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Re: [FLUFF] Official 2012 New Year's Challenge
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Bill Martin
Jan 1, 2012, 2:29:39 PM1/1/12
to
On 2012-01-01 13:28:16 -0600, Bill Martin <bill_r...@hotmail.com> said:
> Good luck to all the entrants. Any teams formed after this posting
> will be considered omake.
>
> Easy Challenge -
>
> You have been selected to host a visiting scientist. You are to pick
> her and her invention up after the Science Convention being hosted in
> your town (or nearby "big" town if you feel your town is not sufficient
> enough to host a Science Convention), and when you show up at the
> convention, there's still several hours left before she and her latest
> breakthrough are done showing off. You decide to stroll around the
> convention, where you come across a somewhat familiar sight. A
> variation of the device used to summon the characters for the New
> Year's Challenges is wired into a audio/visual helmet on a restraining
> chair. Curiosity gets the better of you, and you volunteer for a
> demonstration of this "greatest advance in Virtual Reality."
>
> After sitting in the chair, wearing the hat, and choosing your
> teammates, the ones you planned on using this year, you find yourself
> in a truly stupendous world. The helmet is replacing the stimuli to
> your brain, as you and your team are interacting as if this was the
> real world. However, like every cliched sci-fi show, something's bound
> to go wrong. You receive a cryptic message, and the world starts to
> crumble around you and you black out. As you come to, the device
> operator tells you the system unexpectedly crashed. As you start to
> get up out of the chair, you black out again. When you come to this
> time, security has you restrained, telling you to calm down. It seems
> one of your teammates's personality was in your body while you blacked
> out.
>
> You must deal with this, as you host Professor Shinonome, and her
> teenage-looking robot Nano for a week.
>
> Medium Challenge -
>
> The challenge device is beeping frantically for you to input your team
> choices, while no apparent challenge is ready. After confirming your
> team members, you find yourself being drawn into a strange wormhole.
> When you arrive at the other end of the wormhole, you find yourself
> back stage at some game show along with your tema members. Joe Rogan
> meets with your team and lets you know that with the return of his show
> Fear Factor, interdimensional sponsors have demanded the return of
> Anime Fear Factor as well. Your team will break up and tackle a task
> individually, then if everyone passes, one final challenge as a team,
> with you helping on the final challenge as well.
>
> You may help prep your teammates for their individual tasks, however
> they must complete it by themselves. They may tackle whichever of the
> tasks they wish, it is not determined by their order of being picked
> for your team.
>
> Task 1 - Eat a seven course meal prepared by Akane Tendo, from Season
> one of Ranma 1/2.
> Task 2 - Lay in a tub and be covered with snakes or hissing cockroaches
> for 15 minutes, whichever the one taking the task is more disgusted by.
> Task 3 - Lay in a coffin and be buried alive for 15 minutes.
>
> Once all three tasks are done, you and your teammates will perform live
> karaoke in a stadium, in the buff. That's right fear of singing in
> public, combined with fear of public nudity. The karaoke machine is
> from 2050, with songs from the beginning of time to whenever you write
> the fic.
>
> Hard Challenge -
>
> Since the Mayan Calendar is set to end its main cycle, and start anew
> this year, you and your team are tasked with finding within the period
> of one week, enough photos to be put in digital form in a time capsule
> to be placed and buried on the moon.
>
> You must obtain the following photos:
> 1) You and your teammates holding a current copy of the New York Times
> 2) One of your team flashing the victory sign with Kim Jong Il's corpse
> in the background
> 3) One of your team with the current Pope
> 4) One of your team with President Barack Obama
> 5) One of your team at each of the Seven Wonders of the World
> 6) One of your team in one of the zero gravity drops on the "Vomit
> Comet," the plane used to train astronauts.
> 7) One of your team with a ticket to a Broadway show.
>
> After assembling all the photos, you get the capsule to the shuttle
> launch, where something goes wrong and technical difficulties prevent
> the shuttle from launching, which means you must find a way, on your
> own, to get the time capsule to the moon for burial.
>
> You may e-mail me or respond to this thread for any clarification you may need.
Forgot to crosspost to r.a.a.f
--
Please note, I have blocked most gmail addresses. I can still be
reached by e-mail, and if you are a legitimate poster, I can make an
exception in my killfile rules to allow me to see your posts. I do not
like the spam when it doesn't come from those tins.
> Good luck to all the entrants. Any teams formed after this posting
> will be considered omake.
>
> Easy Challenge -
>
> You have been selected to host a visiting scientist. You are to pick
> her and her invention up after the Science Convention being hosted in
> your town (or nearby "big" town if you feel your town is not sufficient
> enough to host a Science Convention), and when you show up at the
> convention, there's still several hours left before she and her latest
> breakthrough are done showing off. You decide to stroll around the
> convention, where you come across a somewhat familiar sight. A
> variation of the device used to summon the characters for the New
> Year's Challenges is wired into a audio/visual helmet on a restraining
> chair. Curiosity gets the better of you, and you volunteer for a
> demonstration of this "greatest advance in Virtual Reality."
>
> After sitting in the chair, wearing the hat, and choosing your
> teammates, the ones you planned on using this year, you find yourself
> in a truly stupendous world. The helmet is replacing the stimuli to
> your brain, as you and your team are interacting as if this was the
> real world. However, like every cliched sci-fi show, something's bound
> to go wrong. You receive a cryptic message, and the world starts to
> crumble around you and you black out. As you come to, the device
> operator tells you the system unexpectedly crashed. As you start to
> get up out of the chair, you black out again. When you come to this
> time, security has you restrained, telling you to calm down. It seems
> one of your teammates's personality was in your body while you blacked
> out.
>
> You must deal with this, as you host Professor Shinonome, and her
> teenage-looking robot Nano for a week.
>
> Medium Challenge -
>
> The challenge device is beeping frantically for you to input your team
> choices, while no apparent challenge is ready. After confirming your
> team members, you find yourself being drawn into a strange wormhole.
> When you arrive at the other end of the wormhole, you find yourself
> back stage at some game show along with your tema members. Joe Rogan
> meets with your team and lets you know that with the return of his show
> Fear Factor, interdimensional sponsors have demanded the return of
> Anime Fear Factor as well. Your team will break up and tackle a task
> individually, then if everyone passes, one final challenge as a team,
> with you helping on the final challenge as well.
>
> You may help prep your teammates for their individual tasks, however
> they must complete it by themselves. They may tackle whichever of the
> tasks they wish, it is not determined by their order of being picked
> for your team.
>
> Task 1 - Eat a seven course meal prepared by Akane Tendo, from Season
> one of Ranma 1/2.
> Task 2 - Lay in a tub and be covered with snakes or hissing cockroaches
> for 15 minutes, whichever the one taking the task is more disgusted by.
> Task 3 - Lay in a coffin and be buried alive for 15 minutes.
>
> Once all three tasks are done, you and your teammates will perform live
> karaoke in a stadium, in the buff. That's right fear of singing in
> public, combined with fear of public nudity. The karaoke machine is
> from 2050, with songs from the beginning of time to whenever you write
> the fic.
>
> Hard Challenge -
>
> Since the Mayan Calendar is set to end its main cycle, and start anew
> this year, you and your team are tasked with finding within the period
> of one week, enough photos to be put in digital form in a time capsule
> to be placed and buried on the moon.
>
> You must obtain the following photos:
> 1) You and your teammates holding a current copy of the New York Times
> 2) One of your team flashing the victory sign with Kim Jong Il's corpse
> in the background
> 3) One of your team with the current Pope
> 4) One of your team with President Barack Obama
> 5) One of your team at each of the Seven Wonders of the World
> 6) One of your team in one of the zero gravity drops on the "Vomit
> Comet," the plane used to train astronauts.
> 7) One of your team with a ticket to a Broadway show.
>
> After assembling all the photos, you get the capsule to the shuttle
> launch, where something goes wrong and technical difficulties prevent
> the shuttle from launching, which means you must find a way, on your
> own, to get the time capsule to the moon for burial.
>
> You may e-mail me or respond to this thread for any clarification you may need.
Forgot to crosspost to r.a.a.f
--
Please note, I have blocked most gmail addresses. I can still be
reached by e-mail, and if you are a legitimate poster, I can make an
exception in my killfile rules to allow me to see your posts. I do not
like the spam when it doesn't come from those tins.
Starcade
Jan 5, 2012, 4:41:14 PM1/5/12
to
Easy Challenge being written, but one question I'm not sure got
addressed yet:
Is Professor Shinonome the creator of this machine? I am assuming
that, once the week is over, I'll be "myself" again -- but will that
require another trip into the machine to kinda "debug" myself?
-------
Status:
Easy Challenge: Once I get this answer, should be rather trivial. If
you can't answer til tomorrow, that's fine -- it'll be about Monday or
Tuesday before I can get that one out.
Hard Challenge: Just trying to figure out the different situations.
I thought, for a moment, that I was a goner vis-a-vis when the shuttle
goes kaflooie, but then I remembered who I had on my team... :)
Mike
addressed yet:
Is Professor Shinonome the creator of this machine? I am assuming
that, once the week is over, I'll be "myself" again -- but will that
require another trip into the machine to kinda "debug" myself?
-------
Status:
Easy Challenge: Once I get this answer, should be rather trivial. If
you can't answer til tomorrow, that's fine -- it'll be about Monday or
Tuesday before I can get that one out.
Hard Challenge: Just trying to figure out the different situations.
I thought, for a moment, that I was a goner vis-a-vis when the shuttle
goes kaflooie, but then I remembered who I had on my team... :)
Mike
Bill Martin
Jan 11, 2012, 1:28:35 PM1/11/12
to
No, Professor Shinonome is only responsible for Nano at that
convention. It will not require you to revisit the machine to debug
yourself either.
david.sh...@ymail.com
Jan 15, 2012, 9:42:00 AM1/15/12
to
Here goes. It was harder writing this than I thought it would be.
[][][][][][][][][][][][]
There was much interest in the newly established "Science Convention".
Especially after the program was released, at which time some started
calling it the "Mad Science Convention".
I wasn't particularly involved until Dean Titor called me up, a week
before. "Dave, I've got a problem. Can you host a Japanese scientist
for me? You're always talking about those Japanese cartoons you
watch,
and your trip to Japan, so you must know some Japanese."
"Just basic tourist stuff, and the cartoons would only be useful if I
want to sound like a teenage girl."
He smiled at that. "Anyway, there is no one else I can turn to, so
could you?"
"I suppose I could clear out the spare room. And Japanese scientists
usually know some English, so it shouldn't be to hard. I'll do it."
"Great, Professor Shinonome will be presenting the first day, with her
robot. Stop by my office at five, would you?"
(Her?)
* * * *
The day of the convention arrived. Dean Titor had wangled me a staff
badge, so I went early, and checked out the exhibit hall. In one
corner
was something like a dentist's chair, next to a large metal cabinet
the size of a washing machine. There was a sign, "Virtual Reality
with
Fictional Characters". A man stepped out. "Hi, I'm Bill Martin. Can
I interest you with a chance to meet your favorite characters from
anime?
Or manga, or certain video games. I'm sorry that's all we have
available
right now. Things are pretty light at the moment, so we can do you
three
characters today."
"Sounds interesting. I've been interested in anime with strong FRPG
influences lately, so I'll go for Louie, from Rune Soldier, Fam, from
Ruin Explorers, and Naga, from Slayers."
Martin typed something in, waited for a moment, and said, "Yes, I can
give
you them. Sit right down here."
I sat. First he put a helmet on me. Then I could restraints going on
my arms and legs. "We don't want you wandering around in the real
world."
Finally, I felt some pin-pricks in my scalp. "That's for the brain
induction."
Brain induction?
* * *
I found myself sitting behind a desk, in a conservatively dressed
room.
On a pad in front of me were several buttons, labeled "Louie", "Fam",
"Naga", and "Service".
Louie
I pressed the Service button. "A pitcher of Yuengling Porter, and
two mugs." A man came by with the order.
Then the Louie button. A man in generic medieval-fantasy clothing and
blue hair appeared before me. "Don't be alarmed, I just want to
talk,"
I said, as I pushed a mug of Porter in his direction. "You are the
great hero Louie?"
"Hero? I don't know about that, but, yeah, I'm Louie."
"You have a fairly unique style of magic. I wonder.... Can anyone
learn to use magic? Could I learn magic?"
"Maybe. It's a lot of hard work studying at the Guild, but you look
like the type. But you need a wand to do magic."
"How do you get a wand?"
"You need a piece of an ancient tree, then someone has to cast some
fancy magic."
"But if you need a wand to do magic, and you need magic to make a
wand, where did the first wand come from?"
"I dunno. You should have summoned Ila instead of me if you wanted
to talk about magic."
"Hmm. Ila. So, for you, Ila or Melissa?"
....
After the fifth mug, Louie got kind of sleepy, so I pressed the Louie
button again, and he disappeared.
Fam
I pressed the Fam button. A young woman with long, tufted ears and
a tail appeared before me. "Where am I? What's going on? Where's
Irie?"
"Fam? Don't be alarmed. I just wanted to chat. When we're done
I'll send you back. Would you like something to drink?"
"Uh, some tea?"
I pressed the Service button.
"A pot of oolong tea, and two cups, please." A woman in kimono came
with the order, and left it.
"Can I ask how you learned magic?"
"well, I've always been able to talk to the spirits, but I learned
specific spells from Irie. She know a lot of spells, but won't
cast them herself because, um, er. ..."
"I know about the curse. So how did you meet Irie?" The OVA didn't
go into this.
"Well, you see, ...."
.....
After the discussion, I pushed the Fam button to send her back.
Naga
Next, I pushed the Naga button, and she, in turn, appeared in front of
me.
"Have I successfully summoned the great, famous, beautiful, and
powerful
sorceress Naga the Serpent? Who wanders the world, performing acts of
great justice, occasionally accompanied by Lina somebody?" I hoped
this
flattery would succeed.
"You have rare perception old man. I am she. But why have you called
me?"
"Just to meet you, and talk to you. You have long been one of my
heroines. And I have a few questions I'd like to ask." Setting up
an answer to a question I expected, I pressed the Service button,
and spoke again. "Ten Krugerrands, please, and a bottle of Chateau
Latour."
"I suppose I can converse with a generous man like yourself."
Soon a young woman in a maid costume arrived, somehow managing to
carry
a bottle of wine and two glasses, and a plate with ten gold pieces
upon it. She set the plate on the desk, opened the bottle, filled
the
glasses, and left. We began to talk.
At one point I asked, "Can anyone learn magic? You were summoned here
using a device that someone else constructed, but I sometime wish I
could use magic directly."
Naga laughed. "You want to pay me to teach you? Most people can
learn some magic, but only a talented few have the power to learn
the greater spells."
Finally, I asked Naga, "Are you in fact a royal princess of Saillune?"
She started to respond, when...
GLOBAL PROTECTION FAULT # 33248W2
zAP!
* * * *
I came to in the chair, and the helmet popped off.
"The system seems to have crashed. I guess we still have a few bugs."
"Oh, well, I was just about through anyway." I struggled to get up,
when I had an odd feeling and passed out.
* * * *
Next thing I knew, I was still in the chair, but the restraints were
back on, and more people were standing around.
"What just happened?"
"Can you tell me the date?"
"It's January 2nd, why do you ask? Don't you have a cell phone if
you want to know such things?"
They relaxed. "Just checking you out. It seems like your body had
been taken over by the personalities of one of the characters.
You had suddenly called out to 'spirits of the air' to protect you.
Nothing like this has happened before. You seem to have recovered,
so you should be alright now."
Mad science indeed, I thought.
* * * *
Introduction to Professor Shinonome.
I showed up at Dean Titor's office at the appointed time. I was
surprised to see a blond girl of about 8 years old, and what appeared
to be a teen-age girl, except that she had a very large winding key
attached to her back.
"You didn't say Professor Shinonome had brought a daughter with her.
It will be a little crowded with two guests and a robot."
"This *is* Professor Shinonome. And that is the Shinonome Robot,
called
'Nano'."
"Oh."
The Mad Science Convention living up to it's reputation.
"Don't worry, Nano is skilled in child care."
* * * *
Tuesday afternoon, back at home, I blacked out, only to find myself
on
the roof. With no sign of a ladder. After calling out for help,
I got Nano to set the ladder up.
"You were saying something like 'The great Naga can handle this.
Levitation!' And then you actually levitated."
The Professor came out and added, "You flew. Do it again! Do it
again!"
What the heck. "Levitation!" Nothing happened.
On further thought, I suspected that the virtual reality system
crash had caused some sort of brain damage. I went back to the
convention to find this Martin person, and try to get some
more information.
"The system seems to have invoked a New Year's Challenge. I didn't
think a virtual reality version would do that. This appears to be
a very mild case, and in any event, the effects should be over the
end of the week."
Hosting an eight-year-old professor seemed like even more of a bad
idea.
I tried to dig up the Dean.
"Dean Titor is too busy to talk to you right now," was about the best
answer I got, after several attempts. Well, maybe things will work
out.
The characters were fairly benign.
* * * *
Wednesday I heard sounds of tinkering from the spare room. That
evening the Professor came up to me, pulled on my sleeve, and
asked me to come outside, where Nano was waiting.
"Watch this!" She pulled out a remote control from her pocket,
and pushed a button. Nano rose into the air, propelled from jets
of flame from her feet.
"Very impressive. Now, can she land?" The jets cut off, and
Nano came crashing down.
"Tomorrow."
Thursday, though, the Professor found something in the schedule.
Doctor Slump was exhibiting his robot Arale, so I took them in.
I left them talking, while I went through the exhibit hall.
A Dr. Hyouma had a device that turned bananas into green jelly.
I blacked out, briefly. When I came to, I had a sore throat.
Bystanders were muttering. "Now that's a proper mad scientist's
laugh." "But an impromptu lesson is a bit over the top, isn't it?"
Naga must have taken over again.
On the drive home, I blacked out again, and came to with the car
on the shoulder, facing backwards. Oops. Nano explained that
I suddenly seemed to panic, and called upon the spirits of the air
to stop me. There was a whirlwind, and the car stopped. The
Professor was unperturbed. Fortunately there was nobody else
around, so there was no collision, and I didn't get cited for
DWI. Still, I thought I had better stop driving until this is over.
Friday I went out, on foot, to pick up some crayons and drawing
paper. When I got back, the Professor and Nano were both stuck
to the floor. "Glue." It turned out to be water soluble, so I
managed to clean it up without being stuck myself. In the afternoon
I blacked out again, only to find myself straining my back to move
furniture in the spare room. That was probably Louie.
Saturday I found myself five feet up in the air, falling. I thought
I sprained something, but either Naga or Fam took over next, as
I recovered after the next blackout. (I don't think Louie knows
any healing magic, and anyway without his wand he has no magic.)
The Professor offered me some cake, which came out of a compartment
hidden inside Nano.
Sunday I blacked out a couple of times, but I think they were
getting used to me and my environment, as there weren't any
particular problems. I wonder if this is also happening when I
am asleep? I suppose if so, the alternate personalities are also
asleep, so I couldn't tell.
Monday, mid-day, I could feel them leaving me. What a relief! So
I felt confident about driving the Professor and Nano back to Dean
Titor's office, where I said goodbye. On the whole they had been
entertaining houseguests. I'll have to be more careful about
dealing with the exhibits at next year's convention.
No volunteering.
[][][][][][][][][][][][]
There was much interest in the newly established "Science Convention".
Especially after the program was released, at which time some started
calling it the "Mad Science Convention".
I wasn't particularly involved until Dean Titor called me up, a week
before. "Dave, I've got a problem. Can you host a Japanese scientist
for me? You're always talking about those Japanese cartoons you
watch,
and your trip to Japan, so you must know some Japanese."
"Just basic tourist stuff, and the cartoons would only be useful if I
want to sound like a teenage girl."
He smiled at that. "Anyway, there is no one else I can turn to, so
could you?"
"I suppose I could clear out the spare room. And Japanese scientists
usually know some English, so it shouldn't be to hard. I'll do it."
"Great, Professor Shinonome will be presenting the first day, with her
robot. Stop by my office at five, would you?"
(Her?)
* * * *
The day of the convention arrived. Dean Titor had wangled me a staff
badge, so I went early, and checked out the exhibit hall. In one
corner
was something like a dentist's chair, next to a large metal cabinet
the size of a washing machine. There was a sign, "Virtual Reality
with
Fictional Characters". A man stepped out. "Hi, I'm Bill Martin. Can
I interest you with a chance to meet your favorite characters from
anime?
Or manga, or certain video games. I'm sorry that's all we have
available
right now. Things are pretty light at the moment, so we can do you
three
characters today."
"Sounds interesting. I've been interested in anime with strong FRPG
influences lately, so I'll go for Louie, from Rune Soldier, Fam, from
Ruin Explorers, and Naga, from Slayers."
Martin typed something in, waited for a moment, and said, "Yes, I can
give
you them. Sit right down here."
I sat. First he put a helmet on me. Then I could restraints going on
my arms and legs. "We don't want you wandering around in the real
world."
Finally, I felt some pin-pricks in my scalp. "That's for the brain
induction."
Brain induction?
* * *
I found myself sitting behind a desk, in a conservatively dressed
room.
On a pad in front of me were several buttons, labeled "Louie", "Fam",
"Naga", and "Service".
Louie
I pressed the Service button. "A pitcher of Yuengling Porter, and
two mugs." A man came by with the order.
Then the Louie button. A man in generic medieval-fantasy clothing and
blue hair appeared before me. "Don't be alarmed, I just want to
talk,"
I said, as I pushed a mug of Porter in his direction. "You are the
great hero Louie?"
"Hero? I don't know about that, but, yeah, I'm Louie."
"You have a fairly unique style of magic. I wonder.... Can anyone
learn to use magic? Could I learn magic?"
"Maybe. It's a lot of hard work studying at the Guild, but you look
like the type. But you need a wand to do magic."
"How do you get a wand?"
"You need a piece of an ancient tree, then someone has to cast some
fancy magic."
"But if you need a wand to do magic, and you need magic to make a
wand, where did the first wand come from?"
"I dunno. You should have summoned Ila instead of me if you wanted
to talk about magic."
"Hmm. Ila. So, for you, Ila or Melissa?"
....
After the fifth mug, Louie got kind of sleepy, so I pressed the Louie
button again, and he disappeared.
Fam
I pressed the Fam button. A young woman with long, tufted ears and
a tail appeared before me. "Where am I? What's going on? Where's
Irie?"
"Fam? Don't be alarmed. I just wanted to chat. When we're done
I'll send you back. Would you like something to drink?"
"Uh, some tea?"
I pressed the Service button.
"A pot of oolong tea, and two cups, please." A woman in kimono came
with the order, and left it.
"Can I ask how you learned magic?"
"well, I've always been able to talk to the spirits, but I learned
specific spells from Irie. She know a lot of spells, but won't
cast them herself because, um, er. ..."
"I know about the curse. So how did you meet Irie?" The OVA didn't
go into this.
"Well, you see, ...."
.....
After the discussion, I pushed the Fam button to send her back.
Naga
Next, I pushed the Naga button, and she, in turn, appeared in front of
me.
"Have I successfully summoned the great, famous, beautiful, and
powerful
sorceress Naga the Serpent? Who wanders the world, performing acts of
great justice, occasionally accompanied by Lina somebody?" I hoped
this
flattery would succeed.
"You have rare perception old man. I am she. But why have you called
me?"
"Just to meet you, and talk to you. You have long been one of my
heroines. And I have a few questions I'd like to ask." Setting up
an answer to a question I expected, I pressed the Service button,
and spoke again. "Ten Krugerrands, please, and a bottle of Chateau
Latour."
"I suppose I can converse with a generous man like yourself."
Soon a young woman in a maid costume arrived, somehow managing to
carry
a bottle of wine and two glasses, and a plate with ten gold pieces
upon it. She set the plate on the desk, opened the bottle, filled
the
glasses, and left. We began to talk.
At one point I asked, "Can anyone learn magic? You were summoned here
using a device that someone else constructed, but I sometime wish I
could use magic directly."
Naga laughed. "You want to pay me to teach you? Most people can
learn some magic, but only a talented few have the power to learn
the greater spells."
Finally, I asked Naga, "Are you in fact a royal princess of Saillune?"
She started to respond, when...
GLOBAL PROTECTION FAULT # 33248W2
zAP!
* * * *
I came to in the chair, and the helmet popped off.
"The system seems to have crashed. I guess we still have a few bugs."
"Oh, well, I was just about through anyway." I struggled to get up,
when I had an odd feeling and passed out.
* * * *
Next thing I knew, I was still in the chair, but the restraints were
back on, and more people were standing around.
"What just happened?"
"Can you tell me the date?"
"It's January 2nd, why do you ask? Don't you have a cell phone if
you want to know such things?"
They relaxed. "Just checking you out. It seems like your body had
been taken over by the personalities of one of the characters.
You had suddenly called out to 'spirits of the air' to protect you.
Nothing like this has happened before. You seem to have recovered,
so you should be alright now."
Mad science indeed, I thought.
* * * *
Introduction to Professor Shinonome.
I showed up at Dean Titor's office at the appointed time. I was
surprised to see a blond girl of about 8 years old, and what appeared
to be a teen-age girl, except that she had a very large winding key
attached to her back.
"You didn't say Professor Shinonome had brought a daughter with her.
It will be a little crowded with two guests and a robot."
"This *is* Professor Shinonome. And that is the Shinonome Robot,
called
'Nano'."
"Oh."
The Mad Science Convention living up to it's reputation.
"Don't worry, Nano is skilled in child care."
* * * *
Tuesday afternoon, back at home, I blacked out, only to find myself
on
the roof. With no sign of a ladder. After calling out for help,
I got Nano to set the ladder up.
"You were saying something like 'The great Naga can handle this.
Levitation!' And then you actually levitated."
The Professor came out and added, "You flew. Do it again! Do it
again!"
What the heck. "Levitation!" Nothing happened.
On further thought, I suspected that the virtual reality system
crash had caused some sort of brain damage. I went back to the
convention to find this Martin person, and try to get some
more information.
"The system seems to have invoked a New Year's Challenge. I didn't
think a virtual reality version would do that. This appears to be
a very mild case, and in any event, the effects should be over the
end of the week."
Hosting an eight-year-old professor seemed like even more of a bad
idea.
I tried to dig up the Dean.
"Dean Titor is too busy to talk to you right now," was about the best
answer I got, after several attempts. Well, maybe things will work
out.
The characters were fairly benign.
* * * *
Wednesday I heard sounds of tinkering from the spare room. That
evening the Professor came up to me, pulled on my sleeve, and
asked me to come outside, where Nano was waiting.
"Watch this!" She pulled out a remote control from her pocket,
and pushed a button. Nano rose into the air, propelled from jets
of flame from her feet.
"Very impressive. Now, can she land?" The jets cut off, and
Nano came crashing down.
"Tomorrow."
Thursday, though, the Professor found something in the schedule.
Doctor Slump was exhibiting his robot Arale, so I took them in.
I left them talking, while I went through the exhibit hall.
A Dr. Hyouma had a device that turned bananas into green jelly.
I blacked out, briefly. When I came to, I had a sore throat.
Bystanders were muttering. "Now that's a proper mad scientist's
laugh." "But an impromptu lesson is a bit over the top, isn't it?"
Naga must have taken over again.
On the drive home, I blacked out again, and came to with the car
on the shoulder, facing backwards. Oops. Nano explained that
I suddenly seemed to panic, and called upon the spirits of the air
to stop me. There was a whirlwind, and the car stopped. The
Professor was unperturbed. Fortunately there was nobody else
around, so there was no collision, and I didn't get cited for
DWI. Still, I thought I had better stop driving until this is over.
Friday I went out, on foot, to pick up some crayons and drawing
paper. When I got back, the Professor and Nano were both stuck
to the floor. "Glue." It turned out to be water soluble, so I
managed to clean it up without being stuck myself. In the afternoon
I blacked out again, only to find myself straining my back to move
furniture in the spare room. That was probably Louie.
Saturday I found myself five feet up in the air, falling. I thought
I sprained something, but either Naga or Fam took over next, as
I recovered after the next blackout. (I don't think Louie knows
any healing magic, and anyway without his wand he has no magic.)
The Professor offered me some cake, which came out of a compartment
hidden inside Nano.
Sunday I blacked out a couple of times, but I think they were
getting used to me and my environment, as there weren't any
particular problems. I wonder if this is also happening when I
am asleep? I suppose if so, the alternate personalities are also
asleep, so I couldn't tell.
Monday, mid-day, I could feel them leaving me. What a relief! So
I felt confident about driving the Professor and Nano back to Dean
Titor's office, where I said goodbye. On the whole they had been
entertaining houseguests. I'll have to be more careful about
dealing with the exhibits at next year's convention.
No volunteering.
Bill Martin
Jan 20, 2012, 11:03:58 AM1/20/12
to
On 2012-01-15 08:42:00 -0600, david.sh...@ymail.com said:
> Here goes. It was harder writing this than I thought it would be.
Yeah, unless you write fanfics on a regular basis, even the easy
> Here goes. It was harder writing this than I thought it would be.
challenge is just that, a challenge.
> [][][][][][][][][][][][]
> There was much interest in the newly established "Science Convention".
> Especially after the program was released, at which time some started
> calling it the "Mad Science Convention".
whether I would like reading them if I hadn't been the one issuing the
challenges, and having a hook early on is great.
fics, and quite frankly you'll get a LOT of leeway when you use me.
> "Sounds interesting. I've been interested in anime with strong FRPG
> influences lately, so I'll go for Louie, from Rune Soldier, Fam, from
> Ruin Explorers, and Naga, from Slayers."
that needed wands to do magic?
> Friday I went out, on foot, to pick up some crayons and drawing
> paper. When I got back, the Professor and Nano were both stuck
> to the floor. "Glue." It turned out to be water soluble, so I
> managed to clean it up without being stuck myself. In the afternoon
> I blacked out again, only to find myself straining my back to move
> furniture in the spare room. That was probably Louie.
>
> Saturday I found myself five feet up in the air, falling. I thought
> I sprained something, but either Naga or Fam took over next, as
> I recovered after the next blackout. (I don't think Louie knows
> any healing magic, and anyway without his wand he has no magic.)
>
> The Professor offered me some cake, which came out of a compartment
> hidden inside Nano.
>
> Sunday I blacked out a couple of times, but I think they were
> getting used to me and my environment, as there weren't any
> particular problems. I wonder if this is also happening when I
> am asleep? I suppose if so, the alternate personalities are also
> asleep, so I couldn't tell.
>
> Monday, mid-day, I could feel them leaving me. What a relief! So
> I felt confident about driving the Professor and Nano back to Dean
> Titor's office, where I said goodbye. On the whole they had been
> entertaining houseguests. I'll have to be more careful about
> dealing with the exhibits at next year's convention.
> No volunteering.
david.sh...@ymail.com
Jan 20, 2012, 3:42:15 PM1/20/12
to
On Jan 20, 11:03 am, Bill Martin <bill_r_mar...@hotmail.com> wrote:
a
lot of other non-humans around.
I presume the answer to the conundrum is that you can make a wand
without using another wand, it's just a lot more difficult. Perhaps
there
are some naturally formed magic items that can be used, or perhaps
a rare individual can do magic without a wand. Rune Soldier is
supposed
to be set in the same world as Record of Lodoss War, so that might
give
a hint (if only Media Blasters would get around to re-releasing it).
The important point here was that Louie can't do magic without a wand,
so he can't do magic when he takes over my body, and he couldn't make
a wand by himself, even if he had enough time to go to California to
snag
a piece of ancient bristlecone pine.
> On 2012-01-15 08:42:00 -0600, david.shallcr...@ymail.com said:
> > "But if you need a wand to do magic, and you need magic to make a
> > wand, where did the first wand come from?"
> It's been way too long since I watched it, but wasn't it just humans
> that needed wands to do magic?
We do see an elf doing magic of a sort, without a wand. There weren't
> > "But if you need a wand to do magic, and you need magic to make a
> > wand, where did the first wand come from?"
> It's been way too long since I watched it, but wasn't it just humans
> that needed wands to do magic?
a
lot of other non-humans around.
I presume the answer to the conundrum is that you can make a wand
without using another wand, it's just a lot more difficult. Perhaps
there
are some naturally formed magic items that can be used, or perhaps
a rare individual can do magic without a wand. Rune Soldier is
supposed
to be set in the same world as Record of Lodoss War, so that might
give
a hint (if only Media Blasters would get around to re-releasing it).
The important point here was that Louie can't do magic without a wand,
so he can't do magic when he takes over my body, and he couldn't make
a wand by himself, even if he had enough time to go to California to
snag
a piece of ancient bristlecone pine.
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