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Enter the Dragon (Harry Potter/Shadowrun)

Discussion in 'Creative Writing' started by Dunkelzahn, Jul 10, 2018.

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  1. Extras: World Building: Hogs Haulage
    Dunkelzahn

    Dunkelzahn No one of consequence

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    In the process of preparing the three railway scenes in this section, I established with the kind help of several of the denizens of the CaerAzkaban group (thank you again, if you happen to see this) a history and locomotive stable for Hogs Haulage.

    I thought people here might appreciate seeing it as well.



    Hogs Haulage History



    Hogs Haulage Locomotive Stable
     
  2. Shance

    Shance Not too sore, are you?

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    Umu, misunderstanding, actually capable Aurors, I like this, I hope they end up eaming up with WMD!Harry.
     
  3. TheGrog

    TheGrog In the number mines

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    Wave that disaster flag a little harder, girl. I don't think you've called up a volcano or meteor yet.
     
  4. armorfiend

    armorfiend Getting sticky.

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    You made me genuinely enjoy reading about a couple of old men starting a locomotive and reminiscing about their families. Very well done sir!
     
  5. hyperspacewizard

    hyperspacewizard Versed in the lewd.

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    Man I love this story it continues to be high quality
     
  6. randomchance

    randomchance I like words

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    Yay! Shop excited to see where those goes!
     
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  7. Damnedmatt

    Damnedmatt Versed in the lewd.

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    Ah, I'm pretty sure that Harry can pass for both, you know, the general rampaging super dragon package :D

    That said, I just love how you manage to do slice of life and actually bring up and expand on the lives of the characters and their interactions, all the little moments that matter far more than most give them credit for, without making them the clutter and the mess that distracts and draws attention away from things. Very well done, and I'm going to enjoy the Aurors arriving to rescue Hermoine... only to meet up with a rampaging dragon looking to recover his damsel.

    If nothing else, it promises to be one hell of a shouting match :p
     
  8. Acolyte

    Acolyte Know what you're doing yet?

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    I am real interested in what their anti radar spell is going to be like.
     
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  9. CatOnFire

    CatOnFire Magically Malicious

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    You would think a shadowrun dragon would have a larger vision range than a human. Filwick said the color charm only apply to what you can see, well I figured than harry could see more thus it might lead to a breakthrough faster.
     
  10. Gavinfoxx

    Gavinfoxx Armchair Strategist

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    Dunkelzahn If reddit has taught me anything, in England, biscuits are cookies. The correct analog to an American biscuit is a "Breakfast scone", and even then you need to specify that it's savory, not sweet. Also, the definition of 'gravy' in England is different than in the US too. Here we have a few varieties, but they wouldn't even call the American South type gravy a gravy at all! That biscuit bit tore me right out of suspension of disbelief! Look up English breakfasts sometime, and differences between food and drink names in England and the US.
     
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  11. Dunkelzahn

    Dunkelzahn No one of consequence

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    No, the usage is correct. They actually are intended to be oatmeal cookies in the American parlance, which Jim's wife sent along as an extra treat.
     
  12. Girador

    Girador Lord of the Headache

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    As there was no mention of gravy whatsoever I'm really not sure why you jumped to this conclusion when he's AFAIK not missed a single Britishism.
     
  13. zup

    zup Experienced.

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    Poor slave traders. They are just trying to make a dishonest profit and will get double stomped by Aurors and a dragon.
     
  14. Erik Phantom

    Erik Phantom Know what you're doing yet?

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    I'm a bit really confused, I thought Hermione was getting a silver torc and engagement contract, not bronze and a servant contract?

    There was that whole thing where it was to save her reputation and dignity, as a servant contract at their age would be interpreted as solely sexual and makes her seem more like a slave for his use, while an engagement means it is a more serious and long-term commitment. They went into in depth and everything and Harry had to tell and reassure Abigail after she asked him to run romance things by her first, but now there's no mention of engagement and the Aurors and Grangers are solely referring to it as a servant contract.

    Also no mention of a torc whatsoever, silver, bronze, or otherwise. Which was kinda the point, I thought? Since it would be a visible marker to all that she is formally and legally claimed as their own by a noble house and as such off-limits, unless they want war and open-season upon them.
     
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  15. The Unicorn

    The Unicorn Well worn.

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    The point was there's no legal difference, but there is a significant social difference. Hermione is getting a servant contract, Harry's also planning on getting her the various social accouterments that make it clear the service is expected to end in marriage.
     
  16. Dunkelzahn

    Dunkelzahn No one of consequence

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    Erik Phantom: Harry mentioned in 4.10.6 that he was going to make her a torc when he got back because he didn't think he had enough time to make a proper job of it before he left.

    As The Unicorn mentioned, the important bit for protecting her was the registration; as long as it's in place he's got the right to respond to any aggression, and the deterrent has teeth. The torc is social window dressing to help Hermione save face, so as long as she has it before her next public appearance in the wizarding world, she'll be fine.
     
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  17. Erik Phantom

    Erik Phantom Know what you're doing yet?

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    Wait, there's really no difference in the contracts for becoming engaged (Edit: I know it's not actually a 'real' engagement, more just declaration of consideration, but still) and becoming a 'slave in all but name' servant? Those are very different things after all. Though I'm sure houses and families would have actual contracts and agreements of their own, having there be no legal difference between the two things in the public register?

    And I would have thought Harry would have mentioned that he plans to give her a silver torc (and the meaning thereof) to her parents, just to try to ease their minds? (It would worry them in a different way at least.) But he made no mention of it, which made me think he really was just doing a servant contract/bronze torc.

    I must have forgotten that, though assuming that any snatchers would bother checking said register (or assuming they would at even be doing it immediately before the kidnapping to check she hasn't been claimed recently) to be deterred seems... unwise. And having legal grounds to pursue and punish the offenders doesn't really help Hermione, since at that point she's been snatched and possibly Obliviated of all memories, while a torc would have been a physical sign to them that "This person is protected by X, mess with her and you'll have a pissed-off magical Noble House coming after you for blood, and it will be completely legal, aboveboard, and outright expected." Not having it means that there's really nothing about her that gives any indication she's protected or in any way unlike the dozens of other muggleborn girls they've likely snatched. This is all assuming a nebulous and unaligned kidnapping of opportunity mind, it's even worse with a dedicated snatch-team working for someone like we know is the case here, since they would assume their boss is aware of any connections and wouldn't send them to start a House War. Even worse since Lucius apparently had/has no way of contacting them once they were set a target.

    Harry's decision and choices make sense for him, mind, just they aren't as effective as he hopes.

    Part of my confusion came from not being sure if it had been retconned/altered in the recent changes, even though they were stated to just be regarding Su Li.
     
  18. The Unicorn

    The Unicorn Well worn.

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    No, there's a huge difference, however what they did is have Hermione sign a servant contract where the service she's doing is Harry's girlfriend/mistress with the option to get married because any service contract Harry signed with her everyone would assume he'd be using her for sex.
    He might have,we don't have the conversation with them in full, just a general description of what they talked about.
     
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  19. Acolyte

    Acolyte Know what you're doing yet?

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    Can't you back up you memories in the pensieve. Seems like something that can be used to de program someone.
     
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  20. The Unicorn

    The Unicorn Well worn.

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    That assumes:
    1)That you made a copy of all your memories in advance.
    2)That the programing is something as simple as changing the events in your memories and not something more subtle such as altering emotional responses or even just slightly emphasizing some emotions and suppressing others, and these are just the most basic psychological changes with no compulsions or other magical effects involved.
     
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  21. SoCar37

    SoCar37 Getting out there.

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    Also assumes pensieves are widely available. Depending on the fic, pensieves are everywhere and easy to come by, or extremely rare (i.e:Dumbledore's is a one-of-a-kind). Not sure how our illustrious author is on the spectrum.
     
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  22. The Unicorn

    The Unicorn Well worn.

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    Either that or some other method of copying memories exists, yes.
     
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  23. Dunkelzahn

    Dunkelzahn No one of consequence

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    Pensieves are somewhat rare, the sort of thing that you have to put out feelers for and wait to find on the market, possibly for years. They're very much specialty items made by only the best master craftsmen. In-story, Harry is still waiting for one to become available for purchase (he started looking back after 3.4.2).

    Also note that my interpretation of pensieves in-story is that they actually function as divination devices: they take the information from the 'memory' withdrawn from the person and use that to target a remote-viewing method on a particular point in the past. They basically let you watch a three-dimensional recording of the event after the fact. So even if you stored all those vials of memories and viewed them, it's going to be like you watched a movie of your life rather than restoring your memories of living it. It'd be better than nothing, certainly, but it would be nothing like a full restoration.
     
  24. Albus Dumbledore

    Albus Dumbledore Getting out there.

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    "Dr. Strangelove : Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost, if you *keep* it a *secret*! Why didn't you tell the world, EH?"

    (3:45)

     
  25. Acolyte

    Acolyte Know what you're doing yet?

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    Can't they just create a spell for that they have a lot of memory magics. It can't be that hard to copy memories from one medium to
    to an another after all its all just information.
     
  26. zup

    zup Experienced.

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    Perhaps it is easy, perhaps it has been achieved many times even. But the pureblood elite could have suppressed it and obliviated the researchers of memory back-ups because they want to prey on defenceless mudbloods and orphans without interference.
     
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  27. The Unicorn

    The Unicorn Well worn.

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    Which is why you can record memories on a thumb drive, right?
    I dislike this explanation for a number of reasons:
    1)It is incredibly naive.
    2)It assumes the "pureblood elite" are a monolithic block.
    3)It assumes the "pureblood elite" are all incredible altruists willing to put the long term interests of the group over their own interests, and for that matter the group's short term interests.
    4)It ignores how technology progresses (and yes, "magic" is a type of technology).

    There has never been, and never will be a technology that will just help promote freedom without being useful to the oppressors and dictators. Even assuming that copying memories would be as useful for undoing brainwashing(see previous posts for a few of the reasons it wouldn't be all that useful) it would be even more useful for brainwashing people, and even if it's some limited form that isn't useful for that it would be incredibly useful for all sorts of people meaning it would make whoever controlled the discovery very rich.
     
  28. Acolyte

    Acolyte Know what you're doing yet?

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    Should be easy, they have a lot of spells for memory , and charms can be put onto object, can't see why they wouldn't or couldn't just devolp a memory storage charm.
     
  29. The Unicorn

    The Unicorn Well worn.

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    I can think of many possible reasons why not, starting from they have no ability to store memories , or all their spells rely on controlling the natural mechanisms for changing memories, or copying memories is possible, but getting them back in your head requires perfect control, or many other possible explanations.

    There's no reason it should be easy.
     
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  30. Erik Phantom

    Erik Phantom Know what you're doing yet?

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    Yes, that is a good way of putting what I meant: Outside of whoever may try something against Hermione of being extraordinarily prepared and cautious, for them to even know about her being part of House Potter now, there is nothing to discourage them from doing so, at which point it is already too late to keep her safe, and all it does is give Harry legal carte blanche to go after them.
     
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