(I'd asked out of curiosity and been told that the list of valid dimensional addresses we were exploring represented around 5% of the actual dimensions in range - but that the remaining 95% were varying degrees of instantly lethal)
Hm... Yeah, that seems 'bout accurate to what you would expect.
bottom of a lake in space
So... A comet? Or an actual planet? Because there is a Real World planet with an ocean so deep that its pressure creates Ice 14. That is a type of ice that explodes at Sea Level and is actually toxic to Humans. Jupiter has an Atmosphere so thick that it causes Noble Gases to become Noble Solids. There is a planet made out of diamond, it rains diamonds on Neptune, and there is a planet that rains molten glass sideways.
Real Life planets looks like Hellscapes and Earth is down right cuddly in comparison to something like Venus which use to actually be exactly the same as Earth before it experienced runaway Climate Change and became a literal Fire and Brimstone Hell with exploding acid rain. The surface of Mars' surface not only is made of toxic particles but there are constant dust storms that can last from hours to years and and the Magnetosphere is so weak you would fry and suffucate on the surface from a too thin Atmosphere and Solar Radiation. These are our closest neighbors in the galactic fjord we call home and Earth so far is going to be the only place Humans can survive without experiencing one of a nearly endless list of violent deaths till technology can be made to deal with this or Genetic Modification can make Humans into the Ultimate Lifeform. It doesn't help that the Sol System (our home) is smack dab in the middle of a Dead Zone in this arm of the Galaxy making it more harder to get to another System.
Just imagine what is out there, you think the Death Apple and Suicide Plant are bad? Try for a planet where any Evolution not leading to a defense like those is considered truly bizarre!
TL;DR:
Taylor's concerns are Hilariously mundane in comparison to what already Exists in the Real World. She is lucky she has a Barrier Jacket.
try and apply my half-forgotten wilderness survival knowledge to space plants.
Yeah... don't do that, different Universes mean different Physics as well as different Evolutionary Pathways. What may be Deadly Nightshade in one dimension may be a Potato in another*
*that was a Horticology Joke. Potatoes are in the Nightshade Family and produce fruit that is toxic, what we eat is the root system not the fruit. But seriously something with pocadots might be deadly poison in one universe and in its neighbor universe the exact same appearance might just mean indigestion from a plant Evolved to Reproduce via having its seeds defecated out and Humans not being able to properly process that (there are Real World plants that do that btw, if i remember correct Mistletoe does that and its Name literally means "Shitstick" for it being seen growing out of excrement).
emergency rations whose edibility I had decided could no longer be trusted. (But then, some of the vets on my dad's payroll would joke, that was true of military rations all the time...)
Emergency Rations are for emergencies not to sustain you. You can eat them but they aren't suppose to be a Food Source to start with. Luckily we have Real World Soylent Green made of Soylent Powder that is slightly better tasting, more filling, and just needs water to be usable. So maybe a super advanced Civilization using Magitek has this so the rations not only don't taste like sh!t but, since a postage tube of the stuff in the Real World is suppose to be a week worth of energy, it provides more for less? Heard the Real World stuff just tastes bland but otherwise okay. Last I checked they were also working on adding Flavors so it would be less bland.
All problems for Future Taylor. She's a smart girl. She can figure this out.
Okay, Opal Koboi, fighting your future self is always a Bad Idea especially when you have technology that can screw with Space/Time.
Nowhere left to go but up, right?
=.=
There is always further down you can fall.
[MURPHY INTENSIFIES]
"YA SED WUT M8?!"
It shouldn't be all asphalt streets and concrete buildings
Why not? What is actually stopping aliens from doing something similar to Humans? Also physically you are the alien here, you aren't even from this Universe. Are the natives Human by chance and you were just jumping across the same space in the Dimensional Sea?
Even the landscaping planters were all in unassuming shades of green.
That tells me quite a bit about this planet including a vague Idea on that Atmospheric Content and if the Atmosphere is breathable. The answer is "Meh?" (better then "Deadly Poison" "Death" "Suffer" and "Fuck You"). The Carboniferous was the Era of Plants and the Atmosphere wasn't particularly safe for Hummies but it was how Earth use to be and is how Chlorophyll (the green of leaves), Cellulose (wood), and Coal (fallen trees had too much Carbon to properly rot) came to be. The green also means the star is an Orange type and the Atmosphere has a high Carbon and Oxygen mixture with other Gases. Which is higher determines the threat as well as how high the other Gases are in comparison to both. Oxygen only is 21% of Earth Atmosphere and Humans can Suffer O2 Poisoning. Carbon Dioxide is obvious. Nitrogen is necessary to balance these out but too high can also be poisonous to Humans. Other Gases are necessary for all of these to work. Is the Sky a shade of Blue and what color is the Water? This will help determine Atmospheric Content by determining the Light Retraction off both the Gases and the Oceans. Unfortunately unless Mari can do an Atmospheric Scan (and I don't see why not) there is no way for you to be 100% on this.
Alternatively skip all these and see if the natives are Human then you can just ignore everything.
The normalcy of it all was slightly depressing.
Tch, Tourists, always wanting to see flashy flying cars and space guns as if aliens would have anything much different then what Hummies have. Just because they ain't Human dun mean they gotta do things more impractical then Humans!
"There's a ton of mana signals bouncing around." Mariposa informed me, and I chose to take that as good news. "Definite established network. Wherever we are, it's certainly not a low magic world. Problem is... none of these protocols make any sense, and I don't recognize the language on top of that."
ಠ_ಠ
That doesn't help at all. Saying they have Magic is like saying they have Electricity. Just as Electricity is a Universal Constant in the Real World necessary for a Species to Advance their Civilization; Magic is an Interdimensional Constant necessary to Advance their Civilization.
but if they did that, we're probably thoroughly screwed anyway!"
There is always further down you can fall.
The voice of an older man interrupted my thoughts. "Excuse me, young miss!"
BY THE INFINITE HELLS HE CAN SPEAK FKING ENGLISH?! IS THIS THE DOCTOR?!
Okay I am going to have to do it:
(She doesn't need to be in my brain for that? Damn.)
While mind reading isn't actually a part of the TeleCom I do have to wonder if Taylor is holding off on the flipping out over the Telepathy since her home was the one with the Mindrape Machine.
"It's awfully late for a girl to be out on the street with nothing but her familiar for company. Would you mind coming with me? Don't worry. I'm with the police, see?"
Familiar... I am not uh, well, familiar enough with MGLN to know if that is what they call Unison Devices that latched onto people. I assume it isn't from what I do know. So this is a Setting with Magic and it is publically known enough to have something about Familiars so possible one of those Worlds with a system that allows for Bonds and Pacts. The Golden Compass? I know Familiars are a thing there and they are suppose to be the other half of a person's soul with Magitek that is capable of tearing a person's soul in half to separate them from their Familiar but being the equivalent of Lobotmization. Probably a Custom World and not a Pre-existing one.
Hope they have comfortable beds in space jail.
there is absolutely no reason to put you in a cell. I suppose they could put you in the Drunk Tank if you need a place to sleep since that is what it is for. Of course that is only if it is empty. Although I don't see why they wouldn't have a couch or a bed somewhere.
"Rather that than the option that she was dumped here." He suppressed a wince at that. It was true that evidence of being dimensionally transferred wasn't evidence that the transfer was done voluntarily even if it looked like it had been done under one's own power, but...
Pretty sure it isn't but I can't help but get the feeling this is a Reference to all the Contessa induced Crossovers.
Nicolaou's response was interrupted by the distinctive old world 'rustling papers' noise he'd chosen for his search completed sound effect
CLIPPY?! PRAISE CLIPPY THE IMMORTAL HELP ENGINE!
There was an actual bookcase off to one side of the door. Hardback tomes in the language I refused to give any indication I wasn't capable of reading lined the top shelf, and beneath those, a collection of what appeared to be puzzles in a variety of styles. Someone had shoved a toy box into the space below the shelves - I didn't need to look in the box to guess that it was full of toys meant for children much younger than me, and I briefly wondered if I should've taken offense to the fact that nobody had bothered to remove it from my cell before I got here.
I have the feeling this is less a cell and more a Waiting Room.
Upon inspection, the basket revealed a set of towels and another space tracksuit (this one in hunter green - weren't they supposed to be orange?) for me to change into instead of real clothes. Curiously passive-aggressive of them, although I suppose if I was designing a prison and I had teleporters, I'd also want to use teleporting item delivery to minimize guard exposure to the prisoners.
Why does she continue to think she is a prisoner? No where did they say she was and no where was there implied she was. Given they are still Police it is far more likely (and they are) looking to see if someone is looking for her. Since when do people get arbitrarily arrested for just being lost?
Let's see a truancy officer follow me to Earth Aleph, or to whatever this planet's called. Ha!
Suddenly the Association of Interdimensional Truancy smells a child taunting them, teleports into the room menacingly, and drags her off the Winslow to never be seen again.
<Let's see if they feed us first.>
As long as the Budget isn't tight I don't see why not.
"You know, I get the feeling that we're not trusted."
I doubt it is mistrust and more so there is less to clean. It isn't like you have room to talk, you still seem to be obsessing over the Idea that you are a prisoner.
fuse with the being that almost certainly was not in fact her familiar and then teleport the both of them offworld, tearing through the barriers meant to stop such an action with the same mechanical efficiency that she had shown in every other action she'd taken since he'd encountered her yesterday.
I get the feeling that there is significant Bleed Over from Mari and that this Civilization hasn't Advanced as far as Intelligent or Unison Devices let alone Dimensional Transference.
Didn't bother with any of the toys, puzzles, books or games that were available. Hadn't asked for anything - hadn't bothered attempting to interact with anybody at all, actually, which was quite troubling. If he'd hadn't known better and she'd hadn't made that single blatantly obvious attempt at playing down her own hunger (before proceeding to set a station record for the speed at which she worked through what very well might have been the first meal she'd had in days), it wouldn't have been unreasonable to assume the girl was mute.
Okay that is a lot of Bleed Over, it sounds like she just sat in one spot for Hours before falling asleep.
"So much for Transference Interdiction..." He muttered to himself as his Device helpfully pulled up a second window for an incoming call from Officer Makris.
Maybe they (somehow) just don't know what a Unison Device is?
and we found a place to stay that didn't involve getting picked up by space cops,
And where would that be, eh? The safest place is a Police Station.
(measured in units of distance that English didn't have a better word than 'dimensions' for)
If DeathBattle has taught me anything it is that if a Unit doesn't Exist then you can freely make one up as long as it equate to something.
You can measure distance in Universes if you want but that is unfortunately Subjective due to Universal Expansion. Then again the only truly Universal Distance Measure is Lightyears and even that is a Distance Measure wholely dependant on Earth Time Frames in Reference to the Context of a "Year" to how far Light travels within that Time. There is a Universal Time Measure in Existence though that is dependant on and Atom. I think it was Cesium. I only know that because there is an Interstellar Time Capsule Message thing that has it written on the Golden Record whose only reason for being there is to asist in Deciphering the rest using the Universal Language (ie: Math. One and two are always 1 and 2 no matter what Language it is or Symbol is used, it is a Conceptual necessity for Reality itself to Function) as well as the rest of the Record. The Temporal Measure is meant to Decipher the Coordinates of Earth in Reference to Locked Points of the Universe the the Orbit of Earth.
Although a Dimension is not a Unit of Distance, it is a direction of Movement. We are Three Dimensional meaning we can move through three different directions and any mixtures thereof. The Universe we occupy is, of course, Four Dimensional due to it having Time/Expansion as a part of it which in turn governs everything within. Just as a stick figure exists within a Three Dimensinal Space but is itself Two Dimensional.
"And, walk!" Ah, the blessed cue to stop sprinting for a minute. I made the conscious decision not to look at the progress tracker. I didn't want to depress myself with the knowledge of how much cardio I still had to get through.
Just remember:
100 Sit Ups
100 Push Ups
And a 50 Kilometre run everyday
And you too will be able to Punch Out Planets.
'Nowhere left to go but up' was going to be something of a mantra for me in these early days.
There is always further down you can fall.
. I could already tell that I'd be consoling myself with what I could only hope would be a steady upward trend and the security of the knowledge that I was not going to accidentally back myself into a fight with an endlessly regenerating rage dragon or a mass of metal and racism pressed into the shape of a wolf any time soon.
:
I ...yep! Totally! That would...uh... Never happen.
I was probably now wanted for breaking myself out of space juvie,
I highly doubt a Juvenile Detention Facility would be inside a Police Station nor would you be randomly arrested and sent there like this was a Video Game.
I didn't even have a good reason for officially becoming a space criminal.
No, you really don't, wanna know why? Because you aren't one. Escaping Custody isn't, itself, a Crime unless you are Suspected of having done one. Given you weren't even arrested to begin with you were technically free to go from the start. That is what the Maranda Rights are for, so it is made pretty clear you are under arrest. there is nothing saying they have to say them though. It does raise questions about why you fled but given your being alone it can be guessed.
Honestly it sounds like she either has a Persecution Complex or an unhealthy obsession with being arrested.
Wow. It took you this long to ask that question? Where were you even planning to go? What were you planning to do once you get there?
my Brockton Bay upbringing shining through, but I had no doubt that I'd be able to misapply my street smarts to go find some petty thieves and muggers instead of avoiding them, and that small part of me that wanted to be a hero just like my idol Alexandria couldn't quite let go of the idea of taking spoils from an afternoon of vigilante work as the least bad course of action for getting myself money for food quickly
Ya'know this makes me think a Post-GM Taylor would work well with this concept.
-_-* this was amusing the first time but now it s tedious. She sounds like he Space Core.
I am pretty sure in a Setting where Aerial Combat using Doomlasers is the default there is some amount of attention to the air especially when wacky dressed weirdos show up.
I almost wanted to ask what had given me away but had decided against digging myself any deeper at that point.
Oh, i dunno, maybe because something like this is probably normal?
Once I could read again it was trivial to figure out what money looked like - the closest thing they had to paper currency were disposable cash cards, which was irritating but not all that much of a problem for me in the long run
Well, yeah, when you are dealing with Interstellar Civilizations it is kind of hard to make Currency actually usable let alone Intergalactic. Although why every planet is nothing but Hummies is beyond me. You would think there would be others with an Infinite Multiverse filled with a Googolplex of planets each.
