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

[robkelk]

All I see....  are the ghosts of excel sheets and the hollowing out of my soul.

My day job is involves automatically making these Excel documents, primarily for the purpose of haunting our clients dreams.

Anyway, this shared project really isn't turning into what I thought it'd be. I don't know if I'll drop it, but I don't think I'll be taking part in any of the real big expansive crescendo stuff - it really doesn't fit my style. I've got vague fragments of ideas but nothing to fill them out, and some that may be a little bit pointed. The plot's moved on far to far to have Data commenting that it'd be inappropriate for him to have an intimate relationship with one of the girls if he is in a position of authority be more of a lampshade hanging or a personal attack.

Yeah it's... it's not untrue what Data says either.  Both are expressions of true will. One of my criticisms of Lyrical Nanoha has always been that Nanoha acts like a 40 year old trapped in a tweenage body.  Fate to some degree too, but her situation is Complicated.  Osaka is by comparison a much more normal teenager than Nanoha.

I was planning on my SI dating Tomo.  But before this happens, Yomi says this person is twice your age, are you sure you really want to do this?  Even there, with an 18 year old, there's a question of propriety.  But it's one of those things that depend entirely on circumstance.  He can't evict her, because he's not the owner; he can't harm her because Sakaki wouldn't allow it.  She occasionally considers herself above a commoner like him.  Where it would be probably inappropriate for Brent to date Kaorin, even if she's from the same cohort, because of her weak self-esteem.

I'm not worried about personal attacks here - we know each other well enough that I'd take comments in that line from any of the active writers as writing advice.

And, yes, our characters should be having that discussion. I may have been a bit too subtle about Sailor Jupiter's disapproval of Sailor Mercury's boyfriend being so much older than she is, but that's because Makoto wants Ami to be happy; there are conflicting desires there. Perhaps if somebody from outside was to comment on the relationship. (Eventually, it'll be she's 120 and he's 158 - hardly a difference at all. Eventually. But that difference looks a lot squickier without the first digit in both ages.)

What I'm using it for would probably better be done with a database. There's nothing like the sinking freeling that comes when the laptop freezes because something you did messed with soo many cells. Or when a V-lookup shits the bed because some of the values imported as strings, some as numbers and god-knows-why some have a ctrl+j or some other invisible character in them.

Nanoha is a Gundam show with magical girls. Or maybe an Ace Combat game. I also forgot how old it was.

I'd sort of planned for characters who are 'sexaroids' to, well, not be earning the title. For the most part, they're just naturally not interested. And even on tour - there's the whole 'ethics in (industry) journalism' thing that it risks stirring up. Stuff I wanted to do was maybe have one of them complain about it in an interview -  A sort of, why the fuck is it Okay when Motley Crue does it? But serious topics like that are best broached seriously. And there's only so many times their response to people making the same demand could be entertaining to read.

Lighthearted stuff tends to be a little beyond me - but then again, I'm not really in a lighthearted mood.

I wanted to do something like what I tried to do in Fenspace - where things people don't just exist to serve Jet's story - they're going on in their own in some way with their own projects. Ford moves on with her life after realising her relationshio with Jet is missing something she needs. Others stay because they've a job, a place or otherwise a goal. I wanted to do stuff that cut against the grain a little - I think one of the few that worked were either the one about the nuclear accident which came about as a consequence of recklessness, and the Totally Not David Weber meeting real War story.

And they're good stories. I don't say that often enough.

I think that there's room here for that sort of story, if you have any to tell.


(As for Nanoha being a Gundam show, I refer you to the White Devil. )