Infinite Stratos Character Creation and Fanfiction Discussion

[demino_hellsin]

However I think scientists of equal smarts would be able to see that applying data that way would hurt in the long run. You should know wave, if you're already ahead and you see the other guy coming up, you have two choices, rush through to increase the lead or keep pace with what you're doing. I think China and America should've been in a spot to keep doing what they do instead of using copied technology. Ofcourse I doubt they would not be interested in other country's technology but unlike Australia, they'd be smarter about it.

You should do what you feel like it. Honestly getting work has set my otaku life to the shredder. I can barely get onlije for relevant amounts of time a day and I'm dreading the incoming kancolle event that I want to finish.

Personally I'm still riding my MGR high. I noticed how Raiden could take control of UAV's by stabbing the control CPU's with his sword. I deduced that perhaps he was sending command signals via the HF blade and wondered what it would be like if applied to my MGR-ified Ichika.

Terrorists for hire hubted down by Chifuyu. They don't know that they're siblings and duel. Kurezakura vs cybernetic arm and claytronic-nanomachine Ichika. At one point Ichika stabs Kurezakura and actually breaks through the shield to a direct hit. Ichika's nanomachines interface with the IS and Chifuyu and Ichika gain a mental bridge which lets each other see that the other is their long lost sibling.

[wavehawk]

Originally Posted by demino_hellsin

I think China and America should've been in a spot to keep doing what they do instead of using copied technology. Ofcourse I doubt they would not be interested in other country's technology

- America and China would naturally want to know about each others' technology. Australia was just a convenient go-between. Will probably have to clear this up in a later rewrite of this fic, but information exchanges happen pretty often--mostly non-classified or essential information. I don't think either China or America would be interested in copying each others technology, just to learn enough about each others' gear to develop countermeasures. Again, it's probably a limitation of the way I described it.

The shortsightedness of China and America is that they never thought that their mutual friend Australia would do something like steal their data and apply it to their own machine. And just to note: this has actually happened in real life: Australia sent it's last remaining Aircraft Carrier to China for dismantling years ago. In good faith, we thought they woudl just scrap the ship, never considered the possibility that the Chinese Navy would be bursting at the seams to get their grubby hands on a carrier. Apparently the politicians in power at the time never wondered if it was a bad idea to give them a fully working carrier to dismantle.

*so technically I wrote this bit up as revenge*

One of the things I'm trying to get across is that the whole copying ability itself is what has gotten them riled. There may be no point in trying to copy IS data from one IS Core to another in terms of evolving the IS further. But if a single IS had the ability to copy configurations, data, and weaponry on the fly during cobat, that would make for a devastating machine, wouldn't it? Imagine being able to pilfer another IS weapon by copying it's weapon during combat and deleting the quantum data from that other IS while doing so.

But there's more to it than that--as I mentioned, there's a lot of stuff that has potential here that I just need to get to writing a story around. I'm dying to write about Mary Coxswain (The woman who bootstrapped parts together to make Australia's only IS, self-proclaimed inhaler of all booze) and how the whole Outback Screamer project came about. As well as the reasons why such a huge country like Australia only ever got one IS Core compared to every other nation.

But I assure you, <Cobalt Blue> is a name you're going to be looking out for...

but unlike Australia, they'd be smarter about it.

- Oh if you could only see me smiling right now~~~

[demino_hellsin]

In the short term relative to combat time, yes. It's surprising and the algernative application of one's own weapon would be devastating. The ability to take away the weapon from the original owner is thebone that really is the dangerous part. The copy ability- not so much.

Well it is your fic. So I'm just making assumptions about competency based on real world events and how we generally see them during conversations when you talk about countermeasures. Wouldn't that make the Outback Screamer kind of... ill-conceived? I mean they just integrated all these technology that all other countries have developed countermeasures for. Seems kind of... less than intelligent?

[wavehawk]

Well, Coxswain IS a known drunk...One of the jokes I'm writing is how the Outback Screamer's pilot hates the creator for continously slapping things on for her to invaribaly test out. Painfully.

Emer: "She's a Bloody Bogan who happens to build robot suits for a living. How can I be happy about that?!"

I promise this will soon be explained once I get the right bits together. It's been a long time and too many false starts to my fics means nothing ever gets done. I really should get back to writign fics on the boards this way---spur of the moment when the idea strikes me ratehr than trying to overanalyze the whole thing and 10-perxcenting it to death in a way it never gets writ.

[demino_hellsin]

I know the feeling. I feel like I should maybe write another kamen rider kabuto Ichika chapter for shits and giggles at some point. Or maybe continue either of my persona/DxD crossovers

[wavehawk]

Kabuto Ichika? I'd rather see Den-O Ichika...

[demino_hellsin]

Well he's not so much Kabuto as he is kick hopper. It was done on a whim. One where I threw the whole "IS are superior" mindset out the door in a fit of insanity. Or maybe more super-sanity than anything haha.

[Rokumonsen]

Well, IS doesn't stand a chance against a Zect Rider, IMO.

[wavehawk]

unless you have an IS moving at nearly the same or faster speeds. Which is...

[demino_hellsin]

Possible but not probable. In theory IS can move at the speed of light. Considering they were supposed to be deep space exploration units. However their lightspeed mechanisms are only suited for long distance jumps like warp drives. Unlike ZECTOR technology derived from worms which allows the users to exist in a degree of faster time than a whole different time shifted space. That is at least, my assumption.

[wavehawk]

I' still working on that idea, of a much faster IS than previously thought possible. The problem is I'm trying to figure out how it will all work.

Also, related to the concept of an IS that can 'steal' other IS equipment, I actually have support (kind of) in the theory of Quantum Teleportation. EG two Quantum Entangled atoms can transmit data from one to the other--not a copy, but basically the data disappears from one end and reappears at another. If we argue that an IS touching or attacking another 'entangles' that IS Core's data with another---then theoretically that IS can take whatever data it can from the other IS.

It's a bit different from the original idea in my fic where the IS just copies data. But this concept is something I'll use in a totaly different IS.

I'll probably need to lock myself in after friday (Work is driving me Bat-guano insane) and try to write a fic in the period.

[demino_hellsin]

My understanding of quantum entanglement is that you have two separate units of matter which are both each other and yet not at the same time. The idea that one end disappears and the other remains is based on the idea that the entanglement is resolved and each has their own set of characteristics/data already established. Therefore one effectively loses shared characteristics and the other gains full marks of that characteristic. Likely a possible explanation of how equalizers in general work but I prefer to think that the IS have their own schematics on hand and have separate caches for erecting quantum entangled particles that generate the equipment. Mind you this my take on it and should not be how you see it. Also, ofcourse having schematics of the weapon as well as quantum data of the weapon is also fairly redundant. Maybe even stupid.

[S-34]

Who cares, as long as we have Overed Weapons we have no need for this Quantum stuff. Just brute force and industrial attached equipment not made to be used by IS. I guess an upgraded to Bejesus Tomahawk missile is in order?

[Rokumonsen]

Have you guys also thought of customized ISes cannibalized from older generations' parts?

[HasuMasu]

I'm thinking of Umbral Knight's design like a giant bike with large boosters on one end and a giant cannon on the other. Of course, the real reason it's designed that way is to be cool, but in-universe the pilot is actually asleep to increase their spatial awareness, so they needed to develop a frame that didn't rely on limbs to move around.

[demino_hellsin]

Not exactly what you guys are talking about, but I think that my old idea of first generation IS being built in a rush and using anything they could get their hands on at the time without properly developing anything counts as cannibalizing old technology into IS. Stuff like say astronaut suits and old shuttle parts and stuff.

[wavehawk]

Originally Posted by HasuMasu

I'm thinking of Umbral Knight's design like a giant bike with large boosters on one end and a giant cannon on the other.

Also: Was once tempted to do an NTR parody fic (where someone steals all of Ichika's Harem), but couldn't bring myself to do it. Mainly because I couldn't get it to work. Oddly enough, it seems like it's easier to make interesting female OCs in IS than male OCs--at best I can probably use Dan in some capacity but unfortunately any male OC I can think of for Is always seems to end up ineffectual, villanous, or some combination of both...

But not to worry. I've been listening to the old song "King of Pain" and have soem plans for Ichika. Yesss...Spirits of Urobutchery Guide my keyboard~~. (rubs hands together)

Well, I was there and I saw what you did
I saw it with my own two eyes
So you can wipe off that grin,
I know where you've been
It's all been a pack of lies

<--------------->

IS / Gaiden

<--------------->

Lying bastard, she managed to think in between the solemnly large gulps of
whiskey. A cough and choke, then another huge swallow of fiery alcohol. Lying
naked in a smelly, bedbug-strewn mattress that she shared with a man the other
night. A man she distinctly remembered promising he'd be there in the morning.

The man was gone. And Marie Coxswain realized she didn't even remember his name,
much less what he looked like. Booze made everyone look pretty when you were
desperate. In her drunken stupor she mentally regressed to forty years ago, when
she was a deluded teenager. When she could swallow all the lies about love being
real and forever. When she could take being called an 'damned abo' by her own
countrymen. When she could trick herself into thinking she wasn't so goddamned
ugly.

Because even in a world where women are supposed to be the lah-dee-dah rulers
of the world, men still consider you just a hole to get stuck into. Another
cough, and Marie felt the banging brass drums of a headache arrive too soon.
Love is only for beautiful people. Rich people. Happy people. White people. You
didn't really think you'd win that easily, did you?

Coxswain got up, throwing the blanket of last night over her shoulders like a
shawl. Walking over to her work desk, a sheared-off section of plexiglass she'd
taken as a goodbye gift from her last job. The pay was good, but Marie never kept
any of it. Whatever she was paid by the Australian Government, she put into
Wurundjeri tribal projects and funding. Far too many of her kind nowadays weren't
getting sufficient education, much less work. Keeping good money while others
starved never sat right with Coxswain.

Sometimes Marie wondered if she ever had a tribal name, but decided she didn't
care. She was far too old and bitter to romanticize her past. Clicking on her
computer, she pulled up the latest files.

<Outback Screamer> Her pet project, Australia's only <Infinite Stratos>
exoskeleton. Sometimes in her drunken delusions Marie thought that Tabane
Shinonono purposefully allocated only one <IS> Core to Australia solely to
challenge her. Coxswain did not have access to the tens of milliosn of dollars
that the American, European, and Chinese <IS> techs had; she literally
built the Australian machine in her back room. She bitterly laughed aloud at
this--the only reason she managed to make it all work was because she was drop
dead drunk at the time and refused to accept defeat. So she made the machine work.

She still tinkered with the machine, trying to iron out all the still-existing
flaws. <Outback Screamer>'s pilot often argued about how the machine was
not performing to 'her' specifications. Coxswain hated Emer Werden's guts but the
<IS> pilot had a point. <Outback> was pieced together from existing
technology and Marie's understanding of how the <IS> Quantum Data process
worked. The machine was hand-built, and the fact that it actually worked was a
miracle in itself. But although many in industry and tech circles touted it as a
2.75 Generation <IS>, Coxswain knew it was held together by baling wire and
spit.

Real spit. Her spit.

There's got to be a better way to improve on this, Marie mumbled under her
breath, last night's one-nighter forgotten. This was what she lived for now,
creating things out of junk. If I could turn the F-35 into something useful
then I can do something about a goddamn <IS>.
She almost failed to notice the person at her door.

[S-34]

Honestly, I kinda wonder if anyone ever made a detailed template for IS creation. I have some ideas, but I'm not sure what exactly to put.

[demino_hellsin]

Well there isn't really a template. However we work with the few concepts of what is known. First is that it's an exo-skeleton. Second is the idea that the core and the frame are exclusive of each other. One is not bonded to the other so the core in Blue Tears can be put into something like say Akatsubaki which is like taking your motherboard and everything strapped to it to another case with different peripherals completely, sure you can do it but you likely aren't running on your best configurations anymore in that case. Next is awareness that each country seems to have their own specialty when it comes to weapons technology as can be seen in canon. But it seems more implied than anything so how the divide actually works will be completely up to you. The most important is awareness of the generations of IS and the uniqueness that identifies which generation they come from.

EDIT: So... anyone ever wrote a version of Ichika who fixed the girls' issues by out bitching them instead of being an upstanding nice guy or trying-hard cool hot-blooded shonen hero?

[wavehawk]

Originally Posted by S-34

Honestly, I kinda wonder if anyone ever made a detailed template for IS creation. I have some ideas, but I'm not sure what exactly to put.

- Given that the latest versions of the IS in the LN have abilities that don't quite make sense, I doubt it. You could probably make a kinda-sorta standardized template for the 2nd-gen IS like Rafale and Uchigane, but the 3rd-Gen IS and upward are all over the place--partly because of the LN artist changing (see how Blue Tears and Silent Zpehyrs are supposed to be descended fromt he same machine but look nowhere alike), partly because ever since Mysterious LAdy turned up other IS now have abilities that you can't easily explain with technology.

Also Rewrote the fic a bit and expanded it. Definitely something going with this. Also credit to Demino for some of the conversation in this. (and I find it ironic I'm posting this on Mother's Day here in Australia considering that Marie Coxswain treats <Outback Screamer> as her baby...)

<--------------->

IS / Gaiden

<--------------->

Lying bastard, she managed to think in between the solemnly large gulps of whiskey. A cough and choke, then another huge swallow of fiery alcohol. Lying naked in a smelly, bedbug-strewn mattress that she shared with a man the other night. A man she distinctly remembered promising he'd be there in the morning.

The man was gone.

Lying bastard.

Marie Coxswain realized she didn't even remember his name, much less what he looked like. Booze made everyone look pretty when you were desperate. In her drunken stupor she mentally regressed to forty years ago, when she was a deluded teenager. When she could swallow all the lies about love being real and forever. When she could take being called an 'damned abo' by her own countrymen. When she could trick herself into thinking she wasn't so goddamned ugly.

Because even in a world where women are supposed to be the lah-dee-dah rulers of the world, men still consider you just a hole to get stuck into. Another cough, and Marie felt the banging brass drums of a headache arrive too soon. Love is only for beautiful people. Rich people. Happy people. White people. You didn't really think you'd win that easily, did you?

Coxswain got up, throwing the blanket of last night over her shoulders like a shawl. Still holding the bottle she walked over to her work desk, a sheared-off section of reinforced plexiglass she'd taken as a goodbye gift from her last job. On it sat her computer and various mechanized tools. Marie thought the sagging shape of the desk smiled back at her as it struggled to hold the weight of her lathe machine.

Marie never kept much of her pay, living in the tiny hovel party due to pride. Whatever the Australian Government paid her, she put into the local Wurundjeri community tribal projects and funding. Put it where you should have put it to begin with. Assholes. Far too many of her kind nowadays weren't getting sufficient education, much less work. Keeping good money while others starved never sat right with Coxswain. To her mind, her community was where the money had to be.

A bitter laugh of irony as she took one last swig of the bottle. Aboriginal Australians were stereotypically portrayed in white mens' media as hopeless drunkards. Coxswain only started drinking after her second failed marriage, but realized there was some truth in that. How can you not start drinking when you're practically a non-citizen in your own damn country?

Sometimes Marie wondered if she ever had a tribal name, but finally decided she didn't care. She was far too old and bitter to romanticize her past. Clicking on her computer, she pulled up the latest files.

<Outback Screamer> Her pet project, Australia's only <Infinite Stratos> exoskeleton. Her baby.

Sometimes in her drunken delusions Marie thought that Tabane Shinonono purposefully allocated only one <IS> Core to Australia solely to challenge her. Coxswain did not have access to the tens of millions of dollars that the American, European, and Chinese <IS> techs had; she literally built the Australian machine in her back room. She bitterly laughed aloud at this--the only reason she managed to make it all work was because she was drop dead drunk at the time and refused to accept defeat. So she made the machine work. And like all birhting pains, this endeared the machine to her.

You're going through that rebellious stage, aren't you? She smiled as she still tinkered with the machine, trying to iron out all the still-existing flaws. <Outback Screamer>'s pilot often argued about how the machine was not performing to 'her' specifications. Coxswain hated Emer Werden's guts but the <IS> pilot had a point. <Outback> was pieced together from existing technology and Marie's understanding of how the <IS> Quantum Data process worked. The machine was hand-built, and the fact that it actually worked was a miracle in itself. But although many in industry and tech circles touted it as a 2.75 Generation <IS>, Coxswain knew it was held together by baling wire and spit.

Real spit. Her spit.

There's got to be a better way to improve on this, Marie mumbled under her breath, last night's one-nighter forgotten. This was what she lived for now, creating things out of junk. Not raising a family. Not living wih the man of her dreams. Not doing all of 'those wonderful things' that other women of her age dreamed of doing. That was why the Government called on her so often; she could do wonders in her little hovel that entire companies couldn't hope to do on their acres of factories. Or even dare. If I could turn the F-35 into something useful then I can do something about a goddamn cranky <IS>.

Coxswain said the curse with love, though. In doing so she almost failed to notice the person at her door.

"What do you want, then?" Marie called out, not taking her eyes off her project. It was either a government man requesting her services, or the neighbors calling her out about last night's shrieking. Coxswain had no living relatives left and never had any social visits.

"Marie Coxswain." A young girl's voice.

Coxswain blinked but made no other visible action. Not a question, and not polite. A hint of mild arrogance in the voice. A couple of light footsteps were heard. Marie cursed inwardly, realizing the idiot she slept with last night must have left her door unlocked. Finally, she made a show of a sigh. "Young lady, in my day you asked permission before you walked into a home."

"And here I thought Australian homes welcomed everyone in with open arms."

Coxswain's mind was distracted. The speaker was young, but enunciated her words. The girl did not have the rough lilt of an Australian speaker, and sounded more like the english spoken in movies. American movies. She turned around, now observing the girl more than her own work.

A girl in her mid-teens stood behind her. A white girl, as Marie had guessed. Not someone she recognized outright.

"<Outback Screamer>." The girl crossed her arms, one hand under her chin. Marie noted that the white girl's hands were well-manicured. Like a nun's. When Coxswain was that age, her nails were cracked and hands were already rough with the work she did. "It's ugly."

"Well, I'm an ugly woman. Next question?" Marie couldn't help but smirk. If this girl was trying to insult her, she needed to hit harder than that. My girl is ugly and I'm ugly. <Outback Screamer> is my kid, through and through.

"Would you like me to improve on it?"

Coxswain stared at the girl for a moment and then snapped her head back and laughed. Not the dainty delicate laugh of girlhood, this was a throaty and heavy cackle. She took a minute, maybe two, before she finally stopped. "Tell me another one, sweetie."

"It's not for lack of trying. You just don't have access to the proper resources to bring out the full potential in an <IS>." The girl was right next to her now, leaning slightly on her plexiglass table. "The Australian Government is rather stingy, if it expects you to build technological wonders in an old shack and pay you nothing for it."

You don't know me, Coxswain thought but kept to herself. Summoning a bit of bravado in her voice: "What do you REALLY WANT, child? I'm busy and haven't got all day."

"Oh Marie. Dear Marie." The tone of voice reminded Coxswain of her old english teacher in elementary school. The same tone of voice when the teacher was about to 'make an example' of her in front of the predominantly white class. A white teacher she hated. And feared. "I'm here to give you what you want."

A pause and a choke before she could reply. "And what's that?"

The girl took out a data drive. Without permission, she connected to Marie's computer and started entering a password. Coxswain was transfixed at how fast the girl managed to type and retrieve the data, and how it all connected to <Outback Screamer>. For a moment she was even offended, but did not immediately react. Clearly, the stranger knew more than a thing or two about <IS> tech.

"It's what every <IS> developer wants." The teenager was now smiling, and for some reason the old fear made Marie's blood curdle. "Significance."

Coxswain recognized the data. "Where the hell did you get this?"

"ASIO took it from an exercise involving a Chinese <IS>." The girl made a face that Marie did not find appealing. "The Chinese were far more trusting than I thought they were."

"I can't use this." Coxswain saw more than the Chinese combat data. There were bits of American <IS> tech, as well as from Britain, Germany, and some odd bits from Japan as well. In front of her was data from cutting-edge <IS> around the world, all right in her lap. The implications were staggering. <Outback Screamer> could suddenly become more than a curiosity. More than an exercise in bootstrapped technology. Her <IS> could actually become more of a legitimate threat, something that Marie was oddly not comfortable with. "It's not mine."

"And your point is?"

"My point." Coxswain croaked and stopped. Why does this little girl creep me out? "The whole point of the <IS> as Tabane Shinonono developed it, is--is that it's meant to evolve. To adapt to different situations and create it's own solutions to them. It's not like any other piece of equipment that you just slot add-ons to."

"Evolution's about survival of the fittest." The girl was unperturbed, still crossing her arms in a way that exuded superiority. "Animals evolve by adapting to their environment. Human beings make the environment adapt to them. Shouldn't we be following that train of thought?"

"<Outback Screamer> may not be a cutting-edge <IS>, but all of it was made here. Right here in this home." Coxswain pointed straight down at the floor. "She ain't perfect. But she's mine. She's born and bred here."

"That's just your pride talking." The girl finally stopped leaning on the desk and walked around Coxswain's chair. "I'm sure you can swallow your pride this once, Marie. It's a mutually beneficial deal, I assure you."

There was much wrong with what the girl said, but Coxswain could not muster up a counter-argument. "Allright. What do you want in return?"

"Combat data."

Ah. "You're planning to <Outback Screamer> for combat data testing."

"<Outback Screamer> is one of the Australian elements of Exercise Talisman Saber. I think that's a good time and place to test these upgrades."

Marie's eyes narrowed. Talisman Sabre (spelled Saber by the American side) was a two-yearly military exercise that Australia engaged with US forces. Normally this meant both Australian and US forces were on the same side, but on occassion there were mock battles between both forces.

"The Australian Government has already agreed to it. Quietly."

"I don't like adding strange things to my <IS>." Coxswain realized that the technology she had on hand would be a terrible surprise to the Americans, but wondered if something else was at stake. She had now pegged the teenager as American. CIA? Some private company wanting to embarrass the military? "What if I refuse?"

"You've already agreed, Marie." The girl shook her head, again in the terrible manner Marie's old teacher did. "I can see it in your eyes."

Coxswain knew it. It felt like betraying her own child to the care of someone else. But the look on the girl's face, the air of superiority. It forced a reaction.

"All right." Marie nodded in defeat. "What was your name, again?"

The girl had a questioning look. Not a normal look, more like the way a sculpted statue turned to look at you. Human-looking but lacking any humanity.

"Your name." Coxswain licked her fear-dried lips. "Didn't catch it."

"Stane." The girl smiled. "You'll be hearing it a lot more from now on."

A month later, <Outback Screamer> dominated a test exercise between US and Australian forces. The televised event became public, and many nations accused Australia of espionage and plaigiarism.

And Marie Coxswain was suddenly the most notorious <IS> developer in the world.