Prince Charon
Just zis guy, you know?
Had to give an Insightful just for this. Seriously, given how powerful ParaPaul is, making himself seem more a person to the public, and less a terrifying force, is a good thing.
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With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Twelve)
- Thread starter Mr Zoat
- Start date
- Status
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
This is the only shot of it I can find, but I think CV didn't get a spot on the giant meeting screen, which implies he's at Sportsmasters level instead of really in power?
Yep. On the other hand Savage himself helped run interference during Flash's transportation of the Heart himself. On, and that's season two after he had been dropped like a hot potato.
I suspect he was an auxiliary member on the fast track, suppose to graduate to full membership as he took control of his country, but that only head-canon.
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
That's season one. And it was Kid Flash.
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
The picture is season two. That's Aqualad and his father during his infiltration.
I know it's kid flash.
Rossum
Not a Cyberman
- Location
- Earth
Really, given how personally powerful he is, how versatile he is, and how willing and capable he is to do favors for people, Paul might as well be some kind of wish-granting genie who broke out of his lamp and grants his own wishes.
Granted, Paul can't exactly just snap his fingers and make stuff happen. He's more like the old-school djinn in that he actually has to personally go and do stuff to grant his 'wishes'. Still, any concerns a person might have for rogue djinn or genies running around might as well apply to Paul. Especially when he bonds with the Ophidian.
- Location
- Somewhere out there
That's not necessarily true. He probably CAN just snap his fingers and make stuff happen (especially if he instructs the ring to consider a fingersnap to be a command). The issue is entirely with how much he wants it... and what he wants -- and what the ring knows he wants, because of how it's reflected in the orange light -- is to not have to be solely and personally responsible for humanity's growth. Jovium wires wouldn't be an issue if Paul was willing to put a Bleed torsion generator in every household; ordinary copper wiring would be perfectly fine for that. And he's certainly CAPABLE of doing that, with enough expenditure of ring charge. But since he wants humanity to come into its own, those lesser wants get pushed to the side.
Not really; he'd get bored or otherwise lose interest eventually; and then the ring stops working as well, or not at all. It's the same problem he has with healing; he can't heal too much before losing the avarice needed to do so.
Also the scale is just too large, at least without a Paulphidian merge. Even if he was creating a new generator every second without rest, sleep or loss of interest it would take years.
- Location
- Oblivion
Then just create one powerful enough to power all of North America.
They don't appear to be that high intensity; and that's also a single failure point for the entire nation. It just screams "supervillain bait".
- Location
- Canada
He could probably make something that produces those.
If you can't joke about it then it's not worth taking seriously.
Undermined (part 2)
- Location
- Hampden Park
10th June
16:19 GMT -5
Lois Lane looks at the outer casing of the Bleed Torsion Generator. "I was expecting something bigger. And more sparkly. And… Orange."
"I can go and get some glitter or paint if you think it would make a better visual, Ms Lane."
She gives me half of a small smile before turning to Mister Olsen. "Jimmy?"
The young photographer gives her a helpless shrug. "It's a grey box, Ms Lane. There's only so much I can do to make it look interesting."
"If you don't mind me asking… I was a little surprised that the Planet sent you."
"Oh? And what's wrong with me?"
"You aren't the Planet's technology or economics correspondent. I mean no offence, but wouldn't a-?"
Ted puts his right hand on my left shoulder and smiles at her. "Not that it's a problem. We've got people from plenty of tech magazines to talk to later."
She nods. "It's a reasonable question. The answer is, I got the gig because I'm the Planet's main superhero correspondent and because we've met before."
"I was rather hoping not to see everything I do get pigeonholed as 'super life'. This sort of work has the potential to revolutionise Human civilisation."
"I'll try and take it as seriously as it should be." I nod. "Though while we're on the subject, I didn't see Prince Kon-El in the audience. You had some kind of falling out?"
"No, but he's at school at the moment, and… It wasn't really practical to do this outside of school hours."
She knows from his original 'coming out' interview that he goes to school in the US, though obviously we didn't tell her which one.
"And the rumor that you're dating a former League of Shadows assassin?"
"I asked, she said no. She served the sentence for the crimes she was convicted of, and she's never been convicted of killing anyone."
"Okay then." She waves her tablet in the direction of the Generator. "For someone who isn't a technology correspondent, how does this thing work?"
Ted politely pushes me back a little. "Most forms of electricity generation work using what is basically a boiler. You burn coal, or methane or biomass, and you use the energy given off to heat water and generate high pressure steam. This steam then turns a turbine which converts the energy from the steam into electricity. Now, that's not even a twentieth century technology. A British guy called Sir Charles Parsons came up with the basic design in eighteen eighty four. There've been improvements since, but it's essentially the same device. Even nuclear power does pretty much the same thing, generating steam and funnelling it into a turbine."
"Then you've got renewables. Geothermal power gets its heat from the Earth's mantle, and wind and hydroelectric generators take their kinetic energy directly from their environment. Then you've got-." He grins. "Hey, I always get a kick out of this. Did you know that the photovoltaic effect was first noticed in eighteen thirty nine? A French physicist called Edmond Becquerel wrote a paper on it when he was nineteen. Of course, it wasn't until the nineteen fifties that anyone could make a solar panel that was anywhere near commercially viable."
"Thank you, NASA and the Soviet Space Program."
Ted glances at me, nodding. "Yeah, they needed something to power satellites and spacecraft once they were in space, and batteries just didn't have the life expectancy they were starting to need. Um, anyway…" Ted momentarily has the look of someone who has the chance to explain a subject he loves to someone who volunteered for the lecture, but doesn't want to scare them off and isn't certain where their 'scare point' is. "Okay, what do you know about thermodynamics?"
"Ah…" Ms Lane looks like she's not sure what he's decided her scare point is either. She's probably covered enough super… Stuff over the years that he could go in a little higher than that. "Energy can't be created or destroyed."
"Okay, but why not?"
"That's the First Law of Thermodynamics."
"What, so someone will come and arrest you if you create energy ex nihilo?"
I think he's pushing her. "No, that's just not how the universe works."
"Why not? Wouldn't it be really convenient if we could ignore thermodynamics and create energy wherever we want?"
"I suppose it would. Is that how it works? You're altering a universal law to make electricity?"
"Well… I think this is…" He turns to me. "Paul, you wanna handle this bit?"
I nod. "What I'm about to say is wrong in every particular, but is a… Lie that the greatest physicists in the universe use to have a hope in hell of understanding what's actually going on. The Bleed is the raw chaos from which stable universes emerge. The Bleed.. has no rules… Except when it does. The Bleed is infinite and yet full of finite spaces. Like all others, our universe is in the Bleed and yet held apart from it by the laws which give it definition. These generators-" I wave at the closest with my right hand. "-exist partially outside those laws. And if they're outside the laws, they can just create energy."
"And that doesn't risk causing our universe to collapse back into this… Bleed, right?"
"No, that can't happen. The maths proving it is… Far more complicated than I could understand. In slightly more comprehensible terms, lots of species use this technology. Earth is very much not the centre of the universe. If it were going to happen, it would have happened by now."
"How do they work?"
"Very well. Next question." That gets me a mildly indignant glare. "I don't understand how they work. I have a schematic, I build the object described, they work. That sort of ignorance is why I really hope that someone comes up with something better that they can understand."
"Like who?"
Ted shrugs. "Plenty of superheroes and supervillains come up with their own exotic power supplies. Any one of them could have become titanically rich by selling the technology. I mean, take Doctor Morrow, the guy who built Red Tornado. He built a robot that can make hurricane force winds. That could turn a turbine pretty well. People with the right skill are out there."
"Or Star Man One. He was operating from nineteen thirty seven and could fly into orbit with a stick-" I hold my hands out, palms spread to the length of the Gravity Rod. "-this big."
Ms Lane frowns. "So why didn't someone ask him?"
I do a mini frustration dance, forearms raised, head shaking. "I don't know. I mean, how clever do you have to be to work out that a device that can do that might be worth using to generate electricity?"
Mister Olsen shrugs. "I don't know. How clever do you have to be?"
"If you can build it, if in the nineteen thirties you can build a device that can generate force fields and allow a man to fly, then you should be clever enough. And if you're not clever enough, then at least one of the people in the electricity industry whose job it is to work out how to make electricity cheaply should be able to do it for you. I mean, they'd have destroyed the competition…" I turn away slightly, exhaling and shaking my head.
Ms Lane looks from Ted to me. "Is that going to be your next thing?"
"No, it-." / "We don't-."
Ted and I look at each other.
"One of the aims of this is to spur other companies into action. I have a power ring with a massive xenotechnology database. I know dozens of ways of generating electricity. I'm not aiming to establish a monopoly. If that happened, I'd consider the whole thing a failure."
"So you're leaving options available for other people?" I nod. "You wanna give them any hints?"
"Certainly. With Atlantis back in contact with the rest of the world, magic-based methods would be worth looking into. If that's too much like hard work, using Dolmen Gates to transfer power from a remote generation point to the point of need means that someone could… Stick some giant photovoltaic panels in near-Earth orbit and run a cable through a Gate directly to the ground."
"Dolmen Gates are those things that the Mayor of London wants to use to replace trains."
"And now anyone with ten million dollars burning a hole in their back pocket can buy a pair." She gives me an incredulous look. "We're hoping to bring the price down, but at the moment the production facilities just haven't been built."
Ms Lane nods. "Wouldn't mind doing a story on that."
"Then why don't you just ask me?"
16:19 GMT -5
Lois Lane looks at the outer casing of the Bleed Torsion Generator. "I was expecting something bigger. And more sparkly. And… Orange."
"I can go and get some glitter or paint if you think it would make a better visual, Ms Lane."
She gives me half of a small smile before turning to Mister Olsen. "Jimmy?"
The young photographer gives her a helpless shrug. "It's a grey box, Ms Lane. There's only so much I can do to make it look interesting."
"If you don't mind me asking… I was a little surprised that the Planet sent you."
"Oh? And what's wrong with me?"
"You aren't the Planet's technology or economics correspondent. I mean no offence, but wouldn't a-?"
Ted puts his right hand on my left shoulder and smiles at her. "Not that it's a problem. We've got people from plenty of tech magazines to talk to later."
She nods. "It's a reasonable question. The answer is, I got the gig because I'm the Planet's main superhero correspondent and because we've met before."
"I was rather hoping not to see everything I do get pigeonholed as 'super life'. This sort of work has the potential to revolutionise Human civilisation."
"I'll try and take it as seriously as it should be." I nod. "Though while we're on the subject, I didn't see Prince Kon-El in the audience. You had some kind of falling out?"
"No, but he's at school at the moment, and… It wasn't really practical to do this outside of school hours."
She knows from his original 'coming out' interview that he goes to school in the US, though obviously we didn't tell her which one.
"And the rumor that you're dating a former League of Shadows assassin?"
"I asked, she said no. She served the sentence for the crimes she was convicted of, and she's never been convicted of killing anyone."
"Okay then." She waves her tablet in the direction of the Generator. "For someone who isn't a technology correspondent, how does this thing work?"
Ted politely pushes me back a little. "Most forms of electricity generation work using what is basically a boiler. You burn coal, or methane or biomass, and you use the energy given off to heat water and generate high pressure steam. This steam then turns a turbine which converts the energy from the steam into electricity. Now, that's not even a twentieth century technology. A British guy called Sir Charles Parsons came up with the basic design in eighteen eighty four. There've been improvements since, but it's essentially the same device. Even nuclear power does pretty much the same thing, generating steam and funnelling it into a turbine."
"Then you've got renewables. Geothermal power gets its heat from the Earth's mantle, and wind and hydroelectric generators take their kinetic energy directly from their environment. Then you've got-." He grins. "Hey, I always get a kick out of this. Did you know that the photovoltaic effect was first noticed in eighteen thirty nine? A French physicist called Edmond Becquerel wrote a paper on it when he was nineteen. Of course, it wasn't until the nineteen fifties that anyone could make a solar panel that was anywhere near commercially viable."
"Thank you, NASA and the Soviet Space Program."
Ted glances at me, nodding. "Yeah, they needed something to power satellites and spacecraft once they were in space, and batteries just didn't have the life expectancy they were starting to need. Um, anyway…" Ted momentarily has the look of someone who has the chance to explain a subject he loves to someone who volunteered for the lecture, but doesn't want to scare them off and isn't certain where their 'scare point' is. "Okay, what do you know about thermodynamics?"
"Ah…" Ms Lane looks like she's not sure what he's decided her scare point is either. She's probably covered enough super… Stuff over the years that he could go in a little higher than that. "Energy can't be created or destroyed."
"Okay, but why not?"
"That's the First Law of Thermodynamics."
"What, so someone will come and arrest you if you create energy ex nihilo?"
I think he's pushing her. "No, that's just not how the universe works."
"Why not? Wouldn't it be really convenient if we could ignore thermodynamics and create energy wherever we want?"
"I suppose it would. Is that how it works? You're altering a universal law to make electricity?"
"Well… I think this is…" He turns to me. "Paul, you wanna handle this bit?"
I nod. "What I'm about to say is wrong in every particular, but is a… Lie that the greatest physicists in the universe use to have a hope in hell of understanding what's actually going on. The Bleed is the raw chaos from which stable universes emerge. The Bleed.. has no rules… Except when it does. The Bleed is infinite and yet full of finite spaces. Like all others, our universe is in the Bleed and yet held apart from it by the laws which give it definition. These generators-" I wave at the closest with my right hand. "-exist partially outside those laws. And if they're outside the laws, they can just create energy."
"And that doesn't risk causing our universe to collapse back into this… Bleed, right?"
"No, that can't happen. The maths proving it is… Far more complicated than I could understand. In slightly more comprehensible terms, lots of species use this technology. Earth is very much not the centre of the universe. If it were going to happen, it would have happened by now."
"How do they work?"
"Very well. Next question." That gets me a mildly indignant glare. "I don't understand how they work. I have a schematic, I build the object described, they work. That sort of ignorance is why I really hope that someone comes up with something better that they can understand."
"Like who?"
Ted shrugs. "Plenty of superheroes and supervillains come up with their own exotic power supplies. Any one of them could have become titanically rich by selling the technology. I mean, take Doctor Morrow, the guy who built Red Tornado. He built a robot that can make hurricane force winds. That could turn a turbine pretty well. People with the right skill are out there."
"Or Star Man One. He was operating from nineteen thirty seven and could fly into orbit with a stick-" I hold my hands out, palms spread to the length of the Gravity Rod. "-this big."
Ms Lane frowns. "So why didn't someone ask him?"
I do a mini frustration dance, forearms raised, head shaking. "I don't know. I mean, how clever do you have to be to work out that a device that can do that might be worth using to generate electricity?"
Mister Olsen shrugs. "I don't know. How clever do you have to be?"
"If you can build it, if in the nineteen thirties you can build a device that can generate force fields and allow a man to fly, then you should be clever enough. And if you're not clever enough, then at least one of the people in the electricity industry whose job it is to work out how to make electricity cheaply should be able to do it for you. I mean, they'd have destroyed the competition…" I turn away slightly, exhaling and shaking my head.
Ms Lane looks from Ted to me. "Is that going to be your next thing?"
"No, it-." / "We don't-."
Ted and I look at each other.
"One of the aims of this is to spur other companies into action. I have a power ring with a massive xenotechnology database. I know dozens of ways of generating electricity. I'm not aiming to establish a monopoly. If that happened, I'd consider the whole thing a failure."
"So you're leaving options available for other people?" I nod. "You wanna give them any hints?"
"Certainly. With Atlantis back in contact with the rest of the world, magic-based methods would be worth looking into. If that's too much like hard work, using Dolmen Gates to transfer power from a remote generation point to the point of need means that someone could… Stick some giant photovoltaic panels in near-Earth orbit and run a cable through a Gate directly to the ground."
"Dolmen Gates are those things that the Mayor of London wants to use to replace trains."
"And now anyone with ten million dollars burning a hole in their back pocket can buy a pair." She gives me an incredulous look. "We're hoping to bring the price down, but at the moment the production facilities just haven't been built."
Ms Lane nods. "Wouldn't mind doing a story on that."
"Then why don't you just ask me?"
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HanEmpire
Delicious
Update is copy&pasted twice!
Not if the ring lacks schematics.
Typos:
"built", "built", "the skills"
"means"
Finagle007
[Verified Great Old One]
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Cough White Entity cough.
- Location
- Wishing I was somewhere much colder, I asssume.
I read through both copies of the chapter, and while I didn't go through it very thoroughly, I'm pretty sure it's pretty much the same.
There might be some differences and OL is in some kind of time loop or something or other, or Mr. Zoat messed up.
EDIT: If anyone is confused when reading this, the original version of the chapter had it posted twice. And I read through it both times to see if it was on purpose or not.
There might be some differences and OL is in some kind of time loop or something or other, or Mr. Zoat messed up.
EDIT: If anyone is confused when reading this, the original version of the chapter had it posted twice. And I read through it both times to see if it was on purpose or not.
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Empiricist2
Let's play doctor!
- Location
- Baton Rouge
Presumably the United States of America correct? I'm pretty sure Kon doesn't travel to Mexico much. Or any other United States that may exist.
- Location
- Hampden Park
Ashaeron
Lurker in the Abyss
Universe no, but IIRC Multiverse yes.
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
Sadly true. I mean, it's also a version of the world Elaine Belloc came from, who is the current Presence, but she (does she still count as a she?) sort of dissolved herself into a, well, presence to avoid that kind of bias.
- Location
- Australia
This. This is why I love OL so much. He really cares about Human's becoming more & being better.
Something about the way everyone speaks to each other in this chapter seems really confrontational, even though they're not arguing with each other, it feels like they are. I'm not sure why. Anyone else notice that?
Emstar
The Shining One
- Location
- Trapped in an extradimensional rift.
- Pronouns
- She/They
Is Zoat going with all the Hellblazer/Sandman stuff as canon? I thought he was cherry picking.
- Location
- texas
He's said there will be no Spectre or Presence in this fic, at least.
So Swamp Thing and Constantine probably didn't witness the Greater Darkness merge with the Hand that Created the Universe That Krona Spied On, for example.
Isn't the Earth in the far corner of the Universe? So, technically, we would be the Entities Bedroom...
- Status