The Good, The Bad and The Spandex: Discussion Thread

I dunno about Kirby, but I see plenty of GrecoRoman, JudeoChristian and Literary (duh) influences there. Still a great development of the mythology that you had introduced earlier. Approved.

I like it! Very interesting.

Also, I'd just like to state for the record that Green text will be Jack speaking to Miles, and not anyone else. Red text will be him speaking to someone else.

edited 3rd Feb '17 3:31:52 PM by Cwest5538

Works for me.

Say, would you mind if a certainly Traveler ran into into him/them?

No, I would not! Meeting new people is always fun!

I hold no responsibility for anyone re-enacting the Chestburster scene from Alien.

edited 3rd Feb '17 5:33:42 PM by Cwest5538

Well, less an expansion and more of a compilation of things I already stated.

Yeah, the Judeo-Christian and Greco-Roman inspirations are straight from the source material, including the inverse War In Heaven results.

I think I'm in a bit of a shipping mood. >_>

Should I post something?

Oh, by the way, Sijo- who plays Hazel and co?

I'm pretty sure Sijo does.

Hazel was created by Emily but I got permission to use her. Again, I try to do so sparingly. I just needed someone for Simon to interact with.

FTL

There are, in fact, quite a few means and methods of achieving faster-than-light travel, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. One may expect that a well equipped ship from the Galactic Commune will have the technology to access all of the most popular methods, to be used whenever handy.

However, space is big. No, no, let me reitterate that.

Space. Is. Big.

There is no respect for two-dimensional territory holding. The spheres of influence of space farring civilizations will overlap with each other, several times over, and then proceed to never ever meet or even become aware of each other. The Galactic Commune represents and is the result of one of the most thorough and driven undertakings to track down every single space farring civilization possible and then some. Even after all that, there are recorded incidents of supposed explored sectors of space hosting millenia old empires that they never knew of and never knew about them. Sometimes the distances between stars outstrips even their FTL and there are simply so many direction to choose from that picking just a degree askew will having you whizzing by interplanetary nation without seeing it.

These individual civilizations then may stick to one method of FTL for a very long time, never considering anything else.

Warp Drive

Using exotic matter with negative mass, space is folded around the craft and compressed to the extreme. The craft proceeds onwards with their normal propulsion but through a corridor of space that is now shortened down to a fraction of what it was.

This is often the slowest method of FTL, but the upside is that it relies solely upon the ship itself, unlike the other methods to follow, and can be put to use nearly anywhere.

Hyper Space

Corridors of folded space, not unlike that created by the warp drive, exist in certain places throughout the galaxy. They may be naturally occuring, but evidence suggests that super advanced precursors created at least some of them. These corridors, far more stable and long running than corridors of the warp drive, can be traversed far more quickly by an order of several magnitudes on the major lanes.

These corridors must first be detected and, because they'd folded in on themselves to the point they exist outside normal space, have the appropriate technology to slip inside them. The downside are that they're not everywhere and really only useful when properly mapped unless you don't mind getting lost. The minor lanes can be even slower than a warp drive, clocking it at an just an appreciable presentage of light speed.

The Galactic Commune has access to a hyper space lane map that will get them to all the corners of the galaxy. Thing is, space is big and even the corners have corners and then some. Sometimes, especially when travelling long distance, one hyper space network just won't do and one has to drop out and cross the distance to another network, or take a minor lane connecting them.

Wormholes

By harnessing the entire energy output of a single star, an engine may be powered the punches a hole straight through space and reduces the distance between two points to almost nothing. Of the popular methods, this is clearly the fastest.

Okay, but, an entire star. You need to build a dyson sphere, a massive undertaking in its own right, and hopefully no one's using that star for nothing or anything. Then the distance you can punch those wormholes is limited, depending on how good your tech is and the star's output. But where that limit reaches, oh boy, you now own that neighborhood.

Your ships are now entirely relient on this engine though, because they don't have FTL qualities, you do. If your civilization hasn't figured out a method of independent FTL communication, ships wanting to come home will have to hope they don't miss the designated gate opening or... yeah. If you have FTL comm, then normally they can ring home for a ride. Wherever this engine is built will become the central hub of travel, with ships having to cross there before going anywhere else.

Dimension Jumping

All the advantages of the warp drive and wormholes, using differently applied hyper space technology to slip into another plane entirely and hop back into yours at a different spot. This can be done from anywhere and rivals the fastest method in promptness. The only downsides is dealing with the new neighbors.

Some of the safest planes to access are psychic ones that emanate from the collective subconscious of all living things, or at least sapient ones. It's also the slowest and safe is relative. Other planes include access the universes of the banished titans, which has the downside of the titans, and dipping into the void that exists outside the universe, the Dark Before, and dealing with the things the titans ran away from.

Others

Of the top of my head, the method use during The Invasion Of Earth, when alien aggressors routed themselves through the psychic plane often used by dimension jumping and essentially anchored themselves to the collective mental presence of humanity to slingshot their way directly. This method even ignored the normal limitation that made going right up next to a star to be impossible.

Other methods see use too.

Still here, waiting for Mistfader to respond.

Same.

I'll poke him. If he doesn't respond I'll take over.

Btw Emily would you like to take over Hazel when I bring her up?

Sure!

Thinking if there is not much left to do with Vicky, to further stretch out the time before Amy makes his masculine return and get some interactions I wanted to get out of the way-

Mongrel and Hazel meeting.

Concept: Deck, House of Spades.

Criminal Organization with a card motif, in this case the house of Spades. They're a team entirely comprised of regular people and pull off grand heists, often right under people's noses. They don't use any uber fancy technology like next generation teleporters or even disintegrator ray-guns. Only their wit and a reliance on tried and true techniques and proven and functional technologies.

To get into Deck you have to show yourself worthy of working with them, any two bit gang-banger is not gonna just get in that easily. You have to show loyalty, dedication, surviability and most importantly; brains. Hardy as you may be, if you're a set of Dumb Muscle than your effectively only good for gunning things down. Especially in Easton where the local supers tend to have you outmuscled anyways.

Deck has gained public attention for their surprisingly low bodycount, some may consider it a sign that Deck isn't all that bad, or that Deck is filled with people down on their luck. The truth is somewhat different. Members of the Spade house tend to minimize casualties as much as possible for several reasons.

1. No bodies means no cleanup and now manhunts for murderers
2. Cops are tough on crime but tougher on people who have killed. A low death count means they can be charged under theft and robbery instead
3. With so many supers in the city, keeping a certain level of "threat" makes it less likely for them to be caught. Robberies are usually mundane and ergo never need anything beyond Police.
4. Civilians are harder to pay off than politicians and police officials
5. The less you are seen, the better you've pulled off the score.

With this in mind, Deck continues to be notorious and aloof, now something of a badge of honor against many robbers aiming to one day strike it big.

I like the concept. Not every villain needs to be world-beater. Also works with characters like Strip Poker (who might want to join, not getting he's no good for them.) Approved.

Sweet. I'll begin working on my Deck Leader right away.

I really rather like that idea, too. It's nice to see a fictional criminal organisation use subtlety, for once. :V

Anyway, are there any sort of ongoing plot threads happening? If not, I was thinking of having Emp starting trouble elsewhere in the city; leading up to a future meeting, perhaps.

They can go loud if needed. Versatility works.

Things going on right now:

-A giant Octopus Robot is attacking the harbor. It has been badly damaged but still active.

-A robot assassin is trying to escape its pursuers.

-A superfast teen with an intelligent parasite is being helped by a Witch.

You can just have Emp show up and start trouble (intentionally or not.) That alone would attract others by itself.

Oh, the robot assassin is still a thing? I just assumed he'd gotten away.

And yes, Strip Poker would absolutely attempt to shove himself into your deck. Don't take that out of context.

He technically did. Still wrapping that up.

Me mate is a bit slowwwww.