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By the time Alex exhausts her into agreeing, she'd be the TiRed Queen.
Goddamn Teenagers (Worm, AU/time travel)
FaerieKnight79
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Careful Amy, you're starting to slide on a very slippery slope.
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No, no, he's got a point!
... my shoulder angel (like the rest of me) is very Jewish and believes good praxis involves punching Nazis, okay? This is just punching them in the CNS, really.
The Shape of Things to Come, Part 3
Buffer overfloweth, so have a bonus chapter!
Edit: Check out the first part in this thread if you need a refresh on the dead woman with crystals in her brain.
"… material powers are made of. Armsmaster's instruments indicate that there is still an active cross-dimensional connection, which creates the possibility of communication."
"Can't Her Excellent Majesty The Faerie Queen already talk to them?" Alec asked.
"Yes, after a fashion. More channels would make her subjects more comfortable, and also would free up more of her time for other things. Parahumans as single points of failure in critical functions is something she wants to get away from."
Tuning out the others, Amy hesitantly touched the spidery crystalline… thing. It looked much more ominous in person than when she had simply observed it via her powers.
She carefully didn't think about the fact that she could only see it because someone had sawed open the dead woman's head.
"Huh," Alec said, staring at the dead woman with unfocused eyes. "I can almost sense it." He blinked, and turned to Dr. Weaver and Amy. "I can sense some residual surviving neural something. How long did you say she has been dead?"
"That's a more complicated question than you would think," Dr. Weaver replied, "as significant time dilation was involved. We are working on reconstructing the telemetry from her device."
Note:
Dr. Weaver: Waste not want not.
Edit: Check out the first part in this thread if you need a refresh on the dead woman with crystals in her brain.
"… material powers are made of. Armsmaster's instruments indicate that there is still an active cross-dimensional connection, which creates the possibility of communication."
"Can't Her Excellent Majesty The Faerie Queen already talk to them?" Alec asked.
"Yes, after a fashion. More channels would make her subjects more comfortable, and also would free up more of her time for other things. Parahumans as single points of failure in critical functions is something she wants to get away from."
Tuning out the others, Amy hesitantly touched the spidery crystalline… thing. It looked much more ominous in person than when she had simply observed it via her powers.
She carefully didn't think about the fact that she could only see it because someone had sawed open the dead woman's head.
"Huh," Alec said, staring at the dead woman with unfocused eyes. "I can almost sense it." He blinked, and turned to Dr. Weaver and Amy. "I can sense some residual surviving neural something. How long did you say she has been dead?"
"That's a more complicated question than you would think," Dr. Weaver replied, "as significant time dilation was involved. We are working on reconstructing the telemetry from her device."
Note:
Dr. Weaver: Waste not want not.
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Ace Dreamer
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Missing initial double-quote?
---
Amy. This is getting rather close to messing with brains, isn't it? But. Its crystal, not flesh, so that makes it OK? Also. Dr. Weaver is there. She wouldn't steer you wrong, would she?
Watsonian, this sound more like Riley, boosted by Broadcast, area of expertise... Or, are attempts being made to keep Riley away from the really messy stuff???
Time dilation and (shard) crystal in brain. That's... pretty out-there stuff, isn't it?
Typo fixed in text—thank you very much!
Broadcast is currently *absolutely prohibited* from expanding the scope of other shards' permission sets.
And, well, is it doing brains of the person is clearly and unambiguously dead and staying that way?
Ace Dreamer
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Probably wise...
Depending on how long dead they are, there might be flickers of life in some of the cells...
Amy's definition of 'death' seems to be a Queen Shaper imposed one - if she was really allowed to 'roll up her sleeves', only a significantly splattered brain (or things like shard-caused total cellular death) would stop her...
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FaerieKnight79
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No, Amy's definition of "death" is the same one everyone else uses.
But the body of a dead person still contains a significant amount of living tissue for a significant amount of time (minutes to hours 'significant', sure, but, ultimately: people die when they're killed, but not all at once). And even when it doesn't, decomposer bacteria are still themselves alive and the rest of the body is biomass.
There is no clear obvious physical line between a living multicellular being and a dead one.
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Ace Dreamer
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Definition of death has been pushed back, and back.
Surgical procedures lasting hours with no heart beat, no blood flow, the body at 20degC, can take place. People have been fully revived, with just short-term memory loss, after an hour-plus with no circulation, in cold conditions. I'm not even going to start in on the pig-brain stuff.
No, 'death', no longer a 'firm' thing.
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I remember being taught that the patient isn't dead until they are warm and dead.
FaerieKnight79
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This, yes. But in the field if you are dealing with someone who's warm and dead, rather then in a hospital with life support machines being used to keep someone alive during a medical procedure, then you use the same definition of "dead" for everyone. In this case, there is no reason to believe the person might be savable due to them being "dead" while in a cold environment. Instead it's someone who's been dead, possibly for hours before they could be recovered, and who has large chunks of their brain missing.
Ace Dreamer
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Evidence suggests, dead up to an hour, at room temperature, no loss of critical parts of the brain, possibly someone like Amy might be able to put them back on their feet (yes, serious repair work would be required).
Medically, the hospital doesn't use life-support machines, forcibly oxygenating, circulating, blood, just controls body temperature and monitors stuff (40mins preferred limit). It's a pretty amazing process.
Yes, this is different to Cryonics (down to way below freezing-point of water), and Cryotherapy.
I'll leave looking-up the room-temperature for hours pig-head/pig-brain revival stuff to others. Quite shocking.
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Fading Star, Part 2
"I'm sorry," Nessa said to the (suitably Caucasian) South American corporate representative. "Mr. Anders' prior meeting is running over. We will make time for you as soon as we can, you come highly recommended."
"I understand completely," the other woman said. She too was tall, blonde and fit, her suit cut to flatter her muscular physique. From how she carried herself, Nessa did not doubt that the other woman would be just as comfortable in tactical gear.
Too often representatives from like-minded groups were crass men. It was nice to see a fellow strong, confident woman on the right side of history.
Meanwhile
"If you take the settlement," the heavyset lawyer said wearily, "well you've seen the headline figure, and that's before the compliance monitor, additional auditors, and other items."
"What is this," Max asked, pointing to an innocuous seeming item on the list.
"It's a bar order, Max. You would be out."
"It's my company."
"That won't change. You will still own most of the shares, assuming you don't need to sell them to pay the fines. However, you can't be a corporate officer, or board member."
Max leaned back, deep in thought. That was the trouble with these mercenary lawyers, they folded too easily. He'd rather have a local, someone he could trust with both the business and the business. Like his father had, before Max pushed the man out after his father's death.
"I understand completely," the other woman said. She too was tall, blonde and fit, her suit cut to flatter her muscular physique. From how she carried herself, Nessa did not doubt that the other woman would be just as comfortable in tactical gear.
Too often representatives from like-minded groups were crass men. It was nice to see a fellow strong, confident woman on the right side of history.
Meanwhile
"If you take the settlement," the heavyset lawyer said wearily, "well you've seen the headline figure, and that's before the compliance monitor, additional auditors, and other items."
"What is this," Max asked, pointing to an innocuous seeming item on the list.
"It's a bar order, Max. You would be out."
"It's my company."
"That won't change. You will still own most of the shares, assuming you don't need to sell them to pay the fines. However, you can't be a corporate officer, or board member."
Max leaned back, deep in thought. That was the trouble with these mercenary lawyers, they folded too easily. He'd rather have a local, someone he could trust with both the business and the business. Like his father had, before Max pushed the man out after his father's death.
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FaerieKnight79
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Ah, Max. You get to reap what you've sown. And you STILL don't realize that the charges aren't frivolous things laid by people who do the same thing, but actual and legitimate charges because you did wrong.
Did you miss that the person in question is missing large parts of their brain too? You know, due to random crystal being there instead. That crystal may be shard material, apparently. But the person in question is dead and gone. The BODY might be technically alive, maybe, for a very generous definition of alive. But the person is dead.
Did you miss that the person in question is missing large parts of their brain too? You know, due to random crystal being there instead. That crystal may be shard material, apparently. But the person in question is dead and gone. The BODY might be technically alive, maybe, for a very generous definition of alive. But the person is dead.
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Ace Dreamer
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It's more fundamental than that. Max doesn't understand the concept inappropriate use of power (in a interpersonal relationship). Because, Kaiser. He may not be a full-on Nazi believer, but he learned to abuse power from his father...
(Abuse of power, granted/agreed for a particular purpose, such as company management, used for other reasons. A weakness of the human tendency for excessive generalisation? (In other circumstances, a potential human strength.) One of the banes of organising systems that work, and go on working, from groups of homo saps...)
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"I don't understand, I've purged all my old
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The parallels really do write themselves, don't they.
Fading Star, Part 3
"What if we fight?" Max finally asked the lawyer.
"We lose," the lawyer said plainly. "It might take a few years, along the way we'll burn eight or nine figures on litigation, oh and we'll crash the stock doing it. Same result, you get a bar."
There had to be a way. Max tried again. "What if we reincorporate abroad?"
The lawyer sighed. "If you try something that smacks of blatant evasion or thumbing your nose at their authority, they will find a way to burn you to the ground."
"What if we get the lobbyists involved?"
The lawyer adopted a flat stare. "This is federal, not state, and the level of political cover needed would be significant."
Finally. Progress.
Elsewhere in the Building
"… and cardio, of course," Nessa finished. It was hard, damnit, to keep in shape while keeping her figure, and a rare treat to find another woman who appreciated it.
Before Nessa could continue, she was interrupted by a buzz from her pocket. "I am sorry," she said, and actually meant it. "It's the lawyer thing from the news this morning. We could try to fit you in with Mr. Anders later this afternoon?"
The other woman smiled apologetically. "I have a flight to catch, sadly, but I will be in touch. I'll leave a card—if you, or anyone you know, is ever looking for a job down south, do reach out."
"Of course, Miss Lynch."
Note:
Lawyer: Why are the clients with the most money always crazy?
Older Lawyer: if they were perfect they wouldn't need us. Also, make sure to keep the retainer topped up in case his accounts get frozen.
"We lose," the lawyer said plainly. "It might take a few years, along the way we'll burn eight or nine figures on litigation, oh and we'll crash the stock doing it. Same result, you get a bar."
There had to be a way. Max tried again. "What if we reincorporate abroad?"
The lawyer sighed. "If you try something that smacks of blatant evasion or thumbing your nose at their authority, they will find a way to burn you to the ground."
"What if we get the lobbyists involved?"
The lawyer adopted a flat stare. "This is federal, not state, and the level of political cover needed would be significant."
Finally. Progress.
Elsewhere in the Building
"… and cardio, of course," Nessa finished. It was hard, damnit, to keep in shape while keeping her figure, and a rare treat to find another woman who appreciated it.
Before Nessa could continue, she was interrupted by a buzz from her pocket. "I am sorry," she said, and actually meant it. "It's the lawyer thing from the news this morning. We could try to fit you in with Mr. Anders later this afternoon?"
The other woman smiled apologetically. "I have a flight to catch, sadly, but I will be in touch. I'll leave a card—if you, or anyone you know, is ever looking for a job down south, do reach out."
"Of course, Miss Lynch."
Note:
Lawyer: Why are the clients with the most money always crazy?
Older Lawyer: if they were perfect they wouldn't need us. Also, make sure to keep the retainer topped up in case his accounts get frozen.
Prince Charon
Just zis guy, you know?
Translation: This will be very expensive, not just in money, and could backfire heavily.
Max's ego really can't handle accepting a major loss like this, and it shows. The sad thing is, if the situation were only what it appears to be from there, he could probably manage it via government corruption. On the bright side, that isn't the situation he's in, so it'll likely blow up in his face unexpectedly.
FaerieKnight79
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What Max really doesn't get is just how badly he's screwed. Even unrepentant murders and career criminals have lines they wont cross. When he goes down for this, Max'll have to sleep with BOTH eyes open at all times. The two things unrepentant criminals hate more then the police are pedophiles and rapists. And if he's taken down for one of those...
Everyone likes to think they are better than *someone*. Max built a career out of that impulse. He's not liking it so much now that he's seeing the other side.
Ace Dreamer
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On the positive side, if he tries that route, it could flush-out some corrupt politicians? Even on Earth Bet, none of them will want to (publicly) be seen 'in bed' with a paedophilic Nazi?
It's a fine line. Everyone wants his money, but no one wants guilt by association. Not sure how much of this we will play with on screen.
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Depressingly, the line for 'unacceptable' sexual behavior with minors in DC has, for decades, proverbially been a dead girl or a live boy. (This scandal standard is still pretty accurate today, although a lot of other standards defining acceptable behavior seem to have... drifted. Some because of social progress, some because of what I will define only as the opposite.)