I remember reading something a few years ago, a city in I think Canada decided to instead of changing colors of the lights, they changed the shape. So red would have been a circle, yellow a triangle and green a square ( or something like that). I thought it was pretty cool, but like any city development problem would cost money that could be better spent in someone's pocket so nothing came of it!
Hybrid Hive: Eat Shard? (Worm/MGLN) (Complete)
- Thread starter CmptrWz
- Start date
- Crossover
Steakthedog
Verified Pedant
Ah corruption, the ruiner of wonderful ideas everywhere.
- Location
- Illinois
Sorry, this is the wrong story for posting that. That one is for Anothvortex's Taylor: Hero of Legacy! 😇
wingnut2292
<Verified Sugar Addict>
- Location
- Milwaukee Metro
Here's a scary thought. There is a tradition common in both the South and New England that Taylor is just the right age to start training for at school - Cotillion\the Debut Ball. I don't know if it's still going on, but back in the day it was 'My First Formal Event' mixed with 'Socially Permissible Flirting 101'.
I can imagine Taylor's reaction as she is expected to learn how to square dance and waltz with random dance partners once every or every-other friday. That reaction being: 'Is there anything I need to be doing as a Queen right now?'
I can imagine Taylor's reaction as she is expected to learn how to square dance and waltz with random dance partners once every or every-other friday. That reaction being: 'Is there anything I need to be doing as a Queen right now?'
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- Location
- USA
Unfortunately for Taylor, she has enough multitasking, doppelganger, and remote drone capability that anything other than an immediate major threat that would require her true body to contest would be insufficient reason to not attend. Even then, she has so much multitasking that dedicating just one thread to a doppelganger to attend anyway could be argued; a threat the requires her absolute peak, that even just one extra multitasking thread could be meaningful, is probably something nobody wants to ponder on...
- Location
- Earth, Sol System, Virgo Supercluster, Earth-1218
I suspect that's because the Red-Yellow-Green mirrors the top down Red-Yellow-Green for a left to right reading language like English.
I'm not a fan of that because there's another rule which is already in use for stoplights on a hill:
A flashing white light inside the Red Light.
The reason for this is if you're going up a hill at night and just see red lights it's impossible to tell if the red is just from stopped traffic or if the light's out or something.
Pretty sure it's a catch 22 situation. Legislature can make laws about road signs but can't sign treaties, Executive can sign treaties and enforce legislature but can't make laws saying to abide by the treaties.
More to the point, we should all endeavour to avoid creating things like the Happy Vertical People Transporters, if only because they are incredibly irritating.
...(I mean, there was the Marketing Team at Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, who even the hitchhikers guide called 'A bunch of mindless jerks who will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.' Anything they think is a good idea is most definitely not).
...(I mean, there was the Marketing Team at Sirius Cybernetics Corporation, who even the hitchhikers guide called 'A bunch of mindless jerks who will be first against the wall when the revolution comes.' Anything they think is a good idea is most definitely not).
So I was doing a reread, and this paragraph from 10 or so chapters ago really jumped out at me in the context of Taylor's latest legal system shenanigans:
China jumping on the Belkan Empire bandwagon seems very plausible, and it also nicely ties into Taylor ruining her own efforts to avoid taking over China.
In the same chapter we have this:
Which makes me wonder if TSAB is going to accidentally set of Scion when they arrive. Although Taylor's combination defense/embassy planets may help avoid that if they get set up in time.
China jumping on the Belkan Empire bandwagon seems very plausible, and it also nicely ties into Taylor ruining her own efforts to avoid taking over China.
In the same chapter we have this:
Which makes me wonder if TSAB is going to accidentally set of Scion when they arrive. Although Taylor's combination defense/embassy planets may help avoid that if they get set up in time.
Well a few of their initial poking of the shroud didn't seem to cause a reaction. Though its reasonable to assume Scions personal shroud is higher security than the large general one. Recall there's Hive's inital entry, and some of the drone scanning they did. Trips to other solar systems, they *have* been poking holes in it.
My guess would be that either, it expects some damage in normal operations, so will ignore irregular damage below a certain threshold. I specify irregular since something coming and going on a schedule with a pattern would be obvious indicators of intelligent life tampering with things instead of random whatever out in the universe.
Or the other option, the Thinker was responsible for monitoring that so its all just running on autopilot.
And as a third related option to the autopilot, Scion's made a career out of being oblivious. He may also have not noticed, and/or not care. At this point some really important shards have vanished on him. If he hasn't noticed that, he's not noticing much of anything.
David DeLaney
Verified & Credited Rules Wizard
- Location
- North of Knoxville, indoors, seated comfortably
Taylor's title will obviously be "Queen Minnie of DisneyWorlds".
you, um, DO recall that Worm itself has ever-so-many Interlude chapters, no two of which are from the same viewpoint (except I think once), right?
--Dave, you've read all of it, right? some of us have _twice_
you, um, DO recall that Worm itself has ever-so-many Interlude chapters, no two of which are from the same viewpoint (except I think once), right?
--Dave, you've read all of it, right? some of us have _twice_
Who would read that anyway, when we have much more uplifting stories (like this one) available? /s
these three years of 2020 have been depressing enough already, anyway
Chapter 158 - September 10, 2011
Saturday morning proved to be cloudy and slightly windy, but Taylor didn't mind. Her first stop of the day after breakfast was the warehouse, where she first installed a line of translation booths with signage instructing how they could be used along one of the sidewalks. Then she called in some construction drones to alter the parking lot, shrinking it and redesigning some of the walking paths so that she could place four star system viewers down.
This took longer than she'd expected because she'd ended up not liking the original plan and had changed it halfway through. Adding in a couple of 'trash eaters' that would handle things better than the overflowing city-maintained trash cans had been a bit of an afterthought, and she configured them to offer newly-fabricated clothing to homeless people that obviously needed them when they'd been fed enough trash. In addition to a routine Hive had come up with that would take things that shouldn't be destroyed, like money and valuables, and store them in a 'lost and found' instead.
They'd figure out what to do about emptying the lost and found once it actually had enough in it to worry about.
She'd headed back to the Outer Inn afterwards, looking over some initial plans she'd come up with after Amy had asked about automated resort security during training. While in theory all of the devices running the resort could be made to help in a situation where security was needed it was also a good idea to have visible people that could help in any number of situations. Making them more combat-capable than the normal resort 'staff' also made sense, and was an interesting problem. Something similar could probably be used for 'general police work' in general, actually, and if they were good enough then they could participate in some of the combat attractions.
...and possibly make future training sessions far more variable, if they could be made strong enough to provide a challenge. That would probably need different intelligence profiles though, because security or general police work would require far more human interaction focus than a primarily-combat profile. Being able to swap them out might not be a horrible idea though, but some checking on things told her that she wasn't going to be able to have a full combat capable device that was also able to handle human interaction stuff well without making them full AIs that then might not want to do either.
Actually, they might want some nurses too, both in the resort and elsewhere. A lot of things wouldn't need a full visit to a healing device, so having roaming medical staff was a good idea and the healing devices being distributed could probably use a more human-friendly interface going forward too. Realizing that had her start standardizing appearances on a few roles. Somewhat burly male and female templates that could handle police and security tasks, only really differing between the two roles in uniform and equipment. While she knew male nurses existed, she thought that a single standardized female template would be more friendly there and went that route. What looked like an arm-mounted healing device for each nurse would replace the handheld version, disguising that the nurse devices wouldn't need one at all.
She was trying to decide on hair colors for the different roles, leaning towards pink for the nurses and green or blue for the police and security, when she looked in on her father and Sherie's initial mage training. Missy had been 'voluntold' to help by Sherie, and nothing appeared to be going wrong, so Taylor left them to it and went to grab a snack instead.
"Er," Mister Wynn said when she ran into him on her way to the table with the cheese and crackers she'd grabbed. "Good morning."
"Morning," Taylor replied. "Did you need something?"
"Possibly. I'm looking to conduct an experiment of sorts, but I've realized that I'm not sure how to go about parts of it."
"And you're hoping that I might have more insight?"
"Somewhat? I suspect that Colin and Dragon would be the best choices, but I don't wish to disturb them."
That had her blinking. "I find myself a little confused."
The man sighed. "I'm thinking about attempting an appearance as though I'm a member of the 'combat sport' they came up with, but don't know what would be appropriate for that when it comes to a combat device."
"Oh." That was an interesting one, though she'd only skimmed the rules in case someone asked her about them. "You're not a big fan of fighting, seeing it as more of a necessity than anything to enjoy, right?"
"...yes."
"So you'd probably be most comfortable in the 'team support' category instead of any of the solo ones, perhaps with a defensive focus? In the context of a cape battle, I'm thinking about a role like protection of bystanders and attempting to minimize damage done to the environment."
He blinked a couple of times, then Calc lit up and he obviously flipped through Dragon's rules to find what she was talking about. "Huh. I'd not considered that I could play a 'team focused' role instead of one of the solo ones, and that does sound more agreeable to me. Though perhaps with a bit more than just defense, such as the tracking and strategy aid elements?"
"Mobile command and defense, then. Shielding, sensors, and communication focus on the primary device. Would you prefer the backup options to be close or long range?"
"...backup? Oh, right, in case my position is targeted and I need to defend myself. I think I'd prefer close range there, having always preferred to get in close to reduce the number of variables involved and outright disarm opponents when possible."
"Maybe some added mobility too, then, to make it easier to get in closer. She ensured that the rules account for things like Missy's punch gauntlet vambraces, the dedicated stealth and shield generator devices, and the non-magic flight harnesses as secondary devices, and you have a handicap of not having a core device...actually, she marked the shield generators and flight harness as required safety equipment, so you definitely need a set of those..."
A moment later Calc lit up with a notice as she popped a proposed device set over to him. Shoes with some mobility tricks, gloves that could help with climbing and enhance physical attacks with various spells, a physical shield that could split into pieces with display elements on the insides for when acting as a mobile command post, a set of stealth field generators, a set of dedicated shield generators, and one of the flight harnesses. The shoes, gloves, and shield were all customizable with multiple appearance profiles supported for each and the gloves could have different spell selections swapped out, with the shield itself being the primary 'combat device' with the bulk of the capabilities.
"That took you far too little time," Mister Wynn said, shaking his head. "And I notice you didn't pick colors or anything else?"
"Or shapes beyond the minimal template," Taylor agreed. "And most of this was me running through a couple of Hive's wizards while bouncing around the rules document. You'll have to decide how professional or ridiculous you want it all to look, though the wearables should all resize to fit. Do remember that you can set your Knight Armor to pull things from storage for you too."
He nodded, then seemed to discover the multiple appearance slots. "Why did you make it so that I can swap out appearances on some of it?"
"I didn't check your form-shifting options, but I know you have them. Being able to have things look appropriate for your current form, or just different Knight Armor templates, only makes sense. Oh, and do ensure that you have eye protection with the 'display things' markers in place. While Suzy didn't include better protection, Dragon built having some into the rules and it fits with what the rest of us have been wearing."
"Eye protection makes far too much sense to skip. I'm hoping that this will help with stress relief, and I'm definitely not looking to get repeatedly maimed because I didn't take sensible precautions." He then frowned, and she suspected that he had something else to ask. A moment later he imploded into a teenage girl with long blond hair. One that was still wearing the suit he'd already had on, but automatically adjusted to fit the radically different body. "I've come up with fashions for my alternate male form and for this form as an adult, but I can't figure out what to do about it as a teenager."
Well, she hadn't expected him to go with a female form, but whatever. "What about as a child?"
"I wasn't planning on using it in public as a child, but I actually have experience with buying clothing for younger children. I've just never had to come up with something for a teenage girl."
"How ridiculous do you want to go?"
"...I'm not sure what you're asking."
"Colin went for a poofy purple dress. Do you want to go with something like that, looking like it shouldn't work for combat? Something far more practical looking? Anything in between? Specific themes you'd like to include or avoid, preferences for how much skin you're showing and hairstyle might be nice to know too...and I need to figure out if the six blades thing is a kingdom symbol or something with how often we're using it..."
"Ah. Well, I suspect that the stress-relief benefits are greatest when playing a role entirely unlike your normal self, at least within your own moral code, so probably avoid looking serious or bookish...and appearing to be impractical while not being so wouldn't be horrible either..."
They ended up sitting down while she had her snack, a hologram projected over the table to let them work on different looks. It took almost an hour to build out something that Taylor thought looked 'teenaged girl' enough. A form-fitting shirt that revealed the midriff and a short, but somewhat poofy, skirt in the same dark blue. The six-bladed design was silver on the back of the shirt and dark orange highlights were placed in various places. Dark blue shoes with a more pronounced heel than Colin had gone for with his Betty Bop outfit, dark blue sunglasses-style protection with the six-blade design in dark orange on the arms, and hair done up in pigtails. One blue and one orange bow at the head, and then three alternating smaller bows at the ends of the pigtails for eight bows split evenly between the two colors.
Unlike Colin, they'd included several more 'solid' anchoring points in this setup. Low-profile but still visibly studded belt, choker, and bands around the upper arms and legs all served as additional barrier anchor points in addition to the bra under the shirt and shorts under the skirt having a number of armor plate inserts as well. The glove devices had also been colored the same dark blue, with orange rings around the wrists holding the bulk of the functional elements. Dark orange focusing gems in the palm of each hand and smaller ones along the upper fingers that were positioned for being placed for punches would be the primary casting points for spells.
As for the shield itself, Mister Wynn decided that it should be large and hexagonal when in one piece, the six-bladed design visible on the outside, but rigged to be able to split into six triangular pieces that could hover around him to provide different displays or block attacks from different directions. He could also split it into three rhombuses or two trapezoids, and each of those could be split into their triangular components if desired as well.
"Now you just need a name," Taylor noted, and Mister Wynn groaned. She left him to that and cleaned up her mess from the snack, checked in on her father again, and then went back to the nurse, security, and police appearances. While making some 'culture notes' regarding the ruling monarch of the kingdom and use of the six-blades symbol, the former including that keeping a low profile and not making a big deal about being in charge when not performing 'official duties' was expected and the latter being a combination of 'symbol of the kingdom' and 'spell system symbol' to help explain why they kept using it all over the place.
The expected show with Hive had been delayed to the afternoon so that Colin and Dragon could attend, so Amy had decided to go off and practice her three roles. She'd decided that Rainbow's 'sister' would go by Tila, short for a longer Belkan name that sounded the same at the start. None of Tila's clothing looked reinforced, or had the six-blade design on it, but she still needed to be able to 'defend herself'. So a quick run through the device builder in the Inn's computer to get a personal defense shield device had been attempted.
Hive had interrupted that, provided a far better design, and then recommended several other changes. Such as replacing the wristbands they'd originally been considering for the resort with the armbands, including the option for the armband to create an earpiece anchored to it for calls to others, and a personalizable outer shell with the six-bladed Team Mana symbol or the resort's symbol in it as the only 'static' feature. Treating it as a digital pass holder for resort tickets and having it be locked on while in the resort itself solved all of their problems with trying to get a distributed shield-maintaining system spread throughout the resort for individual safety as well, and they could allow them to be removed inside of the various hotels by using that excuse.
Also included was an adjustable inertial compensation field so that you could decide just how much you wanted to feel the rides, with the 'lowest compensation' setting being forced at ensuring that you weren't injured, and a charger design that could be purchased by those who wanted to keep their unit as a souvenir. Which felt like a great way to spread personal shields around without directly selling them. Assuming Taylor agreed to that, anyway.
Of course, new devices like the shield generator needed testing, and that led to doppelganger Amy and Rainbow throwing and firing things at doppelganger Tila wearing the armband. Which was both fun and terrifying at the same time because they were all the same person in the end...and the doppelgangers could feel pain if things made it through shielding. Using a Knight Armor template without any shield tokens for Tila put all of the shielding on the armband.
...but she was probably creating mental problems for herself by trying to run three different personalities at once, based on the fact that she was enjoying annoying herself while simultaneously getting pissed off at herself and finding it all quite stupid.
"RAINBOW!" Tila shouted after being launched around fifty feet by a sizable explosion at her feet.
"It didn't hurt," Rainbow pointed out, ignoring that it was five times what the explosion was supposed to be according to the testing script.
"You still shouldn't be skipping ahead and surprising your sister like that," Amy chided. "What if the shield had failed before that point?"
"Hive said it would hold against up to ten times that and going up gradually is boring."
Thanks to her mother suggesting something to replace facial expressions and frequently-lacking body language, Dinah had figured out how to show a little emotion in a somewhat creepy way. One or more little 'blood' skulls that, thanks to Porcelain, could pick up on her emotions automatically and change their expression to match. It was frequently subtle, because skulls aren't all that emotive on their own, but it worked and didn't look like a normal smiley face. And the one she currently had pinned in her hair had been 'grinning' for the past ten minutes as Mister Chambers explained some of the things that he'd gotten officially approved, a couple of which he'd called people about during their meeting.
Apparently the PRT had been far, far too focused on 'heroic' capes in the past and he was delighted to have the opportunity to brand someone who wasn't necessarily friendly-looking. At least without them having a list of accidental murders from while they were independent or acting as a villain before being forced into the Wards or Protectorate on a deal. The 'made of blood' weapons were a hit with him on that front, and he'd loved the 'puppet a doll copy of herself' trick.
Granted, he'd have preferred if she'd let on that she could have the 'copy' be full-sized instead of pretending that she was only able to make it doll-sized, but she had shown the ability to be doll-sized in both places. But he'd had good ideas about the clothing aspect there, such as mirroring where things were positioned between her and the doppelganger or inverting color schemes.
"So what do you think about her cape name?" her mother asked.
"I was able to confirm that there are somehow only two capes that decided to go with the name 'Doll'," Mister Chambers said. "At least in English. Other variants on the theme are more well-used, but apparently the basic term is 'too plain'. One of the two was an independent Case 53 in Oregon and their powers vanishing has removed them as a concern, but the other is an active villain in Florida. They might take offense, but we don't think it will be a problem. Their powers are based in part on what they're wearing, as though dressing a doll up for a role. Lots of variety, but not a lot of strength."
"You just spent half an hour gushing over how creepy she can be and you just want to go with 'Doll'?"
"It's descriptive, innocent-sounding, and sets expectations that will make the entire ensemble creepier in the end. Besides, anything else is generally only going to be 'creepy' due to references to specific legends or stories." He then turned to Dinah. "Unless you have a better suggestion?"
Dinah shook her head. "I hadn't come up with much at all."
"Then I think we should go that route. Sadly, I wasn't able to get doing your reveal up like a horror show approved, but have been able to source a collection of suitable dolls to stick you in with and approval to not tell the press that it's a reveal. Most of the dolls are going to look like Wards or Protectorate members from around the country and I want to treat it as though all they're there for is announcing an auction. Which we'll also be doing, with the proceeds going to charity."
"So...I'd be hidden with the other dolls and suddenly start moving?"
"Specifically, I want to not tell the person doing the announcing that you're there to get a legitimate reaction out of them. They'll be instructed to go down the line of dolls to read off which parahuman each one is based off of, then find that the slot or slots you're taking up have no information. That would be your trigger to stop staying motionless. We'll have the normal people needed for a Wards introduction on hand to take over at that point."
Yep, that sounded awesome, and Dinah looked at her mother. Who was grinning. "Yes, I think I can approve that plan, though you should consider if you want her little skull facing the audience to see how many people notice it changing before the reveal."
"We'll definitely want it facing the cameras. It may not be noticed the first time through, but little details like that are quite likely to be picked up and over-analyzed after the fact."
"Not bad on the look," Colin said as he looked over Kurt in his teenage girl form, fully kitted out. "But you'll need to both decide on a name and will probably need to focus on going into combat only with others around."
"True on both counts," Kurt admitted, obviously re-casting the Knight Armor spell to replace the combat dress and equipment with a form-fitting t-shirt, a longer skirt, and sneakers. The bows vanished from the pigtails as well, but the pigtails stayed in place with less flamboyant ties. "But I figure that going out in 'civvies' and then transforming if a fight happens to break out would work too, even if I was only present because I was expecting a fight to break out. I have no problem randomly protecting civilians until someone else shows up."
"You seem to be a little more expressive than I've come to expect from you in that form."
"Like that isn't the case with you and Betty? Or Amy playing the role of Rainbow, and Suzy does things as Engel that she normally wouldn't as herself as well. Ethan enjoyed being able to be quite a bit ruder than normal as a goose, for that matter. Taylor and Missy are somewhat missing out, I think, due to having gotten started before the form shifting was available."
"Taylor now, and not Miss Hebert?"
"We agreed to be less formal when she brought me the newly-created devices that she'd had the Inn put together for me, after I told her that I'd decided to go with Xuni for my civilian name in this form. I just can't figure out the 'cape name'."
"You aren't technically required to have one."
"True, but it's been somewhat established that all the 'Belkans' are using cape names when fighting. I figure that I can get away with not using one when in civvies and then changing in plain sight as a partial misunderstanding of things based on it being unusual for the Empire, but not having one ready doesn't feel right."
Colin had to agree that the argument made sense. "I admittedly went for an intentionally silly name for a number of reasons, but you may want to go with something more appropriate to your intended role in a fight."
"I'm working on ideas. I don't expect to be ready to go out in public for a few days at a minimum, after getting enough time practicing walking."
"Yes, it took me far too much time in simulation and my home practicing that. Do be sure to practice with varying heights of heels at each age."
"Of course."
A flash of light from the transport device heralded Dragon's arrival, and she quickly moved over next to Colin. "I'm starting to hate meetings."
Colin snorted. "Everyone who prefers to get things done instead of talking about them endlessly comes to hate meetings. I've come to the conclusion that if someone likes meetings then they're either a complete waste of resources or micromanaging to excess."
"You might have a point there." She then turned to Kurt. "May I suggest Bunker Bunny for a cape name?"
Kurt blinked. "I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised that you're aware of the discussion we were having, and that isn't a horrible name choice. Might have to add a bunny ear headband to sell it though..."
"Not really, but I suppose that most people wouldn't get the reference."
They might have continued, but Hive showed up and got everyone's attention before having the transport device manifest a portal frame and open a portal to another planet. Most likely an Earth, based on the gravity not changing, but either one with little to no life or they'd just happened to be brought to a desert. Wherever they were, the time of day had shifted as it looked like the Sun was setting. It also looked like it might be ready to rain, heavy clouds above them.
"What are we here for?" Sherie asked, looking around. "Because an empty stretch of rocky desert isn't that interesting."
Hive didn't answer, and instead just floated up above them. Expecting the diminutive device to do something, all thirteen of them looked up at her. Virgil was grumbling lightly about this being far too much setup for little to no pay-off, but was lightly slapped off the back of the head by Tracey. Who seemed to be in...awe, perhaps? But why would...
The train of thought was obliterated by the clouds moving. Not parting, because the ship coming down through them was far too large for that, trapping a significant portion of the cloud layer beneath it as it descended. Part of Colin inside of Gremlin maintained enough awareness to use sensors to check on things, finding that the triangular vessel was just under five kilometers per edge, though the obvious front was blunted slightly. Probably around three quarters of a kilometer tall at the front and around one and a half kilometers tall at the back.
Exact measurements depended on if you counted the likely weapons protrusions in various places, small ones at the very front and larger ones at each point of the triangle from the bottom. Additional large ones were visible inside of inset areas on the sides, though why the areas were inset wasn't obvious. From this angle it looked like they all had decent coverage unless you were hugging the hull in various places...assuming that they needed a straight line to shoot at you. Throw in spatial warping and they probably had full coverage. A larger hexagonal protrusion stuck out from the bottom in the middle, in a flattened area that didn't follow the overall 'thickening' of the vessel, and looked like it had windows in it. Living space, perhaps? At around a hundred and eighty meters thick it would allow for quite a bit of room.
The entire vessel then spun, showing off the beveled lines from the front that tapered to the back and the odd...rails, perhaps, on the sides, before swinging around so they could see the rear. This made it obvious that the inner 'flat' triangle was truncated and had what looked like four giant hangar doors in the back, each approaching a kilometer wide and a quarter of a kilometer tall.
As the massive vessel landed he realized that there was something about the silvery-blue beveled areas that started at the front and tapered off to the back, but he couldn't place what it was. Taylor's magic color, but that went well with the dark blue primary hull color and he might be thinking that the smaller hexagonal protrusions were weapons only because they were red and appeared to be placed in suitable places for good defensive coverage.
"This is the Blueberry One," Hive said as the shockwaves of it setting down reached them. "It's far larger on the inside, but most of the extra space is taken up by support systems and drone bays. As currently configured it can support a population of half a million people, though that's a side effect of wanting it to be able to evacuate up to three million comfortably. Once it has a full complement of construction drones it should be able to function as a mobile base to process Shard devices and perform large-scale construction, including but not limited to building additional vessels of its type. I just haven't gotten around to determining the logistics of building up large numbers of construction drones yet."
"That is a problem," Dragon admitted. "I've only got a couple hundred at this point."
"I probably have plenty," Taylor chimed in. "Actually, I probably have more than I'm going to need for a while, because I just realized that I completely forgot that I had some being built. I'd only wanted between six and nine hundred, which should've been done back on the twenty-ninth. So...oh. Er...right, that would make sense..."
"Lord," Hive said, sounding...awed and appalled at the same time. "You appear to have one and...just over three quarters of a billion construction drones, with what looks like another around half a billion in the middle of being constructed."
"Yeah...I knew that each drone could build two drones a day with time for filling material stores on each, so my three initial drones should have basically tripled each day, but I forgot that each drone would immediately start working on making more instead of waiting for the next day so things proceeded faster than expected. Minus some slowdowns due to travel time to reach and then spread out over Mercury as they fed on it for resources and larger material conversion factors than I'd originally used. Had I not forgotten to check there would've been over two thousand when I intended to stop them and I was only expecting around a hundred and thirty million before I looked just now."
Colin was having trouble parsing some of this, and turned to Dragon. "Are they talking about the large-scale construction drones or the small-scale ones?"
"Large," Dragon said, sounding slightly distracted. "The ones that if you removed the internal spatial foldings should mass around ten billion kilograms each, with internal mass storage of around two thousand times that. They've completely consumed around a third of that system's Mercury."
Apparently Colin needed to reevaluate his definition of mega engineering. Either that or he needed a new term for this level of project.
Danny had made it through 'can protect himself' levels of mage training, not really intending to go much further than that, before Hive had revealed the giant spaceship. And eventually added that it was configured to see Taylor as its captain equivalent, something that would also apply to the rest of the Blueberry line of ships. As if she needed giant spaceships in addition to everything else.
He hadn't been able to wrap his head around the drones issue until one had been brought to them and pictures had been shown, at which point he'd felt a little woozy. That did explain Hive's statement that with the number of drones available they could easily have Blueberry Two constructed in five to six days though, provided that suitable shards to target were available for raw materials. And that was after peeling off two million of the things to be split between building the resort worlds out and the first 'arrival center' planet, the former likely only taking a couple of weeks and the latter being a larger project that might take three. After finishing up 'other projects in progress that could use the boost'.
"I thought I understood the scale of some of these projects," Ethan commented after Taylor had left with Hive on the ship to ensure that everything was connected properly with the existing construction drones. Amy and Missy had gone for the trip, but most of the rest of them had just returned to the Inn.
"That's further than I ever really got," Danny admitted. "I realized that I was completely out of my depth months ago and gave up trying, honestly."
"Which was probably not a bad idea, but it's obvious that Taylor wasn't expecting some of this either."
"True, but I think the bigger shock was Dragon and Hive both deciding that she should keep up the production of drones for a bit. They really want to get more processing worlds set up, and I got the feeling that they've both got different kinds of deep-seated hang-ups about being responsible for large scale replication like that."
"Well, having humans involved in the decision to replicate on that level does make some sense, and I can't blame them for wanting to speed things up. Have you looked at the map of the shards?"
"...no, I've avoided that."
"Even with this revelation there are far, far too many of the things."
"...I forget. Does the kitchen here have beer?"
"If it doesn't then it probably won't take long to convince the systems to make some for us."
This took longer than she'd expected because she'd ended up not liking the original plan and had changed it halfway through. Adding in a couple of 'trash eaters' that would handle things better than the overflowing city-maintained trash cans had been a bit of an afterthought, and she configured them to offer newly-fabricated clothing to homeless people that obviously needed them when they'd been fed enough trash. In addition to a routine Hive had come up with that would take things that shouldn't be destroyed, like money and valuables, and store them in a 'lost and found' instead.
They'd figure out what to do about emptying the lost and found once it actually had enough in it to worry about.
She'd headed back to the Outer Inn afterwards, looking over some initial plans she'd come up with after Amy had asked about automated resort security during training. While in theory all of the devices running the resort could be made to help in a situation where security was needed it was also a good idea to have visible people that could help in any number of situations. Making them more combat-capable than the normal resort 'staff' also made sense, and was an interesting problem. Something similar could probably be used for 'general police work' in general, actually, and if they were good enough then they could participate in some of the combat attractions.
...and possibly make future training sessions far more variable, if they could be made strong enough to provide a challenge. That would probably need different intelligence profiles though, because security or general police work would require far more human interaction focus than a primarily-combat profile. Being able to swap them out might not be a horrible idea though, but some checking on things told her that she wasn't going to be able to have a full combat capable device that was also able to handle human interaction stuff well without making them full AIs that then might not want to do either.
Actually, they might want some nurses too, both in the resort and elsewhere. A lot of things wouldn't need a full visit to a healing device, so having roaming medical staff was a good idea and the healing devices being distributed could probably use a more human-friendly interface going forward too. Realizing that had her start standardizing appearances on a few roles. Somewhat burly male and female templates that could handle police and security tasks, only really differing between the two roles in uniform and equipment. While she knew male nurses existed, she thought that a single standardized female template would be more friendly there and went that route. What looked like an arm-mounted healing device for each nurse would replace the handheld version, disguising that the nurse devices wouldn't need one at all.
She was trying to decide on hair colors for the different roles, leaning towards pink for the nurses and green or blue for the police and security, when she looked in on her father and Sherie's initial mage training. Missy had been 'voluntold' to help by Sherie, and nothing appeared to be going wrong, so Taylor left them to it and went to grab a snack instead.
"Er," Mister Wynn said when she ran into him on her way to the table with the cheese and crackers she'd grabbed. "Good morning."
"Morning," Taylor replied. "Did you need something?"
"Possibly. I'm looking to conduct an experiment of sorts, but I've realized that I'm not sure how to go about parts of it."
"And you're hoping that I might have more insight?"
"Somewhat? I suspect that Colin and Dragon would be the best choices, but I don't wish to disturb them."
That had her blinking. "I find myself a little confused."
The man sighed. "I'm thinking about attempting an appearance as though I'm a member of the 'combat sport' they came up with, but don't know what would be appropriate for that when it comes to a combat device."
"Oh." That was an interesting one, though she'd only skimmed the rules in case someone asked her about them. "You're not a big fan of fighting, seeing it as more of a necessity than anything to enjoy, right?"
"...yes."
"So you'd probably be most comfortable in the 'team support' category instead of any of the solo ones, perhaps with a defensive focus? In the context of a cape battle, I'm thinking about a role like protection of bystanders and attempting to minimize damage done to the environment."
He blinked a couple of times, then Calc lit up and he obviously flipped through Dragon's rules to find what she was talking about. "Huh. I'd not considered that I could play a 'team focused' role instead of one of the solo ones, and that does sound more agreeable to me. Though perhaps with a bit more than just defense, such as the tracking and strategy aid elements?"
"Mobile command and defense, then. Shielding, sensors, and communication focus on the primary device. Would you prefer the backup options to be close or long range?"
"...backup? Oh, right, in case my position is targeted and I need to defend myself. I think I'd prefer close range there, having always preferred to get in close to reduce the number of variables involved and outright disarm opponents when possible."
"Maybe some added mobility too, then, to make it easier to get in closer. She ensured that the rules account for things like Missy's punch gauntlet vambraces, the dedicated stealth and shield generator devices, and the non-magic flight harnesses as secondary devices, and you have a handicap of not having a core device...actually, she marked the shield generators and flight harness as required safety equipment, so you definitely need a set of those..."
A moment later Calc lit up with a notice as she popped a proposed device set over to him. Shoes with some mobility tricks, gloves that could help with climbing and enhance physical attacks with various spells, a physical shield that could split into pieces with display elements on the insides for when acting as a mobile command post, a set of stealth field generators, a set of dedicated shield generators, and one of the flight harnesses. The shoes, gloves, and shield were all customizable with multiple appearance profiles supported for each and the gloves could have different spell selections swapped out, with the shield itself being the primary 'combat device' with the bulk of the capabilities.
"That took you far too little time," Mister Wynn said, shaking his head. "And I notice you didn't pick colors or anything else?"
"Or shapes beyond the minimal template," Taylor agreed. "And most of this was me running through a couple of Hive's wizards while bouncing around the rules document. You'll have to decide how professional or ridiculous you want it all to look, though the wearables should all resize to fit. Do remember that you can set your Knight Armor to pull things from storage for you too."
He nodded, then seemed to discover the multiple appearance slots. "Why did you make it so that I can swap out appearances on some of it?"
"I didn't check your form-shifting options, but I know you have them. Being able to have things look appropriate for your current form, or just different Knight Armor templates, only makes sense. Oh, and do ensure that you have eye protection with the 'display things' markers in place. While Suzy didn't include better protection, Dragon built having some into the rules and it fits with what the rest of us have been wearing."
"Eye protection makes far too much sense to skip. I'm hoping that this will help with stress relief, and I'm definitely not looking to get repeatedly maimed because I didn't take sensible precautions." He then frowned, and she suspected that he had something else to ask. A moment later he imploded into a teenage girl with long blond hair. One that was still wearing the suit he'd already had on, but automatically adjusted to fit the radically different body. "I've come up with fashions for my alternate male form and for this form as an adult, but I can't figure out what to do about it as a teenager."
Well, she hadn't expected him to go with a female form, but whatever. "What about as a child?"
"I wasn't planning on using it in public as a child, but I actually have experience with buying clothing for younger children. I've just never had to come up with something for a teenage girl."
"How ridiculous do you want to go?"
"...I'm not sure what you're asking."
"Colin went for a poofy purple dress. Do you want to go with something like that, looking like it shouldn't work for combat? Something far more practical looking? Anything in between? Specific themes you'd like to include or avoid, preferences for how much skin you're showing and hairstyle might be nice to know too...and I need to figure out if the six blades thing is a kingdom symbol or something with how often we're using it..."
"Ah. Well, I suspect that the stress-relief benefits are greatest when playing a role entirely unlike your normal self, at least within your own moral code, so probably avoid looking serious or bookish...and appearing to be impractical while not being so wouldn't be horrible either..."
They ended up sitting down while she had her snack, a hologram projected over the table to let them work on different looks. It took almost an hour to build out something that Taylor thought looked 'teenaged girl' enough. A form-fitting shirt that revealed the midriff and a short, but somewhat poofy, skirt in the same dark blue. The six-bladed design was silver on the back of the shirt and dark orange highlights were placed in various places. Dark blue shoes with a more pronounced heel than Colin had gone for with his Betty Bop outfit, dark blue sunglasses-style protection with the six-blade design in dark orange on the arms, and hair done up in pigtails. One blue and one orange bow at the head, and then three alternating smaller bows at the ends of the pigtails for eight bows split evenly between the two colors.
Unlike Colin, they'd included several more 'solid' anchoring points in this setup. Low-profile but still visibly studded belt, choker, and bands around the upper arms and legs all served as additional barrier anchor points in addition to the bra under the shirt and shorts under the skirt having a number of armor plate inserts as well. The glove devices had also been colored the same dark blue, with orange rings around the wrists holding the bulk of the functional elements. Dark orange focusing gems in the palm of each hand and smaller ones along the upper fingers that were positioned for being placed for punches would be the primary casting points for spells.
As for the shield itself, Mister Wynn decided that it should be large and hexagonal when in one piece, the six-bladed design visible on the outside, but rigged to be able to split into six triangular pieces that could hover around him to provide different displays or block attacks from different directions. He could also split it into three rhombuses or two trapezoids, and each of those could be split into their triangular components if desired as well.
"Now you just need a name," Taylor noted, and Mister Wynn groaned. She left him to that and cleaned up her mess from the snack, checked in on her father again, and then went back to the nurse, security, and police appearances. While making some 'culture notes' regarding the ruling monarch of the kingdom and use of the six-blades symbol, the former including that keeping a low profile and not making a big deal about being in charge when not performing 'official duties' was expected and the latter being a combination of 'symbol of the kingdom' and 'spell system symbol' to help explain why they kept using it all over the place.
The expected show with Hive had been delayed to the afternoon so that Colin and Dragon could attend, so Amy had decided to go off and practice her three roles. She'd decided that Rainbow's 'sister' would go by Tila, short for a longer Belkan name that sounded the same at the start. None of Tila's clothing looked reinforced, or had the six-blade design on it, but she still needed to be able to 'defend herself'. So a quick run through the device builder in the Inn's computer to get a personal defense shield device had been attempted.
Hive had interrupted that, provided a far better design, and then recommended several other changes. Such as replacing the wristbands they'd originally been considering for the resort with the armbands, including the option for the armband to create an earpiece anchored to it for calls to others, and a personalizable outer shell with the six-bladed Team Mana symbol or the resort's symbol in it as the only 'static' feature. Treating it as a digital pass holder for resort tickets and having it be locked on while in the resort itself solved all of their problems with trying to get a distributed shield-maintaining system spread throughout the resort for individual safety as well, and they could allow them to be removed inside of the various hotels by using that excuse.
Also included was an adjustable inertial compensation field so that you could decide just how much you wanted to feel the rides, with the 'lowest compensation' setting being forced at ensuring that you weren't injured, and a charger design that could be purchased by those who wanted to keep their unit as a souvenir. Which felt like a great way to spread personal shields around without directly selling them. Assuming Taylor agreed to that, anyway.
Of course, new devices like the shield generator needed testing, and that led to doppelganger Amy and Rainbow throwing and firing things at doppelganger Tila wearing the armband. Which was both fun and terrifying at the same time because they were all the same person in the end...and the doppelgangers could feel pain if things made it through shielding. Using a Knight Armor template without any shield tokens for Tila put all of the shielding on the armband.
...but she was probably creating mental problems for herself by trying to run three different personalities at once, based on the fact that she was enjoying annoying herself while simultaneously getting pissed off at herself and finding it all quite stupid.
"RAINBOW!" Tila shouted after being launched around fifty feet by a sizable explosion at her feet.
"It didn't hurt," Rainbow pointed out, ignoring that it was five times what the explosion was supposed to be according to the testing script.
"You still shouldn't be skipping ahead and surprising your sister like that," Amy chided. "What if the shield had failed before that point?"
"Hive said it would hold against up to ten times that and going up gradually is boring."
Thanks to her mother suggesting something to replace facial expressions and frequently-lacking body language, Dinah had figured out how to show a little emotion in a somewhat creepy way. One or more little 'blood' skulls that, thanks to Porcelain, could pick up on her emotions automatically and change their expression to match. It was frequently subtle, because skulls aren't all that emotive on their own, but it worked and didn't look like a normal smiley face. And the one she currently had pinned in her hair had been 'grinning' for the past ten minutes as Mister Chambers explained some of the things that he'd gotten officially approved, a couple of which he'd called people about during their meeting.
Apparently the PRT had been far, far too focused on 'heroic' capes in the past and he was delighted to have the opportunity to brand someone who wasn't necessarily friendly-looking. At least without them having a list of accidental murders from while they were independent or acting as a villain before being forced into the Wards or Protectorate on a deal. The 'made of blood' weapons were a hit with him on that front, and he'd loved the 'puppet a doll copy of herself' trick.
Granted, he'd have preferred if she'd let on that she could have the 'copy' be full-sized instead of pretending that she was only able to make it doll-sized, but she had shown the ability to be doll-sized in both places. But he'd had good ideas about the clothing aspect there, such as mirroring where things were positioned between her and the doppelganger or inverting color schemes.
"So what do you think about her cape name?" her mother asked.
"I was able to confirm that there are somehow only two capes that decided to go with the name 'Doll'," Mister Chambers said. "At least in English. Other variants on the theme are more well-used, but apparently the basic term is 'too plain'. One of the two was an independent Case 53 in Oregon and their powers vanishing has removed them as a concern, but the other is an active villain in Florida. They might take offense, but we don't think it will be a problem. Their powers are based in part on what they're wearing, as though dressing a doll up for a role. Lots of variety, but not a lot of strength."
"You just spent half an hour gushing over how creepy she can be and you just want to go with 'Doll'?"
"It's descriptive, innocent-sounding, and sets expectations that will make the entire ensemble creepier in the end. Besides, anything else is generally only going to be 'creepy' due to references to specific legends or stories." He then turned to Dinah. "Unless you have a better suggestion?"
Dinah shook her head. "I hadn't come up with much at all."
"Then I think we should go that route. Sadly, I wasn't able to get doing your reveal up like a horror show approved, but have been able to source a collection of suitable dolls to stick you in with and approval to not tell the press that it's a reveal. Most of the dolls are going to look like Wards or Protectorate members from around the country and I want to treat it as though all they're there for is announcing an auction. Which we'll also be doing, with the proceeds going to charity."
"So...I'd be hidden with the other dolls and suddenly start moving?"
"Specifically, I want to not tell the person doing the announcing that you're there to get a legitimate reaction out of them. They'll be instructed to go down the line of dolls to read off which parahuman each one is based off of, then find that the slot or slots you're taking up have no information. That would be your trigger to stop staying motionless. We'll have the normal people needed for a Wards introduction on hand to take over at that point."
Yep, that sounded awesome, and Dinah looked at her mother. Who was grinning. "Yes, I think I can approve that plan, though you should consider if you want her little skull facing the audience to see how many people notice it changing before the reveal."
"We'll definitely want it facing the cameras. It may not be noticed the first time through, but little details like that are quite likely to be picked up and over-analyzed after the fact."
"Not bad on the look," Colin said as he looked over Kurt in his teenage girl form, fully kitted out. "But you'll need to both decide on a name and will probably need to focus on going into combat only with others around."
"True on both counts," Kurt admitted, obviously re-casting the Knight Armor spell to replace the combat dress and equipment with a form-fitting t-shirt, a longer skirt, and sneakers. The bows vanished from the pigtails as well, but the pigtails stayed in place with less flamboyant ties. "But I figure that going out in 'civvies' and then transforming if a fight happens to break out would work too, even if I was only present because I was expecting a fight to break out. I have no problem randomly protecting civilians until someone else shows up."
"You seem to be a little more expressive than I've come to expect from you in that form."
"Like that isn't the case with you and Betty? Or Amy playing the role of Rainbow, and Suzy does things as Engel that she normally wouldn't as herself as well. Ethan enjoyed being able to be quite a bit ruder than normal as a goose, for that matter. Taylor and Missy are somewhat missing out, I think, due to having gotten started before the form shifting was available."
"Taylor now, and not Miss Hebert?"
"We agreed to be less formal when she brought me the newly-created devices that she'd had the Inn put together for me, after I told her that I'd decided to go with Xuni for my civilian name in this form. I just can't figure out the 'cape name'."
"You aren't technically required to have one."
"True, but it's been somewhat established that all the 'Belkans' are using cape names when fighting. I figure that I can get away with not using one when in civvies and then changing in plain sight as a partial misunderstanding of things based on it being unusual for the Empire, but not having one ready doesn't feel right."
Colin had to agree that the argument made sense. "I admittedly went for an intentionally silly name for a number of reasons, but you may want to go with something more appropriate to your intended role in a fight."
"I'm working on ideas. I don't expect to be ready to go out in public for a few days at a minimum, after getting enough time practicing walking."
"Yes, it took me far too much time in simulation and my home practicing that. Do be sure to practice with varying heights of heels at each age."
"Of course."
A flash of light from the transport device heralded Dragon's arrival, and she quickly moved over next to Colin. "I'm starting to hate meetings."
Colin snorted. "Everyone who prefers to get things done instead of talking about them endlessly comes to hate meetings. I've come to the conclusion that if someone likes meetings then they're either a complete waste of resources or micromanaging to excess."
"You might have a point there." She then turned to Kurt. "May I suggest Bunker Bunny for a cape name?"
Kurt blinked. "I suppose that I shouldn't be surprised that you're aware of the discussion we were having, and that isn't a horrible name choice. Might have to add a bunny ear headband to sell it though..."
"Not really, but I suppose that most people wouldn't get the reference."
They might have continued, but Hive showed up and got everyone's attention before having the transport device manifest a portal frame and open a portal to another planet. Most likely an Earth, based on the gravity not changing, but either one with little to no life or they'd just happened to be brought to a desert. Wherever they were, the time of day had shifted as it looked like the Sun was setting. It also looked like it might be ready to rain, heavy clouds above them.
"What are we here for?" Sherie asked, looking around. "Because an empty stretch of rocky desert isn't that interesting."
Hive didn't answer, and instead just floated up above them. Expecting the diminutive device to do something, all thirteen of them looked up at her. Virgil was grumbling lightly about this being far too much setup for little to no pay-off, but was lightly slapped off the back of the head by Tracey. Who seemed to be in...awe, perhaps? But why would...
The train of thought was obliterated by the clouds moving. Not parting, because the ship coming down through them was far too large for that, trapping a significant portion of the cloud layer beneath it as it descended. Part of Colin inside of Gremlin maintained enough awareness to use sensors to check on things, finding that the triangular vessel was just under five kilometers per edge, though the obvious front was blunted slightly. Probably around three quarters of a kilometer tall at the front and around one and a half kilometers tall at the back.
Exact measurements depended on if you counted the likely weapons protrusions in various places, small ones at the very front and larger ones at each point of the triangle from the bottom. Additional large ones were visible inside of inset areas on the sides, though why the areas were inset wasn't obvious. From this angle it looked like they all had decent coverage unless you were hugging the hull in various places...assuming that they needed a straight line to shoot at you. Throw in spatial warping and they probably had full coverage. A larger hexagonal protrusion stuck out from the bottom in the middle, in a flattened area that didn't follow the overall 'thickening' of the vessel, and looked like it had windows in it. Living space, perhaps? At around a hundred and eighty meters thick it would allow for quite a bit of room.
The entire vessel then spun, showing off the beveled lines from the front that tapered to the back and the odd...rails, perhaps, on the sides, before swinging around so they could see the rear. This made it obvious that the inner 'flat' triangle was truncated and had what looked like four giant hangar doors in the back, each approaching a kilometer wide and a quarter of a kilometer tall.
As the massive vessel landed he realized that there was something about the silvery-blue beveled areas that started at the front and tapered off to the back, but he couldn't place what it was. Taylor's magic color, but that went well with the dark blue primary hull color and he might be thinking that the smaller hexagonal protrusions were weapons only because they were red and appeared to be placed in suitable places for good defensive coverage.
"This is the Blueberry One," Hive said as the shockwaves of it setting down reached them. "It's far larger on the inside, but most of the extra space is taken up by support systems and drone bays. As currently configured it can support a population of half a million people, though that's a side effect of wanting it to be able to evacuate up to three million comfortably. Once it has a full complement of construction drones it should be able to function as a mobile base to process Shard devices and perform large-scale construction, including but not limited to building additional vessels of its type. I just haven't gotten around to determining the logistics of building up large numbers of construction drones yet."
"That is a problem," Dragon admitted. "I've only got a couple hundred at this point."
"I probably have plenty," Taylor chimed in. "Actually, I probably have more than I'm going to need for a while, because I just realized that I completely forgot that I had some being built. I'd only wanted between six and nine hundred, which should've been done back on the twenty-ninth. So...oh. Er...right, that would make sense..."
"Lord," Hive said, sounding...awed and appalled at the same time. "You appear to have one and...just over three quarters of a billion construction drones, with what looks like another around half a billion in the middle of being constructed."
"Yeah...I knew that each drone could build two drones a day with time for filling material stores on each, so my three initial drones should have basically tripled each day, but I forgot that each drone would immediately start working on making more instead of waiting for the next day so things proceeded faster than expected. Minus some slowdowns due to travel time to reach and then spread out over Mercury as they fed on it for resources and larger material conversion factors than I'd originally used. Had I not forgotten to check there would've been over two thousand when I intended to stop them and I was only expecting around a hundred and thirty million before I looked just now."
Colin was having trouble parsing some of this, and turned to Dragon. "Are they talking about the large-scale construction drones or the small-scale ones?"
"Large," Dragon said, sounding slightly distracted. "The ones that if you removed the internal spatial foldings should mass around ten billion kilograms each, with internal mass storage of around two thousand times that. They've completely consumed around a third of that system's Mercury."
Apparently Colin needed to reevaluate his definition of mega engineering. Either that or he needed a new term for this level of project.
Danny had made it through 'can protect himself' levels of mage training, not really intending to go much further than that, before Hive had revealed the giant spaceship. And eventually added that it was configured to see Taylor as its captain equivalent, something that would also apply to the rest of the Blueberry line of ships. As if she needed giant spaceships in addition to everything else.
He hadn't been able to wrap his head around the drones issue until one had been brought to them and pictures had been shown, at which point he'd felt a little woozy. That did explain Hive's statement that with the number of drones available they could easily have Blueberry Two constructed in five to six days though, provided that suitable shards to target were available for raw materials. And that was after peeling off two million of the things to be split between building the resort worlds out and the first 'arrival center' planet, the former likely only taking a couple of weeks and the latter being a larger project that might take three. After finishing up 'other projects in progress that could use the boost'.
"I thought I understood the scale of some of these projects," Ethan commented after Taylor had left with Hive on the ship to ensure that everything was connected properly with the existing construction drones. Amy and Missy had gone for the trip, but most of the rest of them had just returned to the Inn.
"That's further than I ever really got," Danny admitted. "I realized that I was completely out of my depth months ago and gave up trying, honestly."
"Which was probably not a bad idea, but it's obvious that Taylor wasn't expecting some of this either."
"True, but I think the bigger shock was Dragon and Hive both deciding that she should keep up the production of drones for a bit. They really want to get more processing worlds set up, and I got the feeling that they've both got different kinds of deep-seated hang-ups about being responsible for large scale replication like that."
"Well, having humans involved in the decision to replicate on that level does make some sense, and I can't blame them for wanting to speed things up. Have you looked at the map of the shards?"
"...no, I've avoided that."
"Even with this revelation there are far, far too many of the things."
"...I forget. Does the kitchen here have beer?"
"If it doesn't then it probably won't take long to convince the systems to make some for us."
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For a second I almost thought that the ship was the TSAB ship
Archeo Lumiere
The Prince's Archivist
- Location
- Lumiose City, Kalos
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
department of redundancy department, suggested keeps underlined, removals stricken, and the one addition italicized.
View: https://youtu.be/7uBqNgxAuBA
With that, I wonder how far up the timetable for processing shards got moved up. Even without the continuing to build more construction drones.
As in, if there's even a noticeable dent in the time it would take yet.
As in, if there's even a noticeable dent in the time it would take yet.
So, Nurse Joys and Officer Jennys?
Lots happening here. Again. Amy's slightly psychosis inducing training was fairly humorous. Kurt's decision to begin going out publicly shows some good character growth for him and some of his choices were amusing. Can't wait for his official introduction.
Hive's ship reveal shows that it's not just Taylor who takes the term 'Over Achiever' to new heights. Then you've got Tay-Tay blowing even that impressive ship away with her admission that, due to just a small distraction, she has damn near two BILLION of the large construction drones available for use. (I was either unaware or forgot that there were multiple sizes for those.) Then Taylor, Amy, and Missy all went out for a quick shakedown cruise on the new ship that probably dwarfs the Saints Cradle leaving the adults back at the Inn to have themselves a coping toddy of two. I'm betting that while out on their joyride the kids are going to at least detect the TSAB delegation. Fun times for everyone that isn't Team Mana.
Why are you all looking at me like that?
Hive's ship reveal shows that it's not just Taylor who takes the term 'Over Achiever' to new heights. Then you've got Tay-Tay blowing even that impressive ship away with her admission that, due to just a small distraction, she has damn near two BILLION of the large construction drones available for use. (I was either unaware or forgot that there were multiple sizes for those.) Then Taylor, Amy, and Missy all went out for a quick shakedown cruise on the new ship that probably dwarfs the Saints Cradle leaving the adults back at the Inn to have themselves a coping toddy of two. I'm betting that while out on their joyride the kids are going to at least detect the TSAB delegation. Fun times for everyone that isn't Team Mana.
I feel that this name is still somewhat ... lacking in scope.
What? It's a small planet okay? Mars would take at least twice as long and Jupiter is sitting at a solid month and a half to consume.
Why are you all looking at me like that?
Never ever give her a copy of Blame! and mention the scale of the City. She will take it as a goal to beat.
Folks, her Dyson swarm has barely gotten started. It hadn't processed that entire solar system for resources, yet.
Folks, her Dyson swarm has barely gotten started. It hadn't processed that entire solar system for resources, yet.
Blueberry One Ship Design (From Chapter 158)
A ship has been revealed!
I don't think the written description in the chapter does it justice, but luckily I designed it in Blender first.
This is a basic render of the design, from two angles.
With crappy solid coloring more focused on surface types during design because I failed to do any better.
Red for weapons.
I don't think the written description in the chapter does it justice, but luckily I designed it in Blender first.
This is a basic render of the design, from two angles.
With crappy solid coloring more focused on surface types during design because I failed to do any better.
Red for weapons.
Windborne
Devourer of Stories
- Location
- Oregon
So we got Taylor offhandedly creating Officer Jenny and Nurse Joy, accidentally forgetting to turn off her drone production, but still finding 1.25 billion drones isn't enough and she needs more, and has a spaceship line titled the Blueberry. This was a great chapter. Yuuno is going to really, really, really be upset he didn't go along with Nanoha and Co.
Still could have used more Betty Bop, but Xuni ought to be fun. All hail our Iridescent Queen of Escalation Taylor Hebert!
Still could have used more Betty Bop, but Xuni ought to be fun. All hail our Iridescent Queen of Escalation Taylor Hebert!
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- Location
- <CLASSIFIED>
Hey, Taylor's version of the City would be a great way to connect all those amusement park worlds.
And Taylor would make sure that the network genes don't get lost.