GilliamYaeger
M'crazy.
Darkseid is fucking terrifying.
With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Thread Twelve)
- Thread starter Mr Zoat
- Start date
- Status
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
The words and the quotes were yellow to signify overwhelming terror that surpassed his other emotions. He didn't achieve fear enlightenment, at least.
Empiricist2
Let's play doctor!
- Location
- Baton Rouge
He probably should have indicated in some way that he was healing them of Reach mind control rather than lobotomizing them or something.
Given standard humanoid hands, each Darkstar would be able to handle at least 10 rings.
In addition to that, Reach tech is a plausible threat to the SI. Against the Spider Guild ship, the Tearing Bite fleet, even if things turned sour he was never in all that much danger of dying. Help for the Spider Guild could be rescinded by physically destroying them, as he did with the Gordanians above Tamaran. For the Reach, a few Beetles are a credible threat, and we haven't even seen their warships yet.
Last time it came up the word count was about 1.5 million. The guy who does the epubs should have an exact count, but you can get a decent estimate by multiplying the number of posts in the Story Only thread by 1,300.
Zoat uses colored punctuation to indicate someone is completely overwhelmed by that emotion. Examples include when Grayven first met Psimon, when Jade was using the orange ring, and multiple times in the episode with Terror Thing. The Ophidian and Maltusians also count I suppose, but they're a special case.
Also, although it hasn't shown up much, colored text with differently colored quotation marks (for non-enlightened characters) means that the emotion of the text is being held in check by the emotion indicated by the quotation marks.
And that is how gods work in this story setting at least. Earth has plenty of ancient gods with no more worshipers who are as strong as they ever were.
Mockingly-Tricky
Ketchup Enthusiast
- Location
- Happy Funtime Candyland
Control (part 7)
- Location
- Hampden Park
17th July
03:06 GMT
The thing about not being a Lantern is that you're limited to the speed your ship's drive can manage. And when your ship is designed more for stealth than speed -and when there's a good chance that the Reach are sending ships after you because shooting criminals isn't covered by their treaty with the Guardians- it can take a good deal longer than I'm accustomed to in order to get anywhere. Having my awareness of the universe external to the ship blocked by those same stealth systems is also a little unnerving, but… Well. That's what most people deal with when travelling.
I exhale slowly as I sit on the floor in one of the ship's empty cabins, hands palm upwards on my knees with a ring floating above each one.
Finally, after over a year, I'm going to meet the Controllers.
This is either going to be a start of something magnificent or a complete car crash.
I mean, I sent them a Guardian ship with a request for a meeting. I'm having a hard time believing that they couldn't send a single person to Earth to say hello. I mean, there are only nine Guardians left and they still managed to send Appa Ali Apsa to spend a couple of weeks just.. driving around America with Lantern Jordan and Mister Queen. There's no way them ignoring me isn't supposed to be sending some sort of message. I just don't know-.
There's a chime from the door. "Orange Lantern, we've arrived in the Sto-Maltus system."
"Thank you for letting me know, Operative Rayyana."
"May I come in for a moment?"
"If Operative Ferrin can spare you, by all means."
The blue metal of the doorway.. vanishes, Operative Rayyana standing behind the space it occupied. Standard pattern humanoid female with skin that's a sort of.. pale orange, a black strip tattooed across her nose and cheeks. With her exo-mantle thoroughly wrecked by the same shot that nearly killed her she's wearing a partially armoured spacesuit decorated in Darkstar colours. Her eyes take in the room and then drop to me with an expression of mild embarrassment. "I'm not.. interrupting you, am I?"
"Oh, no. I completed the essential part of my meditations hours ago." Rings still floating over my palms I rise to my feet. "Is there something I can do for you?"
"I wanted to thank you in person for healing me."
"You're welcome."
She looks away from me, the slight movement of her fingers where they rest against her thighs betraying her discomfort. "I should have said something sooner, but with the rush to get everything together, then you closeted yourself in here…"
"It's not a problem."
Her eyes move to the rings. "I've never seen a Green Lantern do that before."
"Most don't learn remote ring control beyond what they need to call their ring to their finger from a few metres away. I used to find dimming the orange light's influence on my mind… Helpful. Now it's more a habit." I close my hands around them. "How long will it take us to reach the planet?"
"Only a few minutes. Since we don't have to worry about the Reach here they're going to reach out and grab us."
I frown. "Reach out and grab-?"
The ship shudders and oh that's weird.
Operative Rayyana nods. "Like that. No one gets to use FTL inside the system, but our bosses don't want to wait for us to report in."
I nod and walk slowly towards the exit, Operative Rayyana stepping back to allow me into the corridor. "Where will you be going?"
"We'll submit our report and recommendation to Regional Administrator Sleer Prigatz. He's the officer responsible for the part of the Reach periphery where we work. It'll be his job to decide how to prevent the Reach coming back."
I nod. "That's-. Oh, ah, which way to the nearest airlock?"
"This way." She gestures with her right hand. "I'll show you."
"Thank you."
"He'll probably want to meet you. If you're planning on sticking around there are plenty of places that could use someone who can fight Scarab Warriors."
"You can't?"
"Standard protocol for encounters with Scarab Warriors is to run and hide. We just don't have the raw power to fight them. When we can't do that… A squad of maxim-suits attacking from ambush can take one down if they catch them alone, but… It wouldn't be a sure thing."
I nod as we walk down the corridor. "Maxim-suits?"
"Like Tarant wears. They're the heavy combat variety. The rest of us are optimised for other things. Exo-mantles… I could fight a whole army from my homeworld wearing mine. The Reach just make better systems for their Scarab Warriors."
"Will you be reporting to the Controllers at any point?"
"If they ask for us. But I doubt they will. I've been a Darkstar for nine years and I haven't even seen one up close before. The only Darkstar who regularly speaks to them is the Director, Huvah Jeddigar. If you can wait a few days, he should be able to arrange an meeting."
"There are Controllers on planet now?"
"I… Think so? I don't really think about them too much." We come to a halt next to an airlock and she calls up a holoscreen. "Welcome to Maltus."
First good look at the place I've had. Huge, hive-like cities appear dotted across the continent below us. At the periphery they cut off suddenly, the area outside of them being what looks like pristine nature. In other places settlements in a strange mishmash of styles are visible.
"Population, twenty billion."
What? "There are that many Controllers? I assumed that they'd be like the Guardians, only a few of them."
"No, most of that's…" She hesitates. "Clickers."
"Clickers?"
"Their actual name is more like.. 'click, click-click, scrape click', but since most of us can't make that sound we just call them Clickers and have our translators worry about it. They're a pseudo-insectoid race that the Controllers… Indentured, in exchange for helping them alter their physiology. The other places are inhabited by Darkstars and our support personnel, and refugees. Not all Maltusians are Controllers. The Controllers only have about thirty or so members, and there are hundreds of other Maltusians all doing their own thing." She expands one of the mixed-design cities, focusing the holographic display on one particular building. "This is the Darkstar headquarters, where we'll be heading."
"And the Controllers?"
She moves the image to focus on a.. fairly nondescript building made out of what looks like red stone. "Here. This is where they spend their time when they're not busy with something else. I assume they live there, as much as they live anywhere."
"Thank you. Would you mind terribly letting me off here, then? I think I can probably get their attention and I do rather need to speak to them as soon as possible."
03:06 GMT
The thing about not being a Lantern is that you're limited to the speed your ship's drive can manage. And when your ship is designed more for stealth than speed -and when there's a good chance that the Reach are sending ships after you because shooting criminals isn't covered by their treaty with the Guardians- it can take a good deal longer than I'm accustomed to in order to get anywhere. Having my awareness of the universe external to the ship blocked by those same stealth systems is also a little unnerving, but… Well. That's what most people deal with when travelling.
I exhale slowly as I sit on the floor in one of the ship's empty cabins, hands palm upwards on my knees with a ring floating above each one.
Finally, after over a year, I'm going to meet the Controllers.
This is either going to be a start of something magnificent or a complete car crash.
I mean, I sent them a Guardian ship with a request for a meeting. I'm having a hard time believing that they couldn't send a single person to Earth to say hello. I mean, there are only nine Guardians left and they still managed to send Appa Ali Apsa to spend a couple of weeks just.. driving around America with Lantern Jordan and Mister Queen. There's no way them ignoring me isn't supposed to be sending some sort of message. I just don't know-.
There's a chime from the door. "Orange Lantern, we've arrived in the Sto-Maltus system."
"Thank you for letting me know, Operative Rayyana."
"May I come in for a moment?"
"If Operative Ferrin can spare you, by all means."
The blue metal of the doorway.. vanishes, Operative Rayyana standing behind the space it occupied. Standard pattern humanoid female with skin that's a sort of.. pale orange, a black strip tattooed across her nose and cheeks. With her exo-mantle thoroughly wrecked by the same shot that nearly killed her she's wearing a partially armoured spacesuit decorated in Darkstar colours. Her eyes take in the room and then drop to me with an expression of mild embarrassment. "I'm not.. interrupting you, am I?"
"Oh, no. I completed the essential part of my meditations hours ago." Rings still floating over my palms I rise to my feet. "Is there something I can do for you?"
"I wanted to thank you in person for healing me."
"You're welcome."
She looks away from me, the slight movement of her fingers where they rest against her thighs betraying her discomfort. "I should have said something sooner, but with the rush to get everything together, then you closeted yourself in here…"
"It's not a problem."
Her eyes move to the rings. "I've never seen a Green Lantern do that before."
"Most don't learn remote ring control beyond what they need to call their ring to their finger from a few metres away. I used to find dimming the orange light's influence on my mind… Helpful. Now it's more a habit." I close my hands around them. "How long will it take us to reach the planet?"
"Only a few minutes. Since we don't have to worry about the Reach here they're going to reach out and grab us."
I frown. "Reach out and grab-?"
The ship shudders and oh that's weird.
Operative Rayyana nods. "Like that. No one gets to use FTL inside the system, but our bosses don't want to wait for us to report in."
I nod and walk slowly towards the exit, Operative Rayyana stepping back to allow me into the corridor. "Where will you be going?"
"We'll submit our report and recommendation to Regional Administrator Sleer Prigatz. He's the officer responsible for the part of the Reach periphery where we work. It'll be his job to decide how to prevent the Reach coming back."
I nod. "That's-. Oh, ah, which way to the nearest airlock?"
"This way." She gestures with her right hand. "I'll show you."
"Thank you."
"He'll probably want to meet you. If you're planning on sticking around there are plenty of places that could use someone who can fight Scarab Warriors."
"You can't?"
"Standard protocol for encounters with Scarab Warriors is to run and hide. We just don't have the raw power to fight them. When we can't do that… A squad of maxim-suits attacking from ambush can take one down if they catch them alone, but… It wouldn't be a sure thing."
I nod as we walk down the corridor. "Maxim-suits?"
"Like Tarant wears. They're the heavy combat variety. The rest of us are optimised for other things. Exo-mantles… I could fight a whole army from my homeworld wearing mine. The Reach just make better systems for their Scarab Warriors."
"Will you be reporting to the Controllers at any point?"
"If they ask for us. But I doubt they will. I've been a Darkstar for nine years and I haven't even seen one up close before. The only Darkstar who regularly speaks to them is the Director, Huvah Jeddigar. If you can wait a few days, he should be able to arrange an meeting."
"There are Controllers on planet now?"
"I… Think so? I don't really think about them too much." We come to a halt next to an airlock and she calls up a holoscreen. "Welcome to Maltus."
First good look at the place I've had. Huge, hive-like cities appear dotted across the continent below us. At the periphery they cut off suddenly, the area outside of them being what looks like pristine nature. In other places settlements in a strange mishmash of styles are visible.
"Population, twenty billion."
What? "There are that many Controllers? I assumed that they'd be like the Guardians, only a few of them."
"No, most of that's…" She hesitates. "Clickers."
"Clickers?"
"Their actual name is more like.. 'click, click-click, scrape click', but since most of us can't make that sound we just call them Clickers and have our translators worry about it. They're a pseudo-insectoid race that the Controllers… Indentured, in exchange for helping them alter their physiology. The other places are inhabited by Darkstars and our support personnel, and refugees. Not all Maltusians are Controllers. The Controllers only have about thirty or so members, and there are hundreds of other Maltusians all doing their own thing." She expands one of the mixed-design cities, focusing the holographic display on one particular building. "This is the Darkstar headquarters, where we'll be heading."
"And the Controllers?"
She moves the image to focus on a.. fairly nondescript building made out of what looks like red stone. "Here. This is where they spend their time when they're not busy with something else. I assume they live there, as much as they live anywhere."
"Thank you. Would you mind terribly letting me off here, then? I think I can probably get their attention and I do rather need to speak to them as soon as possible."
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- Location
- Denmark
Massgamer
Advance toward the Future
- Location
- The Future
insectoid
That's interesting. Wonder what was up that had the Clickers all decide they needed their physiology changed by the Controllers and from there basically serve them all.
This is also really interesting having more Maltusians around that are technically not Controllers.
Frustratedbuffal
"I shaved my balls for this?!?"
Aww come on man! Stop teasing us!!!
Arafell
Verified Cephalon
- Location
- Oregon
I'm sure there are odder planet names
Must be some sort of HTML lifeform.
- Location
- Hampden Park
Thank you, corrected.
NemiTheNen
Perpetual Phone Poster
I'm thinking some uplift type shenanigans. But I'm more interested in the fact that there are non-Controller Malthusians
- Location
- Madness realms
I gotta wonder at the controllers reaction to OL and I cannot wait to find out what it is.
I'm a little surprised that Maltus has anything even recognizable as cities, given the whole "used technology to build themselves more curve" bit. Would Maltusians consider power rings as being roughly equivalent to iPhones, or more equivalent to something like a pointy stick?
Massgamer
Advance toward the Future
- Location
- The Future
Well first fear and after OL explains things (along with snake explaining he is her new agent) likely as close to joy as possible since the chance to complete their old plan is now possible.
Agreed on both points. Not even the Guardians have other Malthusians hanging out with them.
- Location
- England
Maybe he should bring them some cake.
- Location
- Hampden Park
The cities aren't for the Maltusians themselves.
HogarthThree
Mostly Harmless
- Location
- USA
Minor correction:
She looks away from me, the slight movement of her fingers where they rest against her thighs betraying her discomfort.
She looks away from me, the slight movement of her fingers where they rest against her thighs betraying her discomfort.
HogarthThree
Mostly Harmless
- Location
- USA
Possibly followed by a song and dance number.
The big question is... what kind of cake? I suppose it depends on ingredients available locally. Ideally, he'd find a recipe which is typically done poorly by most bakers, and do it better so as to help redeem the recipe's reputation.
This is turning into a project...
- Location
- United states
I'm actually surprised at the bit mentioning that there were only a few hundred Maltusians on Maltus considering that it's their home planet. You'd think that as powerful as they were they would number in the billions at least.
- Location
- Hampden Park
Thank you, corrected.
- Status