some people can't eat meat because it will kill them there was a fad on YouTube where people tricked vegans into eating meat, one girl's throat closed up and the police arrested the guy who gave it to her for poisoning the food
Project: Gamer Ver. 2 (Young Justice/Gamer/Multicross OC)
- Thread starter Mister Ficser
- Start date
- Location
- Oregon, USA
Or, to subvert expectations, it could be from a similar time in his life as when he was in FFIX, going around as a petty thief and gambler...and D-Rank Treasure Hunter. Just show up to challenge random people to a Tetra Master match...and/or pickpocket them.
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
Alchemist: "Are those your fingers in my pocket or are you happy to see me?"
Gil: "What? My hand's stuck! Let go of me!"
Alchemist: "You let go and I'll let go."
Gil: "Gah! Fine! I didn't want your wallet any...way... You're a dragon?!"
Alchemist: "And you are crunchy and go good with ketchup."
- Location
- Oklahoma
- Location
- UK
I look forward to seeing Jinx at Hive Academy. Possibly even making friends and leading her own team!
Though . . . Alchemist may want to be careful if he starts pranking the Titans. We've already seen their post-situation analysis, where they reviewed the situation and visually identified him as an anomalous factor. When they start to seriously investigate something, they're actually quite competent, which could be a new situation for him when handling teens.
Though . . . Alchemist may want to be careful if he starts pranking the Titans. We've already seen their post-situation analysis, where they reviewed the situation and visually identified him as an anomalous factor. When they start to seriously investigate something, they're actually quite competent, which could be a new situation for him when handling teens.
I feel that way too. But Also, HUZZAH! An UPDATE!!!!!
- Location
- Canada
Vegetarians, per their diet, are the ones that don't consume animal products;
Vegans, per their philosophy, are strictly speaking allowed to eat meat, provided that act did not entail unnecessary cruelty to that animal: ethically sourced, etc.
(in the States) There's an ironic symbiotic relationship in communities with both plus an excess of deer : Vegetarians hunt the deer because they keep eradicating seedlings (killing native forests); Vegans then eat the deer (preferably after inspection/processing by an experienced butcher who can screen for disease and poaching), so that the delicious meat doesn't go to waste - thereby ameliorating a measure of cruelty in killing them while supplementing their diet.
Unfortunately many people who become Vegetarians because of a 'moral' rejection of industrialized-meat-practices tend to exclusively wrap their dietary/lifestyle choices in "Vegan-ism" smearing the philosophy as a simplistic rejection of animal products. Often unaware that animal products are found in (cosmetics, pigments, lubricants, clothing, (now less commonly) gelatins, etc) such as "'natural' [fruit] flavour" which are often animal or distillery extracts unrelated to the fruit being imitated.
edit Sorry to have gone off topic. This point keeps coming up IRL, so I felt definition was needed.edit 11h, 1 like later: I have been informed that the current definition of Vegan is not strictly a philosophy based on the humane treatment of animals as I'd previously believed, but a strict diet and life-style based on that philosophy.
Opportunistic omnivores are incompatible with the current definition of Vegan provided by the Vegan-interest websites that still provide a definition of Vegan.
Vegetarians continue to kill but generally not eat animals.
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- Location
- Paradise, Hawaii
If Fred & the Gang of Mystery Inc. are around, will Jinx mess with them? I remember a crossover with Campy Batman & Robin that stared Penguin & Joker.
Who is the Masked Biker?
But on to local version stuff, Jinx knows what her life was like, will she be her own Older Sempai in School?
Who is going to take care of details? Will Jinx or Alchemist buy the building & magic Repair & Cleaning?
Are all the kids going to Hive Academy? Does Yuffie get a Challenge?
Who is the Masked Biker?
But on to local version stuff, Jinx knows what her life was like, will she be her own Older Sempai in School?
Who is going to take care of details? Will Jinx or Alchemist buy the building & magic Repair & Cleaning?
Are all the kids going to Hive Academy? Does Yuffie get a Challenge?
Interesting definitions, but not really accurate at all. Vegans are vegetarians who refrain from all animal sourced products, including eggs and milk, while normal vegetarians are allowed eggs and dairy products - this is even the definition given on wikipedia. Hence the Scott Pilgrim line "Chicken isn't vegan?"
So that answers Lex and Bruce's answers to the chaos crowd...
- Location
- Canada
Interesting. I've spent the last few hours retreading my research into what the various Vegan Societies say ---
Those were the labels the Vegetarians w/ the guns used to distinguish between themselves from the [opportunistic omnivores] they were supplying with the carcasses,
and while compatible with the information I did find on Veganism websites 2010's (when I last had reason to read-up on this) I had the clear impression that vegans who viewed the humane treatment of animals as having an absolute priority over the dietary restrictions (and saw that no degree of animal suffering or mortality would be alleviated by their abstaining from devouring the carcasses) were a barely-tolerated part/parallel of the wider Vegan mission to minimize the exploitation of animals- keeping with their central philosophical definition:
Article: The suffering and slaughter of animals was the starting point for the creation of The Vegan Society.
Although the vegan diet was defined early on it was as late as 1949 before Leslie J Cross pointed out that the society lacked a definition of veganism and he suggested "[t]he principle of the emancipation of animals from exploitation by man". This is later clarified as "to seek an end to the use of animals by man for food, commodities,
work, hunting, vivisection, and by all other uses involving exploitation of animal life by man".
I see now that subset of [defrocked?] Vegans would now be like "ethical omnivorism"; The article for which Wikipedia categorizes with "Veganism and Vegetarianism" as a "Animal Welfare" topic. Though not (strictly) within that category as their source is not a farm, nor do they pay for it...(consistently?)
--- And today's descriptions for the Vegan diet (on the Vegan Society websites that still provide one) now 'exclude all' rather than just 'avoid' animal products; (or use other weasel phrases that imply an absolute minimum as much as is practically achievable). Which is much less ambiguous than before. - Though that change may be in part because of food-science developing sources of B12 and other essential nutrients that aren't animal derived making it actually practical. And/Or because some of these Societies need to have a consistent definition to sell Vegan certification to commercial food providers.
In any case; I'll try to be certain in the future when I use that anecdote to remark: there are vegetarians that do kill deer out of a moral obligation (deforestation), but have their [otherwise-would-be-vegan] neighbours eat the carcasses instead of letting it go to waste/pollution - Instead of emphasizing 'vegan' strictly as a philosophy rather than a strict diet based on a philosophy, which no-longer is consistent with the definitions provided by websites promoting Vegan interests.
W/ that in mind; Would this not mean that the proposed magic-food production is not Vegan? Since it is either meat (diet) or exploits the magic user (philosophy)
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So, I'm rereading just for my own entertainment, and deep into chapter 1
Yo, @Mister Ficser, was that an intentional flag (the first one in fact) heralding the coming times of an extremely Metal cyborg space-dragon Lord of Edge existence? Or just a sign of the story, it's plot, and it's characters all changing, as was pointed out to the problem with standard Gamers in the opening scene (that is, that they don't change)?
Woof. Yeah, about that 'Leslie'.
Yo, @Mister Ficser, was that an intentional flag (the first one in fact) heralding the coming times of an extremely Metal cyborg space-dragon Lord of Edge existence? Or just a sign of the story, it's plot, and it's characters all changing, as was pointed out to the problem with standard Gamers in the opening scene (that is, that they don't change)?
I had no idea where I was going with this when I started. The Void Dragon (DnD) wasn't even on my radar at the time. The Holmcross (Wild Arms) was a vague idea but not one I'd put too much thought into because I hadn't even come up with the 'Instant Quest' thing at the time.
I've said it before but I actually regret that one. They do add to the story but they've introduced a genuinely difficult mechanic to juggle.
Might be misremembering. A handful of folks were discussing Dreamstone from Chrono Trigger and what it might be used for.
Personally, I don't think it carries much if any real connection to dreaming. It looks to me as though the material is just... oddly good at channeling higher or foreign powers. Helping to manifest strong wills into reality, or connect and capture a bit of power from foreign entities such as Lavos.
- Location
- Whadjuk Noongar boodja
What you did there, I see it.
Ugh, now I want to see Yuffie's father punched a few (dozen) times. Again.
I can absolutely see the temptation in that idea. And certain capes are just too self-righteous/take the bait far too deliciously to be left un-poked. On both sides of the Hero/Villain divide.
Massive Oof there! I'd give that one a huge miss as well.
My mother is one of them these days, too. (Well, my b-mother, that is.) It's a problem that's going to be getting more common in the near-ish future as well, as the world warms and certain tick populations extend their range into places they've not been able to survive in previously.
It turns out that there are multiple species of tick around the world* that have a protein in their saliva that just so happens to be identical to one found in the flesh almost** all mammals. So, if you get bitten by one of the little creeps and get unlucky: Congratulations! You are now allergic to mammalian meat!
And it doesn't take much at all to set this allergy off. Like, 'cooked on the same equipment or with the same utensils as mammal meat'? You just won a trip to the hospital! And you'll be there for at least a few days, minimum.
'Fortunately' in Mum's case, her husband has been pescetarian (vegetarian plus fish) for decades now, so there wasn't a huge change in diet/cooking required. I mean, she still could eat any birds. And I'm assuming that reptiles and amphibians would still be fine, so if you routinely ate either of those groups, you most likely would still be able to, but seeing as hubby already had those dietary restrictions, it's both easier and simpler just to stick to that.
And of course, there's other allergies that could cause it too, but AFAIK this is the only one that is communicable. Hopefully it's the only one that is this easily communicable.
(*) I know for a fact there is at least one species that does this in North America and at least one on the Australian East Coast. Presumably there's highly likely to be at least one of them that affects Eurasia and Africa, too.
(**) Not all mammals. There are some that lack the offending protein, but there are all sorts of issues with eating those ones, given that the only exceptions I know of are some primates, and yes, that does include Homo sapiens sapiens. So she can't enjoy pork any more, but could eat Long Pig, aside from all the other problems inherent to that idea. 😎
Chapter 287
Project: Gamer Ver. 2 Alpha Build 2.8.7
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
_________________________________________________________________________
03/07/2003 (TT)
After Jinx and Yuffie split off to head back to the city, Alchemist tracked down Bonnie so he could get to work.
Kary, after what she'd privately admitted to him had been a very stressful week, just wanted to sit down and relax, listen to some music. Alchemist certainly wasn't about to begrudge her that.
There wasn't any need for him to hurry, not just yet. But there was an upcoming crisis that he would need to be prepared for.
Something he hadn't yet told the others was the sight of the gods and their oversouls. They were... majestic in a way that words couldn't quite describe. The very sight, the comprehension that Alchemist had been looking at concepts wrapped around egos and powered by myth and legend, it was awe inspiring in the most literal sense.
And, hovering around the 'reality' that they were currently attached to, had been a massive, red deer. With four hateful, red eyes and antlers that branched more times than could be counted.
Problems, problems, countless little problems...
"So... what are you going to do?" Tiffany asked after Alchemist had led her and carried Bonnie into the workshop. "You mentioned going to New York, right?"
"I did," Alchemist agreed as he set Bonnie down on a counter near the enchanting table. "And I plan on going soon but it's not really an immediate issue. I was planning to get started on some other projects."
"...Okay," Tiffany mumbled. The girl grabbed a stool and sat down but didn't have anything else to say.
Alchemist... was honestly getting pretty worried. While he didn't appreciate the spite, snark and sarcasm that she usually exuded, those were far more preferable to Tiffany's current state.
"What are you doing?" Bonnie asked. The little purple bunny had actually been a bit of a challenge to track down. Between her tiny size and the ever-growing range of the demi-plane, she and her team had a lot of room to hide.
"We," Alchemist emphasized, "are going to learn a bit about enchanting. I've got a few special artifacts that I'm sure the both of you could benefit from breaking down and I need to work on improving the skill."
As he spoke, the mage opened the inventory and typed in the word 'perseverance'. Then he extracted a trio of rings. They looked to be simple iron bands, seemingly unimportant but for an odd sheen in their reflection.
"What's the point?" Tiffany asked as she caught the ring that Alchemist threw at her. "I don't have my powers right now. It's not like I can actually do anything."
Bonnie's ring was not thrown at her, considering it was as wide as any of her cloth limbs. It was simply held out for her to take in both hands.
"Are you sure about that?" Alchemist asked as he set his own ring in the middle of the enchanting table. "Because you still read as having almost eight-thousand hit points. If you were just a 'normal girl' that number would be close to one-hundred."
Alchemist let the depressed girl digest that for a minute as he showed Bonnie how to use the table. The symbols on it representing the five schools of magic practiced by the Nords in Skyrim were wholly unimportant, window dressing that had no impact on the actual working of the table itself. The skulls and candles that often decorated them were, likewise, nothing more than decor.
Rather, the magics within an enchanting table were connected to the binding of magic to the material. The pentagon drawn around the center utilizing a resin composed of the dust of a filled, grand soul gem served the purpose of both collecting and distributing the magic offered to it from other soul gems.
And the flow could be reversed, the 'shape' of an enchantment could be broken free of an item, destroying said item, and embedded into the mind of whomever used the table. It wasn't quite the same as learning a spell, the form of an enchantment was simply too incomplete to be used by itself, but the inverse did not hold true.
And, for some odd reason, the inverse actually had additional rules on top. A known enchantment without an accompanying spell could be made at whatever level at or below his Enchantment skill but if he knew a spell, then it and Enchantment both had to be factored in and whichever one was lower would set the cap.
An adequately skilled mage could turn any spell they knew into an enchantment. And greater skill would confer greater flexibility in tuning and turning that spell to more and more exacting functions. Extending the number of times the spell could be used within the same amount of charge, expanding the size of effect or magnifying the strength to greater heights. And a mage that excelled in enchanting could craft artifacts of power greater than what they could bring to bear through normal spellcasting.
Alchemist... didn't need to do that.
~~ Enchantment Learned: Discipline ~~
~~ Increase Skill/Spell experience gained by (Enchanting Level/2 x Magnitude)% ~~
Alchemist shook his head and shivered as a chill ran down his spine.
~~ Congratulations! ~~
~~ Skill: Enchanting has reached level (38)! ~~
"Learning an enchantment that already exists is pretty easy," the man explained as he picked up the now-twisted scraps of metal the ring had turned into. "That doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to make anything worthwhile out of it, just that you can learn it."
Alchemist stepped aside as Bonnie climbed on to the table, her own ring held under one arm. Meanwhile, he kept one eye on Tiffany, noting that the girl had been incredibly silent since he'd mentioned her attributes.
"So I just put this here?" Bonnie asked as she set the Ring of Perseverance in the middle of the pentagon. Alchemist nodded to her and the doll continued what she'd been doing, walking back outside of the pentagon on the Arcane Enchanter and placing both of her tiny hands on the table. "Now what?"
"Just feed a little bit of magic into the table," Alchemist patiently explained. "About as much as though you were trying to cast a cantrip."
The wizard watched as the arcanist succeeded, the etched lines glowing bright blue as Bonnie had the magic of the ring broken down and, for lack of a significantly better explanation, etched into her.
Magic was weird.
"...I'm next, right?" Tiffany asked, a desperate note of hope in her voice. "I can do that, yeah? I don't... I don't need my system to learn your magic?"
"Yes, you're next," Alchemist agreed. "And no, you don't need the system to learn magic. It just makes it a lot easier."
The wizard reached over and let Bonnie grab on to his hand, lifting her out of the way as Tiffany situated herself in front of the workbench.
"...What's the status on your system, anyway?" he asked, a careful eye locked on to her efforts.
"It froze back when we were in between worlds," Tiffany admitted as she nervously placed the ring in the center of the table, next to the scraps leftover from Bonnie's. "It said 'Unstable Connection' instead of downloading anything. But it started back up around the time you got into this reality, so... not even halfway. Actually, it's been going kind of slow ever since we got here..."
Alchemist hummed quietly in thought as light crept around the table, outlining Tiffany's features.
That wasn't exactly good news but it could have been worse. Tiffany didn't mention the dropped connection resetting any progress, so that was something.
The wizard held back a sigh at the look in Tiffany's eyes once the disenchantment process had concluded.
Hope. Awe. Relief. In a way, she looked like someone coming in from a deserted island who'd just been given fresh water for the first time in months.
His mouth twisted into a scowl for a moment before he fixed his facial features back towards something blank and placid.
Tiffany and her problems were not exactly something he was equipped to handle. He knew Diana and Tigress were looking into things but Gotham was a subtle hellscape of ineptitude and minor evils that would stymie any efforts to improve things. Which, combined with the usual uselessness of child protective services, meant that nothing would actually get accomplished on that front.
And the last update he'd gotten from Batman had him fighting to find Ace. Which, given the way government black ops operated, meant that Bruce may as well have been juggling live hand grenades.
"Alright!" Alchemist called out as he put Bonnie back down on the edge of the Enchanter. "I've got an absolute boatload of low-quality enchanting stones and just as many random articles of clothing. Socks, shoes, scarves- You name it, I stole it!"
Tiffany looked a bit confused at the bit of showmanship Alchemist was trying to put on but Bonnie was clapping.
Politely.
"So, let's take turns enchanting stuff until we get comfortable with the skill. How does that sound?"
"Yes!" Bonnie called, running in place or hopping or... Alchemist didn't know what to call it. "I'll make the best enchantments!"
"Yeah," Tiffany agreed, a touch more life in her voice. "I think I'd like that."
As for what Alchemist was going to do with countless random articles of clothing that would help people learn skills just a tiny bit faster?
He... hadn't thought that far ahead.
-----
05/07/2003 (TT)
Robin stood at the ledge of a two-story building across the street from Honest Tom's Gold and Trade, a pawnshop in Jump City.
"This sucks, dude." And Beast Boy sat next to him. The boy was sitting cross legged on the roof, his chin resting on the ledge as the two stared down at the building. "Stakeouts are so~o boring."
Robin pursed his lips and kept a silent vigil on the building below.
"We're just, like, sitting around. Doing nothing. Hoping that some bad guys come around and we can... What are we actually here for, anyway?" Beast Boy asked, his eyes sliding from the storefront below to look at Robin's face.
"...There's been a string of sales that the police felt were suspicious but they couldn't actually figure out," Robin began to explain as he profiled the people down below. "Someone went through every pawn shop in the city and sold each of them the exact same thing."
"...Okay?" Beast Boy asked. "That's not a crime, though."
"It's not," Robin agreed. "But when I said the exact same thing, I meant it. One girl, maybe fifteen, sold twelve necklaces that all weighed the same, had the same material composition and the exact same appearance to each location. That's not about getting money, Beast Boy. That's about getting information on variables."
"Aw, man... Why you gotta bring math into this, Robin? I deal with enough variables in algebra."
Robin ignored Beast Boy's whining for a moment as he tracked a teenage girl but she passed right by the pawn shop without even looking at it.
"Because we don't know why this person is getting that information," Robin patiently explained.
Beast Boy's complaints about stakeouts were not at all unwarranted. Robin couldn't begin to count the number of times he'd been stuck out on a rooftop with Batman just to watch a whole lot of nothing.
That was especially frustrating in winter.
"Maybe she's a plant, getting information for someone else. Or she could be a middleman, gopher, whatever word you want for being the last point of contact for thieves."
"...Okay? But, like, wouldn't she be selling stuff to her own contacts? Pawn shops report the stuff they get and they don't offer a good deal. Even I know that."
Robin nodded at Beast Boy's words. A criminal using a pawn shop would be a rookie mistake but it still happened. A lot.
"If she had contacts," Robin agreed. "But whoever this is, they might be new. Or the sale wasn't the actual goal and might have been a distraction. Or it's something else entirely and we have no idea what might be going on."
"A distraction for what?" Beast Boy asked, waving one hand over the ledge and toward the seedy shop below. "I saw the video at the police station, same as you. The girl came in, offered the necklace, waited until it was weighed and then accepted whatever was offered. I don't think she spent more than ten minutes at any one spot."
"Exactly," Robin said with a grin on his face. "Twelve different pawn shops, all across town in one day. And no visible means of transportation? Whoever this person is, they spent two hours to do something that should have taken a full day on foot. While carrying around almost forty-five hundred dollars worth of gold? Something doesn't add up and the police are nervous about it."
"I'm not saying it's not weird, bro," Beast Boy admitted before sighing in clear boredom. "I'm just saying that I don't think there's anything we can do. Nobody reported any missing gold, did they?"
"...No," Robin admitted with a quiet sigh of his own. "But that doesn't mean there isn't any missing. Just that it hasn't been reported."
"Maybe." Beast Boy shrugged and dropped back, awkwardly laying down and looking up at the sky. "But if we try and track down people for being suspicious before they actually go and do something? Pretty sure I read a book like that, once. It didn't end well."
Robin sighed again and conceded the point.
The local police were just nervous about something they couldn't explain and Robin was an apprentice to the world's greatest detective. It just seemed natural that they'd ask for his help.
But Beast Boy was right. Without a reported crime, the unnamed girl was just suspicious, not a criminal. And while Robin would happily stop a robbery if he saw one, the Teen Titans seemed to be built for bigger and more dangerous criminals than a low-level fence or minor thief.
"...I guess you're right," Robin said after a long moment of quiet. "Want to grab a few pizzas on the way back?"
"...Dude? You had me at 'You're right'."
-----
08/07/2003 (TT)
Sebastian Blood the Eighth was a chronically overworked and unfortunately underappreciated man, in his own opinion. As the deputy headmaster of a very prestigious academy, he was often tasked with taking a first look at the paperwork for every student in the school and approving of any requests or requisitions.
And then, of course, anything that he did approve had to go higher up and receive further permission from the headmistress.
Just as common, however, were the disciplinary issues. Clever, talented teenagers who were expected to cohabitate without those pesky hormones acting out? Either in violence or puerile romance? Channeled appropriate, such things were hardly issues.
But the children often needed a stern hand to guide them into channeling things appropriately as compared to inappropriately. A stern hand, a kind word and a little nudge were often enough to have the children acting as he or the others desired.
Paperwork and punishment were not the only things Sebastian was expected to take care of, however.
"...This proposal is utterly idiotic," the headmistress said with a sneer as she re-read the 'request' that they were expected to fulfill.
"Yes, but it's not as though we can simply turn Mister Wilson away and say so," Sebastian said, fully in agreement with her.
Sebastian Blood was an older man. His white hair spiked backwards from the front and side, offering an appearance not unlike having horns, and he wore an embroidered cloak with a glaring ram skull over his surprisingly tight clothing.
They'd been contacted by a... donor, to their prestigious academy. A man that wished to field a team of their highly trained, highly specialized students to perform a particular task. There was still quite a bit of work to be done, from selecting the appropriate students to making a presentation video but those would hardly be -that- time consuming.
Slade Wilson had requested their best and the H.A.E.Y.P. Academy for Extraordinary Young People had a trio of outliers ready and able to be fielded.
"True," the headmistress agreed with an aggrieved sigh. She was a slender woman with white hair tied up in a tight bun and age lines marring her severe features. "By reputation alone, he could ruin us."
Elbow to elbow as the two worked on getting the details figured out, the both of them jumped in frightened surprise as a new voice spoke up from across the table.
"But reputation alone is hardly the only tool in this fool's arsenal!" a bombastic voice shouted.
Sebastian recovered first. Unlike the headmistress, he had a lifetime of field experience. So between the two, he was the first to lock eyes on their unwanted guest.
Guests.
A pair of shadows sat in a pair of chairs opposite of Blood and the headmistress. Their shapes were vague and their features indiscernible as the immaterial making up their flesh wisped and wafted from their seated forms.
"A heart so dark as Slade Wilson's own would be filled with a wretched cunning, befitting a man so evilly immoral! A craven fool that gleefully trades violence for coin!"
"...And you are?" the headmistress asked, one hand clutching at her chest.
Sebastian was tempted to ask 'What' in place of 'Who' but he was a bit preoccupied. The two shadows sitting across from the headmistress and himself didn't... exist. Not to his other senses. He could see them, hear them, but the little pinprick of light that indicated a sophont mind to his mental senses was completely absent. For both shadows.
"I am the darkness that haunts the night! I am the terror that stalks the hearts of man and god alike! I... Am The Shadow!" the slightly larger entity shouted dramatically. "And you shall find, dear headmistress, that your guards will not avail you, not here, not now. We have business most dire to discuss."
"...And what business would that be?" the headmistress asked, suspicion clear in her tone.
Keeping his head still as his eyes tracked to the side and down, Sebastian saw that the woman was still pressing her finger against a silent alarm button under her desk.
"My darling Nessa, here," The Shadow tilted its head to the side towards the small shadow, which waved at them silently. "Wishes to be enrolled within your hallowed halls. The education offered at H.I.V.E is among the greatest in the world for those that would wish to develop their abilities, after all."
"...Sir, our academy has extremely demanding entry requirements. Students do not -find- us. We find-" the headmistress was cut off rather abruptly when The Shadow reached out to the middle of the table and the lights within the room dimmed. Darkness seemed to concentrate under the entity's hand for a moment before it pulled away, leaving a single, heavy object behind.
Sebastian swallowed dryly at seeing a large gold bar just sitting on the table. The listed weight on it, at 999.99 grams wasn't that impressive. A single kilogram of gold, at the current average, was about twelve-thousand dollars. What was more concerning was the rest of what was stamped on the bar.
Property of the Treasury.
If that was true. And if it was all accurate...
They were not dealing with one of the countless common criminals, ready and willing to scream their deeds and evils out to the world. They were dealing with someone who, despite acting like a fool, kept themselves and their actions out of the limelight.
"-your contribution to be incredibly generous!" the headmistress had changed her tone in an instant, quite likely realizing exactly the kind of entity they were dealing with.
Sebastian did not care for the woman, not at all, but she was hardly an idiot.
"That's fantastic!" the smaller shadow, 'Nessa' exclaimed. Her voice was high and obviously feminine. "Oh, I can't wait! I've seen just how impressive so many of your students are!"
"Wonderful!" Sebastian said with a too-wide smile. The girl had seen their students... The academy had been compromised and he hadn't been at all aware of it! "Yes, I'm quite sure we'll be able to find a place for you, here at H.A.E.Y.P."
"I know you will, Brother Blood," The Shadow said, his voice setting Sebastian's teeth on edge. "The east wing has two rooms open after that rather unfortunate business in Zandia."
The entity knew about his own history, too?! As well as the 'mission' he'd sent a pair of under-performing students on?
What other secrets had the entity managed to uncover without Blood knowing about it?!
"Deputy headmaster?" the headmistress had a smile frozen on to her face as she addressed Blood. "Why don't you show... Nessa, here to her room?" Then, turning woodenly to face the shadowy duo across from her she continued, "We'll have to set up an assessment of your talents, Nessa, in order to place you in the appropriate classes."
"That's great!" Nessa exclaimed, hopping to her feet as Blood stood as well. "I can't wait to get started."
"Wonderful!" The Shadow practically shouted as it stood as well, its form extending until it stood well over a head taller than Sebastian Blood. It leaned over and placed one hand on the shoulder of the much smaller girl next to him. "I expect grand things from you, Darknessa! You shall not merely succeed, you will thrive!"
The entity chuckled, its voice like static. The sound ripped through Blood's mind, literally dropping the psychic to his knees as the thing loomed over him.
"After all? Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of man?" The Shadow laughed, chuckling ungraciously. "The Shadow knows..."
For a brief moment the world went dark as laughter echoed through the room and then, just as suddenly as he'd come, the lights returned to full brightness and the entity was gone!
"What...?" Sebastian slurred out as he drunkenly stood to his feet. "What was that?"
"The Shadow," Darknessa said, in the exact same belligerent tone as any other teenager answering an 'obvious' question. "Duh."
Sebastian Blood sniffed wetly as he began to stabilize.
That...
That had still gone better than their recruitment of Kid Wykkyd.
Disclaimer Me Do: I own nothing you recognize. And most of what you don't recognize, I still don't own.
_________________________________________________________________________
03/07/2003 (TT)
After Jinx and Yuffie split off to head back to the city, Alchemist tracked down Bonnie so he could get to work.
Kary, after what she'd privately admitted to him had been a very stressful week, just wanted to sit down and relax, listen to some music. Alchemist certainly wasn't about to begrudge her that.
There wasn't any need for him to hurry, not just yet. But there was an upcoming crisis that he would need to be prepared for.
Something he hadn't yet told the others was the sight of the gods and their oversouls. They were... majestic in a way that words couldn't quite describe. The very sight, the comprehension that Alchemist had been looking at concepts wrapped around egos and powered by myth and legend, it was awe inspiring in the most literal sense.
And, hovering around the 'reality' that they were currently attached to, had been a massive, red deer. With four hateful, red eyes and antlers that branched more times than could be counted.
Problems, problems, countless little problems...
"So... what are you going to do?" Tiffany asked after Alchemist had led her and carried Bonnie into the workshop. "You mentioned going to New York, right?"
"I did," Alchemist agreed as he set Bonnie down on a counter near the enchanting table. "And I plan on going soon but it's not really an immediate issue. I was planning to get started on some other projects."
"...Okay," Tiffany mumbled. The girl grabbed a stool and sat down but didn't have anything else to say.
Alchemist... was honestly getting pretty worried. While he didn't appreciate the spite, snark and sarcasm that she usually exuded, those were far more preferable to Tiffany's current state.
"What are you doing?" Bonnie asked. The little purple bunny had actually been a bit of a challenge to track down. Between her tiny size and the ever-growing range of the demi-plane, she and her team had a lot of room to hide.
"We," Alchemist emphasized, "are going to learn a bit about enchanting. I've got a few special artifacts that I'm sure the both of you could benefit from breaking down and I need to work on improving the skill."
As he spoke, the mage opened the inventory and typed in the word 'perseverance'. Then he extracted a trio of rings. They looked to be simple iron bands, seemingly unimportant but for an odd sheen in their reflection.
"What's the point?" Tiffany asked as she caught the ring that Alchemist threw at her. "I don't have my powers right now. It's not like I can actually do anything."
Bonnie's ring was not thrown at her, considering it was as wide as any of her cloth limbs. It was simply held out for her to take in both hands.
"Are you sure about that?" Alchemist asked as he set his own ring in the middle of the enchanting table. "Because you still read as having almost eight-thousand hit points. If you were just a 'normal girl' that number would be close to one-hundred."
Alchemist let the depressed girl digest that for a minute as he showed Bonnie how to use the table. The symbols on it representing the five schools of magic practiced by the Nords in Skyrim were wholly unimportant, window dressing that had no impact on the actual working of the table itself. The skulls and candles that often decorated them were, likewise, nothing more than decor.
Rather, the magics within an enchanting table were connected to the binding of magic to the material. The pentagon drawn around the center utilizing a resin composed of the dust of a filled, grand soul gem served the purpose of both collecting and distributing the magic offered to it from other soul gems.
And the flow could be reversed, the 'shape' of an enchantment could be broken free of an item, destroying said item, and embedded into the mind of whomever used the table. It wasn't quite the same as learning a spell, the form of an enchantment was simply too incomplete to be used by itself, but the inverse did not hold true.
And, for some odd reason, the inverse actually had additional rules on top. A known enchantment without an accompanying spell could be made at whatever level at or below his Enchantment skill but if he knew a spell, then it and Enchantment both had to be factored in and whichever one was lower would set the cap.
An adequately skilled mage could turn any spell they knew into an enchantment. And greater skill would confer greater flexibility in tuning and turning that spell to more and more exacting functions. Extending the number of times the spell could be used within the same amount of charge, expanding the size of effect or magnifying the strength to greater heights. And a mage that excelled in enchanting could craft artifacts of power greater than what they could bring to bear through normal spellcasting.
Alchemist... didn't need to do that.
~~ Enchantment Learned: Discipline ~~
~~ Increase Skill/Spell experience gained by (Enchanting Level/2 x Magnitude)% ~~
Alchemist shook his head and shivered as a chill ran down his spine.
~~ Congratulations! ~~
~~ Skill: Enchanting has reached level (38)! ~~
"Learning an enchantment that already exists is pretty easy," the man explained as he picked up the now-twisted scraps of metal the ring had turned into. "That doesn't necessarily mean you'll be able to make anything worthwhile out of it, just that you can learn it."
Alchemist stepped aside as Bonnie climbed on to the table, her own ring held under one arm. Meanwhile, he kept one eye on Tiffany, noting that the girl had been incredibly silent since he'd mentioned her attributes.
"So I just put this here?" Bonnie asked as she set the Ring of Perseverance in the middle of the pentagon. Alchemist nodded to her and the doll continued what she'd been doing, walking back outside of the pentagon on the Arcane Enchanter and placing both of her tiny hands on the table. "Now what?"
"Just feed a little bit of magic into the table," Alchemist patiently explained. "About as much as though you were trying to cast a cantrip."
The wizard watched as the arcanist succeeded, the etched lines glowing bright blue as Bonnie had the magic of the ring broken down and, for lack of a significantly better explanation, etched into her.
Magic was weird.
"...I'm next, right?" Tiffany asked, a desperate note of hope in her voice. "I can do that, yeah? I don't... I don't need my system to learn your magic?"
"Yes, you're next," Alchemist agreed. "And no, you don't need the system to learn magic. It just makes it a lot easier."
The wizard reached over and let Bonnie grab on to his hand, lifting her out of the way as Tiffany situated herself in front of the workbench.
"...What's the status on your system, anyway?" he asked, a careful eye locked on to her efforts.
"It froze back when we were in between worlds," Tiffany admitted as she nervously placed the ring in the center of the table, next to the scraps leftover from Bonnie's. "It said 'Unstable Connection' instead of downloading anything. But it started back up around the time you got into this reality, so... not even halfway. Actually, it's been going kind of slow ever since we got here..."
Alchemist hummed quietly in thought as light crept around the table, outlining Tiffany's features.
That wasn't exactly good news but it could have been worse. Tiffany didn't mention the dropped connection resetting any progress, so that was something.
The wizard held back a sigh at the look in Tiffany's eyes once the disenchantment process had concluded.
Hope. Awe. Relief. In a way, she looked like someone coming in from a deserted island who'd just been given fresh water for the first time in months.
His mouth twisted into a scowl for a moment before he fixed his facial features back towards something blank and placid.
Tiffany and her problems were not exactly something he was equipped to handle. He knew Diana and Tigress were looking into things but Gotham was a subtle hellscape of ineptitude and minor evils that would stymie any efforts to improve things. Which, combined with the usual uselessness of child protective services, meant that nothing would actually get accomplished on that front.
And the last update he'd gotten from Batman had him fighting to find Ace. Which, given the way government black ops operated, meant that Bruce may as well have been juggling live hand grenades.
"Alright!" Alchemist called out as he put Bonnie back down on the edge of the Enchanter. "I've got an absolute boatload of low-quality enchanting stones and just as many random articles of clothing. Socks, shoes, scarves- You name it, I stole it!"
Tiffany looked a bit confused at the bit of showmanship Alchemist was trying to put on but Bonnie was clapping.
Politely.
"So, let's take turns enchanting stuff until we get comfortable with the skill. How does that sound?"
"Yes!" Bonnie called, running in place or hopping or... Alchemist didn't know what to call it. "I'll make the best enchantments!"
"Yeah," Tiffany agreed, a touch more life in her voice. "I think I'd like that."
As for what Alchemist was going to do with countless random articles of clothing that would help people learn skills just a tiny bit faster?
He... hadn't thought that far ahead.
-----
05/07/2003 (TT)
Robin stood at the ledge of a two-story building across the street from Honest Tom's Gold and Trade, a pawnshop in Jump City.
"This sucks, dude." And Beast Boy sat next to him. The boy was sitting cross legged on the roof, his chin resting on the ledge as the two stared down at the building. "Stakeouts are so~o boring."
Robin pursed his lips and kept a silent vigil on the building below.
"We're just, like, sitting around. Doing nothing. Hoping that some bad guys come around and we can... What are we actually here for, anyway?" Beast Boy asked, his eyes sliding from the storefront below to look at Robin's face.
"...There's been a string of sales that the police felt were suspicious but they couldn't actually figure out," Robin began to explain as he profiled the people down below. "Someone went through every pawn shop in the city and sold each of them the exact same thing."
"...Okay?" Beast Boy asked. "That's not a crime, though."
"It's not," Robin agreed. "But when I said the exact same thing, I meant it. One girl, maybe fifteen, sold twelve necklaces that all weighed the same, had the same material composition and the exact same appearance to each location. That's not about getting money, Beast Boy. That's about getting information on variables."
"Aw, man... Why you gotta bring math into this, Robin? I deal with enough variables in algebra."
Robin ignored Beast Boy's whining for a moment as he tracked a teenage girl but she passed right by the pawn shop without even looking at it.
"Because we don't know why this person is getting that information," Robin patiently explained.
Beast Boy's complaints about stakeouts were not at all unwarranted. Robin couldn't begin to count the number of times he'd been stuck out on a rooftop with Batman just to watch a whole lot of nothing.
That was especially frustrating in winter.
"Maybe she's a plant, getting information for someone else. Or she could be a middleman, gopher, whatever word you want for being the last point of contact for thieves."
"...Okay? But, like, wouldn't she be selling stuff to her own contacts? Pawn shops report the stuff they get and they don't offer a good deal. Even I know that."
Robin nodded at Beast Boy's words. A criminal using a pawn shop would be a rookie mistake but it still happened. A lot.
"If she had contacts," Robin agreed. "But whoever this is, they might be new. Or the sale wasn't the actual goal and might have been a distraction. Or it's something else entirely and we have no idea what might be going on."
"A distraction for what?" Beast Boy asked, waving one hand over the ledge and toward the seedy shop below. "I saw the video at the police station, same as you. The girl came in, offered the necklace, waited until it was weighed and then accepted whatever was offered. I don't think she spent more than ten minutes at any one spot."
"Exactly," Robin said with a grin on his face. "Twelve different pawn shops, all across town in one day. And no visible means of transportation? Whoever this person is, they spent two hours to do something that should have taken a full day on foot. While carrying around almost forty-five hundred dollars worth of gold? Something doesn't add up and the police are nervous about it."
"I'm not saying it's not weird, bro," Beast Boy admitted before sighing in clear boredom. "I'm just saying that I don't think there's anything we can do. Nobody reported any missing gold, did they?"
"...No," Robin admitted with a quiet sigh of his own. "But that doesn't mean there isn't any missing. Just that it hasn't been reported."
"Maybe." Beast Boy shrugged and dropped back, awkwardly laying down and looking up at the sky. "But if we try and track down people for being suspicious before they actually go and do something? Pretty sure I read a book like that, once. It didn't end well."
Robin sighed again and conceded the point.
The local police were just nervous about something they couldn't explain and Robin was an apprentice to the world's greatest detective. It just seemed natural that they'd ask for his help.
But Beast Boy was right. Without a reported crime, the unnamed girl was just suspicious, not a criminal. And while Robin would happily stop a robbery if he saw one, the Teen Titans seemed to be built for bigger and more dangerous criminals than a low-level fence or minor thief.
"...I guess you're right," Robin said after a long moment of quiet. "Want to grab a few pizzas on the way back?"
"...Dude? You had me at 'You're right'."
-----
08/07/2003 (TT)
Sebastian Blood the Eighth was a chronically overworked and unfortunately underappreciated man, in his own opinion. As the deputy headmaster of a very prestigious academy, he was often tasked with taking a first look at the paperwork for every student in the school and approving of any requests or requisitions.
And then, of course, anything that he did approve had to go higher up and receive further permission from the headmistress.
Just as common, however, were the disciplinary issues. Clever, talented teenagers who were expected to cohabitate without those pesky hormones acting out? Either in violence or puerile romance? Channeled appropriate, such things were hardly issues.
But the children often needed a stern hand to guide them into channeling things appropriately as compared to inappropriately. A stern hand, a kind word and a little nudge were often enough to have the children acting as he or the others desired.
Paperwork and punishment were not the only things Sebastian was expected to take care of, however.
"...This proposal is utterly idiotic," the headmistress said with a sneer as she re-read the 'request' that they were expected to fulfill.
"Yes, but it's not as though we can simply turn Mister Wilson away and say so," Sebastian said, fully in agreement with her.
Sebastian Blood was an older man. His white hair spiked backwards from the front and side, offering an appearance not unlike having horns, and he wore an embroidered cloak with a glaring ram skull over his surprisingly tight clothing.
They'd been contacted by a... donor, to their prestigious academy. A man that wished to field a team of their highly trained, highly specialized students to perform a particular task. There was still quite a bit of work to be done, from selecting the appropriate students to making a presentation video but those would hardly be -that- time consuming.
Slade Wilson had requested their best and the H.A.E.Y.P. Academy for Extraordinary Young People had a trio of outliers ready and able to be fielded.
"True," the headmistress agreed with an aggrieved sigh. She was a slender woman with white hair tied up in a tight bun and age lines marring her severe features. "By reputation alone, he could ruin us."
Elbow to elbow as the two worked on getting the details figured out, the both of them jumped in frightened surprise as a new voice spoke up from across the table.
"But reputation alone is hardly the only tool in this fool's arsenal!" a bombastic voice shouted.
Sebastian recovered first. Unlike the headmistress, he had a lifetime of field experience. So between the two, he was the first to lock eyes on their unwanted guest.
Guests.
A pair of shadows sat in a pair of chairs opposite of Blood and the headmistress. Their shapes were vague and their features indiscernible as the immaterial making up their flesh wisped and wafted from their seated forms.
"A heart so dark as Slade Wilson's own would be filled with a wretched cunning, befitting a man so evilly immoral! A craven fool that gleefully trades violence for coin!"
"...And you are?" the headmistress asked, one hand clutching at her chest.
Sebastian was tempted to ask 'What' in place of 'Who' but he was a bit preoccupied. The two shadows sitting across from the headmistress and himself didn't... exist. Not to his other senses. He could see them, hear them, but the little pinprick of light that indicated a sophont mind to his mental senses was completely absent. For both shadows.
"I am the darkness that haunts the night! I am the terror that stalks the hearts of man and god alike! I... Am The Shadow!" the slightly larger entity shouted dramatically. "And you shall find, dear headmistress, that your guards will not avail you, not here, not now. We have business most dire to discuss."
"...And what business would that be?" the headmistress asked, suspicion clear in her tone.
Keeping his head still as his eyes tracked to the side and down, Sebastian saw that the woman was still pressing her finger against a silent alarm button under her desk.
"My darling Nessa, here," The Shadow tilted its head to the side towards the small shadow, which waved at them silently. "Wishes to be enrolled within your hallowed halls. The education offered at H.I.V.E is among the greatest in the world for those that would wish to develop their abilities, after all."
"...Sir, our academy has extremely demanding entry requirements. Students do not -find- us. We find-" the headmistress was cut off rather abruptly when The Shadow reached out to the middle of the table and the lights within the room dimmed. Darkness seemed to concentrate under the entity's hand for a moment before it pulled away, leaving a single, heavy object behind.
Sebastian swallowed dryly at seeing a large gold bar just sitting on the table. The listed weight on it, at 999.99 grams wasn't that impressive. A single kilogram of gold, at the current average, was about twelve-thousand dollars. What was more concerning was the rest of what was stamped on the bar.
Property of the Treasury.
If that was true. And if it was all accurate...
They were not dealing with one of the countless common criminals, ready and willing to scream their deeds and evils out to the world. They were dealing with someone who, despite acting like a fool, kept themselves and their actions out of the limelight.
"-your contribution to be incredibly generous!" the headmistress had changed her tone in an instant, quite likely realizing exactly the kind of entity they were dealing with.
Sebastian did not care for the woman, not at all, but she was hardly an idiot.
"That's fantastic!" the smaller shadow, 'Nessa' exclaimed. Her voice was high and obviously feminine. "Oh, I can't wait! I've seen just how impressive so many of your students are!"
"Wonderful!" Sebastian said with a too-wide smile. The girl had seen their students... The academy had been compromised and he hadn't been at all aware of it! "Yes, I'm quite sure we'll be able to find a place for you, here at H.A.E.Y.P."
"I know you will, Brother Blood," The Shadow said, his voice setting Sebastian's teeth on edge. "The east wing has two rooms open after that rather unfortunate business in Zandia."
The entity knew about his own history, too?! As well as the 'mission' he'd sent a pair of under-performing students on?
What other secrets had the entity managed to uncover without Blood knowing about it?!
"Deputy headmaster?" the headmistress had a smile frozen on to her face as she addressed Blood. "Why don't you show... Nessa, here to her room?" Then, turning woodenly to face the shadowy duo across from her she continued, "We'll have to set up an assessment of your talents, Nessa, in order to place you in the appropriate classes."
"That's great!" Nessa exclaimed, hopping to her feet as Blood stood as well. "I can't wait to get started."
"Wonderful!" The Shadow practically shouted as it stood as well, its form extending until it stood well over a head taller than Sebastian Blood. It leaned over and placed one hand on the shoulder of the much smaller girl next to him. "I expect grand things from you, Darknessa! You shall not merely succeed, you will thrive!"
The entity chuckled, its voice like static. The sound ripped through Blood's mind, literally dropping the psychic to his knees as the thing loomed over him.
"After all? Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of man?" The Shadow laughed, chuckling ungraciously. "The Shadow knows..."
For a brief moment the world went dark as laughter echoed through the room and then, just as suddenly as he'd come, the lights returned to full brightness and the entity was gone!
"What...?" Sebastian slurred out as he drunkenly stood to his feet. "What was that?"
"The Shadow," Darknessa said, in the exact same belligerent tone as any other teenager answering an 'obvious' question. "Duh."
Sebastian Blood sniffed wetly as he began to stabilize.
That...
That had still gone better than their recruitment of Kid Wykkyd.
- Location
- USA
So, what happened at Kid Wykkyd's interview?
Is he related to one of the eldritch horrors of the DC verse?
I'm afraid I don't know anything about him outside of the few scenes in the Teen Titans tv show.
Is he related to one of the eldritch horrors of the DC verse?
I'm afraid I don't know anything about him outside of the few scenes in the Teen Titans tv show.
- Location
- Here
...I want a full series following the adventures of The Shadow.
Lycanthromancer
The Arcane Fuzz
- Location
- USA
Gonna help "Secret" again? Or maybe "halp" is a bit more on-point, considering.
Maybe actually enter the House of Mysteries with purpose this time?
Is that the same House of Secrets or another one? I'm not sure just how multidimensional it is.
- Location
- Elsewhere
Honestly, it's the only thing you can do with HIVE.
If you try to take them seriously, you're in danger of rupturing something from giggles.
"Yes, I wish to enroll someone in your *snrk* fine institution of villai-*bwahaha
* I can't take it anymore. I can't believe you actually do this shit."
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Lopezelpesado
Space worm best worm.
- Pronouns
- Something
Well... It SOUNDED like yuffie but idk.