Heh.
What if Kirk had abandoned ship over OC3?: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...d.php?t=718073
Heh.
What if Kirk had abandoned ship over OC3?: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/...d.php?t=718073
Very clever. No matter your fandom, we can all get along: http://www.northernsun.com/Science-F...288345%29.html
Originally posted by choie
Also, too, other things, we'll see how it all balances out
Whew...good thing I had Graham speed up!
Or that Kylah didn't shout it
Heh. I was hoping he might have caught it anyway. When I started on that earlier post about Kylah's parents' deaths, I wasn't thinking of how Graham would take it, but then the parallels hit me and I rewrote some of her dialogue to make it even more poignant for Graham.Whew...good thing I had Graham speed up!
Or that Kylah didn't shout it
OTOH, the double-meaning about growing up without a father in the next post was definitely intentional. As P.G. Wodehouse's Bertie Wooster would say, "And I meant it to sting." But from Kylah's POV, it was a perfectly valid remark: she would find it odd that he focused on how difficult it is to grow up without a mother when her so-called "friend" also lost her father only two days earlier.
...Which was a totally improvised bit of backstory. I'd always thought of the parents dying somewhere together on some off-planet journey where their shuttle blew up. (Still haven't decided whether Aldaan was responsible.)
Anyhoo I find it hilarious that now it's Graham who's sorta running away from Kylah because of an innocent comment about mothers. Is he gonna trip and hurt his ankle or something?
Last edited by choie; 12 Mar 2014 at 04:36 PM.
At this rate, its going to devolve into which member of the crew killed another one first.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
It would have been a bad scene if he'd, let's say, heard it quite enough to react to it in the moment.... He's getting to the point of confronting some things - this was a big push (unexpected...but a big push)...but to force it then would have been a rough go...Heh. I was hoping he might have caught it anyway. When I started on that earlier post about Kylah's parents' deaths, I wasn't thinking of how Graham would take it, but then the parallels hit me and I rewrote some of her dialogue to make it even more poignant for Graham.Whew...good thing I had Graham speed up!
Or that Kylah didn't shout it
Not that he would have killed her, CIAS...despite what Rangin might expect from him ...
Last edited by general_urko; 12 Mar 2014 at 10:18 PM.
Ahh, well, we'll have to table that for another time then, either post-mission or if something during the mission triggers it. Between Kylah's lack of parents, feelings of abandonment (or 'mommy issues' as Collins so kindly put it) and mistrust of authority figures due to her icky uncle, and Graham's guilt over his wife's death (and allegedly being neglectful as a father), I'd imagine their neuroses are bound to collide at some point.
All we have to do now is find out what might set Delaney and T'Var off and we can go for the full set.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
I'm thinking something involving lemurs and plomeek soup, respectively....
Jesus, what ideal precinct did Graham work in? I mean, I've heard the first 48 hours are especially crucial, but less than 10 hours? Right now, I don't know any large city that solves 80% of its cases all year, much less in 6 hours. In Boston, only 40% of murders in 2013 were solved (and they only had 40 murders to deal with!); in LA, 38%; Chicago, 30% (Dayum!). Here in NYC, rather surprisingly, our cops cleared 55% of our murder cases. (Woohoo! Go New York's finest!) Admittedly, things may be different in the 23rd century.
I suppose Graham can usually clear his cases pretty quickly. Probably easy to get a confession out of anyone if you're willing to beat suspects to a pulp or hang them out a window. (Provided they have a Y chromosome, anyway.)
I'm glad I'm in London. It's the same size as New York but only had 100 murder/manslaughter cases to deal with over the last year. I believe the conviction rate is somewhere about 65% or so across the UK, but then cases running through the criminal justice system do take time. I heard it was the first 24 hrs that were most important, so I guess it differs from force to force.
In terms of Graham's thoughts though, that's what local knowledge of a force can give: a massive advantage of knowing who to talk to and where to look. It's an advantage this group doesn't have.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
sorry guys - I have a lot of shritte going on now. My landlord has decided to sell the unit so I either have to move again (to where, is yet to be determined) or buy the place (which means being in debt all over again). There is another apartment available for rent in this building but after I saw it and decided I'd take it, the landlord of that unit suddenly decided "no pets". I am more overwhelmed than I was last year at this time, so I have to take a break until this is sorted out.
Oh grief, anyrose, that's bad. Sorry to hear it.
I hope things work out for you soon.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
+1
When I was in New Haven our clearance rate on murders was 95% (which was high - we used to send detectives around to other cities to explain why).
But it's not actually hard to get there: the two big buckets are domestic/family/relationship and gang/drug involved folks killing each other (or bystanders). The 3rd bucket of stuff that's weird and random is pretty small.
The deciding factor on clearances is investing in knowing who all the players are in bucket 2 (admittedly harder in huge cities) and paying informants, with the latter being the absolute #1 most powerful driver. As I recall the departments that had the lowest clearance rates were those with policies against paying informants.
CIAS is totally right about local knowledge (something a lot of US departments themselves dont actually have because they act like armies, not local police) and you're both right 8 hours is a little fast, but I'm assuming 23rd century tech...and also I wanted to go out of my way for Graham to contradict Kylah
Sorry, anyrose, and hope things improve for you very soon. I'll run Collins as an NPC, as well, unless someone else would like to.
I presumed a lot of the progress in law enforcement implicit in Graham's remark was technological - scanners, procedures and tests we can't even imagine. Also, in the post-scarcity economy and more enlightened society of United Earth and the Federation, crime is much rarer and police can focus with greater intensity on the (relative) handful of cases.
Aw geeze, you always stick up for Graham! I call foul, GM bias! (Plus, some of the technology--including transporters and interstellar travel--would make it waaay easier for criminals to escape!)
In other news: please take care of yourself, anyrose, and I hope you'll be less overwhelmed soon.
Last edited by choie; 14 Mar 2014 at 07:43 PM.
The check's the mail, EH....
But seriously, transporters et al would only make it easier for criminals to escape if absolutely everything wasn't being tracked in real time. I assume (hope) actual use of that data in our own universe and that of ST TOS would involve a warrant and such, but I basically can't believe the capability to easily record everyone and everything, all the time, won't be used in either (for better or worse).*
*Obviously super duper criminals and uber hackers might be able to subvert systems etc.
Last edited by general_urko; 14 Mar 2014 at 07:54 PM.
Right. Soooo.... how're we doing on identifying that transporter trace we found near Wilson's body?
Edited to add after reading the latest post: Well, I guess the rest of us don't need to report!
Last edited by choie; 14 Mar 2014 at 08:09 PM.
EH - I ask only that you keep the uneven personality I worked so hard to establish in Collins
Ok, so I don't know if EH did this intentionally but note the highlight from #1910 in the game thread:
Did Collins put in a hat, sit at the head of table and ask everyone to report to "Commander Collins"????
http://www.wowtransmog.com/wp-conten...dmiralshat.png
See, he's already doing a bang-up job in characterization!
I'm totally imagining her going gaga and wearing a Napoleonic outfit and demanding everyone call her Commander! That is clearly the logical next step for her character. :devil"
I'll go back and read it all in the next couple of days but meanwhile I'm watching the ST:TNG episode Disaster, where in the ship systems fail, and small groups of cast regulars, scattered all over the ship, are doing their best to cope; Troi is on the bridge with O'Brien and Ro, and Troi seems as lost as Collins has seemed at times
Hmm. If you have time to watch TNG, you have time to play the game, don't you...?
I'll fix the Collins typo. Thanks for catching it.
Probably lucky that you're not writing Collins's interior dialogue. I'm sure she'd be thinking about calling Kylah something that begins with "B." Or even... possibly one step further in the alphabet.
Heh. I know my limitations.
Rangin is going to wear out his iron at this rate
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
His iron's gone cold, methinks. Or at least, he seems to be extremely (and increasingly) interested in using it on Collins at Kylah's expense. Minimizing Kylah's worries about lives in jeopardy by ascribing her motives to simple diplomatic niceties? DUDE! If he only knew how much she despises the thought of being a shill like her family. Plus, suggesting she be removed from interviews (her strong suit) to handle such piddly matters is adding injury to insult.
He better pull out a major rabbit from his hat this time.
And btw, I have no idea how Graham sees the motes in Kylah's eyes (re: taking differences of opinion personally) with the massive piece of timber jammed into his own, considering he cannot see how his One True Hardbitten Way of Solving Crimes is not always the best. But I have no doubt Vargas will agree with him and Collins, and Kylah will basically have to eat more gall. I almost hope bodies start piling up along the pleasant paths of OCIII. That'll teach them!
He's not thinking so much "that Kylah, she takes everything personally!"
as
"I keep unintentionally making Kylah freak out, and this would be a bad time for that"
Heh. Well, I'm almost certain there've been half a dozen times during this mission where we've seen "hmm how do I say this so that crazy ol' hypersensitive Kylah won't take this so personally?"
I'm back, and I've read the thread. I'll handle Collins' end of the private convo with Vargas
Yay, welcome back!
Your comment is interpreted as:
A well-intentioned gesture of professional respect
or
A condescending (and probably sexist) pat on the head
Luck roll FAILS!
I figure, of all the things Kylah said, the Palver reminder re: spores was something everyone already knew, so Kylah wouldn't consider it that much of a compliment. Also, the girl hasn't slept in nearly 30 hours, she's not at her best. Also she really wants to get rid of those Jan cooties.
Seconded! Good to have you back.
and thirded - welcome back anyrose.
Now to find out what's happened...
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
It's a long shot, and not likely to succeed, but if enough of my friends pitch in, it might work. I set up a fundly campaign to raise the money to buy my apartment
Oh geeze, I wish you the best of luck, anyrose. That sucks that I guess they're turning your apartment into condos? I wonder if you should--if you feel comfortable--give some more details about this stuff on your Fundly page? I know it's probably something you're just sharing with friends and those folks already know your situation, but you never know. In my experience... well, I worked in nonprofit fundraising for a decade, and have some history w/Kickstarter and Indiegogo and so on... generally the more you explain the cause, the more people are likely to understand, empathize, and help out either by donating or at least sharing the link. You deserve to get the best response possible!
On an entirely different and waaaay more banal subject... OMG with Collins first telling Vargas she wants everyone to get along better as a team and her crew's all just newbies and so on (though Graham... not so much), only to follow it up with "Oh btw, I totally need to change roomies." Awesome passive aggressive dig against Kylah without actually putting it on record, Jeremi! She must know Vargas, head of security, isn't in charge of apportioning quarters, much less in the middle of a mission. Oh dear Collins, never change.
As an addendum to the above post... I gotta say that even I feel sorry for Collins after Vargas's unbelievably unhelpful comments. Not the roommate thing--he was right there--but "hey, yeah, you've got 200 guests you might need to interview so I'll give you an extra, what, 4 crewmen? I mean geeze, you're supposed to be resourceful. You figure it out." Using a murder investigation as some kind of field test? And this was the guy who was all "Oh I'm sure we all care about people's lives and solving the crime, Ensign"? Jerk!
Last edited by choie; 19 Mar 2014 at 09:39 PM.
I did give more details on my fundly page, btw
it may be moot, as I found a rental that's less expensive and slightly bigger, even though it's farther east than I would have chosen. Also moot because I'd be a fool to put myself in debt like that again, but nothing ventured etc etc
Last edited by anyrose; 19 Mar 2014 at 10:22 PM.
"Less" "expensive" "and" "bigger" -- hmm, I'm sorry, it's probably because I I live in Manhattan, but I'm afraid I don't understand this combination of words. Are you sure that's English?
Seriously, that would be awesome, although it's out of your way. Plus moving is a pain. But in the long run, wow, that's terrific. I hope it works out for the best!
That's good news anyrose, that would be great if it works out.
As for the game and changing roomies, don't forget Vargas doesn't know about Collins and Kylah's chalk and cheese situation, but he does know about her pregnancy. He probably heard, "I'm not thinking about this mission, I just want to bunk up with Ben some more."
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
I hadn't either, but it's plausible!
Collins asked about extra Security officers to accompany each member of the current landing party, so four to six isn't unreasonable (esp. if Vargas wants to keep the investigation relatively low-profile, as earlier requested by Mrs. Hsu, still the top WR&R official there). I checked the 1975 non-canon USS Enterprise blueprints by Franz Joseph, which has a departmental breakdown of a Constitution-class ship's typical crew; it shows 84 (!) Security specialists aboard, which seems 'way too much to me, even accounting for the dreaded Redshirt Syndrome. But you could certainly flood the resort with Yorktown Security officers if you wanted to.
http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Star_Trek_Blueprints
anyrose, hope your housing situation works out soon, and to your satisfaction.
Last edited by Elendil's Heir; 20 Mar 2014 at 08:41 AM.
And the U.N. contingent keeps on coming!
...Played by an older Paul Henried?a middle-aged Czech male
ooo-woOoo! Velir had better keep on eye on that one. Oh! I know! Collins will send him along with Kylah and Graham, just to watch Rangin get jealous.
Ha! Well dang, she already knows Kylah slept with someone else. Or maybe she doesn't; Collins was uninterested in the Jan meeting both before and especially immediately after*, which is par for the course since I don't think I remember Collins expressing much interest in the lives or feelings of her crewmates in this or past missions.** Well, except for the one she was involved with (and maybe not even him all that much since they only dated for a few weeks before sperm met ovum).
Overall, Collins seems pretty focused on... hmm, I'd say her own problems, except she's not really shown to be thinking about the pregnancy or the drug thing all that much. So maybe she's just not hugely social or introspective, which is true for many people? She's breaking down a bit now, which is good, but doesn't seem to know how to share anything with others yet.
Anyway, point is, unless Collins suddenly and rather drastically increases her PSI level, there's no way she knows Rangin/Kylah are a kind of a sort of a thing. Graham's more observant (what with being an ex-cop) and even he thought it was Kylah/T'Var! (I'm still holding out hope for that issue to be brought up in some awesomely awkward way.)
Really what needs to happen is for Kylah and Collins to get stuck in a--oh wow, my mind is blanking, what's the Trek tech version of elevator? Well, one of those things. (Edited to add: TURBOLIFTS!) No way out until the power gets turned back on, just the two of them forced to deal with each other as human beings. True, one of them might end up as phaser residue, but OTOH maybe they'd actually learn something? (Ooh, and simultaneously, the same thing can happen with Rangin and Graham. Maybe the foursome are trapped separately in some weird accident in pairs, and it ain't the pairing they'd prefer! Sitcom zany hijinks, coupled with some "awww" moments, would invariably ensue.)
* Don't get me wrong, today I wouldn't expect her to give a damn about much except the murder. I'm just talking about last night when the rest of the PCs were concerned about Kylah's state after they saw her.
** Which isn't much reflection on her, really; I'd say was par for the course for everyone before the middle of mission #3. There wasn't all that much personal interaction between PCs. Seemed like most non-mission activities were spent with NPCs.
Last edited by choie; 21 Mar 2014 at 01:06 AM.
The thing is, RPGs to me are "say this, do that, take hitpoints"; these missions, especially #3, are multi-author novels, and I've never been much of a writer
...and you're still doing a grand job.
In the land of the blind, the one-arm man is king.
1 million quatloos if you confess that the secret sauce behind Collins' personality has been rolling a d20 to decide on her dialogue:
1-4 She says something totally professional and on point
5-10 She says something a little odd
11-20 She says something totally out of left field
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