Question Roulette

Since Roulette's story was brought over to the new site, I thought I'd start a topic for my most overlooked Whateley protagonist.

I hope she gets a room near Frostbite, or one of the other cold based characters.

I wonder if she'll go to Hawthorne since they're better equipped for medical emergencies.

And Morpheus, Roulette is only overlooked because she has a single story about her. Just wait until you post more and we won't forget her.

I'm still trying to finish it but some little Imp keeps getting in the way as she's always causing Mischief to where I can't.

Just finished the story Morpheus. Liked how the story flowed giving no hint of what his now hers abilities were until near the end. A different approach to most others. Also the story shows the life of one's family who has a problem with attention and how they work together.

There are of course various parts that have not been resolved but given how the timeline flows it will be interesting to see if there will be a resolution to Mr. Harris as well as the villain.

One question that you've left open was what happened to Density. There was mention no mention of her except for what only Archimedes, Mr. Harris and the ex. Nothing about what happened to her if she escaped, jailed, turned into a nematode and her daughter. Sorry its got my curiosity up.

Found a few places in all stories of missing words, a misspoke/typed word that would pass a spell check. But overall my mind corrected it as I read. No real biggy given the size.

Other questions are: The mother. Given her Diedricks ailment, it makes me wonder how she will be able to look after herself. I'm sure Beth will be there as perhaps a few others but for her, she needs a full time person.

Other than that a good story.

I do have further plans for Roulette, and most of those questions should be answered eventually. And let's just say, Harris won't be the only person with an interest in how her powers work.

hmm, I'm wondering if we have seen the full set of powers she cycles through
a Roulette wheel has a whole lot of places for the ball to land, her cycle could literally be spinning a roulette wheel and a different power comes up per spot.

Dawnfyre wrote: hmm, I'm wondering if we have seen the full set of powers she cycles through
a Roulette wheel has a whole lot of places for the ball to land, her cycle could literally be spinning a roulette wheel and a different power comes up per spot.

Yes, but she as well as her mother understand that her codename was not based on the Roulette Wheel but on the fact that she is playing a game of chance of when or if, she will experience an actual burnout the next time it happens not what type of power will manifest.

I nodded, not mentioning the other reason I'd picked that specific name. Dr. Smith...Harris had said that with my damaged BIT, every time I switched modes, it was like playing Russian roulette. However, Mom was staring at me with a grim look that told me she'd caught the reference.

It hadn't been easy to tell my mom about my damaged BIT, or what it meant for my powers and health. She'd been shocked and horrified at the news, especially after I went through another micro burnout in front of her. Afterwards, she started to blame herself, thinking that my BIT had been damaged because of all the times I'd been exposed to her devices. The truth was, she might be right about that, though I didn't blame her.

"Are you okay?" Mom asked, giving me a worried look.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I responded wryly.

Admittedly, I was worried about the fact that my own power might end up killing me, but the truth was, it was a possibility...not a certainty.

doesn't mean she doesn't have a lot more powers than we were shown in her origin story.

Roulette didn't grab me. I have to say that out all your Whateley characters she is the one I like least. I'd much rather read more Absinthe or Ribbon stories. absinhe's whole. MCO intern seems to have a lot of potential. Especially if she ends up mixed up with someone who has been a target of bent MCO agents.

Dawnfyre wrote: hmm, I'm wondering if we have seen the full set of powers she cycles through
a Roulette wheel has a whole lot of places for the ball to land, her cycle could literally be spinning a roulette wheel and a different power comes up per spot.

When playing Russian Roulette the 6th option is death.

konzill wrote:

Dawnfyre wrote: hmm, I'm wondering if we have seen the full set of powers she cycles through
a Roulette wheel has a whole lot of places for the ball to land, her cycle could literally be spinning a roulette wheel and a different power comes up per spot.

When playing Russian Roulette the 6th option is death.

Or in her case Burnout, which she has hit a couple of times.

konzill wrote:

Dawnfyre wrote: hmm, I'm wondering if we have seen the full set of powers she cycles through
a Roulette wheel has a whole lot of places for the ball to land, her cycle could literally be spinning a roulette wheel and a different power comes up per spot.

When playing Russian Roulette the 6th option is death.

Yes, but if she's playing casino roulette, she still has numbers 6-36 and 0 and 00 to go.

We know what one tester says about her powers. What Whateley testers say we have to wait and see. They may agree or find something different.

jmhyp wrote:

konzill wrote:

Dawnfyre wrote: hmm, I'm wondering if we have seen the full set of powers she cycles through
a Roulette wheel has a whole lot of places for the ball to land, her cycle could literally be spinning a roulette wheel and a different power comes up per spot.

When playing Russian Roulette the 6th option is death.

Yes, but if she's playing casino roulette, she still has numbers 6-36 and 0 and 00 to go.

I think it is all but stated in the story that casino roulette is not the one she's playing.

It's been a long time since I read it.

It's near the end of chapter three:

"I nodded, not mentioning the other reason I'd picked that specific name. Dr. Smith...Harris had said that with my damaged BIT, every time I switched modes, it was like playing Russian roulette. However, Mom was staring at me with a grim look that told me she'd caught the reference."

That was Dr. Smith's opinion. We don't know that she doesn't have more modes.

Although I wonder now if Morpheus based her on/was influenced by his own Twisted Universe character: Jennifer Andrews of the story Hair and Now. Her hair changes color and with it her personality and her trick.

Actually, I've had Roulette in mind as a character for a long time before I wrote about her, and my Hair and Now character was actually inspired by Roulette instead of the other way around.

I assume 'Legacy' was also from a similar timeframe as I recall reading somewhere she was originally supposed to shift between the original seven powers of the Seatle Seven?

My original version of Legacy was going to be called Seven, and was going to change forms and transform into the different members of the Seven. That charachter was more of a Ben 10 type, an in spite of the multiple shifting powers, was not actually inspired from Roulette.

My original version of Roulette was inspired from such characters as DC's Halo and the Ultraverse's Spectrum. Originally, her eyes would change color depending on which power she had active. However, the character has changed quite a bit from what I'd originally come up with. When I came up with the character for Whateley, I used the same name and basic concept of shifting powers from the previous version, but almost everything else about her was different.

Interesting.

Curiosity, you don't have to answer if you don't want to Morpheus, but are you still writing your Legacy stories, or have you shifted most of your ideas over from the Legacy Universe to the Whateley Universe? The last few of your Legacy stories seemed to be building up to something with Nevermore, just curious if you still intend to finish that arc?

I too would be curious about the answer to that. The Force story line seems to have been completed in Legacy U. but Nevermore and a few other things are still dangling threads.

I do have more plans for more Legacy stories, but the next one I have planned is quite ambitious, so I've been procrastinating on writing that one. Every time I'm about to start, I get a burst of inspiration for something else, and write that instead.

/guiltily looks at my list of incomplete stories

Understand Morpheus, I'm perfectly happy to read whatever you write, I've found all your universes interesting reads.

Perhaps someone should create a teen or other called "Crap Shot" thus that person would not know what ability would show up. Of course I'm sure that over time that persons ability would somehow coincide with whatever trouble they came into.

Their eyes would suddenly flash through a series of colors and when it settles thats the ability they have.

Ib12us wrote: Their eyes would suddenly flash through a series of colors and when it settles thats the ability they have.

Why just colors? Make their pupils change shape: Circle, Bar, Cherries.

jmhyp wrote:

Ib12us wrote: Their eyes would suddenly flash through a series of colors and when it settles thats the ability they have.

Why just colors? Make their pupils change shape: Circle, Bar, Cherries.

Actually thought of that but then name would be either Snake Eyes (Dick Tracy) or Slot Machine (pull my arm and takes ur chance)

Phoenix Spiritus wrote:

jmhyp wrote:

konzill wrote:

Dawnfyre wrote: hmm, I'm wondering if we have seen the full set of powers she cycles through
a Roulette wheel has a whole lot of places for the ball to land, her cycle could literally be spinning a roulette wheel and a different power comes up per spot.

When playing Russian Roulette the 6th option is death.

Yes, but if she's playing casino roulette, she still has numbers 6-36 and 0 and 00 to go.

I think it is all but stated in the story that casino roulette is not the one she's playing.

it is stating that the CHANGE of her powers is Russian Roulette, not that the number of powers is limited to the 5 other spots in a cylinder for a revolver.

Guys, the name is a metaphor. It's not actually roulette of any stripe. It's a power shifter power with 5 modes, and a flaw that sends her into burnout. That's similar enough to Russian roulette that she chose that as her codename, but it's not actually related. Any predictions about her power made because that's how roulette works are inherently flawed because of that.

This is not to say that she can't have more powers that haven't come up yet (similar to how Jennifer in Hair and Now had some personalities that were less common than others) but there's no data that supports this hypothesis yet.

Her codename is DERIVED from the nature of her powers *as they are perceived to be in a particular moment*. It's not like there's a law of nature saying that her codename "determines" her power. Simply stated, she could be *mistaken* and one year from now, as her powers evolve and control improves, the codename could become woefully inadequate. So the fact that she's calling herself "Roulette" does not dictate the number of power "slots" she has.

And, for that matter... not all revolvers are six-shooters, you know. It's perfectly possible to play a Russian Roulette game with odds going from 1:5 all the way down to 1:12, depending on the model of gun.

I made the casino comment as a JOKE.

Sir Lee wrote: And, for that matter... not all revolvers are six-shooters, you know. It's perfectly possible to play a Russian Roulette game with odds going from 1:5 all the way down to 1:12, depending on the model of gun.

And some people try to play with semi-automatics . Although, I have heard that there's a version of that involving a magazine with all blanks except one, creating a more deterministic randomness (instead of a presumed 1 in X chance every time, eventually there will be a live bullet and it's at a fixed point).

FuzzyBoots wrote:

Sir Lee wrote: And, for that matter... not all revolvers are six-shooters, you know. It's perfectly possible to play a Russian Roulette game with odds going from 1:5 all the way down to 1:12, depending on the model of gun.

And some people try to play with semi-automatics . Although, I have heard that there's a version of that involving a magazine with all blanks except one, creating a more deterministic randomness (instead of a presumed 1 in X chance every time, eventually there will be a live bullet and it's at a fixed point).

Didn't an actor die from putting a pistol with blanks loaded against his head and pulling the trigger? I don't see how blanks are "safer" at "against your head" range. They still emit a wad of wax (or something like wax) at high velocity from the barrel, don't they?

I know Brandon Lee died when a cap that acts a lot like a blank (but puts the small explosion away from the body), was placed just over his heart and set off. It had enough force to give him a heart attack.
Blank rounds can seriously hurt or even kill when close to the body. The safer way to do it would be to have bullets without a percussion cap, and sand or something inside instead of gunpowder. That way you can't tell which is a dud or not by the weight but theirs no chance of giving yourself a concussion, or a very nasty head wound from shooting it.

jmhyp wrote: Didn't an actor die from putting a pistol with blanks loaded against his head and pulling the trigger? I don't see how blanks are "safer" at "against your head" range. They still emit a wad of wax (or something like wax) at high velocity from the barrel, don't they?

Jon-Eric Hexum is probably who you're thinking of. Yes, blanks include an explosive charge so as to create the noise and the flash of an actual gun explosion, and there's generally a wad to allow the explosion to properly expend the right energies to chamber the next round and to prevent jams. In my experiences with stage theater, I have personally experienced having a tongue of flame a foot long exit the barrel (fortunately when the gun was safely pointed downwards since that particular shot was entirely for the sound effect) and I picked up a burn on my ear from the combination of an idiot actor who didn't understand that he wasn't to point the gun directly at me and a flaming wad that was ejected with the shot. I have also unfortunately experienced a blank going off next to my head when a piece of stage combat in another show went wrong and the gun went off prematurely. That last one left a ringing in my ears, but I fortunately seem to have escaped permanent hearing damage.

People playing Russian Roulette in any manner are already courting death, but it's possible that they're holding the gun at a "safe" distance when playing such a game with the clip version. *shrug* I've just heard that a version exists, could be people just made up details (probably started off with someone claiming it rest of the magazine was loaded with bullets without powder until someone pointed out that semi-automatics require that explosion to clear the round and load the next one).

To get away without an explosion, you can just pull the slide back ejecting the fake. It's more time consuming, but safer.
Of course anyone stupid enough to play Russian Roulette should just remove themselves from the gene pool ASAP.

Domoviye wrote: I know Brandon Lee died when a cap that acts a lot like a blank (but puts the small explosion away from the body), was placed just over his heart and set off. It had enough force to give him a heart attack.
Blank rounds can seriously hurt or even kill when close to the body. The safer way to do it would be to have bullets without a percussion cap, and sand or something inside instead of gunpowder. That way you can't tell which is a dud or not by the weight but theirs no chance of giving yourself a concussion, or a very nasty head wound from shooting it.

The Brandon Lee situation is more complicated . The gun which shot him had an actual bullet in the barrel due to a squib load and the blank was enough to launch that bullet. It was the confluence of several mistakes by the people doing props. They cut corners on cost, they didn't investigate the squib load, and then they pointed what they thought was a safe gun directly at another actor and pulled the trigger.

Ouch. That is even worse than I thought.

blow-back model replica semi automatic handguns use a 22 caliber starter pistol blank, inside a brass tube casing that is the caliber of the model. The casing looks like a live round. The blank has the force needed to give the slide eject reload action the energy it needs. This means that the barrel is open so that the gases can escape from the muzzle. They do often have a screen to catch any bits of brass being expelled from the blank but even then they can cause serious, even fatal injury if pointed at someone and fired.

I worked with a high school production of Oklahoma, and they bought some special stage pistols. There IS no bore; the guns can only shoot special rounds, and there's a wedge-shaped blast deflector at the cylinder end of the barrel to vent gasses to the sides. Despite that, I was adamant in training the kids that they should NEVER, EVER point a firearm at another person, and should treat any firearm as if it's loaded unless they can personally verify otherwise. And even then, rule #1 applies. We had to work the staging so that the guns never 'swept' anyone on stage or in the audience. That was probably the ONLY firearm safety instruction most of those kids ever got. Safety is number 1-10 on the priority list. Some rules I do NOT compromise on.

Russian Roulette? Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. Did I mention that it's stupid?

That sounds about right for a six-shooter: stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, dead.

This seems to have become extremely off-topic from Morpheus' Roulette character. I'd request that we move back on topic, and possibly even move the posts about the game of Russian roulette to a separate thread.

I liked the story, and the character, myself, but, if I recall correctly, the story had the lowest percentage of positive social interactions of Morpheus' fics. I suspect that this is at least part of why it is the least popular Morpheus story so far.

Will probably reread Roulette soon and, if I do and the thread hasn't moved on much, I will edit in more about the character.


Some pre-re-reading recollections: I think she was a very interesting character and I loved her interactions with her friends and family.

Love Austin's relationship with his mother and Mrs. Lawrence. Absolutely wonderful to read.

A continuing theme of Morpheus': Diedrick's REALLY sucks. Having it is extremely scary, being around somebody with it can be terrifying, and managing it is possible, but often difficult, and regardless of what you do it will always cost somebody something. Be it time spent with family, your reputation being shredded, being outed as a mutant, or other people hurt during an episode.

Amy and Kara are extremely cute together.

Kara talking with Beth about her being a lesbian was musing.

I skipped the entire "kidnapped" arc because I didn't want to read it this time, so no comments about that.

Overall: Nice story, thank you for writing, I'm glad I get to enjoy reading it.

Naomi wrote: This seems to have become extremely off-topic from Morpheus' Roulette character. I'd request that we move back on topic, and possibly even move the posts about the game of Russian roulette to a separate thread.

I liked the story, and the character, myself, but, if I recall correctly, the story had the lowest percentage of positive social interactions of Morpheus' fics. I suspect that this is at least part of why it is the least popular Morpheus story so far.

Will probably reread Roulette soon and, if I do and the thread hasn't moved on much, I will edit in more about the character.

There are probably a couple of reasons that Roulette has the "lowest percentage of positive social interactions." First it covers less than a month of time. Second a bunch of that time Roulette is kidnapped and being experimented on. Third there are only around 10 named characters that appear in the story, four of which are "bad" guys. On the other hand, Roulette has a great relationship with her mom, her friend, her neighbor, and Statuesque.

I do feel sorry for Roulette, can you imagine the mess she is going to come back to after a semester away at Whateley?

Valentine wrote: There are probably a couple of reasons that Roulette has the "lowest percentage of positive social interactions." First it covers less than a month of time. Second a bunch of that time Roulette is kidnapped and being experimented on. Third there are only around 10 named characters that appear in the story, four of which are "bad" guys. On the other hand, Roulette has a great relationship with her mom, her friend, her neighbor, and Statuesque.

Don't get me wrong; I fully understand why it happened that way and I'm not criticizing it. I simply think that, as a consequence of that, Roulette has been one of the less popular stories and characters. It's also less to-my-tastes than the other Morpheus stories, but I definitely still enjoyed it quite a bit.

Valentine wrote: I do feel sorry for Roulette, can you imagine the mess she is going to come back to after a semester away at Whateley?

Not really; that school has a collection of chaos magnets to mess with things, and I don't recall the story well enough to remember how it ended up at home yet. Though I'd imagine that she'd be returning during one of the mid-quarter breaks.

I'd put it down to having the least amount of length. The others all had a lot more to them, especially Imp. Roulette s a novella whereas the rest are novels, so they have more to sink your teeth into.

Domoviye wrote: I'd put it down to having the least amount of length. The others all had a lot more to them, especially Imp. Roulette s a novella whereas the rest are novels, so they have more to sink your teeth into.

Good point that it's the shortest of the three so far. Though it's still almost 50k words long, so I wouldn't really call it "short", nor does it really fit under the definition of a "novella". Still, Steel Ribbon is more than 90k words, so it's notably dwarfed.

Naomi wrote:

Valentine wrote: There are probably a couple of reasons that Roulette has the "lowest percentage of positive social interactions." First it covers less than a month of time. Second a bunch of that time Roulette is kidnapped and being experimented on. Third there are only around 10 named characters that appear in the story, four of which are "bad" guys. On the other hand, Roulette has a great relationship with her mom, her friend, her neighbor, and Statuesque.

Don't get me wrong; I fully understand why it happened that way and I'm not criticizing it. I simply think that, as a consequence of that, Roulette has been one of the less popular stories and characters. It's also less to-my-tastes than the other Morpheus stories, but I definitely still enjoyed it quite a bit.

Valentine wrote: I do feel sorry for Roulette, can you imagine the mess she is going to come back to after a semester away at Whateley?

Not really; that school has a collection of chaos magnets to mess with things, and I don't recall the story well enough to remember how it ended up at home yet. Though I'd imagine that she'd be returning during one of the mid-quarter breaks.

No the mess is going to be in her home. Her mom is a Devisor with the habit of leaving half built inventions all over her workshop and the rest of the house.

Valentine wrote: No the mess is going to be in her home. Her mom is a Devisor with the habit of leaving half built inventions all over her workshop and the rest of the house.

Ah, that. I'd hope that Amy would have hired somebody to be her mom's sane lab assistant to help handle things. It helps that she's a fairly open mutant so there isn't the trouble that secrecy brings. They could easily hire somebody from a client as part of the maintenance contract.

Roulette feels very much like an introductory story to me. I think that the key difference between it and Steel Ribbon is less the length (although that matters to) but the fact that the character arc is much weaker. Steel Ribbon is about Aliss becoming a new person, rediscovering life from a new angle, and forming new bonds with her children and grandchildren. Roulette becomes a girl which she accepts easily from past experience, meets her father whom she had already written off and discovers that writing him off was a good decision, and learns that her mutation might kill her but doesn't deal with that information.

Roulette has a plot, but it isn't so much a story as it is a prologue to set up future stories. The same is true for Knockoff and Shine. Which isn't a bad thing - Whateley has a proud tradition of introductory stories. But it means that the characters are probably not going to bite readers' attention until they start getting real stories. It probably doesn't help that Whateley has a bit of a tradition of orphaned introductions.

Very interesting point, Arcanist. Thank you.

Part of the reason people may have a difficult time connecting with Roulette is that when I wrote her, I wanted her to have a definite 'been there done that' attitude, so she casually shrugs off weirdness, and calmly deals with situations that would drive most other characters to the depths of angst.

Morpheus wrote: Part of the reason people may have a difficult time connecting with Roulette is that when I wrote her, I wanted her to have a definite 'been there done that' attitude, so she casually shrugs off weirdness, and calmly deals with situations that would drive most other characters to the depths of angst.

That was what I got out of the character. She is going to surprise and confuse people at Whateley. Weird things happen, Roulette looks up, nods, and goes back to what she was doing. Jade is going to disappointed.

Morpheus wrote: Part of the reason people may have a difficult time connecting with Roulette is that when I wrote her, I wanted her to have a definite 'been there done that' attitude, so she casually shrugs off weirdness, and calmly deals with situations that would drive most other characters to the depths of angst.

Personally, that's one part of Roulette that I really like. I hope that personality trait endures in the future Roulette stories that I really hope are coming. Should make for some very nice contrast with the other people around her.

Roulette has something in common with a member of Team Kimba though, which opens a significant channel to that member.

Both Roulette and Phase have damaged bits, which is why Roulette has the mini burnouts that could become a major burnout that kills her. Phase has what appears to be 8 bits combined into 1, but not truly combined, more like partial bits layered to make an entire bit.

This was a stretch for Morpheus from his usual style and outcome. As an author who has stepped outside a "comfort zone" of style and subject matter, I have to applaud Morph for doing this story. The character is compelling, but the story is a tragedy-in-motion. Slow-motion at that. I would imagine that Roulette feels like a person who has a fatal disease, knowing that it will kill him or her. In that respect, I think he did a good job catching the sense of the character. Afraid to be a hero, but needing to in order to protect his mom. Feeling doomed, but afraid of dying, and yet not knowing how to live with the condition and fear of another burnout.

Roulette is a risky venture at a new character type for Morpheus, and I think he knocked it out of the park. There is so much to explore as Roulette goes through Whateley, not least of which is trying to resolve all the complex feelings associated with the condition.

elrodw wrote: This was a stretch for Morpheus from his usual style and outcome. As an author who has stepped outside a "comfort zone" of style and subject matter, I have to applaud Morph for doing this story. The character is compelling, but the story is a tragedy-in-motion. Slow-motion at that. I would imagine that Roulette feels like a person who has a fatal disease, knowing that it will kill him or her. In that respect, I think he did a good job catching the sense of the character. Afraid to be a hero, but needing to in order to protect his mom. Feeling doomed, but afraid of dying, and yet not knowing how to live with the condition and fear of another burnout.

Roulette is a risky venture at a new character type for Morpheus, and I think he knocked it out of the park. There is so much to explore as Roulette goes through Whateley, not least of which is trying to resolve all the complex feelings associated with the condition.

have you read Hair and Now over on BCTS? Morpheus did a very similar character in the Twisted universe.

but Roulette gets the 'joy' of having to take every type of class offered because of the differing powers she has. she won't finish in 4 years

I think the expectation is Roulette probably won't finish at all, she'll end up being one of the sad statistics of Whateley, a Mutant who's mutation itself kills her.

With her incredibly high danger of burnout, I assume she's destined for Hawthorn, with its dedicated tunnel spur to Doyle?

Phoenix Spiritus wrote: I think the expectation is Roulette probably won't finish at all, she'll end up being one of the sad statistics of Whateley, a Mutant who's mutation itself kills her.

Gee...even if that's the common perspective of her situation, it's depressing to see bluntly stated...

Well, she has her mother. A rather blunt letter from Whateley's Power Testing team spelling out the probability of serious and then deadly consequences of her powers switching as percentage risk graphs over time would defiantly set of some episodes of epic devisoring.

Will they succeed? Will her mother work a miracle?

Only Morpheus knows

or, she hits a major burnout, all her powers get activated and her bit heals, leaving her with all the powers, all the time.


and add a precog 3 to them just to drive her batty.

I'm looking forward to a burnout that results in 5 completely different powers (Or 4 and devisor so she wakes as a devisor and everyone thinks "nothing went wrong" during burnout.)

I just reread Roulette, and it is locked in just the 5 powers.

Noticed another thing in it, seems like Absinthe's dad makes a sneak cameo in here.
an MCO agent that has a bit of a stick but doesn't seem to hate mutants, that Statuesque has dealt with before.

I wondered if anyone had caught that.

I missed it the first time I read Roulette, but I hadn't read Absinthe at the time so there was nothing to make the connection for me.

I liked Roulette and her Mom and the various other cast members. When you have a character who apparently has a 1 in 6 chance of dying on any given day it does seem to have a limited shelf life. I would hate for her to become a Whateley statistic. However this is Morpheus we're talking about here so I'm not convinced that the evolution of Roulette's power set is quite over yet. I'll certainly be looking forward to finding out.

Sure, any future burn out could also be the day Roulette is "cured", no longer in such immediate danger of burn out.