The Space Opera Working Thread

reply to post by nenothtu

It reported back with 86...

BIAD's been '86-ed' does that count?

reply to post by silo13

And hopefully by now (within my posts) Jeni's sisters are starting to get their heads together concerning the future. If nothing else at least we've go the crew we've been wanting for over a year now.

I'm not going to nail them all into place but it's safe to say with 6 of them we'll finally have a full crew again - one of the reasons for bringing them into the story in the first place.

Cool!
I'm so glad that you explained that, it wasn't at all clear before....and glad my post gave you a launching pad, too!!

I really wondered what all the female drama was about!!

Funny how things work out......

test

reply to post by masqua

test

Oh lord! I hope it's open book!! Where did I put my notes??? Ack!!! I lost my syllabus..now it's like my nightmares - test today, didn't study!!

reply to post by wildtimes




It's just a fly-by, folks. Nothing to see here.

Move along. Move along.

reply to post by masqua


In no way is there nothing to see here..!
Just to have your company is enough, we snooze in the shallows sometimes
and a passerby may think that no one's home... but we're here!!

I think that the contributors to this Epic have evolved to the point where text
is no-longer needed...It's 'Borg-like' in it's nature!

reply to post by wildtimes


BIAD says if this was a test, he'd be sat behind you with his feet up on
the desk and like a true rebel, wear cleated-biker boots.
His long hair would be 'Brylcreemed' back and his leather jacket would
be emblazoned with 'Hells Angles' (his spelling is atrocious!)

Occasionally, he would lean close and you'd smell minty chewing gum
on his breath as he whispered "do this test for me, babe...? and I won't
snap yer' bra-strap anymore"

With a whirl of your blonde-pigtails, BIAD will take a smack across that
grinning face for his insolence and yet, somewhere in your heart, you yearn
for this bad-boy.
Bad-Boy... In A Dress.

test

YAY! It worked that time! Ok, all is cool again in the world.

So, BIAD - I really enjoyed your last few posts - I've some questions I can't wait to see answered as teh story unfolds.

Have a post of Silo 'coming out of it' and Carpet to post - will hit the edit and get to it.

reply to post by A boy in a dress

His long hair would be 'Brylcreemed' back and his leather jacket would
be emblazoned with 'Hells Angles' (his spelling is atrocious!)

Occasionally, he would lean close and you'd smell minty chewing gum
on his breath as he whispered "do this test for me, babe...? and I won't
snap yer' bra-strap anymore"

Ugghh. How typical....
but,

wait!
Minty breath is WAY MO BETTA than bad breath......and, oh lordy,

Those were the kind of guys I went for (go for) forever!!
Since I like the bra-strap-snapping, I'll do the test for ya, babe.....
but I know you won't hug BIAD for me....

Originally posted by wildtimes
reply to post by masqua

 

test

Oh lord! I hope it's open book!! Where did I put my notes??? Ack!!! I lost my syllabus..now it's like my nightmares - test today, didn't study!!

Great! My nightmares always place me in school in my underwear, and now there's a TEST!

Where in the world am I going to hide my crib notes?

===========================================================

For the Photoshop crowd - and I know you're looking - I found a script for Photoshop that generates planet textures here with a short tutorial. Not having a clue as to how to use Photoshop, it may as well be written in Sanskrit as far as I'm concerned, but you may be able to get some use out of it.

When I open Photoshop. the screen just sits there and stares at me, and will do so for as long as I can stare back, but it doesn't do much else, no matter HOW serious a look I put on my face!

Originally posted by silo13
test

Hokay.

Imma gettin' skeert now!

The Aetheric Beings are flinging tests into the aether, and here I sit in my drawers (seriously - I'm in the third drawer from the top of the chest) with no crib notes!

If I ever needed any confirmation that the alien invasion is imminent, this must be it!

reply to post by nenothtu

I couldn't post yesterday in threads. I could in U2U and asked Masqua what was up. Thus the Masqua 'test'. Once all the bugs were worked out? My 'test'! Mystery solved!

So - about your last post Neno. I love the visuals! I wish I had a printer and I'd tack them to my wall - no joke. If the postage wouldn't cost so dearly I'd ask you to send me a copy!

As for my(last)post?

I hope 'readers' remember back when CindyMars first asked Silo to join her in the hot tub. The bearskin rug? Way back when Milli was in the skin watching them warning Silo not to go in the water? Now? Encouraging her in. IN the dream at least. (Or was it)?

Question? Who knows but I suspect whoever/whatever is in that skin? It's the same entity that was in the teddy bear in BIAD's dream scene with Silo. But WHO is it? CindyMars? (She's been known to be evil)? Or.. Something yet to be named! *goosebumps*

PS - I didn't like my last post - at all. I tried to change it yesterday but it was a no go (the 'testing' as I explained above).

Coincidence say you? I agree! Butttttt I still went back to posting the original (the one that's up now). I guess it was just meant to be.

Originally posted by silo13
reply to post by nenothtu

 

I couldn't post yesterday in threads. I could in U2U and asked Masqua what was up. Thus the Masqua 'test'. Once all the bugs were worked out? My 'test'! Mystery solved!

My roomate says thanks for that - she was beginning to worry, too, because I was up all night bricking up the windows and muttering about "death rays"...

So - about your last post Neno. I love the visuals! I wish I had a printer and I'd tack them to my wall - no joke. If the postage wouldn't cost so dearly I'd ask you to send me a copy!

Those are reduced-size for the thread - the originals print out at 14x7 inches, suitable for framing if you have odd-sized frames! In the full-sized versions, you can see that the dates on them are "May 1 2322" Of course, I could always e-mail you the original files to create the imagery, and you could make your own in Celestia... but that wouldn't get them printed, I suppose. Or framed.

I'm still working on the system off and on - it looks nekkid without any moons at all, which is what led to the experiments where I got 3 habitable planets and such. One of those was a moon of the fourth planet near as big as the planet itself, making it more of a "double planet", and the 5th was inhabitable instead of covered with ice.

As for my(last)post?

I hope 'readers' remember back when CindyMars first asked Silo to join her in the hot tub. The bearskin rug? Way back when Milli was in the skin watching them warning Silo not to go in the water? Now? Encouraging her in. IN the dream at least. (Or was it)?

Question? Who knows but I suspect whoever/whatever is in that skin? It's the same entity that was in the teddy bear in BIAD's dream scene with Silo. But WHO is it? CindyMars? (She's been known to be evil)? Or.. Something yet to be named! *goosebumps*

There is a fellow named Claude Swanson, a Princeton physicist who did his undergrad work at MIT, who has an intriguing theory. It's sort of a grand-unified theory that has eluded physicists for years, and if verified would tend to combine Newtonian physics, Einstinian physics, and String Theory into the sought-for Grand Unified Theory, and would go a long way in explaining paranormal phenomena in a scientific sense. Without going into too much tedious detail, it includes a new force at the subatomic level, right along with the accepted gravity, strong force, and weak force. The new force he calls "life force", and claims it is the same as Chinese Chi, Indian Prana, and Russian Torsion (which the Russians were working with in the fifties), and sound disturbingly like the old concepts of "aether" from the early days of ghost photography.

His theory explains things like spooky action at a distance, faith-healing, and Chinese Qui Gong. It involves this new force, distributed throughout the cosmos just as the other forces are, but in two polarities (think "yin" and "yang", "positive and negative", "lingam and yoni", etc) that have different proportions to one another locally. His thesis amounts to this force being that which creates life, and consciousness, and since it creates consciousness, it responds to thought. Harnessing this force is what allows Qui Gong masters to throw one about like a rag doll without ever physically touching you, it's what allows faith healers to heal at a distance, and it's what allows thought to be transmitted any distance instantaneously.

Fascinating stuff that may creep into the Space Opera given the nature of BIAD's last two posts (which the Philosopher in me ate right up!), and now the Ghost in the Rug, not to mention the odd presence of Margot's Ghost.

Now, personally, I'm combining this theory in my head with some of the mathematical and physical concepts laid out in the Ummo Documents, because I can see a connection there, that would also allow for dimensional and time travel, as well as Space travel.

It keeps bringing me back to an old thought I used to have - if I had a rigid, steel rod 6 light years long, and suspended it between here and Barnard's Star, then smacked out Morse Code with a hammer on MY end, would it not be instantaneously transmitted that entire 6 light years, rather than taking 6 years to transit? This theory could provide an alternative to that steel rod, and the force is already in place, EVERYWHERE!

==========================

"Is it right?"

"No, but we do it anyway."



One of my bosses used to be fond of telling people to "DO SOMETHING! Even if it's wrong, it's at least motion towards and end, so DO SOMETHING!"

One other thing -

WHAT is at the zero longitude, zero latitude point on Khalamzadar? WHY did Yydryl pick that spot?

Is it another of those abandoned cities?

Is it a ginormous deposit of Duranium?

Is it gold?

Is it the gates of Hell?

Or is it something else altogether?

WHAT IS IT?

I dunno, I really don't, I just tossed that into the post. Any guesses or preferences?

Originally posted by nenothtu
One other thing -

WHAT is at the zero longitude, zero latitude point on Khalamzadar? WHY did Yydryl pick that spot?

Is it another of those abandoned cities?

Is it a ginormous deposit of Duranium?

Is it gold?

Is it the gates of Hell?

Or is it something else altogether?

WHAT IS IT?

I dunno, I really don't, I just tossed that into the post. Any guesses or preferences?

edit on 2012/5/8 by nenothtu because: (no reason given)

It's Nudist Camp... there's a brochure BIAD's got somewhere... I'll wait until he's
off on his evening constitutional walk and I'll see if I can fish it out of his room.
He showed me it the other night.
'Khalamzadar.. come warm your hiney' -it's titled.

'Where serpents play and visitors stay,
You'll love the smiling faces.
Khalamzadar calls, so hold your b*lls
It'll put you in your places'

The picture on the front is the same as the one you have
of that scaled beastie in the swamps!!

Since we're asking questions...

- Who is/are our Nemesis now the Dark Lord is neutralized (or is he)?

- What happened to the Ophi? (I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them yet). Personally? I think they want the Yydryl).

- What happened to Bransom? Is she/Federation still after Adam and Silo? I'm not sure how this works in with the timeline changes - dimensional changes.

- Where is CindyMars. Is she evil? Or, does she have a twin (as we’re seeing in Neno)? We know she tried to kill Neno, or rather, to ‘get’ Neno.

- Cadbury, we know, stored 'something' aboard the Yydryl. CindyMars was told as much when she visited him. He was after her ability to make the teleportation tabs/crystals and she'd never give them up. This isn't so much a question as back info to keep in mind. I think we're about to see a comeback of the Cadbury.

- Why would she want Neno?

- One of her cats is on the Yydryl - is the other still at the Cabin? And with Ben on the Yydryl - who’s feeding the cat?

- Is BIAD’s ‘past’ going to come out more in the storyline?

- They Yydryl is moving in the area at becoming really controlling where she NEVER has been before. WHY? IS this a good thing? (I don’t think it is at all). We need to come to some group agreement on this one way or another.

- All the ‘droids’ on Ship are rejects. We know this from past storyline. They came to Ship on their own or got dumped on her by the Federation - before Ship was basically kicked out of the Federation and went on her own way before ‘they’ destroyed her. These droids have no reason to be anything but thankful to Ship. Why does it seem they’re getting a bit....ungrateful...or wanting more? Or is that their ‘U-Man’ side coming out?

Just some questions to throw out there. What’s the consensus?

peace

reply to post by silo13

- What happened to Bransom?

She was blown to bits in the recovery bay by Ben with the zombies.

The rest of these questions obviously predate my arrival.

If the entire direction is now going back to all of those questions, I clearly haven't the background to go along. I'm going to start fresh with Dag, Brittle, Mucklebones, Gert, and Tibbs...and make up my own back-story...and future...as I have nothing to work with otherwise.

As for the character development of the individuals -- I can only say that is to be expected. If the characters all stay the same forever they're too flat. I've wondered why there isn't more "processing" happening...for example, I was glad to see neno cry. I was glad to see Dag have a crisis of infatuation, to see Adam have some doubts. Frustration is part of good character writing, in my opinion...I focus on it.

I have only two questions:

Is character growth and development not a focus on this project?

And what happened to the Penelope?

reply to post by wildtimes

If the entire direction is now going back to all of those questions, I clearly haven't the background to go along.

Questions are only that. Just questions. As to the 'direction'? No one knows at the moment.

Oh - and you do have the 'background' - if you wish to. It's right there in the story line. Click page 1 and go from there.

I'm going to start fresh with Dag, Brittle, Mucklebones, Gert, and Tibbs...and make up my own back-story...and future...as I have nothing to work with otherwise.

Would be great to see some of those characters rounded out and I'm sure if you collaborate with BIAD (who created Mucklebones and Tibbs) you'll come up with some great stuff! And of course there's no reason why you couldn't accomplish the same while working within the new story lines!

That's the beauty of the Space Opera - working off the other writers with that oh so insightful 'instinct and second sight' for what's next. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it don't.

Added Note:

Is character growth and development not a focus on this project?

I don't believe there is a 'focus' to the Opera other than to have fun and create the best story we can.

And what happened to the Penelope?

Good Question. Neno was the last writer on the Penelope - his son is still working aboard. Etiquette would dictate it's his call.

peace

Originally posted by silo13
Since we're asking questions...

- Who is/are our Nemesis now the Dark Lord is neutralized (or is he)?

It appears currently to be "Cormorant" or "Carmarthien" or "Cocobolo" or whatever that cat's name is!

- What happened to the Ophi? (I don’t think we’ve seen the last of them yet). Personally? I think they want the Yydryl).

The "Big Rip" never happened, so they never ventured forth from the Ophiuchi Consortium in search of new lands and resources. they are still in the Consortium, minding their own business and killing off interlopers into THEIR turf.

- What happened to Bransom? Is she/Federation still after Adam and Silo? I'm not sure how this works in with the timeline changes - dimensional changes.

Bransom is either dead, or a minor file clerk at the UEF HQ. Since Silo and Dag were created in a Regalian lab, the UEF probably hasn't got any reason to pursue them any more. I'm not sure why Bransom was after them to begin with, but since she has been neutralized, and that entire episode "never happened", she ought not to be a problem for them now, either. They seem to be free and clear.... unless the Regalians want them back!

- Where is CindyMars. Is she evil? Or, does she have a twin (as we’re seeing in Neno)? We know she tried to kill Neno, or rather, to ‘get’ Neno.

She went POOF! and was gone. I presume she's off a-pirating with Cadbury on Past Earth in The Caribbean of the 1600's.

- Cadbury, we know, stored 'something' aboard the Yydryl. CindyMars was told as much when she visited him. He was after her ability to make the teleportation tabs/crystals and she'd never give them up. This isn't so much a question as back info to keep in mind. I think we're about to see a comeback of the Cadbury.

I don't think it would be wise to bring Cadbury himself back unless Cadbury was coming back to write for him. Now, if you want to find his fancy geegaw in all that finery and fluff the yalleer-haired gals are rummaging through, go for it!

- Why would she want Neno?

Well, 'cause he's HOT, of course! Seriously, though... maybe she is in cahoots with Columbo?

- One of her cats is on the Yydryl - is the other still at the Cabin? And with Ben on the Yydryl - who’s feeding the cat?

Mice.

- Is BIAD’s ‘past’ going to come out more in the storyline?

I hope so. Especially with his mention of trying to find his father's killers, it would make for a good story arc all by itself.

- They Yydryl is moving in the area at becoming really controlling where she NEVER has been before. WHY? IS this a good thing? (I don’t think it is at all). We need to come to some group agreement on this one way or another.

I had noticed that. You may have noticed that neno has moved back into the Starwolf - it's an escape hatch, you know. The Penelope has fallen by the wayside, and is presumable off on her own adventures now. Neno is the last surviving U-man writer from the Penelope, and he has been discharged from the UEF service now. If Yydryl goes rogue, it might get bad.

- All the ‘droids’ on Ship are rejects. We know this from past storyline. They came to Ship on their own or got dumped on her by the Federation - before Ship was basically kicked out of the Federation and went on her own way before ‘they’ destroyed her. These droids have no reason to be anything but thankful to Ship. Why does it seem they’re getting a bit....ungrateful...or wanting more? Or is that their ‘U-Man’ side coming out?

First, Yydryl was a product of the Regalian Federation of the Orion Empire. we need to stay clear on which Federation we are referring to regarding the Yydryl. The UEF Federation has no claim on her at all. As far as their humainty is concerned, I've not a clue why that would be. Maybe they've been hanging out with Margo too much - she was a human whose 'droid side came out. maybe they're meeting her in the middle. I dunno.