Pyro Hawk
Unsure if Phoenix or Kitsune
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2015
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So it's basically the Last Prayer if you are expecting to build them for garrison duty and last possibly beyond the immediate fight? XD
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M176
New
lost star
Connoisseur.
- Joined
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It felt ominous for some reason. Bolt stared at the Heart Crystal and could almost swear it was humming. Whatever the Assembler had put in it was not a standard lesson. Yet he needed to learn it anyway. He placed a hand on the crystal and focused. The trick to pull data from it required a bit of mental reaching.
There was a lot in here. Neatly categorized too. It was actually rather interesting to think about. Data storage in a different way. There was probably a market for this if he refined it as an alternative idea. Something to explore later perhaps. Right now he needed to go down the list of required lessons.
Immediately after selecting a lesson he was almost pulled into a memory and he realized this specifically was the reason why it'd been used. The emotional context.
"What is a mech?" The person in front of the viewpoint was blurred. The blurring was strange, as if they'd been wiped with a cloth.
"Master, must we?" The words came from the viewer, accompanied by a wave of fond exasperation.
"This is a very serious question I'll have you know! Without the backing of our artifact, what is a mech?"
"A mech is a machine in the form of a man. Without the Mech Kingdom it's merely a collection of parts. Without the Neural Interface it's a collection of parts that works poorly. Both of them are necessary." The words were said with a sigh.
The figure nodded approvingly. "Very good. You missed something though. What happens if you make a mech out of sticks?" They asked.
"You can't." Was the immediate response.
"Just like you can't make one out of sticks, you can't make it out of faulty parts. The physics backing the mech make it work just as much as the Kingdom does. That means you need to study dear heart." The figure concluded with a small laugh.
The viewpoint man pouted. "All of that to lecture me on studying? You do plenty of things without adhering to physical rules!"
"I do because I do all the work on the magical side. Reality is two layers pressed up against one another. Think of making things like making a bridge between them. We made the Mech Kingdom to provide one half of the bridge because people like you have absolutely no talent with the other side. Call it spirit, magic, psionics, whatever." Here the figure paused and ruffled his head. "That's why I can teach you. Crafters like me are very restricted. In the eyes of the gods you're a cripple without talent in the things they value. In my eyes you're a treasure. You're brilliant in a way that humanity needs if it wants to be more than cattle. So study, forget the spiritual side. Any work on there will take someone brilliant and touched in a way you are not. That is fine."
Why did that memory feel bittersweet? Bolt wondered, and then decided he wouldn't like the full answer. That was likely one of the Assembler's memories. And his conversation about mechs and something called the Mech Kingdom. Interesting, but he needed more to get context. The man moved onto the next memory.
The memory was censored again. This time in a different way. The Assembler was looking at something that even hints of hurt his brain. It was impossibly beautiful, impossibly complex, and something grand beyond belief.
"Staring at our master's creation again?" A voice made the man turn to see a strange looking woman who appeared to have driven spikes clean through her head.
"They always talked about the Kingdom as if it was the solution to everything." The man said as he turned away and back to the creation. "They never said they'd give everything to it. I can't even remember their face now. I stare at it sometimes thinking that I'll see it again."
His words made the woman snort. "If you could, you wouldn't see it in the physical realm. Put it away. It's too bright."
With a nod the man snapped his fingers and the impossible creation disappeared. "You're here for a reason."
"Good news, we got another Star Designer and God Pilot finally. It proves that the Kingdom can properly ascend people with minimal input, little spiritual backing, and pure physical investment." The woman said and paused. "I've also confirmed that they have full administration rights. This has all been done without a direct command from any of us founders."
"The vision was to provide a steady path upwards without blood or sacrifice. I fail to see what the issue is?" The Assembler asked curiously.
"They're already demanding things." The woman said. "Everyone had full knowledge of the atrocities the Five Scrolls Compact have done. The new ones won't. We're already getting demands to re-allocate budgets towards alien suppression."
"Ah." The rage that came with that was potent. The man clenched his hands before he very carefully unclenched them. "Has the Compact shown any signs of resurgence?"
"You're remarkably calm about this." The woman noted.
"Master wanted this to happen. There's no burning the ladder so others cannot ascend. I must allow... Accept new viewpoints and decisions." The man very carefully grit out. "Also, the Compact has been suppressed enough that I can tolerate looking elsewhere. I will see about stamping out other peripheral remanent."
"Are you sure, have you read the reports on the alien atrocities?"
The man paused and something flashed through his mind. Bolt caught glimpses of it. Statistics, offenses, something about an infection to drive humans mad.
"Let them know they have my approval." He eventually said. "While I still consider the monsters the largest issue I will admit that other things will require a higher priority until we gather more leads."
Some context, but not the most. So the Assembler's master had given everything to make the Mech Kingdom. Literally everything if the memories were stripped like that. Strange. Also interesting. Was that they focused so much on the physical? Was it to prevent people from using others as fuel? That made some sense. It seemed to be a common theme in spiritual works to eat or sacrifice someone living.
Taken together, someone had made a spiritual construct that backed Mechs. Mechs worked by using a physical base to 'reach' for a spiritual base. The entire system was meant to elevate people into Star Designer and God Pilot using mechs. Theoretically this meant they'd created a virtuous cycle. You make a mech, had it piloted, that would strengthen the Mech Kingdom and then strengthen the maker and pilot.
It was a very neat an tidy ideal that had resulted in the MTA becoming what it was. Bolt was pretty sure that everything had been quite distorted from the original idea. It was a pity really. What little he'd seen made him want to know these makers just a bit. They'd made something utterly beautiful.
One more memory to go.
The feeling of cables pressing against his skin made him want to twitch. The spikes driven into his skull made him almost panic. The ice cold suppression covering it all made all of that irrelevant.
"Gathering reason?" He asked coldly.
"Vote." Someone said back.
Rage almost overrode the ice. "Vote on?" He asked clarification and got an entire ream of data. "Vote on?!" He demanded.
"Clarify." The logic speak demanded back.
"Disengaging suppression." The Assembler warned and several of the others gave verbal statements of alarm. Connections for those that couldn't tolerate his anger dropped or were cut by those trying to protect them. "You desire to vote on THIS?!" He snarled out, forgoing logic-speak.
"Control!" Someone called out.
"I will not control myself. I have one line. I have always had one line. Stop mass sacrificing people and children!" The man snarled and rage spiked hot enough that something melted. "This should not be a vote at all. I do not care about the worthless data!"
"Not worthless." The response made the Assembler pause and glare that the Designer that dared question him. (Who they were was censored in the memory.)
"Worthless. Useless. Because it was done by a child of ours you think that excuses this prideful travesty pretending to be science?! No. That has always been my line and I will be certain that it will always be the line we never cross." The Assembler's voice went quiet. "The only vote here should be immediate execution or torture then execution as an example."
"Agreement." One voice rose up, and several more signaled agreement as well.
"What?!"
"Engaging emotional suppression." The Assembler said and the cold flooded back. "Boundaries set. Do not cross them."
"Notated." The statement sounded surprisingly dry despite being couched in logic-speak.
Bolt couldn't help the snort. Of course that had to be added. That was fairly clear as a lesson truthfully. He didn't have any plans of doing that anytime soon.
The rest of data on the crystal was a series of interlocking not quite blueprints. The concepts behind the Mech Kingdom. Well some of them at least. He currently had something akin to elevated permissions now. Where before he'd been able to just make mechs, now he could touch the background that supported mechs.
To make an analogy, before he could run programs on an operating system. Now he could adjust a few things that connected to the operating system. He could adjust some of the output and input.
Right now that didn't mean much. The largest thing he could do was make expert mechs without any assistance. Which would help significantly with any surprises he wanted to make. He did need to address the immediate over the theoretical. Perhaps later he'd come back to the concepts. At the bare minimum he wanted to see how Mechhalla could fit in with all of this. That would again have to be later, when he wasn't in the middle of a damned war.
There was a lot in here. Neatly categorized too. It was actually rather interesting to think about. Data storage in a different way. There was probably a market for this if he refined it as an alternative idea. Something to explore later perhaps. Right now he needed to go down the list of required lessons.
Immediately after selecting a lesson he was almost pulled into a memory and he realized this specifically was the reason why it'd been used. The emotional context.
"What is a mech?" The person in front of the viewpoint was blurred. The blurring was strange, as if they'd been wiped with a cloth.
"Master, must we?" The words came from the viewer, accompanied by a wave of fond exasperation.
"This is a very serious question I'll have you know! Without the backing of our artifact, what is a mech?"
"A mech is a machine in the form of a man. Without the Mech Kingdom it's merely a collection of parts. Without the Neural Interface it's a collection of parts that works poorly. Both of them are necessary." The words were said with a sigh.
The figure nodded approvingly. "Very good. You missed something though. What happens if you make a mech out of sticks?" They asked.
"You can't." Was the immediate response.
"Just like you can't make one out of sticks, you can't make it out of faulty parts. The physics backing the mech make it work just as much as the Kingdom does. That means you need to study dear heart." The figure concluded with a small laugh.
The viewpoint man pouted. "All of that to lecture me on studying? You do plenty of things without adhering to physical rules!"
"I do because I do all the work on the magical side. Reality is two layers pressed up against one another. Think of making things like making a bridge between them. We made the Mech Kingdom to provide one half of the bridge because people like you have absolutely no talent with the other side. Call it spirit, magic, psionics, whatever." Here the figure paused and ruffled his head. "That's why I can teach you. Crafters like me are very restricted. In the eyes of the gods you're a cripple without talent in the things they value. In my eyes you're a treasure. You're brilliant in a way that humanity needs if it wants to be more than cattle. So study, forget the spiritual side. Any work on there will take someone brilliant and touched in a way you are not. That is fine."
Why did that memory feel bittersweet? Bolt wondered, and then decided he wouldn't like the full answer. That was likely one of the Assembler's memories. And his conversation about mechs and something called the Mech Kingdom. Interesting, but he needed more to get context. The man moved onto the next memory.
The memory was censored again. This time in a different way. The Assembler was looking at something that even hints of hurt his brain. It was impossibly beautiful, impossibly complex, and something grand beyond belief.
"Staring at our master's creation again?" A voice made the man turn to see a strange looking woman who appeared to have driven spikes clean through her head.
"They always talked about the Kingdom as if it was the solution to everything." The man said as he turned away and back to the creation. "They never said they'd give everything to it. I can't even remember their face now. I stare at it sometimes thinking that I'll see it again."
His words made the woman snort. "If you could, you wouldn't see it in the physical realm. Put it away. It's too bright."
With a nod the man snapped his fingers and the impossible creation disappeared. "You're here for a reason."
"Good news, we got another Star Designer and God Pilot finally. It proves that the Kingdom can properly ascend people with minimal input, little spiritual backing, and pure physical investment." The woman said and paused. "I've also confirmed that they have full administration rights. This has all been done without a direct command from any of us founders."
"The vision was to provide a steady path upwards without blood or sacrifice. I fail to see what the issue is?" The Assembler asked curiously.
"They're already demanding things." The woman said. "Everyone had full knowledge of the atrocities the Five Scrolls Compact have done. The new ones won't. We're already getting demands to re-allocate budgets towards alien suppression."
"Ah." The rage that came with that was potent. The man clenched his hands before he very carefully unclenched them. "Has the Compact shown any signs of resurgence?"
"You're remarkably calm about this." The woman noted.
"Master wanted this to happen. There's no burning the ladder so others cannot ascend. I must allow... Accept new viewpoints and decisions." The man very carefully grit out. "Also, the Compact has been suppressed enough that I can tolerate looking elsewhere. I will see about stamping out other peripheral remanent."
"Are you sure, have you read the reports on the alien atrocities?"
The man paused and something flashed through his mind. Bolt caught glimpses of it. Statistics, offenses, something about an infection to drive humans mad.
"Let them know they have my approval." He eventually said. "While I still consider the monsters the largest issue I will admit that other things will require a higher priority until we gather more leads."
Some context, but not the most. So the Assembler's master had given everything to make the Mech Kingdom. Literally everything if the memories were stripped like that. Strange. Also interesting. Was that they focused so much on the physical? Was it to prevent people from using others as fuel? That made some sense. It seemed to be a common theme in spiritual works to eat or sacrifice someone living.
Taken together, someone had made a spiritual construct that backed Mechs. Mechs worked by using a physical base to 'reach' for a spiritual base. The entire system was meant to elevate people into Star Designer and God Pilot using mechs. Theoretically this meant they'd created a virtuous cycle. You make a mech, had it piloted, that would strengthen the Mech Kingdom and then strengthen the maker and pilot.
It was a very neat an tidy ideal that had resulted in the MTA becoming what it was. Bolt was pretty sure that everything had been quite distorted from the original idea. It was a pity really. What little he'd seen made him want to know these makers just a bit. They'd made something utterly beautiful.
One more memory to go.
The feeling of cables pressing against his skin made him want to twitch. The spikes driven into his skull made him almost panic. The ice cold suppression covering it all made all of that irrelevant.
"Gathering reason?" He asked coldly.
"Vote." Someone said back.
Rage almost overrode the ice. "Vote on?" He asked clarification and got an entire ream of data. "Vote on?!" He demanded.
"Clarify." The logic speak demanded back.
"Disengaging suppression." The Assembler warned and several of the others gave verbal statements of alarm. Connections for those that couldn't tolerate his anger dropped or were cut by those trying to protect them. "You desire to vote on THIS?!" He snarled out, forgoing logic-speak.
"Control!" Someone called out.
"I will not control myself. I have one line. I have always had one line. Stop mass sacrificing people and children!" The man snarled and rage spiked hot enough that something melted. "This should not be a vote at all. I do not care about the worthless data!"
"Not worthless." The response made the Assembler pause and glare that the Designer that dared question him. (Who they were was censored in the memory.)
"Worthless. Useless. Because it was done by a child of ours you think that excuses this prideful travesty pretending to be science?! No. That has always been my line and I will be certain that it will always be the line we never cross." The Assembler's voice went quiet. "The only vote here should be immediate execution or torture then execution as an example."
"Agreement." One voice rose up, and several more signaled agreement as well.
"What?!"
"Engaging emotional suppression." The Assembler said and the cold flooded back. "Boundaries set. Do not cross them."
"Notated." The statement sounded surprisingly dry despite being couched in logic-speak.
Bolt couldn't help the snort. Of course that had to be added. That was fairly clear as a lesson truthfully. He didn't have any plans of doing that anytime soon.
The rest of data on the crystal was a series of interlocking not quite blueprints. The concepts behind the Mech Kingdom. Well some of them at least. He currently had something akin to elevated permissions now. Where before he'd been able to just make mechs, now he could touch the background that supported mechs.
To make an analogy, before he could run programs on an operating system. Now he could adjust a few things that connected to the operating system. He could adjust some of the output and input.
Right now that didn't mean much. The largest thing he could do was make expert mechs without any assistance. Which would help significantly with any surprises he wanted to make. He did need to address the immediate over the theoretical. Perhaps later he'd come back to the concepts. At the bare minimum he wanted to see how Mechhalla could fit in with all of this. That would again have to be later, when he wasn't in the middle of a damned war.
Pollyamorous
Please be patient, I'm horny.
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2020
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Huh. You know I'd always pictured the creation and running of the MTA as being just one guy at the top wanting power and control and complete domination, and eventually being ganged up on and killed in retaliation for his evil-ness and leaving a bunch of extremely powerful people squabbling over the remains.
Its origin being a guy who just figured out a way to bypass the normal "Mass human sacrifice" that sounds like had to be the easiest and most straightforward path to power by pushing people into mech battles is a lot more tame and respectable.
I mean it sounds like he had to transform his soul to get the Mech Kingdom running properly, and rather than mass human sacrifice it just leeches off of the inevitable human conflicts which the MTA now quietly encourages so they get more wars to get soul-power from, but with the alternative that people would inevitably bring up it sounds like a universe of never-ending wars is actually the better outcome. Which is pretty sad.
Its origin being a guy who just figured out a way to bypass the normal "Mass human sacrifice" that sounds like had to be the easiest and most straightforward path to power by pushing people into mech battles is a lot more tame and respectable.
I mean it sounds like he had to transform his soul to get the Mech Kingdom running properly, and rather than mass human sacrifice it just leeches off of the inevitable human conflicts which the MTA now quietly encourages so they get more wars to get soul-power from, but with the alternative that people would inevitably bring up it sounds like a universe of never-ending wars is actually the better outcome. Which is pretty sad.
Pyro Hawk
Unsure if Phoenix or Kitsune
- Joined
- Jan 14, 2015
- Messages
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- 31,753
It was more an entire group of the Five Scrolls Compact decided to have 'just a little' civil war to utterly cripple the rest because they'd managed to hide their morals long enough (or had revelations) that they could be dangerous. Especially when they recruited a bunch of forces that everyone had neglected as 'useless' and made them a lot more dangerous. Another group that were their allies ended up becoming the CFA, though those ones decided that 'spiritual stuff' needed to be as excised as possible, rather than converted like the progenitors of the MTA did with the Kingdom of Mechs.
M177
New
lost star
Connoisseur.
- Joined
- Feb 19, 2013
- Messages
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- Likes received
- 475,799
Medical treatment was a very complicated subject in the galaxy, and one place where a lot of the division between tiers broke down. There was probably a careful balancing act for it all in the background, but Lilly didn't know nor care about all of the mechanics behind it. What she did know was that they had machines that handled a lot and one of Phillipe's people were working on getting a degree. That combination of things was what had been used to determine what was wrong with Sami.
Stimulants fell into a lot of categories depending on what you wanted. The casual morning wake-me-up was coffee or tea was a blend of caffeine and some minor supplements depending on what your day was like. There were a lot of options available to make you peppy in the morning if you so desired, and all of it was less addictive than caffeine. On the harder and more potent side there were combat stims, and long-term stims, and other more exotic custom cocktails. Sami had been on long term Second Rate high quality ones designed for times when you needed to work for long hours. Those were meant to be used for roughly 48 hours. Past 72 hours was considered dangerous. Their little patient had been on them for over 100 hours with almost no sleep to break that up.
That sort of abuse could and had killed people. Sami was fortunate she was a designer child from a noble house. She 'only' needed an induced medical coma and a cocktail of drugs to flush her system. Lilly had ordered that they use the harsher stuff for the treatment, for both kind and cruel reasons. She then had the wakeup scheduled and waited at the girl's bedside while she came out of the coma.
"Ooh, what did I drink." The young woman moaned and then clutched at her stomach as she woke up. "Gotta pee!" She cried out with distress.
"Bathroom's thataway." Lilly pointed to a small area to the side.
With a whimper the girl rushed to the small medical toilet area and did her business, then began to groan out in pain as the rest of her system proceeded to remind her that it'd been heavily abused recently. This involved some vomiting, another usage of the bathroom, and pain. By the time the woman was relatively stable she was barely able to move and did not look like a proper noble at all. She looked like someone that had gone on a bender and had the worst reaction possible. Lilly was fairly sure she wouldn't be overusing stimulants like that again, which was the kind reason for the treatment she'd ordered.
Now for the cruel one. "Sami Mira." Lilly focused her willpower on the woman. "You are in a lot of trouble young lady."
"Eeee." The woman whimpered. It was an understandable reaction. Not many people could handle this sort of focus.
"I do wonder what you were thinking. Were you so high that ya didn't think of the consequences?" Lilly asked. "You do know that almost every Hexxer at that prison died right?"
Sami made to respond and then started to heave. A few dry heaves later and some water she managed to respond. "They didn't have the sane ones there." She muttered quietly. "It was a dead-end area. You either got the screw ups, the discarded, or the fanatics too fanatic for deployment."
"And which are you then?" Lilly asked.
"Family considered me a screw up." Sami said in an even quieter mumble as she leaned against the doorframe of the bathroom.
"Yet you got put in charge of the facility." The expert continued.
That question had the woman turn and actually look at Lilly. She blinked. "Oh you're tiny."
Lilly snorted. "That's yer answer to my question?"
"I was thinking one of my family's experts came by because only they'd start with young lady, but you aren't from the Hegemony. They wouldn't tolerate a girl your size or with freckles like that." Sami reasoned out before visibly bracing herself and standing up. "You don't know my people, if you are asking questions like that."
"Enlighten me." Lilly responded with actual amusement. She hadn't decreased her willpower display at all. Sami was powering through it with pure grit and what felt like stubborn spite.
"As a member of the Mira dynasty, I have to be in charge of something. It would have been an insult if they'd put me in a closet and said to do nothing, so they put me in charge of repairs and logistics for the boy mechs." Sami explained before wobbling and hunching over. "Then all the bitches and sluts decided to foist everything on me. Blargh!" She turned back to the toilet and heaved. "What did I get put on?!" She demanded.
"That's yer system purging the stimulants. Ya do know you nearly killed yourself right?" Lilly asked mercilessly as she took a step back to give the girl some privacy.
"Mother help me I think I'd rather have died." The woman almost screamed out. "Are you getting off on my suffering?! What did you put me on, and let me off! Painkillers at least!"
"More drugs wouldn't help." Lilly informed the suffering Hexxer. "You'd purge them too. We gave you some of the most potent purgatives we had available. You'll be better in an hour or so. I'm told they're pretty healthy, but not fun to deal with."
"Kill me now." Sami whimpered. "I'm damned and being tormented by a tiny red-headed devil."
Lilly moved a few steps closer and leaned against the entrance, right next to the woman. "Sorry, yer still alive last I checked. Though ya might regret that later. How do ya think the rest of your nation would take you being on a ship with me and Bolt, after basically betraying everyone on the prison?"
Her answer was a wordless whine of distress and the woman gently smacking her head against the nearest hard object.
"Yeah, probably not the worst answer there." Lilly chuckled and stopped flaring her willpower, tucking it in quietly and stopping the direct probing she was doing in favor of a bit of kindness. "So, gonna make an offer here. How'd you like to stick around on the ship for now? You'll have to be banned from using any sort of communications out, but at least you won't be executed."
Sami blinked dumbly at the other woman several times. "Is this a sex slave thing?"
Completely thrown off Lilly stared at the other woman. "Sex slave thing?" She repeated in confusion.
"That's a no then. Pity." There was a note of genuine disappointment in that statement that Lilly did not want to acknowledge. "I mean it's not like I can do anything else here. So sure." Sami eventually answered with almost no care.
"No, what's with the assumption of sex here?!" Lilly demanded.
"You would not believe the amount of lurid fantasies and rumors going around for people like your husband. All that 'we don't need no man' bullshit and then they hop into the VR pods to join the hidden roleplay clubs in Fantasy Unlimited where you're enslaved by some over muscled monster-boy." Sami explained with exhaustion and more than a little disgust and irritation. "Half my list of 'high priority repairs' required me getting their pods hosed out and repaired due to improper use and adjustments. You try believing in the superiority of women when you see that."
"I'm probably going to intentionally forget that information." The expert replied with a long sigh.
Fantasy Unlimited was the most popular game in the galaxy. It was also, well what you'd expect from an all-ages VR simulation that created personal scenarios. To be fair, it did have some very nice child safety controls and was highly reputed as an educational supplement. It was just that it could also create scenarios on demand. The things that allowed were absolutely legendary.
"Wish I could myself." The Hexxer woman muttered. "So, you're gonna stick me in a room and leave me? Not the worse I suppose. Wouldn't mind the sleep."
"There's one more thing." Lilly offered very carefully, and met the wary woman's eyes. She liked the look in the other girl's eyes. Sami was treating things casually on the surface. There was a very sharp intelligence behind it all. "Bolt might offer ta teach you later. We could use a designer. You'd do grunt work not related to the war. Proper hours."
"Ma'am, if you wanted to tempt me you could have just led with that." Sami replied with sudden wide grin that was spoiled by another bout of nausea.
Lilly did feel a little bad about that. Only a little though.
Stimulants fell into a lot of categories depending on what you wanted. The casual morning wake-me-up was coffee or tea was a blend of caffeine and some minor supplements depending on what your day was like. There were a lot of options available to make you peppy in the morning if you so desired, and all of it was less addictive than caffeine. On the harder and more potent side there were combat stims, and long-term stims, and other more exotic custom cocktails. Sami had been on long term Second Rate high quality ones designed for times when you needed to work for long hours. Those were meant to be used for roughly 48 hours. Past 72 hours was considered dangerous. Their little patient had been on them for over 100 hours with almost no sleep to break that up.
That sort of abuse could and had killed people. Sami was fortunate she was a designer child from a noble house. She 'only' needed an induced medical coma and a cocktail of drugs to flush her system. Lilly had ordered that they use the harsher stuff for the treatment, for both kind and cruel reasons. She then had the wakeup scheduled and waited at the girl's bedside while she came out of the coma.
"Ooh, what did I drink." The young woman moaned and then clutched at her stomach as she woke up. "Gotta pee!" She cried out with distress.
"Bathroom's thataway." Lilly pointed to a small area to the side.
With a whimper the girl rushed to the small medical toilet area and did her business, then began to groan out in pain as the rest of her system proceeded to remind her that it'd been heavily abused recently. This involved some vomiting, another usage of the bathroom, and pain. By the time the woman was relatively stable she was barely able to move and did not look like a proper noble at all. She looked like someone that had gone on a bender and had the worst reaction possible. Lilly was fairly sure she wouldn't be overusing stimulants like that again, which was the kind reason for the treatment she'd ordered.
Now for the cruel one. "Sami Mira." Lilly focused her willpower on the woman. "You are in a lot of trouble young lady."
"Eeee." The woman whimpered. It was an understandable reaction. Not many people could handle this sort of focus.
"I do wonder what you were thinking. Were you so high that ya didn't think of the consequences?" Lilly asked. "You do know that almost every Hexxer at that prison died right?"
Sami made to respond and then started to heave. A few dry heaves later and some water she managed to respond. "They didn't have the sane ones there." She muttered quietly. "It was a dead-end area. You either got the screw ups, the discarded, or the fanatics too fanatic for deployment."
"And which are you then?" Lilly asked.
"Family considered me a screw up." Sami said in an even quieter mumble as she leaned against the doorframe of the bathroom.
"Yet you got put in charge of the facility." The expert continued.
That question had the woman turn and actually look at Lilly. She blinked. "Oh you're tiny."
Lilly snorted. "That's yer answer to my question?"
"I was thinking one of my family's experts came by because only they'd start with young lady, but you aren't from the Hegemony. They wouldn't tolerate a girl your size or with freckles like that." Sami reasoned out before visibly bracing herself and standing up. "You don't know my people, if you are asking questions like that."
"Enlighten me." Lilly responded with actual amusement. She hadn't decreased her willpower display at all. Sami was powering through it with pure grit and what felt like stubborn spite.
"As a member of the Mira dynasty, I have to be in charge of something. It would have been an insult if they'd put me in a closet and said to do nothing, so they put me in charge of repairs and logistics for the boy mechs." Sami explained before wobbling and hunching over. "Then all the bitches and sluts decided to foist everything on me. Blargh!" She turned back to the toilet and heaved. "What did I get put on?!" She demanded.
"That's yer system purging the stimulants. Ya do know you nearly killed yourself right?" Lilly asked mercilessly as she took a step back to give the girl some privacy.
"Mother help me I think I'd rather have died." The woman almost screamed out. "Are you getting off on my suffering?! What did you put me on, and let me off! Painkillers at least!"
"More drugs wouldn't help." Lilly informed the suffering Hexxer. "You'd purge them too. We gave you some of the most potent purgatives we had available. You'll be better in an hour or so. I'm told they're pretty healthy, but not fun to deal with."
"Kill me now." Sami whimpered. "I'm damned and being tormented by a tiny red-headed devil."
Lilly moved a few steps closer and leaned against the entrance, right next to the woman. "Sorry, yer still alive last I checked. Though ya might regret that later. How do ya think the rest of your nation would take you being on a ship with me and Bolt, after basically betraying everyone on the prison?"
Her answer was a wordless whine of distress and the woman gently smacking her head against the nearest hard object.
"Yeah, probably not the worst answer there." Lilly chuckled and stopped flaring her willpower, tucking it in quietly and stopping the direct probing she was doing in favor of a bit of kindness. "So, gonna make an offer here. How'd you like to stick around on the ship for now? You'll have to be banned from using any sort of communications out, but at least you won't be executed."
Sami blinked dumbly at the other woman several times. "Is this a sex slave thing?"
Completely thrown off Lilly stared at the other woman. "Sex slave thing?" She repeated in confusion.
"That's a no then. Pity." There was a note of genuine disappointment in that statement that Lilly did not want to acknowledge. "I mean it's not like I can do anything else here. So sure." Sami eventually answered with almost no care.
"No, what's with the assumption of sex here?!" Lilly demanded.
"You would not believe the amount of lurid fantasies and rumors going around for people like your husband. All that 'we don't need no man' bullshit and then they hop into the VR pods to join the hidden roleplay clubs in Fantasy Unlimited where you're enslaved by some over muscled monster-boy." Sami explained with exhaustion and more than a little disgust and irritation. "Half my list of 'high priority repairs' required me getting their pods hosed out and repaired due to improper use and adjustments. You try believing in the superiority of women when you see that."
"I'm probably going to intentionally forget that information." The expert replied with a long sigh.
Fantasy Unlimited was the most popular game in the galaxy. It was also, well what you'd expect from an all-ages VR simulation that created personal scenarios. To be fair, it did have some very nice child safety controls and was highly reputed as an educational supplement. It was just that it could also create scenarios on demand. The things that allowed were absolutely legendary.
"Wish I could myself." The Hexxer woman muttered. "So, you're gonna stick me in a room and leave me? Not the worse I suppose. Wouldn't mind the sleep."
"There's one more thing." Lilly offered very carefully, and met the wary woman's eyes. She liked the look in the other girl's eyes. Sami was treating things casually on the surface. There was a very sharp intelligence behind it all. "Bolt might offer ta teach you later. We could use a designer. You'd do grunt work not related to the war. Proper hours."
"Ma'am, if you wanted to tempt me you could have just led with that." Sami replied with sudden wide grin that was spoiled by another bout of nausea.
Lilly did feel a little bad about that. Only a little though.
I read novels
I really do
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the rat colony grows
tanasinn
Versed in the lewd.
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Hexxers are writing Bolt fanfics.