An Expansive Forge (Celestial Forge V3/The Expanse.)

[EntropyEnginear]

They let you get strong enough to wreck planets if you eat enough tasty things, but those tasty things need to have strong gourmet cells of their own, and generating enough Gourmet Cells to reach that point involves basically cooking an entire planet.

And Gourmet Cell terraforming takes a lot longer than protomolecule terraforming, so I don't think this protag, with three injections worth of Gourmet Cells and any extra he can grow himself, will be reaching Food-Demon/Nitro/Acacia levels of power any time soon.

But still, it's an item that promises to be very entertaining.

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Normally that would be true, but with magic, and alchemy he could probably rapidly increase his stock of gourmet cells. He doesn't even have to inject it in himself. All he needs to do is breed enough animals infused with gourmet cells to make a meal that could convince people to stop any war in progress, Although he'd probably not be able to cause enlightenment but good food would go well in getting his way.

 

[ryune]

The farther this progresses, the more I'm wondering if he wouldn't be really well served with a bio-mechanical ship...

 

[EntropyEnginear]

Actually bunny girl and bunny boy showing up is even more possible. Given gourmet cells and those that eat them can gain wild effects even without causing a chain reaction of the food chain due to spreading the gourmet cells(as it seems like just eating extremely delicious gourmet laden foods doesn't necessary give you gourmet celks in if itself). Would even help cure the belters of their poor afflictions and genetic damage.

The farther this progresses, the more I'm wondering if he wouldn't be really well served with a bio-mechanical ship...

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he actually could probably make an interesting take of a biological ship with gourmet cells, but the fueling of it would be a pain in the ass.

 

[ryune]

he actually could probably make an interesting take of a biological ship with gourmet cells, but the fueling of it would be a pain in the ass.

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Strictly speaking, he could pretty easily make an alchemy circle that converted biological waste products into a fat equivalent of stored energy for the ship and fill in any waste from the process with plant products from the island and energy generated by the fusion bottle.

At least, provided that Gourmet cells don't need unique examples of biology... I'm not terribly familiar with Toriko.

 

[EntropyEnginear]

Strictly speaking, he could pretty easily make an alchemy circle that converted biological waste products into a fat equivalent of stored energy for the ship and fill in any waste from the process with plant products from the island and energy generated by the fusion bottle.

At least, provided that Gourmet cells don't need unique examples of biology... I'm not terribly familiar with Toriko.

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Gourmet cells feed off of not energy but taste. Just because gourmet cell laden foods are tasty doesn't mean it targets gourmet cells specifically. No the more tasty a food the more powerful a boost the cells get allowing them to warp reality just that bit more.

Plants could probably get by not needing tasty food if it's given very rich nutrients and sunlight. So if he does make a gourmet cell ship he'd have to be careful as gourmet cells cause rapid evolution which can lead to problems if it's not controlled. On the other hand if he does it right he can make an ever evolving ship that he can instantly upgrade by giving it something delicious to eat/absorb.

 

[Bigreader]

As soon as he said G cells my mind immediately jumped to Resident Evil and I thought we were going to have a Resident Evil situation on the station glad that was not the case. So his island has its own gravity atmosphere sunlight I have a question that may be pertinent to future events in the story if a ship didn't have enough air or stations air filters or whatever they're called started failing in a Cascade situation could you open the door to his Island and provide air for people to breathe or let's say you needed to transfer more people than this ship could carry could he opened a door on the ship stick people on his Island so there be enough room and the air on the ship? I just refinished season 2 ending.

 

[Potato and Chip]

I do hope the powers he gains continue to keep around the theme of biological manipulation. I don't know much about the Expanse, but from the sound of things the biological sciences are pretty mundane in the setting. Some sort of biological mad scientist appearing out in the belt would probably be pretty interesting to watch.

 

[Crazy Kangaroo]

Would it be that easy to get animals in Ceres?

 

[Reece]

Would it be that easy to get animals in Ceres?

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There are rats on the canterbury, so there are definitely rats on Ceres. Ceres also has 'wild' birds roaming and nesting around the place so small fowl are present. Rabbits I adlibbed based on the ease in which small businesses can vat grow meat (Even Eros had vat grown ribs for sale for cheap), plus the need for animals without too much shedding. Rabbits are a tasty, compact, low effort animal that you can probably shift for a decent profit compared to cost of growing.

Anything bigger than that though I assume would come from Mars, Ganymede or Earth.

 

[EntropyEnginear]

I really hope he manages to cultivate more gourmet cells. The amount of bullshit he could would definitely make him seem like either a mad scientist or an alien messing around with some wonky alien stuff.

Even Creating an alien habitat on a random moon would be completely possible now with that stuff. Might take a while but it's entirely doable. Or curing the bettered by giving them extremely delicious and tasty gourmet food.

edit: Something to note is that gourmet cells will warp probability to become more tasty and will even "corrupt" natural landscapes. As seen by century soap, literal cream caves, and ice cream mountains, and a literal burger shaped island.

So plant some gourmet cells into the asteroid and it'll still probably multiply and warp the surroundings into some sort of food giving source.

 

[hyperspacewizard]

With gourmet cells and chimera alchemy he could fuse different animals enhanced with g cells to create even more amazing foods and insane creatures. I can't wait to see other people reacting to anime logic in a hard science world *chef kiss*

 

[EntropyEnginear]

Thinking on it. Doesn't the sands act as a flavor enhancer? So all it would take is for a gourmet infused rabbit to drink some of the water to get supercharged. Not to mention he could probably use the gourmet cells to not only refine the sands but also concentrate and boost it's effects into a superfood life extender. Now the question is he going to combine anything with the strawberries or the like and see what happens.

Oh and the looks on people's faces if he does manage to infect the asteroid with it. Would probably cause marshmallow fluff to leak out of the rock or something.

 

[Mastersgt]

So... REALLY liking this. But I am hoping this eventually goes multicross, and does not remain dependant on conflict. A LOT of Celestial Forge fics seem obsessed with having their plot and MC be the center of conflict/action. When it is really not necessary. Celestial Dragon(?) and Junk Head are both stories that do a good job of pushing/advancing the story with adventure, Character Development, and slice-of-life. Which is the best direction to take it in my opinion. That, and I REALLY want a CF story that goes multicross for a change. They all seem to get dropped or deemed complete once the MC becomes too OP or the setting is tapped out. When it is totally possible to continue the story into new settings/realities/worlds. Even without the Conflict/danger of a weak MC, or the nonsense of an OP MC being nerfed or constantly encountering bigger fish. Like, I think Broken Adventure does a nice job of threading that OP MC needle.
Would definitely enjoy a CF that went multicross fix-fic like a PA-Commander multicross. Only without the Empire...

MC going to Harry Potter, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Stargate, Dresden Files, Ghostbusters, Fable, etc... etc...

Could see the MC self-improving as he goes along(if he does not get the ability from CF). Giving himself Wizarding Magic, Ninja Chakra, Kryptonian Super Everything, etc...

Tons of options/potential.

On an unrelated note... Things like this...

""I really want there to be a nice big bag of strawberries when I get back!" I called out to whatever weird power was listening, then made my way to Nicaros shop. If that worked then I'd have a sack of delicious and valuable fruits to hawk to someone when I got back"

Make me think the MC is kinda dumb, I mean... I can get it if it's just idle thoughts and nothing serious, but if it WERE serious, the MC is lacking serious OPSEC and Critical Thinking. He's gonna wind up grabbed, then tortured for information, enslaved for his abilities, or killed.

 

[Travisplo]

I'd harvest the Strawberry seeds and sell THOSE- they're a lot more sensible for someone like the MC to have, in a variety of ways. Keep the actual berries themselves for friends and self.

 

[Captain Hunt]

Merry Xmas and Happy Holidays to you Reece and this wonderful Celestial Forge quest of yours.

 

[Engineseer]

You know , kinda exited to see what he can do if he rolls the more "low tier" forge tech perks , like the generic cyberpunk ones etc
it shouldn't be too hard to make and be revolutionary to the world, but not setting breaking

 

[EntropyEnginear]

So strictly speaking, the Mc to be truly "safe" needs a space ship. Otherwise he's at the mercy of the owners of the asteroid and can get easily penned in. sure it won't make him truly safe but it could be the difference of getting captured or escaping.

Not to mention he already has all the tools for making a ship that's powered off of magic. Topaz in Diablo 2 gave a lightning effect on weapons and with alchemy he can create an arbitrarily big great cut topaz. That and the ability to rig a machine that endlessly swings something like a hammer into a surface it would be child's ply to harvest limitless energy that isn't solar power and it's be extremely cheap to build.

 

[Miestwin]

I have to say I very much like this so far. I want to see more!

 

[Hydraphur]

The beginning is promising, I look forward to continuing. According to the perks, given a certain time limit at first, he would have needed items from the constellation of resources, well, it will be easier to repair the ship later. Well, or he'll get lucky and get a perk from the constellation of time. Or even the one with the Halo ship. PS. Can anyone recommend more good works on the Expansion?

 

[Juwon Oh]

There are rats on the canterbury, so there are definitely rats on Ceres. Ceres also has 'wild' birds roaming and nesting around the place so small fowl are present. Rabbits I adlibbed based on the ease in which small businesses can vat grow meat (Even Eros had vat grown ribs for sale for cheap), plus the need for animals without too much shedding. Rabbits are a tasty, compact, low effort animal that you can probably shift for a decent profit compared to cost of growing.

Anything bigger than that though I assume would come from Mars, Ganymede or Earth.

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Have you dropped this fic, just bc it's rare to find a expanse si.

 

[Reece]

Have you dropped this fic, just bc it's rare to find a expanse si.

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No. I just had a really nasty case of flu that laid me out for the past week. Which has been deeply unpleasant. I had forgotten how much a 'simple flu' will absolutely push your shit in; I didn't sleep for like two solid days from the pure pain of my head, and I still feel super weak. Thank god for paracetamol. That plus university projects due soon has locked me into some serious writers block.

 

[Juwon Oh]

No. I just had a really nasty case of flu that laid me out for the past week. Which has been deeply unpleasant. I had forgotten how much a 'simple flu' will absolutely push your shit in; I didn't sleep for like two solid days from the pure pain of my head, and I still feel super weak. Thank god for paracetamol. That plus university projects due soon has locked me into some serious writers block.

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Damn hope you feel better soon.

 

[Miestwin]

No. I just had a really nasty case of flu that laid me out for the past week. Which has been deeply unpleasant. I had forgotten how much a 'simple flu' will absolutely push your shit in; I didn't sleep for like two solid days from the pure pain of my head, and I still feel super weak. Thank god for paracetamol. That plus university projects due soon has locked me into some serious writers block.

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Good.
I mean, it's good that you didn't dropped it. It's hard to find a CF story that does not take place in already high sci-fi or borderline fantasy setting, like Worm. It's a breath of fresh air.
So, get well, and I hope to see a new chapter in not too distant future.

 

[Unilateral]

Halfway through Chapter 1 right now, and I want to say that I love the racism. No guilt/angst, no flanderization/caricaturization, no anvillicious "le racisme bAdd!!1!", no, just good old-fashioned "fuck them stuck-up Earther gits, thinking they're so much better than us." and "fuck these malnourished Ceres weedscum, can't even string together a proper sentence." I love it. No sarcasm, no bullshit; I'm dead serious. This is a breath of fresh air and I'm here for it.

 

[Ovid]

To be fair, that's totally true to the source material.
It's just that the protagonist crew of the future Rocinante grew together enough to bypass the race/origin issues. They had to deal with racism coming at them, but they generally didnt have it amongst themselves.

Also, Holden is a fucking weirdo long before the events in the show. I think he was a cult child on earth, and he was trying to get distance from that?

Oh, and random article I saw today. There was a study done on RL astronauts and apparently the human body burns blood cells faster in microgravity. Like, 3 million blood cells are destroyed every second instead of 2. So astronauts come back to earth almost qualifying as anemic, and even after a year, their bodies are still burning 30% more red blood cells than normal.

Now, Expanse Humanity could deal with this by adjusting the minimum nutritional requirements to support more blood cell production, but it's absolutely another example of how humanity is not meant to live in microgravity.

 

[Keiran Halcyon]

To be fair, that's totally true to the source material.

Also, Holden is a fucking weirdo long before the events in the show. I think he was a cult child on earth, and he was trying to get distance from that?

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Yeah, Holden has like a bunch of genetic parents from the cult, their genes were put in a blender, edited into a viable human baby, and his mother that we see in the show, was the one who carried and developed him 'normally'. So technically, Holden is a full on genetically engineered human.

 

[RazeByFire]

Yeah, Holden has like a bunch of genetic parents from the cult, their genes were put in a blender, edited into a viable human baby, and his mother that we see in the show, was the one who carried and developed him 'normally'. So technically, Holden is a full on genetically engineered human.

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Holden was practically raised to be a protagonist. His family were iconoclasts who were holding out against government/corporate encroachment of the ... everything by using some bylaws that protected family homesteads. They joined together in a line/clan marriage and put their various pieces of land into one pot that Holden was engineered to inherit as he was an heir to them all. His mom was the one that told him to make his own way, to run out on the destiny planned for him. So, 'Fuck you, I'll do it myself' is one of his core values.

Ok, so exactly what Keiran said, only more so.

 

[Kris-71854]

I almost stopped reading after that first chapter. The accents. Ouch, the accents. After just your brief picture, I was ready for bad things to happen to them and just not care about the locals. At all. Who knew bad grammar and such ticked me off that much? I certainly wasn't aware of it.

An interesting bit about this is that the MC has no idea about the CF power set. He knows he is getting abilities, but he has no idea of the scope of them. He actually thinks that it is pushing him to get involved with the plot. Snorts. Nope. totally random dude. You were going to get space engineering stuff sooner or later. The Forge tends to be a Troll.

The more that I learn about this setting, the less that I'd want him directly involved with any of it. He'd be better off making his own ship out of a cupboard, an anti-gravity unit, and some reactionless thrusters. Head out to Pluto and let them just fight their war.

What he seems to be forgetting is that there are many factions that want a war to break out. It isn't just the folks that he knows about. We've just found out that those he is working with would be glad about some conflicts of their own. Nope, none of their hands are clean.

If he knew about the CF, he'd know to be just interesting enough to keep those perks coming. He has lucked into some pretty good ones. He can basically live without needing to pay for station utilities and food. That's a big deal.

His real issue is making money. Let's be honest. He will likely need to wait until some hacking perk rolls around, and suddenly he could own their data net and banks. He hasn't a clue that's even possible though. That's minor stuff for the CF.

I'm not attached to any of those faceless strangers that he wants to save. At the moment, I'm sort of wanting him to stick around and play doctor/healer. He doesn't want to go out in space and build his own place. He wants to get involved in whatever plot he recalls. I shudder and weep for him. He thinks that their plot line is the only way to get FTL and that it is needed. He is so going to feel like an idiot when he ends up with a half dozen different forms of FTL, artificial gravity, and entire mixes of generic scifi space stuff. It's all merely a matter of time.

Thank you for not going into the accents anymore. On perks and word count. You might just want to keep the basic perk per word count going and just wait until he is safely at home or in his warehouse to hit him with the next set. I actually like the MC not really knowing WTH he could really use those perks for. The decision on just how effective FMA stuff would be in space was interesting. I could see that being something that the MC doesn't take into account the first time that he seriously plays with it. I could also see him not being the one noticing odd effects due to it.

Some have mentioned having him going wild with the hybrid animal mixes. I shudder when I read that I think of FMA for that. If you want to go body horror or mad science with death counts for results, then go play with that. There are better perks in the CF for genetics and gene splicing. The main thing that the FMA brings to the table is allowing it on a low tech level without a lot of behind the scenes knowledge for it. Basically, if he wants that evil bad science title... As someone that's a geneticist and seems to think of biology and medicine, I can see him waiting until he gets much better medical perks.

CF fics are always fun to watch unfold.

 

[LordofTentacle]

I hope the hammer stays a permanent weapon that he keeps upgrading, we don't get enough protags who use blunt weapons.

 

[Logos01]

I almost stopped reading after that first chapter. The accents. Ouch, the accents. After just your brief picture, I was ready for bad things to happen to them and just not care about the locals. At all. Who knew bad grammar and such ticked me off that much? I certainly wasn't aware of it.

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Those aren't accents. That's Belter Creole. It's a language unto itself.