I was really excited to see the 4th Ed books kept the Shadowtalk sections, and I was pumped to see old man Fastjack was still running the show. Love that guy. He said something that caught me off-guard, though: He said Captain Chaos wasn't around anymore. This has been kind of kicking me in the gut every time I flip though old 2nd ed sourcebooks. Is there an official finale for Cap, or is he just MIA?

IIRC he died in the matrix crash of 65' - 66'
At least I think it was around that time... don't remember the exact date. And don't have my books with me to check.

Official story is that he died in Crash 2.0 trying to hold down the Shadownet, but his mind was preserved as a digital backup by a piece of tech big D left him in the will. Now he's basically an AI sequestered up in the Dunkelzahn Institute research labs.

JackBnimble,
JackBquick,
Jack put us on,
an E-ghost ship.

When I die and they lay me to rest
Gonna go to the place that's the best
When I lay me down to die
Goin' up to the node in the sky
Goin' up to the node in the sky
That's where I'm gonna go when I die
When I die and they lay me to rest
Gonna go to the place that's the best

Prepare yourself you know it's a must
Gotta have a friend in Dragon-Jesus
So you know that when you die
He's gonna recommend you
To the node in the sky
Gonna recommend you
To the node in the sky
That's where you're gonna go when you die
When you die and they lay you to rest
You're gonna go to the place that's the best

Never been a SINner I never SINned
I got a friend in Dragon-Jesus
So you know that when I die
He's gonna set me up with
The node in the sky
Oh set me up with the node in the sky
That's where I'm gonna go when I die
When I die and they lay me to rest
I'm gonna go to the place that's the best
Go to the place that's the best

Like all good captains, he went down with his ship.

would that we were all so noble.

I thought he was an undead machine buddha in a Hong Kong temple.

CALVIN: What do you think happens when you die?
HOBBES: I think you play saxophone in an all-girl cabaret in New Orleans.
<beat>
CALVIN: So you believe in Heaven?
HOBBES: Call it what you like.

Yeah I have hopes of seeing him come back someday, as a free AI or maybe with a new body once they get the Resurection Ships back on line. oops wrong genre.

Ahhh... a nod to McCoy Paulie, perhaps? Anybody have a street sammy named Molly that could spring him?

Good luck...the Panther Moderns don't work cheap.

They don't work for New Yen either. but if you it right you might tickle their fancy.

Which is, more-or-less, what Big D stipulated in his will- that the good Captain be taken care of should the aforementioned tech do something to him.

<3 Come back to us Watterson.

technically the book goes neither way about what happens with the backup...

the last bits of text are basically:

DELETE? (Y/N)

with no definitive Y or N...

btw, i think the matrix phenomena chapter of unwired played around with that, when talking about e-ghosts. The shadowtalk have a entry from fastjack talking about going to visit a old friends grave...

It is mentioned in a book, though, that someone "claims to have run into CC in a DIMR node." They were banned from Shadowsea for it. And we all know everything in the chat section of the book is 100% true.

IIRC (don't have System Failure handy atm)...

not quite, darthmord. close, but not quite...

I really like that Shadowrun kills its Old Guard off slowly, and gets its chance to build replacements, and even have continuity between someone and their replacement(FastJack and Cap were friends, Picador was Matador's second in command, Frosty is Harlequin's daughter, etc), unlike how Battletech is "Let's kill everyone off! um..who are we going to replace them with?" Seriously, Shadowrun has adapted better to a lack of novels then Battletech has...

from one white face to another

oh, and a suspect old clownface is still out there

Actually, Frosty is Erhan's daughter but only Harlequin knows it.

those elfs and their complicated family bonds...

Thank Dragon-Jesus that Shadowrun lacks the fan fiction community of certain anime, or a comment like that would flood the net with a deluge of mind vomit.

I do miss Capt., and hope to get some closure or plot at some point, but I agree that things are handled well in 4th ed. Some interesting characters have been introduced and older characters developed. The game has a different feel, but that isn't a bad thing.

I know Emergence just happened, but I would love a big plot line dealing with the matrix and Resonance. I have some ideas along those lines that I'm hoping to spring on some players soon.

heh, fanfiction in general makes me ponder some very freudian topics about the writers

The writers? What about the readers?

Look. Put out a manga version of the major events of the Sixth World, from, oh, Universal Brotherhood and onwards (was trying to pull out the first official SR "storyline" from memory, used UB) and get a decent artist behind it, and you'd see gallons of fanfic out there.

Hell, I actually want more Slamm-o! and Netcat action

Please don't. I've heard just enough about "fine arses" for one lifetime, I don't need to read about fingers gripping them as well. Awkward.

You know you like Hunk Rump: The Gathering
(I know, not a manga, but it was the best material I had available)

Beautiful song there, Ancient. "Dragon Jesus", think I need to integrate that into everyday chatter. Has D risen from the dead? Cause "Zombie Dragon Jesus" would have that extra kick to it.

Not only can you have Zombie Dragon Jesus, you can have Cyberzombie Dragon Jesus!

nothing like a little family bondage

Sorry to Jump back on topic, I thought he got Cyberzombied up back in the same book that had the 6 million Man?

That was Hatchetman.

So would this be the moment I get to tell everyone I came up with a title for that Lung / Ryumyo yaoi doujin I had as my sig for awhile?

Red In Tooth And Claw.

Bad.

"Oh sweet cyberzombie dragon Jesus!"

Yeah, not bad, doesn't quite roll off the tongue though.



One of my favorite stories. I still get a little choked up thinking about poor ol' Hatchman. Wonder where he's at?

I was under the impression he was referring to Hatchetman, as FastJack is the only one who knows where he is truly buried.

Hmm?



-karma

Wow, I have been outdone.
Good one sir, I salute you.
(Is it me, or does the bear actually look more normal than the rest of them?)

if that's true, that's one hell of a long throw by the writer, especially given how much talk there was about ol cap turning up as a e-ghost on this forum before the book was released...

but then hatchetman was a bit before my time, i started gathering books late SR2. Hatchetman showed up in SR1 cybertech iirc...

Hatchetman's real sob story is recounted in Cybertechnology, a late SR2-era book. Where his demise actually takes place is something I'm not sure of.

And now that I re-read the whole Captain Chaos thing, it looks like I got CC and Hatchetman confused. Sumimasen.

On a different (but related) note, are SYSyphan (sp?) OPus and Captain Chaos the same person, or are they different? If I recall, SYSyphan OPus intro-ed the sourcebooks in the SR1--early-SR2-era, and CC started intro-ing and moderating them shortly thereafter. Anyone know the deal behind the switchover (if indeed there was one)?

ah, so cybertechnology was a SR2 book, noted. Still, at that time i was low on cash (no real change there actually), not really online, and was grabbing books mostly for matrix and magic.

then SR3 got released and i had bumbled into whatever forum there was before dumpshock...

<tongue in cheek>

He joined up with Valve to make video games.

(I saw that employee in the list of the Valve Steam group members and chuckled a bit)

No, no, no...that's where Captain Chaos is in 2009. I'm curious about 2072... Although it is interesting to see how he got the money to set up that BBS...

You realize of course that he was born (estimated) 1984-1994, right? "In his 70s" when the crash in '64 killed him. Which would make him barely older than me today.

But good catch.

hmm checking on... Ancients files (guess It was Ancient, have to check again)... that was planned for Attitude (I guess, have to check):


>>> access backup cluster 986X-107
>>> scan file
[SCAN COMPLETE—FILE TYPE JACKBNIMBLE]
[FILE DAMAGED—DO YOU WANT TO REPAIR Y/N]
>>> Y
[REPAIR COMPLETE]
>>> execute file
[COMPLETING IMPRINT]
[MEMENTO PROTOCOLS RUNNING … ]
[RECALLING COMPLETE]
[USER KAOS HAS LOGGED ON]
Kaos: Hello, world.
Icarus: CC?
Kaos: Renny? You upgraded your icon. Ghost, look at the resolution in this node.
Icarus: It’s a whole new Matrix, Cap.
Kaos: Yeah. Thanks for bringing me back, kid.
Icarus: Good to have you back, Captain. “Kaos?”
Kaos: Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

for the not french gifted (), the last sentence means: the more it changes, the more it stays the same.
Guess that is the answer we all waited for... hoped for...

I hope in the copied... eh rewritten Attitude that short piece stays. I love and miss CC, one of the best characters ever.

hm mh. back to my lurker and fanboy cave, the big boys can speculate on.
A last thing to throw in: Perhaps the E-Ghost of CC is behind Horizon....

*goes into hiding*

I don't care if they can't use it anymore...the intro to The Untethered Life is canon as far as I'm concerned.

Different guy. That's not canon, but all you have to do is read their posts. Completely different personalities. I'm betting SYSyphan OPus got killed somewhere along the way (danger in this line of work) and the good Cap'n took over.

I guess the comment was added by the author based on a fiction piece a started waaaay back continuing the story from System Failure (never managed to finish it though). I do like and support(ed) AH's version however.

Also interesting aspect:



Did the DF act based on the testament?