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The Arachne System (SPIDERLIV 3)

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Mmm. Guilt-tripping Loki to teach you how to better cheat with Unfathomable Cosmic Powers... I think Loki would approve if you know, it wasn't them on the other side of emotional manipulation.

[X] With May around to help, you were going to finally finish that annoying little spider-drone. You'd had to stop because assembly was taking six times as long with one hand, but now...

This doesn't involve anything immediately dangerous, includes May, doesn't rely on cutting on Athena's free time, what's not to like?

[X] You were going to take advantage of Loki's guilt and your in with their wife to manipulate them into helping you learn magic faster and more effectively. Still might take a while, but no more grinding.
 
[X] With May's help and encouragement, and with Athena texting Loki to answer dimensional questions, you were finally going to investigate that goddamn alien crystal.

[X] You were going to do something wild: you were going to clone a portion of your software for May's devices, specialized to help her, monitor for information leaks, and generally reduce the load.

Ugh, magic is so tempting, and more Loki time.
 
open_sketch said:
You'd given nonzero thought on how to discreetly kill Nat and Clint to tie up that loose end. It would be easy if you could get Liv on board, and if you couldn't you'd just discreetly burn their identities and let the SSR do it for you. You had an easy plan for her therapist, there was already somebody who wanted him dead and you could just forward him the address and change of name. You hadn't had to think for Justine, once Liv let her in on part of the secret, she trusted you implicitly at this point and you could probably make her jump into traffic with ill-timed advice. You did your absolute best not to think about it for May because the very idea was sickening, but you still had ideas. Her mother...
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...y'know, a part of me always just sort of naively believed, as much as Athena is built on Liv, that things like the Octavius ice-cold ruthlessness didn't make the crossover. Tricking Justine into playing in traffic, jesus...
​
Liv?​
[ ] With May's help and encouragement, and with Athena texting Loki to answer dimensional questions, you were finally going to investigate that goddamn alien crystal.​
[ ] You were going to get a head start on planning the raid on the Life Foundation, several weeks ahead, so you knew as much as possible. Be extra careful to show Athena you cared.​
[ ] With May around to help, you were going to finally finish that annoying little spider-drone. You'd had to stop because assembly was taking six times as long with one hand, but now...​
[ ] Write-In​
​
Athena, what about you?​
[ ] You were going to do something wild: you were going to clone a portion of your software for May's devices, specialized to help her, monitor for information leaks, and generally reduce the load.​
[ ] You were going to take advantage of the blurring lines between the two of you, and get Liv to write you hacking software that could directly leverage her technopathy, so you didn't need to rely on her help for that.​
[ ] You were going to take advantage of Loki's guilt and your in with their wife to manipulate them into helping you learn magic faster and more effectively. Still might take a while, but no more grinding.​
[ ] Write In​
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oh, dammit, I want to do all of these. especially the mini-Athena (Thea? Pallas?) concept...but Loki and Sigyn.
Raiseth said:
Mmm. Guilt-tripping Loki to teach you how to better cheat with Unfathomable Cosmic Powers... I think Loki would approve if you know, it wasn't them on the other side of emotional manipulation.

[X] With May around to help, you were going to finally finish that annoying little spider-drone. You'd had to stop because assembly was taking six times as long with one hand, but now...

This doesn't involve anything immediately dangerous, includes May, doesn't rely on cutting on Athena's free time, what's not to like?

[X] You were going to take advantage of Loki's guilt and your in with their wife to manipulate them into helping you learn magic faster and more effectively. Still might take a while, but no more grinding.
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I mean, it's Loki -- if ever there was anyone who was going to respect the grift, regardless of which side of it they were on...

I approve of this reasoning, so I'll go with it, for now.

[X] With May around to help, you were going to finally finish that annoying little spider-drone. You'd had to stop because assembly was taking six times as long with one hand, but now...

[X] You were going to take advantage of Loki's guilt and your in with their wife to manipulate them into helping you learn magic faster and more effectively. Still might take a while, but no more grinding.
 
HoratioVonBecker said:
If there isn't any right answer, you aren't asking a selfconsistent question. (If the answer exists but is infinitely complex, you're also probably asking the wrong question.)
Selfhood is a tool. So are the moral technologies that key off it. Athena and Liv share memories and bodies and most of their priorities; I think Athena can model Liv well enough to make this decision on her behalf.
My model of Liv's input is "I want to let Mom know, and if you stop that I'll be mad at you, but if you can hold off until then it's a really good deal".
What's your model?
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My view is that it isn't a matter of accurate modeling and crunching the numbers to figure out what is correct. I am saying that the basic assumptions of ethical behavior we usually apply may not fit this situation. That the very notion of universally solvable morality is a flawed idea, and that sometimes there is no clean resolution between competing and equally worthy interests.

I think we might have a fundamental disagreement here. Which is fine, people see the world differently. But I don't know if it is appropriate for us to attempt to hash out our different opinions the finer points of bedrock ethical theory in this thread. That goes way beyond the intended scope of this space.
 
[X] With May around to help, you were going to finally finish that annoying little spider-drone. You'd had to stop because assembly was taking six times as long with one hand, but now...

[X] You were going to take advantage of Loki's guilt and your in with their wife to manipulate them into helping you learn magic faster and more effectively. Still might take a while, but no more grinding.
 
[X] With May's help and encouragement, and with Athena texting Loki to answer dimensional questions, you were finally going to investigate that goddamn alien crystal.

[X] You were going to take advantage of the blurring lines between the two of you, and get Liv to write you hacking software that could directly leverage her technopathy, so you didn't need to rely on her help for that.

E: Oh off topic but I think Liv would love it. Striking Charter workers build ISP where "profits are returned to users"
It just seems to check all her boxes. Except [] Be May.
 
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[X] With May's help and encouragement, and with Athena texting Loki to answer dimensional questions, you were finally going to investigate that goddamn alien crystal.

[X] You were going to do something wild: you were going to clone a portion of your software for May's devices, specialized to help her, monitor for information leaks, and generally reduce the load.
 
[X] With May's help and encouragement, and with Athena texting Loki to answer dimensional questions, you were finally going to investigate that goddamn alien crystal.

[X] You were going to take advantage of Loki's guilt and your in with their wife to manipulate them into helping you learn magic faster and more effectively. Still might take a while, but no more grinding.
 
[X] With May's help and encouragement, and with Athena texting Loki to answer dimensional questions, you were finally going to investigate that goddamn alien crystal.

[X] You were going to do something wild: you were going to clone a portion of your software for May's devices, specialized to help her, monitor for information leaks, and generally reduce the load.
 
open_sketch said:
"Athena? Loki, why didn't you tell me we had such an important gue- oh." a voice, behind you, and a gasp. Within a moment there was a hand on your shoulder, you swore there was a light radiating around you as you were pulled into an embrace. "What did you say?"

"I... I think I screwed up."

You weren't sure how this worked, with the illusion, how it interacted with the unknowable physics of the realm beyond your own. You didn't care. Somebody was holding you, something you'd wanted for a very long time and had no way to articulate to anyone.
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Sigyn is a hearth goddess.

Hugging things that nothing else can hug is, like, her whole thing.

On an existential-symbolic level her most fundamental role is to hug literally fire, and like it, and make the fire be all happy and comfy and cozy and domestically blissful.

Hug, even if it cannot be hugged.

That plus, hearth goddesses tend to be like the best at magical association with the entire concept of home and comfort and acceptance in general, and so will tend to be incredibly wholesome deities as a general rule from my understanding of mythology.
 
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[X] With May's help and encouragement, and with Athena texting Loki to answer dimensional questions, you were finally going to investigate that goddamn alien crystal.

[X] You were going to take advantage of the blurring lines between the two of you, and get Liv to write you hacking software that could directly leverage her technopathy, so you didn't need to rely on her help for that.
 
open_sketch said:
"No! I wasn't... oh, Siggy, come on..."
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Oh, the wife is Sigyn. I was holding out hope that it was Jane. I've read a few fics where Jane marries whichever Asgardian royal she meets first.

Huh, if Sigyn is real and really Loki's wife, then maybe we should ask which other Norse myths are true. Should we keep an eye out in case Loki's kid shows up and tries to eat the sun?

For the vote, I don't want to do both Loki options (probably best to avoid annoying a diety). And Athena can learn magic on her own eventually.

[X] With May's help and encouragement, and with Athena texting Loki to answer dimensional questions, you were finally going to investigate that goddamn alien crystal.

[X] You were going to do something wild: you were going to clone a portion of your software for May's devices, specialized to help her, monitor for information leaks, and generally reduce the load.
 
[X] With May's help and encouragement, and with Athena texting Loki to answer dimensional questions, you were finally going to investigate that goddamn alien crystal.
[X] You were going to take advantage of Loki's guilt and your in with their wife to manipulate them into helping you learn magic faster and more effectively. Still might take a while, but no more grinding.
This may be burning bridges with Loki, and doesn't do as much to haemorrhage anyone's emotional wounds, but sometimes you find yourself in that one certain mood wher e you find yourself just wanting more magic in your life... literally...
 
[X] With May's help and encouragement, and with Athena texting Loki to answer dimensional questions, you were finally going to investigate that goddamn alien crystal.

[X] You were going to do something wild: you were going to clone a portion of your software for May's devices, specialized to help her, monitor for information leaks, and generally reduce the load.
 
[X] With May around to help, you were going to finally finish that annoying little spider-drone. You'd had to stop because assembly was taking six times as long with one hand, but now...

[X] You were going to take advantage of Loki's guilt and your in with their wife to manipulate them into helping you learn magic faster and more effectively. Still might take a while, but no more grinding.

The first because hanging out with May and involving her in our "volunteer activism" in a safe and productive way is all to the good. The second because data entities casting magic is basically maximum cool.
 
Liv?
[X] With May's help and encouragement, and with Athena texting Loki to answer dimensional questions, you were finally going to investigate that goddamn alien crystal.
[X] With May around to help, you were going to finally finish that annoying little spider-drone. You'd had to stop because assembly was taking six times as long with one hand, but now...

Athena, what about you?
[X] You were going to take advantage of the blurring lines between the two of you, and get Liv to write you hacking software that could directly leverage her technopathy, so you didn't need to rely on her help for that.
 
[X] With May's help and encouragement, and with Athena texting Loki to answer dimensional questions, you were finally going to investigate that goddamn alien crystal.

I want to properly interrogate Darkhawk. What did it want to build?

[X] You were going to take advantage of Loki's guilt and your in with their wife to manipulate them into helping you learn magic faster and more effectively. Still might take a while, but no more grinding.

The phrasing seems kinda mean, but I like the actual goal? Loki seems to have been genuinely trying to help, and this is another good way to help.

Also, the writein option calls to me on principle, but I don't know what to spend it on - Darkhawk is high priority, and the only other still-hanging thing is getting Liv a cloak like Justine's, which I would think was a Liv option. Oh, and maybe telling Walker.
Organising a tech-share with Justine would be a good idea, but I don't know if it's the thing to do now. Really, magic and Walker are the two Athena things - wait, what if she combined the two?

[X] Hey Walker, wanna help me study this? I'm pretty sure I got a legit magic book, but it's kind of a pain to read.
 
[X] With May around to help, you were going to finally finish that annoying little spider-drone. You'd had to stop because assembly was taking six times as long with one hand, but now...

I wanna bond over robotics! That sounds wholesome and refreshing after all this mess. Also probably an easier introduction to our world than the other options.

[X] You were going to do something wild: you were going to clone a portion of your software for May's devices, specialized to help her, monitor for information leaks, and generally reduce the load.

Been thinking about that one, I think this would be helpful.
 
[X] With May around to help, you were going to finally finish that annoying little spider-drone. You'd had to stop because assembly was taking six times as long with one hand, but now...

[X] You were going to do something wild: you were going to clone a portion of your software for May's devices, specialized to help her, monitor for information leaks, and generally reduce the load.

I think this helps May get more used to Athena (Ergane the epithet for patron of crafters could be a fun wink) because as much fun as Athena doing magic could be, helping friendships and improving connections is a magic all its own.
 
[X] With May's help and encouragement, and with Athena texting Loki to answer dimensional questions, you were finally going to investigate that goddamn alien crystal.
 
[X] With May around to help, you were going to finally finish that annoying little spider-drone. You'd had to stop because assembly was taking six times as long with one hand, but now...

[X] You were going to do something wild: you were going to clone a portion of your software for May's devices, specialized to help her, monitor for information leaks, and generally reduce the load.

Honestly, this sounds like it might not be the best idea for Athena, but if it does work, then suddenly Athena doesn't have to panic about covering for May nearly as hard as she was - part of her panic over May was that she couldn't cover for any potential slip-ups from May when May wasn't with Liv. With May having her own AI buddy (Do kind of like the Nike name that someone else came up with), suddenly that's a concern that Athena no longer needs to have. Granted, she might realize "oh crap, I just became parent and have no idea how to parent", at which point she probably goes to either Liv or Walker for help, but hey, at least she's trying.
 
I'm glad that the thread didn't vote to ask Loki to go Full Loki on the situation.

[X] With May around to help, you were going to finally finish that annoying little spider-drone. You'd had to stop because assembly was taking six times as long with one hand, but now...
[X] You were going to do something wild: you were going to clone a portion of your software for May's devices, specialized to help her, monitor for information leaks, and generally reduce the load.
 
[X] With May's help and encouragement, and with Athena texting Loki to answer dimensional questions, you were finally going to investigate that goddamn alien crystal.

[X] You were going to do something wild: you were going to clone a portion of your software for May's devices, specialized to help her, monitor for information leaks, and generally reduce the load.
 
[X] With May's help and encouragement, and with Athena texting Loki to answer dimensional questions, you were finally going to investigate that goddamn alien crystal.

[X] You were going to do something wild: you were going to clone a portion of your software for May's devices, specialized to help her, monitor for information leaks, and generally reduce the load.
 
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