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Devastation Comes In Big Packages [Planetary Annihilation/Multicross SI]

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You ginormous troll, you :) .

Though the fact that he managed to go five years without giving her a straight answer on who/what her only (sentient) companion is... I'm not sure whether that's evidence of his being unwilling to open up to her before she committed to coming with him (and it was too late to back out) or whether he just thought it would be funny.

I think I prefer the first interpretation; it may show insecurity, but at least it involves him seeing her as a person who's reactions matter to him, as opposed to someone he picked up on a whim to use as comic relief.
 
Glad we are done with this part.
Not that you didn't do a good job with it, but I'm personally fed up with the whole... you know... Gunnm torture bullshit that Japan had going on.
Even had a nightmare about it before you posted the chapter earlier today so doubly tired of psychics.
Eager to look forward to what next 'verse will be in.
 
Asheram said:
Glad we are done with this part.
Not that you didn't do a good job with it, but I'm personally fed up with the whole... you know... Gunnm torture bullshit that Japan had going on.
Even had a nightmare about it before you posted the chapter earlier today so doubly tired of psychics.
Eager to look forward to what next 'verse will be in.
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Send them to the Firefly verse to see if yuriko has a twitch fit after seeing what the core does to their psy's
 
Well, looks like I'm going to have to actually finish all the stories and quests I'm reading for the time being.

*Looks at 26 open tabs*

*cries*
 
Some Long series would be nice, something you know the Characters well, whose Characters are firmly established where you can troll the SHIT out of stuff with that knowledge.

Honestly I'm still bummed out that we didn't get enough Daniel Jackson.
 
torroar said:
Universe List
  1. ASOIAF
  2. Forgotten Realms
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Two fantasy worlds, eh?

Why not an Urban, Cyberpunk Fantasy world like Shadowrun?

Mana-tech is essentially psi-tech, though it's clear that the Mana/psionic energies of that cosmos operate separately from the extra-dimensional plane they call Astral Space.

For reasons that are probably too complicated to explain from a higher dimensional perspective, (or perhaps for a somehow cosmically idiotic reason), Mana flows throughout that existence, yet it only fully integrates with "living" biological organisms...

But how does one define "Life"?

The "natural" sciences state that from an infinitesimal quatuam level, EVERYTHING in existence vibrates, from the smallest quark, to the largest turning planet in your Solar System.

Vibration is energy, which is also matter. Energy is consciousness, so therefore, EVERYTHING is conscious.

All of existence could, no, should be considered ALIVE.

Imagine if the barriers between what they call the Matrix and Astral Space were to be practically rendered nonexistent.

Imagine if the many barriers and limitations which separate Technomage, Magician and Physical Adept, and so many of the various paradigms were to be lifted fully, allowing mortalkind greater power over the world, which surrounds and suppresses them.

Feats and miracles once deemed impossible would BECOME possible!

And that replacing your limbs with technological upgrades doesn't cause any issues with your magical practice would also be a nice bonus!

Well of course, it would probably take time.

Changing the very fundamental laws of any world, will obviously take time, decades most likely, but the benefits would FAR outweigh such frustration of duration and any menial drawbacks that would likely occur.

...Though, the planets which circle their solar system could expedite the process if their very matter were to be completely syncretized with the Astral at an infinitesimal quatuam level first!

Should be a lot quicker to harmonize them without all the ego/emotional excesses, that the populace on their earth seem to mass produce on a daily basis, slowing it down.

And celestial bodies do have an effect on the flows and patterns of energy, after all...
 
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Angurvddel said:
I just realized that the SI basically makes me think of a depressed Saitama.
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Saitama is depressed since he is bored and has no worthy fights to get into anymore.

Guy is depressed since he made mistakes that led to lots of bad stuff happening but he can't stop doing stuff in general so he needs to use his best judgement when dealing with stuff which he doesn't entirely trust. Good thing he has a companion now that can give advice and offer her own thoughts to him rather than debate about what to do on his own.
 
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81 – Out Into The Black
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    • 81 – Out Into The Black
    ​
    "Oh my god. Oh my god what is wrong with you," Yuriko hissed at me.

    I'll admit it, I know what I look like in the cameras. It's not pretty. The dull orange of the quantum crystalline alloys that made up the shell of my body coated with the spattered false offal that had let me pass as human. All the fake blood which was kind of real blood in some fashion with how it worked sort of looked horrifying on me. Scraps of skin here and there across the body where I hadn't been able to make a truly thorough pass only added to the effect. Honestly? I looked like a Warhammer 40k Necron Flayer that was just starting out.

    Eugh. Bad mental imagery.

    "Don't worry, besides, I needed to upgrade this body anyway. I was thinking…integrating tesla tech into the arms? Go Palpatine on some people, you know?"

    "No," she screeched, gravity fluctuations starting to manifest visually around her, "I do not know!"

    I looked back at her where she was in full Omega-mode, as I'd taken to calling the whole floating in the air, psychic energies crackling around her, yelling thing which she reverted to occasionally. And threw a banana at her face. Her reaction was to make it explode into a fine mist before it even got within five feet. But it at least made her pause slightly.

    "Did you just throw one of our last bananas at me?"

    "We can get more," I waved her off as I looked at the…whatever this thing could be called.

    Rebirth chamber? Vita cha – wait no that's Bioshock.

    "Listen, Guy – or whatever your new name is going to be, you can't just expect me to be ok with you turning out to be a robot…person…thing!"

    "I think Faith was trying to get us called BESRMoWs?"

    "Who," she drew out the word, "Is FAITH?!"

    "One of uh…me," I gestured at myself and then paused. "…maybe."

    Still haven't met one of another of my kind just yet. Might never find out if it's all fever dream or not or – fuck, no. Not going down the Zeta route.

    "I don't even -,"

    "Okay."

    I turn to her, and begin stepping backwards into the giant web of arms pointing in the same general area. We've been bumming around for five years so I feel no guilt in talking to her about this. Well, maybe a bit at me not saying anything until now but we've always been pretty busy. Or making ourselves feel busy at the very least.

    "So, a long time ago, I was someone. But then I woke up and wasn't me. Or I was. Hard to tell. And I got messed with by…someone."

    God even now hearing that nasty crawling voice in my memories is messing with me.

    "But I starting going around, trying….to help. Kind of messed up, really badly. Skewed my morality badly too and didn't figure that I had until way later then. And then…I really messed up. Broke, pretty badly."

    Well, at least she's stopped floating. Face looks more curious now than angry.

    "Then I got to…well, your world. Decided to just be Guy. A dude who just kind of wanders around and tries to stay out of it," and I know the laugh that comes out of me then is kind of bitter sounding, "And we both know that didn't last too long."

    "But you did help," is her quiet response.

    "Yeah, but not perfectly. Not very well. I stayed out of it for too long. Could have done more when I got there. But then of course we run into the whole 'why don't you put the whole world in a bottle, Superman' sort of problem."

    "I don't…," her brow furrows.

    "Not important," I shrug, now firmly in the center of the various fabricator arms. I've got more than enough in storage for both metal and energy to build a good new body for myself.

    "Point is, who is Faith? Someone like me – if she even exists – and there's a couple of us. For some ungodly reason, though probably at least partially entertainment, people are or were being made into sort of machine intelligences. And I'm one of them."

    Her eyes are wide.

    "Who did this to you?"

    I shrug even as the blue glow of the fabricator arms makes me disappear from view.

    "I don't know. They scared the shit out of me though. Bunch of bullshit, honestly. But I think…that based on the honest to god radio signals being broadcast throughout this system…that I want to be someone different from Guy."

    The drain is immediate as I fabricate out the alloys. Develop conduits and connectors and squeeze down the tesla coil technologies into the arms. Sheath a whole new frame, a chassis that is bigger and less doughy like Guy's body had been. King Oni laser eye tech, all the way up to the prototype that Yoshiro had and the guns for their basic troopers to shoot out laser blasts from the eyes if necessary because why not. Integrated stealth technologies from various sources at this point, to project a field around the body as well as cloak the body itself. Muscle fibers and the what not as well to allow it to be only a bit more reasonable that the actual machine strength and pistons would be able to pull off various strength related feats.

    "Is that why I can't read your mind? Because…you're a machine? When you said you literally made yourself, all those years ago…"

    My voice emanates out of the speakers on the ship now, instead of from my now non-existent throat. What with the Guy body basically melting away by that point.

    "Pretty much. AI through and through. I don't doubt that through some wacky shenanigans that I couldn't become a partially organic or even fully organic or something beyond that. But I've not been to universes that would support that yet…may not ever."

    "That is…I don't even know what to say about that."

    I would have shrugged if I had proper shoulders at the moment.

    "It's ok. Probably'll need some time to process the bomb I just dropped on you."

    "I…yes, I will. I need…I need time for that but that's something to deal with…later, I suppose."

    And then she floats back over to the bed to sit down.

    "Get me some ice cream," she demanded before flopping back onto the bed to stare at the ceiling.

    "Sure thing."

    A quick teleport from the fridge, and she just sort of mechanically eats at it with the ice cream scooper as a spoon. And that was pretty much that, while I'm constructed a new body and she contemplates the past, present, and future. Also ice cream, but that's kind of obvious at that point.

    =================================================
    ​
    "So first the same Star Wars that you showed me, and then the Stargate?"

    Yuriko wasn't even bothering to disguise her interest as she circled around the strange nigh-eldritch 'chamber' housing my still-being-fabricated body next to her gym area . Well, the body itself was mostly done, now it was just a matter of clothing and what not. Hence the chunks of metal I'd put up so that she couldn't actually see me. Metal I may be, but the fake skin and stuff and…well. Put it this way – I'm fully functional and have no desire to get into that kind of conversation with Yuriko today.

    "Pretty much."

    "I can't believe this. Fictional universes. I…I am from a fictional place? A-a video game, or a manga like Flying Girl-,"

    With one of my still naked arms, the skin a dusky chocolate now in comparison to the scraggly white of Guy, I reached out from within the barriers to grab her by the arm as she floated past. Thankfully she stopped. Her face was all screwed up and it wasn't hard to see how her flight had gotten more and more wobbly as she got more concerned.

    "No. Look, you can't even try to think about that sort of stuff. You feel, you bleed," I try to sound comforting and at least I have a throat again rather than the more impersonal speakers.

    "But-," there's a hitch in her voice somewhere between about to cry and scream.

    "No," and my upper torso was fully skinveloped now, all the innards secure and set properly, so I leaned out further so that she could see an actual face.

    Her look of shock and confusion at seeing a randomly mixed together dark skinned face rather than Guy's was at the least a small distraction from the clear path of where she was going before.

    "Hi, new name is Malcom…I guess. Might be something else."

    "Wh-,"

    Can't let her freak out too badly, now.

    "Ok, so, the basic way I've figured it…is that who the hell knows and who the hell cares. It takes some mental gymnastics but here's the skinny-," and now my lower half has some hastily made sweatpants on so all seven feet of me can step out of the chamber, "-when we show up in a place, then we know it's real."

    She's stopped floating entirely now in favor of staring at my new body. Which isn't too surprising. She had five years to get used to Guy, now she sees Malcom staring down at her with way more actual musculature on the frame. Guy was a pudgy homebody type…body. Malcom is what is more in line with this actual universe and so he's the guy I'm going to be now rather than, uh, Guy. Heh.

    "If you don't, then you will absolutely go bug fuck nuts trying to figure out whether or not it's ok to laugh at stuff on the TV, or throw popcorn at a movie screen, too busy wondering that if they are really alive people somewhere."

    "But," she squints and rubs her forehead with the bottom of her palm, "What about me, what about other versions of me. If…if we know about the villains of these places, shouldn't we-,"

    "Yuriko," this time I grab her by the wrists and hold them down so she has to look up at me. "I'm serious. It's one of those things that if you think too hard about you'll spend forever agonizing about it. And…take it from me."

    I don't know what the look on my face is, precisely, I've already started narrowing out the cameras on-ship to reduce myself down to just Malcom. But whatever it is, her face grows a little pale.

    "If you really, really think that just having the knowledge of a universe means that you can fix everything…I should bring you back to Earth. Because having that knowledge…doesn't mean a goddamn thing. Human error always seems to win out."

    And then I step away, and sigh while walking back into the chamber.

    "I am responsible for more than an entire planet's worth of corpses, Yuriko," and ok I guess Malcom is a much less humorous guy than Guy was considering the way my voice seems to naturally be rumbling, "I have seen tens of thousands dead, at first for poorly formed reasons and then for my own stupidity. Innocents carpet the ground at my feet. And you know why? Because I knew better – or thought I did, at least."

    I sigh as I let the chamber wrap my newest body in some clothing appropriate to the universe. Openly at least. Instead of actual heavy leather pants, it's actually wiggly alloys with the appearance of leather. I can just go find a beater from my wardrobe – it paid to buy a whole lot of clothes before we left and just to have. Couldn't always wear a bathrobe for five years after all. The cameras are off, so I don't actually see what her resulting reaction is.

    "Is that true?"

    Her voice has gone quiet, now…and I'm fully dressed so I can't hide by going back in the chamber.

    "Yeah," my arms fold almost of their own accord as I stand before her again, her head bowed in turn. "But…I'm trying to be better. And part of that, I think, this time around at least, is that you can't…do everything. I'm not omnipotent. Reasonably potent, really, but not omnipotent."

    "Did you do it on purpose?"

    Not…quite the rejoinder I was expecting.

    "No," I shrug, "Yes. Both. A lot more of the red in my ledger comes out of mistakes and stupidity, but that doesn't really make it better."

    She flips her hair slightly as she almost glares at me.

    "No, I guess it doesn't."

    "No, it doesn't.

    After that, she was silent for another thirty seconds before speaking again, taking the time to walk over to one of the windows – crystal clear holographic projections of what the sensors and cameras gave, not actual structural weaknesses – which gazed down at the planet below the ship. I guess we could have been talking over in the gym section, or the kitchen section, or the spa section, but…this was the only part of her quarters with the window.

    "So…what was your plan when you arrived in my world," she almost whispers - we both know I can hear her - her hand flat against the glass equivalent of the window.

    "To stay out of it," and I really do try to emphasize that as much as possible.

    It's enough for her to whirl at me, face scrunched in that weird mixture of confused and angry she sometimes gets.

    "That was your idea of staying out of it? You overturned the entire war! There were documentaries being made about our 'impossible' teleporting around at eateries the world over!"

    True.

    However.

    "I didn't plan on any of that," I raise my hands up in a hopefully placating manner.

    I don't need her throwing her entire gym at me again. And considering that some of the barbells are shuddering in their holders…

    "It just…happened. After what happened before…I didn't really want to end up ruining everything by involving myself too deeply."

    "And yet," she cocks her hip out slightly, "You did get involved eventually."

    Even as I move to speak again, the chamber behind me dissolves as my nanomachines go to work on it, leaving a simple metal wall instead.

    "I suck," I shrugged my newly overly muscled shoulders as I lean back against the chamber I just came out of, "I really, really do. I've got all the power of a hyper-advanced brain, but I make all kinds of mistakes. The human element introduced into my existence has ensured, I think, that I am forever under the potential of what a purely logical mind could produce."

    Her response is to silently narrow her eyes. Sigh.

    "I can do inhuman amounts of math, but I also just punch things. It would be possible for me to outright lock out my emotions and probably be more…efficient…but that's not the way I like to be."

    I've had enough of cold calculus when it comes to genocide and war, for my taste.

    "I don't really get it," she frowns before floating upward and spinning around so that she can fold her arms and stare out the 'window'. "But you not being perfect? That I can get."

    "I choose to take that as a compliment."

    "Why?"

    "Because otherwise that'd mean you were trying to hurt my feelings, and you aren't like that."

    Yuriko just sighs and drops her arms before floating forward again to almost put her face through the screens making up the 'window'.

    "So…I presume that you know where we are."

    "Ah…yeah."

    Damn it, something in my voice makes her turn around, and her frown is now less 'Ugh he did something again' and more 'something is wrong'. See, I'm getting better at that sort of thing now.

    "What happened?"

    I sigh, and rub the back of my new head before striding forward to gesture towards the barren ball before us.

    "Welcome to Tarsonis, former capital of the Terran Confederacy and now mass grave to over two billion people."

    Perhaps unsurprisingly, and as I somehow keep forgetting to properly register, the soldier in her simply takes this knowledge and she grunts as she floats backwards slightly.

    "It didn't have to die, not screaming and terrified into the claws of literal monsters."

    Yuriko quirked an eyebrow at me that I could only see because of the rest of the cameras in the ship, considering she was behind me.

    "So…we're going to be doing something right off the bat?"

    I turned back, and gave what I hope was a good smile.

    "Yeah. I tend to think that whole-universe-wide extermination by just about anyone is something that I need to rather immediately get involved in."

    That gets a reaction out of her.

    "What?!"

    "I'll tell you about that later."

    Then I have the ship start descending to the planet, where Dominion outposts have just begun being put up. Stealth systems are in full effect...and I'm reasonably sure that they can't see me. If I'm wrong I guess we'll deal with that. Regardless, scans blanket the planet as I check for what I'll need. This ship served me quite well on Earth and in the last universe, but I think it's time for a bit of a rebirth. New face, new universe…new ship. And god knows, the vast majority of the Confederate military got scrapped here during The Fall. Plenty to salvage and incorporate. Besides, battlecruisers always were kind of fun.

    "First, let me tell you about how we're going to be pirates now."
     
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    • Robot with emotions and a young girl with massive psionic powers together in a spaceship? Ayup. Pirates is the only option.
     
    Yay, Starcraft!

    Fuck the Dominion over- Well not really just fuck Mengsk. And Amon, the dick.

    And therapy. So much therapy.

    But hoo boy.
     
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