Agent training...

Bucketload of questions and questionablefic by Wide Eyed Idealist on 2010-03-18 20:20:00 UTC Reply

Okay. As a perpetual questioner...

1. Is this badfic? A friend of mine likes it. I say sic the Department of Implausible Crossovers on it.
http://www.fanfiction.net/s/5551303/1/OfSleepersShynessandMusic_Motifs

2. I've seen a lot of griping about in-text author's notes; what's the official standpoint on notes that are very clearly separated from the text of the story? I like them - they're sort of like those DVD extras in my mind.

3. I don't have permission and will be lacking in both permission and time for a bit, but would it be okay for me to post some characters anyway in case of roleplays and so I'll have plenty of time to work out all the problems?

4. This last one is more due to my love for weird hypothetical questions, but can anyone think of situations when things that are normally causes might not be? Like, if you were writing from the perspective of a character, and that character canonically had bad grammar, you'd have to. Same goes for urple prose.

So, uh, yeah.

Some answers. by Neshomeh on 2010-03-19 00:57:00 UTC Reply
1. I don't know anything about Final Fantasy before or after VII, so can't help here.
  
  2. I don't know if there is an official stance, but certainly the prevailing stance is that in-story author's notes distract from the story and are annoying; the place for author's notes is at the beginning or the end of the story/chapter, not within.
  
  3. If you mean the wiki, then no, we prefer people to wait until they have Permission to post their characters. However, there's nothing stopping you from putting them somewhere else, such as wherever you intend to post your missions when you DO have Permission. {= )
  
  4. Assuming by "causes" you meant "charges"... But yeah, there are plenty of circumstances like that. It's all about whether the fanfic violates the canon, and how badly. If a character speaking with bad grammar is canon, then it wouldn't be a charge in a fanfic (unless the ENTIRE FIC had horrible grammar).
  
  5. Agent training: possibly one of the most confused issues we have. Technically the answer is "yes," but the fact is that most agents never get it. Mostly they're just assigned a partner and learn everything from them, because if they don't they'll die horribly. For more on this, see the Manual, Volume 1, Chapter 5.
  
  Hope that helps. {= )
  
  ~Neshomeh

Re: Some answers. by Wide Eyed Idealist on 2010-03-19 22:58:00 UTC Reply

I meant at the beginning and end - forgive the ambiguous phrasing. And, since I'm apparently really bad at phrasing - no, I meant on the board, to see what the problems are. Thanks for the help, though - a ton.

And while I'm asking questions... by Wide Eyed Idealist on 2010-03-18 23:34:00 UTC Reply

How do agents get trained? Is there a section of HQ that's reserved for it? Class-like things?

In general : not well enough. by gattsuru on 2010-03-19 22:56:00 UTC Reply

The Nursery has classes for rescued young bit characters, ex-Mary Sues, and badfic offspring both conventional and mpreg. Even post-Nursery Graduation, though, the characters don't tend to be particularly prepared for whatever Department or Division that they are assigned to -- naive may be a bit on the less descriptive side. Agent Oscar came out with a decent grasp of Sindarin, but was surprised that a Suethor would ignore that whole "elves die when raped" thing Tolkien had going on. Marsha's last mission still had her getting a hold of the concept of knees. That might be less an official Nursery Policy, and more just the unofficial policy that a several-ton dinosaur can take whatever disguise (or non-disguise) it wants.

Some rescued adult bit characters often have to spend some time in FicPsych. Neshomeh's work with Agent Ilraen is the most detailed example I've see. You might or might not consider this training, but it can include some technical knowledge, combat training, or other information if those would be part of a normal life experience for someone with the potential Agent's species and cultural background.

Stormsong and Skyfire mentioned at least some hologram training missions. It's not clear if these are typical -- the Queen Anne's Lace is a little kinder to 'her' Agents than the Marquis de Sod or other Flower Heads treat everyone -- but they don't seem commonly described.

Others pretty much just get dumped immediately on another Agent, and this seems the most common path. Agent Ranger spent a half hour in the Department of Personnel dealing with paperwork, got partnered up with someone, and went speeding on his way.

And yet others don't get even that : Agents JulyFlame and Library only had a copy of the manual. They were surprised by the [BEEEEEP] and didn't quite get the hang of the Disguise Generator for quite a long time.
Agent training... by Cassie Cameron-Young on 2010-03-19 01:35:00 UTC Reply

It's rather haphazard, really. It ranges from "here is sword, stick this end in Sue after reading charges" to thorough, intense training that doesn't let any recruits go until they can handle missions confidently and carefully.

Likely depends on what the agents can already do. by Laburnum on 2010-03-19 11:55:00 UTC Reply

e.g. S&S and Redd were perfectly competent with weaponry, but were effectively illiterate, unfamiliar with anything remotely technological, and still weirded out by humans, so they needed some more in-depth help.

Organization? Feh. :P by Makari on 2010-03-19 00:37:00 UTC Reply

Direct quote from the wiki:
"Health and Safety consists of giving new agents a few minutes training with their shiny new weaponry before throwing them at, for instance, rampaging Jedi/Amazon Sues."

...so make of that what you will.
I do know that the Nursery has a day-care-type-thing which trains the older kids up a bit, but beyond that... Well, I don't think there's too much in the way of official training. Mostly the veterans teach the newbies in a completely informal manner, often out on missions, IIRC.

Your other questions I am not so certain on, sorry.