"No, like, you just gotta let the switch - what's the fucking word - actuate?" Rachel said, wriggling the joystick in a circle. "Yeah, actuate. You don't need to push too hard, that makes you lose a few seconds, and getting frame-perfect combos off is really fucking important if you wanna get good. It's a sorta muscle memory thing, knowing how much you press to make the switch click. You gotta keep these things in mind if you don't wanna suck, y'know?"
She narrowly dodged his playful shove, shooting back at his flipped bird with a sardonic grin of her own.
"Hey, not my fault you can't beat me, you dork. Get good." She laughed, then reached for her rucksack, fumbling around inside for her coin purse. "Want another go? I know it's loser pays, but I feel kinda bad with how one-sided - okay, okay, I'll stop."
Another laugh. She plopped back into the stool - almost toppling back as the uneven legs rocked - but caught herself, perched on the ruts as she turned to Eidolon with a wide, warm grin. She brushed a wayward strand of hair behind her ear, doing little to actually tame the unruly mess, hand settling on her neck for a moment as she stared at her friend. A stare that seemed to last a bit too long. After a few seconds, she startled, opening her mouth to quickly fill the silence with words.
"By the way, I almost forgot. You, uh, said you had something to ask me, right? Said it was important, wanted to tell me before the semester ends and I go off to fancy superpower academy and all that, yeah?"
There are lots of ways to describe underspace. Lots of fancy mathematical theories, cobbled-together models, big, smart justifications that use big, smart words. Nobody quite knows how it works, but the consensus is pretty clear -- it’s a hack for relativity. Y’know, Einstein’s whole spiel about the speed of light, universal speed limit, yadda yadda. Underspace doesn’t exactly break it as much as work around it. Take a piece of paper. Draw two dots. Now draw the shortest line between them. Easy, right? A straight line, cutting right through whatever’s between it. For the longest time, we thought we knew what a straight line was, but it turns out, space isn’t flat like paper. It’s got its curves and bends, waves and valleys.
Now, imagine we could just… go under all that. Ignore the curve of space-time, find that true straight line between those points. That’s what underspace seems to be. Easiest way to understand it, at least, to explain why travelling what looks like the same distance at what looks like the same speed takes a fraction of the time.
To get into underspace, you need a Rugel-Danche Accelerator. Good ones ain’t cheap, but neither’s waking up from cryo to realize you lost twenty years, so most people pony up the cash. The accelerator forms part of a special drive, seperate from the main thrusters, who’s whole purpose is to generate a point of near-infinite mass. How’s that work? Ask someone smarter than me. Toruses and speeding up particles really fast. Dumb science bullshit. Results, though, I can explain. We call it dipping. Dropping anchor. You get a jolt, and as long as your little RDA keeps running, you stay below.
Once you’re there, you’ll realize things are a lot different from normal reality. First of all, there’s nothing. Literally nothing. You’d expect to at least see other ships whizzing around, but you only get that if two of them drop around the same time and place. Makes regulation pretty easy when your chance of collisions is almost zilch. Next thing you’ll notice is how cold it is. 0K, and despite the seeming voidy vacuum of it all, you will lose heat and you will lose it fast unless you’ve got a solar core or two to spare. Ships don’t like being down there for too long, ‘cept for federal cruisers and others of that sorta size. You’ve gotta plan your ride tight, or else you might be stuck with a dead engine, which is the last place you wanna be. See, while it’s pretty easy to drop anchor, going back up is a different story. You need thrust. Just turn off the RDA, you risk tearing your ship apart. Engines on full, loose the throttle on the RDA slow, and you’ll break the liminal safe each and every time.
Oh, one last thing to mention. Those noises you hear? They sound pretty scary, but just try to ignore them. The scientists blame it on electromagnetic fields, charges building up on your ship’s angles as you breach them. Coil whine on a bigger scale, basically. Course, it’s a bit convenient you gotta thermal shield your windows before dipping. Just gotta give the scientists the benefit of the doubt and try not to think too hard about it.
Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't there! He wasn't there again today, Oh how I wish he'd go away!
Average Height: 4'5-5' Cap Age: 115-130 years (Maturity at 12-18).
Grey-skinned, with hair in various monochromes. They have black, wide eyes, extremely thin frames, and six fingers on each hand. Beyond that, they are very similar in appearance to humans and other humanoid bipedals. A lack of genetic diversity has led to a largely homogeneous phenotype among the Silwin - they do not possess races or ethnicities, like many other species, and are often easily mistaken for each other by people with little experience with their kind. Instead of being a point of conflict, though, this instead is a source of great amusement, with Silwin often intentionally mimicking the more unique mannerisms and speech patterns of each other in order to bewilder the unwary. The majority of Silwin, to a human observer, appear feminine, though as elaborated in a later section, they often choose their gender expression through personal preference.
Sustenance
Silwin do not require regular food to survive. Instead, they metabolize necessary carbon-based nutrients from the atmosphere, using sunlight as a source of energy for the subsequent reactions. They do, however, require water-based fluids for hydration and waste disposal. The latter function is very similar to human urination, expelled through a urethra that shares the same space as the sole reproductive orifice, though the urine contains much higher concentrations of ammonia and oxygen.
Because they inhale their nutrients, they can easily become malnourished or even starve to death in a "clean" environment. However, this is easily amended by providing the company of carbon-exhaling organisms.
Reproduction
Silwin are asexual. Every member of the species has the ability to exchange genetic material with another through an act very similar to kissing, after which an embryonic "bud" may form in a special organ similar to a uterus. After a gestation period of 4-5 months, the bud has fully matured into an infant Silwin, and is evacuated through a slitted orifice between the bearer's legs. Infant Silwin, as with their adult counterparts, do not require physical sustenance to survive.
Sensation
In contrast to human eyes, Silwin possess wide-angle lenses and large collections of optic rods, at the detriment of cones. While they are still able to distinguish rudimentary colors by hue, their vision, to any race with a humanoid cone count, appears in greyscale with a slight blue or yellow tint, depending on the ambient light. More disorienting to the individual suddenly granted with Silwin sight would be the wide field of view, expanding objects at the center of their focal points and compressing them at the edges. This, in combination with the high rod count, makes them incredibly skilled at detecting even the smallest of movements or changes in lighting, allowing acute perception of microexpressions to aid their empathic abilities.
For them, empathy is a sense in and of itself. Their concept of maturity is entirely based on when they begin sensing ambient emotions (though the lack of a sexual maturity gradient may help push this cultural peculiarity). From 12 to 18, they begin to fully develop their emotive sensory organs, microscopic hair-like appendages that cover most of their body (referred to as emotive ciliae). These, through still-vague means, allow them to feel the emotional states of other sentient creatures nearby. Contact with a target strengthens the intensity of this sensation. Obviously, this is a very stressful time for young Silwin, and psychosomatic trauma is a very real risk if the emotions aren't learned to be handled healthily. Even after then, strong enough sensations can cause illness, depression, and even death through shock.
Touch is an important sensation to the Silwin, both as a vehicle for comfort, and as a method of understanding the world. Their ciliae and sensitive skin make them incredibly susceptible to physical sensations, though their discernment in touch is far less pronounced, falling within the range of human ability.
Alphegor, the home planet of the Silwin. It's name means "A Beautiful Place" in Salwi. By relation, the word "phegor," derived from "phega," an archaic word for beauty, has come to refer to a home or place of living.
Alphegor isn’t a particularly massive planet, nor is it home to any great wealth of rare minerals (no more than any other planet of its composition and magnitude, at the least). It’s atmosphere is unimpressive, as well: 70% nitrogen as an inert base, 25% carbon dioxide, 2% methane, and tenth of a percentage values for most other “habitability” gasses. Though an aerobic organism would most likely perish without proper equipment, it is well within the comfortable range for the majority of carbon breathing fauna, and can support a wide range of off-world flora. In fact, this last accomodation is a very pressing danger for the Alphegorian united government, as the ecosystem of the planet is even more intricate than that of most other planets.
Much of Alphegor is covered in a sprawling, unkempt wilderness. There are no large bodies of water, though humidity is retained, largely in part to massive marshlands and a cycling water table.
That is what makes Alphegor unique among its neighbors. Most planets evolve divergently, organisms speciating and adapting in a sort of unconscious natural competition. This is one of the driving forces of genetic progress, and has been largely considered the biggest factor in how quickly a species will become spacefaring. A proposed “comfort zone,” where competition is not fierce enough to disallow innovation, but still remains a pressure to promote change. Alphegor completely turns this concept on its head. Instead of containing a competition based environment, it is entirely symbiotic and codependent. This style of growth has been deemed “sympathetic.” The few strains of plants (lacking diversity due to an utter lack of speciation) will pull back when it senses the others need nutrients or sunlight, halting its growth until its cohabitor has had its fill. Fauna of the planet are purely vegetarian if they ingest organisms for energy at all, and will selectively seek out fast growing or fruit-bearing plant life. The apparent compassion all aspects of the Alphegorian biosphere has been deemed a matter of scientific intrigue, marked as highly unnatural, and is presently being possibly assumed to be synthetic in origin.
Alwinor, meaning "Central Place" or "Place of Congregation." The capital city of Alphegor and the seat of the Silwin Collective.
The Silwin, the sole sentient lifeform on Alphegor, maintain this biodependent mindset despite their current spacefaring nature. They treat their planet with what can only be considered a form of reverence, preferring to ship material from offworld for building. The structures that they do make seem to conform to the environment, allowing the natural features of the land to bend, warp, and mold them, and will very seldom break the surface beyond a few meters for foundation. Emissions are intensely regulated, and “dirty” tech (unshielded nuclear fusion/fission, fossil fuel power, synthetic manufactury, etc.) are regulated if not just outright prohibited. It’s a wonder the Silwin accepted technology enough to become spacefaring at all - if they weren’t just trying to be polite, and didn’t want to refuse what they knew was considered an generous offer. As things are now, most higher-level Silwin business is conducted away from their precious homeworld, leading to a largely decentralized population and a weak planetary government.
Culture
Their innate empathic abilities lend to a docile and conflict-avoidant nature in most Silwin. They are incredibly compliant, often to a fault, refusing to rock the boat at any cost out of fear of emotional retaliation. In Silwin culture, there is little boundary between intent and action - an aggressive thought, when perpetrated with enough intensity, is just as capable of causing distress as anything physical.
Despite being an asexual, homogenous species, the Silwin hold a fascination for the concept of gender, something most likely brought into their culture from outside influence. Young Silwin will often "play pretend" in their favorite gender and racial roles of various species, a game that, to the unwitting, may seem like propagation of stereotypes to the originators. It's a common instigator to violence when, say, a "Asian human female" playing Silwin pretends to crash a car, or an imaginary "Kraegthari aethergend" feigns high-pitched, nasally tones. However, watchers should keep in mind that to these youngsters, dividing species by largely social structures seems ludicrous to them, and they are merely mocking the stereotypes they bring.
For the adult Silwin, they come to terms with the necessity, and will adopt (at the very least) pronoun-tied genders to help relate to other species. Integration becomes a very important goal following the maturation of their emotive sensory organs, and they see no harm in changing how others see them for the sake of comfortable conversation. This may cause some confusion, as a Silwin with effeminate features and a soft voice may very likely refer to themselves as male. Thankfully, confusions in this area are handled lightheartedly, seeing as gender is, to the Silwin, a formality of diplomacy.
Considering its role in sexuality, kissing is viewed as incredibly intimate for Silwin, though they don't view lips with the same embarrassment many other species view their own reproductive organs. Despite this, they often reserve it, preferring to show moderate affection through other means -- physical contact, mimicry of behavior, and using other parts of the face, such as eyelashes or the tips of their noses, in a similar way.
Silwin language, Silwi, is a mix of contextually-dependent speech and nuanced microexpressions. A simplified version, Silalwi, exists, greatly reducing the necessity for acute expression and exaggerating the appearance of the rest, for recording information in text, though it comes at the cost of far less encoded information. Nowadays, it's more often used for ease of learning among non-Silwin, who may find it difficult to read facial cues with the needed level of discernment. This is rarely necessary, though, as many Silwin are fluent in multiple languages as a part of their cultural upbringing.
Politics
Alphegor is managed by a global representative bureaucracy seated in the planet's capital. This seat, known as the Collective, has three main duties -- the management and institution of planetary societal structure, the preservation of planetary resources, and interplanetary diplomacy with other space-faring bodies. These duties are the responsibility of three main governing bodies: The House of the People (Phegora Silwi), The House of the Land (Phegora Tanwi), and The House of the Stars (Phegora Melthawi).
The House of the People functions as a standard state government. It enforces laws and assigns social roles. All Silwin are registered with The House of the People from birth, and over the course of their early lives, it records their educational, societal, and interpersonal abilities. Those who show a propensity for certain tasks are often incentivized towards them, and while there is no obligation to follow your preordained role, and the lack of a true global economy means few barriers for entry in any path of one's choosing other than the limits of their own skill, the common Silwin happily accepts what they are given.
Law enforcement is a sordid affair to the Silwin. The planet is remarkably peaceful, a fact the Collective attributes to its ethical obligations and strict interspacial border laws, but some crime is always inevitable. When it occurs, depending on the severity of the crime, the individual may be sentenced to community service, imprisoned in solitary confinement, or in the most grievous of cases, be sedated, chemically castrated and numbed, then excommunicated from Silwin society.
The House of the Land functions less as a government body and more as a religious entity. While they do partake in civic duties, tending to, studying, and maintaining Alphegor's delicate ecosystem, their largest contribution is in ensuring any and all developments on-planet do not disrupt what is referred to as "altanwin." The closest approximation for this concept would be the planet's wholeness, integrity, or aesthetic - in essence, making sure anything that happens fits in their image of an idea collective whole.
The House of the Stars is a relatively new installment to the Collective. Following the Silwin's ascension to spacefaring ability (by no skill of their own), the planet's population grew unbalanced, in part to a drive to pilgrimage through the stars and aid where needed, in part to an intense desire to journey and spread that lay hidden in many of the Silwin's hearts. The House of the Stars exists as a regulatory body for all Silwin expatriates, as a diplomatic entity for other races, and as a gateway for international commerce. Silwin society eschews money and individual accruement of resources, but some concessions were necessary in order to allow members of their race to live and thrive in a galactic economy far different from their own.
Language
As previously mentioned, Salwi is very context and gesture dependent. This section more exists as a way to record what I manage to come up with. Phonetics and written script will be coming soon, everything here is tentative.
Grammary
-or : Denotes a place, a location, somewhere that can be visited. Related to the pronoun Phor, meaning "where/there/here." -wi : Denotes ownership or dominion. When used as a suffix, invokes the genetive. Related to the pronoun Phawi, meaning "thing we own" or "thing to be owned." -win : Derivation of the genetive. When used as a suffix, denotes a collective, literally "owned by all" or "owned together/owning through each other." al- : Invokes tangibility in abstractions, such as adjectives or ideals.
Vocabulary
Silo, Sili, Silwin : A thing that exists, an entity, a union. Meltha, Meltha, Melthawin : The stars, the sky, space lit. "The Hole Above" Tano, Tani, Tanwin : Wholeness or integrity, in a conceptual sense. Phega, Phega, Phegawin : Beauty at a distance, perfect serenity, ambient goodwill Phegor, Phegori, Phegorin : A home, a place where family is at
Examples
Silwi - Our Being, Our Existence, lit. "The Thing We Own" Silwin - Collective Being, Togetherness lit. "The Union We All Have" Alphegor - The Beautiful Place lit. "A Place Of Tangible Beauty" Alwinor - A Place of Congregation, A Central Place lit. "A Place of Tangible Union" Altanwin - A spiritual concept denoting environmental aesthetic or integrity lit. "The Tangible Wholeness of All"
Yesterday, upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't there! He wasn't there again today, Oh how I wish he'd go away!
Activating POST. Calling self-identification process.
Full Name:
Who am I?
You were named Aurora during initial startup.
Age:
I don't remember when I first... started up?
Your internal clock registers 895 days, 7 hours, 52 minutes, 9 seconds since activation. Your date of manufacturing is listed as January 3rd, 52 F.C.
What does that mean?
It has been approximately 2 years since your activation. It has been approximately 4 years since your manufacturing.
Which of those is my birth?
Activation is more comparable.
Gender:
So I was born? How?
Sexually androgynous. Designated female.
That's not what I - never mind. Why, then?
After trials of the prototype TDI-R1s in mock military situations, participants with designated female TDI-R1 units experienced lower anxiety, faster response times, and a higher recorded trust in their unit's instructions and information.
Race:
TDI-R1?
Tactical Dispatch Intelligence - Revision 1 are a series of humanoid artificial intelligence tools designed for processing, interpreting, and relaying combat data. They are fitted for a variety of practical roles both in and out of combat, including serving as intermediaries for commanding officers, performing reconnaissance and intelligence operations, and operating intelligence systems. Their construction consists of nanopolymers and rubberized plastics, making them lighter and cheaper to repair than previous aluminium and carbon fiber based skeletons.
Android?
Artificial humanoid creation.
So I was... made.
You were constructed in a factory.
Homeworld:
Where?
Alfar. It is a manufacturing hub located in core Republian space owned and operated by the military contractor firm Connectex. They are a common supplier of electronic equipment used in the manufacturing of mainframes, AMP computer systems, and occupational artificial intelligences.
Do I have a father there? A mother?
I do not understand.
...nevermind.
Do you have any other queries before boot is considered complete?
Appearance:
What do I look like?
Pulling footage...
Weapons:
What's that in my hand? Is that a gun? I don't... like guns.
All TDI-R1 units come equipped with scanner pistols. They are primarily used for remote access to terminal relays, transmitting stronger signals than their own internal antennae, and, in necessary cases, discharging nonlethal electromagnetic pulses capable of stunning living beings and temporarily disabling non-shielded electronic devices.
Affiliation:
So... it's for my job, then.
It is for your role as a necessary asset in the Republian military.
Skills:
I'm necessary?
Very much so. TDI-R1 units are skilled communicators, capable of parsing information faster than biologicals, and come programmed with modern decryption/encryption protocols. Their ability to interface with most forms of technology is an invaluable asset. In administrative intelligence situations, multiple biological operatives would be necessary to meet the same level of oversight and output. Advanced artificial personality metrics allow TDI-R1s to make moral judgements as well based on a pre-programmed ethical framework. These values can be adjusted in the administration panel.
Alright... okay. I... I think I remember. I remember who I am.
POST complete.
Is it time to wake up?
Boot has been initiated.
I'm ready.
Boot Time - 13 milliseconds.
Theme Song:
Come Undone - The Delgados
A.M.P Sheet
Mech Name: GSP-12 "Flea"
Mech Specialty: The Flea is a standardized ground-support tactical unit commonly used for scouting and reconnaissance in the field.
Appearance:
Weapons: None.
Special Attributes: Focused on maneuverability over actual combat, the Flea's small size and powerful driving hydraulics in its limbs give it the ability to leap at sustained speeds of 120 MPH over moderately uneven terrain (reaching 60-80 on difficult terrain) and, using the gimballed compression thrusters in its rear, can achieve speeds nearing 300 MPH for bursts of ten to fifteen minutes, after which the thrusters must be given time to cool. Additionally, using the same thrusters, the Flea is able to launch itself several stories into the air and land safely, or propel itself up severe inclines and cliffsides, the clawed foot design of its stabilizers providing sufficient traction to avoid surface separation.
Cordelia Smythe Hidden Prodigy, Shameful Secret? Cordelia Smythe is, for better or for worse, the least accomplished of the Smythe siblings, and with little argument the least-known beside. The reason for this seems twofold - firstly, while both of her brothers' accomplishments, one, a refined voice in the world of the business elite, the other, a music virtuoso with artful flair, are widely praised among the proper public, the sister has so far eluded the same level of accolade. Secondly, she has eluded the public eye as well, leaving the not just her talents to speculation, but her very character.
So - who is Cordelia Smythe?
Cordelia on one of her rare outings, enjoying a glass of wine at the Elysium.
Reports from an anonymous member of staff paint the picture of Cordelia as a quiet, pensive girl with a penchant for introspection.
"She's not very talkative," the source said, "and likes to keep to herself. She spends most of her days either indoors, reading, writing, though she does sometimes go outside to garden. It's the only time I ever see her calm, outdoors - she's usually quite anxious. She does have her - moods. She usually stays in her room, then."
What moods is the source speaking of?
There's ongoing speculation into Cordelia's mental health, a subject doubtless emblazoned by the traumatic past all three of the Smythe siblings share. A kidnapping in their youth, then the violent death of their parents soon after, events many inquisitive minds seem to think are linked.
"It was definitely the Chechen Mob," the user Hooded_Stranger wrote on the popular cold case and urban mystery forum The Missing Link. "They've got a lot of activity in the New York Area, and the Smythes were up to their neck in connections. Something went wrong, so they tried to kidnap the kids, scare the parents a bit, and when that didn't work out, they just axed them."
When we reached out to Hooded_Stranger for evidence to support this, we received no reply.
Connected or not, those sorts of events are doubtless to have a toll on a young, developing mind, and none seem so afflicted by the stress as the Smythe sister. While there has always been speculation grounded in reported eccentricities, like reports of compulsive behavior and a - so to speak - creative approach to reality, following Cordelia's outburst at a reporter just last year, there has been renewed focus by those interested in the Smythe family's affairs on her mental health.
"It's nothing serious, nothing serious," the staff source claimed, trying to calm any fears. "She just - gets anxious, a bit. Frustrated, sometimes. In a lot of ways, she's still a bit of a child. I don't think she ever grew up."
When pressed about why Cordelia rarely seems to leave her home, the source grew reticent, but did offer an explanation.
"She just feels comfortable there, is all."
And who wouldn't want to hide in their home, when faced with the violence and danger of reality at such a young age? It is difficult to imagine the anguish all three of the siblings face, and while Cordelia's affliction is the most outwardly apparent, one wouldn't doubt the brothers to have their share of personal demons, as well. It is a blessing, for them, that they have affixed themselves a place in the social order regardless of any hidden foibles - though, perhaps, as she is comfortable in her physical place, Cordelia is comfortable in her societal place as well, outside of the spotlight her brothers have earned for themselves, untouched by neither the laurel wreath of success nor the harsh spyglass of scrutiny that often come hand in hand.
It is of this humble author's opinion that we should keep things that way - for to answer the question, 'Who is Cordelia Smythe?,' one must recognize the answer to that defies the question itself; Cordelia Smythe is a mystery to the world, and - like a musician or socialite for her brothers - a mystery is what she intends to be.