Subject: I think I see now what you meant with the "academy".
Author:
Posted on: 2014-04-12 01:07:00 UTC
It would make sense that your agent would need to learn new skills if she was going into the DMSEAR, instead of going into an Action Department. Any field agent should learn to at least use some sort of weapon or other offensive tool, but a DMSEAR Agent would need to study up on known Suvian properties and develop methods to scientifically utilize whatever comes their way. Field agents can be reckless without negative consequences, since they're supposed to be killing and destroying in their missions, but specific samples of certain Sue types can be rare, and the PPC's scientists would need to use what they have as efficiently as possible.
I think the reason why there's disparity in agent training, in-universe, is that some agents are recruited already possessing abilities that would let them perform well in missions, like magic or weapon proficiency or unusual powers, while other new recruits would need to have further instruction by the Agent Trainers in the Department of Personnel so that the newbies could to develop their skills, or to tag along as interns with experienced agents to find the ropes, or some third option for their specific case. (We know Agent Trainers exist, since Agent Training has been mentioned on occasion, they were the focus of one short-lived spin-off, and a few agents, such as Ilraen, have been said to become Agent Trainers in the future, but they haven't gotten a lot of attention, probably because they wouldn't provide more than a handful of story opportunities).
If you want to write DMSEAR stories, I personally would love to read them. We don't see a lot about the Infrastructure Departments, and that's a shame, because there are a lot of stories that could be told from their side. I don't know what purpose Murder would fulfill there, though, since his violent nature wouldn't exactly be conducive to scientific endeavors. Well, unless he worked in security, because then he could beat down Sues that escape from stasis or creatures that try to get into the lab, and guard the experiments to keep them from doing anything untoward. The DMSEAR might just contract a few DIA Officers to do that, but it's always good to have someone in-house alongside the external help to know what's going on and prioritize accordingly. Murder can't talk, so it would be a little difficult, but it wouldn't be PPC if it was easy.
One thing, though: is Murder his last name, or his first name? We already have a lot of agents with "action" names, like Suicide, Death, Heal, and Echo, so even if he doesn't have two names now, it would make him more distinct if he had two by the end. I think it would look better as a last name, but that's personal opinion, since I think "Murder Jones" or "Murder Simmons" or something like that would be just too silly.