Catalog of the Weird Parallels - Page 91

TGLS · 07-07-2018, 08:57 PM

The disease is also carried by ticks. A small time mobster burying bodies on Switch-1 (a world seemingly unknown to Infinity) and getting bit by a tick and picking up a the virus seems fairly plausible. Somehow, the virus periodically outbreaks across Quantum 5. Implausibly, the I-Cops are managing to keep tabs on all of this, toss everyone who has the disease into a quarantine parallel, and presumably (because of the rest of the setting), keep this all quiet.

AlexanderHowl · 07-07-2018, 09:07 PM

Well, the I-Cops do have precogs on staff, so they have to be good for something. An outbreak of a sex changing psionic producing plague should set off the alarm bells in a precog pretty quickly. Of course, the real problem is when an infected person escapes beyond Q5. Imagine what Centrum or Reich-5 would do with it?

Another question would be what happens when the Cabal finds out about it? A entire world of gifted people, with a sexual transmitted disease that gives people psionic powers, sounds like a treat that the Cabal could not resist. Of course, if it is a no mana world, the Cabal would have difficulty accessing it, but I am sure that the Cabal possesses a few black market conveyors to allow it to access no mana worlds. Or the Cabal could be secretly kidnapping infected people on worlds with mana and recruiting them into the organization (or using them to power up their members).

TGLS · 07-08-2018, 12:01 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Well, the I-Cops do have precogs on staff, so they have to be good for something. An outbreak of a sex changing psionic producing plague should set off the alarm bells in a precog pretty quickly. Of course, the real problem is when an infected person escapes beyond Q5. Imagine what Centrum or Reich-5 would do with it?

Infinity is aware of about 4,050* worlds from Quantum 3-7. With 4,000 worlds to keep their eyes on, half threatened by Centrum and a sixth in Quantum 3, where a myriad of threats abound, does Infinity Patrol (who number at 60,000 in total) really have enough Psis to keep tabs on low probability events that take a month to occur?

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Imagine what Centrum or Reich-5 would do with it?

Centrum? Either they see it as something that causes too much social turmoil to be useful, or valuable enough to ignore the social turmoil. The Nazis are mad enough to try anything; or slaughter their own to stop the spread of disease.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Another question would be what happens when the Cabal finds out about it? A entire world of gifted people, with a sexual transmitted disease that gives people psionic powers, sounds like a treat that the Cabal could not resist.

Or not. There are two things I'm fairly sure about the Cabal. Different lodges have differing opinions on different sources of power, from obsession to hatred. The other thing is that the Cabal hates anyone else having the same edge as them. Lodges that don't like psi are either going to tinker with making it spawn anti-psi. Others may be thinking ideologically. Others might want to stamp it out simply because they fear there will be to many psis going around.

Quote:

Originally Posted by AlexanderHowl

Of course, if it is a no mana world, the Cabal would have difficulty accessing it, but I am sure that the Cabal possesses a few black market conveyors to allow it to access no mana worlds.

I'm sure some Cabal lodges have access to mana enhancers.

*There are about 300 echoes on Quantum 6. Going by the tables from IW82, that implies 1,350 worlds on Quantum 6, 675 on Quantums 3-5 and 7, and 4,050 on Quantums 3-7.

AlexanderHowl · 07-08-2018, 12:32 AM

There are only 701 Earths accessible from Homeline (Campaigns, p. 526) and only 68 are Q5. I think that Infinity is capable of containing outbreaks on 68 worlds.

TGLS · 07-08-2018, 01:30 AM

They have 10,000 field agents split over 700 worlds (I'm sure Homeline can take care of itself). Taking off a sixth for empty worlds (used for resource exploitation, colonization or what have you), they have to cover about 580 worlds, getting about 17 agents per world. Certainly, some agents are penetration service, leaving even less for the I-Cops. With so few agents, how can they expect to stop outbreaks of a disease that has so few symptoms?

Ottriman · 07-08-2018, 01:56 AM

Flex 2

After the initial world of Flex 1 was discovered, people didn't actually expect to encounter more of them, but they were wrong. There are in fact a lot of worldline with muscular deviations like this.

In the case of Flex 2, it has a peculiar feature where people do not die from old age and continue to get stronger and more muscular instead. After the first few decades muscle and bone strength to weight ratio will start creeping up as well, even as growth of muscle size is slowed.

This eventually culminates in barely humanoid being after a few centuries, which are so muscular that they're almost just big balls of super muscle. Those people can lift entire buildings like they were the Hulk from Marvel Comics.

Most people do not make it that long due to other issues of starvation, disease and other problems. The worldline is still low-tech even though the date is 2000 AD, simply because tech growth has been slowed by the ultra-muscular overlords and a lack of necessity for big industrial machines.

As people start to overall-grow instead of changing proportions after a few-centuries some theorize they'd slim down as they grow into a "regular" muscularity giant, and then repeat the process. However no one has made it long enough to truly confirm this.

Astromancer · 07-08-2018, 06:03 AM

Genreflux

This world seems ordinary to the naked eye but something affects the minds of the locals. The locals change their style of behavior randomly and in the pattern of a known genre of fiction. People remain basically the same, but the person they are is shaped by the prevailing genre. The most likely genres to be encountered are Screwball Comedy, Noir Detective, Classic Detective (Miss Marple, Nick & Nora, Nancy Drew etc.), Adventure, Cyberpunk, Sci-Fi, Fairy Tale, and Horror Story.

Physical details rarely shift, but behavior can shift on a dime.

Varyon · 07-11-2018, 07:20 PM

Not certain of a good name for this one (Deathclock, maybe?), but at first glance it looks like a simple echo of Homeline, circa the 1990's. However, later analysis discovered something very strange - everyone on the worldline who has ever died has done so at 19:44 GMT. There are no known exceptions. In a freak accident, a homeliner was actually decapitated while on the worldline, and his heart continued to beat - and indeed his eyes continued to twitch similarly to being in REM sleep - for over 5 hours, until suddenly stopping at 19:44 GMT.

The significance of 19:44 was initially lost on Infinity, until a similar parallel (Deathclock-2?) was discovered. In this worldline, death only occurs at 4:44* AM local time, meaning in theory someone who is mortally wounded could be transported from a timezone where it is 4:00 AM over to one where it is 5:00 AM, skipping the death time, to extend their life.

An even more bizarre parallel (Deathclock-3) was also discovered, where people only die at 19:44 GMT on April 3**, and at no other time during the entire year.

In all of these worldlines, all humans (only - this doesn't appear to affect animals, plants, etc; nobody has tested to see if human-like people, like elves, are affected) are treated similarly to having Unkillable 2, but still must roll for Death Checks. If a character dies, their death doesn't actually come into play until the death time rolls around. In many cases, medical assistance prior to this can save the patient, as their vital functions needn't be restored so long as enough damage is repaired prior to true death.

*19:44 GMT is 4:44 Japan Standard Time, and 4 is often regarded in Japan as an unlucky number. One of the manners of pronouncing it, shi, sounds the same as a Japanese word for death.
**19:44 GMT on April 3 is 4:44 on April 4 in Japan.

Mysterious Dark Lord v3.2 · 07-11-2018, 08:24 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Varyon

The significance of 19:44 was initially lost on Infinity, until a similar parallel (Deathclock-2?) was discovered. In this worldline, death only occurs at 4:44* AM local time, meaning in theory someone who is mortally wounded could be transported from a timezone where it is 4:00 AM over to one where it is 5:00 AM, skipping the death time, to extend their life.

Hmmm ...

A rich dude's medical busness would be large airplanes that circle the Earth in under 24 hours, thus making the sickly and/or elderly passengers practically immortal.

(And fighter-plane rental services all along the flight route for the radical Distributist market.)

AlexanderHowl · 07-11-2018, 08:51 PM

Goddess-1

Goddess-1 is a Q3 parallel where every goddess of every religion from Homeline exists (gods do not exist, though goddesses are capable of giving their consorts godly powers). Normally, Infinity would have just erased the coordinates when they discovered the timeline five years ago, but the goddesses captured their agents before they realized that goddesses were real in the timeline. Since then, Infinity has had to deal with bored goddesses appearing across Q3, Q4, and Q5.

Unlike the deities of other timelines, the goddesses of Goddess-1 seem fully functional outside of their native timeline and are not dependent on mana or worship. Infinity has established a Division of Divine Diplomacy to deal with any divine tourists. The standard tactics is to give them gifts and to praise them until they get bored with the adoration and wander back home. Attacking the goddesses have proven to be a bad idea, as they are capable of turning humans into horrid abominations with a thought or, even worse, turn them into adoring worshippers with a frown.

07-07-2018, 08:57 PM	#901
TGLS Join Date: Jan 2014	Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels The disease is also carried by ticks. A small time mobster burying bodies on Switch-1 (a world seemingly unknown to Infinity) and getting bit by a tick and picking up a the virus seems fairly plausible. Somehow, the virus periodically outbreaks across Quantum 5. Implausibly, the I-Cops are managing to keep tabs on all of this, toss everyone who has the disease into a quarantine parallel, and presumably (because of the rest of the setting), keep this all quiet.

07-07-2018, 09:07 PM	#902
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels Well, the I-Cops do have precogs on staff, so they have to be good for something. An outbreak of a sex changing psionic producing plague should set off the alarm bells in a precog pretty quickly. Of course, the real problem is when an infected person escapes beyond Q5. Imagine what Centrum or Reich-5 would do with it? Another question would be what happens when the Cabal finds out about it? A entire world of gifted people, with a sexual transmitted disease that gives people psionic powers, sounds like a treat that the Cabal could not resist. Of course, if it is a no mana world, the Cabal would have difficulty accessing it, but I am sure that the Cabal possesses a few black market conveyors to allow it to access no mana worlds. Or the Cabal could be secretly kidnapping infected people on worlds with mana and recruiting them into the organization (or using them to power up their members).

07-08-2018, 12:32 AM	#904
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels There are only 701 Earths accessible from Homeline (Campaigns, p. 526) and only 68 are Q5. I think that Infinity is capable of containing outbreaks on 68 worlds.

07-08-2018, 01:30 AM	#905
TGLS Join Date: Jan 2014	Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels They have 10,000 field agents split over 700 worlds (I'm sure Homeline can take care of itself). Taking off a sixth for empty worlds (used for resource exploitation, colonization or what have you), they have to cover about 580 worlds, getting about 17 agents per world. Certainly, some agents are penetration service, leaving even less for the I-Cops. With so few agents, how can they expect to stop outbreaks of a disease that has so few symptoms?

07-08-2018, 01:56 AM	#906
Ottriman Join Date: Apr 2015	Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels Flex 2 After the initial world of Flex 1 was discovered, people didn't actually expect to encounter more of them, but they were wrong. There are in fact a lot of worldline with muscular deviations like this. In the case of Flex 2, it has a peculiar feature where people do not die from old age and continue to get stronger and more muscular instead. After the first few decades muscle and bone strength to weight ratio will start creeping up as well, even as growth of muscle size is slowed. This eventually culminates in barely humanoid being after a few centuries, which are so muscular that they're almost just big balls of super muscle. Those people can lift entire buildings like they were the Hulk from Marvel Comics. Most people do not make it that long due to other issues of starvation, disease and other problems. The worldline is still low-tech even though the date is 2000 AD, simply because tech growth has been slowed by the ultra-muscular overlords and a lack of necessity for big industrial machines. As people start to overall-grow instead of changing proportions after a few-centuries some theorize they'd slim down as they grow into a "regular" muscularity giant, and then repeat the process. However no one has made it long enough to truly confirm this.

07-08-2018, 06:03 AM	#907
Astromancer Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: West Virginia	Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels Genreflux This world seems ordinary to the naked eye but something affects the minds of the locals. The locals change their style of behavior randomly and in the pattern of a known genre of fiction. People remain basically the same, but the person they are is shaped by the prevailing genre. The most likely genres to be encountered are Screwball Comedy, Noir Detective, Classic Detective (Miss Marple, Nick & Nora, Nancy Drew etc.), Adventure, Cyberpunk, Sci-Fi, Fairy Tale, and Horror Story. Physical details rarely shift, but behavior can shift on a dime. __________________ Per Ardua Per Astra! Ancora Imparo

07-11-2018, 07:20 PM	#908
Varyon Join Date: Jun 2013	Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels Not certain of a good name for this one (Deathclock, maybe?), but at first glance it looks like a simple echo of Homeline, circa the 1990's. However, later analysis discovered something very strange - everyone on the worldline who has ever died has done so at 19:44 GMT. There are no known exceptions. In a freak accident, a homeliner was actually decapitated while on the worldline, and his heart continued to beat - and indeed his eyes continued to twitch similarly to being in REM sleep - for over 5 hours, until suddenly stopping at 19:44 GMT. The significance of 19:44 was initially lost on Infinity, until a similar parallel (Deathclock-2?) was discovered. In this worldline, death only occurs at 4:44* AM local time, meaning in theory someone who is mortally wounded could be transported from a timezone where it is 4:00 AM over to one where it is 5:00 AM, skipping the death time, to extend their life. An even more bizarre parallel (Deathclock-3) was also discovered, where people only die at 19:44 GMT on April 3*, and at no other time during the entire year. In all of these worldlines, all humans (only - this doesn't appear to affect animals, plants, etc; nobody has tested to see if human-like people, like elves, are affected) are treated similarly to having Unkillable 2, but still must roll for Death Checks. If a character dies, their death doesn't actually come into play until the death time rolls around. In many cases, medical assistance prior to this can* save the patient, as their vital functions needn't be restored so long as enough damage is repaired prior to true death. 19:44 GMT is 4:44 Japan Standard Time, and 4 is often regarded in Japan as an unlucky number. One of the manners of pronouncing it, shi, sounds the same as a Japanese word for death. *19:44 GMT on April 3 is 4:44 on April 4 in Japan. __________________ GURPS Overhaul

07-11-2018, 08:51 PM	#910
AlexanderHowl Join Date: Feb 2016	Re: Catalog of the Weird Parallels Goddess-1 Goddess-1 is a Q3 parallel where every goddess of every religion from Homeline exists (gods do not exist, though goddesses are capable of giving their consorts godly powers). Normally, Infinity would have just erased the coordinates when they discovered the timeline five years ago, but the goddesses captured their agents before they realized that goddesses were real in the timeline. Since then, Infinity has had to deal with bored goddesses appearing across Q3, Q4, and Q5. Unlike the deities of other timelines, the goddesses of Goddess-1 seem fully functional outside of their native timeline and are not dependent on mana or worship. Infinity has established a Division of Divine Diplomacy to deal with any divine tourists. The standard tactics is to give them gifts and to praise them until they get bored with the adoration and wander back home. Attacking the goddesses have proven to be a bad idea, as they are capable of turning humans into horrid abominations with a thought or, even worse, turn them into adoring worshippers with a frown.