I try not to overstep if I can avoid it. If I feel like I need to include other characters, I see if I can keep them consistent enough with what I've seen before. Where I get in trouble is when the references I'm using are already on the knife's edge, and I just fell off of it.

I never agree with harming other people's characters. Put them in temporary jeopardy, maybe, but I do sympathize with each character I use. I also believe strongly in consequences. So if Dancer would take a beating, whoever did it would have to deal with the consequences; in my small writing world, it probably would mean having to deal with a certain infuriated female Samurai who reserves less talk and more violence for people who do just that kind of thing.

By the way, there's a part of the story I never finished which relates to Chiaki's fury toward violent types of people, I probably should at least clip and post that somewhere.





I meant as far as the meeting. He reminded them a couple of times that the Lair Legion weren't the point of the meeting (and also off limits).





They are, in the terms that robots and androids in those media can just be switched on and behave exactly like a human. I've implied that Dr. Lia took years to develop her androids' minds. Which speaks more to the point that no company or government in reality is patient enough to allow her to build 2 billion dollar androids, and take decades to do it, especially when the costs and time it takes do not produce a financially viable product.

It's only in comic book universes that someone would pay her that kind of money and allow her that much time to build something just for her own enjoyment.





Funny you should mention that, because Chiaki's training is based entirely on videos I've seen of real people, with the exception of her psychic visions.

In reality, a well-trained person...can't dodge bullets at all. But if they can clearly see the person shooting at them, they can take advantage of the lag time needed to actually aim, squeeze the trigger, and fire a bullet. It was actually demonstrated on Mythbusters.





Ok but here's the trick: I believe that the barrier would only be able to suspend *current* differentials in the rules, not go back in the past and change previous ones. Which is why I believe Hallie might be safe. While she was once a strange A.I., her software has changed enough that it resembles something new that would no longer run afoul of the current rules.





The Japanese are getting close to cracking that. Another problem is that no one is entirely sure how to tell an A.I. what human morality and comfort levels are. Humans understand that moving in certain subtle ways will creep out people around us. A.I.'s don't yet understand that.

But like I've said, those are essentially software problems. They're also pattern recognition problems, which right now computers aren't terribly good at yet, and is required for an A.I. to observe the way humans behave and not just mimic them, but integrate that into its own behavior.

And ultimately, THAT'S what Dr. Lia is supposed to have finally cracked. So now we're back to that no one in their right mind in the real world would give Dr. Lia the money to do that. What's fortunate for Anna and Nena is that the barrier can't go back and retroactively take away Dr. Lia's funding.





The barrier itself that's taking away powers isn't something that the characters have quantified, so Hallie *is* justified in worrying. They don't know what the rules are yet.





Chiaki has had her psychic gift for so long, she'll probably feels like she's suddenly blind as it fades away. She'll have a hard time convincing herself to go out and face the world like that.