The research is complete, and I have unlocked further progress on the story!
Praise be to Jorlem, for his assistance with the pre-beta (alpha?) testing.
I might've actually turned you down on that, CD. Your impressions of the story as it gets posted are too valuable/interesting/fun to read to taint with spoilers.
As for YOUUUUUUUTH!!, you're giving me the urge to laugh maniacally again. Please stop that. It makes my family look at me like I'm crazy.
I'M NOT CRAZY! YOU'RE CRAZY! ESPECIALLY YOU, GHOST OF NAPPA!
Proginoskes: You'd be right, but for one thing. My problem isn't lack of power. My understanding is that the linker core doesn't generate mana, but links the mana your body generates into a spell matrix, allowing it to be manifested in a meaningful way.
To put it in M:TG terms, I can tap lands (or myself, in this case) and receive mana. I can memorize and attempt to cast spells. What I can't do is spend more than .015 mana per turn to pay for casting spells- and spells can't accept fractional mana output.
Yes, there's ambient mana, but it has to be collected, linked to a spell, and then manifested to do anything. That's a big difference between the Starlight Breaker and a Spirit Bomb- the DBZ version of the concept doesn't use the caster as a middleman. Also, ambient mana isn't usually enough to make BFSes- the SB is only a ridiculously powerful attack when used after a lot of high-energy magic has raised ambient mana levels high enough. That's why Nanoha doesn't open with it.
Also, cartridges? Big shot of mana, straight into the linker core. I don't have a very big LC. If I tried to use a cartridge, my core would explode. Even strong mages can only use so many of them without causing damage to themselves.
As for artificing, the big problem is that Nanohaverse combat tech is entirely dependent on the user's core for feeding it power. As far as the show goes, it doesn't look like there's any canon way to replace that necessity. I know machines have been built that can run off Jewel Seeds, but any plan that requires Lost Logia to make it work is a bad plan.
Mostly because your hat will a) be lost, b) end up being turned into a 50+ foot tall monster bent on causing mass destruction (and who knows? Al-Hazard tech can probably literally destroy mass), c) fall into the space between dimensions, or d) some combination of the above. In the end, you end up hatless, and we all know how that works.
**********
Entry 15 (Day 7)
The what having been decided, the rest of the journey was spent settling upon the how, when, and where. I spent my waking hours at a computer terminal, learning what I needed to know in order to survive on an administrated world- how the economy worked, what was in demand and what wasn't, how I could VERY QUICKLY learn Japanese- that sort of thing.
The language issue was actually the easiest one to solve. One injection in the infirmary later, and I had a shiny new Babel-class linguistic harmonizer lodged in my head.
(Turns out there's a reason for the name. Translation implants are what diplomats, infiltrators, and anthropologists use to dissect new languages, map them to spoken Standard (which, by a massive "coincidence", is identical to Earth English), and speak them like natives. The linguistic harmonizer, on the other hand, just adds a collection of known languages (spoken and written) to the linguistic centers of the user's brain. You still have to practice speaking/writing/thinking in them, but you get instant understanding- and the collection of languages can be updated after the implant. Once Japanese-speaking mages become part of the TSAB...)
As for the economic situation, well... I'm sort of boned. I've spent most of my free time and all of my career working on my abilities with technology- late-20th-century and early-21st-century 'Muggle' Earth technology, to be precise. Basically none of what I'd spent the last two decades learning has any relevance to the tech base here.
Basic programming? They don't even use binary, much less the smattering of VB and Perl I've picked up. Database design/creation? When you have dumb AI (which is essentially what most Devices are), SQL is sort of useless. Interface design? They don't use the same language here, can create screens in midair and manipulate controls telepathically, and have a completely different programming history to draw upon.
(Even with the Preta's library at my disposal, I still couldn't figure out why some things are written in English-with-an-inverted-copy-in-the-middle. It makes no sense.)
Even my computer assembly and maintenance skills are totally irrelevant around here. Their idea of a 'computer' is a sealed monolith that can only be opened by a trained tech... which I most certainly am not.
(Okay, so some parts of this were disturbingly similar... but Apple only wishes they they could pull off the 'perfectly featureless sphere' form factor.)
To make a long story short, I'm unskilled labor here, and I've always sucked at being unskilled labor. The only way to get anywhere as I am would be to find a way into a technical school, which would either require me to take on decades worth of debt, or find a patron who would put me through the school... in return for, at going rates, a few decades of contractually mandatory employment. Yeah, like that's ever going to work out.
As soon as I realized that, I decided I was going to have to do something that goes against my grain... take a risk. The plan I have in mind could kill me. It could cripple me for the rest of my life, in any number of ways. I could lose everything I hold dear, or even screw over this universe.
It's not like I have anything to lose, though. I've been given a taste of something extraordinary... and then had it snatched away from me. Having seen what I could've been, how can I just let it go? If this plan works... if it works...
Wow. The acoustics in here are PERFECT for maniacal laughter.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
Praise be to Jorlem, for his assistance with the pre-beta (alpha?) testing.
I might've actually turned you down on that, CD. Your impressions of the story as it gets posted are too valuable/interesting/fun to read to taint with spoilers.
As for YOUUUUUUUTH!!, you're giving me the urge to laugh maniacally again. Please stop that. It makes my family look at me like I'm crazy.
I'M NOT CRAZY! YOU'RE CRAZY! ESPECIALLY YOU, GHOST OF NAPPA!
Proginoskes: You'd be right, but for one thing. My problem isn't lack of power. My understanding is that the linker core doesn't generate mana, but links the mana your body generates into a spell matrix, allowing it to be manifested in a meaningful way.
To put it in M:TG terms, I can tap lands (or myself, in this case) and receive mana. I can memorize and attempt to cast spells. What I can't do is spend more than .015 mana per turn to pay for casting spells- and spells can't accept fractional mana output.
Yes, there's ambient mana, but it has to be collected, linked to a spell, and then manifested to do anything. That's a big difference between the Starlight Breaker and a Spirit Bomb- the DBZ version of the concept doesn't use the caster as a middleman. Also, ambient mana isn't usually enough to make BFSes- the SB is only a ridiculously powerful attack when used after a lot of high-energy magic has raised ambient mana levels high enough. That's why Nanoha doesn't open with it.
Also, cartridges? Big shot of mana, straight into the linker core. I don't have a very big LC. If I tried to use a cartridge, my core would explode. Even strong mages can only use so many of them without causing damage to themselves.
As for artificing, the big problem is that Nanohaverse combat tech is entirely dependent on the user's core for feeding it power. As far as the show goes, it doesn't look like there's any canon way to replace that necessity. I know machines have been built that can run off Jewel Seeds, but any plan that requires Lost Logia to make it work is a bad plan.
Mostly because your hat will a) be lost, b) end up being turned into a 50+ foot tall monster bent on causing mass destruction (and who knows? Al-Hazard tech can probably literally destroy mass), c) fall into the space between dimensions, or d) some combination of the above. In the end, you end up hatless, and we all know how that works.
**********
Entry 15 (Day 7)
The what having been decided, the rest of the journey was spent settling upon the how, when, and where. I spent my waking hours at a computer terminal, learning what I needed to know in order to survive on an administrated world- how the economy worked, what was in demand and what wasn't, how I could VERY QUICKLY learn Japanese- that sort of thing.
The language issue was actually the easiest one to solve. One injection in the infirmary later, and I had a shiny new Babel-class linguistic harmonizer lodged in my head.
(Turns out there's a reason for the name. Translation implants are what diplomats, infiltrators, and anthropologists use to dissect new languages, map them to spoken Standard (which, by a massive "coincidence", is identical to Earth English), and speak them like natives. The linguistic harmonizer, on the other hand, just adds a collection of known languages (spoken and written) to the linguistic centers of the user's brain. You still have to practice speaking/writing/thinking in them, but you get instant understanding- and the collection of languages can be updated after the implant. Once Japanese-speaking mages become part of the TSAB...)
As for the economic situation, well... I'm sort of boned. I've spent most of my free time and all of my career working on my abilities with technology- late-20th-century and early-21st-century 'Muggle' Earth technology, to be precise. Basically none of what I'd spent the last two decades learning has any relevance to the tech base here.
Basic programming? They don't even use binary, much less the smattering of VB and Perl I've picked up. Database design/creation? When you have dumb AI (which is essentially what most Devices are), SQL is sort of useless. Interface design? They don't use the same language here, can create screens in midair and manipulate controls telepathically, and have a completely different programming history to draw upon.
(Even with the Preta's library at my disposal, I still couldn't figure out why some things are written in English-with-an-inverted-copy-in-the-middle. It makes no sense.)
Even my computer assembly and maintenance skills are totally irrelevant around here. Their idea of a 'computer' is a sealed monolith that can only be opened by a trained tech... which I most certainly am not.
(Okay, so some parts of this were disturbingly similar... but Apple only wishes they they could pull off the 'perfectly featureless sphere' form factor.)
To make a long story short, I'm unskilled labor here, and I've always sucked at being unskilled labor. The only way to get anywhere as I am would be to find a way into a technical school, which would either require me to take on decades worth of debt, or find a patron who would put me through the school... in return for, at going rates, a few decades of contractually mandatory employment. Yeah, like that's ever going to work out.
As soon as I realized that, I decided I was going to have to do something that goes against my grain... take a risk. The plan I have in mind could kill me. It could cripple me for the rest of my life, in any number of ways. I could lose everything I hold dear, or even screw over this universe.
It's not like I have anything to lose, though. I've been given a taste of something extraordinary... and then had it snatched away from me. Having seen what I could've been, how can I just let it go? If this plan works... if it works...
Wow. The acoustics in here are PERFECT for maniacal laughter.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.