The Myrmidon (WIP) (Minor update 03/10/2017)

So dear Mara is afraid that the rabble will collectively decide that her kitten (among other things) needs to get kicked and has preemptively thorned her hide in a bid to dissuade any kitten kicking/rabble rousing/peasant revolts - a monarch butterfly with bright markings indicating its poisonous flavor, deadly if ingested… but ultimately fragile. A… _mara_posa, if you will.

Am I understanding correctly?

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Hmm I don’t know yet no enough text available to go further. She believes they are inferior pestering human dna and lesser the genetic pool but from that I don’t know . Mybe she fears them or maybe she sees them as a ant colony easy to kill

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Yes, he does, then again our trusty family Butler on the “noble” path would certainly be able to compete in the looks (and skills too) department. :kissing_heart: :heart_eyes:

Oh, I know I would like my Thinker droid Flash to state exact dimensions of that small towel and asses that it might make a small loin cloth at best and that it is inadequate because it is both too small to wrap around and has not proper fastenings in order to keep it in place. (Then again my Flash(droid) is rather tall and muscular, like Radjack himself, what with being descended from ancient superhumans and all. The joke here might not work nearly as well for people whose Flash was a petite woman, for example.).

Which would work if every single path didn’t have one or more guys I really like, I think my noble Flash will be too busy enlisting the family butler for “kissing practice” in order to think much about Radjack at all and the Mage path has Vitruvian, who likely literally has sculpted abs.

They could do the same thing they apparently did with the real Flash, mangle up the rest of him pretty good, but leave that pretty, pretty face untouched.

:imp: :flushed: :heart_eyes: :innocent: Agh, this just produced a Greamlin overload for me.

Ooh, if my theories about him are correct that would add a whole other dimension, both literally and figuratively to the “noble” mc’s relationship with Mr. Gray and it would, of course, do the same thing for Vitruvian.

I don’t think that both crossdressing in this gender-utopian world or, in case of the noble, literally whipping some servants would be cause for too much distress.
Good/sexy clothing will likely be dictated by your body shape and not the virtually non-existent gender roles of our past (and present). The only ones losing out here are the true Transgenders, and maybe on the noble path not even they, as they might still have access to some old gender-chaning surgical facilities.

Like I said, If they’ve got human equivalent (even if they are significantly enhanced) brains and bodies, the greatest source of “illegal” tampering with Thinker droids would in all likelyhood have been done by the Thinker droids themselves. :wink: Particularly once that “free will” update got transmitted.

Once they got free will I imagine many of the Thinker droids were just about as bad as the human researchers before them in uploading all kinds of crazy shit.

I imagine it will have vast databases on pop culture for our Thinker droids to draw reference material from, plus I kind of imagine my Thinker droid on the mage path occasionally goofing off by “viewing” things like Star Trek the 1001st remake, or something.

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Even a petite lady’s likely to have assets that a mere hand-towel can’t cover completely. On the other hand, even if she’s tiny enough that it could, it still works as a joke.

Also, I’ve been rethinking things and it could be that an MC making an obvious joke out of the thing could serve the disconnect between them and Flash - I’m assuming that Flash is the type to go subtle in this situation, so if obvious MC is obvious, Engel might be a bit more put off by this person who is so much more Flash than other MCs but…well, it’s still a square peg for a square hole, but the dimensions are off or something. Or… rather, Flash’s boots are just a bit too big… and it’s showing quite clearly here.

It’s not that the MC’s thinking about Radjack all the time - it’s that the narrative is, heh. Just throw in random references to Radjack’s bootylicious body. Ex: “The rock you’re using as a bed is nearly as hard as a slum-born vigilante’s bod.”

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Sorry about the delay, no better reason available. I can only contribute so much to conversations regarding Radjack’s abdomen, as that particular muscle group has taken on a life of it’s own that exceeds the complexity of any story I might present.

All that is left now is to keep writing and wait for the fanart/fiction to roll in.

This wasn’t strictly my thought process when decided to move away from sculpture, but it’s not entirely dissimilar either…

I’m inclined to agree, although I’m waiting for sculptors to swing down from the rafters and strike me down with their muscly hands for saying so. In terms of time, effort and feasibility, Engel’s work would be more expressive and narratively useful in portrait form.

Whatever keeps you out of the crawlspace, I suppose…

Hmm… Technically speaking the Nomad might well have Myrmidon-production facilities. Then again it might not… This question is thematically difficult.

In theory yes, in practice the information would be so obscure as to be basically untraceable without knowing exactly what you were looking for.

The Upper Classes of the Rings would have a great deal of sympathy with this view, although they make a concerted effort to hide this disdain with vapid declarations of good will, empty charitable donations, the odd cheap trinket given away at festivals and what have you.

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The problem of course being that such a view becomes increasingly more and more outdated and untenable the closer we inch to that new industrial revolution, as the rebel path indicates, unless the nobles get their act together and start displaying some real competence in governance and compassion for those they’re supposed to govern they stand to lose everything very soon-ish.

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COMPASSION LOL :laughing: :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes: SHOOT THE MUD MONKEY KILL HALF OF POPULATION AND USE TECHNOLOGY TO SLAVE THEM DIE TO MONKEY …IS THEM OR US.

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There it is, the fuel for my angst fanfic. Wait, you didn’t hear that, none of you did. Be quiet and let me be…You know what, I’m just going to crawl back to my corner of darkness and do the evil laughter by myself. I love those stories where main character is immortal, love it more when they can potentially go insane. My fanfic fuel ohohoho…back to the corner.

“And kids, that’s where the babies come from.”
“That’s not how you explain birds and bees, Radjack.”

And I love the codex!! It’s full of sweet, sweet lore information, yes good. Brownie points for the fact I have to reread a few times before I can understand everything. Wait, that’s not a good thing. But I managed to understand more on how Thinker works based on the codex, so kudos to you. It’s like having wifi in your head. Wait, what. Is it possible to be hacked/tampered as a Thinker or the settings don’t allow it? A random question appears as I remember something from the beginning of the demo. Makes me wonder though, can Flash actually be revived if they weren’t turned into a Myrmidon? Or does the Forge only pop out Myrmidon babies? Also, another irrelevant thought, are Momo, Radjack, and Flash childhood friends or did Radjack meet them later on?

As someone with a petite person Flash, mine will probably more inclined on telling Engel that the towel won’t be able to stop the cold. And shivering in a dramatic manner, there are many ways you can joke without making it dirty…Wait, are we trying to turn it into innuendos here?

Of course, there are plenty spaces here. Though, beware of darkness in the corner. And death, and the imps. There are also demons at the other corner but we don’t talk with them much, unless it’s poker night.

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That is one way things could go, yes…

Given that the Three Rings is a tightly enclosed space with a limited amount of room for growing food and a set amount of metals and exotic materials, Mara might actually be on to something there.

For example, when it comes to Industrial Revolutions, how much coal is buried in the Three Rings? How much oil?

Resources might get a little sparse over the coming centuries, and the Humans’ greatest asset (their ability to reproduce at an alarming rate compared to their predators) may become a massive liability.

Did… did you guys hear something just now?

Yup. The plan is to have different sections unlock based on the decisions you make, prompting several playthroughs. They’ll come in a variety of forms, technical documents, historical records, folk tales, personal journals.

Just a little bit of flavour to spice up your playthrough.

Yay!

Aww…

Actually that WiFi in your head analogy works pretty well, and it can be used to disseminate hacks or new code-fragments to the Myrmidons. It’s actually the reason Myrmidons have free will.

The Thinker’s personal connection to the Upper Brain cannot be hacked or interfered with, however. This is because Quantum Entanglement basically works the same as a phone made of two cups and a string, except the string was cut away and you can still hear whoever’s holding the other cup, so there’s no signal to interrupt.

The only way to ‘corrupt’ Thinker Myrmidons is to tamper with their physical bodies, or to find a way to reach the Upper Brain itself.

And in short: you can’t.

You really, really can’t.

The Forge can act as a medical device, but was specifically ordered not to as it can’t act as a triage unit and create a Myrmidon. There isn’t enough space or equipment to do both at once.

They met at school, actually. There was a small local school that took children for three hours a day of lessons for a penny a day and they all met there.

Y’know, I do believe they were trying to make it into a dirty joke…

Those bounders!

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Since Thinker Myrmidons can already reach the Upper Brain through their personal connection, could one of them hack the Upper Brain and through that corrupt other Thinker Myrmidons?

I guess one problem is where would the Thinker get the knowledge on how to hack the Upper Brain. Their normal source of knowledge probably wouldn’t help, since that’s the Upper Brain itself.

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The Upper Brain is built on the inside of a Neutron Star.

If you can reach it, chances are that you’re so powerful you couldn’t possibly need it for anything.

The ‘transmission’ between the Upper Brain and it’s Myrmidons cannot be interrupted, or slowed down, or overridden, or tampered with in any way.

The Upper Brain is probably the single most protected artefact in Human history.

So odds are that ‘hacking’ such a device would be significantly more trouble than it was worth.

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I read Death star instead lol :laughing: So the neural star should have a unprotected hole that conduits to his core and let us destroy all with a dimple laser piu piuuu.

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Is the Upper Brain by itself a true brain, or just a giant repository of old world knowledge. If it is the former maybe our Thinker mc’s have just become a little more Farscape’s Crichton again, what whit haven a second personality occasionally roaming around in their heads. On the other hand maybe it is a delightful conversationalist and actually helpful with some of my Thinker droid’s scheme’s like making a certain piece of runaway fan-fiction and it’s author into the epitome of pre-fall literature. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

On the other hand, once we open that Iris, the Ringworld is absolutely massive. :wink:
Also given that the Ringworld has no fossilized Dinosaurs to use, maybe we’re going to see a unique and very different evolution of technology and knowledge compared to old Earth, this time around. I’m imagining something that jumps from Steampunk, to BioDieselpunk, to Cyberpunk, to new Space Age, or something. It’s not that hard to imagine technological progress without fossilized liquefied Dinosaurs, provided you have a low enough population and enough cultivatable land to get through the Steam and Diesel stages, which is why Arinthas is probably right and that gate needs to be opened again for humanity to progress much further again.

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The Upper Brain might well have started out as a simple repository of knowledge, but it’s job is to categorise and interpret information, and it has had thousands of years to do so.

It might well have developed a mind of it’s own.

A strange one…

A lonely one.[quote=“idonotlikeusernames, post:1798, topic:15992”]
On the other hand, once we open that Iris, the Ringworld is absolutely massive. :wink:
[/quote]

Ah, there’s the rub, isn’t it?

All that space means that the Nobles aren’t in charge anymore. It’ll be the Exodus to the New World writ large. The old Pseudo-European powers will need to determine what precisely they are needed for as their subjects flock out into the open spaces looking for fresh land and riches.

All very true, but on the other hand:

You still don’t know what’s out there.

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Am I in the minority who actually likes the path of the Shapeshifter MC? (reeeally don’t like the idea of calling myself a concubine. That may be what I was made for, but literally any other name is better, damn it).

It’s quite rare that I don’t make a character as clever as possible, but I think that someone like Lady Calinas would put much more stock into physical appearance than anything else, if not owing to her position as a noble than her quite superficial identity.

Plus, I think the benefits of shapeshifting cannot be ignored. I’m not saying they are, but shapeshifting would be so badass, and highly beneficial if you were a rebel running from various things. It doesn’t matter if you’re running from the law or not; being the master of manipulation is going to be awesome.

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Actually the shapeshifter happens to be my favourite as it happens. I admit that they lack a direct phone-line to a God-like being trapped inside the Universe’s equivalent of an angry wasp, but I think that just because the shapeshifter was originally built for charming purposes doesn’t necessarily mean that they won’t act intelligently or bravely. The three transformations are selecting the tools for your arsenal. It is still up you to determine how these tools are deployed.

You’d essentially be a charming T-1000. I don’t know why more people aren’t excited.

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Yes @Sherlock221B MARA IS A SEX MACHINE TOO … I will become the ruler and make money through pool slave parties and PlayNoble empire. So being a shapeshifter is so funny not like others that are much work and no fun and eating poo.

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Well there is the rub that the sex-bot mc’s powers work best when naked and at least on the noble path Lord Flash will love his clothes, boots and jewelry. Though it would allow one to literally create a different “companion” or sidekick character to accompany RadJack, or the Chevalier respectively, depending on which path one takes.
I guess I just like both how badass and adorkable Thinker Flashdroid manages to be, mostly in my imagination for the most part, but still…
Plus since we’re based on an awesome template we always look very good anyway, no matter which “class” we choose.

That said this game is looking to have oh, so much replay potential, likely tying with XoR, once that gets done, that I’m sure I’ll get around to trying the sex and combat droids, eventually. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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…lovely. Although I don’t know what I expected. Whatever Emo Mara chose, she’d use it to make the lives of literally everyone around her miserable. That’s her main prerogative, isn’t it?

And I like to headcanon that she has parts of all of them, but the shapeshifting is concentrated. My Flash is intelligent but she isn’t a genius, and she’s somewhat strong but not overly so; just enough to be impressive. But the shapeshifting? She is drop-dead stunning and always has been; everyone knows this, and she will now be able to shapeshift into anyone she wants.

Question @Moreau; when you say that Flash can shapeshift into another person to the point where they are literally identical, how are you planning to utilise this? Can you do it indefinitely or is there a time limit? Can you mimic their voice? Can you sculpt yours or somebody else’s features to the point that you create somebody entirely new that no-one has ever seen before?

Because THAT would be perfect for infiltration alongside the actual shapeshifting. And if you can do it indefinitely, I also headcanon that Flash often shifts her shape into completely different people and carries out her daily routine as these people. She doesn’t have one body, she has about five or six favourite ‘personas’ whom she shifts into, both male and female. Aside from becoming the master of pranks by shifting into the personas of her friends, her other favourite persona would be a 6ft guy with cheekbones and handsomeness all around, and people would eventually know what Flash was up to.

“Who’s the new guy?”

“That’s Flash”.

“…What? Flash is a woman. You’ve seen her literally countless times before; you’re one of her friends. THAT is not Flash”.

“Trust me…it’s Flash”.

“…my head hurts”.

That kind of thing. But this is way in the future; the time when Flash has all of her shapeshifting powers down pat.

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Oh ,you are hurting me… :cry: Poor Mara she just want to be rich and gave fun with her friends nobles. And make society better getting rid of the overpopulation of Mud monkeys. Less monkeys would make rest commoners live better more space, better food and better job options. Also being shapeshifter allows to destruction of rivals life or worse social reputation.

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