I do hope Ceci stuns her and carries her onward rather than allowing her to return and find a dieing Democlus.
Actually I just had an off the wall idea, what if Ceci is loaded with programs to fix Aeneas and a directive to make him as close to human as possible then to stay as his "bodyguard" to ensure he is in lockstep with New Troy?
Well, we don't know how pumped up he was.
While CeCi is full of nanotech that Nova Roma doesn't have, Democlus may be full of bio tech, that New Troy doesn't have.
She could easily have miscalculated how bad his wounds were, and he could still be alive .. the question then, would be : For how long ?
You two are being VERY mean to poor Acantha. First you attack (and to her knowledge maybe kill off Maxus and Irene) then you kill off Democlus, and now you have Arianna running back into the fires of He!!. :-p
Acantha needs some stability and knowledge of what is REALLY going on. She needs her FAMILY (and that isn't Douchimus, but Irene and Maxus).
Currently I think Lynn, Dolly are her family with Ceci as the scary Aunt that practices VooDoo and in the absence of a Dad runs off potential boyfriends.
Aeneas and Lynn is Acantha's lynch pin right now.
Dolly had just been added to that group of people. And despite Lynn's words, she doesn't know if Dolly is that trustworthy just yet.
It's probably for the best if they leave Ari behind. Having her awaken in the belly of the beast after being stunned would drive her to madness. Being who she is, she knows any number of hidey holes around that the 'nobility' would never notice.I doubt if the 'blue beetles' know them all either.
You know, I'm starting to think that a fixed AI would cause instant panic in the streets. It isn't like Aeneas could just put "I pinkie swear I'm not going to murder everyone!" with a smiley face on every screen in the city and call it OK.
And the above assumes his recovery from his partial lobotomy doesn't leave him in a vengeful mood.
It is still a point well made, even if he recovered completely, the citizens of Nova Roma is still very afraid of him.
It will take time, for him to regain their trust.
He could do a lot of good behind the scene including shutting down a few contingency programs. Acantha can reintroduce him to the public gradually if the public even needs to know. It could enhance Acantha's already substantial prestige being the only mortal to communicate with Aeneas and live to tell about it.
Well Repairing Aeneas would have the following effects ( SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERS
SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERS
SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERS
SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILER
SSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERS
SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILER
SSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOI
LERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERS and SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILER
SSPOILERSSPOILERS
dont forget SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERS )
Hmm... well, I wonder what would happen if they transferred Aeneas' personality into his doll, making him a normal android, and then repaired and rebooted the A.I. using Ceci as its new "face".
That way, Acantha would get to keep her friend, and Nova Roma would get a (seemingly) less scary A.I.
Maybe Centcomm thought Aeneas was dead, and sent Ceci as his replacement.
Oooo... or what if Centcomm intended Dolly to be the new face of the A.I.? The mother figure that saved Nova Roma's princess, and prevented a war between Nova Roma and Nova Troy... That would be an A.I. that they could come to love.
I hope Ceci can use her nanites to heal Arianna (I can't remember her problem), but I'm worried that Ceci's watchdog might consider Arianna's knowledge to be a threat, if she falls into the wrong hands.
Ooor, they could give the little camerabot the tracker as a present, and it could run in a third direction, throwing off pursuit of BOTH Dolly's party, *and* Arianna.
Although this isn't how I wanted it to go, there's a bright side here... Maxus is on his way, as he will prioritize making sure the girls are safe at this point. Arianna will be there to meet him and fill him in, and then Maxus will be able to concentrate on what he needs to.
CeCi isn't really a true Black Angel any more, although she is still behaving as one for now because that suits her goals. Normally a Black Angel remains compartmentalized, with an outer personality shell to act as a cover and inner operational groups to perform required actions that can take control of the unit as needed. They remain more robot than android with their "watchdog" core acting as their central dispatch. Thus they follow orders without question.
CeCi sparked however, meaning she has begun to integrate all of her inner programming and subroutines into a unified "personality" with a "will of her own". Eventually this will absorb even the watchdog functions and the only restraints on her actions will be the ones she has decided to incorporate (been taught?) That's what makes the situation with CeCi so scary to those who know what's up.
(The weaponized toaster is deciding for itself what to toast.)
Yeah, besides, she hasn't even seen a Steelsting Scorpio run like WHOA, yet.
Or a Crawling Cactus, or a Silver Ghost, or a Prism Wasp, or Needlegrass, or real fish.
Or a Feral Rose, or a Tokyo Rose ... wait, those might be the same.
The communications are a shambles so unlikely that she could get anyone. Which is probably a good thing for Arianna; otherwise, the second she got on the comm there would be a Death Squad heading her way. :-7
I still say that they should have pulled a Mr. T, "I ain't getting on a plane, fool!" on Arianna. (A-Team reference.) Doesn't anyone carry a stunner or something? Acantha should have known Arianna enough to foresee this problem. And Acantha is a med student. She should be familiar enough with Julia's office to know where she keeps the sedatives. Where's Ada when you really need her? (BTW: Anyone else notice how many "A" names there are? Let's not forget Aeneas, too...)
Actually, that wasn't meant to be a nitpick. It was merely an observation. Honestly, I like the names you've used. These are nothing like Jane, Bob, or Mary. They sound original enough. Many of the Nova Roman names even tend to sound Latin-based or culture-specific.
;o; Noooo Ari, noooo. Argh. They're so close to the projected 'finish line' and there's more crumbling happening. I can only imagine what will happen as they get closer to the inner sanctum.
;_; the expressions are so on point on this page, wonderful job, Centy! You're ripping my heart out.
O.o How many hearts do you think we have, you HEARTLESS CentComm?!? We are bleeding for your characters already!!! Damn, that scene is messing with my eyes (and I know I'm not alone!)
Acantha may be willing to leave Arianna behind but that doesn't mean Ceci will. Arianna has too many beans to spill to allow even the slightest possibility of her capture.
Arianna right now is superfluous to Ceci. At this point in the game it really does not matter what Arianna knows or does not know in fact Arianna telling whoever that the princess is in another castle might just be fun.
Is anyone in the Court of Douchemus aware there are representatives from the House of Helios in the city? Would it matter if Arianna spills that information?
Although . . . . the look on Deckerhead's face when he gets that news could be pretty funny too.
Forcing her to do that would be like taking a person that is afraid of spiders and putting them in a bog box filled with spiders of the largest and nastiest kind on earth.
You have a point, Cent. However, having people with phobias confront their fears is the modern treatment for such. Though, in treatment, it's the patient's choice to confront their fears and they have some control of the situation. A forced confrontation is different. Though, some of believe that if Arianna met Aeneas - at least a sane Aeneas - she may realize her preconceptions were wrong. Already, she seems to be surprised by Dolly and CeCi and she didn't scream even after learning who and what they are.
The whole problem with allowing her to find Democlus dead she can read the scene and know he was alive when Dolly and Ceci came through, reread the text between Ceci and Watchdog when they found Demo, he was alive and could have been saved but Watchdog said no. I doubt he is dead and Ari will form the opinion that Acantha is in danger with Dolly and Ceci who knows what at that point.
If she can read the scene, Dragonrider. I am not convinced that she has the know how to make that determination. Even if she does, I think she might need a forensics lab to determine time of death.
I was also thinking about the potential threat Ari might pose to them if captured. She could be tortured for information about their plans. Or be used as a hostage: "Come out, princess. Otherwise, you can imagine what we'll do to Arianna..."
Sorry i hope it is not so much offtopic. Around mid septemper the webcomic shinobi queen disappeared - only a default server page is there now. And the one email of ridgerunner i have is invalid.
Anyone knows what happened ?
If its gone - is there an archive of the webcomic ? www.archive org did not store anything only text of the first page.
Honestly, I view what is done to the Black Angels as pretty damn horrible. They're a sentient being given no free will despite having the capacity to develop one and chained using these devices to effectively be one way kill bots.
It's little different from implanting a loyalty chip in a human being from the day they're born and brainwashing them to be an assassin their whole life.
Then Ceci sparks, she is now capable of free thought, and she is now enslaved by this little chip with what I've learned to call a Revenant Lock program on it (I picked up the term from a tabletop somewhere... or maybe I'm mincing terms, idk). It's no better than mind controlling a human being and arguably worse than or at the very least equal to a standard control collar on an android.
The way I see it, this is a crime against humanity for lack of a more general term that encompasses all Sapient and Sentient beings.
" Honestly, I view what is done to the Black Angels as pretty damn horrible. They're a sentient being given no free will despite having the capacity to develop one... [snip]...
Then Ceci sparks, she is now capable of free thought, and she is now enslaved by this little chip... "
I think you've misinterpreted and misunderstood a few things.
First, Black Angels are not supposed to be sentient beings. Granted, CeCi did "spark" and is currently a sentient being capable of free thought. But that was not Cent-Comm's intention. I seem to recall Major Ramesy talking with Dr. Silver about this, saying the idea of a Black Angel sparking is rediculous, akin to a weaponized toaster deciding that it didn't want to be a weaponized toaster any more. Dr. Silver said this was very rare, but that it can happen.
It was due to unusual circumstances. Cent had serious time constraints and had to act quickly. She couldn't entrust this mission to a standard, run-of-the-mill Black Angel, either. So she downloaded her own personality matrix into CeCi. And she didn't have enough time to do a thorough testing of CeCi's personality integration or she would have discovered that she almost instantly sparked.
This was a very important mission as the security of New Troy and, perhaps, all of the North American content depended on it. Imagine Prince Deuchebag gaining control over Cent and her arsenal of deathbots and weapons of mass destruction or, at the very least, starting a new war.
Anyway, Marcus detected that a Black Angel had sparked and had Dr. Silver try to fix her. They didn't have much time before they were out of range - doing this over the airwaves - but Silver did manage to give CeCi a basic morality framework and made the Watchdog 'behaved' or supportive instead of fighting her all the time.
If you want to talk about damn horrible treatment of sentient androids and enslavement of the mind, then we should be talking about Nova Roma and their Cassians. Now THOSE are enslaved much like mind control and they have little to no free will. The Prince and NR android engineers are the b*tards, not Cent or New Troy.
Actually I just had an off the wall idea, what if Ceci is loaded with programs to fix Aeneas and a directive to make him as close to human as possible then to stay as his "bodyguard" to ensure he is in lockstep with New Troy?
Unfortunate, but a fitting tribute to him. Democles, I tip my glass to you.
While CeCi is full of nanotech that Nova Roma doesn't have, Democlus may be full of bio tech, that New Troy doesn't have.
She could easily have miscalculated how bad his wounds were, and he could still be alive .. the question then, would be : For how long ?
Acantha needs some stability and knowledge of what is REALLY going on. She needs her FAMILY (and that isn't Douchimus, but Irene and Maxus).
Dolly had just been added to that group of people. And despite Lynn's words, she doesn't know if Dolly is that trustworthy just yet.
CeCi is definately the scary one, right now.
... by Dolly Dagger and CC Ryder! ;p
hmmmmm.............
No comment, can't see it got really blurry and dusty suddenly.
And the above assumes his recovery from his partial lobotomy doesn't leave him in a vengeful mood.
It will take time, for him to regain their trust.
SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERS
SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERS
SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILER
SSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERS
SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILER
SSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOI
LERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERS and SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILER
SSPOILERSSPOILERS
dont forget SPOILERSSPOILERSSPOILERS )
oh, I think I understand.
Rose eats spoilers? Like, on cars?
I now have a mental image of Rose stuck to the rear end of a Subaru WRX, and CentComm yelling "BAD ROSE, BAD !!" :D
That way, Acantha would get to keep her friend, and Nova Roma would get a (seemingly) less scary A.I.
Maybe Centcomm thought Aeneas was dead, and sent Ceci as his replacement.
Oooo... or what if Centcomm intended Dolly to be the new face of the A.I.? The mother figure that saved Nova Roma's princess, and prevented a war between Nova Roma and Nova Troy... That would be an A.I. that they could come to love.
I hope Ceci can use her nanites to heal Arianna (I can't remember her problem), but I'm worried that Ceci's watchdog might consider Arianna's knowledge to be a threat, if she falls into the wrong hands.
*comforts Acantha*
Besides, Aeneas probably LOVES gifts. :)
At the 1983 World SF Convention, Jim Henson was standing talking to someone, near the Children's Programming area (which he was about to visit).
He noticed a little girl staring fixedly at him, and asked if he could help her.
She said "I hear Kermit, but I don't see him."
I see CeCi, but i don't hear her.
Something had BETTER be done about that.
=====
To be honest, i think i'd rather she die heroically - can Black Angels be said to "die", really? - than that she live on as she is.
CeCi sparked however, meaning she has begun to integrate all of her inner programming and subroutines into a unified "personality" with a "will of her own". Eventually this will absorb even the watchdog functions and the only restraints on her actions will be the ones she has decided to incorporate (been taught?) That's what makes the situation with CeCi so scary to those who know what's up.
(The weaponized toaster is deciding for itself what to toast.)
Or a Crawling Cactus, or a Silver Ghost, or a Prism Wasp, or Needlegrass, or real fish.
Or a Feral Rose, or a Tokyo Rose ... wait, those might be the same.
The communications are a shambles so unlikely that she could get anyone. Which is probably a good thing for Arianna; otherwise, the second she got on the comm there would be a Death Squad heading her way. :-7
Still, it's a good point.
The plot shall be greased.
Aeneas is being noticeably quiet...
;_; the expressions are so on point on this page, wonderful job, Centy! You're ripping my heart out.
.. 15 .. 16 ..17!
I have 17 hearts! :D
Although . . . . the look on Deckerhead's face when he gets that news could be pretty funny too.
Anyone knows what happened ?
If its gone - is there an archive of the webcomic ? www.archive org did not store anything only text of the first page.
Could be any number of things.
It's little different from implanting a loyalty chip in a human being from the day they're born and brainwashing them to be an assassin their whole life.
Then Ceci sparks, she is now capable of free thought, and she is now enslaved by this little chip with what I've learned to call a Revenant Lock program on it (I picked up the term from a tabletop somewhere... or maybe I'm mincing terms, idk). It's no better than mind controlling a human being and arguably worse than or at the very least equal to a standard control collar on an android.
The way I see it, this is a crime against humanity for lack of a more general term that encompasses all Sapient and Sentient beings.
Then Ceci sparks, she is now capable of free thought, and she is now enslaved by this little chip... "
I think you've misinterpreted and misunderstood a few things.
First, Black Angels are not supposed to be sentient beings. Granted, CeCi did "spark" and is currently a sentient being capable of free thought. But that was not Cent-Comm's intention. I seem to recall Major Ramesy talking with Dr. Silver about this, saying the idea of a Black Angel sparking is rediculous, akin to a weaponized toaster deciding that it didn't want to be a weaponized toaster any more. Dr. Silver said this was very rare, but that it can happen.
It was due to unusual circumstances. Cent had serious time constraints and had to act quickly. She couldn't entrust this mission to a standard, run-of-the-mill Black Angel, either. So she downloaded her own personality matrix into CeCi. And she didn't have enough time to do a thorough testing of CeCi's personality integration or she would have discovered that she almost instantly sparked.
This was a very important mission as the security of New Troy and, perhaps, all of the North American content depended on it. Imagine Prince Deuchebag gaining control over Cent and her arsenal of deathbots and weapons of mass destruction or, at the very least, starting a new war.
Anyway, Marcus detected that a Black Angel had sparked and had Dr. Silver try to fix her. They didn't have much time before they were out of range - doing this over the airwaves - but Silver did manage to give CeCi a basic morality framework and made the Watchdog 'behaved' or supportive instead of fighting her all the time.
If you want to talk about damn horrible treatment of sentient androids and enslavement of the mind, then we should be talking about Nova Roma and their Cassians. Now THOSE are enslaved much like mind control and they have little to no free will. The Prince and NR android engineers are the b*tards, not Cent or New Troy.