Thanks for digging it up!

Wait, why does this open with Queen lyrics? Clearly, ♪freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose♪!

I've actually never come across this story before, and it's not at all what I expected from the first spin-off. It certainly seems like it was on its way to being a "recruited from World One" story, but it leans so heavily on locational description and inner emotion give it a very down-to-earth and personal tone . . . it's a shame it didn't get continued, I would have liked to see more of this author. The partial first person narrative adds to the close personal feeling. (Of course, some parts feel a little too autobiographical, but there's no point in commenting on any of that.)

The realism threw me for a loop at the end, when "Jay" and "Acacia" ask the author to meet them at DragonCon. I'm sure that part didn't really happen, but with the rest of the story basically narrating a real world email exchange, that sudden jump from real author in real world to author avatar on her way to HQ was quite jarring!

—doctorlit wonders whether BK's other Pit account still exists, and what all is on it . . .

The main thing that sticks out to me is that, while in past missions Jay and Acacia don't seem to be quite as exact about the "moment of canon breakage" as we are today, this time Jay acknowledges that they could get in trouble if they interrupt before the big break of Legolas's death. I wonder if this new addition of bureaucracy stems from the last chapter's introduction of the Sunflower Official, and the development of the Upstairs concept in general?

Also, wow, Jay is quite a bit more clever than she tends to act. Acacia had been asking about the "unless you hadn't noticed" concept last chapter, and Jay uses the disposal of Link's corpse to segue into a lesson on navigating HQ . . . with the ulterior motive of distracting Acacia from attacking the SO. It makes me wonder if Jay being the more aggressive one during this mission, as well as her line "I don't feel good" at the end were also done towards the same purpose.

—doctorlit looks forward to the spring 2024 release of The Legend of Zelda: The Disposal of Link

Minor note: I'm pretty sure Paye didn't throw the RC. RA, maybe?

"The air became thicker as dialogue happened one right after another, rather than spaced properly with paragraph breaks" just doesn't read as gramatical - I think this is missing a word somewhere.

The bit where Matthew notices going on was a very solid transition to the kill, and the ending worked reasonably well.

Okay, there's some crazy Headquarters geography lessons in this one, and a lot of it feels very different from what we're used to today! First off, it looks like Makes-Things's workspace is literally just his private workroom, not an entire department of engineers. This one's pretty easy to reconcile, as we can just say the lab space got expanded and Makes-Things was given a team to help with workload, which eventually grew into an officially recognized department. (And perhaps having supervisory responsibilities started boosting his confidence over time, helping him conquer his TOSera timidity around assassins?)

While this is the story with the "bit of a maze" line, it also gives HQ more structure than it has today. (Or maybe I'm the only one who doesn't picture the central elevator with spokes radiating out?) The idea of each (major) department having its own wing is logical and easy on the brain, but it would also make transit a lot more mundane. Plus, if Upstairs is literally the only area that's on another floor, that further reduces the potential travel shenanigans. I think I'm happier with the modern ludicrous maze HQ that I picture in my head. Also, we get the first description of HQ as a generic surface here, but only after taking the elevator Upstairs. Does that mean the authors intended the rest of HQ to be a "real" building, at least in the sense of being constructed of actual material, if not actually existing somewhere? Definitely too late to go back on that!

The response center is interesting too, if it even is an RC. The narrative refers to it as "the MS control center," and at first, I assumed this just meant the DMS wing of HQ. But the very next line has Acacia sitting in her chair, and soon a console goes off, so this is definitely the same space they've been receiving missions in up until now. They don't seem to live here, though: they had to go seek showers out in HQ somewhere, and they each have their own separate screens to look at here, like they're in more of an office environment? Are they sitting at separate desks? If this is "the MS control center," did all DMS agents use this one room for missions, but during separate shifts? It's kind of mind-boggling how different the PPC might look today if the concept of personalized RCs hadn't developed. Though a shared office space might encourage more cowrite/team-ups . . .

Two minor notes: It's the first mention of janitors! We've come so far from this offhand mention to reach Soap's very excellent Shift Twentieth series! And second, Jay bringing up the "narrative laws of comedy" to explain the timing on the mission seems to be pure speculation, more of an offhand joke that's passed right over to deal with the mission. The idea that literal narrative laws actually govern HQ must have gotten adopted some time later.

The mission is less impactful than all the world-building tidbits we just got, but there are a couple of fun things. The fic definitely had a lot more activity in it compared to the all the previous, so it gave Jay and Acacia more to do. The written conversation they share during the Council of Elrond is cute and funny, very well written. It's funny to think that they considered portalling ahead in time "cheating" when it's become such a ubiquitous way of skipping over non-useful mission content today. We also see "mithril" with no mention of a mini-Balrog, so this either predates OFUM, or J+A and Miss Cam hadn't crossed digital paths yet. The "[Classified! PPC protected information.]" is a great way to get around the question of how Balrogs eat without claiming to know canon info that doesn't exist. (Although, would Balrogs actually need to eat? They're basically spirits given physical form, but would that form need to metabolize energy?)

—doctorlit seems to have found his favorite so far!

She ended up turning into a running gag, leading to the notion that she's from the Shipverse. I like a good running gag as much as the next person, but I prefer to write Lux more like she is in TOS, though I think the idea that she likes kids and is good with them came from later interpretations of her. A mostly happy-go-lucky ditz with moments of perception and seriousness, who is pansexual and flirtatious and loves innuendos but has boundaries and isn't out to jump everything that moves—in short, a character with nuance—is much more interesting to me.

And I couldn't resist throwing in a nod to the invisible scrunchie while I was at it. ^_^

~Neshomeh also thinks it's worth remembering that Lux and Sean were originally based on real life friends of J&A.