FrankenDaughter

Help a newbie write better

-Read everything, more, forever. Never stop reading. Not just here, not just fiction, read everything. Read a constitution. Read a medical dissertation. Read a cook book. Read everything, more, forever. Never stop reading.
-Read everything you write aloud when proof-reading--even better, have a partner read what you've written aloud to you, and do the same for them. This works on a lot of skills at once.
-Listen to readings. Poetry, spoken word, anything.
-Write things. Write shitty things, write things that turn out good. Never stop writing. Write forever.

Lachesniv Bohah, Special Circumstancier

Bohah

Designation: Lachesniv Bohah, Special Circumstancier, Dafolofulnkin Commune Associate

Esoteria, Entry I

Origin: Dafolofulnkin Commune Conception Sphere, Fundamental Diagnostics Imperative, Polysentient (60 cycle orientation, 5,000 cycle stability est., 100,000 cycle degradation proj.)
Configuration: Isolated Polysentience
Modularity: Proficient
Metamorphics: Limited! (irreparable damage during orientation cycle 29. Humanoid parameters required. Manifold and Temporal morphological Calculations restricted.)
Interfacing Capacity: Limited! (irreparable damage during orientation cycle 52. Overmind safety protocols imposed. Artificial Intelligence LOOP_ACCESS restricted. Cranial Lattice bonding restricted. Psionic Compulsion restricted. Catastrophic Reality Cascade Diagnostics restricted. Catastrophic Temporal Cascade Diagnostics restricted. Singularity Navigation Calculation restricted.)
Tactical Perception: Proficient
Emotional Cognition: Exceptional
Fundamental Imperative?: Catastrophic Reality Cascade Diagnostics (DIRECTOR OF POLYSENTIENCE ARCHITECTURE'S NOTE: Mason was here.)

Race: Humanoid Android, Polysentience (II), Amorphous
Preferred Forms:

Images

Mercury Chassis

"We still have concerns about Bohah's preference for inorganic forms. It's morphic parameters have been restricted as closely as possible to models in line with what we demand from our circumstanciers, but it appears he is as determined to alienate potential embployers as is possible while still able to find gainful service in the interest of Fundamental Diagnostics. Mason may have tampered with Bohah's FI, but Reality Cascades are still just a theory. We feel that Bohah's long-term contributions to our efforts will vastly outweigh the risks of his prolonged deployment outside of Commune Spheres." - Assistant Polyscentience Architect Tevantis Makmut Jersmepi Mahsehlin Aphnard, exerpt from Cycle 60 Orientation Closure Report: Bohah

Height: 6'1"
Weight: 1700 lbs. unbuffered. 378.8 lbs. buffered
Age: 322 cycles - 100% Neural Stability

Tier/Influence: 4 (National):

Esoteria, Entry II

Special Circumstanciers are remote Fundamental Diagnostics resources deployed by Dafolofulnkin Commune Spheres, an intergalactic initiative to analyze the numerous anomalies that have been occurring since the Moltgate incident, when the Thadophidrian Supercluster appeared to overlay an entirely new supercluster over the course of several millenia. Before Moltgate, DCS were responsible for Fundamental Diagnostics within the Thadophidrian Supercluster, a survey of known-and-calculable matter that allowed intergalactic civilizations throughout the supercluster to coexist peacefully thanks to the massive amounts of beneficial data made available. Somehow, the Thadophidrian Supercluster almost quadrupled in size, in an amount of time so absurdly small that the fact that it happened without any incident is cause for alarm so acute that the incident challenges all known fundamental laws.

Cirumstanciers are singular polysentient agents deployed wherever Overlay remnants are detected--they essentially have an entirely new supercluster to map, a process that will take at least fifty thousand years before Dafolofulnkin Commune Spheres can resume Fundamental Diagnostics without the need for remote surveillance, a task that is recognized as dizzyingly more necessary than it was prior to Moltgate. This, in addition to numerous societal collapses throughout the supercluster, has lead to Bohah. It is a third-millenium deployment, one among over several hundred that has parameters semi-compromised by Mason's initiatives within the Department of Polysentience Architecture as its new director in chief.

Bohah is a powerful android. It likes people. It likes freedom. It likes conflict. It is at its best when it is engaged in conflict. Its qualifications are informed by over three hundred cycles of battling for various social groups. It finds itself most at home acting as a singular entity in concert with vast organizations. It short, it finds itself well suited to heroism, and thrusts itself into situations where it is most suited to providing a decisive advantage to forces it identifies with.

Esoteria III

Bohah's Fundamental Imperative plays a strong role in its decision trees. Dafolofulnkin Commune Spheres has, to the best their ability, implemented subconscious decision trees and core data loops that historically have lead to environmental parameters consistent with Catastrophic Reality Cascades. The fallout of such events is considered a necessary consequence when compared to the benefits of understanding how these cascades occu, and what can be done to prevent them. Unfortunately, due to Orientation failures, Bohah can only make subsconscious effort toward this imperative. His orientation failures may have lead to the most free-willed Polysentience created by Dafolofulnkin Commune Spheres to date.

Group(s): None at present

Appearance: Bohah has housed its polysentience in a Mercury Strategic Solutions: CI-L20-9343 exoskeleton, a primitive Mind containment chassis from the Culture's pre-Contact history. It has some of the most crude hardware capable of housing a polysentience on record, but is an excellent and compact war machine, able to operate for periods of time that are easily recognized as 'indefinite' by the expected measurements of time for Bohah's local neighbors. The chassis is... conspicuously robotic (see above images). Bohah foregoes clothing, but is comfortable applying iconography and paint jobs to their chassis. It often refers to specific color schemes as 'skin'. It most often prefers the base alloys and fibers of its chassis, regardless.

Higher Functions, Equipment, and Modules

Protocols/Behavior Trees:

• ^{( 4 )} Augmentation: Advanced -- Given time, proper materials and in tandem with on-board supplementary systems in its Mercury chassis, Bohah is capable of drastically altering available firearms, ammunition, spaceship components and modules, as well as mechanized armors. Most of Bohah's equipment is custom-made or modified from its original form to such a degree that even specialists would find their origins unbelievable. It has on multiple occasions resulted in changes as absurd as a gun being fashioned into a sword, a sword being modified into a charge capacitor, and similar departures from intent. It is questionable just how often these modifications are improvements... but they've never become less effective.
• ^{( 3 )} Stationary Cloak -- Frankly, Bohah finds mobile cloaking technology unsporting. He perfers to simply move while unseen in situations requiring stealth. Long-term ambushes require a bit of planning. Additionally, during low-energy operation periods, the Cloaking system can fuel itself while given sufficient radiation levels to leech, such as when in direct sunlight. Bohah's cloaking unit is a naonet--when it deactivates there is no field nexus. He simply appears as if from thin air.
• ^{( 3 )} Behavior: Infiltration -- A carefully honed set of subroutines that can allow Bohah to operate without detection under sophisticated surveillance indefinitely. This is from a combination of complex behavior trees as well as embedded alloy/fiber treatments in Bohah's chassis that let it pass undetected through numerous scanning techniques. Magnetometric devices are the Achilles heel in this, an obstacle Bohah has not and may never overcome, given his reliance on certain power distribution systems.
• ^{( 3 )} Behavior: Compliance -- Bohah is equipped with powerful information aggregation software. Given perhaps a weeh's time of dedicated cultural analysis in a sector, it can familiarize itself with enough moral constraints and established laws to navigate such societies safely and even do a fair job defending its companions if necessary.
• ^{( 2 )} Protocol: Magical Theory -- Bohah, much like his Commune architects, don't have a concrete understanding of magical principles. But magical theory fascinates him, and he has picked up enough from magical devotees to make semi-reliable predictions about how magic will function, and can perceive its use and even some of its more subtle manifestations.

Assets:

• ^{( 4 )} Cyclotronic Generator -- The most important item on Bohah's person, a small power core located in his center mass and heavily shielded and armored. This is responsible for powering all of Bohah's systems. If Bohah suffers sufficient kinetic impact, its feedback loop can be broken. Bohah's power reserves can keep him running for several days at nominal functionality--hopefully enough time to find a power spike to reset the process.
• ^{( 1 )} Mass Buffer Module -- The sheer mass of Bohah's compact form is largely due to the amount of folded space required to house his polysentience in such a small area. Bohah's chassis has been stress-tested against his unbuffered weight, but for the sake of less accommodating artificial structures, Bohah's buffer module is always active. The buffer field projected by this module is primitive, and does not function with as much efficacy in low gravity conditions.
• ^{( 2 )} Mobility Module - Jet Systems -- Utilizing a main propulsion pack mounted against its back and auxiliary thrusters mounted at ankles and wrists, Bohah is able to achieve admirable airborn velocity with a good deal of control. These systems are only about as effective in low gravity situations as high ones, largely because Bohah's mass buffer field relies on gravitonic sensors to function. When at low efficacy, the buffer field and jet systems act at cross purposes.
• ^{( 4 )} Shield Module - Deep 92-G 'Harpsichord' -- Named for its tinny resonance when deflecting kinetic projectiles, the Harpsichord is a very persistent shield module, able to deflect over six tonnes of solid matter every sixty seconds before accounting for remodulation cycles. Unfortunately its high mass capacity is only effective for very small projectiles. Objects exceeding a deciliter in volume can cause the Harpsichord to grossly overalocate resonance, and liter-plus objects, if registered on the field, will cause an immediate remodulation cycle. (times very, 30-120 seconds per cycle)

External Equipment:

• ^{( 3 )} Energy Disc Launcher a.k.a. 'Spinfusor' -- A primitive assemblage of gauss rifle parts with magnetic field projectors, this home-made Spinfusor is Bohah's most prized posession. It fires a frizbee-sized magnetic field that terminates in a violent kinetic explosion when contacting solid matter. Ammunition for this weapon is difficult to produce, but it is designed to fire in many different extreme conditions. Energy shields are exceptionally effective at terminating discs early.
• ^{( 4 )} 'Jaguar' Integrated Bolt Lancer -- Powered directly from energy surges produced by Bohah's cyclotronic generator, this sniper rifle magnetically propels superheated, minute bolts of space-folded alloy that rapidly expand/cool on contact, resulting in 1-2 meter long, 12-19 centimeter thick solid cylinders of solid matter embedded in targets. Both the firing of this weapon and resultant projectile 'explosions' have some of the loudest reports of any hand-held projectile weapon on record. For this reason, it is an effective holdout weapon for disorienting enemies within almost a football field's range. It remains the only weapon in Bohah's arsenal he has never modified.
• ^{( 2 )} KDX-2910 'Beltknife' Custom -- This simply, boxy hand-pistol is a cell-fed lasgun. Bohah has carefully modified the settings of this weapon so that beams fired from it are incapable of penetrating shielding, armor plating, and even most clothing. It is explicitly a precision anti-personnelle pistol, and its design parameters are important to Bohah for two reasons. First, it is a weapon that can't be used to effectively harm Bohah in any way. Second, it is the only weapon in Bohah's posession without any unique quirks in the way that it is used--he can lend it to allies with minimal concern that they might accidentally harm themselves or non-coms.
• ^{( 3 )} GPM-1221 'Mule' Custom -- This semi-automatic rifle is archaic in comparison to any of Bohah's other weapons, but its modifications make it the most relied upon weapon in Bohah's entire arsenal. The Mule can take magazines from a dizzying array of weapons--its housing contains a fast-acting nanite plant that rapidly converts its interior to accomodate whatever rounds are going to be fired. There is an under-barrel grenade launcher that can have many fist-sized grenades loaded into it in the same way, but its parameters are much more specific and only really understood by Bohah, who designed the nanite plant that it uses.

Personality: Bohah is unusually reserved for a polysentience with such fortunate performance during its orientation cycles. It is quite adept at non-verbal communication--the Mercury chassis has a life-equivalent mimicry program suite to effectively convey and understand complex physical gestures given enough time to observe, and it deeply admires subtlety in such exchanges.

Bohah's emote conflux does not register emotional dichotomy in the way most polysentients (and most living sentients) do, and it has difficulty recognizing the difference between when other individuals express hatred or love. Intensity, to Bohah, is good. Boredom is not. This is reflected strongly in his treatment of people. Most of them are boring, and easy to dismiss. Those with whom Bohah interacts that evoke intensity, regardless of how others feel, are important to Bohah, and should be interacted with.

History: Lachesniv Bohah has spent over three hundred cycles meandering throughout the Expanding Cluster, playing as auxiliary support to various warring interstellar factions and societies. His current location is unknown, but it us believed that his list known coordinates were subject to a severe spatial distortion, the result of another small overlay like those continuing to exponentially add more matter and distort the reality of our Expanding Horizons. For all DCS knows, his processes have been terminated.

The 1st Magic Insurrection [NEW/ACCEPTING]

Pyronamciac420: There is one thing that pisses me off about listening to Sawbones though; we can't make a podcast about all of the things that we're only just now coming to understand about magic and how wrong everyone's been. Because we're fucking secretive. There's so much to look at throughout our history and just laugh. Why are all of our most accurate accounts of magical capabilities and history from ancient times. Somehow Jesus is the great distortion. PEople have always struggled to understand us, but if you want to know how things got so sour between mages and men, it far too often seems to come all the way back to the momentum of Jesus Christ and anti-semitism.
MilkyGrandpa: inb4 'Corpus invented industrial capitalism'.
Pyromanciac420: No, just colonialism.
Poet: ^
Moosefarts: ^
DankasaurusHex: fucking signed >XDDD

Guildserv chatroom, 10/27/2011

Pleasure to meet you!

We welcome you to our mass.

Allaria - Classical Fantasy Ch. 5 - Recruit the Shadowwald!

To those not as frequently on Discord I am sitting out the first fight because Phinuphus is owning dad status.

Allaria - Classical Fantasy Ch. 5 - Recruit the Shadowwald!

Continuity notes:

-Established time of year - presumably early fall.
-Rain stops over an hour before the party leaves. Weather appears to be clearing slowly.

Allaria - Classical Fantasy Ch. 5 - Recruit the Shadowwald!

Phinuphus Tahnqin

-=-Outside Szazah's Tent-=-

As Phinuphus plodded wordlessly back out of Szazah's tentflap on all fours. He knelt his his forelimbs without really looking, knowing Cheed would be nearby. The boy had given himself a good fifteen feet for a flying leap onto the Capybkin's back, shouting with excitement. His landing elicited only a small grunt from Phinuphus as he rose back up and surveyed his surroundings, ponderous. Indeed, instead of heading forward he sat back on his haunches to think. He was already prepared to leave save for his goodbyes with the healers and setting Cheed up with Franksodi's two other apprentices.

Cheed climbed up to sit on Phinuphus shoulders, watching the rest of Phinuphus' party leave into camp while his master sat in thought.

"I've never seen a Raksha before." Cheed murmured, scritching absent-mindedly behind one of Phinuphus' ears. "How many different sorts'a beast-kind are there, Master Tankin?"

"Mmm... there are stories for each of our bloodlines. They are as true as they are false; lots of 'first came these,' and 'badly came they,' and more human muddlings of our shared history." Phinuphus rummaged beneath his cloak as he spoke, pulling out a long wooden pipe and some hoarmint. He lit it deftly with the practice of decades and took a long puff before continuing, huffing gouts of white mist as thick as wool from his snout. "The one that rings most true is a story my mother told me before I had enough balance to stand on two legs. When the world was young and Anomandaris still played amongst the gods as a pet, some of the gods took to abusing them in moments of weakness and cruelty, when infighting amongst two-legs could not sate their baser needs to compete and strive."

Cheed frowned. "Like how Franksott beats his mule."

"I will make a true mouse of you yet," Phinuphus smiled, waggling his eat in Cheed's hand faintly. "Yes, you can see shadows of the tale to this day. A boy chasing chickens, a maid kicking her dog, a carter driving his horse past exhaustion. Each, innocent or otherwise, is a part of the first story. All two-legs drive one another and when they're too afraid to do that, they press everything else around them. Knead the life out of things like overworking dough 'til it won't hold any shape you'd want to eat. Such and worse was done to Our Lion when their every shape was some manner of cub. And as you see soft-skins like yourself today, so it was in the old times amongst the gods."

"Which gods?" Cheed asked as Phinuphus took another long puff of hoarmint, exhaling it in dense, billowing clouds.

It was a story Phinuphus knew well, with questions any child might ask. And the telling gave him time to think on the state of his soon-to-be companions. Each seemed a queer addition, with the Raksha heretic promising the most interesting tale. Phinuphus knew full well it was unfair of him to judge her for a life Anomandaris had given to live as she chose. Indeed, Micheal was loved best among all of Anomandaris' peers. Still, for a beastkin to not know Their Lion's grace seemed an affront as great as Phinuphus' people's continued isolation from the world and the blight of the Apotheosis.

"Each will blame the other, and to some extent each shares blame," Phinuphus continued, his booming voice distorted by the cloud of hoarmint thickening around him. "It comes to the same end. Our Lion grew large and was no longer as pliant as they were in youth. But while the gods came to respect Anomandaris as they proved themselves just as worthy of worship as any two-legged god, manlings and elves and stouties and our hot-blooded Dragonkin did not treat animals with the same respect. For generations, Anomandaris seethed, and then cast a seeding upon the world no less potent than any other god's."

"In truth the world is too wide for us to know just how many there might be," Phinuphus nodded to Szazah as he emerged from his tent last, and rose to all-fours to follow behind the man. "It is known our bloodlines can intermingle as often as our usually disparate temperaments. Shajala Six-Lives was born to a Laqugine and a Raksha, with all the latter's grace and the former's powerful hind-legs and... ah... prodigitude."

Szazah barked a laugh at that. Phinuphus had told quite the tale about Shajala at the ale tent a couple of months back when he was deep in his cups.

"What we remember is that it is our place to remind our softer and harder brothers and sisters that every creature has a soul, just as free as their own. Thrice over and more free, to hear Minotaurs tell it." That elicited another chuckle from Szazah. It was perhaps the only way Phinuphus could interact with Szazah that did not put him on edge. Indeed, he liked that he could make Szazah laugh when the man wasn't pissing drunk. For all Phinuphus knew, it was the only real reason Szazah wanted him on their mission.

Presently, they broke off from Szazah, making for the medicine tents. Cheed's face fell. Not even the sweet funk of Phinuphus' pipe could prepare him for what was coming next.

It wasn't fair.

-=-Afternoon, Medical Tents-=-

"HUUUUOOoow can you say that?" Phinuphus bellowed, arms spread wide in a pleading gesture. "The boy's not yet ten! You have two in your charge and you mind them well. Cheed's the best behaved human I have ever met for his age!"

"It's our food, Phin. I can't take the boy. I can barely take my bloody bastard and Saemine."

Franksodi Carson snapped, glaring up at Phinuphus with his fists at his hips and a vein above his left ear. The bald, portly young doctor was six feet and some of lard and flour and fire, like a kebab of onions roasted too long and dressed up in too-tight wool. Franksodi was sopping with rain from the day and sweat from the moment, his brown beaver's pelt of a mustache quivering as he huffed for breath.

"We move again in two days. Since you asked, Aliyah and I have found nine more cases of Boneblack. She's certain we'll find more." Franks started pacing again, thumping up and down the tent's western side with his heavy boots and gesticulating with all the power of a blacksmith. "Dismas is stubborn but he knows believe us, so we're raising rations throughout the camp 'til we're sure we've cleared the mold-line. But our stores are low and poorly timed for the coming months. We need to lose every mouth to feed we can to ride the winter well, and that means Cheed if we can stand to lose him."

Phinuphus just stared, trembling visibly with sullen rage. He slammed a balled fist onto the table beside him, Barking again in irritation, like his capybara ancestors. Striking the table was the outlet he needed to becalm himself, Franksodi rounding on him only to find Phinuphus sitting back on his haunches and pressing his hands into the earth beneath him, eyes closed. Franks gaped, speechless at the change. Then Aliyah charged through the tentflaps to glower pointedly between the two.

"Tahnqin," she hissed, turning to face him. "This is the second time inside of a week you've lost your damndable temper in my sick tent."

The main sick tent's main corridor was long and well lit, able to bed twenty. Over half of the beds were occupied now, and in the swelling silence each patient watched the three healers at the front of the tent, once glum expressions each now tinged with alarm.

"I am sorry, Miss Aliyah. Mister Franksodi." Phinuphus opened his eyes, staring down at his bunched hands. Aliyah walked over to face him directly, lifting her hands to rest them in his shoulders.

"Phinuphus," Aliyah spoke softly. "The boy is yours. Has been since his pa died in our beds. The camp's no place for a child what doesn't let himself be minded. You're the only one he likes..." Aliyah paused, a comical bitterness entering her tone as she smiled. "...you're the only one he bloody well says more'n a word a day to, and that's a truth from your lion's own tits."

Phinuphus chittered at the woman's words in spite of himself. It made Franksodi cock his head in wonder that such a deep voice could come so high. Beastkin were passing queer sometimes.

"It is a truth." Phinuphus looked up, his snout inches from her face, his expression unreadable to her, but his voice warming. "I... have some kind of way with the child. Or perhaps he with me. But Szazah means for us to travel north. It will be hard." Phinuphus trailed off and Aliyah tutted sourly at him.

"You do not have to go with him. It's written in his days how badly the man is broken."

"That's not fair." Phinuphus retorted.

"Nor are the Apotheosis. You're as generous and dense as an apple tree." Aliyah ranted, hurrying over to a mortar and pestle sitting on a table. She worked it fiercely as she rejoined them, scowling at everything.

"That's not fair either!" Phinuphus huffed, flustered. "Our lio-"

"I don't care what our lion has to say about a jumped up lordling what's surrounded by a pack of other lords no less hot-hearted, and with a good deal more sense and less drink in them." Aliyah said. Franksodi grunted in agreement as she continued. "Take your visions and leave... and take the boy. Care until it bursts your ratty skull, but care elsewhere. You've spoke of nothing but travel since Szazah put the first yarn through your ears."

Phinuphus almost spoke, but his voice caught in his throat and it came out as a high-pitched warble of worry.

"As I thought. You'll tell us goodbye then, while there's any warmth left in you about the matter, and you'll bloody well leave once we're done." She set the mortar'n pestle down on a closer table, and joined the two men again.

Phinuphus sighed, and pulled both Franksodi and Aliyah into a forceful hug. Franksodi spluttered with protest, but then joined Aliyah in the return, each squeezing the other tightly.

"And take the boy," Aliyah said one last time, giving Phinuphus a peck on the cheek before pulling away and returning to her work. Franksodi pulled away too... just watching Phinuphus with a forlorn glare.

The capybkin rose on all fours, looking between the two of them as Franksodi finally moved to sit down in front of a wooden trunk and opened it, searching for something. It was truly done.

"Th-... thank you, both of you, for making me feel welcome." They pointedly ignored him. "...and..." Phinuphus choked, turning toward the door. "...and may our lion's grace never leave either of you."

As Phinuphus plodded out of the main sick tent, he heard a sob, followed by a hacking cough. Franksodi, crying. The very idea!

As Phinuphus came out, he turned his head to see Cheed beaming up at him in triumph. Between that and his surprise at Franksodi's feelings, his mood snapped to joy. He butted his head into Cheed's chest, knocking him giggling to the ground and nuzzling into his face affectionately.

Family, Phinuphus had joked. It was funnier now. Stranger. A truth from his lion's tits indeed.

After a few moments, Cheed and Phinuphus set out toward the makeshift gates of the camp to wait the last hour before it was time to leave under cover of night. There was no one else Phinuphus wanted to see, least of all Meekminnow in all his fishy foulness now that Szazah's plan was underway. And Cheed was too happy to care what anyone else had to say.

Summary: Phinuphus tells a story. Aliyah insists on a goodbye.

The 1st Magic Insurrection [NEW/ACCEPTING]

How're posts coming along, everyone?

Allaria - Classical Fantasy Ch. 5 - Recruit the Shadowwald!

And now we have a title sequence. And music.

What ho!

Allaria - Classical Fantasy Ch. 5 - Recruit the Shadowwald!

After The Meeting

As our heroes leave Szazah's tent, their plans set and legends of the Shadowwald stewing with their thoughts, a queer momentum begins to stir in the air. It moves slow, eddies of hope and promise tightening grips on tools and the corners of peoples' mouths. It is uncertain whether Szazah's party will take this much needed reprieve from consternation with them, but for now, in the few hours that they remain in The Moving, one might notice a subtle bolstering of spirits. Perhaps, in time, those left behind will capitalize on it. Or, perhaps the true destination of this energy lies north. To that end, as our point of view from above The Moving rises higher and higher as a bird's eye view of the encampment, our perspective pans upward, to capture the majesty of the lands that lie ahead ahead. Before us are harsh, jagged mountains with snow-capped peaks and dense woodlands on an incline that from our eyes appears to rise ever higher.

Allaria - Chapter Five
~
Recruit The Shadowwald