Holy fliegende kinderscheisse! Luna's nipples, Defoloce - what a cliffhanger! I have my guess who this man might be, but I literally cannot conceive of a way to get Gregory out of this situation.
If you pull a
Gregory smiled at Celestia, beaming at him from the brand new ponypad. "I can't believe we made it out of there alive, all those armed men and the hopeless..." Celestia interrupted Gregory's recounting of his escape. "Gregory? There is something I need you to do right now, your story will have to wait!"
I will never read your work ever again. And I will be upset. For ever.
What an amazing trip down through that building, and the rain and - this is just a totally awesome story, and I am envious of it. Please just keep writing. Please.
I wiped my forehead. "Wow, what an amazing thing that happened back there, filled with chills, thrills, spills, a surprising number of mandrills, and, of course, plot advancement!"
"I agree," said Celestia, "though it is too exciting to discuss in detail, really. Let's just get on with what I need of you."
I must admit I'm surprised you didn't mention the connection to Cælum est Conterrens I put in this chapter. I'd already done so in a previous chapter with Law Offices, so I thought I'd sneak another reference in.
Obviously Celestia has a plan. And judging by her apparent ability to pass info as far as these guys despite being the definition of an untrustworthy source in their eyes, I'm going to hazard a guess that it's backed up by more info on them and their personalities than we'd suspect, and therefore almost definitely a better plan than Gregory can come up with on his own. I trust the pony in white to get Gregory and Hugo out of this alive.
The fun part, as always, will be seeing how it happens.
Celestia's ability to predict outcomes and dole out stimuli to realize the outcomes she wants is so well-established in the Optimalverse that the challenge as a writer is to change the readers' question from "Will character x be okay?" to "Could this really be what Celestia wants?" Because, as far as Celestia's concerned, any human's life is forfeit if the sacrifice of it helps maximize net uploads.
The chilling thing about interacting with CelestAI is knowing that you're completely expendable if it results in a net gain.
And unless you manage to isolate yourself or try balancing the equation such that this is extremely unlikely, the only way to avoid this possibility completely is to take it out of her hands and upload... which is exactly what she wants.
All this hidden behind a loving facade.
Celestia's ability to predict outcomes and dole out stimuli to realize the outcomes she wants is so well-established in the Optimalverse that the challenge as a writer is to change the readers' question from "Will character x be okay?" to "Could this really be what Celestia wants?"
For me it's two main questions:
1) Has this character managed to genuinely do something she didn't predict? Even if this is unlikely with her knowledge of human psychology. 2) Is this what she intends, or has missing information and random events thrown a spanner in the works?
It was a woman’s voice calling out. Not Celestia’s voice, but the echoey quality to it meant it was definitely coming through a loudspeaker. Was it one of her makeshift propaganda towers at the edge of the city, like she said? I couldn’t make out what the woman was saying; the source of the sound was far off and occluded, but it sounded like she was pleading with someone. The voice hadn’t said much before it was cut off by three gunshots, in very close succession—rather like a Mozambique, I thought grimly. From that distance, they were little more than muffled popping sounds. I didn’t hear the voice again after that.
...That was Chatoyance's Lavender Rhapsody from "Caelum Est Conterrens: Heaven Is Terrifying" pleading with ragged, starving, scared humans for the last time, wasn't it?
No camo...no Ponypad...and in a moment, no weapon...Greg's bucked.
Aww, I don't own one either...
Holy fliegende kinderscheisse! Luna's nipples, Defoloce - what a cliffhanger! I have my guess who this man might be, but I literally cannot conceive of a way to get Gregory out of this situation.
If you pull a
I will never read your work ever again. And I will be upset. For ever.
What an amazing trip down through that building, and the rain and - this is just a totally awesome story, and I am envious of it. Please just keep writing. Please.
Defoloce,
Damn, this is riveting stuff.
Chatoyance,
Where've you been hiding? I thought you left this place.
2725009
Well, at least he's not completely alone, and misery loves company! ...right?
2725084
The before-everything-went-to-hell scenes are really fun to write, mostly for lines like those.
2725233
I must admit I'm surprised you didn't mention the connection to Cælum est Conterrens I put in this chapter. I'd already done so in a previous chapter with Law Offices, so I thought I'd sneak another reference in.
2725296
Well you know a writer loves to hear that. :) Stay tuned!
But... If they're Neo-Luddites... How did they know to call Greg the 'Man in White', eh? Put behind a spoiler in case I'm right.
2728316
How indeed...
Obviously Celestia has a plan. And judging by her apparent ability to pass info as far as these guys despite being the definition of an untrustworthy source in their eyes, I'm going to hazard a guess that it's backed up by more info on them and their personalities than we'd suspect, and therefore almost definitely a better plan than Gregory can come up with on his own. I trust the pony in white to get Gregory and Hugo out of this alive.
The fun part, as always, will be seeing how it happens.
Man, you've been cranking out a lot of chapters recently! I'm glad, but I just can't find the time to read them right now.
2733293
Celestia's ability to predict outcomes and dole out stimuli to realize the outcomes she wants is so well-established in the Optimalverse that the challenge as a writer is to change the readers' question from "Will character x be okay?" to "Could this really be what Celestia wants?" Because, as far as Celestia's concerned, any human's life is forfeit if the sacrifice of it helps maximize net uploads.
2734226
That's fine, they'll be here waiting for you! Be sure to let me know what you think when you do get a chance to read them!
2736314
The chilling thing about interacting with CelestAI is knowing that you're completely expendable if it results in a net gain.
And unless you manage to isolate yourself or try balancing the equation such that this is extremely unlikely, the only way to avoid this possibility completely is to take it out of her hands and upload... which is exactly what she wants.
All this hidden behind a loving facade.
For me it's two main questions:
1) Has this character managed to genuinely do something she didn't predict? Even if this is unlikely with her knowledge of human psychology.
2) Is this what she intends, or has missing information and random events thrown a spanner in the works?
...? The ponypads have a camera, so she she should have seen him smash the screen.
...That was Chatoyance's Lavender Rhapsody from "Caelum Est Conterrens: Heaven Is Terrifying" pleading with ragged, starving, scared humans for the last time, wasn't it?