Dead Bang chapter 7

[robkelk]

Possible names for the boomer: Vincent, Bob, Maximilian ... okay, I'll just toss those into the bad-idea blackhole.

Knowing Ian, I suspect he's at least considered the name "Twiki".

More seriously, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fi ... d_androids]here's a list of fictional robots.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Rod.H]

As I got a Teen Titans vibe off of that snippet, the last name of Cyborg: Stone, might be of some use. Heh, Bob Stone mayhaps?

[Dragonflight]

Heh. Many valid points, and I'll have to think about them for a bit. The reason why Yoshida was allowed to pull his stunt was really secondary to the boomer attack on the ADP. Later chapters will get into that, as you'll see when Ch 7 is posted. Releasing the powers in a timed movement after the riots begin very strongly point at deliberate machinations, and since Ai and Baty don't want to draw attention to themselves, it's better to make it look like a natural evolution in response to the riots. From their perspective, that makes it look like humanity is evolving a natural response to the threat of Boomer independence. And thus, their expectation that most, if not all of the humans will side against the boomers.
The problem with that philosophy, as you pointed out, is that it's two-dimensional. When you consider life as a balance sheet, it makes sense. Either you're making profit or you're suffering a loss. And people are inherently built to prefer profit over loss. So when played out using the models they're familiar with, it's a predictable outcome. Real Life is anything but, however. Which is why in the various snippets showing their conversations, you'll start to see them fraying at the ends as they try to keep control over what they've started.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Norgarth]

Possible names for the boomer: Vincent, Bob, Maximilian ... okay, I'll just toss those into the bad-idea blackhole.
  

*rimshot*
Hmmm, maybe Robbie? 8P
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

[Dragonflight]

Heh. Well, probably not Tony. I've already had Tony the boomer merc, and there's Tony Nakamura from IDEC. Too many Tony's is confoozing.
I like the idea of using Victor Stone (Cyborg)'s last name. That's a nice nod to both the cyborg concept and the Teen Titans as a whole. Still working on the first name. Although Jet from Cowboy Bebop would fit pretty well, both in basic attitude and behavior. Although with a name like Jet Stone, it's a good thing the 55C has rocket thrust.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[robkelk]

"Did you say 'Jetson'?"

"No, I said 'Jet Stone'..."
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Necratoid]

I think things are going to get more and more complex from things that aren't available in the portion of the source books the AI haven't had access to... by source books I mean the ones Quincy used to plan this out in advance... RPG source books.  While they need more ranks in sociology (human) and psychology (human), they probably planned on the collective retrovirus derivatives to spread through the populous on disease vectors, including the fun of multiple strains in the same individual... they haven't considered that the third source of powers.  Boomer science, retroviruses, and magic.
What I mean is with more and more supers running around and boomers of malignant alignment or ones that are just plain crazy of either group... Lisa and Jupiter are going to end up running around spamming magic everywhere.  This means that anyone like Lisa that was born with a talent needing just a little push to awaken their latent powers.  More fun when some idiot fails an intelligence check and decides the first step in mastering his/her powers (likely not guessing the magic origins thing) and runs off into the ruins and attempts to go SSJ and taps the local mana node.  A mana node that covers entire zip codes in size.  One inexplicable magic self nuking later and the air will be saturated with magic residue... cue a large scale awakening.  Which will mean Lisa and Jupiter are going to be forced to found this works first magic academy.
The mystic radioactive crater will end up as a random encounter generator... ROUSs if nothing else.

[Black Aeronaut]

[Bob Schroeck]

And don't forget, the MegaTokyo area has two other Awakened persons who have been using their abilities for most of a year now -- the two children for whose resurrection Doug bargained for with the Three. So their neighborhood already has a magic flux that might activate someone nearby...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Dragonflight]

There's also the fact that Ai and Baty are products of their upbringing. GENOM was created to ensure the evolution of superheroes, and they were the secret masterminds behind GENOM's success. This means that Quincy trained them to be functional supervillain masterminds. They just don't *know* that. So whether they realize it or not, their actions are only helping to accelerate the process.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Bob Schroeck]

This means that Quincy trained them to be functional supervillain masterminds.

And consequently, that means they were trained to behave like supervillain masterminds, which means thinking and acting in the proper idiom/tropes regardless of whether it makes real-world sense to do so.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Dragonflight]

Corrected copy based on Bob's recommendations has been sent back for him to have another quick run-through, when he as a moment.
After that, if everything's okay, we'll put it up and everyone else can read.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Ebony]

This means that Quincy trained them to be functional supervillain masterminds.

And consequently, that means they were trained to behave like supervillain masterminds, which means thinking and acting in the proper idiom/tropes regardless of whether it makes real-world sense to do so.

Let's hear it for Milking the Giant Invisible Cow!
  
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[Dragonflight]

Okay, okay... I get the point. I've finished ch7, and Bob has done a couple editorial passes to pick out the stuff I missed, so I'm putting up ch7 at this point. Bob, go ahead and add this version to the site. Any minor changes can be made on the fly.
http://www3.sympatico.ca/...flight/dead_bang/DB7.txt
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Sweno]

*squees of joy*
I'll take another read-through later for errors, but I'm just happy now
The action sequences were fun and understandable. I didn't notice any places where it dragged.
I wonder a bit about how:

Spoiler

Mackie's suit, which seemed rather complex appeared to be cobbled together out of scrap, managed to perform as well as it did. But I'm patient enough to wait for the after action report on that before I call it OP.

-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

[Dragonflight]

Mackie's power is based off of an old Marvel character I created once called Metallion. His power was that he could create anything technological from whatever was lying around, through act of will. He was also a Stark-level inventor, which made for some really useful team support abilities, even in places where a lab isn't conveniently available.
Unlike Mackie, Metallion had a superpower disadvantage, although he didn't realize it as such. He was irresistible to supervillainesses. His all time funniest was Magma, an international terrorist with Unearthly matter conversion, Monstrous microwave generation, Amazing flight speed, and something like Amazing body armor. She took one look at Our Hero and spent the rest of the game session trying to kidnap him away from the rest of the party.
Luckily, Mackie doesn't have that problem.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[robkelk]

Okay, okay... I get the point. I've finished ch7, and Bob has done a couple editorial passes to pick out the stuff I missed, so I'm putting up ch7 at this point. Bob, go ahead and add this version to the site. Any minor changes can be made on the fly.
%[link=http://www3.sympatico.ca/dragonflight/dead_bang/DB7.txt]http://www3.sympatico.ca/dragonflight/dead_bang/DB7.txt]

Gosh-darn it, Ian... I just discovered there's http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5144486/30/Infinity]a new chapter of Infinity up, too. Which do I read first?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Necratoid]

Is 'slime eye' anything like a red eye?
Shinjuku-ku, 8:00 PM

Humans-First movement however, denounces the statements, claiming that a coffee robot, no matter how well its programmers made it to act like a person, is still just a coffee robot, and is no more entitled to self determination than a dishwasher.

All I could think here is some old man with a cane jumping him and ranting about 'in my day' things... then the rest of the old pre boomer dishwashers union shows up an protests the Firsters.  Which is way you get for not using toasters for an example... like smart people.  Red Dwarf aside.
On a more random note... someday I fully expect Leon to end up having people send hm K 12 suits as gag gifts.  Leon will be 70 and get one at random... which he ends beating up a modern boomer terrorist group with... some of which hang themselves in their cells out of raw embarrassment... probably not effectively though.  The things that pop into my head.

[Bob Schroeck]

Okay, okay... I get the point. I've finished ch7, and Bob has done a couple editorial passes to pick out the stuff I missed, so I'm putting up ch7 at this point. Bob, go ahead and add this version to the site. Any minor changes can be made on the fly.

Gah. Sorry, but it's been a busy day, I'm only halfway through my read of the new version. I've found a few small things so far.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[CattyNebulart]

Their perception was entirely digital, and dependent on electromagnetic perception. Scramble that, and they couldn't see a thing.

Well yes if you scamble a human's electromagnetic perception they also can't see a thing even though their sight is completely analogue. This is the worst kind of technobable, in that some of the disconected pieces actually make sense, which makes the nonsensicalness of the whole thing even worse.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[Epsilon]

Well yes if you scamble a human's electromagnetic perception they also can't see a thing even though their sight is completely analogue. This is the worst kind of technobable, in that some of the disconected pieces actually make sense, which makes the nonsensicalness of the whole thing even worse.

Indeed. Remember that visible light is part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Unless they are relying on some high-resolution Radar system, which could conceivably be jammed.
-------------
Epsilon

[Proginoskes]

Yeah, and how can something

Spoiler

"target [the boomers'] visual cortex"? That would be the worst kind of design flaw, if their wireless communications suite could be highjacked to attack their basic sensory suite. Unless that's a flaw Yoshida accidentally introduced (in which case the Knight Sabers would've had no way to anticipate and capitalize on it), I cannot imagine such a flaw existing in even half the boomers in the morgue, much less all of them.

It doesn't hurt my enjoyment as I'm reading, but it's a doozy of a Fridge Logic moment.

[Dragonflight]

Heh. The way I saw it, they know how GENOM builds the boomer scanner suites. So the EM generator is pulsing at random to screw up sensor systems, and the EW emitter is occasionally creating a high-return sensor pulse of what seems to be the Red Saber... but bouncing off of some random piece of metal elsewhere in the garage. And its emitter - inside the generator - is spinning, so the pulses its bouncing off of things are firing off in random directions. Especially when you factor in Reika's acrobatics.
Sure they'd have pure visual pickups, but in the first OAV, when you see the boomer about to attack the ADP in the opening song, you see it extend sensor probes before firing. It isn't unreasonable to assume the standard GENOM combat package places less value on the Mark 2 eyeball in the boomer, and more on the sensor systems, which allow it all sorts of enhanced optics settings. Which doesn't help when you're being jammed.
Also, these are all reactivated, and probably somewhat limited, given they're also under someone else's control. It was hinted at a few times, like when Silver Yoshida thought about trying to coordinate his boomer tools by loading in performance software from the blue saber, and making his situation worse.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Dragonflight]

Some minor spelling mistakes caught by Bob. It won't change the story any. The updates will be made shortly.
Edit: Changes made. Minor ones, usually either tenses, random misspellings, or (most often) using the same word or group of words too close to each other. I gotta watch that one...
Oh, in the story, a guy uses "zaibatsu" totally inappropriately. It's intentional. I don't know if people thought it was not expressed properly or not, but the intent is that it's being referred to by someone who doesn't know the lingo, and doesn't care to. If it doesn't work, let me know.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.

[Dragonflight]

On a more random note... someday I fully expect Leon to end up having people send hm K 12 suits as gag gifts.

Well, I see Leon as being the frustrated Mecha-pilot. In a Gundam anime, he'd be the one in the uber-suit, and win or lose, he'd be having the time of his life. In BGC, however, he has to make do with the worst technology money can buy. Although with GENOM easing off now that Madigan's in charge, I expect he'll make a few quiet suggestions to his former teammates on how they might improve the situation.
---
Those who fear the darkness have never seen what the light can do.