Subject: Got to say, I don't understand people's concerns.
Author:
Posted on: 2020-11-11 16:02:30 UTC

Has there been more discussion of the idea elsewhere? Because as an alternate-reality PPC, I don't think this concept is a bad fit at all.

Even taken at face value, you have a foil which can be used to make PPC agents question themselves: if it's possible to protect the Word Worlds with logic, are we maybe actually not the Good Guys we think we are? (I know, I know - "We're evil, Miss Cam is evil, this is just sad", but the current crop of agents don't seem to think like that.) Are we in danger of the CPP acting against us because they think we're the baddies? Should we, in fact, act first, get in the first strike? &c &c Or are they just a bunch of saps who refuse to kill because they'd get too weepy about it?

Then you've got the deeper moral questions: as Thoth says, editing someone with logical maths is effectively mind-control. Is that okay? Is it better than killing - or is it worse? How does that tie in with the PPC's anti-torture rules - like, if we tortured them into being better characters, would that make it okay? And on another level - what's the moral balance between erasing the effect of someone's fanfic on the Word Worlds - and actually altering that fanfic to make it 'better'?

And then there's the non-face-value option, which Scapegrace if she's around will recognise as The Tau Question: are they actually really nice folks at the CPP, or are they a bunch of mind-controlled math-drones who only seem nice because that's how they're programmed, to make them more relatable? Oh, sure, the Sunflower Mathematician will tell you they're free-thinking beings - but it would, wouldn't it? And if you'll just let it see your equations for a moment, it's sure it can convince you... >:D

The great thing about the PPC shared continuity is that you don't have to answer these questions! You could do a simple three-story arc about CPP!O'Ryan being transported to the PPC, creeped out by all the murder, and then going home, and treat it all perfectly literally. And then, three years later, someone who's not even here yet could come across the CPP page on the Wiki and go 'hey, I can do something with this...'.

But even if you literally only use the first point: I don't think there's ever been a 'nice' foil for the PPC before! All the other organisations we've met are either raging sociopaths (the OFUs, the Black Cats) or fanatically pro-Suvian (the EPC, the League). Having someone out there that PPC agents can't see themselves as obviously better than would be... really interesting.

I think.

hS

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