A Wild Lurker Appears! Hyoi's Random Banter #232

[Hyoi]

...........

[Anonymouswizard]

Sixth!

I need to reorganise my shelves so the books aren't just shoved in there randomly. Maybe I'll go for size offer.....

[DataNinja]

Yep, all seems to be in order. Except for AnonymousWizard's post. That's out of sixth order. :smallwink:

(Bookshelf organizing is satisfying, though, yeah.)

[Rater202]

It confuses me how some people use "boredom" as an argument against immortality.

I mean, the world is constantly changing and after a while, if you play your cards right, you'd be rich enough to just pull up stakes and wonder the planet doing whatever you want, constantly having new adventures and experiences.

[DataNinja]

It confuses me how some people use "boredom" as an argument against immortality.

I mean, the world is constantly changing and after a while, if you play your cards right, you'd be rich enough to just pull up stakes and wonder the planet doing whatever you want, constantly having new adventures and experiences.

Have you never had days where no matter what you do... you just want to do things, and yet nothing you can think of is something you feel you want to do? I feel like that's something that you could easily still run into with immortality.

[Rater202]

Have you never had days where no matter what you do... you just want to do things, and yet nothing you can think of is something you feel you want to do? I feel like that's something that you could easily still run into with immortality.

Yeah, but those usually pass.

The "you'll get bored" argument is always "eventually you'll run out of things to do." But, that's not... That's literally impossible.

I mean, I like learning things. I could spend a hundred years studying all of recorded history... And then I'll have another hundred years worth of history to study.

The only way you'd run out of things to do is if literally all of humanity vanished except for you. Then eventually you'll run out of things becuase people will stop doing things because they're not there.

But you can still do things. Make a record of humanity for whatever comes next. Recreate all of science and build a spaceship to explore the rest of the universe.

[Anonymouswizard]

I mean, eventually there will be no humanity. Heat death and all that.

Strictly speaking what I want isn't immortality, just an extremely long life, the ability to die on my own terms when I'm ready, and to have changes to my body and mind roughly every five hundred years to stop things from being too consistently boring.

[Rater202]

In my opinion, if Heat Death is a problem then you're not immortal enough.

In my opinion, genuine immortality is "if someone goes back in time and kills you before you became immortal, then continues going backward killing each and every one of your ancestors back to the very first rudimentary organic molecule before they can beget that who beget those who beget those who infinite generations later beget you, then blow up the earth back when it had no life for good measure, then comes back to the present they find that you're still there because history corrected for your existence."

Though, at that point, it's less "immortal" and more "reality is bending over backward to keep you around" I suppose.

[Bartmanhomer]

Well once again. I'm starting my diet again.

[Anonymouswizard]

I mean, there's other things I'd like Twitter to bend over backwards for. The procurement of cake for starters.


I believe the new goal is to post fast enough that the other thread doesn't fall past the Necromancy Limit by the time we need it.

EDIT: now I think about it, The Procurement Of Cake would be a great name for a radio drama.

[truemane]

EDIT: now I think about it, The Procurement Of Cake would be a great name for a radio drama.
And it would be nothing but lies.

[Peelee]

You know, if you'd enjoy a deep dive, I don't think I'd mind that at all. You sold the show well, and I'm grasipng for media that can actually hold my attention these days -- my brain is so frazzled from stress recovery, it's like opening a packed fridge and seeing nothing you want to eat or have the energy to cook.

Season 1, Episode 3, "The Reaper's Helper"
The OG cast and one of the earliest forays into how murky prosecuting can be, and it's not all black-and-white.

Detectives: Greevy and Logan
Lieutenant: Cragen
ADAs: Stone and Robinette
DA: Schiff

Season 5, Episode 2, "Coma"
One of the best "I really want them to nail this guy" episodes. Plus, season 5 has one of my favorite cast line-ups.

Detectives: Briscoe and Logan
Lieutenant: Van Buren
ADAs: McCoy and Kincaid
DA: Schiff

Season 8, Episode 5, "Nullification"
An.... interesting legal strategy.

Detectives: Briscoe and Curtis
Lieutenant: Van Buren
ADAs: McCoy and Ross
DA: Schiff

Season 8, Episode 8, "Shadow"
Excellent example of McCoy's unorthodox and sometimes extreme methods.

Detectives: Briscoe and Curtis
Lieutenant: Van Buren
ADAs: McCoy and Ross
DA: Schiff

Season 13, Episode 11, "Chosen"
Where you get to see what a good defense lawyer can really do. Do not underestimate Randy Dworkin.

Detectives: Briscoe and Green
Lieutenant: Van Buren
ADAs: McCoy and Southerlyn
DA: Branch

Season 16, Episode 18, "Thinking Makes It So"
The glorious return of Dworkin!

Detectives: Fontana and Green
Lieutenant: Van Buren
ADAs: McCoy and Borgia
DA: Branch

Season 20, Episode 24 "Rubber Room"
McCoy's ending monologue is absolutely ****ing terrifying.

Detectives: Lupo and Bernard
Lieutenant: Van Buren
ADAs: Cutter and Rubirosa
DA: McCoy

I'd also be very interested in any L&O UK episodes you recommend.
Bad news: I never got to see a whole lot of it back in the day, so I'm much weaker on it than I am the American version.

Good news (everybody): Looks like the entire series is free on Amazon Prime (with ads, and no option to purchase, sadly), so I know what I'm doing this weekend!

[LaZodiac]

I've been drawing lately, out of desire to respark my creativity and also because I want references for character designs when I commission people. It's all been teaser art for my second novel (so if you're interested in seeing them ding me, hehe) but I am going to directly show this one that I did, of yours truly (https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/705975857285431396/824888881710497822/unknown.png).

I like it.

[factotum]

In my opinion, if Heat Death is a problem then you're not immortal enough.


"There are not many of them, all things considered: The truly old.

Even on this planet, in this age, when people consider a mere hundred years, or a thousand, to be an unusual span.

There are, for example, less than ten thousand humanoid individuals alive on this planet today who have personal memories of the saber-toothed tiger, the megatherium, the cave bear.

There are today less than a thousand who walked the streets of Atlantis. (The first Atlantis. The other lands that bore that name were shadows, echo-Atlantises, myth lands, and they came later).

There are less than five hundred living humans who remember the human civilizations that predated the great lizards. (There were a few; fossil records are unreliable. Several of them lasted for millions of years.)

There are roughly seventy people walking the earth, human to all appearances (and in a few cases, to all medical tests currently available), who were alive before the earth had begun to congeal from gas and dust."

-- quote from Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" comic, "Brief Lives". Thought it sounded appropriate.

[Bartmanhomer]

I love coffee and tea. I can't choose which is better. :biggrin:

[truemane]

Bad news: I never got to see a whole lot of it back in the day, so I'm much weaker on it than I am the American version.

Good news (everybody): Looks like the entire series is free on Amazon Prime (with ads, and no option to purchase, sadly), so I know what I'm doing this weekend!
Oh, my friend, you are in for a treat. Yes, Minister is the absolute pinnacle of dry British wit. It's the definition of droll. It's a show that has a very clear and very well-defined vision and never wavers just hammers it home episode after episode. It's one of my all-time favourites, second only to Fawlty Towers.

[halfeye]

It confuses me how some people use "boredom" as an argument against immortality.

I mean, the world is constantly changing and after a while, if you play your cards right, you'd be rich enough to just pull up stakes and wonder the planet doing whatever you want, constantly having new adventures and experiences.
I was bored once, for about two weeks, then I got bored of it.

[Rawhide]

It confuses me how some people use "boredom" as an argument against immortality.

I mean, the world is constantly changing and after a while, if you play your cards right, you'd be rich enough to just pull up stakes and wonder the planet doing whatever you want, constantly having new adventures and experiences.

Let's just imagine that somehow the entire universe basically ceases to exist except for an endless void and... you.

Solution: Go insane, create an entirely new universe in your head.

[Peelee]

Oh, my friend, you are in for a treat. Yes, Minister is the absolute pinnacle of dry British wit. It's the definition of droll. It's a show that has a very clear and very well-defined vision and never wavers just hammers it home episode after episode. It's one of my all-time favourites, second only to Fawlty Towers.

Whoops! Deleted the wrong bit of text in that quote. I meant that as a reply to Law & Order UK. I have seen YM/YPM.

[Anonymouswizard]

Let's just imagine that somehow the entire universe basically ceases to exist except for an endless void and... you.

Solution: Go insane, create an entirely new universe in your head.

This was more what I meant by Heat Death being a problem. Sure, you're eternal, but you're in a universe where the least black hope has died and all that remains are spheres of iron (assuming the proton is eternal). You'd love to move, but moving requires energy, energy must be conserved, and it's been a few millennia since you encountered anything not in it's lowest energy state.

At the end of the day it doesn't matter if you're not the one who dies, if the universe dies you lose the ability to act, and even to think, as your body runs out of energy.

Although I suppose that if you can't move and can't think, you're dead in all practical terms. Which gives us a method for getting rid of pesky complete immortals: fire them into a post-heat death universe at a fraction of c large enough to give a gamma of, say, a few trillion and close the door behind them. By the time they've altered their velocity to get back to it they're low on energy and the door has been closed for billions of years.

Of course you run into problems if they can turn mass into energy.

[Tvtyrant]

It confuses me how some people use "boredom" as an argument against immortality.

I mean, the world is constantly changing and after a while, if you play your cards right, you'd be rich enough to just pull up stakes and wonder the planet doing whatever you want, constantly having new adventures and experiences.

R. Scott Bakker does the best "draw backs of immortality" story, although like all things he does it is dripping with edge.

You know how you remember the bad stuff from high school frequently and the good stuff much less frequently, and the boring stuff almost never? Like 90% of the time you were just in a desk drawing cubes, but few of us look back on high school as being the cube drawing period of our lives. We remember the teacher that sucked, the prom date that dumped us on prom night, etc. And then speckled in is good times, which were more frequent then bad but less memorable.

Repeat that infinitely. 99% of your immortality will be boring, unimportant stuff and a tiny percent will be actively good or bad. But you are built to remember bad experiences, so the amount of your immortality spent dwelling on those will slowly absorb the others.

[Bartmanhomer]

I don't understand why other people get so upset when other people don't agree with their opinion and they resort to nasty name-calling and insults and they block people on all social media for not agreeing with them. I seriously don't get it. :confused:

[Rater202]

Let's just imagine that somehow the entire universe basically ceases to exist except for an endless void and... you.

Solution: Go insane, create an entirely new universe in your head.

Exactly.

If you're immortal then you can't starve to death, which would indicate that you have some ability to generate energy ex nilho.

Nor can you suffocate to death, indicating that you either don't need oxygen to function or have some ability to generate it ex nilho.

Even if you're just floating around in empty space... I mean, at this point you're billions of years old. I imagine that you've learned to lucid dream at some point.

If You're lucky, it'll end up being a Professor Paradox situation where you go insane for a few eons, then get bored of it, go sane again, and learn how to manipulate the fabric of time and space and then you can just go screwing around in infinite parallel timelines.

[Anonymouswizard]

Isn't this kind of thing how you get all those annoying extradimensional entities that keep going around consuming realities? They don't need to go back to the door you kicked them through, they just need to get enough of a communication line going to start a doomsday cult around bringing them back. For all you know, they might have done that before you even kick them through the door.

Hence the significance of getting them as close to c as possible, we want lots of time dilation so that by the time cults are forming o or descendants view 'eldeitch abomination' as another term for 'target practice'. As well as us, assuming we're ageless, uploaded, or in replacement/rejuvenated bodies. Ideally by the time they've found the universe again we've built a Dyson sphere around the supermassive black hole in the center of th galaxy and used the energy to move everybody into a younger universe.

[enderlord99]

Dyson sphere around the supermassive black hole

If it's around a black hole it's not a "Dyson sphere" it's a "Penrose-process Generator"

[Bartmanhomer]

I'm trying to prove my social cues with a little effort. So that has to mean something here.

[Anonymouswizard]

If it's around a black hole it's not a "Dyson sphere" it's a "Penrose-process Generator"

Eh, I was on a train, I don't always have the time to google specific terminology.

[Fyraltari]

"There are not many of them, all things considered: The truly old.

Even on this planet, in this age, when people consider a mere hundred years, or a thousand, to be an unusual span.

There are, for example, less than ten thousand humanoid individuals alive on this planet today who have personal memories of the saber-toothed tiger, the megatherium, the cave bear.

There are today less than a thousand who walked the streets of Atlantis. (The first Atlantis. The other lands that bore that name were shadows, echo-Atlantises, myth lands, and they came later).

There are less than five hundred living humans who remember the human civilizations that predated the great lizards. (There were a few; fossil records are unreliable. Several of them lasted for millions of years.)

There are roughly seventy people walking the earth, human to all appearances (and in a few cases, to all medical tests currently available), who were alive before the earth had begun to congeal from gas and dust."

-- quote from Neil Gaiman's "Sandman" comic, "Brief Lives". Thought it sounded appropriate.

Sandman is the rare kind of story where Death is presented very positively but at the same time the immortal characters very like living forever.

[Mastikator]

It confuses me how some people use "boredom" as an argument against immortality.

I mean, the world is constantly changing and after a while, if you play your cards right, you'd be rich enough to just pull up stakes and wonder the planet doing whatever you want, constantly having new adventures and experiences.

My favorite kind of immortality is the one where you get to finally die by your own choice. When you decide that there's nothing more for you to experience or do. For me it would be many thousands of years. Leaving behind my loved ones would make me sad, but like.... that's already a thing I'm going to do. I've already outlived my grandparents. I will outlive my parents. Seeing people I love die will happen whether I'm immortal or not.

[Fyraltari]

I will outlive my parents.
Hopefully. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1hSVvN9Eto)

[Peelee]

Hopefully. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1hSVvN9Eto)

Speaking as someone who has outlived their parents and also has a child, I can absolutely attest to the truth of this. Some things are horrible. Some things are beyond horrible.

Also, on an entirely unrelated note that has no bearing on a parent outliving a child whatsoever, all y'all should totally watch Dear Zachary: A Letter to a Son About His Father! Ideally without googling anything about it because it made national news at the time and events that happen will very likely be revealed very quickly.

[Rater202]

Sandman is the rare kind of story where Death is presented very positively but at the same time the immortal characters very like living forever.

I don't understand why that's not more common.

Death is natural... But so is not wanting to die.

Wanting to be young and healthy forever so you can enjoy living forever isn't wrong and, honestly, 90 of the downsides of immortality are things that would happen or could happen to you eventually.

Your odds of getting buried alive in a freak spelunking accident are directly proportionate to how often you go spelunking. You living forever doesn't guarantee it the way some people think it does, but it does mean that you'll survive if it does happen. Either you'll be rescued when the people start digging out the survivors and/or bodies or you'll eventually be able to wiggle enough to get your limb free and dig yourself out.

And outliving your loved ones? Parents, grandparents, great grandparents, pets, friends? I've lived through it all. It never stops hurting but, eventually, the pain dulls enough that you can deal.

I don't understand why someone would ever want to die, not if things like old age, sickness, and horribly painful quality of life-destroying injuries are taken off the table and I'm not sure how someone who has the potential to live forever deciding "nah, I'm done" is any different from suicide, but...

[Bartmanhomer]

If I was a D&D/Pathfinder character, I will be a Wizard to put Bestow Curse on evil characters. :biggrin:

[factotum]

This was more what I meant by Heat Death being a problem. Sure, you're eternal, but you're in a universe where the least black hope has died and all that remains are spheres of iron (assuming the proton is eternal).

AFAIK, scientists believe protons aren't eternal, but they have a half-life so long that we haven't actually ever seen one decay--it's at least 10^34 years, and with the universe being a mere 1.4 x 10^10 years old at this point, there won't be many that have decayed in the entire universe. If this is correct, the eventual heat death of the universe won't have any solid matter in it at all.

[Peelee]

AFAIK, scientists believe protons aren't eternal, but they have a half-life so long that we haven't actually ever seen one decay--it's at least 10^34 years, and with the universe being a mere 1.4 x 10^10 years old at this point

When the difference is 1024 years, that 1.4x might as well be a rounding error.

[Cazero]

When the difference is 1024 years, that 1.4x might as well be a rounding error.
You mean 1034 years. The 1010 is also a rounding error.

[Anonymouswizard]

Isn't this kind of thing how you get become all those annoying extradimensional entities that keep going around consuming realities?

Sounds better than anybody else being it.


AFAIK, scientists believe protons aren't eternal, but they have a half-life so long that we haven't actually ever seen one decay--it's at least 10^34 years, and with the universe being a mere 1.4 x 10^10 years old at this point, there won't be many that have decayed in the entire universe. If this is correct, the eventual heat death of the universe won't have any solid matter in it at all.

Eh, I was just stating the assumption I was using, mainly to avoid 'what is the proton decaying into'. But yeah, going with the assumption they do decay our immortal is trapped in a matterless universe where their own body has likely decayed into something else.

[Rater202]

Eh, I was just stating the assumption I was using, mainly to avoid 'what is the proton decaying into'. But yeah, going with the assumption they do decay our immortal is trapped in a matterless universe where their own body has likely decayed into something else.

If their body is able to decay into something else, they probably aren't immortal and thus won't live that long.

True Immortality is "you stay young and healthy forever and cannot be harmed in any way." Your body decaying is harm.

[Anonymouswizard]

If their body is able to decay into something else, they probably aren't immortal and thus won't live that long.

True Immortality is "you stay young and healthy forever and cannot be harmed in any way." Your body decaying is harm.

Stop bringing your magic into this discussion of being ageless during heat death!

Also, while that might be the strict definition of immortalit it's not the common one, which is 'doesn't die' rather than 'can't die'. Because English is weird, we roleplayers forget that most people use bard to mean 'poet' and not 'mobile music and miniature human creator' (that's generally the definition applied to 'Rick star").

[Rater202]

Stop bringing your magic into this discussion of being ageless during heat death!

Also, while that might be the strict definition of immortalit it's not the common one, which is 'doesn't die' rather than 'can't die'. Because English is weird, we roleplayers forget that most people use bard to mean 'poet' and not 'mobile music and miniature human creator' (that's generally the definition applied to 'Rick star").

I mean, genuine immortality(as opposed to "biological" or "clinical" immortality) is impossible by our current understanding of science.

You'd need to overturn entropy before genuine immortality was a scientific possibility, at which point the HEat Death ceases to be an issue.

So if Immortality is on the table, w need magic.

Or at least comic book science.

So if we want to drop "Magic" from the equation then my preferred form of immortality, the comic book science one, involves me being hopped up on at least 9 kinds of super power granting drugs and permanently bonded symbiotically to a horrible eldritch monstrosity made from the shadow of a Primordial Elder God who predates the Big Bang, who that is capable of surviving indefinitely in vacuum. I think I'm good on the "heat death" front.

Just spend eternity lucid dreaming while I sleep in the extra-dimensional chest cavity of an God-Murdering Eldritch Space Dragon.

[Peelee]

Rewatching Law & Order: UK now that I can easily stream it. Forgot that the first season had recycled episodes from the American one where the legalese overlapped well enough. Anyway, the subtitles greatly amused me; apparently French is relegated to merely "foreign language".

[Fyraltari]

Rewatching Law & Order: UK now that I can easily stream it. Forgot that the first season had recycled episodes from the American one where the legalese overlapped well enough. Anyway, the subtitles greatly amused me; apparently French is relegated to merely "foreign language".
Typical, really.

[Peelee]

Typical, really.

Indeed. Futurama handled French much better. :smallwink:

[Tvtyrant]

Indeed. Futurama handled French much better. :smallwink:

Although honestly this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5ZdBsbj8K0) is the most realistic experience for dealing with French :P

[factotum]

When the difference is 1024 years, that 1.4x might as well be a rounding error.

You just know that if I'd said the universe was 10^10 years old, somebody would have come along and corrected me, so seems I can't win either way!

[Anonymouswizard]

Rewatching Law & Order: UK now that I can easily stream it. Forgot that the first season had recycled episodes from the American one where the legalese overlapped well enough. Anyway, the subtitles greatly amused me; apparently French is relegated to merely "foreign language".

As it should be :smallwink:

I've heard two things about that series. The first is that it has problematically long series. The second is that the American portion of the creators originally assumed that they could recycle more directly, only to find significant differences between the legal systems that required rewriting to accommodate.

[Peelee]

As it should be :smallwink:
I love the dichotomy between the British and French reactions to how the subtitle for French in a British show as handled.:smallamused:

I've heard two things about that series. The first is that it has problematically long series.
"Deirdre And Margaret ran for 16 years on the BBC, they showed almost 30 episodes!"

Yes, I can understand how the British would be in for a bit of culture shock with L&O.:smalltongue:

The second is that the American portion of the creators originally assumed that they could recycle more directly, only to find significant differences between the legal systems that required rewriting to accommodate.
That would actually surprise me quite a bit. They couldn't even recycle a good number of episodes in different states, I can't imagine they expected seamless integration into a different country. But I am not familiar with that and could easily be wrong.

[Fyraltari]

Although honestly this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5ZdBsbj8K0) is the most realistic experience for dealing with French :P
Hold the **** up? Is that Old French? Did the people behind this show really just up and went to get some goddamm Old French for it? What the hell, I'm actually impressed.

Also are the characters normally speaking Norse, or what?

As it should be :smallwink:
Like I said,

Typical, really.

[Cazero]

Hold the **** up? Is that Old French? Did the people behind this show really just up and went to get some goddamm Old French for it? What the hell, I'm actually impressed.
I got a Bourgeois Gentilhomme feel from it, where the characters pronounce every silent letter to show they know how to write and thus are "high society". It's funny but gets tiring very fast.
(Fortunately the play has other funny things in it.)

[Fyraltari]

I got a Bourgeois Gentilhomme feel from it, where the characters pronounce every silent letter to show they know how to write and thus are "high society". It's funny but gets tiring very fast.
(Fortunately the play has other funny things in it.)

"... vos connostre" certainly isn't Modern French and we have way more silent letters than we used to.

[asda fasda]

As far as imortality goes Heighlander was presenting this great, living through the eons alweys finding new freinds and giving farewels to old ones, traveling to places that you can mąkę a diference

[Anonymouswizard]

I love the dichotomy between the British and French reactions to how the subtitle for French in a British show as handled.:smallamused:

To be fair, they give as good as they get.

The difference in our relationships with the IS and France is the use of belts.


"Deirdre And Margaret ran for 16 years on the BBC, they showed almost 30 episodes!"

Yes, I can understand how the British would be in for a bit of culture shock with L&O.:smalltongue:

To be fair, despite having never seen it I still get shocked at the fact that the US Life on Mars had as many episodes in one series as the good version has in two (plus an extra episode). Like, it's not uncommon for a drama here to go for six or twelve episodes and stop, Ultraviolet only has six episodes because the writer thought that was how many intelligent plots he could get out of vampires.

Actually, as much as people joke about it, short series have two major advantages. Those being consistent quality and the ability for one person to write the entire thing.


That would actually surprise me quite a bit. They couldn't even recycle a good number of episodes in different states, I can't imagine they expected seamless integration into a different country. But I am not familiar with that and could easily be wrong.

It's apparently a specific element that's missing that I don't understand in the slightest, not being particularly well versed in the law of either country.

[Rater202]

Mom turned 50 today.

Grandma gave my mom a huge box full of assorted candies(sweets, not chocolates)

...My mother is diabetic.

Mom and I both joked that Grandma is trying to kill her.

[Bartmanhomer]

I summon an eldarin and a azata today. We have a wonderful chat about Arborea. :smile:

[Rater202]

If a Random Omnipotent Being guaranteed that you could spend all of eternity doing whatever you want, for both leisure and productive work, with whoever you want, while remaining young and healthy the entire time—no heatdeath, no sun exploding, no outliving whatever friends and family you've brought with you—but you have to leave Earth forever(you can still make contact iver the internet but cannot physically go there) would you take that deal?

[Rawhide]

If a Random Omnipotent Being guaranteed that you could spend all of eternity doing whatever you want, for both leisure and productive work, with whoever you want, while remaining young and healthy the entire time—no heatdeath, no sun exploding, no outliving whatever friends and family you've brought with you—but you have to leave Earth forever(you can still make contact iver the internet but cannot physically go there) would you take that deal?

Where's the downside?

[Rater202]

Where's the downside?

You'll outlive anyone you didn't bring with you.

[Rawhide]

You'll outlive anyone you didn't bring with you.

I mean, that's a given in any immortality scenario. It's actually a positive that you can bring people with you (they have the option to decline, I hope).

[enderlord99]

If a Random Omnipotent Being guaranteed that you could spend all of eternity doing whatever you want, for both leisure and productive work, with whoever you want, while remaining young and healthy the entire time—no heatdeath, no sun exploding, no outliving whatever friends and family you've brought with you—but you have to leave Earth forever(you can still make contact iver the internet but cannot physically go there) would you take that deal?

Of course.

[Anonymouswizard]

'If I could live with people I like forever, have regular internet contact with Earth, and basically have no wants, why wouldn't I...

Have on, it's this Arcadia? Why didn't I notice that the random omnipotent being had a beard of roses? And why am I now the video doorbell?

[Bartmanhomer]

Is it true when you pass gas, your whole body exploded? :confused:

[Anonymouswizard]

Is it true when you pass gas, your whole body exploded? :confused:

Uh, sorry, trying to parse this...

Okay, strictly speaking no. An exploration is an extremely fast release of energy, and your entire body has not undergone that. Therefore not exploded.

In a colloquial sense, maybe? But if you give me a random sentence and a well funded advertising agency I can probably make any sentence colloquially true somewhere in a decade.

Now in sone cases there might have been an explosion (a small one) inside you, but if that's the only symptom your probably functioning normally and there's nothing to worry about. But I'm going entirely off guesswork here, to me it seems logical that if an inside you created gas your buddy might expel it in that way.

Most likely though it's no explosions at all.

[Rater202]

'If I could live with people I like forever, have regular internet contact with Earth, and basically have no wants, why wouldn't I...

Have on, it's this Arcadia? Why didn't I notice that the random omnipotent being had a beard of roses? And why am I now the video doorbell?
No, it's not Arcadia.

It's not a trap, I'm just trying to see if there's an immortality option that people who are normally against immortality would take.

[Bartmanhomer]

Uh, sorry, trying to parse this...

Okay, strictly speaking no. An exploration is an extremely fast release of energy, and your entire body has not undergone that. Therefore not exploded.

In a colloquial sense, maybe? But if you give me a random sentence and a well funded advertising agency I can probably make any sentence colloquially true somewhere in a decade.

Now in sone cases there might have been an explosion (a small one) inside you, but if that's the only symptom your probably functioning normally and there's nothing to worry about. But I'm going entirely off guesswork here, to me it seems logical that if an inside you created gas your buddy might expel it in that way.

Most likely though it's no explosions at all.

Well Pokemon like Koffing and Weezing are made of gas and they have the ability to self-destruct and explode.

[Peelee]

Well Pokemon like Koffing and Weezing are made of gas and they have the ability to self-destruct and explode.

Are you a pokemon? If not, you should probably not base pokemon abilities on what you are capable of.

[Bartmanhomer]

Are you a pokemon? If not, you should probably not base pokemon abilities on what you are capable of.

I'm a Magikarp. :smile:

[Tvtyrant]

Is it true when you pass gas, your whole body exploded? :confused:

No, but fun fact! Doctors put fire suppressant gas in to your body if you have certain kinds of invasive surgeries, as people have literally exploded on the operating table from their internal gasses being set off by medical equipment.

[Anonymouswizard]

No, it's not Arcadia.

It's not a trap, I'm just trying to see if there's an immortality option that people who are normally against immortality would take.

You sure? I've been tricked by omnipotent beings making promises before, it was not fun. There was no wiring so wqhenever somebody rang the doorbell I had to sprint to the mistress and mime whoever it was. Some days I wished I could switch with the towel rack.

My point being this sort of deal in fiction, and real life if it was possible, would almost certainly be a case of 'too good to be true'.

And now I want to play Changeling.

[Rater202]

You sure?

I think that, being as I am the one who created the scenario, it is within my power to determine with 100% certainty that this is not a trap.

[Mystic Muse]

I'm a Magikarp. :smile:

Given Magikarps aren't capable of learning self-destruct (unless something changed in recent generations) I don't think that it's a concern for you.

I'd be more worried about getting eaten by a hungry pokemon trainer well before you evolve into Gyrados.

[Bartmanhomer]

Given Magikarps aren't capable of learning self-destruct (unless something changed in recent generations) I don't think that it's a concern for you.

I'd be more worried about getting eaten by a hungry pokemon trainer well before you evolve into Gyrados.

If I recalled, Magikarps aren't edible to eat by humans and Pokemon. :tongue:

[Anonymouswizard]

I think that, being as I am the one who created the scenario, it is within my power to determine with 100% certainty that this is not a trap.

This situation still just screams trap. Random omnipotent beings are number two on my list of things to stay away from (number one being immortals you loved your past lives().


Given Magikarps aren't capable of learning self-destruct (unless something changed in recent generations) I don't think that it's a concern for you.

I'd be more worried about getting eaten by a hungry pokemon trainer well before you evolve into Gyrados.

The real danger as a Magikarp is when their trainer doesn't have any other pokemon but still tries to evolve you into Gyarados (https://thepunchlineismachismo.com/archives/comic/04262010)

[Rawhide]

If I recalled, Magikarps aren't edible to eat by humans and Pokemon. :tongue:

Everything is edible. Once.

[Bartmanhomer]

Everything is edible. Once.

That's true. :smile:

[Anonymouswizard]

Everything is edible. Once.

Maxim 11 for maximally effective chefs?

[Mystic Muse]

If I recalled, Magikarps aren't edible to eat by humans and Pokemon. :tongue:

It's implied in at least one early pokemon episode that Magikarp are eaten by humans (Aah and Brock fantasize about eating one), as well as Krabbys/Kinglers.

[Rater202]

I'd be more worried about getting eaten by a hungry pokemon trainer well before you evolve into Gyrados.

Magikarp are mostly hard scale and bone, with what musculatures they do have being rather tough due to being specialized for jumping. (Splash is "Hop" in the original Japanese, that's why it's not a water-type move.)

In the anime, the only time someone tries to eat a Magikarp it's Meowth and he breaks his teeth on it.

According to the Pokedex entries, the main threat to a Magikarp's life is if they get stranded on dry land and die before they can get back to water. At that point, other pokemon will eat their decaying bodies.

Otherwise? Magikarp can be found wild in at least one body of water of every region except for Ore(which has no native pokemon and almost no wild Pokemon at all) and are explicitly noted to be able to survive in both fresh and saltwater and in any body of water no matter how polluted. In some regions, you can literally drop your fishing line in a shallow puddle created by a recent rain storm and catch a magikarp.

Magikarp breed in large numbers.

Despite the claims about Magikarp getting stranded on land and dying, another Pokedex entry suggests that Magikarp are able to survive for years out of water when using Splash/Hop to climb huge mountains over the course of years.

We can also infer from both the "spend ears" climbing mountains and the "can live in even the most polluted water" thing that they probably require very little in the way of food.

You can encounter wild Magikarp of literally any level, from 1 to 100, indicating that despite their incompetence that they are slowly accumulating battle experience.

Even ignoring the potential to become Gyarados, Magikarp are arguably the most successful species of pokemon: They can be found all over the world and survive in almost any natural or artificial environment.

You may not like it...
https://cdn.bulbagarden.net/upload/0/02/129Magikarp.png
But this is what Peak Performance looks like.

In fact, if I ever get around to that "Pokemon Cyberpunk" thing(which has expanded beyond just "Pokemon hybrids") I'm seriously considering using a human hybridized with Magikarp as an attempt to make amphibious super soldiers who can just swim/hide out in any body of water.

Edit: I have no idea what happened with the picture but it's fixed now.

[Bartmanhomer]

It's implied in at least one early pokemon episode that Magikarp are eaten by humans (Aah and Brock fantasize about eating one), as well as Krabbys/Kinglers.


And there was also one episode that Meowth tried to eat Magikarp which he was unable to eat Magikarp which caused all his teeth to chipped which makes it inedible.

[Lord Raziere]

I mean Magikarp hybrid's a good aquatic survival form, but honestly its not good for anything else. it'd be great for starting a colony on an ocean planet, but if we're looking at soldiers, they aren't THAT ideal. one electric type with discharge and all that long term survivability goes down the drain.

[Rater202]

I mean Magikarp hybrid's a good aquatic survival form, but honestly its not good for anything else. it'd be great for starting a colony on an ocean planet, but if we're looking at soldiers, they aren't THAT ideal. one electric type with discharge and all that long term survivability goes down the drain.

That's why you equip them with rubber armor.

But honestly, I'm thinking more "special forces" than "front line infantry." The hard scales and bones offer protection, yes, but underwater survival means that if the target is anywhere near a body of water... Assuming that the humanoid shape allows you to teach the soldiers how to swim they can easily sneak up and infiltrate. Espionage, assassination.

Now, if one of the hybrids happens to evolve into a Gyradodos, that's when they get to be Frontline Infantry. At that point they're a living WMD

[Mystic Muse]

And there was also one episode that Meowth tried to eat Magikarp which he was unable to eat Magikarp which caused all his teeth to chipped which makes it inedible.

There's plenty of real life fish that have to be prepared special ways before they're edible.

Unless there's a pokedex entry, or something in another canon source somewhere saying they're inedible, they're probably eaten.

This is why worldbuilding stuff should always be entirely figured out before the story ever hits shelves.

[Peelee]

There's plenty of real life fish that have to be prepared special ways before they're edible.

Unless there's a pokedex entry, or something in another canon source somewhere saying they're inedible, they're probably eaten.

This is why worldbuilding stuff should always be entirely figured out before the story ever hits shelves.

Their pokedex entry in Silver seems to indicate they are eaten:

For no reason, it jumps and splashes about, making it easy for predators like Pidgeotto to catch it mid-jump.

[Lord Raziere]

There's plenty of real life fish that have to be prepared special ways before they're edible.

Unless there's a pokedex entry, or something in another canon source somewhere saying they're inedible, they're probably eaten.

Lets see the actual entries rather than just what Rater claims: bulbapedia's page on Magikarp (https://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Magikarp_(Pok%C3%A9mon))

I'll draw your attention to certain specific entries:

Its reckless leaps make it easy pickings for predators. On the bright side, many Pokémon enjoy longer life spans, thanks to Magikarp.

For no reason, it jumps and splashes about, making it easy for predators like Pidgeotto to catch it mid-jump.
So at least, predators find them edible.


A Magikarp living for many years can leap a mountain using Splash. The move remains useless, though.
This certain entry is weird, because how can leaping a mountain be useless? Unless they can only jump straight up.....then go falling down back to the position they started.

however another pokedex entry claims:

An underpowered, pathetic Pokémon. It may jump high on rare occasions, but never more than seven feet.
which contradicts the other one. so is it seven feet or a mountain?

also:

It is unable to swim against even slow-moving currents. It always splashes about for some reason.

Its swimming muscles are weak, so it is easily washed away by currents. In places where water pools, you can see many Magikarp deposited there by the flow.

It is virtually worthless in terms of both power and speed. It is the most weak and pathetic Pokémon in the world.

All these kind of make it not ideal for being a soldier if every single pokemon is stronger than it. hybridized with a human, they'd only be fast as a regular human swimming and probably wouldn't be very good in combat against normal pokemon, much less a hybrid.

while gyarados? even more vulnerable to electric attacks with Flying- its 4x weak!. Lanturne or Emolga laughs at your pathetic sea serpent. and thats before we get into another counter we can do: grass types. absorb, mega drain and giga drain all restore health and lotad is 1/4 resistant to water, so it can survive on both land and water, is stronger, has two evolutions, doesn't have fire weakness, can use both surf and solar beam, has moves to heal itself by draining from others, Lotad or Chinchou > Magikarp.

[Rater202]

Again the purpose is precision strikes, not tearing down.

The "survive in any body of water, no matter how salty or polluted" means that you can send your amphibious agents into a body of water and they can just stay down there as long as needed until the opportunity to come in happens.

It could infiltrate a population center by doing a reverse Shawshank and swimming straight up the sewage pipes.

Also, Magikarp does have a decent high-speed stat and usually has the ability Swift Swim, which doubles a pokemon's speed when it's raining, and can also have the Hidden ability Rattled which boosts speed when hit by certain types of moves or when affected by Intimidate. While the Magikarps' innate ability to swim is poor, a hybrid might be able to swim faster than a human under the right conditions.

In the current generation, Magikarp can be taught Hydropump and Bounce via TMs, and while its attack stats aren't much to write home about those are still decently powerful moves.

Team Venom is sitting in their base while their scientists are doing g their experiments with weaponizing Poison Type Pokemon but Oh Nose, their Rivals Team Greens has purchased a Soldier-Karp and sent her up the pipe that Team Venom has dumped the byproducts of their research into the lake with and she's wrecked the laboratory with a a Hydropump straight to the main computer then flushed herself back into the toxic lake!

[Bartmanhomer]

There's plenty of real life fish that have to be prepared special ways before they're edible.

Unless there's a pokedex entry, or something in another canon source somewhere saying they're inedible, they're probably eaten.

This is why worldbuilding stuff should always be entirely figured out before the story ever hits shelves.

Yes, I totally get it.

[Lord Raziere]

Team Venom is sitting in their base while their scientists are doing g their experiments with weaponizing Poison Type Pokemon but Oh Nose, their Rivals Team Greens has purchased a Soldier-Karp and sent her up the pipe that Team Venom has dumped the byproducts of their research into the lake with and she's wrecked the laboratory with a a Hydropump straight to the main computer then flushed herself back into the toxic lake!

Except all of that protection is purely environmental. it doesn't extend to actual poison attacks and pokemon effects. hire a few Tentacool and grimer trainers to use Toxic Spikes on the places to swim through and guard the poison waters and the karp soldier ain't going to make it out of there alive, because mechanically magikarp is still vulnerable to the poison type.

[Rater202]

Except all of that protection is purely environmental. it doesn't extend to actual poison attacks and pokemon effects. hire a few Tentacool and grimer trainers to use Toxic Spikes on the places to swim through and guard the poison waters and the karp soldier ain't going to make it out of there alive, because mechanically magikarp is still vulnerable to the poison type....Maybe if Team Venom is being run by Batman.

Who the hell is going to guard a toxic polluted lake? Really? The toxic polluted lake is its own protection.

Guarding it is only a thing once the Karp Soldier is already a known phenomenon that is common enough to be worth specifically preparing for.

[Lord Raziere]

...Maybe if Team Venom is being run by Batman.

Who the hell is going to guard a toxic polluted lake? Really? The toxic polluted lake is its own protection.

Guarding it is only a thing once the Karp Soldier is already a known phenomenon that is common enough to be worth specifically preparing for.

And who is going to do a magikarp as a super-soldier in the first place? its widely considered the weakest pokemon in universe. its like a sea rat or sea bug, its a nuisance. your entire example is very specific and narrow, and it'd it be more worth going to the trouble of making a ditto-soldier to simply shapeshift into any pokemon needed instead since that would be more flexible, allowing you to do all the things magikarp can, but now also dig, survive in deserts, fly, become a ghost to go through walls, and so on. all you'd need is to give the person doing it a pokedex so they have a visual aide since that seems to be the only requirement for a ditto to turn into something: to see the pokemon.

heck I could've gone less flexible and said ghastly soldier and it'd still be better since the ghastly soldier could just fly incorporeal without needing to bother with any of that water nonsense.

but really if we're this hung up about effectiveness then the only pokemon worth hybridizing WITH short of legendaries is ditto. the real peak performance is pink goo with smiley face, you may not like it, but its true.

[Rater202]

And who is going to do a magikarp as a super-soldier in the first place? its widely considered the weakest pokemon in universe. its like a sea rat or sea bug, its a nuisance. Maybe because no one will see it coming?

If you say "we're making human-pokemon hybrids" you're expecting something like combining someone with a Regional starter or something with a reputation for power. People are expecting brute force

Magikarp's strengths are undervalued and unacknowledged. Nobody would think of any military use for an unevolved Magikarp, but if you're tinkering around with DNA there are useful traits that can be extracted and applied to a human.

but really if we're this hung up about effectiveness then the only pokemon worth hybridizing WITH short of legendaries is ditto. the real peak performance is pink goo with a smiley face, you may not like it, but its true.No Megacorp or top Secret Government Agency is going to release perfect super soldiers to the market, they're going to keep the best ones for themselves.

Now, granted, there are going to be a variety of hybrids and other enhanciles made—cyborgs and androids derived from various "living Object" types and military vehicles with pilots turned into energy beings by combing them with Rotoms, not to mention anything made by accident because mutagens and viruses breach containment, but Magikarp are one I see a great deal of utility for. In the short term, a Magikarps' ability to survive in most environments means that they can be used as amphibious soldiers anyway or hidden in any large enough body of water, and long term Gyarados are known to be able to wipe out entire cities, imagine that power perfectly y controlled by a rational human mind.

[Lord Raziere]

Maybe because no one will see it coming?

If you say "we're making human-pokemon hybrids" you're expecting something like combining someone with a Regional starter or something with a reputation for power. People are expecting brute force

Magikarp's strengths are undervalued and unacknowledged. Nobody would think of any military use for an unevolved Magikarp, but if you're tinkering around with DNA there are useful traits that can be extracted and applied to a human.

No Megacorp or top Secret Government Agency is going to release perfect super soldiers to the market, they're going to keep the best ones for themselves.

Now, granted, there are going to be a variety of hybrids and other enhanciles made—cyborgs and androids derived from various "living Object" types and military vehicles with pilots turned into energy beings by combing them with Rotoms, not to mention anything made by accident because mutagens and viruses breach containment, but Magikarp are one I see a great deal of utility for. In the short term, a Magikarps' ability to survive in most environments means that they can be used as amphibious soldiers anyway or hidden in any large enough body of water, and long term Gyarados are known to be able to wipe out entire cities, imagine that power perfectly y controlled by a rational human mind.

1. if Magikarp has those strengths at all, given the inconsistent nature of pokemon canon. Again: 7 feet or mountain?

2. and no one is going to look at "we're making human-pokemon hybrids" and NOT think "wait, why don't we do this with Ditto, we'd be able to become any pokemon we'd want". you think once the whole process gets figured out that people won't think of doing that anyways and try and do it on their own? or just stealing it? what about the ditto agents who work for them, you think its always going to work out? especially considering how cynical you are of this?

3. *imagines it* I'm terrified already. also if Gyarados are so powerful.....then you don't WANT to make karp soldiers, too much potential for destruction. too destructive and the costs outweigh the benefits, cities are economic centers you want to keep those functioning so they either make money for you or so you can conquer them to make them make money for you. even at this precision elite force amount, it may be too much to risk. and thats not imagining the other ridiculous mons that could be hybridized if we're running on "dex is always true" logic: gardevoir-soldiers opening black holes anyone? or how about the absurdity of machamp?

in fact just remember or checkout the pokemon battle royale video lockstin and somethingabout did, thats basically the entire problem with taking the pokedex as gospel in a nutshell. and the whole problem with trying to work out pokemon combat in any case beyond the small scale.

[Rater202]

1: Since it's noted that Magikarp can do it if they live for several years, my assumption is that the Magikarp isn't scaling the mountain in one jump but in multiple jumps over the course of an extended period of time.

2: Again, you don't make a perfect soldier unless you can guarantee that you're the only one using them. Also, Ditto can only transform into what it can see so now that I think about it it's only situationally useful.

3: Not every Magikarp evolves into Gyarados. You only let the most loyal and controllable soldiers evolve.

[Lord Raziere]

1: Since it's noted that Magikarp can do it if they live for several years, my assumption is that the Magikarp isn't scaling the mountain in one jump but in multiple jumps over the course of an extended period of time.

2: Again, you don't make a perfect soldier unless you can guarantee that you're the only one using them. Also, Ditto can only transform into what it can see so now that I think about it it's only situationally useful.

3: Not every Magikarp evolves into Gyarados. You only let the most loyal and controllable soldiers evolve.

1. you can assume all you want, the fact remains the discrepancy opens up the question "what else is the pokedex wrong about? what else can't I trust? If its contradictory about one thing, what else is wrong?"

2. assuming you can guarantee that, which you can't. generally weapons no matter what you do, proliferate and information leaks. its not a matter of if, but a matter of when. you can only slow this kind of thing, not stop it, and sooner or later you get an arms race.

3. but whether they stay loyal and controllable is up to chance. and every soldier that doesn't die, becomes a veteran, a retiree eventually. soldiers don't serve forever, new ones must be brought in, and your picks for who you can trust won't always work out.

[Rater202]

I mean, is it really cyberpunk if it doesn't eventually go horribly wrong as the creations turn on their masters? "Smart enough to not deliberately proliferate certain tech and instead keep it for our own use" isn't the same as "humble enough to not assume that we can control everything we make."

Otherwise, the plot of "initial test subjects escape but have to deal with the fact that the Megacorp essentially controls the region" doesn't work.

But fine, I'll think of something else. My backup PC was gonna be a lady fused with a Salandit. You gonna poke holes in "moderately speedy attackers that can set things on fire and can usually poison things that are immune to poison with a minority being immune to being attracted or falling for taunts?" as a Supersoldier option.

If you assume that "Can only ever know four moves" is a game abstraction, then Salandit and its evolved form Salazzle can theoretically get damage coverage for 71% of type combinations. Fire/Poison seems to be a decent enough defensive typing combination, ground will screw you up but you take 1/4 damage three different types and 1/4 damage from another five.

[Lord Raziere]

I mean, is it really cyberpunk if it doesn't eventually go horribly wrong as the creations turn on their masters? "Smart enough to not deliberately proliferate certain tech and instead keep it for our own use" isn't the same as "humble enough to not assume that we can control everything we make."

Otherwise, the plot of "initial test subjects escape but have to deal with the fact that the Megacorp essentially controls the region" doesn't work.

But fine, I'll think of something else. My backup PC was gonna be a lady fused with a Salandit. You gonna poke holes in "moderately speedy attackers that can set things on fire and can usually poison things that are immune to poison with a minority being immune to being attracted or falling for taunts?" as a Supersoldier option.

If you assume that "Can only ever know four moves" is a game abstraction, then Salandit and its evolved form Salazzle can theoretically get damage coverage for 71% of type combinations. Fire/Poison seems to be a decent enough defensive typing combination, ground will screw you up but you take 1/4 damage three different types and 1/4 damage from another five.

Oh, you don't have to change anything, I was just debating for the sake of it at that point.

[Rawhide]

2: Again, you don't make a perfect soldier unless you can guarantee that you're the only one using them. Also, Ditto can only transform into what it can see so now that I think about it it's only situationally useful.

https://pics.me.me/ditto-transform-into-this-1690782.png

[Peelee]

you don't make a perfect soldier unless you can guarantee that you're the only one using them.
I very much doubt that. Right off the bat, if someone else has a "perfect soldier" and you figure out how to make one yourself, then you clearly cannot guarantee you're the only one using them but it still behooves you to do it anyway.

[Rater202]

I very much doubt that. Right off the bat, if someone else has a "perfect soldier" and you figure out how to make one yourself, then you clearly cannot guarantee you're the only one using them but it still behooves you to do it anyway.

Let me rephrase it: You don't make a perfect soldier unless you're only making them for yourself.

[Peelee]

Let me rephrase it: You don't make a perfect soldier unless you're only making them for yourself.

Countries A and B are allies. Country A figures out how to make super soldiers. Country B offers many support structures to Country A that Country A relies upon heavily. Country B wants some of the super soldiers. It is not out of the realm of possibility that Country A could give Country B some super soldiers without letting them know how to make one.

Also I'm changing "perfect soldier" to "super soldier".

[Fyraltari]

Let me rephrase it: You don't make a perfect soldier unless you're only making them for yourself.

Wouldn't loyalty be part of the "perfect" package, anyway?

[Form]

Let me rephrase it: You don't make a perfect soldier unless you're only making them for yourself.

What if I'm an evil enterprising biologist who wants to finally leverage their college degree into making some money and finally paying off my student debt by selling them?


Wouldn't loyalty be part of the "perfect" package, anyway?

I imagine we could argue at length about what 'perfect' (bit of a vague term there) entails and whether to include cost-effectiveness considerations. A better question would be for what purpose they are made? Do I want to be able to quickly churn out large numbers at low cost, their survivability be damned? Do I just want them to be strong and fast or do they need tactical aptitude as well? Do they need to follow orders to the letter no matter what or should they have a degree of independence to be able to more quickly react to changing battlefield conditions and seize on opportunities themselves without being told?

[Peelee]

What if I'm an evil enterprising biologist who wants to finally leverage their college degree into making some money and finally paying off my student debt by selling them?
Indeed.

I imagine we could argue at length about what 'perfect' (bit of a vague term there) entails
That's exactly why I choose to use "super" instead.

[Cazero]

https://pics.me.me/ditto-transform-into-this-1690782.pngThis is adorable.

[Rater202]

Countries A and B are allies. Country A figures out how to make super soldiers. Country B offers many support structures to Country A that Country A relies upon heavily. Country B wants some of the super soldiers. It is not out of the realm of possibility that Country A could give Country B some super soldiers without letting them know how to make one.

Also I'm changing "perfect soldier" to "super soldier".

If the Supersoldiers are biological or cybernetic, an unscrupulous country could figure out how to make them by taking them apart.

In the case of a Captain America type, you can make more by transfusing the original's blood into other people.

The second you're soldiers are no longer under your control, someone will try to retronegineer them.

Also, you can't really change "perfect" Soldier to just Super Soldier. There's a world of difference between someone like Captain America, who is merely as good at everything as it is physically possible to be, and someone like Weapon H who is a single man whose powers combined with his training makes him theoretically capable of killing all life on Earth by himself.

You can make Captain Americas for your allies as long a you keep the Weapon H's for yourself as an ace in the whole in case those allies turn on you.

[Peelee]

Also, you can't really change "perfect" Soldier to just Super Soldier,
Sure I can, because there is no perfect soldier, not even in fiction. Even in your own example there was a super soldier as opposed to a super duper soldier, and that's a non-issue. Want your super soldier to be Mega Weapon X? Go ahead and have that be the case, then.

[Rater202]

Mother found a new brand of alfredo sauce and some "fresh" noodles(IE, not dehydrated, so you have to fridge them.)

Made a huge pot of chicken alfredo.

I now smell garlic every time I breathe out.

All is right in the world.

[Rawhide]

Sure I can, because there is no perfect soldier, not even in fiction. Even in your own example there was a super soldier as opposed to a super duper soldier, and that's a non-issue. Want your super soldier to be Mega Weapon X? Go ahead and have that be the case, then.

One could argue that Achilles was perfect, at least until he was brought to heel.

[Rater202]

One could argue that Achilles was perfect, at least until he was brought to heel.For the life of me, I don't understand why his mother didn't double dip him.

[Peelee]

For the life of me, I don't understand why his mother didn't double dip him.

Because that would make for a very short and boring story.

[Rater202]

Because that would make for a very short and boring story.
The Trojan war had been ongoing for years by the time Achilles' one weakness became relevant and continued for years after.

[Peelee]

The Trojan war had been ongoing for years by the time Achilles' one weakness became relevant and continued for years after.

And how many of those years were regaled in The Iliad? It wasn't a history book, it was a story. It told the parts that were interesting. "Guy is invincible, never gets defeated" is not interesting.

[Tvtyrant]

For the life of me, I don't understand why his mother didn't double dip him.

Because then the other side wouldn't have an excuse for losing and his side for being afraid of him?

The Illiad is really about someone like LeBron James, who is so athletic fighting them means death. Hector literally runs away from him when confronted. The scenes from the Illiad where the other army runs from Achilles strikes true: you could all rush him but some of you will die. Who is going to be the foremost man?

So they made up a reason for why it was okay to be afraid of him that didn't insult their own manliness.

[Bartmanhomer]

I really can't trust people on the internet anymore because I have this major trust issue when it comes to friends on the internet. Also, I won't give anyone a free pass anymore because I don't believe in giving anyone a second chance. :mad:

[Fyraltari]

The Trojan war had been ongoing for years by the time Achilles' one weakness became relevant and continued for years after.
Achilles died in the last year of the war.

And how many of those years were regaled in The Iliad? It wasn't a history book, it was a story. It told the parts that were interesting. "Guy is invincible, never gets defeated" is not interesting.
The Illiad is not the story of the Trojan war, it's one one story that is part of a cycle of a dozen stories about the Trojan War (with the exception of the Odyssey all the other stories of that cycle are lost). Also Achilles doesn't die in the Illiad and I'm pretty sure never looses a fight (at most a god intervenes to allow whoever he's about to slaughter at time T to run for it). The story is about him letting go of his rage.

So they made up a reason for why it was okay to be afraid of him that didn't insult their own manliness.
I'm sorry, are you saying the Trojan wrote The Illiad?

[Rater202]

I stayed up all night, crashed in the morning, slept till five, and now I can't sleep.

[Tvtyrant]

Achilles died in the last year of the war.

The Illiad is not the story of the Trojan war, it's one one story that is part of a cycle of a dozen stories about the Trojan War (with the exception of the Odyssey all the other stories of that cycle are lost). Also Achilles doesn't die in the Illiad and I'm pretty sure never looses a fight (at most a god intervenes to allow whoever he's about to slaughter at time T to run for it). The story is about him letting go of his rage.

I'm sorry, are you saying the Trojan wrote The Illiad?
No I'm saying the Illiad is based off of the stories of people observing the events. Too many of them are too realistic to be made up, they lack the dream like quality of Beowulf or Gilgamesh. The people watching didn't have terms like bellcurves and outliers to explain what was happening so they made him of divine origin.

My brother played on the same football team as an NFL starter. There are so many of us that giants who are better runners then the skinny kids, stronger then the big kids and have better hand eye coordination then the accurate kids is within our mental possibility. We have many 10000 of them in a population of 350,000,000. But if you lived in ancient times they were once every few lifetimes how would you process it?

[Peelee]

The Illiad is not the story of the Trojan war

Yep, that was part of my point. Achilles doing things before falling is a story. Achilles never falling isn't a story, it's a personal fantasy or daydream.

[Fyraltari]

No I'm saying the Illiad is based off of the stories of people observing the events. Too many of them are too realistic to be made up, they lack the dream like quality of Beowulf or Gilgamesh.
I know, we found Troy.

The people watching didn't have terms like bellcurves and outliers to explain what was happening so they made him of divine origin.

My brother played on the same football team as an NFL starter. There are so many of us that giants who are better runners then the skinny kids, stronger then the big kids and have better hand eye coordination then the accurate kids is within our mental possibility. We have many 10000 of them in a population of 350,000,000. But if you lived in ancient times they were once every few lifetimes how would you process it?

Right but the story was written down by the descendants of the Acheans, they were glorifying their cultural heroes rather than making excuses for not beating them (that would be more likely if the descendants of the Trojans were telling the stories, which they are not, no matter what Virgile says).

Also, I doubt that anybody ever felt it impossible to process "some people are bigger or faster than others" without going "this guy must be the son of a god!"
It's just that when a story gets passed down from one person to the next for a few centuries before being written down like this one was, everything gers blown out of proportions: thirty ships become a thousand, a ten-month long siege becomes ten years long, all those tribe leaders become kings with divine parents, the better-than average warrior who died of a badly infected heel-wound? Was dipped into the river of the Underworld as an infant making him invulnerable to all wounds except this one, that random archer was a companion of Herakles, the whole thing happened for the most beautiful woman in the world and Menelaus once caught a fish that big!

Edit:

Yep, that was part of my point. Achilles doing things before falling is a story. Achilles never falling isn't a story, it's a personal fantasy or daydream.

But he doesn't fall in the Illiad. The Illiad doesn't need Achilles to be defeated to be a good story.

[Rater202]

Yep, that was part of my point. Achilles doing things before falling is a story. Achilles never falling isn't a story, it's a personal fantasy or daydream.

Yes, but we are expected to believe that the characters in a story are acting towards their own interest and that they are behaving rationally unless otherwise shown that they are not of their right mind.

In the Illiad, or any other version of the tale of Achilles that I've heard, outside of modern works of fiction, there's no reason given for why Thetis didn't grab baby Ahchillies by the shoulder and dip his legs in the river to make sure that he was invulnerable all over.

And I could forgive that as a moment of thoughtlessness... Except that the translation I first read also included Thetis coating Achilles in Ambrosia and placing him in the hearth to bake away his mortality and make him fully divine, and thus, immortal, only for Pelus, who had been spying on Thetis becuase he feared that she was deliberately killing their sons, to rip the infant Achilles from the fire... And then Tetis berated him and explained what she was doing and Pelus believed her.

There's no reason given for why they couldn't then put the baby back in the fire to finish baking away his ability to die.

Thetis's entire motivation in any translation or adaption of the Illiad is make sure her son doesn't die. That she didn't double-dip or put him back in the fire or do anything but these two things and the thing with forcing him to live as a woman so h wouldn't be recruited to fight in the war... Kind of a plothole.

[Fyraltari]

Yes, but we are expected to believe that the characters in a story are acting towards their own interest and that they are behaving rationally unless otherwise shown that they are not of their right mind.

In the Illiad, or any other version of the tale of Achilles that I've heard, outside of modern works of fiction, there's no reason given for why Thetis didn't grab baby Ahchillies by the shoulder and dip his legs in the river to make sure that he was invulnerable all over.

And I could forgive that as a moment of thoughtlessness... Except that the translation I first read also included Thetis coating Achilles in Ambrosia and placing him in the hearth to bake away his mortality and make him fully divine, and thus, immortal, only for Pelus, who had been spying on Thetis becuase he feared that she was deliberately killing their sons, to rip the infant Achilles from the fire... And then Tetis berated him and explained what she was doing and Pelus believed her.

There's no reason given for why they couldn't then put the baby back in the fire to finish baking away his ability to die.

Thetis's entire motivation in any translation or adaption of the Illiad is make sure her son doesn't die. That she didn't double-dip or put him back in the fire or do anything but these two things and the thing with forcing him to live as a woman so h wouldn't be recruited to fight in the war... Kind of a plothole.

It's magic, man, you don't get a do-over.

[Cazero]

Yes, but we are expected to believe that the characters in a story are acting towards their own interest and that they are behaving rationally unless otherwise shown that they are not of their right mind.
The thing is, we're explicitly informed that they're not behaving rationaly when some snotty brat abducting a king's wife/fiancee results in a war instead of a formal apology accompanied with the brat's head.

Kids were fongible back then, right?

[Rater202]

The thing is, we're explicitly informed that they're not behaving rationaly when some snotty brat abducting a king's wife/fiancee results in a war instead of a formal apology accompanied with the brat's head.

Kids were fongible back then, right?

"Yes, I'm totally going to execute my long-lost son because he obeyed when the Goddess of Love told him to seduce your wife."

Helen wasn't kidnapped, Paris seduced her and she decided to run off with him and rob her husband blind on the way out. Paris seduced her because he was following instructions given to him by Aphrodite after he judged her the one most worthy of the Golden Apple, promising that by doing so he would earn the love of the most beautiful woman in the world.

Also, at least some translations indicate that nobody wants to go to war over this but they're bound by oaths to do so and if they back out they won't get help from the other Greek King if they need it.

[Tvtyrant]

I know, we found Troy.


Right but the story was written down by the descendants of the Acheans, they were glorifying their cultural heroes rather than making excuses for not beating them (that would be more likely if the descendants of the Trojans were telling the stories, which they are not, no matter what Virgile says).

Also, I doubt that anybody ever felt it impossible to process "some people are bigger or faster than others" without going "this guy must be the son of a god!"
It's just that when a story gets passed down from one person to the next for a few centuries before being written down like this one was, everything gers blown out of proportions: thirty ships become a thousand, a ten-month long siege becomes ten years long, all those tribe leaders become kings with divine parents, the better-than average warrior who died of a badly infected heel-wound? Was dipped into the river of the Underworld as an infant making him invulnerable to all wounds except this one, that random archer was a companion of Herakles, the whole thing happened for the most beautiful woman in the world and Menelaus once caught a fish that big!

Edit:


But he doesn't fall in the Illiad. The Illiad doesn't need Achilles to be defeated to be a good story.
I think I am going to duck out or we need to move off board to continue this conversation. Mea Culpa.

[Peelee]

But he doesn't fall in the Illiad. The Illiad doesn't need Achilles to be defeated to be a good story.
It's been decades since I read it (and it didn't interest me terribly much when I did), so I'll take the rap for not remember it that well.

Yes, but we are expected to believe that the characters in a story are acting towards their own interest and that they are behaving rationally unless otherwise shown that they are not of their right mind.

Yes, but acting rationally does not mean "makes the objectively optimal decision at every possible chance". People are not robots. People make mistakes, choose suboptimal options, and do things that other people would not do. That does not make a plot hole.

[Rater202]

Yes, but acting rationally does not mean "makes the objectively optimal decision at every possible chance". People are not robots. People make mistakes, choose suboptimal options, and do things that other people would not do. That does not make a plot hole.

There's "failing to take the objectively optimal choice" and there's "I didn't make my son immortal despite having the ability to do so and there not being any reason why I can't try again."

You telling me that Achilles never once strapped on a sharp rock and his mom was like "oh, I should take care of that?" And in the case of versions of the story that involve trying to back the mortality out of him, there's literally no reason why she couldn't put him right back in the fireplace after explaining what she was trying to do to Pelus.

[Peelee]

There's "failing to take the objectively optimal choice" and there's "I didn't make my son immortal despite having the ability to do so and there not being any reason why I can't try again."

Invulnerable. Not immortal. And she clearly thought she did and didn't consider the heel. Again, people, not robots.

[Rater202]

Invulnerable. Not immortal. And she clearly thought she did and didn't consider the heel. Again, people, not robots.

So I edited that, but for the sake of convincing.

It is my experience that injuries to the feet, say, the heel, are the most likely childhood injuries. "One of Achilles' feet is vulnerable to harm" is something that honestly should have come up a long time before the Trojan War even started.

Furthermore, as noted, at least one translation has Thetis go beyond making him invulnerable and flat out try to make him Immortal by coating him in ambrosia and placing him in a Hearth to burn away his mortality and make him unable to die. In this version of the story, Pelus sees this and snatches newborn Achilles from the fire before it can have any meaningful effect... But Thetis explains herself to him and there's no reason given for why they don't just put him back in the fire once everything is cleared up.

[Peelee]

Also, I'm now amused at the idea of a side story where his mother held into his ankle and dunked him to the heel was still out of the liquid, and now she has an invulnerable hand. And the significantly lackluster things that she can do with this power.

[Fyraltari]

Also, I'm now amused at the idea of a side story where his mother held into his ankle and dunked him to the heel was still out of the liquid, and now she has an invulnerable hand. And the significantly lackluster things that she can do with this power.

Wouldn't that result in him having a vulnerable ankle instead of heel?

[Peelee]

Wouldn't that result in him having a vulnerable ankle instead of heel?

You'd think, but there are no stories about his mother's invulnerable hand, so obviously That's not how it works and something was lost in translation. That is the only scenario I am willing to accept. :smalltongue:

[DavidSh]

You'd think, but there are no stories about his mother's invulnerable hand, so obviously That's not how it works and something was lost in translation. That is the only scenario I am willing to accept. :smalltongue:
Other scenarios would involve discussing real-world, albeit ancient, religion, so I guess we have to stop here.

And the other day I saw daffodils for the first time, so spring is truly here, on into the yellow-flower stage (daffodils, forsythia, dandelions).

[Anonymouswizard]

I find it annoying when science fiction settings thriw around accelerations of hundreds of gs as a standard thing. Like, I get that space is big, but that's a lot of ebergy there and you should probably run the numbers on that. My favourite setting does have 1g acceleration as standard on starships, which is a lot of energy as well considering that they run continuously for years, but that's a mixture of wanting human-scale star travel without FTL and the writer has run the numbers.

And yet again I find myself wanting to run a Revelation Space-inspired game with GURPS or Fate. Have the PCs as the crew of a Lighthugger and treat travel between systems as a setting instead of an activity. (Or just use the idea in the Fate Space Toolkit and have the PCs be intelligent relativistic ships.)

[Rater202]

Does anyone else ever wonder what it would be like to have extra eyes or a tail or tentacles?

[factotum]

I find it annoying when science fiction settings thriw around accelerations of hundreds of gs as a standard thing. Like, I get that space is big, but that's a lot of ebergy there and you should probably run the numbers on that.

I consider it a win when SF (particularly on TV, but books do it as well) actually acknowledges distances in space and that it takes a long time to get anywhere at reasonable speeds, TBH! It also depends what sort of SF we're talking about. If we're talking the sort of super-powered tech we see in Iain M. Banks' Culture books (where, just to give a simple example, a ship hides from its enemies by staying in the outer layers of the system's star) then I'm happy to let that ride, because the entire setting has that sort of ridiculous stuff happening. Conversely, something like the Expanse works best when it's at its most realistic (albeit the Epstein drive is still pretty much magic).

[Cazero]

I find it annoying when science fiction settings thriw around accelerations of hundreds of gs as a standard thing. Like, I get that space is big, but that's a lot of ebergy there and you should probably run the numbers on that.
Ho, please. Energy is a non-issue when compared to the fact that this would kill all of your human crew almost instantly.

[Anonymouswizard]

I consider it a win when SF (particularly on TV, but books do it as well) actually acknowledges distances in space and that it takes a long time to get anywhere at reasonable speeds, TBH! It also depends what sort of SF we're talking about. If we're talking the sort of super-powered tech we see in Iain M. Banks' Culture books (where, just to give a simple example, a ship hides from its enemies by staying in the outer layers of the system's star) then I'm happy to let that ride, because the entire setting has that sort of ridiculous stuff happening. Conversely, something like the Expanse works best when it's at its most realistic (albeit the Epstein drive is still pretty much magic).

While it's been a while since I've read a Culture book, I do remember hat their sublight engines weren't quite so insane, I'd have pegged them at mu;tiplr gs but probaby not undreds. Also I believe the hiding inside the star was a 'wth moment' in-universe as well, and that most civilisations that have reached that level die before putting it into practice.

But like, you can acknowledge distance without being quite so insane.


Ho, please. Energy is a non-issue when compared to the fact that this would kill all of your human crew almost instantly.

Space magic, Or 'inertial damping'.

Which Revelation Space actually has, but it also points out that unless you absolutely perfect it it'll probably be very uncomfortable and you might just want to deal with the higher acceleration you've snagged out of affecting part of your ship. instead of messing with your own inertia.

[Peelee]

Space magic, Or 'inertial damping'.

Aye. One of my favorite lines in a movie already stuffed to the brim with wit:
"wouldn't that be explosive in an all-oxygen environment?"
"Probably. But that's an easy fix, one line of dialogue. 'Thank god we invented the, ya know, whatever device'."

[enderlord99]

Aye. One of my favorite lines in a movie already stuffed to the brim with wit:
"wouldn't that be explosive in an all-oxygen environment?"
"Probably. But that's an easy fix, one line of dialogue. 'Thank god we invented the, ya know, whatever device'."

This sounds like it comes from a Mel Brooks movie, but I don't know which.

I don't remember it in Galaxy Quest, but I might have just forgotten. It could, however, have almost as likely come from Spaceballs.

[Form]

Space magic, Or 'inertial damping'.



Aye. One of my favorite lines in a movie already stuffed to the brim with wit:
"wouldn't that be explosive in an all-oxygen environment?"
"Probably. But that's an easy fix, one line of dialogue. 'Thank god we invented the, ya know, whatever device'."

A wizard scientist did it.

[halfeye]

Does anyone else ever wonder what it would be like to have extra eyes or a tail or tentacles?

I don't usually, when you ask that sort of tends to trigger it, but even so, not that much.

Have you been reading https://katalepsis.net/?

[Peelee]

This sounds like it comes from a Mel Brooks movie, but I don't know which.

I don't remember it in Galaxy Quest, but I might have just forgotten. It could, however, have almost as likely come from Spaceballs.

Swing and a miss on both, but to be fair there's only like two minutes talk of space in the whole movie. But that line apparently still made it in the trailer (https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Df32RijORLo).

Also, it's a super good movie and I wholly recommend it.

[factotum]

While it's been a while since I've read a Culture book, I do remember hat their sublight engines weren't quite so insane, I'd have pegged them at mu;tiplr gs but probaby not undreds.

I don't think it's ever really mentioned because ships hardly ever use their sublight engines--the Clear Air Turbulence does so when escaping the Ends of Invention in Consider Phlebas, but I can't remember another instance.

[Rater202]

While we're talking about how fiction messes up space travel.

I did the math a couple hours ago on the current Marvel Comics Timeline. Currently, it was only a few weeks between the Absolute Carnage Event, which ended with Knull, God of the Symbiotes, being from his prison at the core of planet Klyntar and King in Black, which begins with Knull and his armies arriving at on Earth.

Klyntar was located in the Andromeda galaxy, which is over 2,500,000 lightyears away from Earth. Not even counting the distance from Klyntar to the edge of Andromeda and giving a very generous four-week time span, this means that Knull and his forces would have to be able to fly through the vacuum of space at 32,589,285.725 times the speed of light.

This is, of course, the bare minimum. It was probably less time, and we know he took at least one detour.

This honestly wouldn't be so bad by comic book standards... Except they don't use ships. They flap their wings, becuase they're dragons.

[Anonymouswizard]

Aye. One of my favorite lines in a movie already stuffed to the brim with wit:
"wouldn't that be explosive in an all-oxygen environment?"
"Probably. But that's an easy fix, one line of dialogue. 'Thank god we invented the, ya know, whatever device'."

Heh. To be fair to inertial damping, while it is space magic and has a good chance of being impossible, the coreidea is generally sound in how it's applied. Unless you're using it for FTL travel, but that's besides the point.

But honestly, a handwave that shows you've thought about it is better than no handwave, especially if it's relatively minor. Although sometimes the handwave can be completely the wrong thing (I remember watching Another Life, hearing 'the crew is young because you want people who'll act instead of thinking about it in space' or something like that and immediately thinking 'no, you want the opposite').


EDIT:

I don't think it's ever really mentioned because ships hardly ever use their sublight engines--the Clear Air Turbulence does so when escaping the Ends of Invention in Consider Phlebas, but I can't remember another instance.

A culture ship uses sublight engines at the end of Matter, but it's also noted that because of the location stopping culture-level technology from working it's rearranged itself to use primitive rocket technology instead of the normal drives.

[Fyraltari]

While we're talking about how fiction messes up space travel.

I did the math a couple hours ago on the current Marvel Comics Timeline. Currently, it was only a few weeks between the Absolute Carnage Event, which ended with Knull, God of the Symbiotes, being from his prison at the core of planet Klyntar and King in Black, which begins with Knull and his armies arriving at on Earth.

Klyntar was located in the Andromeda galaxy, which is over 2,500,000 lightyears away from Earth. Not even counting the distance from Klyntar to the edge of Andromeda and giving a very generous four-week time span, this means that Knull and his forces would have to be able to fly through the vacuum of space at 32,589,285.725 times the speed of light.

This is, of course, the bare minimum. It was probably less time, and we know he took at least one detour.

This honestly wouldn't be so bad by comic book standards... Except they don't use ships. They flap their wings, becuase they're dragons.

So you're telling me that the dragons that are impossibly flying through space are doing it too fast?

I am shocked and apalled.

[Peelee]

This honestly wouldn't be so bad by comic book standards... Except they don't use ships. They flap their wings, becuase they're dragons.

I kind of love that idea. But then I'm on record as being a fan of when comics lean into the whole "look, we're just going to be unapologetically silly" bit, so I'm probably in the minority there.

[Rawhide]

I kind of love that idea. But then I'm on record as being a fan of when comics lean into the whole "look, we're just going to be unapologetically silly" bit, so I'm probably in the minority there.

https://pics.me.me/shhh-my-common-sense-is-tingling-common-sense-so-rare-13591797.png

[Fyraltari]

I kind of love that idea. But then I'm on record as being a fan of when comics lean into the whole "look, we're just going to be unapologetically silly" bit, so I'm probably in the minority there.
*Distant whisper*
Lovecraft did it first...

[Peelee]

*Distant whisper*
Lovecraft did it first...

That reminds me, I need to check out that new show.

[Rater202]

*Distant whisper*
Lovecraft did it first...Ths is very appropriate, as Knull has a very strong influence from the Cthulhu Mythos and since he was revealed the cosmic horror references among Symbiotes have been played full tilt.

Admittedly, Knull himself draws more from The King in Yellow than any of Lovecraft's own works, but still.

[LaZodiac]

I don't usually, when you ask that sort of tends to trigger it, but even so, not that much.

Have you been reading https://katalepsis.net/?

Oh hey, I've been reading that. If you're part of the fan discord... well, I'm not part of that, but you've probably seen my responses. Small world!

[Rater202]

And no, I haven't been reading that.

My body kind of sucks for various reasons, some I could theoretically control and some I can't.

Naturally, my thoughts often turn what things would be like if I had a different one, and I prefer biological or chemical augmentation to most forms of cybernetic for various reasons, so when I wonder about enhancements it tends to go with "if I had these weird biological things what would it be like?"

I also spent several weeks cross-referencing comics trying to figure out if you could combine Super Solider Serum, Infinity formula, Wakandan Herb, Hyde Formula, Regen Serum, Lazarus Formula, Taskmaster's Super Soldier Serum variant, Calypso Serum, and Goblin Formula in the same person without killing them or making them wish they were dead.

For the record, I'm pretty sure the answer is "yes, but:" You'd have to do it in the right order, with days or weeks, maybe even months between, each treatment for the body to climate, and you would have to use the most stable, complete, and untainted versions all administered in the proper method. Use an SSS variant that doesn't have stabilizers or the Formula that created the Protogoblin or have the subject drink the Hyde formula instead of absorbing it through the skin and you're gonna screw them up.

[Anonymouswizard]

I met up with my girlfriend today for the first time since before Christmas. It was really nice, although sadly we had to stay outside.

[Bartmanhomer]

Ok, this is my problem with multiple Youtube Livestream moderators: I've seen so many other YouTubers Livestream and the number of moderators in most of the Livestream is insane. I saw 10, 20, and even 50+ moderators in a single Livestream. Also I most of the moderators are very egotistical and ruthless that they have a personal vendetta for the viewers who commenting on Livestream which they resort to by timing out and banning them. For the love of Ellistraee, you don't need that many moderators to run in your Livestream. :sigh:

[Rater202]

Sometimes I think it'd be very relaxing to spend an extended period of time alone at sea on an old-fashioned wooden ship, but then I remember that that would be a ridiculous amount of work and it probably wouldn't be worth it if the point is to relax.

[LaZodiac]

I met up with my girlfriend today for the first time since before Christmas. It was really nice, although sadly we had to stay outside.

That sounds wonderful, even if it did involve having to stay outside.

I'll be having something like that happen sooner rather than later. Wish me luck aaaah!

[DataNinja]

I met up with my girlfriend today for the first time since before Christmas. It was really nice, although sadly we had to stay outside.

Oh, nice! I'm happy for you, and more than a little jealous you could meet up with people. :smalltongue:


That sounds wonderful, even if it did involve having to stay outside.

I'll be having something like that happen sooner rather than later. Wish me luck aaaah!

Hope that goes well, and the day arrives swiftly!

[factotum]

Sometimes I think it'd be very relaxing to spend an extended period of time alone at sea on an old-fashioned wooden ship, but then I remember that that would be a ridiculous amount of work and it probably wouldn't be worth it if the point is to relax.

Why an old-fashioned wooden ship? People who actually *do* sail solo do so in modern yachts with stuff like self-steering gear and the like, which would no doubt be a much more doable thing and would still get you the benefit of being all alone in the middle of the sea, if that's what you're after.

[Anonymouswizard]

That sounds wonderful, even if it did involve having to stay outside.

Yes, it was lovely :smallsmile:


I'll be having something like that happen sooner rather than later. Wish me luck aaaah!

Let me for it the genie, Mage the wish actually count....

But yes, good luck.


Oh, nice! I'm happy for you, and more than a little jealous you could meet up with people. :smalltongue:

Yes, it's 68% better than video chats. And we spent days trying to work out of it was even allowed.

[Rawhide]

Sometimes I think it'd be very relaxing to spend an extended period of time alone at sea on an old-fashioned wooden ship, but then I remember that that would be a ridiculous amount of work and it probably wouldn't be worth it if the point is to relax.

I would definitely not recommend doing it alone on "an old-fashioned wooden ship". However, there are several an old-fashioned tall ships that you can spend time on as crew that you might really enjoy. You wouldn't be alone, though.


Why an old-fashioned wooden ship? People who actually *do* sail solo do so in modern yachts with stuff like self-steering gear and the like, which would no doubt be a much more doable thing and would still get you the benefit of being all alone in the middle of the sea, if that's what you're after.

This would be much better, but even with all the modern features, sailing completely alone isn't exactly the most relaxing out on the water. I mean, with perfect conditions, sure, but if anything is a bit more complicated you want at least one other person out there with you.

[Rater202]

Why an old-fashioned wooden ship? People who actually *do* sail solo do so in modern yachts with stuff like self-steering gear and the like, which would no doubt be a much more doable thing and would still get you the benefit of being all alone in the middle of the sea, if that's what you're after.

The aesthetic of it. The aesthetic is important.

It's less "what I'm doing" and more "old-timey aesthetic in a natural setting." I could probably get the same results chilling out in a frontier settlers camp but a wooden boat is more likely to actually happen.

More specifically, a good while back I was suffering from some really bad chronic anxiety and some of the things that helped with that were booting up Kingdom Hearts tree and just spending an hour chilling out in the Caribean piloting the Leviathan or Black Pearl, or watching Let's Plays of Seas of Thieves.

The "sailing around in an old ship, surrounded by clear skies and open ocean" aesthetic... It seems very relaxing.

But then I remember that in real life it would be too much work to get any real benefit out of it.

Edit: And, as Rawhide notes, dangerous to go alone. And there ain't no old man to give you a sword to handle that.

Though, note: I also think it would be relaxing to be a dragon.

[BisectedBrioche]

I ran my first game of Blades in the Dark.

It went well; my players rolled up a Cult playbook, and ended up stealing a loaf of bread* to look tough after they got arrested (which made the other gangs start eyeing them up as rivals).

* A giant centrepiece for a fancy party being held by one of the largest factions in the city, made from wheat that's kind of hard to grow in a setting with barely any sunlight.

[Rater202]

made from wheat that's kind of hard to grow in a setting with barely any sunlight.

So it's made from wheat?

Hypothetically if I found a magic self-driving pirate ship with inexplicable indoor plumbing and a self-replenishing food store and decided to just live there forever, would anybody here be willing to join my crew?

[Lord Raziere]

So it's made from wheat?

Hypothetically if I found a magic self-driving pirate ship with inexplicable indoor plumbing and a self-replenishing food store and decided to just live there forever, would anybody here be willing to join my crew?

No.

take it from someone who lives on a coast: being surrounded by endless water would just get boring. what would you have to look at, blue and darker blue? that and no or inconsistent internet connection. would be boring out my skull. live on a house near a coast, take a good long look at the water sloshing back and forth over the horizon, there, that is that experience, but forever and without any of the little things you not thinking about or taking for granted. like the ship tipping back and forth instead of stable ground.

just asking people in general: do you think a magic system to temporarily create weapons and armor to enhance one's abilities but due to an metaphysical connection to war and battle can only be used for fighting be a good superhero/battle manga like set up? I want to make sure its a good reason why its not used for anything else.

[BisectedBrioche]

So it's made from wheat?

Hypothetically if I found a magic self-driving pirate ship with inexplicable indoor plumbing and a self-replenishing food store and decided to just live there forever, would anybody here be willing to join my crew?

I'm not sure I understand the question. Yes the bread is made from wheat...?

[Rater202]

I'm not sure I understand the question. Yes the bread is made from wheat...?

I was being a smart ass.


wheat that's kind of hard to grow in a setting with barely any sunlight.This phrasing implies that being hard to grow when there's barely any sunlight is a unique trait of this wheat... But that's kind of a thing with most kinds of wheat.

I apologize that the joke fell flat.

[Anonymouswizard]

Never played Blades in the Dark, but I do want to run Scum and Villainy at done point. Instead of being about crews of fantasy thieves it's about crews of starships, but using the same system. Depending on the ship the group picks you could be playing Firefly, Cowboy Bebop, or Blake's Seven, and the playbooks are an almost perfect match for the crew of Serenity (I think you might need to include Innara).

Of course with the groups I tend to get it'll be less 'steal the bread' and more 'the police are chasing us, how much of the continent can we level'.

[Rater202]

Never played Blades in the Dark, but I do want to run Scum and Villainy at done point. Instead of being about crews of fantasy thieves it's about crews of starships, but using the same system. Depending on the ship the group picks you could be playing Firefly, Cowboy Bebop, or Blake's Seven, and the playbooks are an almost perfect match for the crew of Serenity (I think you might need to include Innara).

Of course with the groups I tend to get it'll be less 'steal the bread' and more 'the police are chasing us, how much of the continent can we level'.

That's how you know you're doing it right.

If the PCs are playing criminals and the game doesn't end with the authorities agreeing to leave the PCs be because the benefit of bringing them in isn't worth th effort it costs or the collateral damage, then the Pcs have made a mistake.

[Bartmanhomer]

If you're a parent who begs me to unblock your child from social media sites, wouldn't you as a parent have better judgment and common sense to monitor your child for watching what they do and say on the internet to prevent all the nastiness from ever happening to this point. I think that very bad parenting on your part. Also what child drags their parent by doing their internet battles for them. It doesn't make any sense. :sigh:

[Peelee]

If you're a parent who begs me to unblock your child from social media sites, wouldn't you as a parent have better judgment and common sense to monitor your child for watching what they do and say on the internet to prevent all the nastiness from ever happening to this point. I think that very bad parenting on your part. Also what child drags their parent by doing their internet battles for them. It doesn't make any sense. :sigh:

Spoiler alert: you're not talking to the parent. You're talking to the child on an alternate account.

[Bartmanhomer]

Spoiler alert: you're not talking to the parent. You're talking to the child on an alternate account.

Thanks for the heads up, Peelee. I'm still not going to unblock the child from all social media sites. I don't care how many alternate accounts that child has.

[Rater202]

Spoiler alert: you're not talking to the parent. You're talking to the child on an alternate account.

Not nessesarily, it could also be a Karen or other entitled parent type who thinks that their precious angel can do no wrong.

[Form]

take it from someone who lives on a coast: being surrounded by endless water would just get boring. what would you have to look at, blue and darker blue?


Maybe one'd learn to appreciate the many shades of blue?


that and no or inconsistent internet connection.

Yeah, ok, you're right. This is horrible.

[Anonymouswizard]

Spoiler alert: you're not talking to the parent. You're talking to the child on an alternate account.

Possibly, also as Rater says it could be a parent with no clue what kids are actually like (every child is a monster, the role of a parent is to control their kids and teach them not to be one).


But as a general rule you have the right to block anybody you want on social media, or anywhere except in real life*. While I personally regard it as a nuclear option and have never done it, it is an acceptable method for dealing with people you'd rather not converse with and invcluded for a reason. There are circumstances where this is not okay, but it works as a general rule.

You have the right to interact with only people you want to interact with. While this can be problematic it's a basic requirement to avoid abuse.

* In real life it's up to you to leave the space, as you've got no right to control how somebody else spends their time.

[DavidSh]

take it from someone who lives on a coast: being surrounded by endless water would just get boring. what would you have to look at, blue and darker blue? that and no or inconsistent internet connection. would be boring out my skull. live on a house near a coast, take a good long look at the water sloshing back and forth over the horizon, there, that is that experience, but forever and without any of the little things you not thinking about or taking for granted. like the ship tipping back and forth instead of stable ground.

There's sailing out in the open ocean, with nothing but the sea and sky, and then there is cruising in an archipelago, going from island to island, putting in at ports, and anchoring in secluded coves. I've been on commercial sail cruises in the Antilles, and on the south coast of Turkey, and found it quite pleasant for a couple of weeks. On a longer run it might be a different story. Having to run or hide from storms wouldn't be so fun.

[BisectedBrioche]

I was being a smart ass.

This phrasing implies that being hard to grow when there's barely any sunlight is a unique trait of this wheat... But that's kind of a thing with most kinds of wheat.

I apologize that the joke fell flat.

Nah, my fault. I hadn't been drinking enough coffee to recognise the flaw in my syntax when I wrote it, or when I read your reply.


Never played Blades in the Dark, but I do want to run Scum and Villainy at done point. Instead of being about crews of fantasy thieves it's about crews of starships, but using the same system. Depending on the ship the group picks you could be playing Firefly, Cowboy Bebop, or Blake's Seven, and the playbooks are an almost perfect match for the crew of Serenity (I think you might need to include Innara).

Of course with the groups I tend to get it'll be less 'steal the bread' and more 'the police are chasing us, how much of the continent can we level'.

That was basically "babies first heist", to tie into a plot hook, where one faction's basically trying to distract the other, more powerful faction, by pointing as many other gangs at them as possible. Which itself ties into said powerful faction's conflict with another faction. It was basically designed to seem a little silly because the PCs have been goaded into someone else's war.

If we have a few sessions, and it all goes to plan, there'll be pitched battles in the streets (BITD is designed so "flee the city" isn't really an option 99% of the time).

[Peelee]

Possibly, also as Rater says it could be a parent with no clue what kids are actually like.
Yes, that's possible, but less likely and I dismissed it out of hand. Dollars to doughnuts its the kid.

But as a general rule you have the right to block anybody you want on social media, or anywhere except in real life*.

* In real life it's up to you to leave the space, as you've got no right to control how somebody else spends their time.
You can absolutely do it in real life too, so long as you own or have control of the space.

[Rater202]

* In real life it's up to you to leave the space, as you've got no right to control how somebody else spends their time.

Not nessesarily.

If someone is in your house and you want them to leave, they have to leave. If someone is smoking in our house and you ask them not to and they refuse, or you have told them that you do not allow smoking in your house and they ignore you, it is entirely within your rights to grab them by the belt and toss their rude, "I don't give a damn who I give cancer as long as I get to feed my addiction" ass out the door and lock it behind them and call the police if they keep loitering.

If someone is deliberately blocking the stairwell and it would take you too far out of your way to go to another one, you are within your rights to tell them to either go down or get the hell out of your way, no matter what the victim-blaming middle school music teacher thought(not the one that blamed me for being bullied, the other music teacher.)

If you are in a public location and someone is making a nuisance of themselves in a way that disturbs the peace, you have to right to call the police or security and have this person escorted off the premises. Especially if, say, you see that this person's photo is on the "banned from premises" wall in which case that person is actively committing a crime: Trespassing.

And while we're at it, if you have kids... Never make them hug, kiss, or even shake the hand of a relative or family friend that they don't want to and if said relative or family friend gets pissy about it, kick them out. Your child has a right to body autonomy and while exercising that right isn't always viable(like with shots, as a parent your responsibility to keep them safe supersedes their right to refuse a prick, unless they're genuinely trypanophobic) but if they don't want to show affection to someone they don't have to.

Like, seriously, they're not being a brat. The best-case scenario you're teaching your child that their right to not be touched or touch someone if it makes them uncomfortable doesn't matter and anyone who wants to touch them can and they're the one that's wrong for refusing if you make them hug or kiss people or punish them if they don't. You're basically pregrooming them to be abused.

The worst case scenario, the relative or family friend they're refusing to hug is already abusing them.

[Peelee]

If someone is deliberately blocking the stairwell and it would take you too far out of your way to go to another one, you are within your rights to tell them to either go down or get the hell out of your way
You always have that right, in that you will not have repurcussion from any LEA.

no matter what the victim-blaming middle school music teacher thought
Having the right does not mean being shielded from consequences from non-LEAs.

[Rater202]

You always have that right, in that you will not have repurcussion from any LEA.

Having the right does not mean being shielded from consequences from non-LEAs.

Oh no, I never suffered any consequences unless you count the teacher coming out of the room and yelling at(but not punishing) me when the confrontation between the two asshats deliberately blocking the stairs got loud while they got off without so much as a warning.

In short, I was being told that I did not have the right by someone who has no authority to make that call. I assume the fact that was never written up or reported to the office(this is a two-three times a week occurrence for two weeks, then the asshats got bored with messing with me) or otherwise gotten in trouble tells me that the teacher knew she had no leg to stand on because it wasn't until high school that I regularly encountered teachers who had an opportunity to screw me over or punish me for another kid's behavior but didn't.

[Anonymouswizard]

Yes, that's possible, but less likely and I dismissed it out of hand. Dollars to doughnuts its the kid.

Oh, it's almost certainly the kid. If the kid is really smart they've even been maintaining the profile so it doesn't look like it's them doing it.

There's also different language when it's the parents and not the kid, as anybody who's tried to forge a sick note knows.


You can absolutely do it in real life too, so long as you own or have control of the space.

Sure, I suspect we were thinking of different situations. Most of the times I've seen it in real life are closer to 'bad breakup, both go to the same social thing, one side tried to use peer pressure to get the other to stop going'.

So yes, if you are the host you do have the authority to throw somebody out. But for a large number of us most of the time we will not be the host.

[Peelee]

Oh no, I never suffered any consequences unless you count the teacher coming out of the room and yelling at(but not punishing) me when the confrontation between the two asshats deliberately blocking the stairs got loud while they got off without so much as a warning.

In short, I was being told that I did not have the right by someone who has no authority to make that call. I assume the fact that was never written up or reported to the office(this is a two-three times a week occurrence for two weeks, then the asshats got bored with messing with me) or otherwise gotten in trouble tells me that the teacher knew she had no leg to stand on because it wasn't until high school that I regularly encountered teachers who had an opportunity to screw me over or punish me for another kid's behavior but didn't.
You had the right to tell them to stop blocking you. She had the right to yell at you. I see no disconnect here.

Also, that she didn't bother to do anything further was more likely idlndivlcative that she didn't care about pursuing it further. If someone actually has no leg to stand on and attempts anyway, they tend to not notice that they are wrong.

[Rater202]

You had the right to tell them to stop blocking you. She had the right to yell at you. I see no disconnect here.

On the contrary, someone does not have the right to chastise or punish someone else for enforcing their own rights, particularly when the people violating those rights are right there, admit it, are unrepentant about it, and this is the third time they've caused this exact same situation.

[Peelee]

On the contrary, someone does not have the right to chastise or punish someone else for enforcing their own rights, particularly when the people violating those rights are right there, admit it, are unrepentant about it, and this is the third time they've caused this exact same situation.

You said she didn't punish you. She yelled at you. She absolutely had that right. Anyone has the right to chastise anyone else. Words are just words. Just because you have the right to say one thing doesn't take away someone else's rights to say another thing.

[Rater202]

You said she didn't punish you. She yelled at you. She a solutely had that right. Anyone has the right to chastise anyone else. Words are just words. Just because you wlhave the right to say one thing doesn't take away someone else's rights to say another thing.

I said "chastise or punish." Yelling is chastisement.

Allowing a teacher to chastise a student for enforcing their rights in front of the people who are deliberately blocking that students path when those people admit to it simply causes the student to grow up into an adult who doesn't trust anyone in a position of authority.

On multiple occasions, this woman decided that chastising me for being upset that the same asshats were deliberately making me late to class, five times in total, was an appropriate use of the authority. Not chastising the people blocking the stairwell so that I could either ague with them and be late or go around the long way and be just as late when...

...I'm sorry, I just now realized that those two crapheads would have been skipping class when they did this and now I'm even more pissed off that I got chastised and they didn't.

[Peelee]

I said "chastise or punish." Yelling is chastisement.

Allowing a teacher to chastise a student for enforcing their rights in front of the people who are deliberately blocking that students path when those people admit to it simply causes the student to grow up into an adult who doesn't trust anyone in a position of authority.

On multiple occasions, this woman decided that chastising me for being upset that the same asshats were deliberately making me late to class, five times in total, was an appropriate use of the authority. Not chastising the people blocking the stairwell so that I could either ague with them and be late or go around the long way and be just as late when...

...I'm sorry, I just now realized that those two crapheads would have been skipping class when they did this and now I'm even more pissed off that I got chastised and they didn't.

Yeah, anyone can chastise anyone. Again, those are just words. Your right to say something ("move out of my way") does not take away her right to say something different ("stop telling them that").

Whats more, if it was in school in the US, you have significantly curtailed rights regardless, so it's even more not an issue.

[Bartmanhomer]

Ok, I guess that you want to hear the full story. That child used to be a loyal supporter on Youtube. The child made sent a friend request on Facebook which I accepted. We started to talk on Facebook messenger. The child made an inappropriate and disgusting comment. The child wanted to talk to me in a video chat. I've completely blocked the child on Facebook and Youtube. Now you know the full story.

[Form]

Ok, I guess that you want to hear the full story. That child used to be a loyal supporter on Youtube. The child made sent a friend request on Facebook which I accepted. We started to talk on Facebook messenger. The child made an inappropriate and disgusting comment. The child wanted to talk to me in a video chat. I've completely blocked the child on Facebook and Youtube. Now you know the full story.

Maybe keep a bit more distance between yourself and your youtube supporters in general. Your audience/supporters =/= your friends.

[Anonymouswizard]

Maybe keep a bit more distance between yourself and your youtube supporters in general. Your audience/supporters =/= your friends.

Yeah, this. And it goes double for kids. There's a reason that big name YouTubers (and other celebrities) have personal and professional pages on Facebook.


I'm digging out one of my old address at a book this evening. I'm going to actually finish writing the plan for it and then maybe write the thing.

[Bartmanhomer]

Maybe keep a bit more distance between yourself and your youtube supporters in general. Your audience/supporters =/= your friends.


Yeah, this. And it goes double for kids. There's a reason that big name YouTubers (and other celebrities) have personal and professional pages on Facebook.


I'm digging out one of my old address at a book this evening. I'm going to actually finish writing the plan for it and then maybe write the thing.

Yes, I'm going to back away and distance myself to my youtube supporters. Anyway, I got a lot of Youtuber supporters who subscribe to my Youtube channel. About 1,200+ subscribers. I don't know if I consider myself a major huge YouTuber on YouTube but I'm getting there. :smile:

[Anonymouswizard]

Things I hate #384: when a radio station is playing a song I like, say Hallelujah, and the presenter devices what they really need to do is talk over it with some meaningless twaddle.

Ah, but Anonymouswizard, you somewhere below average attractiveness spellcaster, I hear you cry, surely you can just not listen to that kind of station. Which is true, except whenever there's disagreement over what station to tune into I always lose that fight.

[Rater202]

Every so often I hear stories about people having animals that are perfectly healthy put down for no reason because they're bored with their pet and I can't help but think "who the hell puts down an animal with nothing wrong with it?" That is literally the opposite of a vet's job, right?

[Peelee]

Every so often I hear stories about people having animals that are perfectly healthy put down for no reason because they're bored with their pet and I can't help but think "who the hell puts down an animal with nothing wrong with it?" That is literally the opposite of a vet's job, right?

Vets aren't forbidden from euthanizing health animals (they also are not required to). Sometimes it can be argued to be a humane choice; if the person is getting rid of their animal anyway, the other options usually tend towards just leaving them somewhere, which can make it turn feral and potentially breed of they haven't been spayed or neutered, or it can go to a shelter, most of which put down their animals after a (usually fairly short) time period.

That all being said, a lot of them (I think most) will usually refuse.

[Rater202]

On that topic, it kind of bugs me that people barely blink an eye at euthanizing an animal but have issues when you're talking about a human being.

A person who has a terminal illness that is slowly and painfully killing them and who has decided that they're at the point they just want to get it over with, unless what they have is affecting their judgment, is capable of making an informed choice and consenting to have their life terminated.

A dying cat or dog doesn't. They just know that they're sick or in pain and their human has taken them to the place where they go when they're sick or hurting to get something jabbed in them that makes them feel better. They don't know that they're not gonna wake up from that nap.

These are the other kinds of things I think about. I'm sure you can see why I prefer thinking about how to abuse the mechanics of comic book science.

[Peelee]

Yeah. The older I get and the more I look at hot-topic issues during my childhood, the more I see them in a new light.

[Rater202]

There are a lot of things that I had strong and, frankly, somewhat ignorant opinions of, and then I get older and learn more and I realize that it's an incredibly complicated issue, my opinions were sometimes objectively wrong, and in at least one case I legitimately didn't have a right to have an opinion it was so complicated and so removed from my life experiences.

I've been led to believe that that's part of growing mature, the ability to see that an issue is complicated and understand that your input is not necessary and that there might not be an easy solution...

And then I compare that to both my personal experiences and stories I've heard and realize that enough people stop maturing before that stage to be legitimately concerning.

[Bartmanhomer]

I hate it when other people judge negatively about homeless people that they believe that all homeless people are evil. Just because they don't have a home doesn't mean they're evil. I wish people could stop judging homeless people negatively about it. :mad:

[Anonymouswizard]

Finally got down to reading The Ministry for Fate Core, and finally it's exactly what I want in an RPG setting. It's a game based on the classic British science fiction I've been lapping up with increasing severity over the last few years, combined with a dark and gritty edge.

I feel like I can let that poject slide, somebody else has done it better, and move onto another one.

[Rater202]

The worst part of insomnia: When you get over it you might not get over it at a convenient time.

I ended up sleeping all evening and now I'll be up till 8 am at the least.

[factotum]

A person who has a terminal illness that is slowly and painfully killing them and who has decided that they're at the point they just want to get it over with, unless what they have is affecting their judgment, is capable of making an informed choice and consenting to have their life terminated.


That's kind of the problem with this, with respect to humans--proving that they are completely clear and able to make a judgement of that kind, and isn't being pressured into it by doctors or their relatives.

[Rater202]

Reddit Thread: What's a not-so-bad or minor thing your parents did that still kind of messed you up fir a bit.

Posters: Almost exclusively count tails of serious abuse or insane rules that scarred them for life.

Whether the stories are legit or not I can't help but be terrified by what some people consider minor.

[Fyraltari]

Reddit Thread: What's a not-so-bad or minor thing your parents did that still kind of messed you up fir a bit.

Posters: Almost exclusively count tails of serious abuse or insane rules that scarred them for life.

Whether the stories are legit or not I can't help but be terrified by what some people consider minor.

I think that's less "I consider this minor" and more "I didn't pay much attention to the instructions given."
Like, I the library I work in, their are machines to allow users to borrow documents by themselves and it's a bit apalling how many of them don't seem to bother to read the instructions on the screen "put your library car in front of the blue light. Place your documents on the target" and are confused when it doesn't work.


Add to that that those people probably feel a(n understandable) need to vent about these things so even if they read and understood the instructions they may decide to ignore them.

[Rater202]

I think that's less "I consider this minor" and more "I didn't pay much attention to the instructions given."
Like, I the library I work in, their are machines to allow users to borrow documents by themselves and it's a bit apalling how many of them don't seem to bother to read the instructions on the screen "put your library car in front of the blue light. Place your documents on the target" and are confused when it doesn't work.


Add to that that those people probably feel a(n understandable) need to vent about these things so even if they read and understood the instructions they may decide to ignore them.

Yeah, but it is kind of jarring when you're expecting "I always lock the door when I'm in the shower becuase of that one time my dad thought I was my mom and tried to get in with me, it's been ten years but we're all still embarrassed about it" and get "My parents kicked me out the day I turned eighteen and kept all of my money and possessions as 'back rent.' It's been ten years but I'm still in crippling debt from the things I had to do just to avoid being homeless."

[Anonymouswizard]

Urgh, picking up Shadow of the Century has made me just want to run Fate more. I should really look into finding a group.

Is it weird that, instead of the 80s action hero protagonists the book is meant for, I'm more interested in running for a team of Centurions dealing with the fact that they've now effectively hit middle age, have lost the war, and just aren't in a pulp adventure novel any more. Heck, my first idea for the PC I'd like to play was The Spirit of Dynamism, a Centurion actively fighting because hiding and keeping their head down goes against their nature.

[Rater202]

Urgh, picking up Shadow of the Century has made me just want to run Fate more. I should really look into finding a group.

Is it weird that, instead of the 80s action hero protagonists the book is meant for, I'm more interested in running for a team of Centurions dealing with the fact that they've now effectively hit middle age, have lost the war, and just aren't in a pulp adventure novel any more. Heck, my first idea for the PC I'd like to play was The Spirit of Dynamism, a Centurion actively fighting because hiding and keeping their head down goes against their nature.

Not that weird. I think of all kinds of concepts that don't fit the intended tone.

The first serious D&D character I ever made was a Lawful Neutral Dread Necromancer from a community that used donated corpses and the bodies of executed murderers to create skeletons that did all of the manual labor on what I now recognize to be a functional socialist economy but did not at the time know how to describe.

As opposed to the "Anti-Heroic at best Lord of Undead leading an any of tortured souls" that I'm sure was the intent of the class.

I never got to play Mortis Nevergavehimalastname though.

[Anonymouswizard]

Not that weird. I think of all kinds of concepts that don't fit the intended tone.

Yeah, the fact that until relatively recently I tended towards archetypes very strongly, and still like playing with them, is possibly part of the reason I find it weird.


The first serious D&D character I ever made was a Lawful Neutral Dread Necromancer from a community that used donated corpses and the bodies of executed murderers to create skeletons that did all of the manual labor on what I now recognize to be a functional socialist economy but did not at the time know how to describe.

As opposed to the "Anti-Heroic at best Lord of Undead leading an any of tortured souls" that I'm sure was the intent of the class.

I never got to play Mortis Nevergavehimalastname though.

My first character was a boring Cleric. Because of course my little brother wants to play the wizard.

Of course, these days I'm more interested in playing Clerics of LN Death Gods. Of course I'll heal your wounds, do you know how much paperwork Lady Death has to file when a life ends before it's supposed to?

But heck, playing Wildcat instead of Batman appeals to me. Okay, it's not a perfect analogy because Centurions do have some powers*, but they're still the out of date pulp heroes in a world where younger generations are meant to be succeeding them. Plus unlike the character's your supposed to play they have more personal links to the Shadows, having fought them back in the thirties and many having direct counterparts (Susan Adams might be the Spirit of Dynamism, but there's likely a Shadow of Dynamism or Shadow of Stagnation out there).

* Mainly passive ones like slowed aging, good luck, and being a weirdness magnet, but some are more out there.

[Lord Raziere]

Hm, that somehow gives me an idea for a steampunk scientist hero who got frozen in the victorian era and woke in the modern day surrounded by the tech we have now....whose invention genius only works with steampunk stuff and has to learn to live in the modern day in many ways.

[Rater202]

Hm, that somehow gives me an idea for a steampunk scientist hero who got frozen in the victorian era and woke in the modern day surrounded by the tech we have now....whose invention genius only works with steampunk stuff and has to learn to live in the modern day in many ways.

Reminds me of a surprisingly lengthy X-Men storyline.

To prove a point to Cyclops, who was right in the middle of his "raging asshat becuase character assassination" phase, Beast casually travels back in time to retrieve the original five X-Men—Cyclops, Beast, Angel, Iceman, and Marvel Girl(Jean)—from just after their first encounter with Magneto and brings them to the present... Under false pretenses, because Hank's kind of a jackass himself. He's one of the nicest guys... When he can pull his head out of his ass.

And then the Teen X-Men get stuck in the modern-day and that was part of the X-Men's status quo for a couple of years. Eventually, they went back in time and temporarily suppressed their memories so that they could compete a time loop and not destroy reality, but that took a lot longer than that normally takes in comics.

Part of the conflict was that Teen Hank, the genius... Has no idea how anything works. The advanced super-science that modern Hank uses is beyond him and he even struggles with some common everyday items. (Note, Teen Hank explicitly notes at least once that he's from the 60s Marvel's comic ook time is basically "cosmic beings stop or slow aging and make it so no one notices becuase they like having heroes around.")

To the point that he eventually starts dabbling in magic(which he explicitly considers cheating) just to keep up. Then he made a bad deal and had to give that up less he permenantly turn into a demonic mosnter enslaved to the will of an alternate universe version of Cyclop's psycho ex-wife.

[Bartmanhomer]

Most of the Facebook Groups are completely fake, toxic, closed-minded, shady, and unsupportive that I used to be part of. There was one Facebook Group that I got along with everyone in the Facebook Group Community and I was very cool with the whole group with no red flags or anything. Everything went well right until I got banned without any warning from the administrators. I asked the administrator why was I banned from their group and the administrator told me that many people were complaining that I was harassing them in Facebook Messenger which I never spoke to any other members in Facebook Messenger. The only person that I spoke to Messenger was the other administrator which I only told her about what's happening to the group because there was a glitch and she even blocks me due to this false accusation. I tried to explain the administrator to explain my side of the story but he didn't want to listen to me knowing how fake and backstabbing that group was and I was very hurt by this false accusation and banning. :frown: :mad:

[Mystic Muse]

I'm happy to see that all of the certifications work is having me pursue are things that a bachelor's degree would have me get if I went back to clllege.

Thinking of trying to begkn getting a bachelor's in like 2 years.

[Bartmanhomer]

I'm happy to see that all of the certifications work is having me pursue are things that a bachelor's degree would have me get if I went back to clllege.

Thinking of trying to begkn getting a bachelor's in like 2 years.

Cool. Congratulations. :smile:

[Rater202]

I had a dream a bit ago that the earth was destroyed by something or other... I don't remember clearly so I'm gonna say "diamond meteor going at near lightspeed (https://what-if.xkcd.com/20/)" because it would be too quick to hurt.

Then I was reincarnated as a vat-grown supersoldier in a comic book world and after emerging from my vat I was escorted to a holding cell that also had a purple-skinned "razor girl" type cyborg, an R2 model astromech droid that spoke in Zodie's voice instead of whirs and beeps, and just a regular alligator that was chilling in the corner.

[LaZodiac]

Of all the casting choices I'm the dumpy astromech in your dream instead of the hot purple girl with razor wire claws? For shame.

(I'm teasing this sounds funny)

[Rater202]

Of all the casting choices I'm the dumpy astromech in your dream instead of the hot purple girl with razor wire claws? For shame.

(I'm teasing this sounds funny)

I never said the razor girl was hot.

[LaZodiac]

I never said the razor girl was hot.

That's fair, that's an assumption I made.

I am curious what a modified, Zodi style astromech would look like now...

[Rater202]

That's fair, that's an assumption I made.

I am curious what a modified, Zodi style astromech would look like now...

I don't know why but I'm imagining a lot of black and purple for the paint job.

Anyone ever deliberately nibble the eyes off of your peeps? They have sort of a cocoa-coffee type flavor that I can't quite describe and make a satisfying crunch that you miss out on if you just bite the head off.

Edit: Damned autocorrect.

[Qwertystop]

That's fair, that's an assumption I made.

I am curious what a modified, Zodi style astromech would look like now...

Hm. Next art idea!

[Anonymouswizard]

Of all the casting choices I'm the dumpy astromech in your dream instead of the hot purple girl with razor wire claws? For shame.

(I'm teasing this sounds funny)

You think you can compete this this hotness? *swishes hair*

I mean yeah, you probably could.


Also this sounds like the perfect setup for a comedic campaign.

[Fyraltari]

I had a dream a bit ago that the earth was destroyed by something or other... I don't remember clearly so I'm gonna say "diamond meteor going at near lightspeed (https://what-if.xkcd.com/20/)" because it would be too quick to hurt.

Then I was reincarnated as a vat-grown supersoldier in a comic book world and after emerging from my vat I was escorted to a holding cell that also had a purple-skinned "razor girl" type cyborg, an R2 model astromech droid that spoke in Zodie's voice instead of whirs and beeps, and just a regular alligator that was chilling in the corner.

Clearly, you secretly want to kill your father and have sex with your mother. :smalltongue:

[Rater202]

Clearly, you secretly want to kill your father and have sex with your mother. :smalltongue:

My father is already dead and I did not need that mental image, thank you very much.

There is now a dragon en route to your house. Have fun with that.

[Anonymouswizard]

My father is already dead and I did not need that mental image, thank you very much.

There is now a dragon en route to your house. Have fun with that.

Unfortunately the train broke down. The dragon caught the replacement bus service, but says it's journey will drag on.

[Fyraltari]

There is now a dragon en route to your house. Have fun with that.
Thanks, we will! Do you know any board gape they might like?

[Peelee]

Of all the casting choices I'm the dumpy astromech in your dream instead of the hot purple girl with razor wire claws? For shame.

If it makes you feel any better, I was cast as "one of seven billion dead people"

[DataNinja]

If it makes you feel any better, I was cast as "one of seven billion dead people"

Oh, hey, same hat! Do you think we saw each other at all during production?

[Rater202]

If it makes you feel any better, I was cast as "one of seven billion dead people"

You don't know that, you might have been the alligator.

[Peelee]

Oh, hey, same hat! Do you think we saw each other at all during production?
We're both pretty radiant, so odds are good!

You don't know that, you might have been the alligator.
True, but it's a 1 in 7 billion chance. Roughly.

And that's not counting the alligator playing itself! :smallwink:

[Rater202]

We're both pretty radiant, so odds are good!

True, but it's a 1 in 7 billion chance. Roughly.

And that's not counting the alligator playing itself! :smallwink:

Yeah, but I know at most several dozen of those people.

[Anonymouswizard]

Yeah, but I know at most several dozen of those people.

Sounds like too many, have you considered reducing it to eleven?

[Rater202]

Sounds like too many, have you considered reducing it to eleven?

sometimes, but most people frown on mass homicide.

[Anonymouswizard]

sometimes, but most people frown on mass homicide.

True, but the brain surgery option is still on the table.

I'm off to try to convince my partners to meet up once we're allowed to get a resturant meal (outside).

[DataNinja]

We're both pretty radiant, so odds are good!
Oh, no, I'm afraid I don't glow. You've mixed me up with another girl, sorry.

[Anonymouswizard]

Oh, no, I'm afraid I don't glow. You've mixed me up with another girl, sorry.

A machine that doesn't glow!? We need to get some LED strips on you ASAP.

Okay, I'm not actually one for glowing tech. I like curves though, they look nice and are comfortable to hold.

In all seriousness, while I'm not somebody who wants tattoos, I'd totally get glowing TRON lines implanted if it wasn't dangerous and painful as hell (this reason, alongside the fact that it apparently requires a massive needle, is why I haven't had a rare earth magnet implanted). I'm totally planning to get more piercings once I'm in a job that doesn't regulate them, next one is a cartilage piercing in the right ear (which apparently actually hurts, unlike lobe piercings).

[DataNinja]

A machine that doesn't glow!? We need to get some LED strips on you ASAP.

Okay, I'm not actually one for glowing tech. I like curves though, they look nice and are comfortable to hold.

In all seriousness, while I'm not somebody who wants tattoos, I'd totally get glowing TRON lines implanted if it wasn't dangerous and painful as hell (this reason, alongside the fact that it apparently requires a massive needle, is why I haven't had a rare earth magnet implanted). I'm totally planning to get more piercings once I'm in a job that doesn't regulate them, next one is a cartilage piercing in the right ear (which apparently actually hurts, unlike lobe piercings).

Glowing can be neat, but it can also be excessive. It depends. Aesthetics is an art. Curves are also very good, but stark geometric, angular shapes can also be really cool. There's so many cool design spaces out there.

[Bartmanhomer]

I can't wait for my birthday next month! I'll be 36,000,000 years old. :biggrin:

[enderlord99]

I recently saw someone on Twitch easily perform Embrose's song well enough to be accepted, on their first try. I can also guarantee that they didn't cheat or use external tools, other than the emulator it was running on.

I don't understand how they managed that.

[DataNinja]

I recently saw someone on Twitch easily perform Embrose's song well enough to be accepted, on their first try. I can also guarantee that they didn't cheat or use external tools, other than the emulator it was running on.

I don't understand how they managed that.

Some people have different skillsets. I had issues with Embrose, but no trouble with Rael's, but I knew someone where it was the other way around. So we just did each others'. :smalltongue:

[Anonymouswizard]

Glowing can be neat, but it can also be excessive. It depends. Aesthetics is an art. Curves are also very good, but stark geometric, angular shapes can also be really cool. There's so many cool design spaces out there.

Sure, I s just mentioning my likes. Others are free to disagree.

[DataNinja]

Sure, I s just mentioning my likes. Others are free to disagree.

Perfectly understandable! I certainly didn't mean to imply that your anything was lesser compared to mine. D:

[Anonymouswizard]

Perfectly understandable! I certainly didn't mean to imply that your anything was lesser compared to mine. D:

I mean, it's not hurtful if it's true :smalltongue:

And I mean, my tastes are weird. I don't watch science fiction for the action scenes, and would love a Quatermass reboot in the same style but a modern setting.

[DataNinja]

I mean, it's not hurtful if it's true :smalltongue:
Youuuuuu stop that! :smalltongue:

Goodness knows I like enough terrible designs as-is. There's no better or worse, just whatever boats your float. :smallamused:

[Rater202]

I legitimately enjoy a lot of things that people think of as trash.

When Sonic Forces came out Inifite's theme was derided as edgelord trash... and to be fair, Infinite's backstory of "shadow beat me up so I did a suicide mission against Eggman only to join Eggman when he offered me power" is pure edgelord bullcrap, but I think the song is a decent enough song.

The only problem with it is that it's a bit too good for someone like Infinite.

[Lacco]

Clearly, you secretly want to kill your father and have sex with your mother. :smalltongue:

Hey! Get your Freud out of here, he's scaring the Jung ones! :smallbiggrin:

[LaZodiac]

I legitimately enjoy a lot of things that people think of as trash.

When Sonic Forces came out Inifite's theme was derided as edgelord trash... and to be fair, Infinite's backstory of "shadow beat me up so I did a suicide mission against Eggman only to join Eggman when he offered me power" is pure edgelord bullcrap, but I think the song is a decent enough song.

The only problem with it is that it's a bit too good for someone like Infinite.

Lliterally everyone I know, including myself, felt that song was edgelord trash in the BEST WAY possible. Like, don't get me wrong; there are definitely people who looked at it and rolled their eyes, but those people dislike ALL sonic music because it's all like this. Me and everyone else I know loved the song for how wonderfully stupid it is.

And also agreed that "slightly pissed off wolf boy" is not even remotely worthy of said song.

[Rater202]

Lliterally everyone I know, including myself, felt that song was edgelord trash in the BEST WAY possible. Like, don't get me wrong; there are definitely people who looked at it and rolled their eyes, but those people dislike ALL sonic music because it's all like this. Me and everyone else I know loved the song for how wonderfully stupid it is.

And also agreed that "slightly pissed off wolf boy" is not even remotely worthy of said song.

I'm pretty sure he's supposed to be a jackal. f course who the hell can tell with sonic characters, they all look the godamned same.

I also like the song that Eminem did for the 2018 Venom movie's soundtrack.

Which is just the stupidest fricking.... It's not even about Venom, he's saying that his music is an infection that gets into you, makes you feel good, but also kind of corrupts you, that he's ruined your parents lives, that's he's a supervillain from the nineties, and then just flat out says that "Eddie Brock is you and I'm the suit." It's so stupid but it's so catchy.

[LaZodiac]

I'm pretty sure he's supposed to be a jackal. f course who the hell can tell with sonic characters, they all look the godamned same.

I also like the song that Eminem did for the 2018 Venom movie's soundtrack.

Which is just the stupidest fricking.... It's not even about Venom, he's saying that his music is an infection that gets into you, makes you feel good, but also kind of corrupts you, that he's ruined your parents lives, that's he's a supervillain from the nineties, and then just flat out says that "Eddie Brock is you and I'm the suit." It's so stupid but it's so catchy.

I mean he didn't make it for the movie, it's just a song where he coincidentally refers to Venom. Like, I'm pretty sure on that.

[Rater202]

I mean he didn't make it for the movie, it's just a song where he coincidentally refers to Venom. Like, I'm pretty sure on that.

It was released prior to the movie, but it was written for the Movie's soundtrack(it plays during the credits) but was ultimately was not included when the soundtrack was released as an album. Which does make sense, it was released separately as both a single and part of an album and is tonally rather different from the rest of the score

The name of the song is literally "Venom (Music from the Motion Picture)" and the music video uses footage from the move

[LaZodiac]

It was released prior to the movie, but it was written for the Movie's soundtrack(it plays during the credits) but was ultimately was not included when the soundtrack was released as an album. Which does make sense, it was released separately as both a single and part of an album and is tonally rather different from the rest of the score

The name of the song is literally "Venom (Music from the Motion Picture)" and the music video uses footage from the move

Fair point, my engagement with this stuff has purely been the very very good movie.

[Anonymouswizard]

Wait.

There's more than six Sonic games? I always thought that the break between Adventure 2 and Mania was a bit long.

[Rater202]

Fair point, my engagement with this stuff has purely been the very very good movie.

The really interesting thing is that when you strip away the minute of jibberish and the boasting, it's clear that Eminem has a decent enough understanding of how symbiotes work.

Yeah, bonding to one does make you feel good. It inherently ramps up all of your emotions to a degree, makes you stronger, faster, tougher, healthier... It also opens you up to being controlled or corrupted. An unscrupulous symbiote can rewrite your memories and screw with your body so that you'll die without a symbiote. Or think you will, at least.

(Of course, that's a two-way street. An incompatible, malevolent, or mentally ill host can corrupt the symbiote. Venom was initially a supervillain because Eddie's anger and depression and the symbiote's pain and confusion at being rejected by Spider-Man fed into each other and essentially drove them both insane.)

They also don't bond to any one part of you but get into every part of you, getting into your cells and hiding traces of themselves between the rungs of DNA in your nucleus and mitochondria, which is also alluded to. Once one's been in you, there's pieces of it in you forever.

[Lacco]

Wait.

There's more than six Sonic games? I always thought that the break between Adventure 2 and Mania was a bit long.

If it's any consolation, I remember only the one where you run right and collect rings.

I think it also contained a improbable flying squirrel and some red animal.

Didn't make much impression, most probably because my cousin also had Contra. Liked the squirrel though.

[Anonymouswizard]

If it's any consolation, I remember only the one where you run right and collect rings.

I think it also contained a improbable flying squirrel and some red animal.

Didn't make much impression, most probably because my cousin also had Contra. Liked the squirrel though.

To be fair, my first Sonic game was Sonic Advance, so I'm being silly. Second was Shadow the Hedgehog, which wasn't that terrible a game but not that great.

I do love Sonic games, but gah they're not made for people with my level of coordination. But I',m also that weirdo who never played a Mario game until his 20s. Somnic, however, is enjouyable whenever the controls are reduced to left/right/jump.

I also love playing as Mighty in Sonic Mania, just because of that hard shell.