Dartz: I had to pick a point early enough for me to learn the right skills, but late enough for the combat cyborg program (and Project F) to be things. Pushing it back to 0060 might've been more believable, but I really wanted to get in some experience before Quattro.
Incidentally, the first part of the order is I, II, III, V, VI, IV, X. I-the-author, off the top of my head, remember that, that the last three all came a year before StrikerS, and that the other two were more like three years before.
**********
Entry 31 (Day 327)
Life isn't fair. Yes, I was already aware of that. Yes, I'm a lot better off than many- with where I am and what I've been doing, denying that would be insanity.
Still. There's always somebody luckier than you are, better off than you are, or just plain better than you are... and I've just been losing to one.
Cinque is, to put it bluntly, a monster. She may only be my size, but she's got two major advantages.
1.) She was born with master-level knife-fighting skills, and;2.) She was built to use them to the max.
Put us in a sparring match together, and you end up with one beat-up Ford, a bunch of daggers and craters strewn all over, and a Cinque whose hair isn't even mussed.
I tried keeping her at arm's length with Malleus and my almost-acceptable skill at armed close combat. No luck there. I tried using my considerably-more-polished unarmed skills. Those worked a bit better... emphasis on 'bit'. I even tried magic.
Another note to self- make a wide-area bombardment spell before trying that again.
Thankfully, I'll not be taking any lessons from her. I asked. Tre will be handling the last of my close-combat instruction, and then I'll be permitted to focus on magical development... finally. I've been having ideas, you see...
Entry 32 (Day 365)
One year. One year, to the day, since I was sent into dimensional space.
Looking back on it, I'm not sure whether I should be ashamed, thrilled, or worried. I've not horribly screwed myself over, as best I can tell, and I'm sitting on quite a bit of power, so that's a plus. If I play my cards right, I should be in a good position to Get Things Done... that, and I got MAGIC. I can't emphasize the Awesome value of that enough.
On the other hand, I'm one year into my time here, and what have I accomplished? I've not horribly broken the magic system, created lulwut-powerful equipment, or even started on a VN swarm, for crying out loud! If I still have my SB card, I'll be relieved.
As for worry, I've got less than fifteen years until the fit hits the shan. Will I be ready for it? CAN I be ready for it?! I've made plans, but anybody with a brain knows better than to just trust in a plan... even if it's a good one. Even if I have a handful of them. Even if most of them don't require me to actually defeat anybody.
Ah, well. No sense winding myself into knots over it now. Nothing I can do but move forward/onward/upward, do everything I can to make myself ready, and have a load of contingency plans for if things don't work out.
Speaking of moving forward, I just got my second spell finished... not that that's much of an achievement. I've written about how every mage has to math out their own spells, yes? Well, Dimensional Transfer is sort of an exception. The basic equations for the most efficient known method are freely available to everybody, mostly because no one mage can cast any other version.
(No, I don't know all the details. What I know is that space-time manipulation magic ends up being either relatively practical or staggeringly expensive to cast, depending on what you're trying to do, and how efficient the method used is. Apparently, most mages need the most efficient DT equations to make it practical.)
All I had to do was take that basic math, and build a control structure around it- make it something I could alter, direct, and command on more than an academic level. Not being an idiot, I also threw in some obfuscations, some idiosyncratic command requirements, and a few of my flash bitz, just in case. It only took about three days.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
Incidentally, the first part of the order is I, II, III, V, VI, IV, X. I-the-author, off the top of my head, remember that, that the last three all came a year before StrikerS, and that the other two were more like three years before.
**********
Entry 31 (Day 327)
Life isn't fair. Yes, I was already aware of that. Yes, I'm a lot better off than many- with where I am and what I've been doing, denying that would be insanity.
Still. There's always somebody luckier than you are, better off than you are, or just plain better than you are... and I've just been losing to one.
Cinque is, to put it bluntly, a monster. She may only be my size, but she's got two major advantages.
1.) She was born with master-level knife-fighting skills, and;2.) She was built to use them to the max.
Put us in a sparring match together, and you end up with one beat-up Ford, a bunch of daggers and craters strewn all over, and a Cinque whose hair isn't even mussed.
I tried keeping her at arm's length with Malleus and my almost-acceptable skill at armed close combat. No luck there. I tried using my considerably-more-polished unarmed skills. Those worked a bit better... emphasis on 'bit'. I even tried magic.
Another note to self- make a wide-area bombardment spell before trying that again.
Thankfully, I'll not be taking any lessons from her. I asked. Tre will be handling the last of my close-combat instruction, and then I'll be permitted to focus on magical development... finally. I've been having ideas, you see...
Entry 32 (Day 365)
One year. One year, to the day, since I was sent into dimensional space.
Looking back on it, I'm not sure whether I should be ashamed, thrilled, or worried. I've not horribly screwed myself over, as best I can tell, and I'm sitting on quite a bit of power, so that's a plus. If I play my cards right, I should be in a good position to Get Things Done... that, and I got MAGIC. I can't emphasize the Awesome value of that enough.
On the other hand, I'm one year into my time here, and what have I accomplished? I've not horribly broken the magic system, created lulwut-powerful equipment, or even started on a VN swarm, for crying out loud! If I still have my SB card, I'll be relieved.
As for worry, I've got less than fifteen years until the fit hits the shan. Will I be ready for it? CAN I be ready for it?! I've made plans, but anybody with a brain knows better than to just trust in a plan... even if it's a good one. Even if I have a handful of them. Even if most of them don't require me to actually defeat anybody.
Ah, well. No sense winding myself into knots over it now. Nothing I can do but move forward/onward/upward, do everything I can to make myself ready, and have a load of contingency plans for if things don't work out.
Speaking of moving forward, I just got my second spell finished... not that that's much of an achievement. I've written about how every mage has to math out their own spells, yes? Well, Dimensional Transfer is sort of an exception. The basic equations for the most efficient known method are freely available to everybody, mostly because no one mage can cast any other version.
(No, I don't know all the details. What I know is that space-time manipulation magic ends up being either relatively practical or staggeringly expensive to cast, depending on what you're trying to do, and how efficient the method used is. Apparently, most mages need the most efficient DT equations to make it practical.)
All I had to do was take that basic math, and build a control structure around it- make it something I could alter, direct, and command on more than an academic level. Not being an idiot, I also threw in some obfuscations, some idiosyncratic command requirements, and a few of my flash bitz, just in case. It only took about three days.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.