Part 1 - Ring Around the Rosie

[wieldtherainbow]

The briefing was, well, brief, given the complicated situation they were being thrust into. Stacy tried to give them as much as she could but apparently her intel on this universe was rather limited.

For this reason, they were dumped rather unceremoniously on a vast planet, with grassy green fields, the dropship that dropped them off retreating on autopilot and disappearing back into the transdimensional ether. It was a lovely planet at the very least, with vast deep blue skies, teeming with vegetation, but oddly, they all would likely find themselves dealing with the unnerving inkling feeling that they were somehow being watched. There were no sentients or even animals in site, however.

The only thing they could do right now was wait. They had been told that they would be found, that they would be offered rings, taken into these different Corps of people, and they they needed to make sure the war ended in a way that didn't devastate life in this universe.

That was something of a tall order.

[ooc: Go!]

Comments

Mingling

[wieldtherainbow]

While they waited, the only thing they could do was talk.

[ooc: Mingling thread. Pairs and groups of people can talk while waiting.]

Re: Mingling

[first_of_steel]

This was the first of these missions Roger had been dragooned into. Frankly, he didn't know what to think- but it wasn't as if they were going to get much of a choice in the situation, were they? Better to be prepared for anything.

He had his armor on, but his helmet tucked under one arm, and was looking for anyone who looked like they might have a clue.

[on_your_nerves]

"Is this it? We're just supposed to sit here until something terrible happens to us?"

He assumed it'd be something awful, given the last few times he'd left the ship. Someone was still resentful about that literal trip to hell.

First Contact

[wieldtherainbow]

The peaceful atmosphere of the planet was disrupted by a clash of colors in the sky. Hundreds of individuals started descending through the atmosphere, shrouded in different colored lights, fighting each other as they flew down.

It wasn't coincidence at all that they were heading towards where the crew was.

[ooc: A short thread introducing some of the npcs. Keep it to one thread. It'll be messy but short. No posting order. I'll pause the thread at various points to let folks who aren't on in on it.]

Re: First Contact

[first_of_steel]

... huh.

Well, this was gonna get interesting in a hurry.

Re: First Contact

[punchedoutdestiny]

"Well, that's one hell of an entrance..."

The Choosing of the Rings

[wieldtherainbow]

The various rings the different Lanterns had brought were unleashed, seeking out bearers.

[ooc: Post to this post and your character will receive their ring. They and other characters can then react.]

Re: The Choosing of the Rings

[punchedoutdestiny]

As the rings moved around the crew, both a blue and green ring swirled around Simon, who watched them with some curiosity. However, the blue lost interest after a few moments, and the green ring took its place on his right hand.

A bright flash of green light erupts around Simon, replacing his Starfighter Command uniform with something more befitting.

"...well, that's different..."

Re: The Choosing of the Rings

[wieldtherainbow]

||Simon of sector [unknown]. You have the ability to overcome great fear. Welcome to the Green Lantern Corps. Your ring will guide you to Oa where you will be instructed in the proper use of your newfound powers as Green Lantern of sector [unknown].||

Re: The Choosing of the Rings

[first_in_time]

"Goodness!" Barbara gasped as she watched the rings dance and soar about their heads. She still had no idea how she was going to be useful on this mission; the last war she was involved in she was very young, too young to have been of any real use. But of course she was told that 'everything helped the war effort'. Perhaps this was going to be similar to that.

A ring the colour of indigo began to swirl around and around the humble historian as it descended. Barbara reached out to touch it, but it moved too quickly and slid over her finger.

Okay. So she was part of an indigo coloured corp? She looked around, wondering what was going to happen next.

Re: The Choosing of the Rings

[nerves_of_steel]

John was paying less attention than he should to what was going on around them, but as soon as his brain had determined that they weren't about to be attacked, most of it had devoted itself to observing...other things.

Yowza.

As such, he twitched backward in surprise when red, violet, and green lights -- rings? -- launched themselves in his direction and began a dancing, spiral orbit around him. It was the green one that affixed itself to his hand, causing the other two to immediately lose interest and bobble off in different directions. John glanced down at his two-tone green army fatigues and frowned at the over-sized patch on his shoulder displaying the same symbol as on all of the other people in green.

He turned to make a face at Sherlock, huffing his breath a touch sheepishly.

Re: The Choosing of the Rings

[on_your_nerves]

Two rings danced around Sherlock at first, green and yellow. It was a complicated dance, the both of them darting in and darting away, as if Sherlock was luring them in and the presence of the other ring was repelling them.

Maybe it had less to do with the rings and more to do with Sherlock himself. He was a man who could sit across a table from a serial killer without breaking a sweat. He was a man who faced his fear when he did feel it to tried to do what had to be done. He was someone who possessed a tremendous will and incredibly dogged determination. Even when he was just a boy he'd stubbornly tried to prove Carl Powers' case was a murder to the police.

Sherlock Holmes was not a man who was ruled by fear.

But sometimes he caused it. There were people that thought he was a serial killer in the making, people that believed him capable of kidnapping and poisoning children for his own ends. It had been that way his whole life. His fixation with crime and brutality and death had scared many a person away from, and far from trying to discourage the perceptions others had of him, he'd actually sometimes encouraged them. People left him alone and stopped flinging their stupidity his way when they were frightened of him.

For every Mrs. Hudson or Lestrade there were two or three schoolmates at uni that had locked their door at night specifically because he lived in the same dorm hallway. How had that one news article put it?

"It appears that Sherlock and John are untouchable -- feared by the police and criminals alike."

The rings took in the overall picture, and Sherlock Holmes was not ruled by fear but a lifetime of not caring how much he'd caused it had taken its toll.

There was a moment that the green ring nearly darted to his finger and Sherlock held out his hand, looking almost pleased that he was getting the same ring as John. Then it darted away and the yellow ring took its place on his finger.

There was a brilliant flash of yellow light and a crack of thunder and then Sherlock stood there...pretty much looking mostly the way he had before, only his clothes were entirely black, his scarf was now yellow and there was an eerie yellow glint in his eyes.

Those eyes were wide with alarm and confusion.

Hadn't the one Green Lantern said Sinestro was a supervillain?

Re: The Choosing of the Rings

[first_of_steel]

Roger'd seen a lot since Staci picked him up, or at least he thought he had. This kind of thing.... This was something new. Prophecies and rings of power and nobody quite knowing what was going on, and a lightshow like something out of a Barsoom novel and its talk of the Ninth Ray-

He held up one armored hand, curious to see what came his way. He didn't have to wait long. A streak of blue peeled off from the other colors of the lightshow, orbited his hand once, and came to a stop in his palm.

Blue. Huh. The whatever-it-was alien (they didn't have any of that species on Stacy, that was for sure) had said something about bringing hope. Not what he would've said he was good at, necessarily. Not out of what he'd heard the ring wielders talking about, anyway.

Then again, it hadn't been love or fear or rage or compassion that'd kept his people together since the rest of the world went quiet, had it. And even if it was just pure cussed-mindedness that kept him moving some days... well, hadn't he been doing everything since Colonel Spindel locked himself in his office pretty much entirely to keep them from falling into the kind of anarchy you got when there was no hope left at all? That had to count for something.

There were worse things to be associated with. And it looked like a pretty solidly made ring, too. Hell, it was even sized to fit around the power armor's fingers.

He shrugged, and slipped it on.

Re: The Choosing of the Rings

[soulinherfists]

Well, that was a lot of ridiculous mumbo-jumbo, and Allenby wasn't sure that any of it adequately explained why they had to help these weirdoes settle a war that they started themselves. She wasn't too sure about the idea of being chosen by some magic jewelry, either but... there was weirder out there.

She watched curiously and a little uncertain as a couple of the rings drifted towards her--one green and one violet, and a blue that hung back before going off somewhere else. Allenby rocked back and forth on her heels, glowering at the rings as though daring them to come closer. She was still angry at being pulled onto some mission again--well, this wasn't going to end with her being made a soldier and killing people. She was absolutely sick of that, like it was the only way to solve people's differences. No, she'd figure out some other way.

The green ring zoomed off, leaving just the violet one. Allenby held her hand out for it like the others were doing--as soon as it touched her glove, there was a flash of violet light and she was in a skintight outfit, not unlike her Trace suit. There was less leg, but at least the bow was still there. "All right, so what's this all about?"

Re: The Choosing of the Rings

[moms_temperment]

Hana stood watching everyone receive their rings in awe. As the number of them not yet chosen dwindled, he couldn’t help feeling a little nervous underneath his excitement.

What if he didn’t even have any of those qualities? He might be a dud. Afterall, he wasn’t really destined for great things, just an heir to those who’d done great things and ancestor to those who would.

He was all set to raise his hand and ask what happened to those who didn’t get chosen when two rings rushed towards him, almost viciously. One was violet. The other green. They circled around him again and again, the green in a clockwise direction, the violet in a counter clockwise one.

Hana watched worriedly as they increased in speed and narrowly avoided colliding with each other. In fact, the two rings almost seemed on the verge of arguing over Hana.

The green moved to start circling his wrist. He looked around and saw people holding out their hands, he mirrored the action and ring began orbiting the open palm. It continued this behaviour for several cycles, the violet floating around his head in what he could only call an angry and jealous manner before the green made a sudden 360 decision and zoomed away from him.

Before Hana had time to wonder what the hell that was about, the violet ring jammed itself onto his finger in what seemed needlessly forceful action and in a flash he was clad in an entirely new outfit.

He looked at the ring, baffled at how grumpy it seemed to be with him, then glanced at his outfit before pulling an entirely unimpressed expression.

“Okay, one, this suit is even weirder than the stuff my moms make. Two, what ring even is this again?”

[grimbiker]

Now this was a sight. Of the six rings circling Sirius, the blue one veered aside quickly. Sirius did not inspire hope and he had little enough of it himself, only as much as it took to keep him going from one day to the next. The purple one left just as fast. The red and yellow spun closer to him, each drawn by the moments surrounding his incarceration but they fell back after several moments. Sirius had plenty of anger- at his parents, at Death Eaters, at Peter, and perhaps most of all at himself. But he didn't live on the emotion. He suppressed it as much as he was able. As for fear, he had managed to terrify the Wizarding world but Pettigrew was the one they should have been afraid of. Sirius himself had never caused anyone much fear, save for Peter when he tracked him down. Even Snape, in their Hogwarts years, hated him more than he feared him.

That left green and violet. The colors blurred around Sirius as the rings spun faster.

His mother used to call him a willful, stubborn child. This was accurate but it would be better to say that Sirius was driven. Once he got something into his head it was nearly impossible to get it out. Nothing would stop him once he put his mind to something. Together, without supervision or permission, he and James became Animagi before turning 16. They accompanied their best friend, a werewolf, every full moon. They all created the Marauder's Map, which had taken over a year. Sirius had turned his back on his family. He'd joined the Order of the Phoenix. He'd fought in a war. In his future, even imprisonment hadn't stopped him. If Stacy hadn't taken him Sirius Black would have been the first wizard to escape from Azkaban. At any point he could have given up but that's not who he was. Sirius Black didn't give up on anything.

So why was the violet ring still swirling around him?

The light show had long since stopped being interesting.

"Hurry up." Sirius snapped. He hated to be here, wasting time, not knowing what the hell he was supposed to do next. He should be back on Stacy working alongside Moony and-

Before he could so much as finish his thought the violet ring flew toward him and slid around his finger. The ring flashed and the glow enveloped Sirius. His clothes changed into something that was identical to Carol Ferris's costume and looked, quite frankly, ridiculous.

"What-"

Re: The Choosing of the Rings

[poorlycopingstrategist]

Jamie was so busy watching the colored specks of light zip around the rest of the crew that he wasn't aware of the one circling him until it drifted around from behind, coming to hover a few feet away, about eye-level. It was red - what had that guy said red was? That was rage, wasn't it? Jamie frowned uneasily; what would it mean if he was chosen by something that fed off anger?

The red floated there - watching him, Jamie thought - until a second light, this one indigo, flitted by, buzzing his head like some tiny berserk stunt pilot and then darting off again, after a brief, considering pause. Apparently compassion wasn't his strongest suit.

The red was joined by another light, green this time, which circled him jerkily, stopping here and there to give him a thorough looking-over. It finally moved to join the red, shifting as though glancing from it to Jamie and back, and when the red made no move, the green ring bobbled with the costume-jewelery equivalent of a resigned sigh and hurled itself at Jamie's face.

His hands jerked up reflexively, and the ring slid onto his finger as he did so. Almost instantaneously, Jamie found himself sporting a new outfit - a vest cut similarly to the one he'd worn into battles back home, but longer, colored deep emerald green instead of yellow, over a black-and-green jumpsuit.

"...uh-huh," Jamie muttered, patting himself down as the red ring wandered off, cat-like and disdainful. "So now what's my power supposed to be, exactly?"

Re: The Choosing of the Rings

[jackalpi]

As the rings began to circle the crew, Spinelli's attention was specifically focused on the green rings, watching them zip through the air in their quest to find those to who they belonged to. And he would be lying if there wasn't a part of him, deep down, that was hoping that one of those rings would come his way. To be a Green Lantern above all others...well, he thought that he might very well expire on the spot a happy man if that happened.

But it was a small and slightly selfish wish, quickly cast aside. The rings had to choose their own owners, and it would be up to them to figure that out, not him. And while one of the green rings did come a little nearer, as if feeling him out, it moved away after only a short time. Green was not to be his color, it seemed.

It was once it had gone away and he was able to draw his attention back from the sight that he looked up and saw a violet ring zipping at high speed towards him, and without thinking, Spinelli reached up his hand to see what would happen. It promptly slid onto his finger, as if it had belonged there all his life. There was a flash, and he was suddenly clad in a rather tight-fitting violet v-neck shirt and jeans that were practically painted on. Not really something he was used to wearing, to be honest, but at least not as bad as it could have been. Still, he looked down, startled.

"...Oh!"

Yesss let's do this.

[thedetectiveprince]

Naoto had never been a jewelry person, that much was clear. This would mark the first time she had actually worn any accessory apart from a watch and her hat. As the rings flew around like the others she was oddly reminded of her Persona from the energy they gave off. The green, indigo and blue came closer to her before two of the colors flew off again and she was left with the blueish one hovering closer.

"This is most unusual," she commented mostly to herself than anyone else. She'd seem stranger with the Investigation Team, perhaps, but never on her own. Without even waiting for her to protest, the ring took its place on her right hand and she was changed into a different uniform. It was...a little too feminine for her to feel completely comfortable and she realized with a bit of horror that her bindings didn't seem as strongly tied around her as before, but it almost seemed to know her tastes and it had understood that. Instead of a dress, she had a pair of bluish pants to complete the lower part of the outfit. One could even call it classy.

But now, what came next? She waited for instructions, quietly closing the upper part of the outfit.

Late to the party, as always!

[quixotically]

What is Elle expecting from this? She doesn't know. Our different corps are in the throes of a glorious war, the yellow one had said, each corps tapping into the power of a particular color in the emotional spectrum with our rings. But they didn't cover what each color represented, only some. Violet is love, blue is hope, red is rage. Yellow... doesn't seem to be very popular, and the yellow man doesn't seem very, ah... nice. But one of the rings is supposed to choose her? And it would allow her to use one of those emotions as a source of power? How does any of this make any sense? She doesn't understand. All she can do... is wait.

The yellow light all but ignores her. The red one circles briefly above her head, but quickly changes its mind and flits away. Violet and indigo dance around her, and she reaches for them, curious, but the violet ring peels away, only to be replaced by green. Blue joins them soon after, and the three twist and whirl in complicated patterns. She watches, the confused expression on her face made clear in the light of the rings. For a moment, nothing changes.

At last, the blue breaks away from the others, which finally go streaking away from her. The blue light stops short in front of her face. It's like it's... waiting for me, she thinks, and she raises her hands to cup the light. Before they can settle around it, though, it moves, slipping around her finger. It fits perfectly.

Oa

[wieldtherainbow]

There was plenty to see on Oa, plenty of training to do, and plenty of downtime to talk to the various Lanterns and other crew members.

[ooc: You can do CR threading under here with threads from any point of their stay on Oa. Exploration, talking to npcs, and talking to other characters is go. Ask the plot runners if you need npcing or exploration descriptions or scene ideas.]

Qward

[on_your_nerves]

Sherlock Holmes was not really one to give in to fear. He certainly felt it on occasion--fear for himself and fear for others. Moriarty, especially, had been quite gifted in the ability to incite fear in the consulting detective, enough that it was Moriarty's face he'd seen in Baskerville while drugged. Fear and stimulus.

Feeling it was quite fortunately not same as giving into it.

Since Moriarty's death, however, Sherlock Holmes had faced quite a few terrible and terrifying things. Nearly being sacrificed by a cult, literally going to hell (twice) and back (thankfully also twice.) These things, these extraordinary circumstances were, quite frankly, not his area. Aliens and magic and demons--he was starting to find it all very overwhelming. Now it was magic--no, sorry, technological--rings and idiots that apparently based the thematic structure of their various corps on Skittles. It was ludicrous, it was ridiculous, it was...

Horrifying.

He was on a world called Qward, a world that seemed dead and warped, but for the teeming forces of the Sinestro Corps. A mechanical planet loomed low in the sky like a sinister moon. He and the other recent Sinestro recruits were being frog-marched through the streets of this world like no one cared at all that they were close to trampling each other. Maniacal laughter and jeers and screams and strange otherworldly noises that came from inhuman throats were the white noise of the yellow Lantern base, the constant lull in the background.

"Look at it up there! Ranx!" said one scarred recruit in a throaty growl, nudging Sherlock just a little too hard. "They call it their 'pleasure planet.' That's where they keep the captives they kidnap. You expect they'll let us up there to have our fun soon?"

"Oh, I'm sure," Sherlock said, managing to keep his voice steady, but inside, everything was cracking up and he was now regretting going along with the yellows for the sake of the mission with every single fiber of his being. "I'm sure this entire undertaking will be fun."

Odym

[wieldtherainbow]

Odym was a beautiful, vibrant world, full of life. Strange alien creatures cavorted through the landscape, all of them with brightly-colored fur or feathers.

Escorted here by the very few Blue Lanterns, they found themselves basking in the light of the Blue Power Battery and in the presence of two small, blue people, clad in robes of white.

"Welcome to Odym," said the man. "I am Ganthet, and this is Sayd. We were once Guardians of the Universe, founders of the Green Lantern Corps, but left to create a Corps of our own, one of blue."

"Our rings chose you as potential bearers of the blue light of hope," said Sayd, "and you are here now so that we can be sure that you understand and fully accept the responsibilities that come with wielding the blue light."

Zamaron

[wieldtherainbow]

The half of Oa that wasn't all bright green and smooth burned with a bright violet glow. Crystalline structures were everywhere, giving off different shades of violet light. Blue-skinned women dressed in uniforms identical to Carol's wandered around, training, talking, fighting.

To some, they would seem to be a sort of intergalactic Amazon tribe, which was not too far from the truth, given their history with the Guardians of Oa.

"Welcome to the half of Oa now known as Zamaron," Carol said to the fledgling Star Sapphires. "I am Carol Ferris, as you well know, leader of the Star Sapphire Corps. "You were chosen by the rings because of your ability to love, and I intend to train you so that you may learn how to best harness that power, turning it into pure light and energy so that the world can be saved." She paused, her eyes meeting the eyes of every one of the new Star Sapphires.

"But until the training begins, I encourage you all to mingle, get to know each other. The closer we are, the better we will be as a corps. And please, if you have any questions, feel free to ask me." She smiled at them, a warm, loving, inviting smile.

Oa

[wieldtherainbow]

The half of Oa that wasn't covered in purple crystal and populated by tall blue women was covered in buildings of smooth green stone and populated by short blue aliens. Well, them and a variety of other aliens wearing green rings, all of whom were more than a little interested in what the "people without a sector" were doing with themselves.

And just because they were supposedly part of some prophecy didn't mean that they weren't going to go through the standard Green Lantern training...