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Voting closed: April 07, 2013, 10:34:35 am

[GreatWyrmGold]

((There are a lot of things that could be described similarly, but I personally hold to the general "identity and identification" thing. For instance. I have a PC at work, which used to be my home PC. Over the years, stuff broke down and was changed out so much that the only things possibly still remaining of the original PC tower are some of the screws, wires, and cooling fans. It never ceased to be my PC. Look at it then and look at it now, and the difference will be apparent, but so long as it is still identified, collectively, as my PC, it remains that. If I were to buy a new PC tower and transfer some of those old screws, wires, and fans into it, the proportion of the old PC remaining in the new one would be the same, yet it would no longer be my PC, as the new PC is a new identity, and adding bits of the old one does not change it.

((That specific case is because the reason it is "your PC"--that it is a personal computer belonging to the individual who goes by Sean Mirrsen on Bay12--is not altered by those changes.))

Similarly with changes in age, time of day, temperature, etc. Look now, and look later, and unless the magnitude of change isn't significant enough, the identity will remain. There is a fuzzy barrier between definitions of "morning" and "day", for instance. If you keep checking the time of day by the second, at some point you will become certain that it's day, because it can't possibly still remain morning, yet the exact point will be determined by your criteria and your perception of the meaning of "morning" or "day". Same with an aging person, there is a threshold to cross until the new identity becomes sufficiently prevalent, but until then a person who's always been seeing a growing up man as a boy, will refer to him as a boy, and perhaps other people who haven't been growing accustomed to the changes will see a "man" rather than a "boy". It's entirely a question of identity and identification - and like I said, something of an ontological one. In your eyes, an object that does not significantly change between the times you observe it, tends to remain the same object.

((And yet, despite the lack of any definable point between morning and day, or between boy and man, the changes occur. Which is my point.))

Following this line of thought, it's pretty clear that the body or the DNA is not something that determines a "person", at least in the ER-verse. There is no bodily change more drastic than having everything but the brain replaced with robotics, or for instance what Xan did to himself, yet the characters still remained themselves after such things.

((No arguments here. I was arguing more against the logic [and some of its potential applications, like that absurd switch-every-organ-of-PersonA-and-PersonB scenario.] than the results. Although those were drastic changes, so they don't really fit into the argument anyways...))

[piecewise]

"That fall certainly could have gone better, though I have to say that it certainly could have gone worse as well!"

If I am not picked up or somehow fixed, evaluate and think about repairs I could do on myself with available limbs. Charge that brainpan!

((Lore and a lottery? Both are immensely appealing to me, I must say.))

These repairs are gonna be chewing gum and string level at best, but they might help. A bit. Maybe.

STEPHEN HAWKING decides its best to just invent apathy and start climbing.

((Pretty sure I would just get in the way on this one ))

((Is it just me, or did BFEL STEPHEN HAWKING's quantum monologue interjection create a quantum reality split and made him be in two different points simultaneously? Because he's both in the elevator shaft and applying for duct duty.))

((Why do you think he missed the jump? On that note))

Also assist Grate in duct duty back on the ship, because apparently I'm in two places at once.

Why are you in both places?! STOP DOING THAT.

Pick one. I don't care which.

((I was in both places because you mistakenly put me in two places. I love how quickly my quantum abilities are increasing just because of mistakes and/or lucky rolls.
I mean hell, if this keeps up he actually MIGHT become the memetic god he thinks he is. XD))

Elevator, climbing toward our next diplomatic incident

You start climbing the ladder up toward the 15th floor.

Go help grate.

((How about a secret santa?))

((Secret Santas aren't so great...))

(("A little box from Nyars for everyone" can easily turn into a "Horrible Death Day". Just sayin'.))

((Not if we limit it to sanity. Or if Steve makes sure to give us all things like sentient pet rocks or laser-like things instead of death rays and Altered dandruff.))

A free spin on the old Roulette Of Death wheel for everyone!  And death is replaced with Steve slapping you in the bum repeatedly, in the spirit of Christmas!

((The what?))

((There's a few more skills than there are Nyars-colors, but it's a guideline, along with armory categories. I think we're pretty clear with red being weaponry, blue being medical, and gold being weird alien stuff. Purple and green are a bit more debatable. It's the shapes and stripes that are least understood.))

((I'm pretty sure the shapes represented the screwery. Triangles were fairly tame, nonagons would be insane.))

Surroundings is a big dark room that's apparently been shot full of holes.

*whistles innocently*

I'll do the bits of info thing as well as this. When we get done with our current missions (Probably pretty fast?) Nyars will have a sack. In his sack will be presents, numbered 1 to 100 or so. The contents of these presents will be random, anything from a single token to a grand prize hidden in one of them. And everyone will get to chose 1 of them.

Whoo! I want #7!

Spoiler: On the first day of ERISTMAS paranoia gave to me (click to show/hide)

 
The armory master's height is 5'6
She wears green coveralls, as do everyone who works with weaponry on HMRC ships.
When she was brought to the HMRC, she didn't come here alone.
Weight wise, she's much lighter then she would appear. Lighter even then Grate.

Is this Grate pre- or post-Grate 3²?*

((Nyars maybe? I've got absolutely nothing about him.))

((He looks Nyarsey.))

(("power loader" Aliens references much? ))

((Because power loaders can never exist outside of Aliens?))

*What I'm calling the whole amp-pill incident. It was the third Grate, and he kinda got exponentially more powerful. Also, it ties it to China-9 and Ice-9.


Fix the vent things with my small flexibility!

You and the potentially dangerous child creature get ferried off down a hall and through the internal maze of the ship's structure before ending up in a strange sort of room. It's got a high ceiling and seems wide, but the entire room is taken up by two enormous metal boxes.

"These are the upper parts of a generator." The man leading you says, "The one on the right over there is running at far below maximum for some reason. We assume it's because there's damage or something blocking a moving part. We can't turn the thing off or the entire ship could lose power, so we need you to get in there and fix the problem while it's still on. Only way in is through an access port on the side, and it's too small for most people.

For now, I suggest you just try to get in and see if you can. If you can manage that, then we'll work from there."

((Since PW is gonna be gone for a bit, this is a bit out of character for Steve.  But RP.))

"Gah, hey!  Wait up!"

Hurry after the guy who was spat out just before me.

Steve tries to catch Marcius' attention, then looks directly into his eyes and speaks.

"I have no idea who you are, or where I am, but far as I can see we're in the same boat.  And this... environment seems dangerous, so we should stick together.  For safety.  Do you agree?"

((I think the ship's pretty much deserted in our area?  The only person we would have passed would be Nyars.  Next to the kiosk with blood and brains painted around inside.))

You follow newguyMcgoostains

Charles thanks Mesk via speech roll.

[6+1+1]
[Mesk will:4+1]
You use your mouth to thank mesk.

Neither of you ever spoke of it again.

(("power loader" Aliens references much? ))
"I remember the H-class suits the propensity of them to break down at the worst possible time has been fixed right?"
get in begin boot, check control surfaces and whatnot do not trap limbs in gaps

The suit itself is...confusing. The boots have pedals in them, which you could depress by tilting your foot forward. The arms are longer then yours, your hands only go as deep as the elbow, and there are tiny control panels and control sticks there.

"It's simple enough. Press the pedal to move the feet, control the arms and hands with the controls in there. It's manual so that if you die you won't fall over, potentially crushing things, dropping things or making things worse. The suit has computer controlled walking with the pedals controlling speed. On flat ground, there are wheels in the feet to roll it along. We'll let you practice a bit before going in, so climb in the top when you're ready."

(("power loader" Aliens references much? ))

((Because power loaders can never exist outside of Aliens?))

(That was almost a direct quote.  I'm pretty sure it was an Aliens reference.)

"Think nothing of it, citizen!"
Return Charles and go back for the other guy(s).

You fly your special friend back up to the rest of the group.

Right, armor duty for me then. Could you have someone show me to the control unit for the repair arm? I'd like to get familiar with it while I wait for the other volunteers.

Confirm volunteering for armor arm control duty, head off with indicated orange jumpsuit.

(( I think you missed me, not that you would have had anything for me to do, other than a description of whatever sort of device we're going to be using for this
Also, that's a much better idea than just 'give everyone a Nyras box'. Sounds like a plan! ))

Make sure piecewise notices Kriellya's reposted action.

Thats Kri for armor...I forget the other two people. Were there two other people?

((Well... I need to increase my reading and catch up, holy shit:P))

"Damn, seems I won't be using weapons any time soon. What in hades is this place, anyways?"

get bearings, proceed to rec room and sit, waiting for something to be explained

NOPE.

You are going with Kri to fix things and potentially get killed in an industrial accident. Please follow him.

In Medias Res, Mother fuckers.

((Merry X-mas everyone))

Go to Steve. Ask about what can Renen do.

Steve Shrugs.
>Why don't you go join the combat team.

((Back again, and merry holidays that might be celebrated in your countries this time of the year! 
Still catching up with the discussion and what's going on, but I'm always happy to cooperate with GM for the Fun of all.))

So, I'm not staying behind. And the peaceful life I longed for?.. Have I really forsaken it?
... "I'm not coming back", huh? Guess it is finally the time to check that thing out.
Suit up, move to the airlock and open the mysterious box I got from Nyars.

You get suited up and head to the airlock. Once there, you peel the tape of the box and open it up. Inside the box is a rough sack, it looks sort of like burlap. And there are things moving inside it.

((Now that we mentioned teleportation, are we ever going to get tinker permissions back? Or should I just tell my idea to Simus and hope she finds it good enough to research? Because I have a short range teleportation system and a gauss slingshot to develop. (Projects not related to each other).))

You'll get tinker back once you get time, though now I think it's gonna be more of a situation where you can send that design off to simus and she can choose to allow for prototyping or not.

((Combat Team Thread is Dead.
Thought piecewise was taking time off for Christmas.
Come in here...

First instinct:
"You Whore!"

Second instinct:
"OOH QUESTIONS!"


If I may ask, what happened to the Ship of Theseus?

If I get another two for <3's sake:
Scale of 1-10 of Raw Powah, Timmy was a 5: Where would Maurice, Doc and Ivan slot in?
What is the secret behind amps? (Probably a better question than AM's humanity, but we didn't really teamwork over that one, true to ER form))

Also for a little praise where it's deserved, I truly, truly enjoy that PW seems to use Minovsky Particles rather than Handwavium. Depth in a universe is like pure crack to me and I could eat up the tiny little hints he drops and still be begging and pleading for Any way to earn a little more o' that sweet, sweet exposition.
So Bravo, Sir.

hmmm thats a bit hard to say. Maurice isn't too powerful, he's just a dude, basically. Ivan is dangerous and robust but not more then timmy. And the Doc...well that depends if you count his capacity to create. Because as a fighter, he's dangerous, especially under certain circumstances, but as a creator he's even more so.

[Sean Mirrsen]

((That specific case is because the reason it is "your PC"--that it is a personal computer belonging to the individual who goes by Sean Mirrsen on Bay12--is not altered by those changes.))

((And yet, despite the lack of any definable point between morning and day, or between boy and man, the changes occur. Which is my point.))

Spoiler: Off-topic reply (click to show/hide)

((And rounding this up, my point is that the reason for the lack of definable point between gradations is the lack of identification for those gradations, or a number of diverse meanings for the words that make the identification. Such as a culture that has a hundred words for "snow" can tell the exact phase in the weather that transitions from a clumpy wet snow to a crystallized dry one, and yet everyone else will have to resort to exact measurements.

For instance, the "boy" and "man" are not the only phases. There's "teenager", "adolescent", "adult". There's also the relative, where a young adult will always be a "boy" to an older and wiser superior, or the metaphorical, where attaining "man" status is a question of acting like one rather than qualifying for physical age. For temperature, you have "warm" and "cool", or the ever-present "neutral". To have an exact definition of when something starts or stops being one thing or the other, it is necessary to be able to actually identify those phases in detail. For that, we've adopted exact measurements, so we know that a "morning", at least in Russian, is anywhere from 5 to 12 AM, a "day" is from then to 6 PM, and then it becomes "evening", and so on, regardless of the actual lighting conditions.

It's primarily a matter of having an exact definition. After all, it's pretty easy to say, to the second, when a boy definitely stops being a "five-year-old". Provided an exact record of time of birth exists, of course. ^_^))

((Woo, update!

I wonder, will the Hephaestus team get their own VR workshop? A real workshop is great and all, but you can't field-test things against a mass of Altered with it.))

[Toaster]

((Oopsie- never actually acted.))

Brother Lars waves to Charles and Mesk as they come back up.  "What took you so long?"

Fly down to collect the bits of Stacy and carry him back to ground level.  Fly up to the 15th floor with the rest.

[PyroDesu]

((Woo, update!

I wonder, will the Hephaestus team get their own VR workshop? A real workshop is great and all, but you can't field-test things against a mass of Altered with it.))

((I'm hoping we get access to a VR workshop. Even better if it could be linked up to shipboard networks on occasion, to allow for us to personally help tinkerers instead of sending designs back to them with notes.))

[Empiricist]

((Wait, doesn't Charles have a decomp? Or was it one of the 1/3 chance ones?))

[syvarris]

((Okaaaayyy...  PW: So, Marcius and I just get assigned to armor duty... without having any idea how we were told?  Or our chars even told why they should listen to whoever tells them?  Especially when one of us is liable to just punch the guy?

...

Kriellya?  Can we say you grab us from the halls, so that we have a RP target?  Or at least an in-character understanding of the situation?))

[Xantalos]

((Well, you have the orange suited people running around telling people what to do. They probably told you.))

[syvarris]

((Yeah, but there's still Marcius, who I'm pretty sure isn't going to be fine with being ordered around.  As for my char... actually, I think Steve would go with it, although he'd probably ask what is going on.

The problem is I don't have a situation to RP at, or that I can even understand.  I have to go do armorwork, but the best I can do for that is post an action saying "go do what I have to do" since I'm not even sure where that is, or what the job looks like.

Eh.  I guess it's my fault, for going with a char that was intended for heavy RP, rather than doing stuff right away :\.))

[Xantalos]

((Oh you'll get your RP in a bit, it's just that everyone seems it be repairing the Sword and such.))

[GreatWyrmGold]

I wonder, will the Hephaestus team get their own VR workshop? A real workshop is great and all, but you can't field-test things against a mass of Altered with it.))

((Yes, that is definitely the most important thing we can do.))

Eh.  I guess it's my fault, for going with a char that was intended for heavy RP, rather than doing stuff right away :\.))

((Bad timing.))


"Okay, mister!"

Go to the access port.

"I wonder why they made the access port so small. It's almost a perfect size for me..."

[Kriellya]

(( Hm... neither of you have any handiwork, and Syv has no strength... This could be interesting, if Steve is really going to gangpress you for armor duty ))

Right, let's see... Skylar spends a minute consulting is datapad, and begins to look a little frustrated at what he sees.
Are they really all I have left to work with, Steve?  Right, could be worse. I'll go get them.

Skylar heads out into the hallway and looks around until he sees a couple men chatting idly.

You two, Rolande and Saint? Come on, you're on armor repair duty. I suppose the worst you can do is muck up the seal, which we can redo until we get it right. Safer than having you muck around with one of the reactors, anyway.

Gather up those two (or any other volunteers), then find the appropriate orange jumpsuit and head out

[Harry Baldman]

"Alas, I must languish here at the bottom of the shaft, for I am woefully lacking in ape-like skills!"

Soliloquize to myself, attempt elementary repairs to restore at least some functionality.

[BFEL]

Charles thanks Mesk via speech roll.

[6+1+1]
[Mesk will:4+1]
You use your mouth to thank mesk.

Neither of you ever spoke of it again.

STEPHEN HAWKING continues climbing, and once he gets to a good stopping point, writes out a message to Charles and Mesk that simply says "STEPHEN HAWKING IS ASHAMED OF YOU!"

((Question for PW, does it bother you that STEPHEN HAWKING has full knowledge of everything going on OOC? Or are you ok with it/silently planning around it?))

[syvarris]

Steve holds his hand splayed in front of Marcius for a moment, and gives him a meaningful glance.  Then he turns to Skylar and smiles.  "Finally got a job for us, eh?  I was wondering when that'd happen.  What was that that damaged everything so bad, anyways?"

Follow Skylar.  Observe my surroundings, and look like I know what's going on.