Subject: Good Idea
Author:
Posted on: 2015-04-24 00:48:00 UTC
This is what happens when quality control slacks off.
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I need a Deus Ex Machina! by
on 2015-04-23 01:43:00 UTC
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So, I'm trying to write out some agents and such and I need a contrived conveniant way for a Yoshi to get to HQ. What? It would be HUBRIS if one of my agents wasn't one!
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Warp Pipe? Warp Whistle? by
on 2015-04-23 14:22:00 UTC
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The Mario worlds are full of ways of moving from one world to another. Using one of them would be thematically appropriate.
-Phobos -
How about a refugee? by
on 2015-04-23 13:50:00 UTC
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Your other agent could have rescued your Yoshi from a badfic offscreen before your first mission.
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So: NOT plotholes. by
on 2015-04-23 09:03:00 UTC
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They've been done a lot. ^^
-Leaflets. <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1EBLBndKzvFSIlsExiETAZj9Bgm9-oY5Uc5uNryP88">Agent Constance was given one by her father (who was an author who heard about the PPC); one assumes he wrote in and asked for a brochure, which must have caused quite the kerfluffle.
-OFU graduate. Can Yoshis read and write? Do they know of any fiction at all? If so, your Yoshi could have been a student at an OFU. <a href="http://plotprotectors.tripod.com/JAAKSONS/ch1laurel.html">Nenya and Rosie seem to have gotten the address for the PPC from OFUM.
-Freelance Intelligence work. Send the PPC a badfic of interest, and they might offer you a job. It happened to Architeuthis, and something similar happened to Techno-Dann. Again, this obviously requires knowledge of fanfic.
-Badfic bit part. Can't even count the number of times that's happened.
-Picked up by Intelligence while they're surveying a continuum. This happened to Dassie Hyrax.
-Found a physical door into HQ, like Imbolc, Tango, and Blue. A Yoshi has loads of excuses to be wandering around abandoned castles and the like.
-Glitch. Sort of a plothole, but from the other side: what if a Yoshi is caught in a game glitch? One theory for the PPC's nature is that it occupies the space between canon dimensions, so if a glitch dropped the Yoshi right out of the game, PPC HQ is a good place for it to end up.
-Teleport gone wrong. You can't seriously tell me that no game ever has featured both Yoshis and teleportation.
-Followed an agent home. This is essentially 'badfic bit part' without the requirement for them to be from a badfic. It's not like portals filter out who goes through them!
-Taken home by an agent as a souvenir, in egg form, and then raised in the Nursery. It'd be nice to see a second-generation agent (assuming it saw its abductor as a parent-figure), and to hear from someone raised in the Nursery.
Etcetera, etcetera, etcetera. There's not very many limits on what you can do.
hS -
everyone else has already said it but... plotholes. (nm) by
on 2015-04-23 03:17:00 UTC
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All of my agents fell through plotholes. by
on 2015-04-23 02:02:00 UTC
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Valon, Kala and Gabby were the most straightforward about it; they were just walking around when suddenly big silvery hole (in Kala's case, right above Makes-Things).
I was a little more elaborate with Chakkik's story, though. Basically, someone playing Secret of Mana failed to correctly perform the Ninth Sword Orb glitch, and one of the side-effects of doing this incorrectly is completely and utterly ruining your copy of the game. Chakkik got shunted through a plothole while (from his perspective) his world was torn apart.
I'll call plagiarism if you say that your guy came from a glitched copy of Yoshi's Island, though. :P -
Actually, I had an idea... by
on 2015-04-23 02:41:00 UTC
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My agent was abandoned for an extra jump, fell into a pit with a plothole in it, (contrived coincidences FTW!) and got dumped in HQ.
And an agent, somewhere, was hit in the head by a stray parinthetical. -
So, it will be... by
on 2015-04-23 02:48:00 UTC
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...something like this? (I was looking for chance to use that video XD)
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You don't need a Deus Ex Machina. by
on 2015-04-23 01:48:00 UTC
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Just a plothole. That's how just about everyone arrives. They're all over the multiverse; even World One isn't safe. Agent Yoshi was probably walking along one day when he fell through one.
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ErÂ… by
on 2015-04-23 02:32:00 UTC
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A plothole is a deus ex machina. That is its function in PPC Origin Tales - an otherworldly device with no relevance other than to further the plot. Because origin/intro stories tend to be written without much more of a goal than introducing a new character to the PPC HQ, that's not usually a problem. But personally, I rather dislike them, on account of I'm a curmudgeon who thinks we could stand to be more creative in our recruitment stories. There have been agents who filled out job applications; yours could stumble into an arcane website, a la Miss Cam, or accidentally interrupt a team of assassins on the hunt, or make their way into L-space while working on a last-minute book report, or any number of methods.
You don't need a Deus ex Machina. There's nothing wrong with using one, plotholes included, but you don't absolutely need one. -
That is... a very good point, actually. by
on 2015-04-23 02:45:00 UTC
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I guess I never really thought about the actual-hole plotholes as Dei Ex Machina due to their commonality.
Funny enough, Randa's recruitment (which I really ought to consider showing one of these days) involved a newly-recruited Rina (who did arrive via either plothole or L-space; it's not known for sure) falling through a portal and landing on her in bed. She got the old-fashioned word of mouth recruitment. :) -
That was probably an awkward situation. (nm) by
on 2015-04-23 02:48:00 UTC
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Actually, I don't think so. by
on 2015-04-23 02:58:00 UTC
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If we're to judge by my and Randa's IRL friendship, Rina and Randa would have been friends for... wait, barely a year and a half? O_o I could have sworn it was longer. Never mind, it probably was awkward. XD Which is, like I said, another reason to write the story of how they got recruited.
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What about what I did with Chakkik? by
on 2015-04-23 02:34:00 UTC
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The plothole is still in play... but for him, it was either that or get killed by the glitchpocalypse.
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Yup. by
on 2015-04-23 05:37:00 UTC
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Quoting from the definition: The term has evolved to mean a plot device whereby a seemingly unsolvable problem* is suddenly and abruptly resolved by the contrived and unexpected intervention of some new event, character, ability or object.
*ie., how to get a not-yet-discovered agent into HQ, or how to avoid killing a character. -
Agreed. by
on 2015-04-23 01:58:00 UTC
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That's pretty much how I ended up in HQ as well. Though in my case the plot hole was caused by a logical inconsistency (Skarmory weren't native to Unova, my region of birth, before Black 2 and White 2).
Alternatively, you could also have the character be bit in a badfic who was found by some agents and recruited. A lot of other agents I know of, including my adopted sister and one of my current partners, were introduced to the PPC in this way. -
'kay by
on 2015-04-23 02:00:00 UTC
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Tkank you!
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((Whoops, Thank not 'tkank')) by
on 2015-04-23 02:34:00 UTC
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Wait... So I could fall into a plot hole anytime? That's (somehow) the most awesome and simultaneously terrifying thing I have ever thought of.
Pertaining to this at least.
((This is how you do OOC right?)) -
*cuddles mini-Boarder* You want him? (nm) by
on 2015-04-23 02:40:00 UTC
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Whoops! by
on 2015-04-23 02:44:00 UTC
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Sure why not! What's the worst that can happen? *cough* I really should bother to log in, but my phone dislikes it for some reason.
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It's actually recommended you not log in. (nm) by
on 2015-04-23 02:58:00 UTC
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Huh? Why? (nm) by
on 2015-04-23 03:03:00 UTC
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It doesn't work all that well. by
on 2015-04-23 11:55:00 UTC
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The Board has a tendency to drop login data quite quickly; if you rely on being logged in to enter your name, you're likely to lose it quite often.
(Since it's been a while since I tried, experiment time! I have just logged in. Let's see if it lasts.)
hS -
First result: by
on 2015-04-23 11:57:00 UTC
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Closing the browser and immediately reopening it. Seems to be logged in at this end; will my name appear on the Board?
hS -
I have been logged in ever since I join the board. (nm) by
on 2015-04-23 13:27:00 UTC
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Yes, and look what happened to you! by
on 2015-04-23 13:35:00 UTC
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The blasted thing randomly changed your name! ^_~
hS -
I changed it. :| (nm) by
on 2015-04-23 13:42:00 UTC
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You mean it's taken you over?! by
on 2015-04-23 13:59:00 UTC
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Resist, Omega! You can break free of YourWebApps' control. Don't let them eat your soul!
hS -
NOOOOOOOOOO! (nm) by
on 2015-04-23 22:14:00 UTC
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