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Bluemage Wrote:Rob: ...I'd've recognized Vivio's eyes right off, and been a bit more careful. As for Nanoha, I like to think I'd've either recognized her hair, her voice, or Raising Heart in inactive mode.
As for your predictions, well, I think I have that Xanatos pic somewhere around here... Nanoha has changed her hairdo before - compare her in A's and Strikers, for example. And if she's wearing a pendant under her uniform, Raising Heart wouldn't be visible at all.
The voice... yeah, I'll grant you that one.
(As for my predictions, I'm just goofing around...)
--
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
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I am currently at the beach, on a vacation. Upside is that I have more writing time. The downside is that I've hit the point where I actually need to do research... and some days are taken up actually *doing* things.
CD: I didn't sneak anything past the captain. Couldn't, even if I wanted to. The thing is that everything I told her is utterly true, and the reasons for it are logical, very practical, and easily proven by looking at me for more than a minute or two.
Of course, I didn't tell her everything, and what I didn't tell her is equally true... if a good bit less practical.
Rob: Point. Several of them. Well-made ones, too. ^^
**********
Entry 14 (Day 6)
Well, I learned a few things today.
First, this universe either doesn't run on narrative conventions, or has me locked so far in the 'offscreen nonentity' category that it doesn't bother applying them. How do I know? Well, for one thing, nobody was around when I did my Ryoga impression. For another, I wasn't standing next to my quarters... or the infirmary. It's not proof positive, but a strong indication.
I didn't bump into another crewman for twenty minutes after that. The crew density on this ship is amazingly low.
Second, dimensional cruisers are the best places to live. Once I found a member of the crew to ask for directions, it was a five minute walk to my temporary quarters (which, I'm glad to say, were not in any of the places I'd wandered through), after which I immediately fell in love.
What kind of military organization puts a genuine shower- an extra-large shower with unlimited hot water and six shower heads, no less- in every single set of quarters? What kind of military gives every crewman a queen-sized bed all to themselves? Apparently, this one.
Sure, it was a basic, three-room suite, but this little suite was better than any hotel room I'd ever been in on Earth.
Did I mention it had a SHOWER?
(As best I can tell, my skin is a good bit more naturally oily than most. I have to scrub harder than most people, I muck up touchscreens a good bit quicker than J. Random Techie, and I can utterly destroy certain types of dye. You have no idea how many blue shirts I've had to retire because they went orange around the collar. Destroyed one in two days. No joke.
Side effect is that I can't go without a shower for more than about a day before I start to feel grody. I was trapped on that planet for six, with only one dunk in a river midway through. Do the math.)
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I've been writing a bit.
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So far, still great. Quote:(As best I can tell, my skin is a good bit more naturally oily than most. I have to scrub harder than most people, I muck up touchscreens a good bit quicker than J. Random Techie, and I can utterly destroy certain types of dye. You have no idea how many blue shirts I've had to retire because they went orange around the collar. Destroyed one in two days. No joke.
As this is an SI, I presume this is straight from life. I have a similar problem, possibly a bit worse. I have to buy titanium glasses because the temples on anything else rots away in a year. My sweat can polish brass to a mirror sheen and turn white cotton yellow-brown (although I've never bleached out a dye).
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
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I find myself in need of a second viewpoint on something that's going to come up later in the story. Nothing big, really- just a few lines that need to flow a bit better. I'd post them in the thread, but it'll be a while before they're relevant... and they're just a *teensy* bit spoilery...
Bob: Yes, this is entirely IRL truth, and I can't quite bleach shirts. What I can do is royally ruin a lot of the cheaper dyes. It mostly happens with darker colors... which is a real pain, since my wardrobe is mostly various shades of blue and black.
The odd bit is that the shirt I destroyed in two days was gray, and not a particularly dark shade of it. Bits of it turned safety orange.
You have my sympathies, and my thanks for the approval.
Since I swore to myself never to post in this thread without posting a bit more story, here's the next few paragraphs. I would've posted a bit more, but that seemed like a good place to leave off.
**********
45 minutes later, I felt human again. No- better than that. I'd left cloud nine behind half an hour ago, and was rapidly approaching cloud 6.02*10^23. Combine that with TSAB laundry technology (your clothes ready to wear in half an hour, or it's free!), and I felt like a new man.
...yeah, that lasted until my infirmary visit.
It wasn't the trip there. Only took fifteen minutes, and I only had to ask for directions once. It wasn't the physical. Mid-Childan medical tech is good enough that they were able to get a complete workup on me in about a minute and a half, without any actual physical examinations.
Huh. Wonder why they still call it a 'physical', then. Guess it's like how we 'dial' numbers.
The bit that got to me was when the ship's doctor came into the exam room, handed me a clipboard, and, in a very professional (one might even say 'clinical') tone of voice, let me know that I'd never amount to anything as a mage.
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Hm, well, that is a bummer, but in a magical society that just means you aren't good enough to count it as a job skill. Minor stuff may still be within your reach, and just a candle-size flame would have been a big help to you less than a day before. A raindrop-deflecting or tinder-drying one too.
And then there's the use of small-d magical devices...
Even if all you can do is effectively D&D cantrips, that's still worth the effort to learn.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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Am I remembering my constants correctly? Cloud Avogadro's Number? Anyway, I concur with CD, if a bit more cautiously: find out exactly what "never amount to anything as a mage" means before giving up on simple cantrips. And even if you will never cast the simplest spell, that doesn't necessarily prevent you from doing artifice.
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No takers on fixing that spoilery bit? Nobody?
On the Issue of Magic Potential: Remember that I'm drawing a fairly distinct line here between things I'm writing down, events the ROB is recording for the reader, and communication from inside the 'verse to the readers. "Never amount to anything" was how I wrote it down in my journal file- it wasn't what I was told.
Proginoskes: Yes, you are.
It was a *good* shower.
**********
The doctor used a lot of medical technobabble, but what it boils down to is that I'm a squib- an F-rank mage, in Mid-Childan terms. I have a linker core, but it's smaller and weaker than the minimum cutoff for a D-rank mage- too small, in fact, to actually cast any spells. I can operate civilian magitech (specifically, nothing more demanding than home or office equipment), and that's it.
She then proceeded to explain that the size of one's linker core was determined by genetics, age, and magical training. Apparently, the way to maximize your magical potential was to start training someplace around six years old, and continue doing so for the next fifteen years or so. Once you leave puberty, the size of your core is basically fixed.
Essentially, what she told me was that if I'd pulled a Nanoha, I might be an A-rank mage right now.
I left the infirmary in a funk, moping my way back towards my temporary quarters. Can't rightly say what happened on the way back- all my mindwidth was turned inward, save for the minimum necessary to keep moving without running into things.
My thought process started at I got dumped into a fictional universe full of magic, and I can't use any of it. How fair is that? It didn't take long for it to go through life isn't fair- deal with it and I could probably get a job doing non-magey things and live quite comfortably, detour past if all else fails, I could always go back to Earth, and arrive at an ultimate destination of SCREW THAT NOISE I'M GETTING MAGIC SOMEHOW.
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Now, I've never seen any Nanoha, but my understanding is that there's at least some environmental mana. If the crossover fics haven't lied to me, drawing on ambient mana is part of how the Starlight Breaker can be so huge. Another thing I've picked up is the existence of "Cartridges", consumable mana sources (like magic alkali batteries). If you can't cast anything yourself, you can build the tools. Or build the tools to build the tools, if necessary.
EDIT: Because I think in terms of Magic: the Gathering, I'll phrase it thus: just because you can't cast spells doesn't mean that you can't activate abilities, even if you do have to build the artifacts with the abilities the hard way (and beg, borrow, or steal as many Moxen and Lotuses as you can manage, since the M:tG equivalent of "unable to generate mana" would be something like "unable to form mana bonds with lands").
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I would gladly help with your beta problems, but don't have a text editor or cut & paste ability, and have mentioned my sharply limited text box length on several occasions by now. As for last story segment...
The only thing left is to turn zero point zero one percent into one zero zero percent, exclamation point, with HARD WORK AND GUTS!! Keep your spirit up, because the key to that transformation is rejecting 'period' for 'excamation!' RUN INTO THAT GLORIOUS SPRINGTIME WITH THE FULL POWER OF YOUTH!
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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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.
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Quote: 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.
America is not the usual when it comes to college fees - by far. Though there's always a Tour of Duty in the military as enlisted as another option - get them to pay for your training. Especially since you're unlikely to see frontline combat, or have to spend decades since you're not going career.
Quote: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.
Paging Doctor Scaglietti?
Or going Book of Darkness -hunting, depending on the era. If I put my Spacebattles hat on for a moment - getting hold of the book might be your best option for power. You already know how to do it right anyway. Tome of the Night Sky solves anything.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
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Yes, I'm afraid it's true. Only harsh, life risking training can possibly let you catch up now.
It will be tough!
It will be painful!
You'll want to quit, but once you begin there is no exit but straight ahead!
You may even want to die, but YOU DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO DIE!
There is only one option: PERSISTANCE!
There is only one outcome: SUCCESS!
SIEZE THE UNIVERSE BY THE THROAT WITH YOUR TEETH, UNTIL IT YIELDS UP ITS MAGICAL LIFEBLOOD!
NOW LET ME HEAR!
YOUR!
HOOOWL!!
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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ClassicDrogn Wrote:Yes, I'm afraid it's true. Only harsh, life risking training can possibly let you catch up now.
It will be tough!
It will be painful!
You'll want to quit, but once you begin there is no exit but straight ahead!
You may even want to die, but YOU DO NOT HAVE PERMISSION TO DIE!
There is only one option: PERSISTANCE!
There is only one outcome: SUCCESS!
SIEZE THE UNIVERSE BY THE THROAT WITH YOUR TEETH, UNTIL IT YIELDS UP ITS MAGICAL LIFEBLOOD!
NOW LET ME HEAR!
YOUR!
HOOOWL!! Break through the barriers!
Reach for the heavens!
Become the best mage Mid-childa has ever seen!
Who The Hell Do They Think You Are?!
Or not. It's your story, after all...
--
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
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Well, of course it is, and so far it has yet to dissapoint, but the scary-old-grandmaster/drill sargeant bit is what come to mind from the last post. Well, that or getting deaged like Vivio in reverse through SCIENCE! so his linker core returns to a more malleable state, possibly also becoming outwardly appropriately aged to join the canon cast from the beginning as well. There's a number of other options also, but those two are the lulziest, so they're what I reach for as a kibbutzer/comic relief.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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Dartz: You really are a SBer. You know that, don't you?
Also, we really know nothing about the worlds of dimensional space, outside of the TSA organization. I figure the cost of education depends on economic factors, so the sort of economy you have will determine the sort of schooling you see, which determines the costs.
I'm sort of envisioning a world that's half megacorps and half artisans. Individual skill matters, and you can do quite well by learning tech skills yourself, looking up lessons over their Internet-equivalent, and then putting them to use in a small shop of your own. On the other hand, you can go to an accredited school, get a job at a large company, and do quite well for yourself there.
The problem is that I'm used to the second approach, so that biased my search criteria.
As for the military... how would that work? I'm literally incapable of operating a Device- and Device-tech has replaced the gun, the radio, and the computer in all military applications. I'm not qualified to serve as anything more than something like 3rd Assistant Potato-Peeler.
CD: ^^
I don't really do hot blood, myself. I'd rather freeze the enemy than burn them.
You were standing too close to the ice that's forming/Colder than the void past the edges of the sky/
...come to think of it, there is a distinct shortage of SI fic where the protagonist goes the way of the Trolling Old Grandmaster, ala Lu-Tze. Somebody needs to remedy that, and by 'somebody', I mean 'not me'. Maybe. :3 Rob: Same issue with the whole 'hot-blooded' thing. That, and 'the best' is a Dangerous Thing To Be.
That's the way of the Mary Sue, that is.
If I get any sort of combat ability, there will ALWAYS be a Bigger Fish. Probably a school of them. After all, we all know Rule #1 of this 'verse (you know, the one about the efficacy of anything else vs. pink beams of Befriending).
**********
Entry 16 (Day 8)
My plans are IN MOTION! MOOHOOHAHA!
...as fun as that was, it's not all that appropriate. What I've done so far was actually extremely low-key... honestly, rather boring stuff. From what I know of real spycraft, I suppose I should consider that a good sign.
I departed the Preta this morning wearing a hoodie I'd gotten out of a convenient supplies replicator (yes, they have those out here), with the hood up and my shades on. I had very deliberately picked a dark navy blue color, so that the wire for my favorite earbuds would stand out against it- with any luck, headphones plus hoodie plus audible music coming from under the hood would still equal 'person who isn't paying you any attention', even in dimensional space.
Turns out this was a good thing. There was a guy hanging out at the disembark point, as close as civilians are (normally) permitted to get, badgering everybody as they went by. If I had to guess, he was either looking for somebody, or selling something. All it took was for me to cock my head, give him a quizzical look, and shrug, and he moved on in disgust.
I'd hate to be the guy he was looking for. That'd be rough.
Anyway, the first stage of The Plan(tm) was to sell my car. If everything worked out, I'd no longer need it... and if the plan didn't work out, I wouldn't be able to use it. Either way, I'd need the money.
I'd put the car up for sale (Bless you, administrated worlds, for doing most business online) twelve hours before reaching Karnarog. Two hours before landing, I received a message from a local collector, expressing a desire to see the vehicle. Ten minutes later, we'd agreed to meet at the spaceport, so I could take him wherever the TSAB chose to stow my car when they offloaded it.
Five minutes after the guy saw my car, I was the proud owner of a couple thousand credits. My research suggested that the credit was a much stronger currency than the dollars I was used to- that that couple thousand I'd been given was fairly close, in buying power, to $7500. Plenty for what I needed.
Stage II was to secure temporary housing. Anybody who's ever booked a hotel room online knows how easy that was. Got a room at the local equivalent of Holiday Inn- fifteen credits a night, with a thirty-cred deposit. The lodgings on the Preta were better- by far!- but it'd work.
The third stage of the plan took a bit longer. I'd done a bit of research into civilian magitech in the Nanohaverse, and there was good news and bad news. The good news was that they made devices (small-d devices) that'd do what I needed done. The bad news was that none of them were compatible with any of the Earth-tech I was carrying. I'd have to borrow or buy a local computer, as well.
The local shopping district was inconveniently far away from my temporary digs- too far to walk, anyway- so I decided to give the local taxi service a try. One credit and twenty minutes later, and I was walking through a seven-story shopping mall, rubbernecking like mad, trying to take it all in.
Robotaxis: the only way to fly.
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Ok, so 2000 credits equals ~ $7500. That means it is roughly a 1C to $3.75 exchange rate.
![[Image: words_for_small_sets.png]](http://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/words_for_small_sets.png)
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I think that chart is kind of out of order - few footpads will slice your throat for a couple of coins, but the probability increases with a few or a handful, up to being quite likely to get something severed for several of them. Of course, in a civilized place like an Administrated World that's nothing you need to worry about! Why, they don't even USE mass-based weapons like blades!
I look forward with interest to Phase II of operation Phenominal Cosmic Power. (Mission Impossible theme: playing)
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
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ClassicDrogn Wrote:I think that chart is kind of out of order - few footpads will slice your throat for a couple of coins, but the probability increases with a few or a handful, up to being quite likely to get something severed for several of them. Of course, in a civilized place like an Administrated World that's nothing you need to worry about! Why, they don't even USE mass-based weapons like blades!
I look forward with interest to Phase II of operation Phenominal Cosmic Power. (Mission Impossible theme: playing) Considering the description of the hotel room, shouldn't that be "Phenomenal Cosmic Power, Itty-Btty Living Space"?
--
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Yeah, Magic: the Gathering is not a suitable basis for analogy, except for drawing a distinction between spells (things you do) and abilities (things your stuff does).
If Jewel Seeds are the only items that can power artifacts without a mage actively channeling it, that's a problem. But if "robotaxi" means what I think it does (no driver), that doesn't seem to be the case. I was basically assuming that building robotaxis doesn't require spellcasting ability, and suggesting that you go into that kind of craft in the "bespoke custom" niche.
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Jorlem: I'm one of those people who use the other definition of 'a couple' as an expression of number. For me, it could be anything from 2-4.
The point is that I have a fairly large amount of money. I can't afford any purchases that require a lot of money, and I can afford a few purchases that require a fairly small amount. If something comes along that costs an awful lot of money, I'm out of luck.
CD/Rob: You ain't never read a fic like mine. :3
Proginoskes:
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Bluemage Wrote:CD/Rob: You ain't never read a fic like mine. :3 That's what I'm counting on.
Bluemage Wrote:The best way to describe an Aldjthaam's is that it's half Apple Store, and half warehouse. There's a set of desks out in the front section of the store- each one liberally covered in computers of all sorts, from desktops to wristcomps. Behind that is a set of registers, spanning the width of the store. Most of the product is kept behind the registers- when you buy something, your cashier walks back into the shelves to find and retrieve your purchases. You don't see stores like that very often any more, in any specialty... but I rather like the style. (There's a hand-tool, garden-equipment, and hardware store in Ottawa like that, and they've received a fair amount of my money - mainly because they sell top-quality goods at reasonable prices. They have http://leevalley.com/]a website, but the experience isn't the same.) I'll bet story-you spent a fair chunk of that day just browsing the store.
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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
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(imagines playing a Xenosaga-ish magitech rpg in immersive 3d)
(drools)
Completely understandable. What good is having reality-warping power if you're too busy working on it to have fun, after all? That's a recipe for disaster, that is.
I am wondering if we'd see that guy from the spaceport in the crowds if this was animated, though...
(pay no attention to the green and blue haired teens climbing out of the dogfight sim pods, they're just a shout out)
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows
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Oh, I was never suggesting that artifice could let you match a proper Mage. But weaksauce or not, I was thinking that artifice still counts as a kind of magic. Of course, you clarified that: it's beyond your resources, and you would always be mediocre compared to a spellcasting-capable artificer anyway. Not so appealing.
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Bluemage.... while I can appreciate your desire to include some story with every response, it's a little bit offputting when the A/N are longer. To be honest, I'd prefer more story content per post, than more posts with story content.
Also. Jewel Seeds? Drones. This is going to end dangerously.
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Rob: There's an electronics place nearby that does the 'walk in, tell them what you want, and they get it for you' bit. Based it off of them. I'm rather a fan.
CD: His own scene, actually. :3
Also, they're their best customers. ^~^
Dartz: It bothers me, too. I usually try to keep the story:AN ratio above 1:1, at least.
I picked that much story because it was the end of the journal entry, but then I just sort of got carried away writing that response, and...
Let's just say it wasn't planned. Also, once the setup bits get done, the chapters get bigger. Substantially bigger.
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Entry 17 (Day 9)
Well, that was a day. I woke up at a civilized hour (1000 hours, not that crazy 0600 I had to deal with on Earth), grabbed a bowl of cereal, and sat down with one of my newest acquisitions- another laptop computer. Unlike the one I came here with, the one I was using then was compatible with Nanohaverse 'tech, both magical and not. I started by writing out everything I could remember about a few key events, people, and artifacts.
Ten minutes later, I growled in frustration, fired my Earth laptop up, and went digging. Two minutes after that, I was grinning like a loon.
I ended up transiting into this 'verse with everything in my car. This included my work laptop, which I was taking home for the night. For most people, that'd be pretty much useless, but I'm sort of a computer nut, a big fan of redundant offline storage, and an inveterate packrat. My work laptop is a 12" notebook with two high-capacity SSDs in it. It has a backup of all my files. ALL OF THEM.
Did I say I was grinning like a loon? That's not quite right. I was LAUGHING MANIACALLY.
A few hours later, I'd completed my notes, and hooked my local laptop up to the rest of my tech purchases, setting up some file transfers and scheduled tasks. While that got set up, I pulled out my best USB flash drive, wiped it clean, and tried to drop a massive pile of data onto it.
...too massive, actually. I had to drop six files from the transfer to make it work. With any luck, it'll be enough.
By the time my USB key was full, the rest of my toys had finished setting up. Humming a cheerful little song, I gathered them all up in a bag, put on my hoodie, earbuds, and shades, and set out on a very enthusiastic walk.
My Unitarian Jihad Name is: Brother Atom Bomb of Courteous Debate. Get yours.
I've been writing a bit.
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