Kyon: Big Damn Hero

You're assuming that the organization of memories in the physical brain/metaphysical mind is neatly ordered. AFAIK, the furthest that current medical knowledge has on this issue is that memories (and in fact, even cerebral functions) appear to be actually disorganizedly placed across the brain to some degree.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

So essentially, Mikuru has a few "memory holes" in her brain...

Unfortunate Implications much?

I have returned, and my vacation in the void was so boring...

Okay, just a bit of supergeekery out on a tangent. It took me a while to make this particular connection. (It's also a reflection that perhaps I have too much time on my hands and/or read too many sci-fi analysis pieces.)

Earlier on, many many many chapters ago, during Kuyou's introduction, the narrative offers up a throwaway bit of technobabble: if she wasn't careful she might (paraphrased from memory) "split all the hydrogen atoms" (subatomic fission, theoretically possible) or "nudge the Schwarzchilde radius (sic) of the Earth beyond the orbit of its moon". It was this second statement that I got hung up on; with the revelations in chapter 39, it becomes downright scary.
Science warning ahead.
Brief summation of the Schwarzschild radius: take the mass of an object and start compressing it, thus increasing its density; compress it enough and you'll reach a stage where it'll collapse into a singularity by itself. The radius at which this happens is the Schwarzschild radius. For the mass of the Earth, this radius is about 9mm, according The Other Wiki's article on the subject. So if you can somehow compress the Earth and everything on it into a sphere 9mm in radius, you'll end up with a mini-black hole. It won't last long due to Hawking radiation, but it's still a singularity. Well and good.

"Changing the Schwarzschild radius" is a statement that doesn't make much sense by itself. It implies one of two things: first, that the mass of the Earth is increased so that its Schwarzschild radius is several hundred thousand kilometers. This would be quite a feat considering the sun's Schwarzschild radius is only three km.—we're talking orders of magnitude in terms of mass difference. It also means that there'd be a very big black hole where the Earth used to be.
The second interpretation is that the very laws of physics are rewritten, so that the Schwarzschild radius  ^*

really is several hundred thousand kilometers, without changing the mass of the planet; that would mean changing the universal gravitational constant, or something on a similar scale of universe-breaking fun. The end result is still the same: there'd be a black hole where the Earth used to be, but by that time the universe would have much more to worry about.

So what does it all mean? Well, we've learned that unassisted  ^*

IDSE entities like Yuki or Kimidori do not have anything near omnipotent power; a 12-km black hole is confirmed to be at or beyond the limits of their power to control or escape (notice Yuki had to fight with Kuyou to gain control over the teleportation function, instead of effortlessly creating one on her own). It also means that Kuyou Suou could have a) turned the Earth into a roughly 400,000-km black hole, or b) changed the universe on a scale so that black holes would be popping up left, right, and center, and that's if she made a simple mistake. Conclusion: she's a few orders of magnitude above Yuki's Super Weight, and Yuki's already solidly in the 4-to-5 range even with executive control over Haruhi's own powers. (It also seems to imply that tunneling between dimensions and altering causality itself on a universe-wide scale is somehow easier than controlling relatively everyday phenomena like black holes, which is somewhat curious.) The implications of this are unsettling, to say the least.

The alternative is that I should apply the MST3K Mantra and chalk up the misuse of the term "Schwarzschild radius" to an oversight on Durandall's part, but I find this to be even more unlikely considering how much he's been showing his work, and correctly applying that phrase would've only required a cursory glance at the Wikipedia article.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

If you can prevent someone from saying certain things and only those certain things, without affecting other stuff, than the way brain functions are distributed is no excuse to remove irrelevant knowledge.

I didn't pay much attention to that line. Now that I have... erk. Kuyou can accidentally mess up the universe  ^*

?

Hmm... Kuyou isn't an interface, unlike Yuki, merely a construct. I think I can see why Kyon wants to keep the IDSE occupied with Stable Time Loops, if their power is anywhere near that.

Now collecting White-Haired Pretty Girls.

As the astronomical terms "sidereal" and "occult" are being used, well...

Also, please note that Kuyou did create a shadow copy of the area where the black hole came to be, just so she could manipulate the area more easily. Perhaps the "Schwarzschild radius" is one of those things that Kuyou has trouble operating with precision (remember the scales that she is normally accustomed to), so she creates shadow copies of various areas to help cope with such issues...

I have returned, and my vacation in the void was so boring...

In other words, she's more used to operating on either a "super-macroscopic" level (planets, stars, galaxies and above) or a "microscopic" (individual atoms/molecules) one than on a "normal macroscopic" level (human-level everyday scope).

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Or maybe it's not related to size? Maybe it's the forces involved? Hmm... strong, weak, electromagnetic, and gravity. Presumably with string theory involved.

Which would explain the blind spot around people, since we're either too small or too large for affecting people through them to be simple.

Now collecting White-Haired Pretty Girls.

Could you rephrase that last line? I know the first part is referring to Kuyou's "selective invisibility", but I can't quite make heads of tails of the second part.

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

Heh, Durandall got sucked into writing another story. And he once again proves he's amazing at characterization.

Nothing I said was referring to Kuyou's invisibility. I was merely wondering whether she directly affected the particles or whether she controlled the forces affecting them. I think that would probably explain why she's so good at controlling either microscopic things or huge things. In between, a single chance could potentially cause havoc.

Are you talking about this or the Naruto one?

edited 19th Feb '11 5:09:35 AM by RainyDaze

Now collecting White-Haired Pretty Girls.

Then what did you mean by "blind spot"?

Fiat iustitia, et pereat mundus.

I meant that she finds it harder to make changes on that level. Not entirely sure why I said blind spot.

Now collecting White-Haired Pretty Girls.

Damn. I knew that story was Durandall's originally. He had taken it down and I had forgotten who wrote it.

Read all of my fanfics!

I was severely confused whilst having a conversation with him one time. I referred to the story, only to find out it had spontaneously vanished. Until I received a reply stating that it had been taken down, I wondered if I had imagined the thing.

Now collecting White-Haired Pretty Girls.

I had thought the exact same thing.

edited 20th Feb '11 1:03:18 PM by Augustine

Read all of my fanfics!

Great minds think alike?

Now collecting White-Haired Pretty Girls.

So what's this other story? And is it no longer on the Interwebs?

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

I... hadn't even noticed Apology was down again, actually. I just got the new story alert in my email and thought, Wait a minute....

It's sad that Durandall was getting flak for that story. I think I can believe canon!Kyon's forgiveness of Haruhi more than Durandall could, and I know I would have major problems doing what Apology!Kyon did to get rid of that anger. My particular religious upbringing plays a role in my response there. But, I read Apology, and I get a little glimpse into someone else's world, and I believe it. Pity the troll can't figure that out.

Edit @Sabres Edge: The Apology. Gone up and down a few times thanks to trolls hunting Durandall; currently up as of a few weeks ago.

edited 20th Feb '11 2:45:40 PM by Silver

My Fanfic, My Fanart

As I think I said in my review, I can imagine Kyon doing it when drunk but not when sober. If I remember Remote Island Syndrome correctly, neither he nor Haruhi make the best drunks ever.

So, Kyon's doing something like that whilst drunk? Entirely plausible. His mentioning it ever again or even acknowledging that it happened? Unlikely.

Now collecting White-Haired Pretty Girls.

Iactually quite like the story. I think it has the best Tsuruya characterization out of all of his works, maybe even beating K:BDH. Apologies for any typos, I can only use my Iphone right now

Read all of my fanfics!

From Remote Island Syndrome...

I really want to know what those two were up to. :P

EDIT: Actually, now that I compare this quote from the official novel translation to Rainy Daze's quote from the fan translation, the original text was probably just talking about how much they went overboard drinking, and the official translation made it vaguer... or it was originally vague and the fan translation made it more specific?

Either way, I'm going to continue pretending there was something lewd going on.

edited 22nd Feb '11 1:25:54 PM by Silver

My Fanfic, My Fanart

There'll be a Noodle Incident for the ages, I suspect.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

That the version I've read indicates that Kyon can't fully remember that night supports the theory that something happened quite dramatically.

Now collecting White-Haired Pretty Girls.

I doubt it. I'm fairly sure nothing really dramatic happened, for the simple reason that it was completely incidental to the plot. Kyon might be lying about not fully remembering everything, but from what I remember of the official translation, it was mentioned in passing, dismissed just as quickly, and had no more impact on the plotline.

That said, it's still fun to guess. I'm guessing offscreen Ship Tease occurred.

Charlie Stross's cheerful, optimistic predictions for 2017, part one of three.

It doesn't have to be something dramatic, it just had to be something that happened dramatically. Haruhi and Kyon, both drunk. Surely a recipe for melodramatic actions?

Also, I finally read the link in your signature. D'aww.

edited 22nd Feb '11 1:46:42 PM by RainyDaze

Now collecting White-Haired Pretty Girls.