[STORY] Miracles

[mephron]

I was one of the lucky ones, I guess. I missed The Guacamole Incident. I missed what the Professor did to Paris. I was already planning at the time when I heard about the 'wavium.
See, most of the fen would go off one of their favorite stories, SF stuff, anime series. I knew that. I had to go somewhere else for mine, somewhere that would work. Thankfully, I had it already. I thought some hard SF would work best.
The crew compartment was easiest. I had a friend who had an old farm, and someone had already redone the silo twenty years ago into living quarters. He was trying to get rid of the land, but the silo was a sticking point, and I told him I could get rid of it.
All I had to do was clean it up to make it mine. Bookshelves, sleeping areas, kitchen, and two bowl-shaped chairs at a screen on the top, right under the roof of the silo. The other half of the top floor was a bunch of old obsolete computers, stacked, with an old Cisco router connecting them all. All treated with the 'wavium. Then I painted the inside with it, laid the complete printouts of the webcomic around, and went to sleep.
I woke up the next day with the oddest feeling. I could feel something, some kind of thought, just outside my reach. An immense intellect, outside mine, just touchable. I didn't know what it was, but it knew me and was pleased to know me. (My current theory is that it's the collective unconcious of every fen who's used or been changed by Handwavium, bent towards the general make-a-better-world urges. But I can't tell, and It has It's own motives.) And then a man's voice spoke, gentle but with a sense of tremendous power. I recognized it. Of course it would pattern the voice after Jet Li.
"Qin Shihuangdi online, Captain. Nanotechnological probes have completely construction; vector systems are online; cadence lance is online. Shall we prepare to depart?"
"Hold on, Qin," I said, and headed towards the... where was the ladder? Just a hole.... oh, wait. I stepped into it, and the vector system lifted me to control, where I settled into the control couch.
I knew this was a big risk. New Jersey, between 9/11 and the idiots who decided to cause that crap in Grover's Mill, had been one of the first states to ban Handwavium technology completely. And here I was, upstate, using it ANYWAY. And sure enough, the troopers had noticed.
"They are demanding shutdown of all systems, and your surrender. I am assuming that you wish to refuse and depart."
"Indeed. Prepare for liftoff. We can do this with minimal damage, correct?"
"Of course. Vector systems online. Raising ship."
And there we went, into the wild black yonder, without even rattling the ground.
Qin linked into the FenNets once we got above the radiosphere, and immediately we got started catching up. With the vector technology, and what the 'wave had done to me, we were in a pretty good position. Qin and I agreed, with Its advice, to go into the business of protection - escorting smaller ships, mining ships, people like that.
And thus came the call to Port Phobos (our homeport - really, after all, it had to be), and to the SOS-dan con.
And yes, I did park in orbit, activate the link, and walk across to the airlock rather than wait for a parking space. Qin's body wouldn't have fit in there anyway, and it's always fun striding through vacuum and waving at people as you go.
It wants them to look, and think, and ponder, and remember that even in Fenspace, there's still room for Miracles of Science.Brazil has decided you're cute.Brazil has decided you're cute.

[Sirrocco]

There are a number of rules that this world was built on, that are buried pretty far back int he archives by now. I've realized that a lot of people who might be interested in joining up won't have heard of these, so I've put a start on bringing them out where people can look at them... and you're breaking a few of them pretty badly. Specific examples and balace issues follow.
- Every handwaved device you have has to be explicitly handwaved. You need to have a hardtech device of some sort that you then slap handwavium on. Just painting the ship won't do it.
- Your ship doesn't get to *have* a "main weapon". Handwavium doesn't do purpose-built weapons.
- It also doesn't get "defenses". Defense tech is enough of a Cool Thing that you pretty much have to claim it specifically.
- The "Breaker Gate" is tech that breaks a whole *lot* of rules, and does so repeatably. vehicle-shutdown-on-use is not sufficient quirk. There may not *be* sufficient quirk.
- Having your AI be an immense disembodied intelligence that can calculate well enough to See The Future (or equivalent thereof) is a massive Cool Thing, and needs to be balanced.
- Having said AI live in your head is *also* a massive Cool Thing. The fact that it acts in a benevolently dictatorial manner to you is marginally quirky, but since it's acting in your best interests, only marginally so. Talking through your mouth (if it is handled in any way like the originating strip) would also be a Cool Thing, though not as big of one.
- The ability to survive without atmosphere is *also* a major Cool Thing. So far, we have one massive, one major and one small-but-significant Cool Thing on your biomod. What did it cost you?
- Pacifism is a character trait, not a quirk. Not in this universe. Not a balance-worthy quirk, anyway.
- You have no technology. You have only handwavium. People won't be offering you cash in the millions, because the people who *have* millions to spend mostly don't use handwavium, and you don't get to have the sort of tech that would be worth that much to the people who *would* be interested. Remember, We Are Not That Special Here. Everyone who lifts into space has just as much access to handwavium as the PCs.
- Hong Kong Action Theater *does* count as a quality quirk (especially if he requires that someone watch it *with* him) but is not adequate to compensate for all of the Cool Stuff you want.

[Morganite]

I must agree that having any sort of instant transport really messes with the setting, even if it is a pain in some way or other. (Well, I could imagine amusing things involving a "blink" drive... have to think about that some.)
I'd think having an AI living in your head would be more of a pain than anything else most of the time.
Being able to survive without atmosphere... just how cool that is really depends on how easy it is to arrange for an atmosphere. Spacesuits seem to be pretty easy to make in this setting, so I wouldn't consider it that meaningful. (Now, being able to live without *food*, that would be major.)
I've got several varieties of doubts about this whole weapons issue, but this isn't really the place. Nevertheless, having things go and construct themselves really is somewhat dubious.
I personally like the idea of making a ship by papering the walls with webcomic printouts. (Or something like that.) But from what I understand, no one would be able to detect what was going on until you actually took off, because it's the gravitic disruption of a "speed" drive that's being detected. (If that's wrong... well, there goes another part of my own ideas. >.> )
-Morgan, opinionated!"I have no interest in ordinary humans. If there are any aliens, time travelers, or espers here, come sleep with me."
---From "The Ecchi of Haruhi Suzumiya"
-----(Not really)

[ECSNorway]

I dunno. Nobody seems to've questioned, so far, where cars, buses, trucks, etc, find their sublight drives... --
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered...
R!
DOROTHY!
WAYNERIGHT!
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Bob Schroeck]

I think the justification is that they all had some kind of motive power to begin with -- the handwavium just changed the kind of motive power.
I should probably address this somehow with the Grover's Corners -- maybe we built a full-scale but not-really-functional spindizzy and the 'wavium made it work. Or maybe we just "pencilled in" engines and let the wavium decide how to implement them with the parts we gave it.
Oh, and before I forget...

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New Jersey, between 9/11 and the idiots who decided to cause that crap in Grover's Mill,

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What happened in Grover's Mill? I'm curious. Wouldn't be a Martian tripod, now, would it?
-- Bob
---------
...The President is on the line
As ninety-nine crab rangoons go by...

[ECSNorway]

More likely to have something to do with Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems (a fully-owned subsidiary of GENOM, Inc)?--
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered...
R!
DOROTHY!
WAYNERIGHT!
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[robkelk]

Doesn't GENOM make anime DVDs? No, wait - that's GENEON...
And why couldn't it have been a Yoyodyne Tripod?

-Rob Kelk
--
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

[Morganite]

There's also the Island. At least, nothing I've read mentions any particular sort of drive for it.
Personally, I like the idea that most people make ships out of things that are already vehicles because that's what makes sense to them. And some people manage to get other unusual things moving, because it seems reasonable to them.
Not to mention I can't be the only one who wants a vehicle's original engine to remain an ordinary engine...
-Morgan."I have no interest in ordinary humans. If there are any aliens, time travelers, or espers here, come sleep with me."
---From "The Ecchi of Haruhi Suzumiya"
-----(Not really)

[CattyNebulart]

I have no problem with this entry, yet. Things could go wonky but this is really to short to properly judge it.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[Sirrocco]

Catty, there are hints of the issues here, but the major source for concern is in the ship writeup. The Cadence Lance is a purpose-built weapon, the breaker gate is a solar system-scale teleportation device, and he's got a *bunch* of devices that seem to have magically appeared without being individually constructed. A couple of extra sentences could fix the 'individually constructed' issue pretty quicly, but the others...?

[CattyNebulart]

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The Cadence Lance is a purpose-built weapon

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The only evidence we have of it is the AI saying it exsists. My guess is that is doesn't, and the AI is just delusional, or that it is just a pretty green light.

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the breaker gate is a solar system-scale teleportation device

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I have not seen one hint of the breaker gate, did I miss it? Rereads... still no hint.
I agree that he needs to build a few more things, and seperate the silo from the land, and so on. but that is just a sentence or two.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[Sirrocco]

"The major source for concern is in the ship writeup."

[CattyNebulart]

EDIT> Sorry. Siccoror is right that was too much.
It's just that the ship description took me by surprise. Here is a hint for future reference so we can stop arguing about weapons with as little info as we have. Write the effets in the ship description, if nessecary make a note about the belived effects and the actual effcets.
Maybe something like that should be put in the top of the ship building thread?
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[Sirrocco]

Don't be mean, Catty. We don't have to be mean.

[itsune9tl]

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Here are some minor recomended fixses:

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* Your ship is increadebly fast esspecially for it's size.

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Mind you, the ship is essentialy a Giant Carboard tube coated with Handwavium, and no Obvious controls.

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* The weapon is only an illusion.

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For all we know this Cadence Lance forces the Organic components [of thetarget] to march to a set beat.

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* The breaker gate will break things alright. First time it's used the ships vanishes in a flash of light. It reapears one million years later one kilmeter from it's former position.

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In MOS the breaker gate is a satelite that sits out side of the "martian" interpretation of the Limit. He may have one but it has to be deployed. It then just hangs there untill activated. at which point it unfolds. and it apparently consumes itself on use.