Here's my view . . .

DCUP Confusion by Silenthunder on 2017-10-06 00:48:00 UTC Reply

Question: *Since DCUP agents must utilize creative and original means for disposing of badfic or risk being fired*... How exactly would that work? Sues already die creatively, and torture isn't allowed.

Here's my view . . . by doctorlit on 2017-10-06 03:53:00 UTC Reply

We know from "Ephemerals" that the current head of DCUP, the Sadistic Bladderwrack, was once head of the Department of Clichéd Humor. To directly quote Huinesoron's "Head of Department" entry for the DCH: "The Bladderwrack, who had not yet become Sadistic. After the department collapsed, it spent six miserable years doing odd jobs for the other Flowers in an effort to persuade them to give it another chance, before finally starting the DCUP."

So I basically see it fully as motivation on the Bladderwrack's part. Its previous department, where the agents constantly exemplified humor, was taken apart. It worked hard to finally become head of agent teams again, so this time, it made sure to make the agents behave oppositely, focusing on punishment rather than jokes.

So do the DCUP agents need to come up with ridiculous punishments? Not really; the Bladderwrack is the only one who cares. Heck, in the second DCUP mission ever published, the punchline at the end is that the agents give up on being creative and nuke the entire fic. It's not that they're actually trying to be different from other departments' teams; they're just giving their annoying boss what it thinks higher-ranking Flowers expect of his division.

—doctorlit, unusual but not cool

Well, Scorpia cares. by Neshomeh on 2017-10-06 12:45:00 UTC Reply

But that doesn't mean anybody else needs to. {= ) To quote DCUP's main page:

"[DCUP's] would-be trademark is an overactive imagination when it comes to slaying time, although if you actually think about it, all of HQ could really make that claim.

"The only person who really takes DCUP seriously is its founder, Scorpia Lotus, who had never heard of TV Tropes when he chose its name and thus thought he was being terribly clever and original. Scorpia started life as a Marty-Stu. This might explain a lot."

So no, there's definitely no actual need to treat the Duty in DCUP any differently than you'd treat any other Floaters mission, except for the agents complaining about the eccentricities of their boss and forebear. It should, however, probably be an incentive for you, the hypothetical DCUP writer, to push yourself to come up with ideas that haven't been done before, or at least really strive for poetic justice and humor.

(I would also speculate that the original agents caught hell for nuking that songfic and that's why we haven't heard from them again, but that is 100% speculation on my part.)

~Neshomeh

I get the feeling... by Huinesoron on 2017-10-06 13:15:00 UTC Reply

... there was a bout of 'agent and Flower team up to make a department' in 2004. That's exactly how DOGA was formed, and I wouldn't put it past Maly and the Elanor to have done the same thing for the DOOCH.

In those departments, the personality of the founding agent plays a major role in defining the department's MO. The Pyro Department took its lead from Dafydd; the DCUP's inventiveness is from Scorpia; the DOOCH is pointless and hugs things because of Maly. How well that inspiration sticks probably depends on the recruits [/the later writers]: DOGA has kept 'destroy' but without holding onto 'burn', but DOOCH seems to be maintaining its 'hug a hobbit today' outlook.

I take two things away from this:

-I clearly need an 'Ephemerals' follow-up focussing on this phenomenon.

-I badly need to update the DOOCH page.

hS