Writing Prompts

[dragoongfa]

She knows that they can communicate via sanzai when they are close (a couple of steps), I think that it has been inferred that Tempo can do it too but she needs to be so close that they might as well touch. Proper sending from a distance, not so much.

[novius]

She knows that they can communicate via sanzai when they are close (a couple of steps), I think that it has been inferred that Tempo can do it too but she needs to be so close that they might as well touch. Proper sending from a distance, not so much.

As said, reason enough to seriously test out Alex's abilities and limitations. They made a start at with with how his Lotai acts around the Loroi he knows, but there was the little problem of a bucketload of shells bearing down on them to investigate further.

I think when there's the next lull in fighting, I'll drop in.

[Werra]

SpoilerShow

Tempo: "Beryl, we need to know whether your ability to send to Alex gets weaker over time. Sit here and don't move. Over the next 6 months Alex and I will now recreate the last time you received a sending from him."

Poor Beryl.

[dragoongfa]

Alright, I will be working on the next battle segment now. Should be up 'soon'.

[orion1836]

Lots of amazing stuff while I've been gone!

Catching up on some earlier thoughts regarding sources of conflict and tension, there was an idea I had for later on down the Nathaniel story line regarding how the Loroi react to the human concept of pair bonding.

On the one hand, they could just see it as a cultural curiosity, much like they would the strange habits of any other species, but on the other, well, imagine if there was a species that looked very much like us yet commonly practiced something that was a huge cultural taboo for humans.

From that perspective, some among the Loroi may view Alex and/or Nathan as potentially subversive and representative of dangerous ideas. I'd expect adult Loroi, especially those who have been around aliens, to better take it in stride, but perhaps the adolescents in Nathan's story would react more viscerally? Most with shock/revulsion, but perhaps some with strange allure? At the very least, it would be interesting to see how the news travels the Tempest and how it is received.

Another source of conflict would be a revelation to Alex regarding the disposition of the Bellarmine crew; perhaps some had been studied/autopsied, etc. Alternately, returning artifacts from the ship to him (maybe some personal effects of other crewmembers) would bring about a sense of melancholy, or perhaps it might be a source of interest/entertainment for him and the Loroi (someone's movie collection, perhaps).

Or, it just occurred to me, one could combine both concepts and have the one piece of media recovered be a sappy romantic comedy (thanks, Ellen), leaving poor Alex to explain the context.

[novius]

Lots of amazing stuff while I've been gone!

Catching up on some earlier thoughts regarding sources of conflict and tension, there was an idea I had for later on down the Nathaniel story line regarding how the Loroi react to the human concept of pair bonding.

On the one hand, they could just see it as a cultural curiosity, much like they would the strange habits of any other species, but on the other, well, imagine if there was a species that looked very much like us yet commonly practiced something that was a huge cultural taboo for humans.

From that perspective, some among the Loroi may view Alex and/or Nathan as potentially subversive and representative of dangerous ideas. I'd expect adult Loroi, especially those who have been around aliens, to better take it in stride, but perhaps the adolescents in Nathan's story would react more viscerally? Most with shock/revulsion, but perhaps some with strange allure? At the very least, it would be interesting to see how the news travels the Tempest and how it is received.

I'm already keeping that idea in mind. Especially with the Nathaniel storyline, since he now got a more direct line of communication to one of the Loroi where they can exchange more complex concepts they will now see how different they really are. The Loroi may take it with much more equilibrium - after all, they as a people do have some experiences with alien and alien cultures, the biggest issue would be that Nathanial is not an alien alien, but one that is that close to them so they'd instinctually start to measure him on a Loroi scale and apply Loroi scales and taboos on him. They already did, after all.

Somehow I pity that poor sap. He's in for some very rude wakeup calls.

Another source of conflict would be a revelation to Alex regarding the disposition of the Bellarmine crew; perhaps some had been studied/autopsied, etc.

I have that in mind as well. I'm pretty sure some of the bodies had been studied, even just checking if they bring dangerous pathogens on board would necessitate it. And, until Alex was picked up, they justifiably thought that this wreck was abandoned. My take on this that they kept at it while Alex was interrogated, and only when they established the line of communication with him they ceased any studies and interred the bodies. I could imagine it would have been Tempo advising/ordering it, much to the chagrin of the Listel and Doranzer involved.

Well, the idea might give Alex a quite odd feeling to have the tables turned on him after he himself brought up the UFO conspiracy theories. Surely he had seen one of these 'alien autopsy' videos, too.

Alternately, returning artifacts from the ship to him (maybe some personal effects of other crewmembers) would bring about a sense of melancholy, or perhaps it might be a source of interest/entertainment for him and the Loroi (someone's movie collection, perhaps).

Or, it just occurred to me, one could combine both concepts and have the one piece of media recovered be a sappy romantic comedy (thanks, Ellen), leaving poor Alex to explain the context.

Never found a good moment for Alex to broach the subject. Tempo admitted that salvage operations were in full swing when The Stray showed up, but I think they just kept whatever they found in the cargohold for now and didn't quite make headways into deciphering the alien electronics and computer cores.

Movies do make it look too easy: Simply hook up the laptop, upload a virus, and have the whole alien invasion go haywire. No can do. We, as a rather advanced civilization, do still have lots of problems deciphering the actual use of specific artifacts of our own past, the Antikythera mechanism being the most famous, but not the only example, and given that this is 'just' a frame with gears in it rather than complex electronics, I'm sure even a super-advanced civilization will have lots of problems deciphering today's devices, much less the data on it, especially if it's encrypted with modern encryption algorithms like AES or its 2160's successor.

And even if the files are present in cleartext - simple documents may be discernible, with a collection of eight bits translating to one letter (not always though, think UTF-8), but audio and video pieces are highly compressed and encoded. On a first glance they do look like random noise, only a few markers in the header show that the rest of the data is to be interpreted as a video, but even then it takes lots of complex operations to turn the pile of disoriented bits into visible results. Get the process wrong, and you have just another pile of disoriented bits.

People thought long and hard on what to put on the plaques of the Voyager probes, to make things easy for aliens to understand, and the Bellarmine was designed to make contact with a live crew, so ease of use of the data it carried by aliens might have been a secondary consideration, maybe even since they are to enter a warzone, discouraged. As in, data is only to be released if the commanding crew/diplomats would give their go ahead.

So I'm pretty sure either will Alex ask about the salvaged items, maybe for his personal effects, or perhaps Beryl or Tempo try to broach the subject of of making them work again.

Hmmm. I could imagine that he himself had some videos on his personal device, and the Bellarmine carrying lots of media as samples of human culture.

Alex having a movie night with "Top Gun", on Talon's insistence after she got wind of it? Beryl digging into Ellen's stuff just out of curiosity - partly to learn what made Ellen attractive to Alex - and pulling up a sappy romance novel? Entirely possible.

[Brent7s]

I would also see Tempo wanting more Data on Humans a simple Encyclopedia would have much data on human culture and tech development, Plus just think of what Stillstorm would make of Alex if she could see the long history of Humans Fighting Humans.

I would also note that with the Loroi able to send the idea to another there would be a lot of uniformity in thought....case in point if I state you see a Dragon...how many different images would you all make up? With the Loroi it would be a shared Image...Thinking outside the box must be REALLY hard for them cause the root of seeing out side the box is based of Perspectives. The Loroi tend to have a uniform one.

[Siber]

SpoilerShow

My plan is to expand the range of plot hooks that can be used with Beryl. Because let's face it, if she isn't there to push buttons like Lieutenant Uhura or read out Wikipedia at Alex, I have a hard time writing her. That and I want to see the fur fly between at least some of these ladies.

My assorted thoughts on this topic! Mostly in the form of questions that could have interesting answers written to them.

• It's easy to assume Beryl is the prototypical Listel, that they're all peppy and curious and friendly, but I think that assumption should be resisted. Her GURPS sheet lists a number of properties that add up to someone that's a bit naive, and it's easy to imagine the living repositories of military history being a bit jaded, for instance.
• She's also listed as impulsive, which could probably get her into trouble without Alex being any part of things.
• I'm not sure if it's been said (or established in this fic, I lose track of some of the details) but I mildly doubt Beryl's the top ranked Listel in the strike group. Particularly with her being sent away with him. She's in the middle of the listel rank structure, and maybe that's as high as it goes in the group but even so at 14 it'd not be hard for an equal ranked but senior listel to exist. If she's not, how did she end up being assigned to Project Alex? Did she volunteer(she surely would, given the opportunity), was there competition, or was it just luck of the draw? Does anyone resent that?
• What would she be doing if Alex hadn't happened along, what would her trials and aspirations be then? Does she have friends outside the main cast who are worried about her or resentful that she's too distracted to help braid their hair lately or something?

[novius]

I would also see Tempo wanting more Data on Humans a simple Encyclopedia would have much data on human culture and tech development, Plus just think of what Stillstorm would make of Alex if she could see the long history of Humans Fighting Humans.

I would also note that with the Loroi able to send the idea to another there would be a lot of uniformity in thought....case in point if I state you see a Dragon...how many different images would you all make up? With the Loroi it would be a shared Image...Thinking outside the box must be REALLY hard for them cause the root of seeing out side the box is based of Perspectives. The Loroi tend to have a uniform one.

New part is up. And surprisingly it is Stillstorm who actually recognized the limitiations of her species for quite some time, which was the reason why she brought Alex into an advisory role on her command staff. To get a non-Loroi viewpoint and break out of their groupthink - mind you, this is quite a large step for a Loroi's mind to make.

And, Alex is right in the end. Someone is having a laugh at his expense - yours truly

[dragoongfa]

Nice spot you put Alex in although he does have a very legitimate out since it should be very close to the initial contact with the enemy. After that Alex will have to actually look for excuses to avoid being near Stillstorm (probably finding a certain Ragan for training).

In any case, working on the next part.

[novius]

Nice spot you put Alex in although he does have a very legitimate out since it should be very close to the initial contact with the enemy. After that Alex will have to actually look for excuses to avoid being near Stillstorm (probably finding a certain Ragan for training).

In any case, working on the next part.

Of course it would not be a matter of "right here, right now, on top of the computer console ", but rest assured that Stillstorm won't let this matter rest. She's nothing if not tenacious and stubborn.

[Werra]

Just had to post a small part. Hope I haven't screwed up things for dragoongfa too much now. That lazy git needs to write quicker then.

Stillstorm may come back to the matter of Alex Lotai in the future. Let's wait and see.

[novius]

Just had to post a small part. Hope I haven't screwed up things for dragoongfa too much now. That lazy git needs to write quicker then.

Stillstorm may come back to the matter of Alex Lotai in the future. Let's wait and see.

Hmmmh. Too bad. For now Alex might think he's off the hook for now. Stoicing his way through a chewing out is something he is most probably already used to. Perhaps even latrine duty, or to be more 2160's like, recycling system cleanup duty. I would have liked having Stillstorm's implications looming over his head. What Stillstorm may intend with him is one thing, what Alex thinks she intends with him could be a wholly different matter. Just in line that the nightmares one conjures up for himself are the worst ones.

Especially if one isn't sure if that would be a nightmare or not.

But, yes, Stillstorm might come back to it with one single question: "Who said I wasn't serious with what I stated?"

[dragoongfa]

Took a break from writing, I come back and Werra just went up and made the first part of what I had already written totally meaningless

Some adaptations are in order and this brought me an other idea.

[novius]

Took a break from writing, I come back and Werra just went up and made the first part of what I had already written totally meaningless

Some adaptations are in order and this brought me an other idea.

Keep the edited part in your snippets for now if you still have it. As said, who knows if Stillstorm isn't serious?

SpoilerShow

Alex: "Phew. I really thought for a moment she was dead set on pulling me into the bedsheets."

Tempo: "As long as I know her, she never joked about such important matters. Never. So for your own sake, you better expect a summons to her quarters in the forseeable future."

[Werra]

Sorry dragoongfa, I know I had said I was done, but this was too juicy to pass up on. If you want you can post your first part here. Seeing how you solved that situation would be very interesting.

@novius
Well, she flat out told Alex that yes, she has considered mating with him and that she expects him to consider it now too. The implications might well hound Alex for a while. Who knows, he might even come to respect and admire her. Especially once Stillstorm explains to him exactly what her reasoning was for keeping him with SG51. I don't think he knows yet, that Stillstorm is an opponent to this total war, no neutrality, genocide thing. I can even imagine him being the one who initiates the next attempt at courtship. Wouldn't that be something?

Imagine Tempos reaction if she hears of that.

[dragoongfa]

Don't worry Werra, as payback I will push the courtship angle to a different direction

[Werra]

Sigh, let me just quickly bookmark that pic that got posted.

[novius]

Don't worry Werra, as payback I will push the courtship angle to a different direction

I'm definitely curious how this turns out, rest assured.

[orion1836]

Beryl digging into Ellen's stuff just out of curiosity - partly to learn what made Ellen attractive to Alex - and pulling up a sappy romance novel? Entirely possible.

Minus the sappy romance novel, I put that very writing prompt into the beginning of this thread, though that was set much earlier in the timeline (while Alex was in his cell after witnessing the Naam battle), and before Beryl got a basic correlation of Trade and English letters. Now I think she could very well identify Ellen's personal effects if they survived and were labeled as such.

It would definitely be interesting to see her go through Ellen's (or even Alex's) things, especially now that she is on opposite shifts from him.

If someone does go the sappy romance novel route, it absolutely must be the old-school type with the Fabio covers. Bonus points if it leads to her acting completely out of character for a while just because she believes what she reads is true and that's how humans act.