Question Better to Give Discussion

Hey look a longish short story. The next part will go up this week and it will be completed.
It does have a really happy ending.

Domoviye wrote: Hey look a longish short story. The next part will go up this week and it will be completed.
It does have a really happy ending.

This looks to be quite good (as if you ever give us anything that isn't), and very fitting for the coming season as well it seems.

Very nice.

Thanks.
I just got the idea on Friday and started writing on Saturday. It seems completely appropriate with Christmas coming.

I never did understand why anyone would treat others that way. It's like they're deliberately trying to make their charges hate them. Is the MCO coercing her or is she just being really stupid? After all, if somebody decided to lash out she'd be the first to die.

Santa Claus? Seriously? But in response to Naomi, yes, the MCO would like her to give them any excuse for killing her publicly after she has hurt someone else as part of their "dangerous mutants" campaign, or at least that seems to be the case in a lot of Domoviye's work. It's generally less so in Canon, and I doubt that they could get rules that intrusive approved at the state level simply because there are so many groups that would complain about non-uniform treatment.

She's following the exact letter of the law, and except for being a bit stronger and smarter than normal, Mary doesn't appear to have any really dangerous superpower. She may be hoping that Mary does something stupid and can then legally hand her over to the MCO to disappear forever. Because right now Mary is protected a little by being in the official system, she can't just vanish without causing a bit of fuss.
And people often do very dumb things.

To be clear: Well aware that the MCO would love to have an excuse to punish her, especially if she's done something terrible that they can blame her being a mutant for. I was wondering why Mrs. McCloud was being so exceptionally stupid. And yes, her being an authoritarian nutjob who sees the law as reason enough is definitely sufficient motivation for her to be suicidally foolish.

Anyway, her being a mutant is largely irrelevant in the "can she kill me" concern: If somebody hates somebody enough that they're willing to die to kill them, that person has a REALLY low chance of making it out alive. Especially if the aggressor actually prepares decently and waits until an appropriate moment. And this is without any superpowers being thrown into the mix.

Being deeply hated by somebody is basically a death sentence, especially if you don't have dozens of people dedicating their lives to keeping you safe.

Isodecan wrote: Santa Claus? Seriously? But in response to Naomi, yes, the MCO would like her to give them any excuse for killing her publicly after she has hurt someone else as part of their "dangerous mutants" campaign, or at least that seems to be the case in a lot of Domoviye's work. It's generally less so in Canon, and I doubt that they could get rules that intrusive approved at the state level simply because there are so many groups that would complain about non-uniform treatment.

Wait, wait, wait.
How often have I made the MCO into the bad guys in my stories? Except for Guest of the MCO, I generally have them in the background as an annoyance, a useful service, or a mix of good and bad agents. Compare that to having MCO agents in canon disappearing mutants, putting shoot to kill orders on them, actively shooting people and mutants that get in the way, chasing mutants on flimsy charges to make sure they can disappear permanently or shoot them with cause, I've been pretty nice to them.

For this story the MCO doesn't want to kill her, they want to make her disappear by having her do something stupid that they can arrest her and put her away for a long time.
She's a ward of the state that the state doesn't want and doesn't know how to handle so they're throwing everything at her and those like her so that they can catch them up and get them out of the system.
The reason it's not questioned so far is that as shown on her MID, only 22 mutant foster children have been officially recognized, that's throughout the entire US. Most others have gone to Whateley, run away, hide their mutations, or disappear. She's one of the lucky ones to not disappear, but unluckily got caught in the system.

And yes, Santa Clause. I think it's cool.

Naomi wrote: To be clear: Well aware that the MCO would love to have an excuse to punish her, especially if she's done something terrible that they can blame her being a mutant for. I was wondering why Mrs. McCloud was being so exceptionally stupid. And yes, her being an authoritarian nutjob who sees the law as reason enough is definitely sufficient motivation for her to be suicidally foolish.

Anyway, her being a mutant is largely irrelevant in the "can she kill me" concern: If somebody hates somebody enough that they're willing to die to kill them, that person has a REALLY low chance of making it out alive. Especially if the aggressor actually prepares decently and waits until an appropriate moment. And this is without any superpowers being thrown into the mix.

Being deeply hated by somebody is basically a death sentence, especially if you don't have dozens of people dedicating their lives to keeping you safe.

I actually agree with you. But wait until the second and most likely final chapter is up. The bitch isn't suicidal, just nasty.

If any rights group or the Federal government in Washington got hold of the rules of foster mutants in California, they would tear it apart as a civil rights atrocity so fast that anyone involved in making it would find their careers in ruin. Treating underage mutants worse than convicted criminals wouldn't fly the second the proper authorities got involved.

Dreamer wrote: If any rights group or the Federal government in Washington got hold of the rules of foster mutants in California, they would tear it apart as a civil rights atrocity so fast that anyone involved in making it would find their careers in ruin. Treating underage mutants worse than convicted criminals wouldn't fly the second the proper authorities got involved.

Odds are almost nobody has noticed; well-over half of the states have never actually had to use the rules at all, and they're probably scattered throughout the text of completely different laws all over the place. On their own each rule is dubious but not likely to really catch a person's attention; it's only when they're all together and the methods used to enforce them that it becomes clear how horrible it all is. And since those affected have basically zero legal recourse whatsoever (since they can be censored at the whims of others for any reason whatsoever) it's not like they can sue all involved parties very readily.

Also, please correct me if I'm wrong, but don't US judges have a tendency to throw out cases they don't want to weigh in on for any number of excuses including "the law doesn't affect you and thus you have no grounds to sue"?

Naomi wrote:

Dreamer wrote: If any rights group or the Federal government in Washington got hold of the rules of foster mutants in California, they would tear it apart as a civil rights atrocity so fast that anyone involved in making it would find their careers in ruin. Treating underage mutants worse than convicted criminals wouldn't fly the second the proper authorities got involved.

Odds are almost nobody has noticed; well-over half of the states have never actually had to use the rules at all, and they're probably scattered throughout the text of completely different laws all over the place. On their own each rule is dubious but not likely to really catch a person's attention; it's only when they're all together and the methods used to enforce them that it becomes clear how horrible it all is. And since those affected have basically zero legal recourse whatsoever (since they can be censored at the whims of others for any reason whatsoever) it's not like they can sue all involved parties very readily.

Also, please correct me if I'm wrong, but don't US judges have a tendency to throw out cases they don't want to weigh in on for any number of excuses including "the law doesn't affect you and thus you have no grounds to sue"?

Thanks Naomi. You covered pretty much everything.
Some of these rules were put in place by the DPA, the less noxious ones, like ensuring they get schooling, that they do get money for allowances and savings, etc. but individual states threw in there own, sometimes by law, sometimes through bureaucratic decisions. So it's a huge mess, lots of overlap, and lots of room for things to get confusing unless you have a team if lawyers with the time and money to start digging.
And since this is a universe where there's a private police force that can make children disappear and get away with it, until some important kid, or enough of them reach adulthood and can make enough noise for people to pay attention, not much will change.
Even in our own world foster care is a horrible mess, throw in very second class citizens who are very much an extreme minority with big enemies, and the chances for a few lome voices to be heard are slim at best.

So basically government bureaucracy and law making at its 'finest'. And governments wonder why some of their own citizens don't trust them or become paranoid about the kind of things they keep hidden from us.

Yep. Gotta love big government.

***Cross-posted from BigCloset...

My guess at her Power:

It's a Finder-style, pocket-based. Can take near-anything as long as the pocket allows it? Or pocket size may not matter, given she got a candy bar from a decorative pocket...

Can get guns, the ammo from guns that are pointed at her, other mutants' MIDs, power stones/gems, wands, near anything, as long or perhaps even if it's in one of those Warper-proof safes.

I wonder if we're gonna get violence in this, that isn't in it's past? ... I've got this image of Ms. McCloud skewered on a Found Knife... Grisly...

No, wait... That was Mary holding McCloud's heart in her hand. Heart-Rip! Eugh...

Can also grab PFGs, and other things... Like Grenades... Is there a distance limit? I guess we'll find out the limits soon... And if works with any space that she can't see or something, she could summon things in her shoes, ... Or from inside her mouth???

***

Also, remember that Jade/Generator was/is a Foster Kid, but I guess she just got the best of the best luck as a Foster Kid?

She didn't tell anyone and got into Whateley. So she's out of bounds now.
Her powers will be explained and expanded this weekend. RL happened.

Nice new, sunny story is off to a happy start. I'm guessing McCloud assumes the busted nose is from someone finding out she's a mutant and not because her mother was just nuts.

Never will understand the mindset that "hates" something, so they ensure that something is always around them so they can torment it. Not sure though whether in this case McCloud hates mutants or just children in general.

We'll see a bit of her mindset in the next part. It's taking longer than planned because a more important project has come up. But I plan for it to be done by next week at most.

This project must be pretty big, the fanfiction section is so slow to update without your stories.

That combined with discovering I"m allergic to milk which made it feel like I was having an asthma attack since October have both cut my writing time badly.
But I'm starting to catch up.

Food allergies suck, especially when it blocks you from having something you like.

Sorry to hear about that.

Now I am sure that the Foster House administrator is actively working for the MCO and is not playing by state law. There is no way the state of California would pay for a PFG.

The MCO is donating the necessary equipment. If certain people are accidentally not informed, well we all know how bureaucracies misplace memos and things.

YAY! It updated!

A very nice update, glad to see her escape those scumbags. If she ends up going to Whateley, likely if someone connected to them finds out about a homeless mutant kid on the run from the MCO, Carson will call in every favor she has to bring down those scumbags and make sure the government at large knows what is going on in Cali.

Chris Kringel? Really?

I always planned for her to escape from them. It would be a boring story if she just spent four years essentially in solitary confinement. It's what comes next that's interesting.

Chris Kringel? Really?

She has a sense of humour, that's why she remembered her cousins last name despite only seeing them once a long time ago. Obvious fake name, but it gives her a laugh. And Kringel is a real German surname, that we North Americans mangled into Kringle.

jmhyp wrote: Chris Kringel? Really?

It is obvious he is doing a story of Santa in the Whateley Universe, so yes he really went there.

So that's two exceptionally powerful abilities: ESP of some sort to locate places/things that he's interested in, and a teleportation ability of self and items to and from him. VERY impressive. It's not even close to unbeatable, but it is very difficult to defeat, and mostly relies upon tricking him into an ambush. As far as Threat Ratings go, he is probably deserving of "everywhere we have not specifically blocked those abilities in a way we can confirm worked against him is compromised. Do not assume anything remains secret, and he can attack anyone and anything at any time from anywhere."

If they actually knew what he was capable of (or jumped to a suitably "really bad" conclusion from what they've observed) he is now a significantly greater potential threat than Dr. Diabolik.

He's tough, most Sidhe are. But someone who can shoot fast enough, or shooting him in the back and he's going down. But yeah, if he has seen the place, or has a picture of it he can get there whenever he wants and that makes him very dangerous.
Good thing he doesn't want to kill anyone.

Indeed. Especially since him actually being there isn't actually called for; he could conveivably dismantle the entirety of the MCO without ever getting into LoS of an agent. If he wants information, drop in electronic bugs of some sort, borrow a computer, paperwork, or whatever. All the information he could possibly want is available, though it might take him a few iterations to track down whatever catches his attention.

If he wants to harm them, leak the information, just dismantle their logistics (oh, did you need those sparkplugs? Silly me. You can have the ornaments I made them into if it will make you feel better.), or drop explosives, poisons, and other undirected weaponry wherever he desires.

There are only a few saving graces: First, he doesn't have a solid base of operations yet. Two, he doesn't actually intend them any malice. Three, it is possible to block at least most forms of teleportation, even though they're very expensive, so the most vital things can have some degree of security. Four, he's inexperienced and probably won't think through even most of the possibilities anytime soon, if ever. Five, tying into number one, he's vulnerable to Scry and Die himself. Though that pretty much requires mutant help, or at least a baseline wizard. Six, he's currently completely out of uncompromised allies and can only perform so much work in a given amount of time.

I think it's worth noting that most of those limiting factors are temporary in nature. He could very, VERY readily become the most dangerous targeted threat on the planet. Unlike, say, Fey, collateral damage isn't even close to as much of a problem because his options are, by their very nature, far more precise than what she can pull off. He's also far more mobile. He can't take down everyone even close to as well, but he is much better at taking down anyone.

Domoviye wrote: He's tough, most Sidhe are. But someone who can shoot fast enough, or shooting him in the back and he's going down. But yeah, if he has seen the place, or has a picture of it he can get there whenever he wants and that makes him very dangerous.
Good thing he doesn't want to kill anyone. Yet.

FTFY. ... Joking. Really.

Not funny?

But seriously. A peaceful Chris Kringel feels like something I'd enjoy a heck of a lot more than a Tinsnip, especially a Woobie Apologetic Attacker Tinsnip.

People, it's a Christmas story.
Every Christmas story has to be depressing at the beginning and then get better thanks to love and care. If I wanted to dismantle the MCO I'd just go and rewrite my first draft of "Guest of the MCO" and give it a happier ending.
It's not going to be all roses and sunshine, but no one is going to war with the MCO or becoming a murderer.
Now sit down, drink some hot chocolate and share some good will with each other.

I didn't mean anything along the lines of "he would do this", just that he very easily COULD and the MCO has (and will almost certainly have more) reason to know it. At least some of them are probably going to be very, very nervous for a while. So, hey, maybe they'll be cutting back on harassing people because they're focusing too much on countermeasures against an attack that will never come. A nice present for all the people they'd have otherwise attacked.

Even better: It might give the "let's not give the mutants reason to hate us" faction some additional clout so the MCO stops being so suicidally stupid in a few more areas.

That would be good. Maybe it will happen, more like.y they'll blame Mary for not telling them all her powers.

Naomi wrote: I didn't mean anything along the lines of "he would do this", just that he very easily COULD and the MCO has (and will almost certainly have more) reason to know it. At least some of them are probably going to be very, very nervous for a while. So, hey, maybe they'll be cutting back on harassing people because they're focusing too much on countermeasures against an attack that will never come. A nice present for all the people they'd have otherwise attacked.

Even better: It might give the "let's not give the mutants reason to hate us" faction some additional clout so the MCO stops being so suicidally stupid in a few more areas.

I wonder if that's the goal, by making the MCO into a threat you encourage people to act against them, making each action-reaction cycle grow more and more extreme until something breaks.

As for the story, very nice I'm enjoying it but I'm wondering how the bad guys are going to get their lump coal, part of me wants coal delivered in a blackjack.

Question are you going explore some of the darker aspects of Santa Klaus, such has the origin of the myth with Odin, the gallows god?

This is a short story, so I won't get into anything too deeply. I'm working on the last part now, and while there is a fight or two in it, along with more flashbacks, it's pretty hopeful overall.

~Archangel~ wrote: I wonder if that's the goal, by making the MCO into a threat you encourage people to act against them, making each action-reaction cycle grow more and more extreme until something breaks.

If so, they're really, REALLY foolish. Every generation has more mutants than the last; even more first-generation mutants! Not only that, but mutants are becoming more powerful with time. Any attempt to force a baseline/mutant war would pretty much inevitably result in a LOT of people dying, disproportionately baselines, until they either end the war or baselines go extinct. I don't think any attempt to wipe out mutants could even possibly win without actually identifying those responsible for making people become mutants in the first place (because genetics does not work like that) and then killing/neutralizing at least one deity-class entity. Kind of a longshot.

Granted, some people genuinely are crazy enough to believe that they could win, that satisfying their hatred is worth it, or who genuinely want to wipe out all of humanity. Mostly, though, I think it's just people being bigots (sometimes with understandable, but still deplorable, reasons) who can't properly see either the small picture (I am hurting these people, here, and that's wrong) or the big one (those I care about are part of the world, and doing this does not make the world a safer place).


Anyway, looking forward to it, Domoviye! I tend to thoroughly enjoy your less-dark stories and I'm looking forward to how this ends as well as to what you'll produce next. Have to admit, though, the entire Santa Claus thing being revealed in the comments was a complete surprise to me; it's very much not a set of myths that I have paid any actual attention to in the past.

Actually everyone pretty much agrees that in a mutant-baseline war, the baselines win through sheer numbers. But it won't be pretty for either side.

And thanks. I am leaning more towards less dark stories now because things are slowly improving. Lets just say that for a large part of this year, it sucked. So my writing showed it. After I'm done the third and final chapter of this, I'll go and do a new chapter for Fate Sucks, and then probably Tink. So it's all pretty light stuff for the next bit.

Domoviye wrote: Actually everyone pretty much agrees that in a mutant-baseline war, the baselines win through sheer numbers. But it won't be pretty for either side.

Well, sure, this generation of mutants would be doomed. Probably the next three or so, too. But each generation of mutants would bring down a lot of baselines with them, and every single year it'd be worse. Mutants would keep manifesting no matter what they did, and when they're absolutely confident that people WILL try to kill them for what they are, some of them will run, some will strike back, and all around it'd be a never-ending insurgency.

Domoviye wrote: And thanks. I am leaning more towards less dark stories now because things are slowly improving. Lets just say that for a large part of this year, it sucked. So my writing showed it. After I'm done the third and final chapter of this, I'll go and do a new chapter for Fate Sucks, and then probably Tink. So it's all pretty light stuff for the next bit.

Very glad to read. Thanks for sharing.

Great finish to an interesting story, Domo. Loved the plan to go to Karadonia and set up home/HQ to operate from.

Thanks.
It was going to go a bit more indepth, but I've fallen so far behind on other things that I just cut it a bit short.

I liked that they didn't actually go to Whateley, and I intended that Chris never even catch wind of the school. Because it's the main area for the universe, it seems that everyone eventually gets there, but many canon writers have said that only a minority of mutants even know about Whateley. So it made sense for them to never actually get to the school, and have to set up something on their own. Having a teleporter just opened up the entire world for them in a way most of the kids could never dream of.
And I love the idea of 'Santa Claus' going all over the world helping out the really needy, with the help of his crew.
It was fun to write overall, and I may go back and expand it when I have the time.

If you return to this, the Karedonian estate really should be called "The North Pole"

Just finished the story, nice ending, upbeat with some light at the end of tunnel.

Glad to hear you may go back to Chris. I wonder if Chris might play on the whole Santa thing, I can just see some MCO agent trying to submit a report that Santa Claus came out of nowhere and grabbed the mutant kid, stole his weapon, ID and stuffed his desk with coal.

Blue Moose, I'm not sure if the others would agree to that name, but I could see it being a nickname.

Archangel, I'm now going to make a microscene about something just like that. Thanks.

I really liked the line about his estate being ready for anything short of the end of the world. Particularly as we all know that is exactly what happened.

I had to bring up Ragnorok somehow to fit with the Odin mythology. And some people needed to survive to create the myths about him. If I do expand it there would be a World Tree on his Estate, and other things pushing different myths.

Doesn't feel complete. I'd like to see Chris come to the attention of Gizmatic. I could see Giz being happy to help him in exchange for the occasional, "could you get me some <rare earth element>"?

It is a short story, and I left room for expanding it if I get the time to do it.
There would be a problem with Giz asking for that, it would probably come form his own stockpile since he can't take anything that's attached to something else, or that's too big.

Dom is banned?!? Noooooooooo!

shadeofred wrote: Dom is banned?!? Noooooooooo!

I'm hoping it's like last time where it had little actual effect and was reversed relatively quickly. Probably the same problem; too many sign-ins within a limited timespan.

Naomi wrote:

shadeofred wrote: Dom is banned?!? Noooooooooo!

I'm hoping it's like last time where it had little actual effect and was reversed relatively quickly. Probably the same problem; too many sign-ins within a limited timespan.

Pretty sure that is the case. I saw him as being banned around 7-7:30 PM Central time for me, yet he made a post around 11:30 PM in a thread before leaving.

Yeah, it was my fault, I accidentally hit `remember me` on my Ipad, and that set off the security thing.

Domoviye wrote: Yeah, it was my fault, I accidentally hit `remember me` on my Ipad, and that set off the security thing.

Good to have you back, Domo. Was starting to get worried without you around for around 2 days. Was about to send out Team Kimba as a search party.

Dreamer wrote:

Domoviye wrote: Yeah, it was my fault, I accidentally hit `remember me` on my Ipad, and that set off the security thing.

Good to have you back, Domo. Was starting to get worried without you around for around 2 days. Was about to send out Team Kimba as a search party.

That's like using a kiloton bomb to knock over a house of cards!

You need a better first-response.

Just Jade?

We were looking for a better first response.

Send Tink, my daughter will like playing with her.

Yes, but at what cost to us all? I'm not sure the universe can handle the joining of two such chaotic forces.