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

Meanwhile, on Earth -14

21st January 2013
12:58 GMT +2


"Back already?"
Oh-ho! I ask about Zorina yesterday, and we get to see her. The joy of the author interacting with his readers. :D And a little bit of warm and fluffy fun never hurts, given the heavy stuff happening over in the Paragon side.

I switch back from my 'work costume' to something a little more appropriate for the home. "I think they need a little while." Sounds like Zorina's in her workshop, so I head in that direction. "And Jackie and Arrowette showed up hung over."

"How did Raquel look?"
Ah, Zorina showing a bit of compassion? Or just scientific curiosity over an unfortunate experiment of dubious success?

"Better. She actually voluntarily spoke in order to ask questions." I hold out my right hand to the workshop door and let the wards confirm my identity. "But I think that's her limit."

The locks unlock and the door swings open, prompting Zorina to look up from where she's working on the tubes attached to Madness Marine's head. One of the projects that's allowed me to pretend to be a 'better' villain than I am, increase my personal power and social influence.
Gee, he looks like such a nice fellow. I bet his local counterpart was just as big an arsehole?

Carlyle shudders as a new batch of Hope flows from the Mask and into the tubing, and through them into the device which squirts into the vials for distribution. Bit of a shame there's only one Medusa Mask as that limits production, but I'm sure we'll work out a way around that eventually.

Pure hope: an entirely legal high with a positive effect on a person's wellbeing as well as recharging the ring while looking dodgy as heck. A perfectly squared circle.
May as well benefit from some rich peoples' desperate desire for the next big high, eh?

"Naelc."

Zorina-. My.. wife shimmers as her magic removes small amounts of blood and oil from her navy blue Howie laboratory coat and skin, as well as removing unwanted arcane energies which might have attached to her during her work. That done, she walks towards me with a contented smile on her face. I find myself smiling too as I move towards her in return. We embrace, her arms going around my back and mine going around her shoulders.
Oooh, nice to have a name for the classic Golden Age Evil Scientist 'uniform' outfit, as seen often on Doctor Sivana, back in the day. And it's got practical pockets too!

I didn't love her when we married, but somewhere along the line-.

"Ghhhagh?" My head jerks around immediately. "Aaaaynnnyyaa?"
...For a second, I though that was him having some kind of Love-based spasm...

"She's fine, darling." Zorina pulls away, walking over to the crib and bending over to smile at Zita. "Daddy's a big worry-wart, isn't he?"

"Mmmeuuaaagh."
...But no, it's just baby talk. Huh. Is this the first official SI offspring seen on-screen? I mean, we had pregnant Komand'r In Raul's segments, but, well...

I come up behind her, looking over her shoulder at our daughter. No idea what version of the family magic she'll end up with, but she managed to dodge comic-Jade's problem of having ring-coloured skin. She sees me and smiles, haphazardly waving her flabby little arms

"Hi Zita!" I can feel myself grinning. Hi Zita! Hi..!"
You never know, she might turn blue sometime in the future. Maybe during her teenage years, when a metagene kicks in. Honestly, the children of Lanterns can be... Strange.

"Eeeeeghuuuh!"

Zorina reaches into the crib and picks up my-. Our daughter, carefully supporting her head as she pulls her up to her chest. Zita flops against her, hands weakly reaching to grip Zorina's coat.
x3 Dangit...

"Sutats? Not hungry, doesn't need to be changed and doesn't need to sleep."

"I can read to her if you need to keep working here?"
Ah, and between them, they'll never have to wonder what any crying is about.

"Is that a dig?"

"A dig?" She nods towards the corner of the room while keeping her eyes on our daughter. I follow her-. An exercise mat, water bottle, small dumbbells and a skipping rope. Zorina has been merciless towards her baby weight, and… "No! No, I meant-."
Ah, youngsters. Carrying a little baby weight in the right places can improve a woman's figure. Where do you think the MILF fetish comes from? :p

She snorts. "I know, silly."

"Not that I don't appreciate your efforts, but I know you can be sensitive about-."
Baul, Baul, Baul... Ever a little blind to people's feelings, for all that he can see emotions.

She giggles, wrapping her free arm around me so that Zita is touching both of us. "You must be the worst supervillain ever. The best… Bad supervillain ever?"

"I prefer anti-villain, and I hope so. Any messages while I was out?"
Villain with good intentions? Some people just have trouble begin bad.

"Grandmother's people sent a message. They think that there's an auspicious time to introduce Zita to the coven."

"Should you be… Telling me about that?"
...Hardly a secret, is it? The Zatara family are witches and warlocks. I would expect them to crow about it, hexing people just to prove they can...

"I think it's one of those 'test-of-loyalty' things."

"I literally can't imagine you failing a test."
Aw, you sweet-talker you.

"No, I pass because I'm loyal to my husband and daughter. I've been to coven meeting before and they're not that interesting. It's just a bunch of old women gathered around a fire pit and evoking demons. There probably won't even be any blood."

"How dull."
I hope they at least wear clothes. That whole 'skyclad' thing is a little hard to keep to during long European winters. :p

"The Zatara Family is a family, and you and Zita are my family." She looks up to nuzzle my face. "And you're much more important to me than some wizened hags in a cave in Aquileia or some cousin I share an ancestor with thirty generations ago. Oh, but don't call them hags outside of this room."

"I won't. Is it dangerous?"
Do you really want to offend that many elder sorceresses?

"No, no." She looks down, smiling at Zita as she reaches for her face and rocking her back and forth. "They'll just perform an augury."

"How will they perform an augury without blood?"
Hey, in some cultures, they did them by tossing carved turtle shells in fires and reading the cracks... Don't underestimate the many ways people use to try and divine the future.

"They get the animal from the local butcher already bled. It saves a lot of effort with the clean-up and doesn't affect the augury at all. But it's mostly about introducing the new Zatara to their doting great aunts. The augury's just an excuse."

"So I don't need to worry about them sticking pins in a me-shaped doll?"
...Ah, it's just a chance for the old babas to coo over a little one, huh? :rolleyes:

"Paul." She moves her free hand to my right cheek. "You're part of the family. All those pins are just there to help."

"Uubababah?"
;) Remote acupuncture... Could work?

"Uuuuuh."

I turn my head to look at our 'emotion cow'. "Should Zita be in here with him?"
Does she care about the funny man in the dangly things? Heck, at her age, just realising the little wiggly things she's waving about are part of her should be mind-blowing enough. :V

"Why not? He can't move with a broken neck."

"I'm not suggesting that we keep our occupation secret from her or anything, but it might help if we wait to do a full introduction until she's old enough to be able to put it in the proper context. You know, 'this person did this and that's why we're doing this' rather than 'sometime Mummy and Daddy do this to people'."
...Also, the infinitesimally small chance of the emotional energy triggering a metagene... o_O Hey, it could happen.

"Daddy didn't do that with me."

"I… I think, darling, that this is one of those disconnects that someone raised in a supervillain household has from people who weren't."
...To be fair, most households on this Earth could qualify as supervillain households. Or at least criminal ones.

She nods. "That's the second one in this conversation."

"What was the first?"
Ooh, the minefield of talking with a significant other with certain traditions.

"You offered to look after Zita while I kept working."

"Yes?"
Ah, she's old-fashioned that way, eh?

She sighs, resting the side of her face against my chest. "In the Zatara family, that's the mother's job. Daddy raised me after Mommy died, but that's unusual. I know you didn't mean to imply that I'm a bad mother-"

"No, of course not."
I doubt she's that mad about it. You aren't a newt right now.

"-but that's what it would have sounded like to another Zatara. And I want Zita to grow up in a more traditional household. Because…" She sighs. "We're doing a lot of things that… Change the way supervillainy works. And if that means that you have to be alpha-dominant in public so our people respect you more, then that's what you need to do. I know you respect me. You don't have to assume that I'm going to forget,"

"Obey the small rules so you can break the big ones."
Heh. He is kind of changing the way the world thinks about crime and profit, isn't he?

"That's from Nineteen Eight-Four, isn't it?" I nod, though it didn't work in the long run for the character who tried it. "And… I want to make it easier for Zita to fit in with the family. Mommy… Dying, meant that I never got that chance."

"Okay. I'll… Try that. Can we go and play with her together? Or do I need to tell you to get in the kitchen and make me a sandwich?"
Sadly, Baul's not really the 'male chauvinist' type.

She nods. "What do you want in it?"



Um.
...I mean, you know how she is in the bedroom. Does it surprise you that she has... Tastes... that swing that way? :p

Heh. A happy little family. Experimenting on arseholes together in the name of profit. I wonder if when Zita's older, her teenage rebellion will come in the form of becoming a superhero? :D At least Baul has a reliable method for maintaining the level of Hope needed to generate a net gain of charge. And he gets to make people think he's being an evil bastard in the process, so win-win.

Did I ever tell you about my history with cheese?
I'm picturing something akin to the political history between England and France during the Middle Ages... :confused: And it's not a pretty image.
 
Is there a particular reason for them to pick this guy as the person to supply the Hope drug?
If you were going to kill someone anyway, why waste them when you can perform acts of horrendous torture on them?
That should say 'meetings'.
Thank you, corrected.
So Zorina remembered that Zatanna called OL by his real name, so now she can call Baul that when in private. Does anyone else in the Syndicate know his first name?
The Young Offenders, management, probably a few other people. The Answer never uses it.
Does it involve madness and the Dragonborn?
No. Daggerfall would have been the contemporary Elder Scrolls game.
Thank you, corrected. I wish this site would stop eating those.
Oh-ho! I ask about Zorina yesterday, and we get to see her. The joy of the author interacting with his readers. :D And a little bit of warm and fluffy fun never hurts, given the heavy stuff happening over in the Paragon side.
Actually, I wrote that last weekend.
I'm picturing something akin to the political history between England and France during the Middle Ages... :confused: And it's not a pretty image.
No.
 
Blue Paul never grew a soul, did he? Or did he find some other method to do so? If not, what does that mean for his daughter's soul? My guess would be that it is more strongly patterned after her mother, essentially a bud instead of a mix of two.
 
Thank you, I'm here all night.

Try the veal.

It's the closest you can legally get to eating a Frenchman.

There are very briefly non-Syndicate criminal elements.

Sure, the Syndicate need administrators. And there are plenty of Syndicate members who don't really have super powers. If you mean 'are there elected officials outside of Syndicate control', no.
Thank you that was exactly the answer I was looking for there are some other things I'd like to joke about but those kind of jokes tend to get people a bit riled up so I'll leave it.

That thing with Zita and Zorina was very cute I take it this Paul ha gotten over the age gap issue?
 
Blue Paul never grew a soul, did he? Or did he find some other method to do so? If not, what does that mean for his daughter's soul? My guess would be that it is more strongly patterned after her mother, essentially a bud instead of a mix of two.
He didn't get any assistance with developing one. As per comic Raven's chat with Superboy, he is growing one, just very slowly.
Well, that episode of Ghostbusters were ghosts turn stuff into pizza?
...

Probably not, but I don't remember the episode so I can't say for certain.
That thing with Zita and Zorina was very cute I take it this Paul ha gotten over the age gap issue?
He doesn't think about it.
 
Also, Madness Marine is an interesting name for a superhero, unless he's one of the more radical ones

He's not necessarily a superhero.

There do seem to be characters that are still evil in both universes.

Oggar was apparently the one that gave Mary her powers in -14, so chances are high that he's evil like his Earth 16 counterpart.

Though with a Lord of Chaos it's possible that they're both the same person, but Oggar just traveled to Earth -14.

Blue Paul never grew a soul, did he? Or did he find some other method to do so? If not, what does that mean for his daughter's soul? My guess would be that it is more strongly patterned after her mother, essentially a bud instead of a mix of two.

He didn't get any assistance with developing one. As per comic Raven's chat with Superboy, he is growing one, just very slowly

I think it was once mentioned that -14 Constantine made him a soul.
 
Italian bread, herb mayo, salami, mozzarella, pesto, and pickled peppers with olive oil. The ultimate sandwhich,
 
As soon as Zita made herself known, I started having a smile for the rest of the segment. That was cute and wholesome.

I imagine with Blue Paul growing a soul slowly, his is getting heavily influenced by his more consistent surroundings, so Zatara Family magic and Hope. As such, Zita might have some Emotional Spectrum influence but otherwise, all Zatara. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Because a Hope manipulating Witch sounds really scary, that's just a couple of steps away from being able to easily cast depression on command.

Still, happy for Blue Paul. Had a rocky start but look at where he's at now. Strange that at home he's more challenged by Zorina's desire for a traditional household than the possible demon summoning in front of his daughter at family gathering.
 
I didn't love her when we married, but somewhere along the line-.
You exchanged ceremonial vows with a manipulative villain who binds demons for fun and profit. Did you honestly think they would be only legal consequences?

Decent way of recharging. Although by the sound of it he still hasn't got around to visiting the ring-maker yet. Wonder what he is waiting for?
 
I think it was once mentioned that -14 Constantine made him a soul.
...
Storytime! I'll listen.
When I was a small boy, it was customary in my home to put grated cheese on top of spaghetti bolognaise. I didn't. I also didn't have cheese in sandwiches, and when my parents and grandparents had Stilton on biscuits during holidays I avoided it.

When I was a small boy, it was customary in my home to eat 'cheesecake', made from some sort of packet mix that contained no actual cheese. This was usually accompanied by either black current or strawberry sauce.

While I became a less fussy eater as the years went by, I remained fixed in my abhorrence of cheese. My mother thought that I would change my mind. She offered me a bet, that by the time I was 16... May have been 18, but I think it was 16, that I would like cheese.

I accepted. I think I was 10 at the time.

The day before by 16th birthday, for the first time ever, my mother made chocolate cheesecake from actual cheese. It was great.

One. Day.

She tried to tell me it was an accident. But she knew. She knew.
 
was -14 Paul in the big multiverse team-up? I ask because that is when Main-Paul shared information with other Pauls that they could make their own lanterns.
 
Carlyle shudders as a new batch of Hope flows from the Mask and into the tubing, and through them into the device which squirts into the vials for distribution.
Please tell me the liquid is a nice shade of blue, hopefully glowing.
Like an iconic Mana Potion.
Does it work to recharge his ring when he drinks it, or does he need to have someone else drink it in his presence and then have the ring feed off their hope?

Can he keep himself topped off at 100% regularly now?
 
Huh, was not expecting these two, or three I suppose, to be quite so wholesome.
 
My Nekron is very different in origin to the canonical one. Necrons would manage Blackest Night fine due to not having hearts.

I wonder if Nekron is active in the background right now. Making moves outside of the awareness of the Guardians and Controllers. I don't think he is related to Sinestro and Negative-Harold Jordan's plan... Nor the Anti-Life plot... But he might have his fingers in at least one seemingly-innocuous event over the last few years.
 
So does Baul literally drink liquid hope to recharge the ring? Or has he managed to make a blue lantern yet like LePaul did with orange?
 
Probably not, but I don't remember the episode so I can't say for certain.

Ghosts enter a Dream Machine and start to turn the ghostbusters dreams into pizza.

If you think that's weird, there was even a bunch of ghosts that were parodies of the 80s version of the Simpsons.
 
Butcher's Blood (part 9)
21st January 2013
10:18 GMT


Construct barrier shimmering around us, Ilana and Razer stare at the ash-gushing super volcano with a mixture of horror and awe. The full caldera is about fifty kilometres across, and unlike the examples on Earth that's not an old caldera filled with water. I can see the rubble that was thrown out by the initial detonation and heavy enough to fall back to the ground, and it covers the ground horizon to horizon… Where it isn't buried by ash.

The detonation point of the nuclear weapon itself isn't really visible to the unaided eye. I can tell where it was by scanning the stresses in the rock, but it's… With everything else…

Ilana half-turns her head towards me. "You said that there are three more of these?"

"Three more that could be opened with nuclear weapons of an equivalent magnitude."

Razer looks away from the base of the ash plume, searching for… What's he searching for? Something to use to better comprehend the scale of what he's looking at. "Can you shut it down?"

"Yes, but this… Volcanoes exist as a result of geological pressure. This one was triggered early, but it would have gone off eventually on its own. Same with the other three. It might be better to let it vent itself before blocking it."

I have my ring's AI compare this to other examples of supervolcanoes on file.

"Yes, it won't erupt again in the probable lifetime of your species if we leave it."

"Is it causing any other damage?"

"It's putting out heavier than air poison gas. But the nearest settlements are far enough away that they shouldn't be affected. The caldera will be unsafe for a long time, but the rest will disperse on its own."

Ilana shakes her head. "We should go to the nearest city. This is…"

"Yes." Razer nods sombrely. "It is."

"Alright."

I pick up the sphere surrounding them and fly at speed towards the city in question. I don't know if they were the target or if they were for some insane reason the ones who made the attack. Maybe they were testing a new weapon and didn't know about the supervolcano? I didn't see any rocket launch sites or obvious airports when I looked at the city earlier, but that doesn't mean that they didn't have some other way to deploy it.

The city is covered with a thick layer of ash and dust, still warm to the touch but not hot enough to burn. The sky is black, and the little light available that doesn't come from my rings is provided by shuttered lanterns borne on poles. The few people outside are wearing cloth masks to keep it out of their lungs. It looks like someone's tried to organise a cleaning system, with people shovelling settled ash onto carts pulled by their fellow residents. There's an obvious film of fear over the place, but they're being fairly stoical, inwardly. When there's nothing to do but tough it out, most people will tough it out.

It would probably be a good idea to make a favourable impression. I float over to near to the ash dumping ground by the front gate. The people there look up at me for a moment, and then bow their heads and return to work because, well: how am I going to make things worse?

Time to make a favourable impression.

I raise my left hand and cause a shield construct to swell and expand. At first it simply resembles a wall, but as it grows and grows it's clear to all onlookers that it's going to envelop the entire city. With the ash fall increasingly cut off I deploy construct vacuum cleaners to hoover up the ash drifts already on the ground and dump the material outside of my new barrier. Once the area around us is sufficiently cleared, I deposit Ilana and Razer on the ground to talk with the locals while I concentrate on… Cleaning off this dust-with-delusions-of-grandeur.

Hm. The ash fall is far more than a normal area effect atmospheric filter could cope with. At this point it would more or less have to be a force field with selective permeability. It would need a power generator on-site, and I can't guarantee that it would actually stay in place. Sure, I'll get the ash out of the atmosphere before I leave, but that will mostly involve putting it on the ground and high wind will keep picking it up for years yet.

I notice Ilana and Razer reach the local ash-dumpers and start trying to explain what's happening. I'm not sure if their language is similar enough to be mutually intelligible; it's a single continent and there aren't any impassable geological barriers between this city and theirs, but it's still quite a long way and I don't know how much their language has drifted.

Damn, that's a lot of ash. I take back what I said about it being good for the soil: this is smother-quantity.

Right, that's… Clear enough for now. The mass is building up on top of my barrier, but we weren't getting any sunlight anyway, and other than opening a tube to space that's the best I can do.

I fly over to the ash-dumpers, and give them a friendly smile.

"Hello there."

"Is this your work?"

"The eruption? No. When I want to bombard a place, I just bombard it directly. This sort of thing makes resettlement harder. Can I take it that you don't know who caused it?"

"Our alliance with Crelan collapsed recently. They seem like the sort-."

Razer's eyes narrow. "That sounds like pure conjecture."

One of the others slumps. "What do you want, outlanders? We're all going to die choking under the dust."

"I need some information, then I can deal with that. If you don't have any leads on who activated the volcano… Do you have any records..? Or folk stories, of people being filled with maniacal rage?"

"What? Why?"

"I have reason to believe that an object that has that effect is on this planet, and it's my job to find it and remove it to a place where no one will be harmed by it."

"Ah…" They sort of look at each other… There are a few negative gestures. "Not really? There are stories where people become angry, but the reason why they get angry is usually something the other characters do. I mean, that's the point, isn't it? Moral lessons?"

"Darn. In that case, do you know why your relationship with Crelan ended?"

"Their Dal was married to our Dal's sister, but their son died fighting against Alanak and so he decided to divorce her and marry a younger woman. Our Dal didn't like that, or the way he disinherited their other children. So he broke our alliance, and we both tried to find other allies. Then this happened."

"That sounds… Petty."

"There might be more to it than that. Not like the Dal needs to tell me anything."

"Did they have any off-world weapons?"

"Probably? We all do, don't-" He looks at Razer and Ilana. "-we?"

Razer indicates a negative. "Nothing this powerful."

"I think I should speak with your Dal. Where might I find him?"

"Out with the army, west of here. Of course, he might have gotten buried under the ash."

"How long have you and your neighbours been at loggerheads?"

"Well it's… So… About..? Eighty years?"

"Ilana? Razer? Is that normal?"

Ilana makes a gesture of uncertainty. "Our city is more isolated. We hear later about large wars, but we're not always involved."

Razer makes an affirmative gesture. "But it is not unusual."

That sounds like a lot, but is it really all that different to Medieval Europe?

"Let's… Hope that we can fix that."
 
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I raise my left hand and cause a shield construct to swell and expand. At first it simply resembles a wall, but as it grows and grows it's clear to all onlookers that it's going to envelop the entire city. With the ash fall increasingly cut off I deploy construct vacuum cleaners to hoover up the ash drifts already on the ground and dump the material outside of my new barrier. Once the area around us is sufficiently cleared, I deposit Ilana and Razer on the ground to talk with the locals while I concentrate is… Cleaning off this dust-with-delusions-of-grandeur.
That should say 'on'.

I notice Ilana and Razer reach the local ash-dumpers and start trying to explain what's happening. I'm no sure if their language is similar enough to be mutually intelligible; it's a single continent and there aren't any impassable geological barriers between this city and theirs, but it's still quite a long way and I don't know how much their language has drifted.
That should say 'not'.
 

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