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Goddamn Teenagers (Worm, AU/time travel)

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Good Idea Fairy, Part 11
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    • "I don't understand the problem," Alec said with exaggerated patience. "It's not a person, because she deliberately omitted the bits that would make it a person."

    "Yes." Lisa replied firmly. "Isn't that sort of the problem? Nazi or no?"

    "I mean," Alec said candidly, "if we had the actual for reals Nazi this is based on right here in front of us, I would be entirely down with torturing him for information, so… eh? Not usually a fan of torture, especially after dad's bullshit, but Nazi? Especially a boss Nazi? Fucker sees me in my dress out on the town, he'd do the same to me or worse, just for shiggles."

    "Ugggggh," Lisa replied articulately, barely stopping herself from nodding along. When did Alec get all reasonable?

    Dr. Weaver would likely agree?

    "Yes, excellent idea," Lisa replied.

    "Why thank you! I'm writing this down, it's not every day you recognize my genius."

    "No, not you, Power."

    Alec stuck out his tongue in response.

    Lisa graciously ignored the little shit's insolence. "We'll just dump the problem on Dr. Weaver," she continued.

    "But where's the fun in that?" Alec whined.
    Note:
    Also Alec: "And more importantly, how will I get my cut!?"
     
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    • Good Idea Fairy, Part 12
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    • "Okay," Lisa said with growing confidence. "Okay. We'll call Dr. Weaver, and let her sort out the—."

    Director Tagg called you minutes ago looking for Dr. Weaver because she is not answering calls.

    "—Goddamnit! She's still off planning her 'fuck you' to Aisha's school."

    "Eh," Alec said, looking down at his phone. "Not in a hurry. Worst case Pocket Fuhrer can just stay on ice."

    Lisa sighed. "You know what, sure, fuck it, I'm done."

    "Great!" Alec navigated toward the door, still not looking up from his phone. "We can abandon this snackless hellscape and return to our regularly scheduled munching."

    "Going home?" Lisa tutted. "Where's your sense of professional pride?"

    "Left it under Cherie's bed when I fucked off from home," Alec said automatically. "Sadly, my ride ain't here yet so I will have to make do with the snacks in the Ward room."

    "What? Why? It was bad enough before we left, it's going to be absolute chaos?"

    "Eh." Alec shrugged. "Want to make sure the tinkers stay on task, had a job for them. Besides, I brought popcorn, it'll be fun."

    Lisa snorted. "Like that herd of wildebeests will have left popcorn uneaten."

    "It'll be fine, it's stashed above a ceiling tile in an old cheese curd bag.

    Lisa blinked. "That sounds like way more work to set up than is normal for you."

    Alec grinned. "Aisha got the food, I found the old cheese curds bag, and Missy is very susceptible to bribery."

    "You're a menace," Lisa snorted.

    "Merci, beaucoup!"
     
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    • dc2008 said:
    She still off planning her fuck you to Aisha's school."
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    Should it be "She's still off planning her 'fuck you' to Aisha's school."

    dc2008 said:
    "We can abandon this snackless hellscape and return to our regularly scheduled munching."
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    Truly, the worst kind of dystopia. A land devoid of snacks. How could life persist in such a barren place?

    dc2008 said:
    "Where's your sense of professional pride."
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    Jeopardy rules? Put it in the form of a question? "...pride?"
     
    Ace Dreamer said:
    Would that involve those energy drinks? That could be... bad.
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    Look, Alec is just… greasing the wheels of commerce. Performing a public service, even. Missy has needs, see, and it's in everyone's interest of the Shaker 'oh god oh god oh god' doesn't feel a need to get… creative. Which she very well might, if she found those needs unnecessarily difficult to meet.
     
    Good Idea Fairy, Part 13
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    • "Ooooohhhh," Amy's sister said, seeing her enter with a shopping bag. "Whatcha got?"

    "As fun as it is," Amy grumbled, "to play games at Alec's place, what with him working more I figured I should get my own."

    "Neeeerd," Vicky replied, sticking out her tongue.

    "I also got a copy of that game you liked, with the clothes, Saints Row 2."

    "Not that there is anything wrong with that," Vicky added hastily, "my favorite sister!"

    "No, I won't loan you the game," Amy said. Seeing her sister's exaggerated pout, she laughed, before continuing. "That's because it has co-op, so we can play together."

    Amy did not feel guilty at all for the warm and fuzzy feelings accompanying the resulting glomp.

    Elsewhere

    "I'm home!" Taylor called out as she shut the door.

    "In here," her father's voice called out from the other room. "Dinner will be done soon, how was work?"

    "Boys are stupid," Taylor said, with feeling.

    Later

    "Girls," Carol said, knocking on Amy's open door, "I called you for dinner ten minutes ago, what are—what on Earth are you playing?"

    "Mreow?" Chekov offered, not turning his head from where he was following the action on the screen with rapt attention.
    Note: Stay warm everyone! And if you don't have experience driving on icy roads, be careful, not just during the storm but in the days after!

    (Context: most of the US is getting slammed with a unusually cold weather)
     
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    • I only stepped out for a brief moment earlier to get the mail (and an Important package). I plan to stay inside and warm now.

    EDIT:
    Isn't Saint's Row 2's co-op online multiplayer only?
     
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    No, really, I'm pretty sure I remember a lack of couch co-op in the game on the 360. WOuld have to load it up to check though.

    EDIT:
    I just checked on my Xbox. It's online or through system link. Meaning 2 consoles, 2 tvs, and 2 copies of the game, linked via a ethernet cable or the wireless adapter. I think, never did system link.
     
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    Ace Dreamer said:
    Is 'railing' correct here?

    ---

    Amy is now a dedicated gamer - at least virtual clothes won't fill-up her closet...
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    Would you prefer "banister glomp"? Although if Amy wasn't pressed against a banister,but instead the railing mounted on the wall...
    Also...
    Amy was already an official gamer, it's Vicky that let her cloths horse tendencies draw her into Saints Row 2.
     
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    FaerieKnight79 said:
    No, really, I'm pretty sure I remember a lack of couch co-op in the game on the 360. WOuld have to load it up to check though.

    EDIT:
    I just checked on my Xbox. It's online or through system link. Meaning 2 consoles, 2 tvs, and 2 copies of the game, linked via a ethernet cable or the wireless adapter. I think, never did system link.
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    It's Earth Bet, they needed people to rage together in person so couch co-op is a thing.
     
    It's Microsoft, nobody batted an eye when the original x-box insisted you had to pay monthly for multiplayer (something that had always been free), and by the 360 era couch co-op was practically dead because console games with couch co-op/multiplayer didn't funnel people into paying a monthly fee to access it.
     
    FaerieKnight79 said:
    It's Microsoft, nobody batted an eye when the original x-box insisted you had to pay monthly for multiplayer (something that had always been free), and by the 360 era couch co-op was practically dead because console games with couch co-op/multiplayer didn't funnel people into paying a monthly fee to access it.
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    Simple, in Earth Bet you had to pay for couch co-op by having the consoles be hardcoded to only use verified controllers from verified manufacturers, and you had to pay for the nose for extra controllers, with extra planned obsolescence built in! :D
     
    *looks at long history of unlicensed 3rd party games for consoles which tried to lock out unlicensed games, looks at the multiple failed attempts to make such unlicensed games illegal*

    Somehow, I doubt a hardware lockout of non-official controllers would work any better then Nintendo's attempts to prevent unlicensed games.
     
    FaerieKnight79 said:
    *looks at long history of unlicensed 3rd party games for consoles which tried to lock out unlicensed games, looks at the multiple failed attempts to make such unlicensed games illegal*

    Somehow, I doubt a hardware lockout of non-official controllers would work any better then Nintendo's attempts to prevent unlicensed games.
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    Pretty sure this is what Sony did on the PS4/PS5 and Xbox did the same which is why a big name brand moved away from game controllers. Trying to remember the name of the company... they were big... EDIT: Logitech! They now only make keyboards, mice, cameras, headsets, speakers and stylus type things.
     
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    Nope, 3rd party controllers are still a thing. Companies like Mad Catz that were known for cheap and bad crap went under, but you can still buy 3rd party controllers. It's just different companies making them now. The way console makers encourage you to buy THEIR controllers is the fact 3rd party ones may not have all the features. For example, a Power A controller for the Switch wont have motion controls, an NFC reader, "HD rumble," and it's not wireless. But it's also $40 or $50 cheaper then the Switch Pro Controller.

    EDIT:
    Logitech also got out of the racing wheel and flight stick markets. That doesn't mean nobody makes them.
     
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    FaerieKnight79 said:
    It's Microsoft, nobody batted an eye when the original x-box insisted you had to pay monthly for multiplayer (something that had always been free), and by the 360 era couch co-op was practically dead because console games with couch co-op/multiplayer didn't funnel people into paying a monthly fee to access it.
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    The is Earth Bet. Japan was wrecked in 2000. Lots of things are on their last legs. There's no canon evidence Microsoft exists, or is powerful, or in fact any of the better known IRL gaming companies, console or otherwise. Gaming consoles might be generic hardware using generic OSs, even Linux (from Earth Alph). We really don't know.
    (There's hints a variant GUI, not Windows, is in use.)

    Odds are, no XBox, too 'niche', prob. no manufacturing capability for it. Gaming is based on ancient stuff, prob. mid-to-late 1990s, or Earth Alph (code, DLC) imports. Gaming hardware also prob. ancient, or running on generic PCs. Which might not even be using Intel CISC hardware, more RISC processors, because easier to manufacture (older, cheaper, fabs).

    The are nearly no space resources on Earth Bet.

    No 'Tinker inspired', because that breaks Doyalist 'Earth Bet matches IRL'.
    (Possibly, to pull this off, GPUs are maybe manufactured to Earth Alph designs. Somehow. Incorporated into cheap, simple, older Earth Bet hardware.)

    dc2008 said:
    Saints Row 2
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    Sorry, odds are this couldn't run on Earth Bet hardware... Wouldn't it push the graphics too hard?
     
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    Ace Dreamer said:
    The is Earth Bet. Japan was wrecked in 2000. Lots of things are on their last legs. There's no canon evidence Microsoft exists, or is powerful, or in fact any of the better known IRL gaming companies, console or otherwise. Gaming consoles might be generic hardware using generic OSs, even Linux (from Earth Alph). We really don't know.
    (There's hints a variant GUI, not Windows, is in use.)
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    I'd like to point out that Uber and Leet doing a GTA themed video is apparently canon. GTA didn't really get big until GTA 3 on the PS2. It released in 2001 on PS2, 2002 on Windows PCs, and 2003 on the original Xbox (which launched in 2001). But this does imply they use modern (for 2011) game consoles.

    I'd also like to point out that Microsoft was founded in 1975, a good decade before Scion showed up. And is not a Japanese company. Considering Wildbow's obsession with Worm being "modern day, only with superpowers and (supposedly) dying" with zero changes to society even if his world building would insist those changes exist? Assuming that Sony never released the Playstation or Playstation 2 is silly. Now, the PS3 didn't release in 2006 could be valid. But saying Microsoft's X-Box and Xbox 360 (released in 2005) don't exist may be a stretch. It's probably also a stretch to assume Windows was never developed or iterated upon, considering Windows 1.0 released in 1985. This is because things didn't start going off the rails, apparently, until 1987 with the first public "superheroes" and the S9 founding.

    On the other hand, the PS1 released in 1994. And with Sony's R&D and manufacturing being based out of Tokyo, it may not have been as devistated as you assume.

    My guess is that Wildbow didn't mention what sort of OS computers and phones use because he assumed it was self evident that "all computers run Windows". Which would likely be Windows 7. I don't think he made specific mention of smart phone OS either, butI could be wrong. If he didn't, he probably assumed Iphones and Android phones were self evident.
     
    FaerieKnight79 said:
    I'd like to point out that Uber and Leet doing a GTA themed video is apparently canon. GTA didn't really get big until GTA 3 on the PS2. It released in 2001 on PS2, 2002 on Windows PCs, and 2003 on the original Xbox (which launched in 2001). But this does imply they use modern (for 2011) game consoles.
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    GTA is Worm canon. We don't know which version was big enough on Earth Bet to be U&L'd. Original XBox was... a bit marginal. Industry rumours suggested M$ nearly dropped it, from memory.

    FaerieKnight79 said:
    I'd also like to point out that Microsoft was founded in 1975, a good decade before Scion showed up. And is not a Japanese company
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    Yup. The story of how and why the IBM PC OS contract went to them is fun...

    And, it reinvented itself several times through the 1990s, in quite brilliant ways. For example, it claimed the Internet would fail, and everyone should be using the M$ network. That e-mail and web browser standards were irrelevant, given the 'needs of business' (really long battle on that front). 640k memory (later 16M) was enough for anyone. And the fight/backstab with IBM over OS/2...

    Sept. 11th saved M$ from being broken-up, as it was a 'critical national asset'... So many things happened...

    FaerieKnight79 said:
    Considering Wildbow's obsession with Worm being "modern day, only with superpowers and (supposedly) dying" with zero changes to society even if his world building would insist those changes exist? Assuming that Sony never released the Playstation or Playstation 2 is silly. Now, the PS3 didn't release in 2006 could be valid. But saying Microsoft's X-Box and Xbox 360 (released in 2005) don't exist may be a stretch. It's probably also a stretch to assume Windows was never developed or iterated upon, considering Windows 1.0 released in 1985. This is because things didn't start going off the rails, apparently, until 1987 with the first public "superheroes" and the S9 founding.
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    PS2 probably existed, PS3 likely not. Look at the history of the Intel StrongARM - Intel wanted to dump x86 for a long time... DEC Alpha showed the way things were going. Windows only became significant with Windows 3 (maybe 3.1), 1990+, and there were multiple competing GUIs from the late 1980s (Atari ST. Commodore Amiga...). OS/2 was a solid competitor, for a while.

    FaerieKnight79 said:
    On the other hand, the PS1 released in 1994. And with Sony's R&D and manufacturing being based out of Tokyo, it may not have been as devistated as you assume.
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    Japan IRL wasn't healthy, 1990s. Earth Bet has the CUI, which is a bit close. Very strong odds the entire Japanese economy crashed.

    FaerieKnight79 said:
    My guess is that Wildbow didn't mention what sort of OS computers and phones use because he assumed it was self evident that "all computers run Windows". Which would likely be Windows 7. I don't think he made specific mention of smart phone OS either, but I could be wrong. If he didn't, he probably assumed Iphones and Android phones were self evident.
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    Wildbow assumed camera phones, I don't believe there was more detail, except (I'm told) implied a pie-chart style menu system GUI, at one point. M$ failed miserably at getting their OS on all phones - Nokia and Windows 8 showed bits of that mess. Note that the OS and the GUI need not be integrated...

    Arguably... an author uses language their readers understand. So, often tech ditto. That's got its up and down sides. Things change. Crime/detective stories pre-WWW, pre-pocket phones...
     
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