Mission: Zodiac

I don't want to be a hero. I want to be a superhero. I'm not saving the world unless I get cool powers out of the deal.

Current Location: the matrix
Current Mood: busy

New month, and that means a new contest from brigits_flame. This week the prompt was China. I decided to continue where my October mini-contest left off and deliver some more adventures of the archaeologist Persimmon. While it happens after Persimmon and the Jinn, I hopefully wrote it such that knowledge of the previous story isn't necessary to understand this one. It's mostly backstory anyway, so there shouldn't be too much trouble if you're new to my work. Without much need for further information, I present:

( Persimmon and the Dragon )

Current Location: the matrix
Current Mood: creative

chickybluesky87

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Crystalis - Calming the Angry Sea OC Remix

So brigits_flame is having a mini-contest for October. I sort of forgot to actually post that introductory section of Finding a Thousand Suns to the community, so I missed out on successfully completing the main contest for the month. Fortunately this mini-contest came along to occupy my time instead. This time I got three prompts: persimmon, Taj Mahal, and cliffhanger. As such, I present to you:
( Persimmon and the Jinn )

Current Location: the matrix
Current Mood: creative

Current Location: the matrix
Current Mood: accomplished

Current Mood: amused

So I made it into the second week. This time our prompt was "navel". That gave me a great idea that I'm still working on. So I've got plans for more of a story that follows this introductory exposition.
( Finding a Thousand Suns )

Current Location: dagobah system
Current Mood: creative
Current Music: Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers - Cammy by Night OC Remix

Current Location: the matrix
Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Tenacious D - Tribute

So around the middle of last month I joined a writing community - brigits_flame. The basic idea is there's a big contest every month, comprised of four lesser contests each week. Each week, we're given a topic on which we have to write a story. Contest 1 for October is "instep". So with that in mind, here's a story about that.
( Read more... )

Current Location: valhalla
Current Mood: creative
Current Music: The Legend of Zelda - link's underworld pressurecooker OC Remix

Current Location: the matrix
Current Mood: working

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Mortal Kombat - Theme

I have finally achieved internet at my house. As such, I can once again be found at the usual suspects.

Current Location: secret supervillain base
Current Mood: excited

Summer is over. Fuck you, the sun!

Current Location: the matrix
Current Mood: Victorious

So I've talked Ariel into getting a livejournal. She can be found over at chickybluesky87.

Current Location: the matrix
Current Mood: calm

Current Location: the matrix
Current Mood: calm

I sometimes feel like my life should be more like this. Or I should at least have a picture of a guy with a big knife.

Current Location: the matrix
Current Mood: calm

Current Location: the matrix
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: Tuatha de Danann - Lover of the Queen

In my previous post on the matter, I mentioned my faith in the validity of Einstein and the universal speed limit. I've had thoughts to the contrary in the meantime.

My new method to toss on the FTL tech pile is called the webway, and it's based on some highly spurious interpretations of physics. According to the Lorentz transformations of general relativity, funny things happen to local timeflow at superluminal speeds. In essence, the time factor becomes negative - local time flows backwards. While this seems at first like a nonsensical result, one of Richard Feynman's theories allows it to gain some better meaning. According to Feynman, antimatter moving forwards in time is mathematically identical to matter moving backwards in time. If we merge these two ideas like Voltron, we can see that antimatter is clearly allowed to move at FTL speeds. So all we need is a big machine to convert a ship and its crew to antimatter, jet them across the universe, and change them back.

This is obviously a terrible plan.

With all the thin plasma and interstellar dust and the like out in space, such a ship would quickly be destroyed. This is where the webway comes into play. The webway is a great network of magnetic fields stretched through the universe, allowing antimatter ships a safe "tunnel" network to fly through. Each entry/exit to the webway has a big space station-style ring to perform the conversion process.

Current Location: the matrix
Current Mood: creative
Current Music: The Verve Pipe - The Freshman

I think me and Agatha Heterodyne need this shirt.

Current Location: the matrix
Current Mood: amused

It's clear to me that sublight interstellar travel is ridiculously ineffective, to the point that no sensible society would do it. And yet still I occasionally see science articles about proposed new rocket technology (to include such neat-sounding ideas as plasma ion engines) that would bring the nearest star or two within "feasible" reach. ("Only six years Earth time to Proxima Centauri!" Yes. Wonderful.)

However, I'm also a firm believer in the validity of relativity, making literally superluminal craft an impossibility. This leaves us with two choices - accept that we'll never really reach the stars, or figure out how to bend the rules. So far, I've figured out three basic ideas to make the universe work for us.

The first, and the one I'm personally most comfortable with, uses gates through some manner of hyperdimensional space. A few things about this seem likely to me. The first is that the number of relatively safe paths through such a space is probably less than the total number of paths through said space. As such, it may not be possible to get everywhere from anywhere. The second is that, depending on the specifics of the technology, it may be difficult to establish new routes. If, for example, it's set up Stargate-style, where we have ground-based portals that people walk through, that suggests a need for portals on the other side if the trip is expected to be two-way. The main difficulty, however, would be in figuring out how to send people or starships "outside" the universe into this extra space.

The second method utilises a quirk of quantum mechanics and rather impressive probability manipulation. Heisenburg's uncertainty principle indicates that particles can't really be considered to have a particularly specific position in space. Instead there's a probability wave describing where in space you're most likely to find said particle. Oddly enough, there's an infinitesimally small (but nonzero) probability that said particle could be nearly anywhere in the universe. As macroscopic objects (such as a person or starship) are aggregates of billions of particles, quantum effects tend to average out into the much less interesting world we see around us. However, given a potent enough ability to alter probability, one could theoretically change an object's location in space through a form of unlikely quantum nonmovement.

The third, and probably most dangerous, method is warping space. Again from Einstein we know that mass warps the space around it. In our daily lives this effect is largely unnoticed beyond the gravitic effects of our planet. But a large enough mass (such as, for example, a black hole) warps space in a rather extreme fashion, potentially creating enough of a spacial distortion to somehow allow rapid travel through space. The main trouble with a black hole is that you can't simply turn its mass on and off to facilitate travel. However, another consequence of relativity is that mass and energy are equivalent. A large enough source of energy (such as, for a random example, two superpowerful lasers focused on a point) should also warp space sufficiently. My main problem with this method is that warping space is a rather hazardous proposition. Too much energy and one is likely to punch a hole in the universe and fall out (which may be a way to facilitate method 1: gates. It may also lead to something like the movie Event Horizon. Hard to say).

Current Location: the matrix
Current Mood: science!

So I conjured forth a son from the illimitable deeps.
Salient details:
name: Liam
when: 3.07 Monday, 6 July 2009
big: 9 lbs. 10 oz.

It's really hard at the beginning. I'm hoping things get better eventually.

Current Location: !house
Current Mood: awake

Current Mood: calm

1. You can ONLY answer Yes or No.

2. You are NOT ALLOWED to explain ANYTHING unless someone messages or comments you and asks. -- and believe me, the temptation to explain some of these will be overwhelming nothing is exactly as it seems.

Kissed any one of your LiveJournal friends? --- Yes

Been arrested? --- No

Kissed someone you didn't like? --- No

Slept in until 5 PM? --- Yes

Fallen asleep at work/school? --- Yes

Held a snake? --- Yes

Ran a red light? --- Yes

Been suspended from school? --- No

Experienced love at first sight? --- No

Totaled your car in an accident? --- No

Been fired from a job --- No

Fired somebody? --- No

Sang karaoke? --- Yes

Pointed a gun at someone? --- Yes

Done something you told yourself you wouldn't? --- Yes

Laughed until something you were drinking came out your nose? --- No

Caught a snowflake on your tongue? --- Yes

Kissed in the rain? --- Yes

Had a close brush with death (your own)? --- No

Seen someone die? --- No

Played spin-the-bottle? --- No

Sang in the shower? --- Yes

Smoked a cigar? --- No

Sat on a rooftop? --- Yes

Taken pictures of yourself in the nude? --- No

Smuggled something into another country? --- No

Been pushed into a pool with all your clothes? --- No

Broken a bone? --- Yes

Skipped school? --- Yes

Eaten a bug? --- No

Sleepwalked? --- No

Walked a moonlit beach? --- Yes

Rode a motorcycle? --- No

Dumped someone? --- No

Forgotten your anniversary? --- No

Lied to avoid a ticket? --- No

Ridden in a helicopter? --- No

Shaved your head? --- No

Blacked out from drinking? --- No

Played a prank on someone? --- Yes

Hit a home run? -- No

Felt like killing someone? --- Yes

Cross-dressed? --- Yes

Been falling-down drunk? --- No

Made your girlfriend/boyfriend cry? --- Yes

Eaten snake? --- No

Marched/Protested? --- Yes

Had Mexican jumping beans for pets? --- No

Used sex/romance just to get something? --- No

Puked on an amusement ride? --- No

Seriously & intentionally boycotted something? --- Yes

Been in a band? --- Yes

Knitted? --- No

Been on TV? --- Yes

Shot a gun? --- Yes

Skinny-dipped? --- Yes

Gave someone stitches? --- No

Eaten a whole habanero pepper? --- No

Ridden a surfboard? --- No

Drank straight from a liquor bottle? --- Yes

Had surgery? --- Yes

Streaked? --- Yes

Taken by ambulance to hospital? --- No

Tripped on mushrooms? --- No

Passed out when not drinking? --- Yes

Kissed someone of the same sex on the mouth? --- Yes

Donated Blood? --- Yes

Grabbed electric fence? --- No

Eaten alligator meat? --- No

Eaten cheesecake? --- Yes

Eaten your kids' Halloween candy? --- No

Killed an animal when not hunting? --- Yes

Done anything sexual in a church, mosque, etc? --- No

Snuck into a movie without paying? --- No

Written graffiti? --- No

Thought about the future? --- Yes

Been in handcuffs? --- No

Believe in love? --- Yes

Through great travail, I have managed to make Tacoma my home once more. The fiends of Gig Harbor are no more, thus permitting my return to civilised lands. Rejoice, bitches.

Current Location: Game Matrix
Current Mood: for great justice
Current Music: Abney Park - The Wrong Side

So I had this dream last night. It was about a version of Earth that would work real well as an RPG setting, I think. The basic premise is that people have discovered something like cold fusion - a simple, unlimited source of energy. While this makes all the world's power needs disappear, something's wrong with it. I don't know exactly what - I'm thinking it's probably exclusively in the hands of a powerful, evil government. But the idea is that there's an underground movement that doesn't want to use the cheap, unlimited resource of power, so there's a scattering of rebel energy sources out there - probably some sort of electrodynamic steampunk mixup thing.

I'm thinking if I just blend this with my idea of a game setting that's essentially a cross between Heroes and The Lost Room, that could make a fascinating modern setting to play around in.

Current Location: Game Matrix
Current Mood: creative
Current Music: Abney Park - All the Myths Are True

More chalk art today. I'm still not very good at it, but I keep at it anyway. Although I think last week's turned out better. This week I continued my theme of vaguely planar-related art. It seems my power of idea somewhat outstrips my technical skill.

Current Location: !house
Current Mood: calm

So yesterday was the Frost Park chalk-off. After stopping for the winter, it has restarted. While I attended fairly consistently last year, this time was the first time that I really participated. Ariel and I worked together, and made this excellent pair of images.

We also get a bit of a cameo in Adam the Alien's video of the event.

Current Location: The Game Matrix
Current Mood: calm

So today is the day that, all across the world, people who don't have a deity for a father think about their own mortality, and how cool it would be if they didn't have to.

That's right. It is, as it is once every year, I Can Self-Resurrect and You Can't Day. Enjoy.

Current Location: my dad's house... IN THE SUN!
Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Johann Pachelbel - Canon in D major

Did a little work on spells for Mission: Zodiac. I don't want ridiculous overlap like in D&D (instead of reiterating more powerful spell effects, I just have scaling-power spells). However, right now it feels like I don't have enough. I'll figure out more, I'm sure.

Current Location: The Game Matrix
Current Mood: creative

Athar
The lost enjoy steam technology as a bold statement of mortal dominance over the natural world without recourse to deific power or worship. In that way it's very similar to arcane magic. The difference to the lost is that steamworks can be used by anybody, much like the simple, non-demanding nature of their belief. The Athar have recently styled themselves champions of the common man, bringing truth and prosperity to those forgotten or stepped on by society.

Doomguard
Sinkers are still divided on whether entropy is proceeding too fast, too slow, or just right. These three subfactions have naturally differing views on steam technology. Some feel that steamworks are building up more order than people have any right to do. Some feel that the destruction and pollution that come from making steamworks feeds entropy more than it is hindered. Some feel that taking extra disorder in the multiverse and putting it into the order of machinery keeps things on schedule. In any case, sinker technologists rarely repair their machines, instead allowing entropy to take its course naturally.

Dustmen
The dead don't have much more to say about steam technology than they do about arcane magic or the weather. It's all trappings of a false existence. However, Dustmen have pioneered a new field called "necrotechnology", which uses engineering arts to animate the dead rather than spellcraft.

Harmonium
Hardheads view steam technology as a natural progression of ordered life. A steam machine is the model for an ideal society - all the pieces follow the proper role to create a single, harmonious whole. When one piece acts contrary to its role, the whole machine stops working. Hardhead technologists use Harmonium-approved designs which are incompatible with other styles of steamwork.

Mind's Eye
Seekers have an unusual outlook on steam technology - machinery is merely an expression of the inner mind. This explains why steamworks crafted by different technologists look and function differently. A seeker technologist uses crafting of steamworks to further her understanding of herself and challenge her mind to reach higher levels of consciousness.

Ring-Givers
Bargainers believe, as the anarchists do, that freedom of steam is an important concept. The bargainers, however, believe in it for its own sake - as a way of escaping reliance on material objects. They believe that if true freedom of steam was achieved the machinery would belong to nobody, so that everyone would be free of work and achieve freedom from materialism. Bargainer technologists tend to make small, useful machines that can be given away and used easily by anybody.

Sodkillers
Sodkillers use steamworks mostly for weaponry, although they are also highly in favour of geargrafts. Sodkiller technologists are hard on their steamworks, so their devices tend to be very durable and battered.

Sons of Mercy
Martyrs feel that, if used properly, steamworks can be a great tool for peace. Martyr technologists make demonstrations of this philosophy across the planes, hoping to influence others.

The Bleak Cabal
Most people, especially factioneers, have taken steam technology and invested it with great meaning and purpose - a path to wealth and decadence, for many, or an intellectual exercise, or a way to gain greater temporal power. They've missed the point. Bleakers understand that steamworks are meaningless, no more special than the wood and metal that compose them. It's useful, sure, but so is a hammer or a bowl of soup. Societal changes have left more poor and downtrodden on the streets of the planes, and bleakers are still working to feed the hungry, comfort the mad, and bring a little bit of relief into a meaningless life. They're annoyed by the Athar, who have made helping people some sort of crusade - a meaningful purpose in itself.

The Fated
Takers were likely one of the main forces behind some of the societal changes of the steam revolution. Steam technology is an empowerment to those bold and clever enough to use it, and those who can't acquire wealth and power in such an easy time are clearly just unmotivated. Taker technologists are extremely self-reliant and seem to have a special knack for repairing steamworks.

The Fraternity of Order
It's strange that the guvners didn't discover steam technology on their own. Still, they've taken to it quite naturally - guvner belief is the perfect model for steam technology and its functionings. In fact, guvners have an innate talent for steamworks - they can figure out the workings of any lawfully-designed piece of machinery quite easily.

The Free League
Indep technologists have some of the more unusual designs, since they're so individualistic. Often another technologist will have difficulty making indep steamworks function because of this. Indeps don't feel steam technology is anything special - no more than the basic machinery that existed before the steam revolution. They support freedom of steam because so much of steamworks is in the hands of the factions.

The Revolutionary League
Anarchists use steamworks subversively. Much to their disdain, the steam revolution brought about a worse social order and their technologists work to subvert it through freedom of steam. Many anarchist steamworks come in the form of weapons, as they still view destruction of established locations as a strike against the establishment itself.

The Society of Sensation
Sensates find that steam technology has brought with it a host of new sensations. Sensate technologists use their steamworks to explore new sensory experiences and, like sensate artists, often create new devices just for the different experience of it.

The Transcendent Order
Ciphers have an outlook on steam technology very similar to chaotic technologists, but tempered by a more ordered view of the system, as befits their neutral outlook. Cipher technologists allow the Cadence of the Planes to guide their designs, and cipher-made machines tend to have a simple elegance and comforting rhythm to their workings. Ciphers disdain geargrafts; they view it as a shortcut to physical well-being that defeats the purpose of exercise and fitness.

Xaositects
Chaosmen are the champions of chaotic steamworks. As a concept, it is incomprehensible to lawful minds - the machines follow no particular rules or principles. Through effective belief and a facade of functionality, however, a seemingly random collection of gears and parts functions just as well as a "properly crafted" device. Chaosmen, with their ability to make sense of apparent chaos, can easily discern the workings of chaotic steamworks. Other chaotically-aligned technologists tend to have a bit more trouble with the concept.

It began in Sigil, as these things always seem to. About a decade after the Faction War, some berk calling himself a "technologist" wandered through a portal in the Lower Ward. Given his impression of the place, Sigil might have only been a few years off without his help. He was sure that all the magic found in the Cage would be a great aid to his technical knowledge and began a new discipline - he called himself a "mechanitheurge" from that day forth.

Given the nature of the outer planes, it didn't take too long for this new technology to spread across the Ring. Sigil hasn't changed much in an obvious sense, though everyday life is now powered by countless little machines that people rarely pay attention to. It's the planes that seem very different - a few, like the Beastlands, have resisted the revolution entirely, whereas planes like Acheron have adopted it just as absolutely. Most lie somewhere in the middle.

The interesting part of the steam revolution is not how it's changed magic and technology on the planes - that's nothing new - but how it's changed belief. Usually new machines or spells take hold in some small part of the planes, but they don't gain the widespread use of something like crossbows or [i]magic missiles[/i]. Steam technology works everywhere, except in a few places where the natural belief of the plane is contrary to mechanical progress. It works on both planes of law and planes of chaos, though the chaoticians have quite a different idea on how the machines work than those of a more lawful bent. In addition to weathering the storms of belief that wash across the populace of the planes, there are beliefs about steam technology. Beliefs about how it should be used, or who should be allowed to use it, in addition to the arguments over how it works and how it can be made to work better.

Current Location: west philadelphia
Current Mood: creative

Let's say I believe in a particular philosophical principle. As a random example, say I believe that it's right to help people who need it. Let us also say that I have no evidence or observational data to support this belief. Is my faith in the validity of this philosophy the same as faith in the existence of a deity? If it's not the same thing, why not?

Current Location: in a fucking titan missile base
Current Mood: contemplative

Comment to this post and I will give you 5 subjects/things I associate you with. Then post this in your LJ and elaborate on the subjects given.

I got ... from cloversix.
1. Jesse Lake. I'm fairly certain I met you very first on the Tacoma LJ community and we had a short discussion about his karate classes. XD
2. RPGs. Eeeee.
3. Dr. Horrible <3
4. Good Snark.
5. Fun memes!

1. Sensei Lake was probably my favourite teacher at that school. Although I totally studied ninjutsu, not karate. :P
2. I do a lot more playing/designing than I do actual GMing. Which kind of disappoints me, because it makes me wonder why I do all the designing. But players are just so unreliable. I can never hold a group together for long. Also, I'm unreliable. At least one of my games has ended by me suddenly bringing the whole storyline to a close in one session.
3. Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is amazing, as most of you already know. I'm not sure how to elaborate on this much further.
4. Oh, yeah. Okay. This mostly stems from me hating people. I think the main problem is that they're made out of meat.
5. If one pays a lot of attention to the history of my LJ, one will likely see that I do a lot more memes than I do "real" posts. That's mostly because I'm lazy. For example, I'm living in Gig Harbor now and I hate it. Most of you probably didn't know that. But in a way, I think how I respond to memes tells you more about who I am than a list of things I've done lately. While they're certainly both useful for a portrait of my being, a normal update post is a specific effort to compose myself for the internet. A meme is sort of a surprise to both of us. "What? You want to know what I think about sex with a giant chocolate bunny? Well..."

Current Location: work! HAHAHA
Current Mood: calm
Current Music: Secret of Mana - The Oracle OC Remix

More work on Mission: Zodiac. I've gotten the archetypes laid out, although they won't really be done until I have more traits worked out. I'm also leaning back towards a more point-buy system, I think. In that otherwise I don't know how to fairly regulate gaining further traits (or any kind of spells or combat tricks).

Current Location: dagobah system
Current Mood: creative

So I got married yesterday (to Ariel, for those of you who know us personally). It was sort of amazing.

Current Location: in a fucking titan missile base
Current Mood: happy

So I've revised my plan for the Planescape version of Between the Spaces. Remember how I always thought Ringwalker was a weak middle (eventually leading to me dropping that arc)? I figured out how to make it work. In that I have a different plan to replace it. Things will now go
I. The Void Engine
II. Portal-Slayer
III. Requiem
which is also a basic setup I can follow for the M:Z BtS plans (of which I'm already conceptualising and formulating, which means I'm farther there than I ever have been).

A few of you might be slightly familiar with the story of the Void Engine. I plan on working on that and making it cooler (and longer. Longer is a more important aspect it's lacking, too).

Current Location: kicking everyone's ass all the time
Current Music: Final Fantasy VII: Voices of the Lifestream - [djpretzel & Vigilante CD2 #01] Short Skirts

It's time for the LJ year in review!

January: Some big uploads to Mission: Zodiac.
February: I'm reworking Act I of Between the Spaces: Portal-Slayer.
March: I finished up that work on the Mission: Zodiac Planescape Document I was talking about.
April: (I apparently didn't make any posts this month ^_^;;)
May: It's been a while since I made one of these.
June: For those interested, this year's Out in the Park is at Lincoln Park, rather than Wright.
July: "Cerberus will fucking kill you.
August: Except that I did something totally different for this one.
September: The large hadron collider fired up last night.
October: They say a picture is worth a thousand words.
November: I hate </a></b></a>neliobelmont
December: Small update to Mission: Zodiac.

In other news, I'm noticing I haven't really posted much this year. I'm always doing things (life is full of doing things), but they're such boring, mundane things that I never want to talk about them. "Oh, I was working at the Matrix today. Board games are totally organised."

I should try harder, though. It's the little things I do every day that make me who I am.

So as only those of you who I talk to IRL would know, I'm getting married soon (and by "soon" I mean "the end of next week"). That's coming along nicely.

Current Location: ninja hideout
Current Mood: calm

Over at Mission: Zodiac I've put up the racial write-ups in mechanical terms. I figure I should get M:Z's mechanics hammered out before I keep wandering too far into the lore department.

Also, I know some of you celebrate Christmas, so merry Christmas.

Current Location: an iceberg fortress in Norway
Current Mood: creative