[OOC][PLOT] The Return of Planning for Arc 1 - Arrivals

[robkelk]

BA, I'd be happy to get you to preread the story before I post it, and get your SI involved. (Current plans are for your SI, my SI, Kazari, and Mii to be assisting Tessa at the command post - yes, we're the equivalent of bridge bunnies for this op.)

Brent... yeah. Child soldiers. Not good. Usagi will ask, but Rob will put his foot down; they're not including Sakura or Shaoran in the operation. Nanoha and Fate already have experience with the dark side of human nature, so Rob will allow their participation... but he'll also ask Shepherd Book to be ready to provide counseling, since the girls have never been involved in anything this large-scale. (I think. BA, you're drawing them from A's, not StrikerS, right?) Yuuno's in the reserve unit to provide emergency teleport capability.

[Black Aeronaut]

Yes, Post-A's for Nanoha, Fate, et al.  Pre-A's, though, for Hayate and the Wolkenritter.  Still trying to figure out how to get Precia+Alicia into the mix, but I just had a thought about pulling Jail Scaglietti and Precia during the untold Project Fate story, though I'm still a bit uncertain if that should take place before Hayate and company show up or after...

[robkelk]

Shelving the side-story for the moment, to concentrate on the Halloween party for a while.

I've added a scene there - not a sparring match, but the consequences of the second match. Search for " As soon as Washuu would let her in, Kuroko raced to Mikoto's side. " and go from there until the scene break.

[Labster]

I added a few related scenes to the Halloween party. Rob, you definitely need to read and perhaps revise, as I'm using your characters -- one in particular -- quite a lot and adding characterization. I don't feel bad about this at all, as a random choice about Japanese mythology turned into being the absolute perfect choice once I asked Osaka.

On rereading other people's portions of the party, I may not be clear how transportation is working. Are we taking normal human transit, or portals, or what? Are we staying overnight, a couple days, or just shuffling off home through portals?

[Black Aeronaut]

Finally went in there myself, tweaked the bit about how Mamoru found the keys, tried to fill in the bit that got munched by the Piratepad's death throes, tweaked a few other things, and even added a few bits where Ben would react very noticeably or even interject.

In particular?  Where Aika goes "Noble titles are prohibited!" he gleefully reminds her that there are already Actual Princesses around.

[Labster]

Aika's catchphrase is "____ wa kinshi", which I think I've translated variously as "prohibited", "forbidden", and "not allowed".  I really should be consistent.  (And now I'm wondering if she was really saying proibito, vietatto, or interdetto, which isn't helping.)

The next line, of course, has to use Alice's catchphrase, "dekkai", as in "She means noble titles for that giant idiot are prohibited."

[robkelk]

I added a few related scenes to the Halloween party.  Rob, you definitely need to read and perhaps revise, as I'm using your characters -- one in particular -- quite a lot and adding characterization.  I don't feel bad about this at all, as a random choice about Japanese mythology turned into being the absolute perfect choice once I asked Osaka.

I replaced one period with an exclamation mark in the one-on-one scene. Other than that, I think the scene is good.

I've also added one reaction to the news, in the follow-up scene.

On rereading other people's portions of the party, I may not be clear how transportation is working.  Are we taking normal human transit, or portals, or what?  Are we staying overnight, a couple days, or just shuffling off home through portals?

Halloween 2016 was a Monday, and I've already established that some of the girls were in Montreal the previous weekend. Portals in and out, and at least Rob's household is only staying one night - the girls have classes Tuesday morning.

[robkelk]

I just added a few more scenes to the doc, based on previously-discussed ideas - changes in blue.

I'm tempted to ask for this mecha, just because I already have it in my 3D-art runtime. It can be scaled down...

[Labster]

Just a reminder that if anyone needs inspiration when writing about sailor senshi, nearly all of the planets are in the sky over the next week.  The four brightest can be seen in the evening sky, and Mercury is about as bright as it gets in the morning sky.  If it's very dark near you, you might make out Uranus, and Neptune is around for telescopes too.  I wrote that last story on the wiki with the light of Venus shining through my window, which definitely helped.

[Black Aeronaut]

Funny thought: Usagi may have developed Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome.  It can happen to perfectly normal people who are under a lot of stress and being forced into keeping odd hours.  Kinda like a certain Senshi of the Moon.  

Treatment....  Eeeehhhh...  Really, there's no cure for it.  You either shake it off eventually like a bad habit, or it stays with you until your dying days.  This is especially true for people who've had it since they were very young, like myself.

Anyhow...  Usagi may need a daylight lamp in her room and use it in the mornings to help her body to know it's time to wake up.  Setting it to an automatic ON/OFF timer switch is best.  Also, a melatonin regimen is highly recommended to help her sleep.

Finally, a strict and ritualistic schedule at the end of the day.  Activities like specific set times for (in no particular order) homework, goofing off, dinner, and bath all just before bed.  And most importantly: this ritual MUST take place at the same time, every day.  Because EVEN ONE late night can destroy the newly set circadian rhythm and she is literally back to square one overnight.

Really, she shows all the classical signs - sleeping through alarms (Or sometimes even shutting off said alarm before the brain is even capable of consciousness.  YES, IT REALLY DOES HAPPEN!!!), frequently requiring outside assistance to wake up, always groggy until the end of the day...

Here, just read the Wikipedia article.  Pretty much everything in that article applies to me.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delayed_sl...e_disorder

[Labster]

Having trouble waking up early is just one of those adolescence things.  I suppose we could always have C-ko drop by to wake her up, lol.

Feel free to delete my last bit of story on Halloween if y'all think it was boring, but I thought that if anyone there knew fluid dynamics, it would be Ami.  Well, and Washuu.  But nerds have a tendency to find each other at parties and talk about the most arcane topics as if they were actually interesting.

[robkelk]

Anyhow... Usagi may need a daylight lamp in her room and use it in the mornings to help her body to know it's time to wake up. Setting it to an automatic ON/OFF timer switch is best. Also, a melatonin regimen is highly recommended to help her sleep.

SI-Rob might end up offering that to all the displacees. Daylight hours in Ottawa vary between approximately 18 hours on the summer solstice to approximately 8 hours on the winter solstice, so I can see a lot of sleep disorders setting in.

Luckily, "daylight" bulbs are as cheap as chips and just about as plentiful in Ottawa. Electronic timers (unlike mechanical timers that are so noisy that they interfere with sleep) are also readily available.

Having trouble waking up early is just one of those adolescence things.  I suppose we could always have C-ko drop by to wake her up, lol.

Feel free to delete my last bit of story on Halloween if y'all think it was boring, but I thought that if anyone there knew fluid dynamics, it would be Ami.  Well, and Washuu.  But nerds have a tendency to find each other at parties and talk about the most arcane topics as if they were actually interesting.

Would you mind switching the participants to Tessa and Ami, and moving it to just before Mao and Usagi force them to talk to other people? (I'd expect a submarine designer who's a genius to also know fluid dynamics.)

(Oh, yes - Brent, I saw your email. No time to reply yet.)

[Labster]

Yeah, actually that makes sense, so swap in Tessa for Chiyo.  I'm talking to two people who know fluid dynamics of water, not of air.  In theory they all use the same basic equations, but in practice the regimes are so different that you make entirely different assumptions based on what the dominant factors are.  And well, there's a reason that fluid dynamics doesn't get any coverage until the end of freshman physics, and I'm not sure that Chiyo is that kind of genius.  A submarine designer must know fluid dynamics, at the very least because of cavitation.

I have discussions like that with my best friend, but like 30% of the arguments we make are usually blatant bullshit, and we just seamlessly slip it in there without ever actually believing the wrong stuff.  Things like "Have you considered using a philosopher's stone as a catalyst?"  "Nah, too expensive, we can't even afford platinum in our lab."

If you add Mars' axial tilt to the lower latitude for where I put Neo Venezia, it comes out to pretty much the same range of seasonal variation in California -- the sticking point is that the day is a half hour shorter here on Earth.  And the whole 2.3x more sunlight part -- so many undines with blue eyes, muhahaha.   The people from Tokyo won't even notice moving 1° south.

[robkelk]

If you add Mars' axial tilt to the lower latitude for where I put Neo Venezia, it comes out to pretty much the same range of seasonal variation in California -- the sticking point is that the day is a half hour shorter here on Earth.  And the whole 2.3x more sunlight part -- so many undines with blue eyes, muhahaha.

To misquote Timbuk3, "The Past's So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades".

[robkelk]

Having trouble waking up early is just one of those adolescence things.  I suppose we could always have C-ko drop by to wake her up, lol.

Feel free to delete my last bit of story on Halloween if y'all think it was boring, but I thought that if anyone there knew fluid dynamics, it would be Ami.  Well, and Washuu.  But nerds have a tendency to find each other at parties and talk about the most arcane topics as if they were actually interesting.

Would you mind switching the participants to Tessa and Ami, and moving it to just before Mao and Usagi force them to talk to other people? (I'd expect a submarine designer who's a genius to also know fluid dynamics.)

I just did that, myself. I also added a scene to the "after-party" section (yay for retro-foreshadowing!), which brings the percentage of scenes that involve at least one of my characters to 87.5%. Am I exerting too much influence on the story?

(Oh, yes - Brent, I saw your new email. May as well reply here: I think you'll like Ai Yori Aoshi. It's almost "slice of life", except that it has quite a few "broken bird" characters... and they help each other mend their wings.)

[Labster]

I just did that, myself. I also added a scene to the "after-party" section (yay for retro-foreshadowing!), which brings the percentage of scenes that involve at least one of my characters to 87.5%. Am I exerting too much influence on the story?

FTFY.  

I think we just need to get people writing here a little more.  I'm writing more towards Rob's cast since he's also writing, but also because I'm more familiar with those canons.  There's a lot I could write at the Evangelion cast, I guess, but if I don't know anything about their circumstances, it's hard.  But we have more than enough characters capable of unconditional love to actually help those people.  Same with team RWBY, where I think Yomi and Yang would enjoy a pun competition.  I actually just need to rewatch some Tenchi Muyo, it's been the better part of a decade since I've seen any.  (As if Tomo needed more screen time here, I did just realize that canonically she wants to join Interpol, so why not the Galaxy Police?)  Firefly, though, I have no idea what to do with.

In somewhat unrelated news, I'm disappointed that in Firefly FLUXX, there wasn't a keeper called "The Sky" with the text "This card cannot be taken from the person who played it."

(Oh, yes - Brent, I saw your new email. May as well reply here: I think you'll like Ai Yori Aoshi. It's almost "slice of life", except that it has quite a few "broken bird" characters... and they help each other mend their wings.)

If we're nominating works for other people, can you consider Murdoch Mysteries?  I'd do it myself, but for some reason I thought Ottawa might be more appropriate for them for uh, some reason.  Murdoch would just love the modern tech, and Crabtree would be over the moon with the whole metacontinuity business.

EDIT: A girl he hasn't seen in decades pops up, and says she spent the last 18 years training to become his wife.  This is like a giant red flag, if the flagpole for the red flag was a giant green onion being waved by a duck. (And apparently I'm writing in Alice Carroll speak now).

[robkelk]

I suppose I should track down some episodes of Murdoch Mysteries, then. I'm a bit behind on my back stacks of stuff to watch... EDIT: Oh, right - CBC. May as well begin at the beginning.

And I noticed your latest addition to the Halloween party thread. So we're bringing Casey and Andy in? Maybe let Andy become Rei Hino's vassal/mad-scientist-in-residence, so he can become a (not The) Martian.

And, yeah, I thought that was a red flag, too. Aoi's self-identity is based on somebody else; she doesn't consider herself to be an independent person. Alas, that's presented as being exactly what he needs to heal... Aargh.

[robkelk]

...
At the most, this would be a sit down for everyone to discuss the possibility of them willfully not returning to their home universe, and if so which one they'd like to go to instead.  Belldandy and Urd would probably sit in to provide input about the possibilities.  (Namely, it can be done, but they need to know well in advance who's going where.)

Of primary note: The idea at this time frame is that once everyone goes home, that will pretty much be it - there isn't any plans in place for anyone to go jumping between universes, as that is pretty much what started this mess in the first place.  (And here Skuld would give Washu the stink-eye.   )
...

"I just had a thought."

Ami looked up from her book, glanced at Mii, then looked at Rob. "About one or both of us?"

"Yes, and about myself as well."

"Nothing G-rated, I hope," Mii smiled.

Rob smiled back. "That depends." Then he stopped smiling. "Where are we going to live?"

"How do you mean?"

"Once the Megami have all this sorted out, which of our worlds do you want to live in?"

"Couldn't we get Washuu-chan to set up portals between our worlds?"

"I'm sure she knows how, Ami, but will Skuld let her? And even if she does, we'll have to choose one world to buy a house in."

Everybody thought for a moment.

"This building is comfortable."

"We might not be able to keep living in it once everyone else has gone home."

Mii waved a hand dismissively. "Buy it from Lord Phantomhive, and rent out the apartments the rest of us aren't using."

"Okay," Rob replied, "That's plan A if we can run portals between the universes. What's plan B, if we can't?"

Everybody thought for another moment.

Finally, Mii broke the silence. "There's only one answer to that question."

Rob nodded. "I agree."

"What?"

"I can be a police officer anywhere. Rob can start his retirement anywhere. You can only be Neo-Queen Serenity's daimyo in your home universe. We live with you."

"You'd ... you'd give up your own lives for me?"

"We'd build new lives with you. I think that's worth it."

"So do I. And from what I've learned here, not being under the thumb of Academy City would be a bonus."

Ami drew the others into a close hug, her tears of happiness falling on their shoulders.

EDIT: wiki page - add more if they become needed

[Labster]

The problem with bringing Andy Weir in is the open-lidded boxes of antimatter he keeps leaving lying around.  Asstard.  His girlfriend actually might be fun to fit into our cosmology.

When I mentioned that "someone beautiful" would be Akari's customer, I didn't actually figure out exactly who that would be.  My top two contenders are probably Peorth and Fujiko Mine.  Lupin's gang are interesting villains to work with, as they could be on either side (or multiple sides) of a larger evil plan.  Roger Smith, Hohenheim, and Titania are also contenders for a ride, as well as possibly some real world celebrities.  Anyone else have an idea of who could wander through for a gondola ride?

[robkelk]

The problem with bringing Andy Weir in is the open-lidded boxes of antimatter he keeps leaving lying around.  Asstard.  His girlfriend actually might be fun to fit into our cosmology.

Yeah - does she work with, for, or above Hild?

When I mentioned that "someone beautiful" would be Akari's customer, I didn't actually figure out exactly who that would be.  My top two contenders are probably Peorth and Fujiko Mine.  Lupin's gang are interesting villains to work with, as they could be on either side (or multiple sides) of a larger evil plan.  Roger Smith, Hohenheim, and Titania are also contenders for a ride, as well as possibly some real world celebrities.  Anyone else have an idea of who could wander through for a gondola ride?

Nadeshiko Kinomoto, of course.

Or, if you're just talking physical beauty, Cinder.

[robkelk]

Say, BA, are the A's characters going to be around for the Halloween party, or are we waiting until the thematically-appropriate Christmas party for them to show up?

[Black Aeronaut]

I'd say Christmas. It's gonna be tough enough for me just to get the ones we need for the Halloween Party.

[Labster]

I suppose I should track down some episodes of Murdoch Mysteries, then. I'm a bit behind on my back stacks of stuff to watch... EDIT: Oh, right - CBC. May as well begin at the beginning.

Sorry, it's kind of a long series at this point.  But very obviously Canadian.  For those of us who don't live in Canada, the CBC links won't work, but the show airs on the Ovation channel last time I checked, and the whole series is available on Britbox for streaming (except in Canada, because that makes sense?).

On the latest chapter of Rob's, what is it, A Song of Ice and Snow?  Anyway, I'm kinda surprised of the degree to which my characters don't actually care if they're fictional or not.  None of my characters are subject to bouts of angst, except for Sakaki and Kaorin.  And since Sakaki already declared that they're real in all the ways that are important, the matter is essentially closed.  (Although Tomo did note that being fictional does qualify her for a higher level of sainthood.)  I still need a find a place to use Tomoyo's response, "We have an anime?  This means that the entire world knows of Sakura-chan's cuteness!! <3<3"

I wonder if your use of decadent was inspired by me (via Minako) describing Jurai as decadent.  My notes file has this: "Decadent is a great word to describe any regime you don't like, as opposed to an elegant government."

A thing I still need to figure out is how to get the gondolas from Venezia to Venice.  I'm afraid that if my girls go to pick them up, they may decide to run off and never come back.  Not that this would be a bad ending for them, it just makes it harder on me as a writer, given that I want to write stories about them and all.

On the wiki thread (we're really getting off-topic there): I hate to be that guy, but which Starbase 1 did you mean?

[Black Aeronaut]

On the wiki thread (we're really getting off-topic there): I hate to be that guy, but which Starbase 1 did you mean?

The one we see in films. You know, monstrously huge vaguely mushroom shaped thing?

Honestly, I don't see why they think 'Star Base 1' should be a massive complex of different bases scattered throughout the Solar System when many of them already have names like Utopia Planitia Shipyards. That'd be like referring to US Naval Forces Japan (Command Naval Forces Japan or CNFJ for short) as 'Japan Base' and saying that it's a complex of several facilities throughout the country.

(It's bad enough that really, CNFJ is also the same command as Command Navy Region Japan (CNRJ). The difference? One side is the fleet, one side is the bases, and it's all under one dual-hat command!)

[Black Aeronaut]

Oh, and Rob? Love what you've done there with Maika.

But if she needs a little more reassurance, Ben will be more than happy to talk with her. His perspective on the transfictional aspects of their lives might help her with coping. (You know me - twisted, diabolical mind, always at work... :V )

In fact, if that is something we do, then me not knowing her character, it would be best if we did the real-time collaboration thing.