Oh yeah, those. I worked on those.

Subject: Oh yeah, those. I worked on those.
Author: Aleksei Annikov, DAS-DAMP
Posted on: 2021-04-16 09:08:40 UTC

I think they were the first thing we actually got working on the physical side of DAS. There was pressure from Upstairs to start with something useful for missions, but from sociological perspective, it was probably inevitable that we took care of the children first.

They're fairly simply combination of gag-based and placebo tech, as I recall. We wanted to prevent ACE, so they're built around... I'm not sure what the Norte word is, it's device that you hide up your sleeve to cheat at cards. We filled it with clippings from canons where characters named Ace get in trouble - there's some Doctor Who, some old Batman, the Pet Detective, and so on. So it's Ace trap.

The lights and humming are the placebo-tech: they're there to show the kids that it's safe to make fan-works there without worrying about affecting the Word Worlds. You know how it works - the more you believe something will (or in this case, won't) happen, the more it does (or doesn't).

Which says something interesting about fanfic as a whole, doesn't it? It means that deep down, all those fanwriters actually believe they can change the real canon characters by their art. There is paper in that...

... which I can't write, because I'm stuck doing physics, thank you very much Flowering Leek.

·A·A·

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So. A certain AO3-breaking fic is back. by Lily Winterwood on 2021-04-15 03:55:09 UTC Badfic report Reply

By which I mean the infamous "Sexy times with Wangxian" (link is incredibly NSFW and NSFB).

My return to the PPC is mostly predicated on wanting to write more interludes and less missions. I have recently finished a mission in the MDZS continuum which I think will be Eledhwen and Christianne's official last mission, and I made a resolution not to write further PPC missions with the exception of STWWX if it comes back. Now it has come back, and I am calling dibs on it.

STWWX is an incredibly long and brain-breaking PWP series where all of the chapters more or less exist within small universes within the larger universe of the fic itself, which I've decided to interpret as the fic trying to create its own continuum. The agents handling this fic (not E and C, as it's Bad Slash and they're functionally retired) will realise that and decide that the safest course of action will be to erect a creativity shield around the fic, to prevent it from damaging MDZS canon as well as the horde of other continua it has dragged in as increasingly implausible crossovers.

Since creativity shields haven't really been depicted in a mission before (at least to my knowledge), I'd like to ask the community at large to help me figure out how to set one up and deploy it. Currently, I'm thinking it would look like one of those barrier spells that would require multiple people at various points of the fic to activate at the exact same time, but if anyone has any better (read: funnier) ideas, please feel free to share.

And, of course, if you would like to volunteer your agents to help set up this creativity shield, please let me know as well and give me whatever information you have on them.

I may be the only Boarder to have depicted any shields on page . . . by doctorlit on 2021-04-15 14:28:31 UTC Reply

. . . which feels weird, because I'm so used to finding forgotten details in archived spin-offs, I never expect anything I've written to contain anything unique!

In my interlude "Because We Like You", I wrote the following in describing the Nursery:

The walls of both the hallways and the social area were plastered with papers. Some were posters, or other official imagery from various canons, but the majority was fanart. Drawings ranged from crayon scribbles to impressively neat sketches and paintings. Fanfiction and poems were in multiple locations, clustered around quietly vibrating wall-mounted devices with soft lights, which Vania assumed to be short-range creativity shields.

I didn't put much thought into the actual mechanics behind them, since Creativity Shielding is such an abstract concept, and because it would have derailed the actual story. I also kept the description intentionally vague, since I didn't want to step on the toes of potential future developments in how the shields were portrayed. Which is the point we've reached, it seems!

So, yeah. If my presentation of the concept is useful to you, Lily, you're welcome to use it, but if not, you're welcome to disregard it and come up with something else. I would be happy to edit that scene of mine to make it match up to whatever develops!

—doctorlit has gone so long without writing, he remembered he had written that scene, but not whether he had published the story yet or not

Oh yeah, those. I worked on those. by Aleksei Annikov, DAS-DAMP on 2021-04-16 09:08:40 UTC Reply

I think they were the first thing we actually got working on the physical side of DAS. There was pressure from Upstairs to start with something useful for missions, but from sociological perspective, it was probably inevitable that we took care of the children first.

They're fairly simply combination of gag-based and placebo tech, as I recall. We wanted to prevent ACE, so they're built around... I'm not sure what the Norte word is, it's device that you hide up your sleeve to cheat at cards. We filled it with clippings from canons where characters named Ace get in trouble - there's some Doctor Who, some old Batman, the Pet Detective, and so on. So it's Ace trap.

The lights and humming are the placebo-tech: they're there to show the kids that it's safe to make fan-works there without worrying about affecting the Word Worlds. You know how it works - the more you believe something will (or in this case, won't) happen, the more it does (or doesn't).

Which says something interesting about fanfic as a whole, doesn't it? It means that deep down, all those fanwriters actually believe they can change the real canon characters by their art. There is paper in that...

... which I can't write, because I'm stuck doing physics, thank you very much Flowering Leek.

·A·A·

And the children appreciate it! by Miss MacKinnon, DO, Nursery on 2021-04-19 02:26:04 UTC Reply

It's so important for young minds to be able to work with words, especially with so many of our children going into the "business of words" when they get older. Although I did hear the spies who inspected some of the childrens' stories that slipped through from before found them more amusing than anything else!

Nonetheless, we got you a thank-you card.

shoves a gigantic greeting card through whatever space this conversation is taking place in

I apologize for the size, but all the children insisted on signing it.

All of them.

—doctorlit

I have a... suggestion, I guess? by Huinesoron on 2021-04-15 07:48:10 UTC Reply

Since, as you say, creativity shields haven't really been deployed in the field before (my memory is that they're mainly used on Fanfic Land, around HQ, and on the works of authors who say no fanfic - honestly I'm not sure there's evidence for a device at all), why not make it highly experimental? Or, possibly even better - why not make them experimental?

The Department of Analytical Science has no doubt been working on trying to invent a functioning portable Creativity Shield since their inception. DAS-DAMP are probably the driving force behind it - they wrote about HQ's version before the department was even formed - but you know they're all trying to make their own version. The chemists think they've found a glitter-opaque gas, the astronomers want to use starsong (they're a mystic and a white hole, they get a bit strange), and even the archaeologists have been digging through records of Conan Doyle and Cervantes to figure out how they did it.

So my... suggestion? Offer? ... is that I lend you as much of DAS as you want to borrow, to bring every version they have into the field and try to set it up. They would (or could) need as much or as little help as you'd wish, depending entirely on what you wanted to write. (You could of course add more DAS agents if you needed them - and perhaps assign Bill and Lori a division? ^_^)

~

The Sunflower Official folded his fronds and gave off a distinct impression of a glower. Another Tangled Webs incident could be disastrous for the modern PPC. We need that Creativity Shield. Do I make myself clear?

The Thistle shifted uncomfortable. Sir, all our prototypes are, well, prototypes! I can't guarantee their stability in the field-

Don't be such a worrywart, the Flowering Leek chided, nudging her co-department-head in the stem. Ow, prickles; you really ought to shave those.

No. What? No. The Thistle turned to offer a pseudo-frown of his own. And I've told you before, science isn't like other disciplines - it doesn't work just because you want it to.

Flowers. The SO leant forward across his desk. I don't want to hear about your problems. I want you to fix them. He paused for a humanoid heartbeat. So go fix.

hS

Yes, perhaps! by Lily Winterwood on 2021-04-15 09:11:42 UTC Reply

From my perspective, it looks like the existing Creativity Shields are raised more or less by Powers That Be -- authors requesting no fanfic for their verses, or the Flowers That Be in case of HQ's. While the, haha, Will experiment didn't quite work, I imagine installing a Creativity Shield takes an incredible amount of energy. I mean, if it was easy to just pop one up, then all any agent has to do on a mission is to Creativity Shield the fic and call it a day!

So then what could exist out there in the Multiverse that has enough energy to power a portable, non-PTB-fiat Creativity Shield? Would, say, multiple Eyes of Harmonies from different PPC TARDISes do the job? Or a week's output from DoDAEG (which probably wouldn't be a likely offering, given that depowering HQ for a week would be a Bad Idea)? Does a portable Creativity Shield need to work within the rules of the fic's continuum (so does it have to work with the magic system set up in MDZS)? Or does it have to work specifically with the fic being quarantined (do they hook up the overpowered Gary Stu character replacements claiming to be God and Creation in this fic to power the shield)?

Anyway, yes, I've assigned Lori and Bill to DAS-SWEAR as of the last-last mission (since I emailed you the previous Last Mission and then I found the new one for the Last-Last Mission, -deep sigh-). They're still working on de-Glitterification technology as a sort of collab between DAS-SWEAR and the MRD -- ten years of R&D on that has made de-Glitter tech look like death rays now!

Maybe intent matters? by Neshomeh on 2021-04-19 03:41:51 UTC Reply

Meaning: why does an author quarantine their continuum? They're protecting something, whether it's their ideas or their money or both. The intent is to stop outsiders getting in.

What we want to do here is sort of the opposite of that—yeah, we want to stop the fic dragging stuff from other continua in, but to do that, we really want to stop the influence of the fic from getting out. Maybe whatever it is that we're setting up has to be reflected on the fic from places outside of it, probably the canons most heavily affected.

I'd reckon that's how the shield on FanFicVerse works, too. The effect is reflected on it from Headquarters in some way. Therefore, powered by DoDAEG. Possibly the effect itself is even generated by DoDAEG, tapping into the power of authors to protect their creations that most of them never bothered to use?

Walt Disney must be kept FAR away from this system; he'd drain the whole thing. {X D

But, maybe it's not just dead authors, seeing as we, the Boarders, certainly contribute to the FFVerse shield, right? Maybe that's not common knowledge around Headquarters, but it's never been a secret that some PPC agents have authors, though. Even if most of them prefer not to think too hard about it. {= )

... Okay, now I'm imagining Agent Neshomeh being approached by the DES and/or DoDAEG or someone being like, "Look, we know you're an explicit author insert. We need to borrow you for a little while so we can tap into the protective energies authors can exert over their IPs in order to stop this monster fic from breaking the multiverse. It won't hurt, promise."

Agent Neshomeh: "Uhhhh—"

"Great! Come along."

"Wait! I gotta talk to my partner first!"

"Oh, Civilian Phobos? Yes, he hasn't been an active author in these parts for a long time, but every little bit helps."

"That's not what I—!" /sigh/ "Okay, I'll ask him, but I don't think he'll be very keen... He's already got one, you see..."

Anyway, my point was that a node in HQ could be used in support of the nodes in the main continua affected by STWWX. It's not directly draining the energy that powers HQ, since that comes from the authors' spinning, and even though it's still not practical to do this for every bad fic, even the really bad ones (prolly 'cause dead authors have limited reserves of IP-protective powers?), this one is worth the cost.

I hope this barely coherent ramble helps someone else answer the question of what setting up the network would actually look like from node to node. ^_^;

~Neshomeh

Oh crap by Ki no Shirayuki on 2021-04-15 07:07:32 UTC Reply

Can we call that thing the My Immortal of the 2020s now? Also (looks warily at other China-oriented canons)