#currently the answer is always fractal engine

[borrelia]

why do u have acookie clicker spreadhsoot

so i can determine the optimum purchases in cookie clicker

[coutelier]

Have a nice but fairly long extract from the current draft of my WIP:

Kaya didn’t know how much further they had to go. The building they were in was huge, bigger than it had appeared from outside as several floors were below ground. When they turned the next corner she decided to try a different strategy and just distract Jen by being silly.

“You think they have GM foods here?” She asked. “Like taking tomatoes and giving them mouths and making them carnivorous?”

Jennifer looked at her strangely. “Why would anyone do that?”

“Because they can,” Kaya shrugged, “maybe their plan is to turn all the poor into rabid tomatoes so they eat each other. That’s what my mom suspects. She only ever buys organic.”

Jen sighed, rolled her eyes and uttered, “your mom’s an idiot.”

“Well, yeah,” Kaya conceded. “She’s still my mom, so, you know…”

It worked though. Tales of Kaya’s mom’s paranoid reactionary ideas always shocked and amused Jennifer. “Okay, but, even if they did breed rabid tomatoes you wouldn’t become a tomato by eating them. You don’t take on the genetic traits of things you eat or through history people eating chicken would have grown feathers and started laying eggs. You don’t literally become what you eat.”

“I don’t know. I just licked a toad once and I was hopping around for hours afterward.”

Jennifer snorted, her lips suddenly becoming very tight and she struggled to stifle her laugh.

“What’s that?” Kaya nudged. “Is that a giggle trying to break out there?”

“Shut up,” Jen sniffed. “You’re distracting me. Besides, I think we’re here.”

Sure enough, before them were double doors over which were the initials ELF. Once again Jen made short work of the electronic lock and beyond was a room that at first glance didn’t seem much more impressive than a science room in any school. There were a few lockers, computers, sinks, little racks filled with tubes, a refrigerator filled with jars that probably Kaya shouldn’t pinch no matter how hungry she was. There was one thing that stood out - a pentagon shaped console in the middle of the floor with a cylinder extending from it all the way to the ceiling.

“What is it?” Kaya asked as Jen hovered around the console squinting at all the buttons and data flashing by on little monitors embedded inside. After a moment she pressed some of the buttons and the cylinder peeled away, sliding into the console itself to reveal a glass tube filled with water. And within the water am ethereal purple leaf about the size of one of the women that just gently swayed as bubbles formed then floated up and disappeared. On closer inspection the leaf was made up of many fronds branching from a central stalk, so it was in fact more like a feather. “Okay,” Kaya nodded. “So, what is it?”

“I don’t know,” Jen admitted. “It’s not a plant. There’s no photosynthesis happening in there. But it is alive. It’s kind of like a Charnia - a fractal life-form from the Pre-Cambrian era.”

Kaya understood that meant very old and probably extinct. “So is it a clone or something?”

“Unlikely. That creature lived hundreds of millions of years ago,” Jennifer was a moment lost in though and awe of the seemingly impossible creature. “Maybe this is a replica. An actual, living recreation. That’s synthetic biology - instead of just modifying an existing organism they made this one from scratch. It’s fascinating, but I had no idea anyone had gotten this far with it…”

It was obvious from how she looked that Jen was quite taken with the thing, but honestly it was just a big purple feather to Kaya seemed pretty inert. “That’s great and all, but I don’t see what this can have to do with the invisible stalkers out there.”

“If their bio-engineering is already this advanced then maybe they’ve taken it further,” Jen nodded to another set of doors opposite the ones they’d entered. “We should go deeper.” She swept away from the console to march boldly onwards, wires and tablet ready. Only to stop, dumbfounded. Kaya asked what was wrong and Jen stammered, “i-it… It’s locked…”

“So unlock it.”

“I mean it’s lock-locked. It needs an actual, physical key.”

Kaya looked. No keypads, no fingerprint or hand or iris scanners. Just a keyhole and through it maybe the answers they sought. Kaya laughed, “what was it, years you said studying all the security systems? All those gadgets and hacking, but you didn’t think you might just need a key?”

Jennifer clearly knew she was being made fun of and desperately looked for a way to save her beetroot face. “Maybe we can pick it,” she said, reaching into her coat. “I’m sure I have some pins and a hair-clip somewhere…”

But Kaya knew that was futile. “You’ll never pick it with those. If I had my tools,” she sighed. That was on her of course. She should have thought ahead and been prepared for this eventuality too instead of leaving it all to Jennifer. Maybe there was something in the lab…

Jennifer stared at her and asked, “so you’re a locksmith now?”

“Something like that. Sure,” Kaya looked around and wondered how someone so smart could be so stupid.

[gravelgirty]

Why Aliens avoid Earth

Careful records contained positive proof of the Great Disaster. It wiped out all of those disgusting scaly things that ate everything in sight--included the first four of your planet’s exploration probes. They ate the craft, too, but reptiles appear to have a disturbing, in-wired taste for bio-protein engineering.

But... millions of years have passed. They’re long gone. You’re safe, the crew is safe, everyone’s safe...no need to worry. Yes, the current dominant life form is everywhere, and unpredictable, but no scales, no armor, no remarkable teeth, no venom, no claws, and the bone density is so poor you want to pat them on the head on the way to the Culling.

You and your crew have trained for the greatest threats Earth ever saw, in order to always be ready for the worst these humans have to offer.

And then you set out, in a pitiable part of the planet, an area so poor in mineral wealth you can’t even call it ‘soil’ or ‘rock’...it is lightly-strung hummocks over endless fractals of semi-stagnant, dark water fragrant with drowned insects and decaying leaves, broken by low isles of earth, roots of the largest flora called ‘trees’ and strange fruits that the the medico has warned you all not to touch, sniff, and for Glorb’s sake taste because that stuff will get INSIDE your DNA and who knows what will happen.  This part of the planet, which the natives call ‘Florida’ is disgusting.

The only thing you have to worry about are the alligators and the crocodiles, but you aren’t worried. You had the training. You can handle dinosaurs and these are the only inept stragglers left--the rude hangers-on who haven’t the manners to leave.

And then your craft touches down in the middle of a watery canal, and the humans are staring and you pull out the dinosaur-probe, and charge the pool. Instantly every one of those gruesome, long-tailed ugly terrors float to the surface, stunned, unable to fight. There’s also two long, limbless reptiles with them, and their markings let your computer identify them but there must be a glitch because the land of Burma is far too far away for these things to be here. Possibly a research project for one of the green and eager recruits.

You smirk at the staring humans, with their primitive cook-fires and dead animals wrapped in thin layers of hammered metal. Fully aware of your protection you lead your men into the putrid pool, planning to wade over and declare your superiority.

Ten minutes later it is the bitter taste of defeat in your mouth and the humans are staring at you, horrified and sympathetic. You demand to know what has stolen the appendages of your team, and finally, they rouse up someone from the crowd, a female whose long grey hair declares her an elder.

She listens to you with her artificial eye-enhancers perched precariously on her face, blinking, and to give her credit she doesn’t interrupt your hysterical words.

But when you finish your speech with a question, she is bound to answer.

“Them’s snappin’ turtles, son.” She pats you on what remains of your arm. “I don’t reckon anything agin’ the dinosaurs would work on ‘em.”

She leans close, her breath reeking of sympathy.

“Them  things, they was here BEFORE the dinosaurs.” 

[panic-in-tarir]

One year in review

That’s it! The OH IT’S BEEN ONE YEAR post is here!

The closer my first anniversary was, the more excited I got, and the more thoughts I gathered for one “summary” post. Now that it’s time, suddenly, bam, all of them gone. :’> *wipes sweat*

Recently I had someone asking about my progression and how I managed to get there (???? where? derp). Well, I guess, I could just start telling about my first deeds in GW2, and then see if I can add something.

This might or might not be relevant, but I come from Wakfu, a colorful 2D game with turn-based combat. It’s cool visually, but also has terrible management issues, lack of developer care, one of the worst customer supports ever, list goes on.. I played it since 2012, and year by year, only grew angry, disappointed and hurt. That was like an abusive relationship I couldn’t get out of. I refused to try different genre and engine games. Finally, @aketan​ / @flame-squad​ / Rika got me lowkey interested in GW2 (she was commenting expressively while playing, and I peeked over her shoulder), I decided to try it. And stayed. Migrating to a real-time 3D game wasn’t easy! Yet, it was my lifesaver decision. GW2 has everything that I wish was there in Wakfu. It took me several months, if not a year, to get fully “healed”, to recover from the bad game and start believing that good games exist. When I had to contact GW2 support, I was touched to tears.. Everything and everyone is so nice here.

That wall of text was a foreword! Or explanation why I’m so excited and grateful about every aspect of GW2.

I started without putting too much thought into the char creation, as a result, now I have yet another main whose name is literally foreign language swearing or pun. GG me. After having been completely lost and confused by the controls (I LITERALLY ran backwards and yelled), after having a short but comprehensive lesson from bff, I started derping around on my own. I think I was only guided until lvl 5 or so, then my buddy let me do whatever I want. I come from a sandbox-wannabe game so it didn’t take me forever to get comfortable and set my first goals. Of course, I had a shit ton of questions, which I didn’t hesitate to spam Rika with. It’s cool to have someone ready to explain you the basics and patiently show you things. :D My several first days, or even weeks, were intense. I didn’t rush levels, but was eager to see the world. It was so amazing to me that I was spending 8-10 hours a day, running around, completing maps. I started in Metrica but quickly wandered away to Caledon (”oh! a portal?!”), where I spent a handful of time then.

With such a desire to discover and observe, and after having seen the title you’re awarded for 100% world map completion, I set it as my first ultimate goal. I approached it rather seriously, and had an incredibly fun time, at least until I had only Orr left undiscovered. x’D As a squishy (and slow, and dumb) ele, I was frightened and a bit discouraged by the amount of, well, deaths here. If I recall correctly, I still wore yellows at that time, although I was 80. Rika helped me and accompanied me for a bit. Orr was tough and I legit cried out of anger and frustration when I was alone, but that was the only unpleasant moment in entire year, and only because I wasn’t good at the game yet.

In the meantime, I was leveling my first alt, human engi. Do you actually remember that f2p accounts only allow 2 chars? Later, after buying HoT, I finally got loose.

They say, you always remember the place where you finished your first world map. For me, and oddly enough, for Rika, it was Field of Ruins. We reached the last POI at the same time, and, boy, did it feel great. My first big accomplishment. It dropped like.. Like a norn fart in a moot (c) Jory \o/ I still use the title btw, “been there, done that”. \o/

Then, there was a relatively dull period before buying HoT. I focused on doing my personal story, maxing out my alt and getting into crafting. The latter quickly became addictive to me. It’s so smooth, fun and exciting in GW2. Artificer was my first discipline, and after getting the hang of it, I breezed through 100-500 in a single day’s course.

That’s what the progression of my first 4-5 months looked like! I still was f2p, did only open world content and had one person to play with. I’m my own boss so it’s up to me to decide if I want to spend 30 minutes or 8 hours ingame.

HoT was a blessing in every aspect possible! I never regretted buying it, never regretted taking my time and not buying it earlier though - I needed that f2p scrub time to learn the basics, and to appreciate all the convenience and QoL improvements that come with HoT.

That’s where the real game starts, if I could say that. Core Tyria is by all means amazing, but you can go only this far if your account has those market and mail restrictions.. I used to enjoy playing market in Wakfu (while it was still alive) and I was excited to try it in GW2. When I bought the expansion and got my account fully functional, I got some skins and dyes ahead of all, then proceeded with crafting since I was really addicted to it and excited to max all the disciplines as my medium priority goal.

GW2 is encouraging altoholism! So I found myself leveling a third character (tried revenant and didn’t notice how I got her to level 20-ish and it was too late to delete), then fourth, fifth, then more char slots.. You see my weakness. I quickly realized the perks of having alts: storage, gathering, alternative personal stories, so on. When you’re an altoholic, plus you have yet to finish gearing up your main, plus you can barely hold yourself from leveling another crafting discipline.. RIP GOLD. I never had more than 30-100g at that time period.

Since market and wealth are one of my biggest passions ingame, I learned ways to earn me some coins, one by one. It’s not that hard if you’re a patient gatherer like me. Just run around, chop trees, collect ore and herbs.. I enjoy it so much, maybe it’s grind for someone, but I find it relaxing. Also it brings you gold. \o/ I found a few niche crafts that I could keep making and selling, then got familiar with market flipping, still not doing it like “big daddies” do, I might be too inefficient and lazy at it. But still, I found my own stable sources of income. Not gonna lie, the game just seems to like me and spoils occasionally. I don’t wanna brag, but there was like 4 precursor drops for me, 2 from mystic toilet, 2 practically dropped from the sky. I might be a little luckier than the average player. But that’s well deserved given how much suffering I had in Wakfu. :’D

When we talk about luck, we can’t avoid mentioning gambling. I learned about mystic toilet quite early, but never was a slave to it. Tarrktun has a bit more power over me, but I’ve never lost too much, only gained little by little. Black Lion Keys are the most evil gambling aspect if you ask me, I’ve spent quite a bit of money on those, though sometimes got nice things in exchange. Either gold to gems or gems for real money, I don’t mind spending it on Anet since they very, very well deserve it.

Given my passion, patience and luck, you must think I should be filthy rich by now.. Hah. :’DD Sadly, I’m just as good at spending as I’m at earning! I blew a lot of money on my own “needs” and “wants” and “why not”s, I keep investing into long term sales, I also often buy gifts for my buddies, mostly Rika. Money comes, money goes. GW2efficiency says my account is worth 14k gold currently. Not a bad progress for a year, I suppose.

So.. My biggest interests and playstyle are gold wars, fashion wars, altoholism.. I became quite a lore geek, completed PS, LS2, available LS3 episodes & most of current events, most of HoT? I should finish it but I procrastinate for some reason.

My current achievement number is 7610, mastery rank is 129 iirc. I’m not a casual derp anymore, but still too afraid to fail in front of strangers so I don’t really do dungeons or fractals. I mean I DO, when my bff literally holds my hand and goes there with me, then 3 strangers vs two of us is tad bit less scary. My combat skill, my reflexes and reactions are rather pathetic, even if I got significantly better after HoT and LS3 maps. I must train more, so recently I made a tanky character to practice, I hope to get good enough to clear story mode dungeons and low level fractals alone. Maybe I’m being too hard at myself, but combat skill has practically the biggest influence in this game, so I must git gud, at least acceptable, so I don’t feel ashamed to play with other people and don’t let them down. :’D

I’m a pve trash. Tried WvW and don’t mind coming here again, but not too much. PvP is a big no-no. Just.. Not my thing. Never. Not with my current skill and mindset (people = stress).

I’ve still got a mind-boggling amount of things to do. Personal goals, mere achievements, secrets and mysteries I’m yet to uncover, lore things to read. Maybe I’ll play GW1 one day, if there’s ever a discount sale. \;w;/ I’m super curious about every tiny bit of lore, also want some skins that are exclusive to GW1. That pleasant, sweet feeling that there’s so much interesting things ahead. I will take my time and never grind anything to frustration, for example, I’ve been working on my first leg, Sunrise, on and off and I’ll wait several months more, until I get all the clovers from the monthly chest. I don’t sweat it and just enjoy the game however I see it. Feelsgoodman.

I hope I managed to answer that person’s question, how did I get where I’m currently? Just took my time, learned my own pace and enjoyed every minute I spent online. Love the game, and it will love you back. \o/

[coutelier]

Another sxcerpt from my current WIP. This one continues straight on from the last excerpt I posted. I was going to put a break there and cut away to something, but it would have been to some villains talking and we’ve already got three POV characters and had a few asides at this point so I didn’t want to have another one so soon:

The signs took them to a laboratory which at first didn’t seem much more impressive than science labs at school. There were some lockers, computers, sinks, those little racks filled with tubes, and a refrigerator filled with labeled jars that probably you shouldn’t pinch no matter no hungry you were. There were a few other pieces of apparatus but one thing stood out - a console in the middle of the room with a cylinder extending from its top up to the ceiling. Jennifer went straight over to it, taking a moment to scrutinize the controls and read some data off a small monitor.

“What is it?” Kaya asked. Jen’s answer was to turn some switches. The surface of the cylinder peeled away, dropping into the console to reveal a glass water-filled tank. Inside the tank was what at first looked like a tall purple leaf, but looking closer revealed that it was actually of many fronds branching from a central stalk held closely together. “Okay,” said Kaya, “so, what is it?”

“It’s not a plant,” Jennifer told her, “There’s no photosynthesis happening in there. It’s like a Charnia - a fractal life-form from the Pre-Cambrian era.”

“Well it doesn’t look that old,” Kaya pointed out, “so is it like a clone or something?”

“Very, very unlikely. No, I think this is more like a living reproduction created here. The label calls it ‘Syn’.”

“Great name. But this thing doesn’t look all that dangerous. I don’t see what it’s got to do with invisible bark skinned creatures.”

“This might have just been the start,” Jennifer nodded toward a set of doors opposite those they had entered this room from. “We should look deeper.” They headed in that direction, Jen with her wires and tablet ready but then she paused, perplexed.

“What’s wrong now?” Kaya asked.

“I-it’s locked,” Jennifer stammered. “I mean, locked-locked. There’s no panel.”

A glance confirmed that the door was, most simply, locked. Kaya almost laughed, but the truth was she would be ashamed too if this adventure came to naught. There could well be answers in there, and all that was in her way was a few inches of metal. “You spent years studying the security and doing all that fancy computer stuff, but you never thought you might just need a key?”

“I might be able to pick it,” Jen insisted, reaching into her coat for what looked like just some pins and needles. “It’ll just take a while.”

But Kaya already saw it was futile. “You’ll never pick it open with those,” she said. “If I had my tools…” that was on her, of course. She’d left them in the wreck of her car. But there had to be something in this laboratory…

Jen peered at her old friend suspiciously again. “You’re a locksmith?” She asked incredulously.

Kaya crossed her arms and muttered, “sure. Something like that.” It seemed paradoxical to her that Jennifer, who clearly had a low opinion of her anyway, refused to just acknowledge the truth. Maybe she just wanted Kaya to say it - admit out loud what she had become. Although it was an odd circumstance in which to claim any moral high ground… there were footsteps and Kaya glimpsed a shadow moving outside. “Someone’s coming,” she whispered. There was only one option where they could hide and that was the lockers, so she quickly took Jen’s hand and dragged her over. There was a coat or two hanging inside but luckily enough room for them both to fit. Jen seemed surprised and confused, enough that she didn’t resist being stuffed inside before Kaya squeezed in beside her.

Mere seconds later the footsteps were definitely inside the lab. Then they stopped. Kaya wondered why, then… the tank! They’d left it open - a silly oversight. Sure enough they soon heard a low murmur that suggested the cylinder was going back up again. Kaya could only hope that whoever was there would assume they or some other egghead had simply forgotten to raise it earlier. There was another problem - in her haste Kaya had shoved Jennifer’s face against some fur coat and now heard her whisper, “I think I’m going to sneeze…”

“Shhh!” Kaya urged as quietly as she could. “Pinch your nose!”

But it was too late. The locker opened and Kaya found herself blinking at a tall, dark skinned woman with her hair in a bun who did not look too happy. “What are you doing in there?” The woman asked.

The only explanation Kaya could think of was, “we’re agoraphobic?”

“Get out,” the woman was obviously unsympathetic to the condition. “I’m calling security.”

That meant she hadn’t yet… and she might have a key to those doors. The woman was taller and seemed quite fit, but if Kaya got the jump on her…

“Doctor Sarkis!” Jennifer gasped with surprise matched by the woman’s own.

“Jennifer?” The doctor asked. “How… why are you here?”

“That’s,” Jen avoided eye contact but this time out of genuine guilt and fear.

“That’s complicated…”

“Well you had best start explaining,” Doctor Sarkis obliquely eyed Kaya. “Who is this?”

“Cade,” Kaya put on a friendly smile. “Kaya Cade.”

“Sounds familiar,” Doctor Sarkis thought. “Isn’t she the one who used to bully you?”

Jennifer shifted her feet furtively. “N-not the only one,” she admitted. “And it was years ago. We’re adults now.”

“Did she put you up to this?”

“No… coming here was actually my idea.”

“It’s true,” Kaya nodded, “I was ready to turn myself in to the dibbles… the police, but Jen said we’d find answers here.”

Doctor Sarkis screwed her face in confusion. “Police? What for?”

“There was a creature,” Jennifer said. “Or maybe several creatures.”

“I called it a faerie,” Kaya piped in, “but we don’t really know what it was. It was invisible.”

“An invisible creature?” It was plain the doctor was already considering what kind of medication they would need.

“Only at first,” Kaya tried to clarify. “Then it rained and it de-cloaked and was strong as hell and had some kind of bark-like skin.”

“Maybe armor,” Jen suggested. “I was able to analyze a sample of its blood and I believe it was synthetic.”

“So,” Doctor Sarkis repeated it all in head, “you think we created an invisible faerie here at the lab that somehow escaped?”

“Well,” Kaya shrugged sheepishly, “it kind of sounds a bit mad when you say it like that.”

“It’s impossible,” Sarkis said, turning from them. “You’ve already seen Syn, I presume. We’ve had some success reproducing simple organisms but a creature like you’re describing is far beyond what anyone has done.”

“That’s not the same as impossible,” Jennifer gently pointed out.

“No,” Doctor Sarkis conceded, “but this is the most advanced genetic engineering facility in the world and it’s taken us decades to get this far. For anyone to have created an organism capable of acting freely would not only be unethical but they’d have skipped thousands of steps testing and understanding what they were doing. No one would be so reckless.”

Jen answered bitterly, “Alvin Stag would be…”

“Even if that were true, he answers to Meridiem now and I doubt they’d allow him to do anything that could prove costly to them.”

Kaya was missing out on a whole lot here. She knew that Alvin Stag founded this company and that Jennifer never liked him - she perhaps suspected him of having something to do with what happened to her parents. But Kaya still had so many questions, so she decided to start with what was in front of her. “Excuse me,” she said, raising a hand. “What, exactly, is it that you’re doing here? What’s that thing in the jar?”

Doctor Sarkis looked between the two intruders. After a moments consideration she seemed to resign herself. “Synthetic biology,” she said, revealing ‘the jar’ once more. “The next step in genetic engineering. Syn wasn’t modified from an existing organism. We designed and wrote her entire genome on the computers here, then implanted that code into a synthetic cell and allowed it to grow. Simple, really, although the creation of artificial cells capable of self-replication, that can be complicated.”

“But why?” Kaya asked. “What’s it for?”

“Use your imagination,” Jennifer chided, “there’s no end to all the good you could do. Plants that can absorb and recycle greenhouse gases, crops that can grow in any environment, bacteria that can clean up waste. Medicine, biofuel, space travel, terraforming… if perfected, the only limits to this are your imagination.” “Most of our work is with single celled organisms,” Doctor Sarkis nodded, “with focus on bioremediation and medicine.”

“Okay,” Kaya nodded along as well. She actually got it, but it seemed to her they were avoiding something obvious. “So all of that is what good Jen would do. But, what about evil Jen?”

There was a long moment of silence before Jen answered. “You could create a virus…”

“That’s why we’ve kept all this from the public,” Doctor Sarkis tried to assure them. “Yes, in the wrong hands someone could make a devastating weapon, but nothing happens in this lab without the approval of myself and an ethical committee.”

“But this wasn’t always your lab.”

“Before me this was your father’s work. Syn was his creation. He believed he could create a better world, not just for you, but for every human.”

Jennifer never argued with her dad. If he believed in what he was doing then there was no doubt she would as well. But, “what about Stag?” She asked. “He’s an ass,” Doctor Sarkis admitted, “but he doesn’t interfere with us. All he cares about is our progress and patents. This was your father’s work… you should see it all. Come.”

The doctor left them to open the inner doors, leaving Kaya alone with Jennifer for a moment. She slid next to her friend whispering and grinning, “you know her, then?”

“Yes,” Jen nodded. “I’ve known Jana for years.”

“So, we didn’t actually need to break in here at all? You could have just asked her to let us in?”

“Well,” Jennifer puffed indignantly, “I-I didn’t know she would be working now. Besides, I didn’t want to get her into trouble.”

Kaya made a motion as if to strangle her, but Jennifer squeaked and quickly escaped to follow the doctor. Kaya had no choice but to swallow her frustration and follow as well.