... You know, that's kind of hilarious, that bit about Henriette.
Panopticon: A Game of Posthumans, Perniciousness, Paranoia, Politics, and Plasmaguns
LilithPrime
Shadow Cabal Team Mom
Bursting Eagerness Soul
Threadwalking Rating Machine
- Location
- Wisconsin
Field:
[X] SSGT John Kessler (Commander)
[X] 2nd Lt Elsa Naryskin
Support
[X] 1st Lt Henriette Langley
[X] IBM (Auxillary) Mari Langley
[X] SSGT John Kessler (Commander)
[X] 2nd Lt Elsa Naryskin
Support
[X] 1st Lt Henriette Langley
[X] IBM (Auxillary) Mari Langley
- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
[X] Plan ES.
I fully agree, especially with how it sets up Henriette and Mari getting to do some sisterly bonding that involves artillery fire and Mad Enlightened Science. That is entirely appropriate for the Langley Sisters.
I fully agree, especially with how it sets up Henriette and Mari getting to do some sisterly bonding that involves artillery fire and Mad Enlightened Science. That is entirely appropriate for the Langley Sisters.
If these things are so super-expendable anyway and in fact can't even last past the scene they're used for... would adding self-destruct bombs to them be a viable tactic? Since they're going to be trashed and irreparable anyway, it doesn't matter if they blow up does it?
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan Scorp
GhostStalker
Jeopardy! contestant
- Location
- NYC
Wait, when did Henriette get an actual rank as opposed to just a position title of Pilot? I mean, I assumed she had one and that she was an officer because only officers get to be pilots (although I'm not sure how that works with mechs, as various pieces of fiction where they become commonplace, they even let privates drive the things) and ItX uses military ranks for its combat wing. But did she get promoted offscreen or something? I assumed she was still a 2LT, though I guess being a Hero of the Technocratic Union for doing what she did in Moscow can only help your promotion chances...
Kessler is out-ranked by both Henriette and Elsa? Huh. Heh. ... Uh... actually, how is rank determined in Amalgams or just in the Union in general? What gets you to rise in rank? It can't just be something like Enlightenment alone, because poor Rose is Enlightenment 5 and still a Constable. (Glass ceiling for constructs?)
Also, all our interns are at Enlightenment 2 now, each with ~roughly around 3 Spheres at 2 dots. If I recall correctly, most of them started at Enlightenment 1 or maybe 2, and had like... 2 or 3 dots of Spheres instead of the 6 or 7 dots' worth they have now. Nice. Go interns.
I wonder how they're doing now? I think they got picked up by the TYRANTS, right?
GhostStalker
Jeopardy! contestant
- Location
- NYC
Could've sworn that used to read Pilot Henriette Langley last time I checked it. Looks like it was edited back in May.
Well, they're officers and he's only an NCO. I dunno, maybe he was a doorkicker for a while before he Englightened, so the ItX Shock Corps kept him at the rank he earned instead of sending him to their version of OCS since he was already a damned good NCO? I do remember they did send him to their version of the War College, where he earned his PhD in Asskicking, so maybe he'll get commissioned later?
While Henriette Enlightened early, so they sent her to MIHT and then OCS to become a walker pilot, which I guess is a special enough position that they only give it to officers? The VEs wound up commissioning Elsa relatively quickly for a VA defector, though. Maybe that shows how short handed VoidCom is?
Yeah, that seems likely, though I think it was mentioned that Professor Li is trying to change that as part of his whole "militarizing the Progenitors and restarting the Pogrom" thing.
Remember, Alexander Cross had spent a lot of time at Senior Constable prior to the quest start, and was only promoted to Chief Constable for a Damage Control team after Moscow, despite his record. We even got a little interlude from that during an update.
Also, I always thought that the CST rank before Rose's name stood for Construct, not Constable. I wasn't aware that the rank of Constable had an abbreviation for itself, since I always saw it accompanied with Police in the PC abbreviation for the rank of Police Constable. Guess you don't see the rank of Constable alone much anymore...
Yeah, they did. We currently have Quantum Narrative Interns and Tyrants that I assume we'll be seeing once the what remains of the Amalgam heads back to LA to find out what actually happened in the construct once all this heat blows over or they take care of the Anathema and rescue Donald and Rose from the Spy's Demise.
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- Location
- National Capital Region, USA
Kessler was a certified badass Exojock when he went MIA, but still just a Staff Sergeant, a mid-grade NCO. He's just been MIA for 20 years. By all rights, he should be a Colonel or Master Sergeant now, yes, but his official Rank has yet to catch up with his combat experience and ability.
Kessler himself is totally Zen as the Eternal Warrior Monk, and doesn't give a flying damn about ranks and titles. Jamelia is smart enough to ignore his official rank and just use him as needed. Henriette has learned that too, plus she's a damn smart girl anyhow, and is more than aware that it's a particularly dumb LT move to even think of overriding an NCO as senior and skilled as Kessler.
- Location
- in the trash
Kessler used to have a higher rank, but after spending 20 years out in space and coming back with his psychic powers he was demoted down to his current rank.
Edit: From Brighton, when Kessler went cyberpsycho, we know that he held the rank of Sergeant Major back in 1991.
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GhostStalker
Jeopardy! contestant
- Location
- NYC
Agreed. Though I wonder who handles promotions in his case. Jamelia could probably recommend it, as she's the head of his Amalgam, but is it up to ItX command or maybe his nominal superior in the Shock Corps (if he's even still in that Methodology)?
Panopticon Title Screen
NonSequtur
a body
So, having recently completed a contract and finding my days free for the first time in months, I got bored.
Really bored.
'Imagining what Panopticon would look like as a melodramatic TV mini-series' bored.
'Cobbling together a title screen' bored.
Really bored.
'Imagining what Panopticon would look like as a melodramatic TV mini-series' bored.
'Cobbling together a title screen' bored.
Kerrus
Fractal Insanity
Man, if Panopticon was a melodramatic TV miniseries, Kessler would have to have his own show because his genre would be totally wrong for it. But he'd occasionally feature in the background of the main series, and every once in a while both shows would have a crossover two-parter that would be fucking amazing- but also totally bewildering for any viewers who only knew the main show and haven't been following Kessler's serial.
You know, if we filed off the proverbial oMage serial numbers and got a kickstarter going, we might be able to make this work. I mean if E.L. James can do it with Twilight why cant MJ and Earthscorpion try it with Panopticon.So, having recently completed a contract and finding my days free for the first time in months, I got bored.
Really bored.
'Imagining what Panopticon would look like as a melodramatic TV mini-series' bored.
'Cobbling together a title screen' bored.
:lolYes this is only semi serious, as I am guessing they have better things to do.
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That was a thing that already happened. Specifically:
Just because he played a general in the movies doesn't make him a general in real life.
Bursting Eagerness Soul
Threadwalking Rating Machine
- Location
- Wisconsin
We were talking about an unofficial promotion.Just because he played a general in the movies doesn't make him a general in real life.
Honestly, I'd expect a more Air Force-like structure to the Macrotechnicians. That is to say, because of the nature of their Device-machines, you've got a relatively smaller number of very expensive combat units, which need a lot of maintenance and hangar time. That means that the actual pilots will tend to be commissioned officers, while the Kamrads and the NCOs are working in more of a support role. Especially in Hennriette's case, remember she's a fully void-capable hotshot pilot entrusted with hyper-expensive machines for the Autochthonian mission - and she really was one of the elite, because she got on the mission when Ling wasn't good enough despite her Clarent augs.
The broken, demilitarised Henriette who only had an ADEI left (and even then the only reason she probably still had it was that she got it at a young enough age that it's a core part of her brain and to talk about "Henriette and her ADEI" is much like talking about "Jamelia and her cerebellum") wasn't her at her best. And early-2014 Henriette versus modern Henriette would be a fight where earlier-Henriette has a considerable Enhancement advantage even if modern Henriette is a truly Legendary Pilot who outperforms what anyone with her relatively low current Enhancement level should be able to do.
Rose... uh, also has the issue that she is a) five and b) formally on reprimand and being monitored because most of the other EXEMPLAR IIIs went crazy. She's not really that typical of the normal construct glass ceiling experience.
Also, the Progenitors seem to be worse than most other Conventions for construct equality - well, discounting the constructs who call themselves the children of other Progenitors. Although they're still not equal. They're treated better. We know the NWO has plenty of independent MiBs in ranked positions and - for example - Hannah's mentor is one in the Ivory Tower, and likewise we've seen HITMarks leading Iteration X deployments. It's probably because by Progenitor standards, modern HITMarks and MiBs are high-functioning constructs. It's a lot easier to treat them as weird humans, despite the HITMarks literally being killer death robots, than it is to treat a Bob or a Laura as a person.
I wonder how many older Marys have transferred to the NWO to dodge the construct glass ceiling, as Marys are high-functioning.
Anyway, in theory the Technocratic Union is blind to race, sex, nationality, colour, whether you were grown in a vat, etc etc. They have plenty of human resources policies and they make people go on diversity courses so they know not to discriminate against people just because they were originally a Bob. Even Enlightened and non Enlightened are meant to have all the same opportunities. Everyone is equal under the Union. It's a meritocracy. And a technocracy, obviously.
Of course, in practice they don't live up to it. The sins of the Union are the sins of the modern West. The fact that it officially it's policy doesn't mean people aren't people. Some of the biases are nearly universal (like how the non-Enlightened basically never break Supervisor, and constructs rarely get past Director of minor amalgams, and family connections are incredibly useful), while others are more local or idiosyncratic (like the nationalism in the asian Union).
And of course, from the PoV of a non-Technocrat, the way they get their gender equality is by treating both women and men like men. Everyone's expected to follow the same macho working culture, any mystical nature of childbirth is removed by the use of growth vats and a strong discouragement of natural pregnancy, and use of various means of period suppressant is nearly universal. The physical differences between men and women are rendered meaningless by enhancements, and Technocratic women prove themselves just as capable of being massive assholes as the men.
(Of course, the medicalisation of phenomena does mean the Union has a low incidence of transsexualism. Although that's because it's fixed, one way or another. These days it tends to be done more with Life than Mind, because shifting medical paradigms mean that it's easier that way and can probably just be done with linear sorcery or as part of a general Enhancement package - and the incidental benefit that it makes the beneficiary very grateful and the people doing it feel like unashamed good guys doesn't hurt.)
Union ranks are a nightmare. People have positions in their Methodology, positions in their Convention, positions in their amalgam, and positions in the Union as a whole. The Methodologies and Conventions use their own individual ranking systems and different words for the same thing, and generally treat each other in a similar way that the US Army, US Army Air Force, US Army Navy and the US Army Navy Army treat each other.
I bet the Union has to have something like the NATO rank equivalence tables, so people actually know whether an Operative with a Barrier surname outranks a Constable, and how an Executive compares to a Doctor. The people who use military ranks probably get rather annoyed at how the Operatives seem to use an obscure mix of surnames to make it difficult for everyone, and how despite acting as part of the military the Operatives refuse to just use a sensible system of ranks.
(The general theory is that the NWO is doing it to be difficult. They're probably right. It allows the NWO to just act as if they outrank you all the time, and if you don't know exactly whether they do or not, that's a Mind focus for them to get you to do what they say.)
So you've probably got a bunch of TO and TE ranks for converting people's ranks into something other people don't need to memorise. As a Senior Operative, Jamelia's rank probably converts to something like "Major" or "Brigadier", unless it's overridden by her Director status.
No lie, my mental image of it has totally resembled the 2nd GiG OP.
(obviously Jamelia has to stand on a box for the profile shot of the entire team against the white background)
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GhostStalker
Jeopardy! contestant
- Location
- NYC
I think you mean age here, since I very much doubt Henriette used the NWO last name based seniority system when she was younger...
Cornuthaum
Be kind to each other.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- He/Him
You seem to be under the misapprehension that this is a good thing?