::Delurking::
I hate the idea of Marcus actually dying. So I have always thought of
the device having an automatic shutoff.

Granted the device was for capital punishment, but a shutoff would be a
safety in case a criminal got hold of it. There would have to be
someone overseeing the energy transfer, so when Marcus used it there
was nobody to make sure the safety didn't engage; therefore it didn't
use all his life-force and he was just in a type of coma. That way he
could always just wake up at some literarily convenient time.

Dunno what that does to the idea of a round-robin-type story table, but
there's my two cents worth.

::Relurking::