People are getting an education, hope Dolly is 5X5 reading little miss time bomb. Lynn quit babbling like an idiot, introduce everyone, get on tram and get the hell out of there. Aeneas needs to know where Acantha is and that she is surviving, also Kyle may need some help fixing whats broken.
I have a feeling Dolly may be about to loose a "daughter" unless watchdog backs down. Plus with Noctis, Kali "The Men In Blue" and the sniper teams around the communications hub the palace is nowhere, nohow, noway secure for and exfil. @Stormcrow No way in hell will any AI get Taylor DNA and be able to unlock all the bad stuff. Don't think even the sees all knows almost everything Tokyo Rose have access to that stuff.
Well, Tokyo Rose will probably get ahold of Taylor DNA, when Kyle finally gets some alone time with Lynn. I'm guessing a micro DNA sequencer is part of the upgraded package that TR gave him. (Um... I mean upgrade package)
*imagines Lynn coding a DLC for Kyle*
"I didn't think androids could be so ... caring ..." That, in a nutshell, highlights the difference in tech and attitude between the two cities. Androids are both disdained and either killbots or slaves in Nova Roma. It's also telling how Lynn was so amazed at catching a cold in Nova Roma. Unfiltered and non medicated air will do that to one.
I kind of doubt it. I would expect Calliope to build the body so it is HIGHLY resistant to such things. Dolly's system would probably have to be compromised (injured or utterly exhausted) for her to have any chance of catching anything.
Hehe... for another side of that, if Malati had been able to take Acantha for a girls' night out at one of her favourite venues...
Malati: WOOOOOOO! YEAH! FLAUNT THOSE MUSCLES, BIG BOY!! WAVE THAT FREAKING SWORD!!! YOU ARE VICTORIOUS, AND SOOOOOOO HOT!!! *throws underwear* YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!! (to Acantha) Isn't he so freaking HOT!?! Linus Maximus is the sexiest damn gladiator- no, the sexiest damn thing that ever existed!!!!
Acantha: (thinks) She sounds like... like a fangirl. I didn't think androids could be so... excitable, so... lustful!
The Prince will not stand for Acantha getting away. He might actually do something(more) stupid.Like attack the AIS. Who is armed with suborbital cannon, among other things...
Dolly sure is vastly different from what Acantha has ever experienced before in androids, and is giving her a whole new perception to think about. Nothing at all like the cassians or slaves she's met.
Have you run across the "How to resuscitate a lizard" placard yet? (A real safety sign)
http://www.omglmaowtf.com/how-to-give-a-lizard-mouth-to-mouth-resuscitation
I've been thinking about that. Ideally, they wouldn't have those restrictions but, given that they do, Acantha would have a very short reign if she tried to get rid of them entirely. Therefore, I've thought about a set of restrictions that gives them relatively free rein and would inspire public confidence.
All of these directives have an implied "unless they conflict with the previous directive(s)":
1. Protect New Rome
2. Uphold Justice
3. Protect the Livus family line
4. Uphold the law
5. Follow the orders of the throne
Although those guidelines would form a decent framework for morality, they do pose problems. In particular, concepts of patriotism and Justice have been proven to be remarkably fluid. It takes relatively few logical fallacies to turn patriotism against justice or vice versa. 4 and 5 can conflict readily, and their order becomes far less significant when you consider that whoever's on the throne makes the laws.
I suspect that rescueing the other person she promised to rescue would prove far harder. After all, her next target is in love with Decimus and may not want to be rescued.
Personally, I don't think either is the case, Lukkai... For the rest of the palace, she is an outcast, feared and reviled by everyone. No friends, no family, no hope. All she has is Decimus.
And if you think our fine upstanding prince charming DOESN'T treat her worse, physically, sexually, or emotionally than anyone else... She is his primary punching bag when things don't go his way. He can do anything he wants to her, and no-one even sees, and even if they did no-one gives a damm... except for the few that are glad and think she has it coming.
What happened to Julia was horrible, but it's nothing compared to what Katya endures on a regular, almost daily basis.
Of all the people in the palace, hers is the single most miserable existence of them all.
That strap and all the other little tweaks is one of the thousand things that make this comic so fantastic. You have to come back to page after page to catch things you missed the first time.
This is what I love about this comic! The time taken for little conversations, the setting of the scene, showing so naturally how androids are part of society, and their feelings and the feelings towards them. The relationships feel real.
Dark secret: A good 70% of the time, Cent creates the renders and sends me pages with a sort of proto-script dialogue to give me an idea of what's being conveyed. Some of that dialogue gets saved and polished up, but a lot of the time, I rewrite completely to present the information or interaction in a way that flows better. There are a handful of segments where Cent worked from a script I wrote beforehand, like Irene's backstory and Malati's mission. Sometimes I wonder if there's a noticeable difference between the two approaches. :D
Just from my side I love working from Roses scripts. it actually makes my job a lot easier. :D and we generally chat about things so it stays on point.
I enjoyed the comic from the day I found it. Having said that, the art and the story telling has only gotten BETTER. So the enjoyment approaches BLISS now. :-)
And the commentors are enjoyable too. You all add to the enjoyment of the comic with you zany theories and thought provoking posts.
Uhm, really? Aeneas might be watching through that bot for one thing, and the two Nova Roma residents here are a slave who would be well within her rights to trade any and all secrets for an end to her slavery, and someone in the higher ranks of the Nova Roma government and society that now has vital intelligence with regards to the invasion/insurrection wrecking the palace. I'm not saying it will happen, but any of the three Nova Roma residents could plausibly spill the beans when they get an opportunity.
Actually AC you missed the part about Arianna NOT minding her " Slavery " She adores Maxus and Irene. and if it weren't for him she would be MUCH worse off.
And if Acantha gets laid up and Arianna is transferred that gratitude and rapport won't make a hill of beans difference should the person who takes over be even half as vicious, stupid and crazy as Decimus. Slaves don't have control of their lives, they don't get to give palace interrogators lip either. There's *lots* of ways Arianna could be put in a position to spill the beans because her personal alternatives in the hypothetical situation would be worse.
So now we may find out Ceci's 4th protocol is to hell with Aeneas and get Lynn out of New Rome. If Aeneas is left crippled then New Rome will not have control of any of his weapons.
"Not-Cici's" hidden Objective ( and this is a guess here) is two fold. Primary Objective would be to ensure the survival of Cent-Comms Security(in other-words, Kill Lynn if it looks like the plan to get her out will not work) and secondary would be to ensure the survival of Dolly) Here is my Reasoning. WAAAAY back when Lynn was first abducted. Cent-Comm made the Comment that the prince" ALREADY HAD the key" to control her. (namely Lynn's DNA) Cent-Comm then proceeded to form a team to retrieve her, AND then she sent Dolly and Cici. Following the logic that if one team failed the other would succeed. Then Dolly's Ship got sabotaged(Probably by "Not-Cici") in order to try to fulfill the secondary objective.. This would fit the contradiction of creating the mission and then intentionally throwing in a monkey wrench. But what about if both teams fail. Cent-Comm Would Hedge her bet and remove the threat before allowing herself to be controlled by Prince Duchebag.. namely killing Lynn. my 2 cents
The black angel had contradictory orders to keep Dolly away from Nova Roma that was conflicting with its directives to protect her and avoid letting on about that secret order, precipitating its change into the autonomous gynoid Ceci. So far it looks like Centcomm has launched only a single, overt, intentional, rescue plan, but who knows what else Centcomm has been hearing, saying and doing?
Trying to figure this entire situation out is confusing, and one of the deeper reasons why is answering the question of just what's so special about Lynn Taylor, Calliope Taylor, and this, 'Taylor Legacy.' We don't know the nature of the supposed macguffin in the Taylor DNA, how it's inherited, how it's expressed phenotypically, and how much discretion Centcomm has regarding it. Honestly, unless they're doing serious genetic, epigenetic, nutritional and environmental manipulation to make sure specific genes are expressed into particular traits I'm not sure how Lynn Taylor would have any particular 'key' in her genes. Consider, by standard inheritance she should have some small fraction of the genetic distinctiveness of the original Taylor ancestor with this key. In Mendelian theory, if that person were Lynn's grandmother she should have a 25% or 50% chance of inheriting and expressing it if it's a dominant trait, and in real-world genetics it's lower than that unless there's been devoted inbreeding or test-tube work done. If Lynn isn't a product of engineering, either this is a hand-waved syfy-translation for the fantasy trope, "Heir of the kings of Numenor," or instead it's, "Centcomm recognizes this person as a descendant, because she decides so."
Even if this key were something relatively straightforward like special robots implanted in the Taylor legacy, we really don't know if Lynn's ova being harvested is a problem, or even Lynn's kidnapping. The eggs really shouldn't be because it's not hard to steal hair/skin samples and sequence someone's DNA from them, to make into genetically altered ova and spermatozoa. I'm mystified by the question of why Decimus might think he can get apocalyptic weaponry instead of just a kick in the face from Aeneas and/or Centcomm using either Lynn or Calliope. It just doesn't make sense for Centcomm to hand down a divine right of genocide by inheritance, and even less sense to have one with no safeguards against the designate turning out to be Nero 2nd or in some way controlled by Nero 2nd. Individual people are failure-prone, no sane system safeguarding the end of the world relies on any without integrity checks, sanity checks, backup measures, quality-control and outside verification.
Based on the earlier confrontation between Ms. Taylor and Centcom, the "Legacy" is not so much a pure genetic thing as it is being the "designated" Taylor descendant. Centcom, as a machine intelligence, has no option but to designate one Taylor of each generation as the heir and respond to him or her as required. That heir in turn must be educated in the proper pass codes and phrases to fully utilize their power over Centcom and can't just go fishing in Centcom's files.
Thus what they don't know about they can't force Centcom to do and "she' may not be under any compulsion to voluntarily tell them.
Without giving away too many plot points and background information that we haven't chosen to release yet, I can present two parts of the answer to the question of the "Taylor Legacy".
1) The Taylor genetic "keys" are contained in mitochondrial DNA. Normally this type is inherited through the maternal line, but Helios Taylor was a gene-mechanic.
2) Each child born into the Taylor line has a gene-print taken at birth by a White Angel and entered into Cent-Comm's permanent records, with a flag that marks them as an acknowledged "successor" to the bloodline.
Thus, it is not possible to create a "fake" successor with authority over Cent-Comm. Without those two elements being present--the encoded pattern and the neonatal gene-print--Cent is free to ignore any attempts to override her.
Bonus round 1: Lynn's ova are not an issue (and I seriously can't wait for the reboots to progress to the point where that goddamn scene is canonically erased).
Bonus round 2: Decimus really does believe that he can use a Taylor hostage to force the compliance of New Troy in his plans. They are, after all, Troy's "most prominent family". He assumed that the Taylors had the same position of power that the Livius family has in Roma--but as demonstrated in the conversation between him and Calliope, he's pretty ignorant of how New Troy does things. The Taylors do have a great deal of eminence in Troy, thanks to wealth, ancestral recognition, political connections, and Cent-Comm's personal involvement, but they're not a "royal house" the way that the Livius family is.
In other words, since Calliope and Lynn would rather die, than giving Decimus control over centcomm through them, that means that he was doomed to fail in his endavour from the very beginning.
Why is Dolly shocked at hearing Lynn got sick? She already knew that, from when it was mentioned in "Just missed them...", presently http://datachasers.thecomicseries.com/comics/1085
Especially if "not-CeCi" insists.
*imagines Lynn coding a DLC for Kyle*
Cent Comm (3C) has been hard coded that ONLY someone carrying Helios Taylor's Genes can take FULL control of Cent Comm, including the "Horrors"
Is she human enough to get the same illnesses?
Malati: WOOOOOOO! YEAH! FLAUNT THOSE MUSCLES, BIG BOY!! WAVE THAT FREAKING SWORD!!! YOU ARE VICTORIOUS, AND SOOOOOOO HOT!!! *throws underwear* YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!! (to Acantha) Isn't he so freaking HOT!?! Linus Maximus is the sexiest damn gladiator- no, the sexiest damn thing that ever existed!!!!
Acantha: (thinks) She sounds like... like a fangirl. I didn't think androids could be so... excitable, so... lustful!
>:=)>
>:=)>
The Prince will not stand for Acantha getting away. He might actually do something(more) stupid.Like attack the AIS. Who is armed with suborbital cannon, among other things...
Dolly sure is vastly different from what Acantha has ever experienced before in androids, and is giving her a whole new perception to think about. Nothing at all like the cassians or slaves she's met.
(Ugh... The alliteration makes it sound all weird...)
"psycological contagion risk. Personel mus t wear aluminum hats at all time."
http://www.omglmaowtf.com/how-to-give-a-lizard-mouth-to-mouth-resuscitation
...Oh, what the hell?
SQUEEEE!
...and yes, Acantha they obviously can - even your Cassians do so, though restricted.
@alt text: so true :D
All of these directives have an implied "unless they conflict with the previous directive(s)":
1. Protect New Rome
2. Uphold Justice
3. Protect the Livus family line
4. Uphold the law
5. Follow the orders of the throne
And if you think our fine upstanding prince charming DOESN'T treat her worse, physically, sexually, or emotionally than anyone else... She is his primary punching bag when things don't go his way. He can do anything he wants to her, and no-one even sees, and even if they did no-one gives a damm... except for the few that are glad and think she has it coming.
What happened to Julia was horrible, but it's nothing compared to what Katya endures on a regular, almost daily basis.
Of all the people in the palace, hers is the single most miserable existence of them all.
....and she has to take it and smile.
This sounds like a tectonic shift beginning. It may have bigger long-term consequences than all the fighting going on, no matter who 'wins'.
{edit} If she shares her insights with others, then the idea is likely to spread (even if she doesn't survive).
Also, if Acantha doesn't straighten that one strap on her shirt...! Driving me nuts :)
Keep up the story!
:D
I have popcorn ready 'n' everything! :D
But, at risk of getting too sugary, she's illustrating a damned good script.
And the commentors are enjoyable too. You all add to the enjoyment of the comic with you zany theories and thought provoking posts.
... surely, none of us would do that!
*looks innocent*
Like Dolly is now totally human looking. Though I suspect the secret is safe with the present group!
Which is pretty darn nice.
It used to be much lower.
Dolly was never meant to arrive in Nova Roma before the other team.
Trying to figure this entire situation out is confusing, and one of the deeper reasons why is answering the question of just what's so special about Lynn Taylor, Calliope Taylor, and this, 'Taylor Legacy.' We don't know the nature of the supposed macguffin in the Taylor DNA, how it's inherited, how it's expressed phenotypically, and how much discretion Centcomm has regarding it. Honestly, unless they're doing serious genetic, epigenetic, nutritional and environmental manipulation to make sure specific genes are expressed into particular traits I'm not sure how Lynn Taylor would have any particular 'key' in her genes. Consider, by standard inheritance she should have some small fraction of the genetic distinctiveness of the original Taylor ancestor with this key. In Mendelian theory, if that person were Lynn's grandmother she should have a 25% or 50% chance of inheriting and expressing it if it's a dominant trait, and in real-world genetics it's lower than that unless there's been devoted inbreeding or test-tube work done. If Lynn isn't a product of engineering, either this is a hand-waved syfy-translation for the fantasy trope, "Heir of the kings of Numenor," or instead it's, "Centcomm recognizes this person as a descendant, because she decides so."
Even if this key were something relatively straightforward like special robots implanted in the Taylor legacy, we really don't know if Lynn's ova being harvested is a problem, or even Lynn's kidnapping. The eggs really shouldn't be because it's not hard to steal hair/skin samples and sequence someone's DNA from them, to make into genetically altered ova and spermatozoa. I'm mystified by the question of why Decimus might think he can get apocalyptic weaponry instead of just a kick in the face from Aeneas and/or Centcomm using either Lynn or Calliope. It just doesn't make sense for Centcomm to hand down a divine right of genocide by inheritance, and even less sense to have one with no safeguards against the designate turning out to be Nero 2nd or in some way controlled by Nero 2nd. Individual people are failure-prone, no sane system safeguarding the end of the world relies on any without integrity checks, sanity checks, backup measures, quality-control and outside verification.
Thus what they don't know about they can't force Centcom to do and "she' may not be under any compulsion to voluntarily tell them.
Without giving away too many plot points and background information that we haven't chosen to release yet, I can present two parts of the answer to the question of the "Taylor Legacy".
1) The Taylor genetic "keys" are contained in mitochondrial DNA. Normally this type is inherited through the maternal line, but Helios Taylor was a gene-mechanic.
2) Each child born into the Taylor line has a gene-print taken at birth by a White Angel and entered into Cent-Comm's permanent records, with a flag that marks them as an acknowledged "successor" to the bloodline.
Thus, it is not possible to create a "fake" successor with authority over Cent-Comm. Without those two elements being present--the encoded pattern and the neonatal gene-print--Cent is free to ignore any attempts to override her.
Bonus round 1: Lynn's ova are not an issue (and I seriously can't wait for the reboots to progress to the point where that goddamn scene is canonically erased).
Bonus round 2: Decimus really does believe that he can use a Taylor hostage to force the compliance of New Troy in his plans. They are, after all, Troy's "most prominent family". He assumed that the Taylors had the same position of power that the Livius family has in Roma--but as demonstrated in the conversation between him and Calliope, he's pretty ignorant of how New Troy does things. The Taylors do have a great deal of eminence in Troy, thanks to wealth, ancestral recognition, political connections, and Cent-Comm's personal involvement, but they're not a "royal house" the way that the Livius family is.