[OOC][PLOT] Planning for Arc 1 - Arrivals

[Labster]

I think you guys are probably putting too much Undocumented Features into your Utena analysis.  In the original canon, Akio is almost certainly less powerful than Anthy, though he is a master manipulator.  Like, he's dangerous, but maybe only a little more dangerous than Harvey Weinstein.  If he got ahold of some real power, it would be another story.  But there are thousands of men just like him in the real world.

Touga, on the other hand, is very redeemable.  He really just fell in with the wrong crowd.  His first instinct is to play the prince, but his passions sometimes get ahead of him, and can be exploited.  You give him something real to be passionate about, and it will all fall in line.  Like, the Ohtori Student Council are all broken versions of their respectively colored sailor guardians.  If you got Touga Kiryuu in the company of Rei Hino for a week, he'd start shaping up.

OK I'm getting sidetracked, because yay Utena analysis, but I really do not trust myself to write the characters in it.  Especially Anthy.  I still don't really get her.  I asked a friend of mine what it was like living with a powerful abusive husband, and I still barely get it.  (He's one of those thousands like Akio, though.)  The thought process is still alien to me -- like how can a girl who ended up on national television later, let herself get into a situation that closed her world off?  I can't feel what that's like in my heart, and when I try, the thought that I want to be a prince fills my mind.

On the other hand, the idea of adding the Art of Noise to this fic had crossed my mind.  I still feel like Azalynn could anchor a story by herself, even without getting citric.  I am starting to think a little more seriously about the various Star Treks, though.  (Shatner, for one, would love to meet the real Kirk.)  Also going to start thinking about The Librarians and Nadia:The Secret of Blue Water.  Honestly, just gotta wait for the right plot idea to hit me.

[robkelk]

...  I am starting to think a little more seriously about the various Star Treks, though.  (Shatner, for one, would love to meet the real Kirk.)  ...

Oh, there's a thought. Dartz already has Data at his IC's building - where are the rest of the Enterprise-D bridge crew?

[Dartz]

I hadn't thought about adding them tbh.... Too many smart people to get away with doing dumb things.

I had thought about Data being Meg's replacement because Meg has clearly gone far too native..... or lacks the responsibility

[robkelk]

I was thinking more that Labster's building needs men. Who would Riker approach first, Akira, Alicia, or Athena? Would Troi put up with that? How long would it take Aika to get annoyed with Wesley? Would Geordi continue to strike out? And so on.

[Labster]

Actually, I think Riker might go after Sonomi first. Tomo may try thinking puns really loudly around Troi, just to see what happens. If you think about it, Wesley and Akari are actually kind of similar. And Geordi would have to be blind not to ask Yomi out.

OK maybe there is something there.

[Black Aeronaut]

Hey Dartz? Is that thread, Status Report supposed to be a [BBS] thread? No worries, just wanted to make sure before I went in and fixed it.

[Dartz]

Fixed it meself, thanks. Forgot to do that

[robkelk]

...
Up util Season 2, anyhow.  That will be when we start having entire fleets showing up, both in the sea and among the stars, and then later on towards the end of Season 2, entire freakin' interstellar empires.  Yes, the Metacontinuity is gonna be a HAPPENING place. 
...

Riffing off of that...  Spoilered because this refers to some things that will be happening at the Halloween party, and because it's a little long.

Spoiler

"Thank you all for dropping what you were doing and indulging me." With all of the madness that had been taking place recently, it was rare for even half of the building's residents to be available, let alone having everybody in the same place at the same time. "I thought we should take a look at this before it makes the news."

Rob routed his computer's display to the big TV on the common room's wall, and zoomed in on the satellite photographs that Washuu-chan had sent of Tokyo. The first photograph he focused on certainly looked like it showed a modern city with a wall around it sitting in Akiruno. "I thought Academy City was closer to Tokyo Bay."

"It was," confirmed Mii. "At least it's still in Tokyo."

Rob nodded. "That it is, if just barely. Are we sure that this is Academy City?"

"The layout looks right," replied Kazari.

"Thank you. So, now what?"

"Now what, what?" Usagi asked.

Rob turned to the Academy City girls. "Are you five going home?"

Mii shook her head. "I'm already in university here, on a scholarship, no less. If you'll have me, I'd prefer to stay."

"If I go back, it'll only be to give Aleister what he has coming to him. And I'm not powerful enough to do that yet. I'll let my family know where I am, but I'd like to stay here for now." By now, everybody had read the novels and seen the anime; there was no question in anyone's mind what Mikoto meant by giving Aleister what he had coming to him.

"I'm staying with Onee-sama." Nobody was surprised by Kuroko's decision.

Kazari thought for a few minutes. "I don't know. I have friends there, but I have friends here, too."

Then a gentle breeze ran through the room for a moment. Everybody turned and looked at Ruiko - and were surprised to see a fire in her eyes. "The people here have done a lot more for us than Academy City ever did. They didn't bother training me because they couldn't see any military use for the Skill that Washuu-chan is helping me develop here. Either I'm staying here or I'm moving to Washuu-chan's lab; I'm not going back to Academy City!"

"You're welcome to stay as long as you want, Rui-chan," Rob said gently. Then he turned to Kazari. "And if you want to go back to Academy City, I'm sure that nobody will be upset."

Kazari shook her head. "No, Saten-san is right. You've done more for us than the people in charge of Academy City ever did. I'll stay."

Usagi leaned over and gave Kazari a hug. "Thank you."

Then another breeze drifted by, lifting Kazari's skirt without affecting Usagi's clothes. She pouted, Rob cleared his throat, and Ruiko grinned sheepishly.

"All right, now that that's been settled ..." Rob went back to his computer and zoomed in on Azabu. "The German Embassy to Japan appears to have shifted over somewhat to make room for another building."

"The Diamond Embassy. That's our Azabu."

"You're sure, Rei?"

"Positive. We were there once, back when we were looking for the Silver Crystal."

"I don't know whether I was hoping or dreading that answer, but I was half-expecting it. This means the rest of you have the same decision to make. Are you going home?"

Makoto looked at Usagi, then at Mikoto, then at Rob. "I'm with my friends. All of my friends. Home is where the heart is."

"If we were to return to Japan, I'd have much less personal freedom than I do here," commented Rei. "But it's Usagi's choice; I'm staying with her."

Ami didn't look up. "I'm sure that I can transfer my university credits here to a school in Tokyo, if Usagi wants to go back," she whispered.

Minako, Luna, Artemis, and Diana said nothing; they merely stood beside Usagi.

Usagi, Chibi-Usa, and Mamoru looked at each other for a moment. Finally, Chibi-Usa said, "We all know what isn't being said, mama."

"I know. Mamo-chan?"

"It's up to you, Usako."

Usagi took a quick look around the room, and saw Makoto looking at Mikoto, Rei looking out the window, and Ami looking anywhere except at her. "Then we stay."

Everybody grinned.

Rob routed his computer's display back to the laptop's screen. "I have an email to send to Lord Phantomhive, then, telling him that this residence will continue to not have any vacancies for the foreseeable future. Kazari, would you ask Skuld-sama and HAL to keep our network running, please?"

Kuroko leaned over to Mikoto. "And you need to let your sisters know that we're staying here. Can you tell them without telling Accelerator?"

EDIT: I've updated this because more characters - but only in my personal notes. This is almost how the scene will play out, instead of exactly how it'll play out.

[Black Aeronaut]

Hmmm....

Question: Can anyone think of someone in fiction who'd actually and earnestly want to create some unreal estate? Because the idea of major cities that have towers built for The Word Fair (ie: The Tower of Americas in San Antonio and The Space Needle in Seattle) and being used like orbital traffic control centers just won't leave me alone.

[robkelk]

Hmmm....

Question: Can anyone think of someone in fiction who'd actually and earnestly want to create some unreal estate?  Because the idea of major cities that have towers built for The Word Fair (ie: The Tower of Americas in San Antonio and The Space Needle in Seattle) and being used like orbital traffic control centers just won't leave me alone.

I don't know about anybody in fiction, but I'm pretty sure that the military would be interested, for reasons that we've discussed over in Fenspace with Grover's Corners.

As for how: Everything is showing up in the Metacontinuity; this would include James Blish's Cities in Flight. Because of some events left off-screen, the USAF gets their hands on a spindizzy. They discover "[t]his device grows more efficient with the amount of mass being lifted" the hard way while trying to launch something at Joint Base San Antonio - they overcharge the spindizzy and launch the entire city a few hundred feet into the air (really panicking the folks at Westwood and letting Washuu-chan get some good readings of a spindizzy in operation). Then somebody in authority who has an overinflated sense of theatrics and no understanding of logistics or diplomacy (yes, I am thinking of the current CinC) decides "as long as we've got a flying base, let's roof it over, make sure its Air Force bases are fully stocked, put it in orbit for a week, and really scare the bad guys." Then follows some of our buildings' residents shipping food (and fresh air!) to San Antonio because a city's combined civilian grocery stores typically have only 2-3 days of food in stock at any given time... You know, the plot just writes itself here.

[Labster]

Spoiler

I'm curious about Usako's logic for staying in Canada, other than "It keeps the plot intact."  The most obvious one might be the loss of anonymity -- Japan reached such a saturation level of Sailor Moon that even here, they're still merchandising everything.  Otaku just might figure it out, especially if Odango-chan keeps her hair style.

Speaking of merchandising senshi (and not Senshi: The Merchandising, though that's another possibility), what happens to copyrights in this world?  Like for serious, could Akari Mizunashi sue for people merchandising with her image without her permission.  Does the author retain copyright even though it's based on the actions of people that will have happened 300 years from now?  Sorry, law geek here, but I'm just trying to get a glimpse how much social disruption all of this will cause.

While I'm waiting on my prereader, I've been starting to think about how to get a certain magical cardcaptor into my plot.  And... not having many ideas.  For once, I just want them to appear in West L.A., but I don't know how the meeting will take place yet.  It could involve Tomo with her manga knowledge.  Little known fact: Tomo reads as much as Yomi, just rarely anything educational.  Or it could involve Akari because

Spoiler

of Akari's ability to see fey and magical creatures.  I've been playing with the idea of saying that Akari is a sleigh beggy (or slay vega depending on the translation), because gosh darn do fey seem to like her, and good magical things just happen to her.  But I'm not sure about the negative side of it, or if something else would describe her better.

I should be able to work a little on Halloween now, though.  I have my first four casts picked and settled, so it should be easy enough.

[robkelk]

Spoiler

I'm curious about Usako's logic for staying in Canada, other than "It keeps the plot intact."  The most obvious one might be the loss of anonymity -- Japan reached such a saturation level of Sailor Moon that even here, they're still merchandising everything.  Otaku just might figure it out, especially if Odango-chan keeps her hair style.

Spoiler

Usagi isn't oblivious - she saw the little signs that said the others don't want to leave just yet, but would abide by her wishes. And she won't hurt her friends if she can help it. So she stays, in order for her friends to stay.

EDIT: And let's make that a bit clearer in the snippet. I'll edit it now.

While I'm waiting on my prereader

Sorry about that - a few things came up, including an issue with email. Expect something this evening...

[Black Aeronaut]

Regarding copyrights...

Well, the moment a character's native setting manifests, it retroactively affects the timeline to seem like things have always been this way. That's how malleable the Metacontinuity is. So when 'Academy City' manifests, the previous timeline events will also be altered so that the 'Academy City' ward of Tokyo has been a thing for a while.

The real fun part is going to be combining this things so they mesh together well.

[Labster]

So there will be some people who will think that Academy City was always there, and some people who will notice and wonder WTF is this new city? Or is that somehow just us who notice? Otherwise, I worry about causality issues, which yeah, don't really have to be explained away from a setting point of view, but in terms of readers and authors following what is happening, keeping causality at least somewhat intact is generally a good idea.

Related idea: that one South Park episode where immigrants from the future keep "taking our jobs", but applied to dimensional migrants, and in the context of the 2016 U.S. elections. I know that when we started writing we weren't expecting 2016 to be the inflection point in history that it was in reality, but I have wondered what we should do with that in the context of our story. And, preferably without leaving Rajvik behind. If that's some sort of rewrite of who was running entirely, that'd be okay with me.

I realize that a liberal application of the MST3K mantra is appropriate here, but it's not quite enough unless it's consistently weird.

[Rajvik]

My response will be to laugh loudly and yell i told you so, in fact, give me a bit, I may have a morning after scene later, brain is percolating

[Black Aeronaut]

In regards to causality, we (and our accompanying tennants) will be the only ones to notice because we're the ones not 'native' to the Metacontinuity.

But that will kinda change as more and more 'immigrants' come in. For example, the Jyurians are gonna be mighty surprised when a good portion of their Empire is cohabitated by a certain empire of space elves.

(Just saying it right now: Seto will fucking adore the shit out of Lafiel - she is exactly her kind of partner in crime: cunning, brutal, and competitive under a veneer of poise and elegance, but also with an incredibly passionate heart. She will sic her bachelorettes on Jinto just to get Lafiel by extension into the Royal Family.)

[robkelk]

Aargh!

Labster, we both missed spotting a wrong word during prereading:

"I'm afraid not; how can I offer our only canal to trainees when Akira has a customer waiting?" Alicia gestured at me.

You have more than one canal - you only have one gondola.

---

(Just saying it right now: Seto will fucking adore the shit out of Lafiel - she is exactly her kind of partner in crime: cunning, brutal, and competitive under a veneer of poise and elegance, but also with an incredibly passionate heart.  She will sic her bachelorettes on Jinto just to get Lafiel by extension into the Royal Family.)

Are we sure it isn't Lafiel getting Seto into the royal family?

[Labster]

Labster, we both missed spotting a wrong word during prereading:

"I'm afraid not; how can I offer our only canal to trainees when Akira has a customer waiting?" Alicia gestured at me.

You have more than one canal - you only have one gondola.

Fixed.  Reminds me of Nathan Hale, "I regret that I have but one asterisk for my country."

[Black Aeronaut]

(Just saying it right now: Seto will fucking adore the shit out of Lafiel - she is exactly her kind of partner in crime: cunning, brutal, and competitive under a veneer of poise and elegance, but also with an incredibly passionate heart.  She will sic her bachelorettes on Jinto just to get Lafiel by extension into the Royal Family.)

Are we sure it isn't Lafiel getting Seto into the royal family?  

Lafiel is a skilled commander, but she is not a politician by any measure.  For certain, she knows how to comport herself, and she knows of Abh politics very well.  However, she most emphatically does not know Jyuraian politics.  And Seto literally has THOUSANDS of years of experience.  There is no Abh in the history of the Abh that can even scratch the surface of Seto's prowess.  In fact, I suspect that Seto is even capable of utilizing (and not just weaponizing) Mihoshi's causality bending weirdness.

Once Seto sets her sights on Lafiel and Jinto, the poor girl will never know what hit her.

And regardless, Seto is no fool.  She'll understand fully that this is a two-way road.  In fact, this will more likely than not be part of her scheme.  Seto is definitely going to want a warm alliance with the Abh Empire.

What's nice is that I think that Abh sensibilities will mesh well with Jyuraian sensibilities.  Though I'm not sure what the Abh will make of the Jyuraian's custom of plural marriages.  But the Tree Ships are gonna fucking thrill these guys - both for the sheer scale of power and for the aesthetics.  And that's to say nothing about the gratuitous luxuries of a Tree Ship.

Oh, and I think that Tsunami will seal the deal by giving Jinto a tree.  Probably only a 3rd Gen, but only because Lafiel would get a 2nd Gen, and we all know who wears the trousers in that relationship.  :V

[Labster]

http://irregularwebcomic.net/3869.html

Today's comic is relevant to my plot, oh yes it is.

For the most part, though, I've moved into a brainstorming phase rather than a writing phase.

[Labster]

Writing megacrossover fic is weird. For this story I've had to look up Martian mineralogy, PT-boat construction, the location of Tokyo Disneyland, shirt collar styles, gondola boat licensing, anatid morphology, high school equivalency exams, words to describe the random colors in my head, and the latitude of Rovaniemi, Finland.

[Black Aeronaut]

Welcome to my world in which I try to write Being Garrick Grimm and Dear Sweet Kami-sama, Why Do You Hate Me So?

[robkelk]

There's a reason I have a dedicated DuckDuckGo search bar on my browser...

[Bob Schroeck]

You don't want to know the kind of things I find myself looking up for my stories, even when there aren't crossover elements. But yeah.

[Labster]

Sakaki's pet Maya presented an interesting research case. Importing her, or crossing state lines with her would be a violation of the Endangered Species Act, but there's no prohibition for having her under California law. At the time the ESA was enacted, Iriomote cats were not subject to ESA, but the leopard cat Felis bengalensis was on the list. Iriomote cats have since been moved into the species, with the new genus, as Prionailurus bengalensis iriomotensis, so they are now endangered species under U.S. law. But the species as a whole is ranked "Least Concern" by the IUCN, meaning that the species isn't endangered at all. Meanwhile, there are roughly 100 remaining Iriomote cats in the world, so the subspecies is critically endangered. The population is declining, due to auto accidents.

So Sakaki will not be violating any law by possessing Maya, but would still be guilty of violating a law beyond a reasonable doubt. So uh, she's a mixed breed? Maybe I can just rely on how President Aria looks (and acts) even weirder.