Part 6 (Alex) - Chapter 2
In her youth, Alex had read about the meetings of the “Big Three” during the second world war, as they made sweeping plans to end the Axis powers, plans that would have consequences stretching long past their own lifetimes. Yet now, as she sat in the cargo area aboard a loaned HPI Hummingbird, she imagined she knew a little of what those men might’ve felt.
There were no nations at stake; all of those were already gone. Alex was no Alicorn, she couldn’t imagine the scales of time the Equestrian princesses used. Yet even so, she couldn’t help but feel the weight of destiny pressing on them. Just as mighty ships could be steered by minor adjustments of a comparatively small rotor, much of Earth’s history might now depend on just a few. The loss of the Equestrian library would mean rediscovering magic from scratch. The loss of the “proof” of what had happened might create a future rife with suspicion and fear. Without that, why believe what they had to say about the cause of the Event? Without it, the future might bring chaos and war.
Who best to capitalize on that than the being called Odium? Alex didn’t know how to fight something that could pry apart the minds of ponies, but what else could they do?
It had not taken her very long at all to reach the conclusion that the scale was outside her capabilities. She had thus summoned every ally she knew together. The cargo area of the Hummingbird was transformed into a war-room, with a folding table and a collapsable whiteboard and a projector.
“Let’s review.” She took a deep breath, stepping up before what were left of the ponies of her city. Her friends. Perhaps the last hope for a peaceful future. Moriah slouched in her chair, sipping a coke and looking disturbed. Joseph was beside her, surrounded by papers and at least three different tablets. They had kept empty seats for Sky, Adrian, and Oliver. As sitting in the room with them would have killed her, a drone with a screen for her face stood in for their HPI representative. Was Taylor Gamble their friend?
Yes, Alex decided. Not because she was sure it was actually the truth, but because she needed it to be. Only her friends could sit at her table.
“We have three goals here. First, recover the library. Second, rescue or find our missing friends. Third, get Alexandria back. Does anyone disagree with those priorities?”
Taylor looked uneasy. Her image hesitantly raised a hand. “Forgive me Alex, but… didn’t you tell me you’d listened in on lots of what they said?”
“Yeah.”
“And didn’t you say they’d burned the books already? I don’t understand how we can get them back if they’re already gone. At this point aren’t we just left with the digital copies you managed to send to us? About… a fourth the collection, if I remember. We can do some amazing things with reconstructive forensics, but not get a book out of charcoal.”
Alex frowned, though she didn’t hold anything back. The true nature of the library was actually fairly important for them to understand if they were going to plan anything together. Not that she didn’t think Alexandria’s ponies all understood. “We never actually unloaded all the books. We planned on it, but we figured out something better. Instead of using barcodes, we would only have digital copies available. That way, no matter what happened we couldn’t really lose anything. Even if people kicked us out of the building, you would always have the digital originals in that bunker of yours.”
“Yes, but…” Taylor looked as though she were trying to be delicate. “You said you had one of your people turn traitor. He had to know where you were keeping the books, right? Unless you hadn’t told anyone…”
“He knew.” Alex didn’t know if the strange manipulation would compel Adrian to reveal a secret like that or not. It was possible raw torture could, though she couldn’t imagine anypony actually doing something like it. “But even if he led them right to it, he wouldn’t be able to get it open. The saddlebags Princess Luna gave me weren’t just made of cloth. They were a…” She reached back, to some of her first “perfect” memories. The memories she had put down just after emerging from her time with Celestia, Luna, Cadence, Twilight, and the nightmare being that wasn’t a pony at all. She could still see a tree made from crystal, still see the little gathering of ponies that had assembled for her goodbye breakfast.
She heard the purple Alicorn’s words as though she were still there, and repeated them exactly, intonation and all. “A singularity-class temporospatial claudication. My soul is the key. If anypony but me opens the bag, it’s just a bag. Pretty annoying if somepony puts something in there, cuz’ I can’t get to the ‘just a bag’ part of the saddlebags myself. Somepony else has to open it for me and dump out whatever crap got shoved in.”
Moriah glanced briefly up at the stump of her own horn. “You’re sure they won’t just be able to trash the bag somehow? What good is a ‘claudication’ if you can’t get in to get our books out?”
Alex shook her head again. “The pony who made it was pretty sure it would be really hard to destroy. Its most basic defense would be to come right to me… She didn’t really explain how it would, but she was the Princess of Magic, so I trust her.”
“Princess of Magic.” Taylor repeated the term, and didn’t even sound like she was making fun of it. Much. “Too bad we didn’t have any of those before the Collapse.”
“If they’re smart, I still think they could do it. Attacking the saddlebags with something mundane would just send it to me. So they’ll want to ruin the spell instead. I don’t know anything about how that works, but with how proud of it that pony was, I’m guessing it won’t be easy. If we’ve got any hope of finding it intact, we’ll have to get there before they complete whatever spell it takes to ruin a spell made by an Alicorn. So that’s our time limit. One of two. Based on the audio we got back from Oliver, it seems like the longer you’re under this Odium’s control, the less you can resist. We already know they’ve done it to Adrian. If they haven’t tried Oliver, they will soon.”
She looked to Joseph. “Please tell me all that writing you collected and all the studying you’ve been doing are going to pay off and tell us what to do.” All eyes turned to the unicorn then.
He fiddled with his papers for several more moments, not seeming to notice. He didn’t notice, not until Moriah nudged him and he looked up. Then he blushed, ears flattening on his head. Had he even heard a single word in the last ten minutes?
Rather than embarrass him, Moriah whispered in his ear, and he nodded hastily. “Y-Yeah! Of course! I, uh… I’ve got it here somewhere…” He pulled his laptop closer to him, and the projector lit up. Alex saw the screen full of their books, at least the ones they had managed to make digital so far. Joseph brought up one of the titles: Unseen Dangers and Unlikely Threats: the Illustrated Guide to Equestria’s Rarest Predators. It was one of the few hundred non-essential books they had managed to scan before the newcomers had arrived and they had suspended digitalization. “This book, uh… talks about a number of creatures that lived in Equestria. Lots of the ones in here aren’t physical, so they’re afraid that some of them might’ve found their way across. I looked for anything that might be able to influence the actions of multiple ponies at once, and… it’s a pretty short list.”
He brought each up in turn. “First, the Morpheans.” He opened to a page of the beautiful full-color volume, depicting an elegant gray pony with a black cloak and a medieval farming implement leaning on her back. Alex gasped.
Taylor actually laughed. “No way you didn’t draw that.” She learned forward, so the screen only showed her forehead for a moment. “The Equestrian aliens have an angel of death myth?”
Joseph nodded. “I think it’s something like that. They don’t exist in the real world, at least, not according to this. It’s confusing, but it talks about dreams like they take place somewhere, somewhere almost real. There are several different ones, each with crazy powers they’ll use on ponies who get in their way. This one is death, but there’s more.” He flicked through a few different illustrations on successive pages. She was sure each had correspondences in Earth mythologies somewhere, if she had known where to look. An elegant tempter, a monstrous spider with shears and red silk thread, a great stag.
“The Morpheans are like dream gods. I only skimmed it, but the book didn’t seem to know if any of it was real or not. But if it was right, some of them could mentally influence ponies. Infect them through their dreams, then force them to do things when they wake up. Your friend Princess Luna fought some.”
Alex frowned at the latest illustration, then shook her head. “Looks like a very specific list. Like a pantheon. Even if most aren’t real, I’m guessing you’d tell us if there was one of them named ‘Odium’.”
Joseph spluttered for a moment, as though she had just tripped him. Alex realized with a twinge of guilt she might’ve done just that by mentioning what might’ve been his next point. “Sorry for interrupting.” She blushed, suddenly staring at the marker resting by her hooves. “What else could it be?”
The unicorn took another few moments before he finally answered. “Yeah, well… there weren’t very many other things that were able to manipulate whole groups. There’s one that was able to corrupt a princess, but it could only have one host at a time. The only thing this book talks about-”
“Which might not even be the same thing!” Moriah added.
“Yeah, might not. But the only thing close is this.” The page changed, displaying a creature Alex could barely describe. It was like a half-melted pony, twisting into shadow with a wickedly pointed horn. “It’s called an ‘Umbrum.’ These aren’t like the Morpheans, they’re real. Well…” He paused. “I think they are. Equestrian books talk about such crazy stuff that I don’t always know if it’s supposed to be literal or not. I think this one was though, because it talks about one of them enslaving a whole country. It’s not physical… but it’s not omniscient. Its essence has to be contained, or else it will disintegrate over time. Like an object, or a pony. It could roam around for a few miles from its host, but not further.”
Alex shivered as she took in the wicked horn, the bright green eyes. She had never seen so much hate in a simple drawing before. “They can force ponies to act against their will?”
Joseph nodded. “Not at first. They have to break your will first. They feed on hatred and anger. Eventually, when that’s all you’ve got left, the shadow can fill you up and you won’t have the strength left to fight. Force you to do whatever it wants. These guys used to be a whole race, though the book says they’re generally thought to be gone now.”
“Apparently not. There’s at least one left. Odium.” Alex remained quiet, letting the reality of what they had just learned sink in. True, there was no guarantee the being these ponies called Odium really was one of these ‘Umbrum.’ It might be, or it might be something else entirely. But they had nothing else to go on; not a drop more information. They had no choice but to make some assumptions, or else just make no plans at all and charge in blind.
“So, we know the ponies in there are acting against their will. That means we absolutely can’t kill anypony, and we should avoid hurting them as much as possible.” Moriah opened her mouth to speak, but Alex just kept going, getting louder. It worked, and the unicorn remained quiet. “Adrian would never hurt us. He was the one who came up with the plan to sneak into that house and learn what was really going on. If he had been evil, he could’ve stopped us from leaving, could’ve told them where the Hummingbird was so they could stop us from getting in, all kinds of things. I will not have us wasting time debating it. Agreed?”
She waited for assent from the others, which all of them gave except Moriah. Eventually she just grunted. Enough.
“We need nonlethal weapons then. It’s a handicap, since I bet they’re using the real thing. Do we have those, Taylor?”
The young woman’s image nodded. “Most of our combat drones have their biggest payload of nonlethals. When there are only a few hundred of you left, you can’t afford to kill anyone no matter what. We’ve got rubber bullets on most of them, as well as for the hoofguns we made for you… they still use standard sized bullets.” Her image was briefly replaced with that of the other drones, then the boxes that contained nonlethal ammo and where they could find them on the Hummingbird. “You should know, though. They’ve got a reduced range over the real thing, basically no penetration, and they can still kill if you hit somebody wrong. Get them in their temple for instance, or an eye…” She made a gesture with two fingers across her throat. “Kiss mortality goodbye. Aim for the center mass. You’re much less likely to kill someone if you hit them there.”
Moriah got up, opening the designated cargo locker on the wall. Sure enough, the boxes were waiting for them, covered in HPI barcodes. She lifted one out and over to the pile of weapons without another word, beginning the work of switching out the ammo. Without magic, it was bound to be grueling, menial work. Even if her hoof-dexterity was much better than it had been. “I’m still listening!” she called. “But since this is gonna take freakin’ forever, I’m going to start now if that’s okay.”
Alex nodded appreciatively, then turned back to the projection of Taylor. “Anything else? Besides the bullets, I mean.”
Taylor frowned. “Well, our soldiers have more. These new long-range tasers are pretty interesting. Use this little beam of charged plasma to conduct without wires. Or maybe it was a lazer…” she trailed off, shrugging. “Not my department. The energy draw is too high for a drone. Only a soldier plugged into one of the MTRs can use them. We didn't give you any.” Alex didn’t say anything, letting the silence weigh on Taylor along with her eyes. Eventually, the young woman spoke up again. “B-But there are a few other things! I have a net for hunting dangerous wildlife with a netgun. Only two shots, but they’ve got an electrical threat-suppression built in. Enough voltage in there to knock out a horse. Err… a properly sized horse.”
“We’ve also got smoke on two of them, and a few tear-gas grenades. They’re in this locker here, I’ll unlock it for you.” She fiddled with something on her keyboard, and suddenly there was a click from one of the walls. “We didn’t think you’d be needing riot gear, but we left some of it just in case.”
“Alright.” Alex took the marker in her mouth, adding the guns, nets, and gas grenades to their “assets” column. Then she turned to Joseph. “Suppose this ‘Odium’ thing is in an object. What happens if you break it?”
Joseph made a gesture like the one Taylor had used, sans the fingers. “It’ll go back to the place it came from. Not sure where that is, but… I’m pretty sure we won’t see it again. Not in our lifetimes, anyway.”
Alex felt a stab of guilt at that, though she wasn’t entirely sure she should. After all, she didn’t know that she was immortal. Not particularly hard to kill, either. Just hard to make things “stick.” None of her friends even knew it. She wasn’t going to tell them now, either. “Could you recognize the thing if you saw it, Joseph?”
The unicorn nodded. “Easy. If it was in something inanimate, it’d be sucking up magic and probably make the whole area feel like crap. It would probably attack me if I even got close, though. Even during the day, these things can throw magic around. But… Alex, it might be in a pony. What do we do then? We’d have to-”
She didn’t need him to finish. “Could you get it out without harming the host?”
Joseph’s face darkened. “Probably not.”
Moriah shouted from several paces away. “You’re stuffed full of magic, Joe! Just fuckin’ blast it out!”
Joseph looked frustrated. “It isn’t about magic! It’s about will. These things don’t age like people do; it might be thousands of years old. The book doesn’t suggest fighting them under any circumstances. Just says we should call the princesses and let them deal with it.”
There was silence then. Alex remembered her time in Equestria, remembered the glory that radiated from Princess Celestia like an invisible wave. She had never felt safer than in the presence of that celestial pony. If only they could ask for her help now. How was it fair that Equestrian predators were being loosed on Earth?
Would it have been better for everybody to get killed instead? No. It still sucked though. Like many things in her life. Like the fact one of her friends who she was beginning to venture she might have feelings for had been captured by evil ponies and possibly enslaved. Like her missing family and being made into a mare. Like the life she had ahead of her. Nothing was ever fair.
But it didn’t matter. The universe didn’t care about being fair. It didn’t care about anything. “If anypony has to die… I’ll do the killing. I won’t burden any of you with it, so don’t even think about it.” She took a deep breath. “We don’t have much time. If this thing is more powerful at night, we’ve got to move before then. Ms. Gamble, do you have those satellite activity maps we asked for?” At the nod in response, she continued. “I’ve got a plan. It’s not perfect, but… with only the three of us, it will have to do.”
She took a deep breath, then explained it. And, of course, she had been right.
They didn’t like it.
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So Discord was involved in whatever was done to Alex too? Fair enough.
So... If I'm reading this right It's probably the same species as the Inspiration Manifestation - a disembodied magical will that manipulates ponies into doing its will. It looks like those who identified Night Speaker as the priority target probably got it right.
6356682
Even though Discord has had his Heel Face Turn, that still makes it likely that the emergence of Alex's full powers will be unpredictable and have a certain mad artistry to it.
6356667
Starscribe, I consider you the most eloquent author of the "Humans **** YEAH!" camp who actually tries to be a moderate. Which is why I'm still reading this story at all. I know you try to give ponies a fair shake. But the very act of comparing ponies to humans, in order to drum up human awesomeness so that a character can get some self-confidence, is already throwing the ponies into an Us-Them situation when there wasn't a competition in the first place. Saying "Oh but ponies are nice folks too" at the end of that doesn't wipe away the alienation.
The point is, a hero is a hero not because she's female or male, not because she's white or black, not because she's Christian or Muslim, not because she's English or German, not because she's a human or a pony.
But I can understand Gaia being a bigoted bitch who revels in violence and death, because that's what she is. That's our mom alright.
6356710
Uh... wut? How would you go about writing a human-to-pony tale without comparing the two?
Should Alex have been happy about having been transformed into an awesome pony from the get go?
Human awesomeness?
6356710
Well, I appreciate that you're still reading, even though your views may be different. Considering the main character is, by the beliefs of many readers, either the "princess" of humanity, or else some other kind of immortal representing humans and their legacy, I admire that if you don't like reading stories about humans. In the last story, Alex literally told Luna she would give her life to make sure humanity would be remembered. We can safely assume that making sure humans are remembered is going to be an important part of her character for the rest of her existence.
I'm really curious about when you think I'm making comparisons between humans and ponies. This isn't the sort of story where "humans are inherently this way, ponies are inherently this way." Except for the obvious, undeniable physical differences (ponies don't like meat, don't have hands, ect).
"Gaia," whatever that is, doesn't make a single reference to the ponies. She doesn't mention them at all. She never tells Alex "You aren't peaceful and helpless like a pony" or "you aren't weak like a pony". She never says "you have determination ponies never had" or "your will to survive is better than anything that came from Equestria". If she'd said anything like that, I would understand your frustration with her. But I don't really, because she never did. I re-read the section, and found only one mention of ponies in the entire section. "guests I can tolerate." That is literally the only thing she says that even acknowledges that ponies even exist.
She was never trying to compare humans to ponies and say "see how great humans are, look at what you could be, good thing you're not that." She reminds Alex that being in a different body doesn't change who she is on the inside, and that he things that matter most to her about what made humanity what it was are her virtues, virtues that she doesn't claim humans have more than ponies. Rather, ponies aren't her children, so she seems ambivalent about hem. She doesn't know them, so she doesn't talk about them at all, either to compare them or anything else. She treats them as natural beings, and they're welcome on Earth.
The only one she seems to inherently hate is Odium, which she's promising help to Alex to destroy. Odium is being described as a pollution and an abomination, but he's not a pony, so that's not really saying humans are better than ponies either.
Moriah frequently talks about the superiority of humans to ponies. She compares them and wants her hands back and things like that. But if that happened in this most recently chapter (or any chapter with Alex this story), I missed it.
Perhaps most succinctly, I don't think "Gaia" reminding Alex of human virtues is meant to relate to ponies in any way. Glorifying one doesn't degrade the other when it's not even mentioned. Quite the contrary, Gaia doesn't seem to notice, and seems to be actively discouraging Alex from, holding vainly to her old humanity.
I wonder if the magic suppressor thingies work as a defence against magic mind-control and the fear effect of the anti-magic field as much as they work to suppress the wearer's own magic? Moriah didn't seem much affected when she was wearing a suppressor and met the Hummingbird (the human they met patted her on the shoulder without apparent effect, even!), so it kind of makes sense it might work against the mind control as well.
I wonder would getting the shackles on Adrian free him directly?
Even if it would be pretty clever, I can't blame them for not liking the plan if it involves moving towards a dangerous enemy while crippling their own magic.
6356699
Sombra in the mlp comic was an Umbrum, and he's pretty clearly who they're referring to as the one of them who conquered a country, so if they're guessing right Odium is something like Sombra.
6356699 Actually, "Umbrum" is from the IDW Comics series FIENDship Is Magic. It's the name given to King Sombra's race. The implication is that Odium is either Sombra himself, or one very much like him.
So shall we ride... a plan that holds holes yet is needed to carry water, before the day sets we must ride, towards our foes as they holod our friends prisioneer, a entity of black magic twirling it's coils around their minds, tighter and tighter, feeding on their inner pain and misery.
We shall ride and cut their advance, we shall fight their master to the end, all the while caring for those poor ponies, trapped within their own bodies by this disgusting parasite, WE SHALL win, we SHALL fight! And we shall NOT give up!
FORWARDS ALL MARES AND STALLIONS, FOR TONIGHT, WE FIGHT!
I think they sensed alicorn potential in Alex and made it more likely for her to reach that potential.
6356746
I've explained this once already, so I'll just quote my previous comment.
Starscribe has also replied to me, saying that particular sentence isn't changing. Not because the original is correct (it isn't), but because it's dialogue, and dialogue is only as grammatically correct as the character who is speaking. If Alex falls for the same grammar trap that you have ("always use I"), she would naturally use I in that sentence. While grammatically incorrect, it would be correct usage for that character.
Huh. Kind of wish I could see Alex and Discord interacting. That sounds equal parts fun and terrifying.
In any case, we don't know what the plan is, so according to the laws of metafiction there's a good chance it'll work. Part of it, anyway. No plan survives contact with the enemy, and little if anything survives contact with Odium. Still, hope remains.
6356710
"Gaia" must be our mother rite? Because most humans are bigots that revel in violence and death, except for those misanthropes.
once the ponies under odium's control are freed, i think they will need some serious counseling.
Wouldn't the Hummingbird be able to remove Odium from Night Speaker, using the
anti-magicAbsolute Terror field it can project? Just get in close, project the field, and Odium's presence in all of the cultists should be dissolved on contact. If it's strong enough to destroy a magical construct of fire, it should at the very least be able to disrupt the monster/cultist mental link.Of course, they should land the hummingbird first, so it doesn't crash.
Hell, if you had a way to surrounding the area around a source of magic, maybe you could even capture the damn thing and crush it. Prevent its escape by filling all space with an AT field, then constrict the bubble towards the object/pony that houses it. With nowhere to go, the being is obliterated utterly.
6356682
Given Discord's love of chaos and disorder, I bet he'd be very fond of what Humanity's built for themselves. An entire civilization achieved in a world with no immortal Princesses or magical destinies. Our universe is true, pure chaos. Everything that has happened occurred totally from chance, and we managed to carve out life from all that. Stars growing and exploding, asteroids flying around all over the place, and we're just a spinning ball hurtling through this grand cosmos.
Discord would be right at home here! Or at least, he would have before the galactic magic surge messed it all up.
6356710
Why so misanthropic, buddy?
So, land the Humming' on the roof, crank up the Anti-Thaum, punch Sombra's cousin in the figurative face.
Next few chapters are going to be fun.
... Ok this setup is reminding me of so many action movies right now. Thank god we have a picture for this already:
41.media.tumblr.com/069ce107c832305682f07315cf9ff377/tumblr_nqjbnkGBMu1rsmidfo1_1280.png
Also, it looks like the Morpheans have been messing around with people already. The others haven't compared dream journals yet but it seems like at least Alex and the HPI have been visited by them. They would explain the dream from that earlier interlude.
Finally, speculation on the transformation into an alicorn bit. Because it has been some time since I have done so.
I don't think Alex will become an alicorn for some time. Millennia even. I say this because I get the feeling that IF there was enough 'Humanity' left to 'fuel' the transformation into a full blown alicorn, then it would have happened already. As it stands, I would imagine "Wolverine Regeneration" and "Perfect Memory" are probably all that the link can support at this point. It might take a massive burst of magic to fuel the transformation anytime soon. If that is the case, I have to give you credit for not playing your cards all at once. I find the alienation of the Alex chapters interesting, and it made me like the immortality aspect a lot more.
There is the possibility Alex convinced the Equestrians that humanity would never accept her as a ruler like the ponies did the other alicorns, and thus was never intended to be an alicorn to begin with or will be a very non-interventionist one. That would take a lot more willpower than I would ever have.
On another note, I wouldn't be surprised if "Ascension" became the new "Philosopher's Stone" once someone realizes that it confers immortality/control over an aspect of the world. Stories of just the search for ways to do that could make for some interesting stories, a la Gilgamesh. Alternatively, I wouldn't be surprised if there comes a person that wants to cut the tall poppy. I could see how one could come to the conclusion that the former and the latter are one in the same...
... Great, it isn't as if I didn't already have a bazillion ideas for stories based on this series.
6357283
I don't know what you're trying to imply by adding "except for those misanthropes".
At any rate, would you really imagine a personification of Nature to be a nice person by human moral standards?
6358716
Just because "she" wouldn't have the same moral compass as a human would.
Doesn't mean that "she" would be a "bigot that revels in violence"
6359171
You don't know nature very well.
It is fascinating.
Heh, nice of Discord to have been so memorable.
If I'm reading this right, they managed to digitize all of the books that were unloaded, for a net loss of none so far, and none at all if they can get Alex's saddlebags back undamaged?
So, the bad guy here is a Sombra-esque spirit of hatred? That's probably good news, sounds far more killable than an intangible nightmare sort of spirit.
That's both sensible for the humans and pretty convenient for this first crisis that developed at Alexandria.
I'm still voting for am anti-magic field for how to defeat the big bad, especially since this is apparently a "escalate it to the princesses" sort of opponent and we're either fresh out or have one that is very underripe.
Somehow, somewhere, Rainbow Dash approves of this plan.
6359247
You do realize that almost nothing in nature (with one notable exception) has time for reveling in anything or wasting time with bigotry?
That the soul focus of most flora and fauna is on survival and passing on ITS genes to the next generation. Which means it isn't intolerant, it just doesn't give a damn.
I mean you can pull up a dictionary to get the meaning of reveling and bigotry.
So really "gai- screw that stupid word" mother nature is acting exactly in character ensuring its survival over that of another force seeking its destruction.
*edit
Here are some definitions for you:
Bigotry: intolerance toward those who hold different opinions from oneself. -google
Revel: enjoy oneself in a lively and noisy way, especially with drinking and dancing. -google
6359309
Best comment so far.
The plan has sufficient uncertainties and needs liberally applied random and senseless awesomeness to work.
Just three? If so, the scene with Carol would have been pretty irrelevant to the plot and that would be a first for this whole story. They are going to crash the party. And that will be random and awesome.
6359509
You probably missed my exact wording:
If we are to anthropomorphize a concept, give it human emotions, and make it speak English... then we judge it by its actions according to how we judge a person.
So it's kinda late to fall back on "You do realize it doesn't have human emotions and attitudes, right?" as an excuse.
"Hey, Sombra, it's your cousin! Come to Earth and we'll go bowling!"
Sorry, but seeing Umbrums again makes me really happy.
As usual, we wait for the next chapter and the explanation in full.
I can't help but be reminded of this.
25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m5kwqhx6XF1r96fbno1_500.gif
That's not really relevant to anything. It's just a funny observation.
Ok so it is absolutely 100 percent confirmed. Alex was male as a human but is now a mare. NO MORE DEBATING!!
8748202
Yes, yes. It was confirmed back before the last story came to an end.
And, yes. I know I'm replying to a comment that is over a year old. I've nothing better to do
.
6360338
oh, it reminds me of "Dr. Carol" in Perfect Dark: an AI program that looked like a flying laptop with a face on the screen.