[OOC][PLOT] Planning for Arc 2 - Crisis on Infinite Earths

[Dartz]

Naturally, this leads to.....

"Alright, which one of you cunts called this cunt a cunt?"

[robkelk]

How is Hotaru death, isn’t her portfolio “Revolution”? 

Now I'm picturing Hotaru using the Silence Glaive to slice a rose off a lapel.

[Labster]

If there is one thing the Rose Duels needed more of, it's polearms.

[robkelk]

I just added this to Luna's page on the wiki:

Wikipedia tells us that "In Act 27 of the live-action series, Luna gains the ability to turn into a young human girl, going by the name Luna Tsukino while able to become a Sailor Guardian known as "Sailor Luna"." We aren't going to rule that out here, but it isn't guaranteed, either.

Of course, there's fan art of Sailor Luna in a mangaesque style.

So, do we or don't we? I did ask here whether we were going to start handing out Star Seeds to get our numbers up during Arc 2...

[robkelk]

Speaking of Luna's page on the wiki...

Once the ruins of the Silver Millennium are discovered on the Moon, Luna will be one of the strongest supporters of rebuilding the city and the kingdom; it will take concerted efforts by Fujitaka, Yuuno, and every other archaeologist in the Metacontinuity to keep her from asking Washuu-chan to simply rebuild everything immediately. Luna wants the familiarity of home ... and for her, "home" was the Silver Millennium. She'll eventually get to move to the Moon, but it's as yet unknown whether everyone who she expects to come with her actually will.

[Norgarth]

robkelk

(EDIT: No, we aren't waiting for Arc 2 for Steampunk. The Counter-Earths are currently listed as being High Fantasy, Post-Apocalypse, Cyberpunk, Shiny-Happy, and Four-Color Metahumans... although the only ones we've mentioned wanting to do something with so far are High Fantasy (Lodoss/Rune Soldier Louie) and Shiny-Happy (Starfleet).)

hmm, what would fit in some of those worlds...

the Four-Colour Metahumans would likely cover Marvel and DC, as well as stuff like The Tick, My Hero Academea, and the various smaller superhero comic universes, Mystery Men movie, Project A-Ko?

Post-apoc would include Mad Max, Fallout, Fist of the Northstar, possibly future Terminator, Planet of the Apes?

Cyberpunk: Bladerunner, the Tekwar novels/TV series, Johnny Mnenomic, Bubblegum Crisis

[robkelk]

    robkelk

    (EDIT: No, we aren't waiting for Arc 2 for Steampunk. The Counter-Earths are currently listed as being High Fantasy, Post-Apocalypse, Cyberpunk, Shiny-Happy, and Four-Color Metahumans... although the only ones we've mentioned wanting to do something with so far are High Fantasy (Lodoss/Rune Soldier Louie) and Shiny-Happy (Starfleet).)

hmm, what would fit in some of those worlds...

the Four-Colour Metahumans would likely cover Marvel and DC, as well as stuff like The Tick, My Hero Academea, and the various smaller superhero comic universes, Mystery Men movie, Project A-Ko?

Post-apoc would include Mad Max, Fallout, Fist of the Northstar, possibly future Terminator, Planet of the Apes?

Cyberpunk: Bladerunner, the Tekwar novels/TV series, Johnny Mnenomic, Bubblegum Crisis

We could, but will we?

Here's the list of what's been listed so far on the wiki. Works on boldface have either some content already written for them or a stated desire by an active writer to do something with them. Note how little boldface there is in the list.

• Counter-Earth #1: High Fantasy. Slayers, Record of Lodoss War / Rune Soldier Louie, Equestria, Orario and environs
  
• Counter-Earth #2: Post-Apocalypse. Mad Max, Olympus (anime Appleseed), Mega City 1 (Judge Dread), Fist of the Northstar
  
• Counter-Earth #3: Cyberpunk. Ghost in the Shell, Battle Angel Alita / Gunnm (probably CE #3, maybe CE #2 -- Whichever has more room for it.)
  
• Counter-Earth #4: Shiny-Happy. Starfleet Command (in San Francisco), South Ataria Island, Mu/RahXephon, Atlantis (in the middle of the "Bermuda Triangle": Disney's Atlantis, Stargate Atlantis, Aquaman's Atlantis).
  
• Counter-Earth #5: Metahumans. Marvel, DC, Worm, The Incredibles, Normalman, Darkwing Duck, the Zoo Crew, etc.
  

[Mamorien]

Would Thunderbolt Fantasy's Xī Yōu and Dōng Li fit the aesthetic of the high-fantasy earth?

[robkelk]

* robkelk looks on Wikipedia

Considering the High Fantasy Earth is an entire planet, I don't see why Thunderbolt Fantasy as a whole couldn't be dropped onto it.

Assuming, of course, that somebody's actually going to write stories about the place.

[robkelk]

Something for the High Fantasy Earth, as discussed in this week's Teams chat:


Lina Inverse, of the Lord-of-Nightmares Familia.


Followed by:

"I'm Rob Donaldson, of the Serenity Familia."

"Serenity? Nobody's seen her for 10,000 years!"

"Well, I'm talking about her daughter."

"Her what?"


EDIT: Oh, and I'll just quote this post from up-thread.

If we were doing seiyuu gags, we could have Mio end up in Orario during the "let's go explore the fantasy Earth" part of Arc 2... and by her voice alone be mistaken for the most powerful goddess in the city. (Her figure is close, too, but the hair colour's all wrong.)

[Bob Schroeck]

In response to Rob's post in the image thread referencing Mambo Counter-earth #5, it occurs to me that we should toss The Secret World of Alex Mack onto it as well, and maybe we can eventually get our own version of Terawatt...

[robkelk]

Did a bit of research on the Girls und Panzer school ships today. (Okay, I watched the GnP OAVs.)

Things that we know about Ooarai, as revealed in OAV 3: "School Ship War!"

• Grade school students attend classes on land; Hana assumes that this is because they're too young to be away from their families. The implication is that middle-school students attend classes aboard the school ships. And that means my earlier estimates as to how many students are present in the fleet were off by a factor of 1 - we have to double my estimate of three-quarters of a million to include the middle-school students. (The fact that the high school Student Council runs things implies that Ooarai doesn't have a university... but IRL the city of Ooarai doesn't have its own university, either.)
  
• Ooarai offers eight course streams at the high-school level: General, Ship (presumably "ship operation"). Intelligence, Tailoring, Nutrition, Engineering, Fisheries, and Agriculture. (Miho mentions an "Armored Forces Course", but goes on to say that Ooarai isn't Kuromorimine, implying that Kuromorimine has a cadet/ROTC program if we don't assume Miho was joking.)
  
• One of the students in the Ship course and seen on the flying bridge was Mako's classmate in middle school. This implies that students either do not specialize in middle school or can change from the general course to a specialized course when entering high school.
  
• Students in the Ship and Engineering courses do not pay tuition, but do serve an eight-hour shift keeping the ship ''Ooarai'' functional in addition to taking classes... which doesn't leave the Ship or Engineering students time to play sensha-do. However, Miho and Yukari both mention that other ships do things differently.
  
• Students in the Ship course have individual quarters, about the size of a frigate captain's quarters IRL.
  
• Agriculture and Fisheries are both carried out below decks. Fish are farmed in large tanks. Crops are grown in soil, under grow lamps; no hydroponics were shown.
  
• Water purification is also below-decks, and is shown to use the same large ponds/vats that cities on land use.
  
• Ships are modular, built from 300x300m blocks of various types. There is little coordination done regarding transit between blocks below decks; it is sometimes necessary to go topside to get from one block to the block next to it.
  
• Ooarai has a museum devoted to the history of the ship and the school. One of the exhibits is a 1/1000 scale model of the ship.
  
• Miho describes Ooarai as old, but well cared for.
  

[robkelk]

RE: Chikyū-no-Mau....  I can't find anything that gives Luna and Artemis any surnames.  Got a source?  Otherwise... Chikyū seems to be used in Japanese to refer to Earth as a proper noun, and not a generalized noun like "planet" would be.  At least, I haven't seen it used that way before.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

No source, which is why I fell back on "Mau of Earth" (and, for Diana, "Mao of the Moon of Earth") t distinguish them from Mau of other star systems.

Okay, that's what I thought.  It's just that it gets to be a real mouthful and that kinda bugs me.

Perhaps if we could do something about Mau being a dead world?

Maybe we can convince the Federation to dust off Project Genesis with the aim to revive planets rendered lifeless by Galaxia?  I mean, we do have Hotaru, but she'll need a few years to grow up all over again after each shot. 

"As much as I'd like to re-create the terraforming magic that made all of the terrestrial planets in the inner Solar system habitable, there simply isn't enough raw magic available to cast all of the spells we'd need."

Sakura Matou raised her hand. "I have access to a lot of power. If I draw on the Grail fragments that my stepfather forced into my body, my minimum draw is about the same as the output of one thousand Divine Busters."

(Hayate leaned over to Fate, and whispered, "Remind me to never get her upset with me.")

Which still won't be enough - Sakura Matou might have "effectively limitless" magic for normal use, but megaprojects on the scale of making entire worlds habitable would still drain her reserves... and she doesn't have any way to replenish those reserves in a normal human lifetime.And then there's the nature and cost of magic in any TYPE/MOON setting...

Maybe let Sakura test her ideas on a smaller solar system body first, say Ceres or Vesta.

"Hey!"

Oops... Sorry, Cere-Cere and Ves-Ves. Maybe let Sakura test her ideas on a much smaller solar system body without a Star Seed first.

[Black Aeronaut]

Did a bit of research on the Girls und Panzer school ships today. (Okay, I watched the GnP OAVs.)

Things that we know about Ooarai, as revealed in OAV 3: "School Ship War!"

• Grade school students attend classes on land; Hana assumes that this is because they're too young to be away from their families. The implication is that middle-school students attend classes aboard the school ships. And that means my earlier estimates as to how many students are present in the fleet were off by a factor of 1 - we have to double my estimate of three-quarters of a million to include the middle-school students. (The fact that the high school Student Council runs things implies that Ooarai doesn't have a university... but IRL the city of Ooarai doesn't have its own university, either.)
  

Wait.  I thought we already were including middle school students.  ??

• Ooarai offers eight course streams at the high-school level: General, Ship (presumably "ship operation"). Intelligence, Tailoring, Nutrition, Engineering, Fisheries, and Agriculture. (Miho mentions an "Armored Forces Course", but goes on to say that Ooarai isn't Kuromorimine, implying that Kuromorimine has a cadet/ROTC program if we don't assume Miho was joking.)
  

Honestly, it would not surprise me if at least some of the school ships had certain specialty tracks.  The Nishizumi House being what it is?  I'd be shocked if Kuromorimine didn't have a Military Cadet track.

Also, apparently whoever did the translation didn't know the right word.  What they wanted for "Ship" should be "Seamanship", as the entry level position on most ships is "Able-Bodied Seaman".

• One of the students in the Ship course and seen on the flying bridge was Mako's classmate in middle school. This implies that students either do not specialize in middle school or can change from the general course to a specialized course when entering high school.
  

This is actually how things are done in Japan.  You're expected to pick your track, usually in your second-year of middle school.  And once you do make that choice, you're stuck with it.  No pressure, huh? 

But generally speaking, there's usually only two tracks to choose from: either Humanities, or Academics.  (Thing is, they cram just about everything that a high school graduate here in the Americas has into their heads by the end of middle school.  This is why HS in Japan is NOT compulsory.  Just like in ye olden days, it's considered to be more like college prep.)

Apparently in GuP, they decided that there's room to expand given the nature of the school ships.

• Students in the Ship and Engineering courses do not pay tuition, but do serve an eight-hour shift keeping the ship ''Ooarai'' functional in addition to taking classes... which doesn't leave the Ship or Engineering students time to play sensha-do. However, Miho and Yukari both mention that other ships do things differently.
  

Unsurprising.  Oorai strikes me as the lower-middle-class sort of school of underdogs where they're reliant on the students to keep the ship running, and the families of said students can't afford the tuition rates of other school ships.  At any rate, I'll need to go and revise a couple of lines in A Night at Callahan's in light of this information.

• Students in the Ship course have individual quarters, about the size of a frigate captain's quarters IRL.
  

Again, no surprise to me.  Just like in the USN, Able-Bodied Seamen have long hours.  But since they're civies, their crews are nowhere nearly as large - weapon systems and high-power radars need a lot of upkeep, and modern merchant ships have a lot of power-equipment and automation to do the work of many men.  So they got room enough to give their bottom-rung people living conditions that are palatial compared to naval sailors.

• Agriculture and Fisheries are both carried out below decks. Fish are farmed in large tanks. Crops are grown in soil, under grow lamps; no hydroponics were shown.
  

Huh.  So everything on the weather deck is just there for the sake of recreation?

• Water purification is also below-decks, and is shown to use the same large ponds/vats that cities on land use.
  

Once again, no surprise here.

• Ships are modular, built from 300x300m blocks of various types. There is little coordination done regarding transit between blocks below decks; it is sometimes necessary to go topside to get from one block to the block next to it.
  

I'm going to assume that this is how they contain a hull breech should one ever occur.  As deep as the drafts on these ships are, the force of the water coming in through a breech can kill a person.  So standard operating procedure would probably be to evacuate the module, let it fill up, and then repair the breech.  Once that is taken care of, they can dewater the module, but I can imagine it'd be one hell of a clean up afterwards - and probably regarded as being similar to a natural disaster.

• Ooarai has a museum devoted to the history of the ship and the school. One of the exhibits is a 1/1000 scale model of the ship.
  
• Miho describes Ooarai as old, but well cared for.
  

And once again, no surprise here.  Given that the ship Oorai resides on is modeled after a WWII Japanese aircraft carrier, then this ship's history would date back to a similar time period.

RE: Chikyū-no-Mau....  I can't find anything that gives Luna and Artemis any surnames.  Got a source?  Otherwise... Chikyū seems to be used in Japanese to refer to Earth as a proper noun, and not a generalized noun like "planet" would be.  At least, I haven't seen it used that way before.  Please correct me if I'm wrong.

No source, which is why I fell back on "Mau of Earth" (and, for Diana, "Mao of the Moon of Earth") t distinguish them from Mau of other star systems.

Okay, that's what I thought.  It's just that it gets to be a real mouthful and that kinda bugs me.

Perhaps if we could do something about Mau being a dead world?

Maybe we can convince the Federation to dust off Project Genesis with the aim to revive planets rendered lifeless by Galaxia?  I mean, we do have Hotaru, but she'll need a few years to grow up all over again after each shot. 

"As much as I'd like to re-create the terraforming magic that made all of the terrestrial planets in the inner Solar system habitable, there simply isn't enough raw magic available to cast all of the spells we'd need."

Sakura Matou raised her hand. "I have access to a lot of power. If I draw on the Grail fragments that my stepfather forced into my body, my minimum draw is about the same as the output of one thousand Divine Busters."

(Hayate leaned over to Fate, and whispered, "Remind me to never get her upset with me.")

Which still won't be enough - Sakura Matou might have "effectively limitless" magic for normal use, but megaprojects on the scale of making entire worlds habitable would still drain her reserves... and she doesn't have any way to replenish those reserves in a normal human lifetime.And then there's the nature and cost of magic in any TYPE/MOON setting...

Maybe let Sakura test her ideas on a smaller solar system body first, say Ceres or Vesta.

"Hey!"

Oops... Sorry, Cere-Cere and Ves-Ves. Maybe let Sakura test her ideas on a much smaller solar system body without a Star Seed first.

Sheesh.  Magic doesn't have to be the answer to everything.  Like I said before, The United Federation of Planets has the perfect solution: Project Genesis.

Granted, that sucker is buried under so many levels of confidentiality that even high-ranking Admirals will have issues getting at it.  But I think that with some sweet talking, plus a friendly reminder that we now have much scarier things than Genesis to worry about (Oh, hello there Mister Deathstar!) they'll come around on the idea, and allow Genesis to be used on a very limited basis.

And, in order to sooth ruffled feathers because of how easy it is to use Genesis as a weapon, probably have it operated solely under the auspices of a multi-national operation that will include all the big players: Federation, Romulans, Klingons, Abh, Moon Empire, Jyurai...  Just to name a few.

[robkelk]

Did a bit of research on the Girls und Panzer school ships today. (Okay, I watched the GnP OAVs.)

Things that we know about Ooarai, as revealed in OAV 3: "School Ship War!"

• Grade school students attend classes on land; Hana assumes that this is because they're too young to be away from their families. The implication is that middle-school students attend classes aboard the school ships. And that means my earlier estimates as to how many students are present in the fleet were off by a factor of 1 - we have to double my estimate of three-quarters of a million to include the middle-school students. (The fact that the high school Student Council runs things implies that Ooarai doesn't have a university... but IRL the city of Ooarai doesn't have its own university, either.)
  

Wait.  I thought we already were including middle school students.  ??

Well... Ooarai's full name is 県立大洗女子学園 / Kenritsu Ōarai Joshi Gakuen / Ooarai Prefectural Girls High School, so I thought middle school wasn't included.

Other schools' full names:

• アンツィオ高校 / Antsio Kōkō / Anzio High School
  
• BC自由学園 / BC Jiyū Gakuen / BC Freedom Academy
  
• 知波単学園 / Chihatan Gakuen / Chihatan Academy
  
• 継続高校 / Keizoku Kōkō / Keizoku High School (a.k.a. "Jatkosota", depending on the source)
  
• 黒森峰女学園 / Kuromorimine Jogakuen / Kuromorimine Girls High School
  
• プラウダ高校 / Purauda Kōkō / Pravda High School
  
• サンダース大学付属高校 / Sandāsu Daigaku Fuzoku Kōkō / Saunders University High School
  
• 聖グロリアーナ女学院 / Sei Guroriāna Jogakuin / St. Gloriana Girls Academy
  

There's a lot of implying that the middle-schools and universities are elsewhere. Except for Saunders.

And, now that I'm looking at that list, I see that only Ooarai, Kuromorimine, and St. Gloriana are specifically listed as being girls' schools. The gender imbalance might not be nearly as bad as I thought originally.

• Ooarai offers eight course streams at the high-school level: General, Ship (presumably "ship operation"). Intelligence, Tailoring, Nutrition, Engineering, Fisheries, and Agriculture. (Miho mentions an "Armored Forces Course", but goes on to say that Ooarai isn't Kuromorimine, implying that Kuromorimine has a cadet/ROTC program if we don't assume Miho was joking.)
  

Honestly, it would not surprise me if at least some of the school ships had certain specialty tracks.  The Nishizumi House being what it is?  I'd be shocked if Kuromorimine didn't have a Military Cadet track.

Also, apparently whoever did the translation didn't know the right word.  What they wanted for "Ship" should be "Seamanship", as the entry level position on most ships is "Able-Bodied Seaman".

Considering Ooarai is a prefectural high school, I wouldn't be surprised if Agriculture and Fisheries were its specialty courses. The real-world high school appears to me (if Wikipedia can be believed) to be the equivalent of an A&M in the States or a Technical College in Ontario. (But, if that's the case, how do the larger school ships stay fed?)

"Ship" -> "Seamanship" is now fixed on the wiki's copy of this list. Thanks.

• Agriculture and Fisheries are both carried out below decks. Fish are farmed in large tanks. Crops are grown in soil, under grow lamps; no hydroponics were shown.
  

Huh.  So everything on the weather deck is just there for the sake of recreation?

Recreation and mental well-being. Mako mentions once that living below-decks 24x7 caused mental issues in some people.

And if you're carrying around your own parkland, you don't need to make port for crew leave quite as often. (You can't eliminate shore leave altogether - there are more places to go, people to see, and things to do on land than there are aboard ship - but we don't need to tell you that. )

• Ships are modular, built from 300x300m blocks of various types. There is little coordination done regarding transit between blocks below decks; it is sometimes necessary to go topside to get from one block to the block next to it.
  

I'm going to assume that this is how they contain a hull breech should one ever occur.  As deep as the drafts on these ships are, the force of the water coming in through a breech can kill a person.  So standard operating procedure would probably be to evacuate the module, let it fill up, and then repair the breech.  Once that is taken care of, they can dewater the module, but I can imagine it'd be one hell of a clean up afterwards - and probably regarded as being similar to a natural disaster.

Makes sense.

Sheesh.  Magic doesn't have to be the answer to everything.  Like I said before, The United Federation of Planets has the perfect solution: Project Genesis.

When all you have is a (magical) hammer...

As for using the Genesis Device, after Washuu-chan debugs it, please.

Unless somebody's planning on using Genesis Torpedoes against Deathstars and Basestars... but I have to agree with Dr. McCoy here about the morality of doing something like that.

[robkelk]

Speaking of the school ships...


"Hana, it's time to go."

"I'm not going."

Miho looked surprised at her friend's answer. "But we have a match with St. Gloriana. We need you in the Panzer."

"I'm not going. They can come here."

Saori sighed. "We all agreed that the match would be at Cowley Beach. The Australian Army was kind enough to let us hold a match there."

"You don't understand!" Hana's friends were taken aback at her outburst. "If we're ashore, and the school goes back home the same way it came here, we'll be stuck here! I want to go home! I want to see my mother again..." Hana started crying as her voice trailed off.

After a moment, Miho put her hand on Hana's shoulder. "Alright. You can stay here today. I'll ask Anzu or Aya to take over as our gunner today. But I want you to talk with other people who have ended up in this world while we're ashore."

"So they can convince me to give up hope?"

"No, so they can tell you how they're keeping their own hope alive." Miho forced herself to smile, then added in a whisper that only Hana could hear, "We all need to learn how to do that."

[Black Aeronaut]

Did a bit of research on the Girls und Panzer school ships today. (Okay, I watched the GnP OAVs.)

Things that we know about Ooarai, as revealed in OAV 3: "School Ship War!"

• Grade school students attend classes on land; Hana assumes that this is because they're too young to be away from their families. The implication is that middle-school students attend classes aboard the school ships. And that means my earlier estimates as to how many students are present in the fleet were off by a factor of 1 - we have to double my estimate of three-quarters of a million to include the middle-school students. (The fact that the high school Student Council runs things implies that Ooarai doesn't have a university... but IRL the city of Ooarai doesn't have its own university, either.)
  

Wait.  I thought we already were including middle school students.  ??

Well... Ooarai's full name is 県立大洗女子学園 / Kenritsu Ōarai Joshi Gakuen / Ooarai Prefectural Girls High School, so I thought middle school wasn't included.

Other schools' full names:

• アンツィオ高校 / Antsio Kōkō / Anzio High School
  
• BC自由学園 / BC Jiyū Gakuen / BC Freedom Academy
  
• 知波単学園 / Chihatan Gakuen / Chihatan Academy
  
• 継続高校 / Keizoku Kōkō / Keizoku High School (a.k.a. "Jatkosota", depending on the source)
  
• 黒森峰女学園 / Kuromorimine Jogakuen / Kuromorimine Girls High School
  
• プラウダ高校 / Purauda Kōkō / Pravda High School
  
• サンダース大学付属高校 / Sandāsu Daigaku Fuzoku Kōkō / Saunders University High School
  
• 聖グロリアーナ女学院 / Sei Guroriāna Jogakuin / St. Gloriana Girls Academy
  

There's a lot of implying that the middle-schools and universities are elsewhere. Except for Saunders.

And, now that I'm looking at that list, I see that only Ooarai, Kuromorimine, and St. Gloriana are specifically listed as being girls' schools. The gender imbalance might not be nearly as bad as I thought originally.

Something else to consider:

One may think that the schools and the ships are altogether a single entity.

But that's not the implication I'm getting.  Not when Oorai's ship is clearly stated to be Zuikaku and Kuromorimine's to be Graf Zeppelin.  With the schools being named as though they're separate entities from the ships they're on, I would think it is distinctly possible for there to be middle and even elementary schools.

Here's another way of looking at it that scans well from the Watsonian perspective:

The crew can't entirely be school girls.  There has to be adult faculty, staff, and seamen on these ships.  And as large as they are, saying that these people can't have their families aboard is absolutely ludicrous.  It'd be like as if the University of Texas banned the faculty from having their family living within five miles of the campus.

Which means that there absolutely would have to be not only a middle school, but also an elementary school.  If only for the children of their employees.

"But why do we not ever see any of these other children?"

Simple.  Most of everything we see is on the high school campus.  The middle and elementary schools have their own campuses, and be located in the residential district of the town on the weather deck.

For smaller, state-run schools like Oorai, the middle school would only be for the children of the employees.  But for larger, more affluent schools like Saunders, Kuromorimine, and St. Gloriana, I can easily see the middle schools being open for enrollment to all comers as well, and only the elementary school is reserved for the children of the employees.  We just don't hear much about them because sensha-do is only for the high schoolers.

• Ooarai offers eight course streams at the high-school level: General, Ship (presumably "ship operation"). Intelligence, Tailoring, Nutrition, Engineering, Fisheries, and Agriculture. (Miho mentions an "Armored Forces Course", but goes on to say that Ooarai isn't Kuromorimine, implying that Kuromorimine has a cadet/ROTC program if we don't assume Miho was joking.)
  

Honestly, it would not surprise me if at least some of the school ships had certain specialty tracks.  The Nishizumi House being what it is?  I'd be shocked if Kuromorimine didn't have a Military Cadet track.

Also, apparently whoever did the translation didn't know the right word.  What they wanted for "Ship" should be "Seamanship", as the entry level position on most ships is "Able-Bodied Seaman".

Considering Ooarai is a prefectural high school, I wouldn't be surprised if Agriculture and Fisheries were its specialty courses. The real-world high school appears to me (if Wikipedia can be believed) to be the equivalent of an A&M in the States or a Technical College in Ontario. (But, if that's the case, how do the larger school ships stay fed?)

Simple.  They also have their own farms.  But as agriculture/aquaculture isn't their focus, these are all maintained by adult employees.

Sheesh.  Magic doesn't have to be the answer to everything.  Like I said before, The United Federation of Planets has the perfect solution: Project Genesis.

When all you have is a (magical) hammer...

As for using the Genesis Device, after Washuu-chan debugs it, please.

Unless somebody's planning on using Genesis Torpedoes against Deathstars and Basestars... but I have to agree with Dr. McCoy here about the morality of doing something like that.

Yeah, weaponized uses will be strictly forbidden and considered a war crime.  And Washu-chan debugging it will definitely be part of the deal.  Though Dr. Carol Marcus will probably still be at the head of that effort, with Washu-chan only fulfilling the role of a consultant.  Which would fit, really.  Dr. Marcus is good at what she does, and she never had any ulterior motives with Genesis.

As for debugging...  Apparently that was in-part the fault of Dr. David Marcus, the son of Cpt. James Kirk and Dr. Carol Marcus.  Behind his mother's back, he included protomatter into the Genesis matrix and this played a major factor in the destabilization of the Genesis Planet.  The implication was that this was a quick-fix on the part of David in order to keep the project from stalling out and losing support from the Federation Council.

The other factor was theorized to be that the Genesis Planet was composed of elements of the Mutara Nebula, and not an actual pre-existing planet.

The first issue I think Washu-chan can definitely resolve.  The other is just a simple matter: don't use it on anything other than rocky planet, otherwise you risk introducing elements that can destabilize the Genesis Matrix.

[Black Aeronaut]

Okay, so with today's chat on Teams, people seemed receptive to the idea of the School Ships getting Handwaviumized, and subsequently going all Space Battleship Yamato on us....

...Minus the fuck-off-huge gun-o-doom.

The method for Handwavium getting into the setting in the first place will be because Doctors Doofenschmirtz and Dinosaur somehow found some and were using it for their used spaceship scheme.  (Use the Wave to turn landmark building that resemble spaceships into actual space ships, corner the market on used space ships just before the aliens start arriving.)  Thing is, they used Spindizzy drives and wound up creating unreal estate instead.  Oops.

As for why not the rest of Fenspace?  Well, because the authors are already there.  All you need is the Handwavium, yes/no?

At any rate, we never got around to exactly how it would happen, but with Handwavium?  It should always start out as an accident.

Although if a too-clever-for-their-own-good school girl decides she wanted to use Handwavium on her tank to get a leg-up on the competition....  Yeeeeaaaaahhhh, we've all seen enough anime to know where this is going. 

Thoughts?

[robkelk]

Although if a too-clever-for-their-own-good school girl decides she wanted to use Handwavium on her tank to get a leg-up on the competition....  Yeeeeaaaaahhhh, we've all seen enough anime to know where this is going. 

Come on, who would possibly do something that's against the spirit of sensha-do but not explicitly prohibited by the rules in order to get an unfair advantage?

Kay was furious. "Alisa! What the Hell did you do to that Firefly?"

[Bob Schroeck]

"And who's this Kayleigh girl working on the engine?" <grin>

EDIT: Questions for a future arc: What happens when you handwave an actual spaceship/starship? What does handwavium do to a hardtech FTL drive? Does handwavium have an "upper threshold" for the tech that it enhances?

[Black Aeronaut]

I would say that it may kick the efficiency up a few notches...

...But it is guaranteed to have a quirk afterwards, and the the risk will be fairly high that it will be something like one of the more outrageous quirks from the early days of Fenspace.

E.g.: if you were to 'Wave the warp core in the USS Enterprise (No A, B, C, D, or E) you'd need to be playing the suite from Star Trek: The Motion Picture in order to even get it going at all.  (Idle operation is just fine, but the moment they start calling for warp speed...)

[robkelk]

Ooh! I just discovered that Den-noh Coil is now available on Netflix... so I now have no hesitation for suggesting it be part of the cyberpunk world. High concept: Kids treat their augmented-reality glasses the way they treat everything else technological, having fun while looking for loopholes in the rules. It's a drama. (No, really, it's a drama.)

I shan't spoil it for you - I'll just say that (a) there's a Very Good Reason why the "One Steve Limit" is ignored for two of the lead characters, and (b) patience and an eye for detail are rewarded.

[Black Aeronaut]

Sudden realization:

Youthened Benjamin is going to be such a goddamned keet that you're either gonna adore him or hate his guts.

In fact, some of the girls will wonder why they adore him...  And like as if that sends out some sort of sub-etheric signal, Ben goes and does something utterly heart-melting for them and they're left going, "Oh.  Right.  That's why."

[Black Aeronaut]

Once again, closing this thread in light of my pending departure from the setting.

New thread here:
http://www.accessdenied-rms.net/forums/s...?tid=14365