Taylor's sentient and semi-sentient bureaucracy that's locked in battle with LawBot to find as many places as permissible to deliver help is entertaining. I think somebody could write at least a solid short story and maybe even a longer work entirely within that setting and I would read it.
Hybrid Hive: Eat Shard? (Worm/MGLN) (Complete)
- Thread starter CmptrWz
- Start date
- Crossover
Interlude 19
- Midget Crowbel - October 16, 0076
- Tyron Gillian - October 16, 2011
- Warwick Giles - October 17, 2011
- Viktor Aleksandrov - October 19, 2011
- Quinn Granger - October 19, 2011
- Tomomi Ono - October 20, 0076
- Ray Tundra - October 20, 0076
- Chun Hsu - October 21, 2011
- Tyron Gillian - October 21, 2011
- Kendal Harris - October 22, 2011
- Largo Kiel - October 22, 0076
- Miyuki Takamachi - October 22, 2011
- Yuuno Scrya - October 22, 0076
- Fiore Caro - October 22, 0076
- Leone Phils - October 23, 0076
- Carim Gracia - October 23, 0076
- Becca Rennoll - October 24, 2011
- Mitsuko Tang - October 25, 0076
- Emily Piggot - October 27, 2011
- Tyron Gillian - October 27, 2011
- Kenta Lung - October 27, 2011
- Ulrich - October 29, 0076
- Henry Renick - October 29, 2011
- Diana Corey - October 29, 2011
- Midget Crowbel - October 30, 0076
- Amalia - October 30, 0076
- SPECIAL: Kingdom Defense Demonstration
Midget Crowbel - October 16, 0076
"So," Midget said after Hayate and Rein had left the room. "We're very much surrounded, almost certainly significantly outgunned, and if it came to war there's probably nowhere for us to fall back to."
"Surrounded and outgunned by a hopefully non-hostile kingdom," Leone commented.
"At least until some idiot pokes them," Largo added. "We have no clue how they're likely to respond to a proper attack."
Midget nodded. "At the same time, from what we were already told about prior 'conquests', they don't kill populations off. Or at least that seems to be the case with anything they let people know about. Our best bet is likely to cooperate with them and ensure that the Bureau doesn't condone any attacks that others engage in, regardless of their administered status. Immediately take measures to ensure that we very obviously had and want nothing to do with such foolishness, in fact."
"Definitely," Leone agreed. "Luckily, we've already gotten that started, despite not knowing the true scale of things at the time."
"I'm happy that I used the restroom before the meeting," Largo said. "And now I think I want a drink to try to dull this memory. With any luck we'll never see provocation that requires bringing out an Apple."
That sounded like pretty good justification for a quick prayer, honestly.
Tyron Gillian - October 16, 2011
Tyron shivered as he looked at his notes, trying not to think about 'where the kingdom might go next'. One of the only reasons nobody on Earth had seen a Blueberry, let alone these new 'Apple' class vessels, was because doing so was liable to trigger the end of the world. But without that problem they were likely individually capable of planetary conquest. That Colin had indicated the kingdom having a preference for an entire 'pie' of Blueberries, six of them that could join together to function as a single ship or split up to better distribute capabilities, during a planetary conquest wasn't much help.
There were at least a hundred Blueberry class ships available to the kingdom, probably a lot more.
"I wonder if we have a more descriptive category for a threat than 'we have no hope, so pray that they never become hostile'," he mused.
"Sorry, sir?" Janice half-asked as she brought in a drink he'd asked for.
"Just learning that the kingdom, or Team Mana, or both outclass us more than previously believed."
"We've been running various versions of 'we have no hope' since Minerva drove off Leviathan, sir. I think the analysts have given up and just classified the kingdom as its own threat level so that they can stop trying to adjust things."
"Some of them have, but a few are still trying to keep a 'relative threat level' scale working with the kingdom on it."
"That sounds like an exercise in futility, sir."
"It does, doesn't it."
Warwick Giles - October 17, 2011
Warwick looked over the notes from the past two days, including pictures of the damage that Engel had done to various buildings as she pulled people out of them. Providing excuses to investigate and detain the entirety of the political power in the area, not to mention explaining why they were all so willing to overlook each other's 'foibles' when several things hadn't been fully understood until now, had unfortunately made a mess of things.
He'd pushed his own people into the area to take over normal police duties while the rest of the small police department was investigated, but the reaction of the fire chief had led to taking him into custody as well. Firemen from nearby communities were being tapped there as well.
Which wasn't to say that Warwick had a problem with Engel's actions. He just wished that they'd known how deep the corruption was running long before now. Well, that and for her to have left things a little more easily secured when entering buildings that didn't have anyone who would answer the door at home. Cutting the doors out of the wall was great for intimidation, but horrible for maintaining security on the site while investigations happened.
Maybe they should request that in the future the young lady see if she can arrange to have a key?
Viktor Aleksandrov - October 19, 2011
Viktor scowled as he read the blasted rejection. He'd proudly served in his nation's armed forces ever since he was a teenager, and now that the kingdom had taken over the planet he wasn't allowed near anything 'dangerous'. Because he had the wrong personality or some shit like that. The stupid 'therapists' were crackpots that didn't understand anything, and the 'police' were idiots that couldn't see that some of those wandering around the city he'd been relocated to didn't deserve to live.
Sure, they'd let him keep his service pistol and rifle, but those were classified as toys. Not even considered properly dangerous for most, but the police still prevented him from using them anywhere he pleased while the community 'recovered from the sudden upheaval' and 'general protections were being fully deployed to the populace'. Protections that made the pistol and rifle useless, and he wasn't being granted permission to get 'combat-grade' augmentations or access to anything but the most basic defense or utility spells.
"The country you served no longer exists," Nonna commented. "It's obvious that the kingdom is far more accepting of others than we're used to."
"Accepting of everyone but us," Viktor snapped back. "They've erased our nation, our culture, and refuse to give us any way to even consider fighting back."
"Our 'culture' was being assholes to everyone around us out of fear that the instant we stopped we'd be overrun because we assumed that they wanted to eradicate us the same as we wanted to eradicate them. That 'culture' cost me my father, uncle, and brother to senseless violence that accomplished nothing, and I'm glad that our daughter won't grow up with the specter of nuclear war sitting over her head at all times."
That had him pausing, because they didn't have...oh. "But..."
"And if you aren't running off to fight all the time then she won't have to grow up without a father either."
The accusatory tone in her voice had him grimacing. She'd been critical of how often he spent fighting for a couple of years now, taking more assignments than he was required to.
"Perhaps you just need to look at things differently," she continued. "If we are as superior as we were taught then our daughter should be able to excel far beyond her peers growing up. And if the kingdom is correct and we aren't better then she can at least show that we're not worse."
Quinn Granger - October 19, 2011
Quinn was amazed that they'd caught so many of their suspected cartel members when Engel had agreed to assist in taking on this particular group. Granted, she only cared about getting those held captive out, but the use of highly toxic and technically radioactive rounds had been enough to convince her support to push for clearing the building. Which was very much appreciated, given the amount of firepower they had.
The closed off former tunnels that no longer looked like they'd even been dug out were an added bonus. Sealing those properly was very annoying without causing problems on the surface. Recovering a couple of individuals that had been abducted to ensure that local officials 'played along' was an added bonus, and those officials had immediately turned over a pile of their own evidence once finding out their family members were safe. Without prompting, which was even nicer. They'd all shown up at the hospital with the documentation in hand.
Now, officially thanking Engel was one thing, but she didn't want to make a big deal of it. Or perhaps didn't want to slow down as she hit different parts of the country? Either way, they needed to come up with another way to thank her and the kingdom for the assistance. Perhaps they could convince the new rehab and community outreach center being built to take a suitable name instead of using a government office...
Tomomi Ono - October 20, 0076
Tomomi had watched the kingdom build a combat gym in a fraction of the time it would've taken anyone else to just demolish the existing buildings. Then she'd gone in, but had been informed that due to local laws they weren't taking students on yet. Something about needing to hire proper supervisors instead of relying on the kingdom's automation. Which was itself a bit of a surprise. She'd been able to get a pamphlet covering a number of details though.
The first thing that was immediately warned about was that the kingdom's combat gym rules were not compatible with Midchilda's normal competition rules. So anyone participating in the kingdom's gym was currently excluded from the normal tournaments...and the way it was worded implied that those involved with the normal tournaments were barred from the kingdom's activities on safety grounds.
"I'm confused," she finally admitted. "It seems like either one side or the other should not fit in fully, but there's a participation ban in both directions?"
"What you're missing is that the kingdom's basic safety measures are themselves barred in the local tournaments," the helpful human-like device answered. "The Bureau has barred experimentation with augmentation units and internal devices, but the kingdom mandates the latter and highly recommends the former. They're less of a safety concern here, where background mana levels are higher, but the kingdom has planets in very low mana areas and augmentation units are critical to core health there."
Augmentation units were recommended, and internal devices were mandatory? That sounded even more insane than the Belkans used to be. "Why are internal devices mandatory?"
"Combat-grade internal devices, for combat sport or actual fighting, come with field healing capabilities that negate the need to wait for a nurse device to reach an injured participant and automatic emergency shielding that functions even if external devices are damaged or out of range. A properly outfitted kingdom mage can lose all four limbs in the morning and be back on their feet by lunch without needing to visit a healing booth. They'll be quite hungry though."
You know, when put that way the automatic 'oh hell no' response to that kind of change was a lot harder to justify.
Ray Tundra - October 20, 0076
Ray sighed as the call disconnected. "I suspect that little Rio won't be needing one of the family's devices."
Rinna frowned as she processed that. "Why not?"
"She's likely to join the kingdom's new combat gym on Midchilda, which means that she'll be learning an entirely different style of combat. From what I was able to find, they do personalized combat forms for every individual and their devices are likely several times more impressive than ours."
"We should still send her one when the next batch is completed. It is her heritage, and if the kingdom is as good as the rumors say then they'll be able to ensure that she has no problems using it."
That wasn't a horrible idea, but perhaps there was a better way. "Or maybe I should reach out to the kingdom personally. Ensuring that she gets a device and training that can help her with her heritage and in forging her own path sounds preferable to trying to force her down a path laid out by others. But collecting the information needed for someone else to help with her training might take a week or two."
That had Rinna frowning more. "You would just hand information on our training over to another?"
"Yes, because otherwise the lure of a fully personalized and custom style designed specifically for her is likely to result in Rio focusing on it and it alone instead of making regular trips to learn from us here. I wouldn't even be able to blame her, as the Spring Sunlight Fist makes a number of concessions to be able to be used by various body types. Besides, would you have passed up a chance to train alongside the reborn Saint King?"
That obviously had Rinna's brain engaging properly. Now then, where did they put some of the written forms of the basic lessons?
Chun Hsu - October 21, 2011
Chun had felt betrayed by the Yàngbǎn when they'd had their right to rule stripped from them, and after the Gods had worked with Team Mana to stop the destruction of the dam he'd started following everything he could on them. Which led to an incredible display of a very basic form of the magic that could, when you were strong enough, kill Endbringers.
There was no way he wasn't going to try it.
It was lucky that he was decent when it came to math, but some of the feelings he had to reach for were...difficult. But eventually he'd wrapped his head around the seemingly-contradictory elements of the description. In hindsight it felt like they were intentionally contradictory in order to ensure that you could enter the right frame of mind for using the magic. Seeing the small point of light, created by him, had resulted in him being overjoyed.
...immediately followed by wanting to take a nap. If a little point of light was that tiring to a normal person then Minerva had to have the power of...the...
Was Minerva just one of the Gods, instead of merely approved by them? She seemed to have the power of them, based on how much more she could do with magic than mere mortals could...
Tyron Gillian - October 21, 2011
"So we've got natural but weak mages native to the planet," Tyron said, even as Amanda looked over some of the math in an attempt to figure out what else she could likely do. The girl was bright, and excited over the possibility of being able to do more than make a little ball of light. Even if she'd been warned that it was unlikely to go very far without outside help.
"And an environment that isn't conducive to them using their talents," James commented. "With Minerva being a very significant outlier in that case."
"Indeed. But how long do you think it will take to assemble a proper team to start examining things?"
"Finding those with the capability is going to be hard. Amanda being on the list is a stroke of luck, and you said that she's probably the only one on staff we know of. Short of getting lucky with others succeeding with the light spell we aren't going to find many."
Amanda looked up. "Maybe we can convince the kingdom to boost my abilities, and that will be enough for me to help identify others?"
Tyron frowned. "That's...not a horrible idea, but I'd rather not resort to it immediately. Especially as it feels unlikely to work. Getting a couple of companies of troops to attempt to cast the light spell might be a more prudent method that doesn't have us relying on an outside group, no matter how much we're currently getting along with them in a general sense."
James snorted. "We don't even need to order that. If there aren't dozens of independent cases of commanding officers looking for this in their people already then something is seriously wrong."
"Er," Amanda said, sounding unsure of herself. Tyron raised an eyebrow, and she blushed. "Minerva's video specifically mentioned that adults are less likely to manage anything. Based on that, we probably need to be looking at high school students at the oldest for larger numbers of magic-capable individuals."
That...would help explain why Amanda, one of the youngest in the group, was the only one with the aptitude at all. Damn.
Kendal Harris - October 22, 2011
Kendal had seen the goose wander over towards the two gentlemen in the park and his first thought had been that it was rare to see that particular species in the area. Then he noticed the ribbon, and assumed it might be a pet.
Recalling the last time he'd heard of a pet goose at all, when one had completely fucked over the Teeth in Australia, had him trying to at least get pictures. He wasn't disappointed when one of the two men did something that pissed off the goose and they went from 'a goose' to 'lots of geese'. The resulting chase was hilarious and terrifying at the same time, because these were apparently-invulnerable geese that could fire magic beams.
...it really needed some proper chase music. Maybe some could be dubbed in when posting some of this online?
Things gradually calmed down on the 'terror' front when it became obvious that only the two men were being targeted. The geese were intentionally avoiding causing problems for anyone else, and two had even broken off from the chase to gently direct a lost kid back to his parents. Really, they knew what they were doing far better than the two men they were chasing.
Eventually the men managed to get into and lock the door of the restroom building. Watching the geese work together to get a bench to use as a battering ram, the kind that was heavily weighted down to make it difficult to move normally, was a bit surreal. It was also a demonstration that these were anything but normal geese when it came to strength.
It was almost a pity that Engel showed up and rescued the two men...as well as took them into custody, because apparently they were dangerous parahumans. That had just spent a significant amount of time being made to look like complete fools by a flock of geese with access to teleportation portals.
Largo Kiel - October 22, 0076
Largo hadn't expected today to be the day that someone decided to test the kingdom, but it was. Luckily for everyone involved, the kingdom was a lot more laid back about things than expected.
...it said a lot about their expectations when sending a single frankly ridiculously large vessel to destroy a moon was seen as a 'laid back' response. But nobody had been harmed at all, at least not physically. Pride had likely been severely damaged in many respects, including on the Bureau's end after seeing their most powerful weapons essentially ignored, but nobody had been directly harmed.
"Why do I get the feeling that we've only seen the beginning of people being idiots?" Largo finally asked out loud.
"Because it seems like every civilization ends up with a saying about idiots being inevitable and you can recognize the pattern," Midget answered. "The real question is how long do we have to wait for the next one. Do we get a few hours, days, months?"
"Put me down for hours," Leone said. "Because it's going to take a half-dozen humiliations before 'do not mess with the kingdom' starts getting through to the idiots."
"Are you two at least on board with calling the original attack a declaration of war that the kingdom decided to largely ignore?"
"Definitely," Largo said. "And since the planet declared war, not the Bureau, we have no obligation to help their defense either."
Miyuki Takamachi - October 22, 2011
Miyuki giggled after Nanoha had left. "To think that we thought she'd never show a proper interest in swords. She just needed a properly nerdy sword."
"And a lot of training to not be a danger to herself and others," Kyoya added. "But I suspect that she's going to take advantage of this new kingdom's training services to get up to speed."
"She does learn things she feels are important remarkably quickly."
"Always has. Which means that we're going to have to do our best to learn to use our lightsabers effectively as well. Can't have her getting an easy victory when we test her because we didn't have time to practice."
That was a good point. The energy blades were very distinct. No weight or inertia to speak of, they could be considered to always be edge-on unless you were striking another one of them where it was more like blocking with the flat of a normal blade, and knowing where the blade was required a lot more focus than with a physical blade. You couldn't rely on the weight of the blade itself to tell you where it was, and there was little to no feedback from your swings and strikes.
When your strikes slowed down at all.
"We also can't really let on that she's probably better than we are with the lightsaber specifically," Kyoya continued.
"Oh, yes," Miyuki agreed. "She doesn't have years of training with physical swords causing her to expect the energy blade to do things it isn't going to, and she's always been incredibly aware of her surroundings. If anything, she's gotten better at it."
"She said something about an internal sensor system helping her, but that doesn't mean we're going to have it any easier ensuring that she has a challenge."
"Think we should tell her about our other tasks that the lightsabers will be useful for?"
"Nah. She's got enough to worry about on other worlds and we can handle the problems here well enough. No need to drag her into any of it, but I'm fairly certain that we're going to be a lot more effective when called upon."
Yuuno Scrya - October 22, 0076
Yuuno was amazed at the detail in the records that he'd been allowed access to...as well as the simulation exercises that worked alongside them. Knowing how to build, configure, and maintain the black-boxed systems that existed in older devices or in various stockpiles throughout administered space was going to be incredibly useful. Passing this course and being able to be marked as a 'maintenance technician' that could more safely work on things would be even better.
"Sir," one of the assistant devices said, causing him to blink and focus on it. Her, actually. "You've not had anything to eat since breakfast, and you didn't eat much then."
"I don't normally have a large breakfast and there's plenty of time until lunch," he replied.
"We're nearing time for dinner. You skipped lunch entirely."
A check of the time showed that she was right. He'd not gotten this lost in research in years. "Oh."
"We took the liberty of booking a table for you."
"...why?"
"Because we've already figured out that if we don't then you'll grab takeout and then come right back here to continue working instead of taking a proper break."
That...was probably fair. "Ah."
"You should also pay attention to the news. Someone attempted to attack Queen Minerva's vessel and the kingdom demonstrated why that was a bad idea."
"Really? That does sound like something I should check out."
"Take a data pad and we'll send you a link when you've ordered dinner."
...they would do that. Good incentive though, because it would save him the aggravation of trying to find it himself.
Fiore Caro - October 22, 0076
Fiore had been returning home after a day of work, wearing her barrier jacket instead of her filthy clothing after multiple stupid accidents had ruined her first outfit and then nearly ruined her spare. She really needed to get someone to assemble a barrier jacket that mimicked her uniform properly as she was crap at design.
Her musing was interrupted by drones appearing out of nowhere. Her eyes went wide as more and more of them appeared, and then all of a sudden they were projecting video screens.
"Hello," Queen Minerva said as the video started playing. The timestamp showed it was a couple of minutes old. "A few minutes ago the young man behind me attempted to use a spell to take control of my mind. I do not yet know what the goal of said control was, but all indications are that the control attempt was ordered by the ruling council of Pridraxus. Any diplomat of my kingdom being attacked in this manner generates the same response, and if they were willing to attempt this on me then who knows how many others they've done this with on and off of their planet."
The video then jumped, obviously skipping something, and now seemed to be 'live' as the ruler continued. "To the people of Pridraxus, I apologize for the disruption, but my kingdom considers what was attempted an automatic declaration of total war. Everyone will be given mandatory medical checkups as soon as infrastructure for doing so has been constructed and trials for those responsible for the orders that triggered this will be held within two weeks."
A moment later the video blinked out, and those around Fiore started collapsing. Falling asleep where they stood, somehow, before humanoid devices appeared to start collecting them.
"Miss Caro," one of the devices, a female nurse, said as it approached. "If you'd like to come peacefully we can handle things without knocking you out."
"Why am I being given the choice while others aren't?" Fiore asked.
"You're one of the few on the planet with active defenses up, due to using them as a replacement after your mishaps at work today, and approximately three-quarters of the planet has been profiled as being far more likely to resist. It's easier to put the vast majority of the population to sleep and have them wake when rebuilding has already completed."
Looking up at the drones that had long since blotted out the sky and plunged the area into artificial midnight, she tried to determine just what kind of idiots she shared a planet with if they were going to resist with this kind of show of force. "I think I'd rather not be put to sleep, but if you're taking over then I'm going to have a hard time taking the bath I really wanted to take."
"The residential block your family is being assigned to should be finished in no more than an hour, but we have temporary structures in place that you can use to clean up."
"Er, okay. Lead the way, I guess? But for some reason I get the feeling that you could've just ignored my defenses entirely."
"Trivially, but we determined that we didn't need to go to the trouble."
"I see." Five minutes later she was shown into a temporary building with a very generous bathing area. Only upon seeing it did a couple of things click in her head. "Wait, did Queen Minerva say that the government has been using mind control?"
The nurse nodded. "Unfortunately. We're still working to identify the scope of it."
"The idiots were risking the rest of administered space teaming up to wipe us out from orbit?"
"That you can see that when your planet's leaders couldn't is part of why we decided to be gentle with you. The loyalists that didn't see that as a problem didn't get to stay awake."
Leone Phils - October 23, 0076
Leone sipped his drink, hoping that the stimulants kept him awake enough for the emergency meeting, and looked over the room. Midget hadn't arrived, having spent time on Pridraxus recently and having decided to go straight for the kingdom's outpost to be checked over. "So what do we know?"
"That the kingdom doesn't need their fuckoff-large ships to be visible to take over planets," Largo answered. "Probably stuck them in a nearby dimension that's quite a distance from our point of view to coordinate everything."
"We don't know if that's true or not, and you know that isn't what I was asking."
"Pridraxus was mind controlling people, in and out of their own government. We don't currently have a way to detect it, but the kingdom does, and they're demonstrating a very Belkan attitude towards the whole thing. A more moderate attitude than expected, but nothing I wouldn't expect from a Belkan kingdom. They had to have run into a lot more mind controllers out there though, with how passive they're being overall."
"I'm aware of that. Do we know if anyone in the Bureau itself was definitely compromised?"
Largo paused, then nodded. "We can't be fully certain, of course, but the dozen individuals that are almost violently supporting Pridraxus's actions and condemning the kingdom are good bets."
That sounded quite likely, but also felt wrong. "Shouldn't they have been more subtle about things if they've managed to only get caught now?"
"Oh, I'm assuming these are the 'obvious' ones to distract us from the 'important' targets that they really don't want us to know about. Programmed to make a fuss when the mind control was revealed so that we'd avoid looking at anyone else too carefully."
That did sound more likely. Unfortunately.
Carim Gracia - October 23, 0076
Carim blinked a couple of times as she read Sein's report on today's visit to the kingdom's combat gym. The previously reported detail that the three children wanted to be 'creepy' was...unfortunate, but not actually all that out there. Kids would be kids and Vivio wanting to get away from being seen as the second coming of Olivie was sadly expected. Kaiser Minerva showing up, in 'civilian' attire and going by 'Taylor', to help Vivio figure out some kind of 'creepy' spell was not expected.
Bringing another Belkan royal along for the visit had obliterated 'expected' and thrown Sein into the unenviable position of being confronted with an entire group of royals. That didn't want to be treated as royals at the time. Well, it wasn't a formal context, so treating them as though they were normal people was acceptable.
Ixveria...hadn't really done anything all that impressive beyond being there at all. Comments had been made that the kingdom had rescued and healed her, and that she was staying in the kingdom for the moment, but that was about it. Kaiser Minerva, on the other hand, had blown several expectations out of the water. She'd sat down with Vivio, who was already very familiar with her, and taken a nonfunctional spell in progress and rebuilt it to a functional and very useful-looking spell for the three girls to be 'creepy' with.
Then Kaiser Minerva had used a trick that allowed her to be in two places at once, which was apparently linked to a...doppelganger device? Not considered suitable for combat, but she'd given all three girls their own. And they could emulate enough to use what the kingdom called the alternate form system. Meaning that the three girls could, within reason, be in multiple places at once as well now. Questioning the trainer devices had revealed that there were range limits that effectively made it 'on the same planet'.
Coupled with some of the claims that, despite appearances, the kingdom wasn't technically of Belkan descent? A good claim could be made that the kingdom was actually more of an Al-Hazard splinter that had finally come back to clean up their messes that the Belkans had picked up and started using.
Becca Rennoll - October 24, 2011
Becca had been determined to pick the Team Mana locks, at least up to level four where they still made some kind of sense. Level five was starting to get into magic bullshit territory where you could have two identical keys, both working in the level four lock but only one working in the level five lock. There was probably some kind of electronic identifier in the key, or a magic equivalent of one, and good luck fooling that.
Maybe in a few centuries when Earth had built up a pile of knowledge and ability with magic?
Whatever the case there, she was hoping to get some time without people breathing down her neck today. Except that when she arrived she found that there were now additional boxes sitting there. With level three and four locks, apparently holding resort tickets.
Screw figuring out the level two lock. The level three locks just became far more important, because there was no way she was going to be able to afford to go to the resort on her own anytime soon. Luckily she had some of her version of the tools that people had come up with for those ones.
...sadly, she had no hope of picking the level four locks right now. But she didn't need the higher-tier tickets either, in her opinion.
Mitsuko Tang - October 25, 0076
Mitsuko was in charge of evaluating 'potential enemies' of her planet, despite their membership in the Bureau. Until recently, that had amounted to a small ongoing feud with Pridraxus, but had since shifted entirely to evaluating Please Ignore the Secret Kingdom. Currently the evaluation was 'if they ever become an actual enemy, hopefully we have enough time to surrender'.
Pridraxus had demonstrated that if you truly pissed the kingdom off then they wouldn't give you that time. On the other hand, even if the planetary government was dismantled the people would be taken care of, so there was that.
"A new video," she muttered to herself as she brought it up to watch. Drone construction seemed like a good thing to know the kingdom's capabilities in, given how many of the things they'd used on Pridraxus.
Unfortunately for her mental state, this wasn't a video on the basics of how they constructed drones. No, it was a video on the basics of the scale they constructed drones on. How in the world did a civilization get to the point where you dismantled star systems to convert them into drones? In an incredibly short period of time at that.
Adding a note to the kingdom's file about this was done before she clocked out for the day, citing the video as justification. Her superiors would need to watch the video for themselves to decide if it was a suitable justification, and if they did then perhaps she'd see them at the bar doing their best to forget it as well.
Emily Piggot - October 27, 2011
Emily frowned slightly. "You want to sign Riley up for basic first aid classes?"
"Mostly to get her the certificate involved," Mrs. Ellis clarified. "Since her actions when a couple of her classmates were injured shows that she already knows most of what would be covered."
"I only heard that there was an accident and she helped injured classmates."
"Oh. She was able to use a branch from the fallen tree to splint a broken leg well enough for the boy to make it back to the building, with everyone who got a look at it saying it was far better than expected, and stop another boy from bleeding out through his own wounds. The school nurse claimed that she probably couldn't have managed both nearly as well herself."
Apparently Riley's time as Bonesaw had included learning useful life skills that just hadn't come up before now. "How much would the additional classes cost?"
"The school is willing to cover that, as well as provide her with a first-aid kit to carry with her if she'd like to. Especially after she apologized for not being able to do better in both cases due to having to improvise instead of having proper bandages. It's the least we can do to encourage a potential future first responder."
It felt a little ironic, but the school didn't actually know Riley's past and if she wanted to go down that career path then it wouldn't hurt. Even if it wasn't the kind of 'good girl' she was aiming for, and the kingdom's devices were making things a lot less of a problem there.
"If she wants to take the classes then I'll approve it," Emily finally said. "But I'm not about to force it on her."
"Oh, of course not," Mrs. Ellis agreed. "If she hadn't shown as much promise as she already has then they wouldn't even be willing to accept someone so young. We had to show pictures before they'd even consider the idea."
Tyron Gillian - October 27, 2011
Tyron had watched the news clip that the infamous Uber and Leet had uploaded to their channel from the kingdom. That at least explained where the two had ended up, eventually, but the clip itself was honestly ridiculous. Thermonuclear bombs shouldn't be classified as toys, and young children shouldn't be allowed to sit next to them when they were being set off!
Except that the building and kid had been fine, if in need of cleanup. It certainly helped explain how Minerva could completely ignore Leviathan trying to get her with a nuclear explosion, and why various members of Team Mana were in the habit of ignoring being shot. Mere bullets weren't worth mentioning to them, and could even help explain why Miss Hebert was able to be sniped early on. An oversight in 'this is dangerous' evaluations, assuming that the kingdom was really older than Colin insisted it was.
The analysts had no clue what to think anymore. Events like this certainly weren't helping them figure things out either.
Kenta Lung - October 27, 2011
Kenta looked over the little charging cradle for his new belt, annoyed that he might need it with how much things should have calmed down by now. But there were still those in his organization that felt that killing him and taking over would be a good thing to attempt.
Having the healing devices all but insist on removing Lee's power had honestly been somewhat expected. The damage was gradual, but stacked with every use of the powers and Lee used them a lot. Healing the man's mind was going to take a lot longer even if they were able to correct a lot of the physical damage to the brain. What hadn't been expected was suggesting a similar solution to Kenta's problems, though he'd had the reasonable argument that without his powers some of his underlings would simply shoot him and take over.
It had only taken five minutes for the belt to be delivered. A solution that was both subtle and far more effective, at least on the defense side of things, as it didn't require any 'ramping up' at all. The idiots in his organization that didn't want to stop dealing in illegal matters could continue to be removed from play this way, and it was honestly disturbing how much less...twitchy he was now. Far less likely to want to literally bite someone's head off, and not just because he couldn't anymore.
Really, he felt that he was now thinking more like he had before running into that woman all those years ago. It required far less focus to remain civil, a noticeable difference from that morning, and he was able to identify where his previous behavior patterns had created some of the very problems that were annoying him. Which didn't mean that he didn't still desire to punch some of his idiot subordinates, but it took less effort to resist doing so. At least so far.
He might just be feeling particularly good after being healed. Perhaps he should give it a couple of weeks before making these judgements?
Ulrich - October 29, 0076
Ulrich had been a captain for almost twenty years now, but that wasn't enough to be able to decide that something was a stupid course of action and that they shouldn't be doing it. At least not when it came to fleets being assembled, anyway. He'd been very much against the idea of going after Belka, but he didn't get a vote.
Running into a lone civilian vessel, not even one of the feared Blueberries of the kingdom, had calmed him a bit. If that was all that the kingdom could spare to stop them then perhaps they had a chance after all. It was almost a shame to use the most powerful ship to ship combat systems in administered space against them. Only the Arc-en-ciel was more powerful, except that it was far too easy to dodge and thus only truly useful against targets that had been prevented from doing so already.
Excellent against partially-disabled lost logia. Useless against anyone paying attention.
"Enemy vessel is unaffected," one of the sensor operators said, sounding like they were having trouble believing it. "No signs of damage at all."
Ulrich was staring at the viewscreen and could see that the tiny little vessel was, as described, apparently unharmed. "Did the entire fleet miss?"
"Readings indicate that only three shots were not directly on target, and all three still struck the vessel."
"How is that possible?"
No answers were forthcoming, but the taunting from the flagship that the little civilian vessel had no weapons to return fire with was a good point. Up until a single, and quite small, little defensive turret was deployed from the top of the craft. One that then fired an impossible beam of energy that seemed to vanish and reappear as it twisted around the fleet, obliterating every single weapon system on all of the vessels, including those that hadn't been positioned to fire at the enemy. Their own defensive systems ignored or punched through as though they weren't there.
A civilian vessel, not even a military one, had the ability to completely ignore all of their weapons and the ability to retaliate with fleet-killing power. It was one thing to know that the kingdom's impossibly large vessels were difficult to harm, but this?
It was downright humiliating, which was almost certainly the point.
Listening to the surrender negotiations, with the traditional offer of a family member of the expedition leader to be raised by the enemy as reassurance that no additional attempts would be made for fear of harming the child in the future, was mildly interesting as more detailed damage reports came in. The other theory with that practice was that the family member would provide a voice among the enemy to argue against their home being wiped out, but the kingdom seemed far less likely to engage in that kind of destruction.
At least they were willing to uphold the ancient tradition, showing that they were still civilized in some of the important manners despite their technological superiority making some of it otherwise meaningless.
Henry Renick - October 29, 2011
Henry had run across the latest footage from Team Mana and opted to watch it personally, before bringing it up with Emily and others. Seeing that Rainbow had procured a select-fire machine gun, one that apparently fired live rounds instead of magical attacks like her more cutesy weapon, had him concerned. It was a sign that she'd gotten more information on what firearms were, presumably from Expanse or her older sister, but it was also a worrying trend in lethality.
The child was definitely a good shot, aiming for arms and legs in a general sense. Incredibly lucky as well, seemingly not hitting anything too critical that would result in rapid bleeding out. At the same time, she seemed to be treating the whole thing as a game. Paintball with pistol rounds on her part and anti-brute rounds on the part of the group she'd decided to go after. That her pistol rounds were causing them a lot more harm than everything they had were causing her was unfortunately expected after finding out that children in the kingdom could tank multi-kiloton nuclear explosions.
Bullets just weren't a threat at that level of protection, no matter if Rainbow was actually a child or not.
Seeing the girl go from 'playing' to 'confused' when her first successful torso shot caused significant pain and bleeding was a little weird though. It didn't take long to find out that the kingdom had everyone cast brain and torso protections, which was probably why she'd been targeting limbs. Disabling someone temporarily through taking out an arm or a leg compared to doing little to nothing when you hit them in the torso or head.
He could've done without the little lecture on the difference between toys and weapons across societies, given that he was on the side that was essentially being mocked by having their weapons be treated as toys.
Diana Corey - October 29, 2011
Diana had shown up to the haunted school to humor her cousin. The little brat had promised that he'd 'scare her good', and two groups in had merely gotten her to giggle. Good planning, horrible execution, though admittedly it might just come from years of knowing how he tended to try to jump-scare people. Well, that and recognizing a couple of items from her uncle's house as she passed through the sheets acting like a curtain between the areas and thus knowing to look out for him.
She'd been expecting the route to primarily be down the hallway instead of venturing into classrooms, but coming up on one of the sets of fire doors had the path turn. The classroom door had been rigged to look like an old store, and she pushed into the best-looking area she'd seen yet. It was almost like she'd actually stepped into an old antique store. Well-done displays on the shelves, a couple of kids behind the counter instead of in a position to jump-scare her, and likely a couple more hiding.
Looking around carefully, she listened as the kids warned her not to touch anything. She had a sudden feeling that something was horribly wrong, like she was being watched, but had no clue why. It didn't even feel like 'someone is hiding' watched, but more like when she caught creeps trying to peep on her. Just without the 'creeps' side of things. She stopped at one display, leaning in to look at a small troll-like doll that looked somewhat familiar, only for the entire group of them to light up and moan.
She'd half-screamed at that, jumping back, even as several other displays suddenly burst into motion. A few things took to the air and started circling, music boxes started playing broken tunes without anyone touching them, and she swore the dolls on one display were staring right at her. But focusing on them as she moved showed that they were stationary, so it was likely just pure chance that she'd jumped into the point they'd been focused on.
Attempting to move into the next area, through a flimsy gauze in the doorway, failed. The 'flimsy gauze' had gone from fluttering to rock solid, and she backed away in surprise. A moment later a hand grabbed her, causing her to fully scream as she tried to shake off the far too pale hand that had latched onto her from a coffin...at least until she realized that it was Doll.
The cloaked figure in a rocking chair suddenly had the staff they were holding light up with a blood-red scythe blade, revealing Kid Win's face in eerie lighting and Clockblocker in a black version of his normal outfit stepped out from behind a display to pull the gauze aside for her.
...were heroes supposed to scare people that badly?
Midget Crowbel - October 30, 0076
"I don't know which is worse," Midget said as she looked over things. "That we've got another kingdom world in the middle of administered space due to one of the unadministered worlds joining up or seeing one of the most powerful fleets in administered space defeated by a civilian vessel that wasn't even trying."
"At least the latter didn't trigger an outright war," Leone noted.
"Which is the only reason I'm unsure which of the two is worse."
"True. I think the continued dismissal of our ability to so much as inconvenience the kingdom is probably more concerning."
"Perhaps we should call the new kingdom world the bigger problem," Largo commented. "And save the 'we have no hope of harming them' whining for after this 'demonstration' they've arranged."
Midget flinched at that reminder. "That...might be wise, yes. Finding out how much more punishment their cities can take, after seeing that their civilian-grade vessels are themselves essentially untouchable and knowing that they can ignore the Arc-en-ciel? If not for their healing devices I'd probably be drinking away years of my remaining life."
"We already know that they consider small weapons of mass destruction as mere footnotes. Attempted terrorist bombings treated as though the perpetrator was merely littering because they used something so weak that the automated systems apparently treated it as a prank."
Leone snorted. "Justified by their children having access to spells that render the things as essentially harmless. We're lucky that they're willing to share their defensive spells more widely, and even the Church is pushing to start adopting some of their combat gym rules. Convincing the tournament organizers and lawmakers alike to allow internal devices and augmentation units is likely to be an uphill battle though."
That had Midget sighing. "Carim brought some of that up, yes. The inability to so much as arrange a match between the two systems because both sides have major problems with the other's rules is unfortunate. That the kingdom's objections are all safety-related and worded to make it sound like we're letting kids run around prepared to cripple each other doesn't help."
"By their standards that's exactly what we're doing."
"Which is the only reason it doesn't come across as mocking."
"She has a point," Largo pointed out.
Amalia - October 30, 0076
Amalia hadn't expected a call today, given that her husband had foolishly run off with most of the fleet before he could be told to stop the foolish attempt to 'bring the kingdom to heel'. That he'd taken Roza with him was more annoying in several ways.
"Well hello there little one," Amalia greeted her daughter, suppressing a frown at the unfamiliar appearance of the background. "Does your father know that you've decided to call while he's told everyone not to?"
"Hi mommy!" Roza greeted "Daddy lost."
"Already?"
"Uh-huh. Robin says that the video should be available to everyone soon."
"Robin?"
"The nice man who daddy gave me to."
And that was, unfortunately, why Roza had been brought along. As confident as her husband was, he was also traditional, and not bringing their only daughter along to pass to the enemy to raise would have been unthinkable. The worst part was that Amalia had been raised with the same basic values, with her primary complaint being that the foolish man had gone out to attack a group he had no hope of defeating. "I see. Would you ask him to call me at some point?"
"Give me a minute," a male voice called from off-screen. A moment later he sat down next to Roza, and a younger girl climbed up into his lap. "Sorry about this, ma'am, but your husband was an idiot. Your planet's leadership opted to suppress the video until they could take him into custody, which is why you likely haven't seen it yet."
"At least you seem to have a better head on your shoulders than he does. I assume you're Robin?"
"Yep. And this little one is Linza. Picked her up from a village I saved recently. Her brother insisted."
Which probably meant that the girl's parents were already dead. "No children of your own?"
"Not yet. Haven't even attempted to find someone to settle down with. Instead I'm getting all the responsibility of being a parent without any of the fun. Still, I wanted to make sure that you and Roza knew you could call each other at any time, though she's a bit unhappy with her father."
"I can understand why." Definitely following the traditions. Allowing regular and free proof that Roza was being raised properly and ensuring that she didn't necessarily forget her parents and home planet, though forgetting her father might be a thing with how long he was likely to be kept in prison. That said, the young man didn't look fully comfortable with things for some reason? It wasn't like they were important enough or had been enough of a threat to hand Roza off to Queen Minerva herself.
"Once we've resupplied and gotten Roza here set up properly we can swing by for a quick visit, if you'd like? Not sure why my protocol droid insists that I can't just bring her home to you though."
...that sounded like her husband had been so ineffective as a threat that the young man was only humoring the ancient traditions on a technicality instead of feeling that they were even remotely justified. No wonder he looked uncomfortable with things, and he probably hadn't been fully briefed on the insult it would be to return Roza for anything other than a short visit before she was an adult herself.
Biting back her initial reaction, she considered that perhaps the young man was just out of his depth. He probably never expected to be in this kind of situation and thus hadn't fully understood the implications of the offer, but she had taught Roza and could explain things well enough. And hopefully put him more at ease about the situation at the same time.
SPECIAL: Kingdom Defense Demonstration
"Hello and welcome to a special broadcast from Please Ignore the Secret News," Iris greeted as the news station logo faded. She and Siri were sitting on either side of Minerva.
"Today we've got a demonstration intended to answer questions from new members of the kingdom," Siri continued. "But to introduce things, Queen Minerva is here with us."
"Good evening," Minerva said from between the two. "It took a few days to set up, but a demonstration of just how much it takes to damage a kingdom city seemed prudent. We might even learn something that the simulations were wrong about in the process, which is part of why we're doing this live with observers instead of just in simulation. Those that asked the questions have already gotten a bonus credit payment for inspiring the demonstration, of course, and if we learn anything unexpected there may be another payment sent out."
"How many people asked?" Iris questioned.
"A couple dozen in total, most of them children."
"Is there anything else that our viewers should know before the demonstration begins?" Siri asked.
"Because this was both set up on short notice and is only a demonstration, we can't actually demonstrate aspects realistically. For example, detection is hard to demonstrate when you're setting up the demonstration and we're going to be letting things 'slip through' defenses when they normally wouldn't have any hope of doing so for the purposes of showing what would happen if someone did find a way to manage it. Most of what you're about to see is unlikely to ever happen for real. After the main demonstration you'll also get to see an example of another threat accidentally discovered while examining a threat elsewhere."
Both gynoids nodded, and the screen faded out to show a planet. "This is one of the kingdom's new planets," Iris explained. "Not yet inhabited, so if something does go wrong then nobody will be harmed."
The view zoomed out to show the star system, and the border defense build-out on a moon further out, as Siri continued. "You can see the local border defense post nearby, though not the near-dimension installations that are also present. Notably, this is a worst-case timing scenario where the border defense post is on the far side of the system's star from the planet. You can also see the Bureau observation vessels off to the sides."
Things then shifted to a map where the star system was a mere labeled point, and several additional dots appeared very far out. Three were labeled as 'attack points' and one was labeled as 'attack fleet'. "These are the origins of today's demonstration attacks. Well within the planetary sensor range, and well within the kingdom's sensor net. You'd need to be much further out to manage to set up an attack unnoticed, but the kingdom can't demonstrate that while setting up the attacks itself."
"Normally a Blueberry would likely be sent out to 'discourage' this kind of thing, but we're going to pretend that our hypothetical enemy has managed to get the drop on the systems while all available ships are elsewhere."
One of the 'attack point' dots was 'zoomed in' on, to reveal a launching system with multiple asteroids lined up. "Each of these attack points has three to five asteroids set up to be fired. The 'attack fleet' is a modified Blueberry, custom-built to not have any of the normal access methods for the kingdom and with only Queen Minerva's personal access codes remaining. It will be treated as a suborned vessel."
The launching system suddenly activated, sending an asteroid at high speed. A split in the screen showed the border defense world suddenly deploying drones, which teleported into the path of the asteroid. "And the second line of defense, if early detection fails, is the border defense drones. An incoming threat was detected, and they've deployed."
A second later the extremely fast asteroid slammed into the line of drones, barely making them flinch. At the same time, a second wave of drones was setting up nearby, intercepting a second asteroid. That one didn't just get obliterated on impact, but exploded due to an embedded explosive. Several drones were damaged this time, but nothing so much as approached the planet itself and the debris were quickly being cleaned up even as drones moved to intercept a third asteroid.
"Should an attack like this get through it still has to contend with the planetary shields," Iris explained as the third asteroid was intercepted. A fourth seemed to slip right past though, coming in from an odd angle and hitting the planet directly. But instead of causing damage it just exploded well above the surface, a bubble flickering into existence as a shockwave of energy passed over its surface. Two more asteroids struck, one obviously with explosives in it, and caused no obvious damage before more drones appeared to clean up the debris.
"If things are serious enough then there are other options," Siri continued, and the next asteroid was met by drones from the planet's spires instead of from the border defense planet. "Such as planetary defense drones."
Another asteroid was hit by a beam of energy from one of the spires, obliterating it before it could reach the planet. "And the planetary defense weaponry. Some of you may recognize this as a scaled-up version of what Expanse used against Crawler."
"Or a scaled-down version of what an Apple recently used against a moon."
"That too. There's also the option of deciding that it's easier to just shunt things elsewhere."
A tear in space opened to 'accept' the next asteroid, and then a pair opened up to take another and send it back the way it originally came. "Either by sending them to another dimension where they can impact an uninhabited star system or by redirecting them back the way they came."
Next the 'suborned' Blueberry, with yellow markings to differentiate it from others like it, appeared. Border defense drones started engaging it, and it deployed its own drones. "Normally anyone getting this close would be subject to attempts to shut down their systems. We can't really show that though, because the kingdom's systems aren't quite that easily shut down."
"But getting this close means that automatic evacuation protocols would also kick in, pulling the population of the planet away until the situation was resolved."
The Blueberry took a number of hits that lesser vessels would've been obliterated by, including shunting an attack from the planetary spires away. It even tanked another explosive-rigged asteroid being redirected into it. Several attacks from it were themselves intercepted or shunted away as well.
"Now the planetary shields are going to be turned off so that we can see what happens if you do manage to get past all the defenses," Iris said, and there was a noticeable flash as the shields disengaged.
"First we'll see what asteroids do in this situation," Siri said as three struck a city on the surface in rapid succession. One shattered upon striking a building, another obliterated a park, and the third struck and shattered against one of the planetary shield spires.
"As you can see, very little, though that park is going to need to be rebuilt. But perhaps something more explosive?"
Three more asteroids, these ones rigged to explode, struck the same city. They hit almost exactly the same spots, and caused minor damage to the building. The park was much more significantly destroyed, with underground infrastructure exposed, but the shield spire being hit caused more damage to nearby 'outdoor areas' than to the spire itself. Then the Blueberry deployed bombs that were labeled as being different grades of explosive to hit another city. Normal, nuclear, antimatter, and magic-enhanced bombs rained down on the city, with only the most powerful doing any significant damage at all.
Next up the Blueberry fired a beam into the heart of the city, obliterating all of the outdoor areas over a wide area but leaving the buildings alone.
"That was what the Bureau refers to as the Arc-en-ciel," Siri explained. "Quite dangerous to anyone caught outside, but not to anyone who had managed to get indoors."
"Unfortunately for this city," Iris continued. "The Blueberry isn't limited to the Bureau's version."
A remarkably similar beam struck the city a moment later, tearing apart the buildings and infrastructure this time. Even the shield spire was severely damaged, and it only appeared to be on the edge of the effect. "Some of the kingdom's weapons are only really able to be handled by ensuring that they don't hit at all."
Drones suddenly teleported in and started to rebuild the devastated area. "But remember that by this point full evacuation would've occurred, and the kingdom is very good at rebuilding."
Within a couple of minutes it looked like there hadn't been any damage at all, and then the view shifted to show the planetary shields coming back online. "Now, without the defenses being turned off things would've gone quite differently."
The Blueberry charged up the attack again, only to have it be redirected back at it with portals. But it countered with a redirection of its own. Thirty-eight redirection cycles later the Blueberry lost the calculation war and was struck by its own beam, severely damaging it. Drones from the planet and border defense post swarmed into the vessel through the damaged area and started dismantling it from the inside.
"It would take quite a bit to even get into range of the system," Iris said as the Blueberry disintegrated in real time. "And quite a bit more to get past all of the in-system defenses."
Once the Blueberry was gone the scene faded out, only to suddenly snap in on a group of asteroids. Siri waited a moment before continuing. "But we're not done yet. Here you can see four large asteroids, and several more Bureau observation vessels."
"This is in the asteroid belt a good distance away from an administered world, to make it easier for the Bureau to examine the after-effects."
"Indeed it is. Each of those asteroids has a small explosive device, no larger than the forearm of your average teenager. But don't discount them because they're small."
"These exploit an effect that interacts...poorly with mana being around, turning a controllable process into a runaway one that requires a lot more effort to stop."
"The kingdom has figured out how to isolate and stop the process, but the easiest way to contain it is to just provide limited 'fuel' for it."
A moment later four small bursts of light appeared on the four asteroids, and a wave of color changed each of them. One appeared to be turning into liquid water, another into a coal-like substance, and a third into what was labeled as silica. The fourth, however, appeared to be very black.
"Siri," Iris said, sounding concerned. "I'm hoping that there's a mistake in the sensor readings we're being fed."
"I don't think that's possible," Siri replied.
"A mistake, or what they're showing?"
"Both, but I have no clue how that asteroid was converted into a single interconnected group of nitrogen atoms without having already exploded."
"...maybe the universe itself is afraid to acknowledge that it's there? Because even thinking about it should be enough to make it explode, and I'm nervous observing it from the distance we're currently sitting at."
It would be another twenty minutes before the universe seemed to realize that the impossible mass of nitrogen existed, during which the observing vessels had turned around and started running. The resulting explosion was quite impressive as well.
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Archeo Lumiere
The Prince's Archivist
- Location
- Lumiose City, Kalos
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
The difference is that Religions respect the choices of their members and others, while cults intentionally don't.
Yeah... Catholicism is a mixed bag there.
AnubisUzumaki
(Not a God)(Not an Uzumaki)
- Location
- Kentucky
How hard would it be to create a translation matrix that allows someone to understand the geese or other animal based constructs/automatons without making then sound like they're talking english or another human/sentient language and keeping the honks and other goose sounds?
Like how R2D2's whistles and beeps are understood in Star Wars.
Like how R2D2's whistles and beeps are understood in Star Wars.
bobnik
Memetic Warfare Specialist.
"NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE!"
So... Are a bunch of people now going to be asking the Secret Kingdom about impossible chemistry?
YuffieK
(Verified Ninja Princess)
In case you're wondering, Octaazacubane - N8 (Innate) has a theoretical energy density 5 times that of TNT.
A whole mountain's worth of nitrogen as a single molecular mass though?
Even Taylor Varga would be scratching their head at that. Until they tasted it and found it pleasantly spicy.
- Location
- California, USA
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I was wondering exactly how you would determine a single asteroid size homonuclear nitrogen molecule was in fact a gigantic homonuclear nitrogen molecule without destabilizing it (because even bouncing a neutrino off of that should set it off) and I realized that the only answer was magic. It's entirely possible that the magic they were using to scan the asteroid molecule was in fact keeping it stable and by running away from it, the magic weakened so that it destabilized and exploded.
XiaoYueMao
小月猫《🌙🐈》
- Pronouns
- She/Her/It
only question now is.... did Taylor actually expect this? or nah? cuz if nah she may have just gotten the observers killed unless she teleported them all away beforehand
- Location
- Livin' in the Land of the LOST! *roar*
You know, it's nasty - very nasty. It's a big bomb, certainly. Lots and lots of tons. But ultimately - it's just a chemical reaction. Unless the shockwaves on the inside happen to be powerful enough to cause nitrogen fusion - but I really doubt that. Might be worth asking Randall Munroe, though...
Erit of Eastcris
Professional Occupational Hazard
- Pronouns
- Yes/No
... Azidoazide eat your heart out, I guess?
- Location
- United States of America
I fail to see how you can reasonably single out Catholicism in this context, as compared to... Mormonism, Hinduism, Fundamentalist/Radical/non-casual Islam, or Jehova's Witness.
For reference, if you're going to bring up "shunning" that hasn't been a thing since 1983. I'm serious, we made a ruling about it and everything.
Erit of Eastcris
Professional Occupational Hazard
- Pronouns
- Yes/No
Dunking on Catholicism as the best-known facet of Christendom is the "cool" thing to do, these days.
- Location
- United States of America
I can't see it as any worse than some of what has already been tested. It seems big, but likely isn't really. It depends on well scale. O.k. it's only big due to actual raw size/mass of the astroid. Why is anyone pretending its dangerous though? All the ships could just slip into the dimensional sea and be utterly safe. I'm assuming that the news staff are watching remotely and no one is actually in the system except observation systems.
About the only two types of weapons left are turning all of the star's output into a beam and aiming it at the planet or making the star go nova and see if your test planet/city survives.
I'm not sure if their shields could survive a lensmen style sun beam. They'd either just be far too much or wouldn't do anything for reasons. Likely getting shunted elsewhere.
If they had estimates of how powerful a nova was, I could see the planetary shield holding through it.
Their automatic evac protocols would have to teleport everyone or you'd have stubborn folks that would insist on not leaving their spot. That'd actually be made worse with as impressive as their shielding is though.
Taylor may be annoyed when people sign up to be in the city through the next round of tests though.
Archeo Lumiere
The Prince's Archivist
- Location
- Lumiose City, Kalos
- Pronouns
- He/Him/They/Them
I say it's a mixed bag because not all Catholic churches are bad, but there are definitely some that are, and I did misspeak; I meant Christianity in the prior post, broad, but not universally judgemental, I always flip the order of broadness on those two. Most of the things you've listed are things I'd unilaterally consider cults. Hinduism falls under the same mixed bag umbrella I gave Christianity, and the same goes for non-casual Muslim peoples, but not for radical or fundamental Muslims. If the faith respects the autonomy of their members and others, it's a Religion. If there is persecution, programming, or systemic bigotry, it's a Cult. That's my line in the sand.
- Location
- <CLASSIFIED>
Shortly after that they would complain that it gives them gas...
Hexcalibur
Not So Ordinary Sword
- Location
- Somewhere
- Pronouns
- It
They didn't even get to erasing a planet from existence.
- Location
- The City of Tears, Hallownest
- Pronouns
- He/Him
That's, not really the case. Religions pretty much always proscribe massive controls to their followers. While some (even many) members of said religions will behave much more kindly than dictated by the sacred texts, I would argue that no "religion" respects the choices of it's members, especially the big three (remember kids, knowing right from wrong is so evil that Yaweh had to murder his adopted son in order to forgive people for it.)
- Location
- Russia
Which directly leads to the idea that the only difference between a Religion and a Cult is that the former has learned to hide all the Culty bits. The same way that the vast majority of adults have just learned how to keep the child hidden.
Not every Christian faith goes this way, but mine goes with the idea that Adam was given three commandments. First, multiply and replenish the earth. Second, cleave unto your wife. Third, do not eat of the tree of knowledge. And until he knew good or evil, he couldn't do the first(aka breaking the third), and once Eve ate from the tree, he could only follow the second by breaking the third. I personally see the tree of knowledge bit being a symbol that they were ready to take on the world, before that, they couldn't even if they thought themselves ready, and after that they HAD NO CHOICE BUT TO whether they were ready or not. Also that as Adam didn't KNOW good or evil, he wasn't actually capable of sinning, he didn't understand enough, I've heard secular arguments that this can be looked at as the cost of sapience, now that we can think to the future, we must prepare and can't live in the moment.
But, no religion should be forcing you to stay in it if you don't like it, though some do have difficulty in getting your name out of their records as a member, you're not forced to follow their precepts.