24/05/2010 [AS2#103] - Uh.....

[joshofspam]

...............O______________________________O

Well, I give up. How did this woman - this pain-obsessed, student-mauling, cold and heartless woman...how could she become a loving, caring, well-adjusted mother and wife? How did she go from this:

You're going to live a long...long...time. And everyone around you will die. Because that is what you do. It is what you are. It is your destiny to die one day...alone and unloved.

to this:

...What's wrong Dan? You look so sad. Oh I know. First day out and couldn't find a single adventure huh? Don't worry sugar. I'm sure you will find one soon enough.

At first, I thought I had an idea of how the transition was possible, but this........geez.

Well it's like the those double standards I once noticed.

The creatures seem quite affectionate to family and friends. But anyone else is quite unimportant to them.

Remember Kria loves her daughter and was friends to Abel and his mom. But will eat pizza guys or guides by the dozen and rampage through a street fair.

Those that aren't family or friends are either tools or meal's and they are not above viewing others of the same race as just that. We think to much in the human way and it isn't surprising why these races raise so many questions rather than give answers

[terrycloth]

Finish the quote!

"It is your destiny to die one day... alone and unloved. And Abel -- it's what you deserve. It's what we *all* deserve."

She isn't a psychopath, or a sociopath, or even a sadist (look how bored she looks at the thought of teaching her class). She's a monster, and thinks that this is how monsters are supposed to act. It's her duty.

That's how she could fall for a being. All he had to do was convince her that that wasn't true.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

Stay on target thread... stay on target...  It's not like it's only 2 meters wide.

I used to comment on womp-rats back home from my speeder. They're not much bigger than that.

[Jairus]

Stay on target thread... stay on target...  It's not like it's only 2 meters wide.

I used to comment on womp-rats back home from my speeder. They're not much bigger than that.

But that's impossible, even for a computer!

[Keleth]

Negative.

The post just impacted on the surface.

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Finish the quote!

"It is your destiny to die one day... alone and unloved. And Abel -- it's what you deserve. It's what we *all* deserve."

She isn't a psychopath, or a sociopath, or even a sadist (look how bored she looks at the thought of teaching her class). She's a monster, and thinks that this is how monsters are supposed to act. It's her duty.

That's how she could fall for a being. All he had to do was convince her that that wasn't true.

Or  Show that the past doesn't matter as much as the here and now.  You do your best and forget the rest, for tomorrow is never guarantied.   Life is short or life is long, but it is so much more longer and harder if you carry your hate along.

PBH  

"Red squadron begin your attack run and beware of enemy fighters"

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

I'm posted! I'm posted!

[Anker Steadfast]

Actually, I think womp-rats are significantly narrower than 2 meters wide.
Well, until you run them over at least.

Granted, it's one of those oddball ideas that has probably been kicked around before. I rarely say anything because that is the quickest way to have the author alter the flow of the story if you are even close to right.

Then you should be happy to know that I can say with 100% certaintity that I would never under any circumstance alter the storyline due to anything you would ever say.

Ahh - but what if we were to bribe you ?
Say, a Rotring Artpen or something like that ?



Yes ? No ? Maybe ?

[jeffh4]

Granted, it's one of those oddball ideas that has probably been kicked around before. I rarely say anything because that is the quickest way to have the author alter the flow of the story if you are even close to right.

Then you should be happy to know that I can say with 100% certaintity that I would never under any circumstance alter the storyline due to anything you would ever say.

Ahh - but what if we were to bribe you ?
Say, a Rotring Artpen or something like that ?



Yes ? No ? Maybe ?

Why settle for that?  Why not try bribing with a NAMIKI EMPEROR SIZE DRAGON CHINKIN FOUNTAIN PEN.  When Amber gets tired of it, she can trade it for a decent car.

Oh, wait.  I didn't win the Powerball jackpot this week.  Oh, well.  Back to artpens! 

[Prof B Hunnydew]

Oh, wait.  I didn't win the Powerball jackpot this week.  Oh, well.  Back to artpens! 

AH If I won the Powerball, I would be give her a 100,000 for a house down payment.  or at least a New fully load tablet PC with a full photoshop.  Oh and paid her taxes too.

PBH

[Talis Mahn]

She isn't a psychopath, or a sociopath, or even a sadist (look how bored she looks at the thought of teaching her class). She's a monster, and thinks that this is how monsters are supposed to act. It's her duty.

That's how she could fall for a being. All he had to do was convince her that that wasn't true.

Also remember that Destania had barely survived an attack, just before she met Edward.  That would shake anyone's sense of superiority.  It might just take a very deadly cluebat to get through to a semi-immortal.

Heh, even Kria seemed attracted to Jyrus after his ankle-bite attack!

[Angel]

Finish the quote!

"It is your destiny to die one day... alone and unloved. And Abel -- it's what you deserve. It's what we *all* deserve."

She isn't a psychopath, or a sociopath, or even a sadist (look how bored she looks at the thought of teaching her class). She's a monster, and thinks that this is how monsters are supposed to act. It's her duty.

That's how she could fall for a being. All he had to do was convince her that that wasn't true.

...Wow. Yeah, I guess finishing the quote would have prevented the need for the post, huh?

...It makes sense now, I think. Sort of like how an abused person needs to be shaken to sense, made to realize that they are people and have the same rights as everyone else, that they're good people who don't deserve to be treated badly. ...How many years did it take till Destania was willing to marry Edward and accept that she could live the life of a non-monster?

[hartree]

I dunno. We know he survives, we know he pretty much regenerates. I guess this didn't surprise me as much as it did some.

What do you expect? After all, she teaches torture and apparently knows just how to tune it to a particular individual for precise physical and emotional effect.

Given her outfit and that she was just talking about pleasure to pain ratios it seems she's in some way a sexual torturer as well as the more standard variety. In panel three the "Ssh. Don't talk. Keep your head forward" was almost like a mocking "Was it good for you too?" to add even more humiliation.

[GabrielsThoughts]

Granted, it's one of those oddball ideas that has probably been kicked around before. I rarely say anything because that is the quickest way to have the author alter the flow of the story if you are even close to right.

Then you should be happy to know that I can say with 100% certaintity that I would never under any circumstance alter the storyline due to anything you would ever say.

Ahh - but what if we were to bribe you ?
Say, a Rotring Artpen or something like that ?



Yes ? No ? Maybe ?

Why settle for that?  Why not try bribing with a NAMIKI EMPEROR SIZE DRAGON CHINKIN FOUNTAIN PEN.  When Amber gets tired of it, she can trade it for a decent car.

Oh, wait.  I didn't win the Powerball jackpot this week.  Oh, well.  Back to artpens! 

@ amber personage... I'm flattered that you think enough of me to believe that you would have to tell me that I cannot manipulate you, when I was not in fact manipulating you.

@ the pen people... seriously  $6,000 dollars for a pen, that's like spending $98 dollars on a ratty pair of wrinkled blue jeans. I honestly don't feel an energy vortex swirling around such things. Now, if you handed me that money directly, after a small service fee, I could bribe Amber with what's left of it. But, in all honesty you'd get more if you bribed her yourself.

[jeffh4]

Why settle for that?  Why not try bribing with a NAMIKI EMPEROR SIZE DRAGON CHINKIN FOUNTAIN PEN.  When Amber gets tired of it, she can trade it for a decent car.

Oh, wait.  I didn't win the Powerball jackpot this week.  Oh, well.  Back to artpens! 

@ amber personage... I'm flattered that you think enough of me to believe that you would have to tell me that I cannot manipulate you, when I was not in fact manipulating you.

@ the pen people... seriously  $6,000 dollars for a pen, that's like spending $98 dollars on a ratty pair of wrinkled blue jeans. I honestly don't feel an energy vortex swirling around such things. Now, if you handed me that money directly, after a small service fee, I could bribe Amber with what's left of it. But, in all honesty you'd get more if you bribed her yourself.

But have you seen the pen?!?!?!? It's like a little work of art!!!  You know how dragons get that gleem in their eyes when they get ahold of gold?  I strongly suspect a dragon would flee in terror at Amber's chuckle and the sight of Amber curling and uncurling her fingers around a pen like that one!

End quote pyramid #1!!!!

Edit: Yes, end quote pyramid. Now.
  -- llearch

--------------

Oh, wait.  I didn't win the Powerball jackpot this week.  Oh, well.  Back to artpens! 

AH If I won the Powerball, I would be give her a 100,000 for a house down payment.  or at least a New fully load tablet PC with a full photoshop.  Oh and paid her taxes too.

PBH

Not necessary to pay her taxes if you just give her the cash.  In the US, yearly gifts are capped at $22,000 before the recipient has to pay taxes.  Canada doesn't have that problem.

[Turnsky]

I thought his emotions were only stripped from him for a couple of minutes, at most

They were. It would be kind of a dumb move on Fa'Lina's part if she had Abel an emotionless void for 40+ years of his life. Kind of defeats the purpose of well...a lot.

yeah, that'd turn him into a real college student.

or worse... a politician.  

[Jack McSlay]

For a short moment I thought Abel shoved his fists into his eye sockets

[jeffh4]

On the other hand, I don't know if I've seen Amber's art looking any better, especially in the last panel.

[Shachza]

Oh, wait.  I didn't win the Powerball jackpot this week.  Oh, well.  Back to artpens! 

AH If I won the Powerball, I would be give her a 100,000 for a house down payment.  or at least a New fully load tablet PC with a full photoshop.  Oh and paid her taxes too.

PBH

Not necessary to pay her taxes if you just give her the cash.  In the US, yearly gifts are capped at $22,000 before the recipient has to pay taxes.  Canada doesn't have that problem.

I thought that cap was $10,000.  That's why my grandma would put $9700 into her grandkids' college savings, and then have room to hand out 3 $100 checks throughout the year.

[jeffh4]

Not necessary to pay her taxes if you just give her the cash.  In the US, yearly gifts are capped at $22,000 before the recipient has to pay taxes.  Canada doesn't have that problem.

I thought that cap was $10,000.  That's why my grandma would put $9700 into her grandkids' college savings, and then have room to hand out 3 $100 checks throughout the year.

Did some research and we're both incorrect. For many years the cap was $10,000 but that has changed recently.

For 2010, the annual gift limit (or annual exclusion amount as it is properly called) is $13,000 per donor, per recipient.  If your recipient is married (and the spouse is trustworthy) you can give the same gift to the spouse.  If the donor is married the most they can give to the married recipients tax free would be $52,000. Note that gifts are never considered income for the recipient(s), and any penalties are paid by the donor via "gift tax." Even if you file a gift tax, you don't actually have to pay it until you exceed your "lifetime limit" of $1,000,000.  

You can give unlimited amounts only to spouses and non-profits. Also, you can directly pay for schooling and medical expenses without counting as a "gift" for tax purposes.

Note that is pretty unlikely that anyone who reads this forum will ever have the problem of exceeding their gift tax lifetime limit.  If anyone reading this post is in that position, I formally volunteer myself for adoption.

[TheZombie]

The issue here is that everyone is so caught up on Dan being chastised for his bigotry that people are forgetting that there is a rather good reason for that bigotry.  So people are finger wagging at Dan and saying things like "You won't become a baby eating monster Dan just because you are a cubi.  That is a stereotype.  There are good cubi who build hospitals for babies"  But the problem is is that there ARE likely baby eating cubi.  There are quite likely literal gore splattered dorm rooms with some rather twisted individuals in them.  So Destiana acting in this way didn't so much as get any surprise out of me in the least.  If anything I'm sure it's rather tame by twisted monster levels.

[jeffh4]

If anything I'm sure it's rather tame by twisted monster levels.

OK. Fine. You take her on a date then.

[VAE]

If anything I'm sure it's rather tame by twisted monster levels.

OK. Fine. You take her on a date then.

Nah, too skinny

[BlackSNinja]

Unlurking to Add my 2-hundredths a dollar:

The fact she went so far in her beatdown with Abel to inflict maximum pain while not trying to kill him means this is probably the apex of her bitchiness. It's not too far-fetched to think she could get that way. Why? Combine the loss of nearly her entire clan, the loss of the one person she loved, her clans general proclivity to pain, and decades if not centuries to stew on it; the difference here is that, instead of being like Abel and sinking into a depressive, withdrawn pit, she allowed the pain and anguish and the need to hurt something to just build and compound into the persona we see, because, in both a literal and figurative sense she fed off it (vicious cycle coming to a logical extreme).Related to that, the fact her general blatant disregard for anything resembling morality at this point means she's totally psychologically unfettered (remember the baby incident Fii spoke of).

In fact now that I think about it, the fact that Edward managed to get her to marry him in only two months time was probably him being the only thing in centuries to even attempt to fill that massive void in her heart. And the fact that they, from what Dan and Alexsi have said, had a stable relationship and family life meant that there truly was a void there and Edward filled it some degree.

An intresting plot point going forward I think would be the fact that Edward is now entirely AWOL and her business relationship with Biggs, an entity that is to some degree amoral and unfettered, may to a reversion back to that unfettered personality she had before, and will something involving her children either accelerate that regression or keep her of relatively balanced mind.


Second Edit: Also thinking about it, if I were Fa'Lina, I'd have done the same thing she did, in making her a Pain/Torture Department Head and all the authority that comes with that, because all that pent up rage will explode at some point, and better it happens in SAIA where she has near-absolute control than outside, lest 3 Clans (at least) go the way of the Dodo... plus the timing of this incident does not lead me to believe this is why Destania left, unless she had been wandering the lands aimlessly for a few decades/centuries before finding Edward.

[jeffh4]

plus the timing of this incident does not lead me to believe this is why Destania left, unless she had been wandering the lands aimlessly for a few decades/centuries before finding Edward.

Interesting analysis.  My suspicion as to why Destania left SAIA is that she finally decided to go find Aniz rather than waiting for him to come back.

[VAE]

plus the timing of this incident does not lead me to believe this is why Destania left, unless she had been wandering the lands aimlessly for a few decades/centuries before finding Edward.

Interesting analysis.  My suspicion as to why Destania left SAIA is that she finally decided to go find Aniz rather than waiting for him to come back.

Hmm, me and a were arguing about this before the DnD session back  a few weeks ago as i was a proponent of this theory too.
There are many things that speak for it, and Aniz, since he was hidden from scrying spells would be difficult to find, and an epic fight with Aniz would explain why she was so out that she got beaten up by a bunch of beings... however there is one thing (shamefully it ocurred to me , undermining my own theory)  - Aaryanna.
Now, she went to search for Dee as soon as she learned of her departure, right?
Now, a public information facility, albeit crappy, like the Phoenix temple is the first place where you go to search for someone like that, and Aary is smart enough to exhibit this level of rational thought, and i very much doubt that she waited for 100+ years before starting to search for Dee
From which follows, that dee departed little before dan's birth, while this happens much earlier
The only real possibility is that like with his mother's death , there was another time-fast-forward without drawing attention to it.

[Caswin]

If anything I'm sure it's rather tame by twisted monster levels.

OK. Fine. You take her on a date then.

Uh, I'm pretty sure that's every reason not to take her on a date. (The same thing crossed my mind, actually -- I'm sure she's done far, far worse.)

[Congo Jack]

Besides , Dee is not acting on a whim - the whole thing she did seems pretty calculated to me - caused no real injury but was both humiliating and torturous... Not to mention the monologue..

Probably. However, her plans on Aniz are but a whim; sure, they broke up not nicely, but mature person usually doesn't hold grudges for millenia, and rather move on, find a nice guy to rise children with.

[jeffh4]

Probably. However, her plans on Aniz are but a whim; sure, they broke up not nicely, but mature person usually doesn't hold grudges for millenia, and rather move on, find a nice guy to rise children with.

Unfortunately, Cubi do live for millennia and no one has ever labeled their race as "wise" or "mature."  They seem to be more like the Greek Gods, actually.  Petulant children with altogether too much power for their own good.

[VAE]

Probably. However, her plans on Aniz are but a whim; sure, they broke up not nicely, but mature person usually doesn't hold grudges for millenia, and rather move on, find a nice guy to rise children with.

Unfortunately, Cubi do live for millennia and no one has ever labeled their race as "wise" or "mature."  They seem to be more like the Greek Gods, actually.  Petulant children with altogether too much power for their own good.

There is never too much power...