I was writing these snipets while working on a paper so that's why they aren't quite coherent.
Third Person Ryoko, about their second christmas in space (shortly after they had spent one year in space)
This is more about connections between fen and the crew than anything else, and needs to be fleshed out quite a bit but...
Yes the Christmas tree uses Tesla Coils as candles.
----
Ryoko was humming as she put Tesla Coils in the tree. She didn't understand why her master was so obsessed with Christmas, but then there where many things she didn't understand. Getting the tree delivered on the morning of the 24'th, and not before, had taken some doing, but in the end she had convinced Kevin to do it. Still following the Danish traditions made some sense as this used to be a danish ship she mussed while putting in a Christmas Heart filled with pepernoten. Deciding she'd better start on the pancakes before Ben, Chloe and Rick arrived she left Miyu and Catty to finish decorating the trees.
"I'm going to prepare breakfast before the other get here. please wake the guests in half an hour."
Breakfast was a big affair in the ships dining hall, which was almost filled. Her master and Chloe, his sister, had a big reunion, not having seen each other since last Christmas, followed by an official introduction to Rick her fianc. There was some of the usual awkwardness of a mundane meeting the Professor for the first time, but less than could be expected.
Packing the last batch of presents that the Bullet Boy delivered Ryoko reflected on the usefulness of being the one to maintain contacts with the outside world and dealing with the finances of the ship. One of those contacts, Katz, had come through at the eleventh hour with the gift she commissioned for her master.
Christmas diner was a big success, her master was even helping in the kitchen without blowing anything up. Then came the obligatory dancing and singing around the tree before spending an a few hours unwrapping presents. As required by tradition the last person to unwrap a gift would select the next gift to be unwrapped, and so forth until all the gifts under the tree were gone.
There were some memorable presents, the professor was quite giddy with the force-field glasses from Ryoko, the collection of odd ties from Catty and the new microscope from Miyu. Catty was definitely very happy with her gift from the Professor, a custom replica of the uniform she wore during the last years of the stardust war, and Miyu hasn't stopped inspecting the Katana yet. Ryoko however will never forget the book of 'Human Psychology as Explained to Aliens' written by (Why aren't there any author fen characters yet?), while she might still not understand humans she feels as is she has come a good deal closer.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Speed drives only make sense when there is a static frame of reference. The classic version that we all have a degree of experience with is the road. When a thing is moving with respect to such a frame of reference, it's quite possible to bleed that difference for energy - there are electric cars that do it all the time with generator braking. The thing that drives the hardtech scientists adsolutely batty and/or fascinates the hell out of them is that they can't seem to touch this *particular* frame of reference with anything that isn't at least a good 10% or so handwavium - and anything that *has* handwavium is, by its strange and inconstant nature, *entirely* unsuitable for performing repeatable experiments with. They've been trying anyway. When they do use the 'wave, they've found, the results perfectly support whatever theory the professor has espoused most recently. In a couple of cases, behavior has changed dramatically, multiple times over the course of a single experiment, as he was "trying to explain". A small but growing group of researchers have decided that the only conclusion that makes sense is that scientific devices, when exposed to handwavium, must frequently develope rudimentary sentience and communications abilities, but hide them, and that those stealth AIs have a prediliction to *like* the professor, or perhaps are merely easily persuaded by him.
Thrust accelleration: First, I apologize for the sheer fuzziness of the following math. I will be rounding like a bad man. Now we have a "pretty dern close to top speed" speed drive maxxing out at about 0.1c with maybe a bit more for making the ship Really Rather Small and the engine Really Rather Big. Engines can be optimized a bit for either high-grav or low-grav, and the asteroid belt is pretty much always going to be low-grav. Lets say your average speed-pure racing hull has a top speed on the flats of .12c and isn't good for really much of anything other than racing and, perhaps, escape/evade/high-speed courier work. (this is a *conservative* estimate). You can amp that up further with the right sorts of Wacky And Experimental Tech, but those inevitably have equally wacky drawbacks that you get to wrestle with *while* hurtling from point to point at your ship's top speed. Let's say that *your* hull, as it's not a pure speed-build, only manages to drag 0.11c out of its drives. This isn't as bad as you might think, because people aren't rolling along at top speed on the maneuverability challenges anyway. In those cases, the limiting factors are pilot reaction and ship responsiveness - and if you push out too far and fail, you tend to pancake yourself on a rock. So, you're out on the flats, up against some guy in a generic speed build. He cranks it up to 1.2 at the same time you crank it up to 1.1 and you're off. Obviously, you want to beat this guy, and your baby is going to take a few moments of careful massage to rev up to top speed and then disengage the speed system and fire up the accelerator. In order to beat this solidly, you want to pull out a coasting speed of 1.3, and for whatever reason, you can afford to shove about 10% of your total ship's mass out the back for this particular leg. You're going to have to shove it out at about .2c to get the job done. If you need to use it to decelerate any at the end, that's going to be 5% here and 5% there, which means .4c relative for the stuff pouring out the back. This is potentially doable, given exactly the right rolls on the "nifty handwavium devices" table, but it does have some implications. At least it's something to think about.
Fuzzy math or not, useful numbers which makes me think that I wasn't really offbase in the hybrid speed/reaction drive concept. Of course, the thought that then occurs to me is that after burning all this reaction mass, the total mass is obviously going to be lower... thus increased speeddrive max speed? From a rules-maker's point of view, that could give people headaches. Of course, someone eventually may come up with a reactionless acceleration drive, which'll screw things up for the poor rulesmakers even *worse*.
![[Image: wink.gif]](http://www.ezboard.com/intl/aenglish/images/emoticons/wink.gif)
Oh, and the bit about improvised weaponry - it's not something you'd go out hunting with, or even necessarily think of until you needed it, but if you're packing a thruster that can kick out 10% of your ship's mass at .2 relative c with racing reaction times, then that's probably capable of doing at least a *bit* of damage to anyone unlucky enough to be caught in the propwash. It's too expensive and probably too inaccurate to use proactively, but it makes a heck of a defensive weapon to use when running is failing, or last-ditch weapon for when running simply isn't an option.
Of course, if you're doing it at combat speeds, the chance that you might screw up the crossover gets worse, but...
Interesting tactical note: the ability to accelerate near-instantly to a sizeable fraction of c, changing direction more or less as it suits you plays merry hell with the ability of people who think at normal human speeds to keep you inside their reaction envelopes long enough to do somehting, let along chase you when you care more about what you're getting away from than what you're going *to*. If the boskonians are hunting folks, then either they're doing it with weapons that can strike before the danger is realized, they're doing it inside of high-density areas like asteroid belts where people can't afford to go all out and then pinning them in with superior numbers, they're hitting people in places and times where they don't feel like they can *afford* to run away, or they're catching people with engines cold. Any friendlies that hunt pirates pretty much have to be able to do the same.
Oh, and given the timelines, the existence of 16-year-old ninja implies that either entire families are heading into space to settle in Hidden Asteroid, or there are kids running away from home and being accepted in (or both). The fact that there are *enough* of them that there are general rules as to what age, exactly, the ninja let their kids start doing more than milk runs means that there is a sizeable population of these kids.
What kind of breakdown do we have for fenspace population, anyway? How many people do you have to have to qualify as a significant power group? Bear in mind that this is, in a lot of ways, another America. Heading out to space requires leaving behind much of your old life - sacrificing what you have for what you might build. This is not a thing done lightly. You will not get all of the fans. You may not even get half. What sort of population numebrs are we working with?
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Oh, and given the timelines, the existence of 16-year-old ninja implies that either entire families are heading into space to settle in Hidden Asteroid, or there are kids running away from home and being accepted in (or both). The fact that there are *enough* of them that there are general rules as to what age, exactly, the ninja let their kids start doing more than milk runs means that there is a sizeable population of these kids.
Actually, I could see it the opposite way. If they're being very careful of the kids, the population might not be as great as you'd think. If you had a large population of kids in Hidden Asteroid, they'd probably be asserting more influence and the age would be less. I'd guess that the population breakdown would be a few older adults that liked Naruto, a large number of young adults (20s, 30s or so), and a small population of children - some runaways, the rest being the children of the young adults. That sort of breakdown would be more inclined to the 'milkruns until they hit 16' mentality that a group with a large population of children, if for no other reason than if the number of children in the overall population were that great, they couldn't AFFORD to have them doing milkruns until 16. They'd need the kids contributing to the welfare of the group.
That's an interesting thought, though. So far, pretty much all of the people that we've seen are the individuals, or groups of individuals. There are fannish families. I wonder how many of them head for space? And with handwavium being so easy to manipulate - how many kids run away to space, and what happens to them? Could be some interesting stories there. Are there any fen groups that pick up strays, or individuals? I know my character would probably take in a kid if one showed up on my doorst....um...airlock. At least long enough to feed him up and make him contact home, unless there's a good reason he ran away. Anybody else?
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Of course, someone eventually may come up with a reactionless acceleration drive, which'll screw things up for the poor rulesmakers even *worse*.
What, you mean like, oh, say, energy sails?
Yeah. I'm pretty sure someone'll eventually come up with those.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm
So.
First, my basic assumption about Speed drives is that the term is flat-out wrong. That is, the craft carrying the drive never moves at all relative to the hunk of space-time it happens to be occupying. Its apparent speed is determined by how much it can cause that chunk to displace in any given femptosecond.
(Incidentally - local spacetime around planets and other orbiting objects moves with them rather than being static, which is why orbital velocities don't become an issue - the 'surfboard' starts moving with the local space when the drive goes off, but the craft itself still hasn't moved)
(most) Acceleration drives slope local spacetime - generate gravity fields, pretty much - to change real velocity, instead, but use what's recognizably the same mechanisms.
Second, apparent speed is limited by the proximity of the dominant object of the immediate area; this is an on/off condition, not a graduated one. Wazzat mean? It means that ships go slower when they're close to other things. Somewhere inside Mercury's orbit there's another Limit, where the Sun's influence locks a ship down to 'atmospheric speeds'. The Cochrane Limit is where the galactic core becomes 'dominant'.
Third, other ships may be dominant. If two craft in fenspace approach each other closely enough, they'll both be slammed down to 'atmospheric speeds' until they can get farther away again. Drive field interaction means that this effect is sort of sticky and occupies a larger space than you'd expect from the mass of the ships alone. This lets you have dogfights. ^_^
Ja, -n
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri... Bang!"
Vales I like most of your suggestions, but since the Limit allows for superluminal travel I would not put the part where solar gravity limits the speeds close to the sun as the same type of thing as the Limit.
Also this is somewhat morbid but it might be of use to some people here: what really happens when you are exposed to vacuum.
www.damninteresting.com/?p=741
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Quote:
Vales I like most of your suggestions, but since the Limit allows for superluminal travel I would not put the part where solar gravity limits the speeds close to the sun as the same type of thing as the Limit.
Er? I think you're misunderstanding - my desired implication is that a fennish ship with access to sufficient power could quite easily go FTL
inside the limit... it's just that the needed amount of power is insane even with handwaving. I was explicitly thinking of an
Alcubierre warp drive when I wrote that.
Hmm. A ship's mass would have to influence the degree to which its drive was affected by the dominant body.
Also, a basic assumption that I think'd be a
real good idea would be that space-time alterations can be detected at a distance, instantaneously or close enough to same as makes no difference for our purposes. I don't see as how time travel could add anything except headaches.
Ja, -n
===============================================
"Puripuri puripuri...
Bang!"
What about our fen who have built their real-space drives based on David Weber's Honor Harrington novels?
These are reactionless acceleration drives with accelerations in the hundreds of gees, due to advanced gravitics...
The interior of the ship is "inertialess" in that the interior is set at human-comfortable levels of gravity, but the drives produce two gravitic bands along the central vertical plane of the ship that form a wedge shape. Thes are what allow the ship to reach ludicrous fractions of c. Fortunately, the "gravband" tech forms a force field around the ship, with weak points and strong.
The ventral and dorsal ridges of the ship are protected by the (for all intents and purposes) IMPERVIOUS gravbands. The broadsides of the ship are slightly more permeable, allowing for weapons fire from the ship. and there are two points with "normal" vulnerability: the nose and "up the skirt" portions of the grav wedge.
Neither the Pinafore nor the Pearl Forrester use this tech, as it requires more number-crunching to build than a "warp" drive.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''
-- James Nicoll
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What about our fen who have built their real-space drives based on David Weber's Honor Harrington novels?
One - seems a bit too 'hardtech' for space opera.
Two - it'd be too unbalancing.
Don't get me wrong, I like Weber (well, aside from his attempts at fantasy novels) but even if his HH stuff were to show up someday, this is definitely way too early for it to be happening. If it should happen at all.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm
remember this is fenspace, we don't get the exact mechanics we would get in a given show/book, though we can try to aproximate them. They key word is try, it might very well not work, and if it works it might work/look in a completly different fashion.
And the HH series is space opera, with the unique feature that the universe is mostly newtonian.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
Quote:
I think you're misunderstanding - my desired implication is that a fennish ship with access to sufficient power could quite easily go FTL inside the limit... it's just that the needed amount of power is insane even with handwaving. I was explicitly thinking of an Alcubierre warp drive when I wrote that.
I've been thinking on and off about much the same thing, though my thoughts were more geared towards a fold drive or quantum-tunneling jumpdrive.
Not that the idea of Our Heroes going FTL inside the inner system with a ringing cry of "LIMIT BREAK!" had anything to do with it. No.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord
interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
*suddenly notices an error he did*
Fudge, that should be SS, not SC.
OK, this got stuck in my head, and I have to get rid of it somehow.
So...we have runaways heading for Fen Space. How do they get there? The older ones presumably can find an old clunker to drive, but the ones around 14-15 or so (I'd not think many kids younger than that could get up to space, though a few bright ones could prove me wrong...especially if they worked in a group, maybe.) are going to need some other way to get there. Well....
There has already been talk of various types of shields produced by handwavium. Air regeneration/scrubbing is also a given, I'd imagine. Once you have those, well.....someone early in the thread mentioned Explorers.
So....who do you think rode the first bicycle into space?
Stop looking at me like that. I'm not crazy. Mad, maybe, but I'm in good company there. Teenagers think they're immortal. I'd imagine at least ONE of them would try it, if they could get the handwavium...and this stuff does seem to be attracted to Fen - to the people crazy enough to dream of the weirdest ways to use it.
Now, a dirt bike might be an easier platform; they already have engines to help supply extra power. But I'm sure an enterprising kid could figure out some way. Some bikes do generate a little power for lights and such through pedaling. A bit of handwavium to enhance that, a bit of kitbashing here and there...a walkie-talkie to provide communications. No problem.
Discuss?
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Now, a dirt bike might be an easier platform; they already have engines to help supply extra power. But I'm sure an enterprising kid could figure out some way. Some bikes do generate a little power for lights and such through pedaling. A bit of handwavium to enhance that, a bit of kitbashing here and there...a walkie-talkie to provide communications. No problem.
Actually, this is an odd coincidence, given my mental image of gooped and modded Vespas being used as worker-bee type craft around space-stations.
This mostly came from a consideration and realization that, yes, there are Fen out there who've based their personal fighting styles around handwaviumed Gibson Flying Vs and Gibson EB-0s, and who attack one-another with regularity, fighting a Highlanderesque conflict (only without the death) for the title of 'Atomsk'. What ties they have to the established Space Pirates, I leave up to the SSX wranglers.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm
Dirt bike, moped, Vespa... It *could* be done, and easier to do on the QT than rebuilding an old junker or Dad's car for orbital travel.
The big thing would be holding the air. An
Explorers-style forcefield would work for especially creative
fenkinder. Resourceful ones could apply handwavium to a wetsuit and get a functional spacesuit out of that. Either way, all it needs is a bit of kitbashing and it'd work. In terms of power, it'd be easier & safer to use, say, a couple of 'wave-modified car batteries as a main power source, then just use the pedal motion as a control/throttle.
It may not work for long, but depending on when the
fenkinder make a break for Fenspace it wouldn't necessarily have to - get to the Island or the fen lunar outposts and you're essentially home free; you can stay there & find work or hire on as a deckhand with one of the big SSX ships like the Masaka or apprentice yourself to Hidden Asteroid or whatever.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord
interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
Quote:
It may not work for long, but depending on when the fenkinder make a break for Fenspace it wouldn't necessarily have to - get to the Island or the fen lunar outposts and you're essentially home free; you can stay there & find work or hire on as a deckhand with one of the big SSX ships like the Masaka or apprentice yourself to Hidden Asteroid or whatever.
*laughs*
Fenkinder! I like that name for them, a lot. It should go into the glossary: the kids who want to get to space so badly, they manage to get there on their own.
You're right about being homefree as well. Unlike the 'danelaw, I think most Fen would agree that if a kid wanted to get to space so badly as to do it on his own, he deserved to be there. And given how much is going on, a kid would be able to find work of some kind. Even though getting there is a lot harder, once you're actually there, a runaway probably has
much better choices/chances than a runaway in the 'danelaw.
I would be tempted to recommend 'Son of Man' by Phil Collins (used in Disney's Tarzan IIRC).
Oh, the power to be strong
And the wisdom to be wise
All these things will
come to you in time
On this journey that you're making
There'll be answers that you'll seek
And it's you who'll climb the mountain
It's you who'll reach the peak
Son of Man, look to the sky
Lift your spirit, set it free
Some day you'll walk tall with pride
Son of Man, a man in time you'll be
Though there's no one there to guide you
No one to take your hand
But with faith and understanding
You will journey from boy to man
As for kids using Handwavium, one of the things that should really scare 'established authority' is that Kids really can use it just about as well as anyone else. Muscle power would probably be fairly limited in range, but I don't see any reason that pushbikes couldn't be an economic means of moving between ships and/or space stations in reasonable proximity. Heck, there's almost certainly a decent number of Handwavium'd Harley Davidsons.
I suspect that kids would fall into three catagories:
1) plucky youngsters out on their own. This is a space opera so they're mandatory in the genre. Includes both stowaways and kids who can get around on their own. The latter are more likely to be treated as adults than the former, but if they are willing to work for a living...
2) second generation Fens. They think it's exciting and new and have, if anything, less self-preservation than any other group. Mostly found in 'family businesses' or in the mid- to large-sized settlements.
3) the non-Fen offspring of Fens. Adolsecent rebellion by trying to be mundane as well as genuinely missing a safer environment. Getting back to earth is relatively easy for them once they're old enough but many of them aren't old enough or have trouble integrating back into Earth society. They may develop a non-Fen culture in space, eventually but this is years away.
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.
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And given how much is going on, a kid would be able to find work of some kind. Even though getting there is a lot harder, once you're actually there, a runaway probably has much better choices/chances than a runaway in the 'danelaw.
Oh, absolutely. Not that it's perfect, there
are creepy fen looking for the young & naive to exploit - fuck, look at Gor fandom - but by and large between the small size of Fandom as a society and the ubiquity of handwavium a good chunk of the stuff that leads runaways to bad ends in the 'danelaw just ain't there.---
Mr. Fnord
http://fnord.sandwich.net/
http://www.jihad.net/
Mr. Fnord
interdimensional man of mystery
FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information
"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"
Quote:
As for kids using Handwavium, one of the things that should really scare 'established authority' is that Kids really can use it just about as well as anyone else.
I hadn't considered that aspect of it, but you're right. I wouldn't say 'should,' though. 'Does' probably fits a lot better, and 'makes them go white' is a good candidate for their reactions as well. A kid with handwavium can do things that the established authorities' best adults can't do. After all...a kid who's managed to get his hands on a bit of handwavium, and who's just seen
Back to the Future II could conceivably go out and in a day or two turn his skateboard into a hoverboard. The idea of children with that much power in their hands, well....I'd say this is at least one contributing factor to the anti-handwavium laws in the 'danelaw.
...Also the elite (if rather young) hoverboard squads of Hidden Asteroid.
Come on. Ninja on hoverboards! It's perfect!
Behold! The Explosive Power of Youth!
After all, if Hidden Asteroid doesn't have some guy that the 'wavium turned into Guy, there is no Great Justice.
*laugh* I like the idea of the ninja kids on hoverboards. But please, dear gods....not the green spandex of youth disease. That's one infection we don't need to see taking over the Village. *grin*
You also just kickstarted my brain with an idea - not one that I'm going to use, so if anybody else likes it, run with it. Somewhere out there is a comic fan who either got a fun biomod or figured out how to make a liquid metal spacesuit - something on the order of the stuff from the Stardance universe by Spider Robinson, only removeable - with an antigrav surfboard.
SS Fushichou
Creator: Ravynlocke
Base Hull: Old freight train cars welded to resemble Japanese Shinkansen train. Main cab plus four 'cars'.
Drive Type: Speed
Owner of Record: Denkousekka Courier Service
Main Use: Main base of operations, living/creation space, and unit storage facility for the SC Hitchhiker.
Known Crew: Megan (Captain and owner) and between thirty and forty housecats of various breeds and sizes. Occasionally nicknamed 'The Cattery'.
------------
Perhaps I was too busy singing as I dabbed a coat of handwavium on the helm design for the Hitchhiker. I do have this bad habit of getting too focused when I'm on a project. Besides, after all the time I'd spent scheming up and finding the mats for the mech, I could be allowed a little bit of tunnel-vision. I still couldn't believe how much the small bit of handwavium I'd gotten my hands on had multiplied since its arrival.
Then again, most people don't use a bathtub for a paint can. That was my worst decision. Chairs don't tend to hold up to my weight very well so it was equally unwise to spend so much time on a decades-old stepladder.
How else is a gal supposed to reach the top of a helm that's taller than she is? You improvise. Clad in tank top and shorts, barefoot for my own foolish sense of stability, I forged onward. I was bent halfway over the sloped dome of the helm, stretching to stubbornly reach a patch that my brush couldn't quite reach. 'A little step to the left, that's all I need.' came my thought as my foot sidled over in that direction. I'd already done this a few times in the process of painting and was teetering at the edge. That one little step was the kicker. Encountering only air left my foot scrabbling for some sort of purchase on the helm, the inch or so of ladder left, and ultimately the upper rim of the old clawfoot tub. Between the flailing and the old ladder, gravity soon won out and I fell square into the full tub.
Being soaked in the thick goo was like trying to swim through a tub of KY jelly someone set in the refridgerator overnight. Worse than mud and clinging to anything. I'm not quite sure how much I might have swallowed before I broke the surface. Certainly it felt like an eon before I came up for air and gagged on the stuff.
Now, I was a good girl in high school, I remembered the admonitions of what to do if you ever get chemicals on you. I wasn't utterly brainless as I thought myself to be. I had an emergency pull-shower in the work-room just in case. Sliding goopily out of the tub I hauled myself over to the shower and yanked the chain. Nothing like a forced deluge of water at high pressure to get you clean!
"Oh, fark this. I give up for now. If falling in the damn tub isn't enough of a sign." I muttered to myself as I pulled a tarp over the now-messy tub and shuffled out of the work-room. I'd heard and read conjectures on the possible effects of ingesting handwavium and I didn't particularly enjoy the prospect of being an accidental guinea pig. So far the only thing I felt was sleepy. Really sleepy in the way that I could go curl up in some sun and not wake up for the rest of the day.
"Fine idea. Maybe I'll have a better perspective after a nap." Scooping up one of my feline household I headed off for what I felt would be little more than a well-deserved rest.
*** Fourteen hours later ***
My feet were cold. My head was cramped at an odd angle. My blanket was weighted down around me far more than usual. Blinking my eyes as I swam to consciousness made me immediately grateful that I curtained out my bedroom into total darkness. A star could go nova outside of the portwindows and I would never even see a glow. Except now I was seeing light that I never see even at the height of the day back on Earth. Shapes were sharper than usual despite an odd film across my vision. Blinking again cleared the film with a sensation of something sliding over my eyes. I put it aside and tried to shift around in my little blanket prison.
A mew from the small of my back gave me some comprehension as to why I couldn't move. The subsequent chirps of annoyance told me that I was being addressed by Kyo, the eldest in my cattery. As if the chirping was a broadcast there soon came what seemed like a cacophony of mews, meows, chirps, yowls, and an almost incessant PURRING. I didn't just have Kyo around me, I had the ENTIRE CATTERY ensconced about me. The waking horde (I had managed to be owned by about thirty or forty at this point) moved enough that I had some wriggle room and allowed me to sit up. It took an interminably long time to get to something other than prone as my legs seemed to be a little confused. Not moving for a while has been known to do that to them before. I was also trying to figure out why everything smelled more like -cat- than I was used to. So strong. I almost wondered if Spooky had used the space under the bed for a toilet again.
It was about that time that Kyo decided it was time for the morning ritual of 'bite Mommy's hand' and attacked my right hand. I'm used to this by now so the attacks stopped hurting a while ago. It struck me that there seemed to be an odd padding on my hand. Kyo's teeth weren't really reaching my skin. Reaching beside me for the light on my nightstand, I brushed my fingers against the touch plate and hissed as the room flooded with light. "Ow. Oh, owowow. Bright. Bright! sun! Ow!" In the wake of light about a fifth of my feline companions took off in startlement while the others mostly vacated the bed for other sections of my room.
When my watering eyes cleared, again with that odd sliding sensation, I found myself staring down at my hand. I didn't remember going to bed in a coat. Certainly not in the misty-grey angora gloves my mother knit for me before I last left home. Reaching out, I plucked on the faintly striped fur draped around my wrist and yelped as pain rippled out from the source. Okay...the fur was connected. Time to keep investigating. Flinging the blanket off scattered the rest of my entourage and gave me the next shock of my life.
More fur. Lots of it. I put Lovelylocks, my Persian, to instant shame with the length and thickness of it. I could see that my days of shaving my legs were going to be a thing of the past at this rate. 'My legs...' pointed out some small mental voice as I looked down at the limbs in question. Instead of the chubby human legs I was used to I was presented with a pair of thickly furred -digitigrade- legs terminating in rather large paws. Paws? 'I have paws?'
It came to me in a rush as my mind backtracked over recent events and made a startling conclusion (though, the impact could have come from Kyo attempting to leap for my shoulder and yanking on the hair at the back of my head instead). I fell in the tub of handwavium. Handwavium has caused modifications when ingested. I still had no clue of how much I swallowed when I fell.
"OH, FARK!"
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(This is my first turn at writing this much and sharing, so don't hurt me!)
'Join the Alliance!' they said. 'See the Arathi Highlands!' they said. I'd rather be nerfing.
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'Join the Alliance!' they said. 'See the Arathi Highlands!' they said. I'd rather be farming.