I've lurked for a while now, and done some (hopefully helpful) kibitzing and wikifying, but I've never posted anything of my own – until now!
From Disturbing Implications of Land Rising Into the Sky:
Huh. Thought I had written more than that. Anyway, the idea is that my avatar's biomod coincides and interacts with his ship's wavejob, and he consequently regards his Wings of Steel (as he names it) as part of himself. Unlike Wave Convoy, his biological shell didn't die, and he's not a Transferred Consciousness. Think instead of the Panserbjørne from Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials", only my armour lets me travel through space (and my mod didn't turn me into a tool-using polar bear).
I still have lots to do: design Hackers' Heaven inside and out (I do know that all artificial gravity systems installed therein will mysteriously fail, since "who wants to walk when we've already dared to fly?"), design my Wings of Steel (though it has to have wings, which suggests atmospheric flight capability), describe my avatar's appearance and how (and if) the biomod changed it, and I'm sure there are other things I'm missing. (I need to pick a name; Proginoskes is fine as a screenname (or a callsign, if I ever need one), but I wouldn't use it in face-to-face interaction.)
Things about my avatar I already know:
Notable Mundane Attributes:
From Disturbing Implications of Land Rising Into the Sky:
Quote:Mal muted the phone and looked over at Elena. "What is it?"Mal's non-reaction to "a launch indication" suggests that the only thing remotely interesting about the Grovers Corners launch (before those already Up found out anything about her construction and crew) was her size. Not even Dee or Jess A. can be everywhere (and may not have been created/moddiplied, respectively), so a modest and distress-free launch would probably elicit no more (and possibly less) reaction than a radioed "Welcome to the Black" from whoever might have noticed. On that note, I'll post my first chunk of story!
"We've got a launch indication coming up on our track."
Mal looked a bit puzzled. "So? Launching things into orbit is the new taste sensation sweeping the country."
Quote:My first ship, which I built and 'waved whilst listening to Steve Savitzky's "Bound for Hackers' Heaven" almost constantly, did exactly what I designed and the song asked it to do: (a) get me Up and to L3, and (b) become the core of a space habitat. This and a few earlier experiments having firmly entrenched the notion of directing handwavium with music into my mind, I then proceeded to do something *extremely stupid*.
Still drunk with the success of my launch, I started listening to "Icarus (Borne on Wings of Steel)" by Kansas on repeat ("Here I'll live and die/With my wings in the sky,/And I, I won't come down no more!"). At the same time, I started work on my next ship, and had no intent of directing its mod with "Icarus".
So, of course, there I was, doing the 'wave with nothing on the stereo and scraps of "Icarus" still running through my head, occasionally springing unbidden from my lips. By the time I started work on the cockpit, I'd been awake for far too many consecutive hours, and had stopped following my own Handwavium Safety Protocols some time earlier. The moment I finished up the cockpit, I fell asleep. The last thing I remember is the line "Without my wings, you know I'd surely die" running through my mind.
Given how careless I had been, it should be no surprise that I managed to mod not just my ship, but also myself.
Huh. Thought I had written more than that. Anyway, the idea is that my avatar's biomod coincides and interacts with his ship's wavejob, and he consequently regards his Wings of Steel (as he names it) as part of himself. Unlike Wave Convoy, his biological shell didn't die, and he's not a Transferred Consciousness. Think instead of the Panserbjørne from Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials", only my armour lets me travel through space (and my mod didn't turn me into a tool-using polar bear).
I still have lots to do: design Hackers' Heaven inside and out (I do know that all artificial gravity systems installed therein will mysteriously fail, since "who wants to walk when we've already dared to fly?"), design my Wings of Steel (though it has to have wings, which suggests atmospheric flight capability), describe my avatar's appearance and how (and if) the biomod changed it, and I'm sure there are other things I'm missing. (I need to pick a name; Proginoskes is fine as a screenname (or a callsign, if I ever need one), but I wouldn't use it in face-to-face interaction.)
Things about my avatar I already know:
Notable Mundane Attributes:
- Reinventing the wheel for the 452nd time: Hackers' Heaven used a grid of lasers as an acceleration drive. (Or maybe not; I wanted my launch to be unremarkable, which a photon-remass drive is definitely not.)
- Where's the manual?: Can work with pretty much any computer technology (and a wide variety of tech in other categories) comfortably, so long as he has the manual or API docs or similar. Tends to become useless once deprived of it/them.
- An extension of the self: intimately knows the current state of his Wings of Steel. This includes state of repair, fluid and battery levels, and hatches and ports open and shut. If he closes his eyes and concentrates, he can call up images from any camera or sensor of his Wings capable of producing them.
- My Wings, not yours!: will consider unsolicited suggestions for upgrades or additions to his Wings of Steel, but dismisses them unless they are obviously insanely good or something non-fatally disastrous happens to drive the point home. Is outright hostile to any suggestion that someone else pilot his Wings of Steel.
- Without my Wings, you know I'd surely die: refuses to travel without his Wings of Steel. This usually means travelling in his Wings of Steel, since ships large enough to routinely carry or tow it are generally either extrasolar exploratory craft or roving residences. The distance he is willing to have between himself and his Wings is directly proportionate to his familiarity with the station or surrounding area.