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Amelia, Worm AU [Complete]

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TanaNari said:
You'd prefer it worked like real life, where it's mostly bugs and the occasional rodent doing the heavy lifting?
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I prefer it to be like in real life where people clean up after themselves.

Of course since these are unsupervised children, I suppose it's too much to hope for.
 
MadGreenSon said:
I prefer it to be like in real life where people clean up after themselves.
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I don't know what "real life" you think you live in... but I have bad news.

House dust is about 40% dead human debris- mostly in the form of hair and skin. And 40% dead bug debris and/or the feces of bugs. And about 20% stuff that's still actually alive. Like plant sperm. And bugs that eat the dead human debris and make feces. There's an average of over a thousand pounds of dust in a four person household that doesn't have pets or smokers.

If you own cats or dogs or other such animals... they contribute even more debris than you do. Lovely, no?

If you smoke, add a couple hundred more pounds thanks to that.

There's also about four or five pounds worth of dust that comes from food product. But that's not enough mass to reach 1% total of the actual dust and debris found in an average four person home.

Oh, and bed mattresses tend to have several pounds of dead human debris- and the bugs that eat it- and feces from the bugs that eat it- inside them.

On Avalon. That's not a problem. The walls eat the debris. The beds eat the debris. The floors eat the debris.
 
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Dragon is the kind of Overlady I wouldn't mind serving under.
pepperjack said:
You may have to talk me through this one.
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I think cosoco might be thinking of it as a closed system, so that the Yggdrasil doesn't have anything to do with the stuff it eats but get fat. Of course, the Yggdrasil is connected to the rest of the world and it has been shown to move around resources like nothing.

Instead of your house getting fat, the world gets a resource tumor to plunder.
 
TanaNari said:
I don't know what "real life" you think you live in... but I have bad news.

House dust is about 40% dead human debris- mostly in the form of hair and skin. And 40% dead bug debris and/or the feces of bugs. And about 20% stuff that's still actually alive. Like plant sperm. And bugs that eat the dead human debris and make feces. There's an average of over a thousand pounds of dust in a four person household that doesn't have pets or smokers.
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... really? Where, exactly?

I live in a two bedroom flat, and yes, there is dust on the floor and most other surfaces, but I'd be hard put to locate a kilo of dust in the place, let alone five hundred.

Considering that a thousand pounds of dust would take up several cubic feet if compressed, I'm curious as to where you get these figures.
 
Ack said:
... really? Where, exactly?

I live in a two bedroom flat, and yes, there is dust on the floor and most other surfaces, but I'd be hard put to locate a kilo of dust in the place, let alone five hundred.

Considering that a thousand pounds of dust would take up several cubic feet if compressed, I'm curious as to where you get these figures.
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Lies. Damned lies and statistics. :p
 
Ack said:
... really? Where, exactly?

I live in a two bedroom flat, and yes, there is dust on the floor and most other surfaces, but I'd be hard put to locate a kilo of dust in the place, let alone five hundred.

Considering that a thousand pounds of dust would take up several cubic feet if compressed, I'm curious as to where you get these figures.
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Figure I found was something like 40 pounds of dust a year. I suppose that that could add up to a thousand pounds over a lifetime. Assuming one never, ever cleans.
 
Amelia, Ch 389- Taylor
  • Threadmarks
    • Amelia, Ch 389- Taylor


    I looked up at the light blue ceiling. I wasn't sure when Amelia decided to make the indoors of our facilities match the outdoors, but it was nice. A hospital that smelled like fresh air instead of antiseptics, like life instead of death. I focused on that, in an effort to not think about why I was here.


    Even my memories of being institutionalized was better than what was happening to my body right now as Clarice and Emma were busy detaching my veins from the cobbled together Yggdrasil life support and plugging them into a headless body grown from my DNA. The last few days have truly been a wonderland of things I never imagined happening.


    Eventually, something clicked and I clenched my new hands. Funny, I imagined I'd feel cold or sore or unnatural or something, but other than a minor amount of pain in my neck and a mild headache, I felt amazing.


    Emma put a hand on my shoulder. Unlike me, her skin actually was cool to the touch. "Okay, that's everything, but we'd like Amelia to give one final check and her seal of approval before you try anything strenuous." She smiled, and it reminded me of Zach. "After all, she's best qualified to make sure everything's in working order."


    I sighed, and it felt wonderful to be able to sigh. "You've spent too much time talking to Zach again."


    She smiled, and I found myself jealous of how much prettier she was. "Oh, not this time. I just wanted to remind you that you're approaching the six month mark. Your brain should be in good condition for another knowledge upload fairly soon. Just, y'know, in case there's a few things you might like to add. We'll also have to do a repair imprint to make up for the damage caused by your adventures in decapitation."


    Oh, right, that. I felt a flutter in my stomach, and remembered that there were annoying things about having a body, too. No, focus on the important details. "What kind of damage are we talking about? It might be better to restore from backup if it's too extreme."


    I could have sworn I saw Emma cringe for a second. "No, nothing that severe. Minor damage to your long term memory, low level agnosia. You may have trouble connecting names to faces for anyone you haven't interacted with in the last few weeks. It's nothing that should interfer with your day to day life, but could be an issue with doing your whole Empress thing and making politics with everyone. Also, you'll probably find you like differet foods now than you did before."


    "I did everything I could to protect the higher brain functions," Clarice informed. "But sacrifices had to be made, I'm sorry."


    I almost sighed in relief. "Oh, I was afraid it of far worse than that. Like, I'd need to learn how to use the bathroom properly again. Or I wouldn't remember my dad's name. You did good work, Mushroom." Wait... I can't remember my dad's name. Dammit!


    I watched Clarice beam proudly. "Okay, I'll go get Big Sister now. I'm sure she's worried and misses you."


    "It's only been fifteen minutes."


    "So?" She ran off and I had to admit she had a point.


    I glanced back at Emma. "There's no nasty surprises in store from this? Like, you're not underselling the side effects to make me feel better? I'm trusting you to tell it to me straight." It still felt a little odd to trust Emma. Not as odd as it did to trust Clarice, mind you, but odd. We were actually friends now, something I yearned for, then gave up on, then stopped caring about. And then got back. Not nearly as close as we once were, and it was likely we never would be again, but friends nonetheless.


    She shrugged. "Nothing huge. The usual post cloning health and motor control issues. By the way, I took the liberties of making sure this body matches your old one. I'm sorry if maybe Amelia would have preferred to do it herself."


    Dammit. "Yes, Emma, you caught me. I like having a figure other than 'beanpole'. Now will you please let me live that down." I didn't really mind all that much. It may have been a violation of however many ethical codes, but it was done with good intentions, and it taught me that I really did care about what my body looked like. That I wanted to be attractive.


    "Not until I can kiss my boyfriend without tasting grasshoppers," she smiled. "And as I was saying about side effects, just expect memory lapses. Maybe some random weirdness like suddenly discovering you draw better left handed than you ever could before with your right. Brains are hard to predict like that. Once we use your backup to copy over the nonaltered neural patterns, everything will be fine. Going to cost you one of your three skill uploads, however. But your fiancée is almost here, so think carefully about what other benefits you're interested in and get back to me later."


    She looked up and then stepped back, spreading her arms out like gesturing at a banquet. "She's all yours."


    Now I know she needs to start spending time around people other than Zach. Amelia stepped up. "Hey, how's the new body?"


    I shrugged. "Apparently I'm back to eating baby food and yogurt for a couple weeks until everything can run on its own again, but I feel fine. The rest I'm waiting on you to tell me about."


    She placed a hand on my face, and I was treated to the peculiar not-electricity sensation of her power working its way through my body. "You're pretty much fine, past the obvious stuff that can take care of itself. But while I'm here, I'll just patch that up, too..." She hesitated for a moment. "Okay, that's weird. I barely noticed it, but there seems to be a thin layer of fatty tissue sticking to the muscle tissues that shouldn't be there. It sort of resembles... a cow?"


    "I knew my Big Sister would figure it out!" Clarice declared. "You're the absolute bestest. But it's actually based on a camel."


    Emma sighed. "She only noticed because it was Taylor." Then she leaned close to me and stage whispered. "No, seriously, I think she might like you, like you."


    I smiled at the absurdity of it. Okay, Emma, you've made your point already.


    She stood back up and looked over at Clarice. "But yeah, you win. It'll have to wait a couple weeks, though. Now have fun explaining all the cool scifi shit to them."


    I couldn't see Clarice from her position, but she took Emma up on that offer cheerfully. "We noticed that the clone bodies were using up nutrition way faster than they could absorb new material, at least for the first week or so until the digestive system fully recovered. It tends to cost the bodies about five percent of their enhanced musculature. So we included a nongenetic mutation that grows a thinly distributed layer of fat throughout the body. Barely noticeable at all, and it'll metabolize within a month at the latest."


    "And you didn't think I'd notice?" Amelia asked.


    "Not really, no," Emma admitted. "It's a very minor change distributed across the entire body. Even our own bioscanning tech couldn't spot it."


    Amelia smiled. "You're right, actually. If it wasn't Taylor I was scanning, I probably wouldn't have noticed at all. I mean, now that I know to look for it, I can find it easy. Actually this would be a really elegant solution for... a lot of things, if I were still a healer."


    "Well, I'm sure you lovebirds want your alone time. But don't keep her up too late, she needs sleep pretty desperately, and you're not doing so well, yourself."


    I'm brain damaged right now, even if it's minor. And I have no idea how I'm supposed to feel about that concept. I found the one thing I could lock on, however. And it meant so much more than all the stuff Emma was suggesting. "So, umm, is it safe for us to use the bond again?"


    "Oh, yeah. Of course. That's filtered through your Passengers, so as long as your powers are working properly, it should be safe. We just want to reduce the emotional interference in case that influences your restoration. Taylia away, ladies."


    Amelia's emotions washed into my awareness, and once again I was connected to my second half. All of Avalon, all of the zerg, that was nothing compared to one person. It took a couple seconds for my mind to adapt and adjust to her presence, before my attention returned to the millions of miles of awareness I now had. The courthouse in our Boston was now open for business. Thousands of conversations in probably over a dozen languages. Two people were arguing over ownership of a chicken. Around five hundred couples were busy... coupling... but that was all in the back of my mind. Amelia was the centerpiece.


    She held my hand and helped me get to my feet. I was a little wobbly, but it wasn't nearly as bad as it had been when I stepped out of the cloning vat almost half a year ago. I put my other hand on her shoulder and leaned against her a little as I worked out the process of growing accustomed to this new body.


    She slipped her hand around my waist, helping steady me. LoveConcernWorry. "How are you feeling?"


    "Pretty good." I misstepped a bit and nearly fell forward.


    "Oof. Jeez, Taylor, I think you put on a little weight."


    "Only a couple hundred pounds."


    "Decapitation is no excuse to let yourself go like that."


    "Let myself go?" I scoffed. "I'm in the best shape of my life. My butt is hard as a rock."


    DesirePlayful. Her hand moved down and gave a squeeze. I jumped and nearly fell again. "Well, I don't know about rock, but still very nice. Now let's go to bed. Sleep deprivation makes people do stupid things."


    I smiled. She was right, as overwhelming as our bond felt when it's initiated, it was badly dimmed by our mutual exhaustion. We both needed real sleep badly right now. I still had Emma's not so subtle suggestion to consider, and I'd need to talk to Amelia about it. When we weren't both on the verge of passing out on our feet.


    ================


    A/N- So the REAL question is: "what did Clarice win in that bet?"
     
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    • TanaNari said:
    It may have been a violation of however many ethical codes
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    Wait, those matter? Since when?
    TanaNari said:
    "We noticed that the clone bodies were using up nutrition way faster than they could absorb new material, at least for the first week or so until the digestive system fully recovered. It tends to cost the bodies about five percent of their enhanced musculature. So we included a nongenetic mutation that grows a thinly distributed layer of fat throughout the body. Barely noticeable at all, and it'll metabolize within a month at the latest."
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    Baby fat. You reinvented baby fat. Bravo, world class biotinkers.
    TanaNari said:
    Amelia's emotions washed into my awareness, and once again I was connected to my second half. All of Avalon, all of the zerg, that was nothing compared to one person. It took a couple seconds for my mind to adapt and adjust to her presence, before my attention returned to the millions of miles of awareness I now had. The courthouse in our Boston was now open for business. Thousands of conversations in probably over a dozen languages. Two people were arguing over ownership of a chicken. Around five hundred couples were busy... coupling... but that was all in the back of my mind. Amelia was the centerpiece.
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    This is what I was talking about. Insidious.
     
    TanaNari said:
    "Not until I can kiss my boyfriend without tasting grasshoppers," she smiled.
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    ...I've lost track, is taste one of the (standard human) senses that Emma actually still has?
    TanaNari said:
    I still had Emma's not so subtle suggestion to consider, and I'd need to talk to Amelia about it. When we weren't both on the verge of passing out on our feet.
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    Yes. Communication good. Talking good: I don't think the link can quite cover all of this yet.
     
    Typo:
    A hospital that smelled like fresh air instead of antisceptics, like life instead of death.
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    So ... fresh air instead of gullibility? (Anti-sceptics)

    I think you meant antiseptics.

    Also, Riley is so cute, leaving a puzzle picture in body fat for Amelia to find.

    Also also, the technical term for non-genetic is teratogenic.
     
    GiftofLove said:
    Time until working on Dragon inspires Emma to build a pleasure body? Soon? Never? Find out next time!
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    It's a sensory upgrade on the M6 power suits, and scaled down body type, designed to seamlessly infiltrate as a human citizen, or serve as the body double for an important personage.

    The tactile sensor suite is enhanced and anatomically complete.

    We call it the M69.
     
    Omake: See, told you they're playing Dwarf Fortress
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    • dasstan said:
    Considering this is Riley we're talking about, a picture of a camel in body fat isn't outside of the realm of possibility.
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    Ticekzarut, The Unbridled Insanity

    This is a slab of camel fat. All tinkercraft is of the highest quality. It is decorated with a headless clone of Taylor. It is decorated with Taylor's head. Engraved on the object is an image of a camel.

    This artifact relates to the ascension of Taylor Clone #2 to the Empress of Avalon.
     
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