I would use this in a heartbeat too! And inject it with more daoisms.
Its got everything I love in an adventure...monasteries, under-water treasure, monks, chains, bloated corpses :D

But seriously, a nice tight little plot!
Great work, Myst! Go to Comment

yeah, would have been more difficult if i went with: chair, battery, elephant, osmosis, gnome, and laser. :P Go to Comment

Wow. Love it. Go to Comment

Quite cool - a nice outcome from random(?) words :)
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This is really good stuff. I would use this. It's the right length, and has a good amount of depth.

Where did the random words come from? Is there a good generator somewhere? Go to Comment

Update: Forgot to add a few details. Go to Comment

Every word came from Murometz in chat, except for corpse (mine) and romance (freetext friday.) He reminded me in his oh-so-subtle way that it'd been awhile since I'd submitted anything. I asked him for some words to get me started, so he started lobbing away. Then he vanished into the ether. I believe I heard cackling. Go to Comment

Challenge accepted. Go to Comment

May I present the AgroGnomes of Beta Arconis Go to Comment

Grim, has multiple layers of background material, and the monster has a symbolic value, just as Godzilla was a symbol of the atom bomb. I approve. Go to Comment

"Put that in you pipe and smoke it, John Galt!"


I love the conflict origin of this one, that this is channels the 99% rage and the conflicts behind wealth distribution. If you were to add more to this sub, I would tell more the chimera's story rather than to develop the physics of the chimera. Though I do like Omega Draco's ideas.

The teaser was awesome. Go to Comment

A very odd creature that fits well into the theme. Nicely done! Go to Comment

A thouroughly enjoyable read. Well written and presented, well done to you both.

4.0/5 Go to Comment

Dr. James Wooden

11:00 a.m., Sydney, Crown Center, Press Conference

With an air of self-assurance, Dr. James Wooden strode in, smiled and seated himself. In a charcoal black suit, Dr. Wooden conveys the image of a true gentleman.

“Welcome to the Press Conference on Project Chimera. As everyone here is well aware, now farming has to be done predominately either with animal or human labour. Also, the radical movement is gaining momentum and causing major disruptions to our lives.  Now, I ask all of you, what do we do about them? Well, my answer is that we create something that will simultaneously address these two problems…  Now, is there any questions?”

18/05/3031

Finally, those walking monies have given me the funding for my Project Chimera! Imagine the fame I will get when I create the perfect animal that will solve the two most pressing problems of humanity at the moment.

19/05/3031

What specimens of DNA should I use to create my Chimera? Let me see, grizzly bear for its strength and ability to sustain mob attacks, the Tasmanian devil so that it will have a rapid reproductive cycle, snakes so that it would have a means to quickly immobilise those pesky radicals and yes, the giant squid from Japan that has that delicious gene with the propensity to mutate, why then my Chimera can continuously breed with other species, creating unique offsprings. Who knows that those walking monies won’t take the fancy to getting their special pet Chimera and give me follow-up funding on project extensions?

10/01/3032

Curse those radicals, here I thought this ghost town of Alice Springs would be the perfect place to set up my research compound and all my Aboriginal ‘assistants’ have escaped in the confusion as well. I know, I will move to Bourke in New South Wales, surely there the opportunities to ‘recruit’ more Aboriginal ‘assistants’ are plenty as well.

08/11/3032

Those ethnical guidelines that scientists are supposed to uphold are damn nuisances. What’s the difference between a non-lethal venom that will paralyse someone so that they can be killed and a lethal one that directly kills? Damn hypocrites

~ excerpts from a partially recovered personal diary of Dr. James Wooden found at the site of the destroyed research compound at Bourke, NSW

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A fair enough comment and one that we haven't really thought about. On the living area, though, was thinking that the chimeras would be kept in already existing mansions/compounds of the rich. The up-keeping part potentially might be problematic in a resource poor world like you say. Go to Comment

Yep, that was the motivation for creating the Chimera, as an all-purpose beast for 'humanity'. As for its primary weapon, the other Moon is more suited to answering this, we split the work such that I'm focusing more on the background world and the scientist while he's focusing more on the monster itself and the plot hooks though of course, there are ideas that come off and build on each other.

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Gotta love the mutated monstrosities. If I'm reading this correctly, the creature was intended both to help farm resources and to put down violent protests? What does it use as its primary weapons -- the claws or its tentacle-enhanced muzzle? Go to Comment

Had he lived, no doubt Dr Wooden would have been able to control the birth rate and only produce as many of the creatures, and variants, as he wished. He was reckless, however, being in love with his own ego, and did not foresee some "difficulties."

As far as the resources required, I imagine that the rich would perceive that as a problem of too many poor. They would be more than willing to take whatever they desired by force to maintain their own comforts while "encouraging" the poor to die off (a bit like Zardoz, I suppose.) Go to Comment

Being as large as it is, the claws would be quite effective weapons on their own. It can also use its tentacles to help hold onto prey while its massive jaws render flesh or its special fangs inject a painful and paralyzing poison. Go to Comment

I love those ideas! Go to Comment