[Writing] Concepts and Notions of things Fantastic

[Jer-oh-me]

Hi there everyone.

Well, Jayrus's gigantic long thread inspired me to make one of my own. I've been working on this project off and on since my freshman year (First Year to non US residents) of high school. It's had a lot of different changes of direction over the years and has eventually ended up where I'm gonna try and outline here.

First of all the genre is Science Fiction, I don't really write anything else. And because it's Science Fiction it's of course set in a spacefaring age. First I should cover the primary top bits of Science Fiction artifacts relevant to this stuff. First, the ability to travel faster than light has been established, and prior to that was the ability to communicate faster than light. The means of communication is a function of the universe I will refer to as Slipspace, which normal space things can tunnel into, but is very dangerous to normal space things. Thus the development of shielding from the effects of slipspace is paramount to it's use as a conduit of extra-relativistic travel. Next artifact is that energy weapons such as extremely powerful lasers and plasma cannons exist and are fairly common, but are not especially convenient for carrying around on one's hip. Laser weapons get about as small as a shoulder rocket launcher, and plasma cannons get about as small as a Squad Assault Weapon. Projectile weapons however have advanced significantly, and for the most part use caseless ammunition. Tools are as varied and of varied usefulness as they are now, there just happen to be some that are useful in fixing the complicated stuff that otherwise couldn't be fixed, but these are generally based upon existing tools.

There are multiple interstellar governing bodies involved in my universe the one I'm going to show preference for, and also abuse the most, is the Sagitarean Republic of Planets, which has it's capital planet in the Sagitarean Star System on the planet Brick. Brick is an old colony world long established and is the first planet to ratify the constitution of the Sagitarean Republic. Another planet of note is Ozea in the Orsin system, named for a mythological hero similar to Thor the god of Thunder, Ozea is named for his hammer, like Mjolnir but that is where the similarities end. Orsin is said to have been a tragickly unlucky person constantly losing everything important to him in the many wars that enveloped his homeland. One day he took his blacksmith's hammerhead and attached it to a larger handle and went on a rampage savagely killing the soldiers of the army occupying his homeland. He took a significant roll in the routing of these occupying forces, there were two opposing forces fighting to occupy the small country. It is believed that he left no survivors of the encampments he attacked save innocent women and children displaced from their homes by the soldiers. This built Orsin's reputation as a hero. Ozea the planet is home to incredibly rich resources useful in the construction of starships, but not just on the planet, it is ringed by a huge asteroid belt of ore rich rocks. Ozea is so named for the warhammer of a legendary warrior hero because it is the home of Master's Men Fleet Yards, builders of the Sagitarean Navy's starships. MMFY's crowning achievements are the Monstrously huge and overwhelming Devastator class super-dreadnoughts and the undetectable, faster than bad news Infiltrator class stealth frigates.

However, MMFY is not the only manufacturer of large starships though they do have the military's primary contracts. There are many builders of small shuttle craft, freighters, luxury yachts, cruise ships, research vessels, etcetera etcetera. Well inevitably something crucial breaks on these ships at the worst possible time and that's where various traveling merchant engineering ships wandering the cosmos come in handy. The one I'll focus on of this type is called The Torque. It is a large ship that was built in space not intended for Atmospheric Entry, it has overly powerful engines for its size however as it has been modified to allow it to tow ships so crippled that it's crew of dedicated and highly skilled wrench slingers for hire can't handle on their own. Torque is shaped roughly like a road cone and similarly coloured, Orange with a Blue Flame paintjob eminating from the nose and making dramatic appearances along the various different appendages of the frigate class modified freighter. It is relatively inexpensive meaning it does not have an artificial gravity drive, as that would make it about twenty times as expensive, it instead has multiple centrifuge carousels.

My primary character is Jerome Gauhl, yes this is fairly similar to my online persona he existed before I stared role playing as him. Jerome is an engineer by profession, specifically he specializes in the very complex computer systems integration involved in Extra-Relativistic Travel Slipspace Motive Drive systems. Basically he does a job quite similar to Scotty, Laforge, Data, Kaylee, or Chief O'Brian did in their respective television shows. He is more qualified to manipulate the hardware involved, but he is also quite highly trained when it comes to the software and data crunching involved. Aside from what he's trained to know from his education and specialization his strengths as far as his job comes are his frenetic paced personality, small size, and nearly boundless reserves of energy. However he is not quite as good interfacing with the crews of other ships when they do things he considers stupid relegating them to his category of people known as DFOT, sometimes he's a little quick to take this opinion, and has frequently found himself running for his life from an angry ship's owner. Despite his hot headedness he is otherwise quite personable and will talk on end for hours to anyone about anything, this has also gotten him in trouble for a wide range of reasons not the least of which was annoying the person he is in conversation with by never "[letting] the conversation die." He has an affinity for geek 'haha you're an idiot' style humour frequently evidenced by his wearing a t-shirt that may as well be Greek to anyone who doesn't know Computers, Engineering, Math, Science, or the Latest Geeky Action Sitcom. He has three different service coverall jumpsuits, all blue with cargo pockets on the hip and over the breast. Otherwise he wears khakis frequently of a short variety for comfort and ease of movement on the ship he calls home, The Torque. He has some old and worn comfortable work combat boots (The titanium toed kind) and some canvas checkered slip-on sneakers for off duty, and is barefoot when he's in his cabin. If anyone sees this guy as a Marty Stu, please point out the flawed lack of flaws! I tried to use my own flaws.

Jer has unlimited access to a small shuttle craft known as Flimsy Flyer I based this off the SpaceshipOne design, Harrier Jumpjet design, and the experimental and ultimately canceled nuclear fission powered ion rocket engines developed by NASA. It's painted to match Torque's paint scheme. It uses the same bug eye port hole spread pattern as on SpaceshipOne, it has a cabin capacity roughly twice the historic spacecraft's. It is capable of escape velocity from high jet cruising altitude on a planet with a Fg of 40N/kg and uses the same feathered wing design to limit entry heat build up. It uses anything as propellent for it's ion engine powered by a small fission reactor in the back, which dumps all it's energy into the engine. It is equipped with radar, lydar, and various other navigation and safety equipment typically found in spacecraft of this variety.

Anyway, that's enough for now.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

...since my freshman year (First Year to non US residents) of high school.

The issue with non-US residents is that "high school" means different things to different groups. For example, in New Zealand, where I grew up, the three educational artifices were usually known as "primary school", for 5-10, an optional "intermediate" couple of years for 11 and 12 year olds, assuming that their primary school didn't cover that, as often they do. Then there's "secondary school", or "college" for 13-17 year olds, and university for those finishing touches. Or possibly a polytechnic for those who aren't really so bright and need help counting to twenty with their shoes on...

I'm being precise here in units which are universal, rather than those subject to change. I know Australia is much like NZ, but slightly different in certain ways. The UK is very very different, not least because they start at 3.5 years, mostly, with a pre-school - and you have to get into the pre-school to get into the right prep school, and you have to get into the right prep school to get into the right college, and you have to be in the right college to get into the right university... so which university you get to go to depends on which pre-school you were allowed to enter.

The UK has some screwed up ideas, really...

[Tapewolf]

The UK is very very different, not least because they start at 3.5 years, mostly, with a pre-school - and you have to get into the pre-school to get into the right prep school, and you have to get into the right prep school to get into the right college, and you have to be in the right college to get into the right university... so which university you get to go to depends on which pre-school you were allowed to enter.

That may be the case for the 'public' school system (which, in contrast to the name is pretty exclusive and only for the wealthy), but for common urchins like myself, it's nowhere near as rigid.
The system as I went through it was something like this:

Playschool (which I think lasted for two years but was so long ago I couldn't say)
Infants school (5-7)
Primary school (7-11)
Secondary school (11-16)
College/Further Education (16-18)
University/Higher Education

While it's true that which infants, primary and secondary school you went to has some bearing on which primary, secondary or college you went to, it wasn't cast-iron.  Assuming there was room, it was quite possible to switch... some people (like me), who were roughly central between adjacent catchment areas, were offered a choice of which secondary or college we went to.

Attendance is mandatory up to and including Secondary level... College is optional though strongly recommended if you're going on to university.

My father would have gone into public school had his parents not run the family firm into the ground (that they didn't spot he was chronically short-sighted didn't help him grades-wise either), so he only got as far as prep school before the money ran out.

There are exceptions of course... when my brother was very young, they wrote out the numbers 1-9 on the board or whatever, and while the other kids were learning to identify each digit, he chirped up with something like "One hundred and twenty three million, four hundred and fifty six thousand, seven hundred and eighty-nine!"

For that, the teachers wanted to send him to some advanced school, which would have taken him outside of the normal education system, regardless of the catchment area.  My parents didn't like the idea and it would probably have cost us too much anyway.


**EDIT**
Uh, I'll post a comment on the story scenario at some point...

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

It depends on where you are, Tape.

I'll admit, it's possible that we've been misled by someone explaining something to us, and not realising that they're colouring over some lines that we didn't realise we had, sort of thing. But my experience is that the only reason my son has been able to get into where he is is that he's about on par with your brother in terms of smarts. ;-]

... Although I think it runs in the family, as I remember being told about my youngest brother sitting in the back of the classroom reading a book (as he was wont to do) and being asked about the string of numbers written on the board, "which of these are divisible by two?" - in the usual attempt to teach odd and even numbers.
He responded "All of them."
"All of them? What about 5?"
"Yeah, two and a half."
"Ah... let's ask someone else."

After that, he had an agreement with the teacher. As long as he could answer any questions about the classwork, he was allowed to read books in class. ;-]

It seemed to work. Last I heard, he wasn't dux because he was interested in stretching himself, and hence chose classes for whether they were interesting or not, not because he was good at them. And he still managed to get a high enough mark that he was second...

But I digress.

[Tapewolf]

It depends on where you are, Tape.

I'll admit, it's possible that we've been misled by someone explaining something to us, and not realising that they're colouring over some lines that we didn't realise we had, sort of thing. But my experience is that the only reason my son has been able to get into where he is is that he's about on par with your brother in terms of smarts. ;-]

It's also possible it may have changed in the intervening decades.

[Corgatha Taldorthar]

Just wondering, why is so much emphasis placed on weaponry and military developments? (I mean, other than the cool, exploding starships and whatnot effects) What happened to sociological developments?

There are multiple interstellar bodies, but how wide of a range is human settlement? Are there extra-human species running around? Is faster than light travel completely instantateous, or is there  a delay to get from one place to the next? How long does it take to travel? How well organized are these political bodies? How widespread is interstellar trade? How expensive is a starship? Can say, a middle class family afford one to cruise around on a holiday? How long do people live? How advanced is medicine? How tight are family bonds? Social norms, what are they like? Is family an important bond? Is extramarital sex frowned upon? How much if so? What are the elegal apparatus like?  What sort of clothes are worn? How urban/rural are these settlements, and what is the average population for say an earthlike sized world in and advanced development? Is the technology available to radically terafform any world so that it's habitable by sapient life, or are habitable worlds few and far between?

etc etc etc. I could go on for hours, but the vein would be the same. Outside of the military/international politics sphere, what happens? What's this universe like?

[WhiteFox]

I was homeschooled.

(Well, okay, only for grade seven and eight, but it was the first thing that popped in my head.)

As for Jerome... He's not a Marty-Stu because Marty-Stus are universally loved, infallible, and have token faults. Jerome has numerous personality traits that would make him nigh intolerable, and no merits other then that he has a technical skill and he's personable. Even then, he's opinionated about his skills, and any personal contact with him seems to only emphasize his intolerability. So even his merits are faults.

I don't think he's a bad character in concept, but the flaws could use some moderation.

By the way: "lidar," not "lydar." Lidar uses light the way radar uses radio waves.

[llearch n'n'daCorna]

... although technically light _is_ radio waves, just at a different frequency.

But that's a whole, other complicated conversation that you probably don't want to get into...

[WhiteFox]

Just don't bring up gradar, and we should be fine.

[Jer-oh-me]

Just wondering, why is so much emphasis placed on weaponry and military developments? (I mean, other than the cool, exploding starships and whatnot effects) What happened to sociological developments?

There are multiple interstellar bodies, but how wide of a range is human settlement? Are there extra-human species running around? Is faster than light travel completely instantateous, or is there  a delay to get from one place to the next? How long does it take to travel? How well organized are these political bodies? How widespread is interstellar trade? How expensive is a starship? Can say, a middle class family afford one to cruise around on a holiday? How long do people live? How advanced is medicine? How tight are family bonds? Social norms, what are they like? Is family an important bond? Is extramarital sex frowned upon? How much if so? What are the elegal apparatus like?  What sort of clothes are worn? How urban/rural are these settlements, and what is the average population for say an earthlike sized world in and advanced development? Is the technology available to radically terafform any world so that it's habitable by sapient life, or are habitable worlds few and far between?

etc etc etc. I could go on for hours, but the vein would be the same. Outside of the military/international politics sphere, what happens? What's this universe like?

At the moment I'm stuck using my Wii to type this response. I'll write more tomorrow when I can access a proper computer. Needless to say I found these first questions really interesting. I'm even going to make some notes to make use of for my answers.

I was home schooled from age six to age ten. Then I attended a Mexican Catholic Grammar School for which my parents, mostly my father, paid. Then they divorced and I attended a Nondenominational Protestant Grammar School until I was fourteen years old. After that I attended the local state funded secondary school. Just to clarify the Catholic school was the only school I've attended outside the US border.

Fox NaBan: So you're saying your first impression of my character is the anti Stu? I'd not thought he was Dr House level jerk, for lack of a better term.

I toyed with the notion of referring to high school as secondary school. I'll use that term from this point forward when concerned with the subject just for the sake of clarity.

To clarify, Jerome likes people on the whole he just doesn't particularly like when someone is completely helpless or clueless when it comes to his line of work. Imagine internal tech support and you'll be thinking in the right direction attitude-wise. Frustration from when some piece of bureaucratic nonsense standing in the way of doing his job is his main pain. However, he is always open to sharing his knowledge & experience with anyone who shows an interest. He is always ready to make a new friend, but his enthusiasm for friendship has made some people uncomfortable with him, and reliably he becomes equally so and an adversarial relationship frequently results. Sometimes this goes very, very badly. He has a known sweet tooth, and will forgive anything for a month's supply of raspberry sherbet. Raspberry anything is the fastest way to show affection. His second favorite flavor is Chocolate. His favorite passtimes are reading, playing games of skill and ingenuity, and riding his bicycle. He also enjoys flying, but doesn't have much opportunity to fly solely for enjoyment. He likes to enjoy comedy, drama, edutainment, & sports with his shipmates. His musical tastes tend toward the technically complex, older than himself, & philosophically meaningful in message. Although the writing will leave this out leaving character appearance primarily us to the audience Jerome is a squirrel. He's small and lithe, fast talking and wildly silly when he doesn't have to be serious. He likes to show off, but somewhat contradictorily is very measured and cautious. He likes making people laugh and will work very hard for a joke, and on failure reports to self depreciating humor to get the laugh. He tries very hard to be confident, and will sometimes fake it to keep others from worrying. This character is for the most part a self caricature.

[WhiteFox]

Fox NaBan: So you're saying your first impression of my character is the anti Stu? I'd not thought he was Dr House level jerk, for lack of a better term.

The profile reads much better. He has a lot more depth now, and the details are more rounded out.

Although the writing will leave this out leaving character appearance primarily us to the audience....

Why would you do this? I mean, a characters looks are kind of a significant detail to omit. Leaving them out could easily make a situation confusing, especially his height and build. Size has a strong effect on social interaction and physical confrontations.

[Jer-oh-me]

Although the writing will leave this out leaving character appearance primarily us to the audience....

Why would you do this? I mean, a characters looks are kind of a significant detail to omit. Leaving them out could easily make a situation confusing, especially his height and build. Size has a strong effect on social interaction and physical confrontations.

Sorry, wasn't clear, I meant that the character's squirrelhood in my personal imaginings will be left out, none of the characters will be described in thorough enough detail to mark them as a specific species, though they'll be somewhat similar in behavior to what I imagine them as. I might also use adjectives that mark them as their private species.

Just wondering...
etc etc etc. I could go on for hours, but the vein would be the same. Outside of the military/international politics sphere, what happens? What's this universe like?

Alright, here's what I wrote in my notebook last night.

The emphasis is not so much placed on military application as that's what I cooked up first. The SR (Sagitarean Republic) is essentially all the colonies that were established by exiles, explorers, & expatriates. Most of them work in much the same fashion as Earth does in real life, though some communities are more dominant on one planet than they'd be on another. The capital planet is the most egalitarian, however, as it is where every region, community, & citizen has a voice. There are other interplanetary governments in my canon, but I'll save them for later.

Let's just say there are more planets represented in the SR than there are nations, states, provinces, and commonwealths on the face of the Earth (The capital is very busy!!!) However, government is fairly compartmentalized. AS to species I leave that open to the reader interpretation. Extra Relativisti Travel time varies depending on how powerful your ship is, how smart your navigation computer is, and how far you're going. The political bodies are as well organized, or not, as their constituent participants. Interstellar travel is open to virtually anyone. An upper middle class family capable of affording an RV of tour bus size in real life would be comparable to a family capable of affording a ship roughly comparable in size to a small Learjet. People live between Fifty & One-hundred Forty years. Medicine is somewhat more advanced than contemporary Earth's state of the art health care. This is noticeable primarily in more efficient diagnostic equipment, & a wider range of disease that respond to treatment. Family importance depends on the individual. Legal systems are varied and differ from region to region in subtle & obvious fashions. The SR's constitution is the highest law of the land, and all rights detailed therein may not be legally revoked in any region's legal documents.

Some colonies are completely urbanized (such as the capital) and have populations in the billions (1,000,000,000+) while others are more rural and have significantly lower populations, usually in the millions (1,000,000+) though some younger colonies have very small populations. Most established colonies are in between the rurals and urbans. Terraforming is an expensive, time consuming process. Imagine the time it takes to build a brand new apartment complex, now imagine that on a global scale. Most new colonies are sponsored by older ones that are permanently established within the government, typically the smaller colonies will be expected to become independent from their sponsors depending on how long it takes for them to develop sufficiently.

If you imagine the goings on of the planet Earth, then multiply that activity by several orders of magnitude you'd end up with a relatively good idea.

[Jer-oh-me]

AMMENDMENT!!!

After giving it some thought I'm going to change a couple standard rules of my universe so that I don't feel twitchy about it anymore. Sagittaria is based in the Sagittarius constellation. There are two primary races involved, humans and squizzles. Jerome is the latter.

Squizzles are so named in English for the way they are remarkably similar to the squirrels that live on earth save a few things. First they are sapient, completely bipedal, and somewhat larger. Also Squizzles developed into omnivores in much the same way humans did. Their origin world is a lush forested place, so they are still fairly arboreal, but at one point in their evolution their planet suffered an extended drought, thanks to some quirks of geology and astronomy, thus they developed complete bipedalism. Squizzles are however much smaller than humans, in that in their equivalent of basketball where height is an advantage the freakishly tall ones are at most Five feet tall. On average they're in the four foot to four foot four range. They have big expressive faces for their size, their eyes being quite large and easily their most expressive feature.

Their culture is very accepting of humanity as they are on whole are very gregarious and curious. They have adopted the metric system, or rather they have merely aligned their set of native measurements to coincide with the base measurements of SI. They have a lower population than humanity as they have a much longer gestation period and shorter period of fertility in their female cycle.

Their languages are largely similar to human languages and they even have one that's easily translated to and from English, so predominantly these speak English also as the grammar is much the same.

They have their own word for their species but are perfectly comfortable with the word Squizzle when speaking in a human language. They like human food quite a lot, particularly pork as they have an animal similar to hogs and pigs, but it is much smaller.

Uhm, I can't think of anything else to add to that...

So now I'll go into some brand names!

Wellsy & Cuttner Drive Systems: Is just what it says on the tin. W & C build starship engines, they build the big powerful slipspace motivators and the less big but still mammoth impulse drives used for sublight locomotion. Jer will usually recommend W & C model 38, 12, & 67 when he's doing installation jobs. In his opinion these three models are the best. 38 is a Slip drive with seven classes from the class one meant to propel a yacht (Think those nice but expensive boats richer people own that are slightly on the big size but are about the size of a class A RV) to the class seven designed for heavy cruisers (Think QE2's spacefaring successor) The 12 is an impulse drive sized to frigates to super heavy cruisers using outboard nacelles mounted on pylons. The 67 is an inboard impulse system that is mounted with vector controls at it's inlet-outlet ports.

Drendryke Hulls: Again as on the tin. The Torque is a Drendryke hull. The halmark of Drendryke is affordable style, quality and performance. They also built Flimsy's hull it's retro form meant to resemble SpaceshipOne which is considered a spaceship classic.

Forlorn Dynamics: Is a ship's computer manufacturer, specializing in navigation computers capable of the most efficient routes possible to 0.0001% margin of error. They also make more rudimentary computers for personal use. Jer is particularly fond of their microlappy brand notebook computer, which is both built with a magnesium case for lightweight and sturdiness, has an extremely high resolution screen, fast processor, and excellent solid state memory it also has a plethora of ports for him to connect a wide range of instruments for him to perform diagnostics in the course of his job.

Control Prisms Instrument Company: Again that tin. They make instruments so you can tell what you're ship is doing. They also make excellent audio and transceiver equipment, including Jer's favorite headphones.

Qual, Xynd, Zach & Teller: QXZ & T has the most coolest logo in the universe and sells all kinds of basic needs stuff, clothing, shoes, tools, foodstuffs, beverages, toys you name it, they might make it. Jer owns seventy t-shirts they made, his coveralls are all by them. He likes their sneakers and boots also.

Negative Lines: A composite tools company. They also make the universe's best power screwdriver, according to Jer.

Resonating Paisley: They make really cool outer wear and hats. Jer's got a Trenchcoat, Bridge Coat, Fedora, Tophat, and Bowler from them.

Brompton: The classic folding bike from jolly old England is still around. Their bikes are virtually unchanged after a hundred and fifty years.