Plotbunny for sale - cheap

[CattyNebulart]

hmm, bob the GC seems a little fast to me since it is essentially a buble, which doesn't look like it goes real fast and it's moving at a speed similar to mere container ships, which at least look like they move. Then again it's based on a spindizzy. Of course I might be alone in this opinion. anyone else?
Also I was thinking of the following
Station Name: SS Hades
Base Hull: A blasted open asteroid, various emergency rafts, and half a bicicle
Drive Type: speed
Purpose: Research Station
Launched: N/A, built in pluto orbit
Description: Build by the Professor and Indiana wierd begins to describe the station but doesn't do it justice. The looks are a combination of mad science and ancient civilisation, with stong influences from the early greeks, late mesopotamiain and astec. It is in a semi stable orbit around the L3 Lagrange point of Pluto-Charron where it crosses the Limit once every 6.4 days, although occasionally it goes out of orbit to stay on either side of the limit for a little longer. It's main purpose is to study the Limit, which is why it's stationed at this remote location.
It's owner is Indiana, who is one of the fenchildern. He eascaped from the middle east on a rusty bicicle and managed to make it to the Sol Bianca. He wanted to grow up and become a scientist you see, and so the Professor took him in and thaught him. When Indiana joined the Sol Bianca he could read arabic and do some basic arithmetic, when he left he was fluent in 3 languages and he had written an influentional paper on higher order hyperbolic geometry. Indiana is almost as science obsessed as the Professor, though he channels it slightly differently.
Indiana really wants to become an archeologist, but with the mundnae authorities as they are at the moment he has some trouble with that, which is why he is studing the Limit, astrophysisist is his second choice. He feels misunderstood by the mundane archeologists who fear for their dig sites from the Professor's Apprentice.
His real name is Hassan but he took the name Indiana after one of his greatest heros. The Professor keeps calling him Junior, much to Indiana's annoyance.
What do people think? Kinda drifeted off the vehicle entry but oh well.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[The Hunterminator]

---

What do people think? Kinda drifeted off the vehicle entry but oh well.

---

I like it a lot. And a Limit Research station is a great idea, it could also serve as rest-stop for out-bound or in-bound travelers.

[ECSNorway]

Bob, I propose a friendly rivalry over ecosystems in space.
You have the first fen CRAFT with one, I have a very carefully transplanted one on an asteroid base... the occasional "mine is cooler than yours" would amuse anyone with a green thumb.
(Although, to be honest, Rei does most of the work. Or should that be 'Rei do most of the work'? )--
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered...
R!
DOROTHY!
WAYNERIGHT!
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Sirrocco]

---

*twitches violently* Well, that's one way to know when you're supposed to post a backstory instead of saving it for a moment in the future. When someone else scribbles it down, offhand.

---

He did post a backstory. It involved someone selling him the moral equivalent of a fully-functioning Autobot Matrix on E-Bay, without including things like the onboard supercomputer or matter transmutation abilities in the sell description. It seriously pushed suspension of disbelief in ways that we had not pushed, and, *as far as I could tell*, were not particularly important to his character concept. I threw together an alternate, suggested backstory that, again, as far as I could tell, would preserve the things that he wanted preserved ('wavium Transformers! Character as Headmaster!) without mangling the world to fit him. If the backstory I wrote is sufficient for the character he wants, great. If it's not, then it, in turn, can be mangled until it is. The point is to let people have the characters they want in ways that fit into the world without breaking it. I'm trying to help work towards that.
On a different topic, I would point out that as soon as you remove the Haruhi manga/anime from the world, two things happen. First, the uncertainty dies. There is no chance that these are fans of the series slotting into place. There is not even any illusion that these *might* be fans of the series slotting into place. Anyone who knows the series will notice that no one ever mentions it, and know that this is fanfic rather than original - and thus will know about the Haruhi-as-God, etc. Second, it becomes Not Our World. This is no longer speculative fiction, or even, really, science fiction.
Rob: First, with respect to "criticizing characters before they appear", and "why did you say it if you knew how I would respond" and so forth, the point is to make sure that problems don't happen. Pointing them out before they happen is a cleaner way to do that than allowing people to make them first and then requiring fixes. In all honesty, it seemed from what you had written that you had not caught the thematic underpinnings of the world right. You wrote your entire introductory story without making your character deal with a single significant quirk. One of the major themes of the universe is "I have all this cool stuff, but my life is made bizarre by all of the wierdness that the cool stuff makes me deal with." You bought into the "cool stuff" aspect pretty quickly, but seemed to throw out the rest of that theme, citing various explanations along the way (Many of them boiling down to "I won the lotto, so I'm really really rich, so I can go mostly hardtech, and don't have to deal with all the junk that the rest of you less wealthy types do.")
Second, yes, subtlety can be funny - but handwavium is not subtle, or at least is not *only* subtle. Again, going with the idea of "my quirks are subtle quirks, and my flaws are subtle flaws" is a dodge on the "my life is made bizarre" aspect. If you want to do the subtle funny, *great*. Roll with it. Include some sort of unsubtle funny in there too, though - or if not funny, at least unsubtle.
Third, on loyalty. Loyalty is limiting, it's true. It's just not a disad. Look at the characters we're building. Loyalty here is generally two-way, and two-way loyalty is strength. It's still never a disad in bought minions, but that's another matter.
Fourth, the thought tht Kaboomite was wavetech - Well, you gave it a new name. Fundamentally, there isn't much in the way of new hardtech in this universe. It's just a few years in the future, and they haven't had near enough time to really digest wavetech trickledown into things like *chemistry* - particularly not when wavetech doesn't go boom in the first place. Also, you had it piercing and destroying a 'wavium hull when fired from a hardtech barrel. Moreover, it looked like your characters all assumed that this would be so - so it wasn't just a particularly thin raiderhull. It's pretty close to a truism in this world that when hardtech goes up against wavetech, force on force, the wavetech wins. The direct implication was that if the projectore wasn't wavetech, the projectile had to be. This is only *broadly* correct - a nuke will stil ruin just about anyone's day, for example, but I personally figured that if you were firing little baby nukes out of your gun, you'ld have said so.
Fifth, the nearsightedness bit was because the way you'd written them up looked like you were point-balancing them somehow. That's fine, if that's how you work (though a bit worrisome, see below) but I figured if you were, you ought ot bear in mind that nearsightedness wasn't worth much (actually, it just about pays for the "looks cute in glasses" that frequently accompanies it.)
Basically, it feels like you're trying to min/max the system, and that's not how this world is supposed to work at *all*. Even *thinking* along those lines - even having that sort of thing inside your goalspace - means that you won't really fit in right. We've got something of a reverse chic thing going on - the characters are cool because they're not cool. (It's been strained a bit in places, but it's there.) The quirks and disads and sheer bizarre randomness are what make the stories go. They're the *good* part. (It's one of the reasons, on a meta level, that we let the Professor get away with as much as we do - His life is composed *entirely* of sheer bizarre randomness. Also, his life goals basically boil down to "find out nifty things to do with handwavium and do them. Share them with other people, and convince those others that they are indeed nifty". These goals tie in neatly with our goals as authors, and the GM always lets you get away with a little more when you're the one who keeps pushing the plot where it's supposed to go. (That, in turn, is another one of those thematic issues. This world is pretty much *about* handwavium, and what people do with it, and how it affects their lives. You've built a character who's largely 'wave-poor. We include Dane characters from time to time for the contrast and the outsider view, but that's not what you're doing either. You've just made a Fen who happens to not use handwavium all that much, and that doesn't really fit all that well.))

[Rieverre]

---

He did post a backstory.

---

Yessss ... I _meant_ for Schrdinger. 'Tripped over a Solid while hiking through the forest' was pretty much what I'd intended from the start.

---

I'm trying to help work towards that.

---

*nod* I realize that. The violent twitch bit was by way of sarcasm directed at myself. Sorry if I wasn't clear.

---

On a different topic, I would point out that as soon as you remove the Haruhi manga/anime from the world, two things happen. First, the uncertainty dies. There is no chance that these are fans of the series slotting into place. There is not even any illusion that these *might* be fans of the series slotting into place. Anyone who knows the series will notice that no one ever mentions it, and know that this is fanfic rather than original - and thus will know about the Haruhi-as-God, etc. Second, it becomes Not Our World. This is no longer speculative fiction, or even, really, science fiction.

---

And the problem with that is? It's not like we intend to use these guys as omnipresent deus ex machina excuses, anyway. It just gives us a way to work around plot holes with 'Haruhi did it'. Well, she or Ferris Bueller.
Also, how does that nix the setting as 'speculative fiction' anyway? It's still fiction. It's still speculative. It simply happens to be fanfic at the same time. The UF reader in me sees little wrong with this.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm

[Sirrocco]

***Warning: self-indulgent ranting ahead. If you just don't care, please don't waste your time here, and do skip ahead to the next message.***
About half (Correction: In all honesty, more than half) of this is me going "*grumblegrumblegrumble* Why couldn't we leave this as original fic anyway? *grumblegrumblegrumble*" combined with the further annoyance as the last shreds of pretense are eradicated.
I still don't see that it adds much, and feel like turning it into fanfiction gratuitously detracts, but I've spoken all of my rational arguments already. At length. On the emotional side, all I've got is that I really just don't care about Melancholy at all, even a little, and would rather be contributing to a new original work than to a fanfic based on a series that means nothing to me. Realistically, though, we're geeks here. Emotional arguments aren't really worth much (nor should they be, in this case) (...which would be why I didn't bring it up before.)
for the remainder, what I was meaning about "speculative fiction" was, in essnce, "What if the world was like it is, and then this thing happened?" - and the difference here is that that's just not what we're dealing with. We're dealing with the question, at this point, of "What if the world was like it is except that this set of characters was real rather than fictional, and they decided to do these things?"
It means that Handwavium isn't just goop that functions like it does because of strange, essentially incomprehensible scientific principles. Handwavium is goop that functions like it does because Haruhi wants it to. It means that it really is plausible to argue that things are going fast because she's excited about things going fast - that the Star Patrol (or whatever) will see tons of development because that's what she cares about. It stops being a story about handwavium (and how it affects people) and starts being a story about Haruhi (and her handwavium (and how they affect people)). It means that people pick up biomods not out of pure random chance and hitting the stuff with radiation rather than heat, but because that's what's hidden in their subconscious. I dunno. I guess I just find the story about normal people trying to get a grip on dealing with, living with, and using a strange, unpredictable, essentially impersonal force to be a far more interesting one than the story about people finally learning how to express their innate ability to work their Will on the world through the medium of a semianimate plot device. In my personal cosmology, it turns handwavium from a fascinating tool to study into a crutch to let people do what they really ought to know how to do already.
...but it is always the way, in every system like this that is grown by many different people from the start, without an initially established set of laws of reality, that you will find disagreement on how the world is *really* shaped, and arguing does nothing but break the entire system in bad ways (which is why I've been careful in these posts to either talk about myself or present rational, objective databits to consider). Also, I'm venting, and I'm going to stop now.
***Self-indulgent rant ends here. You was warned, folks.***

[CattyNebulart]

---

... without an initially established set of laws of reality, that you will find disagreement on how the world is *really* shaped, ...

---

You'll find that disagreement even with an established set of rules. See the Cruseades and Galileo for examples.
Anyway on to something completly diferent.
Handwavium can't be blown up for great justice. We know this. But do our characters know this? And if so how, since it is established it can do property damage? I do not think most people will just go and shoot somebody to see if their shiney new disintergrator ray works. Not even the Professor, he would at least ask for volunteers first .
So far we have been writing it as if the characters know. So here is my proposed quick fix:
1) making weapons with handwavium is hard. The results are quirkier than usual.
2) when you think you have sucseeded due to test on inanimate objects you probably stop testing
3) odd behaviors when attaking humans can be put down to quirks or handwavium-handwavium interactions, which are poorly understood at best.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[Sirrocco]

Actually, I'd been taking it quite literally. Handwavium cannot be used to make explosions. Period. It also can't be used to make explosions bigger. If you introduce handwavium into a sufficiently complex system that naturally makes explosions (like a nuclear bomb) it will turn it into system that does not (like a nuclear reactor). If you introduce it into a system that could be induced to blow up under the right circumstances (like a nuclear reactor) and then induce the result to blow up - well, making it blow up will be harder, you might not succeed at all, and if you do succeed it doesn't blow up as powerfully.
Entirely independant of that, it's Really Not Easy to turn handwavium-effects into weapons. At the very least, no one's yet managed to come up with a bach that will do it readily. Making weaons out of handwavium basically requires designing peaceful Tools With Sharp Edges, with the primary intent that they be peaceful, and then using them as improvised weaponry when neccessary. You can't build a sword, but you can whale on them with a plowshare if you have to.
I'd like to stay away from the idea of weapons that know what they're aiming at. *that* one takes us streaming right back into the "it works because the handwavium likes us" territory that we'd decided to avoid at the beginning.

[robkelk]

---

Rob: First, with respect to "criticizing characters before they appear", and "why did you say it if you knew how I would respond" and so forth, the point is to make sure that problems don't happen. Pointing them out before they happen is a cleaner way to do that than allowing people to make them first and then requiring fixes.

---

From where I sit, it looked like you were so eager to find things about my story to blast that you had to invent some. That's not good "pre-reading", or at all helpful. It is something that raises the blood pressure...

---

Second, yes, subtlety can be funny - but handwavium is not subtle, or at least is not *only* subtle. Again, going with the idea of "my quirks are subtle quirks, and my flaws are subtle flaws" is a dodge on the "my life is made bizarre" aspect.

---

I suspect that this point is one where we're just not going to be able to reach agreement. You like the slapstick-style comedy - that's wonderful. But it isn't the be-all and end-all of the setting, and it wasn't the be-all and end-all of the setting even before I started writing in it. (If I recall correctly, most of what Feinan and Valles have written is lacking in broad humour.)
This particular shared world is big enough for all sorts of stories, some of which aren't funny at all. (For example, the "probe becomes a weapon" short-short.) This didn't seem to be a problem before I started writing...

---

If you want to do the subtle funny, *great*. Roll with it. Include some sort of unsubtle funny in there too, though - or if not funny, at least unsubtle.

---

Did you bother to read my second vignette before you wrote this?

---

Fourth, the thought tht Kaboomite was wavetech - Well, you gave it a new name.

---

People have been giving things new names all over this shared setting. Why pick on me?

---

Moreover, it looked like your characters all assumed that this would be so - so it wasn't just a particularly thin raiderhull.

---

Okay, that's another thing to remember for the re-write.

---

This is only *broadly* correct - a nuke will stil ruin just about anyone's day, for example, but I personally figured that if you were firing little baby nukes out of your gun, you'ld have said so.

---

My writing style is more like Heinlien than Niven - if it doesn't need to be explained to further the story, I don't bother explaining it. I assume my audience is intelligent enough to fill in the gaps...

---

Fifth, the nearsightedness bit was because the way you'd written them up looked like you were point-balancing them somehow.

---

Way, way back in the thread - in the third post on page one, in fact - M Fnord (who came up with this sandbox that the rest of us are playing in) said that this might be a roleplaying game. The possibility that point-balancing might be necessary has been here literally since Day One.

---

You've just made a Fen who happens to not use handwavium all that much, and that doesn't really fit all that well.

---

On this one, guilty as charged. Blame it on the practical engineer part of me, that doesn't see the point in using wavetech when perfectly good hardtech already exists. (Speaking of which, this article has a good "executive overview" of the current state-of-the-art of robotics. Dr. Ishiguro's "Geminoid H1-1" plus Dr. Nishiwaki's "H7" appear to be pretty close to what I've been using as a hardtech baseline for the AIs, although I'll need to see a copy of the H7 paper to be sure.) I'll have to explicitly mention the gravtech is wavetech... Do you have any suggestions as to what other wavetech Noah might use, while remaining much the same character?
(Come to think of it, Noah might be an example of the "fendane", which Bob and M Fnord came up with over in the Glossary thread... or he might not. Re-write's on hold for a few hours while I ponder this...)

-Rob Kelk
--
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

[Sirrocco]

Rob: First, you are correct. I looked back. In fact, I had not read your second vignette. Taking that into account, the quirks for Li and Sora do seem to be notched at correct intensities. The general feel of "there's some folks just don't like me much" also accounts for a fair bit, in terms of story balance. The ability to make AI to spec is still a problem from a "breaks the world" perspective (If you can do it, why can't everybody else? Also, Handwavium is like Cat. It does not go where you tell it to. It goes where it wants to, and is perhaps influenced by outside forces.) but that's a backstory issue rather than an unbalanced current character issue. I suggested the slapstick-style comedy because it was relatively easy, you had *seemed* to be powergaming, and I figured it would be easier for you to accept. I am glad to have been wrong.
For Kaboomite - first, the name - the tech that people have been giving new names to has invariably been wave-tech, or partially wave-tech, or derived from wavetech. Names have been cropping up all over the place about groups of people, but hat is not the same. If your "kaboomite" *is* essentially a baby nuke, then I'm really quite curious how you got ahold of enough fissionable material (weapons-grade, no less) to load your railgun with the stuff, without seriously upsetting the Danes. If it's not, then I'm really quite curious how you expected it to do significant damage to a handwaved hull (from a group who knew they were going into battle, and would likely have spent at least a little more than the average amount of care on such things) let alone cracked the hull and destroyed the ship. There are significant gaps in both directions.

[M Fnord]

---

M Fnord (who came up with this sandbox that the rest of us are playing in) said that this might be a roleplaying game. The possibility that point-balancing might be necessary has been here literally since Day One.

---

I wouldn't worry so much about that. The suggestion was more of a poke at my own eccentricities than an actual suggestion.

---

Come to think of it, Noah might be an example of the "fendane", which Bob and M Fnord came up with over in the Glossary thread... or he might not.

---

Borderline, I think. From the story-as-written Noah struck me as sort of a Howard Hughes-esque character: one of the first pioneers who's turned into a recluse as the world passes him by. He *could* be a fendane, although I seem him more as the classic reclusive social-anxiety fan, albiet one with more money than he knows what to do with and access to miracle technology.---
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!"

[Rieverre]

---

Borderline, I think. From the story-as-written Noah struck me as sort of a Howard Hughes-esque character: one of the first pioneers who's turned into a recluse as the world passes him by. He *could* be a fendane, although I seem him more as the classic reclusive social-anxiety fan, albiet one with more money than he knows what to do with and access to miracle technology.

---

Regardless, he gets Kudos for Stellvia. Because, well ... d'oh, _Stellvia_. It bears repeating ^_^.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm

[Valles]

---

I suspect that this point is one where we're just not going to be able to reach agreement. You like the slapstick-style comedy - that's wonderful. But it isn't the be-all and end-all of the setting, and it wasn't the be-all and end-all of the setting even before I started writing in it. (If I recall correctly, most of what Feinan and Valles have written is lacking in broad humour.)

---

Except for the Gainax jokes. When I can work up the nerve for them.
Hrm. Maybe we should try character writeups? Get things clear and in the open, like.
Natalie Baker
Primary Writer: Valles
Notable Mundane Attributes:
* Hey, I've Heard of Her: 'First Fan'
* The Woman From UNCLE: CIA... Agent? Front? Analyst? All of the above?
'Wavium Abilities:
* Okay, Who Spiked the Punch?: Pretty girl with huge... tracts of land.

Quirks:
* Case of the Blahs: Goes into funks when asked to self-motivate
* Not Quite Ben Stein: Doesn't do very well setting up 'wavium systems.
* Where'd I Put My Glasses?: Nearsighted
* Stupid Tall People: Short (5' 1")
* Shameless Pinko: Favors Social Democratic politics. Vocally, and sometimes at length.
* Gravity is Not my Friend: 42-24-33
* Sshh: CIA alliegance.

---

And, in my mind, Natalie does have a comedic role besides fanservice: She's [url=http://allthetropes.org/wiki/Unfunny[/url].
Ja, -n

===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"

[Morganite]

Seeing what Bob posted, and a couple other things I'd looked at...
Has anyone tried just uprooting their own house and going into space with it? '.'
(I said I wasn't going to write anything in this... then I got an idea. '.' But I still probably won't write anything until after christmas, when I have time to catch up on everything *else* that's been posted...)
-Morgan. Because hey, I've seen "Howl's Moving Castle". '.'"I have no interest in ordinary humans. If there are any aliens, time travelers, or espers here, come sleep with me."
---From "The Ecchi of Haruhi Suzumiya"
-----(Not really)

[Florin]

For the Haruhi problems:
I suggest having the Anime/Manga exist in the universe. If anyone call's the SOS-dan on it they claim that they wrote under a psuedoname it in order to fund thier spaceship (cause no way is Haruhi gonna settle for beatermobile). If people believe that the SOS is the real SOS, then they've got a reasonable explanation. If not, then either they did write it, got 'waved and believed it was the truth, or they're lying about that too. To bad the original author is listed as dead in a convient accident, and any financial trail is long gone cold.
As for the SOS-dan taking over the plot: The Boskonian plot maybe. But there's no reason they have to be the Ubervillian's when they can just be the villian's of the season. After all, what's gonna happen after the Space Force wins? You'll have a heavily armed combat force floating around the system, which won't much please the danelaw and just cause orginized crime has been mostly kicked out of space doesn't mean it's not still strong, and pissed, on Earth. Some attacks on Fen holding's Earthside, some bribed senators and maybe an ill advised kinetic strike by a revengecrazed Fen on mafia holdings in America and BAM! The U.N. declares Fenspace a rouge state, the U.S. goes cold war and someone launches a raid on Grover's Corners to rescue all those poor children. Instant Season Two. And Haruhi would probably wander off to look for aliens or something, cause political stuff is boring. Which is probably getting WAY ahead of ourselves, especially from someone who has yet to finish writing thier opening...--
Comb your hair, damn anime hippies.
--
If you become a monster to put down a monster you've still got a monster running around at the end of the day and have as such not really solved the whole monster problem at all. 

[Feinan]

---

I'd like to stay away from the idea of weapons that know what they're aiming at. *that* one takes us streaming right back into the "it works because the handwavium likes us" territory that we'd decided to avoid at the beginning.

---

Hmmm. Actually, I could see a way that this could work that wouldn't require the handwavium to like us at all. You know I've been pushing for a partial psionic component to the goo. The stuff doesn't like people or anything; it doesn't even have to be intelligent and KNOW that it's aiming at people. It's simply a part of the hardwired anti-weapons lock. If psi-waves (either determined to be human, or possibly anything animal) are detected in an area that might be affected by a handwaved weapon, then the effect is muted/altered. This would be a perfect justification for the Slapstick effect?
*grin* Could be fun actually. I have an idea for a Sunbeam pistol (said name should send Doc Smith fans screaming in terror). But it's really a multi-purpose tool powered by stored sunlight. Flashlight, soldering iron, welding tool, cutting torch. Highly useful. It COULD be used as a weapon...but under the Slapstick effect, it'd be turned into a Dazzler pistol to temporarily blind...or maybe a SunBURN pistol. Any thoughts about this? Too over the top, or is it something every Mad wants for their toolbox?

[classicdrogn]

Sirrocco - from what you say above about my original notewad, I'd have to say it's agood thing I changed most of the details if it came across like THAT and I didn't even realize it when you pointed it out. Hoo boy, were we not having the same conversation.
- CDSERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
For the next 72 hours, Itachi intoned, I will slap you with this trout. - Spying no Jutsu, chapter 3
"In the futuristic taco bell of the year 20XX, justice wears an aluminum sombrero!"hemlock-martini
--
"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

[ECSNorway]

---

I suggest having the Anime/Manga exist in the universe. If anyone call's the SOS-dan on it they claim that they wrote under a psuedoname it in order to fund thier spaceship (cause no way is Haruhi gonna settle for beatermobile). If people believe that the SOS is the real SOS, then they've got a reasonable explanation. If not, then either they did write it, got 'waved and believed it was the truth, or they're lying about that too. To bad the original author is listed as dead in a convient accident, and any financial trail is long gone cold.

---

To muddy the trail even further: Perhaps, for various reasons, it was never completed to the stage it is in RL. So the big "Haruhi = God" reveal ... never happened. All John Q Fan knows is that there's this quirky fun little story about these people having weird things happen around them.--
"I give you the beautiful... the talented... the tirelessly atomic-powered...
R!
DOROTHY!
WAYNERIGHT!
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[robkelk]

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Also, Handwavium is like Cat. It does not go where you tell it to. It goes where it wants to, and is perhaps influenced by outside forces.

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Yep. Note that I already mentioned not all of the robots "woke up" - this is something I intend to address sometime other than at The Con.

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From the story-as-written Noah struck me as sort of a Howard Hughes-esque character: one of the first pioneers who's turned into a recluse as the world passes him by. He *could* be a fendane, although I seem him more as the classic reclusive social-anxiety fan, albiet one with more money than he knows what to do with and access to miracle technology.

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Oh, I like this idea... Re-write's on hold until Boxing Day, so I can incorporate this.

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Regardless, he gets Kudos for Stellvia. Because, well ... d'oh, _Stellvia_. It bears repeating ^_^.

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Thanks. It's a vastly under-rated show. (It's also one of the few shows where my favourite character is the lead character...)

-Rob Kelk
--
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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*grin* Could be fun actually. I have an idea for a Sunbeam pistol (said name should send Doc Smith fans screaming in terror). But it's really a multi-purpose tool powered by stored sunlight. Flashlight, soldering iron, welding tool, cutting torch. Highly useful. It COULD be used as a weapon...but under the Slapstick effect, it'd be turned into a Dazzler pistol to temporarily blind...or maybe a SunBURN pistol. Any thoughts about this? Too over the top, or is it something every Mad wants for their toolbox?

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My thoughts on this can be summed up in three words: Solar Powered Flashlight.
To amplify: If it's primarily hardtech and the power source is sunlight, no big deal. If it's mainly wavetech, file the serial numbers off the jokes that were floating around before somebody actually built a solar-powered flashlight.

-Rob Kelk
--
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

[Feinan]

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To amplify: If it's primarily hardtech and the power source is sunlight, no big deal. If it's mainly wavetech, file the serial numbers off the jokes that were floating around before somebody actually built a solar-powered flashlight.

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*chuckles* Which jokes are these? And it's primarily wavetech...since I should've been more clear. It doesn't use stored sunlight to power it indirectly....it uses stored sunlight DIRECTLY.
*grin* Small amber sphere, marble sized. Tiny solar cell inside it, then sealed back up. Quartz crystal shell around that. Then....have to see if I can find a variable polarization paint/tinting to put on the crystal. Open windows/lenses in 'power-up' mode to focus sunlight on the sphere in the tool. Handwave it, take it to inside the orbit of Mercury, and let it soak up some intense sunlight for a week or two. If it WORKS, after it's full, the marble should look like a tiny little sun inside dark glass.
For use - the tinting can be lowered to let varying amounts of sunlight out. Goes through a series of lenses/Fresnell lenses to focus it. Can get a wide beam at a low intensity for a flashlight. Pinpoint beam at a higher intensity for a soldering iron (ever melt crayons with a magnifying glass as a kid?). And so on. This is why it could also create a sunburn effect if the Slapstick went that way. Works a treat against vampires, too.

[Ebony]

A thought I had. I'm not sure how far it's going to go.
------------------------------------------------------
When I found the bus at the junk auction, I knew I'd found a vehicle for the handwavium.
The 'wavium came into my possession much like any controlled substance did, by chance and circumstance. A friend had some, was going to make a flying car, and was feeling generous. He gifted me a small amount, which I then stashed in a paint can in the garage. I was going to use it; I just didn't know how.
Frankly, I felt that some of the fen were going off half-cocked. Watching the news and the security theater that the American government was cooking up over handwavium just made me shake my head, and talking to the fen that were planning to take off for the Great Beyond sounded like reinventing the wheel 600 times over, so I bided my time and waited to see what happened. And then the Professor went off his nut in Paris, and the Really Real World slammed the lid. The 'wavium in my garage suddenly got a lot more dangerous to own. I wasn't about to get rid of it, though; there were too many traps in simply turning it over, and flushing it down the toilet would have done God knows what to the local sewer systems.
So it sat, patiently, in my garage. And then, one day, I saw an old bus sitting in preparation for a junk auction. It wasn't too old, maybe 30 years or so, and in the flat-nosed style that Greyhound had made so well known. It still ran (poorly), and it was decked out for personal residence; I think it had been somebody's tour bus, once upon a time. I saw it and didn't think much of it, but sitting next to it was an old Ford truck, with a camper shell. Which, by itself wasn't that remarkable, and I didn't think anything of it until I got home and saw the can of 'wavium.
Archimedes was sitting the bathtub when he had his moment. I, at least, had my pants on.
The bus wasn't cheap, but it wasn't that expensive either. I bought it for a paltry amount, and managed to get it home. The guys thought I was crazy, but they were all for it, if it meant I would share the glory of a flying bus. None of them really liked their jobs anyway. We reupholstered the seats that we didn't tear out, added some equipment from an old RV, jammed in a wi-fi and router and an extra generator next to the bathroom, and installed a satellite radio system. New tires, new parts for the engine, and new windows. In the end, it took about six months of saving and eating a lot of mac and cheese, but we had a working bus. It was time to finish the project.
We drove the bus out to my family's land in the middle of nowhere for the final steps. I was worried about the 'wavium, but the can seemed to have enough in it to coat the exterior. And then Wendy suggested we coat the inside as well. I figured, "what the hell?" and gave it a good varnishing. I capped the can, and we crashed out for the night, waiting to see what would happen.
I can honestly say I wasn't expecting the boxy, black vehicle that stood there the next morning. The mural of the stampeding yellow mustangs along the side was what I was hoping for, though. The back end of the bus had widened, and where Gary had slapped on a set of fins ("To dissapate the heat!" he had jokingly insisted), there was what could only be an engine of some sort. A massive blister of Plexiglas protected a collection of antennae, of which I only recognized two. But the biggest surprises were inside.
Wendy was the most noticeable. She'd slipped inside during the night, after we'd gone to sleep. I suspect she'd been hoping for the transgender - the hormones were slow and she certainly couldn't afford the surgery, and psychologically Warren had been Wendy for a number of years now. She looked good, positively jubilant. We didn't find out about the ratgirl part of it until later.
As for the bus, it looked much more impressive than I had hoped. The second level was as I had hoped, with a bank of computers, televisions, and other communications equipment, all updated to the 21st Century. The kitchenette had popped into being around the bar fridge and the camp stove, encapsulating the generator. I hadn't counted on the brushed steel cabinets, but they looked good. The small set of bunks still took up the back half of the lower compartment, and the 'wavium had taken the liberty of converting the privacy curtain to a wall with a door, and incorporated the camp shower into the actual bathroom. Each bunk, formerly a table with a sleeping bag, was now a full, curtained bunkbed, like in a Pullman sleeping car, sleeping eight. Behind the communication center on the second level was a small room, with a smooth floor and walls lined with polished pine. A futon was rolled up in the closet.
Looking at the driver's seat made it clear that moving the bus was going to be difficult. We probably could drive it on the road, but I had no idea how I was going to get it off the ground. As I sat in the driver's chair, confessing that I had no idea how I was going to learn to fly the thing without crashing it, J. said, in a good-natured, mocking tone, "Nice going, Blackstone. Only you would create a vehicle without any idea of how to fly it."
My retort died on my lips as we heard the Voice. "Don't be mean. We don't have to be mean."
The laptop mounted next to the dashboard flickered to life, and we saw his face. He didn't look exactly like Peter Weller, but we could see the resemblance. He smiled, and said, "Howdy, partners. You ready to get this show on the road?"
When Buckaroo Banzai asks a question like that, there's only one answer. We had the bus packed in six minute flat, and in 10, the bus lifted off the ground under my nervous control (with Buckaroo's tutelage), and we headed for orbit.
That was 18 months ago. We grabbed the old Ford truck as quick as we could, and found us a turbine engine that nobody was using. We're still working on the overthruster, but Buckaroo's a patient teacher. It seems that he's managed to download everything from a number of archives, including the Library of Congress. Not legal, I know, but he just made copies, and he didn't touch anything else. Or so he says. I believe him. For now, though, the Jet Car has a nice docking clamp up top, behind the sensor bubble, and it makes for a pretty decent shuttle. As for the bus, only one name was appropriate. You should have heard the first Pulpers we hailed when we identified ourselves as World Watch One.
Buckaroo keeps us in shape. There's not a lot to do in space between destinations, and he has a good sense of what we need to do to make our minds sharper and our bodies fitter. We got a few others in on it, and the round table is full of discussions on how to make the Solar System better. I can't say the Boskonians are real, since we haven't seen any yet, but we're helping people help themselves and protecting them from the petty evils of the System, both Mundane and Fen. We've even managed to become a pretty decent little thinktank, and several patents on non-handwaved tech are starting to pay off. In the meantime, I think we're doing some good.
We got the blazers last month. We even got Earl Mac Rauch's blessing, after he and Mr. Richter had a conversation with Buckaroo over the go phone. We're not the Cavaliers, not yet at least. We will be soon, or so Buckaroo assures us. That would be great, but I'm just happy to be helping people.
We're the crew of World Watch One, better known as the Blue Blazer Irregulars. We help, because we can. And as the Boss says, "No matter where you go, there you are."Ebony the Black Dragon
Senior Editor, Living Room Games
http://www.lrgames.com
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[M Fnord]

Dude. World Watch One. That wins just on general principles.---
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!"

[Rieverre]

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When Buckaroo Banzai asks a question like that, there's only one answer.

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I was wondering when someone was going to tap this vein. I say, all the more power to ye.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm

[Sirrocco]

Re: the Banzai Bus: a few things.
- Thing one: Excellent. Nice character idea. Roll with it. No issues with the character concept, but the backstory needs a bit of help.
- Thing two: Handwavium isn't so big on the Massive Restructuring Just Because. It can make broken things work (and even fix obvious points of breakage) and make working things work better (heck, it can make broken things work better) but it doesn't create brushed steel cabinets just because - let alone rolled-up futons. Of course, you'ld know that in character, and it's pretty easy to justify any appliance you might want with a trip to the local dump. The mural is also pretty much excessive as a wave-effect. Honestly, if you want a mural, pick one of your characters to have either some skill at painting or a friend who'll do it for a favor. Given that the favor is likely to be a "while you're up there" type, it can even serve as a decent story hook.
- Thing three: don't forget your quirks. On the biomod, the "you get the gender you want, but you're a ratgirl" works just fine - though I'm curious as to what you would mean by "ratgirl" that wouldn't be immediately obvious at least to the character in question. For the rest, well, it's short enough that the fact that you haven't mentioned any yet isn't glaring, but you really do need to come up with a few and include them. Remember, everything you mod should have a quirk of some sort. If the thing is important enough to mention more than about once ever, then the quirk should be important enough to mention as well.
- Thing four: that's an awfully small amount of handwavium for an awfully large bus, especially for the bus plus contents plus a biomod from the fumes alone. On the other hand, given a nice large area in the middle of nowhere, growing more of the stuff just isn't that hard. Come up with a food source to give it some more character, purchase a sufficiently large container, and grow yourself a larger batch.
Basically, the characters look good, but you need some more backstory tweaking to include them in the world without having to bend it to make space for them.