I'm considering adding a Intelligence agent to my roster. Have there ever been missions where an Intel agent goes in, checks out the first couple chapters of a fic, then hands it off to a team from one of the action departments?

Obviously this would only work for longer badfics.

Like Joe said, nothing is really standard around here, but I think the description you're referring to is less so than most. It's mentioned on the wiki article because it exists, I think, not so much because it represents the majority of the RA's representation. As the article says, "However, as other descriptions involve setting portals to lock onto locations or specific people, either this describes a simple version of the RA (the one in question was sent to a recruit to allow him to reach HQ), or the dials are very, very versatile."

Personally, I've always imagined it pretty much as you've described it, a hand-held box with numbers and symbols on it, and a few other specific function buttons ("Home in on Sue," for instance).

Where does the "1000 combinations" bit come from, though?

~Neshomeh

It's generally asserted that there are few standard models for most of the PPC gadgets--in-universe there's a lot of explanations, but the out-of-universe explanation is that standardizing anything here would be counterproductive and lead to arguments over whose interpretation is right.

Naturally, I tried to bull through this with the C-CAD :P (Disclaimer: this is a joke; actual intention of making the C-CAD was quite different.)

So in short, there shouldn't be any problem with what you're talking about RE: the RA and I'd actually be willing to help with an idea of that sort in more detail. As my work attests, PPC tech is a fascination of mine.


Use of stuff like the Dead Ringer would be feasible but tricky. It wouldn't work so well in universes without hit points, after all--in Zelda this wouldn't be a concern but it might also simply be too high-tech for that canon. PPC tech usually gets around this caveat. There's also the fact that introducing too much new stuff means lots of it gets used once and never again.

What I'm saying here, mind, is not "no, don't do it". I don't actually have the authority to do that, for one (no one does)--you can do whatever you like in your spinoff. But I am saying you should consider carefully before you do--there may be another way to do what the Dead Ringer does, using the narrative instead of tech.