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Post by Amneiger on Nov 3, 2009 3:32:55 GMT -5
No more for today, it's late and I'm tired. =D But for the record, 11,382 words so far.
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Post by Shadaras on Nov 3, 2009 9:59:47 GMT -5
I'm so passing you today. xD ...and I could make arguments for your light and my Light being similar, based off of that passage explaining it. Which makes it much less fun, by the way. But yeah. The textwall explanation your MC has makes sense, by the way.
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Post by Amneiger on Nov 3, 2009 16:10:02 GMT -5
xD I love you for saying that you're going to pass me. I don't know why, but I do. As for the light: your Light is supposed to be the God of Maestro's universe. Most geniuses have decided that whatever Inspiration is, it probably isn't God. ^_^ At least, a god that conforms to popular conceptions of him/her/it. For all they know, maybe it comes from Cthulhu or something. And I'm glad that it made sense. =D *glomps* Anyways, I don't have an excerpt, but I do have some setting info. =D [spoiler= Races Catalysts]Geniuses can be sorted into one of five psychological profiles based on whatever emotion drove them during their Breakthrough. These profiles are known as catalysts. The catalysts provide a useful shorthand for discussing individual geniuses. A Grimm, for example, will be talented in Katastrofi; even if they don’t want to be making weapons, the anger they feel gives them insight into creating implements of destruction. More disturbingly, each catalyst also has a certain mental disorder associated with it; whether this disorder is in effect or not depending on how and what the genius has been doing lately. - Grimm: Anger. This anger can take a number of forms, from a desire for vengeance for some personal attack against the genius to fury at an injustice that the genius has seen. Their anger naturally lends itself in Katastrofi. Grimms are prone to destructive rages.
- Hoffnung: Hope. Hoffnungs have a vision in their heads of a new, glorious future for the world; the question is whether their idea of what is glorious matches with anyone else’s. Their desire for change manifests itself in Metaptropi. They tend to see other people only in the context of their grand plan and their role as either allies or obstacles.
- Klagen: Sorrow. A Klagen’s Breakthrough involved some personal tragedy that drove them towards mad science. Klagens want to prevent and heal the pain both in themselves and in those around them, which gives them insight into Exelixi. Klagens are prone to depression, as they see suffering and regret everywhere, both in the aftermath of calamity or in the doom the Klagen can see coming for all things.
- Neid: Jealousy. Neids saw others being given privilege and rewards while they were left to fend for themselves. For Neids who were in the sciences, this often takes the form of other people’s research and abilities being accepted while the Neid’s discoveries were derided ignored. Neids are paranoid, and see hostile conspiracies and enemies everywhere. Neids often study Epikrato to gain the control they felt they never had before becoming geniuses. “At the end of the day, if they will not listen, the Neid will make them listen.”
- Staunen: Curiosity. Staunens saw something in the world that filled them with wonder and awe, and they have been searching for it ever since (usually with the aid of Apokalypsi). Unfortunately, as with the Hoffnungs one needs to ask whether their idea of what is wonderful matches with the rest of humanity. They are prone to obsessive behavior concerning whatever their chosen field of inquiry is.
Tristan is a Staunen; he wanted to learn more about beliefs about the supernatural, which falls under curiosity. [/spoiler] Current wordcount for you: 12,799. xD Yeah, you won't have trouble getting there. Also, PFA seems to be at 8,397 words, so we should hurry before she catches us. =D |
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Post by Kathleen on Nov 3, 2009 16:27:51 GMT -5
I believe this is just so impressive that it is way beyond me. =D But the excerpts are fun, so it's all good. ^_^
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Post by Shadaras on Nov 3, 2009 18:21:06 GMT -5
I said I could make arguments for it, not that it was the same. xD
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Post by Amneiger on Nov 4, 2009 0:18:37 GMT -5
I believe this is just so impressive that it is way beyond me. =D But the excerpts are fun, so it's all good. ^_^ =DDDDD More people who like my NaNo SUPERJOY =D I am always glad to see people say that they like what I'm writing =D xD What parts are confusing you, then? I said I could make arguments for it, not that it was the same. xD xD What would those arguments be, then? |
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Post by Amneiger on Nov 4, 2009 3:06:46 GMT -5
16,643 words compared to Shade's 17,154 words. =D D: It's good because I'm close to her, and bad both because she's still ahead of me and she got to that current word count 45 minutes ago. xD
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Post by Amneiger on Nov 5, 2009 3:59:04 GMT -5
23,122 words. Still behind Shade. >_> I also have an excerpt I want to post, but I'm going to wait until I'm more awake to do so. I'll probably edit this post in the morning, but for now it's just going to be a record of my current word count for later. Edit: Okay, I now have enough sleep to be certain that I'm copying and pasting the correct parts of my novel. I’d gone out and bought a cheap electronic reader that I could store electronic books on; my original plan had been to get paper copies of the books, but I realized that it was going to be rather bulky and heavy to carry around. So instead I had purchased a easy to carry pocket reader.
Presumably, the Lemurians’ collective unmada field would encompass both the boat and the waters outside the boat. Since they were Lemurians, all of their unmada fields would mingle seamlessly; all I would have to do would be to pick out the individual details that were being projected by the individual geniuses.
I’d found out that this zotheca was made up of an Oracle, an Atomist, and an Etherite. So in the reader I’d brought a copy of Einstein’s essays on general relativity, Carl Sagan’s Science as a Candle in the Dark, a book on Darwinian Genetics, and a copy of The Prince.
I first opened the copy of The Prince and flipped to a random page. The book opened to the chapter where Machiavelli was talking about how to hold conquered provinces. It appeared that he was now saying that instead of moving to the conquered province to ensure that your presence would cow the inhabitants into submission and so that you could be close enough to deal with uprising, the prince should instead take anybody who gave any sign of rebellion and replace their brains with miniature fusion powered computers that were equipped with personalities programmed to be completely loyal. I flipped to another chapter. This time, Machiavelli had provided a long list of equations describing various emotions and how they related to human interaction. The Atomist was on board, then.
I closed The Prince and opened the textbook on Darwinian genetics. I flicked through it, but could find no changes. Hmm; apparently none of the Lemurians had had any problem with Darwin.
After that, I opened Science as a Candle in the Dark. In this book, Carl Sagan had argued that the scientific ideas of skepticism, examining the evidence, and the use of logical reasoning were all good things and should be applied to knowledge, claims of the supernatural, and everyday life. There weren’t any changes here either. Strange, considering the ideas most Oracles had. Perhaps the Oracle simply wasn’t on the ship right now.
I opened the last book, the one with Einstein’s essays on general relativity.
Normally when an unmada field affected a book there was a replacing of arguments, attempts to refute the arguments, or a disappearance of the offending argument. None of those were in effect here; Einstein’s words were still physically there. But there were several signs of other things being changed. In some cases, words had been turned upside-down or backwards. In a few other cases, there was something like a knife slash across the pages. But the most common change looked as if somebody had written one word, over and over, in an enraged and schizophrenic scribble across as much of the page as they could.
“LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES LIES”
…Perhaps it would be best if I avoided the Etherite.
If you had absolutely no idea what was going on: One of the things about mad science is that it is mad. Its practitioners are all, in one way or another, insane. People who see mad science are driven insane; they become geniuses if they can make the proper connections in their mind concerning what they’re seeing, and become beholden if they can’t. Furthermore, while mad science requires knowledge of sane science to work properly, mad science is still a separate field of study from sane science. There are numerous indicators that this is the case: powerful wonders seem to burn with reality-warping energy, sane science doesn’t suffer from Havoc, and a genius who channels enough Mania in large enough bursts at once will get visible reality ripples and lightning. Mad science (and Inspiration and Mania) are things that don’t work by the normal laws of the universe; they are things borne from the genius’s insanity. The mad scientist’s theories don’t explain how the real world works, but are at best only their ideas of how their own wonders might work.
An unmada is a genius who believes that they not only are they not mad, but that their worldview is the only correct one; it’s everyone else who’s insane, not them. By extension, they also believe that their mad science is actually an extension of sane science instead of being something separate from it. Thus, their theories are an accurate depiction of the sane world.
The unmada project something called an unmada field around themselves. Their Mania reshapes things that are within the unmada field, creating evidence to support the unmada’s theories and removing evidence that doesn’t support their theories. Attempts to argue with them on ideas of science tend to fail, as the unmada field considers the arguments to be contradictory evidence and removes them. Manes that match whatever theories make up the unmada field are either attracted to or are created by the unmada field; manes that are living in the field would often want to keep the genius unmada so that they have a place to live that doesn’t require them to drain Mania from others.
All members of Lemuria (and by extension, all members of a baramin) are unmada; non-unmada geniuses are not allowed to join.
A genius becomes unmada by either deciding that they are sane and what they do is sane science instead of mad science, or by damaging their minds through overuse of Mania.
An Illuminated also projects an unmada field, although for rather different reasons.
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Post by Amneiger on Nov 5, 2009 15:00:26 GMT -5
Just an excerpt that came out better than I expected. I saw the prow of the boat pass below me, and then there was nothing but sea and sky. For an unearthly moment that was all there was; the blue above me, the blue below me, and a sensation of floating half suspended half not suspended through the air. Nothing seemed to move, neither the clouds or the waves. There was just a quiet tranquility and an infinite still. |
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Post by Amneiger on Nov 6, 2009 3:19:50 GMT -5
28,088 words. Going to sleep now, because I'm tired. =D
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Post by Amneiger on Nov 7, 2009 3:31:18 GMT -5
Finally, I've gotten to a good place to stop. 34,158 words.
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Post by Amneiger on Nov 8, 2009 11:56:08 GMT -5
Forgot this last night: 36,080 words. Oh, and I have finally a working title for my NaNo. It's the worst title ever, but OH WELL  Anyway, the title is "Herald of Light." Yes, it's cheesy, and yes, any Genius fan who sees that will respond by getting out the vibropitchforks and the plasma torches, but it's a working title. ...Yeah, I need a better title. |
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Post by Amneiger on Nov 9, 2009 3:12:07 GMT -5
40,891 words xD Yeah, Shade's catching up to me. And I have extra non-NaNo things to do tomorrow, too.
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Post by Shadaras on Nov 9, 2009 10:27:00 GMT -5
Dude, Monday's the day when I have the least time to do anything. xD ...I'm expecting to catch up to you Tuesday, when I actually have time.
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Post by Amneiger on Nov 9, 2009 11:53:39 GMT -5
Heh. xD And Tuesdays are working out to be easier for me then I expected, so I might have a chance to keep ahead anyway. =D
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Anyway, the title is "Herald of Light." Yes, it's cheesy, and yes, any Genius fan who sees that will respond by getting out the vibropitchforks and the plasma torches, but it's a working title.