(02-26-2018, 05:27 PM)Dartz Wrote: Which begs the question, Why not change everything else to suit the visitors then?

(02-26-2018, 04:59 PM)Black Aeronaut Wrote: Hmmmm....  But the canal system as it is now seems... anemic...

Okay, so here's a thought.  The fun part about the Metacontinuity is that given its very nature, it's pretty maleable.  So in reaction to their arrival, Venis is suddenly like as if none of the canals had ever been filled in, and that they've been meticulously preserved and maintained by the residences and local businesses.

And nobody thinks its strange at all, because it's always been that way... Nobody except the Building Managers.  

Thoughts?

Wikipedia on Abbot Kinney Wrote:In the urban fantasy / alternate history novel, California Bones (Tor Books, June 2014), by Greg van Eekhout, Abbot Kinney's Venetian experiment grew to encompass all of Los Angeles, taking the place of what might otherwise have become L.A.'s metropolitan roads, becoming part of a hydraulic empire overseen by an immortal William Mulholland.

Dartz Wrote:Which begs the question, Why not change everything else to suit the visitors then?

(02-27-2018, 12:31 AM)Labster Wrote: ...
Hmmmm.

Can I borrow Cinder for a while?

(03-12-2018, 04:27 PM)Dartz Wrote: ......  Okay, maybe that's just a bit too dark. But only for the sheer amusement of him meeting probably the 6 people on the planet who would look at him as 'Why are we supposed to do that anyway', and walk off?

Spoiler

Usagi is in a bit of a funk, because she misses her family and friends... and Mamoru. Especially Mamoru. Everybody else convinces her to attend the party anyway - they even choose her costume for her. (need a costume idea here) Meanwhile, HAL9000 has tracked down Mamoru, Chibi-Usa, Luna, and Artemis, and has let SI-Rob know. Si-Rob contacts SI-Black Aeronaut, the two of us invite Mamoru &c to the party, and strongly suggest he wear a particular costume. (need a costume idea here - it has to be in a set with Usagi's costume) The idea is to let them meet at the party and see how long it takes for them to realize who each other are. Of course, they recognize each other immediately. Cue them dancing through the night to the music of 33-Stars.

Meanwhile, SI-Rob discovers that despite the filters on the apartment's internet connection, the Railgun girls have discovered and read online copies/translations of the "Certain Magical Index" novels. (This was hinted at in my most recent side-story, when Kazaki was shown to be using wi-fi hotspots and had casually mentioned the existence of the novels to Rin.) Thus, everybody knows about what SI-Rob, Mikoto, Usagi, and Washuu-chan were trying to keep secret about Academy City. Kuroko's reaction to the Mikoto Sisters is not what everyone expects - they may be Mikoto's clones, but only onee-sama is onee-sama so Kuroko won't be chasing after any of them.

(03-18-2018, 10:21 AM)robkelk Wrote: I'm willing to wait for a while before introducing Kilgrave. Dartz, it was your idea to begin with, so you should have a say in this decision.

As for the NextGen bridge crew - how did they get here? Is there a starship in orbit, did a runabout fall through a wormhole and crash someplace, was there a transporter (or holodeck) malfunction, did Q wave his hand, or something else? Answering this will tell us what resources they have available to them.

Spoiler

How about we do the costumes from the Eternal Ball that Gareth trapped Sarah in during the events of the movie, Labyrinth?  

(03-18-2018, 06:21 PM)Black Aeronaut Wrote: As for your plans, Rob....  Heeee....

Spoiler

How about we do the costumes from the Eternal Ball that Gareth trapped Sarah in during the events of the movie, Labyrinth?  

/me starts humming "Magic Dance" for reasons that are completely unrelated to spoilers.

(03-18-2018, 06:21 PM)Black Aeronaut Wrote: That said, one of the Season 2 elements I would like to has showing up from the get-go would be the actual Galaxy Express 999, complete with the Conductor and Claire, and passengers-for-life and adventurers Tetsuo and Maetel.  This would provide much needed interstellar transportation for those who don't have such and can't bum a ride off someone else.

(03-18-2018, 07:26 PM)Dartz Wrote: I amn't sure we can ever get to season 2.  At the rate I work I'm still doing the intro  to the first episode of season one.

I liked Kilgrave as an idea because, he's completely impotent against the girls to his galling surprise and - at least re-using a lot of my YT2032 notes - the girls have somewhat similar ability, and have used it. It has also backfired on them. He's a natural opposite to the girls - and he hasn't learned the sudo command yet, so his orders for a sandwich go unfulfilled.

33-Stars is still just an amateur band that is punching above their weight for the point their in in their careers. They're a metal band - but they're also covering some pretty esoteric things in a 'metal' format, according to the requests from youtube.

In this case, Meg is not the house manager. Data is.

(03-18-2018, 07:38 PM)Labster Wrote: /me starts humming "Magic Dance" for reasons that are completely unrelated to spoilers.

My next group is arriving on a vehicle too, but it kind of stretches the definitions of both of "magic" and "vehicle".  I've been using fey as psychopomps (for lack of a better word), because I'm assuming they better than most will feel the instability in the multiverse, and know the ways across it to the island of stability.  So that includes characters like Cait Sìth, Elias Ainsworth, Chiyo-chichi, and eventually Akari Mizunashi.  There's no reason to think that the goddesses are the only players in interdimensional transport.  Why not throw Oberon and Titania in the mix too?

And also, as a writer, "they just appear" seems a little deus ex machina to me, and while it's an acceptable unicorn in the garden, it's more interesting to me to have some sort of cause and effect.  Team Cardcaptor is just going to show up in Los Angeles, with no vehicle.  But they were probably doing something magical at the time that weakened the fabric of their home universe, and once I figure out what that is, I'm planning on that being something of a "cause".  Just a way of changing "and they appear" to "therefore they appear".

I'll try to post very soon, but my dayjob has been really busy the last two weeks.  Microsoft is a pretty demanding client -- not in a bad way, but more in forcing us to deal with the problems we should have fixed years ago.  And I need to make sure that I don't get too far ahead of my own story.  I have chapter 1 published, 3 and 4 are ready, but chapter 2 has a lot of holes, and just places where I need to decide if showing is too boring, and I need to tell instead.  It's hard, because sometimes nothing wants to come out, and then other times I'll start writing a scene, and more unplanned scenes naturally flow from the way the first one turned out.  Farce is my favorite genre, so I gotta ride the jokes to see if the bloom into something better (or mercilessly cut them if they're useless).

Oh, and if anyone can come up with an excuse for why Cinder Fall would visit and cause trouble in Venice/Santa Monica/West L.A., let me know.  I only have the barest hint of an idea, but I do need her presence for the undines.

And here I go off on a tangent...

It won't be so bad for a lot of people.  For example, in regards to the Tenchi group, the Empire of Jyurai will eventually be showing up again.  And so will the Masaki estate itself in Okayama.  But it will be right on the edges of Tokyo-3.  And the United Federation of Planets  would very dearly like to speak with the Empire of Jyurai about working out a mutually beneficial arrangement while also repelling the invasion of the Gamilons.  And a bunch of rag-tag ships claiming that Earth is their 13th Colony has just shown up on their doorstep with a race of genocidal machine intelligences hot on their heels isn't doing anyone any favors in the short term.  And the matter with the Galactic Empire is a worrying one - suddenly Humans at long last have a homeworld, and Vader's flagship, The Executor, showing up in Sol System, ostensibly to assist with the defense against the invaders, is not allaying any fears.  But to Vader's credit, they are helping.  For now.

(03-18-2018, 07:56 PM)robkelk Wrote:

(03-18-2018, 06:21 PM)Black Aeronaut Wrote: That said, one of the Season 2 elements I would like to has showing up from the get-go would be the actual Galaxy Express 999, complete with the Conductor and Claire, and passengers-for-life and adventurers Tetsuo and Maetel.  This would provide much needed interstellar transportation for those who don't have such and can't bum a ride off someone else.

I skipped over this because I expected Labster to comment on it. He did mention in-story that the Galaxy Express was the train that brought the Aria girls to the Metacontinuity. If we're going to have the 999, let's use it to good effect in the stories.

(And why stop at one train? I'm currently re-reading Raising Steam as my go-to-sleep book, and it's becoming my personal head-canon that - to use Bob's terms from the Drunkard's Walk - Iron Girder is the Discworld's incarnation of the Power that in another universe is the Starlight Express.)

(03-18-2018, 10:37 PM)Labster Wrote: Oh, forgot to comment on it.  I was thinking of using Starlight Express too, because why not have another weird train.  If we want to have Tetsuro and Maetel, then maybe I need to retcon which engine brought the Aria cast in.  Though it should probably be an engine from the age of steam, just to get that retro feel.  Hard to get that from a diesel.  Possibly I should use the 888 instead?

Spoiler

So you all are right, the canals in Venice are somewhat anemic compared to Venezia.  Increasing them back to their historical range would make things a little more hospitable for my undines.  Though Marina del Rey is also available for tours.

So in my approach to writing, I try to not change too much.  I'm ok with fudging weather or even moon phases for drama.  If things are getting in my way, it's a challenge to be solved -- in slice of life, you gotta really look for conflict-like things.  I write by just poking at my environment with questions until something shakes out.  How does it look?  Who wants to talk?  How does it work?  Those kind of questions.

The idea went like this.  Because of <TBD> Cinder Fall comes to visit Venice and ends up lighting a bunch of stuff on fire.  All very pro forma, mu ha ha etc.  The only characters I got capable of doing anything are Sakura and Shaoran.  Shaoran is wind/lightning magic, so not very effective against the Fall Maiden*, except as a fighter.  Sakura tries to fight the fire with Watery, but this is also not very effective because Cinder's mastery over her element is just better than Sakura.   Watery is just enough to keep Cinder from harming them, but not from stopping the neighborhood from getting ruined.

Then Sakura remembers something ( I or $undine ) said about the way the canals used to run through this neighborhood.  Sakura uses Earthy with Return, to restore the canals to the way they used to be.  (Have I mentioned how broken Sakura's powers are?)  It's super effective, and water rushes in place of the streets of downtown Venice.  With this much water, they can finally suppress the fire attack.  "Cinder doesn't want to get her hair wet because she just got it done or something, so she runs away."  (Stop narrating, Tomo!)  Sakura passes out before getting to return things to normal, and hey, Venice has more canals now.  Something about gas explosions weakening the canal infill, and definitely not magic on the news.

Quote:But here's the hell of it that we're all gonna discovers late in the game: everyone is actually a copy.  Once the multiverse resumes normal operations we find that everyone isn't simply snapping back into their home realities.  This strange place that is getting stranger all the time is home now, whether everyone likes it or not.

(03-20-2018, 03:00 PM)Dartz Wrote: Why not This bad boy. A source of locomotion of memetic distinction....

• "Haha no, you have a boat trailer for a reason, use it (c'mon, what do you do if it doesn't float?)" - sounds good to me.
  
• "Everyone can lift it not too hard" - I doubt it, unless you have 20 people.
  
• "We do actually lift it down, but everyone realizes it was a stupid idea after the fact." - maybe, and I'd expect a pulled muscle or two.
  
• "Magic gondola is in fact plausible here, but I'd rather not." - yeah, let's not get Washuu-chan to do everything.