Subject: Scale of the PPC?
Author:
Posted on: 2008-12-23 17:44:00 UTC
How many Agents are there in HQ?
Judging by casualties sustained during invasions and the fairly high turn-over rate, there must be a lot. After all, there are hundreds of new badfics written every day in the English language alone. Also, a force of over 1000 (presumably Warrior) Mary Sues was quickly and efficiently routed despite the element of surprise and the OOC Spies.
Are all the human agents, specifically the ones from the 'real world', from this time? Are there any, say, from the Victorian era? Or from the Roman Empire?
Nume is from the 70s--not that it's terribly obvious.
Agent Suicide is ostensibly a historical figure from ancient Greece, though he comes most directly from the book "Gates of Fire."
Nurse Mirrad (who has yet to appear in a published story) is from the Babylon 5 universe, which means he sort of from the future.
I'm sure I remember reading about an agent from medieval times (or thereabouts) who had to adjust to all the technology, though I don't remember who that was.
~Neshomeh
It probably fluctuates. There could be a dozen Untanglers one day and a hundred the next without anyone actually joining or quitting, due to the shifts in time-space. Some may be present in the here-and-now more frequently than others--for example, Trojie and Pads exist far more than Nume and Ilraen do most of the time, and they exist more than someone like Head Nurse Suzine in FicPsych, who has a name but hasn't actually had any spoken dialogue (yet).
In the case of the Invasion, there were probably more existent agents due to the fact that the universe was paying attention to them. When the Invasion was over, they went back to not being particularly real.
That's how I think of it, anyway.
~Neshomeh
http://intragalacticcomic.com/
Could also explain the time fluctuations. I had time pass in HQ as roughly congruent to the real world, going by Laburnum's backstory, but that could also be explained by her portalling into the real world for short periods on a fairly frequent basis ...
And, considering the vagaries of fic-time, my Agents have existed anywhere from ten years to two. ^_^
The highest known room number in HQ (the Special Operations Room) is about 74.5 million. And the lowest is about -10. So there's quite a lot of space going around. But then we have the SO's statement to Jay and Acy that there are only a dozen Untanglers...
hS
After all, some buildings skip a 13th floor and skyscrapers have hidden floors for maintenance purposes.
Many elements of the PPC have been retconned or changed over time. My money's on the exact number being uncertain, with 75 million or so the absolute maximum possible. Still, several thousand at any one time makes the most time.