Sounds like a glimpse into an alternate multiverse...

Subject: Sounds like a glimpse into an alternate multiverse...
Author: Lily Winterwood
Posted on: 2022-08-04 00:14:57 UTC

Legolas was sitting under a bridge. Why Legolas was sitting under a bridge in the first place was not entirely apparent, though he seemed to be rocking back and forth and crying. Alvin and Xena looked at one another and waved their analyzer at him.

[Owen Evansted never intended this. A whimpering girl. Projection: 48.6%.]

"As I suspected," said Alvin, frowning at the analyzer. "This is the moment when the plot begins."

Xena tilted her head. "He's just sitting under a bridge, Al," she pointed out.

"Where in a moment he's going to meet to meet Elrond. And then they're going to start a problematic relationship."

Xena's expression crumpled. She liked Elrond.

Alvin nodded, grimly satisfied. "Yeah. Think of the impressionable teenagers who'll read this and think that means it's okay to pursue romantic relationships with older men."

"How do we stop that?" demanded Xena, her hands balled into fists. Her knuckles grew whiter at the sight of Elrond approaching the bridge from above. "I don't want anything bad to happen to Elrond or Legolas! That's why I joined the Guardians of the Continuum!"

Alvin glanced at his partner. It would be too easy to call her oversensitive, except that would be gaslighting. "We're going to have to get Elrond some help with managing his desires," he said gently. He would touch her shoulder, too, except that would break fraternization rules. "Otherwise, he's going to continue to prey on younger elves."

Xena nodded. That made sense, of course -- it would stop future plots if he knew to control his instincts, and any impressionable children who happened to be reading Lord of the Rings fanfiction would learn the same lesson.

So basically this turned into "what would happen if the PPC had been created during the height of Tumblr anti-shipping wank", whoops :P There's reasonable discussions to be had about the average fic writer's responsibility to their audience, but a lot of the folks on Tumblr (and now Twitter) grossly oversimplified things into "if you ship this character with this character, you're literally supporting xyz", or "writing about x conflict means you endorse x conflict irl" -- hence the idea of stopping the plot before it can happen.

Jump to this post's position in the thread ↴

I put the first part of Rambling Band through Google Translate a dozen or so times. by Linstar on 2022-08-02 22:02:29 UTC Reply

And the results are hilarious.

—Ls was amused by this and thought he’d share.

My Immortal Google Translate! by Linstar on 2022-08-10 19:50:41 UTC Reply

Here are the first two chapters, put through the same algorithm as the first part if Rambling Band.

You knew I’d do it, didn’t you?

—Ls
How did Agent Irvine get in there? by Huinesoron on 2022-08-04 08:41:08 UTC Reply

And why is Acacia using him to attack Jay (or, as it might be, Xena)?

"Camera." Acacia saw Jay. "Please. Make blueberry muffins!"

Yeah, Jay/Xena. Make blueberry muffins, ya flake.

I also adore Jay's A/N, which honestly doesn't sound too OOC for her. I guess she's half a glove; let's go play Rats of Egypt.

hS
How on Earth did Jay end up as Xena? {X D by Neshomeh on 2022-08-03 22:09:05 UTC Reply

No, really. What series of translations did you use? It's more fun if others can replicate your steps. Plus, we can check and see which step brought Xena into it. {= D

~Neshomeh definitely never thought of Jay as a warrior princess before.

Forensic name-breaking. by Huinesoron on 2022-08-04 16:03:46 UTC Reply

I'm trying to trace the key changes by playing with the following three lines:

1: "Lord of the Rings." Jay winced. "The massacre of Tolkien continues. We have... a Mary Sue." - ("The Lord of the Rings," Xena smiled. "Tolkien's execution continues. We are the . . . Mary Sue.")

2: Arwen smiled, a glassy look in her eyes. "Yes, you cannot wear your clothes. A gown would be much more suitable. Cole and Geoff will wear robes, of course. Until tonight, then..." - (Alvin smiled and looked in the mirror. "Yeah, no sunglasses. Clothes would be better. Of course Cole and Jeff wear suits. Until it gets dark, and . . .")

3: [Arwen Evenstar. Elf female. Canon. Out of Character 49.72%.] - ([Edited by Owen Evansted. A very large woman. A current classic. 49.72% were not men. ] .)

A quick hop through English > Malayalam > Chinese (Simplified) > English actually gets a lot of pieces in place:

1: "Lord of the Rings." Jia Yang smiled. "The Tolkien slaughter continues. We have a Mary Sue."

2: Alvin smiled, with a mirror in his eyes. "Yeah, you can't wear your clothes. The dress would be more appropriate. Of course Cole and Jeff will be wearing clothes. Until tonight, and then..."

3: [Alwyn Evanstadt. Elf female. Canon. 49.72% of properties. ]

We've got 'Alvin', we've separated the second 'Arwen' out (Malayalam turns it into Arween), we've got very close to Evansted. We need to turn 'a' into 'the' in #1, and change Jay somehow, before we hit Chinese, but at least we know it's part of the route.

Bambara is useful: it will often introduce the term "Tolkien's execution/assassination". Unfortunately it also likes to give "The Lord of the Congregation". I managed once to get it to turn Jay into Joy (I think by way of Russian, Bengali, and one other), but haven't managed to repeat it.

The work continues.

hS

I figured it out! by Linstar on 2022-08-04 16:33:11 UTC Edited Reply

Thanks to my search history, I have figured out the languages!

For the first section:

English -> Arabic -> Luganda -> Sudanese -> Twi -> Kazakh -> Esperanto -> Punjabi -> Chinese (Traditional) -> Japanese -> Icelandic -> English.

Not sure yet exactly where Xena first appeared.

—Ls

Okay, I did the opening of my first mission with the same chain. by Neshomeh on 2022-08-08 19:39:46 UTC Reply

Here's the original text:

There is a sound that traditionally comes at the beginning of every PPC mission. While one of the most annoying, hated, violence-provoking sounds in the multiverse, it is also one of the most thrilling, because everyone who has heard it knows that what follows will be an Adventure: the protagonists, with the barest sense of what’s happening to them, will be faced with breath-taking scenery, unspeakable horror, and the epic struggle between Good and Evil in which they will eventually triumph.

[BEEEERipikakakabipbipbipbipbit?]

This was not that sound.

And here's what I got at the end of the chain:

Every PPC project usually has steps at the beginning. It's one of the angriest, hateful, and cruelest voices in the multiverse, but it's also the funniest because everyone who hears it knows what happens next. They faced Beautiful Eyes in an epic battle between good and evil, became fearless and won.

[B.E.E.E.RRPCCCKPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPITT?] Context?

not the sound

That's... surprisingly sensible, even though a lot went missing (including punctuation and caps in the last line). I like the bit about facing Beautiful Eyes; clearly that's an ironic euphemism for Suvians with their hideous color-changing "orbs". {X D

I think the "Context?" bit is possibly an error on Google Translate's part. Additional text first showed up there in the translation from Arabic to Luganda, went away between Luganda and Sudanese, then came back between Sudanese and Twi and stuck around. The funny thing is, if I run the Luganda line back into English, the "context?" bit goes away, but not if I run it back to English from any of the other languages I've checked. It's weird. I went ahead and submitted feedback about it to Google.

~Neshomeh

I translated a few familiar names, using the same chain. by Linstar on 2022-08-11 17:14:59 UTC Reply

The Sunflower Official is now “Executive Sunflower”, the Sub Rosa is now “La Sab Rosa”, Luxury is now “beautiful” (don’t tell her) and Makes-Things is “fertile”.

Some of those I get, but the last one...just...what?!?

—Ls

Makes-Things = Creates-Life? by Neshomeh on 2022-08-12 03:58:48 UTC Reply

This just in: according to conspiracy-theory word association "logic," Makes-Things was secretly God all along! {X D

~Neshomeh

Wait, this gives me a story idea. by Linstar on 2022-08-13 00:13:20 UTC Reply

The Sunflower’s Witness is setting up a temple to Makes-Things—and he does NOT want to be worshiped.

—Ls has a plotbunny!
Not to mention he did “die” and come back to life… 🤔 (nm) by Lily Winterwood on 2022-08-13 00:09:06 UTC Reply
Actually... by Linstar on 2022-08-12 13:41:52 UTC Edited Reply

...I think it had something to do with the word “productive”, as it was “productiva” during the Esperanto phase.

However, I would like to point out that M-T is the most important human in the history of the PPC (from an in-universe point of view). So maybe he is the PPC’s God—and he resurrected himself!

(Also, don’t let Luxury know about “fertile” either.)

—Ls, amused

I love it. by Linstar on 2022-08-08 20:52:35 UTC Edited Reply

Seriously, that console noise. [B.E.E.E.RRPCCCKPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPITT]. It is the funniest. And the “Beautiful Eyes” bit is hilarious.

—Ls, laughing, but also perplexed a bit at the “Context?” that inexplicably appears without any.

Well, if it helps... by Linstar on 2022-08-04 16:10:43 UTC Reply

I tried to use a languages with non-English scripts, and African languages, because I assumed Google Translate would be less familiar, or more likely to induce punctuation mistakes. (Hence I think I used Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Ewe, etc. a lot.)

—Ls still can’t remember.

I regret to inform you.... by Linstar on 2022-08-04 02:15:06 UTC Edited Reply

I have no idea how I got Xena.

See, Google Translate only translates 5000 characters (not ,words, sadly) at a time. And when I first ran this, I got a 5000-character chunk of Rambling Band and put it through maybe ten or twelve different languages, chosen at random...and not recorded. I used a completely different series of languages for each successive chunk. That is why Xena (And the gender-bent Alvin) only apears in the "Part One". I can try to check my browsing history tomorrow, but I don't think it'll work.

So, sadly, I don't know Xena appeared.

However, I will record languges in the future.

--Ls

I did it to my own writing. by Linstar on 2022-08-03 19:17:51 UTC Edited Reply

Here is a Google Translated Version of An Introduction. The Ironic Overpower is the Great Depression, by the way.

—Ls, who apparently works at the BBC now.

And Maya Sue too! by Linstar on 2022-08-05 16:34:20 UTC Reply

It can be found here.

—Ls, reaching for the neurosurgeon.
"He started looking at the console. "I know what you're going to do, no."" by Kittyauthor on 2022-08-03 19:21:29 UTC Reply

^ Best line of the entire thing that made sense.

-kA

I'm trying my best not to die of laughter. by Kittyauthor on 2022-08-03 15:52:16 UTC Reply

~~Also, I leave the Board for ONE DAY and a bunch of new posts appear out of thin air lol.~~

The reason: me laughing out loud would look sus when a sad radio serial is playing while we (Mom and I) wait for my brother to get off work.

"Written by Laurel. Women are legal. Written by Mary Sue." nearly got me though.

-kA, who is thinking about a new group they just made up: The Anti-Plotters, feat. Alvin and Xena. "No plot is allowed!" they scream, assassinating characters who dare Plot.

Sounds like a glimpse into an alternate multiverse... by Lily Winterwood on 2022-08-04 00:14:57 UTC Edited Reply

Legolas was sitting under a bridge. Why Legolas was sitting under a bridge in the first place was not entirely apparent, though he seemed to be rocking back and forth and crying. Alvin and Xena looked at one another and waved their analyzer at him.

[Owen Evansted never intended this. A whimpering girl. Projection: 48.6%.]

"As I suspected," said Alvin, frowning at the analyzer. "This is the moment when the plot begins."

Xena tilted her head. "He's just sitting under a bridge, Al," she pointed out.

"Where in a moment he's going to meet Elrond. And then they're going to start a problematic relationship."

Xena's expression crumpled. She liked Elrond.

Alvin nodded, grimly satisfied. "Yeah. Think of the impressionable teenagers who'll read this and think that means it's okay to pursue romantic relationships with older men."

"How do we stop that?" demanded Xena, her hands balled into fists. Her knuckles grew whiter at the sight of Elrond approaching the bridge from above. "I don't want anything bad to happen to Elrond or Legolas! That's why I joined the Guardians of the Continuum!"

Alvin glanced at his partner. It would be too easy to call her oversensitive, except that would be gaslighting. "We're going to have to get Elrond some help with managing his desires," he said gently. He would touch her shoulder, too, except that would break fraternization rules. "Otherwise, he's going to continue to prey on younger elves."

Xena nodded. That made sense, of course -- it would stop future plots if he knew to control his instincts, and any impressionable children who happened to be reading Lord of the Rings fanfiction would learn the same lesson.

So basically this turned into "what would happen if the PPC had been created during the height of Tumblr anti-shipping wank", whoops :P There's reasonable discussions to be had about the average fic writer's responsibility to their audience, but a lot of the folks on Tumblr (and now Twitter) grossly oversimplified things into "if you ship this character with this character, you're literally supporting xyz", or "writing about x conflict means you endorse x conflict irl" -- hence the idea of stopping the plot before it can happen.

-_- I know what you're doing. by Huinesoron on 2022-08-04 08:45:11 UTC Edited Reply

And the worst part is, I'm going to let you get away with it too. The Guardians of the Continuum, founded by Xena and Alvin (though you missed the opportunity to play on the once-appearing nickname "Ace"), will be making their appearance in the Multiversal Atlas soon enough.

I'm pretty sure the CAD messages support your interpretation, too:

[Written by Laurel. Women are legal. Written by Mary Sue.]

[This Boromir. He is a man.]

EDIT: The Anti-Plot Continuum, along with the Wild Wild Westverse, are both in the Atlas now. They still need their pictures, and I'm not 100% convinced the West isn't just an incarnation of the Fandemonium. We'll have to see.

hS

To every Multiverse there is a Mirror. by Huinesoron on 2022-08-05 14:09:29 UTC Reply

A new Multiverse Theory, by the Department of Analytical Science

To every Multiverse, there is a Mirror. We have known for years about the Mirror Multiverse, and the Enforcers of the Plot Continuum who reign there. But what is it that makes them a mirror? And what would the mirror of other Multiverses look like?

The PPC is, ultimately, selfless. That's likely to be a controversial statement, but think about it: we agents are not well-paid, we don't get to take anything from the canons, we don't get to make out with characters or whatever. We are saving the multiverse at personal risk, with no direct benefits. We're doing it for them, not us.

The EPC, in contrast, is selfish. They operate in their multiverse to control it - to take it for their own. The fact that they do so by encouraging Suvians is almost irrelevant - it is the selfishness that makes them our mirror.

A simple model, then, would be to posit a Selfish Mirror to each known multiverse. There would be a selfish Mirror TCDA, Mirror Shipverse, etc etc. We can imagine what these would be like - but this theory would mean that none of the other mirrors have ever been detected, and what are the chances of that?

More likely, then, is that each mirrored pair has the defining characteristic of the Multiverse mirrored, while other characteristics remain broadly similar. To take the TCDA as an example: the Steampunk Multiverse is all about technology. Therefore its Mirror would be a multiverse which is about magic, or at least the rejection of technology - while retaining other aspects of their reality, such as the giant buildings, and the Lovecraftian influences seeping in at the edges.

As it happens, just such a multiverse is known: the Unspeakable Verse, or as we could also call it, the Mirror TCDA.

Based on the latest Multiversal Atlas, here are the theorised Mirror Pairs. Multiverses not known to actually exist are marked with an asterisk:

Prime Multiverse | Mirror Multiverse - selfless | selfish. Discussed above.

Steampunk Multiverse | Unspeakable Verse - science | magic. Discussed above.

Fandemonium | *Historic PPCs - change over universes | change over time. Where the Fandemonium (theorised to include the Wild Wild Westverse) is in a constant state of flux, changing with each new canon, the Historic PPCs multiverse (here assumed to include Ye Olde Verse) consists of a string of PPCs in the same world, occurring in sequence.

Shipverse | Mathology - emotion | logic. The Vulcan dichotomy. The Shipverse is all about feelings, while the Mathology is maths and logic.

Magical Girl Verse | Universety - adventure | relaxation. Both verses have a high school element, but where the Magical Girls are out saving the multiverse, the students in the Universety seem to be just normal kids.

Solarpunk | Noir Multiverse - day | night. It's literally in the names.

Furryverse | *Greystone Mountain - animals | monsters. One is a world where agents can be any animal; the other is one where they are all monstrous dragons who are definitely evil and probably eat helpless children whenever they get a chance of course I don't have issues shut up.

Anti-Plot Continuum | *Uncensored Schism - respect | tolerance. One is a world where every claim of offence is taken as gospel. The other is a multiverse where not liking something is a vicious attack. Neither are terribly pleasant.

Sueniverse | *The Grim Darkness - scene stealers | scene sufferers. What is the opposite of a multiverse of Suvians? It's not a multiverse without Suvians - an absence is not a negative. Rather, the opposite of a Suvian who gets everything she wants is a Suvian who is eternally tortured. They still warp the PPC and the canons around them - but the goal of the warping is to make life for the Suvian agents as grim, angsty, and torment-filled as it can possibly be. Literally nothing goes right for them.

Actually I think I've known a few agents who might be from there.

Author redacted to protect the guilty.

But, seriously, by Linstar on 2022-08-05 15:51:05 UTC Reply

This is pretty awesome! I like the concept, and some of those theoretical multiverses sound quite interesting...
Mirror mirror on the plothole… (nm) by Kі nо Shirayuki on 2022-08-05 14:39:24 UTC Reply
The APC has its own theory: by Linstar on 2022-08-05 14:28:24 UTC Reply

New Multiverse from the Research Institute of Applied Sciences

Every multiverse has a mirror. We know about the eternal mirror and the plot that has been in it for years. But what makes it crystallize? What does the new multi-mirror look like?

After all, PPC is selfish. This could be a problem, but be careful. We are not a high paying broker, we don't get anything from the rules, we manage characters and so on. We take personal risks and protect the Multiverse without immediate gain. We do it for them, not for us.

Instead, EPC is self-interested. They work on many worlds to control it - to get it themselves. It doesn't matter if they do it to protect privacy - it's selfish to reflect on them.

Such a simple example is to place any mirror in the known multiverse. TCDA sailfish mirror, transom bed, etc. You can imagine how this could happen - but this theory assumes that no new face has been found, what are the chances?

Therefore, the most likely case is that each inverse pair has a different inverse multiverse sign and the other properties remain the same. Take TCDA for example, the steampunk multiverse is all about technology. The result is a multiverse centered on magic, or at least the denial of technology, but retains other aspects of reality, such as magnificent architecture and labors of love lurking on the fringes.

In this case, the multiverse looks like this: It can be called a fuzzy family, or a TCDA mirror.

According to the latest Multi-Planet Atlas, there are two theoretical mirrors. Varieties that cannot exist are marked with an asterisk.

Content of Multiverse | Mirror Multiverse-Original | Personal interests above.

Steampunk in the world | Untouchable family magic. As was mentioned.

Vandalism | * History of PPC is an ever-changing universe that changes over time. If the Fandomonium (theoretically including the Wild West) is constantly changing and changing every time a new code changes, then PPC's history (you need to insert Ye Old Line here) is the same as the scene. Rank PPC in the world.

Professional mathematics-I find emphasis that the Balkans is different. Shipverse is about emotions and math is about math and logic.

The Girl's Universe of Poetry Wisdom-Search | Break Both stories have an elementary school setting, but in the scene where a magical girl goes to save the multidimensional world, the college students are like regular kids.

Surya Bank | Black Multiverse-Day | Night As the name suggests.

Frafus | * Graystone Mountains-Hunter | Wild Animal First is a world where players can transform into any animal. Second, they are all very evil dragons and will eat helpless kids if given the chance, I'm fine with that and shut up.

Post Anti-Idol * Len Broken Filter-You | Lack of equality. Some communities consider allegations of fraud to be good news. Another dislike of the aggressive multiverse. Not ideal at all.

Plant | * Deep Darkness-Rogue | This place causes pain. What are the many paradoxes of Suvi? There is not much in the world without the Soviet Union - it is bad not to have it. But unlike Sophian, who has had her wishes granted, Sophian is always violent. While PPC and the rules surrounding it continue to change, the misguided goal is to make life miserable, confusing and offensive for gullible customers. Apart from that there is no place for them.

Actually, I think I know the agent is leaving.

The author is too good at protecting the day.

((Yup, I put hS’ post through Google Translate.))

The anti-plotters remind me of something, I just realized... by Kittyauthor on 2022-08-04 13:23:09 UTC Reply

They remind me of certain parts of Toyhou.se, the parts parts that frown upon people writing villain characters because that means you support the villain's actions.

It's kinda funny to hear that this behavior originated on Tumblr, and it makes me feel better that it's not just a TH thing lol.

-kA

It's always been a part of fandom culture. by Lily Winterwood on 2022-08-04 13:37:35 UTC Edited Reply

Ship wars have always been a thing (I'm a veteran of the Ronmione vs Harmony ship wars from Fictionalley myself), but the dressing-up of fandom activity with the language of social justice activism is a slightly more recent (well, uh, started almost a decade ago) trend. But yeah, it really got going on Tumblr where the lines between activism/politics and fandom spaces were not so delineated as they were on, say, Livejournal. I actually wrote a paper about this!

ETA that my missions from 2013-2014 aren't exempt from current me's critiques. Christianne got a bit killjoy with the Tumblr-speak there for a while, even if the whole "Sues tend to give representation only to the most privileged class of women" thing still holds some truth to it.

I feel like the real difference is... by Thoth on 2022-08-04 18:00:32 UTC Reply

...The actual rhetoric. Old-school ship wars tended to center around the idea that your interpretation of the character is Bad and Wrong and that my interpretation is way more true to canon and also better, and you actually need to go back and read the books/watch the films/re-experience canon to see what I mean. I mean, I've not been around fandom as long as some of you, so I could be wildly wrong here, but that's the sense I got.

And this is still definitely a thing (I've seen these fights and most definitely have Opinions in some cases. This will continue to happen for as long as two people in fandom interpret canon differently, and thus will go on forever). But what we see now is the increasing prevalence of the idea that your ship is morally wrong and there is something Wrong With You for writing it. Which... I mean that definitely existed since forever, but it seems to be a much more prevalent attitude. I distinctly recall the phrase "anything can be written well" being more common, and the PPC, even at our absolute worst and harshest, always came down opposite this by its very conception ("you can write bad fanfic, and we can write fanfic making fun of it" is kind of the inverse of "your bad fanfic should be erased from existence"—this is why the Anti-Plot Continuum would likely not really exist in a PPC-less world...).

You've got a point! by Lily Winterwood on 2022-08-04 22:10:53 UTC Edited Reply

Old-school forum/LJ-based fandom focused on being "truer" to canon, and we see that in the DNA of the PPC as well -- canon is used in Bad Slash exorcisms, canon is the yardstick for which DMS charges are written, etc. That being said, there were still some people who said stuff like "Ronmione is abusive" -- I remember sixth-grade me comparing Harry/Ginny to Henry VIII and Anne Boelyn on a Fictionalley anti-shipping thread!

But! People said "x ship is abusive" back then without the corollary "so if you ship x ship, you also support abuse". As you said, I'm sure the idea of the corollary was there, but it wasn't really said out loud. People didn't involve each other's offline identities in their online behaviour as much. But now that places like Facebook are requiring people bring their offline identities online, there's a growing generation of internet users who don't think very much of using some variation of their wallet name + showing their face online. It's not surprising then that when the ship wars evolved, they brought our offline identities and beliefs into the fray with a good smattering of social justice language.

Granted, this is from my perspective of having been deeply involved in old and new fandom, and the internet is multifaceted enough that people can definitely have different experiences of this shift than I have had. I do agree with your observations, though!

On the idea that the APC wouldn't exist if the PPC hadn't been created during old-school fandom, I mean... you're not wrong, per se. The idea of writing something to spork bad fanfiction has largely fallen by the wayside in favour of brigading fics with harmful comments or attacking the writer on social media. I just wrote this as a thought experiment of what could've happened if I had, for example, taken my 2013-era missions into their logical extreme by adhering strictly to Tumblr anti-shipping dogma.

Maybe in that alternate multiverse Alvin and Xena decided that the gentler way to tackle all the ~problematic fic~ out there was not in sending hurtful messages directly to the writer, but to ~set an example~ by writing their very wholesome agents into those sinful, problematic fics to ~~show them the light~~ get rid of the problematic elements before they can happen and ruin the lives of those fictional characters who are actually Very Real People with Rights. It's coming from a place of condescending, holier-than-thou, hate-the-sin-love-the-sinner sort of mentality.

The normal PPC has had eras where that mentality was in play, but never to the extreme of implying that the agents sent Elrond into conversion therapy! We're now more along the lines of "there's just some fics that are so bad that it's funny and we just want to point that out and also develop our own OCs along the way".

I hope.

ETA I should also mention that canonicity is still a concern in New Fandom Shipping Wars, but in a... different way? Canon ships are evaluated for how healthy they are, or if the canon has yet to determine endgame shipping, the ship wars focus on swaying the opinions of the show creators (and, ofc, dogpiling them if they go in a different way). The Keith/Lance vs Keith/Shiro wars during the latest incarnation of Voltron are a good example. Another major one was John/Sherlock from BBC Sherlock, where a subset of the shippers created a conspiracy theory that John/Sherlock was endgame and the writers had been hinting at it throughout the series, even when they stated time and again that it wasn't going to happen. This ended up with them believing the first episode of a completely different series was going to be some "secret actually good episode" of BBC Sherlock after its disastrous season 4 finale.

(And for the record, I shipped John/Sherlock! Though granted, I was going off of the ACD stories as well as the BBC show, and when the BBC show made it pretty clear in season 3 that they didn't think Sherlock mattered that much to John, I dropped it like a hot potato.)

So it might mean (and this is directed at hS's Multiversal Atlas blurb) that the canons in APC's World One are much the same as they are here, but the Guardians of the Continuum only protect the canons they deem "worthy" of their protection. Tolkien scrapes by because obviously Frodo/Sam and Legolas/Gimli are endgame ;) Canons can absolutely lose GotC protection if they do something problematic in the storyline, or if the creator says something problematic elsewhere. This makes it different from the PPC where people will defend a canon from Suvians even if they personally disagree with it, like Twilight.

oh yeah, no, I didn't think that was your intent by Thoth on 2022-08-06 06:20:30 UTC Reply

...I was more broadly commenting on how I think the cultural shift means that something like the PPC wouldn't spring from those groups. The holier than thou tone is right on though. I can imagine spitefics that are aggressively unproblematic in order to demonstrate the Real Way to write this stuff as a thing.

Yes, why be constructively creating something when you can just complain on Twitter? ;P by Lily Winterwood on 2022-08-06 07:53:59 UTC Reply

I've seen a fair amount of spite art, actually -- Twitter's meme of the month last month was favourite ship dynamics, and some people were definitely passive-aggressively editing each other's ship dynamic art to be more or less wholesome. Plus, there were some people on TikTok who got caught a couple months ago tracing "problematic" ship art into their own, ~more wholesome~ ships.

There were also a couple spitefics, too, on AO3 -- there's some people who will deliberately tag ship-bashing fics with that ship. They usually get flagged, though.

Can PPC missions be considered spite fics? (nm) by Kі nо Shirayuki on 2022-08-06 09:08:34 UTC Reply

To some detractors, sure. by Lily Winterwood on 2022-08-06 09:43:06 UTC Reply

But that's why it's better to not write missions out of anger. Anger fuels spitefics.

And spitefics fuel low self-esteem... by SunAndMoon on 2022-08-09 02:39:57 UTC Reply

...especially when you are neurodivergent and can relate on some level to the characters being written about even though you dislike them, so seeing horrible things happen to them/seeing them being punished for things they did not canonically do is upsetting to the point of being genuinely psychologically triggering, and you just get shouted down when you try to say it makes you uncomfortable.

No, I'm not bitter in the slightest! Whatever gave you that idea? :P

Sounds like you should avoid those spitefics. (nm) by Linstar on 2022-08-09 14:49:25 UTC Reply

Points of Divergance / GotC agent image by Huinesoron on 2022-08-05 09:32:08 UTC Reply

The premise of the Multiversal Atlas is that each multiverse was different from inception. The Anti-Plot Continuum isn't a world where the PPC was founded in the Tumblr era - it's a world where the mindset of the Tumblr era was always dominant. PPC scientists tend to go for a semi-fixed history model, probably because they work in canons - so despite Everything Being Different, a lot of things are still the same.

So J.R.R. Tolkien always writes an epic story about nine people clubbing together to destroy a Ring of Power. Sometimes they're only doing it because they can't agree who should claim it instead. Sometimes they're all in love. Sometimes half of them are female. And sometimes, as in the APC, the number of incidents they encounter along the way is significantly reduced, to avoid anything problematic coming up.

It is entirely possible to perceive the alternate multiverse another way. The question of what if the PPC was started in our world at a different time is a really interesting one (and there's a hypothetical multiverse devoted to that exact question). But it's not what the Atlas assumes.

In line with the Atlas' version, then, and using Linstar's translation algorithm, I present: Agents David Alien and Constance The Sims.

They are designed to be unproblematic. They are the same height, because someone said men being taller is misogynist, and someone else said women being taller is fetishisation. D. Alien has short hair, because someone said giving men long hair is offensive. His name isn't Dafydd, because that was called cultural appropriation. At one point he wore a shirt, but that was supporting wage-slavery; at another, she wore a v-neck t-shirt, but that was objectifying. Both are in grey, because someone once told the Board that a black uniform was glorifying slavery. You wouldn't believe how many ways the flame and cactus flash-patches were toxic, so now they just have acronyms (which will soon be phased out, because someone has just raised the point that Latin letters are anglocentric). And of course, the use of "Mary Sue" went out way back, so now they're the Department of Problematic O.Cs. (Also about to be changed, as soon as someone notices that "P.O.C." is also used for something else.)

The point here, and the point I think Lily's making, is that none of these comments are 100% wrong. All of them can be true, in some circumstances! But you have to apply thought to them. Neither avoiding offense nor being offensive are tick-box exercises: they depend almost entirely on context. But the APC ignores context: it is literally 'you said it's bad, so it's always bad in any circumstances'.

Like the Atlas says, it's a fairly quiet, peaceful world. If every multiverse has a mirror, then the mirror of the APC one where the rallying cry is "you can't say you don't like it - that's censorship!". Certain parts of the internet are living in that one right now.

hS

Fair point re: point of inception. by Lily Winterwood on 2022-08-05 10:22:42 UTC Reply

The PPC being founded at a later point in time is a separate exercise than a different multiverse where Tumblr anti-shipping dogma is the baseline of engagement with media. The variant I thought of would be something more along the lines of the Ye Olde-verses, but a couple years in the future. But both are interesting to think about.

As for David Alien, has no one told him that being called "alien" is problematic bc it's othering himself? ;P

Well they have now. by Huinesoron on 2022-08-05 10:57:11 UTC Reply

[Goes off to edit every story and Board post relating to said character, who is now and always has been called David Allen]

One thing the APC World One would have is editing capabilities on everything, because you always need to be able to change your statements to remove any possibility of offense. This probably even affects canons - it is routine for authors to update for new editions, and even for TV/movie producers to edit for each re-release. And then all previous editions are redacted - think Lucas refusing to sell the non-Special Editions of Star Wars, but for, like... everything.

Luckily, saying "you've ruined my childhood by changing this" was demonstrated to be problematic years ago, because it's an expression of First World privilege and an attack on anyone who didn't see the thing in question in their childhood. So there's no problem with just updating everything every time someone finds a new problem.

hS

That's not simply Tumblr cancel culture... by Sergio Turbo on 2022-08-05 11:14:51 UTC Reply

That is outright 1984-level control on media, and that is scary.

Oh, it's very 1984. by Huinesoron on 2022-08-05 12:14:00 UTC Reply

Particularly since it's not centrally controlled - it's culturally controlled. It's not even Cancelling (which is rarely a real thing anyway), because that implies external pressure. These people crumple under any objection at all.

(All of which is the sort of extrapolation that isn't going into the Atlas, to avoid tying people's hands if they choose to write about it.)

hS

I’d imagine... by Linstar on 2022-08-05 15:49:54 UTC Reply

...that dictionaries would constantly be in flux as words are discovered as having been Bad. ( “You can’t say ‘agent’, that implies that non-agents don’t have free will!” )

—Ls is glad he doesn’t live there.

Eventually... by SunAndMoon on 2022-08-09 02:51:41 UTC Reply

...all words in all languages will be deemed Bad, and everyone will have to communicate via pictures. And when those pictures are deemed Problematic ("drawing stick figures is fat-shaming!"), communication will simply cease to exist.

A less terrifying alternative is an entirely new language being invented that contains no problematic words whatsoever, and everyone has to speak it.

(I'm probably having more fun with this dystopian nightmare version of the PPC than I should...)

No, that is the correct amount of fun. by Linstar on 2022-08-09 14:50:39 UTC Reply

And the language would be known as Human, until someone gets offended by that.

—Ls

Yeah, I agree with that. by Linstar on 2022-08-04 22:35:34 UTC Reply

And I’ll say that the APC doesn’t seem like an actually fun place—but, the ridiculous, over-the-top holier-than-thou attitude can be funny.

—Ls is gonna try to write something APC too.

Not quite what I was envisioning, but nice nonetheless. by Linstar on 2022-08-04 02:31:44 UTC Reply

I was picturing the Anti-Plotters more as a group that hates all plots...and thus all fiction.

But this was pretty funny, and you wrote it well.

The CAD reading was my favorite. Just who is this Owen Evenstead anyway?

This is an interesting AU (though it should be AM) concept, and I'd love to see more.

--Ls

Yes! The Anti-Plotters! by Linstar on 2022-08-03 16:03:50 UTC Edited Reply

They hate any form of plot—and thus hate both fan and original fiction, and want to destroy all continua. Mwa ha ha! (Seriously, though—that sounds like a fun thing to write.)

And I have no clue how Acacia became Alvin. Just...no clue.

And their CAD reading! [Edited by Owen Evansted. A very large woman. A current classic. 49.72% were not men. ] Who is this Owen Evanstead? What woman? What classic? What does that statistic mean? (Aside from 50.28% being men.)

—Ls

I have now put the rest of the text through... by Linstar on 2022-08-03 14:12:19 UTC Reply

...and it makes just as little sense.

—Ls, done. Also, if anyone has any suggestions as to other Google Translate texts, please tell me.
Hey, how about by Kі nо Shirayuki on 2022-08-03 06:08:41 UTC Reply

running it through I Write Like?

I got Kurt Vonnegut. by Linstar on 2022-08-03 13:51:12 UTC Reply

Go figure.

Also, the opening line to the mistranslation:

"It happened again," Jay said, leaning against the console and staring at a bright yellow light. "Someone is working on a plot."

Hilarious.

—Ls will translate another section soon
Good idea! (nm) by Linstar on 2022-08-03 07:08:31 UTC Edited Reply

That was funny. Thanks for sharing. by SunAndMoon on 2022-08-02 22:15:02 UTC Reply

We should do things like this more often.

We should. by Linstar on 2022-08-03 02:43:54 UTC Edited Reply

In fact, I may Google Translate the rest of TOS and/or random stuff.

--Ls is happy someone else liked it.