Subject: Thank you for the advice
Author:
Posted on: 2014-04-30 14:28:00 UTC
I appreciate the advice here. I'll be sure to keep it in mind. And I'll be sure to avoid the torture. That will be more for the darker parts of Imaginations Collide, which I may or may not have happen often, depending on the Mary Sue in question.
If I get permission to begin missions, I am thinking of going into the Department of Mary Sues. Why? Well, for two reasons. 1) I have had the misfortune of coming across (and quite possibly creating a few) Mary Sues during my fanfiction "career". 2) The flash badge for the Department of Mary Sues is a potted cactus, and I am from Texas where cactus is our native plany.
Before I start, however, I have a few questions to ask before I begin making plans.
1) When I create Agents, do I have to go into any great detail regarding where they came from? I have several possible Agents already planned out, and most of them come from fics with no names.
2) Are the Department of Mary Sues and the Department of Mary Sue Experimentation and Research known to work together? Because one of my ideas involves a member of the DMSEandR providing technical assistance and giving strategic advice, as well as analytical assistance into the mission's fic.
3) Another idea I have for an Agent for the DMS is a semi - reformed Mary Sue assassin. I want to satirize the concept of Mary Sues, and yet still make her a three dimensional character who can carry into the Imaginations Collide series I am working on.
So the question for point 3 is can I do that? Is it possible to make a Mary Sue be an obvious Mary Sue, and yet still make her a three dimensional character?
4) So torture is bad. Okay. But what about psychological torture? What about playing with the target's head, using what the Agents found out about them to manipulate the target Sue into accidentally killing herself? I'm sure the whole "Mary-Sue-accidentally-kills-herself" thing has been used before, but what if it were portrayed in a slightly darker way? Now, not too dark, obviously, but with a lean that is more toward the depravity of the author of the mission than is traditional?
Those are all my random questions for today. If anyone has answers to only some of these, go ahead and just focus on one. Whatever floats the boat best. Or, you could just go all out and answer them all.
Cheers! (As my Scottish grandmother says.)
1) When I asked for Permission, I wrote about a hundred words about each of my agents - and since I got it I assume that's OK. Agents can come from pretty much everywhere.
2) AFAIK DMSE&R are more 'dissect those weird(er) Sues the Agents throw our way' and less mission control, but you can have a Voice With an Internet Connection - just have a character stay in the RC and communicate with the Agents somehow. There are other possibilities.
3) I think this answers the question pretty well.
4) Syllogism time!
  a) Torture is bad.
  b) Mental torture is a sort of torture.
Therefore,
  c) Mental torture is also bad.
1) So, the fics of origin don't have to actually exist, and I don't necessarily have to go into much detail about them? Okay, cool.
2) I'm sure I can think of something. What I have in mind as of yet is a scientist who had been in field work for many years who wants to find a way to break a Mary Sue and make them less "speshiul", or whatever the phrase is. He captures one and somehow successfully does this, but he can't remember how he did this. So he needs to find another test subject. Meanwhile, the Sue he had manages to turn has to be under constant monitoring. And since the scientist knows so much about Mary Sues, he provides Intel on the target via walkie talkie, or the RC communicator, or something like that.
3) Alright, sweet! Yeah!
4) Alright, then it will be more like pranks, or something more innocent like that. I'll come up with something. Something without any kind of torture.
I recall that in the Original Series, Jay and Acacia put sharp things (e.g., pine needles) in Sues' sleeping bags and shoes. And I remember that for one particularly egregious DTE-killed Stu, an agent actually pelted him once or twice with stray punctuation.
*checks the story*
Oops, it was actually paper airplanes.
Actually, Cyba did throw a question-mark in his direction as well. However, she did it in part one (http://cyba-zero.livejournal.com/2108.html) of the mission - and missed.
I'll keep these things in mind... And I'll read more of the original series. I only read a few of them.
Good advice. Thanks!
If you do, you give them the potential to angst, and that just makes them stronger. Bad idea!
However...
It's entirely warranted to make them look utterly silly, especially when your agents are particularly annoyed and want revenge. That's the one thing they can't stand, you see--they need to be speshul and perfect and have the story revolve around them. Relegate them to comic relief, and your agents might get some much-needed laughter from the situation.
It's not a routine part of a mission, and agents aren't really supposed to interact with the Sue any more than they have to. Still, agents do a lot of things they aren't technically supposed to do--like taking photo albums full of shots of Rivendell, for example--and this is one of the more harmless things they might do. If, on occasion, an agent decides that a Sue's urple ball gown needs a few stinging nettles woven into it... well, the Flowers aren't going to bother with disciplining them for that. Agents need to let off steam once in a while.
It is a good idea to have your agents do more than just watch the fic and vomit at the appropriate moments. It's not an MST; it's a mission. Get the agents involved, play off the crazy in the fic, and turn it into a proper story.
I appreciate the advice here. I'll be sure to keep it in mind. And I'll be sure to avoid the torture. That will be more for the darker parts of Imaginations Collide, which I may or may not have happen often, depending on the Mary Sue in question.
I forgot to ask. Have there been any missions to My Immortal? I can't find them anywhere, so I am wondering if there have been any.
Oh, okay. So... I see that it has been claimed and a mission is forthcoming. So I take back what I said.