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

[Vaermina]

ahahaha he's in Stargate! haha oh goodie the goa'uld are going to get a very rude awakening

even a fresh lantern (with a lantern) can steamroll most of the setting.. ahh this could be quite cathartic
unless he ticks off an ascended enough to make them act.. then he's doomed.

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Unless this is some Zoat made up continuity with barely any connection to the actual setting this isn't Stargate.

Though you're actually not accurate about that second part. The only thing he would actually be a threat to in the setting would be the Goa'uld.

Nothing he could do would stop the Replicators.

Nothing he could do would stop the Ori.

Nothing he could do would stop the Wraith.

Nothing he could do would stop the renegade Ancients.

 

[Galler]

They might have archaeological value, and I can always take them to the British Museum once I know where it is.

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Good show.

 

[Chaoswind]

A new Paul.

The things shown in the update are fairly generic to nail it down, but the presence of a lantern should mean its tied to standard DC or a cross over verse.

Now if it's a power source that could function as a lantern that is a much broader category, star gate zero point modules could recharge a ring for a limited number of charges (even we are talking about centuries) and look like orange Lantern as they glow orange, so this could very well be a Paul left in Stargate and his lantern could be a ZPM the random goalud looted from an ancient outpost.

In short, need more information, but Stargate doesn't seem to be a long shot guess even if we don't have enough evidence to make an accurate guess.

 

[CTrees]

They might have archaeological value, and I can always take them to the British Museum once I know where it is.

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"Valuable archeological artifacts from another civilization? That's right! They go in the square hole British Musem!"

Anyway, I wonder if this is Earth, just far enough into the future or past that the continents have shifted (or been rearranged by cataclysmic fighting, if its the future).

 

[Clell65619]

"Yoink! Mine!" -average Orange Light enjoyer.

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A strobe of orange light deposits every valuable object in the room into that pocket. I leave the images on the wall with their precious stones. They might have archaeological value, and I can always take them to the British Museum once I know where it is.


- Not sure if it's all that much the Orange Light, or just the historical Brit Penchant for Strategically Transfering Equipment to Alternate Locations, whether the locals like it or not.

 

[Mr Zoat]

A strobe of orange light deposits every valuable object in the room into that pocket. I leave the images on the wall with their precious stones. They might have archaeological value, and I can always take them to the British Museum once I know where it is.


- Not sure if it's all that much the Orange Light, or just the historical Brit Penchant for Strategically Transfering Equipment to Alternate Locations, whether the locals like it or not.

Click to shrink...

 

[Azzy Rael]

To be fair, its not exactly mutually exclusive. Yoinking people's things requires the desire to possess them, therefor…. Still Orange Light.

 

[Zig]

That's just the date the SI thinks it is. Check when this story started.

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I thought the ring tells him the date? Weren't there entries where he starts without the ring that didn't have a date?

 

[Mr Zoat]

I thought the ring tells him the date? Weren't there entries where he starts without the ring that didn't have a date?

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In this situation the ring has no way to discover the local date. At least, not in a format that would mean anything to him.

 

[Whenever Possible]

Kill Six Billion Demons?

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It could be, but I don't think so.

He could have stumbled over a planet in one of Mammon's realms rather than Throne, and there's enough fuckery that Yisun could have set up an actual Orange Lantern causally antecedent but temporally precedent to Paul's presence there just because of the atemporal nature of the Wheel, but the Hologram makes me think it's not K6BD. While they do have the technology and magic to make something like that, I don't remember ever seeing holograms in the webcomic; hell, Solomon has literal town criers delivering messages across his territory, despite television apparently existing.

Also, while the mosaic could represent the enfranchisement of demiurges by Zoss, or the enfranchisement of priests by a demiurge, you'd expect atleast one of the figures to be a Dragon for either scenario in Mammon's territory.

(though I haven't read through the rulebooks for the tabletop, so I don't have a full picture of the setting, and I could be wrong and me thoughts aren't exactly fully dispositive here).

 

[Shotiegun11]

I wonder how Zoat will slot the Alterans in Stargate? They seem like Malthusian equivalent until Stargate: Atlantis and then they get a LOT more dumbed down and 'humanized'.

I like to think of Alteran Ancients and Atlantean Ancients as different. Millions of years of separation as a culture / society.

Single City-Ship making a new Empire, all that lost knowledge, be better and worse at different things.

Once this SI gets ahold of something Ancient (that doesn't almost kill him) he'll probably be set on the technology side of things for this universe. If taking Goauld purposefully shitty tech and making it better doesn't already do that.

 

[Vaermina]

I wonder how Zoat will slot the Alterans in Stargate? They seem like Malthusian equivalent until Stargate: Atlantis and then they get a LOT more dumbed down and 'humanized'.

I like to think of Alteran Ancients and Atlantean Ancients as different. Millions of years of separation as a culture / society.

Single City-Ship making a new Empire, all that list knowledge, be better and worse at different things.

Once this SI gets ahold of something Ancient (that doesn't almost kill him) he'll probably be set on the technology side of things for this universe. If taking Goauld purposefully shitty tech and making it better doesn't already do that.

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He's not a descendant of the Ancients, so he wouldn't be able to use anything Ancient.

 

[Jiro]

He's not a descendant of the Ancients, so he wouldn't be able to use anything Ancient.

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It's a specific gene that's needed. The ring should have no trouble giving it to him.

 

[Vaermina]

It's a specific gene that's needed. The ring should have no trouble giving it to him.

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It absolutely should.

The only reason that sort of thing worked in canon was because it was being used on people who already had the gene, just in a mostly dormant state. And we aren't talking "gene" in the DC sense either. We're talking it in the real life sense where it results in a number of physiological differences. Many of which express themselves in the structure of the brain.

 

[Mr Zoat]

It's a specific gene that's needed. The ring should have no trouble giving it to him.

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We just had a whole thing about how modifying your body is a bad idea.

 

[Darko]

It's a specific gene that's needed. The ring should have no trouble giving it to him.

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We just had a whole thing about how modifying your body is a bad idea.

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Even if he doesn't get the gene, the ring may just be able to take control of Ancient tech without it.

The Maltusians are at least on the Alterans level, probably higher, so I don't see why it couldn't work.

 

[Darko]

Just check ever star in

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"every"

Ring, do I have a subspace pocket?

Confirmed.

A strobe of orange light deposits every valuable object in the room into that pocket. I leave the images on the wall with their precious stones. They might have archaeological value, and I can always take them to the British Museum once I know where it is.

Click to shrink...

And there's a classical bit of Britishness from a new Paul.

Stealing things from locals.

 

[Artemisnemo]

We just had a whole thing about how modifying your body is a bad idea.

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Well no, we just had a whole thing about how permanently altering your mental state while using an object that runs off your mental state, is a bad idea.

These are two very different things. Pretty much the first thing all the orange Pauls do, is alter their bodies. Nobody had an issue with them being young and fit, just psychotic.

 

[Vaermina]

Even if he doesn't get the gene, the ring may just be able to take control of Ancient tech without it.

The Maltusians are at least on the Alterans level, probably higher, so I don't see why it couldn't work.

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The high end comic Malthusians are in a couple places.

Zoat's heavily altered Malthusians however should be nowhere near the Alterans.

 

[Ardy]

We just had a whole thing about how modifying your body is a bad idea.

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Zoat, I know you can't see him, but you uh, it's kind of embarrassing, but uh, you kind of just agreed with Vaermina there.

 

[Darko]

Zoat, I know you can't see him, but you uh, it's kind of embarrassing, but uh, you kind of just agreed with Vaermina there.

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Stranger things have happened.

Granted, it's rare, but occasionally it happens.

 

[Coda]

A rap my knuckles and scrap my fingernails

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Either "A rap of my knuckles and a scrape of my fingernails" or "I rap my knuckles and scrape my fingernails"

Surrender to by guards

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I think you meant "to my guards"?

 

[Impartial Panic]

It's a consistent part of the mythos that Superman does in fact beat Darkseid when he stops holding himself back.

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True, I remember the world of cardboard speech.
Still at this point in time nobody actually knows this except maybe Paul.

Given the threat he represents do you really want people to go in unprepared thinking
"Just throw superman at him and we'll be fine."
Better to give people a reason to stop and think about how this is going to work before they go and get killed for being stupid.
Justice League Dark: Apokolips War shows how bad that can end and that's without deploying anti-life.

telling them he can bitch slap superman through planets just by looking at him makes the league decide maybe they should plan this out and up gun the planet first.

 

[Blue1ao]

11th April 2011
00:47

The ring shows me the approaching motorcycle in my mind's eye, the general construction reminding me more of an Astartes bike than the more usual design. Scans show that it's riddled with exotic mechanical and electronic equipment, and…

That's a halberd.

So this is a 'superhero'.

I feel a moment of sympathy for my alter egos who had to put up with that sort of lunacy on a regular basis. Thundera has no such tradition, and never will if I have anything to say about it.

The armour is passable, as light power armour goes. The colour is a little off-putting, but in an urban environment it probably serves adequately as camouflage. The exposed chin-. Is there a retractable chin guard? No, there isn't. Ordinarily I'd have said that such a small weak spot wouldn't matter significantly in urban combat, but if he routinely closes to halberd range -and stays there- then that clearly isn't the case. It also implies a vulnerability to gas weapons and contact toxins.

My own armour is a masterwork of technology and magic wrought for me by Mumm-Rana's hands. My only influence is in the yellow lantern built into the cuirass, freeing me from the need to recharge the ring. It has served me well on a dozen battlefields, and a simple analysis shows that it will outperform… Armsmaster's? Armour in every regard.

The young woman with the insects is still watching from a nearby rooftop. I imagine that she's curious as to whether I am a deluded serial killer or not, but I'm not sure that it's actually worth my while remaining here. While I doubt that the Undersiders are going to pass what I said on to anyone, my work will be easier if I can attack the local superhumans before they can gather hostages. Naturally, I would simply shoot through them, but I would prefer to minimise civilian casualties.

On the other hand, it would be useful to gain first hand information on the capacities of the local law enforcers. I do intend to pass the pacified city back to them after all.

Ring, scan for neurological oddities such as those so far seen in local superhumans.

Working.

Armsmaster turns onto this street, sees me and leaps from his bike, which slows, turns away and parks itself automatically. He watches me from a defensive crouch, polearm in the guard position.

Located.

The ring shows me an albino in a warehouse. The people around him have an unusual number of swastika tattoos, and the quantity of firearms rather implies that they're not Buddhists.

"Unknown parahuman-."

"Excuse me for a moment."

I fly upwards about a hundred metres, giving myself a clear line of sight to the warehouse. The albino operates under the name 'Alabaster', and has some sort of regenerative ability which resets his body when he's injured. The obvious counter is entombment, but logically speaking destroying the part of his brain which controls his ability should do the job.

The quantity of ammunition present does give me some concerns, but I still have Orange Prime's cold gun designs on file so I should be able to prevent it cooking-

Located.

-off. I create a positron ray construct and a cold gun construct, target Alabaster's brain with the former and fire. There's a small blast as the positrons briefly interact with the outer wall of the warehouse and explosively neutralise a few of its electrons, and then another slightly larger one as the beam carries on and puts the positrons in a position to briefly interact with Alabaster's cranium.

His accomplices don't require such careful treatment. I target brains and hearts, moving from one target to the next in a matter of seconds. Few have time to understand what's happening before they expire and… Ah, good show. The heat increase is palpable but nowhere near cook-off temperature.

I put my constructs into an 'at ease' position and return to ground level.

Located.

Armsmaster has come a little closer, but he was clearly monitoring me and the only change in his stance as I come to a halt on the road is to tilt his head to continue to track me.

"I apologise. You were saying?"

"Did you kill these people?"

"Yes." I generate a data stick which should be compatible with local technology and float it towards him. "A full recording of the incident. Death was near-instantaneous in all cases."

He lets the data stick float in front of him for a moment, and I notice some sort of broad spectrum probe deploy from his axe. Most likely trying to determine whether it's an explosive or not. After a moment he takes it with his left hand and places it inside an armoured compartment in his cuirass.

"If you surrender and accompany me now, it is possible that you will be offered a favorable plea bargain regarding these murders."

"Your statement is probably true. However, I am not interested in your offer."

"The alternative is that I defeat you and bring you there by force."

"I believe that you overestimate your chances. But I am curious as to your motives. What is it about what I've done here that bothers you?"

"Aside from the cold-blooded murder of sixteen men, including-"

"Thirty-four men and three women."

"-both of the ABB's parahumans?"

Two-? Oh, yes, that corpse has a mask and a super tumour. I hadn't noticed at the time.

"And one belonging to Empire Eighty Eight."

"That will trigger a gang war. Dozens of innocent people will die in the crossfire when Empire Eighty Eight move in on former ABB territory."

"And what do you propose to do about it?"

"I'm not here to discuss policy with a criminal."

"The correct thing to do is bring in the army, as you clearly lack the resources to deal with such a major upsurge in violence. That said, if local law enforcement had adequate resources to deal with the level of opposition you face then this situation would not have arisen. You need not worry about collateral damage. I will simply kill all participants."

Located.

Oh, that's interesting.

"I had been under the impression that superhumans were prohibited from holding positions of authority in the Parahuman Response Team. Does that just apply to directors?"

"Why are you asking?"

"Thomas Calvert is a superhuman. He has the signature growths in his brain. I don't yet have the data to tell you what his particular ability is, but there doesn't appear to be any record of it in your files. That seems like a substantial oversight, given his current role."

…

"How did you come by that information?"

"I scanned him just now. Determining whether someone is a supervillain or not requires a manual review, but those growths in your brain are quite distinctive."

"You can locate-?"

He cuts himself off, but I nod anyway.

"Yes. I'm going to get back to work, now. I suggest-"

He gestures, and a bolas of some kind attempts to wrap itself around me. I catch it with a construct and drop it on the ground.

"-that you make preparations for your job suddenly becoming possible. Farewell."

I rise into the air, target Purity and then fire.

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You can't just put the 1st two of wyrm at the front of the episode and the next at the last T.T why do you make it so hard not to skip chapters... Also I was laughing a lot in the last episode when the world meets the space capitalism

 

[moralrelativity]

Surrender to by guards

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by -> my

Kill Six Billion Demons?

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What a great suggestion. I'd love it if that was the case.

- Not sure if it's all that much the Orange Light, or just the historical Brit Penchant for Strategically Transfering Equipment to Alternate Locations, whether the locals like it or not.

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Definitely a lot of the colonising attitude IMO. Espescially with this Paul's thought about taking the wall image to the Brisish Museum.

 

[Celtic Spartan]

Unless this is some Zoat made up continuity with barely any connection to the actual setting this isn't Stargate.

Though you're actually not accurate about that second part. The only thing he would actually be a threat to in the setting would be the Goa'uld.

Nothing he could do would stop the Replicators.

Nothing he could do would stop the Ori.

Nothing he could do would stop the Wraith.

Nothing he could do would stop the renegade Ancients.

Click to shrink...

depends on if he can learn to use his ring with a high level of proficiency cause if he manages that his ring can just absorb the ascended. also the wraith are actually more vulnerable to pauls predations then the Goa'uld.

 

[Vaermina]

Depends on if he can learn to use his ring with a high level of proficiency cause if he manages that his ring can just absorb the ascended.

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He could certainly try.

But of course, even if it were possible an Ascended Being wouldn't just sit there and let him. And Ascended Beings are very capable of killing a Power Ring user.

Also the wraith are actually more vulnerable to pauls predations then the Goa'uld.

Click to shrink...

Unlike the Goa'uld that fake it, the Wraith are in fact offensive oriented psychics.

And Paul doesn't even have the standard level of Ancient descendant defense to such things.

 

[Mr Zoat]

14th August 2013
Morning
A few minutes later

Humans. They're… Humans.

Dad's a biology teacher, so there might be something that's different between them and… Humans-. From Earth, but as far as my scans can tell, they're human. Their buildings look… Are primitive, and while the people look North African to me they're living at latitudes that mean that the building styles from that part of the world wouldn't make sense and so they aren't using them. They're living on the continent with the underground palace I just raided. All of their towns are closer to the palace than the coast, and there aren't any settlements on the planet's other continents.

I try rotating the planet in my mind, trying to work out whether I'm looking at an Earth that's been rotated ninety degrees or something. No, doesn't look like it. Ah. Pangaea? Ring, map continental shelves?

A series of orange lines appear in my visual field, overlaying parts of the planet. Okay, so if that moves in or out…

No.

Where am I? When am I? How did-?

Ring… Any debris around here?

The lines vanish, and space around me lights up with orange pinpricks.

Anything that could be part of a ship?

Most of them vanish.

Show me.

An orange shape appears in front of me. It-. Alright, there's a straight edge that doesn't look natural, but it could just be a crystalline structure that is naturally straight. We didn't do a lot of stellar dynamics in G.C.S.E. Science Double Award, and that was a decade ago.

Scroll on.

No. No. No. … Maybe? Ugh, no actual ship and nothing big enough to give me any kind of lead.

This…

Ring, dismiss, go back to showing me… That settlement, there, on the edge of their civilisation.

Local morning, looks like it's early in the farming season. The men are out ploughing or otherwise working in the fields while the women are working around the farmhouses. Children… Oh, it looks like there's a school of some sort. Or possibly a church? Doesn't look like there's a local baron, so I'm not really sure how they're organised. On the other hand, they're a unified culture with no neighbours, so they probably don't need to worry about war, and between that and the.. lack of easily transferable money, crime rates are probably quite low. I don't see any guards.

An isolated village is a decent place to find out about how their civilisation works, because if I do something wrong they're probably not going to be able to tell anyone else. But I'm visibly a different ethnicity from the people there. Any of the people on the planet, in fact. And while I could just say that I'm from the other side of the continent I don't know what they call it.

Or I could try a larger town.

Huh.

Britain had roads thanks to the Romans, and that was the peak of our transportation networks until we started building canals and turnpikes over a thousand years later. Here, they've got roads that look they're made with clay bricks. Miles and miles of them, linking the largest towns with better roads than I was really expecting. They don't extend outwards, and the villages are connected to the network by dirt tracks, so… It's expensive and not worth doing for low traffic volumes? Sure, clay bricks aren't a super-advanced technology, I'm not seeing anything totally anachronistic. Still a bit of a surprise, though.

The towns themselves…

Okay, those are animal pens. That's a market town. That one… Mining, ore processing and forging? The streets are… Cleaner than I was expecting. Good night soil collection? Scan for… Shit. Oh, they actually have sewers, that's fairly impressive. And it takes it to… Ah, some sort of building. The design appears to be standard in all of the towns so I assume they're doing something with it. Making it into fertilizer, perhaps?

Doesn't matter.

Hard to tell, but it doesn't look like there's a lot of daily movement between the towns and the villages. But why would there be? Commuting isn't practical at this level of development and it doesn't look like it's market day. But there are definite differences in the styles of dress in the towns, whereas people in the villages are mostly dressed the same as each other, and-. Yes, in the southern parts of the continent nearer the pole hooded cloaks are common enough that I could probably walk around without anyone noticing anything out of the ordinary.

And ask them what? And ask who?

I-. Oh, getting paralysed by indecision isn't getting me anywhere, and there's no way I can work out what the 'right' answer is. Pick a village, drop down completely openly-.

I change my pyjamas into something a little more like what the wealthier-looking citizens wear.

Yes, that's better. Drop down-. No, drop down nearby and then walk into the village, wave and say 'hello' to people and generally make a point of acting harmless. Wait until the majority calm down, then… Try having an actual conversation. Not a great plan. Not even a good plan, probably, but it'll do.

Eenie meenie miney mo-.

That'll do.

I turn face down and fly towards the village I was looking at. If I've got no idea which is best then I might as well pick the one I've been watching the longest.

I know Lanterns can fly faster than light, but I don't think I want to try that while pointing at a planet. Fortunately, there seems to be some sort of built in system for not causing shockwaves when passing through an atmosphere at high speed. I found that out by accident when I went after the lantern and didn't check my speed, and I'm obviously rather glad. I don't think these people have gunpowder weapons, but a loud bang on a day with a clear sky would be fairly intimidating.

I wonder why that underground palace is there? Something from a prior civilisation? Did they go through a nuclear winter and recover to this level? If I looked more closely, would I see relics of the more advanced civilisation in private collections, or in the factories? Or would it be too long ago?

Okay, there's the treetops, slow down and manoeuvre… And land. Alright, it's early morning and the glow isn't that visible, so unless they were looking in exactly the right direction they probably didn't see me come in. Look harmless and walk.

I look at a tree as I approach it. The bark and leaf-shape looks sort of familiar, but I.. don't remember exactly what those look like on Earth trees. Same with the ferns growing around their base. They're ferns, and that's about all I can say.

More light leaks through the trees up ahead, and I can see where they've been cut down to make room for a field. The main track into the village is fairly close by, so I can just walk onto that-.

A man-. A young man in the field working with a hoe looks right at me as I come out of the woods. I raise my right arm in greeting, and after a slight delay he waves back before turning to another man a little further away and shouting something. I wave again and step out of cover entirely. They haven't bothered with a fence, not on land that's going to be planted, so I can just walk over to them and say 'hello'. If they want me off their land I can just leave.

"Good morning!"

The young man thrusts the hoe into the ground and leans on the shaft.

"Good health, stranger. What brings-." His eyes fix on the ring for a moment. "Oh, sorry Reverend. I didn't see your sigil."

Oh, that's interesting. The lantern has the same design as my ring, but I didn't notice that anywhere else was using it. That's… Part of their religion?

"That's fine." I walk to within more polite talking distance, but don't get too close just in case that's threatening. "I'm afraid that I've gotten quite lost. Could you please tell me where I-"

His eyes widen and he falls on his face in genuflection. Huh? I look over to his father and a second later he does the same.

"-am?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

"every"

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Thank you, corrected.

And there's a classical bit of Britishness from a new Paul.

Stealing things from locals.

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They're not qualified to look after them themselves.

Either "A rap of my knuckles and a scrape of my fingernails" or "I rap my knuckles and scrape my fingernails"
I think you meant "to my guards"?

Click to shrink...

Thank you, corrected.

 

[FeepingCreature]

14th August 2013
"That's fine." I walk to within more polite talking distance, but don't get too close just in case that's threatening. "I'm afraid that I've gotten quite lost. Could you please tell me where I-"

His eyes widen and he falls on his face in genuflection. Huh? I look over to his father and a second later he does the same.

"-am?"

Click to shrink...

Ooh, is he accidentally doing the Goa'uld glowy thing?