Question I Don't Think We're In Kansas Anymore

Jarjaross wrote: Okay so I realized something while reading the Big Idea.

The character in Melville who changes gender walks into the girls showers while half asleep. Just like my Microscene with Reach. I'm not claiming credit because it is a fairly obvious scene, but it would be nice to know if it was a reference or just coincidental.

If no one responds I'll assume it was coincidence.

It was purely coincidence.

Expected but still slightly disappointing.

Valentine wrote:

elrodw wrote:

Malady wrote:

Kristin Darken wrote: A good story is a delicate mix of the reader saying "I knew it!" and "I didn't see THAT coming!" Don't forget in all the breakdowns and digging for tidbits to comment on... to acknowledge the authors for achieving that successful mix.

Mmm. So, who came up with Kelly? And Aerys and Tiff? 'Cause they're pretty nice ideas?

Kelly Mishkin is mine. Code name Ping Pong for obvious reasons. We'll see more of him/her too

But you already have a character named Ping Pong .

A lot can happen in close to ten years time. That Ping Pong might have decided to change his codename, retired, or even ended up being killed on a mission or fighting a supervillain in that time for all we know. Besides, the rules of Whateley allow duplicate names with existing people as long as there isn't copyright issues, as long as you change it before you graduate senior year, if I remember correctly.

Edit: D'oh! Didn't notice I wasn't on the last page when I responded your post, my bad.

FUBAR may be missing, or dead, or maybe simply wasn't mentioned yet (remember, the Kimbas only found out about his existence when they got their first detention).

But apparently he has some sort of understudy: someone named SNAFU was mentioned in Chapter 3.

"Mutant Mayhem Machine? What the hell is that?

With a name like this they will have to watch out for a cease and desist notice from 3M.
Offcourse in this universe that could very well be a part of goodkind enterprises and have a totally different name
nice alternative would be M³

The main group still has no psychics, right? ... No, there's Calliope... Anyways, getting a PSI's POV basically is the most likely way to figure out if FUBAR exists in Gen2?

Or getting someone Hawthorne detention... So, figuring out FUBAR existence yes-no, is gonna take a while?

Now, is SNAFU related to FUBAR, or is that a Red Herring? Hmm...

Isn't Hydroflux a devisor? And so, her tech needs maintenance? But then again, the devise parts could be made by some other devisors... Or were swapped out for gadgets... ... If she comes back and does shower maintenance for everyone, then there's the possibility that all the female showers are Hydroflux showers, and only the really knowledgeable people who aggregate that data know about it?

And Hydroflux is Melville, so Melville might have Hydroflux showers. And it's not like other people can't make showers... ... There might be something for Famous Melville Alumni, that gives info on Hydroflux and allows connections to be made... Hikaru might know about the showers' existence from knowing about the Melville version.

"Not as good as yours, apparently," Hikaru smirked, studying the girls with a knowing smile.

Gulping, wondering if Hikaru had any idea of what had transpired at their 'meeting', Laura decided to pre-empt any such discussions. "How was your testing this afternoon?"

... Hikaru doesn't have aura sight, right?

As far as SNAFU is concerned, you'll just have to wait and see.

On the comments section was a discussion about Frau Doktor Stauffer, speculating about, among other things, why she had such a visceral negative reaction to Princess Jobe. One speculation was that she's some type of elf herself. Others dispute this.

Check the facts.

1) She's know to be the granddaughter of a man who threw in with the Nazis, ergo, was a Nazi himself.
2) she doesn't speak ill of her grandfather, only regretfully
3) in her reaction, she referred to Jobe as "die schwarze Elfe"
4) the Nazis had this thing about - what was it? Oh yeah - the Master Race
Oh, and 5) she's fanatically drive, and quite possibly nuts.

Now what can we deduce from the above?

elrodw wrote: On the comments section was a discussion about Frau Doktor Stauffer, speculating about, among other things, why she had such a visceral negative reaction to Princess Jobe. One speculation was that she's some type of elf herself. Others dispute this.

Check the facts.

1) She's know to be the granddaughter of a man who threw in with the Nazis, ergo, was a Nazi himself.
2) she doesn't speak ill of her grandfather, only regretfully
3) in her reaction, she referred to Jobe as "die schwarze Elfe"
4) the Nazis had this thing about - what was it? Oh yeah - the Master Race
Oh, and 5) she's fanatically drive, and quite possibly nuts.

Now what can we deduce from the above?

She is great with children and loves to play with fluffy bunnies...

I can hope right.



And upon writing that sentence, I just realized how horrifying that could sound considering Tia.

Yeah, Hydro is listed as a devisor. Which does raise a number of interesting points regarding her bathroom upgrades, in the long term. Since AFAIK she's Bek's creation, and Bek is still around, these points may be touched upon in the future.

And, canonically, she has gradually upgraded all the girls' showers in Melville as she rises through the classes -- with financing by the Melville girls. Jadis explains it in "The Big Idea."

Other than Melville, well, Ayla has hired her to upgrade the freshmen girls' showers. It's a reasonable inference that Ayla has also hired her to do the other girls' bathrooms after the big Poe upgrade (Hydro is Class of 2008, so she will still be around to do it).

How much of her designs depend on devises? I would think... other than the "special feature", not much. Most of plumbing is pretty simple, after all. She is also known for having an artistic talent for the decoration of the bathrooms, which is an eminently saleable skill even without including her devisor power. She should keep an eye for Fran Barnes and snap her up as a partner when Fran graduates -- they would make a great team.

One day I'll get around to updating the List of Canon Stories and long-form reviews... one day...

Anyway, given Jamie sent emails to Tia around the time she was released from prison and she's now managed to get herself assigned, not only to Whateley, but Melville - as well as temporarily disabling the security cameras - I'm harbouring a suspicion she's not just a Devisor but a Cyberpath? For fairly obvious reasons, Whateley has (or at least should have) one of the best firewalls on Earth - so to not only hack into the network but edit several tables in the main Administration database indicates a certain level of prowess.

Amelia may have been "persuaded" to resign as Assistant Headmistress, but she really could do with resuming her other hat as Network Manager / Head of Cybersecurity, unless there's anyone in Administration with decent (although probably not quite up to her level) computer skills (obviously we haven't met most of the staff yet, but it's possible Sam's moved onto other roles in the intervening decade)...

Oh, and on a lighter note, a nice little tease: a mention of an art club, but no-one from M³ is interested in joining... so we don't get to find out how impressive the faculty sponsor is...

(/resists the temptation to add an unnecessary hyphen)

What about Hydroflux's special feature is devised? Does it somehow pump water in a devise-y way? Like pipes extending into other dimensions or something??

Unicorn was pointing at a weird-looking thing that appeared to be a programmable dual hi-lo showerhead arrangement, with a connector and valve so that it could switch off with a normal showerhead. She insisted, "Are you kidding? This is worth its weight in GOLD!"

I guess the devising is in the programming? Or some special material? I'm assuming a connector and valve wouldn't be a Devise??

Maybe move this to one of the threads about Devises and Devisors... Where ever that is...

Tia and Hikaru both chose to ignore him. Hikaru shook her head. "It has been tried. He is Ronin by choice, and therefore not controllable. Further, he is not suited to you. He is most definitely not Yojimbo."

Huh.

A rōnin (浪人?)[1] was a samurai with no lord or master during the feudal period (1185–1868) of Japan. A samurai became masterless from the death or fall of his master, or after the loss of his master's favor or privilege.[2]

In modern Japanese usage, the term also describes a salaryman who is "between employers" or a secondary school graduate who has not yet been admitted to university.[3][4]

Yojimbo (用心棒) means "bodyguard" in Japanese. The kanji (Japanese characters) can also mean "sword/service for hire", befitting his pay-off system.

The first thing that popped into my head when I read this was it was a pun based on both him and her Rabbit nature, hence this.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usagi_Yojimbo

mittfh wrote: One day I'll get around to updating the List of Canon Stories and long-form reviews... one day...

Anyway, given Jamie sent emails to Tia around the time she was released from prison and she's now managed to get herself assigned, not only to Whateley, but Melville - as well as temporarily disabling the security cameras - I'm harbouring a suspicion she's not just a Devisor but a Cyberpath? For fairly obvious reasons, Whateley has (or at least should have) one of the best firewalls on Earth - so to not only hack into the network but edit several tables in the main Administration database indicates a certain level of prowess.

Amelia may have been "persuaded" to resign as Assistant Headmistress, but she really could do with resuming her other hat as Network Manager / Head of Cybersecurity, unless there's anyone in Administration with decent (although probably not quite up to her level) computer skills (obviously we haven't met most of the staff yet, but it's possible Sam's moved onto other roles in the intervening decade)...

Oh, and on a lighter note, a nice little tease: a mention of an art club, but no-one from M³ is interested in joining... so we don't get to find out how impressive the faculty sponsor is...

(/resists the temptation to add an unnecessary hyphen)

It has not yet been revealed which cottage Jamie is in... but it isn't Melville.

Since Jade/Jinn did half the assembly of the original second floor showers, I'm guessing the shower stuff either has a single piece device that is added in, or is just a gadget. If the new Poe floor plan is still accurate, then there should be two sets of showers per floor. I'm guessing Misty doesn't use the special features.

Nagrij wrote: It has not yet been revealed which cottage Jamie is in... but it isn't Melville.

Well it can't be Poe, so the only other options are Dickinson and Whitman. And she's not GSD, so Whitman.

Edit: Okay, could be either...

Unless there's been more dorms built for some reason??

Malady wrote:

Nagrij wrote: It has not yet been revealed which cottage Jamie is in... but it isn't Melville.

Well it can't be Poe, so the only other options are Dickinson and Whitman. And she's not GSD, so Whitman.

Unless there's been more dorms built for some reason??

In Gen 1 they tried to pair a GSD case with a non GSD, if that is still true she could be in either. Although it seems like the GSD cases are a bit more mainstreamed in Gen 2.

Just to clear up a point:
- In Gen1, Whitman has GSD cases, Dickinson doesn't. (Dickinson is the "prissy ladies" cottage)
- Also, in Gen1 Whitman (and Twain for that matter) have GSD residents... but not *only* GSD residents: there are plenty of normal-looking residents in both. In fact, general policy in Whitman was to pair one GSD with one non-GSD as roomies.
- One change of note from Gen1 to Gen2 is that Emerson used to be the "nerd" cottage (in fact, Linebacker complains about his son Psymod being placed with the "egg heads", so it apparently had this reputation for a long time). But in Gen2, Emerson apparently is known for being the Exemplar guys' cottage.

Nagrij wrote: It has not yet been revealed which cottage Jamie is in... but it isn't Melville.

Well it can't be Poe, so the only other options are Dickinson and Whitman. And she's not GSD, so Whitman.
Are her powers under control enough to not be Hawthorne? Although, she's just a Dev? So safe enough to not be a Thornie? Unless she dricks out real bad...

And if she'd normally be bad enough to go to ARC, why isn't she there??

Malady wrote:

Nagrij wrote: It has not yet been revealed which cottage Jamie is in... but it isn't Melville.

Well it can't be Poe, so the only other options are Dickinson and Whitman. And she's not GSD, so Whitman.
Are her powers under control enough to not be Hawthorne? Although, she's just a Dev? So safe enough to not be a Thornie? Unless she dricks out real bad...

And if she'd normally be bad enough to go to ARC, why isn't she there??

We already know that somebody is playing fast and loose where Tia and Jamie are concerned. There's an agenda in the works, and logic is impotent in the face of it.

Malady wrote: ... Hikaru doesn't have aura sight, right?

Nope.

I created a wiki page for crystalhall.wikia.com/wiki/I_Don't_Think...re_in_Kansas_Anymore . It has a character list, I am pretty sure I got everyone.


Edit: I organized the characters by Staqff: Students by Cottage, Off Campus people, and the group involved with the Secret Lab. I marked the RAs, Fixers, and for the off campus people a short note of who they are or linked to an established wiki page.

I did have a question for the writers, is Mrs. Linsford supposed to be Mrs. Linford from Gen 1 (similar name and same job)?
And are there supposed to be two Dr. Hendricks?

MageOhki wrote:

Malady wrote: ... Hikaru doesn't have aura sight, right?

Nope.

*snerk* That tells me nothing! Lol!

Valentine wrote: I created a wiki page for crystalhall.wikia.com/wiki/I_Don't_Think...re_in_Kansas_Anymore . It has a character list, I am pretty sure I got everyone.


Edit: I organized the characters by Staqff: Students by Cottage, Off Campus people, and the group involved with the Secret Lab. I marked the RAs, Fixers, and for the off campus people a short note of who they are or linked to an established wiki page.

I did have a question for the writers, is Mrs. Linsford supposed to be Mrs. Linford from Gen 1 (similar name and same job)?
And are there supposed to be two Dr. Hendricks?

Take this with a grain of salt, since I'm awful with names and I haven't had my morning coffee.

Mrs. Linsford is supposed to be Mrs. Linford; that was a typo you caught us on.

There are not supposed to be two Dr. Hendricks (Hendrickses?).

On the nature of Jamie's power being stable; it is. It's her mind that isn't. It is hoped that with minders, that will not be an issue while they work on her underlying problems.

Malady wrote:

MageOhki wrote:

Malady wrote: ... Hikaru doesn't have aura sight, right?

Nope.

*snerk* That tells me nothing! Lol!

Then I've done my job, and you'll read Glimspes of the Sun, when it's released which has Hikaru's powers pretty much detailed out.

Nagrij wrote:

Valentine wrote: I created a wiki page for crystalhall.wikia.com/wiki/I_Don't_Think...re_in_Kansas_Anymore . It has a character list, I am pretty sure I got everyone.


Edit: I organized the characters by Staqff: Students by Cottage, Off Campus people, and the group involved with the Secret Lab. I marked the RAs, Fixers, and for the off campus people a short note of who they are or linked to an established wiki page.

I did have a question for the writers, is Mrs. Linsford supposed to be Mrs. Linford from Gen 1 (similar name and same job)?
And are there supposed to be two Dr. Hendricks?

Take this with a grain of salt, since I'm awful with names and I haven't had my morning coffee.

Mrs. Linsford is supposed to be Mrs. Linford; that was a typo you caught us on.

There are not supposed to be two Dr. Hendricks (Hendrickses?).

On the nature of Jamie's power being stable; it is. It's her mind that isn't. It is hoped that with minders, that will not be an issue while they work on her underlying problems.

I figured the Linsford/Linford was a typo, along with the Calley/Callie/Cally spellings.

Dr. Hendricks disappeared:

part 2 wrote: "Who else ... disappeared?" another upper-floor boy asked nervously.

Horton exchanged nervous glances with Babich. "Trustees Lord Paramount and Ty West. Langley Paulson from advanced Tech. Hakim Al Fayez from magic. Drs. Carstaires, Zalman, Quintain, and Hendricks, and Dr. Christy McBride." Another gasp echoed through the upperclassmen. "Assistant Security Chief Forsythe, and a team of officers."

and

part three wrote: Tia and Aerys shared a guilty look before moving to dry off and get dressed. There were technicians waiting, and of course, Tia got the one tapping his foot impatiently. He had introduced himself earlier as Dr. Shandy. The one escorting Aerys away looked more than a little bummed; Dr. Hendricks. Tia was pretty sure he had snuck in earlier while her tests were going on, and started an argument about something.

Although that may have been Tia mishearing (bwahahahahahahaha) or Dr. Shandy saying Dr. Hendricks out of habit.

Well that or there could actually be two Dr. Hendricks. I'd lean towards that one; morning coffee, remember?

The one in that scene might even be related to the one that went missing....

Jamie could be in Poe, in disguise.
Perhaps blue skin dye and a blue wig.

After all, you haven't seen Laura and Jamie together, have you...

But! ...

Elrod's being nice to Laura!

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: But! ...

Elrod's being nice to Laura!

Of course he is. Wouldn't you be if you knew what she was capable of?

That doesnt' stop him with Kayda, or me with Hikaru, Neo! Torture is fun! And well, if Revenge season comes around, keep your powder dry...

MageOhki wrote: Then I've done my job, and you'll read Glimspes of the Sun, when it's released which has Hikaru's powers pretty much detailed out.

So does that leave Erica as the only one of the Gen2 protagonists with essentially no detailed description of her abilities? So far anyway.

She's not as open as Tanya. She's been much more in line with Bianca, but without the equivalent ice breaker meet-and-greet that we've seen in Poe.

Hikaru doesn't really see the point of telling them.

That's just the way she is.

Kristin Darken wrote: You can blame that on me. Read the Esoteric saga to learn what eventually happens(ed) to Fubar.

Qu'est-ce que c'est Esoteric saga,

So you are saying I should read something that is not available. How convenient. What have I said before about hating spoilers?

Ok, it took me a while but I managed to catch up with this story (time is a limited commodity), anyway even if a bit late I post my gut reactions, they are litterally the first thing going through my head while reading, they might not be logic or insightful and they might be completely wrong, but they are my first impression I of the story, I hope they don't offend anyone.

Ok, here are my gut reactions for Part 1:

Jimmy is the new Reach, an eye for details and an analitical mind, I can see him joining the Spy Kids for detective work.

Dot, she has a spy movie vibe going on... thanks goodness my own mother is not like hershe seems liable to drive you nut.

Where does that Taka being a sword come from? How can Tia know him so well?
They had met for the first time the day before?

Hikaru seems to be distracted by Tiff's assets, is she by any chance lesbian or bi?

Japan say the MCO "F*** You", America suck up to the MCO thanks to... well, you know. NO I do NOT know, you are a such tease.

Ok, I don't get the reference about Siri and Pepper (wasn't Pepper Stark's girlfriend? What does it have to do with AIs?)

Tiff doesn't recognize a Cortana designation? Even I understand that one.

Whistling of some piece of Star Wars music was a bit much? Which piece and why?

Guess what, Frau Stauffer had good reasons for being anal about being interrupted, also the organization she is part of is definitely not one of the benevolent kind.

Codename and Power, period. Nice job, Bianca.

A rather ... infamous ... spike in changelings several years ago, who could she be refering to? However four isn't that much of a spike.

The tour seems a bit rushed, I know that we reader have supposedly read through several tours in Gen1 but it still feels off, unless the tour that the girls got is actually a bit rushed it's of disservice to the reader.

Yep, having to use the tunnels even if Whateley is a safe haven for mutants sucks... However why Laura and not Bianca? They have two defferent colors but the same problem, and they could simply use some kind of spray skin like the ones developed by Greasy or Jobe, Belfoebe did in No Beast so Fierce and it seems to have worked nicely.

Whateley App, nice. I wonder what kind of features it has, does it allow to access services and buy stuff? At least services and stuff that aren't sensible enough to require checking the student's ID?

Morgana dislikes confined space, no wonder she needed Prozac on her flight to New York.

Tanya seems to really want to follow her mother footsteps, I bet she will try to join the FSHA, and I wonder how unconfortable things will get once she learns about Bianca's background

Security tries to intimidate the girls into common sense, Morgana refuses to be intimidated, yeah, great. But while I can understand why the sergent thinks Morgana as a troublemaker what about Bianca? Unless he has read their files and he's aware of her background, but that is still unfair. And a betting pool, isn't that a bit clichè at this point?

People overhear and the reputation starts forming, and they wanted to keep it low key, way to go. Also, we know that the Knights of Purity are still in business (and which suggests that the Goodkinds didn't get slapped for Dr Hammond's work)

'Kid Wonder, boy of the future today'.... looks like Buck Swift (Boy of Wednesday Afternoon, weather permitting) has left his mark. Also Krystal gives some good advises about classes and schedules, she might be at risk to become a part time RA for the kids of other cottages as well, also the Kimba Curse.... How so very true.

Bailey makes the first steps toward integration, talking about how everyone got to Whateley, everyone with a dark secret that didn't want to share (there might be hope for Bianca, after all), and Taka being the easiest to forget followed by Bianca, strange I would have thought that Bianca was kind of drammatic figure being all white, she must be doing a much better job at being incospiscious than I thought it was possible.

Bianca and Morgana rooming together.... they are kind of polar opposites, Morgana is kind of taking the world by the storm while Bianca is quiet and reserved, they both have deep scars on their soul and where one reacts one showing her strength the other hides it to avoid trouble... they complement each other nicely, I think the can help each other greatly. I also hope they become an item (and eventually get into a triagle with Thulia, and yes mind is in the gutter again so I'm thinking to the three of them on a bed, and if you want to know it has silk sheats, I just like the 'Sex and Silk' idea... What? Didn't I warn you that my mind is in the gutter?)

Poe, Mrs Horton is still around, and she make the obligatory comment about setting a new record in getting in trouble with security.... SNAFU with Tia's luggage and forniture, Hikaru coming to retrieve the bunny girl because they placed her in Melville? Administration moving her because Poe is full? Sounds like someone is setting her up to fall to social stress, maybe some ER supporter?

Hikaru attitude is starting to get on my nerves, in Calamari she might have had the excuse that she had some stressful situations at hand (even if I still don't get the logic behind her dumping Taka on Tia), but does she have to keep that attitude going? I mean, what did Tia do to her? Was her fault if administration is messing with her? Why does she have to act so large and in charge all the time? She acts like she's a wolf among sheeps, maybe I'm misreading but she needs to lighten up. And no, I'm not saying that her character is written badly, quite the opposite, what I'm saying is that she needs to learn to simply be human. Anyway, Tia not getting why Hikaru doesn't like Wolf plushies seems a bit odd to me, I guess Jamie had a way to keep Luke occupied to the point that he's nearly completely clueless about videogames (I can see one of the girls giving the game to Tia as a gift once she express her confusion).

BTW, why does Hikaru call Tia Usagi? Yes I googled it so I know it means rabbit, however isn't rude to nicknaming a perfect stranger like that (she did it from the very beginning)? Isn't that a breach of protocol?

Tour of (be it ever so humble) Melville Cottage, It has access to the tunnels now (honestly, I've always wondered why didn't all cottages have it in first place) and there are protocols in case of the campus being under siege, Halloween docet. And Melville being Melville doesn't surprise me it has completely over the top amenities.

Tia's room, everything so brand new, everything so top of the line, aren't they going a bit too far with her new lifestyle? She could do with some familiarity after all, except the bed, that one she needs. Fruit of the Month basket.... ok, why? I'm missing something here.

Porsche envelope..."Oh God, she didn't." We totally didn't see it coming at all (at Whateley at least, I thought she would have found her new Porsche waiting her when she got back home).... and it's pink, didn't see it coming either. And naturally Hugh didn't check the accademy regulation and she has to scramble to avoid having it impounded, nice job breaking it Hugh. However nice guy comes to resque and she gets it straighted out.

Speaking of her new Porsche, what is the company stance about personalization? you know things like Armor, forcefields, warding, onboard VI, maybe an AG unit? You know, those little features that someone paranoid prudent as Bianca would advise a friend to install on her car.

Yep, Tia needed a good night of rest, however, didn't she forget to recharge her earclips? Tomorrow might be Terribly noicy for her (she needs to get a few spare sets so she can have a pair charcged or replaced at moment notice)

While this are my gut reaction for Part 2:

Bailey asks Laura if they can be roommates and she procedes to flirt with her.... but what did Bailey mean that she doesn't think she's a lesbian? Either she's attracted by girls or not. And did her sexuality change when she manifested? Or was she gay before the gender flip?

Another thing Bianca and Morgana are the polar opposite: baggage. Morgana having too little, Bianca having too much... at least until Morgana finds a solution (said solution could be upgraded using Tardis containers, either through magic or devising).

Oh, Poe Changeling Expo and.... wait, did fixer become officially recognized figure? I thought they were an unofficial, de facto position. Anyway Chageling galore:

• Krystal, codename: Flower, bisexual M2F, manifests flowers, not as harmless as it might seem
• Laura, we learn more about her backstory and discover that she has a glamour going on
• Antonia 'Toni' Warren, codename: Ditto, power mimic from Chicago sponsored by the Windy City Guardians.... the last part might turn out being a problem for Bianca
• Bailey George, codename: Backtrack, M2F raised by her single mother, an exemplar 3 with danger sense (that causes her sneeze), she's not happy with her change.... not much detail about her manifesting or her sexuality
• Morgana, she has her own origin story in Blood Sisters, and her past hasn't changed ever since, the only useful detail is that she has volunteered as can opener
• Misty, real name: Marisa Isabela Angelica Rangel, Codename: Halcon Peregrino, F2H destined to be very popular among the bi girls... what if she's not into girls? Anyway a Pk brick capable of divebombing at 200 mph, don't get hit
• Christina 'Chris' Cobryn, codename: Celerity, a member of the cape squad, can accellerate or decellerate things with her warper field.... if Bianca's background gets revealed might be a problem... or might stay close to Bianca to keep her under surveillance and end up being her bodyguard in the process
• Bianca... read Writted in Blood
• Noah/Nina Blake, codename: Bewitched, M2?, a male avatar who got a spirit of femminity named Glee, which causes him/her to switch gender from male to female and back, and the male and female form have different personality, she can manifest a combat costume in her female form..... !
• Pat Barnes, codename: Hat Trick,a female-to-male pre-operative transgender (reverse Jade), empath, unclear but undoubtly messes up backstory involving a wish to some artifact
• Na'Chessa Rakia Barnes, Chessa for the friends, codename: Maidenclaw, energizer with an electric sneeze, 'twin sister' of Pat, there is also a Big sister and a little brother too somewher on campus
• Lesley Wainwright, codename: Ping (I think, might be a nickname though), a gadgeteer who used to be Lester, then a devise happened genderbending him and erasing his/her memories... I hope it didn't implant compulsions as well
• Damon Carpenter, codename: Mganga, F2M, strong healer and weak empath, work-study job in the Doyle Medical Center... nice mutation
• Beverly Taylor, M2F, turned into a girl by her sister who's a devisor, massively pissed off and rightfully so

Rumors about school starting a week late... which we readers know nothing about, it's not even foreshadowing, there's a rumor, about what? Not gonna tell. Gee, thank you. Anyway nobody is confirmion or denying anything.

Bailey's not used to stand around kids of her age and has problems acjusting to her new gender, So she asks help to Laura, first lesson: get some sleep, LOL.

Wow, that's one disturbing nightmare, what a wonderful way to start a new day. Then finding out that her old, beloved clothes have been raplaced by new high quality one tailored specifically for her... that she didn't want, way to go Ibby, keep pushing her, I mean, she has been a guy for about sixteen years before being turned into a girl, and just few month since, let her at least be a tomboy until she's a girl rather than a boy stuck into a girl body.

Out for a run, nice show Taka.

Luxury showers, yep, it's Melville... shouldn't Michelle be in Poe?

Morgana's scars haven't gone unnoticed in the shower (no big surprise there), anyway Morgana can understand a good chunk of Laura's technobabble without being a devisor or a gadgeteer which is quite impressive, as is Laura's rule fu for snagging a table at the second floor, or the shortness of her fuse if you call her smurfette.

So the deal is we form a team so we can get our table reserved? It's not a real team because they are freshmen and don't have to take combat training, yeah, I totally see that happening, it's not like taunting the instructors to make it real, no, totally not. Anyway, with the exception of Tia and Cally (not fighter types) everyone joins the team... more a training platoon than a training team if you ask me.

As side note, it's good to see Hikaru getting her 'large and in charge' attitude trampled by Laura, as it's interesting to see a glimpse Taka's warrior code.

Mutant Mayhem Machine? I prefered Team Eleven or Chaos Crew.

Tia has Dr. Bellows as advisor, she's in good hands. Anyway, she gets her schedule and... candy?... Oh it's a test, however I think the doctor reads a bit too much on the part of the name, after all using the first name could be used to let the student relax and be less nervous... the candy, on the other hand..... (even if with some mutant stomachs some may just be happy to put something in the bottomless pit)

BTW, I totally disagreed with Tia about math being mostly remembering formulas, sure there are basic formulas that you have to remember but it's mostly learning to analize the problem and dissecting it in smaller, simpler ones, it's about recognizing the path and let the variables flow toward the solution, memory is important but reasoning the greater part of the solution. I mean, I've alwais liked math due its logical nature, I didn't memorize much but focused on understanding the process, the logic behind it and the way it flows and I've never had any problem until I reached the complex roots and the Laplace Transform, on the other hand I've seen fellow students not wanting to focus on math because it's boring and they would rather have done something else, so they just memorized the formulas and went on that way, they ended up spending much more time on it than me and struggled a lot.... and then they said that they had just no talent for math.

Laura's appointment with her advisor, Tractor from the Sioux Falls League. Issues with some with his closest friends? I hope it's due to whatever has spooked up the whole campus and not even more shit hitting the fan. Anyway Tractor has reached retirement rather than dying, good. Also he has married Vanity Girl, we also discovered that Kodiak and Loophole survived the shitstorm brewing in G1, and they had kids, a snapshot with Dedra and Kaida, I assume they survived as well.

Beside that, yes, you need to have security check and approve whatever weapon you build.

Morgana has Madame Prudhomme as advisor, does the fact that Morgana is british have anything to do with it, I mean, an european student being give the advisor of the Beret Mafia as student advisor? And am I the only one thinking that it's a bit specific that she pushed French in her schedule? I understand that there must be a foreign language, but is French the only option? Did they stop teaching Spanish? Do they teach German? Italian (not very useful, but still)? Arabic?Japanese (considering that Japan is mutant-friendly it might be a good idea learning the linguage in case you want to travel there)? Why wasn't Morgana given any other option than French? Also, is it really that important that she takes it immediatly, couldn't Madame Prudhomme have let Morgana take science as she wanted to do?

Ok, now I know that someone in administration is fucking with Tia, someone that's pretty stupid, Mrs Horton is playing nice by the rules but if she decides that she has enough she can just take the matter to the Headmistress and call the Wrath of Carson on the moron that is messing with the life of a student... Alternatively they could decide to cut administration off interely, Mrs Horton speaks with the housparents of Melville Cottage and gets a copy of Tia's bed manifactured and installed in Poe, then Tia stays nominally in Melville and she sleeps in Poe once in a while every single night and let Administration scream, life is lived in the real world not on the paper and paperwork must conform to reality not the other way around. Tia's reaction to being told that she's welcome anytime is... well maybe not sweet but it seems a huge relief for the bunny girl, it makes me happy.

And Taka doesn't leave her side.

Mr. Carson disappeared two week before along with many key figures... well FUCK. Ok, I didn't see it coming, I presume that the authors wanted to change the status quo and they had to find a way to remove Mrs Carson without nuking the school. Anyway, the surprise would have been much greater if the authors hadn't told us about a bomb being droped at the end of the chapter. Personally I'm a bit sad, I would have liked to see Bianca meeting Mrs Carson and discovering that she knew Bianca's grandmother. As for the cause of the disappearance, I hope it isn't a backup plan by Nimbus being activated (unlikely, it could result in some huge spoilers for G1.... unless it gets revealed after that part of G1 has been relised), I don't know, maybe it's a spacetime distorsion, and a few years down the line the missing people exit the tunnels wondering why things had changed.

Incoming gut reactions for Part 3 in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0:

Tables, overly aggressive upperclassmen trying to bully the 'freshies', they back down when they hear about the fight in New York, mistaking it for the one in central park, thinking that's unwise to tangle with them,.... yeah, because if they were simply freshmen who happened to get the table following the rules what would have they done? Beat them for the right of having the table? I would have thought that upperclassmen would know better than trying this crap, I mean, they have reserved the table, so they have gone through administration, there's nothing you can do. Unless you want to get in trouble with security. Assholes.

Shopping trip to the campus store.... more like a campus mall. Cosmetics, Laura refuses Greasy Spray Skin, Tia puts it in the cart anyway... Laura isn't the first one having skin problems, she has to learn that other before her have developed their own solutions and how well they work, then decide if the cost is right. Anyway, think that Tia did Laura a big favor doing that and that the Spray Skin is going to be a must for Laura and Bianca when they go off campus. Also, Tia pays for Laura's purchases.... repaying Laura for the help with her earclips? I think Tia is also apologizing about fearing her despite the fact that Laura has been nice to her.

Tia, Hikaru and Taka... a tale of misunderstandings, apologizing and flying coscions. Ok, does Tia really believe Hikaru is a j-popstar or she's merely using it to tease her?

Tour of the Cottage amenities for Poe's freshmen, yup, that means Hydroflux showers... and their rules (Tird Rule: no more Fey Shower Fuckups). And Toni (Ditto) seems to be staking her claim on Laura, also the girls assume she's lesbian.... I wonder how they will react when they discovers that she's attracted by Taka.

Kansas City, Office of Major Smythe-Barnes.... Is he related to the Hat Trick and Maidenclaw?.... Wait it's about Dr. Stauffer.... Are we dealing with the Nazi? No, more like someone who saw them as a mean to an end, well, it's not like we didn't know they were bad guys.... Dr. Stauffer doesn't want to work with Jobe, I have to agreed with her on this, Jobe would do what she wants heedless to the consequences, that's a recipe for disaster.

Dinner time in the Crystal Hall, the Poe girls have definitely been briefed on the Poe amenities and Hikaru is back from her first day of power testing... and is mildly traumatized by it. Anyway, she's just an Ex-1 (with reflexes and coordination way higher than that) that's kind of low, she must be solar dependent for the level of strength described in Calamari. And Morgana can't resist the temptation of needling her about her vaunted lethal abilities.... it seems I'm not the only being irked by Hikaru's domineering attitude, she really needs to be more laid back, maybe projecting calm and serenity instead of imperiousness? Also she seems to be purposely avoiding to talk about some parts of her past, that part seems to be shared by the whole group. After that class schedule.... a lot of shared classes, and we miss Bianca's schedule after the fifth period, I hope she gets Avatar 1 with Hikaru on the sixth and Magic Lab with Morgana on the seventh.... I would also like to see her take French as foreign lenguage to honor her grandmother.

Group of guys gossiping about (and perving on) our girls.... horse dude involved in the battle in central park? Did Warhorse rush in defense of his son and got into battle with everyone?.... Yep, betting on bedding a specific girl within a certain ammount of time, a real act of class. Anyway, incoming annoyance.

Club discussion... is Laura serious about joining the Sci-Fi Club?.... Taka interested in the Anime Club, Cally interested in the Beret Mafia, Britain hardly part of Europe (....so sadly true, they seem to think that joining would be losing their own identity)... the Cape Squad, yep, that's for Tanya (and maybe Jimmy, too)... Fliers (aerial games club), Tanya... Gearheads, Tia... Golden Kids, everyone looks at Hikaru... Pan-Asia, this time Taka, too... Parkour Hooligans, Tanya has good reviews of them (I think Tia could like them)..... Wondercute... OMG, they are still around?.... Venus, Inc., no one interested.... Meet-and-greet picnic on Saturday.... the rumors about the girls are starting to be cause of concern.

Laura's glamour strikes again, she's better get it under control... and Eurydice seems to be Poe Material.

Cottage assembly in Poe, more explaination about how things work at the Accademy, a warning against playing the hero (in a superhero universe, yep, that's gonna work, totally) complete with exemples of incidents happened to the G1 crew..... nice trap at the end.

Floor meeting in Melville for Tia... wearing a swimming suit, in a spa... with the guys (and Michelle) checking her out and one particular moron hitting on her in the lamest way possible...

Kelly could easily fit in Poe, all that gender swaping is bound to drive him nut (cover story) and he has much in common with the changelings.

Sara, big ego in a pintzized package... and no explaination at all about who she might be, if I had to guess I'd say she's a Golden Kid.... and I hope her personality has some rediming trait otherwise she's just plainly annoying.

More talking about Carson's disappearance, I get that the characters didn't hear it that much but for us readers it's getting repetitive, at least we get to see the reactions.

Mixed reactions about James, he seems to be a bit too interested in money for my taste but he seems to be quite a character.

Yet another japanese guy crushing on Tia, at least Taka didn't make an ass of himself as this one.

As I've said, a big ego in a small package, that's Sara for you.

NC-17 rated shower for Laura, again. Toni pounce her, Laura counterattacks, neither got to see the movie.

New day equals power testing for Tia, poor girl. On the upside, meet Aerys, who looks like Aerith from Final Fantasy 7 (cause having one that looked like Tifa Lockhart wasn't enough). Anyway the test's results say she's almost an Ex-2 but no regeneration or other powers, Ex-2 might not be anything brag about as far as combat goes but it's a very nice perk for everyday life, at least she isn't stuck in a weaker than a baseline state.

And Jamie is at Whateley..... WHAT. THE. FUCK!!! Sorry, but this one hit me worse than Carson going missing. Well at least she isn't foaming this time, however she seems to be dead set on making Tia's life miserable. Well, Fuck. I'm happy that Jamie isn't stuck in a prison, but in a place where she can recive proper treatment for her ailments and hopefully reintegrate into society. However if she keeps messing with Tia I think it's better just sending her to the ARC and let them handle her until she can go to school without endangering her fellow students.

And while Tia was talking to Dr Bellows, Laura meets Nick and AJ in the Crystal Hall... the big fight in central park, it was them, I wonder if they are going to hang out, or even joining the Mutant Mayhem Machine (I hope so), the testosterone quota is a bit low as it is and AJ fits perfectly as he has things about himself that he would rather not talk about.... makes me wonder if the MMM might need a larger table.

And Tanya getting yelled by security because she got jumped by an ultraviolent? It looks like Sergeant Clauser won his bet (that either Tanya or Morgana would be back within a week... and with Jamie on Campus he's likely to win the bet about Tia too)... I can understand that he needs to impress the notion of 'no fighting' on the kids but there's a little thing called selfdefense, the fact that Ratel is a known ultraviolent, and that there were witnesses of Tanya's innocence, he just had to punish both... congratulation, punish the victim, an excellent way to gain her respect, no risk at all to turn an cape wannabe into a loose cannon vigilante, right? After all, if you're going to be punished anyway, you might actually get the satisfaction of commit the crime. I would have thoght security was smarter than that, they are dealing with hormonal teenagers, if someone had pulled that kind of crap on me at that age I would have gone ballistic, it's even worse with exemplars due to the Hercules Syndrome, and this kids have superpowers, if they decide that the grownups just don't understand and the only solution is solving the problem themselves things will get ugly pretty fast. Do not punish the victim.

More Sidhe girls in Venus, Inc., more girls Sidhe in the world, I can live with that. Anyway Venus Inc. is looking for recruits and they set their eyes on Tia and Taka... this is not going to end well.

Dreamer wrote: James is from Nevada but family is originally from Japan, family is 'old money', and he uses the line from Harry Potter to state he is a wizard, groan.

I think he might have been quoting Harry Dresden from Dresden Files.

A better name for a VI would be Mycroft than Pepper (although Pepper is a personal assistant).

Thinking back to Deadpool, no one in the Marvel Universe sells a spray on skin like Greasy's? Seriously? It's also obvious that Greasy didn't go to Ayla to market that stuff, but got advice from Peeper instead.

Valentine wrote: A better name for a VI would be Mycroft than Pepper (although Pepper is a personal assistant).

Thinking back to Deadpool, no one in the Marvel Universe sells a spray on skin like Greasy's? Seriously? It's also obvious that Greasy didn't go to Ayla to market that stuff, but got advice from Peeper instead.

Why Mycroft? [ Click to expand ] [ Click to hide ]

It's the AI from The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.

I have no idea what you're talking about - "it works" is a totally acceptable slogan for a product. You're just jealous.

There's a very successful company in Canada that makes cough syrup, Buckleys, it's the most horrible stuff you'll ever take for a cold, their slogan, "It tastes awful, but it works."
They used to run commercials of people making disgusted faces taking it, because every Canadian knew how awful it was.

I like Mycroft (and Athena, and Minerva, and Gay Deceiver too). But the list of likely nicknames for an AI, inspired by Sci-Fi is veeery loooong.

For starters, I would go with "Majel." And I would expect that a VI or AI personality module mimicking the tone of the Enterprise computers would sell quite well.
And then.... Data, Kitt, Rommie, Obie, Jarvis, Erwin... even restricting it to fictional AIs with definite personalities and which are not considered malignant, the list of possible names grows quite fast.

Although I wouldn't be surprised if "Wheatley" is used as an insult when people want to imply some AI is low-end.

Otherself wrote: And Tanya getting yelled by security because she got jumped by an ultraviolent? It looks like Sergeant Clauser won his bet (that either Tanya or Morgana would be back within a week... and with Jamie on Campus he's likely to win the bet about Tia too)... I can understand that he needs to impress the notion of 'no fighting' on the kids but there's a little thing called selfdefense, the fact that Ratel is a known ultraviolent, and that there were witnesses of Tanya's innocence, he just had to punish both... congratulation, punish the victim, an excellent way to gain her respect, no risk at all to turn an cape wannabe into a loose cannon vigilante, right? After all, if you're going to be punished anyway, you might actually get the satisfaction of commit the crime. I would have thoght security was smarter than that, they are dealing with hormonal teenagers, if someone had pulled that kind of crap on me at that age I would have gone ballistic, it's even worse with exemplars due to the Hercules Syndrome, and this kids have superpowers, if they decide that the grownups just don't understand and the only solution is solving the problem themselves things will get ugly pretty fast. Do not punish the victim.

The actual situation is not that Ratel attacked unprovoked. She asked Tanya if she wanted to fight. Tanya assumed later, Ratel didn't. Tanya agreed to fight - which is why she got in trouble. She's only a victim of a misunderstanding between herself and Ratel. If they asked her, that's probably how she answered - and got herself in trouble for fighting. Other witnesses would say the same thing - she agreed to fight, ergo, she broke the rules too.

Sir Lee wrote: I like Mycroft (and Athena, and Minerva, and Gay Deceiver too). But the list of likely nicknames for an AI, inspired by Sci-Fi is veeery loooong.

For starters, I would go with "Majel." And I would expect that a VI or AI personality module mimicking the tone of the Enterprise computers would sell quite well.
And then.... Data, Kitt, Rommie, Obie, Jarvis, Erwin... even restricting it to fictional AIs with definite personalities and which are not considered malignant, the list of possible names grows quite fast.

Although I wouldn't be surprised if "Wheatley" is used as an insult when people want to imply some AI is low-end.

True enough, I was trying to think of the earliest I could remember.

I will only respond to the parts involving stuff I actually wrote, or involving my charas. Take this for what you will. Side note: It's amazing what perspectives you see when you don't see the char's thoughts, isn't it?

And in a unrelated note: Xenoforums' multiquote function is nice, now that I tried it on this forum, without it.

Otherself wrote: Ok, it took me a while but I managed to catch up with this story (time is a limited commodity), anyway even if a bit late I post my gut reactions, they are litterally the first thing going through my head while reading, they might not be logic or insightful and they might be completely wrong, but they are my first impression I of the story, I hope they don't offend anyone.

Where does that Taka being a sword come from? How can Tia know him so well?
They had met for the first time the day before?

Kenshin's easy to read, to western eyes, contrary to most Japanese. He does NOT bother to hide what he is, or cover up what he is. Very very centered young man. Kenshin also MEANS "Heart of Sword", and it has been said the soul of a Samurai is their sword.

Hikaru seems to be distracted by Tiff's assets, is she by any chance lesbian or bi?

A: Hikaru's sexuality is later on, in a different story.
B: It's more "Oh, my god, it's _complete_." It's the shock (and in this case, Hikaru has NO room to talk about BIT's mimicking people/fictional chars.) in this one case. Tiff is VERY much in personality AND BIT a clone of Tifa Lockheart.

Japan say the MCO "F*** You", America suck up to the MCO thanks to... well, you know. NO I do NOT know, you are a such tease.

Yes, yes, we are.

Ok, I don't get the reference about Siri and Pepper (wasn't Pepper Stark's girlfriend? What does it have to do with AIs?)

the problem with giving 'brand' (or type) names to the AIs and their role came down (and thanks to someone else, we do have installation civilian class AI names now, tyvm). to me. Pepper was picked for civilian PA type AI, mostly because when I was brainstorming names, we had no better.
In universe, the lab that first released them, called their first one Pepper, it stuck. Marvel fans (and it's also a play on Tony's habit of using people he knew for AI bases. Jarvis in the movies is based on his old butler, similar with Ultron and Jocasta, iirc. Vision too was based on Simon, remember?)

Tiff doesn't recognize a Cortana designation? Even I understand that one.

In this case, it's more she doesn't really recognize it's 'brand' name. it's kinda of 'Huh, that's new, they're out?' note later on, she pretty much nails it IS an military AI.

Whistling of some piece of Star Wars music was a bit much? Which piece and why?

Ask Nargij, I didn't write that bit.

The tour seems a bit rushed, I know that we reader have supposedly read through several tours in Gen1 but it still feels off, unless the tour that the girls got is actually a bit rushed it's of disservice to the reader.

They _are_ rushed. RAs didn't show up til yesterday, and are a good 2 weeks behind where they should be. This applies to _all of them_. (and some are even later than that!)

Whateley App, nice. I wonder what kind of features it has, does it allow to access services and buy stuff? At least services and stuff that aren't sensible enough to require checking the student's ID?

It has what the authors want.

Poe, Mrs Horton is still around, and she make the obligatory comment about setting a new record in getting in trouble with security.... SNAFU with Tia's luggage and forniture, Hikaru coming to retrieve the bunny girl because they placed her in Melville? Administration moving her because Poe is full? Sounds like someone is setting her up to fall to social stress, maybe some ER supporter?

>> And you don't think the car has anything to do with that...

Here's a question. Given what you saw in Rabbit Hole, does Ibby know about Poe?

Hikaru attitude is starting to get on my nerves, in Calamari she might have had the excuse that she had some stressful situations at hand (even if I still don't get the logic behind her dumping Taka on Tia), but does she have to keep that attitude going? I mean, what did Tia do to her? Was her fault if administration is messing with her? Why does she have to act so large and in charge all the time? She acts like she's a wolf among sheeps, maybe I'm misreading but she needs to lighten up. And no, I'm not saying that her character is written badly, quite the opposite, what I'm saying is that she needs to learn to simply be human.

She didn't quite dump Taka on Tia, not intentionally. I didn't write that scene in Cal, so. it's more that they got separated, and by the time she realized that Taka had slipped the leash, she figured out he was under Whateley's thumb, therefore she thought she was done with him.

And she isn't taking ANYTHING out on Tia. (She points out she was sent to fetch Tia. She isn't blaming Tia, she's blaming incompetent admin for the rabbit hunt) Note above about the RA's being late. Hikaru's even LATER than she should have been. Plus has spent the last hour+ trying to track the rabbit down. Instead of, oh, unpacking. Changing. READING THE RULES she didn't get til about oh, an hour ago... etc, etc... Just because there appears to be no stress, doesn't mean there isn't any. You're seeing one side. I've noted no one's really commented (outside a bit) on Hikaru's POV's scenes.

In a lot of ways, for her 'wolf' 'tude... there's reasons.

As for learning to be human... As you will learn, not quite what she's there for. But close, oh, so close.

Anyway, Tia not getting why Hikaru doesn't like Wolf plushies seems a bit odd to me

Hikaru's spirit HATES them. She really really doesn't like the pun. And Kaho is a troll. And doesn't mind going after Hikaru's spirit either.

BTW, why does Hikaru call Tia Usagi? Yes I googled it so I know it means rabbit, however isn't rude to nicknaming a perfect stranger like that (she did it from the very beginning)? Isn't that a breach of protocol?

I didn't catch this (Nargij wrote it, btw), in my readthoughs, though Hikaru actually leans more towards callsigns/codenames, for reasons to be determined later. Lapin also means rabbit, too. I'd have corrected if I had twigged.

Tia's room, everything so brand new, everything so top of the line, aren't they going a bit too far with her new lifestyle? She could do with some familiarity after all, except the bed, that one she needs. Fruit of the Month basket.... ok, why? I'm missing something here.

1: Ibby has no family. Spoiling ahoy. and Impusle control doesn't really exist, remember?
2: Ask nargij.

Speaking of her new Porsche, what is the company stance about personalization? you know things like Armor, forcefields, warding, onboard VI, maybe an AG unit? You know, those little features that someone paranoid prudent as Bianca would advise a friend to install on her car.

IIRC, the Spyder does have a link for a VI to be added, I belive, though that's Nargij's baby
and as for Porsche, you're buying a costly car, you can customize it pretty much however you want.

Otherself wrote: While this are my gut reaction for Part 2:
Rumors about school starting a week late... which we readers know nothing about, it's not even foreshadowing, there's a rumor, about what? Not gonna tell. Gee, thank you. Anyway nobody is confirmion or denying anything.

not a rumor, the rumors are WHY it is.

Luxury showers, yep, it's Melville... shouldn't Michelle be in Poe?

Not all bi/gay/TG's are in Poe, per G1, remember, and in Michelle's case, you assume she put it down that she was bi.

As side note, it's good to see Hikaru getting her 'large and in charge' attitude trampled by Laura, as it's interesting to see a glimpse Taka's warrior code.

It's more that Hikaru wasn't even GOING to comment on the table (she didn't care, not her problem.), as I understand it, so having Larua bitch about that was "Say what? I was here to make sure Kenshin and Tia..." Ie, doing what she thinks she's supposed to do for those under her care.
So, in other words: "What the fuck are you talking about?" was more the reaction.

And Taka doesn't leave her side.

Kenshin is a good boy!

Otherself wrote: Incoming gut reactions for Part 3 in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0:
Tia, Hikaru and Taka... a tale of misunderstandings, apologizing and flying coscions. Ok, does Tia really believe Hikaru is a j-popstar or she's merely using it to tease her?

Litlte of A, mostly B. Which is why she ate a pillow.

Dinner time in the Crystal Hall, the Poe girls have definitely been briefed on the Poe amenities and Hikaru is back from her first day of power testing... and is mildly traumatized by it. Anyway, she's just an Ex-1 (with reflexes and coordination way higher than that) that's kind of low, she must be solar dependent for the level of strength described in Calamari.

Kinda, though what feats of strength? Hikaru showed off NO powers.

And Morgana can't resist the temptation of needling her about her vaunted lethal abilities....

Morgana keeps starting stuff, yes. Both times. And Hikaru never mentioned ever she was strong. Ever. (And again, I didn't write this. Frankly, I doubt Hikaru would admit to any power set outside generalities) Hikaru does have _skills_.

it seems I'm not the only being irked by Hikaru's domineering attitude, she really needs to be more laid back, maybe projecting calm and serenity instead of imperiousness?

You're seeing it from the outside. Not the inside. Also you can't project serenity if you don't have it, no?

Also she seems to be purposely avoiding to talk about some parts of her past, that part seems to be shared by the whole group.

Yepyep. Hikaru will not talk about her past. Not to anyone, if she can help it for several reasons. Several GOOD and not so good reasons.

Club discussion... is Laura serious about joining the Sci-Fi Club?.... Taka interested in the Anime Club, Cally interested in the Beret Mafia, Britain hardly part of Europe (....so sadly true, they seem to think that joining would be losing their own identity)... the Cape Squad, yep, that's for Tanya (and maybe Jimmy, too)... Fliers (aerial games club), Tanya... Gearheads, Tia... Golden Kids, everyone looks at Hikaru...

Of course, Hikaru and Kenshin have a totally DIFFERENT view of Clubs, than the Americans do...

Pan-Asia, this time Taka, too... Parkour Hooligans, Tanya has good reviews of them (I think Tia could like them)..... Wondercute... OMG, they are still around?.... Venus, Inc., no one interested.... Meet-and-greet picnic on Saturday.... the rumors about the girls are starting to be cause of concern.

Floor meeting in Melville for Tia... wearing a swimming suit, in a spa... with the guys (and Michelle) checking her out and one particular moron hitting on her in the lamest way possible...

Onsen. Not spa. NOT a spa.

Kelly could easily fit in Poe, all that gender swaping is bound to drive him nut (cover story) and he has much in common with the changelings.

You'd have to ask Elrodw why.

Sara, big ego in a pintzized package... and no explaination at all about who she might be, if I had to guess I'd say she's a Golden Kid.... and I hope her personality has some rediming trait otherwise she's just plainly annoying.

Yes, she is a golden kid, and a JHS student. And middle eastern. And out of the non mains, one of the most interesting backgrounds, for drama.

Yet another japanese guy crushing on Tia, at least Taka didn't make an ass of himself as this one.

>> Acutally, that's twice now someone missed the target of who the idiot was 'crushing' on.

As I've said, a big ego in a small package, that's Sara for you.

Mmmhmm. In that, she... has some reason for it, similar in some ways to hilariously, Hikaru.

Thank you for reading

MageOhki wrote: BTW, why does Hikaru call Tia Usagi? Yes I googled it so I know it means rabbit, however isn't rude to nicknaming a perfect stranger like that (she did it from the very beginning)? Isn't that a breach of protocol?

I didn't catch this (Nargij wrote it, btw), in my readthoughs, though Hikaru actually leans more towards callsigns/codenames, for reasons to be determined later. Lapin also means rabbit, too. I'd have corrected if I had twigged.

First off, is that a bus I see? Wait, who's throwing me?

Two things. Hikaru calls Tia Usagi in that scene because she's already been trolled by Tia and recognizes Kaho lite when she sees one; she's getting a dig in herself - but she's bad at it because they don't know each other yet. I stand by that scene.

Second, the star wars song hummed is Vader's march. Specifically this:

Third, the Porsche... it's Tia's, she can modify it in any way she wants and can afford. You'll be seeing more on the car, gear heads, and modifications later.

And somehow I managed to quote myself, which is what I get for posting without my morning coffee.

MageOhki wrote: B: It's more "Oh, my god, it's _complete_." It's the shock (and in this case, Hikaru has NO room to talk about BIT's mimicking people/fictional chars.) in this one case. Tiff is VERY much in personality AND BIT a clone of Tifa Lockheart.

Why...are you implying that Hikaru will get depressed, lock herself in her room, and the rest of the Maidens (+3) of Mayhem will have to lure her out of there by staging a party in the hallway?

... I took a moment to twig.

Well played, sir, well played.

Doubt Tia would want to dance around a pole to Cherry pie, though...

MageOhki wrote: Doubt Tia would want to dance around a pole to Cherry pie, though...

Kenshin might do it though...

You know, since it's for Hikaru...

MageOhki, I may misreading your post and if I do.... well, I'm making an ass of myself, it happens.... anyway, I had the impression that you enjoyed my gut reactions report, if you did then one of my objectives have been achieved..... however there's one part that I seem to have failed to convey: with gut reactions I meant LITTERALLY the first thing running through my head as I read it, not some analysis of the story, much less the right interpretation, think about it as a stream of consciousness of the reactions elicted by the story. It is also time sensitive, being just human I am no omniscient, nor I'm a precog able to know what I'm going to read before reading it, my consciousness is limited by my experiences, as such my reactions do not compute things that I don't know yet, so I write them as they are even if they are proven wrong immediatly after.

Writing down my gut reactions was meant to be a way for the authors to gauge the reactions of the reader (or at least, one reader: me) as it reads the story, and maybe a source of a good laugh as I go down a tangent because I'm misinterpreting a few details.... I hope that at least the last part was a success.

MageOhki wrote: I will only respond to the parts involving stuff I actually wrote, or involving my charas. Take this for what you will. Side note: It's amazing what perspectives you see when you don't see the char's thoughts, isn't it?

I feel honored that you took the time to dissect and analize my posts at all.

The tour seems a bit rushed, I know that we reader have supposedly read through several tours in Gen1 but it still feels off, unless the tour that the girls got is actually a bit rushed it's of disservice to the reader.

They _are_ rushed. RAs didn't show up til yesterday, and are a good 2 weeks behind where they should be. This applies to _all of them_. (and some are even later than that!)

So it was purpousful, then it convey the sense of being rushed perfectly, good job.

Poe, Mrs Horton is still around, and she make the obligatory comment about setting a new record in getting in trouble with security.... SNAFU with Tia's luggage and forniture, Hikaru coming to retrieve the bunny girl because they placed her in Melville? Administration moving her because Poe is full? Sounds like someone is setting her up to fall to social stress, maybe some ER supporter?

>> And you don't think the car has anything to do with that...

Here's a question. Given what you saw in Rabbit Hole, does Ibby know about Poe?

The car comes in after Tia got the tour of Melville and got to see her room, I couldn't know about it at the time.

As for Ibby, if she was heroing in the '70s then she must have been among the early classes, when the accademy (as mutant school) wasn't even a decade old yet (it reopened in 1966) and Poe was created by will of Mrs Carson, so I don't think it existed at all when she was a student.

Hikaru attitude is starting to get on my nerves, in Calamari she might have had the excuse that she had some stressful situations at hand (even if I still don't get the logic behind her dumping Taka on Tia), but does she have to keep that attitude going? I mean, what did Tia do to her? Was her fault if administration is messing with her? Why does she have to act so large and in charge all the time? She acts like she's a wolf among sheeps, maybe I'm misreading but she needs to lighten up. And no, I'm not saying that her character is written badly, quite the opposite, what I'm saying is that she needs to learn to simply be human.

She didn't quite dump Taka on Tia, not intentionally. I didn't write that scene in Cal, so. it's more that they got separated, and by the time she realized that Taka had slipped the leash, she figured out he was under Whateley's thumb, therefore she thought she was done with him.

And she isn't taking ANYTHING out on Tia. (She points out she was sent to fetch Tia. She isn't blaming Tia, she's blaming incompetent admin for the rabbit hunt) Note above about the RA's being late. Hikaru's even LATER than she should have been. Plus has spent the last hour+ trying to track the rabbit down. Instead of, oh, unpacking. Changing. READING THE RULES she didn't get til about oh, an hour ago... etc, etc... Just because there appears to be no stress, doesn't mean there isn't any. You're seeing one side. I've noted no one's really commented (outside a bit) on Hikaru's POV's scenes.

In a lot of ways, for her 'wolf' 'tude... there's reasons.

As for learning to be human... As you will learn, not quite what she's there for. But close, oh, so close.

It's my gut reaction, I don't judge Hikaru, I don't know enough about her to do it, but that doesn't mean that I can't have negative reactions to the way she acts, even if I don't listen to them and overrule them with logic... to put it simple the feeling that she gives me is "too aggressive" and "she has anger issues"

Otherself wrote: Incoming gut reactions for Part 3 in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0:
Tia, Hikaru and Taka... a tale of misunderstandings, apologizing and flying coscions. Ok, does Tia really believe Hikaru is a j-popstar or she's merely using it to tease her?

Litlte of A, mostly B. Which is why she ate a pillow.

LOL

Dinner time in the Crystal Hall, the Poe girls have definitely been briefed on the Poe amenities and Hikaru is back from her first day of power testing... and is mildly traumatized by it. Anyway, she's just an Ex-1 (with reflexes and coordination way higher than that) that's kind of low, she must be solar dependent for the level of strength described in Calamari.

Kinda, though what feats of strength? Hikaru showed off NO powers.

Ops, my brain had glitched while reading, I thought she had combat lasers AND the ability to punch through a car rather than combat lasers that can burn throught a car, my bad.

Thank you for reading

It was a pleasure.

This is Ratel. Watch her run in slow motion. She's pretty badass. Look, she runs all over the place. "Whoa, watch out," says that guard. Eww, she's got a Bad Seed. Oh, she's chasing Tanya? Oh my gosh. Oh, Ratel is just crazy. Ratel has been referred to by the MCO records as the most fearless mutant in all the mutant kingdom. She really doesn't give a shit. If she's hungry, she's hungry- Eww, what's that in her mouth? Oh, she's got a bank robber? Oh, she runs backwards? Now watch this, look, a bully's up in a tree. Ratel don't care. Ratel don't give a shit. Ratel just takes what she wants. Whenever she's hungry, she just- Eww, and she beats up bullies. Oh my god, watch her dig. Look at that digging. Ratel's really pretty badass, she has no regard for any other mutant whatsoever. Look, and she's just grunting, and fighting bullies. Eww, what's that, a GSD? Oh, that's nasty, oh she's so nasty. Ooh look, she's chasing things, and fighting them. Ratel has a fairly long body, but a distinctly thick-set, broad shoulders, and, you know, her, her skin is loose, allowing her to move about freely, and she twists around... Now look, here's a house full of bad guys. You think Ratel cares? She dosn't give a shit. She goes right into the house of bad guys to get some Vegemite. How disgusting is that? She eats Vegemite. Eww, that's so nasty. But look, Ratel doesn't care, she's getting shot like a thousand times. She doesn't give a shit, she's just- she's hungry. She doesn't care about being shot by bad guys. Nothing can stop Ratel when she's hungry. Oh, what a crazy fuck, look. Eww, she's eating Vegemite, that's disgusting. There she is, running in slow motion again. See? Now what's interesting is that other, other guys like these guards here, they just like to wait around until Ratel's done fighting, then he swoops in to pick up the scraps. He says, "You do all the work for us, Ratel, and we'll just arrest whatever you find. How's that? What do you say, stupid?" Look at this guard. "Thank for the assist, stupid!" "Hey, come back here," says Ratel. Guards don't care. And you know what? The cops do it too. Look at these little cops. They're like, "Thanks stupid! Thanks for the robber, see you later!" Ratel does all the work while these other guys just pick up the scraps. At nighttime, Ratel goes hunting because she's hungry. Look, here comes a fierce battle between a super villain and Ratel. I wonder what'll happen. Look at this, there's Ratel just eating at Waffle House, and then look. "Get away from me!" says the villain. "Get away from me!" Ratel don't care. Ratel smacks the shit out of it. The villain comes back and it lashes right at Ratel. Oh, little does Ratel know, FYI, she's been stung! She's been bitten by the villain! So while she's beating up the villain -- eww, that's disgusting -- meanwhile, the poisonous venom is seeping through Ratel's body, and she passes out. Look at that sleepy fuck. Now, Ratel's just gonna to pass out for a few minutes, and then she's gonna get right back up and start fighting all over again 'cause she's a hungry little bastard. Look at this! Like nothing happened, Ratel gets right back up and continues fighting the villain. How disgusting. And of course, what does Ratel have to fight for the next two weeks? Villains. It's Ratel.

Kettlekorn wrote: This is Ratel. Watch her run in slow motion. She's pretty badass. Look, she runs all over the place. "Whoa, watch out," says that guard. Eww, she's got a Bad Seed. Oh, she's chasing Tanya? Oh my gosh. Oh, Ratel is just crazy. Ratel has been referred to by the MCO records as the most fearless mutant in all the mutant kingdom. She really doesn't give a shit. If she's hungry, she's hungry- Eww, what's that in her mouth? Oh, she's got a bank robber? Oh, she runs backwards? Now watch this, look, a bully's up in a tree. Ratel don't care. Ratel don't give a shit. Ratel just takes what she wants. Whenever she's hungry, she just- Eww, and she beats up bullies. Oh my god, watch her dig. Look at that digging. Ratel's really pretty badass, she has no regard for any other mutant whatsoever. Look, and she's just grunting, and fighting bullies. Eww, what's that, a GSD? Oh, that's nasty, oh she's so nasty. Ooh look, she's chasing things, and fighting them. Ratel has a fairly long body, but a distinctly thick-set, broad shoulders, and, you know, her, her skin is loose, allowing her to move about freely, and she twists around... Now look, here's a house full of bad guys. You think Ratel cares? She dosn't give a shit. She goes right into the house of bad guys to get some Vegemite. How disgusting is that? She eats Vegemite. Eww, that's so nasty. But look, Ratel doesn't care, she's getting shot like a thousand times. She doesn't give a shit, she's just- she's hungry. She doesn't care about being shot by bad guys. Nothing can stop Ratel when she's hungry. Oh, what a crazy fuck, look. Eww, she's eating Vegemite, that's disgusting. There she is, running in slow motion again. See? Now what's interesting is that other, other guys like these guards here, they just like to wait around until Ratel's done fighting, then he swoops in to pick up the scraps. He says, "You do all the work for us, Ratel, and we'll just arrest whatever you find. How's that? What do you say, stupid?" Look at this guard. "Thank for the assist, stupid!" "Hey, come back here," says Ratel. Guards don't care. And you know what? The cops do it too. Look at these little cops. They're like, "Thanks stupid! Thanks for the robber, see you later!" Ratel does all the work while these other guys just pick up the scraps. At nighttime, Ratel goes hunting because she's hungry. Look, here comes a fierce battle between a super villain and Ratel. I wonder what'll happen. Look at this, there's Ratel just eating at Waffle House, and then look. "Get away from me!" says the villain. "Get away from me!" Ratel don't care. Ratel smacks the shit out of it. The villain comes back and it lashes right at Ratel. Oh, little does Ratel know, FYI, she's been stung! She's been bitten by the villain! So while she's beating up the villain -- eww, that's disgusting -- meanwhile, the poisonous venom is seeping through Ratel's body, and she passes out. Look at that sleepy fuck. Now, Ratel's just gonna to pass out for a few minutes, and then she's gonna get right back up and start fighting all over again 'cause she's a hungry little bastard. Look at this! Like nothing happened, Ratel gets right back up and continues fighting the villain. How disgusting. And of course, what does Ratel have to fight for the next two weeks? Villains. It's Ratel.

Umm...huh? ??

NeoMagus wrote:

Kettlekorn wrote: This is Ratel. Watch her run in slow motion. She's pretty badass. Look, she runs all over the place. "Whoa, watch out," says that guard. Eww, she's got a Bad Seed. Oh, she's chasing Tanya? Oh my gosh. Oh, Ratel is just crazy. Ratel has been referred to by the MCO records as the most fearless mutant in all the mutant kingdom. She really doesn't give a shit. If she's hungry, she's hungry- Eww, what's that in her mouth? Oh, she's got a bank robber? Oh, she runs backwards? Now watch this, look, a bully's up in a tree. Ratel don't care. Ratel don't give a shit. Ratel just takes what she wants. Whenever she's hungry, she just- Eww, and she beats up bullies. Oh my god, watch her dig. Look at that digging. Ratel's really pretty badass, she has no regard for any other mutant whatsoever. Look, and she's just grunting, and fighting bullies. Eww, what's that, a GSD? Oh, that's nasty, oh she's so nasty. Ooh look, she's chasing things, and fighting them. Ratel has a fairly long body, but a distinctly thick-set, broad shoulders, and, you know, her, her skin is loose, allowing her to move about freely, and she twists around... Now look, here's a house full of bad guys. You think Ratel cares? She dosn't give a shit. She goes right into the house of bad guys to get some Vegemite. How disgusting is that? She eats Vegemite. Eww, that's so nasty. But look, Ratel doesn't care, she's getting shot like a thousand times. She doesn't give a shit, she's just- she's hungry. She doesn't care about being shot by bad guys. Nothing can stop Ratel when she's hungry. Oh, what a crazy fuck, look. Eww, she's eating Vegemite, that's disgusting. There she is, running in slow motion again. See? Now what's interesting is that other, other guys like these guards here, they just like to wait around until Ratel's done fighting, then he swoops in to pick up the scraps. He says, "You do all the work for us, Ratel, and we'll just arrest whatever you find. How's that? What do you say, stupid?" Look at this guard. "Thank for the assist, stupid!" "Hey, come back here," says Ratel. Guards don't care. And you know what? The cops do it too. Look at these little cops. They're like, "Thanks stupid! Thanks for the robber, see you later!" Ratel does all the work while these other guys just pick up the scraps. At nighttime, Ratel goes hunting because she's hungry. Look, here comes a fierce battle between a super villain and Ratel. I wonder what'll happen. Look at this, there's Ratel just eating at Waffle House, and then look. "Get away from me!" says the villain. "Get away from me!" Ratel don't care. Ratel smacks the shit out of it. The villain comes back and it lashes right at Ratel. Oh, little does Ratel know, FYI, she's been stung! She's been bitten by the villain! So while she's beating up the villain -- eww, that's disgusting -- meanwhile, the poisonous venom is seeping through Ratel's body, and she passes out. Look at that sleepy fuck. Now, Ratel's just gonna to pass out for a few minutes, and then she's gonna get right back up and start fighting all over again 'cause she's a hungry little bastard. Look at this! Like nothing happened, Ratel gets right back up and continues fighting the villain. How disgusting. And of course, what does Ratel have to fight for the next two weeks? Villains. It's Ratel.

Umm...huh? ??

Kettlekorn channelling Dom channelling Tink?

Valentine wrote:

NeoMagus wrote:

Kettlekorn wrote: This is Ratel. Watch her run in slow motion. She's pretty badass. Look, she runs all over the place. "Whoa, watch out," says that guard. Eww, she's got a Bad Seed. Oh, she's chasing Tanya? Oh my gosh. Oh, Ratel is just crazy. Ratel has been referred to by the MCO records as the most fearless mutant in all the mutant kingdom. She really doesn't give a shit. If she's hungry, she's hungry- Eww, what's that in her mouth? Oh, she's got a bank robber? Oh, she runs backwards? Now watch this, look, a bully's up in a tree. Ratel don't care. Ratel don't give a shit. Ratel just takes what she wants. Whenever she's hungry, she just- Eww, and she beats up bullies. Oh my god, watch her dig. Look at that digging. Ratel's really pretty badass, she has no regard for any other mutant whatsoever. Look, and she's just grunting, and fighting bullies. Eww, what's that, a GSD? Oh, that's nasty, oh she's so nasty. Ooh look, she's chasing things, and fighting them. Ratel has a fairly long body, but a distinctly thick-set, broad shoulders, and, you know, her, her skin is loose, allowing her to move about freely, and she twists around... Now look, here's a house full of bad guys. You think Ratel cares? She dosn't give a shit. She goes right into the house of bad guys to get some Vegemite. How disgusting is that? She eats Vegemite. Eww, that's so nasty. But look, Ratel doesn't care, she's getting shot like a thousand times. She doesn't give a shit, she's just- she's hungry. She doesn't care about being shot by bad guys. Nothing can stop Ratel when she's hungry. Oh, what a crazy fuck, look. Eww, she's eating Vegemite, that's disgusting. There she is, running in slow motion again. See? Now what's interesting is that other, other guys like these guards here, they just like to wait around until Ratel's done fighting, then he swoops in to pick up the scraps. He says, "You do all the work for us, Ratel, and we'll just arrest whatever you find. How's that? What do you say, stupid?" Look at this guard. "Thank for the assist, stupid!" "Hey, come back here," says Ratel. Guards don't care. And you know what? The cops do it too. Look at these little cops. They're like, "Thanks stupid! Thanks for the robber, see you later!" Ratel does all the work while these other guys just pick up the scraps. At nighttime, Ratel goes hunting because she's hungry. Look, here comes a fierce battle between a super villain and Ratel. I wonder what'll happen. Look at this, there's Ratel just eating at Waffle House, and then look. "Get away from me!" says the villain. "Get away from me!" Ratel don't care. Ratel smacks the shit out of it. The villain comes back and it lashes right at Ratel. Oh, little does Ratel know, FYI, she's been stung! She's been bitten by the villain! So while she's beating up the villain -- eww, that's disgusting -- meanwhile, the poisonous venom is seeping through Ratel's body, and she passes out. Look at that sleepy fuck. Now, Ratel's just gonna to pass out for a few minutes, and then she's gonna get right back up and start fighting all over again 'cause she's a hungry little bastard. Look at this! Like nothing happened, Ratel gets right back up and continues fighting the villain. How disgusting. And of course, what does Ratel have to fight for the next two weeks? Villains. It's Ratel.

Umm...huh? ??

Kettlekorn channelling Dom channelling Tink?

You keep me out of this insanity.

Valentine wrote: Kettlekorn channelling Dom channelling Tink?

Um, not quite. I'm channeling Randall . Maybe I'm the only one who remembers Ratel and is excited she made it into canon, but hopefully Wasamon at least is chuckling right now.

Oh! Was Ratel the girl with the Honey Badger spirit? I remember that fan-vignette! That was a good one.

One thing people who are aspiring Whateley authors need to realize is that becoming canon is not license to automatically canonize your fan-fic characters. There's a serious process for that; I went through it, Morpheus went through it, Sleethr went through it, and the gen 2 authors are going through it.

Kristin Darken wrote:

Kettlekorn wrote:

Valentine wrote: Kettlekorn channelling Dom channelling Tink?

Um, not quite. I'm channeling Randall . Maybe I'm the only one who remembers Ratel and is excited she made it into canon, but hopefully Wasamon at least is chuckling right now.

Probably less chuckling after I have a chat with him... the G2 authors should know better by now than to cameo fan fiction characters because of what it means for continuity and confusion over what is canon and what is not. The Ratel that you are familiar with from fan fiction is not canon. What, exactly is? That's a good question...

If it helps, the character in question wasn't part of a full story - more like a long micro scene. There wasn't really anything there except for "Avatar of a Honey Badger - likes fighting"

I understand. I'll admit, though, that I'm not disappointed that she's appeared.

Kristin Darken wrote: Unfortunately it was also a fairly well written and very vivid image. Which makes it that much harder to change how people see her, already. And there's also a bit of "well, you let Ratel through... why can't mine be canonized via cameo?"

There's a reason for the process... and its not just Kristin being a power-mad bitch.

You also end up with way more students than were planned. Then some jerk starts counting up students for the Wiki, and the next thing you know there are 100 extra students. Then Elrod has to waste his time looking for codenames and real names to combine into one student, instead of just writing.

Kristin Darken wrote: The Ratel that you are familiar with from fan fiction is not canon. What, exactly is? That's a good question...

Well, yeah, my default assumption is that there will be changes in any character who makes the jump, and for a short story like Ratel's even small changes could be relatively huge. This doesn't bother me. Finding out who this Ratel is is part of the fun. It's kind of like when Gen1 characters like Tractor show up and we're faced with the possibility that major events have happened and things aren't really the same anymore. This is just a more meta version of that.

It might even turn out to be a coincidence between two authors who both like honey badgers!

Of course, Tractor might turn out to not be the real Tractor either. He might be Kayda or something. (Actually, I had him confused with Farm Boy at first due to Laura's breathless reaction. Maybe the bad thing that happened was that Farm Boy was mortally wounded and told Tractor to eat his heart so that he could take his powers and save the day! )

Kettlekorn wrote: ...Of course, Tractor might turn out to not be the real Tractor either. He might be Kayda or something...

...
BWAHAHAHA!!!

NeoMagus wrote:

Kettlekorn wrote: ...Of course, Tractor might turn out to not be the real Tractor either. He might be Kayda or something...

...
BWAHAHAHA!!!

Don't give Elrod ideas!

Will we find out when or why Hollywood changed their no mutant rules? And how does the Back to the Future 2 ruling affect Model shapeshifting into the likenesses of dead actors?

IDTWIKA 3 wrote: Cassie Locke - Model - was in her 'normal' form, though normal was a relative term for a shapeshifter. She could shift into any human shape, and so was in huge demand, especially as a stand-in for dead actors and actresses for movie bit-parts and commercials. Able to instantly pretty herself up into any shape a photographer might want, she was the favorite of all the photographers in the club.

Valentine wrote: Will we find out when or why Hollywood changed their no mutant rules? And how does the Back to the Future 2 ruling affect Model shapeshifting into the likenesses of dead actors?

IDTWIKA 3 wrote: Cassie Locke - Model - was in her 'normal' form, though normal was a relative term for a shapeshifter. She could shift into any human shape, and so was in huge demand, especially as a stand-in for dead actors and actresses for movie bit-parts and commercials. Able to instantly pretty herself up into any shape a photographer might want, she was the favorite of all the photographers in the club.

It doesnt say she was working in Hollywood. A lot of filming takes place elsewhere, and not necessarily with the same rules for mutants

She strikes me as more the exception to the rule than anything else.

I believe the concern was about the likes of Exemplars pushing out many normal actors due to the media's demand for pretty faces and bodies on screen? She seems to fill a niche of bit parts, as quoted, that would be difficult for perhaps even CGI to get the same quality. It's possible she's tolerated through the understanding that she can only do so much work, as opposed to an entire demographic muscling into the scene.

Or more likely she's just working for those smaller studios who allow mutants - I'm about 90% certain they were mentioned in passing somewhere...

There used to be, iirc, exemptions made in acting if they needed someone unusual - say they needed someone who was 7 foot tall. Something similar might apply to a shapeshifter. Also, just because someone is a mutant doesnt necessarily mean that they can act (mind, the same could be said for quite a few current 'stars')

"I thought Britain was part of Europe?" Vic said with a puzzled frown.

"Hardly!" Morgana and Cally replied simultaneously.

Yep, I wonder how much retconing will be required due to their exit from the European Union, probably not much (if any) as far as relised material goes up to this moment, but it might need to be factored into stories that have already been written but haven't been relised yet..... That is, unless Brits in WU choose differently.

I think one of the canon authors is on record as explaining that in the WU Brexit not only happened, but happened somewhat earlier. So I don't think there will be need for any significant adjustment.

Sir Lee wrote: I think one of the canon authors is on record as explaining that in the WU Brexit not only happened, but happened somewhat earlier. So I don't think there will be need for any significant adjustment.

we know from the Generation one stories that France was very anti-mutant. Given the potential influence a really powerful mutant might have in the country of their origin I wonder if Brexit might have happened earlier due to differing polices on Mutants. If the EU bureaucracy tried to mandate out and out racist polices against mutants it might have spurred an early break up.

Sir Lee wrote: I think one of the canon authors is on record as explaining that in the WU Brexit not only happened, but happened somewhat earlier. So I don't think there will be need for any significant adjustment.

I might have missed it, where can I find it?

Brexit did indeed happen earlier in the WU.

Ironically, for radically DIFFERENT reasons, than in RL, though I'll give you a hint: What's with CHINA?

Kelly intrigues me. In girl form she is shy and scared of practically everything, as a guy he's confident and joking. Is he that much weaker as a girl or simply unsure of 'herself'?

When are we going to see more of Tanya? It looks like she's having a good time and making friend.

Taka is one lucky bastard, having Venus inc. fawning over him. I think he's smart enough to go with it.

I'm surprised Morgana didn't threaten to eat one of the researchers for not feeding her. And only two weeks since the end of the ordeal. I knew it was a short time, but I thought it was a bit longer then that. She's holding up a lot better than I expected.

And the amazons aren't happy with changelings. I'd have thought they'd consider mtf changelings as something above contempt, since they chose to join the 'better' side.

And since Elrod isn't tormenting Laura he's taken it out on the Sioux Fall League. Vender what Exactly hit Vanity Girl so hard.

Domoviye wrote: Kelly intrigues me. In girl form she is shy and scared of practically everything, as a guy he's confident and joking. Is he that much weaker as a girl or simply unsure of 'herself'?

When are we going to see more of Tanya? It looks like she's having a good time and making friend.

Taka is one lucky bastard, having Venus inc. fawning over him. I think he's smart enough to go with it.

I'm surprised Morgana didn't threaten to eat one of the researchers for not feeding her. And only two weeks since the end of the ordeal. I knew it was a short time, but I thought it was a bit longer then that. She's holding up a lot better than I expected.

And the amazons aren't happy with changelings. I'd have thought they'd consider mtf changelings as something above contempt, since they chose to join the 'better' side.

And since Elrod isn't tormenting Laura he's taken it out on the Sioux Fall League. Vender what Exactly hit Vanity Girl so hard.

From the sounds of it something demonic that killed two of their own and left her a cripple, Kayda must have taken it hard too, but it was something after she defeats "daddy snake" I reckon.

Wow has Venus Inc. slipped. Poise would never have been so gauche in chasing down Taka.

Seems like Brita is more Sharisha than Hippolyta. I wonder what has gotten under both of their skins.

The club rushing seems a bit heavy handed.

First rule of Amazon Fight Club is (apparently) you talk about Amazon Fight Club a lot.

There are a lot more mentions of First Gen non Whateley Staff than I expected. It's sad to hear about the SFL.

I wonder if Wondercute will try to recruit Taka when they see him.

Until the club name was revealed, I was hoping that the Lit Chicks had evolved into a all girls fighting club.


Kodiak's name reversal is rather bizarre. People change their names all the time, but I don't think that I've seen that particular change before, and I'm very curious to know what inspired it. Also, it's nice to see him being a healer.

Really, really looking forward to hearing Hikaru's story in full. (And everyone else's, of course, but hers is the one that's been teased the most)

Sad to see that the evil midget has retired (I hope), but glad to see that Tolman is still there. And totally unsurprised that Everhart is running security, although I'll miss Delarose.

What do you mean about kodiaks name reversals?

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Really, really looking forward to hearing Hikaru's story in full. (And everyone else's, of course, but hers is the one that's been teased the most)

Two stories (her origin, and what she's doing on her own in the first 'week' or so of school) are in progress. RtS (Origin) is anywhere from 10-25% complete, pending some information I'm holding on, GoTS (the travails of poor Hikaru) is in alpha, one scene short, maybe two, depending on how I word things.

... and a quick scan shows one scene that should have been in GoTS, got moved to IDK... annoying, must talk to Elrodw today...

Kristin Darken wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Kodiak's name reversal is rather bizarre. People change their names all the time, but I don't think that I've seen that particular change before, and I'm very curious to know what inspired it. Also, it's nice to see him being a healer.

Kodiak's name gets people a lot... mostly because E.E. tends to use first or last names fairly interchangeably... and so some people, including other authors; can get mixed up on whether his first name is Wyatt... or Cody. This is exaserbated by the fact that most people consider calling someone with a med degree or PhD "Doctor" is a 'formal' address and would only use Dr in front of a full name... or shortened to family name only. But that's not true in either the arts or in academia these days, where you can be respectful and personal in the same breath by using a nickname that begins with their title of Doctor.

So... for official clarification? The name is Dr Wyatt Cody, of the Alaska Cody's. He DOES answer to Kodiak, his trade 'codename', and also to both Dr Cody AND Dr Wyatt... if he's in a formal setting where his credentials aren't known, he might be referenced as Mr Cody. His co-workers are likely to call him Wyatt, but given the type of setting he is most commonly in (therapy sessions), he probably won't invite many students to call him that. Dr Wyatt will probably be as informal as he allows... simply to remind the patient that it IS a therapy setting.

If you see the name used backwards... Cody Wyatt, for instance PM the author that you've got a typo for them to fix if they want to take the time to do so. It's probably not the first or last time. Like spelling Mrs Tenant's name right.

It also doesn't help that at times he is referred to as "Kody," presumably short for Kodiak.

Murphy's Law 6 wrote: “We haven’t discussed the subject of payment,” purred Murphy who was clearly in her element and enjoying watching Kody stew.

“I’m already making Elaine Queen Alpha,” Kody replied, with a snort. “What would you like, Princess?”

Domoviye wrote: Kelly intrigues me. In girl form she is shy and scared of practically everything, as a guy he's confident and joking. Is he that much weaker as a girl or simply unsure of 'herself'?

One thing about Kelly is... well, she didn't want to get beaten up by freshman girls. Outside of a setting that basically infers she has to put her life in the hands of people she doesn't know? Both versions of Kelly are much more outgoing.

But being wary about new people with a power like that? Just makes sense.

Nagrij wrote:

Domoviye wrote: Kelly intrigues me. In girl form she is shy and scared of practically everything, as a guy he's confident and joking. Is he that much weaker as a girl or simply unsure of 'herself'?

One thing about Kelly is... well, she didn't want to get beaten up by freshman girls. Outside of a setting that basically infers she has to put her life in the hands of people she doesn't know? Both versions of Kelly are much more outgoing.

But being wary about new people with a power like that? Just makes sense.

That's fair, she just seemed really different so I was curious.

Kristin Darken wrote:

MageOhki wrote: ... and a quick scan shows one scene that should have been in GoTS, got moved to IDK... annoying, must talk to Elrodw today...

I wouldn't worry about it too much. Remember how much of the original G1 stories had scenes that got retold from four or five different perspectives? With copy/pasted dialogue showing up in all the stories that covered that scene? We're still accomplishing miracles to have as little overlap as we have had so far... and for things to have integrated as well as they have.

And there are professional, make their living from, authors that are copying and pasting entire chapters in their books.

Multiple authors same scene. Worth every penny I am paying for it.

Seriously that you guys are doing a great job, and if I see the same block of text, I won't complain.

Domoviye wrote:

Nagrij wrote:

Domoviye wrote: Kelly intrigues me. In girl form she is shy and scared of practically everything, as a guy he's confident and joking. Is he that much weaker as a girl or simply unsure of 'herself'?

One thing about Kelly is... well, she didn't want to get beaten up by freshman girls. Outside of a setting that basically infers she has to put her life in the hands of people she doesn't know? Both versions of Kelly are much more outgoing.

But being wary about new people with a power like that? Just makes sense.

That's fair, she just seemed really different so I was curious.

Kelly started male and then mutated, becoming a 'bistable shifter' who has, quite evidently from what you've read so far, a male form and a female form and not a lot of control over when he shifts. Now if you were in that position, wouldn't you be a little less-than-happy being in girl form, being hit on by guys, and not quite sure when you might shift back (which could lead to interesting situations and a bucket-load of angry girls)?

Owl and Kelly are my creations, so you can ask more if you want. Not guaranteed you get an answer, but you can ask ....

As to the mixed-up edit, you have to remember that we have bits and pieces coming in from 5 or 6 authors, and story ideas being generated on the side with a lot of "Oops, please pull this bit" or "change that bit," and multiple versions of the story in multiple authors' hands. Not an easy juggling act.

Ah, we get to see a bit more of the fates of some of the Gen1 characters. Three children so quickly? Sort of a surprise with Lanie - she seemed more like the sort who would wait, or at least not have several young children around all at once, though if there were twins it's not as surprising - but not too implausible.

Some more hints about Okami's past. Clearly there's more going on than I thought. If she's used the codename Samurai in the past, at such a young age, it hints to something unusual. Possibly an age regression? Also, just because she wasn't introduced with the changelings doesn't mean she isn't one herself; the Japanese government would have a lot of reason to bury something like that. I find it really unlikely, but we'll see.

Language barrier or no, I find it hard to believe that Taka is as clueless as he seems. He's pretty over-focused on the ronin thing, though, so I'm not sure.

I'm not surprised that some of the Amazons would have a problem with changelings, nor that some would find them interesting. This could be awkward, to say the least, as it is clear that StahlFaust (is the CamelCase significant, I wonder?) is likely to hassle both the changelings and any Amazons that take a liking to any of them.

Dasypod, you say? Can he fart fire and teleport two inches in any direction (NSFW)? More seriously, having the Spirit of the Armadillo sounds like it would interesting... until you realize what that actually means, that is. I gather that he's a pretty low-end Avatar if he's having that much trouble with his spirit. Is it armadillos in general, or only three-banded armadillos (the ones that roll themselves up into balls)? That could be significant. I doubt he'll show up much, anyway, but it has the potential for an interesting little side story.

Good to see Everhart still around, and the head of security no less (if somewhat predictable). Interesting back-and-forth between Sam and Kurenai. Seems as if the AI is there to... Oversee(?) Hikaru as much as to assist her.

Then there's what seems to be some form of possibly-Feminist Fight Club? Let's see if FFC sticks.

Doctor Cody - could it be? It certainly is, 'twould seem. Samurai, huh? Now I'm itching for that backstory to hurry up a little.

Well then, that's a bit of information about the Sioux Falls League. I can't help but think that Pejuta retired out of a mixture of responsibility and guilt for the events, as I imagine that something mythos-related was probably targeting her specifically. That does raise further questions though, such as lingering wounds... Oh, and Vanessa likes Laura for some inexplicable reason? It can't possibly be due to a mentioned glamour...

Oh, well I guess calling themselves the Amazons makes sense. FFC didn't stick at all. An entire club of Hippolyta's, though...

Who is Silverblade and why didn't they come back? That certainly sounds ominous.

Getting some bad vibes from Fiona, given how easily Tanya seems to have agreed to scoping out the Amazons... Bianca has some reasonable caution, balanced well by seeking information.

I really don't know whether to feel sorry for poor Taka, or jealous of the attention he's receiving, so I think settling for "both" is a good compromise.

Even at this early stage, it appears that the scene is being set for a number of catfights over prospective relationships. Now I just need some popcorn at hand...

Oh yes. Brita will definitely be making the Amazons an issue.

It's still not Saturday, though! I guess next part we'll finally get some idea as to what kind of person the new Headmaster is, and what it means to be at Whateley in Gen 2? Gah!

VI girls

I was like, wha? 'Cause I thought Virt. Intell. 'stead of Venus Inc.

"Ja! All of them are verdammt changelings, fälschen Mädchen!"

When I skipped down there to make comments, forgetting that I was on my personal copy... I thought we were back in the secret lab. ... Secret Lab doesn't have Whateley Spies, right?

***

Have we had anyone dodge/stop the Bellows Empathy Touch?

***

Vanity Girl's Mythos Injury. Why not cured by Pejuta's Mythos Removals and stuff? How many Mythos Removers are there, anyway? I guess Super Rare, but is Pejuta the only one?

***

Also, wondering about New Olympians, and their impact, 'cause soo many things that are named after Greek-stuff, could have New Olympian fingers in the pie.

Amazons are mini-cult of Freya or something? Ares? Mars? Some other Fem-God / War God? Tiamat? Perhaps not Tiamat...

***

Dunno why, but my eyes feel skipy-skipy...

***

"No problem. Go eat. On its worst day, the food is better than Bragg at its best."Hikaru stopped for a moment at Sam's statement, then nodded once, and left.

Damn! Military-specific reference quotey things! ... So want the EXP to be able to make things like that...

***

Hmm... Is there anyone that could test out of both the basic and advanced the MA courses? I guess something like a Memory Ripper or something...

***

Oh! Tears of Poseidon! Betting that's a Ref for the Canon vers. of Keeping Cool. ... Wait... Was KC had Seeds or Tears of Persephone?? ... IIRC it was Tears...

... How many things are named after Greek-stuff??? *Pissed that I have to mess with so much if I want to Greek-centric fanfic...*

In other news... If I'm right and it's for Keeping Cool, then the name is even more punny, 'cause Water = Poiseidon = Cooling... Or tap into Earth-shaker and Subvert the Pun.

... Are there more Water Users than Fire? Or the other way around? Or about even??

Malady wrote:
Vanity Girl's Mythos Injury. Why not cured by Pejuta's Mythos Removals and stuff? How many Mythos Removers are there, anyway? I guess Super Rare, but is Pejuta the only one.

On the Mythos magic scale, there's Nasty, Super-nasty, Mega-nasty, and Hyper-nasty. With nasty enough mythos magic, a human's mind can be warped by simply trying to read it. It's very, very unlikely that Hekate could cast anything above Super-nasty, which is what Pejuta cleansed from Skybolt. If what injured Vanity Girl was of the Mega-nasty or Hyper-nasty variety (What's the difference? More nasty!), then it's very possible that Pejuta can't remove it.

And just for clarification, Unhcegila's sons are of the "a whole bunch Nasty but not super-Nasty" variety.

Ametros wrote: She strikes me as more the exception to the rule than anything else.

I believe the concern was about the likes of Exemplars pushing out many normal actors due to the media's demand for pretty faces and bodies on screen? She seems to fill a niche of bit parts, as quoted, that would be difficult for perhaps even CGI to get the same quality. It's possible she's tolerated through the understanding that she can only do so much work, as opposed to an entire demographic muscling into the scene.

Or more likely she's just working for those smaller studios who allow mutants - I'm about 90% certain they were mentioned in passing somewhere...

I'm not fully caught up in this thread, so this may have already been said. I suspect that she (and others like her) would be working under Taft Hartley waivers or the WU equivalent.

Malady wrote: Have we had anyone dodge/stop the Bellows Empathy Touch?

Anna did, for a while anyway, in "Spring, and a Young Squirrel's Fancy..." . He was explaining his power to her, which set her off on a guilt trip about her behavior, so Bellows held off. Given that he insisted that she start sessions with him from then on, she probably did let him scan her at some point later, though.

Also, what happens if there's an actual fairy, baby-swap, 'changeling', changeling? What would you call them?? Like a mythical one only. Not a Mythical Changeling that is also a Whateley-style Changeling.

And that's not bringing in Changelings of the World of Darkness...

Malady wrote: Also, what happens if there's an actual fairy, baby-swap, 'changeling', changeling? What would you call them?? Like a mythical one only. Not a Mythical Changeling that is also a Whateley-style Changeling.

And that's not bringing in Changelings of the World of Darkness...

I'd call them Shirley.

Reminded by Morgana and Cultists from Written in Blood Chat...

Why is Morgana generalizing her want to help, to being against generallish villainy, when she was taken by mages, who, IIRC, have a very large set of mage-only villain motivations?

Well, no, its just More Magical Power, but all mages want that, and its only mages who'd want that.

... Nvm, she was taken for experimentation as a MGC carrier... All MGC carriers are vulnerable to that, and that's a motivation any mad/villain scientist can get behind, which is a larger set that Mages. ...

"Do you want to be a hero?"

Morgana looked down at her hands as she thought through her answer. "I'm not sure. Maybe not, if you mean a cape-wearing hero. But ...."

Bellows nodded encouragingly as she slowly continued.

"I don't want anyone to have to go through what I did"- her fingers twisted together unconsciously, hard enough to make her knuckles pale - "not ever. If I can do anything to stop people like the scum who kidnapped me, I will. I have powers now, I'm not helpless any more. I don't know if that means being a hero, I don't think it does. But I don't know if I want to make that my life's purpose, not yet. I still have a lot to learn about my power, and how it works."

Basically, her talking about being a general hero doesn't feel like it meshes with the "I don't want people to go through what I went through", 'cause it's not mage-focused, when her captivity and stuff were so mage-focused...

So...what exactly is the punishment for giving away the Poesies' secret?

Brita has been rather forthcoming since the spell wore off enough. All the Amazons know about changelings. It's going to slip out that someone has been telling.

Mrs. Horton hasn't mellowed any since Gen 1, as far as I can tell.

Katssun wrote: So...what exactly is the punishment for giving away the Poesies' secret?

Brita has been rather forthcoming since the spell wore off enough. All the Amazons know about changelings. It's going to slip out that someone has been telling.

Mrs. Horton hasn't mellowed any since Gen 1, as far as I can tell.

So far, she's told precisely one person - Val, who is her lover. It's not like she's going around telling all the Amazons.

elrodw wrote: So far, she's told precisely one person - Val, who is her lover. It's not like she's going around telling all the Amazons.

Ah, that's not how I interpreted those paragraphs. I thought she was only telling Val about these specific girls, but had previously shared the general info with the others. Thanks for the clarification.

During the summer between her freshman and sophomore years, she'd discovered with the help of a friend that her mutation slowly broke down spells which were placed on her, so she was now free of the restrictive spell Mrs. Horton had placed on her and she was able to warn her fellow Amazons.

When a reader combines those two parts, it makes it seem like she was already spreading it around.

Have there been any hints that we've missed?

elrodw wrote: Unhcegila's sons are of the "a whole bunch Nasty but not super-Nasty" variety.

Back in G1, there was also Kigatilik, the Inuit shaman-hunter, described thus:

Kayda 4 p04 wrote: It was a large furry beast, easily five times the height and seven times as broad as a man, covered in brown and white mottled, shaggy fur, although it wasn't clear how much of the white was natural color and how much was ice and snow frozen to the matted fur. The creature's mouth was cavernous, full of sharp, dagger-like teeth, with four huge, scimitar-like fangs jutting angrily upward and downward from both jaws.

That sounds as though it would be in one of the Super Nasty or Mega Nasty classes...

-oOo-

Meanwhile, it sounds as though you'd have to get Morgana really peeved to get her to the level whereby her dragonfire would be out of control (given in testing she knew when she was approaching the limits of her control), however, as noted in magical testing, there are other aspects of control that aren't perfect when she's in her dragonform.

Taka's picked up a harem, and his attitude when picked on (neither fighting nor allowing his Venus Inc harem to fight) may earn him some brownie points with Security. Of course, it doesn't stop them from finding his tormentors when he's otherwise occupied...

Meanwhile, Brita's apparent loathing of the Changelings doesn't seem to be purely irrational transphobia given her comment that "they're nothing but trouble!" - Annette's pointing out earlier that the last time Whateley had such a large cohort of Changelings was the infamous Team Kimba (tales of which have probably been subjected to several years' worth of poetic license and Chinese Whispers, so may bear little resemblance to reality) may indicate that Brita's disdain may be due to casually associating all Changelings (and particularly this group) with TK. Her impressions aren't likely to change given their team name

However, since she'd previously rushed two of the M³ girls (Morgana and Erica), and indeed, drew the club's attention to the entire group, backtracking in front of her club mates could be tricky - even more so given Val's courting of Laura.

Heck, given Val's attitude to Laura both here and in part 3, I'm reminded of a certain Rosalyn Dekkard back in G1 - Val may consider Laura to be her "project" for the year. Given Elrod has his hands in both relationships (not literally - you know what I mean!)...

Finally, an interesting couple of snippets from Dr Cody's conversation with Kodiak after Hikaru's session:

Kansas p4 wrote: *Not quite the same, not quite the same, I'm sure. At least I only had to deal with one overbearing royal, who needed a paw slap on occasion.*
"It doesn't help that she's got a double dose of that programming."

Currently I've going with the theory of Amaterasu + Japanese Monarchy, but things may turn out differently in her origin tale (to be published in due course).

As for her previous (code)name, leafing through the Wikipedia article for Samurai indicates that while they've always been warriors, their status has changed over the centures - originally officers of the middle and upper ranks of the warrior class, guarding the lands of their Daimyo, by the 15th and 16th centuries people born into other social strata could make names for themselves as warriors and become de facto samurai, while in the 16th century the Samurai caste became codified as permanent and herititary, with non-Samurai forbidden to carry weaons, and in the 17th century their role became more bureaucratic, with their "katana and wakizashi becoming more of a symbolic emblem of power rather than a weapon used in daily life", while in the 19th Century the US arrived and used Gunboat Diplomacy to force Japan to open their borders to trade.

As for Samurai wives, they were essentially housewives and subordinate to their husbands, but were trained in use of a naginata (polearm) and kaiken (knife) for protecting their household, family and honour if the need arose.

elrodw wrote:

Domoviye wrote:

Nagrij wrote:

Domoviye wrote: Kelly intrigues me. In girl form she is shy and scared of practically everything, as a guy he's confident and joking. Is he that much weaker as a girl or simply unsure of 'herself'?

One thing about Kelly is... well, she didn't want to get beaten up by freshman girls. Outside of a setting that basically infers she has to put her life in the hands of people she doesn't know? Both versions of Kelly are much more outgoing.

But being wary about new people with a power like that? Just makes sense.

That's fair, she just seemed really different so I was curious.

Kelly started male and then mutated, becoming a 'bistable shifter' who has, quite evidently from what you've read so far, a male form and a female form and not a lot of control over when he shifts. Now if you were in that position, wouldn't you be a little less-than-happy being in girl form, being hit on by guys, and not quite sure when you might shift back (which could lead to interesting situations and a bucket-load of angry girls)?

Owl and Kelly are my creations, so you can ask more if you want. Not guaranteed you get an answer, but you can ask ....

As to the mixed-up edit, you have to remember that we have bits and pieces coming in from 5 or 6 authors, and story ideas being generated on the side with a lot of "Oops, please pull this bit" or "change that bit," and multiple versions of the story in multiple authors' hands. Not an easy juggling act.

Kelly's personality makes sense, I just wanted some more info. Seeing more of him/her will definitely be interesting.

It's always nice to see more of the G1 characters showing up in G2. I was surprised that Cody had joined the medical staff, but it took me a moment to remember that that's what his spirit was, so it made sense if he came back in that capacity. Does this mean we'll be seeing a certain Nally in the auto shop?

Perhaps this is a mis-read of the situation, but things on campus seem a bit more tense at the start of G2 than they were in G1. I could easily see some of the clubs looking to form training teams being disappointed at M³ already being somewhat well established, but there's nothing to say that people can't be on multiple training teams (much to the dismay of some of our cast of misfits).

The dissolution of the Sioux Falls League (kinda) throws a plot point off in the tale I was spinning with Brenda Franks, but I've got a fairly simple retcon that could take care of it. But as the usual disclaimer states 'It's not canon, so who cares?'.

Nagrij wrote: I'd call them Shirley.

Don't call them that! They will surely get surly.

Regarding Gen1 characters: it has been nine years -- long enough for most of the Gen1 students to be nearing the peak of their abilities, not long enough for most of them to have retired/died. It's to be expected that a number of them would be in high visibility positions (like Pendragon), and would be the ones sought out for consultations (like Jadis, Lindsey and Toni)

As for staff... some turnover is to be expected, even without the Event. Ito, Bardue, Burlington-Smythe and Mrs. Ryan were pretty old, and likely to have retired. Delarose was middle-aged, and might have got to the point where the stress of the job got to be too much for him (he was already on a non-caffeine diet on Gen1); with Sam available to take over the job (instead of, say, Trout), he could retire with a clear conscience. Tractor has the skills and the experience to be a good choice for teacher.
Wyatt is quite likely a very recent acquisition, coming to Doyle for his residency -- he graduates Whateley in 2008, then there's four years of pre-med and four more of medical school... he might have shaved one or at most two years from that, between some schools having less stringent undergraduate requirements and some AP credits from Whateley, but I doubt that he could get his MD before 2014. So the ink on his diploma is still pretty wet, ergo, resident.

Depends on his degree.
he COULD be a doctor of PSYCHOLOGY, which can be done, if you go nuts, in about 5 years.

Even MD could be done more or less in 5, too. Admittedly, you'd be doing 21 credit hours a semester, plus 9 in summer, but it _can be done_.

Not sure if they are still doing it, but a friend of mine was accepted to Northwestern's 6 year medical school. I'm not sure exactly how it worked, but it cut two years out of getting an MD. It was an intense preset class schedule, and I think summer classes.

MageOhki wrote: Depends on his degree.
he COULD be a doctor of PSYCHOLOGY, which can be done, if you go nuts, in about 5 years.

Even MD could be done more or less in 5, too. Admittedly, you'd be doing 21 credit hours a semester, plus 9 in summer, but it _can be done_.

Yes, but doing so while also dealing with all the trouble that comes with being a primary Whateley protagonist (eg. Nimbus, the Bastard, student murders, Halloween debacles, etc.) would be just slightly beyond the pale...

Unless of course you are some kind of super human...

Oh, wait...

ShockHawk wrote:

MageOhki wrote: Depends on his degree.
he COULD be a doctor of PSYCHOLOGY, which can be done, if you go nuts, in about 5 years.

Even MD could be done more or less in 5, too. Admittedly, you'd be doing 21 credit hours a semester, plus 9 in summer, but it _can be done_.

Yes, but doing so while also dealing with all the trouble that comes with being a primary Whateley protagonist (eg. Nimbus, the Bastard, student murders, Halloween debacles, etc.) would be just slightly beyond the pale...

Unless of course you are some kind of super human...

Oh, wait...

And EXs are mega-smarts, so they could learn faster, and test out of things... And Kodiak spirit has Med Knowledge to help cheat/pass.

Malady wrote:

ShockHawk wrote:

MageOhki wrote: Depends on his degree.
he COULD be a doctor of PSYCHOLOGY, which can be done, if you go nuts, in about 5 years.

Even MD could be done more or less in 5, too. Admittedly, you'd be doing 21 credit hours a semester, plus 9 in summer, but it _can be done_.

Yes, but doing so while also dealing with all the trouble that comes with being a primary Whateley protagonist (eg. Nimbus, the Bastard, student murders, Halloween debacles, etc.) would be just slightly beyond the pale...

Unless of course you are some kind of super human...

Oh, wait...

And EXs are mega-smarts, so they could learn faster, and test out of things... And Kodiak spirit has Med Knowledge to help cheat/pass.

Not all EXs are mega smart. I give you Bubble.

Valentine wrote:

Malady wrote:

ShockHawk wrote:

MageOhki wrote: Depends on his degree.
he COULD be a doctor of PSYCHOLOGY, which can be done, if you go nuts, in about 5 years.

Even MD could be done more or less in 5, too. Admittedly, you'd be doing 21 credit hours a semester, plus 9 in summer, but it _can be done_.

Yes, but doing so while also dealing with all the trouble that comes with being a primary Whateley protagonist (eg. Nimbus, the Bastard, student murders, Halloween debacles, etc.) would be just slightly beyond the pale...

Unless of course you are some kind of super human...

Oh, wait...

And EXs are mega-smarts, so they could learn faster, and test out of things... And Kodiak spirit has Med Knowledge to help cheat/pass.

Not all EXs are mega smart. I give you Bubble.

Right! ... Can you teach intelligence? ... Hopefully Yes? ... High level EX-es can mimic a low-level Gadg, IIRC?

But anyway, Kodiak has a lot going for him to be an instance of Improbable Age, right or wrong?

Malady wrote:

Valentine wrote:

Malady wrote:

ShockHawk wrote:

MageOhki wrote: Depends on his degree.
he COULD be a doctor of PSYCHOLOGY, which can be done, if you go nuts, in about 5 years.

Even MD could be done more or less in 5, too. Admittedly, you'd be doing 21 credit hours a semester, plus 9 in summer, but it _can be done_.

Yes, but doing so while also dealing with all the trouble that comes with being a primary Whateley protagonist (eg. Nimbus, the Bastard, student murders, Halloween debacles, etc.) would be just slightly beyond the pale...

Unless of course you are some kind of super human...

Oh, wait...

And EXs are mega-smarts, so they could learn faster, and test out of things... And Kodiak spirit has Med Knowledge to help cheat/pass.

Not all EXs are mega smart. I give you Bubble.

Right! ... Can you teach intelligence? ... Hopefully Yes? ... High level EX-es can mimic a low-level Gadg, IIRC?

But anyway, Kodiak has a lot going for him to be an instance of Improbable Age, right or wrong?

Well more importantly his presence means that we can guess who the school's lawyer is.

mhalpern wrote:

Malady wrote:

Valentine wrote:

Malady wrote:

ShockHawk wrote:

MageOhki wrote: Depends on his degree.
he COULD be a doctor of PSYCHOLOGY, which can be done, if you go nuts, in about 5 years.

Even MD could be done more or less in 5, too. Admittedly, you'd be doing 21 credit hours a semester, plus 9 in summer, but it _can be done_.

Yes, but doing so while also dealing with all the trouble that comes with being a primary Whateley protagonist (eg. Nimbus, the Bastard, student murders, Halloween debacles, etc.) would be just slightly beyond the pale...

Unless of course you are some kind of super human...

Oh, wait...

And EXs are mega-smarts, so they could learn faster, and test out of things... And Kodiak spirit has Med Knowledge to help cheat/pass.

Not all EXs are mega smart. I give you Bubble.

Right! ... Can you teach intelligence? ... Hopefully Yes? ... High level EX-es can mimic a low-level Gadg, IIRC?

But anyway, Kodiak has a lot going for him to be an instance of Improbable Age, right or wrong?

Well more importantly his presence means that we can guess who the school's lawyer is.

Jadis?

While that wouldn't match what we've seen of Jadis in "Curse of the Dragon Queen", it's much more plausible than Doc would be. Just because Lanie loves to rules-lawyer doesn't mean she is interested in practicing law; if anything it would probably be the opposite, for her. She'd be too busy designing starships by then, anyway, I would expect, though Grizzly might have something to say about that idea (she wasn't exactly thrilled by her last interstellar trip) so perhaps not.

Arcanist Lupus wrote:

mhalpern wrote:

Malady wrote:

Valentine wrote:

Malady wrote:

ShockHawk wrote:

MageOhki wrote: Depends on his degree.
he COULD be a doctor of PSYCHOLOGY, which can be done, if you go nuts, in about 5 years.

Even MD could be done more or less in 5, too. Admittedly, you'd be doing 21 credit hours a semester, plus 9 in summer, but it _can be done_.

Yes, but doing so while also dealing with all the trouble that comes with being a primary Whateley protagonist (eg. Nimbus, the Bastard, student murders, Halloween debacles, etc.) would be just slightly beyond the pale...

Unless of course you are some kind of super human...

Oh, wait...

And EXs are mega-smarts, so they could learn faster, and test out of things... And Kodiak spirit has Med Knowledge to help cheat/pass.

Not all EXs are mega smart. I give you Bubble.

Right! ... Can you teach intelligence? ... Hopefully Yes? ... High level EX-es can mimic a low-level Gadg, IIRC?

But anyway, Kodiak has a lot going for him to be an instance of Improbable Age, right or wrong?

Well more importantly his presence means that we can guess who the school's lawyer is.

Jadis?

*twitch* ... I was gonna say that she could be the secondary lawyer and Loophole as primary, but then I remembered that Jadis was freelancing or whatever.

But I could still be right. ... It's not like lawyering is a thing where you're tethered to a client... I think? Totally have only ideas from TV...

EDIT: Ninja'd!

I Don't Think We're In Kansas Anymore (part 4) wrote: Laura laughed. "Silly, of course you didn't. Oh, and I already turned the sound cancelling on so you don't need to set it up."

Sure you did, Laura. Sure you did.

cprime wrote: I was surprised that Cody had joined the medical staff, but it took me a moment to remember that that's what his spirit was, so it made sense if he came back in that capacity.

He also told Dr. Bellows that he was thinking about becoming a doctor or therapist in a previous story.

Well Loophole could be the school's patent lawyer, and supervisor for the gearheads maybe a legal auxiliary to help keep MCO paws off, after all look at her old MID. Probably taking that job in exchange for the Whateley discount on materials.

But here's an interesting question about the Loophole angle. Did she ever regain her gadgeteering? Last i remember she lost it during the process of gaining the bear spirit.

Yolandria wrote: But here's an interesting question about the Loophole angle. Did she ever regain her gadgeteering? Last i remember she lost it during the process of gaining the bear spirit.

She was working on it. And its not like the loss is permanent, or at least according to current knowledge, it shouldn't be.

So I'd expect her to Gadg in Gen2...

I Don't Think We're In Kansas Anymore Part 4 comments
Sam now head of security, thought she might be by this point, her powers and nature make her very effective for the job. Wonder what type of blades Hikaru and Taka have and what in the paperwork got Sam's eyebrows to rise. Ms. Beaumont still active at Whateley, wonder if she will take the papers at face value or not, even if she does she might ask Hikaru and Taka to demonstrate their skills just so she can see them for herself. Nice interaction between Sam and Kurenai, always good to have a foil for a possibly overzealous AI. And former students on retainer, meaning Cyberkitty, Blue, and possibly Whisper as well. Good to hear they are all still around as well.

Brita Bauman, with the attitude already because 2 people aren't at a clubhouse, have a bad feeling. Dating a girl called Val and calls BS from the patriarchy, oh no. Please tell me she isn't some type of radical feminist who thinks all males are oppressing females everywhere. Guy won't take no from a girl but hasn't turned physical so she assaults him, great, psycho in the making. Trisha Loyola, TK brick and talks about loving the fight ring, oh boy.

Brita broke the rules, did a larger expansion than allowed and hide it behind a bookcase, talk of Mrs. Carson not being there so who will enforce the "stupid" rule which would get her expelled. Knew she was trouble. And another expulsion offense, illegal access to student records using a friend on the inside. And now they wish to recruit the girls to their little fight club, Eurydice and Brita are going to be in serious trouble with Mrs. Horton if she finds out about the rules breaking.

Doyle Medical Center and Dr. Cody, Kodiak somehow guided Wyatt down the path to becoming a doctor. Knew he was still around with the picture that Tractor has and talk of his friends, didn't know he would be working at Whateley, nice surprise. 3 kids, knew that from the little write up of 10 years later version of Lanie which E.E. posted months ago. Why would Hikaru get upset at seeing a mother with her children...unless something huge happened with her 1st or 2nd burnout which caused her to age regress somehow and she wishes she could have started a family herself by now.

Bear of a man and not comfortable in the doctor outfit, some things never change. Psychological counselor, he has been busy since graduating from Whateley. Underage for Japanese driver's license but not an issue from what he read from her file, definitely getting an age regression caused by burnout vibe here. Samurai, a different codename now, life was upended, okay she has to have been age regressed somehow. Man, Wyatt has a point about no one going through life alone and everyone needing help, yet Hikaru is being stubborn and thinks needing therapy is a sign of weakness or some other stupid thing that various societies have dubbed it over the years.

Wyatt has been through a lot, seen a lot at Whateley and interacting with her fellow students there, and still has a year to go so for him to say he isn't sure he would still be standing after what Hikaru has been through, just what kind of nightmare stuff has she been put through!?! Amaterasu is the voice of reason to the stubborn Hikaru, doubt she would have trusted Wyatt otherwise. And Wyatt still calling Kodiak Baloo, priceless. Kodiak had to deal with one overbearing royal, with Hikaru it is a two-for-one package, Wyatt has his work cut out for him. Polo shirt now, that seems more to Wyatt's speed.

Damon messing with Laura about Tanya being cute, just because a girl is in Whitman and has GSD doesn't mean she can't be cute. Sequoia, tall redhead with a sense of humor who knows how to put Mganga in his place when needed. Pretty blonde with small horns and goat legs, fawn package GSD. Damon charms the girls but just makes Sequoia laugh at his use of a British accent. Sequoia is a Whitman RA, wasn't expecting that. Toison is the fawn girl and Shisa is the large cat in the harness, who is apparently a student. Talk about a severe GSD, poor girl. She seems to take it all in stride though and even is amused by others reactions to her.

Good grief, we knew Laura father was bad, but to target the youngest son like that and leave the two oldest alone, he is even worse than I believed before. Vanessa is still a beauty, still wondering what happened to her that got them to retire. Yikes! Something, a thing, killed Farm Boy and Ping Pong, almost killed the rest of the team, so Twinkletoes quit to pursue his old flame in France, Debra told Kayda she was done with heroing and Vanessa decided it was time to retire, thus the Sioux Falls League broke up. I knew something bad happened to get Vanity Girl and Tractor to retire but not that bad, to lose two of their dear friends and nearly die themselves.

Tanya isn't that good at reading warning signs in others, while Laura could actually become a detective when she grows up with her observation skills. Tanya goes off to greet their friends while Laura stays to talk with Vanessa, even being told it is good she doesn't wish to be a hero, as most kids don't realize the high price heroes pay. And she even gets to off to talk about Debra and Kayda since she revealed she is in Poe to Vanessa. Something demonic and mythos tainted which regen and healing don't work on, so Vanessa is confined to a powered wheelchair. So bad that even Kayda couldn't remove the taint, that is serious. Paralyzed from mid-back down.

From the way she is talking, it took her ability to have children away as well, that is just cruel. And Laura is like Kayda in that aspect, a changeling who likes girls. Boy, Vanessa can read what Laura was thinking when she Debra and Kayda in that picture together like a book. Debra and Kayda in New York and modeling, good to know they are still around and still together, they are meant to be, especially after all they have been through already and will be in the future.

"Chase your dreams, dear. Chase them with everything you have, before they fly out of reach. If that means you have to be brave to deal with other people's - or society's - prejudices, then pray for the strength, but don't wait too long. Or your dream might be out of your reach."

Another thing I wish I heard when I was younger.

Tia wants to tell everyone about Jamie being at the school, but none of the others know about the picnic which Laura and the others went to, oh boy. Morgana had testing this morning but should be here, Hikaru had testing before she met with Wyatt, which would explain why she was ill-tempered more than usual. And Erica learns about Hikaru having two burnouts, extra testing due to burnouts, yikes.

Power testing all morning and didn't feed Morgana, those power testing wonks are nuts! Morgana messing with Bianca like that with the pelvic exam, by the time she gets to testing Bianca is going to be a nervous wreck if Morgana doesn't lighten up with the teasing. More teasing, this time about how bad the regen test is. And the testing suits, no student likes them that I've ever read. Between EX-2 and 3 in normal form, dragon form has energizer traits, like a low-level energizer superman.

And mention of magic being bound to her causes Morgana to shudders, she acts like she is taking it well but still has a lot of PTSD and trauma to work through. Had her push her dragons' fire to the point of it going out of control, burning up the suit and sensors, and nearly overloading the force fields, yikes! 3 times in 2 weeks for Morgana's clothes getting trashed or burned off. Wait, she was rescued only 2 weeks ago!?! Good lord, it is a wonder she is doing as well as she is with everything she was subjected to, she is stronger willed than she knows or good at compartmentalizing things. Erica calling her Costume Malfunction Girl, hope no one outside their group heard that or else Morgana is going to be teased even worse or have pervs following her around.

Ms. Grimes still around and doing the magic test, good to see her still around. Wonder where Circe is and if she is still around as well. Push magic into a special ball and when she did it in dragon form, broke the ball, so no magic in dragon form until she gets it under better control. Brita shows up, goes by StahlFaust, member of the Amazons. Oh great, no modern group going by the name Amazons is ever a good thing. Fight to help look after other girls, how in the world did they get made an official club with a slogan like that. Militant when necessary, but who defines when it is necessary, that is the problem.

Brita states she is Poe too and looks at Erica, uh oh, she doesn't know about them and assumes they are some of the lesbians at Poe, at least with the way she smiled at Erica it sure seems that way. Talk of Tanya and Ratel and detention, with them all thinking detention in Hawthorne is the worst because of Bailey being told so by her mom. Alvery and Tina are there and trying to recruit Taka, which is a comedy of miscommunication.

Trying to convince Taka to join Venus Inc. as a male model, he says he will think about it, while Tina almost blows for them with inappropriate flirting. That girl needs to learn better self control. The other girls laugh about the club being called Venus Inc. the name would drive most American boys away. While Tia finally reveals that Jamie Howe is at Whateley on a pilot program.

Kim Hashina-Perfume-woken up by her roommate Cassie at 5:30 am to go ogle Taka exercising without his shirt on, oh brother. All those routines and with a shinai, naginata, bo staff, and nagamaki, good grief, no wonder he wakes up so early to do all his exercise routines. And all those girls just watching him, bet at least a few are filming him with their phones.

Kelly back to boy form and meets Mark, a boy shifter with at least a snowy owl form. Started the day as a girl and bumped into a British guy who was leering at her, turned into a guy and probably scared the British guy off hitting on girls for a while. Mark saying he likes Kelly better as girl, stating his girlfriend Rose is open to three-ways, but Kelly says it wouldn't work out, Kelly has a complicated life. Kelly talks about recruiting Taka to their training team since someone named Silverblade didn't come back, wonder what happened to Silverblade, almost sounds like foreshadowing to me.

Idiots bashing Taka and nearly getting attacked by the collective girls there, talk about not using your brain there, never insult a guy girls are ogling where they can hear you. And Taka is finished with his morning routine, to the disappointment of all the girls as he puts his shirt back on after toweling off some of the sweat.

Hikaru being tested in her sword skills, while Laura reports to Sensei Tolman, good to see her around still. Ms. Beaumont showing her sword skills, while Laura is impressed with Hikaru's skills. Almost held her own against Ms. Beaumont, that is a highly impressive feat, especially since she has probably only gotten better with the passing years. And Hikaru wishes to observe Laura in action, which Laura wonders if she did something to anger her, if saying no would anger her. Laura needs to learn not everyone is judging you for ever little thing, otherwise you have too much stress in life, speaking from experience here.

Kama, sai, and bo, interesting, would have loved to learn how to wield a bo staff and tonfas myself. Shoot, I would be impressed with someone who has had 5 years of training and probably hasn't been able to train in months since she manifested having that level of skill. Though understanding it is multiple schools of fighting and not just Karate, plus being made TA did help her mood. Wonder how she will do fighting others with various powers. Laura learned something about Hikaru and not to make assumptions, plus Hikaru even cheered her up by saying she is way ahead and it should be an easy class for Laura, at least for part of the term.

In New York at an office building, a Jennifer Kelly, a professional, meets a Mr. Granier. She is delivering sapphires called the Tears of Poseidon, which she seems to have acquired for him through illegal means. An odd pink stone on a string which glowed when near the Tears of Poseidon, of boy, someone dangerous has some probably powerful artifacts now. Jennifer Kelly, alert, almost cat-like, edge like a secret agent. This job was a nromal day for Jennifer Kelly, wonder what an unusual day would be like for her. Wait! Jennifer Kelly was the civilian name of Wicked created by Mrs. Carson for Laine in Whilst Any Speaks. Don't tell me she became a criminal or is it complicated.

Yikes, Dr. Bellows seeing a little of what Morgana went through as flashes of images due to his touch-based empathy, surprised he isn't in worse shape after that. PTSD with nightmares, easier than waking episodes but still harsh to deal with, especially if the nightmares become so vivid you can't tell they are a dream even subconsciously. Helping people in trouble is what you're supposed to do, if only more people had her attitude instead of being afraid of lawsuits from those they save, or the authorities or city actually charging you for trying to do the right thing.

Not wishing for others to go what she went through, helping if she can, anyone can understand that. Becoming something her kidnappers would fear, with the PTSD and what they did to her even that I can understand. Without Dr. Bellows there, I doubt Morgana or Tia or any of the other students who go to him for counseling would be in any shape for school for long. Façade to cover her emotions, anxiety issues over her powers, especially control, shows signs of a temper and needs to learn better control over it. After all she went through, just free for 2 weeks now, she is doing better than most would.

Fiona O'Callaghan, high-level Exemplar who burns through calories like an energizer, and Amazon member trying to recruit Tanya, ugh. And she knows about the actual fight in New York, plus the Ratel incident, saying Tanya isn't afraid to fight. Oh boy, going down to their clubhouse like this even with telling the others, Tanya can be too trusting sometimes. Laura teasing her about going to hang out with the Amazons, while Erica thinks it is a good idea to check it out to hone her fighting skills.

Morgana mentions the attempted recruiting of her and Erica, while Bianca says something doesn't feel right about the group due to the Amazons name. Man-hating lesbian fighters, which Bianca thinks it would be prudent to find out about them. A little bit of paranoia helps sometimes.

Venus Inc. girls in Twain and jaws are dropping, poor boys don't know what is going on. Trying to catch Taka and talk to him more about joining, but haven't they realized they need a translator to get through to him beyond the most simple of things. Alvery is very conniving, coming up with all that just to have all the Venus Inc. girls there to convince Taka to join. Shawn Padilla, RA for Twain and dating Alvery despite being a non-EX guy, how did that happen.

Bowing to Alvery while shirtless and sweaty, forcing herself not to leer at him, she has some willpower to do that. Shawn getting a little jealous of Alvery's attention to Taka, while the VI girls are going to escort him to the testing labs. Alvery knows how to turn on the charm. Poor guy at the reception desk never stood a chance. And an adult woman checking out Taka with a smile, I'm starting to think he has an aura or pheromones or something going on beyond just his looks. And the boy talking about Taka looking so gay and the girls wasting their time, jealously is the likely answer.

Even waiting for him, supposedly in their clubhouse but just got there, and offering him coffee, while he prefers tea. They are laying it on a little thick, if Taka knew America girls better and spoken and understood English better it would be different. Melville boys calling Taka gay and bashing him about being a Venus Inc. boy, Alvery almost brings out a spell slip but Taka stops her and says it would be his fight, oh boy. Idiot taunting him, a bigot who thinks he is gay, but Taka only fights for a cause and words don't make a cause, not fighting fear, only dishonor. He may be a ronin but he has a lot of self control in that situation for someone his age.

Gay bashers who don't like them and find any excuse to attack them, shorter one called Ed, there are always a few at any school, even Whateley. And Meredith ask Taka if he is gay, he doesn't know that it means homosexual. He says he isn't, likes girls very much while blushing. Which got every girl around him to grin, in fighting to try and see who lands Taka as a boyfriend first, oh boy. Even Alvery would consider it if she wasn't going steady with Shawn.

Laura trying to figure if she should buy a shirt, which is blue, which Valentina says it wouldn't work with her skin color. Val will get that shirt, and gets another shirt with the same style but rose-colored for Laura. Tough time color-coordinating since she manifested, including make-up, yikes. Val teasing about helping the new girl to seduce her, Val just wanted to see Laura blush and got her to, devious. Val knows Laura likes girls and admits to liking them too, just playfully flirting with Laura for not but no plans to seduce her yet. Oh boy, trying to recruit Laura into the Amazons, that is off-putting. Plus talk about the Amazons needing holdouts and even gadgeteers and devisors needing to know how to defend themselves. Brita is jealous of Laura getting attention from Val again, this good get really bad with her being a high-level Exemplar.

Laura and Bailey testing where they can and can't go, spot a clearing with smoke rising into the sky. The Nations have upgraded since Gen 1, nice set-up. Vixen is a Poesie from the next floor up and member of the Nations. Can participate in the club even if not Native American and even get history credit for some of their activities, interesting. A student on the service road curled up, asleep or unconscious, thankfully they call security who says to not move him. A team and car from Doyle are coming while the girls stay to make sure nothing runs him over.

Dasypod is the kid, twice today and 3 times yesterday, what is up with that. Dr. Tenent is still there, another familiar face. Avatar with an unusual spirit, likes to curl up on roads and nap, like they do down south, Dasypod has a spirit that is dangerous to his long-term well-being, yikes. Just the beginning of the weird stuff they will see at Whateley, so far it has been tame. And Poe being a sane place, that is a scary thought.

More of the special showers and Morgana accidently walking in as she is about to start, offer of Laura to do her back and silly eye wiggling, but Morgana wishes to do her back on her own. Morgana worried about doing things a real girl wouldn't do and giving away she is a changeling, wish she had had time to talk to her sister more about such things before she had to leave. Morgana enjoying herself with the Hydroflux while Laura notices that her eyes are glowing while doing so, wonder what is going on there. Eyes glowed and flared like fire behind them when Morgana orgasmed, she inherited a lot more from Thulia than she thought. Laura ask if she has done anything in the dark, embarrassed for once. Dragonform to use the flames to dry her hair, dang, we have a new way of almost instantly drying hair in Gen 2 now.

Heather Barker got Brita into the Amazons and she plans to help her little sister, Gayle Barker. Another PK brick and if she joins the Amazons, oh boy. Brita freaking out at seeing Morgana, Bianca and Laura coming from the changeling wing, great. She thinks because there is a large group of changelings like when Team Kimba appeared, the last large group of changelings at one time, that they are going to be trouble. Either that or she is a bigot towards changelings, in which case she is worse than I originally thought.

Brita is jealous of Val potentially hooking up with another girl besides her. Mutation breaks down spells which are placed on her over time and she didn't tell Mrs. Horton, or reveal this power to the powers or magic departments. She told her fellow Amazons about the changelings! That is expulsion offense and endangering fellow students, once they find everything she has done and possibly what she is plotting to do to the changelings, she is going to be expelled and possibly handed over to the MCO if her crimes become severe enough. She thinks changelings are nothing but trouble due to Team Kimba's rep, oh brother. And Val wants Laura even more now, this is going to end in heartache and tears.

One thing I note in my long comments is that Jennifer Kelly is the civilian name of the Wicked identity which Mrs. Carson gave to Lanie in Whilst Any Speaks. So it seems she has either gone criminal and is working for the Syndicate, is solo, or is just a neutral individual who does morally gray jobs..

Dreamer wrote: One thing I note in my long comments is that Jennifer Kelly is the civilian name of the Wicked identity which Mrs. Carson gave to Lanie in Whilst Any Speaks. So it seems she has either gone criminal and is working for the Syndicate, is solo, or is just a neutral individual who does morally gray jobs..

Or it's a coincidence. Or it's a mystery so deep that it will fry brains when it's revealed. Or there really WAS a Jennifer Kelly and the ID was 'borrowed' for Lanie. Or ....

You get the picture - lots of possibilities.

As to Brita and the Poe secret, she has NOT told all the Amazons. She has only told Val. Everyone seems to be assuming she told all the Ammys, but that was not stated.

Yikes, Dr. Bellows seeing a little of what Morgana went through as flashes of images due to his touch-based empathy, surprised he isn't in worse shape after that.

You forget that he's a trained therapist who's been using this power to help troubled Whateley kids for over a decade or two now. Morgana's history was bad, but I doubt it's the worst thing he's experienced with his power.

elrodw wrote:

Dreamer wrote: One thing I note in my long comments is that Jennifer Kelly is the civilian name of the Wicked identity which Mrs. Carson gave to Lanie in Whilst Any Speaks. So it seems she has either gone criminal and is working for the Syndicate, is solo, or is just a neutral individual who does morally gray jobs..

Or it's a coincidence. Or it's a mystery so deep that it will fry brains when it's revealed. Or there really WAS a Jennifer Kelly and the ID was 'borrowed' for Lanie. Or ....

You get the picture - lots of possibilities.

As to Brita and the Poe secret, she has NOT told all the Amazons. She has only told Val. Everyone seems to be assuming she told all the Ammys, but that was not stated.

Aww, rats. Was hoping that was a confirmed Lanie sighting, we know she is alive since Wyatt is at Whateley and he isn't depressed, guess I will just have to wait until she officially shows up in Gen 2 in a story.

And in the scene where Brita is thinking about how her mutation made magic wear off with time and warned her fellow Amazons, it didn't mention any one of them by name, thus is kind of why we got confused and thought she told all of the Amazons about the changelings in Poe.

We only know that at least one other student knows that spells placed on Brita wear off with time - it the other student wasn't a Poesie, they obviously wouldn't know about Bella's NDA spell (which could also feasibly be placed on non-Poesies who twig the secret, e.g. G1's Sandra [Diamondback]).

Needless to say, just because we know she has issues with Changelings, it doesn't necessarily mean the rest of the Amazons do - or if that automatically precludes them from admission. Val's unlikely to be deterred from continuing to rush Laura, while even if Brita's deterred from rushing Morgana and Erica, others may seek to rush them (so providing a nice element of dramatic tension).

However, given we know from G1 that (back then at least) Bella could track her charges via magic, if she put a magic locator beacon on them upon arrival, then feasibly if Brita ever went AWOL, Bella could theoretically work out the spell was no longer tracking her and potentially get concerned - which might lead to the revelation that Brita's mutation progressively degrades spells placed on her (so prompting Bella to refresh the NDA spell - either as a one-off or refreshing it on all her charges annually, just in case).

No doubt the G2 Canon already have planned out whether that side-effect of Brita's mutation will ever become more widely known (and if so, in what circumstances), but of course they'll be keeping it as a secret among themselves until eventually revealed in a future tale (probably several months / years down the line from our perspective).

On the bit about no one enforcing Fight Ring regulations... I bet the new Admins are gonna crack down on that... Or maybe not?

"Yeah, and how'd you get Carson to approve it?" asked Samiyyah Karimi - Sami - a nubile, swarthy-complexioned Melville girl with obvious Arabic features to go with her long, silky, dark hair, giving her a very beautifully exotic look. "Before, I mean," she added hastily, since she - like everyone - had heard about the disappearance.

"She didn't," Val replied with a chuckle. "The committee approved a somewhat more ... modest .. expansion. We didn't tell them we were going to have a much larger space excavated for the 'ring'."

"What?" Sami demanded, dumbfounded and goggling. "But ... that's an expulsion offense!"

"Was an expulsion offense," Brita smirked. "Why do you think the entrance is hidden behind the bookcase? And with Mrs. Carson gone, who's going to enforce that stupid rule?" She glanced over her shoulder at the door, ensuring it was secure, and then pulled a memory stick from her pocket. "Gather 'round, girls," she invited as she stepped briskly to the hideout's computer.

EDIT: Or is it one of those things that they let slide? ... I think not? 'Cause it directly relates to the school, being a permanent construction on their property?

Dreamer wrote: Toison is the fawn girl and Shisa is the large cat in the harness, who is apparently a student. Talk about a severe GSD, poor girl. She seems to take it all in stride though and even is amused by others reactions to her.

I recall some people asking if there would be catgirls in Gen2. You can't get much more cat like than that.

About the Brita thing: earlier in the story, it's clarified that the spell Mrs. Horton places on her charges makes it very difficult to blab, but not quite impossible, and it's implied that the intent of the spell is to prevent accidental slip-ups.
But Brita seems to believe that the spell places an absolute prohibition on talking about the Poe Secret with outsiders.
My Marvel No-Prize take on it: Brita is mistaken, and if she really wanted to, she could have told the other Amazons at any time -- it would take some willpower, but it could be done. But the spell got weakened, and she accidentally blabbed about the Poe Secret to Val without really meaning to.

Regarding the tracking part, that could still be active depending on the mechanics of the spell degrading effect. A tracking spell is probably a lot simpler and less fragile than a "don't accidentally say anything that might reveal this secret" spell, so it might take longer to be weakened to the point where Mrs. Horton would notice. Another possibility is that the degradation effect only cares about spells that impede functionality somehow (compulsions, illusions, sleep, that kind of thing). A tracking spell wouldn't necessarily trigger that (although it might if it's set up to be powered by the host's energy rather than the caster's).

Malady wrote: On the bit about no one enforcing Fight Ring regulations... I bet the new Admins are gonna crack down on that... Or maybe not?

Well, it's hard to crack down on something that you don't know you need to crack down on. It's not like this would be the first secret unauthorized expansion to the tunnels to have slipped through the cracks. And if Carson, Ty West, and Lord Paramount can slip through those cracks, a little ol' arena sure can.

Speaking of Lord P., everybody's been busy worrying about the future of Whateley, but I wonder about the future of Wallachia.

Hell, there's a whole bloodsport arena hidden somewhere on campus, with seating for an audience of a few dozen Ultraviolents, and I doubt Systemic was the one who came up with it, which means it could have been around for decades.

Ok, a few thoughts about the story, in no particular order:

Hikaru:

• Whateley instructors wanting to test her is an insult, Japanese Imperial family hires only the best for testing.... wasn't she the one who got her memory scrambled? Beside, rules are rules, the Accademy has to deal with students from all around the globe, as such they have to deal with very heterogeneous certification standards, what is the Accademy supposed to do? Compiling a dossier about every tester on the planet to chose if the student is good enough? Doing the testing themselves is just the easiest (and probably only) way to go.

• "Yep. I have your schedule request, and the addition. Defensive Driving 100?" Cody's eyebrows arched a bit, as he continued. "You're legally underage for a Japanese driver's license, I understand ... though I somehow doubt that'd be that much of an issue, considering what I've read from your file." He glanced to his side where a thick file rested on a corner of his desk nearest him.

  She's underage for a driving license in Japan but it isn't an issue? Either Japan is willing to bend backward for the Avatar of their patron Goddess or she got deaged

• "I have your complete file, Okami ... or do you prefer Samurai?"

  Samurais were exclusively males, a female warrior would call herself Onna Bugeisha.... is Hikaru a changeling?

The Amazons: they didn't make a good impression, as far as I'm concerned, maybe it's just that most of we have seen is Brita (whose attitude can be described as a cross between Hippolyta and Sharissa from G1) and Eurydice (whose flirting makes me think she's of the manipulative kind), but they look like trouble to me

Taka: does he have a glamour? I mean, I understand that he might be gorgeous but elicting a such reaction from girls who are used being around exemplars is a bit.... too much

Morgana: glad to see she's in good hands, but they should remember to feed her or she's going to eat some tester one of this times

Otherself wrote: Taka: does he have a glamour? I mean, I understand that he might be gorgeous but elicting a such reaction from girls who are used being around exemplars is a bit.... too much

I think that it's novelty as much as it is straight up attractiveness. Plenty of male exemplars are attractive, but they (especially in America) tend to follow the hypermasculine bodybuilder/superhero pattern, rather than the pretty boy / model pattern. So even among the exemplar heavy Whateley campus, Taka still stands out.

Actually, now I'm kind of curious about regional patterns in the exemplar trait.

Edit: Never mind.

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Actually, now I'm kind of curious about regional patterns in the exemplar trait.

Well, remember that BITs are presumed to usually have a subconscious idea component, so if, like in Japan, possibly, Bishonen is prized, you get Bishonen EX-es.

In America, you get buff, macho EX-es. Machismo, etc.

Girls... Hmm... Twilight super-fan gets Sparkly Vampire BIT? Or Bella BIT...

And then there's the Avatar's Spirit, which can change BITs or forms... Not to mention other environmental factors... Like the presumed Nimbus Necromancy Spell that affected Ayla...

It's pretty obvious that Taka is Ukyo from samurai showdown.

Hint; go to about 1:10 if you want to know what I'm talking about right away.

Otherself wrote: Ok, a few thoughts about the story, in no particular order:

Hikaru:

• Whateley instructors wanting to test her is an insult, Japanese Imperial family hires only the best for testing.... wasn't she the one who got her memory scrambled? Beside, rules are rules, the Accademy has to deal with students from all around the globe, as such they have to deal with very heterogeneous certification standards, what is the Accademy supposed to do? Compiling a dossier about every tester on the planet to chose if the student is good enough? Doing the testing themselves is just the easiest (and probably only) way to go.

Assumption you built here, that the IHA (A serious gov't agency!) didn't ask Whateley who'd be acceptable to do the tests, or checked on who they knew, or... yeah. Sam's being a bit of an ass here. She has her reasons. the MA dept later on tests because of new 'people in charge', but Sams' being a bit of a ass here.

"Yep. I have your schedule request, and the addition. Defensive Driving 100?" Cody's eyebrows arched a bit, as he continued. "You're legally underage for a Japanese driver's license, I understand ... though I somehow doubt that'd be that much of an issue, considering what I've read from your file." He glanced to his side where a thick file rested on a corner of his desk nearest him.

She's underage for a driving license in Japan but it isn't an issue? Either Japan is willing to bend backward for the Avatar of their patron Goddess or she got deaged

"I have your complete file, Okami ... or do you prefer Samurai?"

Samurais were exclusively males, a female warrior would call herself Onna Bugeisha.... is Hikaru a changeling?

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Samurai != warriors.
Samurai (no s!) IS NOT a word for 'warrior' Bushi is. Samurai is a class/noble rank. Western equivant would be ethier "Knight" or Baronet. Women were most definitely part of the rank. Which is why there IS a different term for female warriors.
(In fact, samurai females were EXPECTED to know weapons, depending on the family, yari, nagitana, bow, usually, some included knife work, some required swords, etc, etc...)

Your confusion on Samurai's meaning comes from the Sengoku and beyond period, where all samurai males were expected to BE Bushi as well as nobility.
(and the Towgawa period, were only Samurai were ALLOWED to be Bushi... and the concept of female warriors were right out, too, extremetly sexist that period was.)
(Side note: Samurai started from the early Fujiwara tax collectors. Kid you not or Was it the Asgihara... Eee. Been a long time since I acutally did that research)

Taka: does he have a glamour? I mean, I understand that he might be gorgeous but elicting a such reaction from girls who are used being around exemplars is a bit.... too much

Exotic to even exemplar jaded eyes. Taka's BIT is Japanese, and at that _extremely_ 'optimized' for Japan, so.

Malady wrote:

Arcanist Lupus wrote: Actually, now I'm kind of curious about regional patterns in the exemplar trait.

Well, remember that BITs are presumed to usually have a subconscious idea component, so if, like in Japan, possibly, Bishonen is prized, you get Bishonen EX-es.

As I understand it, no. That's very decidedly a modern thing, and specifically a shojō manga/anime thing (it's not uncommon in shōnen fighting series, too, but is more as a contrast to the often hulking super-warriors that the protagonists are frequently facing) and to a lesser extent an idoru thing associated with visual kei (the Japanese equivalent of Glam Rock). The classic Japanese ideal of masculine beauty is actually notably more realistic than the classical Western ideal (which was derived largely from Greek statuary and neo-classical imitations of same, with all that this implies), being usually older - mid-twenties rather than mid-teens - and not so absurdly skinny and ripped.

However, this is complicated by the fact that in some periods, there was an idealized male-love sexual dynamic similar to the Greek erastes-erastomene ideal, but it was limited to certain of the aristocratic classes (including samurai) and never as pervasive - it wasn't the common rite of passage it was in Greece, but it was accepted as a kind of bonding between a warrior and his pupil that sometimes just happened. As a result, there was a sort of youthful male beauty ideal as well, but it was subordinate (shall we say) to the more obviously masculine ideal.

This idealizing of an older/younger, top/bottom relationship probably influences yaoi and shōnen-ai stories, but notably, these are meant mainly for a shojō audience, roughly the same 13-18-year-old girls demographic that is associated with slash fanfic in the US; gay men in Japan today tend to prefer the Bara style, which is hyper-masculinized and often bear-ish.

Pretty much right, though to be fair, Kenshin's bishyness is more of a joke we did, on setting it up for the humor. Though, to be fair, there HAS always been a 'slight' overtone of 'feminist' traits prized in males, even of the samurai class. Noh plays, anyone?

Kenshin is not skinny. Lean, yes, skinny, no. Slight, but important difference.


As for what's influenced his BIT...

In unverse... dum, dee, dumm.

Out of universe? We thought it'd be funny.

OK.

One question, though: when I was reading up about Japan in the mid-1990s, I got the impression that public expressions of sexuality and gender identity - regardless of what form it took - was something of a taboo in Japan, period; not because sexuality was seen as wrong, but because being public about ones' private life in general was considered a terrible social blunder, and incredibly rude. I recall specifically that it was often mentioned that most people (especially women) would not discuss marriage plans with co-workers, right up until the wedding. It also made LGBT issues difficult to address, simply because it was considered rude to mention your feelings and opinions about much of anything in public. Has this changed much since then?

Perhaps more saliently, is this an area where the WU differs from real life?

Wasamon is more current than I, but in large extent, realistically, yes, Japan has softened significantly on open expressions of LGBT, but still, as far as I know, sexuality's your own outlook, don't bother others 'bout it. Although when I last was there, it was still more "bedroom is private" along with open affections, to some extent.

If from RL, WU 's different, don't know, haven't thought about it. So I guess we'll find out, no?

Schol-R-LEA wrote: I got the impression that public expressions of sexuality and gender identity - regardless of what form it took - was something of a taboo in Japan, period

One quick YouTube search later: unsurprisingly, much of the stigma arrived with Western influence...

Very informative, mittfh. Thanks for sharing.

Dreamer wrote: One thing I note in my long comments is that Jennifer Kelly is the civilian name of the Wicked identity which Mrs. Carson gave to Lanie in Whilst Any Speaks. So it seems she has either gone criminal and is working for the Syndicate, is solo, or is just a neutral individual who does morally gray jobs..

Just for grins, I looked up Jennifer Kelly on a people-finder app. There are over 100 Jennifer Kellys in New York state. (more - I quit counting). So ... coincidence is quite, quite likely.

Domoviye wrote:

Dreamer wrote: Toison is the fawn girl and Shisa is the large cat in the harness, who is apparently a student. Talk about a severe GSD, poor girl. She seems to take it all in stride though and even is amused by others reactions to her.

I recall some people asking if there would be catgirls in Gen2. You can't get much more cat like than that.

L Neil Smith had an uplifted Coyote in his Libertarian universe series, who had a harness that mounted robot arms. So when I read about Shisa's harness the first thing that popped into my mind was whether this was a mounting for some sort of manipulation gadget.

peter wrote:

Domoviye wrote:

Dreamer wrote: Toison is the fawn girl and Shisa is the large cat in the harness, who is apparently a student. Talk about a severe GSD, poor girl. She seems to take it all in stride though and even is amused by others reactions to her.

I recall some people asking if there would be catgirls in Gen2. You can't get much more cat like than that.

L Neil Smith had an uplifted Coyote in his Libertarian universe series, who had a harness that mounted robot arms. So when I read about Shisa's harness the first thing that popped into my mind was whether this was a mounting for some sort of manipulation gadget.

I had been thinking it was like a service animal harness personally. Although having robot arms would be cool.

You guys will find out more about the "harness" when I properly introduce Shisa to all of you in Myriad Meetings.