#i'm like really disproportionately disturbed by this information

[therealvinelle]

A small continuation of the Pensieve post

Three things, to be specific, one to counter a point raised in the replies of the previous post.

Dumbledore plays the memory Harry received from Slughorn right away. How could he have tampered with it?

It's not so much the how to me that matters so much as it is that everything points to the memory having been tampered with. Do I know how he did it, no, but I know it wouldn't have been impossible.

A few suggestions:

Harry's memory of what happens when he gives Dumbledore the memory is tampered with. His memory of what happened in Dumbledore's office is false, at least partially. The books are told in the past tense, implying they are what Harry remembers and not necessarily what happened. What we know is that Harry arrived at Dumbledore's office at night after having already spent a long (And unknown quantity of) time with Slughorn and Hagrid, Dumbledore had all the time in the world to a. obliviate Harry and give him a slightly different memory of what he saw in the Pensieve, b. confound him while he doctored the memory and make it so Harry didn't remember there had been an interim, c. take the memory, doctor it, give it back, obliviate Harry and let him hand the freshly collected memory to Dumbledore, d. anything and everything in between

Dumbledore switches the new memory out with the old one He already had the old one to serve as blueprint, and all the time in the world to make it do and say what he wanted it to

Ultimately, to me it doesn't really matter how Dumbledore did it. He could have made Harry remember whatever he wanted. The fact remains that Slughorn acts the way he does about it, Riddle's behavior changed completely, the memory itself is... absurd (I'll write a post!) and... there was the fact that Dumbledore knew to search for it in the first place, which I'll get into a bit below.

Why did he do it?

He already had the proof he needed that Tom created at least two horcruxes in the diary and the ring. He didn't know how many, however.

And... this is worthy of its own post, but Dumbledore likes to be the person who knows Tom better than anybody, who understands him and can predict his actions. Dumbledore believes he knows Tom so well that his guesses are rarely if ever wrong.

I think he deduced, on his own, that Tom had created six horcruxes.

This is a feasibly high number, monstrously high and tied up with a significant magical number that Dumbledore would see Tom as being enamoured by. In other words, a number Dumbledore could believe.

My problem with the six horcruxes is twofold, one being that we're here relying on Tom having only made the number of horcruxes he discussed with his teacher when he was a teenager, the other being that... I'm not convinced he made six. The evidence Nagini is a horcrux is too circumstantial ("Voldemort adores his pet snake and that pet snake is peak r/likeus, Harry, I think it's a horcrux." - Dumbledore being an evidence man who proves things. No really, those are his arguments, Tom likes his snake and the snake is pretty smart), and while Harry has his feverish "I'm a snake" hallucinations he never experiences that for any of the other horcruxes. I could go either way on this one.

Point ultimately being, the memory was always worthless because Tom could easily have been lying about the number he was thinking of, just as Dumbledore could easily have come up with the contents of his conversation with Slughorn on his own.

Secondary point being, the conversation as is is... not damning. Tom asks about horcruxes, gets told what they are, it is information Magicke Moste Evil already had to offer, Tom asks a hypothetical question and Slughorn is disproportionately disturbed. Perhaps I'm desensitized, but if you tell someone "horcruxes means putting your soul in an object so the object has to be destroyed before you can be killed" and they reply "cool, so if I make a bunch of horcruxes I'll be really hard to kill" you should have seen it coming.

It's a conversation that reads as scripted by someone who sees Tom's evil as so obvious, so plain to the eye, clearly poking out from just beneath the surface, that of course Slughorn would see his innocuous question as damning. Dumbledore certainly does.

With that, onto the next point.

Were horcruxes brought up at all, then?

Oh I'm sure they were, otherwise Slughorn wouldn't have responded the way he did when Harry first asked about them. The first part of the memory, with the party, Tom lingering, and then asking about them, that all happened or Slughorn wouldn't have had the reaction to Harry that he did.

My whole hypothesis is that something else happened after that.

Dumbledore knew there was a memory to ask Slughorn about in the first place

Slughorn is an able Occlumens, he always carries the antidote to veritaserum on his person, and he guards this memory like his firstborn.

He never, ever, would have given this memory to Dumbledore if there was a way he could deny its existence, just as he never would have tipped Dumbledore off it existed in the first place. We know Slughorn didn't tip off anyone else, or Dumbledore would have had the memory through that person already.

And yet, Dumbledore has to have known it existed, that a sensitive conversation between Tom and Slughorn happened, in order to ask for the memory in the first place.

Two people knew that conversation had happened, Tom Riddle and Horace Slughorn.

Slughorn never would have told Dumbledore, just as Tom Riddle never would have said a word if the conversation was what we were presented with.

Except, one of them must have.

The only explanation, then, the only way for Dumbledore to have known the conversation happened, is if Tom told him.

This is where I think inappropriate conduct on Slughorn's end is the only feasible explanation. And Dumbledore, as it happens, was Deputy Headmaster at the time. Tom, for obvious reasons, would have been unable to approach his Head of House.

Do I think Tom told him exactly what had occurred, not necessarily, but he must have said something that led Dumbledore know there had been an incident with Slughorn. As for what he wanted to achieve by going to Dumbledore, that's again up to speculation but Dumbledore, for all his flaws, had made it clear to Tom that he's a strict, no nonsense allowed at Hogwarts, type of person.

Tom approaching him explains how Dumbledore knew, and Slughorn having behaved inappropriately is the only circumstance in which I can conceive of Tom doing this. Certainly, I think it proves that the conversation can't have been what we were presented with.

As for his interest in getting the memory, that's for another post but I do think it ultimately comes down to the man having a fascination with Tom Riddle, with collecting every memory he possibly can as he pieces together the Tom Riddle mosaic.

[unopenablebox]

i had never bothered to like. check this before? or think about it very much? but i just bought & downloaded a book and read it in one sitting and happened to glance at the clock the second i finished, and i was like, oh, i could finally find out how long it takes me to read books by checking the download time

so i checked and it was almost exactly an hour start to finish, but like, it’s a YA/middle grade mystery novel, so you know, not totally surprising, but i thought i’d estimate the word count just to have a ballpark

.

apparently it’s an 83000-word book and this means i read like 1400 words per minute which to my understanding is. uh. unusual amongst people not specially trained for it

for some reason this has distressed me intensely

[fallenhero-rebirth]

Hi! :-) I'm pretty bad at reading between the lines and understanding subtext, especially since English isn't my first language, so I thought it'd be easier to ask: when did The Big One happen? Was the world previous to that 'normal' (similar to ours)? What exactly did they do to MC at the farm? What, exactly, is a regene? Sorry for so many Q's, lol. I really love Fallen Hero but I feel like I'm missing a lot of information, or maybe not all of it has been published yet. Gr8 work! 🖤

The world before that was not entirely like ours, it diverged around 1900 or so. If our world focused a lot on the space race, atomic power, atomic bombs, getting to the moon, flight, satellites and things like that, the FH world focused a lot more on medical tech and what we would call cyborg tech. It’s behind on things like cellphones and the internet (think mid nineties for that) and we never went to the moon. Putting the new and updated timeline below.

A ReGene is a vat-grown body implanted with an artificial intelligence mind. They tend to be boosted in various ways, and subject to intense modifications since they have no rights, they tend to be used for experimental new technologies. If they die, they just grow more.

What the MC did at the Farm is spoilers.

History of the Fallen Hero world.

1945: World War II ends, but the technological arms race continues. The United States and the Soviet Union both 'recruit' available German and Japanese scientists, taking full advantage of what they learned from the more unconscionable experiments during the war.

1951: The Korean War very nearly turns nuclear when the first Chinese Type 52 bipedal tanks help push the UN forces out of the mountains and nearly out of the country. Though clumsy and slow, they prove to be useful in the mountainous terrain, leading to an upswing in the power armor industry.

1955: The Soviet Union announces that it has successfully created the first functional, cybernetic limb replacement. This is widely considered the start of the Cyber Race.

1957: The Soviet Union manages to successfully interface man and machine, leading to a quantum leap in power armor technology as bipedal movement patterns become a lot more organic.

1960's: The US repeatedly releases new versions of its power armor suits as the Vietnam war rages, the lighter, more maneuverable armors being more suitable for the terrain. Various upgrades for soldiers are becoming more and more common, and the nickname 'Mods' is coined for those changed by the cybernetic implants.

1968: The first so-called 'Masked Heroes' appear in public, Modded veterans from the Vietnam war angered by their treatment at the hands of the government and the public. Very soon afterwards, new villains also take to the stage, and the police find it increasingly difficult to deal with disturbed people who have military training and equipment.

1971: A metabolic diet pill launched without proper product testing turns out to have uncommon and dangerous side effects. Though most users die or are crippled, a certain lucky few develop powers hitherto unseen in humans. The pill is quickly nicknamed the 'Hero Drug' and though it is pulled off the market, use and research continues. People who have gained powers are nicknamed 'Boosts' in the media.

1976: The Hero Drug is declared an illegal narcotic, banned after causing the deaths of untold thousands of people. Still, the lure is too strong, and research moves underground and behind securely-locked corporate doors.

1979: Wei Chen, who will later be known to the public as Marshal Steel, is born.

1980: The Year of Hell. The Big One hits the West Coast, and the San Andreas fault causes a massive earthquake to strike Los Angeles, which triggers the Cascadia subduction zone a few days later. The massive earthquake and resulting tsunami throws the whole West Coast into disarray with more than 150,000 estimated dead and missing. As if this was not enough, three months later the Mammoth Lake volcanic system reawakens, and the resulting eruption destroys any hope of quickly salvaging the west.

1980-1990: Aftershocks ravage the West Coast, halting any rebuilding effort. Little by little rebuilding turns to evacuation, all efforts being put into getting the Midwest back on its feet to regain a stable food supply. Food riots are common and several armed uprisings against the increasingly-authoritarian government are struck down by the military.

1981: The US government is nearly paralyzed by refugees as well as the rain of ash covering most of the Midwest. President Clark declares martial law.

1982: ${ortega_name} Ortega, also known as Charge, is born.

1984: Los Angeles is renamed 'Los Diablos' in 'The Angels of Los Diablos,' a famous documentary about the rescue efforts.

1986: The GeniTech corporation patents the creation of lab-grown stem cell organs, revolutionizing the transplant industry.

Late 80s: Estimated birth of ${name} ${surname}, later known as Sidestep.

Early 90s: Fed up with the suffocating yoke of the federal government and martial law, more and more people start moving back into the ruins of the west, starting the recolonization. A disproportionate amount of these people are Enhanced heroes and villains, both Mods and Boosts fleeing government control.

1992: In an effort to increase private industry investments, the West Coast is declared a free economic zone, where there will only be the bare minimum of federal government oversight. No taxes. No regulations.

1992: The GeniTech corporation patents whole-body stem cell clones, allowing for large-scale harvesting of replacement organs. Following a tumultuous debate about the ethics involved, GeniTech is one of the first companies to move their corporate headquarters to Los Diablos to escape regulation.

1993: The Re-Gene project is first revealed in a New York Times article, claiming it dates back to the seventies with the goal of making androids for use in war. The author, Tim Mazetti, was killed in a traffic accident soon afterwards. The future Ranger, Lady Argent, is born.

1996: Los Diablos is up and running: the first Mayor is elected, and it is starting to look more and more like a functional city. With the huge changes to the coastline, large tracts of the South Bay are abandoned and the city shuffles inland. The future Ranger, Herald, is born. Chen drops out of high school.

1997: Appalled at the lack of law and order in the free economic zone, or the FEZ as people call it, the newly-elected President Ross creates the Marshal system. Recruiting some of the most famous masked heroes of the region, he funds the 'Rangers' initiative in order to stem the worst excesses of the Enhanced populace. Chen joins the army, gets a boyfriend. Mount Hood is one of the founding members of the Los Diablos Rangers, as is Sentinel.

1998: Chen is deployed overseas, SE Asia. Sentinel joins the Rangers.

1999: A breakthrough in energy technology leads to the first plasma reactors, leading to ever more compact cybernetics. Hollow Ground self-declares as the kingpin of Los Diablos. Chen's boyfriend is killed. Chen has an accident with an IED and loses his hands. His body proves to handle mods well, so apart from his hands the army invests in an access port for armor interface as well. Ortega has their accident and is used as a test subject for their cutting edge electrical mods and spinal column. Chen and Ortega meet in the hospital during rehab. Mount Hood becomes Marshal Hood of the Rangers.

2000: Intent on regaining lost influence, the US flexes its muscles in the Middle East. This leads to a series of proxy wars with the ailing Soviet Union. Chen gets deployed there, now piloting an armored suit instead of a helicopter. The first known sighting of a Re-Gene on the battlefield. Chen sees Re-Genes on the battlefield. Ortega debuts as Charge, sponsored by a military subcontractor because they want to see how the mods perform.

2001: Steel is sick of the army and what they are doing abroad. He has racked up enough commendations that he's considered a suitable candidate for the Rangers, equipped with a new, shiny armor. Meets up with Ortega again when they are both in for surgery upgrades, and Chen talks him into signing up for the Rangers. Ortega's father dies.

2002: Ortega joins the Rangers. Sentinel officially starts to transition, there's a lot of controversy that Hood shuts down. Sentinel is not fired.

2004: A huge scandal rocks the Re-Gene project after its operatives are suspected of human rights abuses in another proxy war in Panama. It is never brought to court as the Re-Genes themselves are androids with artificial minds, but the scandal moves the project back underground where it has remained ever since.

2005: The Special Directive is formed, rumored to be a black-ops strike team of Re-Genes, deployed against anyone deemed dangerous enough by the government.

2006: Anathema joins the Rangers. The Rangers team up with the Special Directive for a mission. It does not go frictionless.

2007: Ortega is promoted to Marshal after the death of Marshal Hood at the hands of Hollow Ground. Sunstream joins the Rangers.

2008: Sidestep debuts as a vigilante. Charge and Sidestep meet for the first time.

2009: Psychopathor is the villain headliner of that year until finally put to a stop by the Rangers and Sidestep. Dr. Mortum and the Vitruvian are active as villains, but not high key threats enough to be a target for the Rangers.

2010: The Catastrofiend goes on a year long rampage, tearing through the Marshal before disappearing again, a pattern that will be repeated over the years. Ashfall works closely with the Rangers, becoming another associate.

2011: Los Diablos is hit by the Nanosurge, a runaway nano-weapon devouring all flesh before it is contained by an alliance of heroes led by the Rangers. Sidestep plays a vital part in its defeat. Herald takes the hero drug and survives the boosting process. Psychopathor escapes. Sunstream quits the Rangers and disappears soon afterwards.

2012: The Void is looking to expand their Santa Ana territory into Los Diablos, and the Rangers strike back, leading to a final showdown in the southeast deserts.  Herald moves to Los Diablos. Dr. Mortum retires from active villain life, focusing on research.

2013: The Heartbreak incident occurs. Sidestep and Anathema are believed to be killed in action. Ortega retires as Marshal and hero, replaced by Steel. Sentinel and Herald meet.

2014: Ortega returns from retirement, joining the Rangers once more as Charge. Steel loses both his legs when he's nearly crushed under a building in the battle against the Catastrofiend that has resurfaced. The Catastrofiend gets securely locked up. Herald gets his first sponsorship (and name) as a corporate hero. Herald debits as a vigilante under a different name.

2015: Lady Argent debuts as a vigilante in San Francisco. Herald gets hired as a corporate hero, and gets his hero name.

2016: Lady Argent joins the Rangers. Steel nearly gets assassinated, losing an arm in the process. Sentinel retires. The Catastrofiend escapes, but disappears after a mercifully short rampage.

2017: The MC returns to Los Diablos under an assumed identity.

2018: Herald joins the Rangers.

2020: The events of Rebirth.

2021: The events of Retribution (the next book)