Kozmos
Jew Detective
A mecha in steampunk? Blaaaargh! *vomits uncontrollably*
SteamNES
- Thread starter Lord_Iggy
- Start date
"Svasti, Ankit."
"Svasti, Rowan, I am so glad you could come. Please sit." Rowan sank into the pluch cushion of his friend's armchair with a little sigh. It had been a long walk across the city. Ankit was not the richest merchant in Nagara, but he was obviously not the poorest either. His home was well-furnished and quite comfortable. Rowan noticed a few imported trinkets from the west.
"How is business?" he asked. Ankit looked up from the tea he was pouring with his typical jovial smile.
"Not bad, not bad at all. Trade with the west has been booming recently. Especially trade with your home country. It seems a lot of mechanical minds are coming to bloom over there. I'm glad; there is a lot of demand for western machines here."
"Who are your regular customers?"
"Oh the rich and occasionally someone connected to the palace. Only the rich can afford most of the machines ad other goods that come out of the west. Which is just as well. It is good luck to develop relationships with those of higher castes than oneself. It is good karma."
"You know, I was passing through one of the poorer parts of town on my way here ad I couldn't help but notice how many poor people there are in the city. Doesn't the government try to do anything about them? They live such horrid lives after all, and I cannot but pity their lot."
Ankit set down his cup of tea and chuckled a bit, as though a child had just asked him a question like why the sky was blue. "Rowan, my friend, you are truly a westerner. You believe so much in government. But government cannot change the decrees of the universe. It is, as you yourself just said, the lot of untouchables and the poor to be what they are, just as it is my lot to be an unholy merchant and a priest's lot to be a priest. There is no good that can come of fighting the universe to change your place. That is the utmost arrogance and ignorance. Only by accepting your place in the universe can you begin the journey to freedom. It is a foolish king who defies what nature has set in place."
So these inventors of machines from the west--"
"Fools, but convenient and profitable fools."
"But surely the poor cannot be happy in their present condition. Wouldn't it be better if more of the people were educated and had work to do?"
"If they are miserable, it is their own fault. If one is born poor, it is because one had accumulated bad karma by doing evil. God dictates that they be poor then. It is not for the king to decide." He paused, and Rowan must have looked perturbed because Ankit tried to reassure him. "It is hard for a westerner to think this way, I know. We are a spiritual people who are close to the universe. Your people are not. Your people have mechanical minds. You do not understand how the universe works, only how to manipulate it."
Rowan chuckled sociably. He wanted very much to change the subject. Ankit must have sensed this because he also laughed and said, "But enough of all this! Too much serious conversation weighs down a good afternoon. Tell me how is your dog? Does the climate here bother him?"
"Oh Winston?" Rowan smiled with relief. "He has taken to it just fine. He simply can't lay out in the sun too long or the metal parts get too hot."
"Tell me can he... eh... how to say this delicately..."
Rowan laughed. "Yes he can." He began to explain the mechanics involved, and the gears in his mind kept turning.
"Svasti, Rowan, I am so glad you could come. Please sit." Rowan sank into the pluch cushion of his friend's armchair with a little sigh. It had been a long walk across the city. Ankit was not the richest merchant in Nagara, but he was obviously not the poorest either. His home was well-furnished and quite comfortable. Rowan noticed a few imported trinkets from the west.
"How is business?" he asked. Ankit looked up from the tea he was pouring with his typical jovial smile.
"Not bad, not bad at all. Trade with the west has been booming recently. Especially trade with your home country. It seems a lot of mechanical minds are coming to bloom over there. I'm glad; there is a lot of demand for western machines here."
"Who are your regular customers?"
"Oh the rich and occasionally someone connected to the palace. Only the rich can afford most of the machines ad other goods that come out of the west. Which is just as well. It is good luck to develop relationships with those of higher castes than oneself. It is good karma."
"You know, I was passing through one of the poorer parts of town on my way here ad I couldn't help but notice how many poor people there are in the city. Doesn't the government try to do anything about them? They live such horrid lives after all, and I cannot but pity their lot."
Ankit set down his cup of tea and chuckled a bit, as though a child had just asked him a question like why the sky was blue. "Rowan, my friend, you are truly a westerner. You believe so much in government. But government cannot change the decrees of the universe. It is, as you yourself just said, the lot of untouchables and the poor to be what they are, just as it is my lot to be an unholy merchant and a priest's lot to be a priest. There is no good that can come of fighting the universe to change your place. That is the utmost arrogance and ignorance. Only by accepting your place in the universe can you begin the journey to freedom. It is a foolish king who defies what nature has set in place."
So these inventors of machines from the west--"
"Fools, but convenient and profitable fools."
"But surely the poor cannot be happy in their present condition. Wouldn't it be better if more of the people were educated and had work to do?"
"If they are miserable, it is their own fault. If one is born poor, it is because one had accumulated bad karma by doing evil. God dictates that they be poor then. It is not for the king to decide." He paused, and Rowan must have looked perturbed because Ankit tried to reassure him. "It is hard for a westerner to think this way, I know. We are a spiritual people who are close to the universe. Your people are not. Your people have mechanical minds. You do not understand how the universe works, only how to manipulate it."
Rowan chuckled sociably. He wanted very much to change the subject. Ankit must have sensed this because he also laughed and said, "But enough of all this! Too much serious conversation weighs down a good afternoon. Tell me how is your dog? Does the climate here bother him?"
"Oh Winston?" Rowan smiled with relief. "He has taken to it just fine. He simply can't lay out in the sun too long or the metal parts get too hot."
"Tell me can he... eh... how to say this delicately..."
Rowan laughed. "Yes he can." He began to explain the mechanics involved, and the gears in his mind kept turning.
flyingchicken
Deity
- Joined
- Feb 3, 2007
- Messages
- 3,783
Is the world somewhat 15th century, more 18th-19th, or somewhere in-between?
EDIT: I suppose it's early 19th century, because "[t]he first locomotive to haul a train of wagons on rails was designed by Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick, and was demonstrated in 1804." (Wikipedia, 2008)
EDIT: I suppose it's early 19th century, because "[t]he first locomotive to haul a train of wagons on rails was designed by Cornish engineer Richard Trevithick, and was demonstrated in 1804." (Wikipedia, 2008)
Crezth
i knew you were a real man of the left
Now that several months have passed, I suppose it's time to update the situation with Ryan. This post to be edited with a story shortly.
e350tb
Stupendously Illogical Englishman
I think it 18th-19th.
It's varied. We're at the dawn of the industrial age, which happened at various times throughout earth's history. Train technology, and other steam-related things, have been appearing far earlier than they did in history, due to the influence of the Gifted.
Fuschia
A Little Odd
I keep meaning to ask this, so I will: what is the situation when it comes to firearms? Are rifles commonly available, or are muskets the most advanced there are at the moment?
TerrisH
Mischief?
rough sketched intercepted from a spy killed while crossing the Medland border. origin and destination is unknown.
Crezth
i knew you were a real man of the left
The earlier post was a lie. I decided to just make a new post. Anyway, not like it matters.... I wasn't able to read each and every story in between, mostly from lack of time (though I made das' story a special exception as they are really well-written), but the update did a nice job at summing things up. So, without further ado, number four:
The past few months were very eventful for Ryan Amedeus. Up until a chance meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Winston Brown, Amedeus had never seen in his life anything more than one-hundred pounds, about what it took to hook up Hephaestus. Amedeus had developed a special conservatism when it came to developing new machinery: he took special care to maximize what he could get from the tools he used, which explained why he could do so much with so little. The natural offset can be seen in how often Hephaestus broke down, although Amedeus was never disheartened.
But Winston Brown seemed all too ready to fund his pie-in-the-sky idea, thought up by a local nobody. Brown never explained what he was doing breaking into Amedeus' residence, but when he ponied up several thousand pounds as a starter investment, Ryan was elated. Even Simon managed to put away his apprehension long enough to appreciate the good fortune, though he never kept his eyes off of Brown for too long. After a few months passed, however, and with Brown never failing to provide money when it was needed, Simon finally came to trust the old conservative. Even though Simon himself was ultraliberal - even by Anglican standards - and told people about his crazy ideas for a worker's paradise, he was not an idiot. He understood what was necessary to survive in society, and having powerful friends was generally helpful.
And so it came to be that the three launched Ryan's new business: Amedeus Air. In the beginning the only asset the company had was a tiny model craft, really no more than a ballon with an aelopile attached, that was capable of spinning a fan to float about at a set altitude. Ryan lamented that in order for these crafts to be at all useful, Helium stations would have to exist at every landing site. It was, however, unable to be helped, and Ryan moved on with his Helium design.
Slowly the plans became more audacious, and major roadblocks entered the path of progress as Ryan encountered several design problems which led to catastrophic errors. As the frequency of such setbacks skyrocketed, Ryan originally attributed it to the price of progress (he had never been able to progress beyond a prototype before, Ryanbot being a prime example). Simon, however, was less optimistic and proposed that the issue was with the Helium design. Simon knew nothing of steam power and Ryan dismissed his claims.
Simon did, however, have a few ideas which Ryan considered longer than half a second. The first of which stuck with Ryan all the way: a Hydrogen-based design instead. The lightness of the gas would save Ryan a fortune on minimization, but at the same time Ryan feared the gas' explosive properties. But after progress was stalled for two weeks because Ryan didn't know which design to proceed with, Brown demanded that he make a decision. Ryan went with hydrogen after some pressure from Simon, and that made things a tad easier.
The next big idea was really a joint issue between the whole scheme of there being helium stations initially. With hydrogen the problem became exponential in order to carry the much greater weight which hydrogen's lightness allowed, so Ryan pondered the issue for a long while. Simon remarked what a shame it was that you couldn't just stuff all the extra hydrogen gas in and make up the difference with sheer force.
But that remark caused Ryan to release the next big prototype, which would probably be the last step before full functionality. He called it the Amedean, and it was a work of art. The Amedean was rather large, and Ryan kept it in a warehouse out back (which was afforded him from Brown's budget). It ran a dual-steam engine modeled after Hephaestus and two gigantic, rotatable propellers which enabled the Amedean unprecedented control over ascent and descent. Other features included a pressurized system to keep extra hydrogen in, controlled release valves, a reinforced hemp balloon, and it was in the plans for the release Amedean to include a passenger car. After a month of solid work, Ryan told Simon, without much fuss, that the Amedean prototype was ready for the test.
"What?" said Simon, "It's really ready now, is it?"
"Well, yes. I think so, anyway... I just finished doublechecking the gears and, yep, all the levers line up..." Ryan shrugged, "This is it. If the Amedean fails we'll be so far over budget that the entire project will have to be scrapped."
Simon blinked. The wave of total pessimism which passed over Ryan shocked him. Gingerly, Simon broached the subject.
"The whole project lies on this one machine? You've got to be daft."
"The last month's budget all went into the Amedean. Theoretically, it should work... but if it doesn't then this is a broken science."
Simon put down his cup of tea. "So the entire future of this business..."
"...lies in the hands of this test run," finished Ryan, "Yes, I've established that several times over."
Simon was still shocked. He took a deep breath, finally, and sighed.
"Right, then, when are we testing the bugger?"
"Well, I'm going to call down Winston and his associates to see the return on their investment. That way the business gets settled then and there."
"Would you stop with that, you're giving me the willies..."
"I just want to impress upon you the value of this demonstration."
"Well, it's impressed, damnit, now would you kindly stop it?"
Ryan sighed. "It is important is all I'm saying. I'm going to make a few more checks before Brown comes down this Friday, and then we're going to the hills to fly it."
The week passed quickly, too quickly, and Brown with his entourage arrived by train early that Friday. They were very eager to see what the spark Ryan Amedeus had cooked up for them, even despite several warnings by Ryan that everything may fail critically.
You likely understand, dear reader, that Ryan himself is immensely nervous and his continuous pessimistic observations are simply the act of panic. Naturally this can lead to several problems, the least of which self-sabotage.
Simon had looked over the schematics and, relying on what average knowledge he had, declared them to be "alright, at least by my standards." This did not reassure Ryan in the least, who became so frustrated that on three occasions he felt compelled to toss the entire concoction into the bowels of Hephaestus. Simon, ever the support beam, stopped him all three times and Ryan was considering a fourth time just when a knock came on the door.
Ryanbot sprang to alert. Ever since the bolt fiasco, Ryan made it one of his top priorities to fix the Ryanbot up so that it wouldn't shoot and kill so indiscriminately. The beautiful pulley system was replaced with a crude, light-sensitive oil behind a lens, with camera film screened over it. The result was a pressure-system which could alter the direction of the Ryanbot and give it a "boolean" term (so-to-speak) upon which it would fire. It relied on a change of scenery to fire, but was specially designed to ignore the color pink. For that reason, Ryan and Simon put hot-pink stripes over all of their belts. It only took a bit of pink for the lens not to respond, and so Ryan produced pink bracelets for Brown and his crew to wear.
Brown came in after Ryan opened the door, and Ryanbot calmed down. The pink bracelets shone on each one of their hands, and they were lead to the kitchen after a brief greeting.
I need not bore you with the details as I have done up to this point, but the group made their way half a mile north to the hills, which overlooked a massive plain. The hills were not large, but Ryan decided having even a bit of high ground would help.
The Amedean was wheeled out slowly on its gigantic wagon and Ryan shakily got into the pilot's seat. Before him were a vast array of pulleys and levers, as well as one small wheel which was in the middle of it all. He knew what each one did.
Simon saluted Ryan and Ryan did not salute back. Ryan was so terribly nervous that beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and yet he forged on. This machine was all created from the sweat of his brow, and he was determined that it should work.
He pulled the one lever which started the massive contraption. It had a red handle and it sat like a monolith above the rest. When pulled down, the steam engines would roar into action and the propellors would start puttering out a meager thrust before going full force.
The Amedean made it's way slowly forward, still riding the wagon. Just a bit of lift was required to make it free.
Ryan activated the pressure systems. More hydrogen was pressed into the balloon, and suddenly the ballast was jettisoned from the side.
Slowly but surely Ryan felt the Amedean leave the safety of the wagon. It took a few seconds to be sure, but once he was his heart pounded all the faster. He was now in the air.
Altitude began going up and Ryan pulled several levers in succession. Balance-checks, propellor adjustments, and pressure releases kept the Amedean going steadily.
Now for the Amedean to truly enter the realm of free flight, Ryan had to activate the one machine, the one aspect which distinguished the Amedean more than anything else from its predecessor. A large rudder needed to be released by the pull of a lever, or else the Amedean was doomed.
Ryan had only pull that lever to make the experiment a success.
And yet, he hesitated. He hesitated because he was sure it would fail. Just as sure as he was that it would succeed, he was sure it would fail. Yes, if he just forgot to pull the lever, then the Amedean would be a smashing failure. He would be correct. He could make it true.
But Simon's voice knocked him into the world of the living.
"Royan! Thraouw tha switch!"
Ryan snapped to and pulled the lever. The rudder was released and he quickly grabbed the wheel. He tried rotating it left. The Amedean moved left. He rotated it right. The Amedean moved right. He did several spirals in the air, ascending and descending, before finally coming home after a victory lap. The investors below were crying tears of joy and cheering heartily. Curious, over the roar of the engine he couldn't hear them.
The Amedean's landing was the most difficult part, but a good judgment of distance placed it in the wagon, which moved backwards and threatened to fall off of the hill. But the Amedean finally stopped accelerating and the investors, noticing that the wagon was about to roll down the opposite side of the hill, crowded up to the wagon to stop its progress. It halted and all was well.
Ryan left the Amedean to the praise and accolades of all the investors present, who lauded him like he were the savior. Yes, the Amedean showed great promise, and had every implication of perhaps revolutionizing the world. Yes, Ryan would be made a rich man. Yes, Ryan would have his name shown everywhere for the rest of his life. Yes, they said, yes, everything he wanted would come. They always said yes, and it seemed like, for that second anyway, all of Amedeus' dreams had come true.
And yet it was only the beginning.
The past few months were very eventful for Ryan Amedeus. Up until a chance meeting with Deputy Prime Minister Winston Brown, Amedeus had never seen in his life anything more than one-hundred pounds, about what it took to hook up Hephaestus. Amedeus had developed a special conservatism when it came to developing new machinery: he took special care to maximize what he could get from the tools he used, which explained why he could do so much with so little. The natural offset can be seen in how often Hephaestus broke down, although Amedeus was never disheartened.
But Winston Brown seemed all too ready to fund his pie-in-the-sky idea, thought up by a local nobody. Brown never explained what he was doing breaking into Amedeus' residence, but when he ponied up several thousand pounds as a starter investment, Ryan was elated. Even Simon managed to put away his apprehension long enough to appreciate the good fortune, though he never kept his eyes off of Brown for too long. After a few months passed, however, and with Brown never failing to provide money when it was needed, Simon finally came to trust the old conservative. Even though Simon himself was ultraliberal - even by Anglican standards - and told people about his crazy ideas for a worker's paradise, he was not an idiot. He understood what was necessary to survive in society, and having powerful friends was generally helpful.
And so it came to be that the three launched Ryan's new business: Amedeus Air. In the beginning the only asset the company had was a tiny model craft, really no more than a ballon with an aelopile attached, that was capable of spinning a fan to float about at a set altitude. Ryan lamented that in order for these crafts to be at all useful, Helium stations would have to exist at every landing site. It was, however, unable to be helped, and Ryan moved on with his Helium design.
Slowly the plans became more audacious, and major roadblocks entered the path of progress as Ryan encountered several design problems which led to catastrophic errors. As the frequency of such setbacks skyrocketed, Ryan originally attributed it to the price of progress (he had never been able to progress beyond a prototype before, Ryanbot being a prime example). Simon, however, was less optimistic and proposed that the issue was with the Helium design. Simon knew nothing of steam power and Ryan dismissed his claims.
Simon did, however, have a few ideas which Ryan considered longer than half a second. The first of which stuck with Ryan all the way: a Hydrogen-based design instead. The lightness of the gas would save Ryan a fortune on minimization, but at the same time Ryan feared the gas' explosive properties. But after progress was stalled for two weeks because Ryan didn't know which design to proceed with, Brown demanded that he make a decision. Ryan went with hydrogen after some pressure from Simon, and that made things a tad easier.
The next big idea was really a joint issue between the whole scheme of there being helium stations initially. With hydrogen the problem became exponential in order to carry the much greater weight which hydrogen's lightness allowed, so Ryan pondered the issue for a long while. Simon remarked what a shame it was that you couldn't just stuff all the extra hydrogen gas in and make up the difference with sheer force.
But that remark caused Ryan to release the next big prototype, which would probably be the last step before full functionality. He called it the Amedean, and it was a work of art. The Amedean was rather large, and Ryan kept it in a warehouse out back (which was afforded him from Brown's budget). It ran a dual-steam engine modeled after Hephaestus and two gigantic, rotatable propellers which enabled the Amedean unprecedented control over ascent and descent. Other features included a pressurized system to keep extra hydrogen in, controlled release valves, a reinforced hemp balloon, and it was in the plans for the release Amedean to include a passenger car. After a month of solid work, Ryan told Simon, without much fuss, that the Amedean prototype was ready for the test.
"What?" said Simon, "It's really ready now, is it?"
"Well, yes. I think so, anyway... I just finished doublechecking the gears and, yep, all the levers line up..." Ryan shrugged, "This is it. If the Amedean fails we'll be so far over budget that the entire project will have to be scrapped."
Simon blinked. The wave of total pessimism which passed over Ryan shocked him. Gingerly, Simon broached the subject.
"The whole project lies on this one machine? You've got to be daft."
"The last month's budget all went into the Amedean. Theoretically, it should work... but if it doesn't then this is a broken science."
Simon put down his cup of tea. "So the entire future of this business..."
"...lies in the hands of this test run," finished Ryan, "Yes, I've established that several times over."
Simon was still shocked. He took a deep breath, finally, and sighed.
"Right, then, when are we testing the bugger?"
"Well, I'm going to call down Winston and his associates to see the return on their investment. That way the business gets settled then and there."
"Would you stop with that, you're giving me the willies..."
"I just want to impress upon you the value of this demonstration."
"Well, it's impressed, damnit, now would you kindly stop it?"
Ryan sighed. "It is important is all I'm saying. I'm going to make a few more checks before Brown comes down this Friday, and then we're going to the hills to fly it."
The week passed quickly, too quickly, and Brown with his entourage arrived by train early that Friday. They were very eager to see what the spark Ryan Amedeus had cooked up for them, even despite several warnings by Ryan that everything may fail critically.
You likely understand, dear reader, that Ryan himself is immensely nervous and his continuous pessimistic observations are simply the act of panic. Naturally this can lead to several problems, the least of which self-sabotage.
Simon had looked over the schematics and, relying on what average knowledge he had, declared them to be "alright, at least by my standards." This did not reassure Ryan in the least, who became so frustrated that on three occasions he felt compelled to toss the entire concoction into the bowels of Hephaestus. Simon, ever the support beam, stopped him all three times and Ryan was considering a fourth time just when a knock came on the door.
Ryanbot sprang to alert. Ever since the bolt fiasco, Ryan made it one of his top priorities to fix the Ryanbot up so that it wouldn't shoot and kill so indiscriminately. The beautiful pulley system was replaced with a crude, light-sensitive oil behind a lens, with camera film screened over it. The result was a pressure-system which could alter the direction of the Ryanbot and give it a "boolean" term (so-to-speak) upon which it would fire. It relied on a change of scenery to fire, but was specially designed to ignore the color pink. For that reason, Ryan and Simon put hot-pink stripes over all of their belts. It only took a bit of pink for the lens not to respond, and so Ryan produced pink bracelets for Brown and his crew to wear.
Brown came in after Ryan opened the door, and Ryanbot calmed down. The pink bracelets shone on each one of their hands, and they were lead to the kitchen after a brief greeting.
I need not bore you with the details as I have done up to this point, but the group made their way half a mile north to the hills, which overlooked a massive plain. The hills were not large, but Ryan decided having even a bit of high ground would help.
The Amedean was wheeled out slowly on its gigantic wagon and Ryan shakily got into the pilot's seat. Before him were a vast array of pulleys and levers, as well as one small wheel which was in the middle of it all. He knew what each one did.
Simon saluted Ryan and Ryan did not salute back. Ryan was so terribly nervous that beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and yet he forged on. This machine was all created from the sweat of his brow, and he was determined that it should work.
He pulled the one lever which started the massive contraption. It had a red handle and it sat like a monolith above the rest. When pulled down, the steam engines would roar into action and the propellors would start puttering out a meager thrust before going full force.
The Amedean made it's way slowly forward, still riding the wagon. Just a bit of lift was required to make it free.
Ryan activated the pressure systems. More hydrogen was pressed into the balloon, and suddenly the ballast was jettisoned from the side.
Slowly but surely Ryan felt the Amedean leave the safety of the wagon. It took a few seconds to be sure, but once he was his heart pounded all the faster. He was now in the air.
Altitude began going up and Ryan pulled several levers in succession. Balance-checks, propellor adjustments, and pressure releases kept the Amedean going steadily.
Now for the Amedean to truly enter the realm of free flight, Ryan had to activate the one machine, the one aspect which distinguished the Amedean more than anything else from its predecessor. A large rudder needed to be released by the pull of a lever, or else the Amedean was doomed.
Ryan had only pull that lever to make the experiment a success.
And yet, he hesitated. He hesitated because he was sure it would fail. Just as sure as he was that it would succeed, he was sure it would fail. Yes, if he just forgot to pull the lever, then the Amedean would be a smashing failure. He would be correct. He could make it true.
But Simon's voice knocked him into the world of the living.
"Royan! Thraouw tha switch!"
Ryan snapped to and pulled the lever. The rudder was released and he quickly grabbed the wheel. He tried rotating it left. The Amedean moved left. He rotated it right. The Amedean moved right. He did several spirals in the air, ascending and descending, before finally coming home after a victory lap. The investors below were crying tears of joy and cheering heartily. Curious, over the roar of the engine he couldn't hear them.
The Amedean's landing was the most difficult part, but a good judgment of distance placed it in the wagon, which moved backwards and threatened to fall off of the hill. But the Amedean finally stopped accelerating and the investors, noticing that the wagon was about to roll down the opposite side of the hill, crowded up to the wagon to stop its progress. It halted and all was well.
Ryan left the Amedean to the praise and accolades of all the investors present, who lauded him like he were the savior. Yes, the Amedean showed great promise, and had every implication of perhaps revolutionizing the world. Yes, Ryan would be made a rich man. Yes, Ryan would have his name shown everywhere for the rest of his life. Yes, they said, yes, everything he wanted would come. They always said yes, and it seemed like, for that second anyway, all of Amedeus' dreams had come true.
And yet it was only the beginning.
das
Regeneration In Process
I assumed 18th, given political setup and such.
Thanks! Yours are pretty good too.
e350tb
Stupendously Illogical Englishman
"...so it runs on helium," Williams moaned, looking mournfully at the matches he purchased, "Not Hydrogen."
"No sir."
"Blow it up then."
"What?!?"
"Disguise yourself, take this briefcase, and detonate it when its in the air."
"But sir, we're talkinmg about human lives here..." the soldier argued.
"If the public thinks those deathtraps are safe we should teach them otherwise!"
Moarnfully, the soldier suluted and left.
Private Horrisson had snuck into the airship and now held the case. For a second he wondered what was inside, and opened it.
The explosives used on the mega gun where inside.
As= he detonated it, the soldier cringed, knowing that when he woke up, he'd be in a better place...
"No sir."
"Blow it up then."
"What?!?"
"Disguise yourself, take this briefcase, and detonate it when its in the air."
"But sir, we're talkinmg about human lives here..." the soldier argued.
"If the public thinks those deathtraps are safe we should teach them otherwise!"
Moarnfully, the soldier suluted and left.
Private Horrisson had snuck into the airship and now held the case. For a second he wondered what was inside, and opened it.
The explosives used on the mega gun where inside.
As= he detonated it, the soldier cringed, knowing that when he woke up, he'd be in a better place...
Raul lay in his bed, unsure of what to do. Earlier that day, he had seen his fellow Inquisitors get hit, shot, fall, or stabbed, but even if in minor places, they all had to be replaced. He looked down at his stomach, where there were 3 musket shots there, but he was still alive. He had to find out what was going on.
He walked to the Library, and saw the book he needed; Father Leonardos personal diary. He opened and began reading
January 1: Found small child at monastery, decided to use him for experiment
January 4: Operation successful, did not operate much on brain, left everything intact. Body interrogated with machine
January 9: Kidnap a village, try to duplicate success with Raul, all fail
January 18: Church finds out my experiments, calls them crimes against God
February 1: Arrive in Sitala
February 10: Huge discovery! Found out that if you remove front part of brain, it removes their free will! This makes the operation several times more successful! Was Raul just lucky then?
February: 23: Create nine new Inquisitors with new method, all successful
February 28: Met a man. Was heathen, but I felt a connection with him. I think he was an inventor like my self. Could he have the spark?
March 1: Attacked the man, he got away
March 18: Huge Discovery! If you remove the back of the brain, it will render the person useless
April 1: There seems to be a problem with my machines, save Raul. Even minor damages cause them to be rendered useless, but Raul took 3 critical hits, but is still alive and well.
April 5: Discovered that Front brain is important in keeping your body strong and healthy, as well as keeping you healthy.
April 28: Made new lab
August 4: After taking heavy losses, decided to make a new super robot, more durable and strong
Raul closed the book and went to bed, thinking everything, but saying nothing
He walked to the Library, and saw the book he needed; Father Leonardos personal diary. He opened and began reading
January 1: Found small child at monastery, decided to use him for experiment
January 4: Operation successful, did not operate much on brain, left everything intact. Body interrogated with machine
January 9: Kidnap a village, try to duplicate success with Raul, all fail
January 18: Church finds out my experiments, calls them crimes against God
February 1: Arrive in Sitala
February 10: Huge discovery! Found out that if you remove front part of brain, it removes their free will! This makes the operation several times more successful! Was Raul just lucky then?
February: 23: Create nine new Inquisitors with new method, all successful
February 28: Met a man. Was heathen, but I felt a connection with him. I think he was an inventor like my self. Could he have the spark?
March 1: Attacked the man, he got away
March 18: Huge Discovery! If you remove the back of the brain, it will render the person useless
April 1: There seems to be a problem with my machines, save Raul. Even minor damages cause them to be rendered useless, but Raul took 3 critical hits, but is still alive and well.
April 5: Discovered that Front brain is important in keeping your body strong and healthy, as well as keeping you healthy.
April 28: Made new lab
August 4: After taking heavy losses, decided to make a new super robot, more durable and strong
Raul closed the book and went to bed, thinking everything, but saying nothing
das
Regeneration In Process
Fuschia - for story purposes, it may be good to know what to expect (OOC, ofcourse) from that apprentice of yours, with regards to Jeremy's requirements and Rodia's (Rodion's? Got a last name? Patronym? 
) immediate activities and whatnot.
) immediate activities and whatnot.
dldnjstjr
The Shrubber
- Joined
- Aug 4, 2006
- Messages
- 1,681
Not My Fault
"So, do I get my job back?"
"I guess so."
"Cool."
"But instead of regular teaching job, how about a tenure?"
"Are you serious?"
"No, but if you say yes, I might be."
"In that case no, I'll be happy with current teaching job."
"A teaching job with Mg.D?"
"Hell, why not?"
"Actually, it wasn't just the Vestlund College that gave your job back. The Vestlund Secretary of the Navy, William Rolfe, petitioned to the Naval Research Council to give you tenure."
"So I think you'd have to be serious either way. Do I get a raise?"
"No, just a medal, and couple certificates. Other nations are mass producing war machines. We need all the money we can get."
"Should I start melting my trophies and medals?"
"Don't be silly."
--------------------------------------------------
Impatient scholars, thought Isaac Hayden, as he looked at his new office. No, not new, it was his previous office. Just cleaned out, since he left. Was sacked. He didn't mind them firing him, because after all, he had ample warning. But the aniotic physics was simply too hard to understand enough to put into practical application. I mean, he'd only proposed it last year, and they wanted results in four months! He'd got his tenure because he finally did something with it, but if, only if they had waited some more. After the college fired him, he went to his parents' house, and spent his months researching in the attic. Of course, he invited his friend Johann Gestring to work out his proposed "thing". Neither of them were engineers so they didn't have ruckus going on in the house while they stayed. However, they were thinking and writing so much that Lord and Lady Hayden often checked on their son to see if he was still alive.
Months later, they wrote a dissertation to the Naval Research Institute: Aniotic Physics and Gestring Theory in Application to Naval Technology. The head of the NRI, Thomas Clemenson, was a good friend of his father, so he let a some random engineer in Propulsion Department to work on it without a question. It worked out for both of them. Clemenson didn't have to deal with that pesky engineer for couple months, and Isaac had gotten his theory submitted. Soon, several months later, a new type of propulsion for Vestlund Navy was finished. They named it very extravagantly: S3 Engine. Of course, no one knew how it worked, except Hayden and Gestring, but they saw it worked: no steam, no one to shove thousands of scoops of coals into the furnace, no sail, nothing on the surface of the ship, VNS-Grenadier, showed any sign of mechnanical engine below the deck.
"Here's how it works," explained Isaac one morning, in his Theoretical Physics class (before the class even started, tens of hands shot up, all asking the same question), "The Gestring's sphere contains the rapid movements of coas and aniotes while Samuel Tilden's laws of Thermodynamics did its work."
There were lots of puzzled looks on the undergrads' faces, while few grad students pretended to know something about it.
"We all know, or should know, what Tilden's Five Laws of Thermodynamics. One, the change in the internal energy of a closed thermodynamic system is equal to the sum of the amount of heat energy supplied to the system and the work done on the system. Two, the total entropy of any isolated thermodynamic system tends to increase over time, approaching a maximum value. Three, as a system equally approaches the absolute zero of temperature all processes virtually cease and the entropy of the system asymptotically approaches a minimum value; also stated as: 'the entropy of all systems and of all states of a system is zero at absolute zero' or equivalently 'it is impossible to reach the absolute zero of temperature by any finite number of processes'. Four, if two thermodynamic systems are separately in thermal equilibrium with a third, they are also in thermal equilibrium with each other. And five, the relative differential of energy output provided by another source of energy, if following the undefined solution of the mechanism, shows the observable difference in two joint systems' output as infinite."
They all knew it, but they were still confused.
One of the brave soul asked, "But what does that actually mean?"
"Now, Gestring's Sphere Theory suggests that there can exist a sphere, or any shape, for that matter, which can contain the energy output of a certain system, making it, in fact, a closed system. Everything in this universe is an open system, a subsystem of the universial system of mechanics. The only truly closed system is this universe. If it is not, then we still don't have to worry about it."
"Then, what the Gestring's Sphere, actually intends to do is to create a separate universe?"
"Yes."
"How is that possible?"
"As far as we know, it isn't."
Now they were even more confused.
"But Magist-"
"But, the Aniotic Propulsion System only works because of this flaw in Gestring's Sphere Theory. The energy of this seemingly closed system actually escapes. Obvious much? Yes."
"Then how does it provided infinite energy?"
"It doesn't. Remember the fifth law of thermodynamics?"
"But there is no fifth law."
"I know. I'll talk to Tilden about it tonight. The aniotes have negative charges while the coas have the positive, due to the characteristics of phrons, relatively speaking. So in effect, aniotes are repelled by, or they repel the coas in the given system. What Gestring and I have done in the last several months was to come up with a faulty system that can enclose that particular given. What it was is that by combining two coils of copper to create an aniotic solenoid which loops the constant output of the magnetic charges called S3 Engine: Super Solenoid System, where one solenoid is part of the other, making an infinite loop. And according to the fifth law, or which will be, the system cannot completely enclose the system, the energy output seems to be infinite. Finally, that system was constructed by Jacob Norst of Naval Research Institute and installed on board of VNS-Grenadier, the first gunship of its kind."
"You said 'seemingly' infinite. Then when does the solenoid's energy providing core run out?"
"Oh, I don't know. But Gestring says in about twenty years."
"So VNS-Grenadier can sail for twenty years without refuelling?"
"In effect, yes. But who knows, maybe its ten years. But they'll take care of that. If Grenadier gets stranded out in sea for miscalculation, then it's not my fault."
"What if the engine blows up?"
"I don't think there will be any huge explosion, since the energy within the system is almost constant."
"So, do I get my job back?"
"I guess so."
"Cool."
"But instead of regular teaching job, how about a tenure?"
"Are you serious?"
"No, but if you say yes, I might be."
"In that case no, I'll be happy with current teaching job."
"A teaching job with Mg.D?"
"Hell, why not?"
"Actually, it wasn't just the Vestlund College that gave your job back. The Vestlund Secretary of the Navy, William Rolfe, petitioned to the Naval Research Council to give you tenure."
"So I think you'd have to be serious either way. Do I get a raise?"
"No, just a medal, and couple certificates. Other nations are mass producing war machines. We need all the money we can get."
"Should I start melting my trophies and medals?"
"Don't be silly."
--------------------------------------------------
Impatient scholars, thought Isaac Hayden, as he looked at his new office. No, not new, it was his previous office. Just cleaned out, since he left. Was sacked. He didn't mind them firing him, because after all, he had ample warning. But the aniotic physics was simply too hard to understand enough to put into practical application. I mean, he'd only proposed it last year, and they wanted results in four months! He'd got his tenure because he finally did something with it, but if, only if they had waited some more. After the college fired him, he went to his parents' house, and spent his months researching in the attic. Of course, he invited his friend Johann Gestring to work out his proposed "thing". Neither of them were engineers so they didn't have ruckus going on in the house while they stayed. However, they were thinking and writing so much that Lord and Lady Hayden often checked on their son to see if he was still alive.
Months later, they wrote a dissertation to the Naval Research Institute: Aniotic Physics and Gestring Theory in Application to Naval Technology. The head of the NRI, Thomas Clemenson, was a good friend of his father, so he let a some random engineer in Propulsion Department to work on it without a question. It worked out for both of them. Clemenson didn't have to deal with that pesky engineer for couple months, and Isaac had gotten his theory submitted. Soon, several months later, a new type of propulsion for Vestlund Navy was finished. They named it very extravagantly: S3 Engine. Of course, no one knew how it worked, except Hayden and Gestring, but they saw it worked: no steam, no one to shove thousands of scoops of coals into the furnace, no sail, nothing on the surface of the ship, VNS-Grenadier, showed any sign of mechnanical engine below the deck.
"Here's how it works," explained Isaac one morning, in his Theoretical Physics class (before the class even started, tens of hands shot up, all asking the same question), "The Gestring's sphere contains the rapid movements of coas and aniotes while Samuel Tilden's laws of Thermodynamics did its work."
There were lots of puzzled looks on the undergrads' faces, while few grad students pretended to know something about it.
"We all know, or should know, what Tilden's Five Laws of Thermodynamics. One, the change in the internal energy of a closed thermodynamic system is equal to the sum of the amount of heat energy supplied to the system and the work done on the system. Two, the total entropy of any isolated thermodynamic system tends to increase over time, approaching a maximum value. Three, as a system equally approaches the absolute zero of temperature all processes virtually cease and the entropy of the system asymptotically approaches a minimum value; also stated as: 'the entropy of all systems and of all states of a system is zero at absolute zero' or equivalently 'it is impossible to reach the absolute zero of temperature by any finite number of processes'. Four, if two thermodynamic systems are separately in thermal equilibrium with a third, they are also in thermal equilibrium with each other. And five, the relative differential of energy output provided by another source of energy, if following the undefined solution of the mechanism, shows the observable difference in two joint systems' output as infinite."
They all knew it, but they were still confused.
One of the brave soul asked, "But what does that actually mean?"
"Now, Gestring's Sphere Theory suggests that there can exist a sphere, or any shape, for that matter, which can contain the energy output of a certain system, making it, in fact, a closed system. Everything in this universe is an open system, a subsystem of the universial system of mechanics. The only truly closed system is this universe. If it is not, then we still don't have to worry about it."
"Then, what the Gestring's Sphere, actually intends to do is to create a separate universe?"
"Yes."
"How is that possible?"
"As far as we know, it isn't."
Now they were even more confused.
"But Magist-"
"But, the Aniotic Propulsion System only works because of this flaw in Gestring's Sphere Theory. The energy of this seemingly closed system actually escapes. Obvious much? Yes."
"Then how does it provided infinite energy?"
"It doesn't. Remember the fifth law of thermodynamics?"
"But there is no fifth law."
"I know. I'll talk to Tilden about it tonight. The aniotes have negative charges while the coas have the positive, due to the characteristics of phrons, relatively speaking. So in effect, aniotes are repelled by, or they repel the coas in the given system. What Gestring and I have done in the last several months was to come up with a faulty system that can enclose that particular given. What it was is that by combining two coils of copper to create an aniotic solenoid which loops the constant output of the magnetic charges called S3 Engine: Super Solenoid System, where one solenoid is part of the other, making an infinite loop. And according to the fifth law, or which will be, the system cannot completely enclose the system, the energy output seems to be infinite. Finally, that system was constructed by Jacob Norst of Naval Research Institute and installed on board of VNS-Grenadier, the first gunship of its kind."
"You said 'seemingly' infinite. Then when does the solenoid's energy providing core run out?"
"Oh, I don't know. But Gestring says in about twenty years."
"So VNS-Grenadier can sail for twenty years without refuelling?"
"In effect, yes. But who knows, maybe its ten years. But they'll take care of that. If Grenadier gets stranded out in sea for miscalculation, then it's not my fault."
"What if the engine blows up?"
"I don't think there will be any huge explosion, since the energy within the system is almost constant."
Symphony D.
Deity
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