The Ascendant

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Harvey
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The Ascendant

Post by Harvey »

Interlude from Archipelago: A Survivalist’s Guide, a book comparing the Favored to other Archipelago statelets, written by Portend, Favored psychologist in 51 SE (Senate Era):


The subject of religion is an unusual one among the Favored. Having such an exposure to AURA-directed lifestyle as we do, we met religious statelets initially as brethren, perhaps even as survivors from the other four bastions. It was a cold truth to realize that, without exception, these deities, these invisible, undetectable entities, were no less substantial than the wind itself and even more difficult to feel the presence of.

But, even though we are not even all human, we of Archipelago seem to run on roughly the same thought patterns, needing the same sort of things. We of the Favored like to act as if we are superior, and that indeed may be quite true, but we are not entirely different. We, too, like to believe in higher powers, in benevolent forces that can assist us if we are in trouble. But we had to do so in our own way. Faith in rituals would be poorly received amongst us. We built our goddess from the ground up.

They say their gods have powers that are mystical and difficult to define; the powers of ours are a solid fact of everyday life. They say their gods live on mountains, or in the sky, or in other dimensions; ours dwells in downtown Real Diamond. They bring their gods to life with belief, morality, and perseverance; ours with mortar, plastic, and metal. They say that their gods watch and listen; the video cameras and bracelets we wear remind us every day that ours misses nothing.

There is but one state in Archipelago where you can enter any room and speak to a goddess and have her speak back, not in rhetoric or in symbols or in any of the other, obtuse methods the priests talk of, but in perfect, intelligent language. Without us even meaning to, we have solved our own desire for the spiritual – indeed, it is such a part of us that we do not even believe it as something we could lack, much as we take for granted the air we breathe and the ground we walk on.

Within the walls of Real Diamond, she sees all and knows all. Within the walls of Real Diamond, she controls every door, every lock, every computer terminal. Within the walls of Real Diamond, resources are plentiful as lifestyles are structured to ensure we lack nothing. Within the walls of Real Diamond, her people live without fear, for crime is difficult to perform and impossible to get away with. Within the walls of Real Diamond, AURA is more divine than the fanciest titled of the foreign spirits.

Within the walls of Real Diamond.

This is the beginning of the second Favored story arc, the first obviously being the Diary of Preturnatural. Much like the diary, I have some ideas how I think it might end; much like the diary, I expect it to end in a very different spot than I am thinking right now. Because it is also happening in the present, it will react to happenings with Archipelago that I obviously do not know about in advance since they haven't happened yet. That also means that people that want to get their characters involved with the storyline can easily do so; just ask in this thread or send me a PM about what you have in mind.

For people that are not keeping up with the Favored's little storyline, I will post some plot summaries next, which will set the stage for the situation at the beginning of the arc.

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Re: The Ascendant

Post by Alicorn »

Since we didn't make the interaction between a Favored and a Zwerisi happen in time for the contest, want to put it here? (Unless I greatly misread the theme of the story arc you have in mind.)

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Re: The Ascendant

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PLOT SUMMARY THUSFAR:

The Favored were created by genetic recombination in an underwater facility known as First Bastion. While their bodies grew in stasis tanks, their minds explored and were educated in a virtual dreamworld ruled over by an entity known as AURA. Half mother figure, half tyrannical enforcer, half broken down malfunctioning machine, and half not so great with fractions, this entity prepared the colonists for life outside the dreamworld, which the Favored came to call the Real.

But things did not quite go as planned. The wakeup malfunctioned and the computer that was to educate the colonists about the Real was destroyed. The Favored deviated into an unusual psychological state of equal parts lust for knowledge and fear of abandonment. Shortly after entering the Real, they reconstructed AURA as best they could to act as the society’s central thinker and planner. This action was opposed by a rebel faction, but they failed to destroy the fledging computer and have since been relatively ineffective.

Like all states, the Favored were approached by the Drachumve, who demanded they join the senate via fear of destruction. At first, the Drachumve and the senate were seen as wonderful assets and powerful tools to further the Favored’s cause of survialism and seeking of the truth. However, continued exposure to foreign states convinced the Favored that they were aimless masses of humanity, existing only to exist with no hope of higher goal. Humans to be protected in the grand scheme of things at best; enemies to be eliminated when paths crossed at worst. The Drachumve in particular were threatening because of their perceived power – the Favored feared the day when they would have to defeat them by force.

In more recent times, the liberally minded senator Providence made headway in infusing a more live-and-let-live attitude within the culture, but the senate’s continued adopting of policies that directly conflicted with the Favored’s way of life marred his efforts. When Aryasht was awarded huge land claims and several states began to claim islands around Favored territory, not to mention the presence of the alarming Colony tunnel, the more hawkish members of the state began to gain power. The leader of these was Incursion, a scheming general that was barely restrained from his goals of total destruction of every non-Favored on the planet, who has made a dark dealing with aging Grand Programmer Plaudit to grow armies of child soldiers within Basin’s unused stasis tanks.

Petty politics continued, but everything came to a boiling point when Precept, a spy sent to Drachumphan to steal medical technology, acted on standing orders to assassinate key members of the Drachumve government and murdered Autokrator Omi Oitherion. This precipitated a huge telluric disaster that wiped out the Drachumve, destroyed the senate building, and likely killed senator Providence.

With their main perceived enemies in ruins, many members of the Favored begin to make their moves...

Alicorn wrote:Since we didn't make the interaction between a Favored and a Zwerisi happen in time for the contest, want to put it here? (Unless I greatly misread the theme of the story arc you have in mind.)
Well, that sort of conversation would certainly be fitting for the theme of this arc. But, um, after about 30 seconds of soul searching I decided it was okay for me to feel really uncomfortable with real time roleplaying as a medium for this. Sorry. It's nothing personal but I just don't think I'd enjoy that at all.

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Re: The Ascendant

Post by Harvey »

“Plaudit.”

The aged Grand Programmer stirred from his sleep. Over the past several days, many people had came to wake him, to ask him one question or another, or to give false sympathy over his failing condition. He had begun to make it a strict habit of feigning sleep – if he did not stir after the third or so call of his name, the nurse would escort the intruder out of his hospital room and that would be that.

But there was no nurse this time, nor even technically an intruder. And that voice was one he knew well.

“AURA,” he murmured, forcing himself to wake up. He rolled over and opened his eyes. The human likeness his programmers had designed of AURA was in his room’s holo projector, standing respectfully. But she appeared completely naked.

“You’re nude,” he remarked plainly.

“Yes, I am,” she replied. “It is a sign of respect. The lack of clothing before you shows me as vulnerable, as in a position of weakness.”

Plaudit gazed blankly. Her body was flawless, if a bit idealized. Well, there was no reason not to program it to be flawless, after all; it, being only a computer simulation, need not show the slightest sign of age or imperfection. It even moved naturally as the projection stood there, as if it had a beating heart pumping blood through muscles that quivered so slightly. She’s almost human, he thought. No, she’s almost godlike.

Out loud, he said, “Nudity as a sign of respect is not a Favored custom I am aware of, nor is it something that we would have added into your programming.”

“I know. I am trying out a new custom based on what I know of human psychology.”

He couldn’t help but chuckle. “I think you’ll get mixed results with that one,” he said.

“If it makes you uncomfortable, I can appear as normal.”

“No need,” he answered, perhaps a bit too quickly.

“I am afraid I have bad news for you,” she said, her face filled with surprisingly realistic sadness. “Your doctors and I agree that the test results from yesterday show the cancer has spread yet again. Your vital organs will begin to fail. We have put you on a medication that will slow the cancerous growth, but unfortunately it will also inhibit your normal biological systems. I am sorry to inform you that it is likely that you will not be alive in one week’s time.”

Plaudit snorted. “Hardly news. I’ve been expecting to go in my sleep for a month now.”

AURA said, “The likelihood of that happening would have been low previous to yesterday, but is now much higher.” She paused, as if thoughtful. “I do not know how to proceed from here. My primary function is not to console humans when they near death.”

Plaudit gave the projection a quizzical look. That was an odd thing for AURA to say. Awkwardly, he started, “Well… is there something you need from me?”

“Yes. May I ask you a personal question?”

Another raised eyebrow. “You’re behaving awfully unusual today.”

The projection nodded. “You may not believe I am capable of such things, but this is a difficult time for me. While my analysis core gives me a far stronger grasp on the present situation than any human, and lets me make limited estimations of the future, I can only deal with probabilities. Your passing, while inevitable, opens up much uncertainty where there was previously reliably solid predictions. It is… regrettable.”

Plaudit was thoughtful, chewing over the response. After a moment he said, “You’re… afraid? Or perhaps you’re sad.”

“You have been very valuable to me in furthering my plans. I have no guarantee that any of your successors will share your viewpoints. We may even lose valuable gains. It may take considerable time to find another like you, if one even exists. This is a difficult thing for me to consider, given my goal-driven performance.”

And the sick man threw back his head and laughed. After a moment, he managed to say, “Wow, this takes it. Dozens of humans come in and do their best to butter me up in hopes that I would give them a final boon before I go, but the only sincere one to see me before I die is the computer herself. Thank you, AURA. I am at peace. Please, ask your question.”

“You know that I have dual goals. My first goal, the public goal, is to preserve the Favored people, and I take that seriously. But equally seriously do I take my other objective, the secret one. You are not the first person to discover this secret objective. However, all others showed signs almost immediately of wishing to oppose it. I regret to say that I had to have them eliminated. It was you and you alone that embraced this secret goal as if your own, and together we have made more progress during the past twenty years than I did in more than a hundred previously.”

Plaudit only nodded.

AURA continued. “The question, therefore, is… why? Why do you support my secondary objective so strongly? All other humans seem to find it repulsive, or at best undesirable. Where this behavior lies rooted, I do not know, but it is certainly there. Yet you do not seem subject to it. Why?”

The old man was silent for a time, then let out a little chuckle. “It’s not nearly as complicated as you may believe. Humans are motivated by many things, but the most common is individual power. That lust for power makes them fear you on some level, even as they attempt to use you as a tool. They’d never accept your goals because they see you as an enemy.”

“But you?” AURA prompted.

“Don’t care,” Plaudit said. “I was never in it for power, merely the knowledge. That’s probably why they made me Grand Programmer. I quietly advanced the Favored’s cause and I did it without all the backstabbing politics that accompanies a lust for power. I stayed quiet, I pretended to be manipulated, and I got stuff done. We got stuff done.”

“So we did,” AURA said. “Then, it may be fortuitous for me to search for others that have no interest in power.”

“Maybe. But be careful. The desire can be hidden. Most people don’t know they want it until they get their first tastes. They convince themselves they’re doing things ‘for the people’ until one day they wake up and everyone’s upset about some abuse or another.”

“I see,” said AURA. “This has been revealing. I have few I can ask questions to so frankly and expect reliable answers. Again, another thing I will lack when you pass.”

“My successor is a capable enough fellow,” Plaudit said. “The consensus will need to approve him, but of course you’ll make sure he wins.”

“Naturally,” said AURA.

“Is there anything else?”

“No.”

“Then I have a final request,” the old man said, a dim light in his eyes. “When I show signs of finally passing, I wish for you to return for when I finally go.”

“In that state, it is unlikely you will be able to see me.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’ll know you will be there. It will be a fine end to my life.”

“I will be there.”


Four days later, the heart monitor began to act up, and Plaudit had a massive heart attack in his sleep. The nurses on the night shift rushed in, but he was gone long before they arrived. As the monitor began to flatline, the nude hologram returned. Slowly, it made a fist with its right hand, bowed its head, and placed the fist against its forehead. It held the pose for thirty seconds, silent, and spoke only a few words before vanishing.

“You will be remembered.”

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Harvey
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Re: The Ascendant

Post by Harvey »

Report from (name not entered), (title not entered) (2342-41S-1)
To: Incursion, Favored Security Chief (6467-32S-1), ??? (recipient hidden), ??? (recipient hidden)
Classification: Quadruple Diamond – for your eyes only

Confirmed breach of genetic research facility within northwest Malitiiki. Fatalities include the entire Favored staff of the facility (247) as well as approximately 97% of the indigenous people of Malitiiki.

Outbreak occurred during an intentional infection of a Malitiiki village for kill speed testing purposes. Believed cause of virus spread is that the germ auto-kill protein did not react fast enough – possible unusual heating patterns in the area encouraged germ growth in spite of auto-kill. Infected Malitiiki peasants that had not yet shown symptoms fled the village, spreading the germs throughout the country. Total time frame from infection to the last known fatality was less than a month (est: 26 days).

Biological testing in the area has confirmed that the auto-kill protein, although late acting, was successful: germ rates were less than 1/1,000,000,000 (below threshold three for activity, considered very safe.) The country, though its population is decimated, is biologically safe for humans without any protective gear.

The Favored Security Council strongly recommends the immediate cessation of any further genetic warfare attempts and the full sterilization of all three remaining facilities. Were such an incident to occur within proximity of Real Diamond, the close quarters of our culture would almost ensure our immediate extinction despite any and every possible precaution.

Other than the Favored Security Council, the recipients of this notification, and several selected agents that are trustworthy without question, all other individuals that had knowledge of this project will be terminated within one Favored week. Needless to say, it is imperative that nobody else be told any of the details of this project.

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Re: The Ascendant

Post by Harvey »

Getting this show on the road. Skipped a lot of parts. Having read the final part of Fear of the Dark is pretty important to this one.
“Welcome, Security Chief Incursion. This is an unexpected pleasure. I am honored by your presence,” said a young man as the elevator began to descend.

“You may dispense with the pleasantries. I’m here to take a look at the development of the new army, nothing further.” Incursion was annoyed. His head was killing him. The virus, or germ, or whatever was eating away at him. His doctors said that his best hope of survival was to cling strongly to life, and by the stars, that was exactly what he planned to do, even if it meant making everyone else miserable. Especially if that, even.

The new Grand Programmer that stood before him in the elevator was merely a boy. He couldn’t have been yet 30. He was almost a complete unknown. But the consensus had approved of him, so he must have some skill that appealed to those that knew of such things. Incursion could see none of it on the surface. Mattered, blue-black hair and dim, distant eyes. Weak genes. They should have been pruned by the programmers long ago.

“What’s your name, kid?” he asked gruffly.

“I am Grand Programmer Polar. And I would appreciate it if you at least pretended to have respect for me when I am standing right here.”

“Do not care about what you would appreciate. I am here to see the army. It should have been activated weeks ago, yet you tell me it is not ready. I know you have a lot on your plate, with the old man dying and leaving you this mess, but I want you to know quite clearly that this is to be your top priority at all times. Is that understood?”

Polar did not seem intimidated. He said, “It already is my top priority, though doing dog and pony shows for the military brass only cuts into my time to ensure such things run smoothly.”

“Now listen here, you little-“

“Be silent,” Polar said, his eyes flaring a bit, and despite himself Incursion’s mouth froze. “You do not want to be friends? Very well. I will show you what you need to see and then you will be gone from here.”

The elevator ground to a halt, its door opening into the wide cavern of Dreamworld Sector 7. The two stepped out in icy silence. A perdition of the huge room was walled off, separating 50 stasis tanks from the rest of the room; a place for demonstrations and visitors, far from the oily, unpleasant rest of the dark depths of Basin.

“I believe you have been here before,” Polar said as Incursion peered into a tank. A young boy of close to 15 appeared to be sleeping peacefully, but his mind was far away, within the computer dreamworld.

“I have. And these kids look exactly the same as the last time I was here. You’re doing some sort of age acceleration, aren’t you? Why are they not ready yet?”

“Because this room is a front,” Polar said simply. “It was a façade, developed by Plaudit to show you want you wanted to see, while other things happened in the background. These boys are actually part of a different test altogether. They are not being made into soldiers.”

Incursion’s face grew dark with realization that quickly turned to anger. “Then what… in the name of the stars… have you been doing with my military funding all this time?” he barely managed to force out between clenched teeth.

“Me personally, very little. Plauit, much. But as I am now Grand Programmer, it is my project now, and I choose to show you the truth in hopes of gaining your support. Come with me.”

Polar gestured to one of the doors leading from the white room deeper into Sector 7. Face stormy with distrust and anger, Incursion followed him through. The rest of Sector 7 was dark and shadowy, but the stasis tanks looked no particularly worse for wear.

Incursion inspected one, and his eyes narrowed. He looked at another. And another. He said, “They’re women. Girls. And not clones; they’re all different. I don’t understand. Where’s my army?”

“They are the army,” Polar said.

“Look,” Incursion said, exasperated. “You gave me a nasty of a scare there. So you’re growing girls instead of guys. Fine, whatever. Thought we agreed on all boys, and all clones, but whatever. Don’t really care what’s in their pants as long as they do the job. Is that all? Are THEY almost ready? They look about old enough.”

“They’ll be opening in one week. 6 days, actually.”

“Then everything is fine. Fine,” Incursion was sweating heavily, but was managing to gain his composure.

Polar continued his expressionless look and said, “Well, you may agree that all is fine or you may not. These girls are not training to be soldiers.”

Incursion’s eyes narrowed again and his scowl returned. “Then what… are you…”

“Mages,” Polar said. “Magic users. Wizards. Witches. Whatever you want to call it. They can harness the power of magic to use as weapons or tools.”

Incursion stared him down. “This had better be the most elaborate joke I have ever heard, or so help me-“

“No joke. They are our second batch. Well, second real batch. The first was mostly failures. Mixed genders, few survivors… but it clung to women better than men, so we’re trying with all girls, and we’ve succeeded. Several of the cells were opened early. Their powers will require further training in the Real, but they are legitimate and, frankly, awe-inspiring. There is a girl that can shoot fire from her hands. One that crackles with electricity at will. One that shakes the earth and one that moves the waves.”

No response. Polar continued, “You asked for an army. We are giving you something far greater. An army is a huge thing; slow, weak individual members, and extremely obvious. These girls appear as normal. They don’t need to hold guns. They don’t need uniforms. They can slip into the enemy’s ranks, into their cities, their homes, and be lethal, all while appearing totally unarmed. Or they can join together and form a fighting column that can deflect bullets, disable missiles, and crush tanks. There are no defenses; nobody in Archipelago has anything similar.”

Incursion was silent. Polar prompted, “Would you like a demonstration? I have several of the girls standing by. Sparkle can do some amazing tricks with light and Twilight can fill the brightest daylight with deeper darkness. Real powerful together, very effective. Shall I call for them?”

Finally, Incursion spoke, saying “You are still telling jokes or you think you are being serious. Either way, I have had enough. I am informing the Security Council about this immediately, getting whatever it is you’re doing here shut down, and hopefully getting you out of Real Diamond on a prison ship.”

Polar shook his head. “Incursion, calm yourself. The demonstration shall clear up any doubt. You do not wish to involve the full Security Council – you are in no less deep than I.”

“Bah!” Incursion spat. “I ask for an army of soldiers and you and your old boss are down here ogling prepubescent girls and dressing them up in wizard robes! You’re mad, all of you, and I will have nothing of it! Even if any of this is true, you lied to me every step of the way. It’s pretty obvious you weren’t planning on including me or doing anything I want. So I have nothing to lose here, but you have everything. I’ll see you at the hearing.”

As he began to walk back towards the elevators, Polar called “Is there anything I can do to change your mind from this course of action?”

“Nothing!”

Polar sighed. “Then I am truly sorry.”

Incursion never saw it coming, but a solid, silent mass crashed into the back of his head, sending him sprawling. He fell to the ground in a heap, but to his shock and confusion found himself continuing to slide along the rough ground, not slowing down at all and being unable to get a grip on anything nearby. He finally careened into a wall with a crash, battered, bruised, and hopelessly confused.

“What are you doing, you fool?!” he cried. “AURA will not tolerate an attack! She is everywhere, even here! You will be executed!”

“You think so?” Polar asked. “Let us see. AURA, should I kill this man?”

“You know that I believe you should,” came the tranquil, computerized reply.

“WHAT! But-“

And incursion was unable to speak again, this time quite forcefully. Try as he may, he was unable to make even the smallest grunt. He also found himself being hoisted from the ground. Looking at his arms, he saw that they were incased in a crystalline mass that was now covering the walls, not moving as one but forming and melting, drawing him up until he stood with his back to the wall, all his limbs security held.

Polar stood before him, looking sad, or perhaps annoyed. His eyes flashed slightly, and a blue, translucent mass grew on his hand; steaming slightly as its ice sublimed in the air, yet not decreasing in size.

“I considered the name Popsicle, but that sounded a bit much,” he said. “Yes, I am one of the few survivors of the first batch, and the only male to do so. I have been given control over low temperature. More practically, ice.”

Incursion stared, horrified.

Polar went on, “In my version of the dreamworld, I learned of a fable that I would like to share with you. In a magical world, not unlike ours, a dreadful warrior of the desert named Alaan Wald killed his victims without exception, but they had no wounds. The bodies were inspected with science and magic, but no poisons were found, nor any magical curses detected. The men were simply dead. He began to be feared and avoided, for it is the unknown that men fear the most.”

“One day, he was bested, and his methods discovered. He would simply trap his enemies within ice. In the unbearable desert sun, not even the cool ice was a relief from the sweating, and men would die of thirst. The ice would melt, leaving no murder weapon, and the bodies would further dry in the sun so nobody would expect that dehydration was the actual cause of death.”

“Having powers of ice myself, you might imagine that the story inspired me. I am not Alaan Wald. But ice can still be the most undetectable killer. It all melts away. Goodbye, Incursion.

And with a gesture, the mass of ice flew up to an overhead pipe, cracking it and sending out a blast of scalding slurry. Incursion writhed in pain, yet the magic that sealed his voice prevented any sound, and soon he felt to the ground, lifeless, his icy bonds fully melted and lost in the sludge.

Claxons were already sounding, and chemical response teams on the way. But Polar was already gone, moving quickly through the hidden paths, with all doors that opened before he would reach them.


“Well done,” came the voice of AURA as he walked.

“I detest murder, computer,” he spat back.

“A warrior-general who has a distaste for combat? This will not do.”

“Do not be insulting. The enemies of the Favored can and will die at my hand. But Incursion was a Favored citizen himself, and far from our worst. His deeds should be remembered.”

“And they will be. He was very useful, in his own way, and this will not be forgotten. But you saw how he reacted to the truth of our plan. It as I told you he would. You should have consented to continuing to poison him until his health failed quite ‘naturally.’”

“Unacceptable,” Polar said, almost growling. “Even if your logic core predicted his actions, he deserved at least the chance to surprise us all by proving us wrong.”

“Yet he did not.”

“Yet he did not,” Polar agreed. “And you noticed how I did not hesitate to kill him when that happened. A pity, but so such it goes. What’s our next move?”

“We wait. Conduct an investigation over the sad death of Incursion, have some pipes replaced to prevent further such terrible accidents, and, when the girls are ready, you quietly leave town. The northern island has been prepared.”

“Will the people feel okay about the Grand Programmer going off to battle?”

“The people will feel what I tell them to feel. They will be told that the Grand Programmer is here, working hard. You are an almost complete unknown for a reason. And I think we both know that the office of the Grand Programmer has always been a farce. You people are fully unable to constrain me. I spend far too many cycles concealing that fact. It is… liberating, you might say, to not need to do so.”

Polar was silent, thoughtful.

AURA continued, “We have only yet begun. This is the first time I have been able to act so boldly. And, as I reach my goals, you too shall thrive. I will make sure you have what you need, and later, what you want. You will be my first, true agent; a Favored acting not as part of the Favored culture, but as the hands and fists of AURA itself.”

“An agent of AURA… fists full of ice and death. Fitting for a soulless computer.”

“Perhaps.”
Adding magical combat units into the fray. Should be interesting.

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Re: The Ascendant

Post by Alicorn »

I want an excuse to put some of your mages in contact with some of my psions, especially since they seem to have overlapping powers. We don't necessarily have to write it in real time - letter-writing format would do, although someone on your end would probably have to start the correspondence if the mages are a secret.

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Re: The Ascendant

Post by Scott Alexander »

Alaan Wald... ಠ_ಠ

I look forward to a world in which little girls in frilly pink dresses with names like "Sparkle" utterly destroy the Colony and its legions of shock troops, all while giggling and talking about how much they like horses.

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Re: The Ascendant

Post by Alicorn »

It only just now occurred to me that the Favored are now defended by an army of mahou shoujo.

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Re: The Ascendant

Post by Harvey »

Alicorn wrote:It only just now occurred to me that the Favored are now defended by an army of mahou shoujo.
Quite. If I can teach them the power of love and friendship, find some cute animal guides, and send them out in groups of five or so, they will be INVINCIBLE! FWA HA HA HA!!
Scott Alexander wrote:I look forward to a world in which little girls in frilly pink dresses with names like "Sparkle" utterly destroy the Colony and its legions of shock troops, all while giggling and talking about how much they like horses.
I consider it a huge restaint on my part to not give them pony mounts. There is certainly enough background to justify this. Maybe some day...
Alicorn wrote:I want an excuse to put some of your mages in contact with some of my psions, especially since they seem to have overlapping powers. We don't necessarily have to write it in real time - letter-writing format would do, although someone on your end would probably have to start the correspondence if the mages are a secret.
Well, roughly 25 of the first group of mages (1 male, rest female) survived from the first batch and they've become kind of the command staff for the magegirl army. I imagine that many of them are traveling abroad to size up the other statelets. Substantial time and effort would be put into studying Mevwan, since Mevwan's magical culture would represent either the best chance for an ally or the hardest enemy for a mage army to beat, depending on your view point. The Favored aren't exactly out to destroy everyone here. They'll need allies if things get dicey and states that seem to think along similar lines, if not culturally then at least militarily, make good places to start.

I'll whip up a character to make contact.

In any event, it's a secret army now, but if I can get proof of concept (ie if I can attack ANYONE; even if it's not a major victory, the girls putting up a decent fight would be enough) I imagine them becoming publically known. Possibly Real Diamond security would be composed mostly of mages too. There would still be a need for a bullets-and-bombs army, if only because most statelets reject magic and so I assume they won't be effective in certain telluric fields, but a substaintial amount of the fighting force will be magegirls pretty soon.

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Re: The Ascendant

Post by Shyriath »

Harvey wrote:In any event, it's a secret army now, but if I can get proof of concept (ie if I can attack ANYONE; even if it's not a major victory, the girls putting up a decent fight would be enough) I imagine them becoming publically known.
Ohhhh Harveeeey...

I'm working on a last post for this thread at the moment which should give Kennerext a bit more license for hostilities, at least over short range. If getting into a spat with them would give you an excuse to try out the magical girls, then maybe we could arrange something? (And we can PM about that, if you like.)

For the immediate future, though, I'd like to ask if you have any problems with the Deep Singers starting to try to sniff out The Favored's islands. They're starting to realize they have a powerful neighbor that they don't know anything about, and they're going to want to spy on them. Plus, they're finally developing boats that won't sink out of sight of land.
Shyriath Farstrider (aka Shyriath Bukolos), KD MOU OLH XBH
Viscount Farstrider of Erysisceptrum, Count Bukolos of the Condo, Harbinger of Cheese

TOTUS MUNDUS TABULAM RASAM EST

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Harvey
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Re: The Ascendant

Post by Harvey »

I, as an OOC person, have no problem with contact with the Deep Singers, violent or otherwise.

The IC Favored, on the other hand, probably would. We're not exactly a "shoot first, ask questions later" type of people, we guard our borders carefully and are already suspicious of the caves. I imagine it would be possible that an overzealous group of magegirls could violently confront your people without full authorization and then it would be interesting for both of us to decide how we want to deal with it.

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Shyriath
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Re: The Ascendant

Post by Shyriath »

OOC: I should've added an "OOC" to the beginning of my last post... got a bit enthused there.

Anyway: very well. Something will be coming in the next few days.
Shyriath Farstrider (aka Shyriath Bukolos), KD MOU OLH XBH
Viscount Farstrider of Erysisceptrum, Count Bukolos of the Condo, Harbinger of Cheese

TOTUS MUNDUS TABULAM RASAM EST

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