It's the former, as not all of it is stuff he found, some are lifted from his experiences with other people, like Bruce and pa Kent
Life Ore Death - DC Feruchemy [Young Justice]
- Thread starter Obloquy
- Start date
- Crossover
More Than a garage sale - part 3
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Life Ore Death
* Thanagar Trip, day 1 [Sh'ri Valkyr focus]Sh'ri Valkyr pasted on a pleasant smile over her murderous rage as she hurried (on foot! The process used to temporarily synch her DNA signature with that of Nala Mahan had knocked out her flight ability for a few days, and the indignity of it burned, even if she would make a great many more sacrifices in service to her Unspeakable Master,) over to greet her two targets for the next week.
"Hello, I'm so sorry for being late," she lied as she arrived within conversational range. She dipped her wings down to ankle-level and back up again. "Nala Mahan has been unexpectedly preoccupied with something-," That something was being dead, and Mahan would remain preoccupied with it until and unless Necromina finally managed to resurrect a corpse. "-of an immediate nature. My name is Valkyr," she continued, because her primary name was far more common than her secondary name, "and I will be your guide today."
"I'm Jimmy, and this is Wren," introduced the barefaced male. He stepped toward her and reached out his hand. Valkyr almost leaned away and swatted at him, but the female in the green-and-gold leptre mask tapped his arm and murmured a reminder. "Whoops, sorry."
"First-," Valkyr needed to get them out away from the quarters' yard before anyone noticed anything. "-have you eaten yet?"
The Domicile Department provided food, lodging, and sanitation to all those who requested it, but the provisions were of limited quality unless an individual bought superior services. They were currently at a high-quality abode building, no doubt funded by Thanaldar for the visitors' convenience, but if the targets had only had a few hours with their guide the day before, Valkyr was willing to bet that they weren't briefed.
"Lightly," the female answered. She and he shared a look. She added, "We could eat again, if you have a recommendation."
"I know of a place nearby," Valkyr agreed, and led the way. She took advantage the travel time to assess her targets.
The male was tall, but lanky, and while it was not uncommon for sufficiently advanced species to bio-engineer less-than-obvious increases of strength and toughness, he lacked a warrior's walk and wariness. His gaze would drift or flit quickly, but he looked to things more than to beings for whatever reason, and his clothing concealed no discernible weaponry. His decision to forgo a mask… could mean any number of things, especially since he was a foreigner. The lens on his device indicated that it was some primitive image recorder, and his use of it at random times, coupled with exclamations of emotion or interest, placed him firmly in the civilian category.
The female was taller than him by a few inches – they both had almost a head on Valkyr in height – and far more heavily muscled. She did not wear noticeable armor with her green top, and the black skirt that reached her ankles would almost certainly interfere with rapid movement, but the skirt also hid most of her legs. What Valkyr could see of her feet indicated sensible footwear, and a balanced, ready stance for fast reactions. She had to be a warrior.
She also wore a yellow sash, looped over her right shoulder to her left hip. It had several pockets, which held a rectangular computerized device, a thinner rectangle that was almost certainly some form of weapon, and several smaller objects obscured by the sash's cloth.
Incorporating all of that with the meaning of her mask – it was cut to display the beauty of her features and hair without restricting her vision, the green indicated friendliness and affability, as though she would be unopposed to meeting new people and striking up random conversations with them, while the presumed wealth indicated by the gleaming gold (a holdover belief from long ago, despite Thangar's use of digital credits for centuries) would separate her from hired companions and indicate a certain level of presumed status – Valkyr's first instinct would be to identify her as an undercover bodyguard to the noble male, and possibly his bed-warmer, given the number of alien cultures that still believed the most sure way to guard someone in their sleep was to have a guard sleeping alongside them.
Her briefing from Mistress Meteorra – Declaimer of Rationality, Herald to the Unspeakable Master – had indicated the opposite.
It was supposed to be the female that was of greater importance, and imperiled the plans of the Almighty, while the male was just a footnote. As her Mistress could never be wrong (unless this was a test of Sh'ri Valkyr in some manner), Valkyr revised her opinion to suggest that the female was a visiting warrior or noblewoman of some import, and the male she kept for her own amusement as a pet.
That made much more sense.
"Before we go in, I just realized," Valkyr announced, hesitating outside the area of the eatery, "I don't have access to your bio-files." It was a lie, but she only had access to them through official systems; if she could get them to give another sample to her then she could deliver that to Mistress Meteorra to be used and analyzed freely. "The eatery will be able to check if things are healthy, but I will be able to plan out our meals in advance if I have access to that." Not that the targets couldn't plan things out on their own, assuming they could interface with the computer systems' available languages, but they didn't need to know that. "If you wouldn't find it inconvenient?" she simpered disgustingly.
The two consented after a brief discussion, Valkyr produced her personalized device - designed to take three or four times as large a sample - and they both bled as directed. Valkyr then confirmed that a certain dish served here would be fit for them to eat, claimed the need to double-check her available information due to the last-second nature of the 'reassignment,' and fled to make the delivery.
Her inability to fly burned in her still, but the DNA systems all read her as Guide Nala Mahan, and requisitioning a rozgarn for transport was a regular guide responsibility of little consequence, so there was no risk of visual cross-confirmation from anyone.
Valkyr left the rozgarn at a depot, and maintained strict control as she slipped into the underground.
Within ten minutes, she was at the designated meeting point.
Mistress Meteorra, Declaimer of Rationality and herald to the Unspeakable Master, arrived to find Sh'ri Valkyr kneeling.
"You are supposed to be monitoring your targets," the dark-skinned woman declared.
{Justify Your Disobedience}
"Mistress, I live and die in service," Sh'ri Valkyr groveled. "My targets are taking a meal, and I feared there would be no better opportunity to deliver these genetic samples." The kick caught her in the shoulder, sending her skidding back a few inches.
"I shall be the judge of that. Dismissed, and begone before you are missed," Mistress Meteorra commanded.
Sh'ri Valkyr did not even stay to speak obedience; she simply leaped to obey and fled.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
* Thanagar Trip, day 1 [Document Draft]
Experiences from our first full day on Thanagar:
Well, I guess government bureaucracies are the same everywhere; after a light breakfast of safe foods we waited for our government-assigned guide, only to find out the Ms. Mahan had been switched out at the last minute for some reason. Our replacement guide, Valkyr (last name not mentioned), was a little bit flustered with everything, and unprepared, but she was pretty clearly coming off medical leave – she won't regain her natural flight ability for a few more days, but that's what flight rings and rental cars are for – so we cut her some slack.
She took us to a place that gave a better (sort of) quality of breakfast while she ran off to City Hall or somewhere to get our papers processed. She was back before we finished, and we got her to relax and join us; apparently she's usually a fast eater (or it's a culture thing).
Ferris wanted to visit bookstores and historic districts first thing, but apparently almost everything is digitized in Thanaldar, so Valkyr said she needed a day or two to do the research for where she could take us. It didn't help that data generally (even in book format) is handled and distributed by the offices overseeing its topic categories: books about history are handled by the offices of historians; cookbooks are sold mostly by the FDA equivalent; fiction books aren't very popular, so they mostly get filed under Philosophy & Ethics or Psychology.
Instead, we spent most of our first morning in the parks and gardens. There weren't a lot of playgrounds exactly – I imagine slides and swings are less fun when you can fly – but we did see some obstacles courses and public exercise equipment.
There were some creepy things, too.
Spread out on walls, surfaces, and billboards were a bunch of screens of different sizes: some were billboards, some only posters. The only thing they displayed was a slideshow of pictures (mug shots) of Thanagarians plus writing. At that time, we didn't have our translators yet, but Ferris has a trick that sort of worked to read things – she said all the Nth metal influences her powers (which I do not describe at her request), but it's not really "interference" – and she said they're crime reports.
So, Thanagar has the mug shots of criminals and descriptions of their crimes and sentences, playing on a loop in public places all day every day. It seems sort of dystopian, but no one really cares about it.
Which isn't to say people don't look at them. I've seen plenty of Thanagarians (both species) taking a few minutes to watch as the screen cycles through names, or just pausing to get a closer look at one in particular. Sometimes they express satisfaction, sometimes they move on….
When Ferris was off testifying about her experiences in the afternoon, I mostly just wandered around with Valkyr and took a lot of pictures; some things remained the same and some things were so obviously new and different. I got a bunch of great shots from a JK (the exact spelling in English), which is this circle that's like a taxi cab Valkyr rented, and at the park I got a bunch of pictures of kids playing.
There was a gaggle of Cipitrina and Lizarkon kids playing some game; no flying allowed, and it sounded like Red Rover plus Tag.
A bunch of kids of differing shapes and sizes all playing together pretty happily.
If that don't give you hope, nothing will.
Though, when I asked whether I'd look like a creep with my camera, Valkyr pointed out that they were already being recorded.
Apparently, Thanagar is a bit of a… police state? Security cameras everywhere. Valkyr didn't know or wouldn't tell me if they're actively monitored or only making recordings for review if anything happens. Oh, and she mentioned Thanagarians wearing trackers a lot, but I didn't want to ask many more questions because I was freaking out about the answers.
I guess we've got an example of what "alien mindset" really means, because everyone seems normal, and pretty happy, if reserved.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
* Thanagar Trip, day 2 [Jimmy PoV]
"Hey, what's over here?" I asked, wandering over to a quietly humming support pillar covered in… some kind of display. There were squares of plastic (Thanagar didn't use much paper – even the books in this store were made of plastic) the size of printer paper covering all six sides of the pillar from top to bottom in a grid pattern. Each one had writing on it, and a grid of square dots that was pretty much a QR Code, but Motherbox had trouble translating written language and the Thanagarian scanners needed to scan things first.
"Licenses," Valkyr answered shortly, leaving Renka to browse through elementary school level history books and encyclopedias. She pointed to each square as she named it. "License to sell books on psychology. License to sell books about medicine. License to sell books about architecture. Physics. Engineering. Law. History. By law, they must be publically visible and displayed for examination."
"All of these? There's got to be a few hundred!" 'This bureaucracy is crazy!'
"What?" Valkyr looked confused for a moment. "No more than forty or fifty. Each side has them posted in a different language."
'Oh, that makes more sense. She did say that the translators were set for the six main languages of Thanagar.' "Which languages?"
Valkyr outlined that two of them were ethnic/historic languages of the Cipitrina, two of them from the Lizarkons, one synthetic language create by order of the Ruling Council for easy communication between everyone on Thanagar, and the last was a language used to communicate with off-worlders, some kind of interstellar lingua franca.
I made sure to repeat it to Renka, because she knew, like, 6-7 languages already, so I'd guessed she'd want to learn new ones.
She kissed me on the cheek and added a couple language primer books to her collection of purchases.
I keep calling them books, but actually, the physical copies were sorta half-books, half-scrolls. Each book was actually one long sheet of thin, super-durable plastic with words printed on it (in red, or blue, or black, or green, and I didn't know why the difference mattered), and then the sheet got folded up like an accordion until it was this big block that looked like a book.
When I asked about paper, Valkyr gave me some non-answer about trees, and paper being destroyed when it got wet, or torn, and the plastic being cheaper to print on, but my keen reporter instincts told me that there was more to the story.
Unfortunately, we were guests, so prying would be rude, and it probably wasn't any deep, dark secret anyway. Probably.
Besides, I wasn't Lois, and Clark wasn't in the solar system to rescue me.
After we checked out, I convinced her to let me carry two of her three bulging bags of books – she'd bought six language primers, some bilingual books, several history books about ancient Thanagar, a couple illustrated volumes about things, some general encyclopedias, and a few dictionaries – but that only lasted until Valkyr called an automated drone to deliver our stuff back to the hotel.
She suggested that we could go clothes shopping or something, but it was getting close to the time Renka needed to go to City Hall and testify in her interviews again, so we got lunch and flew off to the big building.
'If I live to 103, flying will still be the coolest thing ever,' I decided as we touched down on the 9th floor balcony of the big building.
Like, a super-duper big building. It almost 30 stories tall – above ground, but I would bet there were areas below ground as well, plus Thangarian architecture likes putting 60-70 feet between the floor and ceiling per story – and its floor layout was the size of a city block.
'It totally makes sense, since this is like, the White House, Congress, and the Pentagon all rolled into one for the whole planet,' I figured, 'but it's still a little mind-boggling.' "You're sure I'm allowed to take pictures of this?" I checked, hefting my trusty camera.
Well, one of them. I had a slim digital camera in a case in my cargo pants pocket, and duh my phone could take pictures too; a proper reporter is always prepared for a story!
"Of the outside? Anyone can see it. No private recordings are permitted once you enter," Valkyr clarified. "Miss Wren?"
"If I finish early enough, then we can track each other down for dinner," she confirmed. We kissed.
I really like kissing her, in case you couldn't guess.
We parted, and she stepped back, smiling.
"Planning on more photography?" she checked.
"Now that I can fly? Of course," I half-babbled, grinning, because the views were killer from the air. 'I wonder if I can figure out some skate/hover-board tricks to try?' "I'm thinking wide shots, some panoramas and scenic stuff, and a bunch of buildings and layouts today, but-," I gave a nod to Valkyr, because talking about people instead of to them is super rude. "-I figure I can ask Miss Valkyr can see about me visiting some schools, or doctors' clinics, or bakeries and stuff. We're still on for-," 'I'd probably lose my Man Card if guys heard me looking forward to this, but "screw you, I have a hot girlfriend who shows off for me," is all I have to say to them.' "-clothes shopping and stuff tomorrow morning, right?"
"If that plan works well," she agreed, also nodding to Valkyr, who nodded back. Motherbox chimed, but Renka didn't react, so I guessed it wasn't important. "Mm. After tomorrow, the next two days are a holiday, I think. I am interested in the wildlife preserves."
"Wildlife and some of the historic districts, I remember," Valkyr confirmed earnestly. "I'll work on getting the visiting permits."
"Thank you." Renka pecked me again, and went inside.
'Alright.' I rolled my shoulders and hefted my camera. "Is there a limit to how high we can go with these rings?" I asked, rubbing my Valorium flight ring with my thumb. "If I can get the entire city in one shot, that'd be super."
"We need to remain inside the atmosphere, and there are soft force fields around the upper levels of the state center complex."
"Awesome," I said, biting back a repeat of 'super' again. 'Man, I started saying it again to fit in with Wren's tics and share some laughs, and now I can't stop. Should I be embarrassed? …Nah.' "So can we go? …There's not a battery charge on here, or anything, right?"
"Does it feel cold on your finger? Does your hand still feel a little sensitive, or numb?" Valkyr countered.
"Uh, yeah."
"Then it's still working, drawing in environmental energy, body heat and bioelectricity."
'Oh, right! That's why it can activate with thinking, because I'm sending nerve signals to my hand and everything.' "Right. Can we go?"
"Lead the way," she invited drily.
'I hope my tourist thing isn't wearing on her nerves or anything. Okay… Float up,' I ordered, sending commands to my fingers that didn't really… Miss Valkyr said it felt a bit different for different species, and to me it felt like spreading imaginary wings. My stomach dropped, but it was a rush as I floated up, feet off the floor. 'Flying is amazing,' I reflected again, like every time today I'd done this.
I took aim, adjusted my view, made sure Valkyr was out of the frame because she'd said she didn't want to appear in pictures, and snapped a few shots of the city from the balcony so I could get all the pillars and pyramids and people flying through the open air.
"That's good. Okay, going up," I announced, and shoved up through the air with my imaginary wings.
- Location
- Canada, probably
Yeah, pretty much. Good read Valkyr.
ScottotheUnwise
Verified Crack (fic) Dealer
- Location
- Mulberry, Fl
Jimmy is totally going to be the damsel in distress, isn't he?
I can't wait for the tour guide to describe something a 'beautiful garden center' to Jimmy and for Wren to hear the truth behind the words as 'moldering waste of fiscal units to hide the smells of corruption!' --and then they compare notes. Valky strikes me more as a revolutionary soldier than a spy, especially for a 'villain', but lets just say the titles used for her boss suggest less than 'nice' objectives.
I can't wait for the tour guide to describe something a 'beautiful garden center' to Jimmy and for Wren to hear the truth behind the words as 'moldering waste of fiscal units to hide the smells of corruption!' --and then they compare notes. Valky strikes me more as a revolutionary soldier than a spy, especially for a 'villain', but lets just say the titles used for her boss suggest less than 'nice' objectives.
- Location
- Canada, probably
If you mean the part in italics, I believe that's because it is.
RyubosJ
Person that hates Mega Evolutions.
- Location
- UK
Nope, The other Jimmy part
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Lucas "Snapper" Carr is A01 in the Zeta Tube register, and sort of the Justice League's first unofficial sidekick, until he accidentally led Joker to attack Mt. Justice in 2006 or so. He's currently the homeroom and Civics teacher for Conner & M'gann (and Karen & friends) at Happy Harbor high school, which explains a lot about why their sporadic attendance, etc., doesn't draw much attention.
My version of him also has the teleportation meta-human ability he has in the comics. You've seen him once or twice before both in and out of school, including having dinner with Clark & Lois and telling Clark, J'onn, etc., about how the kids are settling in at school.
Conner, M'gann, Karen, etc., don't yet know about his backstory, though Robin would recognize the name Lucas Carr from the Zeta Tube register if he heard it.
Also, it's less Superman being Kryptonian than him having great strength of will plus deep beliefs and a strong personality; he made a successful CHA Saving Throw, in D&D terms.
Essentially, yes. Renka's ALE fragment doesn't literally manifest as {Going to Die} or {Things Fall Apart} either, so much as that's how she interprets/applies the more basic fragment.
You'll see its "core" meaning eventually.
If citizens of a rural, less developed country go touring around a big city in a highly developed country, what types of things would they be able to bring back?
Probably nothing with Nth metal unless they get a government dispensation, but anything you could potentially buy in a Thanagarian knick-knacks store on the street seems fair game to me.
His exposure to it pervasively influenced the way he was thinking about it. Though putting something like that on the internet would be a nasty trick for tearing down a planet's information systems, etc.
Probably, yeah.
You'll have to wait and see.
I'm pretty sure that "feed as much of the universe as possible to my dread master" doesn't count as revolution.
Stripes
Genre-Savvy Anti-Nihilist
- Location
- Nizhniy Novgorod
A battle between Justice League and Thanagar Elder God did happened in the (LoD) past, as confirmed by Halloween arc - specifically, Solon Grundy part.
So, with playing Grim Dawn on semiregular basis (let me tell you, Cairn, game world, have major cultist problem), my mind immediately went "Bloody Cultists... Again!"
End result, considering people involved, should be... Interesting. Assuming something happens in the first place.
So, with playing Grim Dawn on semiregular basis (let me tell you, Cairn, game world, have major cultist problem), my mind immediately went "Bloody Cultists... Again!"
End result, considering people involved, should be... Interesting. Assuming something happens in the first place.
- Location
- Leeds
Oh, dear she's a cultist...
- Location
- Queensland, Australia
Hey Obloquy? It sounds like this is meant to be a relatively widely distributed 'Vacation Story' once he returns to Earth. So I'd think that Jimmy would either replace the Clark with Superman as a precaution, or add in JK to be absolutely sure to revisit that section later when writing it up in the published format.
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
Look, I know the Cult of Things that Must Not Be and the Reality Blasphemy merits are really appealing to mortals. They give you a lot of bang for your buck when your template basically just says 'ha, you think you matter.'
But they really aren't a good idea in the long run.
RyubosJ
Person that hates Mega Evolutions.
- Location
- UK
Nah, that's meant to be internal pov.
More Than a garage sale - part 4
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Life Ore Death
* June 22 [Joey PoV]*dingle-ingle-ing*
I put on a wide, happy smile as the door to the flower shop opened and grabbed my tape recorder.
<Hi there! Welcome to Sherwood Florist. How may I help you? >
The woman paused uncertainly. "That…?" I tilted my head slightly, in the way that exposed my scar to the light, and she swallowed audibly. "Oh. I… My sister just had a baby, a girl, and she's allergic to roses, but I want to send something."
'Flowers for a baby… Pink and purple are normal for a girl, blue and yellow for a boy…' I grabbed a pad of paper.
TULIPS ARE A GOOD CHOICE, WITH LOTS OF COLORS, I offered. CAN I SHOW YOU OUR SELECTION?
"That would be nice, thank you."
She was a pretty easy customer, other than her anxiety about choosing appropriate flowers, and she left satisfied after 10 minutes.
I went back to the front desk – moving carefully, because I was wearing 10 pounds of weight on each wrist and ankle, plus a weighted vest Mr. J'onn had given me – and returned to my sketchpad.
Zatanna turned 15 on the 26th, and while we weren't tremendously close, she'd been very supportive of me when I felt like I didn't fit in during my early days on the Team, and I wanted to do something nice for her.
My main gift was just going to be a gift card and a deck of Tarot cards, but I'd wanted to give her an artful regular card too, and I'd stumbled on the existence of ambigrams while looking for designs and holy whatever they were beautiful had been my immediate response.
Backwards magic was her thing, pretty pictures were mine, and this was potentially something she could use like runes, maybe.
It's just that they were also really hard to make.
I'd printed out and repeatedly copied a couple of designs that looked suitable—the four elements, "Ambigram," "adventure," and this one math equation—but I really wanted to make something instead of copying, preferably involving her name.
It was just turning out to be a huge pain.
*dingle-ingle-ing*
I looked up again when the bell on the door rang, but I didn't bother with the greeting.
"Hey there, kiddo!" Green Arrow/Oliver Queen greeted cheerfully, and I waved back.
I also looked him over very carefully, because Martian Manhunter'd had me doing shape-shifter recognition tests.
He'd transform into people – or occasionally animals, and we were going to move on to things eventually, but not yet – and approach me, and I'd have to notice any differences. Usually he'd do people I knew, so there would be difference I could spot, but he'd made a couple identities out of whole cloth as part of the test so I had to be on the lookout for that.
I was pretty sure only one of my customers today had been him, but I wouldn't find out until this evening, when he told me.
'Are you there, Mr. J'onn?' I broadcast mentally. 'This really wasn't a good disguise; Green Arrow took his son somewhere for a while.'
"J'onn got tied up with a work thing, so he asked me to swing by, check up on you, and help lock up for the day this evening."
I gave him a thumbs-up and smiled, but I was still discontent, so I flashed him a hand sign.
"Sorry, what was that?" he asked. "Still not so good at sign language."
I kept smiling and repeated the gesture, but the bottom dropped out of my stomach.
That wasn't sign language, (which the real Green Arrow didn't know well either,) but it was a sign used by the Team, and I knew Artemis used it with him and that he and Dinah had used them with each other.
'He missed the-! Green Arrow is off out of town,' I listed even as I got my pad and wrote down some vague question about his day, 'this guy missed a signal GA should know, and he didn't react when I tried to call him out via telepathy. This is bad.'
I'd listened to Renka's stories about Scadrial, and the 'replace a shape-shifter with another shape-shifter' thing alarm was blaring at me in my head. I just didn't know what to do.
'Calm down. Break it down,' I told myself. 'Turn it around. If he is an impersonator, what's he planning? …He hasn't attacked me yet, maybe because of the store's security? So he might want me to go with him somewhere else… What question can I ask him that'll take him time to answer while I think?' I scribbled down something about my training and asked for his opinion; he started talking easily enough. 'Okay, so how does this end? I have no idea what he can do, so… I need back-up. I need the Team or the League to show up and help, but it'll probably…'
I scribbled down a request for him to come help me lift some stuff in the back room, because I knew there was heavier security back there and I knew all the traps. I hadn't ruled out this being Mr. J'onn entirely, or Green Arrow, but there was an easy way to check.
When we were in the back, I pulled out my phone and almost immediately hopped on a stool and snapped a jump-kick at GA.
If it was him, he either should've caught it, blocked it, or been knocked down and I'd get points for hitting him.
I knocked him down all right, but my foot sank in too deep before he tumbled back, and I saw an actual footprint in his face when-
I sent out the code for an emergency even as I backpedalled for the Taser and the security controls.
A second later, I heard the emergency tone beeping from 'Green Arrow' as he sat up and his face filled back in.
"Heh," he said, "good one." Then he shifted, and I felt really stupid. "I guess I owe J'onn some Oreo ice cream. What gave it away?"
'Plastic Man,' I breathed, relieved. The emergency thing meant that he had a Justice League- 'Wait, the emergency call! Crud, I need to cancel that before everything turns into total chaos,' I groaned wordlessly, face-palming to cover my flushing cheeks. 'What a day.'
'Well, at least I passed Mr. J'onn's test. I'll have to ask M'gann for tips on getting back at him, though.'
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
* Thanagar Trip, day 2 [Nudra Lan PoV]
"-and we found that the others had been incapacitated by the building's automated defenses," the human woman finished.
With my hands and keyboard out of view behind the raised edge of the lengthened desk, I typed out, her story seems the same as yesterday, and waited for my two compatriots in this sub-group to concur or deny.
We had been shown the recordings of her interview yesterday, and we had duly repeated a few of the questions with altered wording or differing tones, but everything significant had remained consistent, even in the face of our routine skepticism or disapproval.
Of course, the nearby presence of a Green Lantern from her planet may have contributed to that, as not even the black ops organizations (the ones I knew about, at least, given my clearances,) would act to follow through on any threat they made in his presence.
Kamal Jann sent back a generic affirmative, but Retta La'rack wrote out, In light of the voting sessions in two days, I recommend we move to introduce her to the science department specialists tomorrow, so that there will be some free time for them to analyze her report and design avenues of investigation for when we meet afterward.
It struck me as a reasonable idea, so I affirmed it, as did Kamal.
Thus far we had maintained the masquerade of being primarily interested in the capture of the malefactors, but it was a feeble façade fooling no one. Were it not for the origins of my instructions, I would have suspected this to be a sting operation aimed at uncovering a corrupt bureaucrat soiling our governing systems among my current co-workers. As it was, our participation sent its own message.
"Were there any troubles in corralling the prisoners and keeping them subdued during the journey here?" I asked dutifully.
I didn't listen closely to the answer – it wasn't important, not to the whole schematics of this – but reviewed my assessment.
Ferris Renka Tindwysra was an inhabitant of a developing, but high-threat-potential world referred to as Earth. The planet's technology and society were… sporadically developed, according to reports, but it hosted a number of noteworthy immigrants (especially a surviving Kryptonian,) and it had been deemed 'a valued ally to be cultivated' by the highest circle of the Ruling Council.
At least one Green Lantern from that planet (and there were supposedly three) had been instrumental in the war against Gordania, as had several members of the planet's quick response coalition (named the "Justice League") who had volunteered their assistance. I wasn't certain if Katar Hol and Shayera Thal had been assigned there before or after Earth's involvement, but either way, that fact was significant.
So were the three of us chosen for this second day of interviews.
I had served for three and a half holes as an emissary between Thanagar and New Genesis; I could distinguish between a Motherbox and a Fatherbox, I had seen first hand the damage done by Apokolips agents, and I was one of less than 80 Thanagarians alive to be aware that Element X and the technology based upon it could ignore and overpower Nth metal creations.
The Motherbox in the care of Ferris Renka Tindwysra had recognized me from my work with New Genesis, greeted me in memory, and through interfacing with our systems Motherbox had discretely affirmed the veracity of our guest's testimony: neither Motherbox nor any Element X technology had been used to interfere with or cause the damage done to the malefactor's mace.
Retta La'rack, according to the publically available personnel page she had posted, had previously served as a ship's officer in the war against the Gordanians. She assumed captaincy when her superiors were killed in action, and she had been a Gordanian POW in the same slave camp as Katar Hol, meaning she had been liberated by the senior-most Green Lantern from Earth (who was not the one present).
Kamal Jann, who had asked only vague questions and shared blunt affirmatives or contradictions thus far, had a personnel page utterly devoid of even false information. I didn't need to press to know I would get an Above Your Security Clearance response from above.
It was sending a very clear message, though whether to us or to her… 'Ultimately, it is the same either way,' I decided.
I did not react as Kamal Jann sent his first digital message of the meeting: We should move to personal information acquisition.
'There's no need to even signal an affirmative,' I knew, recognizing the discrete order. I signaled my affirmation anyway, as was protocol.
"Renka Tindwysra," I said, being the central speaker for this interview. "I believe we have heard enough as to the specific events. This interview board intends from here to form a record of your individual character, to support your given testimony. Are you willing to truthfully answer a series of questions about yourself, including those unrelated to your apprehension of the malefactors?"
It was talking around the matter a little more… politely than I preferred, but our pysch evaluation log had indicated that she responded more positively to politeness and reason over force. She nodded, her face pleasant behind the mask she wore, before she spoke.
"I cannot guarantee perfect truthfulness, but I will answer honestly," she stated, "provided that responses such as, 'I am not certain,' 'I do not wish to discuss this subject,' and 'I cannot reply without breeching someone's trust in me,' are accepted as honest."
'It reminds me of that occasion on Klad'maar 4, where one clause News Genesis included stated the intended spirit of the agreement, and spelled out that good faith efforts to fulfill that would be accepted in the letter of the treaty. …Well, she is the companion to a Motherbox.'
"That is acceptable," Kamal Jann confirmed, as the screen in front of me filled with a short list of questions to ask.
Protocol was to work through those questions in a cycle, and as she answered, each of us could type in and submit new questions.
A review board elsewhere would assess each question sent in, and either approve or reject it in real time.
Once we had exhausted the prefabricated questions, we would be free to ask each approved question in turn.
"Would you please describe your relatives and family to us?" I began, being the central speaker.
She tilted her head oddly, and I had to remind myself that her body language was not readable as a fellow Cipitrina's would be.
"My birth-mother, Tindwyl, was a member of a slave-peasant caste in our culture, but due to her abilities she also secretly became a scholar specializing in the reigns of historical kings. Prior to a civil war that occurred during my lifetime, the government did not recognize marriages right for those outside the nobility. I am the eighth of twenty-six maternal siblings; our birth fathers were varied and uninvolved in our lives. We were a very communal, rural society, and so escaped some of the constant oppression found in cities. We were able to support each other as siblings and neighbors, the older children helped care for the younger ones, and we did not often go hungry.
"A mistake I made in early adolescence drove a schism between me and the majority of my siblings. I ran away from home and did not see any family until after three years, at which point I learned that my mother had been killed in the civil war in my absence. Some of my siblings have disowned me, or the equivalent, while others have accepted my penitence and in turn supported me. Does that suffice?"
"How would you describe your occupation?" Retta La'rack asked, moving to the next question on the list.
"Mm. That is a mildly difficult question, but I believe I may call it 'non-traditional'. While I receive room and board for my work with the Justice League, I do not draw salary; there is a fund for expense reimbursement, and several private individuals gifted me with an amount of money in celebration of certain events, such as my birthday.
"The closest thing I have to a paid position, or occupation, is acting as a lecturer to a few national governments regarding the study, function, and utilization of an array of esoteric energies. I receive payments per lecture for that service, and some consulting work, acting as a convenient and trustworthy go-between to arrange matters with a number of otherwise unaffiliated groups or individuals."
I typed in: Would she be willing to act in a similar capacity for Thanagar (whether or not we have her do so), as Kamal Jann spoke.
"Which activities do you tend to participate in during your free time?" he asked.
That got a complex list of subjects, varying with her mood, including social bonding through games with her younger associates, brainstorming developmental ideas, meditating, cooking, cultural study through mass media observation, and courting her companion.
I felt confident that we each submitted two or three questions for approval as a result of her response.
We passed through questions about her work experience, her medical history, her desires for the future, and her alliances.
I was approved to ask whether she would be willing to do similar go-between work for Thanagar, and she affirmed that the potential to arrange something along those lines was one of her primary motivations to accept our interview request.
Retta's question regarding her opinion on the differences between Earth and Thanagar merited another complex answer: human culture was widely diverse (which we had known), and she remained unfamiliar with many things, but to judge from her companion's reaction she estimated that many humans would be disconcerted by the constant observation by government and the specific strictures.
"What is your personal opinion on the matter?" Kamal Jann asked, even though it had not been an approved question.
'That answers the question of his clearances,' I decided, but I sent a flag of the event to the proper channels, as protocol dictated.
"…It is not the most disturbing thing, but I am disturbed by how normalized the expectations of corruption in government are. I have heard it said, 'No one capable of being elected President,' which is the highest individual office in their government, 'should on any account be allowed to do the job.' People say it like a joke," she stressed, and I took note that this was what emotional distress looked like on her demeanor. "English uses affixes to change the meanings of words, but not all words with these beginnings have these meanings. There is another joke, based on the exchange of the pro and con prefixes that have positive and negative meanings respectively: 'If "pro" is the opposite of "con," then what is the opposite of progress? Congress!' That is the body that writes and passes their laws. It disturbs me.
"They have accepted it. Many of them are exasperated when corruption is revealed, but little more. Humans might rebel against Thangarian norms of regulation, but as long as the spirit of rules are to keep people safe and healthy, why are they a bad thing? Thanagar's penal system does not practice long-term confinement as a punishment, but its technology is advanced enough to do so. Human technology, however, is quickly reaching a similar level, and I sincerely believe that Earth's adoption of a few of Thanagar's practices would be to benefit.
"One of the most disturbing sayings I have heard on this subject was not a joke, but-," Here she turned and nodded to the Green Lantern in recognition. "-a grim admission of problems in the world from the Lantern Stewart, who may be able to list more examples more easily. 'He had to go jail to become a criminal.' People who are sentenced for petty crimes, or even who were falsely convicted due to bad evidence are sent to prisons and held alongside more serious offenders. They can learn criminal skills and gain contacts among criminals still not caught and then use those skills, either immediately in after release or later on as a fallback should lawful options fail.
"Worse, non-serious offenders who are held alongside serious offenders are often insufficiently protected by the guards of the facilities. They may be assaulted, beaten, or raped in captivity; the psychological trauma suffered is not conducive to rejoining society, even if they were innocent of the original charges. The experience may leave bitterness against the government system that failed to protect them, along with the laws responsible, and may prompt escalation to irrational actions in the face of potentially returning to jail for any reason."
"Do you have any opinions on what should be done, or how Earth might emulate our processes?" Kamal asked again.
Our guest sighed. "Many possibilities, but I would need more education than I have now to seriously suggest anything."
Kamal seemed to accept that answer, and the discussion moved on to me as I asked about her living conditions.
Once she had finished, Retta asked whether Renka Tindwysra had any history of petty criminal activity; after the discussion of whether her activities 'on-duty' counted and her affirmations of petty theft for survival prior to seeking asylum with the Justice League, Kamal asked about her powers, followed by my question about her adaptation to Thanagarian customs, and her mask.
Our cyclic discussion continued for quite some time, into the traditional meal hours and the evening, but she did not complain or ask for a break; protocol had mandated our assurances to her that she could end the interview at any time, for any reason, with no negative consequences, but she did not, and we had enough questions to keep speaking. I could have eaten, but it was not the hungriest I had been.
Finally, we reached the last two questions on our list. Renka Tindwysra had dodged or deferred answering some of our inquiries, but in hindsight it had been the most straightforward and illuminating interrogation I had ever been a part of.
"What do you ideally seek to achieve by coming to Thanagar?" Kamal inquired, which would leave the last question to me.
"Several things. First, I generally love learning in its many forms, and this is a hitherto unprecedented opportunity for me to study a foreign culture, from another planet, of people who are sapient without being human, and who have reached higher technological advancements," she listed. "Second, possessing higher levels of technological development means that… I am not naïve enough to believe I would for any reason be allowed to return with 'cutting edge' technology, due to various bans, restrictions, and interdictions, but Thanagar's low-level, older models of publically available technology are still, I think, of higher quality than many works on Earth.
"This does not necessarily mean such pieces are beyond Earth's ability to create, only that few people on Earth have bothered or would bother to do so. However, as opposed to creating, reverse-engineering available samples may be much easier and the knowledge gleaned may be used in unexpected ways to benefit other systems and developments. In particular, the Justice League has connections to several companies whose ethical practices we monitor more strictly as a requirement of our continued support, and I can trust that what I might donate to their studies will be used to benefit everyone, rather than only those who have control over it.
"Third, I have a great interest in… abstract, esoteric, and arcane studies of all kinds. Nth metal is a substance reportedly unique to Thanagar, and while there is no feasible way to make use of it in larger scale ways on Earth, there is already some precedent for its use in specific ways outside of Thanagarian territory. Laws exist specifying what, when, why, and how much of any technology using Nth metal may be sold or traded to a non-Thanagarian individual. Earth recently suffered a planet-wide attack based on the use of arcane energies by a being able to bring power and rules from his home plane to this plane while he was manifested.
"Nth metal disrupts these energies, and the ties binding such beings to our plane of existence. I do not yet know the exact science involved, but even small samples of Nth metal worked into weapons could prove critical if agitators attempt something similar in the future. I have knowledge and information Thanagar is interested in, and I bear Thanagar goodwill, rather than malice. The opportunity to visit this planet and offer this exchange in person – especially because I am privileged to have information to exchange – seemed too great to pass up.
"Fourth, I have noted that many people on Earth – though the matter is continuously improving from its past status – are insulated from the existence of alien people, and even the idea that inhuman individuals can be people. The main way I could see to remedy that belief is through greater exchange and contact with foreign, interstellar cultures. In consideration of my travel companion's discomfort, I now expect that few Earthlings would be willing to visit Thanagar for a prolonged period of time. However, there is still the possibility of Thanagarian students—Łî-sahr-kanzz and Çipi-trį-na both—to visit Earth as a 'cultural exchange' program or a 'study abroad' initiative. I intend to use my visit as an opportunity to broach the idea and gain a sense of the guarantees and requirements that would be required."
She gave a little nod I had come to recognize as an indication of giving permission to speak, implying that her own speech was done.
'That was… It will be a great amount to contemplate and debate. I find myself rather grateful I will not need to make those decisions,' I decided. She had brought up some expected subjects – alien visitors always expressed interest in the secrets of Nth metal, save for those who so obviously coveted it that they went out of their way to never mention it at all in hopes of being 'trustworthy' – but she had proven direct again in her implicit offer to trade her own secrets for ours, and her reasons were rational.
'I doubt she will understand much of what there is to know,' I assessed, as the deeper complexities of Nth metal were secret even on Thanagar, save to a comparative few of the most trusted and experienced researchers, 'but if she can add even a small amount of knowledge to our already thorough understanding, I would be willing to exchange some of the simpler secrets. Provided I had approval, at least. …Last one.'
"Do you have any questions to ask of us?" I asked. Usually the interview subjects did, and she had been direct in her answers.
"Multiple, but I expect that you would not have permission to answer most of them. Mm," she hummed absently, coming to some conclusion. "I have one question about Nth metal, etymology, and translation." After our long conversation, this did not surprise me, but I had not expected it, either. She plucked off her flight ring and displayed it, as though we would not know what she was asking about… but she was an otherworld-visitor, and less focused. "When I learned about the Nth metal alloy in this ring, its name was translated into my mind as Valorium: a word for warlike bravery and the fame earned through it followed by a suffix appended to denote scientific significance. Please, does this etymology apply in the languages of Thanagar as well, is it a coincidence, or is there some other significance?"
I discretely touched the button to send an affirmative message; I was willing to answer her question if the others did not object.
A second, and then a third affirmation lit up my screen.
"The suffix is shortened from our term for chemical metals, such as gold, silver, and iron, rather than alloys," I informed her, "but your assessment of the etymology is essentially correct."
"Thank you," she said, and we dispersed for a late meal.
- Location
- New Jersey
Well.........
That's a thing now isn't it. That information trade just become much more valuable 😈
- Location
- Canada, probably
Ohhhhhh, so that's why Renka reacted to the name. I completely missed that it was supposed to be valour+ium (possibly because crazy Yanks can't spell
). Interesting, very interesting.This was my favourite chapter for a good while. Joey's CRISIS-oh-wait-no was brilliant, and I always enjoy Wren nerding out.
- Location
- New Jersey
If I'm not mistaken, the alloy was named Valorium in honor of Lar Gand, who was, depending on the continuity, Mon-El or Valor of Daxam. He was the replacement for Superboy when they decided he wouldn't be a time traveler, and was instrumental in helping to seed the planets that, 1000 years later, would be the United Planets of the Legion of Super Heroes. I think it was later retconned into being a Thanagarian alloy.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Now I can't help but feel that Renka got more from her two questions than they got from all of theirs...
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Doubtful. Even if the etymology matches and it gives her insight into the Intent behind Nth Metal / Valorium -- assuming that it even functions in a way remotely similarly to what she's familiar with in god metals terms -- she'd still need a lot more information on applications of Nth Metal, its uses, its historical origins... but yes, that information is a good basis for figuring the rest of it out later.
What you're really missing is the significance of Thanagar's processes. It's mentioned that this is her second day testifying, and they had different people asking her questions on the first day, but probably a lot of the questions asked were the same, right?
Thanagar is profiling her, building a psychological outline they can use to assess her likely trustworthiness, predict her reactions, vet her opinions of potential offers they make to her, etc.
They're doing it politely, and comparatively gently, and they obviously have to account for her being a human... but just as Ferris has had the idea of coming to Thanagar as a tourist and buying the same publicly available materials any civilian could access to learn about Thanagarian culture and history, all Hawkman/Hawkwoman would've had to do is buy/download/scan a few books on human psychology and send it back to their superiors some point in the last 5-6 years, and boom, operating manual for interacting with humans & Earth.
Yes. More specifically, she's thinking, "Valor = courage in the face of danger, especially battle (according to the dictionary = a reputation for mutiple acts of bravery and proper behavior = Honor + Cultivation" the same way Harmony = Ruin + Preservation.
She's open to other interpretations, of course, but that's where her mind immediately went.
Yeah, I liked the opportunity to show Jericho and some harmless hijinks, plus provide confirmation that various types of assorted training are still on-going off-screen while we don't see them.Ohhhhhh, so that's why Renka reacted to the name. I completely missed that it was supposed to be valour+ium (possibly because crazy Yanks can't spell
This was my favourite chapter for a good while. Joey's CRISIS-oh-wait-no was brilliant, and I always enjoy Wren nerding out.
Wren nerding out is also a laugh, and you're about to get a little more of it (maybe the immediately next bit will be dry, but the parts after it should be much more productive), so you can look forward to that.
Start with nothing --> universe exists --> feed universe to dread master --> end up back where you started
Sounds like a revolution to me!
The passage written in all italics with underlined addendum and and JK notes for later revising is Jimmy's draft of what he'll publish about Thanagar in the future.
That part is just his narration during a scene in his PoV.
Too true, too true.
Ooh, interesting!
Superman hasn't yet met a Daxamite in this iteration -- ergo, he never met Lar Gand a.k.a. "Mon-El" as a kid, never suspiciously exposed the guy to fake kryptonite made of lead as a test, and never stuck him in the Phantom Zone pending life-saving medical treatment, so Lar Gand isn't in the Phantom Zone to be let out by Saturn Girl and join the Legion in the future -- but I am planning to get around to it.
Is there any information oh whether/how/why Lar Gand apparently missed out on Daxam's total xenophobia, by the way? An explanation of that could be inspiring for future writing.
*...reads wiki article further...*
So he's apparently distantly part human? And/or Daxamites' xenophobia is genetic? Huh... Not sure which parts to use vs modify, or whether to cut a new backstory from whole cloth... Eh, plenty of time until I'd get around to introducing him, (years in-story, I think,) so no rush. Unless someone wants to write an inspiring omake or something.
Valorium being named after Lar Gand/Mon-El/Valor is an interesting tidbit, and extrapolating from that has many possibilities, it just isn't fitting in here at the moment. Pity. So many good-but-distracting story ideas to play with. Thanks for the info, though!
- Location
- texas
The Daxamites xenophobia was presented as religious, and an extremely ironic take by a people who DC made hybrids- Daxamites are descendants of Kryptonian colonists and the native race they found there, which would presumably be why they are vulnerable to lead and not kryptonite.
More Than a garage sale - part 5
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Life Ore Death
* Thanagar Trip Day 3 [Overview]Zebus was of the firm opinion that he was not being paid enough for this tripe.
He had not gone through the effort of studying for a Pennaceous Degree in Design Calculations with the intent of ending up managing a store for courting ritual accessories (even if Lisa Silmarin had funded the management course he'd needed to be certified). He'd intended to apply his design degree to architecture or engineering, not fashion design.
<bee-beep beep beep beep, > chimed the door to the store's observation center. It swung open.
The owner/manager of the store, Lisa Silmarin, strode in with a flex of one wing in greeting, followed closely by her firstborn daughter, Silmarin Jarl, who technically did not have clearance to be back here and looked as much awkward as eager.
Zebus flicked the tip of his tail in greeting and turned from the monitors to face them.
"Egg-layer," he drawled, eyeing Lisa's slightly swollen middle, "I thought the whole point of your fourth application to go off birth-control finally clearing was that you got to stay home and brood. You shouldn't be here."
"It's a parental leave policy, not a parental exile, flaky, and I'll rewrite my copy however I choose," she deferred, reaching up to remove her helmet with a fierce grin; Zebus obligingly did the same, and Silmarin Jarl's hands flew to the decorative silver-and-red face mask that left her brown hair free in back, but she hesitated. "Jarl," Lisa Silmarin introduced with another twist of one wing, "this is Zebus, the genius who boosted our monthly sales twenty percent by rearranging our floor plan to be more inviting and navigable. Zebus, you remember my daughter; I'm clearing her for access to our recording systems because we registered a ping for authorized off-world visitors from Sol Three-,"
"They call it Earth," Silmarin Jarl blurted helpfully.
"-and I thought this was an excellent chance for her to get some live research."
"Ssss," Zebus hissed as he considered this. "Current obsservation only," he reminded her even as he pulled up the appropriate screen, because there were lines and limits and specific places where things progressed from casual information to civilian privacy violation.
"Of course," his boss agreed, departing with only a quick wing bump with her daughter, who quickly got her note-taker ready.
The image on the central screen focused in on a male—physically reminiscent of a wingless, redheaded Cipitrina, but with a flatter facial structure and speckled blotches on his skin—who was standing outside one of the holographically censored changing areas.
He was speaking animatedly, no doubt to a companion inside the censored area.
<No, I'm serious, Space Jesus is actually a thing. I mean, not Jesus specifically I don't think, but the God of Abraham and Adam, you know? >
"Dare I assk?" Zebus deadpanned.
"Local religious figure contiguous with Source worship for their planet, and the names for his progenitor, I think. He's famous for being murdered by the government as a blood ritual sacrifice to defer the wrath of their creator equivalent."
"Sso he wass eaten by their Old Oness? Sss… They don't have live Old Oness, do they?"
"Well, that-,"
<The creation stories don't quite match up, and I've heard at least two different versions, or names for… From what I could get, it seems like some people worship the Silver City, which sounds like heaven with angels, and then other people worship the Source, and some people argue that they're the same thing, and the Trinity is broken up into- boobs! >
The female—possessed of a more browned skin tone than occurred naturally in Cipitrina—had abruptly stepped out from the privacy barrier, despite her state of disarray, prompting the male to spin around, no doubt to check for others who might see her.
The garment she was failing to wear properly was one of the Off-World Fashions line, a complex web of cloth and catches designed to be adjustable to a diverse array of body types. Zebus scanned the cameras to check that they were the only two in the changing area.
They were.
"Where iss their guide? They need aid in these ssituationss," he observed. "Esspecially in choosing ssomething less gaudy."
The different strips of the dress were patterned to assistance with wearing them, and the patterns could be arranged artfully, but the brown female had donned the dress with no regard to any particular arrangement, though that may have been difficulty in fastening it.
"No clue. Odd," Jarl observed neutrally as the male kept his gaze averted despite the two of them being alone. "Earthling females are supposed to have a much stronger nudity taboo than males, at least regarding the ventral anterior."
<My body, > the female said shortly. Zebus could almost imagine a twitch of wings or tail as her partner kept looking away.
"I read in Shayera Thal's Summary of Human Physiology that, since they nurse their young as well, the size of their ventral anterior fat deposits and sub-dermal organs are used as cultural indicators of fertility," Jarl rattled off.
"Sss… They are not going to mate now, are they?" Zebus asked. "Or iss she already expecting?" It had happened before.
"Sizes vary more than ours do, and they also grow when expecting young, but her abdomen would be larger if she were pregnant, according-,"
< Mm. The Silver City is known on Earth as well, being referred to as the same heaven, or the origin of the… the three religions of the book. Of Abraham, > she commented. <Mm. The Trinity is different, yes. >
"Trinity, Abraham, and Silver City as connected to Source worship on Sol 3," Jarl murmured.
"I repeat: they are not going to mate now, are they?" Zebus pressed. He'd had to clean that up before, and even with sanitization droids….
"Doubtful," Jarl said. "Fornication is a major social taboo… Except Shayera Thal's report four holes ago on norms, culture, and publicity… And there's something in Katar Hol's 16th report about 'Mature themes', but it was classified above my clearance, it just got cited in an essay I looked up."
<Yeah, it- That wasn't a question, right Wren? You already know enough about it? >
<Mm, yes, but I want to hear if you heard the same three. >
"The female iss Wren, and the male… iss Olssen," Zebus commented, having pulled up a quick recognition query. "They are matess?"
"Earth – Sol 3 – usually denotes those commitments with matching finger jewelry, rings," Jarl explained. "He isn't wearing any."
"Hass she outlived ssix partners, or are they sstill living?" Zebus asked, eyeing Wren's fingers.
"Olsen's bare-fingered, so… perhaps she simply likes the jewelry, like her mask? There's supposed to be something about which finger wears the rings… I assume she's either libidinous or nostalgic, and is alerting people to that fact. Indeterminate," the Cipitrina judged clinically.
<It is safe to look, Jimmy, > Wren informed him, buttoning a blue-white jacket not sold at the store over her torso.
"Embarrassment?" Silmarin Jarl wondered skeptically as 'Jimmy' finally turned around. "And a 'nickname,' interesting."
<I… sorry. …Actually, no, I'm not sorry. We're both fine being fully clothed, but me seeing you like that with other people around feels wrong, and I'm not going to apologize for my opinions when you know that, > Olsen/Jimmy declared firmly, meeting Wren's eyes.
"A new relationship, or intra-planetary cultural differences," Jarl announced.
"Do their sskinss ssignify a cross-casste relationship?" Zebus suggested, now interested by the interactions. He knew Thanagar used to have castes, so it wouldn't surprise him if less developed planets still practiced such divides, though for members of it to visit Thanagar proper....
Wren nodded briskly. <Good. We will agree to disagree, and I will endeavor to make you less uncomfortable in future. In exchange, I think, you are free to offer me a covering instead of turning, yes? > She tugged meaningfully at her jacket.
"I need to check my notes," Jarl said quickly. "Dermal pigment is supposed to denote geographic origin by continent, but technological advances mean people can move freely between historic habitations. If she left a polygamous… but why would she still wear the rings, then?"
"Never discount the powers of habit and guilt," Zebus advised as the two… shook hands? "Is that-?"
<Deal. You said wanted to hear the space Trinity, see if it's the same as on Earth? Actually, wait, does this have anything to do with The Three from your… Never mind, I answered my own question, > Olsen/Jimmy amended.
"Superman and Earth's Green Lantern corpsmen used that gesture at introductions," Jarl said. "I believe it's supposed to be a way of showing that you don't carry any weapons in your hand, so you're friendly and won't attack."
<Mm. I would be very interested to hear about the 'space Trinity,' and about the answer you gave yourself. Should I say what I know first? >
"Perhapss it also demonstratess any ringss… and braceletss, they're both wearing braceletss. Do the piecess have meaningss?"
"Probably?" Jarl guessed semi-helplessly. "Is she a hired companion, and this is a business agreement? Are they exchanging cultural information because they only met before coming here, and don't know each other's practices either? I just know Mom got the ping-,"
"And she sskipped doing her preliminary ressearch," Zebus sighed. "Thiss iss why she had been dropping in ssaless before I-,"
<That'd be… actually, nah, > Jimmy decided. <You're the one who actually uses this stuff, and I was really drunk last night; I don't want you to bias my memory. Though, if you want to keep changing instead of standing around…? >
Wren obligingly smiled – Zebus assumed that it had the same meaning as on Thanagar – and stepped back behind the hologram screen.
"Doess their government routinely ssend under-informed diplomatss to other planetss in untessted teamss?" Zebus asked.
"Their Wonder Woman Diana was a skilled and experienced diplomat, but Superman Kal-El and Green Lantern Hal Jordan were more military combatants… though the Green Lanterns… and Kal-El was a Kryptonian Earthling, not a Human Earthling," Jarl muttered.
"From Ssector Two-Eight-One-Three?" Zebus hissed, surprised. Planets were lost uncommonly enough that he'd covered in in classes.
"I believe that was correct; both planets are near the shared border of their sectors," Jarl agreed.
The two watchers let the next bit of religious discussion slip by as they discussed what was going on between the humans.
"Firsst theory," Zebus listed after thinking a bit. "Their government disspatched them without training them, potentially due to political upheaval internally. If issolationisst elements want this mission to fail, but the agentss perssonally want to ssucceed…."
"According… to my research on why they arrived here, and it doesn't match up," Silmarin Jarl disagreed, flicking through article summaries. "A group of Thangar-origin malefactors attacked several of Earth's cities and bases on a raid for xeno-technology. The female participated in subduing them, and Wingmen Katar Hol and Shayera Thal invited Wren to testify about the incident, while the male is here at her invitation. She's an associate of their planetary security force, the Justice League, but he's a civilian here at her invitation."
"Classified information," the older and worldlier Zebus concluded. Jarl rustled her wings, so he elaborated: "She must be involved in some heavily classified matter, potentially delivering technology the pirates stole on previous raids, to be invited here in person and offered the rights to bring a civilian guest. The Ruling Council would be far more likely to send a representative to a protectorate or outpost to take her testimony than to invite her here with a civilian guest. Potentially he is actually a covert agent here to arrange a limb-hid trade, or a specialist in xeno-technology of a type being delivered to the Ruling Council, but we shouldn't be able to figure it out."
"Sub-optimal," Jarl grunted irately. "There goes my theory."
"If you usse it in a paper, you may end up being better off faking that theory to appear ass though you aren't aware of activity above your clearance, to avoid a reprimand," Zebus advised. "What were you thinking?"
"Avoid-? Thank you. …It's more than slightly fictitious," Jarl admitted, "but your commentary on cross-caste relationships… Polygamy exists in some minority subcultures on Sol Three, on Earth, and while I don't know the specifics, one thing clear was that it's skewed by gender for ostensibly reproductive reasons, like in prides of golmach."
"One male monopolizing the reproductive freedomss of multiple femaless?" Zebus hissed in distaste. "Barbaric."
"Well, they aren't the most culturally developed planet, but they've made great strides in more enlightened directions," Jarl assessed. "She might be wearing her rings to symbolize the number of female co-partners under the… of her male partner, and the number of rings denote the status her male partner has by being able to… possess that number of females. Either Wren's behavior is a result of cultural minority norms that clash with Jimmy's—I can't decide why she calls him that instead of Olsen or James, but it should have some meaning—or they're the result of how she has been instructed to behave by her male partner. I'd even theorize that she is less than happy with her marital situation, and is here with the unpartnered Jimmy to either 'have an affair' by engaging in casual intercourse of some degree, or even to persuade him to take action in transferring her partnership to himself, if possible."
Zebus stared at her, his tail curling sideways. "That… Have you considered ssubmitting a compossition propossal to the Philossophy-,"
Mortified, Silmarin Jarl's wings snapped in tight against her back. "I have not," she squawked, pulling her note materials against her chest as her free hand flew up to fiddle with her mask. She deeply regretted not wearing a full helmet now.
Zebus, experienced in reading body language, moved his hands and tail to pacify her. "I did not intend to inssult you, Ssilmarin Jarl, and I apologize." He removed his own helmet as a show of sincerity as his tail twisted at the tip. "I am ussed to working with your mother, who runss a sstore for courting ritual accessories," he deadpanned, though in honesty their stock was far broader. "She iss more… tawdry than mosst."
Slightly soothed, Jarl let her wingtips drop towards her knees. "I know she is," Jarl admitted, "so I have to censor myself somewhat in mixed company. Being told… My brother has written for the Philosophy Bureau, cross-filed under Medical," she said significantly, "and being told it resembled his work after I had already omitted my two more tawdry ideas was… discouraging."
"I have downloaded two of workss by Silmarin Ky'ral to my personal domain," Zebus informed her bluntly as he replaced his helmet, "and I illusstrated a few ssuch pieces sstudying for my degree in Dessign Calculationss. Please do not sself-censsor for me. What were you imagining?"
"I see," said Jarl, far more comfortable with that particular revelation out of the pocket. "I was… Her mask is not necessarily representative of her stature in society," the Cipitrina reasoned, "and a few hundred holes ago Earth regularly allowed a number of extremely distasteful and oppressive practices that may not have died out everywhere in their world.
"If I wished to be tawdry in my imaginings… Earthling Humans do not have any type of mating period beyond a female fertility cycle, and the more beige and paler-toned ones were imperially dominant across much of the planet, then. Were they visiting several hundred holes ago, I would suggest that she is a paid companion—a bodyguard as well, to judge from her musculature—a he is a young aristocrat supposed to take this opportunity to 'become a man,' which has significance on Earth."
"One would expect him act possessive, rather than uncomfortable," Zebus observed.
"Only if he had hired her," Jarl elaborated. "If it was his progenitor who pressured him – they also have this practice known as 'the beard'-,"
<Motherbox, do you have any opinions to contribute? > Wren asked. The question caught both their attentions.
<beedle-bling! >
"Motherbox? As in New Genesis?" Jarl asked, startled again.
New Genesis was a major power in inter-stellar politics, comparable to the Green Lantern Corps in influence, and highly regarded for their charity relief efforts and their opposition to the expansionist efforts of Apokolips.
"Their true reasons for arriving are certainly classified," Zebus repeated drily, "for political reasons, I suspect."
"I suffer ill suspicions," Jarl admitted, but she made no motion to depart the room.
<I'm guessing that's a no, > Jimmy said with a chuckle. <Right then. I can't remember the exact progression of the Genesis story I heard, but the Trinity was broken up into the Voice, the Hand, and the Presence. Though, I don't think those were the three mentioned in the Genesis story… Cripes, I was drunk, > he moaned, face flushing.
"He's lying," Zebus informed Jarl immediately. "He made that claim before, but between their guide and the sselling resstrictionss in Thalandar City, he shouldn't have become intoxicated enough to interfere with hiss memory, and it would require him to not wear a tracker. Covert. Agent."
"He… isn't wearing any fashion tracers I can see," Jarl admitted, fiddling with the thick bracelet that doubled as her tracker-recorder and personal data-handling device. "I can't decide if that supports your guess or not; the story fits with Source worship, though."
<I heard part of this because they were grabbing people who walked in the door to judge their theological argument, so there were a couple different versions flying around. Man I was loopy. Sorry about that, > Jimmy repeated.
Wren poked her head through the hologram, but maintained torso modesty.
<Your body, your choices, > she informed him.
"Wass that a reprimand, or encouragement?" Zebus wondered.
"I shouldn't bother guessing. I would take it as a reprimand, but she's smiling," Jarl assessed.
<You endangered only yourself; I was at worst mildly concerned when I could not contact or track you, and when I found you in the room you were already asleep. > Wren pulled her head back inside the hologram to keep changing.
"Doess ssmiling have the ssame meaning on Ssol 3 ass for Cipitrina?" Zebus asked. Lizarkon facial structure meant that smiling wasn't obvious with their mouths—too similar to baring teeth agressively—but it held positive meaning from a Cipitrina.
"It should, but I should stop guessing," Jarl reiterated.
<The space Trinity wasn't actually the version from the genesis story I really remember, so we'll hold off on that. I answered my own question because I read The Da Vinci Code and Angels And Demons in high school; it wasn't all that useful when I went with Lois to the Vatican last year while she was investigating… I'm not allowed to talk about it, so anyway, > he continued. <Mm. You know the Star of David? Six-sided star, two triangles? >
"Another Source-worship glyph," Jarl perceived, noting the data down. "A hexagram… investigate 'David' figure."
"Issn't ssix unholy in most Ssource-worship religionss?" Zebus noted, barely knowing that much from his Geometric Meaning course.
<Jewish symbol equivalent to the Christian cross? > Wren checked.
"Planetary differences, or it may depend on the shape. Investigate 'Angels and Demons,' 'Da Vinci' in cryptography—I expect he deciphered ancient Source mysteries from pre-historic texts—'Trinity,' 'Christian cross,' and… 'high school'."
"I expect it's a place of higher education, like our universities," said Zebus, very familiar with the Cipitrina associations of height and magnitude. At least it left plenty of space below for the Lizarkon culture to build downward, so they rarely clashed even in history.
"At his age? He must be very learned," Jarl guessed, "especially if he was excused from militant studies." Her hand didn't stray to the gladius at her waist, but she tried to remember whether either had been wearing a weapon. "I suppose that explains his visual recording device as well."
<The upward facing triangle can also symbolize masculinity and a sword, while the downward facing triangle can also symbolize femininity and a chalice, and together they represent God, who is both male and female, all things in one, > Jimmy explained.
"Aha! A hexagram of two equilateral triangle would have six points, but added to six lines equals twelve," Jarl declaimed triumphantly, "and it would have six external triangles surrounding the seventh piece, a central hexagon! That fits for Source worship!"
<I do not think it is wrong, but I do not like that interpretation, even if it is a full basket of Earth interpretations, > Wren said.
<Huh? > Jimmy asked, which was much how the watchers felt as well.
"If you believe it," Zebus demurred as Wren considered her words; Zebus had minimal religious study in his repertoire, despite his geometric skills. Thanagar used that symbol to denote communications and transport centers, as the triangles were arrows spreading out in 6 directions from the center. "Ssss… Why would a ssword be massculine and a chalice feminine? Why doess she dissdain it?"
"Males were traditionally the warriors on Sol 3, while females were traditionally domestic, due to many males' superior bodily strength."
"But sstrength iss a minute part of combat capability," Zebus observed acidly. "Tactical ambush, ranged weaponry, toxinss, medical-,"
"Hush up, we're about to hear her talk about Earth stereotypes from an Earthling's perspective!" Jarl interrupted eagerly.
<You know I complain about Earth culture being over-sexualized, > Wren elaborated. < There are, I think, a number of very crude, simple, and sexual nuances to the symbolism in the triangles, especially relating to genitalia. >
"There are?" Jarl queried, deferring to her senior.
"I don't know the appearance of Earthling-,"
"Visibly similar from the outside, though the internals are different," Jarl answered, "accordingly to the image of famed statues Wingman Katar Hol sent back from the museum near his Earth domicile."
"-and I do not care, but when I illusstrate a female Cipitrina's anatomy," Zebus continued, and he sketched a quick 'chalice' triangle in the air near Jarl's hips, "that triangle is part of the outline."
"Interesting. Blunt, but they are less developed," Jarl allowed, turning her attention to the screen again.
<-arguing that sex is on the most basic level of the Hierarchy of Needs, so of course it pops up in different places. Agree to move on? > Jimmy asked.
<Agree to move on, > Wren conceded, stepping out from the censor hologram in the adjustable dress. <Look? >
"That'ss horrible," Zebus bemoaned, his finely honed sense of fashion screeching in dismay at the dress. "Can she not ssee that half the sstrapss are insside out on-? She hass totally missaligned all the patterns, and the shadess contrast horribly with her sskin. I need-,"
"You probably shouldn't barge in, and you mustn't leave me alone here," Jarl counted as Zebus stood to leave and intervene.
"But- but- The clashing!" Zebus objected, distraught.
<Looks gr- super, > Jimmy chuckled as Wren gave a spin before slipping into a few poses. <That's a keeper, I think. >
"Is he blind?" Zebus objected. "Olsen musst be a compulsive liar, or covering ssomething, if we factor in the 'drunk' excusse and thiss!"
"He might actually be blind," Jarl answered. "I don't think humans see in all our color ranges." Zebus dissolved into a mild string of curses at the news. Jarl tuned him out patiently, taking notes as Jimmy relayed the altered 'Genesis myth' he had heard to Wren.
<In the first day, one of the Trinity back then created space and time for there to be the passing of night and day, or duration, or for things to happen. On the second day, the second created matter and energy in their various forms, like solid, liquid, plasma, and gas. On the third day, the third combined all those elements and ions and chemicals to create life, or the building blocks of it. Or maybe the third made souls or something, or combined all those waveform variations into the periodic table, I dunno. >
"I suppose he's hardly a theologian," she murmured. "Doesn't he know day and night couldn't exist without time to occur in, space for the star and planet, to say nothing of needing their matter and energy to even exist."
"Earth iss space capable, so he should know about sstellar arrangement. Perhaps it'ss the way of the sstory he repeatss," Zebus reasoned.
<Those were the first three days, yes, > Wren commented. <Speak more, please. >
< Right, so on the fourth day, all three worked together to… I think the stars and the planets got created by the third of the Trinity on the third day, and then all three worked together on the fourth day to make all the kinds of living beings in the universe… Maybe? I heard, like, five or six versions that all sloshed together in my head. Between that and my drunken hallucinations of an Epic Dream Quest, I don't have a clue. Like you said, we'll ask other people again. >
"There he goes, insisting on his drunkenness again," Zebus snarked dismissively.
"If he had a bad reaction to a drink that we find non-toxic, it could be legitimate. Or he mentioned 'Epic Dream Quest,' so perhaps he dosed himself with a hallucinogenic for religious reasons; he doesn't need to be lying," Jarl insisted.
"He's lying to himself, too," Zebus groused, quieting.
<This is the version with three in the Trinity, yes? Not four, > Wren checked, displaying a new outfit.
"Obviously, if it's a Trinity… and that doesn't look much better on you, either," Zebus groused.
"Hush," Jarl chided jokingly.
<Yeah, it is. Now, the fourth day had all three working together, to create life. But. The original version didn't mention this until later, but that means that the third member of the space Trinity was working two days in a row without rest. That'll be important. >
"Overwork, or quitting, or betrayal maybe. I recognize these patterns in theology," Jarl assessed, fluttering her wings proudly.
"It sseemss rather de-mysstifying to assume that ssuch beingss are ssubject to ssuch resstraintss," Zebus observed.
<The fifth day… yeah, I think the fourth day was all the souls, and then the fifth day was dividing them up into the different types of living beings, from moss and germs and plant life up to animals and elementals all those spirits… but maybe they didn't have the souls yet? I dunno. Whatever it was, the sixth day… in the Bible the sixth day was when he made all the animals, and Adam and Eve. I think it was sapient life, mixing souls into living beings, and all the places they may inhabit. That was the sixth day, with the second of the Trinity. >
"Is there any meaning to all the specificities?" Zebus asked.
"Don't even get me started on Earth-system taxonomies and classification," Jarl said. "Granted, they need it with their insanely prolific biodiversity—they haven't actually counted all the variations that exist, and new ones are being constantly discovered—but still."
< Now the seventh day, > Jimmy emphasized, <was really important, because it's sort of their day of original sin, except instead of Adam sinning against God, the space version had one member of the Trinity sinning against the group as a whole. The third of the Trinity had worked hard two days in a row, while the others had not, and it didn't want to do that again. This version has the original sin as sloth or injustice, or maybe dishonesty. Whatever it was, on the seventh day, the third one of the Trinity refused to work. >
"Wouldn't the first member of the Trinity have worked the fourth and fifth days consecutively?" Zebus asked.
"Theology usually has those types of errors and inconsiderations," Jarl dismissed.
< In one version, the third member left either some or all of the work undone on the seventh day, and maybe he didn't even let the seventh day end until the other two of the Trinity fought and forced him to do it. The other version had all the work get done on the seventh day, but on the eighth day the third of the Trinity refused to cooperate for them to all work together again until the other two overpowered him and forced the issue. So original sin on the divine scale was disagreement, or sloth, or selfishness in not cooperating or whatever. >
"I like the idea that thiss is the type of thing mortalss would do too," Zebus commented.
"At least it means that their culture is advanced enough for her to not dismember him for heresy," Jarl agreed. "That was happening not too long ago on Earth. She looks rather interested, actually; I wonder if this is some obscure flirting approach."
"She may not be an adherent of thiss religiouss branch," Zebus countered. "How would we tell?"
Jarl drooped. "I have no clue."
<Interpretations, > Wren declared, stepping out in slim trousers and a sleeveless orange vest, <may depend on the nature of the deal between the Trinity. Perhaps the third was wrong to refuse to work, but the other two, I think, may have also been wrong to refuse to understand or negotiate. I wonder if the first of the trinity also worked two consecutive days: the fourth and the fifth. >
"She thought of it too," Zebus noted.
"Neither of them would be here if they weren't intelligent; you had the secret agent idea, after all," Jarl agreed.
<You know, I never thought of that! If we see these guys again, I'm going to ask them about it, because – I mean, assuming we treat them as actual beings with limits and things – asking about whether the cooperative days involved using all each member's power to do three days of work in one, or only a third each, could be really significant. And whether the first member skimped at all on the fifth day. >
"Or I suppose Jimmy may not be so intelligent," Jarl continued more dully.
"Patternss of thinking can be hard to break, and I continue to assume that he fakess reactionss. Drunkenness, ssss," Zebus mused.
<You assume any of them know the answer, > Wren commented, displaying her out fit with a few poses.
<True, true. Now I'm remembering a telling where it was a day, a night, a day, a night, a day, a night, and the seventh 'day' then."
"Event horizons," Jarl muttered, taking more notes.
"Exactly how promiscuouss are humanss?" Zebus inquired worriedly as wren twirled into Jimmy's arms and he kissed at her cheek and neck. "I have had to clean out a changing room after customers indulged twice before, and I do not relish a third event."
"Really?" Jarl asked, shocked.
"It iss why my predecessor was removed from thiss posst," Zebus noted. "On that thought…" The Lizarkon male quickly flipped through the other cameras observing the store, to ensure nothing illicit was occurring. It rarely did, but youths were often unwise, and as the shop catered to the minority off-world population as well as interested Thanagarians, 'rare' did not mean 'never'. "Ssafe, it sseemss."
<Seven half-days of work totaling three-and-a-half days, > Wren rattled off suddenly, half-pulling away from Jimmy. < Motherbox! Please remind me of this story, and to research the eight trigrams and yin-yang divisions after we return. I feel… There's something there. >
<Wait? I gave you a brain-blast? Super! > Jimmy cheered. Wren thanked him by stepping back into his embrace with a deep kiss.
"They really are worsse than your mother," bemoaned. "At leasst she and your father keep ssuch behavior at their home."
"I don't believe my parents have fornicated since I was five holes of age," Jarl commented thoughtfully. "They were never married."
"They-? Of coursse, you are Ssilmarin Jarl," Zebus noted neutrally. "I had not thought long about it."
<Ack. Not here, > Jimmy squawked, pulling away as Wren did something unwelcome.
"My tawdry theories see less and less evidence," Jarl noted.
"Do you know what she did wrong? Or he?" Zebus asked.
"Indeterminate. Her hand, maybe? We've already seen him express embarrassment for her behavior…."
<I was itching, > Wren hissed irately once she had caught her balance again. She pulled at the vest, significantly.
<Look, it seemed like you-, >
On the screen, Wren and Jimmy devolved into a quick, sharp argument of quiet words before she stepped back to change again.
The next few minutes were silently, mostly, as Jimmy shifted uncomfortably on his feet, eyes glancing again and again at-
"Has he identified the camera's location?" Jarl wondered.
"Almosst certainly. Why hide them?" Zebus pointed out; the observing equipment was marked clearly in its places on the walls of the store.
<How do I look now? > Wren asked abruptly, stepping out again. This time, her top was dark blue, with ribbons.
<You look great, > he promised quickly. Wren folded her arms and stared evenly at him. <I mean…. >
"He made a misstake," Zebus said. "Although, I agree; the ultraviolet patternss go well with her hair."
Jarl fiddled with something at her belt. "Ah, I see. When I filter that part of the spectrum away, she looks far less seemly."
"And she knowss it, I expect. Poor child, lying about it."
"But Earthlings tell 'white lies' all the time, as a regular part of interacting," Jarl noted. "According to the 34th report from-,"
<You look good, but it's nothing special, > Jimmy amended guiltily.
<I look clashing, > Wren accused. <If I had believed you and walked out wearing this, should I feel comfortable? Being seen? >
<Look, 'if Jack's in love, he's no judge of Jill's beauty,' okay? > Jimmy complained. <I don't ever think you look ugly. >
"Did that transslate correctly?" Zebus asked as Wren said something to Jimmy below hearing and walked back to change again.
"It sounded like a quote," Jarl assessed. "Odd. Now I truly can't guess at their relationship. Love…."
The term was far from taboo on Thanagar, but Lizarkons were comparatively cold-blooded and Cipitrina generally preferred restraint. It was far more common to acknowledge other people's love, at least, than love given to or felt by the speaker.
"I believe," Zebus determined, "that her culture iss a minority, and you will need to perssonally interact with her for undersstanding… ass well ass for permission to use her persson in whatever ressearch you are publishing."
Jarl pulled her wings in tightly at the reminder. "I am aware, yes. They are supposed to be visiting… I intend to ask them, yes."
"Good," Zebus said simply.
<More stories? > Wren prompted from inside the changing area.
<Sure. Uh… They had one about the war in heaven, when the devil rebelled. That work? >
"Taless sseem to be a common point of binding between them," Zebus noted.
<Yes, please. >
"He must have only learned these recently, or she'd have heard them before. If you believe he wasn't genuinely intoxicated…?"
"I do not wish to guess at what he wass doing," Zebus demurred at Jarl's inquiry.
<As you wish, > Jimmy said.
<Farmboy! > Wren called jokingly. The two observers shared another glance.
"I assume that was a reprimand, that he spent more time agreeing than doing what he agreed to do," Jarl guessed. Zebus huffed.
"How sso?"
"That… technology advances mean only a few individuals can manage large swathes of arable land, so it's a minority job avoided by most people, I think? Time consuming, and they don't have weather stability platforms in orbit…."
"A threat to demote him, you ssay?"
<So, the fall from heaven. The most important part of this is that the first of the fallen angels wasn't Satan, AKA Lucifer. >
"I need to note these names down. …Source Worship was never my thing, really," Jarl muttered. "I doubt it was a threat; he looked happy. Maybe there are stereotypes about dissembling, or the physical labor of agriculture? It certainly can be messy, eugh."
"Flierss," Zebus sighed dismissively, having happily kept his own little moss garden as a child.
<Mm. I believe this story may be more accurate, according to the, mm, the existence of infernal and diabolical demons in hell. >
"Ssol Three iss your thing, but thesse are ssupposedly sstoriess he learn vissiting Thanagar," Zebus noted.
<Really? > Jimmy wondered as Wren stuck just her head out again.
Jarl paused. "Maybe… Your secret agent guess holds a little more solidity with me," she admitted. "If he plays the fool very well."
< I have slight experience with demons and the Silver City. Please, continue, > Wren pressed, pulling her head back in again.
<I already was going to, > he complained drily. <So, even on Earth there have been occasional questions about how dangerous the rebellion could be to an omnipotent God, whether permanent damnation was fair, arguments about monarchy versus democracy versus tyranny…. >
<So, the angels – or the proto beings who became angels and devils and all sorts of things – dwelled as citizens or children in the Kingdom of Heaven, > Jimmy continued, <but they weren't… I don't know if it's the same, but in Dante's Inferno a woman in only the lowest sphere of heaven, I think it was, said she was content with her place because it was the Will of God that she be there, and she could not know greater bliss even if she ascended. …If angels can rebel at all, then I guess they have some free will? I'm not a theology guy, really. >
"It makes me wonder what is his specialty," Jarl commented, taking notes rapidly.
"Recording, memorizing, analyzing, rearranging, and dispersing information," Zebus threw out drily.
<Anyway, the point is that Lucifer's original rebellion was sort of like democracy, except then he ruined it. Um. I mean, democracy isn't evil, but… Lucifer disagreed with his Holy Father about something, and the Presence permitted that disagreement. Lucifer also believed that the other angels would also disagree, so he rallied the Heavenly Hosts together – he was the greatest, strongest, most brilliant, whatever, so he could do that – to support him and all announce their dissent, or at least have a vote about whether to dissent. Something. >
"He isn't remembering the story well enough to be an information specialist," Jarl countered.
"He iss faking," Zebus insisted again.
<But the Presence allowed this. They both agreed on that; both of the guys who were arguing. One was blonde, he was a Cipitrina who'd lost his wings – he didn't wear a shirt, you could see his scars – and the other guy was a Lizarkon, big and red. They both agreed that the Presence had tolerated the attempt, but the blond insisted it wasn't supposed to break out into violence, and the red guy said he was deluding himself about it. Either way, they also agreed that not all of the angels knew it wasn't supposed to get violent. >
"Lost his wings?! And not got a transplant or a replacement or anything?" Jarl asked, aghast, spreading her wings at the thought.
"He doessn't need to be a criminal forbidden from it or anything," Zebus noted mildly. "There are athletess who like to keep their sscarss, ass do ssome ssoldierss, and weaponss of ssome enemiess can inflict irreparable damage."
"You'd be reacting just as strongly if he was saying the Lizarkon didn't have a tail," Jarl accused.
<Lucifer put out his call among the Hosts, explained the problem – can't really remember what it was supposed to be – and those who agreed all followed him, except he also got all those angels who wanted a fight, who wanted to gain glory, the works. And he got a minority, but it was a minority who would go support him, while… They didn't say that the uninvolved angels just stood by, it was implied, maybe…? Whatever. Lucifer basically sent round a petition and got everyone who signed it to come follow him, they said. >
Zebus whacked his own tail against the ground. "Missing tailss are quite common, child. Ssome of uss have them cropped or amputated ass fashion decisionss. I did so for two holes and a half, when I was your age."
"Oh."
"Yess… Now, if it wass teeth the Lizarkon was missing, that would be very different, but sstill…."
<Whatever the argument or confrontation was about; whether the Presence denied them flat, or offered a compromise, or explained himself; something happened and violence broke out. Three of the lesser… angels, though they weren't really called that. Um. >
"Right. Um. Where were we?" Jarl muttered, trying to get back to her note taking.
<How do I look? > Wren asked, stepping out from behind the partition again in a fine waterfall of delicate threads.
Jimmy's jaw dropped.
"She's wearing it inside out," Zebus groaned.
"What, really? I've got one like that at home," Jarl objected, "and I wear it that way."
"It's reversible, but green fits her better, to my eyes," Zebus dismissed.
<This is 'a keeper,' I think, > Wren decided as Jimmy nodded.
"As in the quibble position?" Zebus asked.
"It means she's keeping it, buying it," Jarl answered. "Wingman Shayera Thal's treatise on object actualization covered that habit."
<Yeah. Yeah, definitely, > Jimmy agreed. Wren twirled and stepped back to change again.
<Mm. The heavenly host gathered, Lucifer made his petition, and at some point violence broke out, > Wren's voice prompted.
<Right. Right. A bunch of angels broke ranks and attacked, or got up in His face. He, the Presence, I mean. >
"What are angelss?" Zebus inquired.
"Reportedly, they look a lot like Cipitrina," Jarl revealed. "Wingman Katar Hol's report has mentioned at least two incidents where people attempted praying to him, as well as some trouble with accusation of impersonating religious icons to leading true believers astray."
<I don't know if it was one who started a rush, or three all at once, or a few hundred, but only three were important for that part of it. >
<The First, Second, and Third of the Fallen, > Wren agreed. <They are believe to rule the main pluralities of Hell even now. >
"Their afterlife? Or afterlivess, I assume?" Zebus guessed.
"For 'sinners'. Still preferable to having your soul eaten by the Old Ones, in my opinion,"
<Yeah, that sounds right. Three big demons, and like, they got cast out so hard Hell sprung up around them when they landed? >
"Where exactly would that be, that they landed?" Zebus asked.
"Hush. You know we have dimensional phase prohibitors and temporal folding inhibitors in the satellite defensive network," scolded Jarl. Sol Four is inhabited, but Sol Two is uninhabitable, so they might assume the afterlife was there if not in a planar fold."
<The version I heard only mentioned the First, and that the latter two arrived later, but it is less important. Story? > Wren pressed.
"Yes, story please? The female knows what she wants," Silmarin Jarl chuckled.
"She musst, if he keepss digressing," Zebus murmured.
<Right. This is the important part, and the reason why Lucifer, despite being first and foremost among the fallen, is a different guy from the First of the Fallen in this version. He cast them out. He as in Lucifer, I mean. The First of the Fallen broke ranks to attack God—well, the Presence, he's always referred to as the Presence in this version—and Lucifer, who loved his father despite their disagreements, got pissed. Lucifer is the one who seized the First of the Fallen and cast him out for his transgression, followed by the Second and the Third. >
<That was the sin of his falling, > Jimmy finished. <Lucifer transgressed by passing judgment against the three he threw down, which was really hypocritical given how it all started, according to the red Lizarkon guy. Then blondie dumped a drink on him, but that's for later. The Presence condemned, or chastised, or whatever'd Lucifer for this transgression, and the Hand cast him down into damnation. >
<The Hand, or the Presence? > Wren wondered.
<The… we'll have to ask again, sorry, > Jimmy decided.
"Iss there a distinction?" Zebus asked.
"Probably, if we heard the rest of the other stories," Jarl guessed.
"Like the In A Grove series, where you have to read—and of course, purchase—all the books to make proper sense of the full plot."
"Are you suggesting I pay her money to here the rest?" Jarl snarked.
<There are several similarities to ideas I have heard, and it would answer several important questions. Mm. The Hand, the Presence, and the Voice, > Wren mused. <…Did the stories – the argument you adjudicated – use the name 'Lucifer Morningstar'? >
"Are you sure you're spelling that correctly?" Zebus asked as Jarl quickly tried to note down the complex name.
<They mostly called him Morningstar and Lightbringer, but it sounded like they knew enough about Earth and Source worship – or I guess this was Silver City worship, I dunno – but they knew enough to know what names I'd recognize. All done? >
<I am, > Wren declared, stepping out with her pile for purchase.
"Finally," Zebus hissed.
<Super. Miss Valkyr is still working on our papers to go to the wilderness preserves, but I bet I can find Luck's Nightclub again pretty easily. We can send her a message and we just won't do anything silly. >
"I look forward to sseeing him explain-,"
"If he's actually a secret agent, don't you think he'll have a cover story for why he claimed to be at a 'nightclub' when only medical centers serve potentially toxic drinks? Besides, if he was wearing a tracker-,"
"He won't have been," Zebus asserted.
"-they can reverse his progress," Jarl continued, "or they can check in with the Department of Public Transit or something."
<It seems safe enough, > Wren reflected, <but we should stay on the ground. Motherbox, will you contact Miss Valkyr, or should I? >
<ping! >
"Can she understand those responses? They aren't translating," Zebus noted.
"Why would she be faking?" Jarl asked. Then, "They don't know we're live observing them, do they?"
<bleong! >
She jerked and stared closely at the screen again as the two walked out of the changing area. "Zebus…?"
The Lizarkon swayed his tail carelessly and switched screens to a camera view near the payment area, refusing to comment.
Silmarin Jarl swallowed heavily, because in the worst case she could live with being put through a remedial course or having her gladius confiscated, but wearing an identifying sign in public would be embarrassing to say the least, if this got out and was reprimanded.
<-heard piano music-? Oh! Right, I remember, the screen that keeps looping all the criminals and their sentences was broken on Luck's Nightclub's outside wall, that's why it caught my attention, so we dropped down to take a look. There were some clientele in there already but the important part was this group of four people, because the second we walked in, the big red Lizarkon guy looked at the blond Cipitrina and said, 'You jackass, you did that on purpose, didn't you.' The blond Cipitrina guy just laughed and came over to us to explain. >
<You said they were "grabbing people who came through the door, > Wren affirmed as they near the register.
<Pretty much, yeah. The blond was Sammy, and the other guy was… Ole… Olethros, he went by, or Olly, > Jimmy said. <He said they were having a theological argument. Valkyr seemed really confused, because most of Thanagar is atheist, it sounds like-, >
"Atheisst?" Zebus asked as Jarl squirmed uncomfortably.
"That… denying the existence of recherché and higher dimensional beings or effects. Actively refusing to worship them," she explained.
"I ssuppose it is an appropriate desscription from thosse who do not know better," Zebus judged.
<-and they'd agreed to ask the next person who walked in to be their tie-breaker. Olly seemed really annoyed about it, and he said that since we came in at the same time, they should get the next person to come in alone as a third tiebreaker, since seven was a suitable number or something, and Sammy went with it. >
<Was it seven people, or three tiebreakers? I have noted that three is a significant number on Thanagar, > Wren said.
"Already?" Jarl wondered.
"She iss uneducated, not foolish, 'drunken shenanigans' asside," Zebus opined.
<No clue. Uh… Sammy was the proprietor, he owned Luck's Nightclub, and he gave us free drinks of anything we wanted if me, Valkyr, and the third person – her name was Lassala and she was a Lizarkon woman – would help them settle their disagreements. Sammy was arguing something, well, a bunch of things, and he had his co-worker Mazikeen on his side; Olly was arguing with him, and he had his friend Eblis with him. Oh! >
<Yes? Mm, and we will purchase these, please, > Wren informed the cashier employee.
<I just remembered! I know Sammy had scars on his back where his wings were – he was wearing a toga thing all in white – and I don't know about Massey, but I think Eblis was a human! Not sure how that happened, but he… actually, he looked a little like I imagined your dad did. Harmony, or Sazed… He looked like a Keeper; tall, dark skin, bald, muscled but not bulging… like that, > Jimmy said.
<I see… Eblis, yes? I want to meet him, > Wren decided.
<Well, if we find the Club, we can ask Mr. Sammy about Mr. Olethros and his friend. …Assuming Mr. Sammy doesn't toss us out because I decked him, if that actually happened. It was in the middle of my drunken hallucination of going on a weeklong adventure quest through all these places to do something for Olly, since he won the argument. Won most of them, or the important one. I mean…. >
Wren wrapped an arm around Jimmy in a way that would have been inappropriate for most Thanagarians.
< I spent two months trying to drink myself to death; I know what it feels like to have entire days missing from your memory. >
"Sstill gullible," Zebus sighed in dismay. "…Notess?"
"I intend to look uo this 'nightclub' as well, to see what's really going on here," Jarl declared.
"Ssuit yoursself."
<We learn and we improve and we try to not repeat our mistakes, yes? > Wren continued.
<Yeah, > Jimmy said, leaning in and pecking her cheek.
<Mm. Why did you hit Mr. Sammy, in the supposed drunken dream? >
"Ssuppossed, she ssaid. She ssusspectss," Zebus guessed.
"I'll ask them about it when I ask about usage rights," Jarl assured him.
<Uh… A couple of things. He was really smarmy a lot, and it got on my nerves when I just wanted to look around at where we were going. Then there was Mazikeen; she was totally devoted to him, but he didn't treat her nicely. What really clinched it was when he said something really vile to Miss Valkyr, so I decked him. I was the one of the three judges who'd been mostly on his side, I think, so it was a bit of a shocker for him when I hauled off like that. > Jimmy chuckled nervously. <I hope I didn't really hit him. >
"Further evidence it never happened," Zebus noted.
"Diplomatic protections," Jarl argued.
<If you were not reported, and he did not retaliate, then I doubt there will be further consequences, > Wren said.
They finished paying and left the shop.
Zebus switched the cameras views back to the normal rotation, and Jarl cleaned up the last of her notes, thinking carefully.
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