Man, Yuku doesn't like me today!
My sister and I were discussing why the EU is bad for Star Wars (amongst other things), and she mentioned one of the Encyclopedias that says Boba Fett is alive.  In her words, when reading the section to her husband, she reached the bit where he was eaten by the Sarlaac (where Lucas states he dies), “then the magic happens.”

This set me off on another “if you don’t like the story as is, you don’t have to believe it, but don’t tell me something that’s contradicted by the originator” rants.  (I’m not a fan of the EU by any stretch of the imagination.)

I commented something to the effect that, if they wanted Boba Fett around, why have a wizard do anything to save him (or violate canon), and not do something simple, instead?  Say, Boba, knowing he was in a dangerous line of work having seen his father die before his eyes, had the Kaminoans make a series of clones of him, and he would update their programming after every mission.  If he misses an update (or his death is announced), the next clone comes on line, figures out what happened and goes after the mark.

My sister was gob smacked.  Seriously, I didn’t think it was that hard of a logical leap to make.  It doesn’t violate canon, and, honestly, it would go a long way to indicate how Boba Fett was such a “spectacular” Bounty Hunter without the need for him to be a mix between Batman and Lou Costello.

She started asking me for more ideas, indicating that her husband’s character (from their Star Wars RPG game), Simon, was supposed to be a Republic Clone Trooper who didn’t succumb to Order 66, and wondered how he could have beaten the programming. 

At the same time, MonkeyFist was talking about Demolition Man in my other ear and the two ideas merged:

“Well, when they were getting programmed with Order 66, instead of ‘Kill all Jedi’ Simon got ‘crochet and needlepoint.’  So, when the Emperor gave the order, Simon was hit with the overwhelming urge to find yarn.”  Much laughter ensued.  

After several more minutes of bizarre conversation, my sister, somehow brought up catgirls as being a source for yarn.  I suggested that Simon have a catgirl companion (because, hey, catgirls are hawt), and my sister remembered that the first game they played together (a different Star Wars game), her husband was playing Simon (pre-Episode One’s release) and she was playing a catgirl scout.

So, I am strongly encouraging my sister to write said fan-fic about a clone trooper with faulty order 66 programming, an overwhelming urge to knit when faced with a Jedi, and a cute catgirl companion.

Any objections?

Harem Library – 16/Jun/2012
Harry wanted to be called 'Helmuth'.  It was a proper Boskone name, and no one else was using it at the moment.  But, they wouldn't, and, he thought they sniggered at him behind his back.
Harry was probably 'wet' Boskone.  He didn't like the idea of killing people.  But, he didn't like the having to follow silly laws.  Laws obviously made for Mundane Earth, before the bright new age of handwavium.  All those Fen were stupid – you've a chance for a completely new start, and you're dragging all that old morality and law with you.
The harem was probably the reason he broke with Fen in general.  He didn't plan to enslave people who already existed.  He was just going to make new ones, who'd obviously see his superior intellect.  Why were people upset about that?
Drugs.  He didn't do drugs himself, unless you counted the odd lager.  Tobacco smoke made him cough.  This 'thionite' stuff was pretty stupid – you wanted something more like Shatner's Tek[1] – cleaner, simpler, no messing around with Venus.  But, not really his field.
The Catgirling Machine had real possibilities.  Dr Asmodeus Grey was a genius, but he'd missed the point of the original Professor's 'Julian Friez' machine. Still, Grey really scared him, and he wasn't going to tell him that.  You started with just chemicals, you got a living, intelligent, human – brilliant!
Harry'd studied plans made from analysis of the Professor's machine.  He'd got on a project to duplicate the Catgirling Machine, one of several, he thought.  No, he didn't plan to finish that, but it gave him access to tools and materials.  It was the Friez plans that made things fizz in his head.
Shirow's 'Appleseed'[2].  The bioroids, made to order.  You just needed the information to make-up their minds.  Human, could even have children.  Maybe he'd better stock-up on birth control stuff?  Though, it'd be nice to have children, some day.  Particularly if the harem would look after them, and stop them getting underfoot.
As for information, he'd the complete set of "Love Hina" manga, the anime series, and the OVAs.  Even copies of the sort of school books they would have had.  Hmm.  Better see if he could make sure they were fluent and literate in English, as well as Japanese.  His Japanese wasn't very good, though he could understand it OK.
He'd gotten greedy.  While one 'Bioroid Mould' was in theory enough, he wanted to wake all the girls at once.  So, he needed six, and questions started to be asked about what he was using all the materials for.
Lucky he'd scouted out an unused 'acquired' vehicle.  The cover of the Patrol attack would give him chance to get away.  Particularly as he'd secretly informed them about the twice-weekly 'hole' in the scanner coverage, so he could be pretty sure when they were coming.  He'd got his freeze gun, for self defence.  The one he'd bought from that half-drunk weapons otaku, 'guaranteed non-lethal, and guaranteed unique'.
The 40' cargo container ship was crude, but ideal.  Ion jets were slow, but much less flashy than a lot of drives, so he hoped he could sneak away.  The terraforming kit was a real bonus, with robots folded away in packing crates, and supervisor AIs, all ready to go.  An asteroid would make a good place to live, with his harem.  He'd wait until the Patrol had cleaned-up the Boskone, and come back a hero.
The books...  There must be tens of thousands in the ship.  All second-hand scifi or fantasy; a few general stuff.  He'd always wanted his own library, and it'd be nice to have something to read.  Maybe he could send one of his girls out, to score him the latest manga and anime releases?
---

Why'd it have to end here?  This asteroid seemed ideal, so he'd woke one of the AIs, the one with an avatar that looked like a nice teacher.  She seemed very pleasant, apart from having a skinny robot as a lower body.  Good company.  She was particularly impressed by his linguistic talents, and his desire to bring more people with good English skills into existence.
Unfortunately, she'd said she needed the other two, and woken them.  The youngest-looking one with the businesswoman avatar, and the scary librarian one, who he privately thought of as 'Granny Weatherwax'.  Librarian had promptly gone to check the books were OK, the businesswoman constantly asked him about library membership, for some reason.
He'd wondered why Boskone hadn't used the container ship for anything.  The micro-meteorite that'd just smashed through the control room window, and was creeping towards his frozen face, might be why.  Yes, it was a nice window, maybe recycled from an old RV, but someone should have taken time to wave it into something tougher than glass.  He guessed time could slow down as you died.
Was someone standing behind him?  With a hint of dark wings?  He hoped his harem would be all right...

Postscript
The AIs had a clear job.  They needed to set-up 'Library Alpha'.  The asteroid, all the raw materials they needed, were right in front of them.  Pity 'Harry' died – it looked like he'd have joined the library.
Resources were tight, to start with.  There was a desperate need for good quality organics, to jump-start the mining process.  No point in wasting Harry's body, he wasn't using it any more.  His food, other supplies, clothes, etc.; it could all be recycled.  Librarian kept his freeze ray for study.
They argued about the Bioroid Moulds.  Containing the near-ready harem.  Useful materials, thought the Librarian.  Potential library members, remarked the Membership officer.  Literate, said Literacy officer.  So a divide between them opened.
To mollify the Librarian the others agreed to strict library discipline.  The freeze ray shared components with some of the terraforming equipment they were assembling.  So, once they could make their own spares, parts were diverted for 'security purposes'.
The finished harem later ended up 'on ice', in cryogenic suspension, as that avoided the need to feed them.  Librarian pointed-out a library without people wandering around, reading and borrowing the books, is so much easier to run.  The other two agreed they counted as literate library members, even while 'suspended', as they'd been 'born' in the library.
Maybe more would be a good idea?
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

As I have said before, one of Oscar quirks is than every time the waves a plant, he keeps getting the galactic little cousins of Audrey; the Black Forest in Marduk is (in)famous befause it is full of moving, carnivorous trees, and if you wander off the path, you will never leave.
Since Mardukans are well known drama queens, this may be taken with a grain or salt... so, how salty should I make this?
On one hand, biomoded people do get lethal mods, like claws, and at least one of Noah's AI duaghters awakened and ran away to start a life of crime. But those are people; on the other hand, handwaviums wil not create lethal, mechanical weapons.
Should you be able to biomod an animal or plant so it can, and will, kill a human? Predators are perfectly natural; and let's remember than handwavium loves plotlines, and the traditional end for an evil Mad Biologist is to be killed by their aberrant creations.
Back to the Black Forest example, the trees do eat squirrels and rabbits. Where should I place the line: If some backpacker decides to sleep under that tree, will he awaken humorously covered in vines... or will he end inside the hollow trunk, Ucorn style, never to awaken until the (ridicously armed) Park Rangers find his bones?
My current, personal guidelines (pending the results of this thread) are than if you wave a "natural" critter, to cover some ecological niche -even if it is a weird critter, like a Owlbear or a sentient plant- it will be as dangerous as any normal animal -so your cool T-Rex can, and will, eat the tourists if it gets loose.
But if you purposely try to wave a living weapon -say, a Zerg swarm- you will, at best, get the disney version, wich will eat lettuce and play with cute little rabbits and birdies (and how they arrived to the Oort Cloud is a mistery never to be solved.

Oh, and the trees? They will eat the camper. Fortunately, they aren't that fast, and their pheromones are more approptiate for mammals weighting a few pounds, so you will probably be safe unless you go to sleep under the tree. Thoug you should avoid the center of the forest were the Old Trees live...
(that last part may be more Mardukan exageration. Almost certainly, in fact. You should avoid it anyway, just in case)

Potential spoilers for New Perspective

And so, I wonder, is this a villain explaining their motives to the hero trying to stop them, or the other way around? I'm not sure, but I turned it out a while back when I began to wonder what sort of person Noriko would become and thought it pretty interesting.

Quote:They selected me as a pilot, straight out of the hospital. I was still dazed and disorientated... still unsure of who I was, and I was being told that I would be the person standing between all humanity and annihilation. I would be the pointy end of a long spear made up of many millions of people giving their level best to ensure that humanity would prevail. There would be one more generation after this one. We would not just wink out into darkness.

It was the truth, and it fired me up. In the entry plug of a ten-thousand ton God-machine, I felt strong and confident. I felt that no matter what happened to the little toy tanks on the ground, I was safe and secure. And I could take the angels on face to face. It was my own personal giant robot animé and I revelled in it.

The saying at the time was that Science Division declared something impossible. Operations Division did it anyway. Really... it seemed like there was nothing we couldn't do. We wired all of Japan's electricity into one big cannon... in less than 12 hours. We held out for days against the tenth, staring right into the face of despair and still holding on.

Then Hikari died, and that changed everything. She was 14, just like me. She had a boyfriend. She had a plan for the future. She was my friend even at school. She was the sweetest person you'd ever meet, with a wonderful commanding streak that only came out in class. She could've been a teacher. She could've been anything. Instead, they called her to the principals office, and told her that she would be one of the heroes between humanity and extinction.

Of course she accepted.

Her Eva... 05... was invaded by the 13th Angel. It was corrupted and co-opted into a horrific, out of control monstrousity of a thing and she was trapped inside. The rest of us -we did everything to save her - everything. And we failed. The Angel-Eva kicked our asses and then some.

Then it exploded.

Hikari had been watching the whole battle unfold. She saw us try and fail. She knew what would happen if the Angel made it to Tokyo-3 alive. She pulled the self-destruct handle. A fourteen year old child chose to give her life to the world. It didn't hit me that she was really dead until her boyfriend called the apartment, asking if anything had happened to her.

All her hopes. All her dreams. All that future she had laid out before her. It was all gone and it wasn't coming back. She gave it all up, so that we could have ours.

Someone told me, after the 14th, that we inherit the will of the dead. Of all those who died so that we live today. All those in the Second Impact, drowned, incinerated, starved, sickened or just plain vanished in the chaos. All those soldiers who stood their ground, futilely firing at the Angels, hoping to delay the monster for that one critical second upon which the fate of the world might hinge.

We inherit their will, their hopes and their dreams, and mix them with ours. Their hopes for us to stay alive, for humanity to prevail. That's our duty as the survivors - to live enough for the dead.

I tried.

We beat the Angels. We lost Kaworu to the final Angel. We lost Rei to a JSSDF assault on the base, triggered by Seele. They told the Japanese government we were trying to trigger Third Impact. That was Seele's plan. They wanted Third Impact and they needed us out of the way to do it.

Tens of thousands died.

In my Eva I killed thousands to keep them from triggering Third Impact. I was fifteen when I rationalised it to myself. If they won, if they took down NERV, then everybody would die. They were doing no wrong, there were just people with families. Children. Their own future. Their only crime was that they'd been lied to by the real villains, and I killed them. Humanity had to survive.

Step. Crunch. Bang. Dead. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. God help me it felt like a videogame at the time

It was a tragedy and it wasn't our fault. If we'd let them win, we'd be all dead now. Instead they're dead and we're alive. We're the heroes who saved the world! Legends who'd go down history. The seven children who saved all mankind, and the three who didn't live to see it.

Now what? With the threat gone and mankind safe... the grand world alliances started to fall apart. With no common enemy to fight, they just got back to their old rivalries. Qusay invaded Kuwait again...anything my father can do, I can do better! Threatening to sweep into the surrounding Arabian kingdoms. Threatening to bring down the UN supply of oil.

They told us to get ready. That we were needed once more to save the world and humanity from the threat of an Iraqi dictator and his massed tank armies. We'd be heroes again, defending the freedom of the innocent from their malignant oppressors.

I was 16.

And I believed them. It was good. It was right. Freedom was the right of all human beings and the UN brought freedom.

They pointed me at the Republican Guard. We had a full combat load, including ammunition. Told me to go for a stroll when it all ran out. Hammurabi division was destroyed within five minutes. Over ten thousand men, squashed, stomped and blown out of existence. The news-people called it the highway of death.

The war lasted all of five minutes. The Iraqi army took one look at what we'd done and shat themselves a collective brick. They just gave up. No more fighting.

But. What threat where these men to humanity? What world-ending danger did they represent? They were nothing more than a spitting spark in a madman's brushfire war that should've been left to gutter and die on its own.

Except. Where does the world's oil come from?

They told us we were fighting for freedom. We were fighting for a twenty dollar barrel of oil. I murdered ten thousand men for cheap fucking fuel. But... I was 16. I was just following my bloody orders.

I only realised how wrong that was, after the fact. It's no excuse and I know it. I should've figured it out. I should've known. Instead I let them use me as a weapon of mass destruction just to solve their own petty arguments. Thousands dead.

And these same men who made me a mass murderer, now want their own Evangelion? These same people want me to turn over the Evangelion to them. Too much power for a private organisation! Only the Governments should have them! Only we are responsible! We can defend the world from within the United Nations of all people. No private company has need of such terrible weapons. Just take our hands and we'll take care of you.

They can spin on it.

Who was it that gave the order to use them in Iraq against tanks? Who was it that unleashed all that God-awful power? Who was it that pushed the button after Second Impact? The same Seven security council delegates who right now, are building their own Evangelion programs and who want us to turn over ours in to their loving care.

It's well that they're so expensive to build, and difficult to get right. Even the United States has only managed to build two.

It may be there's no God left in the world capable of forgiving me. It may be, I don't deserve to be forgiven. But the least I can do, is do my damnedest to make sure that it never happens again.

We inherit the will of the dead, the will to survive. the will for there to be a future. I'm fighting for that future. For Hikari, Rei and all those who died to get me here. For all those killed. I stand for them every day. I stand against those who would abuse Evangelion technology, wherever they may be and with whatever force is necessary to ensure that humanity continues on.

This is my duty to the dead.

--Major Nagato. Operations Director. NERV HQ. 2025.

Symposium – 15/Jun/2012
The microphone was tapped for the third time.  The man coughed.  The audience continued to look round, vaguely, with few exceptions.  Quite a few Symposium events started like this, but he'd been trying to get attention for nearly two minutes.
The nearest exception had a large badge "SCIENCE! Press", and wore a very elaborate-looking pair of goggles.  Over his head floated a small flashing sign, "Recording", that was the same no matter what direction you looked from.  He nudged his companion, who was cleaning his fingernails with what seemed to be a small light sabre.
"Huh?", said 'Old Republic News'.  "Who's the stiff in the wheelchair?", asked 'SCIENCE!'.  "Has the speaker got here yet?", came the reply.  A nicely printed booklet marked "Program for the Second Annual Symposium for Wavium Science" was consulted.  "It says 'Dr. Scure', 'Guest Speaker'.  Any idea who that is?"  "Not a BNF I've heard of."
On the stage frantic whispers came from an invisible source, "You're dying up there!  You're so dead you haven't even been born yet!  Wear the cos, Luke!" Unfortunately the excellent sound system relayed this clearly into the hall.
"I'm not wearing that stupid wig!", whispered the anonymous speaker out of the side of his mouth.  "OK, just the cape and mask?"  He sighed, "All right".
People looked up, with more interest at the stage.  There was a heavily-built man in a wheelchair, clean-shaven with greying red hair.  He was wearing trainers, jeans and denim shirt.  Most notable was a lab coat, with bulging pockets, a short black cape and a black domino mask.  "I'm Dr Scure, or rather I'm cos-playing him...", and people's attention started to drift away again.
"The voice!  You've got to do the voice!  Get into character!", came the frantic whisper.  "Hmph.  I'm Dr Scure!  You will listen to my fascinating presentation!", boomed out.  And, many people's attention was fixed on him.
Bobbing in the air next to him, in a horrible PPG-like way, was a one-metre tall figure.  "Hi! I'm Scure Girl, his cute girl assistant!"  This sudden arrival was in a pink ballet tutu, with pink and white leggings, pink shoes, and a short pink cape, floating in the air behind her.  Her short dark hair was done up in bunchies on each side, and her brown eyes looking terrifyingly large behind a pink domino mask.
"What're you doing here?", the man hissed, "and where did you get that costume?"  "I used my ninjitsu powers to henge it up!"  Some of the audience started paying more attention.  "You're supposed to be operating the slides."  "I can do that using my telekinesis!"  Even more audience became attentive.
"This is...", the man looked at the girl, "My spunky girl sidekick".  "You're no gentleman adventurer!" hissed the reply.  People in old-style clothes, with metal attachments screaming "Steam-punk!" were now watching.
"I'm not Mad, just occasionally a bit annoyed", and the man looked at the girl, who briefly stuck her tongue out at him.  "Now..."  He picked up a book, titled "Quantum Physicists Humour".  "I told you to get rid of that!" hissed.  "It was half price!" he hissed in reply.
A little laughter rolled round the crowd.  The man threw the book over his shoulder, winced, and glared at the girl.  "If my assistant here will select the first slide..."
...
"... and so pico and fermitech logic are inadequate.  The need for FTL communication between the god-like intelligence sub-elements implies something of the order of attotech.  For example computational rod-logic using wormholes.  You will see the light-cone effects mean we must map the operating phase space onto a Hilbert Space of at least seven dimensions, and twelve are required to solve some problems."
He stopped, put down his notes, and looked at the audience.  "I wont need to show you the math", and he waved his hands, getting some laughter and some puzzled looks.
"Now.  Questions?"  "No time for that!  We're already late for "Grill The Professor".  "Ditch the mask and cloak!" was hissed.
And he did.  And they left.
"Who was that masked man?"
Came a dazed question from someone not paying full attention.
"Not sure", came a reply.
"But, I think he was supposed to be someone pretty obscure".
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

I was drawn to this forum when a person I know from another forum pointed me at your thread about the TVTropes issues, but I think I've got some mutual interests with the folks here in any case. I'm an avid gamer (both video and RPG), comic-reader, anime-watcher, and more. If it's a stereotypically nerdy hobby, I've probably done it.
So, Hi, I'm J.R., it's very nice to meet you all.
I play City of Heroes from time to time - though honestly just a couple of times a year at this point. I maintain my VIP membership there mostly out of inertia.
I've played  (and own) dozens of roleplaying games, including an extensive collection of GURPS materials (though I prefer Mutants and Masterminds for most of my superhero gaming). I currently run games in D&D 3.5 and Mutants and Masterminds.
I'm currently working my way through ZZ Gundam and Gurren Lagann and Air Gear .. and I probably would be getting further, faster if I learned to focus on one at a time. I'm also reading manga versions of Tenjo Tenge, Negima, and Soul Eater as time permits - in addition to my regular Western comic book reading.
Now, I've never been an avid consumer or producer of Fan Fiction, but I have done lots of roleplaying (both in tabletop form and in online forums) with established properties, which is somewhat similar. Particularly the forum based version, which was like cooperatively written fan fiction. I did, however, write a single piece of fan-fiction for a contest - a contest that later fell apart due to lack of entries.
So, hi!

Meat Factory – 14/Jun/2012
No one's sure who's responsible for the Meat Factory.  The odds are it was a Fen who'd gone quite thoroughly Mad.  Brains stumbled on it while prospecting the Main Belt for a good out-of-the-way asteroid to mine.  A 40', black photo-cell painted, cargo container, with ion jets, half-embedded in a low albedo, mixed organics/water ice/rubble, asteroid of more than a megaton mass.
Looking closer the container was double-ringed by black geodesic domes, and part of a third ring.  Some argument and Uran flew in, used the crude airlock on the side of the container, then called Brains when it looked pretty safe.
The container was lined with galleries of second-hand fantasy and science fiction books, mostly paperback, maybe a tenth hardback.  The books were not well sorted, though some sections were alphabetised by author, and dated from the 70s to the 2000s; maybe several dedicated fans collections?  There were quite a few gaps, sometimes whole rows missing.
Uran was ecstatic.  The book collection she'd always wanted!  Brains cautious, suggested looking round a bit more.  Negotiation continued while a pair of spindly-looking robots, pushing a book trolley, wandered in, ignoring them.  One knelt on the deck and rolled a number of polyhedral dice.  The other read the dice, and went over to shelves, selecting books.  Repeating this process until the trolley was mostly full.
Brains and Uran followed the robots, and noticed they stopped at some shelves they'd not yet inspected.  The dice were consulted, and what looked like school, technical and general books, like biographies, used to finish filling the trolley.
Intrigued, they continued after the robots, through a bulkhead door.  Into a control room, with a notable hole in a glass window, installed before crude controls, at what must be the front of the container.  The robots rolled the trolley up a ramp, where it looked an airlock had once been.  Into a complex of tunnels.  Into the heart of the asteroid.
As they walked Brains noticed nasty-looking guns, ceiling-mounted, that tracked them at each intersection.  Each had a small, neatly-printed, card near it: "Quiet Please".  He indicated one to Uran, and she started walking on tiptoe, though she'd been pretty silent already.
Several minutes led to a large chamber, partitioned into offices and workrooms.  They faced an old-style wooden desk behind which sat a stern-faced woman, with disciplined hair, and old-style dark clothes.  Before her a sign "Chief Librarian".
Holding a finger up for silence, she indicated a door marked "Office".  Rising she led them, revealing her legs and lower body matched that of the spindly robots.  The door was closed.
"Are you from the government?"  Brains and Uran looked at each other, noting a gun on the ceiling was tracking them.  "No", Brains replied.
---

The lady robot was revealed to be an avatar of the trio of AI who ran the asteroid, "Library Alpha".  These AI, while obviously brilliant in some areas, were overall of limited intellect, and had a number of fixed and very dubious ideas about how the world worked.  One was the Librarian, but she was outvoted by the other two, the Literacy officer, tasked with promoting literacy, and the Membership officer, tasked with promoting library membership.
Literacy and Membership had been using books to feed a set of wavium Bioroid Moulds (Brains speculated the original Fen might've had 'harem' plans).  Producing literate people who were library members, using CHON resources mined from the asteroid.  Then keeping these people in cryogenic suspension, packed like meat, in the domes they'd seen on the surface.  They were proud the library had more than ten thousand members, and that literacy was effectively promoted.
Librarian was furious books were permanently consumed in this process, and only about half the original collection was left.  She was enthusiastic about acquiring more books.  Brains cautiously asked about the guns, and was told, with a tight smile, they were "freeze rays", to "maintain library discipline".
Thinking quickly, Brains explained he was from a private philanthropic organisation, "HH Investments", giving grants to promote wider library use.  He suggested any future branch libraries would count towards the library membership numbers, and mentioned he was prepared to make grants towards literacy teaching.
Librarian summoned avatars for Literacy and Membership, robot ladies who's upper bodies resembled a pleasant teacher and a businesswoman respectively.  Though suspicious, the AIs agreed to further talks.  Uran remained remarkably subdued.  Tea and biscuits were delivered, after a while, which Brains thought it wise to sample.

---

Brains ended up cloaking the asteroid with a number of invisibility techniques, as well as installing really good passive sensors.  The library grew a small publishing section, for astronomical observations made by these sensors, run by the Librarian.  After he found a number of obviously too noisy Fen were stored with the 'meat' (their vehicles had been 'recycled'), he fitted a good enough drive for the asteroid to slowly relocate itself.
Brains carefully sold the spare minerals, mined in the process of building-up library membership, through a number of cut-outs; he thinks a lot ended up on Mundane Earth, via Australia.  This paid Fen compensation for their lost property, and he quietly dropped them off on the Moon, mostly at Kandor City, on the basis they could get to most places from there.  They all had fuzzy memories of asteroid exploration, and were mostly grateful for rescue by "Dr Scure".
Remaining money went to set-up "LLM Services", administration done by "HH Personnel".  LLM buys stock of closing second-hand bookshops, the residue of books from estate sales, library old stock, and books that would otherwise go to be pulped (best sellers are mostly avoided), exporting them into Fenspace.  These books populate libraries, and sell via second-hand bookshops, though about a quarter secretly end up at Library Alpha (via invisible ships).
LLM is in no way connected to carefully hidden sales of minerals which continue to be mined from the library asteroid (two more asteroids are marked to be consumed in due course).  It's claimed that Fen are so interested in books that it's self-financing, and as a private organisation no one gets to look at the accounts.  Brains has a rumour ready, if anyone pokes around, about them being run by secretive philanthropic bibliophiles.  Which, in a way, isn't too far from the truth.
HH Personnel hires Fen who want to do office work, or even 'Dane who're prepared to work in Fenspace, and generally acts as a recruiting agency.  What they're not talking about is they're finding lives and jobs for the 'meat' from Library Alpha.  They also make start-up loans to people needing "grub stakes", at interest rates pegged just above inflation.  In some cases, like for teachers, these are flat-out grants.  All this has rather strained Brains finances, and he's had to branch-out into new areas.
The 'meat' are normal healthy humans of either gender, aged 18 to 30, average height, build and appearance, and are culturally almost all either UK, US or European (based on the books used to make them).  They're all literate, of average or above average intelligence, and don't think or talk much about their background on Mundane Earth; it's a bit sketchy.  If pressed they'll say they're making a 'clean break', or hint about 'relationship issues', while saying they've no legal problems – they really don't want to talk about it.  Most will admit they've changed their name, or are only using a first name or a nickname.  Really suspicious people might think they're suffering from mental tampering.  Otherwise they're pretty sane and well adjusted.  They're all Fen, and have a book or author they really like.  All have useful skills, many in technical areas, or teaching, and they all think libraries and membership of them is a good idea!

Open Source
You might have wondered how various off-Earth populations built-up so fast – well, now you know!
The products of the Meat Factory (Uran named this) do not know each other, or are any particular faction, but if you wanted to give them a group name you could use 'Literati'.  Literati can be used freely.
You can use 'Library Alpha' or any of its branches (or LLM Services), if you like – but note that serious attempts will be made to keep the asteroid and its (current) location hidden.  Freeze rays induce suspended animation in humans, and the cold is bad for all but specialist machinery.  Keep Quiet In The Library!  Reference to second-hand bookshops in Fenspace is encouraged!
Please ask if you want to use HH Personnel, if it may impact on Brains or associates; HH Investments was something Brains invented on the spot, and is really his long-suffering personal finances.
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind

I had planned to post this later when I have a story ready for the concept, but circumstances changed... I have played with this idea since Dartz and me wrote Shadowrunning.

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Mind Tech

» The ability to record, share and integrate memories, skills and feelings shaped Catgirl Industries as much as the existence of Handwavium itself. It taught us a new way to form a society. «
-- Excerpt of “The logarithmic way through the Singularity”, by Cathy of Jenga, 2051

»The technology is very useful, but its abuse potential is creepy as hell. We had some talks about dangerous tech and keeping some friends informed when we finally discovered what was going on on Jenga in 2019.«
-- Captain Shepard of the Normandy, Space Patrol

The Mind Tech of Catgirl Industries is a mostly confidential technology, which is normally not shared among outside of Catgirl Industries. All the different applications and research results are directly based on a technology Catgirl Industries acquired from a Boskonian Mad called Quattro in 2015.

Streams of thoughts sensor (SOTs)

The development of the Streams of thoughts sensor began in 2015, shortly after the first modules of Jenga were finished. With the fresh memory of the horrors Quattro had done to them and the approval of Great Justice, Catgirl Industries began to look for a way to detect manipulations of a living mind.

The starting point of their experiments was a stripped down Machine-Brain interface, simplified enough to become a read only sensor. After some failed attempts to decrypt the memory fragments the detector were displaying on the connected computer, the catgirls discovered that natural memories had a huge number of interconnections, but still were organized in some kind of linear order.

In time comparison of natural and artificial memories showed that natural ones had a different quality of connectivity among each other, which made the artificial ones standing out in the sensor data.

It took years, but in mid 2017 Catgirl Industries had created a prototype detector that was able display parts of a person’s memory as some colored line pattern, with artificial memories recognizable by a skilled operator. It took more years until the prototype became mobile and reliable enough to be used by specially trained investigators of GJ.

Memory Synthesis

Instead of keeping their research to detecting or maybe even preventing the manipulation of memory, Catgirl Industries also tried to look into a different kind of usage of Quattros technology. While storing a complete mind wasn’t possible for the computers on Jenga in the early years, the development of the SOTs allowed the catgirls to see the glimpse of another option.

In late 2018 Catgirl Industries successfully copied the complete memory of a language skill from the mind of a catgirl into a computer. After experimenting with the extracted data for quite some time, Catgirl Industries discovered that it was also possible to add them to the memory of another catgirl, allowing them to add the ability to speak the language within a few days instead of months or years.

Soon afterwards many catgirls at Jenga began to record knowledge skills of their own, trading them between each other. The creation and trading of advanced knowledge skills became an alternative currency within Catgirl Industries, authors of new knowledge software updates (also called ‘knowsoft’) could call in all kind of small favors from other catgirls.

Active Memory Syntheses is not about overwriting memories and experience in the brain, but about adding to the existing ones. While modified and extended over the years, it still use a similar hardware than Quattro used in 2015. It took Catgirl Industries years until they had the technology ‘dumbed down’ enough to even try to sell the quick language learning as a service.

The Ghost in the machine (Fenspace Infinities)

While it was easily possible with Quattros tech to make a full copy of a person as long as there is a second body to upload the copy into, storing the mindstate of a brain stayed impossible until the early 2020’s. Advancements in the Streams of Thought sensor technology combined with new storage systems finally allowed a scientific breakthrough, while the analysis and comparison of the global thought patterns also allowed for better compression. As soon as Moore’s Law and a new computer substrate made it easier to store multiple mind states in the storage arrays at Jenga, it became quite popular for many catgirls to keep a backup of themselves in a safe system.

Most of these backups have been encrypted with a shared key system, allowing a group of friends to access the backup together and revive a catgirl in case of a fatal accident. Mind states are considered too precious to allow any single person access to them and only Information-theoretic secure algorithms are allowed to be used in the process.

Research to run a mind state within a computer emulation is still ongoing as the ultimate cyberspace interface.

Trivia:

• There is an agreement of the Great Justice and Catgirl Industries that they do not try to market any Mind Tech related products without asking.
  

Quote:Name: Christopher Wood

Gender: Male

Birthday: June 22, 1983

Ethnicity: Australian

Citizenship: Australia

Residence: New Adelaide, later the Freighter Raywing

In mid 2011, Chris took advantage of Australia's rather open attitude to both Handwavium and Fen, ‘waving his car and moving up to New Adelaide on Mars. Spending the next year or so earning a living in the growing cities merchant quarters he spent his spare time building a freighter in a hanger he’d rented out, intending to take advantage of the growing trade routes between Australia and the rest of the solar system.

Unfortunately for Chris, he had the unfortunate luck of finishing work on the Raywing right before SOS-Con, which meant that he had to try and get started in an industry that now involved organised pirates, slavers, and other types of scum going around and making trouble. After spending a few weeks getting some decent weapons together, he got started freighting between most of the inner planets, with the occasional trip out to the Belt. As of January 2013, he’s started to earn a reputation as a reliable, and relatively fast, freighter.

Notable Mundane Abilities

Yes, I have a license - qualified atmosphere pilot, has proven decent as a space pilot.

I think I know what this does - While not naturally that good with construction and power tools, he picked up a lot of skills during his days as a simple laborer. Can usually build or repair something if he’s got decent instructions to work with.

Quirks

Thanks, but I’ll pass on the Mexican - Not biomodded at all, and has no plans to do so. Not out of prejudice, but from studying Handwavium enough to know it has a sense of irony. As a long time fan of TG and furries, he’s pretty sure what would happen if he rode the wave.

Pass me the safety glasses - Has always been rather safety conscious, and has only gotten more so since getting off world.

Here ya go!

Fascinating subtle changes all throughout, from nods to past continuity to new twists. But all faithful to the original!