Irrelevant.
In this case, I mean Diabolism as the act of trafficking with demons. Religion need not be involved. And even if Hell is part of God Co.™ I don't think that automatically allows Christians to travel there against the wishes of a government.
They could do that, if they wante to grant legitimacy to their claims that they own the souls of those in hell, and further more, that owning a persons soul is something that is legal.
Unless i am misunderstanding the meaning of the word "trafficking" of course, but even then it would provide limits on what would become illegal under that understanding.
Unless i am misunderstanding the meaning of the word "trafficking" of course, but even then it would provide limits on what would become illegal under that understanding.
Well i don't have a good enough understanding of what the term "dealings" means in a legal context to theorise about the implications of it being illegal. Thank you for making this as clear as possible for me.
He might have to set up a memorial like the one in Happy Harbor commemorating the time some mundane thieves ran into the entire roster of the Justice League as they were leaving the mountain. I imagine he'll have some kind of hilariously one-sided encounter like that someday.
"You arrested all the people who was in the wanted list...IN THE WHOLE STATE?"
"I got two power rings, a Mother Box, and whatever Sphere is. Plus you know I am the New God Of Conquest. If anything you should be yelling at me for not doing this ages ago."
That said, it would really suck for all involved if 2-3 years down the line everything implanted suddenly evaporated. I'm pretty sure that's not how human brains work, but this is a comic book universe.
If that happens they'll have a bit of warning when Superboy suddenly becomes a drooling idiot, since all his education prior to being discovered by Robin Aqualad and Kid Flash was via G-Gnomes.
As for homo superior, they don't even qualify as a subspecies because human subspecies have been mutants. Thanos is an Eternal mutant, there was an atlantean mutant at Xavier's as well.
If that happens they'll have a bit of warning when Superboy suddenly becomes a drooling idiot, since all his education prior to being discovered by Robin Aqualad and Kid Flash was via G-Gnomes.
It wouldn't matter- the knowledge may have been implanted telepathically, but as long as you used and reinforced that knowledge through practice and application, you'd have that knowledge from your memories after the knowledge was planted in your mind even if the telepathic plant faded away.
How hard is it to find an enchanted island inhabited by an ancient demigoddess-sorceress who doesn't want it to be found?
Not all that hard at all when you've got goggles like mine.
Diana only came here once, and since she teleported both in and out she couldn't give me directions. I tried a couple of sources to narrow my search a little, but it seems that scholars have guessed that it might be located in allsorts of places over the years. More frustrating is the fact that while the Odyssey says that she comes from Colchis, for the Greeks that was the equivalent of an English person saying she came from Timbuktu. It's not a literal description -or at least it doesn't have to be-, it just means 'from a very long way away'. Plus the Classical Romans just loved stealing Greek stuff.
On the other hand, Diana definitely described the palace on the island as being in the Hellenic style. And myths have a surprisingly high correlation with reality around here. So I started with a sweep of the Black Sea and then made my way south east along the Bosphorus into the Sea of Marmara until I encountered an island that I could see with my goggles but not without them.
The goggles, they do something.
Out of respect to the woman I'm hoping to see and in the hope that she'll view my presence here as slightly less of an invasion, I open my boom tube well out to sea and start flying towardsAeaea at a speed that will give Circe plenty of time to decide whether to tolerate my presence or not. And whether or not an attack by her beastmen is required.
Flying Monkeys are a distinct possibility here.
No, no, she wouldn't send flying monkeys. She probably hasn't even heard of The Wizard of Oz. Or has she? I mean, Diana managed to modernise herself twice, once moving from the Classical Greek Themyscira to nineteen forties America, and then from Themyscira to noughties America. And there's been basically nothing to stop her teleporting to wherever she wants since the late Mister Nelson stopped wearing the Helmet of Fate. She might not even be in.
Guess I'll… Leave a note then?
Based on what I can see of the buildings on the island, Circe has gone for an almost exploded view for her palace. There isn't a single continuous structure but rather a dock which is physically separated from what looks like a stable, which again is some distance from what I'm going to assume are the servants' quarters. Or possibly peasants' quarters, given that I can see nearby farmland. Even the palace parts are separated into a tower and two halls, though I suppose that those might have assigned functions which are not immediately obvious. The Mistress of the Manor might not be home herself, but there's definite activity in the fields and around the docks. I-. Ah, those are crab-form beastmen. I was curious as to how they fished without drawing unwanted attention. I wonder if the spells bear any resemblance to those the Atlanteans use? Resist.
I get a slight bleugh sensation as I pass through the wards, but once I'm inside nothing else happens. I think that some of the crabs might be looking my way… Hard to tell. Circe herself doesn't deign to show herself as I touch down on the beach. So… Either she doesn't have a problem with me being here but expects me to present myself to her, or I'm about to-.
The javelin embeds itself in the sand about a metre from my position. I look up towards the tree line… And a motley collection of beastmen glares back at me. I see a Lion-person and a Centaur, along with a small mob of Boar-people. Kilts and straps appear to be the dress code, though given the weather and fact that they're covered in fur I suppose that expecting shirts and ties would have been a long shot. As I watch, the Lion grunts something at the Centaur, who turns and runs away from the mob in the general direction of the palace.
I take a few steps forward and bend down, picking up the javelin in my right hand and lifting it up toward the watching beastmen.
"Lads, do you really want to do this?"
The Lion bares his teeth and his claws while the Boars draw their swords.
Sigh.
I stab the javelin back into the sand and-.
Yeah, okay. My daiklave would probably be overkill here. Diana said that Circe's beastmen have enhanced strength, not super strength. I could kill them all pretty easily, but there's really no point. And some of them might still have family…
Ugh. I generate a construct tower shield and cudgel and advance up the incline as they charge down towards me. The Lion takes the lead, not even looking back in his eagerness to reach me. The Boars are a little more rational about it, keeping abreast of each other and carefully watching me as they advance. No shields, I note. Not that it would help, but that does imply that they were assigned to some other duty.
The Lion comes at me at full sprint, probably intending to bowl me over and claw at me on the ground. I brace and crouch slightly as he slams into my shield, his momentum and my immovability causing him to flatten against it. I lurch forward and then stop, causing him to stagger back into striking range. I stab the head of my cudgel forward, striking him in the diaphragm. Because I'm super strong rather than just being a big bloke the result of my stab is him flying backward and collapsing gasping to the ground.
"Stay down, Lion man."
"I-i-i-in-." His gasps for breath cover up anything coherent he might have been saying as I walk carefully around him and towards the approaching Boar line.
"I'll say again, fellahs. I'm here to see Circe and I come in peace. I don't want to fight you, but you're not going to enjoy what happens if you force the issue."
One on the left of the line looks dubiously at his fellows for a moment, but then shakes his head and raises his sword. Looks like they're more afraid of disappointing their domitor than they are of fighting me.
But the main thing is, they're afraid.
I walk patiently towards the centre of their line and they gratefully accept the opportunity to move to surround me. I sigh faintly, then leap backwards, blindly swinging my construct cudgel around as I do so.
"ORRREEEAAAGH!"
The first Boarman I hit has his upper right arm and several of his right ribs smashed, sending him tumbling down the beach towards the sea. My swing continues as his neighbour attempts to backpedal, making it just far enough to save his arm but not his chest. Ribs crack and he's sent flying as I turn toward the rest. One eager fellow is hot on my heels and I repeat what I did to the Lion, letting him run into my shield. He didn't quite give the charge his all and maintains the wherewithal to brace himself against it and stab around it with his sword.
We have a brief moment of eye contact when his discovers that his arm isn't long enough to reach me. Then I tug my shield left to intercept another charging Boar, causing him to spin around until he's facing me again. As we line up I bring my forehead forwards with a smash, knocking him stunned to the ground.
Then they're all piling on me and it isn't worth keeping precise tabs on who is where. Steel swords predictably fail to pierce my armour or skin as I yank my arms left and right, slamming Boar into Boar and taking smashes of opportunity with my cudgel. Rendering them too injured to fight back takes a little over a minute. Another minute to scan them to make sure that they aren't imminently going to expire-
Your humanitarian credentials are impeccable, Corpsman.
-and I stride back toward the fallen Lion. He's managing to sit upright, but the fight still seems to be knocked out of him.
"What was that in aid of?"
"You... Invader! Mistress's land-."
"I came here because I want to talk to her, not brawl with her." I generate a construct harness and use it to drag him to his feet. "Now take me to her. We have things to discuss."
I smile. "Well, if we can pick supervillains I'd probably have gone with Circe ahead of Nabu." Diana blinks in surprise. I shrug. "I just find it easier to relate to her goals. 'More power for me' rather than whatever Nabu's trying to achieve. I can deal with selfish people. Society works because it's easier for people to get what they want by working together than constantly fighting against each other. I can't deal with deranged idealists. You just can't reason with people like that." I'm having trouble coming up with another major league magic user.
Yeah, okay. My daiklave would probably be overkill here. Diana said that Circe's beastmen have enhanced strength, not super strength. I could kill them all pretty easily, but there's really no point. And some of them might still have family…
I might be wrong. But I think the shockcrown thing was something Paul developed early on because he wasn't so keen on the violent part of violent expedience. Grayven... never had that problem. And by the time it was a more preferable solution for him, he was long changed from the person who would come up with it.
Apparently Circe never developed a proper protocol for intruders who completely outclass her guards. Perhaps she just doesn't care about injuries to them?
nope. his nonlethal option is something called an agony matrix. it screws with your brain to inflict more pain on you than what should be physically possible for your nervous system to feel. He's stopped using it, but he never really came up with a replacement.
Apparently Circe never developed a proper protocol for intruders who completely outclass her guards. Perhaps she just doesn't care about injuries to them?
She might have wards, there was a storyline in which she warded an entire city so that any males entering were transformed into her beastmen thralls, for example.
But since Zoat added anti magic and anti transformation to the New Gods' meager list of advantages, the defences of a spellcaster who specializes in transformations aren't going to be that effective.
Oh goodness, I didn't know that either. I just looked it up and it specifically calls out Homo sapiens in the text of the law.
More surprisingly, it has actually come up in court in the state of California, where a Dog was stated to be incapable of being culpable of crime because it was not a person.
