The Adventures Of Doctor Curlyhair, Girl Genius!
- Thread starter Nimodes
- Start date
- Crossover
- Location
- Neptune
No. They are merely using mythology OLDER than your pop-culture references.
Adamant - Wikipedia
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
Possible, but probably not. Most of the Celestial Forge seems to be using late-ish 20thC onwards stuff. And, yes, there's a reason I started with the 'like diamond' bit.No. They are merely using mythology OLDER than your pop-culture references.
Adamant - Wikipedia
en.wikipedia.org
I could have referenced (mythical) oricalcum, the rainbow-metal of Finnish mythology, 'thunderbolt iron', bog iron, various bits from alchemy, but it didn't seem 'on topic'. Weird materials have been story elements likely since homo saps (or relatives) started telling stories.
Me? I liked the Sampo. Though... the massive-scale luck effects were... unfortunate.
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
Might want to look at Rorschach's Blot fanfic on 'Mr Black' (who is Harry Potter on vacation), where things go hilariously right.
This is a bit of a summary, but you really need for read the ffn fics for real impact. The Pen might (I don't recall) appear in there - the reference to 'Mr Black' in the Perk is a bit of a hint. Make A Wish.
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- Location
- Auckland, NZ
That's already a thing. No fiction needed. And she is the best at it so, I doubt if there's anything to worry about.
Splattered Cloak
Recovering Line Editor
Those are some very suggestive Senator names. One wonders how they managed to get elected.
There is a Pact jump document, but none of its perks appear in the Celestial Forge v3. Nor do any appear in The Celestial Grimoire Second Edition, but there are several in The Darkest Tome.
grommile
nasty-minded old cynic
- Location
- NERV-Mercia
- Pronouns
- Traditional/Animate
There are constituencies where anyone can get elected as long as they are wearing the correct coloured rosette on the campaign trail (and the Lord God Almighty themself could not get elected if wearing the wrong coloured rosette).
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
DIY biology is a 'fun' subject, a branch of IRL biohacking. While people were messing with electronics, building, or modifying, their own computers about 50yrs ago, today...
The Newbear 77-68 1977 home computer may interest some - it was in some ways more sophisticated than the Apple II (also 1977). A lot shorter of software, though...
(All you need is a 24-line, 80-column monochrome text display? QWERTY keyboard? An audio cassette player for storage? BASIC Interpretter? Up to 48k RAM? Why would you need more?
)
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I foresee some Jurassic park nonsense going around Brockton soon enough...
Not bad, seeing a bit of the PRT peacefully dealing with Grammar Nazi, as well as seeing Dragon debut her new body, on a visit to Armsmaster
Also seeing some Senators dealing with several of their own, who wish to complicate things, when there is no need to do so
Aside from seeing Taylor, who practiced magic from the first HP movies, and her reaction when her parents "casually" give her the news of a new family member, so much shock and a bit of overdrive in thinking of ideas and inventions to take care of said new little brother/sister
That and seeing her experiment in creation and manipulation of materials to create the right tools to eventually, deal with Scion, although some of the legendary weapons she mentions (and Cap's shield for her father?), make me think of Fate (either Emiya, or Curlyhair meeting Da Vinci and comparing notes with him/her)
As for the Perks, if I understand, one lets her play Harry Potter, while the other, works with which lets her recreate and manipulate the genome, a la X-Men, but on a higher level
Good luck and keep it up
Also seeing some Senators dealing with several of their own, who wish to complicate things, when there is no need to do so
Aside from seeing Taylor, who practiced magic from the first HP movies, and her reaction when her parents "casually" give her the news of a new family member, so much shock and a bit of overdrive in thinking of ideas and inventions to take care of said new little brother/sister
That and seeing her experiment in creation and manipulation of materials to create the right tools to eventually, deal with Scion, although some of the legendary weapons she mentions (and Cap's shield for her father?), make me think of Fate (either Emiya, or Curlyhair meeting Da Vinci and comparing notes with him/her)
As for the Perks, if I understand, one lets her play Harry Potter, while the other, works with which lets her recreate and manipulate the genome, a la X-Men, but on a higher level
Good luck and keep it up
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Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
Much, much, worse than (just) Harry Potter. Lets her play... Mr. Black. 'Just a man on vacation.'
Scary!
(Why? Mr. Black could 'accidentally' Scion. That's the original one.)
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- Location
- Europe
I am not the only person in the world who remembers Jack L. Chalker. Nice.
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
'Rings of the Masters'... Not some of his better works. The 'Well World' stuff was arguably more interesting, and I've sometimes wondered whether the 'Flux & Anchor' (Soul Rider) works could fit in a fanfic or two... The 'Wonderland Gambit' series was quite fun... Yeah, a lot of it was R21 - didn't always help the story... YMMV.
BTW, where does 'Senator Warhawk' come from? Chalker? I'm blanking on that.
- Location
- Europe
Well World is fun, but rather tricksy to fanfic, but I think Flux & Anchor could be workshopped into a crossover with other SFnal verses.
Or Dr. Curlyhair could get hold of the flux technology.
I've read all of the Mr. Black stories multiple times over the years. I think Terminal Justice is my favorite. I still don't remember that pen though. I guess I'll have to go back and reread the original Make A Wish then.
Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
I don't actually recall the Pen from the Mr. Black stories, but it sounds like the sort of techno-magical 'James Bond'-ish gadget Harry kept being given.
Looking at the Perk, probably want to look at the Jump Document it originates from. That might be a collection of positive Harry Potter stories from which bits have been looted, or some-such? Dunno.
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Ace Dreamer
Verified Reality User
- Location
- Between The Unknown & The Known
"It's very simple. The Flux Generator draws in a mixture of energies from the Astral and Ethereal Planes, stabalises this with Deep Ethereal Matter, and releases this as a misty pseudo-gas. This fills an area, is breathable, and effectively makes the local reality, mostly non-living things, psycho-reactive.
Also, very simple pseudo-psionic devices can create food and water, electrical power seemingly from nowhere, stable (non-misty) areas with 'anchors' that are instant urban structures, with all utilities, and associated agricultural areas. Those areas have day-night cycles, seasons, useful weather, geology. Terraforming on the cheap.
Like I said. Simple!"
EDIT:
*long pause*
"Hmm. I'd not thought what would happen if you released this on, in, an area that already had a Terra-like environment. Or an alien ecosystem. What it would do to the ecosystem there. It's really designed to be used on somewhere with adequate gravity, though you could install gravity-control technology, which has little or no breathable atmosphere...
I'll... have to think about that..."
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26: To Build The Tools
New
Nimodes
Weary Worldwalker
- Location
- Arizona
* June 12, 2008 *
Her birthday. Just another day in some respects.
However she was now, officially, a teenager. Thirteen years old. Practically an adult.
Still unable to put in the hours at a hospital to qualify as a doctor despite how well she might score on any of the tests.
As an omni-disciplinary genius scientist, this was stopping her from doing many interesting things.
Even then, she'd be under the supervision of various doctors for anywhere between three to seven years to get her full medical doctorate. From what she'd overheard at the hospital it would leave little to no time for anything else during that period as residents were worked like a Japanese salaryman to exhaustion levels especially in a place like Brockton Bay.
Oh, she was getting time in at the hospital. Or at least one of her shadow clones was getting serious work time over there. Though not the dedicated time due to her age playing a role there.
It was a good thing she was up to having ten clones at a time by now, what with all the projects she had to have a hand in at any given point.
"Flight plan filed and approved," came Jarvis' voice over the intercom. "Transponders are active, running lights and safety equipment ready at your word, Doctor."
Her usual attending physician, the one who supervised her, and was quite aware that frequently it was a clone that allowed her to be in two places at the same time, was Doctor Phineas Lovegood. No relation to the Harry Potter fictional character.
It was good though, she was gaining experience without the 24hour workday emergency-to-emergency stress that an actual residency would entail.
It was really a good thing that she was now up to 10 Shadow Clones. Part of that was that every time she got a Perk that involved magic, whether it was called that or not, her chakra levels increased. It also increased her mana and any other pool of energy involving magical oomph.
"Roger, Jarvis," came her mother's voice over the channel. "All systems green."
However, it was her birthday, and so something good was on the schedule for today.
She stepped onto the platform, putting her feet on the appropriate sections, and let the servos secure her footing. She could fly on her own, of course, but being tested so that someone could prove that she still wasn't a parahuman was a hassle. Making it look like a device was doing the work was simple enough.
A glance to either side showed that her mother and father were ready. Her father, Danny Hebert, in his somewhat bulky power armor, was already a few inches above the ground. Her mother had the 1969 VW Beetle ready to go, having learned the controls and limitations of the vehicle after the flight systems had been added.
Taking off from the warehouse was done quickly, heading out the Bay at a low speed.
"Fishing boat 'Wandering Gal' sends well wishes and a remark about it being good weather for flying," said Annette after a few moments.
"That's Erwin's little boat, isn't it?" asked Taylor. "His new one?"
"That it is," answered Danny. "Ready to advance speed from 15mph as we clear the bay?"
Taylor checked. "Raising speed to 45mph, altitude from 100 feet to 1200 feet."
"Roger." "Aye."
"Beginning circle of city," said Danny a few moments later. "Mind the KBBC news chopper."
"It's considerably lower than us and not on our flight plan," answered Taylor.
They'd gone several blocks, flying over the traffic way below them, when something occurred to Annette. "What ever happened to your underwater base?"
"I was using it as a storage area," said Taylor. "Except I gave it to the Navy back at the beginning of the year. They've been using it for training purposes since then. That reminds me, I wanted to make one for the British now that Leviathan's turned off."
"That's good," agreed Annette. "Oh look, there's some sort of cape fight down there at Pieman Avenue."
"Heard they're getting that factory going soon," said Taylor. "Hope that doesn't push back the construction."
"Why would someone even attack a pie factory being built?" asked Danny as he piloted his power armor between the fight and his family. Just in case.
"Parahumans," said Taylor, sounding slightly exasperated.
The flight was largely silent after that, as it was just a leisurely jaunt with no particular purpose other than enjoying the view and a bit of downtime in their lives.
* Medhall *
Max Anders, who was not currently in his guise as Kaiser the Nazi supervillain and leader of the Empire 88, sipped at his very expensive whiskey and watched the three dots off in the distance. Were they looking for something? Checking out a new site to unleash some further changes in his city?
"We don't know the identity of the power armor, it's not one of the Space Marines. Armor's too slick-looking and doesn't have all the embellishments of that Warhammer stuff they wear." James Fliescher/Krieg lowered his binoculars. "Compact. Probably some sort of speed build. Considering it's some of HER work - might use short-range teleports."
"What do you think they're doing?" asked Max.
"Considering it's HER," said James. "It could be completely innocent, but I wouldn't bet on it."
Max nodded. That was the problem with 'Doctor Curlyhair' - she could be absolutely the little girl she appeared to be with interests you would expect of those demographics. Or she could be doing something so sneaky you wouldn't guess it was the case until she just unleashed her newest invention.
Or gave a friend of hers a dragon.
James shifted his attention to something more street-level and less inscrutable. "Looks like Hookwolf and the others are breaking off and the PRT is on scene."
"Good, we don't need any other villain groups trying to claim territory here. On that point at least, I can agree with everyone else." Max Anders took another sip of his whiskey before striding towards his desk and setting his drink down on a coaster. "Any other developments I need to know about?"
"One of the test subjects for the Type III Healing Capsule over in Idaho had an unusual reaction," said James, his voice conveying his disgust at the subject, which raised Max's curiosity a couple of notches.
"Oh?" asked Max. "Was it some kind of malfunction?"
James shuddered. "Not precisely. The individual had some mental issues and instead of simply fixing those, the device instead altered the body to fit the image."
"So someone went in as a skinny kid and came out looking like a weight lifter?" asked Max, as he had heard of that happening even if it wasn't something that should produce that sort of reaction from James. He was familiar enough with that outcome to understand some of the shortfalls.
"No, they patched that," admitted James. "Though demand for it to be restored is currently going through legal hurdles and challenges. No, this one was 'gender dysphoria.'"
"Oh," said Max. Well, that certainly explained Krieg's reaction. Honestly, he couldn't care less as long as there was still a market for his products. "It will probably turn out the way some of those 'perfect body' types did - they won't institute the dietary or exercise requirements to keep those bodies in that shape and the deterioration will begin. At which point Medhall has a number of supplements and treatments available to forestall the inevitable."
"Ah," said James with a brief nod. Someone had said something to the effect that every someone else's problem was something to exploit? He'd have to look up the exact quote.
"How's that going, anyway?" asked Max. "The anti-monopoly laws seem our best bet but the report from Legal was less than clear. Make a note, maybe we can get a translation program that speaks Obtuse Legalese to shift things to English."
"There are enough companies and special interests who protest the Healing Capsules that experimental and emergency use is likely to be the only use for them for the foreseeable future," said James with some satisfaction. "Another ten years just to check for long-term effects, possibly another twenty for all the lawsuits and fact-finding to clear."
* Saturday, August 9 2008 *
* Unknown Portal World *
Checking in on the various portal locations was something she left to her various clones most of the time. Experimenting with new portals or simply ones that went somewhere strange was best done by clone, behind airlocks and as many security measures as she could field. With great big destructive weapons pointed at the portal location just in case.
One of those was to a mountain cave high up and overlooking a wilderness that seemed to stretch on forever. Or close enough.
Flying drones went to the furthest reaches of their range and indicated a whole host of anomalies.
No radio traffic. No EM disturbances. A land with a day/night cycle but no visible sun. Gravity Earth-normal within a 0.0001 discrepancy. Weather patterns fairly normal but evocative of central Europe from what her long-term surveys had produced.
One particular thing, which had surprised and intrigued her when that clone had dispelled and the information became shared - was that there were creatures here straight out of myth and legend.
She hadn't made contact with any, other than the one drone which had gotten eaten and spat out immediately thereafter.
By a dragon. One considerably larger than Lucy's shoulder-dragon.
If she DID ever make contact, and they were friendly, Lucy was going to be quite enamored of those.
However, her attention was currently on Drone # 76A (76th unit produced, aerial sensor drone) and the pictures that had been relayed from it.
An extremely tall mountain with steep sides that looked as if it would collapse and fall over under normal weathering conditions was enough by itself to draw her attention. That it had a donut floating at its peak just added several layers of "what the heck" to her observations.
This was at the extreme range of her signal and of the magnification of that particular drone, so it wasn't as if she'd get more data out of that. Which would have more of her attention except for one limiting factor.
She wasn't allowed to go out past the cave opening herself, even by clone, because both parents had argued against it as too dangerous when dealing with other universes/continuum. Especially considering this wasn't even on the same universal strand as her home universe.
After a few minutes of trying to figure it out, Taylor decided to see if any of her gynoids or androids or robots would like to make a trip. That couldn't hurt, could it? And it would be technically within the parental restrictions placed on her, right?
Five minutes after Taylor left the cave, recalling the drone but leaving the monitoring equipment running and recording, a rather large head poked into the cave and examined things.
Not that she noticed as the Celestial Forge rolled something at that point that had... implications.
* Downtown *
* (Meanwhile, at Glu Gluten's Glue Factory) *
"Roof leaks, three of the internal doors are missing, that mystery stain over there is kind of worrisome, there are spiders effing everywhere, and I'm pretty sure nobody's been here since the mid-80s."
"You're right. It's perfect."
"Don't suppose you could make a maid robot or something to keep this place clean."
"Maybe after I finish making my automated stealth drone so we can start getting our ViewTube channel going."
"Put it on the list?"
"Yeah. As long as it isn't too close to anything else I've made, I might be able to swing it."
"Okay, I'll get some tools and supplies, there's a Home Depot about a block-and-a-half away."
"I'll try to finish the Snitch by tonight. This is going to be so cool!"
"So what game are we going to use for our premiere anyway? Pac-Man? Pizza Baron? Pong?"
"No, I've got a great idea!" (BOOM!)
"...was that dramatic thunder?"
"Accidently knocked over my Dramatic Thunder-ator. I'm turning it back off."
* Outlands *
A new neighbor, if one considered a distance of fifteen miles of craggy mountains nearby, and one who had a technological bent.
This was intriguing.
The portal device resembling a Stargate from the 90s TV series even more so.
That it was largely fake, but had a set of airlocks and some intriguing filtration devices meant she wasn't looking at some crossover plane. It might even be someone from her own world who had just come up with the technology and had taken advantage of her own crossing from plane to plane and somehow figured out the method and approached it from a technological instead of a magical mechanism.
Not that there were very many people that knew she had access to her lair or that it was in another dimension.
Very intriguing. Though if they were doing it to try and raid her hoard, she was going to be quite vexed with them.
A whirring noise, too faint to be heard by normal human ears, turned her attention to the Dial Home Device (DHD) for the Stargate and figure out where the camera was.
Smiling, showing her very large and impressive teeth, she waved at the camera before leaving the cave and transforming to her full size.
She paused for a moment and sniffed the cave entry again, her eyes momentarily going wide. "Mom?"
Oh. Now that DID intrigue her quite a bit. The scent was faint, clinging to a very nice jacket that was on a peg near the cave's mouth. It was a scent that clung to a few things in her house, but much stronger.
Yeah. She was going to have to investigate further.
* Perks This Chapter *
31.12.1-Clarketech (400CP)(Generic Space Opera)(Magitech Crafting):
Not only are you able to reverse engineer, extrapolate from, and eventually replicate with a device of your own make any technology you encounter, you also are able to do so with any other phenomenon, be it a physical occurrence, magical or even divine in nature, or even just theorized by you to be possible, though in the latter case you naturally will encounter failure if your theories prove false, in addition to research and prototyping taking a prohibitively long time to do.
FREE: This is (Not?) Rocket Science - For some reason you just are capable of piloting spaceships as if you learned it growing up - why it is hardly different from driving poppa's old tractor. Similarly you will find that fixing a spaceship also is much less complicated than one would have thought and you have a good shot at leaving things less broken than when you started.
7.24.1-Auto Shop (400CP)(My Life As A Teenage Robot)(Facilities Technology):
This item is some kind of repair shop owned or otherwise freely accessible by you. The facilities here are able to repair any Mechanical device within 8 hours, including yourself, and can easily and quickly install any upgrades or technologies. And more so this shop is able to 'reformat' any mechanical or technological device, altering its aesthetics in any possible way and changing its basic form. When reformatting you can also have Mechanical capabilities adjusted, altering them in a give and take fashion. The shop can be staffed by anyone/thing you want or fully automated so long as this nature doesn't provide noticeable advantage beyond the item's function.
CRUNCH:
Auto Shop added to Auto Factory. Auto Factory upgraded with Disassembly/Reassembly line and Full Scan for replicable technology.
Her birthday. Just another day in some respects.
However she was now, officially, a teenager. Thirteen years old. Practically an adult.
Still unable to put in the hours at a hospital to qualify as a doctor despite how well she might score on any of the tests.
As an omni-disciplinary genius scientist, this was stopping her from doing many interesting things.
Even then, she'd be under the supervision of various doctors for anywhere between three to seven years to get her full medical doctorate. From what she'd overheard at the hospital it would leave little to no time for anything else during that period as residents were worked like a Japanese salaryman to exhaustion levels especially in a place like Brockton Bay.
Oh, she was getting time in at the hospital. Or at least one of her shadow clones was getting serious work time over there. Though not the dedicated time due to her age playing a role there.
It was a good thing she was up to having ten clones at a time by now, what with all the projects she had to have a hand in at any given point.
"Flight plan filed and approved," came Jarvis' voice over the intercom. "Transponders are active, running lights and safety equipment ready at your word, Doctor."
Her usual attending physician, the one who supervised her, and was quite aware that frequently it was a clone that allowed her to be in two places at the same time, was Doctor Phineas Lovegood. No relation to the Harry Potter fictional character.
It was good though, she was gaining experience without the 24hour workday emergency-to-emergency stress that an actual residency would entail.
It was really a good thing that she was now up to 10 Shadow Clones. Part of that was that every time she got a Perk that involved magic, whether it was called that or not, her chakra levels increased. It also increased her mana and any other pool of energy involving magical oomph.
"Roger, Jarvis," came her mother's voice over the channel. "All systems green."
However, it was her birthday, and so something good was on the schedule for today.
She stepped onto the platform, putting her feet on the appropriate sections, and let the servos secure her footing. She could fly on her own, of course, but being tested so that someone could prove that she still wasn't a parahuman was a hassle. Making it look like a device was doing the work was simple enough.
A glance to either side showed that her mother and father were ready. Her father, Danny Hebert, in his somewhat bulky power armor, was already a few inches above the ground. Her mother had the 1969 VW Beetle ready to go, having learned the controls and limitations of the vehicle after the flight systems had been added.
Taking off from the warehouse was done quickly, heading out the Bay at a low speed.
"Fishing boat 'Wandering Gal' sends well wishes and a remark about it being good weather for flying," said Annette after a few moments.
"That's Erwin's little boat, isn't it?" asked Taylor. "His new one?"
"That it is," answered Danny. "Ready to advance speed from 15mph as we clear the bay?"
Taylor checked. "Raising speed to 45mph, altitude from 100 feet to 1200 feet."
"Roger." "Aye."
"Beginning circle of city," said Danny a few moments later. "Mind the KBBC news chopper."
"It's considerably lower than us and not on our flight plan," answered Taylor.
They'd gone several blocks, flying over the traffic way below them, when something occurred to Annette. "What ever happened to your underwater base?"
"I was using it as a storage area," said Taylor. "Except I gave it to the Navy back at the beginning of the year. They've been using it for training purposes since then. That reminds me, I wanted to make one for the British now that Leviathan's turned off."
"That's good," agreed Annette. "Oh look, there's some sort of cape fight down there at Pieman Avenue."
"Heard they're getting that factory going soon," said Taylor. "Hope that doesn't push back the construction."
"Why would someone even attack a pie factory being built?" asked Danny as he piloted his power armor between the fight and his family. Just in case.
"Parahumans," said Taylor, sounding slightly exasperated.
The flight was largely silent after that, as it was just a leisurely jaunt with no particular purpose other than enjoying the view and a bit of downtime in their lives.
* Medhall *
Max Anders, who was not currently in his guise as Kaiser the Nazi supervillain and leader of the Empire 88, sipped at his very expensive whiskey and watched the three dots off in the distance. Were they looking for something? Checking out a new site to unleash some further changes in his city?
"We don't know the identity of the power armor, it's not one of the Space Marines. Armor's too slick-looking and doesn't have all the embellishments of that Warhammer stuff they wear." James Fliescher/Krieg lowered his binoculars. "Compact. Probably some sort of speed build. Considering it's some of HER work - might use short-range teleports."
"What do you think they're doing?" asked Max.
"Considering it's HER," said James. "It could be completely innocent, but I wouldn't bet on it."
Max nodded. That was the problem with 'Doctor Curlyhair' - she could be absolutely the little girl she appeared to be with interests you would expect of those demographics. Or she could be doing something so sneaky you wouldn't guess it was the case until she just unleashed her newest invention.
Or gave a friend of hers a dragon.
James shifted his attention to something more street-level and less inscrutable. "Looks like Hookwolf and the others are breaking off and the PRT is on scene."
"Good, we don't need any other villain groups trying to claim territory here. On that point at least, I can agree with everyone else." Max Anders took another sip of his whiskey before striding towards his desk and setting his drink down on a coaster. "Any other developments I need to know about?"
"One of the test subjects for the Type III Healing Capsule over in Idaho had an unusual reaction," said James, his voice conveying his disgust at the subject, which raised Max's curiosity a couple of notches.
"Oh?" asked Max. "Was it some kind of malfunction?"
James shuddered. "Not precisely. The individual had some mental issues and instead of simply fixing those, the device instead altered the body to fit the image."
"So someone went in as a skinny kid and came out looking like a weight lifter?" asked Max, as he had heard of that happening even if it wasn't something that should produce that sort of reaction from James. He was familiar enough with that outcome to understand some of the shortfalls.
"No, they patched that," admitted James. "Though demand for it to be restored is currently going through legal hurdles and challenges. No, this one was 'gender dysphoria.'"
"Oh," said Max. Well, that certainly explained Krieg's reaction. Honestly, he couldn't care less as long as there was still a market for his products. "It will probably turn out the way some of those 'perfect body' types did - they won't institute the dietary or exercise requirements to keep those bodies in that shape and the deterioration will begin. At which point Medhall has a number of supplements and treatments available to forestall the inevitable."
"Ah," said James with a brief nod. Someone had said something to the effect that every someone else's problem was something to exploit? He'd have to look up the exact quote.
"How's that going, anyway?" asked Max. "The anti-monopoly laws seem our best bet but the report from Legal was less than clear. Make a note, maybe we can get a translation program that speaks Obtuse Legalese to shift things to English."
"There are enough companies and special interests who protest the Healing Capsules that experimental and emergency use is likely to be the only use for them for the foreseeable future," said James with some satisfaction. "Another ten years just to check for long-term effects, possibly another twenty for all the lawsuits and fact-finding to clear."
* Saturday, August 9 2008 *
* Unknown Portal World *
Checking in on the various portal locations was something she left to her various clones most of the time. Experimenting with new portals or simply ones that went somewhere strange was best done by clone, behind airlocks and as many security measures as she could field. With great big destructive weapons pointed at the portal location just in case.
One of those was to a mountain cave high up and overlooking a wilderness that seemed to stretch on forever. Or close enough.
Flying drones went to the furthest reaches of their range and indicated a whole host of anomalies.
No radio traffic. No EM disturbances. A land with a day/night cycle but no visible sun. Gravity Earth-normal within a 0.0001 discrepancy. Weather patterns fairly normal but evocative of central Europe from what her long-term surveys had produced.
One particular thing, which had surprised and intrigued her when that clone had dispelled and the information became shared - was that there were creatures here straight out of myth and legend.
She hadn't made contact with any, other than the one drone which had gotten eaten and spat out immediately thereafter.
By a dragon. One considerably larger than Lucy's shoulder-dragon.
If she DID ever make contact, and they were friendly, Lucy was going to be quite enamored of those.
However, her attention was currently on Drone # 76A (76th unit produced, aerial sensor drone) and the pictures that had been relayed from it.
An extremely tall mountain with steep sides that looked as if it would collapse and fall over under normal weathering conditions was enough by itself to draw her attention. That it had a donut floating at its peak just added several layers of "what the heck" to her observations.
This was at the extreme range of her signal and of the magnification of that particular drone, so it wasn't as if she'd get more data out of that. Which would have more of her attention except for one limiting factor.
She wasn't allowed to go out past the cave opening herself, even by clone, because both parents had argued against it as too dangerous when dealing with other universes/continuum. Especially considering this wasn't even on the same universal strand as her home universe.
After a few minutes of trying to figure it out, Taylor decided to see if any of her gynoids or androids or robots would like to make a trip. That couldn't hurt, could it? And it would be technically within the parental restrictions placed on her, right?
Five minutes after Taylor left the cave, recalling the drone but leaving the monitoring equipment running and recording, a rather large head poked into the cave and examined things.
Not that she noticed as the Celestial Forge rolled something at that point that had... implications.
* Downtown *
* (Meanwhile, at Glu Gluten's Glue Factory) *
"Roof leaks, three of the internal doors are missing, that mystery stain over there is kind of worrisome, there are spiders effing everywhere, and I'm pretty sure nobody's been here since the mid-80s."
"You're right. It's perfect."
"Don't suppose you could make a maid robot or something to keep this place clean."
"Maybe after I finish making my automated stealth drone so we can start getting our ViewTube channel going."
"Put it on the list?"
"Yeah. As long as it isn't too close to anything else I've made, I might be able to swing it."
"Okay, I'll get some tools and supplies, there's a Home Depot about a block-and-a-half away."
"I'll try to finish the Snitch by tonight. This is going to be so cool!"
"So what game are we going to use for our premiere anyway? Pac-Man? Pizza Baron? Pong?"
"No, I've got a great idea!" (BOOM!)
"...was that dramatic thunder?"
"Accidently knocked over my Dramatic Thunder-ator. I'm turning it back off."
* Outlands *
A new neighbor, if one considered a distance of fifteen miles of craggy mountains nearby, and one who had a technological bent.
This was intriguing.
The portal device resembling a Stargate from the 90s TV series even more so.
That it was largely fake, but had a set of airlocks and some intriguing filtration devices meant she wasn't looking at some crossover plane. It might even be someone from her own world who had just come up with the technology and had taken advantage of her own crossing from plane to plane and somehow figured out the method and approached it from a technological instead of a magical mechanism.
Not that there were very many people that knew she had access to her lair or that it was in another dimension.
Very intriguing. Though if they were doing it to try and raid her hoard, she was going to be quite vexed with them.
A whirring noise, too faint to be heard by normal human ears, turned her attention to the Dial Home Device (DHD) for the Stargate and figure out where the camera was.
Smiling, showing her very large and impressive teeth, she waved at the camera before leaving the cave and transforming to her full size.
She paused for a moment and sniffed the cave entry again, her eyes momentarily going wide. "Mom?"
Oh. Now that DID intrigue her quite a bit. The scent was faint, clinging to a very nice jacket that was on a peg near the cave's mouth. It was a scent that clung to a few things in her house, but much stronger.
Yeah. She was going to have to investigate further.
* Perks This Chapter *
31.12.1-Clarketech (400CP)(Generic Space Opera)(Magitech Crafting):
Not only are you able to reverse engineer, extrapolate from, and eventually replicate with a device of your own make any technology you encounter, you also are able to do so with any other phenomenon, be it a physical occurrence, magical or even divine in nature, or even just theorized by you to be possible, though in the latter case you naturally will encounter failure if your theories prove false, in addition to research and prototyping taking a prohibitively long time to do.
FREE: This is (Not?) Rocket Science - For some reason you just are capable of piloting spaceships as if you learned it growing up - why it is hardly different from driving poppa's old tractor. Similarly you will find that fixing a spaceship also is much less complicated than one would have thought and you have a good shot at leaving things less broken than when you started.
7.24.1-Auto Shop (400CP)(My Life As A Teenage Robot)(Facilities Technology):
This item is some kind of repair shop owned or otherwise freely accessible by you. The facilities here are able to repair any Mechanical device within 8 hours, including yourself, and can easily and quickly install any upgrades or technologies. And more so this shop is able to 'reformat' any mechanical or technological device, altering its aesthetics in any possible way and changing its basic form. When reformatting you can also have Mechanical capabilities adjusted, altering them in a give and take fashion. The shop can be staffed by anyone/thing you want or fully automated so long as this nature doesn't provide noticeable advantage beyond the item's function.
CRUNCH:
Auto Shop added to Auto Factory. Auto Factory upgraded with Disassembly/Reassembly line and Full Scan for replicable technology.
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Taylor made a portal to the Outlands, and Naurelin stuck her head in to see who it was and recognized the scent as fairly close to her mother's.
Oh, this is gonna be interesting.
edit: fixed the owner of the scent Naurelin recognized
Oh, this is gonna be interesting.
edit: fixed the owner of the scent Naurelin recognized
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- Location
- Outside of the Omniverse slowly breaking in
What are the Outlands and who is Naurelin?
grommile
nasty-minded old cynic
- Location
- NERV-Mercia
- Pronouns
- Traditional/Animate
The Outlands are a plane of existence in D&D, and Naurelin is the name Taylor uses in her gold dragon form in Kryslin's Worm/D&D fusion fic Scaling Up.