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

"Third"? What are the first and second?

Worm and Sailor moon, due to Zoat not quite grokking the settings and thus doing stuff that pisses off the fans (the fear!SI thinking he's helping by killing villains in Worm, but in reality he's collapsing society and dooming the multiverse)
 
Terror Nova (part 1) New
20th August 2013
06:06 GMT -7


"In-."

The grey blur continues blurring, hush tubes opening and closing as it travels to distant parts of the galaxy.

"In-.

And she's gone again.

"I told you." Persuader-. Ah, no, she's not wearing her helmet. Elise gestures to the hole in the air. "She's been here all night."

She looks genuinely worried. And she feels worried, too. Which is an interesting contrast to her god-name.

A mild frown forms on my brow. "I didn't order her to do this."

"Is she in.. trouble? She's doing what you want, right?"

"No, I don't mind. And I've made it clear that she's free to pursue her own projects. I value my peoples' initiative. I'm just not used to her-." Grey blur, portal closes and another opens. "In-."

And she's gone again.

I could stop her. I can order the mountain's system to stop accepting her commands. A few words. Or I could use my power as her sovereign.

But I don't, because I'm-

Grey-.

"In-."

Gone again.

-curious.

"Her career's going alright, isn't it?"

Elise nods. "Yeah? I've got a few of the magazines that published her photos if you wanna look?"

I shake my head. "I read them when they're published. I just wanted to make sure that I hadn't missed something… Or if there'd been a recent development I hadn't heard about yet."

"I don't think so. You want me to phone her agent?"

"Nono. She knows that she can come to me if she has a-." Grey. "In-." Gone again. "If she has a problem."

Elise kind of twitches. "Some problems… People… Don't want to talk to their father about."

I turn to face her. Every report I've had from her school and from Knockout indicates that she's doing well, but I haven't spent a great deal of time with her myself. I started with monthly appraisals, but once she settled in I decided that it wasn't worth carrying on meeting up so frequently.

Right. I kneel down and put my right hand on her left shoulder.

"Elise, is there anything that you want to talk about." My Door Is Always Open

She looks at my hand, takes a deep breath and then looks me directly in the eyes. "I wanna tell my Dad."

"Okay. Which bits? Because he knows that you work for me."

"Yeah, he knows-. He knows I'm working for you, and I've registered with the Department of Metahuman Affairs. But I haven't really told him what I actually do. I think he thinks I make your coffee."

I frown. "But I don't drink coffee."

She looks surprised. "You don't?"

"No?"

"Lynne does."

Oh that's where the mugs are coming from. I thought it was Knockout. "We don't do everything the same. I think Imra's having an influence on her. Which is…" It's good that I'm not the only influence on her, but… Coffee? Really? "Natural. And normal. How come you haven't told him more than that already?"

"I… I don't know. It's like I don't really think about it when I'm not wearing the mask. I mean, 'good day', 'bad day', 'productive day'… Just not 'so these guys were doing illegal dumping and I cut them in half and then took lunch'."

"Ah, yes." I nod, standing up. "That 'not being able to think about it' thing is something that you've made a part of your nature."

"Huh?" She blinks. "Oh, you mean, the New God thing?"

"Yes. You so rigidly separated the two parts of your life that it's now your nature to-." Grey. "In-." Gone. "A part of your nature to split the two things completely."

"Are you saying I've given myself magical multiple personality disorder?"

"No." I shake my head. "No. It's not called that anymore."

"So I have?"

"It's more like… If you're in geography class, you don't really want to be thinking about art class. And when you leave, you pack all those thoughts away so you can focus on what's in front of you. You've just done that with larger and more complicated parts of your life."

"But what if I… You know, need to do homework?"

"I suggest one of those tiny masks some of my peers like to wear. It will blur the distinction in your own mind between the two states."

"Okay." She looks over to the giant pile of severed reachian heads that Amane Misa has been piling up. "I don't think I'm going to start with this."

"Probably wise-." Grey-. "Misa!"

She appears before me, taking a few steps as she shifts back into normal speed mode. In her right hand is a naginata, tron lines gleaming as she extends her divine majesty into it. In her left hand is another head, eyes blank, tongue lolling and neck still dripping. "Master?"

"It's time for breakfast."

"Uh… Okay? I have a few more-."

I regard her levelly. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day."

"Ah". A small amount of… Poise seems to drift away, and the lights on her naginata fade a little. "Yes, Master."

Oh, I don't want her to think that she's actually in trouble. I walk over to her as she looks up at me nervously, reach out with my right hand and pat her on the head.

"Good enthusiasm. Unless you've got a plan for the pile I'll have Jean dispose of it."

She looks over to the pile, and then back to me. "We could put them on stakes?"

"That's unsanitary." Speaking of which... "And… I think that you need a shower before breakfast."

"Hm?" She leans the blade of her weapon forwards and looks at her blood-covered face in her reflection. "Ah. Yes. Sorry, Master."

"Don't worry. Blood splatter happens in melee." I look at her pointedly, and she stares back at me owlishly. "The head? The one in your h-"

She cringes slightly, and blurs for an instant as the head appears on the pile. Perhaps a necromancer could do something with them?

"-and. Thank you. Go and clean yourself up, and… Are you still eating omelettes?"
 
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"Ah, yes." I nod, standing up. "That 'not being able to think about it' thing is something that you've made a part of your nature."

"Huh?" She blinks. "Oh, you mean, the New God thing?"

"Yes. You so rigidly separated the two parts of your life that it's now your nature to-." Grey. "In-." Gone. "A part of your nature to split the two things completely."

"Are you saying I've given myself magical multiple personality disorder?"

"No." I shake my head. "No. It's not called that anymore."

"So I have?"

"It's more like… If you're in geography class, you don't really want to be thinking about art class. And when you leave, you pack all those thoughts away so you can focus on what's in front of you. You've just done that with larger and more complicated parts of your life."

"But what if I… You know, need to do homework?"

"I suggest one of those tiny masks some of my peers like to wear. It will blur the distinction in your own mind between the two states."
That sucks for Persuader. So her nature is "Division" or something like that?

I wasn't expecting to see Misa Amane again, seeing as she dropped out as a supporting character for a while. Hopefully whatever problem she has can be solved within this episode.
 
Worm and Sailor moon, due to Zoat not quite grokking the settings and thus doing stuff that pisses off the fans (the fear!SI thinking he's helping by killing villains in Worm, but in reality he's collapsing society and dooming the multiverse)

To be fair, the world of Worm was already going to shit long before Paul showed up, so I really fail to see how his presence could possibly make it worse. It's not like he's causing anymore trauma, death or destruction than say, the Endbringers.
 
Good to check in with the hired help, see how they're doing. Nice to catch up with some of the b-team.

...And now I'm reminded that paragon's touring alternative universes while Misa here is an alternative universe that...merged? Blended? Got Dropped Into? his DC verse by Act-of-Ambush-Bug?
 
20th August 2013
06:06 GMT -7


"In-."

The black blur continues blurring, hush tubes opening and closing as it travels to distant parts of the galaxy.
Ah, he's actually looking in on his super-speed assassin servant. Though it appears she's keeping herself busy. I shudder to imagine how it's looking out there wherever she's hush-tubing to. A whisper of sound and wind, then someone is suddenly headless...

"In-.

And she'd gone again.
Annoyingly, I can't even remember her working name. Iname or the like?

"I told you." Persuader-. Ah, no, she's not wearing her helmet. Elise gestures to the hole in the air. "She's been here all night."

She looks genuinely worried. And she feels worried, too. Which is an interesting contrast to her god-name.
I'm guessing something like 'Disdain' or similar, hmm?

A mild frown forms on my brow. "I didn't order her to do this."

"Is she in.. trouble? She's doing what you want, right?"
I'm betting he made a comment about somewhere needing to be cleaned up a little, and she took that to heart.

"No, I don't mind. And I've made it clear that she's free to pursue her own projects. I value my peoples' initiative. I'm just not used to her-." Grey blur, portal closes and another opens. "In-."

And she's gone again.
She almost certainly knows he's there. At the speed she's going, she'd have plenty of time to check out the room between transits.

I could stop her. I can order the mountain's system to stop accepting her commands. A few words. Or I could use my power as her sovereign.

But I don't, because I'm-
...Worried that would be worse for her state of mind than whatever this is?

Grey-.

"In-."

Gone again.
Might be better off holding up a sign saying 'a moment, please?'

-curious.

"Her career's going alright, isn't it?"

Elise nods. "Yeah? I've got a few of the magazines that published her photos if you wanna look?"
Huh, working two jobs, huh? A photographer and a super-speed headhunter. There's an interesting combination.

I shake my head. "I read them when they're published. I just wanted to make sure that I hadn't missed something… Or if there'd been a recent development I hadn't heard about yet."

"I don't think so. You want me to phone her agent?"
Something had to have set her off. Maybe there's someone in Japan doing something that offends her, but she can't do anything to them for reasons?

"Nono. She knows that she can come to me if she has a-." Grey. "In-." Gone again. "If she has a problem."

Elise kind of twitches. "Some problems… People… Don't want to talk to their father about."
'Father' being a relative term when it counts to someone who awoke a New God's nature, hmm?

I turn to face her. Every report I've had from her school and from Knockout indicates that she's doing well, but I haven't spent a great deal of time with her myself. I started with monthly appraisals, but once she settled in I decided that it wasn't worth carrying on meeting up so frequently.
Plus, teenagers aren't exactly going to open up that easily, divine or not.

Right. I kneel down and put my right hand on her left shoulder.

"Elise, is there anything that you want to talk about." My Door Is Always Open
Since he's not really having any success getting Misa to pull up...

She looks at my hand, takes a deep breath and then looks me directly in the eyes. "I wanna tell my Dad."

"Okay. Which bits? Because he knows that you work for me."
I would assume about the executions. Since that's basically her real job.

"Yeah, he knows-. He knows I'm working for you, and I've registered with the Department of Metahuman Affairs. But I haven't really told him what I actually do. I think he thinks I make your coffee."

I frown. "But I don't drink coffee."
I can't imagine the foul devil brew with a concentration that could affect his superhuman physiology. It would have to resemble semi-liquid tar that's 95% caffeine...

She looks surprised. "You don't?"

"No?"

"Lynne does."
Hopefully low-concentration, at her age. Maybe it's a telepath thing...

Oh that's where the mugs are coming from. I thought it was Knockout. "We don't do everything the same. I think Imra's having an influence on her. Which is…" It's good that I'm not the only influence on her, but… Coffee? Really? "Natural. And normal. How come you haven't told him more than that already?"
I don't think she wants to worry him that much, Renegade.

"I… I don't know. It's like I don't really think about it when I'm not wearing the mask. I mean, 'good day', 'bad day', 'productive day'… Just not 'so these guys were doing illegal dumping and I cut them in half and then took lunch'."

"Ah, yes." I nod, standing up. "That 'not being able to think about it' thing is something that you've made a part of your nature."
Compartmentalisation as a side-effect of ascension. Quite literally on-duty and off-duty modes of thought. Maybe it helps keep her sane in other respects, like avoiding trauma from the violence she commits.

"Huh?" She blinks. "Oh, you mean, the New God thing?"

"Yes. You so rigidly separated the two parts of your life that it's now your nature to-." Grey. "In-." Gone. "A part of your nature to split the two things completely."
I'm sure she could do it for literally any concept if she put her mind to it.

"Are you saying I've given myself magical multiple personality disorder?"

"No." I shake my head. "No. It's not called that anymore."
It's currently 'Dissociative identity Disorder', apparently. Which is something I'm surprised more capes don't suffer some minor effects of. Especially the ones who have to discuss their own heroic identity as part of their line of work.

"So I have?"

"It's more like… If you're in geography class, you don't really want to be thinking about art class. And when you leave, you pack all those thoughts away so you can focus on what's in front of you. You've just done that with larger and more complicated parts of your life."
Well, you hope you can set them aside. Some people struggle with that sort of thing.

"But what if I… You know, need to do homework?"

"I suggest one of those tiny masks some of my peers like to wear. It will blur the distinction in your own mind between the two states."
Maybe make herself wear smaller and smaller masks over time to let her achieve a sort of mental 'on/off' switch' by imagining putting the mask on.

"Okay." She looks over to the giant pile of severed reachian heads that Amane Misa has been piling up. "I don't think I'm going to start with this."

"Probably wise-." Grey-. "Misa!"
Ah, Reach targets, eh? I guess she decided to assist the war effort. Probably without bothering to ask Dox about it.

She appears before me, taking a few steps as she shifts back into normal speed mode. In her right hand is a naginata, tron lines gleaming as she extends her divine majesty into it. In her left hand is another head, eyes blank, tongue lolling and neck still dripping. "Master?"
A nasty combination. I mean, any edged weapon would be at superspeed, but something like that could cleave foes in two before they even realise she's there...

"It's time for breakfast."

"Uh… Okay? I have a few more-."

I regard her levelly. "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day."
I'm sure taking that many heads must have burnt some serious calories.

"Ah". A small amount of… Poise seems to drift away, and the lights on her naginata fade a little. "Yes, Master."

Oh, I don't want her to think that she's actually in trouble. I walk over to her as she looks up at me nervously, reach out with my right hand and pat her on the head.
Aw, Renegade. Don't reinforce the bad behaviour with rewards.

"Good enthusiasm. Unless you've got a plan for the pile I'll have Jean dispose of it."

She looks over to the pile, and then back to me. "We could put them on stakes?"
Not really that impressive, unless she's doing it at the same time she kills them. It's sending a message if a local commander is turned into a shishkebab in an eyeblink.

"That's unsanitary." Speaking of which... "And… I think that you need a shower before breakfast."

"Hm?" She leans the blade of her weapon forwards and looks at her blood-covered face in her reflection. "Ah. Yes. Sorry, Master."
Surprised she spent long enough anywhere to get hit by blood spray.

"Don't worry. Blood splatter happens in melee." I look at her pointedly, and she stares back at me owlishly. "The head? The one in your h-"

She cringes slightly, and blurs for an instant as the head appears on the pile. Perhaps a necromancer could do something with them?

"-and. Thank you. Go and clean yourself up, and… Are you still eating omelettes?"
Maybe the maltusians could scan their brain structures for useful data. Assuming they're fresh enough for that?

I have the feeling she decided to decapitate the leadership of an entire Reach sector base don some idle comment he made in earshot. What's the bet she didn't check with Dox first to get a suitable list of helpful targets in areas they want destabilised? Also, kind of worrying that she's that cavalier about engaging in mass executions... 😨
 
"In-.

And she'd gone again.
'she's'
The black blur continues blurring, hush tubes opening and closing as it travels to distant parts of the galaxy.
"No, I don't mind. And I've made it clear that she's free to pursue her own projects. I value my peoples' initiative. I'm just not used to her-." Grey blur, portal closes and another opens. "In-."
Her colour changed. I'm guessing that's blood? Interesting that it changed so suddenly, I guess she did one big massacre that got most of the blood on her? Splatter happens in melee, but at the speed she's going I think she must've run straight through someone's bisected corpse or something to get soaked like that.
"Nono. She knows that she can come to me if she has a-." Grey. "In-." Gone again. "If she has a problem."

Elise kind of twitches. "Some problems… People… Don't want to talk to their father about."
Amane Misa sees him as a father? I don't remember that.
 
He killed some of the people necessary to stop Scion.
Doesn't matter, as long as Ziz and the important shards still exist, Ziz will just induce the necessary triggers to get or modify the necessary powers to enact a Rube Goldberg machine that will end Zion.

The entire story of Worm is one gigantic puppet show by a near-perfectly omniscient puppet master, and as long as said puppet master is still in play the end result will be overall the same, varying only in the specifics.
 
Good to check in with the hired help, see how they're doing. Nice to catch up with some of the b-team.

...And now I'm reminded that paragon's touring alternative universes while Misa here is an alternative universe that...merged? Blended? Got Dropped Into? his DC verse by Act-of-Ambush-Bug?
I dont remember that. Do you have a link?
 
To be fair, the world of Worm was already going to shit long before Paul showed up, so I really fail to see how his presence could possibly make it worse. It's not like he's causing anymore trauma, death or destruction than say, the Endbringers.

No, but his actions are directly making the Endbringer attacks worse.

Many villains show up to fight Endbringers.

His zero tolerance policy means less people helping to fight the Endbringers, which means more destruction and more heroes getting killed.

Because he's too damn lazy to actually go after targets who deserve his attention rather than bullying fucked up teenagers because the teenagers are more geographically convenient.

As if he doesn't have a freaking ring on his finger that can let him go anywhere he wants quickly.
 
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No, but his actions are directly making the Endbringer attacks worse.

Many villains show up to fight Endbringers.

His zero tolerance policy means less people helping to fight the Endbringers, which means more destruction and more heroes getting killed.
He would argue that the total damage caused by supervillains outstrips their utility, as Endbringers are really only notable as they do a lot of damage in one place. He would also turn up to the fights himself, and he is considerably more effective than, say, fifty average supervillains.
Because he's too damn lazy to actually go after targets who deserve his attention rather than bullying fucked up teenagers because the teenagers are more geographically convenient.

As if he doesn't have a freaking ring on his finger that can let him go anywhere he wants quickly.
What are you talking about?
 
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He killed some of the people necessary to stop Scion.
He killed Lung.

A guy that only fought Leviathan one time and then decided that they were unbeatable and fighting the Endbringers was pointless.

Heck, with other supervillains you can argue and say that they're a necessary evil, but that's because they bother to show up for the fights. Lung doesn't.

And the one that stopped Scion was Taylor when she basically made him suicidal and later a tinker weapon against his body.
Because he's too damn lazy to actually go after targets who deserve his attention rather than bullying fucked up teenagers because the teenagers are more geographically convenient.
He just scared the Undersiders.

The worst he did was apparently causing Lisa to have some serious headaches, but that seemed to be unintentional.
 
Male authority figure. Elise may be projecting a little.

Okay, I had wondered about that too.

I actually remembered Amane's attitude to Grayven being about as close as any of his followers/family come to how some of Darkseid's more fanatical followers view Darkseid. And I think I recall correctly given that you're having her address him as "Master", which I don't think any of the others do, even Knockout.

EDIT: You know, I know Grayven doesn't encourage that attitude, but sometimes there's real utility in having a subordinate who will just do whatever you tell them, no argument, and you don't need to explain yourself. You don't want everybody to be like that, but having a fanatically loyal superspeed assassin on tap probably has its uses.
 
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He would argue that the total damage caused by supervillains outstripts their utility, as Endbringers are really only notable as they do a lot of damage in one place. He would also turn up to the fights himself, and he is considerably more effective than, say, fifty average supervillains.

What are you takling about?

You stated his MO was going to be going from place to place and declaring "Turn yourself in for your crimes or I'll kill you."

So that's prioritizing by geographic convenience.

Or is the other thing? The younger the better as far as shards are concerned- 12 to 30 is the normal age range of trigger events, with most triggers happening to teenagers.

So a significant portion of any villain population your character is going zero tolerance on will be traumatized youngsters who make crappy decisions at least partially because their brains are literally not fully developed yet.

As evidenced by the main character of Worm, a 15 year old who had literally been bullied until she was hospitalized girl whose underdeveloped prefrontal cortex had her going "I'll go undercover as a supervillain, what could possibly go wrong?"

And the answer was pretty much everything.
 
No, but his actions are directly making the Endbringer attacks worse.

Many villains show up to fight Endbringers.

His zero tolerance policy means less people helping to fight the Endbringers, which means more destruction and more heroes getting killed.

Because he's too damn lazy to actually go after targets who deserve his attention rather than bullying fucked up teenagers because the teenagers are more geographically convenient.

As if he doesn't have a freaking ring on his finger that can let him go anywhere he wants quickly.

Not necessarily. As long as Ziz and the important shards still exist, things will pretty much end up the same way, if not better than canon. Ziz will just induce the necessary triggers to get or modify the necessary powers to enact a Rube Goldberg machine that will end Zion, preferably with less villainous subjects (which shouldn't be too hard, considering how evil some of the people Paul killed were). Like Neruz said, the entire world is one gigantic puppet show by a nigh-omniscient puppet master, and the end result will be more-or-less the same.

So a significant portion of any villain population your character is going zero tolerance on will be traumatized youngsters who make crappy decisions at least partially because their brains are literally not fully developed yet.

Two things: One, teenagers are just as capable of being evil and monstrous as adults, regardless of how developed their brains are, so their age shouldn't be used as an excuse. Two, that's all the more reason to execute them, considering the atrocities that some of these people commit on a daily basis.

He killed some of the people necessary to stop Scion.

Which Paul can make up for by showing up to Endbringer/Scion fights himself. A single power ring is worth a hundred Lungs.

Also, some of the villains he killed, like Lung, were cowards who decided to never show up at the Endbringer or Scion fights, because they thought victory against them was impossible. Thus, any usefulness they might have had against the Endbringers or Scion was null and void, and there was no reason to keep them alive.

Plus, Ziz and the important shards will just keep giving people more powers to make up the difference, preferably with less evil candidates (which shouldn't be too hard, considering how disgusting and unlikeable some of the villains Paul killed were).
 
One thing from the recent arc is that I hadn't realized the SI had such strong feelings about the validity of reincarnation.

I philosophically sympathize with the idea that there's not enough continuity to say that a reincarnated person is the same as the person who they were reincarnated from. But that's more "what I would want to be true" than something that I could point to any given fictional setting and say it actually is true. A lot of settings do treat reincarnation as continuity of not just identity but also of karmic responsibility. Like if you did good or bad shit in your past life, being reincarnated doesn't absolve you of responsibility.

I think my take would have to be to respect the experience of the person experiencing reincarnation and not tell them what's true. So if Usagi wants to say, "I'm a separate person from Serenity", then that's her call. But if she says, "On thinking about it, yes I pretty much am Serenity," then I'd have to accept that answer too.
 
One thing from the recent arc is that I hadn't realized the SI had such strong feelings about the validity of reincarnation.

I philosophically sympathize with the idea that there's not enough continuity to say that a reincarnated person is the same as the person who they were reincarnated from. But that's more "what I would want to be true" than something that I could point to any given fictional setting and say it actually is true. A lot of settings do treat reincarnation as continuity of not just identity but also of karmic responsibility. Like if you did good or bad shit in your past life, being reincarnated doesn't absolve you of responsibility.

I think my take would have to be to respect the experience of the person experiencing reincarnation and not tell them what's true. So if Usagi wants to say, "I'm a separate person from Serenity", then that's her call. But if she says, "On thinking about it, yes I pretty much am Serenity," then I'd have to accept that answer too.
Oh yes, in the setting he finds himself in that SI is objectively wrong. That's because it runs on shoujo fantasy tropes, rather than actual logic. But that SI doesn't know that and so is trying to act in a mesured and sensible manner. And logically, if a long-dead sorcerer queen is trying to turn you into her dead daughter then that's probably something you should try to avoid. He's not thinking 'glorious destiny', he's thinking about that scene in The Mummy where Imhotep tried to give Anck-Su-Namun Rachel Weisz's body.

That's why he and Sailor V trained with the British police and improved their equipment. What they should have done is go to Japan and trained their friendship magic, but that's just not where his mind went.
You stated his MO was going to be going from place to place and declaring "Turn yourself in for your crimes or I'll kill you."
No he didn't. He said 'turn yourselves in, leave the city, or I'll kill you'. And... Yes? They're career criminals in a place where law and order has broken down.
So that's prioritizing by geographic convenience.
No.

Firstly, his main interest is in making sure that nothing from Earth Bet comes through the portal to Third Earth. In that sense, he is anchored geographically becasue he's got to protect that one location. It's not a matter of convenience. He can't close it and he can't move it.

Secondly, clearing a single geographic location before moving on is his strategy. It lets him reduce criminality down to a level that local assets can manage before moving on. There's no point in going down a list of the worst supervillains because there'll always be ten worst, and if you leave the gang intact they can recruit replacement parahumans.
Or is the other thing? The younger the better as far as shards are concerned- 12 to 30 is the normal age range of trigger events, with most triggers happening to teenagers.

So a significant portion of any villain population your character is going zero tolerance on will be traumatized youngsters who make crappy decisions at least partially because their brains are literally not fully developed yet.

As evidenced by the main character of Worm, a 15 year old who had literally been bullied until she was hospitalized girl whose underdeveloped prefrontal cortex had her going "I'll go undercover as a supervillain, what could possibly go wrong?"

And the answer was pretty much everything.
The difference between a normal violent madman and someone like the Joker is that if you get a normal violent madman in a secure facility, that's it. Unless someone drops the ball, they're not going to hurt anyone else. That superhuman with poor judgement facilities? Sure, they might not be a particularly bad person objectively, but neither was Lennie Small from Of Mice and Men. Not being particularly bad objectively doesn't stop them doing a lot of damage.
 
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Oh yes, in the setting he finds himself in that SI is objectively wrong. That's because it runs on shoujo fantasy tropes, rather than actual logic. But that SI doesn't know that and so is trying to act in a mesured and sensible manner. And logically, if a long-dead sorcerer queen is trying to turn you into her dead daughter then that's probably something you should try to avoid. He's not thinking 'glorious destiny', he's thinking about that scene in The Mummy where Imhotep tried to give Anck-Su-Namun Rachel Weisz's body.

What makes it even more complicated is that in fiction, there's different degrees of reincarnation, meaning that sometimes, the reincarnated person will transfer more of themselves to their new incarnation than others.

On one side of the spectrum, we have people like Usagi, whose reincarnation isn't immediately obvious, and there's no immediate tangible evidence to prove that they're someone's reincarnation, at least not at first. They usually don't have the skills, memories or knowledge from their past incarnation at the start.

Then, in the middle of the spectrum, we have people like Avatar Aang, whose reincarnation is less obvious, but he has actual evidence to back it up by powers like the ability to wield multiple elements and the Avatar State. They're sort of a middle ground between the two extremities.

Lastly, on the other side of the spectrum, we have people whose reincarnation is so obvious that they're basically a copy-paste of the person they've reincarnated from, and they retain all their skills, memories, knowledge and personality from their previous lives. Most isekai protagonists who get killed and then reincarnated in another world come to mind, because even though they usually gain new abilities as a result of getting sent to another world, they usually retain all their skills, knowledge, memories and personality from their past life.

That's why he and Sailor V trained with the British police and improved their equipment. What they should have done is go to Japan and trained their friendship magic, but that's just not where his mind went.

What makes this statement ironic is that the magic of love and friendship does exist in the DCU…sorta. There's various kinds of magic that can tap into emotions, both positive and negative. And if you want to get really in-depht about it, the Star Sapphires definitely count, considering that the source of their power is love, meaning that they draw their power from all different kinds of loves. Which of course includes both friendship and romantic love. Again, as I said before, most of the Sailor Scouts would do well with a Star Sapphire ring (especially Usagi and Minako).
 
Which Paul can make up for by showing up to Endbringer/Scion fights himself. A single power ring is worth a hundred Lungs.

Also, some of the villains he killed, like Lung, were cowards who decided to never show up at the Endbringer or Scion fights, because they thought victory against them was impossible. Thus, any usefulness they might have had against the Endbringers or Scion was null and void, and there was no reason to keep them alive.

Plus, Ziz and the important shards will just keep giving people more powers to make up the difference, preferably with less evil candidates (which shouldn't be too hard, considering how disgusting and unlikeable some of the villains Paul killed were).
Endbringers/Scion are beyond a Lantern's ability to fight.


Oh yes, in the setting he finds himself in that SI is objectively wrong. That's because it runs on shoujo fantasy tropes, rather than actual logic. But that SI doesn't know that and so is trying to act in a mesured and sensible manner. And logically, if a long-dead sorcerer queen is trying to turn you into her dead daughter then that's probably something you should try to avoid. He's not thinking 'glorious destiny', he's thinking about that scene in The Mummy where Imhotep tried to give Anck-Su-Namun Rachel Weisz's body.

That's why he and Sailor V trained with the British police and improved their equipment. What they should have done is go to Japan and trained their friendship magic, but that's just not where his mind went.
I want to point out here that the vast vast majority of settings with reincarnation tend towards the Sailor Moon end of the spectrum instead of The Mummy one.

Meaning this is just him insisting that the universe should run on his personal logic instead of him acting in a measured and sensible manner.
 
Not necessarily. As long as Ziz and the important shards still exist, things will pretty much end up the same way, if not better than canon. Ziz will just induce the necessary triggers to get or modify the necessary powers to enact a Rube Goldberg machine that will end Zion, preferably with less villainous subjects (which shouldn't be too hard, considering how evil some of the people Paul killed were). Like Neruz said, the entire world is one gigantic puppet show by a nigh-omniscient puppet master, and the end result will be more-or-less the same.

Or even worse, because Widbow once chimed in on a thread about "what if a Superman SI showed up" and part of the explanation was that an alien being around suddenly means Scion has purpose again because safeguarding the cycle from alien interference is the Warrior not Thinkers job to handle and in Paul's case what do you know, there's a while planet right there, guarded by the guy interfering...
 
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Endbringers/Scion are beyond a Lantern's ability to fight.

On his own, yes. But with others, not so much. I agree that Paul might not be able to defeat Scion or the Endbringers by himself, but he would still be much more useful or versatile in a fight than any of the villains he's killed.


Or even worse, because Widbow once chimed in on a thread about "what if a Superman SI showed up" and part of the explanation was that an alien being around suddenly means Scion has purpose again because safeguarding the cycle from alien interference is the Warrior not Thinkers job to handle and in Paul's case what do you know, there's a while planet right there, guarded by the guy interfering...

So, you're saying that Scion would try to invade the Thundercats Earth?
 
So, you're saying that Scion would try to invade the Thundercats Earth?

At minimum Lord Protector eliminating supervillains en masse would get Scion gunning for him, and if he dusts off the social engineering Shards he could end up patching out his weakness to being human like Wildbow mentions in his Superman post.
 
At minimum Lord Protector eliminating supervillains en masse would get Scion gunning for him, and if he dusts off the social engineering Shards he could end up patching out his weakness to being human like Wildbow mentions in his Superman post.

But he's already not human, isn't he? So wouldn't trying to patch up his humanity just do nothing?
 
So, you're saying that Scion would try to invade the Thundercats Earth?
In my story, Thundercats Earth is a necropolis. Third Earth is way across the galaxy.
At minimum Lord Protector eliminating supervillains en masse would get Scion gunning for him, and if he dusts off the social engineering Shards he could end up patching out his weakness to being human like Wildbow mentions in his Superman post.
Lord Protector sees 'Scion' in the same way as most people on Earth Bet do; a pro-social Ash Beast, wandering around the place doing sporadic good deeds without rhyme or reason. If he takes him into account at all it's to consider if he could help straighten his mind out.

As to what Zion's response would be, Zion doesn't categorise things into heroes and villains. If he killed all hosts in a large geographic area, that might draw his attention. Killing a relatively small number in a relatively small geographic area... Probably not.
 
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"Her career's going alright, isn't it?"

Elise nods. "Yeah? I've got a few of the magazines that published her photos if you wanna look?"

So I have a theory about what's been going on. Misa's problem is that her career has been going terribly. No, not her fashion career. Her assassin career.

I'm not sure exactly what her god-name is, but I'm pretty sure it's something about being a "wind of death", a killer who strikes with terrible speed. Her god-name requires her to be delivering some murder, but her boss hasn't been providing targets. So she's been getting... pent up.

When she found out that Grayven had declared an entire civilization to be his enemy, she was driven to start working off her frustration by going out and killing as many of them as possible.

This is basically all Grayven's fault. He forgot about Misa's needs and didn't assign her any tasks that let her use her god-name. It's not like the galaxy is short on people who need killing. Or if he really wasn't comfortable with that, killing dangerous animals might at least take the edge off.
 

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