- Location
- United States
Agreed. Being ether a mistborn or a feruchemist puts you in a descent place in the ranking of DC. Having both, if you are willing to use them together, would put you not in the top ranks of DC power levels but close.
Life Ore Death - DC Feruchemy [Young Justice]
- Thread starter Obloquy
- Start date
- Crossover
Alectai
Speaks Words of Wisdom... On occasion
Mistborn + Feruchemist is such a horrible bundle of fuckery that it'll easily put you on the A-List even in DC. You're not Cosmic level yet, but anyone less than Superman is probably going to go crunch.
Depending on if attacks fueled by Investiture counts as "Magic", even Superman might go donw.
Suryn
On the wings of a Dragon
Nice updates. What Black Canary did was kinda dumb, but is the type of dumb tired people do.
Doing this instead of putting swears is unneeded. You can curse freely on this board
- Location
- United States
A mistborn burns a metalmind multiplying the power of the feruchemal charge. The Lord Ruler burned a heath gold meatalmind the surive decapitation, walk out of a burning fire with most of his skin burnt off, and being stabbed in the heart with a spear and multiple times in the back. Atium for feruchemists lets you store age. The Lord Ruler burned the age Atium and stored the extra age in Atium bands that he would then use as a metalmind to keep himself young for a thousand years. A mistborn feruchemist can do that for all feruchemist abilities in a addition to the allomancy all mistborns have.
- Location
- USA
- Pronouns
- He/They
Really very much enjoying this story. There are far too few Mistborn fics, particularly ones this good.
Also, A World Without Grown-Ups is going to be super interesting b/c I'm pretty sure she can use atium to toggle between the worlds like Billy Batson/Captain Marvel.
Also, A World Without Grown-Ups is going to be super interesting b/c I'm pretty sure she can use atium to toggle between the worlds like Billy Batson/Captain Marvel.
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Learning Experience - part 3
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Life Ore Death
Learning Experience - part 3* August 6 [Superboy PoV]
"You change humans only?" I heard Ferris ask. Her voice – and dammit, her insistence on being around just in general – set another little ember scorching my chest. I did my best to 'breathe, just breathe,' like Black Canary had taught me, tried to keep calm and find my center. I walked all the way into the main room and saw Ferris… times two.
"No, but I can't do anything as complicated as my Uncle J'onn. He can even imitate inanimate objects, but I need some functioning biology and anatomy if I'm going to hold a form for very long," explained M'gann, twirling around in Ferris's appearance. I smelled cookies in the oven and saw Ferris's real body perched on the couch. Her arms were doing that withered thing that she called storage meditation, which was different from what Black Canary taught me because it made her magic work.
'I wonder why she isn't off spending time with Superman,' I thought vindictively. Then I grimaced. 'No. I don't like her, but it's not her fault that he likes her better than me. There was that bit in the halls where she asked Superman if I could come on their patrols too. I'm the one who needs to be better and live up to those standards.'
I considered interrupting, but I didn't have anything I really wanted to say and decided, 'this might be interesting'.
Ferris hummed, which I'd learned meant she had an idea and was trying to put it into words. Her language troubles, and trying to learn things about people, were something I could sympathize with. I could speak English, French, Mandarin, Latin, Spanish, Greek, Russian, German, and Portuguese, but when I'd tried to read a book from Robin in its original Dutch I'd torn the thing in half out of frustration.
"Can you do hurt humans?" Ferris asked, which probably wasn't the first thing she was going to say if I'd caught that hitch in her voice right. M'gann looked confused. "Like a… pirate? Hook hand, wood leg?"
"Like this?" M'gann shifted into a pirate wen- 'No, I'm not going to call her that, it's too rude for someone as nice as her.' -woman with tangled black hair, a big hat, an eye-patch, and a peg leg. "Pirate Bonnie, she of the seven seas!"
"Yes!" Ferris clapped and laughed. "Now not with hand or leg?"
"It… would make it hard to stand up like that."
Ferris shrugged. "Sit. Man with no legs, like in wheelchair."
"I suppose so…" M'gann murmured, folding onto the couch. "Usually my problem is with adding bits on, not taking them away." She made herself look like a green girl again, and then her feet began to shrink and curl away. "Like this? I'm not sure why I would."
"If you lose legs, and if you get back, then you can get back more legs," Ferris suggested slowly. M'gann raised an eyebrow, but it all clicked for me.
"Regeneration," I realized, stepping into the room. M'gann squeaked and her legs audibly popped back out. Well, audibly to my super hearing. "You're talking about M'gann making her own healing ability."
"Superboy! What are you doing here?"
"Just watching." I saw Ferris nodding at me with satisfaction, and I wondered briefly if she'd known I was there, or was just glad someone had understood her idea. "M'gann, that could be really useful." Part of me balked at the idea of maybe making someone else on the team a better fighter than me, but the rest of me was busy wondering.
'Is this why Superman wants to spend time with her? Most of the heroes have sidekicks who do the same thing as them, but if Superman is already the best fighter ever, then does he want something different? Ferris can't beat me in most straight fights, but she can do a lot of other things really well.'
"Um, my shape shifting is always useful, but I'm not really sure," she trailed off. Ferris and I both opened our mouths, and then we had a bit of a silent you-first-no-you-first exchange. I let her win, partly because I stopped to wonder why my infrared vision showed her body temperature being weirdly cold, so I spoke first.
"Can you shape shift into an injured human? Like one with a cut on your arm?" I asked. "I bet Ferris is thinking that if you can shape shift a cut open, then you can shape shift it closed. And if you ever get cut by a sword in a fight, you can heal it."
M'gann's eyes widened. "Ooh! I've never tried it, but that would be really useful. How should I start?"
"Well," I considered, "there are… erm... three possibilities? The least dangerous is just to try to shape shift an injury. If you can do it, then you can undo it."
M'gann frowned, and I realized I'd just told her to hurt herself. 'That came out wrong. Stupid mouth! I wish I had a way to…'
"I think," she muttered, staring at her forearms. The flesh on her left arm was rippling and stretching, but, "No," she sighed. "I'm not sure I can do it, although I can ask Uncle J'onn if he can do it, later."
"R-right," I said. I suddenly realized that my other two ideas for this, if they couldn't be shape shifted away, would really hurt her. I didn't want to say them.
"What else were you thinking I could try?" M'gann asked earnestly.
'Cutting your own arm and seeing if you could shift back to wholeness, and then removing and trying to reabsorbed a piece of your body.' But those could hurt her badly if they went wrong. I really didn't want her to be hurt, now.
"Ah, um…" I stammered. Ferris watched me sharply, and smiled faintly. I shivered. 'I think she's enjoying this; I wouldn't be surprised if she had the same-'
"Well," Ferris said, more fluently than before, "I had another idea or two, too."
"Let's try yours first," I agreed desperately. 'They can't be any worse than what I thought of. No wonder Superman doesn't want to look at me… half of me is from that creep Desmond, and it really shows! Have the others ever suspected that?'
"I have," she mused, flipping through a notebook I hadn't noticed before, "few questions about shape shifting. You said not just humans?"
"No. I mean, back on Mars," and M'gann trailed off. "Were any of these inspired by your angels?" she asked instead.
"Yes!" Ferris chirped. "One of their heroes, TenSoon, is famous for the time he spent wearing the body of a dog. It began as an insult, but he discovered that dogs are much better at running and escape, yes? Can you turn into animals?"
"Oh, yes. A dog? What kind?"
Ferris shrugged. "Big?" She held out her hands above the ground in a general way.
"I can do that!" M'gann shifted and began to change, hunching in on herself and then swelling out again. Ferris leaned forward, still as enthused as the other times I had seen her watch M'gann shift.
"Bruff," boomed the shaggy green Saint Bernard. "Ruff-uff!"
"You know, if it weren't for the color, I couldn't tell the difference," I told her. I bent to see if a Martian Bernard still like having her ears scratched. M'gann panted and leaned into my fingers.
"Vee~ery good," Ferris drawled. She leaned over, her arms still unnaturally thin & feeble, and carefully ran her fingers through M'gann's coat. She rubbed and touched it carefully, parting it down to the skin and plucking a single hair. "Can you do a snake?"
M'gann rumbled, reluctantly pulled away from the petting, and melted once more. A few second later, a hefty boa constrictor twisted on the rug. Then Ferris suggested a bird after we'd stroked her smooth, cool scales for a little while, and a green eagle spread its wing soon after. I noticed that Ferris plucked a single, downy feather and put it to the side, but I wasn't sure what that meant.
M'gann reverted to her usual form. "What else were you thinking I could try?"
"I wrote this page," Renka told them, displaying where she'd been writing notes.
"Um, we can't read this," I reminded her. She smiled guiltily.
"Yes, I know. It is in my tongue. My home language. I may write it in English later, but now I can just say it. Do you remember the cat ears?" she asked M'gann.
"Cats ears?" I asked. M'gann blushed prettily.
"Oh! So, um, cats have better ears than people for some things. So back at Santa Prisca, when we were being stealthy, Renka had me make cat ears to hear better."
"Yes. Can you do other things like that? Kaldur has gills on his neck… claws or fangs like a wolf… multiple arms?"
"Um, I wouldn't look very human then, would I? It would look pretty ick."
"I don't care," Ferris dismissed. "You are you. A snake does not look human. Are snake teeth worse?"
"Green isn't exactly a human skin color either," I added, "They're either white like me or Robin, black like Kaldur and Ferris, or in between if someone's from Asia." I got the sudden feeling that I had said something wrong. M'gann frowned, crossed her arms, and looked like she wanted to keep from crying.
"I am not a-ashamed of who I am," she snapped sharply. "I am… I am not hiding that I am a Martian. But I'm a girl, and girls are allowed to want to look pretty, okay!"
"Ah. Um? I'm sorry," I managed, reaching out to her. M'gann leaned away a little, but then leaned back in. Ferris hummed and reached out to stroke her red hair.
"M'gann is M'gann. Looks should not matter," Ferris answered. "The Kandra MeLaan was a very good friend. When she did not look like a blob, she liked to walk... with her skin… like glass? I see- I saw her bones, and her blood…"
"Transluscent? Transparent? You could see through her skin," I clarified. It sounded like x-ray vision, except in reverse. Ferris nodded brightly.
"Yes! She was still my friend, even after I saw her eat," she agreed. M'gann and I paused.
"Eat? What was wrong with angels eating?" M'gann asked. Ferris looked at her slowly. She made a shush gesture, but was smiling behind her extended finger.
"Not now. Maybe I will say later," she answered mischievously. I got a sudden idea about what a fleshy blob of shape shifting meat might eat, but 'No way. There's no way people would call them angels if that were the case.' "I mean saying: M'gann is my friend. You do not have to do this if you do not want to," she added, closing the notebook.
I considered telling her it could make a cool Halloween costume, but I really didn't want to pressure her, so I kept my peace. She still was leaning into my hand.
"I… no, I'm going to at least try it out. What you said about dogs being better at running… and, I mean," she blushed, "I did grow a few extra arms to fight off those MONQI. So I can do that." Ferris perked up, and her hands twitched toward her notebook, but she didn't quite grab it. "You suggested gills?"
"Like Kaldur. Breathe water and breathe air both," Ferris agreed.
"I… I can make it look like I have gills," M'gann agreed, and I realized that there were slits on her neck trying to flap now, "but if I wanted to actually breathe water, I would have to study how fish breathe and why gills work that way."
"Study later?" Ferris suggested.
"Yeah, later. Um, I can do vampire fangs... buth ith isp haad do dock," she finished, lisping around the teeth.
"Huh. That is sort of cute, though," I told her. M'gann squeaked and blushed. She tried to say something and stumbled over her own teeth. "Don't worry, I get it," I told her gently. "Don't cut yourself on those." She nodded, and her fangs shrank back.
"I have one more question. After you need to get cookies, and then… my tests," Ferris finished grumpily.
"Your tests?" I asked.
"You don't have to do it if you don't want to," M'gann assured her quickly.
"It is my idea. Well, the Superman's idea, my testing his idea," she answered firmly. My mood dropped.
"Oh. You… talked with Superman about your powers?" I asked. 'Did he say anything about me?'
"Yes. I store identity in aluminum. Superman thought, if I tap it, I could be better fighting mind control."
'You can fight mind control? Not just try to stubborn it out?' My time with the genomorphs or when that freaky monkey thing happened were both fresh in my head. 'Man, I wish I had something like that.'
"Renka asked me to help her run some tests with my telepathy. We're going to be very careful-,"
"But I can take it," Ferris finished grimly.
"Oh." I considered that. Ferris hated telepathy as much as I did, and she was facing up to it. "Maybe, uh, later, M'gann," I began, but I choked. I couldn't ask her for the same thing. 'Yeah, I really am defective,' I realized glumly. 'No wonder Superman doesn't want anything to do with me. …Maybe. Maybe if I stick around, I can ask for help or pick up a tip. I might figure something out.'
"What was your last idea?" M'gann asked.
"Mass size. How big or small can you be?" Ferris asked.
"Oh, that. More powerful Martians can go further from our, um, regular size, whichisthisbodyrighthere! Ahhh, but right now I can go down to about half of this size, and… four times bigger?" she finished uncertainly.
"Can I see?" Ferris asked intently. "Wait. May I lift you first, please?"
"Okaaay?" I watched M'gann give uncertain consent as muscle once more fleshed out Renka's arms. She, placed her hands under M'ganns arms, and lifted. "Heehee! That tickles!"
"I am sorry," Ferris apologized. "Now… please, as small as you can?" M'gann smiled, and her form dropped down. She melted into a dog that was smaller than her Saint Bernard, though not really small. A lanky Labrador. "May I lift you again?" M'gann nodded, panting cutely. When Ferris scooped her up M'gann licked her cheek several times, eliciting a laugh. "Lighter," Ferris mused. "Scary."
M'gann jumped back onto the couch and returned to her normal form. "What was that?"
"The dog was lighter than the girl," Ferris explained.
'Oh. Oh!' I got it.
"Well, yes? Dogs are supposed to be lighter than people. Unless they're big dogs or little people. Like kids, not like short grown-up people, I wasn't insulting anyone," M'gann added quickly.
"But where did the extra mass go?" I asked. "If it was just shape shifting, you would get denser but weigh the same when you were smaller. If you weighed less, then the mass for that weight went somewhere else." M'gann's eyes widened.
"Ah! Oh, okay. Um, I actually know that there's an answer to this, but it involves a lot of ideas that humans don't really express." She chewed on her lip cutely. "Hello Megan! I just got it. It's like phasing, except we're phasing our body through the other parts of our body on the inside. I wouldn't weigh anything if I were totally phased, either."
"Oh. So, do you get heavier when you get bigger? Because then we'd need to know where the extra mass comes from. Do you have parts of your body phased right now?" I wondered. M'gann froze.
"That's… um… I don't… get any heavier when I get bigger, that's why there's a limit on how big I can get before I just couldn't hold it together! Right! Oh, my cookies!" She bolted to the kitchen to pull a tray out of the oven.
We watched her almost fly away - I looked away when her skirt started to fly up, though I didn't really want to - and I leaned toward Renka.
"Hey. I think we can agree not to weigh her when she grows bigger, if she's not comfortable?" I asked. I might have been bad with people, but even a weapon like me could take a hint that obvious. M'gann was really uncomfortable with what we were asking.
Ferris sighed heavily, but nodded. She scribbled down more foreign language lines in her notebook, and flipped a dozen pages to find something else.
"When you are done, it is my turn for telepathy tests," she reminded M'gann loudly.
"Only if you still want to do that," M'gann called back.
"Do you want to?" Ferris asked me.
I wanted a lot to say yes.
I also really wanted to say no.
"Maybe next time?" I suggested. She shrugged. M'gann brought in a small plate with a few chocolate chip cookies.
"Just in case anyone gets peckish," she suggested, sliding it a little closer to me as she sat down. "Renka, what did you want to experiment with? You mentioned resisting telepathy attacks?"
"I want to see which metal-minds are better or worse to use," she agreed, producing several metal charms and rings. She listed off each as she laid them out: "Zinc for acuity, electrum for determination, aluminum for identity, and duralumin…sort of language, but not only."
"You don't want us to know?" I pretended to grumble. It did hurt a little that she was keeping secrets, but at least she made sure that we knew what we didn't know.
"Yes. Also, is complicated," Ferris dismissed airily. "Okay." She took a shaky breath and clenched her fists. "First test, no metal-minds. When you want." She scrunched her eyes. M'gann hesitated.
"Um, do you want this to actually be an attack? I can just send a message, you know?"
"What difference?" she deadpanned. M'gann pulled back, slightly hurt, and I bristled.
"You don't think she wants to hurt you, do you?" I snapped. Ferris backed off.
"It is a real question," she protested. "I am not… being sharp. What. Is. The. Difference? I do not know."
"Ah," M'gann muttered. "Hello Megan, you probably haven't had enough good contact with telepathy. Okay. So, with good telepathy, I can send a message or a feeling and you'll know it was from me, like you'd know you weren't saying things that were in my voice. In telepathy attacks, I can either try to pull something out of your mind, like an image or memory, or I can try to put something in, like telling you to fall asleep or drop a weapon. Um, the attacks can hurt you if I do them wrong, though."
"I… probably, I think, should do all four. Not today. Later. Today, just the messages? Both? Message and feeling?"
"Okay. I should probably get Uncle J'onn's help if we're going to do the other things. When should I start?"
"One moment." Ferris visibly braced herself, gritting her teeth. "Yes, please."
I couldn't see anything happen, obviously, but Ferris shivered a few seconds later.
"How was that?" M'gann asked.
"What did you send?" I asked her.
"I asked her if she wanted a cookie."
"It... was… not so bad," Ferris admitted with a heavy sigh. "How open was my mind?"
"It was braced tightly, and that might have worked on an attack, but in this case it was like you braced for a punch and I gave you a hug," M'gann assured her. "I didn't go anywhere near that telepathy weak-spot you mentioned earlier. If there's an attack, they'll go for that, but I can't hit that without hurting you."
"Weak spot?" I asked. "What do you mean?" Ferris gestured to M'gann to explain.
"Renka has been hurt by telepaths before." M'gann scowled in a way that was as cute as it wasn't. "She's got the mental equivalent of bruises and scars, and she's also… it would be like if you broke your leg and after it healed it was always still weak. Or if… can you imagine a brick wall, like on a house? Now imagine a chunk of it had all the bricks removed and cardboard taped on instead. If no one tries to break in, just law-abiding people going around to knock on her front door, that cardboard is as good at keeping them out as bricks. If someone does want to, ah, violate her mind," M'gann's nose scrunched in distaste, "it becomes a big weakness."
"I don't have one of those do I?" 'I did have a lot of experience with telepaths. Did they leave something in my head?'
"Not that I know of, but I never really checked you," M'gann answered. I grimaced.
"I ...guess... I should... let you do that, sometime," I forced myself to say. 'I can face my fears and beat them! The son of Superman fears nothing!' M'gann brightened.
"Really? Oh, I mean, yeah, of course I'm willing to help. I'm always happy to help…out…friends?"
"Thanks," I told her, biting back my grimace. "You are a good friend." 'Another way someone is better than me.'
"Mm," Ferris hummed. "Cardboard wall. That makes sense. Okay, now with zinc, please?" M'gann focused once more.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
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AN: Wow, this got a lot more discussion than I was expecting. Glad it gave everyone something to talk about. Here's a cute little character interaction piece, and then next up we'll expect to be meeting Artemis.__________________________________________________________________________________________
I don't think burning pewter for extra strength or steel for coin shots tricks would hurt Superman, but soothing and rioting? Especially with a duralumin boost? Yeah. A well-prepared and equipped Full Compounder can throw around enough power in enough different ways to immediately top tier. Only freaks of nature, conceptual incarnations, or gods like Klarion, Swamp Thing, or Athena stand better than even odds against a well-prepared Full Compounder.
Which is why Ferris's knee-jerk reaction to being handed a chunk of Lerasium would be something like, "Someone right now please show me where the toxic waste disposal is right the Rusting now please!" She knows power corrupts, and she currently considers being brutally murdered a preferable fate to turning into the next Lord Ruler.
Yes, this is the most common trick to pair up metals, but not the only one.
This is referred to as Allomantic Compounding, where the user charges a metal-mind, ingests it, and burn the metal-mind so that they get Allomancy's "raw, brutal" power in the flavor of Speed instead of Coinshot, for instance. Any speed they don't use can be stored in another steel-mind for later use, either the regular way or by ingesting that steel mind and repeating.
But wait, there's more! Burning pewter regularly increases physical stats, and Word of Brandonhas confirmed that a pewter Twinborn could burn pewter and store the extra strength in a pewter-mind, although compounding would be easier.
I don't think it's a stretch to assume that you could burn regular pewter and store the provided boosts in gold-minds (pewter increase health and healing) or steel-minds (for speed) as well. Could you burn gold and do the same to store the gold shadow in an aluminum-mind or copper-mind? Could you burn bronze and store the Seeker sense in a Tin-mind?
A Mistborn Feruchemist is totally haxx. Like, when you actually think about it, you realize that even with two occasions of literal divine intervention, the Lord Ruler could have effortlessly wasted Vin and Marsh if he wasn't also incredibly self-confident (is it arrogance if you can back it up?) and clinically depressed.
Thank you for such a lovely compliment!
I went through SV and SB searching Mistborn as a keyword for story threads, and I found not very much. It was depressing. If you find any good ones, please recommend them to me.Yeah, I don't even consider it a spoiler to confirm that this is going to happen, because it's so ridiculously obvious.
The rest of what happens, well... I hope I pull the plan off as well on text as it is in my head.
I really hadn't thought I left it this obtuse. Well, I can definitely confirm that Ferris is not a Mistborn.
Although, on a completely unrelated tangent, Renka has (on Scadrial) met an Allomantic copper, Feruchemical brass twinborn. It's a very interesting story.
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zhuull
SB still lying to protect Racists what else is new
@Obloquy
Thank you so much for not choosing to use invisible text for any of this story.
It's a horrible crutch several writers seem to mistakenly think is clever and it absolutely never actually adds anything to a story.
You are trying to communicate you're ideas to your readers, actively going out of your way to make it harder for them to read your story in no way helps that goal or makes someone clever, it just makes them an ass.
Thank you so much for not choosing to use invisible text for any of this story.
It's a horrible crutch several writers seem to mistakenly think is clever and it absolutely never actually adds anything to a story.
You are trying to communicate you're ideas to your readers, actively going out of your way to make it harder for them to read your story in no way helps that goal or makes someone clever, it just makes them an ass.
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- Location
- United States
She has that atium spike in her ear. It's possible that were she got the ability to burn atium.
Khona Moshr
Pink Flamingo Cabal Healer(they/them)
- Location
- Alabama
- Pronouns
- They/Them
@Obloquy I have really enjoyed your writing, there is no where near enough mistborn fanfiction so keep on writing. I do love how you are presenting how Renka does not get the social norms some born on e arth would get and how it takes time to learn a new language, details like help to add to the character of both your story and Renka. And right now my only minor complaints are the black you use for ruin is extremely hard to read on FlexStars but as long as Ruin is the only word that is colored black its not a major problem and the other is that white is used for both Preservation and Harmony instead of having a different color for all three of the gods
I think the font size for the author notes are a bit too small. Its still readable but difficult. Maybe a different method instead to differentiate, like bold or a different colour. Others generally use italics but that can also be just as difficult to read as smaller fonts.
I understand the reasoning behind that characterization, despite never having read the Mistborn series and only knowing about it from here and the wiki. I even respect it a bit. But...
As a trans/post-humanist, and also as someone who sees "lost opportunities" as some of the greatest possible regrets, Ferris's theoretical reaction to Lerasium bothers me in ways I cannot properly articulate.
Never do the "at any cost" thing and never accept a Faustian Bargain unless it's really, truly, end-of-the-world needed; but if power or ability or upgrades are offered to you at no or minimal cost, take it. Take it take it take it take it take it. If you have it already you can choose not to use it, but losing it - or the potential for it - forever is just too damn high a price unless you have a damn good reason.
I think, if that situation came up in this story, and Ferris hasn't learned to trust herself by then, I may be frustrated for many hours or days after reading that chapter.
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Well, that's her knee-jerk reaction. After all, she's got a bunch of friends who could use Mistborn powers to help out their lifestyle, so surely one of them would be interested.
- Location
- United States
Being weak to telepathic contact is going to be a problem. Unless someone places mental wards on her added with her magic it will be bad.
Just caught up to this, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. There's nowhere near enough mistborn/cosmere in general fanfic.
Just one question: back at the beginning, why did she call Sazed father? I mean, she can't be his biological daughter, since he was a eunuch. My first thought was that she was a Kandra who was given human form when Sazed sent her to the YJ-Universe, but that's clearly not the case.
Just one question: back at the beginning, why did she call Sazed father? I mean, she can't be his biological daughter, since he was a eunuch. My first thought was that she was a Kandra who was given human form when Sazed sent her to the YJ-Universe, but that's clearly not the case.
Khona Moshr
Pink Flamingo Cabal Healer(they/them)
- Location
- Alabama
- Pronouns
- They/Them
One guess is that people call Harmony father the same way Christians call God father
Filtering ___ Episode 05
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Life Ore Death
Episode 4: Filtering - part 1* August 8 [Renka PoV]
"Hello, Megan. Why haven't we hit the beach everyday?" my green teammate celebrated.
"First," Robin interrupted, because there were apparently traditions to be invoked at the beginning of a 'beach day' that we non-Earthborn were unaware of, "a moment of silence for our, absent, comrade."
"Poor Wally," M'gann murmured, bowing her head.
"Poor Wally," I repeated, doing the same. Although it appeared that the boys didn't feel the same need.
Admittedly, I wasn't quite certain why Wally was elsewhere, as the brief explanation had gone largely over my head. I had put together that his 'secret identity' as Wally instead of Kid Flash was needed to study whatever trade Wally was learning, but why he wasn't learning under the Flash's secret identity and why he was needed today specifically, (as well as whether or not his trade-master knew his identity as Kid flash as well,) had yet to be explained to my satisfaction.
Then again, I also still hadn't fully grasped what a 'beach day' was or why it was desirable, save that warm sunlight, friends, and fun were all supposed to be involved.
"Is that dangerous?" I asked, as I watched Kaldur and Robin wade deeper and deeper into the waves. I caught my hand before I plucked uncomfortably at my new 'bathing suit' again. 'Individually, the words still make sense,' I considered once more, 'but put together, I still do not understand how this is a suit or why I would wear it to shower. Looking at the boys, it's clearly supposed to be something that you don't mind getting wet, which might explain the odd fabric… but as much fun as splashing in the shallows is, I don't understand why we would need special clothes to do it in. Well, maybe I'm just prejudiced.'
I had been to rivers, canals, the ocean, and the ocean shore several times in my life, both before and after the Catacendre, but I had never found it pleasurable. The deepest I had been in water was when I jumped off a ferry and struggled to the edge of the canal in the middle of the night. The ocean I had traveled across on my self-smuggled trip to the Southern Islands had been foul, and I had never before realized that ash and sand could be two different things.
'Maybe I will have fun here. With the others.'
"Isn't what dangerous?" M'gann asked. I must have flinched when Robin and Kaldur dived under.
'Oh yes, Kaldur mentioned his home civilization lived under the water. They obviously can't compound cadmium so that must be why they needed to grow him with gills,' I realized.
"What if the water is deeper than they stand tall?" I asked. "Kaldur has gills, but Superboy and Robin do not."
"No, but they can swim, silly," M'gann answered, putting her hand on her stomach.
Her bare stomach. I hid my frown and fiddled with my short skirt.
Usually, I knew that my casualness about 'putting myself on display' – a remnant of the way they raised all of us to be more comfortable with our potential to be press-ganged into the same breeding program as Mother – was abnormal compared to most people. Because I knew that, I usually chose to compensate far in the other direction among strangers, but now I wondered if it was too much of a good thing.
"I do not know that word," I answered. "Swim means…?"
'Should I have let M'gann and the shop woman get me a 'bikini' instead of insisting on a 'skirted one-piece'? I'm the only one of us not displaying my ribs and stomach. But I can't take it off, since it is in 'one piece,' and that level of exposure is usually improper. …Well, Wally would probably enjoy it, but I counted his approval of the bikini as a bad thing when he watched M'gann and I try out our suits and the other dresses.'
When M'gann had discovered that I both lacked a bathing suit and did not know what one was, she had volunteered to take me on a "shopping spree". Wally had volunteered to "carry our bags," which may or may not have been a prestigious thing for a boy, considering that M'gann wanted Superboy to volunteer instead, but he refused.
Once more, I wondered if I should stick my nose into Wally and M'gann's relationship. On the one side, he definitely was interested in her; on the other side of the wall, I could understand her shying away with how forward he was, and I had no idea about how Martian courting practices, relationships, and standards of attraction worked.
'Social conundrums. Why can't the universe just give me more criminals to punch, so I don't humiliate myself?'
"Swimming? In the water?" M'gann made arm gestures. "One of the main points of going to the beach? Breaststroke," I looked briefly down at my chest, "backstroke, butterfly, doggie-paddling and doing a cannonball?" I shook my head mutely. "Hello, Megan! You grew up in that place with ash and volcanoes and no water! Guys! Renka needs emergency lessons on how fun it is to swim, stat!"
~
'I admit, I never would have guessed that hotly cooked dog meat could taste that good. It certainly didn't the only other time I had it. I think I should have stayed with tofu-sausages because I still am not really used to meat,' I grimaced in memory of my later stomach cramps, 'but I would be more than willing to do a beach day again. As long as I can avoid getting that much water in my eyes and nose. M'gann and Robin apologized, but I will need to get back at Superboy and Kaldur for that.'
I walked into the main chamber and my eyes moved to the two new people next to the Batman and the Red Tornado. One was old enough to be another member of the Justice League. The other was closer to M'gann's apparent or Wally's age. To judge from their weapons, similar uniforms, postures, and hair colors they were probably father and daughter as well as hero and apprentice. I inked on a cheerful smile and conservatively tapped my duralumin-mind ring.
"Good evening Batman and Red Tornado, Robin," I called, taking point as I noticed some of the others wandering in as well. "My name is Renka. It is nice to meet you," I recited, extending my hand.
"Green Arrow," greeted the man, offering a warm handshake. His daughter was slightly taken aback, but rallied well enough.
"Artemis," she introduced and stepped forward to shake. We exchanged mutually investigative looks, and I tapped zinc for a brief moment.
'In a world with guns, I am surprised that bow and arrows are still used by heroes. Then again, everyone says guns are very good at killing people, even by accident, so I suppose they might just not want to kill a criminal by accident. Artemis is… very athletic and she walks like danger, but also like she is in danger.' I caught the way her eyes continuously flicked towards movements and noises, and the tightening of her delicate neck muscles. I did not know what that tightening necessarily meant, having been taught incompletely about those clues by Nemold in our few adventures at home, but I knew there was a meaning.
'That mask exposes her eyes to smoke and ash,' I assessed, 'but Artemis still covers more of her face than anyone else on the team. She wears archer's guards for her forearms and wrists to go with the bow, and I see callouses on her fingers and knuckles, but she exposes her shoulders, biceps, and elbows. Her stomach and lower back are lean and muscled, but also vulnerable, and she would also know this because there are small, faint scars there.
'I would assume that she values free movement, except her legs are more heavily armored and her boots are thick and heavy. Hmm… excluding myself, she is the second person after Sportsmaster I have seen wearing that type of knee armor, and it does give me some trouble to run and jump.
'Theory: Artemis usually attacks at range from a set position, but can fight at close range if approached. When that happens, she probably wards off assault with quick motions of her flexibly armored arms from a solid stance until she can maneuver for a brutal kick with her stronger but less agile legs. Unless, of course, she is not like Robin but has a power that will help her. I wonder…'
"It is nice to meet you," I repeated, stepping back slightly for the next team member to make introductions.
"Hey, Ferris," Robin called, "you might want to remember that we usually introduce hero names first. Giving your secret identity usually waits until a while later."
I considered reminding him that I did not have a secret identity, but settled for a shrug instead.
Oddly, the rest of the team gathered around but no one stepped up for the next introduction.
<Recognized: Kid Flash, B 03. >
"Hey, hey, hey. The Wall-man is here! Lets get this party started!" he announced, carrying by himself copies of what we had brought for our beach day, and a few extras. I turned to Kaldur.
"Did-?"
"Doubtful," he replied immediately. Which may or may not have been an answer to a question I didn't ask, but I got the general idea. I turned back to see Wally had tripped over something and collapsed in a tumble, so I hopped down to help my friend up.
"Wall-man, huh?" I heard Artemis call. "Well, I love the uniform. What, exactly, are your powers again?" she asked as I pulled him upright and started picking up the debris.
'Dominance challenge,' I evaluated. 'Artemis is both new and outnumbered, so she wants to assert where she stands by appearing a more desirably competent group member than someone already in, implying that if the standards were low enough to accept him, then of course she belongs as well, and testing whether and how much the rest of us rise to his defense.'
In my mind, I sketched out the image of a scene where a lithe, newcomer mountain lion batted her paws at a gangly pack-member while the others surrounded them both.
The week I had spent observing a pride of those new animals was one of my more content memories.
"Super speed," I called blithely in response. "Kid Flash could run beyond an arrow, catch it at the target, and bring it back before a new one was strung." I didn't look at her or specifically name 'you,' but mentally I projected the image of a bored lioness strolling by, only to bop the new-pack on the nose with her tail. 'I would like to like you… but Artemis, be warned: Wally might make a bad first impression for you, jumping too hard on it will give you a bad first impression to everyone else.'
"Uh, who is this?" Wally asked, starting to walk past. I dumped the basket in his free hand, grabbed a plastic box with handles, and scooped up the long sun-umbrella before I turned around. I was too far away to see how nervous Artemis now looked without bothering to tap tin, but something in the set of her shoulders suggested that the new lioness had extended her claws… but held back, and scratched them against a tree trunk, once.
Her voice sounded confident, at least.
"Artemis, your new teammate," she boasted.
'She's definitely frightened and trying to make her mask grow to the head. I had better back off a little,' I judged.
"Kid Flash, never heard of you," Wally taunted in response.
Mentally, the scene continued, and the gangly pack-member, stung, bared his fangs with a growl despite – or perhaps because of – being embarrassed that he was groomed by his elder.
From outside the circle of growing cubs, a deeper purr rumbled, and a heavier, scarred adult strolled in to lift up the new lion by the scruff of her neck. Unnerved but unthreatened, the gangly one scooted backwards while the others resettled their weight to watch the exchange.
"She's my new protégé," the Green Arrow announced, putting an arm around Artemis's shoulder. Artemis did not relax nearly as much as I would have expected, aided by her father, and I began to reassume.
"Bu-wha? What happened to Speedy?" Wally asked in a panic.
<Recognized: Speedy, B 08. > I turned around as the new man walked into the room.
'And either my questions have answered themselves, or this was scripted. Well. Superman did originally tell me there would be five boys on this team, until the one closest to my age instead decided to end his apprenticeship and declare himself a journeyman. But if that was the case… is there a rule about having only one apprentice? Green Arrow should still have been training his daughter, probably before he took on 'Speedy' as an apprentice, and the others should know her. Instead she is a new, replacement apprentice… I have not heard mention of rules about male versus female apprentices and masters… Either she only recently wanted him to train her, she was being trained by someone somewhere else instead of her father, or I am wrong and she is not his daughter.'
"Well for starters, he doesn't go by Speedy anymore," not-Speedy announced, striding proudly into the room.
'Well, maybe he changed his hero-name to Slowly because teenager. I never even knew people were allowed to change hero names. I wouldn't have spent most of two days looking words up if I knew I could change it later.'
"Call me Red Arrow," he finished. His arms were well-muscled, his voice deep as well as confident, his stride balanced, and his hair made me suspect he was a cousin of Wally's. 'That would explain why Wally looks up to him so much.'
Red Arrow wore an outfit in his eponymous color that was a blend of Green Arrow's looser, more concealing clothes and Artemis's tighter, scantier, but more thickly armored outfit. Part of me vaguely wondered if that was intentional, to symbolize his position midway between the master and the apprentice, but most of my mind was consumed by a single thought.
'Total Daddy's boy,' I bet. 'Really? He declares himself an adult, gets rid of his old name to be his own person, but then admits that he wishes to grow up and be almost exactly like the original? I bet these two will get drunk together and cry manly tears about the good old days when nobody else is watching. Or, well, maaaaaybe a fellow colored arrow name means he is adult and equal.'
I leaned my head to the side. "Is color change important in hero-cape-names," I asked Wally quietly. He blinked at me, distracted from the drama, and quickly shook his head 'no,' before he returned to the show.
"Roy," greeted Green Arrow. I wondered tiredly if I would have to grab a copper-mind to hold a memory that I wasn't supposed to remember. "You look-,"
"Replaceable?" Roy Arrow suggested snidely.
'Boo-hoo, I want my beloved Daddy to treat me like a man, but why won't he hug me?'
Then I mentally backhanded myself across the face, because I did not need my worse nature to make fun of life-saving heroes I had only just met.
Also, there was nothing wrong with hugs among adults. Maybe with kissing boo-boos or spoon-feeding, but I liked hugs. In moderation.
"It's not like that," Green Arrow protested, "you told me you were going solo."
"So why waste time finding a sub?" Speedy Arrow retaliated. I was proud to remember that 'sub' could refer to 'substitute' as well as 'submarine,' but I wondered if I should tap more duralumin. The words seemed to be the exact opposite of what I though the appropriate intent was: outrage because Green Arrow apparently hadn't wasted time, but instead picked up a new apprentice very quickly. "Can she even use that bow?"
"Yes, she can," Artemis asserted, stepping forward. I got the image of the beta-male lion swatting at a rising member of the next generation, and the newcomer growling back, outmatched but undaunted.
'And that answers the question as to whether or not my parent-child guess was too soon. Whoops. At least I said nothing out loud about it. I do still wonder… no, no. It has been about a month since I joined the team-,'
"Who are you?" Wally shouted.
'-which was when Speedy Arrow left, and I spent a lot less than that being watched in my first assigned room before. If he even met her two weeks ago and put her under the same watch – and he probably trusted her faster because I doubt she is from another world, so they could more easily research her childhood, training, and powers – now would be the right time for her to be trusted to meet all of us. Well, at least I never talked about their family resemblance.'
""I'mshe'shismy niece,"" they answered at once.
"Another niece," Robin snarked, which confirmed my immediate opinion of that backstory.
'Okay, scratch my other guess too, no one could actually script it like this. Rusting new universe, is there some alternate world Harmony watching me for kicks and giggles? But the niece thing is probably false unless he is really estranged from his sibling… it might be his wife's niece, but I don't… is the Green Arrow married? He didn't mind dropping Roy Arrow's name, so maybe secret identities are less of a thing with him, like M'gann, Kaldur, and me? Well, I'm not hypocritical enough to go digging in if she doesn't like it, but the team was clear that some needling about histories and secret identities is expected when we get to know each other.
'Maybe, if I can look Kaldur in the eye again anytime this month and not flinch when I expect him to recognize me as scum, I can ask him about where the lines should be. He has been very good about backing away when he's crossed them, I think, so he would know. And speaking of Kaldur, he just said something to Red Speedy and I missed it.'
"-ota on archers."
"And if we did, you totally know who we'd choose," Kid Flash added meaningfully. I rolled my eyes and resolved to stick between the two of them until the jagged edges had worn down a little.
'Really, if they are this bad so soon after meeting, I'd give it even odds for whether they just barely manage to one day work together, or they eventually snap and try to maim each other. If she doesn't have powers, I should try to steer her and Robin together to exchange tips. If she does, it's still worth a shot, or maybe Kaldur, since he's being nicely diplomatic.'
"Whatever Baywatch, I'm here to stay," Artemis asserted. I banished the image of lions marking territory as too crude.
"You came to us for a reason," Kaldur prompted to Red Roy.
'Though, if this is a mission, I should switch my mind back to hero-names only,' I remembered.
"A reason named Doctor Serling Roquette."
'Ugh, nonsense names again. Is there a good reason why this universe couldn't have sensible names like Tindwyl, Leras, Alendi, or Kwaan, as opposed to the weird or obscene ones like Tom-cat, Dick, and Hairy?'
Robin skimmed his floating-screen-wrist-computer and babbled out several things mostly too complicated for me to understand.
"Abducted two weeks ago, by the League of Shadows," Arrow Red clarified. I had briefly read some things about a group with that name, but I would need a more thorough review. This universe had a lot of people in colorful clothes and capes. 'Aaaannd, I just missed whatever Robin said and Roy Speed is talking again.' "I already rescued her. But there's a problem. The Shadows had already coerced her into creating a weapon," he explained, producing another floating, glowing picture of a metal bug with words. "Doc calls it the Fog." I unwittingly stopped listening.
My stomach became bottomless and ate up to my ribs.
The small hairs on the back of my neck stood on end.
I felt like a mistwraith crept between my bones.
'That name is far too similar to the Mists and the Ash for my comfort. Oh please, please don't let me be running into this world's equivalent of Shards.'
"Perfect for extortion, manipulation, power-broking… yeah, that sounds like the Shadows," Artemis mentioned.
"Like you know anything about the Shadows?" Kid Flash challenged. Artemis smiled sickly. "Who are you?" he yelled.
It was, I agreed, an excellent question.
'Potentially a kidnapping victim held hostage against Green Arrow's secret identity? Or he has family on the other side of this fight and was originally himself a turncoat to the heroic side? The by-blow of a seduction agent sent after Green Arrow several years ago? Adopted recently? Whatever it is, information on these Shadows is probably scarce, because experienced Kid Flash didn't expect newly apprenticed Artemis to have it, so asking the team for details will probably tell me more than looking up records.'
Red Speedy continued outlining that the rescued doctor was at risk for assassination, until he got into an argument because he didn't want to admit how much he resented his mentor's new student and wanted more hugs. Still, none of it was my place to intercede, and I didn't know much about the people and situation, so I felt no guilt about cheerfully observing.
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Author's notes: Thank you everyone who read and responded! I have now posted a lagged version of this story on SpaceBattles, but it's actually getting less attention, so SV remains my favorite forum at the moment.________________________________________________________________________________________________
I tried to find some Mistborn fan fiction here and on Spacebattles and had mixed luck. *Pouts* You'd think people would love to play around with the diverse and inspiring ideas it presents, but not so much. Ah well, that means more untrodden ground for me. Given the prevalence of YJ inserts inspired by With This Ring, I need as much help standing out as I can get.
Using black for Ruin is mostly because of its significance to her. Similarly, she sees Harmony as the same kind of benevolent goodness and Preservation and lumps them together. ...Also, I didn't think grey was a suitably significant color for Sazed.
Thank you for your kind compliments, though. Playing around with those details and misunderstanding was one of my main fun things in writing this, especially early enough on that I can't justify going Butterfly effect on everything.
Duly noted. I think I'll just use the double line break. That and it being at the bottom with quotes should be obvious enough.
No. The spike makes general breeches in her mind/spirit that things can get through, not just Harmony, and Harmony is currently an entire dimension away from her. although I would be interested in hearing what you were thinking the effects of channeling Harmony would be. I would welcome an omake with her curb stomping someone that way.
She called Sazed Father when he was human, too. As far as she's concerned, he's the only person who merits the title, no matter what a DNA test will tell you.
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Didn't we just hear about the fact that Wally was absent? Did he teleport into place?
Also, Robin seems to have swapped out with Aqualad. Or something.
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- Location
- UK
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Wally wasn't there so guess you mean Superboy (does he have a name at this point?) or Kaldur
I love her outsider perspective/commentary on everything that goes on around her. It's really endearing and is working awesomely at making her seem more relatable and interesting as a protagonist
Okay, actual commentary.
I think you're going a bit too far with the internal monologuing. It sort of works with Renka because she has a complete outsider's perspective on everything, but dictating her every errant thought - especially when many of those thoughts are later overridden by new theories, which are in turn overridden again - is a bit too far. The lioness bits and the parts where she compares this new world to her own experiences were interesting, but I found myself skimming over a lot of her more tangential thoughts.
Of course, if she was tapping Acuity right then then it works regardless. Thinking faster means there can be more thoughts between actions, and I definitely approved of the whole detailed analysis during Artemis's most initial introduction. Also the riffing on Red Roy Speedy Arrow. But some of the later ones could have been summed up better without whole dedicated paragraphs.
Meanwhile, in the previous chapter with Black Canary, it just seemed completely gratuitous. Whole paragraphs could have been shorthanded with internal flinches and grimaces, with just single line thoughts, like should I really be teaching these kids, given my own issues?
Not only is it distracting from the actual events in the story, but it really slows down the pacing. This chapter, we barely got anywhere with actual events for all the internal commentary. It works out here, because Renka, but it still could have gone more smoothly.
Maybe something to keep an eye on in the future.
I think you're going a bit too far with the internal monologuing. It sort of works with Renka because she has a complete outsider's perspective on everything, but dictating her every errant thought - especially when many of those thoughts are later overridden by new theories, which are in turn overridden again - is a bit too far. The lioness bits and the parts where she compares this new world to her own experiences were interesting, but I found myself skimming over a lot of her more tangential thoughts.
Of course, if she was tapping Acuity right then then it works regardless. Thinking faster means there can be more thoughts between actions, and I definitely approved of the whole detailed analysis during Artemis's most initial introduction. Also the riffing on Red Roy Speedy Arrow. But some of the later ones could have been summed up better without whole dedicated paragraphs.
Meanwhile, in the previous chapter with Black Canary, it just seemed completely gratuitous. Whole paragraphs could have been shorthanded with internal flinches and grimaces, with just single line thoughts, like should I really be teaching these kids, given my own issues?
Not only is it distracting from the actual events in the story, but it really slows down the pacing. This chapter, we barely got anywhere with actual events for all the internal commentary. It works out here, because Renka, but it still could have gone more smoothly.
Maybe something to keep an eye on in the future.
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notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
Kind of surprising, honestly.
- Location
- United States
The Fog could be a great Bio-weapon with information gathering. Killing targets while getting information from their database.
I actually like the internal monologue. It's interestingly different from most fics, and gives some neat insight into the character's thought process.