... You have only read a wikipedia article and you are claiming all-knowing knowledge. And that aside, you have yet to see me put forth any of the material. I'm actually holding off on writing these parts until I get my hands on the book.
You haven't even seen what I got in mind yet. Let's just say the Oni don't like seedy characters hanging around worlds they take a shine to, especially when they're trying to conduct good business. After all, how do you expect to attract high-rollers when there's a bunch of fucking Pintos in your parking lot? Meanwhile, the original-Earth craft would be looked at as something quaint... like the native islanders coming out in their canoes to greet the sailors on the steam ship. But soon those natives will start upgrading. First those canoes are gonna get little outboard motors to help them motor from one island to the next.
That aside, you think Zeke's gonna wig out over the Rocket Girls?
Tell me, do you know about the first woman to go into space? Yes, she was Russian... but you know what the surprising thing about her is? The Russians made it a point to tell people that she used to be a factory worker with no special education whatsoever, except as an amateur parachutist. This was Real Life, not some animated fantasy.
With that in mind, it's not too much of a stretch to me that a fourteen year old girl (BTW: she's one helluva late bloomer if she hasn't hit puberty by fourteen) could become an astronaut. Hell, even better if they start training at an early age. It's easier for someone to get into shape and stay that way as a teenager than it is when they're twenty-five or thirty. And that aside, astronaut training's got nothing on what kids put themselves through these days. Haven't you heard the latest freakouts over repetitive motion injuries in children that play sports? And children can handle stress better than adults if they're trained in how to deal with it - they adapt more quickly, after all.
Finally, Zeke's in no position to say that kids shouldn't be getting into life-threatening situations. What do you think he did on some of those summers he spent with his Grandfather? Sure as hell didn't just sit around the camp fire, that's for sure. Go around and ask anyone that grew up on the Reservation about what they did when they were kids. Betcha some of the answers you'll get are gonna make your jaw drop. Hell, my own mother used to go looking for horned toads, praying mantises, and scorpions (!!) in her back yard when she was a kid... and this was in the middle of San Antonio!
As for dark-fic... yeah, some aspects are gonna get kinda grim-dark. It'll be unavoidable, especially once some of the big-bads start to realize that some of them have overlapping goals. But it's not gonna be Warhammer40k Dark. More like Diane Duane's Young Wizards Light vs. Dark.
We live in a world that is dark fic. Right now there are thousands of child soldiers in places like Africa and Burma. Do you think it's going to be any better in a universe where China had a civil war and is now divided into two countries, similar to Korea? In this universe, fourteen year-old girls as astronauts is gonna seem tame, if not enlightened.
Once again, you need to see the series yourself instead of just going by wiki article. Most of the time the girls are the ones calling the shots on the big risks. Yukari demanded that they launch after a series of postponed launches despite a glitch detected in the rocket. After a perfect disaster where the capsule first goes off-course and then gets nailed by space debris, Matsuri makes the call to ditch all her electronic and radio gear from her capsule so she can rescue Yukari, and takes Yukari at 10-G across her midsection. Brilliant little Shinobu blacks-out for every launch and re-entry, but she's always game for more (Yukari or Matsuri are always driving anyways).
Zeke won't fault them. In fact, he'll commend them. The world needs more brave people, after all.
You haven't even seen what I got in mind yet. Let's just say the Oni don't like seedy characters hanging around worlds they take a shine to, especially when they're trying to conduct good business. After all, how do you expect to attract high-rollers when there's a bunch of fucking Pintos in your parking lot? Meanwhile, the original-Earth craft would be looked at as something quaint... like the native islanders coming out in their canoes to greet the sailors on the steam ship. But soon those natives will start upgrading. First those canoes are gonna get little outboard motors to help them motor from one island to the next.
That aside, you think Zeke's gonna wig out over the Rocket Girls?
Tell me, do you know about the first woman to go into space? Yes, she was Russian... but you know what the surprising thing about her is? The Russians made it a point to tell people that she used to be a factory worker with no special education whatsoever, except as an amateur parachutist. This was Real Life, not some animated fantasy.
With that in mind, it's not too much of a stretch to me that a fourteen year old girl (BTW: she's one helluva late bloomer if she hasn't hit puberty by fourteen) could become an astronaut. Hell, even better if they start training at an early age. It's easier for someone to get into shape and stay that way as a teenager than it is when they're twenty-five or thirty. And that aside, astronaut training's got nothing on what kids put themselves through these days. Haven't you heard the latest freakouts over repetitive motion injuries in children that play sports? And children can handle stress better than adults if they're trained in how to deal with it - they adapt more quickly, after all.
Finally, Zeke's in no position to say that kids shouldn't be getting into life-threatening situations. What do you think he did on some of those summers he spent with his Grandfather? Sure as hell didn't just sit around the camp fire, that's for sure. Go around and ask anyone that grew up on the Reservation about what they did when they were kids. Betcha some of the answers you'll get are gonna make your jaw drop. Hell, my own mother used to go looking for horned toads, praying mantises, and scorpions (!!) in her back yard when she was a kid... and this was in the middle of San Antonio!
As for dark-fic... yeah, some aspects are gonna get kinda grim-dark. It'll be unavoidable, especially once some of the big-bads start to realize that some of them have overlapping goals. But it's not gonna be Warhammer40k Dark. More like Diane Duane's Young Wizards Light vs. Dark.
We live in a world that is dark fic. Right now there are thousands of child soldiers in places like Africa and Burma. Do you think it's going to be any better in a universe where China had a civil war and is now divided into two countries, similar to Korea? In this universe, fourteen year-old girls as astronauts is gonna seem tame, if not enlightened.
Once again, you need to see the series yourself instead of just going by wiki article. Most of the time the girls are the ones calling the shots on the big risks. Yukari demanded that they launch after a series of postponed launches despite a glitch detected in the rocket. After a perfect disaster where the capsule first goes off-course and then gets nailed by space debris, Matsuri makes the call to ditch all her electronic and radio gear from her capsule so she can rescue Yukari, and takes Yukari at 10-G across her midsection. Brilliant little Shinobu blacks-out for every launch and re-entry, but she's always game for more (Yukari or Matsuri are always driving anyways).
Zeke won't fault them. In fact, he'll commend them. The world needs more brave people, after all.