After all, you're not publishing this or otherwise making it canonical.

So go have as much fun as you can (given the obvious constraint that this is graded work for a class) writing this. I hope to see the results after the whole assignment is finished.

Grumbling about not obeying the letter (and quite possibly the spirit) of the rules aside — that's just my peeve, though — I propose the following, which I think will make everyone happy.

1) Triu will write an interlude — not a mission — for her essay (thus fulfilling the narrative requirement).
2) The interlude will be explicitly considered non-canon from the get-go.
3) After everything is said and done, Triu may use said interlude as part of her Permission request.
4) If she gets Permission, she may canonise this interlude, if she wants to. Otherwise, it will stay non-canon.

And I hope you show us the rest of the essays when they're done, too. A few people have done similar things in the past, and it's always interesting. ^_^

~Neshomeh

I support a non-published, non-canon PPC mission being used for curricular purposes. Calliope got to get that grade, y'all!

—doctorlit, student for life

Especially considering you're not planning on publishing it. I mean, at that level, you can do whatever you want!
Anything. Anything. Aaaaaaanything. Long as it's not published.

And, I mean, I'd say it's a good way of practicing writing and practicing for the PPC setting so, I mean, seems more than good, to me!

One thing: is there any reason why the narrative has to be a mission? It would show off the PPC just as much--actually, probably even more so--to write an interlude. HQ is weird and exciting all on its own, and not everyone is in an action department. On the other hand, you haven't been with us too long yet, so odds are that that might take a lot more wiki/reading research than writing a practice mission would. However, HQ, with its large variety of species, weird laundry room, odd Cafeterias, Rudi's, Courtyards, and, reportedly, a Fountain of Bleepka (or was it the pool that's supposedly around and the fountain is findable?), not to mention the...unique ways of getting places that HQ residents have to develop...well, that's very far from boring and unrepresentative of the PPC, I'd say. And that's not even mentioning interesting places like DoSAT (good for showing off gadgets and grumpy techs) and FicPsych, and of course Upstairs...

On the other hand, re: a practice mission: I'm not really against that idea at all. It's also a good way to learn about your characters and figure out something about how writing missions goes. I just really wanted to point out that, unless you've absolutely promised your teacher a mission and there's no way to change the plan, an interlude where, say, some agents go about completing a bunch of errands that went undone while trying to avoid a new mission for as long as possible, would hardly be boring. You have options, unless you, well, don't.

~Zing

PS: Also, good luck with the seven written pieces! I think I had an assignment a little like that in Writer's Craft, though in my case the topic they shared was something along the lines of the theme of family (both biological and not). (So sue me, I was pretty into Supernatural at the time and the whole "Family don't end with blood, boy" theme really resonated with me for some reason.) Anyway, reminiscing aside, good luck!

I mean, it would be a mission shown to your teacher only rather than the entire internet, and it could make for an interesting, unconventional way to get Permission in the future. People have gotten Permission by doing, well, Permission Missions before, if memory serves, so I don't see why the same can't apply here. :)

Of course, I'm interested to know what other people think, too.