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

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10th July
Falling Action (supplementary, Renegade option)
Falling Action (supplementary, Renegade option)
Falling Action (supplementary, Renegade option)
Falling Action (supplementary, Renegade option)


 
query said:
You can't wait 4 days?
Most people are lucky to get an update once a week here.
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I have a reason, but I am somewhat tired and about to head off to sleep. I'll try to explain it later, but TL:DR. This is not a TV series, its a written medium. I've seen fanfics that have died on their climax or have gone years before finishing it.

Those four days might as well mean I lose all interest in the climax because, why should I care about it? The author has decided that it's better to interrupt the tension he has created by overstretching it for four days.

If it's still not clear, I'll come back later and try to explain again.
 
Duncan Idaho said:
Is that for real? If so, ugggh. I've been waiting for a long time to see the conclusion of Nabu, if Zoat does that, yanking the chain of his readers at this precise moment where things are more tense. I think I will stop reading the story.

I know no one will give a fuck about it, but I have to say it. IF it's truth? It's not a nice thing to do.
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There is the plan of letting it sit for a while and coming back to it every so often to catch up. Then you can experience whole arcs at once. This is a really major episode, with huge climaxes going on in both timelines that each have the potential to have devastating effects on each of them, and it looks like Zoat is choosing to go through them in parallel. If you wait until it's over than you can just get it all out of the way.

And on another note, every author feeds on the agony of their readers.
 
I get the impression that the Renegade interludes will be used as an excuse of sorts to cover for (potentially) the next main story entry taking place after a timeskip.

Which is something I really hate. Like...you reach the climax, but in the middle of it, you cut off and suddenly jump to days later? It's a terrible way to handle things, which is why I hope Zoat isn't going to go down that route.

Either way, I think interrupting the climax of an arc that's been building up for months with four interludes in a row from a different story is both a dick move and really bad for the story's pacing.

---

I sincerely hope OL and John were smart enough to integrate a trap into the batteries themselves (or that the things Nabu is attacking are merely decoys), seeing as they're both the obvious target for Nabu to go for (doubly so, after John explained what they were and what they were doing) and the most vulnerable part of the entire plan.

The problem with that hope, though, is that there is no conceivable reason for OL's thought process to instantly stop mid-word if things were going (relatively) according to plan. Stopping mid-word indicates that something catastrophic just occurred so rapidly that OL doesn't even have time to worry about it before he loses consciousness.
 
SaltyWaffles said:
--- Stopping mid-word indicates that something catastrophic just occurred so rapidly that OL doesn't even have time to worry about it before he loses consciousness.
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or its just the author making it a cliffhanger.

remind me, how fast is Nabu going?
could Paul still speed up his perception in time to move the mana battery?
 
Mr Zoat said:
7th July
22:27 GMT

"I knew him, Zatara. A fellow who thought-"

Nabu grabs Rob's hands and lifts them from his helmet as I put construct armour around Adom.

"-that he could get away-"

"Sleep, child."

"-with stealing the body of a mate of mine."

Rob slams his forehead into Nabu's faceplate then shoves his hands forward, sending Nabu staggering back. "Yeah mate. More magic. Did you not read my file or something?"

"Yes." A new ankh appears on Nabu's chest, a hurricane of golden wind blasting out of Rob and being sucked into it. "Fate sees all."

"Oh." He looks up at me. "Aah?"

I cover him in construct armour and put a spell eater around his neck. Much as he's learned recently, if Nabu has a way around his mana draining there probably isn't much his magic can add.

"And you, Constantine. I should have seen your hand in this from the first. Bartering power first from Demons and now from Klarion himself." John looks mildly pleased with himself. "This day marks the first upon which my desires and those of my host are in alignment."

"Yeah, yeah. Except you're missin' a few bits o' the puzzle, aren't you?"

"A magician of low repute with a history of misdeeds and deception has corrupted others in his treachery. Zatara believed that you would not dare approach his daughter-."

"Back up a bit." John leans back against the closest battery. "What was that about Klarion?"

Shoot or not shoot? Once the batteries are active, they don't stop. Hopefully with the battering Nabu's taken he isn't noticing… No. I should let John keep talking.

"You are using his power. This place reeks of it. Clearly you have made some foul pact to gain-."

"Hahaha!" He looks away from Nabu while he fishes out his cigarette packet with his right hand. "Really? That what you think?"

"What other alternative could there be?"

John looks up towards me. "You wanna tell 'im?"

"We confronted and permanently depowered Klarion three days ago, Nabu. Right now his comatose body is lying in a Chinese prison cell wreathed in suppression chains. They'll probably execute what's left of him in a couple of days, if they haven't already. Do you know how.. China executes supervillains?"

No response.

"They've got a superfunctionary called 'Ghost Fox Killer'. She can rip the souls out of people's bodies and either turn them into ghost-slaves or into batteries. She has absolutely no loyalty to the Chinese state, and has no real need for money, so they buy her loyalty… Or at least her service, by handing the vilest criminals they can over to her. See, the more evil they were, the more power she can draw from them."

"That-. Is-. That isn't possible."

"Sure it is. John? I think this is more your area."

"Klarion's problem… Other than the fact that he's a murderous little shit, is that when Paul nobbled his familiar he decided to stick around rather than fuck off back where he came from. Normally, if you kill a familiar or-" His eyes narrow very slightly. "-destroy a helmet, the bundle of magic energy that make up you gets sucked straight back t' the Plane of Whatever. It's like… Spreading a bit of elastic between two points. Let go of one? It snaps over t' the other one. Klarion cut himself off t' stop that happening, leaving a whole lump of elastic chaos power behind him." John waves his cigarette in the air, eldritch runes appearing in its wake and burning in the air. "Which just about anyone who knew what they're doing could help themselves to."

"Informative. I will be certain to use that knowledge to more efficiently banish Chaos Lords in the future. I will begin with you. Your coat is hardly well-concealed."

"Funny, when y'think about it. Only worked with Giovanni a couple a' times, but you'd think he'd remember how I work."

"He mostly remembers you killing his wife."

John looks down, shaking his head. "That coulda been any of us. Coulda been me. Maybe it shoulda been." He looks up. "Know I thought so at the time. Point bein', I'd have thought he realise what I was up to." He nods his head to the side. "Or maybe he's just keeping shtum. Ah well."

"What nonsense is this? The technique you claim that you utilised against Klarion will not work on me. If by some remote possibility you were able to defeat me, I would accept banishment. I dwell entirely within my helmet. I cannot be severed from my link to the Realm of Pure Order."

"Yeah." The end of John's cigarette flares into life. "Think about that for a mo'. Most people, they do their thinking with what's between their ears, don't they? A Human brain's basically a soggy sack of electrical pathways, but…" He jabs his cigarette forwards. "You don't have one. Your host does, but you were aware of what was goin' on even when you didn't have a host, so you're not runnin' on their brain. Plus, you've got that whole order-fixation thing goin' on. So what are you thinkin' with?"

He waits for a moment, but Nabu doesn't respond. He shrugs. "Pure magic. You're thinkin' with the structures of your soul. Bloody clever, actually. Usually when people try that, try directed reincarnation, it doesn't work quite right." He waves his right hand at the side of his head. "Doesn't all come through. Some memories get lost in the transfer, some get scrambled 'cause they can't hold it together right while the new brain grows… But you've got it solved."

"I am Order manifest."

"Yeah. You are." John stubs out his cigarette on the forehead of Nabu's skull, then tosses the butt aside. "Shoulda thought about that a bit more, really." John's face stills, becomes completely serious. And I see… Just a little… Klarion, there. "You're an arcane construct. You think thoughts of pure magic energy, and the power you use gets constantly replenished from the Plane of Order. But you're not the Plane of Order. You can't take more than a certain amount. And you can't drop below a certain amount. Or you start losing things."

"Wanna know what these batteries are doing right now?"

Nabu charges, an inverted ankh forming in his hands like a sword. I accelerate, railguns opening up with mage slayer rounds. Nabu takes a second to glance my way and the rounds stop in midair as he passes. A muffled bang, and his sword shatters under two bullets from the Ace of Chaos. Jade's okay. Okay enough to fire, which means that she's unlikely to be dying. Why do I think the mage slayers aren't moving? Most likely, an indirect block of some kind. What wouldn't be affected? Any construct would be, they're basically physical attacks. I send filaments downwards just in case. Accelerated like this they move slowly, but if there's a way to reach him then they should find it before he reaches John. What else? I can still see what's happening, so a laser should be able to reach him. No, I don't want to harm Mister Zatara.

He's not shielding his nerves. Electron inductor construct.

Mental pathway damage limit reached. Acceleration discontinued.

A new ankh-sword begins appearing, just as my electron inductor tags his spine. His legs freeze up and he starts to fall forwards. Just before he hits the ground he appears to get his levitation spell working again, accelerating through the air near the ground towards John and the mana batteries that are steadily ripping his mind apart.

"Oh yeah?" John carelessly tosses aside the skull and then sticks out his left hand, golden light jumping from the closest battery and shining through his skin as he absorbs it. "Two can play at that-" A red crackling ankh appears in his right hand. "-game."

"Life is matter given order."

John takes a step forwards. "Come on then!"

"Reason is the spark of life."

John pulls his sword back as Nabu reaches him. "Come on you fuck-!"

"Sentience is matter that embraces-" Nabu flies past John, John's hastily swung sword merely clipping his cape. "-reason."

The air around Nabu shines gold as he lands atop a mana battery, sword raised.

Oh shit, opening fire with everything!

"Did you dare think I was not prepared to die for my cause as well?!"

He brings the sword down on the bat-
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Good. I am sure that all adults present on that battlefield would agree that some things are worth dying for.

I am very happy that Nabu sticks to his baked-into-the-soul principles to the last. This is, finally, a good tragedy: Otherwise decent people who have good and noble aims inextricably at odds and incapable of resolving them short of mortal combat because of hteir intrinsic natures.

Mmh. It pleases me.
 
Duncan Idaho said:
Is that for real? If so, ugggh. I've been waiting for a long time to see the conclusion of Nabu, if Zoat does that, yanking the chain of his readers at this precise moment where things are more tense. I think I will stop reading the story.

I know no one will give a fuck about it, but I have to say it. IF it's truth? It's not a nice thing to do.
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Okay, okay, I guess the joke was getting a little old. The reactions just make me laugh.
ChronOblivion said:
And on another note, every author feeds on the agony of their readers.
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That too.
 
Mr Zoat said:
Okay, okay, I guess the joke was getting a little old. The reactions just make me laugh.

That too.
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I stopped trusting that front page ever since your joke during Stars Crossed.

(I would also have just totally been fine with renegade, I am super curious if he's going on any adventures besides the "Slowly slipping towards suicide" ones
 
Mr Zoat said:
Okay, okay, I guess the joke was getting a little old. The reactions just make me laugh.
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You made me laugh and I hate it.
You are a bountiful but capricious god.

I second the 'okay with Renegade' - sure, I care more about the Paragon cliffhanger... but I caught up on the thr Renegade side and getting Anti-Lifed by Darkseid is a big deal too. After all, Renegade has been claiming Grayven's name for a long time too.
 
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Anyone else hoping for a Lord Kilderkin interrupt?

This would be the perfect time for him to appear. Indeed, as Paul pointed out before, Nabu's actions have indirectly resulted in a net-negative for the cause of Order, and in fact has driven more people to the side of Chaos than Chaos itself probably has managed to do in a long time.
 
Guys, have you considered Nabu smashing the battery was what OL and Constantine wanted?

Don't ask me what phase two of the plan was, but this feels like a Constantine plan, and those generally rely on conmanship, and the first rule of conmanship is you never show your hand unless you have some way of taking advantage of them taking advantage.

Thanks
Luc "Xanatos" French
 
Ugolino said:
He's doing heroic sacrifice wrong.
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Nabu of Cilia, Lord of Order, is willing to die fighting a demon-bargaining murderer turned Lord of Chaos and an insane snake cultist given cosmic power even after they perfidiously ambush him, blast him with magic-corroding and soul-searing powers, after they blast him full force with the concentrated essence of pure terror, even after they corrupt a champion of the gods to go against him.

Despite his shields shattering, despite treachery most foul, Nabu endures and fights back against corruption, devilry and chaos.

It's all a matter of perspective.
 
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Cornuthaum said:
Nabu of Cilia, Lord of Order, is willing to die fighting a demon-bargaining murderer turned Lord of Chaos and an insane snake cultist given cosmic power even after they perfidiously ambush him, blast him with magic-corroding and soul-searing powers, after they blast him full force with the concentrated essence of pure terror, even after they corrupt a champion of the gods to go against him.

Despite his shields shattering, despite treachery most foul, Nabu endures and fights back against corruption, devilry and chaos.

It's all a matter of perspective.
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I can't help but notice that the perspective needs to leave out motivations on both sides, and include two to three direct lies, before it makes Nabu look heroic in this case.
 
Spindler said:
I can't help but notice that the perspective needs to leave out motivations on both sides, and include two to three direct lies, before it makes Nabu look heroic in this case.
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Doctor Fate is a hero.

A harsh, uncompromising hero (but so is the Batman), who fights terrors and monsters most heroes cannot even begin to imagine (so do the Green Lanterns), who has been doing this for years and decades and centuries. He is the way he is because he is an emotionally neutered machine dedicated to order at the cost of niceness and because he has one of the worst, most thankless jobs in the galaxy (not that he needs to be thanked, Fate does what Fate does because he must do this. It is, after all, very metaphysical.)

He is, however, in utter opposition to the protagonist, which makes it easy to see him as just another soulless villain. But that's the tragedy of it, he's not. In a better world, Giovanni Zatara would be happy to work with Nabu to fight these things because, well, someone has to and it takes a mighty sorcerer to do so. But neither -16 nor ours are good worlds.
 
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