SDN Worlds 4 Commentary Thread III

[Shroom Man 777]

I'll have you know that I watched my friend play through Dirge of Cereberus. Will Vincent ALSO fight albinos?

[Siege]

SIDNEY: "... alright, out with it: who put me in charge of the class of 2020 reunion?"

[RogueIce]

SIDNEY: "... alright, out with it: who put me in charge of the class of 2020 reunion?"

Immortality carries with it a price.

[Steve]

Yes, I actually post images in a story post. Shocking, yes?

[Simon_Jester]

God. Feelipeeni rioters armed with that most terrifying and uniquely Feelipeeni of weapons: Parade floats! Horribly ugly Shroomarcos-effigy parade floats!

I love how the unexplained robots are now turning into a Biblical cataclysm!

It's because they're so unexplained, really. With, say, Bragulans you know more or less what you're dealing with (Stalinist commie space bears). With, say, Umerians you know what you're dealing with.

No one knows what they're dealing with with Collectors.

EDIT:
Hey Simon, where's Maxim Chernov there, man? After all, he's totally the most prominent Umerian so far. And my favorite!

Chernov?

Well, he isn't involved in Geppetto's expedition to the Collectors; that's something Geppetto decided to do for himself as a private citizen. And aside from that I haven't been writing much that would involve him. Pressure of other issues and wacked-out sleep cycle, mostly.

Or did you mean Dr. Chernov's opinion on the Chamarrans?

[Shroom Man 777]

I mean in the Dramatis Personae.

[Simon_Jester]

I mean in the Dramatis Personae.

I'll get to him some time. He belongs there, but I've got more dramatis personae than I felt like writing up at the time.

[Simon_Jester]

Yaaay Mayabirdies!

Also, Geppetto's detailed explanation of what he wants and what assets he has to pay for it is up. PeZook and I could probably play tennis with this for quite some time, but scenes of endless haggling would probably be dull and I suspect that neither of us really knows what the information in question is worth to the characters in play. Whereas some exposition about the Collectors would be interesting! if PeZook wants to share it.

Basically, Geppetto is highly reluctant to give information to the Collectors that he sees as having major security implications until such time as he's confident that they won't be using it to kidnap everyone or trick them into letting Collectors steal their atmosphere or whatever. On the other hand, he's a lot more generous with historical analyses and "human interest story" type stuff that could in theory be deduced from publically available material, even if, in practice, very few minds in known space are good enough psychologists and sociologists to figure it out.

And, of course, he can simply buy certain items; if the Collectors want things like pictures of a city skyline, biographies of pop singers, star charts, or the like, he can just arrange to have them purchased outright even if he doesn't already have them.

[PeZook]

Well, detailed psychological data on a trillion humans would be quite worthwhile

I will have to figure out a proper response to the offer ("proper" being "odd and weird", of course )

[Simon_Jester]

Well, detailed psychological data on a trillion humans would be quite worthwhile

Absolutely, but not forthcoming unless Geppetto is confident of what it's worthwhile for.

Geppetto already decided not to take that data and use it to dominate the Technocracy via tailored propaganda broadcasts and suchlike. He's damned well not going to let anyone else do it. So unless the Collectors are way more... benign than their creepy-as-fuck facade would lead us to believe, they're only ever going to see the equivalent of those declassified documents you get where three quarters of the text is blacked out.

[PeZook]

Hmm...what if we seized your ship and mindfucked Gepetto so that he requested the data?

Just kidding

[Siege]

Hmm. If he travels back the way he came, which seems reasonable considering there's a crew on Kimanjano to pick up, I imagine CEID would like a few words with Gepetto before he departs for greener pastures on the other side of the galaxy again.

[PeZook]

I figured as much

[Simon_Jester]

Hmm...what if we seized your ship and mindfucked Gepetto so that he requested the data?

Just kidding

That contingency was considered well in advance, and it would be... I'm going to go with "extremely difficult" to get a puppeted Geppetto core to transmit the right requests to the primary cores in Umeria. There's a lot of content in the sidebands and the "what is this core thinking?" that you'd have to duplicate. Moreover, Geppetto-back-home is running a second core with an exact duplicate of all the hardware aboard Heffalump; if anything happens to the Heffalump core that doesn't happen to the one sitting in an office in Orbit City, he's gonna notice.

"You say you were told X, Y, and Z, but if you'd really been told X, Y, and Z, you would be doing A, B, and C differently..."

Geppetto in this case is the equivalent of an anthropologist going off into the jungle to meet with a tribe that, for all he knows, are cannibals. If he hadn't taken steps to limit the amount of damage that might result, he wouldn't be there at all.

Hmm. If he travels back the way he came, which seems reasonable considering there's a crew on Kimanjano to pick up, I imagine CEID would like a few words with Gepetto before he departs for greener pastures on the other side of the galaxy again.

Naturally, though professional ethics might prevent him from sharing certain pieces of information. In the event that they try to gain the information via hardware access, of course, Geppetto's reply is liable to be:

"Ah, how charming. I'll just start overwriting myself with copies of the UN* Declaration on Sentient Rights now..."

[poof, alas, poor AI core, we barely knew ye...]

*Author's note: that is NOT a threat of "or I'll run to the mods!" It's just the first 'international' document that might have rules regarding interrogation I could think of that sounded vaguely real-sounding.

[PeZook]

And it would be an awesome way of saying "FUCK YOU" if the CEID tried to seize Gepetto

Anyway, I was kidding on mindfucking him, since I figured he might've considered the contingency, what with Collector penchant for kidnapping people.

*scratches head*

Now that thing has my thoughts occupied

[Siege]

Naturally, though professional ethics might prevent him from sharing certain pieces of information. In the event that they try to gain the information via hardware access, of course, Geppetto's reply is liable to be:

"Ah, how charming. I'll just start overwriting myself with copies of the UN* Declaration on Sentient Rights now..."

Given the society CEID finds itself in, they'd know better than try and gain hardware access to a CI that can think circles around them at the speed of light. Well, unless they sic one of their own expert CIs on him, but the situation isn't anywhere near grave enough for the Directorate to resort to such vulgar measures.

[Simon_Jester]

Given the society CEID finds itself in, they'd know better than try and gain hardware access to a CI that can think circles around them at the speed of light. Well, unless they sic one of their own expert CIs on him, but the situation isn't anywhere near grave enough for the Directorate to resort to such vulgar measures.

As I thought.

[CmdrWilkens]

I had a few posts that I was about ready to get up playing out my little mini arc and where it was headed towards getting my folks involved in the galaxy at large...then I went and broke two fingers in my right hand so they will be delayed indefinitely as I'm not posting them via hunt and peck with my right index finger only .

[Ryan Thunder]

I had a few posts that I was about ready to get up playing out my little mini arc and where it was headed towards getting my folks involved in the galaxy at large...then I went and broke two fingers in my right hand so they will be delayed indefinitely as I'm not posting them via hunt and peck with my right index finger only .

Well, there goes my plan to frame you for piracy on my borders.

EDIT: How insensitive of me...

Get well soon. I hope they aren't bothering you too much.

[Shroom Man 777]

Damn, that's terrible, Wilkens. I hope you get better soon!

[Shinn Langley Soryu]

...Damn it, I just cannot seem to get this particular ball rolling. Fucking writer's block striking at the absolute worst time. Expect the mediations to be delayed even further. My apologies.

[Darkevilme]

A mysterious alien race with unknown origins comes out of nowhere with a huge fleet and annexes several minor human territories. There's something vaguely familiar about this...

Also just to confirm this is all happening in the area east of the Karlacks correct?

[Steve]

A mysterious alien race with unknown origins comes out of nowhere with a huge fleet and annexes several minor human territories. There's something vaguely familiar about this...

Also just to confirm this is all happening in the area east of the Karlacks correct?

Northeast.

[Mayabird]

A mysterious alien race with unknown origins comes out of nowhere with a huge fleet and annexes several minor human territories. There's something vaguely familiar about this...

Also just to confirm this is all happening in the area east of the Karlacks correct?

Hey, I needed some excuse for why nobody knew about me until just now. Yeah, I've...totally been there for years, and nobody really noticed.


Anyway, there you have it. Formal announcement, the Refuge is in and willing to play. If you like, I can write up a first contact meeting for people, either short (arrive, diplomats step out) or something longer (but I'd like to work with the authors on that). If you don't want to, I'll assume that, so long as the nation in question wouldn't be obviously hostile to xenos or have some issue that would interfere (highly doubting the Imperium of Man would be interested and like hell am I sending anything to the Karlacks), the delegation shows up, some formalities happen, and it all turns out generally okay though with a bit of awkwardness but with little real effect on the plot because of distance or whatever.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Anyway, there you have it. Formal announcement, the Refuge is in and willing to play. If you like, I can write up a first contact meeting for people, either short (arrive, diplomats step out) or something longer (but I'd like to work with the authors on that). If you don't want to, I'll assume that, so long as the nation in question wouldn't be obviously hostile to xenos or have some issue that would interfere (highly doubting the Imperium of Man would be interested and like hell am I sending anything to the Karlacks), the delegation shows up, some formalities happen, and it all turns out generally okay though with a bit of awkwardness but with little real effect on the plot because of distance or whatever.

The Imperium's foreign policy goes as follows:

• If you are xenos, there might be possible backdoor dealings via the Inquisition.
• However, if you are downright hostile to us and if you are a xenos in particular, well, there will be a Crusade in due time, depending on whether the funds for such a Crusade can be mustered in due time.
• OR, you decide to irritate the Imperium and grant the Tau any kind of aid, well, you enter the persona non grata list, and we won't give a damn about you. Send us any diplomats, and we will simply either tell you to get lost, or shoot you and send your dismembered bodies taunting you to take action against us.