The Master of His Domain announcement and comments

[kakyo001]

I don't fully understand why Ginny was able to resist Lorenzo's attempt to control her... the only thing I came up with is her being bound by body and soul to Rudy and Lorenzo, despite being able to control every woman alive, wasn't able to override that connection and Ginny remaind being Rudy's property

[Champ]

*sniffle* Its over. To the next adventure someday!

[NoneNeeded]

Great finish.

I really liked that Abigail got to deliver the shot. And that Rudy managed to maintain some integrity. Rudy's plan did seem rather risky though. And without the control, I do wonder about all the Alphas making the jump. Not sure they would all be both reformed enough to be trusted and recovered enough to be trusting. Hopefully this gets some fleshing out in the next volume.

I was a little confused about Mary's slave girls. Either Orchid REALLY boosted her powers of seduction or something else seems to be up. Maybe just really good pay and benefits? ("Full Healthcare, dental and Four weeks vacation to start! YES Mistress!!"). OOPS, those were the ex-husband and son, weren't they? Only just remembered the names. I do wonder why the Alphas got back control but these guys didn't. So there may be something else at foot there anyway.

On the art: Everything seemed rather dark and grey. Even where the shadows suggested a pretty direct light source, everything seemed muted. That bothered me in the scene with Mary on the phone. No biggie. I also thought that the maids seemed rather tall compared to Mary until I remembered the Cosmic Comic Law that you cannot wear fetish gear without high heels. Its just that their feet were never on camera.

I will try to drop all the nitpicking about Rudy's powers and try to limit myself to pointing out where I think the limits were stretched. I still have problems accepting that he can make a permanent(but limited) change to one of his women because they 'belong' to him but that he cannot do the same with his other property. I mean, the Alphas don't even BELONG to him but he can change them some what permanently.

The original offer was: "I can give you the power to have ABSOLUTE CONTROL over what you own. Your Property, your home, and ANYONE or ANYTHING on or in it. Change it as you will in any way you desire. Within the limits of what is recognized as yours, your will be a God". That seems to explain how he could make lasting changes in people that were 'his' and suggests that he should be able to do the same to any of his property. And the wording is such that limiting the actual change to happening on his property would fit. I think that limiting the change to taking place on his other property seems like a good rule. So he can't transform things as needed but could bring transformed things with him.

But it does seem like those limits mean he was cheated a bit on that ABSOLUTE part. But hey, why should you really trust some evil alien apparition anyway.

OOPS that didn't last long. Sorry, but I work in software and edge cases are what we obsess about. It is where things always go wrong. But I am starting to feel like one of those geeks that complains about the great new Superman comic by saying that what Sups does is stupid since back in Batman issue xxx, published before his birth, Superman tried to do the same thing but said it was impossible. I need a life!

Still, this issue left enough plot lines dangling that I REALLY hope volume II is in the pipeline. This might lure more folks into the Members Only section. I know it would help keep me there!

Dumbtime may have competition for being my favorite.

Thanks and well done!

[NoneNeeded]

Your World. Your Rules. And I won't hold you to what you say here. Its more important that the rules that are exhibited in the strip are MOSTLY maintained. But it is only a comic after all. It is just that I really liked Nivens 'Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex' where he looked at the relationship of Superman to Earth Women and pointed out all the issues with having Sups and Lois get together. And his article on the theory and practice of teleportation. How it would have to work if conservation of energy and momentum were to be maintained.

I do think you want to work on the 'plausibility' limitation though. Carol managed to leave the property with a drug that only 'plausibly' works. So this piece of property(Carol) EXITed (note I do not say existed) with a plausible but by no means creatable mod. Letting the girls keep their mods seems to create a rule. That rule should therefore apply to any other property exiting. So if he changed his clothes into an impact resistant( non-Newtonian fluid so it bends as long as you don't bend too quickly and solid otherwise) , unbreakable(Kevlar on steroids) fiber, he should be able to take them out with them as an almost perfect bullet proof vest as long as it was very tight fitting. Any force would be transferred to the full surface area of his body ( ignoring torque effects ). And the Alphas combat skills would be an EASY upgrade it seems.

And on that gold from seawater thing. Why not just assume an Alchemists Stone? He creates that in the house and transforms a bunch of lead into gold. Sufficiently Advanced Science == Magic and all. The atomic level changes could be worked out pretty simply(what to do not how to do them). Or a diamonds making machine? Seems Rudy will be rich pretty quick if he needs to be. Buy an old mine and install the equipment in a secret cave inside. Maybe even better to 'find' some supply of another rare earth material. Those can be worth more than gold or diamonds. Some machine draws them up from much lower where they would not be accessible and salts the accessible parts of the mine.

I can well imagine that Rudy's powers might well grow as his imagination does. So good luck keeping him from being TOO powerful.

Oops I did it again. But only because I find the idea SO VERY interesting. My complements to your inventiveness.

But he can change his property anywhere he wants, correct? So he could transform his clothes into bullet-proof armor. Or his car into a jet. Or maybe his wedding ring into a small nuclear bomb. And he could make Ginny some sort of super Martial Artist/Ninja/Cyborg to act as body guard. And I would think one of the first things I would equip myself with was Brainiac 5's force field belt. ANd a car from that Larry Niven Short "Safe at any Speed". And some sort of super sticky super fluid that I could throw at baddies to surround and subdue. Even trying to restrain his powers, they seem pretty nearly limitless in the hands of an imaginative and well-read comic/sci-fi geek.

Unless another well-read sf/comic geek is actively limiting them. Which I am.

Okay, expanding on my previous rules (and it plays a role in Episode 12):

To use his car as an example, while he could, for instance, change his or someone else's appearance or whatever, it would have to happen inside the car, and he can't change the car itself, only the things inside it. He could change the car, but only if it were, itself, on a piece of land (or in a garage or whatever) that was his. That's the way it works. Mainly because I said so.

More rules: he doesn't have to be physically present on his own property in order to affect something else on it. For instance, were, say, Carrie injured in a car accident while he was on a business trip to Denver, if she could make it to his property in Trevayne and Rudy informed, he could heal her injuries even though he was a couple of states over. But he'd have to actively do it: he couldn't set up a generic "Heal friends" rule or something similar that would work automatically.

Way back in episode 5, Ginny was explaining to Rudy that he couldn't simple make someone a brilliant surgeon (for example): they had to have the basic skills already, which Rudy's power could then enhance, possibly to superhuman levels. He can't create them out of whole cloth. Carrie was already talented at psychology and reading people,Rudy's abilities enhanced it considerably. Ginny hasn't shown any evidence of knowing martial arts, so he can't make her a super martial artist. Think of Rudy's power as a performance-enhancing drug: a baseball player might use it to become a more powerful hitter, but it isn't going to help someone with no hand-eye coordination who can't hit a ball to begin with. The skills have to be there already.

Another rule: while Rudy can create a force-field belt on his property (because he can do anything on his property), the amount of superhuman things that will work off his property is limited unless he can come up with a way to make it work that could, theoretically, work in the real world. So unless he could come up with some mechanism how it could plausibly work, it won't work. The drug Carrie used is plausible: there might not be a specific drug that could do exactly what it did to George and O'Meara, but the idea such a drug could really exist is entirely plausible, and thus, for Rudy, possible. A drug that could give someone Superman's powers to fly, however, simply isn't plausible so he can't do it.

This also effects the things that Rudy could produce and carry with him (or give to someone else). The gold statue he created in Episode 2 would simply disappear if someone tried to carry it off the property, because there's no plausible way for gold to simply appear out of thin air in the middle of a bedroom. However, he could create a machine that extracted the gold in seawater and then fabricated a statue, which could then be carried away, because the gold actually did come from somewhere.

Going back the forcefield belt, the only way it would work is if Rudy could engineer a machine which would itself create the forcefield belt from materials which he could draw from the "real" world. So while he might be able to come up with the idea of a belt that, say, used a negative energy field to create a zone of gravitational distortion which would act as a shield, it's useless unless he could figure out a way to create and manipulate negative energy that would theoretically be able to work without using his power. And since no one has any idea how to do that, well, he's out of luck.

To put it simply, Rudy's restriction for doing something, or creating something, that will work outside a physical piece of property (and no, his shoes and clothes don't count Because I Said So) is that that he can only do or create things that someone could theoretically produce, even it required serious advances in materials or scientific knowledge, without his power.

A sudden analogy springs to mind: within Rudy's boundaries, he's basically on the holodeck of a Starfleet ship. What he can do is subject only to his imagination. But that ends once he steps past the holodeck door, and the only things that he can bring with him are the things that the ship's replicator could create. It can produce a cup of tea, or a phaser, or a simply rock, then the holodeck's replicator could do the same and he could carry it out. But the replicator can't create a living organism, and the holodeck only creates simulations of them, so he can't bring one out because it has no existence otherwise.

Now, these are his limitations. Which leads to the interesting observation that, in many ways, Lorenzo and Orchid, even with the restrictions I gave them, are more powerful in some circumstances because their powers work anywhere and aren't limited to reality as much as Rudy's.

[Tecknophyle]

Great finish.

I was a little confused about Mary's slave girls. Either Orchid REALLY boosted her powers of seduction or something else seems to be up. Maybe just really good pay and benefits? ("Full Healthcare, dental and Four weeks vacation to start! YES Mistress!!"). OOPS, those were the ex-husband and son, weren't they? Only just remembered the names. I do wonder why the Alphas got back control but these guys didn't. So there may be something else at foot there anyway.

"Use her for advice when necessary. Use her any way you want the rest of the time."

Abigail commented that she was still what Lorenzo had made of her. Lorenzo's changes have Ontological Inertia; they don't go away just because he isn't around any more (unless someone else removes them). Vera Nguyen has to deal with the nymphomanical personality he gave her, since she, unlike the Alphas, doesn't (yet?) have the trust to allow herself to come under Rudy's power permanently which would allow him to remove it. Mary Alonzo still had to be ruthless enough to run a mob family, not care what had been done to her husband and son, and subservient to Lorenzo. Well, she doesn't have to be subservient any more since the subject of such is gone but the rest is still there. Tony/Toni and Chris/Krissi became bisexual nymphomaniacs cheerfully obedient to Lorenzo (obviously) but also Mary, and while one is gone, the other is still there. Orchid is, presumably, still in a state where she doesn't have a personality of her own, but since I never did go into what Hiroko's power are, who knows? Well, me, but you get the idea.

So Rudy was running a genuine risk during the alley confrontation that Lorenzo had installed a "vengeance" dead-man's switch command in Abigail. It was a risk he was willing to take, along with allowing her to freely make the decision about what to do when he lifted Lorenzo's control but didn't impose any of his own. He was thinking long term and wanted to demonstrate to Abigail that, even with his life on the line, he would not force himself on someone else he considered an innocent victim (he clearly had had a long talk with April in the several hours they were together in his SUV). That's why Abigail was willing to take him at his word later on.

I mean, the Alphas don't even BELONG to him but he can change them some what permanently.

They do, in that he's accepted responsibility for them and they've willingly accepted to be so. Now that Rudy knows about the whole slavery aspect, it's easy enough to bring someone into his service and for him to assure himself that they aren't merely subservient toys. As Abigail mentioned in her voice-over, they don't feel any particular attraction to him because their orientation is still purely lesbian, which again is what Lorenzo had made her.

Incidentally, this is also the explanation as to why they all made the decision to oppose Lorenzo in their own ways, why they so easily changed sides, and why none considered betraying the others to Lorenzo. Remember that when Abigail was explaining what had happened to her, Lorenzo had tested the personality he created and thought he had what he wanted. Being the person he was, and considering the Alphas merely as tools, it would have been easy to just copy-paste what he thought worked when he created a new one. So the sexual orientation (which had been intended merely to test what he'd done, but left in because hey, he didn't really give a crap) as well as the controls went over, but other things went too. The other four aren't just Abigail's physical duplicates, but partly her mental clones as well. Their original personalities and memories made them distinct, but not entirely different.

Thus when Lorenzo, obviously totally unintentionally, created someone with a moral core with an inherent sense of right and wrong and the capability to become something far greater than merely a subservient tool, he ended up creating five of them. Rudy recognized this, which is one of the reasons why he wants them on his side: they've clearly demonstrated that they're capable of opposing (as much as they were able) someone who was intentionally trying to use them as slaves, and so believes that if he starts slipping, they're the ones who would develop contingencies to confront him with it and, if necessary, take him down or out. He can't trust Ginny or Carol to do that because both are in love with him, but the Alphas are not.

Incidentally, now that they have the opportunity to change the way they want to and work for/with someone who cares about them as people, it's likely they'll start differentiating more, as has been shown; the other four changed their hair colours--and although it may not have come out clearly in the renders their eye colours--Audrey choosing to have larger breasts, and so on.

[Tecknophyle]

So if he changed his clothes into an impact resistant( non-Newtonian fluid so it bends as long as you don't bend too quickly and solid otherwise) , unbreakable(Kevlar on steroids) fiber, he should be able to take them out with them as an almost perfect bullet proof vest as long as it was very tight fitting.

Sure. The clothes/uniforms they're all wearing in the last panel? The specs on those would make a military person cry in envy. Impact and tear resistant, climate controlled, optical camouflage modes, nuclear-biological-chemical warfare rated, the usual.

What I meant with the clothes/shoes part was that he couldn't use them as a definition of "property" so that he could change someone wearing them while they were out ab about. But making the clothes have enhanced capabilities (albeit still within the realm of possibility) themselves? No problem.

[NoneNeeded]

So if he changed his clothes into an impact resistant( non-Newtonian fluid so it bends as long as you don't bend too quickly and solid otherwise) , unbreakable(Kevlar on steroids) fiber, he should be able to take them out with them as an almost perfect bullet proof vest as long as it was very tight fitting.

Sure. The clothes/uniforms they're all wearing in the last panel? The specs on those would make a military person cry in envy. Impact and tear resistant, climate controlled, optical camouflage modes, nuclear-biological-chemical warfare rated, the usual.

What I meant with the clothes/shoes part was that he couldn't use them as a definition of "property" so that he could change someone wearing them while they were out ab about. But making the clothes have enhanced capabilities (albeit still within the realm of possibility) themselves? No problem.

Thanks. This clears things up a lot. Clearly, Rudy's vehicles will become very important accessories. Modifiable Mobility in the garage/hanger and mobile modifying in the field. We already saw this in the last issue. I expect that he will be driving Bond cars from here on out. I could imagine him creating a Q persona ( from 007 not STTNG) to manage the weapons bay and garage. Though a sick bay a la Voyager, complete with Holographic Doctor might fit in well.

On the other post, I forgot that Mary and the Alphas would be of a slightly different mindset to deal with the specific assignments he had for them. And I don't think I accounted for the difference between his 'instructions' to Mary and his 'COMMANDS' to the others. I figured it was more along the lines of Krissi and Toni being COMMANDED to please Lorenzo and him instructing them to help Mary. So they obey Mary to please him. I would have worried that had he COMMANDED them to serve Mary( as you suggest ), they might be subverted into harming him to serve her(if she ever found a loophole). This seconds hand MC (or would that be MC- Once Removed like cousins) is tricky!

I guess that would be how she avoided dealing with his statement, "I want Montrose and his whores dead by the end of the day."

Incidentally, now that they have the opportunity to change the way they want to and work for/with someone who cares about them as people, it's likely they'll start differentiating more, as has been shown; the other four changed their hair colours--and although it may not have come out clearly in the renders their eye colours--Audrey choosing to have larger breasts, and so on.

And while I suspect it is not a done deal, it sounds from this like you are getting ready to continue the tale.

I really look forward to seeing your next work. Thanks again.

[Tecknophyle]

Thanks. This clears things up a lot. Clearly, Rudy's vehicles will become very important accessories. Modifiable Mobility in the garage/hanger and mobile modifying in the field. We already saw this in the last issue. I expect that he will be driving Bond cars from here on out. I could imagine him creating a Q persona ( from 007 not STTNG) to manage the weapons bay and garage. Though a sick bay a la Voyager, complete with Holographic Doctor might fit in well.

I believe you've been introduced to Holly, the Smartass Computer?

On the other post, I forgot that Mary and the Alphas would be of a slightly different mindset to deal with the specific assignments he had for them. And I don't think I accounted for the difference between his 'instructions' to Mary and his 'COMMANDS' to the others. I figured it was more along the lines of Krissi and Toni being COMMANDED to please Lorenzo and him instructing them to help Mary. So they obey Mary to please him. I would have worried that had he COMMANDED them to serve Mary( as you suggest ), they might be subverted into harming him to serve her(if she ever found a loophole). This seconds hand MC (or would that be MC- Once Removed like cousins) is tricky!

Remember that Lorenzo had never contemplated the idea that anyone would, or could, subvert his control. He died never knowing what was happening behind his back, and that he wasn't nearly as competent as he thought he was.

I guess that would be how she avoided dealing with his statement, "I want Montrose and his whores dead by the end of the day."

The bit where Lorenzo and Abigail split up was specifically to demonstrate that she was full on, out-and-out, exploiting Exact Words as much as she could. She wasn't told she was to kill Rudy, only that Lorenzo wanted him dead (but just because you want something doesn't mean you get it). "I'm going to cut him off" implies something she'd hope Lorenzo would go for, but Lorenzo accidentally then issued a series of orders which restricted her; "Don't let him escape", "Stop the SUV", "Bring me the people inside the vehicle". Those don't allow the room for ambiguity she was clearly hoping for at that moment. Notice how she was pissed he didn't stop talking when she said they'd capture the vehicle.

One thing I wanted to do in this story was touch on basics of mind control that often get overlooked in previous stories posted here; in many of them the mind controllers are, to be blunt, pretty damn sloppy in their control, or they assume that certain things will happen, and through the miracle of Authorial Fiat, said things do happen. Now, to be fair, there are some cases where it has come up: springing to mind is the current Island of Zombots story where exploiting loopholes in Von Ick's control is a recurring theme. Then there was Hypnotica where a security droid cheerfully ensured that a cage was secure...but Max Indeks never said anything about the person inside the cage and making sure she stayed there, so the robot felt no particular need to stop her from escaping. After all, it was there following orders to protect the cage.

[NemoVoid]

Just finished reading issue 12, and all I have to say is, I loved the whole series! Two thumbs up! Intelligently written, good artwork, great plot!

[Adon]

All's well that ends well, though it's clear that this is just the beginning. At the end of the day I gave Lorenzo too much credit for what brains he did have... he was a moron with a limited imagination, which made him ultimately pretty easy to outmaneuver. I'm very glad Alpha team all got out intact, and are now on the side they should have been all along.

I'm imagining things are going to get harder from here out. Dennings has been put at bay, but isn't gone... he's likely to be a Lex Luthor figure to Rudy and company. He has the brains and now the motivation. A number of wild cards as well... we never did find out what the deal with Hiroko is. So far she hasn't been an adversary, but the thing about trickster mentor types is that their help rarely looks like it at first and can be very aggravating in the short term. And Lorenzo was stupid -- they can't count on their next enemy being so easily outwitted. Hell, Dennings with powers would be a nightmare.

Anyway, my hat is off to you. Greatly enjoyed the series, it was a refreshing change of pace for me, and I very much look forward to the sequel!

Oh... I'm curious. Is Holly inspired in any way by the ship's computer on Red Dwarf? The personality seems to fit.

[Tecknophyle]

Oh... I'm curious. Is Holly inspired in any way by the ship's computer on Red Dwarf? The personality seems to fit.

Tanya is a sci-fi geek, and she was the one who set up the computer, so....

[NoneNeeded]

One thing I wanted to do in this story was touch on basics of mind control that often get overlooked in previous stories posted here; in many of them the mind controllers are, to be blunt, pretty damn sloppy in their control, or they assume that certain things will happen, and through the miracle of Authorial Fiat, said things do happen. Now, to be fair, there are some cases where it has come up: springing to mind is the current Island of Zombots story where exploiting loopholes in Von Ick's control is a recurring theme. Then there was Hypnotica where a security droid cheerfully ensured that a cage was secure...but Max Indeks never said anything about the person inside the cage and making sure she stayed there, so the robot felt no particular need to stop her from escaping. After all, it was there following orders to protect the cage.

Yes, there seem to be a few common scenarios with MC. The 'Compelled but actively resisting' one doesn't seem to come up much. At least not with a victim clever enough to REALLY resist. Spider Robinson had a good story in Callahan's Lady where the victim was told to "not go downstairs." She manages to confront and defeat the controller by jumping out the window thus avoiding going DOWN stairs.

Seems a clever controller would simply command folks to want the controller to achieve his goals. For Example, had Lorenzo given the Alphas the commands that: 1. they would help him achieve his expressed desires and 2. They would protect his life and safety at all costs subject to command 1(this keeps them for imprisoning him for life in isolation to keep him safe from all threats including disease), it would have been very hard for them to wiggle around any order. Though even that is not certain. In that same Robinson story, the controller tries to close the loophole by ordering her not to interpret her requests in a a manner that would make her unhappy. But even this fails once the heroine decides that the controller is disturbed and unhappy in general. So, when she is ordered to 'help me', she manages to take control of the controller in order to help her become happy( or at least no more unhappy).

It might be interesting to try cataloging all the control variations that come to mind. But that probably belongs in a different thread. I would note that one of my favorites is where the victim is compelled to WANT to be controlled. That 'Obedience is pleasure' thing works for me.

And am I the only one who has caught on to this site's clear subliminal manipulation of its guest? I mean how obvious is it that you make us click 'Submit' to interact?

[Tecknophyle]

Seems a clever controller would simply command folks to want the controller to achieve his goals. For Example, had Lorenzo given the Alphas the commands that: 1. they would help him achieve his expressed desires and 2. They would protect his life and safety at all costs subject to command 1(this keeps them for imprisoning him for life in isolation to keep him safe from all threats including disease), it would have been very hard for them to wiggle around any order. Though even that is not certain. In that same Robinson story, the controller tries to close the loophole by ordering her not to interpret her requests in a a manner that would make her unhappy. But even this fails once the heroine decides that the controller is disturbed and unhappy in general. So, when she is ordered to 'help me', she manages to take control of the controller in order to help her become happy( or at least no more unhappy).

There's a Telzey Amberton (Google it for the unknowing) story where she's captured and controlled by another psychic, with most of her powers locked out of her control (except when he allows it under very specific conditions) because if she could access them, she'd be easily able to override the compulsions placed on her. One of the commands she's under is a generic one to always look out for his best interests (along with the standard "Obey my commands" sort of thing).

She manages to escape it when he's knocked unconscious as a ridiculously powerful psychic alien entity is approaching the base where they are to enslave them both and/or actually eat them. She's helpless, with her powers locked down, and he's the only one who knows the codes to operate the escape shuttle, until she realizes that his "best interests" lie in not getting taken over by the alien and eaten. Given the circumstances the only way to prevent that is if she had access to all her powers, to protect them from the alien's control and get the codes out of his mind, and thus her powers become unlocked.

[NoneNeeded]

There's a Telzey Amberton (Google it for the unknowing) story where she's captured and controlled by another psychic, with most of her powers locked out of her control (except when he allows it under very specific conditions) because if she could access them, she'd be easily able to override the compulsions placed on her. One of the commands she's under is a generic one to always look out for his best interests (along with the standard "Obey my commands" sort of thing).

She manages to escape it when he's knocked unconscious as a ridiculously powerful psychic alien entity is approaching the base where they are to enslave them both and/or actually eat them. She's helpless, with her powers locked down, and he's the only one who knows the codes to operate the escape shuttle, until she realizes that his "best interests" lie in not getting taken over by the alien and eaten. Given the circumstances the only way to prevent that is if she had access to all her powers, to protect them from the alien's control and get the codes out of his mind, and thus her powers become unlocked.

I missed those. I will have to check them out. While I can imagine this triggering her powers, I am not sure about her freedom. Have to read it now obviously. Thanks.

For some reason, this reminded me of a serial recruitment tale. Evil Magician was locked away from all magic but given one moderately powerful, magician thrall to protect him from past enemies. He has that thrall enslave other, less powerful magicians and they then gang up to enslave progressively more powerful magicians until he has an unstoppable magical army. Tricky part was that the Evil Magician not only couldn't do magic, he couldn't be affected by it either so he was pretty well protected.

I'll stop with the Off-topic stuff now. This should be on another thread.

Please keep us posted on the outlook for volume II !

[Champ]

I am hoping for a second volume. This series is awesome.