Subject: Replicators, you say?
Author:
Posted on: 2013-10-10 16:12:00 UTC
I'm intrigued by these 'replicators' that you mentioned, and I believe earlier you also mentioned 'agent salaries' - now I must admit, I'm not entirely familiar with the concept of a salary, but after having it explained to me I can't help but wonder if these two things could be combined in some way...
Or the pool, as it were.
Who in the PPC listens to the Night Vale podcasts? And of you all, who's noticed how similar Night Vale is to the PPC? DawnFire and I are in the middle of a discussion about how they are so alike. And come on: the PPC is run by telepathic plants that sometimes wear clothing. Tell me that isn't Night Vale-esque. Our lack of spacial and temporal continuity is another point towards the PPC and Night Vale being somehow related. Doesn't "you have to not know where you are to get to where you're going" sound very Night Vale? And hey, I'm sure there are plenty of PPCers who wouldn't mind flying around in green helicopters with diving birds of prey painted on the sides...
Am I trying to imply anything here? Nope, not at all.
The 'real world' AU.
DS9 as Night Vale, a weird, isolated town where crazy things happen and everyone is neurotic.
With Garak as Cecil and Bashir as Carlos.
And Gul Dukat as Steve Carlsburg. And the Dominion as Desert Bluffs.
And security personell as radio station interns. And Odo as the Sheriff of the Secret Police. Because Sheriff Odo has an awesome ring to it.
Of course, there's probably no point in posting this seeing as I don't think there are many DS9 fans on the Board, but hey. It makes sense to me. Did I mention it's almost midnight right now?
Hmm... Interesting point. However, I doubt the Flowers have the budget to outfit their entire secret police with black leather baclavas. They'd probably just give out some black cloth stuff and tell secret police to improvise.
They were disbanded months ago, just after that-
[FLASH]
Uh... what was I talking about again?
"out of business" broke.
The PPC doesn't actually need to spend money on anything other than agent salaries. We know from numerous stories that the Cafeteria feeds people whatever gets brought in from the Multiverse; we know that electricity is free (from dead people), and water - well, if Makes-Things hasn't stuck a pipe into the bottom of a lake somewhere, he's not doing his job.
The PPC is in the unique position of being able to steal absolutely everything from the Multiverse, for free, usually through stories which are later killed (and so nothing actually goes missing) - everything except expertise, which consists of drastically-underpaid agents. It's not like the Flowers are out to make a profit, after all...
hS
"We could probably get that many balaclavas by just sticking one in a replicator" anyway. An interesting point, though what about stuff like maintenance costs, building up the New Cal city, etc.?
And of course the fact the PPC can just take everything from everywhere does raise the question of why Finance even exists, except for the purposes of (not-very-highly) paying the agents. Which is fair enough on its own, nobody likes working for free, but to get back to my last post I think the point I was making essentially boiled down to "there's no reason the Flowers wouldn't be able to afford - or simply take/replicate - that many ski masks if they wanted them".
Are you expecting them to pay for the people doing the work (that's Building Maintenance)? For the materials (such as Generic Surface and concrit, easily obtainable in badfic)? For the tools (which Makes-Things presumably makes or accumulates - and again, replicators)? There's nowhere for the money to go.
Finance exists because everyone likes an archive, the Flowers included. They may not have much of a budget, but they'll be compost before they stop trying to hide things in it. ;)
hS
I'm intrigued by these 'replicators' that you mentioned, and I believe earlier you also mentioned 'agent salaries' - now I must admit, I'm not entirely familiar with the concept of a salary, but after having it explained to me I can't help but wonder if these two things could be combined in some way...
Okay, I guess I need to talk to the Nightshade - or maybe Hornbeam? Or, er...
No, I'm stumped. Who does have the responsibility for keeping the network separated from this 'PPC Board' these days?
me i thought it would be amusing
... and now creepy messages are appearing as I type. Okay, I'm... I'm going back to painting walls now.
~N~
Well, given that it's sort of a security issue... maybe the Tiger Lily?
Wait, am I gonna get in trouble for this?
~Definitely-not-Skeet (who is innocent of all possible misdemeanours)
I suppose we could go about assuming the Flowers just like money for the sake of having it in their lairs, a la Smaug the Magnificent, but somehow that doesn't quite fit. ;)
a World One business that DOES need money...)
She talks about them a lot, so I sort of know what you're talking about. I'm actually sort of in the process of getting her into the PPC. I might just have to listen to them now, though.
-Aila
It's one of my favorite things to listen to out there.