OK this is a good news and more good news kinda thing.. Im home from the hospital with 3 more stents in the RCA ( right coranary artery ) the by pass for that is 80 percent occluded.. this all sounds bad right? Well Doctor Sharma was able to open the OEM RCA on my heart and altered my meds again so with luck this will be my last round with the cath lab!
I am in mild discomfort that should pass in the next few days. But the hospital visit and procedure went pretty much like clockwork.
I also got to see the " wires " that are around my sternum. Apparently Dr. Iva A. Smolens, MD got creative with tucking the ends. Its perfectly done and and looks really cool on the xrays :D
So lets all hear it for my doctors and those hard working nurses!
The logistics could be interesting. Waiting to see how they can get Lynn's suggestion implemented... Or even if they can implement it. Lynn just wants to kidnap her Sister, so she can show Acantha around HER city. :-D
Hah, at the end of the day, after both New Troy and New Rome are on fire, they'll have to scoot down to Joleet and ask the epiphyte down there for help. :D
And then Dolly can sleep on Breakers dick one more time. >_<
After reading the last update on Terri, quite honestly I'm not comfortable with the situation Cardiologist should have caught this earlier. Is their a possibility of bringing another Cardio Specialist into the equation? From my own experience I am quite aware of the pitfalls of post op care, one step half missed makes all the difference in the world.
As I said last page >>>TO HELL WITH THE BUFFER<<< GET YOUR ASS WELL!!!
The cardiologist DID catch it, though. Three weeks back, if not a little more. This particular procedure was scheduled back then--this was not an emergency admission. The cardiologist saw something wrong in the films from the last stent placement, but judged that it was safe to wait and allow the changes to medication to have a chance to take effect.
Actually, Gil, I think that Maxus would be willing to entertain the idea if certain safeguards were in place...
Such as Lynn remaining behind as surety... Yes, Dragonrider, you did call it first! and to refresh memories, I called that Dolly would stay with Lynn, but Noctis would go with Acantha, and I'm still sticking to that prediction.
(besides, I accidentally spilled the superglue, so I can't get that prediction off!)
For what end, CptKerion? Centcomm's stated goal was a stable and non-threatening Nova Roma. Her best chance at that would be to have Acantha in power, especially when Acantha is aware that she literally owes her life to the beneficence of New Troy.
As has been stressed many times, CentComm is a strategic and tactical A.I. built for war. When in an embattled position, or when under attack, the tendency will presumably be to seek to defend and preserve strategic capabilities while seeking to diminish the enemy's ability to bring force to bear and gradually attrit the enemy's long term ability to employ force. When in a strongly held position or peaceful position, the tendency will presumably be to apply force to the enemy's most vulnerable positions and seek to capture, control or destroy as many of their resources as possible. And she is running wargame simulations ALL ... THE ... TIME.
What you don't want to have happen is some logic subroutine firing up and saying "Hostile state key person or persons detected with minimal or no bodyguard in vulnerable position and in proximity to available friendly forces. Initiate contingency plan Lindbergh-2A and begin strategic analysis to maximize follow-on impact. Verified: no existing treaties or agreements in-place contravening this action. Verified: no civilian leadership directives contravening this action. Initiate. Add notification of actions taken to agenda for next military briefing to civil authorities."
I'm not saying Acantha doesn't end up in New Troy, and I'm not saying everything there doesn't go totally smoothly and drama-free. I am saying you probably do want to be careful about what opportunities you make available to CentComm. ^_^
"Hostile state key person or persons detected with minimal or no bodyguard in vulnerable position and in proximity to available friendly forces.
Initiate contingency plan Lindbergh-2A and begin strategic analysis to maximize follow-on impact.
Verified: no existing treaties or agreements in-place contravening this action.
Verified: no civilian leadership directives contravening this action. Initiate.
Add notification of actions taken to agenda for next military briefing to civil authorities."
@Gilrandir: I'm posting this at work, so I pray to GOD I don't say something stupid that I can't erase, but... here goes!
Even as a strategic and tactical A.I., Cent-Comm is programmed to take into consideration the political climate and social nuances that would be involved in any given situation. For lack of a better term, let's call it a "Machiavellian Sub-Routine".
With the situation as it is in Nova Roma, A healthy Acantha that is owing to New Troy is a far better outcome than the power vacuum that would be created by her death. Even with Aeneas fully instated, there will be endless civil war, with one side or another being spurned on by different senators that are jockeying for the throne. A look at the history of Rome between 200-300 AD would give you a good clue of the chaos that would ensue, where you have an endless civil war, where for the longest time you could count the average Ceasers reign in months but very few would reach the one year mark.
A Healthy Acantha on the throne is good for New Troy, just for political stability.... A healthy Acantha on the throne BECAUSE of New Troy's Beneficence is also a good thing.
(this is where the evil overlord starts to rub his hands to gether and mumble "my plan for global domination is coming together perfectly, bwuhahahah")
Just my opinion, which if you combine it with a Fiver, it's worth a cup of coffee at Starbucks!
At no point did I intend to suggest that the nefarious CentComm would want Acantha dead. However, Nova Roma has already established the precedent that kidnapping princesses to exert political influence on a rival member state is considered "fair game". I am merely pointing out that, from a certain perspective, Maxus' concern about entrusting Acantha's person to the hospitality of New Troy is quite legitimate, even if he has no qualms about trusting her health and well-being to New Troy's medical professionals.
Or as I said before Luna can send a mobile trauma team down. I get the impression their tech is more advanced than anything on earth. They could probably teleprompter down using the same tech that Ranger did back in the ways to change his clothes!
Suddenly the new voting incentives are making more sense.
You know, you'd think New Troy would have a fully mobile severe Trauma Center available that they could fly in for disasters and emergencies. Great for public relations and such.
(Considering the size of Mr. Black's transport and General Max's private shuttle.)
I would expect Nova Roma to have at least one mobile field hospital for deploying with the troops. It's hard to imagine any nation imagining itself to be a serious military force without something like that. And "overwhelmed with casualties" is typically a statement about priorities -- I'd imagine Acantha has some friends with a little influence in the military who could pull some strings on her behalf to get her moved to the front of the line.
Of course, if the real issue is that no one in Nova Roma can be trusted because of Decimus' influence, then it really doesn't matter how many hospitals they have or their state of combustion. Load her on the medical bus and ship her out somewhere where she can be worked on at leisure.
If New Troy really wants to help, though, they should probably be scrambling one of their mobile trauma centers as well. That way, rather than a three-hour (or however long) ambulance ride to New Troy, they could meet the med team somewhere in the middle with only a two-hour (or however long) trip. You could still relocate her to New Troy for her extended convalescence, if that's the way you end up wanting to go.
The United States Navy does have floating trauma centers. One of them located in Norfolk, Virginia is the USNS Comfort https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USNS_Comfort_(T-AH-20). However, it takes a few days to assemble the crew and supplies. An Army Combat Support Hospital https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Combat_Support_Hospital is air transportable but would still take hours to set up and make operational. I'm assuming that the times wouldn't be much better in the world of Data Chasers. So a medical evacuation flight to New Troy might well be the best option. As for the safety of Acantha, there is now a fully functional Aeneas in New Rome. I believe that Aeneas would be angry if anything was to happen to Acantha. And I don't think that CentComm (in character in universe version) or New Troy would like it when he gets angry.
Would IC (in character) for the characters in the story and IRL (in real life) for the people posting on the forums and writing and drawing the stories be the best way to distinguish the names if confusion is possible.
I try to consistently use "Cent" to refer to the real-life artist, and "Rose" to refer to myself; the in-story versions are "Cent-Comm" and "Tokyo Rose".
A convention I have seen used, and find useful is to refer to story characters by their unadorned name and to refer to commentors by using the '@' symbol prepended to their handle. So, the New Troy AIS is "CentComm", but Terri Hale is "@Centcomm".
I suppose I should get around to asking @Tokyo Rose if I may be so informal as to refer to her as "@Rose", rather than "@Tokyo Rose", in case she finds the latter burdensomely formal -- but then that might seem presumptuous. Perhaps our acquaintance is not sufficiently long-standing for that liberty, or she simply fears confusion if a Comic Fury user with the handle of "Rose" should start posting here? ^_^
This might have been raised already and I missed it because I rarely read the comments...
The Emperor's death has not been directly confirmed by a Cassian.
Cassians are built to be loyal to the death even during coups and revolts. Until such time as a Cassian broadcasts such a confirmation (which core programming would not allow them to falsify) large masses of Imperial troops and systems will assume he is alive and that anyone saying otherwise is a traitor.
Such a confirmation would, on the other hand, start an immediate flood of rats leaving a sinking ship if you get my drift. Cassian needs to go confirm he is dead before doing anything else.
Actually, Decimus' health is irrelevant at the moment.
According to The Specialist, they are not about to all die in many horrible ways. If they are, there's nothing any of them can do about it anyway.
The only proposals being discussed are the restoration of civil order and securing medical treatment for Princess Acantha, both of which may be presumed to be in the interest of Nova Roma and consistent with the wishes of Prince Decimus, if he were still alive. We've already established that Decimus failed to formally rescind Maxus' authority, since he did not imagine his assassination would fail, so Maxus may give legitimate orders to troops (including the Cassians) for the defense of the city, absent contravening orders from Prince Decimus (which are unlikely to be forthcoming ^_^).
So, whether he is dead, or just incommunicado at the moment, shouldn't make a difference to the vast majority of Nova Roman forces. Proper verification of death would require a medical team (or in this case a forensic team) anyway, not a Cassian. ("Yup. That's a burned up corpse. He's dead." "Is it the Emperor?" "Don't know. Have to get him back to the lab. Do a dental work up, start DNA sequencing. Should have a conclusive ID for you in two or three days. Looks like it could be him, though.")
Whether or not he is dead makes a HUGE difference to the Cassians. Especially the ones elsewhere at the moment.
I would not be suprised at all if the Cassians have ways to identify an Imperial corpse, but in any case a deep fried Cassian certainly should be easy to identify.
At which point authority (and the ability to give orders as such) goes to...
"Whether or not he is dead makes a HUGE difference to the Cassians. Especially the ones elsewhere at the moment."
(Disclaimer: the following are my opinions only. The creatrices will know better than I how the story goes and how the characters in the story react to any given situation.)
Why do you say this? What difference would it make? They currently have orders, which they are following. No one is trying to give them new orders -- except the cease-fire, which we have received no indication they have refused and every indication they have accepted. (Marcus would have been unlikely to vet Maxus and Noctis if Cassians were still engaging the rebels in violation of the cease-fire.)
Sure, it'll make a difference eventually, but what difference do you see that I am missing for the immediate term? Authority to give the Cassians orders stays right where it has always been: with the chain of command. Just because the head of the chain is cut off doesn't invalidate all the other links. We are told that we don't get a new Emperor (or Empress) until the Senate convenes to confirm the candidate, so that's likely to be days, or weeks, at best anyway. It isn't plausible that the Cassians would be exposed to a crisis of command for that long in the normal course of events (in my opinion).
Actually do we know that the Cassians don't have a scanner for detecting DNA built in? Quite possibly preloaded with the Livius' family DNA profile, for tracking purposes as well as identification (if someone tried to pass off an imposter).
We also know that highly accurate lie detector equipment exists in world. CeCi had one built into her.
Data Chasers is over 1,800 years in future. I can't imagine how some of it might work, but I can easily believe someone found a way.
All Cassians could have rocket ships built into them, given a sufficiently science-fiction-y narrative (cf., Ryo-Ohki from Tenchi Muyo), but it seems unlikely to me that they would have built-in forensic labs "just-in-case". In my opinion there should be at least a casual nod given to the need for the occasional design trade-offs of weight, space, power-consumption, fragility, rigidity, etc.
Also, we have been told, the general design of the Cassians is for loyalty to the state of Nova Roma, not the House of Livius. Kali was a special case with unique programming. So building in "Livius-detectors" would have (IMHO) negligible utility in any case for your garden-variety, off-the-shelf, mass-produced Cassian. If you're just talking about general-purpose ID scanners that work on everyone, all the time, then sure -- but then Dolly could never have masqueraded as human in the first place because such a scanner always defeats any attempt to fool it, except when it doesn't. ^_^
It does, however, seem very likely that the cassians have highly advanced software for lie-detecting, it would mesh well with their jobs.
Betcha that Noctis was running hers when she was told that the Prince was dead. Probably re-ran it a few times just to be certain.
As for chain of command, they have Maxus giving orders, since the Prince never demoted him, only Kali and the Prince himself was over Maxus - Meaning that any cassian left alive should answer to Maxus with no trouble in regards to their programming.
OK this is a good news and more good news kinda thing.. Im home from the hospital with 3 more stents in the RCA ( right coranary artery ) the by pass for that is 80 percent occluded.. this all sounds bad right? Well Doctor Sharma was able to open the OEM RCA on my heart and altered my meds again so with luck this will be my last round with the cath lab!
I am in mild discomfort that should pass in the next few days. But the hospital visit and procedure went pretty much like clockwork.
I also got to see the " wires " that are around my sternum. Apparently Dr. Iva A. Smolens, MD got creative with tucking the ends. Its perfectly done and and looks really cool on the xrays :D
So lets all hear it for my doctors and those hard working nurses!
Congratulations to you, and gratitude to your medical team for their efforts on your behalf.
I hope the mysterious and arcane alchemy that is modern pharmacology is properly employed to work its subtle and unpredictable influences according to your desires and to your lasting benefit.
I don't know how much or little a fan of body art you may be, but permit me to humbly suggest a less ... radical body piercing next time. ^_^ Although, for an artist such as yourself, I suppose getting a cool picture at the end is what it's all about. ^_^
Glad you are back home still worried, take it easy and let this go for a while we will still be here and will still vote even if you are one sick leave. We love you and want you >>>ALL<<< better not half way.
Cooler heads would have required Douchie and his Father not go hunting. Come to think about didn't we have a Vice President and a Big 10 Basketball Coach try the same scenario?
The logistics could be interesting. Waiting to see how they can get Lynn's suggestion implemented... Or even if they can implement it. Lynn just wants to kidnap her Sister, so she can show Acantha around HER city. :-D
Oh, the sub-text is TERRIBLE. :-D
And then Dolly can sleep on Breakers dick one more time. >_<
As I said last page >>>TO HELL WITH THE BUFFER<<< GET YOUR ASS WELL!!!
And both of you be well.
Such as Lynn remaining behind as surety... Yes, Dragonrider, you did call it first! and to refresh memories, I called that Dolly would stay with Lynn, but Noctis would go with Acantha, and I'm still sticking to that prediction.
(besides, I accidentally spilled the superglue, so I can't get that prediction off!)
I agree with him. Or would in his position.
Should be safe with what WE readers know. Heck, saving her might even help relations smooth over between the two countries.
I agree with Lynn, New Troy is a good option.
As has been stressed many times, CentComm is a strategic and tactical A.I. built for war. When in an embattled position, or when under attack, the tendency will presumably be to seek to defend and preserve strategic capabilities while seeking to diminish the enemy's ability to bring force to bear and gradually attrit the enemy's long term ability to employ force. When in a strongly held position or peaceful position, the tendency will presumably be to apply force to the enemy's most vulnerable positions and seek to capture, control or destroy as many of their resources as possible. And she is running wargame simulations ALL ... THE ... TIME.
What you don't want to have happen is some logic subroutine firing up and saying "Hostile state key person or persons detected with minimal or no bodyguard in vulnerable position and in proximity to available friendly forces. Initiate contingency plan Lindbergh-2A and begin strategic analysis to maximize follow-on impact. Verified: no existing treaties or agreements in-place contravening this action. Verified: no civilian leadership directives contravening this action. Initiate. Add notification of actions taken to agenda for next military briefing to civil authorities."
I'm not saying Acantha doesn't end up in New Troy, and I'm not saying everything there doesn't go totally smoothly and drama-free. I am saying you probably do want to be careful about what opportunities you make available to CentComm. ^_^
Initiate contingency plan Lindbergh-2A and begin strategic analysis to maximize follow-on impact.
Verified: no existing treaties or agreements in-place contravening this action.
Verified: no civilian leadership directives contravening this action. Initiate.
Add notification of actions taken to agenda for next military briefing to civil authorities."
And then she had cookies. :)
Even as a strategic and tactical A.I., Cent-Comm is programmed to take into consideration the political climate and social nuances that would be involved in any given situation. For lack of a better term, let's call it a "Machiavellian Sub-Routine".
With the situation as it is in Nova Roma, A healthy Acantha that is owing to New Troy is a far better outcome than the power vacuum that would be created by her death. Even with Aeneas fully instated, there will be endless civil war, with one side or another being spurned on by different senators that are jockeying for the throne. A look at the history of Rome between 200-300 AD would give you a good clue of the chaos that would ensue, where you have an endless civil war, where for the longest time you could count the average Ceasers reign in months but very few would reach the one year mark.
A Healthy Acantha on the throne is good for New Troy, just for political stability.... A healthy Acantha on the throne BECAUSE of New Troy's Beneficence is also a good thing.
(this is where the evil overlord starts to rub his hands to gether and mumble "my plan for global domination is coming together perfectly, bwuhahahah")
Just my opinion, which if you combine it with a Fiver, it's worth a cup of coffee at Starbucks!
And, an ex-sanguine-nation is a bloody bad thing. ;)
Although... his armor still looks sanguine. If it weren't, it'd be a dreary shade of blue. (a blue with the blues?)
Or ELSE!!!!
I'll find something to give Krissy to make her sit on you 24/7 to make SURE you follow your Dr's orders.
We'll Force you to watch Shirley Temple Movies until you beg us to let you follow the doctors orders!
wait... that only works on guys....
Next idea up: Luna... but wait, Lynn's grandparents are there...
I hope they soon come to a decision - Acantha's life is on stage...
You know, you'd think New Troy would have a fully mobile severe Trauma Center available that they could fly in for disasters and emergencies. Great for public relations and such.
(Considering the size of Mr. Black's transport and General Max's private shuttle.)
Two, stop with the innocent look... we KNOW better! :-D
Of course, if the real issue is that no one in Nova Roma can be trusted because of Decimus' influence, then it really doesn't matter how many hospitals they have or their state of combustion. Load her on the medical bus and ship her out somewhere where she can be worked on at leisure.
If New Troy really wants to help, though, they should probably be scrambling one of their mobile trauma centers as well. That way, rather than a three-hour (or however long) ambulance ride to New Troy, they could meet the med team somewhere in the middle with only a two-hour (or however long) trip. You could still relocate her to New Troy for her extended convalescence, if that's the way you end up wanting to go.
Give me back my innocent look!
GIVE IT BACK BLACK! >:(
Would IC (in character) for the characters in the story and IRL (in real life) for the people posting on the forums and writing and drawing the stories be the best way to distinguish the names if confusion is possible.
Maybe Mr. Black knows someone there too.
I suppose I should get around to asking @Tokyo Rose if I may be so informal as to refer to her as "@Rose", rather than "@Tokyo Rose", in case she finds the latter burdensomely formal -- but then that might seem presumptuous. Perhaps our acquaintance is not sufficiently long-standing for that liberty, or she simply fears confusion if a Comic Fury user with the handle of "Rose" should start posting here? ^_^
Definitions of good may vary. Void where prohibited. See complete terms and conditions on page 3.
This might have been raised already and I missed it because I rarely read the comments...
The Emperor's death has not been directly confirmed by a Cassian.
Cassians are built to be loyal to the death even during coups and revolts. Until such time as a Cassian broadcasts such a confirmation (which core programming would not allow them to falsify) large masses of Imperial troops and systems will assume he is alive and that anyone saying otherwise is a traitor.
Such a confirmation would, on the other hand, start an immediate flood of rats leaving a sinking ship if you get my drift. Cassian needs to go confirm he is dead before doing anything else.
According to The Specialist, they are not about to all die in many horrible ways. If they are, there's nothing any of them can do about it anyway.
The only proposals being discussed are the restoration of civil order and securing medical treatment for Princess Acantha, both of which may be presumed to be in the interest of Nova Roma and consistent with the wishes of Prince Decimus, if he were still alive. We've already established that Decimus failed to formally rescind Maxus' authority, since he did not imagine his assassination would fail, so Maxus may give legitimate orders to troops (including the Cassians) for the defense of the city, absent contravening orders from Prince Decimus (which are unlikely to be forthcoming ^_^).
So, whether he is dead, or just incommunicado at the moment, shouldn't make a difference to the vast majority of Nova Roman forces. Proper verification of death would require a medical team (or in this case a forensic team) anyway, not a Cassian. ("Yup. That's a burned up corpse. He's dead." "Is it the Emperor?" "Don't know. Have to get him back to the lab. Do a dental work up, start DNA sequencing. Should have a conclusive ID for you in two or three days. Looks like it could be him, though.")
I would not be suprised at all if the Cassians have ways to identify an Imperial corpse, but in any case a deep fried Cassian certainly should be easy to identify.
At which point authority (and the ability to give orders as such) goes to...
(Disclaimer: the following are my opinions only. The creatrices will know better than I how the story goes and how the characters in the story react to any given situation.)
Why do you say this? What difference would it make? They currently have orders, which they are following. No one is trying to give them new orders -- except the cease-fire, which we have received no indication they have refused and every indication they have accepted. (Marcus would have been unlikely to vet Maxus and Noctis if Cassians were still engaging the rebels in violation of the cease-fire.)
Sure, it'll make a difference eventually, but what difference do you see that I am missing for the immediate term? Authority to give the Cassians orders stays right where it has always been: with the chain of command. Just because the head of the chain is cut off doesn't invalidate all the other links. We are told that we don't get a new Emperor (or Empress) until the Senate convenes to confirm the candidate, so that's likely to be days, or weeks, at best anyway. It isn't plausible that the Cassians would be exposed to a crisis of command for that long in the normal course of events (in my opinion).
We also know that highly accurate lie detector equipment exists in world. CeCi had one built into her.
Data Chasers is over 1,800 years in future. I can't imagine how some of it might work, but I can easily believe someone found a way.
Also, we have been told, the general design of the Cassians is for loyalty to the state of Nova Roma, not the House of Livius. Kali was a special case with unique programming. So building in "Livius-detectors" would have (IMHO) negligible utility in any case for your garden-variety, off-the-shelf, mass-produced Cassian. If you're just talking about general-purpose ID scanners that work on everyone, all the time, then sure -- but then Dolly could never have masqueraded as human in the first place because such a scanner always defeats any attempt to fool it, except when it doesn't. ^_^
Betcha that Noctis was running hers when she was told that the Prince was dead. Probably re-ran it a few times just to be certain.
As for chain of command, they have Maxus giving orders, since the Prince never demoted him, only Kali and the Prince himself was over Maxus - Meaning that any cassian left alive should answer to Maxus with no trouble in regards to their programming.
It also gives the General a handful of elite troops he knows are loyal. Worth more than his body weight in gold at this point.
A counter order would work, but there's no one around with the proper rank to do so.
The best they have is Maxus and Noctis.
I say Noctis because she's good at ... "finagling" orders, lets say. :)
I am in mild discomfort that should pass in the next few days. But the hospital visit and procedure went pretty much like clockwork.
I also got to see the " wires " that are around my sternum. Apparently Dr. Iva A. Smolens, MD got creative with tucking the ends. Its perfectly done and and looks really cool on the xrays :D
So lets all hear it for my doctors and those hard working nurses!
I hope the mysterious and arcane alchemy that is modern pharmacology is properly employed to work its subtle and unpredictable influences according to your desires and to your lasting benefit.
I don't know how much or little a fan of body art you may be, but permit me to humbly suggest a less ... radical body piercing next time. ^_^ Although, for an artist such as yourself, I suppose getting a cool picture at the end is what it's all about. ^_^
...I wonder that they did not place a zip there yet...
Yeah, thank you for your great work, doctors and nurses of our Terri...
And I'm glad things are going good at the doctor for you. <3
Do you see that Marcus and Dr. Silver ? :D
Besides centcomm will be too busy getting her butt handed to her over the ceci thing!
FYI line starts ten spot behind me as I called the first ten then dolly, rose, Lynn, calli, and teedee !!!