Off Topic: I completely forgot to mention in my reply on your last mission that I released a Tae-Quon-Doe to live with Alice. It is a Korean Water Deer, which is a small-ish species with medium brown coat and spots. They have small fangs. This one is wearing a do-bok tied with a bleen belt (which is enough to kick the butt of the average agent apparently), and has a very aggressive attitude.

I was thinking about this, because of the release of the horses, and Suicide putting his name on one of them. I thought he might go visit it later.


And actually on-topic. I don't have any agents that have stated they know that canon. If you can't find anyone else, though, you could borrow Cali. He is still actively learning canons, especially TV or movie based canons, so it wouldn't be too odd for him to suddenly know a new one.

That's why I stuck Jenni on that Pern crossover: she knew the canon, the boys didn't (and it gave me an excuse to recruit Derik). And why Nume and Ilraen were assigned with Barid and Brightbeard for "The Dark Side." Both sets of partners needed ringers on that one.

Whatever happened to young Agent Rowan? Could you tap her? Adding another character complicates things, but so does not knowing what's going on.

~Neshomeh

...so a little knowledge on the canon beforehand is best, but not always a must. Sometimes, just knowing the signs of a Sue by using common sense is enough for her. But that's in reporting a badfic that needs killing and sporking.

There could be a pocket fictionary. In most worlds it would fit in, because there's rarely a place that doesn't have books of some kind. You can have the hardcover version and a nice electronic version, for those continuums without books. Or paper.

Shinra has her own kind of personal pocket fictionary called the Mini-Master Book, but she got it fair and square from the Ironic Overpowers in Little Red's Fairy Tales. So it wouldn't be wide spread that one...

I haven't helped in adding to the confusion, have I? ^^;

What does an agent do if he/she doesn't know a detail about canon that's important to the fic? She can't get onto the internet (unless the continuum is in modern-day Earth, if then, since you still have to get a computer). She probably wouldn't be carrying any extra information about canon, since she knows the continuum. Can she call someone at HQ to check a detail for her? I wanted Elena to do this last mission, but I didn't know if it was possible to call from a fic to HQ, and there's every indication that Elena has no friends in the PPC, so I didn't know who to have her call.

A Pocket Fictionary or Hitchhiker's Guide for the specific continuum would be a fantastic idea, except that no other agents so far have used one, so I think we'd have to explain where it came from. Also, don't forget that the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was not exactly the most reliable or unbiased book. Earth was described in two words because the authors had spent too much space on subjects they liked better.

A device that keeps updated to the latest changes to the relevant wiki as of the time the agents leave for the mission would be really convenient. It would be very complicated to make, but DoSAT is surely about to become more productive with Makes-Things back. It might make life too easy for the agents, but considering wiki-editor mistakes and vandalism, incomplete wikis for less popular continua, and the tendency of PPC technology to mess up, you could keep it from being too useful.

One of my agents has no knowledge of canons, the other is a big nerd.

When the one that does not know anything about the canon has to do something himself, I usually have him juggle some 'know your canon' pamphlets as released by Intelligence.

Or have a stack of books/tapes mysteriously appear outside of the RC a week before the mission along with a mysteriously menacing note from the Department of Personnel that they had better brush up or face an acute toothpaste/toilet paper/tissue/orange juice/misc. requisitions shortage or something.