This thread continues games for Eli from Eli's Coming and Michael from Mike's Game.
Eli, you head toward the fort-like structure in the direction away from the moon and the glass city, and perhaps three hours later you are getting close enough to see people standing in the gateway waiting for you. A man is wearing army camo fatigues, and a woman is in shorts and a T-shirt. They are both in their early or mid twenties.
I am not certain whether there is a third person or not; that's up to Michael.
Michael, if you are at the gate, you see a man walking toward you.
I'll let you guys describe yourselves to each other.
--M. J. Young
The man is wearing a white T-shirt and olive drab pants. He is larger than most people, but he doesn't appear overweight. A more fitting description would be "husky"
I shout "HELLO, MAY I APPROACH THE CITY?!?" when I'm close enough.
Since it's description I'm going to follow the same format for ease.
The man is wearing a black t-shirt with a ghostbusters symbol on it and tan cargo shorts. He's average to slightly shorter than average height wise and right around average weight. He appears to be about college age, and has dark hair and a unkept but evenly grown beard.
As to responding what Eli said I'll be following Paul's lead. When introductions are being made however, I'll introduce myself and ask where he versed out of.
In response to the shout, the fellow in the military garb calls back, "Welcome to Umak Tek. It's here to give people a comfortable place to stay, and you look like 'people' to me. I'm Paul, this is Annie, and that's Mike."
Michael says he introduces himself; I assume he gives a name, but I'll let him give whatever details he likes.
Eli, Mike has also asked "Where did you verse out of?"
--M. J. Young
"Hello, I'm Mike. What's your name? It's very exciting to meet more versers, how long have you been at this and where did you verse out of?"
I won't shout this but wait until Eli is close enough for me to say it at a comfortable level. I'll also be talking at a somewhat quickened pace, as it's always exciting to meet new people.
I'm assuming Paul lets me into the city.
I introduce my self after everyone
"Hello, My name is Eli. What do you mean by "verse out of"? Whats going on here?"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I don't know how to say this so I just will. I take it you came into a piece of technology that surpassed any laws of physics known to your universe? In my case I got my hands on a state of the art mixer. I was toying with it, seeing what functions it had and whether this scriff stuff that it was advertised to be pioneering actually made the music clearer. Long story short I ended up breaking the console, and while trying to fix it I got a shock. I'm assuming something similar happened to you. That shock was us dying. That's the bad news. The good news is, hey, you're alive again. From what I've been told we're immortal now, when we die we "verse out". This means out body is shunted from the current universe it is situated in to another universe. I've died twice now, once from fixing my mixer and once from a volcano erupting and an earthquake from the tremors swallowing me. It's not a pleasant ordeal, but it's nice to know you'll continue living. I was also warned to try and avoid dying too close together, it tends to drive people insane. So what I meant when I asked where you versed out of was what universe you came from and where in that universe.
This universe seems relatively safe from what I've seen so far. I've gotten myself hurt a little a few times while here, but inside these walls everything is nice and safe. I tend to sleep during the light hours, as if I need to go outside the walls it's not safe while the suns up. It takes some getting used to though, operating on 40 hour days. Also I'm told things tend to be difficult here, although I don't have enough of a baseline to know this myself, Paul assures me it is. Still, there are things that are possible here that either weren't possible where I came from or I was simply ignorant of, or a combination of the two."
"Thank you Mike,That explained a lot. I was given a portable AI and I accidentally dropped it. It shocked me when I tried to pick it up...
Paul, What do I need to do here to earn my keep?"
"Eli, no one has to do anything to earn anything here. If you happen to kill a clam, share the meat--it will go bad before you can eat it all yourself anyway. To some degree the same is true of creeper vines, because we don't get so many of them and the leaves, the sap, and the fibers are all useful. You can make anything you want from the materials, as long as you clean up after yourself, and you can stay in any of the unoccupied houses, although if the verser who built it arrives you'll want to vacate to another or build your own.
"We've got some clam; let me show you where the huts are and you can stow your gear, and whenever you're hungry we've got some clam cooking. Watch your step."
Entering through the gate you have to step over a three-inch wall, then you pass between a row of signs similar to the one out by Michael's Foxhole. To your left and ahead is a collection of structures that appear to be machines--a water tower the most recognizable in the moonlight, but structures of quite a few shapes and sizes. To your left ahead there is a tractor-trailer done in military camouflage, the cab facing toward the gate, a side door in the trailer open with steps leading from it to a canopied area in which there is a table and several chairs. Paul leads around the rear of the truck and to the other side, where there is a row of black buildings about ten feet tall and ten feet square with openings to this side about three feet above the ground, and a floor at that level.
"Michael is in the Architect's," he says indicating the first, "but any of the others are available. Annie and I sleep in the truck.
"I'm sure that Michael can answer many of your questions, and if he can't, we can. We've got another hour or two until sunrise, when I'm going to get some sleep, but you're welcome to my attention any time before that."
--M. J. Young
I stow my bag in one of the other houses and head to where they are eating the clam.
I ask for some food politly and say
"I haven't seen a clam yet, How big are they? And, what are those softball size things that go boop?"
"Clams are about the size of a station wagon. What you're talking about are Naga's. There's one around here, friendly little purple thing, boops a lot. He's named Nerfy."
"...wow. I would like to see one of them... What are the buildings made of?"
"The buildings are made of a wonderful material that forms from the alcohol vats. It's called plastic steel. As far as I can tell it's a thermosetting partially crystaline polymer, lighter than steel but just as strong. It's a byproduct from the fermentation, and you can get some twice a day, at sun up and sun down when the vats are cleaned. It's really a very fascinating material. I wish I could examine it more but I've only managed to construct a crude light optical microscope from the lenses inside the coral bushes so far."
On the size of the clams, Paul notes that they used to use a half shell as a bathtub, before the had plastic steel. They still have the old tub around somewhere, despite the fact that it was very time-consuming to fill when they had to draw water in buckets and heat it over burning grass.
Clam tastes much like beef bouillon, a strong beef flavor but very salty. It is cut in steak-like portions and grilled over fire. which appears to be a combination of burning grass and alcohol.
--M. J. Young
"What did you do before you become a verser? What kind of things are more difficult here?"
OOC: I'm running out of things to ask.
"Well I was a college student. As such I'm taking this opportunity to learn everything I can. As to what's difficult, as I said I have limited experience versing at this point, so very little to compare it to. From what I'm told everything is difficult, from magic to psionic to physical to technical. I've managed to learn how to manipulate most of the psionic tools here, and was actually in the process of preparing to make a trip out to the glass city to collect more devices. I'd be more than happy to show you what I know about the devices and try to teach you to use them, although my knowledge is still very limited I'm afraid. I haven't tried to learn magic, as I was warned it's very difficult and often ends in exploding or catching on fire for people who just try and jump right into it. The psionic devices are kept in the psionic museum. If you would like me to list them I can, or we could just head over there tonight or tomorrow."
OOC: I'm not sure all of what I know, nor would it really be appropriate for me to give you questions to ask. But I'm out of questions/things to add as well.
"Trip to the glass city... I would like to help with that... Would you like to learn some martial arts? I was a student in a martial arts school for five years. I'm a little out of practices but I'm sure it will help in the glass city."
OOC: I'm sure it is not appropriate. I was just saying, I was out of questions
"That would be wonderful, I'm afraid I know nothing about martial arts however, but if you have the patience I'd absolutely love to learn. The tricky part about the trip to the glass city is there are spider sentinels apparently during the day. Also there are the coral bushes on the way there during the day. The city itself is 60 miles from here, although I plan to make use of Michael's Foxhole, which is 10 miles directly towards the city. My focus of training has been to be able to push myself to run for a more extended period of time and at a faster pace, since at the end of the twenty hours of darkness at the very least I don't want to be in the city. The spiders form a grid apparently, at least the coral bushes aren't organized."
"I haven't tried to teach anybody before, so be patient with me. What can the spider sentinels do? What size are they? How fast do they move?"
After we are done eating I want to help Paul and Annie clean out the alcohol vats.
I want to play with the plastic steel to see what I can make out of it
I'm trying to make a set of tonfas,a bo staff, and a two handed club
"I've never met one, but Paul says the only person who's managed to escape them during the day was someone who was in a car and simply ran away fast enough. They are inactive at night however, so we'll be doing everything at night. I'm afraid I don't know much about the spiders past that."
Paul volunteers the information about the spiders.
"I've never been there myself, but I gather they're about eight feet high and roughly the same diameter across the body. They can fire laser-like beams from their eyes, but are as likely to crush by charging, biting, or striking with legs. They're all black, made of something similar to our plastic steel. Adams split one open once, but found no mechanisms inside; he thinks they use some kind of microcircuitry in the shells that he hasn't been able to find."
If you want to teach each other, organize your lesson plans--what are you teaching first, and how will you go about it. I gather neither of you claims teaching or training skill, so the other question is whether you're simply instructing each other or trying to develop skill in this area. (Instructing is free; teaching/training requires die rolls.)
--M. J. Young
Sorry--overlooked the plastic steel stuff.
Plastic steel is very like PC-7, but that it does not originate as two parts. It is very dark gray or possibly black, gooey at first but gradually becoming more like clay and eventually hardening into a solid black polymer. You can shape it fairly easily, although you might want to consider how to support it in that shape while it hardens. There are patches in the compound where the grass has been stripped off the clay to provide a smooth surface for such work.
I'll need your skill ability level at modeling clay or similar skills.
--M. J. Young
I want to develop the teaching skill.
My lessons consist
~15minuet of stretching
~15minuet of cardio to warm up
~60minuet of instruction in the style(I'm trying to keep the pace midway between resting and cardio)
~15minuet of cool down exercises
~15minuet of stretching
I'm wanting to do the lesson once per 40-hour day whenever Mike wants to schedule it.
I'm teaching the basic punches and kicks first.
When I think he has the basic style down I'll teach him the advance kicks
I haven't used modeling clay before.
I want to develop the teaching skill as well.
My schedule should now look like this, unless Eli has any objection on the placement of when I teach him how to use the psionic devices.
1-2 Continue making clothing
2-3 Eat
3-5 Physical training- Eli's teachings
5-7 Physical training- laps - running
7-7.5 Physical training- laps - walking
7.5-8.5 Eat
8.5-10 Bowl
10-12 Teach Eli how to use psionic devices as detailed below.
12-14 Make Clothing - 3 Sleeveless shirts, 3 loose shorts, 3 boxers, Hooded cloak
14-15.5 Physical training - stretching
15.5-17.5 Physical training - laps - running - with loaded pack
17.5-18 Physical training - laps - walking - with loaded pack
18-19 Eat
19-20 Make Clothing
As to how I'll approach teaching Eli I'll dedicate 60 minutes to a lesson, so the two hour block is for two lessons, so I'll try teaching two psionic devices per day.
~15 minutes dedicated to explaining what the device does, to the best of my knowledge
~15 minutes demonstrating how to use the device by using the device myself
~30 minutes of guiding Eli through any questions he has while he attempts to activate the device.
The training schedule will be (unless Eli decides he wishes to alter the order, although the first couple I'll be pretty insistent are good stepping stones as they are the only ones I know are easy from Paul. The rest I just know how easily I managed to pick them up.)
1. Psionic Computer
2. Data Access Device/Data Storage Device Combination
3. Telepathic Vacation
4. Memorial for a Warrior
5. Psionic Drill
6. Light Panel
7. Psionic Rifle
8. Telekinetic lifter
9. Telekinetic Forcefield
10. Disintigrator
The others I don't know yet,so obviously won't be teaching him yet.
Before I start on what you each learn, I am going to make a clarification and ask for a clarification. The answers do not matter that much immediately, but they will matter over time.
In Multiverser, we make a distinction between the skills teaching and training. That distinction is significant.
A teacher has developed an ability to teach what he knows, that is, to understand students and information and the best way to get the students to understand and use the information. Substitute teachers are excellent examples of this, as they are frequently called to cover a broad variety of subject matter; elementary school teachers similarly teach not a specialized individual subject but a wide range of subjects. A teacher ultimately can bring a student, over time, up to the same level of ability in a field as the teacher, and can do so in any field in which the teacher has skill.
A trainer, by contrast, has developed an ability specific to one field, and knows the best way for a student to excel in that one field. Boxing coaches and voice teachers are excellent examples of this skill: they can take a student to levels beyond their own ability, because their understanding of how to improve someone else's skill ability level exceeds their own ability in the skill.
Neither can use his skill to improve his own ability in the field, but the teacher cannot do so because he is limited by what he knows, and the trainer because his skill greatly involves third-party observation and improvement based on that observation.
Thus the question for Eli is whether he wants a skill in teaching which he can use to bring someone to his level in martial arts or any other skill, or in training martial arts which he can potentially use to bring someone to a level greater than his own but cannot use for any other application? For Michael, the question is whether he wishes to be a teacher or a trainer of telepathic psionic powers?
--M. J. Young
I would like to be a teacher as opposed to a trainer. If I do this is it possible later on to become a trainer in something else, if I happen to be training someone or is it only possible to have one of the two abilities. Either way, I'd like to become a teacher.
I'm going with teaching.
Eli figures out how to use what he knows to convey what he knows--that is, he can now "teach"; Michael realizes he has not yet figured out more than simply describing what he knows, instructing Eli.
According to Michael's schedule, the martial arts training comes earlier in the night, so we'll start with that.
Michael, for you to learn martial arts I will need your best relevant attribute. The three attributes relevant to bod-based skills are strength, agility, and will power, not one of which appears on your sheet. Which do you suppose is your best (relative to other people), and how high is it?
--M. J. Young
Strength would be my best of those three. I'd say I'm above average, but not spectacular. I can bench 210 max, but do comfortable reps of 190 or 195, and can do roughly 50 push-ups, ranging from 40-60 depending on the day. I'd estimate that would put me at 1@7 or 1@8.
Eli spends quite a while trying to get Mike into the basic forms of the style, but it's fairly evident that Mike has no experience even like this, and is rather awkward at it. You'll have to try again tomorrow.
After lunch (and Mike's scheduled bowling break) Mike shows Eli the psionic museum--a building somewhat larger than the huts made of the same material, without the raised floor, with shelves along the walls on which some of the objects rest. The objects themselves look like glass, mostly green like roughened old Coke bottle glass but sometimes in other colors.
He picks up an object having the shape of an octagonal prism roughly eighteen inches in length and nine inches across the end. As he touches it, lights appear in the translucent interior of various colors.
Mike said he would explain what it does and how it works, so I'll let him do so, and ask Eli to tell me what he's doing.
Also, Eli, I'm going to want to know what you're doing with the rest of your time.
--M. J. Young
"So the first item we'll try getting you to learn is the psionic computer. I haven't found a ton of use for it, although I am far from examining all the utility the device has to offer, I've only gone through two or three of the procedures it has. To connect to it just close your eyes and attempt to open a connection between the device and your mind. I imagine closing your eyes isn't necessary, as I operate some of the other devices with my eyes open I find that I can concentrate better with my eyes closed. The rest of what the device does is rather self explanatory once you get the connection going."
Here is the schedule I want to follow
Day
1-7 sleep
7-7.5 Eat
7.5-8 Physical training – stretching
8-9 Physical training – lifting weights
9-10 Physical training – cardio 20 min – cool down 20 min- stretching 20 min
10-10.5 Eat
10.5-12 Relax
12-12.5 Physical training – stretching
12.5-14- Physical training –Practice my style
14-15 Physical training – cardio 20 min – cool down 20 min- stretching 20 min
15-15.5 Eat
15.5-20 sleep
Night
1-2.5 sleep
2.5-3 Eat
3-5 Teaching Mike
5-7 Physical training- laps – running with Mike
7-7.5 Physical training- laps – walking with Mike
7.5-8.5 Eat
8.5-10 Relax
10-12 Learning how to use psionic devices
12-14 practice the psionic devices I know
14-15.5 Physical training - stretching
15.5-17.5 Physical training - laps - running - with loaded pack
17.5-18 Physical training - laps - walking - with loaded pack
18-19 Eat
19-20 Sleep
I close my eyes and try to form a connection by visualizing a cord of silver thought between the computer and me.
Eli manages to contact the computer.
Eli, when you do so, you come to something like a directory screen indicating that the device has eight levels, of which the directory is the first. It, too, has levels within it, that is, this level is the directory which identifies the eight levels but you can follow any of those level identifiers either to the levels themselves or to deeper directories of those levels. The other levels include an instructional, a program for ordering additional units, math processor, language processor, and what appear to be video games including direct combat and tactical/strategic combat.
Mike, what are you doing while he is connected to the computer?
--M. J. Young
I try to go to the instructional level and activate the program.
After that, I try to explore the directory structure.
I'll practice with the psionic rifle on one of the plastic steel lumps I have made. I want to be nearby in case something goes wrong or Eli has a question, which is why I'm not going to the shooting range with it.
Eli--the tutorial is fairly straightforward, explaining some things you would have to have known to get this far (such as how to activate the tutorial). It runs about twenty minutes, by the end of which time you've got a good idea of how most of the system works, although part of that was how to access specific instructionals for individual games within the system.
Then as you return to the directory you feel your grip on the system slipping away.
Mike, you've practiced for most of half an hour by this point.
--M. J. Young
I let the connection fade. I can explore this later.
"That was fun. Let go to the next device."
When Eli disconnects from the computer I'll put away the rifle and answer any questions he has and congratulate him on operating the device. At which point I'll continue with the daily schedule, which is the second device. I'll show him how the data storage device can be placed upon the data access device and that the connection manner is the same as contacting the computer.
Eli fails to connect to the data device this time.
--M. J. Young
Just going to keep to the schedule for now, so making clothing is next.
Also, why was it not considered a teaching attempt for Eli? It would be a different circumstance because I'm trying to teach him the skill on a different psionic device right? and I have a higher SAL in the skill than him still.
::Edit:: On rereading the above is sounded bad to me, but I can't think of how to rephrase, I'm mainly trying to understand the mechanics, not trying to second guess the way you run the game ::/edit::