Subject: Correcting messups is a good thing!
Author:
Posted on: 2013-06-04 08:43:00 UTC
It's why I'm always doing it to people, I mean what. :P
Subject: Correcting messups is a good thing!
Author:
Posted on: 2013-06-04 08:43:00 UTC
It's why I'm always doing it to people, I mean what. :P
Let's pretend that this isn't a couple days late!
A huge amount of thank-yous to Ekyl, for corralling us all together and being an amazing co-editor in chief! Also, many thanks to the contributors: DawnFire, hermione of vulcan, firemagic, Herr Wozzeck, Huinesoron, and SeaTurtle!
And now, for the next issue: I will be going off to China on June 20th, which means I'll be away from my Photoshop and InDesign, which I've used to make these past few issues. If anyone here is capable of taking over as layout/visual editor for me for June and possibly July, I'd love them very very much.
Aside from that, this is also the official call for writers/contributors to the June edition. The potential stories are as follows:
0 - Cover Page
1 - Advert
2 - Briefing - News
3 - Briefing - Sports
4 - Canon Character of the Issue (I think firemagic wanted to do something?)
5 - Canon Character (cont)
6 - Feedback
7 - Editorial - The Need For Alternate Power (Ekyl)
8 - Ypurescue
9 - Ypurescue (cont)
10 - Cover Story 2
11 - Cover Story 2 (cont)
12 - Review: Shakespeare Troupe does The Scottish Play
13 - Cover Story 3
14 - Cover Story 3 (cont)
15 - Canon Scenery of the Issue
16 - How to Play with Minis (Without Getting Hurt)
17 - Minis (cont)
18 - Gossip
19 - Want Ads
20 - Back Advert
Seeing that Ypurescue may be a cover story, I'd definitely like to see if Fish Custard can get onboard for this one, since they wrote the story behind it. Everything else is still up in the air (although there have already been head starts in the briefing, gossip, want ad, and feedback sections. People without Permission are welcome to contribute to feedback!
...I think that's all.
Where does the Sue Lord come from - i.e. what is it out-of-universe? Is there a mission that hasn't been released yet? Or is it a reference to the Circle's tendency to recycle character types?
It was brought up on the Board pages ago, and we're sorta halfway through the mission (aka on the sixth incarnation out of eleven)
I'd be happy to contribute whatever I can to the Ypurescue segement - what sort of thing were you thinking of? Feel free to email me (^clicky-link-thingy attached to my username^) if you want.
Basically, a newspaper (or news magazine) rendition of the event would be cool.
It does not list your email up there, sorry.
I shall do that! Any particular style? I was thinking that an interview with Fish and Evie would work well. Could allow for some fun exchanges! ;)
Really? [insert 10th Doc 'what?']
Here you go: richardjenkins28@gmail.com
Whatever works best for you will be great!
/adds to doc
We're still looking for people to help with this issue, especially with the visual thing and writing or finding stories, so don't be shy! E-mail me or Lily if interested.
You have awesome design skills, Lily.
In the intro to the Krios article, you say "they found [the Stu's] powers allowed him to detect them through the SEP field". Um, it's kind of been a cornerstone of PPC canon since forever that while canon characters ignore the agents unless they draw attention to themselves, OCs can see them all the time:
Finally, it was time for the Council. Jay and Acacia cast about for a place to rest—and almost tripped over one of two people that could see them. (TOS5: What Might Have Been)
That's why agents have to hide rather than just wandering around making snide comments.
Now, the mission you're referencing seems to fall midway between the two options: the relevant quote is:
...he screamed. “That’s not how that works!”
And then, the action froze. As in, froze, with everybody suddenly stopping what they were doing. Xanthus opened his mouth, but then noticed something very wrong with what the characters did next.
Instead of following the Words, the characters all turned their attention to the agent in question.
This included the Stu, who turned to look directly at the agents. (The Demon Barber of Rebirth, Part 1)
Which is the Stu (and the rest of the cast) hearing a very loud shout and turning to look at it. Any Stu would probably do that. It's not a mark of specialness,
hS
I was under the impression that the SEP field is always on, even for the non-canon guys. Hm...
Well, either way, it could be worked around like this: since the Stus powers allowed him to sense a Cerberus bug through the room's humidity, said powers could help him detect agents of the PPC no matter how well they hide. I dunno. Either way, he knew they were coming WELL before the agents revealed themselves to the canon characters, so...
... is a very recent one. The idea of it being tied to the flash patches is even more so.
The original concept is that the presence of canon-friendly agents induces the canon itself to produce an SEP-like effect around the agents. That means canon characters won't notice them, since the canon is stopping its parts from hindering those out to help it. Non-canon characters - and character replacements - aren't under canon's control even slightly, so aren't affected by it.
hS
Since, you know, the agents ARE their problem, because the agents are out to evaluate and possibly kill them. It may provide a very weak protection on top of the canonical masking, but it's just as easily breached by shouting or direct interaction. I know this, because I'm pretty sure it was my idea, or at least one that came out of a discussion I was involved in around the time I was compiling the Useful Technology glossary. Take a look at the flash patch entry. It was never meant to subvert the need for agents to be discreet—it was more an attempt to explain things in a way that doesn't require the canon to explicitly be on our side. I think I found that claim a little lofty of us.
~Neshomeh
That would just cause there to be three layers of non-detection, which I've done my best to outline below.
Layer 1: The canonical influence.
The continuum is rejecting the badfic, and will keep anything connected to itself from preventing the destruction of said badfic. OCs would be able to pierce this field, since 1) strictly speaking, it doesn't exist as a force or a physical substance, and is only an effect the continuum has on its natives and 2) the OCs are not part of the original canon of the continuum, and would thus be less able to be affected by its less specific effects.
Layer 1 is also incredibly passive, and can be pierced for even a central canon character if they are disturbed or directly interacted with.
Layer 2: Disguises.
The disguise causes the being affected by the disguise to take on the characteristics of a being native to a certain continuum. This would allow the OCs to merely dismiss the Agents as background characters if said OC noticed the Agents' presence. Typically, the PPC Agents would choose a species that would either 1) blend in with the surroundings, or 2) plausibly kill the OCs and/or burst out shouting and waving things. There can be overlap, of course.
Layer 2 cannot be pierced unless use of a D.O.R.K.S., equipment malfunction, or related occurrences cause the disguise to be dropped, or more specific or situational causes, i.e. a character with a canonical ability to see through disguises, such as Bionicle's Axonn.
Layers 1 and 2 are not optional and have always been part of the PPC methodology, since Layer 1 is involuntary and Layer 2 is required by the PPC for its field agents.
Layer 3: the Somebody Else's Problem Field. Native to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy continuum, the SEP Field will hide anything inside its scope from view unless it is going to cause a problem for the viewer. One would not expect to see three orcs angrily ranting about continuity or writing on a clipboard, so one simply does not.
The SEP Field can even hold up against OCs, though Sues and Stus may be speshul enough to detect its presence. (The Field will usually conceal the fact that an SEP Field is being used, because the use of unfamiliar technology is usually not a direct problem, and thus is under the Field's purview.)
Layer 3 can be pierced when an Agent directly creates a problem for a character, such as when they interfere with said character's story, dragging them off to charge for Suvian activity, and subsequently killing them. However, since it is technological in nature, it is prone to the same limits as any piece of technology, especially in continua hostile to technological activity. It is usually stored in portable form in an Agent's flash patch, though the flash patch SEP Field is weak enough that it only activates while within a badfic. The flash patch did not originally contain the SEP Field at all, but the technology was adapted several years ago to increase safety for field agents once it was noticed how prone field agents are to ranting, shouting, and otherwise doing things that would draw attention to themselves.
Subject 23 encountering the Agents can be explained by way of Layers 1 and 3 being pierced. Layer 1 was pierced by Xanthus making a scene, and subsequently drawing the attention of several canon characters. Layer 3 was pierced by Subject 23's ability to detect and disable technology that would be used against him, coupled with his extant Suvian power. Layer 2 held, but since the three agents were members of continuum-native species, and only changed their clothes, it wasn't much help in concealing them.
I think I missed something, but this looks about right..
The sneaking around is there for a reason - it stops the missions just being MSTs with the occasional 'they followed the story'. Agents have to hide behind sofas, up in trees, and generally sneak around to avoid being spotted. Due to their disguises, they can get away with being out in the open in groups - such as generally wandering around populated areas - but if the plot takes place somewhere no-one else is around, they have to sneak. Otherwise you might as well write the whole mission sitting in a TARDIS sipping tea.
The flash patch did not originally contain the SEP Field at all, but the technology was adapted several years ago to increase safety for field agents once it was noticed how prone field agents are to ranting, shouting, and otherwise doing things that would draw attention to themselves.
By that logic we should give all the agents flying cameras and let them watch the stories from their RCs. Or, hey, they could just read the written version and get the charges from there. I really, really dislike the 'this technology makes agents' lives easier' school of thought - particularly since it often translates as 'this technology makes my life easier'. I was guilty of it myself when I started combining the two types of CAD - but I've stopped doing that, and I never dropped in anything else. If I'm going to write a mission, my agents are going to have an appropriately horrible time.
There is a difference with things like the D.O.R.K.S. (which I also don't like to use) - the portable disguise generator is /supposed/ to make their lives easier, but ends up being absolutely useless. If you want anti-OC SEP fields, make them properly PPC-esque - that is to say, have them fail spectacularly every other mission.
hS
First, that three-layer idea from the last post was an approximation, based on the information that I've gathered from both the Board and the missions. I am fully aware that it's got its rough spots and bits that don't fit in, but it's what I managed to assemble so far. If the model doesn't work, it doesn't work, and it can be scrapped and somebody can come up with something else.
Do you have ideas for a modification to the existing idea, or a better idea for rationalizing the SEP Field with the canon-protection effect? Input from other people would help fix up some of the shaky spots.
There are also a few holes in your "technology=boring stories" reasoning: it's not about whether or not what happens in the mission is caused by the canon shielding the agents or an augmented device shielding them or whether the agents just took the opportunity to jump behind a bush when a Sue looks behind her, it's about the story, and whether it's well-written and worth reading.
There's a difference between "PPC technology doesn't develop much because Finance isn't made of money, it only works with it, and DoSAT is more about fixing things these days anyway" and "PPC technology does not address one of its fundamental problems". Agents shout, and babble, and throw things, and all of that. This is not wrong, and is in fact fully expected, since the Sues and other canonical distortions are busting up the worlds we know and love, after all, but it poses a potentially dangerous problem, since, as we see in TOS and several spin-offs afterward, the canon does not make it so that the Sues cannot hear you, and if you make enough of a scene, even the canons will notice you.
Thus, a large percentage of Sues would find the Agents assigned to her when one of them starts breaking into a rant, or going bonkers, and then could break the storyline and attack them, or be prepared for being attacked, and cause untoward danger to the Agents. The PPC is terminally understaffed, and if a personal quirk of the humanoid agents results in lots of extra work for Medical, with the possibility of the PPC then becoming even more understaffed, the only options become either forcing that trait out of the Agents, which is inhumane even by the Flowers' standards, or upgrading the technology to let them rant in peace without the risk of suddenly being ambushed by Boromir's non-canon niece who can blast rapid-fire lightning bolts from her hands.
You can make a mission funny and well-made without having the Sue spot the Agents, or having that be a significant risk. It just has to be handled well. A good story is always in the execution.
Even with an SEP Field up, it could fail spectacularly, as the CADs often do, or certain in-fic circumstances could make it less than useful, if you really want to go the "we have only our disguises now, and nothing else" path, or if you want, you could ignore the presence of the SEP Field outright or cause the Agents to have disabled it in their flash patches for whatever reason. But there are plenty of ways to mess with the agents using what the badfic already creates simply by way of being badfic.
You're right, having the Agents sit in their RC reading the badfic while a little camera-robot or something goes to kill a Sue would be no fun. That is why we do not write it. This world is, when you get down to it, a series of stories about making fun of other stories, and therefore, a large portion of them must be fun to read.
If something is implausible, the writers in the community can address that, and solve it in-universe, and if something isn't fun, then that can also be addressed. If someone tries to make something easier, it can become less fun, but if someone does something the "hard way" and doing so becomes implausible, we should fix that as well.
And, yes, I am fully aware that "implausible" has a different meaning in a world where an organization of trans-dimensional fiction police travel through literal plot holes on the orders of talking plants. But something can be strange without being problematic.
The PPC using enhanced technology isn't going to ruin the way the stories work, because unless it's something everyone likes, not everyone is going to accept it, and that's okay. On the flip side, we have a formula for how our missions normally go, but that doesn't mean that everyone has to stick to it exactly, or else every new story would read like every other older story, and the plotlines and characters would become boring and cookie-cutter.
If there's inconsistency, it should be ironed out, but nobody should be forcing their ideas on anyone, and that's not what I'm trying to do here. There was a problem. I'm doing my best to find out how to make it less of a problem. My idea might not work. It might need substantial revision. But that's okay, because there are far more people who would have a stake in this than just a select few.
Okay, this went on for a lot longer than I thought it would, but I hope the points I was trying to make didn't get lost.
Oh, and a postscript on the D.O.R.K.S. I don't think I've ever seen the D.O.R.K.S. being absolutely useless. Difficult to use, yes, irritating, yes, occasionally hard to find because it turned into something very small, yes, but never the device just not doing what it was intended to do. If a D.O.R.K.S. didn't work, people would stop writing about them, because there's really only one joke in the "I tried to change my disguises, but it turned out that my D.O.R.K.S. won't work." premise, and it's right there in the premise.
who already claim to be canonical extras, in their home continuum they cannot even claim the protection of a canon if said canon has been assailed enough by Suedom like Middle-earth has.
(At least, that's how I see it for Eledhwen. The SEP field does not work for her in Middle-earth; she can and may and probably will be at the mercy of a Sue that would rope her in as an extra.
Since technically she's a canon character, to some extent, Layer 1 wouldn't work at all, and she would be more susceptible to effects from the Words that claim that "all the elves" or "every elf in the room" does something, but I'd think that her distance from her home continuum in recent years has lessened some of the restrictions this may have had on the SEP Field.
It wouldn't have removed them completely, obviously, since some part of her would always be whispering "What are you doing over here, hiding under that bush dressed as an orc? You should be in your true elven form, standing behind Legolas where you belong!", and the Sues and Stus would probably be able to pick up on that, since the canon characters not perfectly falling into line would prove a problem for them, and thus would make them able to see through her SEP Field.
I just realized I spent a paragraph saying what you already said in one sentence, but in longer and more specific terms. +2 Rationalization Points!
It's just something to keep in mind in future, now. :P
I'm reading through the mission now, and it seems that Lily made no mistake! Unfortunately, it seems that the mission writer was unaware of the rule that OCs can see PPC agents, regardless of the SEP field. From Part 3 of the mission:
[Agent Xanthus, thinking aloud, said,] "[The Stu] would’ve had to have seen us coming…”
Both agents sat there, silent for a little bit. This information settled in their brains, leaving the both of them silent as their eyes widened with the grim realization of what had happened to make their mission go so horribly wrong.
“He… he sensed us through the SEP Field, didn’t he?” asked Xanthus.
“I… I don’t know…” said Anneli. “But given how he reared his head at us like that, I think he did.”
“Not enough to know who we are and what we’re here for, but enough to sense that we’re a threat…” Xanthus shook his head, opening up his omni-tool again. “I… I don’t know what to say to that, Anneli.”
[A few paragraphs later, after figuring out the implications for the captured agent Cinderella, Agent Annelli says,] “That’s… that’s overpowered, not to mention that… Oh God…”
The turian nodded grimly, typing something onto the omni-tool. “Yes, yes it is,” he agreed, unable to say much else. “Overpowered… and he tampered with PPC technology.” [The Stu had shorted out their RA by this point in the mission.]
Though, looking at it again, it appears that the phenomena can be reconciled: While an OC is able to see PPC agents, regardless of SEP field, the Stu obviously had some speshul detection powers, which the agents didn't anticipate.
I'll leave that to other hands. My point was and is that the Multiverse Monitor - which is a part of PPC canon - states something which is wrong. If I wrote a mission where the Sunflower Official was just a nickname for a blind panther, and the MM reported it as fact, I'd call that a mistake, too.
hS
...a mistake.
Still, it's been addressed in the corrections for the next issue.
... I would when it was pointed out to me.
Or, alternately, I'd have an explanation for why it was true in-story ("Yes, the SO met Jaycacia - she was a hallucination induced by too much meta, that doesn't mean she's actually in HQ!"), without it being true for the PPC at large ("Jaycacia can appear in ghost-form in your room! Cower in fear!").
hS
It's why I'm always doing it to people, I mean what. :P
I think that could've been better-worded, yeah; I'm not entirely sure how we didn't catch it while editing the article.
We'll put a correction into the next edition, then: something more along the lines of the Stu's powers allowing everyone to detect them through the SEP field? Because that's what it looks like to me.
The excerpt hS posted has nothing to do with the Stu's powers. An agent bloudly attracted attention to himself, effectively negating the SEP field. Now if some other part of the story had canon characters able to see the agents for no good reason, that might be something.
This is really some top-notch work! I think my favourite article was Thane's interview.
About that bit in "An Abundance of Lamposts": it was rumoured that the EPC might have landed a few of their agents in HQ while the shields were down. Off the record, did it really happen? I'm curious now...
I'd like to claim next edition's Canon Scenery of the Issue and partial contribution to the News side of the Briefing.
Glad to have you back aboard, we'll add you to the doc. :P
While I'm here, just noting to people that I'm handling the review, too. I'll probably flit around helping wherever needed like last issue.
Well, I'm also doing something with the EPC... This information will be very interesting indeed.
*Starts plotting*
-r.