Mr Zoat
Dedicated ragequitter
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- Dec 1, 2016
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The streak was broken a while ago when I was house sitting for my parents and their internet conked out. I've got years to go before I'm streaking again.
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The streak was broken a while ago when I was house sitting for my parents and their internet conked out. I've got years to go before I'm streaking again.
I'm annoyed by the annoying annoyance that is the annoying word choice of this annoying sentence, which annoys me.
Not one to take your birthday suit to the rugby field, then?The streak was broken a while ago when I was house sitting for my parents and their internet conked out. I've got years to go before I'm streaking again.
Wrong universe, the one you're in isn't a closed system."A black hole only has the same mass as the star it was before its collapse. I mean, ultimately, everything in the universe will crash into everything else, but a lucky planet can circle the drain for a very long time. You probably wouldn't want to live on one, though. Most species don't react well to not having a light in the sky."
Thank you, I'm grateful.I'm annoyed by the annoying annoyance that is the annoying word choice of this annoying sentence, which annoys me.
Considering her past interactions with the SI I find her reaction to be fully understandable.I don't think I like these people very much. Self righteous religious folk are...blegh.
Considering her past interactions with the SI I find her reaction to be fully understandable.
Probably because apostrophes aren't quotation marks. Even Americans know that.So has Zoat ever answered why he uses double quotation marks instead of singular?
Fun fact, you can have light in a Black hole system, if it has an accression disk and said disk doesn't rotate too fast around the black hole (or else the light emitted wouldn't be in the visible spectrum)."A black hole only has the same mass as the star it was before its collapse. I mean, ultimately, everything in the universe will crash into everything else, but a lucky planet can circle the drain for a very long time. You probably wouldn't want to live on one, though. Most species don't react well to not having a light in the sky."
I still prefer our format : « like this »Probably because apostrophes aren't quotation marks. Even Americans know that.
And he already has... Hence the Bleed...If you're talking about the fictional universe Zoat made then he can just make it whatever he likes physics wise.
Comic authors have been doing it for decades.
Look, Leonid, can we not assume this place is identical to Earth? Just because it has similar plants and wildlife, and can sustain people...
Surprising they haven't advanced visibly in the technological arena. But given their religious and cultural bias, they've focused entirely on the arcane, have they not? And presumably there're reasons to not form overly large cities ('towns' implies a certain size, yes...) besides the obvious limitations of their farming methods...I look down at the nation of Columbia. I hesitate to say 'sleeping' nation because I don't want to trigger alerts by trying to scan houses that from the look of the glowing sigils on their eaves are probably warded. There are eight large towns that I can see from this height, and about a hundred smaller settlements ranging in size from farming hamlets with a few houses to market towns and mining towns with a few dozen. It looks like a successful colony from the era their ancestors were kidnapped.
So relying primarily on passive observation of the main populated areas. That's got to be annoying."I'm not sure. I don't know for certain that they have seasons here."
"The planet's orbit is completely even? Their rotational axis is vertical?"
"I don't know. I'm trying to avoid scanning anything I don't have to. Why do you ask?"
Fascinating. I suppose it's a necessary side effect of being capable of unprotected spaceflight.He shrugs awkwardly. "Since I was enhanced, I have been less sensitive to temperature and the… Pressure of the wind. As I have moved around the world, I do not always know what the temperature is. Or what time of year it is." He shakes his head. "I was curious. It does not matter."
"You didn't mention anything about numbness. Is it something I can help with?"
Or when making atmospheric re-entry without a suit. Or tanking energy blasts..."No, it is not-. I am not numb. If you touch me I will feel it without you needing to punch me. It is that I do not…" He takes a moment to think through the sentence. "My brain does not receive it in the same way."
I nod. "Otherwise you'd get overloaded when someone in your weight class did hit you."
I doubt Baba Yaga is running around here, Leonid. Wouldn't be surprised, though."That would be a problem. Please, continue with your task." He smiles faintly. "I will watch out for houses with chicken legs."
Since the populated areas isn't especially spread out, you wouldn't need much in the way of long-range vehicles. And few people would travel far from home except for business, if they live like their ancestors do.They've got road… Turnpikes? They appear to use the Macadam method, rather than covering them with tarmac. I also can't see any evidence of steam power, though I suppose with grundymen providing physical power they wouldn't need it. I can see horse drawn carts but no cars or sedan chairs. Sedan chairs would make sense, wouldn't they? A grundyman front and back and they could carry the occupant easily enough.
Witchworld's got some messed up physics, I take it. The weird output of a white dwarf might explain some of the stranger aspects of their environment..."Wrong mythology. Though I think I was right about the seasons." I point upwards towards a glowing dot in the sky. "I haven't checked because I don't want to trip an alert, but I think that's a white dwarf."
Underground aquifers? Sunken seas? This place is very strange...They've got canals and I can see boats on the rivers. Rivers that appear to have been straightened in places. I suppose that one thing this place isn't short on is manual labour. I know that the Seven Soldiers version had a prohibition on the menfolk performing certain types of manual labour in the belief that they should be done by grundymen while the men focused on their religious obligations, but the witch-hunters I met didn't seem to find manual labour particularly offensive. I can't see the sea from here, but the rivers appear to be draining to somewhere. Planets with liquid water on the surface but no seas are quite unusual.
Eurgh. I shudder at the things such a place would produce... The Universe is a weird and wonderful place."I see." He nods. "I had wondered why it was so light at night. I had thought that we were near dawn." He takes another look at the landscape below. "The plants have leaves, so there must be a normal sun as well."
"There are a couple of different arrangements that can work, but we're not in anything weird like a black hole system."
Because of course some deity wanted a holiday home under the shade of a black hole.He raises his eyebrows. "Those exist?"
"They're uncommon, but yes. I'm only aware of two naturally occurring systems like that, where planets formed a very long way away from the star and survived its pre-collapse expansion. There's another one astronomers think was a capture of a rogue planet and a fourth where a sufficiently godlike being just moved a planet there."
The question is, does the process that creates them actually affect women?There are people up and around. I can see people entering and leaving what I assume to be homes and businesses. A lot of them are accompanied by a grundyman, but I'm not seeing any grundywomen? Is that a cultural prohibition, or are they just employed in different work?
Unless they evolved under it to not use light. Like Rot Lop Fan's people, evolving to use sound instead of sight because their planet had poor light. Or am I talking out of my arse?"Are they dangerous?"
"A black hole only has the same mass as the star it was before its collapse. I mean, ultimately, everything in the universe will crash into everything else, but a lucky planet can circle the drain for a very long time. You probably wouldn't want to live on one, though. Most species don't react well to not having a light in the sky."
I expect any flamboyance is kept for private places. If they bother with it at all. As for Sheeda tech, could they even produce it without the support structures needed? Some of it is organic, sure, but not all, or not entirely.The churches are easy to identify, and they're relatively modest affairs. Actually, that appears to be a theme in their architecture; frivolity and gaudiness are completely excluded. Externally, at least. Oh, I can tell the wood-built houses of the poor from the stone houses of the rich, but there's nothing flamboyant about he homes of the wealthy. No marble fascias or decorative columns. No stained glass. They've got leaded glass, but I'm not seeing any single-pane large windows.
Huh. Not seeing any overt use of Sheeda technology. That could be a taboo of some sort as well…
Well, looks like someone finally noticed them. And he's learning to harden his constructs against the particular arcane signature of their weaponry. That'll be helpful down the line."I think I've got enough of a map for us to be going on with. Anything you want to take a look at before we head back do-?"
A blast of purple fire explodes next to us! I create a construct barrier between us and the blast while Leonid just raises his right arm to shield his eyes, the fires burning… It's eating at the construct but not going right through it. Progress!
Hell of a shot. I had assumed they were higher up, like a couple of kilometres..."There." Leonid points down. "It came from there. We should-. Ask Wonder Woman for permission to engage?"
I look down and ah! My favourite witch-hunter! Who's busy reloading her jezzail while grundymen hold her barrel rest and ammunition pouch.
Yes, there's some history between them, so to speak. You don't want to get tarred with the same brush..."No. These people may be dangerous for sixteenth century refugees, but they aren't much of a threat to us and we're not here to pick fights. Please go and tell Wonder Woman what's happening while I try talking Mistress Bleak down."
"This is the woman-." He nods, already floating back towards the menhirs. "I understand."
Yeah, I expect grundymen don't have the best reaction times. Probably why the actual fighters are human and they're limited to bearers.Beulah raises her miniature artillery piece again and I drop, dimming my glow in an attempt to throw off her aim. I didn't think that she was 'kill-on-sight' angry with me when we parted, but perhaps all she can see is an orange dot in the sky? I watch her grimace as she loses sight of me, her attempt to track my most likely location spoiled by the unresponsive nature of her gunnery crew.
I land a short distance away, raise my hands and step into her line of sight.
Like a boss, OL. Letting her shoot at you and everything."Mistress Bleak. May I ask-"
She fires, and this time the projectile doesn't explode. Instead it strikes my construct barrier and keeps coming, bending my construct back in the effort to repel it. I opt to simply step aside and then dismiss my barrier, letting the projectile carry on into the nearby trees.
"-why you're shooting at me?"
Calming runes? She must have some anger issues, then.She levels the jezzail at my chest, her motions slightly.. twitchy.
"Are you alright?"
There is a flicker of light from some of the sigils embroidered on her shawl, then a little of the tension leaves her.
More or less what she asked, but not quite what she wanted..."Well enough not to need aid from the likes of you, pagan. What dark turn of fate brings you to our shores this night?" She shakes her head in irritation. "T'was you who opened the witch-path, deny it not."
"That's how I got here certainly, but it wasn't me who opened it."
Well, seven humans, and Brut. Which the Witchworlders will probably find significant.She regards me with a level, frustrated gaze. "How many?"
"Eight, including our most capable arcanist. We're here-."
Honestly. One lot is as bad as the other. The Queen would ravage your lands just as her hubbie would."Why are you here?"
"Because Queen Gloriana Tenebrae's Sheeda are going to be attacking our Earth before too long, and we need information from you."
"We made war upon her husband and his accursed followers. We care not a whit for her."
Good move, passing the buck. Diana should have an easier time of it, with her diplomatic skills."But she cares about Melmoth, and I doubt very much that the witch-paths will remain obscured to her if she defeats us."
She nods with clear reluctance. "Perhaps."
"Would you like to speak to the head of the mission, to discuss the matter in more detail?"
And it means the universe isn't a closed system...The Bleed was a thing long before this story was first written.
Russian Starfire
A blast of purple fire explodes next to us! I create a construct barrier between us and the blast while Leonid just raises his right arm to shield his eyes, the fires burning… It's eating at the construct but not going right through it. Progress!
Not really. Remember, they are descendent from the kidnapped inhabitants of the Roanoke Colony, which was composed of approximately 112-121 colonists at the time of their disappearance. And doubtlessly at least a few died during their enslavement and liberation.Even with magic and grundymen, they're weirdly static in their technological advancement. Or seemingly static.
It's good that you've gotten that off your chest, but seriously? Beulah Bleak of all people? The weird creepy witch Hunter nun person?
Because double quotation marks are the only acceptable mark of quotation in EVERY writing style guide.So has Zoat ever answered why he uses double quotation marks instead of singular?
listen guys, i know you don't know me, and that this may or may not be the most appropriate forum to drop this factoid in, but i have to because i don't know where or when i'll ever get another chance to say it:
goddamn, i would raw-dog the shit out of Beulah Bleak, and corrupt her in so many carnal ways. i've never been one to succumb to the typical comic hotties, but something about my dear Beulah makes me want to run that gauntlet and shoot for the goal, and every other metaphor that could be reasonably applied to the challenging uphill battle i would face when courting her.
now that my creepy confession is concluded, i'll go back to lurking. thank you for your time.
Nuns are catholic. She's puritan.It's good that you've gotten that off your chest, but seriously? Beulah Bleak of all people? The weird creepy witch Hunter nun person?
I doubt it."You..? Ah, you didn't get sex education from… On Apokolips?"
"Sort of. That was a five minute aside from my father's chief torturer during my physiology lectures."