OK, this is officially fucked up: last time I was searching for the origin of that phrase a couple of years ago, pretty much all sources seemed to suggest the variant with "... out to get you" was the original; while "after you" was supposedly a misquotation by Nirvana... But now, there are only few mentions for the former variant (none of them with proper attribution); while most are pointing to Joseph Heller/Catch-22 -- always with the wording you used.
In short: sorry for the noise.
(Also, turns out the Nirvana variant, while closer to the original, is yet a bit different...)
Hmm. This situation is messy, but not quite a shambles yet. Maybe this would be a good time for Dolly to call out Cent for basically murdering CeeCee--you know, right in front of the only two people who can give Cent orders.
Centcom has an excellent point, but so, unfortunately does Lynn. She needs the physical reassurance of Acantha's presence right now for her own mental stability, which I don't think anyone has caught on to yet. That's one of the effects of being a survivor of a mutual near death experience.
I disagree Megs... Timotheus is right from my own personal experience with PTSD.
Each case will be different, and Lynn may certainly be using Acantha as a security blanket and a diversion from talking about tough stuff... But she IS a security blanket. Acantha and her know EXACTLY where they stand with each other as friends and co-survivors of trauma. The rest of the world has little to know grasp of what it was like for them. Simply being close to each other is a source of stress relief and a person they can confide in about it.
Now is this the best case, no...not needing the security blanket is the best case. But that is not now, and the reality is she does need the girl somewhat.
Is this the best idea Politicaly? That is debatable. and in the short term I am not sure it matters. Long term, politics works it self out.
Is this the best case for Acantha? I would argue she needs a friend. She HAS protection. Lots of it from her personal rabid and cute white everything about her body guard to Centcom to Cally (She is a mother so I believe most of us mothers are hessitant to harm or kill children in our care or city...especialy Orphans like Acantha...it's a base instinct thing and Cally is over her knee jerk reaction phase. She would not want the girl harmed.) to the med staff in general and her personal nurse in particular. LOTS of gaurds to her health.... However she has no friends other then Lynn. No family other then LYNN and CALLY and she may not even know about them being related yet. (I don't know that it ever came up.)
The girls are each other's mental/emotional security blankets. In time, short term or long term...they will rely on each other less and less but I believe they will always be close because of the events they suffered through.
And remember Acantha might need Lynn more then Lynn needs her. REmember...Mother murdured by brother, FATHER murdered by brother, BROTHER started to rape her, Constantly beaten by brother in rages to (correct) her behavior and the only Maternal woman she had in her life are either back in Roma with her surrogate Father figure, dead, or Kali who...killed her brother by destroying herself to do it.
If it were me... and I have lived through this kind of "holy crap in a half shell" trama...one would have a VERY hard time keeping me away from a security blanket person/Thing/creature. It took me 22 years to STOP freaking out with my issues...only only a few days to create them. I am inclined to give Lynn a bit of a security pass. Otherwise she WILL start acting out in destructive and personally detrimental ways.
I have no experience with PTSD, @Meska, so I have no basis for disagreement. Your assertions make sense, and I also agree that Lynn be allowed to visit with Acantha. My point here was simply that she wait at this time, since Acantha is asleep, and should be allowed to continue until she wakes on her own. That is sound medical advice, and Lynn should realize it is in her best interest. Once she wakes up, they should be allowed whatever time together they want. As you say, it is probably in both their best interest to be together. I had said that in the past.
I do stand by my initial statement, though, and Lynn should wait. I don't think it would be very helpful to either of them for Lynn to be there until she wakes up.
@Meska, your comment may be long, but it makes sense to me. My take is much less analytical. I simply think that both Lynn and Acantha need a friend right now and they should be allowed to spend time together, once Acantha wakes up on her own. Noctis and Dolly can provide assurance as to the safety of their respective charges.
From a long term geopolitical stance it could also help build good will/trust with New Rome's presumptive new leader.
The elephant in the room Cally was absolutely correct it was her fault Lynn was kidnapped. She gave Lynn her license when she was underage, her only concern in the trip was Lynn was current on birth control and V.D.protection. No indication she knew Kyle, his family or if Lynn was going to be the community bike. What she needs is not namby pamby psycho meetings. She should be in front of a Judge hearing what constitutes Child Abuse. Lynn is far from innocent in this mish mash how many times has she blackmailed her mother I to doing things giving her privileges she wasn't old or mature enought to have? She needs an old fashiond spanking, yes she was right in what she told her mother butbshe was still a brat in forcing to whole birthday party krap.
Lynn and Kyle have known each other for a loong ass time. the relationship is well known.
There is no child abuse here by New Troy law or actual law. Dolly is MORE than qualified to raise Lynn and effectively thats what Calliope did is shge let the MOST compitant person raise her.
As far as the priviligages .. shes done nothing any other citizen could at this point. Once she turns 21 she can be a commercal or private pilot. out side the city.. Inside the city all she needs to be is 16 to fly around in a aircar by herself. remember no one flys in side New Troy ( excepting Ada and special cercs ) flys a aircar on manual. so the point is rather moot.
as far as the birthday party she had been looking forward to seeing Kyle and other friends in Sparta that this was a big deal to her. Not a spur of the moment temper tantrum,.
I respectfully disagree Cally passed her maternal duties off wallowed in self pity and bootleg booze,by definition that is child neglect and abuse, she gave a pilots license to an underage child. Her only stated concern was current birth control and V.D. protection, at no point do you indicate there is any relationship with Kyles parents. If my daughter had tried that stunt she would have taken meals standing up. Your response says only the children knew each other. Indicates Cally didn't know Kyle. A caring concerned parent would not allow her daughter the freedom she did. Sorry you are wrong Cally is 100% At fault for the kidnapping. If she had done her job raising Lynn it would not have happened. Of course she didn't get much moral traing from her parents she was knocked up when she got married.
"Letting" an adult woman travel from one city to another without parental supervision isn't negligence. She was one day from 18, so she was underage only under the strictest of definitions.
Maybe you'll feel differently about Calli if you reread the first chapter, but it sounds a little like the the REAL issue you have is with women having sex. Calli's main concern wasn't her daughter's virginity, but gutters and other wasteland dangers. She only gave in because there hadn't been an incident in years. Calli getting married while pregnant has nothing to do with anything, and her concern about VD and pregnancy protection IS responsible parenting. It wasn't her only concern though.
I don't have an issue about women and sex. Lynn was three years from majority she was reaching 18 not 21 legality per cent actual for license is 21. She was a spoiled rotten brat whose mother paid more attention to bottle and self pity than her own flesh and blood. She all9wed anmechanical baby sitter to raise he daughter. Said baby was not built or programmed as a babysitter she was a mechanical guard bot, not exactly what I would want teaching my daughter anything but self defense. I do object to a society that encourages anyone under legal age to indulge in premaritat sex, male or female. When I was in High School those that did were called punks, greasers and sluts. un
The legal driving age inside New Troy is 16. The legal age of adulthood is 18. The legal age to pilot an aircar outside the city limits is 21; a temporary pass is obtainable by filling out a form granting parental permission, provided that the licensee has passed all relevant driving/piloting tests.
@ Dragonrider. Seriously? You are going to disagree with the creator and the editor / writer?
once again this is WORD OF GOD so listen up!
Dolly is not a traditional "bot" and im sure she would take offense at such a term especially now.
Calliope has known Kyle and his parents. Ill make this MORE clear in the remastered pages thank you for pointing that out.
as far as sex goes. Sex IS NOT A TABOO ... THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH CONSENSUAL SEX!!!!!
Edit: I really really hate it when people try to tell US what is going on in the story. I mean sure point out mistakes. But telling us we are flat out wrong? No. Just dont.
Me thinks messing with the fictional Cent or the real Cent is equally perilous. Somehow, I think the personality of one is based on the personality of the other.
Or maybe they are one in the same being and we're being slowly waken out of a deep dream as this isn't the real world.
I wish you well with your health issues, unfortunately the moral codes we were raised with are to far apart to reconsile. I was raised that any pre or extra mental relations were wrong, and a parents duty was to personally, raise, provide moral compass for their children. Not farm them out to employees, or relatives. Therefore I feel it best we part company at this point. Iwish you the besr.
Ehm what? Calli and Kyle know each other pretty well, remember when he called to find out what is going on and why Lynn did not arrive? And Lynn flew out on her 18th birthday, to go to a planned way ahead birthday party. Which is not unreasonable, seeing as her social circle seems to be in New Sparta and not New Troy (are there even teenagers in New Troy?).
The party in New Sparta is well acceptable, especially since she will be living there alone in a couple of months. It's been ages, but I remember 18 being the biggest deal between all birthdays! What's the alternative? Celebrate your 18th birthday with mom and Dolly, and a piece of cake in the safety of your own kitchen?
The only thing out of the ordinary is her flying there solo instead with Dolly. That hardly counts as child abuse though...
In all locations and jurisdictions currently described in the comic setting, the legal age of majority is 18. That is the age at which a human being can legally enter into binding contracts such as marriage or business partnerships, have sex, be required to pay taxes, commit grown-up crimes, and otherwise enjoy the privileges of adulthood.
Incidentally, I happen to agree with Dragonrider on his objections to a society that encourages children to fuck. However, I feel there's a difference between encouraging teenagers to fuck, and having enough brain cells to realize that they are going to be fucking because biology and hormones are hard to ignore, and therefore educating them adequately to avoid pregnancy, sexually-transmitted disease, and so on.
Incidentally, Calli's remark to Lynn about making sure she was up to date on her birth control and anti-VD shots was a joke. Calli was teasing Lynn. Every teenager I've ever personally known has been horror-stricken by the realization that their parents might actually know that they're planning to have sex.
The one problem with the medium used to tell this story is that jokes can fall flat without being able to hear the tone of the voice. I too didn't realize it was a joke.
I agree with Rose that there is a difference between encouraging kids to have sex and acknowledging reality and making sure the consequences of poor decisions aren't disastrous.
Can we leave out the "poor decisions" part in there? While avoiding undesired consequences is certainly a valid concern, let's not assume that having sex with her long-term boyfriend is necessarily a poor decision in itself ;-)
(PS. I didn't read Calliope's remark as a joke either...)
We saw the door in action back a few pages, Constructive Criticism from 12 July 2017, Tim when Lynn came in.
As for knocking, I think it is because CentComm is HOME. They are in 3C, I believe. It might be like knocking before going into the kitchen. Plus knocking hard enough to be HEARD inside might cause stong enough vibrations to cause misalignment of some of the delicate equipment or startle people inside potentially causing more injuries.
We actually hear the door in action here as well. (Notice the sound effect in the background on panel 3.) Probably easy to miss though in the middle of a heated conversation...
While Commie's doll is "home", this is *not* a kitchen -- I'd say it would still be appropriate to knock before barging into a room where guests are staying?
(Not literally knock of course, on a military grade door -- even though it worked well enough for Ceci on Logrin's bunker ;-) But some kind of acoustic signal announcing the intrusion before opening the door, seems like something that would make people way more comfortable...)
Why would Centcomm need to knock, or wait for an invitation before entering? It's *her* room, after all, setting aside the minor point that she's already in the room (thanks to the omnipresent monitoring systems) even if her dolls are all off somewhere playing hopscotch.
Which was kind of my point, Mr. Black. Why would CentComm feel any need to announce herself in 3C? She is EVERYWHERE already... though (like Dahak) she might choose to provide privacy to certain individuals and locations as seems appropriate to her programming.
OK is Lynn wearing a dress or a tank top with delusions of grandeur, cause no dress should have the ability to split all the way up to her breast! lol.
Asian dresses frequently have seam lines up the sides adorn to look like slits that can be unbuttoned. A suggestive tease so to speak. Look closely and you'll see the faux buttons.
To be a party pooper here, Lynn's dress isn't even registering on Cent except as an observational note, and it doesn't signify anything important. Lynn's wardrobe contains a wide range of clothing styles because she likes to dress fashionably, that's all.
On re-reading, I noticed that she said "can" direct security not "will". I believe that she's giving Lynn a chance to make her case. Whether Lynn would convince her is another matter.
If Acantha is sleeping, it would be a better idea for Lynn to wait to go see her. Right now, the number of those advising against her going right now stands at four. Maybe she should take the hint and acquiesce, for now. I can understand how Lynn feels, but she's starting to wear it a little thin. Being an adult is more than just saying so.
If nothing else, she should realize that she's agitating Dolly, whose own treatment would go better if she wasn't moving around.
I did not expect CentComm to weigh in on this at all!
I don't think that CentComm had 'planned' on discussing it either. Rather she walked in on something that she had plans in place for, so she commented on it.
As for Acantha, Calliope is ultimately responsible for Lynn's reaction. Calliope never gave her a little sister, so she went out and found one herself! :-D The sooner people realize that, the smoother everything will go!
@megados thing is, the more people/god-machines are telling her she shouldn't see Acantha, the more it's feeling like a conspiracy to her -- it only serves to seal her resolve...
Lynn is pointing out that she is an adult, so it would go a long way for her to listen to sound medical advice, and wait until Acantha wakes up. She is very upset right now, and I understand her position, but right now, acting like an adult involves putting Acantha's needs before her own.
Note though that rather than sticking to the line about what's good for Acantha, Commie suddenly brings up the medical advice of Lynn's shrink -- which is seriously fucked up in itself; but on top of that, it also gives off the impression that Commie is taking any excuse she can find...
You bring up a good point. It gives the appearance that CentComm is trying to push Calliope's wishes, rather than trying to work toward what is best for Lynn.
I don't see how Cent mentioning the advice of Lynn's shrink is "fucked up". Cent states that Acantha's medical attendants have said "don't let anybody visit her for now". Since the door opened and Cent also heard Dolly say "Your doctor has advised you not to [visit Acantha]", she added that in as well. Medical advice is medical advice, in Cent's eyes.
That makes sense, Rose. The door opening did occur just as Calliope said that. It was not clear to me just what CentComm heard as she walked in. I didn't think it was fucked up, but it did seem that CentComm was more narrowly going along with Calliope. Thanks for the clarification.
@Tokyo Rose *mentioning* it would be fine; but saying "your shrink says so, and I'll use my God powers to make sure you stick with that" is seriously fucked up. Lynn is not a mental in-patient -- at least not officially. Commie is just shitting on her civil rights. (Well, assuming such a thing even exists in Troy...)
Acantha is effectively a visiting head of state and is presently housed in 3C. Cent-Comm has every right and ability to allow or disallow entrance to virtually any citizen of New Troy for any reason.
Well, if she stuck with the reason being "it's not good for the recovery of the visiting head of state", that would be fine. But "your shrink says it's not good for *you*" is not a reason at all. She is making this about Lynn, which she has no business to.
She has every right to make it about Lynn, since she is a member of the Taylor family. CentComm is concerned with, and responsible for New Troy, and Lynn's health impacts the wellbeing of New Troy.
That said, she would have been much better received, had she stuck with the fact that it was better for Acantha.
Well, if we do accept that it's Commie's prerogative to decide what Troy citizens are allowed or not allowed to do, lest the hurt themselves, then she shouldn't have let Lynn leave Troy on her own in the first place...
Also, whether it's technically her business or not, putting it like "I am god: your own will is meaningless", is still a shitty move.
Ya know, Lynn. Saying you're an adult cause your 18 so I'm gonna do what I want, *stamps her tiny feetsies* is kinda like telling everyone you're the King. You aren't if you have to keep reminding them.
I seem to remember an incentive, where Centcomm Actual was in the nude because she didn't think she could find someone to do a bikini shot ... quite a few females, and a few guys, did speak up wanting to do it though.
"I'm an adult, so I can do what I want" is neither entirely accurate, not a particularly mature comment. She also wants to rush off to see Acantha. All of this says she wants to avoid dealing with her mommy issues. If she and Cally don't sit down and hash things out, with help from the psych people, they're only going to grow farther apart.
True, but at the same time, they will need to schedule a meeting with the head tech first.
In the meantime, she wants to see Acantha.
But since Acantha is doing the sleepies, Lynn is denied ... again!
I'm an example of what happens when you handle this type of situation wrong. They most definitely will grow further apart, and Lynn will become very bitter and resentful, requiring counseling of its own just so the sorta hole it leaves behind stops hurting you even after the person is long gone from your life.
Here is a problem I see, that hasn't really been discussed much. Acantha's stay in New Troy is not indefinite. She will probably be leaving back to Nova Roma in about 2-3 weeks after her cloned heart is transplanted, maybe less depending on the state of Medical technology.
With that being said, Lynn spending time with Acantha would only be a short term thing anyway. On a political level, it is also not a good idea to deny Acantha access to the only New Troy citizen she trusts.
This was a conflict that could have been mitigated and dealt with a lot more rationally on both sides, if Calliope hadn't decided to be so heavy handed in the first place. The underlying issue would still need to be resolved, but it could have been done from a position where both Calli and Lynn would have some trust in each other. As it stands, I now see that as the first hurdle they will have to jump over, and that could take months.
Lynn and Acantha's time is limited to be sure. If they're smart, Lynn and Calliope should use this time while Acantha sleeps to come to some sort of consensus, and have Lynn's therapist there at times to observe. If the therapist knows anything, it would be that it could be important to Lynn and Acantha's wellbeing to allow them to decompress together. I maintain that Lynn should wait until Acantha is up to having visitors, but then they should definitely be allowed time together, and the therapist could sit in at times, and be able to make a better determination than by working with Lynn alone. The added bonus could be that it could also be beneficial to Acantha, who probably needs therapy more than Lynn does. I might also suggest Calliope visit Acantha with Lynn, so she gets to know Acantha, and allay fears as to whether Acantha poses any harm. Acantha could get to know Calliope too, and see that she really does mean well.
It's a shame it is devolving into a pissing match, but hopefully it can be resolved sooner rather than later.
Something that has also been mentioned before, is that done right, this can also go a long way in cementing New Troy - New Rome relations.
I've seen quite a few shrinks in my time, not for PTSD but for other mental health problems, and I've got to say the Doc they sent Lynn too is either a blathering idiot with the IQ of a squirrel, or has received orders from CentComm to keep the two apart.
The first job of any mental health professional is to LISTEN to their patient and get as much information out of that patient as they can in regards to the trauma they have gone through. But from what has been conveyed here, either her Doc didn't bother getting any information out of Lynn, or they completely ignored what she said because they already have their marching orders.
No one, and I mean no one would try to separate the victims of shared trauma. It's against just about every standard procedure in the book, and it's detrimental to the health of the patients. You want them to, as a best case scenario, work out the reaction to the trauma together and help each other learn to deal with it. By separating them, you are taking away the one thing they desperately need, and that is someone who understands exactly what happened to them.
Even more, this is a golden opportunity to cement the relationship between Lynn and Acantha, the future ruler of Nova Roma might I add, and this would pay huge dividends towards making Acantha see New Troy as something other than that scary place ruled over by a scary AI that sent a group of people to kill a bunch of her Citizens.
Personally, if I was in CentComm's place, I would do everything in my power to keep the two of them together for as long as they needed to help each other heal and, incidentaly, learn that New Troy is willing to help Acantha personally as well as New Roma in general. By keeping the two of them apart, they are planting the seeds of suspicion against New Troy in Acantha's mind, whether they mean to or not, and this would certainly effect the way she views New Troy in the future.
I will concede, after further reflection, that what we may be seeing is Lynn misinterpreting her therapist's advise (to wait until Acantha has recovered medically) and overreacting as a result. We'll just have to wait and see where the plot takes us.
Very true antrik. CentComm sent her teams to do two things... Retrieve Lynn and remove the crippled and dying AI that was Aeneas. The number of citizens that died, how they died and why they were killed was irrelevant to CentComm.
Though she did use a method designed to keep the casualties down (somewhat). I mean she could have sent in nanoswarms, disassembling anything that wasn't Lynn in its path. Or probably massive numbers of her warbots (or worse) that could be relied on to kill anything that failed to run away/shot at them until they found, secured and spirited away Lynn. Her strike team probably did less overall damage than some of her other options could have.
In fact, CentComm's strike probably did less overall damage to the CIVILIAN population than Douchimus had done previously. The military (and semi-housebroken dogs the Prince had) on the other hand suffered a few for sure.
Ah, you misunderstood me, perhaps I didn't explain myself well enough. But you are confusing two separate events I think.
First, there where TWO teams sent in. Dolly and CeCi where there to both rescue Lynn AND fix/kill Aeneas. It was a happy confluence of events that ended up with Lynn and Acantha being in Aeneas' core when they caught up with her, but it certainly wasn't a planned event. To be clear, if Dolly and CeCi had found Lynn earlier, in all likelihood Dolly would have been abandoned by CeCi so she could carry out her core program which was to spike Aeneas. What effect that would have had on subsequent events, we will never know, but it would have left Dolly in the position of trying to link up with Major Ramesy to effect their escape from the city.
Major Ramesy's team however was sent in with the sole mission of rescuing Lynn, they had neither the tools (meaning CeCi) to effect Aeneas in any fashion, or orders to do anything at all involving him. Their mission was to effect the rescue of Lynn by any means necessary. Now, the effect they had on Nova Roma was way out of proportion to their task because the rebels took that opportunity to strike as well. But Major Ramesy certainly used them to help him in carrying out his orders. And that is what I meant when I said that Centcomm got a lot of Acantha's citizens killed, because there certainly was a lot of that going on, even if it was in the background so to speak.
Keep in mind that we're not mental health professionals ourselves. We're writing a story, and the readers are not privy to every detail of that story. We have not shown Lynn's meeting with Dr. Moretti, yet the assumption is being made that this doctor is stupid, uneducated in her own field, profoundly unprofessional, politically motivated, subject to outside pressure, or some combination of the above, rather than assuming she gave her feedback honestly and professionally, based on Lynn's own information and behavior.
Ah, thank you Tokyo Rose. I had wondered myself, but I also thought we hadn't seen Lynn... and what she had said. I can see her inserting her foot... up to her knee... in her mouth and chewing. Making mistakes that could cause problems for a therapist and could lead to wanting to keep her from Acantha for awhile.
Never underestimate a sullen teenager's ability to say something drastically stupid. I smart-assed my way right into a three-day stay in a mental hospital when I was fifteen.
Your right, I am basing all of my information off of Lynn's rage filled "they want to keep us apart" comment. It is entirely possible that the Doctor did say that, and more importantly, other stuff as well. But Lynn went into white-hot teenage rage as soon as she heard that part and might have entirely ignored everything else the Doctor may have said.
I do stand by my assertion that this is a good opportunity for Lynn and Acantha to bond in a non life or death, or just plain horrible situation, and it is certain that Acantha herself is going to need some time with a good shrink as well. irregardless of the circumstances surrounding the event, she did shoot her brother, and that has got to have a pretty serious effect on her. Yeah, we the readers hated his guts and cheered when he died, but he was still Acantha's family. He was an abusive jerk and deserved a much slower death than what Kali gave him (IMHO) but Acantha is still going to be feeling some guilt over pulling the trigger.
I'm thinking she does have some PTSD of her stay in Nova Roma
That's like saying the Oroville dam spillway had "some" erosion problems.
In short: sorry for the noise.
(Also, turns out the Nirvana variant, while closer to the original, is yet a bit different...)
Each case will be different, and Lynn may certainly be using Acantha as a security blanket and a diversion from talking about tough stuff... But she IS a security blanket. Acantha and her know EXACTLY where they stand with each other as friends and co-survivors of trauma. The rest of the world has little to know grasp of what it was like for them. Simply being close to each other is a source of stress relief and a person they can confide in about it.
Now is this the best case, no...not needing the security blanket is the best case. But that is not now, and the reality is she does need the girl somewhat.
Is this the best idea Politicaly? That is debatable. and in the short term I am not sure it matters. Long term, politics works it self out.
Is this the best case for Acantha? I would argue she needs a friend. She HAS protection. Lots of it from her personal rabid and cute white everything about her body guard to Centcom to Cally (She is a mother so I believe most of us mothers are hessitant to harm or kill children in our care or city...especialy Orphans like Acantha...it's a base instinct thing and Cally is over her knee jerk reaction phase. She would not want the girl harmed.) to the med staff in general and her personal nurse in particular. LOTS of gaurds to her health.... However she has no friends other then Lynn. No family other then LYNN and CALLY and she may not even know about them being related yet. (I don't know that it ever came up.)
The girls are each other's mental/emotional security blankets. In time, short term or long term...they will rely on each other less and less but I believe they will always be close because of the events they suffered through.
And remember Acantha might need Lynn more then Lynn needs her. REmember...Mother murdured by brother, FATHER murdered by brother, BROTHER started to rape her, Constantly beaten by brother in rages to (correct) her behavior and the only Maternal woman she had in her life are either back in Roma with her surrogate Father figure, dead, or Kali who...killed her brother by destroying herself to do it.
If it were me... and I have lived through this kind of "holy crap in a half shell" trama...one would have a VERY hard time keeping me away from a security blanket person/Thing/creature. It took me 22 years to STOP freaking out with my issues...only only a few days to create them. I am inclined to give Lynn a bit of a security pass. Otherwise she WILL start acting out in destructive and personally detrimental ways.
(Oh god I wrote a book again...gah!)
I do stand by my initial statement, though, and Lynn should wait. I don't think it would be very helpful to either of them for Lynn to be there until she wakes up.
(Sorry, I know it's evil to make fun of other people's spelling mistakes... But I can't help this one -- the result just sounds hilarious to me :-) )
From a long term geopolitical stance it could also help build good will/trust with New Rome's presumptive new leader.
I really hope Acantha will be much better when she wakes up again...
Lynn and Kyle have known each other for a loong ass time. the relationship is well known.
There is no child abuse here by New Troy law or actual law. Dolly is MORE than qualified to raise Lynn and effectively thats what Calliope did is shge let the MOST compitant person raise her.
As far as the priviligages .. shes done nothing any other citizen could at this point. Once she turns 21 she can be a commercal or private pilot. out side the city.. Inside the city all she needs to be is 16 to fly around in a aircar by herself. remember no one flys in side New Troy ( excepting Ada and special cercs ) flys a aircar on manual. so the point is rather moot.
as far as the birthday party she had been looking forward to seeing Kyle and other friends in Sparta that this was a big deal to her. Not a spur of the moment temper tantrum,.
Maybe you'll feel differently about Calli if you reread the first chapter, but it sounds a little like the the REAL issue you have is with women having sex. Calli's main concern wasn't her daughter's virginity, but gutters and other wasteland dangers. She only gave in because there hadn't been an incident in years. Calli getting married while pregnant has nothing to do with anything, and her concern about VD and pregnancy protection IS responsible parenting. It wasn't her only concern though.
once again this is WORD OF GOD so listen up!
Dolly is not a traditional "bot" and im sure she would take offense at such a term especially now.
Calliope has known Kyle and his parents. Ill make this MORE clear in the remastered pages thank you for pointing that out.
as far as sex goes. Sex IS NOT A TABOO ... THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH CONSENSUAL SEX!!!!!
Edit: I really really hate it when people try to tell US what is going on in the story. I mean sure point out mistakes. But telling us we are flat out wrong? No. Just dont.
Me thinks messing with the fictional Cent or the real Cent is equally perilous. Somehow, I think the personality of one is based on the personality of the other.
Or maybe they are one in the same being and we're being slowly waken out of a deep dream as this isn't the real world.
The party in New Sparta is well acceptable, especially since she will be living there alone in a couple of months. It's been ages, but I remember 18 being the biggest deal between all birthdays! What's the alternative? Celebrate your 18th birthday with mom and Dolly, and a piece of cake in the safety of your own kitchen?
The only thing out of the ordinary is her flying there solo instead with Dolly. That hardly counts as child abuse though...
Incidentally, I happen to agree with Dragonrider on his objections to a society that encourages children to fuck. However, I feel there's a difference between encouraging teenagers to fuck, and having enough brain cells to realize that they are going to be fucking because biology and hormones are hard to ignore, and therefore educating them adequately to avoid pregnancy, sexually-transmitted disease, and so on.
Incidentally, Calli's remark to Lynn about making sure she was up to date on her birth control and anti-VD shots was a joke. Calli was teasing Lynn. Every teenager I've ever personally known has been horror-stricken by the realization that their parents might actually know that they're planning to have sex.
I agree with Rose that there is a difference between encouraging kids to have sex and acknowledging reality and making sure the consequences of poor decisions aren't disastrous.
(PS. I didn't read Calliope's remark as a joke either...)
As for knocking, I think it is because CentComm is HOME. They are in 3C, I believe. It might be like knocking before going into the kitchen. Plus knocking hard enough to be HEARD inside might cause stong enough vibrations to cause misalignment of some of the delicate equipment or startle people inside potentially causing more injuries.
While Commie's doll is "home", this is *not* a kitchen -- I'd say it would still be appropriate to knock before barging into a room where guests are staying?
(Not literally knock of course, on a military grade door -- even though it worked well enough for Ceci on Logrin's bunker ;-) But some kind of acoustic signal announcing the intrusion before opening the door, seems like something that would make people way more comfortable...)
However, Calli has been Cent-Comm's primary "caretaker" for decades, and Cent pretty much has the run of the place.
Subject:Lynn Taylor...outfit Asian????
Has been in contact with Tokyo rose recently???
Does sdhe known.............do not mention attempted ais code on Serena's or unit name ceci unless directly asked.......... ...
Detail spies to Lear what subject Rashala just acquired ten grams of antimatter and railgun for.....
If nothing else, she should realize that she's agitating Dolly, whose own treatment would go better if she wasn't moving around.
I did not expect CentComm to weigh in on this at all!
As for Acantha, Calliope is ultimately responsible for Lynn's reaction. Calliope never gave her a little sister, so she went out and found one herself! :-D The sooner people realize that, the smoother everything will go!
Acantha is effectively a visiting head of state and is presently housed in 3C. Cent-Comm has every right and ability to allow or disallow entrance to virtually any citizen of New Troy for any reason.
That said, she would have been much better received, had she stuck with the fact that it was better for Acantha.
Also, whether it's technically her business or not, putting it like "I am god: your own will is meaningless", is still a shitty move.
Hmm ? Please.
Actually, I can't seem to access Patreon.
Everything has been slow today. It might be my area or my computer.
Tomorrow it might be worse or it might be like lightning.
In the meantime, she wants to see Acantha.
But since Acantha is doing the sleepies, Lynn is denied ... again!
With that being said, Lynn spending time with Acantha would only be a short term thing anyway. On a political level, it is also not a good idea to deny Acantha access to the only New Troy citizen she trusts.
This was a conflict that could have been mitigated and dealt with a lot more rationally on both sides, if Calliope hadn't decided to be so heavy handed in the first place. The underlying issue would still need to be resolved, but it could have been done from a position where both Calli and Lynn would have some trust in each other. As it stands, I now see that as the first hurdle they will have to jump over, and that could take months.
It's a shame it is devolving into a pissing match, but hopefully it can be resolved sooner rather than later.
Something that has also been mentioned before, is that done right, this can also go a long way in cementing New Troy - New Rome relations.
The first job of any mental health professional is to LISTEN to their patient and get as much information out of that patient as they can in regards to the trauma they have gone through. But from what has been conveyed here, either her Doc didn't bother getting any information out of Lynn, or they completely ignored what she said because they already have their marching orders.
No one, and I mean no one would try to separate the victims of shared trauma. It's against just about every standard procedure in the book, and it's detrimental to the health of the patients. You want them to, as a best case scenario, work out the reaction to the trauma together and help each other learn to deal with it. By separating them, you are taking away the one thing they desperately need, and that is someone who understands exactly what happened to them.
Even more, this is a golden opportunity to cement the relationship between Lynn and Acantha, the future ruler of Nova Roma might I add, and this would pay huge dividends towards making Acantha see New Troy as something other than that scary place ruled over by a scary AI that sent a group of people to kill a bunch of her Citizens.
Personally, if I was in CentComm's place, I would do everything in my power to keep the two of them together for as long as they needed to help each other heal and, incidentaly, learn that New Troy is willing to help Acantha personally as well as New Roma in general. By keeping the two of them apart, they are planting the seeds of suspicion against New Troy in Acantha's mind, whether they mean to or not, and this would certainly effect the way she views New Troy in the future.
Though she did use a method designed to keep the casualties down (somewhat). I mean she could have sent in nanoswarms, disassembling anything that wasn't Lynn in its path. Or probably massive numbers of her warbots (or worse) that could be relied on to kill anything that failed to run away/shot at them until they found, secured and spirited away Lynn. Her strike team probably did less overall damage than some of her other options could have.
In fact, CentComm's strike probably did less overall damage to the CIVILIAN population than Douchimus had done previously. The military (and semi-housebroken dogs the Prince had) on the other hand suffered a few for sure.
First, there where TWO teams sent in. Dolly and CeCi where there to both rescue Lynn AND fix/kill Aeneas. It was a happy confluence of events that ended up with Lynn and Acantha being in Aeneas' core when they caught up with her, but it certainly wasn't a planned event. To be clear, if Dolly and CeCi had found Lynn earlier, in all likelihood Dolly would have been abandoned by CeCi so she could carry out her core program which was to spike Aeneas. What effect that would have had on subsequent events, we will never know, but it would have left Dolly in the position of trying to link up with Major Ramesy to effect their escape from the city.
Major Ramesy's team however was sent in with the sole mission of rescuing Lynn, they had neither the tools (meaning CeCi) to effect Aeneas in any fashion, or orders to do anything at all involving him. Their mission was to effect the rescue of Lynn by any means necessary. Now, the effect they had on Nova Roma was way out of proportion to their task because the rebels took that opportunity to strike as well. But Major Ramesy certainly used them to help him in carrying out his orders. And that is what I meant when I said that Centcomm got a lot of Acantha's citizens killed, because there certainly was a lot of that going on, even if it was in the background so to speak.
Will have to chalk up that whole bit under suspension of disbelief I guess :-)
I do stand by my assertion that this is a good opportunity for Lynn and Acantha to bond in a non life or death, or just plain horrible situation, and it is certain that Acantha herself is going to need some time with a good shrink as well. irregardless of the circumstances surrounding the event, she did shoot her brother, and that has got to have a pretty serious effect on her. Yeah, we the readers hated his guts and cheered when he died, but he was still Acantha's family. He was an abusive jerk and deserved a much slower death than what Kali gave him (IMHO) but Acantha is still going to be feeling some guilt over pulling the trigger.