HappyHappy (part 9)
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Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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1st September 2013
08:36 GMT
"Okay? What kinda drugs?"
"Alchemical synthetic emotion inducers."
He hesitates for a moment while he tries to make sense of that. "Are they dangerous?"
"Ah… There's two parts to that answer. There's the question as to whether separating the natural association of emotion and stimuli is healthy for the individual or society, and then whether the particular means of delivering it is safe."
He gives me a small nod. "And the degree of risk. Alcohol isn't exactly safe, but we haven't tried to stop people drinking it."
"'We' as in Cadbury-?"
"No, the-." He recalls that we're here as owner and proxy, not as two superheroes. "Society. If we're only talking about something that's as dangerous as things people already use, that's not something to worry about."
"We've got at least thousands of years of data on what alcohol does to a person. This is new-. Or at least the mass production of it is new; there might be a group of alchemists out there somewhere who've been using it for a while. Initial observations are that it's chemically very harmful in one in fifty cases, but that's based on a sample size of fifty people. Dosing with the right emotion will overwhelm a person's judgement, and I know that because we had to fight an OMAC who could only feel anger."
He frowns in surprise. "Wait, anger? Why would someone make themselves angry? I though they'd be using… 'Joy', or something."
"Something else that's morally questionably about OMACs: the process appears to have some sort of emotional suppression aspect to it. Not totally surprising, given that they get memory wipes-."
"Yeah, I saw they were-. I just figured they acted like that because they didn't have memories so there wasn't much for them to feel things about."
"Me too, and the other OMACs evacuated him before I could ask him about it."
"We could..? Ask Bats..?"
"You could ask Bats."
"I'd feel better if you were there to hold my hand. Also, I can't fly in space."
"I can't ask Bats."
He looks mildly concerned. "How come?"
"I'm emotionally compromised."
"I didn't think you got emotionally compromised. I thought that was the whole… You, thing."
"I always know what I want. I have a problem when I have no idea how to get there. I-." I shake my head. "You remember -. I never liked Nabu-."
"Oh, everyone remembers what you did to Nabu."
"Right. Well. I respect Batman. I don't want to do that again, to be in that position again. I can't trust my practical judgements on this matter."
"You feel guilty."
"Of course I feel guilty!" Ah. "I mean, not about Nabu, as far as I'm concerned everything I did there was totally right-"
He raises his hands.
"-but Batman? And then there's the high likelihood that this is the best thing that could happen in utilitarian terms, and I…"
"So it's not so much that you're emotionally compromised as that you're practically compromised?"
"I-. Technically, but putting it that way sounds so inhuman."
"So… Okay, I'm not exactly happy about the way things are going either, but… You remember what you told me about us taking over the Earth by accident?"
"I rarely forget things."
He nods. "I thought it over afterwards, and… Yeah, I see what you mean, but there weren't any good options. It was time to take the Earth out of the oven, because it was done."
"No."
"What'd'you mean?"
"The current world order was done. It was on its way out after the sheeda-. You know the environmental thing, about how the Earth will be destroyed in thirty or forty years-"
He nods. "Yeah."
"-if we don't stop doing whatever. And it's nonsense. The Earth will still be here. Humans might be extinct, and we might have taken a lot of other species with us, but the Earth will be just fine. Humans don't need civilisation. We didn't start with it."
"So, what, just let ninety percent of people die?"
"It was an option. Doing what we're doing requires us to take over and expend our workforce. I guess we could have used genomorphs, or cloned Superman a few hundred times-."
"I don't think he'd go for that."
"Just giving people OMAC powers without mind wiping them creates the same risk that giving people access to Justice League resources without vetting them would. And you know that certain people in government would try exerting control over the situation. And them."
He nods. "Our options were to take over ourselves, or let-. Let most people die, so we could say we didn't. And so long as we give up power at the end, I think I can live with it."
"Nothing ever ends. It's unique in history, actually. If we get any more time travellers visiting, we should ask them about it."
"Human civilisation collapsing?"
"A group selected for altruism taking tyrannical power. Usually there's a lot of things dictators have to do to keep power that we're not doing. But-. Look, I'd love to discuss this-."
"The drugs, right."
"We don't know how dangerous they are, short, medium or long term. Doctor Mist is testing them now and that should tell us something, but given that the people selling them were using narcotic distribution techniques and responded violently to questioning, I'm assuming the worse while hoping for the best. If we can find out who's doing it and where, then we can check it's safe, and if it is? Maybe we can sort out a more legitimate distribution network for them. And a logistics train that doesn't involve hiding in my portal network. I'm peeved about that."
He raises his eyebrows. "'cause you're not getting cut in?"
"Because I want to make sure that I'm not making things worse by making it possible. But yes, if they're shipping things using my network then they can pay for it the same as everyone else, especially if it's for luxury items like narcotics."
Mr. Queen nods. "I'll get an internal investigation started."
"Thank you."
I go to stand, then pause, glancing at the screen.
I point to it with my right hand. "You want to do one of those? You've put more work into-."
"I'm-." He shakes his head. "I'm good, thanks."
08:36 GMT
"Okay? What kinda drugs?"
"Alchemical synthetic emotion inducers."
He hesitates for a moment while he tries to make sense of that. "Are they dangerous?"
"Ah… There's two parts to that answer. There's the question as to whether separating the natural association of emotion and stimuli is healthy for the individual or society, and then whether the particular means of delivering it is safe."
He gives me a small nod. "And the degree of risk. Alcohol isn't exactly safe, but we haven't tried to stop people drinking it."
"'We' as in Cadbury-?"
"No, the-." He recalls that we're here as owner and proxy, not as two superheroes. "Society. If we're only talking about something that's as dangerous as things people already use, that's not something to worry about."
"We've got at least thousands of years of data on what alcohol does to a person. This is new-. Or at least the mass production of it is new; there might be a group of alchemists out there somewhere who've been using it for a while. Initial observations are that it's chemically very harmful in one in fifty cases, but that's based on a sample size of fifty people. Dosing with the right emotion will overwhelm a person's judgement, and I know that because we had to fight an OMAC who could only feel anger."
He frowns in surprise. "Wait, anger? Why would someone make themselves angry? I though they'd be using… 'Joy', or something."
"Something else that's morally questionably about OMACs: the process appears to have some sort of emotional suppression aspect to it. Not totally surprising, given that they get memory wipes-."
"Yeah, I saw they were-. I just figured they acted like that because they didn't have memories so there wasn't much for them to feel things about."
"Me too, and the other OMACs evacuated him before I could ask him about it."
"We could..? Ask Bats..?"
"You could ask Bats."
"I'd feel better if you were there to hold my hand. Also, I can't fly in space."
"I can't ask Bats."
He looks mildly concerned. "How come?"
"I'm emotionally compromised."
"I didn't think you got emotionally compromised. I thought that was the whole… You, thing."
"I always know what I want. I have a problem when I have no idea how to get there. I-." I shake my head. "You remember -. I never liked Nabu-."
"Oh, everyone remembers what you did to Nabu."
"Right. Well. I respect Batman. I don't want to do that again, to be in that position again. I can't trust my practical judgements on this matter."
"You feel guilty."
"Of course I feel guilty!" Ah. "I mean, not about Nabu, as far as I'm concerned everything I did there was totally right-"
He raises his hands.
"-but Batman? And then there's the high likelihood that this is the best thing that could happen in utilitarian terms, and I…"
"So it's not so much that you're emotionally compromised as that you're practically compromised?"
"I-. Technically, but putting it that way sounds so inhuman."
"So… Okay, I'm not exactly happy about the way things are going either, but… You remember what you told me about us taking over the Earth by accident?"
"I rarely forget things."
He nods. "I thought it over afterwards, and… Yeah, I see what you mean, but there weren't any good options. It was time to take the Earth out of the oven, because it was done."
"No."
"What'd'you mean?"
"The current world order was done. It was on its way out after the sheeda-. You know the environmental thing, about how the Earth will be destroyed in thirty or forty years-"
He nods. "Yeah."
"-if we don't stop doing whatever. And it's nonsense. The Earth will still be here. Humans might be extinct, and we might have taken a lot of other species with us, but the Earth will be just fine. Humans don't need civilisation. We didn't start with it."
"So, what, just let ninety percent of people die?"
"It was an option. Doing what we're doing requires us to take over and expend our workforce. I guess we could have used genomorphs, or cloned Superman a few hundred times-."
"I don't think he'd go for that."
"Just giving people OMAC powers without mind wiping them creates the same risk that giving people access to Justice League resources without vetting them would. And you know that certain people in government would try exerting control over the situation. And them."
He nods. "Our options were to take over ourselves, or let-. Let most people die, so we could say we didn't. And so long as we give up power at the end, I think I can live with it."
"Nothing ever ends. It's unique in history, actually. If we get any more time travellers visiting, we should ask them about it."
"Human civilisation collapsing?"
"A group selected for altruism taking tyrannical power. Usually there's a lot of things dictators have to do to keep power that we're not doing. But-. Look, I'd love to discuss this-."
"The drugs, right."
"We don't know how dangerous they are, short, medium or long term. Doctor Mist is testing them now and that should tell us something, but given that the people selling them were using narcotic distribution techniques and responded violently to questioning, I'm assuming the worse while hoping for the best. If we can find out who's doing it and where, then we can check it's safe, and if it is? Maybe we can sort out a more legitimate distribution network for them. And a logistics train that doesn't involve hiding in my portal network. I'm peeved about that."
He raises his eyebrows. "'cause you're not getting cut in?"
"Because I want to make sure that I'm not making things worse by making it possible. But yes, if they're shipping things using my network then they can pay for it the same as everyone else, especially if it's for luxury items like narcotics."
Mr. Queen nods. "I'll get an internal investigation started."
"Thank you."
I go to stand, then pause, glancing at the screen.
I point to it with my right hand. "You want to do one of those? You've put more work into-."
"I'm-." He shakes his head. "I'm good, thanks."
Last edited:
That could possibly lead to Green Arrow Beyond...
Can they trust them with that authority?