Home » The Crystal Hall » Story Feedback » Ayla 9: Ayla and the Scientist (New Ayla)
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| Re: Ayla 9: Ayla and the Scientist [message #58236 is a reply to message #58230 ] |
Mon, 14 May 2012 15:23   |
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 Diane Castle
Messages: 2505
Registered: September 2007
Location: Oregon, USA |
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| Sojiro wrote on Mon, 14 May 2012 07:45 | | Diane Castle wrote on Mon, 14 May 2012 04:34 | I'm working on Chapters 13 and 14 of Ayla 9, but I'm also working on:
Ayla 10 [Easter break]
Ayla 11 [summer vacation]
Ayla 12 [start of fall term]
Ayla 13 [middle of fall term]
Ayla 14 [Xmas holiday break]
plus some Ayla short stories scattered here and there.
Diane
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0_°
Wow!
That's a lot of Ayla!
Are any of those close to completion?
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#'s 10, 12, & 14 are partly written. The others are still being outlined and sketched out. And there are other Ayla stories in the works, just shorter ones. Plus an Aquerna summer story, a Fractious spring term story, some other Whateley stories, and new characters.
Oh, and a new Buffy crossover starting on Twisting the Hellmouth, but that one's completed.
Diane
"WHO has deactivated my BEAUTIFUL frogs?"
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| Re: Ayla 9: Ayla and the Scientist [message #58237 is a reply to message #58232 ] |
Mon, 14 May 2012 15:35 |
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Diane Castle
Messages: 2505
Registered: September 2007
Location: Oregon, USA |
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| Niknokitueu wrote on Mon, 14 May 2012 09:08 | If Diane cut her finger, she wouldn't bleed blood. She would bleed 'awesome'.
Gotta say, the whole sim match vs DarkTennyo was just amazing. Since the site re-unlocked each week's story has been been better than the one before (and the run started way up there to begin with).
In this particular case, we see what happens when an obsessive paranoid with enhanced reasoning has to plan how to take down a team-mate. Just like Stopwatch's 'plans H through Q', but with a team that actually grokks what he is planning.
(In that particular case it may be something to do with Stopwatch's bad planning skills versus Phase's managerial level planning skills developed before kindergarten school, but I digress...)
A team with 5 powerhouses and 7 wildcards. Does that mean (a) he counts Shroud as a separate team-mate, and (b) he recognises how much of a powerhouse he is?
Have Fun!
Niknokitueu
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[1]  <blushes madly> Thanks. We authors live for this kind of comment.
[2] We're fortunate that we have some really good writers, a really good review process (read: tough but fair, like the Piranha Brothers), and a chance to have our writing improve with time. Plus, more Bek and more Heather? Always great.
[3] Stopwatch has excellent planning skills. He just has poor personal skills, and he has a team that doesn't like him. Hazard knows he has a huge crush on her, and she enjoys twisting the knife whenever possible. Heartbreaker and Jello both know Stopwatch really doesn't like or respect Jello. Haywire is really in it for himself. Dash just puts up with stuff. Phase has a team that would die for him, and they know he would reciprocate. That makes a big difference in what you can get your teammates to do.
[4] "5 powerhouses and 7 wildcards". Phase is just quoting the official notes on the training teams. But yes, he does tend to think of Shroud as a separate teammate most of the time.
Diane
"WHO has deactivated my BEAUTIFUL frogs?"
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| Re: Ayla 9: Ayla and the Scientist [message #58240 is a reply to message #51709 ] |
Mon, 14 May 2012 15:56 |
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mittfh
Messages: 764
Registered: May 2011
Location: Kenilworth, UK |
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For combat purposes, it's entirely logical to regard Jinn as a separate team member to Jade. Although they share the same brain (so to speak), Jinn's MO and weaknesses are considerably different to Jade's. Even outside combat, it's often convenient to regard Jinn as a separate member of the team in that she portrays the 'older sister' role and is (slightly) less wacky than the persona Jade portrays. Not to mention she has her own communication spot and her unique vision system allows her to perceive the world differently.
Although she does 'sync' with Jade periodically (it's probably around three hours by now, or six if mithril assisted), it wouldn't surprise me if Jade subconsciously 'files away' certain aspects of Jinn's experiences and keeps them separate from her own; similarly with the 'single purpose' members of the J-Team she probably subconsciously remembers the pertinent info, but filters out unnecessary aspects (e.g. the mechanics of operation, experiences en-route to the target, etc.)
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| Re: Ayla 9: Ayla and the Scientist [message #58241 is a reply to message #58228 ] |
Mon, 14 May 2012 15:59 |
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Cockle
Messages: 646
Registered: July 2011
Location: UK |
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| Angelform wrote on Mon, 14 May 2012 15:15 | Wish Phase would start taking magic seriously. RH does not need a maser, it needs a genuine power-gem. That or a cartage-castor system.
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I think Phase does take magic serriously - he's taking classes, after all. In this case, he probably realises that technology is generally safer and more reliable.
There may be an element of familiarity involved: he's not yet used to considering magic as a general solution.
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| Re: Ayla 9: Ayla and the Scientist [message #58242 is a reply to message #58208 ] |
Mon, 14 May 2012 16:07 |
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Cockle
Messages: 646
Registered: July 2011
Location: UK |
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| gamlain wrote on Mon, 14 May 2012 03:23 | I seriously, seriously look forward to someone realizing how ungodly powerfull this ability is. Paraell processing consciousness - with that ability she may wind up doing some gadgetterring of her own in truth. At the minimum.
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I'm not sure it would work that way. One of the difficulties of proper parallel processing is coding the problem. Could the human mind really utilise this sort of capability? I suspect it's would be more like a committee of identical people, so you could get quite a lot done but you'd only really have one source of new ideas.
Of course, it's quite widely believed that the human mind is really a sort of consensus, (or even illusory) thing emerging from many small, specialist processes. So maybe it really could work.
| Quote: | At the maximum...you're looking at the ability to assume the form of a hive-mind with half a dozen pairs of telekinetic 'hands'.
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This is more likely, and not dissimilar to what she does at the moment. Although the different instances of the J team tend to have behaviour reflecting their current role.
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| Re: Ayla 9: Ayla and the Scientist [message #58247 is a reply to message #58241 ] |
Mon, 14 May 2012 16:52 |
gamlain
Messages: 49
Registered: July 2008 |
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| Cockle wrote on Mon, 14 May 2012 15:59 | | Angelform wrote on Mon, 14 May 2012 15:15 | Wish Phase would start taking magic seriously. RH does not need a maser, it needs a genuine power-gem. That or a cartage-castor system.
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I think Phase does take magic serriously - he's taking classes, after all. In this case, he probably realises that technology is generally safer and more reliable.
There may be an element of familiarity involved: he's not yet used to considering magic as a general solution.
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Likely, it's simply Ayla's economic senses at work: She's certainly aware that there are likely to be, oh, thousands if not more possible ways to acquire or have constructed a Maser.
There might be, tops, a hundred or so power gems in the world and I believe they are /not/ reproducible. Getting hands on one would require very specific circumstances that might not be engineer-able with money.
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| Re: Ayla 9: Ayla and the Scientist [message #58254 is a reply to message #58237 ] |
Mon, 14 May 2012 18:10 |
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Sojiro
Messages: 1653
Registered: November 2011 |
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| Diane Castle wrote on Mon, 14 May 2012 21:35 | [4] "5 powerhouses and 7 wildcards". Phase is just quoting the official notes on the training teams.
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I'm going to make my comment before going on my rant about "Wildcards".
Tennyo, Fey, Phase and Lancer are all clearly powerhouses. Who is the 5th one? Is it Shroud because of how she's mostly invulnerable? Or Toni because her fighting skills are just that good?
And here comes the rant:
Honestly as it was described the "wildcard" denomination doesn't mean much.
First it can be pretty much anything since it doesn't actually tell you what that person can do, but more than that it's just too common.
Once you count "can fly" as enough to belong in the mover category, you shove all flying bricks and flying blasters into that category. Since PDPs are brain by default any that can do the PK superboy/girl is a wildcard as well as those who just have PK flight. Many energizers can do the force field on top of the energy attacks, making them both blasters and bricks (or sometimes they can do the energizer superboy/girl for the brick side). And so on and so forth. Most power armours can fly and/or have powerful weapons making their users bricks+movers/blasters. Speaking of which, devisors (or gadgeteers) are brains by default but flight packs /force fields / BFG make them movers / bricks / blasters. Then there are all those kids with a side order of Empath with their basic power (like Punch) who end up in the wildcard category because they add "Brain" to their basic role. And really powerful Exemplars end up movers because of their raw speed on top of being high end bricks.
And so on and so forth.
Or maybe I'm just having a case of biased sample. The ones we've seen most are those in the MA and Team Tactics classes since otherwise we usually don't see their powers, and the students in those classes tend to be a bit more combat capable than the average of the campus.
Looking at the teams for the Team Tactic course, we have :
Team Kimba :
- all wildcards, 'nuff said.
Outcast Corner - Jericho : Devisor (Brain) + power armour (Brick) + BFG (Blaster) => Wildcard
- Diamondback : Wizard (Brain) + firebolts spells (Blaster) Exemplar & GSD (Brick) => Wildcard
- Razorback : regeneration & toughness (Brick) + extreme running speed (Mover) => Wildcard
- Eldritch : artificer (Brain) + golem (Brick) => Wildcard
STAR League jr.- Wallflower : Invulnerable Forcefield (Brick) + flight (Mover) => Wildcard
- Phoenixfire : Exemplar (Brick) + flight (Mover) flame powers (Blaster?) => Wildcard
- Psymod : Psy (Brain) + teleport (Mover) => Wildcard
- Dredz : Devisor (Brain) + marksman with special guns (Blaster) => Wildcard
Powercats- Diva : Exemplar (Brick) + Siren blasts (Blaster) + Siren control? (Brain?) => Wildcard
- Redlight : PDP (Brain) + flight (Mover) + PK brick (Brick) => Wildcard
- Duplex : can do anything => Wildcard
- Juryrig : Devisor (Brain) rapid flying vehicle (Mover) + powerful forcefield (Brick) + Energizer-powered weapons (Blaster) => Wildcard
- Zip : Speedster (Mover) => not a Wildcard!
Avengers Vindicators -
Scarlet Witch Kismet : Wizard (Brain) + teleport (Mover) + mystic fire & energy shackles (Blaster) => Wildcard
- Captain
America Canada : PDP (Brain) + PK brick (Brick) + flight (Mover) => Wildcard
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Ironman Dynamaxx => Gadgeteer (Brain) + Power Armour (Brick) + flight (Mover) + blasters (Blaster) => Wildcard
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Vision Lemure : intangibility & flight (Mover) + super density (Brick) => Wildcard
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Thor Donner : energizer superboy (Brick) + flight + other stuff? => Wildcard
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Antman+Wasp Sizemax => giant (Brick) => not a Wildcard (unless you count her ability to infiltrate places and hide while extra small, in which case she is)
Omega Squad- Blacklight : ? we don't really know what his powers do, but the only description we have is that it is versatile so => Wildcard?
- Grapple : Exemplar (Brick) => not a wildcard (the energizer bit is close combat only, you don't "blast" with your fists)
- Confundus : PDP (Brain) + PK supergirl (brick) + flight? (Mover?) => Wildcard
- Eruption : Devisor (Brain) + faux-Energizer "big on blasting stuff" (Blaster) + flight (Mover) + armour (Brick) => Wildcard
- Crimson : red energy blasts (Blaster) + flight (Mover) => Wildcard
Elite League- Bombshell : PK brick (Brick) + flight (Mover) => Wildcard
- Golden Girl : energizer supergirl (Brick) + golden blats (Blaster) + flight (Mover) => Wildcard
- Swoop : flight (Mover) + ectoplasmic feathers (Blaster) + super senses and "eagle powers" (Brain) + superior strength and toughness (not quite Brick) => Wildcard
- Spellbinder : Wizard (brain) => not a Wildcard
- Stretch : what category does his power even belong to anyway? Not that it matters, since he's a one trick poney that makes him => not a Wildcard
- Accelerator : Speedster (Mover) => not a wildcard
So there you have it. Half the teams (rounding down) are made of 100% Wildcards, another half have one member who isn't, and then Elite League only has half its members as Wildcards.
[Updated on: Mon, 14 May 2012 18:12]
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| Re: Ayla 9: Ayla and the Scientist [message #58256 is a reply to message #51709 ] |
Mon, 14 May 2012 18:46 |
khade
Messages: 1596
Registered: May 2011
Location: Rockies |
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I think wildcard only really fits if they are equally good at multiple areas, Jade has flight, but it's slow, as an example, the rest of her stuff is what makes her a wildcard.
So most of your examples, while still having multiple powers that fit more then one area, are defined mostly by what role they fit in the team. TK constantly switches who does what, they don't even have an official leader, and so as a team they are a wildcard, Outcasts are very unpredictable, and yes they do all have wildcard capacities, so they are wildcards too. Most of the others, regardless of their powers, really only fit one category, the other stuff is mostly to help them get to where that one power will do the most good, they have the potential, but their mindset and training don't allow them wildcard status.
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| Re: Ayla 9: Ayla and the Scientist [message #58264 is a reply to message #58247 ] |
Mon, 14 May 2012 22:25 |
Anodyne
Messages: 42
Registered: September 2008
Location: Canada |
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| gamlain wrote on Mon, 14 May 2012 17:52 | | Cockle wrote on Mon, 14 May 2012 15:59 | | Angelform wrote on Mon, 14 May 2012 15:15 | Wish Phase would start taking magic seriously. RH does not need a maser, it needs a genuine power-gem. That or a cartage-castor system.
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I think Phase does take magic serriously - he's taking classes, after all. In this case, he probably realises that technology is generally safer and more reliable.
There may be an element of familiarity involved: he's not yet used to considering magic as a general solution.
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Likely, it's simply Ayla's economic senses at work: She's certainly aware that there are likely to be, oh, thousands if not more possible ways to acquire or have constructed a Maser.
There might be, tops, a hundred or so power gems in the world and I believe they are /not/ reproducible. Getting hands on one would require very specific circumstances that might not be engineer-able with money.
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I think it is at least theoretically possible to create an artificial power gem - but it's expensive and they tend to be a lot smaller than most 'natural' ones. But in any case, getting his hands on even one power gem would probably be expensive even for Ayla and it's not something he can really count on occurring, the way he can count on being able to afford a Maser and have Jade's connections figure out a way to make it work.
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| Re: Ayla 9: Ayla and the Scientist [message #58268 is a reply to message #58264 ] |
Tue, 15 May 2012 00:46 |
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dpragan
Messages: 3168
Registered: December 2008
Location: Texas |
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| Anodyne wrote on Mon, 14 May 2012 21:25 | | gamlain wrote on Mon, 14 May 2012 17:52 | | Cockle wrote on Mon, 14 May 2012 15:59 | | Angelform wrote on Mon, 14 May 2012 15:15 | Wish Phase would start taking magic seriously. RH does not need a maser, it needs a genuine power-gem. That or a cartage-castor system.
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I think Phase does take magic serriously - he's taking classes, after all. In this case, he probably realises that technology is generally safer and more reliable.
There may be an element of familiarity involved: he's not yet used to considering magic as a general solution.
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Likely, it's simply Ayla's economic senses at work: She's certainly aware that there are likely to be, oh, thousands if not more possible ways to acquire or have constructed a Maser.
There might be, tops, a hundred or so power gems in the world and I believe they are /not/ reproducible. Getting hands on one would require very specific circumstances that might not be engineer-able with money.
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I think it is at least theoretically possible to create an artificial power gem - but it's expensive and they tend to be a lot smaller than most 'natural' ones. But in any case, getting his hands on even one power gem would probably be expensive even for Ayla and it's not something he can really count on occurring, the way he can count on being able to afford a Maser and have Jade's connections figure out a way to make it work.
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I hope it's possible that is what the entire basis of Parable is about, the manufacture of Power-gems. Alex was just caught in the explosion of one is all.
~Despite what they say, reality is in the eyes of the beholder, and therefore up for grabs!
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| Re: Ayla 9: Ayla and the Scientist [message #58272 is a reply to message #58256 ] |
Tue, 15 May 2012 05:24 |
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Sojiro
Messages: 1653
Registered: November 2011 |
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| khade wrote on Tue, 15 May 2012 00:46 | I think wildcard only really fits if they are equally good at multiple areas
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I certainly think that's how it should be.
| khade wrote on Tue, 15 May 2012 00:46 | Jade has flight, but it's slow, as an example, the rest of her stuff is what makes her a wildcard.
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What rest?
She can't take enough punishment to be a brick. She can recover from some grievous injuries, but bricks can actually act as a "wall" to block enemy forces and "tank" for the team. Jade can't do that, she can just come back in the fight after taking a hit.
Her main ranged weapons include a light cobra gun and a taser/grapple. A couple of weapons you can buy in a shop don't make you a blaster. Sure the missiles are nice but hardly significantly better and they don't have much stopping power ; she has used 3 charges on a single non super-tough target without taking him out, while versatile and accurate it has less stopping power than a handgun.
And then what about Shroud? Definitely a brick since she's nigh-invulnerable. But then what? Throwing weapons don't make you a Blaster, so either it's her flight making her a Mover, or her emotion reading making her a Brain. Both are very limited.
Using those as baselines all of the people marked as Wildcards above do fit the definition. Their secondary or tertiary powers are at least on par with those.
| khade wrote on Tue, 15 May 2012 00:46 | So most of your examples, while still having multiple powers that fit more then one area, are defined mostly by what role they fit in the team.
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1) Not really. This is mostly used to described the teams' potential, not their current mode of operation.
2) Even if that were the case, they do fit the multiple roles in almost every case above.
| khade wrote on Tue, 15 May 2012 00:46 | TK constantly switches who does what, they don't even have an official leader
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Yes they do, it's Hank. When have you ever seen someone taking over Hank? What they have a is a chain of command so they know who takes over in case Hank is unavailable (which can happen if they've split, for example).
| khade wrote on Tue, 15 May 2012 00:46 | Most of the others, regardless of their powers, really only fit one category
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This is a baseless assertion you have failed to corroborate. It is also false.
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