The Practice War [Complete]
- Thread starter Snowfire
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi
Could be that they're just large fish in a small pond, with bigger fish just outside the pond, and they don't want any of the local fish to grow into a threat.
FTL was one of their 'We attack you for this' triggers, yes? That implies they don't want new species to get a foothold outside their home systems, so it's easier to contain them.
FTL was one of their 'We attack you for this' triggers, yes? That implies they don't want new species to get a foothold outside their home systems, so it's easier to contain them.
Except. The directives don't forbid researching Secrets in general; just the first two we discovered. That doesn't quite match up with protecting people from Secrets in general.
Shard
One and Many
- Location
- Malaysia
There is also their total genocide of species that fail to put up any resistance capable doing enough damage (to destroy 1 ship? Damage 1 ship?).
As well as their harsher treatment of species that pose ever more resistance. Mayhap the dragons cpuld have destroyed more than 2, but chose not to, since they could not destroy all 8. (What would happen to a race that destroyed all 8 ships?)
As well as their harsher treatment of species that pose ever more resistance. Mayhap the dragons cpuld have destroyed more than 2, but chose not to, since they could not destroy all 8. (What would happen to a race that destroyed all 8 ships?)
- Location
- Somewhere
That would have been a stronger case before the last interlude. Now we know that something is out there. Maybe it's part of a bluff, but the consequences if it isn't almost certainly outweigh the gains if it is. This is, as others have said, the sort of scenario where you only poke the anomaly if you're certain you have enough power to stop it from poking back.
This is more speculative, but I suspect that they're farming innovation. Different species with different physiology and instinctual behaviors will approach problems in different ways (and sometimes with distinct or unique-ish abilities). A species that can't put up a fight is probably not worth the cost of subjugating since they're unlikely to produce anything of merit. The tribute system they've set up is a pressure-cooker sort of environment that pushes people to their limit, maximizing the effort that subject species put into getting the boot-heel off their necks (and thus the quality and quantity of knowledge and technology that can be harvested).
They don't forbid explicitly research into other Secrets because they want it to occur, they just don't want the people doing the work to do anything practical with or retain control of their research. Dollars to doughnuts says that every time a subject species makes progress on a new Secret the Shiplords swoop in, steal their findings and equipment, and do another round of harvesting/xenocide with an update to their rules forbidding the new Secret.
It's a fairly reasonable thing to do if you're short on ethics and starting to run into walls with your material sciences.
- Location
- madison
one does not preclude the other. It's entirely possible way back in the day when the shiplords first began to claim clients that the initial form of the tribute system was less pointlessly cruel and was merely patronizing and immensely harsh. Then after they spent generations getting really good at justifying the frequent genocides, the tribute system was twisted into the pointless ritual butchery it is today.
Last edited:
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
her family on Mars at the
what you were able to guess
only a handful
up the dossiers by category, and
knowledge of the biocircuitry
throughout the year serve
were we
the end of
to it over time.
Still puzzling, though.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
I love you so much right now for finding all of those errors.
I'm glad you're enjoying the quest, and one of the Turn Five interludes should give you some answers. Answers that will make more questions, I admit, but it would be boring if it was that easy.
Welcome!
Last edited:
Mizu
Software Developer
- Location
- Victoria, Australia
OUTSIDE SYSTEM
USED TO SANITISE
can do, but it's
out of an
but few have
into the safest and most powerful constructions
to access anything
the ground
Sir." Zikmund
with Zikmund.
appearing as a
to the edge
than personal
this station possessed would have
place a few
Something sharp and
targets were now
from the defensive
then quickly
but with the
what all the work
hub in a year.
do all the
but you're a
the gentle glow
Thinking about the
as the last piece fitted into
tuned out the cries of confusion and worry
vision of your
more to the breadth of Focus than
that's that
There are a few protests
and almost a
welcome surprise when
they're the best equipped
grazed the current's edge
would do to their
Well given that we killed off their forward support, I still worry they might sent something unexpected when they don't get a report from it. At the very least to try and recover those blackboxes out there.
We need to be VERY vigilant.
We need to be VERY vigilant.
Shiplords arrive at the end of year 10 / the start of year 11. I.e. after the coming interludes, we will still have one final chance to do stuff.
I am going to push to scout, scout, scout our last prep year. Now that our pre-cogs are down we really need to be sure to keep our intel as a high priority.
As an aside, did anyone else find it thematically appropriate for that botch to happen exactly when it did?
Last edited:
What exactly is there to scout? You've seen our intrigue options so far; are you expecting new ones of some sort?
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
There's always "[] Write In" ...
No, there WAS always "[]Write In"; it was under Project Insight.
No, I mean with our ships. Military Intel, not general intel. I want to make sure that we don't get caught flat-footed. It would have to be a military action, not an intrigue one.
They're coming, we know roughly When-ish, but not exactly when or where in-system. We know they have killer stealth, and I'd like to make sure that we're on top of the incoming fleet before they know we're ready for them.
...well damn, there's an idea. Wish we had 'drone' equivalents to spam the outer system with. But come to think of it, those would have been remote piloted by Practiced with sensory powers. I guess that'll be a new project to work on later.
Last edited:
Mr.Controll
Lord of the un-nessisary thread bump.
- Location
- The 5th dimention
Alright, I just caught up. I must say, we're in a much better spot than I feared.
Interlude: Wonder and Starlight
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Flying was an interesting experience.
You didn't mean to give the wrong impression with that statement, it had been wonderful once you'd gotten used to it. The issue had been getting to that point, which had involved a lot more theoretical work than you'd expected. In retrospect that shouldn't have been a surprise, the ability to move freely across three dimensions wasn't something that the human mind was set up for. The training for fighter pilots didn't work all that well either; not even the F2 could pull the sort of manoeuvres that Unisonbound were capable of. According to Mary's specialists, it had something to do with the difference in propulsion mechanisms.
Most of your ships used reactionless drives of various efficiencies, but those had power constraints as well as limits that they couldn't push past unless you wanted to have to scrape up the crew with a spoon. Unisonbound flight had some similarities with that, but the differences were in the details. As with ship drives, a Unisonbound could instantly begin movement along a certain vector. Acceleration time bordered on immeasurable, but the real confusion was where the energy for it was coming from. Ships used power from their reactors, you could trace that, but there was nothing to trace when it came to the Unisonbound.
The Ministries involved finally decided that it was something to do with how a Unison platform extended a Potential's Practice beyond their physical form. The abilities of the older First Awoken had some similarities to that, but nothing as blatant as this. The most similar equivalent were the constructs that a Unison platform created for their user, which had a considerable effect on reality with no measureable energy cost. Flight was admittedly more obvious, but it was hard to tell which was actually more effective. The established consensus among the Two Twenty Three was that once they fully understood the flight functions, it would be far more useful simply as a means to avoid enemy fire. The barrier constructs were powerful, there was no question of that, but the speeds that Unisonbound seemed capable of were incredible.
The process of training everyone to actually do that had gone better than you'd hoped, given the influx of new Potentials into the Two Twenty Three this year. The ability of Unison platforms to integrate with each other allowed you and the other Unisonbound to share information faster and far more directly than with spoken word. They hadn't actually been designed to do that according to the design team, but that design had been changed by the Miracle and those who'd wrought it.
The most powerful of the Harmonials, and a Mender who had dedicated herself to restoring humanity's wounded unity. Miracles applied Practice in a way that no one could properly explain, but you'd learnt some things over the years, especially given your focus on Vega's gifts. A Miracle was the result of combined Focus, the sum of many parts far greater than their whole should be. Most times, there were so many Potentials involved that it was hard to see where one Focus ended and the next began, but the Unison Platforms had been born of a Miracle of two.
This made them one of a very few cases where it was possibly to identify the influence of the Potentials involved in the Miracle, and the Ministries for Science and Practice had taken ruthless advantage of that. They'd need a full study after the war to get anything really useable, but some of the theories of what they thought was going on were extremely impressive. Taken together, it explained one side of how the Unison platforms were able to communicate so efficiently with each other.
The rest of it was down to Vega being the first Unisonbound, and the synergy that had occurred with you being the second. Her Harmony had connected with something in you, the part that had built the Circles, and that had created links between the platforms as each woke. They weren't intrusive, Vega had been very clear on that, but it allowed Unisonbound and their platforms to communicate on a level which might as well be telepathy. You had to be careful about information transfer, anyone who complained were treated to a copy of your medical readouts after you opened the Elder's Gate, but it was a considerable advantage in training.
Even with that, you'd come further than you'd thought possible in a single year, the Unison platforms working as filters for the information directed to their users. It helped too that there was no such thing as a lazy Potential. Without the drive you all shared, anything more than the recruitment and training process would have been beyond you. Thanks to the combination, the Two Twenty Three were able to branch out and experiment with what they could do.
The training program you'd instituted last year helped a lot with that. The ability of small groups to internalise into cliques and elitism was well known, but you'd a lifetime of experience in avoiding that and it showed in how the Two Twenty Three absorbed new members. Trying to stop smaller groups forming would have been futile, so you used that instead. New Unisonbound were assigned to groups using a combination of progress reports and Harmonial intuition, and the entire team of Potentials were expected to act as mentors to their latest addition.
That was useful in more ways than just bringing the new members into the greater whole, as with every set of eyes there were two new perspectives added to the working groups. Those fresh perspectives, without the preconceptions of training, had been responsible for several very interesting discoveries, key among them that Unison Platforms could integrate with the product of their user's Practice. In the case of First Awoken and those who shared those focuses, this was rather straightforward: they could slot in armaments or defences to their Platforms and the Platform would network the array of Practiced artefacts into its own operating system.
With Second and Third awoken, it was a little bit more complicated, but the basics were clear. Unison Platforms extended the effects of a Potential's person Practice to beyond their body, enhancing their durability and making them capable of feats that most would label the arena of fantasy. When a platform integrated with the products of their user's Practice, it brought them into that field of almost-miracle, and helped along the abilities of the Potential with the artefacts involved. When combined, a Potential with the right creations could work past their Focus.
It wasn't perfect, leaving blind spots in areas that they'd usually catch, but it was effective. The platforms described what they did as moving around how a Unisonbound's Practice expressed itself, but were very clear about the limits involved. Trying to push them too far would be dangerous, potentially fatal. Unfortunately, you were almost certain that many wouldn't care for the consequences to themselves. A willingness to sacrifice one's self was good in situations like these, but some of the Unisonbound needed to survive if Mary was to recreate the technology. You couldn't argue with your own assessment that all of you would inevitably be on the front lines, you and Vega included.
That thought made you look down from where you were floating, over two hundred miles above the surface. The view was spectacular, you couldn't deny that, but looking down with your own eyes like this was different. You could pick out the shining lights of every orbital, even the few in the outer system, but there was more to it than that. The sky below you, the stars above. Terra, Sol, call it what you would. This place was yours, and in a way that went entirely beyond reason.
When you'd been a child, humanity had been broken. Ever since you'd been able to understand what that meant you'd been driven to help it heal. Your methods might have been imperfect, at least at first, but your conviction had pushed forward to find better ones. Awakening as a Potential had allowed you to do so much more with that drive, and you wondered sometimes if that was why you had. Power passed to those who would wield it, test the limits of their strength without fear, and dedicate themselves entirely to the cause of humanity.
Those things were most of why you were here, floating on the edge of space, to look out across that which had become your own.
It had been something that Sidra had helped you find, the links between you and what your Practice had created. There'd been a lot to take in then, and it was still a lot to take in now, but you'd been working on it as much as you could. Practice was like a muscle, and though yours was extremely well conditioned, finding the links was an entirely different way of using it. It had taken up all the spare practice time you'd had to get to where you were now, and though you were glad of it, next year was going to hold some hard choices.
Most of the Two Twenty Three had followed a path of integration with their personal creations, using them to expand their abilities over new and more complex things…most of which you'd already learned. Although the temptation to integrate one of your own creations with Sidra was considerable, what you'd started this year was almost more intriguing. The problem was trying to work out which would benefit your defences more, and that was a question you just didn't know the answer to.
If you had the time, you'd have tried to consult the Elder's Vault on the subject. You still thought doing so could be a good idea, the knowledge hidden away in that place was immense, and it seemed that the Elder First had discovered far more than you'd ever imagined. The wonder you'd unearthed from their protections this year confirmed that beyond any doubt, and you wondered how much more they'd buried. You understood some of the why now, thanks to that wonder, and that was the rest of what had led you to this place and the unsteadiness that was so unlike you.
"You're thinking again." A voice called up from below, and you spun lazily in the air to identify the source, even though you already knew. By the time you'd turned, she'd come to a stop at a comfortable distance, dark hair rushing forward around her face before she shook it away. "I talked to you about that, Amanda."
"Yes Lea, you did." You replied, rubbing the bridge of your nose. Lea Halwood was almost forty years your junior, yet in that moment she could have been one of the First for how maturely direct her comment was. "And you know I'm not stupid enough to argue the point, so what did you come all the way up here to tell me?" The words might seem harsh, but the tone wasn't. Lea was one of only two new Unisonbound who had been assigned by Harmional insight to the small group that had formed around you. She was, technically, a Mender, but she worked in a very different way to any other you'd seen.
The Mender hovering in the air in front of you was certainly a powerful example of her type, but her Focus was far closer to the idea of reincarnation than restoration. Every Mender you knew of apart from her worked through repairing what was already there. Instead of doing things that way however, Lea tore apart what made up what had been and reformed it. The results were usually similar, but the difference in outlook and philosophy that came from Lea's method were striking. Yet she'd become a surprisingly close working partner and friend, perhaps exactly because of what made it surprising; you were different sides to the same coin.
You loved diving into the abstract, searching for meanings within meanings often just for the sake of it. Lea was far more direct, and had little time for navel gazing, the burning vigour of youth driving her onwards to grow and explore, tearing down anything that tried to block her path. It wasn't aggressive, but there was an edge to her conviction that was far sharper than most. When you'd realised that, it had explained a great deal of the reasons behind her mentorship. You'd come very close to where she was, but the presence of the Circles had pulled you back. She was you if you'd not been as bound to them, perhaps, or never had them at all.
So as she had been a perspective far more focused on pushing forward, even at the expense of her self, you and the others of the group had slowly tried to teach her the value of not being alone. It had been a complicated process from both sides.
"And what did you promise me?" She asked, breaking you out of your thoughts again. You gave her a look, and she returned it calmly. Six months ago it would have been defiantly, so there was progress there, at least. Not that she'd not made progress of her own on you, however.
"That I'd work on it." You replied, nodding to acknowledge a point well made. You dropped the look, and floated down to her altitude. "I just," you stopped as she waved a finger under your nose.
"None of that." She said sternly, and you couldn't restrain a bubbling laugh. In situations like this, you'd learnt that you could either be indignant or simply embrace the absurdity of the situation. "You're trying to deal with problems that aren't important right now. You wouldn't be up here otherwise, trying to get away from everything."
"I could just be wanting some time," you stopped again as she gave you another look, and then slumped. She was right, after all. Lea reached out an open hand.
"Come on, Vega has a new idea that we need you to help try." You hesitated, torn even now. "And she said that if you don't come she'll call Mary." You shook your head, but took her hand all the same.
"Alright." You accepted the inevitable, and Lea's face brightened in a fragile smile.
"Race you down?"
(Two Twenty Three force levels raised to 187/223 Unisonbound, integration of Practiced devices into Unison Platforms at moderate levels, experience raised to Well Trained (some outliers), Morale raised to Excellent. Options unlocked, some held.)
You didn't mean to give the wrong impression with that statement, it had been wonderful once you'd gotten used to it. The issue had been getting to that point, which had involved a lot more theoretical work than you'd expected. In retrospect that shouldn't have been a surprise, the ability to move freely across three dimensions wasn't something that the human mind was set up for. The training for fighter pilots didn't work all that well either; not even the F2 could pull the sort of manoeuvres that Unisonbound were capable of. According to Mary's specialists, it had something to do with the difference in propulsion mechanisms.
Most of your ships used reactionless drives of various efficiencies, but those had power constraints as well as limits that they couldn't push past unless you wanted to have to scrape up the crew with a spoon. Unisonbound flight had some similarities with that, but the differences were in the details. As with ship drives, a Unisonbound could instantly begin movement along a certain vector. Acceleration time bordered on immeasurable, but the real confusion was where the energy for it was coming from. Ships used power from their reactors, you could trace that, but there was nothing to trace when it came to the Unisonbound.
The Ministries involved finally decided that it was something to do with how a Unison platform extended a Potential's Practice beyond their physical form. The abilities of the older First Awoken had some similarities to that, but nothing as blatant as this. The most similar equivalent were the constructs that a Unison platform created for their user, which had a considerable effect on reality with no measureable energy cost. Flight was admittedly more obvious, but it was hard to tell which was actually more effective. The established consensus among the Two Twenty Three was that once they fully understood the flight functions, it would be far more useful simply as a means to avoid enemy fire. The barrier constructs were powerful, there was no question of that, but the speeds that Unisonbound seemed capable of were incredible.
The process of training everyone to actually do that had gone better than you'd hoped, given the influx of new Potentials into the Two Twenty Three this year. The ability of Unison platforms to integrate with each other allowed you and the other Unisonbound to share information faster and far more directly than with spoken word. They hadn't actually been designed to do that according to the design team, but that design had been changed by the Miracle and those who'd wrought it.
The most powerful of the Harmonials, and a Mender who had dedicated herself to restoring humanity's wounded unity. Miracles applied Practice in a way that no one could properly explain, but you'd learnt some things over the years, especially given your focus on Vega's gifts. A Miracle was the result of combined Focus, the sum of many parts far greater than their whole should be. Most times, there were so many Potentials involved that it was hard to see where one Focus ended and the next began, but the Unison Platforms had been born of a Miracle of two.
This made them one of a very few cases where it was possibly to identify the influence of the Potentials involved in the Miracle, and the Ministries for Science and Practice had taken ruthless advantage of that. They'd need a full study after the war to get anything really useable, but some of the theories of what they thought was going on were extremely impressive. Taken together, it explained one side of how the Unison platforms were able to communicate so efficiently with each other.
The rest of it was down to Vega being the first Unisonbound, and the synergy that had occurred with you being the second. Her Harmony had connected with something in you, the part that had built the Circles, and that had created links between the platforms as each woke. They weren't intrusive, Vega had been very clear on that, but it allowed Unisonbound and their platforms to communicate on a level which might as well be telepathy. You had to be careful about information transfer, anyone who complained were treated to a copy of your medical readouts after you opened the Elder's Gate, but it was a considerable advantage in training.
Even with that, you'd come further than you'd thought possible in a single year, the Unison platforms working as filters for the information directed to their users. It helped too that there was no such thing as a lazy Potential. Without the drive you all shared, anything more than the recruitment and training process would have been beyond you. Thanks to the combination, the Two Twenty Three were able to branch out and experiment with what they could do.
The training program you'd instituted last year helped a lot with that. The ability of small groups to internalise into cliques and elitism was well known, but you'd a lifetime of experience in avoiding that and it showed in how the Two Twenty Three absorbed new members. Trying to stop smaller groups forming would have been futile, so you used that instead. New Unisonbound were assigned to groups using a combination of progress reports and Harmonial intuition, and the entire team of Potentials were expected to act as mentors to their latest addition.
That was useful in more ways than just bringing the new members into the greater whole, as with every set of eyes there were two new perspectives added to the working groups. Those fresh perspectives, without the preconceptions of training, had been responsible for several very interesting discoveries, key among them that Unison Platforms could integrate with the product of their user's Practice. In the case of First Awoken and those who shared those focuses, this was rather straightforward: they could slot in armaments or defences to their Platforms and the Platform would network the array of Practiced artefacts into its own operating system.
With Second and Third awoken, it was a little bit more complicated, but the basics were clear. Unison Platforms extended the effects of a Potential's person Practice to beyond their body, enhancing their durability and making them capable of feats that most would label the arena of fantasy. When a platform integrated with the products of their user's Practice, it brought them into that field of almost-miracle, and helped along the abilities of the Potential with the artefacts involved. When combined, a Potential with the right creations could work past their Focus.
It wasn't perfect, leaving blind spots in areas that they'd usually catch, but it was effective. The platforms described what they did as moving around how a Unisonbound's Practice expressed itself, but were very clear about the limits involved. Trying to push them too far would be dangerous, potentially fatal. Unfortunately, you were almost certain that many wouldn't care for the consequences to themselves. A willingness to sacrifice one's self was good in situations like these, but some of the Unisonbound needed to survive if Mary was to recreate the technology. You couldn't argue with your own assessment that all of you would inevitably be on the front lines, you and Vega included.
That thought made you look down from where you were floating, over two hundred miles above the surface. The view was spectacular, you couldn't deny that, but looking down with your own eyes like this was different. You could pick out the shining lights of every orbital, even the few in the outer system, but there was more to it than that. The sky below you, the stars above. Terra, Sol, call it what you would. This place was yours, and in a way that went entirely beyond reason.
When you'd been a child, humanity had been broken. Ever since you'd been able to understand what that meant you'd been driven to help it heal. Your methods might have been imperfect, at least at first, but your conviction had pushed forward to find better ones. Awakening as a Potential had allowed you to do so much more with that drive, and you wondered sometimes if that was why you had. Power passed to those who would wield it, test the limits of their strength without fear, and dedicate themselves entirely to the cause of humanity.
Those things were most of why you were here, floating on the edge of space, to look out across that which had become your own.
It had been something that Sidra had helped you find, the links between you and what your Practice had created. There'd been a lot to take in then, and it was still a lot to take in now, but you'd been working on it as much as you could. Practice was like a muscle, and though yours was extremely well conditioned, finding the links was an entirely different way of using it. It had taken up all the spare practice time you'd had to get to where you were now, and though you were glad of it, next year was going to hold some hard choices.
Most of the Two Twenty Three had followed a path of integration with their personal creations, using them to expand their abilities over new and more complex things…most of which you'd already learned. Although the temptation to integrate one of your own creations with Sidra was considerable, what you'd started this year was almost more intriguing. The problem was trying to work out which would benefit your defences more, and that was a question you just didn't know the answer to.
If you had the time, you'd have tried to consult the Elder's Vault on the subject. You still thought doing so could be a good idea, the knowledge hidden away in that place was immense, and it seemed that the Elder First had discovered far more than you'd ever imagined. The wonder you'd unearthed from their protections this year confirmed that beyond any doubt, and you wondered how much more they'd buried. You understood some of the why now, thanks to that wonder, and that was the rest of what had led you to this place and the unsteadiness that was so unlike you.
"You're thinking again." A voice called up from below, and you spun lazily in the air to identify the source, even though you already knew. By the time you'd turned, she'd come to a stop at a comfortable distance, dark hair rushing forward around her face before she shook it away. "I talked to you about that, Amanda."
"Yes Lea, you did." You replied, rubbing the bridge of your nose. Lea Halwood was almost forty years your junior, yet in that moment she could have been one of the First for how maturely direct her comment was. "And you know I'm not stupid enough to argue the point, so what did you come all the way up here to tell me?" The words might seem harsh, but the tone wasn't. Lea was one of only two new Unisonbound who had been assigned by Harmional insight to the small group that had formed around you. She was, technically, a Mender, but she worked in a very different way to any other you'd seen.
The Mender hovering in the air in front of you was certainly a powerful example of her type, but her Focus was far closer to the idea of reincarnation than restoration. Every Mender you knew of apart from her worked through repairing what was already there. Instead of doing things that way however, Lea tore apart what made up what had been and reformed it. The results were usually similar, but the difference in outlook and philosophy that came from Lea's method were striking. Yet she'd become a surprisingly close working partner and friend, perhaps exactly because of what made it surprising; you were different sides to the same coin.
You loved diving into the abstract, searching for meanings within meanings often just for the sake of it. Lea was far more direct, and had little time for navel gazing, the burning vigour of youth driving her onwards to grow and explore, tearing down anything that tried to block her path. It wasn't aggressive, but there was an edge to her conviction that was far sharper than most. When you'd realised that, it had explained a great deal of the reasons behind her mentorship. You'd come very close to where she was, but the presence of the Circles had pulled you back. She was you if you'd not been as bound to them, perhaps, or never had them at all.
So as she had been a perspective far more focused on pushing forward, even at the expense of her self, you and the others of the group had slowly tried to teach her the value of not being alone. It had been a complicated process from both sides.
"And what did you promise me?" She asked, breaking you out of your thoughts again. You gave her a look, and she returned it calmly. Six months ago it would have been defiantly, so there was progress there, at least. Not that she'd not made progress of her own on you, however.
"That I'd work on it." You replied, nodding to acknowledge a point well made. You dropped the look, and floated down to her altitude. "I just," you stopped as she waved a finger under your nose.
"None of that." She said sternly, and you couldn't restrain a bubbling laugh. In situations like this, you'd learnt that you could either be indignant or simply embrace the absurdity of the situation. "You're trying to deal with problems that aren't important right now. You wouldn't be up here otherwise, trying to get away from everything."
"I could just be wanting some time," you stopped again as she gave you another look, and then slumped. She was right, after all. Lea reached out an open hand.
"Come on, Vega has a new idea that we need you to help try." You hesitated, torn even now. "And she said that if you don't come she'll call Mary." You shook your head, but took her hand all the same.
"Alright." You accepted the inevitable, and Lea's face brightened in a fragile smile.
"Race you down?"
(Two Twenty Three force levels raised to 187/223 Unisonbound, integration of Practiced devices into Unison Platforms at moderate levels, experience raised to Well Trained (some outliers), Morale raised to Excellent. Options unlocked, some held.)
Last edited:
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
So I'm really sorry this took so long, there's a major competition I'm part of going on that's taking up a lot of my time currently, and my laptop dying hasn't helped in the least.
I hope this will tide you over for now, and I'll do my best to make sure the next update doesn't take so long. Almost two weeks this time, jeez...
I hope this will tide you over for now, and I'll do my best to make sure the next update doesn't take so long. Almost two weeks this time, jeez...
...What is this implying? My initial thought is that it would let us Practice on the Government we've built, but that seems unlikely.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Bluntly? You (Amanda) really don't know. The Elder's Vault might have information on this, if you had time to do proper searches through the archives, but you don't have that time before the invasion hits.
We have one more year to prep - baring unexpected early arrival. (which I hope to address in a vote)
We might still be able to start the integration of whatever it was.
We might still be able to start the integration of whatever it was.
I am slightly confused. What is the non-mundane stuff we shared with the 223? Is this talking about working past our focus (which I think we knew about already), or about all of the platforms being networked together? Or something else?
Wait - we are going to be on the front lines? And Vega too? Strange. Even if you neglect the bit about us running the government, is the contribution of an extra unison-bound really important enough to justify risking the Elder Vault's inheritor and the Miracle Maker?