Paul: Um, probably?
Artemis: Faster than light travel.
Paul: Of course. How do you think Lanterns patrol their sectors?
Artemis: Create an energy shield a mile across?
Paul: About that. I struggle to go above a kilometre.
Artemis: Turn people into constructs?
Paul: You've met Teekl, right?
Artemis: Accelerate your brain?
Paul: Yeah, but that always feels-.
Artemis: Alter every cell in someone's body?
Paul: You've seen the rats.
Artemis: And what exactly did you do to earn this?
I shrug. Can't deny that I kinda won the superpower lottery.
Paul: Nothing. Or if I did, I don't know what it was.
With This Ring
is a Self-Insert Young Justice (2010) fanfic written by Mr Zoat. It features him as Orange Lantern 2814, and a founding member of The Team, after he mysteriously appears in near-Earth space wearing a power ring at the beginning of July 2010 (canon season 1).
His presence, meta-knowledge, and powers have increasing ripple effects as time goes on, thoroughly altering many canon events and exploring the wider DC universe. He works with the Team for a year, setting the Light's plans back and refining his skills, then goes out into space to recover the Orange Central Power Battery, form a Lantern Corps, and lead a war against the Reach. Along the way, he recruits, fights, negotiates and argues with characters from all walks of the DC multiverse, as prominent as the Guardians or as obscure as Lord Manga Khan, and quite a few original characters as well.
Not to be confused with the trope With This Ring, which is about wedding rings, or with the similarly named Green Lantern fanfiction.
Structure
Chapters are released daily (since Aug 14, 2013), grouped into episodes of approximately twenty to thirty chapters covering an average of one In-Universe week, and typically written as a Present Tense Narrative in First-Person Perspective.note As a result of this level of detail, the story is over three million words, and takes about four Real Life years to cover each In-Universe year. Mr Zoat states in the FAQ that he intends to cover the entire period of the canonical five-year Time Skip between seasons one and two, so it is expected to be in progress for decades.
Chapters are sometimes written from the point of view of Alternate Universe versions of the SI, such as one who arrived on Earth -14 (the Crime Syndicate universe) with a blue ring, or one on Earth 32 (the Teen Titans universe) with a red ring. The most prominent alternate is the Renegade, identified by the chapter timestamp appearing in red text, who started out similarly to the main timeline, but started making more direct and ruthless choices, leading to increasing divergence until the two storylines are almost entirely different. Most episodes include at least a chapter or two from the Renegade timeline, and there have been several episodes that are Renegade-first with occasional chapters from the original timeline.
There are also rare chapters written from other perspectives, such as Lois Lane (in an uplifted Omake), Lex Luthor, Justice League members, or Artemis.
Sources
The story is currently on its fourteenth thread, and has a story-only thread. Links to the threads: Thread 1, Thread 2, Thread 3, Thread 4, Thread 5, Thread 6,Thread 7,Thread 8,Thread 9,Thread 10,Thread 11, Thread 12, Thread 13, Thread 14, and Story only.
The first eleven threads were posted on SpaceBattles.com. For Thread Twelve and Thread Thirteen, Mr. Zoat moved the story's updates to another forum, Sufficient Velocity.com, with an accompanying story-only thread. Thread Fourteen and the Second Revised Story Only onwards are on Questionable Questing, due to him being banned from Sufficient Velocity.
The author also made a separate thread called In Praise of Eros that shows how things could have gone if the SI went ahead in starting relationships with other characters that he didn't do in the main story. (NOTE: This thread is NSFW and requires a forum account to read).
For an in-depth archive/collection of chapters, omakes, etc., try the wiki here.
With This Ring contains examples of:
- Dropping the Bombshell:
- Paul does this when he reveals to Catwoman that he's used his ring to conclusively prove that she is related to the Falcones.
- He later reveals his true age to the Team, Wonder Woman, and Alan.
- Good Is Old-Fashioned: Humorously, Paul's mentor Alan Scott finds himself a bit uncomfortable with his apprentice's choice in romantic partners, not so much that he's involved with two women, but that it's a relationship with no traditional future. He's even less happy about Paul going out with an actual supervillainess, though Paul points out that Catwoman has been effectively retired for some time.
- Polyamory: Paul ends up in a relationship with Holly and Karon. Somewhat unique is the dynamic between Paul and Karon, since Karon isn't sexually attracted to men, and Paul refuses to engage in anything that makes her uncomfortable. Much of the early relationship is establishing exactly where everyone's boundaries are, and how far they're willing to go.
- Power Perversion Potential: We are shown Paul actually using his power ring while in bed with Holly and Karon.
- That Came Out Wrong: When Paul has Karon just get used to the idea of touching each other via hand holding, he says that she doesn't "have to take the whole thing". He even says the trope name after he says this.
- What If?: These are events that could have happened in the Paragon timeline if Paul did things a little differently.
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Word of God: There is no chance of Paul hooking up with Paula.- The thread will be strictly non-canon.
- Eros/Cupid won't appear.
- The US government's relationship with Swamp Thing will be an ongoing matter of contention, but mostly in the background.
- Paul has read some stuff on what to do during sex.
- By the time Holly and Karon offered to have a threesome with Paul, he's known them for three and a half months and has been seeing them at least weekly.
- The thread will be strictly non-canon
Shine through the wiki with orange light!
I've edited all within my sight!
To link what is mine, that is my right!"
