OS-tans and Tropes

[Bella]

I don't know, sometime ago C-Chan said that the Binteeji Renmei was founded on one of Apple II-tan's apple orchards. Then again, I still don't know how to feel about OS-tan stories taking place in the real world, though personally I follow a middle-ground theory of OS-tans being able to live in both the real world and cyberspace. *shrugs* Anyways, I haven't given much thought to where the BR would be located.

But if you believe in the alternate real-world interpretation of the OS-tan universe, there's nothing to indicate where Apple II-tan's orchard is either. So I guess this is one of those things that's largely up to personal storyline decisions and what viewpoint you take on the OS-tanverse (ie, real-world vs. some kind of cyberspace).

Hmm... All OS-tans have innate magical abilities, right?

More or less. Even if an OS-tan's magical ability doesn't manifest as a kind of sorcery - IOW, something supernatural like mind-reading powers, telekinesis, pyrokenesis, etc - I imagine it's still there, working in some more subtle form. For instance, I imagine ITS-tan magical powers, but that they manifest as sharpened reflexes and a being a good shot.

And does your conjecture apply to characters who were created/born with animal features, like the OSX-tans, Plan 9-tan, etc.? If so, do you think all these animal-featured characters would use different, specialized forms of magic related to their features? Now I can't help but think of them being like the animal youkai from Touhou with powers and attacks related to their features! I would see these characters as being specialized by design, being born with a specific style of magic.

Well, my theory applies to any animal-featured OS-tan, including ones that were born with their animal features (as opposed to gaining them later in life, as the case is with Unix). Instead of those features being biological (caused by manipulated/animals genes) I'm speculating that they're magical - that these OS-tans have a type of magic that manifests itself physically as animal features.

I think that's a pretty interesting comparison/idea! The argument can already be made that some OS-tans have powers that are related to their animal features - using some OSX-tans as an example, Leopard has the ability to "camouflage" herself, Snow Leopard is hinted at having cold-resistance and powers over snow, and Lion-tan has been proposed as having excellent leadership/social skills. 

On the other hand, those OS-tancharacters who don't have animal features tend to have a more generalized and not as powerful style of magic by default, but may specialize if they dedicate themselves to it- Using the Touhou comparison again, Marisa and Alice would be good examples, being (or have been, in Alice's case) human magicians who became as powerful as they did through vast amounts of training and research; Alice specializes in doll magic, Marisa specializes in huge freakin' lasers!

So as I see it, animal-featured and non animal-featured OS-tans would all have magic capabilities, but there'd be at least two different styles of magic and different schools of thought about how it should work.

That's also a really interesting thought/comparison. Especially when you consider that some of the animal-featured OS-tans were born with their powers or gained them magically (for instance, Multics, Unix and Plan 9) while many of the the non-animal-featured OS-tans had to learn their powers - for instance,  Linux and OpenVMS.

Though you could also argue that perhaps animal-featured OS-tans just have a kind of magic that's easier to invoke, or present on a more subconscious (I daresay, animalistic level), while non-featured OS-tans use some kind of conscious spellcasting process.

[Aurora Borealis]

Excellent! That's what I was thinking too!

So it's like this -- both classes both have a capacity for magic and magical abilities, but:
animal-featured: specific abilities usually innate or granted, more specialized by default, easier to invoke, can be used subconsciously (I like the reasoning for that! )
non animal featured: specific abilities generally acquired through training and focusing their magic capacity, usually harder to invoke and is done consciously (but is almost automatic in the extremely skilled).

I'd like to collaborate on a list of characters and their magical abilities, but before I do that, I'd like to ask about characters who may have gained their abilities through cybernetics, and how, or if they fit into this. I don't know if there are others, but I know for sure there's Mac System 6-tan, A/UX-tan, Dex OS-tan, C-One-tan, and I could have sworn that there was an ancient mainframe-tan that also had cybernetics; if so, I can't remember her name. Since these characters got their cybernetics, (and presumably their abilities as a consequence) for different reasons, I may have to elaborate on a case-by-case basis.

[Bella]

Excellent! That's what I was thinking too!

So it's like this -- both classes both have a capacity for magic and magical abilities, but:
animal-featured: specific abilities usually innate or granted, more specialized by default, easier to invoke, can be used subconsciously (I like the reasoning for that! )
non animal featured: specific abilities generally acquired through training and focusing their magic capacity, usually harder to invoke and is done consciously (but is almost automatic in the extremely skilled).

Sounds about right to me.

I'd like to collaborate on a list of characters and their magical abilities, but before I do that, I'd like to ask about characters who may have gained their abilities through cybernetics, and how, or if they fit into this. I don't know if there are others, but I know for sure there's Mac System 6-tan, A/UX-tan, Dex OS-tan, C-One-tan, and I could have sworn that there was an ancient mainframe-tan that also had cybernetics; if so, I can't remember her name. Since these characters got their cybernetics, (and presumably their abilities as a consequence) for different reasons, I may have to elaborate on a case-by-case basis.

I'm not sure which mainframe-tan you're speaking of (has she been designed already, or was it a concept?) and unfortunately I'm not all that familiar with the workings of cybernetic OS-tans (since most if not all of them were yours' and C-Chan's designs)

I'm assuming characters who gained their magical abilities through cybernetics are a different class of magic-wielders too, though you could also argue they fall into the same class as the other non-featured magic-wielders - only instead of gaining powers through training, etc. they gained their powers though cybernetic enhancement.

[Bella]

Thanks for that explanation, that cleared things up for me since I don't know much about cybernetic OS-tans. I had no idea that A/UX-tan needed cybernetics because she isn't powerful enough as a Unix-tan, that's kind of sad. : / You have me curious now - I vaguely recall the story of System 6-tan needing cybernetics to save her life, but I forget parts of it. Is that written down in her wiki article?

And yes, they DO sound like something of a middle ground between the two other classes of magic-wielders.

[Bella]

I have no idea who started the rumor about Whirlwind-tan being cybernetically enhanced, but I'm pretty sure that tale is apocryphal.... I dunno, I'll have to ask Stew.

[Aurora Borealis]

I thought she was, referencing the TX-0 project.

[Bella]

According to Stew, she wasn't cybernetically enhanced, but there was an unsuccessful attempt to do so. Personally I've always imagined the TX-0 project was some kind of attempt to biologically enhance Whirlwind-tan.

[Bella]

WMG: BOS/360-tan and CTSS were friends.

This would have started sometime in the mid/late 1960s and lasted until CTSS-tan's and/or BOS-tan's death(s) in the early/mid 1970s.

I imagine CTSS-tan would be drawn to BOS/360 because she's quite nurturing and views BOS-tan as being somewhat like Multics (when she was young). I think BOS-tan would be drawn to CTSS-tan's kind, patient and supportive demeanor and would feel more comfortable around her than any of the other high-energy System/360-tans (particularly OS- and TOS/360).

It's also interesting to note that CTSS and BOS/360 died of the same ailment - having their life-force diminish due to a loss of followers/users.