"With" With 2017-01-12

[GlytchMeister]

I am totally gonna be thinking of a way for Glytch-the-character to recover that, if only for the metallurgical research samples... But also because Shelly-1, who to the best of my knowledge isn't Sphinx or Titan, was able to cut 75% of a bigass tree from a dead start while the blade was lodged in the wood of aforementioned tree. Which implies it might be the "Perfect Inclined Plane", which is to say, it is geometrically perfectly sharp and perhaps frictionless... Or damn close to both of those things. Because no human has any business pulling a stunt like that without significant help.

...and Shelly is going to likely tell you not to do it.

Why would Shelly resist? Mayahuel and Neil and Prroul, yeah. But I don't recall her having displayed that character trait. And it's just a sword that cuts really well. It's not a power cell or weapon of mass destruction. And it wasn't involved in the Calendar Machine - it was in the Calendar's Flywheel, the Time Forest, but it was probably not involved in the mechanics of the Machine itself, so likely no potential for temporal distortion. If there are signs of it having temporal effects, Glytch will gladly hand it over to Mayahuel and strongly request it be thoroughly destroyed.

[Warrl]

I seem to remember that way, way back in Gunnerkrigg Court, the author commented that a character's sword was sharp enough to cut a shadow off a stone floor.

No, the author actually HAD the sword cut a shadow off a stone floor.

When it was dropped (after accidentally slicing a robot in two).

Of course, that shadow is a bit more vocal than most, and this is not a side effect of being removed from the floor.

[jwhouk]

She'd very quietly say, "Once you're in there, the only ones who can get out are Sphinxes."

[GlytchMeister]

She'd very quietly say, "Once you're in there, the only ones who can get out are Sphinxes."

"who said anyone's going in? I'm sending a rover. Backwards forest full of homicidal maniacs? No thank you. A piece of the Calendar Machine itself? Nooooope. I ain't sending any living or undead thing there. I'm gonna make a rover! Well, probably a bunch of them. The first one probably won't succeed, it will mainly be there to judge their reaction and gather data for camouflage and mobility attempts. I've got no idea what the gravity or the terrain is like."

[illiad]

She'd very quietly say, "Once you're in there, the only ones who can get out are Sphinxes."

"who said anyone's going in? I'm sending a rover. Backwards forest full of homicidal maniacs? No thank you. A piece of the Calendar Machine itself? Nooooope. I ain't sending any living or undead thing there. I'm gonna make a rover! Well, probably a bunch of them. The first one probably won't succeed, it will mainly be there to judge their reaction and gather data for camouflage and mobility attempts. I've got no idea what the gravity or the terrain is like."

It rather depends whether anything 'electronic' will survive in the forest...will it last for 80,000 years?? Even Shelly seemed to forget who she was... (to everyone else, she was gone about a microsecond...)

[Dave]

"who said anyone's going in? I'm sending a rover. Backwards forest full of homicidal maniacs? No thank you. A piece of the Calendar Machine itself? Nooooope. I ain't sending any living or undead thing there. I'm gonna make a rover! Well, probably a bunch of them. The first one probably won't succeed, it will mainly be there to judge their reaction and gather data for camouflage and mobility attempts. I've got no idea what the gravity or the terrain is like."

And if the Sphinxes don't care for the fact that Glytch is littering their sacred Forest with noisy mechanical junk?

He might get a "Cease and desist, or be eaten" letter.

If they bother to send a letter before eating him. They might just arbitrarily decide that such annoying behavior means that he must be Demon-infested.

[GlytchMeister]

Aha,but remember, the Apotropiac sphinxes have an immense fear of that which they cannot classify or label. Connie terrified them.
How do you think they'll react when they notice Glytch's Madness conglomerate?

[Dave]

Well, Glytch can hope that they haven't progressed from "bureaucratic dithering" to "kill it with fire immediately!"

[GlytchMeister]

Well, Glytch can hope that they haven't progressed from "bureaucratic dithering" to "kill it with fire immediately!"

From what I understood, Connie actually scared them, it wasn't Red Tape that kept them away. I could be wrong, though. But, if I am, there is one thing worth thinking about:

Sphinxes are immortal. Highly ancient, and if they are a part of a bureaucratic rat's nest of red tape, I highly doubt they are going to make any sort of official progress within a few centuries.