Episode 111: Negetiations
Takes place 2-20 August 2012.
Short version
Paul establishes that it's not possible to negotiate a peaceful settlement with the Reach, and stops them getting a green power ring.
Longer version
Paul's medical leave concludes with an in-depth examination of his body and soul, concluding that he's partially non-physical; he still needs a body, but can easily resurrect if his soul is provided with a clone body. Doctor Natu, who finally accepted the orange ring he left her, isn't pleased to see him again, but recognises that she can do more good with the ring than without.
Returning to active service, Paul is sent with Lantern Drusa to contact a system that is important to Reach trading efforts, in hopes of dissuading them from entering the war on the Reach's side. The system seems open to neutrality and even offers to mediate a peaceful end to the war, but while there, Paul encounters a group of traders intending to sell the Reach a prototype green power ring with no security features, which could thus be given to a Scarab warrior.
The mediation talks begin, but it is quickly made clear that NEMO and the Reach are unlikely to come to any agreement. A Reach task force then enters the system and fires on the talks, while a scarab warrior attacks the traders and takes the experimental ring. However, Paul is able to overpower the scarab and recover the ring, which he decides to hand over to the Controllers. Hinon informs him that it's a type of ring designed for Maltusian children, not suitable for other races to use, as it makes a much closer connection to the emotional light than a regular ring.
The Renegade makes preparations to face Grayven 16, who has broken off his preparations to attack the Reach and is expected to turn on the Renegade instead.
An omake shows Ploutos advising the Greek government on what they can do to better defend their country.
The title is likely a pun on the negotiations that Yuna arranges, and "get", referring perhaps to both the orange light and to the ring that the Reach tried to acquire.
- Antagonistic Offspring: When Paul offers to compensate Lantern Natu for the way he disrupted her life, she can't think of much she wants from him, except her father Sinestro's head. Interestingly, canon suggests that Sinestro, while fairly villainous, doesn't share her antipathy, and would like to be a part of her life.
- Assassination Attempt: While Paul is in mediation talks with the Yunans and a Reach Negotiator, a Reach task force enters the Yuna system and fires at the building they're in. Fortunately, Paul was suspicious of their approach and had already raised a shield.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Even with scarab powers and a ring that alters the wearer's mind to improve their constructs, the scarab warrior is no match for Paul. His biggest challenge is attempting to remove the scarab intact after disabling the host (he fails and it self-destructs).
- Death Is Cheap: Paul's soul and body get thoroughly examined, and he learns that his soul is capable of readily reattaching to a clone of himself after being killed. Lantern Natu recommends making several backup bodies, ready for action.
- Major Injury Underreaction: While painfully vivisected and floating disassembled in midair, Paul is still his cheerful and aggravating self.Nax: The subject is an adult humanoid male of the human species, thirty one years of age. Currently occupying his third body after the first was destroyed by magic-using Source-worshippers-
Paul: And sword-using.
Nax: -and the second was destroyed in a qwa-matter explosion.
[...]
I look up-. And wave up at Lantern Gozzi. - Omake: An omake shows Ploutos giving his advice on what the Greek government can do to keep their country stable and safe.
- Psychic Surgery: Inverted. Lantern Nax practices psychic vivisection, splitting the subject's body into a floating web of pieces — still very much alive — so that they can be more easily studied. She remarks that Paul is the first "patient" who hasn't screamed in agony.
- Psycho Prototype: One of the Guardians was experimenting with a new type of green ring, but it was not yet intended for field usage, and the three Lanterns who stole the alpha versions and tried using them all went crazy.
- Refuge in Audacity: When in mediation talks, the Reach Negotiator/Ambassador continues to insist that the Reach have been entirely peaceful and that NEMO's attacks on them are entirely unprovoked and unjustified. Paul isn't buying it for a moment.Paul: So if this meeting is actually going to get anywhere… Please, stop pretending. It's not even annoying, really. It's just stupid. This isn't a court. There's no neutral jury. There's no unconvinced party to impress. It's a mediation for two peoples who hate each other to maybe find an agreement they could accept.
Negotiator: If you're going to engage in baseless slander-.
Paul: Pointless. - Riddle for the Ages: When Paul asks how exactly the Manhunters went rogue before killing all life in Sector 666, Hinon reveals that she doesn't know either.Paul: I've always been a bit puzzled about how that happened. I mean, I don't always agree with the Guardians' decisions, but setting loose an army of robots without any monitoring, with programming that could lead them to conclude that killing every living things in a Space Sector was a reasonable thing to do… That suggests incompetence, and that's not something I associate the Guardians with.
Hinon: I never got a straight answer either. The Guardians involved seemed to be… We don’t really do bewildered, but the next best thing, about the whole issue. - Swapped Roles: After Lantern Drusa demonstrates the ability to predict his behaviour in a given situation, Paul uses a pair of magical illusion amulets to let her take on his appearance and contact (read: intimidate) the Reach in his place, while he explores the planet.Drusa: And if they do discover that I'm not you?
Paul: Then won't it be extra funny when they find out that I am me?
