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Mint Thistle
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She Who Lives In Her Name, principle of hierarchy.
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She Who Lives In Her Name, principle of hierarchy.
Ah, back to Gate-verse. I see that once they got past the introductions, they resorted to the universal language of soldiers nearly everywhere: Alcohol! And honestly, after everything they've seen in the past few days, they could use a drink or five...21st August 2015
22:44 Japan Time
"You were..? You were there? Ho-how were you there?"
Captain Thompson's sake-addled brain seems to be having difficulty with the idea that Lieutenant Itami was in Ginza when the gate opened. Honestly, I'm a little surprised myself. A thin orange film covers them both to translate drunk-English into drunk-Japanese, and visa verse.
Nothing that rational, sadly.
Yeah, historically, cities up to the medieval period were simply not that big (barring a few exceptions.) One of the main limiting factors tends to be food supplies. Bigger the city, bigger the population, the further afield they have to gather staple foods."No. Nnnnn. No. It's a shopping district, yano? I was… Just shopping. Wasn't even armed. Just… Just started tryna get everyone away from them. Until backup came."
"We didn't know that cities this big could exist." Diabo isn't actually drunk -he values his ability to spot assassins too highly to allow himself to get that intoxicated- but he is tipsy. "In our… In Sadera, it's so much smaller, and there are so many more soldiers that we could respond more quickly."
Yeah, pretty much one of their main duties outside of open wartimes. And given the political climate of Gate!Earth, I expect they're a little more proactive."We could respond quickly." Captain Thompson drops his right hand to his side, deciding that reaching for a refill isn't a good idea. "Had helicopters ready to go. An' the guys in the embassy, the marines, there were only a couple a' blocks away. All they got to-to-to do was shoot a couple a' those pig-guys."
Dibo frowns. "Marines?"
Amphibious Operations, you know...
And saying that would probably get you a punch in the mouth from a Marine.
Hey, the Saderan military doesn't have a similar elite force, does it? I could see them being as touchy about matters like that."Don't fuckin' tell them that."
That doesn't seem to make any sense to him, but he appears to let it slide, slumping back against the settee.
Simple human empathy. Unfortunately, international politics kind of stifles empathy in the name of patriotism, if not jingoism."Anyway…" Captain Thompson frowns as he tries to remember his place. "Anyway. I know… Y'know… Japan-American… Diplomatic stuff ain't so hot right now, but what was up with that? I mean, we've been friends for decades. My sister-in-law's Japanese, an' her family... Okay, they don't live anywhere near Ginza, but they might have. It's like… There's plenty of people I don't like much, but if they were on fire right in front of me I'd still put them out."
Heh. A semantic dodge, I assume?Lieutenant Itami nods, eyes not entirely focused.
"I think… I think… You know everyone's supposed to call it 'The Special Region'?"
Ah, yes. Because other countries might think Japan's feeling a little imperial again."Yeah, why is that?"
Itami's eyes drop to the floor. "It's a… Legal thing. So that we can pretend that it's part of Japan."
All true... To be fair, the winning side was a little pissed off at them...Captain Thompson frowns and shakes his head.
"I'm-. We are the Japanese Self-Defence Force. Not the Japanese Army. Because the treaty we signed at the end of World War Two made it so that is all we are allowed. It's in the constitution. And we can't conquer new land, because it's in the constitution."
'Securing a potential risk to national security' would probably be the political explanation."But that's…" Thompson's frown deepens. "But you're… Doing it anyway?"
"Sort of. Yes, but… No?"
I can only hope things went a little better in that universe, but I suspect discussing it might bump into Rule 8..."Oh. Like Iraq. And Afghanistan."
"No. N-o, they keep saying that we're not doing it like that."
And now that they know the Gate might not stay open, I suspect expansion plans have been curtailed if not abandoned."How is it different?"
"They haven't got to explaining that part yet. We only just started fortifying the other side of the gate."
...No comment. <side-eyes Rule 8.>"I'm sure your generals know what they're doing." Captain Thompson chuckles. "Glad someone learned how not to do it from those shit-shows. Word of advice? Make sure that your local allies aren't heroin-dealing child-rapists."
"Ah." Lieutenant Itami appears to realise that he should pay attention to a statement like that, but his brain isn't cooperating. "Okay?"
A quiet contemplation of how their bosses are idiots."Yeah, you wouldn't think that was something you… Something you had to spell out, but here.. we.. are."
There's a moment of quiet contemplation.
I expect he's going somewhere with this. Let him think."You know everyone's supposed to call it 'The Special Region'?"
"Didn't we just..? Yeah? 'cause they're pretending it's part of Japan."
Probably a poorly thought-out plan, given the suddenness.
...Which they're not allowed to have. Yeah, no winners in that scenario."No. I mean… Making relations worse with America. Calling it 'The Special Region'. Some things… If all we're supposed to do if defend Japan, a Self-Defence Force is all we need. But if we start arguing with America and they move their fleet and close their bases, and we might have to fight China by ourselves, then we need a bigger army."
"Oh. Yeah…"
Ah, the joy of their universe's author having political opinions."And I think… I think there's a plan. Because most people wouldn't see what they were doing, they just see America moving its military away. Which would make them worried. So… Maybe they could get the support to change the constitution."
"I could see that. But… They couldn't know about the gate. Could they?"
Wouldn't be the first time a nation got up in arms because people died from the actions of an enemy nation. honestly, I'm not even talking about anything more recent than 1900, either. It's a common casus belli."No, but it's… There's an actual attack. People in Japan actually died."
"Well, yeah?"
Some arsehole in the government was playing stupid political games, and winning all the stupid."But if Americans actually help… That ruins things. Because if they get to Ginza too quickly, then it looks like we need Americans. But don't need a bigger army."
"Oooooooooohhh… So…"
Honestly, I suspect a lot do, they just don't talk about them..."Nothing. There's nothing… It might not be real. I don't think we have a plan for being invade like that."
"Britain does."
Well, planners have to do something to justify their paychecks in peacetime.Three sets of eyes lock onto my ring, though in Diabo's cause it's more because I just reminded him that I exist. Lieutenant Itami frowns.
"The… British army has a plan for Roman soldiers teleporting into Britain. That seems a bit… Strange."
There probably is a plan in the Pentagon's archives. Multiple, even. But no-one bothered to look them up yet."Yes. And for the Biblical apocalypse. And for being invaded by an army of elves. And for a lot of other things like that. It's a planning exercise the British Army gives to officer cadets. If they're good enough, they go in a drawer, get assigned a reference number and become the official plan for that eventuality."
"Huh." The Lieutenant nods slowly. "It's weird, but it makes sense. It would have been helpful if we had something like that."
And I suspect they're starting to lose interest already..."So… Look." Captain Thompson leans a little closer to Diabo. "Can..? Can your people open more gates?"
"No. We couldn't even open this one. Our gods open them for their entertainment, and close them when they get bored. They might open one to your country… The Sanderan Empire wouldn't attack you, but some other nations might. Or they might not. It's not up to us."
Especially if they'd been able to peek ahead and see what they'd be facing..."Can we pay them to open gates?"
"I don't know. Maybe. They want things, but if we could persuade them to open gates somewhere useful we would have been doing that already. And we wouldn't have come here."
Sadly, the arseholes in charge..."Yeah, that makes sense." Captain Thompson flops back against the settee. "Man, we coulda saved so much time just asking you this stuff."
Lieutenant Itami nods. "We could have just told you."
Bet that feels a little odd compared to a cup. Drinking from a traditional bowl is not easy for westerners....Diabo nods as well. "And we should have just left the gate alone."
Captain Thompson picks up his sake bowel and raises it as a toast.
Ah, the bonding of men. By lamenting the foolishness of their leaders."To doing stupid shit."
Diabo and Lieutenant Itami smile.
"To stupid shit!" / "To stupid shit!"
Well, planners have to do something to justify their paychecks in peacetime.
Best toast ever.Captain Thompson picks up his sake bowel and raises it as a toast.
"To doing stupid shit."
Diabo and Lieutenant Itami smile.
"To stupid shit!" / "To stupid shit!"
This coming from the man who refuses to say 'Whiz Wagon'...
This coming from the man who refuses to say 'Whiz Wagon'...
Just call him Drax like a normal person. Like he does with everyone else.
Thank you, c-.
Hm.According to the Cambridge dictionary, it's vice versa.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/vice-versa
Thank you, corrected.
The Nightmare Stacks by Charles Stross.I knew the British had a plan for a zombie apocalypse but I didn't know about this. Where did you learn about the planning exercises Mr Zoat?
Not here, I've been wanting to see more of GATE since the first short.Ngl, not personally invested in Gateverse OL. Still, suppose I can wait to return to Paragon to continue reading.
That should probably be 'Saderans'.Not here, I've been wanting to see more of GATE since the first short.
Something just occurred to me, how were the sedans able to go through the gate as soon as it opened? God's gave them some prophecies or something? Not sure if it was ever explained in the show.
I knew the British had a plan for a zombie apocalypse but I didn't know about this. Where did you learn about the planning exercises Mr Zoat?
Not here, I've been wanting to see more of GATE since the first short.
Something just occurred to me, how were the sedans able to go through the gate as soon as it opened? God's gave them some prophecies or something? Not sure if it was ever explained in the show.
And this is why you should do more then a brief wiki-walk if you're writing a story in a setting.That should probably be 'Saderans'.
The wiki doesn't say, though it does mention that the physical structure of the gate was built by Imperial wizards, making that literally the only time they appear in the story if true. So maybe the gods made the connection but it didn't appear in Ginza until the building work finished?
Pages 263-264, in the softback. Apparently RED HORSEMAN is our plan for dealing with the Apocalypse of St. John the Divine, and was updated in 2003 at the request of Tony Blair. RED HARE is for martian tripods.It's in The Nightmare Stacks (like Zoat says) but I have no idea if the big book of "never happens" contingencies actually exists.
According to the Cambridge dictionary, it's vice versa.
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/vice-versa
Obviously up to you, but you appear to have missed the second word when correcting. It's one of those direct from Latin jobs, so it is considered to have a definitive spelling (...sort of. I mean it's English. I think that when I was growing up the people around me were all using "visa versa", which would definitely have meant something different in Latin, but we didn't know any better, and we all knew what each other meant).
I suspect that a lot of countries have plans like that, and I think it could be interesting to use in a story (even if the plan they end up using turns out to have been the wrong one due to starting from bad information.Pages 263-264, in the softback. Apparently RED HORSEMAN is our plan for dealing with the Apocalypse of St. John the Divine, and was updated in 2003 at the request of Tony Blair. RED HARE is for martian tripods.
Thank you, corrected.Obviously up to you, but you appear to have missed the second word when correcting. It's one of those direct from Latin jobs, so it is considered to have a definitive spelling (...sort of. I mean it's English. I think that when I was growing up the people around me were all using "visa versa", which would definitely have meant something different in Latin, but we didn't know any better, and we all knew what each other meant).
That should say 'there'."No." I lower my hands. "Here, dreaming connects to a realm of shifting ideal forms and memetic loci of meaning. Things can go their, and things can leave. It's not… Easy, and there are difficulties, but…"
still has to sleep sometime."
I frown. "Does he?"
"He's supposed to be flesh and blood. According to Queen Clea, he was really strongly against turning himself into anything that wasn't a flesh and blood Atlantean."
Wait. Wait. Sandman. That… Sultan moved his entire kingdom into the dream, and made everyone paupers. Or rather, he talked Dream… Morpheus, into doing it for him. An early sign that Morpheus was a callous arsehole
Wait. Wait. Sandman. That… Sultan moved his entire kingdom into the dream, and made everyone paupers
Sunset's already pulling leavers. "You think that Ahri'ahn pulled something out of the Dream
I'm of two minds about this. Convincing anyon-… Anyone- except for Peter Parker- with the ego of a superhero that they're hot stuff isn't a great, amazing magical effect. On the other hand, actually turning Arthur/Orin into legendarily competent monarch?King Orin and Queen Clea stopped responding. They probably think that they're some sort of ideal type monarch right now!
I believe it was mentioned that Nabu was put out of his misery. I just can't remember where that was said.Why wouldn't Renegade Zatara have access to the Tower of Fate? As far as I can recall, Grayven never destroyed Construct Lantern Nabu-Oh, is this one of those off-screen things?
Thank you, corrected.
Not at the moment. Don't summon up what you can't put down. At most he'd ask if he was involved.Is the Renegade going to have to bargain with Dream to get some assistance against Ahri'ahn?
Thank you, corrected.
I believe it was mentioned that Nabu was put out of his misery. I just can't remember where that was said.
Sadly, I doubt she's felt any need to make the system more user-friendly, since she's the only one to use it, and she understands what she's seeing. Though honestly, the time cost in creating more readable labelling might balance out the time takes explaining it to the layman.Pyrrhucy
14th February 2013
11:47 GMT -5
"… really odd."
Sunset frowns as she studies… A weird coloured blob of magic energy on the brass… Thingamy in front of her. I'm sure that it's a very efficient way of relaying information from her magic sensor arrays, but it's not exactly… Ignoramus-friendly.
Yes. Very enlightening... Care to explain what it means?"'Odd' in what way?"
She presses a few keys, and the blob shrinks and get joined by some other blobs.
So she rates other things by a scale of milli-Atlantises, then. Fairly sensible."Okay, so this is… I use Atlantis for a lot of calibration stuff, because they use far more magic than anywhere else on Earth."
I nod. "Makes sense."
Which is handy, since Ahri'ahn probably has some killer anti-scrying defenses in place now."So this is all… Passive detection. I don't use it to get through their wards, just to give me a rough idea of how much magic is being manipulated at once."
"Okay?"
...Bet it looks amazing with a little chemical enhancement. Better than a black-light poster."And… When I started using it, it looked like this." Another button press, and the lights dim. "And then this happened." The intensity and size increases. "And if I compress the time since…" The lights gradually get brighter as the magic output of individual cities increases. And more than that, the area between the cities begins to glow more brightly as well. "It starts to do this."
I frown at her. "It might have been helpful to know this earlier."
So she only got this little bit by luck. Great.She winces, nodding. "I didn't think anything of it. It was only dim for a few days; I thought the machine was just calibrating. And I only checked up on Atlantis when I wanted to calibrate it for looking at something else."
"Alright." I nod in acceptance. "Fine. So… Do we know what happened?"
At least you haven't had your eyes burnt out by some arcane defence or something... Ahri'ahn strikes me as old-school that way.She sighs. "I don't. Ahri'ahn's done… Something to keep Circe and me out. And not just.. this. Anything active just gives total nonsense."
"Because the machine isn't designed to make sense of whatever he's doing, or because he's disrupting your sensors?"
And an old wizard tends to be very powerful and very smart, on top of knowing all the spells. You don't get to be an old wizard otherwise..."Honestly, it could be either." She sighs. "Or both. With magicians as old as him, there aren't any good comparisons. His style and all the skills he's accumulated are going to be so unique that it doesn't make sense to try and assess him in terms of someone else."
"So no idea how he raised Atlantis?"
...I'm reminded of the Obsidian Age storyline where past Atlantis got raised above the waves by virtue of powerful magic, but the population of modern Atlantis got sucked back in time and enslaved to build giant pillars to hold it up... That was a weird storyline."I can tell you how he didn't do it. It wasn't water manipulation, because using that much magic would disrupt water magic worldwide and that hasn't happened. He hasn't manipulated magma in the Earth's mantle, because that would disrupt earth magic everywhere too. He isn't holding it up through levitation because it isn't a continuous unit and he still has to sleep sometime."
I frown. "Does he?"
Maybe he bound it to something corporeal. Or someone."He's supposed to be flesh and blood. According to Queen Clea, he was really strongly against turning himself into anything that wasn't a flesh and blood Atlantean."
"Okay, couldn't he set the spell to keep going while he slept?"
Just goes to show that she isn't perfect, even as the Alicorn of Ascension."Not… Not without it being something I could pick up." She presses a few new buttons as the display changes again. "I think."
"How confident-?"
Which suggests that either they abandoned or lost all his knowledge of magic and had to rebuild from the basics... Or he took it from them."I've been sending runic arrays into Atlantis using your drone things, and… Like, ninety seven percent? No one knows what he can do, but it's a lot easier to work out what other Atlantean magicians can do, and it's nothing like this."
"In that-"
Ah, a third pair of eyes on the problem might reveal something they missed.
I'd be worried about anyone who was within the region elevated. Like any freighters, cruise ships, military vessels or island populations.Luna trots in, looking slightly pained. "What manner of calamity has occurred, Our swain?"
"Ahri'ahn's trying to make a nuisance of himself. We're trying to work out how he's floating an entire continent."
I like his confidence that he could rebuild it."We must admit that We are surprised that you are not merely charging him regardless."
I face-shrug. "Given how powerful he is, it's a bit of a risk. I've put a lot of work into the Earth, and I'd rather not have to rebuild it from scratch because I misjudged his contingency planning."
Hmm... Betting something about Ahri'ahn's spellwork is grinding against her exotic senses."Or lose your own-" She wince again, blue light pulsing around her horn. "-life."
"Or that. Are you alright?"
I mean, she's not attuned to the native thaumosphere quite as much as you are, Sunset..."We assume that yon scintillating lights mean that some great working of magic has occurred."
Sunset nods. "More 'is still going on'. I don't suppose you've felt anything, have you?"
Ah, the ten-dollar words. 'Brobdingnagian' means 'gigantic or similarly large', by the by. No wonder she's feeling a little grumpy."Aside from the brobdingnagian ache We feel due to some ill-mannered and unskilled dullard twisting the dreaming world to suit their ends. Were this Equestia then We would hunt the miscreant down Ourself."
"Dream…"
Not quite an accurate remembering of the 'Ramadan' story, but the Renegade's metaknowledge is a bit spottier.Wait. Wait. Sandman. That… Sultan moved his entire kingdom into the dream, and made everyone paupers. Or rather, he talked Dream… Morpheus, into doing it for him. An early sign that Morpheus was a callous arsehole. But could that process be… Reversed?
"Luna, you told me that things in the dream world on Wilson could not break out."
Well, good to know Wilson is a little magically safer than Earth, because..."That is… Largely true. If the dreamer were in possession of sufficiently powerful magics, then the mental disquiet may cause some manifestation… But that is all that it is."
Hm.
... Huh, that's a little worrying. Hopefully not a symptom of something concerning involving his patchwork of a psyche.I raise my hands to cover my mouth, and just for a moment find their size… Odd. Disconcerting.
"That's not how it works here."
I think I see where this is going..."It is not?"
"No." I lower my hands. "Here, dreaming connects to a realm of shifting ideal forms and memetic loci of meaning. Things can go there, and things can leave. It's not… Easy, and there are difficulties, but…"
...Ahri'Ahn's overwritten modern Atlantis with a dream of Atlantis as he thinks it should be.Sunset's already pulling leavers. "You think that Ahri'ahn pulled something out of the Dream?"
"Can you check-?"
Aw, headpats form the boss."Yeah, yeah, working on it."
I smile and pat her on the head. "Good lieutenant."
Maybe if it included a promotion to Captain..."Pretty sure I'm a.. captain."
"Let's not go crazy. Can you actually prove that's what he did?"
To be honest, how much attention have you been paying to the League beyond Mr Swift's reports?"Uh, yes, actually. Zatanna's dad's been really helpful with letting me borrow things from the Tower of Fate."
I frown. I didn't realise he still had access. I mean, good, but…
Concerning. I assume. That doesn't seem all that stable, I take it.The image of Atlantis's thaumic systems vanishes, and is replaced by-
"Celestia."
-a stalagmite and a stalactite touching.
Heh. Joy of using epithets that are the names of actual people who you know."H?" Luna looks around, and then appears to realise that Sunset was just making an oath. "Ah. We understand that this is alarming?"
"He's making reality less real. No wonder King Orin and Queen Clea stopped responding. They probably think that they're some sort of ideal type monarch right now!"
So, time to try and get in touch with a higher power?I nod. "And how do we break that spell?"
"As far as I know?" Sunset shales her head. "We don't."
Is that what's happening I interpreted it as Ahri'ahn just made Aurthur think he was an ideal monarch and pulled Atlantis from the Dreaming.I'm of two minds about this. Convincing anyon-… Anyone- except for Peter Parker- with the ego of a superhero that they're hot stuff isn't a great, amazing magical effect. On the other hand, actually turning Arthur/Orin into legendarily competent monarch?
Truly impressive.
A portmanteau of 'Pyrrhus' and 'piracy'?
'sometimes'?He isn't holding it up through levitation because it isn't a continuous unit and he still has to sleep sometime."
'H-'?"H?" Luna looks around, and then appears to realise that Sunset was just making an oath.
Interesting. I have to wonder just how Ahri'ahn's managing that, and where he's getting the mystical power needed. Because I doubt this version has the kind of near-divine power some variants do. Meanwhile, it looks like we're going to be getting a Paragon episode. Thoughts on the title? I assume Piracy will be involved, going by the pun, and some kind of Pyrrhic victory