Subject: Something like...
Author:
Posted on: 2012-11-02 02:15:00 UTC
"Princesses being the Big Goods is a well-established Magical Girl Trope!" yelled Anne, dodging the gunshots from the TCDA. "Just look at Pretty Cure!"
"Likely story!" called an Agent. "I've seen way too many Princess!Sues to believe something as fake as that!"
Building on the preexisting Transfictional Canonical Defence Authority steampunk AU of the PPC (invented by Pieguy back in May, with contributions by myself, the Irish Samauri and doctorlit; if you weren't around at the time or missed it, read those stories! They're awesome!), I am proud to present, in the best Steampunk fashion...
Pistons of the Plot Continuum
Fourteen stories of the TCDA, set to an album by the indie folk musician Heather Dale (extracts included!). Also featuring:
-References to continuua from Hans Christian Anderson to Quantum Leap.
-Appearances by AU versions of most of my agents.
-Mentions of the AU equivalents of the Reorganisation and Crashing Down.
-A free bonus story of the Unnamed Academian, traveller in time, space, and exquisite style.
So gentlemen, grab your stovepipe hats, and ladies, tighten your corsets, for...
Pistons of the Plot Continuum
... a thoroughly wild, if determinedly Correct And Proper, ride!*
hS
*Wildness, Correctness, Andness and Properness of ride not guaranteed. Ladies in top hats and gentlemen in whalebone also accepted.
I liked them all, but my favourite story from the set was definitely 'Ten Feet Tall'. That's certainly one way of making sure your request for a raise doesn't get conveniently misfiled and then forgotten about! Also a particularly awesome song, so thank you for bringing it to my attention.
'Fairytail' also caught my attention, the description of the materialisation sounds seemed vaguely familiar and I was trying to work out what they referred to. The blue box was quite a big clue :)
One thing I did notice was a bit of dialogue that seemed odd to me, in 'Storybook', Serenity says '"If we could only we could walk together in Nouvelle-Caledonie, dine at Aujourd'hui, watch the stars burn in their crysalline spheres..." ' (emphasis added). Either 'If only we could walk together...' or 'If we could only walk together...' would make sense, but having 'we could' in there twice just seems a little odd to me. Although I don't know Serenity/Selene's character well enough to know if she has what I would consider odd speech patterns.
Thank you for pointing that out. There's always one that slips through... ;)
And thank you! I figured it would be fun to play around with the idea of blue-box-bigger-on-the-inside, and before I knew it, there was brass armour that ate people.
Seriously, the TCDA is awesome to write - probably because I got to make up new things for each story, and make them (of course) utterly ridiculous.
hS
Was really cool, and not just because of this line:
"like keys on piano wire"
Oh, you sneaky writer. Plus, I can totally believe that Kay would be Ice Queen IN SPACE.
Sorry I didn't beta this like I said I would, things have been hectic-y here. But these are great! I especially liked the end of Skeleton Woman and The Morrigan.
Hm, I should probably get around to writing more about the Magical Girl AU. Maybe a recruitment story, or some such. Which reminds me - in Morrigan, she mentions the Organisation, so were you intentionally referencing my AU? Or was it just a coincidence?
The other references were the PPC (us!), EPC (Mirror Multiverse), the Pirates (AnnaBee, at the same time), obviously your Organisation... and the Rockin' Story Dudettes, who I made up because it was funny. :P
Thank you!
hS
At some point (post NaNoWriMo), maybe we could write some kind of interlude where enforcers/agents/Constables/Magical Girls/Pirates of the EPC, the PPC, the TDCA, the Organisation, and the Pirates all meet up somewhere. Would you want to do that?
And would totally have to be Lou's fault. She gets everywhere.
I think it would be fun to write - but I don't know how 'interlude-y' it could be, given the scope of that (and that one set on the list are actually evil).
hS
At the Japanese restaurant in the CSSverse.
...wait, no, the EPC would get turned into sashimi for being Suvian...
As soon as they said that their version was run by Flower Princesses and their CAD equivalents were CAFs, how much explaining do you think they'd be able to get in? Though that would be entertaining...
Also, I just realized the pun with the 'Knight Songstress' thing.
It is a fantastic pun.
I actually want to see that happening - them arguing with the hostess over how they're actually an AU of the PPC, honest!
"Princesses being the Big Goods is a well-established Magical Girl Trope!" yelled Anne, dodging the gunshots from the TCDA. "Just look at Pretty Cure!"
"Likely story!" called an Agent. "I've seen way too many Princess!Sues to believe something as fake as that!"
Were part of the AU Tinco Division? I haven't read those missions yet, but it sounds like they were anti-Sue.
...mirror!Tinco is indeed opposed to the EPC and by extension its Suvian agents. Most of them fled to the Prime multiverse following a bust in 2008. I don't think any stories have been written about the survivors though.
The mental image of the SO and the Marquis' AU equivalents just can't seem to get out of my mind.
We need to draw this.
If I seem like I'm jealous of the awesome, it's because I am.
I lack the necessary Steampunk requirements to handle this.
Curse it.
I think I may read it simply because it's got Heather Dale soundtracks~
... like... Heather... D-- EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
Or as I cannot stop myself from thinking of her, Marian of Heatherdale. Because that's her SCA name. She's a SCAdian. (And Canadian. [And I've seen her perform live at Pennsic.])
She does some of THE best music ever! I have a fangirl crush on her. I want to sing like her~
Fear not! For I have no intention of writing a Dale-fic. (How does one justify writing a fanfiction about real people, anyway? Isn't that a bit like mentally kidnapping them??)
And, of course, the answer is that you don't write about them...
... you simply start calling all your stories after their songs...
The best thing about Heather is that she is genuinely as nice a person as she ought to be. There ought to be some rule against being a talented singer-musician-songwriter who'll spend an hour kicking a ball for the world's most obsessive dog...
hS
'He Asked You To Believe', as the title of a chapter that far into Crashing Down (and specifically as the title of chapter fifteen), gave me goosebumps and made me cry get dust in my eyes.
Actually, the majority of Crashing Down made me cry get dust in my eyes. WHAM Episode, indeed!
(And, to botch a Peter Griffin quote: Oh, good! I'm so glad she's nice; I want to like her!)