You know, perhaps its just me, but as long as I had a loving wife/husband beside me in the same bind, frequent visits from friends and family, and something to do even on the level of, say, NetFlix or a magic Kindle whose pages turn at thought…
Well, frankly I doubt it would be a 24/7/365/10 dance on roses, but the protoplasm plan doesn’t sound that bad.
Heck, with all the tech, magic and magi-tech couldn’t you install that jar into a robot body or something? That sounds like it be the best of both worlds, but that might be my transhumanist streak talking.
I don’t know how advanced prosthetic tech is, especially given that most people can be transformed to deal with sensory/mobility problems. Remember, they’ve had several collapses of civilization since Rina’s time, so they don’t necessarily have all the things we would expect to have in the next hundred years – something like what you describe might be theoretically possible, but the technological infrastructure might not exist.
In fact, it almost certainly doesn’t – Amy didn’t have a mind-controlled wheelchair to use while she was petrified. She needed human interpreters. And she was rich as hell.
That’s definitely something that people should be spending some amount of R&D money on, but the Delta solution is probably the best standard of care that exists.
You know, that’s actually a fair point. Lost tech is a real and rather scary problem many don’t take nearly as serious as we collectively probably should.
I guess those Akashi Records (or however you spell that) Kili astral traveled to once don’t cover tech like that? Guess that’s not totally impossible, I can’t remember the details on that.
Still, if nothing else a medical/magical coma and some sort of time dilation at least seems like it be totally in keeping with the level of magic we’ve seen demonstrated, so I still think that plan got dismissed unnececerly quickly.
Indeed. This will be bad. And uncomfortable. And it will take time.
But if their cores stabilise and come whole again, theoretically it should be possible to apply (with caution) a new change then. Giving them a form they want.
But it will be a long time until then.
Wow Speedball! You’ve been doing a lot of comics this week and I got to view several today. I’d love you to keep up this pace, (more stories!) but there is also a need for you to take care of yourself.
Sarin might be able to help them recover faster, by coming up with new “technology” in transformation. If Sarin can focus a “True Transformation” spell enough to target just one core fragment, and transform it so that it matches with another core fragment, perhaps the disparate fragments can be gradually unified until all are one core again. I imagine Sarin would have to do one at a time, and then give some time for the transformation to settle and be stable. Once all the fragments are unified, a single final “True Transformation” would set the desired form.
Thus instead of needing ten years to recover from this, perhaps they can recover in a few months or a year. And Sarin could write a paper for whatever journal covers transformations.
Yeah that does sound like it could work. The question is, is even Sarin that good? It’s not just power, it would require incredible finesse to transform a fragment of a person. Every transformation we’ve ever seen effected the entirety of a person, probably so this sort of thing wouldn’t happen. They don’t even use transformation to regrow limbs, I remember Kili was friends with someone who’d lost both her legs so they turned her into a snake woman.
The problem I see with that is, that it would reduce the diversity in their appearance since all the core shards would share the same form. And it would reduce the stress that’s on it. But it wouldn’t mend the cracks that are already there. And I’m not sure whether it would really be helpful in healing those faster. If it’s not, it’s probably not worth the possible risk to even try.
You know, perhaps its just me, but as long as I had a loving wife/husband beside me in the same bind, frequent visits from friends and family, and something to do even on the level of, say, NetFlix or a magic Kindle whose pages turn at thought…
Well, frankly I doubt it would be a 24/7/365/10 dance on roses, but the protoplasm plan doesn’t sound that bad.
Heck, with all the tech, magic and magi-tech couldn’t you install that jar into a robot body or something? That sounds like it be the best of both worlds, but that might be my transhumanist streak talking.
I suspect that the sapient protoplasm would lack any sensory organs.
Again, world with tons of magic, tech and magi-tech.
Just don’t seem like an insurmountably medical obstacle to me, let alone for what’s supposed to be the world’s best medical team.
I don’t know how advanced prosthetic tech is, especially given that most people can be transformed to deal with sensory/mobility problems. Remember, they’ve had several collapses of civilization since Rina’s time, so they don’t necessarily have all the things we would expect to have in the next hundred years – something like what you describe might be theoretically possible, but the technological infrastructure might not exist.
In fact, it almost certainly doesn’t – Amy didn’t have a mind-controlled wheelchair to use while she was petrified. She needed human interpreters. And she was rich as hell.
That’s definitely something that people should be spending some amount of R&D money on, but the Delta solution is probably the best standard of care that exists.
You know, that’s actually a fair point. Lost tech is a real and rather scary problem many don’t take nearly as serious as we collectively probably should.
I guess those Akashi Records (or however you spell that) Kili astral traveled to once don’t cover tech like that? Guess that’s not totally impossible, I can’t remember the details on that.
Still, if nothing else a medical/magical coma and some sort of time dilation at least seems like it be totally in keeping with the level of magic we’ve seen demonstrated, so I still think that plan got dismissed unnececerly quickly.
Being stuck in a jar for 10 years unable to move, doesn’t sound great- especially they were already in confinement for 20.
Okay, that’s a good bit worse than my guess.
Still, they’re alive, and there IS a cure. So it’s not all bad.
Not a cure, but a treatment/therapy, still it’s not inherently fatal in itself which is a small blessing. Could have been a lot worse.
Indeed. This will be bad. And uncomfortable. And it will take time.
But if their cores stabilise and come whole again, theoretically it should be possible to apply (with caution) a new change then. Giving them a form they want.
But it will be a long time until then.
Wow, ouch, so even Sarin couldn’t have done anything about this. Geeze, at least they’re alive which is way better than the alternative.
Wow Speedball! You’ve been doing a lot of comics this week and I got to view several today. I’d love you to keep up this pace, (more stories!) but there is also a need for you to take care of yourself.
Allow the cores to shatter, make a few horcrux, and… oh wait, wrong setting.
I’ve caught up!
From April!
w00t! 🙂
Sarin might be able to help them recover faster, by coming up with new “technology” in transformation. If Sarin can focus a “True Transformation” spell enough to target just one core fragment, and transform it so that it matches with another core fragment, perhaps the disparate fragments can be gradually unified until all are one core again. I imagine Sarin would have to do one at a time, and then give some time for the transformation to settle and be stable. Once all the fragments are unified, a single final “True Transformation” would set the desired form.
Thus instead of needing ten years to recover from this, perhaps they can recover in a few months or a year. And Sarin could write a paper for whatever journal covers transformations.
Ooh, that’s an interesting idea.
Yeah that does sound like it could work. The question is, is even Sarin that good? It’s not just power, it would require incredible finesse to transform a fragment of a person. Every transformation we’ve ever seen effected the entirety of a person, probably so this sort of thing wouldn’t happen. They don’t even use transformation to regrow limbs, I remember Kili was friends with someone who’d lost both her legs so they turned her into a snake woman.
I don’t know if they can regrow limbs, actually – they might be able to. Zigi’s issue was a curse, not dismemberment.
The problem I see with that is, that it would reduce the diversity in their appearance since all the core shards would share the same form. And it would reduce the stress that’s on it. But it wouldn’t mend the cracks that are already there. And I’m not sure whether it would really be helpful in healing those faster. If it’s not, it’s probably not worth the possible risk to even try.
Good colors. 🙂