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+--- Thread: [RFC] So You Want to Ride the Wave (/showthread.php?tid=2914)
[RFC] So You Want to Ride the Wave - M Fnord - 06-19-2013
So I threw this together to answer a question on handwavium over on SB, thought you guys might find it interesting/useful. Comment as you see fit.
So You... Want to Ride the Wave
A guide to handwavium for the newbie and the perpetually perplexed
copyleft 2023 Soviet Document Office
Hey there! You're interested in joining the greatest technological revolution since our ancestors figured out how to use sharp sticks and fire, but don't know where to begin? Well, let us provide some simple answers for you, and then you can begin waving things in safety and comfort.
How Handwavium Works
Exactly how handwavium works is unclear. We know that when applied to an object it sinks in and then modifies the object roughly according to how the user (that's you!) wants it to change. A car becomes a flying car, or a sheet of plastic becomes super-strong. For the original Fen explorers and settlers of the solar system this worked well enough for them. However, in these civilized times we've learned more about how to control the waving process, so you don't have to dress funny and wave chickens about to make things work!
(That is, of course, unless you want to. Lots of people do, and we won't judge.)
Know Your Handwavium
Handwavium comes in all sorts of varieties. The important thing to remember is that while there are hundreds of different strains of handwavium, there's only three main types:
- Solid handwavium is used in the manufacture of power systems and electronics. It's grey to dark grey in color, has a sort of plasticy texture and is heavier than it looks. You can dissolve it in water or alcohol to produce liquid handwavium.
- Liquid handwavium is a grey liquid with the viscosity of a good quality engine oil. This is the stuff used as a base for just about everything when waving an object.
- Biomod handwavium is a greenish-grey paste with the consistency of mayonnaise or a thick salsa. If you're not looking to modify yourself keep this stuff a good distance away at all times!
- Harpo: This liquid strain is used on combustion engines and rockets. It's a lighter grey than standard handwavium, almost a silver color. Great for flying cars or space-capable vehicles.
- TelTran-5: If you own any commercial pre-waved gear, then you've already got some. This solid strain is a low-quirk one used for computer power cells and chipsets.
- Mary Rose: A popular strain in Europe, used for cameras and projector work mostly. It has a distinct pinkish tone to it. Comes in solid and liquid forms.
- Golden Sunset: If you're waving in the Americas, this is the most reliable handwavium on the market. Golden Sunset is an all-purpose wave developed by TSAB.
- DragonCon Guacamole: This stuff is everywhere. The original biomod handwavium, it's available in raw form or in a variety of sub-breeds.
Plan Accordingly
Once you've got your handwavium, you need to figure out what you're going to do with it. Every project is different and the assumptions you make going in will affect the overall outcome.
You probably weren't able to buy a lot of handwavium, so if you're making something big you're going to have to breed some. Handwavium breeding is easy, but it can be incredibly frustrating also. Give your handwavium some raw materials and see what it does with it. If the material starts to dissolve, then give it more. If not, then try something else. This is the frustrating part of wave breeding, figuring out what your wave wants. Thankfully almost all commercial strains don't require anything fancy or esoteric; you should be able to breed using common household materials or just junk lying around.
Curing handwavium is also a good idea, if you've got the time for it. To cure handwavium you simply place it in a tightly-sealed container and then stick it in a place reminiscent of what you want the handwavium to do. For extra responsiveness you can stick small containers under your bed at night, though we are in no way responsible for weird looks you might get from parents or partners. Curing can go from a week to years - the handwavium used in the famous Project Artemis refits spent almost two years curing.
While all this is going on it's a good idea, if you haven't already, to plan out the waving job. Decide what needs to get waved and what you don't want to get waved. The more things you leave undecided, the more the handwavium will make decisions for you. If you're cool with that go right ahead.
Site Preparation
You'll want a nice and large space to work once you've got your handwavium. Preferably you'll want some ventilation - handwavium doesn't fume often, but it can and plenty of air circulation is the best way to avoid an accidental biomod. Think of it like doing a DIY oil change or any other sort of engine work; you want something to catch all the spillover before it gets into your local septic or sewer system. Local authorities tend to frown on people spilling handwavium into the local water supply, so don't do it!
If you practice a religion that involves a lot of ritual, don't be afraid to do a rite or say a prayer before, during and after handwavium application! Handwavium responds well to faith and magic - some notable Fen have magic circles inscribed in the floors of their workspaces to encourage the wave.
Safety First!
If you aren't looking to biomod, get protective gear. You don't have to go for full hazmat gear or anything - despite what that one episode of Top Gear might tell you - but a suit suitable for painting or fumigation, gloves, goggles and a face mask will protect you from all but the most ridiculous accidental wavings.
Applying Handwavium
The easiest way to apply handwavium to any object is to use a paintbrush or sprayer and give it a nice, even coat. Use as much or as little wave as you feel is necessary - if building a spacecraft we suggest heavy coats on any surface that'll be exposed to space and lighter coats on the inside. Small objects can be dunked into containers.
When applying handwavium, always try to keep your mind focused on the end goal. This helps focus the handwavium as it runs from your hand to the object. This is harder than it looks, but it's a very useful method of keeping your object from getting too many quirks at one time. Use music or videos to maintain focus during the process, though be careful not to accidentally wave your media player!
Once the handwavium's been applied, give it 24 to 72 hours to rest. During this time the wave will work its magic on your object. Treat this like a final curing period; have media or artifacts arranged around the object while it cures. Don't place anything inside unless you want to risk losing it, though! Handwaved objects have been known to absorb things left inside during the final curing.
After The Waving
Congratulations! You've successfully handwaved an object! Now all that's left is to clean up and activate it!
Activation will show you most, if not all the quirks the object has. Commercial strains of handwavium are certified low-quirk, which means that if you were careful in planning and applying the wave you won't have serious problems with the handwavium acting out. However, low-quirk is not the same as no-quirk, so be on the lookout for these common quirks:
- Music preferences
- Changes in color during operation
- Animalistic sounds
- Flaming wheels (not as dangerous as it looks!)
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
- robkelk - 06-20-2013
M Fnord Wrote:DragonCon Guacamole:So, we've finally picked a Con to be That Con... About time.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
- M Fnord - 06-20-2013
In the back of my mind it's always been Dragon*Con. There just isn't any con bigger except maybe SDCC. Where else would something like that happen for maximum effect?
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
- LynnInDenver - 06-20-2013
Quote:M Fnord wrote:Well, to be fair, Myk-El doesn't directly recommend something that extreme, either, if only because it adds enough trouble to the process that someone might actually become lax ("oh, I don't need my suit this time." *wakes up eight hours later* "...why am I glowing?"), although he has several serious hazmat suits on-hand for his classes anyway, because he always has some students ask for it, even BEFORE the Top Gear episode aired.
Safety First!
If you aren’t looking to biomod, get protective gear. You don’t have to go for full hazmat gear or anything - despite what that one episode of Top Gear might tell you - but a suit suitable for painting or fumigation, gloves, goggles and a face mask will protect you from all but the most ridiculous accidental wavings.
And odds are pretty good that the absolute worst-case scenario, even the full space suit is unlikely to actually prevent a biomod anyway. On the other hand, one is likely to sustain an injury potentially serious enough in that scenario that the biomod will prevent death.
--
"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor
- Dartz - 06-20-2013
Quote: Handwaved objects have been known to absorb things left inside during the final curing.Including their wearers. Be careful your spacesuit/power armour has cured fully before trying it on.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
- Bob Schroeck - 06-20-2013
Quote:Once the handwavium’s been applied, give it 24 to 72 hours to rest. During this time the wave will work its magic on your object. Treat this like a final curing period; have media or artifacts arranged around the object while it cures.Further rites or rituals, if that's your thing, can also be done at this stage. One fan now operating out of Robur's Eyrie insists that having a sympathetic Roman Catholic priest bless his wave projects during the resting phase guaranteed the best possible results, while the inhabitants of both Grover's Corners and Space Station Three swear by live performances of both filk and mainstream music.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
- robkelk - 06-20-2013
M Fnord Wrote:Strains of handwavium are everywhere. Every Fen engineer has one or two favorite varieties of the stuff kicking around.While you don't need a specific strain of handwavium for a project (our resident defector from the capitalists at StellviaCorp tells us they do almost everything with base solids and base liquid, although they have a intermediate-state handwavium gel that aids in AI creation), specialized strains do give better results for particular applications. On the other hand, specialized strains sometimes give particular sets of unwanted quirks to the projects they're used in. On the gripping hand, there are so many handwavium strains that nobody has room to store samples of all of them.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
- HRogge - 06-20-2013
robkelk Wrote:While you don't need a specific strain of handwavium for a project (our resident defector from the capitalists at StellviaCorp tells us they do almost everything with base solids and base liquid, although they have a intermediate-state handwavium gel that aids in AI creation), specialized strains do give better results for particular applications. On the other hand, specialized strains sometimes give particular sets of unwanted quirks to the projects they're used in. On the gripping hand, there are so many handwavium strains that nobody has room to store samples of all of them.
Cathy: "You would be surprised how many different Eezo strains we have in storage at the Little Big Bang Labs that never got into mass production... *grin* "
- Cobalt Greywalker - 06-20-2013
A.C.: "And I have a vault full of hundreds of different strains, with a database of what is known about them, that I got through trades. It's very useful, if a bit trying when you cross-breed them..."
M Fnord, on the SB thread you commented that double waving doesn't work. There's at least one case where it would IM(NSH)O. That's when you're constructing a new device from waved components to combine them. I'm not sure it wouldn't also work when putting hull plates together (at least, visually you'll have a seamless hull...)
- Proginoskes - 06-27-2013
'Waving a device made from 'waved materials is tricky. I think the likelihood of success should be generally low, increasing with degree of separation ('waving a computer made from 'waved components should be a no-op, but 'waving a computer built with chips printed on 'waved silicon could do something) and simplicity of the job (Universal Hull Sealant, a strain designed for that job, works on materials fresh out of curing, but offers little reinforcing and absolutely no complicated "uplifting" function).
Is So You've Just Become Doctor Frankenstein another Soviet document, or is it a BaconMedia publication? (My favourite UF-canon title has to be So You're Dead: A Non-Survivor's Guide to Asgard.)
- LynnInDenver - 06-27-2013
I can see one of the companion titles now: "So You've Just Joined The Fen: A Settler's Guide to Fenspace", which seems to share at least some roots (and dry humor) with "The Hitchhiker's Guide to Fenspace".
--
"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor
- Bob Schroeck - 06-27-2013
So You've Just Started Reading Undocumented Features: A Guide To A Hobby That Lasts A Lifetime
But before we go any further with this digression, maybe we should move it to its own thread, in which we cover books published in Fenspace or about Fenspace...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.