Roth963
If I become inactive with this massage, I died
I am looking forward to what loot Taylor left there (if she did).
Calibration (BAHHSCQ/Sanctioned)
- Thread starter Alivaril
- Start date
- Crossover
CC Mini-Interlude: Nerd Sniping
Alivaril
On a magically-deficient journey of self-discovery
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Special thanks to @saganatsu, @DB_Explorer, @fictionfan, @Adephagia, @DaGeek247, @Wordsmith, @LonelyWolf999, Jamie Wahls, and my twenty other patrons not mentioned here. An extremely enthusiastic "Thank you" to @Torgamous for her patronage as well. Also, if you're not on here, you fit the tier, and you want to be added, please tell me. >.>
Tamara returned to the expected sight of her friends being overenthusiastic dorks. Really, she wouldn't blame Taylor for their own lack of self control, but stopping sulking just long enough to send everyone a fascinating new unicorn design was just asking for a late-nighter. Not that Tamara had any intention of telling the new cadet; Taylor clearly wasn't in a very good headspace as far as perceived personal deficiencies went. No wonder she was exhibiting signs of Valkyrie Syndrome.
"Save yourself, Tamara! We're already lost."
Tamara blinked and promptly ignored the warning. That was as good as saying Taylor's project was interesting enough to overcome their (admittedly rather poor) self-control. Either she'd save them from themselves, or she'd join in; there was no way she'd just abandon them.
"Sim says the unicorn's second armor layer will behave like some sort of energy-absorbent gas for force distribution, what the fuck is this?"
"Mysterious colors, unlike any seen on Earth–"
"Stop quoting Lovecraft while we're looking at alien clarketech, dammit."
"I mean, it's not a blackbox for once, so I don't think it's really clarketech as such."
"How are we even supposed to make these? They don't make crystal growing kits for whatever the fuck this is supposed to be."
"Symbie OP?"
"We are not naming it 'Butt Stallion.'"
"Uh, what? Why would we?"
"It'll be a crystal pony so that reference doesn't even work, dumbass."
"I don't even know how to find flaws with this thing; my physics engine can barely handle interacting with just one of them."
"The unusual liquid crystal behavior is throwing me off, too."
"Think macro-scale instead of micro and just tell her?"
"Yeah, the sensors don't have a way to clear bugs off."
"The eyes? Those are lasers, not sensors."
"The jets don't allow for rapid course adjustments."
"Is that a fucking digestive tract? Why does a robot need one of those?"
"Looks more like a miniature factory to me."
"There's way too much biological material for this fucking thing to count as a robot. It's a cyborg, that's what it is."
"She really is intent on making full-fledged organisms, huh?"
"Where the fuck is the power coming from, it can't just survive entirely on a diet of Antagonists–"
"Says who?"
"Looks like the armor is basically an abyss as far as light and heat go, so maybe that's it?"
"There's at least one identifiable dynamo I can find, too."
"She really took our earlier comments as a challenge, huh?"
"Have you all forgotten that we have classes tomorrow?" Tamara asked rhetorically.
"Meh."
"This is more important, seriously, imagine putting this armor into mass production–"
"Seems unlikely; awesome properties or not, we'll have trouble making even one of these."
"Seriously, what is with that second layer?"
"We promised Jun-chan a unicorn and I want to surprise her with it ASAP. Sleep can wait."
"I just want to know what the fuck is going on with the central processor; there's this blank spot that the sim is ignoring and it's wigging me out."
"Worse than ignoring, it pretends it's still interacting with its surroundings."
"Make that blank spots, plural."
"What was that about no blackboxing?"
"I hate everything."
"Fuck my life."
"Well, since you asked so nicely–"
"Kaja, no. You're still in the doghouse."
"Kinky."
"Please stop."
"Found the code for those areas and what is this I don't even. The sim has no idea either, the design outline just specifies normal input and output."
"Well, at least that's more than we usually get from blackboxes?"
"Is it just me, or are those micromissiles Antagonist-based?"
Tamara gave up being the token responsible member of the Crafting Club and pulled up Taylor's new file. If her friends were going to stay up making Pure-chan a gift, then they wouldn't be doing it without Tamara.
"No, the bio-missiles aren't efficient enough for Antagonist tech."
"They're honestly conspicuous in how bad they are; fabber stock is better."
"Good grief, I just realized how weird this thing will look on most sensors. It's like a pony-shaped patch of interference."
"Jesus, we're making a blackbox. Forgive me, Lord, for I have sinned–"
"Wait, how does it even know what to repair–"
"Oooh, huh. Hey, look at the sensor software."
"Why is there a — a decryption key just for looking through its own skin?"
"What is this witchcraft and where can I get more?"
"How the fuck did she even make that?"
"Looks cool, but it's obsoleted if the armor gets damaged."
"No, look, the opticals auto-compensate based on how much the crystals refracted light en route–"
"Mysterious colors, unlike–"
"Stop."
"No, seriously, that key is impossible hax. She might as well use the fucking ocean as a lens–"
"And then we have the propulsion system, which I'm pretty sure are just scaled-down missile engines."
"This is fucking schizo tech, that's what this is."
"Save yourself, Tamara! We're already lost."
Tamara blinked and promptly ignored the warning. That was as good as saying Taylor's project was interesting enough to overcome their (admittedly rather poor) self-control. Either she'd save them from themselves, or she'd join in; there was no way she'd just abandon them.
"Sim says the unicorn's second armor layer will behave like some sort of energy-absorbent gas for force distribution, what the fuck is this?"
"Mysterious colors, unlike any seen on Earth–"
"Stop quoting Lovecraft while we're looking at alien clarketech, dammit."
"I mean, it's not a blackbox for once, so I don't think it's really clarketech as such."
"How are we even supposed to make these? They don't make crystal growing kits for whatever the fuck this is supposed to be."
"Symbie OP?"
"We are not naming it 'Butt Stallion.'"
"Uh, what? Why would we?"
"It'll be a crystal pony so that reference doesn't even work, dumbass."
"I don't even know how to find flaws with this thing; my physics engine can barely handle interacting with just one of them."
"The unusual liquid crystal behavior is throwing me off, too."
"Think macro-scale instead of micro and just tell her?"
"Yeah, the sensors don't have a way to clear bugs off."
"The eyes? Those are lasers, not sensors."
"The jets don't allow for rapid course adjustments."
"Is that a fucking digestive tract? Why does a robot need one of those?"
"Looks more like a miniature factory to me."
"There's way too much biological material for this fucking thing to count as a robot. It's a cyborg, that's what it is."
"She really is intent on making full-fledged organisms, huh?"
"Where the fuck is the power coming from, it can't just survive entirely on a diet of Antagonists–"
"Says who?"
"Looks like the armor is basically an abyss as far as light and heat go, so maybe that's it?"
"There's at least one identifiable dynamo I can find, too."
"She really took our earlier comments as a challenge, huh?"
"Have you all forgotten that we have classes tomorrow?" Tamara asked rhetorically.
"Meh."
"This is more important, seriously, imagine putting this armor into mass production–"
"Seems unlikely; awesome properties or not, we'll have trouble making even one of these."
"Seriously, what is with that second layer?"
"We promised Jun-chan a unicorn and I want to surprise her with it ASAP. Sleep can wait."
"I just want to know what the fuck is going on with the central processor; there's this blank spot that the sim is ignoring and it's wigging me out."
"Worse than ignoring, it pretends it's still interacting with its surroundings."
"Make that blank spots, plural."
"What was that about no blackboxing?"
"I hate everything."
"Fuck my life."
"Well, since you asked so nicely–"
"Kaja, no. You're still in the doghouse."
"Kinky."
"Please stop."
"Found the code for those areas and what is this I don't even. The sim has no idea either, the design outline just specifies normal input and output."
"Well, at least that's more than we usually get from blackboxes?"
"Is it just me, or are those micromissiles Antagonist-based?"
Tamara gave up being the token responsible member of the Crafting Club and pulled up Taylor's new file. If her friends were going to stay up making Pure-chan a gift, then they wouldn't be doing it without Tamara.
"No, the bio-missiles aren't efficient enough for Antagonist tech."
"They're honestly conspicuous in how bad they are; fabber stock is better."
"Good grief, I just realized how weird this thing will look on most sensors. It's like a pony-shaped patch of interference."
"Jesus, we're making a blackbox. Forgive me, Lord, for I have sinned–"
"Wait, how does it even know what to repair–"
"Oooh, huh. Hey, look at the sensor software."
"Why is there a — a decryption key just for looking through its own skin?"
"What is this witchcraft and where can I get more?"
"How the fuck did she even make that?"
"Looks cool, but it's obsoleted if the armor gets damaged."
"No, look, the opticals auto-compensate based on how much the crystals refracted light en route–"
"Mysterious colors, unlike–"
"Stop."
"No, seriously, that key is impossible hax. She might as well use the fucking ocean as a lens–"
"And then we have the propulsion system, which I'm pretty sure are just scaled-down missile engines."
"This is fucking schizo tech, that's what this is."
Tamara returned to the expected sight of her friends being overenthusiastic dorks. Really, she wouldn't blame Taylor for their own lack of self control, but stopping sulking just long enough to send everyone a fascinating new unicorn design was just asking for a late-nighter. Not that Tamara had any intention of telling the new cadet; Taylor clearly wasn't in a very good headspace as far as perceived personal deficiencies went. No wonder she was exhibiting signs of Valkyrie Syndrome.
"Save yourself, Tamara! We're already lost."
Tamara blinked and promptly ignored the warning. That was as good as saying Taylor's project was interesting enough to overcome their (admittedly rather poor) self-control. Either she'd save them from themselves, or she'd join in; there was no way she'd just abandon them.
"Sim says the unicorn's second armor layer will behave like some sort of energy-absorbent gas for force distribution, what the fuck is this?" "Mysterious colors, unlike any seen on Earth–" "Stop quoting Lovecraft while we're looking at alien clarketech, dammit." "I mean, it's not a blackbox for once, so I don't think it's really clarketech as such." "How are we even supposed to make these? They don't make crystal growing kits for whatever the fuck this is supposed to be." "Symbie OP?" "We are not naming it 'Butt Stallion.'" "Uh, what? Why would we?" "It'll be a crystal pony so that reference doesn't even work, dumbass." "I don't even know how to find flaws with this thing; my physics engine can barely handle interacting with just one of them." "The unusual liquid crystal behavior is throwing me off, too." "Think macro-scale instead of micro and just tell her?" "Yeah, the sensors don't have a way to clear bugs off." "The eyes? Those are lasers, not sensors." "The jets don't allow for rapid course adjustments." "Is that a fucking digestive tract? Why does a robot need one of those?" "Looks more like a miniature factory to me." "There's way too much biological material for this fucking thing to count as a robot. It's a cyborg, that's what it is." "She really is intent on making full-fledged organisms, huh?" "Where the fuck is the power coming from, it can't just survive entirely on a diet of Antagonists–" "Says who?" "Looks like the armor is basically an abyss as far as light and heat go, so maybe that's it?" "There's at least one identifiable dynamo I can find, too." "She really took our earlier comments as a challenge, huh?"
"Have you all forgotten that we have classes tomorrow?" Tamara asked rhetorically.
"Meh." "This is more important, seriously, imagine putting this armor into mass production–" "Seems unlikely; awesome properties or not, we'll have trouble making even one of these." "Seriously, what is with that second layer?" "We promised Jun-chan a unicorn and I want to surprise her with it ASAP. Sleep can wait." "I just want to know what the fuck is going on with the central processor; there's this blank spot that the sim is ignoring and it's wigging me out." "Worse than ignoring, it pretends it's still interacting with its surroundings." "Make that blank spots, plural." "What was that about no blackboxing?" "I hate everything." "Fuck my life." "Well, since you asked so nicely–" "Kaja, no. You're still in the doghouse." "Kinky." "Please stop." "Found the code for those areas and what is this I don't even. The sim has no idea either, the design outline just specifies normal input and output." "Well, at least that's more than we usually get from blackboxes?" "Is it just me, or are those micromissiles Antagonist-based?"
Tamara gave up being the token responsible member of the Crafting Club and pulled up Taylor's new file. If her friends were going to stay up making Pure-chan a gift, then they wouldn't be doing it without Tamara.
"No, the bio-missiles aren't efficient enough for Antagonist tech." "They're honestly conspicuous in how bad they are; fabber stock is better." "Good grief, I just realized how weird this thing will look on most sensors. It's like a pony-shaped patch of interference." "Jesus, we're making a blackbox. Forgive me, Lord, for I have sinned–" "Wait, how does it even know what to repair–" "Oooh, huh. Hey, look at the sensor software." "Why is there a — a decryption key just for looking through its own skin?" "What is this witchcraft and where can I get more?" "How the fuck did she even make that?" "Looks cool, but it's obsoleted if the armor gets damaged." "No, look, the opticals auto-compensate based on how much the crystals refracted light en route–" "Mysterious colors, unlike–" "Stop." "No, seriously, that key is impossible hax. She might as well use the fucking ocean as a lens–" "And then we have the propulsion system, which I'm pretty sure are just scaled-down missile engines." "This is fucking schizo tech, that's what this is."
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Darik29
Verified Delicious
Oh god Queenie, stop dropping tinker tech on these poor souls, they can actually halfway comprehend it and its going to drive them mad.
seriously, they have access to a Queen Administrator Special Limited Edition Unicorn FriendTM!
This thing violates half the known laws of robotics, organics, and somehow causality, and the Crafting Club are going to become an actual gods damned cult if you keep feeding them this stuff!
seriously, they have access to a Queen Administrator Special Limited Edition Unicorn FriendTM!
This thing violates half the known laws of robotics, organics, and somehow causality, and the Crafting Club are going to become an actual gods damned cult if you keep feeding them this stuff!
Crafting Club: "Physics Doesn't Work Like That!"
QA: *giggle* "Shards go brrrrt."
QA: *giggle* "Shards go brrrrt."
Alivaril
On a magically-deficient journey of self-discovery
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Offscreen, after she started sulking but before properly falling asleep.
EDIT: Edited in a short bit at the start for clarity.
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Vebyast
Nascent Transhuman
Ahh, QA's finely-honed conflict instincts at their best. Crafting Cult led into temptation, check.
And lead us into temptation, and deliver us unto evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the phylum, and the genus, for ever. Tekeli-li!
SaltyWaffles
I am dissapoint, son
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Well....as funny as this is (and it IS funny), this has major story implications, too. Taylor just dumped some incredibly advanced technology onto the Crafting Club seemingly on a whim, with (again) seemingly little to no work put in to develop it. This means she either has a database for some incredibly advanced technology within her Valk frame, or she intuitively knows this technology and has for some time. Either way, she's now a Priority One asset for the UN, like Anna is/will be once she figures out how to teach others the Wave Force.
And the thing about black boxes is that, well, if you've got someone who completely understands how they work and how to make each part of it (which is a prerequisite for creating one in the first place), then she can just teach you all about all of it. I don't expect the UN to even try to compel her to share (that risks spurning her away entirely), I would definitely expect an even greater emphasis on promoting positive relationships/bonds between Taylor and other people and the academy itself. Certainly, the UN/academy could give her a pitch: a chance to demonstrate her great skill and knowledge while working with more experienced experts in various fields, and since she'd be teaching them about this stuff, eventually they'd be able to understand it well enough to truly collaborate with her (which would surely be more interesting and more engaging for her than just doing everything by herself).
Because that armor alone is incredibly useful. And I'd bet that QA would find two things in particular to be enjoyable: controlling numerous minions/swarms in combat against foes, and collaboratively developing new and interesting tech/designs with other enthusiastic and friendly experts (and getting to see how they perform...and then iterating the designs).
Remember, the whole Cycle system is kind of shitty for shards. You get one host, with no guarantee that said host will use that power well, and simple bad luck could quickly end that host's life or force them into a shitty situation in which you cease getting good data/experiences, and then that's it for that entire cycle. A Tinker host who develops some good tech, but encounters a single situation or enemy that exploits a single flaw that you hadn't accounted for? That's it; you get no second chance to improve or iterate that technology/design until the next cycle...which may have your host not trigger as a tinker at all, or trigger as a tinker with a different specialization, etc.
One thing I would like to see more of in this story is for Taylor (the real Taylor, not QA) to be active. QA's fatal flaw right now is that she's almost totally lacking in humanity or empathy. QA's development as a person is one of the great things about your DanMachi story, and I think it would be even more impactful in this setting, where the struggle to retain and develop one's humanity is a major theme in BAHHSCQ. QA's totally inhuman mindset is funny initially, but it can become frustrating and off-putting over time if she doesn't significantly change and develop.
I also expect QA to start receiving some maternal attention from some of the instructors, much like Anna will--not only because it's totally in-character for the instructors, but also because the UN/academy would push for it, too.
---
All that aside, you've done a great job with the Crafting Club. While there's a bit of...dehumanization, maybe(?) in that only a few of them have even been named so far, I think you've done well with making the named ones (introduced gradually) memorable and distinct. Their dialog is definitely what I'd imagine a Crafting Club in this setting to be like, and I can only imagine how well things will go once Taylor decides to explain/teach her advanced tech to the Crafting Club (and really enjoying it in the process--a chance to have a bunch of tinkers sing her praises, understand her teachings, and effectively and enthusiastically let them lead her in collaborative tinkertech creation and design? I could see QA loving that more than anything else she's ever done). Tinker-focused shards seem to love collaborative tinkering--both the plethora of things to learn and new possibilities opened, which shards instinctively love--but typical Cycle-based conflict means that tinker collaboration is just not that common. But tinkertech that works off of a technology base that's advanced enough to reliably mass produce it and understand it? That's a treat.
Oh man, it just occurred to me: QA could go full tinkertech to make a Type-Zero equivalent. Incorporating stuff that requires the kind of ludicrous precision and control of a Shard to operate and using Symbie as an excuse for why it can't be reverse-engineered or mass produced by others, she could make a Friend that is capable enough of going toe-to-toe with an average Type-Zero. Well, after she learns non biological and shard-based engineering and technology better, as well as some substantial help from the Crafting Club for rounding out the non-Friend-based systems...
Electric Heart
Verified Bookworm Yokai
- Location
- Behind you!
I see what you did there
Will it be able to drop pearls as well if you feed it enough materials and pray to RNGesus?
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's not. Shards can and do change hosts in canon, sometimes even without waiting for them to die or even trigger (*cough*Danny*cough).
Alivaril
On a magically-deficient journey of self-discovery
- Location
- A single human dimension
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Antagonists are not vulnerable to gacha, so probably not.I see what you did there
Will it be able to drop pearls as well if you feed it enough materials and pray to RNGesus?
It may be Fanon, but I'm pretty sure that most shards will go for a new host if their current one dies. And given that 'buds' aren't really a shard reproducing, more, spinning up another VM on the server, there's nothing stopping a shard from having multiple hosts at the same time, like the bird-controlling kid in Warlord Skitter parts of Worm.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
I wonder if the unicorn will be ready in time for class tomorrow that would be cool to show off.
That's not how it works. A shard can switch hosts prior to them triggering if the host takes too long (QA went from Danny to Taylor out of frustration), they can add additional hosts if their current host provides enough data (QA budded onto Aiden, one of Taylor's orphans, because she was in a constant state of innovative conflict for three months), and if the host dies they can shop around for a new one (Leet's shard tried to kill him for years because he was such a gormless coward; it would not have done that if it'd cut its time in the cycle short).
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
If the crafting club manages any improvements on the design QA will be very pleased.
SolipsistSerpent
Endlessly Devouring
That covers a lot of problems but it does imply that if a shard gets a bad host who triggers and then doesn't supply it with enough data, it's stuck with said them. Admittedly, the system is optimized to try and make that rare.
Again, Leet's shard tried to get him killed repeatedly by sabotaging anything he made that was even slightly similar to something he had made previously.
Remember that the cycle is supposed to last centuries. So a bad host will die eventually, even if only by old age. And shards actually get better at judging and connecting to humans and tailoring their powers as the cycle progresses as they also get a better understanding of humans rather than the initial setup they have.
- Location
- Britain
Showing up for the first simulation training riding it would be hilarious. Especially when the instructors realise that it's actually combat capable if potentially poorly optimized for their particular battlefields.
- Location
- london
I beg to differ! You just need at least a nanotechnology phd, a background in chemistry, quantum mechanics, and a lot of processing power...When has she given them that?
High level mechanical understanding is not enough to understand high end biological engineering.
Also lots of nitrogen, a decent cryonics system, a super MRI, a NMR machine, a mass spec, an X-ray laser and about a buildings worth of other equipment - for the practical elements of building or analysis of whatever you want.
Biology has recently been surpassed by nanotechnology in size factor of individual moving parts, but modern nanotechnology has not scaled that back up to building reliable complex machines at that scale.
Modern microprocessor nodes are actually approaching the size of some of the larger proteins in cells and the 5nm node will actually beat out biology for size of functional parts.
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*thinks on how Major Hives only pop out one Type Zero per year* I know its backwards from what you're saying (I think), but are you sure about that?Antagonists are not vulnerable to gacha, so probably not.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Not if it can fly.
- Location
- Toronto, Ontario(occasionally)
Ah, but what if the pearls are actually mines, you drop one, then when an antagonist flies over it it explodes into some sort of ranged beam?Antagonists are not vulnerable to gacha, so probably not.
KChasm
I apologize for the inconvenience.
I understand what you're going for in that big block of dialogue text, but it's just really hard to read. My eyes just skim right over it, almost against my own will.
I understand you might not want this, because it doesn't adequately portray the chaos and how much they're almost talking over each other:
But couldn't you make a compromise, if only readability's sake? Something like:
Or maybe, to express that sense of chaos:
I understand you might not want this, because it doesn't adequately portray the chaos and how much they're almost talking over each other:
But couldn't you make a compromise, if only readability's sake? Something like:
Or maybe, to express that sense of chaos:
...etc.?