Back at last, and yes, it was a pretty good trip. Thanks for your patience.
Back at last, and yes, it was a pretty good trip. Thanks for your patience.
Yay! Welcome back.
stolz, not sure if you saw because we nearly simulposted, but now that Mäkeläinen's free, my Nia post has been edited so that she asks him to run the scan. I only suggested Kylah 'cause I wasn't sure you'd be around (and I don't know how long we have until that vehicle is here). Mäkeläinen will be much better than Kylah. No offense to the young Elasian intended.
(Well, maybe a little offense. )
It says a few posts above that the vehicle has "almost reached" the party, or at least that the vehicle's headlights are about to illuminate the party. I will write a post where the doctor tries a quick scan.
My last post implies that Graham is going to help M. bundle an unconscious Rangin into the crawler. That may be leaping ahead... the doctor does currently intend to get him off the road and into someplace warm and sheltered, though.
In case we don't post over the next couple of days... happy holidays to everyone who celebrates something!
I'm probably the only weirdo to whom this matters, but--I'm assuming the "seating chart" in this eight-person vehicle w/two rows of seats is:
FRONT (from left to right): 1. Maude | 2. Empty seat | 3. Kylah | 4. Graham
BACK (from left to right): 1. Rangin (or Rawlings) | 2. Mäkeläinen | 3. Rawlings (or Rangin) | 4. Onn
That about right?
Suits me. You can sit wherever you want to, except in Maude's seat. She wouldn't like that.
Ha, thanks. I was just asking because I wanted to know whether Nia--
(looks down at her red uniform, blushes)
Oops. Umm, one second please... (runs off)
(Sound of footsteps running closer; SG appears in gold uniform, slightly rumpled from hasty dressing)
Right, uh... (catches breath) what I meant was... I wanted to know whether Nia could use her nebulizer without those in front seeing it. If Rawlings is beside me, he should be providing plenty of cover from the gang in the back row too.
Nitpicky because literally no one else cares--er, except choie I presume, though I hate to speak for her. (Looks shiftily around). But that's how I roll.
Heh. Yes, that is certainly doable.
Happy New Year to everyone! 2022 ended kinda crappily for me, but here's looking forward to better times.
Speaking of which, can I just say I'm having fun writing Kylah as the cheeriest member of the group for once? I mean she's coming across rather ditzy, or at least callow/immature, but even so it's a nice break from the angst that usually surrounds her. She's a relatively sheltered 23-year-old, who's been enmeshed in intrigue and duty for most of her life; maybe it's good that she finally has a break so she can just... be a young girl.
(Anyway I'm sure the angst is likely returning, so girlfriend better enjoy the break while it lasts.)
Meanwhile I'm super-glad that Nia has an excuse for "Postmaster" because I absolutely didn't do that intentionally! I wish I had.
I know it is trite, but I wish you a newer and happier year!
It's never trite, and it's much appreciated. May we all have a happy, healthy and safe New Year!
Sorry for missing that you'd posted, EH. Got rid of the unnecessary stuff in the recent Kylah post since the Portmaster answered the Beowulf question.
Hey, conversation topic. This article in RPGuide by a couple of highly experienced RPG players and authors talks about what happens when players totally miss the pieces of the puzzle a GM/DM/Storyteller lays out for them. The writers remark that sometimes this happens due to a bit too much opaqueness on the part of the GM, but mostly it's the PCs who often miss the trees for the forest, so to speak.
And that makes me wonder, EH: In our various past missions, do you remember anything we players just blipped over completely that you ended up having to insert some other way to introduce the info, put it off till a later mission hoping we'd finally catch the clue, or just scrapped altogether?
Obviously if there's something we missed that you're seeding into a later point in time (or even in this one), no specifics/spoilers are necessary. I'm just super interested to know if you ever included something plot-related that we never followed up on, and maybe that meant we missed out on a potential sideroad?
(Other than the in-jokes of using names inspired by various authors or historic figures, which you usually graciously explain to us after when we're inevitably too dim to catch 'em.)
Hmm. It's been awhile, but ISTR there were a few clues I dropped in the spore-vacation-planet adventure that you missed the first time around, but that was easily remedied. I also think no one noticed that the first distant cry of the zombies in the Sakathian adventure was heard on Halloween (I didn't plan it that way, but it worked out nicely). Otherwise I'd say you've all been very good at picking up the puzzle pieces I drop here and there, and putting them into more or less the right order!
Of course I--well, um, Nia--wasn't around during the OCIII plot. Okay, I guess technically she was onboard since she predates the other PCs on the Yorktown, but we only saw her once in passing as Graham did some glomming in her general direction in a hallway. But I'll have to I'll be interest to read back some of the early parts of that mission to see if something sticks out. Love the coincidence of the Sakazombie Halloween premiere! Serendipity like that is one of the joys of off-the-cuff writing.
I wrote that Bizhi was going to pay her off, but that was supposed to be for what was already owed her, not in advance for another ride.
Right, I remember! She's gonna double-charge us for sure.
Hey, you're Starfleet! She knows you're good for it. ;-)
Sorry for the length of that post. (Hmm. If I were truly Nia I'd make a ribald comment. OTOH, if I wasn't at all Nia, I wouldn't have thought of it in the first place. But soft, I shall genteely steer away from ribaldry.) general urko and I appreciate your indulgence for what's effectively our first deathbed scene.
No apology needed, of course. Thanks for posting it!
One of my sons and I have been watching The Expanse, a pretty good sf political/crime drama set in a human-settled solar system a century or so from now. One of the interplanetary ships mentioned is the Anubis, which reminded me of our adventures on the Federation world of that name.
I read that book a while ago; it is pretty good. It is supposed to be more "hard" sci-fi than something like Star Trek, but towards the end you get aliens/alien technology.
The name Anubis always instantly evokes the god of the dead/guide to the underworld, of course (so naming a ship that means space is supposed to be a spooky underworld, I suppose).
Ah yes, good ol' Anubis. Kylah probably studied mythology in her culture studies. If she'd remembered Anubis's job description, she might not have chosen that particular shore leave to strike out on her own trip to the planet's underworld. Didn't work out very well for her!
I didn[t know that show was as crime/justice oriented. I'll have to give it a try, thank you EH!
Soitenly!
Do Graham and the good doctor both have pointed sideburns, as was the style in Kirk's time?
https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/n...?adppopup=true
LOL... I am reminded of the evolving hairstyles in The Duellists, where the combatants start off with regulation moustaches, braided queues, and ribbons, but in every subsequent duel some years had passed and the fashion evolved somewhat (e.g. muttonchops).
Should I take that as a "Yes," then?
I mean, it is not something I had previously thought about, but if Spock, Kirk, McCoy, Scott, etc., all sport them, that must be the prevailing Starfleet style, so our crewmembers would probably have them too unless they were deliberately trying to be different, which is not something I think the doctor did; not because he is particularly pleased with enforced uniformity, but because he just went to the ship's barber and got the standard haircut.
Got it - thanks, stolz!
What say you, general?
Luckily the hairstyles for female officers were pretty varied. Kylah would find a way to look different anyway. Actually I've only just noticed that I've never described her as wearing a jewel on the center of her forehead that Elaan of Troyius does. Let's assume it's only for the Dohlman.
Agreed. Kylah has been so reluctant to be known for her royal connections, I don't think she'd do anything flashy like that, even at one of the occasional full-dress shipboard dinners.
choie's computer was dead as a doornail. This must be distinctly understood or nothing wonderful can come from the story I am about to relate...
Well, butchered Dickens quote aside, there's actually not much more than that. Thursday night/Friday morning I'd fallen asleep with my PC working, but when I woke up six hours later? The monitor was blank and the computer was nonresponsive despite all lifesaving efforts. I had only the week prior got the software to transfer my programs from this aging PC to a newer system I've been saving since 2018, but I had no chance to use it.
So... that made me rather cross.
All this is to say, sorry for being absent for the past couple of days! I have now a temporary laptop but honestly, i just hate laptops, Gimme a ridiculously heavy box with bells and whistles and that makes me comfortable! Anyway I'm here again, is the point.
Welcome back, choie! Hope things get better for you on the computer front, and soon.
Are Mäkeläinen and Rawlings also at the Port Authority building, or at the hospital already, or someplace else? I lost track.
Everyone went along together in the crawler with Maude and is now at the Port Authority building. I'd understood the party's priority was contacting the Yorktown ASAP. You could certainly split up, if you wish.
Without Googling, anyone recognize the references to Wo & Shade, Importers, and the Secret Sisterhood?
Was that added in an edit? I did not recall anything like that, but I went back to the thread and it indeed plainly says, "On one side is a storefront for Wo & Shade, Importers, and on the other a temple-brothel of the Secret Sisterhood."
I certainly don't recognize it, which probably indicts me as very poorly read indeed. Which I'll cop to, at least in certain genres!
I was hoping that the "sisterhood" was some clue related to the "brotherhood" in the title of this mission. And for that matter, the hyphenations of two relatively apposite nouns, "temple-brothel" and "war-brotherhood." But that might be my inner amateur detective trying to find connections somewhere! And my curiosity over the past two years wondering WTF this title would turn out to mean!
Happy 25th anniversary to "In the Pale Moonlight," which on its own is prima facie evidence that DS9 is the best of the Trek series!
(TNG is my favorite Trek as it has my heart and I adore every character, but DS9 is a very close second. Qualitywise I believe DS9 is the better drama.)
BTW I haven't watched Picard ever, but from what I've heard, s03 is replete with TNG cast & references and is pretty high quality. Has anyone seen it?
And w/o spoiling anything, is it possible to watch without having seen the other two seasons, which... given spoilers I do know of certain Picard-related facts... I very much do not want to watch.
I have seen it. Yes, it does have a bunch of TNG cast and references, first but not least Sir Patrick Stewart. The budget is finite but the digital art had some thought put into it and is of decent quality. The story/plot is not going to win any Nobel Prizes, but it's Star Trek... It is overly heavy shoehorning in TNG characters and references for no essential reason, I thought (clearly, they figured their audience expected it)
Yes, you can watch the seasons in any orderAnd w/o spoiling anything, is it possible to watch without having seen the other two seasons, which... given spoilers I do know of certain Picard-related facts... I very much do not want to watch.
I haven't seen ST: PIC, but friends of mine have given it mixed reviews. I'm sure I'll get around to it someday.
DS9 "In the Pale Moonlight" really is terrific. Haven't seen it in years, but it certainly stuck with me. (Avery Brooks, who played Sisko, is an alum of my beloved Oberlin College, BTW).
To answer my earlier question: the references to Wo & Shade, Importers, and the Secret Sisterhood are drawn from one of my favorite George R.R. Martin's stories, Sandkings, his 1980 Hugo-, Nebula- and Locus-winning sf/horror tale. Very, very good stuff. The business and the religious institution are mentioned as being in a run-down section of the city Asgard, on the Human-settled world of Baldur in Martin's Thousand Worlds universe. And now there are branches on Ollos, too!
Thanks gentlemen. I'm skittish about trying Picard out, not just because of some retcons that I believe have taken place, but also because this whole setup is just begging for some favorite characters to be killed off. Which, 90% of the time, is what happens with my favorites in any film, book or series.
(I'm serious: my curse is so longstanding and powerful that if I start liking a character, the actor had better start looking for new jobs 'cause s/he is about to get killed or character assassinated. Cripes even Tony Stark couldn't survive it! Hell, I'm convinced the only reason Faramir and Eowyn survived is that LOTR was written before I was born. The curse is retroactive but there is a time limit.)
Anyway. Yes, ITPM was a gamechanger for DS9 and Trek in general. Garak especially was in his element. Andrew Robinson just shone in that role, and lord knows the writers gave him captivating material. Never made him too sympathetic or neutralized his slippery nature. Genius to pair him with Bashir. (Who, btw, is one of the few shocking survivors of The Choie Fandom Curse.)
BTW in-game re: the new nightclub denizens: feels like "mangy" should be a vicious slur to the Caitians--the "m-word," perhaps! Possibly only second to "flea-bitten."
Oh goodness, Garak - that was some good stuff.
DS9 approximated the Babylon 5 "arc" but was Trek...definitely my favorite ST series. (Also too crush on Kira Nerys...)
I like different ST series for different things, but DS9 is certainly right up there. And it included one of the funniest scenes in any ST series:
Hey Nia is already inside the crawler, as mentioned a little ways back. Probably easy to miss, both because it was predicated on the cabbie's response, and because it was a pretty long post.