- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well, if that also means Dresden File metaphysics apply for magic, he just opened a whole other can of worms for himself.
Ship of Fools: A Taylor Varga Omake (Complete)
- Thread starter Derek M
- Start date
- Crossover
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
Randall suddenly going techbane would be... awkward to say the least. But if it's through power assisted knowledge, and Magic A is truly Magic A, (Dresden's just using it wrong) it's possible Uber's magic is True/Varga techniques merely simulating Dresdenverse magic.
Edit: And the Magic A is Magic A theory makes sense. Molly, with the Winter Lady mantle, doesn't have techbane issues, and Mr. Sunshine has told Dresden that Mab (via the Winter Knight mantle) cannot change who he is. So, Dresden magic techbane is really just... "you're doing it wrong"
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Richardson
CAN YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?
- Location
- Yes
Hardly. It's noted in The Files that the influence of magic on the mundane world changed over time. A few decades before the series, it did things like boiling eggs and such. In the tinker-filled world of Taylor Varga and Earth Bet... well, given there are already seemingly magic inventors...
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
I'm guessing that Harry has magic-related injuries, so Metis wants an expert to look at them. Also, his coin-based haunt...
Miles problem is that he's got that implanted prison experience driving him in suicidal directions - don't forget Lisa's Trigger...
Not sure how the soulgaze fits in with the magic 'skill package' Harry has - doubt that Uber would gain it auto-magically. What learning magic will do to Uber's shard should be interesting... How much of the Family math had Uber picked up?
Why do I see Randall opening up a Gateway to Earth-Bet's own version of the Nevernever......and what is that the sound? Is it the sound of Leviathan, swiming upwards towards Mars at Ludicrous Speed? Behamoth trying to dig down to the center of the Earth hoping that the natives of the Nevernever are like the T-Rex in JP and he'll be ignored if he stays still long enough? The Simurgh screaming in mind numbing horror as Mab pops by for a tea party?
- Location
- The general area. Possibly behind you.
Über is getting fairly good with Family math, and probably understands more of it than most people who aren't Taylor or Vista. Lisa would be fairly similar. Amy isn't nearly as advanced, but even there she has more insight into some very odd mathematical techniques than you'd expect, since the accelerated learning aspect of the neural amplifiers combined with the bioconstructs will have given both her and Lisa a considerable leg up on absorbing that sort of thing. Which in turn gives a fair amount of background knowledge about Varga magic, which can be considered a superset of everyone else's magic.
None of them other that Taylor or the Varga could be considered magic users in the true sense of the word yet, but they're heading that way. They have a lot of potential if they want it. Taylor herself, of course, is capable of some extremely strange and powerful magical feats but mostly doesn't show this, since so far it's not been required. But the Varga has taught her a lot more than anyone else fully understands at this point...
Incidentally, soulgazing Taylor would be a spectacularly unwise thing to do. A Greater Demon's mind isn't the sort of thing you want to poke at even incidentally without taking a hell of a lot of precautions first, which may well not actually be enough in any case. Luckily, the Varga wouldn't allow it unless they were feeling particularly annoyed. If they wanted it to happen on the other hand... It wouldn't end well for almost anyone on the receiving end
How many layers of people do you have to go through before that's even remotely safe for the receiving end? Because soulgazing someone who's soulgazed Taylor doesn't sound healthy either...Incidentally, soulgazing Taylor would be a spectacularly unwise thing to do. A Greater Demon's mind isn't the sort of thing you want to poke at even incidentally without taking a hell of a lot of precautions first, which may well not actually be enough in any case. Luckily, the Varga wouldn't allow it unless they were feeling particularly annoyed. If they wanted it to happen on the other hand... It wouldn't end well for almost anyone on the receiving end
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
There's the interesting question of how many worlds does the Nevernever cover... While it might be more than one, Harry's world is so 'far' away it's unlikely to overlap. But, there might be a local Nevernever - did the dimensional sealing the Entities did on arrival lock that away?
The Nevernever sounds like a mix of the Etheric and Astral planes, or something like the White Wolf Storyteller werewolf Umbra. If you throw it in you're starting to make seriously cosmological extensions to the 'Worm' setting...
Could be fun for Uber to ask Saurial/Raptaur for a board, and start math-ing out Harry's magic...
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BerserkerZeroOne
(Unexploded Supernova)
- Location
- On your left!
Hellmouth native - nasty magic residues
Primal incident - (Female) Hyena Pack Leader residue
Halloween - Soldier residue
Love curse - Aphrodite's revenge...
Swim team - Creature From The Black Lagoon...
First Slayer - Blending spell
Lost eye - 'He Who Sees' title
Prophecy breaker
Magic twister
Vampire hunter - breathed in dusted vampires
Those are just from memory, I may have missed one or two.
Out of all this, you all forgot about Willow attacking him with so much Dark Magic when he wouldn't move and let her destroy the world because everything hurt without Tara there.
He was also there when the Hellmouth was partly opened a few times and he was there when it closed, and you can't say that didn't give off some major power backlash.
He had a front row seat to the Ascension of Mayor Wilkins and his destruction, all that power had to have gone somewhere.
He was in the mansion when Acathla was opened and just after it was closed.
He was around the portal that Glory opened to get back home and when it was closed, can't forget the closing of mystical things, they give off power as well.
Edit: He was also around Dawn and had his memory screwed with when she was inserted into their lives...
and if it's far enough down the timeline, when she was gone and brought back because of the loss of magic.
As well as all the magic and magic residue he's around just by being Xander.
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Assuming your spoiler is referring to the post-series comic era, then no he is not from the wierd future.
It did explain in the 'origins' chapters that he got trapped in Sunnydale during the final episode, going back to save Anya. That was the entire point of them landing in the ruins of Sunnydale..
An important question would be if, as a Greater Demon, Varga actually has a soul as far as dresdenverse magic is concerned, as you can't soulgaze beings without them. It's fairly likely that Taylor would have one, although as reality jumping is involved, and the furthest Wildbow when asked about it was essentially that it didn't matter if souls existed or not as it had no bearing on the story, it's not certain. Harry, Xander, Jimmy and Peter certainly have them due to souls being a known thing in their realities, Miles is very likely based on things seen in the various films/series, but Daniel, Ellen & Taylor are each from realities where the existence of a soul is unconfirmed.Incidentally, soulgazing Taylor would be a spectacularly unwise thing to do. A Greater Demon's mind isn't the sort of thing you want to poke at even incidentally without taking a hell of a lot of precautions first, which may well not actually be enough in any case. Luckily, the Varga wouldn't allow it unless they were feeling particularly annoyed. If they wanted it to happen on the other hand... It wouldn't end well for almost anyone on the receiving end
Still, assuming Taylor does have one, it would still likely be a bad idea to soulgaze her due to the connection with the Varga.
Wasn't there a reference at one point, that you could reach the earth Spiderman was on if you went far enough through the nevernever?
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
This version of Harry didn't get a chance to chat with Bob about it, since he's from right after getting shot at the end of Changes.
Ghost Story said:
Wait... would that mean that Taylor and Varga could be pulling what is essentially Nevernever stuff into the real world and reshaping it to power their matter creation abilities? That would actually be pretty damn cool.
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
The Nevernever, The Bleed, The Blind Eternities, the quantum foam strata underlying the omniverse, it's all the same isn't it?
- Location
- The general area. Possibly behind you.
What the Varga uses is basically what a physicist from our world would think of as a quark-gluon plasma of near-infinite density pulled from the final 'Outside', the thing that all of reality floats in. It's sort of an onion-layer approach; True Outside (Varga land), Nearly Outside (Nevernever, Almostnever, Notquiteever, and so on), Closer To Inside (Dungeon Dimensions), Getting There (Unusual parts of the Omniverse), Inside But Not All The Way (Rimsbell's reality strand, others with strong magic,) Inside (Most of the rest of the Omniverse including Worm realities), and Right In The Middle (Boring parts of the Omniverse where nothing unusual happens most of the time, ie ours)
Of course, all this is also spread out into multiple timelines, parallel worlds, separate Reality Strands, and any number of other ways of splitting it up in infinite variations. At least one of these is Heberts all the way down...
Chapter 12: Magic and Medicine
- Location
- Maryland
Chapter 12: Magic and Medicine
Ianthe and Dragon both stopped after passing through the second office door to look at what was sitting in the open area of the warehouse.
"Obvious spaceship is obvious," said Ianthe with a neutral tone of voice.
Dragon cross-checked her Internet references before stating unequivocally, "That is a heavily modified Firefly-class Series 3 bulk transport, but her shuttles are missing and her drive pods have been replaced with what look like jury-rigged Star Trek warp nacelles. I would say that it's some kind of fan-built movie prop, except that hull scans show extensive exposure to vacuum and cosmic radiation, just like one would expect for a well-used spaceship."
"I've seen Star Trek," responded Ianthe. "I'm not familiar with whatever media describes the ship class you mentioned."
Absentmindedly, Dragon said, "I'll send you a link. It's worth watching." As she said this, she started heading toward the open cargo ramp, with Ianthe keeping pace bemusedly.
Inside the cargo bay, Raptaur and Danny Hebert were speaking with two young men that Dragon didn't recognize. At least, they didn't pop up as a hit for anybody with an active warrant or any other watch list for North America. Raptaur turned her upper body as they reached the foot of the ramp, which prompted the three humans to do so as well.
"Ah, very convenient that you're both here at the same time. Allow me to do the introductions," said Raptaur, using Varga's tone. "The power-armored heroine here is Dragon, and the purple-scaled Family member is my cousin Ianthe. Dragon and Ianthe, these two gentlemen are Peter Parker and Jimmy Olsen."
Dragon's head immediately swiveled to stare at the two men. She began scanning fan sites instead of Federal databases. Of course, both characters had appeared in many works, with slight variations in how they were depicted, and they were played by different actors for film or television. What was interesting is that the two men in return seemed to look more at her than at Ianthe. That was atypical -- Dragon's image was fairly well known, whereas members of the Family tended to draw a lot of attention.
"Amy told me that there were people here who needed medical attention," stated Ianthe. "Can you take me to see them?"
"Why don't we collect everyone together again?" said Jimmy. "Pete, why don't we head up. You take the back of the ship, and I'll take the front?" Pete just nodded and the two headed back into the rest of the ship.
{This isn't just some prank?} asked Ianthe to Raptaur in FamTalk.
The larger reptile shook his head. {No, in fact this is quite real, and fascinating. Taylor has been having a lengthy conversation with a couple of the crew about the wormhole drive that got them here.}
{The PRT and the Protectorate would have a fit about this, never mind the reaction of the scientific community and the public to the confirmation that the World As Myth trope is real,} said Ianthe.
{Wait until you meet the rest of the crew,} answered Raptaur with a smirk.
Taylor looked at Danny, and said, "Do they do that a lot?"
He just said, "Yeah, you get used to it after a while. Sometimes you're better off not knowing what they're talking about. Remind me to show you the paperweight they gave me on my birthday."
Ripley, O'Brien, Kevin, Linda, Jackson and Saurial all walked back into the cargo bay together, followed shortly by the rest. The bay was starting to get crowded with four large lizards, twelve humans, and Dragon in her power armor. Saurial handled the introductions, and then Metis and Ianthe headed off to a room that appeared to have been used as a medical facility at one time. Xander, Ellen, Miles and Harry followed them to be seen by the two medi-lizards. Daniel Jackson, Saurial, Raptaur, Kevin and Linda went down the ramp to speak with Dragon about the ship. That left Danny, Randall, Jimmy, Peter and Taylor alone in the cargo bay.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ellen came into the room with the two large lizards, one being black as night, while the other was covered with purple scales. She was somewhat skittish, having had fairly recent experience with being stuck in a room with large, inhuman creatures with lots of teeth. The two lizards seemed to sense something about that and did their best to be non-threatening. That only went so far.
"Do I have your permission to heal you?" asked Ianthe pleasantly.
Ellen, frowned, but said, "Yes, I give you permission."
The lizard reached out to touch her skin, and Ellen felt the odd sensation of its tendrils burrowing into her skin. She soon felt much more relaxed, and listened calmly as the two lizards spoke to each other in a strange language, one in which they were apparently quite skilled. Ripley tried to make a few of the sounds herself, and her throat hurt.
"Is something the matter?" asked the pretty purple lizard.
Ellen felt slightly embarrassed, and replied, "No, I was just trying to figure out how your mouths make those sounds."
"Dial it back a bit?" said Metis.
Ianthe shook her head. "Actually, Ellen, could you lie down on this bed?"
Ellen hopped up on the old surgical bed and lay down, saying, "Yeah, sure," with a smile. Then she fell asleep.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Fifteen minutes ago, Metis and Ianthe had entered the tight room, moving carefully to fit to either side of an old medical bed. The room had clearly been an infirmary, but all of the cabinets and storage areas for medical equipment were empty.
{So what were the injuries that were so bad that you wanted me here? All of these folks seem mobile,} said Ianthe.
{I think you should look and form your own opinion. I don't want to prejudice your diagnosis. We need to see Ellen Ripley first, however,} answered Metis. With that, Metis stuck her head out the door and called Ellen inside. She clearly looked nervous, which wasn't surprising given her recent experiences. For once, both members of the Family made a concerted effort to appear non-threatening, making sure not to show any teeth when they smiled.
"Do I have your permission to heal you?" asked Ianthe. She wanted to give control over the situation to Ellen as much as possible.
While she clearly wasn't happy about it, Ripley replied, "Yes, I give you permission."
Ianthe reached out and placed a hand on Ripley's bare arm. Ripley was watching the hand, and so she didn't notice when Ianthe's eyes got wide. The lizard immediately dumped a powerful tranquilizer into Ripley's bloodstream, and noticed her get visibly less tense.
{What the HELL is this?} she asked Metis in FamTalk.
{It's one of the xenomorphs. Somehow, she was implanted. I didn't want to try removing it myself, so I just halted its metabolic cycle,} answered Metis.
Ianthe shook her head. {You may have tried to do that, but this thing is growing again.} Ianthe's power took a long, deep scan of the growing alien embryo inside Ripley's body. {This xenomorph is a queen...which is probably why it hasn't killed her already. It looks like it has a fairly lengthy gestation cycle. Ugh, this is awful.}
Metis raised an eyebrow. {I would have thought your power would be excited to find a new life-form?}
{It is, to an extent, but this creature is in some ways worse than Nilbog's creations. It isn't just a bio-weapon. It's designed to be a weapon of terror. The life-cycle for the organism is just too convoluted to be anything else. You've got a queen that lays eggs like a bee, but then there's an intermediate form that requires implantation like a digger wasp. The warriors are custom-made for infiltration, slaughter and kidnapping to get new hosts. The tissues are interesting, as they have to all be capable of withstanding such acidic blood, but honestly, its nowhere near as sophisticated as Varga's physiology,} explained Ianthe.
{They were created for a horror movie,} said Metis. {They're supposed to be horrible. That's assuming H.R. Geiger isn't some kind of seer who just dreamed about other realities.} Her power didn't have enough information to even venture an opinion on that topic.
Ripley started making a strange gagging noise, drawing Ianthe's attention.
"Is something the matter?" asked the lizard. She couldn't sense any kind of obstruction to Ripley's airways.
Ripley blushed, then answered, "No, I was just trying to figure out how your mouths make those sounds."
Metis looked concerned. "Dial it back a bit?"
Ianthe shook her head. This would actually be easier if Ripley was unconscious."Actually, Ellen, could you lie down on this bed?" she asked.
Ripley lay down with a muttered, "Yeah, sure," and Ianthe put her to sleep. Then, she began to look at how to do the same to the xenomorph queen embryo. The brain of the creature was fairly complex, and only approximately mappable to a human brain. A little bit of analysis with some help from her power let her isolate the sleep centers. It looked like xenomorphs never shut down entirely during sleep. They could still react to danger or prey, even when resting. Ianthe did what she could to make sure that the little beast didn't try to start tearing its way out of Ripley's chest as she destroyed it. As an adjunct, she paralyzed its muscle control centers.
The next step was to neutralize the acid that he creature used for blood. It looked as though killing an implanted embryo would kill the host regardless, as the creature would rapidly start to decompose and release the deadly acid inside the host. She was able to neutralize the acidity with a strong base compound. Remarkably, that didn't actually kill the creature. That was accomplished by destroying the creatures nascent nervous system, starting with the autonomous areas of the brain. Ianthe began converting the chitin and tissue of the alien into material used to repair Ripley's insides. The poor woman had signs of sleep deprivation and night terrors. Her internal organs were also damaged by the growth of the xenomorph, though not fatally so.
{All right, the creature is gone, and I've healed her other injuries,} Ianthe said to Metis. {I'm going to wake her up.}
Ripley opened her eyes. Then she sat up quickly and put her arms out to steady herself. "What did you do?" she asked, looking at Ianthe with a bit of horror creeping into her expression.
"Ellen," said Ianthe. "I had to put you to sleep briefly. You had a xenomorph implanted inside your body. I removed it and destroyed it."
"That's not possible," said Ellen. "We all scanned ourselves before we went into cryosleep to make sure none of those things made it off of LV-426."
"It could have happened after you were put into cryosleep," suggested Metis. "We don't actually know what caused the accident that resulted in you being jettisoned just as the Ship of Fools arrived on scene."
"Burke..." said Ripley, "He tried to implant Newt and me with those things as a way of smuggling them through quarantine...but I SAW him die. He was trapped in a room with one of the creatures."
"The good news," interjected Ianthe, "is that we were able to save you. If you had had a normal surgeon try to remove the implanted embryo, it could have killed you. They were designed to be almost impossible to remove."
"Designed?" asked Ripley. "You mean somebody created those things?"
Ianthe nodded her head up and down. "They were clearly created, possibly by the species whose remains you found on that crashed spacecraft."
It took some time for Ellen to calm down, but eventually the very shaken woman was able to leave the infirmary under her own power.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Hey guys, what's up?" said Xander as he came into the room. Despite his relaxed pose, Ianthe had seen him look sideways at the obviously distraught Ripley as she left past him.
"Ellen had a serious health issue that could have proved fatal without our intervention, but it isn't really our place to tell you more," answered Ianthe. Ripley could share her situation with the others if she so chose. "I would like to perform another exam similar to the one done by Metis earlier. I can say, however, that we almost certainly can restore your eye. How did that happen?"
"My eye?" asked Xander. He put his hand up to his eye patch. The idea of being able to see with binary vision again was very appealing. "It was crushed by the thumb of a psychotic preacher. If you can...yes, I would like you to do it."
Ianthe began the exam. Thankfully, there were no alien embryos sitting inside Xander Harris. What there was instead was a pretty damning record of injury, obviously going back to childhood. Xander Harris had been abused to a degree that it was surprising Child Protective Services had never been called. Even in Brockton Bay, that kind of injury on a child would have raised a red flag. What was even stranger, though, were the signs of more recent injury. Injuries from the last few years showed signs of rapid healing -- rapid enough that he was on par with some of the weakest capes with regenerative healing. Even more confusing was that his bone fractures reminded her of those taken by low-level brutes, but he had none of the structural changes typical of those capes. He also seemed to have an insane ability to oxygenate his blood and had a large lung capacity, and his blood contained a much larger than normal amount of myoglobin. He probably had very little issue holding his breath for extended periods of time. His blood had antibodies for syphilis, malaria and small pox, but his body showed none of the after-effects common in those diseases. His cells also showed signs of genetic tampering, but it wasn't entirely clear what had been done beyond splicing in DNA of indeterminate origin. It was when she was looking at his brain that she found her biggest surprise. He showed evidence of being mastered, at multiple times and probably by multiple different sources. Long term mastering could cause brain damage, and Xander had more than few spots that showed signs. He also had obviously had multiple concussions. She decided on the most efficient course.
"Xander, the first thing I'm going to do, with your permission, is heal your eye. I'm then going to apply a one-use healing symbiote to your wrist that will clean up a number of other minor problems, including some issues from what look like multiple instances of mastering. Have you ever been controlled against your will by somebody with powers?" asked Ianthe.
"Er...it was known to happen from time to time," he replied sheepishly.
"From time to time?" asked Metis curiously.
"While I was in high school, I was possessed by a hyena primal spirit. I also had my body taken over by the spirit of a soldier on Halloween. I got whammied several times by vamps, and I was caught at a party with a fear demon who made us see our worst nightmares. I got trapped in a dream realm by an injured kid having an out-of-body experience. Oh, and I got taken over by the spawn of a Bezoar demon. I also temporarily had my memory of my own identity wiped out by magic. I may be forgetting a few," he clarified. He kind of hoped they wouldn't ask too many more questions, as some of it was pretty embarrassing...especially Dracula.
{I think we might want to talk to Varga about magical cleansing. Apart from living on a portal to a Hell dimension, it seems like he's been violated repeatedly} suggested Metis.
Ianthe responded to Metis with a short, {I agree.}
To Xander, she said, "I'm pretty sure we can make you feel a thousand percent better. So, let's get started!"
Ianthe spent a period of about five minutes removing scar tissue and growing Xander a new eyeball. She then went through a series of tests with him to make sure that his vision was correct and even in both eyes. Based on the smile on Xander's face, he was quite happy with the results. Once that was done, she took out a one-shot healing symbiote and pressed it to his wrist. He quirked an eyebrow at the squeak it emitted, but refrained from commenting. After a few minutes, it was obvious that he was feeling the impact of the symbiote.
"Wow, I feel great, like I just had a whole pack of Twinkies injected into my veins!" he exclaimed.
"I wouldn't recommend that treatment in real life," snarked Ianthe. "I also want to discuss the mystical aspect with Saurial and Raptaur. We may want you to go through a cleansing process, given where you grew up and what kinds of things have happened to you."
Xander thought back to a certain hilltop, remembering the pain from the dark magic flowing straight into him as Darth Willow tried to destroy the world. "That might be a good idea," he agreed quietly.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Miles O'Brien's body showed the evidence of a life lived with readily available medical care of an advanced nature. Ianthe had seen Star Trek a number of times, and now that she could examine somebody who lived in that world, she could see the results. Miles was healthy to a degree rarely found in the years spanning the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The problem was in Miles's brain. The story of how they came to be in this universe mentioned in passing that Miles had been unjustly convicted of a crime. He had had memories of a long and brutal prison sentence implanted in his brain, and now Ianthe was seeing the problem with this. Apparently, the monsters responsible for this were able to create tactile memories, but could not replicate the full range of emotional responses. What they had done instead was tear away context from his existing memories and tie them to the fake memories. The result was a massive amount of damage to his mental state. No wonder the poor man had tried to kill himself. They created a set of new experiences for him that were all completely fresh, without the benefits of time lessening their impact, and deadened his ability to properly remember swaths of his real life. There were signs that he had received treatment to reduce the impact of these memories, but that only addressed a part of the problem.
Ianthe looked up at Metis. {I'm not sure I can fix this. You know I'm still not comfortable with brains, especially for things that aren't anatomical or biochemical corrections to a former healthy state.}
{I know,} said Metis apologetically, {but what was done to him was horrible, and I know I don't have the ability to fix things. You, at least, could improve things for him dramatically.}
Miles was looking at them curiously as they spoke in FamTalk. Ianthe turned to look at him and explained, "Miles, we know you had many years of memories implanted in your mind of a prison sentence you never served."
"Aye, that happened. But Julian...Doctor Bashir, treated me afterward. He helped me get over them," said O'Brien.
"The problem comes from how they implanted them," continued Ianthe. "They didn't just add new memories. The process that they used corrupted some of your existing memories. I believe that I can fix at least some, if not all, of that damage. It would not only improve your recall of your actual experiences, but it would also significantly weaken the emotional context for the implanted memories. You would still remember having them, but you wouldn't have the visceral reaction to them."
"You would have to go into my head?" asked O'Brien skeptically.
"It would be non-invasive, similar to how Metis and I have healed others," said the purple-scaled lizard.
"Can I think about it and get back to you?" he asked.
Ianthe nodded her head. "Of course. For as long as you're in this dimension, the option remains open."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Harry Dresden," started Ianthe, "I'm honestly not entirely sure whether you are incredibly lucky or the opposite. You have suffered gunshot wounds in various places, numerous broken bones, multiple concussions, you show signs of being poisoned and of being resuscitated more than once, you have antibodies in your blood from a number of truly horrifying diseases, you have severe burn scarring on your hand, and it looks as if you've recovered from both a broken back and a bullet through the heart, somehow."
"Um..." said Harry with hesitation, "I remember most of that, but not the bullet through the heart. I'm pretty sure I would die from that, barring intervention from a higher power."
"Given your present circumstances," interjected Metis, "I wouldn't rule that out entirely."
"You've also got signs of brain damage from a traumatic event, but it isn't clear how it happened. The pattern of injury makes it seem like it happened from the inside out, but there's no sign of serious hemorrhage or stroke," added Ianthe.
Harry sighed, and then started to explain about Lash -- what she was, what she became, and how she ended.
"So, the shadow of a Fallen Angel was living in your mind, and she sacrificed herself to save your life?" asked Metis. "I'm going to say the same thing we said about Xander. We're going to talk to Varga about magical cleansing to go beyond the physical and into the metaphysical."
"What's wrong with Xander?" asked Harry with a worried tone.
"That's for him to say," commented Ianthe," but he may just beat you in terms of shear number of traumatic events suffered."
"Well, I'm willing to undergo a mystical check-up. Is that everything?" said Dresden.
"No, I still have to heal you," answered Ianthe. At which point she reached out and grabbed Dresden's shoulder before he could say anything else.
{You're not usually so abrupt,} commented Metis.
{My patients are not usually so stubborn and deliberately obtuse,} the other lizard replied with an eye-roll.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Did you learn anything about magic," asked Danny, looking at Randall.
Randall replied, "Oh, yes, quite a lot actually. I even managed to summon a magical fire."
"You're going to learn to be a wizard?" asked Jimmy, curiously.
"Oh HELL no," replied Randall.
"Why not?" said Taylor.
"OK, first thing about Harry's type of wizard -- they have a ton of laws that prohibit what you can do. The thing is, they NEED those laws because magic is capable of some truly dangerous things. A cape with those powers would run the risk of the Birdcage or a kill order," he explained.
Taylor nodded her head in understanding, but Peter asked, "I've heard the Birdcage mentioned a few times...what is it?"
Danny took it upon himself to answer. "It's a prison for the worst offenders among criminal capes. It works as a deterrent because once you go into the Birdcage, there's no way to get you out again. It's a one-way trip."
"That seems a bit harsh. What if they make a mistake?" asked Peter. Jimmy also looked interested in the answer.
Taylor answered, "Then that person is trapped there forever. It's like the death penalty. I think Dragon still has the ability to talk to prisoners, though."
"Why can Dragon do that?" asked Jimmy.
"She actually runs the prison," answered Danny. "Anyway, let's get back to magic."
Both Peter and Jimmy looked as if they wanted to continue asking questions about the Birdcage, but Randall took up his line of conversation again. "The second problem with Harry's type of magic is that right now, it tends to screw with technology. Tinker tech might be OK, but I'm pretty sure I would have to give up gaming, which is a non-starter." He explained a little bit more of what Harry had told him, about how magic went through cycles of how it affected the world, and that right now, that effect was to screw with technology. No more XBox or other gaming consoles, no more computers.
"I'm pretty sure magic doesn't have that same effect in every world," said Jimmy. "I know I've seen Zatanna Zatara use a smart phone, and she is definitely a spellcaster."
"I think Doctor Strange isn't that limited, either, but he's so powerful that he tends to use magic for everything anyway," added Peter.
"Well, if I get to visit your universes, maybe I'll look them up, but I'm giving Harry's brand of magic a hard pass," said Randall.
"It may not be that easy to learn," replied Peter. "I think Strange studied for years before he was proficient."
"You would be surprised how quickly I learn," said Randall. "It's a thing with me."
A thought occurred to Taylor based on what Randall had just said. The more she thought about it, the more she was pretty sure she had heard Randall's voice before. The only thing that didn't make sense was that she couldn't figure out why the heck Über and Leet (because if Randall was Über, then Kevin was almost certainly Leet) would be working for her father at the DWU, and associating with a Protectorate-affiliated hero group. Had they gone straight in this universe?
Peter and Jimmy managed to turn the conversation back to the Birdcage, which in turn led to a very lively debate about incarcerating criminals with superpowers. Jimmy described what little he knew about the Phantom Zone and how it was controlled by Superman. Most of the others thought the idea of a prison controlled by one person wasn't a great idea, but that led to the question of how that was any different from the Birdcage. Peter said he was pretty sure that the Federal government in his world had a superhuman containment facility, but he didn't know much about it. It was effectively Top Secret. Danny questioned why the facility itself should be secret. Sure, he reasoned, you keep the security secret, but having a prison like that was a deterrent as well. The debate continued until Metis and Ianthe returned.
"How did it go?" asked Danny.
"It went well," answered Ianthe. "The others are all resting. Healing tends to use a lot of energy."
The others invited the two lizards to join in the debate, but that was interrupted by Saurial and the others returning up the ramp from where they had been discussing engineering. More specifically, they had been debating on what kinds of fixes and enhancements could be made to the Ship of Fools.
"I think you're all going to be quite impressed with what we've come up with..." said Dragon.
"I agree," added Raptaur. "I'm quite impressed with the ideas."
Ianthe, Metis and Danny all shared glances. This was likely to get interesting...
Ianthe and Dragon both stopped after passing through the second office door to look at what was sitting in the open area of the warehouse.
"Obvious spaceship is obvious," said Ianthe with a neutral tone of voice.
Dragon cross-checked her Internet references before stating unequivocally, "That is a heavily modified Firefly-class Series 3 bulk transport, but her shuttles are missing and her drive pods have been replaced with what look like jury-rigged Star Trek warp nacelles. I would say that it's some kind of fan-built movie prop, except that hull scans show extensive exposure to vacuum and cosmic radiation, just like one would expect for a well-used spaceship."
"I've seen Star Trek," responded Ianthe. "I'm not familiar with whatever media describes the ship class you mentioned."
Absentmindedly, Dragon said, "I'll send you a link. It's worth watching." As she said this, she started heading toward the open cargo ramp, with Ianthe keeping pace bemusedly.
Inside the cargo bay, Raptaur and Danny Hebert were speaking with two young men that Dragon didn't recognize. At least, they didn't pop up as a hit for anybody with an active warrant or any other watch list for North America. Raptaur turned her upper body as they reached the foot of the ramp, which prompted the three humans to do so as well.
"Ah, very convenient that you're both here at the same time. Allow me to do the introductions," said Raptaur, using Varga's tone. "The power-armored heroine here is Dragon, and the purple-scaled Family member is my cousin Ianthe. Dragon and Ianthe, these two gentlemen are Peter Parker and Jimmy Olsen."
Dragon's head immediately swiveled to stare at the two men. She began scanning fan sites instead of Federal databases. Of course, both characters had appeared in many works, with slight variations in how they were depicted, and they were played by different actors for film or television. What was interesting is that the two men in return seemed to look more at her than at Ianthe. That was atypical -- Dragon's image was fairly well known, whereas members of the Family tended to draw a lot of attention.
"Amy told me that there were people here who needed medical attention," stated Ianthe. "Can you take me to see them?"
"Why don't we collect everyone together again?" said Jimmy. "Pete, why don't we head up. You take the back of the ship, and I'll take the front?" Pete just nodded and the two headed back into the rest of the ship.
{This isn't just some prank?} asked Ianthe to Raptaur in FamTalk.
The larger reptile shook his head. {No, in fact this is quite real, and fascinating. Taylor has been having a lengthy conversation with a couple of the crew about the wormhole drive that got them here.}
{The PRT and the Protectorate would have a fit about this, never mind the reaction of the scientific community and the public to the confirmation that the World As Myth trope is real,} said Ianthe.
{Wait until you meet the rest of the crew,} answered Raptaur with a smirk.
Taylor looked at Danny, and said, "Do they do that a lot?"
He just said, "Yeah, you get used to it after a while. Sometimes you're better off not knowing what they're talking about. Remind me to show you the paperweight they gave me on my birthday."
Ripley, O'Brien, Kevin, Linda, Jackson and Saurial all walked back into the cargo bay together, followed shortly by the rest. The bay was starting to get crowded with four large lizards, twelve humans, and Dragon in her power armor. Saurial handled the introductions, and then Metis and Ianthe headed off to a room that appeared to have been used as a medical facility at one time. Xander, Ellen, Miles and Harry followed them to be seen by the two medi-lizards. Daniel Jackson, Saurial, Raptaur, Kevin and Linda went down the ramp to speak with Dragon about the ship. That left Danny, Randall, Jimmy, Peter and Taylor alone in the cargo bay.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Ellen came into the room with the two large lizards, one being black as night, while the other was covered with purple scales. She was somewhat skittish, having had fairly recent experience with being stuck in a room with large, inhuman creatures with lots of teeth. The two lizards seemed to sense something about that and did their best to be non-threatening. That only went so far.
"Do I have your permission to heal you?" asked Ianthe pleasantly.
Ellen, frowned, but said, "Yes, I give you permission."
The lizard reached out to touch her skin, and Ellen felt the odd sensation of its tendrils burrowing into her skin. She soon felt much more relaxed, and listened calmly as the two lizards spoke to each other in a strange language, one in which they were apparently quite skilled. Ripley tried to make a few of the sounds herself, and her throat hurt.
"Is something the matter?" asked the pretty purple lizard.
Ellen felt slightly embarrassed, and replied, "No, I was just trying to figure out how your mouths make those sounds."
"Dial it back a bit?" said Metis.
Ianthe shook her head. "Actually, Ellen, could you lie down on this bed?"
Ellen hopped up on the old surgical bed and lay down, saying, "Yeah, sure," with a smile. Then she fell asleep.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Fifteen minutes ago, Metis and Ianthe had entered the tight room, moving carefully to fit to either side of an old medical bed. The room had clearly been an infirmary, but all of the cabinets and storage areas for medical equipment were empty.
{So what were the injuries that were so bad that you wanted me here? All of these folks seem mobile,} said Ianthe.
{I think you should look and form your own opinion. I don't want to prejudice your diagnosis. We need to see Ellen Ripley first, however,} answered Metis. With that, Metis stuck her head out the door and called Ellen inside. She clearly looked nervous, which wasn't surprising given her recent experiences. For once, both members of the Family made a concerted effort to appear non-threatening, making sure not to show any teeth when they smiled.
"Do I have your permission to heal you?" asked Ianthe. She wanted to give control over the situation to Ellen as much as possible.
While she clearly wasn't happy about it, Ripley replied, "Yes, I give you permission."
Ianthe reached out and placed a hand on Ripley's bare arm. Ripley was watching the hand, and so she didn't notice when Ianthe's eyes got wide. The lizard immediately dumped a powerful tranquilizer into Ripley's bloodstream, and noticed her get visibly less tense.
{What the HELL is this?} she asked Metis in FamTalk.
{It's one of the xenomorphs. Somehow, she was implanted. I didn't want to try removing it myself, so I just halted its metabolic cycle,} answered Metis.
Ianthe shook her head. {You may have tried to do that, but this thing is growing again.} Ianthe's power took a long, deep scan of the growing alien embryo inside Ripley's body. {This xenomorph is a queen...which is probably why it hasn't killed her already. It looks like it has a fairly lengthy gestation cycle. Ugh, this is awful.}
Metis raised an eyebrow. {I would have thought your power would be excited to find a new life-form?}
{It is, to an extent, but this creature is in some ways worse than Nilbog's creations. It isn't just a bio-weapon. It's designed to be a weapon of terror. The life-cycle for the organism is just too convoluted to be anything else. You've got a queen that lays eggs like a bee, but then there's an intermediate form that requires implantation like a digger wasp. The warriors are custom-made for infiltration, slaughter and kidnapping to get new hosts. The tissues are interesting, as they have to all be capable of withstanding such acidic blood, but honestly, its nowhere near as sophisticated as Varga's physiology,} explained Ianthe.
{They were created for a horror movie,} said Metis. {They're supposed to be horrible. That's assuming H.R. Geiger isn't some kind of seer who just dreamed about other realities.} Her power didn't have enough information to even venture an opinion on that topic.
Ripley started making a strange gagging noise, drawing Ianthe's attention.
"Is something the matter?" asked the lizard. She couldn't sense any kind of obstruction to Ripley's airways.
Ripley blushed, then answered, "No, I was just trying to figure out how your mouths make those sounds."
Metis looked concerned. "Dial it back a bit?"
Ianthe shook her head. This would actually be easier if Ripley was unconscious."Actually, Ellen, could you lie down on this bed?" she asked.
Ripley lay down with a muttered, "Yeah, sure," and Ianthe put her to sleep. Then, she began to look at how to do the same to the xenomorph queen embryo. The brain of the creature was fairly complex, and only approximately mappable to a human brain. A little bit of analysis with some help from her power let her isolate the sleep centers. It looked like xenomorphs never shut down entirely during sleep. They could still react to danger or prey, even when resting. Ianthe did what she could to make sure that the little beast didn't try to start tearing its way out of Ripley's chest as she destroyed it. As an adjunct, she paralyzed its muscle control centers.
The next step was to neutralize the acid that he creature used for blood. It looked as though killing an implanted embryo would kill the host regardless, as the creature would rapidly start to decompose and release the deadly acid inside the host. She was able to neutralize the acidity with a strong base compound. Remarkably, that didn't actually kill the creature. That was accomplished by destroying the creatures nascent nervous system, starting with the autonomous areas of the brain. Ianthe began converting the chitin and tissue of the alien into material used to repair Ripley's insides. The poor woman had signs of sleep deprivation and night terrors. Her internal organs were also damaged by the growth of the xenomorph, though not fatally so.
{All right, the creature is gone, and I've healed her other injuries,} Ianthe said to Metis. {I'm going to wake her up.}
Ripley opened her eyes. Then she sat up quickly and put her arms out to steady herself. "What did you do?" she asked, looking at Ianthe with a bit of horror creeping into her expression.
"Ellen," said Ianthe. "I had to put you to sleep briefly. You had a xenomorph implanted inside your body. I removed it and destroyed it."
"That's not possible," said Ellen. "We all scanned ourselves before we went into cryosleep to make sure none of those things made it off of LV-426."
"It could have happened after you were put into cryosleep," suggested Metis. "We don't actually know what caused the accident that resulted in you being jettisoned just as the Ship of Fools arrived on scene."
"Burke..." said Ripley, "He tried to implant Newt and me with those things as a way of smuggling them through quarantine...but I SAW him die. He was trapped in a room with one of the creatures."
"The good news," interjected Ianthe, "is that we were able to save you. If you had had a normal surgeon try to remove the implanted embryo, it could have killed you. They were designed to be almost impossible to remove."
"Designed?" asked Ripley. "You mean somebody created those things?"
Ianthe nodded her head up and down. "They were clearly created, possibly by the species whose remains you found on that crashed spacecraft."
It took some time for Ellen to calm down, but eventually the very shaken woman was able to leave the infirmary under her own power.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Hey guys, what's up?" said Xander as he came into the room. Despite his relaxed pose, Ianthe had seen him look sideways at the obviously distraught Ripley as she left past him.
"Ellen had a serious health issue that could have proved fatal without our intervention, but it isn't really our place to tell you more," answered Ianthe. Ripley could share her situation with the others if she so chose. "I would like to perform another exam similar to the one done by Metis earlier. I can say, however, that we almost certainly can restore your eye. How did that happen?"
"My eye?" asked Xander. He put his hand up to his eye patch. The idea of being able to see with binary vision again was very appealing. "It was crushed by the thumb of a psychotic preacher. If you can...yes, I would like you to do it."
Ianthe began the exam. Thankfully, there were no alien embryos sitting inside Xander Harris. What there was instead was a pretty damning record of injury, obviously going back to childhood. Xander Harris had been abused to a degree that it was surprising Child Protective Services had never been called. Even in Brockton Bay, that kind of injury on a child would have raised a red flag. What was even stranger, though, were the signs of more recent injury. Injuries from the last few years showed signs of rapid healing -- rapid enough that he was on par with some of the weakest capes with regenerative healing. Even more confusing was that his bone fractures reminded her of those taken by low-level brutes, but he had none of the structural changes typical of those capes. He also seemed to have an insane ability to oxygenate his blood and had a large lung capacity, and his blood contained a much larger than normal amount of myoglobin. He probably had very little issue holding his breath for extended periods of time. His blood had antibodies for syphilis, malaria and small pox, but his body showed none of the after-effects common in those diseases. His cells also showed signs of genetic tampering, but it wasn't entirely clear what had been done beyond splicing in DNA of indeterminate origin. It was when she was looking at his brain that she found her biggest surprise. He showed evidence of being mastered, at multiple times and probably by multiple different sources. Long term mastering could cause brain damage, and Xander had more than few spots that showed signs. He also had obviously had multiple concussions. She decided on the most efficient course.
"Xander, the first thing I'm going to do, with your permission, is heal your eye. I'm then going to apply a one-use healing symbiote to your wrist that will clean up a number of other minor problems, including some issues from what look like multiple instances of mastering. Have you ever been controlled against your will by somebody with powers?" asked Ianthe.
"Er...it was known to happen from time to time," he replied sheepishly.
"From time to time?" asked Metis curiously.
"While I was in high school, I was possessed by a hyena primal spirit. I also had my body taken over by the spirit of a soldier on Halloween. I got whammied several times by vamps, and I was caught at a party with a fear demon who made us see our worst nightmares. I got trapped in a dream realm by an injured kid having an out-of-body experience. Oh, and I got taken over by the spawn of a Bezoar demon. I also temporarily had my memory of my own identity wiped out by magic. I may be forgetting a few," he clarified. He kind of hoped they wouldn't ask too many more questions, as some of it was pretty embarrassing...especially Dracula.
{I think we might want to talk to Varga about magical cleansing. Apart from living on a portal to a Hell dimension, it seems like he's been violated repeatedly} suggested Metis.
Ianthe responded to Metis with a short, {I agree.}
To Xander, she said, "I'm pretty sure we can make you feel a thousand percent better. So, let's get started!"
Ianthe spent a period of about five minutes removing scar tissue and growing Xander a new eyeball. She then went through a series of tests with him to make sure that his vision was correct and even in both eyes. Based on the smile on Xander's face, he was quite happy with the results. Once that was done, she took out a one-shot healing symbiote and pressed it to his wrist. He quirked an eyebrow at the squeak it emitted, but refrained from commenting. After a few minutes, it was obvious that he was feeling the impact of the symbiote.
"Wow, I feel great, like I just had a whole pack of Twinkies injected into my veins!" he exclaimed.
"I wouldn't recommend that treatment in real life," snarked Ianthe. "I also want to discuss the mystical aspect with Saurial and Raptaur. We may want you to go through a cleansing process, given where you grew up and what kinds of things have happened to you."
Xander thought back to a certain hilltop, remembering the pain from the dark magic flowing straight into him as Darth Willow tried to destroy the world. "That might be a good idea," he agreed quietly.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Miles O'Brien's body showed the evidence of a life lived with readily available medical care of an advanced nature. Ianthe had seen Star Trek a number of times, and now that she could examine somebody who lived in that world, she could see the results. Miles was healthy to a degree rarely found in the years spanning the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The problem was in Miles's brain. The story of how they came to be in this universe mentioned in passing that Miles had been unjustly convicted of a crime. He had had memories of a long and brutal prison sentence implanted in his brain, and now Ianthe was seeing the problem with this. Apparently, the monsters responsible for this were able to create tactile memories, but could not replicate the full range of emotional responses. What they had done instead was tear away context from his existing memories and tie them to the fake memories. The result was a massive amount of damage to his mental state. No wonder the poor man had tried to kill himself. They created a set of new experiences for him that were all completely fresh, without the benefits of time lessening their impact, and deadened his ability to properly remember swaths of his real life. There were signs that he had received treatment to reduce the impact of these memories, but that only addressed a part of the problem.
Ianthe looked up at Metis. {I'm not sure I can fix this. You know I'm still not comfortable with brains, especially for things that aren't anatomical or biochemical corrections to a former healthy state.}
{I know,} said Metis apologetically, {but what was done to him was horrible, and I know I don't have the ability to fix things. You, at least, could improve things for him dramatically.}
Miles was looking at them curiously as they spoke in FamTalk. Ianthe turned to look at him and explained, "Miles, we know you had many years of memories implanted in your mind of a prison sentence you never served."
"Aye, that happened. But Julian...Doctor Bashir, treated me afterward. He helped me get over them," said O'Brien.
"The problem comes from how they implanted them," continued Ianthe. "They didn't just add new memories. The process that they used corrupted some of your existing memories. I believe that I can fix at least some, if not all, of that damage. It would not only improve your recall of your actual experiences, but it would also significantly weaken the emotional context for the implanted memories. You would still remember having them, but you wouldn't have the visceral reaction to them."
"You would have to go into my head?" asked O'Brien skeptically.
"It would be non-invasive, similar to how Metis and I have healed others," said the purple-scaled lizard.
"Can I think about it and get back to you?" he asked.
Ianthe nodded her head. "Of course. For as long as you're in this dimension, the option remains open."
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Harry Dresden," started Ianthe, "I'm honestly not entirely sure whether you are incredibly lucky or the opposite. You have suffered gunshot wounds in various places, numerous broken bones, multiple concussions, you show signs of being poisoned and of being resuscitated more than once, you have antibodies in your blood from a number of truly horrifying diseases, you have severe burn scarring on your hand, and it looks as if you've recovered from both a broken back and a bullet through the heart, somehow."
"Um..." said Harry with hesitation, "I remember most of that, but not the bullet through the heart. I'm pretty sure I would die from that, barring intervention from a higher power."
"Given your present circumstances," interjected Metis, "I wouldn't rule that out entirely."
"You've also got signs of brain damage from a traumatic event, but it isn't clear how it happened. The pattern of injury makes it seem like it happened from the inside out, but there's no sign of serious hemorrhage or stroke," added Ianthe.
Harry sighed, and then started to explain about Lash -- what she was, what she became, and how she ended.
"So, the shadow of a Fallen Angel was living in your mind, and she sacrificed herself to save your life?" asked Metis. "I'm going to say the same thing we said about Xander. We're going to talk to Varga about magical cleansing to go beyond the physical and into the metaphysical."
"What's wrong with Xander?" asked Harry with a worried tone.
"That's for him to say," commented Ianthe," but he may just beat you in terms of shear number of traumatic events suffered."
"Well, I'm willing to undergo a mystical check-up. Is that everything?" said Dresden.
"No, I still have to heal you," answered Ianthe. At which point she reached out and grabbed Dresden's shoulder before he could say anything else.
{You're not usually so abrupt,} commented Metis.
{My patients are not usually so stubborn and deliberately obtuse,} the other lizard replied with an eye-roll.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
"Did you learn anything about magic," asked Danny, looking at Randall.
Randall replied, "Oh, yes, quite a lot actually. I even managed to summon a magical fire."
"You're going to learn to be a wizard?" asked Jimmy, curiously.
"Oh HELL no," replied Randall.
"Why not?" said Taylor.
"OK, first thing about Harry's type of wizard -- they have a ton of laws that prohibit what you can do. The thing is, they NEED those laws because magic is capable of some truly dangerous things. A cape with those powers would run the risk of the Birdcage or a kill order," he explained.
Taylor nodded her head in understanding, but Peter asked, "I've heard the Birdcage mentioned a few times...what is it?"
Danny took it upon himself to answer. "It's a prison for the worst offenders among criminal capes. It works as a deterrent because once you go into the Birdcage, there's no way to get you out again. It's a one-way trip."
"That seems a bit harsh. What if they make a mistake?" asked Peter. Jimmy also looked interested in the answer.
Taylor answered, "Then that person is trapped there forever. It's like the death penalty. I think Dragon still has the ability to talk to prisoners, though."
"Why can Dragon do that?" asked Jimmy.
"She actually runs the prison," answered Danny. "Anyway, let's get back to magic."
Both Peter and Jimmy looked as if they wanted to continue asking questions about the Birdcage, but Randall took up his line of conversation again. "The second problem with Harry's type of magic is that right now, it tends to screw with technology. Tinker tech might be OK, but I'm pretty sure I would have to give up gaming, which is a non-starter." He explained a little bit more of what Harry had told him, about how magic went through cycles of how it affected the world, and that right now, that effect was to screw with technology. No more XBox or other gaming consoles, no more computers.
"I'm pretty sure magic doesn't have that same effect in every world," said Jimmy. "I know I've seen Zatanna Zatara use a smart phone, and she is definitely a spellcaster."
"I think Doctor Strange isn't that limited, either, but he's so powerful that he tends to use magic for everything anyway," added Peter.
"Well, if I get to visit your universes, maybe I'll look them up, but I'm giving Harry's brand of magic a hard pass," said Randall.
"It may not be that easy to learn," replied Peter. "I think Strange studied for years before he was proficient."
"You would be surprised how quickly I learn," said Randall. "It's a thing with me."
A thought occurred to Taylor based on what Randall had just said. The more she thought about it, the more she was pretty sure she had heard Randall's voice before. The only thing that didn't make sense was that she couldn't figure out why the heck Über and Leet (because if Randall was Über, then Kevin was almost certainly Leet) would be working for her father at the DWU, and associating with a Protectorate-affiliated hero group. Had they gone straight in this universe?
Peter and Jimmy managed to turn the conversation back to the Birdcage, which in turn led to a very lively debate about incarcerating criminals with superpowers. Jimmy described what little he knew about the Phantom Zone and how it was controlled by Superman. Most of the others thought the idea of a prison controlled by one person wasn't a great idea, but that led to the question of how that was any different from the Birdcage. Peter said he was pretty sure that the Federal government in his world had a superhuman containment facility, but he didn't know much about it. It was effectively Top Secret. Danny questioned why the facility itself should be secret. Sure, he reasoned, you keep the security secret, but having a prison like that was a deterrent as well. The debate continued until Metis and Ianthe returned.
"How did it go?" asked Danny.
"It went well," answered Ianthe. "The others are all resting. Healing tends to use a lot of energy."
The others invited the two lizards to join in the debate, but that was interrupted by Saurial and the others returning up the ramp from where they had been discussing engineering. More specifically, they had been debating on what kinds of fixes and enhancements could be made to the Ship of Fools.
"I think you're all going to be quite impressed with what we've come up with..." said Dragon.
"I agree," added Raptaur. "I'm quite impressed with the ideas."
Ianthe, Metis and Danny all shared glances. This was likely to get interesting...
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BerserkerZeroOne
(Unexploded Supernova)
- Location
- On your left!
I like that you gave a bit of a lesson on Xenomorph biology and behaviour and made the blood being acidic not be vital to continued existence but rather as a defence against predators... or should I say Predators?
- Location
- The general area. Possibly behind you.
Yeah, I like that one. Well done
I am very interested to see where it goes...
I am very interested to see where it goes...
Indeed, she needs to soar once more...
...Like a Leaf on the Wind
I am not sorry
- Location
- Maryland
One of the temptations in any fic that includes the possibility of time travel (which includes basically any fic with parallel dimensions, wormholes, or known methods of time travel) is to go back and undo the deaths of favored characters. Wash's death was a horrible shock, which says something about a TV show that only lasted for one season and a movie, as well as the ability of Alan Tudyk as an actor. (He definitely plays the best demented chicken in all of the Pacific Islands.)
I will say that I am not, in this fic, going to go back in time and save Wash from his end. Nor am I going to save Jennifer Sisko at Wolf 359, Tara Maclay from Warren's bullet, Gwen Stacey from her final fall (in original Spider-Man canon -- I'm not referencing the alternate version in the Spiderverse film), Sha're from Tealc's staff blast, or Anne-Marie Hebert from her fatal car crash.
The reason I will not do that is because it would completely derail the narrative and introduce all sorts of issues with causality, paradox, etc. Even Heinlein himself, probably the most well-read World as Myth author, restricted characters to sneaking in in the dead of night to rescue people in a way that wouldn't screw up history. As a writer of stories, there is a very good reason to avoid reset buttons. Firstly, it makes the overall plot pretty hard to follow. Secondly, the fans who read your work invest their time and attention. If you do your job well, they develop an emotional attachment to the characters and what happened to them. Wiping away history effectively means that the effort of your fans doesn't matter.
That does not mean I won't be doing some fiddling with events as they appear to be, but hopefully I can take a page from Heinlein and slide it into the narrative as events that originally happened off-screen. That will also likely be the only influence I intend to take -- the lizards will not be setting up a libertarian/authoritarian free love society where racism is explicitly tolerated.
Edit: As I reread this, I realized how prevalent the death of a woman is as a shocking element in works of fiction -- not one example I cited off the top of my head involved the death of a male character. Lots of conflicting thoughts about this.
Edit Edit: Somebody pointed out that Wash is not a female, which is correct. Zoe would surely give me a sound thrashing for this. Lots of conflicting thoughts about that, too...
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