"

"It's on Earth, and wherever it is acts a bit like the Dreaming. A demigoddess like you should be fine, I'll be fine with this helmet on and Orange Lantern will be fine. Everyone else should stay back for now."

"Very well." Diana takes hold of the door's ring-shaped handle. "Follow me."

thebishop8 · Jul 29, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
"Maybe you should-" / "Maybe I should-" / "-teleport yourself-" / "-teleport myself-" / "-next time." / "-in future."

Add "the" before "future". Also one of the quotation marks needs to be orange.

Mr Zoat · Jul 29, 2020

thebishop8 said:
Add "the" before "future".

No, that's a Britishism.

Also one of the quotation marks needs to be orange.

Thank you, corrected.

moralrelativity · Jul 29, 2020

thebishop8 said:
Add "the" before "future".

I don't think so. "Maybe I should teleport myself in future." is a well-formed sentence. Adding "the" would also be well-formed, but it's unnecessary.

Chojin Patriarch · Jul 29, 2020

Mr Zoat said:
15th April
07:59 GMT -5

The magic detector lights up like a Christmas tree. A small and flat Christmas tree.

Wallace's eyes widen as he picks up the flask and swirls it around, watching the tiny sparkles within.

Well, looks like the Dream Sand is the good stuff. Pity it's in such short supply...

"I.. think it's a universal catalyst. It literally makes everything… More. And.. if the.. Dreaming is the source of magic, that makes a lot of sense." He turns to me. "How much you got left?"

I hold up the construct box, and its maybe three pinches of dream sand.

Barely enough for spellwork, eh? Certainly not the kind of amount Wally needs for research...

Wallace exhales disappointedly.

"You don't think that Morpheus guy would sell me more of it, do you?"

If you could get in touch with him, and swore oaths not to abuse its use... But would you want to pay his asking price, because...

"He might. But he wouldn't want just money in return."

"Okay, what would he want?"

"Shakespeare gave him a play in exchange for making sure that his plays lived on after him. Which explains why people still study them here, though I've got no idea why they do it back on Earth Prime."

He will not ask for common money, no... And my memory might be fuzzy, but wasn't it two plays? Or maybe OL's not remembering right either... It's been a long time since I read it...

He frowns faintly. "I wanted to ask: how come your Earth gets to be Earth Prime?"

"You'd have to ask President Lex Luthor on Earth negative fourteen. And… If you do, it's probably best not to mention me."

Yeah, best to leave that alone. That just opens up a whole can of headaches... Personally, though, I bet it has to do with relative vibrational frequencies, that's always a thing in DC...

He begins preparing the next mixture.

"You didn't get anything on 'why'?"

"I only saw his early notes, but to him my home Earth looked like it didn't quite fit in with the system the others established. It looks like he referred to it as 'prime' in a couple of places because he thought that it might be the 'original' parallel from which others divided, but he didn't really do any work on it."

The true cornerstone of the multiverse. Though how much our world is related to the in-universe Earth-Prime is debatable, given they have a Superboy...

And I think someone would have noticed a man dressed like an owl fighting a man dressed like a bat next to a giant bomb.

"So why not 'Earth One'?"

"Because he used negative numbers for some of them, so he'd have 'one', the defining article, and 'negative one', which was different but didn't mirror it."

Which, to some degree, means there's likely an Earth-Zero out there, but no-one's noticed.

"So… Is it?"

"How would I know? He stopped focusing on it when he couldn't open a portal to it. It was really just a guess about a parallel that didn't fit, anyway." I smile. "Did you know that the Amazons don't consider 'one' to be a number?"

Probably something to do with their warrior culture, I suppose. No 'I' in Team, and all that.

"What?"

"It's not all that much stranger than modern mathematicians not considering 'one' to be a prime number because it doesn't fit a pattern the others do."

Mathematics is weird, especially once you get outside the basics of adding and subtracting...

"Ah, yeah it-"

A golden ankh appears in the air close to us.

Ah, Quinn's here. He's got a lead?

"-is."

John steps through and holds his right hand out towards my sand box. "Mind if I take that?"

I fabricate a normal box in place of my construct and pass it to him. "Does Wonder Woman want the rest of us to come along?"

Evidently they've got something, all right. Let's hope it doesn't get too messy...

"She doesn't want to crowd him by bringing everyone. Do you think your empathic manipulation will work?"

"It.. should." I shrug. "With a novel life form I can never be completely sure."

If he feels Rage, he'll be able to feel Avarice, especially the desire to be free.

He nods. "You're in. Kid Flash, will your potion work?"

"It's a super-wellness potion. It should help with just about anything, but like Oh El says…"

Hey, one-in-a-million chances tend to come off more often than not for superheroes, Wally. It'll be fine.

"Welcome to magic, kid."

"That's not much of an excuse. I'm sure I'll get there; I'm just not there yet."

At least he's not letting the uncertainty get him too down. Hope is always good.

"I like your optimism, Kid. Let's get going before Wonder Woman starts to think we got lost."

He steps back through, and… Huh. I haven't been through one of these before. Wallace walks through just ahead of me, and…

Watch it pop like a soap bubble as soon as he touches it...

I hesitate. I could just teleport mys-.

No. No. Just do it. I step through and-

-u-ugh-

There's a rare sight these days: Magical overload. Unpleasantly like begin drunk. In multiple meanings of the word.

-out.. again. John's head whips around to stare at me as the ankh wobbles and then collapses.

"Maybe you should-" / "Maybe I should-" / "-teleport yourself-" / "-teleport myself-" / "-next time." / "-in future."

I'm really not orderly.

Gee, who'da thunk it?

John waves his hands, causing the dirt on the… Car park we emerged onto to form the runic symbols he needs to run this ward-bypassing trace spell. Wallace steps closer to me.

"You knew Morpheus had been there for a while, right?

At Fawney Rig? Where's he going with this?

"Yes."

"So why didn't we go there right away? Like, last year or something?"

"You remember what happened to Rachel Mathers?" He hesitates, then nods. "Dealing with the Dreaming is dangerous, and the place is poorly understood. It's a case of 'if there's another option, do that first'."

Who? I don't think that's what Constantine's Ex with the Sand was called... And yes, that's good advice... That can be applied to nearly anything involving the Endless...

"…and a pinch of the good stuff-"

John tosses a tiny amount of sand into the air.

"-to make it real."

Now you know it's real magic, with sparkly stuff flying around...

A door, like a slightly more cartoonish version of the little card door that come with the old Heroquest game, appears in front of him.

"Huh."

Diana steps up to it. "This will take us to him?"

Well, that's quirky. Seems a little... Childish... Are we going to find Sandy running around in a Sandman costume battling 'nightmares'? Also, props for remembering Heroquest exists.

"I'm not sure. Something odd is going on. I was just expecting directions. But…" He shrugs. "Dream magic isn't my focus. This doesn't necessarily mean that it's a trap. This could be what's supposed to happen."

"Do you know what we will find?"

I'd be amazed if he did. This is uncharted territory. I doubt there's much info in Dreaming-based magic in Fate's library either.

"It's on Earth, and wherever it is acts a bit like the Dreaming. A demigoddess like you should be fine, I'll be fine with this helmet on and Orange Lantern will be fine. Everyone else should stay back for now."

"Very well." Diana takes hold of the door's ring-shaped handle. "Follow me."

Into the unknown!

More and more, this plotline grows familiar. Seriously, if they run into a certain pair of dream creatures and Sandy in the gold and red costume, I'm going to laugh my ass off.. and then look forwards to Morpheus kicking their asses for trying this again. Assuming this isn't their first time...

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

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