Life Ore Death - DC Feruchemy [Young Justice]
- Thread starter Obloquy
- Start date
- Crossover
Hecatonchires
Just an H-class cyborg with an octopus brain stem
- Location
- The Gong, NSW, Australia
I thought one number might have been the power games between her and Wally
- Location
- texas
You know, that reminds me, DC put out a comic book about Gotham Academy post flashpoint.
With some students that would make the Team seem normal.
A girl possessed by a ghost.
A young occultist, part of a secret society- The order of the bat.
A boy infected by Langstrom's work to become a werebat.
The daughter of Clayface, who sleeps in a fish bowl.
And teachers such as the guy who played the Grey Ghost on tv, Hugo Strange (so that one doesn't work in YJ), Prof Milo, Bookworm, Dick Greyson's Aunt Harriet, and Silversmith.
So Dick Grayson is an acrobatic little troll who goes to the same school and has friends in common with Artemis. She pays some attention to him because he has information of interest to her. Artemis has been trained in assassin/hero observation skills and picks up the type of MA training you have in your day to day movements. She's sparred a lot with Robin, fought beside him, seen him hurt and how any injury shows in his movement.
Conclusion: she really doesn't want to know who Robin is.
Conclusion: she really doesn't want to know who Robin is.
- Location
- Massachussetts
Does Dinah have any credentials or training? I sort of assumed she does, since the JL has resources to find and vet a non-cape therapist, and she's been doing her counseling more formally than I would expect from a mentor just stepping up to check on the team's mental health.
Who is Bette in the YJ continuity? I know that she's Batgirl in some versions, but the Amazo fight already established that's Babs right now. And do Bette and Babs know each other's identities?
@stsword Thanks for the context. I've read the Gotham Academy graphic novels and was having a terrible time figuring out how they fit into anything. Knowing it's more of a discontinuity via flashpoint makes a lot more sense.
(Also, from the previous update, I am so glad that Dinah shot down the "pretend to have an affair to test the relationship" idea. What stupid shows/books has Renka been watching/reading? That sort of thing never works out well, even in fiction.)
Who is Bette in the YJ continuity? I know that she's Batgirl in some versions, but the Amazo fight already established that's Babs right now. And do Bette and Babs know each other's identities?
@stsword Thanks for the context. I've read the Gotham Academy graphic novels and was having a terrible time figuring out how they fit into anything. Knowing it's more of a discontinuity via flashpoint makes a lot more sense.
(Also, from the previous update, I am so glad that Dinah shot down the "pretend to have an affair to test the relationship" idea. What stupid shows/books has Renka been watching/reading? That sort of thing never works out well, even in fiction.)
Hestia&theCourt
Turns out we're plural too.
- Location
- In transition
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Typically, Bette Kane becomes Batwoman later on in life. I doubt she's in a costume at the moment.
- Location
- somewhere over there.
- Pronouns
- They/It
I...how? Wasn't clayface a dude who got transformed in an experiment? How did that carry over to his kid? Unless she's his kid from after the experiment which, uh. Eww.
My reading of that part was that that was the point. Her refusing to do that to him and putting her thoughts in order to realize she couldn't do it was a way to make her think about what her feelings for him were.
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
...Dang, I wish I had asked for inspiration about Artemis now, instead of just on a title -- I kept it simplistic because I was lacking ideas and wanted to get it out before the weekend when I'd update the main story. Maybe I'll go back and rewrite an entry or two.
And on that note, I'm happy to welcome ideas for Zatanna's B09 Ten Truths, as she's the last in this season
Hmm... I might get to work on that, though Ferris and Aqualad don't exactly go to a school...
Given that Artemis goes there in YJ, Damien goes there in later-timeline Batman series, Cass Cain might go there at one point or another, Stephanie Brown might go there at one point...
Really, all we'd need is Rose/Joseph Wilson to attend and I just have this image of a hostage-taker group hitting up Gotham Academy, only for one particularly knowledgable croook to look over the assembled students, go "nope," and start listing off - "Deathstroke, David Cain, Lady Shiva, Sportsmaster, the entire League of Shadows..." - all the world-class killers who'll go after them for free if they actually try this.
He makes a point not to use "traught" or "whelmed" or whatever words in front of her, sticks to different tricks Robin wouldn't do like juggling, and Bruce's lessons on how to hide your martial arts training trump Sportsmasters observations, especially since Robin has made a point to pull a "Brucie" once or twice and just fall flat on his face/down 2-3 stairs in front of her.
But yes, she has some suspicions, she just hasn't actually thought about Robin, Boy Wonder, going to her school in a preppy uniform, being a mathlete, and being totally oblivious to a crush. If someone asked, "Hey, could Dick Grayson be Robin?" she'd figure it out in a few seconds, but she's rather preoccupied with fitting in, handling class, and up until recently keeping up her own secret identity & secret family history.
Aaaand she doesn't really want to know who Robin is, yes.
I know one fanfic suggests she was studying to get accredited until she took over the family's flower shop, but we have no indication if either is true in YJ canon or not.
Given her canon handling of the Team in Disordered, and my own experiences in counseling, I'm inclined to say not, since I winced in a few places. She was overall okay and empathetic in wanting to help them, and that on its own is good, but I'm inclined to think that she's basically done self-study in Psychology after having had an interest in it in the past. Nothing official, save for life experience.
In very early Batman continuities, Bette Kane was the first Batgirl, but Barbara Gordon proved explosively more popular and has held the mantle ever since; I've heard Bette Kane has been Batwoman, but I thought it was usually Kate Kane, though IDK much about her there.
Lastly, you'd have to understand that Renka might have a different definition of "works out well" than most of us. She's a bit unnerved by the age difference, the social class difference, and especially the two's somewhat broken relationship history.
Renka sorta knows that type of thing doesn't work out in what Earth fiction she's read (though she actually hasn't encountered it much in fiction at this time) but she wasn't suggesting it as a way of fixing the relationship; she suggested that course of action as a stress-test to see whether Dinah should even try to fix the relationship or just give up on it.
It's more an example of Renka still having a Ruin mindset at times not always being a good psychological thing. She totally would have had Dinah go for it, on the rationalization that getting them to clash and air out their dirty laundry all at once would be a good thing, and if the relationship couldn't handle it then they needed to find out & end it now.
So like with Red Arrow, it didn't really turn out like she expected. Whether or not either is a good thing... You'll have to wait and see.
Last edited:
- Location
- texas
It's probably a case of budding ala Annie from the cartoons.
But in this case Clayface sent his daughter to Gotham Academy to get revenge on the actor who kept stealing his parts and the love of his life, Katherine, ala Simon Trent, TV's Grey Ghost, the drama teacher.
As for Clayface's powers, he got them from the Lazarus Pit in YJ (metagene trigger? alchemical transformation?), in New Earth they came from a radioactive underground pool of shapeshifting, and post flashpoint they came from magical skinwalker mud.
Clayface apparently did more budding in prime earth, since the superpets includes Clay Critter.
Huh, didn't know this- Batman once defeated Clayface by taking a dunk in the very same radioactive pool to become Batclay. Batman seems to like doing this, he defeated Doctor Double X by making an electrical double of himself, he defeated Flame-Master by using the same shamanic power to become an elemental shapeshifter.
- Location
- Around here
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Zantanna:
-Celebrity crushes on League members. Regular crushes on Team members.
-What does she think about her mother?
-What was her first spell?
-What does she think of other magic traditions, like the Atlanteans?
-What does she think of stage magic?
-What was the first fight she was ever in (if there were any before the Team)? How did she feel about it?
-What was she most worried about on her first mission?
-Celebrity crushes on League members. Regular crushes on Team members.
-What does she think about her mother?
-What was her first spell?
-What does she think of other magic traditions, like the Atlanteans?
-What does she think of stage magic?
-What was the first fight she was ever in (if there were any before the Team)? How did she feel about it?
-What was she most worried about on her first mission?
TheLastOne
Person of impeccable tastes (for destruction)
That episode was weird. Not bad, but weird. Like many Animated Batman villains, they tried to make Clayface more sympathetic and tragic then he usually is. Then they had an entire episode of us getting used to and liking a character, and then had Clayface kill her in a nightmarish manner.
Ten Truths - B09
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Zatanna B09 - Ten Truths
1. She totally has a bit of hero worship for Renka. Well, SCIENCE hero worship; seriously, though, their little weekly experiments have taught her things about spell craft that her dad admitted he didn't know, or never formally codified and confirmed.
For instance, it takes her increasingly more energy to maintain a spell for longer amounts of time — so a spell that drains ten units from her in the first 0-60 seconds might drain thirty units over seconds 61-120 — but if she applies a preset time limit to the spell it dodges that drain.
Or that the more specific her words are, the more accurate & complex her effects can be without an energy increase, meaning she's gotten good at specifying numbers instead of amounts, like with 'nevele' Kid Flash illusions instead of just 'lareves'. Her dad had noticed those, but never got a workaround.
2. She isn't quite to the point of kissing Robin yet, but she likes holding his hand and making him blush. She's asked for guy advice from the other girls at school — she goes to an all-girl's school but it isn't hardly a boarding school, so everyone there has a social life outside of class — and once she filtered out the filthy suggestions she got a lot of good ideas for making him blush.
There are tubes of lip glitter and fruity gloss that she's started wearing when she knows Robin will be dropping by to watch the experiments, or he's offered to help her with some extra hand-to-hand, of the Team is going out to another of M'gann's cheer performances at games.
She's started leaning in to whisper in his ear, and she's working up to a kiss on the cheek the next time he does something really sweet, but she intends to wait until New Years or Christmas Mistletoe for the lips, or some celebration so her dad doesn't curse her crush to kingdom come (or worse: tell Batman about it).
3. She still has nightmares about when some sick freak (whom her recently return memories revealed to be Klarion) used her mother's remains to stick a geas on her. Given her resultant research into what Lords of Chaos, Order, Darkness, Wild, Flame, Air, etc., are and how bad a bloodline catalyst can be, she knows how extraordinarily lightly she got off in that exchange, and she's glad Klarion was apparently recovering from the fight with Fate and weak… but it still makes her sick.
She doesn't have screaming nightmares, but she occasionally shoots up in the middle of the night, heart pounding, fresh off a dream where Klarion wasn't forced to be so fettered and got her to turn against the Team and take them apart with a smile and a few well-chosen words.
4. She could do it, too. Take them apart. Ferris first started it as a thought exercise, but in Zatanna's drawer or somewhere she now has a page of notes listing spells to be turned against the other members of the Team or the Justice League, just in case. Zatanna had laughed Renka's claim of her high offensive ability in a fight, until the older girl started giving her ideas.
"Erif xob." — "Kaew niks." — "Toof pils. Kcits roolf." — "Niard gnir." — "Tengam llaw." — "Tsaf klat."
She has a list of quick spells to buy her time, and a second page of more complex ones for use as a follow-up. She tries not think about them, but in a ranged ambush, she now knows she could do a lot of damage against anyone on the Team.
5. Ever since her geas experience, Zatanna has gotten a lot more cautious about mind enchantment and interference with free will. Prodding Shirley Mason to tell the truth and then interfering with the sleeping prisoners' dreams was about as far as she was willing to push, and even then she didn't have all her heart in it, which is why she needed to layer on repetitions to make Mason talk.
The entire branch of spells just feel freaking dirty to her now, and she's resolved to be good enough to not need them. M'gann can handle most mental stuff, or Zatanna's been trying to finagle a version of Renka's connection trick to act like a charisma buff; despite her encounter with the twisted game and the geas, Zatanna's still fond of D&D RPG for ideas and world-building, and she's trying to brainstorm as GM for if they ever decide to do a game night. (It helps that her dad's a total nerd at heart, and both parents used to regularly play the game with friends before she was born.)
6. She's known she wanted to be like her dad since she could remember. Her first spell was an imitation of his, just her stubbornly copying his word "Tibbar" and trying to make it appear from the hat without any idea of what it should mean (or why spelling should matter). Her father was flabbergasted when it worked, and chalked it up to her mother's heritage, though he never told her that until later.
Zatanna can't remember her mother, and doesn't know how Sindella died, but she does know that her parents both had powers, meaning she got a DNA double-dose. Her mother was, by all accounts she's heard on the matter, just a general practitioner, but Zatanna got an extra dose of power; she's three or four times stronger than any other family members her age, even her cousin Zach who's the next most able, and her dad thinks she'll be a match for him in her early early 20s. It's a lot to live up to, but Zatanna's determined to do so.
7. Her favorite League member is Wonder Woman: the Amazon is a WWII veteran, has amazing power, hails from an island where mystic forces are a part of everyday life, and still manages to be charming, compassionate, and down-to-Earth in daily life, funding shelters where she volunteers and taking time for fans. Even though it'd be easy to replace, it still hit Zatanna like a gut-punch to realize her autographed Wonder Woman photo was burnt with her house, and it's something Zatanna hasn't really tried to get over or replace yet.
She's told her dad in the past that she'd love to travel to Themyscira. He didn't say no, and she did talk to Wonder Woman once about it. It was a bit before she joined the Team, so she's hoping it's still on the table as a birthday or Christmas present.
8. Although she's been known to quote scripture a bit and study it with Ferris, Zatanna doesn't especially consider herself a devout Christian, or at least not a traditional one. Her dad is a bit more serious, but she's mostly picked it up from school study and osmosis among her friends, and she isn't sure how literally to take a lot of what she's learned.
Well, that's what the teenage years are for, so she acts a touch zealous and tries to see whether she'll grow into it, or out of it. It's something approved to talk about at school, instead of frowned-upon giggles and adolescent whispers, and Ferris is eager to learn about Earth religion, so it's a thing.
9. Zatanna adores being included in the sisterly quartet of the Team's females. M'gann is a traditional girly prep whom she gets to explain things to whenever Martian culture shock comes up, and the two have had quick-switch fashion contests, using their powers to change outfits and appearances. They once even impersonated each other, (Renka was sadly in China and missed it,) but Zatanna's disguise ran out after less than an hour so they couldn't do much in the way of pranks. She loves the opportunity to grill M'gann for girl talk about kissing Conner, and they do girly squeals & dances together, and they're both totally kickass crime fighters.
She gets along with Artemis as well, the blonde having quickly accepted her on the Team and taken the time to polish up her fistfight skills as needed. They've been exchanging casual ideas and acts is prestidigitation as well, and Artemis showed off some sweet sleight-of-hand knife tricks she aiming to perform eventually. Artemis doesn't have any of the culture shock, so they get to explain social norms to the other two together, and there's bonding over being big-city girls between them, no matter that they're from different parts of very different towns. Artemis was one of the people she felt comfortable crying to about her house burning down, and Artemis help her draw up the list of replacement necessities with a lot of common sense things she never thought to include. The biracial blonde is a rock of brusque, sensible, secret-softness she likes to spend time with.
Lastly, as mentioned before, Zatanna has a bit of hero worship for Ferris, and the older girl otherwise sits very well in the "older sister" slot she never before had. Her mind analyzes and assesses in odd ways, but what she comes up with often works, and if not she adjusts well pretty often. Their sorcery experiments have grown her abilities in leaps & bounds, and other than an odd hiccup they're very comfortable together. Artemis swore up and down that Ferris's equivalent of the Talk was traumatizing, but she overheard it with Superboy, and M'gann just said it made a lot of sense while staying simple; Zatanna is neither old nor experienced enough to seriously think about those things, but she's on the fence about asking Ferris for advice when it eventually comes up, since there's certainly no one else she'd rather ask about awkward questions.
10. She's been a show-person since forever, interested in taking over her father's performance and following his footsteps in the League. Because of this, despite her burned hand in the event with Klarion, Zatanna is one of the ones most subtly discontent with the Justice League's sidelining and secrecy on Team activities.
It's small, but she's a steady voice pushing toward taking steps outside of their radar and against instructions, though she won't speak out in favor alone. Her and Wally tend to align on it, which she bonds with him about during the experiments and with his efforts to lump her with Robin more often.
Zatanna still feels unsafe asking for much space after her geas incident, but she thinks she'd like a longer leash, and she wouldn't mind moving back in the Mountain instead of the cramped rooms her dad put them in — she still has stuff in Mt. Justice anyway, and she ends up there pretty often. That said, Zatanna's also a total Daddy's girl, and wouldn't trade him for the world.
1. She totally has a bit of hero worship for Renka. Well, SCIENCE hero worship; seriously, though, their little weekly experiments have taught her things about spell craft that her dad admitted he didn't know, or never formally codified and confirmed.
For instance, it takes her increasingly more energy to maintain a spell for longer amounts of time — so a spell that drains ten units from her in the first 0-60 seconds might drain thirty units over seconds 61-120 — but if she applies a preset time limit to the spell it dodges that drain.
Or that the more specific her words are, the more accurate & complex her effects can be without an energy increase, meaning she's gotten good at specifying numbers instead of amounts, like with 'nevele' Kid Flash illusions instead of just 'lareves'. Her dad had noticed those, but never got a workaround.
2. She isn't quite to the point of kissing Robin yet, but she likes holding his hand and making him blush. She's asked for guy advice from the other girls at school — she goes to an all-girl's school but it isn't hardly a boarding school, so everyone there has a social life outside of class — and once she filtered out the filthy suggestions she got a lot of good ideas for making him blush.
There are tubes of lip glitter and fruity gloss that she's started wearing when she knows Robin will be dropping by to watch the experiments, or he's offered to help her with some extra hand-to-hand, of the Team is going out to another of M'gann's cheer performances at games.
She's started leaning in to whisper in his ear, and she's working up to a kiss on the cheek the next time he does something really sweet, but she intends to wait until New Years or Christmas Mistletoe for the lips, or some celebration so her dad doesn't curse her crush to kingdom come (or worse: tell Batman about it).
3. She still has nightmares about when some sick freak (whom her recently return memories revealed to be Klarion) used her mother's remains to stick a geas on her. Given her resultant research into what Lords of Chaos, Order, Darkness, Wild, Flame, Air, etc., are and how bad a bloodline catalyst can be, she knows how extraordinarily lightly she got off in that exchange, and she's glad Klarion was apparently recovering from the fight with Fate and weak… but it still makes her sick.
She doesn't have screaming nightmares, but she occasionally shoots up in the middle of the night, heart pounding, fresh off a dream where Klarion wasn't forced to be so fettered and got her to turn against the Team and take them apart with a smile and a few well-chosen words.
4. She could do it, too. Take them apart. Ferris first started it as a thought exercise, but in Zatanna's drawer or somewhere she now has a page of notes listing spells to be turned against the other members of the Team or the Justice League, just in case. Zatanna had laughed Renka's claim of her high offensive ability in a fight, until the older girl started giving her ideas.
"Erif xob." — "Kaew niks." — "Toof pils. Kcits roolf." — "Niard gnir." — "Tengam llaw." — "Tsaf klat."
She has a list of quick spells to buy her time, and a second page of more complex ones for use as a follow-up. She tries not think about them, but in a ranged ambush, she now knows she could do a lot of damage against anyone on the Team.
5. Ever since her geas experience, Zatanna has gotten a lot more cautious about mind enchantment and interference with free will. Prodding Shirley Mason to tell the truth and then interfering with the sleeping prisoners' dreams was about as far as she was willing to push, and even then she didn't have all her heart in it, which is why she needed to layer on repetitions to make Mason talk.
The entire branch of spells just feel freaking dirty to her now, and she's resolved to be good enough to not need them. M'gann can handle most mental stuff, or Zatanna's been trying to finagle a version of Renka's connection trick to act like a charisma buff; despite her encounter with the twisted game and the geas, Zatanna's still fond of D&D RPG for ideas and world-building, and she's trying to brainstorm as GM for if they ever decide to do a game night. (It helps that her dad's a total nerd at heart, and both parents used to regularly play the game with friends before she was born.)
6. She's known she wanted to be like her dad since she could remember. Her first spell was an imitation of his, just her stubbornly copying his word "Tibbar" and trying to make it appear from the hat without any idea of what it should mean (or why spelling should matter). Her father was flabbergasted when it worked, and chalked it up to her mother's heritage, though he never told her that until later.
Zatanna can't remember her mother, and doesn't know how Sindella died, but she does know that her parents both had powers, meaning she got a DNA double-dose. Her mother was, by all accounts she's heard on the matter, just a general practitioner, but Zatanna got an extra dose of power; she's three or four times stronger than any other family members her age, even her cousin Zach who's the next most able, and her dad thinks she'll be a match for him in her early early 20s. It's a lot to live up to, but Zatanna's determined to do so.
7. Her favorite League member is Wonder Woman: the Amazon is a WWII veteran, has amazing power, hails from an island where mystic forces are a part of everyday life, and still manages to be charming, compassionate, and down-to-Earth in daily life, funding shelters where she volunteers and taking time for fans. Even though it'd be easy to replace, it still hit Zatanna like a gut-punch to realize her autographed Wonder Woman photo was burnt with her house, and it's something Zatanna hasn't really tried to get over or replace yet.
She's told her dad in the past that she'd love to travel to Themyscira. He didn't say no, and she did talk to Wonder Woman once about it. It was a bit before she joined the Team, so she's hoping it's still on the table as a birthday or Christmas present.
8. Although she's been known to quote scripture a bit and study it with Ferris, Zatanna doesn't especially consider herself a devout Christian, or at least not a traditional one. Her dad is a bit more serious, but she's mostly picked it up from school study and osmosis among her friends, and she isn't sure how literally to take a lot of what she's learned.
Well, that's what the teenage years are for, so she acts a touch zealous and tries to see whether she'll grow into it, or out of it. It's something approved to talk about at school, instead of frowned-upon giggles and adolescent whispers, and Ferris is eager to learn about Earth religion, so it's a thing.
9. Zatanna adores being included in the sisterly quartet of the Team's females. M'gann is a traditional girly prep whom she gets to explain things to whenever Martian culture shock comes up, and the two have had quick-switch fashion contests, using their powers to change outfits and appearances. They once even impersonated each other, (Renka was sadly in China and missed it,) but Zatanna's disguise ran out after less than an hour so they couldn't do much in the way of pranks. She loves the opportunity to grill M'gann for girl talk about kissing Conner, and they do girly squeals & dances together, and they're both totally kickass crime fighters.
She gets along with Artemis as well, the blonde having quickly accepted her on the Team and taken the time to polish up her fistfight skills as needed. They've been exchanging casual ideas and acts is prestidigitation as well, and Artemis showed off some sweet sleight-of-hand knife tricks she aiming to perform eventually. Artemis doesn't have any of the culture shock, so they get to explain social norms to the other two together, and there's bonding over being big-city girls between them, no matter that they're from different parts of very different towns. Artemis was one of the people she felt comfortable crying to about her house burning down, and Artemis help her draw up the list of replacement necessities with a lot of common sense things she never thought to include. The biracial blonde is a rock of brusque, sensible, secret-softness she likes to spend time with.
Lastly, as mentioned before, Zatanna has a bit of hero worship for Ferris, and the older girl otherwise sits very well in the "older sister" slot she never before had. Her mind analyzes and assesses in odd ways, but what she comes up with often works, and if not she adjusts well pretty often. Their sorcery experiments have grown her abilities in leaps & bounds, and other than an odd hiccup they're very comfortable together. Artemis swore up and down that Ferris's equivalent of the Talk was traumatizing, but she overheard it with Superboy, and M'gann just said it made a lot of sense while staying simple; Zatanna is neither old nor experienced enough to seriously think about those things, but she's on the fence about asking Ferris for advice when it eventually comes up, since there's certainly no one else she'd rather ask about awkward questions.
10. She's been a show-person since forever, interested in taking over her father's performance and following his footsteps in the League. Because of this, despite her burned hand in the event with Klarion, Zatanna is one of the ones most subtly discontent with the Justice League's sidelining and secrecy on Team activities.
It's small, but she's a steady voice pushing toward taking steps outside of their radar and against instructions, though she won't speak out in favor alone. Her and Wally tend to align on it, which she bonds with him about during the experiments and with his efforts to lump her with Robin more often.
Zatanna still feels unsafe asking for much space after her geas incident, but she thinks she'd like a longer leash, and she wouldn't mind moving back in the Mountain instead of the cramped rooms her dad put them in — she still has stuff in Mt. Justice anyway, and she ends up there pretty often. That said, Zatanna's also a total Daddy's girl, and wouldn't trade him for the world.
Zatanna.
Zatanna.
Zatanna, stop being more Batman than Robin is. Seriously.
You even want to live in a cave instead of with your beloved father(-figure)!
This you can keep, though.
More seriously, @Obloquy, was this intentional? I don't think it was, but with this post I think I could reasonably describe Zatanna as teenage girl magic Batman.
- Location
- Leeds
Does that make Renka her Raz al Ghul?
Childhood's Hour - part 3
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
Life Ore Death
From the same source I have not taken
My sorrow—I could not awaken
My sorrow—I could not awaken
* November 5 [Renka PoV] Friday
19:47 East Coast time, -4:00 Greenwich Mean time, Friday November 5, 2010 AD, Earth.
This date should be engraved in the memories of people as 'a date that will go down in infamy.'
My day up to that point had gone well. I had stood at a meeting of the Metal Men, the Red Robot family, 'Will Magnus,' and even a temporarily younger T. O. Morrow. The Captain Marvel and myself had acted as watchmen for the elderly super-villain. He did not strike me as being any less malevolent now, while he was younger and awake, but he was watched closely, he understood he was having an almost unthinkable chance to see something like his dream come true, and he faked feeling no resentment well enough for me to mostly let it be.
The plans to colonize Venus were sped up by the greater ease of only having to build the materials for a base, rather than transport to the planet as well; Green Lanterns were unfortunately limited in what scientific services they could provide of above the abilities of a planet to achieve unaided, but the Superman and the Captain Marvel both vouched willingness to lift any base out of the gravitational well of the planet, while the Martian Manhunter had volunteered to loan them the Bio-ship for their use in the journey.
Green Lanterns were not supposed to provide advanced technology from their databases to planets unable to build such unaided, and there were some prohibitions on providing material samples from other celestial bodies, but they were allowed to provide data reports on the chemical composition and intensity of Venus's environment, as well as predict via ring-scans whether a certain material was usable.
Red Volcano was (by zirs standards) enthused to predict an initiation date of mid-December at the earliest, perhaps delaying as long as February.
Red Torpedo was less enthused with the idea, and with his robotic nature, so while he participated he did not intend to leave.
Red Inferno was less hesitant, having lost much of (at her request, I referred to her as) her human life decades before.
The Red Tornado still had not decided, but his favored strategy at my last check seemed to involve a temporary leave of absence from the Justice League to aid in setting up the Venus base.
Opinions were not exactly split between the Metal Men, but they were waiting for 'Will Magnus' to announce his decision before any one of them finalized the matter of their path.
He was still considering whether to keep his identity as it was (no longer being pursued by an assumed-to-be vengeful sister), take a new identity from Beautia, or revert to his original name and face of Magnificus Sivana.
After the meeting ended, the Captain Marvel and I escorted Beautia Sivana to Berlin to meet with Donner of the German government's task force, using her secret identity of Gerri Brauer. Over a late lunch/dinner, we discussed a past occasion where the war criminal and villain Captain Nazi had approached Beautia as a desired romantic and genetic partner, and tracking possibilities.
The Captain Marvel left early to deal with an attack in Fawcett by his enemies Ibac and Sabbac, but progress still was made.
After dinner at the mountain, Kaldur had suggested we replenish our stocks of mission supplies in the Bio-ship, as well as perform a supplies run the Batman had scheduled for us. It was during the process of unloading that the Event occurred.
In the presence of myself, the Batman, the Zatara, and our 'Den Mother' of the week the Martian Manhunter, the rest of the Team vanished before our eyes.
{-eifer von Hameln}
{Wir sind die Pfeifer von Hameln}
{Wir sind die Pfeifer von Hameln}
{Wir sind die Pfeifer von Hameln}
{Wir sind die Pfeifer von Hameln}
{Wir sind die Pfeifer von Hameln}
{Wir sind die Pfeifer von Hameln}
"Zatanna!" the Zatara called in fright as I snapped my head around, trying to identify where the words had come from.
I had no clue what had occurred, but I pulled acuity from my zinc-mind to rapidly consider the possibilities. Not all of it – I could not have at hand enough information to immediately solve this, I believed, and so I would need my zinc-minds later – but I drained perhaps a quarter of my store, spread out over four seconds, and as the time passed and I did not die I only became more confused.
"This is vitally important," I interrupted, barging into the Batman and the Zatara's argument to grab the Batman's attention. "I need to know everything you know about Lazarus Pits, everything you suspect, and-,"
"You believe Ra's al Ghul is involved with this," the Batman finished. "What do you know?" I clicked my teeth, then realized-
"Mind-link us now, please, it is faster," I requested the Martian Manhunter. The Batman hesitated. "They are gone," I snapped.
The link formed, and while I could feel a buttress of concealed thoughts within the presence of the Batman's mind, I did not care.
It was not to take secrets that I had requested this.
Unfamiliarity was between us, so the link was shallower and slower by far than it would be between any members of the Team.
Still, it was fast enough: at the highest coherent speed it would allow, I dumped most of my coherent knowledge pertinent to Shardpool effects into the minds of the other three, as it was the closest guess I had to what could have caused this to occur.
After a moment of processing the Batman returned suit, passing over a parcel of memories involving the Lazarus Pit:
I found flickers of his meetings with Ra's al Ghul, and the Head of the Demon's daughter, Talia, with whom he held a mutual draw.
On one occasion, as a gesture of Ra's al Ghul's sincerity, he permitted the Batman to see a Pit replace his decrepitude with youth.
I saw two occasions where the Batman had raided Shadow bases and found Lazarus Pits on his own.
I found chemical analyses of the samples he had taken and tested, and theoretical conclusions he had drawn.
I found testimonies and stories the Batman had searched out independently in his study of the Pits' abilities.
I found, to my interest, reports of treatments performed on ClayFace, and a session of questions that revealed his origin in the Pits.
I found the locations of the Pits he knew of, and his own attempts to search out ones Ra's al Ghul had not claimed, to find a pattern.
The Zatara saw all these things as well, and offered his own experiences participating in the research as the Batman's magic expert, and his understandings of the mysteries the Pits performed, while the Martian Manhunter offered trickles of uncertain lore from Ma'al.
Sixteen seconds after the exchange initiated, it ended.
The last things I took from it were the Zatara's theories on the scale of what sorcery would be needed to accomplish this. It was uncertain if Ra's al Ghul, any known enemy, or an unknown force was responsible for this occurrence, but we were all resolved to search.
"Ferris," the Batman interrupted before I had passed more than two steps away. "You have gear to travel to Atlantis safely, and Aquaman is currently attending a state function; you can travel to Atlantis and determine if this has occurred undersea as well, and whether Queen Mera or the Atlantean mages have an idea of what caused this. Zatara will search out the epicenter of the sorcery while Martian Manhunter and I investigate how widespread the effect is and determine a distinguishing characteristic about those who vanished.
"Tt," I scoffed, because it was not a bad plan, but the Queen Mera would only be my second choice of experts to consult. "I-,"
"Ferris," he repeated firmly, "we have no reason to believe the Team is dead. You do not yet have evidence for your instinct as to whether this is a world-wide phenomenon, but the strength of your instinct and your memory of those voices is credible, given your unique situation. Your theory about the Lazarus Pits has risen to my top three list of suspicions.
"I am taking this seriously," the Batman assured me grimly. "Your and Zatara's understandings of magic both include the belief that directly killing the Team and anyone else effected would be exponentially more difficult than teleporting them away, or causing them to travel into the future before they reappear in the same location; that effect once occurred with Captain Atom, meaning we know it to be possible.
"Wait long enough for us to complete our research before you act in a way that you cannot undo," he finished, "should your conclusions be erroneous. The worst that could occur is your making the situation worse, harming them."
I did not move. 'I do not know if he adlibbed that, or if he keeps track of my speaking with other people, or if he happened to find that information in my mind, but those are all arguments I would have used in one way or the other against another… and I believe them to be true.'
I grit my teeth in a grimace, but I nodded sharply in agreement. "I will travel to Atlantis as you suggest. I will not wait forever."
"I won't ask you to," the Batman agreed.
___________________________________________________________________________________________
In the end, I waited almost one hour.
The Batman probably wanted me to wait for a day, or at least a few hours, but I had uncovered enough.
Atlantis was affected, as was every other portion of the planet, and they had no idea how it was done nor how to reverse it.
Only humans under the age of 18 were affected by the disappearance. Animals were unaffected, but aliens were not, oddly.
At my request, the Batman had checked whether there existed any reports of people vanished appearing. The Earth had a population of at least 6 billion, and age 18 was the cut-off point, with no disappearances after that birthday.
There were 365 days in an Earth year, so on average I felt able to expect that 16,438,356 people would have a birthday this day.
Using 75 as an average lifespan, I figured approximately 219,178 17-year-olds should have their 18th birthday on this day. Whether they reappeared or not would tell us if the separation was an active effect, or only once.
The Martian Manhunter had traveled to Atlantis to temporarily authorize go-betweens for the Zeta Tubes and spare me the back-and-forth.
Meanwhile, I received confirmation from the Batman's search of the Internet: the eldest of the disappeared had begun to reappear, and they spoke of a world identical to this, except with no children. More worryingly, infants just produced by childbirth were reported by medical professionals to disappear with the cutting of the umbilical cord. That was enough to decide my path:
I performed Allomantic Compounding with one bead of atium, storing the resulting youth in an atium-mind ring on my pinkie.
I gathered from my room every metal-mind I believed of worth with any measurable stores.
In the kitchen of our home, I took a knife. I opened a vein into a small 'shot' glass (brought by Wally "for decoration").
With the same knife, I cut out my atium earring – my only Hemalugic Spike – and dropped it into the wet blood.
An entium-mind was briefly tapped alongside my gold-mind to staunch the bleeding with minimal waste of healing.
Finally, I stepped into the room of Wally's souvenirs, where I had often enjoyed my literacy practice, and spoke rapidly as I neared.
"An event has created two parallel realms, each bearing an identical earth, save that one has every person over eighteen, the other everyone under. Every child in a hospital Eye-See-You is probably dead in the other world, and in cars more. Please help me stop this."
After one hour and one minute, at 20:48, East Coast Time, on November 5, I plucked the Helmet of Fate from our shelf and put it on.
Darkness fell.
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Hestia&theCourt
Turns out we're plural too.
- Location
- In transition
- Pronouns
- She/Her
...to be honest, given Renka's prestablished working relationship with Fate, this is probably the best possible outcome. Fate won't keep Renka longer than necessary, I don't think.
- Location
- somewhere over there.
- Pronouns
- They/It
He's specifically noted as not wanting to, yeah. Something about her metaphysiology not being what he likes, IIRC? As in, she's too chaotic for him due to her background.
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To use Cosmere terms, Renka has too much Connection to Ruin, which does not play well with Order.
nmWarden
Webcomic Glutton
- Location
- Texas
Batman was so worried about Renka causing trouble. Thankfully Dr Fate is here to restore Order!
...
I wonder what suggestions Renka will share with Nabu about how to act during this crisis. And more importently: how chaotic will their consequences be?
What a wonderful chapter! This is so much better than an arc about Renka altering her age back and forth! Lovely stuff.
...
I wonder what suggestions Renka will share with Nabu about how to act during this crisis. And more importently: how chaotic will their consequences be?
What a wonderful chapter! This is so much better than an arc about Renka altering her age back and forth! Lovely stuff.
- Location
- Massachussetts
This is very cool. I looked up the episode synopsis after the request for title suggestions, and this is already set up to be a far more interesting story than the canon version. It only took them an hour to figure out the basics and start a plan, and this Renka-Fate team up has loads of potential.
It took me a minute to figure out why she removed the earring, but I'm a little surprised that doing so was sufficient. I figured her Sliver status far outweighed the effect of that extra staple, even if it is made of essence-of-Ati.
Focusing on the numbers and the casualties established this as a firm, existential threat in my mind. Maybe the show made that point too, but my reading of the summary played it off as a silly gimmick. So good job.
As an outsider to DC, I am a little confused by the mindmeld about Lazarus pits. I know they grant longevity/resurrection, but I sort of thought there was just the one and that was the extent of the ability. I definitely don't get the reasoning why the Lazarus pit(s) jump to the top of the list of suspected causes, or how they relate to Renka's dip in the shardpool. Are they really that powerful and outward-focused?
It took me a minute to figure out why she removed the earring, but I'm a little surprised that doing so was sufficient. I figured her Sliver status far outweighed the effect of that extra staple, even if it is made of essence-of-Ati.
Focusing on the numbers and the casualties established this as a firm, existential threat in my mind. Maybe the show made that point too, but my reading of the summary played it off as a silly gimmick. So good job.
As an outsider to DC, I am a little confused by the mindmeld about Lazarus pits. I know they grant longevity/resurrection, but I sort of thought there was just the one and that was the extent of the ability. I definitely don't get the reasoning why the Lazarus pit(s) jump to the top of the list of suspected causes, or how they relate to Renka's dip in the shardpool. Are they really that powerful and outward-focused?
NexysDhyArchen
Throne Breaker
There's also the semi-fanon interpretation that the Pits run off of geomantic leylines. So it's quite possible that the Lazarus Pits could be used to 'plug-in' to a global magical transfer network to project the effect of transporting all children elsewhere. And genociding a significant portion ofhumanity, both in number and station, is exactly what kind of League level crime Ra'z gets up to.
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- Location
- texas
While they aren't exactly the same, it's not that bad an analogy.
Pre-flashpoint, they would seem to be connected to Gaea, being connected to ley lines, and Ra's al Ghul once built a rather lazarus pit like "Crucible" to summon Gaea and achieve apotheosis as her consort. Gaea liked Superman better.
Post-flashpoint but started pre-flashpoint, Lazarus Pits get their power from Dionysium, the blood of the Hyper-Adapter, a New God artifact, and since it is one of the "sacred five metals" of Batman Metal, presumably one of the diluted versions of Element X.
In the surreal Batman Odyssey, the wellspring of the Lazarus Pits is guarded by genetically engineered creatures who claim to be the Egyptian gods.
So Oblo could connect it to Gaea, the Egyptian pantheon, or the Source rather easily. The hardest part would probably be deciding which deity Oblo wants to go with.
