Bearing the Torch of the People (Central Planning Fantasy Edition sequel/sidequest)
- Thread starter Rockeye
- Start date
- Fantasy
-
- Tags
- fantasy self insert
Ah yes, the "good word" of Communism. Where the state is ruled by a single absolute dictator. Where most of the power is wielded by a small number of VIPs officially acting in the name of their absolute ruler… who spend as much time bickering and backstabbing each other as doing their jobs. Where our protagonist was censured and stripped of her position for the crime of involving the common people in the decision making process.
I'm here for the magical adventures of Kanna Dipolous, Captain Of The Skies, as she explores the exotic lands of the anthro-elves and does some industrial uplifting on the side.
The politics can go hang.
One of Kanna's core character traits is being a fanatical believer in the benefits of communism, might as well actually be able to articulate it properly. Her IC reasoning for going is explicitly to spread communism to the Halveans.
Random Member
Gardener of Human Happiness
- Location
- Behind You
- Location
- United States
[X] Plan: Require more information to make the plan
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan: Learn the local lingo
[X] Plan The Golden Plates
[X] Plan The Golden Plates
Rockeye
Plausible Engineer
- Location
- Midwestern U.S.
16R remain
[X] Locked in: Travel Arrangements. (Optimize) (Difficulty 4) - 4 dice - 2 successes
[X] Learn Spoken Halvean: (Speechify) (Repeatable) (Difficulty 5) - 3 dice - 2 successes
[X] Learn Hanji: (Organize) (Repeatable) (Difficulty 6) - 3 dice - 2 successes
Last edited:
Definitely a good start. Strong basis in the language and transportation acquired, we should probably repeat brushing up on the language some more if we have spare turns later on but 2 successes each in spoken and written is probably functional enough to start. Next few turns we kit out the airship and do research/read theory, and ideally get out of here with a few weeks to spare instead of riding right up to the timer. Don't want to fuck with Interior or overstay our welcome.
Scale Rocks Builders No.51
Rockeye
Plausible Engineer
- Location
- Midwestern U.S.
"I can't go so soon..." Kanna mutters in an unusual display of hesitance.
"Of course you can, you stubborn elf! You mad wizard! You're the single most forceful individual I have ever met, and that's saying something."
"Aye, I can. But I don't want to."
Hornzollar sighs deeply. "You're going to say it out loud, aren't you?"
"I am." With a firm nod, she continues. "This might be the last time we see each other. After all, I'm going to somewhere that's at war. To fight in said war. And you're..."
"Old. I'm old, Kanna, it's not hard to say."
"Perhaps I can do something about that. There are therapies, I hear. Magic solves many things..."
Ignotius looks like he's swallowed a lemon. His wife Mary frowns and answers, "Now, that sounds expensive, doesn't it? We're both due to join the spirits sooner or later, and messing with that..."
"Bah!" Ignotius says suddenly. "Dear? I love this world- And I love you- Too much to stop without trying this sort of-"
Mary's lips go to a thin line. "I didn't marry a vampire."
"Perhaps... I should speak of other things," Kanna suggests. "My apologies, Mrs. Hornzollar. I feel like I don't actually know you very well, for all that Ignotius spoke of you often."
"That's alright, Kanna. You don't know me, and that's the truth. Not everybody knows everyone else- We're all in a great web, being lesser and greater parts of each others' lives. It is what it is."
What a puzzling attitude. But sensible enough, from a certain point of view, perhaps. There's just no point worrying over some things. "I see? Well... If you insist."
Ignotius sighs. "Aye. Besides, my back still hurts from that time Signore Damned Chainwielder himself melted an entire block of Harkon- You remember that battle?"
"Ah... That was close to the end, wasn't it? When they knew they were beaten but were too fucking stubborn to admit it."
"Yeah. All over but the dying, then."
"I think I was researching, then. Trying to work out the basis of the shields, and find something that would slip through..."
Ignotius snorts. "My point was, I don't fucking regret it. They were murdering people for mana. Literally take you to the top of the bloody pyramid and cut you apart. No fucking wonder we took the thing apart stone by stone, after."
"And then we had long years to build up. I half lived out of the first spellframe plant, you know? The old Branchweavers- Damn! What a fine machine those were! They were just too difficult to use for almost anyone until I codified it down to extremely specific things. I think I even built a practice rig... Wonder where it ended up."
"Museum, maybe. Lots of things from that era got shoved into museums when they were no longer useful."
"When we'd moved past them. The first locomotives..."
"Mm, yes. They called it the 'steam explosion school of engineering' for a while. But we didn't have anything better, the alternative was horse-drawn buggies. Good times, good times."
...They chat for a while longer. Past the sunset, for Kanna can't quite bring herself to just leave. And when she does, she tries her best not to make it a solemn thing. Instead, she promises to be back in a year or ten.
Perhaps she could look into human life extension therapies, too. There must be papers on it, at least. How hard could it be?
[X] Locked in: Travel Arrangements. (Optimize) (Difficulty 4) - 4 dice - 2 successes
But all that fades away when she makes the trip down to Skyreach, home of much of the airship industry.
She uses a personal-scale spell hooked onto a wand to fly the distance between Hornzollar's little village and the city of Kannit, following the rail line and then the river. The trip is made on a Nesting Doll, much like the one waiting for her... Such ships are not actually build identically, on a production line, since ships are a fairly complicated business. The only parts that are completely standardized are the lifting-body spellframes, the magical devices that cast a shadow over the ship and greatly reduce its weight, and the powerplants. Once, they had older multiple-expansion engines, inefficient but workable. Now, each one is equipped with a small coal-powered turbine to generate mana, to run the propellers with propulsive force, and to bleed off heat to keep the chill of the sky away.
This one isn't hers. She can pick out the maker's marks that designate it as a rare Dusktown Air Yard build. They only make two or three every half-year, if she recalls correctly. But attempting to get any more involved in the vessel's operations than that would draw unnecessary ire. The captain, a man with a bushy beard, a slow eye, and a very big hat, does not seem like the talkative sort. In fact, he says no more than twenty-two words the entire time, all of them to other ships or local flight directors, courtesy of the comm-ball in the bridge. There is an itch and urge to poke around and familiarize herself with the ship, one of many of the class, once the S-series but quickly redubbed 'nesting dolls'...
For now, however, she's a passenger like any other. For twenty-four hours more, as far as the inestimable Mr. Nicodemus Yeltsin is concerned, she is essentially cargo that inconveniently requires things like 'bathrooms' and 'food'. She is permitted aboard because his manifest says so, and for no other reason. The scandal, her magical ability, the fact that she is female... None of it matters to this scruffy old boot, and his two off-shift friends follow the captain's lead, creating a comfortably quiet atmosphere. Just the hum of the turbine and the whistle of the wind, plus soft ticking from the controls. It's oddly endearing, but does not lend itself well to conversation. So... She takes a nap in the moderately soft cot in one of the cabins, and spends the rest of the time in correspondence with her pocket crystal ball, arranging things. Might as well get used to sleeping aboard now, ne?
"Yha, sure boss." The woman on the other end of the connection yawns deeply. "Nobody will say a word. We know enough to be on your side, the while thing's such a shitshow anyway. You can use bay six. Pretty well kitted- Overhead cranes, machine shop, onsite bunks and all."
"I very much appreciate you and your team's approval, miss Zeether! Though I'm not your boss anymore, you know?"
"Staver's alright, but she's not you," Zeether replies, unapologetically. "More the sort to toe the line instead of poking out eyes from the money-grubbers."
"Mmh. We need to be ever vigilant against the forces of reaction and corruption. But are you sure it's alright to take over one of the old variable-field bays?"
"It sure is. You know more than I do that the safework field units represent the next generation of the tech- We've moved beyond the need for huge isolated warehouses for mana field isolation, especially since they're not good enough for Rozokin-grade work either. It's just infrastructure going spare right now. Better it be used than not, especially since you'll be gone by the time the new field generators arrive in three months."
"I certainly will be. And I'll do my best to leave the facilities in the same shape I received them. It wouldn't do to burden your team unnecessarily!"
"I mean, go ahead, Miss Dipolous! If this is the only way I can support you... Well, it ain't marching in the street, but I'll stamp requisitions all day."
"Your aid will surely contribute to the liberation abroad. I'll arrive in two days. I'm just about to take possession now."
"Mhm. See you soon then, boss. Bye for now."
Kanna smiles as the comm link drops. Then she tidies herself up and makes her way through the Skyreach mustering yards. One of the largest transportation nexuses in all of Sarlonne, where three rail lines, river barge traffic, and large numbers of airships all meet... The city of Skyreach was mostly untouched in Sarlonne's liberation. Even though it was used as an airbase by the Vale, their air power was completely dominant for most of the war, precluding any sort of raid... And the Glitterdawn Vale imperialists decided to cut their losses and give up the colony before the ground war truly reached it, either. So the sculpted wooden towers are intact, each one practically a miniature village with businesses, homes, and industries on different levels, and many of them with moorings for airships on the roofs.
It's pretty. But it's not the Chelskan way. Off to the side, in wide riverside clearings, a steel and concrete forest much busier than the old city bustles: The cargo yards. Each one of those towers likely took decades to raise and fill out, where modern steel and concrete techniques could raise one of similar height in three to five months. Less, if magic is used aggressively to accelerate the construction process. They really are an art, being lost and overshadowed by the titan hand of industry... But art can be pursued later, when material comfort and a common-owned system is established the world over.
"Bah! Enough internal monologuing! Let's go see the ship."
"Let me just say again, it's so great to meet you! You're an inspiration, you really are."
"And once again, thank you! But it's other people who must take responsibility for themselves. The common good cannot rest on one pair of shoulders, however mighty!"
Her escort, a young dark-haired elf- Probably only thirty, thirty five, barely even a real adult- Who introduced herself as Marie Mapleseed, pats the wooden hull affectionately before taking hold of the latch on the heavy steel door and raising it with a healthy thunk. The door swings open and down, revealing a narrow stairway used to allow crew and passengers aboard.
"And here we have her! Scale Rocks Builders number 51. Turned out in Whitewater not eight days ago and flown down to Lily Lake and then here, as a shakedown cruise."
"Up we go, let's have an inspection." There is a clomp clomp clomp as the pair head into the vessel.
Marie follows behind as they ascend into the core hallway. "All systems nominal, speed achieved: Sixty-two knots. I hope this vessel will serve you well on your adventures, miss Dipolous! It's truly inspiring to be in the presence of such a figure, you know."
Kanna grins back. "Ah, a fan? I couldn't tell with all the praise so far. I've done nothing that someone else couldn't have, were they in my position, you know!"
Marie blushes, but nods. "Yes, I'm a fan! You're the only one who actually stood up for us, the common elf here, even a little bit. And you're brilliant- You downscaled the safework fields! You put floramana into production!"
"Oh, much of that was done with the help of others," Kanna demurs, smiling.
"And your work on the PMDs was amazing- I actually customized some of the cartridges-" She taps the box by her side.
Kanna rounds on her with a gasp of delight. "Really! I was told that nobody uses that feature and it was a waste of effort! What spells did you add?"
"Um! S-So I saw that there's really only room for two main circles and about three hundred characters, so anything really amazing would have to cut down lots of bits at every step. Short spells are a lot harder than efficient spells, after all."
"Indeed! When a frame is doing the casting, length of the subject spell adds a linear cost to each casting- Entirely different constraints to free casting, or ritual casting, where utter specificity is needed even at the cost of length and difficulty."
"Yes, exactly! So I eventually settled on a two-part spell that manipulates electrical charge in open air- I was hoping for a cheap lightning attack but uhhhh, you know, the most common lightbulb designs simply create light directly using ytle, but lightning makes light, right? So I thought, this thing I read about called electrical charges can possibly make light, if you do it right, watch!"
She draws the wand from the case at her side and points it down the hall. Depressing the trigger, a bright red glow shines out from a line of space directly in front of the wand. As she twirls it around, it looks like a blade made of baneful red light.
"Isn't this amazing? It doesn't do anything, but it looks really fantastical, doesn't it?"
Kanna is grinning and watching the display. "Amazing indeed! Oh, we have got to look at that together later. Have you submitted it as an invention? What's the actual mana drain? Does- Hrhh. That's brilliant, miss Marie, but we can look at all that later. Can't forget where we are."
With that reminder, Marie releases the trigger and shuffles from side to side, embarrassed. "Gods and stars. Kanna Dipolous said my spell is brilliant! Eeeeeee!" She pats her face repeatedly. "Okay! Right. Right. Tour, then? I'm sure you've seen other Nesting Dolls but they're all a bit different. So we should take a good long look at yours."
"They are. It's good to review things carefully."
Marie bows, muttering something and giggling, and then the inspection proceeds. The ship, currently only named 'Scale Rocks Builders no.51', is 98 feet long, 34 feet wide, and 30 feet high at its greatest dimensions. A sleek shape almost like two ocean-boats placed with their tops together, barring the heavy steel landing struts, she has three decks. For reasons that it would take a four-year degree to fully understand, it is vastly easier for magic to edit the gravity affecting an airship, rather than negate it completely or directly modify the mass of a vessel. When over 90% of your weight can be removed for a low ongoing mana cost, some low-pressure air tanks are enough to generate the buoyancy required to do the rest of the lifting. So the top deck is not much but a machinery area and a large space to hold huge, thin-walled steel tanks, plus the pumps to service them and the distributed spellframes that apply a careful veil of weight-reduction across the hull, with redundant overlap and two separate mana supplies.
The main deck runs along the bottom of the ship, with the engine room at the back containing a large coal-burning turbine as well as chunky mana-siphoning units along the driveshaft, and a considerable space for coal bunkerage and an automatic feeding system. The entire room is clad in steel and there is an emergency sprinkler system, to prevent stray sparks from causing wildfires. In front of that is the cargo bay, a large open space with two rolling doors taking up essentially half of the ship's broadsides. Under the metal floor runs the thick steel keel and various conduits and pipes. There is an overhead gantry and a basic grab-and-lift spellframe for moving heavy cargo. The front of the ship is split into two separate decks, containing a bridge with a helm seat and an optional navigator/captain station, four small cabins, a modest galley with freezer and pantry, restrooms and a tiny shower, as well as plumbing facilities and a small waste-separation unit to recycle as much water as possible. Water tanks as ballast, ancillary storage, a few parachute sets, mana storage, fire extinguishers, and supplementary coal bunkers are distributed all around, wherever free space is available (though preferring areas lower in the ship).
"Quite a fine piece of engineering, these beauties are. Not something that can be stamped together in a factory, but to produce so many so quickly... The shipbuilders of the Sarlonne have proved themselves equal to the challenges of a modern world."
"I'm glad to hear that! Well... If everything is in order... I can sign her over to you. Fully coaled and watered, as we just checked."
Kanna quirks an eyebrow. "What troubles you, miss Mapleseed?"
"Ah! It's just, I don't mean to impose, but I heard you're travelling to help liberate the animal-elves of Halve. It's just... I was hoping I could... Go with you? Sorry, I know, it's selfish of me to ask. I'm sure you have limited space aboard, and, and need soldiers or experts to fill out a roster, not just a shipbuilder apprentice who doesn't have any impressive qualifications or anything forget I said anything-"
"Marie. Maple." Kanna claps her on the shoulder. "Please calm down. A shipbuilder would be quite fine to bring actually, lest I suffer breakdowns. Let me think about this for a minute... You're aware that it's going to be dangerous, yes?"
"Y-Yes, miss Dipolous. The Old Vale is cruel, I know that. The bewilder fog took my grandfather, after all." She scowls. "I think people should be free of them."
"Kanna. Please, call me Kanna." Her stare is intense, curly blonde hair surrounding eyes that seem to bore into Marie. "Do not feel obligated. Every person must serve the common good, but not everyone serves the same way. Even I have doubts if my course is for the best... But I cannot bear anything else, at this point."
"...I know. I know, not everyone can be a war hero, or a great scientist... Some people, all they can do is work hard. From each according to their means."
"And to each according to their needs," Kanna finishes the common saying. "Regardless. Are you trying to follow me? Live up to my example? I would ask that you do anything but that! I am not you- And you are not me. My path is not yours. Your red light spell is fascinating, and could lead to any number of brilliant advancements."
"It's too difficult to manufacture," Marie mutters, looking to the side. "Codified into a dedicated spellframe, it doesn't produce enough light, efficiently enough, to be worth the manufacturing costs."
"But academically, it could lead to entirely new lines of research. Who knows what is buried in the mysteries of lightning? You could spend your life uncovering them, instead of following me, instead of building ships. For... Is it revenge?"
"...I just. I just want to feel like I'm actually accomplishing something. Building Dolls forever would be... Such a useless life. Please, take me with you. I know it's dangerous. I know I'm probably not the best. But I want to leave Sarlonne. I want... I don't know. Something."
Kanna sighs deeply, and thinks.
Allow Marie Mapleseed to join your quest?
[] Yes, she's a brilliant mind and very experienced with airship work. Such an assistant would be very valuable.
[] No, she's far too young. And a bit... Hero-worshippy. It would be bad to drag her into danger unprepared.
What will you name your new vessel? Every ship needs a name, after all.
[] Comet
[] Liberator
[] Beacon
[] Morningstar
[] Write-In
Two hours moratorium.
The third person voice is feeling odd to write. I think a second person voice might work better, since this is a close and character focused quest instead of the previous broad overview one.
What do you think of second person perspective as a possible POV for this thread?
Observe:
"Of course you can, you stubborn elf! You mad wizard! You're the single most forceful individual I have ever met, and that's saying something."
"Aye, I can. But I don't want to."
Hornzollar sighs deeply. "You're going to say it out loud, aren't you?"
"I am." With a firm nod, she continues. "This might be the last time we see each other. After all, I'm going to somewhere that's at war. To fight in said war. And you're..."
"Old. I'm old, Kanna, it's not hard to say."
"Perhaps I can do something about that. There are therapies, I hear. Magic solves many things..."
Ignotius looks like he's swallowed a lemon. His wife Mary frowns and answers, "Now, that sounds expensive, doesn't it? We're both due to join the spirits sooner or later, and messing with that..."
"Bah!" Ignotius says suddenly. "Dear? I love this world- And I love you- Too much to stop without trying this sort of-"
Mary's lips go to a thin line. "I didn't marry a vampire."
"Perhaps... I should speak of other things," Kanna suggests. "My apologies, Mrs. Hornzollar. I feel like I don't actually know you very well, for all that Ignotius spoke of you often."
"That's alright, Kanna. You don't know me, and that's the truth. Not everybody knows everyone else- We're all in a great web, being lesser and greater parts of each others' lives. It is what it is."
What a puzzling attitude. But sensible enough, from a certain point of view, perhaps. There's just no point worrying over some things. "I see? Well... If you insist."
Ignotius sighs. "Aye. Besides, my back still hurts from that time Signore Damned Chainwielder himself melted an entire block of Harkon- You remember that battle?"
"Ah... That was close to the end, wasn't it? When they knew they were beaten but were too fucking stubborn to admit it."
"Yeah. All over but the dying, then."
"I think I was researching, then. Trying to work out the basis of the shields, and find something that would slip through..."
Ignotius snorts. "My point was, I don't fucking regret it. They were murdering people for mana. Literally take you to the top of the bloody pyramid and cut you apart. No fucking wonder we took the thing apart stone by stone, after."
"And then we had long years to build up. I half lived out of the first spellframe plant, you know? The old Branchweavers- Damn! What a fine machine those were! They were just too difficult to use for almost anyone until I codified it down to extremely specific things. I think I even built a practice rig... Wonder where it ended up."
"Museum, maybe. Lots of things from that era got shoved into museums when they were no longer useful."
"When we'd moved past them. The first locomotives..."
"Mm, yes. They called it the 'steam explosion school of engineering' for a while. But we didn't have anything better, the alternative was horse-drawn buggies. Good times, good times."
...They chat for a while longer. Past the sunset, for Kanna can't quite bring herself to just leave. And when she does, she tries her best not to make it a solemn thing. Instead, she promises to be back in a year or ten.
Perhaps she could look into human life extension therapies, too. There must be papers on it, at least. How hard could it be?
[X] Locked in: Travel Arrangements. (Optimize) (Difficulty 4) - 4 dice - 2 successes
But all that fades away when she makes the trip down to Skyreach, home of much of the airship industry.
She uses a personal-scale spell hooked onto a wand to fly the distance between Hornzollar's little village and the city of Kannit, following the rail line and then the river. The trip is made on a Nesting Doll, much like the one waiting for her... Such ships are not actually build identically, on a production line, since ships are a fairly complicated business. The only parts that are completely standardized are the lifting-body spellframes, the magical devices that cast a shadow over the ship and greatly reduce its weight, and the powerplants. Once, they had older multiple-expansion engines, inefficient but workable. Now, each one is equipped with a small coal-powered turbine to generate mana, to run the propellers with propulsive force, and to bleed off heat to keep the chill of the sky away.
This one isn't hers. She can pick out the maker's marks that designate it as a rare Dusktown Air Yard build. They only make two or three every half-year, if she recalls correctly. But attempting to get any more involved in the vessel's operations than that would draw unnecessary ire. The captain, a man with a bushy beard, a slow eye, and a very big hat, does not seem like the talkative sort. In fact, he says no more than twenty-two words the entire time, all of them to other ships or local flight directors, courtesy of the comm-ball in the bridge. There is an itch and urge to poke around and familiarize herself with the ship, one of many of the class, once the S-series but quickly redubbed 'nesting dolls'...
For now, however, she's a passenger like any other. For twenty-four hours more, as far as the inestimable Mr. Nicodemus Yeltsin is concerned, she is essentially cargo that inconveniently requires things like 'bathrooms' and 'food'. She is permitted aboard because his manifest says so, and for no other reason. The scandal, her magical ability, the fact that she is female... None of it matters to this scruffy old boot, and his two off-shift friends follow the captain's lead, creating a comfortably quiet atmosphere. Just the hum of the turbine and the whistle of the wind, plus soft ticking from the controls. It's oddly endearing, but does not lend itself well to conversation. So... She takes a nap in the moderately soft cot in one of the cabins, and spends the rest of the time in correspondence with her pocket crystal ball, arranging things. Might as well get used to sleeping aboard now, ne?
"Yha, sure boss." The woman on the other end of the connection yawns deeply. "Nobody will say a word. We know enough to be on your side, the while thing's such a shitshow anyway. You can use bay six. Pretty well kitted- Overhead cranes, machine shop, onsite bunks and all."
"I very much appreciate you and your team's approval, miss Zeether! Though I'm not your boss anymore, you know?"
"Staver's alright, but she's not you," Zeether replies, unapologetically. "More the sort to toe the line instead of poking out eyes from the money-grubbers."
"Mmh. We need to be ever vigilant against the forces of reaction and corruption. But are you sure it's alright to take over one of the old variable-field bays?"
"It sure is. You know more than I do that the safework field units represent the next generation of the tech- We've moved beyond the need for huge isolated warehouses for mana field isolation, especially since they're not good enough for Rozokin-grade work either. It's just infrastructure going spare right now. Better it be used than not, especially since you'll be gone by the time the new field generators arrive in three months."
"I certainly will be. And I'll do my best to leave the facilities in the same shape I received them. It wouldn't do to burden your team unnecessarily!"
"I mean, go ahead, Miss Dipolous! If this is the only way I can support you... Well, it ain't marching in the street, but I'll stamp requisitions all day."
"Your aid will surely contribute to the liberation abroad. I'll arrive in two days. I'm just about to take possession now."
"Mhm. See you soon then, boss. Bye for now."
Kanna smiles as the comm link drops. Then she tidies herself up and makes her way through the Skyreach mustering yards. One of the largest transportation nexuses in all of Sarlonne, where three rail lines, river barge traffic, and large numbers of airships all meet... The city of Skyreach was mostly untouched in Sarlonne's liberation. Even though it was used as an airbase by the Vale, their air power was completely dominant for most of the war, precluding any sort of raid... And the Glitterdawn Vale imperialists decided to cut their losses and give up the colony before the ground war truly reached it, either. So the sculpted wooden towers are intact, each one practically a miniature village with businesses, homes, and industries on different levels, and many of them with moorings for airships on the roofs.
It's pretty. But it's not the Chelskan way. Off to the side, in wide riverside clearings, a steel and concrete forest much busier than the old city bustles: The cargo yards. Each one of those towers likely took decades to raise and fill out, where modern steel and concrete techniques could raise one of similar height in three to five months. Less, if magic is used aggressively to accelerate the construction process. They really are an art, being lost and overshadowed by the titan hand of industry... But art can be pursued later, when material comfort and a common-owned system is established the world over.
"Bah! Enough internal monologuing! Let's go see the ship."
"Let me just say again, it's so great to meet you! You're an inspiration, you really are."
"And once again, thank you! But it's other people who must take responsibility for themselves. The common good cannot rest on one pair of shoulders, however mighty!"
Her escort, a young dark-haired elf- Probably only thirty, thirty five, barely even a real adult- Who introduced herself as Marie Mapleseed, pats the wooden hull affectionately before taking hold of the latch on the heavy steel door and raising it with a healthy thunk. The door swings open and down, revealing a narrow stairway used to allow crew and passengers aboard.
"And here we have her! Scale Rocks Builders number 51. Turned out in Whitewater not eight days ago and flown down to Lily Lake and then here, as a shakedown cruise."
"Up we go, let's have an inspection." There is a clomp clomp clomp as the pair head into the vessel.
Marie follows behind as they ascend into the core hallway. "All systems nominal, speed achieved: Sixty-two knots. I hope this vessel will serve you well on your adventures, miss Dipolous! It's truly inspiring to be in the presence of such a figure, you know."
Kanna grins back. "Ah, a fan? I couldn't tell with all the praise so far. I've done nothing that someone else couldn't have, were they in my position, you know!"
Marie blushes, but nods. "Yes, I'm a fan! You're the only one who actually stood up for us, the common elf here, even a little bit. And you're brilliant- You downscaled the safework fields! You put floramana into production!"
"Oh, much of that was done with the help of others," Kanna demurs, smiling.
"And your work on the PMDs was amazing- I actually customized some of the cartridges-" She taps the box by her side.
Kanna rounds on her with a gasp of delight. "Really! I was told that nobody uses that feature and it was a waste of effort! What spells did you add?"
"Um! S-So I saw that there's really only room for two main circles and about three hundred characters, so anything really amazing would have to cut down lots of bits at every step. Short spells are a lot harder than efficient spells, after all."
"Indeed! When a frame is doing the casting, length of the subject spell adds a linear cost to each casting- Entirely different constraints to free casting, or ritual casting, where utter specificity is needed even at the cost of length and difficulty."
"Yes, exactly! So I eventually settled on a two-part spell that manipulates electrical charge in open air- I was hoping for a cheap lightning attack but uhhhh, you know, the most common lightbulb designs simply create light directly using ytle, but lightning makes light, right? So I thought, this thing I read about called electrical charges can possibly make light, if you do it right, watch!"
She draws the wand from the case at her side and points it down the hall. Depressing the trigger, a bright red glow shines out from a line of space directly in front of the wand. As she twirls it around, it looks like a blade made of baneful red light.
"Isn't this amazing? It doesn't do anything, but it looks really fantastical, doesn't it?"
Kanna is grinning and watching the display. "Amazing indeed! Oh, we have got to look at that together later. Have you submitted it as an invention? What's the actual mana drain? Does- Hrhh. That's brilliant, miss Marie, but we can look at all that later. Can't forget where we are."
With that reminder, Marie releases the trigger and shuffles from side to side, embarrassed. "Gods and stars. Kanna Dipolous said my spell is brilliant! Eeeeeee!" She pats her face repeatedly. "Okay! Right. Right. Tour, then? I'm sure you've seen other Nesting Dolls but they're all a bit different. So we should take a good long look at yours."
"They are. It's good to review things carefully."
Marie bows, muttering something and giggling, and then the inspection proceeds. The ship, currently only named 'Scale Rocks Builders no.51', is 98 feet long, 34 feet wide, and 30 feet high at its greatest dimensions. A sleek shape almost like two ocean-boats placed with their tops together, barring the heavy steel landing struts, she has three decks. For reasons that it would take a four-year degree to fully understand, it is vastly easier for magic to edit the gravity affecting an airship, rather than negate it completely or directly modify the mass of a vessel. When over 90% of your weight can be removed for a low ongoing mana cost, some low-pressure air tanks are enough to generate the buoyancy required to do the rest of the lifting. So the top deck is not much but a machinery area and a large space to hold huge, thin-walled steel tanks, plus the pumps to service them and the distributed spellframes that apply a careful veil of weight-reduction across the hull, with redundant overlap and two separate mana supplies.
The main deck runs along the bottom of the ship, with the engine room at the back containing a large coal-burning turbine as well as chunky mana-siphoning units along the driveshaft, and a considerable space for coal bunkerage and an automatic feeding system. The entire room is clad in steel and there is an emergency sprinkler system, to prevent stray sparks from causing wildfires. In front of that is the cargo bay, a large open space with two rolling doors taking up essentially half of the ship's broadsides. Under the metal floor runs the thick steel keel and various conduits and pipes. There is an overhead gantry and a basic grab-and-lift spellframe for moving heavy cargo. The front of the ship is split into two separate decks, containing a bridge with a helm seat and an optional navigator/captain station, four small cabins, a modest galley with freezer and pantry, restrooms and a tiny shower, as well as plumbing facilities and a small waste-separation unit to recycle as much water as possible. Water tanks as ballast, ancillary storage, a few parachute sets, mana storage, fire extinguishers, and supplementary coal bunkers are distributed all around, wherever free space is available (though preferring areas lower in the ship).
"Quite a fine piece of engineering, these beauties are. Not something that can be stamped together in a factory, but to produce so many so quickly... The shipbuilders of the Sarlonne have proved themselves equal to the challenges of a modern world."
"I'm glad to hear that! Well... If everything is in order... I can sign her over to you. Fully coaled and watered, as we just checked."
Kanna quirks an eyebrow. "What troubles you, miss Mapleseed?"
"Ah! It's just, I don't mean to impose, but I heard you're travelling to help liberate the animal-elves of Halve. It's just... I was hoping I could... Go with you? Sorry, I know, it's selfish of me to ask. I'm sure you have limited space aboard, and, and need soldiers or experts to fill out a roster, not just a shipbuilder apprentice who doesn't have any impressive qualifications or anything forget I said anything-"
"Marie. Maple." Kanna claps her on the shoulder. "Please calm down. A shipbuilder would be quite fine to bring actually, lest I suffer breakdowns. Let me think about this for a minute... You're aware that it's going to be dangerous, yes?"
"Y-Yes, miss Dipolous. The Old Vale is cruel, I know that. The bewilder fog took my grandfather, after all." She scowls. "I think people should be free of them."
"Kanna. Please, call me Kanna." Her stare is intense, curly blonde hair surrounding eyes that seem to bore into Marie. "Do not feel obligated. Every person must serve the common good, but not everyone serves the same way. Even I have doubts if my course is for the best... But I cannot bear anything else, at this point."
"...I know. I know, not everyone can be a war hero, or a great scientist... Some people, all they can do is work hard. From each according to their means."
"And to each according to their needs," Kanna finishes the common saying. "Regardless. Are you trying to follow me? Live up to my example? I would ask that you do anything but that! I am not you- And you are not me. My path is not yours. Your red light spell is fascinating, and could lead to any number of brilliant advancements."
"It's too difficult to manufacture," Marie mutters, looking to the side. "Codified into a dedicated spellframe, it doesn't produce enough light, efficiently enough, to be worth the manufacturing costs."
"But academically, it could lead to entirely new lines of research. Who knows what is buried in the mysteries of lightning? You could spend your life uncovering them, instead of following me, instead of building ships. For... Is it revenge?"
"...I just. I just want to feel like I'm actually accomplishing something. Building Dolls forever would be... Such a useless life. Please, take me with you. I know it's dangerous. I know I'm probably not the best. But I want to leave Sarlonne. I want... I don't know. Something."
Kanna sighs deeply, and thinks.
Allow Marie Mapleseed to join your quest?
[] Yes, she's a brilliant mind and very experienced with airship work. Such an assistant would be very valuable.
[] No, she's far too young. And a bit... Hero-worshippy. It would be bad to drag her into danger unprepared.
What will you name your new vessel? Every ship needs a name, after all.
[] Comet
[] Liberator
[] Beacon
[] Morningstar
[] Write-In
Two hours moratorium.
The third person voice is feeling odd to write. I think a second person voice might work better, since this is a close and character focused quest instead of the previous broad overview one.
What do you think of second person perspective as a possible POV for this thread?
Observe:
"And here we have her! Scale Rocks Builders number 51. Turned out in Whitewater not eight days ago and flown down to Lily Lake and then here, as a shakedown cruise."
You nod approvingly, stepping into the doorway. "Up we go, let's have an inspection." There is a clomp clomp clomp as the pair head into the vessel.
Marie follows behind you as you ascend into the ship's core hallway. "All systems nominal, speed achieved: Sixty-two knots. I hope this vessel will serve you well on your adventures, miss Dipolous! It's truly inspiring to be in the presence of such a figure, you know."
Aww. You can't help but grin back. "Ah, a fan? I've done nothing that someone else couldn't have, were they in my position, you know!"
Marie blushes, but nods. "Yes, I'm a fan. You're the only one who actually stood up for the little guy. And you're brilliant- You downscaled the safework fields. Your work on the PMDs was amazing- I actually customized some of the cartridges, in fact!" She taps the box by her side.
At that, you round on her with a gasp of delight. "Really! I was told that nobody uses that feature and it was a waste of effort! What spells did you add?"
You nod approvingly, stepping into the doorway. "Up we go, let's have an inspection." There is a clomp clomp clomp as the pair head into the vessel.
Marie follows behind you as you ascend into the ship's core hallway. "All systems nominal, speed achieved: Sixty-two knots. I hope this vessel will serve you well on your adventures, miss Dipolous! It's truly inspiring to be in the presence of such a figure, you know."
Aww. You can't help but grin back. "Ah, a fan? I've done nothing that someone else couldn't have, were they in my position, you know!"
Marie blushes, but nods. "Yes, I'm a fan. You're the only one who actually stood up for the little guy. And you're brilliant- You downscaled the safework fields. Your work on the PMDs was amazing- I actually customized some of the cartridges, in fact!" She taps the box by her side.
At that, you round on her with a gasp of delight. "Really! I was told that nobody uses that feature and it was a waste of effort! What spells did you add?"
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- Location
- Somewhere in the area
- Pronouns
- He/She/They
I'm fine with second person POV, even if I prefer third person, so long as you clearly indicate when you shift perspectives from one character to another.
Anyway wrt to the update, I'm leaning towards Morningstar or "The Break of Dawn" if we can go for more flowery names. I also am fine with taking Marie Mapleseed along for the ride, it would be helpful to have another true believer in communism with us when we arrive in Halve, and a mechanic for our airship will be essential to keeping it running when we run the blockade. @Rockeye will Marie have actions of her own to take each week? While she wouldn't be able to call in favors for industrial machinery or military armaments, I would like to have her start to learn the language (spoken and written) and undergo some basic combat training before we leave.
Anyway wrt to the update, I'm leaning towards Morningstar or "The Break of Dawn" if we can go for more flowery names. I also am fine with taking Marie Mapleseed along for the ride, it would be helpful to have another true believer in communism with us when we arrive in Halve, and a mechanic for our airship will be essential to keeping it running when we run the blockade. @Rockeye will Marie have actions of her own to take each week? While she wouldn't be able to call in favors for industrial machinery or military armaments, I would like to have her start to learn the language (spoken and written) and undergo some basic combat training before we leave.
Omake Rewards
Rockeye
Plausible Engineer
- Location
- Midwestern U.S.
Omake rewards will generally be bonus dice, applied to the action that the omake writer chooses.
I'll also give free omake rewards for discussion, suggestions, memes, healthy debate, etc, tallied up and applied at QM discretion. I'm not gonna promise a specific ratio or anything, but discussion makes me happy and will generate bonii.
ONE omake is currently banked, copied from the previous quest. If 10ebbor10 doesn't specify otherwise, I'll apply it to the first action that would have failed without it.
ONE omake is currently banked due to ongoing discussion and participation. It will be applied at QM discretion.
I'll also give free omake rewards for discussion, suggestions, memes, healthy debate, etc, tallied up and applied at QM discretion. I'm not gonna promise a specific ratio or anything, but discussion makes me happy and will generate bonii.
ONE omake is currently banked, copied from the previous quest. If 10ebbor10 doesn't specify otherwise, I'll apply it to the first action that would have failed without it.
ONE omake is currently banked due to ongoing discussion and participation. It will be applied at QM discretion.
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- Location
- alphen aan den rijn
70mile/per hour or 115km/hour thats pretty fast
[X] Beacon
[X] Yes, she's a brilliant mind and very experienced with airship work. Such an assistant would be very valuable.
why not have a girl like that follow along, whats the worst that can happen/s
[X] Beacon
[X] Yes, she's a brilliant mind and very experienced with airship work. Such an assistant would be very valuable.
why not have a girl like that follow along, whats the worst that can happen/s
Yeah I like this too, Morningstar is my favorite of the provided options but just sticking with 51 is extremely Chelskan.
As for the fangirl... yeah we should probably take the trained airship mechanic who's fanatically dedicated to us personally. She might get herself killed doing something stupid, but that's the prerogative of young people. And more loyal lackeys are always good to have, especially ones that know how to maintain our airship who's current crew is literally just us. Kanna could probably kludge together a basic understanding of it, but that's actions we could be spending on something else, and the protagonist ship always needs a quirky engineer.
does seem like she thinks more people are coming though. So potential issue right off the bat.