historicrad39a

[historicrad39a]

Dwarfs can hear a weapons voice, Swords speak in vigor, Bows speak with precision, Hammers are blunt and to the point. But when a Dwarf found an old human tank, as their fingers ran across its barrel it heard it say a tired firm voice “I will watch until I am needed again”

[historicrad39a]

dissertation writing advice

[historicrad39a]

This was me. I don’t think I do it anymore, but I probably do. I only noticed that I did when I was in middle school and a girl got mad at me for staring, much to my confusion

[historicrad39a]

[historicrad39a]

“Lemme get this straight, your “hyper drives” are many times faster than our rift-space drives, are accurate to a few centimeters at any point in space, and can be activated in a matter of seconds?”

“Yup.”

“And all this comes with absolutely no drawbacks?”

“Correct.”

“Surely there must be some drawbacks, even relatively minor ones like higher fuel consumption, right?”

“Now that you mention it, I guess there are a few like that.”

“Such as?”

“If the shield isn’t properly configured, the Hydrogen and Oxygen we use for fuel is occasionally transmuted into heavier elements such as Gold and Lead.”

“I’m sorry??”

“Oh, I guess that also happens to our ships’ hulls from time to time. Early ships would often emerge from hyperspace with large patches of copper, lead, gold, even radioactive elements like uranium and whatnot on their hull. Hell, pretty sure we’ve detected trace amounts of Neutronium before.”

“That sounds like a pretty big drawback…”

“Oh it’s not all that bad, it’s far better than what happens if the shields are down.”

“Do I want to know?”

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing that can’t be avoided. As long as the shields are up you won’t have to deal with anything like matter being erased, matter being duplicated, matter spontaneously becoming anti-matter, causality violations, inadvertent time travel, and having your existence effectively undone.”

“Those sound really bad!! How can you humans continue to use hyperspace with all those risks?!?!?”

“It’s not a big deal, hyperspace accidents aren’t all too common these days.”

“And how common are they?”

“About thirty per year.”

“Thirty?!?”

“Yeah, but most of them are minor things like mis-jumps. Although there was the Sedna incident ten years ago when-“

“Stop. I’ve heard enough. From now on I’m never boarding a single human starship again.”

“What? Why?! I haven’t even told you about that time when-“

“I’m leaving now.”

Humans…

What doesn't kill you makes you think you're on to something

(inspired by a comment on another post)

Humans have this... almost non-existent appreciation for preventative caution. Sure, their safety measures are the most robust and redundant we have ever encountered - it would be near impossible for a Human space ship to sustain any kind of critical failure outside of combat.

If Humans weren't the ones using it that is.

Going through their public archives, we learned of a thing called Project Orion.

What the fuck, we asked.

"Well, it sorta worked. But then we figured that's a lot of wasted energy, so we put those inside and directed them backwards in a continuous manner, but generally went with conventional rocket propulsion. That worked out beautifully. Modern grav engines and kinetic pulse drives are much better, yes, but there's something about a good chemical burn that's just... romantic, in a way."

You!!! WHAT!?! You call this devastation "romantic"???

"Oh that's a good one, yea. The Apollo program was super cool. I read you could feel the thump of the Saturn engines blasting off from miles away. You get a similar feeling from a rail cannon going off, but that lacks that primal beauty of the flames. Though it does have that hefty kick, a real oomph through your bones, plus if it hits anything, you get a real pretty trail of sparkling particles shooting off. Like a miniature galaxy drifting away before your eyes..."

People died in all these programs! Some ships exploded!! We contested.

"It's always a shame, but, well, how else are you supposed to make progress? Can't know what needs fixing until it goes wrong. And most failures did not kill anyone, so we knew we were on the right track with those. Sometimes all that keeps you from the stars is a lack of extra armor plating."

#humans are space oddities #humans are space orcs #humans are deathworlders #humans are space australians #humanity fuck yeah

[historicrad39a]

the cosmic horror implications of timeloops are fascinating if you actually stop to think about it. because in order to trap someone in a situation like that you'd either have to reset all of time with each loop, which suggests a staggeringly horrifying scale of power and personal pettiness, or you'd have to isolate an area of effect to keep replaying like a broken record while the rest of time continues around it, posing potentially destructive consequences for the integrity of reality itself if people and things caught in the timeloop fail to show up in the present and effect change outside of it.

[historicrad39a]

Another "oopsie"

The *sigh*... Death Kebab, did a test fire today.

A single tungsten-alloy round, twenty centimeters in diameter, three meters long, just over two thousand kilos, and accelerated by a 610 kilometer long rail cannon, powered by hundreds of their ridiculous true fusion reactor mini stars.

It is, by a factor of stupid, the most powerful gun, if you can even call it that, ever built. Actually, the most powerful single anything ever built. So far.

Upon ejection, the rod was traveling at 0.842103C at what everyone thought was empty space for billions of light years. Except, the middle moon of this... thing... wasn't aligned perfectly, thus changing the inclination of the midsection by less than 0.002 degrees, which altered the exit trajectory by three one billionths of a degree.

In space, this Human attitude of "eh, close enough" they have for most of their things does not cut it when dealing with literal world ending devices. Which this miscalculation will in just over two hundred years.

Typical redirection and space hazard elimination methods simply can't handle this. It's projected that the projectile will potentially shoot through the planet or eject enough mass out the other side at still impressive velocities, triggering a sort of shotgun scatter effect in countless directions. Or just blow up the planet, we don't know. Simulations, no matter how advanced, can only tell us so much about something that has never happened before.

As members of the Coalition, Humanity has been officially tasked to prevent this senseless destruction under penalty of... we'll figure something out. Again, nobody ever thought someone could accidentally literally blow up a planet, we don't have protocols for this!

It doesn't help the Humans are not showing enough worry about this either. The first thing they did was hyper jump a junked freighter they loaded up with high density alloys and plating and explosives in front of the round. Fuck all that did except a giant explosion. Maybe slowed it down by a few hundred km/s, and potentially changed its course?

It is quite hard to track a thing going so fast when it's not within a star system. Nobody has managed to establish a monitoring network throughout all of empty space, some of our ancient civilizations tried - astronomical waste of time and resources, a logistical nightmare, bare cosmic radiation meant constant maintenance, zero use. Except now, for a thing Humans did.

Oh, their next plan is to shoot a smaller round AT the first one and obliterate them both. Sure? We guess it can't get wor-

They're gonna accidentally figure out a way to make this worse, aren't they?

[historicrad39a]

Once when I was half asleep I came up with the following “hilarious” joke.

*Snobbish accent* “Waiter, my wine tastes dry”

*waiter looks at it*

“Sir this is soup”

>wine enjoyers be like 'this one is so very dry'

>taste it

>it's wet

[historicrad39a]

“How many people have died to achieve this world domination of yours?” “769.” “…What?” “769 people died to achieve my plans. I counted them, and had each of their names etched on my throne so I never forget what my victory cost the world. Now tell me, how many have you killed to see me dead?”

[historicrad39a]

Y’all, I just got an email alert about a new chapter on a story I follow. Here’s the author’s note for that chapter. 😂

[historicrad39a]

So I’m scheduled to post the next entry (this time, an intermission) for my Sci-Fi series tomorrow. However, I’m not too sure I’m happy with it so far.

Right now it’s pretty similar to the first intermission (which IIRC is the least popular entry so far) in that it primarily focuses on world building and teasing the next chapter.

Would people be interested in an entry that doesn’t contain all that much plot, but instead explains some things about the world (from an alien perspective, of course) and teases/foreshadows the next developments? Or should I rework/entirely forgo this entry in favor of something more plot-centric? (1. No delay, 2. One week delay or so, 3. One to two week delay)

#writing #writers on tumblr #humans are space orcs #humans are deathworlders #humans are space australians #sci fi writing #writer problems #humanity fuck yeah #hfy

[historicrad39a]

[historicrad39a]

A single scene idea I had four or five years ago has literally spawned everything I’ve written thus far. Even the stories not explicitly set in the same universe borrow major components and ideas from the vast universe I’ve been slowly crafting.

I’ve yet to actually write the scene in question…

#writing #writing meme #writers on tumblr #technically there are two scenes that have spawned most everything #of those I have written one of them #but the other scene (and the many others that were spawned from it) are still in a state of nonexistence #well I guess they do kinda exist #just as incredibly vague and nonsensical notes on my phone

[historicrad39a]

For the chapters of the Sci-Fi series I’ve been writing, my ‘work schedule’ looks something like:

Day 1: Hyper-focused writing frenzy in which I finish 60-70% of the chapter in one go.

Days 2-11: absolutely fuck all

Day of release: Write the remaining 30-40%, publish the microsecond I’m finished editing because I’m incapable of just letting a finished project sit.

Repeat.

Me, writing 2500 words in one day: ohhh yeeeeah, maybe I can get this chapter out even earlier than the last one!

Me, for the next two weeks, deleting nine words and adding three: .....it do be like that sometimes

#writer problems #writer things #writing

[historicrad39a]

Aliens are floored by tardigrades

Life is pretty resilient. It has to be, especially if the rest of the Galaxy thinks we're from a Deathworld. In comparison then, if their planets are not as demanding, would life there ever be under enough pressure to survive to go to the extreme lengths that some Earth creatures do? I think one of the most profound things aliens might learn from Earth and Humanity is just how powerful life itself can be.

That itself could shake their understanding of themselves - a billion year old civilization could never even conceive of a thing we accept as simple fact, ushering a revolution in thinking not seen in eons.

___________________________

The Galactic Coalition scientists are busying themselves with obtaining, analyzing, categorizing, and integrating the libraries of information Humanity has brought with them as they incorporate into the greater space faring matrix of civilizations.

A good grasp of Physics, though lacking in certain fields for now; unmatched Engineering doctrines, they really do think of everything, although, perhaps, better to say - they really do attempt everything, then take notes and improve for the next attempt.

Chemistry is another fine addition to the collective knowledge base, a disproportionate part of the catalogue is comprised entirely of explosive reagents and combinations - always good to know more about what NOT to do.

And Biology. Oh boy. What a chaotic but beautiful but also disturbing mess. Life on most planets has a long period of just chugging along, surviving as best it can, until eventually something has the bright idea to evolve the ability to have bright ideas. Then in almost no time at all (on a cosmic scale) a dominant intelligence emerges and civilization alongside it, and in the blink of an eye it finds itself exploring the stars.

A similar pattern happened on Earth, but interrupted alarmingly often by utter catastrophes. Humans call them Mass Extinctions. It is exceedingly rare to find life that can talk about its own extinction events. Kind of deflates the term a bit. Life on planets as inhospitable (by Galactic norms) as Earth tends to be found only as fossils, and almost always on the microscopic level - very rarely do they get the chance to form more complex and advanced lifeforms before the planet with its harsh conditions and scarce resources kills it just as randomly as it spawned it.

We were incredibly saddened to learn from the Humans that the biodiversity of Earth had dwindled by roughly 85% since they accidentally created that giant hole on their planet, and that it had already been on a steady decline before then. Even so, when they revealed there were still 2.4 million species alive on Earth was a shockingly high number. Most are on the brink of extinction, yes, but the fact remains that Earth is easily one of the most biodiverse planets in the Galaxy.

Then we started looking at each individual species and learned about the Tardigrade.

what

It is literally the toughest creature ever discovered, and it's not even close. At least, so far, we haven't looked at absolutely everything Earth has or had yet.

It can just... basically turn itself off and then back on again when the outside becomes livable again - Cryptobiosis, or suspending their metabolism, something we considered only possible through artificial means. And the levels of various extreme they can endure and still be alive would just be utterly ridiculous if they didn't give us samples to confirm for ourselves.

Then we came across the term Extremophile and just decided to take a day off.

[historicrad39a]

I really want to do (space)ship girls. Should I do (space)ship girls?

#writing #writing ideas #writers on tumblr #writeblr #This is primarily because I love Kancolle #and Zuikaku is best girl #but it might be really lame too #I don’t want readers to roll their eyes at the space ships being anthropomorphic girls #even assuming I do have a way to justify it in story #writers

[historicrad39a]

Middle-aged magical girl.

She's been defending the Earth since the early 90s and she's very tired.