Trope-a-Day: Cargo Cult

Cargo Cult: This happens ALL THE TIME. It is very much against IES First Contact rules, and EMBARRASSING.

The Heart of Mediocrity (1)

“No-no-no-no-no,” Arúaz Váriz Xinak Laníc Kúran viKoriaz said, hsis heads moving in some agitation.  “Absolutely not, never.  We and our crew cannot be paid enough to take you to Vonis Prime, no.   The kalatri do not like visitors of our kind, no-no-no.  Cause us/us/ours too much trouble, risk,

Trope-a-Day: Car Fu

Car Fu: If Tank Fu counts, and they’re vehicles, so it ought to, most of them are designed for this.  (Although usually intended for use against fixed obstacles and, well, buildings, it still works.)

Recruiting

“What do you people want from me?” “Just the usual. That you should continue to be exceptional, live forever, join a transcendent hyperconsciousness, and evolve into a demigod – or at least the closest thing the physical universe has to offer – sometime in the next few millennia. You can make up

Trope-a-Day: Capital City

Capital City: Of the Associated Worlds as a whole, that would be the Conclave Drift, the giant habitat in which the Conclave of Galactic Polities is situated.  It’s also a major commercial and cultural hub, it being – due to the room it sets aside for every polity in the

Passing the Handbasket

To my successor in office: I’m leaving you this unofficial note to welcome you to the unique position of being an ambassador to the Empire, to pass on a few hopefully useful pieces of advice, and frankly, to wish you more joy of the position than I had, even

Trope-a-Day: Can You Hear Me Now?

Can You Hear Me Now?: Averted even when there is a major disaster, because Empire-standard communication devices are designed to use mesh networking, and fall back on peer-to-peer routing between themselves if they can’t reach a hub, either to get the packets through directly, or to bounce off each

Trope-a-Day: Can Breathe In Space

Can Breathe In Space: Technically, you can do this by using a vector-control “envelope” to hold air in around you (although you will still need some means of replenishing it if you plan to do this for long, special provisions like oxygen-carrying hemocules aside).  While useful to avoid ebullism and

Falling In Love Again

Coming this summer from Hedonitechnology, ReLimerance, a new and unique service for couples. Have you let your relationship grow stale with the years?  Do you know each other too well? Let our skilled sophic engineers refresh YOUR relationship.  Our latest memory-redaction technology allows us to selectively block your detailed knowledge

Trope-a-Day: Calvinball

Calvinball: An awful lot of games played in the Empire are like this from our perspective, by virtue of having been designed to satisfy the game-playing urges of people with, well, transhuman intelligence.  For example: One of the simplest is the card game ómith.  It’s like poker, except with

Trope-a-Day: Call a Smeerp a "Rabbit"

Call a Smeerp a “Rabbit”: Another unfortunate aspect of Translation Convention.  As described under Taxonomic Term Confusion, Eldraeic has a means of classifying – and words for – species-groups classified by homology alone, so that people can talk about the winged flying creatures that exist on multiple planets easily – without having to

Just Another Day In Inplacement

“Got a good one for you!” “Why is it, Annis, that when you say ‘good one’, I hear ‘utter wire-and-tape job’?” “Couldn’t say, boss.  Anyway, today’s case here-and-now one-thirteen.  An infugee from the Republic – one of their scientists who wanted to defect, looks like.  He managed to piece