[RFC/discussion] Shuttles in Fenspace 1 - the Three Graces

[M Fnord]

Branching the Shuttle discussion off the TSAB thread, here's my incomplete proposal for the original NASA Shuttles (barring any replicas, mockups, new builds or whatever). I've tried to strip the wikicode out of this stuff to the point where it's readable, so bear with me.
The Three Graces
created by Sean Breen, with help from many others
Registry Numbers: OV-103, OV-104, OV-105
Base Hull: Rockwell International Space Shuttle Orbiter
Drive Type: Speed (handwavium impulse engine)
Drive Rating: Max velocity 0.05c
Owner of Record: United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Flag of Record: United States of America
Home Port: Kennedy Space Center, Titusville, Florida
Purpose: Scientific research vessel
Launched:
* 30 September 2013 (OV-105)
* 28 January 2014 (OV-103)
* 30 April 2014 (OV-104)
Crew: Varies according to crew rotation schedule
Supplementary Crew:
* $name (AI, MS-0, OV-103)
* $name (AI, MS-0, OV-104)
* $name (AI, MS-0, OV-105)
Faction: 'Danelaw (United States)
Status: Under Discussion
"The Three Graces" is the informal nickname for the handwaved NASA Space Shuttle fleet.
===== History =====
The three surviving operational NASA Shuttles (OV-103 //Discovery//, OV-104 //Atlantis// and OV-105 //Endeavour//) were grounded after the official completion of the International Space Station in 2010. Calls from the public, space industry experts, the astronaut corps and even certain Fenspace factions to have the Orbiters refit with handwavium were officially regarded as "not cost-effective." Unofficially, NASA management was interested in applying handwavium to the Orbiters as a way to keep their hand in the game. Unfortunately for NASA, the Transrationality Science Assesment Bureau controlled all government supplies of pure handwavium, and TSAB's Air Force patrons were unwilling to let NASA have access.
The three Orbiters remained in long-term storage at Kennedy Space Center until 2012, when an anonymous dontation(1) of 100 gallons of //Hephaestus//'s best structural handwavium and a pint of Memnosyne's Honey.
===== Known Quirks =====
The Graces, having all been handwaved (more or less) at the same time, with (more or less) identical equpiment and (more or less) the same handwavium strains, actually manage to approach something of a uniform consistency. The individual Orbiters have their own quirks, of course, but at the same time the Graces //as a class// have several defined quirks.
==== Class Quirks ====
* foo
* bar
* baz
==== Vehicle Quirks (Discovery) ====
* Falling Free: When the Orbiter is powered up, the crew cabin and main cargo bay are zero-g areas, even when //Discovery// is on the ground.
* foo
* bar
==== Vehicle Quirks (Atlantis) ====
* foo
* bar
* baz
==== Vehicle Quirks (Endeavour) ====
* foo
* bar
* baz
===== Stories =====
The Three Graces have been featured in the following stories:
* foo
* bar
* baz
(1): The donation coinciding with the Soviet Air Force visit to KSC on Yuri's Night 2012 being a massive coincidence, of course.
---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[robkelk]

The timing doesn't match what I proposed over in the TSAB thread. Obviously we're going to have to decide just what happened to NASA, and when...

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==== Class Quirks ====

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* Good Morning Starshine: When in space, each Shuttle has to have a different song played to it at the beginning of each working day. If it doesn't get its wake-up call from home, it's sluggish for the entire morning, with maneuverability and top speed reduced by 5% (cumulative per day the wake-up music is missed, to a maximum of 75% reductions in maneuverability and top speed). The song has to be different each day.

---

==== Vehicle Quirks (Atlantis) ====

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* Platonic Ideal: The Atlantis uses less fuel than expected whenever anyone on board is giving an allegorical philosophical lecture. It uses no fuel at all if the lecture is given in Greek //and// incorporates elements of the Atlantis allegory.

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(1): The donation coinciding with the Soviet Air Force visit to KSC on Yuri's Night 2012 being a massive coincidence, of course.

---

Of course. Let's also not mention the Yuri's Night celebrations on the Island, paid for by Starfleet, Stellvia Corp., and the Heinlein Society, that the TSAB bigwigs were invited to so they wouldn't be groundside to interfere with this "coincidence"...

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
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

[M Fnord]

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The timing doesn't match what I proposed over in the TSAB thread. Obviously we're going to have to decide just what happened to NASA, and when...

---

I'm starting to think in the long term we ought to do with NASA what Gryphon did with the USAF over yonder in UF. (Or closer to home, what we're doing with the Stingray here.) Don't see any compelling reason it wouldn't work.

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* Good Morning Starshine:

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Now that is a quintessential NASA quirk.

---

Of course. Let's also not mention the Yuri's Night celebrations on the Island, paid for by Starfleet, Stellvia Corp., and the Heinlein Society, that the TSAB bigwigs were invited to so they wouldn't be groundside to interfere with this "coincidence"...

---

"We are but the spearhead of a vast conspiracy."
"Conspiracy?"
"The Ancient Illuminated Seers of Fenspace. And we like you guys, which is why we're doing this in the first place."---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Kokuten]

suggest we bulk-move the entire "Space Shuttle Bit", as it's stored in my brain, to 2011.

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I'm starting to think in the long term we ought to do with NASA what Gryphon did with the USAF over yonder in UF. (Or closer to home, what we're doing with the Stingray here.) Don't see any compelling reason it wouldn't work.

---

Explain, please? I don't get it.

---

Here Begin Submitted Ship Bits

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Drive Type: Speed (handwavium impulse engine, cola/uncola reactor)
Drive Rating: Max velocity 0.05c
Supplementary Crew:
* Discovery (AI, MS-0, OV-103)
* Atlantis (AI, MS-0, OV-104)
* Endeavour (AI, MS-0, OV-105)

==== Class Quirks ====
* Tough Old Bird: The specifications for the Graces are well-founded in reality. However, any of the three can exceed these specifications to approximately 10% overage, or further with severe risks of damage to the system in question (or chassis)
* I Am My Ride: The Graces all have fairly well developed AI, but they have all taken the names of the orbiters they inhabit. Atlantis and Endeavour use early-twenties blonde and early-thirties brunette female avatars, respectively, and Discovery uses a 19 year old brunette male avatar. All have bright blue eyes.
==== Vehicle Quirks (Atlantis) ====
* The Atlantis AI is the most intellectual of the Graces, except for her belief in the Lost Continent of Atlantis, and her voracious appetite for media and leads on same.
* //Atlantis// enjoys the occasional dip in saltwater, especially if she's managed to find a 'hot lead' for the 'old country'
==== Vehicle Quirks (Endeavour) ====
* Back In The Body Shop Again: Endeavour is the most aggressive, the hardest charging, the most foolhardy of the Graces, and as such, is in the body-and-fender shop frequently enough for it to have become a joke.
* I don't know art, but I know what I like: Art!: Endeavour is a flirt - and fond of bad puns besides. Punning contests can reduce her fuel consumption by as much as 50%Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[M Fnord]

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Explain, please? I don't get it.

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Oy. Okay, this takes a bit of knowledge of the Undocumented Features universe to really grasp, but I shall try to explain it. Basically, somebody over on the Eyrie boards was on (as usual) about a small point of trivia in one of the UF stories. The point being that the Navy, not the Air Force, was the key American space defense force. So this guy asks "what happened to the USAF?"
And Gryphon - and if he's anything like me, he's making fiddly detail like this up on the fly - responds "they ran away to join the circus." Less cryptically, after getting snubbed for space defense the USAF packed up all their gear & personnel and joined the Wedge Defense Force en masse.
What does this rambling bullshit have to do with Fenspace and NASA? Well... if Gryph can pull that stunt in his sandbox, I don't see why NASA couldn't run away and join the circus too.

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* I Am My Ride: The Graces all have fairly well developed AI, but they have all taken the names of the orbiters they inhabit. Atlantis and Endeavour use early-twenties blonde and early-thirties brunette female avatars, respectively, and Discovery uses a 19 year old brunette male avatar. All have bright blue eyes.

---

Avatar ages don't feel right, there. Discovery and Atlantis were built simultaneously, so they ought to be twins (identical, fraternal, whatever) and Endeavour ought to be the younger one.
(I know way too much about these things than is probably healthy for anybody not working for NASA.)---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Kokuten]

---

And Gryphon - and if he's anything like me, he's making fiddly detail like this up on the fly - responds "they ran away to join the circus." Less cryptically, after getting snubbed for space defense the USAF packed up all their gear & personnel and joined the Wedge Defense Force en masse.

---

Ahhh..
We're a bit too much into the fiddly detail to pull that off - It's Only A Show, You Should Really Just Relax doesn't fly over here, I don't think.
And in fiddly-mode, there could be big _defections_, but the organization as a whole would not be hip to this. Too many stuffed shirts and Normal Joes weighing down the free spirits willing to ditch mortgage+ car payment and head for orbit..

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Avatar ages don't feel right, there. Discovery and Atlantis were built simultaneously, so they ought to be twins (identical, fraternal, whatever) and Endeavour ought to be the younger one.

---

* I Am My Ride: The Graces all have fairly well developed AI, but they have all taken the names of the orbiters they inhabit. Atlantis and Discovery use 19 year old blonde and brunette female avatars, respectively, while Endeavour has chosen to represent himself as a 16 year old hispanic male.
* There's not much wardrobe space up here: Discovery uses a full suite of 'clothing', and prefers attractive, yet modest business formal clothing. Atlantis and Endeavour are almost always in NASA-style jumpsuits, and Discovery 'wears' one as well when she's 'working'.
Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[Feinan]

*chuckles* I'm not exactly sure where the pint of honey came from....but I'd have been perfectly willing to have donated it towards the project, to get the shuttles back to space. *grin* Besides, we've got the Fates. Having the Graces around would be good, too. *snicker* Anybody got any ideas for the Muses?
As for the morning song....may I suggest Atlantis Rising by Joe Ellis for Atlantis' theme song? You can hear a 2 minute sample of it here: cdbaby.com/cd/joeellis
--Feinan
Atlantis rising, what once was bound is now set free.
Atlantis rising, a tool of mankind's destiny.
What once cold water had destroyed, on scalding steam's now borne.
By burning knowledge have the bonds of ignorance been shorn.

[robkelk]

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Atlantis and Discovery use 19 year old blonde and brunette female avatars, respectively

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Can we swap these off, pease? There aren't too many blonde Greeks, after all...
-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
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

[robkelk]

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Anybody got any ideas for the Muses?

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Hmmmmm... First off, let's list them:
* Calliope (Chief of the muses and muse of epic or heroic poetry)
* Clio (muse of history)
* Erato (muse of love or erotic poetry, lyrics, and marriage songs)
* Euterpe (muse of music and lyric poetry)
* Melpomene (muse of tragedy)
* Polyhymnia or Polymnia (muse of sacred song, oratory, lyric, singing and rhetoric)
* Terpsichore (muse of choral song and dance)
* Thalia (muse of comedy and bucolic poetry)
* Urania (muse of astronomy)
Clio is no doubt associated somehow with the Inelegant Truth, whether they know it or not...

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As for the morning song....may I suggest Atlantis Rising by Joe Ellis for Atlantis' theme song?

---

One of the morning songs, certainly. (The song has to be different each day.)

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
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

[Foxboy]

Could the "Muses" be ships that may not be directly linked, but are commonly held to be "famous/infamous" like the Seven Wonders of the World?
That is each ship and/or its crew are so strongly identified with one of the Muse concepts that they count until someone creates nine ships that fit the bill better?
For Example, I see Candy Apple Red's being identified as Erato.
And let's not forget the "Tenth Muse," Sappho.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[robkelk]

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Could the "Muses" be ships that may not be directly linked, but are commonly held to be "famous/infamous" like the Seven Wonders of the World?

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An informal recognition system? Hmmmmm... this has possibilities.
* Calliope - Ptichka
* Clio - the Inelegant Truth
* Erato - Candy Apple Red's
* Euterpe - ?
* Melpomene - Crystal Osaka
* Polyhymnia - ?
* Terpsichore - ?
* Thalia - ?
* Urania - Miranda
* Sappho - the White Stallion

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
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

[M Fnord]

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Can we swap these off, pease? There aren't too many blonde Greeks, after all...

---

RFC:
* I Am My Ride: The Graces all have fairly well developed AI, but they have all taken the names of the orbiters they inhabit. Atlantis and Discovery use 29 year old Mediterranean female avatars, while Endeavour has chosen to represent herself as a 21 year old indigenous Australian woman.
(reasoning: the classical Graces are all female, therefore the shuttles are all female. Atlantis & Discovery run close to the classical roots, but Endeavour was named for James Cook's ship on his Australia expedition, so differences in ethnicities.)---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Cobalt Greywalker]

Ha Ha. Personally, not unless it was taken closer to the source.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sappho
A.C.'s VERY BI in fact. Why do you think Andy's around? She might prefer the Ladies, but Attim and Darkeyes prefer the Lads. Noah's in as much 'danger' from her as Yayoi.

[Foxboy]

Euterpe, Thalia or Terpsichore could all apply to Pinafore, but I didn't want to assign it due to Author's Modesty.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Bob Schroeck]

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* Thalia - ?

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Grover's Corners -- the only genuinely bucolic area in Fenspace, at least as far as ships are concerned.

-- Bob
---------
The Internet Is For Norns.

[robkelk]

Shuttles:

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while Endeavour has chosen to represent herself as a 21 year old indigenous Australian woman.

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Hmmmmm... Does she ever go walkabout?
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walkabout)

Muses: We currently have:
* Calliope - Ptichka
* Clio - the Inelegant Truth
* Erato - Candy Apple Red's
* Euterpe - Pinafore
* Melpomene - Crystal Osaka
* Polyhymnia - ?
* Terpsichore - ?
* Thalia - Grover's Corners
* Urania - Miranda
We have seven, which leaves Polyhymnia (sacred song, oratory, lyric, singing and rhetoric) and Terpsichore (choral song and dance). Correlations become less obvious at this point, though.
(Maybe Hades for Polyhymnia, because of the "sacred song" connection? It's weak, but that's all I can think of...)

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
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

[M Fnord]

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Hmmmmm... Does she ever go walkabout?

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She'd have to, at least once. Spend a month crewless in the Kuiper or somesuch. Hm...

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We have seven, which leaves Polyhymnia (sacred song, oratory, lyric, singing and rhetoric) and Terpsichore (choral song and dance). Correlations become less obvious at this point, though

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World Watch One would qualify for either one of those. I'd go with Terpsichore, since "choral song and dance" maps closer to "rock n' roll," but YMMV.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[robkelk]

---

A.C.'s VERY BI in fact. Why do you think Andy's around? She might prefer the Ladies, but Attim and Darkeyes prefer the Lads. Noah's in as much 'danger' from her as Yayoi.

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It was marked with a smiley...
Noah's happily pair-bonded, and (as of chapter 1 of "Legend of Galactic Girls") is beginning to get the barest shade of a clue that another woman's interested in him as well. (He's a bit slow that way - even Katz noticed this one, back at the start of "With Liberty and Great Justice...".) He's not going to notice a third woman at this point, unless he and A.C. get horridly drunk and let their hormones do their thinking.
(And does this tangent take the award for Farthest Topic Drift in Fenspace?)

-Rob Kelk
"Read Or Die: not so much a title as a way of life." - Justin Palmer, 6 June 2007
--
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

[Kokuten]

---

RFC:
* I Am My Ride: The Graces all have fairly well developed AI, but they have all taken the names of the orbiters they inhabit. Atlantis and Discovery use 29 year old Mediterranean female avatars, while Endeavour has chosen to represent herself as a 21 year old indigenous Australian woman.

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Accepted - starting to notice a severe lack of male AI in fenspace, tho.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

[Feinan]

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Accepted - starting to notice a severe lack of male AI in fenspace, tho.

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Yes, they do seem to run to females, don't they? I need to poke my friend Tep and get him back here, I think. Most of his kids were males, which would at least be useful for balance.

[M Fnord]

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Accepted - starting to notice a severe lack of male AI in fenspace, tho.

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True enough, and nothing against male AI, it just didn't fit in with the motif here, 'sall.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[Bob Schroeck]

---

which leaves Polyhymnia (sacred song, oratory, lyric, singing and rhetoric)

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You know what we need in the setting? An entire church launched into space. They'd have to be pretty cool to get handwavium to work for them in the first place, too...

-- Bob
---------
The Internet Is For Norns.

[Cobalt Greywalker]

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It was marked with a smiley...

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Hence the Nerf attack.

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Noah's happily pair-bonded, and (as of chapter 1 of "Legend of Galactic Girls&quot is beginning to get the barest shade of a clue that another woman's interested in him as well. (He's a bit slow that way - even Katz noticed this one, back at the start of "With Liberty and Great Justice...".) He's not going to notice a third woman at this point, unless he and A.C. get horridly drunk and let their hormones do their thinking.

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Getting A.C. THAT drunk requires a drink far stronger than anything yet made by Fen Science. We're talking barrels of spirits here.
A.C. won't jump Noah (unless he asks), and prefers friends to lovers at the moment.

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(And does this tangent take the award for Farthest Topic Drift in Fenspace?)

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Maybe. Anyway, dragging the thread back to the Muses I think it would be better not to have a "Tenth" Muse. We have the Fates and the Graces already, lets not overcomplicated things with ten muses shall we?

[Norgarth]

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We have seven, which leaves Polyhymnia (sacred song, oratory, lyric, singing and rhetoric) and Terpsichore (choral song and dance). Correlations become less obvious at this point, though.

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Maybe The Jason's ship for Polyhymnia?__________________
666-HELL The phone number of the Beast
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

[M Fnord]

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You know what we need in the setting? An entire church launched into space. They'd have to be pretty cool to get handwavium to work for them in the first place, too...

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*foreheadsmack*
St. Liebowitz's Cathedral! I can't believe we forgot it! Argh!---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"