Does the thought of one woman controlling another woman's mind thrill you beyond measure? Do your favorite dreams come wrapped in latex or rubber? How do you feel about robots? Here I am. I'm waiting.
I must say,this story is really becoming a Must read for me....wow, i love the serial conversions, & how utter complete they are, from Shara, to (now) Wizard..from how they both at first would give their lives in order to free humanity from that evil woman's hold on humanity, to (now) doing anything to convert all humans to her service...loving it !!!
I can't give more than enough praise for this story, this chapter was just so...brutal really.
It really wasn't a joke when Shara said what a monster Paolo (at the time) made her.
I have to say though...Wizard's capture and imprinting was just so cold and..well evil, that I *hope* for her at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
Wizard's disability kind of...made her who she is and sleepwalking already turned her into someone else but to "cure" her...that's just taking away such a integral part of her self, it was *so* hot but so sad :(.
I do have a question (if you read this :p), could you elaborate on the *differences* in Levels of sleepwalkers? (Maybe in a blog post)
I know Level 7 is the automaton, and Paul/Paolo was more or less himself, and Shara *felt* something was diminished/off, but it felt Wizard actually couldn't understand or process "something", which again making her a step below Level 1 and taking whatever portion of free will is just horrifying (in a good way plotwise :p).
Yeah, I've put Wizard in a pretty horrible situation. That's why I said I expected this chapter to produce screams. ;-/ But some of you are making pretty accurate projections about future chapters, so maybe you can figure out what's in store for Wizard.
As for the levels, you can think about them being gradations from very nearly full free will/initiative/creativity to absolutely no free will/initiative/creativity.
At Level Zero, Paolo was essentially himself except for the shift in loyalty. Even his personality was the same; if he hadn't realized Hawthorne wanted to see a cruel induction, he'd have been kind and loving to Shara...though, of course, he'd still have imprinted her.
At Level One, Shara has lost a little initiative and creativity, and that inhibits her detective work more than she anticipated. Her emotions are also flattened a bit, but not entirely; and because Paolo and Hawthorne questioned Shara's abilities once she was imprinted, a lot of the emotion she still has is directed toward proving her worth. That's an important plot point.
I wrote Wizard as a Two being like someone who has Asperger's Syndrome. She doesn't understand emotions, she can't read people's faces, and her outlook on the world is very black and white - aside from the flower between her legs. She's become more computer-like, which is ironic considering her interests.
I haven't written any scenes from the point of levels lower than Two, but you can extrapolate from there.
I must say that I'm really enjoying it too. Although this chapter didn't really make me scream in the way you perhaps were intending (that scene was HOT!) :)
It'll be interesting to see where it goes now. I imagine we're going to be seeing a conflict of epic proportions between sleeping Shara and Paul's geneticists extraordinaire. And where has our friend Hawthorne been this whole time, and what is she up to?
Too much conjecture at this point, but although I'm a fan of 'bad ends' I'm pretty sure that this story isn't going to end there. You might surprise me on that point, but I suspect not. :)
I knew people would wonder about Hawthorne. I hate to leave her out of the middle of the story; but since she's staying away from Paolo on purpose, and since she believes everything is fine and dandy in the lab, there's no excuse to bring her in. You can just imagine her to be like Sauron: an invisible lurking menace. But trust me, she'll come back in style before the end!
Ah I was hoping wizard would get enslaved soon, glad to see it happen in such a nice scene. Not trying to sound cold or anything just Wizard being the hacker in the story and the problems with the chips for waking people up I had figured she'd need to be brought in to help and just couldn't see it happening without at least a temporary stint as a sleepwalker. Wether or not the story plays out that way of course is yet to be seen by anyone who isn't you of course so looking forward to the next part.
I have a few questions regarding the sleepwalkers imprinting process though. First how is it determined what level a walker a person becomes? Like is it determined by who does the imprinting the chip in their head some other factor I'm missing? The other is I'm curious about the significance of the one they imprint on. I understand the chip program puts all loyalty ultimately towards Hawthorne and the higher ranks are probably given lesser loyalty through a sort obedience chain of command thing. I just want to know what is the significance of the loyalty to the one they imprint on?
Also final note good work on the scene where wizard becomes a drone.
Hah, K, you made me raise my eyebrows when you said you were hoping to see Wizard enslaved! ;-) Of course, I can't comment on where her story arc goes from here.
I answered most of your other question in the comment section under the "Peek Beneath the Duct Tape" on Chapter 5, so I'll let you read it over there. The only thing I'll clarify is that no sleepwalkers have any will of their own. All their motivation comes from their chips. Upper levels behave as if they have free will, but they don't. Without the chips' control, they'd still be catatonic. It's just that a high-level sleepwalker gives a chip more to "work with." Remember that chips aren't artificially intelligent. They can only manipulate what's already present in a sleepwalker's mind.
12 comments:
Just a quick note to say how much I'm enjoying the story, and appreciation of the effort you've put into it thus far.
Without doubt, my favourite author on the EMCA.
Aw, thank you very kindly!
I must say,this story is really becoming a Must read for me....wow, i love the serial conversions, & how utter complete they are, from Shara, to (now) Wizard..from how they both at first would give their lives in order to free humanity from that evil woman's hold on humanity, to (now) doing anything to convert all humans to her service...loving it !!!
Thank you very kindly! I'm so glad to know other people are enjoying this story as much as I hoped they would. :-)
Poor Wizard. Poor, poor Wizard.
Wow...I'm just speechless thrall!
I can't give more than enough praise for this story, this chapter was just so...brutal really.
It really wasn't a joke when Shara said what a monster Paolo (at the time) made her.
I have to say though...Wizard's capture and imprinting was just so cold and..well evil, that I *hope* for her at least there's a light at the end of the tunnel.
Wizard's disability kind of...made her who she is and sleepwalking already turned her into someone else but to "cure" her...that's just taking away such a integral part of her self, it was *so* hot but so sad :(.
I do have a question (if you read this :p), could you elaborate on the *differences* in Levels of sleepwalkers? (Maybe in a blog post)
I know Level 7 is the automaton, and Paul/Paolo was more or less himself, and Shara *felt* something was diminished/off, but it felt Wizard actually couldn't understand or process "something", which again making her a step below Level 1 and taking whatever portion of free will is just horrifying (in a good way plotwise :p).
Yeah, I've put Wizard in a pretty horrible situation. That's why I said I expected this chapter to produce screams. ;-/ But some of you are making pretty accurate projections about future chapters, so maybe you can figure out what's in store for Wizard.
As for the levels, you can think about them being gradations from very nearly full free will/initiative/creativity to absolutely no free will/initiative/creativity.
At Level Zero, Paolo was essentially himself except for the shift in loyalty. Even his personality was the same; if he hadn't realized Hawthorne wanted to see a cruel induction, he'd have been kind and loving to Shara...though, of course, he'd still have imprinted her.
At Level One, Shara has lost a little initiative and creativity, and that inhibits her detective work more than she anticipated. Her emotions are also flattened a bit, but not entirely; and because Paolo and Hawthorne questioned Shara's abilities once she was imprinted, a lot of the emotion she still has is directed toward proving her worth. That's an important plot point.
I wrote Wizard as a Two being like someone who has Asperger's Syndrome. She doesn't understand emotions, she can't read people's faces, and her outlook on the world is very black and white - aside from the flower between her legs. She's become more computer-like, which is ironic considering her interests.
I haven't written any scenes from the point of levels lower than Two, but you can extrapolate from there.
I must say that I'm really enjoying it too. Although this chapter didn't really make me scream in the way you perhaps were intending (that scene was HOT!) :)
It'll be interesting to see where it goes now. I imagine we're going to be seeing a conflict of epic proportions between sleeping Shara and Paul's geneticists extraordinaire. And where has our friend Hawthorne been this whole time, and what is she up to?
Too much conjecture at this point, but although I'm a fan of 'bad ends' I'm pretty sure that this story isn't going to end there. You might surprise me on that point, but I suspect not. :)
I knew people would wonder about Hawthorne. I hate to leave her out of the middle of the story; but since she's staying away from Paolo on purpose, and since she believes everything is fine and dandy in the lab, there's no excuse to bring her in. You can just imagine her to be like Sauron: an invisible lurking menace. But trust me, she'll come back in style before the end!
My wish is that Hawthorne gets a big old dose of Dreamer before the story ends, right in the hindbrain.
Ah I was hoping wizard would get enslaved soon, glad to see it happen in such a nice scene. Not trying to sound cold or anything just Wizard being the hacker in the story and the problems with the chips for waking people up I had figured she'd need to be brought in to help and just couldn't see it happening without at least a temporary stint as a sleepwalker. Wether or not the story plays out that way of course is yet to be seen by anyone who isn't you of course so looking forward to the next part.
I have a few questions regarding the sleepwalkers imprinting process though. First how is it determined what level a walker a person becomes? Like is it determined by who does the imprinting the chip in their head some other factor I'm missing? The other is I'm curious about the significance of the one they imprint on. I understand the chip program puts all loyalty ultimately towards Hawthorne and the higher ranks are probably given lesser loyalty through a sort obedience chain of command thing. I just want to know what is the significance of the loyalty to the one they imprint on?
Also final note good work on the scene where wizard becomes a drone.
Hah, K, you made me raise my eyebrows when you said you were hoping to see Wizard enslaved! ;-) Of course, I can't comment on where her story arc goes from here.
I answered most of your other question in the comment section under the "Peek Beneath the Duct Tape" on Chapter 5, so I'll let you read it over there. The only thing I'll clarify is that no sleepwalkers have any will of their own. All their motivation comes from their chips. Upper levels behave as if they have free will, but they don't. Without the chips' control, they'd still be catatonic. It's just that a high-level sleepwalker gives a chip more to "work with." Remember that chips aren't artificially intelligent. They can only manipulate what's already present in a sleepwalker's mind.
Post a Comment