opnet [OpNet] Vocal articulation.

[Wakinyan]

I am a dumbass for not noticing this in the year I have been around though. It took a little kid in the imperial gardens to point it out to me. Maybe you guys noticed it and just never said anything.

I shouldn't be able to talk very well. The fact that I have a beak and no lips should ruin my speech however it doesn't. I sometimes talk without my beak even moving. How the hell have I been doing that and why haven't I noticed it before (possibly because I don't see myself speak much). The kid said I speak just like the wolves from some Anime movie. I didn't understand until he told me I speak without moving my mouth. Odd to say the least.

Anyway just another odd little note about me. Have a nice day.

[kestrel404]

Ah, that explains the colorful plumage. You're not part eagle. You're part parrot.

Seriously, you've probably got a lot more vocal range than you use. I can tell you that just from having watched your XWF match (I caught a re-run a few weeks ago during the annual recap episode).

I'm not sure what good it would do for you. I know novas can use their abilities through their voices, but you just don't seem the type for that.

Congrats on noticing, though.

[Wakinyan]

Well you do have a point. When I roar people jump ten miles away.

I never thought about trying to use my voice in any other way before though. Maybe it is worth trying to work on. Maybe I will try it on karaoke night.

[Sakurako Hino]

Totem, who cares how you do it? You just do, and you're pretty good at it.

That's all that matters.

[Jager]

Trust me, Totem, learning to talk without moving your lips is pretty neat. Took me a while to learn it. You got it direct from the Genie itself.

[Walker]

Grits teeth No. Must. Resist. Must not. Make. Stupid post...

Damn it. Just can't help myself...

"Gottle a' geer, gottle a' geer" whilst making mouth motions with hand in sock

[Long]

Totem at least you don't seem to growl or purr when you speak, or roar when you yell at someone... I speak very little in public because of that... The more agitated or exicted I get, the more bestial I sound. I've only sang Karaoke once since I errupted, it was a rather interesting rendition of "Iron Man"

[Wakinyan]

Oh I do roar, growl a lot I just try not to. I don't admit to purring and only one or two people could claim I do.

[Long]

Being someone who looks like a Tiger-human Hybrid, most of my comrades have always just kind of accepted the low rumble I emit when I'm sitting content by the campfire... Good times good friends and a raging bonfire on a cold mountain night...

[Conduit]

To be honest, I've always wondered how I talk. Yeah I'm 'living' copper, but still, how do my vocal cords work. I can indent my skin, and I'm sure the very strong can as well, but how does the air pass through and all that. The mysteries of life I guess.

[Long]

Quantum is a wonderful thing, through it and our mastery of our subconscious all things are possible, eventually.

[Tarot]

Quote:

Originally posted by Long:
... through it and our mastery of our subconscious all things are possible, eventually.

Hopefully at least one of them will be something you like to do.

[Hugin]

Quote:

Originally posted by Conduit:
To be honest, I've always wondered how I talk. Yeah I'm 'living' copper, but still, how do my vocal cords work. I can indent my skin, and I'm sure the very strong can as well, but how does the air pass through and all that. The mysteries of life I guess.

Do you even still have vocal chords? This reminds me of a former companion, he was called Obsidian by his friends. Sold rock, or at least somthing that appeared to be rock. Not obsidian of course, people simply aren't particularly imaginative most of the time. But he was solid rock. He possessed a mouth, but no throat, no tongue, no inner cavities or organs that might vibrate to cause sound. The fact that the stone of his mouth moved as it did without cracking was amazing in and of itself, but where did the words he used come from?

Unfortunately he is not open to study, not that I can blame him. I have some theories but I will respect his desire for privacy.

Totem, this sort of self-inspection and realization is important and a good idea. Notice those things about you that are remarkable and amazing. Realize that this is just the begining. Consciously direct your evolution and your days of wonder are just begining.

[Conduit]

Quote:

Originally posted by James 'Prodigy' Meehan:
Do you even still have vocal chords?[/QB]

I don't know. I'm not in the habit of jamming something down my throat to look around. But it is a good question. From a distance I look pretty smooth, but if you get closer you can see that I still have pours. I've never had it checked out, but I have always just assumed that every atom in my body simple became copper and that, for simplicity, I am exactly the same.

[Walker]

Novas simply do the impossible. None of us actually does anything other than manipulate quantum energy. What-ever quantum energy means. Seems to mean we can do the impossible...

Bit of a simple arguement but there we go. Sometimes things are not as complex as we like to suspect.

[Typhoon]

Out of water I can communicate normally, but while immersed past a certain depth, the best I offer is to 'ping' with sonar.

Luckily there arn't many to communicate with down there, other than your odd Aquatic Nova, and they don't like getting 'pinged'!

[Tarot]

That brings up an on-topic question, Typhoon How do you make the "ping? Do you just whistle or something? And how do you know what the echo is telling you?

It sounds like the questions are all really asking the same thing. How do we do the things we do? How does Walker know where the other end of his doorway opens before its open. How does Alchemist slap electrons and protons around just by thinking "Now I want it to be gold." How do I know just the right tone to use every time without thinking about it. How does Totem fly when he shouldn't be able to no matter how strong he is.

Anybody?

[Typhoon]

Actually Tarot,

All I know is: I think about 'pinging' them and I do.

the information is just there once the signal gets back to me, as near as I can tell I instinctivly understand.

Of course even before I erupted, I could tell what the crew of a 'boomer' had for dinner the night before, based on how his boat sounded.

[Tarot]

Same here, minus the boomer side of it. I just know. Maybe somebody will figure it out but in the mean time I guess we just live with the mystery.

Mystery in things quantum is okay for now I guess. Considering all the important things in life I want to figure before I burn out and get old.

[Typhoon]

Truly!

I tend not to look a gift-horse in the mouth.

[Tarot]

Yeah. Besides, its not like we have a lot of choice.

Here's a weird thought. We can do anything right? The big spark of eruption comes, heaven smiles and suddenly cool stuff rains down on us. So maybe what we're all waiting for is somebody to erupt wanting to understand the quantum thing and then they can explain it to the rest of us.

That opens up another can of worms though. Where does knowledge and experience comes from when you erupt? I knew exactly nothing about working with igneous rock before I erupted but can tell you fifteen commercially known ways to shape it and another three I don't think anyone has thought about yet as far as I know. Where does that come from?

[Jager]

We tap into the Universal Subconcious.

We are guided by spirits/elementals.

Our minds become capable of understanding all physical reactions and principles.

We pick up the knowledge from the minds of people close to us at the time of our eruption.

We are guided by God/Goddess/Dieties.

Fundemental advances in our perception/memory processes allow us to learn at a hyper-evolved rate to the extent we "know" what we need to know before we even find ourselves trying to understand it.

... and many more.

And all these answers are correct for the nova(s) in question.

[Tarot]

Quote:

Jager:
And all these answers are correct for the nova(s) in question.

Yeah but unless its all true there has to be some underlying principles behind it right? Some things that could apply to all novas not just one or two. Although I kind of like that last idea. That would make a lot of sense having figured it out before you needed to know it.

[Long]

Half the fun of learning is trying so many different ways to try something. Some work, others don't, but through trial and error, one learns the way best suited for themself. Hell when I was learning in the himalayas I had a blast... until the flight training that is.. that kinda hurt.

[Jager]

Well, Tarot, I'm guessing that you may have perceptive abilities that have passed beyond the human norm. Its not too uncommon, but few poeple take the time to really think about what that does to the mind.

After all, you are taking in more information (often in manners totally alien to the human experience) than the brain is under warranty for. Somehow you still manage to process all that info, though. What has happened to the gray manner that allows that to work?

[Walker]

Possession of an MR node seems to allow one to process information and control events at the quantum level. The underlying science of it all is quantum physics and neurology/psychology.

The principles of how each Nova uses that is another matter. Largely unique to the Nova in question because all brains develop differently even before birth. I do believe there are some broad principles at work that can be utilised though.

Although the MR node doesn't rewire your whole brain you can use the analogy that it's like loading up a new operating system into your computer which makes the existing hardware work more efficiently. Nodes have that kind of effect I far as I can tell so that's one general principle maybe.

Another general principle could be that the Node only responds to subconscious control, it bypasses your conscious mind processing stuff without YOU needing to interfere. You can make a conscious desicion to use your power but the mental process itself doesn't NEED to be conscious.

For instance, I have just made the conscious desicion to use my form-shifting power to form an organ in part of my brain to allow a sudden flood of dopamine. I have not consciously comeup with a seperate design for an organ that will do this Nor do I need scientists from the Triton foundation or whatever it is to work out it's genetic coding but yet I now find myself very, very high. Indeed.

[Sakurako Hino]

The Quantum Paradigm theory...

I've read papers. I used to think it's bunk untill I saw it in my own development.

The abilities and what not of the Nova in question develop within the understanding and acceptance of the Nova.

[Tarot]

[size:1]Jager: "Well Tarot, I'm guessing that you may have perceptive abilities that have passed beyond the human norm."

Maybe a little. I don't miss much and I can see auras.

[size:1]Jager: "What has happened to the gray manner that allows that to work?"

Good question!

Somewhere between 70% and 90% of the brain doesn't seem to be doing anything useful. So maybe what I'm doing taps into all that unused brain power. I think it still has to go back to the node though, because brain power doesn't explain the impossible things we do. I'm not talking about turning lead into gold or making beams of fire leap out of the eyes either. That kind of extreme stuff is actually a little easier to understand than the really simple things.

Sak or Alchemist can tell you that to "see" some kinds of energy would requires eyes the size of downtown Tokyo. Not even Ramone's brother is that big but speaking of giants; he shouldn't even be seeing normally with the size of his optic nerves. Trust me on this. Color and light is all about radiant energy so that's something I understand.

[size:1]Walker: "The principles of how each Nova uses that is another matter. "

I think you might be onto something here but maybe you're seperating things that should be combined. Okay the node is a new operating system trying to interface with a clunky piece of hardware (brain) not optimized for that like Jager says. But its also hardware and, tell me if I'm wrong, even a computer capable of matching my brain couldn't really handle the problem of Alchemist turning a teddy bear into gold. Could it? That's a lot of little pieces fitting together plus he can do it so efficiently that it doesn't create heat or radiation.

The brain is tied into the node and maybe there's some give and take at eruption so it can handle that. And maybe we don't notice that kind of change for a long time if at all. But if biology can't handle what we're doing, like seeing radio waves, then the information must be coming from the node and being fed back into the brain.

So what's the node tied into that it can tap something like that and feed information back to the brain?

[Neil Preston]

Walker, how do you know that you simply aren't producing the desired effect at the nerve synapses, without the need for an additional organ?

Of course, if you would be willing to let me do some exploritory brain surgery to verify this ...

[Walker]

Tarot Your points are basically sound, I agree with your reasoning. Brain activity is at it's highest across the board when we are exposed to novel stimuli, if we are in boring conditions brain activity is generally low across the board.

Don't forget that different parts of the brain do different things. There are areas in the visual centre that deal with things as specific as predicting the shape of an object that is partially concealed, no need for that to go firing off every few milliseconds, you'd be seeing optical illusions all over the place.

With super-sensory information I think the Node sends a message to the visual area of the brain and we 'see' radiowaves. Actually I 'hear' radiowaves so the information must get sent to the auditory centre in my case. I think. How my Node manages to interface with the quantum level and get this information about radio-waves I haven't got a clue. Thing is though this doesn't stop me doing stuff so I ain't too bothered, I trust my Node to take care of things like that.

Neil Bloody vivisectionist You can use Magneto Resonance Imaging like every other respectable brain reseacher Seriously though, my aim was to get trollied by using by groovy morphing powers. My intention was to create a gland so that's probably what happened, I conceed that I may simply have been blocking my re-uptake of said neuro-chemical. You'd have to ask my Node for the precise details, either way I spent some time lying on the floor enjoying the sensation of being on the floor and now have a hangover the size of a Class Ia Supergiant

[Walker]

Oh yeah and Totems language centre probably sends signals to his Node which manipulates quantum stuff to produce sound without the need for toungue, voicebox etc. While his altered form allows him to make extra sounds like growl, roar and purr.

Conduit's Node probably does quantum stuff to enable him to be made of copper and still function as normal instead of keeling over dead.

[Sakurako Hino]

Walker, when you use your personal medicine cabinet, read the warnings on the label first. ~_^

[Walker]

Endeavor What??? I am Nova, I scoff at such feeble Baseline notions as reading the label first winces at the brightness of screen.

Having provoked the first hangover I've had in 16 years I feel I should be either congratulated for pushing my powers beyond the norm or clipped round the ear for setting a bad example to my fellow shape-shifters. One of the two.

[Long]

How bout both Walker.. congratulations on pushing yer abilities and not having it backlash, but I hafta ask was it really worth it?

[Walker]

Well I thought it was worth it. Lying on the floor feeling absolutely marvellous, the lines on the ceiling hinting at a universal pattern and suggesting I was some sort of Messiah who would tear down the false religion of the Church of Michael Archangel and implant my worship in its place. Yeah groovy. On the downside schizophrenics usually have high levels of Dopamine sloshing about their brains and of course I feel an urge to repeat the experiment again and again and again.

[Jager]

Self-mutilation is a part of several societies religious aspect. Frenzied dancing, taking any number of naturally occuring narcotics and staring at the sun, hanging for long periods upside down, along with the more common branding, tatooing, and plain old homemade drug cocktails are all a part of someone's faith.

Watch, think, and learn.

[Long]

Have fun Walker. though I will say if you somehow figure out the meaning of life let me know..

[kestrel404]

Quote:

Originally posted by Jager:
Fundemental advances in our perception/memory processes allow us to learn at a hyper-evolved rate to the extent we "know" what we need to know before we even find ourselves trying to understand it.

Bingo. You pegged me, Jager. Or did you quote me?

Quote:

Originally posted by Tarot:
But its also hardware and, tell me if I'm wrong, even a computer capable of matching my brain couldn't really handle the problem of Alchemist turning a teddy bear into gold. Could it? That's a lot of little pieces fitting together plus he can do it so efficiently that it doesn't create heat or radiation.

Actually, that's exactly what it's doing. When I work with matter, my consciousness is expanded to fully comprehend it on the atomic level. If a baseline's mind was filled with that kind of information, it would short out and reduce them to unconsciousness (possibly a permanent coma). I don't even know where I get that kind of data, it's just there in my consciousness when I use my abilities.

I can't say how nodes work. As far as I can tell, every time a nova wants something to happen, a miracle happens. Sure, there are prettier explanations that happen to mesh with current theoretical physics. But it's all just guesswork anyway (well reasoned and logical guesswork, but not the only possible solution to all known problems).

[Jager]

Quote:

Originally posted by Alchemist:
Bingo. You pegged me, Jager. Or did you quote me?

Only if your that Roberts guy that worked for Triton way back when.
You were a pretty sharp tac as a baseline.

[Walker]

Intuition can be a process of perception and memory bypassing the rational mind even in Baselines or a Nova with Baseline powers of perception. Ask some Baseline Firemen and Policemen about this. Despite what I said about Nodes not re-wiring the whole brain, I would say that fundemental changes in my own perception/memory processes allow me to "know" what I know without my, how shall I put it, prefrontal lobes getting in the way.

Alchemist I find it staggering that your conscious mind expands like that. Of course current theories are exactly that, current and theory, I agree with you. There's the "juice" aspect of quantum power, the actual energy of it. The current theories I espose work for me because they allow me to get some sorta rational perspective on my powers.

When I choose to have a rational perspective that is.