1x01, "Breathe"

[Bunny M]

Now, venting: squeeeeee!

*adds to the squeee-ing*

Oh, my f***ing gods, that was good. Poor Daphne, poor Chaz, being (simultaneously!) insecure newbie on the team and all. *empathises*

Good visual descriptions of Chaz especially, but also Brady and Lau, especially the chair bit. I suspect Emma has known someone with that trouble RL. It's becoming very clear why Chaz get called Coyote. Hafs it was already pretty clear why she goes by her nethandle (waaaay too much trickster-rabbit in that one), but I'm still unclear on why Daphs gets called Harpy. Looking forward to finding out though.

Chaz, Daph and Hafs are now firmly settled in my heart. (I have to remind myself occasionally that they aren't really real people.) Duke getting there pretty fast, and I suspect Lau is not far behind. Totally clear on why Falkner and Reyes get called Mom and Dad. Totally the parentals in this group. And the insight into Mom's head was wonderfully done.

Frost is scarycreepyohgodskeepitawayfromme!. Nasty trick sending Daphne into that call unwarned. I wonder if (how) she got back at Lau for that.

Brady, I suspect it'll take much longer to warm to. Not just because he's huge, handsome and a serious physical presence, (and really good at using that, it seems), but also 'cause he's an ex-MP. Speaking as a former (weekend warrior) grunt, you always look down on the MPs 'cause they aren't at the front line doing the nasty jobs. After all, MPs are pretty much the definitive REMFs.

Also, despite appearances to the contrary, Chaz may well be the toughest, most ruthless person ever.   Ever.

Craziest, most reckless (with his own health/safety)  mofo around, I can totally buy that. Ruthless, I dunno, that implies a level of calculating that we haven't seen yet, IMO. And the fact that he's still alive despite his martyr tendencies and history really suggests he's much tougher than Brady. Makes me worry a bit about what's going on under the surface in Hafs head too.

^{*sighs blissfully until he realises that he's got a whole fortnight to wait 'til the next episode and then waagh!s*}

Fabulous!!!

Want more NOW.

I keep thinking of something else and I get a flash of Daphne or Duke and realize I already read what's there and there isn't any more yet.  (sob)

Amen. 'Specially to the Want more NOW bit.

[Elizabeth Bear]

I think I'll go with the ruthlessness thing. At least in terms of what he's willing to do to himself to get the job done. Not necessarily ruthless with others.

But making the decision to electrocute your somewhat tougher-than-average self to take the stuffing out of a (much tougher) opponent, when you're gambling that you're hardy enough to survive it, and that after you've taken yourself offline, your brand-new unproven partner will not only be able to deal with the monster, but do it fast enough to keep you alive, is a pretty impressive high-stakes gamble.

Of course, it's possible that he didn't run that calculation in his head; he just thought of a plan and acted. But I'm guessing Chaz did the math.

Or course, we'll likely never know for sure... ;-)

[Malthus25]

Loved, loved, loved the episode!

Too many things to discuss, but: I liked the "theater background" grace notes that were added to Brady's POV section (Act III). And Chaz, Daphne, and the one-handed pushups (she has no idea!).

Now, for some speculation:
We know that Hafidha has the ability to access the Internet with her brain, and can provide Internet connectivity for laptops where there normally isn't any. This doesn't exactly match Brady's description of their manifestations as "all internal. Perception and processing. The anomaly doesn't act directly on anything but them."

So... does Brady just not know yet that she can do this? If so, how will he react when he finds out (and is he reporting to someone else too)?
Or does Hafidha not know yet that she can do this? Or can't she do this, yet? Does her manifestation evolve?

And if Hafidha has an externally-directed portion of her abiliities, does Chaz?

[will shetterly]

We know that Hafidha has the ability to access the Internet with her brain, and can provide Internet connectivity for laptops where there normally isn't any. This doesn't exactly match Brady's description of their manifestations as "all internal. Perception and processing. The anomaly doesn't act directly on anything but them."

So... does Brady just not know yet that she can do this?

Excellent questions to not answer!

But you'll know much more in a month.

On second thought, that's a fair one to address now: check the date stamps for "Breathe" and the LJs.

[Elizabeth Bear]

So... does Brady just not know yet that she can do this? If so, how will he react when he finds out (and is he reporting to someone else too)?
Or does Hafidha not know yet that she can do this? Or can't she do this, yet? Does her manifestation evolve?

And if Hafidha has an externally-directed portion of her abilities, does Chaz?

Hee. Those are excellent questions, and I feel the need to issue another gold star to the asker. (I think I need a little gold star graphic.)

Watch this space for answers, is all I am currently at liberty to say.

[lunarsara]

We know that Hafidha has the ability to access the Internet with her brain, and can provide Internet connectivity for laptops where there normally isn't any.

I just assumed she was accessing cellular signals or wireless internet nodes or even satellite signals.  These days, if you don't have internet access it's generally because you don't have the right tools, not because there's no signal.

Still using those signals would be an external manifestation -- 99% of internet traffic is tcp, a 2 way protocol, so this skill doesn't work as a passive thing.  Clever catch!

I hope Brady doesn't figure this out and turn on Hafs and Chaz 'cause his friendly betas have one more thing in common with those evil gammas.

[BruceCohenPDX]

As usual, I have to go back and look for easter eggs, because I'm so interested in the story I forget about it on the first pass.  Thanks for the playlist, Emma; I'm going to have to look up some of those artists.

[Emma Bull]

Oh, good, you found the playlist! I was afraid maybe no one would spot it for all that fog on stage. *g*

[MadGastronomer]

After all the time y'all spent carefully training us to look for easter eggs?  Of course we found it!
It did take me a while to remember to look, though, but I remembered when I went back to read favorite bits.

[chk]

It did take me a while to remember to look, though, but I remembered when I went back to read favorite bits.

heh. The first thing I did, before any reading, was to pull up the properties dialog in Firefox and check out the easter-egg . My training is complete, sir!

[chk]

I didn't want to add another "me too!", but then I remembered that we all like praise. So:

"me too!".

Love the episode. I was planning to read it later, but ended up reading it over my first morning coffee on Monday, even after it was cold. (Sorry, but I couldn't stay up that late on Sunday night).

Apparently you've captured the essence of this type of drama perfectly, because the hospital foreshadowing was anything but subtle! <ducking again>. My wife and I can often predict plot lines and even character dialog on TV, so this isn't a criticism :-).

Thank you, and the donation is in the mail...

[lurkerchris]

Wow. That was really, really good. I just finished reading. Still working on getting my ability to form coherent thoughts back. But I love Daphne. And Falkner. (And everybody. But especially them right now.)

I haven't had any free time at all between Sunday night and now. Knowing it was up, but not being able to read it? Torture.

[Emma Bull]

heh. The first thing I did, before any reading, was to pull up the properties dialog in Firefox and check out the easter-egg . My training is complete, sir!

Oooh, thank you for the reminder--keep spoilers out of the easter eggs!

[Cal]

Now, for some speculation:
We know that Hafidha has the ability to access the Internet with her brain, and can provide Internet connectivity for laptops where there normally isn't any. This doesn't exactly match Brady's description of their manifestations as "all internal. Perception and processing. The anomaly doesn't act directly on anything but them."

...  Or does Hafidha not know yet that she can do this? Or can't she do this, yet? Does her manifestation evolve?

And if Hafidha has an externally-directed portion of her abiliities, does Chaz?

I was just about to speculate on that point myself...I was wondering if Hafidha and/or Chaz at some point decided to experiment with the extent of their own abilities, and see if they can develop a controlled external manifestation?  We know Hafs can do it by now--'typing without use of hands' etc referenced on LJ and in a extra--but so far I only recall a vague suggestion along those lines for Chaz on LJ.

Question then becomes, if they're doing this, does Dad know?  And if he does, what does he think of it, and exactly how far is he responsible for the attempt?  ~thinks frantically~

[Tarliman]

I never smoked, no. But nicotine is a mean mean tyrannical dominatrix of a mistress who does not recognize anybody's safe word, and boy, were my sympathies with the victims. (Okay, except maybe the one guy.)

I'm quite the opposite. I identified with the gamma, which scares me, but I'm radically antismoking myself, and glare with hatred at anyone who fouls my air while I'm walking down the street. It really seriously made me stop and think when the Reveal came around. The gamma was killing smokers? Ouch, that hit too close to my own prejudices.

Moral: We all have a crack. The anomaly could get into any of us. And we'd think it was perfectly reasonable to ratchet things up a notch with the anomaly pushing.

Very scary episode, good start to the series.