Drunkard's Walk Forums

Hello! I am starting this topic to introduce myself. There I was, happily wasting most of my spare time reading internet fanfiction, when someone just had to post a Battletech ISOT in Spacebattles.
That just shows than you simply cannot trust a commie left unsupervised. I seldom read BT, but I love ISOTs of all kinds, so I just had to check. Several days of archive binge later, losing all my spare time and a few hours of extra sleep than I probably did not need anyway, here I am, a new fen.
Somewhen in the next years months days I will post a profile of my character, so I'd like to ask if there are some rough guidelines I should follow, and if I have too many Mary Sue traits than I need to tone down:
-I planned to make him early fen: A spaniard, independiently biomodded at home about the same time of That Con, and fled the planet in paranioa after the 17 biomods were sent somewere; by the time he knew Europe was not going the Area 51 route, he was already hiding in the moon. And the Professor had started his Reign of Terror, so he decided the Cry and Run Like a Little Girl school of Conflict Resolution was still perfectly valid, just in case. Mostly because, as clumsy as I am, I would not dare to use (mych less 'wave a spaceship) illegal handwavium after the scares and restrictions appeared.
-He'll start with a former laptop AI, a biomodded dog, and a handwaved excavator he "borrowed" from an open pit mine, but he will eventually create a big construction company, with several offices in the planets and main moons, and build a town in luna to live; at the end of the the Boskone war he will start building a huge space station in the style of warhammer 40K cathedral ships.
-While talking about Mary Sue traits, and my own lack of skills as a builder, corporate mogul and/or geneticist, I could try for a more logical extrapolaition... but I suspect the story woudl go "25 october, 13:00, launch. To boldy go where no Excavator has gone before!. 25 october, 13:12. Breaking news, live! A trail of burning shapnel and burned bits has opened a path of destrucion across northern Spain"
-So I will simply handwave (literally...) the problems. My fen will be more tech savvy than I am to start with, and the biomod will somehow increase his skills in the required sciences. Or it will make him more insane and eliminate the mental blocks to those skills, who knows.
-The skills in question: Since fenspace is about sci-fi dreams, mine have always been terraformation, exotic planes and pulp space opera civilizations. When I though about available vehicles, the excavators in the mine near my grandmother's village were the first thing I though, so the space construction company was born; but I miss the "terraformation" part. The ideal objetives of Genesis Construction and Development would be to enter a solar system with an empty planet, and leave it with a working biosphere and an entire planetary infraestructure built, ready for people. So I wanted to add "genetic engeneering" to my Mad Sceintis set of skills, but I do not want to infringe in The Jason, who as far as I know is Fenspace's Mad Botanist. I have settled in this:

----*The basic skillset is building things, from space-worthy cottages to city domes and full space stations. With a side of droid construction, as this was originally done with the help of robots, before there was enoug money to pay for human masons and builders. This is split in two with Bernie the AI doing the building blueprints, and Oscar creating the robots; both have some skills in the other's field, but this is their main expertise. Even if the droids look disturbingly insectoid sometimes.
----*Oscar is quite good at genetic alteration in bacteria, and can build animals and proteine vats which mostly work as he wanted then to (he gets better as time goes on). You could claim he is algo very good at designing plantlife. If you meant to create carnivore and/or blood drinking vegetables than ocasionally move when you are not looking. He will loudly claim to anyone who asks than, yes, that is what he wanted to do. But he will buy any of his biomoded plant life from The Jason. Eventually, one or more of the droids will Awaken; one of those will have botanic talent and settle as the company's Gardener.
-The biomod: Originally I wanted to try some sort of space elf or hanyou, being a nerd and all, but Dracula was on TV and I noticed than there is a lack of gothic monster fen in the setting. So I am a "vampire". Since turning to ashes in sunlight and feeding only human blood are deadly in space (where is is always day and there seldom is someone nearby) those quirks are a bit toned down, but still present.
When disolving his original solid handawe in water, he accidentally got a papercut, and discovered it disolved much faster with a drop of blood in the water. Later, while he was brushing some of the handwaved water to his laptop battery, the dog came to play. An almost grown Spanish Mastiff puppy running over a ceramic floor is not the best braker on the animal kingdom; the crash dumped half the bucket over himself, the dog and the laptop. Two days later, the laptop was an AI, the dog was the size of a pony and Oscar had lost his tan. And hearbeat.
-Faction: One of his "dark secrets" is than he never was a harcore fan. He has seen all of the Star Wasr movies... and that's it. Before leaving earth, he had never watched all the episodes of any other series: Star Trek, Buffy, Babylon 5, Naruto... He has watched part of the, but never the entire series. He knows most of those mainly from fanfiction.
In the faction politics, he is a generalist, but he is a firm supporter of Victorian steampunk; anything he builds ends full of monuments, marble, gothic butresses, statues, glass, brass fittings and so on. He sees utilitarian architecture as something a couple steps above thionite farming, and will only build such as a purety temporaty measure for emergency use. One that will not last a single second more than the necesary time to end the emergency and build the proper way. He will not step inside places like Moonbase Alpha unless absolutely necessary.
Following the victorian styles, he always dresses in 19th century formal wear (always white, but that is due to one of his quirks). All that tuxedo-wearing has had an strange effect: He is actually more on line with the pulpers, but since he more or less moved shop to Bristol while the Crystal cities were under construction, the senshi have somehow decided he is one of then. And there are those who dump him with the gearheads, much to his irritation. Do not mention the Stig to him.
He lives in the lunar city of Marduk, which he and Bernie slowly built as a base and then hometown. While he owns most of the city (he rents the houses to the inhabitants), he does not rule it; it elects a mayor. Built in stone, with a castle in the top, and a vampire lord, the city has become an unoficial haven for the gothic fen. He won't claim to head the gothic faction -indeed, he says there is no such faction. That does not stop some of then from calling him the Count when out of his hearing. Should you visit, enjoy the monumental views, the excellent cafès, the theater and opera houses. And do not ask about the four wooden, ten feet long impaling stakes than have been stuck in the plaza overlooking the castle gates since the Ninja Incident.

So, is there something I need to change or tone down? And what kind of past relationship is he allowed to have with the protagonists? I did not paln for him to be bosom biddies with Nah Scot or something of the sort, but maybe being in speaking terms with some movers ans skahers and such.

Welcome to the forums, Rakhasa. I'll let the others help you dovetail your ideas into the setting; I'll just say that I'm impressed by your energy and creativity, and warn that potential BNFs are hard to incorporate into Fenspace after all these years. But it's not impossible.
-- Bob
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Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

I like the vampire thing. I like it alot.

Not being hardcore fandom isn't really that much of a dark secret, however. The sort of people who might look down on him for that are generally looked down on by everybody else. I've never watched all of Buffy or Babylon 5 (I never had a TV station that carried them while they ran in this country).

Human blood might be possible to mitigate if you could convince the Jason to allow you to grow your own specialist blood oranges. Or use those which can't be used for medical purposes for whatever reason.

Intra-character relationships can be tough. Part of me wants to advise building them over the course of stories, but at the same time if you don't 'know' that many people in Fenspace it's tough for other people to include your character in their stories.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?

Greenwood Colonial Administration will be glad to hire a construction company like this to help build Greenwood City. Marsden is quite fond of the Victorian architecture aesthetic himself.

That'll give you an in with the 'right-wing' of SMOF-dom, at least...
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

I had thought to use the blood oranges as they are, no specialist brand needed... Does Jason sell then to anyone who has the credits, or he only sells to hospitals I would need to convince him or steal the stuff? Mmm. not a bad idea, Ill add it.
The human blood is necessary to look "human", if pale, but he does not need it to survive. He actually needs to eat normal foods to remain healthy.
The longer he spends without blood, the more his biomod looks like a vamp refugee from Buffy -he spent the entire first year (and change) looking like that, which he kept hidden under his space helm.
He can use animal blood instead -it only makes him look like a well preserver corpse. His first proyect not involved with the inmediate survival needs (the interior of a Excavatos it rather small for a humanoid and a 300 pounds dog) was to buidl a rabbit farm, to feed him and the dog; he eventually genemoded miniature pigs (rabbit-sized) and cows (goat -sized) for variety, as they are easier to raise in space stations than their full sized siblings. (they are too small for steaks, but sausages and burgers are another thing). The main quirk is than they always taste rare, no matter how much you cook then.
He had the Midget Pig 2.0 (with human substitute blood) on the design phase when the blood oranges appeared, and he stole/bought then for his stores. The original Beth strain works, but gives him a sugar rush. The medical-grade oranges work as a substitute, but are mostly tasteless. He began to develop a personalized strain, but mostly dropped the research at the start of the war; the fist Vampire Orange did not bloom until mid-2014.

P.D.  Not being hardcore fanon is not much of a dark secret, but things finding Sailor Moon (from an pseudo-senshi) silly and the Federation wordbuilding more plotholle filled than Rowling's probably should be. I think I just had an idea for anotehr quirk.

Hello, and welcome to the madhouse!

I'm already liking Oscar... I noticed a few questions and comments about him and his place in Fenspace; perhaps I can answer some of them.

Rakhasa Wrote:So, is there something I need to change or tone down? And what kind of past relationship is he allowed to have with the protagonists? I did not paln for him to be bosom biddies with Nah Scot or something of the sort, but maybe being in speaking terms with some movers ans skahers and such.

Since you're planning on making him one of the early Fen (possibly one of the First Fen), it would make sense for him to at least know of the major players in early Fenspace, even if he doesn't know them personally.

He's likely to be one of the experts that the Mars Terraforming Project and the Venus Terraforming Project consult, even if only rarely.

Since he has some genetic engineering experience, he probably knows Leda Swansen, one of the first "native" Fenspace genetic engineers. He may even have worked with her, although she is a Senshi...

Bob Schroeck Wrote:I'll let the others help you dovetail your ideas into the setting; I'll just say that I'm impressed by your energy and creativity, and warn that potential BNFs are hard to incorporate into Fenspace after all these years. But it's not impossible.

I think Rakhasa can work his character in quite easily, actually.

Oscar is a builder of places, a Goth, and a resident of Luna but not of Kandor – those are three things that nobody else has explored yet. He's always been there; we just haven't looked in his direction yet.

Rakhasa Wrote:I had thought to use the blood oranges as they are, no specialist brand needed... Does Jason sell then to anyone who has the credits, or he only sells to hospitals I would need to convince him or steal the stuff? Mmm. not a bad idea, Ill add it.

Blood Oranges are available to anyone who wants them. The Jason gives them away to people who he thinks can make good use of them, and StellviaCorp follows suit with their small orchard of Blood Oranges.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

A few questions and comments:
1) Is the pooch vampiric as well?  If so, he could have a 'hellhound' look when short on blood instead of Oscar's corpse-like effect.
2) I can see one of Oscar's botany experiments creating a giant, talking flytrap that goes by the name Audrey. 8P
3) I'm not sure I'm correctly picturing what Oscar's excavator looks like, maybe you could post a link to a picture.
4) that first trip to the moon was likely uncomfortable for Oscar, the top speed for most fencraft tends to be lower the more the craft masses, an escavator would have a fairly high mass to crewspace ratio.  Likewise, unless that escavator has some really wild quirks, it won't be capable of making a habitable structure on the moon by itself.  Just something to consider.
5) speaking of which, keep in mind, to make a vehical fully spaceworth, you need to completely coat it with Wavium,   Maybe Oscar gave the Escavator a powerwash on a saturday night, then took off onthe sunday?  That would help get around the chance of something wierd happening durring a workshift. 8)
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

Most likely not a bucket wheel excavator. Through I do want to see one of those lifting off in Germany and go to the Belt...

Quote:Timote wrote:

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A few questions and comments:
1) Is the pooch vampiric as well?  If so, he could have a 'hellhound' look when short on blood instead of Oscar's corpse-like effect.

Quote:I had no though about it, except for the part of "a huge dog in space"... but this is fenspace, there is probably some law about not taking a joke to the very end, so yes, the pooch is vampiric, coal black and with glowing red eyes. It also was not quite one year old yet when the party left earth, and Oscar  remembers it when it was a fluffy ball than sat on his lap. He tends to act as if the monster still was a puppy, which sometimes creeps other people.
Yep, everyone is a vampire, laptop and excavator included. The rug was soaked in the original accident, too, but it only seemed to look prettier and change colors. He sold it to some guy in his first stop (Stellvia, to get supplies), so if it developed further quirks that's whathisname problem...

2) I can see one of Oscar's botany experiments creating a giant, talking flytrap that goes by the name Audrey. 8P

Quote:Maybe. After the first batch of Piranha Kelp he has not quite dared to make further experiments with big plants... it simply was meant to be part of an hidroponics life support system, you know. Well, actually, it _is_ a full 5% more eficient at oxygen production than The Jason's kelp. But The Jason's have... lets say, less exotic nutitional needs. And they do not stare at you. (yes, it has no eyes. Trust me, it is staring)

3) I'm not sure I'm correctly picturing what Oscar's excavator looks like, maybe you could post a link to a picture.
4) that first trip to the moon was likely uncomfortable for Oscar, the top speed for most fencraft tends to be lower the more the craft masses, an escavator would have a fairly high mass to crewspace ratio.  Likewise, unless that escavator has some really wild quirks, it won't be capable of making a habitable structure on the moon by itself.  Just something to consider.
5) speaking of which, keep in mind, to make a vehical fully spaceworth, you need to completely coat it with Wavium,   Maybe Oscar gave the Escavator a powerwash on a saturday night, then took off onthe sunday?  That would help get around the chance of something wierd happening durring a workshift. 8)

The original excavator was the biggest there was to be found in the mine, a Hitachi ex5500:

 
The original trip was VERY unconfortable: look at the size of the cabin, vamp and pooch could barely move. Specially since the dog had no space suit (an oversight). Once in Luna, he added panels all aroud the greater structure, where the handrails are, so it upgrated to "you can use it for long trips" (the doors on the first "deck" go to the motors and such)
But, speed? What is that "speed" thing? The machine is a monster, 500 tons. If the specs are right, it rides at a staggering 2,2 km/hr. Once 'waved, if flies, but it probably is the slowest of its size, aroud 0.03-0.04c top speed like a full space ship or even a vessel..
For the waving, you guessed right. Oscar spent a couple of days mixing handwave, water and a cup or two of blood, in an old barrel, and then he went on a saturday and spent the evening spraying the liquid with the help of an herbicide sprayer. After some discuriosn, he ane Bernie decided to conect the laptop with the AI to the controls and leave it all day; he took off in the night of the next day. Since it was a weekend, no one was working on the mine. And the night watch was a third cousin (advantages of small villages in mining regions)
It can make an habitable structure, but not "by itself", and if needed further work in Luna to do it.
-The pre-waved computer was filled with most of the city builder and similar games, which to this day are my favorites: Sim City, Caesar, Pharaoh, Stronghold, , etc. That probaby is the reason Bernie is the "architect" of the company, and it seems it affected the waving of the excavator, wich set itself as a conrturction droid. (also, Starcraft and Alfa Centauri. Oscar watches Bernie very carefully when he wanders inside the genetic labs, in case of sudden mindowm or zerg swarms)
-Placing an already waved computer with an AI changed the way to work the machine. You can fly it, and move the arm with some very basic actions (namely, grappling another ship to tow), but anything else needs a specially designed computer controller -the original laptop with Bernie, or the following advanced versions.
-The arm of the excavator changed into a full arm with metallic fingers, able to not only excavate, but to pick and manipulate things. The "hull" was also covered by empty sockets, wich after some examination on both machine and computer once safe in the moon, turned out to be the places to put modular gadgets like cutting lasers, solders, drills, smaller manipulator hands, and coffee makers. After upgrading the living space, creating those gadgets was the second proyect, which turned the machine (wich I have to find a name for, dammit) from an oversized excavator and crane into a full contruction droid. The machine will be slower unless al leats half of the sockets are filled.
-It runs on the original 'wave mixture: 500 liters water, one kilo solid or grey 'wavium, and two cups of human blood (all human biomods included, from vampire to klingon, but no blood oranges). Further experiments have discovered than adding a cup of machine oil and another of coffee will increass the effificiency a 10%. European expresso coffee, that is. It will decrease 10% if you use American coffee, and a further 5% if it is Starbucks coffee.

Edit: And now I NEED to have a bucket wheel excavator. That will be the second droid of the company.

Ben would probably be a familiar face for him. He's one of (if not THE) fastest couriers in Fenspace until he got involved with Operation: Great Justice and started the Roughriders. He'd probably also sell a pint of his own blood now and then because, at the time, he was saving up money to buy his first SR-71.

Ben would also love the Vidtorian/Steam Punk city. Cafes are one of his favorite things - so much nicer than a bar. If there is one that likes to brew premium blends of coffee and tea while showcasing local art and music without acting like total snobs about it, then it would be one of his favorite places in the system.

Also, if Oscar does get that Bucket Wheel Excavator droid... Ben would have use for it. Digging the foundations for the parkland/agriculture domes on 36 Atalante in the later half of the Boskonian War.

Rakhasa Wrote:It can make an habitable structure, but not "by itself", and if needed further work in Luna to do it.
-The pre-waved computer was filled with most of the city builder and similar games, which to this day are my favorites: Sim City, Caesar, Pharaoh, Stronghold, , etc. That probaby is the reason Bernie is the "architect" of the company, and it seems it affected the waving of the excavator, wich set itself as a conrturction droid. (also, Starcraft and Alfa Centauri. Oscar watches Bernie very carefully when he wanders inside the genetic labs, in case of sudden mindowm or zerg swarms)

Just don't forget that Handwavium is not magic, so don't overdo the flexibility of your ideas.

Quote:Edit: And now I NEED to have a bucket wheel excavator. That will be the second droid of the company.

Difficult, very difficult... these things are huge, and stealing one would definitely nothing you can easily do.

Maybe build a "miniature version" later on the moon, the original ones are 200+m long, up to 100 meter high and have a mass of up to 14000 tons.

huh, that's bigger than I was picturing.  I was thinking of a more basic, construction steamshovel type excavator.  This one would be somewhat roomier at least, and it looks like there is a cabin/engine room on the lower level as well, although as you pointed out, getting to it without sucking vaccum is a problem (orginally at least). Upgrading to an actual hull allows you to modify the 'upper deck' into crew quarters.
I am having some rouble picturing how the dog gets up to the topdeck.  maybe replace the ladder with a set of stairs.  Luckily it looks like you have a bit more room to work with at the back.
Keep in mind that if he was a early Fen, there may not have been much of a settlement/presence on Luna to stop at.
As for the bucket excavator, anyone else picturing one accompanying the Great Justice assault on Boskon Prime and playing 'can-opener'? 8)
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

Quote:HRogge wrote:

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Just don't forget that Handwavium is not magic, so don't overdo the flexibility of your ideas.

Difficult, very difficult... these things are huge, and stealing one would definitely nothing you can easily do.
Maybe build a "miniature version" later on the moon, the original ones are 200+m long, up to 100 meter high and have a mass of up to 14000 tons.

I know.  I will confess than I meant to simply "magic" the excavator into a construction droid, but I suspected it would be excessive; that's why I finally had the original 'wave to just change the arm and all the rest of the construction elements will have to be built and added later.
And what do you meant, "miniature"? Spoil all the awesomeness? Bigger Is Better. But I did not plan to steal it, rather buy (or build) one. Except for the initial theft, done while running in fear for his life (or so he thought), I planned to make Oscar as honest as possible when you are an insane handwavium mad doctor living in the moon. With a private lab.
  

Quote:Timote wrote:

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I am having some rouble picturing how the dog gets up to the topdeck.  maybe replace the ladder with a set of stairs.  Luckily it looks like you have a bit more room to work with at the back.
Keep in mind that if he was a early Fen, there may not have been much of a settlement/presence on Luna to stop at.
As for the bucket excavator, anyone else picturing one accompanying the Great Justice assault on Boskon Prime and playing 'can-opener'? 8)

Everyone has trouble picturing how the dog gets up, including Oscar. Indeed, when you try to get it up by yourself is a nightmare. That never stoped the damm mutt to get up anyway when no one was looking, and you did not want it up there unsupervised, chewing your latest laser module prototype.
I checked the wiki, and I will be up before Stellvia (april 4, 2008), wich I meant to be my first stop. I'll run sometime in january 2008, but Starbase 1 began in november, so there will be somewere to stop. Does someone know when the construction of Kandor started? Because it wouldbe the perfect time to move shop to the moon and start in the construction business.
I was thinking more on the lines of "battering ram", but I think I will design a can opener function when Great Justice starts and send a couple or three of excavator ships...

Also, the quirks:
And the name, wich I just realized I did not say: His name is Oscar Vykos -he did not want to get something cliche like Dracula or Sanguinus, so he selected the first less known (but still cool-sounding) vampire surname he though (Sasha Vykos, Tzimische from Vampire: The Masquerade. He only later rememebred Vykos is a female. Most of the time, because, well, Tzimische).
The dog is Tristan (his original pre-mod name), the AI is Bernini ("Bernie"), and the ship is Scorpio.
The biomod advantages are your standard vampiric package, strentgh, speed, fast healing, and such. He looks younger, in his late teens, and is much paler. He has not aged visibly, but it it too soon to know if he is actually unaging or only looks unaging
Mundane quirks:
-I am not the Stig, dammit!: When he left earth, he 'waved a boilersuit and a bike helmet, which he painted white beforehand because he was (and still is) convinced than handwavium works better if you follow the proper dramatic conventions: Space suits are white, so his had to be white. If he had a satellite with BBC International, or if Top Gear had begun airing in Spain in 2007, rather than 2011, he probably would have chosen bright orange instead. He spent the time a certain british TV crew were working in Mars making sure he was all the time in very visible locations in Kandor.
-It will get worse: A cinic, he always wants to jump and ready himself for the worst (or most irritating) outcome, even if it would not be the best solution. Since the last time he did that, he ended up in space with a stolen excavator and almost no supplies (when he actually could have stayed home with no legal problems), now he waits and thinks to see if the action is needed. But he still will get ready for the worsk outcome anyway, should it be necessary.
'Wave quirks:
-Drinks blood. He needs to eat normal foor -though in smaller portions than a normal human would need, but he also needs a steady diet of blood. Normally he only looks pale, but after a week lacking human blood, he looks like a reanimated corpse. After two weeks, his face starts to change into a a vampire's "gameface" from the Buffy series; at three weeks, the change is full. He does not know yet, because the longest he had been without food is seven weeks, but if he stays six months dry, he will start to change into the next evolution of Buffy vamps, Kakistos's mutant goat body.
Animal blood keeps him in the "reanimated corpse" stage. Frozen human blood will work as normal blood, but tastes terrible. Blood Oranges, once developed, work as a substitute. Normal oranges have no taste, while the original, 'wavium laced strain will give him a sugar rush.
-Daylight sensitive: His sight gets really bad, and has a constant, low level headache, when he is under the daylight. It is much, much worse in Earth itself. Now, "night" is that time when there is a celestial body between you and the sun (usually, the planet under your feet). Which means, in space it is always day. Fortunately, this quirk only seems to act when he is on an actual planet or moon.
-Sleep in your home ground: While he does not need to sleep in a coffin buried in his birth soil, as some vampire myths, he cannor rest properly when not in a planet or moon. If he lives on a space station or ship, he will feel more trired as time goes on.
-The Power of Blood: All his original 'wavium experiments, including his biomod, were done with a mixture of wavium, water and blood. Now he cannot use any liquit form of handwavium if it is not mixed with a few drops of blood -and blood orange blood does not count. Not surprisingly, this tends to cause weird quirks.
-Always White: This is one of those weird quirks. He always dresses in white formal clothes. That, he claims, is because blood shows better in white. The truth is than he waved his first space suit by mixing the blood wavium and normal white paint, and dumping the clothes inside. Ever since then, any clothes he handwaves will turn white. He could  use unwaved clothes, or let someone else wave then. But they probably would not add the extra reinforcement for stakes (wich may be a myth, btu he is not going to risk discovering otherwise)
After many, many failed efforts, he finally discovered than a 50% of blood in the mixture will change the color (to blood red), so now he ocasionally will appear with red hankerchiefs and shirts. He had never bothered to explain why he hanwdaves his handkerchief, either. For some reason, people find a vampire dressing in a white suit and a blood red shirt just as creepy as a vamp dressed all in white. People are weird like that.
-Red Tumb. From a certain point of view, he is very good at creating waved plants. Those plants are, without exception, blood drinkers or flesh eaters, move on their own -some ove then even walk on their own, and stare at you hungrily. Even when you could swear they have no eyes. So this "point of view" is shared by few people. Just never wander inside the gardens of the Ziggurath Labs.
-That makes no sense! His exposure to fandom was, mainly, via fanfiction. So he has developed a very low tolerance for plotholes and stupid story arcs, both in fanfiction and the originals. No matter how much he tries, he will not be able to reproduce any fictional technology or magitech than creates a plothole, requires the cast to he handed the Stupid Ball, or simply makes not sense in general. That happens even if he is sitting besides a trekkie who is actually building said tech, succesfully.

Rakhasa Wrote:

Quote:HRogge wrote:

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Just don't forget that Handwavium is not magic, so don't overdo the flexibility of your ideas.

Difficult, very difficult... these things are huge, and stealing one would definitely nothing you can easily do.
Maybe build a "miniature version" later on the moon, the original ones are 200+m long, up to 100 meter high and have a mass of up to 14000 tons.

I know.  I will confess than I meant to simply "magic" the excavator into a construction droid, but I suspected it would be excessive; that's why I finally had the original 'wave to just change the arm and all the rest of the construction elements will have to be built and added later.
And what do you meant, "miniature"? Spoil all the awesomeness? Bigger Is Better. But I did not plan to steal it, rather buy (or build) one. Except for the initial theft, done while running in fear for his life (or so he thought), I planned to make Oscar as honest as possible when you are an insane handwavium mad doctor living in the moon. With a private lab.

Just keep things in mind as "where the hell do I get the stuff to build the excavator" and everything is fine.

One problem as an early Fen is that there is no support infrastructure. Nothing where you can buy stuff or get help. If your original excavator doesn't have a dual-door airlock, your dog (for example) would simply die the first time your leave your Excavator to wave some stuff you have built with the moondust around.

Building something with a mass of 10000+ tons is a huge thing for a single person, there are thousands of small things you will need to get and to work on before you can even get close to it. Don't make everything look to easy, otherwise you quickly loose projects for the future. ^^

Rakhasa Wrote:I checked the wiki, and I will be up before Stellvia (april 4, 2008), wich I meant to be my first stop. I'll run sometime in january 2008, but Starbase 1 began in november, so there will be somewere to stop. Does someone know when the construction of Kandor started? Because it wouldbe the perfect time to move shop to the moon and start in the construction business.

I don't believe we've ever established the founding dates for Starbase 1 or Kandor City. Feel free to set them to whatever you need for your story.

(A thought: perhaps Oscar dug Lake Tekuza in Kandor City?)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Starbase 1 is said to be launched in "november 2007"; no exact date. November 10  is as good a day as any. Also, it eventually moved at an unamed date ("when the Utopia Planitia Settlement was built", wich was in... late 2007). Let's take this "built" with a grain of salt, and claim than they waited until Utopis was a proper settlement. Starbase left Earth orbit in (closes eyes and touches the calendar) 7 October 2008.For Kandor, we know than, per the Wiki timeline, "Fall/Winter 2007: First wave of handwavium-equipped explorers hit orbit, Luna, Mars", and also than the Watchower is the oldest structure in Luna.The second part has to be poetic license: The supers would need to build shelters for thenselves first, before they could start the Watchtower.. Even then, those shelters probably would have been temporay. (In fact, given his manias, they would be temporary if Oscar had any kind of say in the city design, to be changed by prettier houses as soon as the Watchower had available living space) The official start of construction date can be the 1rst of January, 2008, to celebrate the new year.I have the basic timeline for the first few months, subject to chance for dramatic purposes once I start to write the origins fic:-17 october, 2007: Finds some handwavium in the garden.-28-29 october: Biomod acident, a bucket of water and 'wavium falls on him, the dog and the laptop. Also, the news of That Con break on the TV. He wakes vamped, panics, hears the news about the other biomoded gettign taken away by the USA governent, panics even worse, flees the city and hides in his parents country house.-November:  Still hiding. Discovers the first quirks of his mod. Absolutely refuses to see any doctor. His parents strongarm him to get checked by one of his cousins, a nurse. Not than she knows anything about accidntal biomods, but she is able to get surplus blood from the hospital.-10 November: Construction of Starbase 1 begins. A slow news day, it appears in the "human interest" section of the news.-26 november. His dog is discovered. Unfortunately, no one had noticed than the agent who investigates was slowly suffering a nervous breakdown and religous mania due to the "demonic mutations". As soon as he appears, he starts shooting. Oscar picks Bernie the AI, and the three of then run away for the hills. Literally: They hide in one of the abandoned mine shafts he used to play in as a child. A public opinion storm begins, but he is unaware of this.-29 november: Still unaware of the news, and with newly increaside paranoia levels, he thinks the cop actions are sanctioned. He decides it is not safe anymore in Earth. That night, he retuns home, grabs a couple of bags with necesites, and 'waves himself a space suit.-30 november: Starts 'waving Scorpio-1 December, midnight: Scorpio launchs towards Starbase 1. Too late, he notices the dog lacks a space suit.-December: To earn some money and get supplies, he works in the construction of Starbase 1; at its current level, Scorpio is slow, but can to tow very heavy materials and move panels in place. He builds the fisrt scorpio add on, the walls of Deck 1, which increase living space. Tired all the time, he thinks it is due to a lack of blood. The dog gets his suit, and his movil gets a 'wave coating to contact his family.-December 23: Travels to Luna to haul some cargo for the Watchower proyect. Delays in the unloading make him remain in luna to sleep. He discovers the "sleep in your home ground" quirk.-December 26: After a couple more days of bad sleep, he decides than he cannot live in a space station permanently. He leaves Starbase 1 and asks to join the Watchower proyect. He picks some of the construction materials used to build shelters, which he uses to finish Deck 1 and build Deck 2 in Scorpio.-January 1, 2008: With a small ceremony and a bigger party, the first stone of the Watchtower is placed.And this is the Scorpio soon after Deck 2 was added. Not that the part with the hand is all that good, but it is the best my skills could do:[img]http://www.accessdenied-rms.net/forums/forumimportfiles/cd63620d70bd01a0597ea00180cef2955ddff5c0_r.bmp">I noticed than the wiki character images are mostly 3-D drawings. Is there some rule about, not to put too fine a point about it, steal a picture from soemwere in the vast 'net? Because that is how I picture Vykos, but I could not draw it by myself if my life depended on it (I can pass without photo in the profile, but aksing beforehand is not that hard...)  

The primary point is that the images have to be "free and clear" so original art or public domain images.
''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

Well, I don't get all that exercised about it - this is in many ways fanfic after all, IP theft is our very life's blood. But some of the others tend to get a little worked up about it, so do what feels right.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

I do not care all that much, but it the others do care, then it costs nothing to avoid the problem. I edited out the picture.

My take is that I'd rather not see somebody complain about their IP being on the wiki (especially a government), so I don't put copyrighted files on the wiki.

As for the 3-D art... you don't want to see my pencil drawings.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

robkelk Wrote:My take is that I'd rather not see somebody complain about their IP being on the wiki (especially a government), so I don't put copyrighted files on the wiki.

I support this.

There are lawyers earning their money just by searching for "copyright infringements like this... we don't want to get involved with them until we have our own "off Earth" bases finished. ^^

Another new guy appears! Should I post a character in this thread, or start a new one myself?

Hello, and welcome!

It might be better to start a new thread for a new character. That way, we won't get the two mixed up. (Besides, we've got plenty of room for new threads...)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

Welcome, Nick! Rob has the right of it, as this is a thread Rakhasa started to get reactions and commentary on his new avatar.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

Welcome, Nick. Yes, start a new thread. It will separate your character(s) form mine.

Also, Mal advices me than you can use your avatar thread to ask those random trivia questions than may not deserve a new thread on its own...

Like this one: What do I have to do to sing up in the wiki? It's not urgent, because I have yet to learn how to actually create a wiki page, but the sooner I create the primary stubs, the less chances I have to procastrinate...