Writing Prompts

[novius]

*Tempo stealthily approaches with a bat.*

Beryl and Fireblade stare with murderous intent.

Tempo: "I swear I'm just trying to help!"

Tempo: "We could try THAT, or do you really want Stillstorm scheduling encounters for him with every crewmember on this ship?"

[entity2636]

Admiral Spoor had many Loroi-like personality quirks, and would fit right in with the captains of SG-51.[/url]

Never heard that name before, had to check who that is. I dunno, with a personality like that I'd bet Stillstorm would chew her up and spit her out and even Moonglow would likely see her as her natural enemy and competition From what I found online, Spoor is pure, enriched, weapons grade douchebag-ness, an obnoxious, arrogant, pompous and elitist horse's ass for whom everything is a game and everything happens for her entertainment. While such people can reach high positions, they usually take deep nosedives soon afterwards unless they are the author's own poorly written power fantasy, e.g. Honor Harrington.

As protagonists in stories they get boring very quickly. I do dislike unbelievably larger-than-life or perfect characters who never makes mistakes or get out of every FUBAR situation victorious, topped with a boatload of new titles and even more stars on their uniform, doubly so if the character is unlikeable and unrelatable.

[orion1836]

*Tempo stealthily approaches with a bat.*

Beryl and Fireblade stare with murderous intent.

Tempo: "I swear I'm just trying to help!"

Tempo: "We could try THAT, or do you really want Stillstorm scheduling encounters for him with every crewmember on this ship?"

Beryl: "Give me the bat."

[Brent7s]

An odd thought hit me with Tempo losing control so to speak with Alex and Interogatting Beryl... How do the Mizol work to promote themselves? could the Mizol Brightsheild have done something to trigger Tempo to acting out a little more paranoid they did Sanzai and Tempo planted something in Alex's mind as a joke couldn't a promotion minded Mizol plant a little thing in Tempo mind to egg her on to be a bit more well harsh so that she will lose her place at Alex's side and trust.

[Werra]

Well, directly sabotaging a superior to angle for a promotion is not uncommon anywhere. Tempos misfortune did give Brightshield a new role that in itself should prove quite career boosting. She'd have the motivation.

Has she the means? We don't know. She is trained to do such stuff, possibly. But then Tempo should be trained to recognize such things, too. I don't think they ever have touched before. Sounds very difficult.

SpoilerShow

Fun theory: Since human Lotai has evolved naturally, there must be some selective pressure to drive humanity along. What if that selective pressure is the ability of other humans to influence us. I'm thinking of two abilities humans have. 1. Strong Lotai 2. An inborn ability to make others that are psionically active like us.
1 would follow from 2, as otherwise ones own resources would be spent too easily on others offspring. 2 would have to evolve to be stronger thanks to 1 arrising. At the same time, 2 would be extremely useful in social cohesion, making sure the tribe stays together, therefore a way or reflex to lower the Lotai with trust.
What the Loroi are looking at then in Alex case would be the end result of a biological arms race that has produced a species that uses psionics in their social interactions. Similar to how we -in reality- use pheromones to influence others behaviours as a biological automatism.

Since the Loroi are designed and therefore started out in the space age, their design does not include such biological systems as the Soia surely planned to control the various Loroi breeds. Instead the glue holding their society together is a conscious ability to connect with others. This would mean that the Loroi have to be wary around Alex and humanity. Like how a man needs to be aware of what he's doing, even though the Lady has such pretty eyes. It would explain why they all are so friendly around him and why they all come to trust him quickly.

Just a -hopefully- fun and interesting aside as to how psionic potential might shape the development of a species.

[Zarya]

SpoilerShow

I wasn't thinking of 'special powers' just increased telepathic strength coupled with Nathan's bonding Lotai being used in internal power struggles, the lost diral thus becoming highly influential amidst the Mizol. If the Diral became a Mizol black ops tool then it would explain both the secrecy and the need for the Mizol to control information about human contact.

I also find the angle of Greywind being part of the diral far fetched, I would prefer if she became close friends with members of the Diral during her long career, members who in time confided in her about what happened. Respect and duty to her comrades and friends being her driving reasons rather than attraction to a human.

A bit late in responding to this.

Rather than Nathan’s wholesome effect on Loroi ‘black ops’ capabilities, next to his high likability factor and (almost) bullet proof lotai as a potential factor in higher order politics, I’d expect the Soia ruin to have some relevance in keeping information about him strictly controlled too. No portal, no Nathan on Deinar. Still unmentioned is that it will have been against the party line to exhibit a potential specimen of their template species, who arrived on one of the Sister Planets via an ancient but still functional back door. Ouch!

Upon return of the Diral the portal will have been extensively studied, there will have been new searches for similar artifacts throughout the empire and almost certainly attempts will have been made to reactivate / permanently disable / guard them.

In German they call this a “Chefsache”, only the boss deals with this.

[novius]

Rather than Nathan’s wholesome effect on Loroi ‘black ops’ capabilities, next to his high likability factor and (almost) bullet proof lotai as a potential factor in higher order politics, I’d expect the Soia ruin to have some relevance in keeping information about him strictly controlled too. No portal, no Nathan on Deinar. Still unmentioned is that it will have been against the party line to exhibit a potential specimen of their template species, who arrived on one of the Sister Planets via an ancient but still functional back door. Ouch!

Of course - and actually, Tempo did touch the subject with broaching the question "how did he end up on Deinar?", but wasn't able to elaborate since events caught up to them all. At the time she stopped at the revelation that there was a human on Deinar, and didn't yet read about the ruins themselves.

[novius]

Help comes from a completely unexpected direction.... New installment of "Beacons" is up.

SpoilerShow

Never explicitely addressed it, but given what I posted here, the heavily, highest-authority encrypted part of the health risk section may be a warning to the Emperor to never, ever bond with a human... else it would be akin to handing over the Union

[entity2636]

Oh boy, the Deinar Files are just a gift that keeps on giving. Tempo messed up again, now Cloud poked her nose into them and before long the whole ship will know that there's some sort of conspiracy going on No wonder they say that as soon as three people know a secret, it's not a secret anymore.

[Werra]

SpoilerShow

Humans as a literal date rape drug. That's ...dark.

I'm loving it.

[dragoongfa]

SpoilerShow

I wouldn't say that humans are a 'drug' per se but the way human pair bonding works coupled with telepathic intimacy throws a big monkey wrench in the Loroi subconscious. Humans pair bond, it is a viable evolutionary trait for fathers and mothers to care for each other through bonding in order to provide the resources of two healthy individuals to their offspring.
The primary way of this pair bonding process is intimacy and in particular sexual intimacy. However Loroi intimacy is primarily accomplished through telepathy and isn't primarily sexual. My guess is that Alex's subconscious nature of telepathy is playing havoc with the Loroi because the primary instinct of human men towards their intimate women is to pair bond and protect them.
The Loroi subconscious however isn't geared to be pair bonded and protected by a male (in a telepathic human woman this would instictually mean the desire to bear children now that she is pair bonded) but it does interpret the pair bonding as love as we understand it. The problem arises that Loroi men don't give the same 'telepathic' message, they may care about their current sexual partners and they may desire to heal their mental wounds but they don't pair bond. They are outnumbered 9 to 1 after all, pair bonding is superfluous if they have that much reproductive potential.
In short Alex can't help but subconsciously care for all the Loroi he is telepathically bonded in the same way he would care for the mother(s) of his children. The Loroi subconscious picked this up and doesn't know how to react and simply responds with a sentiment of overpowering 'love' as we humans understand it because that's what Alex's subconscious expects to receive back from his pair bonded mate.
For a large group of Loroi this could be fixed with familial type of instinctual bonding, i.e. seeing them as a form of family.

EDIT: Addition

[Werra]

SpoilerShow

I'm definitely more comfortable with the Loroi not being used to Alex subconscious Sanzai than him making them addicted to his mind. I suspect some of the Loroi will quickly learn how to shut down that part of his Sanzai. Otherwise he'd still force them into treating him like family. Which would still be influencing them.

[entity2636]

SpoilerShow

Humans as a literal date rape drug. That's ...dark.

I'm loving it.

SpoilerShow

even darker - if the loroi do become mentally addicted to the human form of sanzai and bonding, one could use this as an unfair advantage and basically mind control the loroi and force them to do your bidding. For a long shot, humans could this way take over the Union, or the loroi flag humans as a sort of telepathic parasite and set out to destroy them

[novius]

SpoilerShow

Humans as a literal date rape drug. That's ...dark.

I'm loving it.

even darker - if the loroi do become mentally addicted to the human form of sanzai and bonding, one could use this as an unfair advantage and basically mind control the loroi and force them to do your bidding. For a long shot, humans could this way take over the Union, or the loroi flag humans as a sort of telepathic parasite and set out to destroy them

That could be a reason why humans come with a warning label keyed to the highest authorities. I'm sure it ends up as in that the human brand of telepathy could be both dangerous and beneficial to them. And, turnaround is fair play, they get to know what the Golim feel like...

So far the Loroi rate the value of a live human higher than that of a dead one. The order is to bring any human to Seren, alive and unharmed, rather than 'torture it for information and kill it'.

But... who knows if there isn't more than one faction at work? That actually gives me an idea...

[dragoongfa]

Please don't make this more convoluted than it is...

Anyway, working on the next part.

[dragoongfa]

Damn, it turned out to be longer than expected, especially since I had put Tempo in motion in my last entry. I will try to post the fleet's arrival and the (relatively speaking) brief fight to reach Nezel tomorrow. If someone thinks that they can write something they have about 2 to 3 hours of in universe time to do it.

[novius]

Damn, it turned out to be longer than expected, especially since I had put Tempo in motion in my last entry. I will try to post the fleet's arrival and the (relatively speaking) brief fight to reach Nezel tomorrow. If someone thinks that they can write something they have about 2 to 3 hours of in universe time to do it.

I'll put some more elaboration on the training. No worries, I won't pick up on what I mentioned in the last spoiler. At least not yet, it would be too much too soon.

[novius]

Part is up. And if they didn't break out their tinfoil hats by now, now they surely would

[Werra]

Tempo is a mess. What would her fellow Mizol think? Truly compromised.

And I hope Arioch didn't get sidetracked shrieking in terror about what we do with his setting.

[novius]

Tempo is a mess. What would her fellow Mizol think? Truly compromised.

And I hope Arioch didn't get sidetracked shrieking in terror about what we do with his setting.

Worse. Picking up on ideas.