Even more than the other Histories, Origins was written to be an exploration of the nature of the PPC. I had to think a lot about what exactly the existence of plotholes implied - not to mention how to create them! A lot of the more fun parts to write were where something slotted in entirely by accident - the parts about Reality Rooms, for instance, weren't planned; I just realised I'd written a perfect explanation for them, and slotted them in.

I'm glad you liked Makes-Things - he was the character I was the most worried about messing up. I tried to use his brief appearances to look into both how awesome he is, and how he (started to) become the nervous wreck we know and love.

The Flowers, I confess, are one of my favourite aspects of the PPC. I've been writing stories from their POVs for a little while now, simply because they're so unusual that it's a voyage of discovery every time. I like to think they had character development through Origins, but I know for sure they had role development - I particularly enjoyed charting a career path for the Queen Anne's Lace that would take her to the Postal Department, while simultaneously making references to her eventual position in Bad Slash.

Anya appears again in Lofty Skies, so you haven't far to read to find her again. Elisabeth I deliberately didn't use again (other than moving her, off-screen, from DBS to DIC); all I know is that she's not around any more.

hS

All that's known so far is that Anya and Elisabeth were the former agent partners of Montgomery Osbert, back when Assassins worked in three-person teams, and they aren't currently involved in PPC affairs, since Osbert is the "oldest Agent currently active", though he's been part of Personnel ever since he got too old to actively go on missions. It's not known if they died, or retired, or went crazy, or what, but Osbert's the only one left, and he never mentions his partners.

There's good story potential behind that, actually. The first members of the Department of Mary Sues, back before the need for Departments existed, and it was just the Poppy taking a chance on three human interlopers. There's still a lot of ground to explore there.
There are also a few ideas I had about the Origin Civil Wars that this story stirred up, since there's still a lot of space for what the main government of Origin was doing, what happened on Origin after most of the Firstborn left to form the Organisation, and the like, which I think could also make a good story.

I think what I liked most about Origins was that, while it does make a good story in itself, it also creates numerous spaces that other stories could fit into, much like how PPC continuity works as a whole. I don't know if that was intentional, but if it was, it was brilliant.

Wait. I just realized something. If Makes-Things was with the PPC since the early days, even before any other humans, but Osbert has been there since the early 1980s(judging by the rough timelines I've found that may not be exact), how is Makes-Things still so young? I've seen Makes-Things described as appearing to be under thirty before, but the 1980s were themselves thirty years ago. Is there something he created that slows down his aging? Is he secretly a vampire? Has he actually died multiple times, and each time is reborn from a clone that retains the majority of his memories, Dune-style? Or has he perhaps modified his body to become an immortal heedra with Nausicaä-verse technology? I just don't know. There are so many answers to a confusing question.

I worked really hard on Origins over several months, so it's good to hear it paid off! (A fair amount of that was figuring out the plotholes - how they fitted together with Mary-Sues and Makes-Things' portals - so I'm really glad you liked that!). I did spend a lot of it chuckling to myself over 'Merry Pseudo', too.

I tried to make the Floating Hyacinth 'it' throughout - mostly for variety; I'm assuming it designated itself female later on. Unfortunately that one line slipped through. I've fixed it now.

hS

I read this story, and as far as I remember, it was by Huinesoron, labeled Prologue, and posted under Origins together with Origins: A Summary. Since its length and detail implied an Origins novel, it obviously had to be replaced by a new Prologue better fitting the Canterbury-like Tales of the Flowers.

But I hope it still exists and can be re-linked somewhere. Also, as Outhra points out, Origins “creates numerous spaces that other stories could fit into”, which may be written by Outhra, or Huinesoron, or anybody else.

So someday we may have The Lost Tales of Origin: What the Flowers didn’t tell Dafydd Illian, and in case of the Lost Prologue or stories written from the Garden’s point of view, couldn’t even have known in this detail.

HG, spending too much time on this board.

The '[So-and-so]'s Tale' format is straight from the Canterbury Tales, of course. Less obvious is that all the titles (Summoner, Shipman, etc etc) are the [So-and-so]'s who occupy that place in the original titles. These titles were chosen for their relevance to the chapter and the characters in it.

As far as I know, however, there's no correspondence between Origins and the narrative of the Canterbury Tales. By which I mean, any you do find are clearly me being really clever and aren't at all coincidence. ;)

hS

I've read up to the end of the Floating Hyacinth's tale, and I must admit that you seem to have the Flowers' characters down to a T.

One little problem I detected. In this "sentence":
Even the Hyacinth, untrained though it was, could feel the low-intensity mental signal the detector – now attached to a massive framework, like a free-standing doorway.
at least one word is missing; the sentence reads like a fragment.

Which word(s), ultimately only you know, but at least one word is missing in the clause before the dash. Perhaps that clause was supposed to read
could feel the low-intensity mental signal sent by the detector
or perhaps
could feel the low-intensity mental signal of the detector.