While that is a good point the trouble is we have no baseline to work with, to tell how tech influenced culture one first has to have some vague idea of the underlying concepts and values and we know very little of the shiplords, even the name feels is a descriptive humans gave them. We have no idea what they cal themselves.
The Practice War [Complete]
- Thread starter Snowfire
- Start date
- Original Sci-Fi
While that is a good point the trouble is we have no baseline to work with, to tell how tech influenced culture one first has to have some vague idea of the underlying concepts and values and we know very little of the shiplords, even the name feels is a descriptive humans gave them. We have no idea what they cal themselves.
- Location
- Ekaterinburg, Russia
Their culture is indeed resonating with the bioflurry use, actually. Shiplords are BIG on Sacrifice, of themselves (Tribute Fleets are meant to be beatable, and are the highest honor to serve on), and of others (Tribute Fleets harvest living beings from entire civilizations, which they then process into bioflurry with significant useability).
And so, Sacrifice (in the right ways) is probably a significant part of their culture. Which would add another angle to their reaction to Purify and the accusations they had thrown in our faces. How dare we Speak, and then persist (i.e. not sacrifice ourselves in the process).
And so, Sacrifice (in the right ways) is probably a significant part of their culture. Which would add another angle to their reaction to Purify and the accusations they had thrown in our faces. How dare we Speak, and then persist (i.e. not sacrifice ourselves in the process).
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
I will note that no one is quite sure if it is necessary. Something that you do know now, though, is that the Shiplords don't always take people as Tribute. The first Tribute is always biomass, yes. Following ones? Not so much. This was something that the Contact Fleet told you. It blew a few minds - as I expect it's about to here
You do not. They are believed to have fought for their way of existence, and their right to maintain freedom of access across the Confederacy, but how exactly they got the Shiplord to bend on the matter is unknown. It does, however, make one point very clear. If you win free of Tributary status, you can make diplomatic contact with the Shiplords. That is actually worth quite a lot to know.
Once the TBOS concludes, Adri is going to speedrun the construction of a Hermes array, and the Contact Fleet left you a breadcrumb trail of comm stations that will connect you back to the Group of Six. Your line of communication will be a bit more fragile than that of the Shiplords' but it will be just as capable for so long as how you're communicating remains hidden.
For 1), we're going to have Hermes 2.0, our lagless comm relay which we found the plans for following the , online after the Regulars Fleet is gone, as there's no point in trying to hide anymore. That's more likely to be of immediate use than sending diplomatic envoys, as our First Secret drives are even worse than the other members of the alliance, and it took them half a decade to reach us. PW-Earth is kind of the ass-end of the galaxy, which we should thank our lucky stars for since it means the response time for Shiplord fleets have been on the order of a decade.
For 2) I kind of agree with you; on the other hand the Shiplords have spent probably hundreds of thousands if not millions of years mastering every branch and leaf of the Second Secret, and we're unlikely to find something to match, let alone beat, them by going over a tech tree they covered before humanity discovered language.
About the only significant two-way interaction that any species has had with a Shiplord ever is the one time Amanda managed to bind a Shiplord enough to ask it a question, upon which time it and the rest of its crew spoke a little poem at us and then self-immolated. This is why that little revelation was such a bombshell to the Group of Six...
...at least that's what I wanted to say, because these little nuggets became available. Now I'm just back to sitting back and waiting to find out more, because the characters in our quest obviously know so much more about what's going on than any of us players that speculation is probably worse than useless.I will note that no one is quite sure if it is necessary. Something that you do know now, though, is that the Shiplords don't always take people as Tribute. The first Tribute is always biomass, yes. Following ones? Not so much. This was something that the Contact Fleet told you. It blew a few minds - as I expect it's about to here
You do not. They are believed to have fought for their way of existence, and their right to maintain freedom of access across the Confederacy, but how exactly they got the Shiplord to bend on the matter is unknown. It does, however, make one point very clear. If you win free of Tributary status, you can make diplomatic contact with the Shiplords. That is actually worth quite a lot to know.
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
This is a very reasonable statement.
Something to be clear on here. Diplomatic contact does not mean actually talking to a Shiplord. You are still pretty much unique in that regard. But communication is seemingly possible. Just really difficult if you're asking for something.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Yeah.
To be sure, our best efforts to replicate the smart-material performance of the bio-slurry the Shiplords make out of living sapient beings using a cruelty-free Sixth Secret nanotech substance have achieved... lower performance... but on the other hand, the fact that the Shiplords chose to do that, when they surely have viable alternatives (like "make 100x more ships using Sixth Secret tech") has strong implications for their culture one way or the other. If nothing else because they've clearly come to terms with their choice and internalized the idea that they are right to make it.
- Location
- Somewhere out there
This is a particularly interesting perspective. You're right: There must be a justification for why they do it that way. No one is the villain of their own story. (Someone may be a villain, and they may even admit to being a villain, but they usually have a reason for the path they took that goes beyond "evil for evil's sake".)
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Well, the thing is, their answer could totally be "this makes our ships significantly more effective, we originally did that Because We Had To, and we haven't seriously revisited whether we had to or whether it was worth it to do so in the past million years because we've poured aeons of concrete over our collective racial neuroses."
It could also be a case of "this is marginally more effective than the alternative, and species that haven't moved past tributary status don't count with respect to ethics". Heck, it doesn't even need to be more effective or equivalent at all, it could just be a case of the package tribute fleets are supposed to apply include psychological pressure as well as dakka.
Shwaggy
Weapon of Math Instruction
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- he/him/his
You know, if the Shiplords do hold reverence for self-sacrifice in the name of a worthy cause, as the honor of a Tribute Fleet position suggests, I wonder how they'd view the Dragons if they knew what really happened.
I mean, G-d forbid they ever discover the origins of Practice, who knows what they could do with that knowledge. I'm just musing.
I mean, G-d forbid they ever discover the origins of Practice, who knows what they could do with that knowledge. I'm just musing.
Turn 23 - A Fire of Creation
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
November 6th, 2128
"Mandy," Mary's tone was one of fond exasperation as she nudged the adjoining door to your linked studies open, leading the way with a mug of something hot and sweet in one hand and a small bag held firmly in the other. You looked up at your best friend from the journal left to you by Gaskin, and blinked a few times at her appearance. Then your brain processed what you were seeing.
Fresh clothing with a hot drink, a bag of what your nose was telling you were pastries, and an expression that was trying to be severe and failing badly. You blinked a few times, then looked over at the old analogue clock mounted beside the door, cheerfully showing the time of eight...in the growing light of a Martian sunrise. A moment later your face thumped down onto the journal in front of you.
"Sorry," you groaned into the crisp pages, the realisation of how much time you'd lost very abruptly catching up with you. At least you hadn't missed anything; Sidra would have stopped you from doing so. Mary just sighed, and you looked up to see your friend staring at you with a hint of real concern in her eyes.
"Amanda, I know that what's in here," she leant down to deposit the bag she'd been carrying and gently tugged the old journal out from under your face, "is important. But you need to stop doing this. I know you can, I know it's safe, but leaning on Sidra like this isn't healthy. And staying in here night and day isn't either."
"I know," you said, and though part of you really didn't want to meet your friend's eyes, you forced yourself to do it, apology screaming in every line. She was, indeed, correct. Sidra let you ignore many of the physical limitations of your body, an effect of the Aegis that not many people outside of the Two Twenty Three actually knew about, though keeping that from Mary would have been futile even if she hadn't been deeply involved in their creation. "I just get lost in it, and then," you waved a weary hand at the clock, and the situation around you. This was far from the first time it had happened this month.
"I know," Mary said, placing the mug down on your desk. "But we do worry about you, you know. Even if it's a rather object lesson in how I know I sometimes make you feel, when I get lost in things."
"At least I haven't locked myself in my quarters for a week," you joked weakly. It was poor enough as an attempt, but at least it won a smile.
"Sidra wouldn't let you," Mary said reprovingly, though the smile didn't fade. "But yes, I guess a few missed nights isn't as bad as that. Though if you're going to make that comparison," her smile widened into a truly dangerous grin, and you remembered abruptly how you'd helped her moderate her sometimes obsessive fixation on trying to find an answer or solution to a particular problem. "I'm cancelling your schedule for today."
You started to open your mouth to protest, and stopped short as your friend's eyes flashed with green fire. "Instead, you are going to spend your day away from here," Mary told you with absolutely no give in her tone, "and any more of this." She gestured to the screens and hardcopy scattered around your desk. "You need to get away before this drives you insane, Mandy."
You opened your mouth again, this time to point out how removing you from it whilst half-finished was unlikely to help either, but she cut in before you could do more than shape the first word. "I'm not saying we can't talk about what you've found so far. But you haven't been giving yourself the time to process since you started reading that journal, and I know you need it."
There were a lot of different things you could have said to that, but none of them would have helped, and Mary was, once again, right. "All right," you bowed your head again, reaching out for the sealed cup that Mary had brought you. "Where are we going?"
"This is nice," you said most of three hours later, leaning back on the pillow Mary had packed for you as the two of you stared out from the rim of the caldera that Mytikas had been built within, across the farming terraces and their brilliant contrast of green plants against rust-red soil. Mary looked over as you spoke, her own pillow placed to cushion her head against the rock she was leaning back on.
"Much nicer than spending another day cooped up in your study again, isn't it," she said, though her smile was less full than you'd have thought. "But you've been very quiet about it since this morning. I am curious, you know."
You had been quiet, and much more so than usual. It wasn't that you were annoyed at your friend; you wouldn't have given false praise. But getting away had allowed you take a breath, and as it started to flow out of you now, things were starting to fall into place. The problem being that there weren't quite enough of them, not yet.
"I'm," you grimaced, "I'm not quite sure where to start." It was easier to admit that than you'd expected, and you saw your friend's grin coming a mile away. "And it's mostly because I don't know where the beginning is."
That admission, and the level tone it was given in, stopped the joke short, and Mary frowned gently. Not at you, but at the words themselves. It wasn't exactly rare for either of you to have difficulty putting a personal understanding into something others could understand. But you'd usually at least know where to begin the process. But she didn't ask if you were sure, simply trusting in your word.
"Then don't start at the beginning," she suggested instead, green eyes soft and reached out a hand to grasp the closest one of yours firmly. "But I didn't ask you to come out here just to simmer on what you're not sure of how to explain. Just find a place to start speaking. It doesn't matter where it is. We'll figure it out." She smiled again and the simply knowing in the expression was almost painful.
You nodded quickly, not at all to hide the swift blinking the motion allowed. Your words were rough when you spoke next. "Don't you get tired of swapping seats with me?"
Mary's fingers tightened on yours. "How could I ever get tired of helping you?" Those were your words, ones you'd given to her many years ago, and yet never truly expected to have returned. Certainly not like this, doing for you what you'd done so many times for her.
"Alright," you bowed your head a moment, acknowledging the point made and received. You were not, had never been, the only one to be able to give help. And though Mary had often needed it a great deal in the last years, she'd never remained static when needing aid, always using it to grow. You'd known that, you'd been there through most of it, and yet you were still a little surprised. Human nature, you supposed.
You took a deep breath, picked a point in the spiralling web of incomplete knowledge at random, and started talking. No matter how fragmentary it might seem now, you'd figure it out. Both of you, together.
Amanda Hawk Personal Diary, 17ht December 2128
There's something intensely beautiful about how a song becomes whole. I've known that ever since the first day my music tutor sat me down in front of a lyric sheet and had me try to put my voice to the melody. I don't remember where along the way I stopped reading words and began to make music, but that simple transition changed, and has continued to change, my life in ways I don't think I'll ever be able to truly understand.
The ability to raise my voice and make something beautiful has been of immense comfort through my life, even on my worst days, where I could only hum. They say that music is good for the soul. After so long spent trying to understand it, I think I'm one of the only people alive who can say that that's true. And yet it goes deeper than just comfort. I've been starting to realise this across the course of years, but it wasn't until I unlocked the contents of my Reliquary that I began to truly understand.
Music is bound by many things, but most of all it exists through timing. And as a rhythm creates a melody from disparate tones, the beat with which you choose to speak defines the meaning of your words. Any singer or public speaker understands that, and I've been both for a long time. I just never applied it beyond those things.
Speaking is more than the Words I imbue with Practice. How I choose to pronounce them shapes how they sculpt reality. It was how I was able to use Purify in the way I did, and my memory of that instant, in that moment, is of a song. I still don't know the words to it, but I can try to remember the melody, and hope to find the clarity it gave me in a moment of rage and power. With that, I think, I might be able to use what I've learnt since in earnest come our next battle with the Shiplords. If I am truly lucky, there might be time to teach it to others. Mir and Vega both would be far more comfortable in using that power if they could harmonise it with their own reality.
Harmonise.
I think I'm going to need to speak with Vega about this next year. And not just this.
What I found in that Reliquary helped me to understand more than just what was before me. It gave me context in another search, one for the truth of what the Circles are when looked at through the lens of Practice. And there, I have come a long way. The Circles are not just a social construct, that much is clear, but what more they are still remains uncertain. A creation of Practice, yes. But are they an Artefact? I don't know. If they are, if they possess the strength of such a creation, then the world I've helped build may be far more mine than I ever thought possible, or wished for.
And yet at the same time, if they are such a thing, or even just close enough, then come the next battle with the Shiplords I might be able to draw upon the power contained within them in ways that until now were simply fantasy. I still have yet to truly address that matter, and given how deeply I've delved into the personal side of the field, now may be a good moment to approach the communal. Before the Third Battle of Sol is upon us.
Mary has helped me far more than I thought she might, most powerfully through offering support that I'd never thought she would. Reversing the roles of childhood, and recent history, is not easy, but she's done it. Without that, without her, I don't think I'd ever have found this much. And I certainly wouldn't have found the final links that I've been searching for between the Word and the Web. There is a song there, perhaps the very same one that I heard during the Second Battle of Sol. Yes, just as in my memory, I cannot hear more than the tune to which words would be put.
That is a step forward, and a far larger one than most would give credit. To find the places to fit the words is no small feat. But the greater task still remains. As I seek to use Words to protect humanity, I still seek to understand what makes us who we are at a level deeper than thought. Our souls are bound by power, each holding fragments of a vast whole, yet only a fraction possess the ability to tap it.
Somehow I know that I can't mend that lack. Whatever the Dragons and those who flew them did, they did not have the strength to give us all that they wished to. Metaconcert showed Mary that truth. But we know that every human possesses some strength, and even if it is insufficient to affect the world around them on its own, it can do so when brought together with other common desire. And that brings me, once again, back to Purify.
I disagree with LiFE about many things, but this much was true. When I spoke that word, I did so not as Amanda Hawk, no matter how many see it. I did so as a vessel of humanity, at a confluence of power ten billion souls strong. Somehow, they felt what Lea felt in that moment, and their souls cried out as one. All I did was direct that strength. In my voice it was given purpose, and that focus was enough to wipe a vessel from the stars. If I had been more skilled...well, I guess it doesn't matter.
I did what needed to be done. And humanity helped me, even as it forced me to use what it had given me. Now, with another battle swiftly approaching, I think I've almost discovered how it did the former.
(+51 added to Lyrics of Fire, requires completion of Healers Fire to progress)
Of Words And Melody: 95 + 34 + 20 = 149 + 352 = 501/450
A Healers Fire: 82 + 34 = 116 + 110 = 226/250
Those Great Creations: 88 + 34 + 47 = 169/200
"Mandy," Mary's tone was one of fond exasperation as she nudged the adjoining door to your linked studies open, leading the way with a mug of something hot and sweet in one hand and a small bag held firmly in the other. You looked up at your best friend from the journal left to you by Gaskin, and blinked a few times at her appearance. Then your brain processed what you were seeing.
Fresh clothing with a hot drink, a bag of what your nose was telling you were pastries, and an expression that was trying to be severe and failing badly. You blinked a few times, then looked over at the old analogue clock mounted beside the door, cheerfully showing the time of eight...in the growing light of a Martian sunrise. A moment later your face thumped down onto the journal in front of you.
"Sorry," you groaned into the crisp pages, the realisation of how much time you'd lost very abruptly catching up with you. At least you hadn't missed anything; Sidra would have stopped you from doing so. Mary just sighed, and you looked up to see your friend staring at you with a hint of real concern in her eyes.
"Amanda, I know that what's in here," she leant down to deposit the bag she'd been carrying and gently tugged the old journal out from under your face, "is important. But you need to stop doing this. I know you can, I know it's safe, but leaning on Sidra like this isn't healthy. And staying in here night and day isn't either."
"I know," you said, and though part of you really didn't want to meet your friend's eyes, you forced yourself to do it, apology screaming in every line. She was, indeed, correct. Sidra let you ignore many of the physical limitations of your body, an effect of the Aegis that not many people outside of the Two Twenty Three actually knew about, though keeping that from Mary would have been futile even if she hadn't been deeply involved in their creation. "I just get lost in it, and then," you waved a weary hand at the clock, and the situation around you. This was far from the first time it had happened this month.
"I know," Mary said, placing the mug down on your desk. "But we do worry about you, you know. Even if it's a rather object lesson in how I know I sometimes make you feel, when I get lost in things."
"At least I haven't locked myself in my quarters for a week," you joked weakly. It was poor enough as an attempt, but at least it won a smile.
"Sidra wouldn't let you," Mary said reprovingly, though the smile didn't fade. "But yes, I guess a few missed nights isn't as bad as that. Though if you're going to make that comparison," her smile widened into a truly dangerous grin, and you remembered abruptly how you'd helped her moderate her sometimes obsessive fixation on trying to find an answer or solution to a particular problem. "I'm cancelling your schedule for today."
You started to open your mouth to protest, and stopped short as your friend's eyes flashed with green fire. "Instead, you are going to spend your day away from here," Mary told you with absolutely no give in her tone, "and any more of this." She gestured to the screens and hardcopy scattered around your desk. "You need to get away before this drives you insane, Mandy."
You opened your mouth again, this time to point out how removing you from it whilst half-finished was unlikely to help either, but she cut in before you could do more than shape the first word. "I'm not saying we can't talk about what you've found so far. But you haven't been giving yourself the time to process since you started reading that journal, and I know you need it."
There were a lot of different things you could have said to that, but none of them would have helped, and Mary was, once again, right. "All right," you bowed your head again, reaching out for the sealed cup that Mary had brought you. "Where are we going?"
"This is nice," you said most of three hours later, leaning back on the pillow Mary had packed for you as the two of you stared out from the rim of the caldera that Mytikas had been built within, across the farming terraces and their brilliant contrast of green plants against rust-red soil. Mary looked over as you spoke, her own pillow placed to cushion her head against the rock she was leaning back on.
"Much nicer than spending another day cooped up in your study again, isn't it," she said, though her smile was less full than you'd have thought. "But you've been very quiet about it since this morning. I am curious, you know."
You had been quiet, and much more so than usual. It wasn't that you were annoyed at your friend; you wouldn't have given false praise. But getting away had allowed you take a breath, and as it started to flow out of you now, things were starting to fall into place. The problem being that there weren't quite enough of them, not yet.
"I'm," you grimaced, "I'm not quite sure where to start." It was easier to admit that than you'd expected, and you saw your friend's grin coming a mile away. "And it's mostly because I don't know where the beginning is."
That admission, and the level tone it was given in, stopped the joke short, and Mary frowned gently. Not at you, but at the words themselves. It wasn't exactly rare for either of you to have difficulty putting a personal understanding into something others could understand. But you'd usually at least know where to begin the process. But she didn't ask if you were sure, simply trusting in your word.
"Then don't start at the beginning," she suggested instead, green eyes soft and reached out a hand to grasp the closest one of yours firmly. "But I didn't ask you to come out here just to simmer on what you're not sure of how to explain. Just find a place to start speaking. It doesn't matter where it is. We'll figure it out." She smiled again and the simply knowing in the expression was almost painful.
You nodded quickly, not at all to hide the swift blinking the motion allowed. Your words were rough when you spoke next. "Don't you get tired of swapping seats with me?"
Mary's fingers tightened on yours. "How could I ever get tired of helping you?" Those were your words, ones you'd given to her many years ago, and yet never truly expected to have returned. Certainly not like this, doing for you what you'd done so many times for her.
"Alright," you bowed your head a moment, acknowledging the point made and received. You were not, had never been, the only one to be able to give help. And though Mary had often needed it a great deal in the last years, she'd never remained static when needing aid, always using it to grow. You'd known that, you'd been there through most of it, and yet you were still a little surprised. Human nature, you supposed.
You took a deep breath, picked a point in the spiralling web of incomplete knowledge at random, and started talking. No matter how fragmentary it might seem now, you'd figure it out. Both of you, together.
Amanda Hawk Personal Diary, 17ht December 2128
There's something intensely beautiful about how a song becomes whole. I've known that ever since the first day my music tutor sat me down in front of a lyric sheet and had me try to put my voice to the melody. I don't remember where along the way I stopped reading words and began to make music, but that simple transition changed, and has continued to change, my life in ways I don't think I'll ever be able to truly understand.
The ability to raise my voice and make something beautiful has been of immense comfort through my life, even on my worst days, where I could only hum. They say that music is good for the soul. After so long spent trying to understand it, I think I'm one of the only people alive who can say that that's true. And yet it goes deeper than just comfort. I've been starting to realise this across the course of years, but it wasn't until I unlocked the contents of my Reliquary that I began to truly understand.
Music is bound by many things, but most of all it exists through timing. And as a rhythm creates a melody from disparate tones, the beat with which you choose to speak defines the meaning of your words. Any singer or public speaker understands that, and I've been both for a long time. I just never applied it beyond those things.
Speaking is more than the Words I imbue with Practice. How I choose to pronounce them shapes how they sculpt reality. It was how I was able to use Purify in the way I did, and my memory of that instant, in that moment, is of a song. I still don't know the words to it, but I can try to remember the melody, and hope to find the clarity it gave me in a moment of rage and power. With that, I think, I might be able to use what I've learnt since in earnest come our next battle with the Shiplords. If I am truly lucky, there might be time to teach it to others. Mir and Vega both would be far more comfortable in using that power if they could harmonise it with their own reality.
Harmonise.
I think I'm going to need to speak with Vega about this next year. And not just this.
What I found in that Reliquary helped me to understand more than just what was before me. It gave me context in another search, one for the truth of what the Circles are when looked at through the lens of Practice. And there, I have come a long way. The Circles are not just a social construct, that much is clear, but what more they are still remains uncertain. A creation of Practice, yes. But are they an Artefact? I don't know. If they are, if they possess the strength of such a creation, then the world I've helped build may be far more mine than I ever thought possible, or wished for.
And yet at the same time, if they are such a thing, or even just close enough, then come the next battle with the Shiplords I might be able to draw upon the power contained within them in ways that until now were simply fantasy. I still have yet to truly address that matter, and given how deeply I've delved into the personal side of the field, now may be a good moment to approach the communal. Before the Third Battle of Sol is upon us.
Mary has helped me far more than I thought she might, most powerfully through offering support that I'd never thought she would. Reversing the roles of childhood, and recent history, is not easy, but she's done it. Without that, without her, I don't think I'd ever have found this much. And I certainly wouldn't have found the final links that I've been searching for between the Word and the Web. There is a song there, perhaps the very same one that I heard during the Second Battle of Sol. Yes, just as in my memory, I cannot hear more than the tune to which words would be put.
That is a step forward, and a far larger one than most would give credit. To find the places to fit the words is no small feat. But the greater task still remains. As I seek to use Words to protect humanity, I still seek to understand what makes us who we are at a level deeper than thought. Our souls are bound by power, each holding fragments of a vast whole, yet only a fraction possess the ability to tap it.
Somehow I know that I can't mend that lack. Whatever the Dragons and those who flew them did, they did not have the strength to give us all that they wished to. Metaconcert showed Mary that truth. But we know that every human possesses some strength, and even if it is insufficient to affect the world around them on its own, it can do so when brought together with other common desire. And that brings me, once again, back to Purify.
I disagree with LiFE about many things, but this much was true. When I spoke that word, I did so not as Amanda Hawk, no matter how many see it. I did so as a vessel of humanity, at a confluence of power ten billion souls strong. Somehow, they felt what Lea felt in that moment, and their souls cried out as one. All I did was direct that strength. In my voice it was given purpose, and that focus was enough to wipe a vessel from the stars. If I had been more skilled...well, I guess it doesn't matter.
I did what needed to be done. And humanity helped me, even as it forced me to use what it had given me. Now, with another battle swiftly approaching, I think I've almost discovered how it did the former.
(+51 added to Lyrics of Fire, requires completion of Healers Fire to progress)
Of Words And Melody: 95 + 34 + 20 = 149 + 352 = 501/450
A Healers Fire: 82 + 34 = 116 + 110 = 226/250
Those Great Creations: 88 + 34 + 47 = 169/200
Last edited:
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Thanks, as usual, go to @Coda and @Baughn for looking at this for me - mostly the former, but the latter helped a bit too, within the limits of their sleepiness. This update went through a few major rewrites, and is a first as far as I can remember it in being one that takes place between two distinct time periods whilst relating to the same core issues. It just...fit. I was considering splitting it into two parts, but that just seemed wrong, so here we are. I hope it works for folks!
Answer post hopefully this weekend.
Answer post hopefully this weekend.
*Dryly* All Hail Amanda, God-Empress of Humanity. Or just Goddess. No one's quite sure.
But goddamn does this feel like some amazing progress. Healer's Fire proving its worth hand-over-fist and what sounds like Singing around the corner possibly. From the way it was described Speaking might already be Singing, packing the words so heavily with meaning, but too short to be more than the equivalent of a single note or something.
Hymmnos eat your heart out.
Amanda also continues to be one of the single most frightening people in ferreting out the secrets of Practice and the Soul.
But goddamn does this feel like some amazing progress. Healer's Fire proving its worth hand-over-fist and what sounds like Singing around the corner possibly. From the way it was described Speaking might already be Singing, packing the words so heavily with meaning, but too short to be more than the equivalent of a single note or something.
Hymmnos eat your heart out.
Amanda also continues to be one of the single most frightening people in ferreting out the secrets of Practice and the Soul.
Need to delete a word or two there.
*stares at dice rolls, then at Void Crystal rolls, then back at dice rolls*
If evidence was ever needed that these dice have their own idea of where the narrative should be going, this probably qualifies.
I mean, goddamn.
@Snowfire this most recent update has me wondering about a potential Personal Action: Amanda has been a singer, but how often has she sung with a band or a choir? And does she know enough Potentials interested in music to try out an all-Potential band?
Depending on the answers it might be worth encouraging some of her Speaking students to look into singing together as a choir.
Depending on the answers it might be worth encouraging some of her Speaking students to look into singing together as a choir.
One of my main concerns I've expressed is what Singing might do, both cost wise for the Singer and how enhanced the effects are.
Let Amanda figure out Singing first before we get a group of Speakers to try singing together.
I actually wasn't aiming for actualizing the Practice bit of it into Singing. I was more hoping it'd give the mindset and perspective to help understand the Web and the way Purify was a manifestation of many acting together
- Location
- Germany
- Pronouns
- He/Him
"The Ship Lords will attack our home system within the next two weeks. It will be a War Fleet. I do not regret our alliance, know that it was worth the price."
"Fear not, we will assemble a choir."
"<
> A choir ?"
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
*stares at dice rolls, then at Void Crystal rolls, then back at dice rolls*
If evidence was ever needed that these dice have their own idea of where the narrative should be going, this probably qualifies.
I mean, goddamn.
I mean, someone in my tech support/beta group is convinced that I'm not writing fiction
She sang as part of groups when she was in the Institute, and again when she performed with Kazuki during her Presidency - I still find it hilarious that a sitting President and their Minister of State were doing concerts together, even though I wrote the actions.
There are certainly enough Potentials with interest and knowledge of music to form either a band or a choir, but Amanda at this moment isn't sure if it would help. She's found a melody, the same one she heard during the moments of Purify, but that melody was a song.
And she can't remember/find the words right now.
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Shwaggy
Weapon of Math Instruction
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- he/him/his
I mean, one of the more fun formulations of Many Worlds holds that every fictional world is real somewhere in the multiverse. So if some entity/force in such a world is capable of exploiting that sympathetic link...*shrugs*I mean, someone in my tech support/beta group is convinced that I'm not writing fiction
Of course, then you can have other versions of that world, that pulled other versions of your dice to influence other versions of your story in their direction, so in the end even if the dice are being controlled they could go any way regardless since we couldn't know which Practice-verse is interfering until the results are seen.
Yay silly metaphysics theories!
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
I mean, one of the more fun formulations of Many Worlds holds that every fictional world is real somewhere in the multiverse. So if some entity/force in such a world is capable of exploiting that sympathetic link...*shrugs*
Of course, then you can have other versions of that world, that pulled other versions of your dice to influence other versions of your story in their direction, so in the end even if the dice are being controlled they could go any way regardless since we couldn't know which Practice-verse is interfering until the results are seen.
Yay silly metaphysics theories!
I mean, the current working theory of @Baughn is that I'm being mindhacked by Mary and Nei to tell the story that for them has already taken place. He says this explains
Shwaggy
Weapon of Math Instruction
- Location
- Texas
- Pronouns
- he/him/his
Did you consent to the mindhack? Because if not you should write a section on them learning the importance of asking permission. That way it will have happened and they'll have been feeling bad about it. Or retroactively ask permission, and...hmm, is that a stable loop? I think it collapses into a stable state, so there we go.I mean, the current working theory of @Baughn is that I'm being mindhacked by Mary and Nei to tell the story that for them has already taken place. He says this explainsthe voicesmy character representations, too
Snowfire
Polyglot of Chimera
- Location
- Wordcats
Did you consent to the mindhack? Because if not you should write a section on them learning the importance of asking permission. That way it will have happened and they'll have been feeling bad about it. Or retroactively ask permission, and...hmm, is that a stable loop? I think it collapses into a stable state, so there we go.
Stop...helping
- Location
- Ekaterinburg, Russia
So, this is the result of our remaining actions, with only Answer remaining.
With the results of the turn now readily apparent, we can begin thinking of possibilities.
RESEARCH:
Lightless Circuits (Vision) and Tasting Lightning (Mary) remain the obvious preferred options to take, leaving us with one slot to fill.
The latest Interlude hints greatly on communal Practice, and on asking Vega both about it, and about singing/Speaking. The two Research Action topics that touch most strongly upon Practice are these:
[] Practice in Unity: You talked to the Circles last year, and asked them to help you begin to understand how some small measure of Practice might be within the reach of every human. The problem lies in finding a way to bring it out. You've but one example to go on; your own actions during the Second Battle of Sol. Still, it's better than nothing.
* [] The Eternal Well: Practice draws its power from a place that no one alive understands, a reservoir of energy born of the willing sacrifice of an entire race mixed with the blood of more than a billion humans. From what Metaconcert showed Mary, some of those deaths were willing, too. To truly understand what anything is, you have to understand where it comes from. That's the line the Science and Practice Ministries took, at least. And now they're asking for your help.
You will note that Practice in Unity is exactly what constitutes research into communal Practice, and is what Amanda is considering in her latest interlude.
You will also note that The Eternal Well, unlike Practice in Unity, actually receives the Ministries' support. Or at least, that's how it was this turn.
You should also not lock ourselves to just these - there's still Gestalt (boost to Unison Device numbers), and other options besides.
My preferred option is Practice in Unity (Vega), in addition to Lightless Circuits and Tasting Lightning.
MINOR:
This turn has heralded the end of the wonderful, wonderful period where we had an extra Minor Action.
Due to the fact Snowfire has revealed the final benchmarks for actions involved in the previous interlude, A Healer's Fire is mandatory. We don't know for certain if Lyrics of Fire is a second stage development for the above, or if it's actually a Minor action (the +51 rollover was from completing a Personal action) - but if it is present at all, I will be picking it up.
Due to the fact Caliburn is presently at 470/500 (barring background rolls), if it's still incomplete it's also a candidate. However, since its previous stages were 281 (2 turns ago), and 410 (1 turn ago), I don't think it's going to be present. Maybe a replacement action, though.
Orrr, someone could actually brainstorm a really good idea for an Artifact, so that we could Tinker-make something other than a third attempt on Void Crystal.
Since I'm still damn curious, and since we've paved the path for Unisonbound and have to train them up?
My preferred actions are Mother of Circles, A Healer's Fire, Tinker: Void Crystal, and Valkyries
PERSONAL:
This action list is utterly filled for me, due to that very same interlude. Those Great Creations and Mentor take up two out of three slots (one because it's close to completion, other is because it's mandatory anyway). Assuming that Lyrics of FIre is a Personal Action that replaces Of Words and Melody, I assume it'll have that "cannot be taken unless A Healer's Fire is also taken" label on it. And, since we ARE taking A Healer's Fire, we're also taking it.
If it isn't on the list, however? Well one of three options.
1) another Unison Training session - our list of Personals is sparse anyway
2) another Personal Action of some kind
3) This one will require some author's input. See question #2 down below.
@Snowfire, a couple of questions:
1) What exactly will Lyrics of Fire be, as an action? Is it a Personal Action that replaces Of Words and Melody? Is it a Minor Action that is locked behind A Healer's Fire? Is it instead in addition to either the list of Personal or Minor actions, without replacing any existing ones? Inquiring minds want to know.
2) Is it possible to pick a Personal Action: Double Down or Personal Action: Ask For Help - which is to have Amanda either dedicate (more of) her time to, or ask someone else to dedicate their time to, one of Minor (or even Research) actions? Yes, it is a blatant attempt to get another bonus to Tinker: Void Crystal, because I'm really curious about that paperweight.
P.S. Dibs on Plan name of Communal Practice
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