Game of Throne [ending]

[googledox]

[It's Brainy in the magical research room this time, and he's sporting a pair of elf ears and frowning at the mess. He's using the wall comm to communicate with the rest of team, so he can tap tap away at his omnicom.]

[He's also wearing a pair of fuzzy slippers.]

[mumblegrumble] Magic. Always such a mess.

Every pair of boots I own turned into non-Euclidean geometry, and I blame all of you. [He means the research team, not the whole team.]

[Before he has a chance to grumble more, the locks on the book break, due to the team being good sports and working through their respective magical messes. The book opens, there's a bright light and then...]

[The spells all over Legion World disperse, the frogs disappear from the research room, and there's a floating throne in the book's place, a hovering, sleek, high tech looking device that looks like it's far more than just something to sit on. Lines of light run through it. There are alarming looking brown stains spattered over the seat.]

[Brainy's jaw drops.]

Metron's chair! [It comes out in a hushed exclamation. He follows up with:] It's...well. Metron's chair. The Mobius Chair.

[Brainy starts scanning it.]

It once belonged to Metron, one of the New Gods. He was of the same species as Darkseid, the god-despot of Apokolips, though slightly more closely aligned with the non-villainous New Gods of New Genesis.

Slightly. The Legion met him when we were trapped in the 21st century and he gave the impression of being highly self-interested and primarily concerned with the pursuit of knowledge. He styled himself as a god of knowledge, in fact.

It was through bargaining with him that I was able to obtain a mother box, one of the components that allowed me to create Computo to get us back to our proper point in the timeline - the same technology we attached to the T-gates to create the boomtubes to and from Apokolips.

[His eyebrows raise.]

These stains are old but they're almost certainly blood, and they're New God in origin. Clearly, he must have suffered some kind of catastrophic fate.

I believe the throne appearing as a book was meant to be camouflage, to hide its true nature. As for the effects it caused all over Legion World, my readings indicate that it's unlikely they emanated from the throne itself - rather, they may have been a protective spell cast over it to deter those attempting to access its contents, possibly by the Wizard or parties unknown.

[He looks up at the wall comm, delight flooding his expression, his words picking up speed and racing with excitement.]

The implications of this -- the knowledge about the nature of spacetime we could uncover -- I have no way of properly explaining --

[He briefly pauses.]

Sorry, my tracks of consciousness are getting a little overexcited, so I'll settle on the most important point:

This throne is a repository of all the knowledge Metron acquired through the millennia. There are myriad viable options to defeat Chronoblivion in our universe - hidden magical artifacts like the Spear of Destiny; ancient, forgotten, galactic siege weapons; memetic devices designed for ideological warfare... There are also powerful natural and mystical forces of this universe, like the emotional spectrum, or the Green, that we could potentially exploit to defeat It.

The problem has always been knowing where they are, or precisely how to manipulate them, but if we can safely access the throne's knowledge base...

This may be what we need to finally defeat Chronoblivion.

Comments

[smarterthandad]

I didn't see you offering to help when we were trying to figure out the locks originally.

[Yeah whatever, floating magic chair, who cares, this aggression will not stand.]

[googledox]

Of course you didn't. Magic is ridiculous and I try to have nothing to do with it.

Now the book is actually interesting instead of just aggravating.

[smarterthandad]

No. No way. You don't get to muscle in and take over the cool stuff after I had to deal with the frogs.

[googledox]

Seeing as I am technically in charge of both Engineering and Research and Development and have ultimate oversight over all projects contained within both areas, yes I do get to "muscle in" wherever I deem appropriate.

I believe there's an ancient Earth term for such circumstances:

"Tough noogies."

[gonebyebye]

You're assuming that it's new form won't be just as aggravating as the previous one. It's prior form was a book of magic. Taking that into account, it's likely that the chair itself contains a vast amount of magical knowledge in addition to everything else.

[googledox]

I said it's interesting instead of just aggravating.

I'm certain it'll still be aggravating, and obviously we'll use any potential magical solutions to our problems that it contains, but now there are parts I actually like.

[hallaifyouherd]

And what would be the cost of accessing such knowledge?

[ Because these things never come without a catch. You don't just handed a weapon to defeat the Great Evil and save Everything without it costing you something in the end. ]

[googledox]

[Brainy carefully avoid her eyes, looking at his omnicom the whole time instead.]

Given that one of us has to access the chair, that it may have certain neural defenses, and that the processing power required to access it may exceed the capacities of even the AIs and genius level intellects on the team ...

[An awkward cringe.]

There are some risks. Disorientation. Migraines. Memory loss. Psionic attack.

[He mutters.] Brain damage or permanent mental shutdown.

[He coughs.]

But I'm sure we can develop a means of safely accessing it that can compensate for the fact that no one on the team has the same cognitive capabilities as Metron. We have multiple AIs and genius-level intellects, and we also have staff telepaths and access to technology that allows for telepathic linking.

It may require a net of mental processors rather than a single individual.

[hallaifyouherd]

[ The way Brainy looks askance is not missed. Well. At least he has the good grace to feel guilty about what must be done.

A small sigh answers him. ]

Is there no way to tap into the information without subjecting a living mind to the possibility of harm, then?

[ She kind of knows the answer but hey. Sue her for having a shred of optimism left. ]

[googledox]

There's a slight chance of being able to link it up to a non-sentient processor but it's...unlikely. It's built to sync up psionically with a living mind.

"Living" may at least be a broad enough category to at include AIs but the interface looks...finicky. While the New gods technically weren't actual gods in the theological sense, it's an extremely dubious distinction. Their technology is almost beyond comprehension to other species, despite being ancient in comparison.

Jury rigging something that disperses the major risks of linking is within reason, but re-engineering the very nature of the interface altogether is possibly outside of our capabilities.

[hallaifyouherd]

And might pose a danger of its own, if the technology is that far beyond our comprehension. The last thing we need is to meddle with the fundamentals of something we don't understand.

[googledox]

Precisely.

Figuring out a way to creatively link with what's there is probably safer than trying to alter a device that's mostly beyond our comprehension.

[hallaifyouherd]

So what do we have to work with?

I might not know much about technology, but I do understand energy transference.

[unspeakablyevil]

So you are saying it requires the mind of an immortal, god-like being?

[googledox]

It may require more than that, but having one working in cooperation with my plans would certainly be handy.

[unspeakablyevil]

[Yessssss.]

Then I shall sit in your chair.

[googledox]

It's more likely that I'll be the one sitting in the chair and directly accessing the information, just to ensure proper security.

We may have to resort linking up staffers along with Legionnaires and after past security breaches, I'd prefer to limit everyone's direct access. More likely, I'll have everyone participating attached to me in an array.

[Sorry Aku, no infinite knowledge of the universe and unfettered access to devastating galaxy-sized weapons for you. He doesn't trust the flaming eyebrows.]

[unspeakablyevil]

[He sees you judging, Brainy. But since he's playing 'nice', Aku doesn't argue and suppresses an irate grumble instead.]

Very well. We'll do it your way. So long as we find the whereabouts of these artifacts, I don't care how it is done.

But if your brains should explode like the last guy's presumably did, I will not hesitate to do things my way. Time is precious, you know.

[unrecovered]

[He's been watching all of this, and everything Brainy has just said is really goddamn concerning.]

So we managed to unlock it, but there's still a good chance that trying to use it will still kill us. Great.

By "a net of mental processors," do you mean you're planning on hooking a bunch of us together like Esper, or did I miss something?

[googledox]

That's precisely what gave me the idea.

[He sounds slightly sheepish about it.]

It's risky, obviously, and should be on a volunteer basis, unlike when Esper did it, but the conditions would be much more controlled and in the hands of the team rather than in he hands of an outside aggressor.

While connected together, the team's capacity to process information grew exponentially. It's what allowed everyone to engage so quickly in each other's memories despite such little time passing in the real world.

If something goes wrong, this time, I could also have telepath on standby to help dismantle the net in a way that wouldn't harm those involved. And possibly arrange for a safe shutdown mechanism of any technology involved.

[unrecovered]

[AHAHA FUCK]

[That's not in any capacity the answer Wash wanted, but if it's what's going to work, then he doesn't exactly have the right to shoot it down.]

Can you guarantee that there won't be any...[there is no good word for this] leakage between people?

[googledox]

Ah...not as such. No.

[Looks like we're getting one last memshare plot before endgame.]

Everyone will be informed of the potential consequences so they can decide if they're willing to participate.

It won't just be the team. We'll have to seek volunteers from the staff as well.

[Which means somebody might be sharing memories with Jo-An from Accounting.]

[unrecovered]

...I'm out.

[He'd much prefer not to make screaming insanity contagious, thanks. It's a miracle nobody caught it from him during Esper's attempt at mass murder.]

I'll help however else I can, but that's not happening.

[googledox]

That's perfectly understandable. I was fortunate enough to avoid the entire Esper fiasco. [He'd been on Robotica at the time.] I'm not looking forward to any potential...intrusion this time. But unlike some of you I don't have a choice.

[His brain's going to be doing a very large chunk of the work.]

We'd need the population of an entire planet to replace my processing capacity.

[orbislife]

[ It is just as jarring to go from human back to omnic. Zenyatta cannot say he disliked the experience. True self is without form, and he thinks he has a stronger understanding of what human life is like. Tangible experience instead of merely observed. ]

Have you ever created such a net of mental processors before? Would they be funneled into the one sitting in the chair? Assuming one must sit in it to gain its knowledge.

[bringinghopewithme]

And all I had to do was eat some chocolate.

[It's not true that's ALL he had to do - but what he had to do was still pretty simple, still more mental yoga than mental gymnastics, and that doesn't seem quite on the level of the sort of effort needed to save entire multiverses.]

Sounds too easy.

[googledox]

Accessing the true state of the chair was easy. Accessing the knowledge within may be slightly more problematic.

[He frowns.]

Especially since it seems to be missing some major components, judging from these readings.

video

[ordinarily]

So it's a magic space chair.

[ He says, still chewing some burger. ]

[googledox]

Bite your tongue.

To the uninitiated, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Despite that, it's still technology. There's a difference.

[ordinarily]

It gave me free hamburgers.

It might be magic.

video

[legionnpcs]

Yes.

video

[ordinarily]

Okay see.

You get it.