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

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Yog said:
Paul has:
1) Unlimited money. As in, he has more precious resources than the Earth economy can support getting.
2) Access to Greek Pantheon, including the gods of economics and interpersonal relationships.
3) Access to advanced standard humanoid societal modeling systems and hyperadvanced computers to run them on
4) Goodwill of a number of political and charity organizations across the globe.

Paul should not fear a PR war. He should engage in it, preemptively.
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1. He would crash the markets and have governments block him out by any means possible. Super taxes. Solar system taxes. Alien taxes. Just look at how much Wall Street is regulated. I am sure there are plans in place in case an alien tries to dump a lot of precious metals on Earth. If there aren't plans, they could be put in place quickly. All you have to do is revoke Paul's immigration status and declare his presence in the US a crime. Then start fining the heck out of the various companies he helps.
2. They don't seem to want to get that involved. They aren't going to come out and say we are with Paul. In fact that would hurt him if there is negative PR from the Silver City. No one worships Greek Gods over half the worlds population follows the Silver City. People would be going to Kord Industries and shooting the place up or flying planes into the building. People get crazy over religious issues. A literal mandate from Heaven would form the first unified Crusade/Jihad in the entire meta-verse.
3. Alien civilizations seem to have more social problems than Earth. Doubt they have a magic computer system that fixes or figures stuff out like that. As for the OL Corps, this is his back yard and they are fighting a war with the Reach. It would be incredibly embarrassing if his home planet kicked him out and he had to ask for help.
4. A large number of those charity organizations are religious in nature. The politicians will crumple like wet paper if there is a religious out cry. 86% in favor of 'In God We Trust'. If God says Paul is bad, well you will get +70% at a minimum. No politician would dream about going against those kinds of numbers.

Don't underestimate the capacity for people to be stupid and cruel. Make that triply so when it involves religion. There is a reason why a lot of places don't allow political or religious discussion. It makes people hot and bothered very quickly. Viewpoints are a matter of faith and belief. Not of reason and facts. It doesn't matter if Angels are dicks and God doesn't give two shits. People believe and that is enough. If anything does come out there will be a lot of blow back on Paul. If the Silver City actually does anything/makes a statement it will be the most epic of public turn around in the history of public turn arounds.

It doesn't matter that Paul has helped things out or made Cake. If he took credit for Klarion, then people may hesitate, but he didn't. Sure he has iced the ice caps and cleaned the oceans, but the regular working man wouldn't care. Looking at the elections in the US and other countries, there is a populist, right faction. So all those people who go to church or know someone who goes to church will be inclined to say 'Paul did a bad thing and should be punished.' Remember the only thing more the media loves more than a scandal, is a scandal targeting a white knight type of character.
 
Is anyone else a little annoyed?

Everything that has happened since he returned to Earth has been about Blaze. This random character who wouldn't have even come into the narrative if the League had any agency to choose their own magic specialist. That's an author imposed problem, that doesn't feel natural.

There's nothing stopping the League from choosing their own mage. Instead, it falls into the SI's lap, because of his actions. Could have been a cool moment for Paul to return and see that the League had asked Zatara or others for their advice, had learned from their mistakes. Instead, they wait for Gary to save the day.
 
Hmmaster said:
Is anyone else a little annoyed?

Everything that has happened since he returned to Earth has been about Blaze. This random character who wouldn't have even come into the narrative if the League had any agency to choose their own magic specialist. That's an author imposed problem, that doesn't feel natural.

There's nothing stopping the League from choosing their own mage. Instead, it falls into the SI's lap, because of his actions. Could have been a cool moment for Paul to return and see that the League had asked Zatara or others for their advice, had learned from their mistakes. Instead, they wait for Gary to save the day.
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I think letting OL find them a new magic expert is the result of their chronic issues with formalized organization and what needs prioritizing.
 
The reason we're seeing all this stuff revolving around Blaze is that it's what Paul's interested in. Remember, he's not a member of the Justice League and he isn't taking missions with the Team anymore. If he was then he'd be doing that stuff instead.
 
SirKaid said:
The reason we're seeing all this stuff revolving around Blaze is that it's what Paul's interested in. Remember, he's not a member of the Justice League and he isn't taking missions with the Team anymore. If he was then he'd be doing that stuff instead.
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He's doing this for the League. Sure, he's not a member. But the whole reason that he's doing this is because he's somehow more capable of choosing a magic user for the League than the League itself. :rolleyes:
 
Recall that Batman was in the process of doing what Paul is doing right now before he showed up. He mentioned that he was ludicrously busy because crime never stops. He also mentioned that he had a list of magic users but they were proving elusive.

Paul wasn't doing anything, so he took one of Batman's dozen spinning plates.
 
Hmmaster said:
He's doing this for the League. Sure, he's not a member. But the whole reason that he's doing this is because he's somehow more capable of choosing a magic user for the League than the League itself. :rolleyes:
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The reason that Paul is doing this is because,

1. From the Justice League's viewpoint he is capable of finding skilled, powerful, and downright obscure people with extreme ease. This is mostly because he abuses his meta knowledge to know who and what he needs to look for and then tells his ring to handle the actual finding. So Paul doesn't waste time finding and vetting possible recruits because he already knows of almost every possible hero, metahuman, magic-user, etc. to recruit for the League or his own projects.

2. Since he is no longer a part of the Team and is on leave from his Lantern Corp duties he has the free time to do this with his full attention. Other members of the Justice League have their own duties to attend to, with most people they recruit being other heroes in their own circles of influence. Since they know these people and their capabilities personally, they have an easier time judging if they meet the qualifications for handling Justice League duties. They don't have the time to put the effort to actually find and get to know possible heroes to recruit. Paul pointed out the problem that the league was very America-centric due to the fact that almost all of its founding members are American and; barring semi-rare occasions, operate predominately in America. They do not recruit far afield because they did not have time to learn much of anyone outside their area of operation. Matter of fact Batman was going to do the recruiting but due to his workload and lack of knowledge on magic society it was taking a lot longer.

3. In this case the magic community is very insular, secretive, and out of the way so even knowing of a magic user in the weight class of the likes of Nabu or even Giovanni Zatarra is difficult. Actually finding someone in that limited pool that has the time to contribute to the league becomes even harder. Since Paul already knows who he can recruit he doesn't have to waste time interviewing the 'noes' and the 'maybes' and can go directly to the ones that have a high chance of saying 'yes'

In summary, Paul is the Leagues Recruiter because he already knows of everyone that they could recruit to the point that actually vetting their background and interviewing them for availability and capability is almost a formality.
 
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Valiran said:
I think letting OL find them a new magic expert is the result of their chronic issues with formalized organization and what needs prioritizing.
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Which is sort of a point about their more lax organization and habit of recruiting trustworthy people and face-punchers (& blasters). Which is mostly supported by cannon too. Of course, given how trust-bound everything has to be, the JL almost has to be somewhat... nepotism is a bit too strong, but like two notches below that?

That said, the diversity of recruitment and array of civilian organizers is one of the things I find I prefer from the JLAU. Getting a secretary for every League member, or even one person shared between every three, would probably help them out a lot. They're good people, but the ones with the most skill and experience in logistics and organizing are the ones most over-whelmed by work (Batman) and paranoid (especially Batman).

The Green Lantern Corps has a Clarissi for exactly that, and copying that organization was a very wise move on Paul's part.

Every JL member would probably say its important, but on any given day they're more likely to spend their energy saving lives immediately than they are in the preparatory searching. Which isn't bad, because lives are being saved, but it can include bad consequences.
 
spencer1519 said:
Recall that Batman was in the process of doing what Paul is doing right now before he showed up. He mentioned that he was ludicrously busy because crime never stops. He also mentioned that he had a list of magic users but they were proving elusive.

Paul wasn't doing anything, so he took one of Batman's dozen spinning plates.
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Sure.

But there's nothing stopping Zoat from having it be otherwise, having Batman not be too busy. As it is now, the League may as well not exist. *insert handwave "they are busy" excuse*

I know that's how canon goes. But this is fanfiction, and it's even more fanfiction than it's ever been, thanks to the post s1 content. There's absolutely zero reason that the League have to be as passive as they are in the show. You don't have to denigrate your other characters in order to prop up your protagonist.

Edit: the show's premise is a show about sidekicks stepping up, so it makes sense there that the League doesn't fix problems. But there's less oversight for fanfiction to be beholden to.
 
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Hmmaster said:
Sure.

But there's nothing stopping Zoat from having it be otherwise, having Batman not be too busy. As it is now, the League may as well not exist. *insert handwave "they are busy" excuse*
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Sorry if this seems like another person jumping down your throat, but I'm (and other people probably) here because I'm okay with that part of the story, or at least not bothered enough to have it outweigh the rest of it.

As for how this applies to your argument, I think you're right, but don't feel that it's enough to keep me from mentally glossing over it. I choose to think of it as, if OL were not doing this, he'd be doing something else for the League, while the League handled this in the background just as (presumably) they're handling other things now. It'd be in the air until it's mentioned in-story, but at the moment I (personal tolerance) don't feel that the number of things in the air is excessive, even if it's a bit higher than some other fics.

I'm actually more okay with this one than others since it's narratively coherent, with OL fixing what he broke and addressing the Hell problem, which is an OL/Hellblazer-centric antagonist.

For the fanfiction angle, sure, OL could just spend a few arcs 4Xing out in space and doesn't need to be involved with the League at all, which, in a DC fanfiction, would be somewhat of an odd move. But in order to interact with the League, this is several (?) million words and years into the fic, and to be less than equal at the very least to the League at this point, in a fic that started with the premise "power rings are awesome," just would not be satisfying at all. Constant power-scaling and the frustration that came with it was the death of a different million+ word fic.

This kind of got away from me, but I guess the point I'm trying to make is that this isn't some hard-right turn into Mary Sueism, it's within the bounds of tolerance in my opinion, with importance/power levels adjusted for a very long fic. I get the feeling it'll balance out soon enough, if I'm reading the right hints out of the last few chapters.
 
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Alienated (part 18)
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    • 9th October
    12:40 GMT -5

    Canis steps away from Ms Blaze as she writhes against the suppression chains binding her arms, legs and neck. "Done. It does not appear to be helping."

    "Sephtian, what happened?"

    "I am not.. sure." He holds out his hands towards the glowing network of sigils floating in the air at the behest of his two colleagues -a spiritualist and an arcanist if I remember correctly- and his eyes shimmer as he connects his senses to the output glyph. "It seems that her inherent magics are being disrupted. Attacked in some way."

    Zatanna frowns. "The mountain's still warded though, right?"

    "Yes. Yes, this isn't a directed attack. I doubt that it is even-"

    "Said I was safe… Bastard, oath-breaking Lantern!"

    "-technically an attack."

    "A conventional sympathetic resonance wouldn't be enough to reach her here. How is this working?"

    "If I knew that, then I would be counteracting-." His eyes clear and he leans to his right to peer at Ms Blaze through the glyphs. "Ms Blaze, are you drawing on external power resources?"

    "Of course I am, fool!"

    "That would be the source of the problem." Sephtian's eyes stop glowing. "The wards here would not stop the sympathetic resonance you yourself created. If someone was able to-"

    "There's no way-"

    "-access the other-."

    "-he has the power to dooouaaagh!"

    "-end of the bindings..." Sephtian looks down with concern as Ms Blaze spasms uncontrollably. "Given that your brother is increasingly becoming a power in Hell, it does not seem too implausible that he has found a way to interfere with your interface."

    "Blaze, if he's back-hacked that mini-Hell of yours, the game's up. There's nothing you can do to maintain access to it and keep him out."

    "You did this!"

    "I gain nothing from harming you like this. Shut down the Hell, and we can-."

    "You're.. trying to.. force me! You know you can't fulfil your end of the bargain and-!"

    I hold up the pomegranate so that she can see it.

    "Fresh from Eden."

    "Give it to me!"

    "Release your captives first. I'm not sure what would happen if you ate this, but I'm sure it would be worse with Satanus sticking his oar in. I want to have Sephtian's team examine it first-."

    The spiritualist turns his head towards me. "We have names, you know."

    "-because we still don't really know what it does. It could make the situation worse, but the only avenue of attack we can think of-."

    "Fine!"

    "Okay. Zatanna, get ready."

    She takes a grip on her staff and holds it up slightly. "Decnahne sexelfer, etarucca taerht noitasiretcarahc…"

    I generate manacle constructs binding Ms Blaze. "Canis, please remove the manacles."

    He cautiously begins by removing the clamp from her neck.

    "Ms Blaze, I would very much appreciate it if you could do anything within your power to avoid sending them to actual-Hell. Even if you care nothing for their suffering, I would remind you that your brother would most likely make use of them if that happened."

    "…gnisselb fo evol…"

    Canis finishes removing the binding chains from Ms Blaze's legs and steps back. Given her physiological symptoms I suppose I should be impressed that she's remained aware of her environment.

    "…and last of all, s'rotaderp htarw."

    Zatanna now has glowing violet construct armour which looks a little like a xenomorph made of crystal to complement her glowing violet eyes. Violet light radiates from all corners of the room and I'm sure there's a lot of magic-related things going on there that I'm not perceiving.

    "Ms Blaze, we've removed the restrictions-."

    Sephtian's assistants dive for the floor in what I'm sure is part of a carefully crafted contingency plan rather than a panicked reflex as hellfire blasts from Ms Blaze's eyes and mouth. The purple-red flames flare about a metre and a half into the air before fading into nothingness. I'm.. tentatively going to assume that she's venting the magics keeping her mini-Hell going, and from the way Sephtian's eyes have gotten brighter I'd guess that he's finding the process fascinating. I wonder how long she's had it for? I rather doubt that it's a recent invention, and-.

    The flames cut out, and Blaze's skin.. fades from its previous red to a pale and more Human-like flesh tone. Her horns similarly become first translucent and then transparent before vanishing almost completely. All that is left are small nubs on her forehead… And if I'm honest, aesthetically it looks much better.

    "Mmruughh." She shakily opens her eyes, blinking at me. "There. Powerless. Happy now?"

    "I won't be happy until you've burned your brother to nothing with golden fire. Sephtian?"

    "The attack has… I can't tell whether it is stopped or not, but there are no observable effects on Ms Blaze."

    "If we're really lucky, Satanus won't realise and will keep wasting his time on that."

    Canis is regarding Ms Blaze curiously. She snarls at him as she sits up. "What are you looking at?"

    "You have given up your God-Name in the hope of acquiring a stronger one. I understand the rationale, but there is no true equivalent on Apokolips." Fascinating.

    "Lunatic." She moves her attention first to me and then to Sephtian. "Well? When do I get my new wings?"

    "Your spiritual energies are still fundamentally demonic, portable demi-plane or not. We will still need some time to study the fruit which Orange Lantern recovered from Eden before we can formulate an attachment ritual."

    "Or if you think I'm holding out and you want to take the risk, you're free to eat it now?"

    Sephtian's eyes fade as he turns to look at me, his colleagues cautiously picking themselves off the floor. "That would.. be unwise to say the least."

    "Give me the fruit."

    "Ms Blaze-."

    "Give it to me."

    I hold it out and she takes it from my hand, studying it carefully.

    "You weren't lying. I can feel the Hosts' magic…" She hands it over to Sephtian. "Get back to work."
     
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    • Mr Zoat said:
    "That would be the source of the problem." Sephtian's eyes stop glowing. "The wards here do not stop the sympathetic resonance you yourself created. If someone was able to-"

    "There's no way-"

    "-access the other-."

    "-he has the power to dooouaaagh!"

    "-end of the binding." Sephtian looks down with concern as Ms Blaze spasms uncontrollably. "Given that your brother is increasingly becoming a power in Hell, it does not seem to implausible that he has found a way to interfere with your interference."
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    too

    Also Sephtian's sentence seems incomplete:
    "If someone was able to access the other end of the binding."
     
    Mr Zoat said:
    Canis is regarding Ms Blaze curiously. She snarls at him as she sits up. "What are you looking at?"

    "You have given up your God-Name in the hope of acquiring a stronger one. I understand the rationale, but there is no true equivalent on Apokolips."
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    Does Canis mean this philosophically or does he have some kind of mystical sense telling him this? If it's the latter, what's the significance of it? Even if there's no equivalent, what's the gut reaction?

    Edit: completely missed the invisi-text like an idiot.
     
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