1. Minis on missions: Generally, no--because it puts agents in danger of owning a CAF, which is a Sue trait and thus not smart for agents to do. Some agents do bring ordinary pets on missions; and sometimes minis discovered on a mission go along for the ride.
   
   5. Young Wizards minis: Mini-BEMs would be cool, and has a better ring to it than Mini-Lone Powers. Mini-Eds (the shark from "Deep Wizardry") are another option. In general, powerful monsters from a continuum serve as Minis; but the main antagonist does not (which is why we have mini-Balrogs, not mini-Saurons; and mini-Aragogs, not mini-Voldemorts). But if you want it to be the Lone Power, then go for it. It's not like it's so far out of the norm.
   
   Minis generally have about the intelligence of a very smart dog or an average chimpanzee--animal intelligence, but smart animals. Some minis are sentient, but most aren't. Mini-Aragogs are notable for being able to talk (most minis can't.)
   
   Agents' lives:
   4. Time away from HQ: It's unstable. Sometimes, agents are away for months and return within a day; sometimes they're away for five days and return in five days. Sometimes no time has passed at all. In general, their time away is kept short on the HQ end of the portal. It's been mentioned that Agent Jay would have been dead of old age if she had spent as much time in World One as she did on missions; so it seems that agents tend to age at the rate that HQ time passes (or even World One time, which can be shorter), rather than at the rate they spend time in missions.

Minis:

1. Nope. Sorry.

2. Probably just sit around and eat - or set fire to things, depending on their temperament.

3. There are a few options:
You can go to an Adoption Centre (that is, the webpage where whomever is keeping the relevant list has posted all known names), select a misspelling that appeals to you and send an email with your adoption request.
If there is no list being kept for that fandom (which is sadly frequent), you can adopt directly from a Board post in which someone lists all the new minis they've found.
If you find the misspelling in a fic you are PPCing, you can also adopt directly, though it's polite to make sure that no one else has already adopted that particular mini.

4. Honestly, I'm not sure. These things change, and if someone fades out, it's not always clear if they're still considered to be in charge or not. I think Cassie was involved at some point, but I can't recall.

5. According to the Minis page on the wiki, that hasn't been specified yet, so if you are the first person to write a mission in that continuum that stumbles across a mini, you can decide. If you're asking for an opinion, I'm afraid I don't know the fandom.


Agents:

1. What is this "vacation" you speak of?
Actually yes, it has happened - Jay and Acacia took a trip to OFUM, so strictly speaking I don't believe there's a reason they can't, just that it's very unlikely. There was a recent interlude where a very young agent went home to see her family, but how she escaped the constant BEEP!ing and the wrath of the Flowers, I don't know.

2. Assuming that they want to... it would probably be more like a holiday as extras, but recall what the Sunflower Offical said in the Original Series - there's a lot of paperwork involved, which would probably make it more trouble than it's worth, in the end. As for families, that depends on the details of the fic they came from, and if the agents who recruited them weren't forced to kill said family for Sueishness or other such crimes. If they were 'family' to a canon character, definitely not.

3. If they exist at all, probably not. Remember that the PPC doesn't exactly advertise itself everywhere it can.

4. Time is insane in HQ, and portals - which, as far as I understand temporal mechanics, act as time machines as much as moving-through-continua devices - can deposit you just about anywhere. The problem of too much or too little time passing in "the outside world" is unlikely to be a problem - at least, not in comparison to the actual fuss of paperwork required to leave HQ.

Minis:
1. Nope. Really. And... what good would an ordinary pet be on a mission?
2. Same thing your cat/dog/hamster does all day while you're at school/work, I imagine.
3. Preferably, yes. Also preferably, there's a list somewhere to tell you whether the one you want is taken already or not.
4. Yep: Meir Brin. And, Cassie is maintaining the mini-Balrog list.
5. Personally, I would think mini-Lone Powers. I realize the potential problems with this, but, well... yeah. Who can resist that? ^_^;

Agents:
1. Occasionally home visits are made. Cassie and Lycaenion recently posted an interlude involving such a one.

2. In the sense that they can visit their home continuum, yes, but in most cases there's really nothing left to go home to, since the remnants of the badfic that spawned them would vanish with the conclusion of the mission. If they have family, chances are they accompanied them to HQ (see Ithalond and his wife Mithiriel).

3. Depends, but usually no. Most people's parents wouldn't believe it, or if they did, they wouldn't condone it. Many people just tell their parents they're doing some kind of job abroad; others have used school as a cover; still others have said nothing at all and been presumed missing.

4. Again, depends--however, HQ doesn't work like Narnia. If you age in HQ, you've aged when you go back where you came from. ... I suppose you could use a disguise generator to hide the effects, but people are still likely to notice any changes in personality you've experienced.

~Neshomeh

Minis

1. Ordinary (and not so ordinary) pets can go on missions. I refer you to Absinthe from Trojie's missions.

2. Agents Miah and Cali's minis (and pet) spend most of their time finding new ways to disassemble PPC technology and tinker it into something else like a holodeck furniture generator thing. And also in making messes. I think it just varies writer to writer.

3. I think the mini has to be on an official list.

4. If those aren't defined yet, and you are the first one to write them, you get to pick.


Agents

1. Sometimes they do, there was an interlude released a few weeks ago, which dealt with an agent visiting home. I can't seem to find it listed on Current events right now or I'd link you to it.

2. I suppose it would depend on the particular agent, but I don't think so. Most of them recruited from fanfic were recruited from badfic that has been killed. Once it is killed it's not there to be gone back to, and most of them wouldn't want to try to visit a Sue infested place anyway. I know Agent Kelok sure wouldn't want to. Out of my agents, none are from World One, and half are confirmed to have no family.

3. I think a few do. According to the wiki, Foxglove not only maintains contact with her family, but also told them about the PPC, but I think this is probably very rare.

4. Again, possibly might depend on the particular agent. Time is not a normal thing in HQ. I'd say that time actually moves faster in World One than it does in HQ for a lot of agents. A lot of agents are still somewhere between 2006 and 2008 HQ time. When agents go on missions, even if months pass in the fic, they don't come back to starved minis and pets, which would say that they weren't actually gone all that long. It's one of those things kind of like getting from one place to another. It doesn't go in a straight line, and it isn't the same from day to day.