Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

[Coruscant Knave]

eeeehhhhh, not random enough

Anytime anyone suggests marriage for the status benefits I can't help but think of Frank and Charlie from Always Sunny.

Stop writing about delicious fake fruit-meat! Gah!

Janet and Tyrone seem like good people.

 

[Peanuckle]

And the only person who uses the coffee pot is Lisa. Everyone else just uses the plant that grows coffee."

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There's some traditions too important to break. Stumbling around half-dead, burning your hand on the coffee-pot and then burning your tongue because you forgot to add milk/creamer is one of them.

I looked at our books. Fuck, this was such a mistake. The idea itself was sound, of course. But we made one crucial mistake. We opened a business that provided food, in a place where everyone already had enough food for free.

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This made me so damn sad, felt like my heart fell out of my chest. I dunno why, but seeing them go through all the effort to try and start a life, just to fail because of such an obvious oversight...

Damn glad the Empresses came by.

 

[doomlord9]

They were still correct though. Even without the Empresses dropping by for quick fame they would have easily become a sensation within a few years at most. You don't go to a restaurant for food, you go to them for specialty food that you can't make/acquire on you own. Prepared dishes of the commonly available flavored plants would have picked up pretty quickly once people got bored with the novelty of plucking a few leaves when they are hungry.

Hmmm....I can already see the Avalonian child/teen game. Everyone brings random leaves and they mix them all into a pile and plays 'Guess the Flavor Combination!' by grabbing 2-3 leaves at random and munching on them at the same time.

 

[dasstan]

Amelia, Ch 289- Janet

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I actually really enjoyed that. One chapter and I already care more about them then I do Sabah. Also, halfhearted petition to rename Tyrone to Brad?

They were still correct though. Even without the Empresses dropping by for quick fame they would have easily become a sensation within a few years at most. You don't go to a restaurant for food, you go to them for specialty food that you can't make/acquire on you own. Prepared dishes of the commonly available flavored plants would have picked up pretty quickly once people got bored with the novelty of plucking a few leaves when they are hungry.

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There are oodles and oodles of restaurants that specialize in traditional home cooked food. Not even hard to make home cooked food, either. Besides, a few years is a long time for a failing business, and what they are providing is very much a luxury service in a society that hasn't had a chance to create a market for that sort of thing. Without the fame boost of the Imperial Entourage going to visit, they probably would have moved on to something else... Probably farming all their specialty crops.

 

[Snake/Eater]

They were still correct though. Even without the Empresses dropping by for quick fame they would have easily become a sensation within a few years at most. You don't go to a restaurant for food, you go to them for specialty food that you can't make/acquire on you own. Prepared dishes of the commonly available flavored plants would have picked up pretty quickly once people got bored with the novelty of plucking a few leaves when they are hungry.
.

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What if to help restaurant businesses grow on Avalon, Amelia creates,grows and sells a private stash of plants that only restaurants can buy to help create a culinary economy like Belgium's tulip economy.

 

[cosoco]

A/N- Random Avalon Citizen chapter. Requested and delivered. That'll be tree fiddy.

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You know, it's been too many chapters since something horrible happened.

Prediction: Someone in the kitchen poisons Taylor, hurting her badly enough that she gets brain damaged and put into a coma. Amelia agrees that they should euthanize and reclone her, even though it will cost her 3 days of memories. Avalon Imperial Security comes in and arrests Janet and Tyrone. Janet is eventually cleared of charges, but it turns out that Tyrone was an agent of the CUI. Janet never recovers from the hit to her reputation, and she closes the restaurant and goes to work as a secretary for a new legal firm.

Janet loses her ability to trust others, and ends up pushing all of her friends away. Then the Slaughterhouse Nine come back to life as unkillable holograms. Jack Slash merges with Khonsu, giving Khonsu the ability to project time fields as blades. Lily and Sabah mutually agree to erase the last two months of memories and get back together.

That'll be tree fiddy.

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You know, Amelia could make a Loch Ness Monster. The Scottish Highlands don't have much else going for them.

I looked at our books. Fuck, this was such a mistake.

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Running a restaurant has razor-thin margins, because everybody else wants to run a restaurant too.

he responded."

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extra "

"Yeah, if she thought it'd help her get into your pants," he countered.

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Is everyone in the story gay? I mean, in this scene, we have Tyrone, Janet's friend, Lisa, Taylor, and Theo. This just seems improbable.

...

I'm complaining about how unrealistic the story is while they're eating genetically engineered applesquashes in their own dimension, while wearing living battle armor. Never mind.

"Are you kidding?" she smiled. "You're the only person I know who can cook this stuff. Everyone back at the base just eats it raw. They don't even own a stove. The only reason they even have a kitchen is because they needed somewhere to put the coffee machine and that thing that grows disposable cups, plates and silverware. And the only person who uses the coffee pot is Lisa. Everyone else just uses the plant that grows coffee."

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"Myself? I just replaced by liver with a coffee plant."

"Doesn't that have any side effects?"

"Well, it burns when I pee, and I haven't slept since 2005, but other than that, no."

I think Amy's finally starting to get bored

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Everyone out of the universe!

god Empresses

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God should be capitalized, since it's part of her title. /s

But it looks like they really like Avalon's hands-off Imperial government structure or something. Hell if I know what they're thinking.

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It's not a bad idea. I'd feel much better about moving to a libertarian community if I knew that a) the price of food would be really low, so I wouldn't have major expenses and b) some other government would step in if it collapsed, like the Articles of Confederation did.

"So how did your citizenship test go?" Tyrone asked.

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"Oh, they had a test on Avalonian history, which was pretty easy since the place has been around for a month."

"You can't be serious," I laughed. "Half the fun of food is making something amazing out of the base ingredients!"

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no it isn't food isn't fun

Amelia, Ch 289- Janet

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PS. not indexed or threadmarked

This made me so damn sad, felt like my heart fell out of my chest. I dunno why, but seeing them go through all the effort to try and start a life, just to fail because of such an obvious oversight...

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In the very worst case, they could shut down the restaurant, and the lights, and eat free food. They don't need to pay rent, so they're not going to become homeless.

Still sad, though.

Hmmm....I can already see the Avalonian child/teen game. Everyone brings random leaves and they mix them all into a pile and plays 'Guess the Flavor Combination!' by grabbing 2-3 leaves at random and munching on them at the same time.

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"I think this one's coca leaf."

 

[Zaranoth]

"The vegetarians are going to love this," I stated with absolute certainty.

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"Nope," the vegetarian stated with absolute certainty.

Seriously, don't know if the author thinks this, or it's just a silly misinformed character, but I personally would hate any vegetarian product that tastes like meat, and every other vegetarian I know would also hate said products.

Other than the silly opinion above, nice chapter, it was interesting to get the perspective of a random, unimportant character on all the stuff TanaNari has got going on.

And now, back to the lurker cave with me.

 

[aquinas]

"Nope," the vegetarian stated with absolute certainty.

Seriously, don't know if the author thinks this, or it's just a silly misinformed character, but I personally would hate any vegetarian product that tastes like meat, and every other vegetarian I know would also hate said products.

Other than the silly opinion above, nice chapter, it was interesting to get the perspective of a random, unimportant character on all the stuff TanaNari has got going on.

And now, back to the lurker cave with me.

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What about the Buddhists, they get to love it right?

 

[cyberswordsmen]

I always assumed they were just alternate "people". Not necessarily alternate copies of the same person.

Either that, or they were just wrong about how his power worked. Not like it'd be the first or only time. After all- Bet was dumb enough to think you couldn't find a dimension more similar to Bet than Aleph in the timeline due to some "can't get closer" bullshit. When in reality they would have been nigh identical without Scion.

Also: 'Random Avalon Citizens' chapter in a few minutes.

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They didn't say there was a fundamental rule saying you can't get closer just that the closest anyone has ever been able to get was a 30 years ago divergence point. They don't know if that is a limitation of the technology, or if divergences are rare enough that the one with earth aleph is the most recent one they have had (or space whale hax but they don't know that).

This is a setting with a massive but limited number of multiverses having universal splits happen only every couple of decades/centuries/million years would have resulted in more universes than there are atoms inside of one of them (as the number was described in canon)well before humanity had evolved.

 

[TanaNari]

"[J]ust felt so right" would be the more usual phrasing.

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It was a typo, 'just felt right, so' would have been the way it folded into the next part... but then editing and failure happened.

Prediction: Someone in the kitchen poisons Taylor, hurting her badly enough that she gets brain damaged and put into a coma. Amelia agrees that they should euthanize and reclone her, even though it will cost her 3 days of memories. Avalon Imperial Security comes in and arrests Janet and Tyrone. Janet is eventually cleared of charges, but it turns out that Tyrone was an agent of the CUI. Janet never recovers from the hit to her reputation, and she closes the restaurant and goes to work as a secretary for a new legal firm.

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That is fucking brilliant.

Who'd you steal it from?

Is everyone in the story gay? I mean, in this scene, we have Tyrone, Janet's friend, Lisa, Taylor, and Theo. This just seems improbable.

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Less than half the people on that list are gay.

Seriously, don't know if the author thinks this, or it's just a silly misinformed character, but I personally would hate any vegetarian product that tastes like meat, and every other vegetarian I know would also hate said products.

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*Looks at you* *looks over at the turkey flavored tofu that my cousin may or may not be sexually attracted to* *looks back at you*. Yeah. I'mma say you don't speak for the whole group on this one.

 

[GiftofLove]

No, no Zaranoth does not.

 

[Adrian Nightshade]

Seriously, don't know if the author thinks this, or it's just a silly misinformed character, but I personally would hate any vegetarian product that tastes like meat, and every other vegetarian I know would also hate said products.

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Speaking as a vegetarian, I would love meat flavored plants. I haven't tasted bacon in years.
.
.
.
I miss you so much, bacon.

 

[tilkau]

Meh. Turkey flavoured anything (including, you know, turkey flavoured turkey) sounds pretty unappealing. Chicken, yes. Beef, maybe..

That said, the opinion -is- a silly generalization AFAICS -- it should take more than a few bits of anecdotal evidence to convince you 'vegetarians would love it' is actually true.

 

[Ack]

Okay, I may be grossly misinformed here, but as I understand things, vegetarians, vegans and all the other "won't-eat-meat" factions are in it because meat used to be a living animal, and they won't support any industry that kills living animals to keep them alive. (Let's leave aside the fact that the domestic beef and mutton industries are the only reason there are so many sheep and cattle alive today ...)

This has nothing to do with how anything tastes.

(Personally, I am anything but a vegetarian, and there are some types of meat I can't stand. Because of the way it tastes.)

Meat is one of our primary food sources; has been for tens of thousands of years, ever since proto-men first got together to drag down whatever big critter was wandering through the hunting grounds. We're used to it. We're genetically keyed to react to it. The taste sets off fireworks in our brains (especially bacon. Oh god, bacon).

This is scientific fact.

Now, if a vegetarian could eat something that he or she knew beyond a doubt was never an animal, but which tasted like freshly seared steak, or ham, or bacon ... I can see a lot of them going for it. After all, it's only the taste. It's not the thing.

(Yes, some of them might turn it down on principle; but it wouldn't actually be a sensible principle, IMHO ).

Anyway, derailing, so I'm gonna stop there.

 

[Ack]

On another topic, that's the second "gay person pushed into fake marriage" incidence in this story so far. And the story's figurehead gay/straight couple hasn't even gotten married yet.

Actually, that would make three gay/straight marriages being lined up, two for convenience, one for love. And the most prominent gay/gay couple in the story just broke up.

Are you trying to tell us something?

 

[The Unicorn]

Okay, I may be grossly misinformed here, but as I understand things, vegetarians, vegans and all the other "won't-eat-meat" factions are in it because meat used to be a living animal, and they won't support any industry that kills living animals to keep them alive.

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There are, to the best of my knowledge three main groups of vegetarians:
1)"It's immoral" - that's the group you're referring to.
2)"I can't eat that for health reasons" (regardless of if those health reasons are valid)
3)"That's icky, how can you eat that?" - not sure how big the last group is, but since it includes my sister I'm well aware it exists.

The third group would turn down anything that tasted like meat, while the second would jump on it.

 

[Ack]

There are, to the best of my knowledge three main groups of vegetarians:
1)"It's immoral" - that's the group you're referring to.
2)"I can't eat that for health reasons" (regardless of if those health reasons are valid)
3)"That's icky, how can you eat that?" - not sure how big the last group is, but since it includes my sister I'm well aware it exists.

The third group would turn down anything that tasted like meat, while the second would jump on it.

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The third group sounds like the first group, only more emotional ("I won't eat anything that used to be a cute animal").

Which reminds me.
http://grrlpowercomic.com/archives/1247

... aand I derailed again. Ugh.

 

[Snake/Eater]

I wonder if Lisa can let down her guard and talk to Taylor without the kids hovering near their "girl talk" .or was this Lisa's idea for them to bring the kids so she couldn't have the courage to speak honestly to Taylor on their girls night-out?

 

[dasstan]

I wonder if Lisa can let don't her guard and talk to Taylor without the kids hovering near their "girl talk" .or was this Lisa's idea for them to bring the kids so she couldn't have the courage to speak honestly to Taylor on their girls night-out?

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Lisa works smarter, not harder. She's already implanted a version of the conversation into one of Taylor's backups.

 

[tilkau]

The third group sounds like the first group, only more emotional ("I won't eat anything that used to be a cute animal").

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I don't know why it's so hard to just take the third group on face value: meat is not some 'universally tasty' thing. Glutamates are supposed to be tasty, but there are, in fact, people who don't like mushrooms, soy sauce, fish sauce, parmesan cheese, etc...

It just seems like the proper application of Occam's Razor to conclude that many of the people in group 3 do, in fact, not like the taste.

 

[Sol Mark-1]

Let's be realist most of the marriages in Worm, are unestable, I remember hearing that being in love last like 2 and a half years; there is still the posibility that the other marriages may fail.

Lily and Sabah marriage/contract is a little fucked up, TanaNari just showed what would happen if Lily changed her personality by a traumatic experience.

If Amelia gets a Tv tropes page, one of the things in Reality Ensues is going to be the break up between Sabah and Lily, reminds me of Skitter/Grue, cute at the begining, it last at most some years.

TanaNari shows that Sabah issues are going to ruin a lot of her relationships, instead of trying of speaking with Lily, and help her; the first thing she does is getting away form Lily when she needed help, the second is finding a replacement, it only shows that she is really inmature when it comes to relationships.

Lets hope that the Shards do not began to change of idea, with the mutual empaty.

With how Skitter/Grue relationship ended, Wildbow should have made Taylor an asexual.

 

[TanaNari]

Amelia, Ch 290- Victoria


"How's it going, Director Dunn?" I smiled sweetly as I walked into the meeting. I knew her answer before I finished asking the question, based solely on a combination of frustration and impotent anger directed only partially toward me. Mom must have raked her over the coals during their most recent clash. I wasn't there for it, and for legal bullshit no one could tell me what happened, but they couldn't hide their emotions. Mom didn't even try, pretty much radiating satisfaction.


She just looked at me. "Good morning, Miss Dallon," she replied.


"Shouldn't you be referring to me by my cape name?" I asked. "We are on the job, after all. And you wouldn't refer to your people by their civilian identities during an official meeting, would you?"


She really should watch her salt intake, I decided as I examined her blood pressure. What is it about these PRT Directors and their inability to watch their diets? So glad I don't have to worry about that anymore.


"Very well, Victoria," the woman almost choked on the words. "Please, have a seat and we'll begin."


When I decided to use my actual name, it was more for convenience than anything. The fact that it seemed to piss off stuffy people? Best surprise birthday gift ever. I activated a couple of forcefield panels, the latest addition to my power armor, and sat down on them. While most of the team had full body shielding systems from the Khonsu tissue, I had a better design. Created by Dragon, based off Narwhal's powers, and using the EB reactor that our tinkers cooked up. If you had superhuman reflexes, it was actually a lot better than the Khonsu shields. They were invisible to the naked eye, so I probably looked like some kind of mime or something.


Just one more of the many, many ways I found to piss off the Director without actually doing anything wrong.


Dunn glared at me slightly. "We've recieved seven requests for healing, two of which meet the protocols for highest priority," she informed, watching me to see if I called bullshit on her this time. "Four of them are requesting the 'optimization' treatment as well."


"And the Case 53s?" I asked. This was always our sticking point. All of the least unfortunate, the ones like Sveta who could never live normal lives, were already restored. We'd moved on to the ones that were deformed, but functional. Dunn was frustrated with the 'lack of progress' because of time 'wasted' on them. She'd prefer we focus on the more powerful of the injured heroes. Working with the most useful and powerful, instead of the ones most in need.


"Twelve requests," she answered. True again.


"Nineteen? Alright, I can probably do all that in one day," I replied. That was true, unless some of the Case 53s were extreme examples. Some, especially the ones that were truly alien, were exhausting. Possibly taking an hour or more each. But we'd moved on from those extremes, and now seemed to take around fifteen minutes on average. "Do the priority cases have amputations or anything severe?"


"No," she answered. "One Protectorate hero who suffered extreme burns, mostly recovered. Probable pain killer addiction," Okay, that will be easy to handle. "The other has been paralyzed for two years, and recently had a trigger event with telekinetic powers. Based on your past performances, they should be simple."


"Sounds it," I agreed. "Tell the ones who want optimized that there's no promises I'll be able to get to them today." Those were always tough ones as well. More predictable than the Case 53s, at around fifty minutes each.


"Understood," she responded, sounding distinctly unhappy. "The recent court ruling also mandates I inform you that Mrs. Dallon is the de facto legal counsel and representative of the Case 53s and unaffiliated parahumans that you are healing from now on, from the moment they're placed on the waiting list to when you finish their regeneration. She'll be at the hospital, speaking with them while you're working on the priority cases. She may wish to speak to you about specific patients. That is between you and her to discuss on site."


"Okay," I agreed. Way to go, Mom.


....


"I wish you wouldn't antagonize her like that," Chevalier chided me as we traveled to the hospital, flying over Philadelphia's streets. It was only about three miles away from the HQ, faster to use the suits than to take a vehicle.


"We both know she deserves it," I countered. "The only reason she still has a job is because my powers aren't admissible in court."


"And because she never did anything illegal," he added. "Even if you could prove everything you claim, it only means she followed the letter of the agreement instead of the spirit. You really should drop it."


"Nah, it's far more fun watching her squirm," I replied.


"You're not making any friends with the PRT doing that," he pointed out.


"I'd rather not be friends with people like her," I dismissed. "Besides, everyone else loves me. I'm the one teaching the troops how to really use the M7s the way they deserve to be used. Philly's second only to Calvert's Elite in terms of drill success right now. And all these capes I'm patching up that sign on to the Protectorate, they love me. All those other Directors that end up enjoying the benefits of my work at least want to keep me happy. Of course, now a few of their capes are suing for coercive tactics, but you can thank your Director for that."


"There's no evidence of that," he replied. "You don't even know it's true with your power."


"Only because she never answered the question," I argued. "We both know she's guilty."


The spike of resignation, annoyance and disgust registered on my senses easily enough. But I'd spent enough time around Chevalier to know the feelings weren't directed toward me. He knew I was right. "Still, your efforts are better spent on building up, not tearing down. Let your mother and the Internal Affairs guys handle it. If she's guilty, they'll prove it and she'll be punished to the proper extent of the law. No need to be petty about it."


"You're underestimating me," I replied. "I'm keeping her off balance. The more she's focused on me, the more chances for her to make mistakes elsewhere. Everything else is just icing on the cake."


And now he was a little frustrated with me. "Please," he sighed. "At least give it a rest for a little while. She can't do anything to touch you, but it's starting to hurt discipline with the rest of team. I know you think the system's broken. But at least give a chance to work without you sabotaging it, okay?"


"Well, since it's you, and you're asking so nicely, I guess I can stop," I agreed. "Maybe you can help me come up with something else to do, instead? We can, say, discuss it over dinner tonight?"


A spike of annoyance and concern. "You know that can't happen, Victoria."


"Don't see why not," I turned over and flew while laying on my back, pushing a bit ahead of him so he could get a look at my figure. The advantages to my smaller, sleeker, almost form fitting costume.


"You're way too young," he argued. I had to admit, it was impressive how much he managed to not let me distract him. I knew he found me attractive, he just didn't let it affect him. Some women might have found that a little insulting. I thought it was hot.


"As far as I know, the only things I'm 'too young' for are buying booze and running for President," I countered. "I can do anything I want with anyone who wants to let me." I slowly parted my toes while keeping my heels together, then tapped them together again.


"You know what I mean," he carefully avoided looking at me. "I'm almost twice your age."


"Clearly that doesn't bother me," I responded. "And I know it doesn't bother you as much as you pretend it does."


"It would be professionally inappropriate," he tried.


"Yeah, you've tried that one before," I reminded him. "I don't work in your chain of command."


"Your mother would find a way to get me sent to the Birdcage," he added.


"She'll come around to the idea," I countered. "Seriously, she managed to be okay with Amy getting engaged to the notorious supervillain that held her hostage and fed me to bees. I think she can handle me dating the hot guy that leads the Protectorate."


"Why are you even interested in me?" He asked. "There are plenty of boys your age to think about."


"We get along great, and I'm into the strong, smart, sensitive types," I responded. That and the armor. I didn't know what it was about men in armor that got me so worked up, but I'd always had a thing for it and all the heroes I knew that wore it.


Heck, even Armsmaster. For those brief few seconds between the first time I met him, and the first time he spoke to me. I'm sure if Mannequin hadn't killed him, he would have made some robot very happy some day. But there was no way in hell he was ever going to get a human girlfriend.


"It's not going to happen, Victoria," he asserted.


Wanna bet? I thought. I said nothing, instead turned slowly in the air until I was facing the 'normal' way for flying again. I'd let him wonder if he upset me by turning me down, for a bit. Really, I was just letting him get a look at me.


=============


A/N- When Vicky wants something, she'll find ways to get it. Also: I hope a Vicky-Ingénue meeting can occur at some point in this story.

 

[Rean]

Hell if I know what they're thinking. Politics is just choosing between a giant douche and a turd sandwich, far as I'm concerned."

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Man that reference is dated. At least it's not Zero Wing...

 

[Coruscant Knave]

And this has been the story of how Vicky got sent to a mandatory seminar, under protest. Protests which resulted in Zach's required attendance.

I continue to be amused by Vicky's predilections.

 

[evildice]

"We're asking for too much," he replied. "The New Boston city-state isn't willing to give us space for the restraunt in the city itself, and we sure as fuck can't buy the amount of land we need."

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They moved to Libertopia and expected a hand-out. Strike one. Very surprised nobody thought to offer them a loan.

I look forward to driving and parking being difficult due to the streets being choked by flyers advertising private street-cleaning services and private parking garages. Actually it wouldn't surprise me if street-parking were illegal due to lobbying by garage-owners.

I looked at our books. Fuck, this was such a mistake. The idea itself was sound, of course. But we made one crucial mistake. We opened a business that provided food, in a place where everyone already had enough food for free.

Supply and demand, with almost no demand at all. We had a few regular customers, enough to keep us afloat only because our supplies were, essentially, free. It's remarkable how much less you spend when you don't have to pay for most of your supplies, or to feed yourselves. But the electricity and gas for cooking was costly.

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Bah, that's not a mistake. The portion of a restaurant's bill which is directly related to nutritional requirements is a minority.

People regularly pay $5 for coffee instead of $0.50 for coffee -- physically walking past the cheaper option to get to the more expensive option sometimes -- and it's not because they get $4.50 more coffee at the more expensive place.

 

[tEN]

"Nope," the vegetarian stated with absolute certainty.

Seriously, don't know if the author thinks this, or it's just a silly misinformed character, but I personally would hate any vegetarian product that tastes like meat, and every other vegetarian I know would also hate said products.

Other than the silly opinion above, nice chapter, it was interesting to get the perspective of a random, unimportant character on all the stuff TanaNari has got going on.

And now, back to the lurker cave with me.

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Morningside Farms should probably change their business model then.

Heck, even Armsmaster for those brief few seconds between the first time I met him, and the first time he spoke to me. I'm sure if Mannequin hadn't killed him, he would have made some robot very happy some day. But there was no way in hell he was ever going to get a human girlfriend.

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I'm gonna laugh forever over this.

 

[Ack]

I'm gonna laugh forever over this.

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Yes. She has no idea how right, and how wrong, she is, in the same sentence.

Also, a few typos (because I know you love them):

"No," she answered. "One Protectorate hero that suffered extreme burns, mostly recovered. Probable pain killer addiction," Okay, that was easy to handle. "The other has been paralyzed for two years, and recently had a trigger event with telekinetic powers. Based on your past performances, they should be simple."

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(Also, Dunn apparently sees capes as things, not people; "One Protectorate hero that suffered extreme burns". 'that', not 'who', huh? Very telling, Director.)

"Tell the ones who want optimized that there's no promises I'll be able to get to them today."

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Sounds very clunky. 'who want optimization', maybe?

"You're underestimating me," I replied. "I'm keeping her off balance. The more she's focused on me, the more chances for her to make mistakes elsewhere. Everything else is just icing on the cake."

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'off balance', not 'off balanced'.

"Don't see why not," I turned over and flew while laying on my back, pushing a bit ahead of him so he could get a look at my figure. The advantages to my smaller, sleeker, almost form fitting costume.

"You're way too young," he argued. I had to admit, it was impressive how much he managed to not let me distract him. I knew he found me attractive, he just didn't let it affect him. Some women might have found that a little insulting. I thought it was hot.

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(sigh) Vicky, Vicky, Vicky. What are we going to do with you?

 

[tarrangar]

"Nope," the vegetarian stated with absolute certainty.

Seriously, don't know if the author thinks this, or it's just a silly misinformed character, but I personally would hate any vegetarian product that tastes like meat, and every other vegetarian I know would also hate said products.

Other than the silly opinion above, nice chapter, it was interesting to get the perspective of a random, unimportant character on all the stuff TanaNari has got going on.

And now, back to the lurker cave with me.

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I think they meant those amongst vegetarians who are such not because they prefer vegetables, but because they consider it cruel to eat animals, basically those who sees the fact that they're vegetarians at a sacrifice, in the name of kindness to animals.

 

[evildice]

There exist vegetarians who avoid meat for purely moral reasons, but who like the taste of meat.

There exist vegetarians who don't like the taste of meat.

People can have different reasons for choosing to be vegetarian.

(Personally, I enjoy eating fake meat because it tastes UNLIKE meat. It's a new and interesting group of flavors and texture. It can be tasty to mix it in with real meat.)

 

[CptTagon]

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