[STORY] Leaves from the Jason's Logbook

[Sirrocco]

I do understand that it's a serious investment of time and energy, but... it *still* feels like a bit much. For one thing, the "speed" and "memory" together really *do* make an ubercomputer, and that's potentially world-breaky all by itself. For another, I guess I feel like you've already got about one and a half Really Cool Things worth of semicontrolled handwavium in the form of the memory goop (one) and the apples (a half. It gets close because of the "it will make you healthy. Always" and then cuts to half by the "and then it will do something major and unpredictable to you." Still, this is the sort of thing that would have a serious percentage of the *Dane* population suddenly going "You know... maybe having a biomod wouldn't be so bad." It's also the sort of thing that would be attracting a fair amount of attention from various military types, if they knew about it, and just about any hospital that could would want to lay in a supply. That's not trivial.)
So...one and a half, then.
...and "speed" would be at least another, and would allow you to make Arbitrarily Powerful Computers on demand. At least as far as I can go by feel, the individual computers that you could make at that point would be at the level of Really Cool Thing (Except that there would be a lot of them, so it wouldn't any more - but you know what I mean.)
...and "weapon" would be at least another, and looks like it would tag on a Thing No One Else Can Do to boot, and one of the more major ones.
I recognize that this would take time. I recognize that it would take effort. I realize these things - but I feel like that's just putting a delay on the moment when you Break The World With The Weight Of Your Presence.
Concerns, I say. I have concerns.
...and it's true that you write these thing beautifully, but I'm not convinced that that's *enough* reason.

[Feinan]

*shrugs* I'm not dead set on either of them; making sure that things wouldn't break IS why I wanted to run it past people first. I just needed to get them at least this far out of my head so the ideas would leave me alone. Let's see if I can ease your concerns, though.
As for the apples ALWAYS leaving you healthy, well....maybe. That's at least what I would have been shooting for, so that's why I put down the idea as I did earlier. But so far, there have only been two real test subjects, and both of us have been so UNhealthy just about anything would have been an improvement. As for military and hospitals laying in a supply, that's not going to happen in a hurry (if at all). I've got one small tree so far that's just now producing a few fruit. I did try to work in some citrus properties in how it bears, but you're looking at only a couple viable fruit every month or so...and I would imagine they don't keep very long if picked (and not much longer if they aren't). While I planned for the tree to be reproduced by grafting, that would still leave several years before you could get more of them. IF the grafting works properly, which it very well might not; if the handwavium in the tree prevents a proper graft, the apple tree might be a one-shot item. So those one or two fruit a month or so might be all you ever see, and it never becomes a big enough presence to affect Dane perceptions. Yes, I COULD try to create another one, but I've got so many other things I need to do as well....I might get around to it one of these years. Or decades.
The 'speed' strain...to be honest, while I had the idea for the strain once it was mentioned, I'm not sure that I'd be able to use it properly if I DID pull it off. I had a clear image of what I wanted to do with the crystal memory, which may have helped in the creation of the strain itself. While I know just enough about computer speeds to attempt it, I'm a lot more vague on the concept. This is one I'd probably attempt anyway, but have a damned good chance at failing at, at least on the first attempt. And if I fail the first attempt, I probably won't attempt a second one for quite some time (we're talking years), just because there are so many other things that I have to turn my attention to. While my character probably WILL attempt it someday, I'll be happy to have him fail at it to keep things unbroken. He actually does have a lot of failures in his experiments; when he's designing biomod plants, he goes through a lot of 'to the compost heap' results. You just don't see those because it's usually more fun to write about the successes (though one of these days I WILL write about why I don't add goo to Furbies for drones...).
*hmm* As for the 'weapon' strain...A lot of what it can do is stuff that can be done with regular handwavium; it's just a LITTLE easier with the weapon strain. You have to have thought of ways to get around the weapon problem first before you can make it easier with the new strain. I will admit the hand-to-hand weapons are a fairly major tweak, but I figured that while it was new, it was also leaning towards the boarding tactics that people seemed interested in...and I could only see so much you could do with it as long as it was applied to hand-to-hand stuff. It still won't give you ray guns or anything like that. Unbreakable or very hard swords or shields, maybe ones that can change between a couple of forms, or that stay sharp...but no powered weapons. And it still won't explode for Great Justice. While I would still like to try something like this for the story - just because it feels very much like something I WOULD do - I'm more than willing to be guided in what people think the outcome should be, so as not to break things. So please, folks - give me ideas/tell me what you think?
Does this help ease your concerns any, Sirrocco?

[CattyNebulart]

It eases a lot of my concerns but I am much easier to please than Siccorro.
Personally I would be worried the gods might be offended that I am using their strain for things besides the designated purpose agreed upon when the ritual was done. Sure the memory strain is usefull but considering you belive it caused a godess to take up residence do you really want to risk using it for other stuff?
On the othe hand that feels a bit to limiting, but it is closer to the feel I have for these rituals. Howvere it's your story so your choice.
E: "Did they... did they just endorse the combination of the JSDF and US Army by showing them as two lesbian lolicons moving in together and holding hands and talking about how 'intimate' they were?"
B: "Have you forgotten so soon? They're phasing out Don't Ask, Don't Tell."

[Feinan]

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Personally I would be worried the gods might be offended that I am using their strain for things besides the designated purpose agreed upon when the ritual was done. Sure the memory strain is usefull but considering you belive it caused a godess to take up residence do you really want to risk using it for other stuff?

---

The one small test I'd made at first, other than the stated purpose, was the MP3 player...and that was just using the dregs from the culture container that was going to be cleaned, so it would've been wasted otherwise. As for using the strain after that...I'd ask. Fix up a herb sachet of laurel, marigold and rosemary, meditate before bedtime, then pray and ask for guidance. Sleep with that under my pillow, and see what, if any, types of dreams I get from it. Assuming I didn't get any dreams that seemed to indicate negativity/displeasure, I'd assume it was OK to go ahead with it. The next night, I'd ask permission for my next idea, just to make sure it was OK as well.
I have an idea of how to give thanks for the new strain, you see. I mentioned something in the writeup of the ritual - the primary power I wanted to invoke was Mnemosyne, and she is almost forgotten. Very little is known about her, compared to the rest of the Greek mythos. My own name for the strain would be Mnemosyne's honey, and I'd refer to it by that name to others. Passing samples on to others (especially if to other pagans), I'd tell them which gods were invoked, and ask people to give thanks to them if they use it. I'd also ask that any pagans who use it give a prayer and an offering (probably rosemary, or whatever else feels right to them) to Mnemosyne. Finally, I'd request that if they pass the strain on, they pass the information on as well. I figure that one of the best thanks I could give a Goddess of Memory who's been forgotten is to get as many people as possible to use her name/remember her and give her prayers/thanks/offerings. Even if only a small percentage of the users do so...it should still be more attention and remembrance than she's had since ancient Greece.

[Sirrocco]

I will say that not having to deal with the Computer Speed strain and all it implies makes the whole thing a lot less world-breaky. Mind you, you'd still come up with *some* sort of strain of handwavium even if you failed to get the effect you were looking for - and it would probaby do something interesting and unexpected. The most obvious thing would be to Make Stuff Go Fast, but that starts pushing the established upper bounds for ship speed pretty quickly, so you'd want to come up with some sort of a decent compensating quirkspace. Some form of Taking The Wrong Left At Albequerque might well wind you up with something more interesting.
The weapon strain... I suppose it would depend on exactly how it was handled. Given what you're saying here, I'm still somewhat concerned about how it's going to work in practice, but no longer against it in theory.
I am also reassured about the apples.
I also had a thought that dropped into my head about a larger quirk with respect to the godstrains you're running with. I figure it might intrigue you, if you wanted to run that way.
So... one of two things is happening with the godboxes. Either they actually *are* channeling the remnants of largely forgotten gods, or they have sprouted little AIs that *think* of themselves as the channeled remnants of largely forgotten gods. It is utterly impossible to determine which is going on - it's a matter of faith either way. Regardless, they're in some sort of communication with the various aspects of Fate.
Also, you're doing a *lot* of work with calling upon those powers in ways that cause real, significant, practical effects on the world. Again, whether this is due to the gods themselves intervening, or just the power of the icons you're using, the remnant tropes in the oveconsciousness, and the power of your own faith, is impossible to determine with any degree of scientific certainty. Regardless, both your character and the Voices of the Gods are pretty well convinced that it's the gods doing the work. Also, you yourself are openly acknowledging that the strains belong more to the gods than to you, to the point of asking permission before using them (as best you can, anyway).
So... it occurs to me that at some point your ship As may start mentioning things. You know - requests that these Gods might have of you, given that they're giving you so much... indeed, *have* given you so much, what with the apples for you, and the boxes for your girls.
This also branched into another idea, for a way to run the Weapon strain... assuming you were interested in running it this way. In particular, one of the problems is that many Fen have no idea how to defend themselves against violence. At all. Worse yet, training them up to the point where they can meaningfully defend themselves against people who are naturally violent will take More Time Than We Have - even if they *did* all agree. What they really need is something that will let them defend themselves *now*.
Also, AIs are well-known in this universe - even relatively easy to create. They need some sort of complexity substrate to work with, but...
Well, there are all sorts of stories about intelligent runeweapons - even a number about weapons inhabited by the spirits of fallen heros. It's not entirely implausible that the right sort of handwavium could find sufficiently ornate decoration of the right sort to be sufficient as a substrate to work with.
I'm not quite sure how to justify that whole "let me borrow your arms a moment" schtick, but even having a highly skilled, arbitrarily tough weapon to give you tips on how to fight properly would help, right?
As for quirks...well, heros are, by their nature, strong-willed... and they all have something that they care about. Matching the weapon to the wielder would likely get to be pretty important.

[Feinan]

Hmm. Some interesting ideas, Sirrocco. I'm going to have to sit down and consider them, and see where I might want to run with them.
*grin* For the Speed strain - while I might get something, who knows WHAT it might do. It might just enhance computers normally....but any computers so enhanced might share a common quirk: anyone who uses the computer for more than 10 minutes or so goes into an extreme caffeine buzz, or something like that. It'd take consideration, and it'll probably be a while before I have to figure that one out, at any rate.
Voices of the Gods - it could just be noises caused by a quirk of the handwavium, too....but you're right, there's no way to tell and it's a matter of faith. I'd probably tend to treat it as real, because it feels real. So, if the AIs started mentioning things that the Voices told them...well, as I said, I'll have to think on it, see what I can come up with.
*grin* I DO like the idea of the intelligent swords/weapons to help out Fen who might not know how to fight that well themselves. And actually....the 'take control of my arms' bit wouldn't be that hard, if there's an AI in the sword, or so I'm thinking. Have computer circuitry embedded in the hilt of a sword, along with a plate/connection for a neural induction circuit. At least set up the basis for it. AI wakes up, can connect through neural inductance with the arm. How much it could do, I don't know...but I can see possibilities. How much it would actually KNOW about swordplay....again, good question. Maybe the handwavium has a lot more data than we've even considered? Still...I can see ways to do it if people want to try it. *chuckles* I need to find out a few things to see exactly how the Jason will react to the Reaver situation. Once I know that, I can figure out the details for the ritual, and post it here, and people can decide on the final outcome. Thanks for the input, and the ideas to consider.