Omega, Wayfarer, great ideas all. And keep in mind, Şaaruuk's still in the lab. There's bound to be records, notes, gene splicing equipment, biomutagenic reagents, not to mention the victims themselves still in the tanks in literally every stage of the process. So yes, I think we'll have an excellent probability of reversing the damage done.
And Omega, Wayfarer.....not to sound too ghoulish or cold hearted, why not have several of the mutants volunteer for some of the trials? Even though there are bound to be some failures, at this point, what have they got to lose?
That said, I like the direction this is going......and everyone is doing an excellent job.
Şaaruuk
We are NOT surrounded.....this is a "target rich" environment!
Oh, it's perfectly true that at very least there's going to have to be a first try for whatever solution we find. And there's no guarantee that it won't fail, which means we'll need another first try for a revised solution. Which means we'll be testing it. From a realistic standpoint there's no getting around it, which means that it makes for better storytelling to include that process.
I mean, originally (when I had first proposed the kidnappings to Omega as part of the scenario in which Lauril came back) I had imagined you folks getting to the kidnappees before the Vils had even started doing anything with them; they would've been freed with no more lasting damage than the memories of being held prisoner. But I wasn't thinking of it this way because it would make for a better story - only because I'm squeamish, so it doesn't usually get much scarier than that with me. But the current direction of things is more interesting and affords better scenarios for conflict, emotion, and character development. So for what it's worth, as one out of the bunch of us, I wouldn't necessarily wouldn't protest the idea.
It's really just teasing. Because after all, you're still going to have to put up with me saying "Nyeeth!" here in the OOC thread. Or maybe more, if one of the volunteers actually dies.
“The mirror may tell us what we are; memory may tell us what we were; but only the imagination can tell us what we might be.” – Donald Keesey
“You go whistling in the dark/ Making light of it/ Making light of it/ And I follow with my heart/ Laughing all the way// Oh 'cause you move me/ You get me dancing and you make me sing/ You move me/ Now I'm taking delight/ In every little thing/ How you move me”
~ "You Move Me"
Pierce Pettis, Gordon Kennedy
The Viledarian commander cackled as his forces swept over the field. The Terrans were no match for the new Viledarian weaponry. Plasma bolts swept through the air, seeking their targets... Terrans scattered and fled.
"This is no good!" Omega shouted. "We've got to do something!"
"Fools!" The commander bellowed. "You're no match for the Viledarian armada! Now surrender and hand over control of the arch to us! It's more valuable than gold!"
Gold, huh? Omega thought to himself. That gives me an idea!
Quickly Omega raised his communicator to his ear. "S'aaruuk! I need you to purchase the following..." He quickly relayed the request. S'aaruuk couldn't believe his ears, but he figured Omega must have some idea of what he was doing.
In no time at all the Viledarians had captured the Terran forces. Omega stood with the others, hands raised above his head. The Viledarian commander gloated in his victory.
"Tremble before my might, Earthlings!" he roared.
Suddenly there was a sound coming quickly over the trees. A biplane came soaring overhead.
"Yeeeeehaaaaaa!" came the cry from inside the cockpit as Kerry released his payload. "Bombs away!"
Several small packages rained down upon the scene, the Viledarians and Terrans alike began snatching them up.
"What trickery is this?" the commander asked, staring at the small package in his hand in disbelief.
"No trick," Omega answered. "If you want something more valuable than gold, then you need to try Grandma Todd's special golden spongecake Blinkies!"
"A Blinkie?" the commander muttered as he tore the package open. He bit into it and his face was suddenly awash with ecstatic joy. "Amazing! The fluffy cake and delicious cream filling has driven all the hatred from my heart! How wonderful the treasures of this planet truly are!"
The Viledarians and Terrans all celebrated that day and became great friends. The war was finally over.
"Glad you came over to the side of good!" Omega congratulated his new friends.
"Nothing's quite as good as new friends," the Viledarian commander answered, "and Grandma Todd's Blinkies!"
Everyone cheered.
(We now return you to your regularly scheduled program...)
Kerry Skydancer wrote:Aaaaaaggh! How'd _I_ get into that scene?
I feel ... used.
hehehe What're you talking about? You got to deliver the payload of tasty-goodness straight into the ice-cold hearts of our enemies! You're a hero!
Sharuuk wrote:If not abused!!!
But hey.....he sent ME to buy 'em.
Omega.....you're one VERY SICK puppy.....juuuust so ya know!
Şaaruuk
Well, I figured our professor had the resources on hand to purchase enough Blinkie goodness to defeat our foes...
Sorry, gang, I couldn't help it. You remember those Hostess ads in the comic books, right? Where your favorite superhero is fighting some supervillain and ends up defeating them not with punches and heat vision, but with a Hostess snack? Those ads were so nuts... Earlier today I was on a webpage devoted to those ads and I was in the floor. From there it was only a small step to introduce the concept into the RP thread... hehehe
Besides, I've written so much tragedy and pathos lately, I figured I had to try my hand at some humor...
I decided to make a small connection to make Fergie's limited knowledge about the Chimeras slightly more applicable to the situation. Fergie doesn't know much in the way of the genetics about the experiment, but he knows darn well what happens when you build a Chimera...
It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men. - attributed to Samuel Adams
“To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.” - Richard Henry Lee
Hehe! Could you ship a few of those cakes to me? I think I know a few people who could use them!
Chimerae! Yipes!
"Heh, sometimes talking to yourself is the only way to get an intelligent conversation..."--Tbolt
"I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it!"--Edgar Allen Poe
"I just had an argument with myself, so now we're not talking."--me
"We are the salt of the earth, not the powdered sugar."--R.H. Jr.
So, Lauril ended up having a lot to... well, not say. So she's doing so by herself, and Syr will continue whenever Tbolt chooses.
“The mirror may tell us what we are; memory may tell us what we were; but only the imagination can tell us what we might be.” – Donald Keesey
“You go whistling in the dark/ Making light of it/ Making light of it/ And I follow with my heart/ Laughing all the way// Oh 'cause you move me/ You get me dancing and you make me sing/ You move me/ Now I'm taking delight/ In every little thing/ How you move me”
~ "You Move Me"
Pierce Pettis, Gordon Kennedy
Great posts, Fusion and Wayfarer! I'm a sucker for pathos and right now I love watching as Ben struggles to come to grips with what he's done and it's great watching Lauril as she listens to Syrryxys pour out her soul. Good stuff!
In my last post I figured it was about time to bring the Wolfstar crew and the prison camp area crew back together. Thorkelgdt's going to be needed to help us sort things out and figure out who's a good Vil and who's a bad, plus he might be able to help identify some of the experiment notes, our Villie mad scientist and more...
Brock, I hope I did a good job portraying Fergie! Let me know if there's anything I need to change.
So, I've got to admit that I don't know much about military ranks. I had to do some looking up online before I could even Thorkelgt the rank I did originally. But I don't remember much of that at the moment, so I'm not even sure whether he's just received a promotion or a demotion. Originally I was calling Thorkelgt a sergent. For the sake of consistency, I think it should be one or the other, and if it's easiest I'm willing to go back and change. But first I wanted to pipe up with the question: is he going to be lieutenant or sergent?
“The mirror may tell us what we are; memory may tell us what we were; but only the imagination can tell us what we might be.” – Donald Keesey
“You go whistling in the dark/ Making light of it/ Making light of it/ And I follow with my heart/ Laughing all the way// Oh 'cause you move me/ You get me dancing and you make me sing/ You move me/ Now I'm taking delight/ In every little thing/ How you move me”
~ "You Move Me"
Pierce Pettis, Gordon Kennedy
Wayfarer wrote:Originally I was calling Thorkelgt a sergent. For the sake of consistency, I think it should be one or the other, and if it's easiest I'm willing to go back and change. But first I wanted to pipe up with the question: is he going to be lieutenant or sergent?
Criminey... did we just goof up?
Well, in answer to your question, a lieutenant outranks a sergeant. What do you want us to do, Wayfarer? I'm sure we can change our posts if we need.
Ah, I couldn't find his rank when I looked back. Lieutenant is the higher rank, as it's a commissioned rank; Army-style lieutenants command a platoon (40ish men) and report to a captain. Sergeants are non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and usually command a squad (10-15 men) or serve as aides to the platoon and company officers; though sergeants really run the Army and they humor the lower officers to let them think they're in charge.
In the USarmy, officers are: 2nd Lieutenant, 1st Lieutenant, Captain, Major, Lt. Colonel, Colonel, and then the generals. NCOs are Sergeant, Staff Sergeant, Sergeant First Class, Master Sergeant, First Sergeant, Sergeant Major, Command Sergeant Major, and Sergeant Major of the Army.
Naval ranks are different. In the USN, rank from lowest to highest is Ensign, Liuetenant j.g., Lieutenant, Lieutenant-Commander, Commander, Captain, Rear Admiral, Vice Admiral, Admiral, etc. Noncommissioned are Seaman 3rd, 2nd, and 1st Class, then switching to Petty Officers and Chiefs.
The four most ominous phrases in the army:
- Captain: "I was thinking and I had this idea..."
- 2nd Lieutenant: "In my military experience..."
- Private: "They taught me this at boot camp!"
- Sergeant: "You DON'T want to know..."
"Sergeants Major are terrifying forces of nature. They really run the Army, although they let the officers pretend that they have something to do with it. Very tolerant ones will even call 2nd Lieutenants "sir" on occasion." -- Douglas E. Berry
I propose that Thorkeldt can be a Sergeant Major - he's not a commissioned officer, but he would be very respected among the soldiers and even the officers. That way we can get away with calling him sergeant, but still give him a rank where he has the pull he seems to wield. With a rank of sergeant-major, even Fergie would listen very carefully to his opinions.
It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men. - attributed to Samuel Adams
“To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.” - Richard Henry Lee
BrockthePaine wrote:Ah, I couldn't find his rank when I looked back. Lieutenant is the higher rank, as it's a commissioned rank; Army-style lieutenants command a platoon (40ish men) and report to a captain. Sergeants are non-commissioned officers (NCOs) and usually command a squad (10-15 men) or serve as aides to the platoon and company officers; though sergeants really run the Army and they humor the lower officers to let them think they're in charge.
Okay, this sort of refreshes my memory on what I found when I was looking things up.
I think the reason I originally went with sergent was because I wasn't sure of the numbers we were having in this group, but I wasn't imagining it as very large. I did at one point have him answering to a captain (small section right in the middle), so I'm not sure where that puts us at the minimum group size, but I think 50ish was pushing the number of Vils I was imagining in the entire group. There's no real reason this has to be, and we may have already passed the place where this would've fit. But whatever the group size, I was thinking he'd be a sort of middle to lower-middle rank within the range the group represented. I mean, we've given him some pull and authority, but we can't give him enough that he would've had too much power to interfere with or stall the experimentation.
So given all of that, I'd suggest one of two things:
1) We go with Sergent Major. That sounds like it works, and it would avoid having to tangle with a billion questions. (Edit: And I just noticed that you already changed it, Brock. So yeah, this idea sounds even better. )
or
2) You folks decide what rank would allow him to have the right balance of power and limitation within whatever size group we're dealing with, and then whoever needs to will change.
I've got to admit, though - if we changed it, I would probably still slip and call him sergent from time to time.
“The mirror may tell us what we are; memory may tell us what we were; but only the imagination can tell us what we might be.” – Donald Keesey
“You go whistling in the dark/ Making light of it/ Making light of it/ And I follow with my heart/ Laughing all the way// Oh 'cause you move me/ You get me dancing and you make me sing/ You move me/ Now I'm taking delight/ In every little thing/ How you move me”
~ "You Move Me"
Pierce Pettis, Gordon Kennedy
Thanks, folks. I appreciate it. And I appreciate not having to get used to calling him lieutenant (just sounds odd to me for some reason).
“The mirror may tell us what we are; memory may tell us what we were; but only the imagination can tell us what we might be.” – Donald Keesey
“You go whistling in the dark/ Making light of it/ Making light of it/ And I follow with my heart/ Laughing all the way// Oh 'cause you move me/ You get me dancing and you make me sing/ You move me/ Now I'm taking delight/ In every little thing/ How you move me”
~ "You Move Me"
Pierce Pettis, Gordon Kennedy
Okay, it's done!
Thorkelgdt was a bit peeved that he had been demoted, especially in the face of such sterling work in rebelling against his evil commanders, but I told him it was all Wayfarer's fault.
I had something else in mind when I started writing, but this idea occured to me halfway through...
FYI, Fergie is now unconcious. He would have tried deactivating the self-destruct otherwise. The computer overseeing the self-destruct is somewhere else on the ship, and with the destroyed terminal, it's going to take a while to find it. This is where we're gonna need one of the helpful Viledarians.
It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men. - attributed to Samuel Adams
“To preserve liberty, it is essential that the whole body of the people always possess arms and be taught alike, especially when young, how to use them.” - Richard Henry Lee
You remember those Hostess ads in the comic books, right? Where your favorite superhero is fighting some supervillain and ends up defeating them not with punches and heat vision, but with a Hostess snack? Those ads were so nuts... 
