Leaving aside questions of Should and Can

Out of curiosity... by DawnFire on 2013-11-06 16:11:00 UTC Reply

Would a day where everyone in the PPC becomes the food or drink they consume the most of constitute an emergency, or just a fun sort of idea like the Genderbend day?

(Everyone would be sentient, of course--otherwise this would be very boring--and people on missions may or may not be affected. Also, my headcanon for this is that most agents would become some form of bleeproduct).

Thoughts? Should this happen? Can this happen?

~DF

Well, that depends. by Huinesoron on 2013-11-06 17:00:00 UTC Reply

'PPC emergency' is an ill-defined term at best, since it basically depends on why it's being used. Pejoratively, 'emergency' can mean anything up to 'I don't think you should do this so I'll say it's an emergency because moratorium'. Originally (and I think the term was my fault), it meant 'anything I want to put on the Catastrophe Theory chart to prove that the PPC would explode in'... I think it was 2012, actually. ;) So the 'Tangled Webs fiasco' is on there (a large IC mission which the rest of the PPC ignored), as is the Assimilation Crisis (about a dozen agents involved in that one)... but so is the Crashing Down invasion.

If I was making the graph again, I'd probably include the Great Genderbend, as well as the Door to the Future RP - because they're moderately big events, and because Dafydd and Constance would be very upset to hear the Genderbend was 'fun'.

Basically, this answer boils down to: is Pluto a planet? If so, so is Ceres. Is the Genderbend an Emergency? If so, so is your idea.

hS

PS: The thing about capital-E Emergencies is that they can be kind of cool - if they a) don't impact absolutely everyone (so people can opt out of it having happened to their agents) and b) don't make permanent changes to things anyone cares about (Hi, Makes-Things!). Oh, and c), aren't all role-plays.

My point here is, if (say) someone wants to write about, or even just mention in passing, the time the Department of Out-Of-Character Hobbits were possessed en-masse by robot ghosts and had to be forcibly restrained by a coalition of DAVD and DIAU agents before they could reach the DoDAEG and steal Tolkien's shoes (or whatever) - brilliant! That's clearly an Emergency (the shoes must be preserved!), but it also doesn't impact anyone who doesn't want it to.

But if that was made into an RP, you'd have the inevitable person who takes their possessed DOOCH agent into the air shafts and drops a bomb into the cafeteria, and then someone would write an announcement by the SO that the department was shut down, and it would all be Big Seriousness, and everyone would have to acknowledge it or get out of sync with the rest of the PPC (which we all know is an awful crime which must be punished by public mockery) - and that would be the sort of thing we put a moratorium on.

... my post-script is longer than my script, isn't it? I don't even know where I was going with it any more...

hS

Another example is the Blackout. by Sergio Turbo on 2013-11-06 21:15:00 UTC Reply

It was an emergency (massive power, shields and portal failure,), but it didn't change anything in "canon" and everyone not interested in taking part can just ignore it (by either claiming that their Agents were on a mission during all the Blackout timespan or that they just decided to take advantage of the disruption to get some hours of good sleep. Or simply skipping it entirely in their spinoff)

In fact, my next big project, Blank Sprite, can be considered an emergency - however, it affects direcly very few characers (only my Agents PPC-wise) to the point that the whole PPC is pretty much unaware that such a thing ever happened.

Leaving aside questions of Should and Can by Phobos on 2013-11-06 16:54:00 UTC Reply

I don't think it would be an emergency. It seems like the kind of thing one could easily opt out of. One reason the Emergencies were so problematic was the fact that they were so very to ignore. It would be a temporary thing, and probably would not threaten to destroy the PPC or Multiverse. So, thinking about it more as a Genderbending incident seems about right, to me.

Some questions you will want to answer, for yourself, before/if this happens are:

1) What is the mechanism of the change? (A Breaking Bad fic I saw recently used magical pot to turn a character into a child...I wouldn't recommend it.)

2) Why does it change them into the food they eat most often? Why not a random food? Why not cats?

3) Why would it affect Agents in other worlds (on missions, for example)?

Just some things to think about.

-Phobos

Hi-hee, cats by Desdendelle on 2013-11-06 21:24:00 UTC Reply

I approve the cat idea. That has fun potential. Especially with the hisses. And the balls of yarn.

But would... by Huinesoron on 2013-11-07 16:57:00 UTC Reply

... Agent Mmrrowl turn into a human? Because I don't think (s)he'd like that very much.

hS

(I have no idea whether Mmrrowl is male or female - I may not actually have said, that black cat is a very minor character)

Agent Mmrrowl? (nm) by Ekyl on 2013-11-07 21:07:00 UTC Reply

A black cat. by Huinesoron on 2013-11-07 21:34:00 UTC Reply

Was rather put out when the Black Cats invaded, all things considered. Was part of Vemi, Jared, and Morgan's team who took out the Scouts.

hS

Clearly I'm old and forgot all about her! by Ekyl on 2013-11-07 22:15:00 UTC Reply

Though it's quite the (actual) cat who would actually do her job instead of sleeping on the console all day or something. Or who would acknowledge the Flowers are her boss. :P

(Kidding, cats are pretty cool.)

Nope. by Desdendelle on 2013-11-07 19:40:00 UTC Reply

S/he would turn into a genetically-engineered super-kitten from Xiaolin Showdown. :P