I LOLed several times when I read that.
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Marduk City
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Certainly looks like an interesting place to visit...
Hiring a guide and translator looks like a good bet for non-Spanish speaking types... Got any small AIs that live in rag dolls, and could sit on people's shoulders, and do that job? Maybe think Coraline? -- "It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind 
I don't know if it's that I've been up all night or what, but when I got to this sentence, I discovered an utterly EPIC typo...
Quote:That is because the forest is entirely made up of pants than Oscar designed and handwaved. ...which just made me almost keel over from laughter. XD Partly because of the inadvertent imagery, partly because even though I almost instantly knew it was a typo and nothing more, there was this bare instant of doubt. Because - this being fen-space and mads abound having blue hair days and all - you just never know for sure!  
It'll take some searching to find the right trousers amongst all of those... Better pack some cheese.
-- 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 
This was supposed to be later in my schedule but since HRogge wanted info about the spaceport, and he has posted a new CI fic, here is the next update, as a present.
I must say, this is getting huge... I started this thinking the entire city introduction woudl be about the same lenght then the current update. I had not mentioned it yet, because I though this would be smalled and with less details, but every character and company I mention, except those direcly involved with Genesis C&D, are Open Characters unless I say otherwise in the description. I plan to make wiki entires (well, probably stubs) for all of then. Eventually. What looms outside: Sumugan Gate, Mummu Spaceport and the Towers of Ashur. The Marduk dome is the first thing anyone notices when approaching the city; thirty kilometres across, its size fills the horizon. This is the second (third if you count the scale model) of the Garasu diamond domes; but it had a different waving than its elder sibling in Kandor. Since Luna has days than last two full weeks, Oscar tried to make a darkened dome than would protect him from his sunlight weakness quirk. It failed, and the only apparent effect was the matt looks of the dome. Of course, Mardukans will proclaim than this effect was intentional and it looks far more elegant than the shiny dome of their northern rivals. Due to this small quirk, it cannot be seen from Earth with the naked eye, as the dome fades with the lunar landscape at great distances. Hidden under the dome is the massive array of life support systems for the crater habitat: Powerful lights and shades to create a 24 hour day, air filters and wind makers, heating, holographic emitters to create a a blue sky and clouds, and the weather system (not only rain sprinklers; a very unscientific survey reached the conclusion than a full 20% of all handwavium projects in the city will not get the initial activation unless there is a lightning storm outside, and most genetics projects will actually need a lightning bolt to hit the lab building) The towers of Ashur, a massive wall with skyscraper sized towers, is actually the supports and foundation of the dome. It is fifty meters tall and thirty meters wide, while the towers are 75 meters tall. Since the design of the dome supports sort of reminded Bernie a medieval wall, he went with the style and created a giant fortress, and covered the walls with huge pennants and prop weapons out of a speampunk opera (one whose writer had way too much absinthe). And then the War started, and suddenly a “city wall” did not look like such a whimsy. All the weapon props were exchanged for waved weapon designs, and the towers were manned by a city militia and Great Justice. Great justice did install a few hardtech missile launchers and anti-aircraft artillery, but they were dismantled after the war; if it is at all possible, Oscar prefers to use waved (and so non-lethal) weapons instead of hardtech ones. The wall has eleven towers, plus the twin towers in the main city gate (all of the towers have a city gate, but they are seldom used, and the Sumugan gate is the only one able to fit anything bigger than a truck). Each of the towers has an underground fusion power station -which feeds the city energy needs- and a control room for the environment system. Besides that, most of the towers have remained empty since the war ended and there was no more need for defences. The city Watch uses the gate towers; and two of the towers have been ceded to the Convention and the Crystal Millennium: Tower V is the Great Justice base and armoury depot in Marduk, while tower III is a base for the SAM Search and Rescue. All the shiny than the Marduk main dome lacks, the Sumugan dome brags about. Even a cursory glance can tell the the sparkling diamond surface, the chromed supports and the art deco decorations have a completely different design than the rest of the city. The reason is that once, the dome was named Garasu Prototype Alpha, and was the scale model for the then theoretical design of the Kandor dome, where the resistance and stress trials were carried on. A side effect of those trials is than the gravity generators can increase their output to a total of 10 g (this has never had a practical purpose since the trials ended, but the tourism guides keep mentioning it) The Sumugan Gate dome is Marduk industrial district. This is the place were Genesis industries has most of its industrial capacity. You can also find many other smaller industries, from food canning to electronics. The main companies in Sumugan are: -Fuzhou Electronics: This company builds microchips and computer components; it does not build computers, and is a purely hard tech company: Fen all over the solar system will buy here the components for their handwave projects. Chen Li was an industry mogul in the chinese city of Fuzhou, when he ended up in the losing side of some political intrigue, somehow mortally offending a high ranking official in the Ministry of State Security. He and his family left in the middle of the night for Taiwan, and, highly paranoid about MSS agents, left earth in the very first ship, which happened to be a tourist tour of Luna, with Marduk as first stop. Most of his fortune was in Switzerland and the Cayman islands, so he had no much trouble in rebuilding his life. He was happy to discover than one of the Ghost Manors in the crater was a chinese palace, which he soon brought (and fortified; he is still paranoid), but still misses China. He is one of Fenspace's loudest voices against the communist government, and dreams to someday returning home to a democratic China. Mr Li's teenage granddaughter has adapted to fenspace like a fish to water, has joined the senshi, and plans to expand the family company to build waved computers once she graduates from Vesta Institute of Robotics (her newfound fenness is not brave enough to visit his grandmother in a senshi shirt. No one dares mess with Mrs. Li) Section 9 does not watch Fuzhou Electronics, and the products they build, like a hawk, in case they are a deep MSS cover, because Section 9 does not exist, and it does not have an outpost in Nanmu district. -Lunar Motors: Lunar motors builds cars -but only the skeleton. As the number of fen than personalize their 'waved vehicles increased, Gabriel Johnson saw a possible opening. He will sell a hard tech, working vehicle, but one then only is a chassis and engine; he will also sell body parts for the enterprising fen to handwave their own spacecar. The company started buying old cars form scrapyards and second hand stores, and eventually started building their own, though they still need to import some components form Japan. -Moires: This is one of the companies than use the services of Lunar Motors. Owned by three enthusiastic girls, they will buy the structure and then build a car around it. They offer both handwaved and clean vehicles. Given their factions (two senshi and a pulper) the cars tend to the classical luxury, but the girls get bored with a single style and occasionally create cars of all kinds, from fairy tale carriages to Star Wars. -Monti Industries: This is one example of several Belter companies grown in Marduk during the War. Each of those companies are owned by a group of belter miners, and usually use the raw materials than their owners mine in the Belt, and forge industrial parts and small machinery. -Skuld Ice Cream: Living in dangerous space habitats means you often have to live with basic necessities. Fen, as as rule, tend to think that thinks like ice cream, fizzy drinks, doughnuts and pizza are basic necessities. Taking advantage of the food convoys from Peru to Marduk, Skuld helped a peruvian farmers cooperative to 'wave several of their milk and began selling ice cream all over the solar system. -Goldskin's Slip: Another company of Belter origin, this is more prosaic: the biggest distillery on the city. It sells whiskey, and Balor's Best Firewater, which brags to be have the highest alcoholic content in Luna (several of the small belter distilleries in Ningal beg to differ, and no one in Marduk dares to make the same claim against actual Belt spirits) -Genesis: Obviously, the giant in Marduk. Genesis has facilities both inside and outside the dome, and is an industrial complex by itself. Except for the genetics research (done in the Ziggurat labs) most of Genesis activity is done here: Construction droid assembly lines, massive smelters, material technology investigation, engine construction, massive warehouses for raw and finished products, and anything else the company needs. Mummu Spaceport is a few kilometres west of the city. While it has far less passenger traffic than the great spaceports in Port Luna and Kandor, its size is massive, due to the heavy cargo if processes. Every week it sees hundreds of raw metals than come form the belt to feed the voracious smelters in the city, and hundreds of tons of finished products leave the city. The city does not only get belter metals; countless convoys of food come every from Ganymede and Huarocondo Spaceport (in Peru), and distilled gases and carbon from Jupiter, among other materials. Due to all that traffic, it was designed to hold the biggest cargo sea transport available in Earth, and then some: It has parking space for any current spaceship able to land in a planetary surface, and a couple only theoretical designs. Genesis Shipyards: These shipyards are located between the spaceport and Genesis' smelters outside the Sumugan dome. Originally they were an average sized shipyards, used to build genesis ships and for a repair service for the spaceport. As most of the Marduk facilities, it was overbuild, planning for the future, so more than half of the shipyard remained empty With the war needs, and the sudden availability of a horde of belters experiences in space construction, the shipyards increased to its maximum capacity, and then expanded even more. This was a major repairs shipyard for Great Justice during the war, and it built the Ariete class ships. Just two weeks before the battle for Boskone Prime started, the last expansion was finished, and it has sparked an outstanding number of conspiracy theories (outstanding even coming from Marduk, the fenspace Queen of Conspiracy Theories). It is a standard drydock, with otherwise unremarkable cranes and scaffoldings. Except for the minor detail than it is one kilometre across; while it was being build, the main Genesis engine factory stopped production, moved the human workers to nearby facilities, and began some undisclosed project. When the war ended, all work in the new drydock stopped, and several huge crates left the closed factory and were taken away in a GJ transport . What kind of ship was going to be built in Dock 51 (since there are only about two dozen docks, this number choice sparked its own conspiracies), and exactly what was inside those crates, has been a matter of spirited debate ever since: Vykos will only answer with a “no comment” when asked, and Great Justice claims than “it does not comment on ship designs) P.D: Robkelk, ECSNorway, would you mind if I put a few Stellvia and Greenwood warehouses or holging enterprises in Sumugan Gate? They probably will only get a mention or two at best,but it would show than the city is not just a private playground... Rakhasa Wrote:P.D: Robkelk, ECSNorway, would you mind if I put a few Stellvia and Greenwood warehouses or holging enterprises in Sumugan Gate? They probably will only get a mention or two at best,but it would show than the city is not just a private playground...I have no objection to that. There are likely to be a few Stellvia Oil fuel stations in any large city in Fenspace, and one of the ones in Marduk is likely to be close to Moires. (One tends to find gas stations near car dealerships, at least in the part of the real world where I live.) Stellvia Trading would lease offices and warehouses somewhere close to Mummu Spaceport – Stellvia station isn't set up for bulk materials delivery and forwarding, despite being a trading company, and Noah does like getting into a business early when he can. This office would be run by a Peruvian woman who, despite wearing glasses and working for Noah, is not an android... I'll let you name her, but I already have an image for her. Oh! You might want to ask JFerio whether Jupiter Mining Corporation has any offices in Marduk. That company's business isn't confined to the Jovian subsystem... -- 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 
It's a pretty good bet that JMC has a warehouse, single hangar dock, and office point in Marduk (they also have one in Kandor, naturally). In fact, any truly major settlement will have at least a field office to establish a JMC presence in an area, even if all they're doing is that and an airlock to move cargo through to a waiting Blue Midget (which is typical of smaller settlements that are large enough for a presence, but not large enough for a docking facility of even a single hangar to be constructed.)
-- "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
If you don't might then I'd say "HH Engineering" have a small warehouse and design office in Sumugan Gate.
They sell and re-sell small handwaved gadgets, particularly those related to the safe use of handwavium (like handwavium (manual or automatic) detectors and scanners). There's also some hard tech available, negative pressure work environments, like benches with pressure hoods, for safe working with handwavium, and some hybrid tech which also includes waldos and other remote manipulators. None of this stuff is certified for medical work, though you could use it if you were desperate, as the waldos and manipulators are high quality and remarkably precise, and allow microscopic viewing attachments. -- "It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Mind? I will be extatic to add your companies there, believe it! (Ok, no more Naruto fanfiction for a few days)
Consider your companies added in the final draft. Also, because I could not believe I had completely forgoten those guys and I feel sort of bad than I stole the steampunk snitch from then: Eyrie Cruises: While their headquarters are in Robur's Eyrie, the massive hangars for their fleet are stationed in Marduk. Eyrie Cruises is one of the main pleasure trip compenies in fenspace, and is well known system-wide for its luxurious zeppelin ships, wich carry hundreds of rich dane and fen tourists to the solar system greates highlights. They have a long standing lease in the Genesis Shipyard, which is were they built their zeppelin cruisers and the SC Albatros.
Does anyone remember this? No, me neither. I won't even give excuses, because they were good for the first few weeks when I had a lot of work, but the rest of the time was simply laziness and procrastination. You can blame Rob for this, because he posted the list of Wanted Pages and I noticed Marduk was one of then.
I am not fully satisfied with this, either, but I decided that if I did not force myself to write something I may never finish the city. On the good news, there should only be one more installment before the city is ready for the wiki, so if you notice it takes too long do not hesitate to call me names. Give us your money: Ereskigal, Utu and Inanna Bay Those three districts are the main area to find shopping areas, entertainment and tourist traps in general. Utu is the most cosmopolitan district of the city, and the one who lacks its on distinct identity -you can find a bit of everything there, from shopping malls to townhouses to romantic bistros. The headquarters of the City Watch are in the Watch Keep, an actual seaside castle at the western end of the district, while Nazca Square site at the eastern end. The Santa Maria catholic cathedral is on that square, a gilded gothic church lifting over the surrounding houses. The cathedral is the biggest church in the city, and, thought the citizens have always called it “the cathedral”, it actually was not even a consecrated church for many years; it was not consecrated, granted Cathedral rank, and had a bishop named, until 2020. Inanna Bay, and the streets that surround it, is without doubt the main tourist attraction, Its long beaches, the terrace filled esplanade, its curio shops and many small hotels bring out the tourist in droves (the locals usually prefer the less scenic but calmer beaches in Ishkur bay and on the other side of the lake, in Ninkasi). The district is busy day and night; once the cafès and teashops close, the pubs and discos open. At the end of the sea promenade, overlooking the Watch Keep on the other side of the bay, is the most ornate building in the district, an impressive baroque palace. Originally planned as a mall, it became a Casino in late 2018. Ereshigal, nested in the centre of the city, it the smallest district, but one of the most lively. The street plan is chaotic, with narrow streets snaking in what looks like random patterns... because they are computer generated random patterns. Oscar stole the idea from Stanley Robinson's Mars trilogy and its Medinas. Perpetually lost visitors often claim the streets themselves change locations. They are right. There is a absurdly complex system of hinges and pulleys that moves and twists walls, and in a couple of places, entire buildings, to create new cul-de-sacs or open up formerly dead alleys). The streets themselves change names constantly and with no apparent reason (though they don't tell visitors, neighbours always carry a small computer with the newest map and a crosslinked street directory; they do not have actual street address for mailing purposes, each household has a individual code, to cope with the ever-changing street names) In homage to its oriental style, the entire area is a huge bazaar, full of artisan shops, street vendors and small fountainoed plazas. Its most importat landmark is the Great Library, a massive egyptian style building. The Library has a small (but growing) collection of physical books, but its core is a massive date center and hundreds of reading ports, all connected to one of the copies of the Alexandria Archive. Even though both Oscar Vykos and the city government have made public on several occasion that the library only has a copy of the entertainment and scientific media, and none of the rumoured host of secrets the library has found and downloaded, they still keep getting a steady trickle or 'dane agents searching for the elusive data, in the hopes they will find it and avoid the well known retaliation from the Archive. After the nth attempt, the City Watch simply shrugged, and began to use the library to identify agents, and send a copy of the list the the Alexandria Archive and Section 9 (except, not Section 9, because Section 9 does not exist). Between Ereshkigal and Utu is Nazca Square, one of the best known squares in fenspace since the creation of the weekly Peruvian Market. The market, as so many other landmarks in fenspace, started as a sudden spark of eccentricity that grew up when more and more people warmed to the idea. Once upon a time, in the Spain of 2013 there lived two elderly ladies, lifelong friends, who had spent he last half century manning their stalls in their town's farmer's market, selling fresh produce from their farms; on that they weren't much different from thousands other farmers. What set then apart from most was one grandson, who had joined the Supers faction and moved to the moon. Even that would have been just one more gossip topic in the village, until the day they decided they wanted to visit space. Their families were shocked, very sensibly decided that two seventy year old widowers weren't in any state to travel the solar system alone, and tried to convince then to join a cruise. The grandson, by then a member of Marduk's city Watch, was a fen, and thus did not know the meaning of the word “sensible”. He visited home for Christmas... and brought a vat of handwavium as a present for granny. They secretly spent the holidays waving the market van and a couple of spacesuits, and a couple days after the grandson left for the moon, an old van lifted and left atmosphere. After a few stops in Stellvia, Central, Kandor, and Port Luna's Landing Memorial, they finally reached Marduk, where the grandson invited then to his home. Granny Maria was shocked and scandalized once she opened her grandson's fridge and saw the collection of processed food, frozen meals and vitamin supplements, but he managed to divert her wrath with the news that fresh produce was night impossible to find. After a “small” detour via Mars and Jupiter, they returned home to a disaproving family. Two weeks later, they loaded their van as usual for the marketday... and a few hours later they were knocking at the grandson's door. They unloaded enough greens in his fridge to satisfy their nutritive complains, and then moved t the city centre and set up a stall in the first main square they found. But the matter did not end there. The Marduk farms had a sizeable community of Peruvian farmers, tending the fields. Most of then came form poor families, and the money for a few years working in space would help their families. One day, a group of then were chatting in the bar after work, when the gossip moved to the new vegetable ladies, and they showed everyone that fendanes can also have Blue Hair Days- In the next days, several packages left the moon for Peru, and one month later several cars filled with vegetables were taking lift in the Andes. Since then, every weekend the Nazca square (re-named after the market success) has hosted the Peruvian Market, a huge affair where literally hundreds of rickety cars lift from Peru to park in the Marduk spaceport, and open their stalls in the city. Many people, and specially restaurant owners from the moon and Cislunar space, visit the market in search for fresh food. I am interested in comments about the cathedral part. When I first put a cathedral in the map, I had forgotten that simply naming a big church a “cathedral” does not make if so; a Catholic Cathedral is the seat of a bishop, and that can only be named by the Pope. Since we extended the timeline, this gave me some breath space, so, at the moment, my tentative idea is that the first Bishop of Marduk was named in 2020. So I would appreciate comments In a couple of points: -Do you thing a formal Papal Visit to fenspace by 2020 is reasonable? They do accept the Church of Fenspace as a legitimate faith, so it is likely they do not dislike fens too much. -If that visit would happen, do you think he would take the time to formally consecrate the main churches in fenspace? As a couple of examples, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona is probably the most famous church under construction in Europe; even though it is not yet finished, it was consecrated by the pope himself in his last Papal Visit to Spain. John Paul II did the same when they (finally) finished up Madrid's cathedral a few years ago. -In 2020 the moon will already have several important sized settlements. Should all of then become a single episcopal see, or each of the bigger cities (probably Kandor, Port Luna, Marduk and Bristol) have their own bishop? -The same with the other planets. Myself, I tend towards six dioceses: Luna (with Cislunar Space), Venus, Mars, the Belt, Jupiter, and the Outer System, and there probably would be plans to break then in smaller dioceses once the catholic population there increased Quote:Myself, I tend towards six dioceses: Luna (with Cislunar Space), Venus, Mars, the Belt, Jupiter, and the Outer System, and there probably would be plans to break then in smaller dioceses once the catholic population there increasedI think that's an excellent way to approach the matter. Oh, and if the Pope does visit Marduk in 2020, a certain very-small staff member of StellviaCorp will be in the congregation. Safety might not exactly be Catholic, but this sort of event is important to her. -- 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 Quote:Rakhasa wrote:The Catholic Church will not let such a large populations of Catholics go without ministry for long. There might be missionaries, but I like to think there is a Fen Jesuit priest who remembers the order of St. Vidicon: http://christopher.stasheff.com/wiki/Saint%2BVidicon I'd suggest that at least one Jesuit priest be an important character from early on in Marduk's settlement. Maybe they get made the Bishop, later? For extra fun, there could be a construction robot or two who want to be religious... -- "It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
I think the city needs an English Quarter. This has to feature "Drake's Inn", an English pub with a sinking Spanish galleon on the sign, which disappears quite often, and has the sign replaced by one that says "Drake's Head", and has a bloody head on the sign.
How long each sign stays up before being replaced with its counterpart could be a competition among the locals - both different signs must look like proper inn signs, of course. The local police have declared that it is all just fun, as long as no one gets hurt, and each sign must stay up for at least 24 hours. As a result the pub is listed under both names in the tourist literature, at the same location, but with no further explanation. The English Quarter features the English ex-patriot community, mainly from ship building and other engineering families, though older Fen might like to live there who might otherwise have retired to a Spanish coastal home. There are also likely to be Irish here, maybe those once in the Belfast ship building industry. Oscar will realise that these people need proper food, so if he is feeling traditionalist: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Restaurant There are English pubs, English restaurants and English super markets (at least one 'Tesco'): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tesco For extra fun you could call the English Quarter "Little Gibraltar": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gibraltar There would have to be a local football (soccer) club... Just a few thoughts... -- "It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
They would not go without ministry, but they would lack a proper bishop. I was thinking that the peruvians, with would be more devout that the spanish, would send word home for a priest soonish, so the first years Marduk wold be under the diocese of Cuzco (and they will never, even let their spanish brethren forger this on their meetings). Port Luna and Kandor wold probable be under some USA diocese (Boston?) That first peruvian priest would then become the bishop -but of course he can be a Jesuit, too.
Wait, jesuits are monks... can they even become bishops? Screw it, I still do have that empty monastery in the crater, I am giving it to the Jesuits. Sadly, the Father General did not allow "St Vidicon", so they chose St Philip Neri. Since the Father is a Jesuit, the chances are that he knows where they did get the idea of picking St Philip, but he said nothing... And Rob, the visit would not be to Marduk only, it would be a full Papal visit to the Moon, and probably other planets. Chances are he would make one or two stops in Cislunar Space, and in 2020 Sellvia should still be the primary "first stop" station, so Safety has many places to chose. Pope Benedict XVI will be 93 in 2020, so it is likely (but not at all certain) that the visit would come from his successor, but since it is just background dressing, we can leave the papal identity blank unless/until someone wants to make a proper writeup of the Cathotlic church in Fenspace. The Catholic Episcopal Sees off earth in 2021: -Bishop of Marduk -Bishop of Crystal Venice -Bishop of Helium -Bishop of Port Ceres -Bishop of Serenity Valley -Bishop of Coruscant Edit: Also, an english district? With actual englishmen, I suppose. Oh, dear Washu why do you try me so, WHY??? I'll think on it... and Drake's Head pub is amusing, so consider it, at minimun, stolen 
First though.
Three priests, shipped off to Fenspace to keep them from getting into trouble.... again. Father's Crilly, McGuire and Hackett. IN SPACE. ________________________________ --m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig? Dartz Wrote:First though.You do need to give the references! [grin] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Father_Ted http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Fa ... characters I liked the series, but I think some of the humour was too subtle for me. [grin] -- "It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind Quote:Sadly, the Father General did not allow "St Vidicon", so they chose St Philip Neri. Since the Father is a Jesuit, the chances are that he knows where they did get the idea of picking St Philip, but he said nothing...I think you will have to be a bit more explicit about this. I'm afraid I miss the connection. As for "St Vidicon" alternatives, I'm told "St Jude" (in his 'lost causes' capacity) is sometimes substituted. [grin] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jude_the_Apostle Quote:Also, an english district? With actual englishmen, I suppose. Oh, dearYou need the English so the Spanish have someone to blame things on. [grin] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expatriate Also, the Spanish Riviera, Spanish Mediterranean coast (Costa del Sol, Costa Brava, Costa Blanca) would not be the same without the English. Someone has to run the non-Spanish part of Marduk, the public houses (pubs), the fish-and-chip cafes - you need the English! [grin] Of course the English being there must be some sort of deep conspiracy... Unless, of course, you have specially trained actors or robots, who just pretend to be English... -- "It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Meh. In Ottawa, roughly a third of the "English" pubs are run by Lebanese immigrants... just like roughly a third of all the other restaurants. (Excepting the sushi and pho places - most of those seem to be run by Chinese immigrants.)
If Marduk doesn't want an "English quarter," it doesn't have to have 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 Quote:Ace Dreamer wrote:Oh, I expected that. I was just engaging my inner smug bastard. In fact, I only remembered the reference because it was the first time I heard of St. Vidicon, and I had sort of planned to add the order somehwere, but I had completely forgotten the reference and the plans until you reminded me. But, well, Jesuits -wich in our world are probably pretty normal people, but in Fenspace they follow genre convention and are each and every one of then Xanatos Gambit plotters and bloody know everything. The reference comes from the 1632 universe: To be exact, the Grantville Gazette, volume 7, in the ficlet Canst Thou Send Lightnings?. Let's all give a great ovation to Baen books ant the way they offer so, so many free godies to check in their websites, for here it the full ficlet: http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/1011 ... .htm?blurb And the relevant part: **** “No. You may not form an order dedicated to a saint invented by a science fiction writer in 1982.” Larry Mazzare looked most firm. “But . . . ” “Which part of no didn't you understand?” “But . . . ” “You may distribute the talismans. You may use the story from the book as the inspiration for the talisman. You should use the terminology. God knows that Murphy certainly is perverse and acts in the world. If that weren't true then several of the parishioners’ cars would quit breaking for no reason.” Nicholas saw Larry's look become stern. “However, if you need to call on a saint to assist you, I urge you to look to the saint most closely related to your talisman, not some fictional construct of an unchurched Episcopalian.” “Who?” Larry picked up one of the screwdrivers from the box. “I note the appropriateness of the cross at the tip. I'm glad you didn't get flat bladed ones.” He paused. “You ought to know who I mean. He was canonized not 10 years ago. A man known for his sense of humor. He ought to be able to help us laugh in the face of Murphy's perversity.” “But the talisman?” “Oh, come now. He would have appreciated the appropriateness of it. By all accounts, he would have had the entire congregation laughing.” Nicholas just stared at Larry. Father Mazzare opened a reference to a painting of a man. He grinned as he showed it to Nicholas. The man in the painting wore half a beard and was kicking a ball while leading a rag-tag group of people who carried household goods through a street. “Come now. The pun is even in your native tongue.” He spun the book around. “Saint Phillip.” **** Quote:robkelk wrote:It's the English. They always, always turn up exactly where you don't want then to.... More seriously, when I did the map, I added five villages in the crater. I had ideas for four of then, but all the ideas I had for the fifth (Fenris Caern, east in the lake, wich now probably will get a new name) were bad. A small, traditional English village (wich may or may not send the ocasional pirate fleet to "raid" the main city) is a better idea that all the ones I had. What would be a good sort of Olde Englishe Name for a village in the moon(e)? Quote:Rakhasa wrote:"Dunwavin"? [grin] "Ottery St. Catchpole"? [grin] Or consult: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ge ... nd_Ireland Lunepool - "harbour on the Moon"? Lunemere - "lake on the Moon" Eastmare - "to the East of a Lunar sea" Mareparish - "village with a church by a Lunar sea" (I quite like this one; Church of England, of course. [grin]) BTW, those will be 'privateers', not 'pirates', if they have filled out the proper paperwork with the parish council. [grin] Thanks for the "phillips screwdriver" pun - appreciated! I still think the conspiracy theory that all the English are in fact deep-cover method actors, and/or robots (or 'biobots') is worth spreading... And them holding "murder weekends" where people come and try and solve a (fictional) murder mystery (you too can be Miss Marple, or Hercule Poirot)... Also, you need an eccentric vicar for the village... Possibly one who believes there are secret "Moon Men", who have so far hidden from the Fen, and claims the shape of various ancient Lunar outcrops shows they have been shaped by intelligent beings... And who has a robot housekeeper called "Mrs Muggins": http://marvel.wikia.com/Mamie_Muggins_%28Earth-616%29 who 'escaped' from a diorama a Super was building. [grin] -- "It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
On an unrelated tangent, inspired by a disucssion a few days ago, Mardukan holidays.
So they will be an assorted usuall mix of spanish and fen festivals, and of course one or two spanish festival as seen through a Mardukan fen eye... perharps starting with the most famous of then all. So what do you think would be the best fen path for the yearly Running of the Zombies? Becuase simply using volunteers with make up sonds so... mundane.
Antigravity units with holographic emitters are the obvious choice if you want a safe run, but holoemitters are tech that's perfected early in Season 2 (somewhere in the 2014-2017 timeframe). Before that, you'll have to go with something physical or accept an obvious hologram...
-- 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 robkelk Wrote:Antigravity units with holographic emitters are the obvious choice if you want a safe run, but holoemitters are tech that's perfected early in Season 2 (somewhere in the 2014-2017 timeframe). Before that, you'll have to go with something physical or accept an obvious hologram... Wasn't it only the "solid hologram" thing that was developed in Season 2? One you can touch? HRogge Wrote:The Jason was running around with it in 2016, but that was his private schtick, not public tech.robkelk Wrote:Antigravity units with holographic emitters are the obvious choice if you want a safe run, but holoemitters are tech that's perfected early in Season 2 (somewhere in the 2014-2017 timeframe). Before that, you'll have to go with something physical or accept an obvious hologram... -- Sucrose Octanitrate. Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode. |
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