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Old 09-14-2018, 04:06 PM   #661
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Default Re: Five Earths, All in a Row

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Originally Posted by Prince Charon View Post
Incidentally, is anyone getting warp coil and warp core mixed up? It occurred to me that some people might.
"Warp coils were an integral part of a starship's warp drive. Mounted within the warp nacelles, the coils used the plasma generated by the warp core to create a subspace displacement field that allowed faster-than-light travel."

This is the very method of warp drive I have previously described. Subluminal drives are impulse drives which in the TOS era used fusion (ie atomic) power. This puts them well within the range of Dp-Earth's TL(6+1)^/7-9.

Last edited by maximara; 09-14-2018 at 04:22 PM.
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Old 09-29-2018, 01:03 PM   #662
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This is an (minor) expansion to a flavor text I posted over at spacebattles:

The Eyes Have It

Ayanokoji Pai woke up to find a staff topped with a three eyed dragon next to her bed.

Picking it up she noticed that there was a seam between the head and the shaft. As the staff felt too light she removed the top to find out what was inside.

Next thing she knew there was this harpy like creature looking at her cocking its head.

"What...what are you?"

The creature chirped at her. "I am Takuhi, mistress."

Ok things have been weird of late and people have been visited by things that only existed in fiction and myth. But why me and why this?

"Takuhi? I never heard of a harpy being named that."

Takuhi chirped again. "What is a harpy?"

"It's what you look like. A bird with the head of a woman." Pai got up and started getting dressed. "Look I don't have time for this piece of weirdness. I've got to get to school."

"Time? You have all of time, mistress. After all you are immortal."

Pai looked at Takuhi. "I'm what?"

"Immortal. At least until you obtain the Ningen no Zou."

"The what?"

"The item you have been looking for 300 years to change you from Sanjiyan Unkara to human."

"Look, I don't know who you think I am but I am not your mistress and I am certainly not 300 years old. Just ask my grandparents."

"Actually you are far older than that, mistress."

"I'd love to debate this with you but I need to get going so I don't miss my bus."

"Bus? You don't need a bus for transportation, mistress. You have me and Fei-Oh."

"Fei-Oh?" asked Pai.

A creature appeared before her. It looked like a giant tadpole with its eye in its mouth.

Pai took a step back. "This has officially gone into totally nuts land. I don't know who you two think I am but I am not her." Pai said grabbing her backpack and leaving her room.

Several minutes later on the bus.

"Hey, Pai what is with the weird staff?"

"Don't know. Woke up with it next to my bed and my life promptly went weird. As in demons popping up weird."

"Demons?"

"Yeh. One looked like a variant of a harpy and the other...something that American Lovecraft might have dreamed up."

"Any idea why they choose you?"

"Not a freaking clue."

"Perhaps it was due to that article in that find girls get girls magazine that had your picture in."

"Come on what demon reads those?"

Later at Pia's homeroom. The teacher frowned as she noted the staff Pai had in her hand. "Ayanokoji-san is there a reason for that accessory?"

Pai blinked. "Accessory?"

"That staff."

Pai frowned as she looked at the staff still in her hand. "I forgot that I was still holding this."

"It doesn't mean that you are an Indigo Lantern does it?"

"Indigo Lantern? But the lanterns use rings; this is a staff."

"The Indigo Lanterns are often depicted with a staff as well as a ring."

"Ok. Well no...unless being an Indigo Lantern means you get some demons that think you are someone who is over 300 years old."

"Demons?" asked the teacher concerned.

"Yes, sensei. The harpy like one kept claiming I was their mistress."

"No that doesn't sound like an Indigo Lantern but other than the most general of details I don't really know more then the Americans sent us on them.

"Sensei, I don't know why this happened to me of all people. I don't read American comics and only know the most general details of the characters in them. " Pai started getting flustered "I don't even know that this Ningen no Zou that the harpy claimed I had been looking for 300 years even is! Much less what a Sanjiyan Unkara is."

The teacher frowned as he looked down at his laptop and typed something into it. He then paled and looked up at Pai. "One of the way to render that is rendered 三只眼 吽迦羅 or literally three eyes ie a triclops."

"But what does..." Pai stopped and looked at her staff again. "Three eyes. My staff has three eyes."

"If what I found is correct so do you."

"What?!" yelled Pai as she raised her self from her seat her two hands on the desk. She then blinked. "Let you take control? I don't even know who you are! What do you mean you are me? I don't have voices in my head claiming they are me."

Pai shuttered her as she bowed her head. "This is my body not yours!"

"Ayanokoji-san?" asked the teacher nervously.

"I am in control, mortal," hissed the girl as her face came up three eyes looking at the teacher with both contempt and amusement.

"Parvati," commented the teacher calmly even though inside he was terrified.

"You recognize me?"

"You are a manga character."

Parvati laughed. "A manga character? You humans are so amusing with your ability to deny the evidence of your very own eyes."

"I should clarify. You are the manifestation of a manga character. Perhaps other elements of your 'world' have also manifested but at the end of the day what you 'remember' didn't happen. Search the memories of your 'other half' if you don't believe me.

Parvati's smile slowly faded and her three eyes widened in horror. "No." she whispered. "I'm real!" she yelled as her hands went to the side of her head.

"NO YOU ARE NOT!" she yelled. "I, Ayanokoji Pai, am real. You are a fiction that for some reason that has taken possession of me."

"Ayanokoji Pai is the fiction. A fake life to keep you from seeking the Ningen no Zou."

"You saw my memories. There is nothing like that in your world."

"I'm real," whimpered the girl.

"In one respect, yes you are. Just like the Lanterns, Darth Venger, Speed Racer, Speedsters are 'real'. But the people behind them are more real."

The girl lowered her head leaning over her desk her hands resting on its surface breathing heavily.

"Parvati-san?" cautiously asked the teacher after a few moments had passed.

The girl raised her head and smiled humor and satisfaction in her three eyes. "No. I am Ayanokoji Pai. Parvati is doing the mental equivalent of whimpering on the floor."

====

For those unfamiliar with the background Pai Ayanokoji (reversed to follow the Asian tradition of having the family name first) is the name given to the amnesic Sanjiyan Unkara in the manga/very short OVA 3x3 Eyes

If your googlefu is strong you can find the website which has nearly the entire comic translated (rather then stopping in volume 6 as Black Horse's translation did) Word of warning it is long and very bloody.

Last edited by maximara; 09-29-2018 at 01:13 PM.
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Old 09-30-2018, 04:00 AM   #663
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'The Eyes Have It' has been added to my .sig quote. I should point out that while Pai here is an outlier (e.g. origins being traumatic for a spirit that's involved, rather than the host, are uncommon, but they do happen), she's not implausible. At worst, she might need an Unusual Background, and probably not a big one.

I'm not sure how high a point cost Pai/Parvati from 3x3 Eyes would have, so I can't really say how close the one here could be to that, but the level of effort the spirits are putting into it, plus the parallels between this Pai and the one in the manga (I think you mentioned at least three reasonably significant ones on SB.com), suggest that as long as 3x3 Eyes Parvati isn't ridiculously powerful (500 point characters are quite rare, 1,000+ point characters are in the single digits or low double digits, out of a population of over seven billion), this Pai could be pretty close.

EDIT: The teacher is pretty well-informed, but that just means he's intelligent, isn't in denial, and wants to be well informed (and that he has an internet connection at home as well as at school, but that's normal).
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Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.

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Old 09-30-2018, 08:24 AM   #664
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Default Re: Five Earths, All in a Row

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'The Eyes Have It' has been added to my .sig quote. I should point out that while Pai here is an outlier (e.g. origins being traumatic for a spirit that's involved, rather than the host, are uncommon, but they do happen), she's not implausible. At worst, she might need an Unusual Background, and probably not a big one.

I'm not sure how high a point cost Pai/Parvati from 3x3 Eyes would have, so I can't really say how close the one here could be to that, but the level of effort the spirits are putting into it, plus the parallels between this Pai and the one in the manga (I think you mentioned at least three reasonably significant ones on SB.com), suggest that as long as 3x3 Eyes Parvati isn't ridiculously powerful (500 point characters are quite rare, 1,000+ point characters are in the single digits or low double digits, out of a population of over seven billion), this Pai could be pretty close.

EDIT: The teacher is pretty well-informed, but that just means he's intelligent, isn't in denial, and wants to be well informed (and that he has an internet connection at home as well as at school, but that's normal).
Most of Pai's power is in her spells, demon minions, and Wu. AIR she herself only has Unaging (15 points) and "average" stats for a 18 year old girl. To use her spells in her Ayanokoji Pai identity she needs the Claw of Shiva. Also her spells are built around demons and spirits some of which I listed in a fanfic I wrote some time ago:

Fei-Oh (Flying Jaws): Looks like a tadpole with oversized jaws with one eye in its mouth. It should be noted that these can be very protective of their Sanjiyan Unkara summoner and seem to enjoy the emotion of anger.

Hong-Nyang (Crimson Girl)/Ran-Pao-Pao (Wolf Rage Rage): There are the two forms of a single demon (and is one of the few demons in 3x3 eyes that can change form). The Hong-Nyang form is that of a red headed five to six year old girl; the Ran-Pao-Pao form by contrast is that of an adult female standing between seven and eight feet tall, with four arms, and very pronounced fangs. In the manga and anime a whistle is used to cause the transformation though intense anger can also bring it about.

Huu-Yao-Chichiu (Binding Monster Spider)

Kiyatu: Unicorn like creature that can consume souls.

Ryo-ko (Dragon worm): a dragon like creature with a face resembling that of an European gargoyle. It wings can generate a sonic field rendering many weapons useless against it.

Shi-Yao-Chong (Devouring Fiend Worm): This feeds on magical energy and meat. Contrast to Tei-Chin-Chii-Chii-Chong

Shou-Rin (Running Scale): Think of an oversized skateboard with the tusks and tail of a wild boar and legs for wheels.

Takuhi (man bird): This resembles an European harpy and can change size from that of a parrot to that of a small plane. It should be noted that the Japanese harpy (ommoraki) has few human features and so is very difference in appearance from Takuhi.

Tei-Chin-Chii-Chii-Chong (Earth Vitality Gathering Spirit Bug): This restores spiritual or magical energy.

Tou-Chao (Earth/Ground Claw): a large but fast three-clawed monster that generally is invisible though it briefly appears in the anime as looking like a cross between a crab and a spider.

Ya-Long: creature that very closely resembles an European dragon.
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Old 10-02-2018, 02:35 AM   #665
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So, spellcasting and lots of Allies. That works just fine.
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Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.
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Old 10-02-2018, 06:01 AM   #666
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So, spellcasting and lots of Allies. That works just fine.
Actually only two of the list (Fei-Oh and Takuhi) are her allies. The others are allies of varies other characters (most of which are foes) she meets or ones she binds to her service.

The Shi-Yao-Chong is a "natural enemy" of Sanjiyan Unkara as it can feed on their (and one assumes other) magical energy.
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Old 11-08-2018, 07:05 AM   #667
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A question: If someone with the political will and power needed to move large numbers of people by train from various points in Occupied Europe to Italy (Earth-2, in case that wasn't obvious), about how long would it take? My Google-fu seems to be inadequate to this task, as while I can get information on how the fastest record-breaking trains went (which would likely be faster than express trains) in that era or a bit later (slightly better than our tech for the time on their trains, but usually that means more comfort and fewer breakdowns, as well as better armour-per-pound when they're armoured), and average travel times now, average or normal express travel times back then, or even in the 1950s, are something I seem unable to find, and this is a bit of a barrier in posting the next timeline update... and while I can move the update to the next month, that just delays the problem, and I'll still need an answer.

Thank you in advance.
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Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.
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Old 11-15-2018, 10:17 AM   #668
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Default July, 2014

July, 2014 (1942 on Earth-2, 1880 on Earth-3, 1557 on Earth-4, and 516 CE/1269 AUC on Earth-5)

July 3: A Starfighter-upgraded Beriev Be-200P Altair leaves Earth-1, on a mission to Clp-Mexica, carrying archaeologists and a security team. Their goal is to rescue and/or copy as many of the Maya codicies as they can, before the Catholic Church destroys them. Also on Earth-1, Disney announces a new CGI movie trilogy, based on The Thrawn Trilogy, by Timothy Zahn.

July 5: In Dsp-London, Anatoli Knyazev, an assassin for the People's Commissariat for State Security (NKGB) is given the nickname NKGBeast by certain people in the SOE. His student Gregor Dosynski is nicknamed NKVDemon.

July 7: An alien spacecraft falls from a hyperspace into translunar orbit of Inp-Earth/Earth-1. The vessel is identified by a Ssrax engineer as a Dsp-Rigellian Ar'kez't Fnal'g ('Blue Harvest')-class freighter, made by Pnen'th'x Corporation. These vehicles are infamous for their faulty hyperdrive systems, occasionally dropping the craft into the wrong hyperspace, a dimension of 'horror beyond imagination.' The Ssrax (see Feb. 19, 2014) strongly recommend that the freighter be destroyed immediately, but do not force the issue.

July 9: The movie Gravity, with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, is finally released on Earth-1, after several delays necessitated by script changes and the need to film new scenes (some of them actually recorded in orbit). On Earth-2, the Dsp-British clone of the MiG-21, licensed as the Chrislea-Ferranti Fisher King (Chrislea builds the airframe, Ferranti the avionics), begins flight testing.

July 10: In Dsp-Germany, Earth-2, the first production run of the Eisenvogel (Silbervogel successor) becomes operational. This model, designed using information from the Battle of the Earth(2) Insertion, has a number of technical improvements over the original. Most notably, the Eisenvogel has a highly efficient atomic matter pile to provide power, as well as heating reaction mass for exoatmospheric flight. The single internal Heat Ray of the production-model Silbervogel has been replaced by a pair of Heat Ray blisters on the forward wing-tips, like those on the Red Baroness's Ace Custom vehicle, which also provided the more robust internal structure (though due to expense, some materials and upgrades are reserved for the best pilots, who also have more identifiable spacecraft).

July 12: In Dsp-Hollywood, California, Canadian adventuress Patricia Savage agrees to portray Annie Oakley in a Wild West film, though she is more interested in uncovering who drove the previous two actresses from the production, and why. At the Arkham Asylum Annex for the Criminally Insane outside Dsp-Gotham City, New Jersey, an attractive and atheletic woman using the name 'Quinn Francis' is hired as a therapist by Dr. Jeremiah Arkham, who is well aware that she is Dr. Harleen Frances Quinzel, PhD, Miskatonic University class of 1937 (whom multiple people have pressured him not to hire). The Bat-Man relays this information to the Inp-CIA agent observing Gotham, as the Bat has too many other things he needs to do, and Robin is old enough that he doesn't want his ward getting distracted by a limber and untrustworthy psychologist.

July 13: In Dsp-USA, the P-89 Scorpion goes into full production. In Clp-Enfield, outside London, the under-construction Enfield Small Arms Factory is officially chartered by HM Queen Elizabeth I, becoming the Royal Small Arms Factory, Enfield.

July 15: In Stp-Austria, Pieter, the son of Rudolph Gamerschwang, an Oberdonaudampfschifffahrtgesellschaftskapitän (captain for the Upper Danube Steamship Company), is kidnapped by smugglers seeking to blackmail the 'kapitän. The company secretly hires a group of private detectives and other adventurous folk to rescue him. In Earth-2's War Beneath the Ice, the Battle of Graham Island occurs between fourteen Axis (mostly German) submarines and twelve Allied (mostly Canadian and British) subs. It is a costly, though not pyrrhic, Allied victory, with a loss of six Allied vessels for eleven Axis.

July 17: In the Stp-Austro-Hungarian Empire, Ferdinand Mannlicher completes work on an improved version of his Earth-1 and -2 counterparts' model of 1885 semiautomatic rifle. Second Operation Pencil Sharpener expedition reaches the Earth-2 universe.

July 18: Operation Pencil Sharpener constellation arrives at Luna-2. The members of the expedition assigned to stay in the Lunar cities long-term are more in keeping with the Seleneans' preferences than the previous group (see Feb. 7, 2014). On Earth-2, a delivery truck arrives at Auschwitz to find it eerily abandoned - no people, no weapons, no supplies, no records, but oddly, no signs of battle, either.

July 20: Stp-Hawai'ian rocketry experiments have progressed to the point of putting a small communications satellite in orbit. The satellite, called Aloha-1, is the first Stp-Earth spacecraft to be equipped with transistors and related solid-state components, using technical information from Earth-1.

July 23: At Dsp-Muroc Rocket Field, Earth-2, the first atomic rocket with an ether propellor reaches orbit. The 'propellor' (actually a space-warping engine; see Sept. 27, 2013, Feb. 15 & 22, 2014) is used for high-speed flight away from a gravity well. For take-off and landing, the rocket uses water as reaction mass, and cools the reactor with liquid sodium. The Operation Pencil Sharpener constellation leaves for Earth-2. Later this day and into the next, a pair of Cytherean raiders distantly shadow the constellation. A flight of Clan Korsshethh vessels also make brief attacks on the Clan Ssrax escorts, nearly ignoring the rest of the formation, but do not commit to battle, and appear not to coordinate with the Cythereans.

July 25: Operation Pencil Sharpener constellation arrives at Earth-2, save for those vessels that remained at the Moon. The constellation lands in Dsp-USA without incident, save for the Yamato, Wakamiya, and Grissom MSFB, which must remain in orbit, and the Ssrax vessels, which are guarding them.

July 27: In Dsp-London, Parliament creates the Kingdom of the Sinai, an autonomous Jewish Parliamentary Democracy, but with George VI as King; the Sinai is given partial ownership of the Suez canal. The Dsp-Kingdom of Egypt is understandably rather annoyed, but unable to do anything significant about it (Inp-Egypt is likewise offended, but can do even less).

July 29: USSF Col. Randolph Bresnik commands an expedition to Venus(1) from Space Shuttle Enterprise (Maj. Roberts (see Jan. 13, 2014) remains FCOM), along with vessels from Russia, the EU, China, and India; the constellation's executive officer is Wing Commander Shirish Khandekar, Indian Aerospace Force. In theory, the mission is scientific, but in practice, almost no-one is pretending that it isn't part of the preparations for an eventual attack on Venus(2).

July 30: The Stan Lees of Earth-1 and Earth-2 begin working together on the script for a training film for the Dsp-USA armed services (the younger Stan is in the US Army(2) at this time), on how to interact with service personnel from Earth-1, without creating too much confusion, or starting a fight (or at least without being able to claim ignorance if they do start a fight). The older Stan will also have a cameo and do some of the narration in a similar training film for Inp-USA service personnel (as 'Grandpa Stan' giving his uniformed grandchildren some advice before they depart), to help them interact with people from Earth-2.

(I admit I got a little choked up writing that last entry.)
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Five Earths, All in a Row. Updated 12/17/2022: Apocrypha: Bridges out of Time, Part I has been posted.
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Old 11-15-2018, 11:55 AM   #669
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I believe that one of the people in Stan Lee's unit during WW II was Dr. Seuss.
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Old 11-16-2018, 02:54 AM   #670
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I believe that one of the people in Stan Lee's unit during WW II was Dr. Seuss.
Theodore Gessel (Dr Seuss) was in that unit, as was director Frank Capra and novelist/screenwriter William Saroyan.

Getting these guys to all collaborate on projects postwar would be a major project for any Inp-Earth literary fans.
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