FTL Is Magic - 04/Sep/2012
April 2010, USA/L5
Dora looked at her pony, Bella.  She knew she might never see her again.  Mummy and Daddy had explained - they were "going up".  And Bella couldn't come.
Daddy had tried to explain.  He was an engineer, a really good one, but there weren't any jobs for him.  Mummy was a teacher, and she was working as hard as she could, just to keep them going.
"I know you love that pony, sweetie.  But, she's not really yours, she's shared with a lot of other kids.  You only get to ride her because Auntie Gwen is a family friend.  We can't afford to pay her, these days."
They were taking the family camper van, and Daddy's old SUV, loaded up with engineering stuff.  Daddy had "waved" them up.  Their first stop was somewhere called "Stellvia", that Dora had never heard of.  She couldn't find it in Mummy's old atlas, either, so it couldn't be very important.
She'd heard Daddy and Mummy talking, about what to take, what to leave behind. About something called a "second mortgage".  About a "magic green gunk", that was for use if they had a really emergency.
Leaving Bella behind was a real emergency.  So, Dora had soaked some slices of apple, in the magic stuff.  Bella ate them up.  Now everything would be alright.
Dora didn't know what happened.  Just before they left, she kept looking out. Nothing.  There was a phone call from the stables.  Bella had fallen ill and they were calling a vet.  Mummy and Daddy wouldn't let her go and see.  They had to leave.
...
"Noah?"
"Would you mind coming down here?"
"I think this is is one of those 'executive decisions'."
"There's a pony knocking on the outside of the airlock.  I think she wants to come in."

Postscript
Bella is going to try and find Dora and family.  Dora and family are probably going to have to find somewhere to live where no one is going to get upset about Bella being around.  And, figure out a way to pay Gwen for Uplifting one of her most popular ponies.
And, there is going to be concern as to whether Dora has accidentally biomodded herself (she didn't - she read and followed the handling instructions her father put on the 'childproof' container).
Bella isn't really one of the existing types, and when she escaped from the stables she was just an intelligent, talking, pony, with no obvious other abilities.  She tracked back to Dora's (abandoned) home, then used Dora's fathers workshop to
make a 'pony harness'.  This included some abandoned electronics, MLP media, and
the handwavium produced a harness giving flight, a credible space-proof force
field, and a touch-range tractor-presser manipulative capability. Bella then
followed Dora 'up'.
Bella is going to choose a new name, probably something like "Uplift Friend" ("Bella" is a human name).  She acquired a cutie mark of a golden cog wheel with a stylised pink heart superimposed.  Otherwise her appearance is pearl-coloured with a brown mane and tail, much like her original colouring, though she didn't originally have a short silver-coloured unicorn horn.  She doesn't have a trace of magical talent - instead handwavium likes her.  I guess you could call her a 'Tinkerfairy'.
What Noah saw when he looked at what was outside his airlock was a pony (wearing a harness) within a globe of coloured light (that happens to hold in an atmosphere),
and which forms fluttering brighter bands that look from a distance like
a hummingbird's blurring wings.

Dora, her family and Bella (whatever she ends up calling herself) are Open Characters.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

With my computer still down for the count, what do I do? Get my P&P on! These are scans of preliminary pencil sketches (hence the poor quality) for mm latest brainstorm, the Motodyne Type 26. However, I'm still lacking a common name for it - current ideas are on the larger image, with tpo contenders starred. Splinter wpould be an engrish pun on its speed, Kaross on deliberate adherence to NeoverseOmega's ode to the VF-4 and its "I have defeated a plane in personal combat and skinned it, now I wear it as a pelt" design aesthetic, and Kestrel just because it's a carnivorous bird that sounds cool. I'm open to other suggestions, but since the Skate I've tried to use S, K, SK, and/or or SH names in honor of The Master (Skate, Skorpion, Kite, Kyrie, some less successful designs.)

Transformation is not really anything like the canon variable devices, though there's a bit of VF-4 and VF-11 in the torso, and the secondary engines/wings fold over like the SW-XA II or VF-2SS. Exact arrangement of the upper arms/legs and hence underside is waiting on making a 3d model, but of the visible panels on the back, starting from the tail, the two on either side of the main engines/lower legs (and yes, all engines have a stealth trench - I've got a way to turn those into robot feet that should be awesome) are lower arm shield parts (and may be narrowed in the final version) while the jagged little panels forward of them are what the secondary engines hinge to and end up mostly vertical inside the back. The wide panel across the front is the main shoulder area and will be tipped forward at a low angle, with the cockpit mostly horizontal under it. The center part is the flat form of a transforming head. The two sort of triangular side pieces connecting to the nose are the VF-11 influenced part, and the nosecone folds down like the VF-4 to keep from being a huge uniboob ala VF-19. As with the Skate (the white/blue/gold 3d model I posted a link to in the gallery not long ago) the entire "snake head" cockpit/nose can detatch as an escape pod with limited thruster ability for orbital transfer or powered flight/independent atmospheric reentry as a lifting body, though it's dependent on attitude thrusters rather than canards for steering because I couldn't fit them into this transformation.

Those butterfly-vectored thrust verniers would probably be the death of any pretence to stealth in reality, but I reject that reality, this is MECHA! Rule of Cool prevails over mere pedestrian physics!

Anyway, pretties.

The three quarter view is nicer, but has some innacuracies in angle and proportion compared to the top-down version, thoguh that also some some bits already planned for change - like I said these are just preliminary sketches. The whole thing, while sleek, will be quite bulky through the body; it's a cross between an lifting body and blended wing design. I'm actually more concerned about what I'm going to do with all the volume than how to fit all the parts inside it for once

I should be able to fit the trademark Barrier Sword at least in for integrated carriage, maybe a gunpod or two as well, and a VF-27 style mega-gun can mount to one or both of the visible forearm panels, swinging around like the VF-171EX's when it transforms. Full Variable Armor is also in the works, of course.



Edit: Fixed halfassed 'shop to be at least 3/4 assed.
--
"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

The plans for the "Julian Friez Machine" (JFM) are in the public domain - the Professor publishes the plans for everything he makes, for the good of SCIENCE!
Now, if someone, lets call them the "Student", decides to build a JFM from the plans, what do they need to do?
Do the plans include something like "Find Julian Friez, and do this", which might involve replicating the indignities the Professor carried out on JF when he made the original machine?
The reason I ask this is because the JFM (or more precisely the derived Catgirling Machine) is really quite important to the Fenspace setting.  It seems likely more than one person has read those plans with an eye to building the JFM, so as to better understand the problem.  In the existing material there isn't a suggestion that JF is bothered by more than the Professor, so it seemed sensible to ask.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

Folks who were on last night might have heard me mention a spontaneous sit-in under the statue in Virtue's Atlas Park.  Here's a screenshot of it:

(click image to go to full-size shot)
It was, however, a very dynamic thing, with people coming in and out for quite a while.
Oh, and word was that video maker Samuraiko was going to the sit-ins and taking shots for an upcoming protest video.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

 
Here is a short write up of Arthur Nkomo as White Knigth of the Hellfire Club, pending Brian's approval or any needed changes if he needs a different background for MFoOS.

In line with the efforts to make fenspace less of a western/japanese playground, Arthur is African. The lucky (because he left Earth and is not here anymore) nation is Kenya, due to the beautiful landscapes, long and fascinating history, and because it was the African nation under my finger after I closed my eyes and touched the map.

He is also on the upper class side of the social scale, because, unfortunately, very few of the average african youth can afford to be internet lurkers or sci-fi nerds. Let's all hope this changes soon and everyone can afford some small frivolities in their lives.

Arthur Nkomo

Arthur was born in Mombasa. His father was an assistant in Kenya's diplomatic service, so he spent most of his youth being raised by his grandparents or moving from embassy to embassy, while his father climbed the ranks to full Ambassador.

He studied in the Institute Of Diplomacy And International Studies in the University of Nairobi, but his passion had always been cop shows, so he added courses in forensics and computers sciences. He was expected to follow his family steps in politics, but the Wave changed everything.

The launch of The Island carried waved across the world, but few places were stronger than in Africa. While most of this acquaintances were surprised or angry, he was fascinated. He spent the next months plotting and cajoling, and he finally convinced his parents to let him try. His father’s government contacts got him a chunk of handwavium as a graduation present, and he wasted no time to wave a mobile home and take a few sabbatical months in the Solar System.

He still is there.

It did not take him long ot know he would live in space. He moved to the still under construction Kandor, and he was one of the seven original (and for a long time, only) cops in the Kandor City Police Department.

He left the KCPD to enlist in Operation Great Justice when the war started, but his superiors soon found his investigative skills -and all that diplomatic training he so dearly tried to forget- too useful for the battlefield: He war assigned a rank of Troubleshooter as soon as this group was created.

Unfortunately for Arthur's dreams of being a hotshot field agent, but possibly fortunately for the Troubleshooters, sorely in need of skilled administrators, he managed a roaring success in his fist solo mission as a OF-6 troubleshooter.

This would also be the mission where he met Oscar Vykos, though since he was his main suspect their first few meetings weren't all that warm. Their relationship did warm at the end of the investigation, when both of them were trying to escape an abandoned Soviet base in Kazajstan while engaging a firefight against rebels, weapon dealers and Boskonian fugitives. Not as memorable as Paris, but it nevertheless was the start of a friendship

The reward of a job well done, of course, was an ascension to OF-7 and a job as trying to herd too many fractious agents. His education in international relations and his calm under even the most trying of agents has meant that he usually is the agent stuck with every 'Dane liaison investigation; though he grumbles and grouches, he has discovered he actually likes to helt tightening the links between fen and dane (the occasional chance of, very politely, rubbing biomods, females or homosexual agents in the face of bigots is also one perk he cherishes). He is slowly gathering an impressive list of contacts in the 'dane law agencies.

He is the second person to be asked (by Oscar) to join the Hellfire Club after the original creation, both for his skill and to open a friendly channel to the Convention law agencies.

Skills: He is a decent investigator, and a crack shot, but his real strength is keeping order in the ranks as an administrator. Through he keeps it quiet, he is also an excellent hacker.

Quirks: He has dealt with family, the construction of Kandor, a war, the dubious sanity of his friends in the Hellfire Club, herding the even more dubiously sane troubleshooters in his command, and countless 'dane politicians. Nothing fazes him.

Well, sinc Bob wanted another thread for cliches from Harry Potter fanfics, here we go.
Now then. 
The Centaurs in the Forbidden Forest.around Hogwarts.  The heavy majority of stories have the centaurs as always been there.
At any rate, Centaurs are good and belong in the forest around Hogwarts.  I seem to recall in old myth and legend that there was no such thing as a female centaur.  How they continued their species was to capture women and either rape them or gang rape them.(If I ever get back to mine...)  That has never been used to my knowledge
moRon and 'Draco in Leather Pants'.
Bob is going to run into the main problem with the Harry Potter world that I did.  Doug is Competent.  British wizards are not.  Which should take care of the other big clice of drawing the battle out with Voldemort to Harry's 7th year.
--------------------
Tom Mathews aka Disruptor

Not necessarily songs affecting politics, but songs about politics. This is the only one I have currently, but I felt that the topic was fairly general, and Doug already has demonstrated that he knows the protest song well, with his presence on the Group W bench.
"Subterranean Homesick Blues" by Bob Dylan
(I included Michael Franti's recent cover just because it's a great version that I wanted to share.)


Johnny's in the basementMixing up the medicineI'm on the pavementThinking about the governmentThe man in the trench coatBadge out, laid offSays he's got a bad coughWants to get it paid offLook out kidIt's somethin' you didGod knows whenBut you're doin' it againYou better duck down the alley wayLookin' for a new friendThe man in the coon-skin capBy the big penWants eleven dollar billsYou only got ten

Maggie comes fleet footFace full of black sootTalkin' that the heat putPlants in the bed butThe phone's tapped anywayMaggie says that many sayThey must bust in early MayOrders from the D.A.Look out kidDon't matter what you didWalk on your tiptoesDon't try "No-Doz"Better stay away from thoseThat carry around a fire hoseKeep a clean noseWatch the plain clothesYou don't need a weathermanTo know which way the wind blows

Get sick, get wellHang around a ink wellRing bell, hard to tellIf anything is goin' to sellTry hard, get barredGet back, write brailleGet jailed, jump bailJoin the army, if you failLook out kidYou're gonna get hitBut users, cheatersSix-time losersHang around the theatersGirl by the whirlpoolLookin' for a new foolDon't follow leadersWatch the parkin' meters

Ah get born, keep warmShort pants, romance, learn to danceGet dressed, get blessedTry to be a successPlease her, please him, buy giftsDon't steal, don't liftTwenty years of schoolin'And they put you on the day shiftLook out kidThey keep it all hidBetter jump down a manholeLight yourself a candleDon't wear sandalsTry to avoid the scandalsDon't wanna be a bumYou better chew gumThe pump don't work'Cause the vandals took the handles
EFFECT: A fast and dirty summary of the sociopolitical climate of the area that Doug happens to be in. Nothing overly detailed (the song is only about 2:20 after all), but it details the major political figures by name and appearance, the pertinent political facts of the day, and the major social issues. It's just a Cliff Notes version, nothing more detailed than what Doug could get by reading about two weeks of the local newspapers, but it does it in two minutes. Unfortunately, with that limited a time, if an issue is particularly complicated or has more than two sides, then Doug might not get all the details.
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

I'm thinking to make it easier for myself and other operators to invite folks we could post our character@globalname here. I'll try to catch folks online to invite them if I got a name to look for
Terrence Knight@terrenceknight1

The files here date back to Cryptic Studios and 2004, and are fascinating reading, especially when you realize just how much they'd planned even back then. For example, the CoHBible file includes details on just how Mot ended up in Dark Astoria, what the Thorns were up to, and even the Tsoo. There's a few minor changes made since then, but it's still amazingly accurate.

http://docs.google.com/file/d/0BypRfkM ... htN2M/edit

I would like to see such a step, simply because i want to see how Doug would react to a universe where chaos is really really bad and basically everyone is a bastard.  Doug would truly be in a target rich environment.