un: kantera, text

[happydreamed]

If this adventure with chain mail has taught me anything, 'tis that many of us here are having our first exposure to the internet, with all its amusements and pitfalls included. Thus, I thought it might be nice to introduce another 'getting to know each other' game that some of us might not know yet. This one won't involve pictures or ratings of attractiveness, not to worry.

This game is called 'two truths and a lie'. The premise is simple. You list three statements about yourself, two true and one false. Ideally they should all be similar levels of unbelievable. Then, other people respond to you to guess which one is the lie. We all learn a little about each other and have a bit of fun.

Comments

[nihilmancy]

Both. The latter process takes centuries, and a great deal of resources and labor, so despite being a star-faring species for millennia, we still have only colonized a relatively small portion of the Milky Way.

[kingside]

That makes sense. What about space travel? Is that also very slow?

[nihilmancy]

It's faster than the speed of light, if that was what you were wondering. Travel between systems still takes several months, but without Gate technology, we never would have been able to forge the sort of connections between worlds that we have. Much less build something like the Gaian Hegemony.

[kingside]

["Hegemony" is not a good word but boy is he going to ignore the hell out of that right now.]

Gate technology?

[nihilmancy]

[ She would agree, there are many things wrong about her government, in fact! But she doesn't necessarily come out a guns blazing radical to everybody she meets.

And she's still formulating her own position. But she certainly knows: things need to change. Not that she's even in that universe anymore. ]

A device that creates a short of "shortcut" through space, enabling the distance to be traversed much faster. They are less poetically called "wormholes."

[kingside]

I agree; "gate" is a much better term.

[nihilmancy]

To say nothing of all the terrible off-color jokes people will make about "wormholes."

Well, they are pretty funny, sometimes.

could not resist apparently

[kingside]

[He might like you find you tolerable, maybe. Don't mess it up.]

Always useful to have in one's back pocket, I suppose.

[nihilmancy]

[ It's alright, she's a cranky tsundere too. ]

I have a hole you can put a worm in, etc.

[kingside]

[He meant the oh never mind.]

It doesn't seem terribly versatile. There's really only one punchline, isn't there?

[nihilmancy]

Yes, and I have heard it so many times it has sapped my will to live. Don't believe that star navigators are intelligent and sophisticated people. They shall disappoint you every time. It's dreadful.

[kingside]

I'll keep that in mind.

[nihilmancy]

I must apologize. I have spoken too extensively about myself. If you would like to speak, please go ahead.

[kingside]

That's quite all right. I've been fascinated to learn about all the different worlds people come from. My own life seems rather dull in comparison.

[nihilmancy]

It does not sound so, with the pizza incident.

[kingside]

You have me there.

[nihilmancy]

It is quite alright. I hope that I was able to whet your curiosity.

[kingside]

You did, yes.

By all means ask me a question in return, if you like. I can't imagine what I would talk about otherwise.

[nihilmancy]

I spoke of what circumstances I came from. Tell me a little of your world, or of yourself.

[kingside]

[Hmm.]

Twenty-first century Earth... if that means anything to you? Although I'm given to understand that my Earth's calendar may be different from others. There's a major political power there that I've not heard anyone else mention yet.

[nihilmancy]

Yes, the planet we now call Gaia. Well, we call other things Gaia too, but they all amount to the same, in the end, or so it is said.

That was after the industrial revolution, right? I apologize, but this is very ancient history to me, and there are some gaps in the historical record. Studying the history of humanity before it left its cradle is considered sort of a romantic thing by some people.

[kingside]

[... This is a new experience. An utterly bizarre one so far, but it could be worse.]

After the industrial revolution, yes.

[And... well. Now is as good a time as any.]

The political power or rather nation I was referring to is called "Britannia." It's all right if you're unfamiliar.

[nihilmancy]

[ This is the problem, when your alternate history nation has the same name as the real one which it also is an offshoot of. ]

Oh, yes. An island nation, where industrialization and the full development of the capitalist mode of society originated. It grew rich through colonial exploitation and advanced technology, and it and its offshoot, America, ruled most of the world for quite a while.

[kingside]

[the dumbest fucking world-building yes you are correct and I am sorry] [Well, she's not completely off-base.]

America never got off the ground in my version of Earth, and that whole experiment was later subsumed by Britannia itself when we lost the British Isles.

[nihilmancy]

[ That much she does know. It's a basic summary of those centuries of history. ]

Multiple histories? I suppose that only stands to reason.