[RFC] My own author avatar

[Dartz]

Alrighty, I've been mucking with something for my own Author Avatar... well, it started as a bit of a self deprecating joke, (I have that sense of humour. I know, I suck at it) but sort of inverted when that didn't work out and I found that there was some really interesting concepts in there. One was the idea of a person being able to fly through space without a 'spacesuit', to look on the world with my own eyes unfiltered by glass or video feed. The other was a comment on biomods that I found interesting and worth actually looking at.

There's still some mild self deprecation... mostly from my use of a particular plot device twice elsewhere, and because the Handwavium would be likely to pick up upon that streak inside me anyway and serve up some nice irony, because it knows I find such things funny in a way.

I like some of the ideas, especially the whole being my own spacecraft thing. Most everything else is to make that work, and keep sanity above a certain level.

Anyway, I hacked out a bit of a something on Google Docs: http://docs.google.com/d...5CvZGg&authkey=CPDrnZwM#

The first part's more for my own benefit, to get a mindset and some idea's straight in my own head. It's sort of a long and barely coherent ramble through the 'my' fen-life, with hints rather than facts. I made a point of not naming specific fen characters, or events. It's unsubtle who some people are meant to be, or what events 'I'm' talking about, but at the same time they could be different events or people entirely. That was deliberate, so there can be some flexibility rather than trying to muscle in on things and other people. I also tried to give Jet an interesting range of things to have done, some of which I might be able to make an actual story out of, without actually doing anything that'd draw outright fame.

The back end of the document is a draft wiki profile. Some of the Quirks need new names, but they'll do until I can think of something better.
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[Foxboy]

*Keanu Reeves* Whoa. */Keanu*

Fair enough start point.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Logan Darklighter]

Very impressive and fascinating. Favorite parts have to be the "learning to fly and loving it" aspect and the first trip to space. If taking in an IMAX film of Earth from orbit is enough to get me emotional, I can only imagine what actually BEING there and experiencing it the way you describe would be like. Impressive job in getting that across. 

Can I get a more concrete clarification on a couple of minor points though? Specifically, how much of Jet is actually meat anymore? I get the impression that it's just most of the head and upper torso/internal organs. And that arms and legs can be "maintenanced" and/or replaced if necessary. Speaking of which - you mention hair and all, but nothing specific about the face beyond that it's flesh. Does Jet have a female face? And if so, does she look like anybody specific or just female version of author/avatar? And when you say that Jet tries to use the term "gynoid" and isn't truly female, are you simply saying that there are no genitalia at all? Or something else? How about the voice? What do you -sound- like?  (Edit: Scratch that, on second reading I noticed you mention you sound like Priss.)

What's the overall color-scheme? I defaulted in my mind to a sort of off-white "pearl" color with blue highlights in my mind like Sylia's hardsuit (except noting the actual physical shape of parts from the other hardsuits) since that was easiest and fit the concept of "space-suit" the best. (Edit: Again on the reread, you mention it's mostly a midnight blue. Mental file appended.)

[Dartz]

It was originally a powered armour suit designed to be worn, so most of Jet's arms and legs inside the armour are still 'meat' at first, though her lower legs are later replaced. That's the meaning of the Lobster badge on her shoulder. Jet's hardware is for the most part, outside the body, like an exoskeleton. Most of the rest is still biomodded organic, with adaptations to better control blood flow during high-G turns, increase impact durability and integrate with the hardware.

Genitalia wise... Jet mentions that she's lost all ability to ever become a parent, but also euphemistically mentions modifications that 'let her get a little closer to people', but doesn't say how they work. I was trying to be deliberately ambiguous about it. I changed a few things to make it a little more explicit that her face looks like Priss.. pulling bits from all the Knight Sabers.

I might change the armour colour scheme to match Sylia's though... that does sound more spacy and cool.
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[Logan Darklighter]

Huh. Not at all what I originally thought. I thought the suit had combined with her to form a sort of "Battle Angel" cyborg. That's what I got from the way you used the term 'gynoid' and the way the rest of the mods were described. Particularly in regards to how you describe the slightly exaggerated proportions - as if there wasn't actually a human body in there anymore below the ribcage. And with the way you were ambiguous about the "not being able to be a parent" part. Though with the clarification, that could as much be because her body couldn't possibly expand and change to allow for that.
After she got her lower legs replaced with the boot thrusters, what do they generally look like? My guess was sort of along the lines of plated with engine ports like Iron Man sort of. Though you say she's taller after the refit. So instead does everything below the knee remain sort of a single unit with no actual "foot" to flex?
I guess the armor isn't removable because of all the reinforcing and such that's needed for high speed maneuvers. There are structural elements that are likely directly attached and fused with her skeleton. Not to mention her skeleton itself being modified. I'd guess the only way the suit is coming off is with surgery. But it sounds from what you describe like there is muscle and even skin under it. Or does the flexible part of her "suit" replace the skin completely?
Do her wings help her at all out in space ? I thought initially her wings were like Sylia's and had thrusters on the end of them. If not at first, maybe they could be modified with maneuver ports at the tips, like several Macross anime have portrayed the Valkyries as having? You could take a cue from Gundam and have tiny little maneuvering jet ports at her shoulders and feet too. Especially after her refit with the boot thrusters.

[Dartz]

Well, the original Knight Saber hardsuits did have a tendency to exaggerate the proportions of the wearer, especially the legs, or where some parts have to be able to move inside others.

One of the distinctive things about the OVA Hardsuits is that, Linna's aside which has toes, they're all solid below the Knee with a very high heel. There's no joint for the foot to flex, it's all a single unit. This makes the Leg's look pretty long.

Jet's refit version looks much the same, only it's a little longer again, with the engine exhaust coming from the heel of the boot, and a pair of NACA intakes mounted along both sides of the calf. I'd try draw it, but I'm a pretty poor artist. There's a picture of Sylia's hardsuit Here , and Jet's foot would be very similar to this. The actual calf would be longer, the engine exhaust would be mounted in the heel, and you'd be able to see one of the intakes.

Jet's wings are a little broader, and were modified to have maneouvering jets fitted at the tips when the boot thrusters were done. It gives a greater rolling and yawing moment than having them mounted on her shoulders. She also has a pair on antennae similar to Nené's suit, underneath that retract into the wings.

The armour's flexible layer is Jet's skin for the most part, but there is muscle underneath it. Her spine is specifically hard mounted to the armour. It's where absolute strength is needed, and it's where a lot of the onboard hardware interfaces with the wetware. After her boot thrusters were fitted, her knees were also fixed directly to the armour to accommodate the load. Otherwise, the muscle and flesh underneath the armour acts as a flexible coupling, allowing for a bit of play as she movies, while stopping hard shocks from being transmitted through her skeleton and shattering bones. It's better to bruise a muscle than break a bone. It also allows her to at least walk or fight back if one of the suit's actuators fails, and helps control bloodflow throughout her body. And yes, getting a chunk of armour torn off would hurt her quite a bit...
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[Cobalt Greywalker]

There are a couple of things that seem off to me.

1) You mention an Islandcon incident. The only one I know of is the Kaboomite Incident. That doesn't seem right to me. If Rob allows it, it puts a darker spin on things that changes the complection of a lot of relationships. This seems a bit too much against the Genre Directive to me.

2) Super/Cyber conflicts. Yeah, I see the point, but I don't think they're that bad. While the Cybers can do more earlier, the Supers are both more public, and have more resources in general being a Faction. The Cybers are Faction-like. How many power-suited heroes are there again? And there's always the gadget users. Plus, there's A.C. Being one does not preclude being another you know, and they're more likely to be fairly well mixed.

3) Around the 2015 mark, certain technologies have come about that can allow Jet a measure more of pre-mod facilities. These will probably be available to Jet if the "doc on a rock" is a certain Super/Cyber (which given the mix Jet is, is sort of likely. Especially the 'extras'). If Sierra is also a customer of the above mentioned Super/Cyber (if the aforementioned doc on a rock isn't the aforementioned Super/Cyber), there are the occasional emails asking about the state of the products bought and what upgrades there may be available.

(As an aside (if the doc is A.C., which it doesn't have to be), A.C. recons the performance of her cybernetics is free extra advertising anyway, enhancing her reputation.

4) Not having kids. Depending on the state of the 'meat', while traditional procreation methods are for the most part out, there are still a number of more technically challenging solutions available if wanted.

[Dartz]

I actually didn't think about the first one. It came about solely because I read somewhere that there had been no casualties due to the Kaboomite accident, and it seemed the easiest way to reconcile what I had already with that. I changed it to just a plain 'accident', because I didn't really think the consequences of that through.

The Super/Cyber thing was Jet's fault... and is actually something of a problem of mine. She's just being an unreliable narrator about that. She didn't get on with one member of her team, and it spilled over in a way that probably ended up alienating a lot of people. I could probably tweak it to hint a little stronger that this was what happened.

It was supposed to be AC Peters alright, I was trying not to step on your toes too much by setting it in stone. What sort of technologies, can I ask?
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[robkelk]

1) You mention an Islandcon incident. The only one I know of is the Kaboomite Incident. That doesn't seem right to me. If Rob allows it, it puts a darker spin on things that changes the complection of a lot of relationships. This seems a bit too much against the Genre Directive to me.

On the other hand, I have also established that the Stellvians were shunned by quite a few Fen between the Kaboomite Incident and SOS-Con. Perhaps they knew that the official casualty rate was the actual fatality rate, and a large chunk of that $10,000,000 Noah paid out went to reconstructive surgery...

But it is darker than what I intended, and (despite appearances) the Stellvians don't need to be mentioned in every Fenspace story, so I'll request guidance from the Collective on this one.
--
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

[Black Aeronaut]

Whoah! Shoulda pinged me if you wanted to play with the Roughriders.    Hell, we can even say that Ben's dropped you a standing offer of employment for their mecha corps - and these guys welcome cybers. The Roughriders are truly multi-factional and one of the standards for working there is that you have to play nice with others... and not just act at it, either.

In case you have any doubts, remember this: Ben's wife and first-officer is an infomorph, his daughter is a spontaneous biological handwavium-construct built off his DNA, his second-officer is an army of Rei-clones and one of his trusted lieutenants is a Senshi. AC Peters is also a good friend of the family as is The Professor. 36 Atalante is very cyber-friendly. (^_^)

Anyhow, I can definitely see Roughriders pulling an anti-zwilnik op. And the Blackbird in question would probably be the Black Betty, the Suicide Girl (wiki link) of the hangar. She's a nice enough girl to everyone else, but sneaky and underhanded in a fight.

[Dartz]

I quite like that... Maybe Jet takes up that offer, instead of getting a recall from the Saber corps. Jet would definitely have been a regular visitor to 36Atalante during the Boskone War, mostly running courier drops from OGJ headquarters, and or on out to the rest of verse. That could be fun, so long as there's a place for Sierra (Who's more of a mechanic than a pilot) and her own wearable hardsuit. That also gives me an interesting idea for what Ford Sierra herself does

I mentioned that Jet's built a couple of other hardsuits, for friends and colleagues without defining who they were, and the plans are willingly shared (under a simple 'Attribution' license for those who worry about such things), maybe a few similar, wearable models have found their way into the Roughriders mecha corps?
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[Black Aeronaut]

Always room for another gear-head like Sierra at 36 Atalante. Hell, Benjamin does some of the work himself when he's got the time for it. And he's probably the only person that can work on the Quad Helix Thruster Arrays without giving himself a migraine. (Yeah, he's a part-time mad. S'why the 'Wave likes him so much.)

And Hardsuits would be indispensable. Sailor Atalante and her squad would probably use them all the time. Rig the Tough Love with drop tubes (easy to do with her modular design) and it'll be perfect. And they'd be useful as hell when they get their hands on some Alpha-Legioses, courtesy of Chris Marsden (motoslaves for escorts, better than cyclones).

Also, in any op, Jet wouldn't have to worry about being alone because they believe in the power of numbers. In that op that you described, the Tough Love and the Magnificent Midnight probably wouldn't be too far away, with Ben and Gina in their MiG-31 Firefoxes, a small swarm of TIE Defenders waiting in the wings and a NASA-Class ship pulling EW duty (with all the jammers and scramblers to make them look like space debris).

"As we like to say here at the Roughriders, 'There is no kill like overkill.'"

Oh, and if Jet needs a touch of Wales, Bronwyn Ffoulkes is always up for a pint when she's through with her workday, and Momma Jones has made sure that everyone's favorite is always in stock.

So, think your character will be hanging his hat at The Rock of Our Blessed Lady of Acceleration?

(Hey! Been trying to think of a suitably laughable alternate name for 36 Atalante. Is it win or not?)
Oh, BTW: if you do decide to go with it, then you might just wind up having the mecha corps (official name to be decided) as your toy to play with, since I haven't had a whole lot of time on my hands.  (^_^

[Dartz]

Oh definitely. It works well, so it does. Jet will join the Roughriders so. Made a few changes to suggest that Jet got a reminder of the standing job offer, and accepted it, sometime in 2019 to 2020.

Ford Sierra, I'm thinking she uses her hardsuit to do repairs in hard vacuum, along with search and rescue duties, or just plain getting somewhere. Or for that matter, filming production model fighters in open space for advertisment purposes. I'll do a profile for her soon. She's one of the few people Jet trusts to do maintenance on her, the other might be Bronwyn, and the third would be AC.

The thing with Jet's hardsuits, is that they're designed as a wearable spacecraft first, with combat considerations second. They're also pretty difficult for a non-cyber to fly (though possible with practice and training). One of the bigger performance limiters is the wearer being able to handle the G-Forces, aswell as their physical stamina and ability to not have a helmet fire. There's an onboard Expert System to help, rather than an outright AI, but that's about it.

I'll write up a quick profile for the wearable suit, maybe with a few slight combat-oriented mod's.

I wonder... what would be a good top speed for the hardsuits? Would they be lightweight enough to get close to .175 or .2c within the Limit? Of course, that's limited by the wearers ability to watch where they are going and not smear themselves across a rock/spacecraft they didn't see coming, navigate themselves in the vast infinty of space, keep an eye on their life support, and generally not die.

EDIT: I just noticed The Rock of Our Blessed Lady of Acceleration is only one letter away from being TROuBLE. It just needs a word beginning with E....
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[Foxboy]

The fun thing is that Atalante is THE Lady Speedster from Greek Myth
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Cobalt Greywalker]

It was supposed to be AC Peters alright, I was trying not to step on your toes too much by setting it in stone. What sort of technologies, can I ask?

Besides the full body cloning thing? A.C. starts releasing full on Neural Interfaces Feb 2015. Depending on the state of the 'meat', it's not entirely beyond the realms of possibility to have a meat puppet to telepresence into. (That I keep seeing Drone-Jet sitting on Armour-Jet's lap with Sierra on Drone-Jet's lap feeding themselves is neither here or there). If not, there is always some extensive surgery to de-cyber Jet. Hell, Candy Apple Reds has a custom KoFen system that A.C. can duplicate on the Forge if Jet feels those needs.

Procreation-wise (if the meat-puppet idea isn't your thing), again depending on the state of the 'meat', it could be a relatively simple artifical insemination (if the problem was just no way out, so to speak) to a slightly more tricky DNA splice into an implanted egg.

Also around this time A.C. is getting into powered armour herself, so upgrades may be available. Especially to Jet's power supplies.

On Jet's speed: While it's eminently possible for Jet to hit the magical .2c in-system, she'd need a bigger engine. I'd keep her to about .175c mark without a large booster pack.

[Dartz]

Jet's body is really heavily changed inside. It's adapted to fit the hardsuit quite a bit. Cloning would get a result that looks a lot like what you'd imagine a combination of DNA from all four Knight Sabers would look like, the same goes for any DNA splice to create a biological child. A meat puppet isn't really what I'd want anyway... it's a little too obvious. De-Cybering really isn't an option. It'd be easier to go fully artificial, almost... but then Jet has the problem of loosing nearly all her experience handling herself and her hardsuit. It'd be something in the future, most likely after a messy accident, I want to keep Jet inside the armour for the time being.

Jet's idea of a child might well be an AI "Astroboy" rather than something biological.... which'd be quite nice actually, since he could fly with them, though it's something they've only thought about in passing.

I quite like the idea of a quick KoFen mod.... if only because it can be reduced to a throwaway line that hints at what's going on... rather than being explicit. *smirk "KoFen, Sierra?" Followed by giggling, and general bewilderment from those who don't know the truth of it. Jet's already got a built-in neural interface for her hardware, all it would need would be an app for the iPhone to allow it to work.

Thinking on neural interfaces.... combine one of those with a hardsuit, and you might have an interesting piece of equipment for the Roughriders. And Jet would certainly be interested in upgrading her onboard batteries. More battery life means better stamina, means more distance flown, means a better chance of being able to make it to a nearby star system all by herself.

.175 is good, with the more basic worn models not being able to go above .14/.15 because of less powerful boot thrusters (Ordinary people have feet to fit in).
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[robkelk]

I wonder... what would be a good top speed for the hardsuits? Would they be lightweight enough to get close to .175 or .2c within the Limit? Of course, that's limited by the wearers ability to watch where they are going and not smear themselves across a rock/spacecraft they didn't see coming, navigate themselves in the vast infinty of space, keep an eye on their life support, and generally not die.

Heh. I didn't realize the http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?title=Virgil_Samms]Virgil Samms was a hardsuit...
--
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

[Logan Darklighter]

Just realized - 

THIS is Jet's theme song.

^_^

[Dartz]

Haha... Iron Man, nice. I was listing to this a while back, and pondering on it.
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[Logan Darklighter]

BTW - I'm behind on the terminology I guess, but - what's a "KoFen mod?
(And oh yeah... Nice one for the song. I haven't heard that in AGES!)

[robkelk]

what's a "KoFen mod?

King of Fen-ers, usually abbreviated "KoF", is a Fenspace-specific videocombat arena where peope can do battle without actually harming each other. Since it runs in virtual space, people can copy the code and mod it to their hearts' content, hence a "KoF mod".

--
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

[Dartz]

Gunbuster soundtrack improves anything. Even KoF

Also, working on Ford Sierra and the Hardsuits (Good name for a band, that)

Either Jet or Sierra will build a test-type hardsuit for anyone... if they're an ally, a good associate or offer something irresistible/useful in trade. If you can come up with a good reason to have one, you can have one. Or you can build your own, since the basic plans aren't exactly a secret. (Which is probably something I'd do)
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[Cobalt Greywalker]

what's a "KoFen mod?

http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... of_Fen-ers]King of Fen-ers, usually abbreviated "KoF", is a Fenspace-specific videocombat arena where peope can do battle without actually harming each other. Since it runs in virtual space, people can copy the code and mod it to their hearts' content, hence a "KoF mod".

Technically, proper KoFen needs the specific hardwear that was developed for it. From the 'Undying fic' (I can't seem to get it either finished or stop working on it):

It wasn’t until late April 2014 that the Prometheus Forge crew managed to get back to working on their own projects. With the massive increase in bandwidth available from the improved Interwave system (for which they’d assisted) A.C. decided to work on something fun and planed an update to the KoFen system.

The original system was based around fixed units with limited interworking and expansion. They took this and used the greater bandwidth to move the server units (the part of the system A.C. felt had to be as secure as possible) back to fixed (and guarded) locations and allow the smaller and easier to sell interface units out to the general public.

Removing the servers allowed easier maintenance and upgrading, and allowed Lebia to introduce a public ‘sandbox’, an area with a published interface that people could create and run their own games in. The most popular of these would be voted on every six months and converted to native code (with the commiserate increase in speed, detail and sensory input. You could, of course, pay to have the conversion done).

Somewhat unsurprisingly, when the Cyber Confederation opened the new servers at the beginning of June the huge demand brought the majority of Fen-net to a crawl.

Basically, the first-gen hardwear has a server black-boxed in a monitor couch, has limited interconnectivity and only runs the one 'game'. With the boosted bandwidth of the 2014 Interwave backbone, the simpler and cheaper interface units can be sold and people log into various servers to play various game types.
Thus, A.C. makes money by doing native code conversions. She does try to make it family-safe, so intimate scenarios are restricted to veted people for their emotional needs. Otherwise, go to Candy Apple Red's and use their standalone system.

[Dartz]

Well... I'm going to call this done. I'll only keep pecking at it if I don't.

Probably be posted under the title, http://docs.google.com/document/d/16fb ... y=CPDrnZwM]#] From a PADD on the backseat of a Blackbird

Changed a few things, based on previous responses. Jet's 'now' is 2019/20... I started this before the Freeze... but there're plenty of jumping-off points that I might be able to make something out of. A few other changes have been made.... Panzer Kunst is a far bigger influence on Jet, and Jet's become more a fighter, based on some stuff I've done for TSIR.

Jet can do quite a bit more than I intended, with more of an emphasis on combat that I expected. Funny how that worked out.

There's also some expansion, showing what Jet might actually do when she joins the Roughriders in '19. Ford Sierra's also been tweaked a little.

A few other things leaked in from Jet's time at Grunthall, including the use of the Era Sputnik calender... Or 'Space Age', as anyone else in Fenspace calls it. Berserkers... that's just something for the Panzer Kunst to actually fight, Billy Fanward's deliberately created by Boskonian mads.
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